Chapter 1
Life on Earth had become worthless to live; impossible to enjoy. There was nothing worth fighting for, except for money and supposedly more living space. Those were the gloom thoughts Caleb was making, sipping his almost tasteless coffee by the window, even if there was nothing he could really look at. Even here, in his training camp, he could see the distant chimneys of the countless factories emitting thick, black smoke; that merciless giant that was making the earthen atmosphere practically unbreathable and their rain almost toxic. He could not remember playing in the rain as a child. He had tried once, and his skin started getting itchy and his eyes sore. He sighed, taking a bite from his Nutritious Bar. He chewed on it pensively. Occasionally he wondered how world used to be, before humans stepped on it, before humans destroyed it. The sound of a distant horn reached his ears; the signal that lunch was almost over and that he had to go out once more to his military training but Caleb decided to take his time for now. He looked at his unfinished lunch. Even food was tasteless.
"Tasteless food synthetic flavors and man-made fibers..! Food supplements that pretend being the plate of the day… A tasteless meal, the same tasteless as our lives are!" the marine thought bitterly.
There was nothing to give you pleasure in this world; only fake love affairs and lustful promises that were never fulfilled. Caleb tried to find happiness more times than he could count; aimlessly and desperately seeking for some pleasure in this world. He had hooked up with women before; he even managed to make five or six relationships that lasted long enough and even then both got bored and called it quits. After some times and failed attempts, he even stopped aiming to find happiness in a relationship. Disgusted as he was, the marine stopped chasing the woman for what she was and just aimed to get what they both wanted; the pleasure of the moment. The relationships ended up becoming one-night stands and soon even that started feeling tasteless to him, tasteless like the meals he was having every day. And so, the young marine stopped even trying and would hook up with a woman only when he was in the mood, if he ever were in the mood. He found himself uninterested and sometimes even others seemed uninterested in him. And of course it wasn't a matter of bad looks. Caleb was a rather handsome young man with wheat-white skin (covered in a few battle scars that so much seemed to turn women on), chestnut-brown short-cut hair and bright, emerald-green eyes. Oh, his eyes definitely seemed to be his attractive point, despite the hardened muscles of his training. His eyes were sparkling with braveness, stubbornness and compassion at times, something that seemed totally useless qualification to a soldier and yet it was what made his eyes sparkle in that unique way. Oh, yes, Caleb was definitely a handsome young man and yet all girls he associated with, seemed totally uninterested in an honest relationship with him; seeming more content letting him buying them drinks and then take them to his small and narrow apartment, have wild sex in his narrow bed or on the floor, not even bothered whether the TV was blaring next to them or not and then find the door by the morning. He no longer sought for romance. He sought for carnal pleasure. And sometimes, not even for that…
Caleb wondered, or better, feared that relationship had become yet another game of amusement, to his planet; something that had long now lost its actual meaning. He wondered if it had it in the first place. He was barely 23 years old and he still felt like fed up with anything that had to do with women or relationships. And yet, he could not bring himself giving up on humanity just yet. He felt like a naïve fool for that but some part of his still believed that there was hope for the world. Every time he came to that conclusion he felt like laughing at himself. He wondered where that optimism came from. Nothing in this world seemed to prove him any potential for a positive change and yet Caleb often saw a secret hope in some people's eyes; faces that seemed like lighthouses in the mist of motionless and uncaring people. For some reason, Caleb's stubborn and fighting spirit refused to give up on hope that something could happen, maybe a message to be passed to people so they could wake up from their dreamless, gray slumber and perhaps…
"Soldier! What are you doing there! Break is over!"
Caleb looked up to see his superior yelling at him. His face was like a calm lake of water compared to the red-faced, outraged soldier that was now over his head.
"Are you not listening to me?"
"Loud and clear, sir!" Caleb replied calmly
He stood up from his seat and saluted the infuriated man. The other had no choice but doing the same and giving him permission to lower his.
"Quit daydreaming, soldier, you have work to do!"
"Yes, sir. Apologies, sir. I was about to join the others at the yard!"
"Well, do that! Quick!"
Caleb sighed and did what he was taught to do; he obeyed his superior. Tranquil as he was, he gathered the tray with his unfinished lunch and after cleaning after himself, he quitted the room with open step.
Two figures were constantly pacing up and down at a poorly lit room. The glowing touch-screen tablets in their hands were one of the poor light sources inside the room. They both seemed drawn into their conversation.
"Preparations are almost done!" one of the two said in a deep-tenor, velvet voice
"Indeed" the other one replied in a tenor voice, "Thankfully government gave us the money necessary to start the experiment on the foreign land, and that's no small thing!"
"Indeed," agreed the first, "Five billion dollars are not easy to obtain, even to the highest of places of authority. And we're practically asking them to give them for a test. Thankfully the government shares our worries on the Pandoran matter."
"How not to?" the second replied, "The greatest hope for our planet, the most precious mineral in the universe and so many human lives are threatened every day. If anything, they expect their work not to be thrown in the garbage!"
"So!" the first man leaned back to his chair, scrolling down his tablet, "We need to decide upon the possible candidates. We certainly need young, healthy people who will be able to make it through."
"That was my opinion too. Anything could happen and we must make sure that nothing unexpected will ruin the project. My opinion is that other qualifies should be required."
"Such as?" the first man seemed interested
The tenor-voiced man left the tablet upon the office they had before them and leaned against it himself.
"I believe we should search our volunteers in the army. We do not know what lies ahead and how they will be treated by the creatures. Someone with the necessary means and knowledge to defend himself, is definitely preferable."
"Hm, true, that was something that bothered me as well. I feared that I was the only one who considered that possibility."
"Not at all, sire, I myself believe that and if I may suggest, it could be a good idea to send a male and a female out there."
"Ho?"
"The scientists in our station suggest it would be a good idea to see how all genders are treated. Of course that is not necessarily an important matter…"
"No, Cedric…" the first voice replied, "We must consider all the benefits we can get from it. And if this brings the best results then we will do it."
"Very well, sire!"
"Something else, Cedric…"
"Yes, sir?"
"Who's in charge of the basis?"
"Foreman Takeda, sir, still he hasn't returned on Earth. Probably he is not called back."
"Good. A fanatic is better in this position for now. He is easier to control at times."
"He cannot be bought"
"Everyone has his price, Cedric. Some people are bought with money and some others with promises. Keep in touch with him."
"As you wish. Now what are you thinking about our candidates? Where should we look for them?"
"I already considered that, Cedric." The man said self-complacently.
He scrolled his tablet down and then turned it to the man he named Cedric. His companion took it and looked at a list of names appearing to the screen with a small picture placed to the left of each one of them.
"This list contains some soldiers with very good potential to their units. I am planning on visiting them and deciding upon the ones we need."
Cedric's face was illuminated by the screen of the tablet, revealing a pale face with grayish-blue eyes and blonde hair. He had one brow cocked up in question.
"So…you had planned it already from the beginning."
It was not a question. The other man made an 'hm' sound, proof that he had smirked in the darkness.
"I wanted to make sure that my hypothesis was correct," he finally said, "I wanted someone else to express the same thought as I did. Now that you did, I am certain we are on the right track."
The blonde man named Cedric smirked defeated.
"Please warn me next time, sir!"
"Oh, I'll do something better than that, Cedric! I want you to check the ones on the list. Send your most trusted men too, if you have to, but I want the candidates by the end of the month."
"How many candidates do we need exactly?"
"Two." The answer was immediate.
"Very well, sir. Your orders will be executed down to exact detail."
"I know, Cedric. I trust you. And to prove this to you, I'll tell you I have narrowed the list. You can check the first five bases. If you are not satisfied with them, check the other twenty five."
"Understood"
"Excellent. Then we are done for today!"
The two men stood up and exchanged a handshake in the darkness as a final departing gesture before Cedric turning around and leaving the room. Upon hearing the automatic door sliding closed, the man sat back to his office chair and took the tablet. He scrolled a little bit to the screen and smiled satisfied at the results. Before him, among other names and ranks of soldiers at bases all over the country, was a picture of a green-eyed, brunette soldier looking serenely and sincerely towards the camera.
Hello guys! It's me again with yet another chapter of my Crossover between James Cameron's Avatar and W.I.T.C.H characters, with first suggestion idea belonging to my friend YarArts2 while the story originally belongs to James Cameron with editions and changes to the plot done by moi!
I post the chapter taking under consideration the recent birthday of HeartStorm4Ever (DA account) Once more Happy Birthday dear and sorry for being late to post a gift!
This is chapter one, that gives you an idea of what I am preparing to have my story look like. Not much is going on in this chapter, mostly we have the first introduction to the protagonist; Caleb, who, in a way, takes the role of Jake Sully of the original Avatar movie but also two more characters (one of them clearly stated being Cedric and the other one, you can easily guess who it is but it will be clearly revealed soon enough! )
Now, you have probably noticed that the story has some changes here and there and the one is that Caleb is not crippled. The reasons for him not to be in wheelchair are various; number one my friend's YarArts2 first sketches of him, which you can find at her deviantart gallery page: yararts2/ar… in which Caleb clearly can walk. I decided to keep that.
Number two is that I wanted Caleb to be perfectly healthy in order to point out a different course of events (you'll see how) plus in order to show that Caleb's future excitement for his Avatar body has nothing to do with him being able to walk again but with his natural exploring and adventurous behavior. Now some people might think this removes some joys from character development but I hope to prove you otherwise that he is going to have quite a complex character development depending on other things to his personality.
Number three, him being perfectly fine in health even in his human body allows me to add more scenes to the novel, to do more character interractions and have a certain level of action on his part on a different angle.
Another change that you probably see is that I start the story before the actual Avatar Project. My original idea was that they have never come in contact with the locals at all but then I decided otherwise to have also the school drama added there (but also slightly changed). Here, I can tell you beforehand, Caleb makes a conscious decision to take part in the project and no he has no twin brother to take over for.
Also I must tell you that my idea is not to make yet another "save the environment" campaign (indirectly I do show it of course since the theme is the same) nor wish to point out humans as the only "villain" on the story. You will soon see certain interractions in which I want to point out how both sides interracted wrongly to get to war. Yes of course humans are still perceived as invadors and everything but still I wanted to try picturing the other side's hatred too among others. Let's see if I succeed to that. For now we do see things through disappointed Caleb's eyes and yet I hint here some slight optimism on the matter, in which Caleb continues to have faith to humanity. I thought it would be more natural that way.
Anyways I hope you like it.
W.I.T.C.H belongs to Disney
Avatar belongs to James Cameron
Writing/Editing done by me
Tribes of Meridian belong to and YarArts2 (please visit her page and see her amazing stuff! Possible visuals of this story might be added there too)