RWBY is not owned by me; it's owned by Rooster Teeth.

Chapter 3

"Wakey wakey!"

Most people would have been startled awake at Nora Valkyrie shouting right in their ear as they were sleeping, but Lie Ren wasn't most people. Having grown up with the crazy girl, he was more than used to all her little eccentricities, including her preferred method of waking him up. So, while he did wake up, it was more akin to somebody waking up to an alarm clock rather than someone almost given a heart attack.

"It's morning! It's morning! It's morning! It's! Morning!" Nora sang as she danced around Ren, who got up and stretched, seemingly ignoring her. "I can't believe we've been at Beacon for a whole twenty-four hours, and I haven't even smashed anyone yet! I mean, just look at what happened with-"

Ren didn't respond, only partially listening to her. After knowing her for so long, he'd learned to tune Nora out, mentally separating what little useful tidbits there were from the insane prattle she so often spouted. Nora obliviously chattered on.

"-and it's about time we appeared! Then again, this is about the same time we appeared in canon, but it's not like other fics haven't had us appear earlier. And what is-"

Ren continued with his morning, i.e. getting dressed, eating breakfast, and generally preparing for the day while Nora continued to prattle at a rapid fire pace, the subjects shifting like sand.

"-also, have you heard the talk about teams and partners? I hope we wind up on the same team together. Can you imagine if we got assigned to different teams?"

Now what she was saying was relevant. "I'll try my best to make sure we're teammates, but if we're not, please take it easy on your actual team," Ren said.

Nora had already switched subjects. "Hey, have you heard about Ozpin? Apparently, he's got the world's biggest-" Ren tuned her out once again as they arrived at the locker room. As he prepared his weapons, Nora did the same, still talking of course. Suddenly, she looked in the direction of two girls speaking to each other. "Hey, who are they? Let's go introduce ourselves!" Nora took off while Ren followed her. He'd better make sure that Nora didn't start anything.

"You know, Yang, you might want to wait until after initiation to check for any of Uncle Qrow's hidden booze." Ruby remarked as she prepared Crescent Rose while watching her sister search the locker room.

"But we'll be assigned our teams by then!" Yang countered. "Who knows how some of our teammates would feel about drinking? Some of the might be total narcs."

"'Our' teammates?" Ruby said. "You're automatically assuming we'll wind up on the same team together?"

"Don't you want to be on the same team?" Yang asked.

"Of course I do," Ruby answered, "but don't you think-"

She was interrupted by Nora, who bounded up to them with Ren behind her. "Hello! I'm Nora and this guy here is Ren!"

"Um… hi." Ruby said uncertainly. If Nora noticed, she gave no sign. "I'm Ruby. This is my sister, Yang."

"So, you're the protagonist, huh? Been shipped with anybody yet?" Nora asked, much to Ruby's bemusement. A glance at Yang told her that her sister was every bit as confused as she was. Nora simple continued to talk. "So, is there- mph!" She was interrupted by Ren covering her mouth with his hand, not that she noticed. She continued to prattle on, oblivious to the fact that her words were completely muffled.

"Please do not try to understand her," Ren warned. "That way lies madness." With that, he took his hand off of Nora's mouth, who continued right on talking.

"-with nothing but a tube of toothpaste and some paperclips! And I said, 'Like I'm really gonna eat a whole bunch of bananas after that?'"

"Come on, Nora," Ren said. "We'd better head out."

"Alright! Let's go!" Nora took off, literally bouncing off the walls as she went. Ren followed her at a much more leisurely pace.

The two sisters stared at the retreating duo. "Well… that was a thing," Yang remarked. She turned to her left and saw Jaune wandering around, looking down at a piece of paper he was carrying and mumbling. "Hey look! It's Vomit Boy!"

Jaune didn't notice her; he was too busy scowling at the paper in his hands. "There's no way that was my locker number! Why did this have to happen today!?" As he continued to groan to himself, he noticed Weiss and the red-headed girl she was speaking to. Hello hot white-haired chick!

"So, Pyrrha," Weiss said, feigning a nonchalant attitude. "Have you decided on who you want to partner up with? I'm sure you've had a shit-ton of people clamoring for your attention."

"I haven't really thought about it much," Pyrrha Nikos said truthfully. "I was planning on just letting the chips fall where they may." She began looking at Weiss up and down. She knew where this was going.

"Well, maybe we could be on a team together," Weiss replied, a bit nervous at the expression on Pyrrha's face. She'd heard the rumors about the Mistralian fighter's… "habits" of course, but she'd taken them with a grain of salt.

"That sounds grand," Pyrrha said, slowly approaching Weiss. The Schnee heiress backed up a bit, starting to regret asking her. Suddenly, they were interrupted by Jaune, who leaned on the wall next to them.

"You know what else is grand?" he asked. "Me. Jaune Arc. Nice to meet you."

"And you expect me to have any fucks to give because…" Weiss countered, feeling an odd mix of relief and annoyance.

"So, I've been hearing rumors about teams," Jaune said, trying way too hard to sound suave and failing miserably. "I was thinking you and me would make a good one? What do you say?"

"Does my recoiling from you in disgust give you a hint?" Weiss snapped.

"No, not really," Jaune replied.

"You know," Pyrrha spoke up, "I believe the teams are composed of four students each."

"You don't say." Jaune said before turning towards Pyrrha and making extremely cheesy poses. "Well, hot stuff, play your cards right and you just might wind up on the winning team."

"Do you have any idea who you're talking to, dumbass?!" Weiss demanded, shoving Jaune away from Pyrrha.

"Not in the slightest, Snow Angel."

"This is Pyrrha Nikos. She graduated at the top of her class at Sanctum Academy."

"Never heard of it."

"She won the Mistral Region Tournament four years in a row. A new record I might add."

"The what?"

Weiss scowled. "She's on the front of every Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes box!"

"That's you?!" Jaune gasped. "They only do that for star athletes and cartoon characters!"

"I just wish I'd gotten on the box of a better cereal," Pyrrha grumbled. "That pumpkin stuff is shit."

"And here you are, acting like being on a team with this world renowned fighter would be doing her just a huge favor." Weiss said. "Yeah, real great favor there."

"Hey now," Pyrrha interjected, "I wouldn't mind working… closely with you, Jaune." She walked up to him until they were almost face to face. Jaune backed up a bit, suddenly nervous and unwittingly mirroring Weiss's actions beforehand.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me." Weiss grumbled as she stormed off.

The students were gathered at the cliff overlooking the Emerald Forest, each standing atop a platform, while Ozpin and Glynda faced them.

"For years, you've all trained to become warriors. Today, we'll see if you trained hard enough," Ozpin began. Jaune gulped, while the rest of his future classmates simply smirked. "Now, I'm sure you've all heard rumors about partners and/or teams," the Headmaster continued, "We'll put an end to any confusion you might have. Each of you will be given partners. Today." Several students looked apprehensive at that. "So it is in your best interest to pair with someone whom you can work well with. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with upon landing the forest will be your partner for the next four years."

"What?!" Ruby shouted, a sentiment echoed by many of her fellow hunters in training.

Glynda spoke up: "Each of you will make your way through the Emerald Forest. There you will find a series of relics. Each pair will pick up one relic then head to the abandoned temple on the other side of the forest."

"Now, are there any questions?" Ozpin asked.

"I-I do sir-" Jaune began, but Nora interrupted him:

"What's the meaning of life? What's the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? What's the sound of one hand clapping? Why did the chicken cross the road? How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"

"Forty-two; between thirty to forty miles per hour; woosh; to get to the other side; and around eight to ten pounds every few minutes or so, depending on the size and species of woodchuck, as well as the type of wood." Ozpin replied without missing a beat. "Now are there any other questions?"

"Yes sir!" Jaune spoke up again, louder this time; but Ozpin ignored him.

"Good!" he said. "Now, while the Emerald Forest is teeming with Grimm, they're all of the lesser variety, so have fun with them." Most of the students (particularly Ruby) were grinning fiercely, but Jaune was practically shaking. "Ready your landing strategies children, because you're heading out riiiiiight… now!" All of a sudden, the platforms shot up, catapulting the students standing on them into the air and off of the cliff.

"I thought we were going to launch them one at time," Glynda said.

"Oh yeah, that's a lot of fun." Ozpin said.

It was a picture of tranquility as a bird flew lazily above the treeline- before a certain red-clad teenager smacked into it.

"Ack!" Ruby cried out, as she frantically wiped off the splattered remains of what had been a small bird, before unfolding Crescent Rose and using its blade to swing herself around the trees. Her new classmates fell all around her, using their own strategies to slow their falls. Weiss summoned glyphs under herself to bounce off them one by one, while Nora slammed her hammer Magnhild into tree after tree, prolonging her flight, cackling all the while. Blake switched Gambol Shroud to its kusarigama form and swung it at a nearby tree branch, using it as a grappling hook; meanwhile, Ren hooked one of Storm Flower's blades around a tree trunk and swung around and down, before landing safely. Yang didn't even bother to slow her descent, choosing instead to simply slam into the ground. She stood right back up, easily tanking the impact of the fall. Jaune, on the other hand, wasn't having such an easy time, and was sure he was going to die, before being snagged by Pyrrha's weapon Milo in its javelin form, pinning him to a nearby tree.

"Thank you!" he called out.

After landing, Ruby took off, looking for her sister. It would probably be better if she teamed up with somebody who she wouldn't be constantly trying to bang, she thought.

"Yang!" Ruby called out. "Ya-" she didn't finish, as she smacked right into a certain girl in white.

"Ow! Get off!" snapped Weiss as she shoved the younger girl off of her.

"Well, I guess this makes us partners," Ruby said.

"No." Weiss replied. "Nuh-uh. Not gonna happen. Absolutely not. No way. No chance in hell. Negative. Fuck no." With that, she stormed off.

"Hey!" Ruby protested. "We're supposed to be teammates!"

Weiss ignored her and continued to walk through the bushes, stopping when she came to a particularly large tree with a certain blond boy stuck to it.

"Uh… hey, Snow Angel," Jaune called out.

Weiss turned around and grabbed Ruby. "By no means does this make us friends," she grumbled.

"You came back!" Ruby shouted as Weiss dragged her off. Why am I so happy about that? she wondered.

"Wait!" Jaune cried out, practically on the verge of tears. "Who's gonna get me down from here?!"

"Well, I guess I could," spoke up a familiar-sounding voice. Jaune looked down and spotted Pyrrha, staring up at him with an unsettling grin on her face.

Jaune chuckled nervously.

"I swear, if I get a bad grade because you're too slow…" Weiss started, only to be interrupted by her new partner zooming ahead of her.

"Do I look slow to you?" Ruby said, smirking. "Speed is my semblance."

"Whoop dee do for you." Weiss snapped. "If you're done aggravating me, let's get going."

"You know, we're gonna be partners for the next four years, so you might want to try not being a total bitch for two seconds." Ruby said.

"Do you see this face?" Weiss asked, pointing towards herself.

"Uh.. yes?"

"This is my not giving a fuck face."

Before Ruby could retort, both she and Weiss became aware that they weren't alone. Sometime during their argument, a pack of Beowolves had emerged from the forest and had surrounded them.

"Shit," both girls said.

End of Chapter 3