Leon was there when the door opened. "Hey. Do you know what we have to do next?"
Hikari jumped. "Oh! Um… I'm going to guess… Probably we have to wait until everyone is ready, then… then go to the next part of the testing. At least… that's what usually happens, I think? I never really pay attention, I mean it has been a while since there have been new recruits and I've never been one before-" She shrugged. "I say wait, at least for everyone to finish up?"
"Uh, chill out there. Maybe don't talk my ear off." Leon smirked. "I get it. Wait for people to finish up. That's boring, but oh well." He went over to the waiting spot of the reception area.
Hikari made her way to the garage. Roland ran into her on the way. Literally. She backed into the wall of the Park Center, looking around for a way out.
"Hey Hikari! Don't worry, it's just me!" Roland offered a hand. "Sorry, sometimes I get off balance and can't control where I go- You're okay." He smiles. "Nothing bad is happening."
Hikari nodded weakly. "N-nothing… bad. No one is going to… everything is okay… right." She breathed in, out. "Okay. I'm good. S-sorry for uh… freaking out on you like that…" She puts her hand in Roland's.
"You're fine. I could tell you didn't mean anything by that, I mean- That wasn't you not liking me. That was you reacting to something that triggered some sort of panic." Roland shrugged. "No need to apologize for something that's not your fault."
Hikari smiled, finally meeting Roland's eyes, brushing a lock of her light brown hair away from where it was hiding her eyes. "Thank you. I uh- I have to get going for the bone buggy test… I'm the last one. Th-thank you. I'll uh… see you in a little bit?"
Roland nodded. "See ya Hikari. Good luck!"
Hikari finally got to the garage, and met up with Liu Ren. He went with her for her first official drive in a bone buggy.
"Are you sure you've never done this before? You're even doing well at excavating the fossils!" Ren laughed. "I know Stryker probably has brought you out with him, but I didn't expect you to be this good."
Hikari smiled, glancing at the holoscreen Ren's face was visible on. "Well, I mean… He has let me drive before… And I have been to the small islands where bone buggies aren't permitted and cleaned fossils before… So just combine that and… it's the same, kind of? I mean… Cleaning is harder from in here but…" She shrugged, adjusting her scarf.
Once Hikari was done, with a few vivosaurs revived, she made her way back to the park. Nate was standing by the metal dinosaur in the square.
"Hey! How's it going?" The boy chuckled, "How many vivosaurs did you get? I got like… two?"
Hikari nodded. "Um… three? I only really plan on using Lophus though, the others were just practice…"
"So, I saw a really cool looking door! Looked like it was a science lab or something! Wanna come with me to explore?" Nate asked, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "We have some time before our next test is announced, it'll probably happen tomorrow anyways!"
Hikari shrugged. "It's uh… probably Professor Little's lab… I've been there but… It would be interesting?"
Nate led the way into a lab area of the HQ. There are a lot of weird devices and machines. "Woah! I wonder if any of these are like- laser guns? Use them to beat rogue vivosaurs!"
A kid, probably a bit younger than the candidates, walks through the door farther into the lab. "Oh. Hello Hikari. And no, I don't believe you'll find anything that extraordinary here… Nate, correct?"
Nate turns around. "Oh! Yeah, I'm Nate. What does this do, if it's not a laser gun?"
The professor started rambling about something that sounded like it was in a high school textbook Hikari might have read when she first came to the Park, when she was still trying to learn what a normal teen would. It sounded strangely like algebra, with a bit of biology mixed in? Though that made sense as it was a device to bring rocks to life.
Professor Little stopped talking at once when a device on his wrist buzzed. "Oh! That must be the Captain. I must go, I do hope you'll forgive me for leaving you hanging at the best part!"
As soon as he left Nate went towards the other door, closed at that point. "C'mon! Let's see where Professor Boring keeps the REAL weapons!"
Hikari followed along, gasping when she saw…
There was a machine at the back of the room, in a shape that looked like a metal case for a dinosaur doll. Hikari felt what was almost like the strings of a puppet, connecting from the pit of her stomach and whatever was inside the casing. She knew the feeling, but… she didn't quite know why. It was something from before, before she was aware, but after she went blank.
"I wonder what this button does?" Nate was examining the machine. He touched the red button, then carefully pressed down. The room was silent, then the machine roared to life.
A small… vivosaur? Fell out of the machine-case and onto the floor. It had large green eyes with jagged cross-like pupils that matched the marking on its head. It let out a small growl.
Nate laughed, beginning to tease the thing for how small it was. He turned around and showed it his butt, something about being the butt of the joke… Hikari grabbed the small vivosaur before it could bite down on it's new target.
"You might want to not… do that? It seemed… pretty ready to um… make you a snack…" She chuckled.
The small vivosaur squirmed its way out of her arms, making his way out of the lab.
"Wait! We gotta stop that thing!" Nate bolted to the door. "Surely we'll be kicked out if they find out! Hurry!"
"W-wait- Why do I have to help? You're the one who-" Hikari sighed. She followed him. Someone by the cardboard cutouts outside had seen the little vivosaur head to a digsite.