Phixa was out in an opening practicing to be the best like her mother. She danced out in the field with fire around her. Part of her was worried and scared for the tournament since she has participated in many and lost all of them. "I have to get stronger before my match. I have to get stronger before my match," Phixa chanted to herself as she summoned more fire. She tried to concentrate but she couldn't with her mind roaming with doubt.

"You're a weak Phoenix, you're a weak Phoenix." 

"Everything in Paradise is supposed to be perfect, yet you were born half human?" 

"You're a Phoenix, you're supposed to be perfect." 

"Damn it!" Phixa cursed and her fire dispersed. She dropped down on the lime green grass and stared up at the Sun and sighed, "What would Mom do?" She closed her eyes and thought about it. She'd go out and make friends. I should do same." Phixa spread her wings and took to the sky in search of someone.

Alex jumped out from around a corner, struck a heroic pose with fists on her hips, and shouted in a deep, bold voice, "I am here!"
A moment later, though, rolling her shoulders, she slouched back into her usual posture. "Sorry. It was too good a reference to miss. Sup, I'm Alex." 

Shadow looked around and snapped her jaws. "I'm hungry, I wanna eat you." Astrid backed away from the Indoraptor as she stood behind Master Yin.
Shadow looked at everyone. "Y'all are pretty fat. Yum." She flicked her tail happily.
Alex remembered her wings the moment she saw the group of raptors approaching, and immediately took to the sky. Now, perched atop the nearest wall, she studied them, torn between a childhood urge to go play with animals and the more reasonable instinct to avoid things with sharp teeth. Are the raptors... talking? Okay, that's awesome. "Anyone know what's happening now?" Alex finally called out. Haeji took out her scythe while Faim took a fighting stance.
"Weren't dinosaurs supposed to be extinct?" Faim asked.
"Wow, humans!" said Ripper in disbelief. "Cut it out, Shadow. I've never seen humans except as experiment subjects in Rexy's lab." Blue giggled. "They were very uncooperative, weren't they? Didn't want me to feed them rat poison and see what happens." Scale didn't like where this conversation was going.
"What did you expect? How would you feel if someone tried to feed you poison!?" Faim snapped at the menacing Indoraptor, though Scale doesn't know the blonde competitor, at least he had some common sense. Blue snarled at Faim. Shadow taps her sickle claw and settles into a sitting position, watching everyone. "Oh, hello," Shadow said, looking at Alex. "You're… different than the humans I've met. Are you a hybrid?" Ignoring Hwa Hae Ji, she peers interestedly up. Phixa descended near the edge of the arena, as she looked around she saw a hooded girl wearing a cloak. May be she could be her friend. As she entered the threshold she was behind Annabell. Alex was startled by Shadow's question about her being a hybrid. She realizes that she's not entirely sure what she's become in this dimension. 

Indy unfolded her camouflaged wings, and the claw at the tip scythed through the air menacingly as she gave a hard stare at Hwa Hae Ji. "She really is skinny, and far too much of a hatchling to be playing with big human toys."
"Hey, did you call me skinny?..." Hae Ji said as she looked at the ground. "Hmph, you need to get your eyes checked." She swung her scythe at Indy, as Shadow dodged the knife that Hwa Hae Ji flung, the fight prevented Alexandra from forming an answer.

A second thought, making friends in the tournament wasn't such a good idea. Phixa thought as her wings shielded her torso.

Hae Ji quickly put the knife on Shadow's neck. "Hmm, you should've kept your mouth shut." Shadow said as she purposely missed Blue's neck to scare Hae Ji. 

Shadow snapped at Hwa Hae Ji and suddenly her knife ws lying ten feet away and her sickle claw was on the Korean thief's neck. Blue laughed and nibbled the dagger "Hard. Not tasty," she said. 

The other cometitors looked in shock as they as the Indoraptor loomed over at the girl with heterochromic eyes. Shadow giggled. "Usually I'd slice your intestines like this… and your insides would spill out, and when we eat you, you'd still be alive. Or of course I could pierce your windpipe… but since my bite is poisonous it'd be amusing to see you die, your eyes veined with black… then you'd make a rather tasty and dead meal, skinny hatchling." Shadow let Hwa Hae Ji slink away and snickered. That's the girl who got her reference, Alex realized. They've barely talked, but Alex feels the loose camaraderie of a shared fandom.

Scale saw this kind of behavior sickening, if Grim had seen this, he would get a kick out of this situation. "I get to keep the scythe." Shadow looked at the scuff in her armor that the knife made. "Polish will work well." Shadow laughed and pinned Hwa Hae Ji to the ground with my claw. "You do know that I have a poisonous bite and impenetrable armor… so that didn't work." Again, Shadow let her leave and walked away to talk with Blue about that nasty hatchling who has absolutely no respect.

She hopped down, prepared to summon her swords at the first sign of trouble. It was hard to say whether the fight was really over or if this was just a lull. "Hey! Let's all save the fighting for the tournament." She surprised herself with her own boldness, but from the resentful looks of both parties, she couldn't tell if her own intervention worked. 

Phixa saw the authority and boldness in Alexandra akin to a Phoenix. Is she a Phoenician? Certainly she never saw her back in Paradise. She's a hybrid, just like me. Phixa thought, her red eyes fixated on her.

"Hmph, guess I'm not strong enough... as always. And you… give me my scythe back… my brother gave it to me… GIVE IT BACK." Hwa Hae Ji demanded.

Shadow nodded. "Ok. I'll give your kitchen knife back too." She nods at Alex. "Someone's finally got sense I see. Good job. Most humans would lock hybrids like me in a cage for people to ogle at… so even knife girl over there is an improvement." Shadow commented before looking at the other participants. "So what are your names anyway? I am Shadow, this is Ripper and Indy, and that is Suzanne and Bluefen. Though you can just call her Blue." An awkward silence filled the room before Hwa Hae Ji took the first step to introduce herself. 
"I'm Hwa Hae Ji, but I guess you can call me Haeji."

Glad that everyone is being reasonable,  Alex mentally repeats 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 was 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 hyperventilating 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 unexpected twist led 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 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's 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.