Eventually, Xalla and Walter were able to make their way through the sprawl of food and other small goodies and made their way into the main attraction. The VIP tickets that her Master gave really did come in handy because they skipped the lines that a normal Xollon had to wait for and were even given a goodie bag at the entrance.
“Well,” Xalla said, making a grand gesture once they both entered the complex, “Welcome to the Plains of Torment!”
Inside the huge enclosure of the Plains were a multitude of sights, and all around them were bustling, happy Xollon marveling at the exhibits around them. The very first thing that was on display, immortalized on a huge obsidian pillar, was the information on this cycle’s centerpiece civilization. It displayed a brief history of their existence, some of their major accomplishments, and of course, their fight and ultimate defeat at the hands of the Xollons.
“We’re in for a treat, Walter!” Xalla exclaimed, “They just changed the displays, and we’re one of the first people to see the new exhibits!”
Prominently displayed on the wall was a video of the final moments of the species called the Entari, and their heroic last stand. The video was shot from the point of view of the this race, and in the skies above their home planet were huge, monstrous shadows of unimaginable scale: the Xollons in their Primary form. The attacking Xollon were almost the size of their planet.
The defenders were using a weapon that looked like a caged sun, trying desperately to blast the invading Xollons out of the sky, but their feeble attempts did apparently nothing to the invaders. The video fades to black, then shows Xollon workers taking what was left of the Entari species and mounting them on various displays around the Plains of Torment.
Reading off the wall, Xalla explained, “Let’s see… It says here that the new Species caught were a Class 3 Civilization, from a nearby sector. And, if you can believe this, the reason they were put on display was because the leaders of this species saw a Xollon passing by and decided to attack them!”
Walter shook his head in disbelief, “Well, there’s unfortunately no cure for stupidity. It’s what happens when some people believe that they’ve figured everything out and that there’s no one out there who could oppose them.”
Xalla giggled, “They managed to conquer one tiny Galaxy and they believe that they’re all powerful?”
“Yeah,” Walter shrugged, “Like I said, Xalla, not everyone’s got the same outlook on life as the Xollons do.”
“Oh, oh!” Xalla exclaimed, pointing at one of the adverts on the wall, “Apparently, they managed to take one of the Entari doomsday weapons, and brought it here! It’s that gun they used in the video, I think it shoots supernovas or something, but you can have a try at shooting it!”
The weapon itself was impressive, for non-Xollon standards at least, as the Entari engineers managed to trap and condense a small star into the size of a barn. The weapon itself forced the star to undergo partial collapse, and they focused that energy into a tight beam. To say that it shoots supernovas would be a tad disingenuous, but the sheer amount of energy in that beam was impressive, nonetheless.
Xalla and Walter turned their vision towards the location where the weapon was and saw a little platform leading up to where the operator would command the use of the machine. There was a long line of Xollons waiting for their chance to use the display, but what was strange was that most of the people waiting were families with small children.
Xalla noticed the scene and some of her energy deflated, “Well, it’s mostly for hatchlings, so I guess we’re a little too old for that.”
“Nonsense! We’re never too old for something like that!” Walter said, dragging a shy Xalla towards the exhibit, “Come on, if anyone asks, just tell them that I really want a go at shooting the thing! We’re all hatchlings at heart!”
Xalla smiled again, she knew that he was only saying that for her sake since she secretly always wanted to try her hand at using a big toy gun. She never did get a chance to do that as a hatchling herself and had always been too shy to try again as an adult. But she didn’t feel so embarrassed now that Walter was with her, she felt like she could do anything with him by her side.
They walked excitedly towards the exhibit’s platform, Walter dragging Xalla along this time, and they decided to join the line with the others. Their VIP tickets did allow them to skip the line, but both of them felt that it would be unfair to the hatchlings for someone else to go ahead of them.
When Walter approached, some of the smaller children ran towards him, tentacles flailing, and started to leap towards him playfully. The mothers and fathers tried their best to catch the little balls of energy, but Walter waved them off as he allowed one of the kids to latch onto his primary feeler. The hatchlings giggled in joy as Walter started to move a little, making the small Xollons cling on.
Xalla was content just watching her date interact with the hatchlings. She didn’t know he could be so good with children.
“I’m so sorry about that!” one of the mothers said, trying in vain to detach her child from Walter’s frill, “My little one’s getting drool all over your robe!”
“It’s fine. Everyone’s here to have some fun, so let the hatchlings play.” he said, swinging another child around him much to the joy of the hatchling.
“Thank you, sir,” the father came along then, clearly amused by the scene of so many little tentacles and teeth latching themselves on Walter, before turning to Xalla “Your boyfriend’s quite good with the small ones, huh?”
“Apparently he is,” she smiled, “It’s only our first date.”
The man laughed, “Well he’s a keeper in that case!”
“Now if someone else could help out with the kids at home…” the woman said this time.
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The man laughed, “We can’t all be perfect!”
The mother sighed, “Well, you two enjoy your date, and thank your boyfriend for draining some of my little hatchling’s energy for me. I think all the families here appreciate that!”
Xalla agreed, still not turning her gaze from the comedic scene of Walter trying his best to keep his balance under the assault of so many tiny limbs. She didn’t even notice that their turn on the Doomsday weapon had come until one of the parents pointed it out to her.
Walter had a big lopsided grin on his face as he approached the controls for the gun. The operator was clearly amused to see two fully grown Xollon look so excited to fire a toy, but he was nice enough to go along with the atmosphere and show the two the basics of shooting the thing.
Walter walked up to the map hologram and chose a planet that was in the background.
“You said you were a huntress, right?” Walter said with a smile, pointing at the tiny dot on the screen.
Xalla nodded, understanding what he meant. “Pfft, I’m a great huntress, and hitting that target would be too easy, pick something a tad harder.”
Walter turned to the attendant, “You heard the lady, got anything a bit more challenging?”
The attendant thought for a second, because scrolling the map back a few lightyears, “How about one of these ones? Even being a few microns off angle would result in a miss.”
Walter looked at the selection of planets that was given and picked out the smallest one out of the bunch, “Think you can hit this one? We only have 3 shots total.”
“Much better!” Xalla said excitedly and mounted the control station. She interlaced her senses into the modified machine and carefully took aim. Although it was her first time shooting one of these things, her instincts drove her to make the necessary adjustments, and she took her shot.
A huge amount of energy was released at once, and a small wormhole appeared near the muzzle of the weapon. From the viewport, Xalla and Walter could see the beam of energy cut through space and time, and as Xalla expected, her shot hit its mark. The planet exploded into a shower of debris, and the display even showed the final moments of the tiny insignificant lifeforms on that rock. Xalla was pretty proud of herself, which was made better when she could hear the clapping of tentacles behind her.
“Wow!” said one of the hatchlings that was playing with Walter earlier, “You’re amazing, Miss Xalla!”
“Hit a further one!” another Xollon child added, “A harder shot!”
Walter grinned again, “You up to the challenge?”
“Always.”
This time Walter took a while to consider the options. He chose a planet that was slightly out of alignment, which meant that Xalla had to curve her next shot using the gravity of a nearby black hole. It would certainly be tricky to get that right.
Walter arched a frill, “This one’ll be tough. You sure you can hit it?”
“I’m always up for a challenge,” Xalla replied confidently, although she wasn’t sure if she had the skill to back up that confidence.
Either way, she steadied her aim and did the rough calculations needed to account for the curvature of spacetime around the black hole. She fired but frowned almost immediately, she knew her aim was off and it was confirmed when Xalla saw the beam curve a little too much and miss her mark. She had forgotten to consider the movement of the planet and the distortion of light.
Before she could apologize for missing, she felt a nice warmth wrap around her body and saw that Walter had joined her on the control seat. He had his tentacles around her and his frills were tentatively close to her own.
“Come on, let’s make this last shot together.” he said, his rumbling voice resonating with her body.
Xalla blushed, “R-right.”
He grabbed one of her feelers and made some slight adjustments, “I think this should hit our mark now. I’ll leave the timing up to you.”
Xalla focused her attention back on the display, albeit reluctantly, and saw that Walter had indeed fixed her earlier error. All Xalla had to wait for the planet to move a little, and seeing the perfect opportunity come, she pulled the trigger again.
This time, the beam of energy curved true, arcing perfectly right into the center of the planet. Xalla and Walter gave a childish shout of joy, much to the appreciation of the hatchlings watching.
“That’s amazing!”
“Wow!”
“Teach us how to shoot like that!”
“Yeah, show us how!”
Almost all the families and their hatchlings were crowding around Xalla and Walter at this point and a reasonably sized crowd was gathering to see what was going on as well. More and more small balls of tentacles were pulling their parents along, all wanted to learn how to shoot the supernova gun so well.
Unable to say no to the cute crowd, Xalla, and Walter – with the permission of the attendant – spent the next while helping the little ones aim and shoot. They laughed whenever they hit a target and saw the little aliens' desperate attempts to flee their destroyed worlds. Xalla had always loved teaching others and it seems like Walter shared her passion as well, and the two spent a lot longer at the exhibit than initially planned.
By the time they were able to drag themselves away from the crowd, several Earth hours had already elapsed. Most of the families and visitors there even thought that Xalla and Walter were part of the staff working on that attraction.
“Thanks for helping out the kids,” the actual worker said, “You two made the days for a lot of excited hatchlings.”
“No problem,” Walter replied, “And Xalla here did most of the helping in any case.”
“Well, my boss heard about the commotion, and we can’t allow you two to just leave without anything after all the work you put in!” The worker took out two passes and handed them to Xalla, “Here’s two complementary season passes to visit the Plains of Torment again, it’s the least we can do after all the work you’ve done!”
“Thank you!” Xalla answered, “We will definitely come again!”
Unfortunately, they would indeed have to come back at a later date since Walter was only free for one Earth day. It was pitifully short, but Xalla felt glad that she was able to spend even a little bit of time together. She had never imagined such a gentle side to the Arbiter, and she wondered what else she could learn about this fascinating individual.
Not forgetting to grab dinner at the location that the whale kabob owner told them about, Xalla and Walter spent the rest of their short date over a warm meal, all the while making small talk and talking about Xolloid as a whole.
“You know, you talk about your home a lot, Xalla,” Walter said, finishing the last bite of his meal.
Xalla recalled all the fond memories of her childhood at her family’s farm, and smiled, “Of course, I spent my days as a hatchling helping out my family. Those were honestly some of the best memories I have.”
“I’d love to see that place, someday.” Walter added, “It must be special if you can smile like that when you remember your time there.”
Xalla blushed, but answered honestly, “I would love that.”
Walter sighed, “But that will have to be another time.”
“Yeah…” Xalla sighed as well. She didn’t want this moment to end.
But end it did, and before long the two made their way back to the transport platform and made their way back to Site 1102.
Just before the two were about to make their separate ways, Walter brushed a feeler on Xalla’s frill, “Thank you for showing me the sights today. Xolloid has changed a lot since I’ve last seen it.”
“It was fun,” Xalla answered shyly, “It’s a pity we couldn’t see more of it.”
Walter laughed, “Hey, we got that free pass, so let’s go back when we have more time!”
“It’s a promise!”
Walter moved closer to her, and very gently, he placed his central frill on hers; a Xollon kiss, so gently placed. Xalla almost melted in joy then and she returned the gesture.
“I’ll be seeing you around, Xalla.” He said, breaking off the embrace, “Take care of me in the trials, yeah?”
Xalla was still recovering from the sensation, “Of course! And thank you as well, for being with me today.”
With that, the two departed, and the trials for one of them began anew.