Chapter 50 – Council of Five
The next day, Iroh is extremely cheerful for his morning tea session. The whole gang sits in a circle and Zuko looks at him weird, sensing that he’s acting strange. “Uncle, did something happen that I don’t know about?”
Iroh gives a big belly laugh, “HAHAHA, your Uncle met your Aunt in a dream and we had a lovely time!”
Zuko finally notices that his Uncle is behaving just like he did when he first had sex. “Fuck! Too much information, Uncle! I don’t even want to know how you managed it with that belly.”
Nuwa laughs as she watches Iroh, but has a feeling that he will be a little depressed tonight. She honestly doesn’t know how to feel about knowing that she’s pregnant. Although she has memories of the overflowing joy that Heza felt upon insemination, she didn’t truly understand the feeling since it wasn’t hers. She did, however, feel a powerful resonance from the other half of her Dao Core.
Mai’s eye twitches and suddenly imagines Zuko as a fat old guy. She grabs Zuko’s arm with a death grip and glares at him. “You’re not allowed to get fat.”
Seeing that the usually docile Mai is suddenly behaving domineeringly, Zuko agrees without a second thought. He awkwardly laughs and says, “I’ll leave the getting fat to you! Get it.. because you’re pregnant. Haha..ha?”
Iroh laughs heartily while Mai slams a knife down right in front of Zuko’s crotch as he’s sitting cross-legged and gives him a deadpan stare. Zuko sweat drops profusely as he stares at the knife that came this close to ending his posterity.
Azula chuckles, “Brother, you’re not allowed to call girls fat even if they are.”
Nuwa smiles, “Well, you can if it’s in good taste, like when discussing their boobs or ass.”
Leaning over, Nuwa cops a few quick squeezes of Ty Li’s boobies and Hummy jumps out of them into Nuwa’s boobies for a bit. “No one can resist my sister’s fat puppies!”
Ty Li lets out a short moan with an extremely red face and balls her fists together into her crotch. At first it seems to be a regular way of sitting cross-legged, but the more that the onlookers look at it, the more they sense something off about it. Instead of sitting still, she’s slightly squirming. Then again, they’d rather watch her boobies that Nuwa casually fondles for at least 30 seconds before giving a quick twist on her nipple.
Nuwa also comes to Ty Li’s rescue to save her some embarrassment when she sees what her hands are doing by attracting some attention. She gropes her own boobs to bully Hummy who’s unsuccessfully flapping its wings to jiggle her cleavage. Nuwa’s boobs are not quite soft enough to ripple the weak kinetic energy of Hummy’s wings.
Dan looks at Hummy with disdain as he thinks, ‘Pathetic creature. The Mistress is not someone whose assets you can boin at will. I curse you, avian bug.’
Of course, Dan doesn’t say this out loud or else Ty Li might get sad on behalf of her spirit companion.
Zuko pulls out the knife close to his crotch, which embedded itself on the solid stone floor, with great trepidation. He gently offers it back to Mai, whom he now acknowledges as quite fearsome.
Mai smiles like an innocent housewife as she replaces the knife on her waist.
Nuwa looks at Kuei and asks, “You know more about the war now, right?”
Kuei nods with some seriousness and admits, “I feel like I’ve been living under a rock hearing all the stories of what has happened and what’s been happening in the Earth Kingdom. I’ve started to suspect that Long Feng had some part to play in my parent’s death, but any agents he might have used at that time are long gone.”
Nuwa sighs, “There’s a lot you could have done if you were a bit smarter, but that also would have made Long Feng suspect you and possibly take action to harm you. It’s probably for the best that you lived under a rock. Anyway, we need to start organizing a military counter-attack on the Fire Nation. Can you call over the Council of Five?”
Kuei says, “Very well. They’ve been wondering what happened in the Palace and trying to get into contact with Long Feng since all the Joo Dees have disappeared. I did not grant them entry though since I wasn’t sure what you thought of them.”
Nuwa smiles wryly, “You don’t have to always defer to me. Otherwise, if I’m gone, wouldn’t you not know what to do? With Long Feng, it’s a good idea though, since Dan removed his bending. It could cause a big panic if it got out that Dan could take away someone’s bending permanently. Just make sure everyone has the story straight that Aang did it.”
Aang raises his hand, “I did it! What did I do?”
Kuei assents with a thoughtful gaze and says, “I’ll call them for a meeting.”
Nuwa looks at Aang and smiles mysteriously, “An Avatar can permanently disable someone’s bending after you open a chakra. It’s called energybending and it has to do with modifying chi pathways inside the bodies of others. Don’t try it without having a chakra open or else you will definitely kill or turn insane whoever you try it on.”
Nuwa doesn’t mention that Dan’s bloodbending can do something similar by rearranging blood vessels to avoid a body’s chakra point, causing the body to disconnect from that chakra point. Despite chakra points only existing on the spiritual body, the physical body still needs to move chi through blood. Therefore, specific points on the physical body can affect the spiritual body.
~ ~ ~
The Council of Five, who control the entire military of the Earth Kingdom, walk into the throne room and don’t bother kneeling. A bulky aging man asks, “Who are all these people? Where is Long Feng? We need to discuss some logistics.”
Kuei replies as he sits on his throne, “I’ve ousted Long Feng from power. These are my friends who have arrived to help us in the war against the Fire Nation. They helped enlighten me about the situation and took care of Long Feng’s evil influence upon this city. Stella will explain the situation.”
Nuwa introduces herself to the shocked Council, “Thank you, Earth King. My name is Stella. As a genius from birth, I have many talents of the mind, one of which includes deprogramming hypnotism. I was the one responsible for freeing 200 Joo Dees and 100 Dai Li agents which have been unjustly hypnotised by Long Feng to be mindless drones that only follow orders.”
“What was even more outrageous was that Long Feng was kidnapping children from the Outer Ring to make a child army and expand the Dai Li. His ultimate plan was undoubtedly to become the King and would probably hypnotize the Council next!”
The Council of Five were struck by terrible fear at the thought of them following all of Long Feng’s orders while smiling like Joo Dees. They immediately looked gratefully at Stella despite her young age and the fact that she popped up out of nowhere.
“This is my lover, Zulrath. She’s a powerful lightning bender.”
Azula greets, “Hello, I’m Zulrath. You don’t have to worry about me being a firebender. The Fire Nation almost ruined my life. By the way, I only listen to Stella.”
Aang jumps in since the girls are stealing his thunder, “Hello, I’m Avatar Aang, the last airbender!”
Katara joins, “Hi, I’m Katara, one of the last Southern Water Tribe waterbenders.”
Zuko adds, “Hello, I’m Lee, a firebender. I’m on your side in the war.”
Mai greets apathetically, “Hi, I’m Kristen, a nonbender.”
Ty Li chimes in, “Hi, I’m Slinky! I’m a nonbender.”
Dan introduces himself, “Hello, I’m Dan, a waterbender from the Northern Water Tribe.”
Toph introduces herself last so that she can be the most dramatic, “My name’s Toph Beifong, the greatest earthbender of all time! I’ll be taking over as Supreme Commander of the Earth Military against the Fire Nation!”
Iroh is not present for this meeting since he could easily evoke panic in the Council, who undoubtedly know him.
The Council of Five introduce themselves, but Nuwa doesn’t really care about their names. They’re entirely unremarkable old men who do their job adequately and are loyal to the Earth Kingdom, but don’t dare to buck the tide when someone like Long Feng comes along.
Anyway, Nuwa intends to treat them politely and have them retire soon after the war.
They immediately kick up a fuss over a small little girl being their direct superior in the ranks of military command.
One of them says with a furious face, “Beifong, you say? So what!? This is the military, not a daycare.. S-she doesn’t look a day over 15!”
Stella replies, “As a Beifong, Toph brings the vast political and monetary influence of her great family with her to the war. She’s sent letters to her parents and confirmed that they will support her (lie). But more importantly, she is an incredible earthbender. As someone who embodies the true spirit of earthbending, she is someone the entire military can admire, regardless of any conflicting ideology.”
Toph shouts, “Oi baldie! That’s no way to speak to your commanding officer! I’m 18 for your information. If you got anything to say to me, you can say it to my fist!”
The old general had never experienced such a rebuff in the throne room in his entire life, nor did he expect to see a stone flying right to his face. He quickly puts up a small earth wall to block it and returns fire, “Why you little!”
Toph laughs as she punches the larger stone he threw at her into smithereens with her fist. “That’s the right attitude! Show me what you got, old man!”
Toph and the enraged general trade rock throws.
The other four on the Council of Five go to the old general’s aide, seeing that Toph starts intentionally involving them in the crossfire. The rest of the people in the throne room just sit and watch casually, waiting for Toph to get it out of her system.
Kuei is the only one watching with fear and excitement as stones and boulders are pulled out of the throne room floor and smash into the surroundings. Various Dai Li agents work together to prevent passersby from harm outside the makeshift battleground.
Toph stomps her foot and compressed rocks levitate around her as she proceeds into a boxing stance to do her muda-muda attack on the generals. The generals are out of breath at this point, unused to prolonged combat, except for one of them who seems like he’s having the time of his life, but also about to have a heart attack.
Toph throws rapid jabs at floating rocks orbiting her. As the rocks fly at them in rapid fire, the generals put up several rock walls, which the earth bullets penetrate before leaving welts and bruises on their torso. The whole spar descends into some silence before the generals and Toph start laughing out loud like little kids.
The fun-loving general says after a good laugh, “Never thought I’d be beaten with my pals by a welp like you. You’re pretty good, kid.”
Toph smashes her fists together, “I wasn’t even getting started yet. If I had used my metal, all of you would be out in 5 seconds flat!”
The generals give a hearty laugh and misunderstand that she’s exaggerating about some metal weapon. They don’t know that she’s telling the truth. Nuwa had explained to Toph about Kuvira’s style of metalbending which resembles the Dai Li’s earth gloves but with metal restraints.
Toph picked it up easily and now she walks around strapped with 10 kg of metal bracelets, which look like thin plates, on each arm. She could have guided a few metal bracelets around the earth walls and wrapped up each general’s hands, feet, and eyes in metal restraints without any trouble.
With the Council of Five all buddy-buddy with Toph, now Nuwa has to find a way to get the Beifongs onboard and make contact with the Water Tribes for a massive counterattack on the Day of the Black Sun. For that, they will need the help of the Mechanist, who Aang and Katara rescued from the blackmail of the Fire Nation. Only the Mechanist has the knowledge and ability to defeat the technology he designed for the Fire Nation.
~ ~ ~
The Day of the Black Sun refers to the solar eclipse, where the moon blocks out the sun, which causes all firebenders to be weakened significantly. Firebending is powered with internal chi, but fire still burns on ambient chi in the environment to support itself. The sun provides firebenders with their connection to the ambient chi in the environment.
When the sun goes down at night, a firebender’s connection to the sun remains. But when the moon, which provides waterbenders with their connection to waterbending, eclipses the sun, the firebenders are cut off from the sun and therefore lose their connection to the ambient chi.
Most normal firebenders cannot produce any fire at all during a full eclipse. Ozai, Iroh, and Azula should be able to produce fire with their internal chi as normal, but all of their attacks will all be severely weakened in their destructive output.
The Mechanist was someone who Aang, Katara, and Sokka found living with some Earth Nation citizens in the Northern Air Temple. The Fire Nation was blackmailing him that they would invade the Northern Air Temple if he didn't keep producing designs for weapons of war. Aang, Katara, and Sokka help the Mechanist escape the blackmail and repel the invasion force. They then recommend that he fly his hot-air balloons to Omashu to be under Bumi’s protection.
What they don’t know is that the Fire Nation used the concept of the hot-air balloon designed by the Mechanist to create a large airship fleet of metal blimps powered by coal and firebending.
With an air force, the Fire Nation could rain destruction on any Earth Kingdom city with fire, no matter how bad the terrain was around it or how high the walls were. Also, they are in the process of building a huge drill for their preparations to bust through the great walls surrounding Ba Sing Se so that the ground and air invasion of Ba Sing Se can proceed smoothly.
~ ~ ~
Nuwa knew all these factors due to her knowledge of the canon and she knew the destructive potential of airships. Toph’s metalbending would be instrumental to crippling the Fire Nation’s airship fleet. Airships are too big and float too high to be damaged by boulders or water.
Making holes by ripping off the metal plating is the best way to down them if they’re already in the air. Another option that Nuwa considered would be to sabotage them in advance by involving the Pea family or another set of rebels.
Nuwa leaves these topics to a later enlightenment session. Hearing about the pathetic state of the Earth Military that’s been reduced from 50,000 strong to just 15,000 odd that the Council of Five describes, Nuwa internally sighs. Lack of food, funding, and discipline means they often act as bandits to their own citizens when they’re deployed just to get fed. The hot-bloodedness of youth in the recruits dies quickly when faced with starving soldiers who are armed to the teeth.
Nuwa recommends that Azula have the Dai Li start “kindly asking for donations” from Inner Ring families. They’d technically be protection fees.
Toph volunteers to go to the troop barracks at the forefront of the Fire Nation invasion force and shape them up. Before she excitedly leaves for war, Nuwa forces Toph to write a letter to her parents with the excuse that once the generals found out that she can metalbend, she was pushed to the rank of Supreme Commander, and there’s nothing she can do about it. After all, what’s she supposed to do with some old men kneeling in front of her begging her to save the country?
Despite the flowery and exaggerated language, Nuwa figured that Lord Beifong would see through to the truth of the matter that his daughter was a genius and unable to be held back by parental smothering. It was up to him to prevent Lady Beifong from opposing her daughter’s choices. Nuwa prays for Lord Beifong’s future well-being given the fact he has to deal with that overprotective mother.
After extensive logistical talk between the Council of Five and Team Avatar Gang, with most of Team Avatar Gang asleep out of boredom, Nuwa calls the meeting to an end. Despite their resolve to end the war, even Katara and Aang fell asleep combing over the details of supply lines, terrain, and arable lands between Ba Sing Se and Omashu, the current war front.
The generals leave with satisfaction and new hope that the Earth Kingdom can formulate an adequate response to the Fire Nation threat. Nuwa’s next stop is to speak with Iroh about how to join the Order of the White Lotus and find out how to get in touch with the big hitters like Pakku, Bumi, and Piando.