》MEANWHILE...

The Izarian farm girl sat near the Hue-Man with aubergine colored attire, and the blonde teenager. In the corner of her eye, Stella spotted an impoverished girl with brown shaggy hair and worn out rags along with rusted shackles that had broken links on her wrists and ankles.

"I'm gonna go play with Haeji." The shaggy haired hair chirped while the human teenager brushed her brown hair to the side with his fingertips.

"Sure, have fun." Ryan gave his approval just as she ran up to Shadow and to the young Asian teen whom Stella assumed to be Haeji. "Breloq, don't you think is odd that the match hasn't started yet?" Stella heard as looked at the teenager and a tall wind up doll with beady eyes, a zipper that reached to both of ends of his jaw, and pointed metal legs.

"Perhaps time works differently here." Breloq shrugged.

"That does make sense… I think," Ryan said tilting his head.

Haeji walked up to Ryan. "Hey Ryan, what's happening?" She looked up to Breloq. "So where's my book?"

Breloq pinched the corner of the book from the back of his pant pocket and pulls it out. He unzips his mouth and speaks, "Oh, was it not a present?" Ryan slaps Breloq's metal calf, making a slight ring.

"Honestly, I don't have a clue," states Ryan. "I was pretty much dragged into this… mostly by Breloq. He kinda just signed us up for the fight without our discussion. He has something in mind but he won't talk."

Stella heard them, now that she was looking at the human and the tall deity. It reminded her of the description Hexice gave her. A human, a 10 feet wind-up doll and a poverty stricken child.

"So I guess the battles aren't happening yet, so you wanna start a fire or spar?" Haeji asked him.

"Ugh," He groaned. "I'd rather do neither. The last fight I had was with fire that almost consumed the entire world. My world at that…" And that statement confirmed Stella's suspicion.

Stella stood up and went approached them. "Excuse me, I don't mean to interrupt but do any of you know of a 7ft tall man, with a spade eye and a diamond eye. He was looking for you." Stella asked them.

Breloq takes a step back as he hears the description of a '7 ft tall deity'. He groans, "That white snake somehow slithered himself into this place." He rubs his forehead thinking of what to do. Speaking to Stella, "Well, if you do meet him again, don't tell him where I am. I prefer not to be around him."

"What a bummer. He was really kind enough to give me a card reading too. Oh well." Stella took out my phone to erase the note since she already found them.

"BRELOQ!" Hexice hollered as he was walking near backstage, as he pivoted to the side, he saw a door that had a small opening. Not wanting to wait, he opened it as he found to be a dimly lit dressing room. The deity took a couple of steps forward as he found a mirror, and a man with a glossy complexion. Breloq looked at the mirror and the deity's porcelain skin looked immaculate, to this Hexice let out a smile, his white teeth letting out a shine of its own. Mirror looked at the 7ft deity and moved from his seat.

"Do you mind? I'm getting ready." Mirror spoke, something that he didn't like to do much despite having a smooth baritone voice that could attract women.

"You can talk!" Hexice put his hands on his cheek, feigning a gasp.

"Very funny." Mirror signed, though his face and body language showed annoyance. The creases of his translucent eyebrows furrowed.

"Thank you, I aim to please." Hexice replied using American Sign Language before translating it to Quebec Sign Language for no other reason than to rub salt in the wound or to simply spite the combatant.

"Why are you here?" Mirror signed his question, glaring at the deity.

"Just admiring the view." Hexice put his fists on his hips before he squinted at the flashy fighter, his spade eye narrowing. "Though by the looks of it, you don't look so good."

"Excuse me?" Mirror asked before Hexice took a glimpse of Mirror's future when his diamond eye opened. Hexice clicked his tongue disapprovingly before the deity arched his back.

"What a shame, your winning streak is about to run out. I'd be careful if I were you, you don't know what is going to happen next once you step in the arena." Hexice walked by the door. "Break a leg!" Hexice lifted his leg back like a naughty school girl as he said it before smiling sardonically as he creepily got out of the door. Mirror only met the stranger and he already hated him as he faintly heard the deity hollered Breloq's name in a singsong.

"Creep." Mirror signed.

The hostess, Johnathan and Eleanor entered backstage while Erica prepared the camera and Brandon, the setting. Adrian, Glen, Marie and Lizzy go to take their positions.
"Are the cameras ready?" The hostess asked, Erica gave a thumbs up as confirmation.

"I see someone entering the arena!" Ratu shouted. Herring, Faim, Annabell, Scale and Ryan took a peek at what was going on at the arena. They saw a bald man enter, followed by two women as they took their seats. Marie and Elizabeth sat on opposite side while Adrian sat at the middle. Glen already stood in the middle of the arena.

"Looks like the match is about to start." Maggie commented as the spectators focused their eyes on Glen before large screens slowly made its descent before giving a live broadcast.

"We're live at 5... 4... 3... 2..." Erica gave her the signal to go live.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen to what you've all been waiting for. I'm your host, Natalie--" As the hostess introduced herself for the viewers of their respective worlds to see, from the humble civilizations to the most advanced dimensions. Violet took a good look at the one responsible for orchestrating this event. "--And I'm proud to present--" Mirror took his cue to leave the dressing room, "--the Gladatorium. Where fighters from different worlds come to compete to test their strength, skill and ingenuity in the Arena. A chance to prove their worth not only to our judges, but to you who is watching the tournament today."

"That's right, Nat. We have a lot of competitors this year, starting from the strongest spellcaster to the average fighter." Johnathan stated.

"This year, the combatants will be placed in two categories: the Magic Division and the Melee Division." Eleanor added.

The screen panned out to show the hostess once more. "We will start the match with the Magic Division, after this, the Melee Division. I will clarify the rules of the tournament. Necromancy is strictly forbidden, and using magic to kill your opponent is also forbidden, by breaking any of these rules will result to being eliminated from the tournament. Once the fighter is blacklisted from the tournament, they will be banished from this stadium. PERMANENTLY. With that said, enjoy the show." The hostess stated before Erica cut the camera to show the advertisement.

Stella looked for the owner of the lipstick. The only suspects that she could see were as followed: Hwa Hae Ji, June Lily, Alexandra, Annabell, Phixa, Sora, and Violet. Shadow didn't count since dinosaurs don't use lipstick, unless she used an atom morphing device to shapeshift and Stella wasn't aware of. There was one way that she could think of to bring out the topic without raising suspition. Stella took out her phone to open a webpage of a make-up catalogue. NOVA, Stella's favorite cosmetic brand. 

Now for the interrogation.

Stella had interrogated half of the suspects, and so far... no results.

"Howdy! My name's Stella, and you are?" Stella asked, though Violet kept quiet. "Anyway, I found this in the ladies' room. Did you lose it?" Stella showed the rouge lipstick, though Violet shook her head. "Well, if you want any make up tips, you know where to find me." Stella walked away to ask the other suspects. "Is this yours?" Stella showed the lipstick to Annabell.

"No, not really, though now that I'm looking at it, it matches your eyes." Annabell commented as she looked at the Izarian.

"I know right."

"I prefer to wear a more natural look." Annabell said, taking her brown wavy hair out of the hood of her cloak. "It could work on Eros. He can wear anything and still look good, even without magic."

"Do tell." Stella prodded, their conversation lasted for a while. Annabell talked about Eros and some of his beauty tricks and tips. Stella talked about some of the make up products she tested. Scale was still staring at Stella from afar.

By the time the match between Astrid and Chris started, the Izarian interrogated the Arivex.

"No." Sora responded. Stella put the laser lipstick back into her pocket while she took a good look at the Arivex before she looked at the purple crystal that Sora wore around her neck.

"Nice pendant, where'd you get it?" Stella asked while Sora traced her thumb on the purple crystal.

"It's a dimension crystal. I found it in the cosmos when I was cornered. I've had it for almost 5 years now." Sora said.

"During my internship, I heard rumors about an abandoned mine that contained dimension crystals with a cosmic energy so strong that could create a supernova, or an explosion just as massive. That's why the DIT (Department of Intergalactic Transportation) recommended drivers to use electromagnetic gems as one of the power sources for spacecrafts for intergalactic and extradimensional travel. I'll warn you, the use of dimension crystals are banned in most galaxies. Cosmic corsairs and space pirates go to great lengths to obtain crystals like the one you're wearing." Stella explained.

"Good to know." Sora said plainly.

"Take care." Stella replied before she saw Astrid walked out of the arena. After Alexander calmed her down, Stella saw that her their black and blue jumpsuit didn't line up with the red lipstick. A hot pink lipstick could work with Astrid's pink streak on her platinum silver hair, and purple beanie but red. Not so much, so she discarded her as a suspect.

Stella saw the phoenix hybrid, she looked beautiful though the Izarian could tell that the Paradise phoenix looked nervous. I can do this, this is my chance to prove my worth as a Phoenix. Phixa felt that the sun's rays beaming. This is my chance to win. Phixa thought.

"Howdy." Phixa turned around to see the Izarian woman, her magenta hair wrapped in a ponytail, light grey skin, and bright red eyes. "My name is Stella, what's your name?"

"Phixa." She responded before she saw Stella take out a lipstick.

"Did you drop this?" The Izarian asked her.

"No." The phoenix hybrid responded.

"Bummer, it would look good on you with the sunny color palette you got goin' on. It brings out your red eyes." Stella commented.

"Uh, thanks." Phixa said before she heard her name being announced.

"Good luck on your match." Stella chirped before she saw Mirror. She had to admit that he was a handsome fella, he walked past her as he strutted his way to the arena.

The moment she eyed at the reflective surface of Mirror's skin she recalled the handwriting on the mirror from the ladies' room. That was Carina's handwriting, but Carina couldn't have escaped the planet she was on... could she? Stella thought before she had gone to the ladies' room.

Stella entered into the women's restroom and saw one of the janitors wipe away the lipstick from the mirror.

No!

Stella saw the squeaky clean mirror before the janitor walked away with the cleaning cart.

"No no no no no no." Stella blurted out in denial. "Dammit! I should've taken a snapshot!" How was she going to find her suspect now?

Baci Llus stood from his seat to go to the men's restroom while he left Micah snore. Carina took the opportunity to take a sample of Micah's saliva. The Amoebian's mouth was open while Carina took out a small, square shaped watch glass and held it while Micah's mouth hanged open, a string of saliva fell on the watch glass before the incognito spy sealed the watch glass with a cap, stood up and walked away.