How to Train Your Avatar

This...is Pandora

"Masks on!" yelled the commander as the ship started to land. "You lose that mask, you're unconscious in 20 seconds and dead in four minutes! Let's have no one dead today, it looks very bad on my report!"

Hiccup rolled his eyes. "No promises," he muttered as he got his mask out of the glass box above his head. He secured it over his face as the ship landed, the large door opening and everyone running out.

Hiccup watched the other men leave before pulling his pack over his shoulders, then grabbed his crutches and stood up, making his way towards the door.

"Let's go, soldier!" the commander yelled at Hiccup. "Do not make me wait for you!"

"You wouldn't be the first," Hiccup snarked as he passed the commander, working his way down the ramp while trying not to slip and fall flat on his face on his first day.

Hiccup looked around, taking a mental survey of his surroundings. The base was huge, with large construction equipment and men in giant robotic suits traveling throughout the entire thing. Hiccup noticed several large arrows the size of humans stuck in the wheels of the construction equipment. He made his way towards the dining hall, where all new recruits were scheduled to meet. He blatantly ignored the stares and whispers of the other soldiers as he passed them, knowing exactly what they were saying.

"I've seen people leave here on crutches before," he heard someone say, "but never arrive on them."

"You're gonna be leaving here on crutches if you don't shut your asshole," Hiccup said, stopping beside them at the door. "Oh wait, sorry, that's your mouth. You know I can't tell them apart these days, since shit seems to come out of both."

Hiccup just let them glare at his back as he went into the dining hall.

"You are not in the Archipelago anymore," the general, Drago Bludvist, was saying as Hiccup came in. "You are on Pandora. One of the most hostile environments known to man."

Hiccup sat down at a table in the back, leaning his crutches against the table as Drago continued to talk.

"We have an indigenous group of humanoids called the Na'vi," Drago said. "They are primitive in technology, but evolved in biology. They are fond of arrows dipped in a neurotoxin that will stop your heart in less than one minute. They are very hard to kill."

No shit, Hiccup thought to himself.

"My job on this base is to keep you alive. I will not succeed." Drago paused for effect, looking at each recruit in turn. "Not with all of you. That being said, there are a few rules you need to follow..."

Hiccup snickered to himself. Nothing like an old-school safety brief to put one's mind at ease.

*****

"Harvey!" someone called as Hiccup made his way down the science wing. Hiccup stopped mid-swing and glanced over his shoulder at the pudgy blonde man jogging towards him. "You're Harvey Haddock, right? Jack's brother?"

"Yeah," Hiccup said, lodging his crutch under his arm so he could shake the man's hand. "Call me Hiccup. Most everyone does."

"Jack mentioned you had a strange nickname," the man confirmed. "I'm Freddie Ingerman. I went through avatar training with your brother. He called me--"

"Fishlegs," Hiccup mused, remembering the times Jack would talk about how Freddie reminded him of a fish with legs. "Yeah, I think he mentioned you."

"You look a lot like him," Fishlegs remarked. "Just with scragglier hair. And a more pronounced jawline, and tanner skin, and--"

"So where's the brains behind this whole operation?" Hiccup interrupted, hoping to get the topic off his deceased twin.

"That would be me," said a tall, skinny man with long pale-blonde dreadlocks as he walked towards them.

"Right," Hiccup said as Fishlegs rolled his eyes.

The man laughed. "I'm just kidding." He extended his hand to Hiccup, who shook it. "Thomas Thorston, or Tuffnut as everyone calls me around here. I'm one of the lead scientists, though I wish I was in charge. The things I could do for this base--"

"Okay, moving on!" Fishlegs interrupted. "We keep the avatars over here." He walked with Tuffnut, leading the way to the two giant tanks with fully-grown Na'vi men inside. Hiccup trailed behind on his crutches, his prosthetic tapping on the floor wherever it hit. The brace he kept on his right leg so it would support his weight was starting to get uncomfortable; he'd have to adjust it later.

"Damn, they got big," Hiccup remarked, admiring the avatars.

"They fully matured on the flight out," Tuffnut said, looking at Fishlegs's avatar. It was significantly less fat, with a much thinner waist and black hair, unlike the human's bright blonde.

Hiccup moved over to look at the other avatar. This one very closely resembled Jack, aside from the black hair, of course; Jack had dyed his white a long time ago, earning him the nickname Jack Frost.

"Looks like him," Hiccup said, smirking slightly at the uncanny resemblance.

"Looks like you," said Fishlegs, placing a hand on Hiccup's shoulder. "This is your avatar now."

Hiccup put a hand against the glass, fighting the sad smile that was working its way to the surface.