Chapter 1

The Magic of the World

"Victory! Sweet and glorious victory," trumpeted Ruby.

The dastardly team JNPR had fled before the might of team RWBY. The heroic leader of team RWBY surveyed the abattoir of destruction that marked their titanic struggle. The discarded and sundered weapons of their foes lay strewn across the battlefield. Even the landscape itself had not escaped unscathed. What had once been orderly and beautiful lay in chaos and ruin. Still, victory was theirs though the cost had been great. An elegant black-haired girl lay supine on the field of battle. Crimson stained her once pristine shirt, a testament to the treachery and ferocity of their enemy.

Also Weiss had gotten grape juice in her hair.

"Oooh, we kinda made a mess of things," Ruby opined. Her assessment of the aftermath of the Second Great RWBY-JNPR Food War seemed accurate to Blake as the faunus girl opened her eyes and sat up, magically recovered from Nora's ketchup grenade. The damage to the cafeteria had been a bit catastrophic. Food and soda from Nora's grenades decorated virtually every surface of the cafeteria. Tables, chairs, plates, and the team's makeshift weaponry lay strewn about in haphazard fashion.

Her team seemed cheerful enough following their victory. Ruby had her hands on her hips as she proudly surveyed the battlefield before her. Blake could practically see her grin through the back of her head. Weiss had somehow conjured a clean napkin to care for the juice on the end of her ponytail. The heiress had her head down, focused on the task before her. Still, Weiss seemed happy enough. After all, she wasn't biting anyone's head off like some kind of ice-hearted, hyper-articulate shark.

In fairness, it would have been difficult to get a word in edgewise anyway as Yang was shouting insults of questionable veracity at the backs of the rapidly departing members of team JNPR. Not that they didn't deserve them. Team JNPR had fled the battle rather quickly. In fact, all of Yang's shouting was masking another sound. Blake's faunus ears twitched as she focused on the peculiar noise.

CLICK.

CLICK.

Death had come for team RWBY in classy yet sexy heels.

"Cheese it," screamed the fearless leader of team RWBY as she vanished in a flurry of rose petals.

"Every woman for herself," cried Yang as she dashed towards the door team JNPR had just escaped from.

In contrast to her teammates, Weiss did her best to make utter terror look dignified and mostly succeeded. The white haired heiress vanished in a white blur leaving behind a rather lovely looking snowflake glyph in her wake.

For her part, Blake could practically feel Professor Goodwitch's snarl on the back of her neck. She reluctantly turned her head to see the blond huntress level her riding crop wand at her closest target, one Blake Belladonna. Blake sprung to her feet and dodged right leaving behind an after-image clone in the hopes of confusing the irate teacher. The faunus dashed towards her goal and watched as Ruby waved Yang and a glyph-propelled Weiss through the cafeteria doors.

"Look out Blake," cried Ruby as her silver eyes widened in fear. On instinct, Blake juked left and produced a second clone to further confuse her pursuer. Blake turned to see if her ploy had been successful and found herself staring into a pair of predatory green eyes. To make matters worse, the good witch's wand calmly tracked the terrified faunus. But worst of all, Professor Goodwitch was smiling.

I'm a clone. Really, the one to the right is real. Just you know, look over there, please...

MEOW!

Huh?

By nearly any measure, the scene was peculiar. In one instant, a maniacally grinning blond woman was pointing her wand at a terrified black-haired girl in obvious preparation for a terrible arcane assault. In the next instant, a disoriented black house cat appeared where the terrified girl had been.

The black cat let out a confused meow and began looking around frantically. Yellow feline eyes settled on a second, younger girl wearing a red and black gothic dress. Ruby was still clutching the door she had been holding. She stared at the confused cat with an expression that attempted to combine dumbfounded confusion, excited adoration, and utter terror. Ruby's eyes moved from the cat to the smiling Glynda. As the witch finished admiring her work, green eyes snapped up to hunt for new targets. Ruby gave a terrified squeak and vanished in a blur of rose petals.

"I suppose that will have to do for now," noted Glynda.

"Come along Ms. Belladonna," she said, scooping up the more feline than ever faunus. "I hear cats are good for relieving stress."

Professor Ozpin sighed and closed his scroll.