Toph and Katara went back down to the village the next morning in order to complete their final scam, scheduling to be back by noon where we'd leave this place as to not get caught by the guards with so much money that wasn't exactly earned through hard, honest work. Sokka and I packed everything up, preparing to break camp whilst Aang worriedly watched the road which led to the village. It was past noon, which meant the girls were late.
"Do you think this scam of theirs should be taking this long?" He worried, making Sokka and I stop to look up.
"I was just wondering the same thing. We'd better check it out." Turning to Momo and Hawky who were both on the ground, he pointed a finger at them both. "You two behave. Appa's in charge."
"Be good until we get back. Appa, make sure they don't fight. Thanks for holding down the fort for us." Rubbing his face lovingly I then followed after Aang and Sokka after grabbing a water canteen I'd made for Katara with Fire Nation colours so that she could carry her own water with her like before instead of using her Water Tribe ones which stood out too much. Securing the canteen around my waist, I followed the boys into the village to find the place totally deserted.
"Where do you think they might be?"
"My guess if things went south, the jail. It's this way." I pointed, starting to take the lead as Aang looked around.
"Where do you think anyone is?" I thought it was a little creepy that everybody would suddenly disappear like that. What's going on? Suddenly, without warning, Aang called for Sokka and me to watch out before he flew at us, pulling us all out of the way of a blast that struck the ground and caused a massive explosion just where we'd been standing. "It's Sparky-Sparky Boom Man!"
"You know, I'm starting to think that name doesn't quite fit."
"That's because it's too long, genius!" I yelled in a panic as we scrambled to find cover and evade the onslaught of attacks that came one after the other, zeroing in on us. We weren't doing too well, barely able to stay out of his line of sight as he continued hunting after us.
"This guy is too good. He shoots fire from his brain!"
"We should split up. He can't chase us both."
"You kidding? We split up and he'll go straight for you Aang, you're the one he wants." I reasoned as I craned my neck to get a better look of where he was. "Damn it, I hate overpowered people. They're such a pain to deal with."
"I'll draw his fire, you guys go get Toph and Katara then we can get out of here." With the plan set, Aang split off from Sokka and I so I grabbed hold of him by the front of his clothes and darted in the opposite direction in order to get to the prison, but before we even made it out of the town square the girls were running towards us.
"Well I guess they didn't need our help after all." Sokka mused so I let go of his shirt. "We've got to get out of here before Aang gets crispy fried!"
"Oh no!" Seeing Katara's horrified expression, we all turned to see Aang slamming against the fire breathing statue of Ozai and fall to the ground. Without hesitation, Katara rushed forwards and I opened the cap of the water canteen, bending the water out and tossing it to here whereby she then sent it forwards with a rush, freezing it around the pyrotechnic's head before he could finish off Aang. "Aang, get up!"
"Let's get out of here."
"Couldn't agree more." We all bolted, Toph bringing up the rear as our attacker shattered the ice around his head and made to blast us, but she struck at him with a rock to give us enough time to split. Something must have happened because there was a loud explosion behind us but nothing hit, so we just continued running all the way out of the village to escape.
"Hey, I got it. The perfect name for that guy! Combustion Man!" Suddenly coming up with a more suitable name for the guy, Sokka sounded a little too happy considering the circumstances we were in right now.
"Good job, Sokka. Now let's get out of here before Combustion Man catches us!" Toph yelled as she overtook him.
"See? It fits so well." How did these goofballs always manage to get away from Zuko and everybody else who ever tried to capture them before? It really is astonishing, but I'm not about to complain. We left after saddling up Appa and flew to a new campsite, where after a quick dinner people settled down for the night, though Toph approached Katara to ask her help in writing a letter to her parents to let them know that she was okay and having the time of her life, and that they shouldn't worry about her. They used Hawky to send the letter, who flew off with it into the night, though they forgot to mention that to Sokka who started looking around for his bird.
"Hey, where'd Hawky go?" So much for a new pet, poor Sokka.
