An update! Hah! I bet you guys didn't expect THAT one coming!

… Oh yeah, I just remembered that I update on regular basis…

Whatever…


Chapter Fifty One: no one is in the forest

"I feel like we're being watched" Bruce said once again looking over his shoulder. "Goddammit! Hicks, stop being paranoid tw#t and pull yourself together" Nicole yelled at him, she was fed up with this moron, sure he was a combat engineer, but he acted like a child since they've got into the jungle.

"Zip it, both of you" Marv ordered, as he checked his map, which was completely useless, unless there was a big 'J' shaped landmark in this jungle. "This is why I hate being in the jungle" Marv thought after he scanned his surrounding once again. He started slowly regretting that he accepted this mission, but what is done is done. Now he, Marv Nash, was stuck here with an useless map, in the middle of the jungle and not to count Nicole Saito and Bruce Hicks who were both starting to act like a children. "And I have them under my command. Why does fate have to be such a b*#&h?" he thought as he continued forward.

His team was made of him, the leader and main tactician. Nicole Saito, one of the SecOps elite soldiers. And then there was Bruce Hicks, a combat engineer who was a little paranoid after his last meeting with Na'vi.

"Did you see that?!" Hicks yelped while pointing to the treetops with his combat shotgun. His yelping sound made Nicole and Marv jump and they've quickly pointed their weapons the same way Hick did. There was a brief moment of silence, and nobody moved a muscle. The atmosphere was tense until one of the prolemurs jumped from that tree to another.

"Idiot" Saito said slapping Bruce's head. "Ouch! It could've been a na'vi hunter." He tried to explain but even Nash was starting to get annoyed by Bruce's constant b#&*hing. This has to be the fourth false alarm caused by Bruce. "Bruce, if you do this one more time I swear that I'll shove your gun so deep in your a#& that you'll keep sh&*#!ng slugs from that shotgun until the end of your days!" Nash said with all seriousness "Yes sir" was the response and they've continued their way through the jungle.

After another hour or two of mostly silent walking they've managed to find a landmark.

"Well if it ain't a giant 'go this way' landmark" Nicole remarked at the sight of the fallen Home Tree. "There should be a river near it if we follow it, we'll find the Hell's gate in no time" Marv said with a smile forming on his face. Bruce's happiness was only temporary one, because he quickly turned his attention back to the treetops, once again watching all his surroundings. "Let's go" Nash said as they've once again began walking.

"Why didn't they give us a chopper to get there faster?" Bruce asked trying to break the silence. He was very talkative guy, and that was not a good trait when you are a soldier in the field. "Because they wanted us to search for their robot" Nicole pointed out "Android" Nash corrected her "and that's secondary, we must re-establish contact with hell's gate, remember?" Nicole shrugged "I don't care what it is, it's a machine and it got lost" she said with a smug smile "And your job is to find it, and if we manage to find it. And I really stretch the word IF, then we need to make sure that Bruce is able to fix it." Nash re-briefed his team once again. "I know, but this job is getting boring" Nicole complained, making Nash sigh.


Hell's gate

The blaring sound and red lights were suddenly cut off. The turrets, malfunctioning or not, slowly ceased their activity, even the sparkling turret stopped sparkling. "[What the hell was all that about?]" Thanty asked as he slowly walked toward Rick who was still ready to take a bullet for Tarya. "It was our guest. He spent his night fixing the base." Rick said to Thanty, his heart still racing. "[Oh, it makes sense, wait. Let me rephrase that. It would make sense if you told me that in language I can understand]" Thanty said in slightly annoyed tone. "Oh sorry" Rick apologized and then gave him even more brief version "Observer fixed the base overnight. I've sent him and Max to shut the security down." Evidently that made Thanty angry "[So he is the one who almost killed me?]" he asked looking around trying to find him "He didn't want to kill you, he tried to help." Rick tried to defend observer, he and observer had a few moments to talk about why the security system suddenly decided to come back. The security system once again died completely, thus ending the lockdown for hangar which doors decided to get open once again. "What an interesting way to start one's day" Rick said to Tarya only nodded to that, she didn't like the experience of machines coming alive just to attack her. "Hey guys, we've disabled the security system, meet you in the hangar" Max said through the base integrated loudspeaker system. "Let's go" Rick said with sleepy voice and started walking toward hangar. Tarya was right next to him, and he could feel her tail still nervously twitching behind his back as she swung it from side to side. "[You look tired, don't tell me that a little action like this can actually tire you]" Thanty started a conversation, noticing Rick's tired expression. "I'm not that old, but unlike you we've had to interrogate Observer, alter his programming and then get a dinner, we've slept about three hours" Rick said in a grumpy voice "But it was totally worth it" he thought, and smiled unconsciously. "[I saw that smile]" Thanty said with a smile of his own forming on his face. "The smile is the reason why I'm so tired" Rick explained, as they've slowly continued their way toward the hangar.


Fallen Home Tree

Nash and the rest of the group finally got to the Fallen Home Tree's roots. They've stopped to look at the dead, scorched giant. "It seems somebody tried to make the world biggest campfire" Nicole said, looking at the scorched roots, the ground beneath them was almost the same, but unlike the scorched tree, the earth already started regenerating, but it wouldn't be a green for at least another few months. Still it was impressive to see that Pandora could regenerate that fast. "Did they've succeeded?" Bruce asked, finally stopping being so nervous. He knew that Na'vi wouldn't be around scorched earth. "They are too tree hugging to be here" he thought "I don't think so." Nicole answered, glad that Bruce finally stopped being a tw#t, at least for now. Nash meanwhile located something very strange "What the hell is this?" he asked himself as he touched the dry yellow splattery thing. "What is that?" Bruce asked noticing the splatter too, mainly because his chief was kneeling in front of it and examining it "I'm not sure, It looks like a big splattered egg" he answered. Nicole walked to it and then poked it with her assault rifle. It crumbled, like a dried watercolor. "It looks like a paint, crumble like a paint, and it even smells like a paint" she said after she sniffed it. "It is a paintball round, fired from GAU-90 with paintball ammo, and by the shape, it was fired directly at the ground, probably three or four weeks old" She analyzed the paint, and after that she looked at her comrades, both looking at her with a surprised expression on their faces "What?" she asked with a frown on her face. "Nothing" was Bruce's swift response as he stopped staring at her. "Impressive" Nash thought after watching this incredible display of skill."Ok guys, let's get going" Nash said, standing up and began walking toward the sound the river made.

It took a few minutes until they were walking along the river. Bruce was once again nervous, because trees were thick around the river, and if there was a slightest possibility of them being occupied by na'vi, then he got nervous. "Hey! I think something moved there!" he said, once again pointing his gun toward the treetops. This time Nicole didn't bothered by looking at the place where was today's seventh invisible na'vi guy, who could be seen only by Bruce. She walked over to him and kicked him into his leg. He yelled in pain and bended forward, she was about to yell at him that he is an idiot and that she had it with him, but then the whooshing sound interrupted her. Just a few seconds later, the spear-like arrow bounced of the rock in the river and fell into the river. "We're under attack!" she yelled, and both she and Bruce began firing into the forest from which the arrow came. But the na'vi who shot at them were hiding in the trees, and judging by the sound of the cracking wood and not a single painful yell. They didn't hit anything, as they've sprinted behind nearby Rock. Nash, who was a little ahead heard the warning too late, as the arrow flew through his lower side. "ARGH! I'm hit!" he yelled as he collapsed on the ground, bleeding vigorously from his side. He began squirming on the ground the pain in his side was slowly overwhelming him.


Dramatic chapter is dramatic!

Nothing to add to this chapter, although I have a few words to my readers

(To blargmeansno: He chased na'vi away, and then carried him to safety while Rick's gift from Eywa saved him, give or take…

To loveAvatar: I didn't say it would be one-shot chapter, there will be more of these juicy chapters

To Xerxes2003 second review: that worthwhile part is very enlightening :-D )

Okay that's all i wanted to say to you guys before i end this chapter (I'm glad that someone keeps reviewing me, it is so nice to see a constructive review, you guys/gals are the reason i keep writing these, and if you stay with me until the end i'll promise that it will be worthwhile (or it can keep you occupied when you are waiting for something (more or less) important and have the sudden urge to read a fanfic about Avatar :-) )

STAY TUNED!