Meeting Jet

Okay, I am seriously sorry for the long wait. I was really getting into my other story, and I had to finish chapter seven of it first before I could finally start working on this. And then when I started working on the original version of this, I finished it, but I didn't like it at first, so I had to redo it.

So, Sorry for the wait.

Now it's Jet. YAY!

And I'm introducing an OC. Some of you might notice some references to a certain movie in here... or not. Doesn't really matter.

Only thing I own... is Tora... and... Moro... and Kui. That's it.

Edit: New version! Changes in the chapter! Watch out for them. Some of them are kinda subtle, but they're there.

I stretched out comfortably over Appa's back. It had been... two, maybe three days since our little "adventure" with the pirates. Since then, Katara and Aang have been practicing waterbending every day. I taught Aang a few of the moves I had invented myself, like pulling water into a ring around you, then turning it into ice daggers and shooting them. Aang didn't really like that move, since it was sort of violent.

Aang let go of the reins and jumped into the saddle, smiling at us all. "So, when should we stop?" he asked them. Mostly, he was asking Sokka, because even though Sokka didn't know a lot of things, he knew his way around a map.

Sokka opened his mouth to respond, when Katara cut him off. "I think we should stop now."

"And why should we do that?" Sokka asked haughtily.

Katara gestured to the forest. "Look at the forest. There's bound to be a lot of fruits and nuts down there to eat. And if we're lucky, we'll find a town and get something there."

Sokka opened his mouth again, probably to shoot down her idea, when he closed it with an annoyed look on his face. This made me start laughing, and Katara started laughing as well. Aang grinned, not wanting to be mean like Katara and me, and grabbed the reins again. Appa slowly started to float down to the ground.

As soon as we touched the ground, I peeled off my Fire Nation tunic. It obvious enough that I was Fire Nation without the tunic broadcasting it to the world. And I'd rather not be considered a traitor to my Nation if some Fire Nation guys saw me with the Avatar and two Water Tribe people.

"Now what?" I asked, leaping from the saddle to the ground.

"I have absolutely no idea." Aang replied. Momo scurried off somewhere, probably to find some stuff to eat.

"There are some leechee nuts up there." Sokka said, pointing to the trees. "If one of us could get up there, we could have something to eat."

"Good idea, Sokka. Who's going to go up there, though?" Katara frowned. Sokka promptly looked at Aang.

"Thanks for volunteering, Aang!" Sokka said, slapping him on the back.

"I didn't... oh, alright." Aang sighed. He used airbending to propel himself up to the trees, and plucked several leechee nuts and some fruits from the trees above us.

None of us noticed, but a blur of white suddenly shot through the bushes behind us.

~~Water~~

"Jet!"

A brown-skinned, bushy-haired teen turned around and saw a dark haired girl on a white wolf coming toward him.

"Well, looks like Moro finally decided to grace us with her presence." He smirked, a twig hanging from his lips. Somehow, he managed to keep it in even while he was talking.

"Shut up, meathead." Moro snapped, sliding off her wolf. "Or I'll have Kui crunch your face off, like he's been asking me."

Jet rolled his eyes. "That threat got old the tenth time you used it."

"Well, that comeback got old the second time you used it."

"Well-"

"Do you want to hear what I have to say or not?" Moro demanded, scratching Kui's nose. "There are some weirdly dress people in the forest - and they're heading for the Fire Nation camp."

Jet smirked again, and propped his hook swords against his shoulders. "Well, it looks like we have a reason to go there. What Nation are they?"

"Two of them Water Tribe - don't know which one, though. One of them is dressed really weirdly - orange and yellow, and he's bald. An Air Nomad."

"So he's the Avatar, then?"

Moro nodded, confirming his suspicion. "And there's one girl."

"What nation is she?"

Moro paused, thinking. Gold eyes, black hair, pale skin... to mention the Fire Nation tunic she had been wearing before. "Earth Kingdom. Maybe some Fire Nation heritage mixed in... what do you think, Kui?"

She turned to her wolf. Kui's yellow eyes stared directly at her. You're lying. To protect the girl. He thought at her. Kui and Moro had some sort of odd connection between them. Or maybe it was Kui. Maybe he had the power of telepathy. Either way, Moro could understand whenever Kui was "talking" to her.

Moro nodded, then turned back to Jet. "Kui says her one of her grandparents was probably Fire Nation... most likely before the war started. So there's no reason to attack her, right? She can't help it if she has ash-maker heritage."

Jet paused, thinking it over. Then he nodded. "But if she's a firebender..."

"She's not." The girl promised. "Kui didn't sense any ash or smoke on her."

"Alright." Jet shouldered his swords, smiling. "Let's go save some girls from some ash-makers."

~~Water~~

"Hey, where's Momo?" Aang asked suddenly, looking around for the lemur.

"How should I know? He wandered off to find something to eat." I said, shrugging.

"Let's go look for him." Katara said, gesturing for us to walk.

After a few moments of searching, we found the little troublemaker - hanging in a cage from a tree, next to some hog-monkey's stuck in the same sort of cages.

"Momo! How'd you get up there?" I demanded, holding a hand over my eyes to shield them from the light.

"Don't worry, Momo!" Aang yelled, using airbending to propel himself into the trees again. Once he got up there, he released a latch that was keeping the cages in the air, and the cage holding Momo dropped. Sokka and Katara caught it, lowered it carefully to the ground, and pried the bars open. Momo scurried out, holding some leechee nuts in his paws, and began eating them. Sokka groaned loudly and slapped his forehead in annoyance. I have to say, I agreed with him. That little...

Aang dropped to the ground, and the hog-monkey's started making noises, pleading for us to let them go too. "Alright!" Aang said cheerfully, leaping back into the trees.

Sokka had a different approach. He pulled his boomerang out, threw it into the air, and it sliced through the ropes holding the cages. They fell to the ground, just like Momo's cage had.

"Okay, that works too." Aang commented, hanging upside down from a tree branch.

After we freed the hog-monkey's, they ran off, and Aang came down.

"Hey, I thought you said we could ride them." I said, crossing my arms.

"They've gotten smaller in the last one-hundred years." Aang said defensively.

"These are Fire Nation cages." Sokka deducted, inspecting the cage bars.

I walked over and peered at the cage over his shoulder. "He's right. How'd you know that?"

"The metalwork. It's the Fire Nations signature style." I wasn't even going to ask how he knew that. I could just tell from the Fire Nation insignia in-printed on one of the got to his feet. "We'd better get moving."

Katara and Aang nodded in agreement, while I shrugged. Katara started to get onto Appa's back, when Sokka stopped her. "Hey, no flying this time."

"What? Why wouldn't we fly?" Aang asked in confusion.

"Just think about it for a minute. Somehow Prince Zuko-"

"Since when do you call him 'prince'?" I asked. Again, Ponytail ignored me.

"And the Fire Nation keep finding us. Why, you ask?" No one asked. "It's because of Appa. He's kind of noticeable."

"Appa is not noticeable." Katara protested, placing her hands on her hips.

"I have to agree with Sokka on this one." I said, raising a hand in the air. "There can't be that many flying bison with giant arrows on their heads."

Appa groaned. I patted his nose. "Sorry, bud, but it's true."

"Tora's just jealous she doesn't have an arrow." Aang said, smiling at his pet.

"No, I'm not."

"You wish you had an arrow like mine."

"Not really."

"Look, I know you all want to fly, I'm not a fan of walking either, but I have to follow my instincts, and they're telling me that we should walk this time. Just to be safe." Sokka continued.

"Who died and made you the boss?" Katara demanded, crossing her arms.

"I'm not the boss, I am the leader. There's a difference."

I couldn't help it - I burst out laughing. "Y-you-you're the leader? But you're voice still cracks!"

"I'm the oldest, and I'm a warrior!" Sokka said, his voice squeaking. He then tried to continue, instantly deepening his voice. "So, I'm the leader!"

"If anyone's the leader, it's Aang." Katara stated. Aang blushed. "I mean, he is the Avatar."

"Are you kidding? He's just a goofy kid!" Sokka exclaimed.

Aang was not helping Katara prove her point. He was hanging upside down from Appa's ear. "He's right, you know."

"Why do boys always think there has to be a leader?" Katara huffed in annoyance, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes. "You wouldn't be this bossy if you'd ever kissed a girl."

"I've kissed a girl!" Sokka said immediately. "You guys just... haven't met her yet."

"Who, Gran-Gran?" Katara teased. "We've met Gran-Gran."

"No, besides Gran-Gran!"

"Sokka, there aren't any other girls in the Tribe our age besides us. I know for a fact you have never, ever kissed me, and I seriously doubt you kissed your sister." I said. "Unless, you kissed one of the little girls, and in that case I'm disturbed."

"NO, I HAVE NOT!"

"Alright, alright! Sheesh, I was only teasing." I sighed, rolling my eyes. "We'll try it your way, if you stop talking."

"Thank you!"

"Who knows?" Aang said, already having a pack on his back. "Walking might be fun!"

I sighed again. "Oh, yee of such optimism." But, I pulled a pack onto my back, and we headed out.

After a few minutes, I spoke up. "Why can't I be the leader?"

"TORA!"

~~Water~~

At least ten minutes later, Aang was already complaining. "Walking sucks! How do people get anywhere without taking a flying bison?"

"Gee, I don't know, Aang! Why don't you ask Sokka's instincts?" I asked sarcastically.

"Yeah, because they seem to know everything." Katara chimed in.

"I don't want to carry this bag anymore." Aang said.

"You know who should carry your pack for you?" Katara asked.

"Sokka's instincts!" I finished, grinning proudly at the younger girl. I've taught her so well.

"Great idea, Tora!" Aang exclaimed, either not knowing we were kidding, or he was very good at acting. "Sokka's instincts, could you car-"

"Okay, okay! I get it, just shut up already." Sokka exclaimed in annoyance, glaring at us. I could practically see smoke coming out of his ears. "You know, I'm tired too. But it's more important that we'll be safe from... the... Fire... Nation..."

"That was beautiful timing, guys. Just give yourself a round of applause." I said.

Because when Sokka had walked through a bush, we had all come face to face with some Fire Nation soldiers. It really was beautiful timing.

"SCATTER!" Sokka yelled. Unfortunately, as we turned around to run off, the bush in front of us burst into flames. And unfortunately for me, I couldn't use my firebending to extinguish it. I had been trying to keep my bending on low-key lately. Me being a traitor to the Fire Nation wouldn't exactly help us out a whole lot. You could get a lot of money for giving traitors into the Fire Nation - it didn't matter what Nation you were. No one would help us if I had a price on my head.

"Sokka, your sleeve!" Aang yelled, pointing at Sokka's sleeve. Which was on fire. Sokka started screaming and swatting at the flame wildly, and Katara quickly put it out with waterbending.

We turned to face the soldiers. "If you let us go free, we won't have to hurt any of you." Sokka said, holding his arms in front of us protectively.

"What are you doing?" I whisper- demanded.

"Bluffing?"

"You won't have to hurt us?" The leader - who had an eye patch, by the way - sneered. Then his eyes rolled back into his head, and he fell to his knees, unconscious.

"Sokka's magic!" I gasped, watching. "Hey, I'm sorry about making fun of your instincts, alright?"

"That wasn't me..." Sokka said in confusion.

"Look!" Katara yelled, pointing up.

There was a figure standing on a branch high above us. He looked like he was Sokka's age - but wearing green and red clothes, with mismatched armour on his shoulders and legs. He was holding twin hook-swords in his hands. He dropped from the trees, and hooked his swords around a branch and he seemed to propel himself in the direction of the soldiers. As soon as he hit the ground, he rushed forward and hooked his swords around two soldiers ankles and tripped them up, head over heels. As he did this, he flipped in mid-air. As he hit the ground, he smirked, and I saw he had some sort of twig in his mouth. "Down you go." He said, sounding a little arrogant. I mean, he took out two soldiers with his stupid swords. So what. Get over yourself.

A soldier came up from behind him, and the guy hooked his swords around the guys sword hand. He sent the soldier flying.

"They're up there! In the trees!" Another soldier yelled. There was suddenly a blur of white that shot out from behind a mass of bushes; suddenly, the soldier that had yelled was on the ground. There was a large white wolf with yellow gleaming eyes, and bright white teeth that were dangerously close to the guys neck.

Sitting on top of the wolf was a girl with shoulder length black hair that was sort of uneven - meaning that her hair reached past her shoulders in the front, and only reached her neck in the back. She had a dark green shirt with short sleeves, and had a silver breastplate without a collar that covered only her chest. She had dark brown pants that barely reached her knees, and dark brown boots that actually did reach her knees. Wrapped around her arms from the elbows down were white bandages. She held a spear in her left hand, and a knife in her right.

But what caught my attention was the mask she was wearing. It was darkish red, and only covered her face from her forehead down to her nose. It had oval shaped eye holes, which were painted a sort of orangish color. There was a gray loop sort of thing that made the eyebrows and nose, and looped down to the bottom of the mask between the eyes, and then back up over the other eye. Hanging over her hair from the top of the mask was a long sheet of white fur. Sticking out of the fur were red and black wolf ears.

"Not all of them." She smirked. Then she jumped off her wolf into the air, doing somersaults as she did, plummeted back to the earth, and slammed her foot into another soldiers face. Then she jumped off the soldiers face and back onto the wolf.

I heard something snap behind me, and I immediately turned around and whipped water from my canteen into the soldiers face. It knocked him off balance, and then a little kid wearing a helmet dropped from the trees onto his face, and started riding him. That made me laugh.

I heard Sokka giving a battle cry behind me, and turned around to watch. He had his club at the ready as a soldier ran toward him. Then the wolf leapt forward, grabbed the soldier by his shirt, shook him around a bit, and threw him against a tree. I gasped when I saw that he wasn't moving, and then sighed in relief when the guy groaned, felt his forehead, and ran off.

"Hey, he was mine!" Sokka yelled.

"You should be quicker next time." The girl shot back, smirking, before she rode away.

Then, before I knew it, the battle was over. All the soldiers had run off.

The girl slid off her wolf and scratched its ears fondly. The guy with the hook swords stood really close to Katara, smiling down at her cockily. "Hey."

"Hi." She smiled back, blushing a bit. I rolled my eyes. Please, you could do so much better.

"You just took out a whole army almost single-handedly!" Aang exclaimed, wide-eyed.

"Army?" Sokka scoffed. "There was only like, twenty guys!"

The guy with the stupid twig in his mouth smiled at us. "Hey. My name's Jet. And these are my Freedom Fighters. Sneers, Longshot, Smellerbee, The Duke, Pipsqueak, Moro, and her wolf, Kui."

Sneers sneered at us. Longshot raised the brim of his straw hat, almost in a greeting. Smellerbee brandished his/her (because for the life of me, I couldn't tell what gender he/she was) swords. The Duke (I think it was that little kid with the helmet) raised his staff a little. Pipsqueak, a giant dude who was misnamed, put a log in a halter on his back. Moro walked closer to us, taking in our appearances.

"Pipsqueak! That's a funny name." Aang commented, grinning at the kid.

The Duke sniffed. Pipsqueak glared down at him. "You think my name is funny?" He demanded, using a deep, and slightly scary, voice.

Aang stared at him for a moment, before grinning and saying, "Yeah! It's hilarious!"

I really hoped Aang wouldn't get squished by this guy. Moro seemed to know what I was thinking and smiled. "Don't worry. Pipsqueak is a gently guy - he can take a joke."

Sure enough, Pipsqueak started laughing, joined soon after by The Duke and Aang. Pipsqueak slapped Aang on the back, sprawling him into the dirt.

I winced. Moro laughed. "But he underestimates his strength most of the time." She raised her mask, so now I could see her face. Her eyes were almond shaped, and dark green. She also had red warpaint. On her cheeks were two long fang shaped triangles that started just below her eyes and pointed down. Across her forehead was a long line that curved down a bit at the bridge of her nose, and then went back up. So it looked like a really flat "V".

"I'm Tora. The bald one is Aang, and that's Katara. The ponytail guy is her brother, Sokka." I introduced us all, shaking her hand.

A few minutes later, all of the Freedom Fighters - minus Jet - were inspecting all of the things the Fire Nation soldiers had in the camp. Jet was resting in the shade of a tree.

Kui had quickly proved himself to be a great friend to Appa and Momo. They were having little "conversations" over to the side.

"Thank you for saving us, Jet." Katara said, blushing as she walked over to him. "It was lucky you were there to help us."

"We should be the ones thanking you." Jet replied, finally taking that damn twig out of his mouth. "We were in those trees all morning, waiting to ambush those soldiers. (Moro scoffed at this.) We were looking for a distraction, and then you four came in."

"We were relying on our leaders instincts." I said dryly. Sokka and Katara both glared at me. Moro snickered quietly.

"You'll get killed doing that." Jet stated.

"Hey, Jet!" The Duke yelled from where he was inspecting some barrel from the soldiers camp. "There's a barrel that has blasting jelly!"

"Awesome score." Jet commented.

"And this one has jelly candy!" Pipsqueak added.

"Also good. We shouldn't get those mixed up."

"Don't worry." Moro said. "Even if we do, Kui will tell the difference. Won't you, Kui?" The wolf gave a small growl of agreement.

"We're taking the stuff back to the hideout." Pipsqueak said, putting the barrel of jelly candy on his shoulder.

"You guys have a hideout?" Aang asked.

"Sure do. You guys want to see?" Jet asked. I noticed he kept looking at me. It was kind of freaking me out.

"Yes we want to see!" Katara said immediately, clasping her hands together.

Moro scoffed again. "I have to get Kui back to his cave. I'll meet you guys later, alright?"

The Freedom Fighters nodded, and Moro climbed onto Kui and shot off like lightning. I followed the others, walking next to Sokka. It seemed like he was the only one besides me who didn't like Jet. I don't even know why I didn't like Jet. I just didn't. It was probably something to do with that stupid twig in his mouth.

So, do y'all like this chapter or not? I'm not sure if I like it yet. But I like Moro. I've been planning for her since Day 1 of this story.

So, did anyone catch the reference? The Hayao Miyazaki fans out there might have. If you haven't, it doesn't really matter.

And I sort of based Moro's mask off a character from a movie that I really like. Here's a link to the picture of the mask, if I didn't describe it well enough.

disneyscreenca /princess-mononoke- 1997/58/#box-0/61/ mononoke-disneysc - 10321. jpg

After seeing the link, I don't think those of you who saw the movie but didn't catch the reference will get it now. Just get rid of the spaces in between some of the words.

Edit: So, how'd you guys like the new version? Personally, I like it better than the old version, and I'm not just saying that because the old version could help in getting my story deleted.

Also, you guys – don't worry. If this story is deleted (and I'm working hard to make sure it isn't) I'll change some things around and repost it. So don't you guys worry, alright?

So my plan is to work on a chapter a day. First I'll work on this story, and then I'll move onto my other stories – but I'm going to work on working on both stories very fast.