Planet Protectors: Hard Times/Chapter Five

Gary took a deep breath as he turned the shower on. Harper had just shown him to it and was waiting outside tapping her foot impatiently. The faint noise of the shower raised slowly as the sounds of Harper's feet drowned out; it had been a while but Gary finally found a moment of peace and relaxation from hearing nothing but the soothing sounds of water trickling down onto his rugged fur and taking the blotches of silver floor polish down to the tiled floor below. He lathered his fur with a fresh bottle of 'Sabre's Super Strong Super Successful Shampoo' and took a moment to read the blurb on the back of the bottle. 'Take a moment to relax as you lather up with this full body shampoo. Feel your cares soak away as the money-scented mixture makes your fur and mind feel fresh and rich. Not suitable for sphinx cats.' Gary was quite sceptical of this description; no matter how hard he scrubbed his fur remained rough and clumpy and his mind was in a similar state. He attempted to place the bottle back but dropped it due to having his eyes closed whilst lathering the fur on his head. Despite this the bottle was grabbed by a small claw that emerged from the similarly tiled wall following a slippery trail upwards to the stand that the bottle once resided on, bumping into Gary's leg on the way and making him flinch. By the time he was able to dry his eyes and open them, the guide dog was completely oblivious to what happened as the claw had sank back into the wall. Spooked, Gary pressed the button that turned the shower on (a large Team Velocity logo, as were most buttons in Velocity Headquarters) and watched as the tile on the floor nearest to the shower head flipped around to reveal a drain that absorbed all of the water. Gary was about to leave in search of a towel but jolted his head up in fear as he noticed the pearlescent wall tiles glow red working alongside the shower head that rotated and transformed into a convenient air dryer that worked alongside fans placed around the skirting of the shower. The airflow was so strong that it lifted Gary up a little as his fur dried in a matter of seconds.

Gary stepped out with his mind quite numb to the immensely convenient technology he just witnessed as he felt quite overexposed to unusual experiences just in this last day alone. There was a small bathroom just outside of the shower covered with plenty of mirrors of various sizes and shapes to admire one's figure. Gary washed his hands thoroughly in the bathroom's sink, covering them in a dollop 'Sabre's Super Strong Super Successful Squirty Santizer' that was placed on the shelf below one of the many mirrors placed above the sink. He took a brief moment to look up into the mirror. ("Huh, my fur does look richer...") Before he headed into the shower room Gary had placed his clothes on a small open roofed container placed aside the door for the shower under the assumption that they were simply a means of storage but was surprised to find that they had been washed, dried and even scented with the same rich smell of the shampoo. Gary decided not to question it but rather appreciate the money he'd save going to the drycleaners. He cautiously dressed himself making a conscious effort to make small movements so as not to sound any red sirens and alerts and slipped his backpack on whilst slouching a little from the weight of it and decided to cut his moment of serenity short, begrudgingly heading out the door as he could still hear Harper's feet tapping outside the room.

Stepping out into Harper's room, Gary took a moment to snoop in on the lynx's style. On their way to the shower which was built into her room as an extension (A privilege for all elite Velocity employees) Harper took no hesitation in showing Gary right there without a moment to breathe. Harper's room was incredibly neat with not a single knickknack present; all of her furniture was embossed in a shiny metallic finish that reflected onto the ceiling covered in glow in the dark stars stickers scattered all over to the boarders of the wall skirting. Above her mostly empty desk and spinning chair was a corkboard that had various notes and pin badges neatly aligned in a linear pattern. Gary wasn't close enough to read the notes and didn't want to pry but could tell that her handwriting was incredibly neat as he could judge from a much larger note placed in the middle that read 'Aliens - Do they exist? Must ask Sabre to put more funding into discovering them.' She held the notes onto the corkboard with tiny stickers of various planets including Xylox which Gary was intrigued by. ("Does Harper know that Velocity tried to capture and rebuild Xylox from scratch?...") He moved his observations elsewhere and noticed that she had a king sized bed presumably all to herself that was covered over by an artificial fur fleece and topped by a singular plushie that resembled the design of a traditional alien. He started to notice a theme but was quickly distracted by a cold breeze that hovered over his feet and extended upwards to the fur flowing up and down on his legs. The same skirting in the shower was present in Harper's room and the pressure was strong enough to lift Gary up as he floated towards the door as it was evident from his snooping that Harper wasn't here.

The guide dog was about to open the door but was quite hesitant on doing so as wandering the halls alone wouldn't be the wisest idea knowing how many shady and dangerous animals inhabited them. He tried calling out for Harper to no avail as the pressure of the floor fans blew away the sound of his voice to nothing but a breeze. Just as he was about to brave the halls the door slammed open and Harper bounced into the room and floated gracefully to the ground. "Ah, you all ready 'n' clean now? I just had to double check something with my dormmate!" Harper smiled, her eyesight already trailing away from the nodding guide dog as she scribbled down some notes on her corkboard and propped the pillows on her bed. "I'll get ya' going to where ya need to go ASAP but we're gonna have to take a little detour first as Sabre wants me to show you the latest in our workforce productivity centres!" Harper eagerly burst out of the room leaving the door wide open for Gary to quickly follow behind; he didn't want to be seen alone as he wasn't the best in confrontation; physical or verbal.

"So I assume this is your dormmate's room?" Gary yelled in the hopes that Harper would slow down as she was already many steps ahead. "Oh, yup!" She swiftly planted her feet onto the ground and stopped dead in her tracks, bumping into a bulky wolf that snared at her despite her oblivious nature to the newly formed confrontation. "That's Holly's dorm, she's awfully nice. You'll see her soon actually! Once I've shown you around here I'll be passing you onto her and she'll take you to Sabre from there." Gary nodded and smiled in terror as the wolf brushed past him. "Alright... Shall we get going then?" Gary began to walk ahead of Harper in the hopes that he wouldn't encounter any other shady figures on his way but was quickly overtaken by the lynx who sped down the corridor and turned at the end of the dorms into a small path next to the stairs that Gary had just came down from. "Here we are! Just come and step on this warp pad next to me here and we'll be zipped up into the great open space of the Work Pods!" Gary quickly shuffled his entire body onto the warp pad and composed himself hoping that this warp would be a smooth landing. "Things are incredibly high tech here, huh? I sure hope this warp pad is just as smooth-"

Gary landed flat on his face as Harper gleefully skipped ahead. "Smooth, huh? That's Velocity tech for ya!" Harper exclaimed, completely oblivious to the guide dog behind her lousily composing himself. "Yeah, real smooth." He remarked, taking a second to dust himself off before lifting his head up and nearly falling back in shock over how large the room they were in was. The entire room was an enormous dome; the two animals were mere ants in comparison to its size. The dome was built out of glass panes with a permanent window view of the open vastness of space. The two animals found themselves on a thin platform that looped around the glass dome in the shape of a ring filled with warp pads placed in-between every glass pane. Placed right in the centre of the room were various containment pods also made out of glass panes that were roughly the length and height of a small building. There were twelve pods in total; all seemingly worked together in a circular pattern and were slowly rotating in a clockwise fashion. Positioned in the centre of the ring of pods was yet another Velocity logo with a small platform just beneath it. Gary assumed that the logo was yet another button due to it having a large seam around the edges but decided not to pry as there were more important questions to ask. Just what were these pods?

"So these are the workforce productivity centres or Work Pods for short! There's around two hundred to three hundred animals inside each pod working hard on Velocity merch production and completing all the little tasks that us elite members just don't have time for! It's currently my duty to look after this place and make sure everything is running smoothly and nobody's trying to cause any problems. It's one of four productivity centres we've recently had built inside Headquarters. Holly will show you to the next one!" Harper glanced over to Gary who was visibly uncomfortable and even she could pick up on that so tried to roll the conversational ball. "Uhh, any questions?" All that the dysfunctional guide dog could manage to murmur were occasional winces as he could tell that things weren't as 'smooth' as the lynx described them to be. "What's up with those two pods down there?" Gary pointed, finally perking up the courage to recollect his train of thought and speak. "They're empty." Harper's whiskers suddenly spiked up in recollection as her bubbly personality kickstarted back into action. "Oh, right! That's where the huskies are going. You remember right? Just a while back Sabre did that whole broadcast letting the galaxy know that he's after some keen huskies to uh... 'co-operate' with him. He's a little mad over the husky that betrayed him for the Planet Protectors so he wants to take in the entire species and get them here working for him. Don't shoot me though! I'm just the messenger." She chuckled whilst Gary felt a huge lump struggling to travel down his throat. He had always assumed that Sabre's threats to capture the huskies were baseless but it seemed now more than ever that he was putting his plans straight into action. Gary was oddly silent this time not even wincing but Harper just assumed he was a quiet animal so kept talking to fill the empty void. "So uh, yeah, that's where you come in! Sabre wants you to help him with the whole brainstorming and financing and adulting and such... You're good at that, right?" Harper was teetering dangerously on the edge of the platform, dangling her feet freely. The guide dog was distracted by the lynx's complete oblivious nature to both her wellbeing and the corrupt ideology of Velocity but managed to snap himself out of his disassociation. "An accountant? Yeah. I'm one of those. I'm also a store manager, I have quite a lot of deals that perhaps you'd be interested in?" He began to pull various knickknacks out of his bag but Harper declined his deal. "Oh, no thanks. I'm not too fond on material possessions." Gary's ears drooped in disappointment as Harper felt a rumbling in her pocket and opened up her communicator. "Could you just give me a moment? Holly needs to chat." She hopped up from the platform barely landing onto it and began to walk down it giggling and hollering on her way.

Gary took this moment to fully compose himself. ("Right... So this doesn't sound all too reassuring, does it?") He was about to dangle his legs off of the platform like Harper but wasn't nearly as daring enough to do it. ("I'm sure it's all fine... Yep. Everything's natural here. Just some casual capturing of the innocent and forcing them to waste their lives away in a confined pod for a capitalist corporation. I'm sure that wouldn't worry the Planet Protectors at all.") Gary sighed. ("Yeah, who am I kidding. This really isn't great... Surely I should tell the Planet Protectors about this... I have promised Scott that I'd be more trustworthy after all, but if Sabre figures out that I've shared his plans ahead of time, my life is on the line... Normally I'd just let things slide if they're not a big deal but this is incredibly disturbing. There's already thousands of animals captured here and presumably more to come, not to mention the other productivity centres I've yet to see... I have to do what's right.") Gary felt himself rise up confidently ready to leave but it was all a mental image and he was still sitting firmly to the ground. ("...So say if I did do the right thing and cut ties with Velocity and went straight to The Protectors... Surely they'd be able to protect me from Velocity. But would I be able to financially survive? Scott did say he'd look into paying me more... It'd be a risk to say the least... I'm going to have to think on it.") Gary heard Harper's conversation over the communicator come to an end and noticed her signalling him to follow after her so nervously raised himself up and began to walk behind her. ("For now? It'll be best if I ask some questions and get the full details on what Sabre plans to do just in case I decide to stop being a coward and finally choose a side.")

As the animals walked their way around the ring Gary decided it would probably be best to get intel and ask some questions. "Say, Harper, how much do the workers here get paid?" Harper twisted her head and giggled softly to herself "None, silly! It's an honour to work in the presence of Sabre!" Harper gently clasped her hands together over the mere thought of Sabre's excellence. "Right..." Gary furrowed his brows which dropped Harper's mood down a notch. "Oh, but if the animals work hard enough they can get promoted to the ultimate staycation centre, the Workout Zone! Here they train with my good pal Hugo to become super buff and strong so that they can join Velocity's elite army and assist in planet takeovers! They're well respected and treated very well but have to put the hard work in first!" Harper reassured the ever sceptical guide dog who wasn't budging on his viewpoint. "Well, that explains how Velocity is able to conquer planets with relative ease..." Gary rubbed his goatee before adopting his ever iconic sarcastic personality. "So say the 'workers' no longer want to 'work'. What do you do? I'm sure you handle these evil deviants with a strict reforming policy or something." He rolled his wrist in an exaggerated manor that completely flew past the oblivious lynx. "Of course! These animals are eventually sent to The Corridor if they keep up their lackadaisical approach to working in the honour of our glorious Sabre! They still have to work just like they do here but they'll have to do it if they want to eat. We hope they'll reform and understand the honour we bask upon them, because if they don't... They'll have to go to The Chamber..." Harper's jolly-go-lucky façade had jarringly stopped to a halt as she grimaced her teeth in terror that only confused Gary even more than he already was.

"So this all sucks, doesn't it?" Gary shrugged, placing one hand on his hip in frustration. He knew he probably should've kept his cool but knew it wasn't going to last very long anyway. "HAHA... What do you mean??" Harper nervously giggled as sweat dripped off the end of her whiskers. "So you seriously don't see a problem with this whole system?" Gary flailed his hands around though wasn't causing a ruckus that he usually does thanks to the incredibly open open void of the domed room they inhabited. Harper had taken notice of this and decided to use the small moment of privacy whilst she still had it. "I guess, but what can ya' do? It's best to suck up to the system so you don't end up like the birds." Harper shrugged her shoulders speaking in an unusually monotone voice. Gary was slightly taken aback by this but wasn't exactly surprised, no matter how pro-corporate one could be. "What DID happen to the birds?" Gary couldn't help but take this moment to pry even further. "Nobody knows. Not animals like us, anyway. Our status isn't high enough." Harper spoke in a somewhat hushed tone, cautious of their surroundings just in case anyone was snooping in on her conversation. "Huh... But you're a lynx? According to Velocities' ancient hierarchy, you should be up top with the rest of 'em..." Gary pointed over at one of the many posters placed around the dome walls that listed every animal species and what class they are in society according to the beliefs of the corporation. Those who were lower class were expected to work and bask in the glory of the upper class animals. "See, you'd think that, wouldn't ya? But it doesn't exactly work like that..." Harper pulled Gary a little closer to her and they made sure to face away from the domes whilst continuing to walk forward so as not to raise suspicion. "It's not just all about the species of animal you are, to be honest. It sure does help if you're more elegant and desired in the eyes of Velocity but honestly it's all about how close you get to Sabre and whether he's fond of you or not. I was chosen for my species but I'm not close enough to know all of their secrets, apparently." Harper trudged along the ring's endless loop and sighed in defeat.

"I just..." Gary abruptly came to a stop as he bumped into the frustrated lynx who had suddenly stopped firm in her tracks. "I had so many plans, y'know? I want to get out there and explore the world." Harper gently pressed her hand against the pristine glass walls of the dome as Gary joined her to gaze out at the great vastness of space. "Velocity has great technology and they treat me well but the system rewards you for disciplining and abusing the little guy! I just want to fly away from here and explore the galaxy but I feel so tied down..." Harper kneeled down to the ground and closed her eyes tightly in the hopes that her imagination could distract her from reality even just for a little while. Gary was about to comfort her but noticed a dark figure resting on the platform in the middle of the dome gazing down upon them. "Uh, hey, is that Lana?" Gary pointed over to the figure but couldn't really make out who it was. "The hair, the wings... They're a little far away, but I'm pretty sure that's Lana." Harper suddenly froze in place as she felt a sharp shiver travel from the tip of her tail through to the ends of her whiskers. She spontaneously transformed her personality in what seemed to be a matter of seconds as she jumped up and pranced around in glee. "OH! Hello Lana, my glamourous superior who helps keep these fine work pods rotating!" Gary's eyes were getting a rather strenuous workout as he switched contact between Lana (who had began to slowly back away into a warp pad) and Harper (who was frantically waving goodbye to her). Gary decided to wait a short moment until Lana had clearly left just to be safe and asked Harper if she was okay.

"YEP! All is fine!" Harper grinned, making a conscious effort to interrupt Gary and stop him from asking again. "So now that you've seen these LOVELY work pods, how about you come and check out my special obstacle course? I use it to test out Velocities' wonderful space boots! You can travel anywhere in them. Between you and me, I often use Spinky's boots when they're not looking, haha!" Gary stared at Harper in awe as she could seemingly maintain her huge grinning smile forever. "Harper, if you're hurting we can find somewhere to talk, it's okay-" Gary tried to focus despite going through quite the sensory overload from all of the sights and corruption he had witnessed thus far. "I assure you, everything is fine!" Harper grinned once more though Gary wasn't buying it in the slightest as the lying lynx couldn't stop visibly sweating; she made no haste in changing the subject and whistled with her now sweaty fingers summoning a trail of stardust that wrapped around and reached to the platform the animals were standing on. The stardust trail continued to extend from the other end through an open pane in the dome. "The air's fine up here, don't worry! It's a cosy place in space enclosed in a handy little air bubble. Just stand on the little rail of stardust here and they'll float you up!" Harper had already jumped onto the rail and grinded her way up through the open pane as Gary cautiously watched on. "See? C'mon Gary! I'll see you up there! I gotta clean up first anyway if you need a moment to compose yourself or something-" She paused, darting her eyes around sporadically. "N-not that anything's wrong! Just if you need a moment to understand how this whole stardust deal works." She rushed out of view as Gary took a deep breath and glanced over to the pods.

("I really need to get out of this place. I can't keep contributing to this corrupt corporation like Harper is...") Gary looked up to the pane that Harper blasted out of and pondered to himself. ("What was up with her? She suddenly went all pro-Sabre, clearly she's uncomfortable but that just makes me wonder how many other animals are.") Gary turned his head and glanced up at the centre platform that was far beyond his reach. ("Could Lana also feel this way?") Gary couldn't ponder over this much as his mind was suddenly side-tracked by his own intrusive thoughts. ("I'm just as bad as them... But without them, I'm broke.") He reached for his pockets and felt through them to no avail; all that was inside was a drawing pin and some coupons for 2% off a single purchase at his store. "(No... I need to side straight up with the Planet Protectors and...") The bumbling guide dog was twisting and turning about from one end of the ring's corner to the other and hoping nobody would notice his physical processing method. ("But they have no idea what Velocity is planning here. If I withhold this information from them, everyone is screwed, including myself. If I tell them? Sabre will kill me. Either way... Perhaps it's best to die fighting for a noble cause rather than live to serve the corrupt..." Gary clasped his chest with a tear rolling down his cheek. Thankfully he realised that his outburst was external and toned it down in case anyone noticed. ("Or something. I need a drink.") He reached through his backpack and pulled out a fresh can of alcohol, taking a swig and getting a move on so as not to raise suspicions to Harper. ("I can't just bail though. I'll have to see this through, no brash decisions. Besides, I'm sure they have a ton of more info for me to get the scoop on. Keep it cool for now, Gary.") Despite his best attempt the guide dog tripped over on the rail of stardust as it grabbed onto his tail and sent him up as if he were a piece of clothing on a washing line.

After what would've been a rather scenic trip disrupted by a bumbling guide dog grasping onto his backpack that was hanging loosely to the button holding its contents, Gary expected to be hurled face first onto some form of hard ground and braced himself with tightly closed eyes but after a brief moment found himself floating loosely in space. "Oh hey! There you are! I just wanted to apologise for that little... 'Misunderstanding' that happened back there, life at Velocity is wonderful-- I assure you but it sure is stressful working so hard too! I'm told to be harsher with our workers but I just can't get myself to do that, I don't want to take my workload out on them!" Gary floated on his side, back hunched whilst listening to Harper who he didn't quite believe but kept his scepticism to himself. "Yeah, no worries about it. Say, uhh, how do you move here?" Gary was now upside down, his ears drooping and trinkets floating out of his backpack. "Oh right! Just think of it as swimming, that's what I do!" She swam towards the flailing guide dog who wasn't having the smoothest time adjusting to his surroundings but was giving Harper amusement. "Hehe! How about you have these instead. They're space boots! I borrowed them from Spinky for a while; I'm sure they won't mind." Harper rolled her hands dismissing any concerns Gary was likely about to bring up. "Wearing these will make it a lot easier to travel through open space!" Harper helped untie Gary (as his limbs had wrapped around themselves in a failed attempt to gain balance) and slipped the boots over Gary's sandals. "You feel those little pedals on the soles of the shoes? The one on your toes will send you in whatever direction you're facing and the one on your heels will let you come to an abrupt stop-" Harper had barely finished before Gary had slammed on the jets launching himself straight into the laughing lynx. "Geez, sorry. I'm not used to this at all." Gary accidentally flipped around as the excess flames from the jets set his tail alight for a short moment. "Don't worry! It's all safe here. Those flames won't burn ya here either. The air is too purified for that!" Harper zipped over to a control panel placed on the glass pane above the one they entered in, lifting up an assortment of rings around the bubble.

"Hey, wanna race?" Harper eagerly flipped and hurled herself around the bubble. "It'll be a nice distraction from things, don't ya think? It'll be nice to have company I don't have to rule over!" They both chuckled uncomfortably. Gary was hesitant but somewhat intrigued; where else would he get this opportunity? He scratched it off as tech research and decided to go on board with the idea. "Oh, that sounds fun, it'll get me used to these boots too. Do we have time?" Gary wobbled from one side to the other trying to maintain his balance; he was getting slightly better at it but still wasn't all that confident with the boots. "Oh yeah, of course! Your next spot on this whistle-stop tour of Velocity is Holly but she's busy with a ritual right now so that gives us enough time for a quick lap around." Harper zipped herself around two metres behind Gary. "I'll give ya' a head start. You gotta pass through all the numbered rings too!" Before Gary could even muster a murmur Harper had already blasted off leaving smoke in her trail. "BY THE WAY, YOU GOTTA BEAT ME TOO IF YOU WANNA MOVE ONTO HOLLY. GOOD LUCK!!" Gary groaned as Harper was already leading herself up to the first ring. He pressed down on the boot pedals and stuttered slowly towards his first objective.

Gary began to pick up the pace but wasn't sure whether that was thanks to his skill or the trail of stardust that formed a rough track to loop around; it seemed that sticking inside the trail allowed the guide dog to pick up some speed though these moments were brief as he was struggling to keep straight. He expected the air to be quite tight but had to hand it to Velocity for this one specific trait as the air was quite fresh and he was getting plenty from the high propulsion of the jet boots. Gary barely had time to think from the speed and could barely hear a thing from both the noise of the jet boots and the wind entering his flapping sensitive ears. The first ring was in his sight and the obstacles ahead were relatively simple being just a small turn. This wasn't simple enough for the guide dog though who pressed hard on the brakes expecting to dramatically hurl against some sort of wall in a glamorous display of destruction however the boots managed to work perfectly and Gary stopped straight in his tracks and found himself staring in silence at the glowing ring he needed to pass through. ("Huh. Well, I doubt I'll be catching up with Harper now.")

Gary fluttered his wrists and managed to lift himself upwards positioning himself towards the second ring. He took this moment to gaze down on the track in a futile attempt to find Harper. ("Hm, okay. So there's only four more rings left but I'm not seeing Harper near any of them. Has she left me? Is this a trap?") He shook his head and tried to dismiss any intrusive thoughts and press ahead so as not to leave Harper waiting any longer. The previous ring transitioned between differing shades of green but this one was blue. They stood out quite well against the vast darkness of space; very convenient for the guide dog scrambling from one corner to another with his head jolting around frantically making his vision quite blurry. ("Hey, I think I'm getting the hang of this now! Harper? You won already?") Gary managed to travel through the second ring in a relatively straight line and took a moment to peer behind it wondering if Harper was trying to sneak up on him again though couldn't find any traces of her presence and moved onto the third ring. It was flashing through various hues of pink and positioned itself on the bottom of the bubble's surface with the trail dipping harshly below. There were a variety of foam shapes scattered in and around the trail including a large foam cylinder that was connected to a similarly soft and sleek mechanism moving it up and down. ("Hm, yeah, I should be able to do this no problem. Just steer out of the way of those foam things and dip back up through the ring.") Gary inevitably failed and landed firmly onto each foam obstacle, bouncing from one to the other and spitting out chunks of foam on the way before shooting straight into the cylinder spinning around it in loops before shooting through the ring and getting a head start towards the fourth purple ring. ("Well, some may consider that a failure, but I went pretty fast there. I'd call it a speed running tactic, personally.") The guide dog shook his ruffled fur back into position and continued on with his journey.

("Alright, ring four. I can't help but feel like this is a trap or something... Maybe I'm on some kind of sick gameshow for the folks back at home to laugh up?... Nah, there'd be more carnage.") Gary glanced around for Harper but couldn't see her yet again. ("She said that if I lose, I won't be able to meet Sabre. I'm sure she's just joking but man... what if she wasn't? Velocity's crew are known to be quite disposable after all, though Sabre does need me for his financing and I don't think he knows anyone else who can do it for him... I should probably get a move on, I'm sure Harper was only joking...") Gary suddenly found himself underneath the fifth and final shimmering orange ring and looked back in confusion. There were a multitude of loops and timed obstacles to avoid just behind him. "Dang, look at me go! Blasting through all those loops and stuff without even noticing it!" Gary was about to cheer but noticed a speedy Lynx dash past him. "Nah dude, you just drove straight through it all! I'm on my second lap now, hurry up gramps!" Harper picked up the speed and within ten seconds she was already waiting at the finish line where they originally met.

The fifth ring appeared to be nothing but a huge octagonal chute that lead straight down into the finish line where Harper lied back on the open air, relaxing nonchalantly as she waited for the guide dog who leapt straight into the chute without hesitation. ("I'm getting rather tired of the emotional turmoil, if something's gonna happen, then let it!") Gary crossed his arms and laid down to gain speed down the chute. There were flashing neon signs on the top of the chute's insides letting Gary know when to put the break on his boots and keep still; this was to avoid the bumpers that were aligned in the seams of the chute wrapping around it making the obstacle time based. If one continued to boost and hit them, they'd be flipped upside down and boosted back up towards the next bumper; something Gary had far too much experience with as his emotional haste lead him to speed along and bump from pillar to post as Harper watched on waiting for him to pop through for a solid ten minutes. He finally made his way over to her though had to flap his way over as the boots had ran out of fuel.

"Hey hey! Nice going! You really... Uh..." Harper struggled to think of a compliment. "Yeah! You really made a scene out there! Good job!" Gary smiled confidently to himself completely oblivious of his failures. "You think? But I didn't beat you... What happens now? Gonna feed me to the wolves? Hah!" Gary laughed to himself nervously. "Pfft, I was only joking dude! I just wanted someone to race with honestly, would you be surprised if I told you that nobody ever wants to race on this sweet race course I spent funding money on? Well... There are the odd workers who want to race, but Lana always says they're too busy and not to distract them. ANYWAY! I guess I just want to thank you for entertaining me for a while." Harper smiled; Gary wasn't the best at social cues but he could tell from her demeanour that she was thanking him beyond that. "How about I take you over to Holly now? She's probably done with her ritual by now I'm sure." The two animals left their boots near the stardust rail and slid down it through the pane and back into the Work Pod room. Gary only had a glance but had noticed that the ring of Work Pods had rotated ever so slightly; each one was in the place of the previous. "Hey, are the pods supposed to move?" Gary ran along to catch up with Harper who was making no haste in avoiding any confrontation with Lana. "Oh, yeah, think of them as like one huge giant clock or something. They've moved one position, so it's been about an hour or so since we were last here. It's not really for us though, it lets the workers know what time it is so they know what job they should be doing!" Gary nodded and played along with the pod talk as they warped back down to the corridor.

"Alright, here we are! This is Holly's dorm. She's a lovely okapi though she's a little reserved so do give her some space, heh, get it? space? We were just there!" Harper laughed though appeared to still be quite anxious even an hour after their encounter with Lana who hadn't even whispered a word to them. "Heh, yeah, I get it." Gary played along in the hopes of easing Harper's anxiety. He wasn't usually one to reach out but felt quite concerned for Harper; he didn't see her as wanting to obey Velocity and assumed there was something deeper going on beyond her control. ("It would explain the sudden personality change, after all.") Gary shuffled through his backpack and jumped in surprise to see the contents floating around. "Oh, hehehe! The bubble's air must've snuck into your backpack when it opened! Don't worry, it's all out and loose now." Harper giggled for a moment before quietly looking down at the ground as Gary scrolled through his communicator. "Hey, this was fun. How about we swap details? We can talk later, if you like of course." Gary flashed up his number for Harper who was quite embarrassed and a little peeved at his request. "Um, are you hitting on me?... I'm good, thanks." She was about to leave but Gary yelled back for her. "OH, NO NO! I'm so sorry, I don't usually do this whole..." He rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders. "...Talking to people, making friends kinda thing... I just thought it'd be nice to keep in contact." Harper laughed at Gary's revelation and tapped her finger onto Gary's communicator. "Oh, it's okay! Not that you aren't a lovely guy or anything, I really enjoyed my time too, I'm just not looking for anyone right now." They both smiled awkwardly as if waiting for something to happen. "I've saved your number, by the way." Gary's eyes widened as they both jumped to the occasion. "That's Velocity tech for ya!" They both shouted in unison filling the otherwise creep-crawling corridor with genuine laughter for once. "No but, thank you Gary. I'll be sure to message ya' later!" She zoomed off before giving the guide dog a chance to say goodbye leaving him staring at the door to Holly's dorm. It was covered full of cobwebs and barely held itself by the hinge. Gary braced himself as he knocked on the door and slowly creaked it open...