Creation began on 02-19-11
Creation ended on 05-25-11
Avatar: The Last Airbender
The Princess and the Irresponsible Times
A/N: Yue gets to experience several moments of how fun doing wrong things can be sometimes, with Katara, like always, acting as a voice of reason or conscious.
"…So, technically, this guy is a Firebender, but he doesn't use any of the regular forms," said Sokka to Zuko, some four days after Team Avatar (or the Gaang) had arrived to the deserted island that served as the home of Avatar Roku for Aang to learn more about how the war began (and to their great surprise of the history that Aang revealed to them, Roku and Fire Lord Sozin, who at the earliest time was known as Prince Sozin, were once best friends) and finding the best methods of how to end it.
"Yes," Zuko repeated, relaying everything he knew about the Firebender that could cause explosions. "Those that knew of his background say that he discovered this ability of his when he was younger; nobody knows how old he was when this ability was discovered. But since he didn't know much of control at the time, he…accidentally caused the loss of his right arm and leg and got those metallic replacements for them."
"That probably explains why Toph felt he was like a metal man," went Jet, who, along with the others, was also listening to the given details. "Those limbs of his must be made of extremely dense metal."
"Well, that certainly gives us an edge at being warned of his presence with Toph knowing he's nearby," said Yue, who then added Aang, since he was learning Toph's Earthbending skill that she learned from the Badger Moles. "…And if he only knows how to cause explosions, he leaves himself vulnerable to those that can get close enough to hurt him."
"Not many people could ever get close enough when exposed," Zuko told her. "In every Agni Kai match he participated in, his opponents could only try and protect themselves from his continuous assaults; it was like they weren't dealing with a Firebender…but a force of nature. Before he entered the first one that he won, he got his third eye tattooed to mark where he released his explosions."
"Wait a minute, you said that his ability to cause explosions also relies on his breath control, like all forms of Firebending?" Katara asked him. "And that he must always be standing?"
"So far. He's never been seen causing explosions while sitting or laying down. Besides breath control, Firebending also relies on Chi, like all other forms of bending."
"Oh, I wish we could just block his Chi, then he couldn't get us," said The Duke, "and what do we call him, anyway?"
"Sorry. I don't know his name," Zuko informed; this was the only piece of information that he lacked. "And he doesn't talk."
"You mean, he can't talk?" Yue asked him.
"No. He just doesn't speak much. Silent to the point where people think he's mute."
Soon enough, all eyes were on Longshot, who embodied a similar trait, for he was quiet to the point of mute since he never spoke as much as they did.
"Not that not speaking is a bad thing," Toph uttered. "It's not so different from my Earthbending: Waiting and listening before striking."
Sometime after the discovery of the history of the explosions-capable Firebender, the group picked up their individual training sessions for the upcoming invasion plan. Aang was studying more Earthbending skills with Toph without the use of his eyes, with Katara adding Waterbending to intensify the danger; Jet was practicing more with his hook swords against Zuko's broadswords (this was due to the possibility that Zuko's Firebending was now extremely weak to the point of gone, and none of them could understand why yet), and Sokka and Yue were also practicing their swordsmanship against each other, after doing a little engraving on their respective swords: Yue engraved 'Lady' on hers while Sokka engraved 'Gentleman' on his, thus marking them as a lady and a gentleman on the battlefield in the future. The young Water Tribe couple were getting better the more they practiced, though neither was willing to test their skills against Jet or Zuko, who picked up their skills without masters of the art much faster than they had with one.
Aang, improving his Earthbending by using Toph's ability to see through the ground, was dodging and evading every rock and whip of water thrown at him.
"Nice work, Twinkle Toes," said Toph to him. "You visualize…and then attack!"
She threw another rock at him and missed, instead hitting Katara and knocking her into a pit of mud.
"Hey!" She yelled. "Maybe Toph should take her own advice."
"What's the matter? Can't handle some mud, Madam Fussy Britches?" Toph taunted her, only to receive a wall of water and dirt cover her in mud.
"I'm sorry, did I splash you, mud slug?" Katara teased her.
Yue and Sokka then noticed that the masters of Water and Earth were, instead of training the Avatar, were trying to fight each other, with the Airbending Master himself watching from underneath his headband. They were confused as to what was going on here.
When the girls were on their backs and about to rise to go at it again, Yue stopped them with, "I thought you two were supposed to be training Aang, not fighting each other."
Salvaging the little dignity she had left for the day, Katara uttered, "Very well, pupil. I believe that's enough training for today."
Toph then bended the mud off herself, save for some that was on her back under her shirt.
"While Katara cleans up, let's go have some fun!" Toph told the others.
"I'm all for it," Yue said and followed the Earthbender.
Sokka, Aang, Jet and The Duke followed them, leaving Zuko, Smellerbee, Longshot and Pipsqueak to help Katara mind the fort. They walked down to the town that Zuko informed them of was called Fire Fountain City due to the large statue of Fire Lord Ozai built in the center. Along the way to wherever they were heading, they noticed some Messenger Hawks flying around a store.
"Look at all of those Messenger Hawks," said Sokka. "I've been thinking of getting one. That way, I could send people messages from a distance."
"I gotta say," went Toph, "I wouldn't mind the idea of not talking to you."
"Heh-heh-heh!" Yue cracked up, but when she looked at the last bit of money they had left from the restocking of food supplies from the other islands, she sighed. "We only have two silver pieces left, so what should we get?"
Suddenly, Toph went, "We can get more money."
"Huh?" Sokka and Aang stuttered.
"Right there," she pointed over down toward some people on a lower street.
"It looks like something of interest," Yue added in, interested in seeing.
It turned out that there was a commotion because of a man moving cups around so fast that it seemed he was skilled at it. People were dealing money to get more money, but they were losing to the guy.
"This is where you're seeing people are at a disadvantage," Toph explained to them. "They always guess wrong because the dealer moves the rock at the last second. But I can feel where the rock is because of Earthbending."
Soon enough, the dealer spotted Toph and uttered, "You there. Care to play a friendly game?"
Toph then responded, "I'm blind, sir. How could I possibly play?"
"Oh, you don't have to see to be lucky," the dealer told her, and she navigated her hands toward the table and laid down one of the remaining two silver pieces.
The dealer then moved the cups around, shifting the stone in order to better Toph's chances of losing, but what he didn't know was that Toph was a girl that couldn't be fooled. When he stopped, the blind Earthbender guessed correctly at which cup held the stone.
"Flame-yo, Toph," Aang praised her as the dealer tossed her some silver pieces to add on to the one she nearly lost.
"Fancy guessing," the dealer praised her. "You're good at this. But…would you like to make the game a little more interesting?"
"Interesting? How?" Toph asked him.
"Let's say you toss in one of your friends' fine sword and I'll put up twenty silver pieces, and that's more interesting." The dealer tried, but that had Yue worried.
Toph then grabbed Sokka's sword and said, "I'll do it for forty pieces."
Oh, no! Yue thought. Not Sokka's sword. He needs it for the upcoming invasion. We won't be a lady and a gentleman on the battlefield.
The dealer then shuffled the cups even faster than before, moving the stone underneath. Toph could feel the vibrations from both stone and cups, and when the dealer made his move to remove the stone from the game, the Earthbender made a small gesture with her right hand to keep the stone in the game. She then pointed to the cup on the left side of the table.
"Sorry, miss, but (he lifted up the cup, and, to his horror, found the stone was still there)… Huh?!"
"I won!" Toph cheered, just as Yue quickly took back Sokka's sword.
-x-
While Katara wasn't as vindictive against Zuko like she was a little bit during the months after they all discovered Aang had returned from the one-hundred years of being frozen in an iceberg, she worried over the loss of his Firebending; it had been decided on that he'd be the one to teach Aang, even though he wasn't a master in the art, but gained the upper hand in battling other experienced benders and often defeating them. Zuko had mentioned that sometime after Aang's return, he fought Zhao to an Agni Kai and defeated him. Not many benders could ever defeat a master without more practice or experience…or unless the master lacked many qualities that were needed to be the best of their practice.
"Any luck, Zuko?" She asked him, seeing him trying to Firebend on the side of the cliff they were camped on.
"No, nothing," he answered, unable to even make fire shoot out of his hands. "I don't understand why this is happening."
Before she could say something of encouragement toward him, a cry of "We're back!" caught their attentions and they turned to see Aang, Toph, Yue, Sokka, Jet and The Duke returning, carrying with them a lot of provisions. Katara and Zuko, who knew that they all only had two silver pieces to their group knew there was no way that they could've gotten all of that with just minute funds.
"Whoa! Where'd y'all get the funds to buy all of that?" Zuko asked them, just as Sokka placed one of the ceramic containers of rice in his hands.
"Toph won us money," Yue expressed, setting down some bags full of vegetables and fruits. "We were walking down this street and we met this guy that challenged her to a game where he moved around these cups real fast and hid a stone under one of them."
"She used Earthbending to win the game of chance. A total original." Sokka praised.
"Oh…so, she cheated," Katara uttered, not so pleased with hearing this.
"Hey, I only cheated 'cause he cheated. I cheated a cheater. What's wrong with that?" Toph asked her.
"I'm just saying that this isn't something we should make a habit of doing," she explained.
"Why? Because it's fun…and you hate fun?" Toph asked again.
"What?! I don't hate fun!" Katara expressed, and then placed Momo on her head. "See? Fun."
Yue gave a small chuckle; Katara was fun when she wasn't serious…and when she tried to be fun when she was serious, the results weren't very good.
Aang then made a promise to her, on his position as the Avatar, that they wouldn't make a habit of doing scams on others.
-x-
Avatar promises don't really have much value in Aang's case, being young, still, Yue thought, helping Sokka and Aang throw dice across the ground, using Toph's Earthbending to rig the game and scam people. This is actually very fun. The thrills, the excitement. I can see why Toph enjoys it.
Then, the scamming moved up from the dice rolls to manipulating the outcome of a test of strength game, which Toph won due to Earthbending. Sokka, about three days later, had worked out a plan with Yue to con some wealthy Fire Nation man into extortion after pretending that both she and Toph were injured by his carriage, getting a few sacks of gold pieces; the guy had thought that Sokka was an authority figure due to his fake moustache and beard. They were now rolling in the dough that they had obtained from the scams, which, while putting an end to their financial problems, made Katara all the more serious; even when they were in a war they were trying to end, there was time for fun, but the Waterbending Master was one of the few that stayed serious about wanting the war to stop.
"Uh, guys, I think these scams have gone too far," she told them about three days later, while Yue was dividing her share of the bronze, silver and gold pieces in separate pouches that were also being dividing into funds for emergencies and funds for fun. "If we keep doing them, something bad is going to happen."
"Oh, could you stop being such a sourpuss and lighten up for once?" Toph asked, unaffected by the Waterbender's concerns, and to prove so, she tossed her a silver piece.
Katara caught it and responded with, "What, and act like you? Like some wild child?"
"Yeah, and then you'll see how great we got it. We're traveling around the world, making easy money, having fun half the time, and with no parents telling us with to do."
Yue had to agree with Toph on that, to a degree; with no parents around, that is. But then she realized something that may have been accurate: Toph's behavior has been very out of line much of the time since she left home, and maybe this was her way of expressing her freedom of being away from her parents because of their concern for her.
But it wasn't like they were only scared for her, she thought, remembering the expression on her father's face. They were probably even afraid of her a little because of her bending abilities.
"Ah, I see," went Katara, coming to a similar conclusion as the Tribal Princess. "You're acting this way because your parents aren't around."
"Whatever," Toph uttered, uncaring.
As Yue continued to divide her share of the funds, she listened in on how Katara was saying to Toph on how her parents were controlling her and how her behavior was her way of expressing how she's glad to be far away from them, though Toph was less than happy to hear her assume this and walked away from her.
"We already have some third-eyed Firebender after us," said Jet, helping himself to an apple.
"Speaking of the third-eyed Firebender," went Sokka, "The Duke and I came up with a possible alias for him so we can identify him."
"We're thinking of calling him 'Boom-Boom Man'," The Duke revealed.
"I don't know, Sokka," said Aang to them. "You might wanna try something shorter."
When Yue finished her dividing of funds between emergencies and fun, she took some of her fun money and headed off to town.
"See ya later," she told them, but that prompted Sokka to come with her, taking some of his own share of the loot with him.
-x-
Leaving a weapons shop, Yue had just purchased a large shield; since she was being trained in the use of a sword, a defensive weapon would be necessary for protection. As she walked down the street to where she'd last seen Sokka, she past a sign with a picture of a person that seemed vaguely familiar to her. She stopped and went back to look at it. It was a wanted poster with a crude description…of Toph…with an alias that kind of matched up to her current status with her dissociation with her parents.
"Uh-oh," she gasped, removing the poster from the wall with the other posters. "This isn't good."
"Hey, Yue," she heard Sokka calling her, showing up by her side with a Messenger Hawk on his right shoulder. "I'd like you to meet Hawky."
"Sokka, who does this look like to you?" Yue asked him, showing the poster.
"That looks like… Uh-oh. This is bad."
They returned to the campsite and found Toph counting her share of the funds they scammed from the villagers at the Fire Fountain City.
"Toph, Yue and I found something that you really need to look at," Sokka told her, presenting the poster to the girl.
"Well, it sounds like a sheet of paper, but you're probably referring to what's on the sheet of paper," Toph responded, reminding Sokka that she was blind.
"Oops," he sighed.
"It's a wanted poster of you, Toph," Yue explained. "They're nicknaming you "The Runaway"."
This discovery, however, left Toph impressed rather than disgusted.
"A wanted poster! That's so great! "The Runaway". I love my new nickname. Is there a picture of me? Does it look good?" She asked them.
The Water Tribe couple looked at her and back at the poster, seeing the resemblance, despite the crude (and almost demonic) detail.
"Yeah," went Yue, "it actually does look kinda good. But you're missing the point. I'm starting to believe that Katara's right. These scams we've been pulling are drawing too much attention to us."
"Oh, don't you two be such worrywarts like her," Toph told them. "Try to think of it this way: Now that you have more money, you can help improve the invasion plan."
Yue and Sokka looked at each other before the Water Tribe boy uttered, "Well, I did have this idea of making armor for Appa for the invasion."
"Grr!" They heard said Flying Bison, as he lied down several feet away from them.
"To embrace the Air Nomad culture," added Yue, giving up and accepting the Earthbending Master's bribe to keep quiet about the poster.
"Grr!" Appa growled again, obviously sleeping.
"Here's a little extra so y'all can get a nice map of the Fire Nation," Toph said, cheerfully, as she gave them a sack full of the gold pieces. "On second thought, make it an atlas."
"I do like expensive atlases," Sokka expressed, causing Yue to pat him on his back.
"Of course you do, dearest," she sighed. "You'd best keep that poster hidden where no one's going to find it, Toph."
"No problem," Toph told her, placing the poster in her clothes.
-x-
Five days went by, with some quietness going around, but as Yue was learning how to use her new shield with Jet and Zuko, Toph and Sokka (whom had found some time to acquire the materials needed to construct Appa's armor and piece them together, little by little) were still scamming, which was driving Katara very unhappy about their lack of awareness to potential danger.
When the two came back, just as Katara had Waterbend some soup into Appa's mouth, she questioned where she already knew they were at and what they were doing.
"Back from more scamming again, are we?" She asked Toph, hiding no hint that she was angry.
"Yes, we were," she answered, expressing that she herself was angry that the Waterbender was getting in her business again.
"And I suppose you don't think what you're doing is dangerous at all?"
"No, I don't."
"Really?"
"Yes, really."
Yue and Zuko stopped practicing and saw Katara pull out a piece of parchment paper that looked similar to the one the Tribal Princess and Sokka showed Toph.
"Then, what is this, exactly?" Katara asked Toph, showing it to her.
"I don't know!" Toph shouted at her, infuriated by their lack of recollection that she was blind. "Why don't you tell me! I mean, seriously, what's with you people? I'm blind!"
"It's a wanted poster of you. "The Runaway". Is this what you're called now? Are you proud of this?"
Uh-oh! Yue gasped, wondering how Katara got a hold of the poster if Toph had hidden it.
"…You went through my stuff, didn't you?" Toph asked Katara, questioning where she got the poster. "You had no right!"
"Your stuff was messy," Katara defended her actions. "I was straightening up, and I just so happen to stumble upon it."
"You're lying, Katara!" Toph told her, able to tell due to her Earthbending (even Yue couldn't keep a secret from the Earthbender so long as she was on the ground).
"Fine, I'm lying," Katara had confessed, and Toph snatched the poster from her and walked away. "Hey! Don't walk away while I'm talking to you!"
This has got to stop, Yue thought, listening in now on how Toph compared Katara to a mother; she was always bickering, always concerned, always controlling and so on. What?! That's not entirely true. Katara's nobody's mother. I mean, yeah, she's responsible, concerned and everything. But that's true with any one. This is a war.
It became obvious to the Tribal Princess that the Waterbending Master had convinced her, in her own way, to stop with the scams, but the Earthbending Master was less than willing to listen, even to the point of comparing her to an actual mother.
"…I don't act that way," Katara had defended, but Yue had felt that was little more than a half-truth; ever since she joined with the Gaang, she mostly saw Katara act in a responsible manner not so different from a mother. "Sokka, do I act motherly to you?"
"Oh, no!" Sokka had gasped. "I'm staying outta this!"
"What about you, Yue?" She asked the Tribal Princess. "Do I act like a mom?"
Yue nervously turned away and uttered, "Well, uh…you, uh…"
She couldn't speak her mind about what was, from her point of view, the truth.
"Don't turn away and stand up straight when you talk," Katara instructed her.
"Yes, ma'am," Yue responded, doing such, but Toph walked away, saying that she couldn't stand being around her.
"Well, I can't stand being around you!" Katara told her, also walking away.
The others were left wondering why the two benders couldn't find a means to get along without shouting at each other for less than a few minutes.
-x-
"…They still not talking to each other?" The Duke asked Yue, sometime later in the day, as they were all just sitting around and not doing much.
"Nope," she answered the little boy. "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Why are you called The Duke? Wouldn't it be easier to simply call you Duke?"
"The Duke's been my name since before I can remember joining the Freedom Fighters," he explained; all he could remember from before was never having a home of his own…or other family relatives to speak of.
"Okay," she accepted this explanation, and then noticed Sokka and Aang talking about using Hawky for something. "Excuse me for a moment."
She got up off the ground and went over to see them. Sokka was writing something on a piece of paper with a humorous grin on his face; he had obviously planned something.
"What are you doing?" She asked them.
"Sokka came up with the idea to make it seem as though Toph wrote an apology letter and had Hawky send it to Katara," Aang answered her as Sokka finished writing said letter.
"That won't work," she told them.
"Huh? Why not?" Sokka asked her.
"One: Katara will know that it's your handwriting, Sokka. Two: Toph can't write because she can't see words. So, the apology letter's pretty useless."
The boys groaned in complete realization of what she was saying.
"How could we forget that Toph can't write?" Sokka asked.
"Yep, we're idiots," added Aang. "I guess we should try to send Toph a letter and say it's from Katara."
"You're gonna have a similar problem with that," Yue told him, feeling like she did the day they arrived at Ba Sing Se and met Joo Dee. "Toph can't write because she can't see words, and if she can't see words that are written on paper, she can't read them. To read and write words, one must be able to see words, and Toph can't do any of the three."
Sokka then apologized to Hawky and got up off the ground and walked away.
"If it makes it any better, I'll go talk to Katara," Yue told Sokka. "You go talk to Toph. We'll meet up later on."
"Good idea," Sokka praised her, and left to find Toph.
It wasn't difficult to find Katara; Yue had seen her going down to an open cave underneath a nearby cliff sometime earlier. It seemed like a nice setting…for a little date or social activity in Yue's point of view. But when she finally found Katara, she wasn't entirely prepared for what she saw: The Master Waterbender was sitting in the water up to her upper torso, which was exposed! Yue had no clue that she had left to go bathing, and it left her feeling flushed!
"Oh!" She gasped, and Katara looked over and saw her. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to disturb you…or peep. I, uh…just wanted to talk about what happened earlier."
"There's nothing to be embarrassed about, Yue," she told her. "We're both girls."
Yue agreed that that much was true, and sat down with her legs in the water; with some of the money obtained from the scamming, she was able to acquire some clothes that allowed more freedom of movement than the school outfit she had stolen with the others when they needed disguises.
"…So let me see if I got this," they both overheard somebody that sounded like Toph speaking above their heads atop the cliff, "you brought me out here to explain that your sister's not as annoying as I make her out to be. Right, Sokka?"
It was Toph, and she was speaking to Sokka.
"Nope," Sokka responded, "she's pretty much a pain in the blubber sometimes."
Yue gasped and looked at Katara, who was scowling in anger. The Tribal Princess nodded in the negative, not wanting a potential fight to occur.
"She's always gotta be right about certain things, and then she gets bossy, involved in your business and such," Sokka added, and Yue couldn't believe that she was hearing this; it was completely out of line and disrespectful.
"I don't know how you put up with it," Toph said to him.
"Actually…I rely on it in my own way," the Water Tribe girls heard Sokka respond.
"I don't think I understand what you mean by that."
"You see, when our mom died, that was one of the hardest times in my life. Our family was a total mess in the months that followed…but Katara… She had so much strength. She stepped up and took on so much responsibility. She helped fill in the void that was left by our mom's death." Sokka had explained, which helped to calm Katara down and it impressed Yue that he could say such a kind thing about his sister.
"I guess I can see what you mean by that," Toph told him.
"I'm gonna tell you something that sounds a little crazy. Something I've not told anyone before. I haven't even told Yue yet, but, in all honesty, I'm not entirely sure that I can remember what my mother looked like. It really seems like, my whole life…for as long as I can remember…Katara's been the one looking out for me. She's always been the one that's just there, and now, when I try to remember my mom, Katara's is the only face I can picture."
Overcome with emotion, both Water Tribe girls shed tears.
"Honestly, sometimes Katara does act motherly," went Toph, sounding sad, "but that's not always a bad thing. She's compassionate and kind…and she really cares about me…the real me. That's more than my own mom ever did."
Yue covered her face to hide her tears and expression whilst Katara lowered deeper into the water.
PUNCH! Toph had punched Sokka in his left shoulder.
"Don't you ever tell them I told you that!" She told him.
"Hey, my lips are sealed," Sokka defended.
When the girls heard what they assumed to be them walking away, Yue inhaled and spoke to Katara, "You're a good influence for him. And…you are definitely motherly. You had asked me earlier that question, and I've answered you. But you're motherly in a good way."
"Thank you, Yue," she responded.
-x-
As day finally became night, the Gaang all regrouped at the campsite. Zuko, despite all of his attempts, couldn't get the campfire to rise up, even by a small notch. His Firebending wasn't gone, but had diminished to a massive degree.
"…At least you're still excellent in the use of your swords," said Smellerbee, hoping to cheer him up. "Surely, not many Firebenders excel in the use of swords."
"What?!" Aang and Sokka heard Toph gasp, seeing her talking with Katara and Yue. "You want to pull a scam?"
"Not just any scam," went Katara. "The ultimate scam. What do you say? You in?"
"You know I'm in," the Earthbender responded, and then Yue noticed the boys were looking their way.
"What's going on, Yue?" Sokka asked.
"I convinced Katara to try and pull a scam with Toph and I," she explained. "We're going to do it tomorrow. Obtain the reward money by pretending to turn Toph in."
-x-
The next day, outside of the Fire Fountain City, Katara, Yue and Toph were working up their ultimate scam.
"It's full-proof," went Katara, holding up the wanted poster. "It says here that you're worth a lot. At least ten times what you made in your other scams. We turn you in, collect the reward, then you Metalbend out of jail, we meet up at the rendezvous point, and we're home free."
"Let's do this," Yue said to them.
In less than an hour, the scam was playing itself out quite well: Toph was running away from Katara and Yue, whom had requested the aid of Fire Nation soldiers working in the town and had thrown a net toward Toph, capturing her.
"How could you two do this to me?!" Toph feigned anger, though she made it seem so real. "You betrayed me!"
"You brought this upon yourself," responded Katara.
"We had no choice," added Yue, and the soldiers dragged her away.
"You two did the right thing by turning in "The Runaway"," said the man that was the town's mayor.
"Sometimes, the right thing is its own reward," responded Yue.
"That's nice to hear you say that?" He said back to her.
"Though…we still want the actual reward, of course," went Katara.
"Right. Right this way, please."
As the Water Tribe women followed him, the Earthbending Master had been dragged to a holding cell made of wood, right next to a cell made of metal. Toph had been infuriated to find her sight stunted by the lack of solid rock beneath her feet.
"Hey, what kind of cell is this?!" She demanded.
"A wooden one!" The guard told her, and then she was left alone.
Meanwhile, as the mayor was opening a money box in front of the girls, Yue was getting a strange vibe in the air around them.
Something's not right, she thought, hearing the door behind them creak open.
"That's them!" The mayor uttered, pointing to Katara and her. "They're the girls you're looking for!"
They turned around…but had to raise their heads up at the mountain of the man they had encountered before: The Firebender with the third eye on his forehead.
"Uh-oh…" Yue gasped, wishing she had brought her sword as a precaution.
-x-
"Something's not right," went Sokka, having a bad feeling in his heart. "Their scam shouldn't be taking so long."
"I was thinking the same thing," added Aang. "We'd better go check on them."
Aang, Sokka, Jet, Longshot and Pipsqueak went to the Fire Fountain City while Zuko and the others stayed behind at the campsite.
-x-
In the wooden cell, the girls were quiet, not having anything to talk about…until Yue realized something quite serious.
"This is nothing more than a setup," she expressed.
"Well, we are trapped in a cell made of wood, Yue," went Toph and Katara. "What could you expect?"
"No, girls, not us. We're the bait. He wants Sokka."
"What? I can't believe this! I didn't anticipate this at all with planning the scam." Katara expressed. "But I still don't understand this: Why Sokka? I would understand perfectly if it were Aang, but why my brother?"
"Sokka assumes it's because of Azula," Yue explained. "Remember how you told me that Sokka injured her face with his boomerang before we escaped Ba Sing Se? She might've hired him to hunt him down and get rid of him."
"A woman scorned," said Toph. "Azula gets ticked by a facial injury and she sends an assassin after the guy that hurt her."
"People of royal blood will often resort to having other people do their dirty work for them if they don't want to soil their own hands," Yue told her. "Toph, hasn't your parents ever sent people to go find you whenever you go missing?"
"Many times over," the blind Earthbender revealed.
"You know, they're only concerned about you, even if they view your blindness as something you can't find ways around to do things by yourself. Maybe a bit too much than regularly. Okay, maybe way too much than regularly, and they probably don't try to understand that you're capable of handling yourself quite remarkably… Oh, great, now I'm sounding motherly."
"And people think I'm motherly," said Katara.
"Well, you are motherly…in a good way."
"And I wanted to prove that I can be fun to hang with."
"Katara, you are fun to hang with," Toph confessed. "If nothing else, you're fun to argue with."
"Ah-ha-ha!" Yue chuckled; that much was true, as it was always a bit funny how you argue with a young Waterbending Master like her.
-x-
"This place wasn't so quiet the last time we were here," said Sokka, as he and the others wandered around the Fire Fountain City grounds.
"Where do you think everybody ran off to?" Aang asked, and then head an inhaling sound and looked up at a roof. "Sokka, watch out!"
BLAST! A blast of explosive fire nearly caught Sokka, but Jet was close enough to knock him out of the way. The blast itself came from the Firebender that was after Sokka.
"It's 'Boom-Boom Man'!" Jet expressed, but hearing the designation left a sour taste on Sokka's tongue; it didn't sound right or do the enemy justice.
"I'm starting to think that's not a good name for him," Sokka told them as they ran to counterattack the assassin before he could put an end to them.
-x-
BLAST! The girls could hear the sounds of explosions going on outside and knew that a fight was being committed.
"What are we going to do?" Katara wondered.
"I'm not sure," Toph said, examining the durability of the wooden cage. "If only we had some water or rocks around. We need bendables."
"Toph, what about your meteor bracelet? You could make a saw with it, right?" Yue asked her.
"I left it back at the campsite," Toph sighed. "I was worried the guards would take it."
"Great," Yue sighed, but then noticed the sweat pouring from Katara's head. "Um, Katara? You can use the sweat on your head."
"Huh?" Katara went, confused.
"Sweat. Water. Bend the sweat!" Yue expressed, and Katara felt the sweat on her head.
"Of course!" Katara finally realized.
"Uh, Yue, you wanna fill me in?" Toph asked.
"If you're sweating, you're making your own supply of water," the Tribal Princess explained.
"Yue, you're a genius!"
They watched as Katara bended the ample amount of sweat and began cutting the wooden bars.
-x-
BLAST! The Firebender fired several more blasts at Sokka and Aang, but to no avail. Longshot managed to hit the assassin in the shoulder with two arrows, but was shocked to discover that the guy was quite durable; he pulled the arrows out of his shoulder and didn't even scream. BLAST! He fired more blasts at Longshot, who evaded them by hiding behind a building.
"This guy's really good," said Jet to Aang and Sokka. "Even if we hit him, he doesn't give in to pain."
"Try splitting up," Aang suggested. "He can't chase us all down."
BLAST! Another explosion forced them to split up and the Firebender had to choose between who he was going after first: The Water Tribe boy or the Avatar? While the Avatar seemed like the better target due to the threat he posed against the Fire Nation, Azula had pointed out that her main concern wasn't the Avatar but the Water Tribe boy, so his other targets were a secondary concern. He chose Sokka over Aang.
Sokka ran down the street, looking behind him to find the assassin coming after him! He guessed that Azula was very desperate to want him dealt with. Seeing that his path took him right to the fountain shaped like Fire Lord Ozai, he jumped onto the fountain and decided to at least acquire the satisfaction of destroying a landmark based on their top Fire Nation enemy. As the assassin got closer, he stood his ground on the fountain.
Come on, you colossal, Firebending mayhem, he thought. Come to me.
BLAST! The assassin fires and Sokka dodged, causing the explosion to demolish the statue of Ozai. Sokka fell to the ground, wishing he'd brought his boomerang and sword.
"Okay, maybe that was a dumb idea," he told him, groaning as he tried to get up, seeing the assassin now within three feet from where he was. "Uh-oh."
He was about to trigger another explosion against the Water Tribe boy…until a bolt of ice suddenly encased his whole head!
"Hey, Sokka!" Sokka heard his sister calling him. "He's distracted! Run for it!"
Sokka got up and ran toward the girls.
"What happened to you guys?" He asked Yue.
"It's a very long story," she expressed, now running as the Firebender freed himself from the ice.
BLAST! He fired at them three times and actually caught them, sending them flying to the ground.
"Aaah…ouch…" Yue groaned, bleeding a little from her forehead as she looked up at the sky. "Huh?"
The Firebender was about to put an end to them when another bolt of ice caught his head!
"Are you guys alright?!" Yue heard Aang's voice call out to them.
Getting up and shaking off the effects of nearly getting blown up and burnt, Sokka and the girls saw Aang riding a wave of water from the damaged fountain. The wave made contact with the Firebender and washed him off his feet.
"Now what?" Toph asked.
"We run!" Yue expressed, and they ran off to find Jet, Longshot and Pipsqueak before the Firebender freed himself from the new block of ice around his head.
SMASH! The assassin managed to shatter the ice and free himself, seeing that his targets were getting away again. BLAST! He fired at them, but only destroyed part of a building, which sent chunks of debris his way…and a tiny piece of sculpted concrete managed to hit him on his forehead, right up against his third eye!
Sokka, Yue, Aang, Katara and Toph found Jet, Longshot and Pipsqueak and ran for it before the Firebender caught up with them again, but said Firebender showed persistence; he was unwilling to let them get away.
Yue noticed that the enemy looked disoriented and wondered if he hated water, but her curiosity had to wait as he prepared to fire another explosion at them.
"Oh!" She gasped, turning around and raising her hands up, just as he was about to fire…and a strong gust of winds came and pushed the assassin backwards…and his explosion left tiny blasts that exploded around himself. "Huh?"
The assassin, once the explosions ceased, could no longer find them and was left with only failure.
-x-
"Hey, I got it now!" Sokka expressed to the others as they made it back to the campsite. "The perfect alias for that guy! "Combustion Man"!"
As they started to pack up and prepare to rest for the night and leave the next day, Toph expressed, "Good job, Sokka. Now, let's rest up so we can get out of here tomorrow before "Combustion Man" finds us again."
"It's catchy," Yue praised Sokka for his genius. "He makes things blow up."
As the night came, most of the group was already asleep, except for Sokka, Yue, Toph and Katara; the blind Earthbender had asked them of a great favor. So, while Yue was feeding Hawky in preparation for a long journey ahead of him, Katara was writing for Toph a letter to her parents while Toph herself was uttering the words she couldn't write down herself and Sokka was making sure that Hawky's message carrier was properly secured to the Messenger Hawk so that the letter wouldn't be lost. When all was said and done, Hawky was sent flying off into the silence of the night to his message's destination: Gaoling of the Earth Kingdom.
A/N: I apologize for the long wait again. As always, life's harsh realities get in the way of the pleasantries of fantasy. I don't know how long it'll be until the next chapter is prepared, but I hope to have it done in due time. Please, read and review. Peace!