So You Want To Learn Airbending
Tony wanted a change. That was all there was to it. He was tired of running with the Jets and decided he was ready to try getting a steady job for the first time, but the question was what job he should get. He couldn’t decide and hoped it would be clear in time. The wind bit through his coat and blew all around him. Tony felt a desire to move with it, to follow it’s flow, and so he tried it, moving on instinct. Then, as he was moving his hands in a small swirling motion, a ball of wind formed between them, tickling Tony’s hands gently!
As Tony stared in amazement at the small ball of air swirling in his hands, didn’t notice a young Polynesian man with dark hair watching him until the man called out to him, asking if he wanted to learn airbending at the local bender academy. Tony asked him what he was talking about and the man, who introduced himself as Makani explained what airbending was, it’s principles and origin, and told Tony that he’d mastered one of the most basic moves of airbending already: the air ball. Tony was unsure about it, as it sounded a little strange, but since he’d seemingly been born with the talent, he asked his parents anyway. It took awhile, but after they realized he was truly an airbender, they agreed to let him study with Makani.
The next day Tony arrived down at the docks to find Makani there waiting for him. He greeted him and then instructed him to watch him. Makani fired two air blasts simultaneously (one from each hand into two horns on the door that tapered off into an intricate design connected to three different spiral pipes in the middle of the intricate tangle. When the air flowed into them, the designs flipped around, sounding off and passing the air into the next part until the door opened, and they stepped inside. Tony looked around, amazed, and saw that the room they were in was designed to look similar to a dojo with areas that opened onto the water, enclosed areas, and areas that opened onto cliffs and paths outside. In the areas near the water, Tony saw several students in blue practicing sparring with water flowing between them, while over in the enclosed areas, Tony could see some students in red and orange outfits practicing shooting fire and lightning at each other. Still others wearing yellow were scooting around the room on balls of air that were almost transparent, and others wearing green were moving boulders without even touching them. It was an amazing sight. Tony noticed that even though all of their uniforms were different colors, all the uniforms were the same essentially, pants and/or leggings with protective pads on the knees and thighs, non-slip shoes a short-sleeved shirt covered by a top similar to the gi worn by karate practitioners, and a belt also similar to karate students. The main difference was that the girls had a sort of long cloth piece over the leggings and protective gear. Other than that, the uniforms followed the same standard for all students.
Makani then took him to the boys locker room, where he found a uniform similar to those worn by the airbenders he’d seen waiting for him. To his surprise, it fitted like a glove. When he asked Makani how they’d known his measurements, he only smiled mysteriously and motioned for him to follow him. He followed him over to where the other kids in yellow were scooting around the floor on air scooters and introduced him to the other students. He told him he would have an opportunity to meet the other students and teachers later. Tony began to practice with the others, and he had a lot of fun and learned a lot. He even actually looked forward to going back the next day. Finally, Makani announced that they were done for the day and the students all went to change. In the locker room, Tony met a young boy named Aiden who was a firebender, Adam, an earthbender, Keanu, another airbender, and Dax, a waterbender. They changed quickly and headed out of the locker room, where they met Moria, Aeola, Assana, Brande, and Terra. Terra was an earthbender; Moria and Aeola were airbenders; Assana was a waterbender, and Brande was a firebender. The ten of them quickly became fast friends and hung out together frequently outside of school.
The next day Tony met the teachers of the other groups: Zola, the earthbending teacher; Kai, the fire-bending teacher, and Lyn, the waterbending teacher. All of them were very nice, but Zola and Kai seemed a little tough. Tony began to really enjoy himself at the school and Makani was a patient teacher guiding him in the use of his power. Soon Tony was among the best students in the class and could spar with the others on equal footing. One day, however, his secret would be discovered by the last people he wanted to know.
One day a week later, Riff and the other Jets were walking down near the docks when they saw a flash of light around the corner. They snuck around there to see what it was and were suddenly hit by a strong gust of wind that knocked them down. “That’ll teach you to come sneaking around here like that. Now, who are—?” Tony broke off abruptly in shock as he realized exactly who he’d just attacked. “Oh my gosh! Riff! Are you guys okay?” Tony asked. They all sat up and said they were fine. Riff had a lot of questions for his friend, though, such as how he did it. Tony explained everything to them, demonstrating his airbending to open the door and showed them the school. The boys were amazed to see all the kids sending fire at each other, scooting around the room on air balls, shoving boulders across the room, and even flicking water at each other. Just then, Makani came over and got upset that Tony had brought non-benders into the school, but when they promised to keep it a secret, he allowed them to see the school. However, he cautioned them not to come back too much because the other teachers weren’t as understanding as he was. They were then shown a few of the airbender training tools, including a set of gates that Makani set spinning via airbending, in which the only way through was to move freely with the flow, like a leaf in the wind. Tony demonstrated how to maneuver through them, but when Riff and the others tried it, all they got for their attempts were bruises. They decided that when they visited again, they’d leave the bending gates to the airbenders.
During one of their visits a week later, Makani offered to teach the boys some of the martial arts style moves they taught young airbenders. Only Baby John accepted because he wasn’t as tough as the other boys in the gang. It soon became clear that Baby John wasn’t as ordinary as the rest of the boys, though. The air began to act funny around him and Makani realized they had a fledgling airbender on their hands. They offered to let Baby John start at the school the following day, at which point they’d have a uniform in his size. So the next day Baby John came down to the school and met Makani outside the airbender door, where he was shown how to open it. Within a few days, Baby John had it down and could open it himself.
Much later, Makani presented the young airbenders with wingsuits, special suits that had cloth wings that folded out for use in flight and fastened to their chest and hips with snaps when not in use, Tony could glide using airbending while wearing it, but he still couldn’t truly fly. He still enjoyed using the suit, however. It wasn’t hardly a week later, though, before things began to go wrong. The government found the bender school and saw what the students were practicing. They quickly lumped the bender kids in with the mutants and treated them the same. Several of the firebender students began to rebel, led by Aiden, which pitted friend against friend and student against student. Tony ended up pitted against his friend Brande, who was sorry to fight him, but felt she had no choice.
As a result of fighting for a just cause, Tony let go the last of what was tethering him to the world and unlocked one of the ultimate airbending moves: flight, allowing him to soar high above Brande’s fire blasts, stunning everyone! Tony, Baby John and the others defended the townspeople against the rebels, and soon they began to realize that the benders weren’t the problem—they were. They’d immediately assumed that the bender kids were like the mutants and the kids had only acted to defend themselves. The people then promised the kids that if they would swear not to use their powers destructively ever again, that they wouldn’t be persecuted. Brande immediately apologized and promised, but Aiden and some of the other more stubborn firebenders took longer to apologize. Finally, they did, though, and the battle was over. The benders and normal people lived together in peace from then on.
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