"Lieutenant Tan!" Captain Mayu walked onto the bridge and barked loudly to wake the third-in-command up. Tan cut a wearier figure than the young, baby-faced Lieutenant Yin, but he was just as capable, if prone to cutting remarks. Tan jolted out of his seat and planted his feet away from the desk he was resting them on and firmly onto the ground. The bridge, flanked in all corners by crew members whose backs were turned, busy with their tasks, briefly looked around to see what the Captain was up to before turning back to the job at hand.
"Ma'am!" Tan affirmed, shortly before correcting a momentary sway and blinking hard on his eye-lids. Mayu had pulled him off of his shift break to cover for Yin, just when he was getting used to sleeping and working in six-hour stints. Mayu had bigger things to worry about.
"I want every member of the crew not currently on vital ship-running duties in here in ten minutes, understand?" Mayu shunted a pile of debris off of the navigation desk and pulled over a large map of the area, grabbing a stick of charcoal in the process, bringing over a blank piece of paper and scribbling furiously on it, her eyes snapping back and forth, "bring in the Hong Yu Guo staff members if you have to. Every active member of this ship's command crew is receiving new orders."
"But...Captain...Yin isn't even back yet," Tan protested, "shouldn't we wait until his report on the missing kid before going on an emergency."
"Missing kids. There's more than one," Mayu leaned up to a high shelf to drag down a secure, ornately decorated, metal box. She pulled a key out of her pocket and slotted it into the dragon-motifed box, "once is a tragedy and twice is coincidence. Six times? Six times and the ship's in danger."
"Yes, ma'am?" Tan was all ears. The box opened with a click to reveal a series of scrolls with seals classifying them 'By Order of the Fire Lord's Admiralty'.
"Only available to those with the rank of Captain or over," Mayu indicated to the scroll she was picking up out of the box, "this is the summary of witness statements of the attacks on the Mo Ce Sea."
"We're under attack?" Tan asked to clarify.
"Very possibly," Mayu unfurled the scroll to read, "one survivor said 'they came for the children first. We didn't know, but they became something else. Something evil. Once they disappeared, people started dying. The death masks rose from the waves to devour us...' You can tell why we thought they were barking mad. They've all been sent to the Yantai Institute for further study. But all the accounts are like this. And if that stuff's happening here, now, then we are in serious trouble."
"You want us to put the ship under lockdown?" Tan asked to clarify.
"I should've put this ship under lockdown the first moment trouble arose," Mayu cursed herself, shunting the metal box to one side and scribbling furiously on the blank sheet, "I want this...priority command...to be given to everyone on-board, Lieutenant Yin included, and remain in effect until we reach dock. All civilians shall remain in their compartments until further notice, and once back in their rooms the full passenger complement will be counted and catalogued. Anyone unaccounted for will be searched for. Every crew member will operate in teams to secure designated parts of the ship and remain in contact with each other at all times. Everyone must be kept informed."
"Yes, ma'am," Tan confirmed, "what should I say over the announcer? They'll want to know why their trip's been curtailed..."
"Tell them the truth. They'll panic if they think we're hiding something from them," Mayu flung the order sheet she'd written in Tan's direction and leaned over the map beneath the detritus piled up on the navigation table, "where's the nearest port?"
"We're..." Tan bundled up the order and shuffled over to the map, indicating their current position, "we're past the halfway mark, in the middle of the Mo Ce Sea. There's nowhere else to turn to. That means it's Naha Island or bust."
"We need to get there as soon as possible," Mayu stood straight upright and turned assertively towards the Lieutenant, "have the engine room give us all the power it can muster. If nothing else we'll have a better chance in Fire Nation waters. Once that's complete, disseminate my orders. On the first sign of alarm, we'll evacuate the ship."
"Don't...you...dare, young lady!" the Hong Yu Guo Service administrator strode huffingly onto the bridge, barely pausing to catch his breath, pointing a crooked finger furiously at the Captain, all pretentions towards pleasant joviality vanished for good, "I knew it. I knew all along you were going to try something like this..."
"Please, sir," Mayu tweaked the crooked finger to one side, "the situation is getting out of hand. There is more than enough evidence to link our situation with the other attacks, and if that's the case we have to begin taking precautions..."
"Precautions!?" Xuan spat it like it was a dirty word, "a few kids are playing hide 'n seek! You're hideously overreacting!"
"Sir, it would be much more helpful if you could just co-operate with our concerns," Mayu appealed.
"I've been co-operating! I've been bending over backwards trying to accommodate your 'concerns'!" Xuan's eyes widened in exasperation, "it's perfectly possible to keep the ship safe and the customers happy and comfortable! The Hong Yu Guo Service has made its name balancing customer needs with logistical interests. I've built my career around keeping that balance. You're the one who doesn't want to accommodate! You say you wanted to get away from the front line, find a position to rest up and not have too many responsibilities. You get that position, and immediately try to usurp it! You don't want peace and quiet at all! You just want to call the shots!"
"This is not helpful in the least," Mayu crossed her arms, her patience wearing to snapping point, "and since you wish to lecture me on my place in the world, may I remind you that my highest prerogative is to do my duty to the Fire Nation and its citizens, to do whatever it takes to keep them protected and safe from harm. My authority to do so comes direct from the Fire Lord. It is complete and absolute. Your authority comes from being an administrator of a subsidiary of a National Corporation. Your remit doesn't extend beyond providing a service. And it certainly doesn't extend to treating your Service as a personal fiefdom with no regard to the lives of the people who use it beyond their ability to pay."
"You can't talk to me that way!" Xuan fumed so harshly he was close to exploding, "and I'll see to it you won't be talking to anyone else that way, Mayu! This is my ship you're on, and I say the ship stays at its current speed, the passengers stay untouched by your goons, and you're getting fired!"
There was a pause in the bridge's attention, a momentary gap where the crew members stopped what they were doing, sensing that something was happening to the Gang Shen's power structure. An important crossroads had been reached, and one person in the room had the power to choose the path. Mayu, for the first time in months, felt herself smiling, "this is not your ship, Xuan, and it never was. The Gang Shen belongs to the Fire Lord, every nut and bolt of it, and you have been allowed to use it by kind permission of the military. On my authority as Captain I hereby revoke that permission. Now if you would do me the kindness of confining yourself to your compartment, we can get on with our jobs."
"Big words coming from you, young lady," Xuan seethed, "Lieutenant! Don't you dare follow a word she says! And that goes for all of you! She's no longer your Captain!"
Tan briefly regarded the robed, desperate man and then studiously ignored him. The rest of the crew on-board the bridge didn't pay his words the slightest bit of attention. Tan wandered over to the navigation desk to look over the route they should take, "it'll be touch and go, but if the engine holds out we should be able to reach Naha just after midnight."
"Didn't you hear me, Lieutenant!? Or don't you like your job either!?" Xuan threatened.
"We'll need to signal a passing ship at some point," Mayu commented, looking over the map and diligently taking no notice of Xuan, "it would make our lives easier if we didn't have to deal with this alone."
"Shipping is giving the Mo Ce Sea a wide berth, mostly," Tan pointed at positions on the map, acting oblivious to Xuan's presence, "the bulk of the Fire Navy in this area is behind us, searching for the attackers near the coast. There isn't likely to be anything until we reach Fire Nation waters."
"I see, you were all planning this together, weren't you?" Xuan accused, "I can tell you, this isn't looking good for either of you! Think about it, once we get to shore, they'll be asking questions, and who are they going to listen to? The diligent and upstanding service provider with the trust and support of the Ministry of Transportation, or the conniving, seditious murmurings of you two thugs!?"
"Listen...citizen..." Mayu swerved around and sneered at the administrator, "you realise there is a way to settle this dispute right here and now, don't you?"
Xuan's anger subsided into quiet despair. He stood rooted to the spot, utterly stunned at how quickly and without fanfare his power had scattered into the wind without the slightest protest or resistance. "You can't challenge me to an Agni Kai..." Xuan mewed, "...I'd die."
Mayu looked over Xuan cooly, her glass-cut expression unblinking, "then you'd better run along, hadn't you?"
Mayu turned back to the map without checking for a confirmation. Xuan paused for some sign of a retraction, some form of bargain he could make to lessen this humiliation, but none was forthcoming. Nodding sullenly, he stumbled back out of the bridge, past the turned backs of the crew members, to whom he hadn't been anyone special to start with.
Lieutenant Tan, having calculated the results of what he was about to do, strode towards the engine command console and pushed the lever up as far as it could go, further than it had gone before, resting on the calligraphy for 'Flank Speed'.
"Flank Speed!?" Shui's draw dropped at the message that accompanied the ear-splitting ring that pierced the stuffy, boiling atmosphere of the engine room. Shui grabbed onto an overhanging pillar and hauled herself up, latching into a gap with her foot, in order to carry her voice further, "Chief! Them guys upstairs wan' Flank-flippin'-Speed!"
"They wants us at a crawl th'n they wants us ta be a firework with a rudder!" Wan complained through teeth gritted around his spanner, as he used both hands to jam together a burst pipe. Succeeding, he quickly wrenched the pipe into a seamless whole and sheathed his spanner, bellowing out to everyone in the room from the balcony above, "awright, people! Th' moment y'all been a'waitin' for! T'day's th' day we c'n finally show 'em what we're made of! Everyone grab a shovel an' everyone grab a spanner! If ye're not fixing, ye're shovelling! If ye're not shovelling, ye're fixing! If ye're doin' both, great! Y'all do that an' we might jus' live ta see Flank Speed 'afore she blows us ta comet come! Move it! Move it! Move it!"
It was a moment to savour for all its majesty. It was a rare day when 'Flank Speed' was ordered, and every engineer worth their salt lived in eager anticipation for that day, as both the challenge of their lives and the culmination of their profession. The chance to show what they were really made of, the final rite of passage for a budding engineer, the moment when they stopped being boys and became men. Wan managed to halt Shui as she leapt onto the balcony and rushed past him to pick up a shovel. He rested a hand on her shoulder and bade her to turn to face the rest of the engine room. While she was focussed mostly on getting the job done, seeing his chest swell with pride made her settle down and really look at the God of Steel, as it powered up to handle her ultimate test.
"Shui, stop an' take a good look," Wan looked down at the slightly bemused, and slightly pleased, engine monkey, "if we live through this, consider yerself grown up." Taking that moment and milking it for all it was worth allowed Wan to finally hear the urgent yelling coming from below the balcony. Leaning over the railings, he saw the two teenagers who'd given him so much grief before, hopping up and down and waving their arms to attract the engineer's attention. Wan groaned hard enough to make the screws rattle, "awwwww! Why now of all times!? Couldn'tya wait fer two seconds!?"
"There's more than one!" Katara called out, desperate eyes communicating all that was needed. Wan leaned silently against the railing, thinking hard. Shui glanced from side to side in confusion.
"Right..." Wan spoke assertively. He swung under the railing to latch onto a ladder leading down to the floor of the engine room, calling behind him, "Shui! Ye're in charge!"
"W...what!?" Shui was shocked by the sudden weight of responsibility toppling onto her, "y...ye're sure!? I never done Flank Speed afore!"
"C'mon! Ye c'n do it! Y'know everythin' I knows," Wan assured, pausing at the foot of the ladder, "think 'a this as yer final exam! Ye got th' theory, now try th' practice!"
"Yeah, I seen you in action! I know you can do it!" Sokka punched the air and smiled in encouragement. Wan and Katara, sensing a little more support than was strictly necessary, both came over with the same expression of troubled unease, slowly looking aside at the Water Tribe Warrior with disapproval. Sokka, for his part, picked up on the glaring looks and shrank a little, "eheh...well...we all know it, right?"
"Sure..." Wan looked over Sokka suspiciously. Turning back to Shui, he called out, "jus' got somethin' ta take care of! Won't be a second! 'Gameshin' here's helping me out, ain't that right? Just can't keep 'is mind on nothin' else, right son?"
Wan's loud statement sounded like a threat, and Sokka flinched away slightly, "uh...yeah. Nothing else."
"Great!" Wan wandered off to the door of the Engine Room, waving back at Shui, "keep 'er warm fer me!"
"Sure thing!" Shui called back, heavily confused at all the signals being sent out. She quickly leaned over to talk to Sokka, "hey! Gameshin! Whatever 'tis ye're doin'...take care, 'kay!?"
Sokka looked up and grinned, "you and me, both!" Katara, scowling furiously, grabbed Sokka by the ear to drag him away from the edge of the furnace. Shui watched them go with an arched eyebrow permanently furrowed into her forehead.
She didn't have much time to shrug it off, as something on the other end of the Engine Room abruptly imploded. "What're ye doin'!? This ain't no evenin' cruise! Damned amateurs..." Shui muttered, stepping up onto the railings to sling herself towards the source of the trouble.
Near the other end of the Engine Room, Sokka winced with the tugging of Katara's arm until the three of them were safely out of sight in the door frame, shrouded in shadow at one side and encased in a red hue at the other.
"How many more?" Wan dropped his voice and asked urgently, dropping the jokey persona to engage in deadly seriousness.
"Maybe five," Katara answered to the best of her knowledge. Wan nodded in recognition, jerking his head aside to get the two disguised Water Tribe siblings to follow him.
"C'm along," Wan headed off, "an' bring yer valentino with ya. This ain't lookin' good at all."
"Look, I don't know what you're thinking, but it's not, alright?" Sokka reasoned as they left the door frame to follow Wan.
"It'd better not," Katara spoke bitterly.
The two of them had to run to catch up with Wan. The old man ran impressively fast, but considering his profession that shouldn't have come as much of a surprise. By the time they halted, they had to lean over and catch their breath. The corridor was badly lit and gloomy beyond all usefulness, a short way away from the Coolant Room. Wan picked a torch up from a nearby rack and flipped on a small gas tap with a lighter affixed. A small burst of flame lit the torch and brightened the corridor. Installing light fixtures was apparently too expensive for this part of the ship.
"What are we doing here?" Sokka asked, having recovered his breath. Wan had wandered some distance down the corridor, looking earnestly for something high on the walls.
"I got th' kid shut tight in th' Coolant Room fer a reason. Ichecked th' marks 'e made on th' stabiliser. 'e must've 'ad th' strength o' ten men ta make those marks," Wan found what he was looking for, a giant flume with a gaping, dripping hole in it, "ta get inta th' Coolant Room would take th' strength've about...fifty."
"No..." Katara stepped forward to look at the flume, the hole easily large enough for a child to crawl through. A chill shuddered up her spine, "they can't..."
"They did." Sokka finished Katara's thought, skulking past to follow Wan, who was already marching to the end of the corridor, to the turning that led to the entrance to the Coolant Room. Wan planted the torch in an empty holster and pulled a ring of keys from his pocket, intuitively knowing which one fit in the lock and twisting. Wan and Sokka entered the chilled interior of the Coolant Room, their hot breath becoming visible in the cold air, expecting and finding the door to Nandi's resting place open, and the tiled metal floor inside as bare as if it had never been touched.
Katara ran up behind them, prepared for the sight but still feeling shock at how everything was coming apart. "They took him away..." she gasped and trembled in the freezer.
"No..." Wan commented, looking at the door to the freezer, "the lock's not forced. This was opened fr'm th' inside."
Katara screwed her eyes shut and clutched herself, whether from the cold or the unease she couldn't tell. Sokka was too energised to notice the cold, speaking frenetically, "we have to tell the Captain about this. We can't hide it any longer."
"What?" Katara broke out of her immobilising fear into a highly mobilising fury, "no way! It's bad enough he knows about us!"
"We don't need to tell the Captain about us! Just about the...the...Sachichachi things!" Sokka reasoned, "If we warn them, we can work together to deal with all this."
"Right. Work with the Fire Nation," Katara looked away, "good plan."
"We're not hiding a dead kid anymore! There's no reason for us to keep it secret!" Sokka spoke quickly, feeling the time slipping away between his fingers, "there's creepy kids on the prowl, and they're not too bothered 'bout the country the people they're drowning come from. It's not like he's turning us in, is he?"
"I gotta say, seeing yer performance, I'm feelin' mighty inclined," Wan countered, "but I'm with her. We can't tell the Captain."
"W...why not!?" Sokka nearly screeched.
"'cause, smart guy, first, if she's orderin' Flank Speed ta get ta th' nearest port, she already knows," Wan considered, "an' second, she ain't dumb. She sees you spoutin' off 'bout things people like you shouldn't know, she gonna get damned suspicious. An' ye're more helpful here than in a stockade."
"Helpful...enough...to maybe not rat out on as soon as we reach shore?" Sokka leaned over pleafully.
"Don't push yer luck, spy," Wan spat with derision.
"Okay, fine, we don't tell the Captain," Sokka retreated, looking mournfully at the bare floor in front of them, "that means it's down to us. We need to know what they're gonna do."
"I thought that's what you were findin' out!" Wan turned angrily at Sokka, not taking this whole situation nearly as well as he thought he would, "what've you been doing all this time!? Chasin' skirt!?"
"For the final time..." Sokka responded testily, "I don't know where you got this dumb idea that I'm chasing after half the women on the ship, but can we try to stay focused on what's going on!? You want to know who these people are? Fine. They're called Sa...chi...ho...wait, I can get this...ko! Weird spirit creatures made of water. They lived in the Yalu Pillars until you morons bulldozed 'em through to lay down some stupid railroad tracks. Now they've gone all crazy and want to kill us all with spooky waterbending powers. That enough information for ya!?"
Wan paused in his fury and stepped back, taking this news with a little confusion. He shook his head slightly, piecing together the strands that led to an uncomfortable conclusion. "You mean..." Wan spoke slowly, "...we did this?"
"Congratulations, Chief Engineer Obvious," Sokka crossed his arms at the engineer, "so now we've made it clear that it's your fault, maybe you should figure out what to do about this?"
"His...fault..." Katara repeated, realisation catalysing her seizing muscles. Her eyes opened wide, "they think it's his fault! Sokka! We gotta get back to Aa-"
"'Kazukiiiii...'" Sokka whispered urgently, wanting to keep at least one of their identities a closely guarded secret from the Chief Engineer. But his gritted teeth dropped open as he realised what Katara was driving at, "Kazuki!"
A loud rumble reverberated through the corridor, high-pitched enough to cause the two Water Tribe siblings to instinctively clamp their hands to their ears. The rumble gave way to a loud, muffled voice, being sent through tubes throughout the Gang Shen.
"May we have your attention. This is Command speaking. By order of the Captain the FLS Gang Shen is under immediate lockdown."
"We have reason to believe the ship to be in danger, from a malicious entity on-board the vessel. We ask for your co-operation as we investigate and eradicate the threat."
"What does that mean, mummy?" a girl of six years of age crowded closer to her mother.
"It's nothing sweetheart," the mother cradled her daughter closer, trembling slightly, "it's nothing."
All passengers must stay in their compartments until further notice, and be prepared to submit to a full headcount. If you wish to access any other part of the vessel, you must be accompanied by a member of the ship's crew at all times."
"Any children found unattended must be reported to the crew at once. Especially children aged between ten and twelve years old."
"Trust this to be the one journey out of a million that something bad happens," the crewman wandered, knife in belt, down the corridor as he did his newly-assigned rounds, "serves me right for getting away from the fro- heyyy...what gives?"
The crewman picked his drenched foot out of a small puddle and shook it off. Looking down at the puddle, alone and out of place in the bare, empty corridor, he quickly looked up to see where the leak was coming from.
The childish grin was the last thing he saw.
"Any violation of these directives will be referred directly to the Captain. These precautions are for your own safety."
"Repeat. ANY violation of these directives will be referred directly to the Captain. These precautions are for your own safety. Thank you."
"Can you really sleep with that racket?" Toph turned around to ask. Rhetorically, as it turned out.
"...no..." Aang groaned, shaking himself awake and rubbing his eyeballs clear. He sighed heavily, "things're getting bad, huh?"
"Depends how you look at it..." Toph smiled. She was still squatted at the end of the room, having been deep in concentration for some hours now. But now she was extremely pleased, practically chuffed with herself, having investigated her potential to her heart's content. The earthbender bragged, "you wanna see something really cool?"
"All the time," Aang smiled his own sweet smile, feeling much more relaxed after his short nap and less liable to suddenly disintegrate if he dared to use his muscles. He leaned over the edge of the bed to get a closer look at the blind girl sitting on the floor, her body facing the wall and the sheet of impure metal in front of her. The metal sheet looked mysteriously smaller somehow. For that matter Toph herself looked different somehow. He hadn't paid too much attention to her arms before, but he was certain she'd had sleeves before. Now her arms had somehow gotten bare. He was still too fuzzy-brained to check, "watcha got!?"
"I've been checking out what I can do with metal and what I can't do," Toph placed a hand on the metal sheet, beginning the demonstration, "I can 'see' the earth inside the metal...it's kinda like it 'laces' it...but to bend it, I need to feel through the metal to 'grab' onto the earthy bits. The connection to the earth isn't obvious like with rock or dirt...it's hidden...but it's still there."
Toph stood upright, stepping back a short distance from the metal sheet and holding her palms out, "so that means, if I try to bend it from a distance..." her hand slid to one side, but the metal sheet didn't budge, "...doesn't work." The earthbending master leant down to place her hand on the sheet again, "but if I keep contact with it, feel the link with the earth coarsing through it with my fingers..."
Toph's hand made a number of complex, convoluted motions, so many that Aang found it hard to keep up. Fingers spread apart, clutched together, gripping like a claw, pointing ahead like a compass, with little pause between movements. The workings of the metal itself was even more incredible, shifting in the blink of an eye into a circle, an oval, a pillar, a bar, a blade, a spiral...Toph had obviously been experimenting a while. Aang was amazed enough he was ready to overlook the rough edges, uneven surfaces and crumpled corners. It was a wonder to behold.
"That's incredible!" Aang felt that surge of excitement he normally reserved for sprinting across tight-ropes tied between tree tops, "can you show me how to do that?"
"Feeling envious, aren't we?" Toph teased, spreading her fingers out to get the sheet back to something like a square, "sorry, Aang. I can only see the earth in the metal because I'm used to seeing everything this way. It took a whole day being trapped in a box to get me to do this much. Something tells me people with eyesight wouldn't be able to do it."
"Man..." Aang whined. He piped up soon enough, "but that's just so awesome! I never seen you do that before!"
Who knows...if I try hard enough I might find a way to bend all metals," Toph held up her arm to show to Aang, "until then, just in case we don't find any metals again, feast your senses on this."
Aang peered closer, and the reason why Toph looked so different finally slapped him in the face, "heyyyy...you got bands!"
"Made 'em myself," Toph gleamed. Right enough, at the end of her bare arms, wrapped around just before her wrists, were a segmented metal bracelet each. Looking down, the earthbender's trousers no longer formed a loose rim around her feet, but instead the ends were now haphazardly tucked into two more metal bracelets, wrapped around her legs just above her ankles. For the first time, Toph was actually wearing something that fit her slender form. She asked honestly, "how does it look, Dead-Weight?"
"You look...great..." Aang found himself saying before he could stop. As if his life wasn't complicated enough.
"Good. It'd have been awkward if these made me look like a dork," Toph, to Aang's eternal thanks, hadn't picked up on the unfortunate complement, and felt the bands around her wrists to make them feel more comfortable. Toph explained, "now, wherever we go, I got a ready supply of this stuff to kick people's butts with. I figured I'd find out how I can use 'em while we're going."
"That's...a really, really great idea," Aang was seriously impressed, "what kinds of things d'you think you can do?"
Toph, looking slightly, unsmilingly mischievous, sat straight upright and held forward her hand, drawing her fingers back before flinging them forward together, forming a cone. The metal on her wrist also flung forward, but instead of a collection of pudgy digits it instead formed a viciously sharp blade. "I got a few ideas," Toph drawled.
Aang drew away from being impressed and into mild terror. Then he felt annoyed at her for giving out at least four mixed signals inside of a minute. The fiend. He came over with a yawn, and scratched his back exhaustively, using his tiredness as a distraction from his thoughts. "So we're stuck in here, huh?" Aang referred to the announcement, feeling more than a little concerned, "I hope Sokka and Katara are alright."
"Pfft, they're fine. Sugar Queen's got the whole 'waterbending puppets' thing down, so they got nothing to worry about," Toph clenched her fist to bendher bracelet back into position, "and now we got my arms of iron, we got nothing to worry about, either."
"You think they might come in here?" Aang asked with concern.
"Nah," Toph answered with a little disappointment, "door's locked anyway. What're they gonna do? Knock?"
The metal door knocked, and the two of them froze rigid from the dramatic irony. No voice came after the knock, and the idea of answering it never crossed their minds until the door, upon which the sun made a circle through the porthole, knocked again more forcefully. Toph took to her feet slowly and purposefully.
"Who is it!?" she asked. A beat later and they felt prepared to run for their lives.
"Ensign Xai. Taking the headcount," a young, strong voice came through the wall, "have your tickets and identification ready. Don't worry, it won't take a moment."
Toph and Aang both relaxed their paranoia. It was a strange day when being surprised by a Fire Nation soldier was a relief. Toph turned aside to whisper, "...what do you think?..."
Aang shrugged, "...so long as we act natural, no problem..."
Toph nodded and felt around for the handle, unlocking the door, "come on in!"
The crew member, dressed in the rough attire of a lower naval rank and sporting a small, pointy beard, strode in with a nib, a scroll, and little concern for pleasantries. He gave the two kids a cursory look in the eye and concentrated on his scroll, "okay, names?"
"Ming Zhi, and this is my friend, Kazuki," Toph held her arm out towards what she guessed to be the direction of the bed.
"Hi!" Aang waved, an involuntary cough erupting as he sat up to greet the newcomer, "sorry, got a spell of the flu. No disrespect meant."
"That's fine," Xai scrolled his finger down the list, finding their names in the registry, "identification?" Toph pulled her ration book out of her pocket and flicked open the first page with her fingers. Aang, in the meantime, was fishing around on top of the bedside table for his ration book. Xai looked up from his scroll and stared irritably at Toph, stating "the other way..."
"Oh! Heheh..." Toph muttered nervously, fumbling the book until the actual inside cover was shown. She needed to fix that for next time, she reminded herself. Aang had finally found his ration book and quickly flicked through to the right page. He eagerly leaned forward and smiled broadly as he showed off his gleaming alter ego...until his left arm abruptly failed on him and resulted in his forehead impacting against the bedstead.
"That didn't need to be nearly as complicated a process as you both made it," Xai commented to Aang, who was rolling back onto the bed and nursing his aching forehead. The crewman looked down the list again and raised an eyebrow, "and it gets more complicated still. Shouldn't there be two more people in this room?"
"You mean...Gameshin and Ursa?" Toph reeled off the names from memory, "they're probably on their way back right now. They've only just made the announcement, after all."
"Fair enough..." Xai looked over the both of them suspiciously, "except I can't help but notice that you're children aged between ten and twelve being left unattended. Aaaaand...I need tickets, please."
Their smiles disappeared. This was getting bad. Toph patted her clothing for any trace of extra slips of paper. Her pulse began racing when her pockets revealed nothing and her pathological dislike of being questioned butt-kissing paper-pushers began to manifest, "Gameshin has the tickets. Look...we're...we're in the quarters, aren't we? So that's okay, right? The door's locked, and we're trusted, fully responsible people, right?"
"And...and we're not going to be wandering around! I'm bed-ridden! See?" Aang leaned up and furiously patted his forehead, "I can't keep my hand on my forehead it's so hot!"
"So you've nothing to worry about from us, right?" Toph pushed for some reassurance.
"Be that as it may, I still need tickets," Xai said dismissively, looking down at the scroll in his arm.
"I already said! Gameshin has the tickets!" Toph was close to calling the man an idiot. She mustered as much self-control as twelve years as an exhibition piece could endow.
Xai didn't seem interested in what Toph was saying, and after a while rolled his head up as if the blind girl had only just asked a question, mumbling "...hmm?"
"The tickets!" Toph shouted, "you were asking about the tickets!"
It was then that Aang began noticing the swaying. It seemed weird and top-heavy, not the result of any actual movement from the crewman. Xai's face came over with confusion, "what tickets?"
"Ensign Xai?" Aang leaned over to ask, "are you feeling alright?"
Xai's head rolled up and stared straight through Aang, smiling blankly, "Ensign Xai's unwell? I hope he gets better..."
The scroll Xai was holding flopped to the ground, the part nearest to his feet becoming soaked with water. As soon as Toph heard the flap of the scroll against the metal floor she slid her feet back into a battle stance, breathing steadily and frowning fiercely at the sensations before her. Aang's eyes widened in horror, "I'll...take that as a 'no'..."
"Aang! Get back!" Toph yelled. She drew her foot back in frightened disgust when a puddle of water reached her toe. She seethed through gritted teeth, "you're not getting me this time you freak..."
Xai's veins throbbed with hard effort. His limbs hung limply, his feet no longer supporting his feet and yet staying upright. A convulsive giggle burst out, "eheheheh...heh...crying shame...heheh...it was a good experiment...heh...eheheheheh...eghk..."
Xai's head drooped back, and all movement ceased. Toph leapt backwards as the crewman's body clumped onto the floor with a splash, no longer being held up. The blind earthbender's hands trembled, too concentrated on the unseen lump on the ground to think straight. It took Aang to look out the door and cry out for her to snap out of it, "Toph! Shut the do-"
Toph's pigtail's snapped off of her shoulders from the speed of the air rushing past her, and she sensed something with mass closing the distance between the door and Aang's bed inside a second. Acting instinctively, the earthbending master sprung her legs, faced where she guessed the door to be, and pushed her feet firmly into the ground. The earth, deeply embedded inside the metal that clung to her legs, obliged with a spring of its own, launching Toph a short distance into the air and closing quickly on the door. It hit her sooner than expected, but she spun quickly on contact, using her force and weight to close her back onto the metal door, slamming it shut before anything inside the room could escape.
The door locked automatically, and shuddered from the bodily impact Toph made on it. Panting, she didn't give herself the chance to get her breath back, pushing herself back onto her feet and making a strong stance. She prepared for a fight...but none was forthcoming. She relaxed, and her breathing eased, but her alertness stayed sharp and was getting sharper. She calmed, waited, and listened closely.
There was nothing to listen to. The engine's rumble revealed no footmarks. The air betrayed no sound. Nothing moved or shifted after that sudden rush of air before. Whatever had come into the room was still in the room. Whatever was in the room was holding Aang hostage.
Six puppets watched her with wide, gentle smiles...the Avatar was losing the strength to watch anything...and she couldn't sense a thing.
To Be Continued…
Avatar: The Last Airbender Concept and Characters © Nickelodeon 2005-06
Author's Note: 3 days after my final essay deadline, I thank for your patience and your incredibly helpful reviews, you finally have A NEW CHAPTER! One that ends in a suspenseful cliffhanger! Woooooo...
You may well have noticed the shorter length of this chapter. This is what is called 'the exercise of rational thought'. You people are finding the long chapters exhausting. I'm finding the long chapters exhausting. Following the simple if...then style of argument, if both fan-ficcer and fan-ficcee want shorter chapters, then maybe shorter chapters would be nice. Please bear in mind you're not getting less material because of this. I'll be writing the same amount of stuff, just in shorter, more frequent bursts. This is good for both your reading pleasure and my sanity. So...yay!
Thank you all for reading...and by the way, if either you're getting restless for updates or want to read something different, read Assault Sloth's fan-fic '100 Years'. It deserves more readers and it's qualitylicious!
