Ancestor [2]

"Oh, you know how to read Latin?" a masculine voice interrupted her revery and she looked up at the man's rugged handsome face that seemed like he just woke from a mid-afternoon nap. He looked so refreshed she had an impulse to punch him, but she resisted.

"Latin? What? No, I just…" Luna started mumbling incoherently as her brain was on maximum overload.

Liam's quizzical gaze softened when he looked at his body and back to Luna.

"Thank you. You saved my life, didn't you?"

<What nonsense, like that foxy thing could…I mean yes, I watched the whole thing. Bow down and kowtow to her in gratitude and pledge your life to her!>

When Liam heard Noona's 'glowing' praise of the fox woman before him, he knew without a shadow of a doubt…the woman before him did not save his life.

"I'm Liam, what's your name? Or can you understand me? I'm trying to speak the language you people were speaking earlier, it's just so different than what I'm used to." Liam seemed uncharacteristically nervous in the silence as Luna just stared at him with her pure limpid blue eyes.

<Hey Foxy, if you don't speak he's gonna think he did something wrong.> Noona suddenly spoke outloud, shocking both Liam and Luna.

"Noona you are letting her hear you!?"

"Where is that voice coming from!?" Luna had repressed her curiosity so much she was about to go insane.

The bold metallic tattoo on Liam's left arm suddenly wriggled and condensed. Sitting there on his arm was now a tiny woman in a wheel chair.

<Hello! I'm Barbara Gordon Ni…oww!> Before Noona could finish her sentence her body was ruthlessly crushed back into Liam's arm like swatting a mosquito.

"That's Idiot. You can ignore her." Liam said as he glared fiercely at the woman on his arm. She was currently bouncing like a folded up accordion with comically large 'X's for eyes.

'I'm going to have to find a way to block her pop-culture information…' Liam thought seriously.

<NOONA! I AM NOONA! EVEN YOUR PROTOCOLS ACKNOWLEDGED MY NAME! YOU DID TOO!!!> As Noona pouted and whined, Liam heard a tinkering laugh like wind chimes. He looked up and saw the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. The fox girl's laugh was pure with no hint of malice or cruelty.

Liam was reminded of children watching cartoons and laughing when the Coyote smacked into a wall.

"Is she an Aphidian? She is so adorable!"

<Liam, I think she just called me a bug.> "Pft…I think so too…buahahaha." Liam's belly laugh seemed strange, as if he had forgotten how to do so. It also startled Luna.

"What, did I say something wrong?"

"No, no no no…she's definitely a bug..pft…" Liam was doing his best to stop laughing and Noona's antics on his arm weren't making things any better. She could easily have destroyed Luna in an instant if she wanted, but instead she was waving a tiny fist and shouting at her.

Liam finally calmed down and began to have a serious conversation with the fox girl.

"Let's start over. I'm Liam," He said Earnestly.

"Luna. Umm, can we get you a shirt real fast…it's a little distracting." She muttered the last part under her breath.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that, let me go get some clothes." Liam said brightly. They started walking further into the valley and began chatting. Liam felt completely at ease with this girl, as if she had no malice in her whatsoever. She even seemed to have a slight worship in her eyes when she spoke.

'Eh, probably the damsel in distress crap that Noona was talking about, I did save her after all.'

Liam was so engrossed with the conversation that he didn't notice the tiny voice of Noona say in a tone of sneaky victory <Neural Stability at 67% and rising…hehehehe.>

Liam learned a great deal of information in a few minutes time. Her name as Luna, the fox hybrids had dubbed themselves the Huli race, and there were very few of them on this side of the rolling mountains, which is what the hybrids renamed the Appalachian Mountains. He also learned the hybrids collectively called themselves 'Fera' though none of them really knew where this collective term came from.

As they were walking, Liam realized they hadn't alerted the turrets to target Luna. He initially planned to destroy them if they came out of the ground, but since they didn't he asked Noona.

"No Turrets?"

<Looks like they have been long fried. Those snake cowards probably gave up while the turrets were still operational and never had the gumption to come check again.>

"Maybe we should try and scavenge some parts from them, do you know where the layout is Noona?"

<Sure do, turn around and look left.>

"Behind that Boulder?"

<No, the Boulder is the turret.>

'what? That thing is huge!' Liam thought as he looked at the towering 15 foot boulder. It looked like it was filled with cracks, but when he got closer he realized those were seams to collapse the exterior around the turret.

"Hey Noona, could you recover any metals or maybe a quantum chip from this to recover some of your processing power?"

If there was a quantum computer chip in the turret they would have made a profit in Liam's mind. Quantum chips were the latest technology driving mankind into the future. At least that was what he thought until Noona spoke.

<Pft, you really are old. Why don't you ask me if I can use a few floppy disks? Maybe if you get lucky I can make a CD player on the back of your head…>

Liam was about to retort sarcastically when Noona stopped him. <You were put here with the latest and greatest tech to watch your back. There's probably a Dark Matter chip in this.>

Dark…dark matter? He knew of it of course, it was what started the war. Just the discovery of it had been tumultuous, the raw energy efficiency of it was unreal. He thought these Turrets were Solar powered and Quantum Computer directed. But if they were fueled and had a Dark Matter chip…they should still be operational even now.

"Luna, please bear with us a moment. Noona, go check it out." Liam sent his left arm forward expecting a piece to form into a projectile and fly into a crack, but nothing happened.

'oh yeah, can't do that anymore without NANO's computing power.' Liam thought sheepishly. It was already pretty amazing that Noona could make a projection on his skin, and a weapon as well. It seems that being separated from the rest of his nanomachines would still be too difficult with her current processing power.

Liam eventually went over to the rock face and started to investigate. Finally after a few minutes of searching he found a handhold in an inconspicuous groove on the back and above eye level. He jumped and grabbed it before neatly springing forward to another and racing up the rock. When he got to the top he found a service hatch buried under a layer of silt. After prying it open he went down inside.