Chapter 4: Coming Together
Review Replies
Devil Dragon Stand Knight: Oh man, I don't think Ace knows how rough Weiss actually had it with Jacques as a father
ThermalsniperN7: Yeah, but it does add to the drama.
Dragon Emperor0: To be fair, how's he supposed to know?
-Emerald Forest Cliffside-
"Seems like we have one team off the list." Glynda noted as she looked at the scroll in her arms. Noting how quickly the newly formed Team SSSN (Season) had developed.
"I noticed." Ozpin nodded, also seeing the new team being made before it was even official. "They seem to get along rather well." He mused as he watched the four cut their way through some hybrid animals, monkey-squirrels, specifically. "Though mister Obsidian seems bored, dare I say miffed." He noted, observing the way Sky moved. It suggested he wasn't happy with what he was fighting.
"Well, he's been fighting Grimm most of his life based on what Qrow's told us." Glynda noted. "It could be that these creatures aren't up to his skill level." She added.
"Ah yes, that would do it." The headmaster nodded as he kept observing the initiates.
(Meanwhile)
In the forest below, Ruby was dashing through the forest praying she got Yang or Sky as her partner. She wouldn't mind if Jaune was her partner either, but he didn't seem reliable in a fight. Blake seemed cool enough, but holding a conversation would be difficult.
However, as she rounded a corner, she soon bumped head long into Weiss, who simply looked at her with a mixture of disappointment and calculating disdain. As if she wasn't sure if she should be angry that this meant that the two were partners, or just apprehensive because she had no idea what the girl's capabilities were.
If you're getting the impression that she was sending mixed signals to the silver eyed speedster, then you're not wrong.
Before the heiress could even contemplate just walking away and denying their partnership, the two of them found themselves surrounded by a pack of wolves that looked rather hungry.
"By no means does this make us friends." The whitette told the cloak wearing girl as she brought her rapier out to fight.
"Let's just talk when we're out of this." Ruby told her partner in reply, brandishing Crescent Rose as she did.
'That was rude.' The heiress thought as she held her weapon.
(Meanwhile)
A short distance away, Jaune found himself pinned to a tree by his hood by Pyrrha's spear, Milos. The boy didn't quite know how to get free without falling to the ground, so he was stuck.
"Well this is embarrassing." The boy sighed as he tried to get himself free, only for someone to knock the tree and cause him to fall anyway. "Ow…" He groaned.
"Are you okay?" A familiar voice asked, causing the blonde to look up and see Pyrrha standing there.
"I'll live." He replied as he got to his feet.
"Think there's a spot for me on your team?" The redhead asked as the boy couldn't help but stare at the underboob outline that her armor was showing.
"Um… Y-Yeah. Of course. You're the first I've met since all this started." He replied, shaking his head so he could focus on what's happening.
Pyrrha couldn't help but giggle. "Alright then. Let's go." She nodded.
(Elsewhere)
Team SSSN casually walked through the forest, not encountering anything all that hostile so far. As they traversed the vast woodland, Neptune decided to strike up a conversation.
"Hey Sky, I noticed something when we fight something that isn't a Grimm. Something you wanna share?" He inquired.
"Yeah. I feel insulted by what we're fighting." Sky replied, his tone showing just how he felt about the creatures of this initiation. "I've been fighting Grimm of varying ages for years on end, so fighting normal animals, even hybrid ones, is a letdown for me." He added, shooting a wolf that tried to jump him without even turning to it.
"Oh yeah. You do carry yourself as an experienced Grimm killer." Sun noted as they kept walking.
"Pft. Amateurs." Ace scoffed, tossing a white ice Dust card at a Rapier Wasp nest that was about to fall on Neptune, freezing it solid and causing it to shatter on the ground like glass. "Call me when you have no-look anti-stormtrooper aim." He added.
"Call me when you can shoot Grimm in the eyes and kill them." Sky retorted, shooting another wolf right in the eye for emphasis.
"... Game on, Obsidian." The gambler chuckled.
(Elsewhere)
Meanwhile, Yang was currently busy trying to find Ruby amidst the forest growth, but found that the forest itself seemed to be moving as she moved.
This was because Ozpin and Glynda were manipulating the forest to make sure certain teams came together based on various factors. And Yang was right in the center of such a process.
"Ugh, what the hell?! Why is this happening?!" The blonde growled in irritation as she kept moving. After a short while, the process stopped, which made her sigh in relief. Hearing movement in a bush, she decided to have a look and see if it was Ruby… only to be forced to jump back when it turned out to be a large grizzly bear.
"Nope." The brawler said as she skid to a halt. "Definitely not Ruby." She continued as she brought out her shotgun gauntlets.
The large bear swiped its claws at her, but the teen was still able to dodge it and land a combo on it, and if the punches didn't do enough damage to kill it, Ember Celica certainly filled in the blanks on that.
Then another bear appeared, angered by the death of its kin. Charging at the blonde, it swiped its right paw at her, but like before she dodged it… mostly.
"Jeez, you couldn't hit the broadside of a ba…" She trailed off, spotting what she knew was a strand of her hair falling to the ground. "You…" She growled, her eyes closing and her fists clenched. The grizzly just tilted its head in confusion. "YOU MOTHERFUCKER!" She roared before she blasted her way at her newfound punching bag, and pummeled it to death.
As if Ozpin had a sick sense of humor, yet another grizzly appeared.
"You want some?! Let's go!" She barked. Right as it was about to charge, it suddenly fell to the ground, dead… With Blake's apparent kusarigama stuck in its back. "... Meh. I could've taken him." She shrugged as she calmed down.
Blake could only smile as she gestured for the blonde to follow her. As the two began walking to where the temple most likely was, Yang tried to make some good natured small talk… but only succeeded in grinding against Blake's nerves.
Hey, it wasn't Yang's fault that Blake wasn't the talkative type.
Though their conversation was unfortunately interrupted, however, when the ground began to shake–as if they were caught in an earthquake… and seconds later–a giant three pronged tail of a long slender creature burst through the ground and almost flattened them–before disappearing, leaving a giant hole behind.
"What was that?" Yang wondered. "It didn't look like a normal animal." She added.
"I… don't know." Blake frowned. "Come on. Let's get out of here before it comes back." She urged. Yang nodded before the two resumed their trek to the temple.
(Meanwhile)
"Ozpin, did you see what attacked miss Xiao Long and miss Belladonna?" Glynda asked with a concerned frown.
"Yes, and it didn't look like a Grimm." The gray haired man nodded. "It looked like…" He trailed off before shaking his head. "No, it couldn't be… Could it?" He asked himself, sounding just shy of worried.
"What?" The dominatrix questioned.
"It looked like… One of the five Worm Gods." The Headmaster stated gravely. The blonde woman's skin tone looked just a tad paler when the words left his mouth.
"B-But… Why is one of them here?!" She stuttered, now worried for the students.
"I don't know. I don't think we have any Grimm Knights here. It may be because of mister Sixx's light signature." Ozpin guessed, pulling up Team SSSN on his scroll.
"Oh dear…" Glynda muttered, worried for the children. "But if it is one of them. Could that mean that…?" She questioned.
"It is a foreboding development, I will admit. Yes." The man nodded.
(Elsewhere)
With Jaune and Pyrrha, the two were walking through the woods in search of the temple. As they went, they heard the telltale signs of gunfire in the distance.
"Sounds like the others are fighting off the wildlife." Jaune noted.
"Agreed." The redhead nodded.
As the two came up to a cave towards the edge of the forest, where Cardin and his teammate, Russell were currently debating whether to go into the cave or not.
Though "debate" was a bit of a stretch, since it was clear that Cardin was using his domineering presence to make the shorter teen to concede to his commands.
"Listen, all you gotta do is–" Cardin started before noticing Jaune and Pyrrha. "Oh, you two. Trying to find your way to the temple?" He asked.
"Yeah." Jaune nodded. "What's the deal with the tunnel?" He asked.
"We think it might be a shortcut, but we aren't sure." Russel replied.
"Hey, I got an idea. Why don't you guys see if it'll be a good enough route for us?" Cardin "suggested".
"Uh, no offense, Cardin. But that sounds like a horrible idea." The knight pointed out.
"What? It's just basic scouting. You don't even need to go that far in." The brute told them. Jaune regarded Cardin warily, finding his words rather sus. After a moment, he turned to Pyrrha.
"Come on. Let's see if anything about this cave is viable." He told her.
"Are you sure?" The redhead asked, looking at the tunnel warily.
"No. But my dad always said that if something frightens you, that's reason enough to do it." The blonde responded with a sigh as the two went in.
Cardin, for his part, seemed surprised by the blonde's choice of words, but brushed it off as him acting tough.
"So, what now?" Russel asked.
"Now we head to the temple. Not our fault those two idiots fell for it." Cardin replied as he turned and walked off. Russel, after hesitating for a moment, followed him.
(Elsewhere)
With Ruby and Weiss, the two had dealt with the wolf pack not that long ago and were heading for the temple ruins. Though the two were kinda on the fence with each other.
"I still can't believe you got in my line of fire like that." The heiress snapped.
"I was trying to prevent you from setting the forest on fire, dummy!" The speedster retorted.
"I wasn't going to! I'm fully capable of being–precise…" Weiss began to protest before cutting off abruptly and stopping when Ruby pointed at several clusters of raw Wood Dust that were all over the place.
Clusters that would have blown up into giant winding trees and bramble bushes at the slightest touch of the wrong dust type–such as water–or exploded into toxic Carbon Dioxide/Monoxide gasses at another–such as fire.
"If your fire attack hit those, then the blast would've been devastating and more than likely killed not just us, but other applicants unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast zone." Ruby lectured.
This, predictably, left Weiss livid as she was lectured to by someone three years her junior. However, it also did make her consider–at least in the back of her mind–that this natural affinity for combat tactics and being able to read people and the environment–was part of the reason why Ruby was allowed to skip ahead two years.
"... Fine." Weiss seethed as she reigned in her indignation. "I'll give you that one. But we still need to find our way to the temple." She added.
"Right. Come on. Let's go." Ruby nodded as the two resumed their trek through the forest.
(Elsewhere)
Meanwhile, around the same time, Ren and Nora were fighting a King Taijitu, the first Grimm that any student had seen in the forest thus far.
\
Ren had managed to kill the white half of the two-headed snake, which sent the black half into an anger fueled frenzy. Before it could attack the ninja, however, the gingerette rode by on a bear and grabbed him before they bolted. Infuriated by its prey attempting to escape, the serpent gave chase.
They also ran into Cardin and Russel along the way, allowing them to head for the temple together.
The King Taijitu would have given chase, but the same creature that attacked Blake and Yang made an appearance again, causing it to shriek in fear before detouring as fast as it could.
Ren spotted this and frowned.
'What was that?' He wondered.
(Elsewhere)
Meanwhile, back with Jaune and Pyrrha, the two were continuing deeper into the cave, and quickly discovered that it was a dead end.
"Damn. So much for a short cut." The blonde sighed. "Come on, let's turn around and head back." He told his teammate.
"I agree." Pyrrha sighed, not liking that they had been duped. Though before they could leave, a yellow glow appeared.
Jaune would have approached it, but his instincts told him to run. Something about this was wrong.
He was proven right when eight red eyes opened and stared right back at him, and did not look friendly.
"Run." The knight said before turning to Pyrrha. "RUN!" He yelled as they turned tail and tore out of there like two bats outta hell.
Not a moment later, the owner of the eyes burst out of the cave, revealing it to be a Deathstalker. And a big one, at that.
(Elsewhere)
Meanwhile back with Ruby and Weiss, the two continued on their way to the temple when Ruby suddenly stopped, causing the heiress to bump into her.
"Hey! Watch what you're doing you do–." She began to snap until she stopped when she slowly started to look where Ruby was looking, and gasped.
It was a giant Nevermore sleeping in an ancient tree, and this alarm bell wrapped in a red flag immediately caused the two to shut up in an effort not to wake it up
"Weiss…. Move. Very. Quietly." Ruby whispered to her partner, her eyes never leaving the giant Grimm.
"Right." The heiress whispered back. The two then started to slowly sneak away from the large avian creature of darkness.
Sadly, life was never really that fair. The same unknown creature from before came barreling in their direction, startling the two girls when they saw the ground being burrowed under by something so massive and were forced to climb into the tree to get out of the way.
Unfortunately, they ended up grabbing onto the Nevermore's feet, the noise of a massive burrowing creature already startling it awake. When it looked at whatever was burrowing underground, it shrieked in terror and took to the skies, uncaring of the two girls on its talons.
"Did you hear the reaction the Nevermore gave when it saw whatever was burrowing underground?!" Weiss called over the wind.
"Yeah! It sounded scared for some reason! But… What could possibly scare a giant Grimm? A bigger Grimm?" The Silver eyed warrior questioned in a louder tone.
"That might be the case! I don't think those barriers are working that well anymore!" The whitette noted.
"Thanks! I kinda gathered that already!" Ruby called back. "Tell me something I don't know!" She added.
(Meanwhile)
Back with Yang and Blake, the two finally reached the temple.
"About time we found the place." The blond sighed as they got closer and looked at the chess pieces on the pedestals.
"Looks like a few others were here before we were." Blake noted, seeing that a few pieces had already been taken.
Yang nodded as she walked over to one of the pieces and then picked it up. "Hey, how about a pony?" She asked with a smile, getting an equally warm smile from the bookworm.
It was then that the two had to dodge a goliath centipede that was sent flying into the back wall of the temple, before a Purple Gravity Dust card was embedded in its head seconds later.
As the card shattered into, well, Dust, it then caused a miniature black hole to appear around the bug and start causing it to implode as it shrieked before disappearing in a violent flash of black and purple.
"... What the fuck?!" Yang gaped in shock, which Blake shared to a lesser extent.
"Told ya Gravity Dust was awesome." The voice of Ace chuckled, prompting the girls to turn and see Team SSSN approaching the ruins.
"Disturbing is more like it." Neptune said with a shudder.
"I pity the sucker who gets hit with that…" Sun nodded with a gulp.
"Just promise me you'll only use that on troublesome animals and Grimm." Sky sighed.
"No promises." Ace replied before looking at Blake and Yang. "Hey, you two. Nice to see you made it." He said as his team reached the ruins.
"Yeah… See you guys got here unscathed." Yang nodded as Ace walked up to the black king piece and tossed it to Sky, taking the second for himself.
"Yeah, wasn't all that difficult, all things considered." The boy shrugged.
"Except some of our teammates required more saving than was probably worth it." Ace chimed in. Neptune sulked a little at that remark.
"Any sign of Ruby?" Sky asked, not seeing the cloaked speedster anywhere.
"I couldn't find her. It was like the forest was moving." The blonde replied with a frown.
"Uh, guys…?" Blake trailed off, prompting everyone to look at her and see her looking up. When they looked up…
"Finally, something worth fighting!" Sky exclaimed when he saw the giant Nevermore before narrowing his eyes. "Wait… Are Ruby and Weiss hanging from its feet?!" He shouted with wide eyes.
"The fuck possessed then to do that?!" Ace exclaimed as the two girls let go and started falling. "Aw shit–hang on!" He yelled as he ran and parkoured over the temple to get high enough so he could jump and catch Weiss. "Gotcha!" He added as he tucked and rolled onto his feet–the heiress in his arms.
Sky, meanwhile, made a mad dash for where he knew Ruby was going to land before he caught her in his arms. Ruby, who was expecting to go splat, wasn't expecting to feel arms wrapping around her. Opening her closed eyes, she was surprised to find herself in Sky's arms.
"Huh. I didn't realize red hooded angels existed." Sky quipped, causing her to blush profusely since she wasn't used to that kind of flirting.
"S-S-S-Shut up!" The red reaper stuttered, smacking his shoulder. The dark knight merely chuckled as he set her on her feet.
"Jeez, Princess, if you wanted to go skydiving, you coulda just said so, I woulda showed you a better spot for it." The gunslinger said in a teasing manner as he dusted the girl's head off.
He was still kinda pissed at her for what she said in the locker room, but decided to try and see if getting on better ground would cause them to be on "apologizing and starting over" terms. Not a bad idea, all things considered.
"S-Shush!" Weiss stuttered with a blush as she looked away from him.
"Whatever. Anyway, what were you and Ruby doing on that Nevermore to begin with?" The gambler questioned.
"It wasn't by choice. We tried to sneak away from it when we saw it, but then some kind of large creature that was digging underground startled us and made us climb up the tree it was sleeping in." The heiress explained. "Unfortunately, we ended up grabbing onto its feet. More so, whatever it was gave it a scare." She added, causing Ace to frown.
"What the fuck would scare a Grimm that size?" The Hunter questioned.
"We're not sure." Ruby interjected after Sky set her on her feet. "But we should get out of here before we end up meeting it." She added.
It was at this point that Ren, Nora, Cardin and Russel burst through the treeline, the bear the gingerette was riding falling over, dead.
"Aw. It's broken." She pouted as she poked the dead animal.
"Nora… please… don't ever do that again…" Ren panted.
"Is that normal for her?" Russel couldn't help but ask, hands on his knees.
"How should I know?" Cardin groaned as Sky Lark and another boy came running out of the woods.
"Run! Run for your lives!" The boys yelled as Pyrrha was flung towards the temple and Jaune came through riding the Deathstalker that was chasing them.
Sky, upon seeing the Deathstalker, growled as he glared at the beast. Memories of that damnable backstabber flashed in his mind as he clenched his fists.
"Uh… Sky? You okay?" Ruby asked warily when his growls reached her ears.
"Just… Peachy." The knight growled as Jaune and Pyrrha joined the group… Right as the ground started to shake again as all three Grimm came towards the kids–and the floor beneath them started to crack.
"Oh great! Now what?!" Neptune yelped as he and the others tried to keep their footing with varying degrees of success. Then…
BOOM!
Something massive exploded out of the ground. The initiates looked up… and beheld the largest worm they'd ever seen.
But it was clear that this creature was not a Grimm. Its exoskeleton was a sickly brown with seams that glowed an equally sickly green, six mandibles made up its mouth with a singular glowing orb in the center of its maw, and three prongs at the end of its long body, signifying its tail.
When Yang saw the tail, her eyes widened in recognition.
"That's it! That's what nearly flattened me and Blake!" She exclaimed.
"Oh fuck me… I did not expect one of the Worm Gods of all things to be here." Sky groaned.
"Worm Gods?!" Ace exclaimed as he grabbed Weiss and rolled out the way. "The fuck are they doing here of all places?!" He yelled.
"Don't know, but it's in our best interests to grab our relics and beat it!" Sun exclaimed, hands gripping his gunchucks tightly to hide his fear.
(Meanwhile)
Up on the cliffs, Ozpin had dropped his mug on the ground in pure shock while Glynda was now full on fearing for the initiate's safety. It was bad enough that they had three Grimm living in the forest without them knowing, but a Worm God made this even worse.
"Ozpin, we need to get them out of there! There's no way for the children to fight a Worm God in their state!" The blonde woman exclaimed frantically.
"I know, Glynda! I– What in the world?" The gray haired man started to reply before blinking when the Worm God suddenly killed the three Grimm that were present before turning back to the children. "It… killed the Grimm? What is its angle?" He mused with narrowed eyes.
"I'm sure it's nothing good, Professor." Glynda mused as they were forced to watch the students continue to fight.
(Elsewhere)
"Okay, we don't have any Grimm to fight, but now we have a Worm God to deal with." Ace stated as he backed up. "Well, fearless leaders? We're open to ideas." He added, looking at Jaune, Cardin, Ruby and Sky.
"We avoid taking it on alone and avoid anything stupid." Sky spoke up. "That's a suicide run on both accounts there." He added.
"He's right. Charging in alone will get us killed." Ruby nodded. Was she eager to prove herself to everyone? Yes. Was she gonna charge headlong at a Worm God? Hell no!
"Our best bet is to attack from multiple angles." Jaune pitched in.
"Sounds like a plan." Cardin nodded, mace ready for combat.
"Wow, the asshole actually agrees with us. That's new." Sundance chimed in sarcastically.
"Where have you been?!" The Guardian yelled at his Ghost.
"I had nothing to say, so I just stayed quiet." The drone replied before noticing the Worm God seemed to be glaring at her. "... And now I'll be hiding while you guys deal with that." She gulped before vanishing.
"Oh for the love of…" Sky groaned in exasperation before shaking his head. "Whatever. Everyone, split up into groups of four and pick an angle to attack from!" He barked as he led Ace, Sun and Neptune to one angle.
"It's either that or we die!" Cardin added.
"Not helping, Cardin!" Ruby and Jaune yelled.
"Hey ugly!" Ace yelled as Yul chased after Weiss who was following her team. "Eat this!" He yelled as he raised his gun into the air and called upon the Golden Gun before he started blasting the giant Worm to get him away from the girl's.
Yul shrieked as the shots bore into his carapace shell, burning on contact before turning and glaring at the gunslinger with pissed off snarl.
"Wh-What does that idiot think he's doing?! He'll get himself killed!" The heiress exclaimed.
"Not if I can help it!" One Dove Bronzwing yelled as he shot at the giant Worm's body with his gun sword, trying to get its attention. He then spotted what seemed to be a particularly tender spot, prompting him to quickly rush in and slash it a couple of times before leaping back.
The giant creature let out a hiss upon feeling a sensitive spot on its body take some damage, getting him to turn and hiss at Cardin's team.
However, before he could try snapping up the four boys, a sniper rifle bullet sailed across the battlefield and went into one of the bullet holes caused by Ace's Golden Gun near the Worm's neck–before it exploded into a jagged mass of ice crystals!
"Thanks for the Ice Dust, Weiss!" Ruby called as she dashed to catch up as their giant opponent wailed from the frostbite it just got.
Blake and Yang looked for any opportunities they could find to attack the hulking worm. And as they neared the temple's cliff side, Yang grinned as she got an idea.
Blasting herself up and having Weiss help her with her Glyphs, she ran up the cliff wall and blasted herself up at the large Worm's head before landing on its two bottom mandibles–forcing its mouth open, and then unloading punch after punch into its mouth.
"I. Hope. You're. Hun. Gry!" The blonde brawler yelled as she emptied the clip into the god's maw.
The giant beast let out pained cries as it staggered into the cliff face.
This gave the newly formed Team JNPR a chance to shine. "Pyrrha! Shield wall!" Jaune called to his partner as they raised their shields to make a platform. "Nora, Ren! Fly time!" He added.
The two nodded as they launched themselves into the air off said shields, with Nora doing so with her Grenade Hammer, and swinging on it as she sailed through the air with a smile.
Ren, meanwhile, dug his blades into the Worm's body and slid down, causing him to slam onto the cliff… Just in time for Nora to slam her hammer down on him.
Dazed from the impact, the giant Worm was helpless as its tail was frozen by Weiss to keep it in place for the next part of the unspoken plan that had been formed.
Blake and Yang quickly moved into position at a pair of pillars, the former tossing her kusarigama at her partner, who stabbed the blade into the stone. This allowed Ruby to land on it, using the blade of Crescent Rose as a footpad of sorts while Weiss used a glyph to pull her back. Team JNPR, the new Team CRDL and Team SSSN stood close by watching things unfold.
"I can't believe you actually came up with this idea." The heiress commented.
"Think you can make the shot?" The silver eyed girl asked.
"Hmph. Can I?" She chuckled rhetorically.
"... Can you?" Ruby asked, confused.
"Of course I can!" Weiss snapped, indignant of the doubt. Looking at the still dazed Worm God, Ruby chambered a round and the whitette took that as her cue to let her leader fly.
Releasing the strong ribbon, Ruby flew through the air and caught her target in her weapon's blade. Landing on the cliffside, Weiss quickly created a series of glyphs for her partner to run along, and run Ruby did.
She ran up the cliff, firing Crescent Rose the whole way to boost her speed. Everyone watched with no small amount of amazement as Ruby dragged the Worm God along behind her, something they never thought they'd see. Right as Ruby reached the top…
BANG!
She fired one last round, and sliced it in half. She turned and looked down at the others, the wind blowing her cape and making rose petals fly in the breeze as the two halves of the Worm God fell back to the bottom of the cliff with a loud crash.
"Yang… You have one hell of a sister." Sky told the blonde with a smirk as he took his helmet off.
"That's putting it mildly." Ace chuckled.
"Killing a Worm God… She's getting in guaranteed." Neptune grinned as the others voiced their agreements.
That was when something incredibly terrifying happened. The Worm God started fucking regenerating!
"Whoa whoa whoa, what the fuck?!" Ace yelled. "That fucker's regenerating?!" He added in shock.
"No… No no no! No fucking way!" Russel shouted in denial as he backed up slowly.
They all watched as the front half of the Worm God grew itself a new tail, the wound indicating where it was cut in half vanishing as if it was never inflicted.
The giant worm looked up at Ruby, who looked incredibly scared out of her wits at what she'd seen. Then it turned its gaze to the others, who looked ready to soil themselves.
Then… It just dove into the chasm, vanishing beneath the mist. A loud noise indicated that it had burrowed back into the ground. The teams all let out a sigh of relief at that.
"That… That was scary." Blake gasped as she held a hand to her heart.
"I have no jokes to say about what just happened!" Yang panted as she looked down into the chasm. "But if we see another Worm God, it'll be too soon." She added.
"You're preaching to the choir on that one!" Sky gulped, his arms shaking.
Thankfully for all of them, a bullhead flew over the forest and landed not far from them. As the kids all stood there, still in shock at what just happened, Sun finally broke the silence.
"Whaddya think you're doing people?! Get to the chopper! Let's go!" He yelled, hightailing it outta there.
"Whoa!" Cardin yelped before he and literally everyone else got onto the bullhead… Except Ruby, since she was already at the top of the cliff.
"I think I speak for all of us when I say we should never do that again." Ace sighed.
"The world is rarely that generous." Sky sighed, running a hand through his hair.
(Later)
Later on, after the madness of initiation had passed, teams were being officially named.
"Cardin Winchester, Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzwing, Sky Lark." Ozpin began as the four in question stood in front of him. "You four retrieved the white bishop pieces. From this day on, you shall be known as Team CRDL, led by Cardin Winchester." He continued. The audience clapped for them as they walked off the stage.
Taking their place was Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora and Ren.
"Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie, Jaune Arc." Ozpin continued as the four stepped forward. "You retrieved the white Rook pieces, so from this day forth, you shall be known as Team JNPR. Led by, Jaune Arc." He added.
"What? Me?" The blonde got out in surprise. Pyrrha put a supportive hand on his shoulder while Nora gave him a (rather hard) pat on the back, knocking him to the ground. Shaking his head clear of cobwebs, he led his team off the stage and let Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang take their place.
"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day on, you shall be known as Team RWBY. Lead by Ruby Rose." He declared.
Ruby was stunned by the declaration, Weiss had a look of horrified disbelief that wasn't as bad as it could've been, Blake was indifferent, and Yang had a look of hesitation before congratulating her sibling.
Lastly, Sky and his team came up to the headmaster. "Neptune Vasilias, Sun Wukong, Ace Sixx, Sky Obsidian." Ozpin said. "You four retrieved the black king pieces, so, from this moment you will be known as Team SSSN." He added. "Led by Sky Obsidian." He added.
"Congrats, captain." Ace said, patting his new team leader on the shoulder.
"Thanks, mate." Sky nodded as he led his team off the stage.
"This is shaping up to be an… interesting year." Ozpin said to himself as he looked up at the currently orange sky.
Dragon Emperor0: That scene with Yul regenerating was giving me some serious Shadowkeep flashbacks. Scared the crap outta me when that happened.
ThermalsniperN7: I know how ya feel, mate. I was legit startled when I saw Crota popping out of that nightmare bubble. And yes, that was in fact Yul, though since all the Worm Gods look identical in Destiny (if that one scene from Witch Queen is to be believed), the gang won't know that yet. He will return again much later, however.
Dragon Emperor0: He just showed up to test the gang and see how tough they are. Other than that, not much else to say about what happened in this chapter.
ThermalsniperN7: Except that Ruby was noticeably more… mature during the initiation. I guess she knows there's time and place for goofing off. And Sky has a vendetta against scorpions… Take a guess as to why. Anyway, see you guys next time.