The prompt for this was "Cinder, Mercury, Emerald, and Adam as if they were a simple first year Beacon team alongside RWBY and JNPR.
Cinder broke through the trees at top speed and came out into a large clearing. Up ahead was the gorge that divided the Emerald Forest from the cliff that Beacon sat upon. A stone bridge spanned the chasm and several towers rose from it. Her objective was just ahead!
But between her and the cliff, a battle raged between eight of her fellow classmates and two of the largest Grimm that Cinder had ever seen. The Death Stalker was the size of a house, and the Nevermore's feathers were bigger than a person. Still, her peers seemed to be holding their own, even the less-than-impressive blond boy who had hit on her earlier.
Taking only a second to notice all of this, Cinder turned back to the trees she had come from. Her new partner, Adam, was close behind her with Emerald and Mercury not far off. If the chess pieces were anything to go by, the constantly bickering pair would be the other two members of their team. Cinder didn't know any of them, but they seemed capable enough.
Adam in particular impressed her, having torn through several Beowolves with speed that even she would have trouble matching. She believed that he would make a fine partner for the next four years, though they weren't exactly in sync with each other yet. While fighting some Grimm, the Faunus had stepped in the way of one of her blasts of fire. But even then he proved himself, somehow absorbing the flames with his sword.
Her musings were interrupted by their pursuer crashing out of the forest and rearing up over the four teens. Another contender for the largest Grimm Cinder had ever seen, the King Taijitu's mouth was large enough to swallow a person whole. Its black head had apparently been lost at some point in the past, but the white head had only grown stronger for it. Its scales were armored to the point that gunshots from Adam, Emerald, and Mercury's weapons had all been ineffective. Even Cinder's Dust-imbued arrows had done little more than annoy the creature.
Cinder stared up at the creature, assessing her situation. If they tried to retreat any farther, they'd run right into the Death Stalker. However, the team was together now, and they had room to maneuver. When the four of them brought their considerable skills to bear, the Grimm would surely be defeated quickly.
This belief was challenged when the King Taijitu struck. Its head snapped towards Mercury like a bolt of lightning. Cinder raised her bow, knowing she'd be too slow to help him.
However, the boy proved capable of saving himself. He contorted his body out of the way of the strike and kicked at the head as it passed: a perfectly executed reversal.
It had no effect. The Grimm was orders of magnitude too large to be knocked away by Mercury's kick. Instead the gray-haired boy was thrown away from it by the force of his own counter and landed in a heap.
Emerald turned and sprayed the creature's face with bullets. The serpentine Grimm turned on her. Emerald squinted her eyes in focus, but then widened them when the King Taijitu lunged at her. She barely managed to avoid being swallowed, instead merely taking a hit to her Aura and being knocked on her back.
Cinder rushed over to the girl, distracting the Grimm with an explosive arrow in its mouth. As the creature reared back, she turned to Emerald.
"What was that?"
"It doesn't work on Grimm!" cried Emerald, panic in her voice.
Her Semblance doesn't work on Grimm?
She DIDN'T KNOW her Semblance doesn't work on Grimm?
How could that be? Like Adam, Mercury, and Cinder herself, Emerald had already proven herself capable of fighting through lesser Grimm with ease back in the Emerald Forest. Cinder supposed that the girl hadn't needed her Semblance, whatever it was, earlier, but never before? Surely this King Taijitu wasn't the first Grimm she had ever been truly threatened by.
Then a thought came to Cinder's mind. It seemed strange, but it could explain not only Emerald's failure to affect the King Taijitu, but Adam and Mercury's fighting styles as well. It was obvious to anyone watching that all three had skill, but Cinder was beginning to suspect that they were relatively inexperienced against the creatures of Grimm. They were trained to fight humans.
If that were true, then Cinder would have to take charge. She was the only one who understood the difference between fighting people with Aura and monsters without it.
The raven-haired girl looked back at where Emerald was picking herself up. She spoke quickly but calmly.
"Aim for its eyes and mouth. That's the only way your weapon will hurt it. Try to keep it corralled."
No sooner had Emerald nodded in acknowledgment then Cinder was rushing over to where Mercury and Adam were trying to hold out against the King Taijitu's lunging bites. Mercury dodged away from the creature after failing once again to redirect it.
"Mercury!" she yelled to him. "An ordinary reversal won't work against something that size, you'd need more force! Try using the guns in your boots!"
Mercury nodded to her, and the next time the snake struck at him he leapt over its bite, firing his boots into the back of its head. The Grimm was knocked downwards and crashed into the ground. Even as it tried to rise, a barrage from Emerald peppered its eyes forcing it to recoil away from the four teens.
Now Cinder turned to Adam. "Your sword can absorb energy?"
"Yeah," he confirmed. "And then unleash it in one attack."
"Then absorb this!" Cinder yelled as she raised her hand and let loose a stream of fire. Adam immediately raised his sword, keeping it half-hidden in the scabbard, and the fire was pulled into the blade. Cinder poured as much power as she could into her partner, knowing that he would need every bit of it to strike down the monster facing them.
The fire stopped only when Cinder was finally spent. Adam sheathed his blade, and his partner noticed that the red details on his mask and clothing were glowing.
"Now," she called to Emerald and Mercury. "Bring it to us!"
Emerald fired at the King Taijitu's face, turning it towards Mercury. It lunged at the boy, but he stepped out of the way at the last second. At the same time, he delivered a full power kick ending with a gunshot at the creature's head. Its charge was redirected towards Adam, who was standing ready. The Grimm opened its mouth for a colossal bite, and the Faunus drew his blade.
The whole world seemed to turn red for a moment. The only things that could be seen were Adam and his opponent, now his prey. The King Taijitu dissolved before Adam's cut like dust blown away by the wind.
When the world returned to normal, Cinder smiled. They had won, and a quick glance told her that her classmates had defeated their opponents as well. She had learned that her teammates had their limitations, but she believed that with her help they would be able to overcome those limitations and grow into fine Hunters.
"Cinder Fall, Emerald Sustrai, Mercury Black, Adam Taurus, the four of you retrieved the black queen pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team Cement, led by Cinder Fall."
This one did not immediately inspire me. I thought about doing something that focused on Adam and Blake, but nothing great came to mind. Then I thought about trying to write Cinder's interactions with RWBY and JNPR if she were an ordinary, albeit manipulative, student, but again I didn't have any ideas for particular scenes.
The one thing that did get me thinking was the idea that these four probably had more experience than the rest of the student body (aside from Pyrrha) combined ... against people. The difference between fighting Grimm and fighting humans is never really brought up in the show, but it's obviously significant, and you can even see some characters having more trouble against one than the other. Ruby can rip through hordes of Grimm like a hot scythe through butter, but the only time she's had that kind of success against humans was with Torchwick's nameless goons. So I decided to focus on the other side of the coin.
Thanks for reading!