I do don't own ATLA or any of the characters from it *Sob*
"Cap'n, a ship's been spotted."
"Make towards it!" The girl yelled, swinging down from the crow's nest. Entering the lower decks she slipped into her rooms and kicked open her closet door.
Pulling off her clothes she replaced them with a black shirt and slited skirt. The shirt had no sleeves and left her shoulders open. The skirt, made from leather, was short in the front and long in the back, accompanied by slits for maneuverability.
Next she took knee-length black lace leggings, which were attatched to some shots, and pulled then on under the skirt. Reaching for the top shelf she took out a brown leather vest that opened widely in the front.
Pulling a strip of black cotton she tied it around her head, going across her forehead and over her white-blonde hair.
Dipping two fingers in black ink she moved them across her cheeks, moving from her nose out.
Finally she pulled a cloak from the floor and pulled the hood up over her purple orange eyed. Black boots stomping she moved up the stairs and onto the deck.
"Cap'n," The first mate said to her, swinging in on a rope, "They look like neutralists." Hand out she accepted a long golden spyglass.
The ship wasn't from their side of the world. They were from the four nations, but there was no flag defining which one they were loyal to.
"They aren't neutralists," the girl said, "They're benders." She turned to a now fearful looking crew. "We've dealt with their kind before, nothing more than a few runaways or adventurers." Pulling down her hood she turned to her first mate. "Prepare to board."
She could make out six silhouettes standing on the ship's deck.
The bridge lowered between the two ships and the girl walked across, crew behind her, hood up, all but her mouth hidden by a shadow.
The tallest boy stepped foreword, face expressionless. The girl smirked, feeling the sword and pistol pressed against her side.
"Who are you and where do you come from?" He said in a monotone voice.
"If you mean which one of your petty nations do I come from you should know that we are from the other side of the world." He raised an eyebrow, the rest of his face not changing. "Now, who is the pitiful captain of this thing?"
"We don't have a captain." He said.
"Seems you need a leader, feel free to surrender and come aboard as prisoners."
"In your dreams."
"No, as a matter of fact, my dreams have a much different ending."
"What Zuko means is that we are a group, a family, we hold together without a ruling force." It was a short monk-looking boy who spoke.
"Zuko you say?" She held her hand out and her first mate placed a poster in it.
The girl held it up, comparing the draw picture on the wanted poster to the boy standing in front of her.
Handing back the poster she turned to Zuko.
"You going to be a good little crown prince and surrender to me?" The girl's smirk widened, "Or do we have to play first?" He frowned.
"Who are you?"
"I'm your worst nightmare."
She flipped her head back and jerked her shoulders, dislodging her cape. She pulled out her weapons and aimed them towards the banished prince, pistol and sword both. Eyes glowing with an eerie light her magic ready at hand.
The prince looked her over. He told himself he was looking for hidden weapons, but a corner of his mind thought something quite different.
Pushing that thought aside he drew his broadswords. Behind him he heard the rush of water, the unsheathing of a weapon, moving air, an opening fan, and the annoyed grunt of the girl who couldn't see.
The pirates drew their weapons as well.
"Playtime I see." Smirking the girl loaded her gun and shot at the princes feet. He jumped and spun landing in a fighting stance, closer to the girl.
The rest of Zuko's friends sprung into action attacking the pirates. Save the blind girl, who was standing on a mound of dirt.
The girl and the prince exchanged moves, neither giving it their all.
"I see you are one of theose people who play nice." She stuck out her bottom lip. "I was expecting more from a banished prince, too bad."
"I was expecting more from pirates." He jerked his head in the direction of behind the girl. She risked a glance and saw all her crew members unconcious, in a heap. They all closed in arround her.
The girl reached withing herself for her magic, and raising her hands, propelled them all away from her. She then did cartwheels so that she was no longer in the center of them all, landing on her feet with a thud.
"I can't ever get a good crew, let alone a crew who I enjoy being with. The dirtbags only want money, and don't have the brains to think otherwise."
The boy with the ponytail chuckled, but then shut up once he saw the glares he was recieving from everyone.
They were all interrupted though, by the horn of a ship approaching from the distance, and looking in the opposite direction they saw a pirate ship was also approaching, one with red sails. The girl gasped.
"Oh no."
"Who are they!" The prince asked, frustrated, pointing to the pirate ship.
The girl rubbed her arm. "Heh heh, um, bounty hunters."
"What! We have a fire nation war ship and bounty hunters closing in on us!"
'We need to choose one ship and all escape on that one," the brown haired girl said. "We can all escape or none of us."
"Who's ship do we take?"
"Mine." Both the fire nation prince and the pirate girl said at the same time.
"Mine is fully armed, and has lots of secret hiding places, passageways, a full food sulply-"
"Mine is faster-"
"Mine is mine. And what happened to this no captain theory?"
"Please you two stop bickering! And please can we take our ship?"
"If I can drive."
"No." Zuko said bitterly.
"Then we take my ship."
"And I drive."
"I'm not letting you touch my-"
"I said stop bickering!" The brown haired girl yelled.
"Okay fine, princey pants can drive." He scowled at the girl.
"Thank you, now we need to hurry!"
After all the crew from the pirate ship had been moved to the other, much against the captains wishes and they went off.
The other two ships turned to follow their ship, The Black Star. Zuko was standing at the wheel.
"How do you work this thing, it's nothing like fire nation ships!" The girl smirked, deciding not to tell him that the control room was above him, in the small two story structure on the back of the ship. The motor was for when she needed to escape, and for other emergencies.
And at the time she didn't, but Zuko didn't know that.
"You," He said, pointing to the girl, "You drive this bloody ship."
"My pleasure." She said, with the smirk that seemed to never leave her face. Going in the door she climbed the ladder up to the control room. It had been a girf from one of the nation rulers after she captured a deserter for them.
She heard Zuko come up behind her.
"What you never said you had an engine!"
"Nope." She said, adding a pop to her P. "But you said I could drive."
"You manipulating," They were cut off by a loud boom that came from the side of the ship. Looking out the window the girl saw a gaping hole had been blown into the side. She groaned.
"If you would have let me drive in the first place."
"If we took my ship, which is not made of wood, this wouldn't have happened." He interrupted.
"Fine, if you're so smart you get us out of this."
"Zuko!" the boy with the ponytail yelled. "Hurry up!"
"Yeah Zuko hurry up." The girl taunted. He ran to the controls and flipped on the engine.
"I am going to get back at you for this." He flipped up a few switches.
"Sure you are Zuko, sure you are." With that she turned and jumped down through the ladder hole, making her way to the others on the deck.
"What do we do?" The bald monk said.
"Depends on if little fire prince can get us out of here. Now are any of you waterbenders?"
The brown haired girl raised her hand. "Yes, I'm Katara by the way."
"Don't let the ship fill with water, and help propel us foreword is you can. Who are you?"
She pointed to the monk boy with that tattoos. "I am the avatar."
"Great, the peace crew. Help move the ship forward and delay or stop the other ones."
"I'm Sokka, I'm not a bender, and this is Suki." He finally got a chance to look at the pirate girl, sure she was in a more frazzled state but he did nonetheless.
"This is the worst kind of boat I have ever been on." The blind girl said.
"You three go help Zuko." They nodded and went off to the engine room. She went to the bow of the ship, and extended the golden telescope. There was no land to be seen.
She entered the control room again.
"Zuko, I don't see and land, or anything." The sound of a cannon fire boomed next to them and the ship jerked to the side.
He pulled her aside. "We aren't gonna make it." She nodded.
"We can try to escape on the row boats." She turned to the rest of them. "Follow me."
They got Sokka, Toph, and Suki into one and lowered it down into the water. The avatar and waterbender took the next.
"Come on." Zuko said, pulling the last, and only row boat in front of them. A cannon went off, hitting the mast. As the two jumped aside their boat was crushed.
"There might be another one."
"No, Zuko that was the last one." She grabbed a sack that had been left on one of the barrels and put her vest into it.
"What are you doing?"
"I can't swim in this." She took of her skirt, leaving her black sleeveless top and some very short sorts that were over her leggings. After stuffing all that, plus her boots and headband into the bag she tied it to her waist, and was ready to jump.
Looking over to Zuko, who had taken of his shirt she jumped over the edge and moved into a diving position.
When Zuko hit the cold water the wind was knocked out of him, struggling to get to the surface he felt someone grab his arm and pull him up. Breaking the surface he heard coughing, and looked to see the pirate girl, who seemed to be struggling against something.
He was startled when she was suddenly pulled under. Submerging Zuko saw a long tentacle wrapped around her waist, pulling her into a cave.
She tried to kick it off, but the lack of oxygen and the pressure was making her light headed, until she finally passed out, water seeping into her lungs.
Zuko swam towards her and pulled out his swords, which were now strapped to his belt. With one arm he tried to pull her free, the other he used to hack at the tentacle. Giving it one last kick it released her. Swimming upward as fast as he could he thjrust the girl towards the surface.
Once they were both above water Zuko yelled to Aang.
"Aang Katara, help!" They saw him and waterbended the boat towards the two. Zuko lifted her onto the boat and was helped in by Katara.
The waterbender ejected the water from her lungs, and and bended air into them. The pirate coughed and sputtered, sitting up in the boat. But she then violently coughed up blood into her lap. Katara laid her back down and pulled water from one of her pouches to heal the pirate.
After she had done all she could the waterbender moved to the back of the boat and pushed it forward, Aang doing the same. Zuko sat in silence, watching the pirate.
The two row boats were now moving towards the direction of the four nations, taking the girl farther and farther from all that was familiar to her.
My first story! Please review, I want to know if I should continue it, or if I need to change it at all.
~G.V.N.