Volume 1: Chapter 1

Escape from Grimm Part 3

The campers are now preparing for the ambush by finishing all of their tasks, as well as prepping their weapons and Dust for the fight, however, Spacekid can be seen roaming around, waiting for David to rejoin the rest of the campers.

"I wonder where's David?"

"Psst, is anybody there!"

Spacekid, startled by the fact that someone unexpectedly talked to him, transforms into his constellation form. He is merely a constellation of little stars in this shape, but he can still see normally. He looks for the one who called him, but no one is there. He reverts to his previous physical state.

"Hello, is anybody there!"

Spacekid finally figures out where the voice is coming from, a bush just beside him rustled as the voice spoke. Spacekid, after using all of his brainpower to figure out what's going on, his mind arrives at this conclusion.

"*GAASSPPP* A talking bush."

"Spacekid is that you!?"

"How do you know my name talking bush?"

"It's me, Preston."

"Hey, I have a friend named Preston too, he goes on about acting, directing plays, planning an ambush on a Grimm, you want to meet him?"

"Goddamit Spacekid, just go inside the bush."

"Will I go to a magical place where I will other talking bushes like you?"

"No, just look inside of the bush, Spacekid."

As Spacekid finally actually listens to the voice and glances inside the bush, he notices a little luminous hole that is the size of a golf ball, hovering inside the bush. When he gets a closer look at the portal, he notices that it goes to a little tent that looks familiar to him. He gets closer to the gateway to examine it more closely, but an eye emerges on it and it screams.

"SPACEKID!"

"AAAHHHHHH!"

"Spacekid calm down it's me, Preston"

"Preston, why are you just an eye?!"

"Just listen to me Spacekid, David can't signal you guys when Gwen is arriving, he is currently looking for Nerris."

"What happened to her?"

"That doesn't matter right now, just tell the others to be ready when Gwen and the Grimm arrive."

"Alright!"

"Okay. Do you remember what I said?"

" ….Could you repeat that one more time?"

"I'll just write a note, and be sure to give it to Ered."

"Y-Yes, sir!"


Preston and Harrison can be seen squabbling in the tent where they are supposed to be resting. Harrison can also be seen struggling to keep the portal up and sweating profusely.

"Can you hurry in writing that note? My Semblance is starting to give way."

"I'm on it already! Why are you already tired?!"

"I'm still not fully recovered remember. Just write faster!"

"And… I… am… done!"

Preston throws his note into the portal hitting Spacekid's helmet and drops it into his open hands.

"Remember give it to Ere-"

The portal flickers and disappears before Preston can finish his sentence. Harrison exhausted, lays down in his bed and weakly talks to Preston.

"You think Spacekid can handle this?"

"We can only hope."


Gwen, Quartermaster, and the campers with them are now aboard the bus, the bus is now only a couple of minutes away from the camp. Neil is still asleep on the seats, Max and Nikki are both fixated on the approaching Nevermore following them, and Quartermaster is wiping the blood from his hook while driving. While Gwen, who was going to contact David to inform him of their impending arrival, is suddenly concerned about how Quartermaster got his hook and entire body so bloodied.

"Uhmm… How did you get blood all over your hook and the rest of your body, Quartermaster? You should know that Grimm creatures don't bleed; when they're sliced up or die, their bodies turn to dust. So, whose blood is that?"

"…"

"Okay, you don't have to tell me, I'll just stand somewhere else and call Davey."

Gwen scoots herself away from Quartermaster and proceeds to call David from her scroll, David answers immediately.

"Gwen are you almost here?"

"Yeah, just be with the campers when we get there."

"It's just, we have a problem here."

"What is it?"

"Nerris is missing."

"What?!"

"Keep it down, Max and the others there might hear you."

"What happened?"

"Nerris and Preston had a fight."

"You sure she isn't in her tent."

"I already checked twice; she isn't there. And I'm currently looking for her."

"Wait if your there, the campers won't have any backup and won't know I'm coming."

"It's alright, I forgot to even tell them you're on a bus with 3 other campers, what worries me the most is that, Nerris is alone somewhere and it's getting dark already. If a pack of Grimm finds her…."

"Davey..."

"I won't let that happen again in my camp, never again. I'll get back to the group as soon as I find Nerris, over and out."

*beep*

Gwen sighs as she hears David's desperation can be heard in his voice, she doesn't want her campers to die either, just like what happened to one of her teammates. But she gets her head straight and tells the other what to do.

"Quartermaster, honk the bus horn as we get near to the camp, maybe that's enough for them to know that the Grimm is coming."

"Alright."

"Nikki, you take care of Neil who is still sleeping, stay in this bus with him, and don't get out yet. Max already told me you fought with him, but he also said you freeze up a bit the first time you saw it, so stay here and protect Neil."

"I'm on it."

"Max you'll be with me, as soon as we get out of the bus we'll be fighting with the others. If you're tired from the last Grimm encounter you can stay with Nikki and Neil."

"I think I can be more useful if I fight with you guys, and besides, I'm planning to not hold back tonight."

Gwen thought to herself, "It's getting close to nighttime, isn't it?" She walks to the back of the bus, which is partially open given the fact that it collided with a group of Beowolves. She looks at the sunset as it begins to fade, and after a few moments, it has finally turned night.

"Well Quartermaster, I ain't hearing any beeping."

"Gwen Dear, why settle for just beeping."

Quartermaster slid open his seat and pulled out a red box, which he then opened to reveal a little gun, a flare to be precise.

"You had a flare the whole time, why didn't you tell me!"

"You never asked."

Quartermaster says as he starts loading it.


The campers who are waiting for the Grimm to arrive are currently grouped, Ered who is in the middle starts to read a note Spacekid got from Preston.

"Comra—I'm not saying some of this, blah blah blah, David won't be at the battle because he's looking for Nerris right now... but don't worry, David will find her. Just know that unless Gwen finds a way or the Nevermore gives away its position by shrieking, there will be no way to know when or where the Grimm is coming to camp. It'll be hard for Dolph and Spacekid to distract it at first, just be ready when the Grimm arrives, that is all."

Ered throws the note away as she starts to walk to her motorcycle.

"What do we do?" Dolph asked.

"I don't know, maybe I can scout out a bit and see Gwen somewhere in the sky."

"It's nighttime we can barely see out there in the woods, and who knows how many Grimm are hiding there," Dolph exclaimed.

"Maybe Spacekid can tag with me."

"Splitting up is a bad idea already Ered there only four of us now, me, you, Spacekid, and Nurf. We just have to be ready for the Nevermore to come to us and Gwen backing us up."

"Even if Gwen backs us up, we might not even be able to defeat it together, she's probably tired from flying this whole afternoon."

Ered grabs her sword from her waist, gets on her bike, and says to the three.

"I'll go ahead an—"

As Ered was ready to start her motorcycle, a red light appeared on the horizon, a flare, followed by the shrieking of a Nevermore. They are now aware of the Grimm's arrival and immediately prepare their ambush.


David is sprinting through the forest, desperation in his eyes, seeking fresh clues and tracks to find Nerris, oblivious to the various damages his aura is suffering as he runs into trees, trip over rocks, and his aura is even protecting him from getting splinters.

At first, all seems lost, then David hears a girl yelling "FIREBOLT" from afar. David dashes in the direction where he heard a girl's voice, he then climbs a tree to search for the person who screamed.

But there was just one thing he noticed... fire. A raging inferno suddenly engulfs a grove of trees only a few meters from David. And as he looks closer behind the flames, he sees his worst nightmare come true: Nerris is surrounded by a pack of black monstrous bears, Ursa Grimm, but one of them stood out: it was an Ursa Major, a larger and deadlier variant of Ursa.

"NERRISS!"

David's voice echoed far into the forest, agitating the Grimm and making them wary of his presence, while Nerris was surprised when she heard David calling her. The Ursa Major takes advantage of the opportunity and attacks her, but is stopped when David dropkicks it in the head, leaving its corpse dead and turning to dust.

Nerris dazed that David somehow found her speaks to him.

"How did you find me? And your voice sounded like it was still far away, where did you come from?"

David doesn't respond to Nerris and swiftly takes her and her staff, sprinting away from the Grimm and successfully evading them.

"You could've died back there Nerris, you know that."

Nerris, still shaking from the encounter, bursts into tears and silently laments that if David hadn't been there, she'd already been dead.

"I-m, sor-yy, it's just I wan-t to prove myself and my friends that I can be hu-huntress, fighting Grimm, helping people, that's all I ever wanted since I was a kid."

When David notices that the threat has passed, he comes to a halt and gently sets her on her feet. He then searches for a fallen tree nearby and positions it between him and Nerris, sitting on it and motioning her to join him. Nerris sits with him, her tears beginning to fade, and after a few moments, David finally speaks to her.

"Nerris, you don't have to be sorry, you felt weak, useless, I've been there."

"You have?"

"Yeah, I lost a friend, because I wasn't strong enough to save them, I know how frustrating that can be. But, if we were to let our emotions of negativity cloud our judgment, then we will be truly useless to our friends, and the people of Remnant. And if you have problems you need to fix, it's better to have friends help you in fixing it."

Nerris finally stops crying and stays quiet for a while, she looks at the night sky which has a new moon and is filled to the brim with stars just shimmering so bright in the night sky, she shivers as the cool mountain air touches her skin. After listening to what David had to say she finally calmed down and tries to have a proper conversation with him.

"Preston said that my Semblance is too uncontrollable if used in actual combat, what if I hurt somebody in the process?"

"That's why you're here remember, to train your Semblances and your weapons that is why Camp Campbell was built for. I know that it didn't really say in your brochure, but Camp Campbell specializes in training campers that have problematic Semblances, even Gwen and I had trouble controlling our Semblances back then."

"You and Gwen had problems with your Semblances?"

"My Semblance gives me unimaginable strength, but I used to have problems controlling it; every time I used a door, I would crush every doorknob. And Gwen's summons accidentally attacked a few people back then, and some of the attacks were deliberate, but the point is. We were just like you once, and we did our best and we even managed to get into the same Huntsman Academy together."

"You think Preston and Harrison can forgive me? After I stormed out like that and yelled at them?"

"Friends can sometimes fight each other, but for now."

David stands up while handing over her staff.

"Your friends need you to fight with them, are you ready?"

Nerris rubs her eyes and stands while grabbing her staff.

"I'm ready."

"Alright that's the spirit, it's going to be a long trip to camp we need to get there fast, I'm sorry but I need to carry again."

"Okay."

David piggybacks Nerris and runs off to camp, where his campers are about to face the Nevermore.


At the activites field now, campers are at the places they were assigned and are waiting for the Grimm, Spacekid and Dolph are prepared to be a distraction for the Grimm, together with Gwen. Spacekid flickers his body, just warming up his Semblance, while Dolph is riding his recent summon, a dog made out of oil paint, he now is holding his sketchbook open, which is filled with drawings of butterflies.

Nurf and Ered are going to fight the Nevermore head-on, without David accompanying them. Nurf holds his explosives orbs tight and Ered holds her sword in the air.

They soon hear a vehicle approaching them.

"Whose car is that?" Dolph questioned. "Is it one of the Atlas soldiers that came by here at noon?"

"I don't know, just be prepared for it," Ered said. "Maybe it's someone trying to escape from the Grimm, if it is, let's help them."

The vehicle eventually appeared as it began to reach the activities field, and the campers spotted their camp bus, which was battered and broken. Its windows are shattered, and two massive holes, one on the side and one on the ceiling, can be seen. The Grimm finally arrives at Camp Campbell and lets forth a massive cry, everyone hearing this squeal in pain, well, except for Quartermaster.

Gwen on the bus leaps from a bus window and flies towards the Nevermore.

"EVERYONE! I'm here let's do this!"

Max exits the bus through the door, then turns to face Nikki, who is looking after Neil by the window. They exchange glances, then Nikki opens the window and yells.

"Kick that bird's ass!"

"That's the plan," Max says as he joins the other campers.

All campers in the activities field now charge at the Grimm, as they saw Gwen face it.

"The Nevermore now is half-blinded, I took out its right eye! Spacekid and Dolph be at its left side, try blinding its left eye with me, using your Semblances."

Gwen gets up close to it, but as the Grimm flaps its wings, a gust of powerful air pushes her back, knocking her off balance and causing her to fall to the ground. Everyone was shocked when their counselor was knocked to the ground by the creature's enormous wings, but they retaliated.

Spacekid and Dolph take Gwen's advice and try to blind its left eye, Spacekid morphs into a constellation and flies close to the monster's head. It backs away from the glowing lights and flies into a swarm of butterflies, butterflies that Dolph drew on his sketchbook, with the use of his Semblance, he can summon his paintings to life. But these paintings of butterflies are more specialized in what they are made of, compared to how they were summoned.

*boom…boom…boom…boomboomboomboomboomBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!*

As each butterfly made contact with the Nevermore, they would make a minor explosion, but as more and more start to swarm and attack the Grimm, the minor explosions begin to get larger and larger. The flying beast is now surrounded by smoke, as it exits from the cloud of smoke and ashes, it can be seen badly hurt and injured, and its movements in the air have become sluggish.

But emerging from the ashes may have been a mistake; Nurf now gets a clear shot at it and fires a volley of explosives he created with his Semblance, but the Grimm defends itself by using its wings as a shield, suffering only minor damage. The Nevermore, regretting its decision to come here, attempts to leave, but Gwen recovers from her injuries and flies back up, preventing the Grimm from fleeing the camp.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?!" Gwen yelled.

Gwen and The Nevermore begin battling in the night sky, but the campers below have problems seeing them. With the new moon tonight, the Nevermore's natural color helps it conceal in the night sky, but its red eyes, white characteristics on its head, and natural light from the stars allow some of the campers and Gwen to determine where it is.

Gwen appears and disappears as her ashy wings conceal her for most of the fight, making it harder for campers to combat the Grimm while she is in the way.

Ered, who is one of the campers who hasn't yet fought the Grimm, keeps an eye out for an opening. It may be difficult for her to do so, given the possibility of hitting Gwen with one of her sword strikes, so all she can do for now is keep running and follow where the Grimm is.

"Maybe Gwen can do this by herself, cause I'm getting tired from all this running," Ered said.

As the Nevermore and Gwen continue to battle, the Grimm becomes enraged and flaps its wings again, causing an even stronger blast of wind to hit Gwen, slamming her to the ground.

*ground crack*

All of the campers, including those on the bus, searched for Gwen's whereabouts, but all they saw were the ashes from her Semblance and the dirt from the collision, obscuring everyone's vision. The ashes and dirt soon subside and reveal Gwen laying inside a crater, as she was about to raise her hand, her aura shatters and her ashy wings blow away in the wind.

And at that moment, everyone's heart just sank.


Just near the entrance of the camp, David has just recently entered the camp with Nerris on his back. David runs as fast as he could to get to the activities field, but just for a moment, he slows down at first just to catch some breath.

"SCREEEEEEEEECCCHHHH!"

David tells Nerris to hang on tight as he runs as quickly as he can to the activities field after hearing the horrific shriek. Nerris notices that David's legs are hardly touching the ground, every step that David takes, covers a distance of 15 meters.

Finally, David and Nerris arrive at the activities field, and it appears that the other hasn't noticed them yet; they both survey the current battle and check how the campers are holding up. Nerris sees the Nevermore as clear as day, flying and trying to hide in the night sky using its black feathers.

"David, I think I saw the Nevermore over there, can you get me closer to it?"

David doesn't respond and gently lifts Nerris off his back, just standing there staring at something. As she was about to ask what was wrong with him, she then realized why he was acting so weirdly. When David sees Gwen in this condition, he recalls a time when he couldn't save his best friend. At this moment, all he could do was stand and stare, as he begins to dissociate, oblivious to his surroundings and everyone around him.

"David, you need to help Gwen, she needs you!"

Nerris says as she repeatedly tugs on David's shirt, but it's no use because he's in complete shock. As the Nevermore senses their dread altogether, its demeanor shifts. Sensing all of those negative emotions at once has riled it up, making it want to attack those who are now in despair. It quickly flies higher and higher in the night sky, it blends in so well in the sky now that no normal human can see it anymore, except for two campers.

Max shouts at Ered.

"Ered! Jump off of me, I can boost you up there and you can use your Semblance to reach and strike it down!"

"I can't! It's too high now, and I can barely even see it, we need to help Gwen first!"

Nevermore is about to hurl his dagger-like feathers at the campers and counselors, David rushes to get Gwen, and the rest of the campers dive for cover.

"ICEBOLT!"

Everyone, including the Nevermore, notices a bolt of ice rising into the sky, and the campers know who would shout their attack in a fight.

"Nerris!" Every camper yells.

The ice attack controlled by Nerris's Semblance is now quickly approaching the Nevermore, the Grimm stops its attempt in its long-range attack and dodges the ice shard hurled it. Everyone flinches as Nerris's attack misses, but suddenly the ice stops midair behind the beast.

As Ered turns to face Nerris, her wizard hat begins to spew snowflakes out of its opening, just a constant mist of snow begins pouring out her hat.

As more snow begins to fall out Nerris' cap, she yells at the beast.

"Take this! ICE BOLT RICOCHET!"

The ice bolt in mid-air suddenly gains a burst of speed, as if it were bouncing off a wall, it then hits the Nevermore's right-wing and is now struggling to keep itself in the air with only its other wing. The Nevermore starts to descend slowly and tries to fly away from the camp, but it's not enough, the Grimm falls, but before it does, it prepares its long-distance attack again with only its left wing.

Ered sees this and runs towards Max and yells.

"Max, I need a boost!"

Max nods as he prepares to boost Ered up using his Bear Faunus strength. As the two finally meet, Max has both of his hands together and cupped, Ered places one of her feet on it and Max will all his beastly strength throws Ered into the falling Nevermore.

With each passing second, she draws closer to the Nevermore, which is charging its wing for an attack, and just as it was ready to fling its feathers, Ered pulls her longsword from her back and her body shines with such a bright light that it can be seen from every camp in Lake Lilac.

"TAKE THISSS!"

Ered screams as she light burst towards the falling Grimm with her longsword, the sword also begins to glow and transform, Ered activated her longsword and is now simultaneously glowing and transforming into her great sword.

Just a few meters away from the Nevermore now, she aims for its head and…

*Sliceeeeeeeeeee*

Ered decapitates it.

"FUCKK YEAAHHH!" Every camper yell as they finally defeat their ever first Grimm this summer in Camp Campbell. This was a victorious moment that everybody was proud of, but there were still many worrying matters to attend to.

Gwen is currently getting first aid from David, Nerris is passed out from using her Semblance in a new way and Dolph runs to her to aid her, but one matter, in particular, has everyone panicking.

Ered is still falling from the sky.

"What do we do!?" Spacekid says while panicking "I can't get to her while I use my Semblance, I'm intangible when I'm in my light form."

Nikki eventually exits the bus and goes to Max, where she sees Ered plummeting from the sky.

"Max, can you catch Ered!?"

"Calm down, Nikki, you and Spacekid are overreacting; Ered is one of the few campers here who has a landing strategy."

Ered, who is still falling from the sky, uses her Semblance at the appropriate times. She utilizes her Semblance sparingly because she can't use it repeatedly; every few seconds as she falls, she uses her Semblance to gently light burst upwards, and after doing so for half a minute, she eventually lands on the ground, where Nikki attends to her.

"Are you okay?"

"A little bit better now that you're here."

*Nikki blushes*

She turns her face away from embarrassment as she blushes, and she then notices Max staring intently at the night sky. She comes over to Max after asking Ered whether she's doing okay.

"Hey Max, watcha lookin' at."

"Oh right, you might wanna stand a bit closer to me."

Nikki listens intently to what Max says, and as a result, the Nevermore's falling corpse narrowly misses the two.

"Max! Why didn't you warn me about the falling Nevermore!"

"I thought it would be funny is all."

" *sigh* How did you see it falling from the sky, its feathers blend so well in the night."

"I'm a Faunus remember, we have goodnight vision, anyway, I think we should help the others and wake up Neil."

As they both run off to check on the others and to eventually wake up their friend Neil, a small yellow portal can be seen on a tree, just blending in as a small opening for a woodland creature.


In the tent, both Preston and Harrison saw what happened through the small portal, using Harrison's Semblance. They were impressed by what the campers did on their first Grimm attack this summer, but Preston was more impressed in Nerris's use of her Semblance.

"Did you see what Nerris did, Harrison?" It's as though her power evolves in some manner; we know her Semblance allows her to harness and manipulate the power of various types of Dust, and once she uses her Semblance, the Dust vanishes. And now she has even more influence over Dust, being able to stop it in its tracks and even change its trajectory. What do you think of it, Harrison?"

But Harrison can't answer right now, he still struggling to keep the portal open, and is begging Preston if he can turn off his Semblance now.

"Ca-n I t-ake down the port-alll no-w. I'm at my limit."

"Yeah, close it up."

"Oh thank god!"

Harrison closes his portal and passes out on his bed; when Harrison notices this, he tucks him in properly and covers him with a bedsheet.

"Now then, I'm going to plan and prepare a hunt for a Grimm hunt tomorrow, I think it's time for the three of us to actually fight together.

Preston can now be seen going underneath his bed and grabbing something, he grabs it, it appears to be a journal, he proceeds to lay on his bed. As he was about to write he notices that his friend is sleeping with the lights on, so he claps his hands and the lights turn off. The tent is now pitch black but Preston uses his scroll as a source of light, he then proceeds to write on his journal.


At the activities field, everyone has gathered up the injured and fainted in one of the camp stations, the Adventure Camp.

Neil is still asleep, Max and Nikki who are now bored, start to draw on Neil's face, with a sharpie Max had stashed in his hoodie.

Nerris is also being looked after; she pushed her limits today and collapsed after striking the Grimm with her Semblance; she is currently being cared for by Dolph, the camp's small doctor, who is also accompanied by Ered.

Gwen, on the other hand, isn't looking so well. Using her Semblance for the entire afternoon, took a toll on her, and after being injured by the Grimm several times, it was only a matter of time until her aura would break.

Nurf, bored, decides to start the campfire at the Adventure Camp station. He uses his Semblance to create a little explosive ball, which drops from the tip of his finger and explodes like a small firecracker, igniting a huge fire.

After being met with such soothing warmth from the campfire on this cold night, everyone felt more at peace.

Gwen is gently reawakened by the warmth of the flames, but as she begins to move again, she is stopped. She realizes that David has been holding her hand the entire time, advising her not to move due to her injuries.

"Gwen you're injured, you need to rest."

"Di—d we do-"

"What?"

"Did we do it, is the Nevermore dead?"

"Yes, we did."

"Okay, why are you still crying?"

"Because I'm worried about you!"

"After all the years we've spent together you're still a goddamn crybaby, Davey."

As they spoke, the campers observed their counselors conversing with one another; they saw two individuals who had spent their lives trusting and working with one another; witnessing that caused some campers to cry because of how romantic that is, while others were disgusted by the thought.

"Get a room you two!" Max yelled.

"Shut the hell up—," Gwen tries to scold Max but fails, she then looks at David "I'm going to sleep for a while can you handle the rest?"

"Yeah, I can do the rest, just get some sleep."

"Alright." Gwen finally dozes off to sleep, David then lets go of her hand and speaks to all of the campers.

"Those who haven't gotten hurt, take the injured and fainted to their tents, and please be quiet when you walk there, one Nevermore is enough for the first day of summer," David says as he smiles again, he's back to his original self.

Everyone instantly breathes a sigh of relief after learning that their hard work was not in vain and that they may finally go to bed and take a well-deserved nap. Max and Nikki carry the sleeping Neil up to his tent, Ered piggybacks Nerris up and brings her to the tent they both share, David does the same for Gwen, and everyone went to their respective sleeping quarters.


David may be seen leaving the counselors' cabin shortly after carrying Gwen to her bed. He takes a key from his pocket and locks the door, at which point he hears rustling in the bushes.

"Not again, *sigh* come on out and let's get this over with."

David is exhausted, he struggles to maintain a stance but simply lets his body limp and be ready for whatever comes out for him, he was anticipating another Grimm or perhaps another Atlas soldier searching for Mr. Campbell, either way, he is prepared for both. But it wasn't either; it was Quartermaster, he's just in a bush, only showing just his face.

"Oh, it's just you Quartermaster, I'm guessing you did what I told you to do?"

Quartermaster finally comes out of the bushes, his clothes covered with more blood than earlier, and some parts of his clothes are either charred or scorched.

"Yep, I put out that wildfire the girl with glasses made, and I killed the Ursas near there as well."

"That's good to hear, by the way, I saw you covered with blood at the bus earlier, I'm guessing you used your Semblance against some Grimm."

"Yes, I did, I fought some Beowolves and one Alpha. Just from looking at them, they're from Grimm Island, I can also still smell the lake water on them, I think they crossed the lake 2 to 3 days ago give or take."

"That is worrisome."

"Also there is some information I think you should know about."

"What is it?"

Quartermaster approaches David, getting near to his ear, and whispers to him, David now feels quite uneasy.

"We weren't the only camp that got attacked today."

"what?"

"Other camps in the Lake Lilac were attacked today."

"Which ones?"

...

...

...

"All of them."

"Every camp in Lake Lilac was attacked in the first day of summer, how? The reason we were attacked because of a Nevermore just happened to be near the camp."

"Speaking about the bird, it looked pretty young and inexperienced."

"And that means?!"

"The older the Grimm, the deadlier and smarter they are; also, what intrigues me about the attacks on all the camps was not how they were carried out together. What attacked them is what I'm interested in."

"What are you talking about?"

"What attack them weren't Grimm that typically can be seen here in Vale, Sulfur Fish from the Vacuo Kingdom were seen attacking the Woodscouts. The Flowerscouts almost lost their camp, to a horde of Apathy, those Grimm generally can be seen near the Atlas Kingdom. And a swarm of Lancers from Mistral was seen bombarding the Pirate Camp."

"How did all of that many different types of Grimm get to Lake Lilac; did you think they come from Grimm Island?"

"Naturally anyone would suspect that. Grimm Island is where new Grimm spawns on their own, but there are also old ones that learned not to cross the lake if they want a death wish that is. But still, a variety of Grimm spawning in one place sounds like a fairytale to me, the Grimm we see on the island are the typical ones you see here in Vale. Beowolves, Ursas, Boarbatusks, seeing other types of Grimm from across Remnant attacking the camps at the same time, is just unnatural."

"Grimm are already unnatural as they are. *sigh* If they did come from Grimm Island how do you think they pass by all the camps?"

"I think they didn't come from Grimm Island, David. I think something…"

Quartermaster slowly backs away from David and slowly walks away, going into the forest.

"Or… someone is behind this, try not to die this summer David and have a good a Campe Diem."

"That's not how you use that word."

Quartermaster ignores him and just disappears into the shadows.

"That guy still creeps me out. If what he said is true then, I have to train more this summer. For everyone's sake."


Epilogue

Through binoculars, David can be seen is still standing in front of the counselor's cabin, talking to himself and throwing his fists in the air, just warming up for his nightly jog. Someone is keeping an eye on David, spying on him on one of Sleepy Peak's mountains, kilometers away from Lake Lilac and Camp Campbell.

After spying on David, they went down a dirt path, and after a few minutes of walking, they arrived at a camp with people wearing white masks, one of whom was spying on David. They walk into a huge red tent and kneel in the center of the tent.

In front of them is a woman sitting on a makeshift throne, she's currently on her scroll checking something on it not noticing the person kneeling. After a few minutes, she notices them and permits them to speak while still scrolling through her scroll.

"My lady, we have gathered much intel regarding all the camps of Lake Lilac, on how they fare with the recent Grimm attacks we have dispatched."

"Excellent."

"And we've already installed hidden cameras through the camps, and made sure they are completely hidden."

"Yes, I've seen many interesting things from them, mainly from this little camp, Camp Campbell. But compared to the others they are extremely weak and pathetic to look at, but maybe they'll survive what we throw at them."

The lady rises from her seat and exits the tent; her features have become more visible, and she looks to be a Faunus of some sort; as she exits, everyone stops what they are doing and becomes silent. The lady then approaches a podium nearby and addresses the group.

"As we all know Lake Lilac is a special place, it is where the Grimm Island resides, hidden in there is the source and answer many people have questioned for centuries, where do they come from? If we can get rid of the little huntsmen and huntresses, they'll be forced to shut down the camps and we can take over Lake Lilac. And in turn, be able to have Grimm Island all to ourselves. And with Grimm Island in our hands, we can take control of the Grimm!"

The masked people applaud as their leader's speech inspires them; everyone returns to their job and completes whatever task they were working on. The leader steps down from the podium and walks to the camp's entrance, where she stares forward and observes the night sky before taking a scout from her pocket and starts gazing at Grimm Island with it.

"You are my key, the key to humanity's extinction."


Author's note:

New character alert! Who is she? What's her backstory? Who knows?

Anyways this is Chapter 1's last part, and the next chapter will be up next month. I just wanna say thank you all for reading my first fanfiction, in 2 months more than 500 people have already read it. Please follow for more fanfics, I'm planning to make another Camp Camp fanfic. Ask me about it in the comments and follow me on my Tumblr, my username is still Teaality.