Exploding Through Dimensions

Chapter 11: Combustion Man

"Katara maybe Uraraka's right. Let her have fun with her rocks, besides I'm in no rush to have her yelling at us again."

"If you want, we can help you look." Uraraka offered getting on her feet with Mina as she moved her bowl away.

"You bet."

"Sokka?" Katara turned to see her brother already begin to doze off again. "Wake up!"

"Huh? What, did somebody call me?"

"What's wrong with you?" Aang asked, fondly scratching behind Momo's ear who was sitting on his shoulder.

"Huh what?!" Sokka quickly sat straighter in panic." What's with all the questions?"

"Huh?" Tilting his head, Aang continued to stare at Sokka with a confused frown. "You just look tired like Appa is all."

"What me?!" Sokka awkwardly grinned waving his hand. "Why do you say that? - what do you know? - You don't have any proof!"

"O..k." Aang turned to Katara for an explanation to which she just shrugged since she already had given up a while ago.

"You said something didn't you?" Sokka pointed his finger and suspiciously squinted his eyes at the innocent looking lemur.

"What's that?" Mina's eyes widened when they saw something coming out of one of the temple walls.

"Toph! What happened?!" Katara frantically ran over to her as she emerged.

"M-my feet got burned!" Toph was already covered in dirt, clearly from digging herself through the dirt and her swollen eyes displayed that she had been crying.

"What? How?" Aang asked as he helped her.

"Well, I kind of went to see Zuko earlier." She sheepishly admitted rubbing the back of her head. "And before you say anything I thought he could be helpful to us."

Pressing her lips together to try and keep from scolding her, Katara knew that Toph's condition was more important at the moment. By the look on Tophs face Katara already knew that Toph was well aware of how she felt once Toph turned her gaze away and Katara began to try and heal her feet.

"I thought that if I talked to him then maybe we could work something out."

"So he attacked you?" Sokka asked.

"Um...well he did, and he didn't." Toph cringed when she saw their unconvinced expressions. "It was sort of an accident."

"But he did fire bend at you?" Aang frowned.

"Yeah."

"See!" Sokka pointed out crossing his arms in front of his chest. "You trusted Zuko, and you got burned. Literally!"

"It's going to take a while for your feet to get better. Just wish I could have worked on them sooner." Katara soothingly rubbed her back knowing she was probably still in a lot of pain.

"Yeah, me too." Toph gave her a grateful smile.

"Alright look Zuko's clearly too dangerous to be left alone. We're going to have to go after him."

"Sokkas right." Aang reluctantly said. "I hate to go looking for a fight, but after what he did to Toph I don't think we have a choice."

"He's pretty crafty so we'll have to find a way to capture him." Sokka thoughtfully rubbed his chin.

"Maybe just invite him back here. He's already offered himself up as a prisoner once anyways." Toph said as Aang and Sokka helped carry her towards what was left of the fountain.