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“I think,” Zuko murmured at the sight of huge, towering buildings and flying contraptions far more advanced than he had ever seen, covered by a groove of trees. “We might be lost.”
“No, really .” Sokka shot back.
“You were the one that touched it!” Zuko protested.
“Yeah, and who was it that pushed me?” Sokka poked Zuko on the side of the head. “Because it’s always a great idea to touch strange artifacts on a pedestal.”
“I thought you charted out the air temple already. How was I supposed to know what to not touch?”
“Charted out, as in charted out the main paths like a normal person. Parkour is a Zuko only skill.”
“Then is there any way to-” Zuko spread his hands out. Behind him, a charming grove of trees and a big grass lane ran down the side of a pavement. A giant rectangular hole was carved out of the earth in front of them, like someone had sliced through the ground with a smooth knife. “To undo this?”
Sokka pinched the bridge of his nose. “Right. Plan. Cause I’m plan guy. Gotta make a plan…”
Just then, a person wearing a strange uniform, with short sleeves and a colorful vest dyed a neon blue strolled down the path. Both Zuko and Sokka subconsciously tensed as the person got closer.
It was a girl with curly hair and she was carrying a stack full of papers up to her chin.
“Hey dummies, the equalist podium dude is on the other side of the park. This is kind of a construction zone.”
“What’s an equalist?” Zuko said before Sokka could get a word in edgewise.
The girl sighed. She gave a half lidded glance over at the two teenagers and groaned. “I’ve had to explain this point like, fifty two times today.”
“Make that fifty three,” Sokka said.
“Oh you know what?” She glared at Sokka like he was a gnat on the floor. He wasn’t quite sure what it was that made him so charming to women. “I’m gonna shut up now. Here's the equalist fliers. Take it. Take the whole stack. Read them, make paper airplanes with them, eat them. I’m done for today. I’m going to go home and play video games.”
“Wait,” Sokka said. The girl had spit out the words so fast that he didn’t understand half of them, and that was with Sokka’s intellect. “Have you seen the avatar around here?”
“Yeah, on television,” She said as Sokka chewed on the word “television.” “She’s like, giving speeches and stuff. Whatever.”
And with that, the person disappeared down the path, leaving Sokka and Zuko with a giant pile of fliers.
“Wow,” Zuko said. “I didn’t think I’d find anyone weirder than you, Sokka.”
Sokka elbowed Zuko, who choked on a small “ow!”.
Sokka leaned closer to Zuko. “Did she just call the Avatar a she or am I on cactus juice.”
“Perhaps we are both on cactus juice,” Zuko said back, in a thoughtful, philosophical tone. What a helpful answer.
Sokka was getting confused, and confusion was bad for quick minds that needed to cook up brilliant plans. He needed to make sure he wasn’t dreaming or hallucinating or otherwise. Sokka looked at Zuko thoughtfully.
“Quick, say something the real Zuko would say. Honor. Say honor.”
“I am not saying that.”
Sokka rubbed his chin. “Huh. No discrepancies there…”
Zuko sat down on the perfectly cut grass and set the flies down. He took one from the top of the pile and examined it.
Sokka nimbly caught a fallen leaf. In these circumstances, even a leaf could be suspicious. It felt smooth and crinkled in his hands when he made them into fists, unlike the silky, almost ethereal plants that existed in the spirit realm. Sokka didn’t completely rule out spirit meddling, but it would have to be a really powerful spirit to create hallucinations at all, let alone one that felt so real.
“What if it’s time travel?”
Sokka snapped out of his reverie. “Huh?”
“Time travel. That uh, thing in stories where a character goes to a different point in time-”
“Hah. No.”
“Why not?” Said the jerkbender intent on defying known laws of physics.
“Because it’s not scientific!”
“It doesn’t have to be scientific to make sense.”
“Everything can be explained by science,” Sokka said. Call him a skeptic, but magic didn’t lead to designs of great mechs.
“Well, Appa isn’t scientific. He doesn’t look aerodynamic at all.”
“Appa can airbend,” Sokka refuted.
“Airbending doesn’t seem scientific.”
Sokka actually couldn’t come up with a rebuttal for this one. The scientific processes of bending were in truth kinda dicey, especially when the best explanation for bending was just you just kinda do it, and it works. But there was a scientific explanation for it. There just had to be- it just wasn’t found yet. Sokka would bet his boomerang on it.
At Sokka’s lack of response, Zuko clasped his palms together. “In all the stories, the characters only go back to their own time if they accomplish a task, or save someone’s life.”
“It would be pretty honorable of you to save someone’s life,” Sokka quipped.
“Sokka?”
“Yeah?”
“Please shut up.”