Sometimes you have to fly through the Bermuda Triangle to get to Puerto Rico…

Maximum Ride + Avatar: the Last Airbender =

Maximum Ride: One of the Last Airbenders

Flying in front of Appa with his glider, Aang spotted something unusual in the distance.

"Guys, I think I see an eagle hawk up ahead!" Aang called to his friends riding on Appa's back.

Sokka and Katara scrambled to the front of the saddle to get a better look, leaving an indifferent Toph in the back of the saddle.

"I think it looks more like a raven eagle," Toph said, blowing her bangs away from her face just to have them fall back in place.

"Really?" Sokka asked. "Because I think it looks more like- Toph! Stop that!"

"Sucker," Toph said with a grin.

Zuko, who was sitting on Appa's head and holding the reins, squinted as they got closer to the unidentified flying object and then said, "That's no eagle hawk. That's a person."

"A flying person?" Katara asked, beginning to get excited. "You don't think it could be… another airbender, do you?"

"It can't be!" Sokka cried in dismay.

"And why not?" Katara asked her brother indignantly, crossing her arms.

"Because then we would have to change the name of the whole series!" Sokka answered, throwing his hands up in the air. "It's called Avatar: the Last Airbender, not Avatar: One of the Last Airbenders! That would be a total catastrophe. Probably the end of times," Sokka deduced with a nod.

"He has a point," Toph said, picking her nose and flicking it off to the side, causing Katara to huff angrily.

Not paying attention to anyone's negativity, Aang sped up, enthusiastically yelling, "We have to find out who that is!"

Leaving Appa and the rest of the gang in his dust, Aang shot forward to what he could now see was a girl, probably not much older than Zuko.

"Hey there!" he called to her just as pulled up beside her, inches from her left wing.

Startled, her head whipped toward him. Aang's eyes widened at seeing her slightly reddened face and the way the wind was blowing through her hair.

"Uh, hi," she said awkwardly. "Hey, do you know how to get to Puerto Rico from here? I was flying above the interstate, but I think I took a wrong exit."

Aang said with a warm smile, "I have no idea what you're talking about." Then, his eyes widened again with childish excitement, and he asked, "Do you wanna ride on my flying bison?"

Before she could ask, Aang pointed behind them. Max looked over her shoulder, falling about a foot in the air when she saw a fuzzy mountain with six legs and horns flying behind her. Just as soon as her eyes found the flying mountain's face, she saw a bunch of kids riding on top of it, one on its massive head and three others in a giant saddle on its back. A girl dressed in blue waved at Max, but the boy next to her promptly swatted her hand down.

"Come on!" the bald kid encouraged. "Appa won't bite, I promise!"

"Uh, sure," Max said, thinking maybe one of the other kids would know the way to Puerto Rico.

The two of them turned around and flew back to Appa. Aang reached the saddle first, landing nimbly between the bickering Sokka and Katara. Max followed suit, landing in the middle of the saddle, stretching out her enormous wingspan before folding the wings in.

"Hi, Flying Lady," Sokka said with a squeaky voice, intimidated by the tall, foreign-looking girl before him.

"That's Sokka, and this is Katara," Aang introduced, gesturing to his friends sitting on either side of him.

"It's so nice to meet you!" Katara gushed. "I've never seen anyone like you, but you're really pretty."

Max resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"Behind you is Toph," Aang continued, pointing to Toph who was still in the back of the saddle, away from the others.

"I can't see if you're pretty, Flying Lady, but you sure don't smell pretty," Toph remarked.

"Toph! That's so rude!" Katara reprimanded.

"I tell it like it is, Sugar Queen," Toph said, crossing her arms. "And by the way, you don't smell too hot either."

Katara blushed and swiftly scooted away from Aang and Sokka.

To the rest of the gang's surprise, Max just smiled and said, "One of my best friends is blind. He always says the same thing about me. Weird thing, he could kind of see when we were at the South Pole. Something about everything being so white…"

"Really? I've never been," Toph said, trying not to appear too excited. Suddenly, she pointed in Sokka's direction and declared, "YOU. You're taking me to the South Pole when this mess is all over with."

"Uh, okay," Sokka said with a shrug, making Toph's cheeks go pink.

"And this is Zuko, and I'm Aang!" Aang finished.

"Aang is the Avatar," Sokka said proudly.

"Avatar? You're not blue. Or tall," Max said, looking him up and down.

"What?" Aang asked, wondering what she meant.

Looking around, Max was suddenly suspicious of not being in the right world. It definitely didn't seem like the world she was used to, but it also wasn't the Avatar planet of Pandora (she would know, she's seen James Cameron's Avatar at least eleventy-six times).

"Uh, nothing?" Max said, trying to be inconspicuous, not alerting the others to her status as a foreigner.

"You're not from around here, are you?" asked the one with the name she recalled being oddly similar to Sock.

Alarmed by Sock's inconvenient questioning, Max replied, "I'm not really from anywhere. I don't have a home. I move around a lot."

"I hear you," Aang said sadly.

"It makes sense, since she's an airbender," Katara pointed out, putting a hand on Aang's shoulder.

"Is she really an airbender, though?" Zuko asked skeptically.

"No! She's not!" Sock cried, holding on desperately to his canon because it was all that he knew. "Aang is the last airbender!"

"Be quiet, Sokka," Katara snapped. "She is obviously an airbender who somehow survived the Genocide. She can fly, using the feathery glider on her back. Isn't that right, um, what was your name?"

"It's Maximum."

"That's a weird name," Toph stated.

"It's a beautiful name!" Aang yelled at her.

"Whoa, calm down, lover boy," Toph said with her hands up in mock surrender.

"I actually named myself, so thank you, Fang," Max said.

"It's Aang," Aang corrected, but then his cheeks went pink. "But you can call me Fang if you want! As our honorary guest on the Appa Express, you may call me and my friends whatever you would like!"

"Speak for yourself, Twinkletoes!" Toph protested.

"Oh, good," Max said, ignoring Toph. "Because I think your names are weird. I'll just call you all names that sound more… familiar. Boy with odd ponytail, you are Sock. Girl dressed like Sock, you are Kat. Unusually manly little girl, you are Tom. Boy with reins, you are Zero. Bald kid, you are Fang."

"Sock? Well, that proves she's not an airbender! Airbenders don't even wear socks!"

"That makes no sense and doesn't prove anything!" Kat said with her arms crossed.

"It totally does! Whose side are you even on?"

"Zero? That name is kind of… I don't know, depressing," Zuko said.

"Why? Because it's equal to the number of times you've succeeded in life?" Tom said with a big smile.

Instead of entering a fiery rage, Zuko/Zero just turned back around on Appa's head and moved the reins a little as he mourned not having an emo corner to crawl into.

Not caring about Zero and his angsty self, Kat said, "Anyways, Maximum, you're an airbender, right?"

"Yes," Max answered, having somewhat formulated a story while the boys were getting all upset about their new names. "My late father, Jeb, was an… inventor of sorts, and he made me this, uh, glider that is on my back. It actually looks just like Fang's glider underneath all the feathers, which are there for camouflage. The glider is attached to a harness that goes under my shirt. It really helps me to uh, bend the air."

"Wow, a glider with a harness," Fang said in awe. "Can we see it?"

"Not on a first date, sailor!" Max said worriedly, tugging her shirt down.

All of Fang's bald head turned red with embarrassment, turning his blue tattoos a rosy sort of purple. "I didn't mean it like that! I just wanted to see the harness, not everything that's under your shirt. I mean, I'm sure whatever is under your shirt is great, but… Wait! That's not what I meant, either!"

"Shut up, Aang! Just shut up!" Kat yelled, silencing him.

Tom began cackling maniacally. "Looks like Sugar Queen is jealous."

"Jealous of what?" Sock asked. "Katara, you don't like boys yet, do you?" he shrieked, pointing an accusing finger at her.

"I'm not jealous! And that's none of your business, Sokka!"

"And apparently it's not Aang's business either, because he would rather be with Feather Girl!" Tom said with a snort. "Oh, this is rich."

"You could always go out with me, Katara," Zero suggested. "I hear that a lot of people ship us, and I really have nothing better to do."

Kat shot a death-glare at Zero. "I will cut you."

"We really need to get an emo corner installed on this bison," Zero said, sulking even more than he usually did.

Oblivious to all of this, Fang yelled excitedly, "Fang!"

"Why are you yelling at yourself?" Max asked.

"No, it's Fang!" he yelled, pointing behind Appa. "Roku's dragon!"

Everyone besides Tom looked just as Fang pulled up beside Appa. Sock's eyes went wide, and Kat grabbed Fang's arm. The two spirit animals nodded at each other, and then Fang turned his attention to Fang.

"Fang says that I need to go to the Spirit World with him right now," Fang said, wrenching his arm away from Kat, who made a face at him behind his back.

"I didn't hear him say anything," Tom said, sniffing the air.

"That's because he's a dragon, and dragons don't talk!" Sock asserted.

Fang turned to Sock and breathed blue fire at him, which Sock narrowly avoided by jumping over Fang and into Kat's lap.

"Spirit dragon fire! Help," he whimpered, clutching Kat for protection. Kat rolled her eyes.

"Fang says it's urgent, Fang," Max told Fang, who had just stood up.

"Wait, you can hear him too?" Fang asked, looking from her to the dragon.

"I've always been good at hearing voices in my head," Max said with a shrug. "Plus, I've always had a connection with things named Fang."

"Really?" Fang asked, clasping his hands together girlishly as his heart surged.

Fang nudged Fang in his side with his head, bringing Fang back to the present.

"Right, Fang. I have to go now! Avatar business!" he said, hopping onto the old dragon's back.

"You ride dragons? Maybe you are the Avatar," Max said. "A tiny arrow-headed version…"

"Yes, he is!" Sock screeched, still wrapped around Kat. "He's Avatar: the Last Airbender!"

"Let it go, Sock," Kat said, tossing him off of herself.

"Yeah, put a sock in it," Tom snickered.

Fang told Fang something in his head, and then Fang said, "Hey Maximum, you could probably benefit from the teachings of an airbending master, right?

"Uh, sure," Max said hesitantly. "I mean, yes. Definitely. Of course."

"Great! Lesson one is spirituality! Hop on!" he told her, bouncing up and down happily.

"Uh, okay," Max said, crossing the saddle and gracefully leaping to mount the dragon behind Fang.

"What? You're taking that ugly foreigner on a dragon ride to the Spirit World? You've never done that with any of us!" Kat cried.

"Actually…" Sock said tentatively.

"Yeah, me too…" Zero said, not looking at Kat.

Kat huffed and looked at Tom. "Well, what about you, Toph?"

Tom shook her head. "No, he's never taken me on a dragon ride to the Spirit World."

Kat gave a small smile at this, comforted that she wasn't the only one that Aang hadn't taken on such a journey.

"He did take me on a panda ride to the Spirit World, though," Tom added with a smile, sending Kat into a rage.

"AANG!"

"Whoops, gotta go," Fang said, urging Fang forward.

"Wait!" Max yelled, causing Fang to bring Fang to an abrupt stop. "Zero!"

Zero turned his sulky head to look at Max.

"Do you have any acting experience? Because I think you and your angsty self would be great to play a guy named Fang in this movie that's eventually coming out…" She paused for a moment to think about it. "Uh, actually, it's probably never coming out. Never mind!"

Zero stuck his bottom lip out, somehow disappointed even though he had no idea what she was talking about.

"Okay then! You ready, Maximum? You better hold on!" Fang told Max over his shoulder.

"Hold on to wha-" Max's question was cut off by her own scream as she grabbed Fang's middle and Fang bolted forward to the Spirit World.

Fang winked at Fang, and Fang winked back with a cheeky grin. Fang always had liked older women…

If you're not familiar with James Cameron's movie, Avatar, then you probably missed a few of the jokes in there.
One-sided Fax, KatFang, ZeroKat, TomSock, and Sock-Canon. For this chapter, I ship all of these things.
Welp, that's it for this story! Thanks for reading, thanks to everyone who has reviewed (and will review), and special thanks to those who have had this story on their alerts for years. Lol. You rock my Sock.

-Skye Maxwell