BOOM!

As she lied in the bottom of a crater, not knowing whether the steadily decreasing ringing in her ears was more a consequence of of the explosion she had gotten caught in - read, caused - or of the vigorous tongue-lashing she had gotten from the white-clad, white-haired girl she had exploded with, one Ruby Rose, 15 years of age, had only a single thought running through her mind.

'What a great first day at Beacon.'

"Wow, that was an impressive explosion!"

Ruby blinked owlishly before turning her head so she could directly face the source of the voice that interrupted her sarcastic, self-deprecating thoughts.

"It really brings back fond memories!"

Ruby wasn't stupid. Inexperienced, certainly. Naive? More than likely. However, she was not stupid, at least not stupid enough to not notice when someone was being sarcastic towards her, or mocking her.

As she stared at the blue-eyed blond young man standing at the edge of the crater and smiling softly, Ruby could say with 100% certainty that he was doing none of the two.

"It took me a while to learn to shake them off as easily as you do, though..." The blond scratched the back of his head sheepishly at that, as if remembering some sort of embarrassing memory, before he shook himself free from whichever memory he was reliving, his faraway gaze turning towards Ruby herself. "Sorry about that, I occasionally lose myself in my traumatic flashbac-I mean, in my fond memories. I'm Jaune, Jaune Arc! And you are..."

Ruby's response was to cough, exhaling the last bit of smoke from the explosion, something which caused Jaune to face palm as he mumbled to himself.

"Inside a crater! She's inside a crater, and instead of helping her, you start ranting her way! Gah, stop talking to yourself and help her!"

Ruby watched as Jaune crouched at the edge of the crater and held a hand out towards her, his other one scratching his cheek in a self-conscious way as he spoke.

"Should have helped you earlier, sorry!"

Ruby took his hand, allowing him to pull her out of the crater before patting herself free of any residual dirt or dust.

"Ahem."

She turned towards the source of the cleared throat, which was Jaune, before the two of them just stood there, awkwardly staring at one-another.

"Uh..."

"Ah..."

The two started speaking at the same time, only to stop, collapsing into another awkward silence.

Ruby steeled herself, pushing aside her own sense of awkwardness in order to try to at least have a decent conversation with the only person who took the time to help her, and that complimented her explosion-causing skills (?).

'Okay, Ruby, this is your time to shine! You may have already caused an explosion, but you're in equal footing in terms of having done awkward stuff, so you don't need to freak out! Just focus, take a deep breath, and introduce yourself like a regular person!'

"ROSE!"

'Ah, poop. Okay, we can still fix this!'

"NAME! ROSE! RUBY ROSE! MINE!"

Each word she said increased her internal cringe just a bit more.

"Hahaha!"

A massive blush streaked her face at the blond's laughter, a few tears gathering at the corners of her eyes, only for him to start waving his hands randomly in front of himself, his tone panicked as he spoke.

"Ah, sorry, I wasn't laughing at you! I mean, I was! No, I mean..."

Seeing that the girl, Ruby, was about to cry, Jaune decided to take some serious measures.

SMACK!

Ruby's tears faded in surprise the moment she witnessed Jaune smack himself in the face so hard that a few birds that had been perching nearby flew away in fear. Her embarrassment forgotten, Ruby was unable to hold back the shocked words that flew out of her mouth.

"Why in the Oum would you do that?"

"Well..." Jaune spoke while rubbing his reddened cheek with a wince, "It seemed like the best way to make sure you stuck around long enough for me to explain myself, rather than run away thinking I'm just a random jerk."

Not giving Ruby the time to remember her anger, Jaune pushed on.

"You see, the reason I was laughing is... Well, I'm... Not used to talking to people. While we were on the bullhead here, the only thing I could think of was 'act normal, don't mess up', but... The first thing I did was to go on an awkward rant. When you lost yourself with your words, I was really glad, because that means that I'm not really weird, and other people can act awkward as well! N-not that you were acting awkwardly! I mean-"

"Pfffffftttt... Hahahaha!"

Jaune felt his panic recede at the sight of Ruby laughing, a small smile making itself present on his lips as he watched the girl wipe a few tears - of laughter, this time - from the corners of her eyes, before she gave him a smile of her own, her tone sheepish as she spoke.

"Looking at it like that... It was pretty funny, I guess. And..." A mild blush appeared on her face. "I guess I am sorta, kinda, a teensy bit awkward, so..."

The two elapsed back into silence for a bit, before Ruby spoke up, not wanting things to fall back into an awkward silence.

"I'm Ruby. Ruby Rose."

The blond's smile widened lightly at that, before stretching into a cheesy grin, his hands balled and on each side of his waist and his armored chest puffed out as he spoke.

"Name's Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, the ladies love it!"

"...Do they?"

Ruby's genuine question caused Jaune to deflate like a punctured balloon, a metaphorical cloud of depression hanging over him as he answered.

"I have no idea."

Not wanting her first friend (?) in Beacon to be sad, Ruby searched for anything she could use to change the subject. A light bulb soon lit up above her head.

"So, I've got this!" She proceeded to pull her beloved partner/instrument of carnage from behind her. "Her name's Crescent Rose, and I built her myself from scratch!"

Jaune's eyes widened at the sight of a block of red metal unfolding into a scythe longer than he was tall, with quite a few seams and grooves that were the primary evidence of the fact that it was a firearm as well as a melee weapon, alongside the muzzle at the top of the shaft right above the blade, and the scope and magazine closer to the end of the scythe.

"So, what've you got?"

Ruby's enthusiasm was contagious, prompting Jaune to whip out his sword and sheathe, before allowing said sheathe to shift into a large white shield, with a pair of yellow crescents on it.

"This, is Crocea Mors!"

"Ooh! What does it do? Does it turn into a shotgun that shoots dust rounds? Does the Pommel have some sort of slot that allows you to insert dust crystals and fire off beams of elemental energy with each swing? Can you do the same with the shield, and make a shield that deals damage while blocking?"

"Even better!"

Ruby's eyes were all but shining at Jaune's words, causing her to hop in place out of sheer excitement.

"Tell me, what does it do?"

"It can cut stuff really well!"

"...That's it?"

Anyone else listening would have winced at the sheer disappointment Ruby directed towards Jaune and his weapons, but the blond didn't even notice, genuine happiness on his face as he spoke.

"Yeah, Crocea Mors can cut stuff really well! Isn't that awesome?"

"Yeah!" Ruby said with fake excitement, not really willing to bring down the mood of her first friend. "It's... Really cool, I guess? I mean, you can't go wrong with the classics, which is why they're called the classics in the first place."

"Uhm!" Jaune nodded decisively at that, completely unaware of the fact that Ruby's enthusiasm was fake as he kept gushing. "And look at this part, that is even cooler!"

He then collapsed the shield back into its sheathe for and slid it over the blade, wielding it as if it were a club.

"So, what do you think? Is Crocea Mors cool or what?"

"It's..." 'Okay Ruby, you don't want to hurt his feelings, so switch subjects!' "What're you even doing here?"

She cringed massively and visibly at that one, and how it could get interpreted. Jaune, however, seemed fully oblivious of te negative connotations of the question, his answer earnest and straightforward.

"I wanna help people!" Passion burned bright in Jaune's eyes as he spoke. "Between all the bad things that can happen, from crime to Grimm, life can be pretty tough. But I believe that if more people made an effort to stretch out a hand and help others, rather than just look down and 'stay in their lane', then we can all make a better world to live in!"

'Oh. Wow!'

For the first time ever, Ruby felt that someone got it. Someone understood the very same reason she had to become a huntress! A rueful thought went through the girl's mind at that.

'You don't sound very awkward right now, Jaune.'

"I mean..." Jaune scratched the back of his head sheepishly as he met Ruby's gaze with a somewhat uncertain one of his own. "It's not a weird thing to say, right?"

'There it is. Is it a bad thing that I feel better knowing that he's as awkward as I am?'

That question would go unanswered, however, as a chime rang throughout the entirety of the Beacon campus, prompting the two awkward teens to hurry as they tried to find the assembly where the headmaster would be delivering a speech.

After a speech that the overwhelming majority of students likely phased out, Ruby found herself being pulled by her sister Yang into a whirlwind of activity as they worked on unpacking their stuff, meaning that she was unable to meet up with her awkward first friend, nor was she able to make any new friends.

Soon enough night had fallen, prompting the beacon candidates to, under instruction of the Beacon administration, set up various sleeping bags in the very same auditorium they had heard the speech at.

"So, Rubes," Yang Xiao-Long, Ruby's violet-eyed, blonde-haired older sister spoke up. "Still searching for this mystery friend you made?"

"Yeah." The girl answered absent-mindedly as she craned her neck this way and the other, trying to find even a trace of the only person she had met so far that could match her awkwardness tit-for-tat.

Yang pouted lightly, mildly disappointed at the fact that Ruby hadn't reacted properly to her teasing, only for her focus on Ruby to sharpen when the younger girl's face spread into an open smile, her arms waving wildly in the air in a manner that she knew the girl herself would have normally found to be embarrassing in front of so many unknown people even as she called out loud.

"Jaune! Jaune, over here!"

Yang's eyes narrowed dangerously when this 'Jaune' person Ruby had been calling turned out to be a blond boy tall enough for his head to be visible even in the middle of a reasonably large crowd. The boy turned towards Ruby and smiled widely before he started making his way towards them, something that made her brows furrow dangerously...

"Hey Ruby, how's it going?"

Only for all of her animosity towards the blond to vanish entirely, replaced by a sense of extreme amusement the instant he became visible, revealing the fact that he was wearing a light blue onesie, with a pair of fluffy rabbit ears on each foot.

"Oh, Jaune..." Ruby found herself lost for words at the sight of her friend's nightwear, only for Yang to come to the rescue, filling the air before things could get awkward.

"So you're the famous Jaune? Ruby's been talking about you for hours, but I guess none of her descriptions of you really matched the real thing."

Yang ignored Ruby's open-mouthed stare of utter betrayal, focusing more on the blond that was seemingly oblivious to the fact that people around him were making fun of his pajamas, and deciding to tease him, just a little bit.

"Nice duds, by the way! They're very... Unique."

'Okay,' Yang thought. 'Mix the sarcastic tone with a cocky smirk, and...'

"Wow, thanks for the compliment!"

'...He completely misses the fact that he was being teased.'

Not privy to Yang's internal monologue, Jaune favored her with a wide smile as he spoke.

"Not only are they one-of-a-kind, they're also super comfortable! They're plenty warm, but they almost feel like I'm wearing nothing at all!"

Yang opened her mouth, but Ruby spoke before she could, trying to spare her definitely more awkward than her friend from Yang's teasing and her terribly painful puns and jokes.

"So, Jaune, what do you think of Beacon so far?"

The blond stopped for a minute and rubbed his chin, before answering.

"It's very... Striking, I guess? I mean, it's sort of got the same feel as Vale from back when we were embarking on the bullhead, but at the same time it's got this different feel to it... Some sort of air? I don't know how to explain it, other than to say the air sort of feels different. Heavier. What about you?"

"I think it's been cool so far! I mean, at least I made a friend, so I got that going on for me, which is nice!" Yang cleared her throat in a very obvious, not at all discrete manner, causing Ruby to blush as she spoke. "Ah, I knew I was forgetting something! Yang, you already know about Jaune! Jaune, this is my older sister, Yang! Feel free to ignore her if she makes one of her bad jokes."

"Rubes, you're embarrassing me in front of your handsome boy friend right here!"

"YANG!" The younger sister yelped with a blush on her face, prompting the older one to pull her into a hug as she spoke between snickers.

"Aww come on, Rubes, you know I'm just Yang-ing your chain!"

The silver-eyed younger sister groaned at the bad pun, lightly pushing her older sister off of her before focusing back on Jaune.

"So, uh, Jaune..."

"What's the story behind the 'jams, bunny boy?"

"Yang!"

"What?" The older sister spoke unashamedly and with a shrug. "You can't pretend you're not curious either."

"Oh, you wanna know the origin of my pajamas?"

"Less 'where it came from', more 'why you wear it'."

"Ah, that? Well, there was a time where I was starting to sort of not wear it, but my teacher told me: 'Jaune, every night that you spend out in the field as a warrior and huntsman may possibly be your last one! You never know when an enemy will try to slit your throat, so it's best that you do your best to enjoy your life while you can!'. When he said that, I sort of decided that if I was going to get killed in my sleep, then I'd at least make sure it was a comfortable sleep at least! Well, there's another reason, but I don't think you'd be interested in it."

Jaune's story, despite being told in a cheery and upbeat tone, was successful in cooling the enthusiasm and excitement of the huntsmen and huntress candidates in the room, getting even the most obtuse and absent-minded ones to think about the career they were aiming for further, its implications and ramifications.

Further away from the group, the bow of an Amber-eyed, kimono-clad girl twitched lightly, before she nodded in silent agreement to that sentiment from behind her book.

Unaware of the mood around, Jaune continued on.

"I didn't really get what he meant back then, so he decided to teach me by locking me in a cage with an Ursa in nothing but my sleepwear. I had to strangle it with my bedsheets." Everybody in the room, whether they were openly eavesdropping, or doing so discreetly, froze at that. Jaune, however, kept going. "I don't even know how he managed to move my bed without waking me up, or how he managed to keep an Ursa quiet as it was locked in a cage. Whenever I asked he just gave me these weird excuses. Anyways, that is one of the worst ways you'd ever want to wake up in on your birthday."

"...I call bullshit."

As soon as an indistinct voice said that, many others spoke up in agreement.

Jaune looked confused, especially at Yang's raised eyebrow and Ruby's weird smile.

'Uh? Is there something weird behind me?'

He turned around, his confusion increasing as he saw nothing which could have led to such a reaction, prompting him to just shrug it off as an oddity in his new friends.

He opened his mouth again, but the only thing that came out of it was a long yawn.

"Oh, man, I guess I'm more tired than I thought. I'm going to sleep. Night, Ruby. Night, Yang."

The sisters waved Jaune goodbye, before watching as he settled down in a sleeping bag still within view of them and fell asleep almost immediately, snoring lightly.

Another random voice called out loud.

"100 Lien on him failing initiation."

"That's pretty obvious!" "Sucker's bet!" "Might as well burn money!"

A series of exclamations in that general vein kept coming all over, causing Ruby to frown, upset.

"I'm going to bed. Night, Yang."

Without waiting for a response from her sister, Ruby immediately slipped into her sleeping bag.

Yang frowned, regretting having asked her question since it was what ultimately led to her sister's friend getting mocked, and her sister getting upset.

Soon enough, she too had slipped into her sleeping bag, deciding to push personal matters aside and focus on resting for the initiation.

-X-

The day had finally come! The Beacon hopefuls would be tackling the challenge that was initiation very soon, separating the strong from the weak, the leaders from the followers, the elite from the common, all the while assigning them partners of equivalent value!

Weiss knew what she was. She was strong, a leader, an elite, even amongst elites! That meant that her partner had to be someone capable of matching her. Amongst all of the other beacon hopefuls, Weiss knew of only one person that could be taken into consideration as her partner.

Pyrrha Nikos.

Top of her class in Sanctum, four time Mistral Regional Tournament winner, and all-around superstar known and loved for a mixture of her combat skills and intelligence, alongside a lack of arrogance that usually followed said achievements.

Weiss' plan for getting Pyrrha as her partner was going great, with the redheaded Mistrali having all but accepted partnering up with her, until she hit a stumbling block.

Well, she didn't actually hit a stumbling block. Rather, a stumbling block by the name of Jaune Arc had somehow fallen onto her would-be partner.

The blond had immediately disentangled himself from Pyrrha, his eyes wide as he spoke in a rushed, panicked tone.

"Oh my Oum I'm so sorry I didn't mean to fall on you I hope I didn't hurt you are you okay?"

The redhead smiled lightly at him, likely in an attempt at setting the boy at ease, but Weiss spoke up before she could.

"Are you out of your mind!? Do you know what you've done? What would you have done if you had hurt her? Do you even know who the person you knocked down is?"

The blond turned a blank gaze towards the white-haired girl.

"No Idea."

Weiss jerked back as if she had been slapped, her face one of shock mixed with outrage, while Pyrrha's cordial smile shifted into a look of interest.

Weiss managed to recover, though her tone was no less outraged as she spoke.

"You really don't know who that is?"

"Nope."

"B-B-W-She's the four time champion of the Mistral tournament! A celebrity known far and wide, admired for her skill, smarts, strength and beauty, held up as an example of success for all! She's so popular that she's in heavy demand by sponsors, since everyone wants to associate her face and image to their product!"

"...Wait a second..."

Jaune turned towards Pyrrha, a hand on his chin and his eyes narrowed as he took in every trace of her face, before he snapped his fingers, his face triumphant as if he had just solved a particularly difficult problem.

"I remember now!"

A look of exasperated triumph came over Weiss' face - somehow - while Pyrrha's smile became the slightest bit more plastic.

"Finally!" Weiss spoke arrogantly. "You finally understand just who it is you-"

"You used to be in cereal boxes, right? Pum... Pudkin Metes?"

Weiss started choking on nothing, her face making it seem as if she were having a stroke, while an amused, yet genuine smile came to Pyrrha's face as she answered.

"Pumpkin Pete's."

"Yeah, that's the one, I think! I used to eat it a lot when I was younger!"

"That's it?" Both Pyrrha and Jaune turned towards Weiss at her words, the first one amused and the second one worried about the weird look on her face, with the flaring nostrils and the throbbing vein on her forehead. "You don't even remember the brand of cereal she showed up on!?"

Jaune frowned at those words, slightly irritated at the fact that his ignorance was being constantly brought up.

"Hey, believe me when I say that I'd definitely remember a girl as pretty as Pyra-" "Pyrrha." "-Pyrrha, and I just noticed that I said that out loud so I'm just going to go before I embarrass myself further."

Having said that, Jaune walked out of the locker room with the little dignity he felt he had left after that entire ordeal, leaving behind a fuming Weiss and an amused and interested Pyrrha.

"I-w-t- Can you believe that he didn't know your name? He couldn't even pronounce it right without you correcting him!"

"I know, wasn't it great?"

"What was that?"

"Uh, nothing. Anyways, I think that the initiation is about to start, so we should go, probably?"

"Yes, of course, Pyrrha! Let's."

Weiss made her way out of the locker room while still grumbling about the blond's ignorance, unaware of the fact that Pyrrha breathed out 'Jaune', giddy at the prospect of being around someone that is completely ignorant of her achievements and image.

Soon enough, the entirety of the Beacon hopefuls were lined up at a cliff side, all of them standing on specially designated spots, as the headmaster of Beacon, Ozpin, came into view, a mug of steaming hot coffee in one hand, and his cane in the other.

He gave some sort of speech, something that Jaune had completely tuned out in favor of internally despairing over the fact that he had likely utterly humiliated himself in front of two pretty girls - even though one of them wasn't very nice, she was still undeniably pretty - basically cementing a reputation for himself that went against the one he was hoping for.

"...anding strategy."

"Wait, what's that about a landing straAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH-"

"Headmaster," Glynda Goodwitch, the vice-head of Beacon spoke up. "Are you sure that it was a good idea, to allow that young man to participate? He seemed utterly unprepared-"

"Glynda. It often occurs that others do not put their belief or trust in our success, yet that does not mean that we are incapable of reaching it. If that young man chose to to participate, it likely means that he believes himself capable of overcoming the challenges that the initiation may pose to him. Are we to take away the opportunity to do so from him?"

"...I see. We are to put our trust in the next generation."

"Correct. Plus, he already signed all of the waivers, so anything that happens during the initiation is no longer our responsibility."

Glynda snorted at that, smacking her riding crop against her opposite hand, while Ozpin turned his gaze towards a particular part of the forest, his impassive mien hiding the depth of his thoughts.

'Ruby Rose, a remarkable young lady with the silver eyes, and Jaune Arc, the missing Arc child... This generation seems quite interesting.'

He took a sip of his coffee, luxuriating in the bitter taste of the brew, all the while ignoring the growls, roars and screams of pain coming from the forest.

-X-

"-AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH."

Having gotten his surprise - and all of his screaming - out of his system, Jaune gave himself a moment to soar through the air in silence, planning out his landing strategy.

'Okay, so I can angle myself towards a tree, and-'

THWACK!

'-and I guess I'm getting carried by a spear, now.'

His altered flight trajectory was briefer than expected, and ended with him hanging by the hoodie from a high tree branch, an ursa major standing right below him, its red, malicious gaze fixated on him as if he were the last slice of pizza in the box.

'Oh, it's an Ursa.'

A sort of disc flew in at such a speed that it became as much as a blur, neatly severing the Ursa's head from its neck as if it had not met any sort of resistance, causing the Grimm to disintegrate into mote of dust.

After that happened, Jaune felt the spear that kept him suspended wiggling.

'Aww, that's gonna make a hole in my-'

THUMP!

'And now my butt hurts.'

Jauned rubbed his hurt behind as he squirmed in the bushes he had fallen into, stretched and then popped up out of the bushes-

"I guess we're partners, then!"

Only to meet the green-eyed gaze of the redhead he had talked to earlier.

"Huh? What do you mean partners?"

The girl frowned thoughtfully.

"Are you hurt? Did you hit your head somewhere? Can you see straight?"

"In order: Only my butt, yes but a long time ago, and yes. What's that got to do with partners though?"

"Were you not hearing? The headmaster said that we were to be partnered with the first person whose gaze we met after landing for the rest of our Beacon education."

"Huh... Sorry, I was distracted while the headmaster was speaking, thinking about how I embarrassed myself by calling you pretty. N-not that you're not! I mean, I'm not saying you're pretty! But you totally are!"

Pyrrha's response was to giggle, causing Jaune to groan while covering his face with his hands.

"We've just been partnered together and I've already managed to offend you in however many different ways. Sorry, Pietra."

Pyrrha's entire body shivered the moment Jaune said the wrong name, though her blush went unseen even as she spoke in as collected a tone as she could.

"It's Pyrrha, Jaune."

"Sorry. Look, I'd understand if you wanted to switch partners, we could just pretend our gazes never met-"

"NO! I mean," The redhead cleared her throat, before speaking in her usual tone of voice. "No, I find our partnership more than satisfactory, Jaune."

The two were interrupted by Weiss, who stepped over a bush and came in from behind Pyrrha, her gaze directly meeting Jaune's.

"Nope."

She then proceeded to do a 180 and returned to wherever it is she had come from, leaving behind a confused pair.

"So..." Jaune spoke. "Since you're fine with partnering together with me, I guess we should go out and... What was our goal again?"

Pyrrha chuckled lightly at her partner's silliness before elucidating him.

"We're supposed to find some sort of relic at a set of ruins, and take it back."

Hopping up to his feet with renewed energy and the intent to put his awkward and embarrassed moments behind him, Jaune placed a hand on his waist and pointed a finger forward.

"Onwards, towards destiny!"

He then took precise and measured steps in a direction.

"We came from over there."

He proceeded to turn 180 degrees and walk on.

-X-

"That... Is a deep cave."

"Indeed it is, Jaune."

"Do you think it might be the ruins we're supposed to go into, or at least the entrance towards them?"

"...I don't know, Jaune. I have a bad feeling about this..."

"Aww come on, Penny-" "Pyrrha." "-Pyrrha, what's the worst that could happen?"

Having said that, Jaune strode decisively into the cave, with Pyrrha staring at the entrance. He walked out five minutes later, his hands in his pockets.

"Was there any relic in there, Jaune?"

"No, the only thing in that cave was a deathstalker."

"I...See. Jaune, I want you to slowly walk over towards me."

"Mhm? Why?"

"Because I see ten red eyes lit up, and they're getting closer."

"Oh, so the deathstalker's active now, right?"

"Yes, yes it is."

"What do you wanna do about it?"

"...I think running would be the more prudent move to make at this moment."

Jaune shrugged, taking off on a run through the forest alongside Pyrrha, all the while a giant scorpion monster chased after them, knocking down trees on its way.

Despite the fact that it was knocking down trees on its path seemingly at ease, Pyrrha and Jaune somehow seemed to outpace and lose the deathstalker, reaching an area with pillars and other rock structures and building that had a certain 'old' feeling.

Already in the ruins were two teams, one of them composed by an energetic orange-haired girl and a cool and collected black-haired boy, with a magenta bang, with the boy leaning into a pillar next to a disintegrating Ursa corpse, while the girl danced around with something on her head, all the while she sang about queens and castles, or something of the sort.

The other duo was composed by a black-haired, amber-eyed girl in an all-black ensemble and with a bow on the top of her head, and Yang, Ruby's older sister. Yang also had something in her hand.

Jaune and Pyrrha looked at one-another, but before anything could be said, a figure wearing a gothic Lolita-styled dress with a red cloaked hood landed in the center of the ruins.

"Hey Rubes, did you just decide to... Drop by?"

Ruby groaned at Yang's pun, while the orange-haired girl chortled loudly. Her companion relaxed in place, not reacting at all to the pun as if it hadn't even reached his ears, while the monochrome-clad girl's bow twitched.

"Hey," Yang said with a frown, "Where's your partner?"

"Oh, Weiss? She's, uh... Right behind me?"

"YOU ABANDONED ME!"

Everybody looked up at that shout, watching a white-clad girl as she hung onto a Nevermore's chest for dear life.

"I told you to jump!" Ruby yelled back in response.

Acting as if there wasn't someone just hanging from a Nevermore above them, the orange-haired girl spoke up in an excited tone.

"Hello, everyone! I'm Nora Valkyrie, and I'm the queen of the castle! The green-clad hunk is Renny, my concubine/haremette/love slave, so keep your hands off of him or I'll break your legs! So, what about you guys?"

Everyone goggled incredulously at Nora, before Yang, another extremely brazen individual of the group, took the initiative.

"I'm Yang Xiao-Long, Ruby's older sister. I have no intention of doing funny stuff with or to your Renny-" "My name is Ren." "-so I'd say I'm pretty safe from getting any broken legs. Anyway, touch my hair and die."

She then looked towards her partner, who sighed before speaking up.

"Blake Belladonna. I like high places, reading, peace and quiet, and..." She then looked up towards the Nevermore. "She's gonna fall."

"I'm Lie Ren."

Everybody stared at Ren, waiting for him to say anything else, only for him to completely subvert their expectations, though no-one could say whether that was a good or a bad thing. If one were to ask Blake, she'd say that a subversion of the expectations would only work if it the base content was of high enough innate quality.

They all turned towards the last remaining group, prompting Jaune to speak up.

"I'm Jaune, Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, the ladies love it. I'm partnered with Priscilla Neko."

Pyrrha had a full-body shudder at Jaune's last words, though she managed to hide her blush adequately well, before speaking up.

"My name is Pyrrha Nikos. I fight using a shield and a sword/javelin/rifle hybrid. My partner is Jaune."

They soon turned towards Ruby, who blushed at all the attention being heaped onto her. Despite that, she spoke up.

"I-I'm Ruby, Ruby Rose. I like weapons, Yang, dad, my uncle Qrow, our dog Zwei, and," She then turned towards Blake. "She's not gonna fall."

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

Looking down from the white-clad girl towards Ruby, Blake deadpanned.

"She's falling."

"Pfft." Ruby waved a hand at that. "She'll be fine."

Luckily, Ruby's prediction was correct, as Weiss, through the use of some form of white glyphs that manifested in thin air, succeeded in slowing herself down enough to not end up as a pancake the moment she hit the ground.

After landing, Weiss took a moment to dust off her dress, before rounding on Ruby.

"YOU ABANDONED ME!"

"I told you to jump after me!"

"Girls, as much as I'd like to keep hearing this riveting conversation," Ren deadpanned, "I have to point out the fact that we have a Nevermore still flying over our heads, ready to swoop down towards us at any moment-"

PFFT PFFT PFFT

"-and it seems that it just fired quite a few of its quills at us, so I'd advise you to dodge."

After Ren said that, they all dodged the giant, dangerous feathers, before Blake too spoke up, a finger pointing towards a bridge that connected to the ruins.

"I think we have another problem, people."

They all turned towards the direction Blake was pointing at, only to witness a Nevermore crossing a rope bridge with a level of coordination that would be unexpected of an oversized arthropod in a swaying, relatively undersized bridge.

A decisive look coming across her face, Ruby spoke up.

"Weiss, Yang, Yang's partner-" "Blake." "-Blake, I have a plan to deal with the Nevermore. Are you willing to follow me with it?"

Yang rubbed her chin, before responding.

"Sure, why not? It's not like you can die twice or something. What do you say, Blake?"

The girl shrugged.

"Sure, why not?"

"Weiss," Ruby directed towards her partner, "Will you work with us?"

The girl picked up one of the chess piece-shaped relics, before turning towards the other three girls and letting out a put-upon sigh.

"Sure, let's go together."

Having said that, the four girls relocated to an area more conducive to achieving Ruby's plan, leaving behind Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha and Ren at the ruins, with a Deathstalker making its way towards them.

Pyrrha discreetly wiggle her finger, causing one of the relics to slip into one of Jaune's pockets without the others noticing, before speaking.

"So, I guess we deal with the Deathstalker?"

She got nods from Ren and Nora, before turning towards Jaune, who stared at her in confusion.

"Jaune?"

"Pyrrha," The girl felt a whole different level of chill down her spine when Jaune finally got her name right, "didn't you say we should run from the Deathstalker?"

"Well, yes, I did, but-"

"-And now you're saying that we're supposed to beat it?"

"Jaune, I know this may look difficult, and scary, but if we work together and trust in each other, we can-"

"If you wanted the Deathstalker beat, then why didn't you just say it earlier?"

Nora and Ren turned their focus towards Jaune as he said those words, watching him as he walked towards the Deathstalker at a relaxed pace, all the while rolling his right shoulder.

"Jaune?" Pyrrha said in a worried tone, already brandishing her weapons.

"Don't worry Pyrrha, I'll take care of this in a moment."

The Deathstalker finally finished crossing over the rope bridge, giving it solid ground to make use of its full speed on, which it did, eating up ground faster than it had done before while chasing after Jaune and Pyrrha, headed straight towards Jaune, who stood in front of Nora, Pyrrha and Ren, and the recently returned Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang, cracking his neck and shaking his shoulders loose.

The Deathstalker arrived at the spot in front of Jaune, its stinger firing off towards the blond much too fast for any of the others to do more than watch...

"Man, I forgot how slow these guys' stingers were."

Wide-eyed and open-mouthed as Jaune, their generally incompetent-looking and sounding peer, stopped the Deathstalker's stinger dead-on using only a single hand.

The Deathstalker tried its best to pierce through Jaune by digging its legs into the ground and pushing with its stinger. Seeing as that got no success, the Grimm then tried to pull.

Failing at that as well, it decided to snap Jaune in half with its pincers, only to be as surprised as the stupefied teens watching the scene as Jaune single-handedly heaved the Deathstalker up, before slamming it back down on the ground, stunning it.

"Alright, now that I'm all warmed up-" Yang's incredulous "That was a warm-up!?" went unheard by Jaune, "-I guess it's time to take care of you."

The blond young man then proceeded to walk up to the downed Deathstalker, cock his arm back...

BOOM!

And deliver a punch that completely obliterated the Grimm, as well as at least a few hundred meters of forest behind it, leaving a large trench behind on the ground.

Crossing his arms and smiling at a job well done, Jauned turned towards the others, ready to say something nice...

"Hey, what's wrong? Why are you guy staring at me like that?"

Only to be met with a series of blank stares from the others. Well, except for Pyrrha, whose gaze made him feel like a tiny rabbit being stared at by a Lion, and... Was that drool?

"So, uh..." Jaune started, wanting to overcome the awkwardness as soon as possible, "I just have to get a relic and we can leave, right?"

"N-no," Pyrrha stuttered lightly, her arm wiping across her mouth and a red hue on her face, "We can just go."

Jaune did his best to shrug off the awkward air that hung around the weirdly silent group, even as they left the forest, followed Ozpin's instructions and stood on some sort of platform.

"...will be Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao-Long, making up team RWBY under leadership of one Ruby Rose."

The girl was still despondent, a thousand yard stare on her face even as the watching audience of professors, older students and other teams clapped at the announcement. Seemingly uncaring of the girl's blue screen, Ozpin took a sip of his coffee before continuing.

"And last, but most certainly not least, composed by Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos and Lie Ren, we will have team JNPR, led by young mister Arc, and acting as the sister team of team RWBY. I know that no other teams got a sister team, but I decided that these two get them. Deal with it, and good day."

As Ozpin walked away, Blake asked the question that the others were asking themselves for a while now.

"Do you think his Ursa story may be true?"

-Chapter End-