Thanks for all the feedback everyone! I will hopefully still be driven as currently I'm probably working on 4 different projects excluding anything to do with my actual job. That being the case, though, I will still strive to get these chapters out after I'm sure they're done well enough!
Alright, here's more.
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It goes without saying that standing in the open cliffside overlooking the emerald forest, there was only one emotion that Ruby could barely conceal.
You know, slips in the crack and what not, she was super good at hiding her thoughts.
Suffice to say, the excitement she held about this moment was plainly displayed on her face. She had been waiting for this moment to show off her skills, establish a team with her sister, or even Jaune if they found each other, and impress all of Beacon with her baby, Crescent Rose. Even without her semblance, she was vibrating in her spot atop a small metal square that Ozpin and Goodwitch had asked them to line up on. She looked at the old man, one hand on the cane, holding himself up, the other wrapped firmly around the handle of a hot mug he sipped from occasionally. The man had been strange to Ruby, the first comment he had made being about her eyes, which made sense since he also taught her mother when she was a student. Still, something about him made her keep the memory in the back of her mind as she glanced over at the other adult waiting for them. She had a fierce glare towards the students, seemingly judging who would be causing trouble and intensely suggesting otherwise. Her eyes then fell to Jaune, who seemed to look nervous as he kept glancing down at his shield. It was fairly impressive, now that she got a full look at his whole setup.
The spikes that protruded from the front felt a little too much, but when it went with his shoulder and arm guard the way it did, it felt whole. It was like looking at a vigilante from a comic, his light gray shoulder guard, which trailed down to a leather sleeve from his undershirt. The sleeve tucked into his arm guard gauntlet, which held his now open shield, which he seemed to be experimenting with if his constant opening and closing of his shield was anything to go by. All in all, when it was compact and folded in, the shield could serve as a buckler to reduce weight and keep his speed up, the spikes still sticking out meant he could also still use both arms for fighting as well. When it was opened out, it was like someone took a grimm's face and just casted it in metal and called it a day. While the design certainly had impact, Ruby couldn't help but feel that it still was a bit too impractical for it to be an effective weapon . The weight would carry over, so even folded in, he would still have to deal with it on his arm. Maybe there was more to it?
Quickly breaking her out of her mental examination, was the Headmaster, who took one last sip of his mug before he addressed them all.
"For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." He spoke clearly as the blonde deputy headmistress pulled up her scroll.
"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of 'teams.' Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates… today." She followed up, and Ruby could feel her impending doom looming over her shoulder as the next words were uttered by the headmaster.
"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." He gave a pause, letting the students vent their frustration before following up with. "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years." His voice faded as Ruby heard the physical embodiment of her plans crash into nothing before her. Random chance? THAT was how Beacon created teams? What if they don't like me? What if they think I'm too young or stop me from showing off my baby?
What if it's Weiss?
A loud "What!?" managed to escape from her mouth as she panickedly looked to her sister, who's only response was to pull down her shades. She tugged her hood down lower in response, face slowly settling into a determined look as her emotions calmed. Her sister calmed her often, and she was deeply grateful for that no matter how overbearing her sister might be as a result. These were one of those moments, as pretty soon, one by one, initiates were launched out into the forest. Ruby watched her sister launch out pretty soon, keeping track of the location as she heard a sharp sound of metal piercing into the ground to her right. The sound drew her attention as she quickly glanced over to Jaune, who now had a spike from his shield sunken into the ground with a chain connecting to it.
"O-oh no, that's not good!" Jaune panicked as he started to tug quickly, finding his spike lodged quite tightly.
She barely had time to process what exactly that meant, and before she could say anything the plate under her clicked twice, and it took all her focus to try not to get launched awkwardly. Silently, she could only hope Jaune would be fine before he got launched. As the valve released her into the air, her thoughts were too preoccupied to notice the small black figure she was very quickly approaching in her path.
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Jaune screamed, internally of course.
He quickly went through his head of the instructions he read on the shield, adjusting his fingers in the guard of the shield into a clenched fist as the blade retracted back into the equipment. His momentary relief was quickly short lived as he felt two clicks underneath the plate and, like all his other fellow initiates, he was launched out into open air and very quickly free falling into uncertain territory. Swallowing his fears as he always does, he focused in onto his path, pulling his shield up before lifting his index finger up, quickly maneuvering his finger into a looped wire, releasing the center hook as it sailed through the treeline, implanting against a branch. Using the momentum to wing around the branch, he heard the clear sound of snapping from the branch as his weight and momentum threw him off balance once more. Quickly activating the release function of the hook, he recalled the chain once more, reaching an apex in his impromptu launch as he aimed once more, this time towards a more sturdy branch.
Now feeling a bit more confident in his now decided landing strategy, he pressed down on a button by his thumb, releasing a blast of air and gravity dust that lined the shield. The blast removed a significant amount of momentum, allowing a slower down swing as he descended into a roll, recalling the hook one more time before landing upright, quickly scanning his surroundings. After a few seconds, he breathed a sigh of relief, finally relaxing his stance as he sheathed his shield onto his gauntlet. He flexed his hand a few times, feeling the wire's power midair got him the approximation he had been most worried about, but to him it didn't feel entirely straining. He searched the sky briefly to get a bearings on the direction he should head when the sound of gunfire broke him out of the momentary peace he was in.
Wasting little time, he ran over to where he heard the shot come from. Drawing his sword once more, he heard the clear sounds of fighting as he cleared the brush to see the wild mane of golden hair breaking through the Grimm surrounding her. He took note of her gauntlets, seeing the additional power the shotgun wristguards added to her, arguably already strong punches. A crack to his side warned him of another attracted monster, looking off to the side to see an ursa charging towards her.
"Look out!" He quickly brought his shield up, aiming out to the claw that had been raised and ready to attack, the chain piercing through this time, as he intended. Locking it in place, he pulled back, the bear-like creature seemingly confused before it, too, joined its brothers as it's head soon combust from the concussive blast of his ally's weapons.
A moment of stillness is all they're given as the woman, Yang if he remembered correctly, looks up at him with a smile.
"Had that all handled, but I know to appreciate help when it's given." She smirked at him and he now has a moment to examine her combat gear. She wore a brown short sleeve jacket over a yellow shirt that stopped just over her stomach, as well as small black short shorts that showed a lot. Her whole outfit, actually, showed a lot, forcing Jaune to avert his eyes as he sheathed his sword and shield again.
"Sorry, figured you could do without an inch off the top, though." He smirked back as he held his hand out for a handshake. "Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue. You're Ruby's sister right? Were you looking to partner with her?" He felt her hand reach his, and then the grip that followed. His assumption earlier was right regarding her strength, as she very easily could have made him wince if he was any less trained than he was now, though it still took him a significant amount of willpower just to hold firm. The handshake lasted for a few seconds, before shockingly, the blonde woman leaned into his view as he just stared at the toothy smile that was plastered onto her face. His face heated up slightly as his eyes stared back at her's before he looked away, feeling a little awkward at the forwardness of his new companion.
"You know you're really cute when you do that whole chivalry thing. Heard you were taking care of my sis yesterday, never really got a chance to properly thank you for that though. Yeah, I'm lookin for Rubes, but not to be her partner. Mind if we walk and talk? I think us two got the short end of the stick on distance to the temple." She leaned back up, stretching her arms up as he nodded, the two continuing on their destination towards the north to retrieve the relics they were to retrieve.
The two had taken to a leisurely pace, keeping an eye out for any nearby dangers while also hearing gunshots in the distance to get a sense of where people would converge. The forest was expansive, the thick treeline offering shade on an otherwise bright day. It wasn't too shocking to Jaune, considering how often he had spent exploring the forest near Ansel, let alone the times his dad had taken him with him to eliminate grimm before. It was mainly shocking to finally be here, even knowing that all his training would lead him to this. His application had been accepted by the headmaster, but his dad had made it a point to explain that his time at the school should be spent how he wants to spend it. When he had asked why, his dad had responded with 'your life should be held by your own hands, not in the hands of someone else.' and left the conversation at that. He wondered briefly if his dad ever had the same experiences he did in school before dismissing the thought quickly. With how often and easily he made friends with other people, there was no way he had been under someone else while he was a student, so what else could he have meant by-
"- helloooooo, Remnant to Jaune, did your landing strategy include bumping your head or something?" Yang had snapped a finger in front of his eyes, finally bringing him out of his thoughts as he blushed lightly.
"Sorry, I can get carried away in my head sometimes. What did you ask?" He scratched the back of his head impulsively, never getting that bad habit out even after his sisters had nagged him about it almost every day.
"I was saying that if we keep this pace up, we might end up being last to show at the ruin. What if all the relics are gone by the time we do get there?" She showed a bit of concern as Jaune quickly thought the situation over in his head.
"Think they would put a hidden time aspect of initiation by only leaving less relics than as many students? I mean I get why, since they'd want the best who are able to reach their destinations quickly but there's already a lot of factors for failing initiation by itself. I don't think they'll run out of relics." He looked to her, but her concern didn't seem to ease up. Smiling, Jaune patted her back lightly. "Hey, Ruby's got this. Let's pick the pace up to try and find her sooner though."
Yang, shocked by his words and stiff from the sudden reassuring pat on the back, suddenly let out a breath she hadn't been sure she was holding, along with a dragged out chuckle as she finally relaxed a bit. "That obvious?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe not to other people, but I've had seven sisters to learn tells off of. Besides, I'd be freaking out if any of them had gotten into beacon two years early as well."
Yang stopped next to him, which made him pause as well. Looking back, he could see her brain processing the information before she choked out, "S-seven? Sheesh what are you all, rabbit faunus?"
Jaune laughed as he shook his head. "No, I don't think so. C'mon though, its a long ways away between us and the most recent gunfire, we should still pick up the pace."
Yang laughed back, punching his shoulder as she started to jog further ahead of him, the action still throwing him off with how strong she was. "You're right, thanks Jaune. But like you said, its a Xiao-Long ways away, try not to slow me down too much." He absently rubbed his arm where her fist connected, a small smile on his face as he saw her energy once again rise to a better mood than she was before. Quickly joining in his own jog, the two started to work their way deeper into the forest.
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Yang felt relief, not just for her sister, wherever she might be, but also with how her sister's first friend was now her partner. At first she thought it meant being better able to keep an eye out on the buster that got close enough to her right off the bat to where she had been talking nonstop about how funny and cool he seemed. Of course, not one to look away from opportunity, used that as proper excuse to tease her endlessly about it, first claiming she had made him up, to which she very clearly points him out to Yang, then teases of her not so subtle crushing on him, which really got under Ruby's skin and got a big laugh out of Yang. Though, it did bother Yang a bit since she didn't know the guy, she wanted to make sure he wasn't influencing Ruby since her Rubaby was the most innocent and naive sunflower on Remnant.
Then, as soon as initiation starts, and after she had finished off a pack of beowolves she landed near, he comes up and helps her with a random ursa that had snuck up on her during the melee. Come to find out, not only is he just a huge enough dork that it made sense the two got on as they did when they met each other.
But also the fact that he had so easily read her worry for Ruby and actively tried to ease her worries.
Yang had met many people in Signal, some that had been friends with Ruby to get with her and others that had just thought Ruby too childish and immature to really be friends with. This led to Ruby having less and less confidence in herself, which is why she dove headfirst into her weapon maniac ways. It pained her a bit to see her outgoing and loving sister turn into a recluse because of the selfishness of other people. But then, amazingly, she had seen her sister turn back to when she was younger and full of energy, telling all the silly little things they had done like getting lost because they were both talking about their weapons and it made her happy.
Jaune had, for all intents and purposes, been a supportive brother to Ruby when she didn't even realize she needed it, all within ten minutes of meeting each other. If they could meet up with Ruby and finished initiation as a team together, then she knew she would feel fine with the next few years of Beacon. She felt good about their chances here, and as they made their way to a clearing with pedestals lined up with small chess pieces, she felt even better about their future if things were this easy.
Of course hearing Ruby's voice screaming from up above immediately shattered all of those feelings at once.
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Jaune looked at Ruby, freefalling down into the open clearing. Then he looked over at the black bird-like shadow in the sky that was vaguely behind her. Then he saw Yang run over to where Ruby was landing towards, missing the second figure jump off the, what he assumed now, Giant Nevermore. All the while, he heard more movement coming from the treeline that seemed to be catching up to them. Looking between it all, Jaune also noticed that there were, indeed, a limited number of 'relics' left on the platform, or at the very least they were the last of the bunch to arrive as others had been taken. Either way, stuck between it all, Jaune chose to do the one thing he knew for certain.
He chose to stop stalling and act.
Expanding his gauntlet to its shield form, he ran over to where the other figure was falling towards, aiming downwards, he used the gravity and air dust to launch himself up into the air. He was mildly surprised to see it was Weiss who was with Ruby, but decided not to ask about it with her predicament. He caught onto her midair, his momentum immediately halting and reducing her's a considerable amount before both fell. Channeling aura into his legs and lower back, he landed a moment later, carrying Weiss in his arms as she clung onto him with her eyes shut, muttering something about 'terrible ideas' and 'murder'.
"It's alright now, Weiss, you're back on Remnant." He chuckled lightly at her as she opened her eyes. She looked up to him, blushing before quickly hopping away from him as she looked around to spot Ruby and Yang, narrowing her eyes and stomping over to her.
"You!" She pointed a finger at Ruby, "Left!" jabbed it into her shoulder, "Me!" curled the finger into her fist, "Alone!" and brought her arm down in anger, stomping her foot once more. Her eyes were watering slightly and seemed to cause Ruby some amount of guilt as she looked away from her irritated partner.
Just as things were calming down and Yang was about to say something, the treeline was broken by an Ursa, two figures atop it as it proceeded to roar a final farewell before collapsing. One of the two on top cried out in disappointment, the other just crying. The female half of the two jumped off the slowly dissipating ursa, a dejected "Aww, I broke it." escaped her mouth as her companion practically fell off the side.
The girl wore a black sleeveless jacket over a plain white tee shirt with bright orange hair and a pink skirt. Her white and pink boots creating a small puff of dust as she immediately began looking through the different choices in relics, quickly grabbing a rook piece. Her companion wore what looked like traditional minstralian green tunic and long white pants, his hair a ragged black that had a strand of pink dyed towards the front. Gathering himself up off the ground, he dusted himself off as he looked towards the girl. "Nora, please don't ever do that again!"
His words appeared to have fallen on deaf ears however, as the girl danced around with the chess piece in her hands, "I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!" She sang aloud, which admittedly caused Jaune and Yang to both laugh at the antics. Looking to his partner, Yang gestured to him to decide between the two, grabbing a knight piece as he felt it suit himself well. He noticed Ruby grab a rook piece as well, putting it into her pouch. As soon as her choice was made, a rustling in the bush following some rapid gunfire caused the three groups to tense, preparing themselves as Pyrrha and a black haired girl ran out the treeline, along with the closest two trees. Eyes widening at the sight, Jaune quickly identified and called out the large grimm that had followed the two huntresses.
"It's a Deathstalker!" He shouted, moving quickly to intercept the grimm as Yang followed up immediately. Pyrrha turned, shield ready to stop a claw attack that she was watching out for, Jaune immediately following up on the other claw, keeping it's face exposed as Yang delivered a powerful haymaker, the shotgun gauntlets adding to the devastating blow and forcing the grimm to recoil. Behind him, the sound of more gunfire filled the air, yet none of the bullets aimed at them as the screech of the Nevermore once again sounded through.
"We need to lock it down! Our objective isn't to kill the grimms, just retrieve the relics!" He heard the male call out. Breaking out of this hold between the two of them would be difficult as the Deathstalker started to regain itself, the stinger coiling up for a strike right as a ribbon wrapped around the appendage, pulled taut by the black haired girl who had shown up with Pyrrha.
"On it!" Weiss' voice called out soon, a glyph appearing underneath the Deathstalker as its legs were frozen to the ground. Immediately it started to thrash around, attempting to free itself as the group soon retreated back to the other four.
"Grab a relic and let's get out of here!" Jaune shouted to Pyrrha and her partner, who quickly grabbed a nearby piece before the group could be overwhelmed by the Nevermore up above. Providing covering fire to both grimm, the group of eight soon made their way back out through the forest towards the further end of the ruins.
Their pace was broken soon, seeing the path before them break away, the earth giving way to a steep cliff that only connected to the other side thanks to the massive and ancient ruins they discovered. Turning back, they saw the signs of the Deathstalker's approach as the Nevermore kept up with them through their run, the metal-like feathers it shot out in an attempt to slow and beat them down. Jaune turned back towards the ruins, then to his new allies as his brain started to scramble on a choice of action.
His father had told him once before that hesitation would be fatal in a serious situation, and as he looked at the incoming threats from the two elder grimm, Jaune steeled himself as he looked to the others.
"Guys, we can make a stand here!"
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Okay, sorry this took a while to get out, I still have issues when it comes to writing fights, and didn't think that the length I had before was a good stopping point. To me it feels like this might be a bit much in terms of what was shown in this chapter and at the same time not enough. I do plan on having more shown off as far as Jaune's new shield would go but the rough and short of it makes it so he has a lot more control of a battle now with the setup I envision. Feel free to let me know what I can improve on and what you enjoyed!