Last minute rectifications

Katara walked along the shore of the beach. "So how did you get into the enemy's camp..er crew?" She asked while walking.

Iroh took a deep breath as they half-jogged. "I was traveling with my nephew here when I noticed some men with a crest known by few as Sea Vulture, they are named this because like a sea-vulture they swoop in and steal children off of the coast of little towns unable to protect themselves, I did not think that they would have trade this close into fire nation colonies but I was proved wrong…."

Zuko spoke up, "You still haven't explained who this sand bender is…"

Daiken glanced at Zuko not quite glaring but frowning to match his displeasure at seeing him.

Iroh cleared his throat, "Daiken is a sand bending nomad…he serves as a bounty hunter and was commissioned to locate a child and return him to his parents…"

Katara looked at him, he was scarcely her height, and certainly just her age…yet had an occupation as a bounty hunter?

"How did you just happen to meet?..." Zuko said not believing the coincidental meeting being the answer.

Iroh glanced at Daiken's left hand that was uncovered by sand bandage wrapping, there was a tattoo that resembled a Pai-Sho piece.

"Let's just say, we know friends who know each other…." Iroh said glancing back in the direction they were going. Daiken in turn acknowledged the reference and didn't say a word either.

"Well regardless…" Katara said, "Thank you for stepping in…" Daiken didn't regard her by looking at her fully, he just glanced back at her and grunted showing his accepting the complement.

Zuko spoke again, "So when you went aboard their ship…" Zuko said, "..why didn't you flag me or tell me you were planning on impersonating them and sailing with them?"

Iroh shook his head, "That was an unfortunate mistake nephew…" he said. "We were boarding the ship to see if we could rescue any children already on board, but discovered the cells to be empty, and the ship began to leave port before we could return to deck, our only hope was to wait for them to dock someplace else, and try to find out where their destination was."

Daiken spoke up now, turning his attention to everyone;
"We over heard them above deck talking about coming to collect a larger load of kids with another ship, as well as some kind of…secret weapon…and that the ship we were in was going to be used to contain…We decided to pretend we were some of the crew to see if we could sabotage the transaction and save the hostages. We ran into the bad weather and ran aground, we were deployed to go look for a neighboring town for directions, I tied and gagged the remaining crew that stayed behind and ran north to see if I could locate the depot in case Iroh couldn't discover anything."

Iroh turned to Zuko, putting a hand on his shoulder,
"It was not my intention to leave you behind Zuko….I had to act based on what was happening….but I am proud to see you went with your heart and decided to go after the children out of your own independent decision…"

Zuko looked at Katara then looked away,
"Actually uncle I was looking for you…..it wasn't until I met her that I began looking for them…" he said with a hint of shame.

Zuko didn't feel Iroh's hand leave his shoulder, "Still you ended up making the right choice…and I couldn't ask for more seeing your end result." Iroh persisted.

Katara decided to let him and Zuko have their moment and ran ahead to Daiken, trying to get a bit more out of him.

"So um…." She started. Daiken didn't turn his head,

"Do you know any more about this "Secret weapon?" she asked. Daiken shut his eyes then looked at her, his stare wasn't menacing or threatening, but something about it unnerved her.

He got closer to as they walked and said in a tone lower then hers, "Don't tell the old man I told you…but the way they were talking….sounded like they were referring to a person…not a machine…"

Katara blinked,
"a person….?" She asked.

Daiken went on still a bit more hushed:

"Don't quote me on this either…" he said, "But my money is…..with the way talk has been circulating around this valley….they got their hands on the avatar…."

Katara gasped.

It was morning at the depot now,

Sokka and Longshot breathed deeply, him with the crates waiting to be sent out, Longshot on the other side of the complex with his bow, awaiting for said crates to be loaded onto barge that would take them to the ship…if it came…hopefully Katara was okay….and Jet too….Sokka had to admit he'd turned a nobility corner…at least in the less-ruthless way.

"Has the ship arrived yet?" asked Toph.

Sokka shook his head, "WELL?" Toph asked a bit louder.

Hit his forehead with his palm, "OH right…um no not yet…be patient… Katara knows what she's doing…." I hope…he thought.

Longshot was on the roof of one of the box like building, watching as crates and bags were loaded by beast, man, or crane to one end of the complex to the other…it was the perfect birds eye view…

Suddenly he saw the ship, it was coming out of the caves and headed into view slowly on the water. The man at the nose of the ship raved his colored flare.

That was the ship, it had to be, it was right on time. He took his bow and arrow from around his arm and began striking his flints on the arrow that he'd wrapped in a special cloth.

The ship began to creep steadily towards the peninsula, the guards at one of the towers began waving his flare to signal the ship it was clear, and the boat began turning around in the water as soon as it had space to do so, this was so that it could sail on without losing time later when it left.

After the ship was facing the cave it had just come out of, it stopped in the water, dropping anchor.

A ramp was ejected out of the side of the vessel and landed on the dock on the peninsula the towers were on.

Sokka saw all of this outside the warehouse window,

"Okay!" he said excitedly. "It's time!"

"Finally…" Smellerbee said, "It's depressing having to sit her quietly with all this poor kids sleeping around you."

Sokka quickly changed out of his Fire Nation costume and put it and the helmet behind some boxes. Then climbed inside one of the boxes with the lid already half open.
He was licked once again by a long sticky tongue of the aardvark. Sokka grumbled "If you give me away…." He said wiping his face, "I will strangle you with your own tongue!"

The Fire Nation loading men opened the large werehouse doors and began loading the boxes onto the cart they had waiting for it outside. One of them peered in the eye hole of the box Toph was in, and saw her playing possum amongst the other kids.

He nodded to his cohort they loaded the decoy boxes with actual animals on last. He looked in the peak hole of the last box, and his eye got licked by an extrodinarily long tongue.

"UGH!" he cursed, "Stupid creature…" he said shaking his fist as the cart was towed to the docks by the rhino deer. Inside the box, Sokka gave the aardvark thumbs up trying not to snicker.

Up top, Longshot was aiming his now flaming arrow at a set of barrels to the side with the Fire Nation emblum on them. He'd seen some men put some of said barrels onto the raft with the boxes his friends were in to be sent to the ship. The depot would fuel ships coming into port for a fee, and right now, that fee would be the perfect distraction.

As soon as he saw the raft safely take the boxes to the boat, and load them into it, he shot his arrow at the barrels then slide down a drain pipe on the side of the building, he hit the ground just as the whole lot of them exploded shaking the ground.

Now his job was to wait for Katara to help sneak him under water to the ship while everyone was fussing over the recently made fire.

But where was she?...

Suddenly he saw something that made his eyes grow.

Sokka had heard the explosion, that was the signal to jump out and over take the ship, they could feel it was already in motion.

He lifted the crate lid up and off and climbed out, "See ya Long tongue…." He said to the aardvark inside.

He quickly began pushing boxes off of the ones Toph and Smellerbee were in, "Quite!" Smellerbee hissed as one of the boxesfell to the floor with a thud.

Sokka helped her out, "Don't worry, everyone's on deck wondering what the explosion is, let's go!"

One of the kids inside began to stir, "Mommy…" she asked groggily. Sokka picked her up out of the crate.

"We're going to take you back to your mother, but you have to stay in here…okay…." Sokka said as affectionately and seriously as he could.

Toph was near the window of the ship. "Uhhh guys…." She asked. "Should they be yelling….it's a trap?"

Sokka peered out the window to see,…oh no…..about 15, maybe more... Fire Nation gliders, landing on the building os the depot on the opposite shore…..

Brago landed his glider on the roof of one of the buildings, after getting his feet he commanded "Help the men douse the fire and find out what's going on…and don't allow that ship to leave…I have a feeling they may already be here…"

Meanwhile inside the guard house, the two pay ups to the slavers were were arguing, between each other…

"Great….now we have an actual patrol showing up out of the sky…." The one of them who was a Docking Major said, his name was Feng. "I dont like this...the soldier I'd left to burry the body of the attempted escape' hasn't returned. If this is an inquiry check up...especially with these interlopers ruining everything...they'll find our hands in this without a doubt. And theres no one here we can shift blame to because only we 4 know about the opperation..."

The informant of the group sighed, "What do we do?..." he said looking up.

After a bit of silence the Major replied, "Blow it up…"

The informant and and the young cadet looked at their superior… "Blow it up?" they said gasping. The man strode over to the window, looking at the guard house next to them burn.
"We have to…or it's our heads…if they find out that our hands been in this…for as long as it has been…..we're finished…" he said.

The dirty informant rubbed his chin looking out the window at the last of the Fire Nation patrol climbing down the roof of the building next to theme, "Alright…." The informant said, "We'll say it was Earth Kingdom extremists….they'll buy that…"

The younger one of the three didn't say a thing. "Alright…" their superior said. "You take Riai here and get aboard that ship…."

The man nodded and left the room, leaving the young guard inside still, "Sir…" he said.

"That's an order…" the superior said, "Your just as guilty as us…..you think they'll go any easier on you?"