Correct!  Awkwardness is like one of those dungeon monsters that can only hurt you if you're scared of it.  He embraces the pair of them, and is so deeply appreciative of all the DRT support staff who refuse to acknowledge the interaction as anything more than just another day at the office.

Misha follows Aumento's gaze toward the various staff busily flitting about like bees. It is really strange how they do this kind of thing out in the open in the West. Not exactly bothersome, though, in this state, with this much guiding. He thinks about them for the first time since he arrived, and wonders what they might be thinking. In all probability, they are too focused on their tasks to bother much with anything else. Do they also hug each other, when it's over?

His arm brushes Graviton's and he flinches it lower, where the pinky brushes Aumento's waistband, and he feels a twinge of remorse for the implied rejection, even though it was just surprise. He moves his hand back to the original position, which is, technically, more efficient for guiding on account of the greater contact. "Graviton," he says uncertainly, "is you getting enough, for moment? Shirtless Wonder is very popular. May need to do reservations like restaurant."

She snickers at the 'reservations' comment "I'll be alright. I don't think I got as backlashed as either of you. We can take a longer break later."

Okay.  Two of them means he's not just focused on Misha and.  Oh.  That's a hand position alright.  Eep.  Well, if he rests his hand over Misha's, maybe that won't happen again.  "I, uh."  aaaaaaaa "Didn't get very backlashed until the end.  Even then it was - fine.  Maybe a few more minutes and then we can go again?  You're alright, M-Misha?"

“I’m fine, I’m fine! Keep your shirt on—oh, right.” Thank you, random internet stranger on the Call of Duty message boards, for teaching me that English idiom. It just keeps paying dividends. “Is never bad idea to have less backlash, but I survive like this.”

"Well if you're sure, a few minutes it is."

A few minutes of guiding later, Aumento's got his backlash down to basically nothing, Graviton's backlash is gone, and Strawberry's backlash is, and I quote, "No worries about me!"  Our intrepid party is ready to travel forth once more.

It takes Tim a few tries to psych himself up enough to ask, but ask he does.  He's an aspiring professional, and mobile guiding is the tactically correct move.  His feelings about it are irrelevant, given that they're not sufficient to cause an operational constraint.  "Um.  Misha, would you like to.  Guide along the way?"  It turns out that he is, in fact, capable of shyly dangling a hand near a coworker.

He cocks an eyebrow at the question, and then looks down. “Oh, just a hand?” He laughs and shakes his head as he grabs the proffered limb, lacing the fingers together. “Is hardly—Yes, yes, we can hold hands. Give me strong hand and Graviton other hand. Then you disconnect from me to draw gun when you two do your fish-in-barrel stunt, yeah?”

Quick nod.  "Usually, it's not worth the extra second to draw, but, well.  We kinda lucked out today."

"Pinning things down to be shot isn't as flashy as crushing them outright but it conserves backlash."

"Yeah, I don't mind it at all.  Your power's a great match for me in that respect.  I've only had superpowers a little while, but I've been hunting all my life."  As soon as I figure out something nice and true about Misha's power, I'll say it.

"I do a lot of accompanying DRT squads in C or B ranks with fast monsters. Turns it into a cakewalk and that way I have lots of people to watch out for me."

"Yeah, same.  My power takes a little getting used to for more than just split-second stuff, so I've got a dedicated DRT team.  Although I'm used to being the one watching out, since I need to ramp up my power on someone if they run into trouble."

Tim will lead his little trio toward the portal as they chitchat.  With the double handholding, he can afford a little bonus power use.  Not enough to make anyone have a wardrobe incident, just enough to take the edge off anything that might occur.

"I like it! Is good, uh, what is word for синергия—cooperate by for stuffy rich businessman. And I am here for all the other stuff." He hums happily. It's hard to be annoyed at being the emergency backup when they're doing a Wizard of Oz thing, holding hands and being chummy.

"Collaborate, maybe?"  They're approaching portalside, now.  "Let's figure out a plan for this one first, please.  How do we want to do this next run?"

Ech, plans. "We are still finish the rescuing before solving mystery of dungeon being dungeon, yeah? Or is dee-arr-tee handle that?"

"Standard operating procedure is to focus on mapping the place and getting the victims out first."

"If you think you can figure something out, we can take that into consideration?  But I'm here to save people, pop cores, and kill monsters, in that order."

"Is very sweet." Honestly, the clarity is nice! Russian esper teams usually put pop core at the top, and leave the victims to the unenhanced squads. This is useful information to know.

It is also cute. He remembers being young and idealistic once. "Okay, American rules, then. Rescue first, then dungeon mystery time."

"Alright.  I'm...not sure how we feel about grouping the vics up like that, since it exposes them to monster attack?  Do we want to grab a group of three to four and then walk 'em out, assuming the monster attacks aren't too bad?"  How come I keep getting put in a position to call shots, I've just been doing this for a few months?  He glances towards Graviton.  He's been doing this longer, but.  He's...well.  He sure is something alright.  Maybe if he were do NOT finish that thought, Tim.

"Walking the victims out in groups means fewer trips overall, and we've got good protective coverage so..."

"And you have me if things go wrong. But you two are good! I think I will have nice stroll in freaky dungeon."

"Happy to have you as backstop, Misha."  There, that's true and nice!  Cool.  Great.  Okay, portal.  Time for the second run!

According to the dungeon phone app, the next-nearest cluster of victims is over near the peanut brittle forest.  Two vics have linked linked up, and there's a third at the slopes of the crystallized sugar mountain.