Confessions of a Teenage Hero
An Avatar Tale
Prologue
Hi. I'm Aang. Aang Gyatso, actually. Y'know, that one kid that's always hanging around the fountain outside of school, performing crazy tricks only an airbender can?
Oh, and pretty much the last airbender left in the state, and some ancient hero called the Avatar on top of that?
Yeah.
Not that I'm complaining. There are some perks to being one of a kind. For instance: I lose control, I can chalk it all up to ancient spirits of power just cutting loose. Not that it happens often; I'm not that kind of guy. I'm real laid back. Easy-going, you know? Oh, and the girls go wild for a guy who'll achieve ultimate power later in life.
Well, every girl, that is, except for one. My best friend, Katara. Well, two, if you include my other bestie and earthbending teacher, Toph, but let's focus on Katara. She's a year older than me, really pretty, best waterbender in the world, beautiful, nice, sweet, attractive, and gorgeous. Did I mention how good-looking she is?
Oh, one more thing: she's dating Zuko.
Yeah. Prince Zuko, heir to some big corporation. Well, the big corporation: Ozai Industries, the biggest producer of anything to do with everything, but mostly weapons of mass destruction. Tanks, bombs, missiles, you name it, they make it. He's totally the Tony Stark of our world, old Ozai. He's a pretty big jerkwad, and his daughter Azula's not much better. She's a nutcase, or was, before the big family fight a couple of months ago. I hear she's about to get out of rehab, or wherever they send people who have mental breakdowns.
Oh, but Zuko's cool. He hated me for about a year, but we're friends now. Actually, becoming friends with me is how he met Katara, so I guess I should hate him, but he's a great guy. Besides, he makes Katara happy. Who am I to mess that up when all I want is for her to be happy?
Anyway, Katara's brother Sokka is also one of my really good friends. He's a year older than Katara, and is pretty smart when it comes to sciency stuff and strategy. He's probably the third most popular guy in school after me and Zuko, and captain of the football team. He doesn't really like anyone that comes from Zuko's part of town, which is understandable; Zuko comes from the West Side, which everyone knows is the richest, snootiest, baddest part of town. I mean, it totally pushed out all the subdivisions where my kind of people are — the other airbenders, I mean. Where a airbender street used to be, there's just a big shopping strip belonging to some branch of Ozai Incorporated. Just makes me sick every time I pass by one.
Oh, remember Toph, the girl I mentioned earlier? Yeah, she's not too shabby, either. Her parents have a fortune that's right up there with the West Side, but she's a rebel. She dresses in ripped-up — sorry, "distressed" — clothes and listens to her music way too loud and is pretty much obnoxious and speaks her mind wherever she is. Oh, one more thing: she's blind. It's okay, though — her earthbending helps her see just fine. She's a pretty tough teacher, nothing like how Katara was with waterbending. She's got a massive crush on Sokka, who's her best friend, but he has no idea, mostly because of his girlfriend, Suki. Suki's nice, and captain of the cheerleading squad, and a whole bunch of other good stuff, but you just gotta feel for Toph. I mean, I do — I know what she's going through. It sucks. But she puts on a good front, so it's all good.
Let's see…Haru, there's another person you'd need to know. Haru is the future male model of America, and the only guy in our school who every girl has wanted to date at some point (except for Toph, but she's weird like that. I mean, she likes Sokka). He's tied down, too — dating Ty Lee, a really preppy girl on the gymnastics team who can bend herself into shapes that are hard even for me, and I'm a flexible guy. She's friends with Mai, a really moody and depressed-looking girl who's into knives and stuff. They were both Azula's friends before her breakdown; they broke it off with her because she was being more of a nutjob than usual, and that's what they think pushed her over the edge. Well, some other stuff helped, but we're not going into that.
Teo's the only crippled guy we have here, but he's like Toph: he doesn't let his disability get him down. He's always on the go, wheeling himself everywhere around campus. The only group you'd really have to watch out for is the Freedom Fighters, a kind of kid vigilante gang run by Jet, Katara's ex. They're like an unofficial Student Government Association, and the teachers don't mind them unless they start destroying property in the name of justice or whatever. They're okay, though; mostly they just spread anti-West Side and anti-Ozai Inc. propaganda. It got pretty big at one point, but it's down to a manageable number now. Smellerbee and Longshot are Jet's number two and three; Smellerbee's the girl, and is a bigger tomboy than Toph, Longshot's the guy, and he's on the archery squad. Well, he isthe archery squad — he's so good, they hardly need anyone else on it. The Duke's a genius with math and stuff, so he skipped a couple of grades, and his best friend is Pipsqueak, the biggest guy on the wrestling team and pretty much the biggest guy in school. Sokka would kill to have him on the football team, but Pipsqueak likes wrestling better. He keeps The Duke in line with some of his science projects, because he likes to experiment with blowing stuff up.
Well, now that you know your way around Four Nations High, I guess I should tell you that some weird stuff's been going down lately. I dunno, it's like…well…it's kind of like the Spirit World and the real world are starting to mesh together. I would know — I'm the Avatar, after all, the bridge between this world and the next. Some people who died a while ago aren't staying dead, and some old guardian spirits are getting a little restless. One went on the rampage and kidnapped Sokka for a couple of hours, and we almost didn't get him back. I don't know what's going on, but you can bet I'm going to get to the bottom of it, and together me and my friends are going to stop it and save the world.
If it doesn't explode first, that is.
A/N: Hey, y'all. This is a fic I recently finished and felt like fixing up and posting here. In case you couldn't tell, this is a modern-day take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, and I think it'll be a good journey. Plus I felt ashamed for not having an Avatar fic posted; I LOVE AVATAR WITH A FIERY BURNING PASSION. SO MUCH LOVE. SO. MUCH. LOVE. OH PS Zutara fans, don't get comfy, it won't last, but feel free to read the story anyway to see if you like it. Kataang and Maiko fans, stick around. Tokka fans, you came to the right place.
Dont' be alarmed; my PPG fics aren't being abandoned. This is already finished, technically and after all, so y'all have nothing to worry about. This is just something to bring my pageviews up. ;)
Review and let me know how y'all like it, because this is going to be a most excellent adventure. Party on, dudes.