Not much to say here, but if you're still reading this, thanks. On with the chapter!

Chapter 2: Investigations

Dina awoke from her nightmare-filled nap in a cold sweat. It took her a moment to realize she had just been dreaming, at which point she breathed a sigh of relief. She checked her phone and found that she had only slept for about two hours. She also had two voicemail messages.

She opened the phone and listened to the first recording. It was Joe's voice.

"Howdy, pard. Just thought I ought to let ya know I sent a team to investigate that ice Ptera ya'll encountered. Based on the info we have, it seems to be territorial and stronger than most vivosaurs. We'll just have to wait and see what they find."

With that, the message ended. Dina pressed the button to erase the message, and it moved on to the next. This one was from Todd.

"Hey, Dina. Just letting you know that Rupert's out of surgery. He's not doing too well right now, but they said he should be fine within a few weeks. You might want to come visit him when you get a chance."

That was the news Dina had been waiting for. She quickly threw on a clean outfit, grabbed her medals and her phone, and ran to the hospital to visit her boyfriend. As Todd had mentioned, he wasn't in good shape, but at least he was alive and expected to survive. Unfortunately for Dina, Rupert was so drugged up with painkillers that he barely even recognized her…

Meanwhile…

"We've reached the target area. Awaiting further orders."

"Copy that. Hold your position and observe the subject."

"Sir, the subject doesn't seem to be here."

"It will be. Hold your position."

"Roger that."

The armored figure took out a pair of binoculars and looked around. "No sign of the subject yet. The commander said we have to wait." Three more armored figures stood behind him. All of them nodded in unison.

"I'm not the only one here with a bad feeling about this, am I?" another of the soldiers asked.

"This thing can one-shot our strongest fighters' best vivosaurs and tried to kill them," A female soldier muttered in response. "Of course you're not the only one who's scared by it. But we have our orders."

After several minutes of idle chatter between the group, the one with the binoculars spotted something flying in the distance. "Heads up. Unidentified creature at 12 o'clock. Possibly our subject."

After a moment, the leader put a hand to his ear and spoke up again. "Sir, the target is approaching. What are our orders?"

"Observe it and take notes," The commander replied. "If it attacks, stun it and retreat. Do not try to fight it."

"Roger that." He raised his binoculars again and saw that the creature was much closer now. One of the other soldiers reached for the pistol on his hip. The female grabbed hers, as well, but the last soldier, who had been quiet for the entire time, reached into a backpack and pulled out a notepad and pen.

"Write down the appearance," He told the one with the notepad. "Pteranodon with navy blue scaled body, sky blue beak and legs, and glass-like wings." As it got closer, he relayed more info. "Pastel blue eyes, estimating about a 30 foot wingspan, and probably between 15 and 20 feet for its body length. We also know it has ice-based attacks."

The creature landed in the field, glancing around before locking eyes with the leader. "We've been spotted. Prepare to retreat." But instead of attacking, the creature simply stared at him for a moment. It then took off into the air and left, as if deciding a fight wasn't worth it.

The leader immediately put his hand to his ear again and spoke to the commander. "Sir, the subject spotted us, but it retreated. We have a description, but nothing more."

"Return to headquarters with the information you have. We'll discuss our next move from there."

"Roger that," He muttered. "He then turned to the others. Pack it up, we're leaving."

The others nodded and put their supplies away before leaving. The info they had obtained had only brought more questions than answers, but there wasn't much else they could do right now.

Later that day, as Dina was leaving the hospital for the night, she heard a ding from her phone. She pulled it from her pocket and found that she had a text message from an unknown number. At first, she considered ignoring it, thinking maybe someone just had the wrong number, but her curiosity got the better of her. As she opened the message, she quickly realized it was not a wrong number, but the message raised more questions than answers.

Dina,

I have some information on the ice-type Ptera you encountered outside of Treasure Lake. Meet me in Rainbow Canyon tomorrow at noon if you want to know more.

-M

This concerned Dina. Not many people knew about this situation, and if it was one of the people Joe sent, the meeting would be in Wildwest Tower. Why such an informal place? The only explanation Dina could think of is that it was a third party. But how would they have gotten her number? These questions wouldn't be answered by just waiting around, though. Her only hope of answering them would be to meet with this "M," whoever that turned out to be.

Little did she know, this crazy day was only the beginning.

That's all for now. Keep reading and reviewing!