Chapter 2

Chapter 2 What do we do now? Aang was really upset. "Omashu always seemed untouchable," he said. "Up until now it was," I said. "Now Ba Sing Se is the only great Earth Kingdom stronghold left." "This is horrible," Katara said, "but we have to move on." "No," Aang insisted. "There are other people who can teach you Earthbending, Aang," she pointed out. "This isn't about finding a teacher. It's about finding my friend." Hard to argue with that, but we still had one little problem. How did we get inside? We couldn't exactly stroll into an occupied city and ask to see the king, who may or may not still be in power. That's when Aang found a secret passageway. Actually, it was a filthy, slime-ridden sewer. Aang opened the entrance and a wave of thick, green muck came pouring out. Oh, man, it was the most disgusting thing I've ever smelled! I thought I was going to be sick.

Aang used Airbending to create a bubble for us to walk in as we made our way along the sewer pipe, but for some reason I still came out completely covered in stinky muck at the other end. The things I have to do to win a war. We popped out of a manhole on a quiet street in the city and I could barely breathe. Katara washed the muck off me with a Waterbending move, then Aang dried me off with an Airbending wind. That's when I noticed the little round, purple bug-type things attached to my face. "I'm doomed!" I yelled. "Some horrible poisonous sewer bugs are sucking the brains from my head! Help! Get them off! Ahh!" "Stop making so much noise," Aang scolded, reaching out for one of the bugs. "It's just a purple pentapus." Aang gently tickled one of the hideous leeches with his finger and it let go. As he was freeing the creatures, a group of Fire Nation soldiers showed up. Uh-oh. "What are you kids doing out past curfew?" one of them asked. Curfew? The Fire Nation has imposed a curfew on the city? This was horrible. I struggled to come up with a good answer fast, but Katara beat me to it. "We were just on our way home," she replied.

Not great, but at least it's an answer. Then a Fire Nation soldier pointed at me and asked, "What's the matter with him?" What? What did he mean? What's wrong with me? What was he talking about? "He has pentapox, sir," Katara said. "That's what those spots are on his face." Spots? On my face? What is SHE talking about? "It's highly contagious," Katara continued. I finally got it. Those purple whatchamacallits must have left spots on my face. It was time for a little acting. "It's so awful!" I moaned in my best sick-guy voice. I can be a great actor. "I'm dying! Dying!" "It's also deadly," Katara added. Now for a little more moaning and coughing. Ah, the soldiers have taken off! They're scared. Pentapox. Good one, Katara. And not a bad performance on my part, either. We continued along the streets. It was weird. Last time we were here this was a busy city with people everywhere. Now it's like a ghost town. Must be the curfew. Then from out of nowhere a family came strolling down the empty street, guarded by more Fire Nation

soldiers. They must be important people. Just before I could figure out who they were, a low rumbling noise filled the air. I looked up and saw large boulders rolling down Omashu's mail chutes, heading straight for the family, which included a teenage girl and a young boy. Aang moved quickly, Airbending the boulders away from the family. To our surprise, the woman cried out, "The resistance!" The teenage daughter immediately began flinging flying daggers at Aang—at all of us, in fact! What a way to show gratitude. So the good news was that there must be some kind of organized resistance to the Fire Nation's takeover of the city. The bad news was that the girl with the special daggers thought we were part of it! And she's got good aim! It was time to run! As a dozen flying daggers zipped our way, the ground beneath us suddenly began to drop, and then stopped abruptly. We fell to the ground, and when I rubbed the dust out of my eyes I saw that we were underground, surrounded by a bunch of Earth Kingdom people. These guys were the resistance. They saved us.

"So is King Bumi with you guys?" Aang asked. "Is he leading the resistance?" The look of surprise on everyone's faces was unexpected. "Of course not," the resistance leader said. "On the day of the invasion King Bumi surrendered." He WHAT? Now this Bumi guy is a little crazy, but he's an old friend of Aang's and I can't imagine anyone Aang trusts giving up his city so easily. But that's apparently what happened. "It doesn't matter now," the resistance leader added. "Fighting the Fire Nation is the only path to freedom." "Actually, there's another path to freedom," Aang replied. "You could leave Omashu." The Earthbenders gave us another surprised look, but they were willing to hear us out. It was my job to come up with a plan, something that would make the Fire Nation WANT everyone to leave. "You're all about to come down with a nasty case of pentapox." Throughout the city, Earth Kingdom citizens put pentapi on their faces and arms causing red spots to appear. "The spots make you look sick, but you have

to act sick too," I advised. I gave them a few pointers, and then we were ready to put my brilliant plan into action. "Okay, everyone into the sick formation. Let's go!" Wouldn't you know it, the Fire Nation governor bought our scheme completely! He ordered all the "infected" people out of the city, but Aang stayed behind to find Bumi. I guess it doesn't matter what Bumi did to his city, Aang will stay loyal to his friend —even if he is insane! I helped the others set up camp just outside the city. Aang returned a while later, with no news about Bumi. Then we discovered we had another problem. The little boy whose family we had saved earlier from the boulders had followed us out, and it turns out that it was the family of the Fire Nation governor! The governor's son is cute, but he insisted on playing with my boomerang like it was a toy. "No. Bad Fire Nation baby!" I scolded. I took it away from him and he started screaming. I gave in. "Oh, all right. Here." Just then a messenger hawk flew into our camp with a scroll. "It's from the governor," Aang said. "He thinks we took his son. He wants to make a trade—his son for King Boomie,