"Agalyptical, Magnamatical, uh- Actaplitical-" Toph continued, making Davesprite laugh again. "Hell yeah." He began. "We out here making a whole new language, fools!" He sang as Toph took his place beat-boxing. "It's all serendipitous, like a homage to the ubiquitous patron saint of- shit- cabbage."
Toph got to laugh at him this time. "Cabbage? What, does he make your cabbages bigger?" Davesprite gave her a look, then chuckled. "Yeah, okay, that one really sucked. My game's just been off since I got here." He placed his hands in his ghostly pockets and sighed.
"Kind of like my phone. Or well-" He began as he pulled out his phone, showing it to a curious Toph. "The wifi is down, or some shit. It fucked off a while ago. Like, the game usually regulates that shit. Except on planets where players appear, of course." Toph grew a little nervous.
"It's 'cause they have to develop radio-technology and computers for the players to use." He noticed the look on Toph's face and decided to shut up for a minute to let her talk. "So… someday our world will have players?" Davesprite took another look at his phone, then back at her.
"I'm not sure. If it does, it won't be in your lifetime. So that's just useless shit nobody has the time to think about." Toph grabbed a sandwich as he spoke, already well aware that when Davesprite started talking, he probably won't stop for a while. "I should probably go find Jade, actually…"
"Eh." He said. Toph pulled out another sandwich, one for him. "I met Jade earlier, she's pretty cool. Did you know I was taught earth-bending by badger-moles?" Davesprite quickly devoured the sandwich, its chemical imperfections like candy to his taste buds.
"Right… Yeah, Jade's hellhound. Man, you antisocial girls and your weird animal dads." Toph jovially laughed for a full minute, the irony just now hitting her. "I doubt anyone'll need me for the time being anyways, so we should be good." He said, before noticing a large building overlooking a town.
"Oh. I wonder who owns that fancy place." Davesprite said. "Me, dummy." She said, bumping his shoulder with her fist. "OH… Your school. Isn't it more of an academy?" She kind of just shrugged, she wasn't that learned. "I don't know. I just tell people to bend metal, and eventually they figure it out."
Davesprite earned himself curious looks as he floated down the street. "Well… Yeah, that sounds about right." They made it to the front steps. "Yo, bring me up." Toph said, lifting her arms to the side. "On it." He said, picking her up and flapping his wings.
They landed in front of the doors to the Academy, and Toph guided him in. "GUESS WHO'S BACK FUCKAS!" She made two stomps and Davesprite made two flaps of his wings. Toph's students screamed in fear and confusion. "Are they okay?" Davesprite asked.
"They're just overreacting. I think." Toph proudly said, as a large chunk of metal landed next to her, and dug itself a comfy spot in the ground. "Dope." He said, as she picked it up with her powers and tossed it back into the middle of class. "Alright!"
"Come meet my new friend! Davesprite!" That handily put an end to the screaming as everyone began to approach. "What is that thing?" One of them asked, earning a mean look from the kid. "The winner of little miss texas three years in a row, motherfucker." Everyone just stared at him.
Toph was of course the first to speak up. "Okay. So how's everyone's training getting along?" She asked as she focused on the group, prompting them to excitedly show her their progress. Some could lift large chunks, others could create intricate shapes with theirs.
The best could mold the larger pieces. Davesprite was decently impressed, the way they moved certainly made it look pretty tough. "Haha! Good job!" She announced as she pulled a chunk of metal from the largest piece- "Soon you guys'll be learning to make all kinds of cool stuff!"
She shoved her hands into the metal, and morphed it into a sword. The group stared in awe at her handiwork, realizing just how much longer they had to go. She proudly handed it off to Davesprite, dropping it as he backed away- "Sorry, I don't do well around swords."
She looked at him, the most confused look ever on her face. "They break when I get my hands on them." He explained. Toph pointed at her belly, then gestured to him with the most incredulous look on her face. "Well this one's like, part of my body. Okay? Look, I'll fucking show you-"
He picked up the sword, and it broke in half before he got it over his hips… "See?" He asked. Toph folded her arms. "Right-" He tapped the ground with his tail a few times. "Wow." She said, "So it just breaks?" He handed it back over to her, so she could look at it.
"Yeah, snaps in half as soon as it comes into contact with my skin. Swords fear me, I'm like the anti-blade or something." After that they stared in an awkward silence, just in case he had anything else to say. "I… I don't understand…" Toph said as she formed the pieces into a shield.
"Okay, try now." She gave him the shield, and suddenly it's just fine. You know, 'cause it's not a shield. "How?" She asked, everyone else equally confused. "Toph, I regret to inform you, this is not a sword." Toph smacked her head as Davesprite blankly stared at her.
"It was just a minute ago!" She argued, gesturing to the shield. "Well, yeah. But now it's not." He chucked it away, and it clattered against the floor, completely unharmed. "But what has changed? Does it have to be sword shaped?" She asked, and he nodded.
"Yeah. It's like a universal constant. If you're sword shaped, and I pick you up, you break." He grabbed the sword from his belly. "Except good ol' skin-sword. This guy seems to be the only exception." He felt his fingers against his sword. The fact it has nerves was so weird.
…
A little earlier with Jade and Katara!
King Kuei stared in awe at the little glass orb creating light. "With this, your people will never worry about light again! They'll be able to use their lumber for cooking, and staying warm." he clapped as Katara spoke, waiting for her next words.
"All you need to do is provide power! We were hoping you might help us fund our new business ventures." Aang, Zuko, and Nannasprite stared nervously, growing more and more certain that they did not like where this was going. "I would be delighted!"
"There's plenty of men and women who would jump at the chance to work for you!" What they did not realize however, was that despite their feelings, humans progress. "Wonderful, your highness. To begin with, we'll need materials, and I'll need your brightest and smartest."
Jade floated up in front of him as she spoke, the king listening intently. "You see, I'll be teaching them as much as possible. After that, they'll teach more people, and so on and so forth, until everyone in the world has this technology." She teleported a scale model of the world in her hand, King Kuei silently staring at it as it rotated in the space above her palm.
"And the best part is that they'll be paying for this technology from the earth kingdom!" Katara cutted in. Of course they had planned this. "Eventually, your Earth Kingdom will no longer be the Earth KINGDOM, but the Earth Empire!" King Kuei stood up, took Jade's hand, and shook it-
"You have my complete and utter support. Whatever you need, it's yours! I'll have orders sent out immediately, you need no more than wait." He said as he sat back down. "You-" He looked at the Dai-Li agent who stood at attention near him. The one who wasn't enjoying any of this.
"S-Sir." He bowed. "Go, inform the rest of the Dai-Li. You were here, you know what she needs." The soldier frowned before immediately running off. Jade smiled as Kuei gave her a thumbs up. "Now, tell me some more of your plans." Jade smiled and clasped her hands.
"I've got other matters to attend to, but Katara would love to explain." Jade then teleported away, completely and utterly ignoring Aang's earlier request. Kuei looks at Katara with excitement, eager to hear the rest of Jade's plans.
Jade appears on the ship, and looks at her device. She did not like the idea of putting it on without anyone to watch over her. She also had no plan to honor Aang's earlier request regarding her shooting herself in the head, or how she worked with the device.
On that point! She took it, disconnected it, and teleported it away. But then she realized that he might ask where it went. She figured she would make another one that doesn't actually work, and use it when he gets suspicious. Then she would also have to come up with fake-readings too…
Or maybe she could have it pull from a pre-existing file, once she uses it. Jade checked one of her many computers, and as she expected… The wifi was off.
She sat down on the chair, and just stared at it.
The lack of internet meant one of two things. Either she was too far away from a universe with an ongoing instance… or this world became an instance. She didn't want to worry Aang, as it was his job to protect the world, as the Avatar.
The reckoning was not something they would be able to handle within the allotted time frame. Then again, she had not found any Frog Ruins. They have to appear before civilization even gets to this stage, so maybe she herself had nothing to worry about…
Jade sighed and composed herself, before teleporting around the ship to see if she could find the Carapacians from earlier. The ones she had hired to fix the ship. It turns out they were on break, with Iroh and Sokka no less!
…
And just a little bit earlier with John, Jin, and Sokka. "Yo, Sokka!" John said as he tossed the new Wallet-Modi over to Sokka. "Nice! We made a good haul, John!" He equipped the modi and instantly stored all of the fish in one of his few cards, getting the rest of the ones John prepared for him.
In the meantime, Jin equipped her jetpack! "Nice. What's the count?" John asked, as Sokka walked up. "About three-hundred and forty-two. What's uh- Jin?" John immediately heard the roar of a Jet-Pack's thruster… He then immediately turned around to check on Jin, only to find a tall tower of smoke extending into the sky…
"Sorry, Sokka- I gotta go make sure she doesn't hurt herself." He said, using the wind to shoot into the air. He immediately began to catch up with the Jet-Pack, finding Jin attached to it. She was about as composed as you could expect someone under her circumstances to be…
"Heeey!" John shouted over the rushing wind, catching her attention. "John!" She shouted back, trying to smile at him- "I'm flying! Like you!" She said as he got closer. "Yeah! I saw! Are you okay? Maybe I should make you a windshield!" She nodded and so he did.
He extended his hand, and waved it in the air in a circle, creating a crystalline transparent ice-like structure in front of them. "You shot up out of nowhere! You gave us quite the shock there, Jin!" Jin just kind of laughed as they flew along, and he began to guide them back to the ship.
"Do you really do this all the time, John?!" She asked, surprising him. "It's amazing!" She made a loop as John followed. "Yeah! I guess it's a lot more fun when you get to do it yourself!" They flew through clouds. "It is! We should do this more often, John!" John flew in front of her
"How about we just land, then Jade and I'll work on a Jet-Pack a little more suitable to Earth's atmosphere!" Jin happily nodded, still a little scared of the height. After doing a couple more loop-de-loops and other such tricks, they returned to the ship, where Sokka was waiting.
"You two had fun, I imagine." Jin nodded quickly, her hair an absolute mess. "Yeah, you should try it some time, Sokka." She said, before grabbing John's arm. "John, come on. I wanna go again!" Jin quickly ran over to the blast door leading into the ship, John in tow.
Sokka watched this all kind of just unfold. He began to follow them, but lost them in the depths of the ship once he actually got inside. Instead he found Iroh, who was still on the ship for some reason. "Iroh! Whatcha up to? I kind of lost track of John and Jin." Sokka said, surprising the old man.
It turns out he was hanging out with some of the Carapacians, the ones who were working on the ship. "Hello, Sokka! Would you like to share some tea with us? I was just trying to provide these hard working, uh- mechanics some levity." The Carapacians tried their best to convey their gratitude.
"So… Are they incapable of speaking? Or- Crap. That's not insensitive… Is it?" Sokka asked, immediately realizing his mistake. He was relieved to find out that no, they don't take offense.
Then Jade teleported into the room, just appearing out of nowhere.
"AH-" Sokka squealed, falling over and surprising her. "Oh-" Jade said as she looked at him. "Hello." Iroh then greeted her. "Hey, Iroh!" She clasped her hands and smiled, while Sokka picked himself up. "Why do you keep doing that?!" He asked.
The other two looked at him. "What?" Jade asked, not even realizing she startled him. "THAT. Appearing out of thin air, and scaring me." Jade floated away as he focused on her, then sat down on one of the couches further in the room. Sokka's chad-levels were just too much for her.
"Oh." She looked to the side and then back at him again. "Sorry- It's just how I get around." She kind of just nervously shrugged. "Well… it's not cool. So maybe don't do it as much" Sokka folded his arms as Jade only grew a little annoyed. "It never bothers my brother and Davesprite."
She then folded her arms and looked away. "Jade-" Iroh began, grabbing her attention again. "I must ask that you forgive us for our impatience, we're not quite used to everything you can do." She sighed and conceded the point. "Fair enough. But I won't stop using my powers."
"I'm very busy, you see." She lied back and gestured with her hand as she put a leg over the other. "I can't find Davesprite, and Aang doesn't want me teleporting all over the planet. So I'm going to invent the internet for you guys." Iroh had reservations about her even being here.
Iroh had MANY reservations about this. "Could you explain to me what this internet does?" Jade equipped one of her computers, and a hologram appeared. "Think of a library, but instead of looking for a book all day, you can just type in what you're looking for, and you might find it."
She then looked up tea-making sets, and got shit all, as one would expect. "Yeah, it's not working at the moment, because, you know, no internet. It pulls from data-storages all across the world. With that in mind, you can even talk to people across the world." Iroh nodded along as she typed in more queries, watching the computer program fail to find anything.
"Sounds pretty good to me. What else can you do with it?" Sokka asked as Jade closed the program and opened the built-in art-program. "You can upload art, pictures, and even videos." She then proceeded to draw a stick figure, and then they watched as she moved it over to a small animation program she got off of Dave.
They were completely and utterly mystified by the wonders of technology. The silent Carapacians were of course keeping to themselves. You know, the entire reason she even came here. "If you have a camera, you can even record yourself and upload that."
"Then others can find it, watch it. Everyone across the world would know your name." She explained as Sokka watched with glee, thinking about all of the great things he could do with it. You know, creative Sokka stuff. Iroh on the other hand, only grew more and more worried.
Iroh understood a LOT about the world. Especially the spirit world. He understood that by all means this would have an effect on the spirit world. He also understood that spirits of today couldn't thrive in a world of hard steel and cold logic. But there was also nothing he could do.
These children had proven themselves volatile enough as is, and Jade was the worst of it. It was obvious she was the most headstrong and unswerving in the group. He knew this the day he met her. Because she demonstrated a complete lack of discretion in her manners and lack self control in terms of her powers.
"Jade…" Iroh began again, a look of discomfort on his face as he placed his hand on her shoulder. "Hey. Something wrong?" She calmly asked. "Have you considered what effect this may have on our world? What it may do to the spirit realm?" She had a look of surprise on her face-
She then thought about it before shrugging. "I'm sure they'll be fine." She said with a smile. "I fear the spirits may not adapt so quickly… They are a valuable part of our world, Miss Harley." Sokka began to realize what he was talking about, and it drew a look of worry on his face.
Jade considered it again, and strode over to the Carapacians. "Sorry, guys. But I'm sure the spirits will live. Sure you might lose MOST of them, but that's just how it goes. Besides, life always finds a way." She explained as she shut off her computer…
"I'm assuming you guys are on break." She told them, and they nodded. "Well, I won't micromanage you all. Just prepare me a status report- Actually." A new idea came to her when she realized the Carapacians probably know as much as SHE does! "New plan!"
"Forget the ship, -I still want that status report- you guys are going to help me teach the people of THIS earth. First we'll start with basic science and math, of course." They nodded along as she went, not wanting to miss a single word.
Sokka and Iroh watched helplessly as she conveyed her plans…
…
Davesprite was hanging out with some of Toph's students while she used a metal cable to teach another group better control. "So you're really from another world?" One of them asked. "Yep. It was pretty dope. Then the reckoning hit and like, I had to jump ship." They stared as he continued.
"Shit kind of started going nuclear while Jade was beginning to enter. Anyways, we got our own worlds, each one was equally as fucked as the last. Well except mine, it was by far the most fucked." He lifted his arms and gestured his arms outward.
"So like- I'm assuming you know what lava and magma is. Well imagine if that was everywhere, and the only places to stand were metal. That was my land, Lohac- Actually, I could show you it, I just gotta find Jade." He was still completely unaware of the fact that Jade needed him for something.
"Wow…" One of them said, "What are the other places like?" Another asked, leaning in with curiosity in their eyes. "Eh. They're not as cool. One's like, covered in oil and shit. That one's John's. Jade's was like, covered in ice. And it had a lot of frogs, because she's a space player."
"Yeah, see, the planets are made to challenge each player. Which I guess is why I got the lava planet, because god forbid life ever takes it easy on me. Right?" He asked as he chuckled, grabbing Toph's attention. "You okay there, Davesprite?" She asked.
"Yeah. I'm cool. Then there was Rose's planet. That place was a technicolor hellscape, like I have no idea how she dealt with it. I'm surprised it didn't bleach and blind her, the fucking seizure-world." He said as Toph began to approach, while the others nervously chuckled.
"I guess you must have hated it all, huh?" Davesprite sat back and nodded, while the rest of class practiced on their own. "Yeah. The game uprooted our lives. It's supposed to end up in the creation of another universe. But we fucked up, we created an unkillable boss."
"We had a beta-copy of the game in the first place, it was unfinished, so it technically wasn't winnable to begin with… We were born to lose." Toph knew how that felt, her being blind and all. "Shit…" One of the students said. "How did you survive?" Toph asked as she sat down.
"We initiated a scratch. Then got the hell out of dodge with our planets like the thieving little shits we are. Ain't no cosmic destiny gonna' keep us down. Anyways, the scratch is supposed to reset our universe with a new set of kids loosely related to us. See if they get any luckier."
"But apparently our alien gods gave our universe cancer or some shit, so that probably won't work out." Davesprite noticed he was beginning to lose them, you know, if the concept of a universe hadn't ALREADY lost them. "What happened to you?" Toph asked, surprising him.
"Me?" He asked. "Man, you don't want to know about me, I'm just the Bird-Dave who survived." He frowned as he remembered the talk Iroh had with him about all of this… "I was just another Dave from a doomed timeline. I went back and joined the alpha-timeline, to save my friend's life."
"Then I jumped into the "Real-Dave's" Kernelsprite to become who I am today. You know, so he can have a half-way decent guide. I'm supposed to be all mysterious and shit, but fuck it, who gives a shit. Right? So yeah." Toph, having been hanging out with him the longest, was the first to catch on.
She almost shuddered at the thought- "You were the only one who got out." She gritted her teeth, she was never good with the emotional stuff. "That's really tough, Davesprite. Is THIS why you're so hard on yourself?" Davesprite chuckled and sat up, his tail recoiling to do so.
"I'm okay, Toph. Listen, I'm going to step outside for a bit." He said, placing his hands in his pockets and leaving them. It never really got to him like how others would think it did. He was strong, just like his bro taught him to be. How he had to be.
A minute later, Toph stepped outside, the two alone in the front courtyard of the academy. "Davesprite-" Toph began, reaching to him to get his attention. "Sup." His stoic expression did not falter. "Are you sure you're okay?" Even Toph was beginning to understand that there was something seriously wrong here.
"Fuck sake. I'm talking about myself all the time. How about you tell me a little about yourself." He was beginning to get frustrated. He could talk about the game all day, he was happy to share information. But all these people trying to pry into his personal life was a little unsettling.
Toph just stared at him and frowned, realizing this might be a bit of a process.
…
A little under a week later.
Jade has had about as much luck as you could expect finding Davesprite.
But otherwise, technological evolution has gone well underway! The Earth kingdom was taking extremely well to her gifts. Technicians were learning like crazy, and just about every house in Ba-Sing-Se had a light-bulb. Especially the king's palace.
Now of course, Jade never took the center stage. But there were rumors going around about her presence. Iroh and Sokka of course had tried to convince her to stop, but there was little they could do. Especially since she had her own ambitions.
Katara at first had taken well to the aforementioned stage, but she too was beginning to have her reservations, which confused Jade… "What's wrong? Why back out now, Katara?" Jade asked her friend, as she floated about a foot off the ground…
"N-No… I'm just worried, is all. What if I do something wrong?" She asked as she placed a hand over her chest. They were in the modern-art hallway of the Golden Battle-Cruiser. "You can't. We're ALREADY too big to fail, Katara. By the time I'm done, Katara, you may just be ruling the world."
Katara had a nervous look on her face. "You would really do that for me?" She asked… Jade sighed and shrugged. "Why the fuck not? I'll be leaving at some point anyways. What do I care? I suppose I could take your solar-system with us, actually." She thought as she folded her arms.
"But that's neither-here-nor-there. You should understand that I'm only doing this because I have to. You see, the signal on the Battle-Cruiser is only so strong. And while Davesprite could help, I'm not even a hundred-percent on whether he would fix the problem or not."
Katara sat and listened as Jade went on, trying to think of a way to dig up the Dog-Girl's morality. "So I need to create huge satellites. Giant observation telescopes that can boost my vision. Only then will I be free to move on." Katara sighed and placed her hands on her legs.
"What?" Jade asked. "There's nothing we can do to stop you… is there?" Katara looked at Jade, making the girl feel bad. "I'm sorry Katara, but I have my own to look after. I wish there was another way." Katara felt a little dumb for not realizing Jade already understood how everyone felt.
"I guess if I HAVE to accept ruling this world…" Katara chuckled, making Jade smile. She felt bad, but she still hoped she could mitigate the damages. "There we are." Jade said, as she teleported herself and Katara to the command deck-
Katara fell on her butt, and watched Jade get to work on something. "Oh- Whatcha workin' on?" She asked as she walked over. "I'm just checking for spatial-anomalies. I kind of promised Aang I would stop distorting space. Obviously I can't actually do that, so…" Her fingers fluttered away at what Katara came to understand is a keyboard.
"So you're at least keeping your damage to a minimum, since you had to lie to him… You are kind of horrible." Jade chuckled again and smiled, a tired look in her eyes. "Yeah… Kinda'. I'm just doing what I have to do. I guess I COULD just tell them I know they're afraid, at least."
"Do you think if I told them I'm at least TRYING to keep damages to a minimum, they might calm down?" Jade took a break from her work to look at Katara, of whom kind of just shrugged. "Can't tell ya'. Aang's still the Avatar at the end of the day… I think it might stress him out more."
Katara sighed and stood up again. "I'm gonna' get to work shilling our product." Jade returned to her work and brushed her off. "Wonderful. You have fun with that." Katara bowed, and left without Jade having even realized she did.
The ship was parked in an underground facility inside of Ba-Sing-Se. Katara eventually made it outside, and returned to Aang under the cover of night. He was with Zuko and Iroh in the main building that stood as the headquarters for Harley-Corp.
As she entered the room, the three looked at her expectantly. "Sorry guys." She said, shaking her head with a sad look on her face. "I'm not going to be able to convince Jade. She's too set in her goals." Iroh frowned, a grim look on his face… But then he smiled and stood up.
"Katara, I believe you've done enough." He began, surprising the three kids. "How about you kids just forget about the whole thing. You ALL have done more than enough. There's nothing we can do anyways." Katara and Aang stood up and smiled at him.
Zuko however scowled. "What is this, uncle? Since when have you ever given up?" He asked, surprising the three. "Zuko, there's nothing I can do." Zuko knew better than to believe that. The man who had dragged mr.-my-honor into the light giving in? Yeah -fucking- right!
"No! I know when you're-" Iroh grabbed his nephew's shoulders, and glared at him- "U-Uncle?" Zuko asked. "Zuko, please." Iroh worked in a smile again- "I need to go brew tea. If you don't mind…" He released his nephew, and began to walk away… "Y-Yeah. Okay."
It was rare if ever that Iroh would glare at Zuko like that… "You okay, Zuko?" Zuko looked at Aang, then nodded. "Yes. I'm fine. I'm going to look for Davesprite, if it means Jade will leave." Katara and Aang watched as the young Fire-Lord left the building, little hope in Zuko's efforts.
They had already looked for the guy, NOBODY could find him.
End of Chapter: 7
Thank you for reading.