This chapter is not necessarily as plot heavy as others, but I feel like I could still use practice with actually writing combat sequences for stories prior to larger scuffles yet to happen in this story. I hope you all enjoy gratuitous butt-kicking as we get some Grimm crushing going on. As always, leave any thoughts below.

As an aside, thank you to a couple of the recent reviews I've gotten on this story. It really makes me happy to get praise like that, and just helps reinforce this story and my novel idea as a good idea for me to have come up with and follow through on. I hope you continue to enjoy what I make!

"…So let me get this straight." Frost started after placing a hand to his head and shaking it back a forth a few times. "Cinder left with her forces to go to Haven. Mercury would have gone with them after he got out of that dumpster you threw him in- nice choice by the way- but you don't know exactly which part of Haven they went to because Cinder didn't even tell either you or Mercury where it was?"

"Pretty much." Emerald stated with a shrug as she leaned against the wall near the door to the hallway.

"What about Torchwick? Do you know if he told her where to go at all? Her plans did kind of hinge on us using that airship during the chaos, so I assume she intended on having him follow with it if possible rather than letting him run off with a fully decked out warship belonging to Atlas." Neo interjected with a look of realization after a few moments of thought from the group.

"As far as I know, it was always riddles with her whenever Torchwick asked for orders. She would never tell him outright, only that he would know what he needs when he needed to know." Emerald sighed.

"Figures." Frost groaned as he leaned back into the couch with a grunt of displeasure. The three of them were silent for a while as they each tried to figure out some way to track down Cinder's direction before moving forward with their plans.

It was Neo that spoke up after a while of unsuccessful suggestions. "The Scroll!"

"Uh…gonna have to use full sentences here, pint-size." Emerald stated with a look of confusion directed Neo's way while Frost looked on with interest written on his face.

"The scroll that Cinder passed to me to give Torchwick to override the airship controls as well as the soldiers!" Neo exclaimed with an excited look on her face. "What if Cinder never intended to tell him at all? What if the ship was programmed to redirect towards wherever their next destination was from the beginning once the proper signal was sent?"

"That's…not a bad idea. Cinder's not one to let loose ends fly free- literally in this case- so she would have had the ship redirect on the knowledge that Torchwick would have had no clue how to drive the damn thing." Frost stated with a nod of understanding.

"One problem with that though," Emerald started, at which the other two turned to give her both looks of questioning before she continued. "The ship crashed, remember? That's why the Atlas army stopped killing people instead of fighting Grimm and shutdown. How are we supposed to retrieve the directions from a wrecked ship?"

"Easy." Frost stated with a smirk. "We go to the wreckage, and sift through it until we reach the main console somewhere in the debris."

Neo shuddered somewhat as the three of them got up, Frost and Emerald each putting a hand on one of Neo's shoulders. "At least this wreckage won't have someone's severed arm in it." And with that, the three disappeared from the room in a flash of light, the only signs of their having been there the forgotten glasses of water on the end table.

The three of them reappeared on the rooftop that had held the scuffle between Mercury and Frost before everything had come to a head. After a few moments of deliberation, they all turned and started looking in different directions over the horizon for any signs of a smoking wreckage or mark of a large object landing somewhere within the city. Each one of them paused somewhat whenever their sight passed over the Dragon frozen atop Beacon Tower, its body massive even at a distance. After scanning around, Emerald was the one to spot some larger objects a few blocks over before signaling to the other two and hopping off of the rooftop to the ground below. The other two landed next to her on the ground a moment later before they each drew their weapons and started making their way through the streets in the direction of what Emerald had seen.

Their choice in arming themselves was well placed, as after seeing nothing for a couple blocks, they came upon a large pack of Grimm, with smatterings of Ursas, Beowolves, and even a few Boarbatusks amongst the pack. The three of them quickly backtracked into the alley they had just left just in time as an Ursa was moments from turning to spot them.

"There's a fair number of them over there. What are our options?" Neo asked as the three huddled together to decide on their course of action.

"If it were just some Beowolves and Boarbatusks we would be fine I think." Frost said as he rubbed at his chin in thought. He peeked his head out for a quick moment to do a brief headcount before ducking back into the alley. "As it stands, there's at least a half-dozen Beowolves, three Boarbatusks, and two Ursas. Not entirely sure how we're supposed to get past them."

"Couldn't Neo just teleport us past them and closer to the warship?" Emerald asked with curiosity.

"If we didn't care about how far from the ship we'd be, then maybe." Neo started as she shook her head in disagreement. "But since I don't know this area of Vale well, we could appear anywhere between here and the ship, with debatably more Grimm to fight if we appear in the wrong place. We'll have to fight our way through and hope that we don't run into too many more before we reach the ship, otherwise we could be in trouble."

Frost pounded one armored fist against the open palm of another with a smirk of delight. "Perfect. We've been so busy the last couple days just tracking that we haven't gotten a chance to lower the Grimm population a bit. Plus, I've been getting a bit antsy lately with everything going on. Might be a good way to vent some steam."

Emerald shook her head with a smirk of her own as she readied her sickles in their gun-forms. "If it weren't for being stuck on different sides of things, that kind of attitude would have you and Mercury getting along pretty well I'd say."

"If that's the case, then Yang would be there as well." Neo said with a chuckle from the other two. "The three of them working together would not go well for anyone, I think."

"Yeah." Frost nodded his head in agreement. "You're probably right. Anyways, let's clear out a path so we can keep searching."

A few Beowolves sniffed the air lightly as the pack idled in the street. The Ursas rumbled back and forth amongst the group as a Boarbatusk pawed lightly at the ground, its snout low to the ground before jerking up with a snarl. The other Grimm reacted in similar fashion to the Boarbatusk as they all turned to face down a random street with red eyes scanning for helpless prey. One Beowolf decided it would be the impromptu scout as it slunk forwards, its claws clicking on the ground as it moved along the cobbled road.

As it passed a darkened alley however, its body was suddenly lit up with gunfire as Emerald slowly walked up with her guns ablaze on the lone Grimm. One of its claws rose to block its face from the hail of bullets until it stopped. The beast then snarled with disgust as it took a running leap at Emerald, only for its head to be separated from its body moments later as her sickles shifted into their blade forms and she quickly spun to avoid the beast's charge even as she swung one arm back around to slice cleanly through the Beowolf's neck. A few silent moments after the defeat of their fallen comrade, the rest of the Beowolves and a couple of Boarbatusks all charged Emerald at once, only for her body to shimmer out of existence as they neared her silent form.

The Grimm all stopped around where Emerald had been, each one of them looking about wildly in search of the prey that had suddenly escaped them. Their search would be rapidly interrupted however as a Beowolf that was starting to inspect the alley Emerald had walked out met a sudden end as a sharp blade burst from its back, its body rapidly dematerializing seconds later. At the same time, one of the Boarbatusks heads was suddenly caved in from above as Frost's armored fist slammed into it as he descended rapidly from a nearby rooftop.

With a new target amongst them, the Grimm redirected their attention to the lone boy in the pack that still consisted of a Boarbatusk and half-a-dozen Beowolves. Two wolves leapt as one to attempt to bury Frost beneath them, but with a sudden surge of light from his arms he had each beast's neck trapped in his armored grip. His exposed back would have been an easy target as a third wolf leapt at him, only for its body to change direction rapidly in midair as Neo's body sailed into its side feet first before bowling into another Beowolf. Her parasol deployed quickly to block an incoming swing from another wolf before she triggered the pointed blade inside and embedding it into the face of the Grimm that had made the mistake of getting into proximity of its sharp point.

The remaining wolves at the pack of the pack charged forward as one to attempt take advantage of the occupied attention of the two currently fighting, however it was during this charge that they failed to notice Emerald sprinting and leaping out of another alley and plunging both blades of her weapons into the back of one of the beasts causing it to stumble to the ground. She then used the continue momentum of her jump and the beasts forward motion to smoothly somersault over its prone form and ripping her weapons from its back before both of her feet planted themselves into the back of the other wolf's head, causing a sickening crack as it fell mask first into the concrete, it's skull crushed from the blow and its body dissipating seconds later. As she stood amidst the rapidly diminishing smoke she transformed her weapons back into guns and unleashed a spray of bullets into the other wolf's form as it attempted to pick itself off of the ground, only to be erased from the hail of bullets, its body not as fortunate as the previous Grimm that Emerald had fired upon to start of the battle.

The remaining wolves and Boarbatusk that were surrounding Frost and Neo proved little difficulty as Neo collapsed her parasol during a Beowolf's swing to throw the creature off-balance before delivering a wicked somersault kick to its chin, causing it to reel backwards from the sharp blow. Meanwhile, the two wolves struggled in Frost's grip as he brought both creatures bodies into a swift descent to the ground, their bodies landing with a solid thud on the ground as he released a small charge of electricity from each hand into the two Grimm, their bodies convulsing briefly from the powerful energy before slumping in defeat, their bodies joining their comrades amongst the black mist of the defeated Grimm that was fading into the air around them.

At this point, only one Boarbatusk and two wolves remained, though that number would quickly drop to one and one as Neo plunged her blade into the stumbling Grimm in front of her, it's body slumping forward on the sword as it snarled in rage only to jerk a moment later as Emerald's blades impaled its back, the damage toll being enough to dissipate that wolf as well. With only two Grimm near the three of them Frost ran at the Boarbatusk now spinning in their direction, his feet planting firmly on the ground as he braced both arms against the whirling body of the Boarbatusk to stop its forward momentum. His face crumpled into a look of deep concentration as he struggled against the sheer force of the Grimm's body as Neo and Emerald toyed with the remaining wolf before eventually silencing it in a similar way to the one previous. At a brief glance to see the coast clear, Frost's face gained a smirk as his arms pulsed with another quick burst of light and he managed to grasps the Boarbatusks horns mid-spin and using the beasts own movement against it and planting its tusked head into the ground as it squirmed from its frozen position.

Frost signaled Neo to stop as she raised her blade to pierce the exposed underbelly of the beast and gave him a look of confusion as he walked around to the opposite side of the creature and adopted a taunting stance at the remaining three Grimm that had held back in the chaos. The last Boarbatusk snarled in disgust at the obvious display before whirling into motion and spinning rapidly in Frost's direction. Just as it's spin would carry it into the group of three like a bowling ball into pins, they disappeared in a flash of light even as the forward momentum of the Boarbatusk carried it's horns into the exposed underbelly of its comrade, killing it instantly. It then also died as a surge of electricity surged into it from beyond the black smoke as Neo had timed the teleport to carry them just into the opposite side of the Grimm where Frost had first stood and stopped the beast's motion.

This now left only the two Ursas that now began to rumble forwards towards the group, at which point Emerald began to once again released a hail of gunfire at the two as Neo disappeared in a mote of light and Frost's arms began to charge with energy, his fists tight at his sides. Once they got close enough, Emerald transformed her guns for the final time as she began to parry and dodge swipes from the two Ursas and keeping their attention off of Frost as he stood back. One of the beasts stumbled forward mid-swing as Neo's entire weight fell upon its back, her parasol's blade embedded in the creatures back as she began to ride it with a look of intense concentration on her face as well. She then jerked her body to the side, causing the Grimm she was currently sitting on to stumble into its comrade, the two collapsing to the side in a heap of limbs as Neo leapt free and moved away from the group while Emerald did the same.

A moment later as the Grimm worked to disentangle from each other both of their bodies were lit up as a pair of strong waves of electricity- much stronger than that of previous waves sent coursing through the wolves or Boarbatusk- slammed into their forms and transferred back and forth between their bodies like a looped circuit. As the arcs of lightning dissipated, both Neo and Emerald calmly stepped forward and planted a blade each firmly into the skull of a Ursa, the final two Grimm perishing moments later.

The three of them took deep breaths for a few moments as they collected themselves after the first combat they had as a trio. With a silent nod to each other, they all quickly moved into another nearby alleyway as they silently made the rest of their way to the crashed warship, this time managing to avoid smaller packs of Grimm along the way.