========= 66 - Teamwork ==========
What do you mean, understand that wherever you go, nature itself will fight against you, not some individual nation or at least the prejudices of some Avatars? If I were an inexperienced person, I would say "Goodbye" to this world, turn around and go live in the mountains, where I wouldn't be affected by floods or volcanic eruptions. But if you look at the facts... it's strange.
There won't be a flood if I leave the city — why would there be? It feels like it's not an impending cataclysm, but the will of some creature that suddenly decides to wipe out all life if I somehow appear near the sea. Who could be so powerful, close enough to control entire floods? Who almost wiped everything out more than a hundred years ago?
It was difficult to answer the question, but I did have a suspect, or rather two. Yes, it was strange to accuse them of anything, and in general they were seen more as helping than causing any kind of discord, but the most powerful beings nearby were the spirits of the moon and the ocean at the North Pole.
We know from history that a tsunami once swept across the northern sea, destroying the fleet of water magicians and washing the cities of the Earth Kingdom into the ocean. Roku saved only part of the territory, for even he was unable to suppress such a powerful cataclysm. It would be logical to think that it was all just nature, but Anubis' second option suggested otherwise.
With such assumptions, I didn't even want to go to the North Pole and use their healing waters, but I had to find out about a possible enemy in advance. Besides, they are mortal... although thinking about such things is not very peaceful. Better to decide which of the remaining options to take. Because of the second one, I probably won't even cross the sea - which will definitely be destroyed, but dealing with everything alone is not a great plan either.
To make a more informed decision, I had to return to the city. I explained the general situation to the team in broad terms, suggesting that a small tidal wave was approaching the walls of the large bastion. To find out the approximate size of this tide, I went into the port and began to ask the residents how the city had been saved over a hundred years ago, what had been destroyed, and any other details they could provide.
If you take out the common stuff from the legends, the crazy fantasies of fanatics obsessed with the Rock, and cut everything in half, I was able to figure out which part of the city was destroyed. I even checked the data myself, studying which buildings had been rebuilt from scratch: these included the town hall, shops, a market, part of a residential area, and many other infrastructure facilities. Based on this, Afka calculated that the wave that reached the city must have been ten to fifteen metres high. Tolerable, I thought, until I realised that these were just splashes that Roku had accidentally missed.
"Listen, I don't want to be alarmist, but are you seriously sure that Yangchen was talking about an impending tsunami?" Aang couldn't calm down until I sat down on the roof of one of the houses, took my lunch in my hand and began to eat slowly. My mind was filled with ideas of how to stop it all.
The rest just watched from the sidelines with fear in their eyes, this time sincerely hoping that I was wrong. Even Zuko stopped taunting me, looking at me as if I were someone who could potentially give a sensible answer on the subject.
"Eh, the destruction of the city will lead to such an exodus of residents that they can be handed over to the Fire Nation right away, and so many people will die that I cannot allow that to happen. I'm sorry, Airo. But Avatar Roku, as I understand it, fought the tsunami right near the city, and he tried to fight the disaster head-on, and I suggest we meet him there," he said, raising his hand and pointing his index finger straight at the horizon, at the clouds gathering in the distance.
Maybe my words sounded crazy, but why act like an idiot like Roku when you could come up with a plan? Obviously, I also rejected the idea of calling Roku himself, as I had no intention of relying on his power in any situation. And we had to leave quickly: we equipped Appa, fed him, and finally I looked at the team to decide who to take with us.
Everyone looked at me with puppy dog eyes, although this was more out of fear. Others were eager to help in any way they could, the main thing being not to let everything here be destroyed. Airo was one of those.
"Airo, please equip a couple of earth mages to raise a wall in front of the port. I'm afraid a small wave, a couple of metres high at most, will reach the city.
"No problem, Lotus has connections in the city," he nodded confidently in response.
"Katarochka, Aang, you'll fly with me. No matter how cool a mage I am, I have to admit that I can't conquer the element of water on my own. Tai Li... jump in with us, since Aang doesn't know how to enter the Avatar state on his own yet, you'll have to figure something out.
"I have a couple of ideas," she said, nimbly climbing onto the saddle of the dangerous-looking bison, and finally I looked at Afka. The little fox was standing a couple of metres away from us, desperately wanting to fly with everyone else to support them, but water wasn't exactly her favourite thing. The thought of a huge tsunami terrified even her, so she kept raising her paw to go with us, then lowering it, pressing herself into the ground with excitement.
"Stay. If, as you say, there is a connection between us, report what is happening to Airo. And if we can't handle it, evacuate. As for the rest... find something to do yourselves," I winked at Sokke, who was standing there feeling useless in the face of danger, and Zuko, who couldn't understand why I was taking such a risk and talking to a fox. They would be more of a support group. To be honest, Zuko didn't go in there of his own free will.
Giving the signal to Appa, we quickly rushed towards the horizon, under very excited glances. And of course, sooner or later, a logical question had to arise among my team.
"What are you going to do? There's no land in the sea. And how will she help against a tsunami?
Everyone looked at me strangely.
"You know, after I learned to communicate with the elements, I quickly realised that they exist even in places where I would never think to look. Besides, the earth isn't just a piece of rock that you can throw away — don't you remember the rumours about the tsunami that Airo told us?
"That it was sent by the water mages of the Northern tribe, and... that the earth mages created an earthquake," my loyal assistants' pupils contracted, and soon they saw a smile spread across my face.
"We'll wash away the tsunami with our own," was the logical question: which way will the wave go after the plates shift at the bottom of the sea? Correct, whichever way the Avatar wants, or if we're being reasonable, he'll direct all the currents to where we need them to go.
Will this have consequences in the future? Will I be able to pull off something like this and not ruin my day off? This was one of the few times Anubis gave a direct answer.
"It should work perfectly."
I felt proud of my thinking... but soon we were caught in a storm. Extremely strong winds prevented App from flying normally, and a powerful downpour forced us to squint and worry about the flashes of lightning flashing in different places, because we didn't want to act as a lightning rod. And then we saw it... a wave rushing at a simply colossal speed of over fifty metres, gradually gaining height. Calculating the exact speed was a bit of a problem, but it looked like it was over two hundred metres per second.
What did I actually know about tsunamis? That they gain their power as they approach land, and that they are not dangerous at sea, where there are other waves and dangers. But since I had seen a tsunami with my own eyes, I had to admit one thing: this was not a natural wave.
Whether intentional or accidental, certain spirits are ruining people's lives, which means they urgently need personal therapy from Avatar.
"I'm scared!" Katara admitted immediately, hugging herself. Appa bellowed at the top of his voice, apparently agreeing with her statement — the bison was looping in the air, so I had to keep my hand on his head and share my own emotions. But I was completely calm. So was Tai Li, whose fear had disappeared after opening her first chakra.
"First, tell me, Aang, can you stop her now?
"Are you crazy? My maximum is lifting a couple dozen litres and playing with them somehow! "Just as I thought, there's no point in trying to reason with you. Aang, of course, showed his transformation into a giant catfish in the canon, but that was with the support of the spirit from the North, so we'll have to use the most powerful thing on this planet — the brain.
And also my abnormally developed magic, but that's nothing.
"Appa, please fly in the opposite direction of the tsunami," I said, sitting in the lotus position and closing my eyes, deliberately limiting my vision to connect with my element. A couple of months ago, before my injuries, I never even thought about controlling the earth at the bottom of the ocean. This is a level of control that surpasses all existing tricks, and it requires control over the earth or stone, which I can't say I'm particularly good at.
But, apparently, everything turned out that way, and it became my strength training — the entire sea floor told me where the tsunamis were and where there were weak spots in the earth, which, if broken, would lead to the results I wanted. This tested all the experience I had gained on my travels and whether I had really given my all.
SHUKH*
A huge fan formed in the air from crystals and abrasives, which, under the influence of telekinesis, began to conduct my energy, greatly amplifying the effect of Kioshi's special technique. I had been honing this technique every day since that meeting on the volcano, and as a result, the bottom of the sea began to distort significantly.
Even my face began to contort, but this was more likely the effect of the effort I was exerting — if magic had muscles, they would have been ready to tear at any moment. When I said that this was strength training, I was not exaggerating in the slightest.
"Katara... start pushing the water towards the tsunami.
"B-but~
"If he says so, then do it," Tai Li patted her on the shoulder, seeing perfectly well that I was in no mood for conversation. Obeying the order, Katara began her wave movements, albeit with difficulty, mimicking the ebb and flow of the tide, allowing the waves to gather strength.
Aang, in turn, sat with his eyes wide open, as if flashbacks were flashing before him. High waves, a storm rushing through Appa's streams, he probably remembered the day when he suddenly disappeared and preserved himself for a hundred years. Fear began to rise in his heart that the same thing was about to happen again.
"Aang..." I looked him in the face. "It's time."
He didn't even have time to prepare. At that moment, Tai Lee jumped at him and with a sharp blow to his pair of Chakras, awakened a whole range of emotions. She couldn't directly evoke positive feelings like I could, but she was eager to learn and figured out how to control the flow of chi inside other people's bodies. She directed the energy in the other person's body until it began to react with strong emotions, which, as we had seen many times before, allowed Aang to enter the Avatar state. In a second, his eyes lit up bright blue, the arrows on his body lit up, and a powerful gust of wind tore him from his saddle.
Appa simply couldn't fly far enough away from him because the wind currents began to swirl around Aang himself. He hung there in some kind of unconscious state, as if he couldn't even hear any of us. Fortunately, he wasn't angry or even upset. In this state, he should be able to tell who was friend or foe, and maybe even listen.
"Aang... disperse the wave that is gathering underground," a single request, spoken with hope for the best, made him raise his head. Our eyes met for just a second, during which I felt as if I was looking at something ancient. It was as if there was another being inside the little boy's body, to whom I was nothing more than a fly.
And now he was deciding whether I was one of his or not. Whether to listen to me or drown with the other creatures who were looking at him with sincere excitement. My knowledge of spirits, gleaned from books, told me to kneel down and pray to win his favour. But my mind and common sense...
"Did you hear what I said? Don't give in. I gave the order again, after which Aang slightly squeezed the handles, and when the situation seemed to be going badly, the sea jerked. It was as if someone had tied a lasso around it and pulled it towards them. Katara's help allowed the spirit to immediately direct the waves in the direction we needed, which was why her help was necessary. The Avatar instantly demonstrated his power and, in just a couple of seconds, created a wave so high that it could have flooded an entire city. Even the wind helped him by blowing in one direction.
"I don't believe it... twenty, no, twenty-five metres and it's still growing!" Tai Lee rubbed her eyes, watching as two giant streams of water rushed towards each other, while I put even more effort into creating vibrations that would speed up the flow.
For the best result, it was necessary to press huge areas of land tightly together and not just rub them, but bend one part to give at least some direction. It was not for nothing that this was an area of increased natural disasters; the seabed was extremely weak, and the same was true on land — if you remember all those canyons and strange formations, you can understand that this was the perfect place to create the first earthquake in history.
"Right now..." Katara pursed her lips, watching as less than a kilometre remained between the two waves. Yes, they were different in size, but the result should be the same: complete levelling of the tsunami.
Bwooo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-
In an instant, the waves, moving at a speed of two hundred metres per second, collided and caused an abnormal rumbling, the sea floor shook from the vibrations, and my vision darkened for a moment. It was as if I felt it all myself, but I steadied myself and watched as the giant drops began to scatter in all directions, some even flying high up, as if trying to reach the clouds. Others merged with the sea and froze. Yes, the water was covered with a crust of ice, as if the Avatar had decided to deal with the wave once and for all, ending its existence as such.
When the raging sea and the frenzied skies seemed to calm down, Aang slowly returned to his saddle and, coming out of his Avatar state, fell into Katara's arms, we witnessed a completely unusual event. The sea, which was extremely far from the North Pole, turned into a glacier — it even became eerily cold, but the adrenaline rushing through our bodies somehow allowed us to stay strong.
"We did it," Katara hugged the boy so tightly that he almost suffocated. Well, I... looked and understood — we had dealt with the consequences, but the cause remained a mystery. And I might not like the ending to this mystery.