You Work For Me
''Harry!'' The voice was still hazy, and his trip down the rainbow brain stem was still throwing off his perception. It sounded female, but it didn't sound that familiar to Harry.
''Harry!'' There were hands on his shoulders, shaking him awake. Harry’s breathing sounded labored in his own bleary haze as panic started to overtake his perception. The sound of a beaker somewhere in the lab shattered, and one of the computers in the lab started to glitch out in time with Harry’s frantic heartbeat. The resulting hurried yells did little to help him calm down, but he knew, even in his own confused state, that it was only a matter of time before he accidentally blew up every electronic in the room.
''Come on back now, General.'' The voice continued, this time slapping him lightly on the cheeks. Harry reached up and swatted at the appendages as if they were bees flying around his head, an unfocused but no less menacing glare aimed at the unknown doctor leaning over him. ''He's up!'' She yelled, disappearing not a second later. Harry rolled his eyes before sitting up slowly. He had spent to much time in his AVATAR body that being back in his own was disorienting and disappointing.
He had rather enjoyed the height boost that it had given him. Finally, he was able to stand and look down at the humans that bugged his shit. Plus, braiding and weaving his long black hair has stated his boredom. Yeah, he had longer hair anyway, but not nearly as long as his other body's. There was only so much that you could do with shoulder-length hair after all. At least it was still black though. Thank Eywa for the little things.
''Jake, come on back kid.'' Ah, Harry knew that voice. He looked over to the right, shifting and scooting his body in the flexible gel of the link chamber for a more comfortable visual. Grace was slapping Jake awake, almost exactly the same way that the random doctor from earlier had done to him. Harry smirked. Jake needed payback since Harry still blamed him for forcing Harry to bond with Nada, even if Harry had fallen in love with the small animal just hours after the bonding. He took some sick pleasure in watching Grace slap him harder then the doctor had slapped him.
Much harder.
Jake looked around for a moment, letting his eyes adjust to the light of the room. Harry could tell that the hospital lighting seemed to be torture on his retinas. It had taken him a bit to get fully used to it too. Grace, with the help of Norm, hauled Jake into a sitting position. Harry scoffed at the worried look Norm sported. It was fake, but only Jake and he could see it.
''Is the AVATAR safe?'' She questioned, looking straight into Jake's eyes with an intensity of a parent asking about her child. Harry snorted a the image of an angry Hermione scolding him for losing her daughter on a playdate that he had supervised.
In his defense, she was the one that had gotten a hold of his invisibility cloak. It's not like he just left things like that hand around for anyone to find. If any of those hallows had gotten stolen, Death would have had his ass.
''You know it, Doc,'' Jake said, shaking his bald head around. ''And you won't believe where we are,'' Jake smirked over at Harry, who was now standing, supporting himself on the lid of the link chamber. __________________________________
''I'm Trudy. I fly all of the science sorties. And this here,'' the woman hit the side of a copter hard and a loud bang reverberated around the open space. ''Is my baby.'' Harry liked the woman. She reminded him of Tonks. He even saw the woman almost trip over air on the walk here, but she played it off quite well. ''Hold on a second.'' She said before pivoting quickly on her right foot to face a man at the window opening on her carrier. ''Hey Wainfleet! Get it done. We bounce at zero-nine.''
A man clipped a very large gun into a slot at the door. ''Yeah. I'm on it, Captain.''
''The hand strike's still loose.'' She said before turning back to her company. She gave Harry and Jake a grin before continuing on past the smaller carriers.
''You guys are packing some heavy gear,'' Jake said, wheeling himself fast enough to keep up with the brisk pace that the woman kept. Trudy took a sharp turn left, leading to Jake almost colliding with a vehicle.
''Watch it! That's because we aren't the only thing flying around out there, or the biggest.'' Harry had no trouble keeping up with her, and he tried as hard as he possibly could to ignore the sight of the woman catching her foot on nothing. However, she had noticed him trying not to laugh.
''What are you laughing at, General?'' She said, glaring at Harry.
''Nothing, Trudy,'' Harry said as innocent as he could, but he couldn't help but grin when her back was to him. ''Anyway, I am going to need you on a door gun. I'm a man short.'' Jake smiled.
"I thought that you would never ask. But what about Harry?''
''A three-star general like Hadrian is above my jurisdiction. I can't really command him around.'' Trudy smirked at Harry, who had a borderline narcissistic smile on his face. He ranked higher in this place than a lot of others.
That included Quaritch.
''There's your man,'' Trudy pointed to Quaritch, who was benching what seemed to be some pretty impressive weights.
''You wanted to see us, Colonel?'' Harry said, watching as the older man's biceps bulge with the strain of the weights. It really was astounding on how this asshole actually looked like an asshole. He hadn't come across those very often. Draco was one of them, although he had redeemed himself in fifth year. Voldemort didn't really look like an asshole. He looked like a psychotic murderer missing a nose.
But Quaritch just looked like a straight-up Douche bag.
''This low gravity will make you soft,'' Quaritch said and paused. ''You get soft,'' The clang of the weight being put back onto the metal bars that held it made Jake jump. Harry snickered into his hand while Jake tried to discreetly hit his friend without the colonel noticing anything. ''Pandora will shit you out dead with zero warning.''
Harry watch Jake role his eyes, and he refrained from giving in to the childish urge to do the same.
''I've read your file, Corporal. Venezuela, that was some mean bush. Nothing like out here though. You got some heart kid, showing up in this neighborhood.'' Quaritch said, directing his words at Jake. Harry got the underlining feeling that he was not liked by this man very much. Tough Titty, Quaritch could suck his dick for all he cared.
''Figured it was just another hellhole,'' Jake said nonchalantly.
''Its that frame of mind that will get you killed out here, Jake,'' Harry said, sparing his friend a glance. Quaritch looked at his fellow higher up.
''I've read your file as well, Hadrian,'' Quaritch said, staring at Harry with a smirk on his face. ''You were a Three-star General in the Marine Corps until you had been drafted into the program to be a soldier with the experience of a scientist. You had only needed to perform three more years of service until you would have been given your fourth star.'' Quaritch took a moment, feigning disgust. ''You came here on the same ship that brought us, Jake.''
''Yes I did,'' Harry said shortly. It wasn't really surprising that Quaritch had read his file. All of the information was open to those who wanted to read through it.
Harry and Jake followed Quaritch to where they kept the man-powered suits. ''I come out here, day one.'' The colonial said, pointing at the four scars that ran from his temple and over his eye. ''You can bet that I felt like a shaved tail looie. Well, they could fix me up if I rotated back. And make me pretty again. But you know what?'' He said, turning around to look at the two of them. ''I kind of like it. Reminds me every day what's waiting for me.'' Harry actually did roll his eyes at this.
God damn, this guy really loved to hear himself talk.
''Look, Sully, I want you to learn this savages from the inside, I want you to gain their trust. I need to know how to force their cooperation or hammer them hard if they won't.'' Quaritch said after situation himself inside the suit.
''What about the program?'' Jake asked, already knowing the answer.
''You can act like one of these science pukes. You can quack like one.'' Quaritch looked directly at Jake then. ''But you report to me. Can you do that for me son?''
''No, sorry,'' Jake said shortly.
''What!? Why not?'' Quaritch looked outraged, not taking into account the laughing General beside Jake.
''He doesn't report to you, Quaritch,'' Harry said after five minutes of laughing at Quaritch's stupid facial expression. He got himself under control and switching into serious mode. ''I rank above you, Quaritch. He reports to me. Just like you do.''
The taste of revenge was sweet, almost as sweet as a sight of a cowed Quaritch.