A/N: Despite having more than a dozen stories to finish I've decided to write a sequel to 'Let's Rock!' since some of the reviewers asked me to. Also Grace is alive though still in her human body.
"You gotta keep up Norm!" Jake shouted back to his friend leaping to another tree.
"Cut me some slack man! I'm new to this!" Norm called back jumping to the same tree. Jake chuckled as his friend swung on a vine to reach him. "Come on, Jake," Norm panted. "Can we take a break here or something?"
"Yeah sure. How long have you been in your Avatar body anyway?"
"About as long as we've been racing through this forest," Norm answered him.
"So you've been this way for two and a half hours. I'm impressed. I thought you'd burn out by now."
"Hey!"
"Relax, buddy. I'm only kidding."
"Whatever. Hey have you seen Grace anywhere. I haven't seen her all morning."
"Where do you think she is?"
"Let me guess; meditating in front of the tree of souls again." He guessed.
"Yep."
"She never seems to leave that place anymore ever since she was revived by the planet's spirits."
Grace sat in front of the tree in a state of total calm. She owed this place her life and now she would do anything to keep it safe. Suddenly something flashed in her mind. "What the?" The same vision flashed in her mind and Grace grabbed her head. There was something eerily familiar about that vision. "What did you show me?" She asked out loud. The planet unexpectedly shook knocking her onto her back. Grace gazed up at the sky; something was falling from it! It passed over the tree and made a crash landing somewhere else in the distance. Grace rushed over to one of the trees and scaled it to the top. The sound of the crash brought numerous Na'Vi out to the Tree of Souls.
"What was that?" Neytiri asked. Grace leapt from the tree and landed before the Na'Vi.
"A ship of some sort; a massive ship," Grace explained. "It landed due north to our position."
"Do you think it's the humans again?" Neytiri asked gripping her bow and arrow.
"That's not possible. They'd have to get past Trudy on the ship in order to come back," Jake said joining the group.
"No offense to Trudy, Jake, but she's only one girl vs. an entire armada of some of Earth's best trained Marines. They could have very well over powered her," Norm said.
"No. There's just no way," Jake said in disbelief.
"Well there is only one way to be certain," Neytiri said. "I'll go over there and take a look. If any of you wish to join me step forward now." Six Na'Vi stepped forward to assist her.
"Wait a second, Neytiri. We don't know what's out there. I think I should lead this recon mission."
"You needn't worry Jake. I'm more than capable of taking care of myself and the others," Neytiri said and dashed off into the deep forest followed closely by the other Na'Vi.
Neytiri had an uneasy feeling as she and the others got closer to the crash site. "Halt," she suddenly ordered.
"What's wrong? Have you seen something?" One of the Na'Vi asked her.
"I don't know," she responded. She rose up her bow and cautiously advanced towards the sounds of something rustling in the bushes. That something jumped out of the bush taking a scratch at Neytiri's side. She let out a scream and grasped her side. "What in the name of Eywa," she said observing the creature that attacked her. She'd never seen one of these things before on Pandora. It charged her and she shot it in the head with her arrow. It let out a wail and its blood, or at least what Neytiri assumed to be blood, flew all over the place as it started randomly lashing out. Neytiri was about to shoot it again when it collapsed to the ground dead.
A loud roar put the Na'Vi back on alert; strange hisses followed the roar.
"What do you think we're dealing with?" Another Na'Vi asked.
"Shoot first and worry about what it is later," Neytiri said to them. The creatures all jumped into view and arrows flew followed by the sounds of the Na'Vi screaming.
"They've been gone for far too long," Jake said tired of waiting. "I'm going after them," but before he could go anywhere Grace stopped him.
"Come with me, Jake. It's important," Grace said and leapt up into the trees.
"Remind me; how is she able to do that again in her human body?" Norm asked Jake as they followed her.
"Your guess is as good as mine. It has something to do with the spirit of the planet; at least that's the best explanation I can think of," Jake said as he tried to keep up with the surprisingly agile Grace. She stopped and climbed down the tree that rested in front of the human facility. She opened the gate and rushed inside.
"Do you want to tell us what's going on here, Grace?" Norm asked as she swiftly typed on the main computer.
"I can't be certain yet. I should be able to access the ship's security footage from this computer," she said. "Oh my God," she whispered. Portions of the ships were torn up and it even looked like there were holes burned through the ship as well. "Let's see if we can't find out what happened here," Grace said and started to rewind the camera footage.
"Wait, stop there," Jake said. Grace paused it at a shot of what appeared to be Trudy.
"Come on! Come on!" Trudy shouted as a group of men ran through the door. She jumped in front of the door and started firing at something, but the computer didn't show what. Odd sounding wails could be heard from the other side of the door. Trudy sealed it shut and ran off. Grace rewound even further and played an image coming from the control room. A monstrous looking creature on all fours with sharp teeth, dark skin, and a long tail was looming over a deceased Marine. It snarled at the Marine and then leapt at the security camera.
"Something was on the ship with them… Grace? Are you ok?" Jake asked her noticing a petrified look on her face.
"No I'm not Jake. I'm not," she answered.
"Are you going to tell us why or are you going to leave us in suspense?' Norm questioned. Grace opened her mouth to respond when the facility's alarms started to blare.
"Something's breached the outer perimeter!" Grace warned them.
"You think it might be what came on the ship?" Norm nervously asked.
"We're about to find out. Shut off the lights. That might give us some kind of advantage." Jake replied.
"No! Don't turn off the lights!" Grace frantically shouted.
"Grace, what's gotten into you?" Jake asked put off by her change in mood. The door to the room opened up and a human stumbled inside.
"Trudy!" Jake shouted as she fell to the floor. Her chest had multiple cuts on it as did her face; she was holding onto one of the Marine's rifles in her right hand. Jake knelt down, picked up Trudy, and set her down on one of the tables. "Trudy; what did this to you?"
"Was barely able to escape," she breathed out. "All over the ship. So many of them. So many..."
"You aren't making any sense Trudy. What are you talking about?"
"Xeno… xeno…" Trudy passed out before she could continue and the alarms started to blast again.
"What now?" Norm wondered. Grace walked over to the computer and checked the security cameras. However, the camera feed at the gates was down. They heard something hiss just outside the door.
"Get away from the door!" Grace yelled sealing the room off. Something started to ram against the door. More hisses could be heard from outside the door.
"Anyone got any ideas?" Jake asked raising his bow and arrow.
"Whatever you're gonna do," Trudy said momentarily regaining consciousness, "You better do it fast."
A/N: Just to clarify Trudy will still be the main protagonist of the story despite being badly injured at the moment.
