D/N: Sooo... A bit of a wait there. Well, I told you it was coming, but hopefully the next little while will be faster. Hopefully this chapter is better than last chapter, which, in my personal opinion, sucked ass. I also find it kind of funny how I write my responses in alphabetical order, and it's so easy because you all review in alphabetical order. Well, reserve alphabetical, really. The review listing shows oldest to newest, but it still comes out alphabetical. ... I've killed my joke. :(

Blue-Fire310: Hey! Go Spring Break! Welcome back! Where'd you go? And I'm glad you like the story, even if you can't rate the IC. But you've got an excuse, so it's fine.

Demenoir:D I love Herry. I can't help but make him add his two cents. I'm really hoping you're not back from Europe yet (enjoy yourself there!) because there's been a bit of a delay with my updating. But it's here at last, so if you're not back, this'll be waiting, which is always good.

Melosa16: Ah! A newcomer! Welcome, and thanks for the rating. :) It helps, believe me.

SomethingTree: Horae? Hmm... I don't remember hearing it, but maybe I just wasn't paying attention in those episodes. I'm going to look it up - you're probably right, but I might have to keep calling them Oracles for those who'd otherwise give me a big HUH?! Gotta dumb it down for the little guy and all that. And I'm glad you thought it was in-character! I was beating myself thinking I was completely off-track, but a lot of people have been happy with it, so I'm happy.

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Today was undoubtedly the 'Day of Disappointment'.

Neil had only been down here once before, and in the panicked state he and the others were in, he hadn't had much time to really look at this place. Now, however, as he, Theresa and Herry leisurely strolled down the tunnel, he allowed himself to drink in every detail. Sadly, that had taken all of three seconds. It was such a shame how bored Neil was feeling as they made their way to the Underworld. This place should have been scary - terrifying. They were about to enter the land of the dead, and the only thing even remotely creepy being offered was the desolate stone walls. But as he'd told the others eight times in the past seven minutes, he used 'desolate' as loosely as calling a bomb 'friendly'. How embarrassing it was if Hades couldn't even make a stone hall a even a bit eerie.

They should have been kicking their way through a sea of human bones. There should have been torches burning in animal skulls hammered to the walls or dangling from the ceiling. Abnormally sharp rocks should have been jutting out from the ground, ready to pierce straight through the foot of any careless traveller. Spider webs - not the spider, of course, because they'd be dead with everything else - were supposed to be coating every inch of this bland tunnel, sticking to everyone's skin, clothes and hair. There wasn't. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Not even a stinkin' tooth.

Alright, so maybe Neil didn't mind not having to spend the next week picking webbing off of him, but this was ridiculous. This was his adventure. Part of getting a bit of respect around this place was going through a hideously cumbersome (Thank you, Word-a-Day.), overly dangerous, gratuitous fight-scene mess of a trial. But no. Apparently even that was too much to ask for.

"Theresa," he said suddenly.

"If this about that stupid 'using desolate loosely' thing again, I don't want to hear it."

"No, not that, even if it's completely true." Neil pointed to a tiny crack in the wall. "What's that?"

"What's what?" Theresa asked.

"That. That right there. Sticking out of the wall."

"What's sticking out of the wall?"

Herry looked for himself. "You mean the flower?"

"Exactly." Neil frowned. "There's a flower in the wall." When he received no reaction from this, he prompted, "A flower. In here."

"What's wrong with having a flower down here?" Herry said. "I like flowers."

He shook his head. "Herry, Herry, Herry... Don't you have any idea where we are?"

"Uh... Here?"

"Yes, Herry. Good job. Now, where's here?"

"... A tunnel?"

"Very good. A tunnel to where?"

Herry said nothing for a moment. He thought hard about his answer, and with a decisive nod of his head, said, "To the Underworld."

"Exactly!" Neil cried. He threw his hands into the air. "We're on our way to the Underworld, and there's flowers sticking out of the walls! What kind of message is that?"

"... That everything's going to be okay?"

"Exactly!" Neil said again. "This is absolutely terrible. Herry, go yank that flower out."

Herry began to move towards the helpless plant, but Theresa stopped him. "Neil, don't be ridiculous. It's just a flower."

"'Just a flower'?" Neil echoed. "'Just a flower'? Theresa, that flower is going against every requirement for a proper quest. We should be battling demons and solving ancient riddles and rescuing treasure boxes which turn out to be empty because the whole lesson was in getting the stupid thing - not skipping down boring tunnels filled with flowers!"

"We're not skipping," Herry said.

"Herry, just sit down."

Theresa rolled her eyes. "Neil, if any demons popped out right now, we'd be the ones fighting them. You would do what you always do - hide behind the biggest thing you can find and wait for it to be over."

"I most certainly would not," Neil snapped. Theresa looked at him. "... Well, okay, but not on a quest like this."

"And this quest," Theresa said, "is different from all the other quests... how?"

"It's mine," he replied. "Of course I'd help."

She rolled her eyes again. "Neil, calm down. I'd thought you be happy to have an A to B type of 'adventure'. The only work this involves is walking around. With any luck, we'll be back by the end of the day."

"Luck?" Neil grit his teeth. "I see how it is. Whenever I go on my quests, everyone expects it to be the easiest thing in the world. You guys think I can't handle myself, don't you?"

"Neil, we didn't -"

"I'll prove I deserve as much credit as anyone else!" Neil began stomping down the tunnel. "As soon as something comes up, I'm handling it by myself!"

"Neil!" Theresa called after him. He ignored her, so she turned to Herry. "We better hurry and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

"Yeah," Herry said. "... Can I stand up now?"

"Yes, Herry," she sighed. "You can stand up."

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The ferry ride had been pleasant enough. Neil said it made up for Persephone's ring of trees around the tunnel's end, and so Herry and Theresa were spared from any more of his complaints. As Theresa lingered behind to pay Charon when they'd banked on the other side of the ride, Herry and Neil paced just in view of the great gate.

"This place hasn't changed much," Herry murmured. "It's as creepy as ever."

"Not creepy enough, though," Neil said. "Hopefully we run into zombies or something."

"Odie said there weren't any zombies down here," Herry said. "He told me that zombies only existed when they were out of the Underworld. Inside, they were just spirits like everything else."

"Yeah, well, what does Odie know?"

"... Everything."

"Besides that."

"Everything... else?"

Just as Neil was about to reply, Theresa strolled up. "Alright, boys. We're ready to go."

"Finally!" Neil said. "Maybe we'll actually come up against something dangerous."

"Yeah," said Theresa. "Wouldn't that be awesome?"

He missed the sarcasm. "See? Now you're beginning to understand."

The gate was swung open just enough for them to squeeze through. They paused for a moment, trying to gather their bearings, studying the familiar, barren landscape ("The proper kind of barren," Neil said.) that lay before them. They'd only been still for a moment, however, when a great thumping sound echoed in the distance. But it got louder and closer in seconds. Then, hardly having time to ask what was going on, a wave of rotten breath washed over them, and the mini-earthquakes that followed with the thumps knocked them to their feet. A mass of teeth jumped out at them, and three slimy tongues were dragged over them, almost crushing their faces.

"Hey," Herry said, laughing when he got a chance to breath. "Look who's here!"

"Ew! Ew-ew-ew!" There was a fierce thrashing between Neil and the tongue, but finally he managed to wriggle away. "Oh, wow - ew! I'm covered in immortal dog spit! Do any of you know where that tongue could have been?"

"Where else?" Theresa said, rolling away as well. "All over its immortal bum."

Neil shrieked.

"It's great to see you again, Cerberus!" Herry said. He didn't seem to mind that Cerberus had all three tongues pinned on him, the crazy dog fan. "Okay, okay! Let me up, will you?"

"Aww," Theresa said. "Look how cute Cerberus is when he plays. I should have brought my camera."

"This is so unfair! Even that stupid guard dog's friendly! We may as well go back to the tunnel and make a wreath of flowers for it." Neil scowled. He glared at the back of Herry's head, who was busy playing fetch with a bone he'd found in the sand. "I'm getting totally gypped."

"Neil, you know he only attacks when you try to leave," Theresa said.

"Then we're leaving through this door."

"Don't be stupid," Theresa told him. "We're going to use the gavel of Aeacus again. There's no way I'm going to let you put us into danger just so you can meet your 'requirements'."

Now he glared at her. "You're so selfish."

"Hey! Neil! Theresa!" Herry called. "I think we can ride on Cerberus' back to Achilles instead of having to walk. I mean, as long as we keep going in, he should be okay, right?"

"Oh, goodie," Neil growled. "Now we get to ride on that slobbery thing, thus taking away one of the few remaining obstacles we actually had. Great. Wonderful."

"Neil, relax," Theresa said. "Great job, Herry. Get out stuff onto his back, okay?" She looked over at Neil, who had one of the most miserable faces she'd seen. "Don't worry. I'm sure once we get to Achilles, there's bound to be some danger for you to get us out of, okay?"

He perked up a little at the thought of it. "Yeah, he's surrounded by the war, isn't he? Alright, that should make this a bit more challenging."

"And besides," Theresa added. "There's no showers around here. Do you really want to get all sweaty walking?"

"You've convinced me, dear Theresa. I shall ride atop that mangy beast." Neil wagged a finger at her. "But I swear, if I get off that thing smelling like it, there's gonna be Hell to pay."

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D/N: So, I think I've left myself at a pretty easy place to continue. This means a quick update. Hooray! Anyway, please rate my in-character-ness from 1-10. I took a couple of liberties, but hopefully I did alright.