With spring not too far away, at least with regard to the weather patterns, there was a lot of excitement over much of what was to come with it. The Spring Festival, the first events in the Mister and Miss Farmhand Competition, though from what Larry, Amos, Buford, and Esteban heard, a lot of THAT was entirely dependent on the weather. A part of them was a bit disappointed that none of its events would be sexual, but then a lot of that also made sense. As Buford had been finding out with Aleta, even with a higher libido than humans, sex was not the ONLY thing Animalians thought about.
There was even some excitement about Project Cameroon and the Five Elements and their conversion, though the specific opinions varied. Some were excited because the Five Elements were supposedly converted into animals from "Kung Fu Panda" and thus might know Kung Fu, which made little sense to them. From what Anton knew, they were the victims of war and abuse and other nasty things that humans often did to each other for no real reason beyond power. They might LEARN Kung Fu, but the former body builders doubted the Five Elements already knew Kung Fu. Others were excited for Project Cameroon as a success in saving people from bad situations and ultimately making the world a better place. That made some sense and to a certain extent, Larry, Amos, Buford, and Esteban couldn't help but agree.
However, the four of them ambitions and plans that went beyond just wanting to see a better world and so on. The Animalia Virus and the project that they had entered Project Phoenix through hadn't necessarily removed a lot of the competitive natures that was in all of them, and outside of Buford with Aleta, none of them had any girlfriend, yet. A couple of female turtles had hit on Esteban a bit, but that was more amazement at the size of an Alligator Snapping Turtle than anything else. This brought them back to the one place where they figured they could get honest advice, Anton and Marlysa William's home. As the two Green Iguana Animalians came home with their hatchlings, kept warm in a special stroller, they found the four gathered around their front door and periodically knocking on it.
"Where have you been?!" Larry demanded as he got up the spot where he'd been crouched. It was getting a bit warmer, but it was still cold enough for his reptilian body to feel a bit chilly.
"At work," Anton said slowly tilting his head to a side with some puzzlement.
While all of them had had their fair share of mistakes in the past, they'd never been truly evil people. In fact in many ways the negative things some people noticed back in their body building days was more due to either compensating for things that they were short for... particularly Larry. Much of the rest was more than likely the result of their abuse of steroids. In this, he had found them as friendly rivals and was more than willing to share things with them, which included his present life as a PE teacher for both Lyre and Animalia. It had a lot of back and forth, but both of them managed, mostly due to some specific details...
The first thing was that Lyre High only ran PE for Freshmen and Sophomores. Once one reached their Junior year, Lyre students wouldn't have PE on their schedules anymore. That eventually combined with the Animalia Outbreaks, as while most of the students that converted were caught in accidents that related to the outbreak there were a fair number students who'd had parental permission to purposely convert into being Animalians. The result of that was that when WSA was established and the Animalian Students were transferred to the new school, there weren't enough students at Lyre High to require more than two PE/Health classes a day, one for Freshmen boys and one for Sophomore boys. Marlysa had a similar situation with Freshmen and Sophomore girls. After Heather's attack at the start of the school year and some of the policy shifts that allowed the smaller Animalians to transfer back to Lyre if they wished to and were vaccinated, some of that pressure in Lyre became a bit different, but not by enough alter the schedules there, as not every student that did transfer back was a Freshman or Sophomore and many of the double dosed Animalians, regardless of their size, didn't transfer back at all.
Anton and Marlysa had a higher workload at WSA, as they had more PE classes per day and with Animalian energy and strength levels, PE remained a fixture of even Junior and Senior classes. Though that sort of thing was easily balanced out with regard to scheduling. The biggest difference between WSA's PE courses and Lyre's was that there was a lot more to do with the specific exercises that were ultimately the best suited to the specific species. Runners like Horse and Cheetah Animalians would have running exercises to do while flyers like the Bird and Bat Animalians often had relays in which they were to fly through and around obstacles near the ceiling to manage their agility and keep their wing muscles strong. Occasionally there were games and things they did that could involve everyone... as dodgeball and basketball were always fun, and things that Animalians more easily caught onto, but WSA's focus wasn't quite on that sort of thing that Lyre had.
And both Anton and Marlysa thought they'd told Larry, Amos, Buford, and Esteban about that.
"You do remember we're teachers, right?" Marlysa asked to them as they stepped aside to let her unlock the door. Larry waved down to the stroller as Joyce, Rex, William, Danielle seemed to "chirp" from within it. "We're pretty busy through the day and had to collect these four darlings at the end of the day."
"But... it's like four thirty... surely school would be let out by now," Amos commented.
"It has," Anton said slowly, "but that doesn't mean we'd appear at home the instant school lets out."
"Still, amigo, we got some stuff to handle," Esteban said slowly as they followed Anton and Marlysa into the home. Anton then gave a wave of arm toward the living room while Marlysa went with the stroller toward the hallway that would lead toward the bedrooms and the nursery. Their guests watched as before she reached the carpet, she stopped the stroller and then lifted the basket where the four Green Iguana hatchlings were repeating their calls for milk or attention, off of the small carriage and began to then walk into the nursery.
"Just so long as you keep it down, okay?" Marlysa spoke over her shoulder in a way in which it was expected that the answer was "yes."
"So what seems to be the problem?" Anton asked as he lead them into the living room.
"Mostly figuring out what to do," Buford said slowly, "Aleta is fun... and I... I think I really like her, but I can't make loving someone a career."
"And I think we've all already proved we're too dumb to be teachers," Amos said slowly.
"You guys aren't dumb," Anton found himself saying, almost as if by reflex.
"We abused a drug for short sided gains that were essentially lost entirely when we got old," Amos answered, "With all the problems I had... If I saw what I'd become thanks to steroids... I wouldna done it in the first place..."
"Yet we ALL did," Buford spoke with Larry nodding.
Anton slowly nodded. He'd agreed the four of them had done themselves more harm than good in taking steroids when they'd all been younger, whatever their reasons were, but that didn't mean he wanted to act like some sort of moral judge over their actions. Project White Lily was never intended to be some sort of moral condemnation of people's mistakes. It was there primarily for counseling to help those who might have been tempted to take performance enhancers or had only just started in order to get them feeling confident in themselves again. If someone came in for it and had been in the sort of health situation where Larry, Amos, Buford, and Esteban had all been... with more serious negative consequences setting in, they could be referred over to Project Phoenix, but all of that was to serve the purpose of forgiveness and second chances, not to dangle it like bait and expect people to do things just for a chance at a cure... nor was it to say on how good he was for not having taken Steroids in his youth.
"Well... now you got a second chance," Anton commented, "Your youth is restored... anything that you felt might have hindered you before isn't an issue. You could return to the professional body building scene and actually do quite well. As Animalians you might even have an edge over most human competitors."
"Not if it means taking you on," Buford commented, noting Anton's biceps and shoulders, "Iguanas may be smaller than Bull Sharks, but you STILL bring the gun show."
"Yeah... didn't you win in that Animalian Olympics thing last summer?" Amos wondered.
"That was actually more just for fun," Anton raised a hand to wave off any worries about old rivalries, "I... I've actually liked teaching PE. Some times it's challenging in helping Animalians... as there are different exercises that each group benefits from... stay fit and so on. And I suppose I have it easier than those teaching biology and history and math with all their terms, formulas, and what not..."
"Yeah... Animalians seem to like exercise," Larry commented, "even if it's not for body building or competition... the gym and exercise area at the Coliseum building are always pretty busy."
"But at the same time, going back to the old competitions?" Esteban commented, "We were talking over lunch... and well, amigo... it doesn't seem to have the edge it had anymore. Yes, we're strong naturally now and could easily dominate human body builders and do well against most Animalians in the same area... since most of them are either doing it to impress their mates or don't want to do it professionally... There's no real challenge and it doesn't seem fair to not give others a real chance..."
"But there's still the want to compete against someone for something," Buford commented, "but something where it's fair and sporting and a challenge for all sides."
"Something that would test all this," Esteban added as he tapped his shell.
Anton did note a telltale smirk, and did remember that a lot of the back and forth competition that had gone on in the past had often included discussions on "who was tougher" than the other. And all of them had been fairly competitive to a degree in their youth, regardless of the issues that had brought Larry, Amos, Buford, and Esteban to Project White Lily. In this Anton shook his head and then spoke with what might suit that situation.
"Perhaps you could consider UFC-A," Anton offered, "the organization has allowed for many different mixed martial arts matches, boxing, wrestling, and related sorts of combat sports. For Animalia, it is heavily regulated for health and safety and generally tries to match those wanting to get through any "competitive" and "combative instincts in a way that won't lead to trying to kill someone and so on. It'll mean with dealing with issues to species and animal type... weight class and so on. I think they're also establishing certain rules with regard to armored animals, particularly in relation to the Dinotopians and some of the Cenozoic Era mammals..."
"I've seen three Sauropod Dinotopians, all of them are huge," Larry spoke, "they're huge... I wouldn't stand a chance, even as strong as I am now, against them..."
"A Sauropod's defense is its size," Anton answered, "the big thing that's also going into the separate branch that will deal exclusively with the Dinotopians and Cenozoic megafauna will be the issue armor... An Ankylosaur, for example evolved defenses to make Tyrannosaurs think twice. No modern animal has that kind of armor. Armadillos are too small, and even if enlarged, their armor wouldn't be of the same thickness... and while the scales on Alligators, Crocodiles, and many large turtles and tortoises can be quite strong, they're also NOT with the same level of protection noticed among the armored dinosaurs... I can't say if the UFC won't arrange bigger and "special" events for grander comparison... but even there, a lot of what they do is intended make these fights as fair as possible... And UFC-A might have enough that you could get some matches in."
That got four of them interested, and by the end of the day, Anton would take them down to the Claw Coliseum to join UFC-A and get a training schedule to get in shape and ready. The four Project Lily volunteers did have some eagerness for a shot, though the were glad that in meeting with Brett Horne who was working for UFC-A as an organizer while they were waiting for more Dinotopian volunteers for the Mesozoic Fight Club that they wouldn't have to fight the Styracosaurus Dinotopian.