Another Avatar University Story

Chapter Seventeen

"Aang, this place looks pretty shady.. You sure your guy gave you the right address? Better yet, you sure he ain't a scammer or some mugger?"

We arrived at the location where the Boulder said his fight tonight would be: the abandoned warehouses around the Azulon Docks. The place was shady as it was already, seeing how rundown much of the warehouses were and how it was dark and late out that night. Both Katara and I were lucky that we didn't get mugged or pulled over into an alley by the time we made it to the boxing warehouse - our safety and luck was only more assured with Sokka around. Yeah, Sokka caught wind of our little occasion tonight, probably through Katara's loose mouth, and after seeing Sokka standing outside with Katara in front of their apartment when I came to meet up with her as intended I frowned internally. I was hoping to make this just a special thing, between Katara and I, and maybe after the fight I could take her out for dinner. I can't do that now, not with Sokka.

"No, this is it. This is the place" I replied back to her.

"How can you be so sure, Aang? I mean, all these warehouses look pretty worn out" Sokka added on after I finished.

"Nope, this is it. I just gotta knock right here." I balled up my hand and banged it against a sheet metal door with a white X painted across it. I stepped back a couple steps, which the two siblings followed suit in.

After a couple of seconds, a huge man, frankly fat in nature, pulled the heavy sheet metal aside. The hunky fellow scratched his back. "Who the fuck are you three?"

Sokka and Katara began to shiver and shake quite a bit. Seeing as they couldn't scramble an answer for the bouncer, I decided to answer for them. "The Boulder invited" I said, confidently. My confidence soon faded when I saw the look on the bouncer's face."Yeah, sure. The Boulder invites hundreds of people here a day."

"Really?"

"Fuck No! You're fucking stupid, you know that? Now tell me why you're here before..." the guy spoke before reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a small handgun, "...I put a bullet in your fucking heads."

Now, I was shivering. We could actually be shot right here and now if we didn't say the next words correctly. The prospect of dying tonight in some filthy, shotty warehouse district to some fat guy, well, it's definitely not the most preferred way to go. However, once I saw a familiar face come into view through the doorway, I knew we wouldn't die tonight.

"What in the fuck are you doing pulling a gun on my friends?" the Boulder spoke, shoving the bouncer straight into a wall.

"I'm sorry. You- You know how it is, here. We just c-cant let in the r-r-riff raff into our fights, your fights" the bouncer stuttered, visibly intimidated by the Boulder. I mean, who could blame him?

"The 'riff raff'? Did you just fucking say that?" the Boulder fired back, sounding angrier than before.

"N-no, I didn't."

"That's what I fucking thought, scum."

After he finished, there were a few moments of silence as the situation defused itself. Sokka, Katara, and I could be audibly heard sighing in relief and wiping our brows for sweat. Now, we could enter in peace-

"Are you going to fucking invite them in?" the Boulder shouted, raising a fist just an inch from the bouncer's face.

"Ye- Yes, of course" he replied, turning to us and motioning with his hands to come in. "You three are alright. Come in please."

I turned to look towards Katara and then Sokka. Then, the three of us looked at the bouncer and nodded to him. All three of us smirked. A simple 'sure' was all we said, savoring the moment. We followed the Boulder's trail, walking in tandem, single file, behind him in a line as we snaked our way through a decently sized crowd. Everyone here was jacked and ripped. Was everyone in the Earthen Borough like this? Eventually he sat us down in a row of seats surrounding a dug out pit in the middle of the warehouse. "Sorry about that guy earlier. You let me know if he causes any more trouble, you hear?" the Boulder told us in a cordial and soft voice. Although I heard this same voice earlier in the week, I still forgot that people of his.. stature can still be quite nice.