Satoru

Satoru is an engineer who works at Lao Beifong's Earthen Fire Refinery. He is the nephew of Loban.

History
One day in 102 AG, Satoru was put in charge of the refinery by his uncle, Loban, while the latter met with a business partner. After Avatar Aang, his friends, and members of the Air Acolytes entered the factory and Aang defeated its guards, Satoru appeared and warmly welcomed the team, particularly excited to meet the Avatar and Toph Beifong. He subsequently invited the group on a tour of the refinery.

During the tour, Satoru explained how Loban founded the land, rich in natural resources, but initially could not develop it as the land belonged to both the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation, until being able to break through after the Hundred Year War. Ignoring Aang's attempts to talk to him about the land's past status, Satoru led the group to a production room where earthbenders, firebenders, and waterbenders worked to mine rocks for jewels, before stating it to be an older production line. He promptly showed the group a second room where machines did this work, to the concern of Aang and Katara. After they made their way outside the factory, the engineer explained that the factory was still atop the largest crystal deposit outside Ba Sing Se, and that they were working to gather up other resources. Shortly thereafter, Sokka crashed one of Satoru's forklifts, leaving him upset as it would take time to repair. However, Toph was able to sense the broken parts and repair them easily, dazzling the young man. After learning that she ran a metalbending school, Satoru offered Toph to build a new school near the refinery. Toph quickly agreed, establishing a new partnership.

Shortly afterward, Aang explained to Satoru that the refinery was built on ground sacred to the Air Nomads, and both he and Katara claimed it was responsible for a nearby river's pollution. Satoru stated that Loban believed it to be a natural phenomenon, and Toph came to his defense. The earthbender checked his movements to see if he was lying or not, and found out that the engineer was telling the truth. During an argument between Aang and Toph, the ground began to rumble violently, causing Satoru to believe that the argument was the cause. After a second quake caused mined crystals to spill out, Satoru urged the team to leave, fearful that his uncle would be angry over what had happened. They soon discovered that it was a machine that had gone haywire, crushing a worker. The worker was rescued by Aang and Toph; however, the young benders destroyed the machine in the process. Loban emerged from his office, angered over the ruckus and the machine. Satoru was admonished by his uncle, who told Lao Beifong that the young engineer was "too scatterbrained to shoulder any real responsibility".