We all stand there staring at each other. For a few more seconds until I break the silence, “So, you guys ever going to introduce yourselves or should I just call you boomerang-boy?” I say.

  Boomerang-boy glares. “Sokka.”

  The rest follow suit: arrow-kid—Aang; water-girl—Katara; blind-girl—Toph. Furry-tank, as suspected, is Appa.

  I clap my hands. “Fantastic. So, judging by the fact that you’re all armed and immediately pointed those weapons at us, I’m guessing this world is either pretty dangerous… or you are. Or you’re being hunted. One of those options.”

  Katara glares.

  Aang blinks. “Do people not usually carry weapons on your world?”

  I shake my head. “Nope. Not really. Not that Teorin needs one anyway.”

  Teorin gives me a look sharp enough to count as a weapon.

  Sokka raises an eyebrow. “But you do?”

  “Only when I expect to be attacked by suspiciously coordinated strangers with pointy things. Maybe not even then. Depends.”

  “On what?” Sokka asks testily.

  “The environment, obviously.”

  Sokka jabs his boomerang toward me. “If you’re so dangerous, prove it. Spar with me.”

  I grin. “You sure you want to lose in front of your friends?”

  “Try me.” He sets his stance, knees bent, weapon steady. Solid, confident.

  I try to keep the smile from my face. “Go easy on him,” Teorin murmurs.

  Sokka looks at Teorin almost horrified. “Did you just tell him to go easy on me?”

  Teorin turns slightly red. “I didn’t mean it like—”

  Sokka glares.

  “Your funeral,” Teorin mutters.

  “You haven’t even seen what I can do!” Sokka protests.

  Teorin just takes Cat from me and walks away. I grin. “You really want a match?”

  “Yes,” Sokka says, clearly frustrated.

  Toph stomps once, and the ground rises to sketch a rough ring around us. Okay. So, she can just move the earth with stomping. That’s not terrifying at all.

  “No bending. No weapons. Just hand-to-hand,” Toph announces.

  The group gathers in a loose circle.

  Sokka cracks his knuckles, rolling his shoulders. “You ready?”

  I cross my arms. “You sure you are?”

  He lunges, fast and committed. I pivot aside, brushing past his strike with the barest flick of my wrist. I don’t even counter, just slide away. He comes at me again, and I dodge, always moving just enough.

  Aang laughs from the side. “Sure you’re not an Airbender?”

  I grin at him, listening to Sokka’s movement and throwing myself into a roll without even looking. I pop back up and twirl like a ballerina to face him.

  “Stand still!” he grunts.

  “Why would I do that? I’m having fun.”

  Sokka feints and sweeps low. Clever. I let myself drop backward, catching my fall on one hand. I handstand over his leg, flip behind him, and tap his shoulder.

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  “Tag,” I say brightly.

  Toph barks a laugh. “Okay, okay. He’s like Twinkle-toes with no bending.”

  Aang’s eyes are wide. “That was… actually really advanced technique.”

  Sokka presses in harder, frustration tightening his movements. I should end it before he accidentally hurts himself. He throws himself forward with a real strike this time. I duck low, twist with his momentum, and let him trip over his own foot. He sprawls flat on his back, groaning.

  “Okay,” he mutters. “I hate you a little bit.”

  “Hmm. I get that a lot,” I say, grinning down at him. “Don’t worry. I’m banned from most competitive sparring back home. We can reimplement it here if you’d like.”

  Toph, still grinning, says, “Alright, boomerang boy. Wanna call it?”

  Sokka slumps, muttering. “Yeah. I’m good. Emotionally bruised. Physically intact. Surprisingly.”

  I offer him a hand. “That’s fair. You’re actually better than a lot of people I’ve fought.”

  Toph howls. Katara sighs, rubbing her temple.

  Sokka pointedly ignores my hand, pushing himself upright. “Rematch.”

  “I don’t think the outcome will change that quickly,” I say.

  Sokka just glares.

  Katara stares at me, and her lips purse. “Doesn’t he remind you of that girl in Omashu? The one that took away my bending?”

  Sokka stiffens. “Yeah.”

  Toph folds her arms at me. “He does move weird.”

  Everyone stiffens at that, except Teorin, who is doing his best to ignore us all as he fiddles with his portal device while Cat stares at him.

  I gasp in mock horror. “Rude. I move beautifully.”

  Toph snorts. “That’s the problem. Too clean. No stumbles. No weight shifts. Feels like you’re sneaking all the time.”

  I grin. “Habit. How else do you steal desserts?”

  They all look at me like I’m crazy.

  “You’re not telling us something,” Sokka says.

  I flinch. Of course not. Doesn’t mean he has to throw it at me like that. “You’ve known me five minutes; I’ve barely had the chance to tell you something yet.”

  “Maybe they are working with those girls. Maybe this is a trap,” Sokka says. “The last ‘cool teenage guy’ we trusted turned out to be a terrorist with a treehouse.”

  Okay. I might need the story on that one.

  Katara blushes. Now I really need the story.

  “Lev,” Teorin calls without looking up. “If you don’t tell them, I will. And I’ll make it way more embarrassing.”

  I stiffen. “You wouldn’t.”

  “You’re breaking my concentration and making them suspicious,” he says flatly. “I would.”

  Katara glances between the two of us. “What is he talking about?”

  I rub the back of my neck, glaring at Teorin. “Fine. You win.” The others lean in, waiting. “It’s not a big deal,” I say quickly. “It’s just… I’ve got really, really good muscle memory.”

  Sokka squints. “Like… what, you remember how to swing a sword?”

  “More like if I do something once, I can do it again. You guys mentioned martial arts? Let’s just say I know like twelve of them and counting.”

  I grin. “Oh, and if I see something new? I can usually copy it. Perfectly.” I flick his boomerang up off the dirt, spin it once, and snap into Sokka’s stance exactly, every detail perfect.

  Sokka stares at me, slack-jawed. “…You just stole my stance.”

  “Borrowed,” I say cheerfully, handing back the boomerang. “With style.”

  Aang’s eyes are wide. “That explains why you moved like that. Like you’d been training forever.”

  Katara folds her arms tight. “That’s not normal. People can’t just… do that.”

  “Where I come from, people can’t just throw water with their hands either,” I counter. “But you don’t see me calling you weird.”

  Toph snorts. “You are weird.”

  I grin back. “Fair, but I’m not the one who face-planted in the dirt today.”

  Sokka groans, dragging a hand down his face. “Unbelievable. First crazy Omashu girl, now this guy. The universe just hates me.”

  “On the bright side,” I say, grinning, “you’re giving me great material for my memoirs.”

  Katara shakes her head, still tense. “This doesn’t make me trust you more.”

  “Didn’t ask you to,” I reply lightly, though my smile feels thinner than usual. “Just wanted to stop boomerang-boy from accusing me of being a spy.”

  Teorin sighs. “We aren’t spies. I just want to go home.”

  “But it’s so fun here,” I say.

  “Lev.”

  “Fine.”

  Aang leans forward, still wide-eyed. “That’s… actually amazing. Do you think you could learn bending moves just by watching them?”

  Katara stiffens, shooting him a sharp look. “Aang.” Her voice carries warning. “Don’t encourage him. We don’t know what else he’s hiding.”

  Sokka folds his arms, muttering, “Yeah, next thing we know he’s gonna be juggling fireballs and writing a diary about how much smarter he is than all of us.”

  “Already writing the diary,” I say brightly.

  Toph snickers. “He’s not lying.” She tilts her head toward me, grin widening. “I like him. At least he owns it.”

  Katara exhales sharply through her nose, turning away. “You can like him. I don’t trust him.”

  Teorin doesn’t even look up from the glowing mess of wires and gears in his hands. “Good. You shouldn’t.”

  That earns him another round of tense silence.

  A faint mrrrp cuts through the quiet. Everyone turns. Cat is sitting just outside the sparring ring, tail curled neatly around his paws like he’s there waiting for the most dramatic moment possible.

  I grin, jogging over to scoop him up. He hops into my arms like the whole scene hasn’t been dramatic at all. I sneeze. Violently. But then all my muscles relax a little as the touch calms them.

  Toph snorts. “Now he’s bringing in backup.”

  Sokka squints. “Still wrong.”

  Cat yawns, claws into my sleeve, and purrs like an engine.

  Aang fidgets with his staff, breaking it first. “It doesn’t feel like they’re trying to hurt us. And if Teorin really just wants to go home, maybe we can help.”

  Katara shakes her head, lips pressed tight, but doesn’t argue.

  Toph kicks a clod of dirt toward me. “Guess you’re sticking around, weirdo.”

  I grin, brushing off my shoulder. “Told you. Totally harmless.”