Relics moved like a ghost through the school halls. He didn't bump into anyone mainly because they all acted fast to move out of his way. If he wasn't so mesmerized on the messages and the picture he'd gotten from Lana, he would have noticed no one was whispering about him, they all got out of his way and they just stared attentively. As soon as they were sure he was out of earshot did they start whispering about him, but not a second before. News had circulated faster than a viral pandemic about how Relics heard somebody talking about him. It was also rumored that he beat the crap out of them and when Mr. Mochas tried to stop the fight Relics threw him through a wall.
Still, Relics didn't care; he was more concerned with what Lana had just done. He'd never thought that he'd actually be in this kind of situation but now he had some crazy Cornerian girl sending nude pictures of herself to him.
'Madness. That's all this is. Why did I ever agree to come here in the first place? I hate it here! I'm surrounded by my enemies and I have to be nice!? They're not even human! Why should I have to… no. I can't think like this, I promised I'd do my best to represent humanity and it only makes it harder on me if I can't adjust while I'm here. Anyways, why was I so- DAMN IT!' Relics shouted in his head when the image of Lana naked flashed across his mind. Quickly he shunned Lana out of his mind and thought of a cold shower before his hormones got the best of him and he pitched a tent in the middle of the hallway. Her body was so much like a regular woman's body. She had all the salacious features, perfect bust and a figure that was about to drive him up a wall even if her body was completely covered in fur, she had a slightly bushy tail, she looked just like a cat and above all wasn't human.
'Son of a bitch! Why does she haunt me like this? Every time I close my eyes I see hers staring back at me, calling to me almost.' Relics thought as he shivered. 'She has beautiful eyes though- NO! STOP THAT! Stop thinking of her! Just stop right now! If you don't think about her she can't bother you.'
"Hi, Relics!" An all too familiar voice said behind the human.
'FFFFFFUCK!'
Relics stopped in his tracks. This girl sure was tenacious, if she couldn't get to him through his phone she got him in person. The human swallowed the lump in his throat and turned around.
"Hello, Lana." Relics said as his eyes became captives of Lana's deep red rubies mistakenly called eyes. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up and he started to get a nervous muscle spasm in his left calf. She was cute for a Cornerian; her long shoulder length hair looked so soft and light, her eyelashes were long and curved at the tips, and her fur was well kept and combed. If she was a real house cat, Relics would have petted her on the spot but he wasn't sure she'd like that… than again maybe she would.
"Hi Relics." Lana repeated and showed him her pearly white, slightly pointy teeth. She had a pretty smile, borderline beautiful; too bad she was a Cornerian. As Relics opened his mouth to speak Lana beat him to it. "I saw what you did to Wolf."
"Yeah, sorry for beating up your boyfriend." Relics said rather snippety but Lana didn't take it personally; she thought he was playing.
"Oh no worries, he's not my boyfriend anymore, I'm single. In fact, I kind of admired how easily you fought him off." Lana said and winked. "It was very debonair."
"Well uh…." Relics said, he was completely caught off guard by her wink. Her wink might not have even been intentional, it could have been an involuntary spasm like what his calf was doing but all the same it struck the human as much as the picture in his wrist com. And speaking of the picture. "Um Lana?"
"Yes Relics?" Lana asked. She seemed as innocent as a kitten and it almost made Relics think twice about mentioning the picture.
"What was with earlier?" Relics asked.
Lana blinked. "You mean in the cafeteria? Was I too out forward? I'm very sorry if I was."
"No, I mean like, just a few moments ago." Relics said trying to pussyfoot around until she understood. This whole conversation was uncomfortable as well as awkward and there a million other conversations Relics would rather be having then this one.
"A few minutes ago? You're funny Relics." Lana giggled. "A few minutes ago we were in class and I was hoping to see you on the way to sixth period!"
'Okay either she doesn't want to mention it or… I don't have a clue.'
Still, Relics couldn't shake the feeling that she knew what had happened. He opened his mouth to confront her but his wrist com went off before the first syllable escaped his mouth.
'What the?'
"Sounds like you got a text. I must say you're rather popular. I heard Melina had Falco give you her number." Lana said as Relics failed to understand how and why his phone was going off. If the text was from the same person then Lana was innocent.
"Uh huh." Relics said instinctively when he paid the slightest bit of attention.
"Listen I don't want to worry you but you should be careful. There are a lot of women here that would love to get close to you just for the attention everyone who sees you two together will give."
'Interesting, although how do I know you won't do the same? As if I'd give you a chance though!' Relics added quickly despite the lack of need to but for some strange reason in the back of his mind he felt like he needed to.
"Melina is a really sweet girl though, she's been my friend for ages and I can vouch for her." Lana added so not to appear as though she was saying Melina was like those "other" women.
"Thanks Lana, I'll be careful." Relics said and pressed the mute button on his wrist com. "You wanna walk to class together?" The human only asked this because he wanted to see if he'd get more texts with her around and if he did she didn't send him that text at all. But to Lana what he asked of her was like mixing her birthday and Christmas into one sentence. She seemed to course with joy and her impression almost made the human smile.
"Sure! I'd love to!" Lana exclaimed gleefully as her tail whisked around with joy behind her.
"Great we can talk some more along the way." Relics said as Lana walked right up to Relics' side. She was so close that they brushed up against each other several times as they walked down the halls and Relics could smell her sweet perfume. Relics almost thought she was a normal human high school girl for a second and in that second he slipped.
"You smell nice." Relics stated aloud.
'Oh my God! What!? You don't just come out and say that you creeper! What is wrong with you!? I FEEL LIKE I'M TAKING CRAZY PILLS!' Relics mentally shouted.
"Why thank you, it's Zoness Lily Flower." Lana giggled and started to blush under her fur. "My parents sent it to me."
"You don't live with your parents? Who do you live with?" Relics asked.
"Oh I do live with my parents but they have a business they have to manage on Zoness so sometimes they can be gone for days or in this case… weeks." Lana said and even Relics caught the sadness that leaked out in her voice. "I don't mind really, but sometimes it can get a little lonely."
"Yeah I know the feeling." Relics said before he mentally face palmed himself over and over until he started to get a headache.
"I heard about what happened… to your father Relics." Lana said stopping in her tracks in the middle of the nearly deserted hallway. Relics stopped to and got trapped in her gorgeous sympathetic eyes as he was once again unable to resist in the slightest. "I am truly sorry about what happened to you, your planet, and your father because of what my people wrongfully did."
Relics blinked twice as the feelings rushed over him. He had never expected a Cornerian to say sorry to his face in such a convincing way. Like his own people, the Cornerians were trying to brush the whole indiscretion under the carpet and forget about it. Yet Lana actually said she was sorry even if it wasn't her fault but an ape named Andross.
Relics swallowed. "Thanks, Lana." Relics whispered.
Lana smiled faintly as she started to feel hot and burn red around her cheeks and muzzle.
"Was your mother harmed in the attack?" She asked concernedly.
"No, well maybe… I don't know." Relics said and scratched under his Suppressor on the back of his neck. "I never met her really."
Lana's muzzle dropped and her eyes became soft and at the same time sad. "Oh, I'm so sorry."
"Don't be, my dad is- was a good enough parent." Relics said biting his tongue so his eyes didn't ruin the mystique or fear he'd been able to make for himself and besides, men don't cry.
"So um… when are you going back home?" Lana asked.
"A month after school's out." Relics replied, grateful for the subject change.
"Oh good, you'll be here for a while then." Lana said as she and the human walked off to sixth period side by side still occasionally brushing up against each other, the dark and sad thoughts of their species' first contact put behind them.
~X~X~X~X~
Fox walked nonchalantly through the school courtyard. He finally made it to school and just in time for sixth period. Hopefully he'd be able to keep the human out of harm's way more so than Bill or Falco. To be honest Fox wasn't sure he really wanted to help out the human. He'd heard a lot about humans from his dad and soldiers who were part of the initial invasion. They said that the humans that were trained to fight were incredibly dangerous and would show no mercy when protecting their citizens. The human soldiers were ruthless, tactical, dangerous, well trained, and formidable in all planes of combat. Still, Fox promised his dad that he and his friends would watch out for the human, more for everyone else's sake than for the human's.
As Fox walked to the massive B building he thought of the Human Skirmish as his people called it, how it was all Andross' fault for jumping the gun wanting to test out some crazed invention that that leveled a smaller human city in one blast. When General Pepper received word of Andross' disastrous error he and his forces were immediately recalled. Many didn't make it back but the humans did return all Cornerians taken captive after the negotiations were completed. For the most part the humans took standard care of the POW's, but there were several in critical conditions from either improper nourishment or injuries from interrogation.
The human and Cornerian contact from then on was peaceful but one wrong move and everything could fall apart and war would break out. Peaceful or not, the negotiations were strained and were yielding hardly any results. Not only that, but ever since Andross' banishment, he'd been gaining more and more sympathy and support from systems within the Lylat who did not agree with how the Cornerian government was submitting to many human demands.
As Fox made it to B building his phone started to go off. He pulled it out of his pants pocket and put it to his ear.
"Hello?"
"OH MY GOD FOX, WHERE ARE YOU!?"
At first Fox thought he had his phone volume turned up but he actually had it turned almost all the way down.
"Walking into B building right now and wishing I wasn't bleeding from the ears." Fox groaned as he held the phone away from his ear. "Who is this?"
"It's me, silly!" Miyu said but then shouted. "You will not believe this but Lana's made a move on the human!"
"Really?" Fox asked in disbelief. "Wow."
"I know! I just saw them walking down the hallway together! They look so cute together I almost couldn't believe it!" Miyu said excitedly. "And Lana looked so happy, I haven't seen her this happy since… since… I don't think she has been this happy before! He may be a human but he's still a one up from Wolf. Still, he better watch himself cause if he hurts Lana-"
"Miyu, Lana knows how to take care of herself. I'd pay to see what she would do to him if he tried anything stupid." Fox laughed.
"Oh Fox you're so right." Miyu laughed thinking of Lana roundhouse kicking the human in the face. "Listen I got to go but I love you and I'll try not to kill you today, 'kay?"
"M'kay Miyu, I love you too." Fox said as he hung up. He really hoped Miyu would at least try not to kill him because he could never raise a finger to Miyu let alone a gun. Still there were others to kill and the human would be great sport.
'Oh this is going to be a fun year.' Fox thought as he walked into B building.
~X~X~X~X~
'Wow, this girl is something else; she's almost… well, fun would be the best word. Yeah, she's fun to be around. Her voice isn't annoying, she has great stories, she isn't in any way repulsive and she is as comfortable around me as Bill is. I almost hate to believe she sent me that picture… or did she? I can't really just whip out my wrist com and look at my messages can I? It's rude and what if there are more pictures of her, she sees them and yet she didn't send them to me? It probably would creep her out and she'd get pretty pissed at me… not that I care though.' Relics added quickly trying to lie to himself.
"So Relics, how are you enjoying your stay? Have you been to any fun places?" Lana asked.
"I have, only thing is they weren't so fun when everybody stopped what they were doing and stared at me… kind of like right now." Relics said when he noticed a large cluster of Cornerians staring at him like he had some sort of mutant insect on his face. It's such a great feeling when that happens.
"Don't worry, everyone will get used to you. It just takes a little time." Lana said as they walked past the group.
"I guess…" Relics said and wondered if he should ask her why she was so comfortable around him when everyone else was sure he was going to snap and start killing people. Like in first period when he sneezed and freaked out the entire class. 'Nice.'
"You must be wondering why I am so comfortable around you huh?" Lana asked suddenly as they brushed up against each other again.
'Holy shit, she's psychic!'
"Um well, it is a little odd- not bad odd! I like that you're not cowering in a corner or anything." Relics added quickly. "But why are you so comfortable around me?"
Lana smiled. "Well to tell you the truth I was absolutely mortified of you before we met but then I saw you, a scared lost soul wading through his worst nightmare. I don't know I just felt like I had to reach out to you when no one else will. I told my friends I we should talk to you but they thought I was trying to flirt with you. Sorry if they made you feel uncomfortable at lunch." Lana said rather quietly.
There was a long silence between the two after that and Relics was panicking. If she saw through him so easily then other people could see his fear and the tremendous stress he was under. Someone finding out that he was afraid was what Relics feared most. If they all knew he was afraid of them more than they were afraid of him he was doomed.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to embarrass you." Lana said as Relics held the door to B building for her.
"No, no! you didn't. It's just that was pretty deep and insightful." Relics said casually like Lana hadn't hit the red alert button in his mind.
"Thank you." She said sweetly to Relics for holding the door. "But that's what I get for being a minx. We're supposedly a very insightful at long ago considered somewhat mystical." Lana said.
"Lana I don't mean to be rude but, what is a minx? You don't look like most other felines." He asked hoping to start a different topic.
"Oh… well you see Relics, on Corneria dating another species is pretty common and accepted here,-"
'Where have I heard that before?' Relics thought sarcastically.
"-and a minx is the offspring of a male fox and female feline." Lana explained. "My red eyes are from my father's side of the family. It's not because I'm possessed or evil, I promise you." Lana said with a serious yet playful tone.
"They're really pretty." Relics blurted out and he felt like he got stabbed by lightning.
'… What… did you just… say?' His inner psyche asked as he was on the verge of an aneurism.
"You think my eyes are… pretty?" Lana asked. The minx's face was completely vague like she had just seen the most spectacular thing in her life and couldn't comprehend it. She seemed close to tears as her eyes started to water and glisten making Relics feel another stab to his lower gut.
"I uh… I didn't mean to offend you Lana." Relics said when he got it in his mind that Lana was offended by his compliment. He was in no way further from the truth and he realized that as soon as Lana wrapped her arms around his chest and squeezed tightly.
'Oh my god what is she doing? Don't just stand there! Get her off! Get her… hold the phone… she's pretty warm- WAIT A MINUTE! What am I thinking!? I can't be thinking like– wow she is really warm and she smells so sweet… her hair is so soft and her fur is so smooth. I guess this isn't so bad.' Relics thought after he calmed down and then he returned the hug almost against his will… almost. He really needed this hug, it was nerve settling and he was able to stop worrying about being on an alien planet while the moment lasted.
"You're warm, are all humans so warm?" Lana purred.
"Not all the time." Relics said who was tuning red rapidly.
'I… I can't believe I'm actually doing this with a Cornerian! It's so wrong, so bizarre and yet so nice. I guess I she's tolerable. But wait, what about the picture and the texts? Can I really be friends with a person that slu- …that way?'
After a few minutes Lana spilt them apart and smiled. "We better get to class before-" Lana said but was interrupted by the bell. "Oh crap! Come on Relics, we got to go." Lana said grabbing his hand and started hauling him to class.
"Wait you go on ahead, I need to check something real quick." Relics said blushing even redder now that she was holding his hand. Her pads were so soft and so silky smooth, it was like touching a marshmallow.
Lana let him go and gave him a concerned look. "Okay Relics, but please hurry; he doesn't like it when people are really late to class."
"I'll be right there." Relics replied not exactly all that worried about whoever hated people being late to his class. The human waited until the minx was too far away to see his hologram projected messages. Keeping one eye on her, Relics pulled up the most recent and last message.
"You still there, cutie?"
Relics frowned and pushed delete all messages, including the picture. "So it wasn't her after all." He said aloud angrily. And to think he almost called her out on it. Whoever it was that sent it though, Relics would make them pay for trying to screw with him.
~X~X~X~X~
"Where is he? Damn it why did I go and lose my phone?" Bill asked as he kept his eyes locked on the door for the tardy human.
Falco shook his head. "Because you're an idiot but he'd better get here before-"
"Toe line, get there!" A leopard said as he strolled casually to the group of twenty five Cornerians. The students did what they were told and formed a long straight line so that the leopard could walk down and inspect everyone. Once he reached the end he asked a German Sheppard. "Daniel, have you seen our human friend?"
"No sir!" The canine said frightfully like the leopard was holding a gun to his face.
The leopard nodded. "Has anyone seen him?"
"No sir." The whole class responded.
"Great, he's skipping." The leopard said and started walking down the line but counted everyone this time. "Twenty five not including the-" The leopard said right as the door opened to the Auxiliary room. "Twenty six, not including the human… Ms. Tress. Why are we so late?"
Lana's ears drooped and she quickly scurried to the leopard. "Sorry Captain Fritz, I was uh… held up."
"Held up by what I wonder?" Captain Fritz asked just as Relics walked through the door. The leopard growled and growled in his throat. "Is he the reason you're late?"
"Oh no sir, it's not like that!" Lana gasped.
"Uh huh." The leopard said as he nodded slowly.
"Sir-"
"Stand by." Captain Fritz said as he went to introduce himself to the human.
'Holy crap! What the Hell is this place?' Relics thought to himself as he gaped at the large room packed with stuff. He saw a lot of Cornerians standing in front of a long shooting range but to their left was a massive simulated war zone with an added hint of destruction. The war zone had laser holes, burns, fake blood (or so Relics hoped), foxholes and crude barricades for cover, towers, broken fences and heaps of rubble for effect. As Relics eyed the war zone he completely missed the massive obstacle course next to the shooting range and he missed the leopard that walked right up to him.
"First things first human, I won't take any bullshit from you and I won't be giving you any special treatment just because you come from another planet." The leopard growled at Relics.
'…'
"Second of all, you will address me as sir, everything you say to me will end with sir, or I'll show your disrespectful ass one Hell of a hard time you got that?" The leopard growled as he got right in the human's face without any fear in his burning yellow eyes.
"Yes sir." Relics said instinctively which was lucky for him.
"Good, my name is Captain Fritz and welcome to Auxiliary class. Play by the rules, behave yourself and I might let you live Snowflake." The leopard hissed.
'… Holy shit a competent teacher- wait what!? SNOWFLAKE!?'
"Wait here." Captain Fritz growled as he walked off to the students who were all on time.
'SNOWFLAKE!?' Relics shouted in his head as he clenched his hands so tightly his nails were about to puncture his skin.
"Alright shut the Hell up!" Captain Fritz hissed even thought nobody was talking.
'SNOWFLAKE?' Relics thought but then looked at his arms. 'Yeah I see where that comes from. Fucking Cornerians. It's not my fault I can't get any color! I've sat in the sun for five hours on a hot summer day and I didn't burn or so much as freckle! Snowflake… GAH! FUCK YOU RIGHT UP YOUR-'
"All right everyone, today is the first day of school so I'll take it easy on you." The leopard grunted as he paced back to the group of on time students. "Today we are going to watch the tardy people in the Fun Zone and if we've got time we'll play some paintball."
"Yes!" Relics heard Bill mutter under his breath.
'Oh boy paintball, is that what was so awesome that Bill couldn't tell me? Although it is strange for a school to have a paintball program but then again, nothing that I've seen or been through today is what I'd call normal. And just what is a Fun Zone?' Relics thought to himself indifferently.
"Snowflake get over here." Captain Fritz said which got a humorous rise out of the students, especially Bill.
"Snowflake!? Oh my God! How did I not see that? Guess what Relics, new nickname for life!" Bill said as he held his sides from bursting from so much laughing.
Relics wanted nothing more than to beat Captain Fritz's head in with Bill's severed arms, but attacking an instructor after maiming a student would be less justifiable then his fight with Wolf. So instead, Relics ground his teeth and dug his nails further into his palm as he marched towards the smug leopard. Captain Fritz motioned at Lana and she immediately walked over to him and stood next to Relics.
"All right, which one of you will be first?" Captain Fritz asked.
Relics looked at Lana to see if she wanted to but she seemed absolutely terrified, she was clearly shaking, her tail was dead weight, her pupils were dilated, and she was clutching her own hand very tightly for support. How could anything called the Fun Zone not be fun? Still, Relics felt sorry for her, sorry enough to volunteer.
"I'll do it sir." Relics said looking back at Captain Fritz.
The leopard smiled. "Excellent, follow me than everyone."
'Ho boy, this is a boring class.' Relics thought as he and the rest of the class followed Captain Fritz towards the rather large and precarious obstacle course. 'How did I miss that? Man I am so off today!'
"All right Snowflake," Captain Fritz said and Relics started ginding his teeth together again, "this is the Fun Zone, it is probably one of the most hardcore and painful obstacle courses you will ever experience. There are rope swings, monkey bars, mud pits that you must jump over," Captain Fritz said and took a breath.
'Well that doesn't sound too bad.' Relics thought to himself.
"-and there are lasers, trap doors to pits of death, pits of murder-"
'What's the difference?'
"-the wall of bruising and of course at the end there is a surprise… any questions?" Captain Fritz asked with a smug smile.
'Uh yeah, can Lana go first instead?'
"No? Good. Only people who are late have to run through it but those who want some extra credit can do it as well. Since this is your first time, I'll leave the traps turned off."
'That's just super; you know how awesome you are guy? I mean really you deserve a round of applause. No. You're not an asshole at all!' Relics thought sarcastically as he walked towards the obstacle course but the leopard stopped him before he took a second step.
"Oh and give us a good show, we're all going to be watching you." Captain Fritz said and pointed at a large television screen with Relics on it.
'FFFFFFUUUUUUUUCK!'
"How far you think he'll get?"
"He won't get past the rope swings I'd bet."
"You might be right; he doesn't look like he has too much upper body strength."
'I'll show you upper body strength when I bitch slap you all the way back to Earth, Bill.' Relics thought to himself as he walked to the start line. The obstacle course was a straight run and hopefully it would be as easy as a straight run.
"Go when you're ready." Captain Fritz purred. He was going to enjoy watching the human crash and burn.
Relics popped his neck both ways, dropped his backpack by the ramp and then walked up the ramp which was the beginning of the Fun Zone. The second he reached the top he heard something make a snap and he jumped forward narrowly avoiding a wooden foot to his hindquarters.
'Glad he thought to mention that.' Relics thought as he proceeded forward to the rope swings. 'Seems simple enough.' Relics thought as he grabbed the first rope swing and then all the other ropes began to swing left to right.
'The fuck!?' Relics thought to himself. The human waited a minute but when the ropes didn't stop swaying left to right Relics swore again and went for it. He clenched his rope tightly as he swung forward. When he reached maximum swing he reached out for the next rope but missed. Relics began to fall but he barely managed to catch himself before he hit the hard looking floor some six feet below.
Relics readjusted himself he was ready to try again. When he reached maximum swing he went for it but went all out to grab the next rope so he hopefully wouldn't miss again. His fingers grazed the rope and he grabbed the rope in a death grip. The human hung on to the rope and waited for the next. From there on out it was rather easy, just frightening. He made it to the other side in just four minutes.
'Well that was easy.' Relics thought as he moved on to the monkey bars but like the test before, the second he touched the first bar the monkey bars began to move only they moved up and down unlike the rope swings. Relics looked down; if he messed up here he'd land in some really nasty looking water.
Relics sighed. 'Okay mental note. Just because a girl looks sad, doesn't mean you have to volunteer to go first.'
Relics reached out for the next bar and soon found himself in quite a predicament. The monkey bar that he grabbed onto was now lurching up and down making it hard to maintain a firm grip.
'Ow my arm!' Relics thought as he tried to reach out but the monkey bar lurched and tried to yank his arm out its socket. But Relics wouldn't be beaten here, not with the whole class watching him and probably recording his labors on their phones the pricks.
The snowy haired human growled in his throat as he waited for the next lurch. When the lurch went down he reached out again and quickly grabbed a hold of the next monkey bar before it yanked his arm. He repeated this routine until he reached the end but his arms were extremely sore and tired at the end but that wasn't too much of a problem since he didn't need to use his arms in the next obstacle.
"Okay." Relics panted and jumped over the five foot wide mud pit to the platform on the other side. "OH COME ON!" Relics shouted when the next platform started moving back and forth. "You know, I am starting to see a pattern here." Relics growled to himself as he readied for his next jump. Hoping his timing was right Relics jumped to the moving platform. His timing was sort of right, he did make it to the platform but his left leg slipped a little and he got his new shoes muddy.
'Great, out of the box new and I get mud all over them.' Relics scowled in his head. Relics stood up with ease now that the platform had stopped moving but the five in front of it kept moving, all of which were faster than the last.
'Oh what I wouldn't give to have played more Frogger before this.' Relics thought as he prepared for his next jump…
'Ruined, both completely ruined.' Relics thought to himself as his muddy shoes made squishy noises every step of the way to the next course which strangely was just a small six foot wide corridor without a ceiling and had a metal door at the end of it.
'Oh well not like it can get any worse.' Relics thought as he crossed the threshold of the hallway. 'Wow what do you know? Nothing hap- OH COME ON!' Relics thought when the massive maze of red lasers turned on.
"This has got to be the worst class ever." Relics said aloud as he stepped over a knee high laser. The lasers hummed in the human's ears as he ducked, dipped, stepped, crawled and crept through the laser trap but down the line he started thinking of the Mission Impossible music which was fun at first until it wouldn't stop replaying in his head over and over. The lasers were by far the worst of the obstacles by far and he couldn't wait till he got to the door at the end. As Relics crawled under a laser he came to what seemed like the end. It took the human several minutes but he finally managed to reach the end unscathed and all the lasers shut off. The human sighed with relief while his heart tried to burst out of his chest. Without another second's hesitation he turned the doorknob and moved on to the next obstacle.
The next obstacle looked fairly simple; there was no floor except the six inches on the left wall which had several holes in it and shot glass sized bumps on the wall. The human weighed his options before trying to walk along the wall. The jump was too long for him to make, he couldn't jump down and climb up the other side since he couldn't see what was down in the hole and there was no other way around.
"What's next I wonder?" Relics said indifferently. No sooner had he touched the wall did several boxing gloves come shooting out of the holes Relics figured were for supporting himself on. It now seemed the small shot glass sized holds were the only way he'd be able to hold himself onto the wall.
"Hmm. Wall of Bruising… I get it now." Relics said monotonously to himself.
Relics started to inch forward and came to his first boxing glove. He held onto one of the little holds on the wall and waited for the glove to shoot out and then go back in. The glove shot out and slowly went back in and he quickly moved on forward. Unfortunately he didn't think of the boxing glove at head level when he moved past the first boxing hole. The unsuspecting human got a face full of glove and barely held onto the holds.
"Ow that-" Relics said before the glove shot out again and nailed him in the nose. Learning from that double fail, the human chose to duck down and now the glove was just punching at air.
~X~X~X~X~
"Wow he sure is getting far." Miyu said as she and Fox watched together on the large T.V. screen. They sat next to each other in chairs Captain Fritz had Bill haul in because of his outbursts he made in line.
"Yeah, not too many people get past the monkey bars and yet he's at the wall of bruising." Fox said wrapping his arm around the lynx.
"Do you think Lana will do as good?" Miyu asked as she looked at the minx. She had not taken her eyes off the screen since Relics was on it. Miyu on the other hand was more concerned about Lana then the human and saw several instances where when Relics succeeded Lana's tail would swish around like a kit's and she got really giddy.
"Are you kidding? Lana is the one person in this room I'm more afraid of then Captain Fritz." Fox laughed as Relics got punched in the stomach. "Ooh, that human can sure take a- damn that hurt!" Fox groaned when Relics got punched in the eye.
"Do you think we should say something to her?" Miyu asked as Relics just made it halfway across.
"Why?" Fox asked and looked at Lana who was just out of earshot. The highly attractive minx was on the edge of her chair, she was biting her claws, her tail looked like a furry agitated snake, and her fur was standing in several places. "Oh… I see what you mean. I guess if you want to-" Fox said as Miyu began to pull him out of the chair.
"Oh! Dude he took that one right to his crotch!" Fox heard Bill laugh out loud. Fox rolled his eyes and kept his mind focused on Lana.
"Hey girl, what's how's it going?" Miyu asked as she sat next to the minx. Lana's red eyes strayed from the television and were full of fear as they looked into Miyu's blue eyes.
"Um… alright, Miyu. How are you and Fox?" She asked as her leg jumped up and down furiously.
"We're okay; we were just a little worried about you." Fox said as he sat down next to Miyu still holding her hand.
"Me!? Why? What makes you need to worry about me?" Lana asked like she had something to hide; only problem was she wasn't hiding anything. Even if her leg wasn't jumping, her hair wasn't on end and she wasn't gnawing her nails they could almost feel her fear radiating off of her. Miyu and Fox just gave her a concerned look and Lana broke down.
"Oh you're right!" Lana burst out. "I'm a mess! I've never had to do the Fun Zone my entire life and Relics can barely do it! I mean look at him! The way he takes that punch, it's almost like it doesn't affect him and he keeps holding on. I on the other hand-"
"Lana, you of all people can do this, you're fast, you're strong and you're one of the best here at paintball." Miyu reassured.
"I guess." Lana said as her ears perked up a little.
"You've got the stuff Lana, I'm sure you'll wow even the human."
The minx nodded as she shifted from distressed to as cocky as Bill and Falco combined. "Miyu when it's my turn will you watch him and make absolute sure he watches me?" Lana asked which was a pretty strange to the lynx. Why did she want the human to be watching her?
"Uh, sure, we'll make sure… why?" Miyu asked.
"Because I'm going ask him on a date when I finish." Lana said as Relics made it past the Wall of Bruising.
~X~X~X~X~
Relics clamped down on his nose to keep it from bleeding. All in all, the human took twelve hits and some were starting to bruise but he managed to make it through without falling. Relics looked ahead and saw that he was only another sixty meters away from the end. The path to the end was metal with four foot by six foot floorboards and below them was a long ten foot drop into more mud.
"Did they make this long enough?" Relics groaned and checked his nose again; it stopped bleeding so he took a step forward and strangely nothing happened. 'Well all right, things are finally going-' Relics thought but heard a loud crack behind him. The human quickly turned around just in time to see the next trap.
"OH, SHIT!" Relics shouted when the floorboard behind him dropped like a trapdoor. Without thinking the human started running as fast as he could but his running was barely keeping the one step he had ahead of the falling floors behind him. The loud cracking sounds rang in his ears, slowly getting louder and louder like a predator's breath on its prey.
Relics was panting heavily by the time he made it halfway. The Suppressor around his neck was draining him of his energy and speed. If he didn't have it on he would have made it to the end by the time the fourth floorboard fell. Despite this, Relics kept going. He didn't want to lose here, not now that he was so close to the end. The human strained himself and pushed himself harder and harder but that only kept him two steps ahead of the trapdoors. As he drew close to the end his heart was pounding in his ears, his lungs could not get enough air and he began to slow. His two step lead quickly fell back to one step and the pressure doubled.
'Almost… almost… ALMOST!' Relics thought to himself as he came closer to the end. Victory was so close but defeat hounded his heels. Resorting to desperate measures the human jumped. To him he flew in slow motion and he saw the last floorboard fall prematurely as he flew over it. When the human landed, he hit pretty hard but he made it. He survived the Fun Zone.
"Worst… class… ever…!" Relics panted as he laid on the ground catching his breath.
~X~X~X~X~
"He made it, and he even passed the surprise at the end huh?" The leopard growled to himself. In truth he was a little disappointed that the human didn't crash and burn but at least he did get punched a couple times. Still Relics did all right for a human.
"Lana you're up." Captain Fritz snapped.
The minx rose from her chair smiling confidently. This was the first time she had to do the Fun Zone but she was ready. She was going to overcome this obstacle and then ask Relics out in front of everyone. With as much confidence on her face she walked to the start.