About one hour into the party, Narada walked up to the snack table and began pouring herself a cup of punch. Halfway through, however, she nearly dropped the cup as the lights abruptly shut off. Loud murmuring came from the crowd, as she then heard Tallok's voice.

"Just a little blackout." He said, "Sorry about that."

Aoina, meanwhile, turned on her flashlight and approached Narada.

"Looks like the little Mortal Kombat tourney downstairs just got ugly. You won't believe all the noise down there!"

"Really?" Narada turned to where her voice came from. "I'll go check it out."

Without another word, she left for the basement entrance, surprised to see Iroh already at the door.

"You heard it too?" He asked. "Just rats, I suppose."

"Heard what?" Narada raised an eyebrow.

"There was a clanging noise coming from down there." Iroh responded. "Quite loud, in fact. Very hard to miss."

"Yeah yeah, hang on a sec, I have to check something out down there anyway." Narada explained.

Iroh politely stepped out of the way as Narada reached for the door. Narada took quick notice of the sparks coming from a now badly damaged fuse box.

"What the-?" She muttered to herself before turning to proceed downstairs, but she stopped abruptly. Her flashlight happened on someone.

"Good God."

This Iroh couldn't help but overhear. "What, what is it?" He asked before following Narada. But when the old general looked to the floor, he gasped at the sight.

"Zuko!"

Prince Zuko lay limp on the floor, a broken glass mere inches shy of his hand. Iroh rushed to his nephew's side, looking for any signs of life left in him.

"Zuko, no." Iroh bowed his head, a tear dripping to the floor.

"Hang on." Narada reached toward Zuko's wrist, placing her two index fingers just below his palm. "OK I got a pulse."

Iroh sighed in relief. Narada looked up to him.

"Go upstairs and get Tallok and Aoina. I'll stay here and keep an eye on Zuko."

Wordlessly, be it from shock or otherwise, Iroh nodded and ascended the stairwell.

Narada then turned back toward Zuko, holding onto his wrist consistently. But then a clanging noise resonated from the distance.

Her headed jolted in the direction of the noise, drawing back slightly, turning back only as Iroh returned with Tallok and Aoina. Aoina promptly came to Zuko's side.

"My god- this is sick!" She gasped.

"Stay here." Was all Narada told her before getting up and approaching the noise. She flipped on her keychain flashlight and looked around.

"Hello?" She called into the darkness that shrank back from the light. Soon after, another clatter echoed.

"Who's there?" She turned toward the boiler room, the door of which was slightly ajar. A ripping noise could be heard from there, muffled whimpers coming into play not long after. Narada cautiously approached the door and peeked inside.

There, a strange figure in a jade green mask loomed over another figure, whose features were obscured in the poor light. But taking a closer look, she managed to distinguish Katara as the latter figure, bound tightly in nylon rope, a single white towel tied over her mouth.

Narada tried to stay hidden, but the last straw came as the masked figure took a switchblade and began to cut open Katara's top. In blind fury, Narada swung open the door and aimed a kick at the guy.

Big mistake. He caught her leg and pushed her over. Narada screamed and rolled to the side as he tried to stab at her with- was that Sokka's boomerang?

"Narada?" Tallok looked up from his post. "Hang on." He told Iroh and Aoina before getting up, taking a small pipe and approaching the boiler room.

As he got there, Narada had just managed to knock over the masked man enough to pin him down, but then he rolled her onto her back, until they were each struggling to pin down the other. Tallok took the pipe and whacked once at the guy, knocking him onto his side. The assailant then got up slowly and shot his glance to Katara.

"You got lucky this time." Came a distorted voice from behind the mask, as the man threw something on the floor, which produced a smoke screen. As Tallok wafted the smoke away, it was too late. He was gone.

Narada froze, before turning back to Katara and pulling the towel down.

"Are you all right?" Tallok asked as Narada worked to undo the restraints.

"I'm fine." Katara winced lightly, rubbing the rope burns on her wrists. "I heard Aang screaming, so I came to investigate and then-." She paused, trying to cover her half-bare chest.

"I see." Tallok nodded, helping Katara up. "But, just where is Aang now?"

"I don't know." There was a slight quiver in Katara's voice as she said this, as though she feared the worst.

"Narada! Tallok!" Aoina called to them from the other room. "You might want to see this."

"What is it?" Katara got up and walked to the other room, Tallok and Narada not too far off.

As they arrived, Aoina approached Narada. "Here." She handed Narada a piece of paper. "We found this wedged in the back door."

Narada scanned through the paper, her eyes widening upon finishing.

"What? What's going on?" Katara asked, not liking her reaction to the note one bit.

Narada hesitated, clearing her throat before she read aloud:

"We have the Avatar.

Release the Freedom Fighters or else.

Signed,

The Green Spirit."

"Aang!" Katara gasped, her eyes steadily welling with tears.

Tallok sighed. "It's going to be a long night."

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Narada: There you have it folks, Chapter 2!

Tallok: Oh before we forget, none of us owns Avatar, 50 Cent's In Da Club, Mortal Kombat, or anything else mentioned here except the plot.

Aoina: Thanks for stating the obvious Tallok! Anyway, rate and review please!