He watched in disbelief from his spot on a boulder as his supposed-to-save-the-world charges swam in the lake they had recently discovered.

It was most probably the fact that they were on a deadline and was swimming, that made his jaw go slack.

Did no one care at all that they were in an exposed area?

What had happened to their schedule master?

Why had everyone let their guards down?

Was he the only one that worried?

"Hey, Aang! Cover up your arrows! What if someone sees you?"

Well, except for her.

Which was good.

Because he was starting to doubt they were who they said they were.

Those adventure stories Sokka told had sounded a little too much. . .

He frowned, crossing his arms.

Eventually, someone was going to discover them, and things wouldn't go as smoothly as they planned.

Casualties were not uncommon in war, after all.

There had to be some reason why these people didn't understand that very simple fact!

Right, remain calm.

Remain calm and not blow up in anger and fustration infront of children.

That was easy enough for him to-

"SOKKA! WHAT THE HELL?"

"What?"

He growled lowly, pushing himself off the boulder.

"Put some underwear on!"

Sokka turned a red very close to his coat.

He sat up arubtly, eyes darting around; trying to figure out where that feeling was coming from.

The one that sent shivers up his spine and made him feel like transmuting his blade.

Yes, the danger one.

He caught Toph's grim gaze.

"You feel that too?"

He nodded cautiously, standing.

"Guys. . . I know this might sound crazy, but it feels like a metal man is coming towards us."

He did not know that.

And it did sound crazy.

Unless the man had automail.

He clapped, transmuting a dome above their head while shooting Sokka out of his bed as the boy mumbled something that sounded vaguely like 'five more minutes and you can blow me up'.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance Sokka started yelling at him.

They did not have time for this!

Did he not understand their very dangerous situation here?!

"Shut the fuck up and look, Sokka!" he snarled, taking a step back as the attacker bombed his dome.

"This won't hold out for long. We'd better leave."

He completely agreed with Katara, and had taken to ignoring her brother.

"Alright."

"I distract him, you guys escape on Appa." Aang yelled over all the commotion.

He thought over his options.

Let his charge head into danger while he escaped, and risk letting Mustang find out, or protect his chrage like he was supposed to and boast in Mustang's irritating face.

Hm... the choice was so obvious he didn't know why he needed to think at all.

He created a small hole to peek out; if he was to capture his attacker, he would need to see him.

It was still dark, and the dust from exploding rocks were not helping.

But he managed to see an outline in a distance, and if he wasn't mistaken, that was his target.

He slammed his hands onto the ground, and blue alchemic light crackled, a fist shooting out of the ground to grab the figure.

He destroyed the dome.

A little too soon.

He cursed as he realized the figure was no man.

It was a boulder.

He had grabbed the wrong one.

Despite feeling a little put off and more than peeved at his mistake, he couldn't afford to whine now.

Perhaps later, over a warm fire or something.

He locked gazes with a man in the distance; a man with a deep frown and...is that an extra eye?

Well, obviously he had found who he had been looking for.

All thats left... is to transmute him in place.

He clapped, and trapped the man in a giant fist.

After double checking if this really was the attacker and not another damn rock, he turned around to face his charges.

"Or we can all just escape on Appa." Aang said with a pleased grin, bending over to pull him up onto the flying bison.

"That was random." Sokka commented, looking back as another explosion hit the air.

"I don't think so. I get the feeling he knows who we are."

"And that's why we need to cover our tatoo's from now on." he muttered, looking at Aang pointedly, who had the decency to shrug with a sheepish smile.

"Sorry...?"

"You'd better be sorry." he grumbled, turning away.