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The Assignment

Chapter 4: School Life II

Alastair and Fox stared each other down from the opposite ends of the ring, both wearing grim expressions on their unyielding features. It may have just been a simple school monitored fight, but to them it was no joke. Fox had been taught by his father to always give his all in everything he did. Alastair had spent his entire life training to be the perfect soldier. Both Fox and Alastair were guided by their unbending determination, and the human could see himself in the vulpine's eye. Instinctively, he knew this would be no easy fight.

Fox was cautious of fighting the human. He had seen what Alastair did to Wolf, what he was capable of. Fox would have to maintain his initial momentum once combat started in order to ensure that Alastair remained off balance and with any luck keep him guessing. That should hopefully give him an advantage. Otherwise there was no telling what would happen. The vulpine was nowhere near eager to face Alastair, but he was confident he could at least hold his own if anything.

Likewise, Alastair was wary about fighting the vulpine. He had no information on Fox and therefore was unaware of his skills, strengths, or weaknesses. The human would be flying blind, and he hated having a lack of intelligence. It may just be a school fight, but Alastair could not refrain from feeling just as guarded as if he was fighting a life and death brawl. He had been trained to fight...to kill as efficiently and quickly as possible. Even when he had been in training death was a possible outcome if he slipped up in the slightest. He only ever fought at his maximum potential, there was no middle ground. But it looked like he would have to try today. He had no intention or desire of hurting the vulpine. It would not do well for his mission. Alastair had to become friends with Fox in order to get closer to his objective. And so wiping the floor with him would not be conductive to starting a mutual friendship. So, he decided to give Fox a fair chance, abstaining from using his genetic enhancements and therefore fighting at only three quarters of his complete strength, which was still formidable.

Alastair looked to the side where the coach's and students stood. It looked like Fara and her other female friends had joined with the rest of the group he was beginning to associate with her. He looked away from them and back to the coach, who was standing with some sort of stopwatch and holding his whistle in-between his fangs, the blue cord dangling on his chest.

"All right, the rules are simple." He spoke with the whistle in his maw. "No breaking bones and no killing each other. And try not to bleed too much or at least try not to get it on the ring if you can."

'That's pretty straightforward...and yet disturbing'

Fox and Alastair nodded, turning back to face each other.

"Good, now...fight!" The lion blew the whistle in his maw and the match started.

"May the best man win." Fox said as he inclined his muzzle.

Alastair nodded in return and almost immediately ducked as the vulpine's hindpaw flew past his face. The human swerved backwards and rolled across the ground as Fox brought his boot crashing down on where he had just been standing. Even as he was getting up, he was forced to block a fist that was sailing towards his head.

'He's much more of a threat than I anticipated.' Alastair thought as he blocked a kick aimed at his chest, tossing the hindpaw back and giving himself a second to recuperate. As he was forced to dodge another wave of kicks and punches from the seemingly liquid vulpine, Alastair realized what his plan was. 'He's trying to keep me off balance...clever' He must have come to the conclusion that it would be his best chance after seeing his fight with Wolf. It was too bad that Alastair was willing to go to any lengths in order to achieve victory. _'This...is going to hurt.'_The next time Fox launched a furred fist towards Alastair's stomach, he let the blow connect.

He rasped noiselessly as he felt the wind get bashed out of his lungs and a sharp flair of pain shoot through his chest. At first Fox looked victorious after landing the first blow of the match, but his gloating smirk quickly vanished when he saw that the human was not nearly as fazed as he thought he would have been. Instead, he raised his own fist and slammed it into Fox's muzzle, sending him crashing to the ground in a disorganized bundle.

Fox rolled backwards and vaulted back up to his hindpaws with a thoughtful expression. He would not fall for the same trick twice. Fox took a moment to breathe and launched himself back into the fray, tossing a flurry of punches that Alastair blocked fluidly, rolling around them and retaliating with his own barrage that the vulpine barley managed to escape unscathed.

Alastair was ready to finish his attack when he felt a fluffy furry stick slap him across the face and his vision went orange. He reeled backwards, spluttering as he tried to spit out the orange hairs clogging his mouth. In his unguarded state he felt a trio of powerful kicks land across his chest, throwing him to the ground. Alastair groaned and held back a snarl. 'He used his fucking tail, dirty bastard...well played.'

He grinned.

Alastair had to hand it to Fox for using what was available to him. Not that his newfound admiration would prevent him from kicking the fuckers ass.

The human got up to a crouched position and slammed into Fox with his full weight, knocking him to the ground. He felt the vulpine's orange furred arms grasp him under the armpits in an attempt to roll him over but Alastair used a fist to sock him in the kidney, which he knew to be exactly ten centimeters from where a human one was located.

Fox coughed and doubled over, rolling to the left and lashing a hindpaw out as he did so. The blow landed across Alastair's face and sent his vison flashing white momentarily as a high-pitched ringing filled his ears. He shook his head rapidly and lurched to his feet, Fox close behind. Both combatants were panting tiredly and hugging their arms to their chests in pain. Yet fiery determination blazed in the vulpine's glowing emerald eyes and the human's solid bright blue orbs. Neither was willing to give up and so they launched at each other again and descended into a close quarters slug fest. Their movements were a blur as they slammed into each other with closed fists and devastating kicks.

Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, Fox staggered backwards and Alastair did the same in the opposite direction. Both were breathing heavily, the vulpine's left eye was half lidded and Alastair's right leg looked like it was ready to collapse under his weight. A faint trickle of blood ran down his face, courtesy of an accidental scratch that Fox had landed across his brow when Alastair hit him in the gut and caused his paws to reflexively open. Likewise, Fox clutched his left arm gingerly to his chest. Alastair had landed a good hit on the vulpine's elbow and he could still feel the faded pangs of pain that lingered. Both were covered in sweat, Alastair's visible skin shone in the light and Fox's fur was a darker shade of orange.

Alastair nodded grimly to the vulpine, and Fox returned it, and they would have gone at it again if not for the sharp screeching howl of the coach's whistle. They both turned to see the lion standing there, clapping with an extremely impressed smile on his muzzle.

"Goddamn...that was the best fight I've ever seen! And I've been to the big leagues! But as amazing as it was I'm going to have to call it a day. I don't want you two to kill yourselves or each other. And by the looks of it, you've had enough." The coach shook his muzzle in admiration as he looked down at the stopwatch. "At least you both set a new school record, forty-five minutes; I don't think that'll be topped for a long time. Come on and get out of there."

'Forty-five minutes...? Didn't feel that long...' Alastair thought absently as he staggered over to the edge of the ring and climbed out. Fox followed after him and the two stood there, observing the other.

Fox had earned Alastair's respect, and you could count the amount of people that gained it on the palm of one hand. The vulpine was easily one of the strongest fighters he came across, and he was not so confident that he would have emerged victorious in the end without resorting to his enhancements. Fox's skills in physical combat were impressive enough to earn his admiration.

Alastair stuck his hand out for the vulpine to shake and had a genuine, if small, smile on his face, which was extremely rare, not that Fox would have known how significant that was. Alastair had very few reasons and instances to smile in his life. And the fight with the vulpine had given him one of those fleeting moments.

"Very impressive, Mccloud, you are a worthy adversary."

Fox nodded and grabbed the human's hand, shaking it as he smiled broadly. "Likewise, Alastair, I think you could even give my father a run for his credits, and he taught me everything I know."

Alastair's smile lessened at the mention of a parent and he released the vulpine's paw. "I'll take that as a compliment. What do we do now?"

As if he had been eavesdropping, the coach answered from behind him. "Well, since you two manage to occupy the majority of the time for today. The last ten minutes will be free."

Alastair turned to face the coach and nodded. He could use the ten minutes to rest. When he realized how long he had been fighting, exhaustion started to creep up on him, and from the look of Fox, he was the same.

The coach placed a paw on Alastair's shoulder and at the unfamiliar and unexpected touch, the human had to hold back the desire to flinch. "I had my doubts about you kid. But keep impressing me like that and I'll have to reconsider them." And with that the coach turned away and barked at all the students standing there. Any warmth in his tone had completely evaporated. "What are you all looking at? The shows over, now scram!"

The crowd of students exploded into movement and the coach walked away, leaving six figures standing there.

"That...was...AWESOME!" Bill shouted as his muzzle split open into a blinding grin. The others were wearing similarly impressed looks. It was not every day one saw something like that. It was clear that both Fox and Alastair were more than competent fighters.

'They are easily impressed.' Alastair thought with mild amusement. If they had seen him at his full strength then he imagined that they would be rendered speechless. But if they saw Arkillian...they would be awed. Arkillian had taught Alastair everything he knew, the man was a peerless warrior both on the ground and as a HMCF pilot. Arkillian was the best mercenary in Aegis and probably would have been a far more suitable candidate for this mission. It was unfortunate that he didn't meet all the requirements. He was far too old to blend into the school.

"It didn't feel that awesome." Fox groaned in response and gently clutched his bruised stomach. Every part of his body hurt, even his tail. The poor furred appendage had been crushed when Alastair stepped on it during the fight.

"Oh suck it up." Falco chuckled in amusement, a smirk clear on his beak. It was not often he saw his friend and rival laid so low, so he was savoring the moment. "It's not that bad."

Fox glared at Falco and retorted caustically. "Yeah, then why don't you fight him?"

"Meh...I don't feel like it." The avian responded with an uncaring shrug.

"You never feel like doing anything!" Katt retorted angrily.

Falco baulked at that, raising his feathered hands defensively. "Whoa, where's this hostility coming from?"

She sighed and looked away, clutching her tail stiffly. "Nowhere..."

Fara, Fay, and Miyu rolled their collective eyes at how clueless the bird could be.

"Say..." Falco muttered thoughtfully, already forgetting what had occurred less than a minute ago. "Where did you learn to fight like that Al...and he's gone." The avian turned to where the human had last been seen and was surprised to see him absent.

Alastair had chosen to leave when they were arguing. He was still tired from his recent fight, and he had no patience left to deal with other people.

"Where'd he go?" Slippy asked in confusion.

"Looks like he flew the coop..." Miyu replied as she looked to her left. Their eyes followed and saw the human walking away, already half way down the field and towards the locker room. "It seems he's not one to stick around and mince words."

"So I've noticed." Fox replied with a disappointed sigh.

"He's kinda making it hard to be friends with him." Fay grumbled in frustration.

"What's his deal anyways?" Fara said with a snort. "I would think he'd be glad that people wanted to befriend him."

"Some people are just...different." Bill replied simply. "My father talks about them sometimes. But usually he's referring to his fellow war veterans, guys who have lost everything. But Alastair's a kid like us, it doesn't make any sense."

"Well, the only way to find out for sure what his problem may be is to get it from the horse's mouth. All we're doing is speculating." Fox jumped in as he rotated his sore shoulders.

"That's not going to be easy." Fay sighed with a slump.

"No...I suspect it won't be." Fox agreed. "But unless you guys want to leave it like it is. We don't have much of a choice."

"I got nothing better to do." Falco replied simply.

"Count me in!" Slippy pipped up.

"Sure, why not." Miyu shrugged.

"I'm game." Bill said confidently.

"If Miyu's in, so am I." Fay said with determination.

The last one left was Fara and after seeing all of their expressions she smirked and rolled her eyes. "No way am I going to be the odd one out, count me in."

And with that the group of friends was set on figuring out the strange human that had mysteriously arrived at their school. It was unfortunate that they had no idea what they were getting into.

**********

Over the course of the rest of the week, they all made several individual attempts to get to know Alastair. And every single one failed. It was the equivalent to trying to reason with a stone wall. He managed to easily deflect every inquiry and act of friendship. In homeroom, (where they all were in the same class), they tried to convince him to sit with them. But he had stiffly refused, preferring to sit in the far back corner and away from the rest of the class.

Fara, Slippy, and Bill had him in their lylatian class. And they were met with the same stiff resistance. Although the vixen noticed that his stiffness was a fraction less potent when directed at her and she wasn't sure what to think about that.

Math was much the same, and during lunch he did not like when anyone approached him. PE was the only time that he seemed to be at his lowest point of hostility. But it was also when he was the hardest to reach. He either spent his time running on the track (where not one of them had been able to keep up with him), or he was using the workout equipment where his concentration made it all but impossible to communicate.

The last class of the day was astronautics, and Fara, Fox, and Slippy had far too much trouble with that class to try and make friends with him.

The most frustrating think of it all was that he still stuck close to them even as he refuted any friendly advances. He was always within sight or just around the corner. Why he chose to stay so physically close and yet so socially distant confounded them.

But...they finally managed to catch a break on Thursday.

**********

Slippy was carrying all of his textbooks and huffing and panting as he made his way down the corridor. He was going to be late for his astronautics class. It had taken him longer than usual to redress after PE and so he had to make up for lost time. It was unfortunate really; his day had already been a rough one. He had tried to talk to Alastair in math but got his paper taken away for speaking during a test. Combine that with a particularly demanding period of PE and he was about at his limit to what he could endure in a single day.

'This day couldn't get any w-'

The toad was thrown from his train of thought, literally, when he crashed into someone and fell to the floor, scattering his textbooks and papers in a flurry of noise. Slippy looked up to see who he had run into and gulped inaudibly.

'Why me...?'

Standing over him with a pissed of frown was Skylar Grime, one of the lesser school bullies. He was not the same caliber as Wolf, but he was high up in the bully hierarchy. The brown furred canine glared down at Slippy and growled. "Watch where you're going mucus breath."

"Right...s-sorry Skylar." Slippy stuttered and reached for his astronautics textbook. But as his webbed fingers landed on the cover, so did the blue shoe of his tormenter.

"Not so fast toad...I think I deserve some..._compensation,_for you pathetic blundering." Skylar suggested with a sinister chuckle.

"L-like what?" Slippy asked hesitantly.

"Twenty credits should about cover it." The canine replied after a moment of consideration.

"I don't have twenty credits!"

"That's a shame. I suppose ten and a quick beating should be supplementary. Maybe then the bruisers will remind you to be more vigilant eh?"

Slippy cringed and shut his eyes as he waited for the blow to land, but shot them back open when he heard a metallic clang. Skylar's muzzle was smashed against a locker and one of his arms was twisted painfully behind his back. "Fox...?" Slippy wondered, but as he turned his head to his savior he discovered that it was none other than the human, Alastair.

"I agree." The human snarled dangerously. "You should be more vigilant...after all...you never know who may be around the corner." Alastair pulled the canine's muzzle back and slammed it against the locker again before pushing him away. "I suggest you see the error of your ways. If we should cross paths once more, and I see or hear that you are continuing to terrorize students of this school. I will not be as...lenient, as I am today."

Skylar turned to face Alastair, a look of terror on his muzzle. He had heard what the human had done to Wolf, and he had no desire to end up like him. Wolf had still yet to show his muzzle around school since he had been thrashed several days ago. Perhaps it would not be so bad to stop bullying while he was ahead. The canine nodded his head and ducked out, running through the hall and out of sight.

Alastair shook his head and muttered under his breath. "Disgraceful..."

Slippy still sat on the floor among his stuff, thankful that the human had interfered when he did. He didn't fancy going home and explaining his bruises to his dad. His father had too much on his mind with the technology tradeoff then to have to worry about his son's wellbeing. But Slippy was curious. Why had he chosen to help him? Alastair had no problem in rebuffing their offers of friendship, so why would he bother with him at all?"

The toad must have been sitting for a while because the final bell rang and Alastair crouched down beside him and started to pick up his discarded school supplies, further confusing Slippy by his continued assistance.

"You should see about getting a backpack." The human stated simply.

"The straps on my last one broke. I have to get a new one." Slippy replied as he started to pick up his stuff. When it was all cleared off the floor Alastair handed the toad the rest of his materials.

"Thanks."

The human gave a plain nod. "We should get moving. We're already pretty late to class as is. I rather not miss more than necessary."

Slippy returned the gesture. "Right, let's go."

Alastair stuck with the toad all the way to their class. It was true that they both had the same place to go to but the human teen chose to walk with rather than around Slippy.

The toad has some time to think as they made their way to their class and he was starting to understand the human, or at least he hoped he was. It seemed that Alastair was not one to actively seek or participate in friendship, for whatever reasons may be. But he still seemed to want to be around them and it looked like help as well. Perhaps if they convinced him to hang out after school they would have better results. A different environment might be the key to cracking his shell of forced isolation. He would have to talk to Fox and see what he had to say on the matter.

Alastair opened the door to the class and Slippy stepped inside with the human in close second.

The teacher, (a temperamental female badger by the name of Miss Tuft), was in the midst of a lecture when she stopped to look at the new arrivals. Slippy withered under the teacher's displeased glare but Alastair did not as much as twitch.

"You're both late." She stated.

"Yes..." Alastair replied just as dispassionately.

She stared him down for a moment before huffing and turning away. "Take your seats...and it would be wise not to be late again."

Slippy sighed in relief and scurried over to his seat beside Fara and Fox while Alastair casually strolled towards his customary place at the back of the room.

The toad slipped in next to Fara and Fox, placing his stuff on his desk.

"What took so long? And why was Alastair with you?" Fox whispered to the toad, careful not to attract the teacher's wrath.

Slippy quickly explained the recent events leading up to his arrival.

"So...he just helped you out of the blue?" Fox felt guilty for leaving the locker room without waiting for Slippy. But at least Alastair had been there to help, for whatever reason he chose to.

The toad nodded. "He even helped with my stuff and walked back to class with me."

"That doesn't make any sense." Fara muttered in consternation. "He's pretty much spat on all out attempts so far, so why'd he do something now?"

"I had a thought." Slippy replied. Making both vulpines turn to him.

"As crazy as it sounds, I don't think he's really had friends before. That would kinda explain why he's...you know..."

"An antisocial recluse." Fara cut in with a smirk.

"Basically...yeah." The toad agreed.

"If that's true, then why?" Fox asked.

Slippy shrugged.

"Is that your whole idea?"

"No. I was thinking. We might have better luck if we managed to get him to hang out with us after school."

"And how would we do that?" Fara demanded. "We can't even convince him during school. What makes you think we'd have better luck trying to get him to come along afterwards?"

"Maybe if we knew what he liked to do, we could persuade him to come along."

"And how would be find that out?"

"All we got to do is think about what we already know about him."

Fox took a moment to think. "Well, he said he liked flying, martial arts, and physical conditioning. Besides that we know he was an auxiliary pilot and that's pretty much the extent of information we have."

"I know!" Slippy whispered loudly. Almost immediately he was smacked upside the head by an electronic pen. The toad winced and rubbed his head, turning to see the teacher standing at the front of the classroom by the board, her left paw holding a tablet and her right empty.

"No talking during a lecture." She scolded.

"Sorry Miss Tuft." The toad said with a groan.

Once she was satisfied that he had learned his lesson she turned away and started to talk once more about the history of astronautics. Slippy waited until a sufficient amount of time had passed before he risked talking once more.

"Anyways..." He said quietly, glancing back to the teacher. "There's a new action flick that came out this week. It's about a fighter squadron in the unification war. There's a chance we could get him to come along and see it. It should hit most of the categories he might like.

Fox nodded. "Alright sounds like a good idea. Let's talk about it with the others after class."

Fara groaned.

"What?" Fox asked, turning to her.

"Why are we going through all this effort to become friends with this human?"

"Everyone deserves a chance, Fara." The other vulpine responded firmly. "If it's true that he's never had friends before, then we could at least make the effort and try. If we fail, then we fail. But at least we did something."

The vixen looked back at Alastair. He was sitting in the back of the class fiddling with his communicator. And everyone around him was doing their best to ignore his presence, as if he did not exist. She tried to put herself in his shoes. He was alone on an alien world, and even if he seemed not to care, she imagined that deep down he was a lost soul, kinda like her.

She felt out of place. Before Fox and the others came along, the rest of the school made her feel like a pariah. Most were jealous of her family's fortune and thought that she had everything in her life handed to her. No one made the effort to be her friend then. And the other girls had often picked on her, tormenting the vixen endlessly every day. For her, school had been hell without her friends and she couldn't imagine going through it without them.

Alastair probably had it worse.

He was not only a transfer student, but he was a complete outsider. At least Fara was the same species as everyone else on the planet. Alastair was not. In fact, it was likely that he was the only human. From what she learned of him his whole family was dead, killed in some war she had never heard of. At the very least she could rely on her parents, as often as they were gone she still had them to help her. He was about as alone as someone could hope not to be.

The vixen sighed,

"I hate it when you're right."

Fox grinned. "That's the spirit."

"So..." She said. "Who's going to be the lucky one to ask him?"

"Why not you...?" Slippy suggested as the idea dawned on him. "Of everyone, he seems to be the least hostile towards you."

"What are you talking about?" She demanded stiffly, long triangular ears twitching in agitation.

"Every time you interacted with him, he responded with a lesser amount of rudeness." The toad replied simply. "Statistically, you have the best chance of getting the desired answer."

"How can you tell that? I haven't seen any difference."

"It's very small."

Fara scoffed.

"Come one, just ask him. It can't be that bad." Fox pressed.

The vixen huffed and folded her arms across her chest. "Fine...when am I doing this?"

"Why not during lunch on Friday?" Slippy recommended.

"It's a good a time as any I suppose." She muttered in resignation. It looked like they were set on their plan. And a small part of her was interested in finally talking to the strange human. There was something about him that...resonated, with her. And she could not quite place why.

"So it's settled." Fox grinned and clapped his paws together. The noise attracted the attention of the teacher who beaned the vulpine with an accurate pen toss.

"What did I say earlier, Mccloud?"