I do not own The Legend of Korra. I make no money off this story and am writing it purely for the purpose of getting the idea out of my head and possibly improving my writing skill, in that order of priority. Readers will no doubt find dialogue, quotes and some elements of the plot that might belong in other books, anime, cartoons or TV series. I am not a very creative person.

This story contains instances of alcohol use, foul language occasional drug use, violence and mentions of sexual intercourse(non graphic). The MC is male (and firmly heterosexual if that matters). I'm not very familiar with the use of ratings on this website but I'd suggest you not read this unless you are 17. I believe that according to ESRB this should be rated as M.

This fanfiction story is not canon. It is in fact, fanfiction. Thus I will be exercising my artistic (not) license with the characters and plot of Legend of Korra. If you find yourself asking a question of the theme "But why didn't he do it this way" or "that's not how she's supposed to act" then one of two things happened. I probably didn't think of it and am an ignorant, ignorant person or just don't agree with you. Feel free to voice your idea or opinion but either way, chances are I'm not changing my story to satisfy one person.

One more thing, the Main Character (basically an OC Insert) will become super-powerful, super duper powerful, ultra super powerful. I don't want to write a story where the main character just watches others do cool stuff. Because face it, in a real self insert the MC would just complain all day about there being no internet or fanfiction. So yes, the MC becomes uber powerful and godlike and destroys the world (jk). He'll have weaknesses but will make sure he doesn't get put in those situations as far as possible. But seriously, if you want a painfully weak MC, feel free to watch some anime. I'm sure you'll find a few where the MC has powerful girls around him that do all the work while he sits around and faps.

Furthermore, speaking as an absolute beginner at writing, most readers will no doubt find that this unedited and unbeta-ed excuse for fanfiction is riddled with horrid spelling mistakes, confusing grammatical errors, and frustrating plot holes and thus is not fit for human consumption.

You have been warned!

Now that my Disclaimer/Rant/Warning is over,

Let the Legend begin.

Chapter 1 - A Legend is Born

THE TIME HAS COME

A loud voice echoed in the dark, startling me from . . . well, whatever I was doing. What was I doing? Strange. Why can't I remem-

*** *** REQUIRED

Louder this time, the voice made me wince. Wait a sec! Why didn't I wince? My eyes! Where ARE MY EYES!?

YOU **** ** VITAL

The voice grew louder with strange chorus-like chants in the background. I felt a strange force growing within me as the chants grew louder. A force that made my . . . everything . . . twist in pain. It was ripping me apart!

YOU WILL BE THE L***

The indistinct chants grew louder in the background but the voice grew softer. The pain had grown excruciating, but not enough to distract me from my disconcerting lack of arms or legs . . . or body for that matter.

YOU WILL NOT BEGIN ANEW

The voice had grown even softer and had taken a strange melancholic tone. I was almost unable to make out what was being said as the garbled chants became louder and louder. The pain began to recede. Warmth filled me as I felt happy. I can't remember the last time I felt this good. Why can't I remember? The warm joy gave way to a sinking fear. An intense heat built up inside me as fear gave way inexplicably to boiling rage.

The pain kept receding as I felt more and more. Disgust, hate, sadness and so on and on. Cycling over and over until I couldn't take it. Make it stop! Make it stop!

That's it! I'm. Getting. Out. Now.

As if responding to my will, the chants ended. Their remnants echoed in the darkness as the pain and emotions I was forced to feel simply disappeared leaving me empty, hollow. All of a sudden, I felt a jerk behind my navel and was dragged backwards. Then I fell, faster and faster until -

"Ghuahh!"

I gasped loudly and shot up, eyes wide and fists clenched. Trembling, I took a look around and exhaled shakily as I wiped the sweat from my face. I was utterly soaked in sweat and . . . salt water?

'Why the fuck am I under a bridge?'

Resting my head between my knees, I struggled to calm myself down, still shivering from the strange nightmare. My breathing gradually slowed as I realized that I still had eyes and wasn't a disembodied spirit.

'What a weird dream.'

I opened my eyes once more and looked up to get a better look at the bridge I had been sleeping under. And what a strange bridge it was. It was a pretty small one, but provided passage across a small brook. Strangely enough, it seemed to be sculpted out of a single stone of stone, the surface seemingly homogenous showing no signs of the blocks of stone that should have been used to build it.

'Naturally occurring maybe?'

I dismissed the idea. Sharp edges, even hand rails. No way this was a natural bridge.

Feeeeeeeed meeeeee.

"Screw the bridge", I muttered, placing my hand over my stomach. Food first, architectural analysis of bridge never.

'SEAPORT CITY'

Turns out I wasn't too far from civilization. I walked past the ratty signpost that swung loosely from a pillar of stone and into the city.

'What sort of architecture is that? Indian? No! Chinese maybe?'

Suffice it to say that architecture isn't really really not my strong suit. The buildings were simple, made of stone and wood. No bricks, no cement, and most importantly not even the slightest hint of electricity being used.

Not for the first time, I wondered where I had ended up.

'What the hell? Even rural areas should have electric lighting. Is this some kind of prank?'

I cautiously looked around, paying attention to the corners of buildings for any unnatural protrusions. Nope. No cameras. Not a prank then.

I didn't drink often but when I did I tended to go all out. It appeared that overindulging had gotten me neck deep in skunk-rat shit this time.

'Wait a sec. What's a skunk-rat? Nevermind.'

I eyed a man a little further ahead, sitting with his legs out stretched and his back to the wall. He pulled out a cigarette and held it between his lips. He looked at me, smiled lopsidedly and and snapped his fingers. All of a sudden a spark lit up on the end of his cigarette.

'Huh. No sleeves. Wonder how he pulled that off.'

I walked towards him to ask him about the trick when I spotted two men on the opposite side of the road dressed in identical uniforms: loose black pants, conical hats and identical emblems on their long flowy, green shirts. They had a baton attached to the side of their pants. No guns.

'Asian Police? The clothing seems old fashioned. Like centuries old. Asian equivalent of the a historic immersion festival of some sort? Like a Renaissance Fair? Do they have those?'

I made my way towards them tentatively. I didn't want to spook them and get walloped. They say racism is dying down, but hey . . . I had no clue where I was. Doesn't hurt to be careful.

I paused as I got closer to them. Something was off.

'I'm like Gulliver in Brobdingnag. What are they, giants?'

I was not amused at the errant thought. I was no NBA star but at an above average 5'10", there weren't too many people that could tower over me like that. Now I was really worried. I watched as another man wearing a tattered tunic and a loose pair of pants walked past them carrying a large sack.

'What is he supposed to be, a pretend peasant?'

I frowned when I noticed that the peasant was comparable in height to the two pretend cops. Apparently gigantism was the norm here.

Gathering my courage, I decided to approach the two pretend cops. Hopefully they didn't insist on speaking in Chinese. Mandarin or whatever. People at renaissance fairs tended to be stubborn to the point that you felt like shooting them . . . or yourself. I pulled myself together and focused on what I'd say to them.

'Hey! Could you help me out? I'm think I'm lost. My name is … My name is . . . my name . . .'

I swallowed.

My heart began pounding against my rib cage.

With growing fear, I looked down at my hands. My eyes widened when I saw the dainty fingers and twig like arms. I turned my palm over and gasped when I saw relatively smooth skin where there should have been darkened calluses from years of semi professional fighting. Panic overwhelmed me.

I ran. Ran until I collapsed.

'I'm tired already?'

I stood back up on trembling legs and looked into dirty window as I caught my breath.

'What the fuck?'

I started shaking. In the mirror was not the grown adult with a dark skin tone and short, cropped hair that I had come to expect. Instead, a fair skinned, baby faced, long haired child, no older than 7 or 8 stared back at me.

Recognising the onset of a panic attack, I stumbled away from the window, into a nearby alley and fell on my ass so I wouldn't draw attention.

'Focus. What happened last night? Think!'

Nothing. No matter how hard I tried, the only thing that came to me was a splitting headache. Exhausted from the panic attack and hunger, I slipped into a fitful sleep.

"Useless, utterly useless", he screamed as he lunged at me. I fell backwards, crawling away until I got a table between me and him. This was bad. He had yelled, taunted and even smacked me around a bit. But he had never attacked me outright like this before. It was almost like he wanted to kill me.

'What pushed him over the edge? The fool's been in denial for so long', I thought as I cowered behind the table.

"No signs. None. How can you not be a bender? Why?" He screamed at me, as he swayed back and forth, his face twisted with malice and pulled a knife out of his vomit and dirt stained tunic, an obvious sign that he had been thrown out of a bar after puking, a common occurrence in the recent weeks.

"Your mother was one, that bitch Niya! That's why I took you from the south pole. You took after your trash father didn't you? Died in a bandit raid didn't he, that high and mighty bastard.", He muttered with spittle flying from his mouth before he looked back at me.

"And you, Hao! You're going to die just like him", he yelled out, almost frothing at the mouth in madness, his bloodshot eyes glinting in the dark.

This was not news to me. The imbecile was prone to sleeptalking. I had known for months that he wasn't really my father. To think that he would snap before I managed to put my plan to escape into practice.

"With a failure like you I'll never get my revenge. You! This is all your fault!" he screamed once more and to my shock, he leaped towards me, right over the table, brandishing the knife. I ducked and watched in shock as my father, no . . . Kidnapper, sailed over me. His rage fueled momentum taking him through a window, and -

SPLAT

- to his death, four stories below. In his intoxicated state, he hadn't bothered to cover his head and roll onto his feet like he had taught me. He landed head first, his neck snapped on contact with the unforgiving ground.

I stared through the broken window for almost a minute before I snapped back into action.

'The coal plant next door! They just left, the furnace should still be hot enough.'

"Wake up!" came a voice from behind me. I turned to face it.

"Hey KID! WAKE UP!"

"WAKE UP!"

I woke with a start, looking up to find the two actors . . . policemen from yesterday eyeing me suspiciously. It was still nighttime. I must have been asleep for a few hours. A sudden pain shot through my head as if something was trying to claw its way out of my skull from the inside.

I was starting to remember.

'Fucking hell! Aspirin! Advil! I'd sell my soul for some Tylenol right about now.'

I didn't let my thoughts show on my face. At least, I hope I didn't. Somehow taking my mind of the the sudden influx of two sets of conflicting and confusing memories, I got up to speak with them. I couldn't let them know anything was wrong. Not until I knew what the hell was going on!

"What are you doing here? What's your name kid?" asked one of the men his hand on his belt next to a black baton which was clipped on.

I wasn't certain if the cop was getting ready to wallop me over the head or if he was trying to hold up his pants. Fatass. I resisted the urge to quip.

'No need to get my ass whooped.'

I hadn't quite adjusted to the new knowledge in my head but among the numerous tit bits of jumbled memories floating around in my probably concussed head was my name. Or rather . . . a name. Charles - aka Charlie. No wait! Was it Cheng Hao?

"I'm Cha . . .Cheng Hao. I was hiding and fell asleep. Thanks for waking me up", I said as I rubbed my head. I wasn't really feigning the nervousness.

'Pity, I don't think 'Charlie' is going to fly around these parts.'

I wasn't certain that 'Charlie' was really my name but it was the only name that held any real meaning to me, a connection to who I was before I ended up . . . well, here.

'I suppose I'm the sentimental type then.'

"What are you doing sleeping out here?" Apparently the cops didn't quite buy it, looking over Lee's ragged clothes in suspicion.

"I was playing hide and seek with Zulon and Riya, took a bit of a tumble and ruined my clothes. I must have fallen asleep while hiding from Zulon." I answered quickly making up a few names that sounded normal.

'Normal? According to which set of memories?'

The officers still seemed to be on the fence.

'C'mon! I'm just a kid. Just move on already. I need to sort out my head. What the hell is up with the suspicion?'

"Thanks for waking me up officers, with any luck I can sneak in before dad wakes up. He'll be furious if he finds out I was out at night" I said, leaving before they could react.

"Hey! Wait! Stop!" The cops tried chasing me. But I was small, quick and somehow, I knew the roads well. I lost them in less than a minute.

'Finally, some peace. Now to solve my memory issues.'

Once outside the city, I began to calmly analyze my memory of the previous night and the other memories that were threatening to bore a hole in my skull.

I obtained mixed results.

I couldn't remember too many details about my past life, if that was what it was. Some of those memories were clear and vivid: college life, practicing martial arts on a semi professional level, my time learning meditation in a South Indian Ashram . . . or was it a buddhist temple in Tibet? No wait, I think that was me practicing Northern Shaolin in Henan.

'Damnit! Who am I? Why am I here?'

I couldn't remember anything specific details about my family: what they looked like, their names. My parents were doctors of some sort. I could remember that much. When I focused hard I might have caught a glimpse of their faces. But it could have been my imagination. These memories didn't exactly have a stamp on them reading "Pay attention you semi-amnesiac dumbass, these are from past life". That would have made it so much easier.

'Sigh, If only.'

I thought back to my most recent nightmare, the one the two acto - policemen woke me from. It was no dream; it was a memory, a very recent one at that. But it wasn't one I could place among the few I had of my childhood as the son of two doctors.

Like I said, I had few vivid memories of Charlie's life. Obedient child, Honor student. Took Karate as a kid. Prone to panic attacks. He was a dutiful son, majoring in Engineering until his parents passed on when he was in college. He sank into martial arts as an outlet and began competing when he found he was good at it. The order of the memories blurred after a certain point. Some sort of chronological confabulation as a result of whatever gave me those memories. He died . . .

'How did he . . . I . . . die?'

'Wait a sec. More importantly Cheng Hao? That's a guys name right?'

The thought alarmed me something fierce as I shoved my hands down my pants, drawing a nasty look from a mother who quickly covered her child's eyes. Relief flooded me (not that sort of relief, Morons) as my hands settled around my block and tackle. Miniaturized but not absent.

'Phew! Back to the problems with my head. Er . . . my other head.'

Now that I could concentrate again. I focused on the other set of memories. Cheng Hao's memories, on the other hand, were clearer, more vivid. He was an unlucky child. The man in the first memory I encountered in the form of the dream was my, no, Cheng Hao's father.

Well, not really.

The man was actually a criminal named Koga who had kidnapped Cheng Hao and posed as his father for the better part of 9 years. Koga's story was a familiar one. I . . . Hao had heard it several times.

Eight years ago, Koga lived in Republic City. He wasn't a hardened killer nor was he a member of one of the many organised gangs that ruled the underbelly of the sprawling metropolis but he was the brains of a pickpocketing ring that was independent of the Triads. It was only a small outfit that targeted rich tourists from the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation but it payed well. Unfortunately his small group ran afoul of the Agni Kai Triad who killed Koga's brother for muscling in on their turf.

The "weak dogs of the Republic City Council", ie . . . the Law Enforcement in Republic City, were either unable or unwilling to prove that the Agni Kais were responsible. Enraged at their incompetence, Koga nursed a grudge against the RCPD, the Council and organised crime in Republic City. A few years later the Council offered a Triad member amnesty in return for testifying against their boss. Koga's grudge grew and eventually consumed him when the boss who had been the one to kill his brother walked from lack of evidence.

Koga was never a particularly powerful bender, no he was the brains of the operation. He didn't need to be powerful to intimidate orphans into working for him. He had his brother for that. However even the weakest bender can turn his gift into a dangerous weapon, given the right circumstances and more importantly, the right motivation. Koga used hit and run tactics to terrorize the denizens of Republic City, attacking Triad members, civilians and Law enforcement almost indiscriminately. His method of choice: levitating a ball of water around his target's head and drowning them in their sleep by forcing water down their nose and into their lungs.

He eventually went too far. He was caught in the act of murdering one of the Council members, an Air Acolyte named 'Sun Mai'. In the end the "evil" Avatar Aang used some "Spirit Mumbo Jumbo" to take away his bending, preventing him from exacting "righteous vengeance" on the Agni Kai Triads.

Bereft of his bending and money Koga quickly became a pariah even after he managed to escape from Capital City prison in the Fire Nation. None of his prior contacts would help him and none of the other gangs in Republic City were willing to take him in. The Avatar's ability to take away bending had left a stigma on him. No-one was willing to take the risk of inciting the Avatar's wrath by by helping him.

Instead of letting the matter rest and forging a new life for himself, Koga came up with the harebrained scheme of kidnapping and training a powerful waterbender to avenge his brother for him.

'And Cheng Hao just so happened to be born to a powerful waterbender around the time Koga arrived at the South Pole to scope out the talent. Joke was on him though.'

How did Hao learn all of this?

It might have been the loss of losing his brother, shame for the what he did went he rampaged through Republic City, the trauma of losing his bending or even possibly a genetic predisposition for sleep disorders or mental illness.

Whatever the reason, the result was that Koga was a chronic sleeptalker. The fact that Koga rented out a tiny apartment with paper thin walls meant that Cheng Hao basically grew up knowing that his life was a lie.

I pitied the boy. Koga had raised him without a hint of affection, trained him until he collapsed every day and literally beaten the art of street fighting into him. There were no birthday gifts, no friends to hang out with and no school for Cheng Hao. Koga was clearly still unhinged after the jailbreak. It was a miracle that he had remembered to teach the boy to read or write. The years went by without Hao showing any signs of waterbending but Koga persisted, believing that the boy he kidnapped and spent years grooming was merely a late bloomer. Of course, his denial didn't last forever. One day, Koga snapped, resulting in the events I had dreamt, that had actually played out only a few days back. Hao had lived under a bridge ever since.

As I tried making sense of the memories floating around in my head, I was debating whether it was a good idea to trust them.

On one hand Avatar was a cartoon. A Cartoon. One Charlie . . . I loved watching as a kid and wished was real but a cartoon nonetheless.

'Sigh, if only there was a sequel.'

On the other hand, it was clear from Cheng Hao's memories it seemed as if I was actually in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender, something I had trouble wrapping my mind around.

It was only when I remembered the bum on the sidewalk lighting his cigarette with a snap of his fingers that I believed.

So I knew where I was . . . er, kinda. But the memories brought another crisis to the forefront in my mind. An identity crisis, to be precise.

'Who am I? Am I Cheng Hao with memories of a past life? Or am I Charlie, transmigrated into the body of Cheng Hao?'

It was dawn when I was done sorting my memories. For the time being, that is. I had a lot more soul searching to do before I managed to figure stuff out. I had settled on using the name Cheng Hao but realised that it was more likely that I was actually Charlie who had transmigrated to the body of Cheng Hao who had died of hypothermia under the bridge.

I was still a little distant from both identities but I suppose that was the point. Whatever had sent me here, clearly had no intention of sending me back. They or It had somehow managed to dull or erase any memories that held any emotional significance to me. My family and friends removed from my mind to avoid any motivation to find a way to return to my old world.

Another problem came to mind.

'Should I go to the cops about my current situation?'

Hell No!

Telling the police about or anyone about my past life was basically signing my own death sentence. From Hao's memories, it became clear to me that there were few decent people in this city. Seaport City was well known for being one of the cesspools of the Earth Kingdom. Bandits, smugglers, escaped convicts and the like flocked towards this city where Law Enforcement was routinely bought off or threatened into silence.

The governor sat cosily in the pocket of whichever criminal group gave him the most handouts and one out of five people you walked past on a good day were involved in some form of smuggling or drug dealing. The rest probably used the drugs or the goods that were being smuggled into the city. The city was far enough from Ba Sing Se that the Earth Kingdom didn't really bother taxing the city. The lawlessness and lack of proper governance was probably one of the reasons that Koga moved here. No-one would bother to look twice at a single father with the ridiculously high crime rate in the city. This was also why Cheng Hao made the hasty decision to burn the body instead of going to the cops. He probably did not want to risk spilling his guts to a corrupt cop and getting blackmailed into a life of crime.

'Smart kid. Too bad he wasn't smart enough to avoid dying of hypothermia by sleeping under a bridge in winter. Or perhaps it's good? Whatever.'

I snapped out of it when I noticed the sun peaking over the horizon. I was still not completely sure if I was an adult who transmigrated or if I was a 9 year old boy with memories of a past life. The contrasting memories in my head were jarring to say the least.

Despite the fact that I knew reincarnation and retaining memories was possible in this world (the Avatar cycle seemed to be based on that) I tentatively assumed that I was probably Charlie in Cheng Hao's body. I certainly seemed to be thinking like an adult. I put aside my identity dilemma for the time being and began plotting out my course of action.

While it was probably by design, without any detailed memories of my previous life, I didn't really care about getting back to my old world. The Voice I had heard before I was unceremoniously shoved into this body seemed to indicate that I was needed here for some reason. I would need to find that reason eventually. Finding out how I got here and getting back all of my memories would be nice too. But before that, I'd need a more short term plan.

Firstly, I needed to get out of this city.

For one thing, living amongst rapists, murderers and drug dealers disgusted me as did the general state of cleanliness in the city. STDs were about as common as air, sewers frequently overflowed with the high tide, leaking sewage onto the roads. More importantly however, Koga's death still hung over my neck like a guillotine. I was in the clear for now and it was very unlikely that someone would notice that Koga was missing as he usually kept to himself apart from the occasional bar fight. But eventually someone would notice him missing and the first person they'd come find was me. I was probably listed as Koga's next of kin somewhere. I think.

Chances were that he wouldn't be missed until the end of the month when the landlady paid a visit to collect rent. That means that I had less than six days to get out the city.

Secondly, I needed to find my mother. From what I could remember she was from the Southern Water tribe. That's great! But I have to get to the South Pole first. Where the FUCK is that? How do I FUCKING get there? Where the FUCK am I? I NEED a FUCKING MAP.

'Calm down! Deep breath! Calm doowwwn.'

I forcibly slowed my breathing once again until I was calm. I remember being a twitchy kid, prone to panic attacks in my past life. Meditation, yoga and martial arts fixed that. Punching the crap out of a sandbag or person seemed to help too.

"Not a wholesome outlet" some might say. "Fighting only alleviates the symptoms. You have more deep seated issues", some might say. "Yoga and meditation have no basis in science, you need more pills" some might say.

Ahh, fuck 'em. Whatever works. Karate and meditation did. Pills did not.

Besides, anxiety medication in this era was probably something primitive, like Opiates or something.

'Hehe. On second thoughts maybe I should give medication another go.'

"Concentrate", I muttered aloud. I had digressed. As I regained my focus I thought about my next step.

'Let's break this down.'

Koga wanted to raise a powerful bender to avenge his brother's death for him. Assuming that powerful benders normally produce powerful bender children, I inferred that I was probably chosen because my mother was a powerful bender.

Of course this inference also rests on the assumption that Koga was rational when he kidnapped me. Not the soundest of assumptions given that Koga was pretty much in deep denial regarding my status as a non bender until my 9th year, but it's a start.

I'd need to get to the South Pole and search for a reasonably powerful waterbender named Niya whose child had been kidnapped 8-9 years ago.

Well, that sounds like a game plan.

LET'S DO THIS!

CHOP

CHOP

"Chop faster boy, we need more spring onions", came a shout from behind me, amidst the sound of knives chopping, water boiling and the sizzling of vegetables frying on the greased pan.

"Aye Aye Capn", I hailed with a mock salute.

"Cut the crap boy, that stopped being funny months ago", Gulon said, slapping me upside the head as he passed by me to check on the chefs.

And so it should have, I'd been using that joke for months, ever since I was first hired by Gulon to work in his noodle shop, here in East City.

I had severely underestimated the difficulty of getting to the south pole from Seaport City. Gaang made it seem so easy. Get on a Bison and fly wherever you want. No Hassle.

I was harshly reminded that the world I had landed in was pre industrial. Steamships were the fastest commercial means of travel and the sea routes hadn't been completely charted out yet. Furthermore, all sorts of dangerous beasts lurked beneath the deceptively calm waters of this world's oceans.

By the laws passed by the bending nations, every passenger transportation company was required to hire a team of benders to protect their passengers.

In short, transport was a fucking bitch to pay for.

I emptied out Koga's hidden stashes in Seaport City but buying a ticket aboard a ship to Chin City just about cleaned me out. If it weren't for the fact that I arrived during Avatar Day celebrations (which unlike the name was celebrated for a week), I might have starved. As it was, all I was able to scrounge up were weird raw wheat balls which were handed out for free during the festival week.

I cursed Aang's name. The least they could have done was add some sugar. Or cooked the damn things.

I suppose I could have turned to pickpocketing but frankly, I'm not the most dexterous with my new fingers of mine. There's no way I'm lifting a wallet without being caught as I learned soon enough, to my detriment. I also learned that attempting to clothesline someone works better when you way a 100 or so pounds more than I do. I almost got my ass beat.

It isn't all bad though. I could punch a hole in a wall and jump almost 4 feet into the air in this strange new body of mine. Koga may have been bat shit crazy but he had put me through my paces as soon as I could walk. Since I did not show any signs of waterbending, Koga practically beat street fighting into my skull, along with forms and stances of waterbending that were applicable to hand-to-hand combat. Didn't stop me from wishing I was a bender though. With my knowledge of cartoons and anime, who knows what I could have come up with.

Of course, Being able to jump four feet into the air at my age could be explained by an observation I made soon after I woke up in this world. Gravity was lower than what I remembered. I couldn't be certain how much lighter I was but I estimated that gravity was 3/4th of what I was used to. That would explain the acrobatic stunts that were pulled off in the cartoon.

Anyhow, my luck took a turn for the better and I got a job as a DJ at a restaurant in Chin City.

A Dish Jockey, I mean. I cleaned dishes, if that wasn't clear. I liked to call myself a DJ though. It made my work feel a little less disgusting. If you ever hear a person say that they like cleaning saliva, half eaten food and occasionally puke off of utensils, don't believe them. Seriously.

Thankfully, I was eventually trusted with other tasks. Apparently there seems to be a significant subset of the female population in the region that enjoyed being served by prepubescent waiters. I put that down to one of the weird cultural differences between earth and this world. Apart from my face being pinched red by overzealous female patrons, I certainly wasn't complaining. My pale, childish face got me a raise or two.

In between serving meals, cooking broth and washing dishes, I got to know a crew of a certain ship pretty well. The captain, who frequented the restaurant was impressed with my knowledge of card games, something I had picked up on the streets. I was taken on as a cabin boy for a journey to East City in the Archipelago south of the Earth Kingdom. I cleaned the ship and helped the ship's chef when required.

The captain even recommended me to her former cook, Gulon, who had opened a noodle shop in East City after he lost his leg in an accident (He has a peg leg now, hence the lame joke).

Putting down my knife, I reached for a towel and wiped my face. I was not yet used to the temperatures inside the kitchen. As I tossed the stir fry in the wok, I thought about how far I had come. It had been a few months since I arrived in this city, almost 4 years had passed since The Awakening. That's right. I started calling it that. It sounds cool.

My thoughts soon turned to the city I now lived in. East City had started out in 138 AG as a settlement of disgruntled laborers and miners from both the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation, who were pissed about labor policies in their respective regions. Southern Archipelago, located just south west of the Earth Kingdom, was found to be rich in precious metals and diamonds and eventually became a source of gasoline (a resource that was quickly becoming valuable at the time), making it especially suitable for the labourers that first settled there. Soon enough East City began to thrive on its exports. During the population boom of 141 AG, it became clear that importing grains and livestock was no longer viable, so a farming settlement was established in the more fertile plains on the western regions of the Island, eventually forming West City in 142 AG. There were several settlements on the other neighboring Islands of the Archipelago as well but none could truly be called a city. West City in particular, began to thrive due to trade with East City and the Earth Kingdom.

'Not for long though', I thought darkly as I skinned a carrot.

Just last week, Gulon entrusted the purchase of ingredients to his head chef, who took me along with him as a porter. The ingredients we required were mostly grown in the ample farmlands of West City so we took a large motor vehicle of some sort to buy ingredients from the suppliers in bulk. I was shocked to see the poor living conditions of the inhabitants of West City. Most farmhands lived in earth tents outside the farms they worked in, unprotected from wind or cold. There were many who were unemployed and lived on the sides of roads or in straw huts.

"Still can't get it out of your head can you? It certainly looks terrible now" said Ming, startling me out of my thoughts. Her red hair and forehead glistened with sweat as she fanned herself with her hat. "I wasn't much better when I first saw it."

I stared at her blankly and back at the carrot. I had no idea what was so terrible about a skinned carrot.

"I was just surprised", I replied honestly when I realized what she was talking about.

"I did not expect West City to be so . . . um", I trailed off, searching for the right words to portray the utter squalor and destitution of West City.

"It wasn't always a shit hole. West City was never as prosperous as East City, but there were enough jobs for everyone. About 3 years back the governor allowed immigrants to flood in. He increased the taxes which basically do nothing but fill his pockets" She said, gesturing wildly.

The governor was the one in charge of East and West Cities. The individual settlements on the other Islands had chieftains or mayors and there was no single system of law or trade that everyone adhered to. In short, the Southern Archipelago was a mess.

"Simmer down, girl! Stop worrying about West City and take the Stir Fry out to Table 4. Hao, You're done with the carrots, check the broth", cried an exasperated Gulon, stopping her rant midway. Ming pursed her lips in annoyance, and took the bowl I had filled out with Stir Fry.

I was glad for the interruption. I did not wanting to touch the issue of immigrants or taxes with a 10 foot knife. Apparently those were hot topics here too. As I began the mind numbingly boring task of stirring the broth, I couldn't help but get lost in my thoughts as Ming's rant brought to mind several questions that had been plaguing me for months.

Despite being the obvious solution to West City's unemployment situation, the governor hadn't yet created new jobs for the immigrants. I found his inaction somewhat surprising. It wasn't as if there wasn't enough money for new projects. The taxes certainly weren't being spent anywhere else.

Construction of apartments perhaps? Not the straw or earth tent crap that people live in but proper houses made of brick and stone.

Setting up a power generation plant could generate jobs for lightning benders. That could pave the way to set up electric lighting on the streets, something that was common in more industrialized regions of the earth kingdom such as Omashu and the middle and upper rings in Ba Sing Se.

There was an abundance of firebenders who were unlucky enough to believe the hype of the Archipelago cities before the news got out about the unemployment rate.

And the city certainly would need more infrastructure if the governor wanted to expand into the other islands of the Archipelago at some point.

Then again, the governor was probably spending the wealth on military projects that were kept secret. Not that I could blame him. The archipelagos were a tasty treat to any of the four Nations.

I shelved the topic for the time being. I couldn't say that I would do a better job myself. Besides I was planning to leave for the South Pole soon. It wasn't any of my business.

I had recently saved up enough to leave the city so I visited the port later that evening to check if any ships would be leaving for the South Pole soon.

"None? Not even one!?" I asked the sailors hanging around the docks. The sailors smiled wryly at my incredulous tone and enlightened me.

Not even a single ship would be leaving for the south pole over the next few months. There were very few waterbenders in the Archipelagos. Thus there was never any call for passenger transports between Harbor City in the South Pole and East City. Besides, compasses didn't work right around that area. While East City didn't have a particularly thriving trade with the Southern Water Tribe, there were a few merchants who found goods worth trading with them. I had expected to barter passage aboard one of their ships when I first arrived in East City.

Unfortunately the situation had changed. Several trading vessels bound for the South Pole were attacked by pirates over the past year or so.

Bato Shipping was one of the few companies that had ships willing to risk sailing through the fog between the Archipelago and the Earth Kingdom. This wasn't always the case. At one point of time, there were dozens of transportation companies carrying merchants and cargo in an out of East City. Over time, most of them withdrew or joined Bato, who quickly formed something of a monopoly around transport in the Archipelago.

Scared by the recent reports of piracy, merchants from the Archipelago abandoned trade with the Southern Water Tribe and either quit the business or joined Bato's Shipping Company to trade with Earth Kingdom Cities instead.

Something fishy was going on here. A once prosperous City had diminished, virtually no expansion was going on where the city treasury should be overflowing, pirate waterbenders were attacking ships bound for the South Pole, coal miners and Gasoline processing plants forced to sell their goods at an exorbitantly low price to Bato's Shipping Company which traded with the Earth Kingdom, the wealthy class from East City not growing any richer and the poor becoming more impoverished and amongst all of this, the governor refused to act in any way. Come to think of it, even the chefs at the Noodleshop acted weird at times, coming in at strange hours, acting evasive when I was around.

'Huh. Maybe I'm just paranoid. Constant Vigilance and all that rot' I thought, slightly amused at my own paranoia. Then again my instincts had been pretty helpful over the past few years. I had come across a number of unsavory characters during my travels so far.

'I wish I could just take a damn boat and row to the South Pole.'

I abandoned the thought quickly. There were almost 220 miles between the archipelago and the South Pole. There was no way a rowboat would last that long in cold waters. Besides, even if I could row 220 miles, which I could not, I had no navigational sense to speak of, I'd get lost in a few hours especially since compasses didn't work too well around those parts.

Slightly depressed, I walked back to the Noodleshop to turn in for the night (I lived in an apartment above the restaurant with 3 other assistant chefs). It looks like I was stuck here until someone took out the pirates. Being dropped into my favorite cartoon certainly wasn't as nice as it seemed at first. No super powers, no money, and worst of all, the world seemed intent on keeping me from meeting my family.

I was startled out of my thoughts when someone slammed into me, sending me into a wall. If I had to thank Koga for one thing, it was that he trained me into the ground. I was way sturdier than anyone my age had any right to be. I certainly didn't look it but I figured my ability to take a hit even compare to an earth bender a couple of older than me. Patting myself to shake of the dust and plaster, I squinted through the dust, watching a shadowy silhouette a foot taller than me get to its feet and move behind some cargo.

"YOU! STOP!"

"STAY WHERE Y'ARE!"

Shouted two men, running towards me.

'Earthbenders working for Bato Shipping.', I thought, glancing at their green shirts with the familiar ship logo that could be seen on every other ship moored at the Docks. I had seen the type before. Tall, rugged, and unnecessarily muscled. Not that I'm jealous. At all.

Okay maybe I am! I may have grown a bit but my meager height and lack of any discernible muscle mass was still a sore point.

"I'm not the boy you're looking for", I said with a flourish of my hands. What can I say, I'm a fan of the classics.

"Wha'? The person we're looking for ran that way? Wha' d'you think we are, Stupid?" Yelled Thing 1.

Both earthbenders were slipping into a rather shoddy Earthbending stance. I say shoddy because I had actually seen earthbenders fight and actually fought some myself. There's a reason travelling alone in the Earth Kingdom isn't advised. Bandits were not exactly uncommon. Adding to that point, I finally realized why just about everyone I spoke to found me suspicious. Instead of the "Gutter-Talk" that was expected from a street orphan my age, I spoke fluently with no discernable accent.

I got into trouble a few times when bandits took me for a rich punk in disguise. The boulders that they rip out of the ground and toss so easily were actually really really heavy. I learned that the hard way. Took me a week to walk without a staff. I gave worse than I took though. I doubt that bandit would be able to walk again after I cut the Achilles tendons on both his legs.

Wincing at Thing 1's almost undecipherable accent, I noticed the silhouette in the dust that was creeping up behind the earthbenders that had their attention on me.

"One, I'm really not the person you were chasing; Two, You really are that stupid and three -"

WHACK! THUD!

" watch out behind you", I finished, the two grunts sprawled out unconscious on the ground.

"Thanks for keeping them busy", came a feminine voice behind Things 1 and 2.

"I could have taken them, but thanks anyway." I shot back, looking up at the owner of the voice; a girl, dressed in black, a little less than a foot taller than me, with her red hair almost completely tucked under her dark hood.

Something seemed oddly familiar about her.

The hooded girl dropped the pipe she was holding and grinned at me, opening her mouth, no doubt to debate the possibility of a 13 year old taking out two adult Earthbenders, but she frowned and looked to the side as if listening for something.

"THERE THEY ARE!"

"GET THEM!"

"Time to go", said the girl, abruptly grabbing me around the stomach and taking off running.

You think a fireman's carry or even a bridal carry is embarrassing? You don't know the meaning of the word until you have been carried under someone's arm like a sack of potatoes. My kidnapper hopped from roof to roof, one earthbending enhanced leap at a time.

"Put. Me. Down", I ground out, clenching my teeth to avoid biting my tongue off at the shocks of the landings, my face red from embarrassment. After a few minutes of roof hopping, we came to a stop and the girl set me down. I stayed on my ass for a few seconds and caught my breath. I never quite got used to heights.

Acrophobia is more common than people let on.

I got to my feet slowly to hold the nausea at bay and dusted myself off as I looked around. We had come to a stop right above the Noodle shop. I looked up at the girl, my eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Who are you?", I asked, still somewhat shaken by the roof hopping experience.

"I'm disappointed, don't you recognize me?" asked the girl coyly, taking off her hood.

Ming.

One of the waitresses at the Noodleshop.

'What?'

"Hold the questions kid. There's a lot I need to fill you in on, now that they've seen you. Plus, the others are waiting on me", said Ming, no doubt enjoying the gobsmacked expression on my face. She jumped down to the ground and slid her foot to the side, bending away a patch of dirt. She reached down into the patch and pulled open a disguised trapdoor and motioned for me to follow. Passing halfway through the trapdoor, I groped about in the dark before I found a ladder, pulled the trapdoor shut and climbed down.

Ming lit a torch on the wall and led me to a door.

"Okay I'm really freaked out now. Whats going on?" I asked Ming, scanning the door with suspicion. I'd seen too many horror movies to believe that this would end well for me.

"You'll have your answers soon. Gulon and the others are waiting", she replied briefly.

That really did not help. What is it about people that makes them respond with unnecessarily brief statements where they should be spilling their guts? I'm pretty sure Ming's getting off on my fear. Sadist.

'I hope I'm not joining some sort of cult.'

Ming knocked thrice and the door opened. Walking into the room with Ming, I noticed a few people examining a map of the Archipelagos with several locations marked in black and red. I took my time looking around the room and examining the maps. I pulling my attention away from the maps catching a few snippets of Gulon's argument with Ming.

"Why . . . too young . . . hasn't fought in his life" he whispered harshly, Ming waving away his concerns.

I was about to disabuse him of that notion but was whisked towards a chair by an exuberant woman, in her early thirties.

"So Ming tells us you distracted Bato's thugs", said the beautiful woman smiling. "Good job kid."

"Yeah. It was nothing. They just - Wait. Who are you? What the hell is going on here? What is there a secret basement below the fu-", I trailed of as I noticed a pattern form from the markings on the maps. The markings on one of them represented Warehouses belonging to Bato Shipping or one of its subsidiaries. The markings on another were estates of certain wealthy families in East City. There were several markings in the water, probably showing locations of pirate attacks. There were several other markings in locations I could not recognise. Clearly these people thought these locations were connected somehow.

"Bato, the rich folk, the governor and the pirates. You're trying to find out the connection", I said, having gotten the basic idea.

"I told you he was smart", said Ming, not looking the slightest bit ashamed at dragging me into this mess. She walked over along with Gulon, who looked like he had swallowed a lemon.

"You're half right kiddo", said the unidentified woman. "Our little group started out before the pirate attacks began. We had a pretty good idea of what's wrong with the city, we just didn't have the complete picture at first. I'm Ky Lee by the way."

"Ky Lee is one of our best chi blockers. She will be getting you started on it at some point. But more on that later. Now that Bato's men have seen you you're going to need to have a clear picture of what's going on if you want to live", said Gulon ominously.

"Why? What does Bato have to do with all this?" I asked. I wasn't naive. Bato was the only person who benefited from the mismanagement of the Southern Archipelago.

'But is he really behind all of this or is he just an opportunist?'

"I would have liked to keep you out of this Cheng Hao", he continued, putting his hand on my shoulder, "This is dangerous work, not something a 13 year old kid should be involved in, but somebody had to get you involved", he snarled, glaring at Ming.

"His face was seen by the thugs, Gulon. One way or another he was going to get dragged in. If we aren't careful, he might even get killed like the others. If we put him in the program, we can keep him out of trouble for a while", said Ming.

'Program?'

"Besides he looks like he can take a hit or two", said Ky Lee cheerfully, giving me a once over. She seemed a little too happy about that for my comfort. I winced as she cracked her knuckles.

"What did you find, Ming", said Gulon, blatantly ignoring Ky Lee.

Ming explained how she had infiltrated one of Bato's offices in the docks to retrieve manifests that proved that a recent shipment of Bato's contained antiques that were known to be stolen by pirates beforehand. This was too much of a coincidence. There was definitely a connection between the pirates and Bato, although this was already known to Gulon's group. What was unexpected was that Ming also found stacks of telegrams that not only showed correspondence between Bato and pirates but also implicated him in a number of other crimes. Bato was in league with the pirates who were preventing trade with the South Pole, and forcing other merchants to join Bato's company in hopes of trading with the Earth Kingdom and contributing to the horrible condition of West City. In addition he was also holding the governor's children hostage and had some blackmail on the wealthiest citizens of East Archipelago City, making sure they could not call for aid from the Earth Kingdom or the United Republic of Nations. Bato somehow had everyone important by the balls.

"There are nearly a million people in the Archipelagos. 6 out of 10 people are unemployed. There's a tyrant on the rise and no-one's doing anything about it. Both the poor and the rich are losing money and the Archipelago is being bled dry of its resources. We are one of many groups looking for a way to make this city a better place. Our goal is to take down Bato and improve life in the Archipelagos", said Gulon, threading his fingers together and looking at me with a sharp, penetrating gaze.

Oh boy! That was a doozy!

Much like anyone from a reasonably civilized region in the 21st Century, the conditions I saw as I travelled these past few years had disgusted me. Poverty, illiteracy, drug trade, corruption. All of it was there in the cesspool that was Seaport City. I'm no hero, nor am I a saint or anything of the sort, but it was hard to be at ease in a world like this when I remembered a much better one. But I suppressed the urge to begin cleaning up Seaport City for several reasons. Firstly, I was only 9. I was smart but I was only one kid. I could fight pretty damn well but there was no way I could make a difference. The Avatar didn't care nor did the earth kingdom so maybe I shouldn't rock the boat. What if someone found out about my transmigration?

I realized that those were just excuses. But I still had the slightest hope that I would regain all my memories and find a way back to my old world. That hope, or rather that delusion had kept me from accepting this world completely. I had still not accepted who I was now. There were no more excuses anymore. There was a group of people willing to train me if this 'Program' was anything to go by. If I backed out now and Bato ended up getting any more powerful, I'd never be able to get out of the Archipelago and find my mother.

"Count me in", I said, staring back at Gulon resolutely. I couldn't be sure if this was the reason I was brought here. It didn't matter. There was no backing out now.

"Like some of us who have been seen acting against Bato, you need to stay hidden. " Ky Lee said, referring to herself and the men behind her, pouring over the manifests and telegrams Ming had stolen. "You don't really need to but it's also customary for you to take a code name, since you've joined the group".

"That's not a problem", I said, picking up a strange blue mask with black horns at the temples. I had already decided to cast away my names. I had no attachment to the name Cheng Hao and the name Charlie belonged to a life I would never get back. I fixed the mask to my face.

In my previous life had always been fascinated by tales of spirits and otherworldly creatures, the Djinn in particular. Also known as Genies, they were mythological creatures of fire and smoke who could interact with the world in a tactile manner; It was one of the reasons that I liked A:TLA so much. Pop culture on earth often depicted them as beings of immense power. Even as Cheng Hao, I was interested in tales of spirits and the Avatars. It seemed right that as I shed my previous identities, I would take on a name inspired by the spirit-like beings that had fascinated me as a child in both my lives.

"I suppose you could call me Jin."

-Cue Avatar Music-

Thus began a long struggle against Bato, wannabe warlords and a Pirate Invasion of all things; a four year long struggle that resulted in the formation of Republic of the Southern Archipelago, a Nation truly independent of the 4 bending Nations and comprising an industrious metropolis that spanned the 6 main islands that formed the Archipelago.

Over the course of those four years a new legend was born in the Archipelago. A legend of a young man, dressed in black, wearing a blue mask, who would appear out of the shadows when he was needed, taking out Bato's grunts effortlessly and vanish into the darkness like a spirit. A man who would stand against wave after wave of waterbending pirates and warlords and would almost single handedly unify the diverse resistance cells all over the Archipelago into a single cohesive force to stand against a pirate invasion, a force that would serve as the foundation for the most effective law enforcement agency in the world. The legend of a man who stood strong against impossible odds, and dragged the Archipelago out of squalor and into a new age of prosperity. A legend that would only grow as the decades past.

The Legend . . . of JIN!

Author's Note:

Next: Jin leaves the archipelago to find his mother after four years of fighting, training and ass kicking. His time in the archipelagos might be covered in flashbacks as and when necessary. I'm planning on writing a new story about his time in the Archipelago when I have more time.

Also, not a self insert. I think I would make a horrible self insert. If I was really dropped in the Avatar world without knowledge of LOK plot and any super powers and no usable skills I would probably spend the rest of my life complaining about there being no 4G.

So yeah, Its an OC insert. Not sure if there's a difference from the reader's point of view since you don't really know the MC either way but some people seem to insist that there is a difference, so there you go. I will be using a couple of people as a base for the MC, a war vet for one and someone who actually has had a form of amnesia and recovered for another.