Me: Now let's see what happens with Rupert and Dina!

Rupert: ...

Dina: ...

Dimetro and Mapo: *Facepalm*

Me: Disclaimer: I don't own Fossil Fighters.

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"Rupert? I-I... You're my roommate?" I said with shock. Of all people, him? The guy's a jerk!

"I'm as surprised as you. You'd expect that you and Todd would be roommates with the way you two "battle." Apparently, though, that computer system is... stupid, for lack of a better word." he looked at me, his face expressionless, "Well we might as well try to get along. It would be uncivil to just ignore one another."

I turned away, "Pfft, yeah right. You'll probably just complain about how fun things are a nuisance and you're all that and a bag of chips..." I murmured to myself.

"What was that, Dina?" Rupert asked. I turned back around, "I said that sounds good; I agree."

"Yes, well... Have you been to the Jungle Labyrinth yet? I saw you go out after the Round 1 fights were over."

I sighed, "Well, yes. But I ended up helping this Professor guy dig up a Slablet..." Rupert eyed me curiously, "What is a Slablet?" I explained the whole thing to him.

"Oh, sounds quite interesting." I let out a loud yawn and Rupert jumped, "Sorry.. I'm just tired..." I groaned sleepily. Rupert stretched his arms, "Me as well. We might as well get some rest and head over to that dig site tomorrow."

"We?"

He sighed, "Not together, but we're both going there on the same day so..."

"I get it, I get it.. Well, I'm going to sleep." I crawled under the blankets on my bed. The soft pillow felt like a cloud and the warm blankets made me feel sleepy. I closed my eyes and drifted off into a deep sleep.


{Rupert's POV}

I was tired, but I just couldn't get to sleep no matter how hard I tried. Dina and Todd, I thought, You two are very lucky to be able to enjoy the battles you have together. I'm jealous of that, I admit it. I stared blankly at the ceiling, thinking.

I remember, back before the whole "FossilDig Co." thing, when dad and I used to go to watch Fossil Battles. I groaned, But now I'm just a pawn for my father's game. He just wants me to promote his company by winning this tournament, and making friends "will take my focus off the Cup" as he says. Ugh, he's a big idiot.

Mapo's voice sounded from my coat pocket, which was hanging on the bed post. 'You mustn't be so hard on yourself. You're a great fighter and I think you will make many great friends.'

I sighed, "Pfft, I highly doubt that.."

'Well, weather you do agree or not, you need to try making friends. Maybe then Dina might even like you!' Mapo growled teasingly. My face went red.

I jumped up and grabbed the Dino Medal out of the coat pocket, "Now listen here, Mapo!" I lowered my voice a little more, "I do not like her. I mean, I do, but only as a friend." Mapo laughed, 'Oh, sure! Come on, Rupert, I know exactly how you feel about her!'

"Think whatever you want, I don't care." I tossed Mapo into the pocket again and he growled angerly. I closed my eyes and went to sleep.


{Meanwhile, at the Jungle Labyrinth:}

"Push, dude! We need to move this thing into the jungle before we get caught!" the first man yelled. He pushed the huge metal machine onto his buddy's foot accidentally.

The second guy jumped back and screeched with pain, "YEEEOWWECH! Damn it, Jerry, you ran over my freakin' foot!" he fell onto the ground and held his foot.

Jerry sighed, "Get up you big baby! And stop shouting!"

He still sat on the ground. He examined his foot and pouted. "I-I think it's broken..."

Jerry grabbed his friend's arm and hoisted him up. "Just stop it and get over here, Lee... The boss won't pay us if we don't do our job!" he growled, irritated.

"Fine." Lee said, "But only because I need the money." They continued to push the contraption deeper into the thick jungle.


{Rupert's POV again}

The alarm clock beeped loudly. I groaned and smacked it. "Shut up..."

I looked up and saw that Dina wasn't in bed.

"Morning, Rupert!" she said. She was already dressed and was brushing her teeth at the sink.

I yawned, "Good morning, Dina..." I seriously did not feel like getting up this morning, but I got up and went to brush my teeth anyway.

Dina spit out her toothpaste, "So," she started, "Did you sleep well?" she obviously wanted to make an attempt to converse with me.

"Ugh, not well. But that's typical for me." I sighed, then grabbed my toothbrush and squeezed some toothpaste onto it. She clearly couldn't see that I wasn't much of a morning person.

Dina blinked, then turned and grabbed her backpack. "Ok, I won't bother you." I looked up at her, "I'm heading to the Jungle Labyrinth. See you later, I guess..." she rushed out and closed the door.

I sighed. Then continued to get ready, ignoring the fact that it was probably going to be a long day.


{Dina's POV}

The Jungle Labyrinth was practically empty for some reason. I guess most people don't like to get up early. Either that or they were already here yesterday.. I ran down the small slope into the jungle.

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey!" a voice sounded from behind me.

I was happy to see Todd heading toward me. "Hey, Todd."

Todd snickered, "Hey, Dina! Are you digging hard, or hardly digging? Hahaha!" I laughed with him, "Actually, Todd, I just got here!"

He looked at me with excitement, "Oh, well do I have good news for you! I heard that if you go deeper into the Jungle Labyrinth, you can find some really neat Fossil Rocks! And since we're both here, I was thinking we could go digging together!"

I was very happy about the thought of that. Considering Rupert was kinda grumpy this morning, being with Todd would probably lift my spirits.

"Sure!" I said excitedly. But my happiness was short-lived as a scream sounded from behind us.

Todd jumped as two guys came running toward us, one was limping slightly. "Wha-what's wrong?"

"B-back there, in the b-back! There's a terrible monster!" the first guy whined.

The second guy nodded, "Yeah! It was chasing Howard and I," he motioned to his friend, "and it was going to eat us! I didn't want to be eaten!"

His friend gasped, "W-wait... Cary, what if it decides to keep following us? Wha-what if it comes HERE?" he started shaking. The two of them turned, "RUUNNNNNN AWAAAYY!" they yelled while, obviously, running away.

I looked at them questioningly, "Do you really believe that?" He obviously sort of did, because he was shaking.

"W-well, there's no such thing as m-monsters, r-right? M-monsters aren't real..." he shook his head, "They must have been mistaken... Yeah, that's it, mistaken.." he said with hope.

"Now see here, folks," we turned and a guy that looked like a cheap Elvis impersonator, "I gotta disagree with you. Ain't no way two grown men are gonna make the same mistake, uh-huh."

He started to walk up to us, "Way I hear it, we got a big of monster lurking in this here jungle. Monster's got a mean of a face, and a personality to match! And if it happens to find ya," he looked at Todd, who flinched, "It'd bite yer little head clean off!"

I patted Todd on the shoulder, "It's ok, Todd." I hated it when people tried to scare him. "Look, I came here to look for fossils, so that's what I'm gonna do!" I yelled back at the man.

He sighed, "Do whatever, I'm just sayin' that if ya go any father into the jungle you're gonna get yourself hurt, uh-huh!" he shook his head, "Fossil rocks don't mean nothin' if some monster gets to chew on you!" he turned swiftly and strutted along the path out of the jungle.

"Well, um, Dina? Maybe we should just stop for the day. What do you think?" Todd looked at me with pleading eyes.

I shook my head instantly, "No, Todd, this monster is probably an old tree with overgrown plants on it. A squirrel probably jumped on it, made the branches shake, and they ran thinking it was a monster. Come on, do you really believe it's a real monster?"

"S-so you still want to go, huh? Of course you do..." he blinked nervously a few times, "W-well I g-guess I'll go with you, it's just th-that..." his face twisted with pain and he fell onto his knees.

"Ooooowww, my stomach! It's killing me! Oh, I shouldn't have eaten that green tuna-fish sandwich for lunch!"

I sighed and looked down at him, "But you hate tuna, Todd."

His face went pale, "D-did I say tuna? I meant...turkey! Yes it was a turkey sandwich! Ooooowww..." I giggled. I knew he was faking it again, but it was fun to mess with him.

"Ok, Todd, I'll go check it out on my own. You can stay here." he shouted something at me in protest, but I already ran down the gravel path and into the tropical maze.


I made my way into the depths of the forest. My case already had a good amount of new fossil rocks in it, so it was well worth coming. I jumped as I heard the grass shuffle behind me.

"Hey, Dina! I'm feeling better now!" it was Todd. He winked, "Bet you were pretty lonely without me, huh? I mean, it's not like I was scared or anything! No, that would never happen! Anyways, we've come a long way, haven't we?"

Then the bushes behind us started rustling and Todd hid behind me, "Ah! What's that? Who's there?"

He walked forward cautiously, "..Maybe it's just the wind.. Yeah, the wind... or a wild boar. That would be ok, too."

A girl with a mask jumped out of the bushes, "Hi, Todd!"

Todd screamed and ran, "WAAHH! M-M-MONSTER!"

The girl growled, "Did he just call me a monster? That's kind of insulting..." she turned to me, "I don't know if you noticed, but I happen to be charming and beautiful!" I laughed at that comment.

"What's so funny?" she growled back at me. "Well, um, your mask is a bit... intimidating..." I murmured, "Who are you anyway?"

She gasped, "Who am I? What, do you live in a cave or something? Pfft, alright, listen up!" She put her hands on her hips and posed, "I'm the one who's going to win the Caliosteo Cup and be the biggest teen idol in the world!" she twirled around, "My name is Pauleen!"

I looked at her questioningly, She's a little full of herself, isn't she? I thought to myself.

She glared at me, at least I think she did, "Why are you looking at me like that? Is it the mask? Well I have a perfectly good reason for why I can't take the mask off!"

I kinda just stood there with a blank expression, trying to think of what to say, but nothing came to mind.

She groaned, "I'm serious! I am totally beautiful underneath it! People faint when I walk by! Well, I told you my name, so what's yours?"

I introduced myself, "I'm Dina."

She raised her hands to her face, "Oooohhhh, so your Todd's friend! I'm his roommate. He mentioned me to you, right?"

I tried not to giggle at that, "Oh, yeah, he mentioned you." She bent her head down, "He doesn't like me, at least, I don't think he does."

I sighed, "He's just kinda shy. He'll be fine once he gets to know you."

Pauleen then dropped her sad act, "Well, we can talk about that later. Did you hear about the monster that's running around the jungle?"

"Yeah.."

"Well, I'm going to fight it, and I'm going to win. Oh, you know what? How about you come along, Dina?"

I thought that maybe my first impression of her was, but then she said it, "That way you can see how awesome I am and tell everyone about your new teen-idol Fighter!"

I sighed, then nodded in approval. She walked ahead and then motioned for me to follow.

This is gonna be weird...


{Rupert's POV}

Rupert quickly headed for the Jungle Labyrinth. Dina will surely be tracking down that monster. But what if she gets hurt. Todd isn't likely to help her... and no, Mapo, I do not like her!

A muffled snicker that only he could acknowledge came from his pocket. He ignored it and carried on.

Sure enough, standing at the entrance, was Todd. His eyes were wild with fear and he was shaking violently, staring blankly into the jungle.

Rupert groaned and maneuvered past him, trying to avoid him, but failed.

"R-R-Rupert! There's a m-m-monster in th-there!" he stuttered. Rupert looked at him, "It's probably nothing, Todd. I'm going to look for it, too, so you'll be fine."

"B-but Dina's in there!"

The words struck me. If she was in there then most likely he'd been with her up until they'd found that beast, then ran. Like I'd thought before though, it was probably nothing. But just in case...

"Todd, go get help. I'll go find Dina and try to assist her." Todd nodded and ran off.

As he disappeared along the path, I wandered deeper into the forest to track down the "monster", and hopefully put an end to this ignorance.


{Dina's POV}

"I'm actually excited to see what this monster looks like. ...And I KNOW it's excited to see me!"

Pauleen had been rambling on nonstop since I'd joined her, and it was annoying. She'd talk about the monster, then brag about herself, then something dumb, and then the monster again. I was glad when Dimetro finally broke the silence.

'Hang in there, Dina. That "monster" is just ahead. I can sense it. he growled.

I sighed with relief. Me and Pauleen began looking around for the so-called "monster". There was nothing. Not even a footprint.

Pauleen and I looked at each other, "Well, this is the deepest part of the jungle, but I don't see a monster anywhere!"

Suddenly, there was a rumble and something scooted out of the bushes and roared. "GRAAAAHHH!"

Pauleen leapt toward it, "Alright, monster! Prepare to meet your doom at the hands of... wait... this isn't a monster!" She faced me, "It's a fak-"

She was cut off suddenly as the "monster" exploded, throwing us both backwards onto the ground. "Ow..." I said, rubbing my arm that I landed on.

Two guys came running over to the broken heap of metal.

"Aw, man. The darn thing broke..." the first guy whined.

"Well, Jerry, it's been scaring off Fighters 24/7. I'm surprised it lasted this long." he pulled a wrench from his pocket, "Come on. Let's see if we can fix it."

Pauleen jumped up from the ground in a rage, "Hold up! What's going on here? Are you telling me you made this thing?"

Jerry chuckled, "Yep. Me and Lee here built it ourselves." Lee chimed in, "And it worked really good, too. All the Fighters were too scared to come to this part of the jungle. That meant we could take all the fossil rocks we wanted! Pretty smart, huh?"

I clenched my fists, "Pretty stupid if you ask me!"

Jerry stepped toward me, "Yeah, well ol' Mr. Monster here did his job real well. But now you know our little secret, and we can't allow that can we?" Lee stepped toward Pauleen, "How's about we lock 'em up somewhere until they forget, eh, Jerry?

Pauleen stomped down her foot in protest, "NOW HOLD IT RIGHT THERE! I deal with your fake monster, and I can even deal with your stupid names, but nobody, and I mean nobody locks me up!"

She looked over at me, "Let's take them down, Dina! You take that Fighter, and I'll take this one!" I nodded to her, and then the fight was on.

Jerry sent out Nycto and Anomalo. I sent out Dimetro and Tricera. Unfortunately, both of his Vivosaurs had an advantage over Tricera.

"Anomalo Twist on Tricera!" he commanded. Anomalo quickly unleashed its attack, which did a good bit of damage to Tricera.

Then I was up, "Alright, Dimetro, Dimetro Fang on Nycto!" He landed a critical that took out half of Nycto's LP. I ended my turn then to save up FP.

"Hehehe, not so fast, kid. This is where I take you down! Nycto, Beak Stab!"

Nycto flew towards Tricera at incredible speed, but Tricera caught Nycto in his horns and tossed him backwards.

Jerry shouted in frustration, "Whaat? But how?"

I grinned, "Alright, Dimetro, this is it." I raised my voice, "Hit him with Dimetro Whirl!"

Dimetro smiled evilly, showing his razor sharp teeth, then he spun in mid-air and slammed into Nycto, who immediately fell.

"Urg! Alright, be that way! Anomalo, attack Tricera with Anomalo Twist again!" Anomalo twisted its way across the ground and did an upward attack on Tricera. He still held on strong.

Let me go. I can finish this. Tricera grunted. "Fine then," I smiled at him, "Tricera, Running Smash on Anomalo!"

"Haha, you've got to be joking! Water against Air? It's suicide, you're going to lose!" But Tricera proved him wrong because just as he finished his sentence, Anomalo's Dino Medal hit his foot; the Vivosaur was defeated.

He gasped, "B-but, how? I thought I had my types matched up perfectly!"

I looked him in the eyes with a stern look, "It's not about advantage, it's about having fun. The bond you make with your Vivosaurs is more important than anything." I picked up my two Dino Medals after my Vivosaurs changed back to them, "Always remember that."

The sudden sound of rustling leaves and footsteps made me turn around, "Are you alright, Dina?" Stella, Rupert, and two of the attendants from the Fossil Station were heading toward us.

"Hmm," Stella said, examining the "monster", "A homemade monster? Now what could this be used for?" She glared at Jerry, who jumped.

I explained exactly what happened to Stella. "Interesting. So they were scaring off the other Fighters in order to claim all the fossil rocks for themselves." Her usual cheerful attitude sudden turned incredibly harsh. "Seize them!" she commanded.

Just as the two attendants went to grab the men, they fled.

"Not so fast!" Rupert jumped in front of them and tripped Jerry, which in turn made Lee fall on top of him.

Stella turned to me, "You have Todd to thank for my being here, Dina. He came running to me in a panic, wailing about some monster that was going to shallow you whole."

She turned and giggled at the rusty pile of metal, "I was expecting some kind of trouble, but... Well, not this. Still," she said encouragingly, "Fighters are now free to dig for fossil rocks here, so I suppose it all turned out all right. We owe the two of you our thanks."

The two attendants came back with the culprits, "We rounded up these two ruffians, Stella. What should we do with them?" She frowned and angry Stella came back out, "They're disqualified from the Caliosteo Cup, so throw them out of the park. I don't want to see their faces around here again!" then she lower her voice to a calmer volume, "And please send someone to collect the fake monster as evidence of their actions."

The staff began heading away, Stella waved goodbye, "See you later, Dina. You too, Pauleen."

Pauleen laughed, "Ha! Serves them right! Oh, and hey," she turned to me, "Thanks for helping me out, Dina. You're pretty good at this, not as good as me, but pretty good."

A sudden gasp and excited screams followed her statement, "Dina! You're alive!" Todd ran over and hugged me, "I thought you were going to die!"

I hugged him back, "Oh, Todd... I'm fine." He pulled away, then looked at Pauleen and screamed, "EEEEEEKK! It's the monster!"

Pauleen growled, "Stop called me a monster, you idiot! My name is Pauleen!"

"Oooohhh. Wait, why wouldn't you tell me you're name last night?"

"I did, but you were to busy cowering over my mask!"

"Ok, ok, break it up, guys!" I shouted, "Pauleen, Todd can be a bit scared sometimes," Todd whined in protest, "But he's truly a nice person. And Todd," I said, turning to him, "Pauleen is also nice, so try to get along, ok?"

"Alright." he sighed. "But how come you wear that mask? Just take it off!"

Pauleen sweat-dropped, "No way! I just.. I can't do it!"

"Then we're just supposed to believe that you're a beautiful teenager? Pfft, whatever!" he crossed his arms.

Pauleen growled again. "How dare you! I'm beautiful! And young! And...and beautiful! I wear this mask for personal reasons that have nothing to do with you, and that's the end of it! Now goodbye!"

I sighed, "Todd, why would you say that?"

He just looked at me, "Well, what kind of weirdo wears a mask for personal reasons?"

Just then my Paleopager started beeping, "The Caliosteo Cup Round 2 matches will now begin. Rockin' Billy has been selected as Dina's Round 2 opponent." I groaned at the thought of that weirdo, "Please get ready, then check in at Ribular Town's Fossil Stadium."

Todd jumped up with excitement. "Yes! Round 2 is finally starting! I'll meet you back at the stadium. I'll be rooting for you, Dina! You're gonna be awesome, I know it!" Todd ran back to the Fossil Station.

Rupert came walking up to me, "Well, that was pretty exciting, wasn't it?" I smiled, noting that he seemed "happier" now, "Yeah, it was. Hey, do you wanna walk back to the Fossil Stadium with me? I mean, we're going to the same place so why not?"

Rupert blushed slightly, "Um, sure, I suppose that would be ok."

"Ok, well, come on!" I motioned for him to follow me and we headed to the stadium.

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I'm so sorry for the long wait! I've been getting hit left and right with projects and homework, so I've barely had enough time to get things done. Plus, I've had some requests on my Deviantart so, yeah. I'll try to get the next chapter up A.S.A.P. I'd also like to say I'm surprised at how popular this is. I mean, it has 400+ hits! That's crazy! Please review! :)