Destined Couple

Judgement

Various inventors milled around behind the stage, waiting for their turn. Varian noticed Rapunzel, Maximus and Eugene standing with some big object and nodded to Adira before he walked over to her. "Hey, Sundrop." He greeted cheerfully.

"Varian, you made it in time!" She hugged him. "I'm really looking forward to what you're going to present!"

"As if I'd miss the chance to show up everyone here?" He asked teasingly.

"One of you will walk away with the greatest prize in all of the sciences. My approval." De Croix said from the other side of the curtain.

"Better get back." Varian took her hand and kissed it. "Until later, my fair lady."

She giggled, blushing a bit. "See you later."

He winked and walked off to his own invention, passing by Fernanda as he walked. He glanced at her and noticed she was eyeing him as well. He just smirked and then went to stand next to his hidden invention.

"As for the rest of you, may the universe show mercy...on your wretched souls." The judge continued.

"Talk about dramatic." Varian smirked at Adira as he stood next to her.

"Good luck!" The judge finished, and then it was the first person's turn. When the curtain opened to let the first guy through, he noticed that Cassandra was his assigned security guard and smiled. Such a big role, he was happy to see that she'd been given such a chance.

One by one, people showed their inventions. One by one, they were sharply rejected by the pompous judge.

A man came out with a device made to milk a goat. DeCroix turned to him and smugly asked, "Can it milk a cow?"

"No, sir!" The man replied.

"Next!" The judge said sharply.

One by one, people were rejected. One by one, people started to lose confidence. The only ones who still seemed to have it were Varian's group, Rapunzel's group, and Fernanda Pizzazo, the last of which was eyeing the other two groups smugly.

Varian narrowed his eyes at her.

"Oh, Pascal, we've had some missteps in the past, but I think this one is the winner." Rapunzel said, looking up at her large invention.

"You've got this in the bag, Blondie." Eugene assured her.

"Next!"

"Right." Rapunzel nodded and then walked to the stage. Varian gave her an encouraging smile as she passed him. As soon as she stepped out, there was wild applause, of course.

"Dangerously wet hallways, cold, wet clothes, wet hair that takes forever, and I mean forever to dry. All those things are yesterday's problems!" Rapunzel said on the other side of the curtain.

"Adira, I want you to keep a close watch on that woman when she steps up." He said quietly, nodding to Fernanda. "Something about her doesn't feel right."

"Say hello to the Mega Dry!" Rapunzel went on.

"Yes, Moon." She said quietly.

He looked over as Rapunzel had Eugene dump water on a dress, and then he held it up as Maximus started to run on something, making the device activate. "The Mega Dry uses cutting-edge equine technology to release a powerful, focused stream of air." She explained over the racket of the invention. "The result?"

The device came to a stop and Eugene proudly held up the dry dress. "What used to take hours to dry, now takes seconds!" Rapunzel said cheerfully.