AN: Going on vacation for 2 weeks. Might not be posting until I get back.

Chapter 11

"The last pair has been formed. Cardin Winchester and Russel Thrush." Glynda Goodwitch said, looking up from her scroll at headmaster Ozpin, who merely hummed at her words. "I can already see the disciplinary issues we're going to have this year… Pale Lee comes to mind…" Glynda needed a second to recompose herself.

"You're wondering why I let such a person into my school when they've been on the Mistral authority's radar as an anti-faunus radical for two years?" Ozpin asked.

"As well as a known White Fang terrorist under a false name." Glynda added, opening the video feed that followed Blake. "I understand that Miss Belladonna is protected by the Vale Marshal Service, but if either Pale or her find out who the other is, people are going to get hurt." She said, trying to reason with her boss.

"That has always been a risk. Allowing Weiss Schnee to attend Beacon paints a target on her back for every disgruntled faunus in Vale, yet she is allowed to be here. Miss. Belladonna, Miss. Schnee, and Mr. Lee have one thing in common that will prevent the worst from happening… They are young and impressionable. There is no belief or behavior that can not be changed. Besides, Miss. Belladonna's list of charges is far less egregious than those of the company she kept, and if Mr. Lee knew of her status as a former White Fang agent, he would have done something about it by now." Ozpin said, smiling softly as he changed video feed, only to frown when what he saw didn't surprise him.

Weiss walked in circles trying to find out which way was north, and if they'd overshot their objective by a few degrees east or west. Ruby had less of a clue where they were than Weiss did, and sat on a rock digging in the dirt with a stick. "Could you just admit you're lost." Ruby said, tossing the stick over her shoulder.

"I'm not lost." Weiss snapped back.

"Of all the people I had to get stuck with." Ruby muttered.

"What was that?" Weiss asked. Ruby looked up at Weiss, and got to her feet.

"I said, of all the people I had to get stuck with, it just had to be you." Ruby said.

Weiss narrowed her ice blue eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?" She asked practically in a hiss.

"Of all the people going to Beacon, I had to get stuck with the prissy, spoiled brat that looks down on people because they were born different." Ruby said.

"I don't know where this is coming from, but if it's because you're upset I yelled at your pet monkey, he was the one that knocked over my baggage." Weiss said, only for Ruby to wind up and slap Weiss across the face. It stung, but wasn't meant to injure her, either way, the heiress had to take a second to recover from that… A cruel memory from years past creeping into the back of her mind… Weiss felt her hand shaking against her cheek.

"Clayton isn't a monkey… He's a huntsman in training, just like you are, and if you called him that to his face he would have hit you a lot harder than I did. If we're going to be on a team together you're either going to need to keep the racist comments to yourself, or get a serious attitude adjustment… And one more thing. Clayton's not my pet, he's my boyfriend." Ruby said, before walking off in a direction she felt like was North.

Weiss rubbed the still warm skin where Ruby's palm had made contact, and grimaced at the undignified way Ruby had spoken to her, but followed her regardless… They had a mission to accomplish. Both girls failed to recognize the shadow looming over them.

Clayton and Pale had quickly killed the first beowulf that attacked them where Pale landed, then stumbled into the trail of Ruby and Weiss, a forest fire left in their wake, and a pack of beowulfs still defending their territory. Pale, as a natural gunslinger and marksman, was having no issues keeping his distance while fighting.

Clayton was another story. While his shotgun axe proved effective enough at killing grimm, the raw number of them had become an issue, as the 15 Beowulfs soon became 30. There was still the alpha to consider as well. It needed to die. Clayton, took the grip of his shotgun in one hand, and broke his fighting position against a fallen tree with Pale, running on three limbs to attempt to close the distance between them and the alpha. "What're you doing you ijit?!" Pale asked in a shout, as he quickly swapped cylinders on his revolver, before firing twice into the skull of a wolf that had gotten too close.

Clayton swung the axe head of his weapon into the torso of a beowulf, before spinning and darting off to the left end of the on fire clearing, avoiding a proverbial wall of grimm. Still at full speed, Clayton slung his shotgun, and jumped off the back of another beowulf, taking to the trees. He swung off a branch, and then kicked off an oak, gaining air over the alpha beowulf. The monster let out a roar, as it opened its maw to bite Clayton, and Clayton raised his fists to slam into the grimm, sounding off a roar of his own.

Connecting with the upper jaw of the grimm, Clayton drove all his weight downwards, crushing the upper half of the grimm's head, as it slammed into the ground under the gorilla faunus's weight. The demon tried to get back up, only for Clayton to wrap his legs around its neck, and begin repeatedly hammer striking it in the face. Each impact broke more bone armor, and eventually the skull of the monster crumpled. The Alpha was dead.

Whatever level of coordination the beowulfs had was gone the moment the alpha started fading away, which turned the defensive fight the two huntsmen in training were caught up into, into a shooting gallery for Pale, and a smash fest for Clayton. As the grimm bodies faded, Clayton took a second to reload his shotgun. Pale just gave the gorilla man a sideways glance. Deciding that in no way did he want to piss the monkey off… He'd have to really work around that.

The two continued to trek through the forest, and Pale kept looking down at Clayton's feet. Usually he didn't spend enough time around faunus at ranges of less than 50 meters to get curious about their unique physiology, though knew he hadn't ever seen an ape faunus before. Pale noticed Clayton's gate on two legs was a little odd, it wasn't terrible, but weird all the same, he rotated his hips more than normal to walk upright. "How are your feet not sore walking around like that?" Pale asked, adjusting the rifle on his back.

"I've walked around barefoot my whole life, they toughen up on their own. Same with my knuckles." Clayton said, showing the man his calloused fingers, only for Pale to scratch where his head met his hat.

"Why not just wear shoes, I can't imagine how painful stepping on a nail must be." Pale said, only for Clayton to shrug.

"Custom shoes are too expensive, and I wouldn't be able to use my feet in combat." Clayton said. Pale nodded in consideration of that fact. "I guess you don't know many faunus. Usually asking about our extra bits is something people don't do." Clayton said, only for Pale to stick his tongue into his cheek in thought.

"Can't say I do know many." Pale said, causing Clayton to scoff.

"You've got that look. Like you're not used to seeing us up close… It's alright, most people ain't used to it even if they say they are." Clayton said, as he smiled back at Pale, who hummed in consideration.

"Guess I'm gonna have to get used to it." Pale muttered. They walked in silence for only a moment longer, until Pale asked another question. "So you and those girls I seen you with the other day, who are they?"

Clayton smiled. "Well, Ruby, the girl with the black hair, she's my girlfriend, and the blond is her sister, Yang. And yeah, Ruby's human. Us being together's not an issue, is it?"

Pale muttered to himself unheard and unseen by Clayton before gagging a little. "No helpin' havin' baser instincts I guess."

Siniy and Halcyone were quiet for most of their walk. "So you're a bear faunus eh?" Halcyone finally asked. Siniy hummed in response. "What kind?" She continued. Siniy just held up his arm to show her the white hair growing from it. "White, sorta dirty white, so polar bear right?" Halcyone asked, only for Siniy to huff.

"It's not white, it's hollow and transparent, light just scatters off the inside." Siniy said, as he shoved a bush out of his way, arriving at a large clearing full of ruins, where Yang and Blake stood, looking around at the stone work, before turning and noticing the tall girl and the short boy.

"Hello." Yang said in a sing-song to Halcyone.

"How you sheilas doin'?" Halcyone asked both Blake and Yang, earning a surprised look from her fellow blond.

"Wait, you're a girl?" Yang asked, hearing the short haired blond's voice for the first time, as Halcyone pulled her scarf down and goggles up.

"I know. Fuck ugly, ain't I?" Halcyone asked jokingly, before chuckling at Yang, as she turned red.

"Nono, you just… I thought you were a guy… A really well toned guy." Yang said, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

Siniy just rolled his electric blue eyes, then looked at the "relics" scattered around, before picking up a black rook. "Chess pieces?" Halcyone asked, turning her attention to the short boy. He shrugged, pocketing the piece.

Clayton and Pale had arrived at the ruins faster than they should have, as they fought an entire pack of grimm, but Pale, having been quite the traveler and trail man, happened to have both maps of the area and a compass. Stepping into the clearing, they were met by Blake, Yang, Siniy, and Halcyone. At the sight of all those gathered faunus and sympathizers, Pale froze for a second. His brain running on autopilot, Pale took his rifle off his back, depressed the set trigger, and started leveling the weapon anticipating an attack… Then a roar came from behind him, and he spun.

With a thunderous bang, the ursa, (a 10 foot tall creation of darkness in mockery of a bear,) that had emerged from the forest fell over dead before Nora could jump out of the bushes and hit it with her hammer one last time. Clayton looked at Pale in surprise, and raised an eyebrow at how he'd seemingly been prepared for that grimm to pop up behind him. "Nice shootin'." Clayton said, clapping Pale on the back, bringing the woodsman's brain back up to speed with his body.

"Yeah." Pale said, before turning back around and recomposing himself, adjusting his hat to hide his eyes hoping Blake wouldn't recognize him.

Blake did in fact recognize the man who'd drunkenly mistaken her hotel room for his own. She wondered who exactly he was, but that was of little concern, as the sound of a screaming Jaune Arc pierced the air. Together, Jaune and Pyrrha jumped clean over the fading body of the bear grimm, before they came stuttering to a stop, where Jaune took several deep breaths. "I think… GHASP… We lost it." Jaune said, before looking at the sky. "Man, I need to do more cardio."

"Where did they come from?" Blake asked, as Ruby and Weiss walked out of the Woodline a dozen feet away. The second Ruby laid her silver eyes on her boyfriend she rushed over to him, jumped up onto his back, and trapped him in a hug.

"Ruby?!" Clayton asked in surprise, as he tried looking over his shoulder at her. She let go for a moment, giving Clayton time to turn around, then jumped back up to hug him.

"Oh I'm so glad I found you, now we can be on a team together, and I won't be stuck with just Weiss." Ruby said, as Clayton hugged her back.

"Hey!" Weiss said in indignation.

Looking away from the group, Pale took a second to process what he was seeing in the temple ruins. There were a multitude of chess pieces laying on pedestals, most of what he assumed would be the pawn and bishop pieces were missing, while others were in the hands of Yang, the energetic redheaded girl that was singing to herself, and the giant bear man. Respectively Yang had a white knight, the manic redhead had the white rook, and the bear man had the black rook.

It was clear to Pale that whatever pairs had matching pieces would be on the same team. This left three obvious options for who he and Clayton could be on a team with. Pale weighed his choices and thought deeply about the decision to be made.

Yang and Blake was a possibility, being close in and near to his target might make it easier to keep tabs on her without an increase in suspicion, possibly even build trust, build a rapport and be one step closer to the ultimate prize. It could also be really bad, if somehow Blake knew who he was and was simply trying to keep her cover up, fooling him into exposing himself, ruining the kill, or worse furthuring any plans the Fang had.

The manic redhead and her boyfriend looked annoying and inversely unreadable respectively, but as far as he knew had no association to any of his potential threats and targets, a good choice if he wanted to stay out of everyone's way.

Then there was the short man, and the chick that looked like she crawled out of a hole in Vacuo. One of which already seemed to take issue with his smoking habit. And of course there were still a few odd pawn pieces, but the possibility of being paired with unknowns was not an appealing one.

"The white knight looks good, now let's get out of here." Weiss said, snatching the item off its stone perch.

Pale sighed to himself. His timely blunder might have just endangered his life in the future. "White rook it is." Pale thought, only to look over and see that Jaune had taken the piece, leaving just the black rook, which Clayton took with less than a thought. Pale facepalmed.

"Alright then, if that's all, I think we might want to-" Weiss started before a gigantic grimm came bursting through the trees. The 60 foot long black and armored bone white scorpion demon, (known to everyone present as a death stalker,) screeched, as it knocked over several trees with it's pincers.

"Wonderful." Siniy said with a sigh, before the cry of a nevermore came from above, the massive feathered demon having spotted and followed Ruby and Weiss from the air. "Not wonderful." Siniy corrected, as a 300 foot long snake with a head at both ends, reared the white half over the trees to find its prey. The King Tijitu having been attracted by the amassed negativity of the group. "Ok now that's just not funny." Siniy said, raising his machine gun.

"RUUUUUUUUN!" Pyrrha shouted, taking off, as the death stalker barreled towards her. With eyes wide, everyone bolted away from the structure, as Pyrrha took the initiative to pole vault over it with her spear, causing the giant scorpion to crash into the pillars trapping it for the moment.

"I second that!" Weiss said, as everyone started following Pyrrha back towards the cliffside, multiple ursa and beowulfs approaching from deeper in the forest.

"I think we took a wrong turn." Pale said, jumping over a fallen log, as the forest started getting denser, and stone ruins of an ancient villa formed an artificial canyon, forcing them towards a section of cliff that looked unfamiliar. A stone spire and aqueducts connected the cliff on the other side of a gorge to the forest.

"You want to check the map right now, or do you want to keep running?" Clayton asked while sprinting on all fours, as the nevermore cawed from above them.

"Definitely keep running!" Halcyone said, before the nevermore swooped in low, and came to perch on the stone spire in front of them, effectively blocking them from victory.

"Shit!" Yang shouted, as everyone took cover behind stone pillars or in defilade behind the small hill in front of the gorge, as razor sharp feathers rained down on the group for a second, nearly cutting off Pale's prosthetic leg.

From behind them, the death stalker and King Tijitu burst out of the dense forest, a small army of ursa and beowulfs behind them. Looking between the Nevermore and the wall of demonic spawn they were caught between, everyone unanimously and unconsciously decided the bird would be easier to deal with.

Ren was the first to issue orders. "Nora, distract the nevermore." He said, as he ran up towards the ruins. Mid run, Nora let off 6 tandem warhead Rubrumium and Patetium dust grenades, the combustible "pink mist," blowing the nevermores head in either direction, stunning it.

Ruby was next to give orders. "Clay, the pillars!" She shouted, pointing out a domed rotunda in front of the bridge.

"Yang, with me!" Clayton shouted to his friend, who nodded her head in understanding. Once they'd reached the pillars nearest the bridge, they waited for everyone to pass through, then started pushing towards each other. The deathstalker got closer, and closer, then with a grunt Clayton shoved as hard as he could, and his side fell inwards, leading to Yang's side giving way easier. They'd succeeded in dropping the domed structure on top of the Deathstalker, trapping it once more, and more importantly keeping the small army of grimm at bay with all the ruble. However… The King Tijitu had other plans, going around the deathstalker, the white head of the snake reared up, and hissed.

Just as the main group had made it to the end of the bridge, the nevermore had circled back, and crashed into the top of the ruins, collapsing the tower in front of them, creating a floor of rubble, leaving the raised stone walkways surrounding it intact. With the others backing away from the King Tijitu that had slithered onto the bridge, their space was becoming limited.

"Shorty, lay into that nevermore." Clayton said, earning an angry look from Siniy.

"Don't call me short!" Siniy shouted, as he started to link all of his available ammo belts together, then hip fired Seal Club at the giant bird while moving to the center of the ruins.

"Pale, pick off any of those grimm that slip past the deathstalker." Clayton said, and with a serious nod, Pale ran towards the center, and used his bayonet to help him scale the tallest pillar he could, using it as a sniping nest. "You-" Clayton shouted to Halcyone as he pointed at her. "Cover the left side, Pale can't see past the snake." Clayton said, pointing at Halcyone. She shrugged, shifted off to the left, and checked to see if she had a round chambered. Without being prompted, Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha began dumping ammunition into the face of the giant snake, with Jaune shouting for them to aim for the eyes.

With another screech, the Nevermore had made a circle back. Ruby looked at her sister and nodded, tossing her into the air with a backswing from Crescent Rose to deal with the bird. Meanwhile Weiss and Blake had moved to the center of the ruins to aid Siniy with shooting it down.

Clayton looked at Nora, then at the snake. "Anyone have a bunch of powdered fire dust on them?" He asked Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren, only for the blond to perk up.

"I've got a vile!" Jaune said, fishing the SHI marked tube of Rubrumium out of his hoodie… In hindsight it was probably a bad idea to be walking around with that thing just jingling in his pocket.

Clayton pumped his fist. "Yes! You're coming with me." He said, only for Jaune to gulp. Clayton charged forward on all fours, and Jaune hesitated before rushing after him. The King Tijitu gave an open mouth hiss, before Clayton jumped into the air, and socked it in the lower jaw, stunning it. Grabbing onto one of its fangs before he could fall, Clayton wrapped around its head, and dug his shotgun axe into its eye, gouging out the beady little thing. Jumping off its head, Clayton raised his axe again in an overhead strike and slammed into the head of the beast, sending it to meet the bridge.

Weakened and stunned, the King Tijitu was unable to prevent the gorilla faunus from prying its mouth open. "Blond Boy, NOW!" Clayton said, and with a grunt, Jaune tossed the vile of dust into the snake's mouth. Falling back, Clayton gave the snake time to raise its head again. "PALE, IN THE SNAKE'S MOUTH!" Clayton shouted to the sniper.

Hearing his name and the target, Pale shifted his stance, then… Inhaled, took note of the wind, looked through the brass scope that ran the length of his rifle, rested his cheek on the padded leather of the stock, kept his eye just close enough so that no edge of the sight picture was black, placed the pad of the finger on the trigger, picked out the red vile in the mass of white flesh, lined up a shot, adjust for wind and distance, exhaled… And squeezed.

The shot rang out, and with a thunderous boom, the vial of purified and powdered fire dust exploded, catching the white head on fire, searing the demonic insides of the King Tijitu. The second head of the snake reared up in pain, and off balance without its other half, fell off the edge of the bridge, but not before slamming into the rubble trapping the deathstalker and the hoard of ursa and beowulfs.

Turning his attention to the hoard, Siniy swung the muzzle of his .30 caliber machine gun towards the wall of demonic flesh. "EVERYBODY DUCK!" He shouted.

As the people in the way made themselves as small as possible, with Jaune and Pyrrha using their shields as cover, Siniy started shooting into the thick of the grimm, mincing the "fodder" grimm and pitting the bone armor of the Deathstalker, sending bullets flying at a blistering 1300 rounds per minute over everyone's heads. As Siniy fought his gun's recoil, the hungry machine chewing through ammunition and grimm all the same, the little bear man started yelling. The last few fodder grimm tripped over the growing mound of fading bodies as they were filled with holes. The deathstalker tried to shield it's face with a claw, the bone armor shattering in several places, injuring the monster. As the last dozen rounds were pulled through the hot weapon, the deathstalker screeched in pain, one of it's legs dangling by a thread.

His gun finally dry, having dished out three yards worth of rounds, Siniy lowered the muzzle, and grunted. After a quick peek, Clayton got onto all fours, and pushed himself up, before grabbing his shotgun, checking the chamber. "We've still got two to deal with. Siniy, short haired blond girl, go help them." Clayton said, pointing at Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, Ren, as the four ran towards the death stalker, across the bridge. Siniy nodded, deploying the spade from Seal Club's butt plate and jogged towards the group, as Halcyone chuckled before running after him. "Pale!" The sniper looked down at Clayton from his perch. "You're with me, we're helping Ruby."

"Need some sorta' plan 'ere!" Halcyone said with a smile, as she popped .223 caliber bullets at the face of the deathstalker, which shielded itself with its uninjured claw. "But I'm ok with just torturing the bug!"

"Jaune?!" Pyrrha asked, doing the same as Halcyone with her .308 rifle. "Any ideas?"

"Uhhh." Jaune said, looking around at everyone present, then at the grimm, before it swung it's stinger down towards Nora, cracking the concrete of the bridge as she rolled away. The Grimm dislodged the yellow stinger from the stone walkway, and pulled it back out of harm's way. "Strengths, weaknesses, and critical information." Jaune said, before looking at Pyrrha. "The only real danger is from its claws and stinger. Its size and armor makes it tough but not invincible. Scorpions have exoskeletons, so they're easy to crush, and squishy inside." Jaune looked at Nora. "You with the orange hair, I need you to wait for my signal." Jaune said, before looking at Ren. "You, ninja kid, I need this thing's stinger to hit the ground."

The two friends looked between each other then shrugged. Ren stepped off to the side, and lit up the nearest joint he could see with his machine pistols, attracting the grimm's attention. With one of it's many eyes, the deathstalker saw Ren isolating himself, and though it couldn't feel any emotional presence from him, the gunfire the boy was unloading irritated it enough to prompt retaliation. The stinger flew towards the ground, and slammed into the stone as Ren jumped back.

"NOW!" Jaune shouted. As ordered, Nora wound up Mgnhild, and swung downwards onto the black and yellow tail, crushing the black exoskeleton. Writhing in pain, the grimm pulled it's tail away, black demonic blood spewing from the now mangled amputation, the liquid turning to mist as it fell.

"Pyrrha come with me!" Jaune said, holding his shield up as he stepped forward. The two were smacked by the functioning claw of the grimm, and stood their ground, leaving an opening for the others. "Get in there everyone, rip it apart!" Jaune said, as Halcyone, Siniy, and Ren ducked under the claw after the attack, and started stabbing and chopping away at any gap in the bone armor of the creature they could find. "Pyrrha, go for its eyes." Jaune said, as he stabbed at the armored claw's joint with his blade's point.

Slipping past the monster's next attack with its broken claw, Pyrrha's weapon, Milo, shifted from rifle, to its short sword form. Planting her foot on its face, Pyrrha stabbed the blade into one of the monster's eyeballs, causing it to scream in pain, before she let go of the weapon, spun, jumped up onto the creature's injured claw as it was raised, then held her shield in front of her. Kicking off of the grimm's arm with her legs, if only to make it look like she wasn't using any of her true power, Pyrrha pushed her shield, Akouo, forward, and sent it rocketing into the handle of Milo with her body still behind it. The sword stabbed deep into the body cavity of the deathstalker like a struck nail, impaling the creatures brain, causing the massive monster to finally seize up, before falling flat on its stomach dead.

As Clayton joined Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang and Pale in the center of the central spire's ruins, he looked at Ruby. "This thing's way faster than I thought it would be." She said, finding it difficult to make her shots land.

"Tougher too." Yang added.

"We need to pin it down somehow." Blake said.

"Or clip its wings!" Pale said loudly.

"I can do that, if someone can get me on its back." Blake said.

"Alright, hang on then." Clayton said, before grabbing Blake around the waist and pulling her onto his back, before he slung his gun and took off on all fours to the nearest of the walkways and support columns. The ape-man began to climb the ruins of the temple, as the two snipers below took their pot shots. Once at the highest point of the remaining stonework, the side of a pillar, Blake looked towards the nevermore, as it flew closer, not paying attention to its surroundings as gunfire flew by it from below.

"GO! GO! GO!" Clayton said, before Blake jumped off of his back, and landed on the left wingtip of the monstrous flying demon. With both blades drawn, Blake hacked and slashed at the roots of the birds feathers as she ran, shaving off the only thing keeping the creature in the air, before jumping at the grimm's shoulder blade, and dropping down into a cut with her cleaver, severing a tendon where its wing met it's chest, causing the limb to go limp. Blake landed on the main walkway between the center spire and the cliff, hard, though seemed to fade out of existence before rolling back into it at the same moment only a few feet away.

Above, the nevermore lost control of it's flight, and spun in the air towards the cliff face, where it crashed into the roof of the temple at the cliff face.

In the Center Spiral, Ruby watched the bird crash, before it flapped it's good wing, and stood back up. "That thing's still not dead!" Weiss said in irritation as she stated the obvious.

"No shit, Schnee!" Yang said loudly.

Ruby had a thought come to mind. "Does anyone have something I can use like a giant slingshot?"

Pale looked at Ruby, then pulled his Bayonet off his rifle. "Meat Knife's got a high tensile microwire winch in it."

Ruby grinned, and then looked between Yang, Pale and Weiss. "Anchor an end there, and there." Ruby said, pointing out two thicker pillars left standing beside the center spire.

Pale pointed the tip of his bayonet at the nearest pillar, and with a hiss of compressed air, the blade lodged itself into the stone. "Schnee." He said, tossing the handle to Weiss. She took the handle, and pulled it towards the other anchor point, hooking the handle between two of the arched guards in Myrtenaster then stabbed the sword into the rockface.

"You're up, big sis." Ruby said, as Yang jumped up and grabbed the wire hanging between the two pillars, before pulling it back with all her strength.

"Load The Rose." Yang said, before her sister jumped up into her arms.

"Allow me." Weiss said, before holding out her hand and creating a white glyph behind the sisters. Falling back into it, Yang felt gravity assisting her.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Pale asked.

"It's probably not." Yang said with a shrug.

"The best ideas never are." Ruby said with a grin. "But, if I run fast enough we'll see."

"Run?" Pale asked in confusion.

"FIRE!" Ruby shouted, and as Weiss released her glyph, Yang let go of her sister, and with Pale's wire under tension, Ruby was launched into the air at the nevermore. Using the first three rounds in Crescent Rose's magazine to assist her in flying faster towards the creature's neck, Ruby braced for the rough landing. Catching the bird by it's throat with the three foot blade of her scythe, and slamming into the cliffside feet first, Ruby expended the rest of her rounds to assist her in gaining momentum up the cliff side, before she let her semblance do the rest of the work, dragging the massive bird along behind her as she ran like the wind.

Sprinting at her top speed now, Ruby pulled the grimm up the cliff behind her in a blur, before she reached the top of the cliff face. With the outcrop hanging over the ledge acting as a backstop for the bird, Ruby maintained her upwards inertia, as the grimm lost all of its. Momentum acted against gravity, and at the weakest point between the two, the bird's neck, was sliced clean through by the blade that had pulled it thus far.

Landing on the clifftop, as the head and limp body of the nevermore disappeared into the raven below, Ruby took a deep breath, feeling tired. She turned towards the edge and looked down at all her new potential team mates who saw her dismember the monster. Feeling it appropriate, Ruby held Crescent Rose like a guitar, and threw up devil horns. "DECAPITATIOOOOOOOOOOOOON!" She shouted, shaking her head from side to side, much to the enjoyment of Clayton and Halcyone.

"Way to ruin the victory." Weiss scoffed from below.

Within the hour everyone had returned to the Academy, and the team creation ceremony was underway. The most notable teams being CRDL, JNPR, RWBY, and as anyone could guess, with the remainder of students. "Clayton Sanguis, Pale Lee, Siniy Garnet, and Halcyone Lacquer, will form team SPGL. (Pronounced Spangle) Led by Clayton Sanguis." Ozpin said, inciting a round of polite applause, and more than a few cheers from Ruby and Yang.

With a smile and a deep nod, Clayton accepted his position as leader. While not unexpected, Clayton had no need to over achieve, and would have gladly passed the position off to Pale if he was chosen to be the team leader.

To Clayton's left, Pale grimaced, but bit his tongue. He wasn't one to lead, nor was he one to follow, but he wasn't the one out there that took charge of the bridge situation now was he? Though a detriment, he could live with being partnered to Clayton… Even if he was a faunus, he seemed like one of the good ones.

Siniy, gave a nod of acknowledgement. His position on the team mattered little, he was a student at the best hunter academy in the world. Leader or not, he would prove that it wasn't what he looked like, but what was inside of him that mattered.

Halcyone was ecstatic, handing out high fives and fist bumps with everyone as team SPGL left the auditorium. She did it. She'd taken the first step on her path to becoming a rippa of a huntress. She was free.

Exhausted from their long day of fighting, the many new teams of Beacon moved their belongings to the co-ed dorms they were given, and many plopped down to sleep. Clayton and Ruby shared a chaste kiss after changing into their sweatpants and tank tops, then the gorilla faunus and the Red Reaper parted, and turned in for the night. Pale pulled out a pocket watch, and gazed at the interior intently for a moment, before closing his timepiece and rolling onto his side to face the wall. Having no night clothes to change into he simply didn't bother taking anything off. Siniy gave a small and silent prayer, before he went into the closet and changed into an oversized bath robe and shorts, then rested his body on the huge in comparison twin bed. Halcyone didn't bother changing her clothes, rather she removed her jacket and used it as a pillow like she always had, not even getting under her covers before she nodded off.

In a warehouse beyond the city of Vale's border wall, Roman Torchwick inspected all the dust presented to him. It came from all over the world. A small amount sourced from Vale, a train's worth from Atlas, the untraceable crates smuggled in from Vacuo. There was more than enough to sate his greed… But there was one issue. "We're going to need more men, and more firepower." Roman said, remembering back to the faunus that had taken one of his explosive flares to the face, and lived.