"You're sure you're okay with all this?" Sandra Truman said to Simon as they waited outside the Claw Coliseum, trying to stay in a position where they weren't in the way of people coming in or out with regard while looking for a few newcomers to Animalia, "I know you'd wanted to go with Sarah and Malice to Australia..."
"It's a bit late for that, mom," Simon answered with a bit of a sigh, "those that went to Australia have already left. And besides... Horizon wanted to make sure that the new Herm Wolves can be compared to how Wolf Animalians like us. And Winnie is having fun with Belle and Bash, so she's looked after and we can help Horizon get the data it needs."
And Sandra slowly nodded at this. Their mission was there to function as a sort of "control" sample for Horizon's new Herm Wolf Animalians, which was a big part of their analysis on how that herm gene would then affect Animalians and their strength. Generally speaking the strength of Animalians was in relation the abilities of the animal they were based from, and this was critical when many animals had size and strength differences between males and females. This had meant that Gaz was bigger and stronger than Ran because the female Great White Shark was larger than the male. And Simon was physically stronger than his mother because male wolves were bigger and stronger than females.
The introduction of the herm gene that had essentially started with the Anaconda trio had presented new challenges in terms of comparing them. Goldenrod as a herm horse, while stronger than Abby was actually weaker than Samson. In this, Horizon had hypothesized that herm Animalians would be in the middle when it came to certain strength and endurance abilities when compared the differences between males and females of the same species. Testing had so far confirmed that, but given haw limited the number of herm Animalians there were, Horizon had some interest in seeing as to what the exact numbers were. Which had meant that Lunette and her pack, Night Runner, Paula, Dusky, and Chelsea would need some physical tests that were done as well. This then in turn lead to a request for Simon and Sandra Truman to serve as the control group to compare Lunette's pack to.
"I still wonder why they picked us..." Sandra commented.
"The rest of the Wolf Animalians have full time jobs and it will be harder to work around their schedules," Simon pointed out.
"I still work full time too," Sandra countered.
"Yes, but one Wolf's schedule is easier to work around than all the others," Simon shrugged, "and right now... while I'm in the training program, my schedule is already pretty flexible. Thus they chose us as we were the easiest to schedule these tests around and so on."
"But neither are we the biggest and strongest," Sandra commented.
"Yes... we are in the average range in terms of size... particularly when compared to those that have worked out more," Simon again shrugged, "but then these herm wolves likely haven't worked out a lot either. So comparing them as they are now might not work well. Remember we're supposed to be the control group... the standard that they're compared to."
Sandra slowly nodded and accepted that and the two resumed quietly waiting. And eventually the group that they were waiting for came into view. Lunette came with Night Runner, Paula, Dusky, and Chelsea coming along beside hir. Lunette was easily identified by hir hair and the rest could then be guessed at based on their attire. Night Runner and Dusky both wore simple tee-shirt and jeans while Paula and Chelsea wore tank tops and woman's jogging shorts. All five of them had the mixed male and female scent that all Herm Animalians had, regardless of their species. Sandra and Simon could also fully tell where there were some other noticeable differences. All five of them had wider shoulders than Sandra did and more masculine build with regard to their upper body than Sandra did, though Sandra also felt that her hips were also wider than the five herm wolves, though not necessarily by too much. They dodged and did their best to stay out of the way of people, though both Sandra and Simon noted that they were also looking in awe at the Claw Coliseum behind them.
"Excuse me... you are Lunette, right?" Simon spoke as the five approached.
"Yes!" Lunette gave a happy smile and then shook Simon's hand and motioned to the others in her group, "These are Night Runner, Paula, Dusky, and Chelsea... You're here to finish up some of Horizon's tests, right?"
"Yes," Simon nodded and motioned to his mother, "My mom, Sandra..."
"Call me Sandy," Sandra spoke.
"... are to be the control group that Horizon will compare your strength data to," Simon nodded, "Heracles and Megara will help with the spotting and recording where you max out at in comparison to others."
"That'll be fun!" Lunette smiled and wagged her tail at seeing Meg again, "Meg and I go way back."
"Who's Meg?" Chelsea asked.
"Is shi fun?" Dusky wondered.
"She's a Liger Animalian," Lunette answered, "we worked together for a while before Animalia. She's fun... but I'd guess her romantic attention is focused on Heracles and given how big she is... he must be huge."
That only lead to the four uplifted herm wolves wagging their tails giving Simon and Sandra some idea on what they might be interested in. They shrugged it off and slowly made their way into the building, being careful to avoid IAC goers as they did so. This then included the mentions on the nature of the matches held in the Claw Coliseum, which ranged from the Greco-Roman Wrestling tournament and the body-building tournament that went along with it and some of the swimming events as well. The herm wolves were all interested as Simon explained it and lead them on into the gym area that was away from the main areas where the IAC events were.
"Wouldn't we be interfering with the competition?" Night Runner wondered.
"No, the gym isn't part of the competition," Simon answered as they reached the door, "so we're free to go in."
When they did make their way in, the uplifted herm wolves were impressed with Heracles and Meg's size when compared to them. They also were quite impressed with Lunette walking right up to Meg and enjoying a small hug as they approached.
"Enjoying yourself, Lunette?" Meg asked noting her friend's wagging tail and the attention that the uplifted herm wolves gave to Lunette.
"The conversion was very fun," Lunette smiled, "and hopefully... things may be even better going forward."
Meg chuckled and nodded getting the sense that Lunette was pleased with how things had gone. From there they soon went in to the comparative testing using the various lifts that were used with the weights that were provided for various Animalians. Night Runner, Paula, Dusky, and Chelsea were all quite intrigued with the demonstrations that Heracles provided on how to do each lift and slowly followed along with the tests and seeing on how they compared with Simon and Sandra. Meg spotted for Sandra and one set of the herm wolves while Heracles spotted for Simon and the other set of herm wolves. The tests even proved to be quite enlightening for Sandra and Simon as well, as Sandra maxed out in many of the lifts at weights that would set Olympic records for a Human woman of Sandra's weight and might have been at least comparable with others.
"I'd never thought I was this strong," Sandra said slowly as she finished with the bench press set, "I mean... I've heard a lot of Animalians being stronger than Humans... but I thought a lot of that was for Animalians that were well bigger than people... like the Horse Animalians or the Lions and Tigers that were from Lyre's zoo."
"So you're pleased to find that this includes Grey Wolf Animalians as well?" Meg asked as Lunette began her rep and then smiled as Sandra wagged her tail.
The tests with the weights would further confirm many of the Horizon theories, that a male Wolf Animalian like Simon would be stronger than Lunette and the herm wolves, but not by too terribly much. In fact the strongest of the herm wolves, Dusky, maxed out at around only fifty pounds lighter than wear Simon maxed out at. At the same time the herm wolves were also stronger than a female Wolf Animalian like Sandra, but again, not by much. The weakest of the herm wolves, Paula, maxed out at about twenty five pounds more than Sandra. Heracles also noted that the difference between where Simon and Sandra maxed out on was at about one hundred twenty five pounds. This also showed how close all of them were in terms of strength, and some of it made sense, as wolves as canine predators generally tended to depend on group effort to run down prey rather than ambushing it and wrestling it down the way cats did.
The last tests were some running and endurance tests and here there was ultimately no real difference between any of them. Lunette and the herm wolves didn't lose energy or breath before either Simon or Sandra. The only ones who picked out anything new in these tests were actually Heracles and Meg in overhearing the interest the herm wolves had in Simon's interest in police work, the fact that Sandra married one of the Animalia PD wolves, and a desire to meet Winnie. Outside of that, the numbers that were put up were mostly in line with pretty much all of Animalia's wolves and most of the domestic dogs.