Before anything else, I own nothing but the original characters, and content therein related to them. RWBY is owned by RT, and any mentioned creator's work belongs to them, and them alone. Rest in peace Monty, your vision lives on in us all.

CHAPTER 4

Wake up, shower, brush teeth, pack bags, breakfast, go to the lockers to get dressed and ready for classes, or in today's case initiation. All in all, not that different from any other school day Clayton could think of. "You two seem to be in a good mood." Yang said teasingly, having heard the two run off to the men's showers the night prior. Clayton and Ruby pulled their weapons out of the assigned lockers they'd been given.

"Of course we're in a good mood, we're forming teams today." Ruby said with a smile.

"Are you sure it had nothing to do with what you two did after everyone else was asleep, because it's not that hard to miss you leaving the room when you're 5 feet away." Yang said, now in a deadpan that her sister hadn't taken the initial jab.

Ruby turned a furious shade of red. "I mean we left the room at least…" Clayton muttered, rubbing his neck.

"You were supposed to be asleep too… Anyways, Clayton and I have a foolproof plan to make sure we end up on a team together and with you my dearest sister of course." Ruby said.

"That still leaves room for one more person." Yang pointed out.

"Oh who cares who they are, so long as it's not Weiss." Clayton said with an eyeroll.

Weiss was stunned. Right next to her stood Pyrrha Nikos, the four time Mistral tournament champion, daughter of the retired Leonidas "King of the Ring" Nikos, intelligent, strong, perfectly suited to be her partner… And then there was the bear faunus from the airship ride to Vale. He was covering his ears up with a… Blue metal pot helmet that he'd taken out of his bag… Weird choice of headwear, but she still recognized him, how could anyone forget him, he was massive. Part disturbed, and part curious, she turned to Pyrrha and asked her who she'd planned on partnering with, only for the giant to chuckle at her. "What's so funny?" She asked, as the bear faunus put on a thin blue field coat, and a kit caring vest.

"You think that teams are going to be something we choose. That's funny." He said, slinging a backpack full of ammo over his shoulder, before attaching loose belts of linked cartridges to his vest.

"Well, I would assume that the formation of teams wouldn't be as simple as picking names out of a hat." Weiss said, only for the bear to smirk.

"That's what they did at Prometheus academy." Siniy commented, as Jaune looked over at Pyrrha.

"Drawing lots?" The blond boy asked.

"If that's how teams are going to be selected, than at least people with sub par fighting skill have an oppourtunity to learn from their partners or teamates." Pyrrha said, looking at Jaune, who oppened his locker to retrieve a very basic sword and shield.

"Pfft, yeah right, like I'd get put on a team with people like you guys." Jaune said, already not optomistic of his chances.

"Who knows... Maybe fate has other plans. I'm Pyrrha Nikos." The spartan said, holding a hand out to Jaune. The blond hesetated, before shaking her hand politly.

"Jaune, Jaune Arc... Where have I heard your name before?" Jaune asked. Pyrrha just smirked, as it seemed Jaune didn't really know who she was.

Bacon cliff was lined with the many potential students of Beacon Academy. Each individual dressed in their combat attire, and ready for whatever might be thrown at them. Clayton had on his white knee shorts, held up by a red cloth belt, silver buttoned white shirt, brass buttoned dark red reversible tailcoat, colored a neutral blue on the inside, the cuffs and edges of the breast rolled to expose the blue, along with a white leather belt and bandolier of shotgun shells. With a smile, he plopped a tricorn atop his dark black undercut, adjusted the falcon feather pinned to the black headwear, and cocked his shotgun.

Pale, spat the last of his dip into the grass in front of his assigned stone pad, and wiped what lingered in his lip against his pant leg. His outfit was much the same as he'd been wearing for the past 2 years. Black riding boots, grey pants held up by black suspenders and a white shirt faded and stained so bad it'd turned some shade of ash, a leather waistcoat halfway between mud brown and off grey and a once white thigh coat dyed grey hung around his shoulders, only to be worn properly within a minute. Placing the dirty white hat on top of his long mess of brown hair, Pale checked his belt for any missing rifle rounds, or revolver cylinders. Satisfied, he pulled Pride of the East off his shoulder, and the bayonet off his belt, then combined the two.

Siniy strapped his blue steel helmet tighter to his head, hiding his short white hair and bear ears. His blue coat and kit vest were buttoned and zipped up, and the black tank top he had on underneath was tucked into his navy blue field pants, they themselves tucked into his brown leather laced and buckled jump boots, the accompanying white leg wraps keeping the pants tight to his calves. Repositioning the linked belts of ammo, Siniy prepared for the fight ahead. With a deep breath, he hefted Two Theaters up into a low ready, and waited.

Halcyone triple checked the functionality of her machete rifle, and then nodded in satisfaction. The extra money she'd made before coming to Beacon through less than legal means revolving around courier work, had been spent on updating her wardrobe. She'd kept her black leather jacket, modifying it slightly to incorporate extra padding on the right arm, where the sleeve had been ripped off at the bicep some years ago. A new pair of thick tear resistant black pants and a leather waist belt with a thigh strapped holster for her rifle when compacted were what cost most of the money. Her golden yellow undershirt was still in tatters, the boots she wore were mismatched, and the old janky brass left leg brace/knee pad had seen better days since she first dawned it after getting her shrapnel injuries, but that didn't matter. She'd gotten a belt to hold an assortment of grenades, and a new golden thread shemagh. Scratching the short blond hair on top of her head, and drawing her amber lensed goggles down over her chocolate brown eyes, Halcyone felt as ready as she'd ever be.

The stated objectives were simple: land, find a partner, get a relic, kill everything, and leave. To most this was an easy task, but to others the matter of how you found a partner was reality shattering. Eye contact wasn't much of a metric of who'd work well together now was it? Ruby and Clayton looked at each other. There was now a chance they wouldn't be on the same team, and that was nearly an unbearable thought for the two. Yang had her own reservations, the possibility of being separated from her sister and de facto best friend was not something she'd looked forward to, worse if either of them ran into Weiss.

Pale groaned at the thought. Any number of the animals attending beacon, and he might get stuck with them. Just his luck. Still, at least there was the Schnee and the gang of useful idiots he could run into.

Siniy more or less was unperturbed by the thought of being paired with random people. Outside of Pyrrha being an obvious top pick for a partner if he could choose one, he didn't see anyone else being problematic, and wouldn't complain about who he'd get… Unless it was the Schnee… Then he'd complain… But he'd still work with her.

Halcyone could care more about a partner. She'd been running untaxed dust across borders solo for so long the thought of being paired with someone was novel to her. Still, it might be fun. So long as she didn't have to bunk with that racist kid in grey, or the Schnee.

Now there was the question of how exactly to land?