Book 1: Earth

Chapter 2: Welcome to London

The drive into London had been long, like the Professor had told Luke it would be. He had stared out of the window, almost the whole time thinking of Misthallery and his waterbending training with Arianna. Everything was going to change now; he wasn't going to be the same anymore.

While the car pulled into the city, Luke's eyes began to drift closer and closer into sleep. He stopped himself every now and then from closing them, because he wanted to see the fantastic skyline that his father had talked about, but Luke couldn't help it. Eventually his eyes closed leaving him to fall into the darkness of sleep…

"Luke," the Professor shook his shoulder, "Luke wake up, we're here." He stared into the eyes of the boy who jolted awake.

"What?" He straightened up, still clinging to grip of sleep, "Where are we?"

"London," the Professor replied, come now, get out," he shut his door and began to unload Luke's things, little Toppy jumped onto Luke's hand and let loose a little warm liquid onto his hand.

"Ug!" Luke flapped his hand, hoping to rid the liquid from it, "Toppy, what was that for?" Luke asked the creature while carefully waterbending the substance from his hand and dispensing it out of the car shortly after he had opened the door. The mouse squeaked back at him, almost laugh like and Luke just angered his stare before getting out, "You can follow, but I'm not promising any cheese." The mouse squeaked in reply just before Luke began to help the Professor unload his trunk.

"Now when you get inside," the Professor grunted while lifting a heavy suitcase from the back, "Your room is the first on the right, you can't miss it," the Professor placed it on the ground. The street lights aided their unpacking.

"Thanks," Luke replied, he turned around, bags in hand. "Erm, Professor where is your house?" Luke didn't see anything relatively close to the mansion he was used too.

"This is it, it's called a flat Luke, this is where we live in the city." The Professor sighed; this boy didn't know what was coming for him.

"Oh, alright then," Luke made his way awkwardly up the steps, it was just so small. There was no yard, no driveway, just a simple parking spot and a few feet of grass right outside the door. Luke suddenly realized that this transition was going to be more difficult than he planned. He set down his bags and reached for the door knob, it wouldn't budge. "Erm, Professor?" Luke pointed to the door.

"Hm?" The Professor turned around after unloading the last bag, "Oh, here are the keys," he dug into his pocket and pulled out a set of metal keys, "Metalbended by the finest," he tossed them to Luke.

"Metalbended?" Luke repeated, "What's a metalbender?"

"Well," the Professor closed he trunk and started up the stairs, "A metalbender is an earthbender who can bend metal… that's basically it." He replied while waiting for Luke to open the door.

"Are you a metalbender?" Luke asked him, curiosity was one of his many traits.

"No, I am not, but you could be," the Professor smiled at him, "Tomorrow, we'll begin your search for an earthbending teacher an-"

"Whoa, whoa, wait," Luke held up his hand, "I thought that you were my earthbending teacher!"

"Oh no," the Professor almost laughed at his accusation, "Don't you remember me, trying to teach you, about six years ago?" Luke shook his head, "Well, there is no need to explain what happened, except I couldn't teach you, fate chose your instructor, and I am not it." Luke sighed angrily; the only person he knew in this big city wasn't even going to teach him earthbending like he thought he was. This whole transition turned out to be a bust, "Luke are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine;" he replied coldly, "Let's go inside, I need some sleep." Luke placed the key in the lock and pushed the door open. Without another word to the Professor he charged towards his new room.

"Luke," he heard the Professor call his name, but he didn't respond, he didn't want too. He shut he door behind him with a bang, dropped all of his things on the ground and hurled himself on his bed.

"How did everything get so messed up?" He buried his head in his pillow, not wanting to speak with anyone, at least for the night.

…

When Luke woke up in the morning, he was in an incredibly uncomfortable position. His back ached, his neck was sore and both of his feet had fallen asleep. He sat up and stretched himself out, by this time in Misthallery; he was usually already practicing waterbending with Arianna at Barde Manor or dealing with Crow and the Black Ravens down underground.

He sighed and stretched once more, pushing his arms out as far as they could go and twisting his feet to hopefully awake them from their slumber. Soon after his early morning stretch Luke stood and rummaged through his bags, the Professor had obliviously brought them in over night. He quickly threw his dirty clothes on the floor and began to replace them with some clean fresh ones. While the old clothes hit the ground a crumbled paper sound echoed through the tiny room.

"My scroll!" Luke bent down, one sock on and his shirt half buttoned, he quickly pulled his jacket from the floor and yanked the old paper from the inside. "Phew," Luke breathed a sigh of relief, it was unscathed. Another act of curiosity brewing inside of him, Luke peeled the paper open. He wanted to try this trick right away, it looked simple enough.

All he had to do was stand up straight, breath in and clench and unclench his fists. It's almost like airbending. He thought to himself, maybe that's why Crow gave it to me, he's an airbender. Luke rolled the scroll back up once more and placed it in his dresser that was completely empty. He was going to have to unpack everything later.

Luke quickly shut the dresser drawer and stood in front of his door, he pondered whether he should open the door or not, he didn't want to wake his host up. He silently twisted the knob and pulled the door open. When he stuck he head out into the hallway he heard a noise that resembled a radio, radiating from the kitchen, to the right of the front living space. He crept out of his room and tip-toed down the noisy wooden floors and every time they squeaked he winced under his breath. Once he made it past the dreadfully loud hall he pushed the wavering door in and slipped into the kitchen.

Sitting at the booth in the right corner of the room was the Professor quietly sipping on his tea and reading the morning paper. Radio static hummed from the tiny machine and steam rose from the tea on the stove.

"Good morning Luke, I hope you slept well," the Professor greeted him nonchalantly.

"Oh, erm, yes very well, thank you." He replied a bit unsteadily.

"Help yourself to anything, there is tea in the pot, I also have oatmeal if it is too your liking." The Professor told him, still not looking up from the paper.

"Alright then," Luke turned to the counter and stove. A small plate of pancakes sat to the right of the teapot that sat on the stove. Luke opened one of the cabinets quietly, looking for a cup to pour his beverage into.

"It's the very last cabinet," the Professor said from behind him. Luke didn't turn around; he just nodded and reached for the cups.

Once Luke's cup was full, he headed to the booth, with a small bowl of oatmeal sloshing around over his fingers. He sat down across from the Professor, who once again did not look up from his paper.

"Erm Professor," he began.

"Yes my boy," he finally placed his paper to the side of his plate, which was covered in biscuits.

"Are we going to look for an earthbending teacher today?" Luke asked him rapidly.

"Yes, as a matter of fact we are, once you're finished we'll head out, now I have to correct some papers for the university. Please take as long as you like, I'll leave the radio on." Without another word to the boy, he picked up his paper and his plate and left the room, leaving just Luke and the radio.

Luke sighed and dug his spoon in the gloppy oatmeal, he had never really liked the stuff, but according to the Professor, that's all he had, and Luke couldn't do a thing about it. He sighed silently and turned the radio up, a spokesperson with a great, entertaining voice shouted into a microphone, where ever he was.

"Hello citizens of London! I know that you are all very excited to know that Pro-Bending will begin in just a few months! There will be more teams than ever before, new partnerships and new benders and please come on down to the arena to get a glimpse of some of your soon favorite players! There an open door today folks!" His announcement was suddenly stopped by a commercial for a hat store just down the road, but look didn't have time to listen, he sprinted through the wavering door.

"Professor!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, not yet knowing where in the world he could be in this tiny flat.

"Luke," the Professor came out of the room right across from Luke's new bedroom, "Please quiet down, people are sleeping just over you."

"But Professor," the boy ran up to him, "They are having an open door today at the Pro-Bending arena, can we please go check it out?" Ever since Luke was a little child, Pro-Bending fascinated him, when he was supposed to be in bed he would sit quietly outside of the parlor, listening to the radio that his parents hovered around late at night.

"Pro-Bending?" the Professor laughed, "Luke I hope you know that Pro-Bending is nothing more than a few adolescents using their gift as a way to prove excellence over another," Luke couldn't be more confused, "It's just a bunch of children hoping to get rich and famous for their natural talent." He summed it up for him.

"Please," Luke pleaded, completely ignoring his statement or at least trying to, "What if one of those players is my future earthbending teacher or even firebending teacher?"

"Luke, I sincerely doubt that-"

"Please can we just go, I've wanted to attend a Pro-Bending match my whole life!" He threw his arms up in the air on the word 'life.'

"Well considering that you're only thirteen, it's really not that long," the Professor laughed before walking back into the kitchen to turn the radio and the stove off.

"Please," the Avatar followed him, "It's my first day in the city, can we please do something fun?" He walked through the wavering door, only to find the Professor listening on the man who had previously explained the arena's open door to Luke, "Please?" The Professor finally noticed his standing there and looked up.

"Well, I suppose," he sighed as Luke cheered himself on.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" The young boy wrapped his arms around the man, he stepped back, not used to the embrace.

"You're welcome," he whispered lightly while straightening his lopsided hat.

…

In the next hour, both of them were ready to go. The Professor was already in the car, patiently awaiting Luke who was bidding a farewell to Toppy.

"Now, don't eat anything that doesn't belong to you, and don't go to the bathroom unless… just try and hold it." Luke explained to his mouse who was lounging on his bed. He squeaked in reply just as Luke shut the door.

"Bye Toppy!" He yelled while opening the front entrance and exiting the flat and locking it shut. While he placed his new set of keys that the Professor had given his earlier in the morning, a yellow automobile came racing down the road, splashing dirty water every where including Luke, "Urg!" He waved his hands over his head redirecting the water into the sewer next to the curb. He breathed out, "That was a close one."

"Sorry!" The yellow car had stopped just in front of the Professor's vehicle, "That was all on me!" A woman with bushy dark hair stepped out of the car, Luke recognized her from somewhere.

"Emmy?" The Professor slid out of his seat and out onto the street.

"Oh, howdy Professor," she smiled lightly at him.

"Hey, you almost got me wet!" Luke jumped down from the steps and charged towards her, tripping over a tree root that had grown out of its patch in the process.

"Uh!" Emmy sent a billowing wind from her fingertips under Luke, to prevent him from falling. He landed on his two feet, balanced, "You're Avatar Luke aren't you?" She asked him, close to laughing after his almost bad fall.

"Yes, you were at my exam for waterbending," Luke confirmed.

"Uh huh," she smiled at him, "You were pretty impressive," she nodded her head, almost as if she was agreeing with herself.

"Yes, erm thank you," Luke replied to her praise.

"So where are you two headed off to?" She asked the Professor more than Luke.

"The Pro-Bending arena," the Professor responded, a little dully.

"You?" A smile crept on her lips, "You, Professor Hershel Layton are going to the arena? Ha-ha-ha!" She laughed while holding her stomach.

"Now Emmy," the Professor tried to reason with her.

"Now Professor," she mimicked, "I've invited you to matches that you've declined and why just now are you going to go?" She asked him, still a little giggly.

"Well, Luke suggested that we could find his earthbending teacher there and well, he begged me."

"I didn't beg," Luke protested, "I just really wanted to go, it's an open door."

"Today is an open door?" Emmy asked him, Luke nodded, "Darn, I have to head over to Scotland Yard today; I would love to see all the new teams." She pouted, "Maybe I'll come later." She shrugged her shoulders, "Well," she looked at her watch, "I have to go," Emmy quickly dashed towards her car and jumped inside the door that was still hanging open, "Good-bye Professor!" She waved through her open window before speeding off onto the streets.

"Well she is a very interesting lady isn't she?" Luke commented before turning back towards the Laytonmobile.

"Yes, she is," the Professor stared at her car driving away; Luke was about to open his mouth to ask more questions when the Professor interrupted him, "Well, let's get going." The boy didn't wait to start what he had to say, he ran straight to the car and slid inside. He shut the door with a bang and strapped in.

"So where is the arena exactly?" Luke asked him.

"It's a ways away, maybe five to ten minutes," the Professor replied as he sat down with a plop on the seat.

"Alright then," Luke sighed and pressed his nose up again the glass, stream from his breath rose and fell on the window. Suddenly remembering Crow's scroll, Luke closed his eyes. All he had to do was breath in and clench and unclench his fists. He took a deep long breath and opened his hands; he closed them, opened and closed. The water trapped in the air began to show, thick clouds of fog enveloped the car. They were trapped within the mist.

"Luke!" The Professor slammed on the brakes and the boy's concentration was broken, Luke's eyes flicked open, his hands fell onto his lap, as did the water onto the ground. The Professor turned to him; Luke knew he couldn't get mad, he was waiting patiently for what his mentor was going to say, "I didn't know you could create mist."

"Crow," he paused, "He gave me a scroll before we left, so I'll always remember Misthallery and the mist." The Professor relaxed a little, but the hardened look on his face did not waver.

"Well you can practice that one we're in the arena maybe, when it's alright to practice, but here on the road, that is incredibly dangerous." The Professor eyed him before pulling back out onto the streets, "Please don't try that until... just don't try it yet."

Luke sighed, he wanted to try it, it was one of the few pieces of home he had.

"Alright then," Luke pressed his face up against the glass once more, depriving himself from the urge to create mist. It was a simple waterbending technique and he liked to bring home to… where ever he was. But, he thought to himself, I guess this is my new home.

Hey guys! Thanks for reading once more! 4 reviews for the first chapter! OMG that makes me feel so good, I want to thank everyone who did review, because it really does mean a lot! I hope you liked this chapter! I know I promised a few things to a few people, but they're coming up next, I pinkie promise this time! Anyway, I want everyone to know that this is more like Legend of Korra than the Last Airbender, it's very modernized, but you'll get bits and pieces of things from the Last Airbender. Also, no firebenders are not evil a few people asked, they are not evil in this! Thanks! Peace out girl scout! -Lil