The Fire Prodigy {ATLA}

{32}: Combustion Man

"Hey," I said, walking back with everyone else, accompanied by Sokka.

Katara and Toph glanced up to look at me at the same time. "Hey."

"Look guys, about what happened earlier... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said all those things before."

"No, I'm sorry, Hana. I never meant to say we don't want you on the team. Of course we're happy to have you here," Katara said with a smile.

"No, it's me who's sorry. You two were right. These scams are out of control, and I'm done with them," Toph said.

"You are? Oh, that's too bad," Katara said, making me raise an eyebrow. "Because I was gonna say... I wanna pull a scam with you."

I widened my eyes. "You can't be serious."

"What? You wanna pull a scam?" Toph asked, just as surprised as I was.

"Not just any scam. The ultimate scam," Katara said with a mischievous grin. "Whaddaya say, Toph? Just us girls. One last go. You in?"

"You know I'm in!"

"What about you, Hana?"

I sighed heavily, knowing that they were going to do this regardless of what I said. "Sure, why not."

"Now what's this idea of yours?" Toph asked Katara.

"The plan is simple: This wanted poster says you're worth a lot of money; ten times more than you've made in all of your scams. So I'm gonna turn you in and collect the reward. Then you metalbend yourself out of jail, and we're on our way," Katara explained, grossly oversimplifying and overlooking the complications that would come from something going the wrong way.

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"You did the right thing by turning in the Runaway," one of the town officials said, congratulating Katara after her pretend capture and turn in of Toph to the authorities.

"The right thing is its own reward," Katara assured him.

"Well, I'm happy to hear you say that," the man said.

"Uh... But we would still like the actual reward, if that's okay," I added, making the man sigh.

"Of course. Right this way," the man said, as he guided us to what I assumed was the jail of the town.

He began rummaging through his stuff, but before he gave us any money or any sort of reward, we were interrupted by someone walking into the office. I turned to look at him, and recognized him immediately: it was the man who could create explosions with his mind that was chasing us before.

"It's them! The girls you were looking for!" the official said, as the man stepped toward Katara and me menacingly.

I exchanged worried looks with Katara. "You still think this was a good idea?"

Shortly after, we were all locked up inside neighboring cells--Toph, Katara and me. Of course, while Katara and Toph were put together in the wooden cell, I was trapped inside a metallic one. These guys obviously knew who we were and what our abilities were.

"Wait! It's a trap!" Toph said all of a sudden.

"Are you kidding? Did you realize that just now?!" I asked in disbelief.

"No kidding! Is that why we're sitting in a wooden cage right now?" Katara added with annoyance.

"Not for us, Katara! We're the bait!" Toph said, making me widen my eyes as soon as I realized where she was going.

"Oh, no... He's after Aang!"

"I can't believe I'm so stupid!" Katara sighed worriedly.

"Do you guys see why I was against doing this in the first place?" I asked with a frown. "This is why I didn't want to go along with Toph's scams."