Yay! Finally reached the chapter with Jet!
My sister has had a crush on this dude since his first appearance in the show, so...
I added a character for her! Say hello to Red, the bad-a** b*tch of the Freedom Fighters! She wears a wolf bat cloak that she can use to glide and she has a pair of blades on her arms that can flip out like swords! She's an OC that my sister created and I just want to say that she is pretty much the coolest person in this story, aside from Ryuu. (If he wasn't my own character, I'd have a fangirl crush on him!)
I have a fangirl crush on EVERYONE!
And by everyone, I mean Zuko, Sokka, and Longshot! :)
Tikaani's POV:
"These are Fire Nation traps. You can tell from the metalwork." Sokka explained. We had just freed Momo and the wild hog monkeys from the circular traps they had been trapped in. "We better pack up camp and get moving." Sokka stated. I sighed and looked around at the trees. Their leaves were bright orange. I had to envy Jet. They were beautiful trees to live in. "Uh-uh, no flying this time!" Sokka protested as we began to climb Appa.
"What? Why wouldn't we fly?" Aang asked.
"Think about it. Somehow Prince Zuko and the Fire Nation keep finding us. Its because they spot Appa, he's just too noticeable!"
"We're all too noticeable!" I added.
"What? We're not too noticeable!" Katara argued.
"We're three water tribe people who travel with a monk and fly around on a gigantic fluffy monster with an arrow on his head!" I hollered. "You can't get much more noticeable than that." Appa roared with indignation.
"Tikaani's just jealous because she doesn't have an arrow." Aang told Appa.
"I know you all want to fly, but my instincts tell me we should play it safe this time and walk." Sokka reasoned.
"Who made you the boss?" Katara asked.
"I'm not the boss, I'm the leader!" Sokka corrected. I laughed. "What's so funny?" Sokka asked, raising an eyebrow.
"The fact that you think you can be a leader." I chuckled. "I wouldn't follow you if we were playing follow the leader. Besides, you're voice still cracks."
"I'm the oldest and I'm a warrior, so I'm the leader!" Sokka argued, making his voice a bit deeper.
"What about me?" I asked, glaring at Sokka. "I'm a warrior and we're the same age!" I narrowed my eyes. "Unless you still think that women can't fight."
"I never said that!" Sokka argued. "I just meant…"
"I bet you wouldn't be so bossy if you kissed a girl!" Katara snapped.
"I've kissed a girl! You just haven't met her!" Sokka argued.
"Katara's met Suki, and for the record, she kissed you, not the other way around." I stated.
"Suki kissed you? Of all people?" Katara was astonished.
"Shut up and follow me, or I'll tell gran-gran something super… SECRET… and BAD about you!" Sokka shouted. Katara and I laughed before following Sokka, just to humor him.
"Walking stinks!" Aang complained. "How do people go anywhere without a flying bison?"
"Oh, I don't know Aang. Why don't you ask Sokka's instincts?" Katara suggested. "They seem to know everything!
"Ha, ha, very funny…" Sokka seethed.
"I'm tired of carrying this pack." Aang complained.
"Maybe you should ask Sokka's instincts to carry it." I snickered.
"That's a great idea!" He cheered. "Hey, Sokka's instincts, would you mind-"
"Okay, okay, I get it. Look guys, I'm tired too, but the important thing is that we're safe from the… Fire Nation…" Sokka trailed off as we walked straight into a Fire Nation camp. Fire Nation soldiers all stared at us while they were holding sharp and pointy weapons. "Run!" We dropped our packs, ready to run, but just then a firebender blasted the bushes behind us. "We're cut off!"
"Really, Sherlock, I didn't notice!" I grumbled sarcastically. "Oh, BTW Sokka, your shirt is on fire." I stated before blasting him with a ray of water. "Oops, I guess I over did it." I laughed. Aang and Katara looked at me like I was crazy.
"How can you laugh at a time like this?" Aang asked. I rolled my eyes. We're gonna be saved in three, two, one… Suddenly, one of the guards fell over for no reason at all. "Whoa, how did you do that, Tikaani?" Aang asked.
"Look!" Katara cried.
"Its Robin hood!" I exclaimed. "Robin hood music, cue now!" A tall boy with shaggy brown hair, ragtag armor, a pair of hook swords and a weed in his mouth, dropped down into the clearing. He smiled and whipped out a couple guards with his hooked swords.
"Down ya go!" He snickered. Aang, Katara, and Sokka stared in astonishment.
"They're in the trees!" One guard cried. A little boy with a helmet dropped onto the guard's head and a girl in a wolf bat cloak glided down, knocking out two more guards.. I tilted my head quizzically. Who is that? She's not supposed to be here. I'm pretty sure I would have recognized a member of the freedom fighters in a wolf bat cloak.
"The wolf bats are gonna eat well tonight." She snickered. Arrows came from another tree and I looked up to see Longshot firing down at us. Katara and Aang began helping with their water and airbending. Sokka charged at a guard with his boomerang at the ready. Before he could do anything, Jet kicked the guy out of the way.
"Hey, he was mine!" Sokka protested.
"Gotta be quicker next time!" Jet smiled. I watched as Pipsqueak leaped down and broke the swords of two guards, causing them to flee. I saw Jet heading towards a guard to my right so I soaked the guard's head and froze it with my water bending, causing him to fall over.
"Hey!" Jet said.
"Gotta be quicker next time!" I chuckled. Jet knocked out a couple more guards before he walked up to Katara.
"Hey." He smiled.
"Hi…" Katara smiled. The two of them looked at what was left of the camp. Some guards had fled, but others were still unconscious. Jet's freedom fighters were making their way into the clearing.
"You just took out a whole army almost single handedly!" Aang mused.
"Army? Pft! It was only like… twenty guys…" Sokka argued.
"My name is Jet and these are my freedom fighters. Sneers, Longshot, Smellerbee, The Duke, Pipsqueak, and Red." As Jet listed them off, I looked to each one in turn. All of them were familiar, except for the one in the wolf bat cloak. This 'Red' character didn't belong in the Avatarverse. The wolf bat cloak made it hard to see her face.
"Pipsqueak, that's a funny name!" Aang said as he walked up to The Duke.
"You think my name is funny?" Pipsqueak asked, narrowing his eyes at Aang.
"It's hilarious!" Aang confessed. Pipsqueak glared at him before he started laughing.
"Um… Thanks for saving us, Jet. We're lucky you were there." Katara flirted.
"I should be thanking you. We were waiting to ambush those soldiers all morning. We just needed the right distraction. And then you guys stumbled in." Jet smiled at Katara.
"We were relying on instincts." Katara grumbled.
"You'll get yourselves killed doing that." Jet informed.
"Hey Jet, these barrels are filled with blasting jelly!" The Duke exclaimed.
"And these boxes are filled with jelly candy!" Red mused. I started. Her voice was familiar, but it couldn't be... Could it?
"Great! Let's not get those mixed up." Jet reasoned.
"We'll take this stuff back to the hideout!" The Duke called. I watched Red leave with the other Freedom Fighters.
"You guys have a hideout?" Aang asked.
"You want to see it?" Jet asked.
"Yes, we wanna see it!" Katara cheered, getting close to Jet. He led us to a spot deep in the forest, but I didn't see any hideout. Of course I already knew where it was. It was above us, hidden by the leaves.
"We're here." Jet said.
"Where? There's nothing here!" Sokka said skeptically.
"Hold this." Jet smirked, handing Sokka a rope.
"Why, what's this do?" Sokka asked, taking the rope skeptically. Immediately afterward the rope yanked him upwards. I watched as he disappeared. I laughed. Aang glided up on his glider and I watched in amazement as the wolf bat girl ran up the tree trunk like a tree ninja. Jet watched, but he didn't look very impressed. I grabbed hold of one of the ropes and gaped at the amazingness of the tree fortress. It was like a city of tree houses as far as the eye could see without a tree being in the way.
"What… the… F**K!?" A voice sounded from a tree a little whiles away. I looked to my left to see the wolf bat girl watching Jet and Katara. She was seething mad, almost to the boiling point. That voice... It has to be...
"Shyanne?" My I called out, knowing that it had to be her... Only my RWBFFAT (Real World Best Friend For All Time) would be bold enough to use words like that in a kid's show. This had to be Shyanne! Plus no one in the real Avatarverse would know words like that.
"Oh sh**, I've been caught!" Shyanne exclaimed. She spread her wings, about to fly off, but I stopped her before she could.
"Shyanne, its me!" I called. I looked around and lowered my voice. "Kandace."
"Kandace?" Shyanne's eyes widened and she studied me. "I suppose I should call you 'Tikaani' here then, am I right?"
"And I suppose I should call you 'Red.'" I said in turn. We were both avatar fans, so we had already come up with fake names for ourselves that would fit into the Avatarverse. Shyanne had always wanted to be a Freedom Fighter.
"Yeah. Come on, let's go join Jet." Red said. I nodded and we went to go find Jet (Red has forever had a fangirl crush on him, for reasons I do not know). He was just telling Katara about what he had been doing to mess with the Fire Nation. Red literally jumped in, but I just followed.
"They took over a nearby Earth Kingdom town a few years back." Jet stated.
"We've been ambushing their troops, cutting off their supply lines, and doing anything we can to mess with'em." Pipsqueak smiled smugly.
"One day, we'll drive the Fire Nation of out here for good and free that town." Jet enthused.
"That's so brave!" Katara complimented. I looked at Red, who moved her hand and mouth to mock Katara's words. I giggled.
"Yeah, nothing's braver than a guy in a tree house!" Sokka mumbled.
"Don't pay any attention to my brother…" Katara muttered.
"No problem. He probably had a rough day." Jet commented.
"So you all live here?" Katara questioned.
"That's right." Jet nodded. "Longshot over there, his town got burned down by the Fire Nation. And we found The Duke and Red trying to steal our food. I don't think they ever really had a home."
"What about you?" Katara asked. Jet stopped, but the rest of the freedom fighters kept walking. I almost followed them, but Red grabbed my arm and pulled me behind a tree. We peeked out and watched them.
"Why are we-"
"Sh!" Shyanne cut me off.
"The Fire Nation killed my parents. I was only eight years old. That day changed me forever…" Jet trailed off.
"Sokka and I lost our mother to the Fire Nation…" Katara confided.
"I'm so sorry, Katara…" Jet sympathized as he looked at her. Katara looked at Jet. Slowly they moved closer to one another. I looked over at Red. This must be the part when they kiss offscreen! I thought. Poor Red! She slowly made the ears on her wolf bat cloak droop downwards. I looked back at the scene. Jet still had his weed in his mouth. The edge of it tickled Katara's nose and she sneezed on his face.
"Ew!" Jet leaped backwards and wiped the spit off his face.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" Katara exclaimed.
"No, it's alright." Jet said, removing the weed from his mouth. I looked at Red. She was trying to contain her laughter. I looked back at the scene with Katara and Jet. They still hadn't moved from the bridge. They were looking around as if trying to think of something to say.
"This place… It's so beautiful." Katara whispered.
"Not as beautiful as you." Jet smiled. Katara blushed and the two of them moved closer. This time, the weed was in his hand. Nothing could mess up this moment. Nothing, that is, except for Red.
"Hey Jet!" Red called, racing around the corner as if she hadn't been there the whole time. "Its time for dinner, I need your help in the kitchen!"
"But I can't cook." Jet protested, looking bewildered.
"I don't care, get your butt to the kitchen if you want any food!" Red hollered.
"Okay, I'm coming." Jet looked at Katara. "Katara, I'm-"
"NOW! Don't make me get Pipsqueak!" Red commanded. Jet didn't have a chance to say anything else on the matter. He sighed and headed off in the opposite direction. Katara sighed and looked at the ground, obviously disappointed. Red walked back around the corner. "And that is how you save your true love from getting kissed by another woman!" Red explained. "I gotta get to the kitchen now, or Jet will know something's up." I watched as Red glided away. Finally, I couldn't handle it anymore. I laughed so hard that my sides hurt. Katara walked around the corner and narrowed her eyes at me.
"You were spying on me?" She inquired angrily. "I can't believe you would do something like that!" Katara spat before stomping off. She'll cool down soon enough.
"Today we struck another blow against the Fire Nation swine!" Jet announced, lifting his glass of lychee juice. He was greeted with happy cries from the Freedom Fighters. "I got a special joy from the look on one soldiers face when The Duke dropped down on his helmet and rode him like a wild hog monkey." The Duke took his praise by jumping onto the table and lifting his arms. Cheers of approval greeted him. "Now the Fire Nation thinks they don't have to worry about a couple of kids hiding in the trees. Maybe they're right," Jet paused, letting the crowd boo, "Or maybe, they're dead wrong!" He declared, a serious expression crossing his face. Everyone cheered loudly. Jet smiled and took a seat between Sokka and Katara. Red sat next to Aang and I sat next to Red, who was still wearing her wolf bat cloak.
"Hey, Jet! Nice speech…" Katara smiled.
"Thanks. By the way, I was really impressed with you, Aang and Tikaani. That was some great bending I saw out there today." Jet complimented. Red sneered.
"Well… He's great. He's the avatar." Katara said modestly. "I could use some more training." She blushed. Red stuck out her tongue, but her cloak made it hard for anyone else to tell. Except for me. I knew everything she was thinking. We wouldn't be RWBFFATs if I didn't.
"Avatar, huh? Very nice…" Jet trailed off. Jet almost began talking again, but I knew from the moment he opened his mouth that Red was going to interrupt him.
"Sokka!" She called loudly across the table, cutting Jet off. "You haven't touched your meat pockets! Do you know how long it takes me to make those?"
"You made these?" Sokka asked, pointing at the odd pockets that looked- and tasted- like Totino's Pizza Rolls. He poked one of them. "Are you sure it has meat?" He asked.
"They're called meat pockets." Red rolled her eyes. "I stuff meat in between two slabs of animal skin." Sokka looked at the pockets cautiously before taking a small bite of one. His eyes widened.
"It's the most beautiful thing I've ever tasted!" He exclaimed, his pupils dilating and sparkling.
"Is there any vegetarian food here?" Aang asked, looking hopeful.
"Of course! Something for everyone!" I watched as Red scooped a large pile of creamed corn onto Aang's plate. The young airbender dug in. His eyes lit up.
"Are you sure this is corn?" He asked, continuing to eat it. "Its delicious!"
"My compliments to you, Red. You are a wonderful cook!" I added as I tried the meat pockets and creamed corn. They were so delicious. I never knew Red was such a good cooker.
"I think there's a way that you guys can help in our struggle." Jet tried to speak over us. Everyone quieted as he spoke.
"Unfortunately we have to leave tonight." Sokka snapped. I nodded.
"Yeah, we gotta go to the North Pole." I added.
"Sokka, Tikaani, you're kidding me! I needed you on an important mission tomorrow!" Jet called after us. Sokka stopped, but I kept walking.
"Stick your stupid mission!" I grunted. Sokka looked after me, but I knew he would never be able to turn down a mission. He looked back at Jet.
"What mission?" Sokka asked. I sighed. Why does he have to say yes every time he hears the word 'mission?'
"Tikaani, wait up!" I stopped and turned around to see Red. "I need your advice!" She sighed and looked at me. "How can I get Jet to notice me?"
"What?" I raised an eyebrow. "How am I supposed to know?"
"I've seen the way Sokka looks at you!" Red exclaimed.
"What are you talking about?" I was very puzzled. Sure, Sokka had a crush on me in the beginning, but he wasn't still interested in me, was he?
"Don't tell me you haven't noticed!" She shouted.
"Well at the beginning he had a small crush on me… But I thought that would go away after he met Suki." I confessed. "He… He's been staring at me?"
"Really, girl?" This time, Red was the one who raised an eyebrow. "It's so obvious that I almost died!"
"Well… I've been nothing but rude towards him since we started our journey. I don't know why he'd like me." I really thought I'd snuffed out his infatuation with me. I didn't want to be any more rude than I already was. "He probably thinks I'm teasing him, which would make him think that I like him." I reasoned.
"Well, being rude to Jet won't work like that with me…" Red sighed. "I've never tried so hard to impress a guy… But no matter how hard I try, he just doesn't seem to notice me…" I didn't say anything for a long time, mainly because I noticed that Red had started to cry, but also because I was thinking. Suddenly, an idea struck me. I didn't voice it until she had forced herself to stop crying.
"You should try taking off that… thing!" I exclaimed, motioning to her cloak.
"You mean my wolf bat cloak? But what if Walnut doesn't recognize me?"
"Who?" I had a strange feeling that I knew who Walnut was.
"My pet wolf bat." Red explained. "But I call him Walt since he doesn't like the name Walnut." She nodded for a few seconds. "So why do you want me to take off my cloak?" Red asked curiously.
"Maybe Jet needs to see what you look like outside of the cloak. If I didn't know it was you in there, I might not know that you're a girl." I explained.
"Well, Jet does tend to treat me like one of his bro friends…" Red concluded.
"Tell me how it goes!" I requested before walking to the guest tree house I was sharing with the others. "Night!" I cried before falling to sleep.
The next day I paid little attention to what was going on with the others. I spent most of my time chatting it up with Red. I talked about Ryuu and our parents. Red told me that The Duke was her little brother. At one point in the morning I walked into the guest tree house to see Sokka angrily packing his things. Soon afterwards, Katara charged in.
"We can't leave now, with the Fire Nation about to burn down a forest!" She yelled in rage.
"Don't you mean we can't leave now, without your boyfriend?" I chastised.
"What? He's not my-" Katara tried to protest, her cheeks were bright red.
"Katara and Jet, sitting in a treehouse, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" I taunted.
"Shut up!"
"First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a tree-carriage!" I finished. Katara slowly walked towards me with her hands out, as if she was trying to strangle me. I leaped out the window and grabbed hold of one of the ropes. I zipped passed the branches. The rope line ended up leading me straight to Red's tree house. She had just walked out and she wasn't wearing her wolf bat cloak.
"Tikaani?" She laughed at me. "Nice of you to swing by!" She laughed at her own pun, and I did too. I looked at her. She had shaggy reddish brown hair that went over her left eye, reddish brown eyes and she was wearing ragtag armor like many of the other Freedom Fighters. She still had a thin bat-like membrane between her arms, so she could still glide. I also noticed something different. There were blades attached to her arms.
"What are those?" I wondered.
"These are my arm blades." Red snickered. She flicked her arms and the blades slid forward so they looked like she could use them just like swords. Then she withdrew them.. "I was just on my way to see Jet." She smiled. "Care to watch me woo him?"
"Yes I wood like to watch you. Get it? I said 'wood' instead of 'would', and we're in a forest?" I gave her a thumbs up.
"It doesn't work if you have to explain it." She criticized. I pouted. "This way!" She grabbed a rope and swung away. She sent the rope back to me and I used it to glide over to Jet's treehouse. Red walked up to the door and knocked. Soon, Jet answered.
"Hey, I-" Jet froze when he saw Red. He stared at her and blinked a couple times as if he was completely unable to speak. "Who are you?" Jet asked in a mesmerized voice.
"Jet, its me. Red." She informed. Jet's mouth opened and closed a couple times, as if he was trying to fathom it.
"I… I've never seen you without your cloak before…" He stammered.
"Well, how does it look?" Red pressed.
"You should… Dress like this more often…" He seemed dumbstruck. He shook his head as if to clear it. "I'm sorry, but I have to go… I'll talk to ya later, Red." Jet whispered, almost looking sad to leave her. He began to walk off.
"He's going to go plant the blasting jelly, isn't he?" Red sighed.
"I'm afraid so…" I shook my head. "So what are we going to do?"
"You're going to mix water with the blasting jelly so it won't blow. If you fail, Sokka will still be there to warn the villagers." She theorized. "And I still want to try to convince Jet not to blow the dam. If he can make that step on his own, he'll be different when he decides to go to Ba Sing Se."
"I'm going to mix water with the blasting jelly now. You can go hide behind a tree until you think it's the right time to convince Jet to stop." Red nodded and I headed towards the river. I knew that Jet wouldn't plant the blasting jelly until late afternoon the next day, so I crawled into a comfortable position among the rocks and fell asleep. I was awakened by loud footsteps and I peered out just in time to see Sneers and the other freedom fighters- minus Smellerbee and Pipsqueak- walking away. As soon as they were out of sight I tiptoed over to the barrels and created a wave of water that washed over them. The water mixed with the blasting jelly.
I was about to walk away, but suddenly, I felt like someone was watching me. I looked up at a tree that was at the top edge of the canyon. Longshot was glaring at me from the top of the tree. I shook and gulped slightly, but Longshot didn't make any move to try to stop me. It was hard to tell from the distance, but I thought I saw him give me a curt nod, as if he agreed with what I was doing. I returned the nod before I continued to walk away, talking to myself as I went.
"That should to it. And if the dam still blows, then Sokka would have warned the town by now." I said to myself before walking out of the gorge. I made my way to where Jet was, just in time to see him beat Aang. Katara was just about to start waterbending at him.
"Stop it, Jet!" Red ordered. She stepped out from behind a tree. "How could you? How could you even think about doing something like this?"
"Red?" Jet looked at her, surprised. "I knew you wouldn't understand! I need to free this valley from the Fire Nation!"
"Who would be free?" Red asked. "Everyone would be dead." She looked into Jet's eyes, but they were cold. Suddenly, I heard a whistle from the other side of the river. Jet was opening his mouth to reply. "If you do this, you're no better than the Fire Nation people who killed your parents!" Red accused. Jet froze. He stared at Red in horror and I could tell that he realized that Red was right. Jet whistled.
"What are you doing?" Katara asked, worry clouding her eyes.
"Telling them that the plan is off." Jet whispered. Katara and Aang looked out towards the river, but nothing happened. Sokka came over the hill on Appa.
"I did it, I saved the village!" He boasted. "Wait, why hasn't the dam blown up yet?" He asked.
"Red convinced Jet not to blow up the dam. She saved everyone!" Katara cheered. She looked at Sokka. "It was a good effort, though."
"What? But I… Oh never mind..." He grumbled. "I should just be happy that everyone is safe. Now get on Appa, before he changes his mind again!" All of us were happy to oblige.
"Make sure he doesn't get into anymore trouble!" I told Red. I lowered my voice before I continued. "See you in Ba Sing Se." I winked. Red smiled.
"See you in Ba Sing Se." And with that, Sokka 'yip, yipped' and we were off. We were high in the sky when I got an idea. I stood on Appa's saddle and yelled.
"Hey, Jet! RED HAS A CRUSH ON YOU!" I shouted it at the top of my lungs before sitting down on Appa's saddle, smiling evilly.
Red's POV:
My face was bright Red. Get it? Because my name is... Oh, never mind...
"What did she say?" Jet inquired.
"You didn't hear her?" I asked, hoping that he hadn't. He shook his head.
"Too far away." Jet looked curious. "Was it important?"
"Not at all." I finished, letting out a sigh of relief. Nice try Tikaani, but I'm not ready to tell him yet...
In Ba Sing Se, maybe...
In Ba Sing Se...
