Forbidden | Avatar the Last Air Bender

Chapter 30: The Painted Lady

A long lasting impression

Tasha's POV

"Let's do this!" I gestured to Aang with a simple head tilt, and before we knew it, we were in a frenzied mayhem of bending, destroying the Fire Nation factory.

"Take this!" I cried out, using a series of water whips to cut open some gas pipes.

"Cool!" Aang remarked. "Your water bending has improved!"

"I've been training!" I laughed it off, and kicked some pipes open.

"Yeah man, this feels so right but so wrong!" Aang exclaimed, air bending a few pipes, bursting them open.

Just then, a series of explosions erupted and two of us ran out of the factory, fortunately escaping on time.

"That was close!" I heaved a sigh of relief, as Aang and I started to walk back to camp.

"But it was SO FUN! I wanna do it again!" Aang yelled at the top of his lungs. "Did you see how the factory exploded? It started off with a BAM! And then it went BOOM! BAH! BAAAAM-"

"Shh, Aang, keep it down!" I said sharply, as we were nearing our campsite and the rest of them were probably still asleep.

But it was too late. Sokka, Toph, Momo, Katara and Appa were awake, and they didn't look too amused when they saw the both of us going back together.

"Uhh... Hi guys... We were just... Out on a morning walk..." I grinned fakely.

"Y-Yeah!" Aang faked a laughed. "Just... y'know... Avatar and guardian talk?"

But I guess Sokka wasn't buying any of our reasons.

"Oh, really? A morning walk?" Sokka dumped the dry grass I placed in my sleeping bag onto the ground.

Crap.

"I know you're the Painted Lady. I know you've been sneaking out at night, and I know you've been lying about Appa and feeding him purple tongue berries!" Sokka pointed at Toph, who stuck out her now-purple tongue and holds up a bag of berries as evidence.

"Tasha, what you did put our whole mission in jeopardy. We're leaving right now." Sokka gave me a death stare. "I can't believe we had you to come with us! You totally ruined our plans!"

Then, he turned to Aang. "And how long did you know about this?" He asked.

"Hey, I just found out today morning." Aang backs off.

By Sokka's words, I felt so terribly hurt. I guess I was being a burden to the gang with my over-bearingly great sense of helping people... So much for being the good guy, I don't even get appreciated.

Suddenly, a loud vibrating sound of engines resonated through the air, and we looked down to see a detachment of Fire Nation soldiers on jet skis on their way to the village.

"What's going on?" Toph asked cluelessly.

"Fire Nation soldiers are making their way to the village!" Aang cried out.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Sokka yelled at me.

"I... I kinda destroyed their factory..." I replied, not looking at anybody in the eye.

"YOU WHAT?!"

"I'm sorry! It seemed like the source of trouble for the village!" I yelled at Sokka. "It's my natural nature to help people in need!"