Fort Appalachia, home to the dungeon expedition unit Foxfire Seven. Even though it completely encompassed the entrance to one of the oldest dungeons in America, it boasted little in the way of useful civilian services. However, it did provide one important facility, a hotel.

It was at this lonesome hotel, the Foxfire Hotel and Grill, that the IDEA candidate selection bus stopped to allow its cargo to disembark. Maxine led Scott and his lovely associates to their penthouse suite. While the other teams were lead to their lesser, but still reasonable, accommodations.

The members of team Alpha were quite upset when they discovered that they were treated with less regard than a team with Scott on it. However, no one cared. Rank had its privileges and Team Beta was filled with the candidates who had shown the greatest potential. Besides, Maxine won the coin toss earlier though the students knew nothing of that illustrious event.

Jessica flopped down on the oversized couch then wallowed around a little. "So comfortable!" she cried.

"Aw, dude! You're getting girl all over it," said Scott in an amused tone. He continued past her and headed toward the rooms in the back. Jessica lazily reached out for him as he passed by her, but he expertly avoided her grasping hand.

"You wish I'd get girl all over it," she said in a murmured voice. Whether she meant that seriously, and was too shy to say it aloud, or she was simply too comfortable to speak was anyone's guess.

Scott smirked lightly to himself. She acted a lot like his little sister. It was endearing in a way.

When he got to the rooms in back he realized something strange. He looked form one door to another several times. "No matter how many times I count, there's only four rooms..."

Maxine slipped up behind him and offered him a warm smile. "Well, sweety. I guess that just means you have to room with somebody."

"I guess—" He blinked mid-sentence then turned to look at Maxine, "Wait, me? Why am I the one rooming with someone? Everyone else is a girl..."

"Yeah, but they aren't married, or dating," replied Maxine. She leaned forward and whispered in his ear. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do..."

Scott leaned away from her, his eyes narrowing. "What wouldn't you do, exactly?"

Maxine stuck out her tongue playfully then put a little extra wiggle in her hips as she flounced away toward her private room. Scott watched her for a moment, as it would not be gentlemanly to ignore a friend's show when she went through so much effort to perform.

The golden elf opened her door and partially, but then she leaned back and winked at him. "If things don't work out, you could always room with me and receive special charisma training."

"Things aren't working out," said Scott without missing a beat. He immediately trotted toward her door, but she giggled and lunged inside. The sound of her door locking echoed lightly through the air.

"Are you a teacher, or a school girl?" He asked with a laugh. She always seemed so sweet and serene, but there was a naughty side to Maxine that he began to discover recently.

He turned back toward the door he originally intended to enter, but noticed Electra standing in front of it. She gazed down at the floor, one small bag in her hands.

Scott regarded her for a moment then nodded. It was obvious what was intended here. He did his best to offer a friendly smile to the seemingly nervous girl. "Guess it's you and me, roomie. Let's check out our room."

Electra raised one hand and pulled a lock of hair away from her shoulder. She refused to look at him even now as she turned her head to the side. "Yes, husband. Let us adjourn to... our room."

The room in question was situated next to the one that Maxine entered previously. A thought that the oft serene Golden Elf specifically put her room next to his was both intriguing and disturbing. Exactly why would she do that? He did not mind it at all, and it might be coincidence, but it almost seemed like she wanted to be as close as she could to her potential future.

Cassidy watched the reluctant couple wander off into their shared room then glanced down at Jessica. The red haired girl rolled over toward her, her body wrapped around a couch cushion. "Mine."

"As long as you don't set it on fire," said Cassidy with a smirk.

Jessica quirked her eyebrow and offered a wry smile. "If it couldn't handle the heat, it should have learned to dodge."

Cassidy shook her head, and the smirk she wore became a genuine smile. "It's not like we'll be here long today."

"Yeah, well... A couple of hours is still a couple of hours!" replied Jessica.

"You just want to laze about, huh?" asked Cassidy before she started toward her assigned room.

"This is a really comfy couch..."retorted the red head, "My bed back at the training center was alright, but sort of hard on the back."

"Well, this is a hotel penthouse so the bed's here are probably better than the couch—" began Cassidy only to have Jessica rise up and trot toward her.

"You think so?" asked the red head excitedly.

Cassidy laughed at her enthusiasm then nodded, "One way to find out!"

The girls glanced toward their rooms, then rushed off to discover the truth. Comfy beds were the best!

While Maxine did whatever Maxine does with herself whenever she was in a hotel room alone, and the other girls made happy noises relating to their living arrangements for the next while, a slightly more meaningful conversation was held a few doors down.

"I do not understand this custom, husband," said Electra. The Minotyran girl offered Scott's actions a curious look while she avoided looking at his face as best she could. He was currently embroiled in an attempt to make a bed out of half of their shared pillow allotment and a spare blanket.

"It's an ancient customary practice of a man who needs to sleep in the same room as a woman whom he barely knows..." said Scott, "You know, in case of night-time marauders and stuff."

"We are married..." she said softly, "This does not seem appropriate."

Scott dropped down and turned away while seeming to fluff his bed-pillows. In truth, it was to hide his frown. What did she want him to say? The situation was about as awkward as it could get.

"Electra, you remember what happened the last time we did that..."

She flinched slightly, "Yes, but that does not mean that we need to engage in the sort of actions that we engaged in previously."

Scott sighed loudly then turned to look at her. She made certain not to look at him directly, but he could tell that she wanted to see his expression since her eyes kept slightly shifting in his direction before darting back to the side.

There was no help for it. "Look, I'm not up to your standards, but I'm still a man."

"Yes, it does seem as such," she admitted.

He snorted in slight amusement then put his hands to his hips. This needed to be nipped in the bud.

Scott walked over to Electra then stopped directly behind her.

She asked, "Husband?" in a nervous, yet slightly curious, tone.

Scott leaned forward and whispered softly into her ear. "If I sleep next to you I won't be able to stop myself from pressing the issue for long."

"That is.... It is your right as my husband..." she said, though there was no hint of endearment in her tone. If anything she sounded unsettled by the thought.

For a moment he almost relented, nearly fell into old habits. However, just the night before he promised himself that he would be more proactive. He would accept the things that happened to him and act instead of react.

Given his recent decision, he opted to press the issue in a different way. He thought of what he might do in this situation if he were a more confident person and not just someone who wanted to be a hero. The decision he made was the only one he could accept in the situation. He needed to be cruel, to be kind.

His charisma intimidation might have a use beyond frightening underachieving beavers. Such a thought in mind, Scott whispered into her ear once more. His voice resonated tenderly in a soft masculine purr, "I'll slip my hands over from my side of the bed... slide them down this sexy body of yours that's promised to me alone."

"As my hus—" she started to say, but bit her lip. She could not even finish the word. Her face began to heat up. Her cheeks became flush due to the emotions welling up inside.

He kept things slow, deliberate. It was not only for emphasis, but to plan out his next move. So far his plan seemed to proceed at a reasonable pace, but this was bold new territory for him.

"If you don't stop me, I'll become bolder. I'll start caressing places, intimate places..." In order to emphasize is point, Scott slipped his hands around her waist. She made a soft strange little high-pitched cry that he took for a reaction of disgust. Yet, despite her obvious disgust some special part of him got a rise out of it, literally.

"Do you feel it, Electra?" he whispered, slightly ashamed that his manly bits began to stand up at attention due to their proximity. However, he soon worked past that issue as there were more important things at the moment that his ridiculous erection.

Confident that his point was nearly made, he pushed a little more and pressed deeper. Scott slipped his hands up to just below her breasts. His thumbs lightly brushed against her ample delights, and said, "Is this how you want to spend tonight?"

She did not speak, though her tail twitched a little and her breathing became more rapid in its measure. Though she had reacted, she did not break. It was not enough. Scott decided to intimidate her further.

His hands rose up and took hold of her heavy pendulous breasts. Her gasp of surprise echoed through the room followed by her tiny husband confidently pulling forward in a motion he could only consider to be one of milking a cow. Her cowbell clanged along with the motions of his hands, an alarm ringing to allow the world to know of the terrible fate that befell its mistress.

"Do you want me to touch you here, Electra?" he asked before he kissed her softly on the side of the neck. "Do you want to suffer hot tender kisses from the tiny bastard who you can barely tolerate? My hands claiming you, making your body mine?"

Her ear flicked a little and for the briefest of moments her knees buckled. "H-husband..." she said in a strange tone. A soft, yet audible, swallowing sound reached his ears. What he said, and even now did, no doubt disgusted her to the point that words were difficult.

Scott could not help but be slightly disappointed. He knew that she barely tolerated his existence, and to be honest he still did not want to be married. However, in such close quarters it was easy to forget all of that. His hands strongly massaged her ample breasts even as she pressed her rear back against him.

"S-sleep where you wish tonight, husband," she said with a tremor in her voice. Her backside wedged against him slightly.

Scott relaxed his grip on her breasts, a hint of guilt attempting to rise up on his face as he did so. He crushed that worrisome sentiment down right along with the thoughts that led to his current overly excited erection.

Sometimes a man had to be cruel to be kind, even if it gave him an awkwardly timed hard-on for the wife who hated him. Comics and various television shows taught him that, and it seemed like a good lesson.

Electra wanted to continue making the claim that they were married? Well, this was the sort of thing that a married couple did. His own parents were far worse about it in public than he was just now in private, and they offered many lessons as well.

She made her dislike of him quite clear during previous days. This resurgence of what he perceived to be her obvious disgust was the only sign that he needed. In truth, what else could her reaction be but one of disgust given her thoughts on him. It would be a pain in the ass, but there was only one proper way to share this room. It was not as man and wife, nor could he feel comfortable demanding that she sleep on the floor.

"Right," he said. Scott refused to apologize despite his actions. If he did it would undermine everything that he achieved with his scurrilous actions. What he chose to do was something that caused conflicting sentiment within him, but he firmly believed that it needed to be done to avoid an even worse situation from occurring in the future.

Electra did not speak for a moment, her eyes were slightly vacant and a slight hint of drool trickled from the corner of her softly parted lips. Never in her life had someone done that to her. She did not turn to look at him when he went back to fluffing his pillows, but she did slowly raise her hand to the side of her neck. She could still feel him there, and in another place.

One might think that place would be the breasts he so confidently laid claim to earlier, but they would be wrong. Her tail swished slightly. The place she still felt him was in quite the opposite direction. "Husband is not tiny," she whispered in a slightly delirious tone.

A moment later, the words she spoke caught up with her. Her face turned an even brighter shape of crimson. With a strangled cry, she immediately rushed over and tossed herself on the bed. Electra buried her face in a remaining pillow and tried to hide from her own thoughts.

Scott stopped what he was doing and stared at her briefly. Soon, he looked, his face a mask of shame. Seeing Electra do such a thing, he could not help but think that he was pure scum.

There was a third party to their actions who thought of things in a slightly different light. In the adjoining room, a beautiful golden elf with a slightly reddened face, and her ear close to the thin wall separating the rooms, brought her fingers to her lips. "Goodness, sweety... "

Her eyes alight at what even her high-level elven hearing barely picked up, Maxine could not help but wonder about what she had just missed out on. A sigh escaped her lips a moment later, but her mini-sadness event was quickly overcome by a more cheerful sentiment. She stuck her tongue out playfully then said, "Maybe a time machine isn't a bad idea, after all."

Unfortunately, while Maxine thought about time machine and bold whispered power plays filled with masculine dominance, the occupants of the adjoining room were silent. Neither knew what to say to the other. They were trapped in their own personal thoughts.

Even so, time waits for no one. It would only be a few hours until they met with the other groups to head into the dungeon. Their first foray would be for the purposes of acclimatization and to determine any negative effects a real dungeon might have on their physiology. Tomorrow, afternoon would be the beginning of the true exercise.