An underworlder is not known for their patience, let alone their compassion. They are better known for being like the cold stone, poisonous swamps and lava filled pits that made up their home. There were acceptations to this, but she wasn't one of them.

She wasn't some soft lowly peasant class underworlder. She was Chaor's second in command, and she didn't get there without a fight.

Though the cold up here on Glacier plains, she had felt something like it before at Ice pillar. She didn't care for it. her inner fire which fueled her fire attacks kept it at bay to a bearable temperature. But this freeze, it felt like it penetrated to her bones, like it forced her fire away from her very core. She was finding it harder and harder to stay up in the air.

Angry golden eyes scanned the ground as another icy wind carrying snow shipped past her, she shivered subconsciously and forced her wings to stay open, "Where are you? I know you're here little creature."

She strained her ears again, listening past her own beating wings for that faint sound. Like a moaning whisper.

Faintly she could hear it, just like before, {…re…}

She altered her course hearing a sharp shout ahead of her, golden eyes snapped up to see a pair of dark feather wings in the distance. Faltering in the unpredictable winds.

Another creature out here? an Overworlder? No, she didn't know of any with black wings. Still didn't hurt to be cautious. She set her wings to climb into the sun, after all the best sudden attacks were the ones from above.

***8***

Raven's wings carried her against the wind with little trouble, her eyes bright with determination. Kaz shivering against the wind whipping past his reddening face this high up, his head swimming from the height and an unknown emotion looming over him.

He knew Raven wanted to go home, but until now she hadn't shown any real urgency about it. in fact he was sure she was reluctant about it until he had told her about White Face.

He glanced at the cloak in his hands, a tingling feeling sent warmth through his hands the more tightly he gripped it. should he have kept quiet about the fox creature? Would she really be willing to help Raven in any way? No, somehow he doubted it. that White Face didn't seem like she would trust just anyone.

True when he had met her with Tom she had been generous with a scan of the cloak, but when she had asked him about where Raven was…when she had looked at him that way…

He shivered, pulling the green cloth closer to him as he sneezed. Raven gave a slight jolt in surprise, causing Kaz to have a new reason to think doing this might've been a bad idea.

"Are you alright?"

Kaz forced a smile, gripping his arm around her a little tighter, "Just a little colder up here than I thought it would be."

Raven considered this and veered into another current, Kaz marveled as the wind rushing them lessened greatly.

"Sorry, flying into the wind can give you a better updraft." The girl explained. Kaz vaguely recalled something like that mentioned in his science class, he made a mental note to look it up again later. Maybe something there could help when he played as a winged creature.

As Raven started off again, Kaz noticed something, a flicker of black. Suddenly his mind wasn't thinking like it was in Perim, he was in the air, at Glacier plains, in Chaotic. He was a flying creature, and his opponent had switched to a new attacking creature. Kaz automatically started looking about, every direction.

If I were attacking the best place for an ambush in the air would be…. His heart hammered as he glanced up, seeing a solid shape halting high above them, obviously ready to dive for the attack.

In a frenzy he grabbed for Raven's wing pulling her off course to veer sharply to the right, yelling at the top of his lungs, "LOOK OUT!"

Raven barely had any time to recover before a fireball whooshed by her, singeing one of her primal feathers. Her heart began to pound as her confused frustration turned to panic. Flapping her wings sharply her mind raced with the same fear from that first night when she was attacked out of nowhere, her arms clutching Kaz more tightly, yelling for him to hold on as she made a dive for the ground and the swirling snow.

Kaz felt his stomach drop when her wings folded, a dull roar filling his ears as wind rushed past them that much faster. Eyes watering in the cold as he tried to get a good look at their attacker. He almost felt relieved as he recognized that bat winged, orange skinned, fire eyed underworlder. But…what was she doing so far out this way? In overworld territory?

At first he considered the idea of talking to the underworlder, but another passing fireball changed his mind. Having played as her and met her in person before he knew for a fact that once she decided to attack someone it took a lot to change her mind long enough to listen. The only exception to this was probably Chaor himself.

A passing attack and a jolting veer reinforced this in his mind.

Ok this is bad, Kaz thought to himself, reaching for his scanner and shouting to Raven over the wind, "Can you land for a minute?"

Raven nodded once, folding her wings for a drop.

"Skeletal strike!"

Raven screamed in terror, dropping like a stone as a green fire skeleton latched onto her. gripping one of her wings and grasping at her. Kaz fumbled with the device in his pocket, fearful of dropping it should he take it out and using only memory to flip through his scans. He didn't care where they ported to, they had to get out of here, that was all that mattered.

Sadly his finger never touched the button to port, in the struggle a bony limb knocked his arm causing him to loose precious seconds as the ground rushed up to meet them.

***8***

Takinom watched as her target fell out of the sky, shivering as the air around her seemed to get suddenly colder.

{replace…must…replace…}

Golden eyes narrowed as she turned her attention to find the source of the voice. But the wind made it difficult, it sounded almost like it was coming from everywhere at once.

"Raven? Raven are you alright?"

Takinom's eyes snapped back to the fallen creature. or rather, creatures. Folding her wings, she allowed gravity to carry her down.

The second creature, someone wearing a human's coat and hood, flinched as she landed near them. The crow winged creature whimpered at the sight of her, clinging to the second one in fear.

Takinom gave a cold smile. Fear, one of the most unusual emotions she had ever encountered. It caused the weak to bow to the strong, and yet could cause for some creatures to fight back with an anger fueled drive they didn't know they had before. she had seen it, used it , often enough that she recognized when a creature would choose to fight back or continue to cringe before her. with this one it was obvious the later would be true. The first one however…

She stopped in her tracks as she got a good look at his face, her eyes narrowing in angered confusion as she recognized him, this was the human boy who admired Lord Chaor.

The winged girl clung to Kaz in fear as Takinom spoke, "Kaz? Who is that with you?"

Despite her asking she had a vague idea, she had heard him use the creature's name after all.

Kaz gulped standing to his feet and smiling nervously, "Hey Takinom, Er, this Is Raven. She's a friend of mine."

"From the overworld? Or one of Von Blume's maybe." a flame building in her clawed hand again.

Kaz raised his hands shaking his head, "No, No She's not with anybody, she's here with me. Besides….um, what…are…you doing here? so far in Overworld Territory…that is…?"

{Replace…must replace…}

Raven shrieked, wrapping her arms around Kaz tightly. The boy suddenly going red in the face as he tried to calm her down.

Takinom turned towards the sound, the air around them growing that much colder, she shifted her wings finding they had begun to be covered in a thin layer of frost, "So there is one here."

Kaz perked his head up at that, one here to? Surely she didn't mean…But then…that hollow sounding voice was unmistakable. The formless shape came slithering up the hill, the eyes on this one shined bright blue, rising on a twisting mass like a snake's neck.

{Replace…breaking…must…replace…}

Takinom turned to face the creature, explaining her situation in a low voice for Kaz and Raven to hear, "We've been hearing rumors of creatures like this for a few solens now, Lord Chaor thought that maybe we could convince these creatures to join our tribe. After hearing about one in Glacier plains from a Player, I was sent to negotiate or destroy the creature if necessary."

The neck wobbled allowing two bright blue eyes to stare right at her, the ground beneath it began to bubble and pitch. Raven tugged at Kaz even harder, her voice barely audible as she shivered. Takinom took a step forward, steam hissing under her feet. The creature's head turned away from her.

{Where…? Something…we must….Replace…?}

Kaz pulled out his scanner, taking one step back, "I think we should get out now."

That's what he wanted to say, but as soon as he had taken that one step back, a frozen version of hell broke loose.

The creature screamed in a voice that sent icy chills up and down the human's spine; Takinom attacked, iron balls materializing from her eyes and shooting right into the blob, but it didn't even flinch as it slithered forward in Kaz's direction. Raven screamed taking off at a run as Kaz pulled her along, the snow beneath their feet reaching up as if of its own accord.

The creature screamed again, {REPLACE THEM! IT'S BREAKING!}

Takinom jumped into the air, the frozen ground beneath rippling as the creature speed forward…completely ignoring her. Takinom watched in confusion as the expected attack never came and the thing speed off right towards one human boy and his winged companion.

"Raven, Fly!" Kaz shouted turning to run for it. the winged girl didn't hesitate to do so, leaping high into the air, already circling back to scoop him up. Kaz however soon found the once frozen ground was a lot harder to move in, almost as if part of it had returned to powder.

{REPLACE…MUST REPLACE…BREAKING…REPLACE…}

The temperature around him felt as if it had suddenly dropped the closer the blue eyed mass came. he could feel ice forming on the back of his jacket as he ran as fast as he could through deep white. Cold hands fumbling with the controls on his scanner; but luck isn't always on one's side.

"Your opponent is me you blob!" Takinom shouted, throwing an explosive attack that knocked Kaz off his feet, burying the creature in snow.

The red haired boy shook off the ringing in his ears, struggling to stand back on top of the powder white snow.

{REPLACE…}

Kaz's heart nearly stopped as a tentacle, followed by a blobby pair of eyes came slithering out of the snow in front of him, the air around him so cold it almost hurt to breathe. The shapeless mass reached out for him splitting into appendages like a boneless hand. He suddenly found his head starting to spin.

{Re...}

CRACK! Kaz only knew that in the next moment four things happened before he blacked out, the ground started cracking, Takinom threw a fire ball, and Raven screamed as the ground suddenly fell out from under him.

***8***

Raven didn't think when she saw that huge hole open up, she didn't think about that thing that fell in with him or the fire throwing beast that was in the sky with her, all she knew was she needed to get down there and do something.

She landed, eyes searching wildly in the heaps of snow, calling the boy's name. the orange bat woman landed near her, looking about with a snort.

"Looks like a sinkhole. My attack must've opened it up."

Raven was barely listening as her gaze fell on a dark blue shape half buried among the white, in a rush she sped over and began pulling the still shape of a red haired boy out.

"Kaz, wake up! Say something please."

Kaz shivered blinking with a groan, "Is that thing still…?"

{REPLACE…}

Kaz sat up with a start, Raven's grip around him became tighter with fear. Takinom became a hissing rage as a blue eyed mass began wrapping itself around her, it's eyes glowing intently as a mass of steam formed around them.

Takinom writhed in pain, her whole body becoming covered in a sheet of ice.

"Get off…of me…" She gasped.

Raven got to her feet, her whole body shaking as she reached for Kaz's scanner, "We need to leave, now."

Kaz didn't take his eyes off of what was happening, Raven was about to shake him to get his attention when he got to his feet and started yelling.

"Hey you big blob, over here!"

The blue eyes looked at him, narrowing, the voice a low hiss among the steam, {Breaking….so loud…we must….replace…}

Kaz nodded, his hand squeezing Raven's tightly. Takinom's gasping subsided as the mass visibly began to loosen its grip.

"Ever hear of an Airport?" He muttered under his breath. Raven nodded, her wings slowly relaxing.

The creature slithered off of it's captive, slowly coming closer again. Takinom fell gasping for breath, eyes burning in anger towards the thing, masses of ice falling from her shivering body.

The creature was right in front of them now still whispering about replacement, it reached up a tentacle of a hand, blue glowing eyes locking with that of brown behind red glasses.

"NOW!" Kaz shouted.

Raven grasped Kaz's middle, both she and Takinom taking to the air, the underworlder getting high as possible and soon flying out of sight. The black winged girl however, having expected to have disappeared in a flash of code found herself jolted.

Kaz screamed out in pain, Raven looked down, her heart sinking to her stomach at the sight. The creature had reacted faster than they thought it could, part of its body wrapped tightly around his leg and he scanner had fallen from his grip into the sink hole below.

Raven panicked, flapping her wings harder and screaming.

The creature didn't let go, it began creeping up even more, it's whispering getting louder, {replace…breaking…must…}

A blue of something black came rushing out of the ground, piercing the blob's tentacle, forcing it to let go. Raven found herself shoot upwards, she felt Kaz going limp in her grasp.

"Kaz…"

"Yo!" Raven startled as a singed white faced fox standing on a black mass smiled at her, holding up a red device, " can't stay up here for long. Think he can get us out of here?"

The black winged girl didn't answer, she grabbed the scanner and placed Kaz's hands around it, "Kaz, Press the button. We need to get out of here now."

Kaz blinked, slowly wrapping his hands around the device. The creature below screaming out shrilly. The white faced fox reached to grasp at Raven's jacket as the button was pressed and the three of them vanished in a flash of blue code.

Ren: (wrapped in heavy blanket by fireplace) ACHOO!

Hova: (shaking her head) guess I should've finished the chapter sooner. though I have to admit it turned out to be a pretty cool edition didn't it?

Ren: :(

Hova: ^ ^ Too soon? (ducks a shadow and runs out the door) guess so. no interviews this time around, if any of you have a suggestion or a question you'd like answered please leave it in the review. In the meantime...

Ren through door: ACHOOO! Hova, can you get me some warm cider?

Hova: I'll be right there. (muttering) At least I wont loose track of her this time.