chapter 2

Ryga wasn't sure why, but the one thing he'd always gotten hung up on while watching

Avatar was the fact that so many animals were just... normal Earth animals with a few more

limbs. Something about it was just immersion-breaking somehow, almost lazy.

Now, though, sledding down a hill with Aang and Katara on a six-finned penguin, Ryga

couldn't bring himself to be upset about it. And the extra fins definitely made the sledding a lot

smoother, so who was he to complain?

"I haven't done this since I was a kid!" Katara shouted.

Ryga smiled, suddenly glad he was lagging behind them - nobody could see him mouth

along with what he knew Aang would say next: "You are a kid!" Something about that short,

meaningless exchange had always seemed so sad to him - Katara was only fourteen, but with

their parents gone, she and her brother both felt the burdens of adulthood. Then again, now that

he existed in their world, it was probably out of bounds to psychoanalyze them.

Their penguins skidded to a stop, Aang coming in (an entirely unfair) first place, Katara

close behind, Ryga right on her tail. Right before the Fire Nation ship.

Ryga's skin crawled.t

Part of it was seeing all the deadly weaponry surrounding him up close, as well as the

knowledge that they were about to summon a real, actual army right to Katara's home. He

wanted to warn them, stop them from activating the trap, but knew he couldn't. If he did, things

would go beyond the bounds of what he could predict. The whole series would play out

differently, and probably much worse.

That was part of what was freaking him out so much... but moreso, it was the deja vu of

it all. The living not just in a world he'd seen through a screen, but in the actual, exact events.

Having the ability to change them... it was bizarre, and terrifying, and Ryga wasn't sure he

wanted any part in it.

At least all the introspection meant he didn't have to fake his disbelieving sorrow at the

revelation that he and Aang had been in the iceberg for a hundred years. He jumped when

Katara put a hand on his shoulder. "Ryga? Are you okay?"

Ryga tried to calm his racing heart. "Yeah. Just... it's kind of a lot to take in."

"I understand." Her voice was full of sympathy, and Ryga couldn't help but hate himself

for lying to her, for knowing that there was no choice but to lie to her. "Well, let's keep going,

okay?"

"Yeah."

The whole village, circled around the three of them, glaring almost murderously. Ryga

pulled the hood of the parka Katara had loaned him over his head - his only method of escape.

He felt evil.

He could've changed the outcome, stopped the trap from going off, prevented Aang from

being cast out even temporarily. Their downcast, tearful expressions as Sokka shouted, called

Aang a traitor... it was all his fault.

It was for the greater good. This was the only way to kickstart the plot. They were sad

now, but their adventure was soon to begin, and it would all be worth it... right?

"The foreigners are banished from our village!"

Wait... foreigners? As in plural?

Oh shit.

Yup, he'd completely failed to take into account that he and Aang were both strangers to

the Water Tribe. And that meant…

"No!" Ryga shouted. His face burned as every furious gaze was suddenly directed his

way, but he kept going. "Look, the Fire Nation is gonna be here any second, right? Aang and I

can help you fight them off! He's the -" Avatar, but they didn't know that yet, shit, change course

"- last Airbender!" Saved it. "And me... I'm not even really sure what I can do yet, but if there's

anything I can do to help, I want to do it. We owe you that much."

"Ha!" Sokka shouted. "Yeah, right! And who are you gonna be helping? The Fire

Nation?"

Ryga's eyes stung. Why was he doing this? He knew there would be no convincing

Sokka, that the other boy was quick to anger and slow to trust. "They told you, didn't they? Aang

and Katara - they set it off by accident!"

"Oh yeah? Well, why were you all out there in the first place?"

Ryga's voice died to a self-conscious whisper. "...penguin-sledding..."

"Out!" Sokka yelled, and Ryga couldn't even really blame him.

Ryga was brooding.

That probably wasn't the most productive use of his time, but when you were curled up

with a flying bison at the bottom of an icicle formation far away from the people who needed

your help, there wasn't exactly much more you could do.

Any second now, Aang would look over and spot the Fire Nation ship. He'd run off to

save the village... but would he do it alone? What if he left Ryga behind? And Ryga wasn't

nearly as good of a penguin sledder as Aang was. What if he didn't make it in time to help, or

worse, plowed over Aang trying to get there?

In this situation, what could someone like him, who couldn't even bend, do to help?

The white dot was flashing.

It had been flashing for a while, since the ship actually, but Ryga had been too anxious

about progressing the story to check the menu. Now, he felt like kind of an idiot for not thinking

of it earlier.

He braced himself, hit the button, and sure enough, the extremely out-of-place confetti

stream appeared over the frozen world. He tapped the screen to claim his rewards for kicking off

the plot - two Skill Tickets, and... a Summon Ticket.

The Skill Tickets he decided immediately would go to another Water skill. But the

Summon Ticket... the Summon Wheel had been locked. He clicked over to it, expecting more

Type-based wheels (for actual Pokemon, probably). Instead, he got five wheels of varying

levels, 1/5 to 5/5, starting at 1 ticket and growing more expensive by one for each wheel.

Checking the fine print, he saw that 1/5 contained mostly Pokemon with a sum stat value of less

than or equal to 200, with a chance for any Pokemon from the next tier. "Fantastic," Ryga

muttered. "My only option is some random, low-power Pokemon that probably won't be helpful

at all." He probably didn't have a right to complain in this situation - he was already getting so

much more than he'd bargained for out of life just in the half day he'd spent in the Avatar world but the System was starting to get frustrating. "Might as well spin the stupid wheel." He clicked,

inserted a ticket, the wheel spun around…

"Rookidee." Huh, better than expected. Looked like that one was actually ranked 2/5.

"Lucky me." The screen only showed a still image of the Rookidee, but when he clicked to the

Summons sub-menu, he almost jumped. It looked... real. Like it was about to fly right out at him.

"CHEEP!"

This time, Ryga actually did jump. "Geez..." He couldn't help but laugh. "Hey, li'l buddy."

He reached out, and to his amazement, the Rookidee actually tilted its head toward his hand,

closing its eyes in contentment as he ran his hand down its feathers. "What do you do?"

The Rookidee hopped toward the corner of his vision and pecked at a button in the lower

left corner: SUMMON. Ryga clicked it... and nothing happened. "Great. I bought the world's

loudest NFT."

"CHEEP!!"

He hurriedly exited out of the Summons menu, and the CHEEP-ing stopped. "Thank

God." And he still had two more skill tickets to spend.

He scrolled to the Water wheel... then hesitated. He already had a Water skill. Did he

want to blend in as just an ordinary Waterbender, or...?

Well, he would have to diversify his skills eventually. He clicked one more time and spun

the Fire wheel.

"Raging Fury!" Finally, a good attack-based skill. "Not quite sure what 'fixation' would

mean in this context, but at least I don't have to run away right after." He clicked to accept the

skill and grinned despite himself. "Time to go save the Water Tribe."

He closed out of the menu, and -

"CHEEP!!!!!"

Ryga stared at the Rookidee. There it was, in the real world. Fluttering around his head.

Cheeping like a goddamn lunatic. He'd somehow summoned a real, actual Pokemon into the

world of Avatar.

"What was that?" Aang slid down the ice formation and stared wide-eyed at the bird

excitedly circling Ryga. "Wow! Where'd he come from?"

"I don't know," Ryga said. He held out his arm, and the Rookidee settled onto it. "He just

kinda... appeared."

"CHEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!"

Aang put his hands over his ears. "Man, that thing is loud. Could you, like, quiet it down

somehow?"

"One sec." Quick navigation into the menu, and sure enough, the SUMMON button had

been replaced with RECAPTURE. He hit it, returned to the real world - the Rookidee was gone.

Aang was looking around in confusion. "Where'd it go? Aww, I'm sorry, little bird! I didn't

mean to hurt your feelings!"

Ryga smiled. "It'll be back." That he was certain of.

Aang nodded, still looking sad. Then, suddenly, his attention fixed on something over

Ryga's shoulder, and he gasped. "The village..."

Ryga didn't have to look to know that it was a Fire Navy ship approaching. Aang nodded

at him, he nodded back, and once he'd taken a second to deal with the chills that

climactic-feeling moment had sent down his spine, he ran after the other boy.

Penguin-sledding on its own was already pretty great. It was even better, though, when

you were using it as a vehicle for heroic rescue.

Aang skidded down the hill, knocking Zuko off his feet with ease. Ryga was close

behind. Rookidee fluttered around his head - Ryga had resummoned him on the way down. He

leapt off his penguin and, remembering the instructions from the Controls menu, reached his

hand out towards Zuko and flicked it to the side. A perfectly round glob of water the size of his

head shot from his wrist, hitting Zuko in the face before he had a chance to counter with fire. He

heard Katara gasp, and he grinned like an idiot to himself. For the first time in my life, I

impressed a girl! Aang rushed forward and split a flame column in half with his airbending, and

Ryga realized he had jumped back without realizing it. So that's how Flip Turn works - once I

start using it, I'm actually forced backwards. Rookidee flew around Zuko, cheeping and pecking

at him until Zuko finally landed a blast on him, and he fell to the ground, unmoving. Shit.

Ryga paused for a second to check the Summons menu. Thank God, it looked like

Rookidee had just fainted. Would've been a total waste of a ticket. According to the 'fainted'

status description, with enough rest, he'd recover enough to be summoned again - and it looked

like he'd gained a bit of experience from the battle, too. Neat.

Unpaused, and Zuko was gearing up for another blast. Ryga flicked his wrist again, but it

met Zuko's flame midway and evaporated them both. Aang, meanwhile, was looking down at

the empty snow where the Rookidee had fallen (apparently fainting was an automatic

recapture), a resigned look on his face. And oh, shit, Ryga remembered what came next.

"Stop!" Aang shouted, and Zuko paused, staring him down. "If I go with you, do you

promise to leave these people alone?"

"I promise," Zuko assured him. He gestured to his guards, and they grabbed Aang,

escorting him into the ship.

You don't have to feel bad about this one. If you'd kept fighting, the Fire Nation would've

destroyed the whole village. Following the plot was the safest option, and you, Sokka, and

Katara will be going after him in a minute anyway.

But the heartbreak on Katara's face, the shock and fury on Sokka's... Ryga couldn't help

but hate himself for not doing more.

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