Chapter 1

Riley lazily looked out the window, her head resting heavy in her hand. The clouds strolled sleepily across the vast, blue sky lulling her into an even deeper trance. In the background she vaguely registered the teacher talking. All her ears perceived were a distorted series of incomprehensible grunts and grumbles. Riley sighed. She was not overly fond of the classroom setting, much preferring the freedom and excitement the forest around Signal offered. Her senior year had barely begun and she was already feeling cramped and restless. Her black and orange striped tail twitched in annoyance as her edginess increased. Maybe it was her Faunus heritage that made her long for the outdoors. She certainly didn't get it from her upbringing.

A sharp voice snapped her away from her thoughts, "Ms. Stynn would you care to give us the answer?"

"Hm?" Riley answered half-heartedly, still not quite back in her desk.

Her teacher, Mrs. Charming, frowned at her.

"The answer," she repeated, "The question was: What is the most important thing to remember as a future hunter/huntress?"

Riley blinked, "Uh…not to die?"

A few chuckles sounded around the room, but their existence was minute. Mrs. Charming slapped her ruler down on the table, her blond hair wavering slightly because of the impact, "Ms. Stynn your classroom etiquette has been atrocious since day one. I will not have you both spacing out and playing the role of class clown. Am I understood?"

"So I can just space out? Cool…" Riley answered, rolling her eyes.

Glancing back at Mrs. Charming she saw that a vein had popped up on her head. The teacher growled and said, "See me after class."

Riley saw a few guys snicker, but ignored them. She shrugged and nodded. Mrs. Charming growled again, but went back to teaching. In response, Riley again turned her attention to the sky.

A shrill ringing filled the classroom signaling the end of the class period. All of the students quickly stood and moved toward the door. Riley got up and slowly made her way to the front of the room. Not turning her green eyes from her papers, Mrs. Charming started in on her, "Ms. Stynn, I'm going to be curt. I read over your file prior to the start of this year and one thing was very clear: the only reason you are still enrolled at this school is because of your combat scores. You are in the top fifth percentile among your peers. Conversely, your academic scores are mediocre at best and your personality is less than stellar. That kind of record reflects poorly on you. How do you expect to get into a prestigious academy like Beacon if your overall scores remain as they are?"

"I don't," Riley responded simply.

Mrs. Charming blinked, obviously not expecting that answer.

"Excuse me?" she began, "If not Beacon then where?"

"Nowhere. After I graduate from Signal, I'm heading back home."

"You have no intention of being a huntress?" inquired the teacher, still dumbfounded.

Riley shook her head.

"Then why on Vytal are you enrolled at Signal?"

"Because I figured I had to know how to defend myself. My village is prone to fairly frequent Grimm attacks. Now that I've got weapons training from here I can head back home and pick up a local job."

This made Mrs. Charming frown, "That's unfortunate. I had hoped that underneath that stubbornly impertinent exterior there was some form of determined young woman who had strong drives at doing something with her life. I guess I was mistaken."

Mrs. Charming waited a moment to see if Riley would comment. When she didn't the teacher sighed, "Regardless, I expect a vast improvement in your disposition before the school year is over. Also, should you find yourself partaking in any kind of insubordinate action tomorrow during the field trip, I will personally push for severe disciplinary action. Am I clear?"

Riley shrugged drawing another sigh from Mrs. Charming.

"You are dismissed Ms. Stynn."

Riley nodded and quickly made her way to the door.

The autumn air was cool and crisp. Red and gold leaves littered the ground the group of students walked on. Patch, the island Signal resided on, was always a few degrees colder than the mainland because of its location and that meant bearable weather on the docks was usually frigid weather on Patch. While most of the other students were bundled up to fend off the cold, Riley was perfectly comfortable in her short sleeve black tee. Her long legs drifted from out of the bottom of a red and blue skirt and disappeared into a set of dark boots. She looked around at the browning foliage and smiled. She loved Fall; it was her favorite time of year. The extreme cold of winter hadn't yet taken hold of the land and the scenery was absolutely beautiful. She was so absorbed in her thoughts she didn't hear someone rush up behind her.

"Riley!"

Riley felt an arm curl around her waist and was then suddenly face down on the ground. An energetic voice quickly commented, "Oops…."

Riley sat up, rubbing her nose and growled, "Yang!"

The young blonde grinned widely, "Sorry Riles! I guess I figured you'd land on your feet."

Yang beamed at an irritated Riley. Rolling her eyes, the Faunus sighed, "Uh-huh…"

Yang continued to grin as she said, "So whatcha thinking about?"

As Riley stood she replied, "Just how nice the forest looks."

"I know right!" Yang exclaimed as they began walking again, "Red and gold; my favorite colors!"

"Yeah," said Riley, finally chuckling.

There was a short pause that was broken by Yang, "So I was coming to meet you yesterday and couldn't help but overhear your conversation with Mrs. Charming. You don't want to go to Beacon?"

Riley sighed. It never took long for Yang to get to her point. Her inquiry about Riley's thoughts was an uncharacteristic segway. She must have been trying to temper her bluntness. Riley knew it wouldn't last long. She decided that her best course of action would be to go with it; Yang would keep pestering her otherwise.

"No," Riley finally answered, "Don't want to."

Yang frowned, "C'mon Riles! You'd be a great huntress!"

"Not my calling. My family needs me back home."

The blonde began to argue, but hung her head low and sighed in defeat when Riley shot her a look. Riley put a hand on her shoulder, "I'm not leaving until the year is out and even when I'm gone, I'll keep in touch!"

That seemed to reinvigorate Yang's excitability. She perked up immediately, "You're right! Let's make the most of this year!"

Riley chuckled at Yang's gear change, "Definitely!"

Their conversation was interrupted by Mrs. Charming's voice, "Ms. Stynn! You will be with me. Ms. Xiao Long you will be in Group Two. Chop chop!"

Yang gave an empathetic grimace, "Good luck…"

"Yeah," Riley muttered, returning the look of despair.

Waving goodbye, the two girls went their separate ways. As the groups split apart, Mrs. Charming pulled Riley to the side, "I just wanted to remind you of our discussion yesterday Ms. Stynn. You'd do well to remember it and stay out of trouble."

"I'll do my best," replied Riley, her ears twitching slightly in annoyance.

As they continued walking, Riley subtly scooted away from Mrs. Charming. She glanced around at the rest of the group. Riley recognized two of them by name and the rest of them by face. She wasn't extrovertive by nature and, as such, found her group of friends to be small in number. Letting out a sigh, she suddenly missed Yang's excitable personality. While loud, it at least livened the atmosphere.

Before they had set out earlier that morning, the students had been assigned to groups and each given a section of the island to map out; it wasn't exactly a challenging task, but it was boring. Each group was seven to eight members in size and overseen by a ranking member of the faculty. Riley's group had been assigned to the northeastern corner of Patch which held the majority of the island's trees. As they walked along the path taking note of outstanding landmarks, Riley kept her ears keen. While the Grimm population on Patch was notably less than other areas around Vale (like Forever Fall), it still had enough of them to warrant caution.

Two hours passed and Riley was having a difficult time keeping her cool. Her ability to keep her boredom in check had reached its apex an hour and forty five minutes earlier and she was becoming uncomfortably fidgety. She ran her hand through her blue hair in frustration and suddenly remembered her backpack. Riley sat down on a nearby rock and removed it from her shoulders. Plopping it down in front of her, she contemplated extracting its contents.

Before school had let out the previous day, the students had been told that bringing their weapons was prohibited as the areas they were surveying, while faintly inhabited by Grimm, were not above their teachers' martial prowess. This was decided by the faculty in an attempt to prevent group injuries in the unlikely event of an attack. While the students had dabbled in combat scenarios during their first three years at Signal, the primary curriculum had been academic. The senior year at the school was the year that students began having a heavy focus in martial practices. As such, a lot of the students were not, in the eyes of the faculty, prepared to use their weapons competently out in the field.

This didn't stop some of the students, however. Riley was aware that a few of her classmates had smuggled their weapons out of the classroom, herself and Yang included, but she wasn't sure if she should risk revealing it; especially after Mrs. Charming's verbal warnings earlier. Letting out a sigh, Riley shouldered her backpack and headed back to her group. The noonday sun was just reaching its apex in the sky, but the thick red and yellow canopy filtered enough of the light to give the feel of late afternoon. Riley watched quietly as the rest of the group chatted amongst themselves. She had just decided to approach two girls she knew fairly well when she heard something. Incredibly faint, a normal human wouldn't have been able to perceive it. She immediately stopped in her tracks and concentrated. She heard it again; a very weak, but unmistakable sound of padded feet on leaves.

Riley attempted to listen further, but was interrupted by Mrs. Charming, "Ms. Stynn? Are you alright?"

Doing her best not to snap at her teacher, Riley turned and said, "I'm trying to listen."

"Listen? To what?" Mrs. Charming inquired.

The Faunus subdued a growl and managed, "I don't know. That's why I'm listening."

She turned away, but not before she saw Mrs. Charming purse her lips. Riley closed her eyes and tried focus on the sound before the teacher spoke again. After a brief pause she found it and froze when she did. Riley managed to hear a single footfall and a ragged breath. One she'd heard many times before in her village.

"Ms. Stynn are you even-"

"Beowolf, fifty meters out."

Mrs. Charming was instantly alert, "Are you sure?"

"Positive," Riley replied, "I heard it breath. I don't know if there are any more though."

"Thank you for informing me. I will keep an ear open, but I doubt it will attack. Even in packs, Beowolves tend to stay away from-"

Riley barely had time to allow her eyes to widen as a massive figure erupted from the tree line. Wickedly sharp claws adorned its paws and a white, skull-like shape resided over the creatures wolf-like face. Piercing red eyes bore nothing but malice at their target and its humanoid form was quite imposing despite, its lanky build. Its presence was only temporary as Mrs. Charming immediately turned on it. She threw out her arms and two chains flew from her sleeves. They impaled the beowolf through its shoulders allowing Mrs. Charming to whip her hands back and toss it through multiple trees.

By now the other students were aware of the attack and Riley could tell some of them were hesitating. Mrs. Charming turned to them and called out, "Stay behind me! Don't run and don't try to attack!"

Three more beasts darted from the forest, but were quickly felled by Mrs. Charming's chains. Riley watched, impressed by her teacher's fighting ability. She knew Signal teachers were competent in battle, considering they were entrusted to train successive generations of Huntsmen this was to be expected, but this was the first time she'd seen one in serious action. She felt herself smile as her teacher seemed to effortlessly keep up with the growing numbers of beowolves. Unfortunately that did not last. As she skewered another monster, Riley saw something. An even larger black shape exploded from the trees next to the group. Identical to the other beowolves in aesthetics only, this monstrosity was easily twice the size. Time seemed to slow as Riley watched the Alpha beowolf descended upon them. All of her muscles froze as she looked on, her body unwilling to react to her brain's command to evade. Just as it was upon her, another figure filled her vision. The beowolf brought its ghastly claws down and they cut through the torso of Mrs. Charming.

Time returned to normal as Riley registered what had happened. Mrs. Charming stood still for a moment, but then faltered as her aura flickered and faded. She then fell forward onto the ground, unmoving and barely breathing. Riley felt, for just a brief instance, a pang of remorse. Her failure to act had brought death knocking to Mrs. Charming's door. The feeling quickly turned to one of shock. The protective force found in all humans and faunus, an extension of the soul that Huntsmen utilized to shield themselves from danger, was depleted with a single strike. Then came the anger.

As the Alpha reared back to finish off his prey, anger welled up inside Riley's heart. Riley was not going to let her teacher answer Death's call. Letting out a low growl, she reached into her backpack and ripped out a small object, holding on to the base, she threw her arm out and the item began to unfold. As it snapped into position, six strings materialized from the top of the neck and stretched down to the bottom of the head. She gripped the iron guitar and immediately strummed a chord. A violent shock wave burst from the front of the guitar and destruction followed. Trees were bent in half for close to twenty meters and the ground was torn asunder, dirt and debris tossed into the air like confetti. A few beowolves were blown away, but the Alpha stubbornly managed to hold its ground. Riley turned to the others and shouted, "Get out of here! Go get help! I'll hold this thing off!"

There was no hesitation as the students bolted away. Riley turned back and glared into the beast's red eyes and snarled, "Bring it…"

The beowolf seemed to snicker at her comment and released an ear splitting howl. Within seconds, dozens more of the lesser creatures moved into view. Riley blinked, stunned by the volume of the pack. How could so many Grimm live on Patch without drawing attention from the staff? There was no way a mission out into the field would have been sanctioned if they had known the severity of the Grimm population growth.

Riley's contemplations were rudely disturbed as a beowolf lunged at her. She quickly brought the guitar to bear and hit a button toward the top of the neck. A razor sharp blade popped out of the lining around the head and Riley swung as hard as she could. The guitar impacted the beowolf's midsection and promptly split it in two. She expertly allowed the follow through the attack to propel her into a spiral. As her twirl began, she kicked off the ground with her back foot and flew at another beowolf. It failed to respond in time and was minced by Riley's guitar. Finished with her first attack, she came to a sliding stop. She jumped back in front of Mrs. Charming and faced the Alpha again.

It growled and took a step forward. Riley took a deep breath and prepared for the Alpha to make its move. The beast crouched, readying itself to pounce. Everything was still for a moment. Nothing moved as the two watched each other. Then the Alpha lunged…and got not more than five feet off the ground. Something whizzed past Riley's head and the resulting gust picked up Riley's blue hair and tossed it about. It hit the Alpha in the shoulder and sent it sprawling into the woods. For one second as it slammed into the creature, Riley caught a glimpse of what it was: a silver disc. As quickly as it had appeared, it flew back past her head. Not a second later, someone flashed into view in front of her.

The man was tall, easily a head taller than Riley, and lean. From behind she could see he wore an ankle length, brown duster and boots. Russet gloves with oversized cuffs sat snuggly on his hands and in each one he held one of those disks. Now able to see them more clearly, she realized they were in fact chakram. Gold runes resided around each of the weapons blades. Riley looked up at him as he turned and said, "You alright?"

Riley paused before answering. Golden eyes peered down on her. As she gazed back into them she felt something she hadn't felt since she'd left home. Safety. Security. Confidence. Blinking her eyes to break his stare, she finally replied, "I'm fine."

He grinned widely and said, "Good. Now just sit back and let us handle this."

"Us"?" Riley asked, confused.

As if in response, three other people dropped from the trees. The first was a stunningly beautiful woman. Long, blood red hair stretched down past her shoulder blades. Golden armor (Riley was pretty sure it was of Mistral design) covered her lily white skin and two curved blades rested on her back. Green eyes glared in irritation at the man, "Westley! Why do you always have to be so reckless?! Bolting off into the middle of a pack of beowolves without the rest of us is incredibly irresponsible!"

The man named Westley chuckled, "Cool your jets Pelyope; it's just a couple of beowolves. Nothing I can't handle on my own."

This warranted a deep frown from Pelyope, "You're going to get yourself hurt…"

Turning back to the beowolf horde, Westley said, "Careful Pel, you might give me the impression you care about my wellbeing. Now shush up and let's get to work shall we?"

Another man moved up behind Pelyope, "Yeah. Enough chatter. Let's show these wolves who the real animals are…"

This man was huge. At least a foot taller than Westley, he had a thin frame. A black leather jacket covered his chest and navy blue jeans his legs. Red eyes sat centered on his chiseled face and had equal parts excitement and fury emanating from them. Riley also noted the two gray wolf ears nestled in a mop of black hair. As her gaze scrutinized his person, she found he wore two golden gauntlets, each home to wickedly sharp claws.

A hand was placed firmly on the man's shoulder by the final member of the group. With a slight chuckle, he said, "Don't get too excited Ruruki. Remember the warehouse you torched? Don't want a repeat here in this forest."

The last man was Westley's height, but had a more toned musculature. He wore a sleeveless vest and baggy cargo pants. On each arm was a single bracer with a small disk situated in the center. They also, toward the wrist, had what looked like steel knuckles folded backward.

In response, Ruruki simply grinned deviously. A howl broke the nonchalant atmosphere and everyone turned to the source. The Alpha had obviously recovered from the surprise attack and was furious. The four instantly formed a line in front of Riley. The Faunus looked on in shock. There was no way they could take on that many beowolves alone. She began to protest their action, but was cut off by Westley, "You've done good newbie. Let the big leagues take care of this."

As he finished his sentence Ruruki bolted forward. He brought his arm back and let out an excited howl. The tips of each claw on his gauntlets began to glow white hot. Ruruki threw his arms down and ten massive arcs of fire tore through the beowolves' ranks. The monsters scattered in response, but rallied behind the Alpha in short order. That didn't slow the four down at all, however. The man with the bracers flicked his wrists and the knuckles flipped forward, locking into place over his hands. As they did so, the disks on his bracers fanned out and formed two dense shields. Four beowolves rushed him. They leapt into the air and lashed out with their claws. The man fluidly weaved between the attacks, deflecting each strike with one of his shields.

As the beowolves ricocheted off his defenses, he firmly planted a foot on the ground. He brought his arm back, his hand balled into a fist, and let it rocket forward. As his punch reached its apex, Riley saw the air begin to displace around his fist. Immediately after his arm finished its motion, a violent surge of wind tore through the monsters. Riley looked on in awe at the destructive force it yielded. It ripped apart ten beowolves and splintered a tree almost a hundred feet away. A blur motion in Riley's peripheral vision distracted her. Pelyope had removed the blades from her back and had begun cutting swathes through numerous beowolves.

In a flourish of swings and twirls, Pelyope felled almost a dozen of the beasts in rapid succession. Riley was almost too distracted by her movements to realize what the warrior had done. She had corralled the remaining twelve or so creatures into a tight group. She twirled her swords in circles and then slammed the hilts together. There was a low glow as the swords fused. The tips of each blade began to sparkle with a dull light and a thin strand of Dust formed between the two points. She delicately took hold of the thread and pulled slowly. As she did so, something started to form; it was an arrow. A striking blue in color, faint wisps of energy billowed off the shaft. Pelyope took a deep breath and then released her fingers. Immediately after Pelyope fired, Riley saw the warrior's eyes briefly flash silver.

An orb of green and silver swirls appeared in front to of the arrow. The tip of the arrow hit the orb and vanished into it. There was a small pause. Then, quite suddenly, six more orbs formed in a hodgepodge formation around the beowolves. The arrow exited one of them. It pierced through one beowolf and entered another orb. It then tore from a second orb and hit another beowolf before escaping into yet another sphere. This process continued for a few seconds and each time the arrow appeared it went faster and faster until it was only a blur. The Arrow's speed tossed up dirt as it went, obscuring the creatures it was destroying. As the dust and dirt finally settled, Riley looked on in amazement. The beowolves had been reduced to nothing but mangled corpses.

Riley felt a rush of relief flow through her. She was about to speak up when a single piercing howl reminded her that the battle was not yet over; the Alpha was still alive. She turned her attention to it and saw Westley dodge out of the way of an attack. He pitched his chakram at it, but, aside from a superficial scratch, they did nothing but bounce off its hide. Westley laughed a little and said, "You're making me look bad in front of the ladies! You should help me out and die already!"

The Alpha simply snarled in response. Westley shrugged, "Oh well. Guess I just have to pick up the pace then!"

He brought one of his chakram back and threw it again. This time, however, the glyphs began to flow red. The beowolf obviously didn't notice the change because it just stood in the path of the disc. Big mistake. The disc hit it in the arm and the monster was engulfed in an explosion that rocked the ground under Riley. The black shape dodged from the plume of smoke, its arm a mangled mess of flesh and bone. It quickly reorganized and lunged at Westley. The man easily parried and swung his arm around, catching the Alpha with another blow. A second explosion sent the Alpha into a nearby tree. It fell to the ground, dazed. Shaking its matted head it looked up as Westley approached. It growled defiantly and bared its teeth. Westley raised his hand, ready to decapitate it, but his chakram only grazed the beast's eye. A hidden beowolf burst from the treeline and lunged at the hunter. Westley redirected his attention flawlessly and felled it, but the distraction allowed the Alpha to jump to its feet and dash into the shadows of the woods.

Westley scowled and growled, "Damn it. It got away…"

He brushed his hand through his thick brown hair and then turned, his face home to a wide grin now.

"Still okay?" he asked.

It took a moment to register that someone was talking to her. Finally she blinked herself out of her stupor and responded, "Um…yeah…I'm…yeah…"

Riley felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and saw Pelyope smiling at her. Her voice had a surprisingly calming effect to it as she said, "You're safe now. Help will be here shortly."

Riley nodded, "Thanks."

Pelyope went to speak, but was cut off by Westley, "As much as I would love to stay and chat, we need to be gone before everyone else shows. Ozpin wants to stay on the down low for the time being, remember?"

The man with the bracers nodded, "Indeed. We should make our way back to Beacon."

Riley froze, her mind suddenly racing. Beacon? Are these guys really students from Beacon?

Riley knew she was good, like really good compared to most of her other classmates. Mrs. Charming had even said that her combat skills were the only reason she was still at Signal. But these guys, only a year or so ahead of her, were so far beyond her in prowess and training she could hardly fathom the gap. Her curiosity quickly welled to the surface and she went to speak, but found all four had disappeared from view. Riley immediately looked around for any indication as to which direction they had gone in. Perking her ears, she strained to hear something. After a moment, she heard a number of footsteps making their way toward her. Second later a yellow blur exploded out of the woods opposite the beowolves. It came to a screeching halt in front of her, "Riley!"

Riley let out a disappointed sigh. With the rush of people that was sure to follow the new arrival, there was no way she was going to catch up with them now. She sluggishly straightened herself out and said, "I'm fine Yang. Just a little rattled. Mrs. Charming is much worse condition than-."

She turned to look at her teacher and was surprised to find that the bleeding had stopped and the wounds were much less severe than they originally were. It must have been one of those four. Yang looked from Riley to Mrs. Charming to the beowolves and then back to Riley, "What in the heck happened?! The rest of the teachers are-"

She turned around and realized no one was behind her, "Oops…must have gotten ahead of them. But they can't be too far behind."

Riley sighed again and then slowly recounted the ordeal all the way from when the beowolves showed up until the four's departure. As she finished, Yang said simply, "Whoa…"

"Yeah," Riley answered. After a moment of quiet she turned away from Yang and continued, "Well. You'll be glad about one thing that came out of this."

As Yang gave Riley a questioning look, Riley noticed a large group of teachers emerge from where Yang had. They immediately began fanning out over the area, probably making sure there were no other beowolves or any injured students. Before they reached the two of them, Riley turned her attention the small looking cliffs far off in the distance on the other side of Vytal. She could just barely make out a small, castle-like structure on them. A new found flame a light inside her, she gazed determinedly at the building and said, "I'm going to Beacon."