A man stood looking over a large tube with a tall blue humanoid female sleeping peacefully in a long medical gown. He raised a radio and questioned, "Are we prepared for the delivery?"
The radio signaled back, "Yes. We have located a small clearing a few hundred yards from the base. She'll wake up and we can begin the experiment." the man paused and asked curiously, "Did the process take correctly?"
"Yeah. It's the most interesting thing I've ever seen. Five years ago, she was completely human."
The radio came back, "That's going to be a breakthrough. Completely merging their DNA with ours."
The man nodded, "Right now, it's classified. Make the drop." The man pushed a control on the tube and a display flashed reading: Sedative regulation deactivated.
The man left as a door opened at the back of the room revealing they were flying low through a dense jungle. The plane angled upward causing the tube to slide toward the opening and crash to the ground a hundred feet down.
****
Claire was jolted awake as the sound of shattering glass was all around her. She blinked to get her bearings and discovered she was lying on her back in a lush jungle. She exhaled in panic and confusion. Last thing she remember was walking from her apartment and two men shooting her with stun guns. She sat up and stopped short as she caught sight of her legs which were a navy blue and almost 4 feet long. She reached for a shard of glass and gently cut her finger. She looked relieved as the skin healed itself. "Well, I am now a giant smurf, but I still heal."
She carefully climbed to her feet, getting used to her new height. She reached for her hair and discovered that while it was still blonde, there was now a long dreadlock that had a series of string like tentacles at the tip. She scoffed at the strange change she had underwent, "I apparently was given something that even I am prone to."
She started walking through the jungle looking for any sign of people. She had been hiking for twenty minutes when she turned around a tree and came face to face with a impossibly large multicolored featherless bird. She gasped in panic as the avian glanced toward her and screeched. She turned back and another was waiting for her. She screamed in fear and fell to the ground. She pushed away and tried to stand and run. She got to her feet when one of them grabbed her by the arm and took to flight. She screamed in terror as she found the ground getting farther and father away. She reached up and grabbed the bird's leg to ensure a less precarious position. She saw the bird flying toward a massive tree and her eyes widened in horror as she felt the bird's leg kicked forward as it jerked to a halt. She lost her grip and found herself sailing through the air.
She grunted in pain as she slammed hard into the tree. She grunted repeatedly as she felt tree branches interrupt her freefall until she finally came to a merciful yet agonizing stop at the jungle floor. She groaned tiredly as she rolled over and laid there as her body repaired itself. After a minute, she rolled back over and slowly picked herself up into a kneeling position. She glanced up and yelped in surprise when she noticed a blue skinned woman in a safari outfit standing in front of her looking worried. "Are you alright?! Do you need help?"
She shrugged, "No, I normally am tossed into things pretty often. I'm just a little freaked about what tossed me this time."
The woman looked shocked, "Your English is flawless and your accent is almost North American Eastern."
Claire gave the woman a strange look, "You're acting weird."
The woman looked at her amused, "Well, aren't you a spitfire? What's your name kid?"
Claire stood and dusted herself off. "Claire. What about you?"
"Grace Augustine. I'm an anthropologist, a person who studies a different culture."
"I know what anthropology is, Doc." She paused, "Or should I say professor? Which title do you use for that kind of field?"
Grace looked amazed, "Incredible. You must be observing us as well. Tell me, do you watch us alone, or do you have a group of your tribesman with you?"
Claire raised her eyebrows amused, "I'm not a native, Grace. I'm human."
Grace looked shocked at that, "That's not possible; I run the Avatar program and I know everyone in the facility." Her face darkened, "Unless they snuck a second jarhead in under my nose."
Claire stopped her angry rant, "Look, I don't know what an Avatar is, but I'm not with the government. You can see I'm here on my own. No one else is with me."
Grace's expression gradually turned awed, "You're aren't driving that body remotely?"
She replied, "I'm driving it stick, so to speak."
The scientist looked amazed, "This is incredible!"
Claire flinched when a loud screech was heard from above, "Uh, could we possibly take this conversation to somewhere safe? Those avians don't really like me."
Grace nodded, "We have an advanced camp just a mile from here." She walked through the jungle and came to a helicopter. Two other blue skinned people were waiting, and Claire noticed one was dressed in military fatigues.
She followed Grace to the chopper and a woman in the cockpit asked, "Who's the local?"
Grace replied, "She'll explain at base camp. Just head back."