"Well, that is rather… disconcerting."

"I know, right? We've been here for over two years now and just now we're getting a vision, only instead of showing us how to get home it's a vague and depressing picture book? A-oof! Hey!"

"Don't be rude! It's not her fault that's all she could see!"

"I'm more concerned about how you were in pain during these visions. Has that ever happened before when you used the Eye, Himi?"

"No, it has not. But we are in a new world, and much of our equipment was weakened due to how we got here. Maybe it's having trouble attuning to the spirits of this land?"

"We can ponder about this later. The question is, what should we do now?"

It had been about two weeks since the foiled robbery, and things had been rather hectic for Ruby. They had had to deal with a whirlwind of events, from having to explain the altercation to her families, to then reassuring her overprotective family, then dealing with the process of transferring to a prestigious academy, packing to move into said academy and some very frantic last-minute training and supply shopping. This ran the young girl ragged to the point she forgot to try and contact her new friend, a fact she didn't realize until just after she boarded one of the many "Bullhead" aircrafts headed towards Beacon.

Ruby's moan of depression as a result did not escape her big sister's notice. A tall and buxom young lady with lilac eyes and wildly long blonde hair reaching down to her thighs, her fashion sense consisted of a tan jacket with puffy sleeves that ended just above her midriff and was unzipped enough to reveal a bright yellow crop top with a black emblem resembling a burning heart on the right. Below that was a pair of black spats underneath a brown leather belt accentuated with pleats and pouches, brown leather boots and orange over-the-knee socks, with the right sock rolled down. An orange scarf around her neck, large golden-yellow bracelets and a gray bandana around her left knee completed her ensemble. Now, the blonde absolutely hated seeing her sister sad, so after taking one look at her expression, she immediately knew she had to cheer the red-themed girl up. Her method?

"Ooooh, I can't believe my baby sister's coming with me to Beacon!"

"Aaugh-pfff! Y-Yang, air! I need air!"

To start by smothering her sister in affection.

After a few seconds of panicked flailing Ruby managed to break free from Yang's sudden bear-hug with her best attempt at a scowl, only her to smile at her sister's adorable pout. Having had her moment of teasing celebration, the blonde sister decided to take the direct route: "What'sda matter, Rubes? You got to skip two whole years to attend your dream school, you should be bouncing off the walls right now!"

To her slight worry the red-themed girl looked off to the side with a guilty look on her face. "That's just it, Yang. I skipped ahead two years, meaning I'm leaving most of my friends back in Signal behind. And the one friend had coming with me I completely forgot to call at all!"

"To be fair, Ruby, it had slipped my mind entirely as well. Going straight into the academy after being home-schooled is a surprising amount of work."

Turning to the unfamiliar voice, both sisters find said friend Himi walking towards them. She was dressed in the same outfit as the night of the robbery, only this time she had someone new next to her: a young, well-built and muscular man about Yang's height with sky-blue eyes and short spiky hair as red as a bright cherry. His outfit was made up of a burnt-orange short-sleeve tunic underneath a dull gold breastplate, a pair of sandy-brown breeches tucked into wide leather boots and fingerless brown gloves. He was carrying a pair of rather sizable suitcases behind him while looking about the aircraft with a look of small wonder, before gawking in surprise at Ruby suddenly glomping his companion.

"Himi! Ohmigawsh I'm so sorry I meant to call you I really did but things got so busy I had to tell Yang and Dad about what happened and then they gotmadsoIhadtocalmemdownandthenwehadtoprepareforBeaconandUncleQrowcamebyand-"

"Ack! Ruby! A little space, please!?"

"Oh, sorry…"

The two bystanders couldn't help but chuckle as the red-themed girl hurriedly let go of Himi, who merely dusted herself off. "Thank you. And really, Ruby, it isn't a problem. I just told you I forgot to try and call you myself, didn't I?"

"…Yeah, but still…"

At this point the blonde sister decided to introduce herself. "Well, I'm glad to see there's no hard feelings between you two! I'm Yang Xiao Long, Ruby's sister and soon-to-be best huntress of Beacon! It's nice to meet you, Himi. And the hunk beside you is…?"

Said 'hunk' could help but preen at the compliment, dropping one of the suitcases to rub his nose and smirk. "Heh. Name's Tyrell. Tyrell Fireheart, one of Himi's adoptive brothers and the baddest hunk you'll ever meet, little lady."

"Oh-hoh, I think you'd better watch it, Matchhead, this Little Firecracker might be too much for you to handle."

A sudden noise interrupted the two's banter, causing them to turn and see Ruby comically gagging while Himi had a vaguely disturbed look on her face. Seeing their confused faces, the tattooed girl deadpanned: "Please stop flirting with each other. There is already one person losing their lunch, and I would rather not add to that number." She punctuated this by making a vague gesture in the direction of a blonde, scraggly-looking teen boy hunched over a trashcan, who was indeed losing his lunch. Which, needless to say, did not amuse the two.

"Ah, hey! I'm not that bad!"

"Man, it's bad enough Karis gives me grief, now you?!"

"You make it too easy."

Tyrell's pouting "Feh…" at that retort sent Ruby into a giggling fit, which everybody else couldn't help but join in a minute later. Their laughter ended just as a hologram of the strict huntress from the robbery appeared on the nearby windows. "Greetings, and welcome to Beacon Academy."

Yang gave Tyrell a sidelong glance as she asked, "Who's that?"

"My name is Glynda Goodwitch."

"Oh."

The recording continued, "You are all among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses of the world, it is your duty to protect it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training needed to uphold it. Now, upon your arrival, you will be given a map of the academy grounds, after which we ask you all to make your way to the auditorium for the welcoming speech headed by Headmaster Ozpin at 7:00 P.M. Please do not be late." Upon finishing, the hologram vanished, allowing the passengers an impressive view of the city of Vale, the surrounding countryside and of Beacon Academy.

Tyrell couldn't help but whistle in amazement upon seeing the academy grounds. "Phweeeeuw~. Man, that place is huge! They should've called it Beacon Fortress, instead!"

That was a sentiment many shared given how the academy looked like a modernized castle. Situated upon an impressive cliffside overlooking the ocean, a large clockwork-esque tower with a peak reminiscent of a lighthouse served as the center of the grounds, surrounded by a multitude of smaller towers and fortified buildings connected by sky bridges. Bordering the large cliffside were many circular docking bays for aircraft, with a seaport located at the bottom of the cliff with a set of trails leading up to the grounds. A large paved avenue served as a path from the ports to a large amphitheater surrounded by two colonnade rings, located in front of the central tower. Further along the cliff was a large emerald-green forest dotted with ancient and decrepit ruins. Completing the academy grounds was a multitude of sentry outposts and gun encampments pointed towards the forest and sea, armed and ready to guard against any encroaching grimm.

After touching down at one of the docking bays and receiving the aforementioned maps, the quartet started making their way to the amphitheater, with Himi and Tyrell gawking at the architecture, Yang sizing up some of the surrounding students and Ruby…

"Ohmigawsh that student has a collapsible staff! *gasp*! And he has a fire sword! Oh, is that a railgun?!"

…geeking out over the other students' equipment.

Tyrell couldn't help but laugh at the red girl's enthusiasm. "Geez, you're really into weaponry, arent'cha?"

"Well yeah! They're like extensions of ourselves! You could see all the different kinds of stories people have just be looking at them, how they're made, how they work. It's like meeting new people, but better!"

Himi and Tyrell were a little bemused by Ruby's answer, while her sister rolled her eyes with an exasperated yet indulgent smile. "As fun as drooling over their weapons can be, you do need to actually talk to the people themselves if you want to make friends, Rubes."

Ruby only just tilted her head in a confused manner as she turned to Yang. "But why would I need new friends? I got you, Himi and now Tyrell, don't I?"

Put on the spot by that question, the blonde brawler awkwardly looked to-and-fro as she scrambled for an answer, completely missing the slightly guilty glance the other two gave each other. A few seconds later, however, she apparently came up with something as she turned back with a plastered-on smile. With an exclamation of "Well… actually myotherfriendsareherenowbye!", she dashed towards a nearby group of people she supposedly knew, ditching the trio and sending her sister into a spinning whirl.

"Whoa-whoa-whoa! Yang!"

"Ah! Ruby, look out!"

Himi's warning unfortunately came too late as her friend stumbled into a cart of expensive-looking luggage, causing them to topple them over and popping a few open, which caused the Dust containers inside to scatter everywhere…

"What are you doing?! Do you have any idea the kind of damage you could've cause!?"

…and drew the ire of their owner.

Said owner could be considered "Rich Girl" personified. A petite young lady with a borderline-royal aura, her skin and long hair were so pale she could have been mistaken for an albino were it not for her pale blue eyes, with the left one marred by a shallow vertical scar. She was clad in a snow-white blouse over a frilly black corset with a knee-length ice-blue skirt ending in a snowflake-themed frill and a white scarf serving as her belt, a similarly-colored bolero jacket with voluminous sleeves and a scarlet frilled collar and a pair of ice-blue high-heeled boots. Completing the look was a tear-shaped gem on a silver necklace, a small silver tiara holding her hair in a right-leaning ponytail that reached down to her hip and a stylized snowflake emblem emblazoned on the back of her jacket. Holstered at her right hip was an ornate high-quality rapier with a revolving mechanism built into the hilt reminiscent of a magnum, shielded by a quartet of small dull blades in a cross formation. Finally, in her left hand was a vial of red powdered dust and a borderline apoplectic expression on her face. Everyone, even the manservants hauling away her luggage, wound up taking a step back as she thrust the vial into Ruby's face and started shaking it.

"This is highly refined, highly volatile fire Dust mined from one of the highest quality mines of the Schnee Dust Corporation! And you just crashed into cases full of it! Are you insane?!"

"A-ah…"

To everyone's misfortune, the vial was not fully secured, which led to an ever-growing cloud of dust to assault Ruby's nose. Himi noticed this and attempted to garner the irate girl's attention: "Ah, excuse me miss, but…"

"What are you, brain-dead?! Dust!Fire, water, lightning, energy! Is any of this getting through your thick skull?!"

Unfortunately she was too far into her tirade to notice any of this, leading to the red-cloaked girl to violently sneeze and set off both the cloud of dust and several nearby vials. The resulting explosion of fire, lightning and ice left everyone stunned and covered in multi-colored soot. The snow-themed girl was the first to recover, and seemed to reach new levels of pissed. "Un-be-lievable! This is exactly what I was talking about! Are you even old enough to be here, you little cretin?! Do you even know who I am!?"

The ranting was cut short however as Tyrell, having had enough of the rich brat's attitude, interposed himself between her and the now-tearing Ruby. "Hey, lay off, princess! It was just an accident!"

"It's heiress, actually."

The quartet turned to the new voice to see a pair of young ladies heading towards them. The one on the left was a tall and fair-skinned woman with an athletic build, thigh-length wavy ebon hair and striking amber eyes. Her outfit consisted of a charcoal-black single-button vest over a cream-white sleeveless high-neck undershirt, white shorts with zippers running up the legs, a pair of black low-heeled boots and thighhigh black-to-purple gradient stockings. For accessories she had a black scarf around her neck, a ribbon done in the shape of a cats-ear bow on her head, a detached black sleeve with a silver cuff on her left arm and black ribbons wrapped around both forearms. A magnetic backpack strapped above her rear held the short-but-wide scabbard of her sheathed weapon, which appeared to have a pistol barrel built into the hilt.

Her partner was shorter with a more gymnastic body-type, with a tan complexion smattered with dark freckles, bluish-gray eyes and chestnut-brown hair tied into a high ponytail that curled a bit like a chameleon's tail at her tail-bone. She was wearing a small black tailcoat jacket with gold zippers and small buckles to hold up her rolled-up sleeves, a gray cropped tank top that exposed her midriff, elastic gray shorts with plum-colored pouches along the sides and a pair of black low-heeled combat boots. Fastened to her left hip was a mechanical segmented whip-blade in the shape of a rapier with a large circular mechanism built into the hilt designed to take in up to two vials of dust and a pair of small triggers underneath it.

The amber-eyed girl was the one who spoke, holding another vial of pale blue Dust in her left hand. "Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest conglomerates of the world and the leading producer of energy propellants."

The now-revealed heiress preened under the recognition, only to deflate with a scandalized expression as the freckled girl continued with a scathing tone, a reddish tint beginning to overtake her skin while her freckles and hair gained a slightly yellow hue: "The same company reviled for its monopolization attempts, under-the-table partnerships and downright abusive treatment of its employees, especially in regards to the faunus working the mines."

"Ilia…"

The monochrome girl gave her partner, apparently named Ilia, a rather disapproving glare for her hostility as the heiress sputtered trying to find a retort. Eventually she settled for roughly snatching away the vial held in her hand and storming off, leaving her manservants to scramble after her. The trio of friends stared at Weiss's retreating back, with Himi and Tyrell with expressions of disapproval and Ruby with lingering hurt. The red-headed man then scoffed. "Wow. She's a bitch. Thanks for butting in to- oh... They just left too…"

Indeed, his attempt to thank the two died as they left almost immediately after, leaving the three behind. Himi just huffed at this development as she helped comfort Ruby. "I must say, as first impressions go, they left much to be desired. Hopefully not every student here is as full of short-tempered melodrama."

The deadpan delivery of that jab sent the other two into chuckles. "Heh, thanks Himi. I needed that laugh. Hopefully it's just first-day jitters that's making everyone crabby."

Tyrell than jolted a bit, as if he just had an epiphany. "Hey, I just remembered something. We're supposed to head to the auditorium, right? Do either of you know where that is?"

The two girls turned towards each other before slowly panning their heads to him in slight embarrassment. "…No…? Didn't the announcement say that they were handing out maps?"

"I think Yang was the one holding onto our maps."

"…Oh goddamnit Yang…"

CHAPTER 2 End

Chapter lengths and updates will vary, obviously.

Also, I forgot how dumb Fanfiction's document formatting can be.

Hope you all enjoy.