The next morning came and the first thing one student would see upon waking up is a girl with short orange hair, bright green eyes and a generally bubbly disposition. "GOOD MORNING!" she excitedly exclaimed as the student she was talking to in question had long black hair, pink eyes and had a seemingly more composed demeanor about himself.
"It's Morning, it's Morning, it's Morning ITS MORNING!" the hyperactive girl exclaimed while going around the boy whom was merely going about his morning routine which included brushing his teeth, eating breakfast and doing weapon maintenance.
"We've been together for so long! But not together together!" the girl laughed.
"Oh so do you think we'll be on the same team together?! I hope we will! I hear the teams are chosen during initiation!" the girl explained in excitement. "We should have a special call to ensure we become teammates! What if... We made sloth noises?!"
"Nora." the boy interjected. "I don't think sloths make a lot of noise."
"Exactly, Ren! That's why it's perfect! We'll be on the same team together! But not 'Together Together'." Nora laughed while following behind Ren.
Jaune panicked while fumbling around the halls. "Oh what am I gonna do?! I don't know which locker has my stuff in it?!" he panicked before stumbling into another student. "Oh sorry!" he apologized to the imposing male before him. He had brown hair and looked pretty well built for someone that was a first year.
"Watch where you're going." he threatened.
"S-Sorry!" Jaune apologized, stumbling backwards, accidentally bumping into Alix whom was just about to open his locker.
"Seriously dude?" Alix groaned and stood himself up before Jaune got himself up off the ground.
"Finally I can show them what I can do!" Ruby took her weapon out of her locker eagerly.
"Someone's eager to get into the field." Yang smiled. "I'm sure you'll make plenty of friends!"
"Ugh, sis I just wanna fight monsters I don't need friends." Ruby rolled her eyes.
"Well you're gonna wind up on a team with someone so you better hope you find someone who you can get along with." Yang chuckled.
"Well why don't I just be on your team?" the younger sister stated.
"Um... How about no? you can try being on someone else's team? Maybe Jaune's team?" Yang offered.
"Yang Xiao Long, are you telling me that you don't want to be on my team?!" Ruby gasped, pretending to be offended.
"Well I mean, I'm not, but like it could be a better growing experience for you to not be around your big sister 24/7 ya know?" Ruby grumbled in annoyance.
Down the hall Weiss was talking with a red haired girl, she seemed to be built like an athlete at that.
"So Pyrrha, are you looking for any potential members of your team?" Weiss asked eagerly.
"None as far as I'm aware. Also I believe we're not getting much a say in team selection." she explained.
It was then that Jaune, whom had the locker next to Pyrrha's closed his locker and interjected. "Well, how about you be on my team, Snow Angel?" he winked.
Weiss scoffed. "As if I'd ever be on a team with you!" she turned away in disgust.
"I wouldn't mind being in your team!" Pyrrha smiled in a friendly tone.
"Oh? And who might you be?" Jaune asked.
"You mean you don't know me?" Pyrrha was genuinely surprised she wasn't recognized at all.
"You really don't know who she is?!" Weiss interjected now. "Pyrrha Nikos, a young and upcoming prodigy? She won over 4 tournaments in Mistral and made a name for herself as a public figure!" Weiss stomped her foot down.
"Um... Does not ring much of a bell to me." Jaune shook his head. "There's a lot of tournaments in Anima and I don't really watch them..."
"She's on the front of every Pumpkin Pete's Cereal box you dunce!" she stomped her foot on the ground.
"Wait... That's you?!" Jaune finally put two and two together. "They only do that sort of thing for mascots and athletes!"
"Yeah, it's a shame the cereal isn't that good for you." Pyrrha shook her head.
"Well the offer to join my team still stands." he held his hand out.
"Well I for one don't encourage this type of behavior." Weiss stated.
"I'd love to!" Pyrrha smiled to his offer, seemingly playing along with him.
"Are you kidding me?! You shouldn't be encouraging him!"
"Oh stop it..." Jaune blushed and looked away.
"Seriously stop." Weiss's eye twitched before a javelin fly through the air suddenly.
"SORRY!" Pyrrha apologized.
"Would all students please report to Beacon Cliff for Initiation." Glynda's voice beamed through the speakers in the hall.
"Ow..." Jaune groaned, trying to get the javelin out of his hood. "I don't get it? Dad says all women look for is confidence..."
"Snow angel probably wasn't a good start." Yang snickered.
"Yeah buddy, you know there's more to it than that." Alix added as he walked ahead of the two sisters while Pyrrha took the Javelin from where it was stuck and Jaune was able to get up.
Everyone now stood at Beacon cliff, which stood tall, overlooking the Emerald Forest.
"Step onto the platforms." Ozpin instructed as all the students, a few reluctant, stepped onto the platform that had Beacon's logo.
"Today you will be tested for skill. You will be thrown into a forest with an objective. Now I can assure you that there are no Grimm out in these woods as we had several Huntsmen clear them out just for this. There will however still be obstacles around the forest such as traps left around from long ago and normal wildlife. It is up to you to find the temple where the relics will be held. Make no mistake, there is a viable chance for you to die in these woods. But as you all have signed the agreement that comes with your Beacon Scholarship... We are not accountable for any injuries that may incur during this initiation. We trust that you've trained enough, took the entrance exam and are prepared for what this work entails."
Ruby just rolled her eyes a little.
"Now then, to end one final misconception. You will be paired with a partner here." Ozpin started.
Ruby's eyes went wide. "W-What?!"
"The first person you make eye contact with upon landing will be your allotted partner for the next four years of your time at Beacon. And don't think you can cheat the system by picking someone else. We have ways of knowing." Ozpin sipped his coffee.
"WHAT?!" Ruby didn't want to believe this at all.
"I told you!" Nora chuckled to Ren.
"Now that we are done with your briefing, it is time to start. We trust that you are all prepared with your landing strategies."
"Landing what now?" Jaune was confused.
"You will be falling." Ozpin explained.
"Oh... Uh..." Jaune saw a few students start to get launched from their platforms. "Are we gonna get a parachute?"
"No, you have to use your own methods." Ozpin stated.
Yang smirked to her sister before turning to Alix and putting on a pair of aviators before she was launched off the cliff.
"Showoff." Alix rolled his eyes before getting launched as well.
Ruby smirked to Jaune and was launched as well now.
"W-What do you mean? Professor Ozpin what's a landing Strategeeeeeeeeeee-!" Jaune was launched from the cliff.
Ozpin smirked with as smug look of satisfaction that would only scream 'Damn, I love this job sometimes' before he took a sip from his mug.
A small bird flew over the Emerald forest before a red blur suddenly hit it. "BIRDIE NO!" Ruby exclaimed before transforming her weapon into it's sniper form and firing shots off, downward in an attempt to slow her momentum. She eventually transformed her weapon into it's scythe form and hooked it onto a large tree branch that she was able to spin around.
Weiss on the other hand was gracefully landing on glyphs and moving from glyph to glyph before descending into the forest, near where she assumed was the temple. The roof of the forest made it hard to see anything below it, likely on purpose so students like her couldn't aim for the temple right away.
Yang laughed and cheered while launching herself through the air, using her gauntlets. When suddenly Alix breezed past her, yawning a little at her, while riding on his daggers in their combined form like they were a skateboard, using Wind dust to keep his speed up. She glared a little and then flung herself even further ahead while Alix let up on his dust usage as he still needed some for what was to come and started to slow himself down, landing quite a ways back from where Yang landed, sliding into the ground on his daggers before hopping off them, kicking them up into the air which separated them and then catching them both, now walking forward.
Yang landed on the ground with a roll. "Nailed it!" she laughed before starting to look around, wondering if she maybe outran Alix.
Jaune screamed, flailing around before a Javelin suddenly hit him out of the air and impaled his hoodie on a tree. "Thank you!" he exclaimed.
Pyrrha on the other hand had dove through several trees, landing onto a branch and then aiming her javelin at the falling Jaune. She threw it right at him and hit her mark. "SORRY!" she called out.
Ruby landed and looked around before frantically sprinting forward. "Gotta find Yang, gotta find Yang!" she panicked now.
"Okay, okay Ruby. Think about your backups. Well there's always Jaune, he's nice. But I don't think he'd fare that good in a fight... What about Alix?! He knows you and your sister! Oh but he'll patronize me too much like Yang does, and it's even worse because he's a boy." Ruby grumbled internally at the thought. "Blake maybe? Nah... I doubt I'd be able to hold a chat with her. Who else have I met..." it was then that Ruby suddenly found her answer and not a moment too soon as a feral wolf leaped at Weiss from behind just as she had stabbed through one of them with Myrtenaster. Ruby fired a shot at it and the two made eye contact while the wolf dropped to the ground.
Weiss scoffed at Ruby and turned away, walking off. "You're not even gonna thank me?!" Ruby stomped her foot down. "We're supposed to be partners!" she followed her.
Weiss looked up and saw Jaune in the tree.
"Oh! Hey! Help me out here!" Jaune held his hand out towards her.
"..." Weiss turned away and grabbed Ruby by the hood. "By no means does this make us friends."
"You came back!" Ruby exclaimed happily as she was dragged off.
As the two left Pyrrha walked up and looked up at Jaune, crossing her arms with a smirk. "Need a hand?" she asked.
Alix walked for what felt like forever. "Yang?!" he called out, hoping to find her, but had no such luck. "Dammit. i shouldn't have egged her on. Now what am I gonna do?"
It was then that he heard the roar of a vicious animal in the distance. He sprinted forward and saw an unexpected sight. A girl hanging by her foot from a tree. Her hair was red, her eyes a deep yellow and her skin was fairly pale. It was hard to tell because the fact she was upside down. But her hair was done up in a short ponytail. She wore a bulky red turtleneck jacket along with a short black skirt that was worn over a pair of black shorts. She seemed to be stuck to the tree by her foot, Her boot notably had a blade coming out of it that Alix could only assume was a weapon.
Without a moment's hesitation Alix was up at the tree and offered a hand.
She took his hand and corrected herself. "I could have landed myself neater." the girl groaned, looking down and noticing that the large feral badger bear she had attracted was growling.
"You got a name?" Alix asked her.
"Erika." she stated.
"I'm Alix." he smiled to her before the two then leaped off the tree and at the badger bear.
Back with Ruby and Weiss the two didn't seem to be hitting things off too well. "i know we didn't get along at first." Ruby frowned. "But I can assure you, I'm a totally different person out in the field!" she zipped around her.
"I can hardly tell the difference." Weiss rolled her eyes. "Look, you're not exactly speeding this up."
"You want me to go fast?! I can go fast!" Ruby vanished in a blur of rose petals.
"You might be fast, but you're still excelling at wasting time!" she sighed as she continued through, her rapier still in hand, not noticing the shadow looming behind her. "Ruby?" she asked. The eyes of this shadow glowed red as Weiss was turning to face it now. They notably had odd markings on them as Weiss's eyes went wide. "RUBY!" she called out now as the shadow snarled and moved from the bush it was hiding in.
Commentary: Initiation time! And some more character introductions as well! With the rest of JNPR and another somewhat recurring character, Erika(She's not as recurring as Alix is though, so no need to get worried about that screen time being taken up). I loved writing out the landing strategies here. Apart from that, just some more character interactions in this chapter. Also I forgot to mention the Grimm level in the Emerald forest WILL be toned down and there will be some normal animals the teams have to fight as I do feel like having everyone fight Grimm right away makes things seem a little too easy and that these monsters aren't at all a threat. Which I still am of the belief that Grimm are more threatening because of sheer numbers alone. But you'll get more of that later on...
