First Steps

*

*

"Ranger Series Yellow, what are you doing?"

Aang grunted as he wrestled with the unfamiliar controls of the Flying Bison Zord. The mammoth machine lifted one of its six legs and it came down on a stall. When it raised the leg again, a pitched scream of "MY CABBAGES!" echoed from the frantic stall owner. "Uh… walking?" replied Aang, trying to pull the leg up further but only succeeded into pulping said cabbages into a gooey paste. "It's harder than it looks."

"Series Yellow, pull up on the control stick and press the throttle," instructed Doctor T, the synthesized voice sounding far more irritated than it needed to be. "Series Red, Blue, Black, status report."

"Well we knocked it down," replied Sokka, pulling the Megazord to its feet. The attack bot started to shove itself upright and he sighed. "Can we get back to you on that Doctor T?"

"Series Blue?"

"Energy reserves are down to 72% with structural damage across two zords," replied Katara, wrestling with the controls to keep the machine upright. "Dragon-Hawk and Penguin Otter have sustained damage. Left motivator is down. Unable to hold the Horn Saber."

"Understood," replied Doctor T. "Series Yellow, follow the instructions I am downloading to your zord and begin uplink with the A.D.S. Megazord."

"Okay…" as the script scrawled across the screen, Aang tapped the side of his helmet and said, "Uh… Doctor T?"

"What is it now?"

"I um… I can't read this."

Dead silence. Even the attack bot seemed to notice the awkwardness and paused for a brief moment. That however was enough time for Zuko to wrestle the left motivator back online. "Sokka!"

"Huh? OH RIGHT! Deploying Horn Saber."

*

*

"You can't read," groused Doctor T, the screens flashing in irritation. "Is there anything ELSE you'd like to share with us Series Yellow?"

Aang shuffled his feet, feeling all for the world like he was standing in front of a teacher or perhaps a principal. "It's not that I can't read it's just that the characters are unfamiliar to me."

"I see…" Aang shuffled and fidgeted a little more. "We will need to correct this. Series Blue?"

"Yes Doctor T?" said Katara, looking up from her magazine.

"Please instruct Series Yellow on the basics of our script and reading comprehension."

Before Katara could protest, the screens powered off. "Wow," remarked Sokka. "Doctor T must REALLY be upset with the way the last battle went."

"There was a lot of property damage Sokka," reminded Zuko as he looked up from where he was working on a new cherry-red sports car. "Aang crushed several stands, destroyed a portion of the delivery chutes and to boot, whomped the public library."

"Don't forget about the cabbage stand," pointed out Aang and Zuko rolled his eyes.

Pulling a book from the shelves, Katara opened it to the first page and handed it to Aang. "Can you read any of this?"

Aang peered at the characters and frowned, rubbing his forehead. A minute passed as he peered closely and then said, "They look KIND of familiar but…"

"So you recognise any of it?" inquired Katara.

"Well… this one here means fire… and this is water… is this legendary?"

"Dictionary actually," said Katara. "So this is a good sign. You KNOW how to read but some of our characters are unfamiliar right now. How about writing?"

"Oh I'm good at that," replied Aang as he reached for the brush and found a pen. "Uh… what's this?"

"A pen," said Sokka. "You use it to write."

"But… where's the ink? And the brush?"

Sokka, Katara and Zuko shared a look. Not knowing how to read properly was one thing. Asking for a brush was outdated at best.

"This… is going to be harder than we thought," remarked Sokka, summing up everyone's thoughts, Aang included.

*

*

"I've managed to narrow some specifics down about Aang Doctor T," said Katara, reporting to the screen. "For instance, some of the things he knows, his ability to write and read are intact, but the knowledge is actually outdated by our standards. At least a hundred years or so."

"Not to mention he doesn't know basic plumbing. Had to show him how to use a shower after the last battle." Added Sokka. "And there's those clothes he's always wearing too. Seriously outdated even by our own culture."

"Well, that's a bit of a misnomer," put in Zuko. "He's actually wearing the latest fashions from a hundred years ago. PLUS? They're all hand-made and not by a machine. Most of the fashions from that time and age have been duplicated."

"So we have a bit of a mystery on our hands," finished Katara. "Any thoughts on this Doctor T?"

There was a long silence from the computer screen before Doctor T replied. "The clothing could be easily explained by him taking it from a old ruined display. However, I am certain that with time, he will be able to read and write our modern script. Apparently whoever raised him must have used heavily outdated history books to do so. I can think of no other logical explanation."

The trio looked over at Aang who was currently spinning happily on a chair around and around, laughing. "Sure," drawled Sokka. "And I'm sure he's this happy go lucky in a total apocalyptic warzone."

"Series Blue, Black, Red, it is your duty to bring him up to speed. All of you." A barrage of raised protests were heard but Doctor T added, "EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY." Backing down, the trio sighed. "Now then, I suggest you all get to work."

*

*

"So where's the chopsticks?" inquired Aang as he worked at chopping some vegetables for his evening meal.

"Oh we don't use those anymore," said Katara. "When the war started against Azulon, it became difficult to manufacture and hand-carve the chopsticks used in daily life. Somewhere along the line, a man developed the knife and fork and spoon."

"Oh," said Aang, holding up the large chopping knife. "And the fire thing?"

'That's a stove," replied Katara as she chopped up some meat for Sokka's meal to add to the pot. "Like a cooking fire but more effective."

"I see. Man, you don't get those things anywhere else do you?" remarked Aang.

"Only here in Ba Sing Se," replied Katara. "Because everything was damaged outside the dome, all of humanity's developments were brought here. Everything from the old to the new; radio signals, development of television and cars, and a lot of the old such as ostritch-horse drawn carts, the earthbender mail delivery system's that were brought over from Omashu…"

"I remember those," said Aang, a little wistfully. "Bumi loved them."

Katara blinked, a little surprised at the coincidence but didn't press. She did however wonder if he visited Omashu in the past. It held out the longest before the people were forced to evacuate to Ba Sing Se, leaving the city in ruins to the relentless machine march. "In any case, we've been improving our lives a little by little every day, but Ba Sing Se is still stuck in the past so to speak. Improvements to the quality of life HAVE been implemented but there's such a huge division of the population."

"What do you mean?" inquired Aang. "The city seems fine, or at least from what I've seen."

Katara frowned a little as she cut a bit of meat a little too viciously, making the kitchen table vibrate. "When Sokka and I arrived from what was left of the Southern Water Tribe with our dad, we were immediately shunted into the poorest part of the city. The division between the wealthy and the rich persists, and the wait time to get a home in a place that isn't a slum is high. Sokka and I were lucky enough to get out of there because our dad, Chief Hakoda was able to get an audience with General Iroh and get himself instilled as a military advisor. Not soon after that, Doctor T found us and we became Rangers."

"So that's why you don't live with your parents. Anyone else that you came with?"

"Gran-Gran," replied Katara automatically. "She lives in a fairly decent part of the city, the townhouse that dad managed to get for all of us. Sokka and I though haven't been home in a while."

"It must be nice having family still," replied Aang. "I can't remember anything past the day I woke up in the hospital. I don't even know if there's any of my family who're waiting for me or not."

Sensing that the topic had gone onto an uncomfortable subject, Katara asked, "So Aang, what's with the pure vegetarianism? Trying to cut down on meat?"

"All life is sacred, including meat animals," replied Aang automatically. "I dunno why I just know, you know?"

"Must have been something you remembered at least," smiled Katara. "That's good. Sokka pretty much takes up our Meat and Potatoes budget and there's always vegetables left over. C'mon, help me strain these beets."

*

*

"Series Yellow, pull up," instructed Doctor T. Another attack bot had shown itself the day after in the wee early hours of the morning and the Rangers had been deployed. Azulon had obviously realized that there was a weakness and the machine had been supersized immediately, cutting the middle man of a ground battle. "Pull UP before you hit a building."

"Trying to," grunted Aang as he wrestled with the control stick. The giant grey-matted bison groaned and thrashed, unwilling to cooperate with the commands the Ranger was trying to give him. "But this thing isn't responding to me!"

"That's what happens when your biofields aren't interacting properly," replied the Doctor as Aang managed to level off the Bison Zord. "Interlink protocols are down at the moment. You'll have to move in solo and attack the bot directly."

"Well whatever you do Aang? Better do it soon," grunted Zuko as he pulled the zord to a standing position. "Deploy the sword."

"Got it. Deplying Horn Saber." From the front of the zord, two decorative horns popped up and spun into the zords hand. With a flourish, the zord pulled both halves apart and sliced across the front of the attack bot. The silly looking mess of cables and wires reeled and fired a oversized garden hose.

"Whoa!" proclaimed Sokka, lifting the leg of the zord as the hose tried to wrap around the leg. The zord stumbled backwards as more and more hoses lashed out, scoring hits across the front of the zord. Many of them were parried and Sokka let out a "WOO!" as the zord was sent toppling to the ground. "We need that firepower like yesterday Aang!"

"Series Yellow, stop fighting with the zord," instructed Doctor T as Aang tried to pull up. "It will respond in time. It's a Flying Bison, the most temperamental of animals in history."

Flying Bison… Flying Bison… Flying Bison….

Something deep inside Aang awoke as he stopped fighting with the zord. Exhaling, he reached out and touched the controls, closing his eyes. "You're frightened too, huh buddy?" The machine thrummed, as if it was responding and Aang patted the controls. Readouts beeped loudly as energy started to flow correctly between the pair, as if bonding with each other. "Don't be. I'm here with you."

"AANG! LITTLE HELP HERE?!" cut in Katara through the radio.

Aang's eyes snapped open as he took controls. "Lets go." And he proclaimed, "YIP YIP!"

Automatically the machine launched itself into the air as the dull grey finish changed to a brilliant yellow color. A large arrow painted itself across the front of the Bison's head as Aang proclaimed, "Open fire!"

The machine opened its giant mouth, letting out a bellow before cannons popped out. A strafing barrage of missiles slammed into the attack bot, knocking it to the ground.

"An opening!" proclaimed Zuko. "MAX SABER STRIKE!"

*

*

"Yip yip?" said Sokka incredulously as they entered the garage. "Where did you come up with THAT?"

"I dunno I thought it was appropriate," replied Aang, shrugging. "And it worked since the Bison responded to me."

"Aang it's a machine. A machine with DNA in it to make it immune to the Azulon virus," reminded Katara.

Aang shook his head. "No, it's more than that. Something inside it seemed alive; really alive. And I think it finally stopped fighting with me and now we're working together as partners. I'm gonna name him Appa."

"Well there's a first," snorted Zuko. "A 300 ton death machine being given a name."

"I like it," said Katara. "Appa it is."

"I seriously hope we don't need to name the rest of them, considering that Appa just gained the Big Googly Anime Eyes Finish," remarked Sokka offhanded as he opened the fridge.

Everyone ignored the resulting blast as Sokka was hurled into the wall via Fridge Cannon. "Oh and Doctor T's sensitive about that last part," reminded Katara. "Just an fyi."

"R-right."