"There," Mercury finally spotted the ship.
Royal had...somehow landed it next to the river without hitting something.
"Okay...how...?" Emerald said.
"Didn't I tell what my semblance was?" Royal was holding his helmet and wiping his forehead...it was pretty warm in Western Mistral this early in fall--at least to an Atlesian. "Precision. I can pretty much tell what measures anything has at a brief glance. Comes in handy landing in weird places."
"That would explain quite a few of the crazy moves you've done, I can't believe this is the first time you've brought it up," Emerald said.
"I imagine you were more impressed when you thought I was just that good of a pilot," Royal said. "Anyway, take a looksee at this scanner."
He pointed to the plane dashboard.
Mercury ducked in. "That's a lot of grimm signature considering we can't see a d--- thing."
"Trees were in the way for the air, I was hoping Claw would know," Royal said.
Claw made a clicking sound then listened.
"I've got nothing," she said. "Too many things in the way...or they're underground.
"They do like underground. There has to be somewhere they could be hiding," Emerald mused. "C--uh...Scarlet?"
Cinder rolled her eyes at Emerald fumbling her alias.
"Like I said, I don't know that much beyond this part of the town.. You should ask someone who does. I only came through here once."
"Who's this?" Royal asked Emerald and Mercury. "One of the huntsmen?"
"No, no...she's...uh...she's been part of the case, I mean, some of her acquaintances were affected," Emerald fumbled. She was a terrible liar. "The point is, she's helping all right, so just chill."
"It was just a question," Royal said. "No need to get so worked up."
"I wasn't--" Emerald paused.
Mercury's eyes widened.
"That could just have been me getting annoyed," Emerald said.
"And it could have been something else," Mercury said.
"Ugh, I never wanted to do this s--- again," Emerald sighed. "I hate these things."
"I'm confused," Piper said.
"Odd behavior, you nimrod," Claw said.
"Hey, don't start throwing insults around, I've never learned this this before," Piper said angrily.
"Great, all of you already," Cinder threw her hands up.
"I feel find," Royal said. "What's going on? Something spooky?"
"Zapato, have you read the articles Pine published about mind grimm?" Emerald tried to focus.
"Yeah, I looked at 'em, pretty weird stuff," Royal shrugged. "People acting off and illusions. Isn't that your semblance?"
"Yeah, that's why I'm mostly immune to the illusion part, but the emotional part can still get me, and Mercury has high resistance, but not invulnerability," Emerald explained. "And you and Claw and Piper probably don't have any at all. We might have to take this alone. The rest of you should go wait in the town."
"Captain, respectfully, that sounds really irresponsible," Royal said. "I don't want to tell you how to do your job, but two of you? That's a lot of grimm. Even with Fleet footed Mercury's special powers, they could get the drop on you. And where there's one kind of grimm, there's other kinds usually."
"Can we not argue?" Emerald said. "I don't see what choice we have. it's dangerous to let anyone else close."
"You have a plane," Cinder made this sound like it was blatantly obvious. "You can't just have someone fly over the area and follow you?"
"Who died and made you boss?" Mercury said to her. "Our mission, thanks. You can go back now."
"Hey, you don't have to tell me twice!" Cinder snapped at him. "Honestly, Mercury for two lien I'd--"
"You'd what?" Mercury put his hands up.
"Hey, stop it!" Emerald got in between them. "You're just getting worse! Hello?"
Cinder hadn't actually raised her hand, she just glared at Mercury and then turned. "Whatever. Have fun."
"Wait a minute," Claw said. "Are you sure about this?"
"Claw, do not argue with me," Emerald said. "I've had enough of your suspicions, okay? You're always like--" she stopped. Then she swallowed her anger. "I mean, you're overdoing it. I think we've got a handle on this."
"Maybe I can just flush the grimm out," Piper held up his pipe. "The we won't have to outwit them looking for them."
"That might be a good idea, but you could flush out more of them than we're ready for," Emerald said.
Cinder started walking away.
"You have interesting friends," Royal commented. "But by now, that shouldn't surprise me."
"I'd call her more of an annoyance," Mercury said. "But her idea wasn't so far off. Maybe you should get higher up. The grimm probably won't affect you as much if you're up there. Could keep an eye out."
"If they can fly, that won't be true," Emerald said. "But they couldn't be flying...one thing I don't get, we know the Irasci have wings. Why would they hide under ground?"
"A lot of them had different forms, why not those ones?" Mercury shrugged.
"Let's just look around the river," Emerald said. "Maybe we can find some caves or a thicket."
Claw kept using her sonar while they were doing this.
"Still nothing," she said.
"For a tracker you sure never seem to be able to use your ability," Piper complained.
"I was an Atlesian, I used to track things through snow and tundra, not forests," Claw said sourly. "I'm a bat-faunus, I can find small objects just fine if their not too far off, but it's not like I have this unlimited range either. Why aren't you using your semblance?
"I don't want to exhaust it before we have a target, " Piper said.
"For someone with such an OP power, you sure get tired fast," Claw said nastily.
"I'm really sick of everyone dragging me on that," Piper said.
"You both are freaking me out," Royal said. "Stop fighting...d--- it, this was in the article now that I think of it. Can't you tell that you're being unnatraully crabby?"
"Who could tell with her?" Piper asked.
"Shut up," Claw said.
"That's it, I'm going to get in the plane and wait," Royal got back in.
He looked at the scanner.
"I just don't get how there could be that many grimm and we don't see any of them," he said.
Emerald and Mercury walked along the bank.
"I just see trees," Mercury said.
Emerald sighed. "I wonder why the grimm even came here. Just out of nowhere. Is it because we drove the other ones out? Does that make it our fault? This thing is so complicated."
"I wouldn't stress over that," Mercury said.
Emerald lifted her scroll. "Probably should have music or something as extra security..."
She looked up. "Hey, what's that?"
They'd saw an old building.
It was mostly still intact but it looked like some trees had gotten knocked onto by a storm.
"Looks oddly like that mill further up the river," Mercury said.
"Yeah,... maybe they replaced one?" Emerald said. "Do you think...?"
"Grimm don't usually live in man made houses, they destroy them," Mercury said.
"It's worth a check," Emerald said. "Nowhere else around they could be hiding."
"Okay, but watch it," Mercury said.
Emerald drew her knives and they walked toward the broken down mill.
The wheel of it was long gone, and the roof was partially caved in. the door was still attached, but it hung broken on its hinge. Looked like grimm had already trashed the place before it was abandoned.
Emerald peered inside as her eyes adjusted to the dark, she didn't see any grimm.
Mercury looked around the bottom level, and she went to the steps of the mill and cautiously walked up them.
Nothing.
But her hair was standing on end. This place didn't feel right.
She could have sworn grimm were there, she could almost smell that musty smell.
Then she heard a screech suddenly, in went through her whole head.
She covered her ears and looked around, she still saw nothing. No way was it that far though.
She looked out the window.
Still nothing.
"Em? Did you hear that?" she heard Mercury from downstairs.
Emerald felt a little sick after that, but she swallowed.
"I know you're here somewhere," she turned. "Show yourselves."
She felt something burning inside of her chnst and her aura appeared for a moment.
Then she looked up and gasped.
The room was full of Irasci!
But they did seem to be the same ones as before. They had that gorilla shape with wings and fangs...but also they seemed...smaller almost...and the room seemed to hold more of them than it really should have.
They were looking at her with hatred.
Grimm weren't supposed to emote.
"Oh...there you are," Emerald said in a low voice.
They gnashed their fangs at her and then leapt up and toward her.
Emerald slashed at them and turned them to smoke--but then some others flew right past her and--through the wall.
She was so confused by what happened that she forgot to watch her back.
One of the monsters slammed her into the wall harder while she was distracted and she almpst blacked out.
***
Outside Claw and Piper were still squabbling while Royal was reading a magazine and checked the monitor. Finally something moved on it.
"Huh, that's odd," he said. "It's almost like it got big and then small again." He slapped the scanner. "I hope this thing isn't busted."
***
Cinder was walking back towards the town, but she felt uneasy. She looked back.
She hadn't told Emerald and Mercury this, but over the last few month she'd started to get some kind of 6th sense about grimm. Perhaps because she'd had that arm at one time, or because she'd had magic, or it could be part of the new powers they'd developed.
But whenever the grimm were near, she'd started to feel it, almost.
The sudden emotional outbursts of the town had caused spikes in her senses...
It was too weird to explain and she didn't want to stand out, especially with those other Atlas huntsman around to hear it.
But she clearly had the feeling that the grimm was getting stronger, as she walked away.
Finally, she turned back again and peered at the sky line.
Like a strange cloud, she saw some dark shapes fly up toward it and then start to spread out.
Where had they all been hiding?
"Guess they found them," she muttered. "Good thing it's not my problem anymore."
She turned.
Then she paused.
"Why would I go back?" She said to no one. "I'm not looking to fight grimm."
Silence.
"They'll be fine," she argued further.
"Anyway, why would I care about them? It's not like ..." she paused.
Of course...if it was her...they wouldn't have hesitated.
"Ugh...I hate this, I hate having a conscience now," she griped.
She turned back very reluctantly.
***
Mercury tried to get to Emerald, but a bunch of the invisible monsters flew into his path and knocked him back down the stair.
His eyes flickered like grimm were around.
Then they flashed silver and he saw the shapes of the Irascis illuminated before they were vaporized.
"What the...?" he said.
He dashed up the stair.
Emerald was dizzy and struggling to kick of one of the beasts that seemed perfectly solid now, as it was trying to tear her leg off.
Mercury shot it off with his gun and it turned to smoke.
"Emerald?" He pulled her up. "What's up with these grimm?"
"They're...they like...they flew through the wall, like literally through it," Emerald sputtered. "I saw it. And they weren't there, and then they were. It's like...what even is it?"
"Either this whole house is some mind illusion, or something else really weird is happening," Mercury said. "Either way, let's get the heck out of here."
He tugged her down the stairs and they ran for the door.
One of the mill's large shingles over the doorway abruptly fell down in front of it, like it had been shoved.
One of the Irasci flew through the wall at them and then back out the other side. Like a phantom.
"Okay...getting really creeped out right now!" Emerald yelped.
"They're the ghosts of dead grimm come back to haunt us for killing them!" Mercury said.
"That's stupid," she said.
"Well, whatever is going on, it's not what we signed up for," Mercury shot at the door. "Come on, open."
***
The grimm cloud flew over the river and orchard.
Claw and Piper didn't see it, but Royal's scanner started losing its crap.
"What..." he looked out the window. "I don't see anything there, what is wrong with this thing?"
Then he paused. "On the other hand, mind grimm aren't like other grimm."
He grabbed a shotgun from over the seat and looked out the door, then he shot upwards.
The bullet seemed to go into the air at first but then a poof of smoke that came out of nowhere.
Then suddenly the grimm appeared overhead and there were a dozen of them.
"What in tarnation?" Piper was looking up sullenly.
"AHHH!" Claw yelped.
"Get on the plane!" Royal said to them.
They dashed for the doorway.
Royal blasted a few more of the grimm , who looked at him like they were sizing him up.
Then they flew at him.
He got to the doorway of the plane, and then one of the grabbed the barrel of his gun.
"Not one..." it said.
It just talked?
"Not one what?" Royal asked.
It reached out and yanked him out of the plane before he could blast it and the grimm threw him onto grass.
It screeched.
Claw and Piper covered their ears.
"My ears can't take that anymore," Claw yelled. "I have to...ahhh!" She started hitting the insides of the plane like a mad woman.
Piper just curled up more.
The Israci were landing all over the plane and started trying to tear it apart. It wasn't going to be so easily damaged, but it wouldn't hold up forever either.
The one who'd slammed Royal raised its paws to finish him off, as he reached for his gun that was a few feet away.
Then an arrow shot through the grimm's face.
It screeched before it turned to smoke.
Royal looked back.
The annoyed woman had come back, only now she had a bow that was made of glass?
She looked mad too.
"This didn't take very freaking long," she said crossly. "Where were you hiding?"
The other Irasci all looked at her.
Then a different one spoke. "One of them."
"One of them must die," said another.
Cinder raised her eyebrows. This was new, they were talking?
She pulled another arrow out of thin air and pointed it at them.
"Don't move." she said, eyes narrowing.
They hissed at her.
[Dominion--Skillet]
Cinder didn't back down--inwardly she was doubting her chances against this many of them, she didn't have magic anymore.
One of them moved and she shot the arrow through it.
The others seemed to take that as a challenge.
They started flying up and towards her.
Cinder pulled more than one arrow out and shot two of them at the same time.
The others flew around her more closely, screeching.
It got so loud, her glass bow shattered.
Claw was too busy freaking out to pay attention to what was happening outside, but Piper had finally slunk to the window to see why the grimm had stopped attacking them.
He gaped...then he pulled out his scroll to record what was going on.
The Irasci surveyed Cinder.
"One..." they said again.
"One of them," said another.
Cinder narrowed her eyes. "Something is already weird about these things..." she muttered. "Not like the grimm from before. You've changed..."
She looked upward and then back down. "But so have I."
Her aura shimmered brighter than usual like a shield.
The grimm backed up a little.
"One of them," they said again.
"Get back," Ciner held out her hand and the glass shards formed themselves into a sword instead of a bow.
Piper dropped his scroll, but then he grabbed his pipes.
The grimm hesitated, but then some of them seemed to fade out of sight again...only Cinder still saw them, but it was like seeing a shadow.
"What..?" she mused.
Then several of them morphed into one big grimm...which shouldn't have been possible.
It raised its hand and brought it down on her.
Her aura shimmered but didn't break yet.
Still that had hurt.
She pushed herself up, and her sword flew back into her hand.
One of the smaller ones grabbed her arm. "Die." It said.
"No--" Cinder tried to yank away from it.
Then someone shot it and it turned to smoke.
Royal had managed to find his gun.
"I don't know what is going down with these things," he said. "But you seem to have an edge, pardon the pun, so just do your thing and kill them."
Just do her thing and kill them? This guy didn't know how ironic those words were.
She stood up and turned her glass to a spear.
She threw it toward the big grimm.
"You die!" She said angrily at it.
It hissed and then burst into smoke...
That scared the few that remained, finally.
Then Piper began to play and they froze...sort of...
Cinder sliced through them also and they disappeared.
Normally, she'd have gloated but she noticed she hadn't seen Emerald or Mercury in this entire time.
"Where did they go?" She asked.
Claw was only just starting to realize that something had changed, she looked out the plane nervously.
"The grimm?" Royal said, standing up.
"No, you idiot, the other two, the operatives," Cinder said.
"If you mean Sustrai and Black, they went that way," Royal gestured. "And the grimm must have found them. I'd be careful if you're going to go after them."
"I don't remember asking you," Cinder ran away without another word.
"Royal," Piper called, once she'd gone out of earshot. "That's Cinder Fall. We knew her name, but that power she just used confirmed it even if we weren't sure. Glass. That's her semblance. Only one person has that semblance. She's a terrorist and a killer."
"She just killed more grimm than you've ever killed in one go," Royal said. "You really going to look a gift horse in the mouth? I don't know about the Irasci but I'm worried about Sustrai and Black, so either sit on the plane and shut up or stay here, I'm going after them."
He dashed back into the pilot seat.
Piper and Claw sat down, they didn't want to stay out there alone.
Royal started the plane and flew up.
He saw the mill right off this time. He'd missed it the first time since he'd flown the other direction.
Cinder had found it no problem either.
Emerald and Merucy were still inside and more Irasci were fading in and out.
But in this time the two had managed to get a grip and Emerald was slicing through them and Mercury was trying to blast them, but they kept fading just as he got a bead on them. He shot a few.
"Why won't they hold freaking still?" he said.
"I don't know, but there's no end to them," Emerald said. "We have to get the door open, maybe if I blow it up."
"You could just bring it down on top of us." Mercury said.
"Emerald?" they heard Cinder outside. "Mercury...are you in there?"
"Cinder?" Emerald forgot that she wasn't supposed to use her name. "You came back?"
"I wasn't going to, but I saw this weird cloud of grimm and I got curious," Cinder played it off as not being out of concern. "Is this d--- door welded shut?"
"Yeah, they trapped us in here, they're smart, and they're phasing through the walls, " Mercury said.
One more came in as he said that, but he kicked it aside.
"They don't seem any more indestructible than the regular ones, but they're fast," Emerald called. "Can you get the door open?"
Cinder stuck her spear into the doorway and pushed at it.
"This would be so much easier if I had magic..." she said.
One of the grimm turned to her when he said that and bared its teeth.
"I take that back," Cinder said at once. "Love not having magic. Spirit power is so much better, yes."
"Do you buy that when you say it?" Mercury said. "Get real."
"You idiot, the thing is looking at me like it's sizing me up." Cinder said. "I just killed like 20 of them alone, but they're not normal...err this thing is rusted in place. Don't you have any fire dust?"
"Could bring the whole place down, but if you can wedge it just between the door and shingle, maybe," Emerald came up to it. "I can try to slip it to you."
She bent down.
One of the Irasci flew in and charged straight at her.
"Hey get away from her!" Mercury charged it and it slammed him into the ground before he was ready, hand on his throat.
"Merc!" Emerald gasped. "Hang on, Cinder."
She lunged at the grimm and slashed along it, killing it.
Another one came through then and grabbed her hands and started to lift her off the ground.
"Hey! Stop it! Mercury!" She yelped. "Silver eyes!"
Mercury looked up then and blasted with white light.
This finally did seem to scare some of the grimm away, Cinder saw them fly out of the mill.
Then the plane circled around it and shot at one of them, and they flew further away, but then they circled back to like they'd gotten over it.
The pilot then put the plane down in the tiny amout of space next to the mill and then got off.
"They in there?" he said.
"Yes, the door won't budge," Cinder said.
"At this point, just blow it up," Mercury called, he'd caught Emerald a little too hard when she fell to the ground. "I'm not waiting for more of them."
"They must be coming from somewhere..." Emerald muttered weakly.
Royal peered at the door.
"Oh, you've got the spear in the wrong place," Royal said.
"Excuse me?" Cinder wanted to put it in a different place right about then.
"Move it down," Royal did so without waiting for her to do it. "That's the optimal place to apply the pressure...there."
He pushed it and the hinge popped.
The door fell in and the shingle came loose.
Cinder was kind of embarrassed, but she brushed it aside.
"Oh thank goodness," Emerald stumbled out, Mercury followed her.
They had dust all over them.
"You're both disgusting," Cinder said.
"And you're as pleasant as ever," Mercury said. "So you actually decided to come help."
"You know, most people would say thank you or else shut up," Cinder said.
"So shut up," Mercury said.
"Is this really the time for this?" Emerald said. "What was with those Grimm?"
Cinder surveyed the mill. "I heard before that this place was haunted and that's why it got abandoned and they built the new one. I guess it was some kind of Grimm magnet before. I didn't know that it was still standing though. Now it all makes sense."
"Haunted, huh?" Mercury said. "I thought we didn't believe in ghosts."
"We believe in curses," Cinder said.
"I think she might be onto something." Emerald patted the mill oddly.
She activated her Aura and stared at it.
Then she shuddered. "There's something off about this place. When was it haunted?"
"I don't know. You should ask the city manager that," Cinder said. "Hmm...fire dust?"
"Right here." Emerald held it up. "Why?"
Cinder grabbed it out of her hand and then tossed it into the mill.
Then she pulled an arrow and shot it.
The fire dust exploded, and the mill caught on fire.
"What are you doing? Are you crazy?" Mercury said.
"No one uses this dump anyway. Might as well just solve the problem," Cinder said. "Can't be cursed if it doesn't exist, right?"
"Is that how that works?" Mercury said. "Pyromania. You really haven't changed that much."
"Shut up," Cinder said. "If we're done here, I have a shop to get back to."
"We're not done. There's more of those things.... Wait, where did they go?" Emerald looked up.
"Could have gone towards the town." Royal pointed. "They just vanished."
"Why didn't you say something?" Mercury said.
"I thought you saw it," Royal said. "Aren't you supposed to be able to see this stuff better? She's one of you, isn't she?" He nodded at Cinder.
"Uh...yeah, I think so," Emerald said. "Why?"
"I thought so after what just happened," Royal said. "What did those freaks mean about 'one of them'? It has to be one of what you are."
"I forgot that you're the smart one out of this stupid team," Mercury said. "And you're not even on it--that just goes to show. We got to go stop them. Where're Claw and Piper?"
"Probably crying and sucking their thumbs." Cinder pointed at the plane.
The sad thing is, she wasn't that far off.
"Makes us look pretty good, doesn't it?" Emerald told her. "I mean, we didn't always get along, but at least we did our job."
"Karma is a b----," Cinder said.
She rubbed her arm. "Still, that was the most fun I've had in ages. I'd almost forgive you for dragging me into this--almost."
"I knew you'd want to kill something," Mercury said.
"Oh, shut up," Cinder said.
"This is cute and all," Royal said, "but do any of you care that the town could be in trouble--right now?"
"Right, you're right. Let's go," Emerald said. She rushed to the plane.
"It never ends," Mercury griped.
"You're welcome to ride back, if you want," Royal told Cinder. "It's a long walk."
"I'm not walking. There are more of them," Cinder said haughtily.
Inwardly, she wondered if Claw and Piper had seen her use her Semblance. She didn't think they had, but...
All this effort to maintain her cover and one stupid Grimm fight was going to blow the entire thing! This was why trying to go straight was a terrible idea!
As it was, Ciner might not have always been the most perceptive person, but she wasn't so stupid as to not notice that Piper was looking at her really weird when she did get on the plane--and that he sat as far from her as possible.
Claw seemed too busy freaking out to notice.
"They were inside my head. They were horrible. What did they do?" she whimpered.
"Hey!" Emerald finally just slapped her. "Get a grip! People are probably going to be in trouble in that town. We need to drive those things out."
Cinder found that amusing.
"Seems Sustrai has grown up a little," she said to Mercury. "At least your time in that useless military hasn't made you soft."
"We're not in the military," Mercury grumbled. "What's with you being chummy now? You were going to ditch us before."
"The situation changed," Cinder said stiffly.
"Right, yeah, I knew you didn't actually care," Mercury said.
"Captain," Royal called, "you might want to check this."
Mercury got up and moved to the cockpit.
Cinder followed, not thinking why she might not have the clearance for it.
"The scanner keeps picking them up and then losing them as soon as they dematerialize." Royal gestured at it. "But they're spreading out over the town. What exactly do those things do? They make you angry, right? But how does it work?"
"As far as I know, it starts by making you irritated more easily at people," Mercury said. "And I think it's because you hear that weird noise they make. The louder it gets, the worse you feel."
"Sounds like one of those loud concerts," Royal said. "They get pretty shrill, too, enough to shatter glass."
Cinder frowned.
"So what can you do about it?" Royal asked.
"I don't know why you keep asking me," Mercury griped.
"Sir...you're the captain," Royal said, like "duh."
Cinder almost laughed. What was wrong with Mercury?
"Yeah--wait, how are you captain when you're not in the military?" she said.
"That's what you care about?" Mercury said. "It's just a title. Winter and Raven thought the huntsmen would respect us more if we had a name for the team leader other than just 'leader'."
"And you have that special power of yours. You can incinerate them, right?" Royal pressed. "Or ask for more help from Above."
"I don't really know how that whole thing works," Mercury said.
"How in the world did you survive your mission?" Royal asked.
"You know what, pilot? You can just take your attitude and stick it--" began Mercury.
"Hey." Emerald joined them. "What's going on?"
"See for yourself." Royal pointed.
Emerald nodded. "Okay...we need some kind of protection, right? We need to drive those things out of the town, but the people might be affected.... We could use the music stands. Ci--Scarlet, is there any place you can blast music out of speakers in the town?"
"Only place to do that would be the town square where they have their festival every year," Cinder said flatly. "They have some speakers they hook up. But the town doesn't use that much electricity; it's cheaper to use fire. Didn't you do any research before you came?"
"It's not like there's a lot of information on Eurus. It's tiny!" Emerald snapped. "I'm trying here, okay?"
"Slap her instead," Mercury suggested.
"Mercury! Not helping!" Emerald hissed angrily.
"It just seems to me, you were woefully unprepared for this, for Specialists." Cinder was twisting the knife.
"Well, maybe the genius who thought to alert us at all could have thought to provide some more logistics," Mercury said. "But that wouldn't be like you to be helpful."
"You know, Black, you're really making me regret--" Cinder began, clenching her fist.
The plane suddenly swooped, and they all almost fell into the wall.
"Hi," Royal said, tightly. "I don't know whether this is the Grimm or the three of you just being extremely immature on your own, but can I remind you we have a real crisis going on down there? I will land this ship right now and toss you all out if you don't knock it off."
"Are you threatening us?" Mercury said. "We outrank you."
"My ship, my rules, sir," Royal said. "No killing each other on board is one of them. And if these Grimm are as dangerous as you say, I can't allow the risk of you losing your s--- while I'm trying to fly."
"He's right. We're letting it get to us." Emerald hit herself in the head. "We have to focus!... I'm sure that mill was tied to this somehow. I say some of us go ask the city manager for information about that, and the rest of us can fight off the Grimm."
"I'll fight off the Grimm," Mercury said at once. "Your range isn't that good, so you might as well just get information, and honestly, you're better at doing the boring stuff anyway."
"Boring, huh? If we knew that beforehand, we could have saved hours of time trying to figure this out," Emerald said.
"Oh, for the love of--both of you, shut up," Cinder said. "This is why I want to get away from you. You're always fighting!"
"We're always fighting? You know you--" Mercury began.
"Hush!" Emerald put her hand up. "What is it with both of you? Can you not remember for two seconds not to argue?"
"Well, you won't have to worry about it. I'm getting off the ship as soon as we land and going home," Cinder said, walking away.
"Ergh!" Emerald shoved Mercury before she walked away.
"You sure don't like that woman," Royal noted to Mercury. "What'd she do to you?"
Mercury frowned. "I guess I just hold a grudge against people who threaten Emerald."
"Not that it's any of my business," Royal said, "but you ever think if you spent more time telling that girl why you get so worked up about her, and less time being a jerk to cover it, you'd have less problems?"
"You're right--it is not any of your business," Mercury said.
"Yeah, yeah," Royal said. "So how do you know that Scarlet woman?"
"Oh, we go way back," Mercury said. "It's a long story. I've never really liked her, but Emerald has this idea that deep down she might actually be all right. Can't beat Em's optimism."
"Is it ever rewarded?" Royal asked. "I've heard a few things about you being one of the people she was hopeful about."
"Who talks s--- behind my back?" Mercury said.
"You are famous." Royal shrugged. "And also, a s----y liar."
"What?" Mercury said.
"You want to keep that lady anonymous, you'd better try harder." Royal turned back to the dashboard. "The whole town will figure it out if your best story is you 'go way back.'"
Mercury shot him a double take and then walked away.
"Black, I need a word with you," Piper hissed. "That woman, you didn't tell us who she was."
Great.
"Don't worry about it, Pipes." Mercury annoyed him by calling him this. "We've got it under control."
"Sir, I'm not sure you do."
"Shut up. You want me to write you up again when we get back to Argus?"
Piper frowned at him.
[Personally, I find Cinder kind of funny since she reformed, but maybe people disliked her too much to agree with me.]