Alex mentally repeated the names of the raptors, trying to make sure she won't forget who's who. "Nice wings," Alex said to Indy, "My name's Alex. I go by she/her pronouns." Alex had no reason to worry about people getting her pronouns wrong, but she hoped by saying that, it'll subtly invite the others to share as well. Especially the raptors. She wouldn't even know where to begin guessing for some of them. And what's this about hybrids that Shadow keeps mentioning? After Alexandra introduced herself to Indy, Phixa walked up to her.

"Hi Alex, my name is Phixa, I go by she/her pronouns. Nice wings." The hybrid phoenix introduced herself to Alexandra.

"Nice to meet you." Alex responded.

"Is nice to know that I'm not the only hybrid around, as you can see." Phixa stretched her fiery wings, exposing her bird half from the waist down, from her feathery legs to the talons. Though Phixa's imperfections were tame compared to The Raptors predatory behavior, it's in their nature to hunt their prey like that, but at least save it for the match.

"It's a good thing that there is only one dinosaur competing in the tournament." Faim admitted, "Otherwise it would be really dangerous having to fight them all at once."

Scale agreed to that statement, it was already bad enough that his world was in danger, and the fact that the survival of his realm depended on him winning this tournament, and the possibility that he had to fight Shadow already poses a threat to his task. And all because Grim made a bet with the devilish sorcerer and his mighty beast.

Vilma headed to the reception to return to her post while Grim stood from his seat to meet up with the receptionist. Anything was better than to sit around waiting. Vilma sat next to Geoffrey, "looks like you're in a good mood." Her coworker replied, well, more like commented.

"It's our job to keep a happy face isn't it?" Vilma hinted.

"Knowing you, you might have something under wraps. I don't care what it is as along as it doesn't affect my job." Geoffrey reminded her as he checked on the website. Checking for any updates about the competitors. The passwords that will grant them a safe return to their respective worlds. Every fighter had one except, for June.

"Vilma, did you assign a password for her?" Geoffrey asked, which was obvious that she didn't.

"She would've had one if she wasn't so obstinate. If she wants to remain trapped in the stadium, that's her problem." Vilma countered as she typed away at the keyboard.

"She will become your problem once the supervisor finds out." He warned while Vilma rolled her eyes.

"Then I'll inform her that the contestant refused to take on a passcode for her world and that's the end of it." Vilma typed as she had an idea. "Now that I think about it... you have a point." She added.

"Well that's a first." Geoffrey muttered, as she saw a devious smirk on her face.

"If she doesn't want a password, I have no other choice than to give her one." Vilma typed in the password for June and sent it. The webpage updated when the male secretary saw a change with the update, but before he could click on it, he felt a dark presence, like an inkling of dread crawled around the pit of his stomach until he saw Grim loom over them, once Geoffrey took a glance at the Shadow Soldier, he had a jumpscare. A girly high-pitched scream was heard. Frankly, Grim would've enjoyed the warm welcome out of his terrified victims, but he was focused on Vilma's proposal to care about the male receptionist's heart attack. "Ah, you came, I didn't expect to see you so soon." Vilma responded casually, though she wasn't lying, mostly.

"I got bored. I don't like waiting." Grim replied, both him and Vilma ignore Geoffrey hiperventilating from the surprise visit.

"Same. So I'll be brief, I want you to scare the living hell out of this contestant, her name is June. The dumb blond that'll be figthing in the Melee Division."

"How convenient, the guy I'm betting on is also fighting in that division." Grim put his hand on the desk, leaning closer to the glass window that kept their faces inches apart.

"Who's the lucky contestant?" Vilma humored him with the question.

"Scale," Grim mentioned, "he's not hard to miss."

"Oh, right, the scaly contestant." Vilma looked at the corner of her to find Geoffrey sitting there, holding unto his chest. "You don't mind if we continue this conversation later? I have work to do. When I don't have any distractions getting in the way, I'll come find you."

"What a shame, just when it was starting to get interesting." Grim got the hint and exited the reception.

"Oh god, how can you stand to be around that guy?" Geoffrey heaved from his seat to compose himself.

"It's a truce, Geoff. He helps me, I help him. After we both get what we want from this alliance, we don't have to see each other ever again. Unless he betrays me, and I don't take treason lightly." Vilma stated.

🏛

After Ryo had asked the elven receptionist, Alma, for directions. He was heading in the right direction when he had observed the wave of people milling about, though an unespected twist lead to the wrong direction. He had sat on the spectators seat by mistake when he had overheard someone mention that one of their friends participated to fight. His elven ears pricked at the prospect of the match. Ryo stood up to follow them though they had gotten lost, and by extension, Ryo as well. You'd expect that a seasoned elf with over 400 years of age would have acquired wisdom from past mistakes, but in reality, no matter how old you get, you can't find all the answers. His elven hearing picked up insults and curse words from a Japanese teenager from the future, swearing from his native tongue to English. "Would you just calm down?!" Ash raised her voice, to which Tr fumed with rage. "Shut up, Ash. If I have to go to one more room to find Astrid, I'm gonna lose it!" Tr shouted. "Astrid couldn't have gone far." Logan said. "I WANT OUT OF THIS LABYRINTH!" Tr shouted, while Alexander looked around the room. Nour got out of the infirmary as soon as he heard the noise. "Shhhh! I have a very sick patient. I just sedated him." Octavia went into the infirmary along with Alexander to check. From what they could find, was a very ill man in his early 20s. He was sleeping, his chest rising and falling in slow intervals, from what they could see if that the patient had a ghastly complexion, dark brittle hair, and he had a couple of strands of grey hair. On the patient's wrist had an EMcuff attached. "He really is sick." Alexander said.

"Poor guy." Octavia said, behind the futuristic steampunk glasses, her eyes were glossy. "How long has he been like that?" She asked.

"I'm not sure, to be honest, one of the receptionists brought him here to get treatment. From what I heard, he is related to one of the contestants." Nour sat on a chair as she watched over him. Logan, Ash, and Tr entered into the infirmary to check, there was no sign of Astrid in here either. At least the anger Tr had earlier had subsided. Ryo overheard the conversation, and decided to look elsewhere.

Sora had discarded the wrapper of the sandwich and the smoothie she drank into the trash can and entered into the women's restroom. It wasn't long until Eimy entered as well, they avoided entering the damaged stall door.

"Well this is boring." Mike said as he stood up to go to the restroom, Thomas trailed behind him. "Dude, are you following me?"

"You're not the only one that needs to use the restroom."

Stella got to the 2nd floor to look for Micah among the spectators. She had to walk down the rows of seats until she found her sitting next to Baci Llus. "Micah, there you are."

"Stella, meet Baci Llus. Baci Llus, meet Stella." Micah gestured to her Izarian friend to the tall Bacillian immigrant. "Nice to meet you." Stella extended her arm to shake his semi-solid hand. "Likewise."

"Micah, I found this glued next to one of the stalls with bubblegum." Stella showed her the lipstick.

"I'm aware about your mishap in the ladies room." Micah replied before she slurped on a straw full of soda.

"Don't say it like that!" Stella blushed as she squawked.

"Don't worry about it. It happens. Sometimes I get a little gassy when I eat one to many burritos." Baci Llus commented, both Stella and Micah stared at him for several seconds in awkward silence before they changed the subject.

"Why are you here Stella? Shouldn't you be getting ready for the match?" Micah asked her. "That's the problem, I'm not ready to fight yet." Stella admitted.

"You made me come all this way for nothing." Micah deadpanned. Stella was irked by her indifference.

"I am going to fight in the arena, for your information. I was going to give you this lipstick but I'm keeping it." Stella raised her voice as she furrowed her eyebrows.

"You know that I'm not interested in make-up, and furthermore, did you check the power source of your weapon?" Micah inquired as she looked below the empty arena. Stella unloaded her galactic gun, it's quartz-powered. In all honesty, she wasn't sure if this was considered Melee or not, she wasn't using magic nor any supernatural ability, but if it was a magically powered crystal. Stella could get disqualified if the power source derived from any magical properties. "It's quartz-powered." Stella checked.

"Then you have nothing to worry about. Did you figure how you're going to take down the dinosaur you've befriended?" Micah asked her.

"As if I'm gonna tell you." Stella's tone dripped with contempt.

"You do well, never tell your enemies what you're planning." She replied in a chipper tone. Stella huffed and stomped away.

"Way to encourage her, Mic." Baci Llus replied sarcastically.

"It's the only way to get her to stay focused on the match, she gonna need it. Plus, I'm still mad at her for making me miscalculate back at the spaceship." Micah took another sip of her soda, she's not gonna tell that she wants Stella to tear the Indoraptor limb from limb either.

Sora got out of the stall after flushing the toilet to wash her hands while Eimy sat on the toilet with her pants down, at least her apron covered her privates. At the men's restroom, Thomas grabbed the paper towel to dry his hands and tossed it at the trash bin. As he walked out of the restroom, Sora saw him. "Thomas!" He turned his head to look at the Arivex.

"Sora!" Thomas called out to her before she walked up to him and smiled.

"I finally found you. Where are the others?" Sora asked.

"Stacey and María are at the second floor, while Zack..." Thomas paused just as Zack came out of the men's restroom.

"Sora!" Zack ran up to her.

"Hi Mike." She greeted as the teenage boy got jumpy from the excitement.

"Tell me that you're gonna stay for the tournament, please. Thomas is being a real party pooper!" Zack begged her.

"I'm not staying--" Zack whined as she said that, "--I'll be fighting in the match." Sora added.

"Yes yes yes! I can't wait for the fight to start." Zack cheered, getting hyped.

"About that... I don't know where the arena is, much less know who I'm going to fight." Sora admitted.

"Sora, are you sure that you wanna fight?" Thomas asked her.

"Definitely, I just wanted to see you guys first before I go." Sora clarified.

"Oh yeah! I'm rooting for ya." Zack slung his arm around Sora's neck which was more of a brotherly gesture as they walked up to the second floor with Thomas being 3 paces behind them.

Alexander, Ash, Tr, Octavia and Logan had already exited the infirmary, looking for their teammate. "Is really disheartening seeing a patient in that condition." Ash started.

"Why would a sick patient be wearing an EMcuff if they could just keep him on quarantine if his condition was contagious?" Tr questioned.

"Some hospitals use medical cuffs to check the blood pressure of their patients. Nothing new." Logan recalled.

"If that were the case, they would've removed it a while ago." Tr commented.

"At least Astrid is ok." Alexander added as he looked around. 

"Of course she is, Al." Octavia said before she saw that there was a coffee stand. "Ooh, coffee."

"There she goes." Ash said as the crew watched her go.

"Don't you find it kinda off putting that there is not a single Rave in sight?" Tr asked.

"For once, I agree with you." Ash admitted.

"That's why we're here, to investigate." Logan reminded his crew. 

"What about Astrid?" Halt asked.

"Don't worry, she'll come around." Logan assured him before he walked to the line to order a coffee.

"If we're gonna look for Astrid, we have to split up to cover more ground." Ash suggested. 

"Get to the point, Ash." Tr sneered.

"Shut up and listen. We need a checkpoint so that we can regroup later." Ash finished.

"How about the reception?" Halt suggested.

"No, too far." Tr interjected.

"Next to the vending machines." Ash decided.

"The abandoned kiosk down the hall next to the restroom, it's discreet." Tr implied.

"No way." Ash disagreed.

"It's not a bad idea." Alexander admitted, Ash crossed her arms angrily before accepting. 

"Ugh, fine. Let's split."

Chris was already near the backdoor of the stadium. As he considered what his brother told him. I know you signed up for this event to clear your head about daddy dearest. Multi-tasking is not gonna keep you afloat, on the contrary, it's gonna give you a lot of setbacks.

"Simon! Get back here!" Chris's sky blue eyes darted to a mother calling out to her son. The little boy ran back to her. She crouched down to Simon and looked at him in the eye. "Simon, how many times do I have to tell you to not run off?" She asked him.

"But Mom..." the boy whined. 

"But what?" She raised her voice.

"But the fight hasn't started yet, I'm bored." 

"Simon, we talked about this. Be patient, the fight will start in the next 15 minutes." She reminded him, "You wanted to go watch the tournament, these things happen, the wait will be worth it."

"Okay... Mom, can I get some popcorn?" Simon asked. 

"Yes, I'll go get you some popcorn, but stay out of trouble." The mother complied.

Chris watched as he saw the mother and child walk away. He walked out of the hall before he looked at his watch. 

10:45 AM

"Shouldn't the show be starting by now?" Baci Llus asked. 

"Honestly, I'm just as clueless as you are. It's nearly an hour since we got here and I see no sign of the tournament starting any time soon." Micah responded before a yawn escaped her.

"Already bored?" He asked her, his elbow laying on the armrest.

"Is time for me to sleep, I've been awake since 5 in the morning. Usually Amoebians like me stay awake between 6 to 9 hours, but with space travel and Stella's training simulations I have to stay awake from up to 12 hours or more, which is not healthy." Micah explained as she let out a drowsy drawl.

"And I thought Mitis was just being lazy and she was using that sleep cycle of hers as an excuse." Baci Llus replied as he looked down on the arena.

"Most of us are workaholics by nature. We like to be productive." Micah yawned. "Wake me up when it's Stella's turn to fight." Micah adjusted herself into a comfortable sitting possition for her to sleep.

"Fine then." Baci Llus said before Micah took off her goggles and closed her eyes shut. Baci stood up from his seat to throw away the paperbag and plastic soda cup into the trash. By the time he returned to his seat, Micah was already fast asleep with her mouth slightly open, snoring.

Stacey and María sat at their seats, Stacey was on her phone, scrolling on a shopping app to kill time while María had plugged in her air buds, listening to her playlist. "Hi girls." Stacey's head cocked to her left when she heard Sora's voice. 

"Hey Sora." Stacey responded while Maria's head shook like a bobblehead from side to side, listening to the music when Stacey nudged at the blue Dimension guardian. "What?" María asked, pausing her playlist. When she looked up she spotted the Arivex. "Hi Sora." María greeted as she smiled sweetly. 

"Excuse me." Zack scooted his way to his seat.

"I'll be fighing at the tournament, wish me luck." The Arivex said.

"Break a leg." Stacey stated.

"Thanks." Sora said as she headed out.

"But not literally." María added. Thomas then sat down on his seat.

Dirlu stood up to go to the ladies room. Her fan covering the lower half of her face as she reached the stairs. On the 1st floor, Eimy got out of the restroom right before Dirlu dashed past her. "Typical." Eimy simply shook her head before walking back up the stairs to the 2nd floor. As the noblewoman sat on the porcelain throne, she pinched her nose while she fanned away the stench.

Annabell looked out on the arena to look where Eros was amidst the rows of spectators until he spotted his white attire contrasting the colorful people that sat there. She saw him sitting to a magician, a black cat curled around the magician's lap. Three pairs of yellow eyes staring. "I knew it!" Annabell's teeth gritted as she glared at them from a distance. "I knew there was a cat in the audience." Annabell said as she glared at Jinx while the black cat craned her neck and turned to where Annabell was. The black cat squinted at Annabell. If looks could kill.  Annabell thought to herself as she kept glaring at the black feline.