You stared at the man who was apparently professor Felks as he called himself. Everything around you was black. A dark void of nothingness, you honestly weren't sure what you were standing on. There was no source of light and there was no surface to stand on as far as you could tell. Yet, you and the professor stood on an even plane and could see each other clearly.
You regarded the professor with hostility, "Where am I?"
The man furrowed his brow, "You don't know?"
You felt a surge of frustration swell within you as you gave your reply, "I would say I'm dreaming, but given that I've never seen you before and the fact that we're having this very detailed back and forth conversation, that's probably not the case."
"Ah," The professor nodded, "I see. Forgive me, it seems that I've gotten ahead of myself. My assistant would normally be here to help me with the whole talking to people thing," He said, finishing the last part in air quotes.
At this point, you were about ready to explode as you were still trying to get the same answer out of him that you had been since you first started talking. You took a breath before asking again, "Where. Am. I?"
Comprehension seemed to dawn on the professor as he snapped his fingers, "Yes, yes! Of course! Er... you're in what I like to call, the lobby."
As you looked around you suddenly found yourself standing in a very luxurious library of sorts. A warm fire burned in a large brick fireplace. Dark wood surrounded the mantle and made up the walls around you. Beautifully crafted shelves housed dozens upon dozens of books on all four walls. Candles burned in golden candle holders which sat suspended in the four corners of the room. Brown rug lay across the ground under a large wooden coffee table, while two massive recliners sat in front of the fireplace and angled towards it with small end tables sitting next to either one.
The professor took a seat in one of the chairs before looking expectantly at you, "Won't you join me?"
You crossed your arms and scowled at him, "I'm not all that sure that I can trust you."
Professor Felks laughed as he settled into his chair, "So what do you intend to do? Ignore me? Or perhaps you've just discovered where you are and were just on your way out."
You knew he was being facetious, but you still felt embarrassed, "No! Obviously not! But what am I supposed to do? Just sit with you and accept whatever you say?"
The professor crossed his legs as he reclined in the chair, "At this point you really don't have a choice, Kiba." You felt a wave of chills run through your body as you felt your feelings shift from flustered, to concerned. Professor Felks seemed to notice the shift in you as well, "I know you have questions. It's only natural. I'm happy to answer them and perhaps even provide you with some information you didn't even realize you needed."
You quickly shook off your shock and concern as you scoffed at the professor's offer, "You don't know anything about me."
Professor Felks shifted forward in his chair as he rested his elbows on his knees and brought his hands together before resting his chin on them, "I know that your torn. You want to go back home but you've made a new family here. Your objectives have began to conflict with one another. You like life here, but you hate the fact that your struggling to keep up with everybody else." Your facial expression began to change from a confident frown to a frightened stare, this man was reading you like a book. Professor Felks squinted at you, "You won't ask for help. You hate the idea of needing help, not because of pride... but because of fear. Fear that if you become too dependent on others, then you won't be able to function on your own. Fear of being a burden to those around you."
You felt yourself on the verge of tears as you looked away from the professor to hide your face, burying the lower half of your face into the crook of your elbow as a tear silently rolled down your face, "How? How could he possibly know that about me? I've never said any of those things to anyone... not even myself! He's bringing things up that I have refused to acknowledge in my own mind! So how could he know?"
"Do I have your attention now?" Professor Felks asked as he leaned back in his chair once more. "You're strong Kiba Lockheart," He admitted, putting emphasis on your last name.
You spun to face the professor with watery eyes as chills ran across your body, "How do you know my last name?"
"Stronger than most, regardless of the species," The professor continued as he ignored your question, "But you are young, and still have much to learn. I'm willing to teach you, but you have to be willing to listen." He then gestured to the chair opposite of him once again. You stared blankly at the chair, and then him. Your body seemed to move of its own accord. You slowly and hesitantly walked across the room, and eased yourself into the chair across from him. You stared at the man as one side of his face was brightly illuminated by the burning logs in the fireplace while the other side of his face was touched by the glow of the dim candlelight in the room. The professor nodded his approval.
"Y-You said that..." You swallowed hard as you tried to get your thoughts out coherently, "Um... you said that you called this place.... The lobby?"
Felks nodded, "That's right."
"The lobby of what?" You quietly asked.
"Do you remember an armored suit?" He asked. His voice suddenly taking on a much brighter and more relaxed tone. It would have reminded you a lot of a wolf... but not quite a wolf."
You nodded, "It was the last thing I saw before I passed out... and woke up here."
"Mhmm..." Felks nodded. "This space," He said as he gestured to the room around him, "Was created by that suit to allow me to communicate with you in a very fast, efficient and personal manner. In essence... you... or rather, that construct of yourself- represents your mind. This is the space that the suits system as created allowing you and I to communicate directly with one another in a way that you can comprehend."
You paused for a moment as you tried to process what the professor was saying, "Wait, so you're saying that the suit is allowing us to talk to each other in some kind of virtual chat room?"
Felks laughed, "I suppose that's one way of putting it. The fact is, I'm a program that resides within the suit's computers. That said, I'm a program based off of... well... me," He chuckled. "The human brain- any brain really, is an organic computer. This suit's computer has the means to initiate a conversation directly with that computer. So in essence, your brain is talking with the suit's brain and this is the meeting point the suit has constructed to make it possible."
"I think I get it," you replied, still struggling with the concept but understanding the bulk of it.
"Good," The professor nodded.
It then occurred to you that this was probably how professor Felks was able to get so much information about you despite having never met you up until now, "Are you able to pull information from my mind with the link?"
The professor smiled, "As I thought. You are extremely perceptive. Yes, you are correct. Though I'm not able to get a full picture, I am able to see enough to fill in the blanks." The professor paused and tapped his finger on the arm of his chair, "Speaking of filling in the blanks, I think its time that I filled in some of your missing blanks."
"Are you referring to the huge weapons cache I just walked into?" You asked incredulously.
Felks nodded, "Partially yes. But let me ask you this; why do you think you and I are sitting here right now?"
You tilted your head in confusion at the professor, "You literally just explained that to me less than five minutes ago."
"I explained how," The professor replied, "I never gave you the why."
You pondered the statement for a moment before shrugging, "Okay, why then?"
"Simply put, because of your ancestry," The professor replied.
You frowned at the man and crossed your arms, "That wasn't cryptic at all."
Felk's smirked, "Your sarcasm aside, I can't help being a bit cryptic about it." He then shrugged, "Call it a quirk of my personality. Perhaps a side affect stemming from my love of mystery novels."
You sighed and slouched back in your chair. You could tell you were going to have to put up with his antics from here on out, "So what's my ancestry got to do with all of this?"
The professor shrugged, "This suit would not have reacted to you if your genetic code had not traced back to this world."
You stared blankly at the professor, "Wait," You said as you raised a hand up in a halting fashion, "Are you trying to tell me that my great, great, great grandpa was from this world or something?" You asked, not being able to hold back a small hysterical chuckle of disbelief.
Felks' expression didn't change, "It could've been your grandmother... or it could have been both. Who knows? The fact of the matter is, not everyone living in the world you came from is an original resident of that dimension."
"So... what you're saying is..."
"After a long, long time... you've essentially returned to the place of your ancestors," Felks continued, "Welcome back." You sat in the chair as you struggled to comprehend the information that you had just received. You wracked your mind trying to make sense of it all. "It's a lot to process, I know. But there's much more I have to tell you. So when you're ready, we'll continue the conversation. Take your time, there no rush."
"I'd say you were delusional... But I wake up every day inside the home of an anthropomorphic fox who looks after me with an anthro wolf that considers herself to be my adoptive mother," You sat still for a moment before continuing. I'm not really sure what else I can do other than hear what you have to say. How did my ancestors end up in the world that I now call home?"
Professor Felks calmly gazed into the fire, "That was the end result of the war. We'll get to that later though. First you have to understand what caused the war. And that was the the prejudice that broke out between humans and anthros.
"Humans lived alongside anthros?" You asked.
Felks nodded, "Yes, they coexisted too. It was like that for a real long time. It wasn't perfect, and there were definitely issues. But for the most part, everyone got along."
"But something had to have changed that," You surmised.
"Yes, very true," Professor Felks agreed, "The first Deluma saw to that."
You scoffed, "Figures that even Silvia's ancestors were looking to cause trouble."
The professor shrugged, "I suppose that she was the primary component. But humans partially were to blame too."
You rolled your eyes, "Humans have always been good at creating problems for themselves."
The professor put a hand to his chin in thought, "Yes, but in this case they literally created the problem."
You furrowed your brow in confusion, "How so?"
"Because they literally created the first nine tailed fox anthro. As if that wasn't enough, they changed the natural attributes to make it what they called 'the perfect alpha'."
"They created it?" You gasped, "On purpose?"
"To be fair, they initially wanted to use a wolf or a tiger. But in the end they decided that it would be 'too much to manage," Felks continued.
You were still stuck on the fact that humans had created the literal source of your nightmares, "I can't believe human's actually created an anthro."
"Humans created all anthros," Felks corrected. Again, you were lost for words. You ran your hands down your face as you took in this new information. "From here on out I'll abbreviate things since we're running out of time." You quietly nodded.
"Anthros were created through genetic manipulation," Felks explained, "Human DNA combined with that of animals. This allowed them to become what you see today." The professor paused as his face seemed to darken, "At first the anthros that were created were treated as little more than a science fair project. Locked in rooms and fed like prisoners." You said nothing, you didn't need to. Nothing could be done to change the past and the conditions that they were forced to live under where terrible to say the least. "However," The professor continued, "Some of the scientist that were looking after them came to realize that with proper education, they could be just as smart as a human. So they began educating them, and quickly realized that they had essentially created a new race. Far more than they had set out to do."
"You make it sound as though they had no intention of creating the anthro race," You mused.
"They didn't," Felks answered, "There was no way for them to know what they were getting into. This was simply an experiment to satisfy their curiosity. Admittedly an immature experiment, but an experiment nonetheless."
You quietly nodded, "So what happened after they realized how smart the anthros were?"
Felks shrugged his shoulders, "By that time they had already created dozens of them from virtually every species. Though there were a few that they chose not to alter. Fish for example, but there are sharks. Based on your memories I can see you've already met one whom your fond of."
"Mako..." You muttered to yourself.
"At any rate, the population reproduced and grew on its own quite quickly. It wasn't long before there were entire anthro communities scattered throughout the area. But they were dependent on humans and lacked the ability to innovate like humans can. They could copy, but had a hard time imagining and creating. They needed someone to lead them, so the humans set to work on just that."
Your face took on a solemn expression, "And the first Deluma was born."
The professor nodded, "Yes. Given that most alphas in the wild are larger, stronger and smarter than their competition, it stood to reason that the one to lead the anthro race should have these advantages as well. But Mariam Deluma was too smart for her own good. She began inciting unrest, racism and claimed that anthros were the superior species and that humans were evil. It wasn't long before the majority the anthros were attacking humanity." Professor Felks sighed heavily, "We weren't prepared for it. We couldn't defend ourselves, tens of thousands of humans died. So we invented the mecha frames."
You perked up in response to that statement, "Like the green suits I saw."
"Yes," Felks confirmed, "Those are terra frames, designed to fight the anthros on equal terms. The enhance the wearer's strength and agility while protecting them at the same time. However, they were a weapon made for winning wars. Many anthros lost their lives at the hands of the terra frames."
You then tilted your head in confusion, "But why does this suit have wolf features? It looks much different than the others."
The professor smiled, "You noticed. This suit was never meant to be a weapon, but a tool. It cannot be equipped with rifles or guns. It is only equipped with sonic cannons that fire compressed sound like supercharged subwoofer speakers. Other than that, the pilot will have to fight hand to hand with his or her opponent. It will force you to fight like an anthro would. To think as an anthro would."
Your eyes widened, "It would force the pilot to understand an anthro or at the very least prompt them to think about their viewpoint."
Professor Felks grinned at you, "Precisely! However, the military wanted it to be able to decimate the anthro army. So I simply told them that it was too complex to be ready in time. I wasn't about to let them force me to change a tool for understanding into a weapon of mass murdering."
You leaned forward in your chair, "So what happened after that?"
"Hmph," The professor laughed a little before replying, "We lost. Badly. Even with the help of the machines, we couldn't hope to fight them all off. There were simply too many anthros. And we only had so many machines that were able to fight them. So we focused our efforts on creating an interdimensional portal. We were successful. The majority of us were able to go through the portal and start new lives. The world we had entered had no anthros, and rather primitive humans. The steam engine was just fading out from the list of latest and greatest accomplishments. Most of us were able to become inventors and create most of the prototypes for the modern conveniences you've grown so accustomed to. We were far more advanced than the humans of that world. All we needed to do was throw an idea out every so often and take our time with refining it. Being successful for us was easy. One of my best friends invented the microchip, and his cousin helped with the development of the space program."
Your jaw dropped as you stared back at the professor in disbelief, "That would mean that the majority of our modern advancements-"
"-Were developed by humans that came from this world, yes." You then wondered how they were able to simply leave without the anthros prohibiting them from doing so. You asked the professor that very question, he seemed saddened by it as he gave his reply, "Many human soldiers stayed behind to make sure we made it out. Those suits that you saw were probably all that remained of the rear guard that defended the portal from anthros at the time."
"I see," You muttered, "So what happens now?"
"That's up to you," Professor Felks said as he stood up with a grunt. "You now know how you got here. I'd imagine that your probably working out why Silvia Deluma wants you so badly, and you know what can take you back home. Or perhaps I should say the world you're accustomed to. What happens nest is up to you. I've done my part. You've now inherited this machine; the terra frame lupus. Take good care of it, and use it as it was intended," The professor then looked at his watch, "Well then, this is goodbye."
"Wait that's it?!" You asked, a slight tinge of panic creeping into your voice.
"Should there have been something else?" The professor asked with an amused smile.
"No..." you replied, "I mean yes!" You then thought about the question a little more before sighing, "I don't know!"
"You'll be alright," The professor stated confidently as he approached you and placed a hand on your shoulder, "You've made it this far, right?"
"Only because of the people who helped me! I'd be lost or dead without them! They're all your leaving me with!"
The professor gave a brief but thoughtful hum, "Hmm... Sounds like family." You froze and looked up at him with surprise, "And if they've stuck beside you for this long... they'll stay beside you from here on out, I'm sure of it..." With that last word everything faded to white. The library faded from existence seeming to become a room that had been sketched on paper by an artist, but even that was beginning to fade as well. "Good luck Kiba," Felks' voice echoed, "Do what we weren't able too. Find the solution that your ancestors couldn't..."