Superfast Jellyfish

by ZAFO

A/N: Here the Gaang find Aang before Sokka and Momo find the cactus. :)


1.

The tart liquid sliding down his throat immediately gave way to a warm, electric sensation running throughout his entire body. With heat in his cheeks and newfound psychedelic-colored vision, Sokka felt his head spin (literally).

Whoa.

"DRINK CACTUS JUICE!" He announced. "IT'LL QUENCH YA!" Here, a body roll seemed appropriate. "NOOOOOOTHING'S QUENCHIER! IT'S THE QUENCHIEST!"

"Sokka, stop it!" cried Katara, wrestling the wet succulent out of his hands.

He wavered, then fell over, balanced disrupted. Katara merely gave a frustrated groan and threw his cactus cup over her shoulder, yelling at him again for being stupid, or something, even though he wasn't.

No, he thought, his thoughts muffled. His cactus juice. He needed some quenching.

In the air, Momo made a series of increasingly erratic loops before crashing face-first down onto the sand, limbs splayed out awkwardly.

"My poor buddy." He cooed, crawling over to scoop the little lemur into his arms.

Momo was wide-eyed–more so than usual–and pawing at his robe listlessly. He chirped, and Sokka thought he heard the feeble urgency in his voice.

More cactus juice. Momo must have wanted more cactus juice.

He wanted more cactus juice too.

"More." He mumbled, reaching for the cup Katara had discarded.

"No." seethed Katara. "No more cactus juice."

She kicked his hand away. Behind her, Toph shuffled.

"Can I have some of that?"

"No!" snapped Katara.

Aang simply stood still beside her, angry and silent. Tensions in the group were rising, the heat and desolation were finally getting to them, and had the cactus juice not made him so…happy, Sokka was sure he'd be grumpy as well. Maybe.

The watertribe boy looked down at the furry, twitching mass of white and brown in his arms.

More cactus juice, Sokka. said Momo.

He blinked, then gasped loudly, in shock.

"Since when could you TALK, Momo?!"

Since forever. Momo answered smugly. Then his green, marble eyes turned watery and pleading. We need more juice, Sokka.

"GUYS!" he screamed. "MOMO IS TALKING!"

To his chagrin, no one was listening. Katara and Toph were now having a full-blown shouting match, with Aang uncharacteristically snapping at them both at random intervals.

Sokka…hurry... whimpered Momo.

That's it, Sokka decided. He needed some juice for him and his buddy, sister be damned. He hardened his eyes into what he hoped was a steely expression, then stood up–still cradling Momo–and waltzed boldly over to the cactus plant he had chopped the first cup from.

…or was that Toph?

It was an easy mistake to make; they were both green.

"Toph," he slurred "Outta the way!"

But when he moved to (gently) push her aside, his hand phased though nothing but hot air and sand particles. Huh.

From a distance, he thought he could hear the Gaang still arguing.

A distance?

He shook his head. Close or far, it didn't matter. He needed to go on and find some damned cactus juice. For Momo and him.

Mostly him.

2.

"I don't wanna talk to you anymore!" snarled Toph. "Get outta my face, Sugarqueen!"

"Fine!" yelled Katara. "Go pick dirt out of your feet or whatever!"

"There IS no dirt in the desert, Madame Fussy-britches, or else I'd kick your butt by now!"

"Don't call me that!"

"Stop fighting!" shouted Aang, his ears red from anger. "You guys are supposed to be helping me find Appa, and instead you're fighting about–about cactus juice! And Sokka–"

Aang abruptly stopped his short tirade, glancing quickly about himself.

"–where's Sokka?" he finished uneasily. "And Momo?"

Toph and Katara stilled.

"Sokka…?" Katara asked hesitantly.

"SOKKA!" Toph yelled into the distance.

No one answered.

3.

"That's a…that's a village!" exclaimed Sokka. Momo gave a faint Momo-gurgle, apparently forgetting his English. Sokka could feel himself bouncing. "…MAYBE IT'S FRIENDLY!"

He had just spent the past few minutes–hours?–wandering from the desert through a fortified valley behind some ugly cliffs of rock, so the looming sight of solid, stucco buildings was welcome.

He ran clumsily, clutching onto the lemur as wind whizzed past his ears.

Then he tripped.

Momo tumbled out of his arms and onto the sand, gurgling again, and didn't move. Sokka looked behind himself and saw his leg tangled in some thin wire tied around a pointy knife-thingy. Whoops. Guess that wasn't wind after all, he thought vaguely.

Whoever on the other end of the wire gave a painful warning tug, and the watertribe boy found himself shrieking shrilly.

"OW! STOP THAT!"

"You are on Sunagakure land. State your name and business." commanded a strong, gravelly voice.

An adult.

Sokka looked up at the half-veiled jōnin, grimacing wobbly.

"Guhh…"

Then he threw up.

Baki grimaced too.

4.

The boy was high out of his mind, and obviously too skinny and stupid to be a shinobi. With his dark, nut-brown complexion, Baki wondered briefly if he was from Kumogakure.

'No, too far.' Thought Baki.

Even if he had help travelling the long distance, the boy was dressed far too uniquely to be from Kumo: both his attire and accent instead suggested some sort of backwater peasant from who-knows-where. Maybe it was one of the civilian trading villages near the coast.

In any case, the pony-tailed boy didn't really seem to pose any threat, and just in case he was the son of someone even slightly important, Baki didn't want to cause any potential diplomatic incident. Into Sunagakure he would go. After all, the only weapon he had on him was a dull, battered boomerang, and his only other possessions included the clothes on his back and a strange, winged monkey whose head was now lolling about on his left shoulder.

On his right shoulder, the boy was shouting gleefully–obnoxiously–as Baki made his way through the village, the two hoisted securely on his back.

"THANKS MISTER. I WAS REEEEAAAAL LOST, YOU KNOW."

Civilian and shinobi alike were snickering at them as they made their way down the street.

"THIS IS A COOL CITY. WOW. I'VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT! I'M FROM–I'M FROM THE WATER TRIBE, YOU KNOW."

Water tribe. Huh. Baki had never heard of it, but it seemed as if his initial 'backwater peasant' assessment was correct. He mentally filed the information away for later.

"THESE STRIPES ON YOUR FACE ARE COOL. ARE THEY PAINT? MY GIRLFRIEND PAINTS HER FACE TOO, I MEAN MY SECOND GIRLFRIEND. MY FIRST GIRLFRIEND TURNED INTO THE MOON, AHA!"

Okay, now the boy's voice was really starting to grate on his ears. The sooner he dumped the boy into Gaara's office, the better. Baki had previously considered the hospital, but Suna was notoriously stingy with its scarce resources, and the nurses would have given him an earful for dropping off a random foreigner when Suna residents took top priority.

"…she watches over us, I think, but she can't see everything." said the boy, his voice now reduced (thankfully) to a depressed drawl. "We lost Appa, and Aang's sad. Momo too."

The monkey gave a bizarre chirp at the mention of its name.

"Have you seen Appa?"

Baki continued to ignore him.

Close. Their destination was close.

Not getting the hint, the boy decided to raise his voice again.

"HAVE YOU SEEN APPA?"

"…Tell Gaara-sama I require his audience." Baki said stiffly as they finally arrived, ignoring the amused guffaws of the Kazakage building's sentries. "I've found an unknown person outside the village perimeter and wish to consult him on further action."

The jōnin looked pointedly over his right shoulder, where the boy began to wave his arms about wildly.

"HE'S A FLYING BISON!"

5.

Gaara quirked an invisible eyebrow as his former sensei stepped into his office and unceremoniously dumped a tan boy and a winged monkey onto the floor.

"Kazakage-sama." Baki greeted politely.

"Baki-san." Gaara nodded. "You…requested my audience?"

"Indeed." said Baki. "What should we do with these two?"

The jinchūriki glanced down at the boy-in-blue struggling awkwardly to pick himself up, then at the gently chattering monkey who was simultaneously licking his carpet.

"I have deemed them to be no threat." offered Baki.

"…Yes." he agreed. The cogs in his brain were working languidly. What should they do, indeed? It seemed as though the two were high out of their minds.

"Hey." greeted the boy, swaying deliriously. "Got any…got any cactus juice?"

"No."


[to be continued…]