Inner Fire - ATLA fanfic

The Mines

"...Father" Toph stared in shock at her father

"Bossman Lao? You told me that you didn't have a family" Satoru questioned

"That's correct" Lao replied "This girl is not my daughter"

"What?!/Mr Beifong, how could you say such a thing?!/Liar!/ You're kidding me right?!" The Gaang were all in uproar as Lao turned away from Toph who remained silent

"Wait. So he really is your dad?" Satoru asked Toph

"Satoru! Mind your own business!" His uncle snapped "Haven't you screwed up enough for one day?! Get everybody back to work!"

"That "Everybody" you're referring to? They fled the building. We just had an earthquake remember, and everybody's scared" Sokka explained

"Plus, the production line is...well...I'm gonna need some time to get it up and running again. A lot of time" Satoru hung his head in shame as his uncle glared at him.

"Both production lines out of commission?!"

"I-I'm not sure. The benders' line might still be okay" Satoru muttered

"Then you tell those cowards outside if they want their jobs, they will get back to work! I can replace every single one of them within the hour!" Loban yelled, "We've got deadlines to meet!"

"Yes, uncle" Satoru walked away and Toph turned to her dad again.

"Father..."

Lao ignored her, turning to Colonel Mongke "Guards, escort this confused young lady and her friends out of here. And make sure they don't come back"

"Father!" Toph called out but was once again ignored.

"Hey, don't ignore her!" Zira yelled

She began marching up to Toph's father but Colonel Mongke quickly blocked her path.

"You heard the man. Just because you're royalty doesn't mean you get to do whatever you want. So you wanna do this the easy way or the hard way, Princess?"

Zira glared at him, gritting her teeth in anger as she ignited a flame in her palm.

"Avatar Aang, aren't we leaving?" Yee Lee asked

"The man in charge said we have to go and not come back" Xing Ying added

"No. We're not leaving until I talk to somebody about the location of this refinery!" Aang declared

"We're not leaving until I talk to my dad!" Toph added, getting ready for a fight.

The Rough Rhino's all smirked maliciously.

"You fellas need some backup?"

"The more the merrier"

"All right, then" Colonel Mongke smirked, igniting two flames in his palms "The hard way it is"

*

"We need to get them out of the building, away from the workers" Aang stated

"That's a whole lotta big, burly men. You guy's sure we want to this?" Sokka asked, looking nervous.

Colonel Mongke sent large streams of flames at the Gaang but Zira jumped in front of them, deflecting the fire away safely.

"Toph, can you create a slide beneath their feet?" Aang asked as Zira continued to protect them from the flames.

"You got it" Toph stomped her foot and the ground beneath Colonel Mongke's feet shot up in a slope, sending the man off his feet.