Ultimate Fan Fiction: Book 1, United

Part 4

Catherine

"Elizabeth!" I shouted as she came out of a door with a large blue box on the entrance. I ran over to her and hugged her. She was completely shocked to see me and as stiff as a board. "You have to save me! These people are crazy!"
"Sokka?" she said. "Katara?!"
"You know these clowns?" I asked, shocked.
"Well, I don't know them personally, but I know of them and, based on what I've seen, they know of me." She shook hands with the two of them. I couldn't believe this! First I meet these two weirdos, who drag me to a fireplace and I almost die with, what was it, floo powder? Then I tumble out in some other fireplace surrounded by crazy people doing magic, and then the one person I expect sympathy from is actually on their side! I was so pissed.
"Sokka, Katara, I have the pleasure of introducing you to Elizabeth Duke, defender of the created and maker of great thoughts." Another guy standing by her said. Elizabeth cleared her throat and looked at the guy. "Oh, sorry, she's still thinking about whether or not she's ready to take on that title. Who is this?" he looked at me.
"Well..." Katara began. "It's a bit of a long story-"
Sokka quickly interrupted and said, in his squeaking pubescent voice, "I have the pleasure of introducing Catherine the loud-spoken, annoyer of Water-Tribe siblings and teller of lies."
"I'm not a liar!" I protested.
"Really?" said Sokka, acting like a detective. "Then why did you claim to be friends with Elizabeth Duke? You and I both know that's impossible!"
"How?" I asked. Elizabeth cleared her throat again.
"Because I have no friends back home." she said nonchalantly.
"What do you mean by that?" I asked. "I'm your friend aren't I?" I hated lying in front of everyone like that but I had to lie so nobody would suspect me of anything suspicious and kill me.
"Aren't you the one always calling me a nerd? Telling the new kids to stay away from me because I read? The one who always makes plans to go shopping, right in front of me to deliberately let me know that I'm not invited? I'm pretty sure that qualifies as not a friend."
"Ouch," Sokka muttered.
"Should we take her back to her world or allow her to stay here? You're call, High General." Katara asked.
"Please don't call me that," Elizabeth said. "I haven't made my decision yet and all of you calling me 'High General' is a bit assuming, and pressuring,"
"Well, it's still your call, we don't know anything about how your world works," said Sokka.
Elizabeth thought for a while before saying, very officially, "No. If you take her back now, you run the risk of getting caught and she runs the risk of a mental overload. Also, I might still be deciding on whether or not I should be a general, but I still know for a fact that I'm going to have some role in this war and I can't fight as the only Creator. I'd like have Catherine stay and help until we find a way to get her home without being hurt. Besides need another Creator around here."
"Good idea." The guy with the black hair and scar said.
"Hang on, hang on." I said. "War? Creator? What in the world is going on here?!" The black-haired guy chuckled a little bit. "You'd better come with me, Catherine. I'll introduce you to someone to fill you in." He started walking towards another hallway and I finally couldn't take it anymore.
"Doesn't anyone care what I think about this?" I nearly shouted. My words bounced off the walls and everyone stared at me. I didn't care, I didn't deserve this. I wanted to go home. "What if I don't want to be here?" I said. Elizabeth's jaw was open, apparently she didn't expect someone she didn't see as a friend to be angry when she was held somewhere against her will. I stared at her. "You may need another sane person here, and that's fine and dandy for you, but I don't care about any of these people and I want to go home," I heard mumbling around the room and everyone in our little circle were staring straight at me and it made me a little uncomfortable. The guy with the black hair broke the silence.
"I know you want to go home, but if we send you back now, it could be really bad for you," I paused.
"Really bad how?"
He thought for a minute before saying, "Because you've spent time in another world that is just as advanced, maybe even more advanced, than your own, it could send your mental state out of whack. If you don't give yourself time to adjust and we just send you back now, you run the risk of overloading and that's really really bad." I gulped.
"What does mental overload usually involve?" I asked quietly. The black haired guy sighed loudly.
"It's basically like a stroke, only ten times worse," I froze. "What happens is you're sent back into a new world with new physics and new balances too quickly, so your body, namely your brain has to speed up to catch up to this new environment. Unfortunately, this usually means that your cells and your mind run too fast for the rest of your body to process and if you don't find a way to balance out all that mental activity within five minutes, your mind runs itself to exhaustion and it never starts back up again." I shuddered and Elizabeth stepped in.
"Okay Zuko, enough explanation, I think you're scaring her," despite the fact that she was defending me from being utterly disturbed and scarred for life, she looked a little freaked out as well.
I composed myself and looked back at Zuko, narrowing my eyes. "So I'm basically stuck here, is that it?"
He sighed again. "Unfortunately yes," I couldn't tell if it was unfortunate for me or for everyone else.
I crossed my arms, not breaking eye contact with him. If I was gonna be stuck here, I might as well drag him down with me. Elizabeth broke the tension. "Ahem," she said quietly. "Well, I'm glad that's all settled, but if Catherine is going to be here for a while, she better learn about how this place works. Zuko? Do you mind introducing Catherine to The Doctor?"
"Doctor?" I said. "I'm not sick, I don't need a doctor,"
"Not that kind of doctor," Zuko said. Not that kind of doctor? What other kind of doctor is there?
As he led me to the hallway he and Elizabeth just came out of, I heard somebody with a very low voice and a strong English accent say, "High General Duke-"
"Elizabeth, Mr. Holmes. Just call me Elizabeth." She interrupted.
"My apologies." Holmes said, almost sarcastically. "There are a few people whom you should meet."
"Okay." She said.
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Well that escalated quickly.

So now Catherine is here and everyone hates her. Don't worry, it get's better.

Wow has my week been stressful. I've been dealing with a bout of writer's block for about two months and I've been trying to finish a book I've been working on for a while now.

(>^_^)>#  I need a waffle.

~Maeve