Hey, sorry it took so long. Not much to cover up here.

Chapter 13: Carno's a Troll

"We're sorry for the inconvenience, but contrary to our earlier announcement, Mt. Krakanak will be closed until further notice due to suspected criminal activity." I finished reading out the message on my Paleopager's screen. "See Thea, I told you we weren't supposed to be here."

"Well, they didn't stop us."

"Because they were so busy stopping everyone else you just ran right past them."

"Well sorry for being excited that I might find some new parts for Daisy and Josh."

"Daisy and Josh?"

"Yeah, my T-Rex and my Machai."

"Oh, right." I glanced at my own Vivosaur. Since there was an absence of fighters when we had first entered, I had brought Carno out, and it had tagged along with no problems. Right now it was lying next to a boulder on the summit of the mountain. It appeared as though the rock had started moving, though, and I shook my head, thinking it was the heat. Carno, however, noticed it too and curled up to escape.

"Thea?"

"What?"

"Run." She looked up and saw Carno rolling down with the boulder right behind it. She screamed and bolted down the mountain. I followed seconds after. As we were running, I looked back and noticed something.

"Why is it that Carno or the Boulder haven't flown off the mountain yet? They're following the turns."

"Why is it that you care!" Thea yelled.

"Because they're still behind us, that's why!"

"Stop thinking, keep running!"

"You don't care that the boulder just rolled across a wooden rope bridge?"

"No, I don't. I care that it doesn't squash me!" She glared angrily while still running ahead.

"Ditch!"

She looked in front of her and saw the giant ditch at the entrance to the dig site. We both jumped, narrowly avoiding tripping on the edge, and ran back into town. Looking back, I saw Carno fall into the ditch and seconds later rocket out of it as if it was a ramp. The boulder soon followed, but instead of flying out it rolled up a bit, and then fell back in the hole.

"Phew." I breathed a sigh of relief until I realized that Carno was still going. I looked up to find it heading straight for a large building, until it crashed into the large door and pulled it off. A group of men who looked like they were dressed for Halloween stared at each other for a few second before rushing in. I was still running over when they rushed out with a large television. It began to hover, and they held on to it as it flew towards Mt. Krakanak, stopped, and then looped around towards the north side of the island.

I groaned, "Oh great. Now I have to go talk to the Staff Leader and… ugh." I ran over to Carno, who stared straight into my glare. I held up for as long as I could, but my eye began to sting, so I lost the staring contest once again. Carno smiled, but I just glared again. "Go back into your medal so I can go and explain what happened here." Carno seemed to try to shrug, and dropped to the floor. I grabbed it a pushed it back into its spot on my belt, then walked over to the Fighter's Station.

After around a half an hour of explaining, I came out with a card pinned to my shirt. Terry, the staff leader had been generally nice about the whole situation when I explained it to him. The card was supposed to grant me access to the three dig sites on the island. I was being allowed to search them for the BB Brigade, the name of the organization that had taken the Mammoth Vision. Thea called me over towards the Fossil Guild as soon as I got out of the Fighter Station.

"Hey, how'd it go?" She started questioning me right off the bat.

"Well, I apparently have the consolation that they would have gotten the TV anyways. I offered to go look for it, so he gave me a pass on the condition I left my pickaxe with him."

"Well that kinda sucks, doesn't it."

"He said he'd give it back."

"No, I mean, you have to look for a giant TV."

"What you're not going to help?" I asked jokingly.

"Sure." I looked at her, then shrugged. The more help the better.

"Well, where do we head first?" I looked at the three exits from the city. "We saw them leave Mt. Krakanak, but they might have gone back…"

"Probably not. What other places are there?"

"Uhhhh…" I stared at the card. "Dusty Dunes and Rainbow Canyon."

"Why don't we try the desert first?"

"Desert?"

"Unless Dusty Dunes is a beach."

"Good point."

"Hey, Thea!" A voice called from over by the heli-pad. I looked and saw Nathan, accompanied by his Teffla. He stopped to catch his breath after running over, took a deap breath, and spoke. "So... yeah… uhhh, do you want to go for ice cream?" Hey gasped for breath, not realizing he'd been holding it.

Thea, on the other hand, seemed shocked, and looking back and forth between me and Nathan, she stammered, "Well, uhhhh…" She glanced at me, and I laughed.

"Nathan, I won't tell you what you just got yourself into." I laughed again. "Have fun you two!"

Thea looked one last time. "You sure?"

"Yeah, that's alright, it's a giant flying TV. I'll be fine." She smiled, and turned to walk with him. I walked towards the desert laughing, wondering how Nathan's wallet would feel at the end of the day.

As you might expect, the desert was dry, sandy, and not somewhere one would want to spend a lot of time. And I tried my best not to, but the place was relatively big. I saw a rock pile as I was concluding my search and decided to examine it. All of a sudden, a voice came from behind me.

"Vivosaurs … one hundred … remove … pile …"

"What?" I spun around but saw nothing. I looked back towards the rocks, and it spoke again.

" … original … unlock … secret … fossils …"

I stared in disbelief at the pile. There seemed no way by it, and there didn't seem to be much behind it. I could possibly fathom how having a hundred Vivosaurs would help beyond just blasting the pile.

"Proto?" I head a yawn in my mind.

"What?" He seemed groggy.

"There's a voice telling me that a hundred Vivosaurs will get rid of a rock pile or something."

"Oh that? That's probably Thalasso. He was up last night on the internet. Looking at rumors."

"Dude. Not cool." I heard the same voice from earlier interject in. "Man, I was getting somewhere."

Proto laughed. "He would have found out eventually. Why let it drag out?"

"Because it's funny. I thought that was obvious. Proto just laughed again.

"He's a smart one, he'd have gotten it before we even got out of the dig site. Which you should, by the way." Proto began addressing me again. "The sand gets in all kinds of places. You'll probably have to empty out your medal holders on your belt later." I took his advice and hurried towards the exit as fast as possible.

As I walked back into the city, I saw that the Fossil Guild was currently closed. I assumed that two of them had gone to the Ribular Ice Cream Shoppe, and laughed even harder. He was definitely in trouble if they went there. The ice cream there was definitely gourmet, and although a pretty good deal, it was still a bit more expensive than most ice cream places.

I headed for Rainbow Canyon next. A staff member let me in upon seeing my card, and I headed inside. Once there, I surveyed the scenery around me. There didn't seem to be too many places to hide a giant TV, but the staff member at the entrance told me there was a gondola on the right to the bottom of the canyon. I crossed the rope bridge and ran past a slightly out of place door. I stared at if for a few seconds, but figured there was no way the Mammoth Vision would fit through it, so I moved on to the gondola. I made it up and down without anything happening. However, when I was exiting the gondola, a boy in a black shirt was just strolling along they canyon, every now and then planting his Pickaxe into the ground. He faced me, and I saw the Fire symbol on his shirt. His hair, however, was the complete opposite of his shirt, having red spikes with black tips.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him, "The Dig Site's closed."

"Then why are you here, smart one?"

I held out my card, and replied, "Because I'm allowed to be here. Now again, why are you here?"

I heard him mutter under his breath, before he threw a medal. A U-Raptor rushed at me, and I ducked behind the gondola. It kept going and swiped at the cliff wall behind me. I barely moved out of the way before its claw had sunk into the ground, pulling up dirt and rocks as it moved to attack me again.

I grabbed a medal from my belt, and in moments, Thalasso was hovering at my side.

"Seems like you're in a pinch." He laughed. "Guess you want me to take care of U-Raptor over there?"

"Whatever you can do to stop it. We might have to get staff in here to bring him in."

"Aye aye, Captain!" He chuckled before diving at U-Raptor. The red Vivosaur bounded back, and Thalasso's beak made another hole in the ground. The two kept dodging and the ground was littered with soil, stones, and the occasional Fossil Rock. Finally, Thalasso's Wingtip Vortex knocked U-Raptor off its feet. However, U-Raptor fell back upon the boy, and they stumbled over the edge of the cliff. Startled, I fan over, Thalasso right behind me, when a green blur shot up. The boy hung from what looked like a green gargoyle. He did nothing but glare at me, before the strange Vivosaur flew back down. I sighed, but figured it would be best just to tell Terry rather than pursue him.

I was about to cross the bridge when Thalasso spoke up. "What, you're just going to leave those Fossil Rocks lying there?"

"Well, I'm not supposed to be digging."

"Oh, come on. If your conscience bothers you so much, just don't clean them until the Dig Site opens." I could see he had a point. "Besides, check your sonar. I can feel in my crest that those are Water." I stared at him. "What?" I just shook my head.

"Well, I guess there's no harm." I put them in my case, and Thalasso continued trying to convince me.

"Yep, and besides, even though you do have a knack for finding rare fossils that you want, you do find normal ones most of the time."

"Yeah, but they're usually donated."

"Because you already have them, whether as a rare one or not. If there's one thing you have, it's patience with cleaning. Or so Proto says."

"Ah. So then, what do I use those points for?"

"Heck if I know. All I know is that you'll have a lot."

"All right, so we should probab- No way."

"Wassup, boss?"

"I found the Mammoth Vision." It was hovering over the city, but from what I could tell as I rushed over, a skeleton was laughing. He mentioned the boulder before the Mammoth Vision was reclaimed by the staff. I followed a few to go talk with Terry, who immediately sent staff to Rainbow Canyon after I told him what had happened.

"Well, sorry that you ended up searching for nothing, but thanks for offering to help." He held out my pickaxe, and I swapped it for the access card.

"It wasn't that much of a problem."

When I came out of his office, Thea and Nathan were sitting on a bench in the lobby talking. I snuck up behind them, and then asked out of the blue "How'd it go?"

They both visibly jumped, and I chuckled and patted Nathan on the back. "Bet your wallet's feeling light, huh?" I started walking away before Thea could glare holes into the side of my head. I turned and saw her still sitting and not coming to kill me, so I assumed I was safe.

"Hey, you mind helping me out with something?"

I swiveled back around and a boy was standing there in a simple blue t-shirt and jeans. He shuffled his black running shoes around on the carpet.

"You okay? You seem a bit jittery." I looked at him curiously, trying to see if there was something I wasn't noticing."

"Sorry, I'm a bit ADHD. But yeah, I have a new strategy for my team, you mind helping me test it out?"

"Sure, why not. What do you need?"

"Well, a Close-Range Earth type would be good."

"Like this?" I pulled out Carno, and the Vivosaur materialized. The boy nodded, but then Carno seemed shocked by its environment. It curled up, and knocking the boy over rolled straight for the door.

I dragged the boy to the wall and ran out the door after it, trying to catch up to it.

"CARNO!"

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