- Hekou; Four Months Later -
The town was quiet and the moon was hidden in the cloud-painted sky. The constant rain drenched the buildings and kept the few villagers who were awake inside. The streets were nearly empty aside from the seldom Fire Nation guard patrolling. They had it easy tonight... or so they thought.
Six dark figures hopped the wall and dashed into the shadows. The wall had a Fire Nation flagged draped over every engraved Earth Kingdom insignia: captured long ago. The patrol was nowhere near, so they moved swiftly across the street and closer to the center of the city. After crossing a few yards and blocks, they arrived at a house with a blue cloth hanging out the back window. The six stealthily maneuvered to the back porch.
Inside, an old woman laid in her bed, trying to sleep. The distracting rain beat down on her house, keeping her evening somewhat restless. In and out of sleep, she finally rolled over on her side to comfort herself when she heard banging on her back door: loud but quick. Her eyes widened. Her room became illuminated by the faint glow of an orange lamp she lit, then she hurried downstairs. Before she came to the back door she checked her window, and sure enough the blue cloth had been knotted and placed back in its place. It was all part of their critical communication. She swung the door open quickly.
She whispered. "Come in; towels in the closet. Grab one and go upstairs, quickly."
Three of the group hurried inside, three remaining on the porch.
"Jet, you weren't supposed to come for another two days!" The woman snapped, quietly.
"Put out the light, Sana." Jet put his hand around the flame and extinguished it. "I'm sorry, we had a change of plans. These are the last of them though; just a little longer, then we don't have to keep doing this anymore."
Sana smiled and relaxed her face. She lifted a hand up and put it on Jet's cheek. "You're such a leader, Jet, and I'm proud of you. Never stop what you're doing." After a moment, she turned to the others too. "And I'm proud of you two as well. You all are like children to me... and I'll miss you."
"This won't be the last time, Aunt Sana." Smellerbee piped in from the background.
"I'm sure it won't," Sana said with a smile. She then snapped out of her adoring mood and looked around, tasks flowing into her head.
"Alright, now get a move on! We shouldn't be out like this. It'd be bad enough for them to see me out, but if they saw you we'd never hear the end of it!" She grabbed the door and began to pull it closed. "Good luck to all of you!" She cracked a smile through the small opening left in the door, then slid it closed.
Jet and Smellerbee turned and ran, the third standing and staring at the closed door as if he wasn't through yet, despite having not said a word.
"Bao, let's move!" Smellerbee said, turning back but still running. He snapped out of it, nodded, and followed in suit.
- The Next Morning -
The sun finally rose, lighting up the campsite in the trees. In the past four months their fort had expanded to become nearly five times the size it was before. It had been the hiding place for many survivors from the recently destroyed village. Now, though, it housed more than the original three inhabitants, but less than all the villagers who had once congregated there.
Jet sat at the main table which was still on the central platform cannecting all the other bases. The entire central area had expanded to engulf the nearest rooms, those rooms getting rebuilt further away. Everything had expanded, gotten bigger, and even been added too. There were many new rooms, but most left empty of inhabitants and filled with supplies at this point. The stock rooms were piled to the brim.
As Jet shook off the last grip of slumber at the central table, he marked on a scroll through three names left on a list of four dozen or so. He was the only one up, the sun just beginning to rise. He liked being the first to awaken, being the leader of... whatever this resistance group was. It just seemed right to him.
Suddenly, a young girl's voice interrupted his silence. "That's all of them, huh?" Jet looked up and smiled at his friend, Smellerbee.
"Yeah. Yeah, that's all of them." Jet took a sigh of relief. "I can't believe we finally did it."
"Back when they burned down the village, you said we would keep all those people here until we could smuggle them into Hekou, despite the fact that the Fire Nation ruled the town. I thought you were absolutely insane. All those people here; I thought it'd be so chaotic." She sat down.
"Well... you were kind of right." Jet laughed.
"Yeah, but we managed. I thought it would totally split us up though." Smellerbee avoided eye contact, uncomfortable about being serious outside of high-pressure situations.
"I think it's made us a stronger team. And heh, look," Jet laughed and motioned to the stockpile room on the far side of the hideout from them, "we got some new recruits out of the deal."
Across the way Bao was assisting his younger brother roll a new arrival of barrels, obviously captured from the Fire Nation.
"You think that kid's okay, though?" Smellerbee asked, concerned.
"Bao's brother? Yeah, I think he's fine. He just doesn't like to talk..."
"Jet!" A voice new to the morning rang through the morning trees, happy. Sneers walked up behind him. "I was so worried about you I had a hard time sleeping last night! Glad you made it back in one piece. Sorry I couldn't make it." He tapped his casted leg with a crutch.
"Don't worry about it, Sneers. Bao's been really proving himself lately." Jet turned to open up his discussion with Smellerbee to Sneers as well, who plopped down next to them with a bowl of some sort of horrendous breakfast concoction.
"What on earth is that?" Smellerbee asked, disgusted and fanning her face to escape the smell.
"Pipsqueak made it. It's actually not bad!" Sneers perked.
"That's the big guy, right?" Smellerbee was met by a blank look of disappointment from Sneers. "Sorry! There's a lot of new names to keep track of!" she jumped.
"There's only three!" Sneers argued.
"I'm bad with names, okay!"
Jet just laughed as the two of them bickered. In addition to Bao and his silent brother joining them when the village burned down four months prior, throughout their adventures smuggling survivors from that village into Hekou north of their hideout they managed to find three more youngsters looking for a life of action and fighting against the Fire Nation. Their group had somewhat quickly gone from three small members to eight, and now with even stronger secret alliances and trustful relationships in Hekou.
Their bickering eventually settled down when Sneers shoved Smellerbee's head with a laugh as he got up and walked off.
"It is pretty different... having nearly tripled in the last three months. It's almost intimidating." Jet opened up.
"Intimidating? Why would you be intimidated of a few more people?" Smellerbee was confused.
"When it was just us and Sneers, I was the leader and I felt like that was how things were meant to be. But now we've got five new people, and-"
"And they respect you, Jet," She interrupted. "You are the leader and they know that and want it."
"I'm not so sure about that..."
"What, do you think they're gonna start a coup and throw you out of your own hideout?" Smellerbee's discouragement was turning into annoyance.
"I don't know, okay," Jet closed his eyes, shaking his head in frustration. "I just... I don't feel like there's any order or stability here. I could select a mission and if most of the new guys aren't for it they could just say, 'screw you,' and leave."
"So let them leave!" Smellerbee bounced.
"Then we've got people who are out there, know our secrets, and who we aren't on the best terms with." Jet sighed. "I guess it boils down to the fact that I don't think they trust me."
Smellerbee sat deep in thought for a few moments. "They don't trust you?"
"I don't know," Jet reeled back.
"See, no. I think it boils down to the fact that you don't trust them. You have to trust that they trust you."
Jet ruffled his brow, thinking through her words. "Yeah... I guess so."
"So what do we do about that?" Smellerbee tried to make eye contact.
"Huh?" Jet turned, puzzled. "There's nothing we can do, time will just have to do its thing."
"Wrong!" She boasted, standing up and stretching with a smile on her face. Out came her energetic side. She called out to the entire camp. "Alright everyone, finish what you're doing! Big meeting at the center table in ten minutes!"
"What are you doing?" Jet whispered, looking around.
"We're gonna fix your problem." Smellerbee crossed her arms with a smirk. She walked off to the table, preparing to do who knows what, leaving Jet to only sit and wait for the next ten minutes, deep in panic over what was coming. What if she bulldozed over the whole group setting him up as a tyrannical leader? They would all hate him! What if she undermined his authority and called for a new leader, or worse!, asserted herself as the new one! His mind wandered, uncertain of so many things, and then the time came.
"Alright, everyone, gather round!" she ordered. Jet reluctantly rose and took his seat at the table.
"What's this about, Bee?" Began Sneers as the last of the eight finally arrived.
"Look around! We're becoming more and more of a threat to our enemies, aren't we?" She was met with a diluted, rather unenthusiastic applaud.
"Over the past ten weeks we've taken out six full cargo caravans traveling in and out of Hekou." The group's murmuring enlivened a bit, proud of their accomplishment. Two in the group exchanged a high five.
"In the process we have proven Hekou to be one of the most expensive colonies to upkeep. More than half of their inbound shipments become unaccounted for when dispatched to Hekou. Meanwhile, inside the village, we've managed to make connections all over to assist in our missions when needed." As the excitement grew, even Bao's silent brother cracked a smile when his older sibling latched his shoulders and gently shook him with a laugh of happiness.
"Over the past four months we've managed to successfully smuggle fifty survivors of the Fire Nation's latest destruction into the town without the enemy catching on to the population boost and without being caught ourselves." At this, even Jet smiled and began clapping.
"All around the Western Earth Kingdom they tell stories about the ghosts of the forest that no Fire Nation loyalist dares to step into. They swoop down and destroy the enemy, and before you know it, they vanish. That's us. And we are legendary." The group had become ecstatic, cheering in youthfulness.
"There are many names for us. Some just call us the ghosts of the forest. Others call us little fighters. The enemy calls us the child savages. And most common, we're known as the Young Resistance. But to the outside world, even though there's rumors of this and that, our entire purpose is sloppy, and no one really understands clearly what we're about. And that's because it's true. Something needs to change around these parts." The group quieted, Smellerbee's seriousness setting in.
"We have no officialness about us. Nothing is set in stone and we don't have a clear direction. Jet calls the shots most of them time, but otherwise we have no order. We need to do some officialization."
"What are you getting at, Bee?" Sneers interjected, raising an eyebrow curiously.
"A complete overhaul of what little order we have, and an establishment of structure, order, and design. And the best way to do this fairly is to let everyone have their say and their vote."
The group exchanged looks all around, seeming to agree; but Jet... Jet's breathing hastened and shallowed, nervous as to what could come of this. He could stop it if he wanted to by bulldoinge right over her, but if the group itself had the will to revolt against him, their perfect opportunity would be presented to them if he objected here. After a moment, Smellerbee picked back up.
"Alright, so let's start with the obvious. We need a leader!" The murmuring quieted. "We all know that Jet's been our leader since the beginning, but we're writing things in stone now. No one is obligated to vote for Jet, and if you would prefer someone else to take the lead, let it be known now. Thoughts?"
Discussion began amongst the eight, some asking Jet if he is still certain of his calling, others looking around. Sneers, though, sat quietly to himself in deep thought. His countenance was confused, almost hurt, but no one could tell what was going on inside his head. The discussion was interrupted by a little boy's voice.
"I nominate Jet!"
"I'm with The Duke," Bao added. "Jet's gotten us this far; I think at some point or another we've all been saved by his skills in decision making. I know I owe him my life, and I can't think of a better leader."
"We all owe our lives to everyone here," Sneers interrupted the peace. He was downcast: not angry, but slightly leaning towards it. "Jet is a great leader and has been ever since I've known him, but at the same time you can't discredit everyone else. I know both Smellerbee and I have saved your life as well, and you have saved ours. Considering what we do, it's a common occurrence to be in a life-threatening situation, and we help each other out."
"Are you making a second nomination, then?" Pipsqueak's deep voice cut to the point.
Sneers half-winced as he looked down, silent. His mind raced through so many emotions at the moment. It wasn't that he didn't like or trust Jet. And it wasn't even that he didn't want Jet as their leader. He couldn't really identify his own emotions about the situation, he just knew that he felt that something was off for some unidentifiable reason. Sneers looked up slowly to try to answer, nervous.
"I... The leadership position is not for me. I'm just not sure that any single one of us is cut out for-"
Jet slammed his hands down on the table loudly and stood up, startling Sneers and cutting him off. All heads whipped around to him. He spoke calmly, but with boldness.
"I nominate Sneers."
Silence surrounded the table, everyone staring at Jet as he sat back down and Sneers' mouth somewhat agape.
"Why..." Sneers began, almost in a whisper.
"You don't want to be the leader, Jet?" The Duke piped up quickly.
Jet's somber face remained monotonous through his words. "I don't want everyone here submitting to my leadership because it's 'custom' or because they're afraid of me. I'm not a tyrant, and no one was willing to break the ice of an alternate nomination. So my vote remains with Sneers." He sat down, leaving the group to the rest of the decision. After a moment, Smellerbee took control once more, knowing they had to get somewhere with this decision.
"Alright, so to avoid any issues we'll have a written vote." She said as she tore off some pieces of paper and passed them around. "Unless there are any more nominations, just write who you cast your vote for. I'll call them out once they're all passed in, and the majority rules. Can we agree on that?" All heads nodded, some slowly and thoughtfully, others eager and excited.
The group sat, deep in thought over what had been said. The Duke passed his in quickly and with a smile, giddy and filled with the excitement of youth. After a minute or two, all had been passed in and Smellerbee stood up. A serious tone came over the group as the time came for their leader to be either reaffirmed or overthrown.
All eyes fixated on Smellerbee as she climbed up on the table and opened the first folded piece of paper. She laid eyes on it and her face softened ever so slightly.
"Jet."
The Duke fist-pumped with a hissing, "yes!" until he caught the eye of Sneers, whose serious face was glaring at him. The cold stare was broken though when Sneers smirked and laughed at his silliness. Sneers knew that he wasn't going to make it to the leader role, and he held no grudge against people choosing Jet over him.
"Jet."
Jet's countenance was lightening. Two down, only three more to clench his role. But it was more than just making it in. Jet wanted full approval and unanimity.
"Jet."
Everyone around the table loosened up as they realized they could all relax in agreement. The smiles ceased though at the next vote.
"Sneers."
Jet ruffled his brows, while across the table The Duke's face fell. "What?" He quietly asked himself. Confusion ran across the table in silent awkwardness.
"That was Jet." Pipsqueak comforted. Suddenly it made sense.
"Oh yeah," The Duke relaxed. No one doubted Jet's ability to lead, and frankly at this moment if someone did and made it evident, it would create a most undesirable circumstance.
"Jet."
One more and it was set in stone.
"Jet."
The group cheered and applauded. The Duke climbed up on the table and jumped onto Jet, doing what he could to headlock him, but failing. Pipsqueak came up behind him and gave him a hardy slap on the back, and Bao congratulated him. Jet shook his hand and looked up to see Sneers across the table with a semi-concerned yet blank look, but once they made eye contact he softened to a kind and accepting nod with a smirk. Sneers knew this was best.
"And with the fifth vote, we have a leader!" Smellerbee put the papers in her pocket.
"You're not going to read the rest?" Jet questioned, desiring reassurance.
"There's no need to, you're our leader and that's all we need to know." She pulled her hand out of her pocket from stashing the remaining two votes inside, then moved on to the next topic. "Alright, alright, everyone sit back down. Keep your shirt on, Duke."
"It's The-"
"Whatever," she blew him off. The surrounding six laughed at the recurring situation. It had almost become a joke amongst themselves to torture him by leaving of the 'the.'
She began the following move. "We need to discuss the next topic."
"What would that be?" a most excited Bao asked.
"Let's get a name." Smellerbee smiled. "A name for... this." She motioned to the group, hands extended in both directions.
"We're mostly known as the Young Resistance," started the eighth member of the group. Don't worry-we haven't mentioned him in our story yet, but he's one of them nonetheless. Thin as a twig, too. Anyway...
"Yeah, but that sucks." Bao rebuttled. "That name just rings of defeat. A resistance is a group living under tyranny fighting back against it. The name practically admits that the Fire Nation has defeated us already and we're just doing what we can now. We need something that has a more victorious glow to it."
"He has a good point." Pipsqueak piped in.
"So let's come up with something good." Jet determined, leaning forward to put his elbows on the table and interlace his fingers with one another over his mouth, thinking deeply.
"Any suggestions or direction?" Smellerbee asked him.
"What are we about here?" Jet addressed the group as a whole. "If you could describe our entire purpose, what would you say it is?"
The Duke answered quickly. "To take out as many Fire Nation slugs as we can!"
"That's not our ultimate goal, though." Sneers burst the bubble. "We don't just fight for the sake of fighting. We fight for a reason. We are here to show the Fire Nation that they aren't victorious like they seem to think they are. We are here to show them that even when they don their flags over our walls, they still don't rule us and we aren't the submissive slaves they like to fool themselves into believing we are."
"He's right." Pipsqueak joined. "I think we would all agree that we would die before submitting to the Fire Nation."
"Exactly!" Pinned Sneers. "It's not about defeating the Fire Nation; we can't do that. It's not about saving the town, even though that is a goal. It's not even about getting revenge on the people who have destroyed so many lives, including ours. It's about doing what is most effective in ending this war, and for a small group of young warriors, the best way we can do that is by sending a message across the world. A message of intimidation. We may not be able to take out legions of troops, and we can't join our own nation's military. But we have a huge bonus on our side already: notoriety. In villages across the Earth Kingdom, especially those occupied by the Fire Nation, people tell stories of the Young Resistance. While they do boast about our accomplishments, there's something far greater they talk about when they tell our stories. The focus of the message we give is that we will never give up, and even if the Fire Nation comes in and pretends to own our villages, our forests, our towns, and our land... they'll never succeed because they can never crush what's inside. They can never truly rule over us. We don't fight just to fight. We don't fight to win a war. We fight to show the entire world that the Earth Kingdom is not subject to any Fire Lord. And the fact that that spirit lives inside of us scares the Fire Nation far more than any army ever could. We fight for freedom!" Sneers slammed a fist on the table on the last word with a shout.
The team was speechless, mouths dropped to the floor. Only moments of ear-splitting silence followed, broken almost simultaneously by the applaud and shouts of the group cheering.
"I guess that's it then," Jet smiled calmly, silencing his team. "The Freedom Fighters." He sat back and crossed his arms with a smirk.
"Freedom Fighters, that's awesome!" The Duke jumped.
"Has the perfect ring to it," Bao added. His younger brother smiled in support, remaining silent.
"No objections?" Smellerbee officialized. The silence spoke for itself, so she confirmed. "The Freedom Fighters we are! Pipsqueak, bring in the barrels!"
"What?" Jet questioned, leaning forward confused. Smellerbee just smiled and addressed the rest of the table.
"An event this big calls for a celebration!" She hopped off the table and waltzed over to help bring in the food Bao had gone to grab.
Not ten minutes later the middle platform had transformed into a party central. A record player blared joyful folk music through the trees and he table was stacked with a lavish array of colorful berries, raw meats, eggs, bread, and all varieties of juices. The sounds of laughter and happiness sliced through the rough-cut music.
"Alright, alright," Sneers called out to the scattered partying warriors. "We've gotten through the burning of the last village. Here's to never letting them burn another!" The eight raised their glasses from across the platform.
"And here's to Jet!" Smellerbee added to the toast after the first drink. The glasses were raised once again.
Jet finalized their celebration with a final closing toast. "And here's to the Freedom Fighters... bottoms up!"
"CHEERS!"
- 7 Hours Later -
Crickets: the only sound traveling through the darkness that reigned over the camp in the trees. Sleep had overtaken all but one of our brave Freedom Fighters; the leader, of course, who sat outside his room poking with a stick at a dying fire. It was held in a monstrous piece of curved metal, almost like a bowl, and lowered into a hole in the platform carved out specifically to fit it. Thoughts were racing through his mind when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He looked up to see Smellerbee walking out of her room.
"Bee," he caught her attention. "What are you doing?"
She altered her course and came towards him. "I could ask you the same thing. How are you?"
"What kind of shallow question is that?" Jet blew her off as she sat down, seeing straight through her question.
"I'm serious. You were really disturbed earlier, but at least now you know. They all trust you." The concern in her eyes spoke straight to his soul, but it wasn't helping the uneasiness he had inside.
"You don't know that for sure-"
"I looked at all the votes." She persisted, strong and stubborn, yet somehow caring in the midst of it. "There was only one for Sneers, Jet; everyone wants you as their leader."
"Still, you don't know that."
"What do you mean, 'I don't know that,' of course I do! It's ridiculous to think-"
"No," He stopped her, "I'm saying that not everyone really wants me as their leader!" Jet's tone rose and the remarks got quicker and quicker. The conversation took on a fast pace as the two degraded into bickering back and forth.
"Jet!" Smellerbee topped out the tension, "There was only one vote for Sneers, and that was cast by you! I don't understand why you-"
"It wasn't me!" He shouted, silencing her in confusion. Quickly realizing his tone, he sighed, displaying an apology on his face as the anger written on it softened. "I voted for myself. That's why I was concerned when you read that vote..."
Smellerbee's countenance displayed her dismay over the situation. "Oh... I- I'm sorry, I didn't know."
Jet mumbled. "All I know now is that someone on my team doesn't want me as their leader, and that's extremely unsettling."
"Yeah... I know it's probably hard to understand, but whoever did it probably had understandable reasons as to why."
Jet sighed, stood up, and walked into his room. "That's what I'm afraid of."