Journey of the soul chapter 57

Honestly, I don't know what to say. I played it off as a joke in the ending of last chapter, but 10000 views is a huge accomplishment. Thank you all so much for reading my story and putting up with all my bad jokes.

Hunter: are you crying?

No! I just…got something in my eye

Spinax: what is it?

TEARS. Special thanks to the people that follow this story. Even if all my views are just you guys checking in, it's great to know that someone out there enjoys what I do.

Hunter: I guess the people just like to hear about my personal problems.

Spinax: at least somebody does…

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the chapter! Let me know what you want me to do for our 10000 view celebration in the reviews! (Or the forum. I get lonely there)

Glowing orbs of light exploding. A pure black pillar surrounded by endless stars. What could it all mean? Was it all just some bad dream Hunter had while he was unconscious? It all felt so real...

"You're reading way too much into it." Spinax grumbled, "don't you have weird dreams like that all the time?"

"Well yeah, but never one like that. In my other dreams. It's always either been about this coffin or a shadowy mass attacking…you!" Hunter ruffled his hair furiously. Lila gave him a strange look as she walked ahead of him, but didn't question it.

"Your super-evolved form was in my dreams! You have been since vivosaur island!"

"…that's all kinds of messed up," spinax mused, "I usually only appear in the dreams of hot reptiles, and never before they even know I exist."

"…being part dinaurian, did you just call me hot?"

"What's this about dreams?"

"Oh right. Well, if you appeared in my dream in your super evolved form before we knew that form even existed, then maybe I might be able to see the future like Lila. But that wouldn't explain this dream any more than that one."

"Wait, you've been having that dream since before my dialogue had quotation marks on it?" Before Hunter could answer, his attention was shifted.

"Hey guys!" Todd called to them from across the dig site by the gondola station. They walked across the bridge and met him at the small outcropping by the station. Hunter noticed that Todd was carrying something pink and round under his arm.

"Thanks for finding Hunter Lila." Todd gave her a thumbs-up, "you can head back home now."

"No way! I want to see how this ends." Lila sat down on a rock and swayed back and forth impatiently. Hunter gave her a look. They were literally just playing delivery boys for someone. Why would she want to stick around for that?

"Well…okay. It's alright with me if it's alright with…Hunter? You okay? You look like you saw a t-Rex eat a ghost."

"I'm good." Hunter assured him. Truth be told, he was still worried about what would happen if he ever snapped like that again and what all those dreams meant, but it was his burden to bear.

"Lila can stay with us. So, you got the…thing?"

"Yep, here it is!" Todd proudly held out the thing to Hunter, who promptly checked the bottom of it. Yep, it was Pauleen's mask. The girl was definently Pauleen.

"You act like we didn't know that already."

"I didn't want to assume Spinax." Hunter tucked the mask into his bag, "let's go back down to the canyon, she should still be there." Before they could load themselves into the gondola though, all three of their paleopagers went off. Todd was the first to check his and read the message aloud.

"All fighters currently in Rainbow canyon, please exit the dig site. The BareBones brigade has begun to…kidnap fighters?!" Hunter quickly checked his own. The BB brigade actually was kidnapping people now.

"That went from 0 to 100 real quick," spinax commented, "let's go kick some tail."

"Hang on, there's more." Hunter began to read out loud, "the brigade has seemed to only abduct young female fighters….gross."

"Uh, Hunter?" Lila tugged on his shirt.

"Yeah?"

"Todd left." Hunter looked up to see Todd running towards the gondola station.

"Strange, I expected a stomachache by now." Spinax yawned.

"You should give Todd more credit. He's a lot braver than you think." Hunter began to jog towards Todd, making sure to keep Lila in the corner of his eye.

"If he's braver than I think, I'll eat that vivosaur Ryne gave you."

"You just want an excuse to eat it 'cause it looks like a Caesar salad."

"Eh. Either way it's a win for me." Hunter hopped into the gondola with Todd and helped Lila down the ladder. Todd pushed the lever a little faster than he should and they briskly moved down the cliff face.

"Do you think that girl is alright?" Lila asked

"I don't know, that's why we should get down there soon." Hunter watched other gondolas around them lift up while they went down. Probably people leaving since they got the same message. He looked down towards the ground, it was too far away to tell, but maybe there were three people huddled at the bottom?

"There she is!" Lila called, pointing at one of the black dots that was a person. How could she tell? Was Lila using foresight again?

They finally hit the bottom of the cliff with a shaky thud. Todd and Hunter both jumped out and began to look around.

"Stay there Lila!" Hunter called. He didn't want her getting taken if he could help it.

"I don't get it," Todd put his hands in his hips, "she told us she would be here and everyone has pretty much already left."

"Hey! Let me go!" The shout cut off both of their trains of thought. On another side of the cliff, Pauleen was being hoisted up into a gondola by two bb grunts.

"Stop!" Todd shouted, reaching for his holder.

"Oh crap, we've been spotted. Let's roll!" The two grunts dumped pauleen into the gondola and then began to lift up towards the top.

"No you don't! Pter-"

"Hang on Todd!" Lila shouted, "a vivosaur could break the chains!" She pointed at the chains holding up the gondola.

"Then we better be faster!" The boys jumped back in their own gondola and raced after the grunts. Unfortunately, the small carts topped out at an even speed. The grunts reached the top way before they did. And once the group finally did reach the top, the grunts and pauleen were nowhere to be found. Wind whistled through the area, creating a sense of isolation.

"Yeah, screw this." Hunter walked over to the wooden door he saw earlier and hit the yellow button. The wooden door slid upwards to reveal a dark passageway.

"Well, danger Will Robinson." Spinax mused. Hunter felt a familiar chill go up his spine that happens whenever a fight is about to happen. Slowly, they walked into the passageway. Hunter made sure to keep Lila ahead of him so he could see her.

"I don't like this. From what I could tell from first seeing the bb brigade, they seemed like just a edgier version of the bandits. This feels intentional, like there was a bigger goal in mind than to just get money."

"The talking skull did say he wanted to stop the cup. Can we talk about how it's a literal SKULL by the way?"

"I know right? Don boneyard looks like a void underneath the robe. He's definently not human,"

"Aliens! I knew it!" As spinax launched into one of his conspiracy theories, they finally reached an open area with lighting. The lighting wasn't from the sky, but from multiple shoddy lamps. It was far away, but Hunter could see people in the back of the wide cave room. The three slowly moved back behind a rock that could conceal all of them. Hunter peered over the edge of the rock and stared at the scene laid out before him.

Multiple lounge chairs had been set up and each one was occupied by a girl. Bb grunts were shuffling between them all like waiters, tending the each girl. One was handing samples of different drinks to one, while another was doing a bad attempt at moonwalking to amuse a younger girl.

"…I'm not sure how to feel about this." Todd said after awhile of silent staring in shock.

"I take it all back spinax, these guys are a dumpster fire."

"That's what they get for working for an alien."

"…I have no idea what's going on." Lila stated flatly. Honestly, that summed up the situation pretty well.

"Hey, look!" Todd whisper-shouted. He was pointing towards an entrance to a second chamber to the right of the back of the cave. The mask-less pauleen was at the mouth of the chamber."

"Lila, I need you to do me a favor." Todd turned, "can you go and tell the staff at the fighters station that the bb brigade is here?"

"What?, but I want to stay and help?"

"That will be helping," Hunter chimed in, "we cant stop all these guys by ourselves. We need you Lila."

"Well…okay." Lila slowly turned and walked back towards the exit.

"You'll think she'll be alright by herself?" Todd asked.

"I trust her." Todd nodded in agreement.

"Okay then Hunter…let's go." The two boys looped around the rock and stayed low as they snuck up next to pauleen. She noticed them and moved behind a outcropping in the rock wall so they would be hidden.

"Are you alright?" Todd asked before they were fully covered. Pauleen nodded.

"I'm fine diga. The brigadiga has been treating the girls like royalty."

"Again, still not convinced any of these guys are right in the head," spinax chimed in.

"Playing nice or not, it's still kidnapping." Hunter gave the cave another quick look around, "so who's in charge here? Usually there's one big bad that sits back while the grunts do all the heavy lifting…or serving."

"Well, in the back, there's a guy everyone keeps calling the boss digadig," pauleen explained, "but you shoulddiga be careful. The other grunts are diga-deathly scared of him."

"Right." Hunter internally rolled his eyes. He'd fought thieves, criminal "masterminds", aliens bent on world destruction, multiple master fighters, and a literal planet eater. What could one guy do?

"He could be a hipster," spinax suggested, "or a punk, or a hippie…friggin' bums." Hunter rolled his eyes for real this time and began walking towards the entrance to the chamber.

"H-hang on. I'll come too," Todd quickly snuggled up behind Hunter.

"You sure buddy? You don't have to if you don't want to."

"Of course I'm sure!" Todd lowered his voice to a whisper, "c'mon man, I'm trying to be impressive here!" Hunter looked to pauleen and wondered if he should tell Todd who the girl really was.

"Alright, if you say so." They walked into the darkness of the cavern and attempted to look around. It seemed completely empty.

"Hey big bad guy!" Todd shouted, "show yourself!" Hunter smiles at his friend trying to be brave, even if his legs were visibly shaking.

"I do believe you're referring to me." Whatever Hunter expected, this guy certainly wasn't it. He wore yellow tinted glasses and his hair was partly dyed red. The dyed part curved up in a spike bigger than Hunter's spikes. We're wore a white jacket that ended at his knees, which was entirely white aside from black flames at the bottom. He had a black undershirt and black and white pants that stretch down to be tucked under high black boots.

"Oh god no, revival machine no." Spinax began to shriek, "back to the shadow realm foul demon!"

"So, I'm guessing you're in char-" Hunter began.

"First off," the boy cut him off, "those jeans are filthy. And goggles? What is this, a beach? And you there!" He pointed to Todd, "puke green? Really? Not to mention the size of that zipper. You two are so tragically unhip it hurts."

"Ugh," Todd's rye twitched, "now I get why everyone's afraid of him. He's a hipster."

"Damn straight," the hipster did a spin on their heel and pose as if it were for a camera, "say hello to Cole! The most hip and stylish member of the bb brigade."

"….are you a guy or a girl?" Hunter asked. Cole broke his pose for a second before quickly regaining composure.

"What? Do those goggles help you see or something? I'm obviously a guy."

"Could've fooled me," Hunter folded his arms, "so, since you seem to be all about showing off. Why don't you tell us what exactly you plan to do with these girls?"

"My plan is pretty genius, if I do say so myself." Cole pushes up his glasses. They did the weird shining thing that glasses do despite there not being much light.

"You see, get all the ladies to not focus on the cup by pampering them, and then all the men lose motivation too. No point if there's no one to impress, am I right?"

"…you're kidding right?" Todd stuttered. Hunter just shook his head.

"Why would I kid about a foolproof plan? Now then, how about you two show yourselves out before I feed you to my boneysaurs."

"Boneywhat?" Todd looked to Hunter

"They're basically skeletal versions of different vivosaurs."

"You mean like a vivosaur..g-ghost?" Todd suddenly clenched up, "OOOOHHH! My stomach! I think I might have to sit this one out Hunter."

"There's the ache I was expecting," spinax huffed. Hunter ignore him.

"Alright then" He turned back to Cole as Todd waddled away.

"You still here? Trying to steal my style?" Cole brandished three Dino medals.

"Nah, I've got my own style." Spinax groaned while Hunter pulled out his own Dino medals.

"Spinax! Delta! S-raptor!" Cole also called out his vivosaurs, although Hunter noticed he didn't call out their names.

"Revolting," Sounds like spinax noticed too. B-lambeo was recognizable, and His vivowatch identified the other two as B-Rex and B-Plesio.

(Cross: for the sake of my sanity, the boneysaurs won't have the "B-" prefix during battle)

"Blitz attack!" Delta cloaked itself in water and then rushed at B-Rex

"Boney Blur." This guy also didn't shout attacks. Before Delta could make contact, Plesio shot forward, blue sparks trailed behind it. Delta was forced backwards by the attack.

"Spinax Terra!" Spinax fired a condensed tornado at Plesio, who slid around the edges of it as if it were skating across water.

"Scare tactics" Rex lunged at spinax and dealt a flurry of blows. Most of the shoulder tackles and tail whips skidded harmlessly of His hide, but Rex sank its fangs into spinax's arm at the end of the attack.

"S-fury!" S-raptor kicked Rex off of spinax before shooting a jet of flame at lambeo. The smaller boneysaur reared up as it was consumed in fire. As it walked out of the flames, Hunter could see that its pure white skeleton was now charred black.

"Oh well, black is the new black anyway," Cole pushes his glasses up again, "boney blur." Plesio rushed across the ground again, only this time it was headed for S-raptor.

"Counter in front of S-raptor!" A blue shield surrounded delta as it jumped in front of the attack. The shield exploded on contact with Plesio and sent it barreling backwards into lambeo. Spinax seizes the opportunity and struck lambeo in the stomach while it was stunned. Plesio quickly slid behind spinax and bit down on his tail. Sparks flew as its teeth grinned against the crystal hide.

"Is there a bug on my tail?" Spinax lifted up Plesio off the ground and opened his mouth, firing a point blank cyclone.

"Scare tactics." Rex slid under spinax and rammed into his cheek, forcing the cyclone off to the left. S-raptor fired a column of flame at Rex to force it away while Plesio ducked away from Spinax. Delta chased after Plesio and attempted to pounce on it.

"Max Quicken." Plesio quite literally became a blur as it darted around delta in circles. This left delta disoriented enough to get hit with a shoulder check from lambeo.

"Just great. Harden! Then Spinax mega!" Spinax's crystals shone with a dazzling green light before he cloaked his claw in a tornado and rushed at lambeo. The smaller vivosaur planted a foot backwards in an attempt to run away.

"No you don't. S-combo!" S-raptor ran up and drop kicked lambeo forward into spinax's attack. Lambeo was struck squarely in the stock and faded back to a Dino medal.

"Alright, now-"

"Boney wave, but focus down S-Raptor." Plesio shot like a bullet towards S-raptor. Water with electrical sparks flashing in it trailed behind the boneysaur. Sinraptor was bombarded with gun-like jets of water while Plesio spun around it like a whirlpool. Spinax attempted to break through the the water wall, but Rex had taken up guard duty and snapped at anything that got close.

"Harden again! Rush it!" Spinax's crystal hide shine once more as he charged past Rex, taking a nasty cut near his eye in the process. When spinax tried to breach the water wall however, he was repeatedly struck by Plesio, being soaked with water and then shocked repeatedly by the sparks.

"You know when I joked about you being electrocuted back at vivosaur island?"

"Yeah…"

"I take it back." S-raptor has been defeated and returned to a Dino medal at this point. Rex slowly walked toward Hunter's two remaining vivosaurs while Plesio began advancing while still maintaining its whirlpool.

"Delta! Put up a counter shield!" The blur shield that now surrounded delta wouldn't be enough to stop plesio's attack, and both of them knew it.

"And that's how you win a battle with style!" Cole pushed up his glasses again, while Hunter put his goggles over his eyes, "perhaps you should've taken notes…what are you doing?"

"Preparing." Hunter tightened the straps on his goggles, "the second delta's counter shield goes off, the first six rows are a splash zone."

"Ugh. Not only are you unhip, you're uncultured. My masterpiece of a whirlpool is a series of small attacks, your shield will fizzle out like a bad rock concert."

"Spinax! Attack Delta with Spinax Peta!" Hunter shouted in his mind.

"Come again?" Spinax snorted.

"Trust me, do it!" Spinax gritted his teeth until the whirlpool was almost on top of them, then roared as he summoned multiple tornadoes from the ground. The shield exploded brilliantly as the tornadoes converged on it, whipping around wind everywhere and sending Rex and Plesio flying. The water from the whirlpool was sent into the air, then came cascading back down. The now soaked Hunter lifted a fist in triumph as Spinax roared and a very injured delta gave its best attempt at a triumphant whimper.

"That…what…how…?" Cole stuttered. The rain had washed the dye out of his hair and it was now flat on his head. Hunter took a look around.

"Well, I was a little off. The first 60 rows were a splash zone. But hey. A win's a win in the end."

"I have water in places the sun doesn't shine." Spinax said flatly as Hunter recalled him to a medal.

"You could use the shower," Hunter turned to Cole, "this is the part where you leave and stop your stupid plan. Or are you so unhip you didn't know that?"

"Me? Unhip? NOOOOOOOO!," and with that, Cole ran away.

"Uh, everything alright in here Hunter?" Todd had walked back into the chamber with pauleen. Behind them, Hunter could see staff members from the fighters station hustling about. It was good to know Lila got help.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little wet behind the ears." They gave each other a high five, "but anyway, isn't there something you want to give to our friend?"

"Friendiga?" The girl raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Sure! Why wouldn't we be friends?" Todd gave a toothy smile, he pulled the mask out of Hunter's (waterproof) bag and Handed it to Pauleen.

"Here's your….bowl?" She grabbed the not bowl and stared at the inside of it. For a second, Hunter thought he saw her eyes change color from green to blue around the edges. Weird, the water must have gotten in his eyes.

"Thanks, but it's not a bowl, it's a mask digadig!" Pauleen threw the mask into the air. In spin multiple times before landing perfectly on her face. Todd fell backwards in shock.

"You…you're Pauleen?!" He stuttered. Hunter facepalmed.

"That's my name! Don't wear it out!" Pauleen put her hand a on her hips and attempted to look as tall as possible.

"So what took you two so long? When a beautiful girl is in danger, you drop everything and save her! Not that I needed saving from you two anyway."

"Excuse me?" Todd stood back up, "last time I checked, you didn't do anything!"

"Of course that's what you would think. I was gathering intel."

"As if!" While the two argued, Hunter took off his soaked gloves and tried to warm his hand.

"On second thought, maybe spraying water everywhere was bad idea."

"Hey, everything happens for a reason." Spinax replies, "maybe this is foreshadowing your next drea-"

"Shut up Spinax."

Done! I always liked imagining Hunter and Cole's confrontations. One guy who only cares about image, and another who doesn't care at all.

Hunter: careful cross, you might make it sound like you actually plan chapters ahead of time.

Spinax: please, no one in their right mind would think that any of this was planned from the start.

Well, I did actually plan out one thing.

Hunter: what is it?

We haven't gotten to that part yet, but you know what we are at. 10000 VIEWS BABY! THANKS FOR READING!