I never understood the analogy of getting picked last for sports until now, but strangely, it wasn't me experiencing this. On the contrary, it was the other way around. I was the first pick for everybody. I was the firebender. I was the only person that would make a tank crew complete. It was entertaining to see the extent to which people attempted to have me tag along. They offered to be nice, they offered bribes from their rich parents, they offered anything. In the end, I chose. I chose the two who hadn't come to talk to me: Gi Gu, and Gan Hidu.
I regretted it not an hour later.
We were sent off individually to test all the features of the tanks. We were given hastily copied tank manuals where half the instructions were illegible. We couldn't tell what we were doing half the time.
Eventually, it came down to pressing buttons and seeing what they did. And that was my day.
"It says something about a grappling hook, here." Said Gan.
"Let me see." Replied Gi. "No. Wait. That says hook?
"What does it say to press?!" I called from where I was sitting, suffering from heat exhaustion, inside the tank.
Gan responded. "There should be a crank to the left of the pilot's seat. See it?!"
I saw it. "Yeah!"
"There's a lever next to it. Make sure the crank is pulled back to completion, then pull the lever!"
I tested the crank. It didn't go any further to the left, so I gave the lever a pull and I felt the tank give a violent shake. I barely had time to look out the window and see the massive chain and hook that had shot out from the vehicle. It looked over 50 meters long.
My heart in my chest was still in pain from the shock that the firing had given me, but the cheering from my crew outside helped to calm me down. I poked my head out and saw them running towards the hook with the measuring tape to see if it shot as far as it was supposed to.
Soon enough, they came back to tell me it was al good and flipped to the next page. Gan recited what came next. "It says that by jerking the lever forward, you can cut the chain and eject what's left of it. You have one more hook that you can use. So the tank is loaded with two."
"Where do they store it?" asked Gi.
"I don't know. Maybe under us? Anyway, since we're not getting rid of it, we should take it back in. We need to use the crank and crank it to the left to draw in the chain and hook."
I did so, and it worked to perfection. We tested the cockpit rotation system which made me want to puke. We tested the wheel spikes, the driving modes, all of it. It ended with a final test of the grappling hook. And as they were away, testing the distance one last time, I looked at that lever again and the thought came over me. I could just sever it. Sever the connection to the chain and run. I was in the tank. They weren't. They couldn't catch me. I could drive to Ba-Sing-Se and I could make it. It would take Gan and Gi at least an hour to get back to camp. By then, I could be over 30 miles from the city. I could go north and throw them off my trail. I could go anywhere.
Then I remembered Danev, and even Aden. The latter had tried to kill me, but I couldn't run. Not like this. I couldn't leave Danev after all he'd done for me and I couldn't leave Aden after all I'd done to him. I forced my hand to leave the lever and I tried to put on as best a smile as I could as I saw Gan and Gi running back. Maybe the Fire Nation wasn't my family, but Danev and Aden were. I wasn't leaving the only family I had left.