With passports in hand, the group of five managed to get aboard a ferry to Ba Sing Se at Full Moon Bay. Iroh was feeling rather nostalgic, for some reason. "Who would have thought after all these years...I would return to the scene of my greatest military disgrace..." Deciding to change the tone of his speech, he pulled out a flowery hat. "As a tourist!"
Cadence tried to giggle, but barely managed a chuckle. "Really funny, Dad," she managed to say, only to look down at her bowl with disgust. "Is...is this really all they have for refugees? I mean, I know there's a lot of people, but...this stuff's barely edible. I'm feeling sick just trying to swallow it..."
"Ba Sing Se's a huge city," Zuko commented idly. "Even at its most generous, there's only so much money to go around, only so much food and bedding. It's...expected that those at the bottom of the ladder get what's left over...and that's the refugees." He glanced away in disgust. "I suppose we should be grateful for what little they give us, especially if it means safety...but is this really all they have? Rotten food and bare floors for sleep? It's sickening!"
"Isn't it, though?" a voice nearby asked.
Turning, Zuko saw a boy about his age with a piece of wheat held in his teeth, dressed comfortably in clothes that looked almost armored. "My name's Jet," the boy greeted as he stepped forward, gesturing two other youngsters in the same age group. "And these are my Freedom Fighters, Smellerbee and Longshot."
"Hey," the girl introduced as Smellerbee added, nodding her head. Longshot nodded silently.
Before responding, Zuko glanced briefly over the strangers' shoulders at where Jong and Zhin were standing, watching the strangers. Jong gave a slight nod, while Zhin kept his eyes on the young man introduced as Longshot. Seeing the quiver of arrows on the boy's back, Zuko understood why. "Hey," he replied in response.
"Here's the deal," Jet began. "I hear the Captain's eating like a King while us refugees have to feed off his scraps-"
"There's better food on board?" Cadence asked, shocked. "Where?"
"In the kitchen," Jet replied. "Fat chance of any of us getting-" He paused as Cadence ran off. "Where's she going?"
"To tug heartstrings," Iroh offered, chuckling. "She is surprisingly good at it."
"Do you really think that's all it's going to take to-"
Cadence came back shortly. "I talked with the cook and the quartermaster," she spoke up. "A 'minor discrepancy' on the manifest will explain the absence of the Captain's supper, and the cook will bring everyone a small but good meal after sundown. They're such nice men."
Smellerbee stared, her jaw hanging. "Is...is she a Spirit Beast?" she gasped, shocked.
"No," Iroh corrected with a laugh, "but well do I understand your confusion."
"How did you even pull that off?" Jet demanded. "And how do you know they won't spill the beans to the Captain?"
Cadence gave a soft smile...and then demonstrated her technique. Looking up soulfully at Smellerbee, she lowered her ears as her eyes went dewy as her horn glowed softly. She softly rubbed her belly with a quiet whimper, and then reached up to gently press her hoof to Smellerbee's nose.
Jet stared, completely stupefied, as Smellerbee started cuddling Cadence, brushing her mane and cooing to her. It took five minutes for Smellerbee to realize what she was doing and get control of herself. Blushing furiously, she stood back up, glaring at Jet and Longshot as if daring them to comment.
"And the cook and quartermaster aren't even professional soldiers," Cadence replied. "And they both happened to have little girls my age."
"This is, officially, the boat to be on now," Jong commented with a chuckle.
That evening, just as Cadence had proclaimed, the cook and quartermaster slipped out amongst the refugees, delivering the lion's share of the good food to everyone, starting with the young, the elderly, and the feeble. Zuko was rather unsurprised to see that Cadence got a carefully crafted portion catering exactly to her dietary preferences. He did try to contain his laughter at Jet's expression at how easy it was for Cadence to wrap people around her hooves...especially when she solidified her hold by asking worriedly if the cook or quartermaster would get in trouble.
The quartermaster brushed it off by showing the requisition sheet for the ferry's cargo - in the Captain's handwriting - with one character carefully erased with no trace, reducing the amount of good food on board according to the paperwork by a factor of ten, more than enough to give every refugee a filling meal.
Reaching the 'customs' gate at the end of the ferry ride, Iroh, Zuko, Cadence, Jong, and Zhin waited in line to be allowed entrance into the city. The lady handling entrants was...less than impressed. "So...Mr. Lee, Mr. Mushy, Mrs. Armor, Mr. Black, and Mr. Green?" she asked.
"Actually, it's Mu-shi," Iroh corrected.
"And A-mo-reh," Cadence added. "Also, Miss." She couldn't help but frown, however. Something about being called 'Mrs. Armor'...
"You telling me how to do my job?" the lady demanded angrily.
As Cadence backed up, Iroh stepped up, managing to smooth things over with flowery flirting...which was returned in kind, especially when the lady identified Iroh as a 'single father'.
As they waited for the tram into the city, everything seemed to be going normally. Cadence and Zuko were both so used to Iroh's casual method of keeping his tea hot, they didn't think anything of him warming up a cold cup the same way.
...but Jet did.
Had an idea, you could do what the series failed to do and make your own little fourth season, Air. With it being whatever your after story will be.
6764104 It will be better than Legend of Korra.
MOSTLY BECAUSE OF MOTHER BUCKING PONIES!
PONIES FOR THE WIN!
They can just explain the hot tea with a demonstration of Cadence's magic.
I submitted my story!
Uh-oh, it looks like Jet's fate in this adaptation will be no different from his fate in the show. Unless you're going to pull another fast one on us.
Cadence used Pout. It was Super Effective!!!
Cadance and her cuteness strike again... I swear that my death will be caused by an overwhelming onslaught of Sad Filly Syndrome and a subsequently resulting shattered heart.
Least ye got yerself sommat of a buffer. Both me wife an' me daughter are th' cause o' me own weakness t' th' Syndrome...
Good chapter nonetheless, and I love Smellerbee's instant fall into the cuteness. Just proves that she can be girly if the situation calls for it. Not many tomboys can say the same.
The best part about theses series is seeing just how much the presence of one different character changes things.
Here's where things get interesting. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Merry Christmas!
Que the emotional roller coaster for jet and all the other characters!!!
Yes I've seen the last Airbender, and yes I'm calling it now.
The idea of Smellerbee cuddling Cadence is amusing.
Alt script time:
*during Tales of Ba Sing Se*
Cadence: "Ah, nothing like a trip to the spa to relax a little... Oh! Hi, you two!"
Katara + Toph: "Cadence?!"
*Sunshine, sunshine, followed by obligatory recap of the Gaang's misadventures in getting to Ba Sing Se*
Cadence: "Well, sounds like we've all had a fun time. By the way, Katara, do you know someone named Jet?"
Katara: "Him?! Don't tell me he's in the city!"
Cadence: "He is. He attacked Zuko to try and prove that he was a Firebender, before the Dai Li came and took him away."
Toph: "That's not good. The Dai Li are the city's secret police of a sort. They maintain order here... by any means necessary. Crossing them isn't a good idea. If this Jet guy got taken, he's either going to be brainwashed, or worse."
Katara: "I didn't like Jet's methods... but he doesn't deserve that. Thanks for the heads-up, Cadence."
Cadence: "No problem. Oh! I've got to go meet Father. He told me to meet him by a hill on the outskirts of the city. Enjoy your day, keep safe. We'll probably capture you in the morning." *flies off*
Toph: "... Do I wanna know what that line was about?"
6764205 please don't pull more awesome references into this... Because I "gotta catch 'em all."
Pun intended
Whoa there Jet, you'd better cool down your jets before you play with fire again lest you take off and get yourself hurt again. But for some reason I feel like that would just be... A Longshot.
... There is ONE THING that you have done that I will admit was done rather well, near-regardless of what you will do in the future. It involves The Promise, so if you haven't read it yet... well, here's your chance.
OK, that should be enough posturing. OK, here it goes.
So, remember how, in the show, they went for a partial on-again-off-again relationship with Zuko and Mai? Well, in the second issue of the first arc, Mai dumps Zuko over something... and they STILL haven't gotten back together... and Mai's going out with some guy named Kei Lo... and a bunch of fans are starting to ship Zuko with Suki... Yes, it's that bad. So you can imagine that it comes with no surprise that I am perfectly fine with how you portray Zuko and Mai's relationship, mainly because there's no "Will they or won't they nonsense" stuff that people could care less about. So thank you for that.
6764342
Have all the upvotes!
*Mashes the upvote button repeatedly*
6764473 Gardevir, use psychic! Umbreon, use Assurance!
*This helps everyone use only the up button*
I don't know what Jet's on about. Everyone knows that there aren't any firebenders in Ba Sing Se.
6764540 Jet, in cannon, was something of a zealot in his 'freedom fighting' and went to some extreme lengths to expose Zuko and Iroh in the show...
Another enjoyable chapter, Good job.
6764620 Yes, but he didn't do it until AFTER they entered the city. He just kept his suspicions to himself, Smellerbee, and Longshot, and tried and failed in many subtle ways to prove the two Fire Nation. Until it come to a boiling point and the Dai Li needed to be called in.
6764736 welp, with Cadence in the mix, perhaps his cannon fate can be...mitigated...
OK, so I'm just going to ask you this because I just realized this was most likely going to happen. PleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasePLEASE don't ship Azula with Long Feng! I'm spending time with my extended family, so I don't want my little cousin asking me why I table flipped their christmas tree... except I'm not the type to disturb the public because of fanfiction... and Boston isn't old enough to worry over older people's mental distress... and I messed up this comment a while back, so Boston is back at home by now. But I'm sure you get the point: I find the notion most supercilious. After all, we must remember...14 years old.
So what shall happen with Jet? Will he be as unremarkable of a character as he was in the show, or will you strip away his actual points of existence, leaving him to be nothing more than a Flash Sentry (DISCLAIMER: I actually have no problem with either of them, they're just the go-to insults for their respective series' for some reason... Also, remember Touta Matsuda from Death Note? He and Flash share the same English VA. Who knew?)? Only time will tell...
6764979
...who's Long Feng again?
6764540 No war either. Quite the peaceful place. I also hear the emperor has a pet bear.
6765053 a platypus-bear?
6765043 ... AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!... Man, I needed that.
Remember that guy who's the Earth King's right-hand man, manipulated the entire capital to either pretending that the war doesn't exist or ensure that no one knows it exists, leader of the Dai Li, the guy who killed Jet, the guy who stole Appa, and the guy who tried to trump Azula by pretending to have an alliance with her, but wound up getting trumped by her by doing the same thing? That's Long Feng... the guy who looks like he's near middle-aged or older... that just so happens to be this Azula's type for reasons you hinted at in a previous comment. For all intents and purposes, I'd like it so that it doesn't go the route I think it's going to go.
[Tasturou: Which is?...]
The kind of route shippers of Jasmine and Jafar could only dream of, my friend.
6765106
Ah, I see the problem.
The old general wasn't Azula's type. Azula was his type, and she used it to manipulate him and turn him into her puppet.
Besides, I interpret Azula as asexual, anyway.
6765081 No. Just a bear.
6764620 I was making a joke, dude
I'm aware of how Jet gets brainwashed
6765129 Ah, that makes a lot mor-...
Wait... "asexual"?... "ASEXUAL"?!... "A...SEXUAL"!!?!!??!?!...
Confound your interpretations, they drive me to write comments that get up/downvotes based on who's reading them.
Anyway, the thing I was going to write BEFORE you blindsided me with your "interpretations" schtick... oh, right. So yeah, the reason why I asked is because I felt that, if you DID go that route, it would undermine the epicness of that one scene. I mean, the entire tone and epicness of it would be undermined by something like
{Long Feng: But we did the thing!
Azula: *Facepalm*}
... If you use that "alt!script", I will cut you...
Anyway, that's all I have, for now... I mean, there's that other thing, but it's a little late, and you'd find some way to justify it despite the problem's justification being something that conflicts with the canon.
6765161 i was referring to his ultimate fate...
6765218 Well, I'm aware of that, too.
That scene was full of feels. Especially with Toph.
6764197 This is Tatsurou you're talking about. OF COURSE HE'S GOING TO PULL ANOTHER FAST ONE.
6765172
You're assuming that scene will still happen.
6765394 I was confused at first, but I know what you mean, now... Interesting...
I'm really starting to hate the letter 'Y', now. Y U DO THIS, 'Y'!?...
Oh, and Happy Holidays.
6765404
You too.
Heh.
Aye.
Sup? Y'know, as much as he kinda was an antagonist, he did have good motives.
Yes.
No. She's a magical talking pony from another world who's been deaged and sent to THIS world somehow, probably the EQG mirror malfunctioning due to an experiment of Twilight's, who is capable of bending all 4 Elements, and people's hearts.
I REALLY shouldn't laugh. I really shouldn't.
I swear given half a chance she could have Ozai himself wrapped around her hoof.
*snerk*
Oh boy.
Longer chapters please!
6765553 If it's longer you're looking for go 6765479. always with long comments that make me smile... Oh wait, you want longer chapters! Sorry, can't help you. But you should read the comments though.
6766052
Glad to entertain someone.
Merry Christmas everyone! Happy Hearths Warming everypony!
6765172
NO! Bad Long Feng! Only Zhu Li can do the thing.
Mrs. Armor. Ha! Foreshadowing.
I wonder... how shall Zuko handle Jin this time around?
6765479 indeed my friend, indeed
6768678 at that very moment a paradox happened.
Hahahaha, Mrs. Armor... kekeke.
Nice.
Heh, Mrs. Armor.
Ah damn.
Looks like 'Miss Amore' is more aware of her true love than she knows. Also, that image of Toph performing 'Sunshine sunshine' with Cadence a couple chapters ago will be with me forever. Thank you.