The normal clothed X-Man negotiated his way around a pretty hefty crowd to make it to the food court.

Saph happily received his card back before he sat, holding off on getting his own food for a moment. "Alright, wachu get?" He glanced into the bags, picking up on the large quantity of pink things. He stifled a laugh and then grabbed a My Magic Pony file folder from one of the bags, holding it up by the corner as if it would rub off on him.

"Wow... Clearance?" He supposed he'd get a good deal at least, and the look on Elke's face would be priceless. "Her Math club friends are gonna get a kick outa that!" He chuckled, but then paused as he noticed a couple of men in black suits floating about the crowd... They were looking for someone, it seemed. They had ear pieces in, didn't they? It was all kinda... Secret service-like.

"The heck?" One of them looked in their direction, and pressed his ear, speaking into a comm. His hand slowly moved to his side, where his crowbar usually sat.

Duh, he wasn't at work, was he? Still, he wasn't sure exactly what was going on. The Mutant took a glance around and quickly realized there were more of them, and they were closing in on them. He stood from his seat suddenly, reaching an arm out to shield to guard Shelby a bit.

"Whachu guys out for, huh?" He said as one of them made it close, and pushed past him to talk to Shelby. "She's perfect! She'll work!"

Saph cut in again. "Woah woah woah, what the hell are you talking about?"

One of them chimed in. "Look, man, I hate to steal your date, but she's perfect. I'm a producer on Love Quest. You know Love Quest, right? Well, our stars tonight all ate our food spread and got food poisoning. We need a people, pronto. Can you help?"

The man paused, and lowered his sunglasses, looking at Saph for a moment. "Hey... You're an X-Man, aren't you? Hah! What a find! You can be one of the contestants, too!"

"Hell no!" Saph raged.

"We pay!"

"How much?"

Before he knew it he was signing an agreement.

She nodded a little, and smiled a very small, devious smile. "Can't go trading a bunch of hideous pink supplies with the cool kids at school, can she?" The math club comment gave her pause, and she blinked at him with a puzzled expression on her face. She dropped whatever thoughts she had a moment later in order to nibbled on another french fry.

She didn't notice Saph's discomfort right at first, not until the suits had closed in on them. When he moved to shield her, slight panic had started to settle in.

And honestly, their explanation didn't help it abate at all. Not even a little.

"We're not on a date." She muttered, eyes shifting between all the faces present.

"Perfect!" One of them snatched up one of her hands and while they were looping Saph into an agreement of his own, she was being drown in words.

"-nothing to it, really! So much fun too!" The guy stopped to breath, a smile fixed in place even as nervous sweat poured down his forehead." He was already shaking her hand, and a contract of some sort was being shoved towards. "W-wait... I-i..."

"You will do it right? Man, I'm in such a spot here. It would be so kind of you to agree! Ever so helpful!"

A minute later she was being escorted to where the mobile game show was being held. A small crew of make up artists flocked out of nowhere, bee-lining toward her and Saph. Shelby was in way over her head, and as the group of over zealous workers dragged them off in separate directions she shot a wild, wide eyed look in the x-man's direction.

"Ooh, I like the natural look on her. We should accentuate that." One woman gushed, while making quick work of getting her hair out of the sloppy bun. "Yes! Brilliant! Just a little mascara, some blush to make those cheek bones pop. Hmm.."

Someone wheeled out a rack jam packed with outfits, and as soon as they were done slapping a few adjustments onto her face she was hurried into a curtained off dressing room.

A man who she could only describe as eccentric tossed an armful of clothing through the curtain and commanded her to change. A few moments later, Shelby reluctantly stepped back out, now clad in some sort of beetle print blouse and a loose fitting pencil skirt. Someone quickly approached to pin the sides of her hair back, and then she was suddenly escorted away to a different area. She could hear a small murmuring crowd somewhere out there on the other side of the curtains, and the sound of a mic turning on.

"Alright, Jim. We all set?" Another murmur, then "Okay! Lets get started!"

A pause, and then the into music played. She could hear cheering. Her anxiety doubled.

"Hello, and welcome to another exciting edition of Love Quest! The only show out there that travels to a different city every episode! This week we are in beautiful New York City!" More cheering. "I'm your host, Jordon Hauferson! Today we are going to be helping one lucky girl find the love of her life. We have six bachelors ready and waiting to meet her, so... lets get started, shall we?" Louder cheering. "Heidi Wells, come on out!"

A woman with a headset and a clip board shooed her gently out onto the stage. She wandered out casually, trying her best not to look like a deer in headlights. The host, Jordon, joined her and guided her over to a chair in the middle of the stage. The back of the chair was tall and wide, hiding her from view for when the other contestants came out on stage.

"Welcome Heidi, now, let me explain the rules a bit. You will have a list of questions you can ask the contestants, and after each question you can rate which answer you liked the best." He gestures to a little table in front of her, attached to her chair. It had six spots, each with a red button. She assumed that would be how she assigned the points.

"As we get further and further into the questions, the contestants will be weeded out based on their lowest scores." The crowed cheered for that, and she got the feeling that there was more to this than just scores and points. "Now, lets get Started! Contestants, come on out!"

The lights dimmed a little, and spotlights turned to focus on the entrance they would come through.

Holyhell It all happened so fast. He'd like to say he could comfort Shelby as they managed to meet eyes once more back stage, but honestly he likely had the same damn look on his face.

A woman with a makeup brush in her hand found herself in front of him, and she gave him a look that might have been disappointment. "Ugh, all these bruises. Gonna be hard to cover them all up!" She got right to work.

He'd never worn makeup before. He wasn't a huge fan. At least you couldn't really tell from a distance.

He thanked himself for getting a haircut, at least. He didn't look like a hobo or anything anymore. Before he knew it he was placed in a small room with five other guys, all of which looked somewhat confused. Two of them had the dawn of recognition on their faces when it came to who he was. Before anything was said, however, they were ushered out to their seats. Stools out on what looked like possibly moving platforms. He looked around for a moment... Lots of curtains with things hidden behind them... Were there prizes for this show? They didn't say anything about prizes.

The announcer could be heard via mic on the other side of a wall. He could see the audience, but not the host or the contestant, 'Heidi' on the other side.

The mutant wiped away a little nervous sweat as the show opened up. An attendant tested his mic real quick, and motioned for him to scoot up a bit, closer to it.

Jordon introduced each contestant as they walked out, had them sit, and then turned back to Shelby. Or, Heidi as she was now known.

"Now, Heidi, lets get started with the first round of questions?"

A pink envelope popped out from a small slot on the table in front of her. She reached out to carefully grab it, open it, and leaned a little closer to the mic provided for her.

"Contestants, lets say that you and I have gone on a cruise to somewhere special of your choosing. Where would you take me, and why?" She cleared her throat quietly, glancing at the host, who shot her an encouraging smile.

When they had answered that question, she chose the winner via the buttons and moved onto the next question. "I've got the flu, and can't leave the house. How would you take care of and comfort me?"

She waited again, chose the winner, and then moved on again. "I.. um..." She cleared her throat again. Re-reading the next question. Did they seriously expect her to read it out loud? For them to answer? "W-we have gone on a trip into the jungle, and have been attacked by a pack of wild lions. How would you protect me and get us both out safely?"

He got more money the longer he lasted, the producer had told him. Their voices would be slightly manipulated to discourage cheating.

"Contestants, lets say that you and I have gone on a cruise to somewhere special of your choosing. Where would you take me, and why?"

People answered; typical dating show answers. Paris. Alaska. The Bahamas... How was he supposed to top that? Before he knew it he was up.

"Eh... Um... I guess it really depends what you like, right? I ain't exactly gonna drag to to Paris if you hate baguettes and silly hats. I'd let you pick. I'm good just about anywhere."

"I've got the flu, and can't leave the house. How would you take care and comfort me?"

Talks of soup, foot rubs, and cuddling about, Saph felt himself sweating. "I would prolly end up sick as well. I'm pretty bad at staying away when that stuff happens. Heh. We'd be freakin miserable." That one got him some weird looks, and cleared his throat a bit. Was it hot in here?

"W-we have gone on a trip into the jungle, and have been attacked by a pack of wild lions. How would you protect me and get us both out safely?"

Saph blinked a few times. He was up first for this one. "Oh, yeah, more questions like this one, please. We would set up a designated watch program; I would cover the back, you the front as we moved toward safety. Pack hunters ten to ambush from the back and sides; I would fight them head on. Once you damage one of them, the rest tend to hesitate. Trust me, I've knocked out a Bengal Tiger before." He nodded firmly and sat back, crossing his arm and looking at the other contestants.

Had the room cooled down a bit?

The second contestant hesitated and stuttered. "W-Well... I would... Um... Run, I guess... With you. I would run with y- What does this have to do with dating?"

Most of the answers were obviously generic. She waited until each had answered and then pressed the button for which one she felt had the best answer and rated them accordingly. Contestant 4 had earned the first win; she liked his answer the best out of all of them. Contestant 6 won the second question; she liked the idea of soup and books. The last question, though, went to 4 as well. And honestly it was hard to try and stifle her laughter. Don't get her wrong, right at first she had blinked and given the host a puzzled look. He seemed just as confused as her. But then, as that contestant kept talking, and got more and more detailed, she found herself chuckling behind a hand. It was funny! Like he had legitimately juts planned the whole thing out!

Once the questions had been rated, the scores popped up on the screen above each man. The host was quick to jump back into action:

"Alright, folks! With the first round of questions done it looks like we have ourselves a lead, and two contestants trailing behind!" The gathered crowd cheered, and Shelby got herself back under control. "You know what that means?!"

An alarm started blazing, with red and white lights included. "Suuuuddeeeeen Deeeeath!" The floor under the contestants jerked suddenly, then started to move. From beneath the floor came two stationary pedal bikes in shallow pools of water. Attached to them were hoses and tall, thin water tanks with floating hearts inside.

"Alright gentle men! Would contestants one and five please come on down!" They did, reluctantly. The host kept going. "Please, hop on the bikes as I explain the game! Now, here is how it works. You will both start to pedal as fast as you possibly can as soon as the bell chimes. the more you petal the more the tanks fill up." They had the chime go off, as an example. "The goal is to get the hearts inside the water tank to the top. The bikes will cycle through varying difficulty settings, so be wary! Once one of you hits the top the bell will ring again, and the lucky winner gets to stay in the competition for another round!"

A moment later the bell chimed, and the two men furiously went at it. The difficulty on the bikes changed multiple times, as well as the angle they they were riding on and the speed they were going. It was a tough test, but ultimately one of them did win. Contestant number 1 got his hearts to the top of the tank the quickest and the bell chimed again.

"We have a winnnnner!" The crowd screamed. As one man was led off the stage and the other took his seat, another card of questions popped out of her console. Shelby reached out and grabbed it, cleared her throat and set about reading off the next group of questions.

She felt her face flush at the content of the questions. "W-we went out for a romantic dinner, and are headed home. What are your plans for us once we walk in the door?" She felt like melting into the seat, and fanned herself with the card as she waited for answers.

"It's my birthday, but I had to work all day. When I get home what kind of surprise have you got in store for me?"

"We are out on a date, a kid walks up and kicks you in the shin. What do you do?"

That was when things got weird.

The seats beneath them suddenly jerked back to make room for a platform with two bikes on it. Saph watched the contest with a stunned look on his face. Crap, he'd better not lose. He couldn't ride a bike without an adapted present. His power screwed with him too much.

One contestant was down, and Saph was sweating again. At least they all looked nervous, right? No one knew what the hell was going on, here.


"W-we went out for a romantic dinner, and are headed home. What are your plans for us once we walk in the door?"

Saph was last for this one. A lot of the contestants got... really steamy. Saph visibly paled as he thought over answers. He couldn't say anything like that! He had to look at her after!

"Um... We each go to our rooms and go to sleep?" That one got audible groan from the audience, and Saphirus winced a bit. Too realistic?


"It's my birthday, but I had to work all day. When I get home what kind of surprise have you got in store for me?"

A lot of people went the steamy route again. One even brought up candy panties. When it came to Saph, he just shrugged.

"Well, I dunno. After a hard days work, I don't wanna do anything too big... I guess I'd have a movie ready. I'd cook and stuff, you know, have it all ready. Then we'd just... Relax.

"We are out on a date, a kid walks up and kicks you in the shin. What do you do?"

"Look, I don't want to sound like that guy, but I'm not the kinda dude people just... Walk up to and kick. He'd see me, and decide to rethink his life. Especially if I'm in uniform." That last one wasn't so bad. Why would a little kid kick him, anyway?

The answers she received were, um.... personal. Very personal. But the crowd ate it up. She gave away the winning score for the first question to 5, the third to 4, and the last to 5 as well.

"Alrighty, lets calculate the scores!" She could hear electronic beeping over her shoulder, and the crowd gasps. "My my! Looks like we have a new lead! A tie, and you know what that means, folks?!"

The crowd started to chant excitedly. "Sudden Death! Sudden Death!"

The platform started to move again, but this time instead of water bikes, there was a padded platform with two large, inflated suits. Sumo suits.

"First contender to knock the other out of the ring wins! The loser must leave the game!"

Saph paused for a moment when he heard his number called, and cursed under his breath. Luckily, though, the bikes were taken away and... He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Sumo Suits.

he looked to his opponent, and shrugged. He looked kinda buff. Mountain climber, maybe.

They were given an intermission to get in their outfits, and before he knew it, their match was beginning.

From the other side of the wall, Shelby would hear the round announced, and a half second later a loud splash would be heard.

"Woah! A new record! Contestant 4 wins with one push!"

As he helped the other guy out of the water, the man whispered in his ear that he was a huge fan, and asked if he could have an autograph after the show. Saph couldn't help but laugh as he gave a not and patted the soaked sumo on the back.

About a minute later he was sitting in his chair again, grinning widely.

The host cheered, the crowd cheered (a few booed) and then the s match was over. Shelby itched to turn and visually see who was who. She had a lot of guesses, but with the altered voices it was making it rather hard. Still, they were now down to four contestants. It was only going to get tougher from here, probably.

Another card popped up, so she continued on. This one, she noticed, had four questions on it instead. "If you were crowned king of the whole world what would your first decree be?" She was genuinely interested in the answered for that question.

"Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?" That one sounded like it belonged on a job application. Most of the questions she had read left her feeling a little like there was a huge play on her being a weak, helpless woman. She wasn't entirely surprised, but it still left a sour taste in her mouth.

"What’s your favorite cheesy pick-up line? Have you ever used it for real?" She cracked a smile at the last one. She had a feeling there would be some good ones in this lot.

And lastly, "What is your favorite physical attribute about yourself?"

He'd won that round, and... Wait, did that mean he was in the lead? Huh.


"If you were crowned king of the whole world what would your first decree be?"
Many immediately talked about how they would move mountains for her to win her love. Make the people of the world collect a million roses for her.

Saph frowned as it reached him.

"Dunno what all these other dudes are doing, but I'd try to right some wrongs in the world. Save some starving children, end some wars. Honestly, though, I dunno if I'd want the job. I guess my first decree would be to give it to someone who could actually do a good job."

"Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?"

"Doing a lot of what I'm doin now, I guess. Maybe more teaching, Maybe more leading. I wanna make sure my kid is well raised, but she's almost there already, so I suppose I'm gonna... you know... Keep at it."

"What’s your favorite cheesy pick-up line? Have you ever used it for real?"

Saph was thankful he was the last one for this one. Some of the guys had really witty ones.

"Look, we're at a bar or something, I walk up and say hi. I introduce myself. I'm not really the type to chase people. You want to come to me, you'll come to me. I like you, I'll say hi. You don't like me. I go my merry way. No harm no foul."

"What is your favorite physical attribute about yourself?"

"Heh... I'm in great shape. I guess that's a good thing, right?"

He had the average contestant beat in that regard, and he was willing to bet he could take them all with ease in a fight. At the same time.

Saph stole one question, that round. She placed the rest of the points in other categories, mostly based on how creative the responses were. At this point she had kind of gotten a grasp of what the goal was with this game. It wasn't true love (which she wasn't looking for, anyway) and it certainly wasn't honesty. They were looking for the most entertaining, tv worthy responses. There wasn't a shortage of them, either.

Based on the answers she had been given this round, she was pretty sure she knew which contestant Saph was. She could hear that honesty in his voice. The same that had been there a few night previous.

The host went on with his script, the scores were tallied and two of the stragglers were chosen to face off against each other. This time, the set was a long plank suspended over some kind of goopy green goo. The goal was to knock your opponent off with a double sided foam oar.

Shelby checked out, not really interested in the fight. Or the game, anymore. Even just a tiny reminder of what had happened knocked her emotionally off balance. She waited for the fight to end, grabbed the next card and read the questions off with a lot less enthusiasm or nervousness than she had before.

"What is something you’ve always wanted to try but have been too scared to?" She waited for the answers, picked winners quickly, and moved on.

"What is one of the weirdest things you used to do as a teenager?"

"Do you believe that the cup is half empty or half full?"

"If all of life's constraints were eliminated, what would you want to do every day?"

The last one struck a raw nerve, if only because she was already emotional. She bit down on the inside of her lip and glanced up at the lights to blink away any moisture before it could gather.

Saph watched the fight with some interest, if just to see what came of it. He wasn't super worried about these guys, provided the competition didn't have to do it swimming or biking. He grinned a bit as one of the men fell into the goop. He'd been worried about that one, but a bigger, dumber guy won out.

The next round of questions came up, but Shelby seemed a little off... He hadn't known her for long, but he could already kinda tell when she was out of it.


"What is something you’ve always wanted to try but have been too scared to?"

"Goin to school again, I guess. Don't get me wrong, I like my lot in life, but getting smarter never hurt anyone."


"What is one of the weirdest things you used to do as a teenager?"

"Look, I did a lot of things as a teenager. All of it was weird. I slept in alleyways, took things I shouldn't have... Lost friends. Close friends."

The audience went a little silent at that... It was a bit too real; the host was sure to try and brush past it.

"Do you believe that the cup is half empty or half full?"

"Does it matter? If it's got what you want in it, you drink it. If not, who cares?"
He shook his head. Man, some of these questions were lame. Of course, everyone said half full other than him; it was an easy answer, right?

"If all of life's constraints were eliminated, what would you want to do every day?"

"What I already do. I don't believe in life's constraints. Find what you love and do it. If you manage to do it with people you love, even better."

He looked at his communicator on his list... How long did this whole thing last, anyway? He could tell 'Heidi' over there was getting stressed. Maybe this hadn't been the best idea.

Once again, she made her choices and then moved on. The next round of sudden death popped up, this time with contestant 4 and contestant 3 battling against each other. This round, as the platform started to rise, she could tell it was going to be different than the last two.

"We are down to three contestants so far! That means that Sudden Death rounds have risen from level one, to level two!"

One, two sided table rose from under the stage. Stretched across it were multiple tightly stretched elastic bands

"This round will require that our two contestants... remove their shirts" The host wiggled his tie and waggled his eyebrows at the audience. The woo's and cheering that came after made it clear to her that this must have been a normal occurrence.

"Once the contestants are ready, they are too put on the provided felt belt," He held one up as an example. "Whenever a hit is landed from the other opponent, the contestant but put a large yellow X on the belt! After earning three of those x's, the unlucky fellow loses, and will be escorted off stage!"

Contestant 3, younger looking bloke with carefully constructed blonde hair, was quick to make a show of taking his shirt off. The women (and men) of the crowd cheered loudly. He got ready and took a side, scoping out the layout of the game as the host continued.

"Now, the idea behind this is to avoid getting hit by the elastic bands! Your opponent won't know exactly where you are due to the wall that separated the table... so you must use your best guess!"

There were plenty of cords. All he had to due was grab a little loop at the end of the elastic, pull as hard as he could and release.  Blondie grinned. That meant that they had control over how much tension that wanted to put into the bands, and thus, how hard they could hit. He was first up, so he reached for one cord where he guessed the other guy might be, took a few steps back to put as much tension into the band as possible, and then released it.

That round of questions was finished; apparently Saph hadn't done too well. He gave an exasperated chuckle as they announced another round of elimination. This one... This one was strange. He could feel the monstrosity as they wheeled it out, pieces of taut elastic struggling under tension, wiggling as the device finished it's journey.

They announced shirts off. Saph grinned, and pulled off his own, revealing an intense physique, one side covered with scars. The people in the audience who knew who he was cheered.

Before they walked to their sides of the table, Saph gave his opponent a nod. Poor sucker didn't know what he was getting himself into, right?

The other guy went first. Contestant three grabbed an elastic band and pulled it back as far as he could, in order to do maximum damage. Sadistic little tool. Saph settled in to focus on his sixth sense, trying to devise how he would use it to know when the rubber bands were comin- smack! It got close enough for his natural reflex to cause him to reach out and try to block it. dangit! He would have to watch that.

Saph sighed as a woman in a bikini wandered over, placed an X on his belt, and wandered away. He stared for a moment. Strike one, he guessed? Kinda silly, though.

He heard contestant 3 laughing and grandstanding on the other side.

Time to make him pay. Saph used his sixth sense to take note of where the other guy was. He was trying to move to the left and the right quickly, making a show of his athleticism. It sealed his fate. Saph wandered over to a band, waited a new seconds, grabbed it and pulled it back niiiiice and far, and let go.

SMACK!

"Gah!"

Dudebro had a big old mark on his belly, and an X on his belt.

Round two:

Dudebro wasn't even close, Saph felt him pull on a band on the opposite side of the table. Saph replied within seconds to smack him right in the same place.

"ACK!"

Bigger welt, another X.

Round three:

Saph moved counter his opponent, sure to stay away from any real danger. When the band came, it came toward the far side.

Checkmate. Saph grabbed a band and pulled it back with his hand, but then took a step back to get some extra pain in there. He looked to the audience, and raised his other hand, grinning, and letting go just in time to tag him as he tried to dart past.

SNAP!

"GAHHH!"

Same spot.

"WE HAVE A WINNER!"

The once confident contestant 3 nursed the large welt on his belly as Saph made his way back to his seat, looking at the final contestant, who shrunk into his seat a bit.

He winked.