For months, she was looking forward to meeting the kids. She knew so much about their struggles, their families, their fears… they felt like her own children, especially Ms. Sepia Hughes. Being from Vacuo herself, Lieutenant Hulud knew quite a bit about her fellow Vacuan.

"Burne, Timbre, it's unwise to think that I can so easily be surprised. In fact, I only know of two people in this world who could actually surprise me," Hulud kept her eyes locked onto Roland and Sepia's backs. At the sound of her hollowed and staticy voice, they turned around to face her and her bony mask. Rows of teeth lined the four bone flaps that made up most of her mask, and the molten core that was usually in a Grimm's eyes resided in the exact center of the flaps, "But it does look like I managed to surprise you two."

Arty wasn't expecting their opponent's senses to be so good. He had to play it cool. He couldn't show fear for his team's sake. "It doesn't matter, you're still surrounded… whoever you are!" The voice was feminine and electronically distorted, but it definitely didn't belong to Oro, Sanguwalker, or Venice.

"Timbre was right to assume that I was one of the four that dear Roland mentioned. You all may call me Hulud, if you so please," she took a step back to avoid the giant paper arrowhead that came down where her feet once were, "Or you can make an attempt on my life. Whatever works."

Rage seared in Roland's eyes as the paper tendril retracted, "There's no point in talking," it cut through the air again like a scorpion's tail, narrowly missing Hulud's face.

Hulud narrowed her gaze behind her mask, "I guess I have to assume that I won't be able to take you four in willingly."

"You better believe it!" Timbre shouted, her fists up and ready. There wasn't any point in avoiding a fight. The only thing left to do was jump right into it.

"Then I have no other choice than to incapacitate all of you," Hulud whipped around. She pulled out something that strapped to her back under her trench coat. What seemed to be a black box unfolded into a six-foot long polearm with a rectangular guillotine blade at the end. The blade shined like polished silver as it cut through the air towards Timbre.

It buckled to a stop midair, having been caught by the trail of paper that wrapped around the handle.

"Get back, T!" Roland shouted as the paper yanked the weapon back to give Timbre some time to get away.

Timbre lunged backwards to regroup with Arty a little further away. "Arty… this is-"

"One of their Lieutenants… I know…"

"So what are we gonna do?"

Arty watched as Roland let go of Hulud's weapon and continued trying to get a hit in, "I'm… honestly not sure, but we're already in this and there's no turning back. I can only imagine what somebody like her can do if people like Oro and Trex are beneath her."

"Well. Don't just stand there. We can't leave Roland to fight her alone!" Timbre drew wires, longer than normal, and began charging towards Hulud. She swung for her exposed side. With Roland's attacks being blocked by the polearm, there was no way she could dodge the attack.

Shadowy haze collected in front of Timbre, and from it came Lieutenant Hulud with her weapon reared back behind her head. The guillotine blade slid down along the polearm to the middle of the weapon. It was positioned just so that it would come down right on Timbre's head.

Timbre stumbled. The blade cut the air right in front of her nose as she fell backwards, landing in the sand. "What the-?!" She pushed herself back with her hands and feet, struggling to find the opportunity to stand up.

Two Huluds stood on the beach now. One stood idly by, and the other raised her weapon again.

"I kept telling my superior that one of us Lieutenants should have been there to visit you in the Emerald Forest, but instead she just had to make me send Oro," Hulud's voice echoed through the other copy of her, "How did you kids like her, by the way? I trained her myself."

One of the Huluds jumped towards Roland and Sepia, bringing her weapon down between them. When Sepia opened fire on her, she didn't even flinch. The bullets just grazed off of her coat and headscarf. The same happened when Roland tried to stab her from the side.

Whatever Hulud had created from the shadows stepped back and lunged with the blade shifted to one end of the polearm's shaft. Her blade missed Arty's arm by mere inches when he jumped to the side.

Arty tried to process the situation. Obviously this was the work of a Semblance, but what exactly the Semblance did, he still wasn't sure. There were so many possibilities, each one more dangerous than the last. "Which one's the real one?!" He aimed his gun at the Hulud walking towards him and Timbre. He could see Sepia and Roland exchanging and blocking attacks from the other.

"I think a better question right now would be, are they both just as real?" Timbre, back on her feet, was ready for an attack. She swung a wire, aiming for their Hulud's neck. If this is just an illusion, than this should go right through-

Hulud ducked under the wire and rushed them, blade out and ready to swing.

"Timbre watch out!" Arty ran up. Even running at full speed, he'd just manage to meet Timbre the same time Hulud would. Whether or not he could stop the blade from cutting through her aura was a different story.

As his boots slammed into the sand, he flipped Palette into its blunt form. He grabbed Timbre by the shoulder and shoved her to the side, rearing the bat back. "Get away from her!" He swung just as the blade of the polearm came closer to his head.

Neither hit connected.

Arty was sure the blade had come right at his head, and he was just as sure that his bat connected with Hulud's body, but there was no damage. No recoil. "What the-" He turned back to see Hulud standing behind him. She was motionless.

"So they are illusions…" Timbre griped as she pulled herself to her feet. She now had a dusting of sand over her whole body.

"But that means that the one Sepia and Roland are fighting is the real one. Their attacks actually hit each other."

"So then we just need to keep an eye on the real one then?"

"Exactly. So the idea's to rush the real one. I'd like to think all four of us together can wear her down enough. We've gotten a little better since we fought Oro. Not to mention how there's literally only one of her, so we don't have to worry about being overpowered like in the warehouse." He turned to Timbre, "Ready to rush in and actually start dealing damage?"

She smirked, "You bet I am."

Feeling a rush of confidence from getting one step closer to understanding Hulud and beating her, Timbre and Arty rushed over to the rest of their team with determined grins on their faces.

Hulud's blade rattled as it struck hardened ink and paper. Roland's paper tendril batted the guillotine blade away.

His teeth ground together as the reality of what was happening sank in. Whereas they might have been able to take Oro in a four versus one situation, Hulud did not seem like Oro. Not in the slightest. She didn't seem to be stronger, but she definitely seemed to have more tricks up her sleeve. His tail straightened out so he could keep his head lower.

Sepia darted towards Hulud with her guns raised. She held the triggers down, sending bullet after bullet into her opponent. If she was lucky, she might hit a chink in her armor. Her feet left the ground as soon as Hulud turned to face her, and her heels came down into the small of Hulud's back.

The first show of pain from Hulud came in the form of a quiet 'agh!'. She felt bullets slamming against the back of her mask, making her brain rattle around inside her skull. The blade of her weapon slid to the middle, and she pushed the whole polearm back behind her head to dislodge her attacker.

Sepia fell back into the sand just in time to avoid the weapon, or so she thought. Crimson red wet the sand beside her. A steady stream of blood came from the gash on her upper arm. Tan shimmered around her body, but then recondensed and faded around her. She could feel that her aura was still intact. While Oro's weapon broke aura, it seemed that Hulud's simply cut through it.

Having dealt with Sepia for the moment, Hulud turned her attention to Roland. Her weapon was held against her hip as if she was going in for a stab, but then she slammed it backwards. The end of the polearm slammed into Arty's gut as he tried to rush her from behind, then swept to the side to throw him down into the sand.

"Arty! Sepia!" Timbre shouted as anger flooded through her. She swung a wire, but Hulud caught it in her hand.

"Foolish children." The air rippled around Hulud as a copy appeared to either side of her. She yanked on Timbre's wire, pulling her through the air towards her. There wasn't time to clip the wire. A heavily armored boot connected with Timbre's face, sending her to the ground.

Timbre's vision doubled over itself while she tried to look back up at their opponent.

"Learn when to kneel before your superiors. I'd rather take you all to Commander Maelstrom in one piece." The blades of Hulud and her copy's weapons began to slide up and down repeatedly. "But if I have to take off a couple of your arms or legs… or a tail, then I'll be glad to."

"You sound like you'd get along with Shirley…" Roland's paper tendril shot towards what he believed was the real Hulud. Just when she went to block it, he ran straight under the guillotine blade to drive his fist into her stomach.

Metallic ringing drilled into his ears. His fist felt white hot. Whatever armor Hulud had on underneath her coat was serving to be an issue, but…

His tendril whipped around to go for a strike on her back, but she kicked him away before he could land a strike. He slid against the sand before coming to a stop just short of the edge of the water.

"You all need to learn when to kneel…" Hulud readied her weapon, "As I said, I would rather take you all back in one piece, but I should make it very clear that I would not mind streamlining this whole operation…" she went to throw the weapon down on Roland's leg before he could get up.

No! Sepia's whips shot out and wrapped around Hulud's ankle. She yanked hard, causing Hulud to stumble back.

"You're all making this far more difficult than it must be…" Hulud growled.

"Well, maybe that's just who we are, lady." Arty pushed himself back to his feet. "We seem to make a habit of making things harder. Not just for us, but everyone else, too." He pulled a vial of paintballs from his belt, glowing red and yellow, and poured some out into the sand. He crunched them underneath his boots.

"Arty! You can't be serious!" Timbre shouted as the corporeal Hulud stepped closer to her.

"Usually not, but right now," He pulled another vial, this one full of swirling white and blue paintballs. "I don't really have a choice, do I?"

"So the little Dust Devil decides to pull out all the stops for me. How flattering." Hulud drew her weapon back, ready for whatever Arty was planning. The two other Hulud's did the same, ignoring the rest of his team.

Maybe this will give them a chance to attack. If I can just keep her distracted.

Roland was catching onto Arty's distraction, "Hey, Sepia," he started to pull himself up, "Hot potato," a live Fire Dust and ink grenade flew over to her.

Nice, Sepia grinned. She whistled and lobbed the grenade at Hulud.

It exploded against the raised blade of Hulud's weapon, not so much as singing her coat. Flames surrounded her, burning on the sand around the trio of figures. "You insolent little-"

With a loud bang similar to that of a shotgun blast, Arty launched himself through the flames. Seeing the grenade explode against one of the Hulud's blades told him which one was the real one. As he flew through the air, he steered himself towards the real Hulud, ignoring the doubles surrounding her. When his bat connected with her shoulder and released a loud blast of cold icy air.

Timbre watched as the other two Huluds disappeared.

Arty could feel the flames licking his back and his legs were tingling from the propulsion the Nova Dust had given him. It was a rush. "Back with Oro, this stuff was only in the prototype phase. We didn't even know if it would work, but I guess after blowing up your lackies' little lizard," He looked at the glowing eye in the center of Hulud's mask and gave a cocky grin. It was the closest he was going to get to looking her in the eyes. "I bet it's safe to say I know how to use it now."

Hulud snarled and raised her blade.

Arty caught it with his bat.

They were stuck pushing their weapons against each other.

"You little brats may have your tricks, but they can only work for so long before you run out." The blade of the weapon slid down the length of the staff, dragging Arty towards the ground. As his head flew forward, Hulud swung hers forwards forcefully to strike Arty with the teeth of her mask.

Arty stumbled back, but he wasn't ready to give up. "Well, let me know when you think we've run out, so I'll know when I need to make some new ones!" The bat shifted to its normal paintball gun form. Arty stomped on the ground, launching himself up into the air high above the burning circle of beach.

Hulud covered her masked face as a shower of paintballs rained down on her. Despite the heat of the fire and tropical weather, everything was showered in a thick snowy mist as the paintballs exploded.

"Roland! Now!" Arty shouted from up above.

"On it!" Roland's tendril shot through the Rime Dust fog and slammed into the small of Hulud's back, just as Sepia had done. He threw a fist into her spine before she could even turn to face him. Pain ripped through both of them, but Roland drove his fist home in spite of it.

Hulud slid forward with her weapon in one hand. She huffed, "So you all have gotten better, haven't you…?" she collapsed her weapon behind her back and raised her fists, "Fine, then…"

Roland went in for another strike, but the air was forced out of him. Hulud's fist dug into his side. He tried to recover from the blow. It didn't help that she drove her knee up into his gut.

The world around him felt hazy. He could barely make out Hulud's fist sailing towards his skull.

Paper collapsed around Hulud's arm, yanking her to the side. His focus returned just in time to throw Hulud towards the waterline. Roland stomped towards her, "They might fight reasonably fair, but I don't," his tendril shot down against her leg just as she tried to do to him.

"Oh, aren't you just a rebel…?" Hulud brought her arms and legs in close to herself to avoid the strike. Though, she didn't realize that her opponent was already diving on top of her until it was too late. A typewriter slammed against her mask, sending a hairline fracture along one of the toothy flaps. It came down again, knocking teeth off. White triangles fell to the snow-covered sand. The typewriter came down again, but her fingers curled around the reel of paper attached.

His stomach felt like it was going to implode as both of her boots slammed into it. Once again, she sent Roland sliding to a stop between Timbre and Sepia, but this time he was trembling as pain wracked through his system. Yellow arcs pulsed around the soles of her boots.

"That actually kind of hurt…" Hulud stood up and dusted snow from her shoulders, "I'll have to thank Koloss for adding a Lightning Dust battery the soles of my boots…"

After making a somewhat hard landing in the sand, Arty grouped back up with Timbre and Sepia. "So what was that about tricks?"

Hulud humphed. "I took your advice and used a new one." Her feet crunched snow into the sand as she made a casual stroll towards them. "Now, if we're done playing."

As she spoke, it sounded like her voice was being layered on top of itself. Over and over it built up until it reached an almost deafening level. Team ARTS watched as one, two, four... eight... sixteen...

"That's way too many to count…" Timbre muttered as she watched the army of Huluds walking towards them.

Arty gritted his teeth. One or two of the illusionary clones were easy to deal with when it was obvious only one Hulud was attacking, but now… there were too many to tell which was the original.

They couldn't risk getting hit by any of them.

They all drew their polearms out.

"So no one kept their eyes on the real one…?" Roland stumbled up to stand with the rest of his team, "Have a plan, Arty?"

"We need to find the real one, but I don't know how we're going to manage that. I would say I could mark the fake ones, but you can't physically touch the illusionary ones."

"What about the snow?" Timbre spoke up, "Wouldn't the snow from your Rime Dust only appear on the real one?"

Arty shook his head, "No, look at the masks. Roland broke some of the teeth on the real Hulud's mask." He pointed to the army, "See how all of them have broken parts? I think any physical change we make to the real one reflects on all of them."

"Like a mirror…" Roland observed.

"Exactly. You can't change a reflection to look different than the thing it's reflecting… unless it's like, a funhouse mirror or something."

His team glared at him.

"Is now really the time to think about things like that, Arty?..." Timbre asked as she drew her wires. For all the times for her leader's ADHD to kick in, it just had to be when they were facing yet another absolute maniac.

"Sorry… sorry… but my point still stands."

"Then we go for disruption?" Roland's tendril retracted, "Swing at everything and hope something hits?"

Sepia fired a barrage of bullets into the army of Huluds, but all she heard was the striking of sand behind them. She ducked as one swung its blade at her. It still managed to phase through her shoulder, but at least it wasn't the real Hulud.

"You don't think you could convince her to turn it all off, do you, T?" Roland whipped his weapon through the crowd, but nothing hit.

Timbre shook her head. "Like I said before. I doubt it'll work on her. They know how to block my Semblance somehow."

"Great… Wouldn't happen to have a sample of Galactic Dust, would you Arty?" Roland raised his weapon to strike again.

"We can't risk setting it off here. It'll probably kill all of us including Hulud..." the vials of swirling red, yellow, and violet Dust in his backpack felt heavy as he thought about what might happen, "It's worse than Nova Dust."

The army of Huluds began closing in around Team ARTS. They formed an open circle around them to cut off any chance of escape. If they tried to run, then Hulud wouldn't have any trouble nabbing them as they tried to pass through the crowd.

"Give up, kids. You couldn't handle Oro, Sanguwalker, Trex, or Venice. What makes you think that you can defeat me?" she scoffed, "No one knows where you kids are, has the time to even save all of you, or even wants to. Who wants a useless boy who can't even tell the difference between Dust and regular paint? Or the disgusting Faunus who couldn't even save his disgusting Faunus mother. Let's not forget the girl who let all those civilians in Koruss die! Or the director who hanged herself because of her own lack of attentiveness."

The four of them stood there. Once again, the mistakes of their pasts were being brought up and shoved into their faces.

"You really think that's going to work on us?" Timbre spoke up, fierce determination glowing in her eyes. "You were the ones that killed people at Koruss. You killed CiCi Oscura. Arty and Sepia made mistakes, yeah, but you can't keep beating us down with what brought us here in the first place!" Timbre released lengths of wire, only these were much longer than her usual melee-length. She was angry and tired of dealing with this woman. "Guys… duck."

Without question, her teammates dove to the sand.

Timbre began to spin in place. The coarse grain of the sand made it much easier than if she were on solid ground. As she spun, more and more wire came out from her gloves. A whirlwind of silver cords slashed through the crowd of Huluds. Some tried to duck, and that was fine with Timbre. She didn't care about hitting the fakes. She just wanted to find the real one.

The wires extended further and further outwards, continuing to cut through the crowd.

"Where are you!? Show yourself!" Timbre shouted with all of her might, hoping that there was a slight chance that Hulud would be the one Grimm Brotherhood operative that wasn't somehow immune to Siren's Song.

Timbre's wire went slack. One of the Huluds stood with her guillotine blade held close to her chest. Frayed wires fell on the ground behind her, "How clever," she ducked back into the crowd to hide again, but her movements made her stand out in the crowd.

Nice job, T, Sepia opened fire on Hulud and shut her eyes. Three of her orbs appeared well above their target like drones, and they followed her movements precisely.

One of the illusionary Huluds shot out of the crowd, but none of Team ARTS even flinched.

"I'm gonna need some covering fire this time," Roland yanked the length of paper off of his belt. It condensed into a spear with a massive triangular blade on the end, "And I wouldn't mind having Timbre with me."

Timbre smirked, "I'm guessing you have a plan then?"

"I'm all ears." Arty grinned despite the odds against them.

"Hey, I don't want to steal your thunder, but I have a bit of an idea."

"Like I had any thunder to start with?" Arty shot back as he swept his gun around in front of him and keeping his eyes trained on Sepia's orbs.

"I said I was going to fight like Mom," he leveled his spear on the real Hulud, "My spear's not fully formed, and a blade's gonna suit me better. I'm gonna get in close and form it into a blade. You keep shooting, Arty. Get as much Dust paint out there as you can, and Timbre can spread it out. Sepia, you mark out an area with your whips around me, T, and Hulud. Spread this out along the border," he tossed a plastic ball of red ink to Sepia, "Timbre and I are gonna use Libretto, and Arty and Sepia go for Concept Art. Get as much Dust paint on the field, Sepia activates it, and Timbre and I can handle the rest."

Sepia nodded in agreement, her smile wide. Keeping me and Arty at a range and keeping you two out in front… You're actually thinking with your brain for once! she smashed the Fire Dust ink against her reels of film. Ruining them was a small price to pay to actually come out on top.

Arty gave him a thumbs up, "I may be better at thinking on my feet, but you're much better at actual plans, Roland."

"Don't give him that much credit, Painter. That plan kinda came out on the fly." Timbre giggled. "I'm kidding, Roland. Let's just go make sure it actually works so we can be done with this psycho."

Hulud jumped out of the crowd of copies to get some relief from Sepia's bulletstorm, "What are you kids waiting for? Where's that cocky bravado you had a few minutes ago?"

"Ready?" Roland crouched low with his spear at the ready.

Sepia whistled in response.

"Ready," Timbre and Arty agreed in unison.

Roland shot forward with his spear pointed at Hulud. He closed in, ready for her to block his attack. His spear collapsed against her blade, then reformed into a curved blade as he slid underneath her. The edge of the blade slashed at her side while he slid by, "T!"

"Right!" Timbre jumped over Roland, ready to bring down wires on Hulud's head.

Ignoring Roland for a moment, Hulud raised her polearm above her, the blade in position to slice the wires as they were brought down.

Timbre smiled as she saw Hulud prepare for an attack from above. She twitched her thumbs, activating the mechanism in her gloves that clipped her wires. The wires still going for Hulud, she didn't have time to react to Timbre falling to the ground and driving a foot up straight into her gut followed quickly by a few jabs to the sternum and face. While Timbre was more used to fighting with her wires, she wasn't the melee-fighter of ARTS for her weapons alone. She shook her hands. They stung from bashing into the hard plating of Hulud's mask, but that was nothing compared to the satisfaction of seemingly getting the upper hand. With a short twist, she delivered a round-house kick to the woman's face.

Roland raised his blade as Hulud stumbled back. The one weak spot that Sepia had found and his quick brawl with Hulud taught him something about the small of her back. There wasn't any plating there so she could store her weapon when it wasn't in use.

The blade whizzed through the air, bouncing off of Hulud's aura. His foot came in next. A firm kick to her back sent her back towards Timbre, "Keep her disoriented!" he shouted to Timbre while watching Sepia.

Sepia ran in a circle around them. Film and bullets made a trail around them, giving her teammates about a boxing ring's amount of space to fight Hulud. Fire burned along the edges of the circle. She ducked to avoid the paintballs that Arty was firing into the sand at Roland and Timbre's feet.

"Think we can get some Gravity Dust?!" Roland shouted from inside the circle.

Arty was just finishing up reloading his gun with purple paintballs, "I was thinking the same thing!" With a quick twist of the lid, the paintballs were crunched up, releasing their paint and causing Palette to glow a bright violet. He ran counter to Sepia's direction, adding purple paint on top of the fire she left behind. The two of them stopped as the circles were completed and gave each other a quick high-five.

"Alright, Roland! Dust's in place!"

"Perfect!" Roland held up his blade just in time to block Hulud's.

Hulud snarled, "You kids think that-"

Timbre drove her fist into Hulud's back, "Maybe you should rethink your armor next time! It's really not great for dealing with two people at once!" she used the Gravity Dust to launch herself into the air to avoid Hulud's sliding blade.

A black cloud exploded outwards from the circle. Hulud tried to slide her blade back, but it jammed in place. She tried to push it back with her hand, but neither of her hands would budge from the polearm. Ink held her fingers down.

Hulud's eyes widened behind her mask. None of the files Lieutenant Koloss had decrypted indicated that Team ARTS was capable of actually coordinating like this, but here she was being pummeled by a bunch of schoolchildren.

Ink condensed where Timbre was going to land, and formed a makeshift ramp to get her out of the Fire Dust ring. Once she landed safely next to Arty, Roland lunged out of the black haze that still hung in the circle.

"Alright, here goes nothing," Roland clenched his fist. The Fire Dust ink and Sepia's film and bullets coiled up. All of it wrapped around Hulud from her ankles up to her shoulders, pinning her weapon against her chest. Upon falling, her bonds got a healthy coating of Gravity Dust, causing her to float helplessly off the ground.

He wiped sweat from his forehead, grinning at the captured Grimm Brotherhood Lieutenant, "Well… I can't believe that worked…" he huffed.

Hulud's coat burned bright, exposing bits of the black steel armor underneath, "No. This isn't right! Release me!" she shouted and struggled against her bonds, "You're all cowards! Release me this instant!"

Timbre jumped and cheered before high-fiving and bouncing around a little with Sepia. "We did it! We actually did it! We finally beat one of the Grimm masks!"

"And a Lieutenant no less… Funny how you came here to catch us." Arty used some Water Dust to put out the flames around them. Now that Hulud was captured, the fire wasn't needed. "I like it when the tides turn like that. What's it called, Roland?... Dramatic irony?"

"Dramatic irony implies that we have an audience that already knew what was going to happen based on what they were already told at another point in a story. You're thinking of situational irony…" Roland took a deep breath to try and quell the headache that using Inkheart so much with just straight ink gave him, "Even though it was the wrong type, you still identified it as irony, so I'll give you half credit…"

Sepia nudged Lieutenant Hulud with her foot to get her spinning in midair, 'Great. So we can go get patched up and group up with the others?' she pointed to the stream of blood running down her arm, 'We're already going to get interrogated, so can we just report this and take cover from the Maelstrom?'

"I'm with her on this one," Roland nodded. He lifted his scroll from his pocket, but yelped when he reached into his pocket to do so. He looked down to see blood seeping out from a wound on his side and one on his leg. It seemed that his adrenaline rush was wearing off, "Please…"

"Oooohhh… ow ow ow ow ow…" Arty fell to the ground, landing on his butt in the sand. He shoved his fingers into the rim of his boots and began rubbing at his ankles. "Okay… why'd you guys have to look at your cuts? Now I'm feeling the pain too… thanks a ton... Ow ow ow…"

"Sounds like you sprained your ankles using your Nova jump thing…" Timbre rubbed at her knuckles. Despite taking the smallest beating of the bunch, punching solid metal even with aura still left a bruise. "Our auras should start healing us pretty soon, but for right now, let's try to get the floating hag to Lieutenant General Kauri, or literally any person with authority on this island…"

"But before we do that…" Arty stood with some difficulty and turned his gaze back to the floating woman struggling against her restraints. "I need to see her face."

"That sounds great…" Roland slowly grinned, "We already know what Sanguwalker, Venice, and Trex look like, and they're in jail, so a Lieutenant added to this list isn't a bad idea..."

"But Roland…" Timbre spoke up, "We saw Sanguwalker back at the boat…"

Arty shook his head, "Exactly. If you guys saw Sanguwalker, then that means the ones we saw being taken away in Vale weren't the real ones. I want to see her face before she gets taken in, so they can't pull a bait-and-switch on us again." He reached a hand to the bottom of Hulud's mask. "I'm tired of being tricked and manipulated. If it's going to continue, I want to know at least one among those behind it."

"No you're not!"

A sound similar to a shotgun blast followed by the clanking of chain cut through the sound of gunfire already coming off the boardwalk. Black steel jaws closed around Hulud and retracted, sending her flying towards a man standing on the wall above the beach. The jaws clanked back into place on Trex's weapon, and Hulud's bonds tore away as she was released from the jaws.

"Sorry I'm late, Lieutenant. I got a little held up with some soldiers. Wanna teach these kids a lesson, or…?" Trex clanked his weapon's jaws together a few times. His mask was gleaming white. A brand new Trex skull sat on his head, replacing the one broken and shattered back in Vale.

"No. I'm done here." She began storming away down the street, "I've grown tired of these children. I still fulfilled my objective. This day will still end the way we intended, one way or another."

"Well… alright then." He peered back over the wall to Team ARTS, "And I was looking forward to pummeling you four again… Maybe next time then!" Trex waved Team ARTS off and followed Hulud.

"I knew it…" Arty muttered to himself angrily, "Team RYAL never actually caught Trex, Sanguwalker, or Venice. They caught some grunts posing as them so the real ones could get away!"

"Then we're not letting them get away again!" Roland started to run after them, but fell face first into the sand due to the pain from his injuries. He turned his head to the side and coughed out a mouthful of grit, "Timbre, you're mobile! Sepia! Your orbs!"

Sepia shut her eyes and tried to create more orbs, but her aura was waning and she was utterly exhausted, 'If I forced one out, it wouldn't get that far. They're gone, Roland…'

"Timbre!" Roland clawed his way up and held his side, "We've got them! They're right there! Come on!"

"Roland, I can't take on both of them by myself…"

"Art-" he looked back, but Arty wasn't in any condition to go anywhere either.

Arty fell back into the sand and covered his eyes with his hands, "Right there… they were right there! We had a Lieutenant! Why couldn't we just- AHHH!" he screamed in frustration, punching a fist into the ground. Every time something went well when dealing with the Grimm Brotherhood, something like this happened. Curses passed his lips in a waterfall of profanity.

"Arty…" Timbre knelt down next to him and placed a hand on his back, "we got closer. Look, this is the best shape we've ever been in after an encounter with those guys!" She looked up to Sepia and shrugged, "Our injuries are… minimal. We may not have caught Hulud, but we're definitely getting better!"

"WE HAD HER! WE FREAKING HAD HER! IT WAS OVER! BUT FREAKING TREX WITH THE BULL-" Roland went on blotting out some of Timbre's words with his profuse screaming. Sepia tried to tell him that it was okay, but he didn't stop.

"Guys…" Timbre began. She didn't want to use Siren's Song to calm them down now that they knew she had that power, but she hated seeing them beat themselves up over what had just happened.

"So…" Arty pulled himself to his feet, "What now? It was dumb luck she showed up when she did. Are we done with this now that they're reporting back to… whoever?"

"I mean… what else can we do, Arty?" Timbre stood up next to him. She tried to look him in the eye, but he kept staring off into the distance. "They're regrouping, so we can't get the jump on them and Atlas is probably almost done with the… Maelstrom. The best thing we can do is regroup with our friends and help get people to safe zones further inland."

Roland clenched his fists against his face. His heart slammed in his chest. His blood boiled, but he had to force down the rage and focus. Lieutenant Hulud wasn't the one putting thousands of lives on the line, "It's not even hurt…"

'The Maelstrom?' Sepia pulled back from him for a moment.

"What else?" he sat up and began dusting the sand off himself, "They haven't put a dent in that thing… I don't think."

"How do you know that? You saw the firepower the military had!" Timbre tried to reason. "Let's just go help people get to safety!"

"No… he's right." Arty looked back to the boardwalk, now devoid of any signs of the military and the giant Grimm. "It's nowhere near dead…"

"And how do you know that?..." Timbre didn't like the way Roland and Arty were agreeing on this. They could barely agree on things they could see with their own eyes, now here they were agreeing on something they'd have no way of knowing. "Either way… what can we do about that thing?"

"I think you gave us the answer just a minute ago." The gears began turning in Arty's head. Roland had his turn at a plan, now it was his. His cocky grin slowly crept back over his face. "We need to regroup with our friends."

"Okay… again. What can we do about that thing?! We're a bunch of first-years! If you don't think the military can take that thing down, then what makes you think we can?!"

"I don't know, but… I know that we can with a little help," Roland looked down at his wounds, "We need to get patched up and get back out there… Keeping this fight with Lieutenant Hulud between us would probably be best. It'll give us the most wiggle room to get out and take on the Maelstrom if we're not cooped up in a room being interrogated. I think Arty's gonna agree with me that we're the only ones that can take this thing down."

"You know… about two hours ago, I would've disagreed, but now… I think you're right. I've never had a lot of confidence in the military being able to do much against a major Grimm attack, but if there's anything that I've learned in the past year..."

Memories began replaying in his head. The eight initiates taking down a full-sized Minotaurus before they even started their official training at Beacon. A ragtag group of Huntsmen in training being led by only one full-blown Huntress taking down a whole den of Kokonatsu with a nine-tailed leading the charge. A moving pod of young warriors mowing their way through a bunch of Grimm as they made their way to the signal jammer in the locker room on prom night. Three desperate and wounded teammates taking down a relatively unstudied and dangerous foreign Grimm. Most recently, the four of them being able to combat what could be assumed was one of the highest-ranking and skilled members of the Grimm Brotherhood.

"...it's that a group of Huntsmen, hell, a group of Huntsmen and Huntresses in training can do some pretty incredible things when combatting Grimm." Arty began to think about how his father had told him his art would never take him anywhere. "In the military, everyone's pretty much cookie-cutter unless you're in the special forces, and that in itself is a rare privilege. But out here… you have to play on your individual prowess in order to get anything done. If everyone's only good at one thing, then that means that they're all bad at another. That's why they're nowhere closer to killing the Maelstrom than when they started. We each have our own skills and, unless there just so happens to be an army of Huntsmen on this island, we're the best hope for taking this thing down."

"Why can't we just wait for backup? I'm sure the news has already reached the mainland and the schools are sending Huntsmen in as we speak." Timbre understood how Arty was feeling, but it all still felt impossible.

"I think what you mean is, 'why can't we just hold it off until backup gets here?" Roland was starting to see the point Arty was making. Strength in numbers was something they'd learned well. "If this thing keeps going on its rampage, this island could be flattened by sundown, but if we can fight it-"

'We can keep it under wraps and distracted until somebody with full training can come in and finish it off. Like with Sanguwalker and Trex the first time!' Sepia was gung-ho with everything now. Though Vincentas scared the daylights out of her, he was still a prime example of a grade-A Huntsman. 'But,' she went on, 'if we can actually manage to take it out, then that's even better!'

"Exactly!" Arty smiled and pointed to Sepia. "That's exactly what I'm talking about! Distract it, kill it, whatever, just as long as we can keep it from rampaging."

'Yeah!' Sepia froze. Arty never told her that he knew sign language, but he'd been responding to her without an issue for… almost the entire semester. It was largely on and off, but it seemed that he knew far more than he did before, 'Why didn't you tell me you learned sign language?!'

"Wait… what…?" Roland thought for a moment. He knew that Arty was able to carry on a conversation with Sepia, but, having learned sign language himself, he didn't think anything of his responses, "Did you… actually read those books…?"

Arty chuckled, 'Maybe… I was kind of just waiting for you guys to notice.'

The three of them just stared at their leader's signage. All of them were dumbfounded.

"I felt a bit left out being the only one that didn't know how to. I used your books a little… but it helped more to draw out each symbol and movement a few dozen times."

'When did you do all of this?' Sepia signed to him.

"Umm… the week after Oro and the Trex beat us up?"

The other three still stared at him in astoundment and confusion.

.

Students and civilians alike laid in makeshift beds made from spare blankets between the pillars of the circular colonnade surrounding the Perch of Amity. Lime green and bright white columns on the south side of the building marked it as the meeting place for Vale's government. The civilians themselves weren't nearly as roughed up as the students.

"Arty!" Curie jumped over and ran around people to get the leader of Team ARTS as he and his team walked out from one of the first aid tents. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held him close, "I should have stuck around and helped… that maniac hurt you all pretty bad." She had watched as he limped coming in, and could see the cuts and wounds on the others, "Are you guys okay?"

Arty gave off a shy laugh. It was still a bit awkward having physical contact with Curie other than being punched or electrocuted. On top of that, they were sort of attacked by a flying boat and had to climb down a busted ferris wheel immediately after they shared their first kiss. "Um… we… haha… funny story actually…"

"Just some Grimm Brotherhood agent thinking they're so great with their special weapon," Timbre stepped forward, "It's really not a big deal, so don't worry about it."

"It's good to see that you all made it here safe," Dante approached from behind one of the columns. Her cloak was torn in the back and her hair was let down, but she looked fine for the most part, "It was dangerous to take on more of those agents on the way here. It would have been better to just run."

Curie let go of Arty and threw a right hook into his shoulder, "Dante's right. You should've known better than to put yourselves in that situation. You don't exactly have the best track record with those Grimm Brotherhood maniacs."

"Like Timbre said, it was just some cocky agent. Nothing we couldn't handle," Roland looked to Arty, "but we're not done quite yet."

Sepia nodded while throwing a few feign punches in the air.

"Got that right..." Timbre couldn't help but laugh slightly. She couldn't tell if it was from the fear of what they were about to do, the lingering effects of adrenaline, or the fact her team had managed to handle their own against a member of the Grimm Brotherhood for once. In reality, it was probably a mixture of all three.

Arty looked to the familiar faces around him. "I have a plan, but I'm going to need a few people to help out."

"No," Dante said flatly.

"Sis, come on. You don't even know what he's gonna-"

"If mother found out that I helped get you all out to fight the Maelstrom, then that might affect Mistral's standing with Atlas," she explained further, "That means that you're not going anywhere, Roland."

Roland looked back and forth between the giant white octopus attacking the coastline, Dante, and the rest of Team ARTS, "So what should we do first?"

"Well… first things first. We need to discuss the fact that you and Sepia are… injured." Arty remembered how bad Roland was in the Emerald Forest after facing Oro. He wasn't going to let him get that way again.

"Thank you!" Dante threw up her arms. "I'm glad you still have some sense of-"

Arty held a hand up to tell Dante to be quiet. "Let me finish." He looked Roland's sister in the eyes, "What I mean is, I don't want him in the middle of the fight with the Maelstrom."

"Well I'm no good with water, so… we're in agreement. The only question is, what do I need to do? The civilians are evacuated," Roland nodded.

"I said that you are staying here, Rol-"

"And I am staying with my team instead. You are welcome to do the same, sis." he shot her a glare.

Dante took a deep breath. She couldn't just let him run off and get himself killed. As much as it pained her to do so, she agreed to go, "Fine. Consider me in this…"

"Good," he looked back to Arty, "What do we need to do?"

Arty smirked, "Timbre, how good is that gun on your boat?"

Timbre was caught off guard by the question, "Um… it's pretty dinky compared to the best military guns, but it's still military-grade and has killed some pretty big Grimm out at sea before, but nothing as big as the Mael-"

"Perfect." Arty began to pace as he rattled off his plan. "This is what I'm thinking. Two groups. One larger group goes out to distract the Maelstrom and lead it back to the boardwalk. If we can get it there and keep it distracted, not only will it prevent more damage to the rest of Vytal, but it will also put it right where we need it in order to kill it."

The group all looked at him like he was crazy, but still expectant of more explanation.

"I understand leading it away from the safer parts of the island," Curie tapped her thumb against her lips as she thought. If Arty was going to do something this stupid but so thought out, she was going to make sure there was as little room for error as possible, "but how is bringing it back to the boardwalk going to help us kill it?"

"That's where the smaller second group comes in. While the other group is leading and distracting the Maelstrom, they'll make their way up the ferris wheel where the Forté yacht made its crash landing. Using the artillery gun on board, they'll work at finding a weak spot and shooting at the Maelstrom while it isn't looking."

"Arty, I just said the gun's military-grade." Timbre paced along with him, "It's the same kind of stuff the Atlas military has. And they have more of them."

"Yeah, but they don't have this." Arty held up a few vials of paintballs.

Roland let out a chuckle, "Are you going to rely on Nova Dust for everything?"

Arty shrugged, "If it works, it works."

"Okay," Curie nodded, starting to see how the full plan could work, "but there's still a lot of factors you haven't taken into account." She began counting on her fingers, "First, you can't just lob Dust paint on an artillery shell full of more Dust and expect it to fire out of the gun's barrel without everybody within twenty feet of the thing getting blown to pieces. Second, if you do get said painted shells to fire, what makes you think it'll be strong enough to kill the Maelstrom? What if you just end up making it angrier? Then it's going to storm its way to the ferris wheel to go after the gunner team where they're sitting ducks on the boat over fifty feet above the water. Thirdly, and probably most importantly… how are you so sure you'll be able to lead it away from its current position?"

"You remember those black boxes that exploded in the ballroom at prom? The ones that made the high-pitched noises?"

Everyone nodded.

"I remember back in the Emerald Forest with Oro, her minions had these wand-like… things, that they used to guide the Trex to us."

"Okay… and?" Dante asked, obviously not enthused by the whole plan.

"Remember what the Grimm Brotherhood's whole agenda involves?"

"They want to find a way to control Grimm to conquer the world and bring the kingdoms to their knees, and apparently they have technology that's able to at least lead Grimm around, so it seems they're making leeway," a dull monotone voice echoed towards them.

Everyone turned to find the Rhea twins walking up to them.

"Lurida? Xannie?" Timbre stammered. Arty's plan was doomed if their upperclassmen had overheard them.

Lurida was reading from a holographic screen projecting from her glove. "That was part of our summary from the night they attacked Vale. It appears that they've actually managed to perfect that tech."

"Why do you say that?" Dante was getting fed up with the ideas being tossed around.

"Because," Xannie piped up, "Did you see how particular the Maelstrom was in its initial attacks? We could see everything from our hotel up the hill here in the Vale quadrant."
"How did you-" Roland began before being cut off.

"We grew up in an observatory. We always have ways to stargaze." Lurida crossed her arms in front of her chest.

Xannie raised her finger, "What she means is… we always have telescopes with us."

"Right… what she said. We saw them spraying that stupid wheel on the boat before the Maelstrom threw it."

"And they did the same at the pier, where it seemed to be drawn to when the military showed up." Xannie added.

Arty looked to Curie, "And Oro tagged it on our car in the ferris wheel."

"It's a classic military strategy…" Curie began fiddling with some of the wires from her hair. "Mark areas that need to be hit or have supply drops with something that can be seen from a large distance. They're using their symbol to tag areas where they need their attractors activated."

That must've been what Hulud was doing at the pier before we fought her… Timbre realized. She thought back to how violent the Maelstrom had been on its attack on the boardwalk, She had just activated the attractor, drawing it there to destroy the whole thing before being led somewhere else...

Lurida pulled up a few pictures of the symbol, "I'm sure that they're still painting that symbol all over the island hoping to get this thing to destroy as much as possible. They want to bring the kingdoms to their knees? What better way than to destroy the biggest testament to their peace and how far they've come since the Great War?"

'So killing that thing is the only way to stop this. If they don't have that one Grimm to cause this catastrophe, then it's all over,' Sepia held her hands close to her stomach, 'Imagine the reputation we're all going to have when this is all done! I can't wait to direct the film adaptation, but I will not allow that Scarlet Redhanson witch to play me!'

"Listen, I don't want to be the one to say that we shouldn't help these people, but we need to think about our safety too," Dante turned on her heels, "but… if you all can promise me that we'll pull out if things get dangerous, I will keep quiet unless anyone asks me what I know."

Arty nodded, "Thanks, Dante. So…" he turned back to the group willing to listen to his plan, "First things first, we need to find who'd be willing to help out. Xannie, Lurida. Who all's around here?"

Xannie shrugged, "Most of the third and fourth-years are out helping people evacuate to safe zones and fight Grimm Brotherhood grunts here and there. If there are any up here, they're either injured or exhausted."

"So why are you guys up here?" Timbre asked meekly.

"We're second-years and are supposed to be good influences on you first-years. We're supposed to keep things calm up here for the most part." Lurida began flipping through menus on her screen. "Gavin and Yamuna went back to the hotel to check on backup coming in from Beacon. But if you guys actually have confidence in this plan… I'm willing to forgo being a good influence."

Xannie giggled, "Hey, look on the bright side. If we go out and help them, we're at least keeping an eye on them and watching their backs!"

"Great." Arty clapped his hands as he began to walk towards the extent of the colonnade. "Everyone. Spread out and find any of our friends willing to help out! We'll meet back up when we have enough to head out."