Aang meets a new friend whom he hopes to relearn earth bending from. After escaping from a youth guard camp. Aang and Laph find themselves roaming around the middle of the Earth Republic in an the industrial city of Tenguan. Ming Baifou is now a member of the White Lotus Guerillas; a group of disgruntled people who seek to overthrow the current corrupt Earth Republic government and resist against the imminent Fire Nation invasion and occupation. The Fire Nation and Admiral Zemin's forces plan for invasion.
Kyoshi Island Base
Admiral Zemin was sipping on a cup of tea, reading the military newspaper. He was finishing up his breakfast until Fire Nation 4-flame Army General Zhang Zaishe came in to greet him. Zhang is a member of the Fire Lady's war council. Unlike Admiral Zemin, Zhang has a more slender build but they were the same height, Zhang also has a thin mustache, he has a bald buzz-cut head and he wore a beige Fire Nation General's uniform. Zhang is also a skilled fire bender with knowledge of lightning bending. At times, Zhang is very outgoing but there are also times when Zhang is a very secretive man
"Zemin, how are you doing this morning? I hope you're ready to make the orders for your ships to invade the Earth mainland. We are to invade Hangkang and use the city as our landing base. Those are direct orders from the war minister himself." Zhang told the admiral
"Affirmative, how heavy will the enemy resistance be?" Admiral Zemin asked while taking another sip of his tea
"Considerable but not still not very heavy at that. Most of the Hangkang garrison is nothing more than weekend soldiers." Zhang assured him
The admiral gets up and puts on his Admiral officer hat. "I hear talk that the avatar is roaming about. I hear some of the sea men talk about it. Do you suppose it's true?" Zemin asked
"Don't let rumors keep you from accomplishing the task at hand! Remember, fire is the superior element! The Fire Nation must reign supreme!" Zhang yelled out.
"Yes sir." the admiral bowed to the general in the traditional Fire Nation manner
"Just remember, the war council and the Fire Lady herself will be observing the war, incompetence is not to be shown!" Zhang asserted
Admiral Zemin went onto a motor boat that took him to his battleship. The Fire Nation ships set out to the Earth Republic shores of Hangkang, troop landing ships and craft also took off. Helicopters containing troops also took off. Admiral Zemin looked forward from his ship with a smile on his face.
The Next Day
Fire Nation vessels bombarded Hangkang with shells and medium-range rockets. Fire Nation "Wildfire" attack planes strafe areas of high Earth Republic troop concentrations. Panic ensued on the streets of Hangkang. Many people tried to pack themselves on out going trains. After the initial attack on the city and the destruction of important Earth Republic targets and ordinance. Fire Nation marines stormed onto the ports, killing all the resisting forces without mercy. It was evident the Fire Nation marines were far better trained even the decently skilled Earth Republic city garrisons. The fact that Fire Nation infantry were more mechanized and had air support and sea-artillery from their navy blockading Hangkang support gave them much more of an advantage over the Earth Republic military in Hangkang. Eventually, the garrison base at Hangkang was captured, the remaining Earth Republic Garrison in the city either surrendered or were retreated. Some of the Hangkang garrison soldiers stole food from stores before they fled
"Heheh, Hangkang belongs to her highness now!" Admiral Zemin said
"Yes, you have done well today. Perhaps I will give you command of some of my ground forces." General Zhang told him "I was given a radio message by other members of the war council to give you more control over this campaign, this could be your chance of entering that room with the big boys and you are still very young." Zhang added
"Yes, but I must not forget who was my mentor for all these years." Zeming replied
"Of course." Zhang said with a smirk and a slight chuckle "Just remember to not do anything that may cause the Fire Lady to...lose favor with you." Zhang warned with a ominous sound to his voice.
Fire Nation Army infantry and armor began rolling into the city awaiting orders for further invasion. This event would mark the return of the Fire Nation of "Sozin's Ambition"and beginning of the end for the ill-prepared Earth Republic.
In Jaishi town
Aang and Laph have been walking for days with very little to eat. Aang begins to show fatigue and complains about having little to eat and only having meat around to eat that Laph feasts on from her game hunting.
"Laph...I would really like to eat something...that didn't have a head." Aang complained while feeling his stomach
"Why don't like meat?" Laph asks
"I just don't eat meat, I'm a vegetarian, that is how I was raised." Aang explained
"So that's why you don't like meat? Afraid the animal you eat will still be alive, eh twinkle toes?" Toph asked in response
"No, it's not really that, I'm a monk and I do not really believe in the killing of animal." Aang replied
They come across a town northeast of Hangkang. It was a medium sized town surrounded by hills, many of the inhabitants of the town were miners, farmers and woodsman. Aang searched the town for a place to eat. He came across a family owned diner operated by a woman and her daughter.
The daughter of the owner, Sia politely assigns Aang a seat.
"Please enjoy yourself." she bowed.
Many of the people in this town were wearing traditional Earth Kingdom-era clothing, except for some the men who worked in the mines who would wear denim or corduroy overalls and working pants, but the men would often wear their hanfu robes, changsan outfits or their government issued Zhongshan suits.
Aang orders a bowl of rice congee with vegetables
"What brings you to this town? Work in the mines?" The mother asked
"No, I'm just stopping here for some rest and something to eat so I can continue my journey to Ba Sing Se." Aang replied
"But...that's far away." the woman said
"Yea, you should take the train." Sia added
"Train?" Aang asked
"Yea...you don't know what a train is?" Sia asked
"Well, I'm not from here...I'm from a...more remote area of the Earth Republic."
"Well, a train is a vehicle powered by coal, which powers the combustion engine. I think the Mechanist one thousand years ago made the first train line from this town to the port city of Hangkang after the Avatar wars." She explained "They move on special roads called rails. Each train has the locomotive, which is the car with the engine, and you have freight cars which carry supplies and coaches, which carries people." she added
"Are rides free?" Aang asked
"Nope...unfortunately the government is making us pay at least one gold piece for a ride. They say the money is being used to improve the railroads."Sia responded
After his meal, Aang meets up with Laph near the train station.
"We could use the train to get to Ba Sing Se, but it costs a gold piece." Aang said
"So?" Laph asked
"So, we can't buy a ticket."
"Maybe we can stowaway on the next train, like hobos!" Laph suggested
"Uh, I don't think that's a" Aang's sentence was stopped when Laph dragged his arm to the depot.
They went into the supply depot, it was filled with raw material from the mines and food products from the farm that would be sent to their next destination to be processed. Little do Aang and Laph know, there is a strange short person in a blue jumpsuit observing them behind the crates in the warehouse, he watched and listened to Aang and Laph carefully.
"So, twinkle toes? How did you learn air bending?"
"Well, if I tell the truth, you promise you won't tell anyone in this world? I mean anyone!?" Aang responded with a worried look on his face
"Go ahead, my lips are sealed, I probably wouldn't care enough anyways." Laph said with a smile
"I'm the...avatar." Aang said
"You probably are, you do know air bending and the only the one and only air bending person left is the..." Laph stopped for a second "You are the Avatar!!" Laph yelled out
"Please, not so loud...I don't want people to hear..."
The mysterious man overheard the conversation and became interested in Aang. He turned on the voice recorder built into his suit. After we was done, he pressed a green button on his right chest which causes him to teleport, the teleportation sequence creates a loud that distracts and Aang and Laph from their conversation. Aang see's a bright flash of light
"What was the that?!" Aang asked in a horrified tone of voice
"I don't know, I have never heard that before! It sounded like loud radio feedback."
They turn around to investigate but then they were bothered by three train station guards.
"Hey, you brats shouldn't be in here!" a guard told them
"We'll have to take you back to your parents, we can't have child stowaways on something as dangerous as a train." another guard said
The guards used their earth bending to move medium sized rocks to trap them, but Aang and Laph both move the rocks away with their own earth bending.
"Oh, so you kids are good with rocks, eh? I'm still better!" Just as the third guard creates a stone pillar, Laph creates her own pillar and has it strike the guard's groin, he falls down reeling in pain.
"Haha! I think I'm better." Laph taunts
Aang demonstrates his air bending on another one of the guards, knocking him into the ceiling, that demonstration scares the last guard.
"The the hell?! No one can know more than one element! You're not human!" He runs off terrified
Laph smiles at Aang "you know, your Avatar status sure has it's perks, it scares most people in this time period because we haven't seen the avatar in a thousand years."
"Yes, and now do you see why I want you to keep my secret a secret?!" Aang looked at her sternly.
"Calm down twinkle toes, I right now I am beginning to think that people being afraid of you is the least of our worries, I'm not talking about the Fire Nation either, in fact, I can't help but feel that the Fire Nation is only just a small piece of some larger plot, like there are powers greater than Fire Lady Azusa and the Fire Nation military controlling them as well speak." Laph said in a rather somber voice
"What are you talking about? Greater powers?" Aang asked confused
"Eh, just forget it, it's not important." Laph assured him, she then turned her face away and said to herself "...at least not for right now."
They see the locomotive come in loaded with refugees, some of the refugees sat on top of the train cars or even on wooden two by four boards underneath the cars. Many of them were refugees who had fled Hangkang just before it fell to the Fire Nation military. It was a ghastly seen, one could tell those people were desperate to find safer grounds by seeing how refugees laid down under train cars or sat on top of them. Aang and Laph slept in the freezer train car.
While sleeping, Aang gets a cold temperature-induced dream of his old Water Tribe friends.
"Aang, wake up buddy!" Aang felt Sokka's hands push his arm
"Huh...Sokka?" Aang gets up from his dream to look around, he finds himself to be near the iceberg in which he froze 1100 years ago."Wait a second, was I dreaming?" he then looks over to Katara. "KATARA!" Aang yelled out in excitement. "So I was dreaming, I had the strangest dream that I woke up one thousand years in the future! It was scary, you had earthbending men with sticks called "guns" that shoot deadly pebbles at people, even the Fire Nation knew how to earthbend with them!"
"Aang, I'm really glad we can talk." Katara said with a cute smile "But right now you are dreaming...you really do live one thousand years ahead of our time." Katara explained "But there is a reason you do." she added
"What...?! I don't want to live in the future, it's scary, people dress weird, people are more rude, there are ostrich horseless carriages called "cars" that puff smoke from the back and those guns scare me!"
Then Sokka tried to calm "I know Aang, but you should keep a stiff upper lip pal. The Fire Nation back in our day had some pretty scary weapons."
"True, but I don't think I've had experience fighting people with such new weapons. I even find fighting a common soldier armed with one of those things to be a whole different experience than fighting Zhao and Azula or even Ozai, with them I could counter their bending but with those new weapons, I just cant." Aang looked down in despair "I really wish I could see you guys in this scary world, that would cheer me up." Aang added
"Hey don't worry buddy, we'll be there in your mind, besides you're with a girl who is basically a Toph clone or even the real deal Toph sent to the future to help you!" Sokka reminded him
"Yeah, that's true but it just won't be the same without your wisecracks or Katara's nurturing and love." Aang replied
"Aang, you must keep the balance in your new times. I fear that the world you are in will probably fall under worse circumstances than the world of our times have experienced." Katara said
"True, I will do what I must to keep this world from falling apart." Aang replied
"Just remember that I love you Aang." Just before Katara locks lips with him, Aang wakes up.
"Damn...it's just a dream!"
Aang looked around the train car, after seeing the sick people in the refrigeration car and the scared refugees, he knew that the world needed a hero yet again.