Solomon looked at the pitifully small pile of rations for a moment, then looked up at the four hungry faces around him, three teens and one Charizard. "I," he began, "am an absolute moron!"
"It's not your fault," Katara said glumly, rubbing one forearm, "I'm the one that was packing supplies." The girl started as Firestorm gently nudged her with the tip of one wing. LaCroix shook his head.
"No, it's mine. I should have realized that you wouldn't know how much Firestorm was capable of eating and helped you pack supplies. Instead Sokka and I were holed up in Bumi's library looking over information about the areas we were planning on passing through."
The PSI-Com agent grimaced as he thought back on the group's arrival and stay at Omashu. He'd managed to easily get himself and the kids inside the city with a simple story about being a cartographer and apprentices updating maps. A quick disguise made out of a bandanna for Aang had helped sell that bit of fiction. Things had immediately started a downhill plunge from there. While he set about acquiring some new sets of clothing and a few local maps to "compare to his own work", the kids had managed to get themselves arrested for messing with the city's unique mail delivery system. He'd been rounded up as well and the four of them had been brought before the king. Things had taken a turn for the strange then, with the decrepit king suddenly deciding to throw a feast in their honor.
In the end it had all been a setup in order for one of Aang's former friends to test him, and teach him a few lessons about thinking outside the box. The man had also demonstrated how formidable Earthbending was (as well as a physique that would have made Bruno of the Elite Four weep in envy), while Aang had shown what Airbending was actually capable of. It still gave him chills to think of the power that kid had. And the potential that was still to be unleashed.
Shaking his head, he moved on. After the fight and the revelation of who the King actually was, they'd been welcomed into the palace for a couple of days. LaCroix had taken that opportunity to ask Bumi for access to his library. With Sokka serving as a translator for the script on the scrolls and books thanks to a tiny bit of manipulation ("a warrior seeks wisdom as well as strength") he had begun a frenzied study session to gain as much knowledge as he could about this world and its cultures in the short amount of time he had access to this resource. In the meantime, Bumi had been catching up with Aang, which had left Katara as the one to requisition their supplies. Leading to their current situation.
"Okay, assigning blame won't get any of us fed, so let's concentrate on foraging instead. We're pretty close to the ocean, so there should be a few feeder streams we can fish in. And fresh water means potential prey animals, as well as edible plants and wild fruit. Let's..." LaCroix stopped as a crash reverberated through the woods. The agent immediately recalled Firestorm and began moving towards the noise, Sokka flanking him as Aang and Katara trailed behind the two. A second crash had him picking up his pace, even as his arm flashed out to steady Sokka as the teen stumbled slightly.
"Are you sure we should be going towards the crashing sound?" Sokka asked in a low voice.
LaCroix looked over at the teen. "Better to know what's sharing the woods with us than working ourselves up in fear of the unknown." Sokka nodded in understanding.
Skirting some underbrush and coming to a stop crouched behind a log, they were now in sight of a gully that had a small stream running through it. With a teenaged boy who appeared to be practicing some Earthbending, picking up decent-sized rocks and slamming them into the walls, creating the crashes they had heard. The kid was no Bumi, but not a lot of people were able to match over a hundred years of experience with raw talent.
"An earthbender," Katara murmured. Aang smiled.
"Let's go meet him."
Sokka frowned. "He looks dangerous so we'd better approach c-," But before he could finish, LaCroix had already slid over the log, Katara hot on his heels. The two approached, but before LaCroix could hail the kid, Katara beat him to the punch.
"Hello there, I'm Katara, and this is LaCroix. What's your name?"
The teen paused in the middle of the kata, turning around rapidly. Fear flashed over his face, before he took off running, caving in the sides of the gully as he passed them and creating a roadblock that would make tracking him nearly impossible.
"Nice to meet you!" Aang called after the departing boy.
"Well, something spooked him," LaCroix noted in a detached tone. Katara looked stunned.
"I just wanted to say hi," she muttered.
"Hey, that guy's gotta be running somewhere," Aang noted.
LaCroix nodded. "That would be the logical conclusion. And if it's a large enough settlement, they should have a market. Which means we can stock up properly with some of the cash Bumi gave us." yet another favor he'd asked of the aging king. Some people may depend on the kindness of strangers, but a little incentive to help never hurt.
0oOo0
A half-hour trek found the four of them in the marketplace of a fairly populated village. "Everyone keep close please. And try not to draw attention to yourselves," he advised.
Of course, as soon as he said that he heard Aang exclaiming over a hat while Sokka was chuckling at the kid's antics. And then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Katara heading towards a door, a look somewhere between curious and determined on her face.
'And my landlady wonders why I haven't settled down with a nice girl at my age,' Solomon thought wryly to himself as he went after Katara. Catching up to her just as the door opened, he saw into the room, where an older woman and...
"Hey, you're that kid. Why did you run away before?"
"Good question. I know I haven't had a chance to shave in a while, but I didn't figure myself to look quite that scary yet," Solomon tossed in as he herded Katara inside, snapping his fingers behind him to get Sokka and Aang's attention. The boy looked nervous as they entered behind LaCroix.
"Uh, you must have me confused with some other kid."
"Kinda hard to forget you with the noise you were making earlier throwing those rocks around," LaCroix countered.
Both the woman and the teen gasped, and almost faster than Solomon could follow, the door and shutters had been closed. 'For an older gal, she can really move,' LaCroix thought.
"They saw you Earthbending?" she practically hissed.
"They're crazy mom, I mean, look at how they're dressed!"
Katara, Sokka and Aang all looked somewhat self-conscious, while LaCroix merely folded his arms and cocked an eyebrow.
"You know how dangerous that is! You know what would happen if they caught you earthbending!"
0oOo0
What had followed that sentence left Solomon wondering if one of these spirits that Aang was supposed to be a conduit for had any relation to the concept of Murphy from back home.
A patrol of Fire Nation soldiers had shown up, their leader demanding a "tax" while throwing around threats as subtly as an erupting volcano. After the worst bit of faked nonchalance that he'd ever seen from the kids (and a mental note to talk to them later about teaching them a bit about acting) the patrol had left.
Questions directed at Haru and his mother got the full story out eventually. The Fire Nation had been occupying the village for years, and any Earthbenders had been caught and taken away. Including Haru's father. His mother had been kind enough to offer them the barn to sleep in for the night, which LaCroix had gratefully accepted, electing to keep Firestorm balled up for the night due to the large quantities of hay in the building.
While he, Aang and Sokka had been out getting their supplies from the local market (and making sure that they bought plenty from Haru's mom along the way) Katara had taken off with Haru. They'd come back with Katara bubbling over with how Haru had saved an old man from a cave in with his earthbending and how happy she was for him to have had a chance to help someone. Solomon had had a bad feeling, but brushed it off. The kid had saved the old man's life. Surely that alone would keep his mouth shut?
Apparently Solomon had underestimated just how cowed the villagers were by the Fire Nation. Upon waking he'd found Katara and Haru's mother together. The Fire Nation had come in the night as they slept and taken the boy, led by the old man that Haru had saved.
One look at Katara's eyes had told him that she wanted to go after them, that she felt personally responsible for his plight. And to be perfectly candid, she was. The plan that they had worked out was beautifully simple. Sokka's hunter's eyes had spotted several vents scattered throughout the mountains, and he had deduced that they could fake Earthbending by having Aang blast air through them to lift rocks at a given signal.
LaCroix had taken that plan, and improved on it. Instead of the original idea of Katara and Sokka having a fake fight leading to her "earthbending", he would pose as her teacher, and let them both get caught in "the act". The plan had gone off without a hitch, though there was a brief moment where Solomon had to wonder exactly how brain-dead these soldiers were to think that a lemur was earthbending.
But in the end, they had managed to get captured. LaCroix had divested himself of his tonfa beforehand, but after the rather shoddy patdown he'd been given to determine if he had any dirt or stone on him, he was convinced that he could have gotten the weapons in easily.
Once they'd gotten to the prison rig, they'd been greeted personally by the warden. Who had acted the urban, civilized host... right up until a man had coughed while he was speaking, earning him a week in solitary and nearly getting his feet blasted off of him by the warden.
As the warden continued to "chat up his guests" they were escorted through the rig, which was apparently a shipyard where the captive Earthbenders were used as slave labor to construct ships for the Fire Nation. Eventually they were shown through a series of three solid gates and into a large, open compound. As Solomon stepped through, the last gate slammed shut behind him. Turning to look, he saw that it was almost seamlessly level with the floor. No levering that up. He turned back as Katara calling out to Haru came to his ears. Stretching out his arms and back as he went (it'd been a long, uncomfortable ride out here) he approached the two.
"Heya kid." Haru looked even more shocked to see him than he was Katara.
"LaCroix? You're here too?" The teen shook his head. "Never mind that right now. Katara, there's someone I want you to meet." So saying Haru grabbed Katara's wrist and towed her along behind him. LaCroix followed looking somewhat bemused. He had a feeling he knew who Haru was talking about.
Sure enough, Haru led them straight to an older gentleman, who he proudly introduced as his father. The man was apparently the leader of the prisoners, as during the course of their chat and meal (which had been bad, but not as bad as starving), another prisoner had come up to him looking for a decision. Then, Katara had leaned forward in a conspiratorial manner, and murmured "What's the plan?"
Before the older man could reply, LaCroix gently pushed her back into a full upright position. "Two things Katara. First off, when making plans, it helps if you don't actually look like you're making a plan." His eyes cut to the various troops manning the wall. "Second, the man's been here for over five years and hasn't escaped yet. We are the plan."
Katara looked stunned at that. Turning back to Tyro, he began to question the older man. "Okay, so this may be a dumb question, but has someone tried to swim down far enough to grab some earth from the seabed? There are at least a few strong youngsters like Haru here, I saw that much. At least one of them should know how to swim."
Tyro shook his head. "We're in extremely deep water here, and the guards would have noticed someone jumping the rails. And now, even if there were someone capable of making it all the way to the bottom and back, the sea serpent that showed up about a week ago has everyone scared to even get too close to the railings." Haru nodded fervently.
"I didn't believe it until dad pointed it out to me yesterday. It's a gigantic long blue snake-looking thing with scales like armor, and thicker than a Fire Nation ship's skin! It's got whiskers like a sea serpent, and a huge mouth filled to the brim with gigantic fangs bigger than I am! It had horns coming out of its head too, and fins on either side of its mouth."
LaCroix leaned forward, suddenly much more focused. "Did you happen to see the color of its eyes?" Haru nodded shakily.
"Yes, they were dark red. And really, REALLY creepy. It was swimming around the base of the platform, and it looked up, and it seemed to be looking right at me. Like it was deciding whether to swallow me whole... or chew for a really long time. I haven't gone near the edge since."
For some reason Solomon looked delighted by this bit of news, but his face fell as he turned to talk to Katara, who had gotten up and walked away while he was questioning Haru and his father. And now she was... The agent bit back a groan as the girl began to bang on a pan to get everyone's attention, even as he let his face fall into his hand.
After her, admittedly rousing speech, LaCroix got up and moved towards her. Gently, he helped her down from the table. She looked... lost. He patted her gently on the shoulder, murmuring gently to her, "They've been under the Warden's thumb for a long time Katara. Their courage has been set aside simply to survive."
0oOo0
Later that night, Katara was woken by a gentle shake. Starting, she was met by Aang and LaCroix, both of them with their fingers to their lips, though only Aang made a noise.
The three had met with Sokka, who was hovering on the edge of the platform atop Appa. LaCroix had pointed out early on that using Firestorm to make their escape would have been foolhardy at best, suicide at worst, what with his beacon of a tail.
As Katara made her case for staying, LaCroix leaned over and grabbed his pack from the saddle, secured his tonfa to his arms, and began to dig through the bag. A flash of light caught his attention, and without preamble he hurried the kids away. Unfortunately, something had tipped the soldiers off that there was trouble brewing, as the entire rig had gone into lockdown. Aang and Sokka, however, had come up with a brilliant plan, even by his estimation.
The only flaw in the plan was the fact that in order for it to work, they would have to be totally exposed. As Sokka reassured his sister one more time, the PSI-Com agent fingered the trinket he'd been digging in his pack for. He cursed mentally as the alarm was raised, even as he went back-to-back-to-back with the kids. Tyro called out to tehm from beyond the guards.
"Katara, LaCroix; stop! You can'twin this fight!"
"Maybe not on our own, but I've got friends in low places," LaCroix snapped back at the older man. Raising one hand to his lips, he blew a deafening blast through the alarm whistle in his grasp.
0oOo0
Beneath the rig, a crimson eye snapped open as a familiar sound shook the slumbering beast to consciousness. Trainer was here! His battle-brothers were probably here too! Now all that was left was to reach the metal-land high above. How... of course!
Scooping up a tiny object in its mouth, the beast began to twist and spin its serpentine body. A vortex began to form in the waters around it, surging with more and more power as it crafted its technique.
0oOo0
On the surface, the Warden approached, looking irritated. "Listen to him well, children," it was obvious that he was including LaCroix in grouping, "You're one mistake away from dying where you stand."
At that moment, an eruption occurred within the slave compound. A fountain of black dust and chunks of coal surged skywards from within the vent. As it ended Aang appeared, coated liberally with coal dust and coughing. Katara rushed forward, grasping a chunk of coal and hefting it aloft.
Passionatly, she spoke once more to the Earthbenders, but they all backed away or were held in place by their fellows. As the Warden mocked the girl, LaCroix bit back a surge of anger at the old man. "Any time now buddy," he muttered, causing Sokka to give him a curious look.
Then, as the warden finished and turned, dismissing them all, Haru struck. Followed swiftly by the warden striking back. And a father's love overcame caution, as Tyro shielded his son from the blast, and called out to his compatriots to attack, while the warden yelled for his guards to show no mercy.
0oOo0
Below, the gathering force had reached its peak, now a fully-formed maelstrom, had any of the guards been watching the water to see it. With a mighty flex of its entire muscled and armored body, the form that had crafted this happening shot to the surface, and then broke it, carried aloft within the center of its technique.
0oOo0
A second eruption took place now, but instead of coal and dust it was water and foam; and instead of a small skinny boy, it produced a fearsome serpent of azure scales and crimson eyes. There was stunned silence for a moment, before LaCroix broke past the Firebender guards, skidding to a stop in the shadow of the monster which was in the process of leaning down and opening its maw. Katara screamed at him to run, but instead of lunging, a small, familiar looking orb dropped from the beast's mouth, and into LaCroix's waiting hand. An ear-splitting roar broke the sudden silence, as its tail whipped through the air, gaining a sheen of water, and swatted three of the guards over the fence and into the drink.
"Ignore the beast! Fight on!" Tyro roared. The battle was ended quickly after that, the Fire Benders attention split between the fearsome sea serpent raging about the platform, and the unrelenting attacks of the Earth Benders.
As the last of the guards was tossed over the side, the kids approached the serpent, who was even now nuzzling into LaCroix's hand as the agent scratched behind one of the fins at the side of its mouth. "Guys, I'd like you to meet Maelstrom, one of my oldest Pokemon. Speaking of..." A flick of his wrist had a pokeball in his free hand, which was promptly expanded, and opened. Firestorm blinked at the glare of the sun, before giving a joyful roar as he beheld the wall of cerulean scales next to his partner. Maelstrom roared a greeting in return, and both of them let fly bursts of their respective elements, angling up far out of the way of the humans.
Fire met water with a mighty hiss, both attacks dissipating into a cloud of steam that floated away, as Firestorm and Maelstrom moved closer to each other, headbutting their opposite lightly.
Everyone on the rig had stopped at the first sign of attacks, and were now gaping at the two creatures, before a yell from Tyro got them all moving back towards the boats, while LaCroix balled both of the monsters. "We can compare notes later you two, right now we've got a Bison to catch."
Neither pokemon protested as they were recalled, and as LaCroix walked to the edge of the platform where Appa was hovering, he was walking a bit straighter, his head a little higher and his steps a little lighter. His team was here. Scattered, but here. One more reason to stick with the kids, their journey was taking them from pole to pole. Literally. Which made it all the more likely that he'd find his team, even if they were scattered hundreds of miles between here and the small group's next destination.