Avatar Chapter 32
I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender
If there was one thing Azula adored it was power, and for most of her life she thought that the power she wielded was enough to sate her desires, she was wrong. Today was her first day as a real Royal, one who could order entire provinces destroyed and great monuments built. She no longer had to maneuver her way through the bureaucracy to get things done, it was a wonderful feeling.
"Hey Zula, this one is to build the largest tower of cheese balls, that sounds fun." Ty Lee, perky as ever, declared. Azula pinched the bridge of her nose, power was great but this was one aspect she had not anticipated. As a Royal she had the authority to issue her seal to projects she personally had an interest in, unfortunately that meant everyone, everyone, wanted something done.
"Ty Lee I don't care how eager the chef guild is I am not spending funds on a mountain of dense dairy products!" Azula could not believe some of requests people had sent in, the Avatar was back so she expected requests to build walls, increase the garrison, construct bunkers but the most relevant thing anyone had sent her was from some group of conspiracy theorists, insisting that furniture in the Palace be rearranged to ward off dangerous spirits. "No wonder father is so busy, our nation is full of morons!"
"Oh ok, I think that's was the last of the guild requests, of which you approved…none." Her ever loyal Ty Lee stated.
"Of course it was none, I have better things to do than place my seal on some waste of time and money, why would people think I have any interest in these things." Azula seethed, this was her first ever official task and it was not to her liking.
Ty Lee shrugged "I don't know, what are Princess's usually interested in."
Azula looked at her girlfriend with an annoyed expression.
"Ok, ok you're not a normal Princess but they don't know that yet, I'm sure they'll get the message." Ty Lee tried to calm her down.
"Oh they had better, or I am going to have to go on a little trip." Azula was moody and had not gotten a good sleep the night before, though that was her own fault.
"Why are you smiling?" Ty Lee asked with a slight blush on her face.
Azula had an answer ready "Just admiring the armor, Psijong proved good to his word, don't you agree." After the announcement of the Avatars return the court had taken a short break to allow the intelligence ministry to gather info, the master armorer had taken this time to complete both her and Ty Lee's armor sets.
Azula was more than pleased with hers, properly fitted it hugged her frame like second skin and offered sublime protection while still being relatively light. The chest piece and armored skirt looked as if they were one seamless item and would protect her against all but the most powerful blows. The metal boots with the upturned toe would have to be properly worn in but Azula already felt as if she could crush some poor saps skull under her heel.
The under armor was dark red silk infused with metal chains, light enough to be nearly unnoticeable but strong enough to lessen the damage of a strike. The bracers fit her arms perfectly and were more than capable of blocking a blade, and both hid a surprise.
Attached to the underside of the left bracer was Gaz's invention, so expertly worked in into the metal that one could hardy recognize the small contraption. All she had to do bend an intense burst of flame into a port and metal wire would shoot out, its sharp spike would stick to almost anything. She could use it to hall herself up to high points or it could impale whoever was irritating her at the time, whatever was most useful.
Her right bracer had a pouch for a small knife that she could access with minimal movement, useful as a last resort or if she needed a blade for some reason. In short her armor was a masterpiece that would serve her well both as a symbol in the court and on the battle field.
Ty Lee's armor was a… unique, piece of craftsmanship. It was pink, very pink, which pleased the acrobat greatly and caused Azula to groan, it even had flowers engraved in it for Agni's sake.
It consisted of a metal chest piece, a dark pink but pink none the less, that was form fitted and yet only covered the same amount as her previous outfit, leaving her middle exposed. It had no shoulder pads so Ty Lee's movement was not impeded, though it did have bright pink, very bright pink, sleeves that stopped just shy of her elbow.
She wore bright pink silk pants that were tied below her knee and overlapped with white silk leggings that came up to her thigh. Around her waist was a relativity simple belt that supported two, slightly darker pink, lengths of cloth. They were circular where they ended just below Ty Lee's knee and overlapped in the back giving Ty Lee a peculiar half skirt.
Finally she had metal bracers and greaves that matched her chest piece, which meant they were pink, and had flowers engraved in them, and they were pink, so very very pink.
"I can't believe he found a way to infuse that color into metal." Azula knew the armor matched Ty lee's personality and abilities, she walked on her hands for half a day in joy after she put it on, but it was just so…. pink.
But inappropriate color aside it did look good on her girlfriend, and Azula found a person in uniform very attractive. Ty Lee got up and twirled around "He did a great job, it feels so perfect and I can move so well in it." She leapt onto her hands and then brought her legs almost to her head, the light glinted off something at Ty Lee's knee.
"Yes wonderful, you're the world's most heavily armed acrobat." Though it looked like a piece of artwork instead of something worn on the battlefield the armor did have one surprise, four technically. Within each bracer and greave was a spring loaded blade, all it took was a slight twitch for it to burst out at Ty Lee's knee or elbow.
"As if she didn't have enough dangerous points, though I can't ever see her using them on someone." That was at least one part of Ty lee's outfit she enjoyed.
"Well now that I have wasted my morning let's look into something more interesting, go get the science reports."
Ty Lee bounced up to a standing position "Sure Zula…Um"
"There in the bottom drawer Ty." Azula smirked, they were in a new study instead of her room and Ty Lee had to figure out where everything was all over again, not that she knew where anything was before.
"Oh yeah" The pink blur skipped over to the large, beautify carved, wooden filing cabinet, bent over and started rummaging through the papers. Azula was about to direct her when she saw a most interesting sight. The two lengths of cloth that made up Ty Lee's skirt parted as she was bent over, giving anyone who stood behind the humming acrobat a great view of her shapely rear end, the skin tight pants did nothing hide it either.
"Well that is a unique feature, I must remember to place all my important documents on the bottom level from now on…that's right shuffle along Ty, Agni is she even wearing anything underneath?"
"Ah-hah, found them." Ty lee jumped and Azula quickly schooled her features, she would ogle Ty Lee later.
"Very good, let's see if there is anything marginally interesting" Azula wondered if her association with Gaz had sparked her interest with all things technological, regardless she understood the importance of scientific advancement and how useful it could be, especially for blowing things up.
"Let's see, a general wants to build an enormous catapult… maybe, a lord wants to implement a new irrigation stagey, possible, and War Minster Qin is finishing up a giant drill…"
"A giant drill? Like, the ones miners use to dig tunnels" Ty Lee seemed puzzled, and Azula could not blame her.
"Yes, it appears he believes this will finally breach the walls of Ba Sing Se." There had been countless attempts on the wall since her uncles failed siege but this seemed particularly outlandish.
"Do you think it will work?" Ty Lee asked.
Azula thought about it, "Breaching the wall would be simple with this device, but we are invading a city that's supposed to take days to cross from one side to the other on foot, Qin would need an enormous force and judging by the these schematics it would takes days just to get enough troops threw the hole, and that's if the brutes weren't smart enough to just to bring the whole wall down." Azula finished.
Ty Lee looked at her in awe "Wow Zula that made sense even to me."
Azula smirked proudly "It's what I do"
The acrobat scratched her head "Sooo, if his plan won't work, how would you take over the city?"
Azula leaned back in her chair, she had not given it much thought but seeing as she had full authority now, and the Avatar was back, capturing that city could no longer wait.
"Using the comet's power has always been the sure way, we would just blast our way in, incinerate the defending forces, vaporize the Palace and then dare anyone to step out of line… but now we may need a quicker and more efficient strategy."
"Quicker?"
"Yes, with the Avatar running about we would want to make the entire city ours, both relatively intact and loyal, to insure he can't find any powerful allies to challenge us."
"Oh… that sounds hard."
Azula sighed "It is hard, the city is like an armored nut, you would need a heavily weighted hammer to smash it but then there is nothing left to eat, what I need is a very precise nee…" Azula suddenly had an idea, a delightful, dreadful, idea, she looked at Ty Lee, her beautiful, cheerful Ty Lee, who could drop a man with a touch.
"I don't need a needle, I need a pressure point, to break it from the inside out, and all I would need is the right place to push."
Azula had a devious smirk on her face and looked at her confused girlfriend, the Princess got up, reached over and pulled the girl into fierce kiss.
Ty Lee seemed surprised but melted into the kiss none the less, she even had to catch her breath when Azula finally pulled away.
"Thank you Ty."
Her blushing assistant looked completely lost "Um, you're welcome, I guess, but…what did I do."
"Why you gave me a wonderful idea, I will have work out details but it should work out perfectly."
"Oh, well glad I could help." Ty Lee had a big smile on her face.
"Ah she's so cute when she's clueless." Azula smiled and started to rummage through the various files, there must be something she could find an interest in, oddly now that she was a true Princess she could do whatever she wanted but did not technically actually have to do anything, a holdover is seemed from the time when Princess's just waited around, looked pretty and waited to get married.
"Burn that! I finally have the power to get things done and I am going to use it." Azula moved a file and was caught off-guard by how thick it was, she lifted it up examined it.
"Oooo that's a big one, what's inside Zula?" Ty Lee's big eyes were full of innocent curiosity.
The Princess read the name and was both intrigued and amused "Experimental Science and Unconfirmed Spiritual Phenomena."
Ty Lee blinked a few times "Huh?"
"Basically things that may or may not work, be of any use, or even exist… however." Azula began to read through the various experiments, schematics and a fair number of ancient legends.
"You have a big smile Zula, is there something neat inside there, can I see, please?" Her girlfriend was bouncing up and down while leaning over the desk, trying to get a look.
Azula gave the file to Ty Lee who proceeded to look at it with a befuddled expression "Wow… I don't know what and of thins means." The airhead pouted.
"That's alright Ty, I do and I think I have found my calling." Azula was very excited, many of these stagnant science projects had potential; they just needed funding, resources and people to get off the ground and, of course, her guiding hand to steer them in the right direction.
But it was the more esoteric ones that truly caught her eye, things involving spirits, legends and other nonsense... or what she once thought of as nonsense. Ty Lee's powers had intrigued her enough to at least accept that there were strange and unexplainable forces in the world.
With her connections, both official and otherwise, and newfound authority she could see if any of them had any merit. "Ty Lee get me that new invention on the table over there and a stack of paper, I have letters to write."
Ty Lee gave a far too formal salute and skipped over to a newly released 'portable printing press', which would greatly reduce the time spent writing out letter after letter. She picked it up and placed it on Azula's desk "Who are you writing to Zula."
The proud Princess smirked "People who like reading old books, digging in the dirt and disturbing old ruins"
"Neat…, why exactly?" Ty Lee set down a tall stack of back papers.
"So they can do all the legwork for me of course, there are fascinating things in this file and I need people either brave or stupid enough to seek them out." Azula moved the files until one in particular stood out, containing old legends about ancient dragons, burial sites and long forgotten texts, this one interested her the most.
"Maybe I will see a dragon in my lifetime, I can have my very own fire breathing lizard and Ty Lee will get to see what flying feels like. Azula smirked, as much as she admired her great-grand father he was foolish to have made dragon hunting a sport, they would have make everything to much easier.
But no matter, the past was the past and Azula was certain there were dragons out there somewhere, and she would find them. She looked at Ty Lee, "Agni please let there not be a pink dragon." Azula shook her head, Ty Lee always seemed to cause her mind to wander.
She had work to, orders to give, proclamation to write up, this was what she had been training and studying for all these years and now it was here. Azula joyfully started writing up the first document, her first of many in the years to come.