Chapter 3: Wrath of the Fallen

"Oh no, I hurt the Avatar pfft. It's just a broken rib and a slight concussion." I grumbled as I walked around picking up trash. "It's not fair that I'm the only one getting punished and Tenchi is sitting in a comfy air conditioned room." I wiped my brow and looked up at the sun.

It was about midday on Saturday and it was supposed to be my first day off from school but here I was cleaning up the campus all because of my stupid brother.

"This is bullshit!" I groaned and kicked a soda can.

"You're supposed to be picking up the trash not punting it Akira." I spun around to see Aura, Hope, Sky and Sokka walking up with ice cream in their hands. The girls all took a big bite out of their ice cream and stuck their tongues out at me.

"Rude. You could have brought me one you know." I walked over to the can I just kicked and threw it away.

"Well we did but Hope dropped hers as soon as we got here." Aura snickered and Hope blushed.

"Hey Aura you said you weren't going to say anything about it." Hope stomped.

"Hey I kept my word, I didn't tell him that you tripped did I?" Aura looked to me and laughed.

"Ugh Akira is right you are rude." Hope walked over and handed me the rest of her ice cream. "Here it was yours anyways."

I grabbed it from her and ate it all in 4 huge bites and consequently had a massive brain freeze.

"Son of a badger mole!" I shouted as I dropped into a crouch. "Totally worth it though." I said as I laid down in a shady area.

"How long do you have to pick up trash anyways?" Sokka spoke in-between bites.

"Till noon, I've been out here since 8 a.m. So what are you guys up to all day?" I asked while rolling over.

"My brother kicked me off of Air Temple Island and told me to go do something in the city and I happened to run into the girls as they were getting ice cream so I decided to tag along." Sokka joined me in the shade.

"Uncle Aang? Ugh why do I still call him that he's only 8 years older than me and he's not even my real uncle? No offence Sokka but your brother acts like an old man already." Sokka waved it off and nodded. "So girls what were you doing before you came here to keep me company?" I rested my head on my arms and Sky hurried over and sat in the shade as well.

"We were about to go to the water park because it's so hot today and then we saw my Aunt Ursa and someone, who we thought was you at the time, walking into the hospital so we went to check it out and found it wasn't you." Aura and Hope joined us on the floor as well.

"What she means is that your douchey brother hit on her and she was about to ruin him when her aunt told us where we could find you so we figured we would come and invite you out with us." Hope chuckled and Aura pushed her.

"Well Akira its 12:30 are you just going to lie there all day or can we go to the water park already?" Sky said anxiously. I was up in an instant and I headed towards the front gate.

"Come on slow pokes I'm tryna go swimming!" I hollered out and my walk turned into a jog. Sky was the first one to catch up to me and she quickly passed me followed by Sokka then Hope and Aura kept pace with me.

"Damn you guys really want to go swimming huh?" I joked.

"Well yeah we all love going but we really go for Sky, she loves the water and it's like it transforms her into a different person." Auras' look changed into one of joy. "As an earth bender how do you feel when you are surrounded with stuff to bend?"

"Grounded. No pun intended though. It's like an infinite world of possibilities for what I could make and I can push my limits as much as I want." I smiled thinking of when I could do that next.

"Well for Sky when she is surrounded by water she's free, nothing can hold her back and she goes from that small shy teenager to a hyper active child. I have only seen her that way when she isn't around water maybe twice in my life so I try to plan so we all go as much as we can during the summer and whenever we feel like it during school." Auras smile broadened.

"What about you Aura? How do you feel when you're surrounded by fire?" I stumbled over a part of the broken sidewalk and recovered as smoothly as possible.

"Well honestly I feel invincible. All that power just for me to reach out and take as my own. It's incredible and also really scary because I know that fire is extremely destructive but it doesn't stop me from wanting it all." She ran faster and left me to catch up.

We reached the entrance of the park and I was the last in line. As I got to the front I realized that I had no money and stepped out of line and tried to flag one of them back to me. Sokka spotted me and hurried back out.

"What's up man?" He asked.

"I just remembered I have no money and I don't have any swimming trunks." I scratched my neck.

"Oh that's all? No problem come on I'll cover you and as for trunks just use the shorts you have on now." He laughed.

"Thanks Sokka I'll be sure to pay you back as soon as I can." I said as he paid my ticket and we hurried on in.

Short time later.

I kicked my feet in the water as I sat on the edge of the pool. I watched as everyone splashed around, I looked into the pool and saw Sky peering at me from under the water. I waved and she surfaced and swam over to me.

"Akira why don't you hop in with us? Don't tell me you are afraid of the water now." Sky teased. She had changed while around the water, she talked and laughed a lot more and she even made jokes.

"I'm not afraid of water it's just that I uh." I mumbled embarrassed as I tried to avoid the question.

"Oh you can't swim." Sky propelled herself out of the water and next to me.

"Hey now I can swim it's just that I'm not that good at it. Whenever I get into deep water I sink like a rock." I leaned my head back and sighed then Sky laughed. I looked at her with a hurt expression and she shook her head.

"Sorry the rock pun got to me." She laughed and wiped a tear that formed in her eye. "It's ok that you don't swim well. Sokka can't swim at all."

"What? He doesn't look like it after all he has been swimming around with you this whole time." I said confused.

"Have you seen him go under? Has he been anywhere that he couldn't touch the ground while his head was above the water?" She slid back into the water and grabbed my arms. I slowly dropped in and she led me to Hope, Aura and Sokka.

"Finally going to join us? I thought you were gonna sit over in the kiddie section all day." Hope splashed some water on me and Sky shot her a mean glare.

"Hope!" She said harshly. "Akira isn't a strong swimmer so be nice." Hope put her head down and mumbled something I couldn't hear.

"Oh get scolded! But seriously we didn't know so you can't get mad at Hope she is just having fun." Aura swam around me and splashed water around us. Sky looked like she was about to yell so I started splashing back.

"I'm not afraid of the water so this is nothing!" I threw a whole bunch of water at Hope and she threw it right back. "I have a deep respect for water, the power of life and death it holds."

Sokka hopped out and went over to our stuff and after a minute he came back with a somber expression.

"What's the matter man, you get some bad news?" I joked.

"No you did, the whole schoolyard is trashed again and they are blaming you for doing it." Sokka frowned. "They say they have eye witnesses that put you at the scene throwing trash and breaking stuff and tearing up the ground with earth bending."

I slammed my hands on the water and growled.

"Son of a bitch." I said in a loud whisper.

"So you think your brother did it to get back at you?" Hope said as she floated around on her back.

"Think? More like I know he did it to get back at me. He's always been a sore loser and his shitty attempts at revenge are childish at best." I waded towards the edge of the pool as quickly as I could. "I'm going to head back to the school and get this mess handled I'll talk to you guys later."

I could hear the group whispering as I gathered my stuff but I couldn't make out what they were saying. As soon as I got out of the park I sprinted towards the school. It had gotten colder and the sun was starting to set by the time I reached the gates.

I looked at a destroyed courtyard, rocks and boulders everywhere and cracks and craters riddled the area. All the trash cans were piled up and sprayed on the side was (Akira was here). The trash from them all looked like it was strategically placed to make it look worse.

"Care to explain THIS young man?" I turned to see the head master and my aunt standing there.

"Son of a bitch." I mumbled.