Awesome Notes Of Awesome: Owo I bet you did not see this coming. Update! Yay for updates! -does the Friendly Mushroom dance- Anyway, it is time for what the heck is going on information time o.O.
The first part with Zuko having some of Mai's weapons and knowing how to use them is based on the same foundation that Sokka learned from Suki [Gotta give a little credit to the ladies here owO]. Even though Mai can't learn Firebending, it doesn't mean Zuko can't pick up on a neat little trick himself. The difference is, however, Zuko isn't the fastest of the learners. He is for sure, clever and quick to improvise, but when it comes to working at something like this, or his Firebending, he had to struggle to understand and become better. But that makes him awesome anyway, yes? Yes? -shot- Dx Okay, maybe not -shot again- My reason for this is to stay as well aligned to the foundation of the characters as I can. I hope I did okay on that. Of course, if the idea doesn't sit well with my readers, I'll revise it owO
I know this is long, and it's still not very action-y, but this is the foreshadowing chapter. Oh, see, I used a fancy word. I think that should get me somewhere -shot- Dx. I had to try my lame humor, at least! owO -lulz to self- But this is the chapter that is absolutely, for sure, totally, one-hundred percent guaranteed to bring it up to action in the next chapter, no exceptions. I'm sorry I had to bore you all [Dx I'm so grateful you still stick with me so], but I'm kind of a planner lady. owO I don't want to jump from them having fun to them suddenly kicking the holy butt off of soldiers, so I needed to put a forewarning on there.
But, enough of my babbling. Here's to hoping you enjoy!
A set of hands had started to dig through the large bag of maps and written-out strategies as Zuko set too look for an update on their current location.
"You have too many maps in this bag." He mumbled, glaring at the material as if it had created some sort of personal offense.
"Hey! I just happen to come…extra prepared."
The raven smirked, grabbing the needed map. He let it fall open before starting to plan out the route they were one, and where it would take them.
"Remember what I said about thinking things out too much?"
"Yeah! I just…well, I had those maps long before you told me that, so…" His friend stuck out his tongue, taking in another victory before a hand snatched onto his leg, making him fall forward on his face.
"That's what you get for walking on your hands." The Fire Lord hadn't bothered to even move his eyes, smirk growing wider as he pulled the paper down. "I don't need two Ty Lee's, anyway. I think one is enough."
With a few [mostly] inaudible groans, Sokka had gotten up from his fall, brushing off his pants before he stuck his tongue out again, but in a more teasing manner. "I know that you're just a little jealous of me, Zuko. I mean, how many people can actually walk on their hands for that long?"
"The last person I would be jealous of is you. I think I'd rather be serving fruits on the street before I was you."
In mock seriousness, the brunette put his hand on his chest, mouth gaping wide as he gasped. "How could you say that? I thought we were friends! Why, not even that! I thought we were best friends!"
"Idiot." It was hard to drop the curve in his lips when his friend was so amusing. His jokes were bad, but his bad luck and the fact that the universe seemed to have it against him never stopped making smiles. "I thought I told you we weren't best friends."
"Well, maybe I just heard wrong."
"Or, maybe not at all."
"Hey, hey! I will totally bring out more Ty Lee on you if I have to!"
Before Sokka could take in another breath, Zuko snatched his ear with great haste and pinched it until he was able to lower the younger teen, making him twitch in pain. It was something the brunette was [slowly] starting to get used to, [even if it still hurt like crazy] but there was something different about his tactic. Instead of it just being two fingers, it was his whole hand, and there was a cold, [and rather sharp] object resting in his palm.
"What is that?" He inquired, trying to get a peek at whatever it was the raven was holding.
"What?"
"In your hand. It feels sharp…Is that your sword?"
"No." The brunette let out a relieved sigh and wiped his forehead for an all-clear as Zuko showed him the possession he was holding.
"Woah!" He jumped back slightly, surprised that his friend even had it from the start. "That's Mai's sharp knife-thing!"
The raven resisted the urge to roll his eyes and settled for a soft chuckle instead. "Yes, but it's called a stiletto."
"You know how to use her weapons?"
"Yeah. She's been showing me on and off before the war was over, and after that, I've been really trying to pick up on it ever since. There is a thing or two I'm still working on, but I've got it down."
Sokka ended up having to think of something to say that would accommodate for words. He had no idea that he wasn't the only one picking up new habits, but he knew he couldn't be any more excited that in the up-coming battle, their skills were more rounded to handle more things thrown at them.
"So…" The brunette looked around, examining the surfaces of the trees around them. "How accurate do you think you are with those things?"
"Pretty." The small weapon glinted as the sun rose, its light, musty colors bleeding as it rested on one of the mountain tops. "Why?"
"I think I'd like a demonstration."
He reached into the bag and searched through the large collection of maps before coming upon an outdated one of the Western Earth Kingdom. He pulled out a small jar of sealed ink and a brush, prying the lid open. Once the wooden lid was off, and the brush dabbed, he painted a fair-sized circle in the center of the closed parchment.
"Okay." Sokka held the old map up, waving it about with a slight smirk [He just knew that there was no way Zuko could even come close to the mark] "If you can hit this in the black dot, I'll do all of the camp work for two whole days. But if you miss, then you can't hit, pinch, elbow, or perform any kind of abuse on me for three days."
The raven raised his eyebrow, but let a smirk wash over his own features. "You're on."
The brunette proceeded over to the flattest surface there [which was a growing redwood tree] and held it up a few inches away from the tree. The raven stood a good several feet away from the map and prepared the stiletto in hand.
It had taken a couple of moments for Zuko to be ready, but once he began to move, it had almost become slow motion. He let his arm swing back to face away from him before throwing it forward, pinning the paper to the bark as it flew from the brunette's finger tips.
"That was amazing!" Sokka had to admit, being able to do that from quite a distance on a small piece of paper took a serious amount of accuracy in itself. "But I bet you didn't hit it."
"I bet I did." He folded his arms and waited for the brunette to take notice. Once his cerulean irises found themselves staring at the same red-tinted dagger that had just been in the raven's hand, now pinned in the black dot, his jaw dropped considerably.
"How did you do that? That was just…that was awesome!"
"It takes practice." Zuko separated the stiletto from the paper, putting it back in a specially-made case that was held in his pocket. He didn't have any long sleeves to conceal the weapons, so the majority of them went in the containers, but there were many quick ones on hand hidden in the folds of his tunic, under his sash, and even near the rim of his boots.
"It took me a few weeks to get the hang of throwing them right, and then a couple months to even be as closely accurate as I was just now."
"How far away can you be to throw them?"
"As far as I have to. I can go about the same distance as Mai can. I'm still trying to throw them at angles and make them bounce on surfaces so they can hit their target when stuck in tricky places."
The brunette nodded, taking all of this into consideration as he rubbed the underside of his chin with two fingers. It only took him just a few days to get the hang of hitting a couple of body parts accurately, but it took the raven a few weeks to even understand the basics.
It wasn't to say Zuko was stupid. It was actually the opposite. He was very quick to improvise and made best with any situation on hand by being quick and clever, but when introduced to any new concept, it took him a little bit to become a well-rounded person of that art. Although once he got the catch of something, he went on from there, and became very well-practiced.
Mulling it over brought a small smile to his lips. He couldn't deny it, he [and Team Avatar itself] needed the raven. Everybody was quick to pick up on the things they're good at now, but the Fire Lord struggled. He always struggled, and still did a little, but all that hard work certainly made a fine Firebending master.
"Hey…I've got a deal for you."
"What? You wanna strike another one? You already have to do all the camp work for two days."
"No, no, not that." Sokka waved his hands and shook his head. "I meant, a win-win kind of deal."
There was a pause, before the raven raised his eyebrow again. "What do you have in mind?"
"Teach me how to throw a few of those babies, and I'll teach you how to walk on your hands. I might throw in a couple of chi blocking points, too."
"Sounds good, but I don't want to walk on my hands. I think I like my feet better."
"Okay…well, then I can teach you how to balance on four fingers instead! See, check it out!" In an instant, the brunette flipped back on four fingers, two on each hand, with no problem maintaining such balance.
"Are you sure you can't bend in every unimaginable direction? From the looks of it, they taught you more then you said."
"Well…maybe not a lot, but I had to start with being all acrobat-y and agile if I wanted to learn. Out-maneuvering the opponent is important with this skill. Once they understand the dynamics of the style, they can predict it, and you gotta be able to keep them on their knees and surprised if it's gonna be successful."
"Sokka, I think you talk to hear yourself." Even though the raven listened, he couldn't help but think the brunette had to have a grandiose explanation for just about everything.
"It's hard not to. I have a naturally suave voice."
"Only you." He shook his head, toppling the brunette over. "Only you. C'mon, we gotta hurry up and get to the village."
The tribesman fell back on his feet and was up in a matter of seconds, both continuing on forward.
"Okay…we're right…" Zuko pointed at a spot on the map. "There. I think it's coming up ahead. Just ten more minutes of walking."
"You know, I am so glad you can read a map! It makes it easier to devise strategies like that!" The brunette exaggerated, a relieved grin on his face. Although he did love reading a map and pinning locations with no problem, he also had to be the tactician, so not having as many things on his plate was a relief.
"I had to know where I was going out on sea. Sometimes those navigators aren't as professional as they seem."
The raven rolled the map back up and put it away. The rest of the way there had become fairly silent as they both slowly began to sink into devising a way to liberate their first village. The goal was to get the four large cities free first, so if any soldiers or benders were there, they would hopefully be willing to help.
Once there, the two boys sat down on the hillside and began working out the territory from a birds-eye view.
"Okay. Team Zukka is about to go into action!"
"…Team what?" Zuko itched his head, confused. They had their own team name separate from the already goofy one the whole gang had?
"Well, you know. Since you and I seem to go on the really dangerous missions, I thought we should have a name separate from Team Avatar."
"What does the name even mean?"
"It's exactly how it sounds. Your name goes before mine. See? It makes it even more special."
The raven's brow perked once more, before he began to think it over. After a few moments, he nodded. "I think I can actually go for that."
Sokka pumped his fist in the air before bringing it down, cheering himself on for being so brilliant. After a few moments of self-congratulating [and a hard punch to the shoulder], he snapped back to the mission on hand.
"Alright, here's the deal. Since this is a large city, I figure there's gotta be a fair amount of rebellion troops. Most of the villages here aren't that large, but they have a lot of useful natural resources, so there's probably about twenty…maybe thirty guys there, unless that village is useless. In a place like this, there's probably about fifty or sixty of them. It might even be almost a hundred, but their army so far is small, and they gotta be careful about dividing the troops up."
"What's your proposition?"
The brunette pulled a blank paper from the bag along with the ink and brush. After drawing out a crude, but effective strategy, he demonstrated it to the raven.
"We've got two options. The first one is a coup. We sneak in, take out a couple of the troops, and assimilate into the rebellion. Once we secure our position, we can start taking them out."
"What about the second?"
"I'm thinking there's several campsites settled in the city. We can go around one by one and take them down. Honestly, that's the faster option, but it can be more dangerous if word gets out."
"It's faster…" The raven agreed, examining the parchment. "But which is better?"
"Either or. It's your choice, Zuko. You're the leader."
"No." He shook his head, placing the paper back down. "It's only you and me right now, Sokka. Neither one of us are any more powerful than the other. It's your call as much as mine."
The brunette pursed his lips before he rolled the paper back up. He took several minutes to weigh over the decision before he could come to one.
"I hope you sharpened those stilettos of yours." A small smile formed on his features.
"We're about to go on an ambush."
Ending Awesome Notes Of Awesome: Aw yeah, Sokka being the man with the plan. -waggle waggle- Owo Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. I don't have much to say here, but...
Review. You help these guys stay as awesome as they do when you review. The poor green button loves it, they love it...hey, who doesn't love it? O.o My point being made -shot- Dx Okay, that isn't cool, man. Owo Anyway, positive, uplifting reviews and constructive, helpful advice makes this lazy writer get off her bum more. Enjoy the rest of your day!