29. Teenagers do be teenagers

Liam cautiously approached the tree, Septen with its multipurpose gauntlet flew down landing on his armored shoulder connecting with his implant and giving information about the last five minutes.

'Fuck… I should have put the turret elsewhere not like I could have known a fucking drone of all things would fucking fly above and get gunned down. And it's a drone with a five printed on it meaning there are multiple of them. Not that even without this I would have thought there were more than one.', he concluded, he wasn't particularly angry, more like resigned and planning on what to do next. 

The human organization or a part of it with a name he didn't remember was looking for something in this plains, if it was him or not didn't matter at this point. Either way with the presence of drones, traces of his presence, or even himself would have been caught. 

He was going to have to communicate with them, it only advanced the inevitable, and it was both terrifying and exciting, even when that won't be in person. Human interaction was still human interaction.

Around four months and a half he was here, all without any of this type of interaction, he wasn't naive enough to think what he had planned would have good results but he had the right to hope it would. 

And from what he remembered in the movie there were good and very, very bad humans, very black and white views of things in this movie, good things there were pretty color. It will be different here to a degree as life was infinitely more complex.

Liam understood this, basing his future on this incomplete snippet of facts wasn't the smartest thing he could do but there weren't all that many other options.

A pessimistic but realistic view of things. It was inevitable that it would have happened and he didn't want and couldn't realistically run away unless he built a spaceship and that was quite impossible for the moment. 

Even with Tsumong's overall information on the clans and moon, and interesting areas of significance like the Ayram Alusìng aka Hallelujah Mountain, the knowledge still was essentially very bare bone. Tsumong for all he was, wasn't a geographer.

He didn't stay idle while in though, climbing up the tree was as easy as breathing in lungs full of the toxic atmosphere of Pandora for him and in five seconds he was face to face with the disconnected drone.

'Good the little guys are smart.', he internally remarked, sending through the link that they did a good job. 

All of his tames were exponentially smarter than their wild counterparts, close to sapience in fact if he were to take a guess, but one distinctively different from humans as his influence and training didn't change their base genetics and most primal instincts.

From his inventory he took out a fabricated sniper rifle the same as the game but with some minor differences such as a trade from durability for a higher caliber of bullet and as such more power.

Durability is useless if it can't do what it was made for, to kill. With this, it brought his number of handheld firearms to five, this weapon that could shoot something akin to 0.5 cal bullets, the three sawed-off shotguns, and a semi-automatic pistol that was made to test the fabricator effectiveness more than anything but dangerous nonetheless if shot in the eyes of anything with carbon reinforced bone. 

All of this without counting the turrets and other things was still very expensive in gunpowder and various metals used to make the primer, case, and bullet, but something worth it as shown by him not having gotten eaten by the slinger in the cave. 

Switching the rifle to his right hand he put his left armored palm over the drone and focused on it, the implant hummed as space all around the machine slowly distorted. 

A few minutes later and it was in his inventory, same for the sniper rifle simply out in case a stingbats decided to be suicidal today.

The drone was made in great parts of an aluminum alloy very resistant to corrosion and very light but in counterpart, it gave not much real protection. There also was a lot of plastic and a miniaturized computer at its core that diriged everything. There were a lot of parts that could be reused.

His eyes suddenly narrowed as Meri informed him of something approaching in the sky, a particular shift in the link from the tetrapteron let him infer it was another such drone, one approaching fast. 

"Time to move.", Liam mumbled before jumping down, the roughly seven meters of air that separates him from the ground not stopping him one bit from doing that. He fell from higher on multiple occasions after all.

The feeling of weightlessness was short-lived as he landed on the grass, leaving two deep footprints on his boots made of titanium alloy, waterproof treated leather, and polymer. 

His current garment was of his old armor pant, gauntlet, and helmet but with a few pieces of his new still-in-progress armor, such as the chest plate. 

It's a homogenous mix of riot and flak armor with the emphasis in mind being on the head, neck, crotch, back and chest, the last two parts with an inbuilt bulletproof vest without limiting speed and mobility. 

It could take small to the middle end of medium caliber bullets without a problem and even bigger caliber depending where it hit, as again limits such as how much it could weigh were set way higher. So he didn't have to compromise resistance for weight.

Of course, a rocket hitting him square in the face from one of these helicopters he saw would likely kill him or any weapons designed to go through a reinforced vehicle as what he has surely wasn't so far off what the RDA could do but if he was in those situations then that meant he would look for it.

Well, it, was the first design with no fancy technology as of now, an air filter and infrared sight for the still uncrafted helmet were still planned, technically he could do much more but it cost way too many resources and for nothing truly worthwhile. 

He needed more time, and resources to create advanced designs of everything for it to work basing himself off the Tek Armor tekgrams. So no power armor for now sadly.

Looking back at the tree he thought of something, fetching a dagger out of his inventory. He flipped it before grabbing the handle mid-air and began carving a message in the tree's bark.

Hiding, at least totally, was but a losing battle. Maybe it's a mistake, maybe it's not. Starting with diplomacy should help even if admittedly it wasn't his forte.

A bit more than half an hour later a drone with a four painted in washed whites below arrived decelerating it passed from mechanical and perfectly calculated movement to something clearly directed by a human, an inexperienced one by how it wobbled. Only the stabilizing program stops it from crashing on something.

The drone flew all around the tree searching for the disconnected N5 but there was nothing, the branches were still there if very damaged, and the spindly tree's crown showed damage to the drone passage as well. Thorn metal pieces and glass fragments could be seen amidst the grass. It was the place.

'Strange… Is this the wrong tree?', Grace wondered as she piloted the drone around it with the help of her holotablet until one of the lower cameras fixated on something on the ground attracting her attention.

She was alone in her office Max having moved back to work while she was in the middle of her pause missed how her eyes almost comically widened at the camera feed.

"Footprints…", she whispered to herself, inching the drone closer while she launched various scans. Each and everyone confirmed what her eyes were seeing, there were deep boots marks of only one origin possible.

'He was there and took the drone after having it shut down. But why and how…?', her question wasn't long-lived, just above the camera showed her writing, English writing carved upon the bark to her shock yet again.

[I apologize for the material damage I inadvertently caused, I hope this primitive machine didn't hold much value. I'm Liam Cram, a human, the one saw weeks ago, and whoever may be reading this may know that trying to find, capture or attack me will have severe consequences on our future interactions. I will soon communicate to you through the device you are using to read this message.]

She was silent for a long while, longer than she would like to admit but this short and admittedly hurriedly carved message told a lot, answering questions but birthing hundreds more for each. Such as he knew English and knew they spoke English without any prior contact.

"He is aware…", she said, keeping on reading again and again trying to find some other meaning but all she could see was immense bluntness, the apology felt almost sarcastic too not that she cared that much outside of it giving a bit on his personality.

The unknown severe consequences mentioned which she was certain wasn't a bluff and would have made others flip in outrage or scoff at the sheer arrogance of such statements. 

Even herself in other circumstances would have laughed at that if she didn't know how little she knew about him, how everything about him was shrouded in mysteries. 

And she felt those words held but the truth, mostly, for the drone was 'primitive' compared to what existed as it was a model more than a century old, cheap to fabric but effective, and for the warning... It had the underlying meaning of someone that will not back down if push comes to shove. 

She didn't have anything nefarious planned, if that was the case SecCops would have already found him, whatever he is or his goal all she knew was that she was certain he was going to change how humanity shows the world, be he dead or alive.

Such was how much of a unique occurrence he is. The RDA messing everything up and making him an enemy was the last thing she wanted. 

Having peaceful interactions with individuals from Earth and of extraterrestrial origin wasn't their strong point, it's a company run by money and power greedy for more money and power, ultimately nothing new. 

But it's the most powerful company in the entire existence of humanity, and Liam Cram was a way to both boost those aspects to an unprecedented level. Something Max didn't seem to grasp like she did or he didn't want to, she wasn't sure.

And they will, inevitably, learn of him and do everything to have him, maybe not Selfridge directly but his superiors who he will obey the order of doing this, like the corporate dog he is. 

Having peaceful connections before this was needed. It was a headache-inducing future but one she decided to partake in.

The part of him being human was to be verified as she held great doubt, even if it walks like a duck quack like and looks like a duck then it's a duck, but here… 

There were reasons to doubt the validity of this measurement as any answer was hard to accept such as their absurdity, they were on the same page of conspiracy theories. And this told a lot of someone like he too needed to go to make sense of things. 

"I need to warn Max…", she mumbled with a frown, Liam's words of communicating them were both nerve-wracking and exciting, it was an entirely new being. Comparable if not more than her first time meeting the Na'vi and it won't even be in person.

Eyes focused on the screen again she blinked before almost jumping out of her seat in fright at the sudden jumpscare, right in front of the main camera was a viperwolf, growling in curiosity. 

And this was one of the last few minutes of its life as another viperwolf, this one from above jumped on it and the rest of the pack followed, they decided it was now their chew toy while Grace could watch as another drone was destroyed this time however she could care less. 

There still was one drone left.

At the same time far away from Liam's base, farther than the human ever moved past there was a massive lake, almost a small sea hidden by lush and dense primeval trees. 

Its crystal clear water with such depth only darkness could be seen in its middle, there was the occasional giant lily pad-like plant that could rival small ships, and strange animals that were a mix between turtles and platypuses swam their bodies forming small islands and from all around were stream connecting forming small waterfall as they arrived their ways along the various rocky slopes of black marble.

Sitting on one such slope and facing the was a young male Na'vi, his left hand even if covered by a long sleeve-like cloth didn't hide the missing three of the first digit and the horrifying scars. 

Fiddling with a flat pebble in his right hand he turned his head and a roguish smile formed as a female Na'vi of his age arrived behind.

<How was the gathering with Omatikaya's and Tipani's Tsahìk and Tsakaren? Anything interesting? Anything new?>, Mìruk asked Tutee, throwing the pebble at the lake not bothering to look back, his ears letting him know the stone bounced ten times, nearly breaking his record. 

<Do you remember when my great-grandmother and I a little later fell into a trance a few eclipses ago and I couldn't talk for a few sunrises? It was Eywa… She was speaking but not to us, we only managed to hear the broken incomprehensible echoes of the conversation if what I understood from the Tsahìks is correct. Hard with how they love oh so much to play mysterious.>, Tutee answered as she sat next to her friend, using his shoulder as a backrest to stop a giggle from escaping because he instantly tensed up.

<Do you think it's him?>, he got himself back together, tail almost wagging, and gave his wild guess of a certain human being the reason for a psychic pulse only sensed by the most attuned Na'vi with the All-Mother sensed. 

<I don't know Mìruk, I'm just as lost as you are. The All-Mother messages are simple yet complex and this one didn't seem like one. Great-grandmother proposed this as well to the two other Tsahìk but the idea was dismissed by them rather aggressively, particularly the Omatikaya's Tsakarem… They have different, more violent relations with the Sky People, we are blessed to live the way we do, and the mention of who and what was the Lost Child… Shocked…, disappointed, and angered them?>, she finished on a confused note, not really understanding how Liam was the reason for such reactions.

There was a long silence between the two, the sound of water flowing and wind echoing until the male teenage Na'vi burst out in righteous outrage.

<What!? But he saved us! He isn't the same! Who do those they think they are ->, putting her palm over his mouth she quoted down his outburst.

<I know, your father and my great-grandmother know but they don't.>, Tutee said, understanding how he was feeling as she felt the same.

Then a smile found its way on her face and she proclaimed, <That's why we are going to prove them wrong.>

<You're right. And from what Dad told me we are going to ride after most of the fpxafaw (medusae) have mated and the path chosen is close to our savior house…>, Mìruk trailed off, a smirk growing.

And the two set themselves on meeting the humans again, of course not like the first time, so not on a hasty decision without preparation but teens even if of another species were still teens, and teens weren't known for their great wisdom or sound decision-making capabilities.

Even more when fueled with emotions not forgetting that Na'vi had a far wider emotional spectrum and more developed empathetic ability than humans. Both a curse and a boon.

*

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