AN: This is my first attempt at an OC story, and it includes a character that I plan to put on the bookshelves of stores someday when I'm done editing and revising the story. For now, here's my character interacting with Gaang.
Disclaimer: I don't own ATLA/LOK in any shape or form, and I don't see how I could make a profit off of this anyway. The only thing I own is my OC, whom you're about to meet.
Now when one thinks of a gigantic snake-like being that is colored red and black and has power over fire, they often automatically assume that being is inherently evil. For this story, that is not the case in the slightest. Sure, there are some bad characters, but the one talked about here is different.
At first, his name was Guy Bowen, a tall seventeen year-old kid in high school with a form of Autism called Asperger's Syndrome back in 2008. The main problem that came with Asperger's was that it allowed for a slow development of social skills, and sure, he had friends, but that was through years of learning to adapt. Imagine the surprise he received when he found out that he had won a contest that gave him and few others a ride into space. After preparing for a few months, Guy and the other contestants took off into the sky and exited into space.
However, not long after they exited Earth's atmosphere, a video on the shuttle revealed that it was all part of some elaborate and unexplained plan by the man who built the spacecraft. The shuttle itself was rigged to blow, and there was an outside bomb that would activate if they tried to diffuse the one inside. The situation seemed hopeless for Guy and the other contestants.
That is, until Guy saw a strange object outside the shuttle, and it teleported him to another world altogether just in time before the bomb went off. Guy found that the planet he'd been sent to had habitable environment, as well as inhabitants. Flying, three-story tall, humanoid snake-like beings called the Shifters. They were so aptly named for their ability to shift the elements of fire, water, earth, air and lightning to their will. They also called the world they lived on Amerysia, named after their legendary ancestor Amerys, who could shift all five elements and was said to be immortal, while his descendants could only shift one element each and had limited lifespans.
The Shifters themselves, despite their size and power, were friendly and inviting towards Guy, though they did not possess a means of returning him home due to their lack of technology. This was because they lacked a need for many of the devices that humans relied upon. When Guy thought about it, it made sense, "Why would you need cars or aircraft if you can fly and shift an element?"
The Shifters had clear distinctions between the genders. The common traits they shared were that they all possessed wings and long snaky tails instead of legs. Their torsos were like the ones that matched their human counterparts as well, though a little more muscular due to the lack of a lower body, but that's where their similarities ended.
The males possessed no hair whatsoever, had claws instead of fingernails, had longer necks with cobra hoods, a human face, and a horn on top of their heads. The hoods almost gave them a pharaoh-like appearance.
The females had slender, girlish torsos and what appeared to be "hips," fingernails, human like necks and heads, and had eyebrows and long straight hair in Hime cuts, though almost reminiscent of the ancient Egyptian queens.
There were no non-Shifters, except for the animals, who had to rely mostly on strength, size, tooth and claw to survive.
The Shifters were also colored and had wings based on their elements:
The Fire-Shifters had bright red feathered wings that almost resembled that of a falcon. The males had mostly black scales, with exceptions of big red ones on their throats and underbellies, and the silver scales on their faces. The females had red scales all over with black hair. The eyes of both had black sclera and neon orange irises. They are the more spiritual of the Shifters.
The Water-Shifters owned a pair of bat-like wings with aqua blue on the front, and silver on the back. The males were predominantly colored navy blue with silver scales on their throats and underbellies, and light blue in the face as well. The females were aqua blue with silver in the same places as the males, as well as silver hair. The eyes of both were navy blue sclera and silver irises. They tend to live outside the big cities and stay near lakes and oceans, keeping more to themselves.
The Earth-Shifters possessed feathered wings as well; only theirs were bright green and slightly favored the wings of eagles. The males were mostly dark green with grass green adorning their faces, throat areas and underbellies. The females were predominantly the same color as a pink rose, with dark green upon their throats and underbellies, and their hair was blonde. The eyes of the two genders were dark green sclera with neon green irises. Amerysia has a royal family in charge of the whole planet, and they are predominantly made of Earth-Shifters while the others of this element tend to charge themselves with constructing homes and maintaining order.
The Air-Shifters had a very unique set of wings, as they were a little bat-like, but resembled more of an Asian fan, and were all around gray. Male Air-Shifters were more or less dark-gray, but a good bit lighter on their faces, throats and underbellies. Females were light-yellow for the majority of their bodies, with light gray on their throats and underbellies, as well as black hair. As stated with the others, both have the same eyes; dark gray sclera, and bright violet irises. These Shifters love to indulge in the performing art side of entertainment.
Last but not least, the Lightning-Shifters. Their wings resembled that of a pterodactyl, with sky blue on the front and gold on the back. The males and females were both predominantly gold colored with sky blue on their throats and underbellies, and the females possess blonde hair as well. The eyes of both are navy blue sclera with golden irises. They make up the more scholarly side of the Shifter community.
As for their attire, Shifters didn't require much, which was mostly due to the fact they didn't wear much at all. Whenever they did wear something, it was a set of robes for special occasions. Aside from that, females wore only mesh tank tops while the males wore nothing, and it was because they didn't need to wear anything.
Unfortunately, Guy's comfort did not last, as he got infected with a disease that is carried by a four-story tall insect creature called an Ackja. The creature itself had a spider's body for a lower half, and an armored, humanoid torso with spikes and hooks for fingernails. Its head was elongated with a three-pointed crest atop it, and two jaws of razor-sharp teeth and mandibles on each side of its mouth, and two large eyes. On its back were two wings that looked like a mixture between that of insects and bats.
Not long after finding out he was infected, Guy was soon attacked by the Ackja itself. With help from Plantra, an Earth-Shifter and the Princess of Amerysia, Guy was able to stop and kill the overgrown insect. But he was still sick from the infection, and survival did not seem likely at that point.
However, not long after they killed the Ackja, the two received a surprise visit from Amerys himself. Amerys offered to change Guy into a Shifter in order to save his life. Guy accepted realizing that one way or another his human life was over. Using cosmic fire, Amerys transformed Guy into a Fire-Shifter, who he renamed as Blazer.
After his transformation into Blazer, the former human slowly but surely learned to adapt to his new life as a Shifter. He learned many things from different sources, some strange and confusing, and others made sense and greatly helped. Blazer made some new friends along the way, as well as a few enemies. But despite that, he managed to survive through it all. Later on, he and Plantra got together as a couple, and it was the first time either of them engaged in that sort of thing. Most of their friends believed that someday the two would marry, but no one was holding their breath just yet.
One day, a little over a year after his transformation, Blazer was flying with Plantra to oversee a dispute in a village not far from city they lived in.
"So, remind me again what this is about?" asked the Fire-Shifter.
The Earth-Shifter teen sighed, "As I have told you twice already, my mother sent me to this village to settle an argument between its leaders. As the Princess of Amerysia, it is my duty to ensure that things resolve peacefully and truthfully. I am bringing you along because I felt it might be good for you to witness how politics take place here."
"You know, back when I was human and living on Earth, I didn't find listening to politics, or even hearing about it for that matter, any bit enjoyable."
"Well you should-how do you often phrase it-get used it? You are in a relationship with me, Hot Stuff, so you are bound to deal with politicians and diplomacy at some point or another."
Groaning and sighing, Blazer replied, "Fine, I'll go along with it."
"Good," said Plantra with a smirk, "and perhaps, when this matter is settled, the two of us can go find a place to sit and kiss as we watch the sunset."
That brought a huge smile to Blazer's face, "You sure know how to make a guy eager, don't you?"
"Especially one as good as you," she said coyly.
Once the two lovers were done flirting, they noticed that they had reached their destination, only to find fires and smoke everywhere.
"Uh, Plantra?"
"Yes?"
"I think we may have to postpone our plans."
With that said, the two young adult Shifters flew down to see what the source of the chaos was. It turned out to be something they were unwittingly familiar with; a group of Ackja. The Ackja had been making more and more appearances since Blazer's arrival, and it often took multiple Shifters just to bring one of them down. Now they were four of them in this village, attacking and destroying it. Despite not having elemental power, the Ackja proved to be quite resilient in terms of their strength, durability, and determination in the pursuit of food. It's unwise to let them eat at all, as when one consumes enough, it vomits out three little Ackja who grow to full size in a few minutes.
Three Ackja were before them and were busy fighting off and dodging a group of Fire-Shifters, whose missed shots were hitting the streets as well as the buildings, creating more fires as well as pillars of smoke in the air.
"Oh, no," Blazer groaned, "Not these guys again!"
"It would appear they are unable to comprehend the message of leaving us alone. Do you not think so?" asked the Princess.
"Indeed I do. What say we help clear this place up of them?"
"With pleasure," said the Princess, who was already in the process of using her Earth-Shifting abilities to shoot large rocks at the heads of the three Ackja out in the open, knocking them down to the ground with their heads bleeding green liquid.
This gained the attention of the Shifters we just helped and they slithered up to us and they bowed to Plantra saying, "Your assistance is greatly appreciated, Your Majesty."
Gesturing for them to rise up, Plantra responded, "How did these Ackja come into this village?"
"And are there more of them here?" added Blazer.
The tallest one of them responded, "We are uncertain as to how they gained entrance, as they seemed to appear out of nowhere." Then he turned to Blazer, "We think there are at least two more roaming about this area, but we are not certain as to which of the buildings they are in."
Looking from side to side, then at each other, Blazer and Plantra gave each other an understanding nod.
"You search that side," said Blazer, pointing to his left.
"And you will search that side," finished Plantra, and the two split to find the Ackja.
Blazer tore open the doors each building he came across and it wasn't until about the third or fourth building that he finally found the Ackja, and saw it eating the remains of a female Air-Shifter it killed.
Not wanting to be surrounded by more of the dreaded insects, Blazer flew straight at the creature and rammed it into the wall before it could take another bite from the corpse. Blazer gave a few punches to the insect's face before it managed to pull him off of it, and then get off the wall. Next, Blazer threw a few flames in the direction of the Ackja, with the insect creature dodging at every toss. After that, and wanting to end it quickly, the Fire-Shifter activated his heat vision and released a full blast, reducing the overgrown bug to ashes.
"Humph, serves you right, Bug."
Suddenly, Blazer found himself overcome with drowsiness, and without warning, sleep overcame him as he collapsed to the floor.
Blazer stirred awake as he opened his eyes to see that he was no longer in the village, but rather an enormous library, and with lots of green everywhere, and mazes of bookshelves that seemed to have no end. Rubbing his head, the Fire-Shifter wondered, 'Is this a dream?' He pinched himself, and sure enough, nothing happened. 'Ok, not a dream. And from the way this place looks, I'd say it's either gigantic, or I've shrunk.'
He was suddenly met with the face of a twenty-foot owl. His reaction was what one would expect.
"AHH!" he shouted backing away, "And just what are you supposed to be?!"
The Owl responded, "I am Wan Shi Tong, he who knows ten thousand things." Then he looked at Blazer quizzically, "But you…I have never seen the likes of you. What manner of creature are you, be it spirit or animal?"
"Truth be told, I'm neither," said Blazer plainly, "Now, where am I?"
"You are in my library, for reasons I do not know." The giant owl lowered his head to be at the same eye level as Blazer, "Tell me creature, why are you here?"
Blazer looks around and says, "I wish I knew. One minute I'm fighting a group of giant insects trying to eat a village, and the next thing I know, I'm here in this...library?"
"It would appear that someone or something wishes for you to be here" he pauses, "I shall allow you to stay here on a single condition."
"And that is?"
"The knowledge in my library cannot be used for the purpose of war"
Blazer looked at the owl quizzically, "Well, I don't see any reason why I need information regarding that subject."
"Then you may stay and read whatever you wish" he stands back up and leaves the shifter.
Blazer ponders his situation and comes to the conclusion, ' maybe I should check the history of this place so that I have a better idea of where I'm at.' He then shouts, "Hey Tong!"
The owl spirit turned around and answered aggravatedly, "My name is Wan Shi tong, not Tong,"
"Sorry, but do you have a section of the library regarding this world's history?"
"Of course, I have volumes of knowledge regarding every section of the four nations' histories, through every crisis, golden era, and Avatar legacy,"
Blazer gave him a confused expression, "Four nations? Avatar legacy?"
"Forgive me; I had forgotten that you are not a being of this world. Here in this world there are four nations, the Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom, Air nomads, and Water tribes. Each contain benders those who have learned to manipulate the elements. The Avatar can manipulate all four elements and maintains balance between the four nations."
"Huh, sounds like where I'm from, only…different."
Wan Shi Tong looks at Blazer with renewed interest "In your own world, you too can bend the elements? I would like to know more about your world."
"Technically speaking, yes, we can control the elements, but where I'm from, we call it element SHIFTING. As a result, the people of my race call themselves the Shifters."
"And these Shifters... they are at war as well?" his tone growing dangerous.
"Oh, no, no. Sure there are disagreements here and there, but otherwise everybody gets along just fine."
"Reassuring, so your race is not as violent as the humans that inhabit this world?"
That got Blazer's attention, "There are humans here?"
"Yes and they are a violent species seeking to use my library only to destroy. I brought my library here to better mankind, and instead they abuse the knowledge I have gathered to destroy each other in needless war,"
Blazer knew automatically that he should avoid mentioning the fact that he used to be human, as that might get this overgrown owl to attack him, and he was not in the mood for fighting anyone now. So, he rubbed the back of his scaly head and changed the subject, "So, um… anything else you'd like to know about where I'm from?"
"Anything about the shifters culture, technology, and society so that I may add it to my collection of knowledge,"
"Well, first thing you should know is that where I come from, there are five elements, not just four."
"And what is this supposed fifth element?"
"Lightning," Blazer said plainly.
"Lightning? A difficult art to master, but lightning is simply a sub art of fire bending, an Art I myself have memorized,"
"That so? Well, where I'm from, it's a separate skill in and of itself."
"Interesting, so I assume the Avatar of your world has mastery over all five of the elements, correct?"
"Well, actually...we don't have an Avatar."
"Truly? Then how do you maintain balance between the spirit world and physical world?"
"We don't, although the Fire-Shifters, like me, are more spiritually aware than others."
"An interesting change, though perhaps a necessary one. The Avatar has faded from existence over the past one hundred ears and the world has fallen into chaos at the hands of the humans. Perhaps the end of the cycle was necessary."
"Who knows? However, we do have a generally accepted story of our history that speaks of a being that could control all five elements."
"And what would be the name of this being?"
"His name is Amerys, and he's the ancestor of the entire Shifter race."
Wan begins to speak when something catches his attention "Visitors have arrived, I shall return," and disappears quickly, moving fast for a twenty foot owl.
"Well, just when it was getting to the good part." Blazer had a habit for telling stories to those who would listen. Thinking out loud some more, he said, "What should I do? Wait for Tong to come back, or check out what's around me?" Placing his hand to his chin, he scanned the area around him. Then he saw a red book sticking out from the others about six rows up. Slithering up to the book case, he stretched, grabbed, and pulled the book out. Sitting down in front of one of the book cases, he opened the book to see what was inside, only to find that the language was foreign to him. However, each of the pages had a painted picture to go along with the text. Looking at each page, he puzzled what stories they were telling. He was about seven pictures in when a shadow blocked his light. He looked up to see Wan Shi Tong looking down at him.
"I assume you have yet to decipher the language used in our world," he stated bluntly
Blazer shrugged his shoulders and his wings, "You could say that, but really, can you blame me?"
"Perhaps not, I would offer to teach you; however several humans have arrived at my library and wish to learn from it. I must watch them and ensure they do not break their vow of searching for war plans," and once more he disappeared.
Blazer sighed, "And again, it's me, myself and I." Turning his attention back to the book he had in hand, he continued his puzzle of deciphering what the pictures meant. Most of them featured creatures of different shapes and sizes. The creatures themselves looked like combined versions of animals he had heard about back when he was human, before he became a shifter. Though it was not too different from the animals he had encountered on Amerysia, who at times seemed like different creatures rolled together.
About an hour or so later, Blazer felt the whole place begin to shake. He placed the book aside and looked around to see what was happening. Slithering as fast as he could, Blazer made his way through the maze of book shelves to see Wan Shi Tong attacking what appeared to be a group of three, human teenagers.
Two of them, a boy and a girl, looked close to the same age, and looked almost related to each other. They both wore a blue and white outfit and appeared to be almost Native American, but with blue eyes, and appeared to be fourteen or fifteen years in age. The third was a boy who looked to be twelve or thirteen, and was bald headed, wore a red and yellow outfit, held a wooden staff of sorts, and had blue arrow tattoos on his hands and head. The girl appeared to be "bending" some water at Wan Shi Tong while the tattooed boy was throwing wind at him.
Blazer wasn't sure what to do. He didn't want to upset the Owl librarian, but he didn't want the kids getting hurt either. Then he saw a man dressed in heavy clothes sitting in the corner reading, apparently oblivious or apathetic to what was going on around him. Looking back he saw the kids seemingly fly out with one of them using air.
Wan Shi Tong let a cry of anger before turning around to see Blazer standing there, wondering what just happened.
"Come on professor Zei!" one of the children cried, a boy with a pony tail in particular.
"I'm not leaving... I can't... I've spent too long trying to find this place... There's not another collection of knowledge like this on Earth... I could spend an eternity in here." the professor stated.
Wan Shi turned to Blazer, "They have misused my trust; they plan to use this knowledge for evil purposes, for that I shall return my library to the spirit world!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa…the Spirit World?"
"It is the only place that my knowledge shall be safe from these cretins. Surely you understand the dangers of allowing such vast knowledge to fall into the hands of such violent beings?"
"Yes, knowledge can be dangerous if put into the wrong hands, b-" Wan Shi interrupted him.
"But nothing, more shall suffer if I allow humans access to my knowledge. For the safety of this world I must return to the spirit world. Humanity is not nor shall not be ready for my knowledge."
'If he does that, then what will happen to me?' thought Blazer. Then an idea occurred to him, "Before you do that, I have a question that needs immediate answering."
"What would that be?"
"Is it possible for me to travel back and forth between the Spirit and Physical worlds?"
"If you were a spirit or the Avatar, yes."
"But could a spirit bestow someone who is not either of those the ability to do that?"
"I know of no such occasion taking place."
"But do you think it is possible?"
"Possibly, though unlikely"
"What would be required in order to make it likely?"
"A spiritual connection to the spirit world, and likely the help of several spirits. Now enough questions, I wait no longer!"
Speaking to himself, Blazer said, "Well I did tell him that Fire-Shifters possess spiritual awareness. So perhaps I'm one step ahead on that part."
The library stopped shaking and Blazer looked at the owl spirit asking, "Are we there?"
"Something is wrong; I cannot bring the library back to the spirit world. Something is preventing it."
Wan Shi Tong looks to blazer sudden realization dawning on the owl's face "You!"
"ME?!"
"Your very presence is preventing me from returning to the Spirit World. Something or someone has a different plan for you in this world, so you must leave at once!"
"You mean...out where the humans dwell?"
"Yes at once! I will not let my knowledge be available for others to use!" The library begins to shake
"But how am I supposed to get around out there? I mean, sure I can fly, but I don't if you noticed or not, I kind of stick out in a crowd!"
"That is not of my concern,"
"Humph, some helpful host you are. Alright, I'll leave!" Blazer looked at the hole in the ceiling where the children left, flapped his wings and flew up to it. Using his claws and tail, the Fire-Shifter made his way up to the exit and went through it.
"Farewell shifter, I wish you luck in whatever journey awaits you," and with that the library sank fully into the ground.
"Yeah, thanks a lot," grumbled Blazer, "Now what am I going to do?" he felt the sun's rays hit his backside and started to feel a little rejuvenated. Fire-Shifters do not necessarily lose their powers, but they do become severely weakened when they've gone for so long without sunlight. The strange trip to the library had left Blazer a little a little weakened, but now that he was out in the daylight, he felt much better. Now the question was where to go and what to do. Looking off in the distance, he saw sand that seemed to have no end. However, a black dot of sorts in the far distance caught his eye. A good flap of his wings and Blazer flew off to see what it was.
Blazer flew onward towards the black dot, and as he got closer, it started to become clearer. It turned out to be the same group of kids that Wan Shi Tong had attacked earlier, but with a black haired girl dressed in green with them. Looking at the small group, he felt as though they didn't seem the type to do evil things. As he flew over them, he gained a big surprise when the bald one turned his staff into a glider and flew up towards him. As the kid got closer, Blazer first saw a look of hope, then despair, then anger when he got close enough. The kid then directed his glider at Blazer at an almost ramming speed, but the Shifter managed to dodge it time and said, "Whoa, kid. I know I may not look friendly but I'm not here to fight you."
The kid either didn't hear him or didn't care and the glider collapsed into a long wooden staff as he fell towards Blazer. He twisted around and sent a large blast of air towards the Shifter, knocking him around causing him to plummet to the sand below.
Blazer managed to get up from the sand while trying to stance himself as best he could, given the unstable ground he was. Rubbing his head, Blazer looked up to see that he had made a small crater within the sand, and that the kid and his friends were looking down at him with shock and somewhat anger. Sighing, Blazer says, "I'm not here to fight, but if that's what it takes to get a conversation out of you guys, then it's what I'll have to do!"
AN: And with that, we have our first chapter. Hope you liked it.
Rapidfyrez helped me get this started, so kudos and thanks to him on that.
For my Blazer character, I wanted to do something different with a snake-like character. Instead of making a stereotypical snake villain, I chose to make him the hero. Even went so far as to make him red and black and have fiery abilities, as well as a bit religious. Pretty different, isn't it?
Let me know what you think in the reviews, and feel free to leave any suggestions or story ideas in the reviews or PM them to me.
