Chapter 5: "Jet" Fuel Can't Melt Steel Beams

After securing the book to his board, Kaiden flew away from the South Pole the next night. He knew it would be an extremely difficult to find Katara, Sokka, and Aang again, but he had to at least try. He did, after all, find a way to bust a bunch of earthbenders out of a completely metal prison without using metalbending. He could do this.

Using his compass, Kaiden navigated his way over a giant swamp. He looked over it and got a strange chill. There was something... eerie about this swamp. He stared at it for so long, he didn't know he was descending until it was too late. The board smashed into a tree and Kaiden tumbled down, crying out in pain each time his body hit a branch. He hit the ground with a THUD! How he survived, he had no idea.

"Ouch..." he groaned.

He managed to get up and locate his board, which had landed nearby. After putting the book in his pocket, shrinking his metal into the size of a squashed tin can, and putting that in his other pocket, he decided to explore a little. What's an adventure without a little exploring?

"Why am I getting such an eerie feeling about this place?" he wondered aloud.

Suddenly, Kaiden heard the familiar sound of firebending. He immediately responded, his metal becoming a staff. He looked around frantically, but saw no one. Tyler then heard it again and walked toward the sound. He came up to a curtain of vines and moved them with his pole.

He saw... a girl. Her skin was dark like his, was wearing Water Tribe getup, and dark hair in a wolf-tail hair style. She looked about his age and was admittedly quite beautiful. But that wasn't what caught his attention. She was firebending. She wasn't aiming at anything in particular. It was like she was sparring by herself. Kaiden wondered how on earth she was firebending when she was clearly from the Water Tribe. That was impossible!

Kaiden closed his eyes and shook his head. When his eyes opened again, the girl was gone. He swung his head left and right trying to find her again, but there was no sign she was there. Kaiden had had it with this place now. His pole transformed back into a board and he jumped on and took off into the sky.

"What the heck was that?"

Kaiden managed to find his way to a large forest with a dried-up river outlining one side of it. There was a small town nearby, bustling with activity and a dam blocking up a nearby smaller river. After taking a closer look, Kaiden discovered that the town was part of the Fire Nation, so he decided to steer clear.

As he got closer to the forest, he noticed some movement near the edge. His eyes widened when he saw a familiar figure on the outside of the forest, watching the movement. It was Katara.

Kaiden zoomed over to her, "Katara!"

Katara's head turned, "Kaiden?!"

He landed next to her, "Hey, what's up?"

Then he noticed that her eyes were a bit red, "Hey, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she answered, turning back to the forest, "But I'm not sure how much longer Aang is going to last."

"Wait, what's going on?"

"A guy named Jet befriended us, but it turns out he wants to flood that town over there. I trusted him! But it turns out that he's a freaking extremist! Those people down there haven't done anything!"

"Jet, huh? Well... I think I might have to intervene."

He tossed her his book, "Read up. I've got a terrorist to take care of."

Kaiden hopped on his board and, before Katara could object, flew towards the tree line. He almost immediately found the two. Aang wasn't doing so good. Jet clearly had the advantage in the trees, but how could he handle two people fighting him? Kaiden began searching for an advantage against Jet. The one he found was that Jet was using these harpoon-like weapons. That were metal. He smirked. Jet was about to stab at Aang, but suddenly, the harpoon jerked back and stuck itself into the tree trunk.

"What the?!" Jet exclaimed, trying to free his weapon.

"Kaiden?!" Aang said, surprised when he saw him.

"No talk time!" Kaiden replied super quickly, "Plan now!"

Jet wrenched his harpoon free, "Who are you?"

"You don't need to know," Kaiden answered, "Just know that you betrayed my friends. And I don't take too kindly to that."

Jet growled and charged, swinging his harpoons, but then the weapons begun spinning his body around, almost making him lose balance and fall. He glanced back up at Kaiden, who gave a cheeky grin.

"You're not the brightest of individuals, are you?" he taunted.

Jet swung again, but this time, Kaiden jumped behind Aang, who let out a huge burst of air. Jet smashed against the tree trunk and lost his balance. As he fell, he managed to snag onto a branch with his harpoons. Jet then noticed Aang's staff drop. Aang jumped after it, but Jet, in turn, jumped after him. Jet caught up, grabbed a tree branch, and kicked Aang into the tree, sending Aang tumbling to the ground.

"Aang!" Kaiden yelled, his pole transforming into a board.

As he landed on the ground, Jet was blasted with a wave of water. Kaiden watched as Katara sent wave after wave of water at Jet, slamming him into the tree trunk. She then took a deep breath, freezing the water trapping Jet to the tree.

"Why Jet?" Katara asked in a shaky voice, "I can't believe I trusted you. You lied to me! You're sick and I trusted you!"

The Jet began to whistle quite loudly.

"What are you doing?" Katara asked Jet.

"You're too late," Jet answered.

"No!" Katara gasped as they turned to look behind them.

And they could only watch as a flaming arrow hit the dam, causing a massive flood to engulf the nearby town.

"Yep..." Kaiden squeaked, "Not good..."

"Sokka didn't make it in time..." Aang said sorrowfully.

"All those people..." Katara sniffed, then turning to Jet, "Jet, you monster!"

"This was a victory, Katara," Jet said grimly, "Remember that. The Fire Nation is gone and this valley will be safe."

"It will be safe!"

Everyone turned to see Sokka riding on Appa, "Without you."

"Sokka!" Kaiden exclaimed.

"Oh hey!" Sokka said looking at Kaiden, but then turned to Jet, "I warned the villagers about your plan. Just in time."

"Sokka, you fool!" Jet yelled, "We could've freed this valley!"

"Free it from who?" Kaiden asked, "There's no one for miles. Trust me, I know."

"Who would be free anyway?" Sokka agreed, "Everyone would be dead."

"You traitor," Jet spat.

"No Jet. You became the traitor when you stopped protecting innocent people."

"Katara, please," Jet begged, "Help me."

"Oh please," Kaiden scoffed, "You'll melt... Eventually."

"Goodbye Jet," Katara said, not even bothering to look at him.

As the three got on Appa, Sokka stated, "Yip yip."

And Appa took off.

After a quick joke about Sokka's instincts, Team Avatar took the time to read Kaiden's book. It didn't take long for them to realize what was going on.

"You're..." Katara stuttered, "You're this Image person?!"

"Apparently," Kaiden replied, "After that, I searched for you guys. I had a promise to keep, ya know."

Katara smiled as Aang commented, "So, if you're the Image, does that mean..."

"Yep," Kaiden answered, "I'm destined to help you fight the Fire Lord and learn the three other elements. I'm with you, like it or not."

Aang shrugged and grinned, "I don't have a problem with it. You seem like a good fighter."

"And we can trust him," Sokka agreed.

"Welcome to the team, Kaiden," Katara smiled warmly.

Kaiden nodded, 'Let's do this.'

Wow, this chapter was a lot easier to write than I thought... Hopefully that's a good omen. Also, the first half of this chapter... I really threw a curveball there. Till next time guys!