Thermal

1.1
Temerity

Lieutenant Jee liked to consider himself, if not a particularly good man, a fair one.

It'd taken time to get to that stage, to get wiser and understand the ways of the world. To realise that what his nation was doing wasn't quite right, not that he had any power to stop the Fire Nation's ruthless march to victory.

No, Jee considered himself to own a particularly levelled head, even if his heart could make the odd decision for him. Such as coming aboard this ship.

Jee had served under General Iroh, then the Crowned Prince, when the man had undertaken his 600 day siege of Ba Sing Se. That had been Jee's personal turning point, as it had in turn been General Iroh's. He'd seen the orphans running for shelter, the sick and the dying in the gutters, the terrible burns their fire caused. He hadn't been surprised that the General had retired.

Saddened, yes. Surprised, no.

So, when three years later he'd heard that the great Dragon of the West was set to sail from the Fire Nation again, Jee had eagerly signed up to crew the ship in question.

Yes, Lieutenant Jee had a great deal of respect for General Iroh.

For the man's nephew? Not so much.

The boy was a brat. A spoilt rotten brat who had some serious issues. Jee had no idea why the boy had been banished, and honestly, he didn't care too much.

He had signed up for this madness because it was headed by the General, and for the General he would stay. The man was nice enough, and he'd pulled Jee's ass out of the firing line twice, though the man probably didn't remember it'd been Jee he was helping.

No doubt the faces of all those he'd saved would start to blur together after a reasonable amount of time.

Regardless, the important thing to take away from this was that Jee was a middleaged Lieutenant of the Fire Nation, who'd seen his fair share of battles and come away from it a wiser man.

That did not stop him from gaping like a fresh recruit at the sight before him.

He'd been on deck, talking to Ashoka -more like listening to the younger soldier complain about the absolutely freezing temperature this far South- when out of nowhere the loudest, shrillest war cry he'd ever heard had come roaring down at them.

From somewhere above them.

Jee's head had snapped up at the same time his battle honed instincts were telling him to get the hell out of the way, and he'd rolled to a side just in time to avoid the vicious attack that'd gorged right through the steel decking of the ship and into the hold below.

It cut through something, perhaps some rope holding up some supplies, because there was an almighty crash below them, followed by the sound of two very muffled feet landing ever so lightly on the deck.

Right now, Jee was coming out of his evasive roll, taking a moment to glance at the very wide eyed but certainly unharmed Ashoka, before he allowed his eyes to dart towards the threat.

That's where things went, wrong.

The fact that he actually took the time to observe their attack and her appearance was his first mistake, but given the way that the woman before him looked, perhaps that was understandable. Jee liked to think it was so.

It wasn't so much that their attacker was a woman -because the Fire Nation was all about gender equality, not like those backwards water savages- but more what she was wearing.

What she'd attacked with.

Because she was wearing orange and yellow with tall tan boots, and there was no fiery remains, nor water dribbling about from her attack. Hell, not even a few pebbles, even though Jee knew no earth bending moves with an attack like that.

But it just wasn't registering in his head.

After all, what were the chances that he'd go his entire life without meeting an air bender, only for two to pop up within hours of each other?

The female levelled a staff at them, though the craftsmanship of this one was rougher, shaped differently than the one they'd taken off the young Avatar. A cool, arctic breeze grumbled through the air, lifting the woman's golden bangs and scattering them around her face for a few moments, and Jee foolishly allowed his eyes to track the movement.

Mistake number two.

For in that second, reinforcements from below deck came storming up, in the same moment that the woman moved.

From his studies on the war and the four nations, Jee had been under the -evidentially false- impression that air bending was all about finding the path with the least amount of resistance, and that it was a purely defensive method of fighting.

Well, it certainly wasn't from where he was standing, running, ducking, right now.

The Airbender -and she was an Airbender, because it certainly wasn't fire that'd just pushed Ashoka against the hull and knocked him out- hadn't so much as hesitated to begin throwing sharp blades of wind and him, three of which had gauged into the deck below with such a clean cut that it was starting to make his sweat.

Three blasts of air had already knocked him back, and Jee knew that if she wanted too, the girl could have already hit him with a killing blow. So it seemed she stuck that that part of her peoples legacy.

Though, she would have had no one to learn from, especially given the age of the young monk they'd taken captive.

Growing up with the ability to air bend, in the current state of the world, it shouldn't surprise him as much as it did that she was so unnaturally brutal with her bending.

She moved and quickly and flighty as history had told him she would though, and for the first time in several years, Jee found himself easily outmatched, the girl catching his arm and twisting it until it no doubt sprained, and came dangerously close to snapping.

"Where is the Avatar?" The girl hissed, and with those animalistic features on her cheeks -birthmarks? Or tattoos?- she looked unnervingly feral.

Thankfully though, Jee didn't have to war with himself over giving up any form of information -tell the actually terrifying air bender what he knew? Disappointing the General though?- because from above them, on the upper decking of the ship, a staff rocketed over the balcony, a small figure in orange and yellow following after it.

The last thing that Jee saw was the Prince throwing himself fearlessly after the young monk as the golden haired woman smacked him across the head and sent him into the realm of unconsciousness.

Hitting the deck at an uncomfortable angle, Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation hissed, trying to roll with the momentum so it didn't feel like the impact was about to tear his shoulder out of its socket.

He still ended up bouncing down the deck, if somewhat smoother than it'd have happened without any adjustment to his body.

In hindsight, perhaps jumping after the Avatar and his stupid glider hadn't been the best course of action.

But his ticket home had literally been slipping through his fingers with every flutter of his stupid orange shawl, and Zuko had just acted.

Now his torso was aching all over, and Zuko grunted in pain as he pushed himself upwards, eyes narrowing. He would not let the monk get away again. He would capture him, he would chain him up and break the glider, wouldn't leave him an escape this time, and then he would finally, finally get to return home.

Across from him, the Avatar rose to his feet, assuming a loose fighting stance with a particularly uneased expression upon his face. Zuko made to open his mouth, to taunt the boy, but then something caught the young monk's attention, his eyes rounding in his childish face and a look of excitement overcoming his face.

Zuko whipped his head around to see what on his ship could have possibly encouraged a reaction like that from the young air bender, and felt the blood chill distinctively in his veins.

Looking a sight more dangerous than the young monk he'd just been facing off against, a young woman with hair the colour of gold stood across from the two of them, with her wooden staff levelled threateningly at the Fire Nation Prince.

"Aang is it?" She asked, voice sweet like honey but with eyes of grey venom, gaze never once leaving Zuko as he quickly adjusted his body to go on the attack against the woman. She was older, held herself more confidentially and her battle stance was so much tighter than the Avatar's had been.

A threat.

As if the fact a good portion of his crew had already been downed wasn't enough of an indication of that.

"Your friends are waiting on Appa. Just, give me a minute here."

No!

Zuko lunged forwards, a desperate grab for the Avatar, but a concentrated blast of air sent him hurtling off course as the monk launched himself up and into the air, glider snapping open.

"NO!" Swinging a fist upwards, Zuko hissed as a leather clad boot connected with his side, sending him spinning and snuffing out the little fire he'd managed to summon up with that punch.

The woman stared at him, staff still held tightly, but now just gripped in one arm, the other held up and ready to strike again.

But now, Zuko was taking in her clothes, the colour of them, the design, and registering that the most recent gust of air that'd knocked him to a side had in fact, not come from the Avatar at all.

"An air bender," he breathed, looking the girl over once again before his eyes shot to the escaping Avatar. Who was flying towards an equally airborne mammal?

"I don't know why you're after the Avatar-" Zuko only just managed to duck out of the way, and had to force himself not to start flat out staring when the swipe of air he'd just avoided sliced clean through the metal deck. "-but apparently he's essential to the war ending. And I really wanna see this war end."

Wordlessly snarling, Zuko threw himself forwards, two quick shots of fire darting out from between his knuckles and soar towards the girl.

In a similar manoeuvre to the Avatar earlier that day, she spun her staff, displacing the fire and snuffing the blasts out, the wood twirling tauntingly in the sun light. Before he could gather his thoughts on the best way to capture the woman -the Avatar would come back for her, the only other air bender alive- a sharp burst of air caught him in the torso, feeling every bit like a punch to the stomach squared, and he was thrown back onto the deck again.

By the time he looked up, the golden haired woman was already up in the air, clinging to the staff with its orange wings as she looked back at him over her shoulder with a cheeky grin.

Snarling, Zuko surged to his feet, but stopped when a warning rumble came from the sky.

Where the sky had been a cloudless blue day, now dark storms stretched about above his ship. And most importantly, lightning was about, crackling.

Zuko barely even registered his uncle stepping out onto deck, unable to tear his wide golden eyes away from the streak of lightning that broke through the clouds next to the floating mammal the Avatar had just boarded.

He watched as a person leapt from the back of the flying animal, catching the lightning with one hand, the brilliant crackle of energy racing along his limbs, up and around his shoulders, and passing down his other arm.

The arm that was pointed at his ship!

Zuko saw it before he felt it, the flash of lightning and the deafening crack of thunder, the resounding boom, as the electricity struck the helm and blew out the upper half of the control room.

When he twisted back around, it was to the sight of a dark haired, pale skinned young man holding tight to the ankle of the blonde woman, offering him a smug salute as they both dropped onto the Avatar's floating animal before flying away.

And Zuko had never known such rage before.

"You're a fire bender!"

Aang really, really didn't understand why Sokka was so close to foaming at the mouth.

Sure, the scary guy with the scar wasn't pleasant, but this guy had helped him escape!

And the girl was an air bender too!

Looking over at the girl with yellow hair -he'd never met anyone with yellow hair, she matched the air bending clothes!- Aang found a grin stretching across his face, which the girl tentatively returned.

"This is why we never said anything," the fire bender grunted, folding his arms across his chest from where he was sat atop Appa's head, having twisted around to join in the conversation.

Come to think of it, Aang hadn't been told their names yet, but he had a good feeling this was the Naruto and Sasuke that the two Water Tribe siblings had been telling him about. And, Naruto was the girl one? Right?

"Sokka, I think Gran Gran already knew," Katara said quietly from beside her brother, rubbing at her wrists and Aang frowned. He wasn't happy that the two siblings had been tied up, but given the fact Sokka had already suggested they push the fire bender off Appa's back twice, it was probably a reasonable precaution

. "The spirits sent us to the Southern Water Tribe to make sure that when the Avatar resurfaced, he'd have some form of guidance," the girl murmured, before pausing and turning to look Aang in the eye again.

With a dip of her head, she grinned cheerfully, and Aang knew did within his bones that not only was she an air bender, but she had the spirit of one too.

"Avatar Aang, if you'll have us, me and Sasuke would love to help you. I can help with the spirit stuff, and Sasuke's never had formal training but he's a damn good fire bender and probably the most friendly one you're going to meet in a long time."

She -Naruto, the girl had to be Naruto right?- offered her hand, and Aang gladly took it.

"Yep! I'm good with that! We're going to the North Pole, I promised Katara I'd take her there, but I wanna make some stops along the way!"

Naruto raised a funnily coloured brow, but she nodded along as he outlined his plans, even if Sasuke snorted and rolled his eyes, muttering a lowly 'you've got to be kidding me' beneath his breath.

Maybe, just maybe, being the Avatar wasn't going to be so awful after all.

Two key points;
-Sasuke has been busy heating up the air for a lightning storm, similar to the Itachi fight.
-Sasuke isn't using Iroh's technique, but more his own answer to redirecting lightning, having it dance up his arms, across his shoulders and collarbones, and then down his arm again. Sensibly away from the important organs.

Tsume
xxx