Chapter 2

Marcus just stared at her for what seemed like forever.

"Fire nation?" he asked. Ming simply nodded in response. "But wait. I'm from America. I passed out in America. How in the world did I end up here?"

"America? Where is that? Is that a new area in the nation?" Ming asked. Marcus could not believe what he was hearing. Obviously he was not anywhere near home anymore.

"Okay…uh…Just humor me for a second. How many countries are in this world?" Marcus asked. Depending on how she would respond would affect how freaked out he should be.

"There are four in total. Well, technically there are three," she replied in a gentle voice. Something just turned off inside Marcus' head when he heard her said that. Without a second thought, he ran to the closest door and went through it.

Instead of breathing in fresh air, he had dust and charcoal fill his lungs. "Uh…that's where we keep our supplies. The door outside is that way," he heard Ming say behind him.

"Thanks," he said curtly as he passed by her. Once outside, Marcus was simply speechless. Instead of the houses he usually sees, he found various stone houses with hay-patched roofs and sliding doors. The people of the town were simply walking around minding their own business. He also saw a few men who appeared to be black smiths and flags with a picture of a flame on it hanging on the buildings.

"Uh Marcus?"

"AHHHHHH!" he yelped. Ming looked very shocked at his reaction.

"Are you all right? You look as though you saw a platypus bear?" she asked.

"Yeah, I just…Platypus bear? What the hell is that?" he said.

"You're really not from around here are you?" Marcus simply responded by scratching the back of his head. "Well, why don't you have some beef stew and I can tell you what you need to know."

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Marcus was a lot hungrier than he thought he was. In a matter of minutes, he completed three bowls of stew. However, Ming did not seem to mind his voracious appetite. Instead, she looked at him with great fascination. Almost as if she was admiring him.

"Why are you staring at me?" he asked. "Do I have something on my face?"

"Huh? Oh no. You just…remind me of someone I knew," she replied.

"Oh. Okay. So what did you mean earlier when there were technically three countries?" Marcus asked.

Swallowing her last spoonful of soup, Ming looked straight into his eyes. "Well, the four nations of this world are the Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom, Water Tribe, and Air Nomads. However," she paused a bit and looked a bit sullen over what she was about to say. "However the Air Nomads don't exist anymore, so now there are only three nations."

"What happened to them? They couldn't have just disappeared off the face of the earth." Ming struggled to respond. Whatever the truth was did not seem easy to say.

"My nation…killed them all around a hundred years back." Marcus stopped eating and just stared at her. Such a thing was lost to him. What kind of people would so willingly commit such genocide. "We are known to the rest of the world as such violent people. But considering what our lord and armies have done, I don't really blame them."

All of a sudden Marcus felt a chill crawl up his back. If a whole entire country was so gung-ho about killing people, what chance did he have of lasting long enough to get back? Marcus could not help but feel so helpless in this new place.

"But." He looked up and saw a concerned face look back at him. "Please believe me when I say not all of us are like that. At the very least, I'm not." Although he was still cautious of her after what she told him, he also believed what she said.

Another thing he happened to notice was how gorgeous she looked. Her brown hair looked a bit unkempt and rough, it still made her look very appealing. There was something he could not put his finger on, but she had an aura about that attracted him to her.

'I wonder if she's seeing someone?" he thought. Instantly he shook that thought out of his head. It was best if he didn't date anyone from this world. Of course, it wasn't like he didn't have a chance with a girl. While he was in no sense ripped, he had a fair amount of muscle and was relatively tall. Not to mention, as far as he knew, he wasn't the ugliest guy ever. The best way he could describe himself was a bit above average.

"-cus."

'Still, I wonder if she would possible find me attractive?" he thought.

"Marcus!" Ming yelled.

"Huh?! What?"

"You sort of spaced out for a second. Are you all right?"

Marcus looked at the ground in slight embarrassment. There was no way he had the guts to say he was thinking about his chances with her.

"Oh, sorry about that. Uh…If you don't mind me asking, why did your nation kill the Air Nomads?"

"Well, you see." Before she could say anything, there was a knock at the door. "Oh, excuse me for a second. You just keep eating," Ming said as she got up and walked toward the door.

Marcus looked down at his bowl of stew and lost himself in thought. 'I wonder if I can get back. And back alive for that matter,' he thought.

"But I don't understand. I already paid you enough yesterday." Hearing the fear in Ming's voice, Marcus got up to see what the problem was. Not wanting to jump into the situation just yet, slowly peeked around the corner and saw Ming face to face with two men dressed in what looked like battle armor.

"That may be true. But you were late in your last payment. Such an interest really racks up Ming," said one of the men.

"But I don't have enough for another payment just yet. I need more time," she pleaded to them. However, the two men looked at her with no sign of sympathy. Marcus recognized this kind of look. Things were about to head south very quickly.

"Well Ming," one of the men said has he approached her slowly. "There is more than one way to make a payment. You should remember from the last time you were late," he whispered to he has he gently stroked her hair.

"Get your hands off her." The two men and Ming turned to face Marcus. His fist was clenched so tightly his knuckles were snow white. There was only so much of he could let slide.

"Oh, so you have another man in your life. Tsk tsk tsk. I really hate you keeping secrets from me Ming." He slowly made his way to Marcus and grabbed him by the collar. "So who are you mystery man?" the man asked very slyly.

"Please, Jang, he's nobody. He's just someone who saved my little brother from the river," she pleaded.

"Quiet!" the other man yelled as he slapped her across the face.

"Thank you Chu. A wench should really speak when-AHHHH!" The man could not finish his sentence. The hand that was once grabbing on to Marcus' shirt was now being twisted in the opposite direction.

"Hey!" The man named Chu ran toward him, but he was knocked down with a well placed roundhouse kick. Marcus looked back at the man wincing in pain.

"You frickin' brat!" Jang screamed as he swung a hard hook for his head. Marcus effortlessly blocked it and retaliated with a palm strike to the man's gut.

As he doubled over, Jang felt himself being picked up and shoved out the door. The next thing he felt was the hard dirt hitting his back. Chu ran toward him and tried to help him up, but he pushed his hands away and shuffled to his feet.

The commotion started to attract a crowd. Unfortunately for Marcus, it also attracted Jang's backup.

When Marcus stepped out of Ming's house, he found himself face to face with five men all dressed in the same armor.

"It's about time you learned your place worm," Jang said. Marcus took a stance prepared for the worst. What came at him was the last thing he every expected. Jang shot his fist forward and a long flame stream was headed right toward him.

Marcus was able to dodge most of the fire, but the hairs on his arms were completely burned off. He couldn't believe what he just saw. A man just shot fire from his hands. Before he could have another second to think, Marcus found himself having to dodge another barrage of fire streams.

This time, part of his shirt had caught on fire. He desperately tried to pat it out but the fire spread too quickly. The men surrounding him laughed at his pain, enjoying how ridiculous he looked.

In the middle of his struggle, Marcus was able to spot a water jug in the behind the crowd. He ran past the crowd, which was very easy due to the fire, and splashed his arms and body into the jug. Marcus sighed in relief as he felt the water kill the fire and sooth his burns.

"Despite how much I enjoyed that spectacle." Marcus looked over his shoulder and spotted Jang starting to approach him. "I still think you need to learn a more severe lesson. Something you will not forget so easily."

Jang took in a deep breath and exhaled strongly as palm shot forward toward Marcus. As if everything was moving in slow motion, Marcus saw a spiral of fire heading right toward him.

"MARCUS!!!!" He could hear Ming yell to him, but he knew there was nothing he could do. In a useless attempt to protect himself, he covered his face with his arms and closed his eyes.

He waited for the fire to engulf him, but it never happened. When he opened his eyes, all he could see was steam in front of him and a shocked look from everyone. He looked at his hands and found that ice was encased from his finger tips to his elbow. Each finger moved was still able to move freely and he did not even feel the slightest bit of cold from it. In an instant, the ice just shattered and simply melted back into water.

"A water bender!"

"How can this be possible?"

"Ming let such a person into the village!?"

Marcus was surrounded by random banter coming from the crowd. His mind could not make heads or tails of what was going on. 'What's a water bender?' he thought.

"As if I couldn't hate you more you cretin, you just had to be a water bender," Jang said with great venom in his words. When he let off another blaze, Marcus covered up again. As he did he noticed that the water around him lifted itself from the ground and created a barrier between him and the flames.

'How am I doing this?' he thought. This apparently was his only best shot at fighting back and he had no clue what he was doing. In frustration, he stomped the ground hard. The moment his foot hit the ground, the earth began to shake and his aggressors lost their balance.

In that moment, his body began to feel the same sensations it did when he first woke up in this world. He could actually feel the earth and the water around him.

"He's an earth bender too?" yelled one of Jang's men.

"That's impossible. It had to be a fluke." Knowing this was his only means of a distant attack, Marcus stomped again. The ground shook furiously and knocked everyone to the ground. Seeing this as a perfect opportunity to get close and personal, he ran toward the closest enemy.

As he ran, he could feel the wind literally push him faster. A trail of dust followed right behind him. Although each of his attackers tried to fight back, he blocked their arms before they could shoot any fire and hit them hard and fast.

After he was finished, he saw all five of his attackers begin to fall back.

"Sir, I think we may be dealing with the Avatar," one man said to Jang.

"That's impossible. The real avatar is supposed to me younger than this guy. Plus this guy has hair!" Jang out bursted.

"But how can you explain the different bending he can do?"

"Or the fact he can run like the wind?"

Marcus could not really understand what they were talking about, but he decided to stand his ground just in case they decided to strike again.

"Fall back." Jang's men looked at him questioningly.

"Sir?"

"I said fall back. We need to inform our superiors back at base. Get the messenger hawks ready the moment we get back." Jang gave one last death stare to Marcus before turning away and walking. His men followed close after him.

Seeing no real threat anymore, Marcus relaxed his muscles. However, he still felt tense. For some reason, all the people in the village had not taken their eyes off of him. It was a feeling he may have to get used to.

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Twenty minutes had passed since the incident. After the fight, Ming simply walked up to him and said she would tend to his wounds. They sat in her house in silence as she wrapped bandages around the burned areas.

The damage to his body was not severe, but his shirt was far too burned to wear again. His clothes, however, was the last thing really on his mind. He couldn't understand what he had just faced or what he had done for that matter.

"Ming."

"Hm?"

"What happened out there? How could they shoot fire out of their hands? And how could I do all that stuff with the water and earth?" he asked. If he was to stand a chance in this world, he had to know what all of this was.

"What you and those men out there did was called bending. Only certain people have the ability to do so. Benders can control the four elements of the earth depending on which of the nations they were born in. Since this is the Fire Nation, our benders-"

"Can bend fire. Okay. I think I understand that much. But why were they so freaked when I could bend water and the earth?" he asked. He noticed that she wasn't looking at him directly and seemed as though she was about to avoid the question. "Ming. I need to know."

"The problem is that the benders can only bend one element and only one. A fire bender cannot bend earth even if he was taught the techniques. Only one person on this planet has the ability to master all four elements. And that person is the Avatar."

"So what does an Avatar do exactly?" he asked with great curiosity.

"His job was to bring balance to the world. The Avatar has a great amount of power within him that comes from generations of past lives. When one dies, the power is given to the next vessel. The power is passed around based on a cycle; Air, Water, Earth, Fire. The last Avatar was a fire bender by the name of Roku."

"A fire bender. So the next one was…Wait!" Something had just clicked in Marcus' head after hearing Ming's explanation. "Is that why the nomads were killed?"

"Yes, The Avatar is the only person on this planet who has enough power to stop the Fire Lord."

"But I don't get it. You told me that the Air Nomads were killed a hundred years ago. How can he be alive now? And based on what Jang said, this Avatar looks a lot younger than me." The circumstances were just too baffling for him to understand.

"Well that I don't know. But the problem we have now is that those men think you may be connected to the Avatar. After all, you also have the ability to bend more than one element."

He knew where she was going with this. "So you're saying they are going to come after me again," he said. Ming could only nod. "Well, then I better get moving. Sorry for causing so much trouble for you."

Marcus put on what was left of his shirt and made his way toward the door. Just before he was able to step out, he felt something tug his arm.

"What are you trying to do Marcus?" she asked.

"I was-"

"It's still pretty bright outside. The base they were talking about is a long way off from this village, so you don't have to worry about them coming back any time soon. If you want to make you're move, at least wait until its dark, "Ming said.

He knew she was right. Despite how guilty he felt of possibly bringing trouble to her in the future, nothing would really matter if he got himself killed.

"Besides, you kind of stick out with the clothes you have on right now." He looked down and saw her point. Jeans and sneakers were not exactly of casual fashion in this world.

"Here," she said as she handed Marcus some clothes, "Put these on. I think they will fit you."

"Thanks, but whose clothes are these?" he asked.

"My fiancé. He…He died in the war not too long ago." The last few words were only just louder than a whisper, but he could hear it clearly.

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The clothes were looser in certain areas, but otherwise they fit perfectly.

'This stuff will definitely help me blend in more to this place," he thought. The only article of clothing he kept on him at the moment was his sneakers. Although there was a chance it could give him away, they were more comfortable than the boots Ming had also given him along with the clothes. If he had to run at any point, Marcus thought it would be better to run in something comfortable.

As he stepped out of the room he was changing, he noticed Ming holding a pack in one hand and a small sack in the other. She slowly approached him and handed him the pack.

"The pack has some rations for your trip as well as a map and a compass. And here." She grabbed one of Marcus' hands and gently placed the sack in his palm. "Some gold pieces to get you by."

'Did she just say gold?!?!' he thought. 'Oh man I could be rich if I bring this back to my world. Wait! Marcus, focus!'

"Ming, I can't take this. You'll need-"

"Yes you can take this!!! Yes, you can!" Marcus' eyes opened wide at her reaction.

"If you want any chance to live in this place, you'll need some money," she said sternly.

"But what will happen if they come back?" he asked. He remembered she did not have enough money for the payment earlier and here she was giving him gold.

"Don't worry about it. Please. Besides, I'm sure they're going to be more occupied with getting you." Marcus couldn't help but chuckle at her remark.

"Thanks for everything, Ming," Marcus said with some sadness.

"You're welcome. Oh wait. Take this with you too." She reached deep into her pocket and pulled out what looked like a large version of a checker piece. When he took it, he noticed it had a picture of a flower on it.

"Um… not to be rude, but what can I do with a checker piece?" he asked.

"That is a Pai Sho piece. And what is important about it is the picture on it. That is a Lotus tile. It was given to me by a good friend of mine. You show that to the right person and you can receive some help."

"Thanks. Anyone I should be looking for in particular?"

Ming tapped her chin gently as she focused hard at his question. "I think there is a man by the name of Piandao who can help. Problem is don't know where he is or what he does. "

"I'll keep that name in mind. Thank you once again." He slowly approached her and gently embraced her. She was surprised by the gesture, but only a little bit. Cautiously, she returned the gesture. After they separated, Marcus grabbed his things and made his way out of the village. Ming looked on as she saw Marcus disappear into the night.