Author's Note: The very last chapter before we get back into the action for a while. Evelynn knows about Magic now, but it is yet to be seen how the rest of the group will react to LIWI, or how much Grayson is willing to share with his team.

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or its associated characters. The characters in this writing so far are mostly original characters, but I make no claim over the existing characters.

Chapter 18

Meet and Greet

We changed into civilian clothes and checked out of the camp. Specialist Bree wished us well on our way out, after providing us with the dummy scrolls I had requested for the operation. We didn't want to risk Gary finding us, so as part of our precautions we would all be utilizing fake identifications and scrolls to allow us to interact with the civilian populace.

We left our main weapons in a locker aboard the Bullhead as well, not wanting to draw attention to ourselves by carrying around a giant warhammer and a broadsword in public. Eugene's sniper/halberd, Tenebris, and Randall's plasma sword, Future's Favor, were both also hanging up in the locker. I noticed that the sergeant's pistol holster was suspiciously empty on his weapon belt, and tucked my revolver into my waistband, along with a few extra shells in a pocket.

Evelynn and I set off into the brisk evening air towards the town we had camped outside of. We arrived just as night fell, and met up with Eugene and Randall outside of a bowling alley. The four of us performed a round of fist bumps as the two groups rejoined, a relic from the time when Christine Petal had been the commander of Team PEAR. Neither myself nor Randall had ever met Christine, but the ritual of activating her semblance had been ingrained into the team's culture since long before LIWI and I had joined up.

I noticed that when I bumped Eugene I could still hear, instead of being enveloped in his usual cone of silence. I gave him a questioning look, and he signed an explanation.

"I can change the size of my semblance a bit if I focus, I'm trying to keep it under control while we're in town, in case somebody notices." I nodded, and leaned in a bit to see how close he was able to draw the semblance in. About eight inches away from his shoulder my hearing finally dropped away in one ear, though my other ear was still outside his effect.

Randall piped up as I leaned into Eugene's cone,

"You planning on buying him dinner first, Grayson?" pointing at how close I was leaning into the operative.

"Oh very funny" I replied, exiting the huntsman's personal space, "Sorry." I said to Eugene. He waved dismissively, indicating that it wasn't a big deal.

"How big can you make your effect?" I asked, still curious to the limits of his abilities.

"I've hit upwards of a hundred feet before," He signed back. "Though I have to really focus to keep it out that wide, it sits about five to six feet out normally, and it's about the same amount of effort to double or half it each time.

I did some quick mental math.

"So you could probably bring it down to around two to three inches then?" I asked. He shrugged.

"Yes, but that's a lot of effort, I only need to do that if I'm very close to someone. This distance is fine for blending in, I just have to be aware of anyone standing close enough to notice that I'm not making any noise."

Evelynn spoke, ensuring that her face was visible to Eugene so he could read her lips.

"Grayson also has something to share regarding his abilities, don't you Grayson?" She said, glancing meaningfully at LIWI around my waist.

I'm gonna get to talk to everyone?

LIWI perked up at the opportunity to finally meet the whole team.

"Yes," I replied to both of them, looking around for a private spot for LIWI to transform. I would have preferred to have LIWI meet Eugene and Randall in a more secluded area, but with the camp under guard we didn't have many good options beyond wandering out into the woods in the middle of the night. After a moment I spotted an alleyway that was in relative shadow away from the street lights.

I motioned for the rest of the team to follow me, and strode out of view of the main street, ensuring there was no one in the alley to see us. I turned back to the team, wanting to try to preface LIWI's introduction to avoid as strong of a reaction as Evelynn had.

"Alright," I began, "So you guys know that my abilities are weird right? I need to be connected to LIWI to use them, and they don't behave like a normal semblance." They nodded, so I continued. "Well, this is LIWI" I said, removing him and tossing him into the air.

LIWI's belt form flashed with a sudden light, and he transformed mid toss to land on his feet. This time he had transformed himself wearing identical winter clothing to me. Randall and Eugene reflexively took a half step back as he transformed, and Randall emitted a strangled "What the F-" as LIWI finished transforming.

"Hi!" LIWI said cheerfully, waving at the two operatives.

"Fudge." Randall finished his thought, avoiding cursing in front of LIWI, who appeared to be somewhere in the low teens. Eugene squinted at LIWI, leaning in and poking him in the shoulder, evidently surprised that he was actually solid. LIWI frowned, and poked Eugene back.

"Gentlemen, this is LIWI." Evelynn introduced him. Randall turned to her in surprise while Eugene continued to examine the magical teen.

"You knew about this?" He asked. She shook her head.

"I just found out earlier today, Grayson and I had a bit of a heart to heart about keeping secrets." Eugene held up a hand like he was trying to get the teacher's attention.

"I have a question," He signed. "Is he a belt that turns into a person or a person that turns into a belt?"

"Neither" I told him, "He's a person who also happens to be a belt, with the ability to transform into a human." He frowned in thought.

"That's what I said."

"Not quite," I corrected him, "LIWI isn't a human being, but he is still a person in every aspect regarding both sentience and sapience. He doesn't have a soul, but that doesn't stop him from being alive, if that makes sense." Eugene just shook his head in bewilderment.

"It doesn't." He signed "But I can accept that for now."

Randall grinned, snapping his fingers and holding up his index triumphantly.

"Atlas' artificial life program! I called it!" Evelynn shook her head, a grim expression on her face.

"Not quite, I'm afraid" She explained. "He was built by Hyperion and Grayson back before they had a falling out." I nodded,

"I got LIWI in the divorce." I quipped, trying to make light of the situation, and to deflect mistrust away from LIWI.

"Hey," Randall replied, his grin only broadening, "So long as he's on our side he's alright by me."

You could always count on Randall to take things at face value, and I appreciated him for that attitude. Eugene took a more measured approach, turning to Evelynn.

"Are you confident he is on our side?" He asked. Evelynn nodded her affirmation, and Eugene nodded back. "Then welcome to the team." He signed to LIWI.

-/-

With our introductions complete, the five of us entered the bowling alley. LIWI was busy marveling at all of the new sights and sounds while the rest of the team got used to his presence. I had to fight back a rising sense of apprehension as I saw LIWI practically bounce around the building. Normally I carried LIWI inside of my armor, which kept him safe even in a combat environment. Now he was exposed, and I had already seen that damage to his human form could impact his functionality permanently.

Randall was already making friends with the magical teenager, easily indulging in LIWI's energetic and curious personality as he showed him around. I shadowed the two of them, leaving Eugene and Evelynn to converse in sign language by the entrance as the rest of us secured a lane to bowl.

After going over the rules no less than three times with LIWI, we were joined by the officers to begin the game. As we played it became evident there was a clear skill gap between Evelynn and Randall and the rest of us. LIWI tried his best but he had no familiarity with using his hands, let alone how to bowl in general, so he was comfortably losing by a wide margin. Eugene and I did alright, each scoring around one hundred points over the course of the game. Then Evelynn and Randall were left to compete with each other, each getting either a strike or a spare almost every single time they went to bowl.

I tried to study their technique to see what they were doing so much better than the rest of us. Randall's form was nearly perfect, and he always seemed to know exactly where to stand and how to angle the ball to perfectly capitalize on whatever configuration the pins were in. Evelynn meanwhile seemed to just be picking the heaviest bowling ball and sending it down the lane as fast as she could without obviously displaying her enhanced strength.

I took a closer look at her technique, watching her follow through on a swing, and saw her make a small twitch with her hand right before the ball made contact with the pins. She scored another perfect strike, now at three in a row. On her next bowl I again saw the same subtle movements, leading to another strike. Randall was up next, and as I watched he sucked in a small breath before he lined up his shot, then repositioned and sucked in another breath, finally taking his shot on the third lineup.

"Oh, you guys suck." I said as realization finally dawned on me. Eugene looked at me, gesturing for me to repeat what I had said so he could properly read my lips.

"Not you," I clarified, "Those two." pointing at Randall and Evelynn.

"Whatever do you mean?" Randall asked with false innocence. I wagged a finger at him.

"You know exactly what I mean, shame on you for cheating in LIWI's first ever game." Evelynn put her hands on her hips, shaking her head in mock judgment of the sergeant.

"I agree, shame on you Randall." Randall placed a hand on his chest, his face a perfect picture of righteous indignation.

"I would never cheat in a game like this!" he insisted, "I respect the sport too much!"

I swung my accusatory finger to point at Evelynn next.

"Don't think I haven't seen you giving the ball a little 'course correction' either" I told her in a serious tone. "What would Isaac Fin think if he saw such unbecoming behavior from the two of you?" Evelynn made a face like she had just sucked on a lemon,

"Don't you know not to say a Grimm's name in case you accidentally summon them?" She asked. "And besides, a little nudge or two couldn't possibly be as bad as actually seeing the result of each toss beforehand."

LIWI spoke up in a quiet and confused tone.

"You guys cheated?" he asked innocently.

Immediately Randall and Evelynn both looked crestfallen, and Randall stammered as he tried to explain himself.

"Well, you see-" he began, but LIWI cut him off, jumping out of his seat with excitement.

"That's so cool!" he half shouted, ignoring my urgent gestures to lower his voice. "You have to show me how you did it!" He continued loudly. I finally managed to shush him before he drew more attention to our lane than we wanted, and turned to the two cheaters.

"You heard him," I told them "Better show him how you did it or he'll never stop asking."

"It's not as fun when they know you're doing it." Randall muttered under his breath, but regardless he showed LIWI how he was viewing his potential shots before making them, only selecting the one in which he saw the best outcomes. Evelynn then showed him how she could subtly manipulate the direction and spin on the ball, as the core of the ball was made partially of limestone.

LIWI absorbed all the information with rapt attention, only deviating to ask clarifying questions. As the two huntsmen finished their demonstration LIWI picked up his own bowling ball, a lightweight one given his size, and set it on the ground. He crouched over it, holding his hands out an inch away from the ball. A subtle blue glow emanated from his fingers, and I recognized it as being similar to the enchantment that I had placed on my broadsword to enhance its capabilities.

He finished imbuing the bowling ball and picked it up, lining up his shot like Randall had shown him. The rest of the team was watching him intently, trying to gauge his abilities. I checked over my shoulder to ensure that no other patrons were watching us. Fortunately the bowling alley was relatively empty on a weekday evening.

Now prepared, LIWI took aim and swung his arm, releasing the bowling ball on a somewhat suboptimal trajectory down the lane. The ball stayed straight and true down the lane, impacting the first pin with a power that belied its relatively low weight and speed, seeming to impart more force than it actually possessed onto the pins as it crashed through them. After the pins were finished tumbling only one was left standing.

LIWI waited patiently for the ball to return from the hopper, then enchanted it again. His face was a mask of pure focus as he lined up his second throw, then tossed the ball smoothly underhand. The ball course corrected ever so slightly as the enchantment forced it to follow the wielder's intentions, then impacted the last remaining pin with a loud crash, resulting in a nice spare for LIWI.

"Yes!" he exulted, "I did it!" he turned back towards me, excitement visible on his face. "Did you see dad?" he asked in a stage whisper, trying to keep from being overheard by the other patrons, "I cheated!"

"I saw" I reassured him, giving him a high five, "You did great LIWI, good job. You're getting better with your abilities, even outside of your repairs." I saw a knowing glance pass between Eugene and Evelynn, but I didn't have time to worry about it as LIWI dragged me up to take my turn.

As I lined up my shot he poked my elbow with a finger, using the same magic that he normally used to help me with a difficult shot with my rifle. The magic gave me a slight insight into my toss. I smoothly drew back my arm and released at the perfect speed and angle to ensure a perfect strike, then turned back to LIWI to give him a fist bump.

"Here" I said, "Give Eugene a boost too, so he can see how it works." This was turning into an excellent impromptu showcase of LIWI's abilities, and I wanted to take advantage of it to help familiarize the team with what he could do. LIWI obligingly poked Eugene with the same spell, and Eugene's natural talent and dexterity allowed him to easily score a strike to match my own.

The second and third games ended with a much closer score breakdown. LIWI barely trailed behind Randall at the two hundred point mark, while the rest of us pushed the two hundred and seventy mark, with Evelynn still leading the pack now that she had abandoned the pretense of playing legitimately.

"Well" Randall said as we finished the game, "That was embarrassing for me." I shrugged sympathetically.

"There's only so much future sight can do for the actual execution." I told him. He nodded, chagrined by his failure to cheat at the game. LIWI was still excited about his improvement, even if he had still placed last, and was practically bubbling over with energy. He continuously switched between talking to Evelynn and Eugene as we packed up and prepared to leave the bowling alley, though he usually relied on my understanding of Eugene's sign language, so he occasionally had to wait for one of us to translate for him now that he wasn't connected to me.

-/-

We left the bowling alley, and began the hike back to the camp, walking through the woods under the starry night sky. Once we were clear of the town I stopped walking at the front of the group, turning to address the other members of Team SGGE while sending LIWI on ahead out of earshot.

"What's up, Grayson?" Randall asked, Eugene and Evelynn also gave me questioning looks. I took a deep breath, then began a talk that I knew had been coming for a while.

"Look" I began, "I need you all to make me a promise, and while I can't fully explain my reasons, I'll do my best." I pointed at LIWI, "Nobody can know that LIWI exists, not the people in camp, not our superiors, definitely not Atlesian Intelligence, nobody outside of us four can ever know about him." Eugene frowned.

"Are you asking us to lie to the rest of the military?" He asked. I shook my head.

"I'm asking you to lie to everyone. LIWI is a one of a kind creation, there literally are no more of the critical components that give him his abilities in the world, and they can't be produced by any known means. But if anyone ever finds out about him they won't rest until they've replicated him a thousand times." I counted out the consequences on my fingers, "That means they'll take him, experiment on him, interrogate him, and likely pull him apart piece by piece to see what makes him tick. I wouldn't be surprised if every laboratory in the country winds up with their own little piece of him to study."

Randall frowned this time, but I could tell that he wasn't upset about what I was asking him to do, but instead was picturing LIWI's friendly and bubbly self being pulled apart piece by piece.

"Can you really keep him a secret forever?" The sergeant asked me. I held up my hands in a gesture of helplessness.

"Maybe, maybe not, but I still need to do everything I can to protect him. And right now that means I need you all to trust me, and not tell a single soul about him. I'll do anything to protect him." Eugene crossed his arms, considering the consequences of lying to the military about something so important. Evelynn simply stood and waited for the other two, I had already sworn her to secrecy before introducing her to LIWI, and for now I expected that she would keep her promise. Randall inhaled quietly, and my eyes immediately focused on him as I realized he had activated his semblance. My heart rate spiked in anticipation of action. His hand twitched ever so subtly, then his eyebrows raised in surprise.

"What?" I asked him. He released the breath, relaxing his stance.

"I'm just surprised at how much you meant by 'anything'" he said. This time I frowned,

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I looked into the future" he said, "Just two seconds to see what would happen if I tried to grab you or go after LIWI, I didn't realize you were armed." My hand sidled closer to the revolver in my waistband, subconsciously making sure that it was still hidden by my bulky clothing.

"I meant what I said" I told him, and he nodded firmly. "I believe you," He replied. "And I've already trusted you with my life in combat, so I figure I can trust you on this." That just left Eugene. He turned to Evelynn, and a silent implied thought passed between them. Finally he turned to me and signed

"I won't say anything. But if you get caught I don't know how much we can do to help you."

I relaxed, glad that I was able to trust my team.

"If I get caught, it will be my problem to solve." I replied, "Let's get back to camp, we've got work to do."

-/-

The next morning I stood in a tent that the two Bullhead pilots, Sky and Cloud, had put up for us while we had been in town. The rest of Team SGGE and Specialist Bree sat around the tent on various chairs or boxes, whatever we had close at hand, waiting for me to begin the briefing. I cleared my throat then pointed to a map of Argus, indicating an area in a high rise residential district on the west side of the city and began speaking.

"The latest intelligence reports say that Gideon Roth, currently referred to as Helios, is operating in the western residential district. His typical military tactics involve massed troop movements supported by light vehicles and sniper fire."

I pointed to an image of him shown by one of the screens we had set up in the tent. He was a broad shouldered man, though not as physically large as Logan, of average height. He had short and slightly curly brown hair and a well groomed beard that he kept neatly trimmed. The photo we had of him was pulled from Mistral's freelance huntsman database, and he had a broad friendly smile in the picture.

"As far as his personal skills go," I continued, "He has some stealth training, as well as long range marksmanship and hand to hand grappling. Unlike a lot of the other targets on our list he doesn't rely on his semblance to fight, and usually avoids getting into the frontlines of combat when he is in charge of troops."

I transitioned the screen to show an image of him in combat that had been captured by an Atlesian soldier's personal helmet camera. The image was extremely low quality, with significant portions missing and a low resolution in the places that were still visible. In the footage Helios was wearing a suit of powered combat armor, painted with the standard Wings of Freedom black and red. He had a high caliber sniper rifle strapped to his back and was actively fighting with a submachine gun. He had no evident melee weapons, and in fact was not carrying a mechashift weapon of any variety. I played the video the soldier had taken.

In the clip the soldier sprinted to cover, jostling the camera as he brought his rifle up to fire. Multiple shots deflected off of Helios' bright red aura, and the soldier was forced to duck into cover as the huntsman returned fire. Notably Helios did not move or fight like many huntsmen did. Instead of using his immense physical advantages to maneuver around the battlefield in a rapid fashion with a mix of ranged and melee attacks, he fought like a traditional infantry soldier, moving into cover and returning fire as the Atlesian soldiers attacked.

Bree and Stone both leaned in closer to the video, studying his tactics. Helios sprinted out of cover in the clip, suppressing the squad with a burst of automatic fire. Two soldiers attempted to return fire and dropped to the ground with gunshot wounds. The automatic fire ceased, and the soldier wearing the camera rose up to fire, but dropped his weapon as it suddenly frosted over, the heat leaching from it in an instant. When studying the clip earlier I had noticed that the soldiers fingers were also covered in frost, with the skin exhibiting minor symptoms of freezer burn.

The footage continued rolling as the soldier retreated to join up with another group of soldiers further back up the street they were fighting over. A Phalanx tank rolled into view of the camera, engaging the huntsman down the street. Instead of attacking the tank directly, Helios simply strode out into the street about fifty feet away from the tank, holding his arms out in a welcoming gesture. The tank fired a shell from its main cannon directly at him, and the impact was clearly visible as the shell hit him directly in the chest.

A moment later a bright glow began growing from the center of the cloud of fiery smoke that the tank shell had created, and the silhouette of a glowing figure was visible, clutching at its chest, then flinging his arms outward as the glow reached its apex. The soldier wearing the camera screamed and fell to the ground, the camera falling at an angle which captured a view of the armor of the tank melting to pool on the ground. The recording shut off as the camera failed, and I transitioned the screen to show aerial photography of the scene.

"This image was captured five minutes after that footage" I explained, "It took Atlesian data scientists three days to extract the footage from the melted chip of the camera."

The aerial image showed a black scorched crater in the ground, over two hundred feet in diameter. At the bottom of the hole was an oddly flat amalgamation of all the materials that had been within the sphere that had emanated from Helios. I pointed to where the side of a skyscraper that had disappeared, causing the building to collapse into the hole like a tree being felled by an axe.

"As you can see here," I demonstrated "Helios' semblance: Mutually Assured Destruction uses his inherent manipulation of thermodynamics to superheat anything around him when his aura breaks. Outside of that he has very minimal control over it, able to heat or cool small objects or unprotected people by increasing or decreasing the energy of their molecules." I pointed back to the hole that had been formed, "When his aura breaks, he essentially gives the molecules in the area so much energy that they are no longer able to maintain stability, transitioning into a liquid or even gaseous form depending on their melting points."

Sergeant Green raised a hand, and I paused my briefing for a moment to allow him to speak.

"So he can't control the explosion?" He asked. I shook my head,

"You're partially correct, he doesn't have control over it, but it's not actually an explosion. He basically releases a few pulses of energy, each one taking a few seconds to build up before releasing. Anything within his sphere of effect is usually melted in a matter of seconds unless fully encased. The crew of that tank survived long enough to attempt to send out a distress call, but once the armor was melted they were killed as soon as the next pulse was released." The sergeant sat back, a look of horror on his face.

"That's awful," he commented. I nodded, turning back to the briefing.

"Because of this, our strategy is not to attack him directly. If we break his aura, there's no way any of us can survive the resulting thermodynamic event, even with aura it's safe to assume that we would be puddles of goop on the floor after only a few seconds." I produced a pair of aura blocking handcuffs from a box in the corner of the tent. Doctor Polendina's team had been working overtime to produce high strength versions of the handcuffs, and Specialist Bree had brought us what few pairs they could spare.

"So the plan is to use these to safely drain his aura away, allowing us to subdue him and capture him for interrogation. Each of us will be carrying a pair in our kit, but be careful, they're very expensive."

Lieutenant Rivers shuddered as he looked at the cuffs. Captain Stone gave him a concerned look that hinted at being slightly more than just the responsibility of a team leader.

"Wearing those feels awful," Rivers signed. "Like part of your soul is being stolen from you." I put the handcuffs away.

"That's basically what's happening," I agreed. "Any energy your soul would normally produce to allow you to use aura techniques or a semblance is instead siphoned away."

Specialist Bree looked confused for a moment, having not understood Lieutenant River's sign language, but pieced it together with context.

That won't work on us!

LIWI spoke up confidently from around my waist.

"That's because neither of us has a soul LIWI, we couldn't use aura if we wanted to" I muttered into my hand.

"Anyways," I pulled up the next slide, "At this point the WoF understands that we are targeting their leadership. So it's unlikely that he will be willing to engage us in a fight unless he feels like he has the advantage. That combined with his tendency to avoid being near his troops while they are in combat presents us with a couple of issues we need to solve to find him and draw him out into combat."

I sat down, and Captain Stone took over the briefing as she laid out the strategy she and Specialist Bree had developed.

"Currently," she began, "Our opposition doesn't think that the Ace Ops have been assigned to counter their operations, so Specialist Bree is our pocket Ace."

I had to suppress a grin as LIWI laughed at her accidental pun. She continued speaking, bringing up imagery of the area of the city that Helios had been fighting over.

"With Hephaestus safely in custody, our airships have been able to provide limited fire support within the city, though standing orders from Atlas Headquarters are to limit collateral damage, so none of the heavy artillery has been cleared for use yet. We still want a city for people to come back to when this war is over after all." She moved to aerial imagery of a battle that had recently taken place. "The two forty third mechanized infantry was deployed to support existing ground troops, and so far leadership on the ground has taken a liking to sending the autonomous troops into the heaviest fighting in order to keep the human and faunus troops safe." She demonstrated on the map where the mechanized infantry was pushing up the center of a heavily defended street while the faster human and faunus infantry pushed around to flank the enemy position.

"In order to draw out Helios, we need to make him confident that he won't be taking out his own men if he detonates, and we need to make him think that he has the drop on us. To do that, we are going to act as if Team SGGE has been deployed to the region to subdue his infantry brigades. We will split into two teams, Lieutenant Rivers and I will take the western front, while Sergeants Green and Grayson take the east. Specialist Bree will be on standby to provide a quick reaction force when Helios' location is discovered."

The Ace Operative nodded and chimed in.

"Once you guys find him I can pick up the rest of Team SGGE and have us all there in under a minute," She explained her strategy, "So just keep a cool head and stall until the whole team arrives."

Captain Stone brought our attention back to the briefing.

"Remember, while our main objective is to capture Helios, we should still be taking opportunities to support our troops in the field. If you see an opening then you have my authority to take it. Don't get tied down either, if someone in the field tries to throw their weight around then feel free to ignore them." Sergeant Green and I grinned at each other, the natural non commissioned officer instinct to follow the 'spirit' of our orders was now being backed by Captain Stone's authority, and we could both imagine the potential.

-/-

The briefing concluded and we moved to gear up. Specialist Bree carried a special weapons crate with her into the Bullhead as we prepared to move out. I hadn't seen her weapon of choice, but I was interested to see how she was able to take advantage of her speed in combat. Sergeant Green helped me load my tools into the aircraft, himself traveling light.

I still needed to find a new source of magical materials to keep building upgrades for my gear and hopefully make more repairs to LIWI. I brought the tools regardless, as they would still be useful for patch jobs on armor and mundane repairs, even without magical materials.

As we were finishing loading up, a second Bullhead flew over the clearing we were camping in, buzzing low and throwing up loose snow. Lieutenants Cloud and Sky rushed to protect the campfire they had been maintaining from the barrage of snow, trying to shield it with their bodies so the fire wasn't doused. The doors of the Bullhead swung open and four figures wearing White Atlesian military uniforms dropped from the aircraft.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" Sergeant Green called out from behind me. The figures hit the snow and began walking towards the camp as the Bullhead they had flown here in circled the camp and departed.

Sergeant Green wasn't the only one who expressed their disbelief in the new arrivals in our camp. As I watched, Major Fin, Captain Ripley, and Captain Indigo approached us with a young huntress following shyly along behind them.

"Oh no" Sergeant Green groaned sadly beside me, and I turned to look at him over my shoulder.

"What?" I asked him. He pointed at the new member of Team FRIL with his chin and replied

"Say hello to the new Triple L."

I turned back to look at her, my mind piecing together the implications of his statement.

"How many Triple Ls have there been?" I asked him in a harsh whisper.

"Too many." He answered, a distant expression on his face. Major Fin diverted to speak with Captain Stone and Specialist Bree as his team arrived in camp, the rest of Team FRIL began warming themselves around the campfire that the now soaked pilots had managed to save from the impromptu blizzard.

"Screw it," I said, "I'm going in, you with me?"

Green nodded, and we approached the campfire. We strode up to the group, nodding our greetings to the pilots and shooting dirty looks towards Captain Ripley and Captain Indigo. I checked the nametape and insignia of their newest member, and true to form they were Second Lieutenant Lilac.

Sergeant Green spoke quietly with the pilots, thanking them for saving the fire, and suggesting they change out of their wet clothing before the weather got to them. They departed without too much fuss, clearly picking up on the hostility that was being emanated from both teams of operatives. Lieutenant Rivers joined us as they departed, eyeing the two captains with suspicion. Captain Ripley spoke up in a hostile tone as the two pilots departed.

"Where are your team's salutes Lieutenant?" She asked Rivers, emphasizing his junior rank. Lieutenant Rivers shrugged, and signed back, which Sergeant Green helpfully translated.

"He says that we are in a deployed environment, therefore salutes would be counterproductive to operational security." The sergeant informed her. Captain Ripley fumed, but offered no further comment. Captain Indigo just slouched like he was trying to hide within his armor. I turned to Lieutenant Lilac, offering my hand to shake.

"Good morning Lieutenant, I'm Sergeant Phoenix, this is Lieutenant Rivers and Sergeant Green." I introduced us, trying not to let my team's general dislike of Team FRIL impact her.

She shook my hand, then did the same for Sergeant Green followed by Lieutenant Rivers. She looked surprised when entering the Lieutenant's cone of silence, which told me that she probably didn't know much about us.

"Did you just graduate from Atlas Academy?" I asked her. She nodded, "I graduated a few months ago." She said nervously, "My original team was Team PERL, but we were disbanded a few days ago to fill gaps in operational teams." As she spoke I took an opportunity to study her loadout. She wore light combat armor, with elbow and knee pads, and carried two weapons on her belt that looked like a combination between climbing axes and pistols. Her armor looked almost more like it was designed for a skateboarding park than a battlefield, with much of it being crash resistant instead of bullet resistant.

Sergeant Green spoke to her, trying to be nice to the latest Triple L to be assigned to Team FRIL.

"So Lieutenant," he asked, "What's your specialization?" She wrung her hands, clearly nervous to be talking about herself.

"I do close combat mostly," She explained. "I'm bouncy." I cocked an eyebrow,

"Bouncy?" I asked. She nodded, and clarified.

"My semblance is Perfect Elasticity, so when I hit something I can make us bounce perfectly off of eachother, with no wasted energy. It can almost make me invulnerable for a while, but it means that even little hits throw me around, and sometimes I have a hard time getting enough traction on the ground to stop."

"I see" I replied, "So the climbing axes?" She looked down at the axes on her belt, "They let me anchor myself, so I don't go flying all around the battlefield." Sergeant Green muttered something under his breath, LIWI tuned my hearing and I could barely make out what he said.

"-ing invulnerable is pretty much mandatory to survive being on Team FRIL."

I shot him a look, but he just shrugged at me in response. Captain Stone called out to us from across the camp, so we bid farewell to the Lieutenant, then collectively gave death glares at the two Captains from FRIL as we moved to join Captain Stone. With my hearing still enhanced by LIWI I could hear Lieutenant Lilac ask a question to Captain Indigo.

"They seemed nice enough, why don't you guys like them?"

Unfortunately, we reached Captain Stone before I could hear Indigo's response.

"Alright guys, listen up" Captain Stone greeted us. "I've got good news, Team FRIL will not be accompanying us on this mission." Sergeant Green did a small fist pump, and we exchanged semi-subtle high fives as we silently celebrated.

"Don't get too excited" Stone cautioned us, "They're going to be on guard duty here, and knowing them that probably means we're just going to have to catch our targets all over again." Sergeant Green's optimism was undiminished by her warning,

"So long as they aren't working with us I'll fight this whole war by myself ma'am, at least that way we have a chance of making it out alive." Stone waved a hand to dismiss his bravado,

"Good luck with that" She told him, "But for today we're still on track to go after Helios, so load your gear and let's get moving."