"Bitch" Carolina yelled as she landed hard on a forest floor turning just in time to see the portal she had just been deposited through zip closed before her eyes. "Well that's just great now isn't it" she huffed to herself, being ambushed by one of her supposed teammates was not what she had planned for today.
"So where the hell am I" Carolina thought to herself while surveying her surroundings. She had landed in some kind of forest and was currently surrounded by large tree trunks and big thickly leaved bushes. "Well I better fire up my GPS and figure out where that orange idiot dumped me" she thought aloud while scrolling through her armours functions. "God I miss having Church around to do this stuff for me" she said aloud once more struggling to locate the function she wanted. "Ahah there it is" Carolina said triumphantly hitting the blue GPS icon on her heads up display.
The screen on the inside of her helmet flickered for a moment before scrolling a warning Carolina never expected to see.

Warning GPS signal not found
Warning UNSC network not found
Warning unable to determine galactic location

"Impossible!"
Carolina was stunned, the UNSC locator beacons had a range of lightyears her suit should have been able to find at least something.
At that moment Carolinas attention was drawn from her current predicament as her motion tracker registered nearby movement. Whatever it was it was big! And close.
Carolina slowly drew her magnum from its holster and stood ready to face whatever was lurking nearby.
None of Carolinas years of training could have prepared her for the beast that emerged from the bushes. It looked like a large black wolf but covered in white bony spikes with large, red, angry eyes. She didn't get very long to study the creature before it slapped her with one of its huge clawed hands sending the teal coloured spartan flying backwards through several smaller trees.
As Carolina struggled to her feet the ringing in her ears was quickly replaced with the familiar quick fire beeping of her armours shield warning system. Whatever that thing was it had just dropped her shields to a third of their strength in a single hit, she would have to be careful not to get hit again.

Elsewhere in the forest a small group of people picked their way through the brush.
"Arrrgh are we there yet?" The girl in the pink skirt groaned aloud "we've been walking for hourrrrrrrs".
"Come on Nora" replied the girl in red "you always used to say we needed more exercise"
"That is true" the boy in green said matter of factly
"Yea I guess" the pink skirted girl responded "I just wish I still had my Ursa..."
"Hey speaking of Grimm" the boy in the white and gold armour interrupted "we haven't seen any for a while" "keep your eyes and ears open"
"Got it" the three replied and each readied their weapons as they continued forwards.

Carolina ducked behind the trunk of a large tree, the creatures menacing claws leaving huge gashes in the wood as it took another swipe at her. She emptied her magnum into the creature as it leered at her around the trunk, the monster stumbled from the impact but seemed otherwise unharmed.
"two mags left" Carolina thought to herself as she quickly reloaded ducking under another swing from the beast.
"this isn't working" she thought to herself "I have to get away from this thing".

She looked around, checking her surroundings for a way out, Carolinas options were limited.

To the north was a large wall of brambly bushes which looked nigh on impenetrable, to the east and west was just more forest and Carolina didn't fancy her chances running through it, but to the north a clearing, a meadow?, a road? It didn't matter it was her best shot to escape this monster.
Carolina positioned herself in front of another nearby tree and prepared for the creatures attack.
"Hey! Come and get me you overgrown mutt" Carolina shouted a slight smirk spreading under her helmet, it felt good to taunt this monster.
The beast roared and charged the teal spartan aiming to crush her small frame against the large tree she braced against.
Carolina stood her ground waiting until the last possible second "aaannd dodge, roll, run!" Carolina said to herself as she ducked under the huge creature hearing a satisfying crack as it collided with the tree behind her. She ran with all the speed she could muster her mind laser focused on the clearing up ahead, branches vines and bushes whipped past with frightening speed some striking the spartan with enough force to damage her shields.
With a final gigantic leap she broke through the last of the brush and landed in the clearing feeling the crunch of gravel Beneath her boots, she had made it.
"click!" the sound caused Carolina to freeze, she knew exactly what it was, the unmistakable sound of guns being cocked. She turned slowly toward the source and was taken aback by the sight that greeted her, a group of young children, who all looked less than eighteen years old were pointing weapons at her.
At the back stood a girl in a pink skirt with ginger hair, she was holding a menacing looking grenade launcher which was aimed squarely at Carolinas chest, next to her stood a tall boy wearing green clothes and sporting twin pistols with large blades attached to their barrels, he seemed to be staring past her towards the brush she had just leapt through, in front of the pair was a smaller boy clad in white and gold armour, Carolina was surprised to see he was not holding a gun but instead a sword and shield, Like the kind used by the knights of ancient earth, next to him couched behind an imposing looking weapon was the youngest of the group, the girl couldn't have been much older than sixteen and was wearing a black and red dress with a long red cape flowing behind her, in her hands was the trigger to one of the most terrifying weapons the freelancer had ever seen, it appeared to be some form of sniper rifle scythe and judging from the size of the hole at the muzzle of the weapon a large calibre one at that.

"Who are you?" Ruby shouted at the blue stranger before them.
"Yea and where did you come from?" Nora joined in.
"Were you following us?" Jaune yelled pointing his sword at the stranger from behind his shield.
The blue armoured figure raised its hands "Whoa there kids I don't want to fight" "can you just tell me where I am so I can get back home?"
"Your on the road between Vale and Mistral" Ruby responded sounding confused.

"Vale?, Mistral? Where the hell did That idiot send me?" Carolina thought to herself as she watched the group closely for signs of aggression.
"Uuummm I don't know those places too well. I'm not from around here" she said holstering her weapon "do you have a map perhaps? I just need to know where to go to connect to the network"

"The network?" Ruby thought to herself. Had this person been living under a rock? How did they not know about the fall of Beacon?.
Ruby was trying to think of something to say when she heard Ren shout.
"Look out!" He yelled aiming his Stormflower towards the forest.

Carolina heard the boy shout and turned just in time to see the white snarling head of the beast she had just escaped collide with her at tremendous speed.
The teal spartan was sent flying through the air her armours internal systems warning her that her shields had been dropped to zero.
She collided with a tree at the edge of the trail with a sickening crack and slumped to the ground limp and unmoving.
The Alpha Beowolf turned from its now incapacitated prey sensing other creatures nearby to kill, it launched itself towards the group of students swinging its claws and biting at them as it charged.

A short time later the four students were gathered around the blue armoured stranger.
"Do you think she's okay" Ren asked looking over Jaune's shoulder
"I don't know" the white armoured teen responded "my scroll can't get a proper reading through her armour"
"Well we can't just leave her there" Ruby called over her shoulder while checking the melting corpse of the Beowolf "why don't you try removing her armour if you can't get a reading through it?"
"Tried that already" Jaune replied "her helmets sealed to her armour somehow, no way I can get it off here and I wouldn't even know where to start with the rest of it"
"Is she even still alive?" Nora yelled from the edge of the trail "I mean she left one hell of a dent in this tree" she said looking at the flattened oak in front of her.
"I think so" Jaune said putting his scroll back into his pocket "it looks like she's still breathing and her pulse is stable"

"Do you think she's okay?" Carolina had lost count of how many time she'd heard those words. From her fellow freelancers as they watched her train, from the medics and doctors when the AI fragments almost destroyed her mind, from the reds and blues when she almost got herself killed trying to beat Sharkface.
Carolinas mind slowly began to clear, piecing together the events that led to her current predicament.
She remembered Grif asking to test one of his Future cubes on her, her landing in this forest, the creature that attacked her and the... The children!
Carolina awoke with a start, she had to protect those children from the monster that attacked her.
"Hey whoa there" the white armoured boy said holding her down "careful now that was one hell of a hit you took, take things slow"
"The monster" Carolina wheezed "where is it?"
"Oh that thing" the young girl in the red dress said "we took care of that" she said gesturing to the smoking remains of the beast.
"You killed it?" Carolina said resting on her elbows. not believing a word she was hearing "you four, killed that thing?"
"Yea!" Replied the red haired girl "we do it all the time" "it's kind of our job" she said smiling happily.
Carolina struggled to her feet, her close encounter with the tree had definitely done some damage.
"Well" she winced "I guess I should thank you for saving me then" "I'd probably be monster food right now if you hadn't killed it" she said using a nearby tree to support herself "uh don't suppose I could travel with you for a while?" She said swallowing her pride "I'm not exactly fit to travel alone anymore"
"Sure you can" the white armoured boy said "we'd be happy to escort you to Mistral"
"Yea, there's probably someone there who can help you" the red haired girl chimed in
"It is always good to have another fighter in the group" the boy in green said
"Yea" the ginger haired girl agreed "but maybe try not to get smashed again"
"So" Carolina croaked still feeling the effects of her recent pummelling "what should I call you all?"
"Well, I'm Nora and this is my friend Ren" the ginger girl said gesturing to the boy in green stood next to her.
"Lie Ren at your service" the boy said bowing slowly
"My name is Jaune" the boy in white said "Jaune Arc"
"And I'm Ruby Rose" the red dressed girl said finally "and together were all team Ranger" she said happily.

"Team Ranger huh" Carolina said reaching up to undo the seals on her helmet.
"Well my name is Carolina church" she said lifting the helmet from her head "but let's just stick to Carolina for now..."