--Team Avatar--
Chapter 1
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Chapter 10
Steve settled into one of the McGregor plane's plush leather chairs as they took off from the airport. It was super comfortable –a sharp contrast to the bed of earth on which he had spent the night. Jean took her place on the other side of the aisle, a little distance down from him. She hadn’t looked at him or talked directly to him since they had left the colony's underground base in Chris' Porsche. Chris, on the over hand, sat directly in front of him. The plane was small and their seats faced each other.
Soon, they were at cruising altitude. Chris pushed a button on the seat. Within seconds, a pretty stewardess appeared. He dispatched her to get the chef, and she disappeared and reappeared accompanied by a stout, jolly-faced man in a remarkably white uniform. He carried a small electronic tablet.
“Good day Mr. McGregor, good day sir, ma'am,” he said in a cheerful but professional voice, handing the tab over to Chris.
Chris took it. “Good day, Al,” he replied. He tapped something on the tab's screen then handed it over to Steve, who took it, thoroughly nonplussed.
“The menu,” Chris explained, smirking.
Steve looked down at the screen and understood at once. He tapped one of the items and handed it back to the chef, Al, who took it over to Jean and then disappeared through a door that Steve assumed must lead to some sort of kitchen on the plane.
He shook his head. “I don’t get it,” he said to Chris. “Your father runs a global fortune-500 tech company and still has time to babysit a community of benders?”
Chris grinned. “My father runs a fortune-500 tech company so he has time to babysit a community of benders. It's how the system works, man.”
“Still, it's pretty impressive. I mean, look at this plane!”
Chris shrugged and tried to look nonchalant. “Well, your old man founded the alliance.”
“But I never knew him,” Steve countered. He looked out the window. “I can’t believe I’m going back to Albany,” he mused. “It’s been so long.”
“You didn’t visit your grandma much?”
“I didn’t visit Grandma ever,” Steve replied. “I haven't been out of New York since I moved with mum. Grandma Lily came to visit us thrice, I think. Three different summers. I always wanted to go to her but mum could never make the trip, and she didn’t want me to go without her. At least that’s what they had said.”
“And all this time, the totem was just right there. Unbelievable.”
“What’s unbelievable is that mum knew all about this all along. She even knew what the totem was!” He laughed once, in disbelief. “She always seemed so ordinary!”
Chris raised an eyebrow. “Your mum knew?” Jean watched from her seat, silent but listening.
“The whole thing,” Steve replied. “She and my father saw the visions together.”
“She told you this?” Chris asked.
Steve nodded.
Chris raised both eyebrows now and looked out the window too. “Wow. Guess your old man did keep quite a lot from the Alliance.”
They remained in silence for a while, watching the clouds roll past.
After a while, Steve turned from the window. “What about you, Jean?” He called. “What’s your family like? What’s your story?”
Jean resumed her scowling and looked away. Steve sighed in frustration.
Chris glanced at both of them and laughed loudly. “I told you, man,” he said, still chortling. “It’s not you – that’s how she is with everyone.”
“Well, we're a team now!” Steve protested, loudly enough for Jean to hear. “How are we supposed to work together if we can't even communicate? It's important we get to know each other.”
She didn’t reply. Chris continued chortling.
Steve shrugged and relaxed into his seat. “So this is us,” he said. “The real Team Avatar. An Avatar who has no idea what he's doing, a super-rich firebender, and a French-Canadian waterbender who won't be a part of the team, or tell us anything about herself or her family.” He frowned thoughtfully. “Though it's a pretty easy guess to say they are probably somewhere in Québec. Maybe we'll get to see them on our travels –”
Jean stood abruptly. “Listen here, Avatar,” she said angrily, striding up the aisle and jabbing her finger in his chest. “We are not a team. We're only here to get you to your grandma's place and back. There won’t be any travels. Once we get the totem and know what to do with it, we're done with you and all this will be over. I don’t need to know you, and you don’t need to know me. Understood?”
Steve raised his hands in placation. “Okay, okay. I get it – we don’t need to fight.”
“Good… I figured even a moron like you would understand.” She leaned in closer. “And if you were having thoughts about being the leader of this little band, better think again, because I'm not listening to you. McGregor maybe, but not you.”
“Alright Jean –that’s enough,” Chris finally interjected sternly.
Jean blew one last furious breath in Steve's face and stormed back to her seat. He watched her go, utterly mystified, then reluctantly turned back to Chris. That was the harshest he'd ever heard him speak.
But then he broke into his usual smirk. “I warned you,” he said.
Steve stared at him in disbelief, but this time he lowered his voice when he spoke. “You’re telling me that’s normal for her? She did listen to you without blowing up.”
Chris shrugged. “Everyone listens to me, man,” he said. “It comes with the name.”
The door opened and Al the Chef came in, accompanied by the stewardess, both carrying trays. They served quickly, wished the passengers ‘bon appetit' and disappeared again. Steve had ordered bacon and eggs, with some fries and a glass of juice. Chris had a plate of rice and salad, also with a glass of juice. Steve couldn’t see what Jean had, but it looked like fish. They ate in silence, but Steve kept stealing glances at the girl.
What was with her? Regardless of what Chris had said, Steve felt even more strongly that her anger at him was personal. Yes, she was fierce, but this outburst had been something else.
Half an hour later, Al the chef returned to clear their tables. As the man left, Chris glanced at his watch. “We’ll be landing in about 20 minutes.” He said.
Steve nodded. “What’s the plan?”
Chris raised an eyebrow and looked at him blankly. “What plan?”
“After we land,” Steve explained.
Chris still looked blank. “We take a car from the airport to your little village? We've called ahead – someone will be waiting.”
Steve rolled his eyes. “Not that – I'm talking about the other guys. The Solution. What if they're waiting? What do we do?”
Jean scoffed from her seat. “We’ll protect you, that’s what we'll do.”
Chris ignored her comment. “Don't worry about that,” he told Steve. “It’s unlikely. I mean, we only just found out about your grandma this morning. They must be way behind.”
But Steve was worried. “I don’t know… these Solution guys seem pretty serious, the way the Director put it. I still don’t get it, though. How would they want to ‘rule’? Benders can’t rule over non-benders – the numbers don't match up. The benders themselves are a good percentage of the population, aren’t they? How many of them could possibly be placed in positions of authority? What do they expect to gain that’s worth killing for?”
“Nothing is worth killing for,” Jean said unexpectedly, in a quiet voice. Steve glanced at her in surprise but she wasn’t looking at them. “But power can be a terrible thing.”
Chris nodded solemnly. “People can do anything for power,” he said. “Especially when they’ve had a small taste.” Then he broke into a cocky grin. “Don’t worry about the Solution, man. Let them come –Jean and I can take them anywhere, anytime. I know you haven’t seen her in action, but believe me, she's a total badass.”
Steve glanced over at Jean. She was no longer scowling – in fact, for the first time since they’d met, she actually looked tender. Still, he believed him. He absolutely believed him.
Watch Here for the Next Chapter: 'Albany'!
The Lost Legend series is fan fiction based off Nickelodeon's Avatar franchise.
Find more of my original works as Peter M. Ogwara on Amazon!
