Book One:
Water

Chapter Two:
The Avatar Returns

Aang stood in the armory of the Air navy warship as soldiers attended to him. They attached his armor, his arm and leg protectors with his insignia, and his breastplate of telltale Air Nomad craft. The prince's helmet was handed to him, a dark metal with a bright blue arrow down the middle.

"How close should we go?" a masked soldier questioned. Aang donned his helmet.

"Park right in their front yard. I'm a prince. I shouldn't have to walk anywhere."

----

"Wow," Zuko gasped. "So I've been in that iceberg a whole honkin' hundred years?"

Sokka nodded. "Yep. Sounds like it."

"And like… ten seconds after Roku and I froze, a war broke out?"

"That's how it appears," the brother replied with a Sherlock Holmes–esque pipe in his mouth– found in one of Chica's pockets.

"Wow," Zuko said again. "I haven't cleaned my room in a hundred years!" Sokka arched an eyebrow.

"What's that got to do with anything?" Just then, Chica darted over to her grandson, grabbed the pipe from him and stuck it in her coat.

"How many times do I have to tell you? Stop pick-pocketing!" With a huff, she returned to the rest of the village.

Zuko waited until he was sure Chica was out of hearing range before whispering, "She's not still mad about the Bob incident, is she?"

"Nah," Sokka said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Give it a couple more minutes and she'll have forgotten about you entirely." Zuko instantly appeared relieved.

Katara waddled over to them then, all the little face-painted children clinging to her. "Okay, kiddies. Go to Uncle Sokka." She peeled two younglings from her skirt and pushed them toward her brother. However, the moment she let go, the children wheeled around and reattached themselves to the group.

Sokka folded his arms across his chest, smirking. "See why I didn't volunteer for the job of teaching them to be warriors? They turn into Klingons."

Zuko began awkwardly stretching his fingers, saying, "I've never been able to do their hand sign thingy."

"That's the Vulcan sign, you twit," snapped Katara with a glare. Sokka began pushing kids away right and left to get to his sister, and it looked more like he was swimming. But when he reached her, he patted her shoulder.

"Come on, now, he's our guest." All of a sudden the boy began bouncing to a beat in his head. Hand motions followed, resembling a Carlton dance. "Be… our… guest! Be our–" Katara clapped a mittened hand over Sokka's mouth.

"Like Chica said, don't dump that load on everyone."

"Does anyone else hear that?" Zuko suddenly spoke up. The siblings quieted, listening, and even the moat of children around Katara fell deathly silent. They all heard cracking ice, constantly nearing.

Every face in their small group turned to watch the sea and there, though the haze, a large shape appeared. Even though it was still too far away to be recognized, the sheer size of it made all their eyes bulge. Instantly the children detached themselves and ran screaming back to their mothers.

Paling, Sokka looked back to the firebender. "And exactly how long have you heard them approaching?"

"Five minutes or something," Zuko said slowly. At the siblings' alarmed expressions, he added, "But I thought it was just the ringing in my ears from that 'Hakuna Matata' song!"

Katara was positively seething. "Twit!" she shouted before stomping over to the huddled group of villagers. "Warriors, assemble!"

"What is that?" Zuko called over the noise as the steel mammoth broke through the tiny village wall.

"An Air Nomad warship," replied Sokka bleakly. One of Katara's "Evil!"s echoed behind them. As much as she tried, the girl could not get the mothers to part with their young. All the women hastened to hide within the protection of the animal skin tents on the other side of the village– a whopping nine feet away.

"Chica, wait!" Katara called. The woman stomped a foot, muttering something about being too slow, and returned to her granddaughter.

"You've got a minute, kid. Shoot."

"What do I do? Should I go or should I fight…?"

"You can fly, your brother and that boy you dragged hom are benders… so odds are, someone's gotta do something right." The woman quickly dug through her pockets and pulled out a sharp boomerang.

"Isn't that Sokka's?" Katara asked suspiciously.

"This is battle– no one cares. Fight to the last, child. Show no fear!" Chica began edging toward the tents. "And even if everything goes wrong, martyrs are remembered!" With that, she zipped out of sight.

By now, Sokka and Zuko had backed up next to Katara and all three watched as the ramp to the ship crashed to the ground. A group of armored men descended, the shortest one in the lead. They were watched by the entire village. Everyone who wanted to hide was poking their heads out of the tents, and the three kids could've sworn they heard bets being placed.

"I'm searching for the Avatar!" announced the airbender in front once they had reached the ground. "He would be about that old and ugly," he said, pointing to Chica. "Master of all elements. Maybe you've seen him? I know he's here– you can't hide him!" His voice kept cracking throughout his tirade, making the women in the tents giggle.

Suddenly the boy caught sight of Roku, who was sprawled out on the snow near the hut and biting his ankle. The boy pointed. "That's him, men! The firebending Avatar!"

Before the soldiers could advance, Zuko shouted, "Wait! What are you going to do to him?"

"Take him on our ship and deliver him to King Gyatso in the Southern Air Nomad temple," the kid replied self-importantly.

Zuko took one last, quick glance around the puny village and his eyes landed on Chica, who was eyeing the enemy soldiers hungrily. He needed no further convincing.

"It's me! Me, me, me! I'm the Avatar!" the firebender shouted, leaping forward and waving his arms. The enemy looked far from convinced and the Water Tribe siblings looked flabbergasted.

"You?" scoffed the boy. "You're just a scarred teenager." He took off his helmet and ran a hand over his smooth head, arrow and all. "I, however, have been training and meditating and posing for this encounter. It is my life's destiny to pwn you!"

"C'mon, kid, you haven't even hit puberty yet," Zuko said with a pitying stare.

"Puberty? Who's that?" laughed the airbender, "yo mama?"

Zuko staggered back as if he had been speared. "Oh, no he di'int!" With an insulted scream, he sent a whip of fire snapping for the boy, who evaded it by hopping on an air scooter.

Katara and Sokka, well out of harm's way, exchanged glances.

"Think we should help?" Katara asked hesitantly. Her brother pushed her forward.

"After you, warrior bird girl."

With a huff, Katara readied the boomerang and charged, Sokka calling, "Hey, that's mine!" The Water Tribe girl ran straight for the giggling boy who was still evading Zuko's attacks. She took aim for the airbender's head and flung the weapon with all her might. However, Katara had the worst aim in all the village. The boomerang sailed through the air scooter and as it curved to return to the girl, it whacked all the soldiers in their helmeted heads. The airbender flopped onto the snow and the boomerang shot past Katara and landed right in Sokka's path barely missing stabbing his foot.

Zuko ran up and kept his enemy on the ground with his foot. His fists wree flaming as he growled, "Take it back!"

"Never!" squealed the boy. "Stop stepping on me!" His voice continued to crack.

"Say uncle!"

"UNCLE!"

----

Bumi was up on deck juggling the two broadswords he had been using for tanning. He heard his nephew's familiar wobbling cry and let the swords clatter to the ground.

"Is that his hungry cry or his attention cry?" he muttered to himself. "I can't tell anymore." He peered over the side of the ship and saw a firebender with a foot on Aang, the airbending soldiers staggering to their feet, and then… her. The most beautiful lady he had ever seen in all his travels across all four nations. Bumi propped his elbows on the side of the ship and just stared.

----

Katara nudged her brother. "Hey, is that guy up there staring at Chica?" Before Sokka looked for himself, the siblings noticed Zuko helping the intruder to his feet. The boy dusted himself off.

"So, you coming with us?"

"Yep. Oh, wait– Roku." Zuko took off jogging for his ride. The airbending boy gasped.

"Men! He's getting away! Stop him!" he shouted, pointing. The group of soldiers did fancy airbending moves, though not in sync with each other– and one soldier ended up doing the worm. But when they all stopped (and the belly-flopper had gotten to his feet), a tornado sprang up, small but powerful. It sped over, sucked Zuko up and high-tailed it for the ramp.

"Nooo!" a voice shouted from the vortex. "Roooku! Be goooood!" The soldiers followed the tornado into the ship, leaving the boy by himself. He donned his helmet and looked important.

"Ladies, gentleman," He acknowledged, slowly backing up. "You will always remember this as the day you almost defeated Prince Aang." The water siblings blinked.

"Kid, you were totally defeated. Zuko had you pinned down for like a minute," Sokka replied, folding his arms across his chest.

"Oh yeah? Well, look who got captured!" Aang shouted. Katara giggled at how much the boy's voice cracked.

"Only because those soldiers caught him for you," said the brother. Aang royally stomped a foot.

"Well… you're just… arctic trash!" Katara squealed indignantly at that, rushed toward her brother and plucked up the boomerang and again threw it at the prince. It made a wide circle around the boy, not even within an arm's length of him. The weapon again nearly stabbed Sokka's foot. One of Aang's eyebrows twitched and he quickly sent a stream of air snapping for the Water Tribe girl, smacking her in the forehead several times.

"Hey!" shouted Sokka. "You shouldn't treat a lady… er… you shouldn't treat her like that!"

With a huff, the prince spun around and marched back up the ramp, muttering to himself. The ship closed and a screeching beep emanated from it as it backed out of the village and the ice. The women and children slowly came out of the tents and watched the warship sail away. They were all silent for a while, until the ship had completely disappeared from sight. Chica's gaze drifted across the village and landed on Roku. She rubbed her mittened hands together.

"Ooh, we're going to eat good tonight!"

However, no one else in the village felt like eating. They slowly began repairing the minor damages while Sokka trudged to the edge of the ice. Katara hurried off, but within five minutes was back, only to find her brother hadn't moved.

"We should go after him," Sokka said to his sister. "It's only fair. He saved our village."

"Although that's too bad for Chica. She was betting he would lose right away."

"Wait, she was for the airbenders?" Sokka cried. Both turned to see a sad Chica paying other villages with miscellaneous junk from her coat. The brother shook his head.

"Katara, I know you didn't like him–"

"What was your first clue?"

"–but a rescue mission should be attempted–"

"What he don't know won't hurt him."

"–because he would do the same for us." Sokka finished with a nod and his sister gave a lopsided grin.

"Well, I figured that out waaay before you and now I feel really, really smart." She tugged on her brother's sleeve and slowly dragged him along the ice bank.

"Um… what?" Sokka asked as Katara stopped. She pointed to the water. There, waiting, was the family's secondary canoe. Her brother looked amazed.

"Where'd you find it?" he questioned, approaching to inspect it. Katara grinned.

"Well, on a hunch I checked Chica's storage hut and found it. I also found this." She pulled Sokka's club out from behind her back. He gave a shout as he swiped it from her.

"I've been missing this for about a year! What else did you find in there?"

"Oh, pretty much everything we've ever lost in our entire lifetimes."

Sokka arched a brow. "Is Chica a klepto–"

"What are you two doing?" their grandmother croaked, popping up next to the siblings and making them jump. The brother immediately hid his club behind his back.

"Uh… nothing. Just… going after Zuko."

"That boy is bad news, kids!" Chica warned with a piercing glare. She brought a gnarled cane out of nowhere and shook it at them. "He's into all kinds of illegal things! He has licenses for nothing!" She quickly put the cane away somewhere inside her coat. "But meh, if you do save him, don't bring him back here."

Katara clasped her hands together. "Can we go to the North Pole with him?" She started bouncing with excitement. Chica shrugged.

"Sure. Have fun."

Sokka looked at his sister quizzically. "Where did that come from?"

Katara ignored him. "Chica, you're so old– I mean… you have so many years of experience. Do you have any words of wisdom for us before we go?" The woman scratched her moley chin.

"Wisdom? Hm… okay, I got it. Don't talk to strangers."

Katara's smile flopped. "That's it?"

"What else do you want, kid?" she wheezed. Her grandchildren exchanged glances.

"Oh, I don't know, Chica," Sokka said. "Maybe some wisdom?"

The woman watched them suspiciously. "How much is it worth to you?" At that, Katara's clasped hands dropped to her side and her jaw fell slack.

"You're our grandmother!" she cried. Chica looked around quickly and waved her hands to shush the girl.

"Not so loud! People will hear!"

"Chica, they already know!" added Sokka quickly. "They've pretty much known that little fact since we were born." The woman looked disappointed for a moment, then seemed to shrug it off.

"Okay, wisdom… don't lick doorknobs."

"Chica!" Katara whined.

"Whaaat? You get what you pay for." Sokka smacked his forehead and dragged his hand down his face.

"You know what? Let's just leave," he said, tugging at his sister's sleeve.

"No, wait, wait, wait." Chica fumbled through a pocket and brought out a fortune cookie. She cracked it and read the fortune through a mouth full of cookie. "The greatest danger could be your stupidity."

Sokka pointed to his sister. "That's yours." Chica tossed the paper on the ground and checked another pocket. She pulled out Poor Richard's Almanac and flipped to a random page.

"Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."

"That wasn't a bad one," Katara admitted, but was already being pulled toward the canoe. Their grandmother once again stashed the book and glanced at the siblings thoughtfully, her eyes finally clear of schemings.

"A small pond-skipper can not swim with, much less overtake, a seaworthy vessel. To save the Avatar, you'll need something better than a dinky old canoe." The siblings exchanged glances.

"Did she just say something coherent?" Katara asked her brother, who wore a shocked expression.

"I know chasing after a warship is too much flying even for you, dear," she said tenderly to her granddaughter, "so why not take that… man… the Avatar brought with him?" Sokka stepped out of the canoe.

"Wait – after all that hassle you gave Zuko about permits and licenses, you want us to take Roku?"

Chica again searched through some pockets inside her coat and pulled out a whole stack of IDs, permits and licenses. Each was a thin, rectangular stone shard with information chiseled on one side. Surprisingly, they weren't counterfeit. The siblings passed each new stone back and forth, inspecting.

Katara spoke up, "But we have to apply for these, take tests, recite rules, pay money–"

"Forget all that. Just don't look suspicious if you get cau– money, did you say?" croaked Chica, her normal, beady-eyed, greedy look clouding her eyes.

"Nope," Sokka said quickly, stuffing all the licenses into his pockets. "I didn't hear her say a thing." He grabbed Katara's hand and pulled her back toward the village. "See ya, Chica, we're going to the North Pole!"

They found Roku asleep on the snow next to the hut entrance and managed to herd him to the sea. Again, he flopped face-down into the water and made no move to surface.

"That can't be normal," Katara sighed in disgust, but sat behind Sokka on Roku's back.

Chica watched and waved until the kids were a great distance away. Then, she let out a joyful whoop! "Finally!" she exclaimed, pulling the canoe onto the snow. "I thought for a moment they actually would take it. Gotta hide it better this time…"

----

"Uncle, here is the Avatar," Aang announced proudly once upon deck. Bumi was still staring dreamily off the side of the ship. His only response was to give a love-sick sigh.

"Uncle! The Avatar! Here! Right here!" the airbender called, arms waving frantically. Bumi continued to ignore him.

"Oh, fine," growled Aang, pulling his helmet from his head. He turned to the five soldiers surrounding one very dizzy Zuko. "See if he has anything of value. If it's shiny, it's so mine! If it's junk, I'll give it to Gyatso." The prince checked his fingernails boredly as the soldiers turned out Zuko's pockets. Surprisingly, his Fire Nation outfit had quite a few pockets, most of which held Kleenex– some fresh, some used– gum wrappers, and movie ticket stubs.

Aang picked up one of the stubs as his guards were patting Zuko down. "You went to see the Lion-Tiger-Bear King? Pfft."

"Sir," one of his soldiers spoke up. "He had this in a pocket." The guard held up a deck of playing cards, which the prince quickly confiscated. He opened it and flipped through the deck.

"What does the Avatar do with these?" he asked Zuko directly. "Set them on fire and throw them at people?" The prince started cracking up.

"Actually..." Zuko said, holding his head. He had a dazed look in his eyes. "Why… why were you going through my pockets?"

"To see if you were packing heat," Aang said, shrugging.

"Seriously?" questioned Zuko. One of his fists was suddenly engulfed in flame. "Still wondering?" The fire died out once the prince jumped back.

"Take him away! Take him away!" he cried. The soldiers led Zuko to a stairwell leading below deck and pushed the firebender down the stairs. Once they were all below, Aang went over to his uncle.

"Watching for the enemy?" questioned the prince. Even though he tried he couldn't tell what exactly Bumi was looking at. The earthbender didn't give a reply.

"Are you… coming up with tonight's menu? Last night's penguin was superb," Aang said with a smile of remembrance. Bumi only sighed, staring unblinkingly back the direction they h ad come.

"Think up new Jeopardy questions? The crew loves your games." Still, the uncle gave no reply. Aang reached his last resort: annoyance. He began poking Bumi while calling his name in an unusually squeaky voice.

About a minute later, just when Aang was growing hoarse, the earthbender seemed to snap out of it. It took him a moment longer to realize he was being repeatedly poked in the ribs.

"Hey, ow, ow– ow! Stop it!" Bumi shouted, pushing his nephew away. "What d'ya think yer doin', disturbing an old man when he's sleeping?"

"You were… sleeping? Standing up? And with your eyes open?" Bumi shuffled uneasily.

"Yeah… and what of it?"

His nephew put a hand behind his head and laughed nervously. "Nothing…"

"And why do you always pose like that? Stop it– you're twelve years old already. It's embarrassing," Bumi said, shaking his head. Aang clasped his hands behind his back and started rocking on his heels.

"So… catch any of the Avatar action back theme in the Tribal Water Hick Tribe village?"

"Nope," the uncle replied without a hint of regret. "I missed it." Aang immediately brightened.

"Really? Well in that case– I completely PWNED HIM! Just like I said I would! He was all like bshoooo–" the boy imitated a firebending move, very poorly at that, "and I was all like zip, zip, zoom–" he made his air scooter, hopped on, and started wheeling all around the warship deck.

"So, he's shooting at you and you're running from him. How'd you beat him?" Bumi asked. Aang was all the way on the other side of the deck, laughing rabidly, when he heard his uncle and all of a sudden his scooter was snuffed out. He dropped to the steel floor but got up quickly and brushed himself off stallingly.

"Oh, uh… I just kept evading him and… he… ranouttagas. Kinda."

Bumi exploded in a fit of laughter. "A firebender… running out of gas?" He bent over and slapped his thigh. "Ah, well. It's not like they're good for anything else."

From the stairwell leading below deck came a steel-reverberated, amplified cry, "We firebenders are caring, generous, and ENVIRONMENTALLY. AWARE!" Zuko leapt up the stairs and landed on deck. His hands were free of bonds and none of the airbending soldiers were following him. Aang gave a great jump and landed next to Bumi. With a huge smile, he motioned to the firebender.

"Uncle, the Avatar!"

The earthbender stared boredly. "Seriously? He's just a kid. Are you sure that's not his nephew or dog-sitter or paper boy?"

"No, he's the Avatar. Amazing, I know. But seriously, now we've got him and–"

All of a sudden a burst of flame shot between he two, extinguishing itself on the steel sides of the deck. Both jumped back, wide-eyed.

Bumi pointed to Zuko. "Hey look. The Avatar!" He looked from the mad firebender to his nephew, who appeared as if he was getting ready to create an air scooter, and cleverly deduced a fight was going to break out. He shuffled along the edge of the deck, muttering something about not wanting to miss an important thing he couldn't remember at the moment. He zoomed off further into the ship.

At first, Aang thought that was incredibly OOC behavior, but was soon too preoccupied to think about his uncle. Zuko, fists ablaze, approached with the most irritable expression the prince had ever seen.

"Y-you've already escaped the guards and scared off my uncle," Aang called, almost accusingly. He really wasn't afraid of the teenager, but dang. That death stare of death was freaking him out. "What are you gonna do now?"

"I'm going to Disney Woooorld!" Zuko shouted as he lunged forward. The fire he sent at the prince was evaded as Aang wheeled around deck on his air scooter. His laugh strangely resembled a roadrunner's "meep meep!"

The firebender cried out in frustration. "Kid, stand still!"

"You can't make me!" laughed the boy. "Can't touch dis!"

"Sick… would I want to touch you? I just want my cards back."

----

Katara and Sokka were scanning the waters from above, searching for Zuko. The siblings had finally urged Roku to fly about twenty minutes previous and he had been flying (face-down) ever since. Because both Water Tribe kids never doubted the man's ability to fly, it would've been no use writing about their non-surprise the moment he finally lifted out of the water.

"There!" Sokka called, pointing to a small dark shape in the water.

"How do you know it's the warship?" his sister asked. Suddenly, flames erupted and seemed to spread across the entire deck.

"That's so Zuko," the boy said, trying to steer Roku down toward it.

Katara gave a scoff. "Oh, please. They could be having… a fire drill."

"Ah," Sokka nodded. "So Zuko's a drill instructor, too? Cool." Katara just snorted and folded her arms across her chest.

----

As the two benders on the deck of the S.A.N.S. Appa fought, Aang happened to look up and see a speck in the sky, constantly growing.

"U.F.O!" he shouted, pointing. "Bigfoot! Nessy!" Zuko whirled around to look.

"It… a bird… no, a flying cow. Wait– it's Roku!" The firebender gave a shout and began waving. Then he was bowled over by a blast of air. Quickly he looked back to see Aang slowly approaching, looking angry.

"Oh, so people are gonna help you escape?"

"I dunno. Maybe. But kid, I just want my cards back. They were a gift," Zuko said as he got to his feet. The prince brought the pack of cards out from inside his shirt.

"Oh, really?" he asked, again opening them and flipping through them. "From who?"

"No one you know."

Aang threw his head back and shouted, "INTOLERANCE!"

"I think you mean 'insolence.' Just a guess," Zuko shrugged. With an enraged snarl, the prince shoved the cards back in their box and threw it to the side, his airbending shooting it over the side of the Appa.

"NOOOO!" shouted Zuko, lunging after them. By the time he reached the side, the cards had already splashed into the water. Zuko emitted a high-pitched shriek and dove off the warship.

"Noo!" a girl's voice cried from the air. Sokka looked behind him at his wide-eyed sister.

"Uh… you're sad he fell overboard?" Katara clasped her hands in her lap and looked guilty.

"I didn't say that," she replied quickly. "I was… speaking for Roku."

----

Zuko searched the dark waters frantically for the pack of cards. The day before he had been frozen in the ice, they had been given to him by… well, he forgot who had given the cards to him, but it was someone important. And now that annoying prince had tossed them into the water and he. couldn't. find, it.

Zuko's scar glowed blue and water began swirling around him. It lifted him up and out of the water and far above the Appa. Aang, who was taking a victory lap around the deck on his air scooter, stopped and gawked. His enemy was in the middle of a tall water funnel, still looking angry. The Avatar began pelting the deck with massive water blasts, leaving Aang to scurry all over on his scooter. Zuko landed on deck and used up all the water from the liquid tornado trying to hit the squirrely airbender. Finally, with his last shot, he hit Aang square in the chest, knocking him to the wet ground.

"Ow," the prince muttered. "No far… you had junk in that water. That's like throwing ice in a snowball fight." He picked up Zuko's pack of cards from the floor next to him. The firebender, still glowing, marched over and held out his hand.

"Give them back," he demanded in many Avatar voices. Aang obeyed. Zuko stuck it safely in his pocket and stared at the prince. "Ice-thrower." Then, the blue faded and he collapsed on the deck.

"Ha," Aang muttered feebly. "I have pwned you again."

"Oh yeah?" Sokka called as Roku landed on the deck near Zuko. "We saw the whole thing and you completely lost again, kid. Stop lying." He began dragging the Avatar back to Roku and Katara came to help.

"Yeah!" she shouted. "So keep your pwns off him!" Just as they got Zuko flopped over Roku's back, the five airbending soldiers jumped from the stairwell on the deck. Katara pointed.

"Sokka, waterbend!" The boy grinned.

"I'm all over this!" He stood facing the soldiers, closed his eyes and felt the water on the deck and did some crazy hand/arm motion. When he looked up, the soldiers were untouched, for the water had gone in the exact opposite direction. Behind him, Prince Aang was frozen up to his neck on the floor.

"And you said I have bad aim?" scoffed Katara, getting on Roku behind Zuko. Huffing, Sokka jumped around, closed his eyes, felt for the water and flung it again. He looked back at the soldiers and yay! They were all frozen.

"Come on!" Katara shouted when Sokka began doing a Water Tribe victory dance. The boy hurried over and hopped on Roku's back in front of Zuko and with a "yip, yip!" they all went flying away. Conveniently, that's when Bumi walked back on deck.

"Uncle!" Aang croaked, "stop them!" Bumi squinted at the departing mass.

"I never expected to see a flying cow in all my life," he said, rubbing his eyes.

"Shoot them down!" shouted the prince, voice cracking. The earthbender looked around quickly and hobbled over to Aang. Placing a foot on the ice encasing him, he made a punching move and it jumped into the air as one glittery, deadly slab. The prince was freed. With a poetic earthbending body movement, the ice was sent hurtling toward the flying Roku.

Katara cried out when she saw it coming, loud enough to wake Zuko. He bounced up and surprisingly kept his balance on Roku's back. With a shout, he threw two fistfuls of fire at it, right over Katara's shrieking head. The giant ice slab was hit and sent off course, right into the side of a huge ice wall. An avalanche followed. Of course. And it completely buried the front part of the S.A.N.S. Appa, much to Aang's chagrin.

Bumi gave a low whistle. "I've gotta learn that move. Pretty fly."

"But he's getting away!" whined the prince, stomping a foot. "Look at all the damage!" The uncle looked for a moment as if he cared, then turned to leave.

"Yep. Have fun cleaning. I'd help if I could, but I'm needed elsewhere… the captain just brought out Dance Dance Palooza."

----

Zuko and Sokka had switched seats once the Water Tribe boy claimed he couldn't take any more of the Avatar's "back seat driving." Since then they had flown in silence, but Katara soon leaned around her brother.

"Hey… how'd you do that with the water? That's something Sokka could never do!" Her brother glared at her at that.

Zuko shifted and looked back at her from his scarred eye. "There is a perfectly simple, awesome, heavily quoted explanation for that… I just don't know it. But that waterbending was pretty awesome, wasn't it?"

Sokka shrugged. "It was okay. But why didn't you tell us you were the Avatar?" Zuko fell silent for a moment, as if slipping into sad awoken memories.

"Because I never wanted to be."

Katara gave an overtly loud scoff. "Oh, cut the melodrama, you twit! The world needs you to put an end to this war, so just suck it up, cork your angsty-ness, master water, earth and air and be the stupid hero." Zuko was going to whine in an angsty way, but decided against it upon seeing Katara's dangerous look.

"You can go to the North Pole and master waterbending," Sokka spoke up quickly. "Or… so I've heard." Zuko seemed to brighten.

"Sweet! We can learn it together."

"We'd be an airbender bustin' waterbendin' duo!" Sokka added with a fist pump into the air. Katara glared at the both of them.

"And what about me?"

"You'll be there," her brother said. "Just uncredited. Y'know, like a background person."

Zuko grinned. "And on the way we can ride hopping llamas and giant koi fish and hog monkeys!" Sokka fumbled about in one of his pockets.

"Ooh! I've got the giant koi riding permit from Chica!"

Katara just stared blankly. "Ugh… boys."

------

That's the end of the pilot episodes. And what did you all think? (i.e. Review, people!)