A/N: Enjoy, this chapter, its a good one. Thanks for reading, everyone.
One More Magic Potion
Norm is digging with an energy that is reminiscent of a wild animal, his wild eyes frantically sweeping the dirt for any sign of Jake. The large hands of Norm's avatar body claw at the dirt in powerful movements and his face is contorted in fierce determination.
He and Max have now excavated part of the mound and have dug in at least three feet into the ground.
Norm's mind raced as he dug. He could not stop to consider the reasons why Jake was buried, but he knew as a expert on Pandoran botany, that because of the abundance of plant life on Pandora, the intricate and extensive root systems of most plants, even grasses, prevented digging, at least by hand, no more than four or five feet into the dirt.
The rich topsoil of the mound was loose, so Norm knew that this mound was freshly made and therefore Jake had recently been interred. He had to be getting close, if this was where Jake was. It had to be, otherwise Norm was…….no, he couldn't think that, he was going to get Jake out.
In the back of Norm's mind, some capacity of his higher brain humorously proclaimed that as soon as Jake was safe and healed, that he couldn't wait to hear Jake's explanation as to how he had gotten into this mess.
Norm shook his head, throwing sweat off his heated brow. He couldn't be distracted. Somewhere in the background, Norm's sensitive Na'vi hearing registered the frenetic beeping of the health monitor, still indicating that Jake was in mortal peril, in deep shit, as Jake would put it.
Norm threw even more of his weight into the digging. His hands hit something semi-solid.
A piece of tannish colored cloth came to view, and he screamed in a mixture of excitement and worry.
Max stopped digging as he observed Norm unearthing what looked like a giant cloth sack. What the hell is going on, he thought to himself as he watched Norm tear at the sack with his bare hands.
Norm tried to wrench and rip the sack open, his instincts telling him that Jake was inside, as he could feel a solid mass under his fingers when he touched the sack. The cloth wouldn't give and Norm gave a roar of frustration.
His hands flew to his waist, and Max jumped in shock slightly as Norm whipped out a Na'vi sized combat knife. Norm expertly flicked the 17 inch blade around and grabbed a section of the cloth in his hands, and with a deft movement, sliced it open.
Jake, in the time after the battle, after Norm had seen real combat, had taught Norm how to wield a blade. Jake, with his Marine training, was nothing short of deadly when armed with a knife. Norm did not have the same combat prowess or training as Jake, but Jake had taught him how to use a knife effectively and quickly, for peaceful and pugilistic purposes.
The irony that Norm was now using Jake's training to save Jake's life was not lost on Norm.
Norm stabbed the knife into the dirt on the side of the hole, and he took an edge of the cloth in each hand and with a fierce growl and great effort, he ripped the sack wide open.
The limp, unmoving form of Jake lay there before Norm and Max. They both could not help but stare in shock.
This time, Max was the first to recover. He immediately started down into the hole, smacking Norm heavily on the shoulder.
"Help me get him out, we got to get him hooked up to the trauma kit." Norm had merely hopped into a crouched position, and reached down to grasp Jake's midriff and left shoulder.
"Max, get the medkit and trauma kit ready. I'll get him." Norm lifted with an adrenaline fueled heave and he threw Jake, who was a stouter and heavier Na'vi than Norm, over his shoulder in a fireman's carry before rising to his feet, quickly vaulting out of the hole.
Max raced over to the Sampson and prepared the IV drip of powerful antitoxins. According to the computer analysis of Jake's blood, the toxin combined with the lack of air was about to cause massive organ failure.
Norm ran as fast as he could with his burden across the clearing to the Sampson. Though Jake was heavy, Norm was possessed by a raw strength born of desperation.
When he reached the Sampson, he laid Jake down in the rear, stretched out across the bulkhead and in between the seats.
Max was already inside the Sampson, inserting the IV into Jake's arm and putting him on a respirator. Norm climbed inside the slightly cramped space and began to lift the gurney out of its stored location. He laid it flat on the gunnel and then bodily dragged Jake onto it, mindful of the IV hoses.
Max ducked past him and into the cockpit. Norm noticed this and stuck his head into the cockpit.
"Max, where are we taking him? Neytiri and Moat should know about this………" Max cut him off as he slipped on his helmet and flipped switches.
"Are you crazy? If we don't get Jake substantial medical help within the next hour, He is Going. To. Die." He turned to look at Norm. "We don't have time, we have to take him to Hell's Gate, that is the only place equipped to treat him, or at this point, save him."
Norm nodded. He knew Max was right. Neytiri and Moat would have to wait; keeping Jake alive was absolutely top priority. He turned to return to Jake's side and Max pushed down hard on the throttle, the engines roaring to life.
Norm's hands tremble as he takes the cover off of a massive syringe filled with the adrenaline. Luckily, human and Na'vi biology were similar enough that the hormonal compound had the same effects in both species.
Max turned around to see Norm kneeling over Jake, about to stick the syringe into Jake's neck. He yelled into the headset. "Norm, be careful, his body is so close to death right now, that if you give him too much, it could cause his heart to skyrocket and he could crash."
Norm, without turning back to look at Max, yelled into his own headset. "Max, his body is so close to death right now, that if his heart beats any slower, it will stop, this is his only chance, from just a visual scan, I can see that most of his limbs have been deprived of significant amounts of oxygen and blood for a long time." Norm tested the syringe and he watched as a few droplets squirted out of the tip of the needle.
"His tissue will start to die if it is starved any longer. The adrenaline will cause bloodflow to be restored and he will become conscious."
He stopped and wiped an alcohol swab across the place on Jake's neck where he intended to inject the hormonal potion. "Luckily, the Na'vi circulatory system has quadruple the oxygenating capacity that humans do, so the restoration of blood to his system should make him conscious, and restore a normal circulatory pattern to all of his organs"
Norm then set the syringe down and proceeded to buckle Jake's lower body into the gurney. He secured the straps and then picked the syringe up again.
"If he wakes up, I don't want him thrashing about."
Max turned back around and grasped the control stick. With the engines warmed up, he wasted no time in lifting off and doing a slight, gentle spin to redirect their nose in the direction of Hell's Gate.
He looked back around to see the syringe enter Jake's neck, right where his carotid artery should be. Max watched with worry. The adrenaline had the capability to either save or kill Jake. If it worked, Jake would become conscious again, and his vitals would balance out, providing the powerful antitoxin was doing its job.
On the other hand, if the antitoxin hadn't taken affect yet, which it should have, then when Jake's heart rate shot through the roof, and blood began to pump again, then it would force a massive amount of toxin-laden blood to all extremities in Jake's system, causing further blood poisoning, and most likely systemic organ failure.
"It's do or die now, Jake", Max thought.
Norm sat back and watched Jake, his hand already clenched around a syringe full of a hormone opposite of adrenaline, so as to stem the potential negative effects of the adrenaline, should the antitoxin not be effective. He watched as Jake's form lay still, limp, inert, unmoving.
Norm wanted to kick out at Jake, punch him, bite him, do anything that would make Jake wake up. Norm waited, ready for any sign of life from Jake.
Without warning, the heart rate monitor begins to scream out an alert as Jake's heart rate starts to climb exceedingly fast. Jake's body begins to thrash about on the gurney.
Norm drops the other syringe and reaches out to pin Jake's arms to his sides, realizing that he foolishly forgot to strap Jake's upper body down, but even so oxygen starved and close to death, Jake is stronger, and his arms fly from Norm's grasp, the adrenaline returning motor functions to all of Jake's limbs.
Norm is leaning over Jake, trying to feel for a pulse when Jake's head snaps from side to side before his yellow eyes fly open, and he stares up at Norm.
A smile quickly spreads across Norm's face as he sees his friend conscious. Second later the smile is wiped from his face as a powerful punch lands directly on his nose, and with a sickening crack, Norm falls back in pain.
Upon hearing Norm's cry of pain, Max looks back to see Jake struggling in the gurney, while Norm sits up against the rear hatch door, his hands over his bleeding nose.
Jake is thrashing around, yelling and swinging his arms around, almost ripping the IV hose out. His movements cause the gurney to slide close to the edge of the gunnel, where the door is wide open. Max's eyes widened in terror as he saw this.
"Jake! Calm down, man!" Max flipped a few switches and adjusted his rotors so that the Sampson went into auto-hover mode, and Max unbuckled himself from the pilot's seat and scrambled into the back.
Norm, though bleeding profusely from his now broken nose, had regained his senses and had grabbed one edge of the gurney to drag it back. Max grabbed the other edge and they both heaved the gurney back into place in the center of the bulkhead. This time, they found the eyelets bolted into the floor, where they ran the tie down straps through and thus secured Jake's gurney to the floor.
Suddenly, Jake sat up and brought his arm back to land a devastating blow on Max'x unprotected head, but he immediately cried out in pain, his hands shooting to his sides.
Norm and Max for first time noticed the primitive stitching done to Jake's side. Their confusion was only compounded, they looked at each other in bafflement.
Jake sat there his muscles tenses and teeth gritted as the pain flowed through him. Even in his delirious state, he knew enough about injuries and the location of the pain to know that it meant most of his ribs were broken. Slowly, he relaxed and straightened out, his arms returning to either side of him.
Jake opened his eyes as he lay there, breathing heavily, his chest heaving and his skin flushed a deep blue color, and his eyes roving around the scene about him.
He lifted his head slightly and stared at Max and Norm, he squinted as tried to focus in on them.
"What….the…..fuck? Max? Norm? Is that you, guys?" Jake's voice was ragged and he his breather was still heavy so he spoke in spurts trying to catch his breath.
Norm could not hold the anger out of his voice as he held his bloodied and broken nose. "Who the hell did you think it was?! Who else would come save your sorry ass?!" His hands flew in the air in yelled. Jake saw Norm gesticulating towards his nose.
Jake put his head back down and stared at the ceiling of the Sampson.
"Yeah sorry about that, Norm." He tilted his head to look at his two friends. "But I think you might have done the same thing waking up completely disoriented and having the past few days that I've had."
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A/N: It seems to me that people have waiting for Jake's return since chapter 2, well, here it is. Ta-dah! I'm excited now, the story is really getting rolling now, shits gonna do down and some heads are gonna roll! Dont know when my next updates going to be, got a ton of work for the rest of this week and this weekend, but at least I got to the turning of the tide in my three day update streak. Well, have fun everyone, be safe, and REVIEW! It helps me and its chance for you to yell at me for how terrible my writing is.
P.S. Is still nobody recognizing my chapter title references? They are song titles taken from one of my favorite bands, and whose music I think fits a revenge story.
