Tria wasn't really sure what to do at that exact moment. Everyone was all freaked out about the time travel shenanigans so no one wanted to hang out with her, and Jura had Nibbles back now since he was cleared from the hospital so she couldn't harass him. So she was just laying on her bed, bored out of her mind, scrolling through her phone.

She sort of wondered what Dahlia was doing at that exact moment. Probably sleeping, since it was morning in Asia, but it seemed infinitely more exciting than just laying on a bed awake so she was jealous. Grumbling a bunch of nonsense words, Tria rolled over on to her other side and tried to think of something else to look up.

"Oh, shoot," Jura said, faintly excited. Tria immediately rolled back over so she could look at him.

"What?" she said. She hoped he didn't notice that she sounded too interested.

His stupid, usually terrified face was happy for once. "Dino Gigante was in Fossil Park America yesterday!" He paused, squinted, then added, "Err, today, actually! I forgot it's not the same date in America yet."

Tria shrugged. "Okay? I don't care that much."

Nibbles glared at her as Jura shifted into a sitting position. "Why do you hate everything I like? Masked fossil battles are stupid fun, that's literally your brand."

She scoffed. "Everyone knows that shit's fake. It's all rigged, dude."

Jura looked extremely offended now, which is what she was going for. "It's not fake, people get hurt during it all the time! Doesn't seem like someone would get paid to break their arm and not be able to fight for a whole season."

"That's called fucking up," Tria said, grinning.

Her brother rolled his eyes. "It happens way too often, so unless everyone just sucks, it's not fake."

"Even if it's not," Tria said, crossing her arms behind her head, "the target demographic is literal babies."

"It's just overdramatic, Tria! That doesn't mean it's for kids!" Jura said, also crossing his arms. This was like the most passionate he'd been about anything in a while, it was absolutely hilarious.

She smirked. "Don't tell me it's not for kids, dude, I can remember that one guy whose entire shtick was just 'brush your teeth' and 'don't forget to floss'."

He didn't have a good response to that one other than a glare. "That's like saying you can't watch PG movies because they're for kids."

"They are for fuckin' kids."

"Shut up."

Tria sat in smug silence for a few moments. That was fun, but it was so, so fleeting. God, Little needed to finish that damn cosmonium detector, she needed something lasting to do.

After a few more seconds, Jura sighed. "Whatever, I'm going to America for cosmonium stuff because I actually like Dino Gigante."

"Sure," Tria said plainly, "go be a fanboy over a baby celebrity, I don't give a shit. I'll just go to Europe, hang with Dahlia."

"Good," Jura said. Nibbles huffed with finality after he said that, and Tria laughed.

It took another five minutes of silence to finally get Tria off her bed. She sighed really loud and stretched, then stuck her tongue out at Jura. "Alright, I'm gonna go wander around since we got nothin' better to do. Just, like, text me'r somethin' if those thingies get made."

Jura just waved his hand vaguely. "Sure, whatever, see ya."

She headed out of their room with only the goal to cover a lot of ground, so she meandered through the lobby of HQ, not really looking at anything specific. At one point she saw Penny talking to some random fighter who looked a little pissed off. Ah, park-goers. Tria kept walking.

Eventually she just ended up sitting under the mech dinosaur outside, once again on her phone. She was in the outdoors now, it was totally different than being in her room. As she shifted her legs she heard someone say, "Hey," next to her and jumped.

"Fuck!" Tria said, switching from surprised to just mad in a few seconds.

There was some dude in a ninja get-up next to her now. She like vaguely knew who Hanzo was, but this definitely wasn't him. He was older, for starters, and his clothes were actually appropriately dark colored.

"Oh, shit, sorry kid, didn't mean to scare ya," he said. Tria thought it seemed like he was grinning under his mask, but it was hard to tell.

"Who're you supposed to be?" Tria grumbled, still a little frustrated that he'd managed to spook her.

The man shot her a finger gun. "Glad you asked! Name's Sasuke, I'm Hanzo's way cooler older brother."

When she just squinted at him all confused he cleared his throat and added, "I'm not some baby Warden like him, I'm a gun for hire. Minus the gun, obviously, that shit ain't legal."

"Okay?" Tria said. She started to look back down at her phone and Sasuke cleared his throat.

"Hanzo's told me all about you 'n your bro," he said, leaning back slightly. "Sounds like you two've been pretty successful around here, huh?"

Tria could get behind random praise. With a smirk, she glanced over towards him. "Yeah, we've been beatin' the shit outta those BR whatever dudes. Hasn't been hard yet but like, we might just be that good."

Sasuke lightly smacked her arm. "Hell yeah, kid. Bet that means you're rollin' in coin, huh?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, basically."

"Well, hey!" he said, eyebrows raised, "with all that cash, bet you'd be able to afford my extremely premium services."

"The hell does that mean?" Tria said. She narrowed her eyes and started to feel her dirt-poor cynical side kicking in. If there was one thing she internalized from her parents, it was hating getting coerced out of money.

He picked up on that pretty fast and put his hands up defensively. "Easy there, kid! I'm just sayin', I'm a damn good fossil battler, wouldn't do ya any harm to have me around."

"I dunno, man, I got plenty of peeps helpin' me with fights already," she said, trying her best to sound rude and disinterested. Sasuke, ever the entrepreneur, wasn't letting her get rid of him that easily.

"Yeah but they're all Wardens, I'm not tied down by rules 'n regulations," he said, and he sounded extremely proud about that.

Tria's eyes lit up. "That mean you could steal shit for me?"

He seemed to consider that briefly. "Depending on the circumstances, yeah, sure, I could do that."

"Hell yeah! I'll hire you just for that, dude!" She reached into one of her pockets and rummaged around for some bills. "How much?"

"36,102 G!" he said and Tria gave him a very unimpressed look.

"That's pretty specific, dude."

"Gotta make those buggy payments somehow."

She laughed and slapped the money down in his hand. "Yeah, alright, fair."

Sasuke thumbed through the bills, carefully counting every last one of them. Then, he folded them up and shoved them into his pocket. "Pleasure doing business with ya, kid! Call me anytime ya need help with somethin', even if it's shady."

With a smirk, Tria winked at him. "Especially if it's shady."

"Now ya got it, kid."

Her phone buzzed out of nowhere and she looked down just long enough to see it was Jura. By the time she was turning back to Sasuke, he'd just vanished. She blinked. Yeah, maybe she'd call him later to teach her how to do that, that was sick.

Bringing her attention back to her phone, Tria typed in her password and flipped over to her texts. There were a couple from Jura that just said, "Cosmonium stuff is done," and "Remember, I'M going to America".

She just rolled her eyes and sent back, "whatever bitch :p".

The phone was shoved back into her pocket, she didn't bother waiting for a reply, and then she started planning out the day ahead of her. Go to Europe, hang with Dahlia for a few hours, maybe help Drake and Violet if she felt like it, but probably not. Dahlia was substantially more fun than them.

Tria hopped up to her feet, stretched, and meandered back to the HQ building with absolutely no urgency. She hoped Violet didn't catch her at the World Gate for multiple reasons, but the main one was that she just didn't wanna do work.

"Hey, Tria!" She blinked once, then turned towards whoever was yelling at her. Oh, it was Mei Lian, yay.

The younger teen basically skid to a stop in front of her looking all bright-eyed and excited. "Hey! Where's Jura at? My dad wants help with something!"

Well now Tria was a little annoyed. She hadn't even done anything irresponsible in Asia yet, why didn't they want her help? She crossed her arms. "He's, uh, headed over to America to help out right now."

Mei Lian instantly deflated. "Oh," she said, not even trying to hide her disappointment.

Tria rolled her eyes. "You know I can help you, right?"

"Well, yeah," she said, still not sounding all that excited, "I just wanted Jura's help."

Going to Europe was out of the question now, Tria was proving she was just as helpful as her brother. With a grin, she slung her arm around Mei Lian's shoulders and said, "Nah, man, you don't want his help. I'm way more fun and I'm better at fossil battles."

"I guess you can help," Mei Lian finally said, and Tria pat her on the back.

"Hell yeah! Let's go see your dad!" Tria said, and she tugged her over towards the elevator.

Jura felt kinda weird walking around America by himself. Well, he did have Nibbles with him, so that helped a little bit, but having an actual person he could have full conversations with would've helped more. Unlike Tria, he was gonna be responsible and check in with Sean before trying to go find Dino Gigante, so it was one long, awkward trek up that staircase in pure silence.

Finally those automatic doors slid open and oh gosh darn it Lucky was there talking to Sean. His tiny ajka was next to him, as always, and was the only one that actually looked in Jura's direction as he walked over to them.

"Hey, guys," he said nervously. Sean looked over at him and grinned.

"Hey! Greets, dude!" he said.

Lucky's eyes lit up. "Hey, Jura! Haven't seen you in a while!"

His ajka just snorted.

"Yep," Jura said, rubbing one of his arms, "I, uh, just thought I'd swing by and see if you needed any help with stuff."

"'Preciate it, kid!" Sean said, giving him a thumbs up. "We've had, like, the worst fuckin' luck finding' this shit, gotta be bad juju or somethin'."

Jura just stared for a few seconds, not entirely sure how to answer that. "Yeah, it's, uh, it's gotta be," he managed. "So what am I doing?"

"No fuckin' clue," Sean said, still grinning. He paused, looked down at Lucky, and then said, "Actually, I lied, watch Luckster for me so I can, like, get back to bailin' dirt."

Not this again. Jura gave him a confused look. "Why's Lucky even here?"

"I'm here to meet Dino Gigante!" Lucky beamed, immediately making Jura flash back to Tria's ridiculing from that morning. He swallowed reflexively.

Sean laughed. "Yep! 'n Vi's too busy doin', like, the same stuff I am to take him."

Well that was just confusing, but Jura didn't want to ask why, if they were both busy, Sean ended up with Lucky, because it wasn't really his business. What was his business was he just got a direct excuse to go also meet Dino Gigante, so that was pretty awesome even if he had to babysit. So, smiling slightly, Jura said, "Yeah, sure, I can go take Lucky to do that."

Lucky whooped. "Awesome! Let's go, let's go!"

He grabbed Jura's arm and dragged him back to the door and to the stairs. Their vivosaurs scrambled after them and at that point it was just a quick jog down to the lobby while he tried his best to keep up with Lucky. Apparently the kid knew exactly where he was going, which was great because Jura had no idea.

"Dino Gigante's the coolest!" Lucky said rather confidently as they walked up to America's fossil stadium. Jura laughed faintly.

"Yeah, he's pretty cool! His styraco's probably one of the most iconic vivos out there," Jura said, making Lucky gasp.

"You know what I'm talking about?" he said.

Jura was surprised at how happy he looked. "Yeah," he said, scratching the back of his neck, "I watch masked fighter stuff kinda regularly, mostly big name stuff since I don't have time for everything."

"Well that's still a bunch of stuff!" Lucky said, starting to sort of dance between his feet. He was definitely getting excited. "So then you gotta know about the last match he had with Saber Star!"

This entire conversation was taking a turn that Jura was definitely enjoying. "Obviously I do," he grinned, "Dino's styraco threw his smilo into the stands, it was awesome!"

"It was bloody awesome!" Lucky cheered, throwing his arms in the air. After a few seconds he came down from his huge burst of excitement and was just very happy. "I'm not used to someone knowing what I'm talking about, it's great! Mum used to watch 'em with me but it's been a long time."

It couldn't have been that long, he was only nine, but Jura knew where he was coming from. He pat him on the shoulder and said, "For sure! It's way more fun to have someone to talk to about stuff." Then, looking back to the stadium, he added, "Alright, let's go meet Dino Gigante, we both know he's cool!"

Lucky immediately ran off and Jura just laughed and jogged after him. He could sense Nibbles' confusion and the frustration coming off of Lucky's ajka as they caught up, it was kind of funny.

Once they'd made it through the front door, they immediately had to come to a hard stop behind a massive crowd that was filling the entire lobby. Jura was thankful he was tall at that exact moment because, despite all the people there, he could just barely see over them enough to make out Dino Gigante standing at the top of the staircase all the way at the end of that room. There was a camera crew and everything there, it was nuts. Chances were pretty low that they'd get anywhere near him.

Jura looked down to relocate Lucky and, upon further investigation, realized that the kid had definitely slipped into the crowd and was making his way to the front. He just sighed. They'd just had a nice bonding moment, why'd he have to ruin it with this crap?

"Nice going," he heard someone say, and realized after a few seconds it was Lucky's ajka. She was glaring at him. "Get in there, idiot, I can't find him myself."

Nibbles glared at her and Jura nudged him gently with his foot. "No, she's right, bud, let's go find him."

He swallowed to push down his anxiety and began the very slow process of weaving through a few thousand people. It was loud and there were way too many people touching him and god his brain was getting overstimulated by all of it. He was gonna need to sleep for a year after all this mess.

Finally there were just a few more rows of people left and, obviously, they weren't too keen on moving for him. A spot that close to a celebrity was a pretty coveted spot, after all. Jura told Nibbles to start biting people's ankles and then all of a sudden they were up to the front and, low and behold, there was Lucky.

He was holding on to the rope that was keeping everyone away from Dino Gigante, leaning forward as far as he could. Knowing that they'd gotten him pinned down now, Jura could enjoy forcing his way to the front of this crowd and take in Dino's awesomeness for himself.

As a whole, obviously he was a big guy. He wasn't that much taller than Jura but he was substantially more muscular and seemed even bigger with how boisterous he usually was. And, of course, the most iconic part of his look was his ceratopsian mask. Every masked fighter had a unique mask which usually correlated with their partner vivosaur. Dino's didn't have the same color scheme as his styraco, but it still had that classic look of a dinosaur from the same family.

Jura hadn't heard what the reporter had asked him when he'd gotten there, but he could hear the guy's booming laugh in response to it. He was always on the line of charming and absolutely terrifying. Jura respected him so much.

It was about then that Nibbles ran under the rope and Jura felt his blood run cold. "Hey! Where're you going?" he hissed to his vivosaur, who ran directly up the steps and jumped at Dino Gigante. Jura pulled his hair reflexively.

"Hello there, amigo!" Dino Gigante said, laughing as he snagged Nibbles right out of the air. Much to Jura's dismay, his vivosaur continued to snap in the general direction of Dino's belt. "You're quite the feisty one, aren't you?"

"I'm so sorry, oh my god," Jura squeaked. His chest felt like it was collapsing in on his lungs when the masked fighter's gaze locked on to him. A laugh soon followed.

"Not a problem, young man!" he said, chuckling as he walked down the steps. Held out Nibbles and Jura snatched him and clutched him to his chest immediately.

"Jura! Jura! Belt shiny!" Nibbles yelled desperately in his head, and Jura was really mad still for about five seconds until he glanced down at said belt and noticed the suspiciously blue-green shimmer on the centerpiece.

"Oh shit," Jura said out loud, accidentally dropping Nibbles in the process.

"Jura, what're you doing?" Lucky yell-whispered to him over the crowd.

He couldn't stop staring at the belt and he knew that probably looked extremely weird but that was definitely cosmonium, he had absolutely no doubt that's what it was. And, unfortunately, it was his job to find that stuff. After what felt like an eternity, Jura finally managed to pull his eyes off the belt and up to Dino Gigante's face.

The masked fighter laughed. "Seems you've got an interest in my championship belt, amigo!"

"Y-yeah," he barely forced out. "I-it's, um, it's g-got cosmonium o-on it."

"It sure does!" Dino Gigante said, resting his hands on his hips. "It's a fine belt!"

"I, uh, I need cosmonium," Jura continued. His eyes flicked down to his feet as he heard that booming laugh again.

He flinched when he felt one of Dino's hands rest on his shoulder. "You're not the first fighter to want this belt!" the man announced in his usual loud way, and Jura felt a chill go down his spine when he heard the crowd behind him grow icier.

"You can't just demand his belt like that!" someone way too close for comfort yelled up at him.

Lucky elbowed him in the side. "You can't do that, Jura! He's Dino Gigante!"

"Oh, it's not a big deal!" Dino Gigante said, giving Jura a quick pat on the shoulder, "not everyone knows why I keep this belt!"

Jura, who had been following masked fighter battles for at least 10 years, was extremely insulted by that statement but was too anxious to say so. It seemed to him that Dino was switching over to being dramatic, though, so hopefully that would take some of the attention off of him and his alleged lack of background information.

Dino Gigante turned and walked back up the stairs to the film crew that he'd ditched. Without any hesitation, he took the microphone from the reporter, looked straight at the camera, and said, "Dino Gigante unfairly won this belt from his greatest rival, the Flying Smile Kid! Until he faces me in combat once again so I may prove I deserve it, I will not part with this belt." And then he crossed his arms and tilted his chin up just enough to make him look intimidating and Jura wanted to cry, so it was working.

He stood there feeling miserable for about 10 seconds and then Lucky grabbed his arm and started dragging him through the crowd and back outside of the stadium. Jura felt like he wasn't a person the entire way there, he was just a thing with senses but no consciousness floating through the world. And then they got outside and it was a little chilly now that it'd been dark out for a few hours and it was quiet and Jura stopped dissociating.

"What were you bloody-well thinking!" Lucky yelled, gesturing wildly, "Even I know why he has that belt, and I was bloody six when that happened!"

"I saw the cosmonium and I panicked, I'm sorry!" Jura said. He started pacing in circles and Nibbles trailed after him unnecessarily. "God, that was stupid, obviously he's not gonna give up something that he got from almost killing someone!"

"Yeah, obviously! It's also like the only thing he talks about, Jura!"

"I know! I'm so damn stupid!"

Another few minutes of hysteric yelling passed, thank goodness no one else was leaving the stadium at the time, until Jura ran out of adrenaline and just stood there, limp. He took a deep breath, leaned his head back, and said. "Alright, whatever, let's go tell Sean what's up with the cosmonium."

"Maybe he'll know where we can find the Flying Smile Kid!" Lucky said, sounding way too hopeful for the person who'd just chewed him out for ten minutes.

Jura laughed. "Yeah, probably not."

Alright a SLIGHTLY longer wait for a chapter but not a big deal! School's getting busier and busier for me (have I mentioned that I've got 5 classes and 3/5s of them are senior level lol) so the next update might be a little longer out but also it's one I'm excited to write so maybe it won't be! I just know I've got like at least two BIG things due next week so maybe once those are done I can breathe ha ha.

Anyways don't forget to review! I appreciate feedback guys!