XV: Heaven's falling Down (IV)
Jake awoke to the odd sensation of someone rocking him. Jake's eyes fluttered open, he felt fleshy hands pressing into his right side and shoulder. Brown eyes surrounded by white rings greeted him. Jake felt like he had been hammered by an Angtsìk herd. His head was pounding, his mask was gone, and he felt a distinct egg sized lump on the top of his head. Jake tried to make sense of what was happening; again he turned his head to stare incomprehensibly at the pale figure sitting beside him, gently pushing against him, rocking him with an unseeing stare. Jake blinked hard, only then noticing the white powder dropping from his face, having dried. Jake felt a surge of panic, that he would panic, but his training effectively crushed it without effort. He wasn't being thrown into a chemical induced panic attack, he was fine. Jake had a thought about other side effects, possibly hallucinations, which would explain why his attacker was sitting at his side and gently rocking him awake. Like a lost kid.
Jake slowly sat up, confused as anyone would be after being practically pushed off a tree and then gently woken by said pusher. Jake lifted his head, focusing his bleary eyes on his face. The eyes starred into nothing, then focused sharply on Jake's and he silenced. Only then did Jake realize he had been repeating the same words over and over- "don't die". Now that Jake was even partially sitting up, the stranger did something truly strange. When Jake sat up, now looking at the stranger in warily confusion, he scooted forward and partially wrapped himself around Jake in a full body hug. Jake tilted his head back as the stranger curled the side of his face into the crook of Jake's neck. The stranger, though a full grown man of at least six feet, was tiny in comparison to the well over nine foot avatar and the size difference alone allowed the small being to cuddle up close to Jake exactly like a small child would; arms wrapped firmly around Jake's abdomen.
The stranger said nothing as he completed this oddly intimate, terrified, and downright creepy hug complete with his long winding tail wrapping around Jake's leg. Jake looked down at the clutching figure, only then realizing his entire body was trembling against Jake's skin. It was the oddest thing Jake had ever encountered. Deadly yet clingy. The silliness of the situation stuck Jake like a hot air balloon drifting up his spine. Jake felt a tickle at the bottom of his feet slowly spread to the top of his head. A feeling as warm and welcoming as a sponge bath, Jake recalled sponge baths during his long term recovering after the accident that took his legs… in fact he felt feathers fill his forehead. In fact he felt lighter than air, a soft chuckle tried to build in his belly but wouldn't come out… a huge grin spread across his face. Jake had the faintest idea of a Euphoria side effect somewhere in that deep labyrinth of his skull cherry blossoms falling around a looooooooong cloudy skkkkyyyyy Jake felt the unmistakable consistency of butter, ice-cream, who wants ice-cream? La la la la! I'll make the flowers grow! Wheeeeee~ wait I have to get out of here thanators are really good with a side of fries and you got to obey the rules- Pandora rules- that's right kids, PANDORA RULES!
…
Neytiri was swift on the trail after she met with the humans at Hell's Gate. Norm had said the man and Jake were only gone perhaps a half hour, Norm had tried to explain the stranger was dangerous but also not 'sort of' but she left hurried so she could catch them easily before he could stumblingly finish. If this stranger was truly dangerous, she did not like to think of Jake facing it alone. She had not counted on finding Jake lying on his back in the middle of a clearing, laughing, with a nude man clinging to him. Neytiri watched from a distance, unknowingly in the exact spot Jake had been earlier. Jake was swatting at the air, like he was hitting a ball or popping bubbles. He had a wide grin, with dilated eyes. Neytiri lowered her arrow, uncertain what to make of it. Jake was playfully swatting at things that weren't there with a soft white powder drifting off his skin. The nude figure curled around him with head tucked into his neck, stared at nothing; eyes open, breathing through his nose. Neytiri scowled at her mate and slowly descended to ground level. She kept her bow out with the arrow notched as she approached the pair.
She got within a few feet of them then halted, calling out, "My Jake!"
"Hoo hoo heeee, why can't I hold all these limes?" he responded.
Neytiri checked the growl in her throat, concern quickly taking its place. She knew something was wrong, but she didn't know what to do. "You, move away!" she called to the strange pale man. At the sound of her voice, the figure slowly began to unwind its extremely long tail. Neytiri slowly pulled back on her arrow, she didn't know what to expect and now part of her kicked herself for not staying to listen longer to Norm's warnings. Like a sliver of human skin the stranger stood up, tail arching behind him and to the side. Neytiri was slightly unnerved by the unflinching stare of the… "thing" like a grub with a spindly, thin exterior.
"The stars make you invincible you know, oooo coins! Ba ding, ba ding, ba ding!" Jake mumbled. Then it began to walk toward her. Neytiri pulled back on her bow string, ears laid back.
"Ha!" she warned, but the figure didn't stop, didn't slow down. He kept his arms at his sides, but moved with swift purposeful steps directly at her; hard stare unblinking. Neytiri had to make an instant choice, to kill or not to kill.
"Woop! Sank your battleship." Jake laughed. Neytiri released her arrow. The shaft sailed past the strangers face, disturbing his loose hair like a breeze. He neither slowed nor flinched and was upon Neytiri the next second. She had expected him to try to dodge or possibly draw away from fear, but he was completely unafraid or unaffected as he stopped inches from her. Neytiri already had her second arrow drawn, pointed directly at his forehead. He paused, unmoving arms limp by his side, exactly as a small child would when scolded. Neytiri's breath came short as she starred at him, nude, helpless before her. She was easily twice as tall as he, she could literally break him in half if she wished… but the raw vulnerability as he bowed his head before her arrow… waiting. Neytiri felt the odd sensation of rain falling on her skin.
Slowly he lifted his head and the piercing eyes of a man who had seen and been through far too much crawled up her body, ignoring the arrow, and landing on her face. She could feel his gaze like a hot fire. When his eyes met hers, there was a fever deep within. He starred into her soul, to the very bottom of it, and then looked away. She could swear she heard the sobs of her dying sister… then the man lowered her eyes. He looked down, as if thinking and then slowly bowed his head. Again. The arrow tip with its deadly venom was not inches from his skin. If he moved even half an inch, if the arrow tip pierced his flesh he would be ended… softly, Neytiri relaxed her arrow. He instantly brushed passed it and moved forward until his forehead rested directly on her belly. Neytiri looked down at him, breathing in as if she had just avoided stepping on a wood sprite.
Gently he laid the side of his head against her skin, and wrapped his arms around her waist. Even his long winding tail, able to stay aloft though it was nearly as long as his body, wrapped around her leg. This was all he did, holding onto her, and trembling. Neytiri could not understand his strange ways, nor the feelings flowing up through her. Her bow and arrow fell to her side as her other hand lifted, very nearly coming to rest on the top of his head. She knew now, in the scope of human years, he had to be an adult… but his actions were exactly like those of a frightened child. Neytiri held away her hand, dropping it her side. She felt like she was on the verge of tears, but held the emotion off even as Jake continued to wave his fingers in the air at nothingness. "They're all in a row, quack quack, ha ha, pull the string!" Neytiri shook the beads back from her face, looking up at the sky. The warmth of his trebling skin against her belly and leg made the rest of her feel cold. Again she could not shake the sensation of rain falling upon her, but with the closeness of his skin... it felt like falling snow. Was this Eywa's silent tears? Neytiri felt a wave of reverent sorrow sweep through her, even as the other Na'vi who followed her slowly crowded in around the clearing.
…
They took their time carrying Jake back with them, mainly because they followed Neytiri and she could not move quickly with the stranger clinging so tightly to her and following her every step. He would not release her, even as they had turned to move, he would not look up to her and he would not speak. The entourage was as a funeral procession, with the only sound being Jake continuous babbling. When they reached Hell's Gate, Neytiri and Norm expected trouble- expected the stranger to again flip out and try to run at the sight of supposed RDA, but to their surprise he didn't react. He didn't react when Norm met them in his Exo-pack alone, and he didn't react when Neytiri led him into the same room he'd just escaped from. He didn't even react when some of the doctors reattached a few leads to him. Neytiri did have to sit upon the table with him however, even as Jake was taken to the same room as Yawne.
"Aaaaaaayyy Jaaaaaaaaaaaaake." Yawne said as Jake was carted in.
"Yo Yaaaaaaaaaaawne." Jake replied as they tried to reach over and hug across the five foot gap between them. "Get off the mountain." Jake laughed.
"Who will watch my goats?" Yawne scoffed.
Elsewhere Norm sat on the opposite side of the glass from Neytiri, the stranger, the doctors, and her honor guard. Max stood beside him, leafing through papers as Norm placed his feet on his console. "Well… this should be interesting." Max smiled.
"Hmm?" Norm absently prompted.
"We know the boiled airborne variety wears off within a matter of minutes, but the contact chemical is still going on three hours. We're still working on an, anti-venom I guess we'll call it, but Petri tests are coming out inconclusive." Max handed Norm the latest read out.
"Max," Norm coughed, "Do you think we should let this guy live?"
Max narrowed his eyes, completely taken off guard, "Norm?"
Norm put the pad aside, "Is this really evolution, or is it some kind of genetic time bomb monster thing? What if he plants eggs in peoples chests? What if he's impregnating Neytiri through skin contact? What if he impregnated Jake and Yawne with that cocaine breath?"
Max looked at Norm a bit suspiciously then sat beside him, "Okay, I don't think you want me to go into all the tests we've done to confirm that isn't the case. So. What's eating you?"
Norm rubbed the bridge of his nose, "That obvious huh?" Max nodded. Norm sighed and threw his hands up. "I don't know man, I mean, everything exciting seems to happen to other people. Jake fell in love, got his legs back- Yawne fell in love, got his life back. I mean sure they both had to practically die to get what they have but, I died too you know! I didn't get to fall in love!" Norm slightly dropped his gaze, realizing it sounded much better in his head, "I mean, so now we got, like, this super human guy and we're discovering more and more about him as we go. Did you see what we scanned before he ran for it? Heat sensor spines on the back of his ears! Like a Thanator! Next thing, next thing you'll know he'll have, like, gills!" Norm gestured, grasping in the dark.
Max smiled lightly, "Norm, this jealousy is most unbecoming."
Norm looked at Max, "You won't laugh when it turns out he can fly…" Max waved him off but Norm sat up, "No seriously Max! Look at the data, this is supposedly mankind's next evolutionary step! Okay, granted it got more Pandora influenced biology then you'd have on earth but, you know its, pretty spectacular! How do you even chemically break down an emotion? I mean, he spits fear Max! We now have the exact chemical composition for an abstract human concept such as emotion, that works across physiological bounders such as species!"
Max crossed his arms, "Yeah it is impressive, I'm still geeking out myself buuuut it's not really emotion, I mean the fight or flight response is basic. Probably the most basic compulsion, it's what triggers the release of adrenaline in certain parts of the body, and the whole make up of the body's functions change to fit accordingly to the survival situation. Being able to, expel that is just the next step in being able to recognize and control it I suppose."
Norm cupped his hands to his face, "Have you heard Delilah's theory?"
Max pursed his lips, "The Empathic thing?"
Norm nodded, "That's going a little farther than fight or flight."
Max shrugged, "Hey, empathy is just one of the more amazing aspects of the brain, we've done research on it before."
Norm waved his hands, "Yeah but its treading on the whole psychic thing, hardly scientific, I mean… how can you keep a straight face when you mention science and 'aura's in the same sentence?"
Max gave Norm a disbelieving look, "Come on, psychics are real. They've been governmentally proven as real, look it up. There was a test if memory serves in which they proved psychic ability by over seventy percent or something, and heck if that doesn't sell you, look at our program. The Avatar program is little more than machine driven astral projection."
Norm screwed up his face, "Well when you put it like that…"
Max grinned, "Hey, believe me, I know what you're thinking. It's scary stuff, I'm waiting for him to start lifting objects with his mind or worse… read ours. But man, if that could really happen, wow." Max looked off into the room seeing beyond it.
Norm watched him, "You know Max, you are probably the most mellow scientist I know. If Albert Einstein walked in the room side by side with Hawkings in an AMP suit you say, 'hey guys, we found a psychic!'"
Max laughed, "To tell you the truth Norm, my perceptions have all but been stripped away by just being on Pandora. I've not had an Avatar, so I guess my tiny human point of view has remained unchanged. I've seen a man in a wheel chair change the course of a cultures entire history. If this guy starts moving chairs with mind bullets, I'll just be happy I got to see it." Norm became silent at Max's words. Max was a true scientist, an explorer of existence. He'd probably be the first to jump through a worm-hole if he could. Max's reaction to the whole situation reminded Norm of his own reasons for coming to Pandora. Why was he consumed with jealousy about this newcomers strange abilities? Shouldn't he have been just as excited by the discoveries they were making? Why did he come to Pandora? Was it to fall in love with a native girl and find a place among the people as leader, as Jake had done? Was that why seeing the stranger hold on so tightly to Neytiri bothered him so much?
Doing things to see if they could be done. Asking why of everything and if met with why ask why, asking, why not? Where had his pioneer spirit gone? Norm stood and left the scientists to work in private. Again he went to look in on his avatar and its progression. Maybe it was all the time he spent cooped up in the labs? He was a field scientist, his discoveries were made out there, and out there was where he belonged… in the mud, in the bush. Yeaaaaah! Norm smiled to himself, maybe he had Cabin fever? He would be glad to be in a body that could rightfully explore the world he'd come to love, and in the mean time he could marvel in this strangers position. Norm paused. The Stranger; Norm had began to think of him as just another specimen to study, and only now was Norm remembering the incredible journey of this fellow explorer. Why had he come to Pandora? What was even his name?
Norm felt a little foolish, being conflicted about his place on Pandora when someone else was far more lost than he. Norm resolved then to help the Stranger out as best he could. When the entire base began to vibrate like a v8 engine and Norm landed on his butt as the earthquake sirens blared, Norm didn't wonder what was happening. Instantly his head was spiked by Max's words: could the stranger move the base with his mind? Visions of the final scene from Carrie also filled Norm as he dashed back to the viewing area where everyone was babbling about read outs. Max simply stared. Through the glass, as Norm's teeth rattled, he could have sworn he saw a red glowing aura.