Catalyst

Chapter 10: Bags and Baggage

After the sun passed its highest point in the sky and it was just starting to cool off, Toph sensed the Water Tribe siblings sprinting towards her and soon heard Sokka shouting through the brush, "We gotta go! We gotta go!"

There were many sets of feet heading toward them—at least twenty, as far as Toph could tell, maybe more, and she was itching for a fight. Aang grabbed his staff while Toph grinned and stepped forward into her wide defensive stance. A few paces behind her, Zuko stood from where he had been leaning against Appa's side watching Aang and her practice. Appa shook himself and gave a low growl.

Toph slid her right leg forward and punched at the same time, directing the earth toward the soldiers. Though nothing immediately happened on the surface, the earth below shifted and cracked until a pillar shot up right where the first soldiers stepped, sending them flying back. But Toph counted more soldiers as their distant pounding footsteps grew closer, announcing their locations.

A firebender near the front of the pack stopped short and punched, no doubt sending a fireball her way. Toph brought her arms up and a barrier of rock grew in front of her, standing as a shield against the oncoming attack. She felt Aang make a sweeping motion with his staff, and the fireball never connected with her rocky shield. "I've got this!" she called with more than a touch of annoyance.

"Sorry!" Aang replied, his voice now coming from somewhere above her and moving towards the soldiers. She heard small tree branches breaking and knew he was probably jumping from tree to tree.

Zuko came to Toph's side as the Water Tribe siblings ran up to her. Katara panted, "There's a whole lot more coming. We need to leave!"

Toph laughed and they all looked at her. "Seriously? If we run from some simple lackeys, what chance do we have against the Fire Lord? We can take them!"

"No, we need to—wait, where'd Aang go?" Katara asked.

A second later, dull thunks sounded and she sensed several of the closest Fire Nation soldiers getting bombarded with large fruit but his only seemed to slow them down.

Aang dropped down from the trees and said, "If we don't have to fight them, let's not—"

"Watch it!" Sokka and Toph shouted in unison.

Behind Toph and to her right, Zuko took a step back and raised his hands in defense. Katara made a movement and Toph heard the resulting sound of steam. "You're welcome," Katara said to him.

"I didn't need your help," he growled.

"Yes, you did," Katara's tone matching his.

Another blast hit a tree beside Toph and its heat washed over her. Okay, maybe they had a point about leaving, but they could still take them down if they wanted. "But—"

Sokka interrupted, "Why don't we have this discussion someplace else? Preferably on Appa?"

Taking no time at all, everyone rushed back to the small clearing Appa had landed in and climbed up onto the air bison. After a snap of the reins by Aang, and a quick "Yip, yip," they were above the trees again.

"So who's going to explain to me why we just ran from twenty or so soldiers we could have beaten?" Toph demanded, arms crossed.

Still catching her breath, Katara said, "There were a lot more than twenty, Toph. That whole city was crawling with soldiers. I think everyone who lived there originally had been driven out. Besides a small market, there wasn't anything that wasn't ruled over by the Fire Nation."

Sokka added, "I think it was some kind of staging area for attacking Ba Sing Se. There had obviously been some heavy equipment there and lots of empty space for machines. Lots of mechanics lounging around now since there's nothing to take care of."