AN: Going into a new arc here. This one and the arc after is where things start really coming together. Also, taking some liberties with character outfits. Not too much a fan of the early level outfits you can get, so I'm just making what I want. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, elements, or borrowed plot ideas from any source I acquire them from, specifically KingsIsle. I merely own any original characters I create.

"Blah" = talking

"Blah" = thoughts, writing, sound effects, or flashbacks

"BLAH"= Yelling

"Are you in position?"

Sasha Gryphonbane's rolled down to the amulet around her neck. Her face twisted into a grimace at the mere sound of the voice emanating from it, dark and raspy. Like a snake. A fitting comparison, she mused. Eventually, she brought the amulet's head to her mouth and spoke into it, keeping her face as concealed as her hooded cloak would allow whilst moving through traffic in the market district. "Almost. I'll be there within the minute."

"Good. You know what to do when you arrive."

"Your diversion better be a good one." She noticed quite a few eyes on her as she moved through the crowded streets, particularly from curious guardsman standing off to the sides. Her face was suspiciously concealed, she could admit, but hoods weren't the most uncommon style of clothing in Wizard City. That she also walked and acted like she had nothing to hide must have been enough to persuade them away. Still, she didn't like this many guards around. "Market's crawling with security."

"Keep focus on your objective, and let me handle mine. Contact me when you're in."

Communication cut off immediately, and she let a bitter sigh escape her mouth. Moments later, her feet stopped at an intersection. As her eyes turned to the left, she spied a large open tunnel, the ends of its raised wrought iron gate sticking out from the top. She began towards it, pulling her cloak tighter around her.

She'd only hoped that she'd brought enough to brace against the unforgiving cold of Colossus Boulevard.

EXSEED

Fourteenth Pip: Hunger

"Why does it have to be so cold?" Victoria managed to get out between the perpetual chattering of her teeth, hunching down as another blast of wind rammed against her coat. "What good does this accomplish?"

"I don't know." Tala shrugged. To his credit, she noticed he didn't seem at all fazed by the extreme temperatures, even though his yellow jacket was as thin as hers. "It does seem kind of strange. Now that you mention it."

"I'll just be glad to get out of this." The girl replied, now rubbing her mitten-covered hands to generate friction. "Next time they ask for a volunteer for this, nobody raises their hand, okay?"

Tala and Fate nodded in unison, and the trio bucked up and continued on.

Being the generous souls they were—with no relation to having nothing substantial to do after their one morning class today—the three of them were sure to agree when Mr. Runewarden approached them with a task. The end of the semester was rapidly encroaching upon them, and with that meant a lot more homework, tests, homework, projects, and homework. Even with how important it was to attend every class this close to year's end, the unthinkable happened to Mindi Pixiecrown.

She got a cold.

And she lives on Colossus Boulevard, Victoria mused. Go figure.

Regardless, to keep her from ruining her fairly decent grade point average by sick days—makeups were virtually impossible to schedule short of dire hospitalization—Herbert compiled most of her work into a take home format. And he wanted one of them to deliver it to her. Not a large problem, really. A quick run by her house before they'd move to Cyclops Lane to study at Tala's place.

It wasn't until they'd stepped into the neighborhood itself that they'd realized how big a chore it really was. They had outerwear, for sure. It was drawing near the end of autumn. But nothing substantial enough to stave off the flurry of ice and snow beating against them now; that just so happened to disperse into a lightly falling snow seconds after they stepped onto Mindi's street. Even mostly undaunted by the cold, or perhaps just masking his disdain, even Tala couldn't help but wonder that the Ice Titan, wherever he was, was getting a kick out of their suffering.

Fate's boots trudged through the snow layered on the stairs leading to the porch, noticing relatively fresh footprints. Hopefully that meant somebody would be there to let them in, on the chance the ill girl was too incapacitated to hear his knock or get out of bed. The knocking soon turned into pounding, and later screaming as Victoria's psyche gave into the freezing temperatures.

"Sorry, guys. Come on in." Susie Gryphonbane of all people pulled open the door, ushering them in. Victoria and Fate ran to crumple in front of the burning fireplace on the far side, shedding layers to better appreciate its warmth. The room was rather cozy. Wood floors underneath patterned rugs. Mahogany furniture no more than a year or two old. A number of sconces all around to provide both light and that extra bit of heat.

Tala hung his jacket and scarf on a nearby tall hat rack, then approached Susie. "What are you doing here, Susie?"

"Oh I just came to check up on Mindi." She said with a smile.

Victoria whipped around at the revelation, eyes pleading. "Please…please tell me you weren't at school before."

Susie didn't understand where this was going, and nodded her head carefully. "Yes I was. I just got here twenty minutes ago." Both the blonde and Fate blinked, and their spirits deflated at once, collapsing onto the ground in a frustrated huff. Confused, she turned to Tala for an answer, whispering. "What's with them?"

"Oh just ignore them." He replied with a shrug, adjusting the paper-wrapped package tucked under his arm. "So where's Mindi? Runewarden has some makeup work for her."

Susie gestured up, and Tala followed her around some admittedly nice furniture to the stairs, motioning for Victoria and Fate to quit griping and follow. The two playfully stuck their tongues out at him, but inevitably did as he said. The upstairs was significantly smaller, holding two rooms and a bathroom and hallway closet in between. Sounds of sneezing drew them to the left room regardless of Susie's guidance, and the opening door revealed two figures.

Mindi lay prone, swathed in blankets with the stereotypical thermometer in her mouth. However, another girl sat on a stool on the opposite side of the bed. A light tan skin tone, hair impossible to see under the jacket hood on her head. Black and grey seemed to be her theme alternating in every aspect of her outfit: jacket, button-up shirt, and skirt with solid leggings that ended in fitted boots. She seemed very…reserved, nervous even.

Phantomhide Novice Wizard: Penny Dreadful

As she gingerly placed a compress on Mindi's head, the trio finally recognized her. She was from Phantomhide, one of the other first year classes. Quite a competitive bunch, at least many of their members were. Tala and Victoria at least knew her name from the entrance ceremony, and Fate had seen her in passing at times, particularly at Ambrose's speeches during the exam. They didn't know she was friends with Mindi or Susie, though.

"Tala, Victoria, Fate?" Mindi sneezed and coughed, as if to affirm her ill status. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Homework for you." Tala placed the package on her as Penny silently removed the thermometer, inspecting it. Mindi seemed elated upon reading the note that'd been attached to it, which Tala bothered to explain aloud. "Runewarden didn't want your grades to drop."

"Thanks guys." She said with a smile before suddenly snatching a tissue from the wooden stand beside her. "If you want some snacks, there's a plate of cookies downstairs that Penny made."

All three raised a careful eyebrow, which prompted Susie. "Mindi didn't touch any. I asked too."

The trio conceded at that, figuring they could at least have one for all the calories they burned just to get here. Penny decided to lead them after thoroughly cleansing her hands. It was harder than expected to leave after plopping down on the couches. The warm cozy atmosphere and the gentle tugs on their senses hot tea brought seemed too great a counter to braving that cold once more to go home and study, of all things. What was meant to be a quick snack evolved into pleasant conversation in the living room, and Victoria kept an eye on Penny throughout. Not for any particular reason, just that every few moments or so, the girl's eyes would wander over to Fate and stay there until he looked in her direction. Then, she would turn, as if she hadn't been looking.

This continued for the better part of an hour, during which Mindi felt recovered enough to join them, until Tala felt compelled to get back to their study plans, much to his companions' dismay. It'd turned into a nicer trip than they were expecting, and it was good to talk with classmates outside the confinement of a class schedule. Still, there were things to get done. With that mindset he made his way towards the door, threw on his outerwear, turned the handle, and found himself dumbfounded as he stepped out.

Sickly green skin. Hands wider than an adult human head. Pointed ears and disturbing yellow eyes. A gnarled hodgepodge of teeth any one of Wizard City's dental professionals would shy away from. All encased in a pair of worn shorts supported solely by red suspenders.

The blistering cold wind that hit his body didn't freeze him nearly as badly as the sight of the gobbler standing twenty feet away.

Tala watched it carefully for a time, before its attention drew to the boy. The gazed upon each other, as if in a contest, and then its expression changed. Tala had read enough on gobblers to know they were dangerous, and from his own personal childhood experiences scavenging for food in Cyclops Lane at times, he understood the look on its face all too well.

Hunger.

He didn't give the creature time to react before he was bursting back into the house, door hinges rattling with the slam of the door. Victoria and Fate, who were just now making their way to the door, eyed him suspiciously.

"Tala, what's wrong?" The blonde queried, seeing the anxious look on his face.

"Fate, help me barricade the door."

"Block the door? Wh—"

"Just do it!"

Fate didn't question further and sprung into action. Seeing his friend this distressed was enough to know something was genuinely wrong. The two grabbed the nearest large table they could find, tipping it on its side and pushing it against the door. Next was a nearby wooden hutch, followed by a low cabinet.

"What's the matter with you two?" Susie pestered, the remaining two girls coming from the couches to join them.

"We're in danger." Tala replied without stopping.

"Danger?" Mindi questioned.

Then, the boy paused, turned to them, and said in an even, calm voice. "There's a gobbler outside."

The room went dead silent, and as soon as it did, a large thump hit the door behind the piled furniture, causing it and their bodies to jump slightly. Their heads turned as the thump returned , this time joined by the sound of cracking wood. It continued over and over, each successive one breaking more and more, pushing them back step by step, causing Tala's face to grow more horrified.

Then there was quiet again, and the sudden absence of sound was more disturbing than all the pounding. Everyone paused, standing completely still. Mindi cowered next to Susie and Penny, sneezing before she said "Is…Is it gone?".

A massive green hand burst through the door, through the table reinforcement, and began flailing around, grasping for anything within range as it forced its way in. Screams erupted simultaneously.

Tala and Fate acted quickly. "Go! Get up the stairs! Go!" Nobody stopped to challenge their order, pelting up the stairs as fast as their bodies would allow. Tala and Fate decided to do the same as they realized their barricade would be fruitless. All of them flew into Mindi's room, Tala blessing his good luck that not only did she have a sizeable window, but that it led to a traversable portion of the house's roof.

Being Colossus Boulevard though—perpetually cold outside—it made sense never to have opened the window before. Tala finally gave up on it, grabbed one of the person height candelabrum in the corner, and bashed the glass through. The action elicited a shriek, but the imminent danger of what was probably already downstairs pushed them onto the roof.

They moved out one by one, ladies first. Tala climbed out second to last, and was about to offer Fate a hand up when the shocked gasps of the girls brought his attention around to the surrounding streets below.

One..two…easily over a dozen gobblers. That sickly green as the one on the floor below. A jaundiced yellow here. A pale red there. Some walking about in a sort of gluttonous stupor. Others' ravishing eyes stalking about for something to quench their insatiable appetite.

All effectively blocking any means of their escape.

Mindi asked the golden question. "What's…what's going on?"

The color left Tala's face for a moment, but then he regained his senses as his sight came to rest on the girls beside him. He clenched his fist around the candelabra shaft he'd decided to bring up with him, and he steeled his resolve. Before he could speak though, Fate beat him to the punch.

"Forget about that right now. We have to focus on getting out of here." The emerald eyed boy turned to Tala. "Can you think of anything?"

Tala was surprised at how calm and collected Fate was being right now, and had to shake his head a bit before he could respond. "No, not at the….wait, Mindi!" He rounded on the girl, who looked back at him perplexed. "I know this is a long shot, but do you have any flares in your house? We could try to get a signal off."

Her face scrunched in consideration, and then returned to normal as a thought crossed her mind. "Well I live with my Uncle O'Doyle, who's a Private in the guardsman. I think I've seen something like it in the kitchen before."

Tala perked up at that then turned to Fate, who seemed to catch what he was getting on to. Still, he said it aloud for the girls to understand. "Then that's where we'll start. Fate and I will head back in there. You four stay up here. We'll be right back." The boy shed his jacket, handing it to a lightly dressed Mindi to keep warm, but not his scarf. He might be able to use it for something.

"Wait. If you two are going down there, I'm going too." Victoria said while beginning towards the window, but Fate stopped her halfway.

"No. We need you to stay up here." He looked her straight in the eyes, unwavering, which captured her attention more than anything else had after she first met him. "We'll be right back. Believe in us." It seemed to mean 'believe in me' more, and the strength of his determination eventually caused her to cave.

"If you're not back in a minute, I'm coming down there."

Both boys nodded, and dove back in. Their shoes crunched against the glass shards that had fallen inward onto Mindi's carpet, and then they were moving, pedaling down the stairs. As they hit the floor below, Fate made an immediately left, through the living room into the kitchen. Tala went right and stopped just before the door. The gobblers head and left side were already through and it broke through the barricade with one last heave.

The two watched each other again. Its mouth was dripping with thick saliva acidic enough to scar the wooden floor it touched. Then, it made a jumble of incoherent grunts and sounds as it wobbled quickly over to him, arms outstretched like an undead.

Tala didn't wait for it to move first. He was already coming at it, candelabra held like a bo staff, piercing straight at him. The ends rammed into the beast's stomach, enough to knock it off kilter and backwards, but nothing its elastic-like stomach couldn't absorb. Before the boy could retract it, its hand grabbed onto it, face fascinated. Tala struggled against it, but the gobbler's strength proved to be too much for him to just shake off.

He wasn't about to let it have his only weapon though. He pulled with all his might at a downward angle, and then when it was low enough brought his foot down on its metal length. The sudden force caused it to bend somewhat, but mostly had the desired effect of breaking the gobbler's grip.

With his weapon freed and opponent momentarily confused, he acted. He snatched the candelabra backwards, then followed through with the momentum to smash its candle prong into the gobbler's temple. The green beast let out a howl somewhere between a person and an animal, and it collapsed under its own weight, bleeding from the head but still breathing well.

These things were tough, he'd read before, so he knew it'd be a waste of time trying to kill it with what he had on hand. He saw it twitching a bit already, and rushed to the kitchen just as Fate yanked something from a drawer near the sink. A crimson wand, topped with a red glass-like star. Tala nodded in affirmation, and the duo was moving back up the stairs again as the gobbler began to stir, catching sight of them and scrambling to its feet.

They reached Mindi's room a few seconds ahead of it and pushed up and out the window just as the gobbler entered. The stood perfectly still on either side of the window, not making a single sound that could tip it off about their location. Tala grew nervous, though. He'd heard about gobblers' acute sense of smell, and was sure it'd sniff them out. But then, the gobbler just gave the equivalent of a shrug, scratched its head, and waddled back down the stairs. The two let out a breath they didn't know they were holding. Maybe it was the cold wind outside carrying away their scent. Or Tala could have just bashed it too hard for it to think straight. Either way was fine with them.

"You guys made it!" Susie exclaimed in between shivers, the girls signaling them over to another part of the roof. "Over here!"

"Shhh. It could still hear us." Tala placed a finger over his lips, and she corrected her voice accordingly. He and Fate huddled around the girls, presenting their finding. "We found this in one of the drawers. Looks like the real deal."

Everyone eyed it expectantly, then a puzzled look came to Mindi's face. "Ohhhh….maybe that wasn't what I thought it was…"Everyone blinked, and Tala looked it over once again. His eyes widened in realization as she spoke. "That's the thing Uncle O'Doyle uses to light the fireplace."

"A fireplace lighter? You thought this was a flare wand?"

She nodded carefully, looking as if her eyes were about to tear. "Well I mean uncle rarely uses stuff correctly. How was I supposed to know it was what it was?"

A cold wind filled the silence for a full ten seconds, and before anyone could turn on her, Fate suddenly stood up from his crouch, hands making placating gestures. "Alright, alright. It was one mistake. Forget it. We have to keep thinking. Is there anything else we can do?"

Susie, Mindi, and Penny watched him earnestly before beginning to ponder, but Fate and Victoria couldn't help but just stare at him for a moment. Was this the Fate they knew? When had he gotten so…reliable? Then again, they realized there hadn't been a situation yet where it was required of him. Ty fought off the assailant as far as they were told. Aria singlehandedly solved the Unicorn Way matter. The situation on Cyclops Lane was shut down by Tala before anything major could happen.

But here, Fate was taking charge.

Tala got to work on his question. There'd be time to appreciate it later. "We could probably keep searching, I guess…"

"Wait a second." All eyes turned at Victoria's statement. She grabbed the lighter wand from Tala's hand and turned to Mindi. "Is this the kind that runs on magic?"

The girl nodded. "Yeah. Uncle O'Doyle has me light fires with it sometimes for control practice." Victoria nodded with a confident smile, shifting gaze to Tala.

"What if we pour a ton of magic into it? Think we can make a big enough blast?"

Tala immediately caught on to her plan, eyes shining with promise. "Yeah…yeah that might work. But it'll overload it for sure. You'll only get one shot at this."

"You'll? Wait you want me to do this?"

"You should, Victoria." Susie agreed with Tala. "It was your idea. We've got nothing to lose anyway."

Victoria stared down at the wand, face unsure, and when she looked back up she saw Fate give her a smile and nod. In time she nodded back, grabbed a pair of thick gloves from Tala who suggested shielding her bare hands, held the wand out over the roof, and began to concentrate.

Everyone just watched her. Nothing happened for the first few seconds, and just as Susie was about to speak, the wand began to glow. Gaining brightness by the second. She threw a second palm onto the handle as it begun to shake a morph from a bright light to a scalding red, smoke and small electrical streamers dancing around it. Tala periodically ushered her to contain it, to draw the magical energy in gradually so as not to overload it all at once.

The heat from the wand was already enough to instantly turn the frost on her face into beads of water, indistinguishable from the growing amount of sweat. Fate placed a hand on her shoulder for assurance, focusing on it just as much as she was.

The moment she let out a deep grunt, Tala gave her the signal. "Throw it high! Now!"

She didn't argue, chucking the object with all her might in a lob and checking her hands for any burn damage. Her smoking gloves had absorbed most of it, but she could feel some burning sensation.

Her focus there was short lived, though, as at the peak of its path, the wand let loose a rush of flames and a concussive blast that shook a few roof shingles. The blast radius itself was at least a good fifteen feet across, much higher than any of the houses around them, and by the end of it the wand was nowhere to be seen, pieces probably scattered out of sight.

The blonde collapsed onto her behind, suddenly determining how much colder the roof seemed there than on her feet. A round of congratulations assaulted her, except from Tala, who just continued to stare at the space the blast had once occupied.

The amount of time spent gathering energy. The size of the blast radius. He'd been speculating for a while now about her and couldn't be a hundred percent certain, but with a result like that, there was no longer doubt in his mind.

Only someone with an affinity for fire could have made an explosion that big.

That thought was put off, however, as were the congratulations. In favor of directing their attention to the streets surrounding the house. Dozens of beady, yellow eyes shifted up towards them, and Tala cursed under his breath. That flare was sure to gather the attention they needed from the guards.

And from the gobblers too.

—o—o—o—o—o—

"So that's what you did."

Any inclination of amusement or emotion was absent from Sasha's voice as she peered through her spyglass from the near flat roof of a two story house. At the end of her magnified sight lay Gobblestone Castle, a towering monstrosity of a stone bastion, comprised of tens of thousands of large bricks and layered with snow on every surface and nook angled enough to hold it. However, her attention was drawn to the strange object off to the side, tucked in a corner near Hildreth's Perch.

A series of interconnected bones formed a wide arch, enough for a tall creature to squeeze through. Swirling black-purple energies curled and churned at the center of the arch.

A rift, just like the ones she always created.

At its sides on the ground sat plates of incense, faint traces of smoke wafting around the area from what she could see. Every few minutes or so, she would see a flicker in the portal energy and a gobbler would meander out onto solid ground, confused as it looked down to see the incense plates.

She continued. "The gate provides the entrance and the scent attracts them." When she'd seen enough, she lowered the spyglass, anything but amused. "The incense, the portal. You stole quite a few things from Stormdrain, didn't you?"

"Perhaps." The voice from her amulet replied. "The gobblers should be causing enough damage for you to slip in unnoticed. Get to it."

Again, he was gone without so much as a goodbye. She collapsed the spyglass and placed it in her leather shoulder bag, made sure her cloak was situated properly, and gathered some magical energy in her legs. Then, she was leaping, clearing the gap between her roof and the next with ease. She continued on like that, hopping roof to roof without a sliver of nervousness or concern for how precarious her acrobatics were.

Her eyes were focused solely on the tower in the distance. Her objective.

Briskbreeze Prison.