Hello everyone, CoI here. This is a longer chapter than usual, approaching 5,000 words. There's a lot more analysis and foundations for significant character growth in this chapter as well, I'm really trying to build up each character as an individual. Jaune is going to be a lot more useful and developed in the show and Ruby will also see some character changes. I had some time recently so I was able to bang out this chapter, but I'm about to be inundated with college essays so the next chapter may take a while to arrive. Constructive criticism is gladly accepted; enjoy the chapter!

Pyrrha and Carolina wheeled in unison towards the loud crashing noises. Jaune also whirled over, albeit in a less coordinated fashion. Say what you want, but he did have good instincts when it came to things trying to kill him. Not to mention, anyone who wasn't aware of the massive scorpion literally flattening the forest heading their way was probably deaf or stupid. The three initiates were all set in defensive stances, clearly wary of getting into a fight with whatever was heading their way. However, human nature dictated that they stay and look rather than turn and run the other way. Naturally, they wanted to get a look at what was chasing them. Fleeing from an unknown enemy would be far more terrifying. In addition, they were (two-thirds) skilled combatants and knew the value of knowing their enemy.

As a result, Pyrrha, Jaune, and Carolina were all ready to bolt at a moment's notice. Their eyes strained towards the source of the sound. Pyrrha and Carolina's legs were bent but loose, ready to apply pressure and take off whenever. Jaune, however, was as tense as the wires on a suspension bridge.

The entity smashed its way closer and closer. The jarring impacts were now visually linked to treetops in the not-so-distant distance falling over. The crashes grew louder and louder as if a giant was stomping its way over.

Two small figures appeared in their view. The three instantly recognized the Schnee heiress's slender, doll-like frame and snow-white appearance. No one knew the black-and-red girl but instantly identified her as a fellow initiate. The two sprinted towards the trio of their peers at breakneck speed. For a moment, the two initiates were the only ones in view. Then the Deathstalker appeared out of the thin air. Not seamlessly like a well-done magic trick, but like a wrecking ball smashing through the side of a log cabin.

Holy sh*t, that's a large scorpion.

Carolina had seen Grimm before, but those were all the smaller, easier-to-kill types. This one looked a lot less killable than the Beowolves and Ursas from before and a lot more dangerous as well. Apparently, the increased defense did not mean decreased offense. Carolina kept her feet and her head though, as she had stared down tanks before. However, this monster was giving off the same aura as a tank. Big, mean, and dangerous. Plus, it could knock over trees, so that's something.

Pyrrha and Carolina waited for their fellow initiates to close the distance before taking off at the monstrous Grimm. Both quenched their desire to start taking potshots at the Deathstalker, knowing it would be futile. Ruby and Weiss were joined by the trio as they formed a group of five, fleeing from the same monster, heading in the 9:30 direction Carolina suggested they go in the first place.

"Get sarged dirtbags!"

"Two points you dirty-"

"AGH! What's the universe's problems with my balls!?"

"Hah! Oh F*CK!"

"Mean doggies will not scare me!"

"Quiero terminar mi existencia."

Wash shepherded the arsenal of loose cannons known as the Blood Gulch Crew towards the stone structures Carolina pointed out the way one would corral a group of exploding roombas or something like that. As expected, they tore through anything in their path, leaving a trail of carnage in their wake. It was this swath of charred forest and explosion marks that Yang and Blake found.

Blake raised an eyebrow at the destruction. Not even her most hectic shoot-outs with the Atlesian military had left so much damage to the environment. Whoever had gone by either had too powerful weapons or horrible aim. Or they were pyromaniacs who liked explosions, like the grinning blonde next to her.

"Whoo." Yang breathed out, "Someone had some fun here."

Blake nodded and continued to scan their surroundings.

"I bet I could do this in less than a minute though."

Blake nodded less this time and continued to ignore her partner.

"Nah. Maybe thirty seconds."

Okay, the blonde was a talkative one.

"What do you think?"

Blake continued to ignore Yang in the hopes that she would calm down and leave her alone. However, Yang did not calm down as she continued to pester her mysteriously silent partner.

"C'mon Blake, what do you think?"

Blake finally turned to face the grinning blonde.

"I think we should focus on observing our surroundings and remaining alert so we don't get ambushed by Grimm."

"Aww, baby, don't be like that. If anything appears I'll punch it and you'll-" Yang trailed off for a moment as she thought back to what Blake had done to the Ursa. "You'll use- Hm. Whatever your weapon does to- I don't know, stab them?"

"Do you ever close your mouth?"
"I try not to. Though, if you want it closed, you can always do so with your lips."

Blake cast a withering side-glare at her partner, who remained rather un-withered. After a moment of silence as playful lilac stared into calculating honey, Yang moved a step away from Blake as the two continued to follow the trail of destruction.

Still, to make sure that no one felt that she was intimidated by the brunette, Yang continued to speak.

"Ooh." She drew out the vowels of her enunciation, continuing with "You're one of the quiet and mysterious ones. Don't worry, I'll open you up."

Blake shivered at the underlying implications of the blonde's statement. This Yang Xiao Long was going to be a handful, but maybe not in a bad way.

The Blood Gulch Crew reached the structure containing the relics. When Wash saw the Stonehenge-esque structure and the age of the rocks, he mentally prepared himself for ensuing destruction and hoped that there wasn't any meaning to the structure. Some way, somehow, the BGC would find a way to smash it to pieces.

His focus was drawn to the model chess pieces next, and it occurred to him that these were the relics they were looking for. Either that or they were random chess pieces in a random stone shrine in the middle of nowhere and the Headmaster was a terrible person. The rest of the Blood Gulch Crew didn't seem to share that opinion, however.

"Cool! We're done right?"

"We better be. I'm exhausted."

"No, we still have to take these back, right?"
"Back where? We got launched off of a f*cking cliff, what are we supposed to do, climb it?"

"Probably."

"Hell no!"

"Heh heh. Watching Grif suffer trying to climb a cliff? Sign me up. Hell, if he can't make it up, I'll blow him up! With my shotgun."

"Have him suffer annihilation."

"O'Malley, we've talked about annihilating others before, we're not supposed to - oh god, uh, Doctor Grey, he's under control, please don't taser me!"

"Enough. We'll just head back in the direction of our starting place. Hopefully, we don't have to climb, but we don't have any other instructions." Wash restored some semblance of aura-der (shoot me now) and the BGC stepped forward to see their selection. There were chess pieces from both sides, white and black, as well as a random assortment of types. Wash wondered what the chess pieces meant.

Maybe the groups of four were made from pairing two similar chess pieces together?

If so, was it based on the type or by the color?

Maybe the chess pieces were identifiers of personality and opposing pieces would be paired together, so maybe a rook represented a blunt/consistent personality and would be paired with a bishop that represented a willingness to go between obstacles?

Maybe pawns were more defensive and knights were more creative?

"Do these mean anything?" Simmons asked.

"The f*ck if I know," said Tucker, snapping up a black knight. "I'll just grab this, I don't know, pawn?"

"That's not a pawn, that's a knight."

"Do I look like I care?"

"You're wearing a helmet retard," Grif smirked. "We can't see your face, thankfully."

"It's called body language, first of all, and reading bodies is something I'm good at. Bow chicka bow wow. Second, f*ck you."

"Ahahahah! I have three!" Caboose was juggling a black pawn, bishop, and rook rather adeptly.

"Dirty blue!" Sarge shouted, scrambling to snatch as many pieces as he could, shouting "You're not better than us! We've got more pieces than you! Therefore, we win!"

"That's not how chess works!" Simmons was screaming in anguish, horrified at the mockery of chess his teammates were making.

Wash blinked. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Reds and Blues didn't care for symbolism. He shrugged and grabbed a black knight. He made Caboose and Sarge choose one, with Caboose choosing the rook because it looked strong and Sarge holding on a white pawn, the same type of piece Grif had chosen. Doc & Grey chose a black bishop. He then called Carolina, informing her that he'd accomplished their objective.

"Carolina, this is Wash. The relics are at the structure you guessed they were at. I've already got one, and so have the others."

"Good w-" The rest of Carolina's sentence was drowned out by a large crash. Her hurried tone also gave away the fact that she was running, rather quickly from the sound of it. There was also shouting in the background.

"Carolina? What's going on?"

"I think we're pretty close to you. I don't think we can lose the massive scorp-"

"Carolina?"

"Just get ready for a fight!"

"Copy."

Wash turned to the others and shouted for them to stop fooling around and get their weapons ready.

"What's going on?" asked Donut.

"Carolina and some others are on the way." Wash said.

"I don't like that tone of voice. There's usually a 'but' in there." said Doc, before switching into O'Malley and declaring arrogantly, "Let them come!"

"Bow chicka bow wow!"
Wash sighed. "The 'but' is that they're being chased by a massive scorpion."

"Bow chicka bow wow! Wait, did you say 'massive scorpion' somewhere in that sentence?" asked Tucker.

"Sheila?" said Caboose.
"Hell no!" Tucker looked terrified, stepping far away from Caboose.

"Doesn't matter. Shotgun can kill it."

"I don't know. Maybe we should just run." Simmons said.

"F*ck that." Grif however, was less inclined to flee for his life as that required running, something he did not like.

Then Carolina, Pyrrha, Jaune, Ruby, and Weiss broke through the treeline, sprinting into the clearing at the same time Yang and Blake arrived. Nora and Ren also appeared, walking in with Yang and Blake.

Then the Deathstalker knocked over several trees and crashed into view.

"F*CK THAT!"

"Bow chicka bow wow!"

Grif (along with the rest of the BGC) appeared far more eager to flee than before, except for Caboose.

"Hey, that isn't Sheila."

Yang looked over at him in confusion. "Sheila? She must have really been someone to get compared to a Deathstalker."

"Yang, don't be rude." Blake didn't want to antagonize the armored men. She remembered them from the previous night, especially the one with yellow accents. That one was someone she wanted to stay far away from, as it reminded her too much of Atlesian special forces. The others, well, they just seemed dangerous in a chaotic stupid kind of way.

Wash turned, scanning the new arrivals. In addition to the firepower the BGC possessed, they now had four more initiates, along with the five who were the primary target of the Deathstalker. The sixteen should be enough to take down this monster, or the Headmaster seriously didn't take the dangers of the forest into account before hurling his new students in.

Carolina saw Wash and the others, as well as several other initiates. She looked around and saw that the red and white girls with them were even with her. After failing to notice Pyrrha and Jaune however, she glanced back and saw Jaune several meters behind her and Pyrrha even further back, almost within reach of the Deathstalker.

"Pyrrha!"

The girl in question looked up and nodded but didn't change her pace at all, maintaining a tantalizing distance in front of the massive scorpion.

She's distracting it from Jaune.

Carolina realized her intentions and slowed down slightly, angling her body so she could look back easier. Her heart leaped into her throat when the Deathstalker took a swing at Pyrrha.

"On your left!"

The Mistralian champion jumped up, going through the gap in the Deathstalker's claw before tucking and rolling, barely losing her stride. But that slight difference now meant that she was within the Deathstalker's range. Carolina turned and drew her pistol, firing shots at the massive scorpion's armored carapace and rushing to help her doppelganger. Pyrrha sprinted as quickly as possible to get out of range but wasn't quick enough.

The Deathstalker's tail lashed downwards, Pyrrha evading by the slimmest of margins. She raised her shield to deflect a blow from an armored claw, using the impact to help her jump backward in order to avoid being trampled. Carolina was attracting aggro as well, sprinting forward as Pyrrha ran back. The freelancer knew that her pistol would do nothing to the scorpion, and had pulled out her grappling gun instead. She aimed low for one of the toppled trees behind the scorpion Grimm and fired, the steel claw biting deep into the wood. As soon as she felt the impact, the freelancer activated the pulling mechanism, dragging her rapidly under the Deathstalker. As she released the claw and rolled to a crouch, she glanced back and saw the massive scorpion turn to face her. Carolina jumped, fired, and dragged herself into a nearby tree that was left unharmed by the Deathstalker's rampage through the forest.

"Stay there!"

When Pyrrha heard Carolina's shout, her head snapped up and she stopped herself from attacking the Deathstalker from behind, keeping her body in a defensive stance. She was roughly ten meters away from the massive Grimm, meaning Carolina was about thirty meters away.

Carolina watched the Grimm charge the tree she was standing in. When it didn't smash head first into the trunk as she expected, clearly smarter than it looked, she shook her head in disappointment and crouched in a standard sprinting stance. Accessing her upgrades briefly, she launched herself into the air.

Pyrrha watched the teal freelancer soar, backing away slightly and making positional adjustments so that Carolina would land on top of her. Pyrrha set herself and braced.

Carolina landed on Akouo in a crouch, both feet making contact simultaneously.

In that instant, Pyrrha crouched as well, before pushing backward and upwards.

Carolina used the added momentum to spring forward and flip. Pyrrha had already regained her feet and the two redheads sprinted towards the stone structure, having given Ruby, Weiss, and Jaune enough time to reach the others and created space between them and the massive scorpion.

Ren raised an eyebrow at the instant teamwork from the two armored figures. He was pretty sure that one of them was the undefeated Mistralian champion known as the "Invincible Girl", as her flaming-red hair was pretty unique. The other one looked more like an Atlesian Knight drone but moved far too quickly and lithely to be a machine. They didn't look like a pair, as Pyrrha Nikos's armor was smooth and form-fitting, and clearly designed with an eye for fashion, a stark contrast with the teal figure. The other one's design was far more angular and utilitarian. It was clearly meant to be as tough as it looked. Ren looked around discreetly, taking in the reactions of those around him. The black-haired girl with the bow that almost looked like ears was also watching them carefully and analyzing their actions. She seemed like she was an experienced trainee from one of the rural villages, watching for enemies everywhere. The blonde girl next to her whistled in appreciation while the black-and-red girl that had announced herself as the blonde's sister upon arrival was preparing her weapon, a little too eager to get to fighting. The clearly-Atlesian girl was glaring angrily at the previous girl. The blonde boy was staring at the two women in action with clear awe and what appeared to be guilt. Nora, well, she was eyeing the Grimm the way he stared at his ramen while it was microwaving.

The other armored figures appeared very different from himself and the other girls. Though he and the other girls wore very unique and different outfits, the armor of the unknown figures seemed to have more in common with the teal-armored fighter bolting over to them at this moment. Maybe they were from some new Atlesian prep-combat school?

Meanwhile, Jaune was staring at the chess pieces, wondering what they symbolized. He also wondered how they were going to carry them. They weren't large, but they weren't pocket-sized either.

Carolina and Pyrrha slid to a halt in the midst of the others. Carolina swept the group with practiced eyes, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses to create a plan for the upcoming fight. She had time to organize before the Deathstalker got to close, but reality didn't oblige her as the girl with the red cape dashed off.

Ruby launched herself as quickly as she could at the Deathstalker. She knew she didn't have much in the way of social skills, mainly letting her combat speak for her. Now it was time for Crescent Rose to do the talking and show Weiss Schnee just who she'd been partnered with. Her silver eyes tunneled in on the Deathstalker, the armored scorpion monster the only thing of importance. As a result, she didn't hear the protests from her sister and Jaune Arc and the teal-armored figure, nor did she catch the massive Nevermore that was making its way over.

Carolina groaned internally, wondering how to pull the girl back. She couldn't use the grappling gun, that would injure the girl. She couldn't use her speed upgrades, those weren't fast enough. No other options, she'd just have to rally the others and hope the red-caped girl had more combat skill than common sense. Tactically, aside from laying down to die, there really wasn't a worse option than charging forward at a speed no one else to could match against a monster that probably needed artillery fire to kill.

"Let's go!"

Wash and the other members of the BGC (and assorted medical staff) sprinted forward, Carolina's shout acting as a starter pistol. Yang had already launched herself forward to catch up to Ruby. They made it about thirty yards before a razor-sharp feather storm halted their advance, as well as trapping Ruby in the path of the Nevermore.

Wash's eyes widened as the girl's cape was staked to the ground by an extremely oversized feather.

Forget the cape!

Mental shouts didn't do anything, and he mentally prepared himself for a scene he'd witnessed many times before as the massive stinger lanced towards the trapped initiate.

Yang's lilac eyes darkened as she wove in between the maze of oversized feathers, desperately trying to reach her sister.

Ruby closed her eyes and covered her head in a futile attempt to ward off death. When death didn't arrive on time, she opened her eyes and froze, as motionless as the Deathstalker's stinger. The Schnee heiress's voice broke the silence that enveloped Ruby's world. The caped girl heard but didn't interpret much of the other girl's words.

"But I guess I can work with you."

That phrase, however, cut through the shock. A partnership to rock the world of Remnant was formed, a dance of snowflakes and rose petals to entrance all who saw them.

Ozpin narrowed his eyes slightly, watching the scene before him. He'd decided to partner Schnee and Rose, an idea that was possibly good and possibly bad. Schnee had far more maturity and a more pessimistic view than that of Rose, but both lacked proper social skills and had conflicting personalities. He knew he had been taking a risk, letting Rose into Beacon two years early, and it was for the exact reason she had just displayed. She was too eager, too optimistic. She believed that everything was cut-and-dry, black-and-white. A trait that would make her into a symbol, a trait that many would declare her a hero for. But it was a trait that needed to be adapted, and quickly. It would be better to encourage her to kill her naivete before her naivete killed her. He should probably keep Nikos in a situation close to Rose, in the hope that her mental maturity would rub off.

Perhaps the freelancers could also help. Their experiences clearly demonstrated that they had long taken off the rose-tinted glasses and seen the horrors that humanity could commit. The grey one had demonstrated impressive leadership, corralling the other members of his group while the teal one had been able to synchronize with Nikos and had the air of a shot-caller.

He was glad that he'd allowed Nikos to get into contact with her doppelganger. By altering the launch pad trajectories, Ozpin maintained a surprisingly strong influence as to who got paired with who. Not only had he decided that the teamwork between the redheads was something worth developing, but he'd also been able to test his hypothesis that aura was an asset that couldn't be used by the extraterrestrials. A formidable group of warriors with superior and alien technology was already unnerving enough. If they had the natural privileges of Remnant, they would become infinitely more terrifying.

Ozpin's focus then shifted to Arc. He clearly had confidence problems, likely stemming from his partnership with Nikos and encounter with the freelancer known as Carolina. Ozpin sighed as he recognized that Arc already knew the best course of action to take, but was going to let someone else do it for him due to his lack of confidence in his abilities. He knew that Goodwitch didn't agree with him about letting the blonde into the school. The one thing they had agreed on after getting over that was that Nikos needed to be paired with Arc. However, Glynda didn't think that Jaune should ever be a leader and that placing Nikos under him would not be a good idea. In Ozpin's mind, it was perfectly rational. Nikos didn't want to be a leader. Arc had a better tactical vision and his lack of skill would complement a defensive shot-calling style. He only needed to change his perception of what a Huntsman was and be willing to take up that role. Therefore, a partnership with the amiable and adaptive Pyrrha Nikos would be the best way to push him in the right direction.

As for Arc's team, he needed something that was tactically sound. Nikos would be a mid-range fighter, adept at any combat range and able to execute anything Arc ordered. But she lacked firepower and her shield obstructed her from extreme close-quarters combat. Maybe Belladonna and Xiao Long could be a good fit. But it would be better to keep Xiao Long on a team with her sister. His decision to make Rose a leader would naturally draw a negative reaction from Schnee, and Rose might capitulate to that sort of negative pressure if she didn't have any support from the team.

This year's generation had an incredible amount of talent. It was his job to allocate and create the best environment for it to develop to its full potential.

The massive raven winged itself away from the battlefield. It had initially smelled blood, but its partner on the ground had been frozen in place and the Nevermore itself had been forced away after taking surface-to-air fire from the blond girl, the pink one, and several of the strange armored figures. It wasn't going to give up so easily, however, now that it was on a warpath. It circled and tracked its prey from high above, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

Ruby stepped back into the arms of her sister. The assembled team RWBY made their way back to the relics.

"Hey, red!"

Ruby and Yang looked over to see the teal-armored figure from before walk over to them. Everyone looked over, wondering what was going to happen, except for the grey figure, which was focused on the temporarily-trapped Deathstalker.

"Don't ever do that again. Charging into an enemy that is clearly more than you can handle without a plan or backup is just suicide."

Ruby felt her eyes water slightly at the rebuke. Yang came to her defense and began yelling at the teal-armored figure. Ruby just wanted to prove that she belonged here. But nothing she did today seemed right. First Weiss was angry at her, now someone else. No, she couldn't break down and cry. She promised herself, she would prove that she belonged at Beacon. At the same time, she accepted the unknown woman's criticism.

"It's fine Yang, that really was a stupid decision."

Ruby Rose was finally maturing.

Carolina nodded, the red-caped girl had clearly accepted her criticism. There was no need to admonish her further, that would be a dick move. This girl, Ruby. At least she wasn't as immature as she seemed. If she was, she really shouldn't be here. She wondered if Ozpin had anticipated this. It would make sense, the man was obviously incredible at reading people. If so, that meant he'd admitted Jaune for a reason as well. Carolina decided to pay more attention to him.

"Jaune, what should we do?"

The man in question blinked in surprise as the spotlight was dropped on him. Carolina had been the center of attention as she criticized Ruby. Now that focus was solely upon Jaune Arc.

"Um, we should get the relics, right?"

Everyone nodded, more or less accepting his leadership. Ren spoke up, saying that his partner had already selected one, and everyone else declared that they'd retrieved their relics as well.

A sharp crack from the Deathstalker's ice prison was something that no one else heard. However, Wash had his eye on the thing and alerted everyone else.

"Let's just run."

Again, all eyes turned to Jaune Arc.

"There's no reason for us to fight. Right now, our goal is to get the relics and get out."

Ruby nodded in agreement and spoke up as well, saying "Yeah, Ozpin didn't say anything about fighting Grimm, he just said that we had to destroy anything that tried to stop us."

Hearing agreement from the person who appeared to want to fight the most brought everyone to rationality. With the exception of Jaune, every huntsmen/huntress had forgotten their original objective. Even Pyrrha and Blake had forgotten, Pyrrha distracted by her teamwork with Carolina and Blake by the presence of the BGC. The BGC was different because they were either a well-trained operative focused on completing objectives or they were lazy and were fine with doing the bare minimum.

The sixteen initiates turned and left, running back to the cliff from where they'd been launched. The Deathstalker struggled, angered that its prey paid it no attention and simply jogged away.

Ozpin smiled. The teal freelancer was proving enormously helpful. Her admonishment of Rose was a large step in helping the young girl mature. Receiving criticism this early and learning to accept it was great, and the freelancer had capitalized on the life-threatening nature of the experience to make it resonate. As for Arc, whether or not she'd meant to gather everyone's attention with her and then shift it onto Arc, by taking charge of the situation and asking Jaune for a plan, she'd established credibility in Jaune's abilities and given him a measure of authority his body language and actions wouldn't have. Therefore, his idea of leaving hadn't been interpreted as a cowardly "let's run away"; it was a rational "stay on target" that would be easier to accept. He watched as the sixteen initiates headed toward the finish line.

The Blood Gulch Crew was evenly spread out among the teams. Carolina had drifted towards Pyrrha, dragging the rest of Blue Team and Dr. Grey over as well. Pyrrha and Jaune were running with the Asian warrior and the hammer girl who'd rode in on a Grimm, something Carolina had trouble believing as she'd only heard about it from Wash.

Red Team was closer to Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang. Yang and Ruby stuck together due to the experience with the Deathstalker, bringing their partners together. Red Team followed them on the orders of Sarge, who recognized that recruiting Pyrrha was a lost cause due to her friendliness with Carolina. Obviously enough, they weren't going to fight for Pyrrha against the number one freelancer. As a result, they set their sights on Ruby, with Doc tagging along with Red Team, partly because he was more familiar with Simmons and mostly because he wanted to stay away from Doctor Grey.