"Okay, let's go over this one more time."
"Sokka! We've already gone over it twelve times!" The Avatar looked at his long-time friend pleadingly, "I've got the whole shopping list memorized!"
The water-tribe boy huffed indignantly, "Well, it's still risky!"
Zuko was more than happy when the trio crested the hill, for there was a distraction from their companions incessant whining about 'schedule' and the 'list', "There's the town," then Zuko added under his breath, "Thank Agni."
It was a little after mid-day as they approached the town, the hottest part as the Avatar had mention several times, whining was a bit too strong of a word for it, but not by much. The two of them had stopped actually training with fire after lunch, they had known they were close to the town and hadn't wanted to risk being seen fire-bending.
Zuko didn't remember the town's name; it didn't particularly matter to him either. It was relatively simple, arranged around an open bazaar at the center of the town, the town was really mostly a pit-stop at the edge of the desert.
The trio knew exactly where they were headed, to the marketplace/bazaar at the center. It took only a couple quiet minutes to reach the town once over the hill. And as they walked through the main road in the town, Zuko took note of the number of hotels and considerable amount of people in the relatively small town, definitely a traveler's stop.
Sokka had already been to the town, but this was the first that Aang and Zuko had seen of it. While the Avatar was looking around excitedly despite his mild exhaustion, hat tied tightly on his head and covering his arrow; Zuko was only glancing around carefully with his good eye, keeping his head down to keep his face in as much shadow as possible.
When they reached the bazaar, something caught both of the older boy's eyes, a wooden structure in the center of the rough circle of stalls.
A message board.
Their gazes met for a moment, Sokka glanced over at it and the small number of people around it once before bringing his gaze back to Zuko's. An unspoken agreement passed between them, and, pulling his hat lower on his face, Zuko walked over towards the board.
"Hey Sokka! Look! Fresh… leachy… nuts? Huh? Where's-?"
The older boy elbowed Aang, "Shhh. Exnay on the amenay."
"Oh, right. Still…" the Avatar glanced over at the former prince of fire.
"He's going to check to see if there's new stuff on us, see if Katara was actually right about there being a problem and all that…"
"Oh. Right."
I strode into the shadow of the message board, keeping one hand on my hat and the other on the hilt of my broadswords even as I scanned over the various wanted posters and announcements with my good eye.
There was a full body wanted poster for the Avatar, a newer one that had him in the clothes he had worn on the Day of Black Sun and the newer version of his glider. And apparently an even higher bounty, it was 10,000 gold pieces now, a good thousand more than before.
Unfortunately, there was one for me as well, though it only had my face from the front and a profile. It had likely been put up with the Avatar's. It surprised me to see that my father had posted a bounty on my head for nearly eight thousand gold pieces.
But, before I could find any other posters, a harsh whisper beside me caught my attention.
"Dude! That bounty is huge! It's almost as much as the Avatars!"
'Damn!' The speaker was on my bad side, so I couldn't get a good look at him without giving away the fact that I had heard him. But I could still tell that the man had a hunting knife and was covered head to toe in leather armor, despite the considerable heat.
"Hn," the man was speaking to another swaddled in a large cloak with a hat similar to the one that I myself was wearing.
My hand tightened around the handle of my swords, ready to draw them the moment the two of them attacked.
"I mean, come on man! It's totally not fair! How come you get this huge bounty and I get diddly squat?"
I froze, blinking stupidly for just a moment, my hand gripping my swords going slack for just a moment before tightening again; I turned my head just a bit so I could get a better look at whoever these people were.
The first speaker, his voice still a loud whisper continued, gesturing wildly at a wanted poster, "Seriously! I've been traveling with you for almost three years now!"
I assessed the threat of this man as he rambled on, he was tall, his nose could easily clear the top of my head; but he was thin, even with the full suit of leather armor on he seemed to be only as thick around as the Avatar. So he would have reach…
"We've done plenty of things worthy of a bounty!"
I took note of the hunting knife strapped to his thigh; it was almost a full hand long and as broad as his palm. It looked to be more of a utility knife… not something you would consider fighting with. Upon closer inspection I realized that there were a number of leather water pouches hidden amongst the rest of the leather.
"How come you get one and I don't?"
He was probably a waterbender. Considering he was complaining about not having a bounty, he had to have a weapon, and hat knife just didn't cut it. So he had to be a bender.
When I realized the thought that just passed through my head I had to stifle a groan, that pun was completely unintended
When his companion's hand parted the large cloak to point at another poster on the wall, my eyes snapped to him.
The taller one gasped excitedly and snatched the poster from the board even as I finished my bit of threat assessment.
This one was shorter, maybe half a palm taller than the Avatar. He carried no visible weapons, but the thought of fighting him made me uneasy. If he had such a high bounty he had to be able to defend himself from bounty hunters... but...
There were way too many unknowns with him, I could assume that his companion was a waterbender, but it was mid-day, and I had been able to beat Katara, a master waterbender in the early morning. I had nothing to fear from the waterbender, but the other…
I couldn't tell if he was carrying a weapon or not with that weather worn cape wrapped around him like that, nor could I see if he was wearing armor.
"Dude!" my eyes jumped back up to the taller one as he started whispering excitedly again, "I. Have. A bounty! Sweet!"
When I started to roll my eyes, the other stranger turned his head towards me, I froze when our eyes met, his gray-green eyes narrowed some, flicking to my wanted poster on the wall then back to me.
He knew who I was. Now was he going to raise the alarm? Or was he going to take me in? Wait, he couldn't take me in if he had a bounty on himself…
As Zuko walked up towards the message board, Sokka and Aang tried their best not to look suspicious as they kept an eye on their friend.
Sokka was particularly glad there weren't many people around the message board at the time, most everyone seemed to be getting lunch or moving around in the market actually buying things. Now, if there hadn't been anyone near the message board, Sokka might've considered just going around shopping, but as it was, there was way too great of a risk that Zuko would be recognized if a wanted poster of him was up there.
Everything seemed to be going just fine with Zuko up there looking over the posters and messages, but when the prince suddenly tensed, Aang and Sokka both did the same. Sokka's hand going to the handle of his sword even as Aang gripped his staff all the tighter.
When the prince looked over at the only others at the message board, Sokka nudged Aang and jerked his head slightly in the former prince of fire's direction. At the airbender's nod, the two fo them started walking towards their companion.
There were only two other people at the message board other than their friend, one tall and thin, the other short and cloaked. Sokka noted a large, bone-white container between them.
As they approached, they could hear the taller of the two men near Zuko whispering excitedly, "Dude! This is totally awesome! I mean, I finally have a bounty!"
At this, the pair of old friends stopped, all thoughts of fighting their way out of a town full of bounty hunter's after them blown out of their heads for just a moment, "Uhhh..."
"There they are!"
But that didn't last too long.
The entire group at the message board turned to find almost twenty fire-nation solders running down one of the four main streets leading to the Bazaar.
"Fire!"
The front line of solders leapt forward and threw out a fist, their fireballs fusing into a wall of fire sent streaming at the group.
Aang started to raise his staff, Sokka and Zuko began to draw their swords, but the tall stranger flew into motion, spinning around and throwing out his palm. A gray stream of distorted air blasting forth and blasting a hole in the wall of fire before it passed them.
In the moments it took for the members of the Gaang to ready their weapons, the flames passed harmlessly around them, the trio staring at the taller of the duo.
Sokka blinked in confusion, "You're an airbender?!"
"No, I'm really-"
"Fire! Fire! Burn them to the ground!"
They all turned to find another squad of firebenders running down another one of the streets, and as they readied to send a wave of fire at the group, the cloaked one spun around towards the firebenders, gripping his cloak and flaring it out, sending a dust cloud flying into the air around them, "Talk later! Run now!"
Zuko heartily agreed, taking off into the dust cloud back the direction they had come from. Soon followed by Aang, Sokka, and the man in leather armor.
The four of them flew through the streets, dodging pedestrians as they ran, Zuko and Sokka struggling to keep up with the taller man's long strides, and Aang's innate speed. The shorter man soon caught up to them, the white container strapped to his back over his cloak.
Sokka shouted out, holding his sword tightly as they ran, "Who are you guys?!"
The thin and tall guy smiled, "Name's Zak! My buddy's Shi-Zen, what about yo-?"
He was cut off when a hotel exploded as they ran by, the five of them skidding to a halt as a massive form stalked out of the dust.
"Oh CRAP!" various comic expressions of disbelief and shock ran across everyone's faces, Zuko and Shi-Zen's mostly covered.
The mountain of a man breathed in deeply as the group dashed away, a seeming beam of force shooting from the man's forehead as he exhaled forcefully, making the ground where they had just stood explode.
"It's Sparky Sparky Boom Man!"
"You guys named him that too?!"
"Duh! What else would you call him?" Zak looked at Sokka curiously even as they ran for their lives, the subject of their conversation pounding along after them.
"Uh, what about Combustion Man?"
Zak seemed to ponder this as he ran, "Hmmm..." he turned to his companion beside him, "What do you think Shizzy?"
The ground behind them exploded, "Doesn't suit him."
"Argh!" Zuko almost screamed at their stupidity, "That's not his name! His name is-"
As the former prince of fire spoke, 'Combustion Man' breathed deeply, and Shi-Zen reacted; the short man reached up, grabbing his hat and did a spinning leap, throwing the almost disc-like hat at the bounty hunter. The hat intercepting the bounty hunter's explosive beam, detonating it prematurely and cutting off Zuko.
Shi-Zen skidded to a halt, facing the bald man as he plowed his way through the dust and smoke, "Go! I'll hold him!"
Sokka, Aang, and Zuko skidded to a halt, "What?! Are you crazy!?"
"Don't stop!" Zak grabbed the two older boys collars and began dragging them off, "He didn't say he'd beat him! He said he'd hold him off! Now run! Run like the wind!"
The Avatar saw the intelligence of this statement and took off after them, kicking up a cloud of dust behind him.
The four soon reached the edge of the town, Zak finally letting go of the two older boys, and letting them put away their swords, "Which way?!"
Aang opened his mouth to speak, but his Sifu covered it quickly, leaning over and whispering to the Avatar, "I don't know if we can trust them enough to lead them straight to the group."
Bouncing on the balls of his feet, the thin man spun back towards them, obviously not having heard Zuko's whisper, "Well?! Shi-Zen can only hold Sparky Sparky Boom Man so long! Especially with those solders coming soon! Which way are we going?!"
Zuko pulled away from Aang and pointed past Zak, a couple degree's of of the direction of the Western air temple.
"The Air Temple! Gotcha!" Zak nodded with a smile, then turned towards Zuko again, "You're a firebender right?"
At the prince's stuttered and surprised yes, Zak simply said, "Good, hold on." The taller young man grabbed Zuko's arm and ran several feet off to the left before jumping, the ground beneath him almost exploding and sending him (and his royal cargo) flying into the air in a might leap.
It took Aang a couple seconds to shake off the surprise before he unfurled his new glider and grabbed a hold of the wings, "Sokka, hop on!"
I almost didn't believe the guy when he said he wasn't an airbender, but now, as I flew my glider through the air after him with Sokka on top, I did. He was somehow using mist to launch himself into the air with each leap, and then pulled it after him, condensing it back into water to cushion his landing and launch himself back into the air.
A grin spread on my face at where Sifu Hotman was, piggy-back riding on the much taller Zak.
Eventually, when Zak landed, he didn't launch into the air again. I was able to circle down to the ground beside him in time to see Zuko clamber off his back and watch him bend a good bit of water into various pouches placed all over his body.
The loud -whump- of Sokka hitting the ground beside me with a scream made me look over. He raised a hand from his place face-first in the ground, "Aang... don't land like that again please? You lost me on the dive."
"Oh, sorry," I knew I didn't sound apologetic, but there were other things to worry about.
"Okay," I retracted my staff and pointed it at our new companion, "How do you know about the air temple?"
"Oh, that's easy, it's pretty famous, Shizzy and me were headed there anyways."
This got Sokka's attention, "What?!"
And Zuko's, "Why?!" my Sifu took a hold of Zak's shoulder and turned him so that Zuko could glare at him.
The leather clad bender held up his hands defensively, "Easy! Easy. We had heard that the Avatar was still alive, so we were coming to offer you guys our help."
Sokka held up a finger, using his serious voice and face, "Wait, what makes you think that we're with the Avatar?"
Zak pointed a finger at me, though he looked straight at Sokka, "Arrow and airbending, last I checked, that meant he was the Avatar."
I smiled sheepishly even as Sifu Hotman and Sokka glared at the tall bender for a long moment. Then Sokka grabbed Zuko and me and dragged us off to the side in a huddle, whispering to us, "What do you guys think? Is he telling the truth?"
"I dunno, I think he is, but he could just be a good liar."
Sifu Hotman gave his opinion, "I'm not sure, but I think he's telling the truth, I'd be willing to risk bringing him and his buddy to the temple so that Ms. Bei Fong-"
I held up a finger to correct my Sifu, "Toph."
"... so that Toph can tell for sure whether he's lying or not."
We all looked back at the tall bender, who had sat down cross legged on the hot dirt and was cleaning an ear out with his pinky with a bored expression on his face.
Then we put our heads together again, Sokka speaking up, "Alright, we trust him for now then?" he glanced at Zuko and I for confirmation, "Okay, break!" he clapped his hands together, getting weird looks from Zuko and I.
I could almost see the sweat roll down the side of his face, "Sorry."
The trio walked up to Zak, Sokka taking the lead, "Okay, we'll take you with us, but we've got our eyes on you!" he pointed his finger threateningly at the sitting bender, whose head still came almost up to Sokka's shoulder.
With a grin, Zak popped up from his place on the ground, "Great! Now we've just got to wait for Shizzy to catch up!"
"Uh... about that..." the Avatar scratched the back of his head, "Are you actually sure he'll be able to catch up with us? Our entire group could barely escape Sparky Sparky Boom Man... what makes you think that your friend can?"
"He's done it before. Shizzy'll just defend himself and put himself in between us and Sparky Sparky Boom Man, when he thinks he's given us enough time to escape, he'll just sink into the ground and follow after us."
Sokka looked up at Zak skeptically, "How would he be able to track us?"
"He knows how to follow after the indentations my jumps make."
The trio exchanged a glance, excluding the tall bender, before Zuko spoke up, "How long till he catches up?"
Zak thought about his answer for a moment, glancing at the sun to gauge the amount of time that had passed, "I'd say a couple minutes, maybe ten or so."
Five minutes later, the four of them were sitting down in a rough circle, or square depending on how you looked at it, when Aang looked over at the considerably taller young man next to him, "Uh, Zak?"
"Hm? What is it?" the bender stopped fiddling with his gloves and turned towards Aang.
"How did you do that stuff back there? You're a waterbender right? So how did you airbend? I thought only I could bend more than one element..."
"I told you before, I'm not an airbender, I can't airbend. What I was doing back there was steam-bending, it's like... the opposite of bending water into ice. It's one of the reasons Shizzy and I wanted to try and join up with you, we both bend our elements in a sorta funky way."
Zuko spoke up, "So you think that you can teach the Avatar more about waterbending?"
Zak nodded, "And Shi-Zen can teach him more about earthbending-"
"I got it!" Aang grinned wildly, "When he was throwing up the dust and stuff he was bending the dirt into the air! I never thought to use earthbending like that!"
The Avatar, about to continue, stopped, his bald brow furrowing some, "Wha-?" His head turned back to the direction of the town.
Hands went to hilts of weapons all around, "What is it?"
"I... it feels like there's a fish leaping towards us through the dirt..."
This made Zak relax immediately, "Oh, that's just Shi-Zen."
The confused looks he got made the leather-covered bender open his mouth to try and explain, but he closed it and shook his head, "You'll see."
With that, the four of them turned to look in the direction of the town, waiting patiently to see what in spirits name their newest companion was doing. They didn't have to wait long, Aang couldn't feel the vibrations through the ground half as far as Toph could, and apparently Shi-Zen was moving pretty fast.
The cloaked earthbender was leaping from the dirt and diving back beneath it, reminding Sokka of the dolphins that had occasionally came close to his home at the South Pole, only with dirt instead of water...
With a final leap, the cloaked bender landed in front of the group with a solid boom as his feet hit the ground. The bone-white container held in a hand by one of the various straps attached to it.
He shook himself off just a bit, dust seeming to fall out of a number of places, then he swept his eyes over the group, "You three trust us enough to let us tag along?"
"Yep," Aang smiled at the man as the group stood up.
"Wow..." the cloaked bender tossed the container to his considerably taller friend, who caught it with a grunt, then strapped it onto his back, "Thank you, we'll try not to betray that trust."
"And to make ourselves useful!" Zak grinned some, "Now, uh... which way to the temple?"
A.N.): And that's the end of the second chapter! Yes, those two are OC's, but I'm going to try very hard to make them Original characters, and not Mary Sues. Please bear with me! This story will take time to develop...
Demetria912: Thank you, I had to rack my brain for a good yet different way to get the story rolling in the direction I wanted, it looks like it worked.
theupdaters: Hey! You never asked for permision to even court the story! Give it back! (though seriously, thank you... I still want my story back from the honeymoon right now though)
AvatarAiris: Thanks, Sokka makes my job of injecting humor and life into the story much easier actually, I can use his spontenaity to my advantage, which I do .
Moocow: Whoever you are, thanks, though I think this story will end up Zutara, I try very hard to keep the character's in character. So any romance is going to take a while to develop.
TVMaster2000: Thank you for the constructive criticism, but there's sorta a reason for that. I couldn't just jump into what the summary talks about without some development, and I can't think of a better summary that doesn't scream OCs! at the reader, and I'll be honest, most people wouldn't even give the story a chance if they knew it had OCs, so I tried to avoid mentioning them. The story is Adventure/Humor for a reason, 'cause I can't write very good romance and 'cause it will take a while for the romance to show up.
Anyways! Reviews are appreciated! Constructive criticism is loved! Be honest and harsh if you have to to express your thoughts.
