𝙊𝙉𝙀 𝙒𝙄𝙇𝘿 𝙉𝙄𝙂𝙃𝙏

Round One Begins

Francis adjusted the hoodie after slipping it over his frame. Once doing so, he glances over to the mask as it sat on the countertop of the sink. He grips it from underneath and places it over his head, locking the chinstrap into place and thrashes his head around gently to make sure it was secure and would not slip off.  

"Seems good..." He mutters to himself before looking up to the bathroom mirror. He saw his eyes were the only thing that were visible. He took in a deep inhale and holds it for a second before letting out the exhale. 

Francis thought to himself for a moment, doing his best to shake off the jitters with a final self-pep-talk. He then looked down to his sneakers and stepped back from the mirror, doing a crip walk dance routine to get his feet used to the feeling of moving around like this once again. After doing a few sets of steps, he stops, places his feet together, and gazes back up to the mirror. 

"You got this." He says, feeling a surge of confidence suddenly rising within himself. 

Meanwhile, party goers crowd around and on the temporary dance floor, music filling the air. While most gathered around, others danced on the floor as they waited for the tournament to start. On the head of the DJ booth, a large flat screen TV showed a live feed of the dance floor area to allow spectators to see the action of the contest in case they could not get a good view from whatever part of the crowd they were in. Sullivan and Drake stood near the border of the dance floor in search of Francis within the crowd as Alex and Conrad stood behind them; Conrad seeming to be more alert but still looked as if he was on the verge of passing out. 

"Dammit, where the hell is Francis!?" Drake asked over the music, looking to Sullivan. 

"I don't see him anywhere! You think he could have bailed on the whole thing!?" Sullivan asks, still continuing his search. 

"I don't even know, man! Didn't Alex say that Party Pat wanted to talk to him!?" Drake asks. 

"That's what he told me!" Sullivan answers. 

As Francis stepped out onto the packed patio area of the backyard, he did his best to avoid the stares that were suddenly falling upon him as he navigated his way through the crowds. Party goers let out gasps and cheers at the sight of his mask as he weaved through. 

"Kickass mask, dude!" Francis hears a party goer say behind him before he then lets out a soft smile that no one could see. 

Eventually, Francis reaches the wall of spectators that surrounded the dance floor. Gently pushing past party goers, the gasps and cheers from those that saw him continued to sound off as he pushed through. Once reaching the other side of the wall, he coincidentally finds himself standing next to Drake, Sullivan, and the others. Francis looked over to Drake, noticing as if he was looking for someone. He then turned his gaze away, deciding to leave his identity a secret. 

As Drake searched, he finds his eyes falling on a person with a low polygonal fox mask and a black hoodie. Unbeknownst to him, it was the person he was looking for. He then leans in close to him, nudging his arm. 

"Hey, dude!" Drake says, watching as the masked person turned his attention to him. "That's a pretty rad mask!" 

Francis could not help but not grin ear to ear under his mask. He just simply nods his head to the beat of the music and gives a thumbs up to Drake before stuffing his hands into his jacket pockets.

"Also, you wouldn't have happened to see a black-haired human wearing a bomber jacket anywhere, have you!?" Drake then asks. 

Francis gives a simple shrug as he begun to tap his heel to the music. As Drake looked to him, he gazed into his eyes. Francis did the same, wondering if Drake could recognize him solely based on that. As Drake looked, his eyes begin to widen, slowly realizing who the person behind the mask was.

"Francis!? Is that you!?" Drake exclaims, his jaw dropping a bit. 

Francis nods his head to the music once more, bringing his index finger to the mouth of the mask. 

Drake laughs out, turning his gaze over to Sullivan. "Dude, I found him!" 

Sullivan shot a glance to Drake. "Really!? Where!?" He asks, sharply scanning around the crowd again.

Drake points his thumb over to the person directly to his right. Sullivan leans forward, spotting the masked person bobbing his body to the music. Sullivan's eyebrows shot up as he leaned back in. 

"In the mask!?" He asks, putting his hands on top of his head. 

Drake nods excitedly, a grin running across his face. 

"Holy shit, dude! That definitely has Party Pat written all over it!" Sullivan says. 

Suddenly, the music from the speakers had gradually begin to fade as the DJ grabbed his microphone. 

"Alright, alright, all-you party freaks. Clear the dance floor as it is now time to start this year's Dance Off!" The DJ says, cheers and whoops erupting from the crowd. 

Francis lets out another deep breath, watching at the party goers begin to clear the floor and absorb back in the crowd. 

"My name is DJ Eezy and it is my privilege, and honor, to introduce to you our emcee to kick off tonight's competition, the one, the only, Party Pat!" He says as Party Pat strolls out from the crowd and towards the middle of the dance floor. Cheers and applause once again fill the air as Party Pat tosses his own microphone in his hands, smirking around to the crowd. Upon reaching the middle of the dance floor, he switches on the device brings his microphone up to his mouth. 

"You all having a good time tonight?" He asks, gazing around the crowd. The party goers let out another round of cheers while holding up their cups in the air. 

"That's what I like to hear." Party Pat says as he began to slowly stroll around the dance floor. "After looking at who signed up for tonight's contest, I believe that this Dance Off will be the most exciting competition yet." Party Pat says, causing scattered cheers and applause to come from within the crowd. 

"Now, I'm sure we all know the rules, but I am gonna go over them anyway." Party Pat says, continuing to stroll around the floor. "Every match will consist of one song. Each contestant will trade off every thirty seconds, battling it out with their best moves. The match is over once the song ends." 

Francis watched as the anthro bear made his way around, listening to every detail. 

"Tonight, we have a *whopping* total of sixteen dancers competing. Meaning that the first round will have a total of eight matches. The winners of this round will advance to round two, consisted of four matches, and the winners of round two will advance to the semi-final round for a chance to secure a spot in the finals. At that point, the two most talented dancers this competition has to offer will go head-to-head to become our, Dance, Off, Champion!" Party Pat enunciates, cheers erupting from the crowd once again. 

As Francis stood watching, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looks over to Drake, seeing him look at him as if for reassurance. Francis nods, giving a thumbs up to him. Drake smiles and looks back out to the dance floor. 

"As per usual, the winners of each match will be voted by all of you." Party Pat says, looking over to the DJ booth. "DJ Eezy, would you be so kind as to throw the voting poll link over the video feed for us?" 

"You got it, my man." The DJ says into his microphone, looking down to his equipment and presses a series of buttons. 

After a moment, a link pops up on the screen that overlayed the feed of the television above the DJ booth. 

 "So have your phones at the ready, ladies and gentlemen." Party Pat says, bringing his attention back to the crowd. "And as always, majority rules. I am looking forward to the display of performances tonight, and I expect to see many surprises." Party Pat says as he looks to Francis. 

In that moment, Francis was hit with a wave of excitement as he felt Drake subtly nudge his arm. Usually in these moments, he would be shaking in his shoes in terror. But oddly, he felt as if he couldn't wait to have his turn. 

"You guys ready for this thing to get started?" Party Pat asks, holding his microphone out to the crowd. Again, the crowd of party goers roar in cheers and applause. 

"Alright, alright!" Party Pat says as he brought his microphone back to himself. "Good luck to all the contestants. And without further ado, let this year's Dance Off commence!" He exclaims, bringing his microphone down to his side and proceeds to leave the dance floor towards the DJ booth. 

The crowd cheers more as the music had gradually begun to return. 

Francis let out another sigh as he gazed around the crowd. As he did, he spots the anthro fox girl across the dance floor as she danced subtly to the music. He kept his gaze on her, watching as she made the same kind of body movements the first time he saw her. As he observed, he found his eyes moving up her frame. After a moment, their eyes had met once again. But instead of looking away from her, he brought up his hand and waved his fingers to her. Her eyes widen as she then smirked at him, bringing her hand up as well to return the gesture. 

"And for match número uno for round one," The DJ says, looking down at a copy of the tournament bracket. "We have Justin D. versus Tiffany." He announces, the dancers stepping out onto the dance floor. 

The first track of the competition of the contest had begun to play. As the introduction to the instrumental slowly built, the dancers bobbed their bodies in their place.

"Alright, contestant at the far end of the floor, your time starts when the beat drops." The DJ says into his microphone, adding minor remixing changes to the track as it continued to build up; the countdown timer next to the booth suddenly flashes on.  

Within moments, the beat of the song had started. The contestant Francis had assumed was Justin began his routine by jumping into a running man dance move, scattered cheers coming from inside the crowd. The timer began to countdown as he danced. As Francis watched the routine, he quickly realized that Justin was more likely an amateur due to his display of basic dance styles. Before he knew it, thirty seconds had passed. 

"Contestant two!" The DJ exclaimed into his microphone. The second contestant, Tiffany, started her routine with a robot style dance, the crowd erupting with applause as she started. Francis, while simple as the dance style was, clearly understood that she owned a degree of skill over her opponent as she smoothly transitioned from out of the robot and into a pop and lock routine and before transitioning back into her robot dancing. 

Before long, the track had come to an end, the dancers breathing heavily as they stood in the middle of the dance floor, the crowd applauding the performance. Although the song had formally ended, the DJ had begun to spin the track back and remix it. 

"Alright, that was match one, party freaks. Voting ends in sixty seconds." The DJ says before looking back down to his music equipment and continues to remix the track. 

The tournament was officially in full swing. Francis studied each contestant as they performed, surprised by the level of skill those he had observed so far possessed. While most of the contestants had seemed relatively easy to defeat due to their simple styles, one contestant in particular had stood out to him as he displayed a level of skill that Francis doubted that he could out preform, an anthro named Derrick who won his match by a landslide. As he pondered while watching the sixth match that was underway, he had the feeling he had heard the name Derrick before...

Finally, the sixth match had come to an end as five dancers had advanced to the second round. But during the voting break of the sixth match, Francis had felt a disturbance inside himself. His eyes widen as he realized what was brewing inside him. He already knew that his match was the last one of the first round due to inside information given to him by Party Pat's goons, so he had time to step away. Wanting to leave nothing to chance, he turned around and begun to weave his way through the wall of bodies to quell the disturbance. 

As the voting came to an end, the DJ announced the winner of the sixth match. As the crowd cheered and danced to the music remix of the DJ, Drake turned his gaze to find Francis no longer standing beside him. Shooting up his eyebrows, he looked to Sullivan. 

"Yo, Francis is gone!" He says over the music. 

Sullivan turned his gaze to Drake. "Well, shit! You think he actually bailed for real!?" 

"I sure hope not!" Drake replies. 

As the remix came to an end, the DJ had leaned back into his microphone to announce the contestants of the seventh match. "Time for match number seven. Our contestants, Freddie B. versus Ariel!" 

Drake's and Sullivan's eyes shot wide open; their mouth agape as they watched the anthro fox girl that Francis had met earlier in the night strut out onto the dance floor. The two males looked to each other in stunned silence as the instrumental of the seventh track began to play.