"Oh my god I'm so happy classes are done holy crap I'm so happy but I'm so tired somebody kill me." Arty rattled off as he fell face first into the grass outside the lecture hall.

Timbre giggled, "C'mon Arty, the tests weren't that bad."

"If it makes you feel any better, I'm pretty certain that I made McGouran regret not putting a word maximum on the essay portion. I filled every page he gave us with really really fine print," Roland yawned. He sat down next to Arty, "I hope that will suffice as vengeance for the bits of your brain that sloughed out your ears."

"A fittin' punishment if ya ask me," the group turned to find Team ANTE walking up to them with Alice at the lead. "One-sided or front an' back?"

"Front and back. Three-hundred lines on each side. I hope he cries," Roland tossed a bran muffin wrapped in saran wrap over to Alice in an arc, "I made sure to grab you one. You seem to like them," he tossed a plastic bag full of beef jerky to Turf, and an apple to Ebon, "And don't worry, I didn't forget about you guys. Not even Navy," he tossed the soldier a can of potted meat.

Navy sneered at the can. Ever since Alice had gotten out of the infirmary again, she had made him act nicer towards Team ARTS and Turf. "Thanks…"

"Oh yeah, no problem," Roland grinned, "So, Alice, have you gotten any further into that book? I might have neglected to tell you that three quarters of that book is basically a drug trip."

Alice sat down on a nearby bench, "I didn't see it that way actually. I mean, ya, it was a bit… odd… but every scene was still beautifully described."

The other six students looked perplexed as the two carried on in their pleasant two-man book club. It was weird to see all, or at least most, of Team ARTS and Team ANTE getting along.

"At least he's not talking about smut with her…" Timbre joked to Arty and Sepia.

"Oh yes, Melidus! Please! Make me sore like I was after killing those Grimm to save you! Nights of Our Days, page 427, lines 3 and 4," Roland quoted, "I hated that book so much, but it stuck. I can recite all of the most graphic scenes if you would like. It would spoil the ending, though."

Sepia plopped down beside him and shook her head, 'Let's not and say that we did,' she signed. Seeing him in such a good mood made her happy, but what made her more happy was that Team ARTS seemed better than ever.

"Yeah, please don't..." Arty sounding queasy as he reclined on the grass, "My day was starting to get good and you kinda ruined it just now by making me remember the fact you know all of that by heart," his face scrunched up as if he smelled something bad, "It's kinda creepy."

"It comes with Inkheart. I can't help it, and knowing every book that I can touch is helpful in battle," Roland laid back in the grass, "By the way, I know exactly how many pictures that you drew back into the books. Do you want me to share the details of the illustrations that you made in those same romance novels?" he asked.

"Roland. No. Stop," Arty covered his face with his arms, "No no no no no no no no no no no no no please don't remind me."

'Can you give me a figure on that?' Sepia signed.

"He drew about fifty lewd women, as well as men," Roland informed her, "By the way, who keeps sneaking those books into the library?"

"Enough with the raunch!" Turf laughed. He fell down into the grass, and he used his Semblance to ensure that he landed softly, raising the cushioning grass up to catch him before returning to its place, "Man, I'm glad we all aren't at each other's throats anymore. It was draining to be in constant conflict with one another," he popped a bit of beef jerky into his mouth.

"Got that right," Ebon knelt and fell face first onto the ground. He let out a slow sigh of relief, "It's a heck of a lot less stressful now that we can actually be… well, real with each other."

Alice glanced to Navy. His expressionless face was turned off toward the cliffside, away from everyone else. "Yeah. Right," she began kicking her feet back and forth.

"So…" Timbre began, "now that we have a couple of weeks until the students from the other schools show up, what're we gonna do?"

"Well, we're getting close to done with the welcoming preparations," Ebon said, "gotta say, the charts and sketches and stuff you guys did really helped out."

Timbre shrunk back, remembering that those were originally her team's duties. "Well, that's great you guys! I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun."

"Oh crap!" Arty jumped up, "I completely forgot that I was gonna talk to Midas and Curie before they got here!"

"Who's that?..." Rime asked as she ran up to the group.

"Hey, Rime." Timbre threw in quickly.

"Midas and Curie. They're my best friends from back home in Atlas. They're on one of the teams participating in Vytal." Arty explained.

Rime tilted her head to the side, "You're from Atlas?..."

"Yeah…" Timbre said, "Each member of Team ARTS is from a different kingdom. I thought we told you that before?"

"You all will have to forgive her for her total reliance on short-term memory along with her short attention span," Frost said as she walked up with Zero and Everest behind her. She found it strange that Teams ANTE and ARTS were in arm's reach of one another and weren't trying to kill, maim, or strangle one another. Guess things actually did work out between them. I never would have thought that it would extend to Alice and her team… Frost thought to herself.

"Hey!" Rime protested, "I'm not that easily distracted, Frost!"

Zero crossed his arms, "Rime… I caught you staring at a spider in the corner of the room during the exam. Twenty minutes later, you were still looking at it."

Rime huffed, "It could have killed me… leave me alone…"

"Everest. Think. He. Passed." Everest gave a meaty thumbs up in approval of himself, "Frost. Help. Everest. Relax. And. Study. Hard."

"It was a struggle, but he is actually a pretty quick learner when he puts his mind to it. His language skills are lacking, but he has his shining moments," Frost smiled up at her teammate.

"Well, I'm sure we all did good enough to move on to next semester!" Turf grinned stupidly.

"Guys, I'm sorry!" Arty jumped up quickly, eyes glued to his scroll, "My friends are already waiting at the CCT in Atlas!" He began running to the tower, "I'll catch up with you guys later!"

"Hey! Wait!" Roland bolted up, "Cool if I jump in? We're partners!" he shouted after him.

Arty turned back, "Sure. Fine. You guys can all come if you want. I just can't miss this call. Atlas is super strict about wasting time at the CCT terminals. They won't let me live it down if I miss them. And Roland," he pointed at his partner sternly, "don't traumatize them. We only have like two weeks until they get here and I don't want them deciding to opt out of the tournament because of you."

"Hey, chill. I'm cool now," Roland caught up and pat Arty on the shoulder, "I haven't gotten in a fight since… you know."

Close behind was Sepia, who was positively beaming. Making new friends was something that she always wanted to seek out, and Arty's friends were practically 50% of the way to being her friend by default. She just hoped that one of them might know sign language.

Timbre turned to FREZ and ANTE, "Sorry to cut our post-finals party short, but do you mind if I go, too?"

"Arty's your boyfriend. Go on ahead," Ebon waved a hand.

"She's not dating him!" Turf yelled out in what seemed to be defense.

Timbre blushed and waved, quickening her step, "Okay. See you all later!" she ran to catch up with her team.

After Team ARTS had disappeared across the courtyard, Rime glanced to Turf with a sly smile curling at her lips, "What was that about, Ace of Spades?"

"Nothing. It was nothing," Turf turned onto his stomach and buried his face into the ground to hide the fact he was blushing, "Absolutely nothing."

An awkward silence fell between the two teams. Despite Alice and Roland actively trying to be nicer to others, the understanding that existed between ARTS and ANTE didn't exist between ANTE and FREZ.

"Well…" Frost said, "we were on our way to grab some lunch," her and her team turned around to walk off, "See you four around."

"Tata, Frost." Alice said cheerfully, which surprised everyone, even herself. "C'mon you guys. Let's get back to plannin'."

Turf and Ebon groaned.

"Do we have to?" Turf complained, "we just got out of finals…"

Arty shifted in the chair nervously as the screen loaded up "Oh man…" He logged into the console with sweaty hands, "Oh man oh man oh man…"

"Arty, why are you so nervous?" Timbre asked as she leaned on her elbows against the table next to him, "They're your friends, right?"

"Yeah, but… I mean... The last time I talked to them it was when I told them I got kicked out of Atlas Academy… and that I wouldn't be on a team with them," he turned to look at Roland and Sepia on the other side of him, "and here I am with a new team…"

"Your super cool, artsy-fartsy team, that is," Roland said while watching Sepia's hands, "Sepia's words, not mine."

Arty was still apprehensive. "I guess I'm just scared that they'll feel like I'm replacing them…"

Timbre rolled her eyes, "Arty, you didn't replace your friends, you just made new ones. I think you're more scared that they replaced you," Just then, the screen showed an incoming call, "and just from the fact that we're here right now shows that they haven't. So shut up and answer the call."

"Timbre, I-" Arty tried to hold off as long as possible, but Roland shot his hand out and touched the screen. After he did so, two teens their age appeared on the screen. One was a well-tanned boy with bright golden hair tied into a ponytail on the side of his head wearing a yellow suit. The other was a pale girl in glasses with dull green hair tied back with what appeared to be a mess of electrical wires. The neon green streaks running through her hair were jarring and reminded them of the bright colors of Lurida and Xannie's hair. She wore a dark green hoodie and was reclined back in her chair lazily.

"Whazzup Umber?!" the boy held out his arms as if to give Arty a long distance bro-hug, "You still blowin' the roof off places?!"

The girl gave a small half-wave. She appeared almost unenthusiastic. "Hey, Burne."

Arty smiled, "Midas! Curie! Man you have no idea how happy I am to talk to you guys," his smile faltered a little bit, "How are things going back home?"

Curie rolled her eyes, "As boring as ever… I have to say, you're lucky you got out of here. But I don't think anybody in Team MTLC would be willing to go to the same… lengths as you."

Arty's heart dropped a little at the mention of the new team name. "Metallic? Who joined you guys?"

"This super cool chick, Titian! Fights like no one we've ever seen, you know? Laser blade, energy pistols, super agile in a full suit of armor. She's crazy." Midas clapped his hands, "I've gotta say, we did end up lucky! What about you? Tell us about Team ARTS!"

Arty looked around him, "Well…" as Timbre, Roland, and Sepia entered the frame, "the gang's all here."

The three of them all waved and greeted Arty's friends.

"This is Roland, Sepia, and-"

"TIMBRE FORTE!" Curie yelled out as she leaned forward, but as she did so, she fell out of her chair. The sudden burst of energy scared all of Team ARTS and even startled Midas.

Roland looked between the screen and his partner, "Is she alright…?" he asked slowly.

Sepia Hughes: Or stable…?

Arty rolled his eyes and smiled, "Yeah, she's fine."

"Oh my god! Oh my god!" Curie said as she crawled her way back up, her head and arms resting on the table as she sat on the floor. Her glasses cocked to the side crookedly, "I am such a big fan!"

Timbre chuckled, "Haven't heard anyone gush over me like that in a while…"

"Curie, knock it off with the drooling. You can fangirl later," Midas nudged his teammate, "Sorry man. Cool if we restart that intro to your teammates, and then explain the whole superstar being on your team thing?"

Arty laughed, "Alright." One by one, Arty introduced his teammates, telling Midas and Curie where each of them came from and what they did before coming to Beacon. When it came time for the more sensitive details, he decided it was best to leave them out at least until they were actually there in person and could have a conversation in private.

"Yeah, you shoulda seen our teacher take out those Kokonatsu! Laser swords flying around everywhere!" Arty finished a story enthusiastically as his team beamed beside him. They had never seen him get caught up so much in telling a story before.

'And me and Roland also almost died!' Sepia signed with an unusual smile across her face.

Roland sighed, "Let's leave that detail out," he looked back over to the screen, "You know, I'll be straight with you two. I expected a techie like Curie from Atlas, but I guess I expected her to be a little more…" he decided against a jab at her appearance and moved on, "I didn't expect a laid back guy like you from Atlas either, Midas."

Curie's eyes narrowed as she pushed her glasses up. Arty knew this was a sign that something was bugging her. If she had been there in person, he had no doubt that she would have hurt Roland in one way or another.

"Yeah, well," Midas rubbed the back of his neck, "We like to keep it real over here at Atlas. We're about the only ones who do."

"Trust me," Curie sat back in her chair, "he loves to boast about that."

Arty leaned back away from the monitor and whispered to his team, "Midas is about as anti-authority as you can get without being put on a watchlist. When I blew the hole in the school last summer, he actually congratulated me."

"You better believe I congratulated you!" Midas exclaimed, "That was too freakin' cool, man! Way to stick it to General Leo-"

Curie quickly punched Midas in the arm with a surprising amount of strength before motioning to somewhere off-screen, "Do you want to get reprimanded again?"

"Think I care?! I'll keep fighting back against our dear general until the day I die! She's a humongous bit-"

Curie quickly grabbed Midas' ponytail and yanked it downwards. She held him in place for a bit while he squirmed, "Listen here, Goldilocks. If I have to sit through detention now that finals are over, I will kill you. I'm not going to have you cutting into my gaming time with that fat mouth of yours."

Sepia perked up, 'I want to play Remnant Invaders with her. I will crush her for days.'

Roland looked to Timbre to translate. After all, he didn't want to get even further on Curie's bad side. Since he was beginning to make friends with his enemies, he had no desire to create another setback for himself.

Timbre thought about how to reword Sepia's statement, "Uhh… Sepia says that she'd love to play a game or two with you when you guys get here! She's… kind of a gamer herself?" In the half year she had known her, Timbre had never once seen her playing a game of any kind other than keep away with Arty's sketchbook or Roland's hat.

Curie managed a small mischievous smile, "Haven't played splitscreen with anybody but Titian in a while. I accept your offer."

Deciding to cut out the middleman, Sepia typed out a message on her scroll and held it up to the screen.

Sepia Hughes: I will destroy you.

Timbre slapped Sepia's scroll out of her hand.

Sepia responded to her by flipping the bird.

"I like this one! She's feisty!" Midas laughed. He leaned in, "Cool if I get your contact info?"

"Watch it," Roland growled. The notion of making new friends went flying out the window, "She's taken."

"Oh, dang," Midas snapped his fingers, "Lucky guy. Might have to chat with him, if you know what I mean," though he wished for laughter, he received none.

"Taken by me," Roland leaned up a bit, "Take a hint, numbskull."

Midas fell silent. He didn't quite have a response to that.

"And with that…" Curie stood up, "We should get going. They're doing a special end-of-semester lunch, and I'm starving," she pulled Midas up out of his chair, "Come on before you make things any more awkward with Burne's new friends."

Arty waved to his childhood friends, "'Kay. See you guys in a couple of weeks!"

"Right, see you guys!" Midas clicked off in a hurry.

As the screen turned black, Timbre noticed as Arty's smile faded.

"What's wrong, Painter-Boy?" she asked as they got up to leave the CCT.

"Nothing... just… it's kind of weird seeing them so happy. Like I never left," Arty loosened his striped tie as they stepped back out into the afternoon sun, "or like they don't even miss me."

Timbre frowned and pushed Arty by the shoulder, "Now don't start that, Umber! Did you even see the look on their faces when the call went through? They were more than happy to see you again, so don't go on your pity-party. You have friends. More friends than you would if you never left Atlas, even," she crossed her arms and huffed, "Don't make us feel like you wish you'd never met us."

"I'm not! At least… It's unintentional if I am..." Arty held his hands up defensively, fearing another punch from the singer of their team, "It's just weird… you know? I wake up one day and think I'm going to be on a team with them for four years, and later I wake up again and I find out I'm banned from the Academy. Yeah, Midas was stoked, but the fact I had to leave the kingdom… that ended up upsetting him and Curie. They seemed all happy just now."

"They're still hurting over that, Arty. They just don't want to show it to your face," Roland scowled at his partner, "Look, at least you've made an effort to contact them. You haven't the faintest idea how great that makes them feel. My friends back in Mistral and Sepia's friends back in Vacuo are always happy to get a call from us."

Arty and Timbre both turned to look at Roland with blank stares. Then it dawned on them, Roland did have friends back in Mistral. Even after he told them about the events that brought him to Beacon, he hadn't gone into much detail on his friends.

"You guys never ask where Sepia and I go when we leave you guys. It's the CCT, in case you were wondering," Roland pointed to the girl holding his hand, "I've already had the pleasure of meeting Sepia's closest friend, Opal. She's a breath of fresh air, if you ask me," he smiled over at Sepia. He had been on his best behavior when he met Opal for her sake, "She's met Cayenne and Epazote, my two closest friends. They're participating in the tournament, too. Can't wait to see them again, or for you guys to meet them."

Arty's mood seemed to lighten as Timbre's dropped further.

"Yeah!" Arty grinned, "How awkward would it be if we ended up in the tournament and had to fight any of our friends at Vytal? I mean, with our track record, that's not very likely, but in the event that it does, would you two be willing to beat up your friends in front of all of Remnant?"

"Did you really just ask me that?" Roland raised an eyebrow at him, "I'm Roland Solferino Wells. Heck yeah I'll beat the snot out of Epazote and Cayenne! I'm totally cool with beating the snot out of all my friends! I'll even beat the snot out of you!" he pat Arty on the shoulder as they walked along, "You had better believe that I'll beat the snot out of your friends too, and Sepia's!"

'That's a lot of snot. Might want to bring a mop to the fights!' Sepia signed through a fit of laughter.

As the rest of her team laughed as they talked about pummeling their friends back home, Timbre couldn't help but feel lonely. She felt like, once the students from the other three kingdoms arrived, she'd be on her own when the rest of Team ARTS disbanded to get that sense of "home" they might be missing. Well… Vale is my home… she thought to herself as she followed along.

Three female voices rang out through a mess of shouting and yelling. Team ARTS ran across the courtyard towards the lecture halls where they finished their final exams earlier that day. As they came up to the half-wall, Teams ANTE and FREZ were there. They had changed into their casual outfits, but if Team ARTS didn't know any better, then they'd think that the two teams had been there all day.

Alice, Rime, and Frost were all arguing with each other. Oddly enough, it seemed that it was split three ways as Rime and Frost would occasionally shout at each other instead of working together to win whatever debate they were in with Alice.

"Woah, woah, woah!" Arty waved his arms back and forth to motion the three girls to stop yelling, "What's going on here?!"

"Alice has let her pride go to her head again," Frost said coldly, but still worked up a bit, "She keeps trying to argue with me that her team could wipe out more Grimm than mine, and I keep trying to tell her that I am not going to play her childish game."

"I'm not sayin' we could," Alice corrected her, "I'm sayin' we would, but she's too scared to try an' prove it."

Arty scrunched his nose in disbelief, "H-how did this even get brought up?"

"There's been a huge influx of common Grimm in the Emerald Forest," Zero piped up from a tree branch overhead.

"Yeah!" Rime yelled, "and Alice brought up something about Professor Alabaster telling her that Carmen went out there with her team to hunt Grimm when there was a similar influx twenty years ago. Then she just had to open up her mouth and say 'Oi! Team ANTE coul' kill all them Grimm wifout any 'elp I tell you wot!'"

"Oi, I do not sound like that!" Alice shot back, which only sparked the entire argument again.

"I'd say ya do, Queen o' 'earts!" Roland chimed in. Since he had become "friends" with Alice, he felt that he could make the jab at her accent, "B'sides, we all know that Team ARTS 'ould totally kick ya arses if it came ta that!"

Arty snapped his head towards Roland, "No. Roland. Don't. Stop that. I know what you're doing!"

Timbre stepped into the fray, "Hey! Guys, cut it out for a sec."

The quarrel died down and everyone turned their attention to the pop star.

"This is going to sound sappy, but," she cleared her throat, "the twelve of us were all in the same orientation group. We were all in the Emerald Forest together on our first day and it was because of what happened in that forest that put us into the teams we're in today. Well, it's the last day of the semester, so why don't we go out and have a little fun to celebrate how far we've come?" she looked to Turf, "Who's up for a little friendly competition?"

Turf jumped up enthusiastically and ran to Timbre's side, his arm raised, "I'm down."

'Oh yes! Oh yes! Oh yes,' Sepia held her hands up as if she were holding her guns at the ready. If she had her guns, she would have been providing the surrounding students with a nice serving of lead rain.

"I'm cool with that," Zero glanced at Rime. He was grinning underneath his scarf, "Just don't… FREZ up."

"Nice one!" Roland went for a high-five, but merely slapped the air, "Right, so…" he slowly lowered his hand, "Yeah, I'm game. I've got a little surprise that I've been dying to try out, but it's a little too dangerous to do it on campus."

As Frost watched Everest, of course, walk up to join Rime, she knew she didn't have a choice. She was about to refuse, until she remembered what Rime had said about being 'fun'. When she suggested something, it wasn't 'fun', but now that Rime was gung-ho about doing something… "Alright. Me too…"

Arty watched as Ebon and Navy went to join Alice and Turf.

"C'mon, Painter-Boy!" Alice taunted, "Can't leave ya team hanging three against two teams of four!"

Arty was nervous, "Guys… won't we get in trouble… again?..."

"Well, class isn't in session… so they can't really do anything unless we get hurt. It isn't like the Emerald Forest is roped off," Ebon pointed out.

"We're only in trouble if we die!" Rime jumped up and down.

You'd think after the countless times people have done this to me this semester, I'd learn how to say no... Arty thought to himself as he groaned. Hesitantly, he walked over and joined the group of first-years. He pumped his fist half-heartedly into the air, "Woo-hoo…"

The whole group cheered.

"Okay," Frost decided to help set the ground rules, "everyone go rest up. We will meet at the cliff at sunset," she looked to Alice, "Sound fair?"

Alice nodded before turning to her team, "We'll get our weapons ready. Make sure ta bring your scrolls! We'll need 'em ta keep score."

"So." Everest pushed up from his divot in the grass, "We. Kill. Grimm." He was slowly processing everything, but he could feel everyone's eyes falling on him. The pressure was on, "We. Kill. Grimm. And. Count. Kill," that seemed to be right, but his mind was growing tired, "That. Mean. That. Team. Kill. Most," he paused to think of the last few words, "Is. Warrior. Master."

As the others looked on in confusion, Rime nodded encouragingly, "Yes. That's right big guy. Don't overexert yourself. I don't want a repeat of that time I tried to get you to do a crossword puzzle…"

Frost and Zero cringed as they remembered the destruction.

"Soooo…." Arty took a step back from the short-circuiting mountain, "meet at the cliff with our scrolls and weapons at sundown. Got it."

Sepia stared up at the frustrated wall of muscle. She could have sworn that his head was smoking a little but, but her eyes had to have been deceiving her, 'That was incredible.'

"Let us prepare for the fighting, then, but I think we can go ahead and say who the victor will be," Frost curtsied and wagged a finger to tell her team to follow, "May the best team win."

"You're on Ice Princess." Alice said as she turned on her heel and walked away, her team close behind.

As he followed, Turf turned around and shrugged to Timbre.

She giggled as Team ARTS were left standing alone in the courtyard.

"So," Roland rummaged in his back pocket, "I was gonna save this for later, but I want you to have a little time to strategize. Now that those guys are out of earshot…" he held up five glass vials full of swirled red and neon yellow paintballs, "I present you with my greatest creation."

"The heck is this, Roland?" Arty asked, "Did you use my paintball casings?!"

"Almost blew up our dorm in the process," Roland held them closer to Arty, "I call it Nova Dust. It's incredibly unstable. I picked it up from Bite the Dust that night that I spent in Vale," he thought about tossing the vials to Arty, but he didn't want to nuke the courtyard, "It creates an explosion of white hot plasma, and I haven't found anything that can withstand the explosion yet. This stuff is why Timbre couldn't find her notes from McGouran's class. They disintegrated when some of it fell on them."

Timbre gasped and turned to Roland with an accusatory look, "Roland! Really?!"

"I lent you mine because of that. Didn't you think it was weird that I just handed you a copy of my notes when you were flipping out over yours suddenly going missing?"

Timbre went to say something else, but decided to just stay quiet.

Arty looked up to the sky. Although it was still early in the afternoon, the sun was much further along its path across the sky due to it being winter time. "Well, if we're gonna make it to the cliff at sundown, we better hurry up and get ready."

A monstrous gurgle came from within Sepia. She typed out a quick message to alert her team of the situation.

Sepia Hughes: My stomach's making the rumblies. We should get food first.

"I second that," Timbre said as she walked towards the dining hall with her partner.

"I third." Arty jogged after them, "Then we go back to the dorm so I can get out of this stupid uniform…"

"I fourth. I hope they've got the boiled clams out today. They ran out last week…" Roland caught up with Arty, "That was my fault, but whatever," he pointed out while loosening his tie.

As the sun was setting, students milled around the locker-room used for weapon and supply storage. Arty reached into his locker and began counting out paintballs, making sure that he had an equal number of all of them, minus the red ones considering what happened the last time he was in the Emerald Forest. He looked at the vials of Roland's 'Nova Dust'.

"Hey, Roland," he held the tube out gingerly to his teammate, "considering how much trouble me plus Fire Dust plus Emerald Forest results in, are you sure this Nova stuff is a good idea?"

"It's an absolutely terrible idea, but it's a great idea if you want to win," Roland tightened the straps on Writer's Block, "Check this out," he held three ink grenades out to Arty. One was tinted blue, another violet, and the third was tinted red and yellow, "I messed around with Dust and my ink. I might have stolen a bit of your water Dust, but I did it as a precaution for the Nova Dust going… haywire. Then I used some of my Gravity Dust to make a few of these purple ones. I even made a Nova Dust grenade… a few, actually."

Arty began to pout, "But… Water Dust is hard to find…"

"I can separate it back out if you want to take the chance of burning the Emerald Forest to the ground," Roland suggested, "Or I can ship some over from one of my dad's warehouses in Mistral to make up for the IOU. My sister, Dante, wouldn't mind bringing it over with her."

"No, no, that's fine." But I really would like more Water Dust… he thought to himself.

"Hey, Arty."

Arty turned to Timbre. She had taken her detachable red sleeves off, showing the spools of wire she wore high up on her arms. The end of the strands traveled down black tubes to each glove. In her hand was another such spool.

"I would rather be safe than sorry in case we end up fighting more than just Grimm out there. You know how the three teams act towards one another, and you're the only one with a backpack so… would you mind?"

Arty took the spool, "Not at all, I'm honestly surprised we haven't taken advantage of this more," he shoved the spool into the large pocket of his bag, "You two want me to carry anything?"

"Here," Roland held up a cloth bag of various types of ink grenades and other samples of the ink pouches that he used, "It'd be good for you to keep these," he also brought out two sample bags of ink pellets and gave them to Timbre and Sepia, "You guys should keep these too. It's a quick way to give your location."

Sepia handed Arty a plastic bag full of snacks from the vending machines. She also passed him a few reels of film/ammo. Both would come in handy, but the snacks would prove to be the best addition to the backpack in her opinion.

With his bag fully stocked, Arty threw the strap over his head and almost buckled over from the weight. "Well then… this is going to take some getting used to."

"Havin' trouble, Umba?" Alice smirked as she leaned against the end of Team ARTS' row of lockers.

Arty groaned, "Not now, Alice…"

"I'm kiddin'. I'm… kiddin'…" she sounded unsure of the wording. She had never been one to joke with others.

"So do you guys have your scrolls ready?" Turf asked.

"Ready?..." Timbre pulled out her scroll, "What do you mean?"

Alice rolled her eyes, "Here," she took Timbre's scroll and began typing out search terms, tapping buttons, and swiping through different menus. After a few seconds, she handed it back, "It's an app some Huntsmen use ta keep track of Grimm when on search an' destroy missions. It can keep track of what kind of Grimm you kill an' how many of each," she glanced to the rest of Team ARTS as she one by one downloaded the app on the rest of their scrolls, "If you 'ave a team linked up, you can keep totals an' see how they're doin' as well, simila' to how you keep up with their aura levels," she handed Arty back his scroll. "At tha cliff, we'll all link ours up so we can see 'ow all twelve of us are doin'."

"Wow," Arty looked amazed as he scrolled through the menus, "This is really extensive! How come the school's never told us about this thing?"

Alice smirked, "Ta prevent the kind of thing we're doin' tonight. They believe it would cause… reckless competition that could end up in preventable injuries. I mean, just imagine if the likes of Team Asses got a hold of it! But I believe we're responsible enough, right Navy?"

He grunted in agreement before walking out of the locker-room.

"Right. See you four at tha cliff," she turned to follow Navy, "Tata."

"Hey Navy! There's some brown on your nose!" Roland called out with a big, cheesy grin.

Navy stopped and went to go back and pummel the Faunus.

Alice held her arm out to stop him, "Navy, if you want ta pummel him that badly, do it by helpin' Team ANTE win this little contest, okay?"

He glared down at her. She wasn't the same leader she was when they first came to Beacon. "Fine."

"Good."

'You're going to get yourself killed,' Sepia signed to Roland. She grabbed onto his arm and pulled him along behind team ANTE. She wanted to get a move on, and hoped that Arty and Timbre caught her drift.

"I'll take my chances," Roland laughed. Being so upbeat made him feel strange, but good, "Arty! Timbre! Let's go kick some butt and have a good time!" he called to his team. Even his tail swung from side-to-side from his mood.

Arty, Timbre, and Turf were the only ones left.

"He's gotten weird since he beat up Alice," Turf said to nobody in particular, "Did he bang his head on something?"

"He's just finally starting to learn how to be a bit more human," Timbre's eyes widened when she realized what she said, "I mean… uh… oh gods…" she fumbled and stuttered over her words as her face turned a deep red.

"What? It's a figure of speech. That's not racist," Turf looked at Timbre in confusion, "But yeah, you're right. He's a heck of a lot more likable. So is Alice. It's just… it's refreshing, but unnerving," he thought about the last few days that he had shared with Alice, "I mean, Alice started pulling out a deck of cards… a regular set I mean, and having us play and chat after dinner. It's a lot of fun, but it's weird to see that side of her."

"You know, Roland started doing something like that. He apparently had some boardgames stored away, and breaks them out so that we can all play and talk. We joke around and actually have a good time. Like you said, it's fun but weird," Arty shifted the weight of his newly filled bag. The weight bore down on his shoulders pretty bad, but loosening the strap helped to alleviate that a little bit, "Then he made outlines of the information for all of our classes for finals for all of us, and individualized them. He used art terms in mine, music terms in Timbre's, and movie terms in Sepia's. It's like he cares now," he held up one of the Nova Dust vials, "He even made these for me. What strange universe did we fall into?"

"I don't know, man, but it's apparently one where even Navy doesn't fly off the chain all the time," Turf hooked his weapon onto his belt, "It's great, but just straight up backwards. He still follows her like a dog on a leash… you guys can laugh at that... but you can tell he doesn't like it as much as he used to."

"Fun," Arty said as he looked out the nearby window, "Oh man. Sun's almost down. We better go."

"Right," Timbre said. She nudged Turf's shoulder, "Ready to get a beat-down Digger?"

"Bring it, Singer."

All twelve students stood atop the cliff overlooking the Emerald Forest. It was a long way down, but it wasn't anything that they couldn't handle if need be. The launch pads had been deactivated, but that wasn't a problem for the Huntsmen and Huntresses in training. When they last stood here, hardly any of them knew each other. Standing on that cliff that night reminded them that they had all grown tremendously.

"Man, the moon's seriously weird. Like, what happened to it?" Turf asked while staring up at the night sky, the parts of Remnant's shattered moon glowing a bright white in the cloudless sky. He wasn't paying much attention to the looks of pure joy on everyone else's faces, "I've seriously never heard anyone breath a word about the story behind it. Did something hit it?"

"No idea," Rime said as she looked down off of the sheer rock face, "Ask the Rhea's. They might know. They dig space stuff."

"Okay!" Alice called out, "Now that everyone is ready, we know tha rules, right?"

"Yeah," Arty grinned his toothy grin, "Kill Grimm, keep score, and keeping the other teams from scoring is perfectly fine, just as long as we don't kill or maim one another."

Alice glowered, "In layman's terms I suppose…"

"Dang. Navy doesn't have any pens on him…" Roland mumbled.

Frost ignored him and raised a hand to get the attention of the others, "I would like to impose another rule. If a team takes out something like that Minotaurus this time around, then I think that should count for ten Grimm at least. Also, if your aura gets to regulation loss levels or breaks in a fight, come back here immediately with a teammate for safety."

Alice huffed, "That will all be taken inta account afta tha game is ova. The app allows you ta keep track of what kinds of Grimm you kill, so we'll see everythin'. I 'ave no objections to tha second point."

Ebon raised a gloved hand, "So, one more question. How long we got to fight these things? An hour? Two hours? Until sunrise? Until one of us gets torn to shreds? What?"

"Let us just go until sunrise," Frost suggested, "We can sleep all day tomorrow if we want, or just ask Lurida for that liquid methamphetamine that she calls coffee."

The students looked to the horizon in front of them. The sun was already halfway below the trees.

"As soon as tha last light of tha sun is gone, we go." Alice spoke up as she held a few cards between her fingers.

"Fine by me." Arty said as the dim red light began to darken all around them.

Everest popped his knuckles, "Ready. To. Kill."

Rime summoned two curved ice blades, each poised to fight, "Bring it on."

Without any signal, Zero held his katana steady and at the ready.

"I hope that we don't end up regretting this…" Ebon groaned, but stood at the edge of the cliff anyway.

"Just don't expect Grimm to be the only things you fight tonight…" Navy mumbled under his breath.

Alice glanced over to him, "Just keep inta-team quarrels ta a non-lethal level."

"Ready," Turf held his shotgun in both hands and pointed at the ground, ready to form a pillar of rock to get him a better start into the forest.

Paper and ink formed a sickle shape on Roland's arm, "Don't blow up the entire forest, Arty. You might startle the visiting Atlas students before they even get here."

Arty scoffed, "C'mon, Roland… they're already scared of me…"

Their scrolls all dinged.

Sepia Hughes: Yeah, for good reason ya terrorist.

She grinned and held her guns out in front of her.

"Play nice, you guys." Timbre said as she watched the sun become just a sliver of bright light through the treetops.

"Ten… nine… eight… seven…" most of the group began to count down in unison.

"Get ready Umber, Crims." Frost felt the fire of competition burning in her belly.

"You're tha one that should watch out," Alice shot back.

"I'm staying out of this one… but I won't stay out of leading my team to beat you two," Arty said grinning cockily.

"Three… two…"

The students inched closer to the edge of the cliff, all of their hearts racing.

"One!" most of them shouted in unision. All of them jumped into the night air and descended into the tree canopies far below. The fight was on. The hunt began.

Deep into the forest, hooded figures surrounded a large steel cage. A dark shape with molten eyes thrashed about within.

"Echo, we're in position." Oro said into a jet black scroll, "What are they doing now?"

Over the phone, a distorted voice came back, "They're just now entering the forest. Speeder and Shaka did a good job. Now we get to have a bit of fun with them. Just don't damage the targets too much. Make sure you actually use the devices. Need I remind you, we want them alive, Oro. "

"I know I know. You don't have to be such a broken record. I know what I'm doing," Oro pulled up a black mass of metal wreathed in steam with one arm. A mechanical hiss sputtered out as the machine deactivated. "Can't promise they won't get hurt, though."

"That's fine, just keep the others in check. I don't want them getting too violent."

Oro looked around at the other dozen hooded figures around them. All of them wore similar kangaroo skull masks, but theirs were red instead of while. A hum of synchronous giggles came from them, "They're under control, Echo. Now please, it's snack time for our little pet project." They hung up the scroll before Echo could retort.

The beast inside the cage let out a low growl as Oro sprinted out into the trees, a few of the other figures running closely behind.

"I've been waiting for this night…" Oro grinned underneath their mask, "Begin Phase Three of testing…"