Chapter 1
"After five years of intensive searching, I've finally found the thing that I've been looking for since the last Avatar- Korra, the waterbender- disappeared. It was a late August night when I was finally standing in front of Toph Beifong's tomb. I had only one door left to open before I could put my hands on the Sacred Earth Key. " taught Alexis Cook to himself before opening the door of the catacomb.
The tall man triggered the heavy lever which opened the great stone door. But when he stepped into the dark tomb, he was surprised because, instead of finding the earth bender's grave, he found himself in a creepy dark maze.
"I knew there had to be something to challenge those who wanted the Sacred Key behind that damned door," he thought to himself whilst he turned on his flashlight. At first glance, the maze didn't look like an easy target, but the crave for the hidden artifact gave the man ambition. Before he entered the maze a powerful girl voice echoed behind him, in the long tunnel.
"Where are we starting, father?" the girl asked. She was advancing through the dark tunnel, her blonde hair was full of dust so it was looking darker than it is.
"We are starting from here," said her father pointing at the huge rock door which was now open. " But first tell me if you've managed to deal with the guards."
The girl rolled her eyes and then she replied. "Of course I did, did you have any doubt ?"
"No, Yuri, I didn't, I know you are as strong as your mom," replied her father with a proud voice.
They started to walk around in the maze, marking the walls with chalk so they remember how to return to the entrance of the tomb. The walls of the maze were cramped so solving the maze was going to take a long time if the two explorers were going to stay together.
" We should split up, you take the red chalk and I'll take the blue one, we'll make it easier to solve that way," the tall man said while he gave the girl some red pieces of chalk.
"Let's start searching, there's no time to waste" replied Yuri.
The two split up and each one of them went through a different tunnel, marking the wall with colored chalk. Every tunnel looked similar to the others and judging by the size of the great dark maze, it was easy to get lost so they had to be careful not to get confused by the ghostly walls of the labyrinth.
After almost four hours of trying to find the right way to the Sacred Earth Key, Alexis arrived into a round room which had three doors that led into three different chambers. The door in the center was beautifully embellished with green and black crystals.
"In the center chamber has to be Toph Beifong's grave, I'm much closer than I imagined to put my hands on the Sacred Artifact. But now I have to find a way in." his mind was racing. He was seeing himself with all the four Sacred Keys, he was seeing himself stopping the Avatar Cycle once and for all.
While the tall man was analyzing the three stone doors, the sound of steps echoed in the tunnel that was on his right side. He picked up his gun from the back and he aimed at the dark passage, but was surprised when he saw his daughter coming.
"I thought I was going to arrive before you, father, " said the young blonde.
"Even if I arrived before you, I still didn't find a way to get into the earth bender's grave, " her father replied with a disappointed voice.
"I suggest we enter the other two first, those on the sides, then we go for the center door, " suggested the daughter.
Alexis nodded then he pushed open the right door and his daughter went to the door on the left side. The right door creaked open and Alexis found himself in a dusty chamber, in the middle there was an opened stone coffin and when he approached it, he realised that there was nothing inside the coffin apart from an electrified glove.
"I could improve this glove and make it into a bending glove so I can finally bend an element or maybe more. The Avatar will stand no chance in front of me if I'll be using the new bending glove that I'll create." Alexis was thinking while he was analyzing the new tool he had just found.
He took the glove and stared at it for a little bit more then he equipped it on his right hand. The first thing he realised when he put the glove on his hand was that he felt electric energy flowing through his hand and then the glove lit up in a neon blue color and the lighting up was followed by the creation of an electric ball in his palm.
After he got used to the strange energy given by the powerful tool he had just found, he went out of the chamber. Back in the round room he saw Yuri trying to fit a green crystal ball in the center of the middle door.
"I can't find a way to fit this ball in the hole," said the blonde.
"Let me give it a try," replied her dad while he took the green crystal orb in his right hand. When the ball met, the electric glove, the crystal started to shine and as soon as he put the sphere in the carved shape, the great stone door slowly went down in the ground.
The room behind the door was too dark so Alexis picked up his flashlight and turned it on, he was surprised because, on the right wall, he saw the symbol that was also on the strange glove he found earlier. The man was even more surprised when he put his hand with the glove on the unusual drawing and then, one by one, the torches which were hung around the room started to light up. In less than a minute the room was illuminated and the two explorers headed to the beautifully garnished stone grave that was in the middle of the room, around it there were a bunch of orange and green crystals that had a magical glow and in the middle of the ceiling there was a giant chandelier made out of colorful crystals. The chamber looked marvelous, Alexis and Yuri took a minute to admire the beauty of the surrounding room, before they opened the stone coffin.
After they admired the room, the man and his daughter, pushed open the stone box's cover. A lot of dust came out of the old coffin but waiting for the dust to go was worth it because inside the grave they found exactly what they were looking for: the Sacred Earth Key. Alexis took the artifact and put it in his bag when suddenly an explosion echoed from the tunnels and right after the explosion Devin Cook, Yuri's brother came running into Toph Beifong's tomb.
"They are here and they are powerful", said the boy then he collapsed to the ground, he was too tired and his head was bleeding. "I tried to keep them away but the bots are not strong enough to face the Avatar Twins.", added the boy before the twins entered the room.
"Put the Sacred Earth Key down and back off, let's make this easy, shall we?", said Ryo Saito, the boy twin when they two benders entered the room.
"Why don't you and your delicate sister back off?", asked Yuri after she finished bandaging Devin's head. The blonde girl was now standing in a fighting stance in front of the opponents.
Hearing what Alexis's daughter said, Mao Saito, the girl twin, raised her hand and she gathered around twenty earth shards in the air.
"Put the damn key down, don't make me do something you'll regret!", answered Mao while moving her hand slowly in the air, the girl's hand motion was followed by the sharp shards.
Seeing themselves surrounded by the sharp earth shards and the two twins, Alexis, Yuri and Devin had nothing to do but to give them the key everyone wanted. The tall man put his backpack down and he put his hand inside the black rucksack and while he was searching he looked up at his daughter and smiled in a cunning way then he whispered "Now" and after hearing her father's word, Yuri, raised her hands and the two twins fell down to their knees. Alexis threw a smoke grenade and then the father and his two kids started running following the colored chalk line on the walls.
"Ryo are you all right?" asked Mao a bit concerned, after the smoke cleared.
"Of course I am fine, let's catch those thieves!" replied her brother.
The twins started running along the tunnel marked with blue chalk, they could hear the voices of Alexis and his children talking in the distance. The thieves were running too fast so it would've been too hard to catch them from behind by walking through the tunnels so Mao started to bend the earth and carved a tunnel through the walls of the maze, in no time the girl and her twin brother arrived at the entrance of the labyrinth.
"Where are they?" asked Mao clenching her fists. "If I'll catch them one more time I'm going to impale them in an earth shard!" added the girl.
"Calm down Mao, we don't want to become some wanted criminals, we just want the key back." replied her brother, Ryo, trying to calm down his sister.
"You are right, but crime is sometimes necessary, especially when you want to protect yourself and your brother and the whole Avatar Cycle." said Mao.
While the twins were talking a bright light suddenly started to shine and a door opened at the top of the staircase leading out of the tomb, and after the strange light, 5 fire bending bots started to attack the two teenagers who were still in the tomb. Mao created a bunch of earth shards and she destroyed a bot while on the other side Ryo was bending the fire to block and counter the attacks. Mao and her brother were soon surrounded by metallic robot pieces, Alexis's attempt to capture them has failed once again, but he succeeded to slow the twins down.
"I think they are too far for us to catch them" said Mao with a bit of regret in her voice tone.
"They are never too far, let's use our hovering bikes to catch them, we will stop them in no time" replied her brother trying to make Mao act more optimistic.
The girl nodded and they left the tomb and after they were outside, in the windy desert. The time wasn't enough to be wasted so they used their special rings and they called their hovering bikes. Their means of transport soon arrived and they started riding after the members of the Cook family. The wind was blowing in the empty desert spreading dust in the air, the visibility was obstructed by the dust which was now surrounding the twins. They were riding at maximum speed trying to catch the thieves from behind.
"We can't continue if the sand storm won't stop!" said Ryo trying to bear the strong wind and the thick dust.
"Don't stop, brother. I'll solve this problem" replied Mao. Her fighter spirit wouldn't let her let the thieves go with the sacred key. The girl stopped and she raised her hands and by using the air bending she calmed the storm. "There you go" she added "we should hurry because my air bending is not strong enough to calm down the storm for good."
The two teenagers raced through the desert but in no time they arrived at the entrance of a dark forest. It was almost night time so they couldn't search the forest properly. They had to wait till dawn.
"We can't waste so much time" opposed Mao. "We need to continue the pursuit now! Use your fire bending and light two torches, they'll give us enough light to see in the dark."
"No, Mao! Did you see the sign at the entrance of the forest? «Beware of the dark creatures and the strange events that happen in the forest!» doesn't make me feel better or safer."
The girl didn't reply but the look she gave to her brother made him light two torches and the twins started searching along the path which lead through the gloomy forest. The trees were tall and they were covering the night sky, nor the stars neither the moon were visible. From time to time strange sounds were echoing deep inside the forest but they kept going until they saw a sparkle of light from a campfire glowing near the river which was flowing slowly. They approached the place where the light was coming from and they were surprised when they saw Alexis sitting on a log. He was trying to modify the glove he found in the tomb and the glove was emitting a weird blue light pulse.
Ryo and Mao prepared to fight, Ryo's fists were starting to burn and Mao was focusing on the earth beneath the man's feet. When the girl was prepared they attacked, she blocked Alexis's feet in the ground and her brother started running with his fists ready to fight. The man saw the boy coming and tried to move but his legs were stuck in the hard ground. Unable to move he put his hands in front of him and the glove started to glow just before the impact. When Ryo's fists hit Alexis's glove the boy and the man were pushed back, the man had broken the earth trap created by Mao because of the impact.
"What is happening here?" yelled Yuri, "take your hands off my father" added the girl before she started the blood bending spell. She raised her hands and Mao fell to the ground, Ryo was still on the ground because of the impact.
"Father, are you okay?" said Devin a bit concerned.
"I'm fine." replied his father "help your sister, do something, Devin!"
Mao was trying to reach Ryo, fighting the blood bender was a hard job but when Mao reached Ryo's hand they created a conexion and their powers connected, the twins entered in the avatar state. Their eyes started glowing, a circle of fire started burning around them, earth shards were levitating around the twins and before the avatar state was complete a bubble of water and air formed around them.
"You can't control us now" said Mao, her voice sounded different, she was speaking with the voice of all the avatars before them.
Yuri began to concentrate, trying to increase her power while Devin was throwing electric balls at the twins. In the meantime Ryo and Mao were channeling an attack to stop them. The blood bender's power was not enough to stop the Avatars and soon enough they found themselves facing a giant fireball coming from the twins. Alexis's and his children started to run but it was too late. When they thought there was no escape, Akira, Alexis's wife and the mother of Yuri and Devin, appeared and using almost all of her strong water bending she created a shield that absorbed the fireball creating a lot of smoke.
When the smoke cleared, the Cook family was gone with the Sacred Earth Key. The twins exited the Avatar State. They were disappointed because their enemies escaped, but the fact that the artifact was in Alexis's possession gave them power to continue the fight.