So I was supposed to write a story of an ATLA or LoK character's reaction to to some sort of modern day technology. This is what happened.

Prompts used:

"You'll doom us all!" - easy

smoke - medium

Word Count: 879

I got the idea for this after making myself some popcorn.

The Box of Doom

"Where..." Sokka turned full circle, a very confused frown on his face. "Where are we?" If he had to guess, it looked like they were in a house...of some sort. But everything looked super weird. Another guess was that it was a kitchen. The counters and bowl full of strawberries attested to that. But there were things he'd never seen before all over the place. Like the big, silver rectangle pushed against one wall. Or the large square that looked like it opened up...an oven? But unlike any oven he'd ever seen before. And the lights! In the center of the roof, attached the fan-looking thing. No candles, just light by itself!

"Um..." Zuko looked just as baffled. "No clue." He turned around and frowned when he spotted something on the other side of the room. "But, uh, what's that?" Sokka turned towards where he was pointing and froze. It was a black box, with a window and a light coming out of it, seemingly attached to the wall beneath a cupboard. The most concerning thing, however, was the countdown on the side. It was currently just below three minutes...

"That...that doesn't look good," Sokka breathed, taking a few steps back.

"What does it do?" Zuko demanded.

"Best guess?" Sokka shrugged. "Blow up."

"What?!"

"Well, the Mechanic has been working on something like this, where he rigs up explosives but makes it so its delayed so that you can, y'know, run away first," Sokka explained. "It looks like this is a very sophisticated version of that." It actually was really intriguing, and if there wasn't the threat of blowing up, he'd definitely want to get a closer look. How did the numbers change like that?

"And why is the Mechanic trying to make a time bomb?!" Zuko shouted. The war was, after all, over. He didn't need to keep making weapons of doom!

"Time bomb," Sokka mused. "That's a good name. I think I'll take tha- ZUKO WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" The smell of smoke was almost more frightening than the countdown. Was he crazy? Wait, why would he even ask that. Sokka knew Zuko was crazy from the moment they met.

"I'm getting rid of it!" Zuko replied, the ball of flame still in his hand. "That way we won't get exploded!"

"YOU DON'T BLOW UP A BOMB!" Sokka screeched. "YOU'LL DOOM US ALL! ARE YOU COMPLETELY NU-"

Pop!

Both froze at the sound, and slowly turned towards the little black box of doom. Through the window, they saw that something had...expanded inside it, almost like a bag, and now it was making popping noises.

Pop! Pop!

"Sokka-"

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!" Both boys jumped at the sound of someone shouting, turning to see a girl standing in the doorway, wearing the most bizarre clothes, and a glare in her eyes. "WHO ARE YOU? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" Sokka noticed that she must've been a firebender, because her fists were starting to smoke and she was taking a bending stance. He and Zuko also prepared themselves to fight, unsure if this girl was a threat or not. "I SWEAR I'LL CALL THE-"

That was when she got a good look at Zuko. She froze, eyes widening, mouth opening and closing like a fish. Zuko was obviously uncomfortable with the attention. He shifted nervously and asked, "What?"

"A-are you Fire Lord Zuko?" she stuttered.

"Um, yes?"

"B-but you're, like, dead!" she exclaimed. "Like, for hundreds of years! You're ashes are in a museum!" She threw her hands up into the air before smacking her forehead. "Why do the spirits like to mess with me so much?" she muttered.

Suddenly, it all clicked for Sokka. "Oh! So we're in the future!" How he managed to ever come to that conclusion was anybody's guess. Sure, it was probably true, but seriously, who thinks of that?

"What?!" Zuko cried, whirling on him. "But...I mean-"

"So you guys are from the past?" the girl cut him off. "That is so cool! And weird...but mostly cool! Unless I'm seeing ghosts, in which case-"

"No time to chat," Sokka cut her off. "We've still got a bomb!" He pointed at the box, which now read they only had about thirty seconds. The popping was getting really frantic now, and the bag was wobbling through the window. "You!" he said, turning on the girl. "You live here, right? Turn it off!"

The girl blinked at him. "It's just a microwave," she deadpanned. She walked over to it and looked into the window, calmly waiting as the last few seconds beeped out.

"What are you doing?" Zuko asked, but she ignored them, keeping her eye on the timer.

3...2...1...

BEEP! BEEP! BEEEEEEEEEP!

Nothing else happened. Both Sokka and Zuko let out a breath they didn't know they were holding as the girl opened the window (it was a door this whole time?) and pulled out the bag. Sokka sniffed at the smell of food.

"Anyone want popcorn?" the girl asked, ripping it open and holding it out.

So when thinking of what to write for this prompt, I knew that I'd have to get my characters in a situation where there is modern technology. I figured the most common/expected way would be the classic "fell into a different universe" thing. So instead, I went with time travel! How did it happen? Who knows! I certainly don't!

And as for the girl, I was not intentionally trying to do a self-insert, but since I got this idea after popping some popcorn, it just kinda happened. However, I did partially imply that this girl is the same girl from one of my other one-shots, A New Kind of World.