The shapeshifting gijinka abhored being treated like an animal. She had enough hunters, poachers and slave traders in her life to allow a conceited duchess tease her over a collar.

I'm not a house pet, I'm free to go wherever I want, whenever I want. And I'm not gonna let anyone change that. Mewmi bared her sharp fangs teeth and flicked her tail angrily.

The mana hunter had found the gymnaseum with traditional training equipment; treadmills, weights, dumb bells, barbells, kettlebells, squat stands, parallettes, resistance bands, stability balls, battle ropes.

The usual, though anexed to the gym there was a storeroom full of various weapons; swords, rapiers, shields, lances, battleaxes, maces, scythes, bows and arrows, you name it. The weapons were provided by the staff for the competitors to use at their disposal exclusively for fighting in the arena. Felix perused the area and found the arsenal.

If the word arse wasn't slur for anus, he would definitely be an arse man when it came to grabbing the arsenal.

“Not bad, but I've seen better guns at my bunker.” Felix commented as he walked past the cat-o-nine-tails and found a schematic of the stadium laminated on the wall. Apparently, there was a field that was used as a free space to practice archery. Since there were no archers, he could use the location for target practice.

Felix smirked then headed on his way there.

Stella stood in line to order Micah's cocoa capuccino with macademia nuts. She had no problem getting her coworker a cup of coffee, the only thing that annoyed her was the sarcasm. She understood that Micah was a fun sized sassmeister by nature, but she would get at each others nerves. They coinhabited in a spaceship for 4 human years. Which was 15 Amoebian years for Micah, and nearly 2¼ years for Stella. It was cabin fever mixed with intergalactic space travel on steroids. Her ruby eyes snagged on the menu board of the coffee stand.

“Your order.”

“One cocoa capuccino with macademia nuts, please.” Stella requested in her southern accent.

“That'll be 3 dollars.”

Stella took out her credit card.

“We only accept cash ma'am.” The cashier said.

“I only have credits.”

“Physical cash only.”

Stella narrowed her eyes at the employee before taking out her wallet from the inside of her jacket and opened it to reveal slate dollar bills ranging from 12000, 10000, 5000, 1000, 500, 100 with the Đ symbol as she picked three Đ1000 and one Đ500 and passed it to the cashier.

The Raptor Squad had walked down the hall as Rexy, Indy and Verdauga had gone to the foodstands while Shadow perched on a bench and had noticed Micah dressed in scrubs and a face mask, and saw medical supplies such as swabs, syringes, vials, and samples. The banner said FREE Vaccinations. Spino and Bary stood with Shadow, the trio untrusting.

"I'm not sure about that stand," muttered Bary uneasily. Baci spotted Carina posing as Micah while she opens a kiosk for vaccination.

"Yeah," agreed Spino, grabbing the "trash bin" he dug through it while the usurper was attending the clients, answering the questions related to the vaccine. Spino found a needle, smirking. "You've got the plan now, Arielle." Spino asked.

Bary nodded, "Oh yep, evil of you."

"What?" said Shadow.

"Confusion is king," snorted Spino before uncomfortably glancing at Bary, who corrected with a supreme smirk, “Queen, you idiot.” Shadow wasn’t even going to ask why Spino stuck to Bary so tightly. Suppose she’d just have to lock the two in a camera-monitored box together and let them chat.

The cashier passed the cocoa capuccino with macadamia nuts as Stella took it after the daunting delay when the employees had registered the currency and its value. It had no monetary value within their jurisdiction, and with the complaints from the customers waiting in line. Stella had gone to another coffee shop that accepted credits, with a quick scan, she obtained an additional latte with fresh cookies. Micah already updated her mobile devices, replied on her social media which were mostly work related and took out a pocket book as Micah thumbed the page she was currently on with her gloved hand and read silently which emphasized how long it took. "Finally." Micah said as she held the coffee cup and blew the steam from the cocoa, then sipped.

"Enjoy your coffee. I'm on my break. See ya." Stella headed to the office to look for the host.

Though the host was preoccupied solving an issue related to the recent hack as she searched for the virus, Brandon already typed a code to trace the hacker and pressed the key while Logan entered the passageway that lead him to the slate room which was guarded by the automatons. He tresspassed the perimeter and saw a red laser, adjacent to the electromagnetic barrier which emitted a radio frequency to dismantle any foreign object. Logan walked passed it, the automatons identified the intruder as they scanned him, registering his vitals and biology.

INTRUDER ALERT: Identified Specimen; Human.

Gender: Male

Acetylcholine levels: AVERAGE

Adrenaline levels: HIGH

Dopamine levels: AVERAGE

Endorphins levels: AVERAGE

Histamine levels: AVERAGE

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) levels: HIGH

Glutamate levels: AVERAGE

Norepinephrine levels: HIGH

Oxytocin levels: AVERARE

Serotonin levels: LOW

Logan reached for his drone and picked up the damaged device as the automatons estimated him as a threat. Their optics turned red, ready to blast him to cinders before the automatons reverted to their default state. A stray blast singed the hem of his sweater and tore a hole in his white shirt as the blonde bespactacled man fled.

“Logan, did you find the drone?” Alexander's voice came out of Logan's watch. “Are you there?”

“I found the solution,” Brandon spoke over the phone, “the hacker spread the virus in the software of the system's wireless network from the labyrinth. Luckily, I was able to reroute the virus to another server and deleted it. Unfortunately, it corrupted 4.6% of the footage from the security cameras.”

“How's that bad?” Nat asked him.

“If the security system isn't updated, the footage will crash and would affect the wireless network that could power up the portals. If we get stranded on a foreign planet along with 2,234 guests, it could pose a problem.”

“Most of the stadium is gem powered and self-sufficient.” The host mentioned.

“Most of the guests come from worlds with high technology and are dependent on wireless connection. If they lose Wi-Fi, they'll riot. How will they be able to call for help if the system is down?” Brandon asked.

“Good point, we can't risk having a riot.” Nat had already seen enough protests over the media to know how ugly it would get. The protests, the vandalism, not to mention that the Raptor Squad could pose a threat to their survival given to their predatory nature and their natural instinct to hunt. They wouldn't hesitate to sink their teeth into the first human or living creature that comes their way if the opportunity presented itself.

Baci Llus strolled about as his lips closed in on the straw and slurped on the beverage as he saw a line of people asking questions and the usurper replied professionally. Though there was something he noticed, one of the dinosaurs took out a needle.

“Any volunteers.” The usurper enquired.

Bary, Shadow, Ripper, Suzanne and Spino snickered before the Spinosaurus closed in on his next prey, ready to strike at the puny alien with a jab of a needle to inflict pain.

“How about you?” Carina pointed at Spino, the Raptor Squad exchanged awkward glances.

“Who? Me?” Spino asked just as the usurper beckoned him to come forward. One of the skeptics watched the large Spinosaurus come forward.

“I smell a trap.” A teenager whispered to the skeptic standing next to him.

“I know,” the skeptic smirked, “I wanna see if he'll go extinct after the shot.”

Spino was no coward, but he wasn't stupid either. There was no way he was going to let that alien inject whatever substance contained that syringe. Indy turned pale at the sight of the needle. Micah used a cotton swab to disinfect the area before vaccinating the massive dinosaur. He only felt a poke from the needle as the clear substance diluted into his bloodstream. A completely harmless procedure.

Carina had no intention of extracting the genetic component of the dinosaur. She didn't want to raise any suspicions, not yet anyway. She wouldn't risk herself getting caught. No, she needed the DNA of the Venusian to duplicate his powers. Why throw away the only shot of escaping with a gem because a bunch of dinosaurs have a vendetta against an egotistical Amoebian. In case any of the dinosaurs are onto her, she could take away the DNA of any of the onlookers. It doesn't necessarily require blood to extract the gene of the target, there are other alternatives and much simpler methods in achieving that goal.

Felix was outside the stadium as he gazed at the clean atmosphere, dark bark, elongated branches, verdant shrubs, colorful flora and strange species of birds that couldn't be found on Earth. He fished out the musket from his holster. Mewmi had exited the stadium to blow off some steam. She wanted to be alone, away from the sea of strangers that shuffled and chatted amidst themselves. She simmered for a while until she calmed herself down, as she climbed up a tree while she shapeshifted into her feline form as she perched herself among the branches and curled her tail around the branch. She could reach up to the fourth story of the stadium and spotted an empty window from afar. She noticed a silhouette walk past the window, her feline eyes closed and the only thing peculiar about the silhouette is that he walked with a staff to support himself, as the silhouette walked out  of her sight she got startled by the sound of a gunshot.

She looked down and saw a man wearing a poncho, a cowboy hat, a long-sleeved khaki shirt, camouflage trousers, brown cowboy boots as he raised his musket to aim at Mewmi, sensing her mana to shoot her down as he cocked the firearm.

Logan ran out of the passageway with the damaged drone in his arms. The tips of his hair frazzled.

“What happened to you?” Tr asked, looking at him up and down as if their team leader had escaped from a jungle.

“I was this close from getting shot by an automaton.” Logan snapped. “Look at what those Raves did to my baby!” The drone had not only been shot down, its hardware had been fried and its motherboard had melted inwards, rendering the slots of the SD slot and USB slot useless.

“Looks like getting the Rave parts was a lot more difficult than we thought.” Alexander commented.

“Would you stop talking about the parts! My baby is dead!” Logan held the drone.

“It's just a drone, we have plenty of those back at HQ.” Tr gave a dismissive hand wave.

“It wasn't just a drone. It held important information.” That important information being contacts, schematics, locations of Rave hideouts, codes, files. Both work related and recreational. He mostly mourned for the waifus, the recordings of sexy women he spied on, and the porno he lost in that drone. Not even the sight of Patricia's voluptuous breasts comforted him.

“We can get the information out of this guy.” Tr pointed at Brandon on the screen.

“Brandon? I doubt he'll be able to get what you're looking for, he's basically the stage technician.” Patricia commented.

“He's an ideal suspect. No one knows the ins and outs of the stadium better than him.” The supervisor added.

Brandon contacted Erica, and the phone kept ringing. The rubber duck inflated and deflated as Erica focused on revising the security cameras in search for any suspicious activity. Brandon was on his phone as he heard the voice mail. “I can't call at this time, I'm either busy at the moment or Clyde doesn't want to pick up the phone. Leave the message after the squeak.” The stage technician heard a dragged squeak from the duck before he rolled his eyes and left a voice mail.

“Erica, it's me. I call to warn you that there's been a recent hack. I took care of it, but a fraction of the footage has been deleted. Stay on guard. Call me back when you get this message.” Brandon hung up.

A footage of an elderly man with a long grey beard and a staff. “Hold on--” Erica rewinded the video before she played it again, “--is that Warlin?”

Clyde squeaked.