So there was Dino Gigante, looming at them from the other side of the field and intimidating the hell out of Jura. There were two other fighters there to support him, obviously, but Jura didn't care about those randos. The only thing that mattered to him was the towering, masked figure whose only goal at the moment was to beat his ass in a fossil battle.

The only thing helping him not have a complete breakdown was the fact that Dino Gigante wasn't looking at him, he was looking at Sean. Dino let out a deep chuckle as he started tossing a green dino gear up and down in his hand. "Well, well, amigo! It seems you've made it this far," he said in a tone that suggested he was smirking.

Sean smirked right back. "It seems I have."

Dino Gigante caught his gear but didn't throw it again. "Dino Gigante has waited for this rematch for far too long," he said, suddenly sounding a lot more serious. "Don't disappoint me, Kid!"

With one smooth motion, Dino chucked the gear for real this time. It flipped in the air a few times and exploded into his iconic styraco, Vicente. He'd been out of his gear before but this was much more dramatic.

Vicente's crimson hide was littered with scars ranging from little dings to slashes spanning his entire side. One of his many horns curving off his crest had half of it chipped off. He definitely looked like he'd been in a lot of battles, substantially more than any of them had been in.

A stego and mapo were released on either side of Vicente, but Jura didn't really care about those guys. Well, he cared about the mapo a little bit. It was a water element vivosaur that was only slightly smaller than Nibbles, so it could probably do a decent amount of damage.

Before Jura could start planning at all, he heard Sean say, "Alright, show em' your pearly whites, Arsen!"

And just like that, they were fighting.

Arsen took off after Vicente, of course. He dodged around the styraco's horn and snapped his jaw shut on his neck. The nychus yanked his head a few times to get some good damage in then jumped off. He still had some good momentum, though, so he dodged around Vicente again and headed straight for the stego.

He leapt at the stego, mouth open and ready to latch on. However, the stego was ready, and it whipped its tail around to knock Arsen away. The large appendage smacked into him, but Arsen managed to bite it somehow, so as he was launched away he was thrown loose with a hunk of flesh in his mouth. He spat it out upon picking himself up, spattering red on his legs.

The stego, despite having a chunk taken out of it, moved on from it pretty quickly. It broke out in a trot towards Bentley and, when it got closer, did a huge bound to start rolling on the ground like a bladed wheel. Its spiked tail stopped its movement when it slammed into Bentley and knocked him over, its body landing on the ground hard enough that it struggled to push itself back up into a fully standing position.

Jura's eyes lit up when he noticed the opening there. He directed an unsure finger at the stego and yelled to Nibbles, "Go for a, uh, a dizzying bite, bud!"

Nibbles shot past Bentley as the allo staggered back up to its feet and snapped his maw shut around the stego's neck. He then whipped his head around and sent the stego skidding to the side, a few good gashes carved into its skin. The quadruped was left to shake its head back and forth to recover from the whiplash that throw gave it.

The good mood that hit put Jura in was immediately interrupted by Vicente barreling into Nibbles, his horn slashing across his neck and throwing Nibbles into a painful upwards stance. Nibbles staggered backwards, hissing with pain as Vicente trotted away from him with ease. Jura felt his hands start shaking.

"Finish the stego off, Bentley!" Becky said, eliciting a snort from her allo. He shook his ripped hide once and charged the stego with a spiteful glare in his eyes, jumping into what was apparently a go-to move for him. Bentley's huge feet came crashing down on the stego's side to avoid its plates, knocking it over and crushing it down into its gear.

Jura watched Bentley shake the dino gear out from between his toes, distinctly aware that this was something the vivosaur did pretty often. He was kind of a monster. He took hits super well, he kept stomping their opponents, technically speaking, to death; it was a little bit scary.

This was only further emphasized by the opposing mapo spitting out a flickering, steaming beam of energy into the allo's side. Bentley grunted and stumbled slightly, then he shook his flank off again and acted as if there weren't a whole bunch of seared scales falling off of him. It was absolutely ridiculous. Jura could only hope his vivosaurs would be that strong at some point.

"Good job, Bent!" Sean cheered, which only elicited a tired glance back from the allo. He turned back to Arsen, who was already sprinting in after getting tossed halfway across the field, and added, "Slice up the mapo, bud!"

Arsen shot by Bentley and leapt up at the mapo, turning in the air and slamming his feet against its lower jaw. His sickle claws sank into the soft skin and slashed through scales, shoving its head backwards and throwing it into an upwards stance. He flipped around and landed on his feet, crest flying up as the much larger vivosaur backed away, off-balance. The mapo had an elemental advantage, but Arsen was still smacking it around pretty well. What the hell.

Around then Vicente's horn started glowing, his feet digging into the ground as whitish energy swirled around it. He lowered his head and a blast of wind energy spiraled off the horn, curving to slash at Bentley's side. The gust was hard enough to rip through his hide, spattering stripes of blood down his sides. The allo just lowered his head and grunted as he waited for the brunt of the attack to pass, and then he casually shook his body off. Red dribbled all over him.

Jura gulped. Nibbles had finally straightened back up, but at that point he was definitely starting to look tired. Meanwhile, Bentley and Arsen were bloody and beaten and still seemed to have as much energy as they started with. Arsen especially should've been tired, he'd been smacked around like crazy, but no, he was still dancing around between his feet. That sorta made sense, those two were probably relatively used to tournament fights, but he still felt like Nibbles was seeming super wimpy by comparison.

He wanted that perception to shift at least a little bit while they were fighting Dino Gigante of all people. So, Jura looked over at the mapo, who was still off-balance and definitely vulnerable, and said, "Nibbles, get that mapo with another dizzying bite!"

His horned vivosaur ran at the mapo, his larger size making it quite easy to snag the woody vivo by the neck and throw it into the ground. Nibbles' back muscles strained as he yanked the mapo over and then, with a bit of a growl, tossed it a few feet. When the mapo crashed to the ground, it exploded into a flash of white and disappeared from the field.

That just left Vicente to take out.

Sean reached over and, despite being way shorter than him, ruffled Jura's hair. "Nice one, kid!"

Jura felt his shoulders crunch up reflexively and laughed nervously. "Ha ha, uh, yeah, thanks."

His eyes flicked back forward as Bentley's bony head plates clacked against Vicente's horns. The allo whipped its head up and managed to lift Victente off the ground enough to cause the styraco to come crashing down on his side. He groaned as he started to push himself back up.

"Chomp 'em, Arsen!" Sean said, flashing one of his super bright grins. His nychus took off once again, jumping as he approached the styraco struggling to get back up.

Arsen bit the top of Vicente's crest, his jaws avoiding the spikes curving up from it. His momentum yanked the styraco's head backwards, and, as he released his grip, he landed on the ground and gave him a second nip on the leg. Vicente growled and kicked the leg back a few times, managing to dislodge Arsen after a few Arsen was running off again, his crest flat against his head as Vicente started charging up another blast of air around his horn.

However, the attack wasn't aimed at Arsen, it was aimed at Bentley. Another huge blast of wind slammed into the allo, but this time he really wasn't ready for it and it managed to blow him off his feet. Bentley crashed to the ground, a low, frustrated growl rumbling in his throat.

Vicente still hadn't got back up, so that was another good opening. Nibbles had an elemental advantage, too, which meant whatever he went for, it would probably do a good chunk of damage. Jura was still a little scared of Dino Gigante's styraco, though, so he pointed a shaky finger at it and murmured, "Um, maybe a, uh, a saurus tackle, Nibbles."

Nibbles glanced back at him looking very unimpressed, then rolled his eyes and ran at Vicente. He hooked his horn under the styraco's neck and gave it a huge shove, sliding him back and making him grunt as he lost his balance. Before Vicente could recover any further, Nibbles tensed himself up and lowered his head. Sparks scattered off his horn, building in intensity until they arced off in a burst of lightning. The electricity collided with Vicente, who just tensed up as the sparks occasionally fizzled across his hide.

As the lightning dissipated, Nibbles hunched over a bit, his breathing labored. Jura felt a little bad about that, he hadn't really wanted to tire Nibbles out that much. "Good, uh, good hit, Nibbles!"

Bentley was back up and ready for payback, his tail lashing as he jogged towards Vicente. He slammed his shoulder into the styraco's side and jabbed his bones into his ribcage, and, as he gave it one last, good shove, he spun his tail around and gave Vicente a smack for good measure.

This was just turning into a massive gang-up fight, which was honestly making Jura feel a little better.

Head held high, Bentley trotted away from Vicente, leaving plenty of room between himself and the ceratopsian. Jura wasn't exactly sure why that was the case until he glanced over at Arsen, who was taking a few steps back and fluffing his feathers as he went. He looked like he was winding up for something big and flashy, which yeah, that was probably accurate, this was masked fossil battling, after all.

"Alright, Arsen!" Sean beamed, dramatically gesturing at Vicente, "Show 'em who's boss!"

The nychus was off, his head down and his arms tucked against his sides. He sprinted past Nibbles and leaped, crest up and his arm feathers fanned out like he was a massive, brightly colored bird. Flames licked around his toes as he collided with Vicente's crest with enough force, somehow, to push the styraco up onto his back legs and then topple him to crash to the ground on his back. Arsen jumped off at the last second and landed in a slide, his feathers flashing out to let him finish in a flashy pose.

And then Vicente flashed down into his dino gear.

Jura blinked a few times, the last thing he was aware of being a whole bunch of screaming from the stadium because they'd won and oh yeah he'd panic blacked out. He was holding Nibbles, apparently, and now he was standing in that back room they'd been in before the tournament. He had no idea how the hell he'd gotten back there. Also he was standing up, so he had to've walked there. What the actual hell.

Sean and Becky looked to be celebrating a few feet away, only now Sean had his mask off. Bentley was gone but Arsen was still out and bouncing around like a puppy, right back to where he'd been before the fight. It was almost surreal after the last what, hour or so of cheesy acting? And then Arsen saw him and trotted over, nuzzling up against Jura's torso as Nibbles growled at him defensively.

"Eyyy, Jura, you're not fuckin' sleepwalkin' anymore!" Sean grinned, strolling over next to his nychus.

Jura didn't get a chance to respond before a very loud voice boomed through the room, "Kid, mi amigo!"

Dino Gigante came out of nowhere, his arms crossed but his demeanor actually super friendly. Jura flinched back, not exactly sure how he wanted to feel. His anxiety, however, knew exactly how it wanted him to feel, so he kept walking backwards as the masked fighter approached them.

Sean turned around and grinned at Dino, walking towards him to sorta meet him halfway. They both stood there for a second, just staring at each other. For whatever reason, it was only now that Jura realized Sean looked so freaking tiny compared to Dino Gigante. With all the showiness going on, the Flying Smile Kid really did not feel like he was 5'4, but Sean definitely did.

Then, with a laugh, Dino Gigante smacked a hand down on Sean and Becky's shoulders. "Look at you two! I haven't seen you in ages!" His gaze seemed to shift to Becky -it was kinda hard to tell with the mask on- and he added, "And Becky's all grown up now!"

Becky looked mildly annoyed that that was the first thing he pointed out.

"Ehh, we ain't changed too much in, like, three years," Sean said, laughing a little at the end. Arsen trotted over to them, eyes bright as Dino looked over to him and started petting him on the head.

The nychus started to let out little purr-trills as Dino Gigante chuckled. "I see Arsen definitely has not."

He then shifted into purely Spanish baby-talking with the raptor, which was just bizarre for Jura to watch, but hey Arsen seemed to be enjoying it so whatever. And then Arsen got a couple pats on the side and he fluffed his feathers up and that was done. Thank god.

Sean just grinned at his vivosaur. "Yeah, we've been groovy. Been workin' in the park, fuckin' around with Vi, you, like, know the deal."

Jura assumed Dino Gigante was smiling under his mask. "I'd hoped you were doing well! It'd be a shame to think I'd ruined your life like I did your career." He rubbed the back of his neck after that, which just prompted Sean to shrug.

"Nah, don't worry 'bout it, dude, it ain't your fault. Just a buncha personal shit happened, nothin' too serious," he said, waving dismissively, "M' shoulder, like, sorta healed up. Worst thing that happened was my girlfriend dumped me, but like, she was kinda a' bitch anyways."

"She was," Becky said flatly. Sean laughed.

"Exactly," he said, then paused for a second. "Here, I'll show ya'. Scar's, like, the worst I got left."

He started unbuttoning his vest and Becky just sighed. "Don't take your shirt off, oh my god."

"I ain't taking it all the way off, chill out, Becks," Sean said super casually. He got to the shirt under it, unbuttoned that too, and then pulled it over far enough for his shoulder to be visible. "Blammo!"

Yeah that scar looked nasty as hell. Jura visibly cringed, but thankfully no one was looking at him to be offended by that. It was big, that made sense, a whole styraco horn went in there, but all the lines of scars that trailed off from it and wrapped around the rest of his shoulder looked really gross. The lines were probably from surgery, but all of the scarring kinda melded together to look like a 2D growth. Ugh.

"See? Just some leftover shit." And then Sean was rebuttoning everything, which just made actually showing off the scar seem kinda dumb for all the work that took.

Dino laughed slightly. "Good to hear!" There was a brief pause, and then the masked fighter cleared his throat. "Well, I suppose you've earned this belt then, amigo!"

He undid the clasp, holding the shimmering belt out to Sean, who looped it over his shoulder. "It's never felt like mine, anyways!" Dino Gigante said, seeming much brighter now, "I do apologize for giving you such a hard time before, Kid.

Sean shrugged again. "Hey, I was the one bein' stupid. No shit you couldn't gimme the belt, it'd totes ruin your image." He gave him a playful smack on the arm, "You know I've, like, been outta the game too long when I'm forgettin' basic shit like that."

They both laughed for a bit. "I look forward to seeing you in matches again, old friend!" Dino said. He gave Sean a pat on the back.

"Right back atcha!" Sean said with a grin. He pointed at him with a finger gun. "Don't expect me to, like, go easy on ya' just 'cause you're old as shit."

More laughing, and then Dino Gigante rested his hands on his hips. "It's good to see you doing so well after all of that. It makes me feel so, well…"

And then the sniffling started up. In a matter of seconds, Dino scooped up Sean and Becky into a hug and went back into those super cheesy sobs from the day before. What was really impressive was he was holding both of them off the ground at the same time, which yeah they were both pretty small, but that was still over 200 pounds.

"I'm so proud of you guys!" he said, tears dampening his mask. "Holding down jobs, keeping your vivosaurs trained! You're turning into real adults!"

The crying continued for a bit and Dino fell back into his Spanish, probably too emotional to put together something other than his first language. Sean wriggled one of his arms out so he could pat Dino on the shoulder. After a bit, he managed to come back down from the sobbing and set the siblings down. Then, with quite a bit of skill, Dino stretched his mask forward and wiped his face with his arm without revealing any part of it.

And then Dino crossed his arms and tried to force himself back to his macho persona. "Right, well, I wish you well in… Time traveling?"

"Hell yeah, time traveling!" Sean said with a grin. He shifted the belt on his shoulder. "Well, I ain't doin' any a' that, someone else is."

"That's right," Becky said, sounding a bit serious. "We should take this back to Stryker, we're kind of on a time crunch."

Sean rolled his eyes. "Yeeaaah, fine, whatevs." He pulled his mask out of his pocket and vaguely waved it at Dino Gigante. "Guess we'd better, like, make a scene outta this."

Dino chuckled at the comment. "Yes, we should! Go on ahead, I'll meet you out there."

"Aight, lit," Sean said, and he headed off with Arsen and Becky, leaving Jura to fend for himself with the super scary masked fighter guy.

Jura slowly looked to Dino Gigante, wondering why he'd not just gone with him. This was answered pretty quickly by more sniffling starting up and Dino turning his head to look at Jura, who flinched. "Híjole, they almost feel like my kids!" he said, and then the tears were back. "I've known Sean since he started masked fighting, right out of high school! Becky was thirteen!"

And then it just devolved back into sobbing. Jura really didn't know what to say, this was all freaking weird and he had no idea how to console someone. So, he just went with, "Wow, uh, that's a long time."

He didn't actually know exactly how old Sean and Becky were. Becky was at least 18 since she was an adult, so a minimum of 5 years. That was a pretty good amount of time.

Dino pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket that he almost comically blew his nose with under his mask. Then he tucked it away and crossed his arms again. "It certainly has been."

The masked fighter took a deep breath to further calm himself, then nodded once. "Well, I should go." He glanced over at Jura again and added, "Your vivosaur performed well, considering he's not trained for this. You're on your way to becoming a great fighter!"

He pat Jura on the back with one of his massive hands. "Dino Gigante may challenge you to a rematch in the future!" he said, breaking out in his signature booming laughter. And with that, he left in the same direction Sean and Becky had gone.

Jura let out a shaky breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, his entire body shuddering as the anxiety finally disappeared. "Holy crap," he said, and then finally his inner masked fighter fanboy could kick in. Dino Gigante said he was a good fighter, that was freaking awesome.

"You hear that Nibbles? We're serious business now!" Jura said, a big grin stretching across his face. Nibbles let out a couple happy trills.

"Yeah! I big and scary!"

Feeling good for the first time in a while, Jura headed off to go enjoy that dumb, cheesy showmanship he adored that he no longer had to be a part of.

HECK yeah done with the cosmonium arc! Feels good man ha ha, school's been crazy but at least I've gotten this far!

Not sure when the next update'll be, I got a random week long break from one of my classes that opened time up to write this (I don't get a spring break this semester bc covid so it was a welcome surprise ha ha). kinda crazy to think that in a month I'll be GRADUATING holy crap. I've been writing this fic since my sophomore year of high school and now I'd graduating college ekxurhnekdcihr. ANYWAYS obv after I graduate I'll have more time for updates ha ha

And cottonmouth nice to hear from you, dude! Glad to see you're still reading! Your review made my day, legit, I think I've read it at least 30 times at this point ha ha. It also feels good to see that my attempt to shoehorn more birds into this fic, as someone who is both an avid birder and planning to study ornithology as a career, was successful. Drake just seems like the type of introvert to just Go Out In Nature alone for like days at a time lol