(This book will play out much like a Season 1, in such that each episode will be a chapter of a 'book'. However, each 'chapter' will have multiple parts to cover a full Avatar Episode.)
"Thank you again, truly we would've never seen our families again without your help."
They were outside a small village, The Rust Bucket parked just outside the outer walls, and the girls that had been rescued were now fully clothed and bowing their thanks to Team Avatar.
A few days ago, the ship of Shivura had flown over and captured a number of the girls while all any could do was watch in horror.
"Truly, it is a miracle among miracles, never did I imagine the allies of the Avatar would show up to save us." said the village elder, bowing to Katara in gratitude. "Many of our daughters returned, it is truly a blessed day, we are in your debt."
"Really, it wasn't me." Katara. "The thanks you've given is owed to Ben over there, he's the one who saved them, who saved me."
Katara looked back at where Ben was showing Sokka all the wonders of the Rust Bucket.
("And here, is the fridge, it keeps all our food cold and preserves it."
"No way! Now you'll tell me there's a method to heat up the food again."
"Sokka, would you like to see our microwave?"
"That's it.. I LOVE RUST BUCKET!!")
"Girls between 5 to 18 years in age, all of them." Katara murmured. "I have to admit it's quite strange. "
"Truly, though not as strange as this hero." said the Elder. "To defeat a foe that even the Avatar could not defeat. Truly the beings from eons past must have been great. Do you have any sort of plan?"
"Well now that we have a way to transport our way across the globe without a Flying Bison, I think we can make it Fire Lord Zuko's War Camp." said Katara.
"That is a dangerous journey, even with air travel on your side." said the Elder. "The airspace of nearly every Lady controlled town is filled with those wretched flying ships. And many within these towns have been influenced to worship the Ladies, their children reeducated, remnants of loyalists to Fire Lord Ozai made to believe that the Matriarch is their savior goddess."
"We'll be careful." Katara promised, bowing her head to the Elder.
"Take what supplies you need." said the Elder. "And fly fast, rumor is we aren't the first to have our young women taken from us. You and the Earth Bender are in grave danger."
After Katara said goodbye to the Elder, she walked back to the Rust Bucket and stepped inside.
She never really got to have a proper look at the vehicle before.
The rectangular dining table, cushioned chairs, curtains adorning the interior windows, bunk beds in back. The style of the inside was something Katara guessed had to be akin to the home interior's of Ben's era, the curtains for one, with their grid-like patterns, looked very strange.
It must've been lonely, being the last of his culture. Knowing how Aang had to deal with being the last of the Air Nomads, Katara was sure that Ben would have to eventually come to terms with being the last of an entire world of people.
Though for now, he seemed positively cheerful.
"Alright, so time to go out and save the world!" Ben said, jumping into the RV's driver seat with a grin. "I mean this isn't the first time I've gone on a cross country road trip to fight evil, you could say its a regular thing! HAHA! Whoo! So where are we going?"
"Well, we're headed to the unconquered portion of the Fire Nation, so we'll need to cross a good amount of the Earth Kingdom before crossing the Ocean." said Katara.
"Right, which way is that?" Ben asked.
"West!" said Sokka. "Go get em Ben! Fire up that Rust Bucket and Yip Yip Appa us out of here-!"
"Great, which way is West?" Ben asked.
Everyone stared at Ben.
"Look, I don't exactly have a compass here guys." said Ben. "Plus I'm 10 million years old, and this map is doing NOTHING for me."
"Map?" said Katara.
Ben jabbed a thumb on the dash board, and a holographic rectangle ignited. On it was a map of continents that Katara didn't recognize at all.
"What is-?" Katara stammered. "I don't recognize those places at all."
"Exactly." said Ben. "The Rust Bucket runs on alien auto mapping technology. You load in an existing map and then the Plumber Terrain scanner matches the terrain to the map to create an active autopilot system that can take us anywhere on said map. Problem is the terrain matches nothing at all."
"Well that makes sense." said Sokka. "Millions of years of Erosion and continental drift means that the planet's definitely changed. Just like how your home town is now a mountain range for the Eastern Air Temple."
"Well without Autopilot, I can't get us anywhere." Ben said. "I don't have the know how to pilot Rust Bucket manually. Last time I drove a ship Kevin legit told me: 'Never again.'.
Ben's face suddenly fell. "Oh, yeah, Kevin. Huh.."
"Right, so a map!" Katara exclaimed. "That should be our first priority, I mean I'm pretty sure none of us here can drive this thing very well in the air."
Ben didn't need to come to terms so early, best keep him busy.
"After Sokka's first time- no way am I trying that again." said Toph as she jumped back onto the Rust Bucket's bottom bunk.
"I mean, this thing's got wheels right? Its supposed to move on the ground." said Sokka.
"Trust me, flight is NOT a regular feature of most motor homes." said Ben. "She can run all terrain no problem."
"Or you could use the big four armed dude and carry it!" said Sokka.
"Ben's not a machine Sokka, we can't just get him to be a work horse or- what are you doing?" Katara folded her arms and glared as she watched Sokka pulling open various drawers and scrounging through them. "Sokka! This is Ben's Grandpa's home!"
"So?" said Sokka as he put on an red buttoned shirt with flowers that was obviously way too big for him. "it's not like he's alive anymore right?"
Ben's shoulders dipped as he slumped back in the driver's seat. Katara could see his face reflected in the vehicle's dashboard window.
Sokka blinked obliviously. "Why's everyone so quiet- ow!!"
Toph had just tossed a basketball that had been buried in the back of the bed at Sokka's head. "Read the room doofus."
"Lets just get to the nearest village." said Katara, putting a hand on Ben's shoulder. "The dirt road here should be wide enough for the Rust Bucket. The next village over is one of the Fire Nation colonies, I'm sure they have some top notch cartographers there."
"Alright." Ben said as he pulled out some keys from under the dashboard and started the engine.
The Rust Bucket veered onto the main path and began driving its way down the road, going around 40 miles per hour through the vast valleys of the land.
"Whoa, we're going fast!" said Toph.
"Yeah, at this rate we'll get there by noon!" Sokka exclaimed.
"Well it is a car." said Ben. "After Automobiles were invented, journeys that took days in ancient times suddenly only took a few hours. Humans expanded all across the globe, and even going to different continents only tended to take 10 to 15 hours thanks to airplanes. "
"It sounds like something that's supposed to be in the future and not the past." said Katara. "Why did all of it disappear?"
"Who knows?" Ben muttered. "I don't even know what I was doing in that cryosleep chamber, or even what that ship that you found me in was. I don't remember anything. And the Omnitrix doesn't seem to recognize the Ladies either. I scanned their DNA and for some reason, it couldn't make heads or tails of it all, as if something had corrupted it somehow. Otherwise I might've gained the ability to turn into a male version of their species."
"Not like we've ever seen a guy version of them before." said Toph as she began using something she found in a back drawer to scrape her feet. "I mean it makes sense I guess."
"Uhh, please don't use my Grandpa's back scratcher on your feet." Ben muttered, looking at Toph through the rearview mirror.
"The Omnitrix." said Katara, desperate to get Ben's mind off of his obviously dead grandfather. "You never really explained what that was."
"It's the source of my power, the most advanced tech in the Universe, well known universe." said Ben. "It stores DNA of over a million aliens and allows me to turn into them. It was made by Azmuth, the smartest being in five galaxies."
"So you can use that thing to turn into a million aliens?" said Sokka as he took out what appeared to be a large metal gun of some sort from a secret compartment under the stove. "No wonder your transformations all look so weird!"
"That's.. cool!" said Katara. "And Sokka, put that back it might be dangerous."
"Dangerous? This belongs to his grandpa! Why would it be dan-." Sokka began.
"That thing could probably disintegrate you into a pile of ash." said Ben.
"Right, it's dangerous.." Sokka said nervously as he gingerly slid the alien ray gun back into its compartment. "But seriously, Katara's right, I mean that is SOO cool! Like that Fragon Guy! And Four Arms, legit cool! You've gotta let us take that thing for a spin!"
"Probably not a good idea." said Ben. "Plus this thing doesn't come off, it only listens to me, that's how Azmuth made it, this version anyways."
" The power to turn into super powered aliens, gotta admit, we've seen weird, but you are officially the weirdest." said Toph. "So you use this crap to save the world Monster Kid?"
"Yeah, regularly." said Ben with a shrug. "Not to brag but I'm kind of a legend in the Universe at large. Though maybe everyone's forgotten me after 10 million years."
"The Lady knew you, Shivura of the Fire Nation conquerers." said Katara. "You must've done some amazing things."
Ben grinned. "Well, I'd brag but, I used to have a pretty big head that got me into tons of trouble thanks to that, so I'll leave my adventures for another time. Right now we're going to forge a new adventure! Yeah! Just wait till I tell Gwen about this one! She's gonna freak when she finds out that I've been asleep for ten... ten.. million.. years."
"Ha, whoever that is she's most likely dead too." said Sokka with a shrug.
Sokka let out a yell as Toph hurled an entire minifridge into his face.
"I'm all alone, aren't I?" Ben murmured.
Katara squeezed Ben's shoulder as she plopped down in the shotgun seat. "No, you have us. I know we've only known each other for a day and a half, but, we understand where you're coming from. My- friend- Aang, went through the same thing."
"You found a guy who was ten million years out of place after being frozen?" Ben muttered.
"Well it was a hundred years, but he was frozen." said Katara.
Ben blinked, looking stunned. "Wait, I'm the SECOND frozen guy you've ever found!?"
"Yeah! And also the SECOND Frozen guy who might save the world!" said Sokka with a laugh. "Imagine that right? I'm already picturing what our third frozen guy's gonna be like!"
"The difference is, that Aang was the Avatar, the guardian of this world, the only bender capable of bending all four elements." said Katara. "The Avatar is basically somebody whose a bridge between both the spirits and our world. He's reincarnated through the four nations with the death of each avatar, each time reborn in a cycle, to help keep balance over the world."
"Whoa, so he's like MADE to be this world's super hero." said Ben. "You guys knew him personally?"
"Would you like to hear the story?" Katara asked, smiling kindly at Ben.
"Well I could use a bit of a tale to keep me awake and focused on the road." said Ben. "Sure, shoot."
Katara nodded and began to narrate. "Once, the Four Nations lived together in Harmoney, but everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished..."
The sun was high in the sky by the time the Rust Bucket neared its first village.
"So let me get this straight." Ben said as he drove towards what appeared to be a large wooden gate. "What happened to Zuko's mom?"
"She got remarried and had another kid." said Katara. "We had this whole thing where we had to track her down."
"Uhh, guys." Sokka said. "We might want to stop."
Ben put his foot on the brakes as the Rust Bucket skidded to a stop.
There were tons of men in strange outfits. Loose fitting pants with pony tailed heads, as well as face paint and golden shoulder adornments. The head of them had a beard, a large belly, and like him, his tribesmen were mostly shirtless with golden arm bands.
All of them had their fists at ready with fire balls floating just inches away from said fists.
"They look like a cross between Chinese people and Aztecs." Ben muttered.
"Sun Warriors!" Katara exclaimed.
"Wait, like the guys that Zuko and Aang learned the life thingy about fire? And met the dragons?" Ben said. "Favorite part of the story by the way."
"What are Sun Warriors doing in a Fire Nation Colony?" said Toph, looking surprised.
"They don't look friendly." said Ben.
"Well we did just roll up in a large metal box on giant wheels." said Sokka. "For all they know ol' Rusty could be a war machine."
"Ol' Rusty?" Ben muttered.
"Let me handle this guys!" said Sokka, as he opened the door of the RV and started to step outside. "I'll let em know we're the good guys here!"
"Sokka, I'm not sure you're the best-." Katara began.
"Have a little faith sis! I'm the de-facto ambassador for Team Avatar!"
"Is it even Team Avatar without the Avatar?" Toph muttered.
"We're STILL Team Avatar!" said Sokka. "And we still will be when we get Aang back!"
"IF we get Aang back. " said Toph.
Ben watched as Sokka determinedly looked away from Toph and headed outside. His heart felt heavy now. This wasn't like Earth millions of years ago anymore. He wasn't the hero now. The real hero was gone somewhere. He just happened to be a lucky survivor.
When Aang awoke in the world, he was relied on and supported to save the world.
When Ben awoke, he was just playing substitute teacher, and still nobody knew a god dang thing about him.
It felt a bit intimidating in all honesty.
"Hello!" Sokka exclaimed, as he walked out to the Sun Warriors. He spoke loudly and slowly, as if conversing with somebody who was hard of hearing.
He made big motions with his arms, as if trying to pantomine what he said.
"WE... FRIENDS! ME-!" Sokka pointed to himself in an extremely obvious manner. "SOKKA!"
The Sun warriors looked at each other, raising eyebrows.
"WE NEED MAP!" Sokka said. "MAP FOR FLYING BOX! BOX.. FLY!"
Sokka put his arms out and started making motor noises as he ran around, flapping his arms. "Vrrrrmmm Vrrrrmmmm Wooosssshhh woooooosh!"
"Young man, are you alright?" Asked the leader at the front.
"Uhhhhh.." Sokka skidded to a halt. "Yeah, can we come in? We need a cartographer."
"Are you affiliated in any way with the Ladies of the Matriarch?" asked the chief.
"No?"
"Then you may come in." said the Chief with a smile.
"Really?!"
"No, that was a joke." said the Chief.
"Oh." said Sokka.
"Funny wasn't it?"
"Hilarious."
"Then laugh!" said the Chief "Haha.. ahaaaa!"
"Ha.. ha.. ha.." Sokka grinned nervously.
"Your strange machine places much suspicion upon you. The people of this village requested our help to protect them, and we have given them our oath." said the Sun Warrior chief. "It is well known that the Ladies of the Matriarch use metal machines to do their bidding. If you wish to dismiss all suspicions placed upon you, you must prove yourself to be allies."
"Well we're friends with Avatar Aang!" said Sokka. "You might've heard of me! Sokka of the Water Tribe? Great warrior? Son of Hakoda? Ehh? Ehh? "
Sokka grinned and elbowed the chief, wiggling his eyebrows.
"If you are indeed who you claim to be, then you must prove it by answering these questions three." said the Chief. "First! What is your name?"
"Uhh, Sokka of the Water Tribe?" Sokka said.
"Second! What is your quest!?"
"Find Aang, save the world." said Sokka.
"Third! What... is your favorite color!?" exclaimed the chief.
Sokka blinked. "Uhhhh.. blue?"
"You have passed." said the chief.
Sokka grinned widely and shot a double thumbs up at his friends in the Rust Bucket.
Ben, Katara and Toph grinned back at him, all holding thumbs up as Ben said quietly- "He's like a smart idiot isn't he?"
"Yep." said Katara as she continued to nod at Sokka with her feigned smile.
A little later, The Rust Bucket was safely stowed away in one of the barns with several livestock, including the fluffy Koala Sheep which were basically sheep with Koala's faces as the team met with the Chief of the Sun Warriors and the Village leader in the main house at the end of the small walled off village.
"It really does look Asian." Ben murmured as he sat on the wooden floor and looked at the curved bamboo roofs of the village houses. "Maybe whatever happened, it was Asian people who mainly survived?"
"My dear boy, what did you say?" asked the bearded Village Leader.
"Nothing, nothing." Ben said quickly. "Thanks for your hospitality."
"Mention nothing of it." said the Village Head. "Any friends of the Avatar are friends of ours. We heard of your exploits during the hundred year war. The brave Sokka, the beautiful Katara, the greatest Earth Bender Toph, and of course, you, Momo the valiant."
Ben blinked and looked around. "Wait, me? Whose Momo?"
"Momo's a flying Lemur." said Katara with a snigger.
"Was he!?" said the Sun Warrior Chief. "Then, who is this one? I met Zuko and he's obviously not Zuko!"
"I'm Ben, I'm new." said Ben with a shrug.
"Such strange clothing." said the Village Leader. "Forgive me. I suppose you must not be from around here."
"None of us usually are." said Katara. "Anyways, as I was saying, our machine, the Rust Bucket, needs a map if we're going to get to Lord Zuko before the end of the year. If you could find us a cartographer, we would be in your debt-."
"I'm afraid our cartographer has not been seen for quite a while." said the Village Leader. "Yanxing, our lead map maker, like so many others, has been taken to the Spirit World."
There was a shocked silence.
"What?" said Katara. "Taken to the Spirit World?"
"That is why we are here." said the Sun Warrior Chief. "Our people are of a spiritual sort, well versed in the spiritual arts much like the Air Acolytes trained by Avatar Aang. We heard that there were people in distress since the Avatar's absence due to the imbalance of the world caused by the Ladies of the Matriarch. A rogue Spirit for this past month, has been taking villagers, attacking. This includes the cartographer you need."
"We call him Haipa, the Spirit of Fear itself. He is a shadowy thing that lives on pure malice. And the closer it gets to the Solstice, I fear it will only get worse." said the Village Leader.
"I guess we'll have to move on and find another village then." said Sokka.
"Wait, aren't we going to try and help these people?" Katara asked.
"Yeah, I mean, I did agree to do my kick ass job and save peeps and stuff." said Ben. "I'm Ben 10 remember?"
"Taking care of spirits, keeping world balance, doing wonky bending stuff and keeping the world at peace is an Avatar job." said Sokka. "So are you telling me that you can go to the spirit world, make peace with the spirits and become the bridge between both worlds?"
Ben opened his mouth, then closed it. "Uhhh.."
"Exactly." said Sokka. "Look I admit. You're scary strong! Your aliens are cool looking! But you're not a substitute Avatar. You're our ticket to fighting the Ladies till we find Aang, and then when we have Aang you'll become a side character like the rest of us."
"Sokka!" Katara said, glaring at her brother.
"It's true!" said Sokka. "Look he might have been a hero back in his era, but he's not replacing Aang! He seems like a nice guy, and frankly his powers are so amazing I'm jealous! But a guy like him can't hope to do what Aang did! The world needs the Avatar, not a Monster Transforming Super Guy! He's our ticket to finding the guy we need, that's all!"
"That's not true! I miss Aang more than anybody, but Ben's-." Katara began.
"-Not the guy we need right now." said Toph.
Toph folded her arms as Katara went into a shocked silence. "Look, I get it, I witnessed Ben fighting Shivura too okay? He's amazing, he's strong. But that's all he is. He can fight, but since when has fighting ever solved any problems we had with spirits? Aang's the only one who can truly fix this world? And until then, Ben pretty much is just our muscle so we can get there. We need him, but he can't do anything more than get us to what truly solves the problem. These people will just have to endure the Spirits or move until Aang returns."
Ben nodded. "Okay."
"Ben they don't mean-."
"It's alright, seriously." Ben said. "Look. I get it, the world's changed since I was gone. It's not as simple as going in and beating up the bad guy anymore. I can't be Aang for you. But if we can get to Fire Lord Zuko and help him find Aang, then the problem can be solved. I'm a side character here. The best thing we can do to help is to continue on our journey."
With that, Ben walked out without another word, leaving Katara to stare at his retreating back.
Ben could feel Katara's expression of pity, but that only made him feel worse to know it was even there or needed.
Ben got into the driver's seat of the Rust Bucket inside the barn and put his keys in, as he started the engine, he noticed the little dial indicating the Gas Tank on the dashboard where something very disturbing caught his sight.
"Oh no." Ben muttered.
Ben jumped out of the Rust Bucket and ran out of the barn. "Guys!"
"I thought we were leaving!" said Sokka.
"There something wrong Ben?" asked Katara.
"Yeah, we're low on gas." said Ben. "The Rust Bucket has two fuel sources. One is what powers our flight and the alien tech on board. A sort of Taydenite Plutonium combo that lasts hundreds of years. But the other is solely used for ground travel, that's gasoline, an oil based fuel that we don't have the means to make and only lasts for maybe hours to a week or so before it needs to be refilled at a Gas Station."
"So if we're low on that fuel source." said Sokka. "Wait, that means we can only drive around on the ground for a little bit longer- which means-."
"Either we find a cartographer pronto and get the Rust Bucket up and flying, or we better start walking." said Ben.
"We're half a world away from Zuko's camp!" said Katara. "By the time we get there the Ladies will have even conquered the Northern Water Tribe! We can't afford to take that long!"
"We can push the Rust Bucket with Earth Bending to another village." said Toph.
"That'll take weeks." said Sokka. "And walking to the village and coming back with a map would take even longer. We'd be totally off schedule."
"We have a schedule?" Ben muttered.
"Sokka always has a schedule, you get used to it." said Toph.
"So what's our best option?" Katara asked.
"We stay, and deal with the Spirit Haipa." Ben said, folding his arms.
"What!?" said Sokka. "Ben are you crazy!? What are you going to do? Ask it for the cartographer back!? 'Oh hello Mister Haipa, sorry for barging in like this, could you please give us this map making guy? Pretty please?' Can you see how DUMB that sounds!?"
"I know I'm not the ideal guy for the job, but we have to try." said Ben. "I can't talk with spirit mumbo jumbo, but I can still punch. I mean the Spirit isn't like, intangible is he?"
"Spirits aren't ghosts." said Katara.
"See!? Not ghosts! I can fight not ghosts!" said Ben. "Hell I've even fought actual ghosts! In a mall! On a Thursday! I went out for smoothies afterwards to celebrate the VICTORY over actual ghosts!"
Sokka sighed. "Okay, ONE time, you get ONE chance. You fight that spirit once, and if you can't win, then we leave!"
"Who put you in charge?" Toph muttered.
"I'm the plan guy! I'm ALWAYS in charge!" said Sokka. "Even Aang agreed I'm the plan guy! We all have a role! Toph's the spunky chic who smashes things, Katara's the nice girl who makes everyone feel better with her happy healing and optimistic loopy hair things! And I'm the Sarcastic but Hilarious and Pragmatic Leader who does the plans when Aang isn't doing the plans. "
"And me?" Ben asked.
"You're the alien monster mascot!" said Sokka. "Whose also the rarely used secret weapon."
Ben frowned and turned away, muttering out of earshot. "I used to be the leader, well not the sarcastic part, Kevin was the sarcastic part.. and I was also the secret weapon. "
"I thought Momo was the mascot." said Toph.
"Well Momo isn't here and Ben is the only one we've got for adorable nonhuman buddy!" said Sokka. "I mean Upchuck's super cute right? Well the technical stuff doesn't matter, the important thing is that you're now an important cog in the mass of gears that is Team Avatar!"
"Right." Ben muttered. "Sure, go team."
Later that night, Ben stood in the middle of the Village, staring at the entrance, fiddling the Omnitrix nervously as everyone else stood nearby between the buildings, watching carefully.
"I'm not sure about this guys." Sokka muttered. "Remember what happened with Heibai?"
"Well this time we're trying to punch it, not talk to it." said Katara. "Ben will be fine."
"Yeah, but I'm just saying, if I end up being pulled into the Spirit World by a giant scary panda again, I'm gonna have a few things to say." said Sokka.
"Well this was your plan Mister' I am the Plan Guy'." said Katara, rolling her eyes.
"I don't understand." said the village head. "Is this boy special in some way? To believe he can fight a spirit."
"We know he can fight the Ladies." said Toph with a shrug.
"H-he can what!?" stammered the Village head with wide eyes.
"Shhhhh something's coming." Toph said.
Mist began to fill the village, swirling in like a dark shadow, as the moon seemed to shine with an extra ominous light.
Whispers seemed to resound from the very trees as Ben looked around tentatively.
Every hair on the back of his neck stood on end as an unnatural chill took root in his spine.
Ben took a deep breath to relieve his nerves. "Mascot my ass. I'll show you mascot."
Ben looked up and glared deep into the shadows as he turned the dial on the Omnitrix to the alien he would use. "Alright! I'm ready! Bring it on!"
Nothing answered.
Everything remained silent. However, Ben could still feel the chill on his spine.
As if something were watching him, appraising him curiously.
Ben frowned. At least Vilgax had the decency to answer taunts. This was just dumb.
Ben waited in silence for a few more minutes. Eventually the feeling of being watched faded like an ebbing tide.
"Right." Ben muttered. "And don't you come back. Happy trails."
Ben made to turn away, but as he did, the whispers suddenly returned, assaulting Ben's ears as behind him, a great shadow grew.
Multiple spindly black spider-like legs began creeping across the road, as a gruesome mask appeared, black with multiple roving yellow eyes.
Ben turned rapidly to look at the massive deformed creature, that looked like a huge ball of swirling darkness, propped on huge insectoid legs, with it's multi-eyed mask in the center of its mass of swirling darkness.
"SKRREEEEEEEEEEE!!" the creature let out a huge roar as a silver energy shockwave erupted from the ghastly spirit monster, multiple buildings being blown to shreds from its roar alone.
"You're big." Ben said. "But I'm bigger. "
There was a flash of green light...
"M-my word!" stammered the Village Head as a shadow rose over everyone.
"Now that's a big one." said Toph.
A massive humanoid creature with tough brown armored scales, short elephant-like legs, and powerful muscled arms even more built than Four Arms stood there, his head and neck resembling a sauropod dinosaur from millions of years past with its nostrils near the top of it's head and it's fangs jutting out from it's lower jaw. His powerful tail smashed the earth to rubble as it thrashed around in anticipation for the upcoming battle. It was a literal dinosaur man, standing around the same height as Fragon, but far more intimidating looking with it's powerful body and physique.
The Ancient Tyrant Dragon, Humungousaur.
"Alright." Humungousaur slammed a fist against his palm. "You have 2 seconds to turn back around, before I start the pounderizing- POWWWW!"
Haipa unleashed a silvery shockwave from it's roving yellow eyes, slamming Humungousaur with a strange spirit-beam like attack, causing the dino man to stagger back a few steps.
"Okay." Humungousaur growled, rubbing his chin. "We'll do it the hard way."
Humungousaur charged, roaring, the earth shaking beneath his every step as he hurled a massive punch into the monster's center.
The air exploded with force as the sheer physical strength of the alien sent the spirit flying.
Multiple trees were torn to shreds as the monster was sent flying until it smashed into the side of a small mountain, creating a huge crater on its surface.
"Whoa." said Katara.
"And that's why he's the mascot secret weapon." said Sokka, folding his arms.
"Yeah, sure, that's really mascot-like." said Katara with a sigh.
"Katara we talked about this, I'm the sarcasm guy." said Sokka. "Don't steal my role."
The spirit wasn't done yet. It began teleporting forward in flashes of spirit light, hissing fiercely as it went, teleporting for hundreds of meters at a time, scuttling at horrifying speeds before it reappeared right in front of Humungousaur in a flash.
"TAKE THIS!" Humungousaur hurled his tail at the creature, intending to smash it with a good tail bash, but the Spirit Monster disappeared in another flash, reappearing another fifty meters away.
Haipa hissed and a large blast of white silk sprayed from it like a spider, wrapping the massive dinosaur alien in strong sticky fiber.
"Ack! Aggghh!" Humungousaur fell over, now wrapped in a large white cocoon.
Haipa teleported over, the horrifying thing scuttling atop the cocoon as a strange black stinger-like needle slowly seeped out of its behind.
"Ben needs help!" Katara began to move forward, but Toph put a hand out to stop her. "Wait, look."
The cocoon was cracking as powerful muscular arms ripped the silk apart, and Humungousaur burst from his bonds, roaring furiously.
Humungousaur collided with the screeching Haipa, grabbing the creature by its legs and repeatedly smashing the monster into the ground like a club.
"Puny Spirit." Humungousaur growled.
Humungousaur threw Haipa into the air, and then smacked him through multiple trees using his tail.
"HA!" Humungousaur flexed his arms. "I've still got it! I think soloing the equivalent to a deity in this world is definitely a vote in the box for MVP hero! Ya see that Sokka!? Sokka?"
Everyone blinked. Sokka, who had been standing next to Toph and the Sun Warrior Chief moments before, had disappeared.
"NOT AGAIN!!" Sokka's voice echoed as Humungousaur whirled back around to see Haipa scurrying into the forest, Sokka held in black shadowy tendrils on its body.
Ben turned into Jetray in a flash and flew after Sokka at high speeds.
Haipa moved quickly across terrain even without teleporting, it's legs moving through the trees with such immense ease he appeared to be a black blur as Jetray followed above the tree tops.
"I AM NOT GETTING CAPTURED AGAIN!!" Sokka screamed. "BEN!! HELP!!"
"I'M COMING!!" Jetray roared as he soared into the forest, zooming between the trees at super sonic speeds, getting closer to Sokka.
Jetray fired multiple Neuroshock beams from his eyes, severing the shadows before grabbing Sokka in his talon-like feet and shooting high up into the air with a burst of speed.
Jetray's eyes glowed and crackled as he then looked back down at the forest, ready to set up a counterattack.
But Haipa was nowhere to be found. Instead all he saw was a large stone monument, sitting in a clearing. Like an obelisk. It had strange chinese characters written on it's surface, cracked and nearly illegible with age.
Jetray dropped Sokka to the forest floor as he landed next to the obelisk. "Wha-what? Where did it go?"
Sokka looked at the obelisk as he stood up awkwardly, rubbing his neck. "May he who Finds His Way Trust In The Twins."
Jetray looked down at the base of the obelisk. "There are burns here and there. Wait, this metal."
Jetray picked up a fragment of burnt metal. "I've seen this material before, on the inner parts of the Shivura's ship."
"The Ladies were here, they messed with the Spirits." said Sokka. "That settles it, we have to go."
"What about Haipa!?" said Jetray. "You saw me, I was winning!"
"Winning the battle doesn't equal solving the problem! So you caused it to retreat! That didn't keep it from taking me! And that won't make it less angry and not come back for more payback!" Sokka exclaimed.
"And the villagers!?"
"They'll just have to move to another place." said Sokka.
"Just like that!? Their lives are here, they can't just pack up on the fly and-."
"Well they don't have much of a choice do they?!" said Sokka. "We tried it your way Ben, and your way didn't work! If Aang were here, he would've been able to talk to the spirit, do some weird spirit stuff and find out why the spirit was angry and then boom! Problem solved! But you're not the Avatar. You're Ben 10, and Ben 10 can't be the Avatar! I'm sorry Ben, but Sarcastic Plan guy is calling it! We're leaving! We'll Earth Bend the Rust Bucket to another village and find a cartographer there!"
Jetray opened his mouth to argue back, but then stopped. "O.. okay.."
"Good, now just fly us back, and we'll get packing!" said Sokka cheerily. "We did our best and we failed, that's just how it is! When we get Aang back and everything will be okay! Face it, if this were a story, he's the main character. This is just the side story."
"Yeah, right.." Jetray murmured as he dipped his head dejectedly. "Just the side story.. "