After the airship landed, Peter ran right through the hallways. Behind the great hall, he encountered two men. One was skinny and had circular glasses and the other one had a rotund figure and a mustache that covered his mouth.
"Hi. I'm Peter Parker. I'm new."
"Great to meet you, fellow Peter. I am Professor Port. This here is Dr. Oobleck."
"It's always nice to meet someone new." Dr. Oobleck took a sip of his coffee. "Still, it is rather strange to hear that Ozpin has suddenly hired someone out of the blue."
"You must have done something big to get on his good side." Professor Port said.
"I guess you could say that." Peter said nervously. It was obvious that neither Ozpin nor Glynda had told anyone about him wearing a spider costume and fighting a gangster. "Well, Oz wants me to see him before the ceremony."
"Well, don't keep him waiting." Dr. Oobleck said.
Peter turned from the two teachers and continued down the hallway. There, he saw Ozpin looking at a security video. There were students walking into the hall. As soon as he saw Peter, he lowered his scroll and smiled.
"Hello, Mr. Parker." Ozpin said. "It's great to see you. I was hoping to run some questions by you before the ceremony starts."
"Like what?" Peter asked.
"Your powers, for example." Ozpin said. "You weren't born with them, were you?"
"No, I won them on a quiz show." Peter joked. "But for real… About four years ago, I was on a school field trip to a company called Oscorp to see a radioactive experiment at work. During the procedure, a spider climbed down and got radioactive. It then crawled its way to my hand and bit me. About a day later, I started to develop spider powers."
"A radioactive spider-bite gave you the ability to walk on walls and shoot web out of your wrists?"
"Well, not the web part." Peter reached into his bag and pulled out a pair of metal cuffs with little switches at the front. "I designed these web shooters and created a chemical compound that acts similar to web. But the wall-crawling was a gift from the spider, yes. Also got super agility, heightened intelligence, the proportional strength of a spider, and a sixth sense that warns me of danger. I call the last one my Spider Sense."
"That must make it easy to catch criminals."
"Not all of them. Back at New York, I have a strange habit of running into people who somehow gain incredible powers. Most of those guys are people I know the police couldn't handle. So it's up to me to stop them."
"I see. Thank you, Peter. Now, I feel more confident about the next thing I tell you."
"And what's that?"
Ozpin climbed up to the back side of curtains and slightly opened them. Ozpin looked at the crowd of new students and found the one he was looking for. "Tell me, Peter, do you recognize her?"
Peter looked out and recognized the red-hooded girl being given a pamphlet by a pale girl with white hair and a white dress. "Yeah. That's the girl I met when I got here. We fought those gangsters together."
"Her name is Ruby Rose." Ozpin said. "Years ago, her parents came to this academy and received plenty of honors. I see similar potential in her. But if the wrong people ever found out about her existence, she would have a target painted on her back."
"Why would anyone be threatened by her?" Peter asked.
Ozpin glared deeper at Ruby's face staring at her silver eyes. "Like I said, she has potential; the same kind her mother had. Now, she's good in a fight, there's no doubt about that. But she has plenty of flaws in her battle and she only sees the world in black and white. Do you think you can keep an eye on her?"
"Me?" Peter asked. "Why? Is she that important?"
"Very." Ozpin said. "Just something to think about. Now, come on. It's time to start the ceremony."
Peter walked on up to the stage right behind Ozpin and Glynda. Ozpin approached the microphone ready to speak.
"I'll keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."
Peter could hear the sounds of students whispering to each other. He then heard as Glynda took the stage while Ozpin stood back.
"You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."
Peter returned backstage with Ozpin and Glynda still thinking about Ozpin's words.
"That's some pretty deep stuff." Peter said.
"I said what I believed." Ozpin said. "Knowing stuff is a step in the right direction, but there's no substitute to real experience. And tomorrow, we'll be testing them out in the field."
"It won't only evaluate their original skills," Glynda continued, "It will also determine how they work in teams."
"You have teams?" Peter asked.
"Yes." Glynda said. "It's always a good team of four. We name them based on their initials."
"For example," Ozpin said, "A team made up of people named Rio, Nester, Carmen, and Hannah would be named Team RNCH."
"Ranch?" Peter asked before noticing. "Oh, I get it." He then yawned. "Well, I'm getting tired. If that's all you wanted me for…"
"Actually, there's one more issue." Ozpin said. "I'm afraid your living quarters won't be ready until after initiation tomorrow. So you're gonna have to spend the night with the students in the ballroom."
"What?" Peter gasped. "That blows!"
"Can't be helped." Ozpin said taking Peter's bag. "Don't worry. I'll keep your costume safe in my office. We can't risk any nosy students peeking into your private life, can we?"
Peter sighed. "All right. I'll get a sleeping bag."
As soon as Peter was out of sight, Glynda turned her attention to Ozpin.
"Sir, Mr. Parker's living arrangements are ready now. Why would you have him spend the night with the students?"
"The initiation tomorrow is supposed to help students grow closer together." Ozpin said. "Let's call this Peter's initiation."
It was a hard time for Peter to find a clear spot for him to rest. He wrapped his arm around a sleeping bag looking for a place.
"This is great." He thought to himself sarcastically. "How am I supposed to sleep if there are new students everywhere?"
"Hey, you!" a familiar voice called.
Peter turned around and saw Ruby approaching him with her sister behind her. Peter was nervous since this was their second time meeting, but she didn't know it.
"Uh, hi." Peter said nervously.
"I know you." Ruby said.
"Uh, no, you don't." Peter said.
"Don't play dumb with me. You were standing right behind Ozpin at the ceremony."
At first, Peter felt silly. Then, he let out a silent sigh of relief. "Yeah, of course. I'm Peter Parker. I'm the new teaching assistant here."
"Nice to meet you, Peter. My name's Ruby."
"And I'm Yang, her sister. So… what are you doing here?"
"My home isn't ready yet." Peter said. "So I'm gonna be spending the night here."
"You see that, Ruby." Yang told her sister. "Already, you're making a new friend. Told you there's friends all around you."
Ruby looked at the wall and saw a lone girl reading near the dimly-lit corner of the room. She had black hair with a black bow wrapped on top. Her yellow eyes were glued to the book in her hand.
"That girl…" Ruby said.
"You know her?" Yang asked.
"Not really." Ruby said. "She saw what happened this morning, but left before I could say anything."
"What happened this morning?" Peter asked.
"Apparently, Ruby literally sneezed a storm in the courtyard." Yang said.
"What?" Peter asked.
"Well, now's your chance, Ruby, to talk to her." Yang grabbed her sister's wrist and dragged her to the black-haired girl in the corner.
"This is going to go well." Peter thought to himself following them. The mystery girl lifted her eyes and saw the three approaching her.
"Hello!" Yang said in a sing-song voice. "I believe you two may know each other."
"Aren't you the girl that exploded?" Blake asked.
"Uh, yeah." Ruby said nervously. "My name's Ruby. But you can call me Crater…" She lost herself and was embarrassed. "Actually, you can just call me Ruby."
"So… what's your name?" Yang asked.
"…Blake." The girl answered with a sigh.
"Well, Blake, I'm Yang, Ruby's older sister. …I like your bow. It goes great with your… pajamas."
That was awkward for everyone.
"I'm Peter. I'll be helping the teachers around here." Blake didn't change her expression.
"Sheesh, and I thought Melinda May was stoic." Peter thought to himself.
"Nice night, don't you think?" Yang asked.
"Yes, it's lovely." Blake said. "Almost as lovely as this book… that I will continue to read… as soon as you leave."
"Here's something new." Peter said. "It's called 'please'."
"What's it about?" Ruby asked.
"Huh?" Blake asked.
"What?" Peter asked.
"Excuse me?" Yang asked.
"Your book." Ruby said. "Does it have a name?"
"Well…" Blake said, "It's about a man with two souls, each fighting for control over his body."
"Real Jekyll and Hyde thing, I see." Peter thought to himself.
"I love books." Ruby said. "Yang used to read to me every night before bed. Stories of heroes and monsters… They're one of the reasons I want to be a Huntress."
For the first time in the night, Blake couldn't help but chuckle. "And why is that? Hoping you'll live happily ever after?"
"Well, I'm hoping we all will." Ruby replied. "As a girl, I wanted to be like those heroes in the books. Someone who fought for what was right, and protected people who couldn't protect themselves."
"Wow." Peter said sounding a little impressed. "That's pretty ambitious for a kid."
"Yeah." Blake agreed. "Unfortunately, the real world isn't the same as a fairy tale."
"Well, that's why we're here." Ruby said. "To make it better."
"Oh, I am so proud of my baby sister!" Yang cheered forcing a hug on Ruby.
"Cut it out!" Ruby shouted before punching Yang, which lead to a cartoonish fight.
"Well, that escalated quickly." Peter said.
"What in the world is going on over here?" a new girl's voice shouted. It was the same white-haired girl who gave Ruby the pamphlet earlier. She stormed in toward the fight interrupting the two girls. "Don't you realize some of us are trying to sleep?"
When Ruby and the white-haired girl made contact with each other's eyes, they both jumped and spoke simultaneously.
"Oh, not you again!"
"Did I miss something?" Peter asked.
"That storm sneeze I talked about?" Yang asked. "Weiss was at the front of it."
"Guys, Weiss is right." Ruby said. "People are trying to sleep."
"Oh, so now, you're on my side?" Weiss asked condescendingly.
"I'm always on your side!" Ruby argued.
"What's your problem with my sister?" Yang asked. "She's just trying to be nice!"
"She's a hazard to my health!" Weiss shouted.
"Hey!" Peter shouted getting the four girls' attention. "Look, you're all getting on each other's nerves. I get it. But we certainly don't need any arguing on the first night here. So why don't you all return to your sleeping bags and get a better mood for tomorrow?"
"But she was the one who…" Weiss tried to say.
"It doesn't matter!" Peter shouted. "Just go to sleep!"
With a sigh, Weiss returned to her side of the room. Ruby and Yang looked at each other before returning to their bags.
"Way to stick to your guns, Mr. Parker." Blake said.
"Just Peter, please. Mr. Parker was my father." Blake stared at him with judgmental looks. "Sorry, I tend to make bad jokes a lot."
"All right." Blake said before blowing out the candle beside her.