As Frigid and her vivosaurs camped in the desert, no progress was made on the time machine whatsoever. It seemed like they'd be stuck in this universe for the rest of their lives if they don't find any Electronomites. "Well, at least my sonar's still in working order." Frigid mumbled to herself. Pearl, an equinaceras, was the only vivosaur out of her Dino Medal, the rest were in Frigid's backpack. As Frigid tinkered with the time machine, Pearl curled up in a huge ball and tried to sleep under the baking badlands sun.

"Ugh...I can't function in this heat." Frigid suddenly stood up, telepathically stating that to Pearl. "C'mon Pearl, kiyup. Let's try to find a cooler spot, or at least civilization." she added as she packed up her tech, grabbed her backpack, mounted her super-evolver steed and set off at full speed into the northern direction to catch a cool wind on their way.

—

After about an hour at full sprint, Pearl's heart was working too hard and she had to slow her steed down to an 80 mph canter. "Master, why do you tell me to slow down? I can keep sprinting." Pearl telepathically asked Frigid. "Because if you don't, your heart would explode, and that'd be unfortunate. Keep at a canter." Frigid replied. "I'll have to switch you out with Bailey soon anyways, it's been at least 120 miles already." she continued.

Another hour had passed, no switches had been made, and Frigid noticed a town-looking architecture on the horizon riddled with mirages and heat waves. "Welcome to...Tuefort." Frigid read the sign noting the town's borders. 'Tuefort? What kind of name is that?' she thought, and she felt Pearl shrug her shoulders in response to her thought.

However, this 'Tuefort' seemed to be as deserted and as deprived of life as the desert itself. They slowed down to a walk and Frigid dismounted Pearl and sent her back into her Dino Medal, which she proceeded to put into her backpack.

Frigid took this alone time to explore the town a little. It was a source of shelter, and it seemed to be a ghost town. 'It looks like nobody lives here anymore…' Frigid thought as she peered into a saloon-looking building.

But in the saloon, on a bar stool, sat a small man with a hardhat and overalls on.

—

As stealthily as she could, Frigid snuck up behind the man, which was rather easy to do, even with her heavy backpack on. Then suddenly, when she was about 10 feet behind the man, her large gray and silver pickaxe dropped out of its sheath on her backpack and clunked to the floor, making a thunderclap-like sound that echoed through the almost empty saloon and scared the both of them.

"Ack! God dammit! I thought I told y'all'ta-" the man, with a surprisingly strong drawl wheeled around and froze at what-or who he saw. "Who the hell're you?!" he slurred. Obviously he was very drunk, sad and angry, she could smell it on him.

Frigid merely sighed, picked up her pickaxe and swung the 20 pound thing in her hand while she contemplated what to do with this man. Not much, he was drunk off his ass and wouldn't help her at all. But she noticed the one engineering glove and the goggles he wore. Maybe he was an engineer? "Call me Frigid. But…do you happen to be an engineer?" she asked with a sudden surge of hope. "Yeah, whadda'bout it? Ain't nobody want me…I'm a worthless engineer." he whimpered.

Oh shit. He's starting to I'm-really-drunk-cry.

"What are you even talking about..?" Frigid asked, but realized the man wouldn't be able to answer that question in his…current state. "No, nevermind…What's your name?" she corrected herself. "Mah team called me Engie, but they don't matter, they never wanted me…Yer probably not even real. Yer just'a hallucination." he sobbed.

"Okay, obviously something is wrong with this guy-I mean Engie." Frigid muttered.

—

"Engie! Where are ya, dude? RED's here and we need, like, five sentries!" an unknown voice pierced the awkward silence, and Frigid took that chance to get out of the saloon as quickly as possible, for the voice seemed to be looking for Engie. 'That must be 'the team'.' Frigid thought to herself and grimaced. She never wanted to meet any more like Engie, but then again, he's probably different when he's sober. He didn't look like he drank much or in a large quantity often, and his aura said the same thing.

She exited the saloon to find eight men that seemed to be on the hunt for Engie. Frigid had caught the attention of one of the men, wearing blue rubber gloves and a white and blue lab coat, complete with glasses and a bloodstained pet dove on his shoulder. He just stood there, knit his brow and cocked his head a little; then just shook his head and ran up to the pack of men, as if nothing had happened.

—

'Do I look…unreal to them?' Frigid asked herself. They did look rather cartoony in appearance, and she didn't. Frigid decided to test this theory. She dug into her backpack and she released Santeria, her tyrannosaurus rex, from her Dino Medal. But Santeria just stood there, with no target and no command to attack, she didn't know to do anything…just yet. The vivosaur looked down at her Master and grunted, steam puffing out of her nostrils in a wary tone. "What do you want me to do, Master?" Santeria pawed at the ground and shuffled anxiously, waiting for an order.

"Roar. Roar as loud as you can." Frigid finally muttered, and so Santeria did gladly. A fiery, earth[and ear] shattering roar erupted from the vivosaur's large jaws, and the eight men jolted simultaneously and wheeled around to the source of the horrendous sound; which happened to be a teenage girl and her tyrannosaurus rex.