Little Soldier Boy

Scams

Katara sat alone on in the camp while momo slept in her lap and Zuko was kindling the fire with Aang, she hasn't spoken much since they came back only for Sokka and Toph to be gone next.

She heard their footsteps coming and looked over at her friend and brother, she had to apologize for her actions and words.

"Hey Toph, I wanted to-" "Katara stop," Toph put her hand up quickly. Her heart sank and prepared for tophs insults again.

"You don't need to apologize, I was the one that was being stupid, I think I stepped way over the line," Toph went on with her head down in shame. "These scams are out of control and I'm done with them,"

Katara smiled softly and took a deep breath.

"Actually I wasn't going to apologize, I was gonna say I want to pull a scam with you," Katara smirked a little looking at her.

Sokka and aangs heads whipped to the girls shocked at what they were hearing.

"What?! You wanna pull a scam?" Tophs jaw dropped.

"Not just any scam, the ultimate scam," she agreed.

Zuko raised a brow impressed but shrugged it off with a proud look on his face.

"It'll be just me and you, one last scam, what do you say?" Katara swung her arm around tophs shoulders.

"I'm in," Toph grinned excited. "What's the plan?"

"This wanted poster says you're worth a lot of money, ten times more than you've made in all your scams," Katara grabbed the wanted poster reading the reward of tophs crimes. "I'll turn you in and get the reward and you can metal bend yourself out of jail,"

"Just You and me?" Toph hummed approving the scam.

"Just you and me," she confirmed with a nod and the two girls started walking towards the village and left the boys behind.

"Did you know about this?!" Sokka squeaked at the fire bender.

"Mhm," Zuko nodded poking the fire with a stick.

"And you didn't think to mention it to us?" Aang cried out with his hands in his hair stressfully.

"I just might've brought up that she could play the system instead of a scammer, just as corrupted," Zuko shrugged not looking up.

"Doesn't this feel unsafe to either of you?" Aang started pacing back and forth.

"I gave Katara my knife and those are two master benders, you guys have to trust them," the second oldest rolled his eyes annoyed.

"It's not that I don't trust the girls to not pull it off but what if something goes wrong?" He whined as Sokka sat with Zuko.

"Seriously what's with the bird? Why?" Zuko glared at the messenger hawk on sokkas shoulder.

"I think he'll come in handy thank you very much," Sokka grinned.

Zuko shook his head with a sigh and looked at the sun to see the time, he was one to make sure no man is left behind, making sure he could cover someone's back even if no one had his. Katara and Toph were part of that oath now.

Aang and Sokka started to talk again but never noticed Zuko get up and leave the camp to go down to the town to catch up with Katara and make sure the plan went through. He whistled a little as he looked around at the sky and the nature around him with his hands in his pocket.

He noticed people leaving the town in a hushed hurry but they weren't carrying anything that would be for days, he didn't think there was a flood coming, it was a dry summer. He frowned and could feel tension when officers were clearing shops and homes.

When he locked eyes with one officer there was something dangerous.

"Hey you!" The officer pointed and Zuko immediately ran to the side alley with a few officers behind him.

"Hey stop!" The officers shouted, Zuko jumped on a barrel and leaped to grab onto the roof to escape.

"Go around!" Zuko heard them yell as he ran across the roof tops opposite direction.

"What the hell?" He hissed to himself slowing down and found himself middle of the town.

Zuko looked up with a dark glare seeing the bronze statue of fire lord Ozai standing high and mighty, taller than all the buildings. What arrogance fumed off the dictator.

He jumped down not hearing the officers anymore and listened for any one else. It was silent. How can a town evacuate so fast... and why?

Zuko heard a rock get kicked behind him and as soon as he turned to see what was approaching, a metal fist slammed across his cheek and knocked the teenager back across the ground, rolling the in dirt and land on his back.

His head whipped back up ignoring the ringing in his ears and the taste of blood in his mouth. It was that metal armed assassin.

"Azula sent you, for the avatar?" Zuko grunted pushing himself up.

The assassin glared down at him.

"For me," he sighed confirming standing straight. How the hell can he kill this guy? He had no swords, no knife, his bending would be extremely difficult to kill him.

The assassin took off in a run straight towards Zuko making the teen gasp to move out of the way, he made a small flame and sharply turned it to a blade shape hoping to make some type of mark on the man. He jumped back side to side as the assassin tried to use his metal claw to swipe at the soldier.

"Zuko!" He heard Aang behind him.

"Get back! Go find the girls!" Zuko yelled back but made the mistake of looking at them, taking his eyes off the assassin.

Aang saw the action of the assassin inhaling and targeting Zuko. He stomped forward to move the earth under the fire bender closer to them before the explosion hit him.

"Are You okay?!" Sokka cried out as he caught Zuko when they met in the middle.

"We gotta move!" Zuko looked back at the man and they all cried out seeing another explosion locked on them. 

The three boys hid behind a cart as Aang helped Sokka back up.

"This guys to good! He shoots fire out his brain!" Sokka whined unsure how to beat him.

"Kill him if You can, you have a sword," Zuko told him sternly.

"We can't kill him we have to just get rid of him," Aang put his hands up quickly. "We should split up he can't chase us all,"

Zuko shook his head and took off first so the man didn't see him split off from the group while Aang and Sokka went to the sides. The cart where they hid got blown up next. The assassin went after Aang instead.

Zuko went back to the roof to get an advantage and Aang bounced up to reached the roofs but the assassin blew up the roof at Aang and sent the avatar flying.

Aang yelled as he flew and hit the fire lords statue before slamming into the ground. He groaned in pain, hearing metal steps coming towards him.

Zuko was about to jump to save Aang from an explosion, but instead water froze around the man's head.

"Katara!" Aang smiled brightly seeing the girls.

"Let's get out of here," Toph and Katara yanked the avatar to his feet.

Katara saw Zuko on the roof and he motioned for them to follow him, he nodded running after Zuko when he jumped off to the ground and took the lead. Toph created a Boulder to shoot back at the assassin to give them more time.

"Let's lose this psycho!" Sokka cried out as they started to spring back to their camp.