The Waterbending Scroll
It was just another day of flying through the skies to reach the North Pole. Only thing is Aang was pacing around Appa's saddle. Ever since the talk he and Makoto had with Avatar Roku, he's been worried about the task he has involving Fire Lord Ozai and the comet. However, Aang wasn't the only one worrying. Makoto was sitting down, nervously biting his nails and holding his hat in a firm grip. The Pokemon Trainer couldn't help but worry about his own task involving the Paradox Pokemon, the Dimension Diamonds, and of course the Synchro Forms.
"Would you sit down?" Sokka asked the Avatar. He was the one driving Appa at the moment, so he looked back at not just Aang but Makoto as well. "If we hit a bump, you'll go flying off! What's bugging you and Makoto anyway?"
"It's what Avatar Roku said." Aang answered. "I'm supposed to master all four elements before that comet arrives!"
"Well, let's see, you've pretty much mastered Airbending and that only took you a hundred and twelve years." Sokka said jokingly. "I'm sure you can master three more elements by next summer."
Arven gave him a look of annoyance. "Knock it off, Sokka. This is serious!"
"Very serious!" Aang added. "I haven't even started Waterbending and we're still weeks away from the North Pole!"
Makoto put his glove back on. "And I've only used three different Synchro Forms with Meowscarada, Golduck, and Armarouge, once for each form! I'm supposed to catch a bunch of Paradox Pokemon before the Fire Nation gets to them, find my other friends as well as the Dimension Diamonds, AND try to master these Synchro Forms in order to face this other Synchro Form user as part of some prophecy that Avatar Roku told me about! The more I think about it, the more worried I get! I've only managed to catch a Great Tusk and find Arven, but that's it!" Makoto grabbed some of his hair from under his hat. "I'm so confused about all of this, I'm about ready to pull my hair out! WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO!?"
Aang was in the same position until Katara grabbed his arm and got him to kneel down in front of her. "Calm down, you two. It's going to be okay." Katara assured them both. "If you want, Aang, I can try and teach you some of the stuff I know."
"You'd do that?" Aang asked. Makoto looked at her before taking out Golduck's Poke Ball to look down at it.
Katara nodded. "We'll need to find a good source of water first."
"Maybe we can find a puddle for you to splash in." Sokka joked.
It wasn't long until they stopped near a large river with a waterfall. "Nice puddle." Sokka frowned. Katara and Aang gave off big smiles, Makoto looked on in awe.
Arven nodded. "Yeah, I'd say this spot will do for some Waterbending training." Appa jumped up and dived into the water, making a big wave that drenched both Arven and Momo. "Or a little bit of soaking in Appa's case." Arven said in annoyance.
Aang already took off his clothes, but kept his underwear on. "Yeah! Don't start without me, boy!"
He was about to jump in until Katara gave him a reminder. "Remember the reason we're here."
"Oh, right." Aang put his pants back on. "Time to practice Waterbending."
"Great. So, what am I supposed to do?" Sokka asked.
"You could...clean the gunk out of Appa's toes." Aang offered and held a branch to Sokka.
"So, while you guys are playing in the water, I'm supposed to be hard at work picking mud out of a giant bison's feet?" Sokka asked.
"Mud and bugs." Aang answered.
Sokka thought about it. "...Okay." He took the branch and made his way to Appa.
Arven was pulling some stuff out of his backpack. "Well, while you guys do that, I'll go ahead and get lunch started." He looked over at Makoto. "You want to help either one of us, little buddy?"
Makoto shook his head. "Actually, I was thinking about doing some special training. As long as we're here, I might as well train with Golduck on the Aqua Form."
Sokka stopped and turned his head to Makoto. "Are you sure about that?"
Makoto nodded. "If I'm gonna be catching Paradox Pokemon throughout the Elemental Nations, I should at least try my hands at training my Synchro Forms, similar to how I've been training my Pokemon back in Paldea."
"That's a good idea, Makoto." Aang grinned.
A thought came to Katara. "Wait, do you even know how to go into Golduck's Synchro Form again?"
Makoto paused a bit. "Well...that's the thing, going into the forms as Golduck and Meowscarada happened so suddenly that I didn't have time to figure it out."
"What about when you changed into Armarouge's Synchro Form?" Arven asked.
"Sort of the same thing, but Aang and I were trusting Roku to help us deal with those Firebenders and that unfamiliar Paradox Pokemon with them." Makoto took out Golduck's Poke Ball and held it against the Synchro Machine on his left wrist. "Maybe there's a way I can activate it without even taking a Pokemon out of the ball..." He noticed the red and blue buttons on the machine. "Hmm...I wonder." He pushed the blue button on the machine. The machine gave off a little glow before shooting a little beam at Golduck's Poke Ball and then shot another beam at Makoto himself.
Everyone watched as Makoto began to glow bright, causing them to shield their eyes. When it died, everyone saw that Makoto was now in the first ever Synchro Form he changed into back in the South Pole: the Aqua Form. Makoto looked down at his hands and smiled. "Whoa! It worked!"
On his ship, Zuko was doing some Firebending training with two of his guards. During the training, the ship suddenly swayed to the side, causing the three of them to slide to the side. "Someone's changed our course!" Zuko went inside where the helmsman was steering while Iroh played a game with some of the men.
Zuko walked up to the helmsman. "What's the meaning of this mutiny? No one told you to change course!"
"Actually, someone did." Iroh spoke up, making his nephew turn to him. "I assure you it is a matter of utmost importance, Prince Zuko."
"Is it something to do with the Avatar and the Pokemon Tamers?" Zuko asked.
"Even more urgent. It seems I've lost my lotus tile." Iroh replied.
"Lotus tile?" Zuko repeated.
"For my Pai Sho game." Iroh answered. "Most people think the lotus tile is insignificant, but it is essential for the unusual strategy that I employ."
"You've changed our course for a stupid lotus tile?" Zuko asked.
"See, you, like most people, underestimate its value." Iroh said. "Just give me ten minutes to check the merchants at the port of call. Hopefully they'll have the lotus tile in stock and I can get on with my life."
Despite not saying no to his uncle's request, Zuko was still pretty mad. He took a deep breath and exhaled fire up to the ceiling, covering the area in smoke.
Even with the smoke, Iroh smiled. "I'm lucky to have such an understanding nephew."
Back at the waterfall, Appa was floating in the water on his back, moaning happily while Sokka scrubbed between the bison's toes. "Yeah, don't get too happy. You've gotta do me next." Sokka told Appa.
Arven was getting a table set up. He even had his and some of Makoto's Pokemon helping him out. He took a quick glance at Makoto to see how his training was going.
Makoto was still in his Aqua Form as he looked down at the water in front of him. "Let's see...Aang said that I was able to form balls of water in this form, similar to how Golduck would use Water Pulse sometimes. I wonder what else I can do while I'm like this?" As he looked down at the webbing between his fingers, he thought back to how fast Golduck could swim. He smiled and looked down at the water. "I guess I'll start this training by seeing how fast I can swim." So, with that set, Makoto started his training by diving into the water to test his swimming speed.
On land, Katara began to demonstrate some of the Waterbending moves she knows to Aang. "This is a pretty basic move, but it still took me months to perfect. So, don't be frustrated if you don't get it right away." Aang nodded before Katara used her hands to push the water back and forth. "Just push and pull the water like this. The key is getting the wrist movements just right."
Aang stood up and copied Katara's movements. "Like this?"
"That's almost right." Katara complimented. "If you keep practicing, I'm sure eventually..."
"Hey! I'm bending it already!" Aang interrupted, happily seeing that he's pushing and pulling the water too.
Katara looked surprised. "Wow, I can't believe you got that so quickly. It took me two months to learn that move."
"Well, you had to figure it out all on your own." Aang reminded her. "I'm lucky enough to have a great teacher."
Katara smiled at that. "Thanks."
"So, what's next?" Aang asked.
"This is a more difficult move; I call it streaming the water." Katara pulled out a stream of water and began to bend it around her. "It's harder than it looks, so don't be disappointed if..." She stopped herself when she saw Aang pull out some water and began to move it around in the air. She frowned and dropped the water she was bending just before Aang placed his water back. "Nice work, though the over the head flare was unnecessary." She said, slightly annoyed.
"Sorry." Aang apologized. "Well, don't stop now. Keep'em coming!" He was eager for the next move.
"Well, I kinda know this one other move, but it's pretty hard. I haven't even totally figured it out yet. The idea is to create a powerful wave." Katara concentrated, raising a blob of water to try and make a wave, but it went away.
"So, like this?" Aang raised his arms and a huge wall of water emerged. It was heading over to Sokka and Appa.
Arven looked over and saw the size of the wave. "What the...!?"
Sokka noticed a shadow above him and looked up to see what it was...and his eyes widened when he saw the wave. "Aang!" The wave splashed against Appa's belly, the bison looked and saw that Sokka was gone. The wave knocked Sokka into the water, and he looked pretty upset.
Arven looked back at the Avatar. "Judging by the size of that wave, I'd say your training's going pretty well, isn't it?"
Aang nodded. "Yep, looks like I got the hang of that move." He turned to Katara. "What else ya got?"
"That's enough practicing for today!" Katara answered, more annoyed than earlier.
"I'll say. You just practiced our supplies down the river." Sokka agreed. They looked to see that their supplies were floating away.
"Uh, sorry." Aang apologized.
Arven sighed a little. "It's no big deal. We'll just go somewhere to replace the stuff that got washed away."
"My life was hard enough when he was just an Airbender." Sokka mumbled to himself before he sank into the water.
Something emerged from the water shortly after. They saw that it was Makoto who had a bubble on his head, acting as an air helmet. "Cool! I can swim just as fast as Golduck and I can make a bubble to act as an air helmet whenever I'm swimming underwater!" He looked over at his friends. "So, what did I miss?"
After recovering, and after taking the time to let Makoto figure out how to change back, the five of them went off to the market street surrounded by tough looking sailors, merchants, and other shady characters wherever you look.
Despite all that, they still went shopping for some more supplies. After that, they met back up. "We've got exactly three copper pieces left from the money that King Bumi gave us. Let's spend it wisely." Sokka told the other four.
"Uh, make that two copper pieces, Sokka. I couldn't say no to this whistle." Aang held a whistle that looked like a sky bison and blew into it.
Arven covered his ears at the noise the whistle was making. "Seriously? It doesn't even work!" Momo shrieked at the noise just after Aang stopped blowing. "See? Even Momo thinks it's a piece of junk."
"No offense, Aang, but I'll hold on to the money from now on." Katara said. The Avatar gave the remaining money to her in shame.
As they walked by, they pass by a big ship and someone was trying to get customers to come on. "Earth Nation, Fire Nation, Water Nation! So long as bargains are your inclination, you're welcome here! Don't be shy, come on by!" No one paid attention, but the guy noticed Makoto and the others walking over, so he ran over to them. "Oh, you there! I can see from your clothing that you're the world traveling types! Perhaps I can interest you in some exotic curios?"
"Sure!" Aang answered. "What are curios?"
The man blinked. "I'm not entirely sure, but we got'em!" He lead them into the ship filled with a bunch of exotic items. Aang looked at some of the stuff with curiosity. Katara couldn't take her eyes off a primate statue that had rubies for eyes and around the neck.
Aang kept looking until a voice was heard behind him. "I've never seen such a fine specimen of lemur." He turned around to see a guy dressed like a pirate captain standing behind him, he also had a lizard parrot on his shoulder. "That beast would fetch me a hefty sum, if you'd be interested in bartering." The parrot screeched at Momo who hissed right back.
"Momo's not for sale." Aang held the lemur close for protection.
Arven was looking at some scrolls on a shelf until one caught his attention the most. He took hold of it, opened it, and saw images of a person performing different Waterbending moves. "Hey, these look similar to some of Katara's moves." He turned his head to get said Waterbender's attention. "Hey, Katara. Take a look at this."
Katara came over and looked at the scroll. Her eyes lit up when she looked at it. "Look at this, Aang. Arven found a Waterbending scroll! Check out these crazy moves!"
Aang looked at the scroll before he turned his head to the captain. "Where did you get a Waterbending scroll?"
The captain quickly placed his hand on the scroll and closed it. "Let's just say I got it up North at the most reasonable price: Free." Katara eyed the scroll as it was being put back on the shelf.
"Wait a minute." Sokka was starting to put the pieces together after spending some time looking around the ship. "Sea-loving traders, with suspiciously acquired merchandise, and pet reptile birds?" He quickly turned to the person that brought them in. "You guys are pirates!"
The person wrapped an arm around Sokka's shoulders. "We prefer to think of ourselves as high risk traders."
Katara looked down at the two copper pieces before turning back to the captain. "So, how much for the, uh, traded scroll?"
"I've already got buyer, a nobleman in the Earth Kingdom." The captain replied. "Unless of course, you kids have two hundred gold pieces on you right now?"
Makoto's eye twitched a bit. "Two hundred gold pieces?" He grunted a bit before turning away to say something to himself. "If only the cash from my dimension was worth something here, I could've paid for the scroll easily."
"I know how to deal with these guys, Katara. Pirates love to haggle." Aang whispered and held out his hand. Katara decided to trust him on this and gave him the money. "Watch and learn." He turned to the captain and held out one of the copper pieces. "What say to the price of...one copper piece?"
The captain laughed at that. "The price is two hundred gold pieces. I don't haggle on items this rare."
"Okay...two copper pieces!" Aang held both pieces.
"It's not as amusing the second time, boy!" the captain told him.
"Aang, can we get out of here? I feel like we're getting weird looks." Katara said.
Aang grabbed his staff. "Aye, we be casting off now!"
While walking away, Makoto couldn't help but laugh a little at Aang's pirate voice. "That's pretty good."
As they left the shop, Arven decided to ask Katara a question. "Okay, what's the rush about?"
"Yeah, I was just starting to browse through their boomerang collection." Sokka agreed.
Makoto noticed that Katara was hugging herself protectively. "Is everything okay?"
"I'll just feel a lot better once we get away from here." Katara replied.
One of the pirates suddenly ran out of the ship and turned to them. "Hey, you! Get back here!"
That made them stop and look back. Aang grinned. "Well well, looks who's come to their senses. Told you the haggling would pay off." After he said that, a bunch of pirates came out of the ship armed with weapons, shocking the monk.
Soon they found themselves surrounded by a bunch of pirates. "I don't think these pirates are here to trade with us." Katara said.
"I think, no I believe you're right! Let's get outta here!" Just after Arven said that, the five of them took off running from the pirates.
"Get back here!" One of the pirates yelled before they gave chase.
Aang and the others ran around the corner and a pirate stopped the others behind him. "This way! Let's cut'em off!" So they chased after the five of them from two different directions. At some point during the chase, Katara spilled some water on the floor and froze it, making the pirates slip on the ice. Arven even brought out Toedscruel so she could knock the pirates off their feet with her Earth Power attack as well.
The cabbage merchant from Omashu was nuzzling a cabbage when Sokka bumped against the cart, causing the merchant to save some cabbage that fell off. Katara bumped into the cart but kept going, followed by Makoto, Arven, and Toedscruel. The merchant sighed in relief once he was able to save the cabbage that fell off...just as Aang jumped through the cart and used his staff to launch it at the pirates. "My cabbages!" the merchant cried. "This place is worse than Omashu!" Safe to say, that group of pirates are out of the chase thanks to a poor merchant's cabbage cart.
As Makoto and the others kept running, their path was cut off by the other pirate group, making them turn around. "I hope that lemur of yours has nine lives!" One of the pirates called out, giving chase again. The chase continued until the five of them hit a dead end in an alley. They turned to pirates that were behind them.
One of them swung some knives in his hands. "Now, who gets to taste the steel of my blade first?"
"No thanks!" Makoto tossed two Poke Balls, bringing out Armarouge and Koraidon. "Armarouge, hold them in place with Psychic!" The Fire Warrior Pokemon used his Psychic powers to make the pirates freeze in place.
While Makoto and Armarouge got on Koraidon's back, Aang opened up his glider. "Hold on tight!" The Airbender told his friends.
Arven quickly got on Koraidon while Sokka and Katara held on to Aang. "Aang, I thought we were running away from the pirates!" Katara even said.
"Just hang on!" Aang said. They jumped over the frozen pirates and flew away. Now a good distance away, Armarouge freed the pirates from his Psychic hold.
They made it back to their waterfall campsite.
Makoto sighed a little. "That was a close call."
"I used to kinda look up to pirates, but those guys are terrible!" Aang said.
"I know, that's why I took...this!" Katara showed them the Waterbending scroll, surprising them.
"No way!" Aang said in disbelief.
"Isn't it great?" Katara asked.
"No wonder they were trying to hack us up! You stole their Waterbending scroll!" Sokka said.
"I prefer to think of it as high risk trading." Katara joked.
Makoto, Aang, and some of the Pokemon laughed a little at that. "Good one, Katara." Aang even said.
"Sokka, where do you think they got it?" Katara asked her brother. "They stole it from a Waterbender."
"It doesn't matter! You put all our lives in danger just so you could learn some stupid, fancy splashes!" Sokka complained.
"These are real Waterbending forms! You know how crucial it is for Aang to learn Waterbending!" Katara argued.
Sokka scoffed and walked away. "Whatever."
"Well, what's done is done." Aang shrugged. "We have it, we might as well learn from it."
As he looked at the scroll in Katara's hand, a sudden idea came to Makoto. "Hey, do you guys mind if Golduck and I watch the lessons from the scroll?"
Arven blinked a couple of times. "Any particular reason you want to view the Waterbending?"
"I figure that maybe the ways of a Waterbender might help not just me with my Aqua Synchro Form, but it might also give Golduck some ideas on how to use his Water Pulse attack." Makoto explained. That made Armarouge and Koraidon blink and look at each other.
Katara blinked when she realized that Makoto made some sense with his reason. "That might not be a bad idea. Sure thing, Makoto. Go on ahead and bring Golduck out."
Zuko's ship was at the dock of the market. Iroh looked everywhere for the lotus tile, but didn't have much luck. Soon he joined up with his nephew who waited all that time. "I've checked all the shops on this pier. Not a lotus tile in the entire market place."
"It's good to know this trip was a complete waste of time for everyone!" Zuko glared at Iroh.
"Quite the contrary." Iroh argued. "I always say the only thing better than finding something you're looking for, is finding something you weren't looking for at a great bargain!"
Zuko saw that his soldiers were carrying a bunch of items while his uncle spoke. One of those items was a musical instrument. "You bought a tsungi horn?"
"For music night on the ship." Iroh answered. "Now, if only we had some woodwinds." He wandered off some more with Zuko following him. He stopped when he saw the pirate ship. "This place looks promising!" He pointed at the ship.
When they entered the ship, the first thing Iroh saw was the red jeweled monkey Katara saw earlier. His reaction to it was different than hers. "Ooh! That is handsome!" He picked it up to get a better look. "Wouldn't it look magnificent in the galley?"
While the retired general was looking at the monkey, the captain was speaking to to one of the pirates. "We lost the Water Tribe girl and the bald monk she was travelling with. We also saw that two of the other three brought out some strange creatures from some kind of orbs." He told the captain.
The conversation got Zuko's attention when some things were said. "This monk, did he have an arrow on his head? And while you're at it, tell me more about the creatures you saw." He didn't even see Iroh copying the monkey statue he was holding.
Back by the waterfall, both Makoto and Golduck sat and watched as Aang and Katara began to learn from the scroll.
"I just want to try this one move first and then it's all yours." Katara pointed at one of the moves before she handed the scroll to Aang. "Here, hold it open for me." She took her stance to try the move. "The single Water Whip. Looks doable." She looked over the steps for the move before she began to give it a shot.
As she started to do the move, Golduck looked on in awe. Katara raises a stream of water and tried to whip it around...only for it to hit her on the forehead, changing Golduck's awed look to a dull look. "Golduck?"
Sokka laughed when the water went against the Waterbender. "What's so funny?" Katara asked.
"I'm sorry, but you deserve that." Sokka answered before turning to Aang and even Makoto and Golduck. "You guys have been duped, she's only interested in teaching herself."
"I don't think that's the case. Golduck's still able to learn from watching." Makoto turned to his Water-Type brother. "Ain't that right, Golduck?" The Duck Pokemon grinned and nodded his head.
"Makoto said that this will help his Aqua Form and also Golduck so it's fine, besides Aang will get his turn once I figure out the Water Whip." Katara argued.
She tried to go for it again, but this time it ended up hitting Mabosstiff in the face. The Boss Pokemon barked. Arven was petting him at the time, so he turned to Katara. "Hey, watch it!"
"Ugh, why can't I get this stupid move?!" Katara asked in frustration.
"You'll get it." Aang encouraged. He didn't even see the frown on her face. He put the scroll down before taking the stance. "You just gotta shift your weight through the stances." He was able to perform the Water Whip well.
Golduck nodded before he stood next to Aang. "Golduck Gol?" He asked before he tried it himself using his Water Pulse.
Makoto was surprised to see that his Water-Type brother was able to get the Water Whip down already by using Water Pulse. "Golduck, way to go!" He complimented, causing Golduck to grin and give his trainer a thumbs-up.
Aang smiled and nodded. "Yeah, that's pretty good, Golduck." He tried to speak to Katara again. "See, the key to bending is-"
Katara couldn't take it anymore, so she cut him off. "Will you PLEASE shut your air hole?! Believe it or not, your infinite wisdom gets a little old sometimes! Why don't we just throw the scroll away since you're so naturally gifted?!" She glanced over at Sokka and Arven and saw that they were frowning at her. "What?" She looked back at Aang and saw the hurt look on his face, and also that both Makoto and Golduck were slowly shaking their heads in disappointment.
Seeing the look made Katara ashamed for yelling. "Oh my gosh, Aang, I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me. But you know what, it won't happen again." She closed the Waterbending scroll and handed it to Aang. "Here, this is yours. I don't wanna have anything to do with it anymore."
Aang took hold of the scroll. "It's okay, Katara."
Arven gently rubbed Mabosstiff's back. "Hey, what about Mabosstiff? My bud's the real victim here!" The Dark-Type whimpered a bit.
Katara gently petted his head. "I'm sorry, Mabosstiff." Mabosstiff happily barked while wagging his tail.
Sokka spoke next. "What about me? There was that time you-"
"No more apologies!" Katara firmly said, cutting him off.
Back at the market place, Zuko's ship was still there, but a smaller ship came out and floated in the water. In it were Zuko's crew and the pirates who were on the search for Aang, Makoto, and the others.
"Shouldn't we stop to search the woods?" the pirate captain asked.
"We don't need to stop." Zuko replied. "They stole a Waterbending scroll, right?" When the captain nodded, Zuko continued. "Then they'll be on the water."
Night came around, and the group was resting after such a day...except for a certain Waterbender. Katara got up and quietly took the scroll out of Sokka's sack. She tried to sneak away, only to come face to face with Momo who chattered a bit. Katara shushed him. "Momo, go back to sleep." She walked away...only to pause and shush him again when he chattered again. She was too focused on sneaking away with the scroll and keeping Momo quiet, she didn't even notice that there was another empty sleeping bag.
Scroll in hand, Katara made it to a part of the river to try her hand at the Water Whip once again. "Shoot! Come on, water, work with me here!" Clearly, it wasn't going well for her. "Okay, what if I just...Ow! Stupid scroll!" Her attempts were even heard by Zuko and the captain who were sailing close by.
"Okay, Katara, shift your weight through the stances." She tried and failed once again, making her upset again.
Just as she opened her eyes, another whip of water was being used. Knowing that it didn't come from her, Katara looked around to find out who did that. Finally, she saw that it was actually from Golduck with Makoto happily watching. "Great job, Golduck! Keep that up and you'll be able to use Water Pulse in a way no other Water-Type Pokemon has ever done it before!" Makoto told his Pokemon.
Golduck raised an eyebrow and smirked a little. "Golduck?"
Makoto kept his smile and shrugged. "Ah, you're right! You're already doing that!"
"Makoto? Golduck?" They heard Katara's voice, so they turned to see her. "What are you two doing here?"
"I thought I might let Golduck practice his Water Pulse again. Then we could probably sneak in another session of Aqua Form training. I want to try and see if I can use Golduck's moves while in the Aqua Form, starting with Aqua Jet and Water Pulse, then I'll move on to Ice Beam and Shadow Claw." Makoto answered before he asked her a question of his own. "What are you doing here?"
Katara tried to answer that, but Golduck noticed the scroll and pointed at it. "Duck!"
That made the trainer look at the scroll. Putting the pieces together, he turned to Katara. "You're still trying to master the Water Whip?"
Katara sweated nervously and stammered. Seeing Makoto's look of disbelief and Golduck folding his arms and giving her a raised eyebrow, she finally sighed and caved in. "Okay, fine. Yes, I'm trying to master the move! If Aang and even Golduck can do it, I should be able to do it as well since I AM a Waterbender!"
Makoto and Golduck turned to each other before they looked back at Katara. "I'm starting to get a little worried about you, Katara. Are you jealous of both Golduck and Aang?"
"What? No!" Katara denied, until she saw that it was Makoto who folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Well, maybe I am...Golduck, not really, but Aang?...Yes." She admitted in shame. "He just picked up on Waterbending so quick, even mastering moves in seconds that took me months to learn! I mean, I know he's the Avatar and all, but still..."
Makoto nodded, then placed a hand on her shoulder. "So? You shouldn't let that cloud your judgement. You said that you're the only Waterbender from the South Pole, that means you had to learn on your own, you just have to go about learning at your own pace. Besides, I'm sure it must've taken Aang a while to learn some of the Airbending he's done before he and Appa were frozen for a hundred years."
"What are you trying to say?" Katara asked.
"I'm saying you shouldn't feel bad just because you can't get a new move down right away. In fact, my Pokemon didn't get any of the moves they've learned right away. They got as upset as you were, but I assured them that they can get it. They just have to keep calm and try it again no matter how many times it takes." Makoto wrapped an arm around Golduck's shoulders. "After all, slow and steady wins the race."
Golduck just shrugged. "Golduck Golduck."
Katara still had her doubts. "But what if I can't get the Water Whip down at all?"
"Well, that's why we're going to the North Pole, to find a teacher for both you and Aang." Makoto smiled at her. "Once we get you two there, I'm sure you'll have plenty of amazing skills that can keep a lot of Firebenders at bay while Aang fights against the Fire Lord."
Katara laughed a little at that. "That's a good point. But what about the Paradox Pokemon that the Fire Nation might have with them already?"
Makoto shrugged. "They might not have a chance against you and your Waterbending either, but you should let me and my Pokemon worry about them."
Golduck nodded. "Golduck."
Before the conversation could continue, they heard something wash up against the shore. They looked through the bushes and gasped when they saw that it was Zuko's boat that was docked on shore. They backed away to run, but they bumped into a couple of pirates that grabbed them.
As they struggled, Makoto grunted a command to his Pokemon. "Golduck, quick! Use Ice Beam!" Since the gem on his head wasn't blocked, Golduck fired a freezing beam at the pirates, freezing their faces and making them let go.
They made to run again, but Katara bumped into Zuko. "I'll save you from the pirates." He told her.
Before long, Zuko's crew and the pirates had Katara, Makoto, and even Golduck tied up. "Tell me where they are and I won't hurt you or your brother." Zuko told Katara about Aang and Arven.
"Go jump in the river!" Katara yelled at the prince.
Zuko didn't give up, so he tried another approach. "Try to understand, I need to capture them to restore something I've lost: my honor."
Makoto raised an eyebrow. "And you think taking me, Arven, and Aang will help?"
Zuko chose to ignore Makoto as he kept talking to Katara while walking over to her and she just turned her head away. "Perhaps in exchange, I can restore something you've lost." He showed her the necklace she lost.
"My mother's necklace!" Katara gasped a little, Zuko walked away with the necklace. "How did you get that?"
"I didn't steal it if that's what you're wondering." Zuko turned to both Katara and Makoto. "Tell me where they are!"
Makoto glared at the prince. "Never!" Golduck even growled at the Firebender.
The pirate captain lost his patience and stepped forward. "Enough of this necklace garbage! You promised the scroll!"
Makoto turned his glare to the pirate captain. "Oh, you mean the Waterbending scroll that you stole from a Waterbender?" That made the captain growl at the Pokemon Trainer.
Zuko was holding the scroll under a flame on his hand. "I wonder how much money this is worth."
"No!" the pirates cried out.
"A lot apparently." Zuko put out his fire. "Now, you help me find what I want, you'll get this back and everyone goes home happy." Zuko pointed at the saddened Makoto. "Search the woods for the boy with the tattoos as well as another boy with odd creatures like his and meet back here!"
"Fine." the captain agreed before he and his crew went off to find Aang and Arven.
The next morning, Sokka woke up and the first thing he noticed was that Katara was not in her sleeping bag. "Huh? Where did she go?" Acting on a hunch, he searched through his sack to find something. "I don't believe it." He frowned when he didn't find what he was looking for.
Both Aang and Arven were getting up as well. "What's going on?" Arven yawned.
"She took the scroll!" Sokka answered. "She's obsessed with that thing! It's just a matter of time before she gets us all in deep-" he yelped when his wrists were tied up and he was pulled closer to a random pirate.
Now wide awake, Arven stood up and pulled out a Poke Ball. "Persistent, aren't you? Unfortunately for you pirates, I don't plan on making breakfast for you, only my friends! Let's get'em, Makoto!" He didn't get a reply. "Makoto? Little buddy?" He looked around and noticed that Makoto was gone as well. He sighed in a little annoyance. "He's been hanging around that Student Council Girl too much."
As he was talking to himself, another pirate came and shot a net at both Arven and Aang. "I got them, come on!" The pirates ran off with Aang and Arven in the net, leaving Sokka by himself.
"Oh what? I'm not good enough to kidnap?" Seconds after Sokka asked that, he was caught in another net and dragged away by the pirates.
Soon, Zuko, his men, and the pirates were facing each other with Aang, Arven, and Sokka with the pirates and tied up. Makoto and Golduck were tied up, but standing next to Zuko. Katara was tied to a tree that Iroh was standing next to.
"Nice work." Zuko complimented the pirates.
Katara looked over at the Airbender. "Aang, this is all my fault."
"No, Katara, it isn't." Aang argued.
"Yeah, it kinda is." Iroh said.
Makoto gave Iroh an annoyed glare. "Do you mind?"
Zuko took hold of Makoto and Golduck as he gestured to Aang and Arven. "Give me those two!"
The pirate captain just held out his hand. "You give us the scroll!"
Looking back and forth between Zuko's crew and the pirates, Arven came up with an idea. "Whoa whoa whoa, you're really gonna hand over the Avatar and also me, a Pokemon Trainer for some little piece of parchment?"
Makoto blinked a couple of times. "Arven, what are you doing?"
Zuko just pointed at him. "Don't listen to him! He's trying to turn us against each other!"
The pirate captain just looked back and forth between Makoto and Arven. "Pokemon Trainer?"
Arven nodded. "That's right. Me and my little buddy over there have some very rare and very powerful creatures that we like to call Pokemon. They can really make any side pretty strong."
"Interesting." the captain muttered, he turned his attention to Aang. "And your other friend is the Avatar?"
"Sure is, and I'll bet he alone will fetch a a lot more on the black market than that scroll filled with some fancy little splashes." Arven answered with a shrug and a little sly grin.
"Shut your mouth, Pokemon Tamer!" Zuko yelled at Arven.
Aang didn't really get what Arven was trying to do, so he looked concerned. "Yeah, Arven. You really should shut your mouth. This isn't good for you either."
Sokka was about to yell at Arven himself, but the Pokemon Trainer just gave him a wink, silently telling him to play along...so he did. "All he's saying is that it's bad business sense. Just imagine how much the Fire Lord would pay for the Avatar and two Pokemon Trainers, all Pokemon included. You guys would be set for life."
The pirates were sold. "Keep the scroll!" the captain told Zuko. "We can buy a hundred with the reward we'll get for the boys! Now hand over the other Pokemon Trainer!"
Zuko didn't look happy about that, so he just pushed Makoto aside. "You'll regret breaking a deal with me!" He shot fire at the ground, making smoke. And before anyone knew it, pirates were facing off against Zuko and his Firebenders to get Aang, Makoto, and Arven.
During the fight, some of the Firebenders tried to get to the boys, but a couple of pirates surrounded them and threw smoke balls to make it harder to find them.
Seeing that both sides of bad guys were busy, Makoto turned to his Pokemon. "Quick, Golduck. Try cutting the shadows of the ropes on us with Shadow Claw." Golduck nodded and formed shadow energy on the tip of his claws, the energy stretched down and snipped off the rope shadows, thus cutting the actual ropes on them both. Makoto smiled as they both got the rope off. "Thanks, buddy. Now it's time to synchronize." He pressed the blue button on his Synchro Machine. It shot two rays at both Makoto and Golduck, making them both glow, and now Makoto was back in his Aqua Form. "Yeah!"
Also during the fight, Momo appeared out of nowhere and chewed the restraints on Katara, freeing her. "Thanks, Momo. I owe you a bushel of apples."
In the smoke, some of the pirates and Firebenders were trying to attack their targets, but Aang and Arven were able to dodge the attacks.
Zuko did battle against the captain. At some point during the battle, the scroll was snatched from Zuko by the whip of one of the other pirates. The pirate almost had it, but Momo quickly flew by and snatched the scroll himself. The reptile bird saw Momo and flew after him, ramming against him and making the lemur drop the scroll down into the smoke.
Sokka was crawling on the ground, but stopped when a knife landed in front of him. He used it to free his hands. "Aang, Arven, are you there?"
Arven had Greedent out and he had him use Bullet Seed on some pirates and Firebenders. "We're over here, Sokka!"
Aang jumped a little. "Follow our voices!"
"I can't find you guys!" They heard Sokka.
"We're right here!" Aang used his Airbending to blow the smoke away...only to find that he, Arven, and Greedent were surrounded.
Greedent whimpered a little. "...Dent..."
Seeing this made Aang recover himself, Arven, and Greedent in the smoke. "Uh, never mind, we'll find you!"
Just after Sokka crawled out of the smoke, Aang jumped out with Arven and Greedent holding on to him. "Let's go!" Arven even yelled.
As they ran, they looked ahead to see that Katara was pushing the pirate ship. "Katara, you're okay!" Aang said in relief.
"Help me get this boat back into the water so we can get out of here!" Katara told them.
Together, the five of them tried to push the ship into the water, but they had no luck.
"We need a team of rhinos to budge this ship." Sokka suggested.
"A team of rhinos, or two Waterbenders." Aang said, looking at Katara who smiled at him. The two of them pushed and pulled the water, and soon were able to get the ship into the water.
"Everybody in!" Katara told the others.
Arven noticed that they were missing someone. "Wait, what about Makoto?"
Something popped out of the water. They looked to see that it was Makoto. "I managed to slip away without anyone noticing. Let's go!" He and the others quickly got on the ship.
Zuko was still doing battle against the captain until Iroh finally broke it up. "Are you so busy fighting you cannot see your own ship has set sail?"
"We have no time for your proverbs, Uncle." Zuko said.
"It's no proverb." Iroh pointed at the ship sailing away.
The pirate captain gasped. "Bleeding Hog Monkeys!" He ran after his ship.
Zuko laughed...until he saw the pirates sailing after their ship with his boat. "Hey! That's my boat!" He ran after the boat.
"Maybe it should be a proverb." Iroh pondered to himself.
"Come on, Uncle!" Zuko ordered. Iroh joined in the chase.
Makoto looked behind them and saw that Zuko's boat filled with pirates was gaining on them. "Can't you make this thing go any faster, Sokka?"
"I don't know how!" Sokka answered. "This thing wasn't made by the Water Tribe!"
It wasn't long until the pirates caught up with them and jumped onto the ship. Aang managed to make a huge wave that washed some of the pirates off again.
A pirate was able to stay on despite the wave, but Katara was determined and made a Water Whip with the water that was still on the ship. She actually managed to knock him off the boat.
"Hey, you did the Water Whip!" Aang commented.
"I couldn't have done it without your help." Katara thanked.
"Will you two quit congratulating each other and help us out here?" Arven asked. He and Sokka were struggling against a couple of pirates.
Momo was still being chased by the parrot, but the lemur was able to wrap the flag on top of the ship around the bird, trapping it.
One of the pirates tossed Sokka aside. They would've done the same to Arven, Makoto quickly came by, knocking the two pirates while being surrounded by water. With the pirates off, Makoto smiled as he landed next to Arven. "Wow, I just performed Aqua Jet like Golduck would do! Cool!"
Patting his best friend on the shoulder, Arven gave him a smile. "Thanks for the save, little buddy!"
Greedent was still out and took another pirate down using a Body Slam and Bullet Seed combo...but that's when he saw what was up ahead. "Dent! Greedent!" He pointed it out to the others. They looked to see that they were heading towards a waterfall.
"Oh no!" Aang gasped. Then he heard something from behind him, so he turned to see another pirate getting ready to use his blades. The Avatar thought fast...and brought out the whistle he bought yesterday and blew into it.
The pirate was not impressed...but he was knocked off the boat by Sokka. "Have you lost your mind? This is no time for flute practice!" He told the monk.
They watched in fear when they saw that they were getting closer to the waterfall. "We can stop the boat! Aang, together, push and pull the water!" Katara said. The two of them got to work pushing and pulling the water, concentrating on controlling the waves. "It's working, it's slowing down!" She noticed that the two whirlpools they made slowed the ship down.
"I'll help out!" Makoto raised his arms, and using Water Pulse, made a water wall that stopped the ship close to the edge of the waterfall. "Yeah! We're doing it!"
"But we got another problem!" Sokka pointed to Zuko's boat, which was still coming their way. The remaining pirates yelled and jumped off the boat just as it hit the pirate ship, making the five of them yelp as the ship was being tilted over the waterfall. Arven returned Greedent while Makoto powered down from his Synchro Form and returned Golduck. They, Aang, Katara, and Sokka were forced to jump off the ship and are now falling down. As they fell, Appa came out of nowhere, caught all five of them and flew away. The two ships smashed against the water.
Aang smiled and held up his whistle. "I knew a bison whistle would come in handy. Thanks, Appa."
Arven sighed in relief. "Yeah, we owe you one, big guy." Momo landed on the trainer's shoulder. Appa grunts back at them as if to say 'You're welcome.'
Zuko reached the end of the waterfall and looked down at his ruined boat. "My boat!"
Iroh finally caught up him, paused to catch his breath, and chuckled after he caught it. "Prince Zuko, you're really going to get a kick out of this. The missing lotus tile was in my sleeve the whole time!" He pulled out the white lotus tile that he was trying to find with a huge smile on his face.
Too bad it didn't make Zuko happy at all. So in anger, he snatched the lotus tile out of his uncle's hand and threw it as far as he could. The tile ended up bouncing off a pirate's head.
Appa was now flying above the clouds.
"Aang, I still owe you an apology." Katara looked down while speaking to the monk. "You were just so good at Waterbending without really trying. I got so competitive that I put us all in danger. I'm sorry."
"That's okay, Katara." Aang assured her.
"Besides, who needs that stupid scroll anyway?" Katara asked.
"Is that how you REALLY feel?" Makoto showed them the Waterbending scroll in his hand.
"The scroll!" Katara was surprised to see it again.
"How did you get that?" Arven pointed at the scroll.
Makoto grinned. "Like I said, I used my Aqua Form to sneak away without anyone noticing. While I was getting away, I noticed that the scroll fell down from the sky, so I managed to catch it before going back into the water. In fact, I've kept it hidden under my hat the entire time." He used his free hand to take off his hat before putting it back on.
Katara happily reached for the scroll, but Sokka raised his arm between her and Makoto. "First, what did you learn?"
"Stealing is wrong..." Katara started. When Sokka smiled and put his arm down, Katara took the scroll from Makoto's hand. "Unless it's from pirates."
Makoto and Aang had a good laugh about that. "Good one, Katara." the latter even told her. They flew off continuing their journey to the North Pole.
There you have it! Once again, both Aang and Katara were able to learn some new Waterbending moves, Makoto got in some training with his Aqua Synchro Form, and Golduck can now use his Water Pulse attack in different ways! And with that, the editing of this story is FINALLY complete! Now I can finally make some more progress with Makoto's journey through the Elemental Nations! For those who stuck around while the editing was in progress, I would like to thank you all for doing so, and also apologize for letting it take so long. Stay tuned as the story continues after all this editing time!