trans_9 | The Other Gods -- The World Spirit

The effects of the Nightmare King have faded, the battlefield is gone. Stacy is rebooting her systems, and will be online again soon. It's over, it's finally over at last. They've won. They're all alive!

Except that it's not over.

Through the city, a wave of destruction spreads out from where a teenage boy rockets out of what's left of Escherville and floats in the air. A shockwave of air shatters the glass in nearby buildings; the stone foundation that serves as the overlay of Stacy's flesh that most of the city rests on cracks where he passes over it. Eyes and tattoos glowing, long hair whipped around by the winds he's creating, Aang is a force to be reckoned with--and not one to be reasoned with.

This is the Avatar in his full fury, angrier than his comrades have ever seen him, nearly thoughtlessly so.

He's overwhelmed by such senseless rage, the world breaks down around him--at the whims of the elemental forces under his control--stone cracking, water condensing out of the air and freezing over surfaces, wind whipping rubble around in a deadly, gouging tumult, fire crackling through the air.

Aang's voice is many voices, old and young, thousands of them all intermingled, as he cries out:

"WHERE ARE THEY, STACY? WHERE IS THE CREW? ANSWER ME!"

Stacy tries to reason with him. Some of her systems are damaged, she is awake and aware, but her security measures are not back up yet. And even when they are, what then? She can't hold him down forever. In this state, he needs to be calmed, and the AI knows that's something she is incapable of.

So she tries reason. ||Avatar Aang, the original crew is dead. Only refugees from podsleep are awake--||

A building is swallowed up by a sinkhole that appears in the stone.

"YOU'RE LYING!"

He doesn't remember what Leon and the others told him in the dreams, about the original crew being dead. His consciousness had been separated from his body for a very long time, and to have it snap back so suddenly to a physical form at the height of an adrenaline surge, that had been trapped in the Avatar State for more than a year...

A whole year trapped as he had been is enough to unsettle his mind, to make him angry. Now that he's free, everything contained over that time--kept stuffed inside so that he could maintain composure--is bursting free in a frenzied maelstrom of emotion and destruction.

Not that most of the crew will know this--for all they know, if they didn't hear his words, he could be the Nightmare King.

"THEY'RE NOT DEAD! THEY ABANDONED US! THEY LEFT US TO HIM! WHERE ARE THEY?!"

||They are dead. Avatar Aang, you must calm yourself. You have been forced to endure a tremendous physiological and psychological strain--||

She isn't answering the way he wants. She isn't telling him where they are, so Aang reacts by destroying her city. A wave of his arms and there's a blast of air that destroys a temple. He's going to continue until he finds them, finds someone to direct his rage at, or until something manages to calm him down first. The latter is entirely possible, given some time--but at what cost?

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Zuko sighs, watching what he can see of Aang's rage.

"We've got to give him SOMETHING to focus on. Even if it's just you and me, and even if it's only for a short while."

"Moot point!" Sheeana called from wormback, pointing at a distant figure approaching their little convoy. "She saw my message!"

There was a part of Leon that wanted to whine about this day being over. But that part was quickly told to shut the hell up. He told Claire to find Sherry, and that he'd meet up with them again soon.

But, for now, he had a job to do. Which meant chasing down and trying to rein in a superpowered teenager.

He almost wished he still had Cap's shield, but that faded away with the fall of the Nightmare King. Hopefully a phaser blast,set on stun would get Aang's attention.

Can't stun a boulder, Leon. And the stone is whipping around him so fast that it's humming. It may as well be a shield, so that's what Leon hits.

His head turns stiffly, regarding Leon as if he's nothing more than an insect, and then a gust of wind blasts towards him to sweep him off his feet.

You are in his way. Stay out of it.

Katara had gotten the alert all right. She had been upset that she couldn't join them in the vault, but the others had needed ger for that final assault on the army guys, and Katara had stayed back with Toph, helping so that no one got too injured. They had only just gotten finished with the last assault when the message came through: Aang was found, and her mind snapped into Aang mode now. Thsui had been what she was waiting for, and anyone who laid eyes on her could see clearly the BG side of her and the waterbender side of her merge into the girl that she had always been, and the truew intention she always had from the beginning. It had always, always been about Aang, so she'd taken off and found Sheeana on the worm again. The look was grim, and Katara quietly calmed herself.

Aang was not in the best of states: far from it. In fact, Katara had an idea of the kind of threat he posed, and what some of the more super powered members of the crew would do to see that threat was espunged. No time to be angry or scared or doubt now. It was action, and it had to be decisive, quick. She looked at the others, and though it pained her to see him this way more than he could tell, her eyes rested squarely on her brother's. She'd met up with the others immediately, her moves quick, her concentration clear.

"I'm all for whatever plan you have Sokka." I trust you, please don't let them hurt him. "How do you think we should do this?"

Keep a clear head. This is no Yeerk or Christmas Battle or Lex Luthor or anything. This was AANG.

But the phaser blast, while warranted, forced Katara to hold back a bit of fury. Lashing out right now would be so easy, and anyway, that wasn't going to affect Aang in the least. Leon was NOT the worse of her worries. HE didn't have superpowers, and he hadn't wanted to kill, she knew him better than that.

But some of the others weren't as peaceable as Leon.

"Sokka, please!" Katara said, a hint of urgency. "I'll fight them if they try to hurt him, you know that!"

"I know, Katara." Sokka replied, grim faced. "I will too. We need to get you close to him as soon as possible. I think you're the only person he'll listen to right now." The young man winced as he glanced towards his sister, flinching from the pain he still felt.

"Zuko and I'll go with you, try to get close. Then you have to...I don't know. You have to talk to him. Mai, Sheeana? Try to stop them from shooting him before someone actually gets hurt."

Mai pressed her lips together. She didn't look happy (which was normal), but she shot Sokka a look that promised him pain if Zuko didn't come back in one piece. She finally nodded once and then turned to Zuko, giving him a quick, tight hug and a soft murmur that no one else could hear. "Don't do anything stupid."

There was a distinct pause before she added in a few more words. "I love you."

She released him and turned towards Sheeana, one eyebrow raised in question. Now what?

This is a serious moment, and so they can say it in front of people, without the jokes. He touches her cheek softly for just a moment. "I love you."

And then to Sokka. "Let's go."

There's not much they'll be able to do, but at least they'll be doing something.

Leon was really starting to hate teenagers.

The wind knocked him back, and landed him right in the path of Zuko, Sokka, and Katara. He picked himself up, silently cursing Aang's name.

The phaser was dropped, the assault rifle was pulled off his shoulder. He really didn't want to do it, but he was running out of options.

He didn't line up a shot, though, giving the kids a second to catch up.

"Tell me one of you has a plan that has a shot in hell of saving his life."

Sokka resisted the urge to draw his sword and slice the rifle into tiny pieces. Instead he just nodded at Leon, jerking his thumb towards his sister.

"Katara's gonna talk to him. Don't shoot him! We can calm him down!"

Toph rolls her eyes. "Rain check on the pity party, you two," she says to Sokka and Zuko.

She didn't care that Aang was vaguely off his rocker. She didn't care that she knew full well that he could possibly kill them all.

He was here, and as far as she was concerned, that meant they could at least try.

"Come on. Twinkle Toes needs us."

That sounded like an immensely stupid idea. But the only other solution Leon had was ventilating Aang. He glanced back at Aang, then looked at Katara.

"He once told me that he went on a rampage because he thought you were dead. Hopefully seeing you're still alive will end this one." Because that kid fought for them for God knows how long. Leon didn't want to be the one to kill him.

"You only get one shot at this." He didn't say it, but implications of if they they failed were very clear.

"Go."

The Other Gods -- The World Spirit

Re: Confrontation - Security and the Gaang

Re: Confrontation - Security and the Gaang

Re: Confrontation - Security and the Gaang

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