Beautiful Scavange

"I DO NOT SEE ANY OF THE REQUIRED ITEMS IN THIS AREA." Cinder commented.

Luna winced at the volume of his voice. "Tone it down Cinder, you're too loud again."

"APOLOGIES. LOWERING VOLUME." Cinder looked away in what might have been mild embarrassment. It was hard to tell with him. At least he was speaking at a tolerable volume now. It was still loud, but tolerable.

Hanzai popped out of a bush and looked between her other three team members. "I think you need to get your scanners check dear." She held out a few of the items they'd been requested to find. Some flowers that Luna wouldn't have even have thought twice about if it weren't for this job.

"Oh great!" Spirit floated over happily. "I didn't even see these, where'd you find them?" The hisuian zorua fusion blinked at him. He blinked back. "O-oh." He drooped. "I get it."

Luna dragged a paw down her face and sighed. "I can't believe you sometimes. Who did you even take them from?"

"Plenty of people around." She waved a paw. "Several teams were sent on this mission after all darling."

"You're insufferable." Luna groaned as she covered her face with her paws. "Remind me why I even let you stay on the team?" She removed the paws from her face to shoot Hanzai a flat look.

"Because I can get a job done." She winked as she stashed the flowers away in her sack. "You may not like it, but I'm good at what I do."

"She's... unfortunately right." Spirit frowned as he floated back over to Luna. "She's helped us with some tough missions."

"THE SMALL ONE IS CORRECT. SHE HAS SHOWN HERSELF TO BE A VALUABLE ASSET TO THE TEAM." Cinder nodded.

"Yeah yeah..." Luna grumbled. "Let's just get a move on before whatever team you stole from realizes it and tries to hunt us down. There's still a lot for us to find."

Hanzai sent Luna a sly smile. "Just let me do my thing dear. No need to question my methods. That being said..." She tilted her head. "I believe there's a dungeon nearby where we can pick up some of those minerals that Purrugly wants."

"Let's head there then." Spirit tapped his hands together as he nodded. Luna was pretty sure he was just glad to get out of the awkward situation.

"AGREED. LEAD THE WAY THIEF." Cinder looked down at Hanzai.

Hanzai looked at him with a mildly offended look. "Don't call me thief." She placed a paw on her chest. "What I do is much more refined than what a common thief could do dear." She side eyed the robotic pokemon. "And don't you forget that."

"UPDATING PROFILE..." Cinder stared blankly ahead for a couple moments. "PROFILE UPDATED. NEW INFORMATION HAS BEEN TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT."

"Good." Hanzai huffed and started to walk off. "Alright darlings, follow me. We'll be to that dungeon in no time."

---

Luna hit the deck as Cinder unleashed a flamethrower over her head. She could feel the intense heat of it even through her fur. The attack collided with the chest of the aggron they'd encountered in the dungeon. The pokemon fell over, knocked out. Luna sighed as she peeled herself off the ground. "Let's keep moving..."

"AGREED. AREA SEEMS TO BE CLEAR." Cinder moved to follow Luna.

"For now anyway..." Spirit trailed off, eyes darting around. "There's been a lot of pokemon here though..."

"Don't worry about it hun. Nothing we can't handle." Hanzai brushed off the concern. "Ooooh you're pretty aren't you?" She stopped and picked up some sort of gem before slipping it into her sack.

"Really?" Luna deadpanned as she stared at the hisuian zorua fusion.

"What? Can't blame me for wanting to take home a little something for me can you? Teams take things from dungeons all the time." She strutted forward. "If it makes you feel better though I won't take anything else except what we came for while we're here. Does that work for you oh fearless leader?" She shot Luna a slightly challenging look.

"Yeah fine, whatever." Luna shook her head and once again took the lead. Spirit floated to her side but said nothing; just offered his silent comfort. She appreciated the effort.

After what felt like several hours of searching they had finally gotten the minerals they'd come here for. Rather than trying to backtrack out of the dungeon they decided to just use their badges to get back. They'd gathered enough to fulfill the job requirements anyway. At least that was over.

---

Luna sighed as she watched Hanzai chat with Purrugly after she'd handed over the goods. Despite the fact that Luna was one of the leaders of the team, Spirit was the other but he mostly defaulted to her, she let the other pokemon handle turning in what they'd gotten. She didn't really have any interest in being roped into a conversation like Hanzai had been.

"You good?" Spirit looked at her with mild concern.

"Just fine." She sighed and turned away from staring at the hisuian zorua fusion's back. "We just need to work on her attitude some is all."

Slowly Spirit nodded. "Yeah..." He shot her a small smile. "I'm sure we can do it though. She'll come around you'll see."

"I admire you're optimism Spirit. I really do." Luna gently pat the small dragon on the back. "what do you say we stop and get something sweet before heading back? As celebration of a job well done?"

"Oh!" Spirit lit up. "I'd like that."

"Good." She turned to look up at Cinder. The glitch pokemon was staring at the activity around him, what seemed like a slightly confused look on his face. "Hey Cinder? Mind grabbing Hanzai? We're going."

Cinder shook himself before looking down at her and nodding. "UNDERSTOOD. RETRIEVING TEAMMATE."

Cinder plodded over to where Hanzai was, neatly scooped her up, and started walking back over to them. Luna placed a paw over her mouth to keep from busting out laughing at the sight of a mildly offended and mildly terrified Hanzai being manhandled by the much larger Cinder. Maybe things weren't so bad.