The parking lot (because that's where we appeared to be) was a cylindrical room with walls going as tall as about two storeys high. The walls were painted soft pink with rings of yellow, blue and cream circling the wall in creamy pattern.

All in all, I felt like I was standing inside a birthday cake.

The floor was yellowish cream with four circles drawn in blue. Four ships were parked in the circles. 

One of them was Steve's, which was just taking off. Rather, I should say it was going down. The circle in the floor disappeared and the ship moved into it, before the circle closed back.

The other three ship were about the same size but wildly different. 

One of them was a perfect cube and an ugly green in colour. The other was dome shaped, like Steve's ship, but it had no colour; just the coppery brown like our bands. The third one was cylindrical and decorated in much of the same way as the room, like a cake. 

Once I was done staring at the room, I looked around for some sort of a door. But the walls were perfectly smooth, I found nothing.

"So, what now?" I asked.

Stephen snapped close his gaping mouth and shrugged, "Dunno. Is this some sort of test? Like, do we have to find our way of the room ourselves?"

I didn't suppose it would be something like that. After all, this was the real life, not some wattpad novel.

While were contemplating what to do, the roof slid open. A face peeped in from the corner. It was ...furry. Feline, more like. A ladder emerged from the walls, probably from the Nanotech. 

"Humans, climb up." The alien said. It's voice was high pitched and scratchy. I couldn't see clearly much of its face except for the fact that it was covered in fur.

I looked behind at the others. They were looking at me to go up first. My luck, I was the one closest to the stairs as well. I put my hands on the ladder. It was slippery but there were holes where I could hook my hands to climb. I quickly scaled the ladder with ease and was followed by the others.

When I got to the top, I was met with sight of an alien.

She seemed to be a mixture of cat and human. She had greyish red fur all over her body. It was smooth and fluffy. It seemed combed, unlike the unruly fur generally associated with cats. She were standing on her hind feet like humans and her front feet (arms?) were by her side like humans. 

She had her back in a graceful arc, ready to go off running at any moment, just like a cat. Her hands and feet had paws, with three small bean fingers. Her nose was snout-like but eyes and mouth were more like a human. I caught the sight of sharp canine teeth when she spoke.

"Hel-o," she pronounced the word carefully. Perhaps there was no word for 'hello' in their language, "I am Noxus-Anak. Welcome to the third Complex Case Residence." Her cat-like ears twitched towards each other. 

I smiled, "Hello, I am Human-Maya Pathak."

"Human-Kevin Wright, pleased to meet you."

"Human-Stephen Bailey, that's me."

"Greetings, I'm Human-Ethan Morris."

"Human-Tanya Simpson. Greetings."

"Greetings. I would like to apologise for the lack of due welcome. We had a sudden call from Human-Alice, your Mentor. Please come this way."

There were frequent pauses in between the sentence, as if the words in english were shorter than the words in their language. Her voice was scratchy, like a rusty chalk on a blackboard.

She walked on all fours and quickly and nimbly, like a cat.

I looked across the room as I followed her. It had some human elements- a couch, a half empty water bottle, things like that. And then there were the non human elements — a beanbag-like thing with a thick pole in the centre, some discs and a cube with spikes dug into it.

In the other room, there was another alien, I can only describe as a dragon. It was as tall as a human and twice as long. Its six feet had thick green-yellow scales and its spine was softly padded. Its tail curled between its feet.

 It didn't have teeth, however. Its mouth opened to reveal only a pad of gums and a snake-like tounge. 

I think it looked pretty neat. And pretty interesting too, that human folklore has an almost accurate description of the dragon. Almost as if aliens had visited Earth in the ancient times...

The two aliens, Cat and Dragon, were talking to a floating hologram of a human. I couldn't tell much from the hologram, because she was turned away from us. Oh, and also covered entirely in sticky blue slime.

"Human-Alice, your mentees have arrived." Cat (I keep forgetting her name is Anak) informed the person in the screen.

"Let me just make myself a bit presentable."She ducked from the screen. 

The aliens turned to us. The dragon only arced its long neck to turn around while Anak turned around entirely. Now that she was standing up straight, I could tell she reached hardly till my shoulders.

"Greetings humans, I'm Oghei-Fijnarg." The dragon said. Its voice was deep, the kind I'd expect from a dragon. It was a stark contrast to Anak's scratchy voice.

Alice had come back into the screen. The slime was no longer dripping and I could see her brown eyes and matted hair. Blue blotches were still visible on her face. 

"Hi, I'm Alice. Although this is not how I wanted our meeting to go," she shrugged "but as time commands." 

She turned to the aliens, "Anyways, as I was saying  my work here is done. I'll just do the required documentation and be back by tomorrow or the day after. Fijnarg, be a dragon pie and please show them to their rooms."

Fijnarg let out a breath of air (thankfully not fire), "My species is called Oghei not Dragon."

"Do not worry, Human-Alice, we will guide them in your absence." Anak said. 

"Thanks Noxus-Anak." Alice turned back to us, "They will lead you to your rooms. Settle down, freshen up and come to the common room by seven, we will meet properly then. And set your watches to the common room clock, we have different time zone here."

"But wouldn't the day-night lenght be different on a different planet? Are we even on a planet or just floating in a spaceship?" I asked.

Alice smiled, "No, we are on a planet. And yes, days are usually different but I specifically found a planet that is Earth-like to settle down so the day is just regular hours. See you at seven. Bye!" 

A/N:

I was searching through google for some pics of our aliens. I went down a rabbit hole of furry art for Anak. Memorable pictures. If anyone has unsee juice, please give me.

How is the story so far? Things will pick up pace now. Adventure starts next chapter.