76 76. Birthday

{Have you ever dreamed of controlling a "mecha", Miles?}, after those words left Liam's mouth a moment of confusion followed but it didn't last more than half a second before it was broken.

{What is that?!}, Miles spoke out in excitement suddenly standing and hunching himself over to point his head backward as he stared into the silver eyes of the man he saw as his father.

{Be a little patient and you will see.}, Liam said mysteriously, leading to the kid being both disappointed and excited, with the others that wanted to know feeling dismally to a lesser degree, in particular, the younger of the Sully brothers, Lo'ak.

{Liam! It has been a while since I last saw you and you sure did grow…}, Jake was the first to greet him as he arrived at the cottage, doing a forearm shake and also informing the ex-marine that it was also in strength.

It was honestly terrifying for a single man to have such strength but Jake knew Liam well or at the very least enough to know the not-so-human human was not to be feared under normal circumstances… That is the fate of the SecOps having the misfortune of having unprotected Liam's path ending in a very brutal manner.

But he couldn't stop his instinct from being clear that the being in front of him was extremely dangerous and powerful and it translated in small ears twitch and tail flick which he knew was detected by the inhuman human facing him.

Yet Liam was their most important ally, the second most powerful being on this paradisiacal and deadly moon, as an Olo'eyktan it was his duty for this to remain the case and Liam was so much more if the words of the Tsahìk Mo'at that were spoken to him and his wife were to be taken at face value.

The Lost Child and so many more titles under his name now was someone akin to the mate of the All-Mother as insane and impossible as it sounded. And it was telling considering the man in question, an alien being strikingly human-looking and with knowledge far beyond humanity.

And as much as Jake had difficulty to begin to accept this new fact about his friend he couldn't lie to himself that he felt something, something larger, greater than him with Liam. It was almost overwhelming, it was the man's presence but not only that, it made him remember the feeling in the air when in the proximity of a Tree of Souls.

{Yeah can't stop it, and I don't know if I ever will.}, Liam said humorously, before he greeted Grace, Tsu'tey, Norm in his human body his girlfriend Trudy, and last but not least Neytiri who was staying to the side looking at him wearily which led to him saying a basic hello and nothing more.

She was scared of him and had more problems hiding it than her mate because it was genuine and not an instinctual response, the fact her two sons were pretty close to him in a way that made him similar to more or less a friendly but weird uncle that is seen a few times a year didn't help as it made it so she was forced to see him occasionally made it clear for him that she was.

She didn't hate him, he was one of the very few humans she didn't dislike or straight up hate, she didn't even consider him as part of the Sky People, he was their leader but not part of their species. It was fear mixed with respect and reverence, the same way one would fear a natural cataclysm but Liam only knew that he was feared by her.

An important aspect of this birthday party was that there was no one else besides the ten of them present, it was by Miles' choice, he didn't have any other friends his age aside from the three Na'vi human hybrids present here. And both influenced the other with the human doing the most, he was the oldest after all.

Miles didn't like the family that was supposed to take care of him saying hate would almost not be an exaggeration.

This was the case for many reasons of which standing at the top was their general aversion for Liam and the lack of care toward him with clear favoritism toward their biological son.

And for a kid his age it was too much adding he never felt like a son for the human couple but more of something to be pitied and looked at in shame. He was loved and he felt it.

It was better this way, things didn't work out so it was better to cut it short before it devolved further. And it means not interacting with them if not necessary then so be it.

That's how the others in the kid entourage saw it and why it was bound to happen to begin within the back, it wasn't a sudden change of heart for Liam to adopt the kid, far from it, this subject had been spoken several times with Mary, and Nash and was for a very long time on his mind.

And as such all went smoothly, too smoothly even, as sad as it was since it entailed a lot on Mary and Nash's part that displeased Liam greatly. They were relieved as if they had just gotten rid of a heavy burden in their life, he was partially to blame for it and he acknowledged it but that didn't excuse the couple.

He was too kind sometimes but in the end, there were no problems, it was like passing an object from someone to someone else. As horrible as it sounded it felt like this to him.

But the most touched by it all was the kid first and foremost, Miles, and as much as the boy was happy with the new situation he was in, Liam could tell he was saddened by the fact he was so easily disposed of. The boy, while young and acting his age, was smart.

And this showed in the boy's behavior, the fear, and terror mixed with despair even to be abandoned yet again the fact it was him now seemed to amplify it further. Compared to Mary and Nash, Miles was very attached to him.

{Who wants to play "basketball"?}, Grace suddenly said with a wide smile, a comparatively small ball made of leather and rubber spinning on her index finger.

She was a very good player of this old sport back in her university days and she kept on improving as it was one of the main sports used to help the Avatar train and acclimate to their bodies.

She was the best player by skill in the entirety of this multiple-star system, and she will need this against a walking supercomputer with superhuman strength, speed, and resilience.

But her great skill or the worry about a superhuman player stronger than even the strongest of Na'vi was inconsequential as the next few hours passed on the essence of exhausting Kiri, Lo'ak, Neteyam, Miles, by the culminated work of herself, Jake, and Liam with his tames as they played various games together, most of the time putting themselves in the kids level.

'Most of the time' are the keywords here.

There is quite nothing like crushing the hopes and dreams of an over-arrogant kid and seeing the realization of their imminent defeat within their small innocent and naive eyes. All was fair in love and war, they needed to have fun as well, and if there wasn't any challenge the kids would get bored.

As for Trudy, Norm, Tsu'tey, and Neytiri, they stayed on the more peaceful side, speaking together, and observing the group playing until it was dusk. Two were afraid of Liam and the two others were content to watch.

And now it was nearly time to eat, Miles was back on top of Liam's shoulder while the man was flipping meat patties over the primitive barbecue of the place and he was doing it in a way that was like a show for the kid on his shoulders, ingredient appeared and vanished out of thin air as he flipped them one after the others.

{What is this that you are cooking?}, Tsu'tey arriving behind him with Kiri in his arms looked over Liam's head and asked as the almost heavenly smell was too much to bear and he wanted to know.

And what better to ask than the specialist himself? The number of recipes and tricks in the human mind in front of him was seemingly infinite in number, variety, and complexity.

"Burgers.", Liam answered which didn't help the Na'vi in the least but the new smell of something that was yellowish flat, and rectangular being placed on the meat only made him feel hungrier.

It was cheese, well not by the strict definitions of the term Liam didn't have any animals that could produce milk for it but that wouldn't stop him from making cheese-like food by using other ingredients.

He adapted and overcame with the little he had on his hands. Real cheese would still be better but he supposed nobody aside from him would be able to tell the difference and that was pretty sad in his opinion.

Flipping the buns he began making each of the burgers with practiced ease, his movement all swift, smooth, and precise to a superhuman degree as each ingredient landed to his left on top of the others building the several perfectly shaped burgers simultaneously on a large bronze plate.

But he wasn't the only one cooking behind him were his tetrapterons who just finished making his version of French fries, crispy and salty on the outside and soft to the point of almost melting on the tongue on the inside. Potatoes were luckily available at Hell's Gate if rather heavily genetically modified.

Liam trained them in more ways than combat and even without this they were bound to learn a thing or two from him. He wouldn't have accepted anything less from them.

After this dinner went smoothly with Liam ending unsurprisingly as the one eating the most by a large margin. The dessert was a large cake he made using nontoxic seeds that had a taste similar to white chocolate which didn't last very long as well. Eating for the ones unable to breathe the air was not a problem as the visor could shift and adapt to the wearer's needs.

After this, the Sully family said their goodbyes and rode back to the Omatikaya camp with their banshees. Jake couldn't stray away for long from his people as the Olo'eyktan, and Neytiri were reaching their limit of stress adding that Lo'ak was sleeping.

Celebrating birthdays as a concept was foreign to Na'vi culture, it was alien and seen as another pointless excess of the Sky People. The phase with presents was not their strength and it wasn't to them to give, nor was it for anyone, material was of nonimportance here.

But a gift was still to be given to the boy which this day was very special to.

{Happy birthday Miles, no, son. Happy birthday son.}, Liam declared with a smile on his face as he crouched down to barely be able to see eye to eye with his newly adopted son.

The words he just spoke made him feel strange in a good way as he affectionately ruffled the hair of Miles who smiled brightly, words unable to escape his lips as he was currently incapable of voicing his thoughts.

A click was heard from the side as Grace took a photo of the scene, and on the holotablet, she used to take the photo a text appeared saying thank you while on the side the message saying something was being downloaded led her to chuckle slowly.

{A present for you, it is not a toy and you will use it with care.}, Liam said waving his left hand led to space bending unnaturally as a bulky dark grey box with bright orange accentuation appeared out of thin air leading to gazes of confusion and curiosity from everyone present.

Snapping his fingers the box lit up and made a loud whirring sound then it unfolded, two legs, two arms, with two hands ending in five blocky digits, one head fused with a neck, then with a mental command from Liam it stood.

And when it attained its full height it revealed a menacing yet contradictorily nonthreatening two-meter and twenty-centimeter (~7ft2) tall humanoid body of dark painted metal appeared, gasps were heard at the sudden apparition of the contraption.

Liam snapped his finger again, and the hulking mass of pure technology opened, the head with the torso and belly unfolding like a burgeoning flower revealing various holoscreens, a seat, and dozens of thick cables connected to rings of metal and several other monitors.

"Is this the mecha you spoke about!? It's amazingely-awesome and super cool! Could I have one too!", Kiri was the first to speak inadvertently switching to English, leading to a raised eyebrow of recognition from Grace while this was happening Miles was already climbing in with little to no difficulty in the miniature mecha.

"Yes. It's quite similar to the metal armor you might have seen people wear at the base to lift big boxes… But here it's sized for Miles and quite a bit different. As for one, we will see what the future might give us and if you have the aptitude for it.", he explained to the Avatar girl going to English as well, both languages switched at times but it was not a bother for anyone.

His adopted son, beyond the limit of excitement, climbed up the legs and entered without even needing to be asked, then he sat upon the comfortable seat of synthetic material that instantly shifted to adapt to the kid's body.

"Put your fingers in the rings, and your feet in the large boots. Most important of all, do not panic, you wouldn't want to hurt anybody. You can breathe without an exopack but still… Be careful.", he explained, and with a serious nod Miles did as asked with obvious clumsiness yet it was still done with almost natural ease.

"Can I name him?", Miles asked with hope in his eyes and got a nod of approval from Liam then he declared proudly, "Then his name is… Robotinator first of his name!"

"Heh, fancy and interesting, good thing I didn't put a self-destruct button. Let's do a first two-minute run for today.}, Liam added with a bright smile not caring if no one understood his century-old reference he snapped his finger for the third time.

The mecha began to seal itself back up encasing Miles in an armor capable of protecting him from almost everything not in the heavy anti-tank category, and even then multiple shots would be needed and also let him move in virtually all terrain from the depth of the sea to deep space.

The only negative point was that the battery could only last half a day before needing to be recharged by either solar energy or by connecting to a source of energy.

Liam learned to miniature the fusion reactor in his past time but not to the point of keeping it functioning at a capacity that was even worth it. The mecha at the end of the day was very small, he couldn't fight the laws of physics right now and put a fusion reactor, a fission reactor was no-gogo as well.

"Are you sure this is wise, Liam? He is only six…", Norm voiced his worry as the last bit of Miles disappeared into the bulky body of metal, a headpiece similar to a crown of entwined cable encasing the kid's head visible at the end.

"He'll be fine, trust me and trust him. At worst, I'm here and my slinger and I have first aid kits.", Liam said nonchalantly, not calming the human xenobiologist in the least. Injuries and hurts were part of life, he wasn't going to shelter Miles from them all.

'This is impressive…', he thought with shock right after his reassuring pitch, the synching between his adopted son's central nervous system and the machine was almost at 59.86%, an insane percentage way past his estimation by a no small amount.

But as promising as Miles was as a pilot with those first results he was but a six-year-old who never did anything quite like this, even less so when on a slippery surface and the boot studs were not activated. One of the many functions the boy would have to discover.

"Got you.", Liam said mirth mirthfully as he grabbed with one hand the blocky metal hand of the mecha stopping Miles dead in his tracks from falling on his rear as presently the boy and machine were virtually the same.

How it was stopped was almost as if the hulking mass of metal weighed nothing but air and in a way it was, Liam didn't make it needlessly heavy and he could lift more than a ton with only one hand.

*THIS IS AWESOME!*, the mechanically distorted yet clear voice of Miles then echoed, its point of origin the mecha. The distortion was not needed or necessary but Liam did as he pleased with his craft, and the boy could modify it if he found the functionality.

*

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