Soldiers of Fortune
"And Its Name was Death..."

The doctors tell me that I was lucky to be alive at all. Came out of the incident with only a few cuts and bruises and a minor concussion. That was one week down… only 312.06 more weeks to go.

"So explain to me what happened again?" asked Dr. Grace Augustine who was sitting next to Leon's bed in the infirmary. He frowned as he saw who the real Grace actually was and how she probably wouldn't have looked as good in short shorts and form fitting red Stanford shirt her avatar wore.

"I was tracking this large hammerhead thing," began Leon.

"A Titanothere," interrupted Dr. Ben Tanochi.

"Yeah whatever, so I was tracking the thing and suddenly your scientists spook it and it ends up chasing us. The damn thing like a tank. Used nearly a full mag on it and not a scratch. So any way we loose it and then run into the whole herd of hammerheads-."

"Titanothere," interrupted Dr. Tanochi again.

"Do you wanna tell this story?" asked Leon.

"Ben shut up," commanded Grace puffing on her cigarette which made the on duty nurse annoyed. "You continue."

"So we run into the herd, I toss a frag at them and they end up chasing us to the Samson. As soon as we are up in the air. And I could have sworn they stopped charging at us." Leon paused. "Then we got attacked by this flying reptile. I think we jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. And then that's all I remember."

"Describe the 'reptile' to me," said Grace who was more than annoyed with how Leon was describing everything.

"I remember orange and blue," said Leon who tried to remember what happened but he couldn't get a clear visual of it in his head.

"Could it have been a Banshee?" asked Ben.

"No, Banshees wouldn't go for something that big," said Grace. "And I've haven't seen one that was orange and blue before. And if what he said was true, it must have been big to scare away a herd of Titanothere."

"It was like an orange flying mouth. A T-rex with wings."

Major Cobb began to laugh. "A T-rex with wings," he repeated. "Corporal I think you must have hit your head too hard when you fell out of the Sam."

"That's what it looked like," defended Leon who winced in pain as he sat up. "You should warn everyone to keep a look out for it."

"Yeah sure we'll tell them to keep an eye open for 'Leon's T-rex'," said Cobb rolling his eyes.

"That's not bad," muttered Grace. "Leon's T-rex. Leon… T-rex… Leontyrex…"

"You're gonna name it after me?" asked Leon.

Grace was just about to explain how new species were named after the person who first discovered it or given names by the person who discovered it, but saw that his attention was else where. He fought to take his arm back and away from the nurse with a needle. "Don't," commanded Leon.

Grace, in the commotion took the needle from the nurse and jabbed it into his arm to which Leon made a loud moan. "You are such a child."

"I think you broke the needle in my arm," said Leon as he looked over the tiny wound.

"The story. Continue," said Grace impatiently sitting back down.

"You know the rest," said Leon who realized something. "You were the one who jabbed me in the arm back in the forrest."

"Your welcome," said Grace as she smoked her cigarette.

"Who's the one who poured that hot liquid down my throat?" asked Leon.

Grace looked to Ben. Before looking back at the marine in the bed. "What liquid?" they asked in unison.

"After I fell out of the tree and passed out, then someone poked me to see if I was still alive and then forced some burning liquid down my throat," said Leon. "Burned my tongue on it."

"What else do you remember?" asked Grace who leaned in closer to Leon.

"Just that I landed on a large tree branch," reported Leon. "Probably large enough to support an AMP."

"You were found on the ground," reported Ben. "Not up in the trees."

"Anything else?" asked Grace who seemed anxious to receive more information.

"Just yellow eyes," said Leon trying to remember. "And the smell of candy."

"Candy?" asked Ben.

"Yeah candy. You know the one that one that smells like…" said Leon trying to put a finger on what candy he smelled.

"Gummy bears," answered Grace.

"Yeah…" said Leon trailing off.

"Grace?" asked Ben. But she was deep in thought. The cigarette between her lips had burned to ash. Everyone looked curiously at her, expecting her so speak what was on her mind.

She got up and let the cigarette butt fall to the floor. And began to walk towards the door but turned around and faced them.

"The Na'vi saved his life," said Grace before walking out the door leaving the men to look at each other dumbfounded.

When the others left. Cobb moved forward and stood next to Leon. "Rest up son. We need you running at a hundred percent out there."

"Yes sir."

"Maybe you did see this 'flying T-rex' and maybe you didn't," said Cobb. "I just hope its the latter and that you did land on your head and dreamt this whole shit up."

"Then how did I survive the night?" asked Leon. But the Cobb couldn't give him an answer.

The Major gave a firm squeeze on his shoulder before leaving Leon to rest and go over the thoughts that were running through his head. "I hope I was just dreaming things too."

It wouldn't belong before Leon's "T-rex" was spotted by no less than three other pilots who reported seeing an orange Banshee or "Leon's T-rex." And then an actual photograph of the orange monster was taken which provided solid evidence and the official naming of the creature; Leonopteryx. It was one thing that everyone else but Grace hoped wasn't true.

A/N: Since everyone has this in their stories I guess I'd do one too. This section is going to be for anything I need to explain and respond to any questions you guys have.

Thanks for the reviews guys.

The reason why these chapters are so short is because I usually have these typed out on my iPhone and emailed to my computer where I can edit it there. I may have to work on how chapters are divided if these indeed are too short.

An interesting and totally different perspective of Avatar. One question though, as to how many years is this before the events of Avatar?

I thought that it would be interesting to get a human's perspective on things and have him be in the Avatar program as there appears to be so many of those out there, no offense to you guys.

And I haven't really decided on how many years ahead of the movie this will be as I am trying to find out more information. I would roughly guestimate around the 20 years before the movie give or take a decade.