Part 3

Micah was driving her hovercraft to the gas station, the wind blowing her dark plum hair as she revved the engine to go faster. She heard a ring coming from her wrist watch, no doubt that it was Stella texting her. The Amoebian had no intention in reading whatever trivial nonsense she was sending her. I have far more important things to worry about. Micah thought as she drove off with her hovercraft.

Stella opened the shuttle of the spaceship, as she walked to her room to drop the shopping bags on the bed. The Izarian pulled out a shoe box, the top of the shoe box had a logo with the brand with the words Shoe-In with stylish typography. The one that she opened had black boots, she liked the design. Knee-length, hard fabric, good sole, it reminded her of the boots that she used to wear back when she was at the farm. The adrenaline of buying something new quickly faded, it wasn't the same anymore. Stella pulled out her mobile phone and texted Micah. Micah, I'm going to sign up for the tournament to get the poly-powered gem to fuel the spaceship. Wish me luck! Stella 9:26 AM. She sent the text, and put her phone back into her pocket before she put the shopping bags away start cooking an omelettes with vegetables as her next meal.

Micah parked her hovercraft at the parking lot, activating the lock of her hovercraft with the beeper. She got down the steps of the hovercraft to walk into an Advanced Spacecraft Store where they also sell parts, motors, engines, equipment, and repair the spacecraft with a good discount. Next to that store was the gas station that was categorized in fueling regular vehicles, hovercrafts, aircrafts and spacecrafts. The gas station had 4 stories which had brochures displayed by the entrance, it had food, snacks, dairy and cold beverages, scratch cards, and cigarettes of different varieties like an archaic gas station but it had a security system with scanners that can identify customers and workers alike by detecting facial expressions, body languange and fibers of clothing. If a gang of thieves attempted to rob the place, they would get electrocuted with the authorities arresting the culprits hours later.
If the delinquents were minors, their parents would receive a notification and a fine for attempted theft. The relatives would either accept to pay the fine or let their captive minor pay with community service. They would often choose the latter to teach discipline.

Micah entered the gas station to pay for the fuel on the go unbeknownst to her that one of her distant relatives was working there. The Amoebian in uniform wore an orange and forest green shirt with white stripes with the insignia of the gas station, Trojan Horse, which was just two capital letters on top of the other nearly linked like a chain.

Micah picked out milk, water, protein bars, and 5 portable fuel tanks. The second the Amoebian swiped her credit card on the scanner, all of her information popped up: her full name, her virtual ID, phone number, email, and bank account. The Amoebian that worked at the gas station read the data of her credit card. "Micah Arganism?" A nasally voice asked.

"Is there a problem?" Micah looked at the employee before her indifferent expression turned into bewilderment. "Mitis!?"

"Hey cous." Mitis greeted with a smile on her face. They looked similar as species, though the difference between them was evident. Micah had dark plum hair styled in a pageboy cut, wore black round goggles with yellow lenses and had eggshells skin color while Mitis had curly brown hair, oval rimmed glasses and pale lime green skin.

"Hi, Mitis," Micah greeted awkwardly while her cousin smiled, "how much does the spacecraft fuel cost?" She asked.

"The regular fuel costs 1,200 credits per gallon, the premium costs 1,500 credits per gallon." Mitis responded.

"I need 250 gallons of regular spacecraft fuel." Micah requested.

"It will cost you 300,000 credits." Mitis said matter-of-factly. At least the apple didn't fell too far from the tree, especially when Amoebians had hundreds if not thousands of relatives.

"That much?" Micah adjusted her goggles.

"If you want, I could offer a 15% discount." Mitis suggested with a cynical smile.

"Sure... why not." Micah obliged while Mitis scanned the products: Milk= 200 credits, 1 gallon of water= 150 credits, a box full of protein bars = 600 credits, 5 portable fuel containers = 7,500 credits, and the 250 gallons of regular spacecraft fuel= 300,000 credits. The total = 308,450 credits. With the 15% discount it would be a total of 262,183 credits.

Mitis gave the recycable bags with the conpany's logo emblazoned. "Your spacecraft fuel is ready, it's on the 4th floor, on aisle 3. Have a nice day." Mitis said in a singsong on the last sentence. Micah gave a fake smile before walking up the stairs.

Stella sang in the kitchen while she flipped her vegetable omelette before turning off the stove. With a white plate she ate the tasty omelette.

🚖

Carina sat at a hover taxi that would take her to the stadium which she paid in Pangaean currency. She acknowledged that the popular planet had interesting sites for tourism, but she wasn't there for sight seeing, she was here due to a fact that she had no other means of escape. The spaceship where she was staying belonged to a corrupted Cosmic Corsair, after she gave him the encrypted data of the I.B.I. he rewarded on one way trip to a 5 star hotel, he assigned her on a business meeting there to negotiate. Her hopes of lounging at a 5-star hotel were short lived when she had to trade illegal weapons, one of them being an atomic-morphing-accesory.

This illegal weapon can turn the user into any specimen registered by altering their genetic code to shapeshift into that creature. Let's suppose that a short Amoebian wants to turn into a human for a reconaissance mission to study human behavior. The user needs a sample in order to turn into that human specimen, it could be a blood sample or a drop of saliva to be placed in a small cartridge to insert the sample into the a-m-a so that the user can turn into a replica of the test subject. In others words, you turned yourself into that individual's double while maintaining your own personality. If the weapon falls into the wrong hands, there would be an increase in identity thefts and usurpers. Usurpers that could incriminate the original test subjects in crimes they wouldn't commit, even with advanced technology the usurper could use the victims DNA to falsely accuse them, with concrete evidence without the victim being in the scene of the crime in the first place.

Carina declined to sell a highly illegal weapon to the client, which was met with threats of desintegration. She snatched one of the ama's and threw the case of the illegal weapon's for them to desintegrate with their blasters. Carina escaped, then wounded a bystander to take a blood sample to shapeshift into that person. She may have the bystander's DNA but an Universal Teleporter can detect the original atomic structure of her genetic code and send it to the system of the E.C.O. which it will alert the I.B.I. and the U.W.P.P. She had been keeping a low profile for the last three months.

The hover taxi landed at her destination. "We're here." The taxi driver hollered.

"Thank you." Carina replied before getting off of the hovercraft.

Micah opened the lid of the fuel pistol to put the fuel on the portable fuel container. After she was done filling the last one, she sealed the lid and set the coordinates for the drones to deliver it to her spaceship. Micah took her phone out of her pocket when she received a notification from the gas station, after checking, she put her phone back into her pocket. The Amoebian decided to check on her watch to read what was the text Stella sent Micah, I'm going to sign up for the tournament to get the poly-powered gem to fuel the spaceship. Wish me luck! Stella 9:26 AM. That was nearly a half hour ago.

A tournament? Seriously Stella. Micah rolled her eyes, by the time she reached to the bottom floor she overheard the conversation Mitis was having with her coworker.

"Have you heard of Helico Baxter?" Mitis asked.
"Never heard of him, is he an Amoebian?" He asked while he sprayed on the windshield to clean.
"No, he's German! Hahah!" Mitis chuckled, her coworker wiped the windshield, ignoring her joke. "You have no sense of humor!"
"Even if I had four humors, I'd still tell you that your jokes aren't funny." The employee walked up to her and sprayed the desinfectant on her, making her flinch.
"What would you know?" Mitis glared at him.
"About comedy, a lot more than you apparently." The employee commented.
"Who asked you anyways!" Mitis grumbled.
"You did." He countered, Mitis crossed her arms while she checked on the roll of the receipt. "Are you Amoebians really like this?"
"Like what?" She asked.
"Talkative."
"Well, most of are." Mitis admitted. "Why do you care anyway?"
"I don't, but I'm waiting for my shift to end so that I can go to the tournament."
"You're not actually going to participate are you?" Mitis asked.
"Of course not, I'm gonna watch! As if I was gonna be dumb enough to compete. I don't care if they're giving away a poly-powered award, my head is worth more than 3 billion credits." The employee stated.

So that's why Stella signed up for the tournament. An electromagnetic crystal is not easy to find, let alone a poly-powered gem. Micah thought as she walked by.

"Thanks for dropping by!" Mitis chirped. Micah gave a thumbs up.

Stella ate her omelette and got changed for the tournament. She tried the outfits that she bought. First, she wore a the red dress with ruffled sleeves and red stilettos. Then, she changed her clothes to wear a green blouse, blue jeans, and a white jacket. Unsatisfied, she changed her clothes again to wear the black boots that she opened earlier with a matching tassled jacket, a buttoned up shirt and a khaki tassled bell shaped skirt. She took out a cowboy hat from one of the shopping bags and wore it on her head before she looked at herself in the mirror. She took a selfie with the outfit as she prepared to send a text message to her mother. Mom! I finally found a planet that has intergalactic signal. Plus I found an outfit that reminds me of you. I miss yall. #Homesick. Stella 9:53

After she sent the text, the spaceship sent an alert. Stella looked up in one of the security cameras before she spotted the drones approaching the perimeter before landing near the shuttle realeasing the latch that held the fuel tanks. The drones hovered away, returning whence they came.

🛰

Stella opened the shuttle to carry the portable fuel containers to the spaceships fuel tank. Micah returned with her hovercraft by the time Stella finished refueling the spaceship. Micah walked down the steps of the hovercraft before stepping on solid ground. "Nice get-up, getting ready for the tournament?" Micah asked her.

"I'm just wearing the outfits I bought. I'll go get changed before signing." Stella replied, no longer using her southern accent. Micah walked back to her hovercraft to grab the recycable bags and brought them inside the spaceship.

Carina walked towards the entrance of the stadium to buy her ticket, which cost her three thousand credits. "Have fun!" The receptionist chirped. Oh believe me, I will. Carina thought as she smirked. The femme fatale in her human disguise strutted her way inside the Gladitorium.

The Izarian got dressed to compete as she wore her cyan boots and matching headband, a red blouse that matched her eyes, black tights that made her black sequined jacket with puffy sleeves stand out and a yellow mini skirt. Though the Amoebian suggested her to remove the mini skirt, it would restrict her mobility. Stella proved her wrong when she stretched the yellow fabric before releasing it, adjusting itself back in place. Stella showed a satisfied smirk seconds before Micah waved a hand dismissively. The Amoebian put the gallon of water, then the milk in the fridge.

The employee from the gas station ended his shift and got ready to go to the tournament. His scruffy beard, trimmed, his clothes cleaned and his black shoes wiped. His resting grouch face turned into a small smile. When he stood in line to buy a ticket in the reception, he didn't expect to spot the same Amoebian that came to the gas station earlier.

"You came to watch the tournament too?" He asked.
"Obviously, my colleague wanted to compete in the tournament match." Micah replied before she looked at the male specimen behind her. "Haven't I seen you somewhere before?" The Amoebian asked.
"Yeah, I work at the gas station. Just got off my shift. My name is Baci Llus by the way."

Meanwhile, Stella Spacey signed up for the tournament. "Wait, what are these divisions for?" The Izarian asked.
"It's to ensure that the competitors fight within their own jurisdiction. There was going to be a gender based division, but since the division was discarded for the sake of diversity." The receptionist responded.
"There is a Magic Division?" Stella asked just as the recptionist took away the wrong form. "Yes, it's a division for fighters with supernatural abilities. Unfortunately, it's full. The Melee Division is still open if you're interested." The receptionist replied.
"I'm in! Where do I sign?" Stella grabbed the pen as the receptionist gave her a form of the Melee Division. The Izarian signed adding an asterisk next to the y of her surname. The receptionist accepted the form and put a stamp it to make it legitimate. The female receptionist tsked at the signature. Micah and Baci Llus paid for their tickets, once they enetered, the gem on the entrance of the stadium gave an eerie blue glow before it caused an electric surge, leaving the block of the city out of power after teleporting to their real destination.

Asterisk asterisk, enter at your own risk.

*⚔*