Book 5: The Weaver
Sen and Hanjo awoke to a startlingly quiet city. Zang wasn't a big town, but there should be people moving and talking at a time like this. The two of them couldn't hear anything. They grabbed their supplies and hurried downstairs, trying to keep a lid on the panic bubbling inside. Nobody was on the main floor of the hotel. No clerks, no maids, no one sitting in the lobby. Since there were no witnesses now, they let themselves panic.
"What the heck is going on," Sen said. He wrapped his arms around himself. "What the heck did we do?"
"We didn't do anything," Hanjo said, slapping him on the head. "Everybody else did something! They went somewhere."
He was keeping his theories to himself for now. All he could think was that they'd been found out, Howler was on his way, and all the townspeople had run from his wrath. But that was worst case scenario. Hopefully it was just some strange misunderstanding.
"We need to get a move on."
On that Sen agreed. They barged out the door. The streets were equally empty, but there was noise now, a quiet shifting sound coming from some distance away. The duo looked at each other and nodded. They should investigate.
Silently they crept towards the source of the noise. As they got closer, it became clear that there was a large crowd having conversations about something. The whole town had gathered around something. Sen and Hanjo split up to find some of the people they'd befriended the previous day, hoping to get an explanation. Sen found Kyo and managed to squeeze through the crowd to her side. She seemed glad to see him.
"Wei! Thank goodness you're here. We're going to need earthbenders."
"What's going on? We slept through it all."
"I guess no one went looking for you because you don't live here," She explained. "But they got the whole town together this morning. The Weavers are trying to arrest someone."
Sen did not manage to hide his panic. If the Weavers were on his tail, that meant very bad things. But from what Sen had heard from Hanjo, it seemed the Weavers often accused people randomly. Hopefully this was one such case.
"What for?"
"He thinks the Avatar came through here a few days ago," Kyo said. Sen sighed in relief. "He's accused Wang of allowing him passage."
That didn't make sense. Wang was the leader of the people trying to keep the Avatar out. What evidence could the Weaver possibly present?
"You should get into the middle of the circle," Kyo suggested. "Tell people you're an Earthbender, they'll want you on the scene."
The people immediately around Sen heard Kyo and made room for Sen to move. He nodded and started moving towards the middle, pushing people aside if he had to. As he got closer, he saw a large group of grown men having a standoff with the Weaver agent, who had Wang in handcuffs. He joined them all and stared the Weaver down. After a short moment, Hanjo slipped through the crowd and joined the platoon of Earthbenders as well.
The Weaver looked at his wristwatch a few times. After about a minute had passed, he spoke to his opponents.
"If you don't disperse within a minute, I'll arrest you all on obstruction of justice."
"You got no jurisdiction here, ya pig," someone shouted.
"The security of the United Earth Kingdom transcends jurisdiction," The Weaver shouted back. "You should all be thanking me for removing this Avatar sympathizer from your midst."
"I'm telling you, I ain't no Avatar lover," Wang objected. He rattled the chains on his hand. "I lead the patrol that keeps him outta this town! I told you that seven times!"
"And yet you allow unsupervised minors matching his description to pass freely into your town," The Weaver said. He glared at Hanjo. "Isn't that right, Kon and Wei?"
Sen's heart dropped into his gut. Wang looked at the two as well, and a smile found its way to his face.
"Hey, hey, I know you two! Tell this guy how I grilled you before I let you into town, right? Let him know I mean business."
"Please do," The Weaver said.
Sen hesitated. The Weaver waved him forward.
"Don't worry, you two aren't under scrutiny. A traveler at the inn by the name of Kodo corroborated the alibi you provided to Wang."
Hanjo restrained a laugh. He patted himself on the back for being consistent in his lying. Hopefully it would be this easy to lie their way all to Republic City. He stepped forward, and Sen soon followed his example.
"Well, he stopped us from doing anything until he'd interviewed us about our past," Hanjo explained. "We explained how we couldn't possibly be related the Avatar, and only then did he let us go."
"What exactly did he ask you," The Weaver questioned. There was something very suspicious about his tone.
"Oh, he asked us where we were from-"
"You're lying," The Weaver interrupted. "Step back."
Hanjo obeyed. The Weaver turned to Sen.
"Wei, you have once chance to tell me the truth. Don't be like your companion, or the two of you will be charged with perjury."
They weren't even under oath, Sen thought to himself. But the Weaver would know a lie anyway. He'd called Hanjo out so quickly, there was only one explanation; he was a Truth-seer. He could read your heart rate to determine when you were lying. Sen would have to tell the truth, and nothing but.
"He didn't really ask us anything," Sen said. The Weaver nodded at this, and allowed him to continue. "But we told him without being asked, why we were on the move, and how old we were, and why we were here."
The Weaver nodded and looked at Wang.
"Very well," He said. "Wang is not guilty on charges of aiding and abetting the Avatar."
The whole town relaxed at once. Sen's heart finally started beating at the right pace again.
"However," The Weaver shouted. "Wei has convinced me that he is guilty of criminal negligence in his position."
"You can't do that," Wang shouted. He ran at the Weaver, but the Weaver metalbent the chains around his wrist, holding him in place by his arms. "I'm a volunteer! I can't be negligent in a job I ain't being paid for! This is just you trumping up charges!"
"He's right," Someone in the crowd shouted shouted. "You can't do this!"
The crowd tensed up again, and the earthbenders moved forward to back up Sen. The Weaver removed several plates of metal from his belt and set them hovering in the air between him and the earthbenders. Sen slammed his foot on the ground and got ready for a fight.
"Any continued earthbending will be considered hostile action! I will be forced to defend myself!"
"No one's earthbending," someone shouted.
"Then why is the earth shaking," The Weaver questioned. "Your attempt at a sneak attack will…wait."
He backed his shards of metal up, and the Earthbenders backed up as well.
"There's been some kind of misunderstanding. None of you are Earthbending. It's coming from…"
He bent down and stared at the dirt. Shaking his head, he stomped his foot on the ground, and closed his eyes as he focused on the reverberating soil. Then his eyes opened in shock. The ground split open beneath his feet and he toppled to the ground. A small badgermole popped out of the ground.
"Gun?"
The badgermole sniffed at the Weaver a few times before giving a dissatisfied huff. Gun turned around to look at the rest of the crowd, and then spotted Sen. The young beast squeaked once, and then trotted over to Sen's side happily.
"A badgermole," the Weaver said. His eyes narrowed.
"You seem to have an odd affinity with this animal," The Weaver said accusingly.
Sen tried his best to ignore Gun, but the badgermole was walking circles around him.
"We found him in the woods after his mother died," Hanjo said. "We didn't know he had followed us!"
It was close enough to the truth that the truth-seeing Weaver didn't call him out on it. Still, he stepped closer to Sen.
"You two claim to be older than the Avatar, but if I didn't know better, I'd say that creature could be an Animal Guide."
He placed his foot flat on the ground. Sen was sweating, Hanjo was looking around in a frenzy, trying to come up with a lie good enough to fool the Weaver, and Gun was still trying to get Sen to pet him.
"Tell me that you aren't the Avatar," The Weaver said.
There was a very heavy pause. Hanjo was the one to break it.
"Well, the thing about that, Mr. Weaver, you see-"
The Weaver was hit in the head with a rock.
"Run for it!"
A patch of shifting earth made the crowd part ways, creating a path large enough for Sen, Hanjo, and Gun to bolt down. They heard screaming behind them, and felt the ground shake as the Weaver or the earthbenders tried to attack them. Staying one step ahead of whatever was attacking them; Hanjo led the group down Main Street and away from the crowd.
They never bothered to look behind them, but it didn't take a genius to guess that the attackers wouldn't be far behind. They were two kids and a badgermole versus a dangerous professional metalbender.
"This is all your badgermoles fault!"
"His name is Gun," Sen shouted back. "And you're the one who said he was our Animal Guide!"
Hanjo managed to think for a moment and actually had something that he thought was a good idea.
"Gun! Do something guide-y! Get us out of this mess!"
He only thought it was a good idea.
"He's just a kid!"
"Appa got Aang out of all kinds of stuff, and Naga slapped an Equalist out of midair! Gun can earn his keep!"
Gun then failed to do anything of any use to anyone. Hanjo groaned, but he'd had an actual good idea in the intervening seconds. They rounded a corner, and he put his plan into action.
The Weaver followed them around a corner, and found nothing. He looked around every corner before the obvious occurred to him. It was clear to him that they'd employed the badgermoles tunneling ability to escape under the street. He tore open the ground beneath his feet and dove in after them.
Meanwhile, several feet above the ground, Hanjo had torn open the wall of one of the old stone buildings and tucked all three of them inside.
"This was a really good idea," Sen said, talking through a mouthful of badgermole fur.
Hanjo reopened the wall and let them all fall back to the ground. They bolted again, following Hanjo to wherever it was that he was headed. He led them to a factory and then hopped into the seat of one of the trucks.
"Hanjo!"
"I know I know, Avatars don't steal things," Hanjo said frantically. "But Avatars also don't die! Now come on!"
Gun hopped into the back of the truck, leaving Sen the only one on the ground. He groaned and hopped into the passenger seat.
Zu and some of the earthbenders barged through the factory door. They saw what Hanjo was doing and closed the distance, shouting at him all the while. Luckily, the factory workers always left the keys in the ignition.
"I'm really sorry about this Zu!" He shouted over his shoulder as he sped away. "You're a really nice guy!"
Zu never got to hear that last part because Hanjo was speeding away, not that it would have made him feel any better. Hanjo hit the open road and started pushing the satomobile as fast as he could make it go.
Unfortunately, the residents of Zang were much better drivers, and they caught up to him in just a few minutes.
"Sen, do something Avatar!"
"Those are innocent people, Hanjo!"
"Innocent people who are going to get us killed if they catch us," Hanjo retorted. "Just make a wall or something, so they stop following us."
Sen turned around. It would have been nice to stand in the back of the truck, but Gun was taking up half of it already and Hanjo's driving was too crappy for him to get any solid footing. Their pursuers were gaining too much ground to waste time, so Sen did everything he could think of.
He tore holes in the dirt and hurled stones behind them, but his attacks frequently missed the mark, flying wide of his target for reasons he couldn't understand. Sen turned to Hanjo.
"They're better than me at this," He screamed.
"I said do something Avatar," Hanjo said. "Make with the glowing eyes!"
"I can't do that."
A rock hit the back of the truck, giving off a loud thud. Gun let out a distressed squeal.
The other earthbenders had closed to attack distance, and they were starting to pelt the truck with stones. Sen did what he could to push them aside, but there were too many for him to stop all on his own. One of them broke the driver side mirror, sending shards of glass at Hanjo. He swerved and their pursuers gained even more ground. Then another rock hit Gun on the head. That would prove to be a mistake.
Even a young badgermole is tough enough to withstand a single rock to the head, because it's a typical playtime activity of the young ones to launch rocks at each other to prove their superiority. With that hit to the head, Gun felt his skills were being challenged. He turned around and let out a high pitched yelp at his attackers. Then he lifted a rock the size of a building out of the road.
Everyone pursuing the rogue satomobile swerved to the side as the massive stone barreled down the road. They crashed into trees or rolled into ditches, but as the stone faded backwards, it became clear there was no one left on the road behind Sen and company.
"Yes," Hanjo shouted triumphantly. "I knew he'd be a good Animal Guide!"
"Amazing, Gun!"
Sen reached into his pack and grabbed a small chunk of food, tossing it to Gun. The Badgermole ate its treat in contented silence.
"We are a great Team Avatar," Hanjo said. He relaxed a bit and started driving the satomobile with one hand, gesturing with the other. "You and me have had everything go right for us so far. It's destiny, Sen, we're going to be awesome."
Sen looked back over his shoulder. He wasn't quite as excited.
"What happens to them, though?" He looked back in the direction of Zang again. "We got out, but what happens to all the people who helped us? The Energybender is going to come for them."
Hanjo hadn't thought of that. That was a really good point. They had chased Hanjo and Sen, true, but only to try and protect themselves. He'd feel bad if they got hurt.
"You know what," Hanjo said. "I got a good feeling about it. I think everything's going to work out alright."
"I hope you're right," Sen sighed.
The mob conglomerated back in town, occasionally bruised, but largely unharmed by the mass satomobile accident. They were in a panicked huddle, and the Weaver stood in the middle of them all, trying to gather testimony for his report.
"Now don't worry about a thing, all appropriate action will be taken," he said reassuringly. "I'll make a full report on everything that happened here."
"About that," Zu said, speaking loud enough for the entire crowd to hear. "I had a thought."
"I'm sure you're proud of your thought, sir, but please leave this to the professionals."
"No, see, I was thinking," Zu continued. "Why should we tell anyone?"
"Sir, those two are fugitives," The Weaver said. "They've brought down the wrath of the Energybender on you all. Your only hope is to get full Ministerial protection."
"Yeah, no," Wang said. He moved into the center of the circle with Zu and the Weaver. "I think I get my friends point."
"Howler ain't going to bring any wrath on anybody," Zu explained. "If he never hears about this. We're a tiny town, why would he have one 'a his spies here?"
"And from what I'm seeing," Wang continued. "The only one filing any reports is you."
Zu cracked his knuckles.