Author's Note: Woah... I can't believe I'm already on Chapter 8! Thanks to all my faithful reviewers so far! Please don't be afraid to comment, I like those. :)

Morning came faster than Katara had hoped. Before she knew it she was waking up a very grumpy Toph and sitting her on the bed to talk to her.

"What is it, Sugar Queen?" Toph mumbled, sleep still evident in her voice.

"Toph, I was doing some thinking last night—"

"What else is new?" Toph asked sarcastically.

"Toph, I'm serious."

"Fine, sorry, continue," Toph swatted her hand.

"Well, I remembered the day we got into the crash," Katara continued with a slightly annoyed tone. "I remembered, there was this woman, not much older than me, and she was driving in the other car. She was the one that hit us. Maybe…maybe she has something to do with this. Maybe she purposely hit us!"

Katara waited for Toph to respond, but no sound came from her friend.

"Toph?"

"Katara, are you out of your mind?"

"Toph!"

"No, seriously, Katara. You honestly think we're going to stalk this woman now? It was already crazy enough looking for Aang."

"Hey! I thought… last night," Katara was at a loss for words.

"I know what I said last night," Toph replied. "But it doesn't excuse my criticism."

"But I have reason for thinking that!" Katara defended. "I…she looked… well, not angry exactly, but more like determined, really nasty."

"And you think… that's why she…what exactly do you think she did?"
"I don't know, kidnap Aang, maybe?"

"Kidnap him? Why?"

"Well, maybe I'm wrong, but… the doctor said she was really personal, she was only in the hospital for a while, and no one really knew much anything about her."

"Still…" Toph started.

"I know it sounds crazy, but that hasn't stopped you from coming here with me in the first place!" Katara pointed out. "Please help me find her. She might at least know something about all of this."

Toph sighed. "Fine, I'll help."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Katara hugged her friend. "I'll tell you what I remember about her so we can split up and cover more ground. Call me if you find anything."

--

Katara pushed her way through the crowded city. It was rush hour and so it was really hard to get anyone to stop for some questions. Katara hadn't gotten any calls from Toph so far, so she guessed she hadn't found anything, either. It had already been about two hours, and Katara's faith in her plan was growing thin.

Katara sighed, rubbing her temples from the growing migraine forming in her head because of all the noise. New York City was such a busy place! Suddenly, she heard the familiar sound of her cell phone ring tone coming from her jean pocket.

Since Caller I.D. was no longer of any use to her, Katara had given each of her friends their own ring tone so she could know who she was answering to. This way, she could still avoid unknown callers.

Katara recognized the sound as one of her friends ring tones, but she realized it wasn't Toph's. She felt somewhat disappointed by that, and when she lifted the phone to her ear, she wondered which of her friends was calling.

"Katara?"

The voice on the other line was crackly and a bit high-pitched. Katara instantly knew who it was.

"Sokka!"

"Katara, how are you doing with the search?"

Katara was baffled as to why her brother was calling her, especially about this. However, it was good to hear his voice.

"Not so well. Toph and I split up a while ago."

Sokka said something back but Katara couldn't hear over the car horns and people talking. She walked past a subway and it got even harder to hear his voice.

"Hold on," Katara yelled, putting her finger in the opposite ear to hear better. "I can't hear you. I'm going to find someplace quiet."

It took a while but finally Katara stumbled across an alleyway that looked empty and it was very silent in there. She turned into it and unplugged her ear.

"There, Sokka, now what were you saying?"

"I was sayingthat you and Toph shouldn't split up! Haven't you ever heard of the buddy system? It's not safe—"

Katara laughed. "Sokka, I'm fine. Really, Toph and I can handle fine on our own. It's just to cover more ground. We're looking for this woman who might have been involved in Aang's disappearance. We have our cell phones so we can meet back up later."

"Katara, that's beside the point. A cell phone isn't going to save you if you are ambushed by some freak that—"

"Sokka, I can sense with my feet. I know when…"

Katara trailed off. She suddenly realized that she felt a heartbeat from behind one of the dumpsters. She had at first assumed it was a stray cat or something, but it was heavy and had been surprisingly still since she had entered the alley. Her heart raced and Katara felt her legs freeze and refuse to budge.

"Katara?"

She felt her hand shaking on the cell phone and her voice sounded more nervous than she had intended.

"Sokka, I'm going to have to call you back."

The weight shifted from behind the dumpster. Like it had been waiting for this moment.

"Katara, what's going—!"

Snap.Katara shut her cell phone and slowly started walking out of the alleyway. She hoped that whoever was behind her didn't hear her leaving.

The weight was suddenly flying towards her and Katara's eyes widened. Her feet caught up to her senses a second too late and the mystery person grabbed her by the arms before she could run.

Katara thrashed and kicked, but at that moment the first thought that came to mind was when she was running away from her father, and he had caught up to her. If she couldn't escape her own dad, who loved and cared for her, how could she escape this stranger?

Terrified, Katara clawed at the arms that held her down. She dropped her cell phone and began to thrash more violently. She elbowed the person in the ribs, and doubled over, letting go of her.

Katara began to run as fast as she could. Arms reached out for once again, but they missed. Katara heard the sound of Toph's ring tone from behind her. Her eyes widened and she slowed down for one second, realizing she had left behind her only means of finding Toph.

One second was all that was needed for the stranger to catch up to her. He wrapped his arm around her neck and pulled her up to his chest. Katara choked and gagged, thrashing uselessly in the air.

"Stop it," the man hissed. His voice was gruff and sounded unused. "Stop moving so much."

Katara thought that was a very stupid thing to say, because her mind was so blank that was about the only thing she could think of. Staying limp was out of the question… her body was moving in its own accord. Not that she minded, she didn't want to stop moving anyway. She struggled fruitlessly for a breath of air.

Katara noticed her cell phone, still ringing, on the ground. The man started walking back slowly, and he accidentally… or maybe purposely… stepped on it, silencing it. Katara panicked and threw her head back, successfully head-butting the man in the jaw. He fell over and grabbed her by the legs.

"You're not leaving yet," he demanded.

"Just take it!" Katara whacked him in the head with her bag. He stumbled back before getting a good grip on it. Katara sprinted forward once again and ran towards the entrance of the alleyway.

She didn't much care over the loss of her bag. She had taken a cheap, thrift-store-bought, hand-knit bag only containing some face powder, lip gloss, and a couple of dollars. Nothing else was in it.

She reached the entrance when the man caught up to her again. He threw the bag at her chest.

"I don't want that," he said huskily.

Katara's heart pumped faster.

"PERVERT!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. Heads turned, exactly what Katara had wanted.

"N-no!" Katara could practically hear the man's blush. "That's… that's not… I-I'm sorry!"

Katara was confused. This man seemed so… evil just one second ago. Now she felt as if she had just falsely accused an innocent man off the streets, or… an innocent boy. Now that he was stuttering, she realized he sounded not much older than her.

She raised an eyebrow.

"I-I'm not what you think, I swear!" the boy promised.

"I don't care, just leave me alone!" That being said, Katara sprinted down the street, happy to notice that the boy wasn't following her.

Before he was out of ear-shot, however, Katara thought she heard him mutter, I thought that girl was blind… why is she so fast?

--

"KATARA!" she heard her name being called. "KATARA!"

Katara felt Toph's familiar vibrations running down the sidewalk towards her. She had been looking for her friend for hours, and it had been Toph who found her.

"Katara, what happened?" Toph demanded. "I called you twice and you didn't pick up! And when I called you again—the phone was unavailable! What in the world was going on?"

"Toph, calm down, I'll explain!" Katara reassured her. "I was—attacked by the weirdest person ever."

"Attacked?" Toph shrieked. "By who? Are you hurt? What did he do?"

Katara shrugged. "It was just a boy, not too older than me. He tried to drag me to the back of the alley, I think, but I wouldn't let him."

Toph punched Katara in the arm. "Way to go, Sugar Queen. I didn't know you had it in you."

Katara smiled, rubbing her now sore arm. "At first I thought he wanted my bag, but then I couldn't figure out what he wanted. He said he wasn't who I thought he was."

"What did he mean by that?" Toph asked.

"Who knows?"

There was a long pause between the two girls.

"Well, I'm hungry. Let's go get something to eat and I'll tell you why I called." Toph offered.

Katara nodded. "That's a good idea."

She had just realized how hungry she was. Being ambushed was hard on the stomach.

The two headed into a nearby restaurant. It was small and most people were at work by this hour, so they were instantly brought to their seats by a kind lady with a soft voice. She seemed young, like she was still in college.

Neither of the two girls said anything to each other until they got their menus, where Toph decided to speak up after she decided what she wanted to eat.

"So, Katara, about the call," she began.

"Oh yes, you were going to tell me about that," Katara recalled.

Toph nodded. The waitress came over and gave them their drinks, and they ordered their food. As she walked away, Toph continued.

"Well, I did what you said, and I started asking around," Toph started. "Man, was that hard. Anyways, I was walking around for hours until I finally came across a gas station. I asked one of the men that worked there if he had seen the woman you described, and he did."

Katara's heart raced in excitement. "Someone saw her? Do you know who she is?"

"No," Toph replied. "But I do know that she goes into the night club across the street from the gas station every night."

"Really?" Katara started to wonder what kind of person this woman was.

"Yup, I think we should follow her there tonight," Toph told her.

"Tonight? But… but we don't even know what her vibrations feel like!" Katara reasoned.

Toph shrugged. "Good point. I guess we'll figure it out when we get there."

"Toph—"

"And don't you dare say my idea is insane. I've put up with all of yours, now you do what I say for once," Toph ordered. "Besides, you may regret not coming with me. What if, I don't know… Aang is with her… for some… strange reason."

Katara sat with her mouth open for some time before shaking her head and smiling. "Fair enough," she agreed.

The waitress came over to them not too long after and handed them their food. The girls took their sweet time finishing, savoring the fact that they didn't have to ask around the city anymore. Katara tasted victory and it felt good. She was right—New York City wasthe place she needed to look in. She couldn't wait to tell Sokka and Hakoda she was right.

This thought suddenly reminded her of something.

"I need a new phone," she groaned.

"What?" Toph asked with her mouth full of food.

Katara put her head in her hands. "I need a new phone. The creep in the alley stepped on my old one."

"Oh, that stinks," Toph sympathized.

"I know."

"Here, tell you what, I'll get you a new phone after this, okay?" Toph offered.

Katara lifted her head. "You would do that?"
"Hey, I'm rich; it wouldn't really affect me much."

Katara's face brightened. "Thank you so much, Toph!"

She stood up and hugged her friend from across the table.

"Okay, I get it, Sugar Queen!" Toph yelled. "You're getting your hair in my food!"
Katara sat back down and smiled. "Sorry."

Toph grumbled, finishing her meal.

--

"Pick out whatever you want," Toph said.
Katara raised an eyebrow. "Now that I can't see… I can't really tell them apart."

"Hey, that's an upside, huh? Now you don't have to get a really elaborate one because you can't even use half the features!"
Katara slumped, "Oh yeah."

She ended up picking out a pretty standard phone—mostly good for calling, nice and original. She did this for two reasons: one because of what Toph had pointed out, and two because she didn't want to waste too much of Toph's money.

The girls reached their hotel room and the first thing that Katara did was call Sokka back.

She was annoyed because now she didn't have anyone to set in the "ring tone I.D." for her anymore. She had Sokka put them in for her, but now the only friend near her was also blind. She would have to wait a while longer before she could know who was calling again.

"Hello?"

"Sokka!"

"Katara? Where are you? What happened that made you hang up so suddenly?"

Sokka sounded angry, and Katara couldn't blame him.

"Sorry, Sokka, I did something really stupid. Toph and I won't split up again, I promise. But I'm okay now, so there's nothing to worry about."

"Nothing to worry about? You're okay now? Katara is this some kind of joke? Tell me exactly what happened."

Katara sighed. "Sokka, what time is it?"

"Don't avoid my question!"

"I might not have a lot of time, just answer my question."

"What? Katara where are you?"

"Relax, Sokka, I'm at the hotel! I just want to know what time it is!"

"It's around five o'clock. Why do you need to know?"

"I have somewhere to go tonight."

"Where?"

Katara giggled. "If I told you, you'd freak out."

"Which is why I want to know," Sokka sounded deadly.

"We're just going to be out looking for Aang," Katara reassured.

Sokka didn't seem to buy it. "Katara—what's happening?"

"Katara!" Toph whined. "Are we going or not?"

"Just a minute, Toph," Katara told her. "Sorry, Sokka, got to go."

"Again?" Sokka sounded upset. "Why do you keep leaving so suddenly?"

"I'll call you tomorrow night, okay?"

"Okay, don't forget!" Sokka warned.

"I won't. Love you."

"Love you, too. Bye."

"Bye."

Katara hung up and turned to Toph.

"You know, it's a little early to be leaving. Don't you think?"

Toph smiled. "Yeah, but it seemed Snoozles was giving you a hard time, so I decided to speed up the conversation."

Katara laughed, "Good thinking."

Author's Note: Ah, good ole' over-protective Sokka. ;) It gets epic from here. Sorry about the boringness leading up to it. It's misleading! Well... if I can write the story well, it'll be epic. Let's hope I don't fail!
Sorry about all the grammatical/spelling errors. I did my best!

Reviews help me write better. CONTRIBUTE! :)