Disclaimer: Do not own Avatar. Do not own Batman elements.

Without further ado:

The Phoenix Reborn: Part 1

Present Day:

It was a beautiful day in the Fire Nation Capital. Sun shining, but not too hot. Cool winds, but not too windy. Just the right amount of clouds to make some shade, but not too humid. All in all, nearly perfect – the kind of day that made it hard not to be cheerful. Which made Team Avatar's current situation all that more harrowing – Zuko's urgent letter had been anything but cheerful. He hadn't gone into much detail, but the message was clear: to arrive as quickly as they could, as a matter of life and death. Naturally, they had packed up everything on Appa right away and sped off to the Fire Nation as fast as possible, hoping everything was alright.

Upon arriving thinks seemed normal enough: they were directed to the main court of the palace, where several nobles, generals, and important civilians were lounging and chatting – it looked as though a major meeting had just taken place. They scanned the area for any sign of Zuko, and were about to reluctantly question one of the guests, several of whom were staring at them unpleasantly, when suddenly he popped up behind them.

Zuko greeted them as kindly as always, but his appearance did little to reassure them. It looked as though he hadn't been sleeping for quite some time: he had bags under his eyes and he looked very pale – and it was obvious that if it wasn't for the combined effort of Mai and all the handmaidens in the palace forcing him to groom himself on a regular basis he probably would have looked a lot worse. And yet despite his obvious stress, he tried to remain as spirited as he could muster.

"Hey guys," he asked right away, "how has the 'vacation' been going?"

After the defeat of Fire Lord Ozai several months previous, Team Avatar, and occasion Zuko when he could make it, went on a sort of "vacation," really another trip from place to place around the world, helping people, spreading the word of the war's end, and trying to cultivate peace. It was a not-so-surprisingly arduous job, which is why they mixed helping people with taking in the sights, having adventures, and generally having fun as friends – the same as they would before. However, as time went on Zuko could join them less and less as his duties in the Fire Nation began calling more and more urgently, and eventually he stopped joining them at all: at first they thought his letter was to tell them he would meet them, but it just left them in confusion.

"Never mind that," Katara replied, "what's going on? And why do you look so beat down?"

Zuko frowned and sighed, "I can't talk to you about it here – in fact, I'm not even sure it's wise for you to have arrived like this…"

"Well, in case you forgot, oh Mighty Fire Lord, you invited us!" Toph near shouted, glowering. Several people were turning their noses up at her shoeless feet, and it was starting to annoy her.

Zuko cringed. "Yeah, well…" He looked around, spotting a few people in the court that he apparently would rather not have listening in, and frowned. One or two of them noticed and pretended to ignore him, though it was obvious they were paying attention. One other man, a slightly overweight noble with grayish hair, smirked slyly at him and started walking over. Zuko's eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"… meet me outside in the courtyard – nobody should be around there now. I have to take care of this, I'll see you in a few minutes."

The gang exchanged a nervous glance and shuffled out of the hall – Aang and Katara taking up the rear as the customary rush of people clamored to greet the Avatar. Sokka and Toph rolled their eyes and smirked as the two were swamped by stuffy nobles who wanted to top off their day by telling everyone they knew they had shaken hands with Avatar Aang, and hurried out before someone recognized them as Sokka of the Water Tribe and the Earthbending Master Toph Bei Fong – which they definitely didn't want for patience's sake.

Attention for their efforts varied, but Sokka knew the less unnecessary interaction with the Fire Nation's privileged the better. Aang tended to get respect wherever they went simply for being the Avatar, even if in the Fire Nation it was mostly false praise hiding disdain, but here the rest of them got derision at best. He and Katara, particularly, got large amounts of disrespect for being so integral in the fall of the old regime – the kingdom, particularly it's elite, was a long ways away from adapting to the change from being the most dominant of the four nations. Katara had even had the nerve to personally depose ex-Fire Lady Azula, though as the Avatar's "significant other" people were generally forced to act like they respected her. Sokka, on the other hand, got everything from condescension for being a so-called powerless peasant who dared to stand among the elite to outright contempt for daring to be such and yet still plan the destruction of the most powerful vessels in the Fire Nation fleet. Never mind that he had helped invent the technology behind those airships in the first place! In any case, he supposed he ought to get used to dealing with snobbishness – he already had to get used to being the least recognized among the gang, and had seen prejudice all his life, plus his father had been training him and his sister to represent the Water Tribes to other nations, but at the moment he wanted no more contact than was strictly necessary. Which, unfortunately, meant leaving Aang in the lurch every once in a while.

And due to having been left in said lurch, Aang and Katara arrived in the courtyard several minutes later than their two friends. As they walked up Momo found a tree and happily leapt into it's leaves, with a mood completely the opposite of his owners.

"Thanks for the help, guys!" Aang grumbled as they arrived, both looking sour.

"Hey, you gotta get used to that kind of thing eventually, twinkletoes," Toph said unabashedly as she lounged on a nearby bench, rubbing her feet.

Sokka smirked. "Yeah, Aang. You're the Avatar. You'll be shaking hands and kissing babies for the rest of your life!" Sokka turned to his sister with a mock-motherly tone, "and if you're serious about this whole 'being together' thing you're going to have to get used to the limelight too, young lady."

Katara gave Sokka a look that could melt ice, but Aang just shrugged, "doesn't mean we want to start now."

Katara looked at him and her face softened. Ever since their kiss after Ozai's defeat, they had been ever closer, and she found it ever harder to be angry around him. "Alright," she said briskly, "we'll get you back for that later. Right now I think we should focus on what's going with Zuko."

"What's there to focus on?" Toph had yet to move from her relaxation, "it's not like we know anything."

"But I gotta admit," Sokka said, "it's pretty odd. Zuko's usually pretty relaxed when dealing with those snakes, but now he seemed almost panicked."

"Something must be up," Aang said ominously. Nobody moved to disagree. There was a moment's silence.

Eventually, Toph spoke up. "I just wish he'd hurry it up – it's not like we have all day," she was as blasé as always, but they could hear the tiniest bit of nervousness even in her voice.

After that, nobody seemed to think of anything to say: whatever was going on, it was weighing on all their minds. Unable to think of anything to say, they all just stood around (or sat, in Toph's case) uneasily, waiting for the Fire Lord to come out and give them some kind of information about what was going on.

It was nearly a half hour before Zuko strolled wearily into the courtyard, looking both morose and relieved at the same time. He motioned for them to follow him into the most heavily shaded area, looking around to see if anyone unwanted was lurking around. Satisfied that they were completely alone, he turned to his friends with a half-smile on his face.

"So… I hope your trip was-"

"Enough, Zuko," Katara said, giving the boy a stern glare, "Spill it, what's going on?"

Zuko sighed deeply, as if he was hoping he wouldn't have to say it aloud so soon, "someone broke my father and Azula out of prison last week."

"WHAT?" Everyone shouted. Toph jumped up from the new bench she found and joined the rest in the middle of the alcove.

"Do you know who did it? Where did they go?" Sokka pressed, his mind brimming with terrible possibilities.

"We don't know – whoever it was, they were organized, skilled, and powerful. The security around them stood no chance, yet despite brazenly attacking two of the most guarded prisons in the Fire Nation they managed to escape nearly without a trace. Luckily, a pair of very dedicated guards managed to break away from the destruction and follow them. That's the only good news – hopefully they'll be able to send a messenger hawk with their destination soon."

Everyone's faces mirrored the same somber expression: this was not good by any stretch of the imagination. "But I don't get it," Katara said after a pause, "why all the secrecy? I would think you'd be publically asking for the Avatar's help with something like this going on!" The others, minus Sokka who was still in thought, nodded in agreement.

Zuko sighed again, choosing his words carefully. It was a long moment before he spoke. "Things… aren't that good here these days. You might have noticed, but many, especially people with clout, didn't take well to us falling into peacetime and cooperation – there are many who think I'm leading us to weakness. Don't panic," he added hastily, as the gang looked alarmed, "I'm not in much danger of losing the country. Yet, anyway. But there are people out there, people with connections, and they're just looking for a scandal like this to show I'm not fit to lead us into the future: the two threats to the stability of the empire on the loose and me having to run to the Avatar for help… it would be the perfect impetus for them to claim I was weak and rally forces against me. The last thing I want to do if fight down my own people."

Everyone looked grim at this news, except Katara, who was visibly furious. "What?" she shouted – Zuko winced and motioned for her to keep her voice down, which she did reluctantly, "Don't they realize how much a threat those two are to everyone? To the whole world?"

"Katara, all these people care about is their own personal power, and as an expansionist power they stand to be much more powerful than as peaceful diplomats. And I can't just remove them all wholesale from power – I want to be a better ruler than my father, and I can't do so by forcibly making the nation follow my bidding, that would incite rebellion even faster" Zuko explained, adding the last part as Katara moved to interrupt. She nodded with bitter understanding.

"That's the same reason I didn't ask you, Aang, or any of you for help publically," he continued, "the man I talked to in the hall is the leader many of the more opposed nobles rally behind. A smug, greedy snake who's trying as hard as he can to keep the Fire Nation as it was. He's recently been spreading around a big anti-foreigner sentiment: he makes the claim that under my rule the Fire Nation will become subservient to the other nations, and as a result many want little if any interference from others in Fire Nation affairs. He and his cronies could very easily twist your help with this problem to their own ends."

"Seems convenient," Sokka noted, holding his chin thoughtfully.

Zuko grinned ironically. "Yes. It does, doesn't it?"

"So, if we can't help, why are we here?" Aang asked, liking the situation less and less.

"Because I'm only going to appease them so far. I am going to show them I can take care of my country: I will be going to track down my father myself, and stop whatever he's planning."

"By yourself?" They all gaped at him in shock, Katara voicing what they were all thinking.

"Are you crazy?" Toph added.

"Not only do you have your father and Azula to deal with," Katara continued, "but whoever broke them out, and I'm willing to bet they'll be dangerous!"

"I know, I know," despite it all, Zuko was heartened that his friends, at least, cared so much about his welfare, "but it's a given that my father is in charge of whatever is going on, but he still has no bending." He nodded at Aang for emphasis, who returned the gesture, "and he'll probably be using Azula as some sort of second, but she's still… off…" he shared a quick glance with Katara, the only one who would really know what he was talking about, "and that just leaves his mysterious liberators."

"Those odds still don't look good Zuko," Aang said, unconvinced, "you'll need some help."

"Don't worry, I don't plan on going alone. I can't publically ask you all for help, but there are ways around that."

Sokka's eyes lit up, as he caught on first, "Ah! A secret sort of thing, eh?" Zuko grinned at him.

"You guessed it. I can't publically as you for help, but I can take one of you with me in disguise as my own agent."

Aang stepped forward right away, "then I'll-"

"No, Aang. It can't be you. Nor you Katara, or you Toph. Your bending would give everything away: even if you used Firebending Aang," he added when Aang began to disagree, "the wrong people would recognize who my partner was merely because they know all the firebenders I would ask, and know that they weren't there. No, I need a combatant who won't be recognized."

"But, if you can't use any of us," Toph started slowly, "then that leaves…" Everyone's eyes moved towards Sokka, who looked stunned.

Zuko nodded. "Yes, I-" He didn't get far before Katara angrily interrupted him.

"What? Just you and Sokka versus a band of crooks strong enough to take down whole prisons, your father and Azula? This might be the stupidest idea you've ever had, and you've had some pretty bad ideas!" Zuko winced, but he understood why she was so worked up about this. There might have been a time years and years ago that he would have been as protective of Azula. "What makes you think Sokka won't be as easily recognized as the rest of us?"

"Well, he's still pretty distinctive…" Zuko said slowly, looking over his candidate, "but his lack of bending would make it less likely for him to stick out. Plus, you've been trained by Piandao, haven't you?" Sokka nodded. "That's not exactly common knowledge, and as his student your style is reminiscent enough of his that most would think you were a native warrior."

Katara was not so easily mollified. "Oh really? Well, if you need a warrior, why don't you get someone from the Fire Nation army? Heck, why don't you get your girlfriend to help – she's certainly given us a run for our money one or twice, I'm sure she can handle an army. And speaking of which, why not get her to contact Ty Lee and contact Suki and the Kyoshi Warriors! They're not benders!"

"Katara," Sokka said indignantly – he was starting to get annoyed that she was talking to him as though he wasn't there. "You already know Suki and the Kyoshi Warriors are busy with aid all over the Earth and Water nations. I am in heavy contact with her, you know." Katara sighed briefly through her angry – she had forgotten about that, and she realized Sokka was angered by her trying to drag Suki into danger in his place. "They can't spare anyone – and I'm sure Zuko's tried, right?" He gestured to Zuko, who nodded hastily, and added more before Katara could argue again.

"Plus, I know she can take care of herself – trust me, I do – but I'm not going to pull her into this. I love her, you can't blame me for being protective," he winced, realizing he had just touched on the same reason for Katara's fury, but didn't back down, "And as for someone from the army, you know as well as I do that the average Fire Nation soldier is nowhere near the level of any of you, and pretty much all the more skilled soldiers are either of questionable allegiance or busy with the White Lotus – you know as well as I do that everyone is busy with aid or post-war politics. You're the only ones I can trust… so what do you say, Sokka?"

"You know what I say?" Katara yelled before Sokka could get a word out. "This is ridiculous – it's far too dangerous a plan for just two people-"

"Sis."

"- You two are outnumbered and way in over your head, so if you think I'm going to-"

"Sis."

"-let you two go running off to get yourself killed, you've got another thing coming, and I-"

"KATARA!" Everyone jumped as Sokka lost his patience. Katara stopped and stared open eyed at her brother, as if pleading him to agree with her. "Katara, this sounds like a solid plan. Well, maybe not solid," he chuckled, "but it sounds like the best option we've got right now. We have to do this: Ozai and Azula could do who knows what to the world, and Zuko needs backup." He walked forward and held her hand reassuringly, "You don't always have to take care of me – I am a warrior of the Water tribe, you know. Plus, me and Zuko have taken on a whole prison before…" he and Zuko shared a smirk, "well… we had Suki, but you get the point. We can handle whatever they can throw at us." He turned to Zuko and nodded determinedly, "I'll do it."

Katara looked down worriedly, but seeing Sokka's logic and determination she knew she couldn't stop him. Aang noticed her expression, and though he knew as well as she did that at this point this was basically going to happen no matter what, he felt he had to say something. "But what about the rest of us?"

"Yeah!" Toph said, punching her fist into her other palm, "if you think we're going to just sit here while you guys get all the fun you've got another thing coming."

Zuko grinned. "Wouldn't dream of it. You guys are backup. If things go too badly, to heck with politics: I'm not letting my father get away. If we end up in trouble, I'll send a message back to you to bring in the cavalry – if it comes to that, we'll settle it as it comes. But first we're going to try and settle this as stealthily as possible."

Toph snorted, not fully believing things could go that well. "With Sokka's luck, you'll be calling us within five minutes of getting there."

"Hey!"

Everyone else laughed, and with that the tension finally began to fade away. "So…" Zuko said to Sokka after he finished chuckling, "all we need is a decent disguise for you to hide behind. Any ideas?"

"Not really…" Sokka rubbed his chin thoughtfully, but nothing came to mind right away. It's not like he could fool the ex-Pheonix Lord by walking up to him as Wang Fire, and there was nothing besides that except… a memory of an altercation in the woods sprang to the top of his memory. "Wait! There is something. A little… er… outfit I was working on while I was getting ready for the invasion." He reddened as Aang, Toph and Katara looked at him curiously… with a few sly smiles he didn't appreciate. "But it abandoned it – it covered up too much and plus I'm not exactly good at seamistry…"

"Who knew? Sokka was taking up sewing!"

"Hey! Anyways, it's not all that well made."

"I can imagine," Zuko chuckled.

"Hey!"

"But," he continued, "it's a start. I can trust most of the handmaidens, the royal tailor is a good friend, and Piandao has a few blacksmiths he recommended to me. We can have a full suit made up for you in no time – which is good, because we need to work as quickly as possible. Do you have the design with you?"

"Yeah," Sokka said, "in fact, we can get started now. Let's go."

Aang interrupted as the two turned to leave. He was starting to feel useless, and he always hated that, "So wait, what should the rest of us do?"

"While Sokka and I are doing anything related to this, and especially while we're out tracking my father down, just act like you're here to check on the kingdom. People might be hostile towards you, but no one will suspect anything different. And always act like Sokka's with you," Aang crossed his arms while Toph rolled her eyes – that much was obvious, "Heh… sorry. I guess you already knew that. Anyways, most importantly, for the love of all that is holy don't tell Mai anything, anything at all, about what's going on. She doesn't know what I'm planning to do about this, and she'd rather lock me up than let me do this on my own."

"I know the feeling," Katara grumbled.

Zuko smiled, "no offense, Katara, but Mai a bit more terrifying than you are. I don't want to face her wrath if I don't have to."

Katara was not impressed by his attempt at light humor: she narrowed her eyes at him, daring him to imply she wasn't terrifying again. Zuko laughed nervously, looking around for support which didn't come: Aang and Toph were wisely staying out of it. Finally, Sokka noticed his friend's distress and, figuring it would be counterproductive if his sister killed him, pulled him along.

"Come on, we have to work quickly don't we?" he said quickly, tugging Zuko out of the courtyard, "Don't wait up guys, we'll be back!"

The three watched Sokka and Zuko walk away in uneasy silence. This was a lot to absorb, and a whole lot worse than they had even expected when they arrived. None of them were completely confident about this plan, even if it was the best they could come with.

But Toph wasn't about to let distress take over her or her friends' minds. "Well, you heard the man!" she said starkly, "Let's mingle!"

There was an unenthusiastic rumble of agreement at the thought of entering the rabble of pompous nobles and veiled prejudice again, but they had to do what they had to do. The trio turned and walked back to the hall, Aang and Toph taking up the lead, as they didn't notice Katara hanging back. She looked back worriedly at where Zuko and Sokka had walked off to, not liking the situation at all. As if on cue, Momo dropped down from a tree above her and landed on her shoulder, chittering at her anxiously.

"Yeah… I know Momo," she said, rubbing the lemur as she walking off after her friend and boyfriend, "This doesn't look good."

"This is your design?"

"Hey!" Sokka protested as he showed Zuko his all-the-more-embarrassingly floppy Wolfbat headdress, "It was a while ago, and I told you I'm not that good with that whole knitting stuff. Cut me some slack!"

"No, sorry, I mean I was surprised! When you said you had something I didn't expect something so creative," Zuko explained (another "hey!" from Sokka, but Zuko ignored him), "we can work with this – Wolfbats are common in many places, even in the Fire Nation, but they're still pretty intimidating. It'd work well for the kind of secretive warrior we need.

Sokka raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I did make it, you know."

"Ah… heh… yeah. Sorry," Zuko stammered, and the two broke into some more refreshingly tension breaking laughter, "Anyways, we can get this to the royal tailor right away. Combine it with some light body armor and a few weapons, and we're set."

"Sounds like a plan. When will it be done?"

"I've been preparing a bit for this, so they're already partially working on it. If we get to work now, we should be done by tomorrow."

"Perfect!" Sokka beamed, "then what are we waiting for? Let's go get me fitted! To the tailor, chum!"

If they weren't looking forward to spending time with the Fire Nation's elite before, actually being there mingling with them only made things worse. Granted, several of them were polite, and a couple downright genial, but the sad fact was the majority of them were downright unpleasant. Poorly hidden sneers, scowls, and scoffs, veiled insults, and an air of not-so-subtle rejected met them as soon as they entered the room: to be expected, since they were directly responsible for the loss of their nation's world domination (and their own respective payoffs) not half a year before, but it still hurt.

In general they decided to stay out of the way of the worst of them. Toph when straight to the food being served and pigged out, not caring about who might be watching, while Aang and Katara stayed together and chatted with some of the politer nobles – like they had found while they were travelling through the Fire Nation in the past year, not all of them were nasty or even antagonistic, far from it. But as the most connected citizens of the nation, most of them lost a lot in the transition to peacetime, so even the ones who agreed with the dissolving of the imperial powers were a little bitter – but they could tell the politest ones from the rest as those who weren't afraid to state this and actually get into a conversation regardless: several others would keep a veneer of culture while tossing insults their way.

Nevertheless, they had as good a time as they could, and were even starting to enjoy it: a few of the more adventurous nobles were curious about Aang's Avatar abilities and had asked him to show them some of the power that had defeated the Phoenix King, and if there was anything Aang loved it was a little innocent showing off. Katara rolled her eyes and took a few steps back, fully expecting Aang to start with a few air-ball tricks, when suddenly he was interrupted by a stiff hand on his shoulder.

Aang's eyes widened, and he almost took off with the mystery person still hanging onto his back. He stumbled, but managed to stop himself. He turned to see who had interrupted him, and his eyes met that of a slightly aged man with gray hair and a pronounced stomach: the same man Zuko had been talking to earlier, the one who had been causing him so much trouble politically. Aang's eyes narrowed, but he didn't say anything.

The man didn't seem to notice or care that he had almost been flung into the air. Instead, he stared impassively at the young bender, as if shaping him up. His eyebrows were thin and leering, and his mouth was carefully set. Noticing the young man in front of him wasn't going to say anything after a few moments, he spoke in a brusque but conversational tone. "Well well well, if it isn't the Avatar…"

"Yeah… that's me," Aang said, much politer than most would have been, "pleased to meet you."

"Of course," he replied. He smiled, but it seemed practiced rather than natural. He did not introduce himself. "What brings you here, oh great Avatar." The title came out almost mockingly, but Aang decided not to let it faze him.

"Just checking on things, making sure everything's stable and… y'know… stuff like that," Aang suddenly felt sheepish. He did not have much experience with the kind of duties and responsibilities he would have as the Avatar, and this man was the last person he wanted to see that.

"Yes, the political situation here is… tenuous at best," the emotionless smile on his face widened. Aang decided this man was commendably good at faking civility when he needed to, "but luckily there are those of us here who want to help us get out of this… situation… we've found ourselves in all for the better, yes?" His eyes bored into Aang's calculatingly.

"Yeah…" Aang couldn't stop his eyes from narrowing again: even if he hadn't already known this man was trouble, he would have gotten a bad read off of him. Unfortunately, he noticed and his face soured for a moment. Fortunately, Katara had made her way back to him and backed him up, standing beside Aang and meeting the man with an equally suspicious glare. He seemed unfazed.

"Ah, and this must be the Water Tribe girl who fought alongside our Fire Lord," his eyes were cold as stone, and his smile turned nasty, "aren't there usually two of you?" he said with a definite jeer in his voice.

Katara clenched her fists behind her back. Aang grabbed her hand and held it to help her calm down, but she could still barely keep the anger out of her voice. "My brother," she clarified, "is here somewhere. He intended to see about how your army's demilitarizing."

She smirked as her explanation hit paydirt – the man looked furious that the Water Tribe boy would dare pass judgment on the Fire Nation's military, which was a good sign that he believe it. "Yes, yes…" he said, not letting his obvious anger enter his voice and instead keeping his false cheerfulness, "well, I suppose he has a lot to be interested in. Our military has things others in the world can only dream of."

The two resisted the urge to point out that they had probably seen everything the Fire Nation's military had to offer and beaten it all, and instead nodded vaguely. The man's smile became a lot more smug, unaware that they were silently laughing to themselves.

Suddenly, he glanced to the side and laughed with a noise like one rock scraping against another. "Goodness, it that yours?" Aang and Katara followed his gaze to the feast table, where Toph was busy eating through some of the tastier finger foods. She wasn't making a mess, but she wasn't being particularly reserved either – just like always – and the man apparently found this extremely funny, "look at that, no shoes at all, what a scene! Heh, those Earthbenders, so... nuanced. Do you know her?"

This time both Aang and Katara had to hold their anger back – they squeezed each other's hands for the strength to calm down. "She's a friend," Aang replied coldly, "A very good friend. A master Earthbender in fact."

The man still looked amused, but saw in their eyes that he had crossed some kind of line and didn't continue the issue. "I see… well, anyways, on to the main reason I walked up to you… sorry if I rambled a bit." He did not look sorry at all. "Have either of you seen the Fire Lord? I have some… business I need to discuss with him."

"No, we haven't," Aang lied. "Not since we arrived."

"No? But certainly he's told you…" the man stared shrewdly at the two, obviously suspecting something.

"Told us what?" Katara replied, eyes narrowing again, "what are you talking about?"

"Come to think of it, Zuko was pretty secretive when we met," Aang said with an air of thoughtfulness.

"What do you know?"

The man's smug smile returned – he still looked suspicious, but also looked like he had heard exactly what he wanted to hear. "We'll, if the Fire Lord didn't deign it right to inform you, I don't think I should be the one to do it. Sorry to bother you, Avatar." He turned to leave, but hung his head back with one last smirk. "I think we will meet again."

"Count on it," Aang said darkly. The man did a small double take, but kept on walking away, with the two glaring after him. After he had gotten a good distance away, Aang turned and smiled at his girlfriend. "Good one, Katara! He really bought it." He leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek, and she blushed in response.

"Well, I've got a lot of experience dealing with jerks. I wouldn't've gotten through life with Sokka without it," she replied, smiling playfully. Aang laughed jovially and she smiled wider: she could hear that laugh all day. But she looked over to where their new "friend" had walked to, and her mood darkened. "He's going to be trouble, isn't he?"

"Yeah," Aang said furtively, "I think so…"

"Hey!" came a high voice from behind them. Aang and Katara jumped, and the voice, belonging to one Toph Bei Fong, laughed. "So, what did I miss?"

Aang and Katara looked at each other. They knew Toph was an expert at acting around aristocrats, especially the nastier ones, but she still didn't need to know what that man had said about her. "Nothing much. We'll fill you in on the finer points later."

"That bad, huh? This whole party is one big ball of annoying, isn't it?" she put her hands behind her head, completely bored.

"Tell us about it," Katara sighed, "hopefully whatever Sokka and Zuko are working on is worth it."

"It better be," Toph said irritatedly. "He's gotta pay us back for this somehow."

Aang nodded reasonably, "we can ask him all about it when we get back. That is, if he's there when we do." The three exchanged a look – they didn't know exactly when Sokka and Zuko would return.

As it turned out, they only had to endure two more hours of unpleasantness before they were able to inch away and back to their quarters – the Fire Lord always kept lavish rooms in their own separate section in the palace open for his friends – and when they arrived Sokka and Zuko were still not back. Without a clue what else to do, they decided to go sleep and hope they finished by morning.

"HEY GUYS! WAKE UP! YOU'VE GOT TO CHECK THIS OUT!"

Aang woke with a start and nearly crashed into the ceiling. He leaped to the floor, his heart going a mile a minute, and it took him a few moments to realize the voice outside his door belonged to Sokka. Grumbling, he grabbed some clothes and threw them on, speeding up when he remembered this meant Sokka was probably done with whatever he was doing. Annoyed as he was to be woken up like that, he was still excited to see what they had been up to.

"Hey Sokka!" he said, tearing out of his room as cheerfully as ever, "How'd it go?"

"Perfect!" Sokka beamed, "Wait 'til you see it. Let's get the girls up, shall we?" Taking a moment to verify that Aang and Katara had, in fact, slept in separate rooms, with a glare only an older brother could accomplish, he strode over to Katara's bedroom and pounded on the door, "HEY KATARA! GET YOUR BUTT OUT HERE!"

The door slammed open, revealing Katara, who was crossing her arms in annoyance, and Toph, who looked like she had just fallen out of bed. "This had better be good," Toph grumbled.

"Oh it is!" Sokka said dramatically, oblivious to everyone's irritation, "follow me if you want to be amazed!"

The others shrugged and followed behind him, through hallways and corridors and down, down many stairs. Their quarters were far above ground – luckily many of the palace walls were made of stone, so Toph could follow on her own – and they assumed they were headed to a secret room on one of the floors or something. They were thus very surprised when they reached ground level and instead of taking them to a room Sokka started fiddling with a random sculpture in one of the side halls.

"Uh… Sokka?" Aang said confusedly, "what are you doing?"

"Just gimme a minute," he replied, concentrating on something they couldn't see. He reached behind the statue's ear, looked around to make sure no one was watching, and clicked something inside its head. Suddenly the entire wall where the sculpture stood silently slid aside, revealing another set of stairs going below ground.

A collective gasp echoed from the gang, but Sokka just continued walking forward, only pausing to make sure the secret door slid closed behind them. He kept his eyes forward and was even humming to himself, while the rest of the gang looked around at the mysterious tunnel with surprise.

"Sokka, where are you taking us?" Katara asked as they reached the bottom of the long staircase, "better yet, where are we?"

"This is a cave system under the capital," Sokka said, leading them into a wide room with many passages leading out of it, "perfect for working on things in secret." He picked out a hallway from one of the many exits and led them on to another dark tunnel.

"How did you find out about this?"

"I found them in Fire Lord Sozin's memoirs," The gang - minus Toph - jumped as Zuko's voice came from out of sight – the sound echoed oddly through the tunnel, making it impossible to tell where he was. Clearing his throat, he stepped out from a side-tunnel they hadn't noticed in the darkness, "there are a bunch of caves under the city. In fact, there are tunnels under most of the major cities in the empire. Sozin was planning on using them as underground bases, I think, though my father only used them for panic rooms and hiding things, as you saw when you invaded. In fact, I don't even think my father knew about most of these, and I'm sure nobody we have to worry about knew about this section."

"It's amazing down here," Toph said, "It goes farther than I can even see! There are twists and turns everywhere! Why didn't I notice this from the surface."

"Well, we're deep, and there's metal residue on lots of the walls – like I said, Sozin was probably trying to make some sort of base down here," he replied. Toph nodded: she was the foremost expert on bending metal, but she was still working on seeing through it. "Anyways," he continued, "follow me the rest of the way, there isn't much more to go."

The gang was silent as Zuko and Sokka led them through several more turns and twists deeper into the caverns, so many only Toph could remember where they were going exactly, and that was only because she already knew the layout.

Eventually, they came to a stop in front of a seemingly innocuous dead end. "Alright, we're here," Zuko announced to general confusion.

"But…" Aang started.

"Just watch." Zuko put his hand on a conspicuous outcropping twisted it in a very exact way. On command, just like the secret wall in the palace, the dead end slid away to reveal an enormous room with several levels, though the only one being used was the one directly in front of them: several people the gang recognized as handmaidens and aides from the palace were hurrying around, organizing things and generally attending to a stand directly in front of them, on which stood a very unique suit.

"So? What do you think?" Sokka said proudly, gesturing to the outfit as though it were his pride and joy. The gang oohed and ran over to look it over.

The suit was a mix of armor and fabric in a dark grey: mostly cloth and leather, it covered in two parts all of the wearer's body, except a small part of the face. The cloth was tightly bound and tight, and a slight tap revealed that there were slight traces of metal woven in for extra protection. The top area was a long sleeved brigandine with extra plating on the torso and a slots across the waist for weapons and scabbards. The arms and legs were adorned with small braces on the forearms and ankles woven into the cloth and long climbing gloves at the ends. On the shoulders were lean guards, and between them, above the top of the brigandine, was draped a strip of solid chest armor, with a symbol of a wolfbat engraved into it. Speaking of which, the most distinctive part of the armor was the cowl, which was made of leather and covered the top of the head, leaving one the bottom half uncovered. At the top were two small ears, like that of a wolbat, standing up intimidatingly.

"We thought it would be best to have as strong an armor as we could, but to mainly focus on making it lightweight and easy to move in, in contrast with the heavy, clunky soldiers' armor," explained a man standing next to the stand, who the gang assumed as the royal tailor, or perhaps the blacksmith, "he'll be slightly less protected, but a good deal more agile, perfect for his style, as far as we've been informed…"

"I wanted to add a cape, but they all turned me down," Sokka added disappointedly.

Zuko rolled his eyes. "We told you already Sokka, in a mission like this is might get in the way." Sokka rolled his eyes right back, and gave the gang a look that told them this wasn't the last they would hear of it.

"But what about the color?" Katara asked, looking up from the armor for the first time, "Why grey? Why not blue, or even red for the Fire Nation?"

"Well, this was our idea," Zuko said, gesturing to himself and Sokka, "Giving him Water Tribe colors would be a dead giveaway, and he wanted to looks as though he were a free agent, which would make it a bit harder for him to be identified. Plus, we're focusing on stealth, and this will make him harder to see in the dead of night."

"You guys sure went to a lot of trouble…" Aang noted, looking back at the armor.

"Yeah, well… I didn't want to drag you guys into this without giving you adequate protection. It'll just be the two of us, and between the two Sokka's the most vulnerable, given the lack of bending…" Zuko looked down at the floor, ignoring another "hey!" from Sokka.

"Hmph," Sokka crossed him arms in annoyance, "Whatever. So what do you guys think?"

Toph smirked playfully at him. "I would say it looks completely ridiculous, but I think it suits you, Sokka."

"Thanks, Toph I- HEY!" the rest of the gang laughed, as well as the tailor who chuckled behind his hand. Sokka scowled, but accepted the joke with a sigh. "Well I think it's great. I can't wait to practice with this – now where did I put Boomerang?" Sokka turned to a table the rest of them hadn't noticed before, covered in weapons and trinkets.

"Sorry Sokka, but I think Boomerang might be a bit too conspicuous," Zuko said, pulling Sokka's beloved weapon out of his pocket and handing it to Katara for safe keeping, "But don't worry, we've got- huh?" One of the handmaidens from the palace had hurried to his side and whispered something in his ear. "Hmm… you tell him," he pointed to a man who could only be the blacksmith, who was fiddling with the different objects on the table. "I'll be right back." With that, he turned and quickly exited out the secret entrance.

"Yes… well," the blacksmith sound nervous, apparently he wasn't used to so much attention from both the Fire Lord and the Avatar, "Since you can't use your usual boomerang, we created a substitute." He handed Sokka a thin black weapon, weighted in places just like his boomerang, but dark to match his armor's look, with no holes in the design like his regular weapon. Sokka smiled wistfully at it – he would rather have used his tried and true Boomerang, but he supposed this was an almost worthy replacement. Satisfied that Sokka accepted the weapon, the blacksmith continued. "We've also created some backup boomerangs," he gestured to four identical copies on the table, "and alternate versions of your other weapons," he gestured further to less distinctive recreations of his club and dagger. "And the final touch, a sword crafted especially for you – one of my best!" he confidently lifted a sleek blade from the table and presented it to the young warrior.

Sokka looked down at the sword with conflicted thoughts. These weapons would work, no doubt, but his regular weapons held a special place in his heart. He had made them himself, many of them from the spoils of a hunt, and his previous sword had been double special, made from the heart thanks to a million to one encounter with metal beyond the stars. Sadly, he knew he might never see Space Sword again – they were only ever able to find Boomerang after everything went down. This would do for now – but he knew he would have to make his own replacements eventually.

He smiled at the blacksmith. "Thank you. I'll use them with pride." The man beamed at him and bowed low, gesturing for Sokka to take a look at the various weapons himself. He had just begun to test the weight of the club when Zuko tore back into the chamber, completely out of breath. Everyone's eyes turned to him, and he stared directly at the gang do deliver his solemn news.

"We've found them."

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay folks. I woke up one day and realized it was two weeks since I put in the prologues, and I hadn't written a sentence of this first part. Blame my planning mind: I've got a lot of the later stuff planned out - stuff for the second and third parts of this saga which won't even be put into this set of stories - but not so much the beginnings. So I'm making it up to you with a longer chapter than normal. I'll try to be better about this in the future.

Addendum: Some people may have noticed a thing or two that's missing from the whole "Batman" connection already - some of which won't be appearing in this at all. But don't worry, Sokka will get his cape eventually, I assure you. And his weapons shall return.