Wow…I just…wow. I'm glad you're liking this story so much.

ONWARDS AOSHIMA!

(uh yeah, I've kind of been watching a lot of Gravity Falls lately. I apologize)

-ZG

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I quickly analyze the situation at hand. Nothing out of the ordinary. Being threatened with my life and forced up against an object. Just a normal Tuesday.

So…none of them are holding weapons. Okay, that's a plus. I won't have to use my ghost powers to fight my way through too much. Unless that kid decides to do that ball trick again…but that's probably harmless.

The only threat is the guy my age, and even then…

"Dude, seriously," I say. "A boomerang?"

His eye twitches. "It's a very deadly boomerang!"

I laugh. "Sure…"

The guy shakes his head. "Okay, who are you and what are you doing here?" he asks.

"I'm Danny," I say. What? If they're going to take me home, they'll need general information. "And I don't know what I'm doing here. I just woke up here and saw that strange creature-" I gesture to the apparent 'Momo'. "—and I came upon you guys."

"How much did you see?" he asks.

"Uh…" I rack my brain. Damn attention span the size of a walnut. "I heard you guys taking about a plan and something about fire." I suddenly remember something. "Oh, and headband guy was riding on a ball of air. But that might just be from heat exhaustion. I mean, how the heck would that be possible?"

The guy, Sokka I think, glares at Mr. Headband. "I told you it would blow our cover."

I blink. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait. So…that actually happened? You can do that?"

Mr. Headband looked up to Sokka. "Actually, I think you just blew our cover."

Sokka scowls and looks at me. He then gathers his group of Mighty Ninja Samurai guys into a circle. I try to make out what they say.

"—could be Fire Nation-"

"No. He's got blue eyes. Maybe he's Water Tribe."

"He's got red! Red is Fire Nation."

"He's got Earth Kingdom feet."

"I can't really help with this description thing. Can we just knock him out and get it done with?"

"Hey!" I say. "I'm still here, you know!"

They all turn to me. The older girl in the dress walks up to me. She looks comforting, but also a little Vlad-comforting. As in, she talks sweet, but she can hurt you if she wants to. A lot.

"Are you from the Fire Nation?"

"What? No! I'm from Amity Park."

They all raise an eyebrow.

"You know the most haunted city in the United States of America?" I continue.

"United States of America?" black-haired girl repeats. "What's that, a colony in the Earth Kingdom?"

"No, it's a country!" I tell them. They still look clueless. "You've never heard of it?"

They all shake their heads.

"Oh, come on," I say. "It's, like, the most recognizable country in the world. We've got baseball and Taco Bell…" They're staring, wide-eyed.

Mr. Headband leans into the group. "Maybe he's crazy," he whispers.

"I am not crazy!" I defend. "I'm just lost."

"So you're not from the Fire Nation?" Sokka asks.

I nod. "Yes, I'm not from the Fire Nation."

He looks over to the black-haired girl. "Toph, is he telling the truth?"

The girl, Toph, nods. "Pretty sure. You made him a little nervous, but he's sounding sincere."

The other girl waves her hands and the ice melts away. I stretch, but then look up.

"How did you do that?" I ask.

"Do what?" she inquires.

"Make the ice melt," I tell her.

"I'm a waterbender," she explains simply, as if I'm asking her the weather outside.

"A waterwhat-er?" I repeat.

She raises an eyebrow. "A waterbender. You know, I'm able to bend water."

I shake my head. "I'm sorry; I have no idea what you're talking about."

She nods. "Maybe you've never seen it before. Here, let me demonstrate."

She starts breathing deeply before moving her hands near the pitcher on her belt. She guides her hand outward, and a stream of water follows it. She waves her hands again, making the water twist and obey her hands. She guides the stream back into her pitcher.

"See? That's waterbending."

My mouth is open in shock. How the hell could she do that?

"Are you a witch or something?" I ask her.

She looks a little offended. "No, I'm a bender, just like Toph and Aang." She gestures the second name to Mr. Headband.

I'm still confused. What with a bender? Isn't it a robot in that cartoon?

Toph rolls her eyes, which I notice are almost all-white if it weren't for her irises being a very light gray.

"I'm an earthbender," she says. She stomps her foot and a block of Earth launches out. She punches the block and it is catapulted into a tree. Sam would like her.

"And you already saw me airbend," Aang says.

I look over to Sokka. "What, can you control the sky or something?"

His eye twitches again. "No. I'm not a bender."

I sit down. "Okay…sorry. This whole 'bending' concept is kind of new to me," I say. "Where I come from we're all like him-" I point to Sokka. "—just normal, everyday people." Some of which have ghost powers.

"A place without bending?" Aang realizes. "I don't think that's possible here. Especially with the Fire Nation conquering everybody."

I shake my head. "Look, can I see a map? I've got figure out how to get home before my teachers fails me."

Sokka, still looking confused, pulls out a scroll of paper. "Uh…here, weird kid."

"It's Danny," I correct. "And right now, I feel like I'm the only normal-" I stop myself. "Well, actually, never mind."

I unroll the paper. This isn't like any map I've ever seen.

"Hey, what's this map of?" I ask.

"The world," Sokka answers.

I look at it again. "That can't be right…where's England? And China? And Canada? Canada's huge!"

"What are you talking about?" brown-haired girl asks.

I look up. Everything's different here, which means…

"Damn it, Desiree!" I mutter.

"Excuse me?" Toph asks.

"Oh, nothing," I say. "It's just…my friend. She likes playing tricks on me and she sort of sent me here."

To an alternate universe.

This day just keeps getting better and better.

Aang looked around. "Well…since you seem to be confused and all, why don' you join us?"

"What?" Sokka exclaimed. "What if he's working for the Fire Lord?"

"I'm not working for the Fire Lord!" I say. I look over to Toph. "You can tell I'm not lying, right?"

"Well, yeah," she says in a 'no duh' voice. "Sokka, calm down. He's okay." She looks back over to me. "And he could be useful. I mean, you were around us for, what…five minutes? And I didn't even sense you."

"Yeah…how did you do that, anyway?"

"I sense the Earth's vibrations," she explains. "It's the only way I can see. I'm blind."

I go wide-eyed. "Whoa." I smile. "Cool."

Brown-haired girl smiles. "Okay, so you're in the group."

I get up and dust myself off. "So…how about introductions? Since I know nothing about this weird place…"

"Well, I'm Toph," Toph says. "And I like kicking butt."

I point to her. "I like you."

She grins evilly.

Brown-haired girl comes up to me and shakes my hand. "I'm Katara, and I'm a waterbender."

I nod. "Nice to meet you."

Sokka looks at me, frowning, and reluctantly puts out a hand to shake. "I'm Sokka. I'm Katara's brother, and the leader of this group."

"Oh joy," I mutter. "But at least there's someone here who's like me. You know, not doing all this bending stuff."

"Likewise."

Aang grins widely. "Hi, I'm Aang!" he says cheerfully. "And I'm an airbender."

"And the Avatar," Katara adds with a smirk.

Sokka glares at her. "You just want to throw our cover out the window, don't you?"

"He can be trusted!" Katara defends.

I clear my throat and raise my hand like I'm in class. "Um…what's the Avatar?"

Aang's smile fades a little. "Oh, well…I kind of have to master all four elements."

"Which are…?" Forgive me, this is all new to me.

"Air, Water, Earth," he lists, "and fire."

"But weren't you saying something about fire being bad?"

"The Fire Nation is bad," he explains. "They're leader's called the Fire Lord, and he's planning on taking over the world."

"Like I haven't heard that plan before," I mutter.

Aang raises an eyebrow. "What?"

I shake my head. "Nothing…so this Fire Guy is trying to take over the world, huh?"

"Yeah…and I have to stop him," he says.

I know that look. It's tired and full of exasperation. It's an expression you never want to see on a kid.

And I know it so well because I wear it every day.

"Well…I'm sure you'll be able to do that," I reassure him.

He smiles a little again. He points to the creature on his arm. "This is our lemur, Momo." He then jumps up and does and does a huge flip over to the white mammoth buffalo. "And this is Appa, our sky bison."

I look at the creature. "Dude…that thing had six legs."

"Yeah?" Aang asks. "And?"

I shake my head and turn to the other people in the group. Time for my intro. "I'm Danny, and I'm not from here. I can't bend." I blink. "And um…my favorite color is blue?"

I'll tell them about the ghost powers later. Obviously, they're still a little wary about me. Especially Sokka. Seeing me fly around and go invisible probably isn't the best idea.

"Danny? I've never heard that name before," Katara says.

"Well Katara isn't exactly a popular name where I come from either," I say.

"The place where you come from is weird," Toph comments.

I roll my eyes. "You have no idea."

Aang looks around. "So…yay! New member to Team Avatar!"

Oh look. Another team name.

Katara looks around. "We better get a move on I we want to get to that town for shelter and food. Come on, Danny."

She tugs on the giant sky bison as Aang jumps off of it, creating a cushion of air to lighten his fall. That is, until Toph sneak attacks him with a rock, sending him into the air. She snickers.

Dear God, what have I gotten myself into?

#

Wa-la! Introductions and a very confused Danny.

I love reviews with the passion of a thousand suns…I mean review if you can *goes and hides in a corner*.

-ZG