Ch 25 the chase
Landing on the ground, everyone jumped off of Appa.
"Great spot for a campsite. The ground is so soft." Toph said.
"That's not grass. Appa is shedding." Sokka pointed out.
"Ew, gross." Katara said.
"That's not gross. It's just part of spring. You know, rebirth, flowers blooming, and Appa gets a new coat!" Aang said.
"It's not that bad, Katara. It makes a great whig!" Sokka said, showing Katara the large amount of hair on his head, in a tall pillar.
"And it makes a great beard." Aang said, pilling the hair on his face.
"I thought that stuff was itchy." Lin said.
"Oh, right." Aang said, who then started to scratch his skin.
"I'm just glad we finally have another girl in the group because you two are disgusting." Katara said, unamused.
"Does anyone have a razor, because I have some hary pits." Toph said, raising her arms; showing the fur emerging from both her sleeves, under her arms.
Lin faceplamed herself, not believing that her mother was like that.
That night, everyone helped set up camp, except Toph. She was laying against a rock, hand on her bag.
"So, Toph, when setting up camp, we try to divide the work." Katara said.
"Hey, don't worry about me. I'm good to go." Toph said.
"Well, actually, what I'm trying to say is, uh, some of us might fetch water while someone else might set up the fire pit or put up the tent. Even Momo does his fair share." Katara said, as Momo dropped some nuts into her hands.
"Katara, I'm fine. I can carry my own weight. I don't need a fire, I've already collected my own food, and look, my tent's all set up." Toph said, setting up her tent via earthbending.
Annoyed, Katara continued.
"Well that's great, but we still need to finish…"
"I don't understand. What's the problem here?" Toph asked.
"Never mind." Katara said, and walked away.
Lin pulled Katara aside.
"Give her a few days. She'll come around." Lin said.
"You think so?" Katara asked.
"I know. She's stubborn, but she does care about her friends. About us." Lin said.
"Doesn't look like it." Katara said.
"Katara, she's been cooped up in the house for 12 years. She wants unhinged freedom right now. Coming from my experience and memories, she'll turn around. Just give her a couple of days." Lin said.
Katara sighed in trepidation.
"Okay. I trust you." Katara said.
"Good. Lets get some rest."
As they were sleeping, Toph woke everyone up.
"Something's coming!" She says.
"I see it too." Lin said, using her seismic sense.
"What is it?" Aang asked.
"It's an avalanche, but also not an avalanche." Toph said.
"Your powers of perception are frightening." Sokka said.
"Should we leave?" Katara asked.
"Better safe than sorry." Aang replied.
Leaving on Appa, they turned around and saw black some approaching them.
"What is that thing?" Katara asked.
Aang flies Appa farther until they land on a hill. Upon touchdown, Toph jumps off and walks away.
"Well, see you guys in the morning." Toph said.
"Actually, can you help us unload?" Katara asked.
"Really? You need me to help unload Sokka's funky smelling sleeping bag?" Toph asked.
Sokka sniffed his sleeping bag, and fell backwards, passing out from the smell.
"Yes. That and everything else. You're part of our team now, and…" Katara started.
"Look, I didn't ask you to help unload my stuff. I'm carrying my own weight." Toph said.
Lin snorted in disgust.
"That's not the point." Katara said, approaching Toph.
"Ever since you joined us, you've been unhelpful and selfish." Katara said.
"What? Look here, sugar queen. I gave up everything I had so that I could teach Aang earthbending, so don't you talk to me about being selfish!" Toph said.
Toph sat on the ground, and earthbent a tent around her.
"You're the second person to call me sugar queen!" Katara said, when Toph fully encloses the tent, locking Katara out.
"Whoever's the first one, must have good reason." Toph countered.
Katara moved erratically around the tent, hitting it with her knees and elbows.
"Should we do something?" Aang asked.
"Hey, I'm just enjoying the show." Sokka said.
"Okay, okay, you both need to calm down." Aang said to Katara.
"Both? I'M COMPLETELY CALM!" Katara shouted, turning to Aang, showing a very hysterical face.
"I can see that." Aang said, and quickly walked away.
Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph were in their sleeping bags, watching the stars.
"The stars sure are beautiful tonight." Katara said.
"Shut up, Katara." Lin growled, trying to sleep.
"Too bad you can't see them, Toph." Katara jested.
Toph responded by earthbending Katara upwards to land on Sokka.
"How's a guy supposed to sleep with all this yelling and earthquaking!" Sokka exclaimed.
"That thing is back!" Toph said, walking towards the group.
"How far away is it? Maybe we can close our eyes for just a few minutes." Sokka said.
Lin looked upwards to see the black smoke, way to close for comfort.
"I don't think so, Sokka." Aang said.
Once again, they were forced to flee on Appa.
"What is that thing?" Katara asked.
"And how does it keep finding us?" Toph asked.
"I don't know. But I'm going to make sure we completely loose them." Aang said.
Appa flew fast and far, eventually landing on a circular plateau. Upon landing, he dumps his company on the ground.
"Okay, forget about setting up camp. I'm finding the softest part of dirt, and going to sleep." Sokka said.
"That's good, because Toph wasn't going to help anyway." Katara spat.
"Oh, I didn't realize that baby still needed someone to tuck her into bed." Toph said.
"Come on, guys. Something is after us, and we don't know what or who it is." Aang said.
"Could be Zuko. We haven't seen him since the north pole." Katara said.
"Who's Zuko?" Toph asked.
"Some angry freak with a pony tail who's tracked us all over the world." Sokka said.
"What's wrong with pony tails, pony tail?" Katara jokingly asked.
"This is a warriors wolf tail." Sokka defended.
"That's a pony tail." Lin said, cuddling with Aang.
Momo continues to chirp, signaling the group of their unknown purser.
"That's impossible. There's no way they could have tracked us." Aang said.
"I can feel it with my own two feet!" Toph said.
"Lets get out of here." Katara said.
"Maybe we should face them. Find out who they are. Who knows, maybe they're friendly." Aang said.
"You'll bet your own life on it?" Lin bitingly asked, assuming a combat stance, waiting for their pursuers.
The train stopped, and three giant lizards come out of the train.
"It's those three girls from Omashu." Katara said.
"We can take them. 4 on three." Toph said.
"Actually, Toph, there's 5 of us." Sokka said.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't count you Sokka, you know, no bending and all." Toph said.
"I can still fight!" Sokka furiously said.
"Okay. Three on four, plus Sokka." Toph said.
Mai, Ty Lee, and Azula move up the hill on their lizards when Toph uses earthbending against them. A large rumble of earth descends from their position, blasting earth everywhere. The lizards simply avoid them and continue, unimpeded.
"Well, we wanted to see who they were. We found out. Now lets get out of here." Sokka said.
Everyone left, except Toph and Lin.
Toph raised a large wall of earth, and Lin turned the ground under the lizard into thick sand, completely immobilizing the lizards.
That didn't matter, though. As they made their escape, Azula shot a bolt of lightning and blew a hole in the wall made by Toph.
"I can't believe those girls followed us all the way from Omashu." Katara said.
"I still think we could have taken them." Toph said.
"Are you crazy? The crazy blue firebending and the flying daggers are bad enough. I'd rather not know what the third girl can do." Katara said.
"She's a chi-blocker." Lin said.
"How'd you know?" Katara asked.
"Just guessing." Lin lied.
"Spirits, that's scary." Katara said.
"Not as bad as you think. Yes, your bending is gone, but only for a few hours. There's a unique side effect, though. The part of your body that's been impacted by the attack becomes more flexible beyond your imagination. Hey, Aang, maybe that's what the monks did to you in your training." Lin teased.
"What are you talking about?" Toph asked.
"The two have yoga practice whenever they can." Sokka said.
"Hmm. Must get real personal." Toph casually said, causing Lin and Aang to lightly blush.
"Only a bit." Aang said.
"Only a bit? It's more like a grope-fest then a yoga session." Katara said, exaggerating.
"Wow. Hey, Aang, I'm interested in a 'session' with you and Lin." Toph jokingly said.
"No." Lin quickly said, not wanting that image in her head right now.
"Just saying." Toph said.
The run rose, and everyone saw it.
"Oh no, the sun is rising! We've been up all night with no sleep." Sokka said.
"Sokka, we'll be okay." Aang said.
"Are you sure!? I've never not slept before! What if I fall asleep now and something happens? And something always happens!" Sokka says.
"He's right. Something does happen." Lin said, rapidly blinking her eyes to stay wake.
"Every time we land, those girls are there, so we just keep on flying." Katara said.
"We can't keep flying forever." Aang said.
After 30 minutes, everyone was exhausted to even think of a plan. They nodded off to try and get some sleep, only for disaster to strike.
"What's going on!" Toph yelled, as she found herself grabbing the saddle for dear life, falling towards the ground very fast.
"Appa fell asleep!" Aang shouted.
"Not good!" Lin replied, using her cables to hold onto the saddle.
Aang crawled to the front of Appa's head, grabbed one of the eyelids, and let it slap the eyeball, waking Appa up.
Appa flies into a forest of trees, then crashes onto the ground, leaving a trench behind him.
Lin jumps off the saddle and collapses on the ground, falling dead asleep. When she woke up, she noticed Toph was gone.
"Where's Toph?" Lin asked.
"She's gone." Aang said, grabbing a chunk of shedding hair from Appa.
"She'll come back." Lin said.
"What makes you so sure?" Aang asked.
"Because I'm still live." Lin said.
They force-shed the hair off of Appa, and Aang grabbed some and put it in a bag.
"You sure Appa's okay to fly?" Katara asked.
"He'll be fine as long as we leave his saddle and all our stuff here. I'm going to use Appa's fur to make a fake trail and lead the tank off course." Aang said.
Climbing on Appa, Lin found it hard to hold onto the bison, having nothing solid to hold onto. If Appa suddenly moved, they would go flying off the bison.
"Toph couldn't have made it too far." Sokka said, as they looked over the ground, searching for their friend.
Momo began to screech, alerting the group.
"Oh shit!" Lin shouts, as they see Mai and Ty Lee approaching them on their giant lizards.
"How the hell did they find us?" Katara asked.
"Appa, we need to go faster!" Sokka shouted.
"He's too tired!" Katara said.
"Not good, not good!" Sokka exclaimed.
Mai threw her stilettos at Sokka, who dodged them.
"We just need to make if across the river!" Sokka says.
Appa plows thru the river and across the ground, falling asleep again.
"We made it!" Sokka says, hugging his sister.
"No, we didn't." Lin says, as their pursuers crossed the river on their giant lizards.
Katara attacks with waterbending, and kills Ty Lee's lizard, but the acrobat quickly jumps off the lizard and heads for Katara.
As the two fight, Mai throws her knives at Katara, but Lin grabs the knives with her metalbending and throws them back at Mai, who quickly dodges it.
Sokka approaches from behind Mai and knocks her out with his club.
"Where's Katara?" Sokka asked.
Katara was busy trying to keep Ty Lee away from her, using short and quick water bending jabs and strikes, but Ty Lee was still closing on Katara.
"Hey!" Lin shouts, catching their attention. Ty Lee faces Lin, who has her armblades extended.
Ty Lee quickly runs forward to attack and jumps upwards to attack from above.
Lin dodges the strike and raises her arms to defend as Ty Lee moves close to use her chi-blocking attacks.
Little did Ty Lee know, Lin had plenty of experience with chi-blockers and expertly dodges her attacks.
Ty Lee performs a high kick against Lin's head, but Lin simply backbends away. The acrobat watches in surprise, seeing the much older woman nimbly move like she would.
Standing up from the backbend, Lin fires her cables at Ty Lee and throws her against a tree trunk, knocking her out.
"And stay down, you bitch." Lin mutters.
Getting on Appa, they headed to follow the fur trail left by Aang and found the trail ending at an abandoned town.
"Follow me." Lin said.
Lin follows her siesmisc sense and enters a building, seeing Aang pinned by some rubble, and seeing Azula about to strike him with her firebending.
Lin fires her cable at Azula and prevents her from killing Aang. She then fires another cable that breaks Aang free from the rubble.
Turning on her attacker, Azula throws a blast of fire at Lin, forcing her to run. Lin runs, and lets Azula get ambushed by Sokka, almost losing her head.
With Azula outgunned, she starts to retreat from her enemies, only for Toph to attack from behind, shaking the ground under Azula's feet.
"Thought you guys could use some help." Toph said.
"Thanks." Katara said.
Azula gets up and runs, shooting blue fire at them. As she runs thru an alley, Iroh hits her head on with his belly, knocking Azula off course. She is cornered by her enemies, and has nowhere left to go.
"Well, look at this. Enemies and traitors all working together. I'm done. I know when I'm beaten. You got me. A princess surrenders with honor." Azula says, raising her hands.
Iroh looks at Toph, then notices Aang.
She's with the Avatar?
Azula takes note, and fires a bolt of blue fire at Iroh, striking him in the chest.
Zuko screams in shock, and everyone attacks with their bending. Even Sokka throws his boomerang at Azula.
Azula creates a shield with her fire, and the combined energy causes a large explosion, sending ashes and embers all over the town.
Everyone notices Zuko kneeling next to Iroh.
"Get away from us!" Zuko shouts.
"Zuko, I can help." Katara says, offering her help.
"Leave!" Zuko screams, throwing a wave of fire over their heads.
As night fell, they land on a mountain side and get the well-deserved sleep.