Chapter Notes:
I'm excited to see everyone loving how the last chapter went, and in return for the support and approval of the previous chapter here is another chapter for the masses.
Enjoy!-
The First Test:
With his long time friend and ex-partner in hustling going off to become a police officer Finnick was having a very boring and plain couple of months. He still kept up gambling with other mammals at bars and he was still pulling a few hustles every week, but it wasn't as much fun going solo after having a partner for years. The light brown fox was looking out of the window of his van as he was stopped at a red light waiting for the crowd to move and the light to change. He was on his way to one of his least favorite mammals he had met with Nick on a hustle a few months back; Jerry Jumbeaux Jr.
Finnick had a plan to earn some cash with something he enjoyed for whatever reason; selling Pawpsicles. And this time it wasn't just some one time gig that would pay once, no Finnick had a plan in his mind he had been working out for a while to get himself a decent flow of money.
After a few more minutes driving through the city he found a place to park not too far from Jerry's ice cream joint. It was just before service hours but because of that one of the employees was cleaning the outside windows; thankfully with the door propped open. Finnick still had to push the door open pushing hard with his shoulder but he managed to get through, it didn't take him long to find the elephant in charge cleaning up the display case. "Hey Jerry." The small mammal said getting the larger one's attention.
The elephant turned around expecting there to be a customer to tell off about the store not being opened yet, but didn't see any mammal there; until he was called down to look at the floor. "Do I know you fox?" he asked with a scrutinized look on his face as he looked down at the much small mammal.
"No you don't, elephant." Finnick responded in much the same way he was asked.
"Then beat it." The grey mammal said angry while waving the other off with his trunk.
This was already something the light brown fox had thought about before coming here; everyone knew about Jerry's dislike for foxes, but the light brown fox not only thought about this but planned for it as well. "How about we talk business? Everyone knows you like your money." He said trying to pull Jerry into conversation.
He took a pause when he heard the mention of his money as if already hooked but still wary of it being a cheap trick. "What do you know about business?" he asked interested in what might be said.
"Foxes know a lot more about business than you think. So you wanna talk or not?" Finnick asked with a slight smirk on his face as the store owner took the bait.
The time for the physical test was getting closer and close at the academy and a majority of the mammals there had been pushing themselves to make sure they pass; Nick and his friends were among that group. They had been going to the gym together and running on the track together as well. While Morris would often ask Nick to spot him on the bench press to get a small laugh at Nick's expression from the first time he did it, the large bear would also often tell them to run ahead of him knowing that they had faster times to meet than he did.
"Alright cadets, you are three days away from your first test, and for some of you your last test." She warned looking over the group of mammals before her. Some of them having come a long way and some of them having come an even longer way. "Today will be the last time we run through these courses as a group, and after that it's up to you to pass the test. Or guess what, you'll be dead!" she yelled her phrase that the group as a whole had come to know forwards and backwards at this point.
This was it. One last chance for Nick to see where he stood against the rest of the group on their obstacle times; and he would take it just as serious as the test.
It was the early morning of the physical test and Nick was beginning to wake up when he heard his name being called. "Nick time to wake up." Morris called from the side of the bed standing on the flats of his feet was enough for him to peek over the metal frame.
"What time is it?" the red fox asked as he began sitting up and stretching.
"Time for breakfast." Was his only response from the large bear before he began walking away. "Wake up Mike, I save you seat." He said over his shoulder in his always prominent accent getting a smile out of Nick. As he climbed down from his bunk and as he was about to wake up Mike who they had found out the second day was his bunk mate the mound under the blankets moved.
The wolf was groaning in protest to get up after being sore from all their practicing the last few days. "Don't worry. I'm getting up." His voice came slightly muffled from under the pillow. "What happened to bears being late sleepers?" he asked with a smirk from under the pillow getting on from Nick as well.
As the final member of the trio was getting up Nick went to their dresser and checked his phone he kept in the top draw seeing a new text from a certain energetic bunny. 'Good luck on your test today! I know you can do it!' she told him obviously his biggest support and motivation for him being there in the first place.
'Thanks Carrots, I'll tell you all about it tonight.' He responded before putting the phone back into its spot under his uniforms to join Mike as he headed off to grab breakfast with Morris.
"Alright that's time!" commander Ander's voice boomed through the room they were in. It was the last of the fitness based testing; situps, pushups, and bench press. The went group by group having gotten staff members to help with counting as the trainees did what they were required to.
Nick and the along with his friends were over by the wall drinking from their sports bottles. The three of them asked each other if the had passed that part of the test and without a doubt in any of their minds they all made it through this first part of the test. Each of them counted off their own situps and pushups in their head as they went, only focusing on beating the number they were told; and succeeding.
Now it was off to the environmental obstacle courses and their group would be the last ones to have their run and the clever red fox watched the other two groups go through the course trying to pick up any last minutes tips for the courses that maybe he hadn't picked up on; but with a slight smirk on his muzzle he realized he didn't see anything he didn't already know.
The time had come for their group to run the gauntlet now; only this might be the last time they all lined up together like this again. As Nick lined up at the start of the blistering sand storm course he did his best to calm his heart and breathing. The stinging sands already nipping at his exposed nose as the fans kicked up the shifting sand.
At the sound of the air horn they took of hitting the sand and getting as low as they could so not to get caught in the winds and slowed down. Nick and Mike were muzzle to muzzle going against the sands as they raced each other like they did in their practice so many times throughout their own practice; and right behind them was Morris using his massive weight to hold him down as he crawled.
Once they finally made it over the end of the sandbox Nick checked his time on his stopwatch he had in his pocket. "I'm sorry Nick." Mikes voice carried to his ears as the wolf stepped up beside him off to the side of the course. "But I beat you this time!" he said happily with a wide smile showing his stopwatch to the fox having beaten his time by half a second. While they had a wide gap in their mile times they found that it took them about the same time to do most the obstacle courses.
"Only by half a second." Nick smirked back at his friend who was waging his tail slightly behind him. They didn't have to wait long before Morris stepped over to him with orange specks covering his entire body standing out clearly in his white fur.
"I hate sand crawl." He said gruffly trying to shake the sand from his fur using his large paws. "Polar bears don't live in dessert for reason; we like snow, not sand." He complain to himself as he finished getting the most of the sand out from the exposed areas, but from his itching that there was plenty still trapped under his uniform shirt.
Judy was sitting on a chair at her house with the physical therapist once again having come by for another house visit. "Alright that's thiry. How are you feeling?" the P.T. asked after Judy was done with the exercise.
"I feel great. It isn't hurting anymore, even when I walk on it." She said proudly at having finally overcoming the injury. But that was a little slip up on the rabbit's behalf.
The middle aged pig who had been helping her with recovering looked at her with her brown eyes. "Judy I told you not to walk on your hurt leg the last time I was here." She said with a slight scold.
"I know, I just can't help myself Abby. I need to get better soon. I can't handle being stuck inside." Judy explained sheepishly as she looked out of the living room and at a group of her siblings playing soccer.
Abby, gave a sigh as she remember what Judy's Dr. from the hospital mentioning about the young rabbit being a fighting spirit and more than likely wouldn't listen to anything along the lines of 'take it easy'. "Alright I'll let your Dr. Castor know that it is time for him to have a check up with you and he will have the final say if you are ready to go back to work." She said with a light smile knowing after her few visits just how much being a police officer meant to the grey bunny.
"Thank you!" Judy explained happily bouncing in her seat. Finally once she had her appointment with the Dr. from the hospital she would be allowed to go back to work again, and she couldn't contain the excitement at the thought.
It was once again for sargent Lera's group to run the test course, and now it was the monkey bars and the rope climb based from the Rainforest District and all her trainees were getting ready at the line up.
"Don't get in my way fox." The hippo from Nick's past sneered as they were getting into the same line for the bars.
"Yeah well don't get mud on my uniform this time." Nick brushed him off not letting the purple mammal get to him. 'focus Nick. Focus.' He thought to himself getting back into the zone of things and ready for the monkey bars.
The monkey bars and the rope climb were the hardest for him because he never spent nearly as much time in the rainforest as he did the other ecosystems because he never liked the humid climate, but the little drop and rain was nothing compared to the real thing he and Judy made it through.
With that thought in mind the red fox jumped up to grab the monkey bars after Mike had gotten three bars away so they had their own space. 'Right. Left. Right. Left.' He repeated in his mind focusing on keeping his grip tight around the wooden dowel but not to the point where he couldn't swing his weight to the next bar. By singing their weight from arm to arm both Mike quickly followed by Nick where almost done with that course; until the bars suddenly began bouncing up and down.
"Move it fox i'm comin' through." The hippo laughed as he obviously was pulling his weight down on the bars to try and throw Nick off of them. Mike was able to safely reach the end and jump off before Joe had got to the middle where his weight had the biggest pull on the course, but Nick on the other hand was beginning to feel the pads of his paws slipping against the grain on the bars.
Rather than focusing on the next bar the red fox had to put his attention on staying attached to the current one or else he would lose his grip, but even then his paws began to give. *SPLAT* Mike and Morris froze standing next to the course looking at their friend who had come so far; before he made the final leap skipping the last rung in the course.
"NO!" the hippo below yelled as he tried wiping the mud off his face only to smear it around. "He cheated! He- he got in my way! That fox got in my way!" he yelled as he stood.
"It's called a hustle, Sweetheart." Nick said with a smirk as he walked over to his friends waiting for him on the sidelines.
"THAT'S IT FOX!" the enraged hippo yelled as he began to stomp over to the group ready to strike him down. But before he could even reach them he was stopped by two of the staff at the academy knocking him down and holding him down on the grass.
Commander Anders stepped over into his line of sight and looked down at the struggling mammal. "Your fellow trainee did not get in your way, your arrogance did." He said sternly as he look down at and down upon the hippo.
"He ain't my fellow anything!" Joe yelled as he tried to get the two mammals off his back.
The large panda looked over at Nick who was standing next to his click and watching everything unfold before he turned back to Joe after a moment. "You're right. You aren't his fellow trainee. Pack your bags, you are leaving right now." He said before turning and walking back to talk with the drill sergeants leaving the two staff members to take care of escorting the mammal to the building, and then off the premises.
After a few minutes of the sergeants and the commander talking they came back to the rest of the trainees explaining that trying something like that to get mess up another trainee during the testing would result in immediately being sent packing; and with that they all headed to the last obstacle course.
Over the last three months the was easily Nick's favorite obstacle course due to his comfort in the cold and the already learned ability to run on the ice. At the sound of the horn these were thing that Nick took great advantage of and sped off onto the frozen surface. Along with all their training he had told telling Mike about using his claws while they practiced together. Mike had gotten a lot better at the ice wall as well, while having to use us claws to grip the ice sent chills down his spine he pushed up the frozen wall.
Morris however after not even twenty seconds had already crashed down on the other side of the wall running the rest of the way off the course finishing just as strong as he started. This course was a walk in the park for the the large mammal; no Morris had said before that a walk in the park was harder than this course.
After everyone was done with the course they were lead over the the track for the final fitness test. Nick's body was sore and heavy after everything they had done already, but he knew he had more than enough motivation to cross that finish line. And thanks to his wolf friend for helping to pace him and push him he also knew he could beat his required time.
Once more at the sound of the horn Nick took off along with the rest of his group as they ran down the red rubber under their paws. As time went on and mammals evolved to what they were now things like physical ability changed just as fast as mental abilities. This gave some unfair advantages to some species compared to others and one such advantage was endurance; lionesses in the stone ages had incredibly high speeds but a small endurance. And leading the group was none other than Lea the fastest lioness that Nick had seen. As she flew across the track bits of rubber were being thrown up by the force behind her claws she used to propel herself forward.
In the second group was Mike along with 'Kitty' and several other mammals all fighting for second place in their mad dashes they made on the straight aways of the track. Their pads gripping against the ground and the large paws of a white rhino pounding the rubber with every step. Nick while remaining focused on his breathing and rhythm thought in the back of his head that he was proud enough to be where he was; leading the third pack of runners.
He wasn't in first and knew he would never be the fastest of his group, but he was happy being where he was giving it his all. Right next to him running on the straight away was another rhino the were pushing each other fighting for lead of their group as the made their third lap around the track. And as they crossed the line a pale yellow blur ran past with cheerful shouting; Lea had just finished her mile in an all out sprint before collapsing onto her back with her limbs spread out panting heavy on the grass.
Sargent Lera walked over to her trainee at a slow lumber and handed the feline a water bottle. "You alright their mittens?" she said with a light tone happy that the lioness had the fastest time of the day of one minute and twelve seconds.
Lea still panting on the grass had sprayed some of the water across her face and neck to help cool off. "I'm okay sarg. Just cooling off." She said spraying more water on herself. While lionesses had increased endurance they still crashed and burned after a hard run and needed time to cool off and lower their heart rate.
Back on the track Mike and Kitty were fighting for second place as their pounded along the track, Mike would pull ahead just barely then the tiger would as they raced. They were rounding on the second to last corner the tiger began pulling away from his group taking the lead. As hard as Mike and the rest tried they were unable to catch up to him before the finish line; six seconds was the only difference. Their group headed off to the table with water all collapsing near it panting and enjoying the cool water they sprayed on themselves.
Nick was still on the track pushing hard as he huffed and puffed feeling his claws against the rubber below. "Come on Nick!" a wolf was cheering him on from the side lines over by the water table. The red furred mammal lead the group the rest of the way closely followed by the rhino that had been right behind him the whole time, he came in about twenty seconds after Mike and well under his required time.
He went over to the grass area and bent over putting his paws on his knees panting with his mouth wide open. "Way to go Nick!" his friend greeted as he came up. It was that moment that he was sprayed with cold water. While it came as a shock after the initial jolt went away the water felt great as is soaked into his fur and he took the offered bottle spraying his face and in his dry mouth.
"Thanks." He said still panting as he looked to his friend who was still panting himself. It was almost a minute after Nick had finished when Morris finally finished his mile; while he was the last to finish he gave it his all and beat his time none the less. Both his fox and wolf friends happily congratulated and sprayed the large mammal as best as they could.
All the trainees were gathered around the sergeants and the commander in the center of the track after everyone's times were recorded and the large bear in charge was just about to give a speech. "Alright everyone, while you all did your best during today's testing there is one more part of the test. This next part of the test however is not pass or fail, but is performance based. You will all go through a sparring match randomly picked within your group and will be judged based on how you did. You don't have to win to pass you just have to show us that you can hold your own in a fight." He said gruffly getting some murmurs from the crowd. After that along with a little bit more explaining they headed to the sparring room walking through the gym to get there.
As Nick watched the other groups go through their trainees he kept worrying to himself, no matter who he went up against it was going to be someone bigger than him; at best he would be put up against one of the wolves but at worst he could be put up against one of the rhinos or Morris. He had been sparring with Mike to practice fighting and while he was able to defend himself by dodging, any solid hit from the bigger mammal would throw him off balance, and that was in a friendly sparring round; the last thing he wanted was a repeat of his fight with Joe on the first sparring day.
With all his worrying it wasn't long before his group was getting called up, Mike was in the first round going up against Lea the lioness from before. Their fight was serious and quick each one having a fast paced fighting style; but even though the grey wolf was fast, the yellow lioness was faster landing more hits in on Mike than he could land on her. It was a few more rounds until Morris was put up against the black rhino that was right behind Nick during the mile run.
The two large mammals took their fight serious as well, but both of them had an obvious grin across their face as they exchanged one heavy blow for another pounding away at any opening they could. Each of them grunting as they swung and grunting as they felt the other's glove connecting, and after a few minutes of watching the immovable mammals enjoy their grudge match time was called and the two laughed together heartily as they got water.
Thanks to being deep in thought and worry it was now the last round and by default of course it had to be Nick who spent the longest feeling nervous and anxious for his fight, and unfortunately for him the only other mammal left was Kitty; and he was obviously itching for payback after the shower incident he started weeks ago. "Your big friend can't save you this time small fry." He sneered as he put on his head gear was fastened on. "I'm going to enjoy this." He grinned as he pounded his gloves together.
"You got this Nick, you got this." Mike told him as he helped fasten his headgear getting a nod in return for his efforts. Nick was to deep in thought to answer with words so the nod was all he could do. His nerves were eating at him as the bell was rung and he stepped to the center of the ring.
Nick had but a moment to jump back as a blur of red went past his muzzle and slammed into the white floor of the ring shaking it. 'geeze he swings as hard as Morris now.' He thought as focused solely on keeping out from under the red gloves flying down at him, as of right now the only advantage he had was the odd angle the tiger had to fight at in order to hit him. But the round soon changed as the orange mammal swung a low uppercut after missing again, the red fox was barely about to block the hit with his arms in time before he was sent flying into the corner.
After hitting against the padded corner he fell on his tail letting out a yelp in pain through the mouth guard causing the large mammal stomping towards him to laugh. He wasn't even taking Nick serious, he had his gloves by his side as he lumbered over; and that's when the idea popped into his head. Nick looked at the striped tail of the tiger and sure enough he was right, the orange mammal was taking this so unseriously that his tail was still low to the ground behind him; well within the foxes reach. It was now or never for this plan to work and as the tiger got closer Nick shot out and dove past his side slamming his blue glove onto the floor as hard as he could, sandwiching the stripped tail as he did so. The muffled shout of the tiger as he dropped to one knee was more than enough for Nick's second hit. He ran at the rope at full speed and and turned to bounce off it with his back and spring right at the kneeling predator.
By the time the tiger looked to see what was happening it was too late to dodge and far too late to block. The blue glove landed square in between the gap of the head gear hitting the exposed face of the feline. Everyone was shocked by the sound of the contact and the loud yell of the tiger that followed. All the mammals on the outside of the ring were wide eyed at what they just saw chuckling and whispering to themselves about it at the tiger's expense.
Then the tiger turned and absolute fury was burning in his eyes as he glared at the small fox and charged him throwing a barrage of swings down at him. But then Nick's back hit the rope and he had nowhere to go and only just managed to jump to the side of the red glove as blow past brushing against his own blue glove throwing him off balance to the floor. The momentum of the tiger however carried him into the ropes and almost half way out of the boxing ring. Not being one to let an opportunity slip by Nick got to his feet and threw a solid hit to the tigers side before he was hit with the backside of a red glove sending him to the center of the ring.
Just as the tangled mammal freed himself from the ropes the bell sounded calling for the end of the match. The large predator raised his fist up but with a growl he dropped it to his side before swinging; the small fox relaxed as the other began storming away taking his gear off as he went. After he was out of the ring Nick hopped down to the floor and took off his own gear. The sergeants and commanders were once again talking among themselves no doubt about the last fight as Mike and Morris came over to Nick.
"Way to go Nick!" the wolf said animatedly as he bounced over.
He was followed by their large friend laundering behind, "That was good try Nick. 'A' for effort." The polar bear explained while hand bottle to Mike to hand over to Nick. The two of them congratulated him as he sat down to catch his breath after the adrenaline began wearing away, some of the other mammals came over congratulating him and giving him praise for the punch he landed to the tigers face, but unnoticed by them the sergeants and the panda in charge were looking him over carefully.
Everyone was gathered in the auditorium waiting to hear whether or not they past. After the sparring test was done they were dismissed to shower and lunch being told to be in the large room by 3:00 to find out the results. It had just turned to the hour and not more than seconds later Ander's walked in followed by sargent Lera and the other two sergeants. The black and white mammal took the stand and spoke very harshly, "Cheating is not allowed in this academy, and those of you who are caught cheating are going to be kicked out of the program and sent home." He said sternly looking over all the trainees with a dangerous glare. "John Rasferd." He called the tiger that Nick faught against.
"Wai-Wait me?! I-I didn't cheat! That fox did!" he yelled standing up and pointing the blame at Nick a few rows down from him. "There's no way he could hit that hard. He mus-"
"Enough!" the panda yelled stopping him and the rest of the room as they were. "We reviews the security cameras after your fight and found that you are indeed the one cheated." He then reached into his pocket and pulled out two round discs dropping them next to him causing loud thud sounds to be heard through the room as the hit the hardwood. "We have you on camera picking them up on your way through the gym and then putting them back after your fight."
Everyone was shocked as they looked at John. "He cheated and he still lost?" "Some tiger." "I can't believe it" "Dude what was he thinking?" the whispers and glares filled the room as they all turned their attention to the discrassed mammal.
"Pack your bags and leave." The commander's voice was unmoving.
"But!-"
"Now!" he yelled back having no patience for the. Two of the staff were waiting for the tiger at the end of his row and escorted him out of the room making sure he didn't try anything and he left the room slamming the door open as he stormed out. Ander's gave a heavy sigh as he rubbed his temples. "Okay now I will be listing off those of you that unfortunately did not make the cut will be asked to pack your things and leave, please do not make a scene. We don't want to have to force you to go."
After he was done listing off the names of those that didn't pass thirteen of the seats were empty now, about a quarter of the trainees had failed the first test. "For those of you still here, congratulations. Enjoy the rest of the day, you've earned it." He said causing all the mammals remaining to cheer for themselves and eachother. Morris, Mike, and Nick were all still sitting together and planned to do so for the next six months as they finished the academy.
As everyone was leaving the room sargent Lera called Nick over from his couple of friends as the female polar bear walked over halfway. "Yes ma'am?" he asked politely.
"How are you feeling?" she asked as she knelt down to talk with him. While she was a stern sargent when it came to pushing her trainees she also was concerned for their safety. "You took some hard hits out there today."
"Oh I'm fine, it's nothing really, I've been through worse." He said flatly looking away from the other mammal.
'so the rumors are true.' She thought to herself hearing the fox's statement. She was told that Nick had been a hustler before being given special circumstances to be allowed into the academy but didn't truly believe it; until now. "The life of a fox is hard hu?" she asked curiously getting a slight nod for her question. "Well Nick, I'm proud of you. And I know your friends and family are proud of you too." She said putting a large paw on his shoulder.
The red fox looked up to see that she was being genuine in her statement and in her smile, and that made him feel even more proud of himself; he just couldn't wait to tell his long eared friend about his day today.
Author's Notes:
Okay that's the first test! What did you guys think? Let me know all the goods and bads in the reviews or PMs. I hope you all liked it as much as I did, I had fun writing about Nick going through these things, and most of the entire chapter was all about him too.
To all the reviews both named and guests, thank you so much for the support and suggestions, and thank you everyone who is reading along. I am glad to see so many readers following and favoriting the fic as it grows!
Oh, one more thing. I put up a small table of contents in the beginning of the first chapter, so if you guys wanted to take a look and let me know if it makes sence?
That will be all, until next time!-
