Note: Remember, this is post-Avatar. If you haven't seen the film, I suggest you do before reading this, for occasionally, a reference to the film will most likely be there. Read at your own risk!

PART I: VICIOUS PURITY

Chapter I: Palulukan's Claws

She couldn't see it, nor smell it, but Ay'cura knew she was being watched. And not by a fellow Na'vi hunter. By something much more primitive, much less intelligent, and yet much, much stealthier than a Na'vi. She looked at the hunting leader for instructions, along with her other comrades.

"Do nothing," said No'nah, the hunting leader. "Just keep your spear up."

Ay'cura nodded stiffly. And then the attack began.

It was a palulukan that had leapt from behind a large boulder just meters from them, its huge, feline body bounding towards the Na'vi. Ay'cura yelled a warning, mostly out of fear, for it was a palulukan that scared Na'vi the most when it came to the other inhabitants. Her warning was too late; the palulukan had just ran through a fellow Na'vi (Eh'Rei), clamping its jaws around his torso fiercely as if he were a child's toy. Ay'cura cried in terror as the palulukan crushed another partner with its paws. She had not noticed that other hunters were now bounding upon the predator, trying to stab it through its thick, armor-like hide with their spears. One punctured it through the back, making it recoil by bounding like a wild direhorse. Several Na'vi flew off like the toys of Na'vi children; the palulukan managed to snag one airborne Na'vi in its jaws then proceed to shake the body apart wildly.

Ay'cura leapt forward at last with her fellows, but was knocked away by the creature's mace-like tail. She felt her ribs snap as she was thrown aside carelessly. Unconsciousness strangled her mind, but she could hear a voice crying her name, just before blackness swept over her.

* * *

It was common for something to gaze upon this structure (it was hard to tell if it was natural or made by intelligent creatures). The jungle made it look like a very mossy, vine-ridden cropping of rock. But, if one would look hard enough, you could see tiny glints upon the "cropping", clearly metallic.

This was Hell's Gate. And over it flew a human transport: a Valkyrie TAV.

* * *

Hallelujah Mountains

Jason Turner and his three comrades stepped off the landed Valkyrie, which rested atop a massive, floating cropping of rock in the Hallelujah Mountains. It was a beautiful sight, yes, of course, thought the young xenobiologist, but it had its dangerous, the most prominent for travelers being the Pandorans here, for they believe this land here to be sacred. But surely this was for research. Human research.

"It's beautiful!" cried Lea Flore, a Hispanic brown-haired, hazel-eyed (and the only) female and second xenobotanist on this voyage. She pointed at the huge, floating cropping adjacent to the one they were on. Xenobotanist Judas Smythe, the Italian gumshoe and Lea's "partner in crime", shook his head.

"Always the pointer, eh, Lea?" he said, smirking. Lea stuck her tongue out at him playfully.

"Shut the hell up, Iscariot," said the burly Colonel Samson Dunne harshly as if Judas cursed to a child, using Judas' nickname based off the mutinous Bible figure Judas Iscariot. Judas was actually used to it. "Lea, point all you want."

Dunne left back to the ship, then proceeded to converse to the pilot. A few minutes later, he was back with the group, carrying four M60 machine guns in one hand, and a pallid suitcase in the other.

"Here," he said, throwing the items to the floor. "Take one gun, the rounds are in the case. Jason, test tubes and needles are in there as well in a small container. Everyone knows how to work an M60? Good." He didn't stop talking; he had just continued on without a "yes" or "no." "Shoot if attacked. The transport will be back near Hell's Gate in one hour. Any questions? Good."

Dunne smirked.

"All right, ladies," and to Lea, "and man. Let's get a move on."

They all put rounds in their guns, made sure everything was intact, then proceeded on. Lea once again pointed at a small flock of colorful mountain banshees, flying like massive pigeons at a New York park.

* * *

It hurts... hurts soooo bad... I just want to die here... Make it stop, O Eywa... Please, I'm begging you...It's all my fault... it's my fault my friends are dead... I lead them there... the palulukan was waiting... all mine...

All my fault...