Volume 1: Chapter 1

Escape from Grimm Part 2

David looks up at the sky to look for Gwen, but she has already left to face the Nevermore.

David then informs the campers what they should do for now, "Alright you heard her campers, everyone be in teams, ready your weapons and Semblances."

As David manages the campers, Quartermaster slowly walks by and says to himself "Well better get the bus to a safer place before the Grimm arrives".

"Like hell he is!" Max says as he grabs Neil "Look, do you want to spend the rest of your summer in this godforsaken place or finally get the freedom that you deserve".

Neil looks at the current situation he is in, there are constant Grimm attacks in the camps of Lake Lilac, many dangers in the woods, and the worse of all, there probably isn't any Wi-Fi in this camp. Neil thinking about all of this says to Max.

"I'm in."

"And I'll help," Nikki said.

"Why are you helping us?" Max said.

"I'm an agent of chaos, so then let's follow Quartermaster"

After Nikki said that she proceeded to go in the opposite direction of where Quartermaster went.

"He went that way," Neil said.

"Oh right."

As the trio tries to discreetly leave the activities field and follow Quartermaster, David who is advising all the campers on what they should do, notices them leaving without listening to him.

"Max, where are you three going," David said as he signals them.

Max startled, struggling to make up a lie.

"Ohhh…ahhhh just showing the two uhhh."

As Max freezes up a bit, a glint of light can be seen on Max's face blinding him a bit. Max looks where the light was coming from, the origin of the light was Ered's longsword, the rays of the sun bounce of her sword, and hits directly at Max's face. This annoyance just gave Max a plan.

"I'm just showing the two where they can get their weapons, considering both of them are unarmed."

"We have wea—" says Nikki and Neil as they're cut off by Max.

"Yup, don't have any weapons whatsoever," Max said with a smile.

David then glares at the three menacingly and continues so for several seconds, he blinks and his stoic look on his face returns to his gleeful one.

"Okay then, make sure you follow Quartermaster to his cabin, where the weapon storage is."

The trio then follows Quartermaster.


"So we follow the hook guy and get new weapons?" Nikki said.

"No, I lied so we can follow Quartermaster to the bus," Max said "And besides, you guys were about to say you have weapons, right?

Nikki and Neil stopped walking, leaving Max concerned.

Nikki says "Well technically I consider myself as a weapon."

Neil says "And technically I do have a weapon, it's this." as he pulls a slingshot out of his pocket.

"So Nikki, you do close-quarters combat and Neil you shoot rocks at Grimm," Max said "We're gonna be so screwed if a Grimm appears."

"I don't use rocks as ammo, I use these," Neil said, as he again pulls something out of his pockets.

"Damn Neil, you have deep pockets," Nikki said.

"Well anyway, I use these to fight Grimm," Neil said as he opens his palms.

In his hand are 5 small marbles, all having different colors, the colors are, red, blue, green, yellow and finally black.

"These are some of the specialized ammunitions I made, I call them Dust Pellets," Neil said.

"What do they do?" Nikki asked.

"As the name implies, they're just small Dust balls, all having different effects, I only made 5 before I got here. Red is for fire, blue is for ice, green is for wind, yellow is for lightning and black is for gravity." Neil said.

As Neil finished explaining what he can do, it was Nikki's turn to explain what she has to offer.

"Look I don't have a weapon, I mainly use my fists, but when it's not enough I use my Semblance when fighting," Nikki said.

"Ok, you have a Semblance, what is it?" Max said.

"It's kind of like Gwen's powers, instead of birds I can summon something else…" as Nikki mentions her Semblance, she starts to look distraught.

"Both of you promise to not laugh at my Semblance, ok," Nikki said as her eyes start to tear up.

Max and Neil not knowing what to say to a girl who was on the verge of tears, they decide to just nod.

As Nikki sees them promising to her, she begins to close her eyes. Her hair begins to move and emit a pink aura outlining it, a few seconds passed by and Nikki opens her eyes.

"Well, what did you summon-"

As Neil was about to ask what Nikki summoned, small pink creatures leaped from Nikki's hair and begin to enter Neil's shirt. Neil tries to grab Nikki's summons under his shirt, but he struggles to do so and laughs uncontrollably as the small pink entities scurry underneath his shirt.

Max seeing this, bursts into laughter, together with Neil.

"I told you guys not to laugh at my Semblance!" Nikki said as her tears begin to show.

Max responded "Could you blame me; your power is badass."

"What did you say?" Nikki said as she rubs her eyes.

"I mean you have the power to pull pranks and fuck with people, that's a pretty useful Semblance if you ask me," Max said while still cackling at Neil.

Max, noticing that he is smiling with the new campers he just met, quickly changes back to his original demeanor.

"*cough* *cough* Now then, could you let them out of Neil's shirt so we can see them," Max said.

Nikki, who is now back to her cheerful self, proceeded to whistle, her summons now start to scurry up Neil's shirt and exit it. The campers see two pink squirrels who are now standing on top of Neil's shoulders, the squirrels then leap to Nikki's hair, just moving inside of it, and presented themselves to Neil and Max, but only showing their heads. The squirrels look happy and at home in Nikki's hair.

"So what's your weapon, Max?" Nikki said.

"I do have a weapon, it's a spear, and is in storage right now. And technically, I don't actually own it."

"So someone let you borrow it?" Nikki said.

"No, the camp owns it. Now look, any weapons or cool things you make with the materials you used in Camp Campbell means that the camp owns those items."

"What?! So I won't be able to keep the weapons I made." Neil said with fury in his eyes.

"Exactly, unless you pay a hefty fee, and regarding my weapon, it used to belong to a previous camper in Camp Campbell, but they decided it wasn't worth it to buy the spear they made, so they decided to left it here for the next huntsmen in training who doesn't have a weapon, which is me," Max said.

"Another question, do you have a Semblance?" Nikki asked.

Max doesn't answer Nikki, he then ignores them for a while and looks at the ground quietly, Nikki takes notice of this and walks closer to Max and holds both of his hands, and speaks.

"If you don't want to share it, it's fine," Nikki said with a smile on her face.

Max, who is new to people caring for him, says thanks to Nikki while trying not to make eye contact with her.

Max says "Now then, I think we can handle Grimm with the weapons and Semblances we have right now, and with my 2 summers of experience in this camp, I know the layout of the land. For now, let's follow Quartermasterrrrr."

Quartermaster already left the area, leaving the campers behind.

"Goddammit," said the trio in unison.


David is in the amphitheater who is about to announce something, accompanied by Preston, a camper in the Theatre camp.

"Okay campers, this is going to be our first Grimm attack this summer, but don't be alarmed alright. All we need to do is work together and—"

As David was about to comfort the campers Preston intervenes in David's speech.

"Yes, yes, the power of friendship and whatnot David, listen to me well everybody."

Preston then pulls out a remote and presses it, a big screen descends from the ceiling of the amphitheater and is turned on. The map of Lake Lilac appeared, and on the map, there is a symbol that signifies Gwen's location, a pair of purple wings, flying towards the incoming Nevermore.

"Right now Gwen is acting as a bait, so that we may prepare our attack on the Grimm, now as a director, I already have a plan for us to defeat it, but I'm feeling generous today, so please share any plans that you may have in defeating this beast."

Everyone quickly raised their hands hoping for a chance to get earn points for sharing their plans with the camp, earning points in the camps of Lake Lilac gives huntsmen in training a chance in getting into combat schools for huntsmen or even a huntsmen academy.

Ered explains her plan first.

"How about I just do it by myself, I'll wait on my motorcycle and we can contact Gwen so she can just lure it to my huge ramp. And as the Grimm gets close enough to the ramp, I can just light burst towards it cutting the bird's head off with my great sword."

Ered then grabs her longsword and presented it, she then pressed a button on it and metal cogs turning and clanging can be heard within the sword, her sword begins to grow bigger and bigger. The sword glints at the end of its transformation, Ered's sword transformed into a great sword, the sword is now taller than Ered, it's at least twice as tall as she is.

Preston responded, "Well that is a fairly good idea, but remember, your Semblance starts with a flash of bright light. The Grimm will probably fly away as soon as it sees something glowing so brightly, so I think we should ask the others for another plan."

Nurf explains his plan now.

"How about I throw some explosives, since David is keeping my regular explosives, I think we can do it with the help of my Semblance."

Nurf then closes both of his fists and faces them towards the campers, read aura emits from his hand and into his fist. Nurf opens both of his hands and each of them there are now holding red glowing orbs, he throws one of them into the forest. As they heard it hit the ground it explodes, they see trees falling, dirt and debris scattering, some pebbles even hit Spacekid's helmet.

Preston responded, "As much as I want the Grimm to be disposed of, I want to be in a single piece when we fucking do it!"

Nerris explains her plan now.

"How about we call Gwen to lure the Grimm to somewhere and we attack it with everything we got, bombs, weapon, heck, we can even use our Semblances together."

Nerris then gets her small staff from her back and extends it, she then rummages in her purse and looks for some Dust.

Preston responded, "Well that is a well-thought plan, but we need to consider each other's strengths and weaknesses when using our weapons and Semblances."

Dolph explains his plan now.

"How about I draw some small creatures and make them distract the Grimm while we fight it."

Preston responded, "That is a good plan Dolph, make sure that the things you make only focus on the Grimm, and not get on the way of the other campers when they attack the Nevermore."

Dolph then makes some drafts sketches on what he going to make on his sketchbook, so that they can distract the Grimm in the upcoming battle.

"Now since Harrison is resting and Max is getting weapons for Nikki and Neil, the last person to share is Space Kid," Preston says.

Spacekid who still raising his hand waves it.

"Yes Spacekid, it's your turn."

"What was the question again?"

"Ok, here's the plan." Preston says as he ignores Spacekid.

Preston then moves his hands as his aura emits from his body signaling that he is going to use his Semblance.

Ered being curious, whispered to Nerris to ask what Semblance Preston has.

Nerris is now blushing and nervous about Ered the coolest kid in camp, being so close to her face. She manages to whisper to her while hiding her blushing face.

"W-ell Preston rarely uses it for fighting, he mainly uses it for his plays and stuff. But he does use it in visualizing his plans and it evens helps him in briefings or meetings before fighting Grimm."

"Well, why not use the big screen of the amphitheater."

"He prefers to be hands-on when planning a fight or directing a play."

Preston's hands are now placed on top of the air as if he was touching an invisible table, and a table did appear. A yellow table, its hue resembles the color of the sun, it appears on the amphitheater with Preston still placing his hands on it, he looks a bit tired after summoning it. Symbols start to appear floating on top of the table, corresponding to all counselors and campers that are able to fight. Three symbols glow, one symbol resembles a constellation which signifies Spacekid, the other one resembles two paintbrushes crossing with one another which signifies Dolph, and the last one is a pair of purple wings signifying Gwen. Another symbol hovering above the table appears, much bigger than the rest, it was a skull of a Nevermore, signifying the incoming threat.

"Now then, Spacekid and Dolph you guys will act as a distraction together with Gwen as soon as she gets here, your Semblances are fit to do this. Dolph, you can make somethings to distract it, preferably small birds or something very annoying."

"I'm on it," Dolph said as he starts painting small butterflies while using some special paint.

"Spacekid, your Semblance allows you to be an intangible strobe of lights, be sure to pass by its head a couple of times to blind him."

"You got it. What are we doing again?" Space kid says.

Preston ignores Spacekid's remark again.

Three more symbols glow above the table once more, one symbol resembles a bomb which signifies Nurf, one resembles a white great sword which signifies Ered, and the last one resembles two lumber axes crossing each other which signifies David.

"Ered and Nurf both of you will be in the frontline in fighting the Grimm together with David backing you up. Nurf makes some minor explosions, when I said minor, I said explosions that can hurt the Grimm but not hurt us as well."

"UGhhhhh….fine," Nurf said as he closes his fists again to make some more of his personal explosives.

"Ered, I know you can't use your Semblance consecutively, and can only use it for dodging, parrying, and killing blows. We're fighting a flying Grimm right now, not a person, use your light bursts wisely while fighting it. David will be there with you of course as support.

"Okay okay," Ered said as she reverts her weapon to its original form, transforming into a regular longsword.

"Now for Nerris, you'll be acting as support?" Preston said slowly.

"Why are telling me this as is if it's a question?" Nerris said as she repeatedly taps her staff on the ground, clearly mad.

"Look Nerris, you're still training your Semblance and you just started using weapons this summer. Your Dust staff as you call it is a weapon you haven't clearly mastered yet and for your Semblance, the ability to manipulate Dust with such great power but have minimal control of is dangerous. You can be back up if we need you, but for now, you can take care of Harrison who is still recovering from the Dust explosion. Do you understand?

"Sighhh…. I guess you're right." Nerris said upset.

She then slowly walked towards where the campers' tents are, she keeps extending and retracting her staff, a weapon that her father gave her. She hoped for a chance to fight with it and use her Semblance at the same time, but she hasn't gotten the chance yet. She is still training after all, and her friend Preston knows that she has been training for 2 summers now with her Semblance and rarely train with weaponry, together with Harrison and Preston, you could say these campers were the first trio of the camp, before Max, Nikki, and Neil.

Preston proceeded to look at his friend walk away from him; he then looks at the assigned campers and David.

"Now then."

Preston manipulates his Semblance once more; a map appears on the table hovering above it together with the symbols for the campers and counselors.

"Places everyone!"


We can see Gwen chasing after the Grimm now, it's been a few weeks since Gwen used her wings, and now is having trouble flying, but she manages.

"Damn, where is it? I thought I saw it here!"

A few seconds passed by and Gwen starts to fly in a different direction in search of the Grimm.

"SCCCEEEEEEEECCCHHHH!"

"Where is that shriek coming from?!"

Gwen looks up at the sky and sees nothing and as she looks at the ground she sees it, the Nevermore's shadow.

"If it's shadow's down there-"

The Nevermore quickly pounces Gwen out of nowhere, firmly grabbing her by the waist, its claws start piercing through her aura as its grip tightens. Gwen who is still shaken from its ambush uses all her might to manipulate her wings, turning them into blades, the bird shrieked in pain and lets go of her. As Gwen manages to escape, she catches a breath and tries to regain control of her wings again.

"Dammit! That was close. I need to weaken it first before I lead it back to camp."

The Nevermore circles back again and no longer hides from Gwen, the Grimm's wings face towards her, and as it does that a barrage of feathers rain towards Gwen at an intense speed. She dodges the feathers gracefully and immediately dives towards the Nevermore. Her ashy wings are manipulated again into blades, but much sharper and much longer than its previous transformation. She tries to aim for the head but just manages to cut its right eye, partially blinding it.

"I guess that's enough for now."

The Grimm still recovering from Gwen's strike flies up to the sky to cover some distance, as Gwen was about to bait it, she gets a call from her scroll. She goes down on the ground near the forest and turns off her semblance, landing on top of a tree branch and hides from the Grimm's line of sight. She then flips open her phone and sees that David is calling her, Gwen answers it.

"We have a plan."

"Alright then, fill me in."


The trio is now running to get to the bus without David and Gwen stopping them, but their discussion about themselves when they stopped and asked each other, may have been too long. They can be seen running towards the bus frantically and they see Quartermaster who is now on the bus, they then hear him start the engine. The trio is running in this order, Nikki is first, Max is struggling in second and to no one's surprise, Neil is currently last, just a couple of meters away from the two.

"We gotta hurry and get on the bus," Max said.

"Wait! Does any one of us know how to drive a bus," Neil said.

"Fuck! I knew I forgot something!"

"Goddammit! I knew I shouldn't have trusted you from the start."

"And what's that supposed to mean."

"I mean that you don't care about me and Nikki. Were here as decoys, aren't we?!"

"What!?" Max and Nikki yelled.

As Nikki heard Neil said those words, she was surprised, but even do her first friends this summer are currently fighting one another, something else catches her attention. She can see dark figures lurking in the forest, at first, she thought there were some Atlas soldiers still in the forest, but she was wrong. These aren't soldiers, these are Grimm, their bloodshot eyes can be seen glowing in the shade of the trees and for the second time in Nikki's life she was caught by surprise, terrified, and afraid.

"Were just here to protect you from Grimm, and slip by when you have a chance!" Neil screamed.

Max's pace becomes more sluggish and starts getting closer to Neil.

"Just get into the bus, I don't need to deal with your crap right now."

The two who are to starting to fight, don't notice the unforeseen danger there are in, except for Nikki, she then tries to stop them from fighting.

"You two stop fighting there are Gri-"

"I'm right, aren't I?! You're using us, considering you don't have a Semblance don't you!"

Neil says this as he struggles to run and speak to Max, Max pace now matches with Neil and is now beside him.

"Enough with your shit Neil, you can trust me, all right!"

As their fight with each other was starting to deescalate a monstrous figure jumps from the bushes and attacks the two boys. Nikki aware of the Grimm's presence dashes to his friends and ends up tackling them, she narrowly dodges it with her friends around her arms. The trio now on the ground and are facing their attacker on the dirt path, it seems another Grimm has come to their camp, a Beowolf.

"Everybody let's get back to the others! Now!"

Max got up and tries to run with his companions, but there was a problem, this is Nikki's and Neil's first encounter with a Grimm, they are both laying on the ground paralyzed with fear. To make matters worse, two more Beowolves appear, the first Beowolf then approaches the campers cautiously and readies itself to attack again.

"HOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWLLLLLLLL"

A prominent howl can be heard in the forest, the three Beowolves stop their attack on the trio and wait. In the forest, trees begin to fall and whatever is cutting them down is coming straight towards the campers. The campers hear trees being torn to pieces, the sounds get closer and closer to the campers, as each tree fell and crash to the ground, they finally saw what was causing such destruction. They see a Beowolf in the forest, it had dry blood on its claws and teeth, its odor was so putrid the campers can even smell it meters away. But there was something different about this Grimm in particular, not only its appearance more gruesome than the first three Beowolves, but it appears to be larger than them. Max quickly recognizes what type of Grimm it is and tries to grab Nikki and Neil, to flee to camp.

"You two snap out of it! Its an Alpha Beowolf! We need to get back now!"

But the two still stayed there on the ground frozen in fear, the Alpha Beowolf begins walking towards them with its jaws wide open. The three Beowolves also begin to walk towards them. Max filled with fear and adrenaline considers leaving the two behind but doesn't act on it, instead, he walks forward and stands in front of his new friends, defending them.

"I hope my Semblance will work this time."

The three Beowolfs begin charging at them viciously and the Alpha follows suit, Max stands firm as the Grimm charges at them. Nikki and Neil with what little courage they have, finally stand beside him, Max notices their determination in the face of danger and he smiles a little.

*CRAAASSSSHHHHHH*

The trio flinched as something big crashes near them, as they opened their eyes, they see the bus has crashed the first three Beowolves, slightly injuring them, and are now stuck together on the back door of the bus. It seems the Quartermaster noticed the commotion from the rearview mirror and decided to help the campers. The Quartermaster who is still in the driver's seat grabs his shotgun and loads it, but as he was about to get off the driver's seat, the Alpha Beowolf jumped on the hood of the bus.

"Damn."

Quartermaster turns on the sprinkler on the hood, the Alpha Beowolf startled, hops off the hood as water starts sprinkling on it. Giving Quartermaster enough time cock his shotgun and get to the back of the bus. The three Beowoles are still stuck on the back of the bus, but one manages to force itself free, as it begins to swing its claws at the campers its head gets blown off. We see Quartermaster with his double-barreled shotgun still smoking from the muzzle pointing outside the window, he tries to reload again but gets caught off balance as the Alpha starts tipping the bus over.

"DON'T YOU DARE TIP MY BUS YOU BEAST!"

Quartermaster manages to reload again and aims for the Alpha's head, it was a direct hit, but it merely takes a few steps back in a daze and is now slightly injured. With what little time he has, he reloads quickly and aims for one of the Beowolves in the back again, he fires, and one of the Beowolves dies and turns to ashes. But as he killed the second Beowolf, the last one was able to move freely again, as nothing was pinning it against the bus anymore. Quartermaster sees this and runs to the back of the door, windows from the side of the bus shatter as the Alpha Beowolf burst into the bus and pounce at Quartermaster. Quartermaster and the Alpha burst out of the bus together on the other side, they both roll together into the forest and never to be seen.

"Max, what should we do?!" Nikki said.

The Beowolf who is still near the bus tries to attack the trio but fails to do so, as it looks at its back it notices that its tail is still stuck on the bus.

"Neil, use one of your Dust Pellets! The red one!" Max shouts

Neil then hastily pulls out a Dust pellet and his slingshot, he aims then fire it at the Grimm. The trio expecting flames were greeted with ice instead.

"Neil, I said the red one!"

"Look! I panicked and grabbed the wrong one, ok!"

"Guys! Look!"

Nikki points out that the ice pinned half of the Grimm's body to the bus, completely immobilizing it. Max seeing this and rethinks this mistake as an opportunity.

"Nikki with me!" Max said as he begins charging at the Grimm.

"Alright! I trust you!"

As the two confront the Grimm together, Max signals Nikki to split up and then attack the Grimm at the same time. With no preparation and proper instructions, Nikki understood what Max was planning. They split up to faze the Grimm from their incoming attack, Max goes to the left side and jumps at it while preparing an axe kick to its head, and Nikki goes to the right side, running in all fours and prepares for a deadly uppercut under its chin. They both collide with its cranium with intense force, a crack can be heard as its head bursts into ashes, leaving its body lifeless and still stuck in the ice. Max and Nikki then looked at each other and then at Neil, the trio who are keeping their adrenaline and fear in check could only do one thing at that moment.

"FUUCCKKKK YEAHHHHHH! WE DID IT!"

Nikki gives Max a big hug and Max reluctantly takes it; Neil walks forward a bit and starts to fall to his knees. Max and Nikki see Neil collapsing and hurries towards him and try to aid him.

"Sorry, I'm just happy and really exhausted, that was my first time fighting a Grimm and first time seeing one in person"

"Yeah, me too," Nikki said.

Nikki begins to grab one of Neil's shoulders and carry him up a bit, Max sighs and also helps him.

"So you guys, this was your first time fighting a Grimm, huh?"

"Yeahh, it was pretty obvious, wasn't it?" Neil said.

"Well you guys did better when I first encountered a Grimm"

"Really?" Nikki said.

"Yeah, you guys sure did. Well anyways we need to get on the bus for now, and come up with some plan"

As the trio struggles to walk towards the bus with Neil who's close to fainting, they hear gunshots in the forest, to be more specific shotgun shots. The campers then see Quartermaster coming out of the forest with blood over his body and even more blood near his hook hand.

You kids get on the bus now!

"HOOOOOWWWWWLLLLLLL!"

The campers run inside the badly torn bus as they hear the Alpha's howl in the forest, clearly furious about the encounter with the campers. Quartermaster starts the engine and heads off to the camp with the trio. All of them breathe a sigh of relief as they escaped from the danger, they let Neil rest on a seat with Nikki still beside him and Max goes to the seat across from them and lays down with one of his arms covering his eyes. Neil and Nikki look at each other, concerned about how their friend Max is holding up, considering he held his ground as he stood in front of them, facing the pack Grimm alone. A few seconds passed by, and Max who knows that the two are worried about him finally talked.

"This wasn't supposed to happen," he says as he takes off his arm covering his eyes, and sits upright while looking outside the window.

Nikki knows what she has to say and she was about to tell Max, but Neil got to it first.

"I'm sorry."

"What?" Max says as he finally makes eye contact with the two, which he hasn't, during the entire ride on the bus with them.

"I'm sorry I ranted about how we were meat shields and how weak you are, I guess I was both wrong. If I wasn't arguing with you maybe the Grimm wouldn't have sensed us. It's just…. I was anxious and exhausted thinking about how my summer was going to be if I stayed here. And like a child, I let my frustration get the better of me, berating you for just a stupid reason."

"And I'm sorry to Max, I know that you are just trying to help us on the first day of summer in this huntsman in training camp. I saw them in the bushes Max, but I was scared to warn you guys. And as soon as we faced our first Grimm, we both froze…. maybe we're not cut out to be huntsmen."

Max sees the two blaming and sulking themselves for being in that stressful experience, and as they continued to criticize, Max stood up and confronted them.

"Remember when I said I encountered a Grimm?"

And in instant, Nikki and Neil stopped talking about their failure of an encounter with the Grimm and Max sits with them.

"I was a kid when it happened and I barely remember it, when I was around 5 and crying in my room, Grimm attacked me, they were a trio of Sulfur Fish. They were probably passing by underground and sensed my negative emotions, they dug through the floor and as they did, I called for my parents. And then suddenly I woke up in my parent's room like it was a dream, my parents told me what happened and apparently, I used my semblance on the Grimm and my room. All they saw when they went into my room was me with my aura broken and black dust from the Grimm still circling the room and disappearing afterwards, and not only did I killed the Sulfur Fishes but I rendered my room with a power I don't know how to control, even now."

Max pauses and looks at them

"I can't believe I shared that story with you guys and I can't believe I'm going to tell you guys this as well. I haven't given up on controlling my powers and you guys shouldn't give up on being huntsman just because you think you didn't do enough in that fight with the Grimm, but you guys are enough, *whisper* even for me."

"What was that last part?" Nikki questioned.

"It was nothing!" Max said as he blushes a little bit, and proceeds to cover his face with his hoodie and goes to the front of the bus.

"Just don't let this thing get you guys down, we can always find a way to get out of this hellhole of a camp, and if we haven't thought of any plans for that until then let's hang out this summer."

Neil whose guilt finally lifted, passes out, and Nikki takes notice of this and lets him lay on the bus seat with his head on her lap.

"You know Neil, Max sometimes acts like a jerk and has that scowling look on his face, he's actually a pretty nice guy. And when he recently blushed a little and covered himself up with his hoodie, as his bear ears were also sticking out, it was a little cute don't you think?"

Nikki doesn't take notice of her comment at first, but a few seconds passed by and her face immediately turns beet red as she heard herself and checks if Neil heard that by poking his nose, but luckily Neil is fast asleep.

"I should try to be more careful when I say those kinds of stuff, but for now."

After being embarrassed for a little while, she shrugs it off and decides to rest up a bit, until they can finally get back to camp. But as she was about to close her eyes, something crashes from the ceiling and lands inside the bus, debris, and clouds of dust now hover around the recently fallen figure. Quartermaster stops the bus and Max accompanies him to whatever landed inside with them. A shadowy figure is laying on the floor and hidden in ashes, it grunts as it rises and tries to grab Nikki, Nikki without hesitation throws her fist at the figure, but was caught by a female hand.

"What the hell? Why are you guys here!? Shouldn't David be with you!?"

The shadowy figure turned out to be Gwen, the ash and debris didn't come from the bus, it's the effect of her Semblance.

"You are all in big trouble. But for now, Quartermaster takes us to Camp Campbell! We're currently playing decoy for that flying son of a bitch that's following us."

Max and Nikki look out the window while Neil can be seen still sleeping soundly, they both see a Nevermore up in the sky which once was closing in on Gwen, but is now closing in on the bus.

"SCCCEEEEEEEECCCHHHH!"


At camp now and Preston is currently directing the campers on their ambush for the Grimm.

"All right places people! Places! We're losing daylight!"

The sky begins to shift to a soft orange color, a sign that the day is almost up and night will start to fall soon. David can be seen in an open field alone, with his hand on his scroll waiting for a call and his eyes looking up in the sky waiting for the Grimm and his co-counselor.

"I hope she's okay"

* Ring*

* Ring*

* Ring*

David quickly answers the call and speaks.

"Are you okay!? Do you need help!? WHERE ARE YOU RIGHT NOW?!"

"Jeeeez, relax David I'm fine, I met up with Quartermaster when I was leading the Grimm to the camp, he's currently driving me and the campers back to camp."

"Uhhh…Campers?"

"Yes Davey, campers, as in plural, how did they sneak away from you?"

"…I think that doesn't matter right now. Where is the Nevermore?"

"It's currently at our tail, and we'll be arriving soon are guys ready there?"

"Yes, we are, just give us the signal when you're about to enter the camp."

"Alright, over and out."

David hangs up and goes to the activities field where the campers are preparing the ambush, as he finally gets there, he checks at everyone's tasks in the upcoming battle. Spacekid and Dolph are ready to distract the Grimm together with Gwen when she gets here, Spacekid can be seen shifting his body from his light form to his physical form rapidly, just warming up his semblance, Dolph is now riding a recent creation of his, a dog that he made this afternoon and is holding a sketchbook full of butterflies which were made using a new paint concoction.

"You two, be ready when Gwen gets here, as you know you campers will be distracting the Nevermore with Gwen."

Spacekid and Dolph nod.

David now checks on the group he was assigned with, Ered and Nurf are preparing their weapons. Ered has her longsword and is sharpening it and Nurf can be seen making the last batch of his explosives which are made by using his Semblance.

"Be sure you two keep your distance with the Grimm and I'll be backing you camper up if things get dicey."

Ered and Nurf both ignore David and talk to each other instead, of what they should do together when fighting the Grimm. David takes notice of them ignoring him and decides to walk away and talk to Preston about the plan. Preston exhausted from using his Semblance this whole afternoon, went to his tent to rest and is with Nerris who is also taking care of Preston.

"Alright Preston, everything and everyone is ready, all we have to do is wait for Gwen's call."

"Excellent, now then, Nerris and Harrison don't get out of this tent. All we have to do is have faith in our friends' abilities and wait out the battle."

"I think I can fight still; I think my aura is at least half full."

David checks his scroll to monitor Harrison's aura, on his scroll we can see a health bar, but instead of monitoring his health it monitors his aura. The bar reads that Harrison's aura is at 30%, not nearly half.

"No chance sport, your aura level hasn't even reached half yet, you need to take a long night's rest before you can face a Grimm."

"Well how about me!" Nerris says as she looks at Preston, clearly mad.

"Nerris, you are not ready to fight yet, you have to trust me."

"Then when will I be ready Preston?! I won't learn how to fight a Grimm unless I fight one for real!"

"You don't understand."

"What don't I understand?! I could ruin your plan while fighting the Grimm!? I asked Ered to tell me about it, I can be a support on the sidelines while I use my staff, just please give me a chance."

"I SAID YOU CAN'T!"

David and Harrison have been silent this whole time, letting the two share what they have to say to each other. But as Preston raised his voice at Nerris, David and Harrison focus their attention on Nerris completely.

"Al-rright then, if you *hic* say so. Excuse me"

Nerris burst into tears and grabs her staff, she then runs out of the tent. David sighs as he goes to chase after her, but stops at the entrance of the tent while placing his hand above it. David then speaks to the two.

"Harrison, talk to her about this tomorrow and Preston."

David pauses.

"Nerris needs all the help she can get to be a huntress, and as a director and as one of her closest friends, you know the smartest thing to do is to be there for her. Now both of you stay here and rest, I'll go find her."

David runs off to look for Nerris and notices that night is almost closing, he thought that she would be spotted out on the dirt paths, but she isn't on any of them.

"She couldn't have gone through the trees, could she?"

David then runs into the forest in search of her. While in the tent.

"I should have cut in between the two of you, shouldn't I?"

"No no, I think I might have been too hard on her this time."

"And what should we do when she gets back?"

"Say sorry to her and…hunt some Grimm tomorrow with her."

"Are you sure? I heard it from her that you said she's still inexperienced with her Semblance and weapon."

"Yes, I did call her that….I lied."

"What!?"

"I lied to her because she's our best friend, I just didn't want to see her get hurt. And I think 2 summers of her standing on the sidelines supporting us with just the use of her Dust, has made her feel weak all this time. I should have let her fight with the other campers today. This summer, her dad gave her this weapon, and she wanted to show it off to us, I think we should give her a chance."

"Alright then. Oh and what about Gwen's signal?"

"What?"

"Didn't Gwen said that she'll be calling David on his scroll when she will arrive with the Grimm on her tail? And we don't have scrolls yet, how will the others know when she will get here."

...

...

...

"Dammit!"

...

"Harrison, you need to use your Semblance."

"My Semblance!"

"Yes, your Semblance, create a portal for us to the activities field, so we could tell the others that David isn't around right now."

"It's just, it can be somewhat unpredictable when I don't see the location of the place when I place my portals."

"It's alright, just do it!"

Harrison whose laying on his bed now sits upright and tries to use his Semblance. He holds his hands in front of him and as he does so, a white light appears between them and it glows brighter and brighter as it consumes the whole tent.


Author's Note:

I thought this chapter was just going to end at part 2 but seems like I was wrong, part 3 will probably shorter and will be out this month. And any questions you guys have, feel free to comment and please follow.