"Fans we have an insane game on our hands here! Signal is looking to clinch their seed in the nationals against baukna. Both teams are fighting for that last seed and both teams are tied at two goals a piece!" A tall man called as his short partner laughed. "Yes indeed Oobleck these teams are both trying to make an entrance as the final seed but we can't forget Flare. That school also has a match later and has a similar differential to these teams."

"Oh and would you look at that! The superstar Striker for Signal has gotten the ball. What will Ruby Rose do today?" The short man said as a short girl with black hair and red highlights got the ball.

She wore the signal academy jersey that was yellow with white stripes running along it vertically with white shorts. She also had a black compression shirt underneath.

She raced forwards, blitzing the opponents as she guided the ball to the goal. "Alright Ruby. You got this.!" She thought in her head as she raced forward. "50 seconds left! One more goal and this is ours! We're going to the nationals!" She thought as she zeroed in on the goal.

Right as Ruby was within range she heard her teammate call out to her. "Ruby, I'm open! Pass it here!" An orange-haired girl called and Ruby turned her head towards her and stopped.

Why should she pass? The goal was right there? If she just shoots… "Ruby! Pass!" The girl screeched as Ruby shook her head.

"Let me think!" Ruby thought. But that moment of hesitation was all it took for it to be Ruby's downfall. "Thanks for this genius!" A girl said as she stole the ball from Ruby. "Wait-" Ruby said as she fell over from the sudden ball steal. "Ruby you idiot!" The orange-haired girl screeched again.

The girl then passed the ball far into another girl as she trapped the ball with her chest and landed before rushing forward. "And now we have another superstar with the ball! After Ruby's blunder, how will Cinder Fall take this?" The announcers called.

"Like an arrow in the quiver. The ball will fly precisely and beautifully!" Cinder said with a smirk before she fired the ball at the net. The goalkeeper attempted to block but just narrowly missed the mark.

GOAL

Signal 2- 3 Baukna

The buzzer went off and the crowd erupted into cheers as Baukna hounded cinder and sang her praise. Ruby just sat there as her teammates all seemed frustrated.

Shortly after the game the coach got the girls together. "Ok girls, we had a tough game today. Dwelling on the past won't make us improve though. We need to make some changes." The coach said. "Some of us more than others…" The orange-haired girl from earlier grumbled as she glared at Ruby.

"No need for all that, mistakes happen. Seems it wouldn't have mattered though. Flare beat their opponent 4-2 and clinched the final seed. We never had a chance." The coach said as he put his hat over his eyes.

Clearly he was upset with the loss. The team was too. But despite that the team lost in such a close game… it was clear who they had decided to blame.

Ruby was walking home dejected before she heard her name being called. She turned and saw the orange-haired girl glaring at her. "Nice going Rose. We'd be in the nationals if not for your failure!" She cried as her fists shook with anger.

Ruby said nothing and simply turned away… and ran. "Yeah run away! It's the only thing you're good for!" The girl shouted at Ruby from afar.

Ruby kept running as tears leaked from her eyes. Of course it was her fault… of course she'd lost… but… it hurt far more being told that from someone else.

Ruby ran all the way home and rushed into the house before slamming the door and rushing to her room where she threw her bag aside and jumped into her bed before screaming into her pillow.

"DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT!" Ruby screamed as she failed her legs like a child. It wasn't fair, it wasn't fair! NOTHING WAS FAIR!

Knocking came from Ruby's door and she got up and opened it up. "Oh hey Yang…" Ruby said as Yang looked at her. "You alright Rubes?" Asked Yang as Ruby sighed. "Do I look alright?" Ruby snapped before her eyes widened and she shook her head. "I'm sorry Yang, I'm just a little upset." Ruby said.

"I'll say… wanna talk about it?" Yang offered.

"So you fucked up the final goal?" Yang asked as Ruby sighed again. "Yep… I ruined our chances of going to the nationals…" Ruby said. Yang leaned back. "I dunno about that. I saw Flare's record. They had one more over you in differential. They would've had to lose or you would've had to win by at least 2 more points." Ruby perked up at that but still sighed. "Yeah but my teammates didn't think so." Ruby grumbled.

Yang laughed. "Honestly… when I'm playing sometimes I forget about my teammates… scoring becomes all that matters to me." Yang's eyes had a glint to them as if she was thinking about the countless goals she's scored due to her greedy playstyle.

"Easy for you to say sis… You're a legend out of Signal… I'm just me…" Ruby sighed for the umpteenth time. Yang then smirked. "Well… I… or should I say we got an interesting proposition." Yang then stood up and walked out of the living room before entering with some mail. "I already opened mine but they sent you one too." Yang said as she handed Ruby the envelope.

Ruby tore it open before reading the letter.

Ruby Rose. We invite you to a new training system for young and upcoming strikers under the age of 18. We have analyzed your skills and deemed you worthy alongside 299 other strikers to have the ability to join Beacon and become the greatest striker in all of football… we invite you to…

"Red Lock… The places where dreams of football come true…" Ruby read aloud as she looked at the letter. "I have no idea what Red Lock is but I'm interested in this becoming the greatest striker thing. I've been thinking about going to Beacon and getting to play on that prestigious team but if this is a gateway to that success then I'm taking it!" Yang said.

Ruby then looked up at her "But I'm only 15! How am I supposed to play for a team like this?!" Ruby flailed as Yang chuckled. "You likely won't be at the school. You'll be playing on the team. Even then… could you imagine if you got in a Beacon roster at 15? You'd be the bee's knees!" Yang said as Ruby's eyes glazed over. "The bee's knees…"

"Well… you in Ruby?" Yang asked as Ruby smiled up at her. "You bet sis!" Yang smiled back at her. "Well when you're ready just come outside. I'll get my stuff and we'll head there on Bumblebee.

Ruby nodded and raced upstairs. It didn't take her long to grab her things like her phone and bag. She was already in her school uniform so no reason to change. But before she left she walked by a door in the house and looked at it for a few seconds before walking in.

Yang tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for Ruby. "Just where is that girl?" Yang thought before her sister walked out of the house. "Finally, what took you so long?" Yang asked, handing Ruby a helmet.

Ruby put on the helmet before hopping on the back of bumblebee and wrapping her arms around her sister. "My bad. I needed some good luck." Ruby said as Yang's mouth made an O shape before she pressed on the gas and the girls took off.

The pair arrived at the large facility as Yang parked. "So this is Red Lock…" Yang said aloud as Ruby looked at the large place with her. "It's kind of intimidating…" Ruby said as Yang turned to her, grinning. "You scared?" Ruby looked up and shook her head with a smile. "Nope!" Ruby said before the two girls walked in.

The large room was packed with girls from different schools and Ruby and Yang were forced to take it all in. "Wow there's a lot here…" Yang said as Ruby smiled. "Look around! So many superstars! There's Pyrrha Nikos! Oh and Neo Politan! And… Cinder…" Ruby said as she remembered the girl who scored the final goal of their game.

Before Yang could question it a door opened and an older man appeared.

"Hello you unpolished gems… My name is Ozpin… and I am the reason you've all gathered here today." He said simply.

A screen then turned on behind him. "As you know Beacon is both a prestigious school as well as a dominant football club. However…" Ozpin said as the screen showed scorelines. "We have yet to produce a victory against the other 5 clubs from the other region and from our own. Around Remnant the other kingdoms have produced victories with Mistral being the most dominant with 3 out of 5 of their clubs tasting the sweet nectar of victory!"

Ozpin then pointed at the most recent score… a 0-4 loss to Atlas's elite squad. "Our most recent failure came from a loss to a team handpicked by my good friend Ironwood. It was this that made me begin to think about our consistent losses and it came to me!" Ozpin then dawned a smile.

"A world-class striker! That was what we never had in all of the years of the world stage! A striker that could mass produce goals with no issues. We had that once…" Spoke Ozpin as the screen showed a woman with silver eyes, raven hair with red tips.

Ruby's body went tense… the woman on the screen was… "Summer Rose… The greatest striker to ever play at Beacon! Even for the short time she did she went down in history as a legend! I aim to produce a striker of her caliber through this training facility… welcome to Red Lock!" Opzin said with a grin as the girls in the room all gulped.

Ruby stood there stunned. She spent most of her life idolizing her mother for her skill at football… she became a striker because of her… now here she was… at a training facility… She was going to become the greatest striker.

Ruby's legs moved before the rest of her body could catch up as she rushed past Ozpin and into the door that would lead to her new future.

Other girls tore off after Ruby and ran into the facility as Ozpin grinned. "Now you unpolished gems… the real challenge begins." He spoke.

The staff member Glynda Goodwich eventually took their phones and ordered them all to specific rooms. Each was given an assigned letter and Ruby's letter was X.

Ruby entered the room with a V over it to see 11 other girls. Ruby had been assigned a locker before so she walked over to it to gather what was inside. She opened it to see a black bodysuit with red lines over it. "Tacky as hell but I guess they have some use if they want us to wear them..." Ruby thought before she stripped down to her underwear and put the suit on. She turned and saw most of the other girls were wearing their bodysuits.

Ruby walked to the middle before she froze. "Well well well if it isn't the idiotic genius!" A voice called as Ruby turned to see the orange-haired girl from her team at Signal. "What are you doing here?" Ruby asked as the girl sneered at her. "Here to be the best! Though if trash like you is here then it won't be very difficult!"

A screen turned on as the girl finished talking to show Ozpin's face. "Hello you unpolished gems. As you may know there are 11 players on a football team minus substitutes… however…there are 12 of you in this room." The girls all started counting and realized that there were 12 of them.

"The first selection will be your team… team X against the other teams at Red Lock in your division. But before that we'll have to make the teams equal to a real football squad. Meaning…" Said Ozpin as a football dropped from the roof and rolled to Ruby's feet.

"You will all play a game of tag. Whoever gets hit with the ball is "it" so to speak. Whoever is it by the end of this minute will be ejected from Red Lock…" Ozpin said as the screen switched to a crude drawing of Ruby with the number 287 next to her. "Ruby Rose you have been determined as the weakest in your group and are it. You must hit someone else with the ball or your Red Lock dreams end here!" Ozpin said before he signed off and a timer started ticking down from 1 minute.

Ruby stood stunned for a few seconds. She had to hit someone with the ball before a minute passed or she'd never become the greatest striker…

The other girls were stunned for different reasons. "Rose? As in Summer Rose?" "Is she Summer's daughter?!" "No way… I didn't even know she had a daughter." "Rose is a common last name, it's probably just a coincidence."

Ruby was snapped out of her thoughts as a voice said there were only 50 seconds left. Ruby panicked and rushed forward with the ball and shot it at a random girl. The girl barely dodged as the ball ricocheted off the wall and nearly hit another black-haired girl with amber eyes as she jumped up and dodged the ball expertly.

Another girl with blond hair and blue eyes also dodged the ball.

Ruby kept trying to hit people desperately but she struggled severely. Her panic was messing her up completely. Soon a voice called 30 seconds left. Ruby continued to panic. Her dreams would end here if she failed to hit someone!

Ruby then calmed down and closed her eyes. "Just relax Ruby… panicking won't get you anywhere…" Ruby thought as she opened her eyes. Now with her mind cleared she noticed something. The room was the exact same as a penalty area! She was good here this was the territory of a striker.

Ruby then looked around and saw the perfect sport. "If I can corral people into that area then I'm guaranteed to hit at least one person!" Ruby thought before she rushed forward at a girl.

The girl ran to the side as Ruby feinted a shot before moving another girl into the same area. Ruby did this a few times before she heard the call of 15 seconds left… Ruby was going to slam the ball into a wall and have it ricochet into the crowd but then she heard that same voice. "Only 15 seconds left idiot genius! It's over soon!" The orange-haired girl said. Ruby's fists clenched as she turned to the girl. "This girl… she called me an idiot after she messed me up… she blames everyone else when she's just as at fault… I'm gonna kill her!" Ruby thought as her eyes began to swirl as a silver light emitted from the middle.

Ruby then slammed the ball into a wall and it bounced off and nearly missed the girl. "Ha nice Idiot genius! You missed-" The girl was suddenly shocked by Ruby rushing past her with her explosive acceleration.

Ruby caught up to the ball and turned to the orange-haired girl with her eyes still swirling. Her eyes fully trained on her opponent.

10 seconds left

The girl looked scared as Ruby glared up at her. "No… I can't dodge this… if she hits me… no! I can't lose to an idiot genius!" The girl thought as she leaned back but instead of shooting at her Ruby shot the ball into a wall. The girl turned to see the ball rushing at her. The ball slammed into her face and sent her flying back.

5 seconds left.

The girl struggled to get up and shook her head before she saw the ball. She rushed at it and attempted to kick it anywhere. Just somebody to keep her dream alive.

"That's time you unpolished gems!" Ozpin's voice came as he appeared on the TV. "With this we have our "it" now… Hilda… FUCK OFF!"

Hilda stood up and walked forward… What do you mean?! I COULD NEVER LOSE TO THAT IDIOT GENIUS!" Hilda screeched as she glared at Ruby with as much hatred as she could muster. "How… How did you do that shit?!" Hilda screamed. Ruby simply looked at her. "This is a penalty area… the zone of strikers… I know how to use this area." Ruby's eyes were swirling.

"Full points Ruby Rose! This is the same size as a penalty area. This is where strikers like you succeed the most. Those who couldn't figure that out… may not be worthy of being called strikers!" Ozpin said.

"Now Hilda… I believe I told you to lock off." Ozpin said before he signed off. Hilda gave Ruby another harsh glare before she stormed out with tears threatening to leak from her vision.

Ruby sighed as she watched her go… Finally Hilda was out of her hair… she turned to the other girls who looked at her. She had put their eyes on her and now had to produce.

This… is Red Lock

Hope you guys enjoyed that. I know I had fun cooking this up. I'll be using football over soccer despite me being american for this beacuse both mean the same thing soccer from the association part of association football and football from the football part. I'll also be genderbending some of the male characters to have more known players. Hope you enjoy. R/R and have a good one BYYEEEEEE