Stella saw the hostess laugh as she saw her sit down on the desk chair.

“Howdy, I'm here to sign up for tonight's round.” Stella spoke.

“Sure,” the hostess sniggered as she picked up the form for the Redemption Round and a pen as she past it to Stella, “I hope you had fun in the tournament.”

“It was a rollercoaster, that's for sure.” Stella replied as she read the form.

“It's my first time hosting and I still can't believe how well it's going so far.” Now that the hostess mentioned it, she almost forgot about Buid's omission that could've resulted in a law suit.

“What's with the clause related to The Gauntlet?” Stella asked.

“That is where tonight's match will be held, you have to stay clear of some areas that could be hazardous.” The hostess warned.

“So that explains the clause for the  won't-be-responsible-for-any-deaths in the form.” Stella mentioned bluntly.

“At least there was a warning in the contract. Many of the competitors that have participated throughout the years throw caution to the wind.” The hostess mentioned for what she could guess.

“Not many shareholders are keen in showing transparency to their clients about their business since they're mostly concerned about making a profit or maintaining their interests.” Stella remarked absentmindedly, unable to tell that it was a warning or her usual response as she reread the form.

“That is what makes my team different from one of those giant companies. This project was built from a mutual bond, a common goal to create an experience. That's why the Collaboration Colosseum was a pitch to encourage fighters from different worlds to join together, not only to fight, but to make friends. It's like a community.” Before the hostess could ramble any further, Stella signed the form and gave it to her.

“It was nice knowing you, Mrs. Host.” Stella said out of courtesy, and to stop hearing the spiel that was probably rehearsed.

“Likewise.” The hostess smiled just as the Izarian space cadet walked out of the office. As Natalie looked at the signature, she spotted the doodled asterisk.

Well, she signed up at her own risk.

After not-Micah vaccinated Spino, the curious clients wanted turns to get vaccinated. The Raptor Squad, incredulous of how feeble minded the humans—and other species demanding to take the vaccine were. Baci Llus was drinking his beverage when he spotted the real Micah as she walked in drinking her cocoa capuccino.

"I can't believe how stupid most of these humans are." Bary said.

"Tell me about it," Micah, the real one, commented before taking another sip of her capuccino. “Those species survived for over 8 milennia and they remain as primitive as their ancestors.”

"Wait," Baci Llus came in, "if you're here, then who's the other one over there?"

"That's an usurper." Micah replied as she drawed out another sip.

"An usurper?" Spino bulged his eyes at the uncanny resemblance.

"Usually, I'd go over there and apprehend the imposter, but since I'm on my break--" Micah shook her cocoa, "--they're your problem now."

"Why?" Blue was confused.

Spino snorted, "It just makes s e n s e, doesn't it. Micah is an alien. RIGHT? They could pick anyone else but they picked Micah."

“For once, I agree with you. No one can replicate my genius self and get away with it.”

"I still think that's dumb," grumbled Blue.

“I can't believe I let that imposter inject me.” Spino said as he looked at the bandage where Carina injected him.

"Does that mean she can change into a ghast?" Blue was appalled that the imposter might gain her powers.

“If they collected a sample from the ghast, they might.” Micah replied.

Stella walked past the lounge and strolled by the stands, one of them was being held by a tall lady with a purple ao dai, an updo with some braids wrapped around it and two hairsticks stabbed through at the back as she introduced herself.

“Hello, fellow beings. I am Tantetra, Deity of Discipline, and I am here to give a lesson. Us deities and where we came from.”

Stella walked past the kiosk while some curious bystanders flocked to see if the Deity of Discipline would offer anything that could pique their interest.

The usurper didn't expect her objective to get derailed so quickly. She only opened up an abandoned kiosk for the sole purpose of extracting the genetic component of a powerful Venusian along with his powers to steal the gem under the guise of a vaccination and abscond from the stadium to power her spacecraft and to live on a planet off grid from the I.B.I.'s interference and colonization. As convincing as the tools and tests diaplayed to simulate a vaccination kiosk, she didn't expect to attract a number of curious critics. Those critics being random strangers, speculators, and bored passerbyers who had nothing better to do than watch.

The first curious passerbyer looked at the sign, read it, and asked, “What's Covid?”

Carina, acquired the Amoebian instinct to react replied along the lines of “a virus.”

Another question came in, “19? What happened to the other 18?” Carina was scowled behind the face mask.

“If you habe further questions related to the Coronavirus, you can search for the CDC website for further information about the virus.” Carina lied, the CDC didn't provide information related to the virus, it only offered information about the vaccine and its side effects. Unfortunately, there was no vaccine for stupidity.

“What are those?” A little girl asked, pointing at the tests displayed.

“Thise are the tests.” Carina replied mimicking Micah's nasal tone.

“For what?” The little girl insisted.

My patience. Carina thought, then replied, “The virus.”

“What are the symptoms of the virus?” A man asked, coming from a world akin to the dark ages he was curious about the phenoma.

Carina got creative with her response.

“The symptoms are quite common; headaches, coughs, nausea, respiratory problems, kidney failure, immune system fails, deprivation of oxygen, and cardiac arrest which could result in death. Highly contagiuos I might add.” Carina replied while she smiled sadistically behind the face mask.

“That's just a wife's tale.” He discredit her claim.

“It's like the Bubonic Plague of the 21st century, the only difference is that this virus spread throughout the planet in a span of a month claiming millions of lives. Instead of decaying, it destroys your internal organs first from the inside out.” The man fled.

If only the fear fueled the others to do the same but instead, they demanded to get vaccinated. The line got bigger by the time the Raptor Squad spotted her, believing that Carina was Micah.

After the Raptor Squad plotted to prank her, she used the opportunity to vaccinate one of them, despite this, they persisted in exposing her.

Carina was already annoyed by their antics, and it wasn't the worst part, the worst part was that Micah joined forces with the Raptor Squad to pester her with questions such as: “What are the long term effects of the vaccine?” “Can the vaccine alter my DNA?” “Which variant of the Coronavirus is most deadly?” The usurper responded dispeled the question with a logical response.

“The vaccine, like any other, has antibodies to protect the recipient from any viruses. The long term effects may vary from person to person. For example, one person may be immune to the virus after receiving a dose from the vaccine while another could have an undiagnosed allergic reaction to one of the ingredients once the recipient takes a dose of the vaccine. It doesn't alter your DNA nor causes any genetic mutation. The RNA is the cell that registers the information of the virus and copies the traits of the virus to produce antibodies to defend itself. It's common knowledge people!”

“I repeat, which variant of the Coronavirus is the most deadly?” Shadow asked.

“The Delta variant being the most dominant as of yet. Do you want to get vaccinated or not?” Carina countered whilst she prepared a syringe.

Blue signalled Shadow to not take the vaccine.

“No thanks, I don't trust shady shapeshifters.” Shadow's comment made the real Micah chortle and wheeze. An Indoraptor with shapeshifting powers and poisonous saliva flatly refusing to take a vaccine from an usurper that could potentially saved them or doom them.

A partially drunk eyewitness murmured, “So that's how they went extinct.”

Stella heard Micah cackle from a 20 mile radius, it must be something funny if it got the usually monotonous Amoebian to burst with laughter. That, or the caffeine.

When she arrived, she found a line of people while the Raptor Squad annoyed another Amoebian, not knowing that it was Carina. Stella saw the alien taking samples of the clients. The usurper wore the face mask and scrubs and hadn't noticed Stella yet.

Brandon was eating lunch, he took a swig from his favorite coffee before eating a bowl of rice with ramen, chick peas and cicken nuggets with cajun sauce.

Supervisor Penumbra took a chicken salad to go with jam filled donuts when she took a once-over at Brandon and sat on the table where he was and they kept each other company while they scarfed down the food.

A conversation wasn't needed since they understood each other, they were more focused on eating than talking. Penumbra opened the cap of a water bottle and drank it, then took out another bottle for Brandon.

Even though Brandon was stubborn to accept it since he preferred to pay for his own stuff, the pandemic being another factor that took place. However, since he already ate food from an estblishment, there was no harm in taking the water his coworker gave him for testing. Brandon reached his arm and took the bottle, as much as he needed caffeine to stay active on the job, it doesn't detoxify the stomach or wash away the yellowing of the enamel.

So he drank nearly half of the bottle.

“Hey, Stella, are you going to take a shot of the vaccine?” Micah prompted while Spino scrolled through Micah's flipbook for the list of intergalactic criminals.

“Wow, there is a looooooong list of criminals.” Spino said while Blue, Ripper, Indy and Bary looked at the long alphabetized list, ranging from thousands of criminals.

“You're basically skimming through the lite version of the records. If you had the original, it would be longer than your collective ancestries combined.” Micah replied casually, not bothering to look at them.

Indy got spooked when one of the aliens she found looked like a humanoid urchin. The Urchinosapien, or the Trypanoplan, considered to be paficist creatures residing in woodland areas, mountainous regions, the aquatic equivalent of their subspecies reside in fresh waters. The sharp quills of the female Trypanoplan are much larger and pricklier than the male. The criminal Trypanoplan was charged with cyanide poisoning and mass homicide, most likely pinned with attempted genocide since its kind are considered an endagered species by the I.B.I. though it didn't prevent the grey skinned Indoraptor from cringing from the sight of needles.

A nurse had finished eating from the food court and headed on her merry way to work, as she walked down the hall, she couldn't ignore the small group of people sitting nearby, waiting to take their test. Around the corner of her eye, she witnessed a larger group of people waiting to get their fair share of immunization.

“What is this?” The nurse headed closer to the kiosk Carina was borrowing and the people waiting for their turns to get tested, and hopefully vaccinated. The healthcare professional could plainly see the inconsistencies. Where are the vaccination cards? The forms and references that confirm the validity of the procedure? Who was this individual wearing the scrubs. And more importantly, did this nurse have an ID?

Stella was in line with the others before a real nurse came in. “Excuse me!” The nurse hollered before the usurper had spotted the uniformed nurse standing next to Stella.

“Yes?” The usurper queried.

“Who authorized you to open this kiosk?” The nurse questioned vehemently.

“I took the initiative to open this kiosk. It's basic protocol to inform and orientate the patients about the virus or any other equivalent to stay up to date and maintain the well being of the populace.” The usurper countered.

“Ugh, sounded rehearsed.” One of the bystanders commented.

“Like a politician.” Another whispered.

“Is that so?” The nurse asked, chin raised as she gave a once-over at not-Micah. “Then where is your ID?”

“Getting laminated, unlike your faded ID card. When was it the last time you properly punched out, broad?” Stella heard the usurper's barb.

That totally sounded like something Micah would say. Stella thought to herself. Wait, she sounded just like Micah!

Micah removed her goggles, the creases around her beady eyes arched with joy and her puny irises beam. “That's definitively like me.”

“You should lay off the coffee.” Baci Llus commented.

“You! Take off your goggles!” Stella commanded, pointing at the usurper.

“No! I'm not risking my safety. The virus enters through the orifices, including the eyes.” The usurper countered. “If you'll excuse me, I have other people to attend.” As the usurper turned around, Stella removed the cap revealing the purple bob. Surprise surprise, same hair as Micah's to which the usurper flipped.

“Fraud!” The nurse shouted.

The usurper extracted a sample of the nurse's blood with with a quick poke of a needle that was attached to the atomic-morphing-appliance.

Stella caught the usurper before the usurper smirked. “You'll burn out like a star,” The laser lipstick activated, “Stella Spacey.” As it tore a hole on the front pocket of Stella's sequined dark jacket. It pierced through the usurper's body as a gush of green goo poured out from the scrubs.

Stella released the usurper as the scrubs were covered in goo as she took off the scrubs, only wearing gloves, boots, a face mask and goggles. Micah blushed from second hand embarrassment as the usurper bled and regenerated, revealing its nudity shamelessly. It's as if the crowd was staring at your clone while the double exhibited themself stark naked. The awkwardness.

Imagine the Raptor Squad sniggering. But in reality, they were confused.

“It can regenerate?” Bary said.

“Is that how Amoebians look like?” No genitalia was seen, just skin. Amoebians had glutes, arms, legs, eyes and orifices, but no genitalia nor mammary glands.

“I have no idea to be honest.” Baci Llus admitted as he thought about how Mitis would look like in this situation.

Amoebians have an urethra hidden within their pelvis, that can be opened to urinate and a rectum to defecate, but that's it.

Baci Llus slurped on his straw awkwardly as he tried to get the mental image of his coworker out of his head.

The false Amoebian dropped a smoke bomb.

A dense smoke cloud enveloping the area blocking the vision of the eyewitnesses. By the time the smoke cleared, Micah was robbed of her cocoa capuccino.

“My cocoa!” Micah cried.

“There's the freak!” A bystander pointed, accusing the real Micah this time. The Amoebian felt the glares descending on her.

“Wait! Isn't that the small cosplayer that's been yammering about users?” Another onlooker asked, scratching his head.

“Usurpers. U-sur-pers.” Micah corrected.

“Looks like a publicity stunt to me.” Spoke the same bystander.

“Or a scene straight out of a sci-fi movie.”

“Is there a hidden camera somewhere?” Another bystander darted his eyes looking for an imaginary camera, unless it was a camera Shadow had surreptituosly hidden somewhere and no one knew about it.

“No, only security cameras.” The nurse clarified.

“We'll get to the bottom of this,” Stella started, “I apologize for the inconvenience.” The apology was directed to the nurse, though the onlookers were the ones that wanted answers.

“Crud, break time is over.” Which meant that Micah had get her Flipbook back from the Raptor Squad before they could tamper with the files, even if it meant hopping high enough to catch the device back from the large Spinosaurus.

Stella caught up to the Amoebian before removing her squined black jacket to reveal her red frilly blouse. The nurse informed the onlookers that it had been a scam, the people grumbled, complained and dispersed.