Zero looked at Ebon with his cold, piercing eyes. He didn't look particularly friendly, "I'm sorry if I end up hurting you too badly." His voice was muffled underneath his scarf. Before long, he stood next to Professor Maple and Ebon in the center of the ring. The katana that he held to his side held a strange addition to it. On the back of the blade was a pair of shotgun barrels, and this was only made stranger by the fact that the weapon didn't seem to have a stock of any kind. The barrels and firing mechanisms seemed to be tacked onto an average sword.

Ebon stared at the blade, his eyes like dinner plates behind the blue mirrored lens of his ski goggles.

Zero popped his shoulder to get a little more comfortable, and Ebon jumped in fear from the sudden movement. Frosty blue light burst from the soles of his boots. Out of panic, he activated them. A torrent of snow poured out with a howling gale, and Ebon was sent tumbling back onto the vinyl tiling.

.

"Woah!" Arty called out while blocking his face from the flakes of snow and ice.

The rest of the students either laughed, watched in amazement, or clapped when they witnessed this spectacle.

"You know how I said that you were going to die, but you ended up, you know, alive?" Roland nudged his leader, "I mean it without any doubt that Ebon's a dead man walking."

Timbre chuckled. "Well, he's already almost killed himself. I don't think that was exactly intentional." She could feel Alice's eyes stabbing into the back of her head.

.

Professor Maple laughed maniacally, "Oh, this is going to be a grand old time!" she crossed her arms and leveled her sadistic smile on the pair, "Ebon, no skis or snowboard. Zero, you can only use the shotgun form of your weapon."

Zero nodded with his weapon held out. The mirrored silver blade cast dots of light across the battlefield. The urban ninja threw the blade up into the air. He caught it by the blade, and the whole apparatus collapsed around his hand, the metal finger guards keeping him from slicing into his aura by just using his gun. Metal clanged against metal, but when the sounds finished he held a short barreled shotgun with the blade as the stock. Silence twisted around his opponent's throat.

Ebon could do nothing but point at the hooded kid's weapon. "How did that?... What?"

.

"Ebon you stop bein' such a lummox right now!" Alice screamed from the stands. "Get yourself ready!"

.

Ebon shook his head and pulled up the two cylinders hooked to his belt. With one in each hand, they extended into two full-length ski-poles. Their sides glowed bright blue with Ice Dust. After a minute of consideration, he flipped up the pole in his right hand. It folded and collapsed into a small pistol, still glowing with Dust power. Once he was ready he stood and faced his opponent. He was nervous to say the least. He wasn't used to fighting with so little mobility.

Professor Maple was still giggling maniacally while standing behind the students. She seemed to be having a little too much fun. How did she still have so much energy after the first three fights? "Okay, so remember to have fun. Please try not to kill each other… too much. This is sparring, remember?" she walked to the edge of the arena and held up a hand, "Alright! Begin!"

Zero nodded and lifted his gun towards Ebon. His eyes were dead as he fired a shot into the chest of his still shocked opponent. The bang shook the room. The force sent Ebon tumbling to the ground onto his backside.

.

"Ebon! You get your butt off of tha floor right now!" Alice yelled. "You're startin' tha fight off just like Umber did!"

.

He still won though, didn't he? Ebon thought to himself as he pushed off of the floor. He poised his ski pole, the bladed edge arcing with frozen energy. Waves of frozen air rushed towards Zero as Ebon chopped in his direction with the weapon.

To the ninja, the icy waves looked like ethereal scythe blades being brought down on him, but they weren't intimidating at the slightest. He sidestepped them with ease. Ice was his element after all.

.

"Ebon, you've got this!" Turf rooted his teammate on, "You've got this!" He turned to the rest of his team, reconsidered, then turned to FREZ, "He doesn't got this, does he?…"

"Honestly…" Rime muttered. "I don't know. I haven't seen Zero fight before."

Frost crossed her arms. "Come to think of it, I haven't see him fight much either. Even back in the Emerald Forest. He just… appeared when I got to the temple." She shook her head. "He's strange... I can't quite seem to get a good read on him..."

Alice humphed. "Yeah. I'd say Ebon is very dead…" She looked disappointed while watching Ebon swing and shoot at the hooded student. None of his attacks hit, and Zero seemed to refuse to shoot in favor of just dodging in order to toy with his opponent.

"Awesome… get an application ready for the open slot…" Turf continued watching Ebon's fruitless struggle.

.

The more Ebon attacked, the more frantic he became. Why isn't he fighting back?! He yelled internally while staring into Zero's emotionless eyes. He swung again and again, making sure to keep his distance in order to avoid any devastating blasts that might have come from the katana's shotgun form the moment Zero decided to counter. Ebon was used to fighting at a distance, but that was usually when he was on the move. On foot, he wasn't comfortable battling at all.

Keeping up with the whole routine was becoming tiring to Zero. He just thought it would be rude to just take the guy out in two seconds, but that feeling of hesitation was a fleeting one. As soon as Ebon came in close, he sidestepped him and kicked his opponent in the ankles. While Ebon fell forwards, he fired three shots into his back in rapid succession.

.

Team ANTE watched as their teammate's aura-meter nearly emptied on Alice's scroll. She quickly snapped it shut and shoved it into a pocket in her dress before crossing her arms.

"What were you saying about your winning streak, Alice?" Frost smiled slyly to the other leader.

Alice was about to jump out of her seat, but Navy held his arm out in front of her. "Calm down, Alice. We still have two more fights. Team FREZ is done." He looked over to Arty and his teammates, "Turf and I just need to worry about the ARTS girls," he scoffed, "and that shouldn't be too difficult." His confident demeanor faded when he heard laughter and a repetitive knocking noise from Team ARTS. Timbre was holding her stomach, laughing uncontrollably. "What's so funny, pop star?" he sneered.

Timbre wiped a tear from her eye, trying to control herself. For some reason, the banging continued. "Oh, it's just that, maybe you're underestimating us by a long shot. If I remember correctly, you weren't there when eight new initiates took down a five-story tall Minotaurus during orientation. FYI, Sepia and I were a part of those eight."

Navy shrugged. "So? We've all killed Grimm. Fighting a person is another story," his face barely budged from its stoic, stone-cold serious expression, "and can you stop kicking your desk? You're driving me crazy."

Timbre tilted her head in confusion, "Excuse me?"

That's when Navy noticed the other girl next to Timbre, the one with the brown flower in her hair and the sequin shirt. Her head was face-down on the long desk and she was slamming her fist against it. Her shoulders were heaving back and forth.

"Uh… Sepia?" Arty said, reaching towards her. "You okay?"

Sepia shot up, her mouth open wide in a fit of laughter, but no sound was coming out.

"Oh," Timbre smiled, "she's laughing. Glad I'm not the only one."

.

Professor Maple spoke to the class while helping Ebon up, "Now, go take a well deserved rest." She shooed them back to their teams and grinned, "Remember, odds are almost always stacked against you. You can't be afraid to rely on others to compensate in areas that you are lacking." She looked over all of her students, noting the few laughing students. She had heard the little debacle between ANTE and ARTS, and thought it best to switch her plans around a little bit to spice things up. "Originally, I had planned the next fight to be Navy against Timbre, but… Sepia, Navy, you're both up next," she held up a long piece of black cloth, "and one of you has to put this on."

Navy turned to their teacher. "Why? I'd gladly take on the washed up celebrity."

'Watch out for the splash zone, guys,' Sepia signed as she got up and made her way into the battlefield, 'It's going to get messy!' She bounced down the stairs to meet up with Professor Maple, her boots' high heels clacking loudly as she skipped.

The shocked look on Timbre's face caught Arty's attention. "What is it? What'd she say?"

Timbre sat there quietly. "You'd be better off not knowing," she assured him.

.

Assuming that it would be her taking the blindfold, Sepia gingerly took it from her instructor's hand and tied it on.

"Who said that was for you?" Navy jeered.

Professor Maple shrugged. "She isn't wrong, Navy. There's a very specific reason I'm having her go blind this fight. I recommend that you take this a little more seriously," she pointed to her tablet, "If you could read what this girl was capable of, you'd be... concerned."

Even without her sight, Sepia seemed to be perfectly at ease. After all, it wasn't like a director wouldn't plan out her scenes prior to filming. Before the scene, every action was being planned out. The surprise, struggle, a heart drop, and the climax of the film. A lovely screenplay circled around and around her brain. She simply gave a thumbs up to say that she was prepared.

"Great," Professor Maple responded, "Navy, you will only be able to use one weapon from your…" she looked over his black combat vest, which was stuffed to the brim with guns, knives, and other offensive gear, "arsenal… for this fight, so choose carefully."

Navy was taken back a bit by Professor Maple's stipulation. "But… but…"

"No buts. One weapon." Professor Maple stood firm.

He looked over his combat vest, making a mental list of pros and cons to everything there. He decided to go for his most versatile weapon. He reached and pulled a solid black glock off of his belt, "Fine." He held up the gun and cocked it.

"Interesting choice. Alright, if you are both ready, then you may begin," Professor Maple took her position as an observer.

"Bring it on, girly!" Navy raised his arm, pointing his gun straight at Sepia's blindfolded face and pulled the trigger. He reeled back, a knot forming deep in the pit of his chest. Missing the target wasn't something that this soldier did, but there Sepia was, totally unscathed. The actress moved her head just a few inches to the side, allowing the bullet to whiz by her ear without even leaving a mark.

Camera-guns out in front of her, Sepia began giving return fire to her opponent. Although he tried to run sideways to avoid her onslaught, the guns didn't waver from him. The trail of bullets followed him closely. The first bit of her scene took place: the surprise.

.

Roland gawked at the girl, "What in Remnant…?"

"You'll understand in a little while." Timbre patted him on the back.

.

Navy kept on the run, firing every few steps in hopes that he might manage to hit the little weasel that Sepia was proving to be. He was used to running from gunfire, but that was when his opponents could actually see what they were aiming at. An enemy that was basically blind was keeping up with him. Not only that, but dodging his return attacks. What is going on here?!

The great thing about being mute is that you can hum your own battle music without being heard, or so Sepia believed. A guitar riff here, a few cymbal crashes there, and she had a full soundtrack going in her head. Her return fire seemed to be quite a shock to the jarhead.

If she could have spoken, she would've been talking smack while he ran around in panic. That would have made the next part of the scene, the struggle, a lot more effective. Instead, she had to send that message with an unrelenting spray of bullets. For a moment she ceased her fire, but then she sprinted towards Navy with the butts of her pistol ready to bludgeon Navy's skull in. He fired off a few rounds, but she dodged them with ease.

Though the girl seemed to know what was going on despite not being able to see it, she was still just an opponent. The two of them threw hits back and forth, but blocked with their forearms. Bullets were exchanged, but no damage was really being done.

Sepia was enjoying every second of it.

.

Arty watched the battle intently, but, given his short attention span, his eyes began to wander around. Team ANTE looked just as confused and enthralled as everyone else, Alice obviously fuming as she watched Navy struggle. Frost and Rime looked amused. On his own team, Roland looked like he was both trying to understand the situation and reveling in Navy's frustration. Timbre had a knowing smile as she watched her partner hold her own.

That's when Arty noticed a small ball of light at the top of the room. It wasn't part of the light fixtures. No. It was a literal ball of light floating at the apex of the ceiling.

"She doesn't need her eyes to see…" Roland muttered to himself as he watched the fight.

That's when Arty began to piece things together. "Hey. Roland." Arty nudged his partner and pointed to the ceiling. "Do you see that?"

The Faunus's face scrunched up in confusion before slowly fading away into a smile, "No freaking way…"

.

Seeing that her attack was proving useless, Sepia bounded over her opponent in an attempt to get in a few back shots on him.

Navy saw his chance. Once she was in the air, she couldn't do much to change her trajectory. He dove to the ground and rolled onto his back, aiming up at the girl flying over his head, narrowly avoiding being hit in the head by a brown boot heel in the process. Once her head entered his iron sights, he fired.

The bullet missed Sepia's face by inches. Though it didn't hit what he was aiming at, Navy did manage to hit another target.

.

The captivated students jumped as the glowing orb above the battlefield shattered upon being struck, sending shimmering, glass-like shards raining down upon Sepia and Navy.

.

Instead of landing cleanly like usual, Sepia fell face first into the ground and slid a few feet. She shivered, clearly disturbed by the turn of events.

What the hell…? She lost her balance? As he went to push himself up, Navy winced when he felt some sharp objects digging into his free hand. He looked down at his palm and saw what looked like shimmering bits of glass stuck to his skin. Only a second later, they began to dissolve into small flecks of light before disappearing, reminiscent of a Grimm after it died, only with light instead of shadow. He clenched his fist and stood up to face the clearly shaken girl, who was facing the wall away from him. "I don't know what tricks you're pulling, but it's time to end them," he pulled his gun and aimed at the back of her head.

That was the heart drop, soldier boy... Sepia thought to herself. Her grin was hidden from his view, just like the three glowing orbs floating behind his head.

.

"Navy! Look ou-" Alice couldn't finish her sentence in time to warn her teammate.

.

Sepia held her guns over her shoulders and fired backwards at Navy's firing hand. His shock gave her enough time to dig her heels between the tiles and the wall to push off. The orbs began flying around and around Navy, just as she willed them to. She could see every angle of his poor little face.

Navy still didn't understand what was happening, but he knew that these strange orbs had to go. He shot his glock randomly around him at the spinning lights. The more he shot, the more frustrated he got. His aim began to suffer. Bright pulses of light rippled off of the forcefield as the stray bullets collided with it.

Sepia stopped dead in her tracks. She faced Alice, though wasn't able to get the full effect of looking her in the eyes. Her gun slowly was leveled at Navy's face, and the orbs flew back to her. They were positioned in a triangle around the barrel of the weapon, and Navy looked up just in time to get a view down its opening.

And now for the climax! The grand finale! Her trigger finger didn't hesitate for a moment. Three bullets were fired, and slammed into Navy's face. She didn't so much as flinch while firing upon the soldier, 'And… cut,' she mouthed to the leader of Team ANTE.

When some of the past fights ended in cheers from onlookers or sounds of disappointment from teammates, Sepia's victory resulted in nothing but stunned silence.

.

"So…" Turf looked at his teammate, who was rolling around on the ground and holding his face. He didn't feel too terrible, "That… was actually pretty cool."

"No kidding!" Rime chimed in.

Roland couldn't help but grin, "Got what he deserved, huh?" He gave Sepia a thumbs up of approval.

.

Sepia pulled off the blindfold and returned the gesture. The three orbs shattered into countless golden flecks of light all around her. With a final curtsy, she ran back up to take her seat with her team. Butterflies still bounced around in her stomach from the look of shock and rage in Team ANTE's leader.

.

Alice's face was as red as her hair. "You know what? You bloody know what? This mess doesn't prove a thing! So what if Navy and Ebon lost?" She looked to the teacher at the front of the room. "These stupid limitations would neva 'appen in the real world. We're trained ta fight Grimm here. Grimm. Are. Predictable." She shook her head. "What in Remnant do you think you're actually teaching us by 'aving us do this our first day of class?" The girl in the red dress turned. Her boots clattered on the steps as she headed for the exit at the back of the room.

"Alice?" Ebon reached out to grab her arm, but she pushed it off. She glared back at him before continuing on to the exit.

Right as she reached the last landing, a previously unseen person held an arm out in front of her. "An' who exactly do you think you a-..."

A man donning a white suit jacket and black slacks looked up at Alice from behind tinted bifocals. He straightened his checkered tie and cleared his throat.

"P-p-professor Alabasta?..." Alice stammered.

"Ms. Crims. If you would, I'd like you to return to your seat and listen to what your instructor has to say," Professor Alabaster smiled kindly at his redheaded student, "I hope that won't be a problem."

"N-no sir," she rushed back to her seat. Her face still red, but more from embarrassment than anger.

As always, Professor Maple had a happy gleam in her eyes, "Alice, you seem to have a misunderstanding as to how Grimm work. They aren't mindless killing machines. They can think, and they can learn. As you may know, the longer a Creature of Grimm lives, the wiser and more powerful it becomes. Just look at the Kokonatsu, for example. The fox Grimm only gets smarter with age," she made her way to the walkway between desks, "There may well come a day when you're pitted up against something much bigger and stronger than yourself. Trust me, the Minotaurus is not even close to the biggest or strongest thing that you might take on," she nodded towards Arty and then to Everest, "and there may be a time you can't rely on your semblance to bail you out," her gesture was directed at Roland and then Rime, "In fact, you may not have your weapon of choice, or be limited to just part of your weapon." She smiled at Alice, and allowed her to look to Ebon, Navy, Frost, and Zero for herself, "Gods forbid that you're blinded," she didn't even have to tell Alice who she referred to with that quip.

Professor Maple walked back to the center of the arena, "You see, being a Huntress or a Huntsman doesn't mean that you can predict what will happen next. It means that you can adjust to unpredictability. On top of that, it won't just be Grimm that you fight, but also other people. Criminals. Maniacs. Rogue Huntsmen. Those are the definition of unpredictable. So, please tell me if you're here to learn how to be a Huntress, or if you're just here to make yourself feel large and in charge?"

"I…" Alice felt the eyes of her classmates dig into her. And if her classmates were digging, Professor Maple and Alabaster were burning holes into her very being, "I…" she took a deep breath, "I'm here ta be a Huntress, ma'am."

"I was hoping that would be your answer," Professor Maple looked to her boss and nodded. Her attention was returned to her students quickly, and she carried on with the lesson, "Now, we still have one last fight. Timbre and Turf, the green T's of ARTS and ANTE. Are you two prepared?"

.

Timbre turned to Turf, "Guess that's to be expected. We're the only ones left."

"Yeah, but I feel bad about it. We worked together back at initiation, after all," Turf stood and propped his shovel up on his shoulder as he made his way to the arena, "but I've gotta bring in a victory for ANTE, so I'm sorry. Can't let ARTS be the only team with a perfect record."

"Hey, how it goes is how it goes," she smiled, "just don't think I'll go easy on you."

Professor Maple clasped her hands together and motioned for them to come down. Her grin took on a less sadistic, more excited gleam. Once they were down, she got right into it, "Alright, this one is simple," she stepped a few feet away and pulled out what seemed to be a laser pointer. With a press of a button, a blade of red light shot out from the end, but stopped about three feet out. She used the laser sword to singe a circle just large enough for someone to be able to lay down in, "Turf, you cannot leave this circle. Timbre, you may only use about one foot of your wires on each hand," she explained while putting away the laser sword.

Timbre shrugged and released a length of the thick cable from each sleeve, "Kay," she turned on her heel and walked to the end of the arena opposite of the burned circle. One arm reeled back as she took on her fighting stance.

"This is gonna be interesting," Turf stepped into the circle and shifted his weapon into shotgun form. He planned to use the distance between them as long as he could, "I'm ready," he looked over to his fuming leader for a moment. As much of a she-demon as she might've been, Alabaster chose her as leader for a reason. He had to trust that much.

Timbre looked over to her team. Arty and Sepia were giving hearty thumbs-up. Roland just held his hand out flat and tilted it side to side. Thanks for the vote of confidence, Roland. "Ready, Teach."

"Then get on with it!" Professor Maple quickly got out of the way of the impending battle.

A pair of shotgun blasts shook the floor as soon as Professor Maple was clear of the arena. Turf pumped his shotgun to reload, seeing that Timbre was just far enough away to avoid being hit, "Come on!" he called, "Come at me, singer!" his tone was more playful and taunting than combative. Instead of the glazed over daze that he usually had, he held an air of happiness about him. It seemed that he was just happy to be there.

Timbre smiled and dashed forwards. She dodged another shotgun blast by flipping up and over Turf, "With pleasure," she whispered in his ear before swiping her arm at his neck.

"Crap!" Turf ducked to avoid the wires. He hoisted up his gun and worked the pump action to ready a shot. The barrels were angled Timbre's stomach and a pair of shots boomed, but it seemed that she was too quick on her feet. Two misses already. Neither of them were getting anywhere in the match.

Timbre ducked low and swiped with her heavy black boots, attempting to knock the boy off of his feet. She felt her heel connect and watched as Turf tumbled to the ground. He barely remained within the circle, his nose stopping only inches from touching the tile outside of the singed ring.

He coughed, having had the air sufficiently knocked out of him. He looked up at Timbre and aimed his gun at her one more time. He fired, landing a blast in the center of her corset. Though it wouldn't do much damage, he was really just trying to make some space.

Timbre spun through the air from the knockback before hitting the ground.

.

Arty watched her aura slowly dropping. "Dang it…" he looked back up to her, "C'mon Timbre! You can do better than that! Get up!"

.

"Easier said than done, Umber!" she kicked herself back onto her feet and dashed towards Turf, who continued to pump and shoot his shotgun.

Timbre closed in, but Turf was ready. He switched weapon form and swiped the sharpened end of his spade at his opponent. He missed, but on the rebound he twisted the weapon so that the flat of it struck Timbre in the side.

Timbre sprawled to the floor. She knew she had to strike back fast. She was in a state of weakness. All he had to do was -

Timbre turned to counter, but found the twin barrels of the shotgun pointed right at her.

"I'm not a showy guy," Turf aimed for the open space between her collarbones and fired. She was sent sprawling backwards. He slowly lowered his weapon, noting the groaning Timbre on the ground in front of him, "We're still cool… right?" he asked slowly, holding out his hand to help her up. He didn't want to ruin one of his new friendships already.

Timbre looked up at the boy that had just shot her in the chest with a shotgun. His emerald green eyes looked down apologetically. She began to laugh and took his hand, "Of course we're cool. It's just a practice battle. Why'd you think I'd hold it against you?"

"Because half my team would," he pulled her up, "but I'm glad you're not the same way," he looked down at their hands, noting that he had held hers for just a bit too long. He felt his face turn red and quickly let go, "Uhh…. we… we have to exchange notes sometime. We could learn a little from each other."

.

Roland nudged Arty, "Did a fight just… end on a happy note…?" he whispered, "I know a thing or two about romance novels, and the guy shooting the girl usually doesn't end like… like this."

Arty ignored the literary allusion, "I don't think Everest wants to kill me, and I don't want to kill him. Does that not count as ending on a happy note?" the leader of ARTS looked over to the caveman, who was being entertained by Rime folding some paper into small birds. When Rime saw him looking at them, she glared at them and turned away in a huff.

"But then again, maybe I'm guilty by association because of you clocking Rime over the head with a forty-pound typewriter," Arty patted Roland's weapon, which was still affixed to his left arm. As much as Roland's outbursts scared him, he was thankful that the guy was on their side.

"Yeah, I'll have to find a way to make up for that…" Roland groaned, "I like to choose my enemies, and she isn't that bad. I'll break Navy and Alice's necks, though. I don't give a fu-"

A message appeared on the scrolls of Team ARTS and showed a single word.

Sepia Hughes: 'Language.'

"Right…" the Faunus crossed his arms, "Anyway… Maple! Are we done here?" he called to their instructor.

Professor Maple looked around the room, "Well, I already gave the speech that I planned on giving at the end, so I suppose we're about ready to wrap things up. Does anyone have any more questions, concerns, or tantrums they'd like to share?"

Professor Alabaster stood in the stands, "If I may, I would like to have a moment," his grey eyes scanned the room, critically looking over each student, "What I have seen today has made me worry in some ways, and feel relieved in others. Forgive the metaphor, but I see many pawns, and perhaps even a rook or a knight here before me. All of you have ways of making a difference, but few of you have the desire or will to plan more than a move or two ahead. Allow me to leave you with this question," his eyes settled on Arty, the boy he had personally asked to come to Beacon only the summer before, "What moves will you make in the coming turns?"

He let the question sink in, seemingly amused by the nervous glances that the students gave each other, "I will let you all think about that for a while. I hope that you all have a great rest of your day," he turned and left without so much as another word.

Professor Maple nodded slowly, "Wise words..." she sounded unsure of herself as she looked around the room, hoping that someone in the room would be able to decipher the meaning behind her boss's little speech, "Well, I hope that you all get plenty of rest. I look forward to what is to come. You'll all grow and I hope that you all do great."

As the students filed out of Professor Maple's classroom into the hall, there was a lot of chatter about the six fights they had just witnessed. Critiques were given and awe-struck praise was passed on. Ebon and Turf congratulated Arty and Roland before Alice and Navy came to move them along. Arty was the last in line to leave the room when he heard Timbre talking to Professor Maple at the front of the combat arena. He stopped to look over to the teacher and student chatting, occasionally smiling, laughing, but at one point or another he could swear that he saw them wipe tears away.

"Oh, Mr. Umber! You're still here?" Professor Maple called out.

Arty tensed up and was tempted to run out of the room in a panic.

"Come down here, Arty. I'm not going to hurt you," the redhead chuckled, "I'm done with that for today."

After that lesson, Arty could see that Professor Maple's teaching methods were a bit unorthodox compared to Atlas Academy, but they were definitely effective. That still didn't mean he wasn't absolutely terrified of her.

"Arty," Timbre beamed, "I'd like to introduce you to Professor Carmen Maple, long-term family friend of the Forté family."

Arty was taken a bit aback, "You two know each other?"

Timbre leaned up against the wall, "Yeah, she was on the same team as my mom. She practically helped raise me."

"Aw, now don't give me that much credit. Your father was the real caregiver. I was more of just the fun aunt that you got into trouble with every now and then," she grinned wildly as she swung a laser pointer around her finger by the keychain.

Arty could just nod, "Okay… so, not to sound rude, but, why are you two telling me this?"

Maple put her hands on Arty's shoulders, "Because I wanted to say thank you for so readily accepting her as a member of your team… not like you had a choice, but nonetheless! Thank you. It can't be easy having somebody of her… reputation being on your team. Must make Team ARTS rather popular, huh? Or maybe less popular, as it seems," she narrowed her eyes, her tone becoming much more serious, "if anything happens to her and I find out you didn't give 500% to help her, then I'll be the one you answer to," her wild smile reappeared, "okay?"

Arty felt like passing out on the floor. He looked over to Timbre, who was rolling her eyes, "Yeah. Of course… You got it."

Professor Maple nodded and released the student. Her eyes passed over him one last time. Her examination told her that she could trust him with Timbre, so she waved her hands to shoo them off, "Now, run along. You've both got lots to do. Other classes and all that."

The pair of students left to catch up with their team, knowing full well that they would probably have some situation to attend to between Roland and Sepia.

.

The four of them could… no… would go far, and Carmen knew that much. When she knew that they were out of earshot, she pulled up a photo on her scroll. Four young women stood side-by-side, all beaming, "See, she's in good hands…" her voice trailed off. She put away her scroll, looked ahead, and set off for her office, "She'll make you proud, Aria."