》ON BREAK...

Once Micah and Baci Llus took their seats which was five rows behind the four human-looking individuals that wore a crystal necklace, each crystal necklace had a color that symbolized the four elements, it looked they were wearing a type of uniform only a dimension guardian would wear. 

Though the color of the uniforms varied, it was rare for these types of guardians to wander off from their post to spend down time on a fighting tournament.

"I can't wait for the match to start." Zack said his eyes looking at the arena, his orange crystal necklace dangling as he leaned in to the balustrade, hands clutched on the top rail.

"Easy Zack, we're only here for Sora, as soon as we find her, we're leaving." Thomas reminded him.

"No! I wanna see some action!" Zack whined.
"I hate to say it, but Thomas is right. We only came here to find Sora and if she's not here. There's not point to wait for her to magically appear." Stacey stated before she made a hand wave to emphasize to Sora's dimension hopping.

María's brown eyes spotted a girl that looked similar to Sora, though she wasn't an Arivex, the girl wore a purple cloak and was walking alongside a white haired wizard. No, the girl had brown eyes and was an inch shorter. Sora's eyes were blue, not brown.
"I'm getting a snack." María said as she stood from her seat.

"When is the tournament going to start?" They overheard Zack say while the two people that were sitting next to him glare at him. "I was just asking, sheesh!"

"If I hear you ask that one more time, we're leaving!" Thomas warned.

"Oh c'mon, Tom! Do you really wanna go back home now?" He looked at Thomas in disbelief, "You really wanna go back home to wear a friggin' face mask?! Well I'm not goin'! I'm staying here." Zack pouted, his arms crossed before María came back with a bag half full of fish chips.

"I'm gonna go powder my nose." Stacey said as she stood up, her braided black pony tail whipped to the side.
"You gotta be kidding." Thomas gritted his teeth.
"You wish!" Stacey remarked before heading down the stairs.

Then Baci Llus stood from his seat to buy a bag full of peanuts. Micah took her smartphone out of her pocket and texted Stella.

Have you met the other competitors yet? 
Micah 10:34 AM

The Amoebian typed before sending the text. Stella receceived a ping from her cellphone and she checked her text messages.

No, not yet. 
Stella 10:34 AM

Micah read the text that Stella sent and put her smartphone back into the pocket of her lab coat.

The hostess locked her office as she headed to the restroom. Stacey dried her hands by the time the hostess arrived. The human-Arivex hybrid was behind Baci Llus, waiting in line to buy a snack while the blue skinned alien bought a bag of peanuts, popcorn with lemon lime soda and walked out of the line.

Sora stood to order while an employee named Katherine was behind the cash register. "I would like a BLT with cheese, peppers, pastrami and honey mustard." The Arivex requested as the employee made the delicious sandwitch, her face glowing like a precious gem.

Stacey returned to her seat, crossed her legs, leaned back with arms crossed to deliberately ignorine the gaze of her coleagues.

"Anyone else?" Thomas interrogated, glaring daggers at his coworkers, expecting one of them to leave their seats at any moment.

"Now way! I already told you that I'm not leaving." Zack made it perfectly clear.

"Good." Thomas replied harshly. Baci Llus returned with peanuts, popcorn and lemon lime soda, all for himself.

Scale entered the stadium and was instantly overwhelmed by the the sheer number of people that are there to fight for the honour and riches that they could receive. He looked around to see all the different species from across the world and planets from far off galaxies. There were Deities, there were humans, there was extraterrestrial life and even raptors. Some had the use of magic on their side and others only had their wit, determination and courage. Scale however, had none of these traits, he had never even fought and now his winning depended on the survival of his friends' species.

He decided to meet his opponent so as to put his mind at ease and perhaps if he was lucky, find out any weaknesses.

Meanwhile Blade, Melon and Grim sat in their seats. Melon's head lovingly rested against her boyfriend's chest. She felt his diaphragm move up and down, she turned to him and gently planted a kiss before saying, "It will be okay, no matter the outcome, we will protect the shadow realm." He gived her a glimpse of a smile, before then turning his head over towards his brother.

Grim sat there, maliciously waiting for the tournament to begin. He was adamant that this bet that he beheld was not one that he could lose. Armed with some buttered treat that he stole from a fellow spectator. He sat comfortably and gleefully in one of the velvety chairs of the stadium.

He turned around and with a wicked smile turns the person behind him and says, " I wish death was allowed in this arena. It would make it so much more, entertaining."

Maggie, a dark-clad magician, blinked her yellow eyes while her cat Jinx glared at Grim.

"My peanut butter popcorn!" Baci Llus was irate that he got robbed of his snack. Luckily, the Amoebian that sat next to him offered a similar snack.

"Here! I have plenty." Micah gave him a bar made out of trail mix.

"You said that your friend was competing. Who is it?" Baci Llus asked.

"Stella, she's not hard to miss." Micah commented before she took a bite from her granola bar.

The Izarian woman with magenta hair walked down the hall before she found other competitors from the Melee Division. "Howdy!" She greeted in a southern drawl. Some of the competitors looked at her. "Is this the Melee Division?" Stella asked.

"Yea, you're in the right place." A blonde muscular man confirmed as he approached her. "My name is Faim." He introduced himself as he gave a lopsided smile that softened his slightly rugged appearance.

"Nice to meet you." Stella responded with a smile on her face. "My name is Stella."

Carina headed to the restroom when she spotted a familiar Izarian walk out of the waiting room to powder her nose. Well look what the space cat dragged in... her feline eyes locked on the alien farm girl, never thought I see you around here. Carina thought as she saw Stella enter in one of the stalls. The Cat's Eye spy followed her into restroom, closing the door as it slowly creaked itself shut.

Stella entered the stall and locked it before lowering her yellow mini skirt along with her black tights to sit on the toilet while Carina looked in the mirror to put on her lipstick. After putting on the lipstick she thought of a harmless prank, Carina pulled out a rouge lipstick and wrote something on the mirror before setting the lipstick laser to activate via voice command and changed the password to activate the laser and took out some chewed bubblegum that she found from under the sink and glued the bottom of the lipstick laser next to the stall where Stella was. Carina bolted out of the women's restroom when Stella grabbed the toilet paper. After wiping off her biological waste, the used toilet paper was thrown into the trash bin full of used toilet paper and rolled up menstrual pads. Stella hiked up her yellow mini skirt and black tights before unlocking the stall to read what was written on the mirror with rouge lipstick. A star doodled above the quote. "You'll burn out like a star." Then she saw a red light coming out behind her from her reflection before she ducked as the light from the laser hit the doodled star and reflected to where her head would've been if she hadn't dodged in time. The laser burned a hole in the stall where Stella was. The Izarian looked at the damage, then the laser and when she found the lipstick laser glued next to the stall with chewed gum. She rolled the lipstick as the laser reduced in width until it got deactivated. As she held the miniature weapon she looked at the writing on the mirror, it had a similar signature to Carina's.

No... no! I won't obsess about Carina. Not today! She thought while she glared at the mirror before walking out of the women's restroom.

Micah got out of the stall to wash her hands, she took off her black gloves and threw them away in the trash bin, she washed her hands on the sink, when she was about to leave, she noticed something written on one of the mirrors. "You'll burn out like a star." Something smelled like it was burning alright. In the mirror, she saw a hole in the stall door, the bottom edge of the hole was melting at a slow pace though some of the edges looked crispy. Thankfully there was no one injured unless it was directed for someone in particular.

"Stella!" Micah ran out of the restroom as fast as she could, until she found the Izarian talking to one of the raptors.

"Hi there!" Stella politely, but I don't know if they heard me. Stella asked politely, hoping that they could hear her.

"Scientifically," started Suzanne, "palm reading is an incorrect form of divination, which is incorrect unto itself. Only humans do that stuff." Blue began to form a ball of fire in her claws. "That idiot needs a fire bath," she said, eyeing Hexice. 

"Like you said it is for humans. I, a deity, do the readings for people who fail to accept their reality," Hexice explained which made Patricia fume from afar off.

Stella saw a 7ft tall man arguing in front of the Raptors. Shadow smirked at Indy. "Whoops, you got some attention pointed at you," She laughed. Indy flapped her wings, and a little puddle of water on the floor turns to ice. "I've got my attention on him too, because I think his hands are rather petit." Suzanne agreed. "Yes, I can smell his blood from here. I'd judge it's an O type and--" Shadow flinged a finger bone at her.

"Suzanne! Shut up with the math already!" She sniffed. "I am only paying proper respect to some subjects." She pointedly drains another bowl of blood.

Hexice erected his back and turned to the lizards. "Please understand that I am not human, nor do I have blood." He placed a finger on his shoulder and nicked it. No blood appeared. "But if you insist on trying to eat me." He broke off his pointer finger, revealing an abyssal inside. A couple of seconds later, his finger grew back. He tossed the broken finger at the scaled dogs. "There is your appetizer. Being eaten is nothing new. So not arousing." Hexice finally got out of the crowd. The place wasn't that big, nor was it close to a labyrinth to get lost, yet he has yet to find Ryan, Breloq or Felin. "Did I miss them? Are they fighting already?" He thought to himself as he rubbed his pointed chin. 

"What is she DOING?!" Micah blurted out as she started to sweat while she watched the Raptors talking to Stella, fearing for her safety.  

"Oops. When was the last time you brushed your teeth Ripper?" Ripper rolled over to conceal his scars. "Ummm… a while ago.
Shadow took out a bag of potato chips, the phone and started texting and eating. 

Stella received a text message from Micah.

Stella, get the VOID outta there!
Micah 10:38 AM

Why? 
Stella 10:38 AM. 

Those 🦖 s will bite your 🦲 OFF!
Micah 10:38 AM

You don't know that.
Stella 10:38 AM

Yet you would go to a stranger to get your palm read.
Micah 10:38 AM

There's a palm reading booth?! WHERE!? 
Stella 10:39 AM. 

Then Micah sent Stella an emoji.

Micah 10:39 AM

Stella pocketed her phone before she asked the dinosaurs, "Are any of you going to fight in the match? I signed up to compete."

A red eyed, dark Indoraptor raised a hand. "I will. My friends are spectators." She paused a second. "Where do you come from? I didn't think many worlds had phones."

"I'm from planet Izar, but my friend and I took a pit stop on a planet that was announcing the tournament." Stella replied.

"My name is Stella," the Izarian stretched out her hand to the black and purple Indoraptor to get a hand shake, "Stella Spacey."

Shadow shook her hand. "Shadow Vividstripe."

"And on that note, I have no interest in your scales and claws." He then turns to Stella. Giving a wide smile, he stared at her with his spade eye. He shuffled the deck and spread them in front of her. "Pick 3 cards."

"Oooooh!" Stella picked the three cards that caught her interest. Hexice looked at the cards Stella drew: 2 of cups, 8 of wands, knights of swords.

"Ah…" he exhaled. "All images are upside down. A dissonant bond that lead to internal dismay and impulses. To all which ends with a burn out. But worry not. This is simply a warning." 

"Dang." She paused for a second while trying to keep a straight face. "At least its better than the reading I received at a casino in Pinwheel Galaxy." 

"Perhaps, when this is over you can visit my casino," Hexice chuckled. "Well, not exactly mine, but I do oversee the players. You know, make sure that they are not cheating. Quite a boring job when I know they will just step past the threshold."

"Not sure I'll be stepping in a casino anytime soon." Stella admitted, remembering how bad her pursuit towards Carina went.

"I can see I am not getting anywhere anytime," Hexice sighed. He took off his black cloak and flipped it inside out. He wrapped it around his waist and turned into a skirt. Then, took out his long brim hat and wore it. "Why is that? Luck not on your side?"

Stella recalled Carina escaping the casino in Pinwheel Galaxy leaving thousands of hooligans and gamblers injured while she chased after with galactic guns and blasters. "You can say that."

"Then allow me to add," he leaned closer to Stella. His diamond eye opened. The pupil shined golden yellow. "Let's just hope you don't burn out like a star." He gave her a wide smile showing his pure white teeth.

Then it reminded Stella what happened a while ago in the restroom. Carina snickered in the background.

"I hope so." She smiles back at Hexice.

"I really need to be on my way." He said, pivoting on his toes. "If you see a human with a 10 feet tall wind up doll and a poverty stricken child, let me know."

"Sure thing." She said as she took out her phone and a stylus to take notes muttering human with a 10 ft wind up doll and poverty stricken child as she walked out of the scene.

The hostess held the form that Patricia gave her. Shadow Vividstripe. "Thanks for bringing the form. Now I can finally start the tournament." The hostess archived the name and sent it to the database.

A/N: The characters featured in this chapter belong to their original owners.

Originally co-written by JohnathanSmith026, PenguinMaestro, Spectrisla and yours truly.