trans_9 | Basics

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There was a time to get sick. There was a time to bemoan the things that seemed like empty spots in her head. and there was time to sleep and dream of times that were better (or have nightmares of worse times too). But when these times passed, and eventually that was the case, there was nothing left to do but go back to what you were best at, and refine it to make it your own. Going to the podpop had been a start, and Katara capitalized on it the next day. A visit to the Sensorium and the scenery changed: she was at the desert lands they'd been left to brave after the library sunk and Appa had been captured. There was no gang here though, just miles and miles of sand and heat bearing down on her. To Toph and Aang, she was sure these circumstances were unpleasant, but to her and Sokka specifically, it had been alien and frustrating (it had helped Sokka that he was strung out on Cactus juice and she was fixated on keeping the group together at the time). She had also made sure there would be no water nearby, and so her pouch was also gone.

The morning was spent in quiet meditation on the sands. Her mind was full of questions and brimming with thoughts, but she momentarily displaced them from her mind. She was uncomfortable, sweaty and hot, but stayed in deep meditation, moving from time to time so she wouldn't cramp up. Once she'd seen the sun position itself to indicate noontime, Katara rose, and her attire was that of her firebending disguise: she would need it.

The exercising in the Weirding way, however, required targets, so the desert was now strewn with several dummies. Here Katara incorporated her Bene Gesserit martial art with that of the training she'd practiced in Will's gym: she catapulted herself upward, struck with deadly precision and then rolled into a new defensive stance, ready for the next attack. It had been awhile since Katara incorporated her waterbending flexibility with the Weirding way, and truthfully it was seldom Katara practiced the art, fully aware (thanks to deadly robots) how damaging it could be. She bent her legs a bit and brought her arms up again, using her force against the dummy and knocking it backward with what looked like minimal effort. She knew it would be awhile before she was an expert in the Weirding Way, but that was more than reason to practice, with all they had encountered.

When she had worked up a definite sweat, she went back to the flexibility part: she flipped, jumped, turned several times in the air and, on her back, curled her legs upward and leapt back to position. She was stinky and definitely perspiring, but that was easily taken care of if she decided to turn the Sensorium into a spa, not that she was in a big hurry to do so.

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Negi nodded, and then smiled as he pulled his cloak off and set it and his staff to the side. Clad in plantsuit only, he stretched his legs before sliding into a Chinese Kung Fu stance, one that might be similar to Katara as it was extremely similar to the one that Zuko would use, hand in a open position and in a straight stance. "When you're ready."

Katara got into her stance as well. She thought she told him that she also had been trained in the ways of the Bene Gesserit. She'd never have known that her martial arts were similar to Tai Chi, but she did have the advantage that the Weirding Way and Prana-Bindu, which made her very fast and able to contort herself in ways a regular human being shouldn't.

"Okay," she said, serious now. "Ready."

Negi nodded as he prepared to strike.

A long half-second passed and he was moving in quickly with a perfect straight punch, fist drawn back and the first attack a lunging strike.

Katara eased out of his range, and a second later was at his back, then a moment later back at his front, her leg knocking at his back leg to throw him off balance.

He was very fast, but she was faster. Now she was going to see if his balance was just as good.

So quick!

Negi readjusted his center of balance from the lunging move as the foot connected. Skipping around, he backstepped easily, keeping his balance, swinging into a defensive horse stance.

Katara smiled. He adjusted. Good. He definitely knew what he was doing, and his form was excellent.

And now he was strengthening his stance. Now she came at him offensively Bene Gesserit style, her hands at her chest and curled, to see how he faired in an upper torso fight. The hands moved like lightning: he would have to match her hand movements with his own, if he could.

Fast hands, faster reflexes. If Negi was just a normal kid, this would have been extremely tough.

Moving into the fluid motions of his various Kung Fu styles, he started to move into a sequence of counters, all moving towards a possible elbow strike as he closed the distance once more.

Katara couldn't help it: she laughed. It wasn't for sarcasm or bragging, but of actual mirth. "You're really good, do you know that? How old are you?"

Yes, this is Katara, striking a conversation while moving her hands deftly. She was also working towards weakening his horse stance, since her movenent were coming faster now and requiring motions that used the hips. She then moved in with a strike of her own, a right finger jab to the chest, with the Bg push that made a relatively innocent looking strike actually more forceful, enough to reel back half a second.

Negi laughed as well as he fought back, parrying as he did so. "I'm ten. Honestly, I'm ten."

He grinned, having a lot of fun in this fight as he guarded his chest, knowing techniques were often more powerful than they appeared to be.

She grinned. "I have to hand it to you then: I don't know too many kids that have this much knowledge of martial arts at such a young age. Your master must be proud."

But she was going to make sure that her own teachers were proud too, and gave a small leap to see if he could stand a nudge to the head as well. Her legs were ready should he try a foot sweep on the way down.

"I'm more of a beginner compared to Master Ku," replied Negi, seeing the attack coming at his head.

Blocking it, he was thrown to the ground, but his hands shot out, impacting on the sand and flipping backwards into a crouching position.

"Then they must do this hardcore in your world," Katara said. "To be honest, my martial arts is decent, but much more effective with my bending."

She grinned and hit the ground with him, starting to move a little faster now, the sand below them starting to shift. In that position, it was a bit harder to spar, but Katara was flexible and took a casual offensive, squaring her shoulders and moving her hands quickly, restricting his movement so she could knock him off balance.

Negi thought of his teachers and had to agree. "Yes, they are quite rough compared to everyone else. Almost superhuman."

Negi parried, moving in for a counter attack as he pushed an attack to the side and then drove his elbow forward, hoping to hit in the center of Katara's chest.

Katara nodded. "Trust me, you'll find plenty of superhuman people here on the ship."

Katara brought her leg back as he parried the attack, but saw the elbow attack coming. She crab walked back, quicker than she would have been if she had no BG training. She steadied herself and brought her pointer and middle finger to his neck to push him off his balance.

Negi grinned at that, thinking of just who he could find there. "Sounds great!"

His elbow missing, he brought his foot up to kick at her shins as he blocked quickly, hoping to close the distance once more. So far, without magic blasts or this bending Katara spoke of, it was close.

"Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't," Katara said, making a face. "It depends on the situation."

She'd had time to build up her leg muscles (prada-binduwould do that, especially when you practiced as much as she did), so when she took the kick, she also parried back with a kick of her own to his leg.He may have been able to protect his body, but even he couldn't cover everything.

Negi clashed with Katara, straining for a moment before deciding to feed just a little more magic into his body to keep up. For someone running solely on chi, it was quite amazing how she fought. "Yeah, that's true. I know one man who is so overpowered, he breaks expectations and logic while he's at it."

He grinned even when taking the push and he backstepped once, twice and then shoved both hands forward in a open palm strike.

Katara's senses were not asleep, especially not when it came to battle. she saw what the boy was doing, but decided not to mention it. He was a strong fighter all his own, but she'd had stamina she learned to keep reserved if she needed it. Sometimes fighting like this could mean life or death, and if she jumped into things too rapidly, it could be fatal.

When he went for the strike, she didn't need to be on the offense, which was fine, as defense was more her specialty anyway. She used her arm to sweep the strike aside, putting one foot back to steady, and using her arm to muscle him to her and then to the ground.

Negi oofed as he was taken in directly by Katara's counter attack and he hit the sand with a soft thump. "Yield!" exclaimed Negi, holding up his hands before he groaned and sat up. Even with just a little more magic power, he didn't win. Trust him to get overconfident in a spar.

"That was a good move Katara," he said with a grin.

Katara returned the grin and gave him a hand to stand up. "Hey, you're no slouch yourself. You're really strong for someone so young. I don't think even I was that strong back then. But that's what happens when you have to learn really quickly and there's a war on the horizon."

She stretched a moment. "Would you like to see where I'm from?"

Negi nodded. "I needed to protect people, so I had to get strong in a hurry. Most of my school years was spent learning the magic I needed to know."

He the nodded enthusiastically. "Please, by all means! I'd like to see!"

Katara nodded. "Being a victim in times like that isn't an option. When people can come and try to make you feel weak and defenseless, there's really no choice: especially when you decide that you're going to help fight back."

Katara nodded and closed her eyes. The scenery changed now to that of the Southern Water Tribe (http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/8521/wpnickus014jz.jpg), which looked relatively small compared to the North Pole. that didn't make it any less cold however, or any less magnificent in its simplicity. One could hear penguins in the distance as well as the lulling sound of the water beneath ones feet. It was dusk so the sun was just coming down, giving off a brilliance of color.

Katara was no longer in her Fire Nation garb: now in her traditional water tribe clothing, mittens and all. She had thought up Negi a warm woolen hate, mittens and a long, brown coat that suited his dress style.

Clad in the warm coat and outfit, Negi gazed around in wonder. It was so beautiful here on the ice flows. And more than that, the history and culture buff in him was screaming how similar it was to the Eskimo tribes of his own world. "It's magnificent!" exclaimed Negi, trundling forward in the snow and running his hand across the sides of the huts and small walls.

"Look at this structure, it must be steeped in tradition! The packing of the snow, the ice and the natural insulation...! This is what it's about!" proclaimed Negi, spreading his arms in wonder. "I really like your home Katara!"

If there was any doubt that she was going to like Negi, it was gone now. She'd had people appreciate her home, but never quite like this: in fact, compared to most of the other nations, it would have been considered barbaric. At Negi's outburst, Katara flushed happily.

"I'm really glad you like it!" Katara said, smiling. "It is steeped in tradition actually: my father is the chief of our tribe. We don't have quite the numbers and the structures of the Northern Tribe, but I always thought the Southern Pole was a bit homier. My people have been through much, but we are proud of our accomplishments and care for each other. It's because of them I was able to adapt to being on the ship, learned different fighting styles and am able to talk to people so easily. My brother has a bit of a hard time here though."

"I see. The care put into these structures is truly remarkable, and like you said you're adaptable, able to keep everyone together. It's so amazing!" He beamed at Katara, running a hand over what was Sokka's watchtower. "To think I get to see something like this close up. I never got to do so in Wales."

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