A/N: Hey, everybody, it's Pyg. I'll just be making my usual rounds today on the author's note, but there is one thing that I wanted to talk about. It's a bit long so it'll be at the bottom of the chapter.

Please enjoy this next chapter.

*The hum of the Bullhead's engine makes the ship shake slightly. You sit in the cold, metal behemoth, shuddering as you wait to reach Mountain Glenn. Your team sitting around you are all quiet, save for the professor, Doctor Oobleck, who is chattering animatedly to the pilot. You are filled with Anticipation.

"Okay, students! It's time to leave!" Oobleck said, turning to us and pointing at the door.

"How? I don't see a landing zone," said Asriel.

"Easy! We're jumping!"

"Oh. How did I know?" Asriel muttered before he jumped out.

Papyrus jumped after him, "Nyeh-ing" all the way down.

Chara simply walked out the door and let gravity do its work.

Sans was nowhere to be seen. I looked to the ground, and sure enough he was already there.

"No time like the present, I guess," I said, taking a running start and jumping out into a nosedive.

When we had all reached the ground, Dr. Oobleck took immediate control, zipping around, planning out how we would search for this hidden base.

"Asriel!"

"Y-yes, sir?" he responded, caught off guard.

"You are the leader of this team, yes?"

"Yes?"

"Then you should know how we'll be going about this search, correct?"

"Yes?" secretly hoping he would explain it, Asriel just decided to agree with him.

"Good! Then, as you already know, I will explain it to your teammates. Everyone! Gather round! If there is a criminal base in this town, we'll need to keep an eye out for high concentrations of Grimm. The more Grimm there are in the middle of a street or surrounding a building, the more likely it is that we have found our criminals. Today, we will be searching above ground. Tomorrow, if we haven't found it, we will search the underground caverns."

We wandered through the streets, scanning the buildings and sidewalks for Grimm, until we came across a very specific patch of cracked pavement where there was a pack of Beowulves.

"That must be it. Prepare for a fight, students," Oobleck said to us, pushing up his glasses.

*What will you do?

*Use SPELL to fight, as the magic can be cast upon the body, as well as the soul.

*OR use physical attacks to fight, as the Beowulves have no soul, and will attack out of turn.

I put up my fists and got ready to fight. The Grimm don't fight fair, so I can't defend myself through normal means.

I looked around at the Beowulves encircling us. There were twenty, all with claws out and teeth grating as they snarled with a sinister look in their glowing, soulless eyes.

What gives these things life if they don't have souls? I thought. Maybe they're feeding off of something. Some...higher being.

"Frisk!" Dr. Oobleck said, jumping to a vantage point so as to observe our fight.

"I have a question," he continued, "What made you want to become a Huntress?"

"Well," I started, throwing a charging Beowulf over my back and cringing as it yelped in pain, the life leaving its eyes, "I'm a problem solver by nature, so this sort of job lets me help a lot of people. Helping people is basically my dream job."

"Hmm...interesting," Oobleck said, writing furiously in a notepad and then jumping off to someone else.

"Chara! I have the same question for you!"

"I decided to become a Hunter because I get to kill things for a living. I don't know if you've heard, but that's kind of a hobby of mine."

"..."

After a strange moment of silence, Oobleck coughed lightly, and moved on without a word, scratching out words with a shaking hand.

"Sans? Your past is shrouded in mystery. If you don't mind, I would ask you of your motivation."

"i fight to forget. i gave up trying to go back a long time ago. what's the point in remembering what i could have gone back to?"

"Dreadful, simply dreadful! Asriel, you're one of our star pupils. Surely you have a good reason to pursue such a dangerous path?"

"Honestly, doc, I may only look seventeen, but...I have several lifetimes of experience. With those several lifetimes of experience come several lifetimes of bad mistakes. I became a Hunter because...putting it in simple terms, my Karmic bank account is pretty far in the red. I do this to atone for something."

"Troubling indeed. Lastly, we have Papyrus. Old boy, tell me. How did you happen to get here?"

"I CHOSE TO DO THIS BECAUSE IT MEANS SOMETHING. I'M NOT SURE WHAT IT MEANS, BUT I KNOW IT MEANS SOMETHING."

"Er...you're...absolutely sure that's why?"

"YES."

Oobleck smiled, his eyes sparkling as he watched us take down wave after wave of the Beowulves, the rest of the team doing most of the work. After the fighting died down, we searched the area, finding nothing but finished cigars as hints. Roman Torchwick was definitely here. Here...but where?

"Sans, can you lay out four sleeping bags? We'll make the inside of this building our base for tonight," Asriel said, turning to me, "Frisk, you'll be outside on watch for anything suspicious. Especially keep an eye out for Torchwick."

"Can do, Azz."

"Good. Everyone else is gonna get sleep. Phone in on your Scroll if you find anything suspicious, or if it's time to switch our Nightwatch shift. We'll cycle turns every four hours."

"A beautiful night, no?"

"Doctor Oobleck?"

"Well? Isn't it?"

"I guess, why?"

...

"Your friends are a strange bunch, Frisk..."

"Yeah...but they're my strange bunch."

"Keep up your spirits. Nothing can break you if you don't let it happen. Remember that."

"Thanks, doctor. I will."

"My pleasure. Just be sure to keep your eye out for now. We wouldn't want to disappoint your team leader, would we?"

As he said that, I looked out of the window I watched the surroundings from, and spotted a white coat. Taking out a pair of binoculars Oobleck gave me, I looked for the white coat again. It was only about a block away from our building. Leaving the building and taking my scroll, I searched for it again. Not too long after, I found it again. It was Roman, sneaking around the city, cane in his hand and cigar in his mouth. I followed from a distance, ducking into alleyways from time to time as he looked back to see if anyone was following him.

After a few more blocks, he took out a Scroll and called someone.

"Cinder? Hello? You there? Oh, hey...yeah...what? The mission? Yeah...about that, there's been a slight change...huh? Right, right. About those caves you told us about? I don't remember the part where you said there was an entire city full of monsters in there...Yeah, I was surprised too when I first saw them. They told us if we could get the train running and blow up what was blocking them inside, they would reward us with whatever we wanted...Loyalty? That's not a bad idea. We could kill two birds with one stone. Recruits and Dust. Wait...What if those pesky hunters get involved! They have the Prince of Monsters with them! If he even enters the town, our whole plan is screwed! Fine. I'll report back tomorrow."

He stood there for a while, and then started walking somewhere. I sent a message to Asriel to get him up for his Nightwatch, and to tell him that I would be out for a while. I followed Torchwick to a cave at the edge of the city. He walked onto a small platform in a hole in the cave. The platform was slowly drawn down, and then brought back up, as the pulley holding it up did its work. Immediately, I called Asriel.

"Azz!"

"What?" he responded groggily.

"There's an underground monster city in this place. Roman Torchwick was out here, and I eavesdropped on a phone call he made to his boss, who's named Cinder. I couldn't hear what Cinder was saying but Roman made it pretty clear that if we get involved, things are going to get complicated for them. Especially if you come into town. Tomorrow we'll check it out."

"Are you sure we can't just go in there now?" he said, this time much more awake.

"There wouldn't be enough monsters around. The city, like any other, would come alive in the daytime, right?"

"Right. So that's when we come down, storm in on the criminals, capture them, and then use their train not only to free the monsters, but also to get a fast track back to Vale so we can turn them in to the authorities. So we should be doing this...when the Professor wakes us?"

"Yes. When the Doctor wakes us. He's very touchy about that."

"Right. Doctor. Sorry."

So I have an announcement to make.

The story that was the continuation of the last epilogue chapter from The War for a Broken Heart was named "The Silver Thorns of the Bloody Rose."

The Silver Thorns of the Bloody Rose will no longer be continuing. It is on permanent Hiatus.

But there is lemonade that's coming from these lemons. Anyone who wants to try and continue the story can do so. It's been a long time since I thought about that story, and I feel like I wouldn't do as good as I would have if I had continued writing it, even though it has less views than the 3 chapter Metal Gear story.

If you plan on writing a story to continue the adventures of the characters from The Silver Thorns of the Bloody Rose, then please PM me about it before you do it. I want to read the stories that people are writing about them.

Don't worry about our Metal Gear story. We're going to come back to that eventually.

TL;DR - The Silver Thorns of the Bloody Rose is not going to happen anymore, but pretty much anyone can write what could have happened as long as you message me about it so I can read it. Also, Metal Gear is still going to happen, so just be patient.