Ten-ton Flying Bison Airlines (Betaed)

Michael smiled and tossed the last T-shirt into his bag. He took one last look at the place that had served as his room for the last half-year and sighed. He didn't want to admit it, but it was difficult for him to part with this place, even if he didn't consider it his home.

He sighed heavily and went toward Appa's resting place. Michael was enjoying the final moments at the Temple; he would not be able to return here and he knew it very well. He would have continued to walk slowly and stare at the sites if not for Momo who jumped on his back. The lemur climbed onto his shoulder and looked closely at Michael's face.

He poked Michael in the cheek. Michael swatted his fingers away. "What?" Momo shook his head and patted him on the head. He just laughed and continued walking forward, no longer slowing his step. "Thanks, buddy, I needed that." He murmured to Momo. The lemur puffed his chest and chittered. Michael chuckled.

After a couple of minutes, Michael finally stepped into the courtyard where others were waiting for him. Apparently they got bored while he was packing and found various ways to deal with it.

Katara was trying to Bend some snow with little success. Aang was cooing at Appa to calm him down, and Sokka was checking the group's supplies for the trip. Michael just stood there and took them in. Seeing the characters from the show he watched as a child as living, breathing people was rather strange, but Michael adapted quickly. Now, this was his life and he accepted it.

He cleared his throat and put on his cockiest smirk. "Hey, little ones! Ready for the ride?" He tossed his bag onto the seat on Appa's back and turned to others.

Aang nodded his head excitingly. "Yep! The North awaits us!" He jumped on Appa's head and took the ropes that served as reins. Katara sighed heavily and let the snow fall to the ground. She glared at it, huffing. Michael noticed this and decided to talk to her when they were in the air.

Sokka was quite happy, with Michael's help, they were able to collect enough fruit and poultry meat to last at least a week. Michael, on the other hand, was jumpy and looked with apprehension at the birds. He didn't want to piss them off. Feathery bastards.

The birds didn't care about the death of their kind, but if you did something that really annoyed them, then you were truly fucked. A prime example of this was found in a library, buried under a dune, but that was a story that Michael would take to his grave.

Michael helped Katara climb onto Appa and in one jump was in the seat himself. He leaned forward to rest his chin on Aang's shoulder. "Where to, captain?" His mood was much better than before so his serious facade began to gradually crack.

Aang snorted and pushed Michael's face away. "Where the wind will take us! Yip-yip!" He commanded and flicked the ropes lightly. Appa rose gracefully into the air. Michael could hardly restrain himself from screaming from excitement. He had been waiting for this moment for more than six months and he was figuring out that he liked flying! Like, really fucking much.

He gazed at the slowly shrinking temple which had served him as a shelter for a long time until it was gone from his view. Momo nuzzled into his cheek and squeaked, eyes huge and ears up. Michael scratched the lemur behind his ear without taking his eyes off the mountains. "You will come back here someday, don't worry, Momo." He assured.

Katara heard his words but seemingly decided not to ask about it. Like she knew he was hiding something and was wary to try and ask him about it. Or maybe she just didn't want to piss him off after his crushing success over Aang. But she wasn't quiet for long. She cleared her throat and put on a friendly smile. "So, where are you from, Michael? I've never seen clothes like yours."

Michael, who was sprawled on his back, lazily shifted his back under his head to get more comfortable and smirked. "Hmm... The easiest way to put this is that I was not born among other nations. My hometown was pretty big, but for the life of me, I can't recall the name. When I woke up in the Temple, I realized that I don't have most of my memories. What about you three? Judging by your clothes, you and your brother grew up at the South Pole, and Aang grew up here."

Sokka nodded as he dug into his bag, searching for something. "Yes, we don't have many stories to tell. When you're growing up in a small village, life quickly gets boring." Katara smiled mischievously and glanced at her brother.

"Oh, I don't know. How about that incident with the three penguins?" Sokka immediately dropped everything and looked at Katara with horror.

He pointed his finger at her and hised. "You swore not to tell anyone about this!" Katara raised her hands as a sign of peace, still smiling.

"Okay, okay, I won't tell. It's just proof that life there wasn't that boring." Michael slowly turned his head at Sokka and raised an eyebrow.

"What have you done to the poor, innocent penguins?" He asked. Sokka threw his hand up.

"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" He yelled, glaring at them all. Even Momo looked at Sokka dubiously.

Michael snorted. "Sure, you didn't..." Sokka decided to move the topic and save himself from shame.

"So, what's the deal with your hands? Anger issues?"

Katara gasped and put her hands on her hips. "Sokka! How can you ask something like that? He will tell you if he's comfortable with it!" She scolded and sent an apologetic look to Michael.

Michael was silent for a couple of minutes while Katara ripped Sokka a new one for his rudeness. When her face started looking a little too red he interrupted her. "Katara, it's okay, I got used to it a long time ago."

He unwound the bandages on one of his arms and showed everyone the terrible scars that were left on it. It was a little ironic. All his life he received scars, his whole body was covered with them, except for his hand, in fact, precisely because it simply did not exist. And now, it was exactly the opposite. His hand looked like a piece of modern art. Just as creepy and incomprehensible.

Katara stared at it in shock, her hand covering her mouth and trembling slightly. She had seen how terrible the consequences of war could be, but this was the first time she came across something like that. She couldn't even begin to imagine what could have happened to cause this.

Michael shrugged, poking one of the scars. "I got it at the age of six. I don't remember exactly how I got these scars, but they still hurt sometimes. Zero out of ten, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone." He grimaced.

Sokka leaned closer. "How are you even moving it? It looks like meat paste!" He exclaimed, unconsciously touching his own arm. Michael rolled his eyes and flicked his hand at Sokka, shooting a weak air blast in his face. Sokka's hair fell from his tail and into his face. He spluttered and glared at Michael.

Michael snorted. "A shit-ton of recovery training and direct nerve endings healing. Though, it hurts like a bitch every time I strain it too much." He fisted his hand then slowly relaxed it. Others gave each other side glances, trying to figure out if one of them knew what nerve endings were. Michael noticed it and let out a long breath. "This is going to be a long conversation."

After a long lecture on the biology of the human body, Michael decided to spare his companions and turn the conversation to a more pleasant topic. "Katara, how do you use Waterbending?" She blinked at the unexpected question but quickly gathered herself.

"Well, Gran Gran tried to teach me the old method of Waterbending from our tribe, but I don't think I understood her correctly. It's best to learn from a Master, and, well, we have none." She said, Michael shook his head and leaned forward.

"That's not what I meant. I can't teach you the technical aspect, so I'll teach you the emotional one. How do you feel when you command water?" He snapped his fingers and a thin line of water appeared. It slowly swirled around his finger. "What are your thoughts?"

Katara gaped a bit, then straightened her shoulders and opened her flask. She began to raise and lower her arms and the water followed her movements. But it was shaky and jerky. She frowned. "I focus on the water, on its condition, on how to control its flow. I think about the times when I used Waterbending before to remember my feelings at that moment." With the last words, Katara's concentration broke and water fell in a huge puddle, splattering everyone around. Michael chuckled and summoned it back, returning it to the flask.

He leaned forward and took it from Katara. "I see a teeny-tiny problem with that." Katara frowned at his words. "It's not that your thinking is completely wrong," Michael assured, "it just won't work for a beginner Waterbender."

Michael drew more water from the atmosphere around him, making Aang, Sokka, and Katara gape at him. Smirking, Michael let the water fly around them in shiny circles, light reflecting from it and creating tiny rainbows.

Katara reached out to touch it. "How did you do it? Where did it come from?" She asked in obvious awe. A thin line broke from the major circle and wrapped itself around her wrist. Katara giggled, touching the water.

"I just collected the amount that was in the air. The clouds around us are made of water and something else, I don't remember, I slept through that lesson. In any case, I am not trying to command the water, I am directing it. I am not focused, I let my thoughts flow- Okay, this sounds too generic. In short, I keep my mind flexible and I only think about how water can help me in the task at hand. It's almost the same with air, but I'm not going to explain that now."

There was a slight silence in the air which was broken by Aang.

"This is so cool! You should definitely teach us this technique!"

Michael smiled and nodded as he laughed viciously in a dark corner of his mind.

'Avatar Ultra, the first step has been taken.'

-=-=-=-=-=-

A few days after Michael's lecture on nerve endings and the human body, Avatar's crew finally began flying towards Kyoshi Island. Of course, only Aang - because he flew there - and Michael knew about it - because he knew what would happen in the future.

They stopped on random islands to collect food and water - this caused Zuko's rage on his ship, but only he and his uncle knew about it... Well, them and Michael.

Katara and Michael were sewing holes in their clothes - Michael accidentally tore his last clean T-shirt - while Sokka and Aang were busy with their own business. The Southern Water Tribe teenager stared at the map in front of him with great doubt as the Avatar stirred Appa in... some direction.

Appa himself was a little dirty after their last pit stop. They were suddenly caught in the rain, so the team had to quickly find cover. Appa was too big to hide in the cave that Katara found, but he didn't care much about the rain.

Finally, Sokka folded the map and looked at the bald Avatar.

"You have no idea where you're going, do you?"

Michael paused for a second, recognizing Sokka's words, but immediately resumed sewing. Aang glanced over his shoulder and smiled brightly at his friend.

"Well... I know it's near water."

Sokka looked down from Appa's back to the sea below them.

"I guess we're getting close then."

"We are."

The siblings looked at Michael, who was not even distracted from his work, in confusion. No one knew how he could hold a thin needle with his right hand (bandages helped him a lot) and no one knew how he knew some things.

"Damn, I'm out of bandages..."

"Okay genius, how do you know this?"

Michael looked at Sokka with confusion.

"I used the last roll after the rain...?"

"No, not that! How do you know we're close?"

Katara decided that this was another time Michael decided to joke around and went back to sewing and trying to steal a glimpse of Michael's bare chest when she thought no one was looking.

"Did I say something about that? I'm pretty sure I was silent."

"You fu- you know what? Forget it."

It should be noted that Michael decided not to restrain himself and swore as much as he wanted, so the Avatar team gradually began to pick up his foul words. Katara was not amused.

Michael decided to follow Katara's lead and continue sewing. Aang, seeing that the girl was not in the best mood, decided to cheer her up and turned to Momo who was sitting on his shoulder.

"Momo, marbles please."

Lemur dived into his T-shirt and appeared with several gray marbles. Aang scratched behind Momo's ear and took the marbles from his paws.

"Hey Katara, check out this Airbending trick!"

The Marbles in his hands began to spin as if caught in a small hurricane. Michael glanced at his attempt to impress Katara and snorted.

'The kid is only twelve, what did I expect?'

Still focused on sewing, Katara didn't even look at Aang.

"That's great, Aang."

The Avatar's shoulders dropped in disappointment.

"You didn't even look..."

Noticing the problem, Katara looked towards Aang and tried to speak with enthusiasm.

"That's great!"

Aang looked like a kicked puppy.

"But I'm not doing it now."

Meanwhile, Michael mentally screamed, he never liked such silly arguments.

'Lord, I'll have to endure this for the next few days. Jasmine, give me strength.'