Burn My Dread FES
By Iain R. Lewis
Disclaimer: Characters and concepts belong to Nickelodeon, some of the concepts are similarly inspired by Persona 3 and Persona 4, property of ATLUS games.
"Nobody's toppin' me (You know it, damn right), most of y'alls lovin' me (Doing it all night)."
-- Mass Destruction FES
Lotus Juice
Chapter 17: The Anguished Adventure
Not all mazes were made of walls. Some entrapped you within words and puzzles and lies and sleight of hand, creating the illusion that you were going forward when in fact you'd taken a turn and were now proceeding back to the beginning.
Bleeps and bloops, and pixels and blocks and things, what manner of maze was this that she found herself in? Well, where does one even begin. Azula Houou, second year at the Phoenix Center school, former student president, former comatose patient of the Sozin Memorial Hospital, and currently, well, currently in a manner of dress that seemed both anachronistic and inappropriate.
"Why are you fiddling with those zippers?"
And of course, she couldn't forget Sokka Floes, the green suited hero of this merry band of adventurers -- as merry a band as two can make at any rate. Somehow he got off lightly, with a tunic and cap, and she was stuck with this aberration of modern fashion. Mai would probably love it, she realized, but that girl never had any taste in her anyway.
"Why are there zippers here? I can't possibly think of any reason I'd want to unzip them."
"I dunno, it looks kind of cool," Sokka shrugged and it did little to help her mood. He obviously didn't understand that she didn't sign up to be the weakling little sidekick character. Her limited -- she'd stress the limited part -- experience with these sorts of adventures made her even more squeamish about the role.
"Whatever. Listen, we need to find the others quickly as possible. Please tell me you at least have an idea what house Katara is in."
"Well, about that."
"Sokka!"
"Don't look at me, it's not my fault!" Unfortunately, he was right and she couldn't exactly righteously vent her anger at him. The town, if you could call this collection of pixelated blocks with doors painted to the front a town, contained a series of identical houses. Admittedly, only a few had any entry point that she could see but the perspective on the town was strange enough.
"My patience is at an end. Find this house quickly, Sokka."
"Well, it'd help if you'd look out for it --"
Azula stood perfectly still and watched him pointedly as he walked off. He turned and stared at her. "Oh, keep walking. I wanted to prove a point." He slowly walked backwards, nearly knocking himself into a wandering townperson -- she'd mentally filed it categorically: Woman Type B, Hair Red. She could feel things getting -- well, the best way she could describe it was tight -- before she suddenly flung forward propelled like by a bungie.
She bumped right into Sokka as a result. "Hey, ow," he said, rubbing his head. "What was that for?" She shook her head slowly.
"Still don't get it, do you? This is a video game, remember?"
"You mean you and me are stuck together like this? Oh this is fantastic --"
"Yes, I was thinking precisely the same thing."
"Not that you're bad company, it's just, well, you're kind of pushy and --"
"Keep digging, Sokka, keep digging. Six feet is a long way down."
"Well, I didn't mean it like -- what do you mean six feet?"
"Why don't you keep going until you find out?" She crossed her arms and smirked. He seemed to regret the conversation immediately. "Weren't we looking for your sister?"
"Oh yeah! Hey, which way to my house, again?" he asked a random passerby. Well, it was one way of finding their way around this ramshackle village.
"About a year ago, a great hero appeared and saved us all, but then, after the final battle, he disappeared. I wonder what happened to him..."
"That was less than helpful," Sokka said, "Still, it's a good idea to talk to everyone, you never know what you'll miss if you don't."
"I heard."
"You played these games before?"
"Hardly. Once or twice I indulged in them, but they're not particularly my thing. I did try the newest Dragon Champion --"
"--It's not the newest anymore --"
"Let me finish, Sokka. As I was saying, I tried it, but only to see what the fuss was about. The lines in the electronics district are hard to ignore."
"Yeah, I waited in line for that one like six hours to get a copy," he laughed, as if his wasted time was something to be proud of. "So, what did you think?" Overly simplistic, with two-dimensional characters, and a plot that projected itself from the moment she read the manual -- by the time she reached the ending she'd already figured out every little twist the plot took.
"Never did see it coming, I mean, the staff!" he said so enthused by the story. She sighed heavily and shook her head.
"I liked the green one."
"You're weird." She couldn't even find words to respond. "Anyway, let's ask around and see if we can't find someone who knows something."
"It can't take that long to find the right house."
"Trust me, Azula, these games can be finicky, sometimes. They're tricky like that. Yeah, we could find the house but who knows what events we're supposed to trigger before we can take Katara outside of it."
"That's ridiculous, Sokka."
"Trust me. I know what I'm doing, okay?"
"You found AZULA all right, then, SOKKA?" The way that old man spoke was annoying enough, almost like bleeps and bloops that she didn't know how she made sense of, the modulation of his voice even stranger and unnatural. "It's dangerous to go alone, SOKKA, take this."
It materialized out of thin air, off-color blocks appearing and forming in the shape of a wooden sword. Sokka looked at it and swung it around. It made a strange noise that didn't exactly sound much like a sword being swung. "Uh, thanks. What's this for?"
"I wish I knew," Azula muttered. The old man simply continued speaking.
"With all these wolf attacks in the region, if you two are going on another of your adventures, you'd best be prepared." Sokka's eyes lit up. The wolves from before were seen inside this maze? It seemed almost too good to be true.
"Sokka, you don't know if it's the same one."
"You're right, you're right." He grinned, "I can still hope, though."
He was just going to be like that, she supposed, and just let it slide. "Let's go find your sister, Sokka. I don't think I can take the unfiltered you much longer."
"You'd be surprised how often I get that."
"Wolves!"
"Oh, something's going on," Azula heard the old man say, and she rolled her eyes. A wolf attack seemed to fit with what Sokka was saying earlier. It wouldn't be so simple as going straight towards the goal. The adventure, she loathed to admit,was the journey.
"We should go see!" Sokka took the lead with the enthusiasm of a puppy, leaping headlong into danger without even a second thought. This made it all the more difficult for Azula to stop him.
"We need to take this slowly, Sokka, we can't just rush in without being prepared -- Yah!" And yet, she was pulled along by the invisible leash tying the two of them together. She would need to find a way to correct this before too long, she ruefully thought as she ran across the pixellated ground, cutting the taller grass up as she passed by.
"There!"
In the middle of town, a fearsome wolf stood snarling and standing atop its prize while the rest of the town people stood in a frightened circle about the creature. "This is just sad," Azula snidely commented, pulling herself up. "What's a lone wolf doing attacking a town? It makes no sense."
"Hey, that's Katara!" Sokka grabbed his wooden sword tightly in his hand, "And I'd know that thief anywhere. Great, first he takes my sword, then my sister. Will he not rest until he has all of my stuff?"
"Priorities, Sokka, priorities."
"What? Oh, right!"
He brandished his sword as he ran towards the wolf. The beast barked fiercely at him as he approached and lunged. The sword and the beast met with a terrible crash. And the wolf stepped back. Moving in a circle around Sokka. "Uh, aren't we supposed to take turns?" he wondered.
"Apparently not. Sokka, be careful!"
She thrust her hands out just as the beast lunged again, a blast of air pushing it back with a welp. "So, we don't get a neat turn based combat system in my role-playing game maze? Totally feel gypped now."
"I would rather not spend the next few hours waiting for the right time to strike," she retorted."Let's take this as a blessing and keep moving."
"You're right. Though I really really wish I had a better sword," he said, swinging the bulky, blocky weapon about twice. "Okay, wolfy, time to turn you into a new parka."
The wolf howled angrily and stumbled forward. "Don't just stand there, Sokka." She hovered about in her airbending stance, looking impatient, "We don't have to wait our turn, remember?"
"I know, I was pausing for dramatic effect."
And it was then and there that her worst fears were confirmed. This place was going to be the death of her one way or another, and there was nothing she could do to escape. He twirled his sword around and brought it high over his head.
"And stay down!"
The wolf welped in pain as it vanished into black smoke and blocky pixels, leaving nothing behind but the mask, which soon dissolved into shadows. Sokka held his sword up high in victory.
SOKKA has defeated Lone Wolf. SOKKA has reached the 2nd level. SOKKA learned Overconfidence! SOKKA learned Bravado!
"What was that?" a shiver ran down Azula's spine. Having words shoved into her brain had that affect on people, she reasoned.
"I don't know. Weird," he rubbed the back of his head, looking around, "Maybe we should check on my sister."
"Good idea." She hurried over. Katara was dressed much more conservatively than Azula was, and her hair was largely untouched. A wave of jealousy overcame Azula. Katara always seemed to get the breaks. Blue blouse and long skirt, with one too many belts around her waist since that seemed to be the fashion -- Azula's own belt was a zipper, and she was in a dress of some sort -- and she seemed to be okay, not even any teeth marks left.
"Huh," she stirred as they approached, "What hit me?"
"Katara, are you okay?" Sokka asked.
It took her a few minutes to register what she was seeing, and once it finally came together, all she could do was stifle back a guffaw. "What are you wearing? Azula, you look like you lost a bet!"
"At least my skirt doesn't have a hundred buckles on it."
"What are you talking about?" She finally seemed to notice she was also in a new change of clothes, and examined it curiously, "Who -- who changed my clothes?"
"We don't know. Kind of just ended up here like this."
"Why do I get the feeling this is your fault, Sokka."
He looked sheepishly at Azula, who just rolled her eyes and let the siblings continue. "Anyway, now that we're here, we need to figure out which way the adventure's going to lead us next. I bet it's going to take us into those ruins where Azula was."
"Why don't we just go there right now? Where's everyone else?"
"No clue. It's not a very big village, but I haven't seen them. What about you, Azula?"
"No idea," she said, looking towards the forest they came from, "Perhaps we should make time to investigate these ruins after all, Sokka."
"Okay, let's go!" Sokka began to charge off towards the ruins, head held high in the air, all the while ignoring Azula's tired pleading and Katara's confused, shocked welp as she found herself pulled back to the spot.
The Ruthless Ruins, as Zuko had been informed that they were called, carried deep under the ground, a massive labyrinth of bright grey stone blocks lit by poorly pixelated braziers and with an occasional pillar in an occasional large, empty room.
He'd been here for -- well, one loses track of time when there are no day-night cycles -- and while he'd been there for a while, he was certain, he wasn't quite so certain what he was going down there. Actually, a lot of things left him uncertain.
The large, unwieldy katana being one of them. Who thought this was a good idea? He shook his head. It looked like something from one of Sokka's video games.
Which is why he made a mental note to thank Sokka for this profusely when he found him, and by thank, he meant pummel.
Having counted every block in the room, he finally just settled on sprawling on the ground and taking the weight off his incredibly bulky black armor. "Typical," he grumbled, "I must be the bad guy."
"Zuko! I finally found you! I'd been trapped in this room and -- why are you dressed like that, Zuko?" Zuko pulled himself into a sitting position at the sudden intrustion of a new voice, "You look kind of scary."
His hair in a long ponytail, and the intimidating black armor aside, he kind of liked the idea of being intimidating. "Yue?" the girl's eyes sparkled with white light as she looked about. "What am I wearing? What are you wearing?"
"Oh," she looked rather flustered, "I don't know. It leaves far too little to the imagination, doesn't it? And, and, and it's just black is not my color."
It was actually fairly conservative considering, but then again, he could see her knees, he could see how she thought it was scandalous. She never seemed to go anywhere without some sort of long gown or skirt. "I guess you're a bad guy, too," he observed, turning back to staring at the ceiling. "Fancy that."
"Me? A bad guy?" she didn't seem to understand. Zuko just shook his head. "I don't understand. What's going on? Why are we separated?"
"I don't know. Ask Sokka when we find him."
"Why Sokka? You mean this is --"
He nodded.
Yue took a minute to put the pieces together, and she seemeed surprised. "I never imagined Sokka's door would lead to a place like this. I, I must not know him quite as well as I believed." She grew silent again, and Zuko peeked over at her. She looked set to cry. "Why am I a bad guy?"
"Don't take it so personally," he muttered. "I'm not."
"But I was never -- I didn't turn on -- oh, oh dear." He knew exactly what she was getting at and it was lucky for her that he was in a relatively good mood. "I didn't mean it like that, Zuko -- I'm sorry."
"It's fine."
She tried to put on a brave face, and then, bobbing her head slightly, she added, "Maybe we should explore his maze?"
He stood up, stretching out and getting used to the feel of moving in the black iron armor. With a quick appraising of his sword hand, he looked over at Yue, and said, "Lead on."
"I've got a headache," Katara complained, "You're telling me we have to follow him around wherever he goes?"
"Those are the rules, apparently," Azula commented.
"Why couldn't this be more like one of those online games you played, Azula?"
She sputtered out a response indignantly. She didn't want that brought up right now, and she was thankful that Finally, in ignoble defeat, she changed the subject vindictively. "Your belt is a zipper made out of belts, Katara."
"Stop bringing that up!"
"Hey, guys, calm down, okay?" Sokka said. "We're almost to the ruins." Not that the journey, Sokka recalled, had been quite as simple as that. The pathway that once seemed so nice and peaceful was now riddled with creatures, very poorly defined creatures that slid along the ground or floated above it.
Also, they'd had to deal with pathways that he was absolutely positive had been clear before now having two inch tall rocks that prevented them from crossing. That was an exercise in futility. Azula was convinced they could just leap over them.
Which was why Katara had to heal the bruising on Azula's face while they walked the long way around. Which was even more fun, because the two girls now were talking, and as much fun, and he stressed the sarcasm and really, he couldn't stress that sarcasm enough before, as much fun as they were at each other's throats, they were even more fun when they spoke.
Because there was a secret everyone but they acknowledged. Their brains, while Katara's seemed to be focused on kindness and Azula more on, well, whatever being Azula was like, seemed to work on very similar principles.
Case in point, they were now both glaring at him as if this was somehow his fault. How was he supposed to know that video games rotted his brains? It's not like anyone told him. "I always tell him they rot his brains."
That was uncanny.
"Get out of my head, Katara!"
"What did I do?" she whispered to Azula, who continued to shake her head slowly as she'd been doing for the past while.
"Are you sure we're close, Sokka?"
He grimaced, "Now that you mention it, I'm not sure which direction we're supposed to take. Floating random enemy encounter bubbles aside, we've made really good time, but something tells me we should probably expect a boss or, well, something bad soon."
"You cannot be serious. By 'boss' I assume you mean a signficantly challenging monster or something," Azula said, obviously feigning ignorance. "It isn't as if they'll just throw in a random enemy everytime you hit a certain checkpoint that they just decide should be a boss. That would be terrible."
"Rawr!"
"This is ridiculous," Azula said, rubbing her temples, "I'm getting a migraine, Sokka. Your monster just said 'rawr'."
"Who you calling a monster, Spice Girl?"
"Toph? Is -- is that you?" Katara craned her neck to see through the threatening shadows that surrounded the malignant force. "You look -- er -- taller."
"And distinctly monstrous," Sokka pointed out. Well, that was certainly unexpected to say the least.
"Hey! You're right. I got big somehow. Cool!"
"Not cool," Azula said, "Now she's getting excited."
"Hey Toph, why are you stomping threateningly over in this direction?"
"Huh? Well, what do you know, so I am," she took a moment to register what this meant, "I don't get it. What's the big idea?" She grunts as she tries to fight back against the compulsion. Azula and Katara turned to Sokka.
"Why are you looking at me?"
"You're the expert," Katara said, blithely, "So, maybe you have some ideas what's going on?"
"I'd say we're about to have a boss battle," he said, drawing his wooden sword, "So, uh, get ready for anything, guys! Charge!"
"Wait!" Toph protested but it was too late. Sword held high, Sokka struck down the monstrous shadow of Toph and with the slice, the dissolution of the blocky pixels revealed the enemy's true form.
A lull overcame the group as they stared, raptly, at Toph.
"Ow!"
"Toph, you -- you --" Azula couldn't find the words, Sokka realized, and he couldn't blame her. There were no words to describe the fullness of what was before them. It was indescribeable, it seemed to be beyond their comprehension. She was --
"Oh! So adorable!"
Katara's high-pitch squeal summed it up. And that's what made it so terrifying. Toph, with little cat ears, a bright colored uniform, and a fluffy tail on the back of her clothing, she looked like she was part animal, part human.
"Who you calling adorable, Sugarqueen!"
"Oh, Toph, I wish you could see. It's just the cutest thing! Don't you agree, Azula?"
"I'm an Earthbender, you know."
That silenced Katara rather quickly, and she tried to regain her composure, "Anyway, Toph, um, are you okay?"
"Your belt's wearing a belt, Katara," Azula dryly answered.
"And your zipper's made up of many smaller zippers."
Toph smacked her head with her hands -- a soft blow thanks to the large paw-shaped gloves -- and shook her head, "Look, I don't even wanna know. Just give me the rundown of what's going on."
"Okay, so, we're in an RPG. I'm the main character, Azula's the versatile but largely useless at low levels mage, Katara's the healer, you're the mascot, we're trying to find the ruins to learn who the bad guy is, find my other half, discover the truth of the hero of legend and possibly get my sword back."
"You really want that sword badly," Azula muttered. "And who are you calling useless?"
"Hey, hope springs eternal, Azula. Eternal!"
"Whatever,' she muttered. Sokka wished she'd be a bit more supportive. It wasn't like he got to play the hero very often, anyway.
"What does that have to do with belts wearing zippers with more belts in the zippers?" Toph asked, rubbing her head. "What am I wearing!"
"They're just complaining because they have no taste in fashion."
If looks could kill, he'd be the victim of a double homocide. Still, it felt good to get that one in there. A long stretch "Anyway!" He smiled brightly, "Come on, join the party."
"Yes, what fun we will have, following him around."
"Hey, I've been nice to you, Azula, can't you be nice to me?"
"Oh, so laughing at me while I'm trying to jump some pebbles that blocked our path was being nice?"
Katara could barely hold back a snicker, "Oh come on, Azula, even you have to admit it was funny."
"Aw man, I missed Azula hurting herself? This sucks!"
"We could back and ask her to do it again," Sokka suggested.
"Or we could find out what embarrassing and probably hilarious secret you're hiding from us," Azula said, in a huff, "Come on, Sokka, let's get moving!"
SOKKA has defeated the Mountain Guardian. SOKKA has reached the 3rd level. SOKKA learned Jealousy. SOKKA became Useless.
"What was that?" Yue's voice was trembling, but not as much as her hands. She could feel them shiver from the cold, uninviting air of the ruins, but there was something else. She didn't know what they might find in the maze, nor did she particularly want to.
"I don't know," Zuko's answer is very curt, but he never spoke much to her anyway.
"This maze goes on forever," she said, "We're very far from the surface. Do you think we should proceed upwards?"
Zuko didn't respond at first, and as she began to repeat herself, fearing he had not heard her, he answered, "Let's go to the top for now, yeah," he seemed so confident with his answer, "Which way do we go?"
Yue hesitated, then pointed down a hallway, "This way is the quickest way to the stairs. I don't sense any monsters -- no, I shouldn't say that. I sense them, but they don't seem to harbor us any ill."
He shook his head, "Course they don't. We're the bad guys, remember?"
She nodded, slowly. She didn't understand why. Zuko, at least, was a bad guy in Sokka's mind at one point, but what about her? Was this some deep, inner resentment towards her that Sokka never spoke? Oh dear, oh odds and bothers, this was beginning to drive her crazy.
And her partner wasn't any help either. He would rarely speak to her, and sometimes, when she least expected it, he'd break into a dash and be waiting impatiently for her once she caught up. It wasn't like she needed to run most of the time. As a moon spirit, she had the advantage of sort of floating in the night sky most of the day.
But more frustrating than that was the way he'd just seem to stare past her whenever she wanted to speak to him. "Am I bother to you, Zuko?" she asked, as politely as she could muster.
He responded surprisingly quickly, his voice flustered, "What makes you think that?"
"You've been doing your best to not speak with me."
He grunted, shaking his head, "I don't talk a lot."
"Yes, but we've been down here for some time, and you only speak when I speak to you."
"It's nothing personal."
If it were nothing personal, Yue reasoned, that just seemed to make it worse. "You treat everyone like this? How dreadful, Zuko, you must be so lonely."
"I'm fine."
"Zuko, you cannot say such a thing," she said, "Look at all that's happened to us so far. I'm worried for you. These other sides of ourselves, they're growing stronger and I do not think I could forgive myself if any of us were to fail."
He shook his head slowly, an audible grunt the only response she got.
"I am not joking, Zuko," she said, "Whatever your door is like, I do not want to imagine you facing your other self and failing. It would be far too horrid," she said.
"We need to make sure Sokka gets through this, first," he answered, coldly, "Worry about me when we get to that door."
"Oh dear," Yue said, weakly. Things weren't going well at all.
It was hard to pin-point the exact moment she knew they were lost. In a lot of ways, Katara always knew they were, but now that they'd found themselves in a middle of another dense forest that was ecologically completely different from the one on the other side of the mountain range they'd just gotten off of, she was certain he'd taken a wrong turn.
"I got this!"
He continually insisted that as he cut through the foliage and managed to duck away from yet another passing shadow, a random encounter as he referred to them. She went along with it because she knew almost nothing about these sorts of games.
The concept of experience points and statistics were alien to her, and she didn't know why Sokka insisted that she probably stacked wisdom over intelligence, which seemed to be kind of a strange distinction to make.
Toph, who plodded along with her fluffy tail standing taller than her slouched and angry posture, didn't seem to be in the same good graces as Sokka. "You're completely lost!" she shouted, and stomped her feet.
"I am not. I just think we should go north through here and --"
"The ruins should be to our east, not our north," Azula commented, idly, checking her fingernails, "Really, Sokka, if you asked sooner we could have avoided this."
It seemed Azula's patience had worn out as well. "Sokka, is this true?" Katara asked, her voice very level.
"Well, yes, but, look, to the west is -- is --"
"It's a big scary cave," Azula said, wiggling her fingers for emphasis, "Now, be a brave hero and go through it."
"Fine, you don't have to be so pushy!"
Katara braced herself for entering the cavern, but it wasn't quite as damp or smelly as she imagined. It actually looked very dry, with plain, brown flooring and the light being cast by fires lit on the walls. Pixelated and crude looking fires, but they looked at least a little bit like that.
"Think we're finally getting close?" Toph asked.
"Good question," she responded, looking at Azula and Sokka arguing at the front. "I don't think this is doing good for their friendship."
"Eh," Toph said, "Snoozles has dealt with worse."
"Azula just likes to boss people around, I guess."
"Well, ain't that the truth." Toph gave a big grin, "I wish I could see her hair. You said it looks dumb, right?"
"Painfully so."
"Ha!"
"Do you two have something you wish to share?" Azula asked, looking back at them.
"Just that we're probably going to meet another boss sooner than later,' Toph said, innocently, "I mean, after all, isn't this like a checkpoint for an arbirtray boss battle?"
"Don't be silly, Toph, they wouldn't throw two bosses so quick in succession!" Sokka said. The floor began to rumble.
"Do you ever get tired of being wrong, I wonder," Azula muttered, more to herself than accusatory. Still, she seemed to be making an effort not to just shout it out, so Katara wrote it off as a baby step.
"This isn't my fault!" Sokka protested.
The source of the shaking burst through, knocking tetrahedral shaped blocks about as it emerged. A long, menacing worm roared, revealing many, many rows of sharp-looking 8-bit teeth, and then burrowed back into the ground.
"I wish I was right for once," Sokka moaned, drawing his sword. "Charge!"
Slithering, moving through the cavern like an infection, permeating every inch, Toph grinned broadly as her quarry attempted to elude her. Like that would work, she thought, pumping her fists in anticipation.
The floor rumbled again as the worm emerged, its blocky and long form painfully obvious to her in every square inch of her body. "Hey, Azula," she said, "You got to learn how to Earthbend, right? Well, here's your practice lesson."
"Here? Now?" Azula sounded perplexed, but she rarely let that stop her for long, "Very well then. Lead on, teacher."
She couldn't keep that smirk off her face, "Yeah, I like that. Okay, first rule of Earthbending is you never give an inch." She charged forward, slamming her feet hard into the ground, feeling the blocks shoot up and she thrust her fists out simultaneously, propelling the block with as much force as it could take.
Square, then something shaped closer to an L, then a couple that looked like a step. She threw as many of them as she could, while listening to Sokka's confused stuttering on the side. "Toph, is your earthbending okay?"
"Not my fault the place is like this!"
That shut him up right quick, Toph thought, and she seemed satisfied. Throwing blocks at the creature, while not what she imagined she'd be doing now that she had her bending back, was essentially the same thing. She blocked the creature in, which caused it to shriek louder, a low-tech sound.
Though it tried to move, Toph pummeled it continuously, a never ending stream of blocks of the cave floor, of all shapes and sizes. The pixelated rocks threw it further back, knocking its long tail out of the ground.
"And now for the finishing blow!" She concentrated, bringing up the biggest block she could to just shatter it, thrusting the straight block straight forward, shattering the rest with a loud 'bloop'. The resulting shockwave knocked the worm prone on its back, leaving it looking winded and confused.
"Though I fear this setting removes much of the drama of the situation, I think I understand," Azula braced herself to follow up when the worm stood up, shaking its long segmented body out and preparing to burrow.
"Oh no you don't!"
"Sokka!" Katara called after her brother, but he already rushed headlong towards the beast with his wooden sword held high in the air.
"You idiot!" Azula shouted, slamming her feet into the ground, preparing, Toph realized, to take her lesson on a dangerous test run.
She shouted, "Don't!" and tried to stop her, but Azula already slammed a block up and shot it forward. It shot past Sokka, barely brushing past him. He slowed to a stop as he noticed the open maw of the worm waiting expectantly for him.
Just as the block sailed inside in his place. The worm snapped down on the block, struggling to break it. "Now's my chance," Sokka said, aloud, dramatically, and took his wooden sword and plunged it in the worm's belly.
Toph could feel the presence of the worm lifting almost imediately, even before the others saw the slow creeping destructions of its pixelated body from the inside out. As the creature fell to the ground, that same strange sensation of words flowing into their heads as before started.
SOKKA has defeated the Larval Worm. SOKKA has reached the 4th Level. SOKKA learned Despair. SOKKA realized CRITICAL ERROR 0010011101 UNABLE TO ACCESS DATA PLEASE REBOOT
The end came out like a terrifying cacophony, as the cavern wall began to melt into a jungle, but the trees were upside down and off color. The floor, Toph grimaed, felt off, as if everything about the landscape suddenly became a lot more hollow.
"What's going on?"
"A critical error -- the game is glitching on us," Azula answered, matter of factly.
"Thought you didn't know anything about this," Toph said, grinning to herself, "Power Princess sure knows a lot about video games for someone who doesn't play them."
"Be quiet!"
"Guys! Relax," Sokka said, "Everything's going to be okay. We just need to find what caused that glitch and maybe we can stop it before it gets any worse. Things are going to be okay."
He paused at the lack of reaction, the blank stares from everyone, even Toph seemed to freeze, unsure of how to react to the sensation under her feet. "What's going on, guys? Is there something behind me?"
He turned around into the stark glowing azure of the boy of the labyrinth. Around him, the very code of the game appeared, rotating ones and zeroes, corrupted pixels and monsters caught in the ground, visible only where his footprint left them exposed.
"Oh, this is bad," Sokka said. "What do you want?"
The blue eyes stared at him for the longest time, and he thought, for a moment, that any second he would strike, and this idea, as awkward as it was, struck him so hard at that moment that he almost turned the sword on this shadowed boy.
"Aang," Toph murmured, "I don't believe it."
She took a step towards him, and he suddenly moved, sliding across the ground, like he were apart from it, an unnatural and yet altogether unpleasantly familiar sensation. "I don't believe it. You weren't lying, Azula."
She expected Azula to retort, but instead, Azula stared vacantly after the shadowed Aang. "Guys," Sokka said, "We need to get moving. The ruins are in that direction, and if he's causing the whole place to go like this, well, things aren't going to be a leisurely adventure anymore."
"You're right." Azula paused. "We need to follow him," she added.
"Yeah," Katara agreed, "He must be leading us somewhere, trying to help us."
"Why isn't he saying anything?" Toph wondered, "Something doesn't feel right about this." She felt Sokka pat her on the shoulder, and quietly whisper to her.
"I got a bad feeling too, but --"
"But nothing. This place is crazy enough, why would that --"
"Toph," he said, "Let them hope for the best for now. They need it."
"All right. Lead on, Sokka."
"Just getting to it!" he said, "Onwards! To the Runs!"
Do you want to save CRITICAL ERROR Do you want to Cannot Save to this Device at this timUNKNOWN VIRUS DETECTED
To be continued...
Author's Note: If I knew this chapter would take this long, I'd have given more of a warning, but instead, I couldn't just settle down and write it for two weeks. Yes, that's right, the dreaded writer's block struck me like a Tetris block. I finally found something I could sink my teeth into and the next chapter, I hope will fulfill the promise of this area. Apologies for fans of Tatsuya Nomura, I just can't stand his fashion sense.
For those of you who don't know who he is, find a picture of Tidus and Lulu from Final Fantasy X and know the terror of exactly what I'm making fun of.