Orion walked up the stone path to the cliffs with his friends, getting more and more apprehensive as the ground rose higher in the sky.

"Orion!"

He looked back to see Weiss pushing people out of her way, stomping her feet as well as she could in high heels. "Did you give Jaune that putrid cologne of yours?"

Orion grinned. "Guilty as charged. In my defense, the bottle only said three sprays would do. It was his decision to dump the whole thing on himself."

If looks could kill, Orion would be six feet under. "It'll take weeks to get that smell out of my nose, maybe months! And it's all your fault!"

Orion continued walking. "Glad to be of assistance, dear cousin."

Weiss huffed and walked back to the end of the group. Idalia looked from where she left to Orion. "You two get along really well."

"Put two people with vastly different opinions under the same roof for a few years, they're bound to hate each other."

Suddenly, the crowd reached the top of the cliff. Just a few feet from the precipice were several square grey platforms. "Each of you place yourselves on the platforms, initiation is almost ready to begin," announced Professor Goodwitch.

Orion placed himself fourth from the leftmost side of the platforms, Idalia on the end, Noir next to her, and Naven next to him.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors," Professor Ozpin began. "And today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

"Now," Professor Goodwitch continued, "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."

Professor Ozpin resumed his spiel. "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. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die. You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

All of this information was met with varying degrees of shock, some looked like their worlds' were cracking, others acknowledged it with a casual shrug. Ozpin barely waited another second. "Good! Now take your positions."

Before Orion could react, a great metallic grinding started below their feet. Noir was launched into the air. Naven looked at Orion with a nervous face. "I'm regretting a lot of things right now."

Orion smiled at him. "Look on the bright side, though."

Idalia catapulted away. Naven almost jumped out of his skin. "What do you mean, 'bright side'?"

Orion bent his knees, preparing for takeoff. "The frequent flyer miles."

"I hate YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-!" Before he knew it, Naven was flying through the air, screaming.

Orion stole a look at the students to his right. Jaune seemed to still be having a conversation with Professor Ozpin, not at all prepared. A few stray eyes looked back at Orion, so he did his best to look as prepared as possible.

The platform underneath him suddenly made a large clunking sound, and thrust him into the air. Orion straightened himself out to become more aerodynamic. As he flew through the air, he closed his eyes for just a few seconds. In that time was pure bliss. When he opened his eyes, he checked behind him to see that he seemed to be further ahead than anybody else.

He turned back around to see trees rushing at him at a frightening pace. Seeing a particularly large and hefty branch, he reached out his right arm and shot out his sword. The cable connecting it to his wrist whined through the air until the sword embedded itself in the branch with a dull thud. In his arm, the rest of the cable reeled taut as Orion swung from the branch, flipped in midair, and landed soundly on the ground. As he looked around for friend or foe, he noted that he really wished someone could have seen it. He couldn't hear or see anything or anyone. Professor Ozpin said the temple would be to the north of the cliff, but Orion felt the need for a companion. He moved back the way he came, head on a swivel

As he ducked underneath a low branch, he heard a bloodcurdling growl that grew in loudness and number. Orion walked into a clearing with the sources of the growling. Four Beowolves looked at him menacingly with their red eyes. Orion stepped out into the middle of them as they surrounded him. He readied his shield and sword. "Alright boys, let's get this over with."

The Beowolf right in front of Orion lunged at him with its claws. Orion parried the blows with his sword, sidestepped the Beowolf, and slammed it with his shield. The two on either side of him ran at their prey. Seeing this, he grabbed his shield and hurled it at the Grimm on his right, embedding itself in its skin. Using a magnet connected to his shield on his left arm, he called the shield back, bringing the Beowolf with it. Orion waited until the last second, then ducked underneath the Grimm, turning off the magnet. The Beowolf slammed into the other with a howl.

Orion sensed something coming from behind him, and before he could react, the fourth Beowolf slammed into him, causing Orion to roll unceremoniously on the ground. He gritted his teeth and charged the beast. Ducking under its massive claws, Orion drove his sword upward through the Beowolf's head, killing it. The other three readied themselves for another attack, but before they could, they were blown back by three large explosions.

Orion looked behind him and saw Naven, holding his turret-shield, the barrels smoking. He walked over to Orion. "Figured you could need some help."

"Thanks," Orion grunted appreciatively. He pointed out two of the Beowolves that were still standing. "Might need a bit more help with these guys. I'll get the one on the right."

Together they ran at the Grimm, Naven charging with his tower shield, Orion throwing his shield behind his Beowolf's feet. Naven's Beowolf tried striking him from the lower half, but Naven pointed his shield at the ground and fired. Now in the air, he glowed with a blue sheen, unmoving, and rocketed downwards at the Beowolf like a meteor. He used the sharp part of his shield to slice into the Grimm, turning the beast to smoke. Orion jumped above his Beowolf and recalled his shield. The Grimm was tripped up and fell on its back, leaving Orion open for an attack.

With all four Grimm dispatched, the Huntsmen in training took a moment to assess their situation. Naven looked to the north. "You reckon we ought to keep moving north?"

Suddenly, something burst through the trees from the south. The both of them jumped into a defensive position to find Noir and Idalia running at them in a mad rush.

"OUT OF THE WAY!" Idalia yelled as she looked behind her and threw one of her chakrams at one of the three Ursas that were following them. It crackled with violet Dust energy and landed a hit on the Ursa's left arm, but didn't seem to impair it all that much. Idalia grimaced and held out her free hand. It glowed a purple color, as the chakram did, and the Ursa and the chakram slammed into the ground.

The other two Ursas continued forward, unmoved by their fallen ally. Noir ran close to the ground and pointed his sword upward into the Ursa closest to him and managed to get under one of the bony plates. Pushing up, he fired his gun into the Ursa. The Grimm bellowed in anger and pain and tried to swipe at him, connecting and sending Noir flying back. Just before he collided with a tree, green wings of what looked to be Aura sprouted from his back, allowing him to glide back to the ground safely.

No sooner had Noir's feet touched the ground were the Ursas bearing down on them. The non-injured Ursa took a swipe at Idalia. Her hands glowed purple again as she pointed them behind her. Orion, Noir, and Naven looked back just in time to see a gigantic oak tree flying towards them. All three of them ducked as the tree flipped over Idalia and crashed into the two Ursas, crushing them under its weight.

As the dust cleared, the boys staggered to their feet. They could just barely make out Idalia's silhouette dusting off her shoulders. "Are you crazy? You could have killed us!"

She put her hands on her hips. "First off, I didn't, and secondly, you boys are more than resourceful enough to handle yourselves. Shall we?" With that Idalia sauntered off to the north, three dazed Hunters in training following her wake.

They walked for awhile, Noir eventually taking the lead. Suddenly, he held his hand up. The party stopped in their tracks as he raised a finger to his lips. His wolf ears twitched with trepidation. His eyes widened and he motioned for the group to get down among the bushes. Suddenly, the team saw a large white coil slither along the ground, merging with a black coil, its heads hissing and snapping in the air. The King Taijitu moved among the trees past the team, and was soon out of sight and Noir's earshot. He made the motion to keep moving.

Slowly but surely they found a large clearing in the forest. The plains was peppered with gigantic feathers, from which the closest of them sprouted an icy protrusion. Beyond the feathers was a circular stone pedestal, surrounded by broken stone columns. On the pedestal sat several smaller columns, some of which had small shining objects on top of them.

Orion approached the icy structure, touching the cold spikes. He looked back at his party. "My cousin's been here, and from the looks of things, she's gotten into some trouble."

"With a Nevermore, by the looks of these feathers," Naven remarked.

Noir forged ahead past the two of them, pushing feathers out of his way. "We don't have a lot of time, let's keep moving."

They approached the dais, noticing that the shining objects on top of the smaller columns were black and white chess pieces. Naven saw a black horse on one of the columns and picked it up, shrugging at Orion."I suppose these are the artifacts?"

Orion nodded. "I'd certainly be surprised that the forest would grow these things naturally."

Suddenly, the column behind them exploded. Orion and Naven looked back to see a white blur headed towards their heads. Before they could do anything, they felt themselves get knocked back by some great force. Orion shook his head back and forth, trying to clear his vision.

When the world stopped spinning, he could see Noir and Idalia fighting the King Taiju. Idalia tried to keep her distance, Orion surmised that her Aura was not as strong as that of Noir's, who was in the thick of it, sometimes fighting one head at the same time as the other. Naven got up before Orion and joined the fray, his massive shield turrets blazing. Orion took a few more seconds to regain his balance before charging the massive snake.

The black head was primarily swatting at Idalia and Noir, Naven was taking on the white head by himself. He dodged the fanged strikes with his shield and his semblance, the King Taiju glancing blows off of his immoveable form, but one strike knocked him off balance. Orion saw the white head go in for a surely damaging strike, and leaped in the air over the head of the Grimm. He curled up his body behind his shield and allowed himself to fall to the earth, right on top of the King Taiju. The snake snarled and snapped his head around, allowing Orion to fall off. Suddenly the King Taiju was focused on the Schnee and not the Faunus.

Seeing that he was not ready to defend with his sword or shield, Orion instead smiled. Years of practice had honed his reflexes, working with his arms...and his semblance. Inside Orion's head, time slowed down, and he saw the white head of the Grimm coming at him at what must have been some impossible velocity, and he saw the black head waving back and forth trying to get at Noir and Idalia. He visualized a point parallel to the snake and in front of him. As the snake's maw was gaping open, doubtlessly intent on adding Orion to its lunch, Orion's eyes glowed a bright white, and a circle, spiked and intricate, appeared in front of him. The Schnee symbol spun alive, but the snake wasn't stopped by at as it would be by a wall. Instead, the snake continued with the same frightening speed through the glyph. Beside the snake, closer to the midriff, another glyph opened in mid air, and the white head appeared through it, and pierced the Grimm's scales.

The black head stopped fighting Noir and Idalia, and snapped the air violently, hissing in pain and hatred. Noir, Idalia, and Naven stepped back in shock. Orion still held the portals open, but glanced at the secondary portal, and brought his left hand slicing downwards against his upwards slicing right. The portals disappeared, but the white head was left separated from the rest of its body, evaporating in a white smoke, one side of the snake flopping to the ground.

Orion surveyed his work, looking satisfied, before being swatted aside by the angry other half. He landed a good distance aways, and got up, ready to get back into the fight. "We need a plan to get rid of the other half, I can't do that the same way twice.

Noir looked back and forth between each of them, and a light bulb went off in his head. "Naven, can you hold down the lower jaw with your semblance?"

"Sure-" bang "thing." bang "Just-" bang "tellmewhen!" he yelled out in between cannon shots.

Noir pointed at Idalia. "I need you to make that upper jaw as open as possible, alright." Idalia nodded. Noir turned his attention to Orion. "I'm going to need someone to help me go extremely fast. Think you can do that?"

Orion smiled mischievously. "I know exactly what you need, friend, just give me the word."

Noir analyzed the King Taiju, doing a disjointed tango with Naven. "NOW!"

Naven sprung into action, grabbing the lower fangs of the Grimm and popped his semblance, his blue Aura shining. The King Taiju tried bringing its upper fangs down on him, but they seemed to float off the ground, glowing purple, matching the same violet power that coursed through Idalia's outstretched hands.

Orion looked at Noir. "You sure you want to do this? I've only done this a few times for myself and it's not a pleasant experience."

Noir grimaced at Orion. "This isn't a decision by committee, just portal me."

Orion shrugged, and his eyes glowed white again. The Schnee symbol spun above and below Noir. Suddenly he was falling...and falling and falling, before Orion was sure that he was going at maximum velocity. Another portal suddenly opened before the Grimm, and Noir was sent flying and screaming through. His sword was pointed upward, slicing through the inside of the King Taiju, cleaving it through the top. He exited through the other side, tumbling and covered in soot. But the damage was done. The Grimm folded open along the top, dissipating into a black smoke.

Noir lay on the ground, hacking up more black soot. He opened his eyes to see his team above him, smiling down. Orion looked particularly amused. "Good plan, Fearless Leader."

Noir sat up, slightly irritated. "I thought you were just going to send me downward directly at the King Taiju!"

Orion extended his hand, lifting Noir up. "You wanted fast, you got fast. A Schnee always delivers."

Noir chuckled, but ended up coughing some more. He looked at Naven. "You still have the artifact?"

Naven's eyes widened. "Damn it."

The team went back to the dais, but all but one lonely white pawn remained. Naven darted around, searching all over for the little black horse. "I can't find it! I can't believe this! It honestly couldn't have gotten that far."

The other three gathered around the white pawn, discouraged. Noir looked at the other two. "I guess we don't have much of a choice." He grabbed the artifact, and together, the group made it back to the top of the hill.

The four of them stood in a line behind several other groups of four. Naven was still grumbling about losing the knight. "I should have just put it into my pocket. Is it really that hard?"

Orion shoved the tall bird Faunus gently. "Dude, chill out. Honestly, it's not that big of a deal. Besides, the King Taiju knocked it out of your hands before you had a chance to put them away."

Naven didn't look altogether relieved about it, but he did looks slightly better.

The next team was called up. A gangly pale boy with grey eyes, a girl with very strong and prominent white armor with a broadsword strapped across her back, another girl with a longbow across her shoulders, and a broad shouldered boy with a red beret and a warhammer at his side stood side by side in front of Professor Ozpin. "Wes Craven, Iona Yung, Cerna Biel, and Rouge Montague. You four retrieved the black knight piece (Naven started seething again). From this day forward, you will work together as Team WICR (He pronounced it like 'wicker'), led by Wes Craven!"

A loud applause rose from the crowd at this. Naven's eyes were about bulging out of his sockets when their team was called up.

"Noir Engel, Idalia Xanthopoulos, Orion Schnee, and Naven Excelsior. You four retrieved the gold pawn piece. From this day forward, you will work together as Team NION (Neon), led by Noir Engel!"