The boy that stepped down from the bullhead's cockpit threw Tsuruya for a loop. To make a long story short, she was interested. He had finely chiseled abs, which she could clearly see because he left his shirt open. He was well tanned and had a mop of messy blond hair on top of his head. He had the tail of a monkey swinging behind him, but she quickly determined she could put up with that.

He saw her and sidled up to her. "Hey. My name's Sun. What's yours?"

She looked up at him. "Tsuruya."

Sun nodded like he got it, but it looked like he wasn't sure how to pronounce it. "Right, so, uh... Adam found you in the city? How long were you out there alone?"

She shrugged. "About a minute, I think."

He looked surprised. "Really? Wait, how does that work?"

She held up her hand to stop him. "I'll explain that later. First... can you show me around? Maybe introduce me to people?"

He straightened up. "Uh, yeah. Sure."

A stern-looking blond woman walked over to the two of them, but Adam stepped between them. "I found her in the city. She seems fine."

The woman scowled. "You should have called ahead and asked permission to bring someone new here. We're running out of supplies to feed the people we have. We have to think about this strategically."

Adam gripped his sword, though it was obvious he didn't intend to use it here. "She's just a kid, Glynda. We can't leave her out there alone."

Glynda nodded. "I know, and I would have allowed it if you had asked, but I want to at least know about these things. Or... am I no longer in charge here?"

Adam stepped back, conceding. "No, you are in charge. At least, you are until Ozpin returns from Mistral."

Glynda grimaced. "It's been a month since he left. We need to start accepting that he won't be coming back." Adam turned and walked away, grumbling to himself. Glynda stepped forward and nodded to Tsuruya before addressing Sun. "I believe you said you would show her around. You should get to that. I need to talk with Adam some more."

Sun nodded, turning to Tsuruya and bowing while offering his hand. "Yes, let's." She took his hand and let him lead her off.

Glynda headed over to Adam, who was standing at a table at the side of the hangar and looking over a map of Vale with two others. She started before she was even at the table. "Sorry if I sounded a bit meaner than usual. It has been a rough day." He looked up at her, expecting an explanation. She took a breath. "We lost a bullhead."

The other two looked up as well. Adam thought for a moment before responding. "You're in charge of Beacon, but I give the commands to the Rangers."

She nodded. "Yes, I know."

He stepped around the table, closing the distance between them. "So, then, do you mind explaining to me how we lost a bullhead when I only cleared three to leave here and, lo and behold, all three pilots are back here safely?"

One of the other two, a girl with brown hair and rabbit ears, spoke up. "I received orders to pick up General Ironwood before meeting up with Mercury."

Adam grimaced. "So you didn't use my Rangers. Who was the pilot?"

Glynda sighed. "Professor Peach."

Adam glanced back at the two behind him. "I don't suppose you're going to tell me why it was so important for them to go into town."

Glynda took a deep breath. "I can't give you all the details right now, but I think you have the right to know that there may be a new kind of Grimm out there. One that's unlike any we've ever seen before."

Adam shrugged. "It's always been like that with the Grimm. There's always new kinds. And what, you were looking for this new one? To kill it?"

She shook her head. "No, first we need confirmation of its existence. Then we can worry about finding a way to blast it back out of existence. And I know you're imagining some giant monster Grimm right now, so you can stop that right away. That's not what we're looking for. What we're looking for is a Human-form Grimm."

The halls of Beacon Academy were crowded, makeshift beds covering all but a thin strip down the middle. There were doorways leading to what looked like bedrooms, but the doors had been removed to allow for more people. Sun led Tsuruya through the halls. It looked like he had an idea of where he was going, but she couldn't tell for sure.

He turned a corner, leading her away from the hallways. "Well, that's how most of us live now. Anyone with skills even remotely useful are given a little bit more if they want it, and everyone else is encouraged to find a way to help." They came out onto a balcony overlooking the campus. There was a boy and a girl sitting on the edge of the balcony, as if keeping watch. Sun addressed them casually. "Gonna be a quiet night?"

The girl, her ginger hair falling just past her shoulders, shrugged. "The clouds are clearing up, so no storm. That means we'll be able to hear them."

Tsuruya looked out at the world laid before her. "Them? The Grimm, you mean?"

The boy, who was sitting cross-legged on the railing, opened his magenta eyes to study the newcomer. "Yes, but more specifically the Whailers."

Sun flinched. "Those again?"

Tsuruya looked to Sun for an explanation. "Whailers?"

The Faunus boy nodded. "We call them that because they look sorta like gigantic whales... with tentacles. Anyway, they're pretty big and they make lots of freaky noises."

The other boy nodded. "They're the largest recorded Grimm, in fact."

The girl added the last unnecessary piece to the mental image Tsuruya was conjuring up. "And they fly."

The boy groaned. "Yes, that too. They fly."

The girl continued. "But they fly really high up, which is why I hate it when there's no clouds. I don't like the idea of having giant Grimm floating in the air over us all th-"

The boy stopped her. "Nora, that's enough."

Sun stepped forward. "Okay, so, anyway, I'd like you two to meet someone." They turned to look at the girl with green hair in their midst. Sun introduced her. "This is Tsuruya. Adam found her in town today. Tsuruya, this is Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren."

The boy smiled at her. "Just call me Ren."

Nora hopped down from the ledge. "You were in town? How did you survive there for so long?"

Tsuruya looked around for a moment, wondering if she should trust these three with the truth. No one else was around, so she thought she should give it a shot. "Alright, here's the thing. I was on my way home from school and a friend of mine gave me this box-thing that was supposed to... uh... maintain a stable portal to another world. It worked, and it opened a portal right in my bedroom and one of these Grimm came through, a Beowolf from what I've heard. I guess I tackled it through the portal and that's when I ended up here. Adam found me, like, a few seconds after I came to your world."

The three of them stared at her for a few seconds. It was Nora who broke the silence. "That's... AWESOME!"

Ren tried to calm her down. "Nora, wait, I don't think we should just-"

Nora turned to face him. "Just what? She says she comes from another world, then who are we to say otherwise? I say we believe her until we have hard evidence that she's lying."

Sun wasn't having an easy time with the information either. He leaned back against the balcony railing. "But... come on, portals between worlds? You only get that in fantasy movies."

Nora eyed him. "We use techno-magic to fight evil monsters for a living."

He shrugged. "Yeah, and?"

Both girls rolled their eyes, unaware of each other doing the same. Tsuruya picked up the conversation again. "So, uh, what I need you to take away from all that right now is... I don't know a thing about your world. Also, probably best if you didn't tell anyone."

Sun nodded. "That I can believe. And if you really need to be filled in on absolutely everything, then I'm sure we can help you there." He looked to Nora. "In the meantime, send up a light so we can see where those things are."

Nora nodded, stepping out to the edge of the balcony. She reached down and picked something up off the ground, lifting it to her shoulder. She aimed it straight up and, just as Tsuruya was thinking it looked like a grenade launcher, fired. The shot flew up into the air until it disappeared from sight completely. Somewhere above them it exploded into a bright light that lit up the night sky.

In amongst the clouds, massive shapes were moving. Tsuruya's eyes went wide at the sight. They did indeed look like whales, save for the long tendrils covering the body. The sounds reached down to them, like distant wails and moans far too enormous to belong to anything she had ever seen before. If she had to describe them to someone back home, she would have said 'mile-long zombie whales'. That was really the only description that did them any sort of justice in both appearance and sound.

Tsuruya watched the shapes in the sky until the light died out. She looked back down to the others. "How can anyone fight that?"

Ren shook his head. "That's been the question for three years now. If we knew how to get rid of the Grimm, we would do it. That's what the Huntsmen and Huntresses have been aiming to achieve since as far back as history can recall."

"If we didn't have the Grimm, we would still be fighting each other."

Everyone turned to see who had spoken. Nora jumped up and hugged the other redhead. "Pyrrha! You have to come meet our new friend! She says she's from a differe-"

Ren called after her. "Nora! ...People are trying to sleep." Nora caught the hidden message and got off of Pyrrha.

Pyrrha looked over Tsuruya. "Oh, hello. You must be Tsuruya. Adam told me I might find you up here. Has Sun given you too much trouble?"

Tsuruya nodded, then shook her head. "No, no trouble. He just showed me around and then brought me here. Then we looked up at a sky full of terrifying monsters."

Pyrrha looked up at the sky. "Hmm... Adam told you that Beacon was a school, right?"

Tsuruya shrugged and nodded. "I don't think he called it a school specifically, but it's an academy, and that's pretty much the same thing."

Pyrrha laughed. "Well, yes. Ren, Nora and I were on the same team here at Beacon when this all started. We'd be on vacation right now, resting up before our fourth year, if the Grimm hadn't suddenly attacked in such numbers. Or at least, that's what our schedule says we would be doing."

Nora stepped up to Tsuruya's side, quietly explaining to her. "Pyrrha thinks that people would have started fighting each other if the Grimm hadn't attacked."

Pyrrha turned around. "Would we not have? The White Fang and Roman Torchwick were on the verge of starting a war between Vale and Atlas. No war ever happened, but only because they thought they could herd the Grimm. They underestimated the Grimm, and by the time we all realized that the Grimm were using Torchwick's plan for their own purpose it was too late. In that moment, our greatest enemy united us, brought us together. I believe that the Grimm were given to us in order to keep us from killing each other. My God, we almost did start killing each other. There was power armor running down the highway. People were running scared from bomb threats. No Human or Faunus could have brought us all together so quickly."

Tsuruya spoke up from beside Nora. "So you think the attack was a good thing?"

Pyrrha smiled. "Too many people have died for it to be all good. I don't know, perhaps it was divine punishment or something like that. Though... no one really believes in anything divine anymore. Then again, maybe that's why."

Ren sat up on the railing again. "Well, it's hard to believe in something divine once the soul has been quantified and measured with scientific instruments." He stopped abruptly, looking like he was suddenly thinking really hard about something.

Pyrrha shook her head. "Well, that's enough of that for now. Who's hungry? Jaune made pancakes."

Tsuruya brightened up. "Hey, you have pancakes here?"

Nora brightened up at the same time and in the same way. "Alright, pancakes! It's pancake time!"

Sun pushed off from the railing. "Pancake time?"

Nora nodded. "Pancake time comes right after fireworks time and right before sleep time."

Everything stopped suddenly at the sound of a happy little jingle. Everyone turned to Tsuruya. There was silence, and then the jingle returned. It was unmistakable. The foreign sound was coming from her. She took in all of their dumbstruck and baffled faces for a moment, deciding that she wanted to burn that image into her mind. It truly was priceless.

Certain she had it, she turned away from them and reached into her shirt where she kept her phone, pulling it out and opening it. She put it to her ear. "Hello?"

She found herself joining the ranks of the baffled when a familiar voice reached her. "Tsuruya! I need your help! I found a cat that's a girl, but she doesn't want me to catch her!"

Tsuruya was silent for a few moments, but then shook it off. "Mikuru? How did you reach me here?"

Mikuru's voice came back. "What? Where are you?"

Tsuruya puffed up her cheeks. She didn't want to have that conversation in front of the others right now. "Well... well, if you can't catch the cat, then how do you know it's a girl?"

Mikuru took a few extra seconds to answer. "Uh... oh! Cause she has a girl's voice!"

Tsuruya rolled her eyes. "Alright, Mikuru. Whatever you say. Look, I'm really busy. I don't think I can help you catch a cat right now."

"Oh, okay." She sounded like she was about to hang up, but then she started up again. "Oh, right! You're going to be at school tomorrow, right? We met some new friends and we're going on an adventure, but I want you to come along too."

Tsuruya wasn't sure what to make of this adventure or these new friends, but she did know one thing for sure. "Yeah, I don't think I can be there. I'm actually probably going to be away for a while. Sorry, Mikuru."

"Oh... okay. See you later, then."

"Again, I'm sorry. Bye, Mikuru." She hung up, then stared at her phone for a moment. "The portal must be still open. That's the only way that call could have gotten through."

Ren stood up. "I think I should tell you. I've decided that Nora is right. Until we see evidence otherwise, I see no reason to doubt your story." Tsuruya turned back to the four other-worlders. Ren continued. "But then we have a problem. It seems your friends can still contact you, and if you're right and that's because the portal's still open, and that portal is somewhere in Vale, and that means the Grimm are free to cross into your world."

Tsuruya nearly dropped her phone. "Oh my God, you're right."

Pyrrha cleared her throat. "Um... what's going on?"

Author's note: Good question, Pyrrha! What is going on? Well, here we've introduced a few more characters. Namely Glynda, Pyrrha, Ren, Nora, and Sun. If you couldn't tell, Velvet was there also. Massive Grimm floating high above everything, Ozpin MIA, character we've never seen is dead, and chances of a new Grimm with the form of a Human, and Mikuru found a girl cat? Yes indeed. Let's see, what's coming up next... ah ha! Meeting all the rest of Adam's Beacon Rangers!

Also, for the uninformed, this story takes place somewhere around three years after the first volume of RWBY.