Dedicated to Hotspur because I threw in one of her fave characters of all time... Meng.
Meng will be paired with someone by the end of the fic. Any reviews that guess correctly not only get the next chapter dedicated to them, but ALSO get a sneak peek at the Meng romance action.
Hint: It's someone already mentioned in the fic so far...
----------------------------------
Everyone wanted Toph to win... but will she?
Read on...
CHAPTER NINE: The Challenger
---------------------------------
The tough girl spat on the ground and Bumi smirked. She was feisty. Like a zebra-monkey in the wild.
Zuko, looking from the stands, screwed up his nose in disgust.
And he made out with this animal?
She was beautiful... the way her lip curled up though, and she stepped forward, widening her stance and shot out at the platform in front of her that Bumi was on.
It split in half and as the top sleekly slid off the bottom half, Bumi jumped down and sent huge vibrations rocking the ground, sending Toph's heels to dig into the ground to stop herself rocking with it.
"The problem is..." Bumi was saying thoughtfully, as he stomped his feet a couple more times and mounds twice the size of regular mole hills sprung up over the playing field. "I was doing that move when I was your age."
She felt each hill as they protruded out of the earth and then told herself if he was going to such lengths to distort the evenness of the playing field, so would she.
She kicked up her heels and a cloud of dust covered the air.
There were cheers in the stand... followed shortly by coughs as everyone struggled to get fresh air again. It would have been Aang's turn to shine, had he been back.
Katara sat in the stands and glowered at her boyfriend's absence.
Bumi fumbled in his robe pocket. He was wearing a robe this time, although it was untied and swaying greatly from all the action.
"A-ha!" He shouted as he brought out a pair of goggles from the pocket and put them over his eyes. He was always well prepared.
Toph knew what he was doing and had already sent three giant boulders heading his way while he was distracted.
Bumi knocked them all down well before they got to him, the robe hitting him on the ankles uncomfortably.
He took it off to free himself and threw it into the stands.
It hit Meng (there with Aunt Wu) who squealed with delight, hugged it to herself and then checked whether or not Bumi had big ears.
Aunt Wu had to assure her before she could say anything that it was due to old age and his ears weren't naturally big.
Perfecting his stance again Toph threw another few boulders at him to distract him, while bringing an extra one up from behind while he was busy with first set.
It wasn't too fast for the old dingbat though, and he threw up shields all around him before they hit.
When the danger was cleared he shot off the tops of the earthen tents and it caught Toph unexpected.
She heard his feet move but she couldn't predict where on the rock tent he would have cut the rock at and how big the pieces of earth that were coming toward her were.
She caught on fast but it was too late. One hit the top half of her torso and she was pushed so hard, her footing was lost.
She went down...
She went down hard.
Toph fell, and it was a final defeat as Bumi had knocked her right out of the ring.
A boy stood up boiling with rage from the stands.
"NO!" He yelled sharply, screaming at Bumi.
"That wasn't fair! You fight me for her, old man. Make it a fair fight!" he continued, almost roaring down to the tough Earth Bender in the ring.
All the annoyance and feelings Zuko had kept well hidden since his arrival in Omashu were now finally showing on his angry face and his clenched fists.
Bumi's eye found him and he retained his grin of lunacy saying calmly, "I accept your challenge".
He earth bended the boy down to the ring, to the playing field as Toph groggily awoke from the side.
As she watched the two preparing to fight each other, she was torn between feelings of wanting to win her own battles and of wanting him to be her hero. Between her pride and her secret penchant for a white knight.
In the end, her romantic side told her pride to shut up and watch and she was suprised to find a bit of Katara had rubbed off on her, as she now felt as if she had become a bit of a side-line bimbo for not trying to stop him.
For Zuko however, it was another battle about his honor.
What wasn't about his honor?
He valued his honor above all else, and it wasn't honorable or fair for him to be in love with a girl who was just about to become the Queen of Omashu by default.
She was supposed to be the next Fire Lord's lady.
He groaned. Why did things like this always happen to him? Why couldn't it just be easy for once?
Bringing out his swords he eyed the bigger, topless man with disdain.
This shouldn't be hard. He told himself. This shouldn't be hard at all.
--------------------------------
Don't throw rocks (is that a bit of a pun?) but Toph lost only so Zuko could play her hero. So, romantically speaking... it's not so bad she took a dive.
It's about time our overconfident Sifu was taken down a notch (and Bumi does rock... ok... that's a pun).
Aang's little problem will be up next. The most people that review seem to be asking for more Kataang... so I plan to deliver.
If anyone else has requests, feel free because there's only a few more chapters and a few more suprises to come... and requests will be considered.
Including some interesting new pairings...
SNEAK PEAK FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER:
"But you have to be 18 to read that! Our father just recently passed it down to Sokka!" She exclaimed in shock and then her expression turned to anger. "The trouble Sokka's going to get in just for letting you read that!"
"But it was good wasn't it?" Aang said in a very small voice.
It was Katara's turn to blush yet again. "Ok. Say if I don't tell anyone... you have to promise me not to share water tribe secrets with anyone... even Zuko."
Aang nodded. "I promise Katara."
She closed her eyes thoughtfully, "And you have to promise me to do it again."
They shared a grin.
"How about this instead?" he asked, grabbing her in a passionate embrace and kissing her more roughly than the kisses Toph and Zuko shared the night before.
-------------------------------------
If I haven't heard from you for a while, press review and let me know how you're enjoying the fic. It'd be nice to hear from old friends... :D and new ones...