Chapter 3
Exploring and New Allies
Wow, this place is huge! That was all Terra could think of when she went walking around Republic City on Mila. Surprisingly, Mila was calm. She heard stories from Zuna, Korra's other daughter, how when Korra came, Naga was acting haywire. Mila would stop to sit, which Terra allowed since she was carrying 4 large pieces of luggage, and she would just sometimes sniff the ground in curiosity every time they got to a new area.
There were so many shops with so many things she wanted to buy, but unfortunately, she had no Yuans. I should've brought some with me she thought every time she caught a glimpse of a store. She was getting used to people staring at Mila. Some little kids even wanted to pet the wolf horse, which she allowed.
"Why do you have a wolf horse with you?" some would ask.
"She's my pet"
"That's a pretty big pet!"
She knew she couldn't just say 'This is my animal guide! I'm the Avatar!'. She didn't like saying Mila was her pet, she was her friend as well, and she couldn't forget that. She stopped at the corner of a building that had a long alley right next to it full of dumpsters and garbage.
"No way we're going there, Mila" she said once she saw all that. She let Mila lay down in a spot where people wouldn't trip over her. She thought she could use a rest.
"Wait a minute, where am I gonna stay again?" she thought. Terra was sometimes an airhead, she forgot that she needed to go to Air Temple Island! She tried hard to remember while munching on an apple, until she heard a yelp. Surprised no one else walking on the busy streets heard that, she turned and saw 5 large men crowding someone into the wall of a dumpster in the alley. She stayed hidden while looking.
"Where's the dough, Aqua? Cough it up!"
"I told you, I couldn't find any other way to get money, and Takashi doesn't get paid until next week! Can I please give you the money once I have it? I promise I will!" that was a girl's voice.
"No way, that's what yous said last time! What happened? Yous got it to us a month lata!"
"I'm telling you, I'm broke and I can get it to you on time this time, okay? Besides, I got the money last time more later than I expected it!" The 5 men moved a little bit to reveal a girl with brown hair in a side ponytail. Judging by her height, she looked like she was around Terra's age. Her outfit had fur as a lining at the top of her tank top, as a belt for her skirt (that was a part of her shirt), and as a lining for her boots. Probably from the Water Tribe, because of her blue eyes Terra thought. She tried to hide down even more when one of the men in the center parted the other 4, then took the collar of the girl's shirt, then lifted her up.
"L-let me go! Now!" she cried.
"What you gon' do, Aqua? You ain't got no water around ya, and your bro ain't here to help ya" said the man as 3 others grabbed her arms and legs, preventing her from punching and kicking.
"Hey, maybe we can teach her a lil' lesson while also satisfying us, huh boys?" said one as his hand sneaked up to her chest.
"No, please, I promise, I'll get the money to you! Just don't!" the girl screamed. She was desperate for them not to use her. One of the men with a red bandana tied it around her mouth to muffle her.
"That should shut her up, let's get started boys!" just before they were able to rip off her shirt, an arrow speeded by them and hit the wall, causing a large crack to form. They looked up and saw Terra standing on a large dumpster, holding her bow and having a bag of arrows behind her.
"Drop. Her. Now." All the men stared at each other, one pointing at Terra with a confused smile, then they all burst out in laughter.
"Look at this girly, all actin' tough and stuff!" said the man holding the girl. He dropped her and approached the challenger.
"Listen kid, yous in Triple Threat Triad Territory, and we gon' do what we wants! Now I'm tellin ya, ya should run now before ya get a lil' beatin'" he said while forming a fist. Terra just lowered her bow and stared at them, with the kind of eyes her mom would use to stare at an enemy.
"I dunno boss, she seems like more better material then this lil' 'Small boobs' here. What do ya think?" said one. They all laughed. The girl wriggled the bandana off her mouth and stared at Terra.
"Just run! Run before they r-"
"Don't ya know when to shut up?" yelled one as he grabbed her forcefully from behind. He kept a good grip on her as she wriggled. Looking at this, Terra jumped off the dumpster and landed really hard on her feet, causing a large chunk of street to pop out. She hurled it at the guy who held the girl captive. He flew back against the wall, blood coming from his nose and teeth flying. He cried in pain as he slid to the ground. The other 4 looked at her as she smiled.
"You should know that I am tough and stuff, big guy. Now, how about we dance?" she said. She took a hold of his hands, then hurled him with all her might into a large dumpster. The girl saw one shoot a large array of fire at Terra.
"Look out!" she yelled. Terra turned around and dodged the fire. This time, the second shot, she let the fire get into her palms, then she hurled it back at the Firebender. He dodged it, then stared at her.
"B-but yous an earthbender, how…" Terra smiled and laughed.
"There are many things you don't know about me, chump" she says. Suddenly, 2 of the men come from the sides and grab her arms. Terra struggles and tries to earthbend with her feet, but the men lift her up from the ground, too far for her feet to touch it. A smirk spread across Terra's face, and she whistled really loud. Soon, Mila came running as fast as she could. Crying out, she head bumped one of the men holding her owner. He flew back into a wall, not without crying in pain. Next, Mila looked at the other man and glared, as if saying iDrop my friend, or I'll kill you/i. He somehow saw this, then gently put Terra down. Terra hopped on Mila, then had her walk to the girl who was now dusting herself off. She held out her hand to her.
"Come on" she said. The girl looked at Mila, then her hand, then she nodded as she grabbed it. Terra pulled her up (by surprise) onto Mila's back. Mila walked off, then walked backwards in front of the aisle by Terra's command saying-
"Later, suckers! Feel special, you just got beat up by the Avatar, who's 15!" she said. And with that, Mila finally walked off with Terra and a new friend.
After the little rough up the gang had, they were finally conscious again.
"Ugh, wheres did that lil girl go?"
"I dunnos boss, but I bet we find her and teach her a lesson of her own!" said one.
"Whats do ya mean?"
"Easy….Bloodbending. We beat ha up, bloodbend, that's when we gets to takes advantage of ha bod" All the men smiled and laughed at that idea. They were just about to leave the alley to look for the Avatar until,
"Not on my watch" They all turned and saw someone dressed in a dark red cloak.
"Whos are you? A cop?" the gang member to the left smacked him.
"Nos you fool, he ain't got the 'form! ('Form=Uniform)"
"Then whos the hell are you? Stalker?" The man in the cloak just kept walking towards them.
"Stays away, before I hurts ya!" The man stopped in his tracks. "See boys? Nothin' like a lil' threat to stop someone!" That was when the mystery person laughed. His face was revealed, short black hair with a red bandana.
"Who says I'm afraid of you?" He took out a large sword and went into a fighting stance.
"I'm just here to protect the Avatar"
"Uh, thanks" said the girl as they walked through the streets of Republic City.
"For well, saving me back there"
"No prob" Terra said.
"So, is it true? That you're the Avatar?" she asked.
"Hey, it's not normal to see an earthbender bend fire, right?" the girl shrugged.
"I should've guessed by seeing this in the first place. My name's Aqua, what's yours?"
"Terra, 15, from the Earth Kingdom"
"I can see that. I'm 14. I was born here and, well"
"Well what?"
"You see, it may sound weird, but my older brother raised me. He's 18. His name's Takashi, and he's a firebender. My mom, Reika, and my dad, Narabi, abandoned me when I was only a baby and when Takashi was 4. Well, they abandoned both of us" Terra thought for a minute. She's the daughter of Narabi, while the boy she met earlier was the son of Narabi. Heck, he did mention an Aqua before he left.
Wait, could she be his sister? And are they both related to Narabi? Terra thought.
"Hey Aqua, was your brother Takashi at the train station by any chance?"
"Well, yeah. We heard rumors that a Narabi was there at the guild, so he went. He came home saying he couldn't find him, and that he met a friend." Terra smiled and laughed. "What?"
"Aqua, I think I ran into him. The friend was me. He never told me his name" the Avatar replied.
"Really? Wow! What a huge coincidence! So why did you come to the UR in the first place?"
"To learn Airbending. I have to go to Air Temple Island. You wouldn't know how to get there by any chance would you?" Aqua inhaled, then replied,
"No. BUT, I'm sure Takashi does! Let's just go to my house really quickly. Well, it's actually an apartment, only two bedrooms and it's pretty small, but at least we have somewhere to live" Terra nodded.
"Alright, where is it?"
"Just keep going straight, and then I'll tell you what else to do"
After going through twists and turns, running into people, Terra flinging a robber into a wall, more people petting Mila and finding an interest in her, and more storytelling, and after talking to the landlord and having permission to leave Mila in the basement of the building with a full supply of food and blankets just in case it's cold, they finally reached Aqua's apartment.
"This is it?" asked Terra looking at a brown door that said '18H' on it in gold. Aqua nodded.
"Yup, we live on the 18th floor. I still can't believe this place has 27 floors. Oh well" Aqua was about to grab the knocker, but instead she went to a potted plant in the corner, rummaging in it. Terra just stared while Aqua's hand explored in it. She held up a gold key once she was done.
"We keep a spare there just in case" she explained. Terra nodded. Aqua put the key in the keyhole, unlocked the door, then kicked it open, getting a loud 'BANG!' from it hitting the wall.
"TAKASHI! I BROUGHT COMPANY!" Aqua yelled. She turned and noticed Terra looking dizzy.
"Sorry. I just have a habit of yelling something whenever I arrive home" Aqua said with a nervous smile rubbing the back of her neck.
"And it's time you stop that stupid habit" said a voice. Terra blushed furiously when she saw a boy with a toned stomach, having muscles on it and his arms, in a towel with wet hair and water dripping all over him come out. He wasn't too muscle-y and buff like her Earthbending teacher Bolin was, but he was toned and had even muscles like the kind she saw her Firebending teacher Mako with in pictures of when he was younger.
The boy looked at Terra, then easily recognized her.
"Hey, you're the one from the train station! Terra right?" she nodded. "Wow, that's what I call a chance encounter. I never got to tell you my name, it's Takashi"
"I kinda know that now, you're sister Aqua told me" Aqua leaned on Terra's shoulder on cue.
"Yup, and you'll never guess this, she's the Avatar!" Takashi's towel (which was only covering his lower region) almost fell off after he jumped in shock. He quickly grabbed it in time, and that was when Terra thought she was going to nosebleed.
"What?" Aqua nodded.
"Yeah, she's stronger than you think!" Takashi mouthed 'Wow' at this.
"So, how did you meet Aqua?" he asked Terra.
"Well…"
"They tried to what to you?" Takashi yelled.
"Calm down. As I was saying that was when Terra came in and beat them up." She turned to Terra and winked. "By the way, I owe you a bunch for that" she said.
"Don't worry about it!" Terra said with a smile. They were sitting at the kitchen table with Takashi in a red robe, having the Fire Nation's insignia on the right.
He sighed and shook his head.
"I swear to Agni, if they even tried to, I'm gonna burn them to a crisp!" he said banging the table with a fist
"Don't worry, Terra took care of them! It's all your fault that you didn't give me the money on time anyways" Aqua replied, mumbling the last sentence.
"My fault? You should've lied to them saying you had to reschedule the meeting or something!" Takashi exclaimed.
"You know I'm a terrible liar!"
"Whoa, whoa, calm down. First of all, what were you guys doing with that gang in the first place?" the siblings sighed as Terra asked that. Takashi turned to her.
"We barely have money. I have a job but it only gives me about 1,000 a month, but it can't cover all the bills we get. So that's when we went to loan sharks. They were part of the Triple Threat Triad, a large gang that roams the streets." Takashi said. Terra nodded. She couldn't blame them, they were desperate for money and Aqua was too young to get a job herself. Terra looked down and noticed a large bracelet on Aqua's wrist. It was light purple with a black diamond on it.
"Hey, where'd you get that?" asked Terra.
"Oh this? It's sorta like my water skin, it holds a lot of water! Isn't that cool?"
"Wait, you had water with you and you couldn't use it?" asked Terra confused. Aqua sighed and opened up the diamond compartment, letting Terra look in it to see it was empty.
"Oh" Terra said.
"Hey, how'd you get those scars?" asked Takashi. "On your cheek, leg, and back?"
"Oh, I uh, got them from an accident with my arrows" she muttered. She didn't want to tell them the ireal/i origin of the scars. She never wanted to remember it, but every time someone brought up the scars, she would try hard to erase that memory.
"So Takashi, Terra needs to get to Air Temple Island, know how?" Takashi nodded no to his sister.
"Nope" Terra sighed.
"Wait, you don't have a place to stay, don't you?" asked Aqua.
"No, and I'm yuanless too" Terra said. Aqua looked at Takashi, and that was when he got the idea.
"Hey, you can stay with us if you want" Terra's ears perked up.
"I-I can? You mean it?"
"We mean it alright! It's a way of saying thanks for that little mishap earlier!" Aqua replied with a wink.
"Wow, thanks so much you two!" Terra said, forcing Aqua and Takashi into a group AKA bear hug, almost suffocating them.
Guess my visit to the UR won't be too bad after all, won't it?
Dun dun dun, a mystery person appears! Who is this mystery person? How does he know the Avatar? Does he really want to protect her, or is he a stalking fanboy? Find out in later chapters! That's right,it won't be explained in chap 4, I'm so mean :P
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~nya!