Blake was watching the lupine creature with a paranoid feeling in her gut, even though it wasn't doing anything to harm her or even imply it realized she existed. Yes, she was scared of canids, yes, it was stereotypical, so what?

And this one was strange because Blake had never seen something like it. White furred, except for the face with exposed black fur and a single, sickle like horn exposed out of the right side of its face. It was laying there, resting its head against its forepaws as the girl wearing a red cloak, bandana and a pair of kama ran her hand through the fur.

Glimmering silver eyes met Blake's amber ones across the three layers of gathered students and for a brief moment, Blake got the distinct feeling she was being judged. Then the connection broke and the girl continued to slowly pan her head left to right. Finally she seemed to notice something that drew her attention, as all three of the animals around her, at least she assumed the strange thing that the blond next to her was sitting on was some sort of animal and not a drone, turned to focus on. The wolf's head came up to look, the bird's head swiveled to do so, and the drone-animal-thing turned in the air to stare.

Blake turned to see what they were all staring at, only to find a redhead staring out over the city. The girl in question glanced back, only for the serene look on her face to suddenly break as she realized she was being stared at. Finally, the feeling of the stares from the strange group of animals and their owner broke, and Blake looked back to see what had happened, only to see them lounging around again, the owner looking at Weiss Schnee with an unimpressed look on her face.

What had that been about?

— X Weiss X—

Weiss watched the strange group of animals walk out of the Beacon airship with their owner. The wolf-like one fell behind them to guard their flank, while the blonde jumped off the disk and followed next to the younger girl. What was this, why was someone so young doing at Beacon?

Weiss approached, the wolf looking at her and tugging on the cape gently, to a high pitched, "I saw her, Absol, but thanks for the warning," their head turned from watching a blonde walk off with a group of other students, and the girl asked, "Can I help you?"

Weiss met silver eyes that seemed both open and inviting and quietly judging, the voice equally open while also holding a tinge of easy authority. It was the voice of someone who obviously was used to being respected and listened to, not like her father but like Winter.

Weiss took a second to look over the girl again, noticing the diamond pin shaped like an egg with two wings keeping her cloak pinned, a splash of ostentation in an otherwise conservative, almost gothic outfit. Weiss coughed into her hand, before saying, "I was wondering what someone your age was doing at Beacon. You're a bit young to be here, aren't you?"

"I'm only a couple of years younger than you are," the girl's lips spread into a grin, "to answer your question, Professor Ozpin invited me into Beacon early."

A prodigy, then, to be invited in by Professor Ozpin himself? Weiss wanted her on her team if that was the case, that was for sure.

"And the animals?" Weiss prompted, looking over them, "It's hard to work with them as a Huntress."

"Part of my Semblance lets me, and other people, communicate with them. Isn't that right, guys?"

"Yep," a sharp voice came from the bird as it landed, apparently deciding they were going to be standing there for a bit, "I'm Skarmory, it's nice to meet you!"

"Absol," the wolf said, staring up at Weiss with red eyes.

"BZZT," Weiss jumped slightly as the drone suddenly spoke out in a voice like electricity and clanging steel, "MAGNEZONE. BZZT."

"You're an animal too?" She asked in bewilderment, having expected it to be some sort of robot.

"BZZT. YES. BZZT."

"I've never seen anything like any of you," Weiss admitted, reaching out to touch Absol's fur, only for the wolf-like creature to jump back. That was fair, disappointing, but fair.

"We're all fairly rare," Skarmory said like that explained everything. Well, they were articulate for animals, that was for sure. She wondered how the specifics of the Semblance worked, did she have to already be close to the animal, physically or emotionally? "We're Ruby's partners, Rescue Team Blade!"

"I see…" Weiss said, feeling slightly bemused. They said it like it was something to be proud of, like being the heiress of the SDC, "I'm Weiss Schnee, do you mind if we walk together to the Entrance?"

"I'm Ruby Rose," she said, "These are Skarmory, Absol and Magnezone."

— X Ruby X—

Ruby flew through the air after deployment, mind going through the options she had for a Beacon partner. There was the redhead, Weiss, and Yang. Someone she could work with.

Well, that answer was obvious.

Transforming entirely, Ruby wrapped her arms around Skarmory as they came rushing in, Absol landing on Magnezone and the two of them flying after the leaders of Rescue Team Blade.

"What are we doing, Ruby?" Skarmory asked, gliding around and keeping an eye out for any airborne Grimm as he did so.

"Follow Yang," Ruby said, and they tilted downwards, following the blond catapulting through the air with loud whoops and bangs from Ember Celica. Before they could do anything other than meet her eyes, a loud caw came from above them and they were all forced to go into the treeline as a Giant Nevermore flew towards them.

Ruby let go of Skarmory as they approached the ground with her sister, transforming and landing in a combat roll that brought her to the base of a tree. Spinning around it, her back hit the bark as she listened, watching Absol, Skarmory and Magnezone go to ground in their own ways as Yang joined her against a tree.

One of those things you learned as a Rescuer, not every fight was worth taking or even needed. Your goal was to rescue people, and the longer you took to find them the harder it was to do that. So take what fights you needed to have, sneak passed anyone asleep for example, and focus on the objective.

It was slightly harder as a Huntsman, because you were expected to kill any Grimm you came across, but even then there were Grimm where fighting them just wasn't worth the effort. Too dangerous, too strong, too tough. Once a Grimm got old enough, unless you were there to hunt it, it was best to avoid it if you could.

And a Grimm as large as that Nevermore was at least a couple of centuries old. Ruby quietly pulled out Crescent, opening the breach and sliding in a .50 HEAP round before clicking it shut and digging the kama into the tree's bark and doing the same with Rose. Next to her, Yang swapped out her regular shells for FRAG-12s.

The raven flew over them once, twice, three times before giving a cry and flying off to the east. All the members of Rescue Team Blade breathed out a sigh of relief before pushing off and looking at each other.

"Really," Yang said, "You couldn't even try to find another partner?"

"Ozpin said we should find someone we can work with. You're the only person other than Skarmory I trust to use me if we have to go that far. And you can help explain the more weird stuff to our team."

"Ruby," Yang deadpanned, "You turn into a sword, talk to animals and travel to another world every weekend, there's nothing about you that isn't weird."

"Every other weekend now," Ruby said, "I'm gonna need to cut back to work with the team until they're ready to come rescuing with us."