Chapter 7: Young Heroes
Hunter woke up confused. His suite was replaced by some Oregon Trail-themed one-room apartment. His bed was quite stiff for his taste, and some unfamiliar, but pretty, girl with dark brown curls was sleeping in that bed next to him. Had he gotten drunk sometime the day before and missed his room?
No, I'm not drunk, Hunter realized, remembering he wasn't even on Vivosaur Island anymore. He suddenly really wished he'd thought to at least bring his laptop and a good blanket with him.
"Good morning," Duna said, sitting up in the bed.
"You don't sleep much, do you?" Hunter greeted, allowing her to peer down at him from above.
"When you sleep for a few trillion years, you're left with some energy to spare," she said. "And so far, I've only made up for about five."
"Almost wish I could hibernate for at least a few days," Hunter said dreamily.
Duna smiled, then caught him off guard by bending down and kissing him lightly on the lips. Same reason why Duna had stayed in her human disguise; the room had a hidden camera, dinaurian but fortunately its audio was busted so they could still talk freely.
"Come on," she said, "the first Dig Site is opening up today to get us ready for the first match tomorrow."
She crawled carefully over him off the bed. She grabbed her Alien Ware suitcase, careful to stay in the camera's blind spot as she produced an unbelievable amount of clothes and toiletries from a bag that only looked big enough to hold a shoe.
She took her things over to the bathroom, the only room in the apartment safe from the bug so she could safely return to her true dinaurian form so she could bathe properly. She left the door open as she undressed, and Hunter did his best not to stare. Deciding he'd best get dress as well, he grabbed his classic baggy denim shorts and red V-neck T-shirt. He didn't notice if Duna watched him, but she could probably have seen every inch of his body with their backs to each other.
There was a knock on the door and Hunter finished pulling up his pants, not bothering with his T-shirt, and shut the door to the bathroom before answering the apartment's door. John was on the other side.
"Hello, Hunter," he greeted. He peered around in the apartment. "I was told you and Trinity would be sharing a room?"
"She's in the shower," Hunter replied, nodding in the direction of the bathroom before the two shared a knowing smile. Girls.
"Well, I'm just here to inform you that a new Dig Site, Treasure Lake, has been opened to the participants of the Caliosteo Cup," John said. "Tomorrow, round one of the tournament will be held." He produced a pair of odd-looking objects from his pockets. "These are your Paleopagers, one for each of you. Any news or notifications relating to the Cup or of some other importance will be sent to you on these via FMS. Have a good day."
"See you, John," Hunter said, shutting the apartment door.
"Who was it?" Duna asked, stepping out of the bathroom in her disguise. She had a towel wrapped around body glistening with moisture and another one bounding up her hair.
"Just John," Hunter said, passing Duna her Paleopager. "He dropped these off. Said they'd keep us informed using them with FMS. They call them Paleopagers, but from what I understand, there really isn't much difference between them and a normal pager."
Duna nodded her understanding, placing it on the table next to her bag before returning to the bathroom to finish drying off and dressing.
30 minutes later
The four friends stood up on top of a hill, staring in awe at the expanse of Treasure Lake. For a first Dig Site, it was quite beautiful, especially compared to Greenhorn Plains. Treasure Lake was actually more of a puddle, only about as big as a large pond and the water was knee-deep at its deepest. A giant tyrannosaur skull sat in the center of the sparkling water.
"No wonder Grandpa seemed kind of jealous when I told him we were headed for Caliosteo Fossil Park," Rosie said. "If the first Dig Site is so beautiful, I can only imagine how the rest of the islands must look."
"Well, let's get digging," Holt said. "I bought a guide back at the apartment for all the digs here on Ribular Island. There's a couple of name's I don't recognize, which can only mean that there's plenty of new fossils to be found here."
"What does the guide say we can find here?" Hunter asked.
"Some familiar faces, like Sucho, Kentro, Goyle, Proto, Tricera, Shoni, and, if we're lucky, Tarbo, Shanshan, Igua, and Goyo," Holt read off from his guidebook. "The unfamiliar ones are Raja, a tyrannosaur, Menchi, a sauropod, Pacro, an ornithosaur, Thalasso, a pterosaur, and occasionally Radox, little trilobite-like creatures. There's also been unconfirmed excavations of Tanstro, whatever that is…" He said the first one with longing, reminding Hunter of his failure to revive a gold boned version of it. "It also says that from time to time Aeros, Toba, Dimetro, and Tsintao fossils have been unearthed here, but we might as well wait for Isium Island to go out of our way to dig them up since they're pretty rare here."
"Well, good enough for me," Rosie said excitedly. "I'll betcha 50 Gs that I'll find the first new fossil!"
She took off, and Hunter checked his sonar strapped to his wrist. It was flashing red, signifying he was standing right in front of a fossil. He produced his pickaxe and swung, pulling up an unfamiliar fossil rock.
"Rosie!" he called, lifting it up in the air. "I'll take an IOU for now if you like."
Rosie froze, then continued stalking forward, grumbling about something.
"A fire type," Holt appraised. "Probably Menchi."
"Looks like fire is my new element," Hunter commented, throwing the rock into his case.
"Hey, are you Hunter?" a girl's voice said from behind the trio of friends.
They turned to see the blonde girl from the station. She was wearing a blue jumpsuit, and the boy next to her was wearing an orange one and had a haircut just like Hunter's.
"Um, yeah?" he said, unsure of how to respond to strange little girls who knew his name.
"I thought so!" she said, grinning from ear to ear. "My brother Dino and I are huge fans of yours. We've watch every one of your Fossil Battles on TV since you started."
"Hi," said the bluenette boy. "My name's Dino and this is my sister, Dina."
"Well, nice to know I have a fan club already starting up here on Ribular Island," Hunter said. "Is there anything you two want? A Fossil Battle, an autograph?"
"Probably not a Fossil Battle," Dina laughed. "You'd probably crush us!"
"Actually," Holt said, "everyone in the Cup had their vivosaurs' Rank reduced all the way back down to 1. You'd be pretty evenly matched."
"Fossil Battles are about more than just Rank," Dino disagreed. "It's about skill and teamwork, too. We've only been battling for about two years now, and we each only have two vivosaurs versus a whole army of Hunter's."
"I'll betcha Todd would jump at the chance to have a Fossil Battle with you, though," Dina said. "That is, if we could only find him. He kind of forgot his sonar, and is probably off running around somewhere swinging his pickaxe around like a slasher movie villain."
"We could help you two," Duna offered.
Dina looked over at her. "Who are you?"
"My name's Trinity," she said. "I'm Hunter's girlfriend."
Dina looked at her in shock as Dino said, "Ha! I told you he wouldn't go for Rosie! That'll be 50 Gs."
"He may not have gone for Rosie, but he still didn't pick Duna," Dina replied smugly. "So, technically, you lose, too. And you bet 70 Gs. Why don't you pay up the difference?"
Dino grumbled as he counted out twenty Gs and passed them over to his sister.
"Uh, why don't we go look around for your friend now?" Hunter said, not liking the feeling of being bet on like a racehorse. "Where do you think he would be?"
Dino looked over at the giant skull. "If I know Todd, he's probably off gawking at that skull fossil over there."
The trio of friends plus two headed down the hill, finding Rosie still standing at the bottom, groaning about how the mud was going to ruin her new tights and shoes.
"Why would you wear something like that to dig anyway?" Hunter asked as he passed by her, walking right into the actually pretty clean and dry dirt.
"I didn't think it would be so dirty here," she said.
"Hey, you're Rosie Richmond," Dina said excitedly.
She looked in confusion at her friends, Hunter mouthing that he'd explain it to her later, then said aloud, "Come on, we promised we'd help find their friend."
"Okay," Rosie said. "What does he look like?"
"He's pretty normal looking," Dino said. "He's wearing a green jumpsuit and a yellow helmet on top of his light brown hair."
"A pretty unfashionable helmet at that," Dina commented.
"Okay, sounds like he'd stick out like a sore thumb," Rosie said, turning around, then cursing as she noticed several of the fighters there fit that description pretty well.
"He's short, too," Dino added. Rosie perked up a bit. Most of the fighters she could see were pretty tall.
As it turned out, after only a few minutes of searching, he was inspecting the skull fossil, wondering what kind of monster had a head so big.
"You must be Todd," Hunter said, walking up behind him.
He turned around, then shouted in surprised excitement, "OH MY GOSH! You're Hunter!"
"What, does everybody on this rock know who I am?" Hunter said in embarrassment, rubbing the back of his neck.
"You're only the savior of the world!" Todd said. "Not to mention the greatest Fossil Fighter ever! I bet even Joe Wildwest himself would lose to you in a Fossil Battle."
"Huh, think so? You know, I've always wondered if I would be any match for him. We usually have our Fossil Battles around the same time, so by the time I get to the TV his battle is always done and over with and the Duel Monsters World Championships are on."
"Trust me, he's good," Todd said. He noticed Duna. "Who're you?"
"That's his girlfriend," Dina said proudly. "Which means you owe me 100 Gs."
"Nuh-uh!" Todd said. "You bet that he'd be with Rosie."
"Guys, can we save this for later?" Hunter said.
They looked over at him, then nodded then nodded their heads.
"Well thanks for helping us find Todd," Dino said. "See you in the tournament."
The three friends raced off, leaving Rosie, Holt, Duna, and Hunter wondering.
"I'm beginning to wonder if my fans like me for my vivosaurs or my romantic life," Hunter commented.
"I wouldn't call you romantic," Duna said. "But, you're sweet enough."
Rosie laughed. "Burn!"
All of the friends laughed before pairing off to start digging.
15 minutes later
Holt looked up from his digging and noticed a crowd gathering up on the hill where they'd been earlier.
"Let's go see what's up," Rosie said, excited to get to the dry land.
"Tell us, Rupert, do you expect to win this tournament?" a reporter asked, holding her microphone in front of a silver haired boy wearing a ridiculous red cape.
"Of course," he said. "What is the point of entering a tournament if one doesn't expect to win?"
"Spoken like a true champion," the reporter said. "Coming from the lips of anyone else would be hubris, but with Rupert it's a cold hard fact."
She signed off, saying something to Rupert before heading off with her cameraman. After they were a ways away and the crowd diminished some, he muttered something and headed down the hill, stopping as he passed Hunter and the others.
"You're Hunter," he stated.
"So, how much did you bet on who I'd be with?" Hunter asked, not liking the kid.
He grunted. "I don't waste time on such frivolities. Though, it would seem as though this tournament may hold some sort of challenge if you're here."
He continued on, not even bothering with a proper farewell.
"What a jerk," Rosie said, sticking her tongue out at him.
"That's Rupert, the heir to FossilDig, Inc. and a prince of the arena," Holt said. "Hunter, if he's in the Cup, we might as well kiss our chances of victory goodbye. I doubt that even you, no offense, would stand a chance against that kid."
"Hey guys, didja see him?" Todd's voice called down from on top of the hill. They turned to see him rushing down at them, Dino and Dina following after much more carefully.
"You mean the rich prick that just went by?" Hunter asked. "He's got some nerve."
"He's only a part of the richest business in the world," Todd said. "Like, richer than the Richmonds rich. And one tough fighter." He smiled. "And I'm gonna challenge him to a Fossil Battle."
"Todd, don't you think he's a little out of your league?" Dina asked.
"No way. Everyone's vivosaurs have been lowered down to Rank 1. I can take him!"
"Fossil Battles are about more than just—" Dino tried, but Todd cut him off.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Fossil battles are about more than just Rank alone. But I'm telling you, I can take him!"
Dino massaged his temple. "Your funeral."
"Alright!" Todd said, probably not processing what "your funeral" meant. "Hey, Hunter, why don't you come watch me slay a god in the Fossil Battling world?"
"Sorry, bud," Hunter said. "But we just filled our cases up on a bunch of fossil and jewel rocks. We were just heading back to get some cleaning and revival done."
He nodded his head. "Okay. You're gonna need every vivosaur you can get if you expect to beat me in the Cup. See you!"
He took off in the direction Rupert went, Dino and Dina following after him.
"Actually, our cases are hardly half full," Holt said.
"Yeah, but half full is still a lot with our cases," Hunter said, "and the day's nearly spent. We can ask how it went tomorrow after we finish off the first round in the tournament."
later that evening
Hunter and the gang sat on top of the apartment building, sipping at Cokes as they watched the sunset. Their revivals had gone off without a hitch, each one of them scoring every vivosaur Treasure Lake had to offer, though all of them were plain old white bones with the exception of Hunter's Raja, a red bone.
"Who do you think we'll be up against?" Rosie thought aloud.
"Probably just some random Fossil Fighters," Holt said. "Judging by John's reaction when we told him we were all Master Fighters, there aren't many experienced opponents here."
"Save Rupert and us," Rosie said. "Who knows, maybe the computer will have all of us wipe each other out in the first battle."
"Fat chance," Hunter said. "But, knowing my luck, I'm probably going to be seeing Rupert round 1. And whether I win or not, it's not going to be pretty."
"I'd like to take on that girl Dina," Duna said. "She seems pretty good, though I'd hate to have to beat her brother Dino. He seems a lot like a special someone I know."
Hunter nodded his head. "I could tell when I first laid eyes on him. I was like, 'This kid's got something.' To be honest, I'd be more scared to face him than Rupert."
The last sliver of red light slipped away beneath the horizon, the moon beginning to rise behind them.
"Well, good night," Holt said. "We've got a big day tomorrow."
"See you guys in the morning," Rosie said, standing with her boyfriend as they left for their room. Duna and Hunter were left up on the rooftop alone.
"I got us a new room," Duna said. "One with no bugs, and it's a little more plush. I used the money I got from those jewel rocks."
Hunter nodded his head in approval. "Sounds nice."
Duna scooted closer to him, cautiously lowering her head onto his shoulder.
Should I say it now? Hunter thought. Should I tell her, or is this not the right time?
He looked down at Duna in her disguise. No, not now. He wanted to tell her, the dinaurian, that he loved her. Not some southern valley girl.
"I'm ready for bed," Duna announced. "You coming?"
"Yeah," Hunter said.
They headed down to their new room. It was the same design, Oregon Trail, but much larger with a tiny makeshift kitchen tucked in one corner of the room and a loveseat and TV in another. Hunter still found the bed a little solid, but it was better.
They lay there in the bed together. Duna was in her dinaurian form, curled up in Hunter's arm, breathing softly as she started falling asleep.
After gathering up his nerve for what could have been hours or mere seconds, he was unsure, he finally decided it was time to say those three impossible words.
"Duna," he whispered, "I love you."
Of course, she had to of chose then of all times to decide to fall asleep.
End Chapter