Yeah, couldn't think of a good title for this one.

I do like Hopter a lot, but I've never felt tempted to use him in the game because of his Berserker ability. In this story, though, I can use pretty much any Vivosaur I want without having to worry about such things :)

(Sorry for the long hiatus. I was quite busy over the winter holidays, and as I've stressed before, I have other fanfics to attend to.)

Dina walked back out of the Fighter's Station and into the main square of Ribular Town, yawning loudly. She had her pickaxe slung over her shoulder, and she was tiredly carrying her fossil case, which had recently been emptied.

Previously, she had spent 10,000 G on an upgrade for her sonar, which now allowed her to find even more types of fossil rocks. She had spent a few hours at Treasure Lake and Jungle Labyrinth, obsessively excavating fossils to integrate into her Vivosaurs. She had been very successful, upgrading all of her team except for Radox.

"Alright," she murmured to no one in particular. "Now it's off to Cranial Isle to go digging in Rainbow Canyon." Aeros in particular was quite enthusiastic about this; the previous integration had put him in a very good mood.

Surprisingly, Dina ran, literally, into Todd. She had assumed that he had left for Rainbow Canyon already, and now he had just charged headlong into her, the resulting impact knocking them to the ground.

"Sorry about that!" chirped Todd, in a seemingly cheery mood as well. "I was so excited about digging with you in Rainbow Canyon, I wasn't looking where I was going!"

Dina rubbed the back of her head, where she had hit it when she fell down, and glared slightly. "You stayed behind to wait for me?" she asked, half-incredulously, half-sarcastically. Todd nodded rapidly, smiling all the while. His enthusiasm was infectious, and soon enough, Dina found herself grinning as well.

"C'mon already!" said Todd suddenly, gesturing her over to the heliport. Shrugging her shoulders, Dina followed him.

The helicopter landed only a minute after they informed the attendant that they wished to go to Cranial Isle. Stepping into the vehicle, their thoughts wandered to Rainbow Canyon and the exciting new adventures that undoubtedly awaited them.

Upper Rainbow Canyon

Rainbow Canyon was a deep ravine, with plenty of cliffs and caverns to dig in. Dina found the landscape was oddly beautiful, and spent a lot of time just gazing at the scenery.

"Hey, Dina. Whatcha looking at now?" asked Todd, turning back to his friend. They had been fossil digging for about ten minutes or so, but had only managed to find three or four fossils between them.

Now, Dina was peering at a figure in the near distance. Upon closer inspection, she saw it was a female Fighter, a few years older than they were. Looking even closer, Dina could see that she had a dog with her, and that the dog was excitedly digging up a fossil.

Todd finally saw what Dina was staring at. "Hey, that Fighter has a dog!" he exclaimed, stating the obvious. "We should go say hi!"

Dina thought that this was a pretty random decision, but in spite of herself, she was also quite curious about the newcomer. She nodded, a little thoughtfully, and she and Todd ran over to the girl.

"Hi!" said Todd cheerfully when they had reached her. The girl seemed startled at their sudden appearance, and muttered to herself. "My goodness, I am glad, no?" she said in a voice with a thick accent. "At ze moment, I was thinking… Ah, but no. It is nothing."

Her mood abruptly changed from frightened to friendly. "Bonjour, my name is Joanie! And zis is Madame Pooch. She is entered in ze Cup with me." Dina and Todd both introduced themselves, and she nodded in greeting, smiling all the while.

Suddenly, Joanie smacked herself in the forehead in an exasperated manner. "Sacre bleu!" she exclaimed. "I am forgetting, I have discovered here a thing which is being quite lovely!"

Joanie, to the confused audience of Dina and Todd, pulled out a big, round… thing… filled to the brim with fruit. "It is a lovely bowl, no?" she asked to no one in particular, her voice filled with adoration. "It is big and round, and I have made with ze filling it with fruit!"

Dina and Todd exchanged glances as Joanie continued to gaze at the bowl with love in her eyes. Todd twirled a finger around his ear in the universal sign for, she's clearly crazy. "She's a little… different," murmured Dina out of the corner of her mouth.

Madame Pooch, or whatever the mutt's name was, suddenly barked loudly to Joanie, causing her to stand up and put the bowl away. "Of course," she said. "We will be making ze exit now." Joanie turned to Dina and Todd and waved. "Adieu!" she called cheerfully, and walked deeper into Rainbow Canyon.

"I guess we should go too, huh?" asked Todd after a few seconds. Dina replied matter-of-factly, "Yep. We'll probably be more successful in our fossil digging if we head onwards from here."

She waited for Todd to answer, then turned and saw him just staring at her. Not this again…she thought with a mental eye roll. She snapped her fingers in Todd's face, causing him to start as if waking up from a dream. He blushed furiously when he realized what had happened.

"Wake up!" snapped Dina, a little harsher than she meant to. "Sorry," Todd mumbled. "Come on, let's keep digging."

Cleaning Room

Dina's fossil selection had turned out pretty rich - three Earth-type fossils, two Air-types, and two Water-types. Right now, she was busy cleaning and reviving, with the help of KL-33N.

"This is a Hopter (head) fossil rock – BEEP," droned KL-33N. "Commence revival!" The Revival Chamber's door slammed shut, and then a five-second flash of light occurred. Dina caught a brief glimpse of the Vivosaur's silhouette – it was enormous!

But before the door opened again, KL-33N asked, "Would you like to integrate the Hopter (body) and Hopter (arms) fossil rocks that you cleaned earlier?" He whirred quietly and twirled in anticipation.

"You bet!" Dina grinned. "The more powerful, the better." If KL-33N could have smiled, he would have now as he prepared to integrate the other two fossils that Dina had cleaned just before.

When the process was finished, the Revival Chamber opened, and out stepped Dina's newest Vivosaur. It was a huge pterosaur, with a white underbelly and massive black wings. Its beak was a bright red, and its eyes a glittering green. A Haztegopteryx! thought Dina excitedly as it cocked its head to the side and regarded her inquisitively.

Soon, Hopter was in its Dino Medal, and safely in Dina's pocket with her other Vivosaurs. However, she had to substitute Nigo for Hopter, since she could only carry five Vivosaurs with her at a time.

"Good-bye for now, Nigo," she said quietly as she deposited him in the VMM, or Vivosaur Management Machine. I'll see you around, he murmured in response.

The other fossils turned out to be body and arm fossils for Vivosaurs that KL-33N called Cerato and Ankylo. I'll find their heads in Rainbow Canyon, I suppose, Dina thought as she thanked KL-33N and headed back out into Cranial City.

Todd was waiting for her at the entrance to Rainbow Canyon. "All set?" he asked cheerily. Dina nodded once and held up her new Dino Medal.

"I can't wait to try Hopter out," she replied with a grin. Feelings mutual, chirped Hopter from the medal. Her grin grew wider.

As they walked on, deeper into the canyon, they crossed the long rope bridge that led to the more remote digging spots. Dina suddenly started – on the other side was Terry! What's he doing here? she asked herself.

"Hey, it's Todd and Dina!" he called, waving them over with a hand. "You beatin' the heat and diggin' your digging?" He chuckled at his own joke.

After a brief pause, during which Dina and Todd reached him, he continued, "Rainbow Canyon is the premier dig site on Cranial Isle. The best part of it is excavating from the gondola!" He gestured to a contraption built into the side of a sheer cliff face. To Dina, it looked like it had been recently fixed.

"Yep," said Terry, reading the look in Dina's eyes. "I was just fixing a few of the cables holding it in place. We don't what Fighters plummeting to the bottom of the canyon, now do we?"

Dina chuckled along with Terry, until she realized that Todd had gone pale. "It's completely fine, Todd," she said, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. "He wouldn't allow us to go if it wasn't safe." Todd slowly relaxed.

Terry began to explain how to dig fossils from the gondola – apparently, you just hung over the side and dug from the canyon walls. Dina felt just a tiny bit nervous when he said this, but silently reassured herself with the same words that she had just uttered to Todd.

"So that's the gondola in a nutshell," finished Terry. "There's also another area at the bottom for additional digging. Now, I've got some more repairs to do around Rainbow Canyon, so I'll see the two of you later." With a jaunty salute, he was off.

Dina waited until he had disappeared around the corner, then took a deep breath and let it out fast. "So, Todd," she said. "Shall we get to digging from the gondola?"

Todd was shivering again. "N-no thanks," he stuttered. "Could we g-go to the bottom to do our d-digging? Please?"

Dina sighed. "Sure thing," she replied. "But remember, we have to use the gondola to get back up as well."

Soon, the two of them were safely in the gondola. Todd sat on the floor, pulling his legs up to his chest and fearfully clutching them. Dina, slowly and cautiously, was pulling the gondola down inch by inch, leading them to the bottom of the canyon.

It took them about ten minutes to reach the canyon floor. By this time, Dina's hands had been rubbed raw from pulling on the ropes that held the gondola in place. Getting out of the gondola, she breathed a sigh of exhaustion. "Next time, Todd," she gasped, "you're doing the pulling."

But Todd wasn't paying any attention to her. "Dina," he whispered instead. "Look over there." Dina looked, and what she saw interested her.

There was no one in the gorge but a single girl. She had pink-and-yellow hair, and had a very thin body frame. After a moment of thought, Dina realized that it was none other than Pauleen!

But something wasn't right. Pauleen wasn't wearing her mask, allowing her face to go uncovered. She had surprisingly big, startling blue eyes and a rather cute face. Dina looked at Todd, but he paid her no heed – he was busy examining Pauleen closely, as if he had never seen her before.

"Where did it go, digadig?" Pauleen asked herself. "Without it, I…" Her voice trailed off and she continued to look along the ground – it did indeed look like she was searching for something. "Hmm, I know it diga-dropped somewhere around here…" she continued to mutter.

Dina was about to say something, but was cut off by Todd. "Do you see that, Dina?" he asked, an undercurrent of excitement that grew in his voice with every word. "That girl is so cute!" There was a blush on his cheeks that rivaled any blush that Todd had ever acquired from Dina.

"Come on! We should help her search for whatever she's looking for!" Todd looked very pleased with his idea, and almost tripped over his own feet rushing to the task.

Needless to say, Dina was a little confounded by this new behavior. Todd had never acted like that around her before, and she was positive that Todd liked her at least a little bit. I guess now he likes Pauleen a lot more, she mused, chuckling to herself. I might as well help him, so he doesn't make a total fool of himself.

By now, Todd had almost reached Pauleen, and she hadn't noticed him yet. When Dina, in turn, reached the two of them, he was saying, "…you having trouble? 'Cause I can totally help."

Pauleen shrieked at the sound of his voice and hurriedly streaked off behind a boulder. She cautiously peeked out from behind it, seemingly both curious and frightened.

"Whoa, wait!" Todd exclaimed, a little bit startled himself. "I didn't mean to scare you! I didn't expect to see someone as pretty as you walking around Rainbow Canyon…" He went on a bit more, stumbling over his words quite a few times and making Dina snicker from the sidelines.

Finally, Pauleen chose that moment to come slinking out from behind her rock. "Can you… help me, digadig?" she asked cautiously. Todd nodded with such enthusiasm that his hat fell off. There was more snickering from Dina, which he finally noticed and responded to with a heated glare.

"I lost something very important," Pauleen murmured timidly. "It is big, round, and helps to protect me, digadig. Please help me, diga."

Todd wore a broad, confident smile on his face. "Of course! You just wait here and we'll retrieve it for you!" He abruptly turned to Dina and said sharply, "Come on, Dina! We need to help her!"

Rolling her eyes, Dina followed him, now tearing off like a little green rocket for the gondola. Big and round… she thought to herself. The object is big and rou - Hey! That sounds a bit like that bowl that Joanie had!

Hurriedly climbing into the gondola after Todd, who had indeed began to pull at the ropes to make it rise, she relayed to him her epiphany.

"Joanie's bowl, huh?" he mused. "Alright, we'll just have to find her and ask for it back. How hard can that be?" Dina, and Aeros for once, agreed that this should be an easy task.

But something nagged at the back of Dina's mind. Something tells me that this little scavenger hunt won't go so smoothly…

Upper Rainbow Canyon

"A bowl zis big, it is rare, no?" Joanie asked Madame Pooch, to which the dog barked her agreement. "I can fit so many things inside it! Like cheese, or ze baguette."

It was at that time that Dina and Todd reached the two of them. "Wait! Waaaaaaait!" called Todd, and Joanie looked over at them.

"Ah, it is Todd and Dina. You are well, no?" Joanie asked politely. Dina stepped forward and said seriously, "Look, Joanie, about that bowl…" She went on to explain that Pauleen had lost it originally.

"Escargot!" Joanie exclaimed, shocked. "The owner of ze bowl, she is missing it?! Ah, 'tis a shame, no?" Here her voice turned sad and she hung her head.. "We have grown so attached to ze bowl, you see?"

Madame Pooch suddenly turned to Joanie. "ARF, ARF, ARF!" she barked insistently. After a moment or two, Joanie responded. "Ah, I see. So zat is what we will do."

Looking back at Dina and Todd, Joanie told them, "We want to make ze Fossil Battle with you. If you defeat Madame Pooch, we will give you ze bowl – but she will only battle with Dina."

Dina herself was very confused. "You want us to battle your dog?" she asked with more than a hint of sarcasm. Joanie laughed cheerfully. "I have not said zis correctly; you will make ze Fossil Battle with me, Joanie."

Todd just shrugged. "Look, lady. We just want the bowl." Then he turned to Dina and said encouragingly, "Do your thing, Dina."

Hand already clutching three of her Dino Medals, Dina took a determined step forward. "You can bet on it," she said, looking straight ahead at Joanie and Madame Pooch.

Joanie looked positively delighted. "Let us make with ze battling of fossils!" she exclaimed, before throwing out three of her own Vivosaurs. They exploded out of their medals as Peloro, Machai, and Tryma - two Fire-types and an Earth-type.

With a satisfied smirk, Dina threw out Aeros, Tricera, and her new Hopter. "Hopter, do your best to work with Aeros and Tricera!" Dina called out to him, and he nodded and, hilariously, gave her a thumbs-up.

What was odd about Hopter's battle stance, however, was the fact that it didn't hover like the few other pterosaurs she had seen. Instead, it crouched on the ground, looking very comfortable with solid earth under its talons. Oh, that's right, Dina realized, remembering something from her extensive natural history reading sessions. Hopter can't fly. Or at least, he isn't good at it.

Joanie had the first move, commanding Peloro to use a powerful Peloro Combo. The bull-like Vivosaur grunted, then ran at Aeros with its head lowered. It smashed into Aeros, then delivered an uppercut with its long horns. Aeros took an involuntary step backwards at the two blows, but was otherwise unfazed.

Considering her options and potential targets, Dina decided to have Tricera attack with Running Smash. Peloro was sent flying from the blow, this time on the receiving end of its enemies' horns. However, it got back up, wincing a little.

Aeros was next up – Dina had just enough FP to squeeze in a Wind Blast. Machai took the hit, receiving critical damage and instantly retreating into its Dino Medal.

Now Joanie had a ton of FP to use up. She commanded Tryma to use Raptor Combo, and the bird slashed at Hopter with both its talons and beak. Then Peloro used Peloro Combo yet again, dealing significant damage to Hopter. But the sturdy pterosaur hung on strongly.

"Hopter, use Beak Stab!" Dina cried. Hopter let out a caw, then ran full force at Tryma. His long, pointy beak, with dust and earth swirling around it, connected with its target. Tryma weakly recovered from the blow, down to its last few LP. Its Parting Blow ability activated, making it glow with a deadly orange light.

Joanie yelled, "Tryma, use Raptor Kick!" The bird-like Vivosaur lashed out with a talon at Tricera, taking out half of its LP! Peloro followed that up with Peloro Horn, which dealt a bit of damage. It was nothing compared to the beating that Tryma had given Tricera, however.

Dina gritted her teeth. She needed to take out Tryma now, or else her entire team would be at risk.

"Aeros, finish Tryma with Wind Blast!" The carnivore obliged, sending a column of wind at Tryma. It connected with hurricane force, blasting Tryma right back into its Dino Medal.

All of a sudden, Hopter's eyes began to glow an unhealthy red, and it screeched in fury. Oh, damn! thought Dina in frustration. Hopter's Berserker ability has activated, probably from the earlier attacks from Tryma and Peloro! Now she knew that Hopter would not listen to anything that she said to it.

Joanie smiled confidently at the sight, knowing that victory would be a little easier to win with Hopter out of commission. "Peloro, use Peloro Combo and take down Tricera!"

Peloro ran at Tricera, who despite his advantageous typing, was most likely going down after this next attack. But then something odd happened. Hopter caught sight of the speeding bull and instinctively thought that Peloro was going for him. A harsh shriek cut through the air as he charged forward with a Beak Stab attack.

Hopter's beak struck Peloro just as the latter was about to reach Tricera. It went flying, hitting the ground with a thud and reverting back to a Dino Medal.

With each of their own victorious roars, Dina's three Vivosaurs retreated back into their medals as well. Dina picked them up, looking at Hopter's for a second before putting them back into her pocket. I got lucky that time with Hopter, she thought grimly. It most likely won't happen again – I have to be careful not to let the Berserker ability activate again.

"Our Vivosaurs, zey have lost!" Joanie cried, somewhat overdramatically. "Do not be cross, Madame Pooch. It was bad luck, no?"

Todd fired up. "It was not bad luck!" he shouted, placing a protective hand on Dina's shoulder. "Dina was skilled enough to beat you, and that's all there is to it!" Dina was a little embarrassed with Todd's defense. Although, she had to admit that she was grateful for his loyalty.

Joanie sighed. "Well, you have defeated us, so we shall return ze bowl." She handed the strange bowl to Dina, taking the produce back out of it. She then left with a cheery "Adieu!"

Todd stared after her and Madame Pooch curiously. "That's weird," he commented. "It's like she was talking with her dog or something." Dina simply shrugged and suggested, "We've got Pau - *ahem* - the girl's bowl back, so why don't we return it?"

For some reason, Dina was hesitant at the idea of revealing Pauleen's identity to Todd just yet. I want to see him discover it for himself, she silently thought, to which her Vivosaurs agreed with varying degrees of reluctance.

A wide grin spread across Todd's face at the mention of "the girl". "She's got to be thankful, right?" he said to no one in particular. "Maybe she'll even like me!" His grin grew slightly wider, and Dina took an involuntary step away from him.

As they walked back to the gondola, Dina said to herself, At least he's stopped paying attention to me. Maybe it'll stay that way.

Suddenly, there was an urgent ringing from Dina's pocket. She pulled out her Paleopager and turned it on. It didn't hold good news:

"This is an alert for all Fighters. The BB Brigade has begun kidnapping Fighters from Rainbow Canyon. As of now, they appear to be targeting young females. Female Fighters in Rainbow Canyon are urged to seek shelter immediately."

Dina, who was, strangely, relatively unconcerned, said idly, "I hope they realize that 'seek shelter immediately' is code for 'run as fast as your little legs can carry you away from Rainbow Canyon'?"

It was as if her anger for the BB Brigade was fueling her sarcastic sense of humor. How DARE they? she seethed. How low can they stoop?

Todd was significantly more worried than Dina was, needless to say. "Joanie's got her dog," he began, "so she's probably fine. But that cute girl could be in real danger! Come on, let's get back and find her!"

Ordinarily, Dina would dismiss this worry, but she thought that Todd was actually making sense in this case. "You're right," she said. "We need to find her and make sure that she's all right."

With that said and done, they raced the rest of the way to the gondola, breath exploding from their lungs and feet pounding on the rocky ground, desperate to save Pauleen.

Yep, now Todd's in love with Pauleen. At least now Dina can breathe a little easier and concentrate on Rupert without worry XD

Whoops, sorry to spoil that, but hey, I bet you all saw it coming anyway.

Stay tuned for Chapter 7!

TRIVIA: Haztegopteryx (Hopter) is known to belong to a group of pterosaurs called azhdarchids. They're a specialized group designed for ground living, like a stork or caracara. Some grew as tall as T-Rex. How's that for a Cretaceous turkey dinner, huh?