Hello again, people! I hope y'all enjoyed the wild chopper jump from last chapter. Anyway, all's good on my end and I hope you guys have a merry christmas if I don't update in a while. Why I wouldn't, I don't know. Anyway, enjoy!

"General Ironwood!"

We approached the general, who had been talking with one of his soldiers as Sierra saluted him and said, "Sierra Hawthorne, leader of team SHLD of Beacon! Reporting for duty, sir!"

Hotel saluted as well. Lima and I, well, we just gave a small bow.

"Hmm," the general said, "from Beacon, huh…and how about the other team?"

I turned around, seeing Ruby and her team still chatting about what kind of Grimm they could be able to encounter. I could hear Ironwood groan, then sigh as he said, "Very well, we'll make do with this."

I raised an eyebrow in curiosity as he said, "Now that the Grimm have discovered a weakness in the city, they have begun to congregate where the train blasted a hole. Your duty, or rather, our duty, is to make sure no Grimm makes another hole."

Yang punched her palm, saying, "Sure thing!"

"Alright!"

Sierra turned around and said, "Let's break up into separate groups. Our partners should suffice."

I turned to Lima, who shrugged. Then I turned back to Sierra who was discussing something with Hotel, and clearly, he wasn't winning.

Or so I thought.

Yang jumped in, keeping a smile on as she shot a wink at Hotel, then turned to Ruby and gave her a thumbs up. It was then that things started getting a little heated as Sierra finally gave in to them.

Sierra gave an annoyed groan and said, "Fine! So now, we'll break up into different groups!"

Whoa! Curveball!?

I blinked in surprise as Sierra said, "Yang, keep Hotel in check. Blake, you can go with Lima since you're both faunus, not that it means anything, of course. Ice queen, you're with me."

That just leaves….

"And Ruby," Sierra said, suddenly appearing next to and whispering something in her ear. Ruby's face turned as red as Crescent Rose as Sierra laughed it off, grabbing Weiss and jumping head long into the tunnels. Yang smirked, walking up to Hotel and wrapped her arms around one of his, dragging him into a different direction. Lima poked me, tilting her head.

"I'll be fine," I explained to her as Blake walked over, motioning her to follow.

Leaving only me and Ruby left.

I sighed and turned to face Ruby, who was still red in the face.

"C'mon Rubes," I said, dragging her by her hood.

We made our way deeper into the tunnels, I couldn't help but feel that Ruby was…uncomfortable.

Turning around, I asked, "You alright, Rubes?"

She flinched, looking away as she said, "N-no! I'm alright!"

Why are you stuttering?

"Hmm? Well, okay," I said, turning back around as we continued on our way. It was then that I stopped. Something didn't feel right. I didn't have Lima with me, so my gut feeling was all that I could rely on. I turned around, facing Ruby as my swords' handles clicked into place. Ruby flinched as I turned to her, almost out of surprise as I reached for my weapons.

"Ruby," I said, slowly drawing one of my swords. Ruby looked like she had seen a ghost as I said, "Get down."

With a swing of my swords, Ruby ducked as I cut an Ursa that was right behind her in half. The giant bear-like Grimm reeled back as I drew my second sword, cutting it clean in half. Suddenly, I heard Crescent Rose transform behind me, causing me to instinctively jump out of the way as Ruby cut loose with her rifle bullets. Another Ursa behind the one I had just cut in half took the bullets, falling down afterwards as I threw one of my swords, nailing the one behind that one. Suddenly, I heard a bark behind me, turning around and seeing a Beowolf running towards us.

With no time to react, I did the only thing I could as it rushed me.

Sticking the blade in its mouth, it bit at the blade as I was pinned onto the ground.

"Ruby…!"

Ruby turned to me, shooting the accursed creature off of me as I materialized my second sword back into my hand, kick jumping myself back to my feet. A pack of Beowolves howled as they charged us. I turned to Ruby, smirking and saying, "I'll leave them to you!"

Ruby nodded, shooting a bullet and disappearing, leaving only a cloud of roses as I turned to face the Ursa pack behind us. The one with the largest spikes roared at me as I covered my nose, saying, "Someone should really teach you guys how to brush…."

With that, I stabbed one of my swords upwards into its skull, throwing it aside and focusing on the rest of the pack. I then heard another roar as another one rushed me. I sidestepped and slashed its feet off, hearing its body scrap against the ground as I stabbed another one in the chest. I could faintly feel the fur on its body as I slashed my sword out of its chest, its blood flying along the length of the cut as I cut through another Ursa with my second sword. Before long, there was a circle of blood around me as I continued slashing through Ursa after Ursa.

That is, until I hit something solid.

Looking up, it was a claw. Of a very familiar opponent that my squad and I had fought before.

"Ruby!"

I kicked the claw back as the giant stinger of a Deathstalker landed right where I was standing.

Smirking, I saw Ruby run up next to me and optimistically say, "Whoa!"

"Think we can take it?"

Ruby turned around, causing me to reciprocate, seeing a mass of legs, bodies, heads, bones, and etcetera.

Turning back around, I said, "Well, at least we don't have to worry about distractions."

"Let's do this," she said, pulling the bolt on Crescent Rose back as an empty shell casing flew from the chamber.

"Right," I replied, sheathing one of my swords as Ruby began shooting at the giant scorpion-like Grimm.

Her bullets bounced off the hard shell of the Deathstalker as it made a lunge towards her. I pointed my sheath at the claw that was headed towards Ruby, pulling the lever on it, my sword flying at it at blinding speeds as it managed to pierce the blade halfway into the hard bone. The Deathstalker let out a cry of pain as Ruby charged it, stabbing her scythe into the opposite claw. I teleported to my sword that was stuck in the, gripping it as I tried to pry it out. Only, there was one problem.

Ruby jumped off the claw she was on with a cloud of roses as I tried to pry my sword out.

God…DAMMIT!

I was forced to jump off as it slammed its other claw onto where I was just standing. I spat as Ruby asked, "What's wrong with your sword!?"

"Echo shot it too hard," I replied, "I'm gonna have to do this with one sword!"

Ruby groaned, then pulled the bolt on Crescent Rose again. I shot a glance at her as she said, "Then we'll take out that stinger!"

I glanced at the stinger, seeing it on as tightly as ever. I sighed and asked, "So how do you expect to get it off?"

"Hehe," she said, looking at me. I raised an eyebrow as she said, "you're getting us up there."

Well, fair enough.

I glanced at my sword and said, "Then you'd better grab on!"

I threw my sword as she ran over to me. I focused my aura on teleporting to it in midair as Ruby shot Crescent Rose so that we flew towards the stinger. I lodged on of my swords into the stinger suddenly remembering something that involved my semblance.

I raised my arm in the direction of the sword lodged into its claw, materializing it into my hand as I hacked into the thick armor on its tail. The Deathstalker could only flail its tail around as we were quickly thrown off. Ruby regained her footing, shooting Crescent Rose again as she cut off one side of its legs. I grinned, sheathing one of my swords again. Only this time, I shot my sword at the legs, the force of the sword's momentum easily slashing through the opposite legs. Only, it lodged itself back into the claw it was stuck in. I cussed again as I could hear Ruby laughing. The Deathstalker slowly shuffled itself back around towards me, suddenly crawling its way to me.

Startled, I back flipped out of the way of its giant stinger.

My feet landed on the tunnel walls behind me as it slowly shuffled its way over to me.

"Hyaaa-aaahhh!"

The tail suddenly flew off as I regained my footing on proper ground. Ruby appeared in front of me as she pulled the bolt on her scythe again. The stinger fell to the side as the scorpion cried out in pain. I gave her a fist pump, rematerializing my sword back into my hand as we both charged it.

"Ruby!"

I handed my sword to her as she disappeared with a cloud of roses, appearing on the back of its shell. I quickly teleported to where she was, taking my sword back to my hand as I jumped off the back, cutting off one of its claws.

The green blood flew from the now open wound as it cried out in pain again. I grinned, only to hear Ruby cry out, "Delta, look out!"

I turned, only to see it was too late as the other claw accelerated towards me. I cringed, prepared to feel my body get thrown through the air, then scrape painfully across the ground.

Suddenly, I felt something hit my mid-section, then land on the ground as I heard Sierra's voice yell, "Why didn't you invite us!?"

Suddenly, the claw of the Deathstalker was frozen in place as Ruby jumped off, joining up with Weiss, who was nearby. Just as quickly, the ground began rumbling as another Deathstalker burst through one of the tunnel walls. Just at that moment, Blake came swinging her weapon around as she and Lima came running through it. Then a soft sounding "boom" filled the air, then a loud boom as Hotel dashed right past me with an Ursa on the end of his lance, smashing it right into the opposite wall as Yang yelled, "Yeah! That's how you ought to do it, babe!"

…wait…babe?

Shaking the thought out of my head, we all grouped together as the mobile Deathstalker cornered us.

"The cavern's not stable," Sierra said.

"We need to get out of here," Ruby followed up.

I glanced at Sierra, who looked a bit hesitant as she looked at all seven of us. She appeared to be trembling, almost as if she was in doubt of herself as Hotel suddenly grabbed her shoulder and said, "Now's not the time to be doubting yourself, Sierra!"

She shook her head, finally nodding and said, "…Alright. Stay put!"

With that, her eyes suddenly glew red as she slapped her hand onto the ground. Something along the lines of a magic circle appeared beneath her as the area around us turned gray. Sierra grimaced, then said, "Get a move on!"

With that, we all sprinted to the other side of the scorpions in front of us as the area around us suddenly turned back to normal as she turned around, giving a strained shout as she put a circle around the area of the cavern, fast forwarding the time of that area.

The cavern suddenly cave in as the rocks suddenly began to grow moss. The cries of the Deathstalkers were audible, until finally, the cries stopped. The tunnels were filled with silence, minus Sierra's audible panting, as Hotel and Yang high fived each other. Lima and Blake smiled as Weiss sighed, sheathing her rapier. Ruby smiled at me as I reciprocated. Then I turned to Sierra, whose breathing was still labored.

"Well done!"

There was a series of claps behind us as General Ironwood appeared with a group of soldiers.

"I never expected that you kids would be able to pull something like this off," he exclaimed, looking at the collapsed tunnel. The soldiers began chatting amongst themselves in amazement as I walked up to Sierra, putting my hand on her shoulder.

"Sierra?"

Suddenly, she rocked backwards, then fell forward. I reflexively caught her as she fell.

"Sierra? Sierra!"

Please tell me if I made Ironwood OOC. I haven't seen enough of him to get a keen insight on him.