Chapter 8: An S-Class Mission

Brain, guild master of the dark guild Oracion Seis, looked down at the large room that the observation bay he stood in overlooked. "How goes the experiment?" he asked one of the assistants nearby.

"We've implanted the lacrima. Project R.D.S. is officially functional. Now we just need to figure out how to use its power without killing it," a lackey reported.

"Yes, that will be difficult. Mind control is a kind of Lost Magic that I haven't quite worked out how to revive yet," Brain nodded, frowning to himself. "In any case, how are the preprogrammed attacks holding up?" he questioned.

"Observe," the second, more senior, of the two lackeys smiled, pressing a button. In the room beneath, a humanoid being, hidden in shadow, convulsed in pain as electricity surged through the chains binding it. Knowing what it had to do to make the pain stop, it unleashed a massive burst of grey energy, that swallowed up a nearby target dummy. When the energy cleared, the target was obliterated, without even ashes remaining.

Brain slowly clapped. "Very good," he smiled, nodding. "Now, how does it work on living beings?"

"We, ah, don't know, sir," the lackey shook his head. "Why not?" the master of the Oracion Seis asked.

"Because we don't have any appropriate test subjects for it to practise on," the scientist explained.

Brain seized him by the collar, before throwing him into the window. The glass broke, causing the unfortunate man to fall to the ground, a little way in front of the test subject.

"It looks to me like we have an appropriate subject now," Brain commented. The senior lackey nodded, pressing the button. Once more, electricity coursed through the chain, warning their occupant to fire once more, and it did, blasting a stream of grey energy at the unfortunate man. He screamed, a noise which which abruptly died with him, as when the second roar cleared, there was nothing left but a charred, black skeleton. Brain frowned. "There's still a skeleton left," he shook his head.

"We'll work on boosting its power further," the surviving lackey nodded.

"Good. See if you can get it to the point where there's merely a pile of ashes left of a living being. That will be good progress," Brain recommended, before turning to leave. "I'll be back to check on your progress next month. Don't disappoint me," he recommended, his gaze making it clear that if the other scientist failed, he would be joining his former colleague.

~P's E~

The Magic Council was a pain in the ass, Pierce reflected to himself as he staggered out of yet another (and hopefully his last) session of being interviewed by some big-nosed councilman.

Luckily for Tyria, no one in the Rune Knights made the connection between her and the bandit Shellshocker, who had been plaguing the roads around Crocus until a month ago. So she was off the hook as well, and fell into company with Pierce as he wandered back into town from the encampment the Council had set up outside Magnolia. "So, we're in the clear?" the wizard asked.

"Yep. I don't suppose you've seen Sarph?" the Tamer asked.

"Oh, that's right, you were going to go on that job with him. No, I haven't, but do you think he would mind if I came?" Tyria asked, but Pierce shook his head. "Sorry, but I don't think that Sarph would be happy with that. I've worked with him before, so he knows me and knows that I can handle whatever he has lined up. He wouldn't take me if he didn't. But you're a rookie, he's never met you, probably doesn't even know what kind of magic you use . . ." Pierce trailed off, and Tyria nodded. "Fair enough," she admitted.

Requipping his flute, Pierce played the tune to summon Kit, and the vulpine yokai emerged. "Good to see you're alright," he nodded to Pierce.

"Let's head into town, get back to the guild hall. It's not like we have much lines up until Sarph shows," Pierce suggested, and Tyria nodded.

Behind them, In the treeline along the road, a set of dark blue eyes, framed in a perfectly dimpled face, followed them. Fleur squinted, watching Pierce's every move.

"Why are we here?" another voice interrupted her, and she turned to glare at Totomaru. The fire wizard returned her glare with an impatient look, folding his arms. "We need to move on, Fleur. Phantom was disbanded by the Magic Council. Sol and Aria have already gone travelling in hopes that they can find a guild to accept them. Gajeel's off brooding somewhere, and I think Juvia plans to actually join Fairy Tail, assuming they'll accept her," the man narrated, tweaking his black-and-white hair impatiently. "I get that you have something in mind, but why are we stalking the guy who beat you up?"

Fleur rolled her eyes. She pulled up her shirt to reveal the empty patch of skin on her hip where the Phantom Lord guild mark had, until a few days ago, resided, and tapped it, before pointing to the Phoenix's Eye wizards.

"You want to put them on your chest? Did you learn Picto Magic while I wasn't looking or something?" Totomaru frowned in confusion.

The Petal Mage facepalmed, realising that she had never actually shown Totomaru where her guild mark was. Her friend, misinterpreting her actions, continued to cluelessly guess at their pseudo-game of charades. "You want them to beat you up again? Are you a masochist now?" he blinked.

Fleur sighed, beckoning, and continued to creep through the undergrowth. Her former guildmate, deciding that he didn't have much else to do, followed her.

Eventually, Pierce, Kit and Tyria, unaware of their pursuers, reached Phoenix's Eye. The guild hall was in good condition, though after the majority of its members took a few days off, their individual finances were running low. So there was a massive job rush, leaving the board and the hall virtually empty. There were a couple of elderly patrons nursing mugs of beer in the corners, but otherwise, the sole occupants were the two wizards and their yokai, and Sarah, manning the bar.

"No jobs," Tyria moaned, taking a seat at the bar.

"Give it time. I'm sure something will come up. In the meantime, want a drink?" Sarah kindly asked, carrying a platter of bottles containing various kinds of drinks to her. Tyria accepted a cola, and Pierce a bottle of lemonade.

Outside, Fleur began to sneak towards a window. When Totomaru realised that she was planning to watch the inside of the guild, he groaned. "Enough with this. I'm going to get a drink," he informed her. "I'd love a hot cocoa,"

Fleur waved, not really listening, doing her best to strain her ears to catch snatches of Pierce and Tyria's conversation (as Kit had vanished once more, as he usually did at meals) when Totomaru suddenly walked in through the main doors.

Pierce spotted him and frowned. Tyria followed suit as he sat at the table next to theirs with his back to them and waved Sarah over. "Would you mind getting me a mild ale?" he politely asked.

"I'm sorry, but I can only serve free drinks to members of the guild," Sarah apologetically shook her head, but the fire wizard nodded. "I know. I'm willing to pay," he nodded, patting his pocket.

Sarah paused, considering this, but nodded. "I suppose that's fine," she uncertainly shrugged, returning to the bar.

"May I ask why you're here?" Pierce frowned. "Weren't you with Phantom Lord?" His flute appeared in his hand.

"Relax, I'm not here to fight," Totomaru shook his head. "I'm sure you heard that Phantom Lord got disbanded?" he pointed out.

"Which could be why you'd come here looking for revenge," Tyria pointed out.

"It could also be that I've come here looking for work," Totomaru evenly replied. "I do, of course, understand that there will be bad feelings stirred up against me for my role in the inter-guild war. I would feel the same were the positions reversed, and if your master does not want me around, then I will accept her verdict. But, for the time being, at least, I want to see how this guild compares to Phantom Lord. I plan to make sure that I am satisfied with the guild before I ask if the guild is satisfied with me," he explained.

Sarah returned, carrying his drink. "That does make sense. And, really, you were just doing you job, right? Nothing personal?" she questioned, and Totomaru nodded. "Nothing personal,"

"I-ah can respect that attitude," a snide, throaty voice came from the entrance, and all four humans turned to look at the newcomer. Totomaru blinked, wondering if he was hallucinating. Tyria's jaw dropped. Pierce raised a surprised eyebrow, and Sarah nonchalantly waved, "Oh, hello Garrotte,"

"That's Garrotte?" Tyria asked in surprise, looking down at the newcomer as he approached their table.

"And don't you forget it," the short figure smirked, walking past them and taking a seat at the far side of their table. "So, I-ah hear there's a party I-ah missed. Mind filling me in on the details?" Garrotte questioned, a notable southern accent in his voice.

"Sure," Pierce nodded, beginning to recap the events surrounding the Phantom Lord attack. As he did, Totomaru curiously leant over to Tyria. "Am I hallucinating, or is your friend talking to a yellow cat wearing a cowboy hat?" he asked.

"I'm just as confused as you are," the dark-skinned wizard admitted.

Garrotte was a (comparatively tall), yellow cat, with a short, twitchy tail and a large brown fedora hiding his ears. A loop of what looked suspiciously like barbed wire hung off his back, and he wore brown leather cowboy boots, complete with spurs on the bottom. "Y'all aren't taking me seriously, are you?" he frowned, looking at the other two and interrupting Pierce. "Maybe it would help if I-ah did this," he smirked, and with a poof of smoke, transformed.

Totomaru's lips formed a tiny hole as he took in the cat, who had suddenly grown to about seven times his previous size, and swollen with muscles that would make most men cry.

"There's a reason I-ah am one of Phoenix's Eye's S-Class wizards," Garrotte grinned, baring his teeth. "And it ain't my stylin' hat,"

"Don't get too over-awed," Pierce warned Tyria. "Yes, he's S-Class, but as the guild's S-Class wizards stack up against each other, Garrotte's the weakest of the lot," he explained.

"I-ah am still more S-Class than you, beast boy," Garrotte huffed, shrinking back to his normal form.

"How do the S-Classes all stack up?" Tyria asked, curious.

Pierce considered this for a second. "Well, Garrotte over there's on the bottom. Above him is Sarph, who you know. The Power Twins, who you met last week, are about on the same level as him individually, but together they outclass him, and their combined power is on the same level as the guild's third-strongest member, Bleeding-Vein Artorias,"

"What's he like?" Tyria asked.

"He's alright, but kind of distant. Also, whatever you do, don't mention him to Sarph. In addition to being third-strongest, Artorias is also the youngest S-Class wizard. And it kind of rankles with Sarph that someone who's ten years younger than him is twice as powerful as him," Pierce explained with a wry smile.

"Makes sense," Tyria nodded. "And the two most powerful?"

Pierce shivered. "They're both incredibly powerful, and they've never gone head to head, so no one's sure who gets the top spot. Master Feng is one of them. She technically doesn't count, being the guild master, but no one's going to argue that she could take any other wizard in the guild. And the other . . . well, I'm glad she almost never comes by the guild hall. She terrifies me, and I really don't want to talk about her," he admitted.

"I see," Tyria gulped.

"Oh, Sarph? He should be here any minute," Garrotte commented. "I-ah saw him on my way into town, he was stocking up for a job by the looks of things,"

As if on cue, Sarph burst into the guild hall, dragging a gold-black-clad body with silver hair behind him. "I found this skulking around the windows, trying to spy," he frowned, holding up Fleur.

Totomaru rolled his eyes. "Would you mind putting her back? The entire exercise of letting her work up the nerve to actually enter the building is redundant if you force her inside,"

The knight blinked. "Oh - sorry," he sheepishly admitted, turning to leave and return Fleur to her vantage point.

"Oh, just bring her in," Pierce groaned. "I take it she's with you?" he irritably asked Totomaru, who nodded. "She's also mute, so don't take it as rudeness if she doesn't talk," he quickly explained. Fleur nodded, a cross look on her face as Sarph unceremoniously dumped her in the chair next to Totomaru, before sitting on the opposite side of Pierce from Tyria. He hefted a bag that looked to be filled with supplies. "So, ready to go, Pierce?" he cheerfully asked.

The Tamer nodded. "Whenever you're ready," He turned to Sarah. "I trust you can handle these two?" he asked, gesturing to Totomaru and Fleur. "I'll take care of it," she nodded.

"Nice to see you again, by the way," Pierce threw Fleur a smile as he rose to his feet. Sarph followed suit, lifting the bag with him. "To the train station!" he declared. Tyria waved goodbye, as did Sarah, as the two boys left. The former Phantom Lord wizards watched them go, as did Garrotte. "So, where's he going?" the cat asked.

"On an S-Class job. Something about destroying a dark guild who's trying to use illegal magic to create some new kind of monster. Sarph could handle it by himself, but Pierce always wants to come along on missions involving monsters and beasts in the hope that he can tame them," Tyria briefly explained with a shrug. Her short locks of blue hair shook around her shoulders.

"Yep, that sounds right," Garrotte shrugged.

"Is it just gonna be the two of us and my beasts?" Pearce asked as they left the guild hall.

"Nah. Hare's probably gonna tag along too, because she insists. But we won't wait for her," Sarph smirked.

~P's E~

Unfortunately, Hare had predicted that the golden wizard would attempt to leave her behind, and was already waiting at the train station. Ergo, the two males were subjected to three hours of watching the kimono-clad woman brood. "Why can't this train be greener?" she huffed, glaring at the red upholstery and blue paint.

"You want it to be more eco-friendly?" Sarge tried, oblivious to Pierce's shaking his head. "I agree, the tracks can provide a hazard to careless wildlife, perhaps fences should be installed to ensure that -"

"I don't give a crap about the environment. I just hate red. And blue," she added, glowering at Pierce's appropriately coloured shirt. "What's wrong with my shirt?" he defensively protested.

"It's worn out, smelly and a little bit ripped," Kit helpfully piped up from the armrest. "Gee, thanks,"

~P's E~

It was twilight by the time that the three wizards were crouched on a hill in the forest, overlooking the stronghold belonging to the dark guild of Crypt's Spawn. It was a tall building, in the shape of a semicircle, propped on its side and supported by a network of struts. It bulged with an assortment of square blocks of rooms, grey, purple and navy blue seemingly randomly piled onto the basic frame wherever they would fit.

"Ugly thing," Hare snorted.

"Hard to attack, too. Limited number of entrances from the ground, you can't approach from the air without being seen, and they no doubt have anti-air defences,"

"Oh, that's not a problem," Pierce brushed the idea of being shot down away. "I have a friend that can handle anything that shoots at us. Problem is, she can only carry one,"

"I can fly, and I can lift Hare," Sarph reminded his younger accomplice.

"So, the plan is to go for the top and work our way down," Hare summarised.

Sarph grinned. "It makes perfect sense. Towers are designed so that the occupants can retreat upwards from people attacking on the ground. Whoever's above has the advantage,"

"And by going for the top and working out way down, we turn their advantage against them," Pierce grinned. "Genius,"

"Convenient," Sarph corrected him. "You may as well summon your firebird now. Waiting for cover of night will give us no advantage with her flaming wings lighting up the sky,"

Pierce blinked. "You think I meant Raya? Oh, no no. I have someone else in mind for this situation," he grinned. "And we will want to wait for cover of night for her,"

"You tamed a new flying beast?" Sarph asked with interest. "When?"

"Almost four months ago. You should swing by the guild hall more often, your information might be more up to date," Pierce commented with a chuckle.

"Forgive me for being S-Class," Sarph snidely replied. "But by all means, summon this new beast,"

The Beast Tamer Requipped his flute and played a fast, zippy tune, punctuated by short, high-pitched notes. The typical black portal opened at the end of the flute, and expelled a large, heaving black mass, punctuated by thin stripes of yellow. Large, webbed, glassy wings burst outwards and fluttered, allowing the Beast to rise to her feet, a large, swollen abdomen trailing behind her. She yawned, stretching four black arms, each with three digits on the end, though, oddly, the upper pair were a lot wider than the lower pair, and turned to look at the three wizards, revealing a surprisingly human face. If not for the black fur on her face, multifaceted, red, insectoid eyes, and mandibles around her mouth, she could have passed for human.

"This is Victoria," Pierce introduced his friend, who shot only a passing glance at Sarph and instead focused on Hare. "I take it you heard the plan?" he asked the black humanoid bee.

"Yezzzz," she nodded. Her wings twitched impatiently. "Did you zzzzummon me here juzzzzt to wait?" she irritably asked.

"It probably won't be long," Pierce defended himself. "Besides, did you have anything better to do?"

The queen bee folded her arms. All four of them. "Well, no, but that'zzzz not the point," she snorted. "I azzzzume that your plan is for me to uzzzze my dronezzzz to take any hitzzzz that are fired at uzzzz?"

"Pretty much," Pierce nodded.

"Then I'll get on that," she nodded. Her abdomen twitched and shivered in a very disconcerting way, and Hare suddenly looked a little bit nauseous.

"And now we wait," Sarph shrugged, bringing up his Archive screens in front of him. Pierce settled down against a mossy rock for a nice nap, and Hare took a seat nearby.

Bored, Victoria settled down next to her, watching her carefully. The black-haired Speed wizard shifted away.

With a smile tugging at her lip, Victoria shifted closer, her abdomen trailing behind her.

Hare shifted further down the log again, and the bee followed. The wizard shifted one more time - and abruptly ran out of log, falling to the ground in a heap. Victoria chuckled. "I thought you seemed familiar,"

"What are you talking about? I've never seen you before in my life," Hare huffed.

"Oh, I don't mean you specifically. I mean, you remind me of me. When I was human," Victoria shrugged.

Hare paused, processing this. "What?"

The black bee chuckled. "Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, there was a woman, a lot like you, who was by far the most beautiful, attractive person in her village. Everyone wanted her, and she knew it. She thought it made her better than everyone else, that it made her too good to even talk to her peers," she began.

"I'm not that bad, I talk," Hare frowned.

"I didn't say that," Victoria shrugged. "One day, she hears a story about a magical honey that enhances the beauty of anyone who drinks it, which can only be found high in the mountains. She, of course, thought that she deserved to have this beauty-enhancing honey, so she packs a bag and sets out to hike to the top of the mountain to find this honey. After a long trip, she finally finds this magic honey, so what does she do? She drinks it. As much of it as she can. And it doesn't enhance her beauty at all. Instead, it turns her into a horrifying monster," Victoria shivered, confirming Hare's suspicions that the girl was talking about herself. "So she returns home, hoping that someone can help her. But what does she find? No one wants to. She spent so much of her life rebutting everyone around her and not making friends with anyone that no one likes her or cares about her enough to even try to fix her. She gets run out of town, exiled into the wilderness, and no matter how many times she tries to go home, she just gets kicked out again because no one wants her around. Eventually, she becomes such a bother to the town that they file a request for a wizard from a guild to come and deal with her," Victoria shook her head.

"I'm not stupid. I know you're talking about yourself, and I know that the wizard who was hired to get rid of you was Pierce," Hare pointed out. "What I don't see is how exactly this relates to me,"

"Because you act the same way that I did. Like you're better than everyone else. Maybe it's not by way of beauty, but that kind of attitude is just going to land you in trouble," the bee girl pointed out. "I mean, look at me now. Living inside a magic flute with only a promiscuous mermaid for company,"

"Which means that as long as I don't eat any cursed honey, I'm not going to end up like you," Hare reasoned.

"Well, maybe for you it wouldn't be beauty. What if you were to hear about, say, enchanted ice that increases the magic power of anyone who consumes it?" Victoria suggested. "Everyone would be fine and dandy until you turn into a blizzardvern,"

Hare opened her mouth to rebuff this point, but paused. That was actually worryingly feasible. It was the kind of thing she'd do. "Okay, I see your point," she nodded.

"Good," Victoria nodded, and the two lapsed into silence.

Hare suddenly realised something. "Wait. Before, when you were talking to Pierce, you were doing a weird buzz thing with your words. Why have you stopped that?"

Victoria chuckled. "Oh, I don't have to buzz my wordzzzz. I juzzzzt do it to annoy Pierzzzze," she slyly smiled, gleefully clasping her lower pair of hands together and patting her abdomen, which looked a little bigger than it had before, with one of her upper hands. "And don't tell him, or I will sting you so bad you'll wish your ass would fall off,"

Hare gulped. "Duly noted,"

~P's E~

Tyria continued to sit at the table, eating her lunch and occasionally exchanging a word with the former Phantoms, but it was clear that she didn't enjoy their company. So she was quite glad to see Blanca, with Eve in tow, show up at the entrance. The Plasticmake wizard grinned, rushing over to her. "Tyria! Great, I hoped we'd find you here!"

"Who, me? Why?" the dark-skinned wizard blinked in surprise.

"Because we wanted someone to come with us on this job," the pink-eyed wizard grinned. "I mean, I know I'm awesome enough to do it by myself, but Eve would feel better if we took a third wizard with us,"

"And you want me? Why?"

"Well, you're you. You're cool, you know both of us, and you're definitely not the only wizard left in town, so stop suggesting that. That's crazy-talk," Blanca 'explained'.

"Gee, thanks," Tyria raised her eyebrows in exasperation. "But sure, I'll come. What's the job?"

"Breaking the curse on an old mansion in Oreburgh," Blanca explained. "Should be a piece of cake. Let's go!" With that, she grabbed Tyria with the hand that wasn't already dragging Eve and pulled Tyria along with her, dragging her two captive comrades with her.

Totomaru and Fleur looked at each other, to gauge the other' opinion on the events they had just witnessed. "This is certainly a lively place, huh?" the fire wizard commented.

Fleur nodded empathetically.

~P's E~

"Welcome back to DK's Ds!" Kit grinned. "Today, we're gonna be discussing my roommates, the other beings that Pierce has tamed and live inside his flute!"

"You all, of course, know me, the adorable, charismatic fox yokai," he grinned, pointing to a picture of himself.

"Then there's Raya, the phoenix. She's Pierce's oldest friend, and she's been with him longer than anyone else, since even before he learnt Tamer magic. Unfortunately, she doesn't like to talk about her past, so I don't actually have much to say about her," Kit explained, showing a large cartoonish picture of a firebird.

"Crystal, the mermaid. She's a little bit unique in that, unlike most of the rest of us, she actively sought Pierce out and joined him so that she could have a life of adventure. No sad backstory, no history, just boredom. Also, you may have noticed that in spite of being a mermaid, she has legs. That's because mermaids have legs for as long as they're dry, but if they get even a splash of water on them, their legs morph back into a fish tail,"

"There's already been plenty of exposition on Victoria this chapter, so I won't rehash all that. I just wish the author would tell me when he changes his designs mid-chapter," Kit frowned at a picture of a giant bee wearing a crown on the blackboard.

"Next on the list is Inky. But, again, you all already know how Pierce rescued and hatched a kraken egg, so I'm not going into that again," the yokai rolled his eyes.

"After that is Knox, the werewolf. Now, he's a little more interesting, because, like Victoria, he used to be human," Kit explained, gesturing at a diagram consisting of a bad drawing of a human and a cartoonish version of Knox with an arrow pointing from man to wolf. "In the land of Fiore, lycanthropy is a magical disease, transmitted when a werewolf bites a human. However, after that's happened, the victim will remain as a human until the next full moon, at which point they will permanently transform into a wolf. If the victim receives the cure before their transformation, then they will not transform and be permanently immune to lycanthropy. To avoid this, werewolves have learnt to only try to infect people on nights of the full moon, so that the transformation will be immediate and there will be no chance for a cure," Kit explained.

"Knox was one such victim. He was ganged up on, attacked, and forced into the pack. He spent a few months living this way and hating every second, until Pierce came along and provided an alternative that he leapt at. Ever since, he's been Pierce's go-to for ground transportation and battles during the night," Kit told the waiting camera.

"I do believe that's it! Goodnight!"

A/N

A/N

So, welcome to the Crypt's Spawn arc! (Also known as the 'what our heroes were doing while Team Natsu were off messing around at the Tower of Heaven' arc.) I am also going to be adding an intermission to this arc in which we see Tyria going on a job with Eve and Blanca, just so that I can explained on their characters a bit.

That's right! Garrotte is an Exceed! Psyche! ;p

Not that he knows that. This is pre-Edolas arc (another one that I'll probably have to mostly skip over, due to the lack of Dragon Slayers). Plus, there were, like, a hundred Exceed eggs sent to Earthland six years ago. It's totally reasonable that one of them ends up in Phoenix's Eye. Frankly, I'm surprised that we don't see more Exceeds in canon.

Anyway, the facility that Sarph and Pierce (and Hare) are attacking is designed to be a mirror image of the one seen in canon where Ultear was taken. So imagine that, except facing left, not right.

So, that's out of the way. Peace!