"Would you like a chair?" asked the Overseer. "You don't seem to be taking this very well."
"Well, how else would I take it?" Izo threw up his hands again. "You're saying that I, a teenager who's never even seen the sky, am the world's last hope?"
"Almost certainly. The other Vaults have had no one showing any of the same signs as you. And according to our calculations, the probability of anyone surviving the initial blasts, much less the subsequent sixteen years of fallout is next to zero." The Overseer shrugged, somewhat defeatedly.
"Okay, so I'm the Avatar. Okay. I can get used to this." Izo took a second to collect himself. "Wait. Now what?"
"Well," replied the Overseer, all Vaults were issued a secret additional holotape, to be shown only to the Avatar. Izo groaned at this. Every couple months, all thousand or so Vault Dwellers were gathered into a series of theaters and shown a series of Vault-Tec Training Films™ that ranged from condescending and pretentious to flat-out dumb. "I have it somewhere in my secret stash… Aha!" He reached under his chair and pulled out a holotape marked only with an icon of a White Lotus tile. "I'm sure the CCC can run itself for a while while I show you this little mover."
Izo followed the Overseer through the mess of tunnels that made up the depths of Vault 1 until they came to a large and secure-looking door, marked only with Overseer's Quarters. The Overseer pulled out a red keycard and jacked it into a slot, waited for the heavy bolts to retract, and pulled it open. "After you," he said as he motioned Izo in.
The Overseer's quarters were smaller than Izo expected them to be. A rare television sat in one corner, and a dao hung over a simulated fireplace. Besides that, it was a fairly bog-standard quarters. The Overseer reached over to the television, jacked in the holotape, and hit play.
The screen flicked on, and the static resolved itself into a coherent title-card displaying the words: Vault-Tec Informational Films Presents: So You're the Avatar.
An cartoon man in a Vault suit with curly blond hair and a winning smile ambled into the scene. He Earthbent a rock out of the ground and threw it at some unidentifiable monstrosity with way too many tentacles, blasted flames at it, pulled a water whip out of a waterskin at his side and sliced at the beast, then blasted a torrent of wind at it that stripped its flesh away, leaving only a skeleton. He turned directly to the camera and gave a thumbs up and wink. A voiceover cut in. "Do you want this to be you?" He paused, as if expecting an answer, then continued. "Well, it can be you if you follow these simple steps." A card reading Step 1. Learn all you can appeared on screen. "In the post-apocalyptic wasteland, sources of new information will be few and far between." Vault Boy appeared back on the screen, facing a giant spine-covered platypus bear. He wound up and swung a fist at it, producing a pitiful puff of sparks. The platypus bear then bent down over him and bit his head off. "Seek out and apply any and all teachers, tomes, holotapes, ancient statues, and all other forms of potentially useful information." The scene reset, and this time Vault Boy flawlessly executed the Dancing Dragon and conjured a tide of flame that left the monster a heap of ash.
Step 2. Use your words. "Sometimes, in the wasteland, you may encounter problems you can't solve with your bending skills." Vault Boy looked inquisitively at the camera, then shrugged and smashed a bystander to bits with two massive rocks. He immediately found himself surrounded by an array of guns, swords, polearms, and various bending blasts. "If you find yourself in a bad situation, you'll often find diplomacy to be your safest option." He grinned and flashed finger guns at the miscreants surrounding him. They lowered their weapons. "Even people who may not listen to you otherwise may prove willing to aid you if you inform them of your nature." A great spirit wolf entered the frame, roaring at Vault Boy. He merely smiled, flashed finger guns, and quickly demonstrated all four bending forms. The wolf shifted into a brightly glowing dog and rolled over, licking Vault-Boy's face.
Step 3. Don't go alone. Some threats may be too much for you to handle on your own." A twisted dragon appeared on screen, staring down Vault Boy and blowing smoke. "Companions in your journeys may prove useful." Another person entered the shot, holding a rocket launcher. The launcher roared, and when the smoke cleared, the dragon had a crater in its chest that was not survivable. "Wait, don't tell me there are going to be actual irradiated dragon monsters?" Izo turned to the Overseer. "We can't rule anything out." he replied. "Now be quiet, they said you have to finish this before I can tell you more." "If it can help you in any way, bring it with you." Vault Boy walked up to a mangy looking sheepdog with curling horns and sharp-looking teeth. He flashed his finger guns, smiled, and the sheepdog rolled over and stuck out its tongue happily. "Armed with this knowledge, it now falls to you to journey into the wastes, master all four elements, and bring balance to the world." Vault Boy stood on a rocky precipice, raising a tide of water to the left, a wall of earth to his right, twin fire blasts to his sides, and finally a whirlwind directly into the camera.
The video faded to static, and the holotape's whirring stopped. Izo stood up and glared at the Overseer. "That," he said finally, "was utterly useless."
"It… wasn't useless…" replied the Overseer in a tone that suggested he completely agreed with Izo but didn't want to say it. "Well, now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's get down to brass tacks. I have some things for you." He rose, removing the sword from the mantelpiece. "I'm told your favored Firebending style is the Dekuro form?"
"Yeah, I think it's the perfect balance of power and mobility."
"You'll want these then. Be careful with them, they're over a hundred years old." He handed Izo the blade, who split it apart, tried a couple different grips, then reattached them and placed them in their sheath. "Come upstairs with me to the armory, you need some survival gear." He opened the door into the rest of the Vault, motioning Izo to follow him.
As the pair wandered the Vault, Izo turned to the Overseer. "Please tell me you have a plan for getting me to master all four elements beyond 'send me out into the wasteland and pray'."
"As a matter of fact, I do. Master Sha Xin lives in Vault 9, and he would be honored to train you. Your Pip-boy™, which we're going to go get right now, includes a customizable map, which we intend to program with the location of Vault 9. Once you arrive, he'll inform me and keep me updated on your progress while I try to figure out how to get you to Vault 106 in the Northern Water Tribe."
"Erm, Overseer, if I may ask," Izo replied.
"Call me Shomi. And feel free to ask whatever you wish."
"When do I leave? I haven't had any time to really take this in or even celebrate my birthday. I need to talk to my friends, get used to these swords, and try and come to terms with all this."
Shomi's face fell. "Well, we have very little time to lose. Every day the world gets more and more broken. I can give you today and today only. You and anyone who wants to go with you leave tomorrow. I suppose having you gear up now would be useless, and it may take some time to calibrate your Pip-boy™ anyway. In fact, I'll get one of our technicians on that right away. Now come on, there's cake for you in the cafeteria."
Author's Note: I forgot to put this on Chapter 1, but [insert introduction here] Reviews are much appreciated, as I have only the vaguest idea of what I'm doing here.
