Even further strange, the legless creature extended both its arms at the unsuspecting Toph. Suddenly, a yellow ball of pure light manifested between its palms.

"...Aang?..."

"KID, LOOK OUT!"

Toph gasped, and quickly jerked up a rock slab at the last second. The entire stage was engulfed in fire-born smoke...

*FLASH*

"...An unofficial report has come from the Boiling Rock. The facility has just been..." he panted still,"...raided."

"Raided? By who?" The Fire Lord demanded.

*FLASH*

"All inmates are accounted for, mi-..." the messenger haulted, then forcefully swallowed his fear,"...minus one..."

A gallon of horror played all over his face, for no one had to inform the young monarch that the one in question was not simply some random theif, arsonist, or even a former terrorist: it was her.

Get out..." Zuko hissed.

*FLASH*

"Today's your birthday?!" Katara vocalized rather loudly.

The Avatar immediately shot his hands toward her as a sign to lower her voice."Sssshhhh! Will you keep it down?! The whole world doesn't have to know!" he yell/whispered.

*FLASH*

"LET HER GO!" Aang roared, spinning a full three hundred and sixty degrees and sending a liquid missle straight for its head; however, in the blink of an eye, the thing vanished in an almost imperceptible flash of bluish-green with his girlfriend altogether, the projectile slamming into the roof shingles instead, followed by an abrupt silence...

*FLASH*

"What's going on? Where are we?" demanded the young waterbender.

The former princess was frozen in her tension for a moment, but sighed as she let her fireing arm go limp."Of course," she muttered,"Just go right ahead and assume that I have somehow kidnapped you out of the clear blue sky, and imprisoned you within some random fortress; I mean, why else would I be trapped in here to, right?" she inquired sarcasticly.

Katara was momentarily thrown off guard by her comment, logic sinking in a second and a half later,"...Oh, well sorry, I didn't-"

"Well, you should've," Azula snapped,"There are other bad people in the world besides me, believe ot not..."

*FLASH*

"...We need to look further into this," Aang announced to the group, getting up from his seat and facing them,"Katara's somewhere in trouble, and we can't stop the search no matter what, not for any other emergency."

*FLASH*

"Are you saying that," Suki began,"they literally just manifested themselves, destroyed the place, then dissappeared into thin air?"

The warden nodded,"...both times in a breif flash of light; greenish I think..."

"Just like Katara..." the young Avatar mumbled,stopping comepletely,"I knew it! There is a connection!" he shouted, walking off and leaning on the rail.

*FLASH*

" 'Space station' ?" Toph repeated,"You mean station... in SPACE?"

"Well, what do you know, I was just on the verge of thinking about you..." Dr. Eggman began slowly, revolving around and revealing himself to the fire, water, and earthbenders.

*FLASH*

"MY SISTER'S IN OUTER WHERE?" Sokka exclaimed.

"She has to be; I had that vision for a reason, and this is it," the Avatar explained.

*FLASH*

The servant once again endeavored to catch his breath."...This... item was... found... on the... stairway to... the palace..." he explained, laying the large object before the group...

*FLASH*

"Who are you, and why have you attacked my country!" the Fire Lord demanded, rising from his seat.

"Oh, just a humble inventor looking to setup shop in a new area. In this case: the planet."

*FLASH*

"You see," he began,"When I first made it to your world but a week ago, an unfornate 'accident' lead me to lose a very precious artifact of mine; one of seven, actually: an ivory jewel, that glows like the brightest lanturn," the scientist explained, the holographic Sokka taking a double-take,"It plummeted away from my humble abode all the way down to this planet, where it landed somewhere in this region."

*FLASH*

"Okay..." Aang exhaled,"So, if we find this jewel, you'd be willing to exange Katara, Azula, and Toph for it?"

*FLASH*

"What's going to go, Avatar Aang?: a jewel that can convert thoughts into power, or some girl you may or may not be engaged to one day?"

*FLASH*

"We're going to have to widen our gaze a bit if we can ever hope to think on his level," Zuko said.

"But how would we do that?" the warrior inquired,"How could we do it? If we're all just a bunch of animals compared to this guy, how would we ever be able to find the jewel in the first place? We don't even know what the blasted rock looks like!"

"I do..."

"What did you say?" Aang inquired.

*FLASH*

But it was true, It was nobody's imagination; the voice belonged to Sokka, who seemed just tormented as he raised his head to speak further, but masked it with the deepest look of determination the Water Tribe teen's worn since the Battle of Wulong Forest.

"I know because...I know the one who can find it."

*FLASH*

Book Four:

Metal

Chapter Six:

The Search for the Chaos Emerald

A rock burst through the wooden blind doors of a window.

The citizens screamed as a horde of renegade Earth Kingdom soldiers raided the once peaceful city of Yu Dao.

Whole structures were leveled to rubble by the combined effort of crazed earthbenders.

Runaway wagons flew across the streets.

Men and women were invaded and assaulted in their own apartments and thrown out of two-story buildings.

Elders and novice firebenders fought back as bravely as they could, as useless as it was; even earthbenders born and raised in the city itself had joined in on the chaos.

One middle-aged earthbender with long, haggard beard and receding hairline stomped the ground and forced a column of rock to launch a man far into the air and screaming down onto a vegetable cart (which thankfully had no cabbages in it).

"Nice one, Gow!" cheered on of the other raiders.

"You think that's good, just wait till I get my hands on the mayor..." replied Gow.

"Wait! Stop!" called a voice from above, catching the attention of a few thugs.

They looked up to see a portly man in expensive clothing leaning on the rails of a balconey."Please, you must stop this senseless violence!" he pleaded.

"Well, whadda' ya know, boys? Just the man we're lookin' for...!" Gow announced, taking out his welding hammer and conjuring a stone to eye-level, quickly thwacking it with his hammer and sending it flying toward the balconey, smashing some of its supports, and causing the platform to collapse with Mayor Morishito on it, the man tumbling into the streets before Gow.

Spears were pointed at the mayor as he attempted to get up; he turned and watched the vandals ruthlessly drag his beloved wife and daughter outside. The girl broke free of her hold long enough to come at the captor with the kitchen knife, only for the laughing henchmen to grab her knife-holding wrist, snatch it from her grasp and shove her face first on the ground with her mother.

"No! Kori!" the mayor cried, turning to the leader woefully."Why are you doing this?"

"What do you mean?" cracked Gow,"We just figured we ought to show you the same hospitality that your people showed us," he explained, placing his hand his chest innocently,"Namely storming our villages and burning them to the ground," he fingerd his beard thoughtfully,"Of course for the lack of firebenders, we'll just have to settle with burying them; I'm sure it'll reap the same results..." he and the others chuckled.

"B-But, the War is over! L-Listen to me, what you're doing is pointless; if you and your men have a problem, you should seek a meeting with the Fire Lord or, or the Avatar! It is his duty to..."

"Oh, but I wouldn't dare interrupt the 'higher powers' during their little 'peace tours', would we, boys?" they shook theirs heads sarcasticly,"Such a shame that they're so busy covering the world with pretty rugs that they haven't found the time to actually attend to a few important matters, like the colonies, starting with the oldest one of all, perhaps?" he gestured to the city that surrounded them.

"I won't let you!" Kori shouted, springing to her feet and bending a rock at Gow, who deflected it with his hammer and caused the girl's right shin to sink under the surface.

"Aren't you a fiesty one?" the leader joked,"And here I was thinking I was never going to get to use this thing..." he lamented as he paced over to the teen, his weapon boasted.

"NO! Take me instead!" Morishito cried out, the thugs restraining him and his struggling wife.

"I would have, but taking you out would be just another casualty," Gow explained,"Now this on the other hand..." he started, seizing the girl by her hair,"...would be a pretty big message to the Fire Lord." Gow jerked the girls head back so that he could look her in the eyes, and vice-versa."And that message is..." he raised the hammer above his head,"You're not welcome here!"

Suddenly, a gust of wind picked up around group, which gradually began circling the area as if it were being bent; it soon turned into a full-blown twister.

"What's goin' on?" asked one of the henchmen stupidly.

"Is it the Avatar?" wondered the mayor's wife.

That theory was quickly dispersed as the cyclone intensified; and strangely enough, gaining a continually growing hint of blue that seemed to illuminate it...

The wind instantly dispersed as a short figrure appeared out of nowhere standing atop a light post with his arms cross and his spiky back turned; he turned toward the leader, revealing the grinning face of a familiar anthropomorphic hedgehog."The man of the hour has arrived!"

Kori gasped."The Blue Spirit!" she realized.

Gow on the other hand was, like the others, at a total loss for words, his large hammer slowly slipping from his loose grip and falling onto his bare foot; his whole body jolted back to reality as he hopped around clutching his swelling foot and muttering various colorfull terms to himself."ggrr-g-Get him!"

The only bender not dumbfounded enough to comply summoned and hurled a rock at the figure, who lept high in the air as the light post was destroyed.

"Bring it on!" Sonic cried as he somersaulted and curled into a ball and dashed for the men.

Sonic home-attacked three earthbenders and touched down, spinning one leg out and toppling a fourth one. He sped away and started tripping more thugs throughout the city before they even knew what hit them, leaving them vulnerable to the defenders.

The hedgehog then sped back to the previous spot, easily avoiding the rocks thrown at him by the Gow and the thugs. Sonic purposely stopped in front of Gow and taunted another soldier.

"I got'em, boss!" he announced as he quickly prepared a rock to throw.

"Wait! Nononononon-!" the Gow pleaded with his hands waving, realizing the vector the rock would have, right before the hedgehog zipped away at the last second, the chunk of earth hitting a tad more below the belt than the leader would have liked...

Sonic, the thugs, the mayor, and even his wife cringed in empathy as the leader doubled over in agony, curling inward with his hands cupped between his legs.

The hedgehog darted over to Kori, sweeping her off her feet, as he carried her in his arms."Sonic's the name; speed's my game!" he recited before taking off, whisking the girl to safety.

"...get...him..." Gow sputtured, pointing a shaky finger to the direction Sonic went.

The remaining two nodded, elevating the earth below their feet and using it as platforms to slide away on after the hedgehog. But out of nowhere, their platforms halted in place, sending them flying into the same vegetable cart that a victim just crawled out of.

"Hah!" he gloated, pointing to them.

The mayor's wife remained in her earthbending stance for a few more seconds."They're not getting anything..." she declared, helping her husband up.

"Thank you, dear," Morishita said,"Now, we can turn the tide of this chaos..."

Sonic sped up the roof of a tall building, gently setting the girl on her feet.

"There, this should be safe enough." he decided, crossing his arms.

The astonished Kori bowed in respect."Thank you, kind spirit," she gratified.

"Oh, don't thank me yet; I still got some work to do..." the hedgehog replied, turning around and running off the roof top."It's time for some spring-cleaning!" he cried as he twirled in the air, coming down onto the foes...

Azula slowly awakened, rubbing her forehead. She turned her attention to the status of the room: Katara and Toph were sitting on the middle bed quietly, and the door was clearly unscathed.

"Huh, must've dozed off again..." the former princess presumed,"I had another weird dream to..." she began,"I dreamt we made it out of the room, only to realize we were in outer space, then some metal gorilla took us to this huge pillar, and we met this egg-shaped man who said he was going to take over the world...and then a chicken ate me...So, did I miss anything?"

"Dinner Tiiiime!" sang Eggman's voice through the intercom, a slot popping out on the wall of each bed, each one carrying a toasted cucumber sandwitch cut in diagonal halves.

"...never mind then..."

The waterbender sighed, got up, and paced over to the firebender."Are you okay?"

"Well, I do have a bit of a headache but-"

*slap*

"-ow!"

"What is wrong with you!?" Katara exclaimed,"How could you just throw our lives on the table like that? What, were you trying to 'commendeer' the whole space fortress or something?" she demanded.

Azula rolled her eyed as she rubbed her cheek."I was trying to gain even ground against him, so we could make a deal..."

"Even ground? WHAT EVEN GROUND!? 'Dr. Eggman' is probably sitting in his chair, laughing to himself about how someone could even think they're on par with him! This station alone makes the Fire Nation look like the Foggy Swamp Tribe!"

"Oh please, there's not one thing this man has that the Fire Nation invented a decade ago; it's simply, well, on a larger scale is all. I doubt this place even belongs to him..." the firebender replied whilst picking up her "dinner" and taking a bite out of it,"...mm, cucumber..."

The waterbender couldn't believe her eyes."Ugh, you've lost your mind!" she declared, stomping back to Toph's bed as her subconscious inquired what her first clue was.

The Bandit lied on her bed properly with her left arm folded under her head, eating her sandwitch." 'Think your dinner's on the other bed..." she reminded.

"I'm not hungry..." Katara replied, lying paralled to the blind girl,"I don't get it; if he wants to take over the world, why doesn't he just do it already? He could probably pull it off overnight."

"Yeah, I stopped questioning stuff a long time ago, makes life simpler..." Toph said, taking another bite.

"If he has to imprison us, could he atleast've taken Sokka too? Atleast he would have gotten a kick out of those machines that could waterb-" the girl paused, an oven timer going off in her head,"...I ...am going...TO-"

"-KILL YOU!" Hakoda roared,"You mean to tell me that some spirit was helping you fool us into thinking you were a waterbender, that it knew about this spaceman and what he wanted, and you let it bury the evidence!? Why, Sokka!? How could you lie to your family like this!?"

Aang sat in his spot, his head lowered; Zuko was still staring at the shard of technological wonder, thinking deeply; Mai leaned behind one column, doing what she does best; Suki stood near the end of the room, her eyes closed and not even facing her boyfriend.

"B-But I wasn't lying! I didn't know about all of this! Not the space guy! Or why those machines attacked us! I was just trying to keep the...the what-ever-it-was from being discovered by them! I tried to tell you about him before, but he kept pretending to be waterbendering, so I...I just went with it! I thought once the emerald was gone, that would be it! No more broken universe!" the son of Hakoda tried to explain, sitting on the floor with his back to another pillar.

Bato scoffed."Well, it would've been nice to know that someone close and trusted had a run-in with a couple elemental demons and a magic rock that could decide the fate of the whole world! For that matter, how do you even know its name at all?" The veteran demanded.

"Because the machine asked me! It would've blown me to bits and I didn't even know what it was talking about!"

"Oh, okay, Sokka, so the machine could talk now?" his father queried.

"You guys are acting like you would've believed him..." the Avatar spoke up.

Hakoda turned towards the speaker."Are you telling me how to raise my son?"

Aang's position persisted."Sokka could have told all of us, but you would of laughed at him, or thought he was as crazy as I was. Even if he did tell the truth ealier, we still wouldn't have been prepared for this. Whether we knew before or now what's going on would not have made a difference, and nothing have changed. If we all die tomarrow, it'll be while knowing there was not one thing that could've prepared us for what happened, so quit blaming someone else because of your own ineptness!" the Air Nomad said it like a straight up earthbender.

Silence.

The chief seemed so charged full of anguish and denial, his fingers tightened around the handle of his machete, and before anyone else could react, he spun around and slammed the bone blade against the column so hard, it snapped in half; the hallway was burdened with its cold echo.

The man dropped his weapon, and fell to his knees. It was then that the teen warriror saw something in his father that not even Bato had seen for over twenty years: teardrops, streaming down from the chief's eyes.

"...please... save my daughter...I can't go through this again..."

At that moment, something jogged the Fire Lord back to awareness."I just had an epiphany... Aang, Sokka, come with me, there's something I need to show you," Zuko announced, tossing away the shard and leaving for the exit.

Sokka and Aang hesitantly complied.

Before making it through the drapes, the former waterbender took one more look at Suki, who was turned the other way."I'll fix this; I promise..." he said.

The Kyoshi Warrior ressisted the erge to turn around."...just go..." she mumbled.

Sokka blinked, and left in slight disappointment.

"...sssooo... Sokka cheated?" Toph asked for confirmation.

"You're darn right he cheated!" the enlightened waterbender continued, pacing around the room like a caged animal, rubbing her hands excessively, "I knew he he wasn't a bender; he can't even bend a spoon, that cheating, cheater...cheat-face!" she struggled for the appropriate fake term.

"And that's why you're angry?" the firebender inquired, raising a brow.

Katara spun around."Uhhhh, yeah! Why else would I be pacing around the room like a caged animal, rubbing my hands excessively?" she replied, briefly increasing her rate of hand rubbing for emphasis, as she was most likely formulating some manner of dispicable deed that Gran Gran would probably rebuke.

"...Because, if I were to acertain the notion that Zuko used some firebending-enhancing contraption during our last duel, I would've been less miffed by the means and more focus toward the condition..."

"Do you talk just so you can show off your vocabulary?" Katara retorted.

The former princess rolled her eyes sighing; she hoped she wouldn't have to be the one to break this down for the naive peasant."Let's see if we can convert this into a simple logic puzzle," she arose from her bed,"Ember Island is down there, the 'waterbending machines' are up here, with several dozens miles of nothing in-between," she took a step closer,"and you have Sokka, an intelligent and well meaning lad from the Southern Water Tribe, who's insecurity among his skilled friends is only rivaled by his ability to keep secrets," she took two steps closer, tapping her chin,"Now, we ourselves are still unsure of the method utilized to and from this station; and, as far as we have witnessed, may only be accessible by our special host..."

"So what're you saying?" the Water Chief's daughter demanded.

"She's saying that somebody had to conveniently put it on Ember Island on purpose, at a specific time where another somebody would conveniently stumble upon it," Toph translated.

The waterbender's gaze shifted between the two captives, the logic puzzle finally solved."...y-You two can't be serious I...why would...how could you even..."

"Hey, I'm not pointin' any fingers-"

"I am," Azula countered sharply,"in fact, I'm just crazy enough to think that that pony-tailed cretin not only knew this was going to happen, but personaly selected us as the hostages..."

"Shut up..." Katara uttered weekly, crossing her arms and turning away.

"Really, you can't deny the odds of it being us in particular out of any noble or political figure on the planet. Dr. Robotnik could've taken King Bumi, my brother, or even the Avatar himself in addition - just as easily - but no," she spreads her hands, drawing closer,"just us, the three people who just happened to have mocked a certian meat-loving skeptic more than anyone else," she was now three feet away from the waterbender,"Think about it, think about how deep this could be: months ago, even before the War ended, all this could have been planned out..." she finished slowly.

"Shut up or I'll make you shut up!" Katara cried.

Not even remotely intimidated, Azula's dramatic demeanor vanished."Fine," she replied, letting her arms go limp,"go ahead and stay in your happy little state of complete denial; it worked for Ba Sing Se just fine," the former princess lamented insensitively, pacing back to her bed and scooting under the covers,"All I ask is that when you get launched into deep space, your brother's power driven eyes the last thing you see, just remember - the evil phycho princess tried to warn you."

At the end of the dialogue, the water found her standing frozen in the middle of the room, her arms still crossed, and actually ruffled them tightly, the sudden coldness settling in.

The renegades were rounded up by the authorities; as soon as the violence had dissolved, the town's people cheered for their furry, blue savior.

Sonic was sitting atop a steel statue of Avatar Roku in the middle of the town square, basking in the praise.

"It's over. Thank you, Sun-nek, this battle would've costed us so much more if it weren't for you..." Kori thanked, looking up at him meaningfully.

"It'd be nothing compared to what I and your father could've lost, Kori..." the girl's mother added, resting her hand on her shoulder; they hugged.

Two officers ran up to them."Mrs. Morishita! Your husband is missing!" one them spouted.

The two turned towards them with suprised faces; Sonic also looked down at this information."Missing? Wasn't he right around here a couple o' minutes ago?" he inquired, kicking off the statue's shoulder and touch down seemlessly as usual.

"Have you searched for him?" the wife questioned.

"He was last seen around here, but we were too distracted by the fighting; the rebel's leader is gone too..." the second officer explaind.

"Oh no..." Kori understood,"He must've fled with Father as a hostage!" she announced tearfully; she started to sniffle.

Sonic walked over to her."Don't cry, Elise..." he soothed, placing his gloved hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, I just-Wait, what did you call me-?"

"Nobody!" the hedgehog hastily replied as he retracted his hand, realizing his Freudian slip.

A brief and awkward glance at Sonic...

"There has to be some evidence of where they went; he couldn't just drag him along in broad daylight," the mayor's wife considered.

Sonic's shifting eyes caught sight of something suspicious."Hey look! There's a pile of dirt right around where I jumped the leader!" he pointed to the pile just before the city hall, in attempt to take the focus off of him without anyone realizing it.

They huddled around the artificial pile.

"That scoundrel must of used his earthbending to tunnel underground. If only there were a way we could track him," the mayor's wife said.

Kori was thoughtful for a moment."...I think I know a way..." she started, pacing around the dirt pile,"I've been practicing a technique that allows an earthbender to sense vibrations though the ground; maybe if I try hard enough, I can find a path underground that will lead us to Father," she speculated.

"Well, it's worth a shot; give it a try," Sonic encouraged.

The novice earthbender closed her eyes and took a deep breath; she assumed an iron-horse stance, lifted one leg, and stomped her foot on the fround, waiting for the earth to respond to her...

Without opening her eyes or turning her head, she pointed westward."There's a distortion of earth trailing in that direction."

Sonic snapped his fingers."Alright then, I'll jet down that way and see what I can find! Don't you worry, Korra, I'll find your dad!" the hedgehog gave a thumbs up, got into a sprinter's postition and dashed down the street, speeding far out of the city limits.

Korri raised an eyebrow. "Korra?"

A little while later, the three boys were walking down a narrow underground tunnel, lit by the Fire Lord himself; the path was supported with wooden beams, signifying how old it was.

"Where are we going, Zuko?" the Avatar inquired.

"Don't worry, we're almost there..." the monarch reassured.

"Did you see my dad back there? I've never seen him so...broken, so...helpless...guess it must run in the family..." Sokka added, trapped somewhere between guilt and empathy.

"You're not helpless, Sokka," Zuko responded,"in fact, we all would've ended up like that if it wasn't for your run-in with that creature you were talking about. Speaking of which, you told me that thing-"

"It wasn't a 'thing'," Sokka suddenly snapped.

"Of course not. Anyway, you said it was able to fake waterbending for you, and that it must've had this 'Chaos Emerald' the whole time. I wondering: when you got close to him, close enough to see the emerald I mean, was there some kind of...side-effect that was worth remembering? I mean, did you feel anything?"

The former waterbender allowed the question to fertilize in his brain for a moment."...Well, I don't remember feeling anything then, but, I do remember something during the duel..." he recalled,"when I was fighting Katara, I felt better than before - stronger, faster; I hit the rock she was standing on with my heel so hard, it chipped off a little, and it didn't hurt at all. And even after that, when that...what ever it was still had the emerald, he was twice as tall as he was after he got rid of it. That's all."

"I see, so the Chaos Emerald made you stronger the same way Sozin's Comet makes firebending stronger..." Zuko deduced,"Thanks Sokka; that'll be good to know once we find it..."

The Avatar popped out of his bubble of conviction."Uh, I'm sorry, but when you said that thing about finding the emerald, you made it sound kind of possible. I'm pretty sure the monster knew what he was doing when he threw it into the ocean; ya'know, 'never to found again'? Speaking of which, Sokka, where is the monster now?"

The not-waterbender slouch and groaned. "That was the other thing I was going to tell you: remember when I said my 'waterbending' was disappearing? That was because the whatever-it-was just left ealier today; I have no idea where it is..." he explained,"probably somewhere pretending to be someone else's waterbending..." he rolled his eyes.

The trio finally stopped in front of a large metal door, with a small slot on the side.

The Fire Lord smiled, removing his royal headpiece.

"Let me guess: another Fire Nation secret?" Sokka inquired.

"Well, not top secret, but secret enough..." Zuko replied, inserting the piece into the apparent keyhole, turned it counter-clockwise, then after a click, clockwise - another click. The sound of various spinning cogs and shifting gears could be heard. Timing it just right, the Fire Lord pulled out the headpiece, the door(s) splitting apart a moment later, revealing to the two a huge underground dock - lit by two enormous torches on each side - complete with one river boat, and a full work force.

"wow..." Aang mumbled.

"Who'd of thought this place was down here?" Sokka wondered.

"Six hundred years ago, Fire Lord Kazuya discovered this cove and made it into an emergency escape system during the Scourge of Heihachi. He never had to use it though, but it's been maintained and monitored to this day regardless," Zuko explained.

As Aang and Sokka observed, the port was outstretched around the cove, surrounding the spacious pool of water between the boat and the narrow exit. Workmen were hauling debris up from the surface via long nets, and dropped into metal carts, which were push on a track through a tunnel on either side of the entrance, probably to dump the debris into a nearby magma pit.

"I KNEW IT! There IS a secret entrance into the Fire Lord's palace!" Sokka beamed.

As he observed this endless cycle, the Avatar realized something."Hang on, if the tunnel we just came through was the only entrance, how do these guys get out?" he inquired to Zuko, who looked away.

"Actually, they don't. The workmen you see actually live down here; most of these people have been here a very long time..." the Fire Lord iluminated sheepishly.

One of the somewhere-above-middle-aged workers stopped to see the arrivals."Hey, that's a pretty authentic Air Nomad outfit you got there," he remarked, he then turned to Zuko, and gasped."My goodnes! Prince Ozai, what happened to your eye!" he exclaimed in shock.

"And why are you wearing the Fire Lord's headpiece?" queried another worker."Oh, Fire Lord Azulon won't be happy when he finds out..." the man shook his head as he resumed pushing his cart.

"Ozai" leaned closer to Sokka."The decision to inform the staff is still up for debate..."

The Air Nomad rolled his eyes."Back to the subject: how is some secret boat going to help us save the universe?"

Zuko folded his arms behind him."You see, a chief liability with this dock is that it's prone to oceanic debris flowing in and clogging the escape route, which is why it has to attended to so thoroughly."

"This cave's not gettin' any brighter, Zuko..." Sokka urged on.

"A couple oceanographers allowed to be in on the secret speculate that most of the debris originates from the general northwest."

The young Avatar finally caught on."So you think the Chaos Emerald might've flowed in from Ember Island?"

The Fire Lord nodded."I know it's a stretch, but's the one chance we've got if we're going to save the girls."

"Zuko, your logic is off; even if the emerald was here, it was probably disposed of like the rest of the garbage!" Sokka pointed out.

"I'm aware of that, I'm also aware that if we don't try everything, one-hundred years of fighting and bloodshed will have gone in vain, for either side. Now listen, I need the two of you to tell these workers you have the Fire Lord's clearance to halt progress so that they can begin searching the cove for the Chaos Emerald. I'll be fortifying the palace incase this Eggman tries to go back on his deal - remember: he thinks we have it. And if it turns out we do, head for the royal bunker immediately to let me know."

As Zuko turned around to leave, the Avatar chirped as if he were about to say something. The Fire Lord noticed this, partialy turning back.

"Hm? Oh, nothing," Aang said, rubbing the back of his neck,"It just seems like...well, that you're a bit more focused on finding this emerald than your sister..."

"Aang, didn't you hear what Sokka said? It made him as strong as a komodo rhino without even touching it; that's an item I would prefer to have for myself."

Aang's concerned gaze never faltered.

The former enemy sighed."You know what I mean. Just find it, alright?"

With that, the young ruler departed, and Sokka and Aang (with a hint of hesitation) carried out his orders.

As the sun set on the dry wasteland, Sonic continued along the mountain trail, trying to find any sign of the mayor or the crazy earthbender.

He skidded to a halt as he heard voices in the distance; Sonic zipped into the nearest bush and peeked his eyes (or one big eye, whatever you want to call it) out.

The earthbender known as Gow had the mayor by his collar, and was dragging him to the side of the mountain, which was oddly guarded by a pair of earthbenders.

"Is that who I think it is!?" one earthbender exclaimed.

"Change of plans, boys," Gow started,"we keep the mayor as our prisoner, and sell'em back for a huge ransom. We'll need the money for more supplies and weapons."

Sonic watched the men nod turn to the mountain. They used their earthbending to cause the wall of stone to slide down, revealing an entrance to a secret cave. Gow entered with the mayor in tow, and the earthbenders sealed the entrance.

The blue hedgehog backed into the bush and rubbed his nonexistent chin in thought. He wondered if he could boost through that wall with enough force; of couse then he'd be wasting a lot of ring energy to do so. He'd spent a great deal of that energy to survive his crash landing onto this world, and wasn't sure how much he had left after that. The better option would be to save what ever amount of energy he had, and figure out a way to get those guys to open the door for him.

Sonic chuckled - this was gonna be just like the good ol' days...

Ten minutes followed, and reinforcement procedure had begun.

Military personnel scrambled throughout the palace city, escorting various nobles and other aristocrats as calmly as possible to airships that would take them to Ember Island for the night. The turrets surrounding the main entrance to the island itself were prepped and loaded as other defences were prepared. Squadrons of fire, water, and earthbenders assembled along the main entrance and prepared themselves for some kind of attack. Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom tanks and soldiers on various warbeasts rode in through every street and plaza until the entire dormant volcano was secured. The bay of the capitol was protected by a blockade of battle ships from the Fire Nation and Water Tribes, with submersible ships patrolling underneath. The sky was alive with a ring of airships that slowly spun over head.

Zuko, Hakoda, General Tsung, and Mai beheld this from just outside the main hall.

"So much for world peace..." the goth lamented.

"Only this time, it's the whole world at war against a common enemy." Hakoda noted.

"If only our ancestors could see this..." Tsung marveled.

"I know these measures won't make a difference," the Fire Lord predicted," but I'm not about to give up without a fight either," he boldly declared.

"Yeah, sure, just like what the knife says," Mai dissmissed,"Anyway, I don't mean to break character, but it's pretty nice of you to let me and my family stay in the Fire Lord's bunker for the night," she gratified, actually cracking a small smile.

At this complement, Zuko's normally stoic expression disappeared." ...what now?"

Mai's smile dropped."You know, you said we could spend the night in your bunker as a precaution...you did say that, right?" she inquired.

The sheepish monarch looked off in another direction, scratching his neck."Oh, that, well, see, what I meant was that...you and I would be staying in my bunker - alone - and that your family would be in the uh...other bunker..." he explained.

Mai grew confused."Other bunker?"

Hakoda and Tsung's eye swiveled back and forth between the two teenagers.

"Yes, there's another bunker," he nodded.

Mai's blank expression returned."You mean, Azula's bunker?"

"The one she used during the eclipse, yes."

Mai's expression lost even more emotion."You mean the fake bunker?"

"Duh, well, it's far from being a fake one, but..."

"You mean the less secure, more obvious to the enemy, more vulnerable bunker that was really meant to be a decoy bunker while the Fire Lord and who ever else given loved one are safely concealed behind a secret stairway the whole time? That bunker?"

"...th...the same," Zuko confirmed, finally catching on.

Mai's face had now acheived its zeneth of deadness."...Yeah, I'm out of here," she replied, walking away in any direction that wasn't her former boyfriend's.

The Fire Lord urgently waved his hand for the girl to turn around."Wait, Mai! You're taking this out of proportion! I mean, with your parents preoccupied, we could let our relationship develop more naturaly!"

"Out. Of. Here." she emphazised.

"er-Okay, so 'preoccupied' was the wrong word but...Mai! Come back!" The Fire Lord slapped his forehead; it seem as if his life was flipping more upside-down by the hour.

Tsung frowned."Okay, maybe our ancestors didn't need to see that..."

The two earthbenders continued to guard the secret entrance. all of a sudden, they heard a squeaking sound in the distance. They prepared themselves far attack, only to see a strange sight clear the forest...

It was some short figure, cloaked in a brown garb, his face covered by a comically large straw hat. He was pulling a crate full of rocks towards them.

"Who the heck are you!?" one guard asked.

"Ahhhh, I'm glad you asked, young man..." the short man spoke, sounding like, or at least trying to sound like an old man with a thick Asian accent."I am Shi Foo Shang, owner of Shi Foo Shang's Rare Mineral Emporium Inc. As the name suggest, I am a collector of various rare stones and minerals from around the world. Come along, view may magnificent collection." He gestured with his large sleeves to the cart full of rocks.

The guards looked at eachother, and cautiously paced over to the cart, picking up a few stones and scanning them for any significance.

"These look like just a pile of ordinary rocks." the other guard dismissed.

The little man chuckled, then coughed a bit, his voice changing for a second."Why of course they do. To the untrained eye, any rock look ordinary, but to seasoned rock salesman such as myself, I can say for certain each of these stones are really, really special. For example, that particular rock you're holding is actually a chunk of Kryptonite; it causes instant paralyses!"

The guard immediately dropped the stone.

The short man then picked a random rock out of the pile without even looking."This rock is made out of solid Adamantium - it is completely unbreakable!"

The rock was quickly yank out of his hands and crushed to pieces.

"...er, when it is melted down into metal, that is..."

"You can't melt rocks down into metal!" the guard grunted.

"So you say, grasshopper," the supposedly old man replied."But through a complex geo-thermal process, it can! If you were to let me inside your cave, I can show you."

The two guards gasped.

"How did you know about the cave!?"

The short person shifted his head (or hat) in multiple directions, lengthening the tension."...ummmmm,well, You guys are earthbenders, right? It only makes sense that you two are guarding a cave that you hid with your earthbending, yes?"

The first guard tapped his chin for a moment."hmmmm...Yeah, I guess that makes sense."

"Indeed it does!" the short man agreed."Now come on and open up! I've got rocks to sell!"

The two guards look at eachother again and shrugged; they opened the entrance and guided the little man with his cart inside.

"heh heh, different world, same suckers..." Sonic whispered.

Meanwhile, the boys, along with the rest of the dock-men, continued their search for the fabled jewel; Aang pulled the debris up and out with his waterbending, and Sokka had to use a net just like everyone else.

"Find the Chaos Emerald yet?" the Avatar inquired rhetorically.

"Nope," the warrior answered regardless.

Aang sighed."Well, even if we don't save the universe, we could always apply for some sort of post-apocalyptic pool cleaning service..." he mused glibly.

The cove grew colder at the prospect of not being able to save the world...

"...So, have you uhh...heard the rumors?" Sokka brought up, trying to lighten the mood.

"Does it have anything to do with living machines?" Aang counter-asked.

A noticeable cringe from the young warrior."It's actually some stuff about about a blue spirit," he explained.

At the last two words, the Air Nomad halted his junk gathering cycle and turned to his friend."You mean Zuko?"

"Well, maybe not the Blue Spirit, but it's definitely a spirit that is blue. There've been sightings all over the world since the...World Peace thing...er-Seriously, I saw it on a news post," Sokka stammered, trying not to say "meteor".

Ironically, Aang grew skeptical."All over the world? In one week? Either this is some kind of prank, or this 'spirit' can run really, really..."

"Ssh!" Sokka interrupted, the entire chamber resonating with a familiar ringing,"...Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" the Avatar inquired, hearing nothing but his own echo.

In a rather spontaneous instance, the teen tossed his net aside and dove into the water.

"Sokka? What're you doing!" Aang exclaimed, leaping in after him.

Sokka descended further and further beneath the surface, gradually losing both light and oxygen, though the swordsmen-in-training paid no mind, the noise growing to his ears.

Aang intercepted the non-bender, carrying a large bubble behind him.

Two feet from the bottom, the teen jerked his upper half in multiple directions, desperately searching for it even under near total blackness. No, it has to be down here. It then came to him...

Without hesitation, Sokka started to claw into the dirt, kicking up clouds of dust as he began to lose consciousness, but not darkness nor lack of breath hindered the warrior. He dug, and dug, and dug, and dug, until...the darkness faded as a mysterious white enveloped the teens face.

Aang spun around to see what looked like his friend, picking up and caressing the source of the sudden illumination with wide eyes. The Avatar immediately dashed for his comrade, swinging the bubble to his front, covering the two, and condensing it into a thick ice dome, thus providing them both with an ample air supply, along with a clear view of the object for them to behold...

"You found it..." Aang breathed as he stabelized the air pocket, for resting between Sokka's hands was the one item that could seemingly solve the problem at hand: the ivory Chaos Emerald.

"I found it...I FOOUUND IIIT!" Sokka cheered at the top of his lungs, the two both dancing in absolute joy at their first sign of hope and providence - the boys hadn't felt this good for over a week."Alright, buddy, now let's get outta this cave and show this to Zuko: we got a world to save!" he announced cinematically, raising the emerald up in a cliche anime-like pose.

Aang's smile fell to the ground at this."...ttddduhhh, actually, I don't think we should tell him..."

The warrior was frozen in his pose."...saywha'?" he inquiried, still smiling and only able to move his eyes.

"I was thinking, maybe, we could keep this to ourselves? Atleast until tomarrow?" he requested, shrugging.

"ARE YOU NUTS!" he shreiked,"THAT'S GOTTA BE HANDS-DOWN THE MOST IDIOTICLY STUPIDEST INTERROGITVE EVER TO BE EXTRACTED FROM YOUR POOR EXCUSE FOR A CEREBELLUM! I MEAN IT'S RIGHT UP THERE WITH-"

The surrounding dockmen gained curious expressions as they heard a bizarre squawking sound muffled beneath the water...

"-GIANT FRIENDLY MUSHROOM! HOW COULD YOU EVEN THINK OF SUCH A THING?" Sokka demanded.

The young Avatar looked away."I just don't feel comfortable with Zuko knowing we found the emerald; don't I have an opinion?"

The former waterbender dragged his cheeks down with his free hand."Aang, is this honestly the time to go into those 'not-trusting-Zuko-just-cause-he's-the-Fire-Lord fits?" he asked exasperatedly.

"I just don't know anymore, Sokka," Aang consigned,"ever since the Day of Black Sun, I can tell what I can count on..."

"In that case, I'm sure it couldn't hurt to put a little faith in the scarred, angry but morally stable prince who threw away his very birthright to help you restore balance to the world!" the teen reminded,"So if you're not gonna take us back up, I'm going myself," he concluded, producing his club and preparing to make a door through the dome.

The airbender laid his own hands upon the jewel,"Look, I have never doubted your instincts even after you led us right into that Fire Nation camp when we met Jet: now it's the Avatar's turn - I don't want to give it to him," Aang commanded.

Sokka pulled the emerald closer to himself."Do you want save Katara and Toph or not?"

The Avatar pulled it more to himself."What I don't want is for the emerald to fall into the wrong hands."

Back to Sokka."Do I have to say this out loud? Zuko does not want to use the Chaos Emerald to take over the world!"

Back to Aang."Yes he does! Did you see that flare in his eyes? He was practically drooling over the possibilities..." he over-dramatized.

Right under their noses, the emerald seemed to intensify in glow parallel with their escalating temperaments...

"Aang, there is no flare; he looks like that all the time, even when he's going to the bathroom!"

"I don't care! It's my call, and I say no!"

"We are holding pure chaos in the palms of our hands! Chaos that must be controlled!"

At that very moment, the Chaos Emerald sparkled with multiple electrical currents, its glow brightening well beyond conspicuous. The teen and pre-teen were compelled to look down at it.

"...uuumm..." was all Aang had left to say.

Without warning, the two were soon engulfed in an astonishing spectacle of light.

*FLASH*

A pair of dock-men witnessed a semblance of a spark under the surface; they turned to eachother with worried faces.

In another flash, the bender and non-bender plopped onto a metallic surface.

They groggily arose, moaning and clutching their foreheads.

Sokka sighed."Well, see what I mean? This is exactly why-" the former waterbender froze after turning around, his eyes bulged out of his sockets,"...Aang...whatever you do, don't look out the window..." he squeaked.

The boy opened his own eyes."Window? There's no window all the way down-" the Avatar turned around,"...oh..." he mumbled as he realized they were no longer underwater, in the cave, at the palace, within the Fire Nation, or even on the earth itself. They knew this because they currently had a nice view of the planet's horizon...through the window of an aforementioned space station.