Chapter 26: SuperSokka

Sokka was the first to wake up the morning after battling Azula. He couldn't remember exactly what happened after they cornered her, but that didn't seem to matter. Everyone was safe and Sokka felt better than ever.

While everyone else continued to sleep Sokka took a slow walk, taking in the sun's light. Who knew a good night's sleep could make you feel this good he thought. In the distance Sokka spotted a small saber-tooth moose-lion eating some grass. Sokka took out his boomerang and threw it at the little critter. The boomerang cleanly cut through its neck and got stuck in the ground behind it.

Well that was easy Sokka thought. He walked over to retrieve the boomerang when he heard Katara calling for him.

"There you are, you had me worried sick" Katara yelled.

"Is something wrong?" Sokka asked.

"Something wrong? Sokka you nearly got hit by lightning" Katara explained. "What am I supposed to think when you just disappear after something like that?"

"Wait lightning, I don't remember that happening" Sokka said.

"Kal pushed you out of the way and you were both out cold after it" Katara said.

"Speaking of Kal where is he?" Sokka asked.

"Zuko and his uncle wouldn't let us take him" Katara explained. "Zuko said he was family and that they should take care of his injury."

"Kal, the invulnerable Kal was injured?" Sokka said.

"Even he has limits Sokka" Katara said. "Now let's get back to camp, Aang starts his earthbending lessons today."

"Okay Katara, race you there" Sokka said. Suddenly Sokka disappeared in a blur towards camp, leaving behind a shocked Katara.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Sokka screamed at high speed. Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop! He thought. But it was too late, he ran into a rock face. On the other side Aang and Toph were startled when Sokka burst out of the rock and fell to the ground, leaving an impression on the earth.

"Smooth" Toph said.

"What just happened here?" Aang asked, staring at the hole Sokka made in the rock.

"I have no idea" Sokka said. "It all happened so fast."

"Fast huh" Toph said. "Catch" she said as she earthbended a large boulder out of the ground and threw it at Sokka. Not thinking Sokka tried to block with his arms and the boulder shattered on impact with him. "Ok who are you and what have you done with Sokka" Toph accused.

"Hey it's still me and something really weird is going on here" Sokka said. "And not the kind of weird we normally have."

"Sokka did you… run through the rock?" Aang asked.

"Apparently I did and didn't feel a thing doing it" Sokka said.

"I have an idea" Toph said. With earthbending she created a wide column of rock next to her. "Lift this, now!"

"I'm not going to like where this is going am I?" Sokka asked. He grabbed the bottom of the column and lifted. The column instantly broke away from the ground and thanks to Sokka's poor grip the column was sent flying into the distance.

OOOOOOOOOO

Meanwhile a humble merchant was selling his produce. It was a good day until a column of rock fell from the sky and smashed his produce. A scream of "MY CABBAGES" could be heard from miles away.

OOOOOOOOOO

"Please tell me that rock was hollow" Sokka asked.

"Nope, you just tossed a solid column of stone several miles" Toph said.

"Ok, how did I just do that?" Sokka asked.

"Well we all know one other person capable of that" Aang said.

"Yea Kal, but that still doesn't explain how I am doing this" Sokka said.

"Well he was hit by lightning, so maybe that did something?" Aang suggested.

"So guy with powers plus lightning equals two guys with powers" Sokka said. "Sure, why not?"

"If you guys are done talking we've got earthbending to do" Toph interrupted. "Have Katara figure you out while I deal with Aang."

"Okay, have fun throwing rocks" Sokka said.

Throughout the day Aang struggled with earthbending. It was the opposite of Aang's natural element of air. Toph resorted to taking Aang's staff to get him to stand his ground. It took an attack from an angry mother saber-tooth moose-lion to force Aang into the earthbender mindset. After the attack Aang could earthbend.

Meanwhile Sokka tried to get the hang of his new abilities. However each time he tried to run at high speed he would overrun the distance and hit something, usually breaking whatever he ran into. He also kept breaking anything he tried to use his new strength on. Fortunately none of the accidents hurt anyone.

After a few days of training Aang decided everyone needed a break. He came up with the idea of mini-vacations, and Aang spent his playing with singing gophers. Sokka complained about forgetting to ask Kal El for a map of the Fire Nation, but was ignored as Katara chose to go to the Misty Palms Oasis.

While the oasis was in poor condition, it still had a decent bar. Inside it Sokka spotted the bartender making a tasty looking beverage, and wanted one. However the man with the drink bumped into Aang, spilling his drink over Aang's shirt. Aang cleaned himself with airbending, and the stranger was amazed.

"An Air Nomad, right in front of me" he said. "I'm Professor Zei of anthropology at Ba Sing Se University."

Before the professor could continue he was interrupted by the sound of an ice bowl shattering. "Oh come on" Sokka complained. The bowl his drink was in had shattered in his hands, leaving a fruity mess behind.

"Hey professor" Katara asked. "Do you happen to have a current map? Ours is out of date."

"Certainly" Zei said. He unrolled his map on a table and Katara examined it while Sokka ordered another drink. Unfortunately there was nothing on the Fire Nation on the map.

Examining the map, Katara said "You've made a lot of trips into the desert."

"All in vain I'm afraid" Zei said. "I've been trying to find Wan Shi Tong's library. I know it's somewhere in this desert but it's just too large to search properly."

"I don't suppose this library would have a map of the Fire Nation?" Sokka asked, while being careful to not break his drink again.

"I wouldn't know" Zei admitted. "But if it exists, it's in that library."

"Then it's settled" Sokka said. "Aang I believe it's my turn. I would like to spend my vacation at the library."

"There's still the matter of finding it" Zei said. "I've made several trips into the desert and nearly died each time. It's impossible to search on foot."

"Professor, would you like to see our sky bison?" Sokka asked.

Within minutes everyone was on Appa and in the air. After hours of searching and a false alarm from Toph, they still hadn't found the library. Sokka spotted a tower sticking out of the sand and they landed to investigate it. On the ground everyone saw a fox climb up the side and entered the tower.

"I think this is the library" Sokka said. "It's completely buried." Looking at the sand Sokka's eyes started to glow a light blue, and he looked through the sand. So that's what Kal sees with that trick he thought. "It's still intact."

"You just did Kal's seeing through stuff thing, right?" Aang asked.

"Yup" Sokka admitted. "Well let's climb up to the window the fox used and go in."

"I say you go ahead without me" Toph said. "Books don't exactly do it for me."

Leaving Toph and Appa outside everyone else climbed up the tower. Using a long rope they climbed down the inside and entered the library. Once inside they heard feathers rustling nearby and hid behind some stone columns.

A giant owl walked into the room and saw the rope that was used to enter the library. The owl turned its head around, staring at where everyone was hiding. "I know your back there"

Professor Zei walked out of the hiding place and introduced himself to the owl. After a thinly veiled threat against the professor Sokka walked forward. "Are you the spirit that brought this library to the physical world?" he asked.

"Indeed, I am Wan Shi Tong, he who knows ten thousand things, and you are obviously humans. Which, by the way, are no longer permitted in my study."

"What do you have against humans?" Aang asked.

"Humans only bother learning things to get the edge on other humans. Like that firebender who came here two years ago, seeking to destroy his enemies. So who are you trying to destroy?"

"Actually I need some help not destroying things" Sokka said. "A few days ago a friend of ours had his abilities copied and given to me, and I keep breaking things on accident."

"What kind of abilities?"

"High strength, speed, invulnerability, that sort of thing" Sokka explained.

"A Traveler's abilities, in the hands of a human, that is very bad. Come with me, your friends may enjoy the library."

Wan Shi Tong led Sokka to the lowest level of the library. Aang and the others stayed above, browsing the vast collection of books and scrolls. At the bottom of the library Wan Shi Tong stopped in front of a large door. Above the door was a red S in a diamond symbol.

"This room is where I keep the severely limited information on the Travelers. If there is anything that can help with your problem, it is in here."

"If you don't mind me asking, what exactly are the Travelers?" Sokka asked.

"The Travelers were an enlightened race who visited this world many times in the past. Despite their vast power they never came to conquer this world. They merely judged whether or not humans were ready to know about them. Unlike humans, they deserved my respect."

"Do you know what happened to them?"

"Sadly their world is no more. A tragedy the likes of which will never be known again. So much knowledge was lost with their passing."

Wan Shi Tong opened the door and entered with Sokka. There were only a dozen scrolls, three books, and a small metal octagon inside. "That's it?" Sokka asked.

"The Travelers were very careful to keep their existence secret from humans. Very few individuals were contacted by them and fewer of them wrote about their experiences."

"It will have to do I guess" Sokka said.

It took Sokka half an hour to read through the books. Most of the writing was personal journals of people who met Travelers. One book caught Sokka's attention. It described how Yan-El journeyed to the spirit world and banished Koh the Face Stealer with the help of Avatar Fong. It also described how Yan-El built a fortress in the north, guarded by a perpetual blizzard to keep humans away.

Looking through the scrolls Sokka saw one with a drawing of the metal octagon. The scroll described that it had been found near Ba Sing Se a few years ago, but nothing else. Having read everything in the room Sokka pocketed the metal octagon, wanting to show it to Kal El later. Sokka walked back to where the others were looking through books. Aang was looking at a picture of a lion-turtle when Sokka arrived. "Find anything useful?" Sokka asked.

"Not really, how about you?" Aang asked.

"The owl didn't have anything helpful" Sokka lied, not wanting the spirit or the foxes to know he took the metal octagon.

"Sokka come look at this" Katara said. She was looking at a piece of parchment in a glass case. "The darkest day in Fire Nation history, there's a date on it but nothing else."

"This could be promising" Sokka wondered aloud. He removed the parchment and left to find the Fire Nation section of the library with the others following him. However once they reached that section they discovered that everything in it was burned down. Fortunately one of the foxes heard that they wanted to know what happened on the darkest day and led them to a different room.

The fox opened the door and showed the planetarium. Once everyone was inside the fox activated the mechanism inside showing how it worked. Katara entered the date from the parchment and the room showed that a solar eclipse happened on that day.

"Of course" Sokka said. "Firebenders must lose their power during a solar eclipse."

"But how does that help us now?" Katara asked. "We don't know when one is coming."

"If this machine shows when previous eclipses happened, maybe it can show future ones?" Aang wondered.

"Good idea Aang" Sokka said. "Let's put in dates one by one until the day Sozin's Comet arrives. If one doesn't happen by then we'll need another plan."

After half an hour of using the machine it finally showed when the next solar eclipse will happen. It was only a few months away, in the middle of summer. "All we have to do is invade the Fire Nation on this date and the war will be over" Sokka declared.

"Mortals are so predictable, and such terrible liars. From the beginning you intended to misuse this knowledge for evil purposes."

"You don't understand" Sokka said. "If anyone is evil it's the Fire Nation. We need this information."

"You think you are the first to believe their war was justified? Countless others before you have claimed just wars, most from both sides."

"Please, we're just desperate to protect the people we love" Aang said.

"And now I will protect what I love." Wan Shi Tong started to flap his wings and the library began to sink into the sand. "I'm taking my knowledge back. No one will ever abuse it again."

"We have to get out of here" Katara yelled.

"I cannot allow that. You already know too much." The spirit then morphed into a monstrous form and attacked.

Sokka jumped and tackled the spirit, knocking it to the ground. Sokka kept the spirit busy while everyone else ran towards the exit.

"This is why it is bad for humans to possess the abilities of a Traveler."

Using its wing the spirit tossed Sokka off him. The spirit attempted to claw at Sokka with its talons, but Sokka grabbed them and threw the spirit across the library. Sokka followed with another tackle, pushing the spirit into a wall. Then with a punch to the spirit's head Sokka knocked it out. With Wan Shi Tong out cold Sokka ran back to the entrance, following Aang and Katara out of the library. Professor Zei stayed behind, despite Sokka's protest.

Once outside the library the entrance finally sank beneath the sand. However Appa was nowhere to be found and Toph was crying.

"Where's Appa?" Aang asked. Toph couldn't answer him.