Here's the next chapter. Enjoy.

Chapter 4: Scammefied

Tension looms over the canyon as Katara, Toph and Mizu all stand in a triangle formation as they get ready to… "You ready yet Aang?!" Zian shouts out as the tension fades. "Yes, I'm ready for some training." Aang says as he puts on a blind fold as he turns to face them. Zian grins as he continues to play on his lute.

The four of them stand there as they wait. Aang moves to the side as he dodges an emerging pillar and does so again by moving diagonally to avoid another pillar and again with a third pillar. He stands still as he waits again. Katara throws a water whip at him as dodges it and throws it back while Katara parries it and throws a boulder at Toph. Mizu shoots five fire balls at Aang as he quickly hears it and bends backwards and avoids the attack.

"Good job twinkle toes. Viaualise then attack." Toph says as she punches the boulder that was thrown at her back at Aang as he sinks into the ground to avoid it. However as he does this, the boulder passes him and hits Katara in the chest as she falls to the ground. She stands up and looks at Toph upset. "Maybe you should take your own advice Toph!" She says.

Aang sticks his head out as he is confused by this as he jumps out of the ground. "What the matter? Can't handle some dirt madam fussybridges." Toph insults Katara. Katara's eye twitches as she gets angry and summons a wave behind herself. It passes through her and Aang, without getting them wet, while when it comes to Toph it splashes on her as she gets wet and annoyed.

"Oww, did I splash you mud slug?" Katara says to her. Mizu looks at the scene. "Uh-oh." She says feeling like this can only go badly." She says. Katara and Toph ride their element slides as they slam into each other and are send flying in one direction. Aang looks in the direction that they were in confusion. "Are we taking a break?" He asks.

Meanwhile Sokka is hiding behind a pillar as he grins. He moves away from it and starts running towards Aang. "Aaah sneak attack!" He yells with his arm over his head. He is then slammed in the face by a pillar that appears in front of him as he falls to the ground. "Aang takes off his blind fold as he looks at Sokka. "Sokka sneaks attacks don't work if you yell it out loud." Aang says.

He suddenly feels a strange presense and he looks up. His eyes widen as he sees Zian towards him as he gets ready to strike him. Aang quickly shift away as Zian lands on the ground hard as he slams his fist on the ground creating a small crater around it while holding his lute in the other hand. Aang smiles afterwards. "Now that is a sneak attack." He says as Zian stands up and smiles at Aang. "Almost got you." He says.

They turn to see Katara and Toph are fighting in a mud puddle as they see them sort it out. "Should we try to stop them?" Mizu asks the others. Zian crosses his arms as he watches the fight. "Yeeeeeeah, I don't really incline to stop something that could possibly lead me to an early funeral." He says as Mizu just rolls her eyes.

Aang walk to the edge of the mud puddle. "Uh guys, I thought we were supposed to be training me?" Aang says as this causes the girls to stop. They are both covered in mud as their clothes are completely dirty. Katara wipes her faces as she looks at Aang. "Very well, pupil. I feel that we had enough training for today." She says as she walks away.

"While Katara goes and cleans up." Toph says as she uses her bending to remove the mud all over her clothes and turns to the others with a smile. "Let's go have some fun." She says. Sokka and Aang immediately get excited. Zian chuckles as he follows them as they head into the town that is near their camp.

The entire city is rested on a mountain while messenger hawks fly over it delivering or sending messages. Everyone, except for Katara, walk through the streets as they take in their surroundings. Sokka hears the sound of the messenger hawks as he looks up and sees them flying over the city. "Look at all those messenger hawks." He says as they pass the place where all if the messenger hawks go to either rest or deliver the messages.

Sokka looks at them all with interest. "You know I've been thinking about getting one for myself. That way I don't have to talk to anyone. I can just send them messages." He says. Toph smirks. "I got to say. I like the idea of not talking to you." She says as Sokka glares at her. "So guys, what are we going to get with our last silver piece?" Aang asks holding out one silver.

Zian grins. "Maybe a bowl of water, some bread." Zian says. "Or maybe more money." Toph says as Zian looks at her confused. "Come again?" He says not quite following her. "Over there." Toph says pointing down the street. They look and see there is an alley where they see a few people standing around a table. The person sitting behind the table is placing three cups on the table upside down and he places a pebble inside and he moves them around in quick motion. The person opposite of the dealer looks at the cups and tries to guess which of the cups has the pebbles and the dealer picks up the cup to see if the person is right.

The group look at the scene with curiosity. "This is where you can see people are at a disadvantage. Everyone guesses wrong because the dealer moves the rock at the last minute, but I can feel with my earthbending." She says as they head down to the location. "You know I once had a stroke of bad luck once when I tried one of these games. Nearly lost all of my money due to it." Zian says. Mizu looks at him curiously. "Nearly? How did you manage to get it back?" She asks him.

Zian grins. "Well after some time of playing the game I was unable to get a single guess right even though I was sure of it. After a while I clearly knew I was being cheated." He says. "What did you do?" Mizu asks him. Zian smirks. "Let's just say I made the dealer see some stars before quickly taking my money ,plus some of the money from the "lost" contenders, and running as fast as I can." He says as they walk down to the alleyway. They stand behind a man who is playing the game. He picks a cup and the dealer pulls it up and the pebble is not there. The man is shocked by this as he starts to cry while his friend takes him away.

The group stand there watching and the man looks at them with interest. "You there." He says speaking to Toph as the group looks at him. "Wanna play a friendly game?" The dealer asks. "How could I possibly play? I'm blind." She says pretending (sort of) to lie like she really can't see.

"You don't have to see to be lucky." He says as he gestures her to sit down. Toph gets down on the ground as she touches everything with her hands to find the table to further (again sort of) deceive them. As she "finds" the table she sits down as she takes out the one silver piece that they have and places it on the table. The dealer smiles as he places the pebble inside the cup. He proceeds to move them around in quick motion. He stops as he waits for Toph to pick one of the cups.

Toph discreetly grins as she picks the cup to her left. The dealer picks the cup and a pebble is underneath it. "Flameo Toph." Aang congratulates her. "Wow fancy guessing. You are amazing at this." The dealer says clearly giving her false compliments. "Would you like to make this game a little more…interesting?" He asks playing with some silver pieces in order to tempt her.

"More interesting? How?" Toph asks acting innocent. "Well you toss in your friend's sword their and your other friends lute, I'll bet forty silver pieces against it and that will make it more interesting." He says holding a bag of said silver pieces in his hand. As soon as the dealer makes an interest in Zian's lute Zian starts to growl at this. After the dealer says that Toph quickly grabs the sword he got from master Piandao as well as take the lute from Zian. "I'll do it for eighty silver pieces." Toph says as Sokka and Zian's mouths drop. "If she loses this bet then I am going to kill her." He says in his mind.

The dealer smiles as he opens the bag and throws in more silver pieces into it. "Eighty silver pieces it." He says confident that he will the lute and the sword. He places the pebble into one of the cups as he begins to move all of them in quick motion as the group and even the crowd watch with anticipation as the cups move.

Aang and Sokka try to keep up with the man's movements but he goes so fast that their eyes just keeping going in circles. After the dealer is done with the movements he looks at Toph with a smug confident attitude. Toph picks the middle cup. "Sorry little lady but…" The dealer says to her until he picks up the cup and is completely surprised when he sees that the cup that Toph chose contained a pebble in it. The dealer looks at the pebble very closely as he is unsure of this.

Toph looks at this happily as she raises her arms in the air. "I won!" She shouts as they all quickly take their stuff plus their winnings and run away. The dealer and the people in the alley all stand there as they try to process what just happened.

Sometime later

The group laugh as they walk back to their camp while each of them carries a basket filled with food and other things that they from the money they used. They see Katara is busy with cooking some food until she sees them dropping the baskets next to her. She looks at the baskets and then at the others a bit curious. "Where did you guys get the money to buy all of this stuff?" She asks them.

Aang and Toph are busy eating some apples as Aang sits down. "Toph got us money. She scammed one of those guys in town who moves the cups around all sneaky." He says as Katara looks at Toph with a not very impressed face. "She used her earth bending to win the game. Classic." Sokka says. Katara puts her hands on her hips. "Ahh, so she cheated." She says.

"Hey, I only cheated because he was cheating. I cheated a cheater. What's wrong with that?" She asks. "Oh I can think of a couple of things." Mizu says. "I'm just saying that we shouldn't make a habit of this." Katara advises them. Toph looks at her curiously. "Why, because it is fun and you hate fun?" She asks.

Katara looks at Toph a bit offended by that statement. "What? I don't hate fun." She says. She then grabs Momo as she takes the flying lemur and places him on her head as she smiles. "See? Fun" She says as Momo slowly slides off her head and fall to the ground. Momo screeches at her before running in a direction.

Zian shakes his head. "Katara, please don't do that ever again." He says. Aang stands up as he looks at Katara as he takes off his headband. "Katara, I'll personally make you an Avatar promise that we won't make a habit of doing these scams." He says bowing to her. This gives Katara a bit of relief. Mizu leans close to Zian. "I bet you five silver pieces that they will make this a habit." She whispers to him. Zian smirks at this. "You're on." He says.

A few hours later

"Called it!" Mizu shouts as Zian groans and gives the five silver pieces. Sokka, Toph and Aang arrive back to the camp carrying bags filled with money and baskets filled food and all sorts of stuff. Katara walks over to them as she looks at them nervously. "Guys I think these scams have gone far enough. If we keep doing this then something bad is going to happen." She says as Toph groans in irritation. "Can you for once just stop being such a sourpuss and just lighten up?" Toph asks as she throws a silver piece into Katara's hand.

Katara looks at Toph also annoyed. "Oh I'm sorry. You think I should be more like you? Like some wild child?" She says throwing the silver piece back at her. The silver piece lands on the ground as Sokka quickly takes it. "Yeah, maybe. Maybe then you will see how great we have. I mean look at us. We're travelling around the world, making easy money with no parents to tell us what to do." Toph says as this sparks a realization for Katara.

"Ah I see. You're acting like this because of your parents." She says. "Whatever." Toph responds to her. "They were controlling over you so you ran away and now you are acting like your parents don't exist. You act like you hate them but you don't. You just feel guilty." She says. "I do hate them." Toph says looking away from her. "I don't think so. I think you miss them but you just don't want to deal with that. So instead you act like this crazy person." She says.

This gets Toph upset as she stands up and looks at Katara. "Look, I ran away to help Aang." She argues. "You know what? It doesn't matter. These scams put us all at risk and we don't need that. We already got some third eye freak after us.

Flashback

"Aang, I know swimming is fun and all but do you really think you should be exposing yourself like that? Cover up." Toph says to Aang who is floating on the water that is in a crater. Aang looks at her. "What? I'm wearing trunks." He says. "I know it's your tattoos I'm worried about. What if someone sees us?" She says. Mizu grins at her. "Come on Toph lighten up. We've been on the run and have been working our butts off to stay hidden. Just give these few minutes to just rest and not worry about being in disguise." Mizu says lying on a rock and getting a tan.

"CONNABALL!" They hear Zian scream as he jumps from the top of the crater as he comes down fast in a ball formation as he lands in the water and splashes water around him. Katara looks at Toph. "Mizu is right Toph. Besides, there are walls all around us. It's completely safe." She says. Zian pops out of the water as he shoots water out of his mouth like a fountain.

"She's right. What could possibly go wrong?" Mizu asks.

Later at night time

The darkness flows over the crater as the group sleep. Everything seems quiet and peaceful. Well almost. Zian's eyes suddenly shoot open as he jolts up in a sitting position. "Guys somethings wrong." He says in a worried tone. Mizu groans awake. "What's wrong Zian?" She asks him. "I can hear the sound of metal stomping against dirt for some reason." He says. Toph wakes up as she feels something. "Guys you're all gonna think I'm crazy but it feels like a metal man is coming." She says.

A light shines into Aang's eyes as he rubs it and looks up at the top of the crater. What they see surprises them. A man stand on the top of the crater. He has a metal right hand with metal shoes and is wearing a sleeveless shirt. He is bald and has a rough beard and moustache but what surprises them the most is that on his forehead is a painted third as if it is to be a real one.

He stands there doing nothing as this makes everyone feel uneasy. Then suddenly he takes a deep breath. Aang and Zian rush forward as they quickly create and earth wall in front of them. The man exhales as a beam of wind goes out of his third eye and as it soon as it touches the wall it explodes destroying the wall easily and creating a huge force with knocks everyone back.

Zian gets back on his feet and bend a big boulder as he throws it at the man. Before the boulder can even reach the attacker it explodes from the same attack the man used. Katara thinks fast as she uses the water from the lake to create a fog cover for them as they hide. "This is crazy. How can we beat a guy who blows things up with his mind?" Sokka asks. "We can't." Aang says as he looks at the others. "You guys jump on Appa. I'll try to distract him." Aang says as he diverts the man's attention.

After some time they fly over a filled with pillars where they see a large amount of explosions. Aang lands on the saddle as they fly away from the man. "I'm ok." He says. "Well that was random." Toph says. "I don't think so. I get the feeling he knows who we are." She says. Zian falls on his back as he groans. "Well then it seems like we need to make sure that we are careful from now on." He says.

End of flashback

"Oh that guy. Yeah he's a real jerk." Zian says. "Speaking of the third eye freak I think I've come up with a name for him. What do you think of…Sparky sparky boom man?" Sokka says. Mizu rolls her eyes. "Sokka take this seriously." She says. "How about tri-beam man? Because his three eyes are in the shape of a triangle and he shoots a beam like thing." Zian says smiling. "Zian!" Mizu exclaims. Zian grins at her.

"We have enough money, you need to stop this!" Katara says to Toph. Toph gets angry at this. "I'll stop when I want to stop, not when you tell me." Toph says to her a she takes the bag of money and marches off as she sits down and creates an earth tent. Everyone just look at this all as they process this. "Speaking of money, I'm off to go spend some." Sokka says as he takes his bag of money and walk back to the town.

After some time of arguing and crazy fighting with Katara and Toph. Katara and Toph walk to each other and they look regretfully at one another. "Hi Toph. Uhm I want to…" Katara says before Toph stops her. "Katara stop, you don't need to apologise I was the one being stupid. These scams are out of control and I'm done with it." She says being serious. Katara grins at this. "Actually I wasn't going to apologise. I was going to say I want to pull a scam with you." She says. Both Sokka and Aang are in complete shock by this as they stand there with their mouths hung open. "Wow, did not see that one coming." Zian and Mizu say in unison as Zian looks at her. "Stop it." He says.

Toph looks at her taken back. "What? You wanna pull a scam?" She asks. Katara smirks. "Not just any scam. The ultimate scam." She says. This surprises and shocks Aang and Sokka so much that they fall back and faint. Katara places her arm over Toph's shoulder. "Just me and you. You in?" She asks her. Toph smiles with delight. "You know I'm in. so what's this idea of yours." She asks as they both walk away to make their plan. Zian crosses his arms as he watches them walk. "This is going to go wrong very quickly." He says as Mizu nods. "Definitely" she says.

Sometime later

Aang paces back and forth with a seemingly worried look on his face. "Do you think this scam of theirs should be taking this long?" Aang asks. "Eh I'm sure they are fine, though I have to admit that I am a bit worried about them." Zian says a little laxed. Sokka looks at him with a raised eyebrow. "That's a first coming from you." He says as Zian waves it off. "But I'm also a little worried. We better check it out." He says as he stands up and looks at Momo and his pet hawk. "You two better behave. Appa's in charge." He says as they walk to town. AS they reach town they all start to het an eerie feeling.

They walk to the centre of town where there is a metal statue of the fire lord blowing fire out of his hands and mouth. They see that whole entire village is completely empty with not a single person insight. Everything is quiet and because of this makes Zian feel uneasy. "Where do you think they are?" Sokka asks. "Where do you think anyone is?" Aang asks. They come to the statue as they walk pass it. Suddenly Zian hears something breathe. "Uh-oh" He says as he immediately knows who it is.

"Move!" He says as he quickly shoves Mizu, Aang and Sokka behind the statue. As he does so an explosion appears next to them as it just barely misses them. Aang peers his head out of the pedestal of the statue as he looks at the rooftops and sees that it is their attacker from the beach.

"Sparky sparky boom man!" Aangh exclaims. Sokka peaks his head out as he rubs it. "You know I'm starting to think that man doesn't quite fit." He says. Zian peaks his head as well as Mizu. "Tri-beam man is still an option you know." He says. "Not the time for that Zian." Mizu says.

Their attacker jumps off the roof as he lands on the ground. He then breathes in as he exhales and shoots another blast form his eye and shoots it at them. The others quickly move away as the blast hits the statue. Zian falls to the ground panting. "That was too close!" He shouts.

The attacker comes up close to him as Zian looks at him scared. The man inhales but before he can exhale he is shot at from behind with fire. He turns around to see that it is Mizu who did it. Mizu looks at him as her eyes widen. "Oh boy." She says. The man gets angry as he inhales. Before he can he exhale he suddenly feels his leg being grabbed as he looks down to see Zian. "Don't. You. Dare." He says seriously as he yanks the man's leg and throws him against a nearby building.

Zian runs over to Mizu. She gives him a smirk. "I guess we're even again." She says as he nods. Sokka, Toph, Aang and Katara appear as they run to them. "We got to get out of here." Katara says. "You don't have to tell us twice." Zian says as they run for it.

As they run Sokka thinks of something. "Hey I got it, the perfect name for that guy. How about Combustion man?" Sokka asks while they run. "Good job Sokka now let's get out of here before combustion man catches us." Toph says as they turn right. "See? It fits so well." He says. "I still wanted the guy to be named tri-beam man." He says sounding disappointed. "No one liked it any way Zian." Mizu says. Zian nods at her statement. "I guess you're right. It did sound kind of stupid." He says as they come to the camp, climb on Appa and fly away from this place.

A few hours later

As the night moon comes up over the world Appa lands near a mountain pass as he lays down and rests. Sokka stretches his arms with Hawky on one of them as he yawns. "I'm exhausted. Hawky how about you buddy?" He asks as the hawk screeches in responds. Sokka smiles as he pets the bird. "Yeah, you're such a lazy little bird." He says as he climbs out of the saddle.

Katara starts to climb out of the saddle. "Hey Katara." Toph says stopping Katara where she is as turns to Toph. "What is it Toph?" She asks. Toph takes out a piece of paper. "I need you to write somethings down for me. I want to send a letter to my parents." She says. This makes Katara smile as she nods. "I'll be happy to help." She says and starts to write down for Toph.

After a few moments Katara rolls up the paper as she places it in the container on Hawky's back. The bird flies up as it flies away to the destination it was sent. Sokka looks around the camp as he is a bit confused. "Hey, where'd Hawky go?" He asks. Zian grins as he sits on top of the mountain pass and looks up at the stars with a smile.

Well that's the end of this chapter sorry if it is so short but oh well. As always thank you all so much for reading I really as always truly appreciate it. Thank you so very much hope to see you all in the next chapter. Bye.