Maikka Week- Infiltration

Age of Maikka - Infiltration

"Okay, everyone! Into sick formation!"

Sokka watched while the citizens of Omashu crowded together and began their faux-moaning. As the Water Tribe boy kept an eye on the proceedings to make sure no one got left behind (and that everyone was putting in a good performance), he faintly heard his sister talking to their mutual friend, the Avatar. "Aang, what are you doing? Aren't you coming with us?

"No. I'm not leaving until I find Bumi," was the reply.

Sokka did a double take. He ran over to where the two were conversing, and grabbed Aang by the shoulders. "A wha ha wha?"

The Avatar's face remained stoic. "These people will be okay with you and Katara. I need to find my friend."

Sokka shook his head. "Aang, you need to get out of this city. You're not just Bumi's friend. You're the Avatar, and every minute you spend in an empty city poking your head into jails is another opportunity the Fire Nation has to capture you."

"I won't leave Bumi!"

Sokka sighed. "I'll look for him then."

Aang and Katara both blinked in shock.

"What? You two can go with the Omashans and get them out of here just as well as me. I'm a hunter, and I'm better at sneaking around and staying out of sight. I can peak into the military bases here while they're distracted by the plague, and find out of Bumi is still in the city. You can meet up with me again after dark, at, say, the top of the slide we rode the last time we were here."

Aang looked to Katara, who in turn didn't appear pleased at all. Even so, she exhaled loudly and stepped forward to hug Sokka. "You're right. Just be careful. If you get in trouble, you can't just fly out of here."

Sokka hugged her back and smiled. "Trust me, getting in trouble is the last thing I want to do here." He really should have known not to tempt fate with lines like that.

---

Omashu turned out to be a big city. Most of it was empty now, and it turned out to be surprisingly difficult to figure out which buildings had been re-purposed as Fire Nation billets and which had just been abandoned in a rush by the owners. The only new construction was the factories and the Governor's palace, and poking around the former didn't reveal any useful information to Sokka.

Well, that left just one option.

At least the evacuation plan was working (thank you very much). The Fire Nation was herding the citizens of Omashu straight out of the city, thinking they were infected with a plague. Most of the soldiers had been deployed to the city's lowest tier in order to prevent any of the "plague-carriers" from escaping the shrinking cordon. That left just a token guard for the city's other strategically significant assets, including the Governor's Palace. The building itself stood on a raised platform at the heart of the city, but from what Sokka could see, the only guards on the outside were positioned at the main pathway, and they were busy staring in horror down at the evacuation.

No problem.

He located a balcony out of sight of the guards, tied one end of a long rope around Boomerang, and threw the weapon at the balcony's railing. Boomerang curved just right, looping around the rail and wrapping tightly when the rope went taut. Sokka clambered up, and just like that, had infiltrated the Governor's Palace.

Hopefully, leaving would be just as easy.

Sokka couldn't say he liked the place's decor. Whoever designed it had this thing for tall ceilings and plain walls, which drew attention to the various gaudy pieces of furniture. Sokka kind of liked the look of the carved wood pieces, but more than half of them seemed like they had no real function other than taking up space in the overly large rooms, and the hanging burgundy banners sporting the Fire Nation's symbol were just tacky. And it didn't seem like there was anybody around to even use all this furniture. Granted, the fake plague scare had likely drawn a lot of attention from the military forces, but wasn't there anyone else around doing their job? Was everyone from the Fire Nation an enthusiastic soldier?

Still, it made Sokka's job easier. He moved quickly through the hallways, listening for signs of danger and finding none, poking his head into various rooms. He found one set of particularly fancy doors, and when a peak through the keyhole revealed no one inside, he quickly slipped in.

It was an office. A massive wooden desk sat at the back of the room, covered in neatly stacked papers, and the walls were adorned with drawings. One was a portrait of a scary, grumpy-looking guy with a long beard and a flame-shaped thingy stuck in his hair. The others, though, were various sketches of what looked like mechanical devices. The most prominently displayed was a large drawing of Omashu itself, including the deep valley immediately surrounding it, with metal bridges extending over the gap. The sketch showed the bridges in various stages of construction and deployment, with notes about construction and functionality. It was actually pretty neat.

Sokka went to check the desk.

The papers there were labeled! Whoever used this office, he was obviously a nerd of some kind. There were commands for troop deployment, reports on the local resistance, and a sketch of a coffin-shaped metal box described as a 'Royal Earthbender Prison.'

Wait, 'Royal?' Sokka began shuffling through the papers nearby, looking for more information. Before he could find what he was looking for, he heard the office's doors creak open. He grabbed a stack of the papers with his left hand as he spun and drew his war club with his right hand.

It was a girl.

Honestly, she looked exactly like he would have expected of a Fire Nation 'lady.' She was as tall as Sokka, and probably around his age. Her face was angular and pale, a strange white pigmentation that was intensified by her glossy black hair. As if that didn't make her look scary enough, her flowing outfit was all burgundy and black, like the inside of a cooling volcano.

Something about her looked familiar to Sokka. Had he seen her before?

The girl's own reaction was more muted than Sokka would have expected. She just quirked an eyebrow and drawled, "Please tell me you're here to kill me."

Sokka blinked. "What gave you that impression?"

"You're with the Resistance, aren't you? I chased you last night, after you tried to assassinate my mother and me. You're also holding up a weapon, in case you hadn't realized."

Oh! The assassination attempt! Aang had disrupted an attempt to take out kill "the Governor's top advisor" when she turned out to be a lady holding a baby, and then some Fire Nation soldiers had given chase, and then a girl who shot sharp things out of her sleeves had attacked Aang and Katara before they escaped with Sokka to the Resistance's underground base. Honestly, Sokka had been too busy to think much about all that, what with the fake plague he was devising. Looking at this girl, now, slumping with a bored expression on her face, he couldn't help but wonder if Katara had been exaggerating things again.

"No, I'm not an assassin. I don't do, you know, assassinatings. I'm just looking for a friend, actually. We think your Fire guys might have him stashed somewhere, but he's just an old man and really won't be much trouble, and I'll vouch for him and if you could just show me-"

The girl yawned. "Oh, a spy. I suppose I should stop you."

Sokka tightened his grip on his club. "Do you have to?"

She shrugged. "Honestly? Probably not. But the only other thing to do around here is watch the plague people and eat fire flakes, so like it or not, you're my new hobby."

She smirked, and then she moved.

Sokka reacted by reflex, and he heard the sound of little metal somethings bouncing off his swung club. Knives. The girl had thrown knives at his face.

Sokka stuffed the papers in his belt and ran.

The girl chased.

She chased him through one of the office's side doors into a small throne room. She chased him through a side door there into what looked like a comfy (if too big) sitting room. She chased (and it should probably be noted that, in addition to the chasing, the Evil Girl was throwing sharp Boomerang-like spinning discs that Sokka had to keep twisting to either avoid or knock out of the way) him into a smaller room with open windows and a small balcony, where a baby was on top of a table squeezing an upset Momo's tail.

Wait, Momo?

Sokka skidded to a halt, batted another Sharp Spinner away from his face, and grabbed both Momo and the baby. "Stop! I have a lemur and I know how to use it!"

The Evil Girl slid to a halt. "Put. My brother. Down."

Sokka shifted his grip to hold the delighted baby in front of his face, and let Momo scamper around to perch on his shoulder. "Nuh uh."

The Evil Girl flicked her hand in and out of her sleeve, and was suddenly holding a small blade on a ring. "You should know, I can hit you while you're holding him. I'm a very good aim. I just don't want Tom-Tom to fall and start crying after I've killed you. I hate the sound of his crying."

The Water Tribe boy glanced at the baby in his arms. "You wouldn't."

The Evil Girl smirked again.

Then a high-pitched voice behind her screeched, "Mai, don't!" The Evil Girl- Mai- lowered the blade, and an older woman with a family resemblance burst into the room. "Tom-Tom! The Resistance!"

Sokka frowned. "Why do people keep assuming that?"

"Give me my son!"

"Tell the Evil Girl with the sharp things to back off! Seriously, she can hurt someone with those."

The woman grabbed Mai's sleeve. "Please, do it!"

Mai sighed.

Sokka, still holding the baby- Tom-Tom- in front of him, began sidestepping in arc that would bring him towards the balcony. "Okay, I'm going to keep talking reasonably so that we're all nice and relaxed." At that, four soldiers with spears arrived through the door and took up position behind the Mother Lady. "Yeah, nice and relaxed. Yeah. I'm just going to go outside, put the baby down, and get out of here. No one gets hurt, I leave with no holes in me, and we're all happy. Happy is good, right? The only reason I'm here is to try and make people happy. Honestly, I think the Fire Nation could use a little more happy, don't you?"

Now he was on the balcony, his back against the railing. He peaked over the edge, and was disappointed to see that the ground was quite a bit further away that he would have liked. "Aw, man."

The Mai girl took a step forward. Her blade was in her hand again. "You're stuck. Put my brother down so that my mother will let me attack you."

"And then what?"

"I attack you. Duh."

Sokka involuntarily leaned back a bit. "I'm thinking... no."

Mai shrugged. "Your choice." She raised her hand to throw.

At this point, several things happened in quick succession. Mai's mother screamed. Sokka leaned back a bit more, and toppled over the railing. Momo leapt off of Sokka and took flight. The soldiers gasped and ran forward. Mai's blade embedded itself in the balcony's railing.

Then it was all gone, and Sokka found himself landing on his back in an Earth Cart filled with berries that was sliding down to the city's lower tier, while a laughing baby bounced on Sokka's chest and clapped.

Hey, that was some nice luck, for a change.

---

Mai and her mother both watched as the Stupid Infiltrator slid out of sight in his exquisitely timed Earth Cart. At that, Mother burst into tears, and had to be led away by some of the guards. Father came dashed into the room, leading even more spearmen. He looked around, and settled his gaze on Mai. "What happened?"

"I found a stupid boy looking around your office. He was trying to find out where you hung Bumi up. He- the stupid boy- grabbed Tom-Tom and just escaped. And Mother is crying."

Father had just one more question before he went to take his wife in his arms. "You couldn't stop him?"

The gloomy girl sighed, and considered ranting about how Mother had no confidence in her, and had kept Mai from doing what was needed to keep her family safe, in a city that Mai hadn't wanted to see in the first place, for a brother who Mai was sure was more important to Mother than Mai herself. Instead, she just shrugged. "I missed."

Mai walked away silently.

END