(Wouldn't it be awesome if I did own Avatar? Too bad I DON'T...)
III
The Hands of Divinity
A knock was at the front door.
The knock, so strong and unhesitative, so alive, shook the rafters of the ceiling and the boards of the floor. The knock caught Sokka completely off-guard, making him spill his glass of water all over the floor.
"Dammit!"
He got up and harshly contemplated the wet spot made on the carpet. He picked up the glass and set it on the table. Again, a knock was heard at the front door, sounding more urgent and more gruesome. It was then when Aang jumped off his seat and backed away from the door. Sokka rushed towards it and unlocked the hinges before finally spotting a tax collector on the doorsteps, arms folded across his chest.
"About time, little guy," boasted the tax collector. Sokka, without questioning the man's motives, hurried towards the kitchen to get the "ENCLOSED" envelope, then rushed back to the man and handed him what he wanted. Without saying anything else, he left the steps and jotted down the sidewalk, barely dodging a toddler tricycling his way down the street. He grimaced in an awkward fashion. Sokka stood there a while longer, seeing what other tricks this tax collector has up his sleeve. Instead, he pushed his thoughts away and shut the front door, returning to attend to the wet carpet.
"Who was that?" questioned Aang, almost whispering.
"Tax collector," responded Sokka, raising an eyebrow. "Why so curious?"
The boy flattened his lips and shook his head. "No reason."
The son's mouth slightly opened. He turned away to hide his expression, concerning Aang. Instead of proceeding towards the kitchen to get paper towels, he turned to the hallway that connected several bedrooms, including his sister's, in such a casual fashion that it disconcerned the boy, making him sit back down on the chair. Sokka turned at the many corridors that led to her sister's room before finally arriving at his destination.
He knocked on the door. The knob twisted and the door swung open, revealing Katara. She opened the door just to the point to where only her face was revealed. Discovering that the intruder was Sokka, she opened the door to a much opened point.
"What?" she asked.
"That kid!" whispered Sokka. "He's hiding something! I know it!"
Katara sighed, rolled her eyes, and attempting to shut the door while saying, "You're overreacting," but was stopped by her brother.
"I'm serious! He nearly freaked out when someone was at the front door!"
"Wait," said her sister, "Who was at the front door?"
"Tax collector."
Acknowledging her brother's theory, she finally gave in, scoffing. "Alright, alright, calm down... Then why don't you ask him where he came from?"
"You ask him!"
She widened her face and backed away from her brother. "Me? Why?"
He chuckled, "Are you serious? Can't you tell that he's totally smitten with you?"
She looked completely bewildered, sounding completely exhausted towards her brother's theories. "What are you talking about?"
Sokka placed both his hands on Katara's shoulders and shook her violently, "Open your eyes, sister!"
The common sense that Sokka threw at her sister wasn't really clear to understand. Aang did such a good job hiding his attraction towards Katara, but through any guy's eyes, you can see every thought, expression, and look that another boy hides from a girl. The point being, Aang was hiding something. The incompetent way that the boy has been acting towards Sokka has questioned his motives, and that was the last thing that Aang wanted; or was it?
"Aang," said Katara, sitting him down on the couch while taking a seat next to him herself, "We need to talk to you."
"About what?" Aang urgently asked, widening his eyes.
"See?" whispered the brother, harshly.
Katara scowled towards Sokka and resumed her questionnaire with Aang. "Um, we've been wanting to ask you..."
"Yeah?"
Her brother impatiently cut off Katara's dialogue, "Aang, where did you come from?"
And he frowned, looking down at the sister's hands, that were placed sympathetically on his own. "I was afraid you were going to ask that." Aang rose to his feet and walked towards the opposite end of the living room, looking like he was anticipating an explosion to erupt. "It's a little hard for me to explain."
"That's okay," comforted the sister. "Just say what you can say."
Aang licked his lips and blinked very slowly, trying to piece up his history. "Six months ago, I lived at a small fall-out orphanage called the Backyard at the outskirts of town. It was practically a shelter for all strays, orphans, and third-born children; it was also the only shelter that the government didn't get a hold of." He took a pause to reassess himself. "I stayed there for quite a while, until, of course, it was discovered. They came and grabbed the children, dealing with the reluctant leaders. I was one of the few that escaped their grasp and I've been on the run since-"
Another knock at the door interrupted the scenario. The knock, this time very calm and patient, only lasted for a short matter of time, but somehow easily caught everyone's attention. An exasperated Sokka walked to the front door, almost certain that it was nothing important. He even stopped to tighten a lose tie on his shoes. Then, very casually, he proceeded towards the door and opened it, revealing a man...
It was them.
Three men in black suits, helmeted heads, and armored limbs stood in front of Sokka in a defensive position, gesturing a violent stance. Various weapons and objects were twisted around their belts, indicating that they were probably expecting a fight. But, their posture was focused in such a way that it almost seemed like they were attending a formal dinner party.
"We are the Hands of Divinity," boomed the voices, in unison. "We wish to come inside." Their voices, so strong and so precise, made Aang, who remained within the house, collapse. He knelt down and touched the floor in a fearing manner. Katara stared at Aang.
"Who are you guys?" asked Sokka, more casual than ever. Even he did not know who these men were. With all of the things that he was focused on in a world like this, it was pretty rare to see someone not know the group of men in front of the son.
"We are the Hands of Divinity," responded the three men, "We wish to come inside."
Suddenly, numerous bystanders, cars, trucks, and even kids on tricycles rolling down the sidewalk stopped to gaze at Sokka and the three men. It seemed as if the entire world stopped to take a few pictures of what was happening on Sokka's doorstep.
Inside, Aang quickly took action. He stayed low and shimmied towards the hallway corridor, carefully watching the front door as the silhouetted Sokka tried to reassess the situation. But, potential terror soon took its course. The so-called "Hands", being very skilled at spotting their prey, peeked inside, spotting Aang in a very compromising position. The lights on their helmets started to blink and the three men ejected a baton into their hands and pointed it towards Sokka. Panicking, he dove out of the way, forcing the Hands to fire their batons at him, creating armor-piercing holes through the door while simultaneously turning the whole scene into a heated escape act.
The door blew off its hinges as one of the three men shot its baton at it. Katara watched a trio of heavily-armed men flood the house, forcing her to run towards Aang, who was already making a run towards Katara's room. The three men chased Katara around the living room, tripping over tables and tackling couches in the claustrophobic space. She finally entered the hallway corridors and ran down the threshold before finally reaching her room, which was already occupied by the boy. She turned around, slammed the door, and locked it. Without further time to waste, the daughter pushed her dresser in front of the door, using all of her strength to get it in front of the door before the three men could get it open.
Katara spotted Aang huddled up in the corner of the room next to the foot of the bed. He looked up at her, looking as defenseless as he could ever be. She then glanced up at the window.
"Follow my lead," commanded Katara. Suddenly, a loud stun busted the door against the dresser so hard, so violently, that shrapnel expelled off of the sides of the dresser; one of the pieces of shrapnel got lodged into Aang's leg. He collapsed to the floor, but quickly sprung himself up.
The adrenaline of the moment led Katara to be the leader as she opened the window and grabbed Aang's arm, showing him the way. The boy literally dumped himself out of the window as he roughly fell down to the tough ground beneath him. Katara quickly followed him. She landed right on top of Aang, giving her some cushion, but for him, some bruises. As she heard the dresser collapse from inside of the house, Katara rose to her feet and brought Aang to his as they made their way towards the alley.
As they reached the fence, a familiar hand extended out to catch Katara's shoulder. She turned around to find a hurt Sokka. The side of his head had a cut on it, presumably from the dive he took to get out of the line of fire.
"This way!" yelled Sokka, without struggle. Aang and Katara followed him as they ran down the alley, each of them begging for breath. They finally stopped at the final driveway of the alley, leaning against a fence lining while gasping for breath.
"What the hell was that?" asked Sokka, between breaths of air. "Hands of Divinity? Aang, do you know anything about this?"
The boy stood up, straightening his back and facing towards the next street. "Those were the same guys that raided the orphanage."
Sokka shook his head. "We gotta keep moving."
"Where are we supposed to go?" asked Katara.
"I don't know!" he snapped. "But we have to keep moving!" He backed up into the next street and stepped foot on the road so quickly that it caught a bicycle rider by suprise. The rider skid his back tire to stop fast, but bumped Sokka on his rear end, forcing him to fall on the road.
"Goodness!" said the female rider. "Are you okay?"
He slowly rose to his feet and stood up once more. "Shit!" He turned around and discovered that the rider was a friend.
"Sokka?" said the female rider.
"Suki?" he replied.
The rider, Suki, got off of her bicycle and hugged Sokka. "I saw one of those armored vehicles enter this neighborhood. I just wanted to see if they were coming for you."
"Yeah," he automatically replied. "We need to get out of this neighborhood now. They're still looking for us."
"Us?"
"Yeah," he said once more. He then pointed to the alley entrance, where two figures stood. "That's my sister, Katara. And that's... Aang."
"Hi," said Suki.
"No time for introductions," informed Katara. "We need to get out of here, now."
The rider nodded. "Follow me. I know a safe hiding place."
Without hesitation, they followed Suki street to street, passing through many yards and hopping countless fences.
Over the course of the past few years, the government has killed almost one million children, including all strays and third-borns. The unborns didn't count as "children"; if they were included in the death count, then the statistics would be flying. All Aang knew, and was sure of, was that they came for him. He was a stray: no parents, no siblings, no aunts or uncles, no cousins; no family. He didn't know how it felt like to have a family, which was why he didn't really care.
The four of them hid in a small cavern that sat under a boulder. They remained sitting in an awkward position, catching their breath and recapping what they just experienced. Katara walked over to Aang, who sat alone in the corner. She knelt down and put a hand on his shoulder. The boy turned around.
"I'm sorry that I brought this to you," he said.
"It's not your fault," she replied. "You didn't know."
Sokka finally stood up and stretched out his limbs.
"Hey, we need to get to Dad," he said. "If he gets home, they might get him. We need to tell what happened."
"They aren't staying at your house, Sokka," said Suki, who knew more about the Hands of Divinity than him. "They are out looking for us."
"Not you," replied Sokka, dejected. Suddenly, he lit up like a firework, a smile broke out on his face. "Wait a second... they aren't looking for you!"
"So?" questioned Suki.
"You can go to the construction site downtown," he explained, "And tell my dad what happened."
Katara left Aang and walked towards Sokka. "And what exactly can he do about it?"
Sokka turned towards the boy at the far corner, who stared back towards him.
"He can get us out of this town," concluded Sokka. "Maybe even out of Earth Kingdom."
Katara shook her head, "Fine, Suki can go tell Dad what's the situation, but not so he can take us on the run."
"Fine." Sokka turned towards Suki.
"I know where the construction site is," she said. Sokka hugged her once more.
"Just be careful," he said.
Suki crawled out of the cavern and could be heard bolting towards downtown, leaving the three alone.
"What should we do now?" asked Katara.
Sokka took a minute to think, "We should head towards the next neighborhood, but let's stay here for a couple of more hours until twilight. Until then, let's get some rest. I'm exhausted."
Katara nodded. She looked towards Aang, who had his eyes buried into his hands.
A couple of hours here in this cavern is okay with her.
