"For years you have trained to become warriors-" The old guy in green kept his attention for about eight words before D.L. tuned out only catching the important bits, "The first person you make eye contact with… partner…. Abandoned temple… relics… return…"

Okay, D.L. thought, Can hit something now?

"Uh, sir, I've got um a question?" Some blond scrawny guy was mumbling at Ozpin.

Idiot. Gonna get himself killed. D.L. chided the doofus in his head then he was gone soaring over the Emerald Forest.

I can't believe they have me consorting with these common folk. I am Stella Reign. I am above these peasants and they want to launch me over this filthy forest. Ugh! Stupi-eeeeeee. These were the thoughts of one Stella Reign immediately leading up to her deployment into the Emerald Forest.

Stella fell towards the forest still completely flustered. Luckily she fell into a particularly dense patch of forest and the trees more or less broke her fall. She immediately continued her ranting this time out loud, "Disgusting trees, filthy bugs, dirty, ugh, dirt!"

D.L. Hit the ground hard absorbing the brunt of the impact with his aura. "Not exactly fancy but it'll do." D.L. said to himself straightening up and dusting himself off. D.L. took a moment to get his bearings and headed north.

He hiked toward the temple for several minutes uneventfully until he found the pigs and the little girl they had cornered.

As it turns out Stella had flown much farther because of how much smaller than D.L. she is and had been walking in circles until she stumbled upon about half a dozen boarbatusks. She tried to fight them off, but her North Star wasn't enough to pierce there thick armor. She was also not strong enough to knock one over to get at its underbelly. Soon she was completely overwhelmed and cornered by the boar-like Grimm.

D.L. grinned, Finally, something I can wail on. He reached both hands into his jacket and pulled out his revolvers. He fired five shots at the hoard of pigs. All but one hit bone plates and bounced off. Seeing this D.L. changed his pistols from gun form to knuckle form and dashed forward. Normally this many Grimm at once but they were all distracted by the little girl so it was easy enough to quickly launch them all into the air and put one bullet into each of their soft bellies. The boarbatusks all fell to the ground dead.

"And with one bullet to spare." D.L. said with a smirk momentarily forgetting about the girl.

"Under-handed monsters!" Stella screeched.

D.L. cringed and looked at the girl, "Whoa there. Calm down. They're dead," D.L. assured the screaming girl. "What's a little girl like you doing here? This is the initiation test for Beacon."

The girl's face flushed red, "How dare you! I am Stella Reign and I am the greatest thing that will ever happen to this Academy. And I. Am. Not. Little!" the girl fumed.

D.L.'s face dropped, "Great. That means you're my partner. I don't know if I can deal with four years of that voice."

"How dare you!"

"Yeah, you already said that," D.L. complained.

"Who do you think you are?!"

"Uh, my name's… call me D.L., D.L. King. Who are you?"

"Who am I? I already informed you my name is Stella Reign!" Stella huffed.

"Okay then," D.L. Rolled his eyes, "Let's get moving. We already wasted a lot of time with our introductions."

"Don't think you can order me around. I am Stella Reign. My family is one of the most wealthy and powerful in all of Vale!"

"Good for you, your Highness. So I'm headed to the temple. You can stay here and tell the trees how much money you have or you can tag along and get through this initiation. Up to you." D.L. turned and walked away reloading his revolvers.

Stella grunted and reluctantly followed. Yeah I thought so. D.L. thought to himself.

"Hey I think that's it." D.L. said as a crumbling rotunda came into view. They walked into the stone circle.

"The relics seem to be chess pieces," Stella observed.

"Really? I thought they were buried in the rubble." D.L. said sarcastically eliciting an angry huff from Stella. He walked around the perimeter of the temple looking at the pieces. Some of them were missing from the two complete sets of pieces, the golden Knights and Rooks, the black Bishops and Queens, and one of the gold bishops as well. "Which one do we take?"

"Hm, this one," Stella grabbed the gold King and said happily, "It's gold so it's definitely valuable and the King is the most important piece so it fits me perfectly."

D.L. rolled his eyes and sighed, "Fine. I guess that works. Let's go," he agreed against his better judgment.

They headed back in the direction of the cliffs… until D.L. lost Stella. He turned around to warn her about a root and she just wasn't there. Crap. Where'd she go?

"EEEEEEP!"

Well I found her.

D.L. ran toward the scream and found Stella in a clearing next to some boulders surrounded by four beowolves. "What's with you and the damsel in distress routine, huh?" D.L. shouted and all four beowolves looked towards him. "I'd love to stay and beat the crap outta you guys but I got an initiation to finish so…" he ran through the Grimm, picks Stella up over his shoulder and makes his way to the top of the boulders. "Ok. Let's try and get past these guys without fighting. Protecting you is starting to be a pain."

"Uhmm…," Stella mumbled.

"What was that?" D.L. stopped looking for a way out and turned to Stella, "Hey. Where's the relic?" he asked noticing the big gold chess piece. Stella didn't say anything and just pointed toward the group of beowolves. The biggest of the four had a shiny gold king at its feet. "Of course. Fantastic. I can't take four beowolves at once so you are gonna have to at least distract them."

"I'm sure I'm the superior fighter. I am Stella Reign after all, you filthy peasant boy!" Stella shrieked at him and deployed her weapon, North Star. With her double bladed dagger and shield spinner, she leapt at the beowolves and D.L. followed after drawing his revolvers, Ferrous and Ignis.

Surprisingly they fought well together. Stella's defensive tactics were able to help Stella cover D.L. who has a much more aggressive battle style as he picked off the beowolves one by one. Stella blocked claws and fangs getting in a few jabs and D.L. didn't have to worry about getting blindsided. The beowolves were soon no more.

As the two of them stood there catching their breath D.L. panted, "You're not half bad, little girl."

Stella straightened her clothes and brushed herself off then calmly said, "Of course I am. I'm exceptional at all things I do," then she turned bright red and shouted, "And I'm not LITTLE!"

"Whatever." D.L. grumbled, "A thank you would've worked." He bent over and picked up the chess piece, "Now, come on. If you get lost again I'm not coming back. I've got the relic this time."

That was, fortunately, the last hiccup for D.L. and Stella in their initiation. The next thing they knew they were standing on the stage in Beacon's auditorium listening to Ozpin say, "Dandelion King, Stella Reign, Cerise Nae, and Grun Williams. You retrieved the White King Pieces and from this day forward you will work together as team KRWN (crown) led by Dandelion King."

The applause covered D.L. complaints, "The name's D.L."

Stella mumbled, "He's the leader? Humph, I can't believe it."

Ozpin concluded with, "Congratulations to you all."