"Brr! Sure is cold up here." Tangle said between chattering teeth. She and her fellow Diamond Cutters, Lanolin and Whisper, had gotten the short end of the stick and ended up in White Park for their Chaos Emerald hunt. And honestly? It was taking WAY too long in this biting cold, especially while they were having to stop and let the radar recalibrate in this weather.

"Maybe if you'd worn a coat, you wouldn't be so chilly." Lanolin muttered. She wasn't too pleased to be here after Dr. Starline had caused an avalanche at the nearby chateau a while back, but she supposed she wouldn't have been so quick to join the Restoration full time if not for that instance, so some good had come of it. "Whisper, are you SURE you're okay with just your regular clothes?"

"*i'm okay.*" The wolf replied, checking her Variable Wispon for what felt like the 100th time since they'd departed from HQ. Lanolin and her Rhythm Wisp, Maggie, shared a look of concern, before both turned to Tangle to handle the matter. The lemur huffed a bit, having to uncoil her warm tail from around her body for this, but nonetheless struck up the conversation. "Hey, you doin' alright?"

"*yeah. just fine.*" Whisper said, distantly. Tangle elected to try again. "I mean, if you MAYBE have something you need to talk about, I'm right here..."

"*i know. thank you.*"

Seeing how the subtle approach wasn't working, Tangle decided on the third try to be direct. "Are you still bothered by that Shadow Android back at base?"

Whisper stopped at the lemur's words, stunned by the bluntness, but unable to avoid being honest. "*kinda...I'm trying not to be, but...*"

"If you want, I could ask Jewel to assign him somewhere else." Lanolin offered, but Whisper waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. "*no. i don't want to kick him out yet. i remember what happened the last time i freaked out about a new member.*" She thought back to the children laughing at how he read a story. It had stuck with her, even as she had stealthily observed him from a distance for any signs of going rogue. "*look, can we just get back to the mission?*"

Before they could discuss it any more, the emerald radar beeped, bringing them back on task.

After another few minutes of trudging through the snow, they finally reached the cave where the emerald had frozen itself into the wall, illuminating the chamber with a purple glow. "It's beautiful." Lanolin muttered to herself.

"YEAH, AND IT AIN'T FREE!"

The three Diamond Cutters spun to face the source of the voice, seeing the familiar form of two skunks.

"Ugh, what are YOU two doing here?"

"Oh, didn't ya hear? We just stumbled onto this little beauty while exploring the caves, and now we're gonna get rich from the tourism! By the way, that'll be 50 bucks from each of ya!"

"Tourism? You realize nobody's gonna come out THIS far to see a purple rock glow, right?" Tangle said, dumbfounded. The skunks looked at each other, then turned back, resolved to be right. "Hey! Don't make us confused!"

"Don't get our heads all jumbled!"

"Now PAY THE FINE to ROUGH AND TUMBLE!" The two skunks said in unison, posing as they did so. However, while they were distracted by their rhymes, Lanolin motioned to Whisper using her Rhythm Wispon, suggesting that perhaps they could bring some ice down on the two with it. Whisper shook her head, however, due to the lack of precision, and instead used the Laser function of her own Wispon to bring it down more precisely. Enough to incapacitate, but not to kill. And soon, the emerald was theirs.

"HEY! You just gonna leave us here!?" Rough cried out as the three began to leave. "Promise to go away quietly?" Lanolin asked. The two skunks, desperate, nodded, and soon, the Diamond Cutters got to VERY careful work.