章 6: chapter 3
The ground fell away beneath them as Appa soared into the sky, and although Ryga had
never been afraid of heights, it was a bit hard to stay calm while being hefted through the air by
a giant, wooly six-legged beast. He was surprised by how quickly he adjusted; after just a few
minutes, flying around on the back of an impossible animal seemed like the most natural thing in
the world.
"Hey." Ryga looked up, startled. Katara was looking at him curiously. "So... what was
your life like? Were you part of my tribe?"
"No," Ryga admitted. He lay back on Appa's surprisingly soft fur, staring up into the
clouds. "I... I don't remember, really." That was a total lie, but anything else would be far too
risky. He didn't want to let on that he was from another universe - who knew how they would
react? "I just remember being... really sad, and lonely. And... getting really attached to people I'd
never met." That part was true, at least.
"Oh." Katara nodded. "Must've been tough. Relying on someone who doesn't even know
you exist."
Ryga swallowed hard, thinking back. To all those nights, those lonely, sleepless nights
curled up with his laptop in bed, binging Dragon Ball Z or Teen Titans. Or Avatar. "It wasn't
healthy. It swallowed me up a little bit, I think. But it helped."
Katara put a hand on his. "Well, if you ever want to talk... we're here."
"I'm not!" Sokka cut in. "Katara, don't drag me into this weirdo's problems!"
"Sokka!" Katara snapped, then looked at Ryga apologetically. "Sorry. My brother's an
idiot."
Ryga smiled. "I know."
"Hey!"
"You started it!"
"Well, you're the mysterious stranger who fell out of a freakin' iceberg!"
Ryga shook his head, smiling a little despite himself. "Fair enough."
"Why didn't you tell us you were the Avatar?"
"Because... I never wanted to be."
Ryga looked down. They had followed the plot and rescued Aang. He knew what came
next. Katara would launch into her big plan to get Aang to the North Pole so he could master
waterbending and save the world. And then they'd be off. Starting their journey.
He'd always wanted to be a part of this world. This vast, incredible world with hybrid
animals all around, where you couldn't throw a rock without hitting some kind of magical power.
He'd wanted to join the kids on their journey from the moment he'd first seen it... but he'd never
quite understood the responsibility.
The fate of the world rested on the four of them. A boy with nothing but a brash attitude
and a boomerang; a girl who'd barely tapped into the most basic potential of her incredible
abilities; a kid with the power of gods who had only ever wanted to be a kid. And him. A boy
from the wrong universe with powers he didn't understand - and now, the weight of this strange
new world on his shoulders.
"What about Ryga?" Aang's voice interrupted Katara's script. "It feels kinda unfair to drag
him into all this. He didn't ask for this, and he's not the Avatar either. He should get to choose."
"Good point." Katara nodded. "Sorry, Ryga. You should get to make up your own mind
instead of just having us drag you along."
Ryga hesitated. Tapped the pause button. Jumped a little at a new confetti storm.
Claimed his three Skill Tickets for advancing the plot again (nice!). And checked the QUESTS
menu.
There were a few new things there - just basic side missions. Defeat 5 enemies with
Water skills. Level Rookidee up. And another: Reach the Southern Air Temple.
For some reason far beyond his understanding, whatever had put him into this strange,
game-like world was rewarding him for progressing the plot. It wanted him to make his way
through it, journey with the characters on adventures he'd only ever watched from afar.
Technically, this was a responsibility he could refuse. He could turn his back on the
game, walk away now, live out a peaceful life in some quiet Earthbending village and use his
abilities to defend it when necessary.
He hit the button again. The others stared at him expectantly.
"I'm in," he said.
"Peck."
"CHEEP!" Rookidee surged forward, making yet another tiny dent in the enormous tree.
Ryga yawned. "Peck."
"CHEEP!" It dove in again. Ryga watched the experience bar above its head fill up,
slowly but surely. It was tedious as all hell, but there was another battle ahead of them soon,
and he wanted to be prepared. They'd arrived at Kyoshi, and while he knew his teammates
were safe, he didn't want to accidentally kill Sokka's future girlfriend.
"Um... Ryga?"
Ryga turned around almost guiltily, Rookidee fluttering around his head curiously. Katara
stood there, looking a little uncomfortable. "Yeah?"
"Would you be my waterbending master?" she blurted. When Ryga didn't immediately
respond, she glared at the ground. "Ugh, this is so weird, asking someone younger than me to
teach me."
Ryga stared at her. "Uh... I don't know too much about it myself, actually." Plus, I really
doubt Pokemon moves translate into bending at all. "And the stuff I can do, I can't really
describe. I just sort of... do it. I don't think I'd be a very good teacher."
"Please?" Katara insisted. "Just show me some of your moves. Like that water ball you
threw at Zuko!"
At least she didn't want him to explain anything. He had no idea what he'd do in that
situation. "Okay." He stood up, stretched. "C'mon, there's a river down that way."
They trudged along in silence, Ryga having no idea what to say. "So..." Katara said
eventually. "Why were you in that iceberg with Aang?"
Ryga closed his eyes. "I told you, I don't remember." It probably came out harsher than
he intended. "I don't really remember much of anything."
"Oh. Yeah." Another second of silence. "Just, it seems so weird to me. He's an
airbender, and you're a waterbender. He still has his memory, but he doesn't remember you.
Something doesn't add up."
Ryga clenched his fists, hoping he wasn't visibly sweating. "Yeah, to me either. I know
it's weird, I just... can't explain the weirdness." That, at least, was true. He could not, in fact,
explain it.
"Yeah." They stepped up to the river's edge. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be pestering you
about this. I just can't get it out of my head..."
"Let's do some waterbending," Ryga said abruptly. He closed his eyes, pretended to
concentrate hard, reached out his hand, flicked his wrist -
"Pfft! Pfft! Ugh, so COLD! What was that for??"
His eyes shot open to see Katara, still standing next to him, dripping wet and bordering
on furious. "Sorry! I really didn't mean to."
She glared, then sighed. "Well, you did say you weren't an expert... and you did have
your eyes closed." She took a few deep breaths, smiled to herself, dried herself off with a flick of
the wrist. "Apparently that's not a very effective strategy."
Ryga looked down at his hands. He could've sworn he'd been aiming for the river, but
now he was directly facing Katara with no recollection of moving. "I don't think that's it," he said.
Might be dumb to show his hand now; then again, it might make some future explanations
easier. "I think it's just hard for me to waterbend without a target to lock onto. Like, there needs
to be something or someone I'm attacking."
"Huh." Katara nodded slowly, looking at him with analytical eyes that Ryga didn't like
much. She was trying to figure him out. "So... use that rock over there." She pointed across the
river to one particularly massive boulder.
Ryga eyed the stone skeptically. "I'm not sure that'll work. It might have to be something
that could reasonably threaten me. People hurt each other all the time. Rocks just kinda sit
there."
"Ryga," Katara said, her voice low and serious. "What are you talking about? That
boulder over there? It's a spy for an evil Earthbending lunatic who wants to kill you!" Her eyes
bugged out in mock horror.
Ryga shook his head. "Nice try. I'm not gonna risk soaking you again."
"Okay," Katara sighed. "Guess I'll try it out, then. You just kind of reach out, and -" She
flicked her wrist like he had.
A wall of water rose up from the lake, for just a moment, and then collapsed. Mostly over
Ryga. He spluttered for a moment, glaring in what he hoped was obviously fake anger as Katara
laughed. "Sorry! I really didn't mean to, but... I mean, you gotta admit, it's karma."
Ryga sighed. "Wish I could disagree."
"Still..." Katara studied the water thoughtfully. "Kinda weird that our same waterbending
move works differently for both of us, huh?"
"Yeah." Especially because Ryga hadn't actually been waterbending. That shouldn't
have been possible... but maybe, somehow, Pokemon moves and bending had some sort of
weird conversion rate. Maybe he could teach her something after all. "Sorry, that's all I really
know now." Probably not good to reveal that he could 'firebend' unless he had to.
"No worries!" Katara smiled at him, and Ryga was once again stunned by how... open
she seemed, how she'd seemed that way so consistently. Straightforwardly, unapologetically
nice, so unlike anyone Ryga had known before. "I mean, I'm the one who dragged you out here
in the first place." Children shouting in the distance, and she looked behind her, groaning. "I
gotta go pry Aang away from his fan club. See ya, Ryga!"
"Bye, Katara."
Katara ran off. Rookidee fluttered down from the nearby tree where he'd been perched
onto Ryga's shoulder and offered a berry-laden twig. "Thanks, buddy, but I have no idea if those
things are poisonous to humans or not."
"Cheep..." Rookidee sounded dejected, maybe a little offended, as he nibbled one of the
berries himself.
"I'm sorry. Didn't mean to offend you, um... wait, do you have a name?"
"Cheep." An ambivalent-sounding bird noise.
Ryga looked down into the water, watching their reflection ripple. Then he thought of
something stupid, so blatantly stupid it almost made it perfect. "How about Chip? Can I call you
Chip?"
"Chee-ip?" Rookidee - Chip - cocked his head curiously.
"I have no idea if you actually said it or if I'm hearing things, but yeah. Sound good?"
"Chip!" Chip agreed.
The village of Kyoshi was ablaze.
Ryga stood glued to the spot, looking around, transfixed and horrified. He'd never seen
such terrible, raw power. An entire community was about to go up in smoke - and everyone was
too busy fighting the Fire Nation to help. And they wouldn't help, Ryga realized. The episode
ended with the three kids escaping on Appa while the village burned in their wake. Obviously it
was safer to lead the Fire Nation away... but he couldn't go without at least trying to help.
Ryga's finger found the pause button almost automatically, clicking over to the Skill
wheels. Looked like he still had five Skill Tickets to redeem. Perfect. He spun the Water wheel
first, gritting his teeth. PLEASE let me get something wide-ranged...
"Water Sport? Gross." That was a bummer; it didn't even do damage. And then he saw
the description. "Okay. I take that back. And also everything bad I've ever said about debuff
skills." He grinned, checked Controls for how to use it, and closed out of the menu. He didn't
know exactly how this was going to work, or what it would look like. He only knew that with this,
he could finally save people.
Turned out, stat-modifying skills were much more useful in real life than they were in
video games.
The second the world restarted, Ryga slipped into position. Lunge with the left foot, draw
a circle in the air with the left hand, and as equally stupid and awesome as it made him feel, it
worked. The invisible circle glowed bright blue, and droplets of water splashed from it and into
the air.
All at once, the flames dimmed, dulling from yellow to a low orange. Fire Nation soldiers
stared down at their weakened flames in panicked confusion, and the warriors seized their
opportunity to strike. Ryga smirked, watching the tide begin to turn. He couldn't fight by them,
though. He had a job to do.
Ryga closed his eyes, concentrated hard. Pictured the flaming building before him flaring
up even higher, consuming him, swallowing him whole. He had to see it as an enemy for this to
work. He reached out his hand, flicked it -
A harsh sizzling sound, and Ryga opened his eyes, grinning like a madman. Sure
enough, he'd successfully doused the flames. He pivoted, did the same with the building behind
him, and repeated, ducking into smoldering alleys when Fire Nation soldiers approached. He
stuck his head out from behind one doused building. At that same moment, a soldier turned his
head. Ryga's eyes widened, and he ran forward - and coughed. Coughed hard. Realized a
second too late that he was in a burning building.
Okay. No problem. He could just put it out. Easy. He reached out his hand, flicked his
wrist...
A light mist sprayed forward from his hand, and that was all.
Fuck.
He was out of PP. He really should've realized he was out of PP. These were Pokemon
moves, so of course he'd run out of PP eventually. He just wished it didn't have to happen at
such an inconvenient time.
He coughed again, eyes beginning to water. He turned back to run only to see that the
flames had spread to the entrance. He was trapped.
After approximately seven seconds of sheer panic, he remembered the pause menu and
hit it hard.
The world stopped, but he didn't. Smoke still filled his lungs, and after a solid minute of
hacking it out, Ryga was starting to realize that he was in some serious shit.
As if the dangerously low health bar at the bottom of the screen hadn't been a good
enough sign.
He had no healing items. Chip wouldn't help. He could spin his remaining tickets and
pray for a healing skill, but even if he got one, he wouldn't have the PP to use it. Basically, it was
hopeless.
Ryga couldn't die. The System had made that very clear. He had Plot Armor, literally. But
what did that mean, exactly?
He obviously wasn't invincible or immune to pain given how much just a little smoke had
fucking hurt. Did it give him regenerative properties? Maybe, but he doubted it. Despite the
smoke having left his system, his lungs still felt far from regenerated.
Could he just simply not die? Could he live hundreds of years, enduring indescribable
pain and anguish, burned and bruised beyond recognition?
On second thought, maybe he didn't want this Plot Armor stuff after all.
He looked around the still and silent world. He was out of options. His only hope was to
stay and wait for someone to rescue him. Or try his luck with a window or something, but that
would involve the equivalent of jumping through flaming hoops like a fucking circus lion, and the
difference between Ryga and a circus lion was that circus lions were specifically trained to jump
through flaming hoops.
He felt calm, suddenly. Inexplicably.
What was ahead would be painful. Agonizing. But he would survive. Life would go on.
He unpaused, and -
Water, dousing him. Putting him out, as well as the house he'd found himself trapped in.
Ryga closed his eyes, concentrated hard. Pictured the flaming building before him flaring
up even higher, consuming him, swallowing him whole. He had to see it as an enemy for this to
work. He reached out his hand, flicked it -
A harsh sizzling sound, and Ryga opened his eyes, grinning like a madman. Sure
enough, he'd successfully doused the flames. He pivoted, did the same with the building behind
him, and repeated, ducking into smoldering alleys when Fire Nation soldiers approached. He
stuck his head out from behind one doused building. At that same moment, a soldier turned his
head. Ryga's eyes widened, and he ran forward - and coughed. Coughed hard. Realized a
second too late that he was in a burning building.
Okay. No problem. He could just put it out. Easy. He reached out his hand, flicked his
wrist...
A light mist sprayed forward from his hand, and that was all.
Fuck.
He was out of PP. He really should've realized he was out of PP. These were Pokemon
moves, so of course he'd run out of PP eventually. He just wished it didn't have to happen at
such an inconvenient time.
He coughed again, eyes beginning to water. He turned back to run only to see that the
flames had spread to the entrance. He was trapped.
After approximately seven seconds of sheer panic, he remembered the pause menu and
hit it hard.
The world stopped, but he didn't. Smoke still filled his lungs, and after a solid minute of
hacking it out, Ryga was starting to realize that he was in some serious shit.
As if the dangerously low health bar at the bottom of the screen hadn't been a good
enough sign.
He had no healing items. Chip wouldn't help. He could spin his remaining tickets and
pray for a healing skill, but even if he got one, he wouldn't have the PP to use it. Basically, it was
hopeless.
Ryga couldn't die. The System had made that very clear. He had Plot Armor, literally. But
what did that mean, exactly?
He obviously wasn't invincible or immune to pain given how much just a little smoke had
fucking hurt. Did it give him regenerative properties? Maybe, but he doubted it. Despite the
smoke having left his system, his lungs still felt far from regenerated.
Could he just simply not die? Could he live hundreds of years, enduring indescribable
pain and anguish, burned and bruised beyond recognition?
On second thought, maybe he didn't want this Plot Armor stuff after all.
He looked around the still and silent world. He was out of options. His only hope was to
stay and wait for someone to rescue him. Or try his luck with a window or something, but that
would involve the equivalent of jumping through flaming hoops like a fucking circus lion, and the
difference between Ryga and a circus lion was that circus lions were specifically trained to jump
through flaming hoops.
He felt calm, suddenly. Inexplicably.
What was ahead would be painful. Agonizing. But he would survive. Life would go on.
He unpaused, and -
Water, dousing him. Putting him out, as well as the house he'd found himself trapped in.
He wiped his eyes quickly, looked up, wondering if this was some kind of smoke
inhalation-induced vision. "Katara! You came back for me!"
"'Course, dummy," she said, far too teasingly and casually for the situation. "We weren't
just gonna take off without you!" She leaned to the side, reached her hands out. Over the
remains of the building he could see the water in the nearby sea responding, floating upwards.
She grimaced with effort, made a throwing motion, and the town got another splash. "It's
working! Now come on, we've gotta get out of here before they start lighting more stuff. I think
we've done all we can without making it worse."
"Oh yeah." Ryga felt a little stupid for not thinking of that. If they didn't leave soon,
neither would the Fire Nation soldiers, and he'd have to keep literally putting out their fires
forever. He grabbed Katara's hand, and she pulled him out of the wreck. "Sorry I ran off like that
with no explanation. It was stupid."
"No!" Katara insisted, practically dragging him back to where Aang and Appa waited
patiently and Sokka waited much less patiently. "Well. Sokka would probably agree with you.
But I think it was heroic. You put yourself in danger to protect others!"
"Yeah, well, he put us in danger too!" Sokka said, glaring at Ryga.
Ryga managed a half-shrug while also climbing up Appa's tail. "I would've been fine with
you guys leaving. This one's on you."
"I told you, we wouldn't leave you!" Katara insisted. "And next time, maybe ask for help
instead of just running off into the sunset? We're your friends."
Ryga looked up, startled. "You are?"
"Oh..." Katara looked away self-consciously. "Well, I thought... I guess we're not. I mean
-"
"No," he said hurriedly, mentally smacking himself in the forehead. "I mean, I think we're
friends! I just didn't realize you thought so too. Not too used to people wanting to be friends with
me." He tried to play off that last comment with a feeble laugh.
Aang looked back, confirmed that Ryga was solidly on board. "Yip yip!" Appa launched
into the sky, which was thankfully getting less and less disorienting. "Yeah, friends are hard.
When I found out I was the Avatar, nobody wanted to play with me anymore. I guess they kinda
stopped seeing me as one of them. But you're one of us, Ryga! Trust me."
Ryga wasn't all that used to trusting people.
But somehow, looking at Aang, grinning ear-to-ear; Katara, smiling encouragingly;
Sokka, trying to hide a half-smile of his own - these people who had risked everything just to
save him - he found he couldn't help but trust.
SKILL MENU:
PLOT ARMOR
TYPE: N/A
RANKING: N/A
DESCRIPTION: Received upon first entering the System; grants the user the inability to die, as
well as the ability to grant the inability to die to a maximum of three others.
FLIP TURN
TYPE: WATER
RANKING: 2/5
DESCRIPTION: After making their attack, the user rushes back to switch places with a party
member in waiting.
BATON PASS
TYPE: NORMAL
RANKING: 2/5
DESCRIPTION: The user switches places with a party member in waiting and passes along any
stat changes.
RAGING FURY
TYPE: FIRE
RANKING: 3/5
DESCRIPTION: The user rampages and spews vicious flames to inflict damage on the target,
then becomes fixated on using this move.
WATER SPORT
TYPE: WATER
RANKING: 3/5
DESCRIPTION: Weakens Fire-type attacks while the user is in battle.
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