The trio of Gwyn, Rheba, and Harlan began to walk down the colorful streets of Nun. Rheba kept her eyes focused forward while Harlan kept hers pointed to the ground. Gwyn looked all around at everything there was to see. Each Needaimus hung on their respective mortal’s shoulder. The trio found that walking through the city and driving through the city, as they had done prior, offered two very different experiences.
All around, coupled with the many lights and colors, there was an abundance of din. People walking and talking made sounds of merriment, anger, peace, and calm. Machines on the streets echoed their engines through the tall buildings, and assortments of buzzers, whistles, and instruments could be heard occasionally. All the sounds merged into a mess of noise around the trio.
“What’s that?” Gwyn tried asking a couple of times, and Harlan would answer him quietly, at least compared to the rest of the city. From her point of view, she had to be louder than ever just so the Nonpareil could hear her words.
Rheba rubbed her chin as she walked through the town. She had heard stories about Nun and how it was devoid of any plant life, and she had some inkling from broadcasts on the tablets. As they pressed on, she saw how true it was. Her own home had their cities and towns built into, and alongside, a dense jungle. She had often noticed how other nations would be considerate of having some plants: Aqueenians valued a ritual green space, Hobusians valued beautiful rock and plant combinations, and Netzians lined trees and flowers in rows next to their streets, but Nun was devoid of any.
The Bentulousian warrior did her best to focus her gaze forward to avoid getting too distracted. She wondered if she understood how Gwyn felt since, for the first time, she felt as if she had gone to another world.
Harlan did her best not to put both of her clawed hands over where her ‘ears’ would be. She found the city far too overwhelming and anxiety-inducing and wished she was back in the tiny, quiet Aqueenian village where the team had had their campout. After a moment of thought, she shook her head and instead wished to be back in her personal lab.
“Are we even finding anything out? Maybe we ought to take a break?” Gwyn asked after a while.
They had walked through the streets, but they had not made any progress on their mission other than taking in the sights.
Rheba was the only one who read the tablet provided by the Aqueenian government in full. Hal had skimmed it, and Harlan glanced at it for a moment, but the Bentulousian warrior was the only one who seemed to know the full extent of their mission.
After the regicide of King Whitlock, the Aqueenian investigation had found that Dia Mond had a strong connection to the Mayor of Nun; she had been seen going in and out of the Mayor’s estate by paparazzi on many occasions. The information eventually led the government of Aquia to contact Nun. The megacity brushed them off.
The group's task was to look throughout the city for signs that Nun was plotting some mass scaled invasion, conspiracy, or any other wrongdoings. It was very vague, which annoyed Rheba somewhat, but she let it go.
At least to the Bentulousian warrior, what was important was that they ought to engage with some of the events and citizens of the grand city to start finding leads. As she looked forward, she saw a building that would most certainly be an event for them to engage with.
One of the many beauideal stage-arena’s stood in front of them. It was a lesser arena known as ‘Sing n Brawl,’ which housed some of the beauideal events.
At a young age, Rheba discovered the profession known as a beauideal while watching a Bentulousian tablet program about the different sorts of cultures in other nations. The program had spun the event in a negative light, but the much smaller and impressionable Rheba had become instantly enamored with the idea of beautiful singing beauideals. She became a fan but had to keep the matter a secret.
As the giant warrior stared off into the first Stage-Arena she had seen in real life, she became uncertain if her desire to visit was for the mission or her long-time obsession. Nevertheless, she answered Gwyn.
“Your right Gwyn; perhaps we ought to stop somewhere for a while to rest,” she said.
Harlan looked up for a moment and off in the distance. She saw the same stage-arena and her green; slit eyes grew wide. She began to shake her head to indicate ‘no,’ but neither of the other two noticed.
“What do you have in mind?” Gwyn asked.
“There will be a beauideal show in that building up ahead; perhaps we should check it out?”
Gwyn made a soft ‘hmm’ to himself as he thought. He recalled Dia was also a beauideal, and if they engaged her again, it might benefit him to know more about what they were. He was also interested in the culture and planned to ask many questions about how such an event formed.
“I’m okay with that,” the Nonpareil finally answered.
Harlan let her head hang. She took a deep breath as she began to collect herself. Whatever happened, she did not want to get overwhelmed by the atmosphere of a live beauideal show. Unlike Rheba, whose love for the beauideals was well known, Harlan had a secret affection that she did not wish to get discovered.
“Are you okay with going, Harlan?” Gwyn asked as he turned to the Zenotote. She perked up in surprise at his concern for her opinion.
“Zenototes are too sophisticated to enjoy the simple art of beauideals,” Rheba said. Harlan glared at her.
“I find it surprising that a Bentulousian could even perceive what was going on,” the green-yellow lizard replied coolly.
The two glared at each other for a moment. Gwyn sighed, then he cleared his throat.
“Are we going?” he asked.
“Of course, the Zenotote may remain outside if she so chooses,” Rheba said as she began to walk to the stage-arena.
“I would ask you don’t decide things for me!” Harlan calmly replied as she followed the Bentulousian warrior. The Zenotote scientist had been swept up with a stronger desire not to lose in some way to Rheba and momentarily forgot her hesitancy to reveal her interests.
Gwyn shrugged and shook his head. He couldn’t tell if they were getting along now or not.
***
“I didn’t think it would look like this?” Gwyn said as he and the others shuffled into their arena seats. Harlan was on his left, and Rheba sat on his right. The building design and layout were best described as looking eerily similar to a sports arena on earth. It was an indoor space with an ovular shape and stadium-style folding chairs. At the center, the arena was an open, flat plane. A raised platform was in the center that was shaped like an ‘Ⅰ.’
Lights poured down on the platform so intensely that the crowd around it might have been shrouded in darkness if not for the many blue and red glowsticks that each held in their hands.
Rheba, of course, had insisted that each of them buy an expensive glowing device from the vendors in the halls before entering the seating area. She, Gwyn, and Harlan held bright blue glowsticks in their hands.
“What did you think it would look like?” Rheba asked Gwyn.
“I don’t know, more like a stage with seating on one side. And more speakers on stage, I guess,” he replied.
“Gwyn, I think you might-” Harlan began to say something to the Nonpareil, but a sudden shout from the crowd drowned her out.
On the stage, an announcer had come to stand in the middle of the ‘Ⅰ.’ He wore what looked to Gwyn like a cross between a referee outfit and a clown outfit.
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
“Welcome all of you lovely people!” the announcer shouted. The sounds reverberated down across the audience from hidden speakers on the ceiling. The crowd roared and shook their glowsticks in response. Rheba joined in, and—to Gwyn’s surprise—Harlan happily joined in with the rest of the venue.
“I know you’re not here for me!” the announcer happily continued; the crowd laughed along with him, “So, without further ado! Up first, we have the ever lovely, ever blue, Kitten!” The announcer gestured to one end of the arena. From open doors, the beauideal emerged.
She wore a dazzling blue dress that seemed to sparkle in the light as she walked. It had a short skirt and open shoulders. An equally blue Needaimus was bonded to her arm.
The beauideal, Kitten, was a Netzian. She stood slightly taller than an average human and had pointed grey ears on top of matching hair and a grey tail that danced behind her as she walked onto the platform. Other than Bentalousian ears and tail, she looked like an average human.
“How are you doing today, Kitten?” the announcer asked.
“I’m doing wonderful today! Thanks for asking!” she spoke in a high, cheerful, and chipper voice.
“Do you have kittens in this world?” Gwyn asked Harlan.
“It’s something from Netzian lore; supposedly, it’s an adorable creature,” the scaly Zenotote explained.
“Well, I’m glad to hear that!” the announcer continued, “but will it stay wonderful with your opponent today! The fiery and always fierce Scarlet Red!”
More shouts echoed from the arena as the next beauideal entered the arena. She was a ruby red Aqueenian with long silver hair and deep blue eyes. Her dress was a lacy white dress which was short in the front and long in the back. A blue Needaimus was bonded to her arm.
“Well, Scarlet, how are you today!” the announcer asked.
“Why the [bleep] do you care!” she snapped at him. An audible beep censored her foul language.
“Oh, Scarlet, you should watch your language,” the announcer said with a laugh. The rest of the crowd laughed along.
“So, is this like a battle of the bands sort of thing?” Gwyn whispered to his companions.
“Yes, they should start fighting very soon!” Rheba replied. Gwyn was growing concerned with what he had agreed to enter.
“Fighting?” he repeated.
“Don’t worry,” Harlan added, “It’s all a performance.”
Several of the crowd around her began to berate the Zenotote scientist.
“All a performance; I’ve never heard something so ridiculous.”
“Yeah, right, a fake fan here!”
“Why would you even come here!”
“I bet you’re just lost!”
Harlan let her head hang, and Gwyn struggled to find a way to stop the harsh words thrown at her.
“Hey!” he shouted, and the small section around them turned to look. He racked his brain for the next thing to say. Fortunately for Gwyn, Rheba stood up and glared at the berating crowd members from her imposing height.
“The concert-match is about to begin. Keep quiet,” the Bentulousian warrior snapped at them. They quickly fell in line.
As Rheba sat down, Harlan looked up at her.
“Th- Thanks,” she slowly said. It pained the scientist to thank any Bentulousian.
“That wasn’t for your benefit,” Rheba said without turning to Harlan.
Gwyn recalled Odell explaining how beauideal fans were often stereotyped as extreme, overbearing, and a little on the strange side. He was beginning to see it.
On stage, the conversation between the beauideals had turned quite lively.
“You think you so [bleep] cute, don’t you!” Scarlet was shouting and pointing at Kitten. The pointed ear Netzian simply smiled.
“Oh, Scarlet, you always have something negative to say. Can’t you try to be more positive!” Kitten replied to the ruby red Aqueenian.
“[bleep] [bleep] [bleep] you [bleep] and [bleep],” the Aqueenian replied as her face grew redder.
Kitten, and the crowd with her, gasped. Gwyn looked around, confused as the bleeps prevented anyone, not on stage from hearing. Rheba and Harlan didn’t seem to mind as the show went on. The announcer made an awkward laugh.
“Well, with that lively banter, I think it is time we got this concert-match underway!” he quickly backed up to the edge of the arena as each beauideal took a stance. Loud and exciting music began to fill the arena as the opponents locked eyes with one another. Two bright spotlights were set over each of them.
“♪Well, Scarlet, it seems we’re here again. To do battle, as rivals… or are we friends?♪”
Kitten sang along with the music. Gwyn’s mouth dropped; he was starting to figure out where the event was going.
“♪Friends! Ha, don’t make me laugh! If I saw you on the street, I’d deck you right in the face!♪”
Scarlet sang back.
Watching the two beautiful stars clash was something to behold. Their movements combined fierce strikes with the gracefulness of dance. All the while, they sang banter to each other or simply took the announcer's job of describing what was going on.
Kitten leaped back from her red Aqueenian opponent off the center stage and into the open arena. She moved her arms in dramatic motions.
“♪And now you will have to taste the might of my Needaimus!♪” she sung. All around the Netzian girl, bubbles began to form. The crowd cheered.
“What?” Gwyn managed to say.
“She has an Iki type that specializes in creating a slick sanitizing compound,” Rheba explained, though Gwyn had not expected to be heard over the loud crowd and louder music.
“♪Ha, your pathetic ability is nothing to me!♪” Scarlet sang her reply. The red Aqueenian stood on the stage one moment and in the next appeared right in front of Kitten. “♪Coursing power, red fury, ♪” Scarlet sang as she kicked at Kitten's stomach. The pointed ear girl dodged the blow by sliding across a slick of soap on the floor with the grace of an ice skater. Scarlet continued to sing as she tried to hit Kitten. The Netzian girl also sang along simultaneously, and their voices harmonized together.
Eventually, the Aqueenian beauideal teleported directly behind Kitten. She struck her Netzian opponent in the back, and Kitten stumbled forward. The crowd cheered.
Gwyn watched passively as he didn’t sense any real danger from the combatants. He wondered if being in real fights had warped his enjoyment of such events. His theory was disproved when he glanced over at Rheba, who was so into the fight he could hardly recognize her.
The Nonpareil sighed and turned his attention on the beauideals exchanging over-the-top blows as they sang. ‘Maybe I’m missing something,’ he thought to himself.
On stage, Kitten had recovered from her blow and was sliding around the stage backward. Scarlet would continually teleport in front of the Netzian opponent, and they would parry one of the other's blows. The speed of the combatants trading blows was so fast that the audience was liable to get exhausted as they watched.
“♪It was a cold morning. I longed for a friend, but you left me that day, ♪” Kitten sung.
“♪I simply found my way! No longer would I hold myself back for your sake!♪” Scarlet replied.
“What are they talking about?” Gwyn said as the two beauideals continued their dance-battle.
“It’s part of their story,” Rheba answered as she shook the glowsticks in rhythm with the music, “Kitten and Scarlet were once good friends, but when Kitten started to lose matches, they had a falling out. It was actually a scheme predicated by the beauideal Pincer….” Rheba began to rattle off a storied history around the beauideals that covered several seasons of tournaments. Gwyn just nodded as the Bentulousian warrior went into intricate details of beauideal lore. It took Rheba a moment before she realized she got too excited. She made a slight cough into her hand and turned back to the fight.
Kitten still appeared to ice skate across the arena floor backward while Scarlet continued a barrage of strikes. As she slid across the floor, a slick trail of soapy material was left. The material shined and sparkled as the brightly colored lights pounded on the scene, and the floor began to light up. As the Netzian beauideal swayed, it became clear that she was spelling something out while she sang.
“♪I trained hard, found victory, but you still forgot me all the same!♪” Kitten sang with heartbreak. She jumped in the air from her faux-ice skating and did a twirl and kick on Scarlet, who had teleported in the perfect spot to take a blow.
The red Aqueenian disappeared from the air and reappeared on the stage. She looked to be breathing heavy, but her singing did not falter.
“♪So, what? I have moved on! Friends again, we shall not be!♪”
“♪I know, that is why I came to say a final goodbye!♪” Kitten finally stopped her skating. As she came to a graceful halt, the word ‘goodbye’ was completed with the soap as she said it aloud. The crowd echoed in a roar as the beauideals took a brief pause to stare at each other.
“This is big!” some people behind Gwyn were saying.
“It could indicate a whole new direction for her!” another added.
The Nonpareil frowned. He had sat through calculus, circuit analysis, and many other advanced classes before changing his major to history, but it was at the beauideal concert-match that he felt more confused than he had in his whole life. As far as Gwyn was concerned, he might have gone to yet another new world.
The beauideals on stage didn’t give Gwyn a chance to think much longer. The music swelled, and they began their fight once again.
Kitten leaped onto the stage and attacked Scarlet like a graceful boxer. As she struck, she sang in repetition:
“♪Fourteen weeks in the Leth Forest,
Seventeen in the Calli mountains,
I admit it was a little abhorrent!
But I finally found it!♪”
As the Netzian girl sang, Scarlet remained on the defensive from the onslaught of punches. The red Aqueenian harmonized with scat singing as she took the brunt of the attacks. The show was coming close to an end, but Gwyn was the only one who didn’t realize it.
Kitten finished her repetitive chorus with a: “♪I found how to win!♪” As she said ‘win,’ she hit Scarlet with an upper cut. The red Aqueenian immediately fell onto her back, and the music ended dramatically.
The crowd let out a final roar. It was filled with sounds of happy Kitten stans with blue glowsticks and sad Scarlet stans with red. Rheba furiously cried out with the crowd as she shook her blue glowstick. Harlan did the same with her blue glowstick but did not bother shouting or putting much vigor into it. However, considering the circumstance, it was more energy than the Nonpareil expected her to give. Gwyn awkwardly sat and stared at the scene as Kitten bowed to the audience.
“Thank you for your support, everyone!” she said.
“I’ll [bleep] her up next time!” Scarlet mumbled from the ground. The lights on the stage faded to black, and lights on the ground lit up to aid everyone in leaving. Gwyn remained very confused as they walked from the seats back out to the street.
Rheba and Harlan had temporarily lowered hostility to discuss a play-by-play of the fight as they exited. It only added to Gwyn’s confusion about the whole event.