This session was inspired by Donkey Kong Bananza as we dive into an earthbending adventure beneath the Earth's crust!
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DNK mission…
Operation:
H.E.A.R.T.
Hsinim's
Enormous
Aureate
Rips
Terra
Loading transmission…
The streets weren't too active in the early morning of Civic City. It was the best time for Eelyah Nagillig to get to work. Several roads, sidewalks, even some buildings were riddled with cracks or deep potholes. Cement trucks and stacks of blocks were based around. Eelyah collected the cement with her bending and filled every gap neatly. In between difficult missions, this sort of volunteer work eased the Neanderthal's mind… but it did also turn a profit. She would either find tons of loose change or be tossed tips by the grateful citizens.
Eelyah had light-brown eyes and matching hair, which was cut short except for a single long, left bang. She wore a ragged brown top and skirt, and her posture was like that of a caveman, distinct for her large hands and feet.
"Uhh!" Eelyah's Seismic Sense alerted her to a crumbling highway support. Some force inside was burrowing through its base, pushing its composition apart. Eelyah quickly gathered some cement to create her own supports and keep the structure intact. Afterwards, Eelyah tore open the ruined base to get a better look at the force inside it. "…Gold?" Some kind of golden root. Eelyah was able to break off and shatter the root, but she could feel it extend deeper underground.
Meanwhile, Ikuyim Latsyrc was doing her own volunteer work beneath Saxet's Glitter Bead Mines. She had messy, long white hair and eyes of an orange and white, sunrise gradient, with pale yellow skin. She wore a gray sweater with a white bowtie and light-orange skirt above her bare legs.
Ikuyim dug and smashed in search of tiny, jeweled beads. Her Seismic Sense specialized in tracing gems; she could feel them rattling in the earth with every stomp. "Huh…" That was until her soles traced a more strange vibration. She dug her way down until she discovered a golden root. "Ooo, I bet this is worth a lot!" She couldn't bend the gold herself, but used some of the other earth to shatter it into nuggets. "But… it really goes far down." Ikuyim sensed the root extended too far for her Seismic Sense to reach.
Both earthbenders would report their strange findings, and they would soon realize that such gold roots have been discovered all over the world. They were causing earthquakes and some were even pulling chunks of towns beneath the surface. "Whatever this is, it's a serious issue." Supreme Leader Nerehc stated. "We've been so busy with this other stuff that another crisis was growing right under our noses. Ikuyim, Eelyah… since you two are our primary earthbenders, I want you to investigate this."
"You mean a subterranean adventure?! All right!" Ikuyim jumped. "How about it, Eelyah, you up for it?"
"Eelyah guess so…" The crouched Neanderthal smiled, scratching her noggin with her thick index finger.
"I'll have other operatives on standby to help you maintain communications."
Ikuyim and Eelyah began their descent in Glitter Bead Mine, tracing the root to a deeper tunnel of the mines. They were ambushed by golems made of the glittery soil. They were resistant to the earthbenders, but were still helpless to their other bending attacks. Destroying the golems' shells exposed the golden skeletons underneath. A magical force surrounded them as they tried to reform their armor, so the girls smashed them quickly.
"Eelyah, look!" Ikuyim called attention to the tiny figures skittering off through the mines. "They're Hsinim!"
"Oh… They make rock monster?"
"I bet they know about these roots, too!"
Amid their journey, Ikuyim traced and collected hidden gems like rubies, topazes, pearls, etc.. Eelyah would find mounds of clay from which to create paths or platforms for them to cross chasms; clay was just as malleable as cement for her. They rode a minecart whose track would take them through downpours of coal, using their bending to open gaps in the coal. When the cart was going to run off the broken track, Eelyah quickly bent clay to form a path across.
There was a crowd of Hsinim conducting a ritual around a pile of coal with golden veins around it. "So, we got some unwanted guests here, huh?!" Ikuyim and Eelyah bowed their gazes at a Hsinim in front of them, wearing a thicker, darker grass tunic. "You DNK finally caught on to us."
"Hey, aren't you the son of the Hsinim Chief?!" Ikuyim recognized.
"I'm the chief now, baby! Iranel's the name! And you humans are about to have your day of reckoning!"
"Day of… recognizing?" Eelyah repeated. "Recognize what?"
"So, you know something about these gold roots! What are they?!"
"Sorry, but I can't have you muckin' up our plans. New Chief Coal, pummel their puny heads!"
The pile of coal formed a humanoid shape with molten eyes, golden veins, and a gaping mouth with a golden inside and thick teeth. Similar to the smaller golems, the duo had to plow their way through its body to strike its golden skull core underneath. It would bend the coal back onto its body and would maneuver its core around the inside. Eelyah could use cement to bind its severed coals to the ground while Ikuyim could track the core by striking the body directly. Within minutes, New Chief Coal would become a merry new soul.
The Hsinim sorcerers had already retreated, but the earthbenders uncovered a giant pothole to delve deeper underground. "Let's get after them, Eelyah! YAHOOOOOO!" Ikuyim bravely dove first with arms and legs spread, while Eelyah jumped in a cannonball fashion.
The two splashed in a pool of mud in the middle of a rainforest. "An underground forest?!" Ikuyim gaped. "Wow! I guess water from the surface flows all the way down here! That's amazing!"
"Hey, Ikyim… boooooouuuuuueeeeee…" Eelyah willed her mud-soaked face to stretch out like a spooky alien.
"Hmmmmmmmffffffff!" Ikuyim puffed the mud over her nose out like a giant snot bubble. They shared a laugh!
The Overgrown Layer was home to giant worms lurking in the mud, giant mosquitoes called Spit Squits, who would shoot mud in their eyes before closing in to attack; or Barnaks, carnivorous plants that lurked above waiting to snare them in their viney tongues. It wasn't Eelyah's first time dealing with big mosquitoes, though since they were mainly drawn to her meaty feet, she covered them up in cement when the mosquitoes came.
"HEY! Girls! Wait fer me!" The duo turned back toward the mud path they just crossed. Something was swimming along the mud toward them, so they readied their guard. The mud rose up into a boyish shape, but would soon take the color of a blue-haired boy with overalls. "Howdy!"
"GUH!" Eelyah splashed a wave of mud at him. The boy needed a moment to reform and swim back to them.
"Now what'd you do that fer?!"
"It instinct." Eelyah shirked sheepishly. "What you doing here, Austin?" she asked the farmer boy of the Despairagers.
"When Ah heard y'all were on this mission, I got 'em to bring me here. You gals sure move fast, hyuck!"
"Are you here to help us out?" Ikuyim asked. "That's sweet of you, Austin!"
"Mah name's Asigan."
"We already know an Asigan. It's less confusing!"
"Anyhoo, I ain't proud to say it, but mah mudbending's been a little dry ever since Ah went to that flame circus. Ah can still turn into mud, but I can't store more mud in my Logia space or do anythin' big. Ah thought comin' on an earthbendin' mission might clear up the chi paths a bit."
"Awwww." Eelyah moaned in sympathy. "'Course Austin can help."
"You picked a great time, anyway!" Ikuyim chirped. "Mud's kinda hard for me to bend. I just can't make it sharp! It's just so… mucky!"
"Eelyah kinda get it." Eelyah levitated a mudball above her hand and tried to harden it. "But not good as clay or cement."
"Then Ah'll be happy ta help ya out! A boy can't just leave two lovely girls to fight by themselves, anyway!"
"Huhu…" Eelyah flushed.
"I won't say 'no' to that!" Ikuyim grinned.
While the girls' Seismic Sense was less sharp in the mud, Austin could warn them of the critters waiting to ambush them. He could help the girls swim up mudfalls (where they had to dodge worms or hazards flowing down), and they needed to swim through an entire "underwater" mud tunnel.
The boss of the layer was a giant water strider spider, skiing swiftly over a vast lake. The Strudder's legs were golden, so they could tell it was another golem. Austin helped them surf the mud while Eelyah tried to catch its feet in cement. As the strider skied, mud spikes grew along its path aiming to puncture them. Ikuyim could throw gem shards at its head to slow it down. Once both of its feet were bound, the group was able to strike its golden skull core. The Strudder retreated up a mudfall, so Austin once more helped them swim up. They dodged its attacks and closed in to attack Strudder again, destroying the golem.
There was a sinkhole at the top of the mudfall from which the golden roots were growing. Austin used his bending to flush the trio down the sinkhole and land in the next layer. "Oooooo…!" Their eyes glimmered at a vast cavern of bright pink crystals. There were large insects laced with the crystals; some would jut them out if the kids got close, some flew and shot crystals at them, and others crawled along platforms and shot beams straight from their backs. There were also mind-controlled miners excavating; they were wearing headbands with golden lights. They attached golden roots to the pink crystals in flashlight devices, using them to blast charged lasers at the operatives.
Thankfully, Ikuyim felt right at home bending the crystals here. She could flip spiky crystal platforms onto their flat sides, allowing her friends to jump. There were heart-shaped crystals that looked like jetpacks: by focusing her chi, Ikuyim could empower the crystals to shoot a rocket-like force, flying her friends across long chasms. Lasers would connect between crystal formations, creating natural obstacles they would have to evade.
The boss of the layer was Crown, a giant, round-bodied mech standing in a crystal chasm, with the earthbenders limited to a walkway that spanned the perimeter. It would punch the sides to make spikes fall down, which Ikuyim could catch in her bending, and shoot lasers along their foothold. Jetpack crystals also fell from above. Ikuyim would empower them to fly toward Crown, pierce its chest, and grab the golden core inside. She landed on the path opposite and whaled on the core. Crown's collapse smashed open another pit beneath it.
"Say, has anyone ever told you how pretty your bending is, Ikuyim?" Austin said.
"Hehe, really?" Ikuyim grinned modestly.
"Yeah. The way you used them crystals was pretty swell! Your movements were really sharp and your attacks were dazzling!"
"I mean, that just comes with gembending." Ikuyim balanced on her heels and hands folded behind her. "But thank you!"
"Mmm…" Eelyah looked away in sadness, twisting her thick index around her long left bang.
The kids shared another dive down! The next layer had tons of fossils of dinosaurs and giant shells, but also tons of tar pits and falls. "Ah, shucks." Austin said. "I ain't good with tar. It's way too sticky."
"Maybe can do it if bend together." Eelyah smiled.
"Yeah, I reckon we could!" Austin climbed on Eelyah's back, melting his legs to wrap them around her waist. Together, they could open paths through shallow tar and "row" platforms across deeper pools. The Hsinim created golems from the fossils, be they reanimated dinosaurs or giant mollusks. The trio platformed across steep slopes from which giant spikeballs rolled down, except the balls were fixed with wood and bones, preventing the benders from controlling them. There were also some pterodactyl golems that could help them over some chasms. "It's weird that pterodactyls are even down here!" Ikuyim said. "You'd think they get fossilized in the Sky Islands or something."
In the center of the layer, there were gold roots growing from inside a giant shell. The earthbenders hid, seeing a hunched, human-sized figure with short blonde hair and a long nose, rubbing his hands nervously. A smaller, weasel-like creature with orange fur and a blue business suit was speaking with Iranel. "We've lost too many Mine-Controlled to those interlopers! I thought you would've crafted stronger golems by now."
"Well, what did you expect pitting golems against earthbenders?! We're lucky the Banandium helps them resist their bending at all!" Iranel argued.
"Banandium?" Austin whispered. "That's what this gold is?"
"That's Retxad, one of the Separate Proprietors." Ikuyim whispered. "And his henchman, Kaj."
"And what's it matter, anyway? They can't do nothin' to stop it from blooming at this point! This world is kaput! You just better keep your promise!"
"Hey, Retxad!" Kaj called. "Sniff, sniff! I smell feet! Two of them! I mean, four! Over there!" He threw his nose in the benders' direction.
"Doggone it!" Austin cursed. "You see why y'all wear shoes?!" He gestured at his boots.
"Yeah, well maybe that's why your bending is weaker now!" Ikuyim argued childishly.
"SNIIIIIIIIOOOOOOORRRRRRTTTT!" Kaj stormed straight toward the group as his right nostril slurped up all the dirt in his path. Eelyah threw a Cement Fist at him, but Kaj vacuumed that as well. He pressed the right nostril shut and blew all the material back out in the form of condensed cannonboogers.
"GROSS!" Austin yelled as his head was splattered by a booger. As it reformed, he asked, "What kinda twisted skill is that?"
"Kaj ate the Snort-Snort Fruit! My right nose can snort, and my left nose can extort! Sna ha ha!"
"No, you idiot!" Retxad shouted. "Your right nose extorts, and your left nose retorts! How many times do we have to rehearse it?!"
"D'aw, sorry, Retxad… There's just too many torts in my port."
"Then let me help ya!" Austin bent his muddy arm to squeeze Kaj's nose shut, but the henchman grabbed his swords and diced the Logia into a muddy mess. He freed his nose and used it to snort Austin up like snot.
"Sna ha ha… ah?! SNAAAAA!" The living mud started sloshing around and threatened to go up his brain, so Kaj quickly shot him out.
"Keep usin' that trick and Ah'll go up ya again!" Austin retorted.
"We don't have time for this! Get back here, Kaj!" Retxad ordered. "We'll let the Mollur deal with them!"
The villains retreated as the massive shell began rumbling. A head with numerous tendrils and a pair of eyes emerged. The Mollur crawled in pursuit and shot its tendrils, but Eelyah and Ikuyim flattened them with their bending. Mollur curled up and rolled after them, so Eelyah and Austin grabbed tar from the pits around the chamber and glued the mollusk against the ground. With its head opening exposed, the benders were free to smash their elements into it. After destroying Mollur, Eelyah used her Cement Hands to pick up its shell and smash it into the ground, breaking open a greater tar pool.
"This pool sinks down to the next layer." Ikuyim could sense. "I bet we can ambush them if we swim down it!"
"That ain't a sentence I can get behind." Austin shirked.
"We make it if work together." Eelyah smiled, holding his hands. "Can't be worse than man's nose, huh?"
"I… reckon not." The farmer blushed.
"On three, guys!" Ikuyim held both their hands. "One! Two! Three!" They dove headfirst into the tar. Mustering their bending, they managed to sink and swim quickly while keeping the substance out of their mouths, yet it was still incredibly suffocating.
They were relieved to finally spill out of the tarfall and onto the next layer, welcoming a big breath of air. "HUUUUUUFF!" They shook to bend the tar off them.
This layer was molten with magma and floors of hot coal. "This place sure is smokin'!" Ikuyim said. "My sister probably could've helped us here… if she was ever helpful at all!"
"You know some lavabending, don't you?" Eelyah asked.
"Yep! Not as good as my sister or my classmate, Tom… Actually, maybe you and I can bend it together."
"Really?"
"Lava requires fluid movements, kinda like with your cement, and we'll need to harden it, too. So, I bet we can do good at it!"
"Okay then…" Eelyah smiled.
There were more Mine-Controlled people digging up coals, wearing gear to protect them from the heat. Some fought the ops with Bomb Coals; some obese miners tried to shove them into lava, and some more nimble miners wielded Flintslate Daggers. Ikuyim and Eelyah were invaluable to each other in solidifying magma to walk across it, though even then, they had to cross quickly as their hold wouldn't last.
"Retxad's starting to get pissed." Iranel told a group of Hsinim as they stepped off a tiny elevator. "If we can't do somethin' about those humans, then-"
"HUU!" Austin lunged forward and smooshed the Hsinim under his muddy hand. He allowed their heads to resurface, but kept their bodies trapped.
"Now we got ya!" Ikuyim snapped.
"AAAH! Dirty humans!"
"Tell us what this 'Banandium' thing is! What's it going to do to the world, and why does Retxad want it?!"
"Minorium!" Iranel called out a spell, and Austin's muddy hands transformed into sand.
"WHAT?!" The boy panicked as the shifty grains dissolved from his arms, allowing the Hsinim to escape. Eelyah and Ikuyim tried to step on them, but when Eelyah's sole had them under its shadow, the Hsinim mustered Haki and jumped to return Eelyah's weight against her.
"My magic allows me to convert minerals into different minerals! Let's see how you deal with that!" Iranel zapped the ground beneath Ikuyim and trapped her ankles in tar.
The Hsinim bolted up the tunnel, and as the operatives chased, Iranel cast magic to make lava pools appear in their path. When they escaped through a diggable wall, he turned it into metal, forcing them to dig from another wall, and when they fled up a cliff, he turned it into mud, making them rely on Austin's bending. "Hey, mah hands are back to normal!" Austin said. "Ah guess his magic don't last."
Iranel's henchmen ambushed the operatives mid-chase, so the humans were forced to K.O. them with their bending. They were hesitant at first to be too violent with the tiny creatures, but clearly the Hsinim could withstand their strength. After catching up with Iranel in an arena-like room, a child-sized figure in one of the miner's protection suits dropped down, nearly piercing Eelyah with a Flintslate Spear. "End of the line, dweebs!" his voice echoed from under his helmet.
"We gotta put them down for good, Trepur!" Iranel shouted.
"Trepur?" Eelyah loosely recognized the name.
Trepur could throw his Flintslate and summon it back to his hand, thanks to an enchantment from Iranel. He knew Haki and was tough enough to withstand Eelyah and Ikuyim's attacks, but Eelyah could glue his spear or shoes down with cement. Iranel shot magic at their bendables to convert them into other materials, doing so to free Trepur of Eelyah's cement, and likewise create lava or tar pits in their footpaths. However, Austin broke himself into smaller Mudmen that would surround and attack the Hsinim Chief.
Eelyah knocked Trepur's helmet off with a solid Cement Fist, knocking the blonde boy on his back and binding him with cement. Austin managed to knock Iranel's wand away, while Ikuyim shattered one of her pink crystals and reformed it to trap him. "HEY! Lemme outta here!" He helplessly banged on the crystal. "Give my wand back!"
"Why are you working for Retxad?!" Ikuyim demanded, holding the crystal close to her crossed eyes. "Nerehc's been trying to ask you to be friends for years! But you keep saying no and your people keep stealing from us. So, now you're working with a child trafficker?!"
"You dirty humans confined us underground for -5,000 years! All because we fought back for you enslaving our ancestors! You don't deserve the things you got!"
"Then why are you friends with this human here?" Austin gestured at Trepur.
"Because Trepur's one of the few good ones! He taught us how to fight! And helped fight the DNK with us!"
"Then you could've been friends with us, too!" Ikuyim argued.
"No! You DNK think you own the world! No matter how much you try to fake this niceness, you still think you're above us. Well, pretty soon, you ain't gonna have a world to own! Not when the Banandium is fully grown!"
"What?"
"I think that'll be enough of that." They were alerted to Retxad and Kaj entering the chamber. "Many thanks for weakening them, Iranel. We'll take it from here."
To their horror, a pair of massive, insect-like wings sprouted from the tiny Ottsel. He gigantified, developing a red metallic, insectoid body with five spidery legs and a yellow gem on his forehead. "Sna ha! Now you get to see his new Bug-Bug Fruit!" Kaj laughed.
"Yes, the Hora-quan Model. Not that you'll have long to savor it!" Retxad blasted fireballs and forced the group to scatter. Unfortunately, Kaj ambushed Austin by slicing him into muddy pieces once more. To keep Austin from reforming, he blew salt from his nostril, causing his severed pieces to harden like crust. Retxad shot bolts of lightning at the remaining two; Ikuyim used topazes to shield herself from it while Eelyah relied on cement shields, but once Kaj snorted their bendables up, Retxad lunged down for a direct attack.
The combined efforts of Retxad and his henchman had the operatives KO'ed within minutes. "Some time in the Marble Prison will learn you some good!" Retxad declared. "A marvelous front row seat to your world's destruction."
"That takes care of them!" Iranel said. "But they might send reinforcements down. Let me just make some more golems and I'll…"
"Apologies, Iranel, but I'm afraid your use for me has expired. You and your kin will make a decent profit, on top of that we'll make from the Banandium."
"W...What?!"
…
…
…
Eelyah awoke in a chi-blocked cell made of marble. The bars were thickly reinforced and two armed security guards stood outside, wearing black and red armor, likely from Retxad's private force. They didn't seem to care as Eelyah began slapping and crawling around like an ape. She put her ear to the wall, listening for an echo beyond… and there she found the weak spot. She furiously bashed her fists and skull to it until the wall collapsed. Eelyah dropped into a tunnel and landed in a pit of shallow water. Her bending was free again as she dug her way into the prison's corridors.
Krimzon Guards swarmed her, some shooting blasters, others with energy blades on their wrists, and some using their own earthbending. Eelyah bent the prison's marble to her own advantage as she fought her way through the prison. She found a glass tank where one of Austin's solidified mud clones was trapped. She broke the tiny clone out and collected him in her bulky hands. To restore its moisture, Eelyah spewed a waterfall of saliva over it. "Good golly!" Austin cringed, finally able to move his mushy form. "That ain't the kinda drink I woulda asked for!"
"Sorry. Eelyah don't know where bathrooms are."
"Well, what's a guy to do. Just hurry and find the rest o' me!"
There were some steel doors that Eelyah couldn't break into, but Austin was small enough to slither into the locks and open them. As Eelyah rescued more of his clones, they were able to fit into doors with multiple locks. Eventually, they were able to find Trepur's cell: he was still bound by cement against the chunk of ground that was ripped out.
"Hey, cavegirl! You actually got out first!"
"Huh? Why lock you up?"
"Ah, yeah. Turns out that Retxad guy is a traitor and now he wants to sell me and Iranel off after he gets the Banandium."
"What is the Banandium, anyway?" Austin asked. "What's it gonna do to the world?"
"It's some sort of ancient, valuable seed that Iranel's ancestor got a long time ago. He was gonna get his revenge on the humans by planting it in the Earth's core. It's supposed to grow over thousands of years, drawing in the core's rich nutrients, and when the Banandium finally becomes ripe, the Earth will rip apart."
"EARTH BREAK?!" Eelyah exclaimed.
"Yeah, but it's supposed to be so valuable that it can buy a whole other planet! So, the Hsinim were gonna take it and flee the Earth before it completely fell apart."
"And you were just gonna let it happen?!" Austin asked.
"Eh, if Earth wasn't tough enough to handle it, that's its fault."
"Well, if Retxad up and betrayed you, are you gonna help us get back at him if we free you?"
"I'm more worried about finding Iranel first. I think he and that white-haired chick were taken outside the prison."
"Then better go." Eelyah broke his restraints.
The group found the prison's exit… and were dumbstruck to realize it was overlooking the planet's molten core. A colossal golden cocoon had formed around the magma as its dense golden roots branched up beyond the ceiling.
While Trepur ran off on his own, Austin was able to reform himself to full size. "And now your saliva will be a part of me always." Austin sighed.
"Sorry…"
The two leapt from the prison and began their venture to the core. "Austin… you think Eelyah bending pretty, too?"
"Huh? …Why you asking that?"
"You like Ikyim's bending… you not say if like mine."
"Ah mean, you're a dang good bender, too, Eelyah. Ya sure taught me the hard way." He smiled embarrassedly. "Still don't know why you're askin'."
"Mmmmm… Eelyah don't know. Never hang out with Ikyim much. 'cept when training. But she better bender than me. She pretty, too. And always confident. Eelyah feel ugly next to her."
"Aw, chin up, girl." Austin tipped his finger beneath the hunched girl's chin. "Ah didn't mean ta put you down that way. But you are a great bender. And, well… I think you're… kinda cute… the way you act like a monkey 'n' all."
"Eelyah not act like monkey on purpose."
"Er…okay? Then why do ya act like that?"
"Dad and Yrrah say it part of mental condition. Got stupidness from Mom."
"Hey, a girl who bends as good as you do ain't stupid. And, mental conditions or not… Ah dunno, I…I think it's kinda cute." The words compelled Austin to flush.
"I… cute?" Eelyah flushed, bending her shoulders in.
"Yeh… And Ikuyim, she doesn't think you're dumb, does she? She don't think she's better than you, does she?"
"No… Ikuyim nice friend."
"Then ya shouldn't feel bad around her. She's probably countin' on ya to save her right now!"
"Yuh!"
They could feel the Earth vibrating from the Banandium's growth. There were downpours of different materials falling from the gaps in the mantle, from saltwater, coal, tar, or even, "Mud!" Austin was happy to cleanse himself in a waterfall of dirt and water.
"More cement, too!" Eelyah beamed.
"Those roots must be mixing and grinding all kinds o' minerals together!"
The duo found an energy field suspending a figure in the air. "There Ikyim!" The field had four beams linked to it.
"Hey!" Hearing her voice, Ikuyim was delighted to see her new friends past her feet. "What took you so long?!"
"Sorry to keep ya." Austin said. "…And fer seein' up your skirt." He shirked.
"How Ikyim float?"
"There are four generators! You can follow these beams to them!"
"Hnah, you won't do that, you won't!" Kaj jumped at Eelyah with blades drawn, but Austin grabbed and threw her aside with enlarged mud hands. The long-nose blew salt, but Austin quickly opened a gap in himself to let it pass through.
"Eelyah, go on and break them generators! Ah won't let this idjit bother ya!"
With a firm nod, Eelyah raised a thumbs up and hurried off. Austin chased Kaj in an effort to go up his nose, while the henchman grabbed sacks of salt from his Infi-Cube to snort in more and retort. Austin evaded the salt and forced his way up Kaj's right nostril: another fault in his power is that his right nostril couldn't blow at all. Once Austin was inside, he would shuffle and muck up Kaj's brain until the long-nose blew him out the left nostril. Kaj ran to some of the nearby downpours, snorting burning coals, tar, or saltwater. Whenever anything struck and weakened Austin's Logia body, he had to run to one of the mudfalls to moisturize.
It was only after his third muddy shower that he felt his body melting… merging with it. Ya know… mah mind's been pretty muddy after that war. Everythin' just fell apart. Captain Ydnam ain't want us around no more, so we went ta helpin' the DNK. And we…we're actually helpin' the world now. Not lockin' folks up in a dream world. And those gals… Ikuyim and Eelyah shone in his mind. It's been fun helpin' 'em out. Ah reckon Ah can get used to this!
The mudfall morphed into a giant version of Austin. Kaj's only way to combat his colossal Mudfists would be to snort tremendous masses of salt and blow it all out at once. Even when Austin's arms or legs were crustified, he simply detached those ones and morphed other parts of his mud into replacements. He even found another weakness in Kaj when pressing his nose shut after another salt inhale: if he didn't exhale dangerous materials fast enough, they would affect his already-defective brain. Thus he allowed the salt to dehydrate him before allowing him to exhale it. But once Kaj was weakened, Austin forced mud up his nostrils once more and filled his head with mush. The henchman was unconscious.
"Heh. Talk about stoopid." Austin retorted.
Eelyah succeeded in destroying the generators. Ikuyim fell from her dispelled prison, but quickly waved her hands to bend the earth into a soft landing. Austin and Eelyah looked over the resulted crater: Ikuyim was bent upside-down in a silly manner. "Heheheh! Bring a parachute next time!"
Eelyah stomped and had the earth push Ikuyim back up. "Thanks, Eelyah!" She bent down to hug the Neanderthal. Eelyah returned the gesture warmly. "And Austin, that was awesome! Looks like your chi paths are clear!"
"Yup! A little shower do ya some wonders."
"How become Mud Logia, anyway?" Eelyah asked.
"Well, there was this apple tree atop a really steep hill by my farm. Had the dern best apples this side o' the islands. I was goin' up to get some one day when it started raining like ya wouldn't believe! The ground got super slippery, but I bent the mud over mah head to make an umbrella. I still wound up trippin' and hittin' mah head on a rock, and all that mud fell and nearly drowned me. An' before Ah knew it… Ah was the Mudman of Awot Farmlands."
"Cool… Maybe Eelyah be Logia if drown in cement."
"I don't think I'd wanna be a Logia." Ikuyim said. "Then adventuring would be less exciting!"
"It's too risky a thing, anyway." Austin reasoned. "…Uh, shouldn't we be stoppin' that?"
They just remembered the Banandium. "Oh yeah. That looks bad."
Retxad's gaze was dreamy as he stood before the very core of the Banandium. The core resembled two Möbius strips made of bananas and intertwined with each other. "The legendary Heart of Gold." Retxad reminisced. "I can't imagine what your ancestor traded to acquire such a beauty. For -5,000 years, it grows into an abundance of wealth. Rich enough to buy a whole world… or everything therein."
The Ottsel raised Iranel's crystal prison to his smirking face. "You said we were going to buy Lorule! That you would help us run all its people underground or off the world! That it would be our paradise!"
"Please. Little children like you are just products in the end. I'd never share this wealth with you! Rather, this will make me more powerful than B-Rah or even that mouse in the Posiverse! There won't be anyone unwilling to trade with me! At least you'll have your wish of revenge against those surface dwellers. And I will be rid of those DNK."
"Oh, you think so, huh?!" Retxad flinched and spun to see Ikuyim, Eelyah, and Austin.
"Sigh, you just can't find good help nowadays. Just another thing to buy with my limitless wealth! Oh, yes sirree! But you three should serve as the final nutrients for my jewel!"
Retxad transformed into the Hora-quan bug, but the Earth Children wouldn't hold back either: Ikuyim unlocked Stellar Fury, developing a sapphire skirt, emerald shirt, garnet gauntlets, opal head ring, ruby anklets, and long topaz toenails. Eelyah awakened Limestone Fury, coating herself in cement as a makeshift churner formed on her back. And Austin morphed into a giant blob with a monstrously gaping mouth, evil glowing eyes, and horns on his head.
But Retxad had a trick of his own: he stored Iranel inside the gem on his forehead and harnessed his Magic Chi. The strike of his lightning bolts could transform the minerals; he ripped out chunks of the golden surface on which they battled and threw them at the benders, turning them into volatile bomb rocks, spiked steel, or salt to shrink Austin's sluggish form. If Austin were weakened by the salt, Ikuyim threw some opals into his body: their condensed Water Chi restored his moisture.
Eelyah sprayed roads of cement and surfed them swiftly as she circled and bound Retxad's spider legs with them. She created giant hands to push herself to the air, followed by cement feet to squash the giant bug. Retxad converted his cement restraints into sand for an easy escape, then would make Eelyah's appendages backfire by turning them into lava. Ikuyim would think fast and enforce her bending over the lava to cool it, giving Eelyah enough time to mentally process the fact and help cool herself.
Ikuyim used her ruby anklets to rocket toward Rextad's forehead and sock him with her garnet gauntlets. From there, she propelled herself toward his insect wings and slashed them with her electric topaz nails. But during one of her gauntlet attacks, Retxad zapped and converted them into glass, shattering upon impact as Ikuyim's knuckles bled. Retxad swat her away, but Austin caught her in a soft mudhand. He broke off some tiny Mudmen to pick the shards out of Ikuyim's hands, afterwards melting their selves over the wounds. It didn't do much to ease the pain, but she still found it comforting.
Austin and Eelyah gunked Retxad's wings with their elements to ground him. Before he could shake it off, they simultaneously rammed him in the form of giant balls. Retxad lay on his side as Ikuyim came "skating" around him, balancing her heels on a pearl. "On the way of an open pearl! She shoots, SHE SCORES!" With a firm swing of her foot, the pearl slammed into Retxad's gem. Though the pearl shattered, the Skull Gem was knocked out of the Metal Bug. Retxad rushed to get up and grab it-
"No home run for you, baby!" Trepur raced to catch the gem and sprint from Retxad. "Here's the TOUCHDOWN!" And he smashed it to pieces, freeing his Hsinim friend.
Eelyah and Austin glued Retxad down once more. Ikuyim rocketed above the bug and condensed her gems into a pointed diamond at her feet. "HYAAAAH!" With a vigorous spin, Ikuyim punctured the Metal Bug's gut! Retxad shrank back to his normal form and passed out.
"Ikyim, what we do about Bananum?!" Eelyah asked.
"If you guys can hold on for a couple more minutes, then let's join forces!"
"I'm wide open! Aaaaaahhhh…!" Austin widened his monstrous mouth as the girls jumped inside. A greater monster grew, taking the shape of Eelyah's apelike posture, oozing mud and cement, but sparkling with gems and a crystal crown. The earthbenders were relentless in thrashing the Heart of Gold. Each impact caused it to shake erratically like a sentient being in pain.
"STOP! STOP THAT!" Iranel cried, sprinting toward the titan. "That's Okralam's legacy! It belongs to us! IT'S OUR GOLD TO TRADE!"
"But this isn't your world to destroy!" Ikuyim shouted. "If you wanna own a world so bad, then apologize and make friends with us! FOR NOW," the titan slammed the core to the ground, jumped, and SQUASHED it like a pile of bananas.
The golden roots began to quake, crack, and crumble. The operatives fled before the molten core could claim them, grabbing the KO'ed bodies of Kaj and Retxad. They called down fellow operatives to help carry them back to the surface.
After a hard fought expedition, the three earthbenders were happy to breathe the fresh air of the surface. "It's amazing how much wonder lies just beneath our soil!" Ikuyim's expression was bright as she flexed her toes in the earth. "Our planet has such a vast and warm heart… I'm glad I got to see it!"
"But gold root make it really broken." Eelyah frowned. "Too much for Eelyah to fix."
"Yeah… Looks like we got more work to do."
"Ya know what I'm thinking we should do first?" Austin asked.
…
Relax in a nice, hot mudbath. An earthbender's paradise. Allow the earth to absorb their fatigue and clear their chi. They melted in the tub, quite literally in Austin's case, and looked forward to a blissful sleep afterwards.
Retxad and Kaj were given to the reformed Galactic Navy, along with evidence provided by the -$ Thieves for their trafficking crimes. Their imprisonment would be assured. That left one less member of the Separate Proprietors to worry about. As for the Hsinim, Nerehc made the appeal for friendship once more: either work with the DNK in fixing the damages caused by the Banandium, or be banished to a different planet for their crimes. He also promised that any large person who knowingly and unjustly hurt a Hsinim would be punished. Realization hit the Hsinim race that they were never prepared to abandon their homes and settle on a strange new world. So, they begrudgingly accepted.