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(will come back and add images later)

"This stinks. I hate it here. I want to go home."

Tomoe closed her eyes and tried, in vain, to imagine a peaceful lake on a peaceful mountain. Acheron had suggested it, so she had made an attempt, but she was of the opinion that in this particular instance his advice had been thoroughly useless. Or maybe it just served him better, since he was here too, and he hadn't seen fit to incinerate the little wretch that the Cubone had foisted on them this morning.

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Or, well -- Acheron couldn't have incinerated anyone, but he could have run a Zorua through with his claws if he had wanted to. Or he could have asked Tomoe to incinerate the twerp for him, though this wasn't very likely, as far as possibilities went, if only because Acheron seldom asked her for anything. Which was as it should be, considering she was the one in charge.

Still, he could have shut the brat up. It would have been a service to everyone here.

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He didn't, and Tomoe was making an effort not to, but it was much more satisfying to imagine singing his paws and watching him yelp and dance about as he tried to put them out. A small smirk graced her features for a moment, some increment of her foul mood dispersed, but then the damned brat opened his mouth again.

"This is stupid. Why are we even here?" he whined.

She could almost hear the sound of something snapping. That was it. Tomoe rounded on him.

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"Could you shut your stupid little mouth for just one moment!" she yelled. The Zorua -- what had his name been again? No, it didn't matter. The Zorua's eyes went wide, then narrowed again as he glared back at her.

"Hey, you can't talk to me like that! Acheron, tell her! Tell her she can't talk to me like that!"

Now it was Tomoe's turn to be shocked. He was asking Acheron, of all people, to rebuke her? That was rich.

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Just who did he think he was? And for that matter, who did he think she was? She whipped her head around to look at Acheron too, expectantly. He had his flaws, but he had served her faithfully these long years, and she fully expected him to make the correct choice here and now.

Acheron looked between the two of them. Silence lapsed, filled only by the sound of falling rain. As the silence dragged on, Tomoe's confidence turned slowly into incredulity.

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Was he really going to give this Zorua the time of day? Was he really going to tolerate the fact that she had been spoken to like that? "Acheron," she said, and there was a warning in her voice this time.

"Peace, lady Tomoe," said Acheron. "He is still a child. He does not mean what he says."

Tomoe's ears went back flat against her head. The Zorua's did the same. "That's not true! I meant everything I said. This place sucks and this job sucks and no one can talk to me like that."

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The Zorua kicked the mud for good measure, though all that accomplished was muddying his front further. He sputtered -- apparently he had gotten some of it into his mouth somehow. That, at last, brought some amusement to the occasion, though not enough to alleviate the fact that they were still out here, stuck with one another.

It allowed her to calm down enough to see that they had at least one thing in common, which was that neither of them wanted to be here.

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The whole thing was that stupid Cubone's idea. He was the one who called the shots in that little rescue team of his, and until recently Tomoe couldn't have cared less about what happened with that lot. It was a shame that Acheron had gotten involved with them, but he still made himself available enough that she could accept it, and she wanted him to have enough freedom to do what he wanted... Even if what he wanted was something foolish like this.

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But the Audino kept trying to get Tomoe involved, going on and on about how much of an asset she would be, and how good it felt to help other Pokemon. It was all a load of nonsense, except for the part about her being an asset, of course. But Acheron seemed keen on it too, and... well, alright, perhaps she had let some of the flattery get to her in a moment of poor judgement.

But no longer. Not after all of this.

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As soon as she agreed to join on a mission or two on a trial basis, that absurd Cubone had assigned her -- and Acheron -- on a scouting trip with this Zorua. He'd even had the nerve to sigh as he did it, saying that this was something even she could handle, as if she needed him to go easy on her.

Though if this was the Cubone's idea of an easy mission, maybe his brain needed some adjusting.

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She had never thought much of him even before this debacle, but suffice to say her opinion of him had worsened rather drastically afterwards. In fact, she was entertaining some thoughts about turning that club of his to a pile of hot cinders as soon as she returned.

However, all questions of revenge would have to wait until they made that return. For the moment, all of them were stuck in the swamp, getting rained on, and going nowhere.

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"I've had enough of this," said Tomoe. "There's no reason for me to stay here. I'm going home." She turned around and began heading back the way she came, only to be stopped by Acheron.

"I beg your pardon, my lady, but..." He hesitated, his expression troubled. She could tell that he had nothing good to say. She trusted him not to waste her time, but the fact that he was bearing bad news all the same didn't improve her mood either. "Well? What is it?"

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Acheron paused a moment, likely trying to find the best way to present the news. Tomoe's eyes narrowed, her already threadbare patience wearing thinner with each moment. If he was going to hold up her attempt to quit this place, it had better be good.

Sighing, Acheron said, "My lady, it is not possible to return that way. We must go further in to find the exit."

Tomoe's eyes widened for a moment with surprise, then narrowed once again. "Wonderful," she said.

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Of course the situation was anything but. How could it be, when she couldn't even leave? "What kind of wretched place is this, that you cannot even walk out of it?!" she said.

"Yeesh, you've got a real screech on you," said the Zorua, making a show of putting his paws over his ears and wincing at the sound of her voice. But then his expression turned smug. "Shows what you know anyway. This is a mystery dungeon! All of them are like this."

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His little chest was puffed out in pride, not that there was much to look at with the way the rain flattened all his fur. He looked like a drowned rat, which would be more amusing and comforting if Tomoe wasn't burdened with the knowledge that she looked barely any better. Her own fine fur was also laden with water, and it was a distinctly unpleasant sensation to have it plastered to her skin. The fact that it made her colder only added to the misery.