Chapter Two: The Plant
The four friends snuck through the streets of Ba Sing Se. This was no easy task, as Fire Nation soldiers were everywhere, looking for curfew-breakers to punish. The plant was in the Agrarian Zone, so they had a considerable way to go: it took them an hour and a half to reach it. It was nearly midnight, as they had had to leave after Deiro's parents had fallen asleep. Takara had managed to convince Deiro's parents and her own to let her stay overnight, and Bushi had just hidden.
"There's the plant," said Bushi. Light from the factory filtered down and illuminated his brownish-gold hair. Bushi had a square jaw and violet eyes. These, combined with his hair (a color so rare it did not have an official name), made him quite an unusual sight in the Middle Ring. Bushi himself lived with his father in a small apartment in the Lower Ring of the city.
"How are we going to shut it down?" asked Usagi. Bushi turned to her.
"I studied a map when I was here earlier," he explained. "There's a large generator that powers the facility. If we can do enough damage to it, it'll short-circuit and explode."
"And how, pray tell, are we going to cause that much damage?" asked Takara, brushing her brown hair from her eyes.
Bushi smiled. "Easy," he said. "Deiro just has to do some Earthbending, pummel it with some rocks, and boom! No more Cactus Juice."
"One problem, Bushi," said Deiro. "That's a metal factory. I can't bend metal."
"I've figured that out, too," replied Bushi. "Near the generator room is the juicing room, where they extract the pure liquid from cactuses. They use rocks to squeeze the juice out. You can just get some of those and smash up the generator with them."
"And what about security, Bushi?" said Takara. "This is a major Fire Nation operation. Security's going to be tight."
"That's why I stole these from a store room," said Bushi, taking four security uniforms from his bag. "Let's get going."
The Cactus Juice plant was dark and damp. Echoes of things not seen rang through the hallways. The entire place was metal; black metal that was as beautiful as it was terrifying. Deiro and his friends made their way to the back of the factory, towards the juicing room.
"Hey, you four!" came a voice. They turned to see a guard come walking toward them.
"Who are you?" the guard asked. "I don't remember you people."
"We're… interns," said Takara. "Yeah, real new, just got here today. We're, uh, familiarizing ourselves with the factory."
"Yeah," said Deiro. He sniffed one of the walls. "Mmmmm! Still got that new factory smell!" Takara slapped her face.
The guard raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. "Very well," he said. "As you were." And with that, he strode off.
The group soon found the juicing room. Rocks pounded pieces of cactus, squeezing the juice from it. Using his Earthbending, Deiro took several of these rocks and levitated them behind the group.
"The generator room isn't very far from here," said Bushi. "If we hurry, we can destroy the plant and be back home by dawn."
"Wait," said Usagi. "I just thought of something. How are we going to escape once Deiro wrecks the generator? I don't want to die in a firey explosion. At least, not at fourteen."
"That's easy," explained Bushi. "The generator will take about two minutes to blow completely. In that time, Deiro can break the wall open with the rocks, and we can ride a wave of earth to safety."
Usagi sighed. "Fine, I guess," she said.
The group finally found the generator room. Deiro was preparing to strike the generator with one of the rocks when someone cried out: "Halt, or I'll burn you where you stand!"
Standing in the doorway was a black-haired young man with grey eyes and tanned skin. He wore a schoolboy's uniform.
"I am Natsu, Kashida, son of Shiiro Kashida, creator of Cactus Juice!" the boy said. "You are Earth Kingdom revolutionaries here to vandalize this factory senselessly! Explain yourselves immediately or suffer the consequences!"
Deiro and Bushi glanced at each other. "Natsu," said Bushi, pulling the journal of Shiiro Kashida from his bag, "I'm afraid that there's more to Cactus Juice than meets the eye…"
///////////////////////
Next Time: Natsu learns the truth about Cactus Juice and joins the group, but they are discovered and forced to flee. The gang is on the run, and things get even worse as more Cactus Juice factories start showing up, and the date of the drink;s public release grows nearer…