Vale, Beacon Academy [Cafeteria]: 22/06/137M, 07:18am

Ruby frowned as she side-eyed Yang across the cafeteria table from her. Yang's smug smile was ever present as she chewed a toasted sandwich, alongside the array of other foods that she had for breakfast. Being a huntress required a high calorie intake, especially with how aura worked. And looking at how the headmaster described the day ahead of them, they'd need all the energy that they could get.

But the wide range consisting of some of Ruby's favourite foods did nothing to stem her annoyance at how Yang had been teasing her for an hour. Nor did it do anything to stop her face from looking partially flushed either.

Rea, on the other hand, was very confused about what was happening with the two sisters. She continued to look between one another as she chewed on her fibrous cereal, unsure if there was something wrong or if this was just something that Ruby and Yang do.

Rea, swallowing, decided to ask.

"So..." She began. "I-is there something wrong with you two...?"

"Well, Reali-" "NO." Yang began before being swiftly cut off by a glaring Ruby.

Yang put her hands up in defeat. "Okay, then. Nothing's wrong." She admitted, still not dropping her smile.

"Are you getting any of this?" Rea whispered to Mars and Jaune, who was also sitting with them.

"Nope. It's mildly amusing, however." Mars answered, stuffing three pieces of bacon into her mouth.

"It's a sisters' thing, believe me. I have six of them after all." Jaune answered. Rea looked at him in surprise.

"You have six sisters?" she asked.

Jaune nodded. "Yep. Three older sisters and three younger ones, and two of them are twins!"

"Wow. I've only got two elder brothers and one older sister." Rea said. "And Flicker is a-already twenty-three, so we don't have the closest of sisterly relationships." She glanced at Ruby and Yang who were still going at it. "At least, not them close. I've always been doted on by my family, being the youngest."

"Well, Realien, this is just a good ol' family ribbing," Jaune explained with a casual ease. "The elder sibling has found something they can tease their younger about, to which the younger sibling can only protest so much without the teasing becoming worse." He shrugged and gave a mock disappointed shake of his head.

"Huh. All my brothers do is keep going at one another and don't let up until they forget what they were feuding over." Realien replied.

"Your fun sibling discussions are good and all, but I see Snow Cone and she's about to see us back." Mars interrupted, gesturing in a certain direction with a knife.

"Snow Cone?" Rea asked before turning in the same direction Mars had pointed, spotting Weiss, yelping, and finally falling down into one of her portal rifts. Weiss's gaze past over their table at the same time an ugly scowl flashed on her face, but failing to find Rea there she moved on, carrying her tray of food with her. In response to Weiss haughtily stomping off, Mars reached down into the residual rift that Rea had left, pulling the timid Greyhawk back onto the cafeteria bench by the hoodie hood that was sticking out. "I-is she gone?" Rea asked.

Mars sighed. "Yes Rea, yes she is. Seriously, I get how her whole family is kind of predatory to yours when you explained it yesterday, but you could afford to show a little more backbone around her. Or honestly more backbone in general."

"But people are so harrrrrd!" Rea groaned into her hands. "Machines are so much easier! You don't have to worry about if you'll make them upset, or if they're going to suddenly turn on you and ridicule you for your shoes!"

"Agreed!" Ruby said, breaking away from her squabble with Yang to join their friends' conversation.

"O-kay..." Mars blinked in surprise at the two girls. "I am not going to unpack... any, of that. From either of you two."

"Good choice." Yang agreed. "It'll save you several headaches."

Before anyone else could say anything, their breakfast was interrupted by an intercom system crackling to life and producing the voice of Glynda Goodwitch.

"Can all first-year examinees please collect their equipment and make their way to the Beacon Academy airfield by eight o'clock. Again, that's all first-year examinees to the Beacon Academy airfield by eight o'clock with equipment. Thank you." The intercom announced to the cafeteria before clicking off.

The teens looked at one another.

"It's showtime girls." Ruby grinned maniacally.

"Uh..."

"Oh right, you as well Jaune. Sorry."

✇ARWIT✇

Vale, Beacon Academy [Armoury]: 22/06/137M, 07:32am

All of the prospective Beacon Academy students swarmed to the armoury to equip their weapons and restock on ammunition for the immanent examination they were about to undertake. Ruby had accompanied her friends and sister to the armoury too, despite having no need to retrieve anything from there due to the fact she built her weaponry on the fly.

"So Ruby," Rea began as she took out different gun parts in from her locker, holstering them on tactical straps that she wore. "I never did ask, but what… um… Sorry, but what was it you called the things your semblance creates?"

"I call em' builds," Ruby supplied from the bench she was laying on as she waited. The ceiling was remarkably uninteresting.

"Okay, builds. How many of them can you do?"

Ruby thought, tapping her chin as she pouted in thought. Swinging her legs out, Ruby spun her body around until she was sitting up and facing Rea.

"Well, my uncle theorizes that I could technically make an infinite number of different builds. But then again, I've only learned to make about… twenty-ish of them." Ruby explained to her new friend. "And what about you? How much can Falcon Array do?" she asked, referring to the name Rea had dubbed her modular weapon system - or MWS for short.

"Well whilst the barrel, grip, stock, magazine, firing mechanism, calibre and dust chamber are interchangeable, they still all base themselves on a nanomex core for a flexible integration."

"A-a nanomex core?!" Ruby exclaimed, shooting up from her seat and staring directly into Rea's eyes. "That's… that's super-duper rare frontier tech! Those go for millions upon millions of lien!"

"U-uh y-y-yeah… m-my father gave me one t-the company c-collected on an expedition." Rea stammered, suddenly feeling extremely embarrassed.

"That. Is. So. Cool!" Ruby punctuated, holding Rea by the shoulders.

"Th-thanks…" Rea responded. She was uncomfortable with how close Ruby was to her but also felt that it would be impolite to ask them to let go.

"Man! There are so many ideas I have that use a nanomex core! There's so much stuff I could make!" Ruby began to rant once she released Rea, pacing around in front of her friend's locker. Rea only watched Ruby continue to list off designs, before realizing just how funny the scene before her was. So, she began giggling genuinely at the Red-jacketed girl and knocking them out of their thoughts.

"R-Ruby," Rea said, now finished giggling, "Why would you need a nanomex core? Your semblance can already do things we could only dream of accomplishing with one."

"Well, yeah, but I told you that they only work if they're attached to me!" Ruby whined, swinging her arms like they were a pair of floppy noodles. "I still have to use the regular stuff if I want to make anything else! It took me a while to make Yang's motorcycle!"

Rea blinked twice at that.

"What's a motorcycle?"

"Only the coolest mode of transportation ever, invented by little Red here!" Yang interrupted, appearing out of nowhere and picking up Ruby by the waist, who squirmed in her elder sister's grasp.

Rea noted that Yang had changed into a different set of clothes, which were a cropped brown leather jacket with puffy shoulders, an armoured chest piece that didn't shy away from revealing her impressive (Rea admitted) bust, tight black shorts (again leaving little to the silver girl's imagination), a frilly half-skirt and metal boots that had armour pads reaching up the crus of her legs.

"Yaaaaang!" Ruby protested, pushing on Yang's arms and trying to get loose. "Put me down! You still need to get your equipment!"

"Aww, come off it Red. I've already got all the batteries you made for me; I just have to go get Krono Prometheus now." Yang retorted, still not letting Ruby go. Ruby, fed up with her elder sister's antics, grew a pair of her Big Kicks mech-boots, easily lifting Yang off of the ground and leaving her holding onto Ruby's waist instead of holding her up by it. Yang, in response, pouted and let go of Ruby, falling to the ground with a heavy 'clank' of her heavy metallic boots.

"Thank you." Ruby said. She retracted the boots and allowed her legs to return to normal.

"Feisty." Yang taunted as she leaned against a locker, hammering a fist on the metal box to cause it to open. Inside the locker was another set of the clothes Yang currently wore sans the chest armour, which proved that this was Yang's locker. It was held alongside various munitions, a few photos stuck to the walls, and most noticeably a set of giant black-and-gold gauntlets that seemed just as big as Yang's torso if not more so.

Rea could see various pistons behind the armoured dorsal plates protruding from each side of the gauntlet pair, as well as the mechanically hinged fingers that did not seem to house the wearer's own digits. Noticeably, when Yang picked them up, two of the four inner knuckles on each gauntlet were hollow and appeared to have rifling. This then led Rea to see the thick feeding mechanisms on each side of the gauntlet just under the extended armour plating.

"Whoa." Rea breathed. "Those are… amazing…" Rea stepped forward to stroke the gauntlets but stopped when she realized that Yang and Ruby were still there.

"Heh. You bet," Yang said having heard Rea, but not even looking at the girl as she slid on the two gauntlets which quaked to life. Vapor hissed out as the twin weapons adjusted themselves around Yang's hands and forearms.

"The design is impeccably impressive. Did you design them yourself?" Rea inquired.

Yang gave an awkward chuckle in response. "Not… exactly. My original idea for a weapon was a pair of shotgun braces I had called 'Ember Celica'. But, When Ruby found my rough sketches of them and, well, to cut a long story short, pulled a Ruby, we then found her in our previous school's weapon forge two days later with Krono Prometheus." Yang finished explaining, hefting the gauntlets for emphasis.

"Pulled a... Ruby?" Rea raised an eyebrow. Ruby groaned which made Yang laugh.

"It's what we call when Ruby just goes and makes something stupidly impressive and completely out of the skill range for someone her age."

Rea let out a little giggle, unsure if it was at Yang's explanation or Ruby's flushed face.

"So, does she do that often?" Mars asked, sauntering up to her friends and inserting herself into the conversation. The other blonde didn't look much different except for the multiple bandoliers of spherical objects she now wore and the pair of bladed tonfa at her hips. "Nice gloves." Mars nodded to Yang.

"Thanks," Yang smirked, clenching a gauntlet.

"L-look," Ruby stuttered, "Can we just stop talking about me now, please? How about we talk teams instead, huh?"

Mars nodded in agreement "That's actually a good idea. On that note, I honestly think that we'd make a pretty good team."

"T-that wouldn't be the worst o-of ideas..." Rea agreed.

"We could do without Yang..." Ruby muttered, folder her arms and pouting. Then she looked around, realizing one of the freshly formed friends was missing. "Hey, where's Jaune gone?"

The three elder teens also looked around the locker part of the armoury until Yang was able to spot the bumbling blonde boy.

"Hey, there he is!" she pointed out. "He's with some tall redhead and... oh. Snow Cone."

"Snow Cone?" Ruby questioned, popping her head around the row of lockers that Yang was. "Oh. Snow cone." She then said in realization.

"Hey, I think that's Pyrrha Nikos." Rea pointed at the redhead in spartanic armour, also leaning her head around the lockers. "Isn't she that famous Mistralé arena fighter? I'm pretty sure my father is one of her sponsors."

"Is Jaune... flirting with Snow Cone?" Mars observed, finishing the comical stack of heads that were leaning past the lockers. All the girls looked at Jaune who, from their perspective, appeared to be very likely flirting with the Schnee.

"Boys." They all said together.

"Aww, but Renny is a boy!"

"It's fine, Nora. I'm not offended."

"AH!" Mars exclaimed in shock when she realized that two more people had added themselves to their leaning totem pole. The first was a girl with short orange hair, a sleeveless pelt jacket with a fluffy collar, a studded leather war skirt and boots lined with leather straps. The second was a boy that had back hair with a pink highlight, a pale green kimono decorated with black and gold etching, and black hakama pants which covered his feet.

"Hiya there!" The girl greeted, jumping down from her spot atop Mars, the boy elegantly landing after being thrown off. "I'm Nora! Nora Valkyrie! And this is Ren!"

"Hello."

"We noticed that you were all standing on each other and looking around those lockers there and decided to join you!"

"It was her decision."

"So, who are you all anyway?" Nora finished, hands now resting on her hips.

The four girls simply stood there next to one another, unable to coherently reply to this girl who they couldn't exactly find the words to describe.

"Uhhhhhhh... I'm Ruby Rose?" Ruby answered, still a little thrown off by this erratic girl.

"Hi there Ruby Rose! Nice to meet you!" Nora grinned.

The group of friends looked to the boy, Ren, hoping that he had answers for them. Ren, to his credit, only sighed.

"She's just like this. You get used to it." He told them.

"So, are you guys also taking the exam for the first time too?!" Nora asked leaning in close to Mars' face, causing the blonde to lean backwards to avoid her.

"Uh, yeah," Mars said, poking a finger onto Nora's chest and using it to genteelly move the chipper girl away from her.

"That's awesome! Ren and I are going to be on the same team." Nora moved back in close, this time to Ruby whilst putting a hand to the side of her mouth as she whispered. "We've got a super-secret call to find the other."

"O-kay?" Ruby nodded, her brain about fried at this point in regard to Nora.

"Awesome! See you 'round new friends!" Nora waved goodbye. She grabbed ahold of Ren by the collar and then dragged him away and out of sight. All the girls could do was simply stand there and stare at the row of lockers that Nora and Ren had disappeared behind, absolutely bewildered as to what just occurred.

"Did… did we all just have a simultaneous stroke?" Yang asked.

"I… maybe?" Mars scratched her head.

"Oh, hi girls." Jaune greeted, seeming to have finished whatever exchange with Schnee and Nikos. "What's up?"

Ruby sighed. "Jaune, buddy, trust me when I say you do not want the answer to that question."

✇ARWIT✇

Vale, Beacon Academy [Airfields]: 22/06/137M, 07:57am

"Good. All of you are now here." Six addressed the examinees, now equipped in their combat gear and weaponry. The gaggle of older teens, younger adults, and single 15-year-old stood to attention as their (hopefully) soon-to-be combat instructor faced them from the top of an albatross airship's cargo ramp. "Now, get in."

Obeying the instructor, all of the examinees filed onto the large airship, only just fitting them once the last person stepped into the cargo bay and the ramp closed into the plane. Whilst not being able to see outside, everyone was able to feel the rumble as the ship lifted off of the airfield, and the change in inertia once it started flying towards their destination.

"Okay listen up!" Six called out from the front of the bay, standing in front of a map that he gestured to with one of his swords. "This is a map of the Emerald Forest. As some of you may know, it's a game preserve for Hunters. This means along with a variety of acquired frontier wildlife, there are also going to be grimm here, including two Dark III that we have received special permission from the Valene council to hold here.

"Your task is this; Enter the forest, either evade or destroy anything in your path, collect satchels from designated locations as displayed on this map," Six pointed out multiple red dots on the map, "and then finally rendezvous here in the middle of the forest for extraction. Now, there are four ways to fail this examination. Firstly, sending off the flare that you are provided will call for immediate extraction from the supervising hunters. Do not hesitate to use it if you feel you are in a danger that you cannot handle, especially if you run into one of the Dark IIIs.

"The second and third conditions both pertain to your satchels. If you lose your satchel, you will fail. If you break the contents of your satchel, you will fail. The fourth is if the time period exceeds all remaining examinees will fail, in which case we will call for them to fire their flares for extraction. Are there any questions?"

A number of hands went up, mainly from the younger examinees. Six pointed to a boy with slicked-back silver hair and a large mechanical warhammer.

"What are we going to be doing for teams, sir?" He asked.

"Your teams will be decided in the evening, once the examination has concluded. Who your team of five will consist of will be determined by who you work with and how well you work with them in this exam. On that note, once you touch down in the forest whoever it is you meet first will be your partner for the remainder of this exam. Do what you want with this information, but how well you work with your partner along with other factors will determine your initial combat grade in my class, not to mention who the team captains will be."

This immediately sent the first-time attendees into a chatter, trying to decide who will go with who and the strategies to get paired together.

"Enough!" Six shouted at the examinees, immediately silencing the airship's bay and regaining everyone's attention. "This is meant to simulate the need to make do with whoever you find in the field, not, as a social event for you all. Just because you aren't paired with people you know in this exam; doesn't mean you aren't going to be on a team with them."

Six's address was interrupted by the red flashing of a light on the wall behind him. He turned to look at it for a moment before turning back to the students, the faintest of faint smiles on his lips.

"It's time." He spoke. The end of his sentence became slightly muffled due to the howling air that was steadily creeping in as the bay door opened.

The examinees squinted as the sunlight momentarily blinded them, bouncing off the reflective airship interior. Once this was over, everyone near to the bay door was greeted with a beautiful sight of deep green trees, which was easily seen to be the reason for the forest's name. the trees sprawled across the plateaued landscape as cliffs and valleys made up the terrain where the trees didn't. Despite all of this, it was not easily forgotten what things lurked down there, ready for the first person not paying attention to come wandering down. The thought of it kept everyone alert.

"You have six and a half hours to complete your tasks! After that, we will be returning to Beacon for either your induction or your ride home!" Six shouted over the wind. "Disembark when ready! The entrance exam starts now!"

With his words as the starting pistol, everyone began to jump out of the airship, the wind whipping past them as they flared their auras to life.

"Um, sir, I have a question!" Jaune shouted to Six as he tried to avoid the pushing of students.

"Then you should've asked earlier then!" Six shouted back.

"Um, yeah, but it's kind of important to the situation!" Jaune shouted again. Six sighed and strode over to Jaune, standing directly in front of him. "Oh, good idea. Now we won't have to shou- whoa, whoa!" Jaune exclaimed as Six grabbed a hold of the boy's armour and hauled him up.

"If it was important," Six began, retaining his stoic demeanour, "Then, as I said, you could've asked it earlier. Now, get to it; you're burning daylight."

And with that, Six tossed Jaune over the head of the other remaining examinees who hadn't yet disembarked and right out through the bay door and into the air. Jaune screamed the whole way. Meanwhile, Ruby watched through her engineer goggles as Jaune was turned into a projectile and admittedly found it a little funny. She looked to her sister who was putting her own goggles on, albeit riding ones. Yang caught her gaze, giving a confident nod and a smirk to her younger sister before sprinting off the ramp and jumping into the forest below. Ruby grinned herself before following suit.

✇ARWIT✇

Vale, Emerald Forest Hunting Grounds: 22/06/137M, 8:19am

On the floor of the green-filled forest, a creature of dark fur prowled the undergrowth. Its black, soulless eyes were barely distinguishable from the rest of its body save for a slight glimmer. At first glance, one could assume it was simply a wolf, but at closer scrutiny, this image broke down quickly. Large arched back, long blade-like claws, longer ears, overgrown red teeth, black bone-like plating that adorned its shoulders and a distinctly larger build more akin to a lion than a wolf.

And it wasn't alone, either. At least a dozen others of its kind moved nearby, just out of sight if one was simply observing the one in view. Each of the creatures looked similar enough to be called the same thing, but each bore noticeable differences.

Larger forelegs. Bone quills. Spiked tail. Hand-like paws. No two were exactly identical.

This was a Dark I grimm more commonly known as a beowolf, named after its discoverer, the legendary Hunter Darrum Beowulf. Unfortunately for these beowolves, their lives would soon come to an end.

"Incoming!" a voice from the heavens shouted. The beowolves had barely a moment to react to this sound before a high-speed object of metal and red crashed into the ground, immediately killing some of them and grievously wounding the rest. One beowolf shakily stood up and readied itself to attack whatever emerged from the billowing dust cloud, the scent of fresh meat not masked by either the dirt in the air or the metal on its body.

What it wasn't ready for was to be run over by a singular giant spiked wheel.

Ruby fist pumped as she looked back to watch the shadowy form of the beowolf disintegrated into the air, leaving behind a few crystals of calcified dust. She jolted as she drove over an exposed root and quickly faced back around to focus on driving her Spin Cycle, a large monocycle whose wheel sported a spiked tread for momentum. Perfect for all-terrain, easy maneuverability and running over one's enemies with viscosity.

Tearing through the emerald forest, Ruby's brain began to formulate a plan as it often did if left alone.

'Okay then. Step one, Find Yang or Rea. They'll be my best partners since Rea and I would seem to work well together, and I know how Yang fights. Step two, find an outpost for a satchel. Shouldn't be too hard, seeing as it took a picture!' Ruby chuckled evilly to herself as her personally modified goggles brought up a picture of the map Six had shown earlier. 'And finally, step three. Reach the extraction zone to successfully become the youngest ever student to be enrolled at a hunter school! Mwahahahahah!'

Ruby, distracted by her inner monologue, almost didn't notice the distinct form of a person directly in her path. Fortunately, she caught herself in time to slam on the brakes and turn to the side as she drifted the short space between herself and the person, showering them in dirt whilst Ruby came to a halt. Taking off her goggles, Ruby finally realized who she had just met, and subsequently covered in soil.

"Oh… uhhm… Hi?"

And that's where I'm going to leave it! I severely underestimated just how much I'd have to write for the Emerald Forest mini-arc, since this chapter is already surpassed my chapterly word goal by about 1000 words or so. But that's enough of that, so let's go over what I've changed from Ruby's cannon.

The changes to teams and the initiation exam. I honestly changed the teams from four to five for the expressed reason to include both Realien and Mars in what was previously just RWBY and JNPR. As for the new team assigning conditions, that just felt more practical than who you saw and what item you grabbed. The new ruleset and change of entry were purely personal choices and don't have any reasons behind them other than I liked the ideas.

Next, the grimm. You only got a small peak this chapter, but you'll be seeing much more of their changes in the next chapter and a full explanation of them when the gang are in Port's class. I'm hopefully sure that you won't be disappointed by their changes.

Finally, Ruby. In the first chapter I gave a few reasons I didn't want to make this a Gen Rex crossover, but here's another one. I only gave Ruby Rex's base idea of a power, Ruby herself is the one who made these abilities her own through growth and experimentation. But not only has Ruby affected her powers, but they've also affected Ruby, making her strive to becoming more intelligent so to broaden her mechanical knowledge. So, whilst I'm going to take the easy route and give ruby variants of Rex's builds, she's also going to have a wide array of her own to mess around with.

Now, here's your last chance. Who has Ruby first met in the forest, and will be stuck with for the remainder of the exam? Your guesses may just sway who it will be!

Oh! And if you see any mistakes I've made, please tell me so that I can fix them.

Till next time!