Let me see that," Harry said, looking over Sokka's shoulder at the map he was holding. The group was currently resting on top of Appa as the sky bison lazily flew through the sky. Aang and Katara were sat on the part of the saddle near Appa's head while Sokka and Harry sat near the tail. "we need to avoid these areas." Harry said, pointing to certain spots on the map. "There will be tons of Fire Nation soldiers there."
"So?" Sokka asked with a frown. "Can't you just...you know..." Sokka trailed off, giving Harry a questioning look.
"No, I don't know, what are you on about?" Harry raised an eyebrow.
"I mean...can't you just...blast them with your fire and lightning?" Sokka asked, using his hands to badly mimic firebending.
"Yes," Hary rolled his eyes. "but that doesn't mean I want to. Nor do I plan to fight any of them unless necessary, besides we'll attract too much attention if we keep attacking groups of soldiers. Anyway, we do need to go here." Harry said, pointing to an area near a nearby village on the map.
"Why there?" Sokka asked.
"I need to collect something from someone there," Harry answered. "besides, we need to collect some more supplies, something that we can do when we reach the village that's on the way."
"Harry's right," Katara spoke up. "I checked yesterday, we are a bit low."
"Fair enough, but who are you meeting?" Sokka asked before a grin appeared on his face. "A girl?" He guessed, earning a glare from Katara and Harry.
"No, not a girl." Harry finally spoke after a couple more seconds of glaring.
"Shame, you don't have a girlfriend or something back in the Fire Nation?" Sokka asked. Harry stared at him for a moment and mentally debated on if he should just burn him but decided not to since Sokka did seem genuinely curious and wasn't just acting like a dick.
"There is a limited amount of people in the Fire Nation that I care for, and to be honest, I'm not entirely sure if they would want me back," Harry answered, only to grimace slightly when he realized that he had just put a major dampener on the mood if the looks he was getting were any indication.
"Oh, I'm sure that's not true," Katara said, trying and failing miserably at making him feel better. "I'm sure that there are plenty of people that would want you back."
"Including but not limited to those who would force me back into the army and/or those who want me sent to jail and/or killed?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow. "Face it Katara, as far as the majority of the world is concerned, I'm a problem that needs to be put down, I'm not entirely convinced that they're wrong."
"What?! Of course, they're wrong!" Katara exploded, looking at him with disbelief. "Look at you! You've helped us all this time and..."
"And there are a great many families that have become a lot smaller because of me," Harry interrupted. "it's alright, Katara. I'm very appreciative of the support that you're showing me, but I know what other people think of me," Harry felt Aang's gaze on him but didn't look away from Katara. "it doesn't matter as long as we complete our mission."
"Wait, I know this place!" Aang sat up straighter, his eyes comically wide as he looked around, a smile forcing itself upon his face.
"I'm not totally surprised," Harry replied. "honestly, I would be more surprised if you didn't know this place." Harry looked around as Appa flew toward a mountain with a large structure on top, one that looked very similar to the Southern Air Temple.
"The Northern Air Temple." Aang's voice would have let even a blind man know that he was grinning. "This is where they had the championships for Sky Bison polo!"
"Did you ever compete?" Sokka asked.
"Yep! Once...but yep!" Aang answered proudly. "Appa and I won the 'under ten' tournament."
"Good boy!" Harry's words came with a proud nod.
"Thanks!" Aang replied.
"I was talking to Appa," Harry said with a smirk on his face, a second later Appa let out a grunt that the gang took to mean thank you. "you're welcome, big guy." Harry grinned as he reached over the saddle and patted Appa.
Aang grinned for a moment before he turned his head away and stared out into the sky, his smile disappearing. He still found it hard to talk with Harry, to think that the guy who was just joking around with them could also kill in cold blood. He didn't know how to react to him, but he knew that something had to be done sooner or later, there was only so long that he could keep avoiding the inevitable conversation that the two would need.
"What are we doing here?" Katara asked Harry as the gang began walking through the temple, she had to admit that it looked nice and was surprisingly clean for something that had supposedly been abandoned for years, but that still didn't answer why the firebender wanted them to come here.
"It's exactly like I said before, I need to meet someone," Harry answered, looking around the place, searching for something.
"But you still haven't told us who." Sokka pointed out in a tired voice.
"You'll find out in a minute." Harry smiled, he was starting to enjoy this 'vague and cryptic speech' thing and was starting to see why others liked to do it. Though, in fairness, he liked to think that he wasn't that big of a dick that he would do it to young teenagers during life and death situations (cough* Dumbledore *cough*). "Ah, there it is," Harry said suddenly as he walked over to one wall where the small half of a horn was sticking out of a wall, next to it the big half was sticking out and facing towards them. "come on." Harry impatiently gestured the others to follow.
"What is that?" Aang asked as they stopped behind Harry. "That wasn't there before."
"Give me a sec," Harry said before he leaned his head down so his mouth was next to the small part of the horn. "dragon plus three," Harry spoke into the horn before turning to the others. "give it a sec."
"Dragon plus three?" An adult voice spoke out from the big half of the horn, shocking Katara, Aang, and Sokka.
"What the hell?!" Sokka blurted out, pulling his boomerang out, just in case they were going to get attacked.
"Yes," Harry's calm voice was directed towards the smaller half of the tube. "an impatient dragon plus three."
"Password?" The same voice echoed out from the bigger horn.
"Do not make me hurt you." Harry rolled his eyes.
"..."
"..."
"Can you please say the password?" The voice asked, this time sounding very hopeful. Harry let out a deep sigh, he mumbled a few curse words before speaking up in a louder voice.
"I don't remember the password." The rest of the gang blinked at that and looked towards Harry.
"Wait, if you don't know what the password is then how are we going to..." Sokka paused, a thoughtful look o his face. "...actually, what are we trying to do here?"
"I didn't forget the password," Harry told them.
"But you just said you did." Katara pointed out.
"No, well...yes, look that is the password."
"What is?" Aang asked, a frown on his face.
"The password is actually just 'I don't remember the password'," Harry explained. "like, that's actually it."
"But why would that be the password?" Katara stared at him.
"I don't know, because the prick who came up with it is either a mad genius or a blithering idiot." Harry shrugged.
"Hey!" The voice from the horn spoke up, sounding very offended this time. "There's no need to be rude, anyway, hang there for a minute, we're coming to get you. Teo's been looking forward to seeing you again."
"Cool, just hurry up," Harry replied.
"You want to tell us what's going on?" Sokka asked in an irritated voice. Harry stared at him for a moment before deciding to answer, in his opinion it was best to nip this particular habit in the bud before he ends up being unnecessarily vague and mysterious over everything.
"We should soon be met with a group of people that are living here," Harry began explaining. "a while back, before meeting you three pains in my ass, I helped them out and in exchange, I asked one of them to make me a couple of things."
"What did you ask for?" Katara asked curiously.
"Well, it was..."
"Harry!" A voice called, the group turned towards the direction of the voice and saw a boy in a wheelchair approaching them with several people behind him.
"Teo," Harry greeted the boy with a small grin. "it's good to see you, mate."
"You too," Teo grinned back as he stopped in front of him. Teo wore green clothes, his legs were in a cast and his black hair was tied into a bun, the gang also couldn't help but notice the pair of goggles that were resting on the top of his head. "who are these guys?"
"Ah, well this is Katara," Harry pointed to Katara who gave Teo a smile and a wave. "the guy with the ponytail is her horribly uncharming brother."
"If you think that I'm going to take the fact that I can't charm you as an insult then you clearly do not know me all that well," Sokka retorted before looking towards Teo. "my name is Sokka, by the way."
"Nice to meet you, Sokka By-the-way." Teo smiled.
"No, I..."
"And this..." Harry loudly interrupted Sokka before he could finish. "...is Aang, he is the Avatar."
"It's an honor to meet you," Teo said, bowing as low as he could go with the people behind him doing the same.
"Thank you," Aang nodded in response. "it's nice to meet you too. You...you live here?" Aang asked with a small frown on his face.
"Yeah!" Teo grinned brightly. "For a few years at least."
"A few years?" Aang asked. "Did...did you guys put the horns there?" He asked, pointing to the horns in the wall.
"My dad did, yes," Teo confirmed with a nod. "they're really ingenious! The horns are connected to some other horns in the building so we can talk while we're in different rooms without shouting."
"Oh, that's impressive," Katara commented. "your dad made it?"
"Yep," Teo said proudly. "he invents and makes all sorts of stuff, like my chair."
"Your dad...invented the chair?" Sokka blinked. "I hate to be the one to tell you but the chair has been invented ages ago, it has been around for longer than all of us combined."
"He didn't invent the chair," Teo rolled his eyes. "he invented 'my' chair."
"Which...is still a chair."
"This is a special chair," Teo explained. "there's a glider attached to it, it's based on the designs of the gliders that the Air Nomads had."
"You mean like this?" Aang asked, changing his staff into its glider form.
"Exactly!" Teo grinned before he activated his chair, a glider popped out of it a second later. "Pretty cool, huh?"
"I'll say." Katara breathed out as she stared at it.
"Wow, that is a special chair." Sokka stared at it with awe.
"Thanks!" Teo's smile grew wider as he retracted the glider back into the chair while Aang's glider turned back into a staff. "He worked hard on it."
"Sorry to cut in," Harry said apologetically. "but does your dad have my stuff ready?" He asked.
"Oh yeah, follow us." Teo gestured with his head before turning his chair around, he wheeled away with the others following him.
"You heard the guy." Harry walked after them, causing the rest of the team to follow him.
"What stuff are you talking about?" Katara asked Harry.
"I asked his father to make me some weapons," Harry answered.
"W...w...did you say weapons?" Aang asked, his face having paled slightly.
"Yes, weapons," Harry nodded. "I only asked for two."
"But aren't you like a firebending master? Do you really need weapons?" Katara asked.
"Probably not, but they can make life easier, plus I'd rather have them and not need them than not have them and need them. You can't always use bending as well, there are some situations where it is easier to rely on regular physical combat and weapons." Harry explained.
"S...still, I don't really think that you need a weapon." Aang coughed, finding the idea of Harry with a weapon to be rather scary. The guy was frightening enough as it is.
"Aang, you're the goddamn Avatar, master of all elements, and you're literally holding one." Harry pointed out, gesturing to Aang's staff.
"Well, yeah, but I mostly use it to defend myself, fly and make airbending easier." Aang defended.
"Yeah, well I could easily think of at least ten ways to kill someone with it," Harry argued. "and that's just off the top of my head."
"Ten?" Sokka asked.
"I didn't get much sleep last night so my brain is a little slow," Harry said defensively. "anyway, I just need to collect my weapons and I'd like to spend a couple of hours modifying at least one of them, then we can..."
"Wait, a couple of hours?" Sokka blurted out.
"Yeah, why? You got something better to do?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, yeah, like training and eating and sleeping and the whole helping the Avatar master the elements thing so he can stop the Fire Lord!"
"Alright, first of all, you're not helping him master the elements. You do help, but not with that part, Katara and I do that part, you...well...you're just...there. Second of all, you did plenty of eating and sleeping yesterday. Third of all, you can train while I work."
"So, you know a lot about making weapons?" Katara asked before the two could fall into a proper argument.
"Not really," Harry admitted. "I'm better at using them than making them."
"Then why are you modifying the weapons?" Katara asked curiously. "Shouldn't you get somebody else to do it?"
"At the risk of sounding cryptic and/or vague, let's just say that I want to make some very special changes."