The Epic Of Tokka

Chapter 2

"My Toph"

Disclaimer: I, Mitch Wise, does not own "Avatar: The Last Airbender". This story and characters are based off the characters and plot line of "Avatar: The Last Airbender".


Toph and Sokka were still giddy about last night, but they had control themselves around the rest of the team.

"We can't let the rest of them suspect anything, especially Suki." Sokka said to Toph over breakfast.

"Why?" the young earthebender pondered a loud.

"They might try to stop us from causing trouble, my sister is notoriously known to do anything to stop me from having fun." he said with a wink directed at the earthbender.

Toph never saw the playful wink, and decided to finish breakfast and try to stay away from Sokka, as so no one will suspect anything between the two. "I feel... what is that feeling? It's warm, but not hot, and I only feel this way around Sokka. I felt it around my parents, but never this strong. What is happening with me!"

After breakfast the troop entered the tent where a new family was waking up. Here everyone congratulated Ling, the new mother, and her husband on the new-born baby. Toph couldn't see the baby, but she could feel it's heartbeat and announced to everyone that the baby's heartbeat sounds healthy. Toph also noticed that she has been listening to Sokka's heartbeat all afternoon, but her thoughts were cut short when Aang walked in,

"We have been through many things lately. Your baby has given me hope in the future. I am going to go find Appa, I need to stop ignoring my feelings, and act upon them. Thank you." he announced to the group. He gave a deep bow to the new family and he walked out of the tent, with Katara running after him.

"I want our baby to have a special name." Ling said to her husband, "Something unique."

"How about 'Hope'?" the man responded back to his wife.

"Yes. Hope." and with that the man and wife decided on what to name their child.

"Hmmm, Hope, and what was Aang talking about, 'I need to stop ignoring my feelings, and act upon them.'. Well I don't know what my feeling is, but Aang knew his. I should follow his thinking, to act upon my feelings, but I need to figure them out first." Toph thought to herself.

"Sokka?"

"Yes, Suki."

"Good luck on the rest of your trip."

"Wait, why does it sound like you are going to leave?"

"Sokka, we already talked about this, I have to go back to my Kyoshi Warriors, to defend the ferries."

"I know we talked about it, but I didn't want to believe it." Sokka said not able to look at his girlfriend, not out that he might be cheating on her with Toph, but out of humility. Suki was his sifu, like how Katara and Toph were Aang's sifus. Sokka had a deep humility for the woman in front of him, and all he could do was to be humble.

"Look, about last night. We were saying things, and things happened..."

Suki was cut off short with Sokka's lips connecting with her's. Sokka backed off to say why he kissed her.

"You talk to much."

Suki only smiled, and this time she closed the gap between his and her's lips. She pushed into a romantic kiss filled with passion. She wrapped her arms around the back of his neck, tilting her head to give her partner more room.

Toph felt all of this, and was disgusted mentally, but physically gave no indication that it bothered her. The hardest part to swallow for Toph was how both of their heartbeats where racing, like an ostrich-horse running in a race. The racing Toph didn't care for, it was how they heartbeats were perfectly in sync. "Wow, they must really like each other. I bet they don't even know that both of them are in sync, matching each other beat for beat."

Suki broke off the kiss, and took a step back.

"Bye, Sokka. Stay safe for me, okay?"

"Nahhhh, I thought about getting hurt, like really bad!" Sokka sarcastically said, flailing his arms in the air to better sell the effect.

"Haha, fine. Get hurt. I don't care." Suki replied sarcastically back, turning around to show him her back and to complete the act, folding her arms across her chest.

"Now. You know I was kidding." Sokka said with a deep whisper as he took a step towards her, placing his hands on her shoulders, turning her around to meet him. Then Sokka felt something that wasn't there. "Where is the spark? I thought should be at least a spark, something! Let me check... … … … nope nothing. My heart isn't racing like before. Maybe I only feel I like Suki because she is a good kisser. I don't feel like this is right, like something isn't there that should be in a relationship. UGH this is so confusing! I don't like it, but I can't tell Suki, now she'll kill me!"

So Sokka instead of kissing Suki again, he hugged Suki. To Suki a hug was fine, more appropriate as the rest of the group might see them kissing, and she didn't want the embarrassment. She returned the hug in full, and pulled away saying,

"Sokka. I have to go to now. Bye."

"Bye, Suki."

This would be last time our water tribe warrior will see his sifu, for a long, long time.

"Sokka hurry up!" Katara scolding her brother.

"Oh, right. Coming!" he shouted after them, never looking back to see Suki walk off, maybe walking away from Sokka forever.

Little did Sokka know, but Suki also felt that something was missing from their relationship, like a cog from a system of gears, that cog is needed to make the machine run properly. Suki felt that is she told Sokka, that he might try to kill himself. She knew that he loved her, and she didn't have the heart to that to Sokka.

"Aang you never told us what stopped you." Katara asked him in a worried voice.

"That." Aang pointed off to the side of the rock elevator, that he and Toph were propelling up the wall of Ba Sing Se.

'That' was a massive drill, with a Fire Nation emblem painted on it. It was being escorted by ten Fire Nation tanks on either side of it. The drill was made in links, and crawled forward like a caterpillar-moth would. Inching slowly towards the walls of Ba Sing Se. The team could only stand in shock, even Toph, who could feel the massive vibrations coming off the drill. Toph was the most scared as she knew that this drill would be nearly impossible to stop, and feeling something that is destructive is defiantly worse than seeing it.

"Halt! Who are you? Kids aren't allowed on the wall." an Earth Kingdom soldier told the team.

"I am the Avatar. Take me to who ever is in charge." Aang demanded from the soldier, who complacently showed the Avatar and his followers to the General.

"General, the Avatar is here."

"Ah, well send him away, we have to drill problem under control." The General said.

The soldier was about to shoo Aang and the group away, when Aang definably said,

"You don't need my help!"

"Yes, we have an elite group of earth benders called the 'Terra Team' to take care of the drill."

"Terra Team? Now that is a nice group name." Sokka thought out loud.

The group and the General looked over the wall to see the Terra Team fight against the drill. They failed to stop the drill, let alone do any damage to it. The drill seemed unstoppable.

"Maybe now you would like the Avatar's help?" Toph spat at the direction at the General.

"Yes, please." he said to the Avatar.

"Ok, but how would we stop that thing?" Aang asked to the group.

Everyone looked at Sokka, except Toph, she gazed in his direction not looking at anything in particular.

"What? Why do I always have to come up with the plans?" Sokka asked.

"You are the Plan Guy." Katara answered.

"I never agreed to that." Sokka shot back.

"You are also the Complaining Guy."

"Now, that. I don't mind." Sokka finished.

The group's attention was caught by the first group of earth benders coming back from the field.

"What is wrong with them?" the General asked with concern in his voice.

Katara immediately went into a healing stance and put her hands on an Earth Kingdom soldier's arms.

"His chi is blocked." she reported.

"These two girls came out of the drill, one threw knives, and the other hit me with a couple of jabs and I couldn't earth bend anymore. Then she cart-wheeled away." the soldier telling the group what happened to him.

"That has to be Ty Lee. She doesn't look strong, but she knows the human body well, and takes you down from the inside." Katara told the soldier and the group, recountering her own experience against the acrobat.

"Oh, oh, oh! Repeat what you just said!" Sokka said jumping up and down.

"She takes you down from the inside?" Katara said with wonder to what her older brother was thinking.

"Exactly! That is how we are going to take down the drill! From the inside!." Sokka shouted with glee from his newly formed plan.

"Great! Let's do it." Aang said also with excitement towards the new plan.

The group meets up at the base of the wall. From there they will stage their attack.

"Okay, once I kick up some cover you won't be able to see very far, so stay close to me and I'll get you there." Toph said telling the group what to do.

Toph threw out her arms, to call forth dust to cover their approach to the drill. The ground in front of her cracked and rocks split apart and dust raised from the ground. The group ran into the dust cloud making sure to stick close to Toph. On the way towards the drill the group fell into a pitfall, that Toph forgot to avoid. It was pitch-black and Sokka stupidly said,

"It's so dark! I can't see anything!"

"Oh no! The horror." Toph sarcastically called out.

"Oh, right sorry, Toph."

Before Sokka could say anything else, Toph bended the group out of the pitfall, and continued to get under the drill, where the next stage of the plan began.

"Why does Sokka always forget that I am blind? It should be common sense by now! He is such and idiot!" Toph thought, while Sokka thought,

"I always forget that she is blind! I am such an idiot. But she always acts like she isn't blind, all helpless and everything. That's 'My Toph' always brave. 'My Toph'? 'My Toph'? … Why does that sound right? Can I call my best friend, mine? I can't worry about it now I have to focus"

The group reached the end of the dust cloud, and dove under the drill to begin stage two.

"Okay." Sokka said pointing towards an entrance into the drill, "That is how we are going to get in."

Sokka, Katara, and Aang jumped through the opening and landed on the inside of the drill. "Wait, where's is Toph. Oh no. I forgot about her again!" Sokka thought to himself, and turning around to face Toph who was still outside.

"Toph, are you coming or not?" Sokka asked her with concern in his voice.

"Ah, no. I can't see in there. I'll do what I can to stop it from out here."

"Okay, just be careful, Toph."

"I will Sokka." Toph's cheeks blushed at what Sokka said. "He cares for me!" Toph thought and her mind gave a quick smile to the thought.

Back inside the drill, Sokka broke a pipe. Causing hot steam to rush out of the rupture.

"Sokka what are you doing?" Aang asked .

"We don't know how to get around in this thing, Aang. And I bet neither do the engineers, so they must carry a map. Well when there's a problem on the drill, who comes to fix it?"

"An engineer!" Katara answered.

It wasn't long before an engineer walked into the room, the group hid in the hot steam. Katara stepped out of their hiding spot amongst the pipes, and bended the water vapor into ice, and froze the engineer in his tracks. There on cue, Sokka ran up and grabbed the map,

"Thanks!"

"Okay, Sokka, where to now?" Aang asked.

"Well it seems that there are two separate rings, the inner rings where we are in now, and the outer ring which is the hull of the drill. The rings are connected by what seems to be columns. I bet if we were to cut the columns we would stop the drill." Sokka proclaimed.

"Alright let's do it!" Katara said, eager to get out of the massive drill.

MEANWHILE

OUTSIDE THE DRILL

Toph was having a tough time stopping the drill. She would bend columns set at an angle in hopes of stopping the drill, but every time the drill moved forward the columns she worked hard to put up were shattered into pieces. She soon gave up out of breath, and decided to think about the one thing that makes her calm down, and at peace, Sokka. "I wish I could be with him, just to make sure he is okay. Why did I say, 'No I'll try and stop it from out here.'? I should have went with him, even if I couldn't see, I could grab his hand." But the thought was shaken out of Toph's thoughts. "Let's not think about holding Meathead's hand. I hope he is okay though."

BACK ON THE DRILL

"Come on we are Team Avatar!" "Team Avatar? I like that one, I think I am going to keep that one." Sokka said and then thought.

"Sokka? What do you mean by 'we'? Me and Aang are doing all the work!" Katara grunted inbetween her bending motions.

Katara and Aang were slicing a steel column with water, they were basically playing a game of catch the water. They threw a small sliver of water to each other in order to cut the column.

"I am the Plan Guy, and you are the 'Cut-the-column-with-water-bending' guys." Sokka replied back.

"Well this is taking to long!" Aang said with a grunt as he finished cutting the first column clean through.

"Taking to long? It isn't a perfect plan Aang." Sokka said defending his plan.

"Toph said, 'To never waste all of your energy in one strike. Find the opponents flaws, weaken him to a point to where it is staggering, and deliver a final, crushing blow." Aang said back to Sokka.

"That isn't a bad idea. Lets modify the old plan, weaken the columns and then Aang can deliver the final blow."

"Okay, What does you and Katara do when I delivering the final blow?" Aang asked Sokka.

"Well all of the rock from the wall has to go somewhere, right?" Sokka asked.

"Right." Katara answered.

"Well me and Katara will try to plug up the rocks and put pressure inside the drill, making your 'final blow' super effective!" Sokka told Team Avatar.

"Okay sounds good!" Aang said, and he gestured to Katara to help him with cutting the next column

"Wow Toph thought of that? 'Find the opponents flaws, stagger him, and deliver a final blow.' That is really creative. That is 'My Toph'. There I am saying it again! 'My Toph'? Yep, it still sounds right."

BACK OUTSIDE THE DRILL

Toph is starting to feel the drill to sag in certain parts. "Is that Sokka's work? I hope it is because that means he is okay! PHEWW." Toph wipes her hand across her sweaty forehead. "I think I finally got that feeling down from early today. I thinks it's love. I mean I felt it around my parents and I love my parents, so when I feel the same way around Sokka, it has to be love. Oh man, I can't be in love with my best friend! He has a girlfriend! I can't tell him this ever! But what if he gets captured on the drill, and I never feel him again? I haven't told him that I love him. My only other option is stick with him, and make sure he doesn't get captured, and if he does so will I. That way I am always with him, and therefore I don't have to worry about telling him how I feel for him! GO TOPH!" Toph cheered to herself with confidence that no one will hear her under the drill.

BACK ON THE DRILL

Aang and Katara are just finishing cutting through the last column. Before they decided that if they were to cut through ten on each side, it would be enough to destroy the drill when Aang delivers his final blow. What they weren't expecting is Ty Lee, Mai, and Azula to show up and put a stop to Team Avatar's cutting. Ty Lee and Mai chased Sokka and Katara, while Azula went after the Avatar herself. Ty Lee and Mai chased Sokka and his sister to a dead-end with a pipe, labeled 'Slurry Line'. Neither of them knew what 'Slurry' was, but Sokka had an instinct that it was a way outside. They opened the hatch and jumped in. To Sokka's astonishment 'Slurry' is a mixture of rocks and water, and it did lead to the outside.

Azula chased Aang to the top of the drill, close to the drill head, and the wall of Ba Sing Se. There on top of the drill Aang and Azula fought each other, with both parties pushing each other off the side the of the drill. Aang was able to recover and airbended himself back on top of the drill, made an 'X' on the drill using the water he and Katara used to cut the columns. He settled a rock on top of the 'X' , earth bended the rock into a point, and using air bending he ran up the wall of Ba Sing Se.

Katara was using water bending to push back the slurry into the drill, putting pressure inside of the drill.

"Don't forget to breath. Good form Katara. Are your arms getting tired?" Sokka asked his sister who was struggling to hold back the flow of the slurry.

"Shut up, Sokka! It is hard enough to concentrate, but with you bothering me it is impossible!" Katara shouted to her brother.

"Geez, just trying to help out Team Avatar. You don't have to yell." Sokka told her.

Frustrated with her brother, she moved her left arm to his direction, flicked her wrist down, spraying a jet of slurry at Sokka, causing him to lose his balance and fall into the slurry. Toph sensed Sokka hit the ground, and not knowing who it was, decided to check it out. She stepped out from under the drill, where Katara noticed her and said,

"Toph help me bend this slurry back into the drill!"

Toph coming from a formal education, and the Earth Kingdom knew what slurry was, she knew every form of stone. Toph ran cautiously, as her vision was blurred with all the water on the ground, towards Katara.

"The slurry is right in front of you." Katara told Toph.

Toph threw out her arms causing the slurry on the ground to fling away.

"A little higher Toph." Katara directed.

Raising her arms, a little bit, Toph asked,

"Here?"

"Almost, just little higher."

Toph trying to be patient, and almost giving up, when she felt two strong hands grab her forearms, with the hands' owner saying into her ear,

"Try this high."

Toph nearly freaked out, almost punching the stranger that sneaked up on her, but when she heard his voice. "That deep voice, the one that he only uses for Suki." It melted her heart, her arms were gently raised to the height and pointed to the right, as Toph was a little to the left of the slurry.

"There. Perfect." Sokka again whispered into her ear.

"Just like you." Toph's mind finishing Sokka's sentence. Then she felt his warm arms leave her own, leaving the spots where he held her cold. Toph gathered herself, and began to bend the slurry back into the drill. As she began to bend she could feel the rocks in the slurry to rattle.

"Here it comes!" Toph told the group.

Toph and Katara stopped bending, and this time without help from Sokka, Toph bended a pillar of rock to keep herself, Katara, and Sokka from getting even wetter from the slurry.

Aang ran up the wall of Ba Sing Se, back-flipped and dove for the pointed rock. Using his body as a hammer, he nailed the rock on the head, nailing it into the drill causing the drill to collapse. Aang rushed towards the end of the now destroyed drill to regroup with his friends. This was where the group agreed to meet up again after they destroyed the drill while still deciding on the original plan on top of the wall. Aang was surprised to see his friends covered in what looked like dry mud. From there the friends went back to the General, who was ecstatic that they destroyed the drill.

"You did it Avatar!" the General said, bowing to the feet of the Avatar. "You have saved Ba Sing Se, and for that the city is in your debt."

"Thanks, but I couldn't have done it without his friends." Aang said while holding out his arms pointing to his friends behind him.

"Well of course! And they along with you shall be remembered!" the General proclaimed.

the sun was setting and the group waited on top of the wall to see the beauty of nature, and in Toph's case enjoy of the company of her friends. "I am so glad the Sokka is okay."

"Okay Team Avatar, let's go to Ba Sing Se." Sokka said turning around, his back to the sun.

"Sokka, no matter how many times you say, 'Team Avatar' it won't stick." Katara said, teasing her older brother, hoping to throw him off, which did.

"Hey! It's a good nickname!" Sokka said, "What about the Boomeraang Squad?"

"Still lame, Sokka." Katara said still teasing.

"Lame! It even has Aang in it. Boomer-Aang Squad." Sokka said trying to defend the nickname and his creativity.

"I kinda like it." Aang said.

"You would." Katara said with a 'HPMH' and turned around and started to walk away, along with Aang and Toph.

"Okay, okay. What about the 'Fiercesome Foursome'?" Sokka asked not walking with the group.

"Try again Sokka." Toph said.

"What? We're Fiercesome!" Sokka said catching up with Team Avatar.

"They aren't actually that bad." Toph thought inside her head, "Sokka's creativity is pretty good when it comes to nicknames. I might have to start giving people nicknames."

While Sokka could only think about how Toph's plan worked. "Toph is pretty creative. She doesn't know, but she did help in defeating the drill even without her being there."

As both Toph and Sokka thought about each other, their minds thought about tomorrow, for what it holds, and if they will finally have some fun together.


Holy crap that's long, but it had to be done. I feel like I could have put more about Toph and Sokka thinking about each other but I wanted to finish, as for now I am pretty proud of this work. Enjoy the read. WORD COUNT OVER 4,000!

Dedicated to justthisguyyouknow

and to kyoshi7989

****Spoilers for next chapter.*****

Toph and Katara go dancing

Aang and Sokka serve.

Toph and Sokka walk

PLEASE R&R