"Wake up, Lazy bum! It's morning! It's morning! It's morning! It's morning!" Nora Valkyrie, a teenage girl with orange hair and aqua eyes, exclaimed to her childhood friend, Lie Ren as they awoke for the day of their initiation with the other first years. Nora wore a black sleeveless dress with a white shirt over it and heart-shaped cut out over her breast line, white detached sleeves on both her arms and pink fingerless gloves. She also had a pink skirt with a white layer underneath and white boots with pink laces.

Ren, a young man with magenta-colored eyes, black hair, with a single magenta streak on his left side, stood up, already fully dressed in his clothing. He wore a dark green, diagonally-button, long sleeved tailcoat with black and gold trimming, as well as white pants and black shoes. As he prepared for the day, he listened silently to Nora's excited ramblings about their acceptance to Beacon.

"I can't believe we've been at Beacon for a full twenty-four hours! Not that I thought we'd get kicked out or anything, I mean you're the perfect student and I'm well… I'm me! But it's just crazy, ya know? We've been friends for soooo long! What are the odds we'd still be together? Well, not together-together, not that I'm saying you're not handsome, you are handsome, but that just be weird. Right? Right, what was I thinking? But so, I hope that we still end up on the same team together! Oooh! We should come up with some sort of plan, to make sure we end up on the same team together! What if we bribe the headmaster? No, that won't work. He has a school."

Her ramblings continued even into the locker room as they collected their gear. "I know! We should have some sort of signal! Like a distress signal! Oooh! A secret signal so we can find each other in the forest! Can you imitate a sloth?"

"Nora?" Ren finally spoke.

"Yes, Ren?" She asked as he slid his weapons into his sleeves.

"I don't think sloths make a lot of noise." Ren told her.

She paused for a moment. "That's why it's perfect! No one will suspect we're working together!"

"Come on, Nora. Let's go." Ren said as they began to leave the locker room.

"But not together-together…" She continued as they passed by Ruby and Yang, who were also gathering their equipment from their respective lockers.

"Wonder what those two are so worked up about." Ruby observed.

"Oh, who knows?" Yang brushed off. "So, you seem awfully chipper this morning."

"Yep!" Ruby grinned excitedly as she pulled out Crescent Rose from her locker. "No more awkward small talk or getting-to-know-you stuff. Today, I get to let my sweetheart do the talking." She caressed her beloved weapon.

"Well remember Ruby, you're not the only one going through initiation." Yang told her younger sister. "If you wanna grow up, you're gonna have to meet new people and learn how to work together. And no, that imaginary lightning guy doesn't count."

"I keep telling you, he's a real guy! Professor Ozpin himself spoke to him!" Ruby groaned.

"Okay, whatever you say." Yang held her hands up defensively, a playfully skeptical smile on her face.

"And what does meeting new people have to do with fighting, anyway?" Ruby continued. "And I don't need people to help me grow up! I drink milk!"

"But what about when we form teams?" Yang asked.

"Um… I don't know." The youngest sister looked away rather shyly. "I… I'll just be on your team or… something."

"Maybe… you should try and be on someone else's team…" Yang brushed her own hair somewhat nervously.

"My dearest sister Yang, are you implying that you do not wish to be on the same team as me!?" Ruby narrowed her silver eyes with a pouty expression.

"What?! No! Of course, I do!" The eldest sister quickly replied. "I just thought… I don't know… maybe it would help you break out of your shell."

"What!? I don't need to break out of my shell! That's absolutely…

"Ridiculous!" They both heard Jaune's shout of frustration as he tried to find his assigned locker, looking at the assigned sheet in his hands. "There's no way I put my gear in locker 636 yesterday, I would have remembered to count that high! Oooh, why does this have to happen today?"

He also happened to pass by Weiss, who was gathering her own gear alongside another young woman. She had long red hair tied back in a ponytail, and green eyes. She wore golden and bronze armor similar to that of an Amazonian warrior, complete with a breastplate and thigh-high armored greaves, with black skirt and a red sash tied over it.

"So Pyrrha, have you given any thought as to whose team you'd like to be on?" Weiss asked her. "I'm sure everyone must be eager to unite with such a strong individual, such as yourself."

"Hmm, I'm not quite sure." Pyrrha answered. "I was planning on letting the chips fall where they may."

"Well, I was thinking that maybe we could be on a team together." Weiss suggested.

"Well, that sounds grand." Pyrrha smiled.

"Great!" Weiss beamed while also having comically sinister thoughts in her head. 'This will be perfect! The smartest girl in class combined with the strongest girl in class! Together, we will be unstoppable! I can see it now! We'll be popular! We'll be celebrities! We'll get perfect grades! Nothing will come between us now!'

"Ya know what else is great?" Jaune said, literally coming in-between them, trying to act like a cool ladies' man. "Me. Jaune Arc. Nice to meet you."

"You again?" Weiss questioned irritably.

"Nice to meet you, Jaune." Pyrrha greeted in a friendly manner.

"Yeah, yeah." He seemed to direct his attention toward the Schnee girl. "So Weiss, I couldn't help but hear your fondness of me the other day." He flexed his arm, while she simply ran her hand down her face in annoyance.

"Jaune, Seriously?" Sighed Keith, having changed out from his night clothes and into his battle outfit. "We really need to be getting ready for the trials. My name is Keith Kogane by the way, and it's nice to meet you, Miss, um….."

"Pyrrha. Pyrrha Nikos."

"Nice to meet you, Miss Nikos." Answered Keith.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." Groaned Weiss, facepalming.

"I know, right?" Keith sighed.

"Keith, buddy, I love ya, but I got this." Jaune said quietly, looking at Keith.

"What?! I beg to differ!" Keith snapped.

"Don't worry, no need to be embarrassed." Jaune continued. "So, I've been hearing rumors about teams. I was thinking you and me would make a good one. So, what do you say?"

"Actually, I think the teams consist of four students each." Pyrrha said. "So…"

"You don't say." He then directed his attention toward Pyrrha. "So, hot-stuff, play your cards right, and maybe you could join-up with the winning team."

"That depends on who the winning team is." Groaned Keith, Jaune's antics reminding him of Lance's casanova behavior.

Weiss quickly came in-between them. "Jaune, Keith, is it? Do you have any idea who you're talking to?"

"Not in the slightest, Snow Angel." Jaune answered.

"Enlighten me please." Remarked Keith sarcastically.

"This is Pyrrha Nikos." Weiss introduced.

"Hello again." Pyrrha gave a friendly wave.

"We know." Sighed Keith.

"Pyrrha graduated top of her class at Sanctum." Weiss continued.

"Never heard of it." Jaune shrugged.

Weiss scoffed. "She's won the Mistral Regional Tournaments four years in a row! A new record!"

"The what now…?" Keith asked with a raised eyebrow.

Weiss' eyelids lowered before shouting. "She's on the front of every Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes Box!" She comically waved her arms in frustration.

Jaune gasped. "That's you?!" He pointed to Pyrrha in overly dramatic fashion. "They only do that for star athletes and cartoon characters!"

"Wait…Seriously?!" Snapped Keith. "Her claim to fame is being on a cereal box?! Is this some sort of sick freaking joke?!"

"Ignore him, that's actually pretty cool." Said Jaune.

"Yeah, it was pretty cool." Pyrrha looked away with a shy smile. "Sadly, the cereal isn't very good for you."

"I should have known..." Keith sighed.

"So, after hearing all of this, do you really think you're in a position to ask her to be on your team?" Weiss pointedly asked Jaune, causing him, and even Pyrrha, to look down slightly.

"I guess not. Sorry."

"Seriously, Jaune, if you drop the casanova act, you'll make a good leader." Said Keith, glaring at Weiss as electricity sparked between them.

"You really think so?" Jaune replied incredulously.

"Eeyup, you have potential, buuuut you tend to relapse back into your act, so changing your act might work." Said Keith, hopeful that he would get through.

"Are you sure...?" Mused Jaune.

"Actually, Jaune, I think you'd make a great leader." Pyrrha told him, trying to help raise his spirits, which seemed to work.

"Oh, stop it!" He comically blushed.

"Seriously, stop it." Weiss said seriously. "This kind of behavior should not be encouraged."

"I agree with the douchebag, even though I hate to." Said Keith, ignoring Weiss' glare at him.

"So, Pyrrha's on board for Team Jaune." He said to Weiss, going back to his cool ladies' man façade. "Spots are filling up quickly. I'm not supposed to do this but, maybe I could pull some strings, find a place for you, what do you say?"

"And here we go again." Groaned Keith. "Whatever I say goes in one ear and comes out the other. Why the hell is he like this?"

"Alright. That's a bit too close." Weiss had to push him back slightly. "Pyrrha, a little help please!"

Pyrrha sent her spear forward to pin Jaune by his hood to the locker on the other side of the room. "I'm sorry!" She quickly said to him.

"Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation? Again, all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation."

"It was nice meeting you." Pyrrha told Jaune as she retrieved her spear and left the locker room with Weiss.

"Likewise..." He said dejectedly.

"Having some trouble there, lady killer?" Yang asked as she and Ruby walked up, the latter offering her hand to help Jaune stand up.

"I don't understand. My dad said, 'all women look for is confidence.'" Jaune said in a defeated moan. "Where did I go wrong?"

"'Snow Angel' probably wasn't the best start." Yang said as they were among the last to leave the locker room.

"Yeah, you tied to reel in a freaking whale shark instead of starting small, of course it's not gonna work." Said Keith before leaving as well.

"Come on Jaune. Let's go." Ruby told him.


Meanwhile, Rai, Soren, Raxtus, and Raleigh were in their own dorm room that Ozpin had set up for them as they were preparing to head out to the Emerald Forest as well.

"All and all, this place doesn't seem too bad." Raxtus said, looking out the window at the entire campus. "It's got plenty of dorms, a nice view, a well open campus, a cafeteria, a library, pretty much everything you'd see at an Xadia league college. Looks like a mix between Terraholm and Leafvine University back home."

"Except back home, kids aren't trained to fight blood-thirsty monsters." Raleigh said.

"Still on about that, Ral?" Rai questioned. "Look, we all get it and we don't like it either; but at least this way, people are getting the training needed so they can fight and win. Plus, Remnant's people even got superpowers for crying out loud!"

"Yeah, I know." Raleigh replied. "Like I said, I get it. I understand why they have to do it, and I respect the fact that these kids are also given a choice to become these so-called Huntsmen. But that doesn't mean I have to like it."

"Yeah, I can see why, especially when you consider the monsters they have to fight." Soren said as he looked over all the data on the Creatures of Grimm that Ozpin gave them, which he downloaded to his X-Phone. "These Grimm things are really nasty. Beowolves, Ursai, Sabyrs, Nevermores, Death Stalkers…"

"Who the heck comes up with these names?" Raxtus questioned rhetorically.

"I think there's even some kind of three-headed giraffe here!" Soren continued.

"Yeah, those things are definitely messed up." Rai said.

"I'm a little more concerned about what Terrorblade's gonna try to do with them." Raleigh put in. "Knowing him, he's already planning on scooping up a bunch and trying to weaponize them."

"Yeah, combine them with his Obsidian army, and we have a real problem." Rai also expressed concern.

"That's all the more reason for us to work with Ozpin and these Huntsmen to help fight them, right?" Raxtus said. "It's also why Ozpin is having us take this test of his with those first-year students; not just to test our abilities, but to see what they're capable of."

"Rai, didn't you say you met a girl who got accepted into this school?" Soren asked.

"Yep, her name is Ruby." The lightning dragonet began. "Kid's got some skill, apparently her uncle trained her. She looked like she was fourteen or fifteen, but she wielded some kind of gun-scythe hybrid like a pro, and she's pretty fast too. Well not as fast as me, but still pretty fast. And apparently, Ozpin admitted her two years ahead of other students like her, so she seems like a special case. Same with that other boy, Keith Kogane. Though, I'm not sure that he belongs to this world."

"Guess we'll just have to see what these kids can do then." Raleigh said with a slight shrug.

"We should get going. Ozpin's probably expecting us and it would be rude to keep him waiting." Raxtus stated.

"Eh, we'll be there in no time." Rai said as he leapt out the window. "Race you guys there!" He challenged as he fell causally before turning into a yellow streak that ran down the side of the building; with Soren flying after him, Raleigh gliding on his own, and Raxtus leaping down to use his own speed as well.


All the first-year students, including Ruby, Yang, Weiss, Blake, Keith, Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren, had all assembled at Beacon Cliff, facing the forest below as Ozpin and Glynda began to give them their instructions for the test.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors." Ozpin began. "And today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams." Glynda added. "Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates, today."

"…What…?" Ruby muttered nervously.

"Finally." Muttered Keith.

"These teammates will be with you the rest of your time here at Beacon." Ozpin continued. "So, it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." This only caused Ruby to look even more nervous. "That being said, the first person you make eye-contact with after landing, will be your partner for the next four years."

"What!?" Ruby exclaimed.

"Nani?!" Snapped Keith

"See? I told you!" Nora said to Ren.

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest." Ozpin explained. "You will meet opposition along the way, do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die." Now it was Jaune's turn to look nervous as he gulped. "You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

"Um… yeah. Sir…?" Jaune nervously raised his hand, but Ozpin appeared to ignore him.

"Good. Now, take your positions." He instructed as the students each took some form of position on the individual platforms that they were each standing on.

"Uh sir… I've got a question…" Jaune still had his hands raised as the platforms began to launch each of the students out one-by-one, Weiss being the first. "So, this landing strategy thing… um… What is it? You're like, dropping us off or something?"

"No. You will be falling." Ozpin answered as more of the students, Keith among them, were launched into the forest.

"Oh… I see… So, like… did you hand out parachutes for us?" Jaune asked as Nora was launched next, followed by Ren.

"No. You will be using your own landing strategy" Ozpin replied.

"Uh-huh, yeah." Jaune nodded nervously.

Yang was about to be launched next as she gave her sister a friendly wink, put on a pair of sunglasses, and was launched. Ruby was next with a smirk before she too was launched, leaving only Jaune.

"So… uh… what exactly is a landing strategeeeeeeeyyyyyyy!" Jaune screamed as he was launched as well.

Ozpin took a sip of his mug before a yellow blur appeared before him, which happened to be Rai as he looked toward the forest and saw all the kids launched into the air.

"Ya know, I feel there should be some kind of joke to this. But I'm coming up blank. That's a first for me." Rai said as the rest of his friends arrived shortly behind him.

"Did you just seriously catapult those kids into a Grimm-infested forest?" Raleigh questioned. "And before you say anything…" He looked to Glynda specifically. "I already know why you gotta train them, this being a world infested with monsters and all that, but why do you have to catapult them?"

"Yeah, I gotta agree with Raleigh on this one." Raxtus added. "Why not just have them climb or slide down on a ramp or something?"

"There are scenarios in which a Huntsman or Huntress end up falling from great heights, and this is a way for them to practice a landing strategy in which they do not die from said fall." Ozpin explained.

"That's… oddly specific." Soren commented. "But it's your school and we'll respect how you run it."

"So, we kinda overheard what you're having those students do for this test, but what about us?" Rai asked. "I mean, we're not technically students so…"

"Much like our students, the four of you will enter the Emerald Forest and make your way to the abandoned temple." Ozpin explained. "However, you do not need to guard any relics, as those are our way for assigning the students into teams. Just make your way past the Grimm to the temple and return to the cliff. We will be monitoring you to see how you fight and get a better grasp of your capabilities. You may choose to help the students if you wish."

"However, just as they must learn to work with others, it is also important for them to handle themselves and not become too dependent on outside parties for help." Glynda added. "As the professor said, you can help them, but it is not required. This test for them is to assess their abilities and teamwork, we are just simply observing what you can do."

"So, get to the temple and back and smash the Grimm." Rai summed up. "Nice and simple. And we're probably gonna help the kids anyway. Helping people's kind of our thing."

"If that is what you wish, just be certain you don't do their work for them." Ozpin said.

"Sounds fair." Raxtus accepted.

"Let's get this party started." Raiden zoomed down the cliff and shot into the forest, leaving a yellow trail of energy in the path he led. Soren simply flew toward the forest, while Raleigh leapt and summoned his wings to glide down. Raxtus also leapt into the air before falling toward the forest.

"This should certainly be interesting." Ozpin commented.

"Sir, are you sure it is wise for them to take this test alongside our students?" Glynda asked. "While they could be mistaken for normal people, one misstep and they will find that is not the case. They will never have seen anything like them."

"True, but given what they've told us of this Terrorblade and the threat he poses to Remnant, Raiden and his companions will likely have to take an active role in this world and work alongside us and our allies. This will help test not only how they are willing to work with us, but how our people are willing to work with beings like them."

"Of course, you know there will be other consequences." Glynda told him. "Terrorblade is not our only enemy."

Ozpin could only sigh. "Yes, Glynda… I know."


After a successful landing, Ruby immediately ran off deeper in the forest with only one thing on her mind. 'Gotta find Yang! Gotta find Yang! Gotta find Yang!'

"Yang! Yang!" Ruby tried calling out for her older half-sister but got no response as she ran further and further into the Emerald Forest.

'Oh this is bad, this is really bad!' Ruby thought to herself as she continued to run. 'What if I can't find her? What if someone finds her first? There's always Jaune. He's nice, he's funny. I don't think he's very good in a fight though. Oh! What about Blake? So mysterious, so calm… plus she likes books! Well, then again, I'm not sure I'd be able to hold a conversation with her. Wait! Keith! He can hold himself in a fight and I can talk to him as well. But I don't know where he is now. Ugh! Okay, who else do I know in this school? There's Yang, Jaune, Blake, Keith and…'

Her train of thoughts came to an end as she stopped herself from running into the only other person that she met at Beacon so far: Weiss.

Both girls stared at each other for a moment, a small and hopeful smile forming on Ruby's face. However, Weiss immediately turned around and walked away without saying a word.

"Wait! Where are you going?!" Ruby questioned, before looking down dejectedly. "We're supposed to be teammates…"

Weiss pushed past some bushes, hoping to find somebody else that could serve as her partner. But, she happened to glance up at the sounds of struggling to see Jaune hanging by his hood, impaled with Pyrrha's spear to the tree. No doubt she used that to keep him from crashing. He glanced down toward Weiss and waved nervously.

Deciding to pick a less embarrassing option, Weiss turned back around to meet up with Ruby. "By no means does this make us friends." She told the younger girl as she began to drag her away by her own hood.

"You came back!" Ruby cheered as she was literally dragged away.

"Hey, wait! Come back!" Jaune called to them, but they were both out of earshot already. "Who's gonna get me down from here?!"

"Jaune?" He looked down to see none other than Pyrrha looking up to him with crossed arms and a smirk. "Do you have any spots left on your team?"

"Very funny." He pouted before smiling slightly. "So… uh… a little help here?"

"Hang on, I got you."

Both looked up in surprise to see none other than Soren hovering down toward them before grabbing the spear and pulling it out with a yank. Jaune gave a yelp as he fell and landed on his rear. "Ow."

Jaune and Pyrrha wordlessly looked toward Soren as he brought himself down to the ground before handing the spear to Pyrrha. "I'm guessing this is yours?"

"Um… yes. Thank you." Pyrrha took back her weapon as she absentmindedly helped Jaune up to his feet. "And you are…?"

"Name's Soarestus 'Soren' Skyburst." The air dragonet introduced himself with a friendly smile.


"Why are you in such a hurry?" Ruby asked as Weiss walked on ahead, almost as if she was trying to lose Ruby despite begrudgingly accepting her as her partner.

"I will not let my mission be delayed because you're too slow!" Weiss told her. "I swear that if I get a bad grade because of your…" Ruby suddenly appeared in front of her, much to Weiss' surprise. "What the…!?"

"I'm not slow, see?" Ruby said. "You don't have to worry about me!"

"When did…" Weiss double-backed to make sure she wasn't seeing things. That really was fast.

"Weiss, just because I don't exactly know how to deal with people, doesn't mean I don't know how to deal with monsters." Ruby said as she put her arm around her shoulder, trying to act confident and friendly. "You're about to see a whole different side of me today, Weiss! And after it's all over, you're gonna be like, 'Wow, that Ruby girl is really, really, cool. And I wanna be your friend.'"

She then dashed away, leaving a trail of rose petals which Weiss brushed away from her face, right before she heard some of the bushes around her creak and crack. "You may be fast, but you still excel at wasting time!" Weiss called out but looked concerned when she didn't get a response. "Ruby?" More bushes were ruffled around her, causing her to look somewhat nervous. "Ruby…?"

Weiss found herself completely surrounded by a pack of Beowolves that growled and snarled at her with deadly intent. The one in front of her lashed out with its claws, but she immediately drew her sword, Myrtenaster, and parried the strike, the force sending her skidding back on her feet as the pack surrounded her.

'Remember your training, Weiss.' She thought to herself. 'Head up, shoulders back, right foot forward… not that forward! Slow your breathing, wait for the right time to strike and… Now!' She shot herself forward, Myrtenaster pointing forward, ready to attack the Beowulf in front of her.

Only for Ruby to suddenly appear in front of her and cut that same Beowulf down with Crescent Rose. "Gotcha!"

Weiss gasped as she stopped herself, slicing Myrtenaster the other direction, sending a trail of flame along the ground to ignite a nearby tree. This alerted Ruby and left her distracted to get sliced by a Beowolf, sending her tumbling into Weiss.

"Hey, watch it!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Excuse me!" Weiss exclaimed back. "You attacked out of turn! I could have killed you!"

"You'll have to try a lot harder than that." Ruby muttered as they came back-to-back, facing the entire back of Grimm as the largest one, the Alpha, gave a howl, and the fire from Weiss' accident began to spread around the area.

However, before anyone else could make a move, a yellow streak shot forward to strike down the nearest Beowolf, before moving toward a second, a third, fourth, and fifth, already taking down half the pack as a certain energy dragonet appeared in mid-air after the fifth homing attack.

"Rai!?" Ruby recognized him immediately as he landed on the ground with his trademark smirk.

"Hey Ruby, hold the reunion one sec." Rai said as he went on the attack again. He gave a boost to bash through another Beowolf, using his speed to quickly take out all the others one-by-one, save for the Alpha whom he saved for last. He was about to attack that one, only for a burning tree to land in front of him and stop him in his tracks. He quickly noticed the flames around the area and decided to handle that instead. He ran into, around, and through the flames to stomp them out while also moving with enough speed to keep himself from getting burnt. In a matter of seconds, the flames were already put out before the fire could spread further.

"Remember kids, only you can prevent forest fires." Rai joked as he stood on the log of the fallen tree.

Ruby looked with stars in her eyes and a wide smiley, practically squealing at the display while Weiss was rendered speechless. "I… uh… who… what… what?"

Sonic turned around to where he spotted the Alpha Beowolf and found that it was already gone. "Hmm, it must have left. Ah well, pretty sure we'll see it again." He hopped down and met up with the two girls.

"Hey Ruby. Long time no see"

"R-Rai! Oh, that was so cool!" Ruby beamed. "You were so fast! Fast like me! And… you just bashed through those Grimm like Bam! Pow! Bang!" She continued to squeal.

"Hey, I try." Rai shrugged before looking toward Weiss. "So, I see you made a new friend."

"Who are you?!" The heiress questioned pointedly. "And what kind of Semblance is that lets you just bash your way through a pack of Grimm?! You are clearly no ordinary person! And this place is private property of Beacon Academy! I know I didn't see you on the cliff with the other students, so where did you come from?!"

One would think Raiden would be annoyed or intimidated by the interrogation-styled questioning that was just presented to him, but he was neither. If anything, he looked more amused.

"Okay, in order… My name is Raiden Stormbringer, but you can call me Rai. No, I don't have a Semblance, that's just my own electric magic, and I've used it to beat up a whole bunch of different monsters before, so this is nothing new to me. And I was invited here by Ozpin who's testing me and my friends, but we're not students, we've got a mutual agreement going on. Does that answer all your questions?"

Weiss simply blinked her wide eyes, not expecting her accusations to be answered so directly and calmly. "I believe so…"

"Good." He turned back to Ruby. "Didn't expect to see me again, did ya?"

"No I didn't, but I'm glad I did!" Ruby beamed before looking confused. "But, why are you here if you're not a student?"

"Like I said, Ozpin agreed to let me, and my friends join this test-thing to see what we can do because we got an agreement going on. We know you guys gotta get these relics for your team, he said we could help if we wanted, so here I am. I'll explain the rest of the details later." Rai summed up.

"Friends? You got friends here?" Ruby asked. "Are they all like you?"

"Similar but different and unique in their own way. Don't worry, they're all cool and you'll love them." rai said before turning back to Weiss. "So, what's your name, Snow White? You know mine."

"Weiss... Weiss Schnee." She replied, having taken in all Rai said with, while still having trouble processing most of it. "Hold on, you said you don't have a Semblance? And you said that you have magic? How is that possible?! How else could you move so fast?!"

"Cause I'm not from Remnant." Rai answered.

Weiss blinked a few times. "Pardon me?"

Ruby gave a slight wincing smile, having already heard some of the basics of his story with Ozpin when they first met. "Would you believe us if we told you he was an alien?"


Meanwhile, Yang walked through another area of the forest, and yet to find another student. "Hello!? Is anyone out there?! Hello?! I'm getting bored here!"

She heard some bushes ruffle behind her. "Is someone there?" She walked toward the bushes and pushed them away. "Ruby, is that you?" Her answer came in the form of a growl from the Ursa right in front of her. "Nope." She said, popping the letter P.

She quickly rolled out of the way to avoid the claw-swipe from the Ursa, getting back on her feet and reading her gauntlet-based weapons, Ember Celica. She then dodged out of the way of a second Ursa that tried to attack her from behind.

The first one lunged at her, but Yang dealt a punch to its gut, Ember Celica firing a shotgun blast to knock it back and away. The second one tried to rush her, but she delivered an uppercut to its jaw, another shotgun blast from the punch to send it flying upward and dealt a kick to knock it back down.

"You guys wouldn't have happened to see a girl in a red hood, would you?" She asked rhetorically as the Ursa roared at her. "You could just say 'no'." She ducked under one claw slice and backflipped to avoid the second with a joking laugh. "Geeze, you two couldn't hit the broadside of a…"

Her smile faded as she saw a lock of her own blonde hair fall off, having gotten cut by the Ursa's previous claw slice. With that, all jokes and humor faded from Yang's mind. "You…" Her eyes closed and then re-opened to reveal they were bright red with rage. "You bastards!"

"Uhh?" One Ursa asked its comrade in confusion to the sudden change in mood.

"Rah?" it shrugged, unsure as well, but both could feel an odd sudden rise in temperature.

An explosion suddenly erupted around her whole body, her hair lighting on fire as Yang shot herself forward with her gauntlets, gunning for the closest Ursa, pounding it all over its body with punches and shotgun blasts from Ember Celica. It was sent flying, but she wasn't done with it yet as she propelled herself forward with blasts from her gauntlets to continue her merciless beatdown of that Ursa before delivering a strong enough punch to send it crashing through several trees before it died and melted away.

Yang then turned around to face the second Ursa as it charged at her. "What?! You want some too?!"

However, the Ursa was quickly impaled from behind, causing it to fall over dead. The one who killed it was none other than Blake, who began to retrieve her weapon, Gambol Shroud.

"I could have taken him." Yang said to her, her red eyes turning back to their natural lilac color.

Suddenly, three Ursa appeared on their right, breaking through several trees to roar and attack the pair.

"Looks like you may get your chance!" Blake said as she and Yang readied herself.

However, something quickly shot past and in-between them to strike the first Ursa with enough power to send it crashing into the other two, much to their shock.

Raleigh grunted as he saw the Ursa get back up before he went on the attack. He punched the center Ursa in its face to shatter its skull before ducking under the slice of the second to punch it through its right shoulder and completely break off its right arm and delivered another punch through its side to kill it. He then swerved around the claw swipe of the third to punch at its feet and trip it up, sending it tumbling into an uppercut from Raleigh to its jaw, obliterating its head with one strike.

Three more Ursa crept up to him…..only to get impaled on stone spikes summoned by Raleigh punching his fist into the ground.

Raleigh stood with a satisfied smirk on his face as he saw all six of the Ursai bodies fade away, turning around to face the surprised Yang and Blake, both looking wide-eyed at what just happened.

"Hello." The boy waved.

"Hi…" The stupefied Yang absentmindedly waved back.

"My name is Raleigh, Raleigh Terraclaw." He introduced himself. "And you two are…?"

"Blake." The black-haired girl said simply.

"Yang." The blonde also introduced herself in a similar manner.

"Nice to meet you." Raleigh said with a friendly smile.

"Hey, uh… what did you do just now?" Yang asked Raleigh.

"I just used Earth magic, an ancient type of dragon magic." He explained.

"Magic… like lightning…" Yang's eyes widened before wincing slightly as she looked back toward Raleigh. "Hey… you wouldn't happen to know a yellow lightning boy, would you?"

That got Raleigh's attention. "You know Raiden?"

"No… but my sister does." Yang said with a groan, running her hand down her face. "And I'm gonna hear so many 'I told you so's."


Meanwhile...

Kamen Rider Prime sighed, looking around from his vantage point in a tree. How on earth he had ended up into that tree in the first place was a whole another story.

Before the announcement came from the speaker, Keith was experimenting with the fullbottles, when he found that he could use the Glider Fullbottle that he used at the Dust shop, and the Sakura Fullbottle to form a new Best Match. Before Ozpin had launched him into the Emerald forest, he had already placed the bottles into his PrimeDriver. When he was launched into the stratosphere (okay, not that far, but still, it was pretty high), he barely had any time to strap the belt on before gravity acted upon him and he landed as a smear on the forest floor. Luckily, he managed to strap it on and transform into Kamen Rider Prime. He then glided down and managed to land on a tree branch so as to not invite any untoward attention. But at least he managed to land safely. However, he didn't know where he was in the forest. Moreover, he didn't know where Ruby or the others were.

'Well, at least I know where to go now.' He thought, looking around and seeing the Ruins that he needed to go to. He knew that Ruby would be heading there. 'Now, it's time to fly!'

As Kamen Rider Prime took off, he didn't not notice someone spying on him. Nor did he notice the drone that was sent to follow him.


Raxtus walked through the foliage of the forest, his Silver Saber at the ready as he looked around for any signs of Grimm, or students that may need some help. "Hmm, okay… so if I were an evil monster without a soul… where would I be?" He mused to himself, seemingly unaware of something large and dark slithering behind him. However, he merely smirked as the massive black snake-like head of a Grimm known as a King Taijtu lunged at him. But Raxtus was faster as he quickly struck his sword to its side to knock it down.

"Right behind me." Raxtus smirked gloatingly toward the large snake. "Sorry pal, but I got experience with monsters trying to sneak up on me." He said, unaware of the Taijtu's second white head appearing behind him. "You're gonna have to try harder than that if you want to…."

The white head lunged toward him, but someone appeared in-between them, much to Raxtus' surprise as he turned around to see Ren holding the open fanged mouth back of the white Taijtu's head with his Aura alone. Ren then gave a flip-kick to knock the head back as he pulled out his dual weapons, StormFlower, to fire automatic rounds at it. However, the black head had quickly recovered and tried to lunge at him, but Raxtus quickly tackled Ren out of the way as they both slid and recovered to face the two-headed snake-like Grimm.

"Yikes, I should have studied these things more." Raxtus chastised himself for letting his guard down. "Thanks, by the way."

"You're welcome." Ren simply nodded. Though he was surprised by the sudden appearance of a white-haired boy, he decided to put that away for the time being to deal with the threat in front of them.

"I take the black head; you take the white one?" Raxtus proposed.

"Deal." Ren nodded as they charged at the respective heads of the King Taijitu, dividing its attention and making it easier for them.

Ren got the attention of the white head by firing StormFlower at it, while Raxtus leapt into the air to strike the black head with his sword in its right eye to knock it down. He landed in front of it as it recovered to lunge at him, but Raxtus quickly slid under the strike to appear behind it and swing the flat side of his blade into the left side of its neck. While it was disoriented, Raxtus climbed onto its body and ran toward its head, where he then proceeded to strike with his sword multiple times with enough force and speed that the entire head shattered with one final sword strike.

Meanwhile, Ren slid gracefully around the white head as it lunged at him before leaping into the air, wrapping his legs around its neck near the base of the head, where he then brought the blades of his StormFlower into both its eyes to blind it before pulling them out to impale its neck, and with a spin of his whole body, quickly decapitated the entire head.

Both Raxtus and Ren observed the remains of the King Taijtu disintegrate into nothingness. "Well, that was fun." Raxtus commented. "Thanks again for the help."

"You're welcome." Ren repeated. "But I was searching for a friend of mine." He said, glad to come to the aid of his stranger in time.

"Oh? So, what's this friend of yours like?"

Raxtus' answer came in the form of someone making a poor imitation of an animal's call from the canopy above them. Nora then appeared, hanging upside down from a tree branch with her smile practically glued on her face.

"I still don't think that's what a sloth sounds like." Ren told her.

"Sloths don't really make any sound." Raxtus commented, sweatdropping.

Nora appeared to ignore Raxtus for a moment before she lightly tapped Ren's nose. "Boop." She then leapt down from her spot and turned toward Raxtus. "Hi there. You got some good moves there, pal."

"Aw, thanks." The white-haired boy smiled, ruffling his own hair. "I'm Raxtus Lightbright. What are your names?"

"Nice to meet you, Raxtus. I'm Nora, Nora Valkyrie." She pulled Ren in, wrapping her right arm around him. "And this is my best buddy Lie Ren, but everyone just calls him Ren."

"Hello." Ren nodded simply.

"Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren. Those are very nice names." Raxtus smiled.

"Thank you." Ren replied.

Nora then gave a dramatic gasp as she saw the Silver Saber. "You've got a sword!? Cool!"

"Yep. This is my pride and joy, the Silver Saber." Raxtus hefted his sword over his shoulder proudly.

"Awesome! I've got this bad girl, Magnhild!" Nora showed off her own massive hammer. "It's also a hammer, and a grenade launcher!" She shifted her weapon to show its secondary configuration.

"Wow, that's pretty cool!" Raxtus beamed. "My sword can't turn into anything, but I like it the way it is."

"Hey! Would you mind if I create a nice nickname for you? How about… Raxstar?" Nora exclaimed joyously. "No wait… Rax! Now that's a cool nickname!"

"Rax? Yeah, I like the ring of that. Put it there, Hammer Harpy." Raxtus said as he and Nora clanged their weapons together.

Ren couldn't help but shake his head with a slight smile. Though he still would like an answer on this stranger's appearance, he wasn't at all surprised by Nora's attitude, but he was certain she'd also like some answers as well. But given how friendly this 'Raxtus Lightbright' appeared to be, he had a feeling getting answers wouldn't be that difficult.

'This will certainly be interesting.'


Meanwhile...

Back at the top of the cliff, Professor Ozpin and Glynda continued to observe the progress of the students, as well as Team Drake, through their scrolls that showed them what was happening in the forest below.

"Our last pair has been formed, sir. Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren" Glynda reported to Ozpin. "And it would seem that Raiden and his companions have chosen to aid the students."

"Which speaks for their characters." Ozpin replied. "From what we've heard, the Creatures of Grimm, and by extension, Huntsmen Academies, do not exist in their world. So I imagine they must feel the need to protect those they perceive as young and inexperienced."

"While that may be true, I hope they don't intend to carry the students all the way to the end of this exam." Glynda said. "We've expressed to them that the students cannot become dependent on others if they are to grow and be Huntsmen."

"I don't think we have to worry." Ozpin responded. "Based on what we're seeing, young Rai and the others are choosing to work alongside the students as equals, rather than simply handing all the heavy lifting. This shows they are capable of working with others outside their normal company. It is my hope that we are able to establish proper cooperation with them."

"Well, this test is not yet over." Glynda said. "There is still much that all of them have to do."

The two professors then proceeded to make their way back to the main campus, where Ozpin would be watching them all closely. He needed to see what Raiden and his friends could do, perhaps it could give him and his allies an advantage in the coming conflict.


"So… you're an alien?" Jaune asked as he and Pyrrha walked through the Emerald Forest alongside Soren. "Like from another planet?!"

"More like another dimension, but yeah if you want to put it simply." Soren said.

"I honestly thought that stuff only existed in fiction, but apparently not." Pyrrha commented. "So, Soren, is it? What are you and your friends doing here?"

"You mean here on Remnant or in the Emerald Forest with you during your exam?" Soren asked for clarification.

"Both, I suppose." She replied.

"Well, my friends and I got zapped here while fighting a dangerous enemy of ours." Soren began to give a brief explanation. "We ran into Ozpin and told him our situation, and he felt that us taking a test of our own against the Grimm could allow him to get a better understanding of our own abilities."

"You mean like your ability to fly? Pyrrha asked.

"Among other things." Soren answered.

"How the heck can you even fly if you don't have wings?!" Jaune questioned.

Soren then showed off his palms and began to use his magic to hover in the air in front of them. "My elemental affinity is air. By using my aerokinesis to spin air beneath my palms at a fast rate, I'm able to generate a propellent force that allows me to hover. I can also generate a gust of wind that allows me to fly long distances."

"Uh…" Jaune looked as if he didn't understand any of that.

"He can use air as jets and bursts to hover and move around." Pyrrha summarized as Soren set himself down.

"Oh." The blonde boy understood that.

"That, and I can also summon my wings." Said Soren, a pair of sleek, sky-blue wings bursting from his shoulders briefly before retracting back into his shoulder blades.

"I imagine that must be a strain on your Aura." She said to the young dragonet.

"Oh, my friends and I don't have Aura." Soren revealed, much to Pyrrha's surprise.

"You don't have Aura?! How is that possible?!" She questioned as Jaune looked a little confused, not exactly following their conversation.

"Professor Ozpin already explained to us that everyone on your planet has Aura, including animals and plants." Soren told them. "But my friends and I aren't from Remnant, and that might be the reason. That, and we have Mana, which could explain our lack of Aura."

"I suppose that makes sense." Pyrrha seemed to accept it. "This would be the first time we've made contact with beings outside of Remnant."

"Um… yeah, Aura." Jaune said, rubbing the back of his head nervously. "Pretty big deal here on Remnant." Both Soren and Pyrrha looked toward him strangely. "Well, I mean since everyone has it, it's not that big a deal, heh, heh."

"Jaune, do you know what Aura is?" Pyrrha asked with a slight knowing smile.

"Of course, I do." Jaune bluffed. "Do you know what Aura is?"

"We literally just had a conversation about it." Soren chimed in.

That caused Jaune to look away with a wince. "Right…"

Pyrrha giggled slightly, turning back to Soren, who sighed and facepalmed. "I'm sure Professor Ozpin has already told you this, but Aura is the manifestation of our soul." She began as Soren figured out this was also a way to explain it to Jaune and simply continued to listen. "It bears our burdens and shields our hearts. With practice, our Aura can be our shield, and as it grows, you will manifest a Semblance; an ability that is unique to your own soul."

"So, everyone has a different Semblance?" Soren asked.

"For the most part, but there are some cases where people have similar abilities." Pyrrha answered. "And there are a select few Semblances that are hereditary, but Semblances like those are incredibly rare."

"What kind of Semblances are there?" Soren asked with Jaune following along and listening closely.

"They come in all kinds of forms." Pyrrha continued. "Some are rather basic such as strength enhancement, speed, or even elemental based. And there are those that are more complex, depending on the person. The experiences we live through help to shape not only our identities but also our souls, and by extension, our Semblances."

"Fascinating…" Soren listened on. "So what kind of Semblance do you have?"

"My Semblance is Polarity." Pyrrha replied.

"Polar… wha?" Jaune didn't quite understand.

"Magnetism, control over metals." Pyrrha translated.

"That's amazing." Soren smiled.

"Thank you." Pyrrha nodded sincerely as they continued along the forest.

"I wonder… does your Semblance allow you control over electromagnetism?" Soren asked

"Not at the moment." Pyrrha replied. "But Semblances are capable of evolving, also depending on our own experiences, and manifesting new abilities. For instance, I was only limited to metals that were already magnetic, but practice, I can now control all forms of metal. So, I suppose electromagnetism is not completely off the table, but I wouldn't say it's set in stone either."

"This is all…really fascinating." Soren was practically entranced by this discussion. "I'd like to know more!"

"I'd be happy to answer whatever questions you may have, though I can't guarantee I have all the answers." Pyrrha said as they continued to walk on.

"Hey, wait up!" Jaune tried to catch up to them. "Can you maybe try to explain all this in English, please?"


Meanwhile, Ruby sat with a bored and annoyed expression on the ground, playing with a leaf, as Weiss tried to find the direction they were supposed to go.

"It's definitely this way." Weiss walked in one direction before turning around. "I mean, this way! It's definitely this way." She then walked back toward Ruby. "Alright, it's official, we passed it."

"Why can't you just admit that you have no idea where we're going?" Ruby questioned as she stood up.

"Because I know exactly where we're going!" Weiss tried to defend herself. "We're going… to… the forest temple!"

Ruby groaned in annoyance. "Can't we just wait for Rai? He said he went out for scouting!"

"Because I'm not going to let some weird alien lizard thing give me directions when I can easily figure it out on my own!" Weiss argued. "And it's not like you know where we are either!"

"At least I'm not pretending that I know everything!" Ruby shot.

"What is that supposed to mean?!" Weiss questioned.

"It means you're a bossy, stuck-up, know-it-all, who can't seem to accept the fact that she might be wrong!" Ruby argued.

"I'm not bossy!" Weiss argued back. "I'm not stuck-up, and I don't know everything! And at least I'm not a child who snuck her way into this school!"

"I didn't sneak into this school!" Ruby exclaimed. "I didn't even ask to be moved up this far ahead! I'm not a show-off like you!"

"I'm not a show-off!" Weiss shouted.

"Oh right, little Miss Rich Heiress who throws a tantrum whenever something doesn't go her way, isn't a show-off." Ruby said in clear sarcasm.

"You listen up, you little…"

"Knock it off!" Rai suddenly appeared in-between them, pushing them apart. "What are you guys, twelve?!"

"She started it!" Ruby pointed to Weiss.

"I did not!" Weiss exclaimed.

"I don't care who started it, I'm finishing it now!" Rai told them. "Look, you guys are supposed to be partners, right? Well maybe if you stop arguing with each other and try to find a way to actually work together, you might end up becoming the strongest team in this school; but it's not gonna happen if you're both constantly at each other's throats!" He took a moment to let the heat die down as both girls remained silent, having listened to what Raiden had to say.

"Alright… what do you propose we do then?" Weiss asked with crossed arms.

"Well, you can start by sharing what you can do with each other." Rai proposed. "Your Semblances, your weapons, and maybe you can find a way to make them work together."

"I guess that makes sense…" Ruby said, rubbing her arm a bit.

Weiss gave a small sigh herself, seeing the logic to it. "Very well, then."

"Okay, Ruby, why don't you start?" Rai offered.

"Well, my weapon is called Crescent Rose." The younger girl brought out her scythe. "It's a customized scythe that can be converted into a high-impact sniper rifle. My Semblance is called Petal Burst, it lets me move pretty fast. Probably not as fast as you though, but still pretty fast." She said to Rai.

"That's pretty cool." Raiden nodded before turning back to the other girl. "Weiss, what do you got?"

She took out her own weapon. "This is Myrtenaster. It's a multi-action Dust rapier. As you might suspect, it is capable of utilizing Dust for various short and long-ranged attacks. Currently, I have fire, ice, lightning, hard-light, wind, and gravity Dust. As for my Semblance, it is known as Glyphs. It allows me to conjure Glyphs of various abilities such as propulsion, attraction, and I'm even capable of infusing Dust into my Glyphs for extra fire-power."

"So, you got a lot of options on you, nice." Rai commented, sounding impressed.

"Thank you." Weiss nodded with a hint of pride in her voice.

"Okay, this is a good start." Rai told them both. "What kind of relationship you two have is entirely up to you, but it should be a good one if you want this partnership to be easier to deal with. I'll mostly leave that to you, but you can at least start by finding ways to combine your powers and techniques together to take down the bad guys."

"I think I can get behind that." Ruby nodded.

"I do see the logic in it." Even Weiss found it acceptable.

"So…" Ruby offered her hand to shake and a hopeful smile. Weiss sighed before she accepted and shook her hand.

"We'll start with a professional partnership and… see where we go from there." The heiress said.

"Works for me." Ruby said while also fighting back the urge to give a delighted squeal.

"Great, now with all that settled, let's get to those ruins." Rai told them.

"Wait, you found it?" Ruby asked.

"Yep. It's only about four miles north from here, max." Rai answered.

"I'm sorry, only four miles?" Weiss questioned. "You make that sound like it's a walk in the park!"

"Well for me it is." Rai said. "Here, let me show you." He grabbed Weiss and hoisted her up in his right arm, much to her shock.

"Hey, wait… what are you…?!" She questioned as Rai also hoisted Ruby up in his left arm, carrying both girls.

"Hold on." Raiden smirked before zooming away, leaving a yellow energy trail as he ran at a fast speed, zooming through the Emerald Forest.

As he carried them, the reactions of the two girls differed. Ruby squealed with excitement as if she were riding a roller coaster, complete with holding her arms up as the wind blew in her face, blowing back her hair and hood. Weiss, on the other hand, screamed with terror and held onto Rai tightly fearing she may get flung away from the inertia.

It took only about two minutes for Rai to reach the ruins with his passengers before coming to a complete stop and setting the girls down. "See? Told ya." He said as Weiss fell flat on her knees, looking rather dizzy while Ruby zoomed up to Raiden's face.

"Oh my gods, that was awesome!" Ruby cheered excitedly like a little girl. "You moved so fast! Faster than even me! Wait… can I even go that fast? We're both fast! We're fast friends!"

Rai chuckled at her excitement, easily taking a liking to this girl. "Fast friends, literally. You're a cool kid, Rubes."

Ruby, once again, fought back a squeal of delight. 'He said I'm cool! He thinks I'm cool! Somebody other than Yang thinks I'm cool!'

Weiss pulled herself up, shaking the stars from her vision as she regained her senses, looking toward the ruins and the various relics set up on pedestals. 'He got us here so quickly… crossing four miles in mere seconds…' She glanced back toward the lightning dragonet. 'Just how fast is he?'

"Well, Weiss…" Ruby told her, getting Weiss' attention. "We're here, let's get a relic."

Weiss could only nod, deciding to put her curiosity toward Rai aside for the moment as the test took first priority. She took a close look at each of the relics to find they were two sets of different chess pieces, a few white and the others were black.

"They're chess pieces…" Weiss muttered, trying to think of the significance behind them as she noticed a few empty pedestals. "It would seem we weren't the first ones here. A few relics are missing."

"Ah well, you can't come in first every time." Rai shrugged.

"Let's pick the horsey!" Ruby exclaimed as she grabbed the white knight piece.

"Why?" Weiss asked.

"Because I love animals!" Ruby replied.

"Can't go wrong with that." Rai remarked.

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Fine."

"Stormbringer!" Raiden and the girls turned around to see a certain brown-haired boy running toward them, followed by another pair of girls that he had gotten acquainted with.

"Hey Ral. How ya been?" Rai greeted as Raleigh stopped in front of them.

"Oh you know, punched out a bunch of monsters, made some new friends,just the usual." Raleigh replied. "Kinda like you, I'm guessing." He said, noticing Ruby and Weiss, while the later used her own speed to shoot herself toward her approaching sister.

"Yang!" Ruby appeared in front of her, as well as Blake. "See?! I told you!" She pointed to Rai behind her. "He's real! Raiden Stormbringer is real! I told you so!"

"Okay, okay, I get it! You were right!" Yang held up her hands defensively. "I'm sorry for doubting you and thinking he was imaginary."

"To be fair, anyone who hadn't seen someone like him before would assume the same thing." Blake commented.

"Yeah, so I wasn't out-of-line or anything." Yang said.

"But you did meet someone like him." Ruby said, gesturing to Raleigh.

"Yes… we did." Yang winced. "Again, I'm sorry. I guess that means that the 'armor hero' that you and Keith were talking about was real as well."

"You can say that again..." Said Ruby smugly.

"So, you're Ruby's sister." Rai approached her. "Hmm, I don't see a resemblance. One of you adopted or something?"

"Or something." Yang said, not about to get into any familial issues with a person she only just met yet again. "It's Raiden, right?"

"Yep, the one and only." Raiden smirked with pride as the group of six came together to allow Yang and Blake to collect their relic, which also happened to be a white knight piece.

"And you would be?" Weiss looked towards the brown-haired boy.

"Raleigh Terraclaw, it's my pleasure." He offered his hand to shake, which Weiss seemed to accept.

"How many of you are there?" She asked.

"Not counting Rai and I, only two others. At least in this forest." Raleigh answered. "Wonder how they're doing."


Meanwhile, Soren, Pyrrha, and Jaune had been discussing more about Semblances and Aura. Well, to be more accurate, the conversation was mostly between Soren and Pyrrha as Jaune couldn't really make heads or tails of what they were talking about, which Pyrrha kindly translated for him in a more simplified version. She even provided a demonstration for Soren in using her own Aura to awaken Jaune's, commenting that he had more than the average person, which did seem to give him something of a confidence boost.

Now the trio found themselves before a cave with a series of paintings on the wall just outside the cavern entrance. "Think this is it?" Jaune asked.

Soren took notice of the cave paintings, where he easily made out the illustrations to be people with spears fending off a giant scorpion, likely a Deathstalker Grimm.

"Hmm, I'm not so sure." Soren said, getting their attention. "This painting right here feels like a warning."

"Hmm, maybe." Pyrrha observed as she ran her fingers down it. "It appears to have been painted here a long time ago. Maybe there was a battle here."

As they talked, Jaune had used his sword and a rock to create a series of sparks around a stick, igniting it and providing the group with a torch. "Well, if this battle happened a long time ago, then we have nothing to worry about now, right? Come on, let's go." He gestured for them to follow him into the cave.

Soren and Pyrrha share concerned glances but followed him, nonetheless. "Jaune, even if there's nothing to worry about here, I'm not sure this is it." Pyrrha told him.

Jaune gave a sigh. "Pyrrha, I made the torch. Could you guys maybe humor me for at least five more feet?" He then suddenly tripped, causing him to drop the torch into a puddle, extinguishing the flame and surrounding them in darkness.

"You were saying?" Soren sweatdropped, causing Jaune to groan slightly at his own clumsiness.

Pyrrha then felt the air around them. "Do… either of you feel that?"

"Yeah… it's warm." Soren also felt it. "And something about it makes me feel that it's not natural."

"Okay, okay, everyone grab hands." Jaune told them as he tried to reach out for any of their hands and managed to grab one. "I've got someone."

"That's me." Pyrrha said. "Soren?"

"I've got you." Soren was able to grab Pyrrha's free hand. "We should head outside; I don't think we're supposed to be here."

"Wait… I think I see something." Jaune saw a faint golden light deeper into the cave and made his way closer to it, taking Pyrrha and Soren with him as they were still linked hand-to-hand. The closer they were to the light, the clearer they could see each other. They found the source of the light.

"Is this… some kind of lantern?" Pyrrha asked.

"I don't think so." Soren gulped. "Maybe some kind of bioluminescence. And if so, then we really should leave."

"Or it's the relic!" Jaune said as he tried to reach and grab it, but it ended up pulling back. "Hey! Bad relic!" He tried to grab it again, but it pulled back once again.

"Jaune, do you know what bioluminescence is?" Pyrrha told him as he still tried to grab it.

"Some kind of glowing relic?" He asked as he tried to grab it again, but Soren quickly pulled him away.

"No, it's not!" Soren told him. "Bioluminescence is basically a source of light that comes from a…" The light pulled close enough toward its source, which was revealed to be a giant Death Stalker. "Living…creature. Son of a-!"


At the ruins...

A loud high-pitched scream sounded off throughout the entire Emerald Forest; and even got the attention of Rai, Ruby, Weiss, Raleigh, Yang, and Blake.

"Did anybody else just hear a little girl screaming in terror?" Rai asked.


2 Kms south of the ruins...

Kamen Rider Prime sweatdropped, having changed back to his default transformation, Drakken-Chain.

'Was that a little girl screaming?' He thought, before tensing up. 'Oh no…. Ruby!'

Panicking internally, he jumped down from the tree and ran towards the ruins as fast as he could, still unaware of the drone following him.


Soren flew out of the cave as fast as he could, his wings beating fast, carrying Jaune by his arms while Pyrrha held onto Jaune's legs. Less than a second after the three left the cave, a massive Death Stalker broke through with an angry hiss.

"IT'S NOT THE RELIC! IT'S NOT!" Jaune screamed as Soren flew them higher and higher into the sky and away from the Death Stalker's reach.

"Don't worry! I don't think Death Stalkers have ranged attacks, so we should be safe up here!" Soren said.

"They don't have ranged attacks! That's good thinking!" Pyrrha told him.

"HOW CAN YOU CARRY BOTH OF US!?" Jaune still screamed.

"Trust me! I've got plenty of experience literally carrying my friends and really heavy loads!" Soren said as he continued to fly them away. But even though the Death Stalker didn't have any ranged attacks, it was not about to let its prey get away as it scurried after them on the ground.

However, before it left the clearing, someone shot a dart filled with a green liquid at the Deathstalker, which hit it in a chink in the Deathstalker's armor. Ignoring it, the Deathstalker pursued its prey, unaware of the green liquid draining from the dart and into its body.


Meanwhile…..

In an unknown location, a hooded figure opened a ringing holographic tablet and answered a call, placing it near his ear.

"Ah, hello?" Said the figure in a distorted male voice. "Yes…..so, is it done yet?...good….. It's about time after all…..Heil Neo-Faustus."

The figure then cut the call and began to laugh menacingly. "Well then, it's time to let blood flow in the Emerald Forest. Thus, the Beacon of Hope will fall!"


Back at the ruins, the group of six heard a series of rocket explosions and pounding sounds, causing them to turn in the direction of the forest where several trees were knocked down to reveal a pair of Ursai, with Nora and Ren riding on one and Raxtus riding on the other.

"Yee-haa!" Nora cheered as she fired Magnhild's grenade launcher form into the back of her Ursa, causing it to explode as she flipped and landed gracefully on her feet while Ren landed face-first on the ground. At the same time, Raxtus pulled back his Silver Saber and swung it down to cleave the head of the Ursa he rode in half before leaping down in front of it, said Ursa dissolving into black dust.

"Nice idea, Hammer Harpy!" Laughed Raxtus, pointing his sword into the air.

"Put it there, Rax!" Nora cheered as they clung their weapons together again, while Ren struggled to pick himself up.

"Hey, you okay?" Raxtus asked, helping Ren up on his feet.

"Yeah…. Just please… let's never do that again." Ren said, causing Raxtus to chuckle. "Nora?"

"She's already gone." Raxtus sighed and gestured to the ruins where Nora spotted a white rook piece and took it in her hands.

"I'm Queen of the Castle! I'm Queen of the Castle!" Nora sang, balancing the white rook on her head.

"Nora!" Ren exclaimed, causing her to stop singing.

"Coming Ren!" She ran back to join her partner, while most of the present group looked somewhat perplexed at what just happened.

"Did they just ride in on an Ursa?" Blake asked.

"Looks that way." Raleigh commented.

"Hey, Rai!" Raxtus waved to the lightning dragonet as he walked toward him. "I see you made it here alright. That's not surprising because it's you."

"Yep, see you made some new friends too." Rai replied, noticing Ren and Nora.

"Yeah! These people are really fun!" Raxtus stated before turning to the other first-years present. "I'm Raxtus Lightbright, by the way. It's nice to meet you."

"Wait, your last name is Lightbright?" Ruby asked before a wide smile formed on her face. "That's a cool last name! My last name is cool too! Ruby Rose!"

"Well, well, that is cool!" Raxtus exclaimed as he extended a hand to Ruby, who squealed and grabbed it in a foirm handshake. "I have a feeling that we're gonna be good friends! I just know it!"

"Well, Raxtus, still thinking about that harem?" Teased Raleigh, making Raxtus tense up and glare at him, his Silver Saber unsheathed and ready to attack.

"Hooh boy." Rai massaged his forehead, having a bad feeling about this for some reason. "Looks like all we're missing now is…"

"Incoming!" Everyone looked towards the sky where Soren flew in, still carrying Jaune and Pyrrha. They quickly came to the ground where Soren let go, allowing Pyrrha to land on her feet, while Jaune tripped as he landed and fell face-first on the ground.

"That was certainly interesting… I've never flown before." Pyrrha commented.

"It's a lot of fun, trust me." Soren smiled.

"Not to me…" Jaune groaned, his face still in the dirt before he pushed himself back up.

"Did that kid just fly?" Blake questioned.

"You know what? That is impossible!" Weiss stated. "How can you fly if you don't have a Semblance or even wings?!"

"He can use air as a vacuum to fly, and he also has a set of wings." Raleigh gave a brief explanation.

"Hey Soar, see you made some friends too." Rai met up with his closest friend.

"Yeah, but no time for introductions." Soren told him. "Spotted a whole bunch of Grimm from the air and they're all coming here!"

"How many are we talking about?" Yang asked.

All twelve of them heard the sounds of a wolf-like howl as a massive pack of Grimm consisting of Beowolves, Ursai, Boarbatusks, and even several Griffons that flew in the air before landing with their brethren. The horde almost encircled the whole area, forming a line that separated Team Drake and their student allies from the rest of the forest; and the one that appeared to be leading it was the very same Alpha Beowulf that Sonic, Ruby, and Weiss had encountered before.

"About fifty total, at least." Soren answered Yang's question as all the students looked surprised and even a little bit nervous while Raleigh and Raxtus had serious expressions on their faces.

"Oh hey, the Big Bad Wolf's back." Rai recognized the Alpha Beowolf. "Guess he doesn't like unfinished business."

"Please tell me someone has a plan." Blake noted nervously as she drew Gambol Shroud.

"Maybe if we all stand together in a defensive…" Pyrrha began to suggest, but Rai held up his hand to stop her.

"Nah, you guys just stay back, my friends and I got this."

"What?! Are you crazy?!" Weiss exclaimed. "That is over fifty Grimm!"

"We've had worse odds." Raleigh commented as he walked forward along with Soren and Raxtus to join Rai.

"Wh-What could be worse than that?!" Jaune also exclaimed.

"You don't have to worry about us." Raxtus said, hoisting the Silver Saber over his shoulder. "Your test was just to get those relics and make it back to the start line. Ozpin only had us come here so he could see what we can do, and we plan to show him just that."

"Leave this to us." Soren added. "We got plenty of experience fighting monsters."

"Are you sure?" Ruby asked with concern.

"Positive." Rai turned back and gave a thumbs up with a smirk. "Just sit back and enjoy the show."

"Someone's cocky." Yang said. "And that says a lot coming from me."

Team Drake walked forward, closer towards the horde of Grimm before the Alpha Beowolf howled, sending all his brethren toward the heroes.

"You guys ready? Let's show 'em how it's done!" Raiden said before he went on the attack first, using Lightning Halo to carve his way through a group of Beowolves and a couple Ursa, before appearing in the center of a pack, where they leapt at him, but he quickly unleashed his Thunder Strizer attack to send all of them flying and crashing into their brethren.

With the Grimm disoriented, the others quickly took advantage as Soren flew toward an Ursa, using his Swift Halo with extra-cutting power from his tail to decapitate it before spinning his tail outward to generate a gust of wind that pushed back several Grimm. Raleigh came to Soren's front as three Griffons tried to fly down and claw at him, but Raleigh leapt to the center one and dealt an uppercut to its head and crushed its skull. As he fell, he grabbed that Griffon by its talons and used his strength to slam it down into the second to knock it down hard onto the ground. Raleigh landed on his feet and swiftly turned around to punch through the body of the third Griffon and sent it crashing into two Beowolves from the force of his punch alone.

A Boarbatusk rolled towards Raxtus, but he had his Silver Saber already primed and waited for it to come in close before he swung the flat of his blade to send the rolled-up Grimm slamming into a pack of incoming Beowolves and Ursa, crushing them. He then spun his sword once again to generate a tornado-effect to pull in a pair of Ursa that tried to surround him, but the tornado sent them both flying straight up where Rai met them with a series of Thunder Breaks to take them out of commission before they even hit the ground.

One Boarbatusk tried to charge and ram Raleigh, but he grabbed it by its tusks, transforming his feet into dragon clawed feet that dug into the ground to halt the Boarbatusk's advance. He then used his own strength to easily rip out the tusks, where he jammed one into the neck of the Grimm to kill it before he threw the other at a Griffin that flew down toward him, scoring a headshot to kill it as well.

As Soren flew around an Ursa to deliver an airborne Skyward Kick to the back of its head, he and Rai regrouped around Raleigh as they went for a Spiral Strike attack toward him, but Raleigh caught them while they were still rolled up, his hands now having turned into a dragon's clawed hands, and leapt into the air to throw them into a pack of Grimm; the extra strength provided by Raleigh, combined with the gathered momentum of Rai and Soren's respective Skyward Kicks, created a powerful enough force that obliterated most of the Grimm on contact, while sending the others crashing into the trees around them.

While the three of them mopped up the remainder of the Grimm from the area, Raxtus found himself face-to-face with the Alpha Beowolf that lashed out its claws at him, which he parried with his Silver Saber. He then quickly dashed and slid under its legs while swinging his sword at its left leg to trip it up. While it was down, Raxtus leapt into the air to slam the pommel of his sword down onto its back, causing it to roar in pain before jumping into the air again to deliver the final strike to its skull, shattering it and killing the head of the pack.

With the Alpha dead, the remainder of the horde fell into confusion and panic, not that it mattered since there were only six remaining. Raleigh grabbed one Beowulf by its foot and hauled it up to slam it into the ground before throwing it into a charging Boarbatusk, knocking them both down and allowing Raleigh the chance to finish them off with a charge and final Earth Break attack to destroy them. Soren flew up towards a Griffon and wrapped his tail around its neck before pulling it toward the ground, where he spun and sent it falling into an Ursa, before ending the pair with a Skyward Kick that tore through both. Finally, Rai faced two remaining Beowolves, which he was quick to defeat by striking them with multiple Thunder Breaks.

"And that's how we do it, Team Drake style!" Rai laughed as he, Soren, Raleigh, and Raxtus exchanged a four-way high five.

The students could only look in shock and amazement, wide and circular eyes with lowered jaws, with Jaune's jaw looking like it was about to fall off completely.

"Whoa…" Yang was rendered speechless.

"They have every right to be cocky." Ren commented.

"That was incredible…!" Pyrrha looked in awe.

"THAT WAS AWESOME!" Nora shouted with a wild and joyous look on her face.

"That was over fifty Grimm… and they made it look like nothing…!" Weiss stuttered.

"They even took down the Alpha so it couldn't escape… impressive." Blake said.

Ruby said nothing, but her silver eyes sparkled at their performance, a smile clear on her face. One would expect more of a fangirl-like reaction out of her, and while that was what she was feeling on the inside, the idea of people like this existing; people who fight monsters and have such courageous hearts, this shows that even if they come from different worlds, there are good people in this world and beyond. That thought alone made her very happy.

However, all celebrations came to an end as a large caw drew all their attention toward the sky where they saw a Nevermore circling the area around them.

"Oh hey, another Tweety." Rai sighed as he and his friends regrouped around the students, who had already drawn their weapons. "Guess the party's not over yet."

A different kind of roar was heard from the forest as the same Death Stalker that Soren, Jaune, and Pyrrha encountered had broken its way through the trees to hiss at the group, except now, its body was crisscrossed with green veins.

"Oh no… not that thing again…!" Jaune's face paled.

"It's a Death Stalker!" Weiss stated seriously.

"A little beefier than the one we took down yesterday… and a little greener as well…." Rai commented. "But I'm sure we can…"

The entire ground suddenly shook, which followed the sounds of large stomps echoing around the forest and a large moan. From the canopy of the trees, they could see a large shape making its way closer to them, breaking down all the trees in its path like they were twigs. It soon entered the clearing to reveal an enormous elephant-like Grimm that dwarfed even the Death Stalker.

"Is that an Elephant?!" Raleigh panicked while Jaune screamed.

"A Goliath?! Here?!" Blake shouted.

Even Raiden winced, his smile fading as a serious look formed on his face. "Okay… that might be a problem even for us."

Raxtus then turned toward the students. "You guys get what you need. We'll distract them."

"What?! But we can help you!" Yang protested.

"No, they're right." Weiss pointed out. "We didn't come here to fight these Grimm. We were sent here to retrieve the relics and make it back to the cliff, that is all."

"Yeah, there's no point in fighting where we don't have to." Ruby added.

"Run and live, that is an idea I can get behind." Jaune said with a relieved smile.

"More like live to fight another day, but basically yes." Raleigh agreed.

"But are you guys sure you can handle this?" Ruby asked Team Drake. "Fifty Beowolf-sized Grimm is one thing, but these guys…"

"Worst case scenario, we'll retreat." Soren said. "We have enough experience to know when to fall back if we need to."

"Yeah, don't worry about us. You guys just worry about passing." Rai told them before he and his team ran off to get the attention of the three large Grimm. "Hey Tweety! Dumbo! Green Hornet! Over here!"

This caused the terrible trio of larger Grimm to roar in fury as they chased the fleeing Team Drake; leaving the students be as Jaune grabbed the white rook piece for him and Pyrrha. With all four pairs having retrieved their respective relics and make their way back to the cliff.

However, while the Goliath continued to chase Rai and his friends; the Nevermore caught the sight of the eight students and gave a caw, which drew the attention of the Death Stalker. Both the flying and scorpion-like Grimm then turned away and went off in a certain direction.

"Uh oh, the Death Stalker and Nevermore aren't chasing us anymore!" Raxtus stated as he and his friends continue to flee the pursuing Goliath.

"They're going after the kids!" Raleigh pointed out. "I'll go and…"

"No, Ral, we stick together!" Rai told him. "If one of us splits off, we risk leading super-size here to the students and that's a bit above their paygrade!"

"Oh, but a giant bird with razor sharp feathers and a massive scorpion are just fine?!" Raleigh questioned. "They're only kids!"

"They're not only kids, Raleigh!" Soren said. "We've all seen what they can do! They're young, but they can handle themselves!"

"You're technically younger than they are, Soar." Raxtus pointed out. "But you're right, it's not like their helpless school kids lost in a forest of monsters. I've seen that at least Nora and Ren know what they're doing. They're trained."

"Same for Ruby and Weiss." Rai pointed out. "Pretty sure you've seen it too, right Ral?"

Even Raleigh had to agree, it may have been a short time, but he could tell from his time with Yang and Blake that they could handle themselves. But a couple of Ursai was a different story than the likes of a Death Stalker and a Nevermore together; but he also had to concede that if they split up to help them, they would also run the risk of bringing the Goliath to them as well and that would be too much for them.

"Look, if it gets too much, we'll step in." Rai said to his dragon friend, noticing his deep-thought expression even as they continued to run with the Goliath at their heels. "But this is their test, they gotta learn to take care of themselves without becoming too reliant on us. Ozpin had a point in saying that before we entered the forest, remember?"

"You're right." Raleigh sighed. "I don't like it, but you're right. We'll let them handle those two, but if it gets too out of hand, we are stepping in to help!"

"Of course." Raxtus nodded.

"Absolutely." Soren agreed.

"Well, since we're all on the same page…" Raiden smirked as he turned around to run backwards while also facing the Goliath. "Come on, Dumbo! This is a chase, not a walk in the park!"

The Goliath roared in fury as it picked up its pace, motivating Team Drake to do the same and find a good spot where they could fight this beast on their terms.


Meanwhile...

Ruby, Weiss, Jaune, Pyrrha, Yang, Blake, Nora, and Ren continued to run as they were getting closer to the cliff from where they started. The only thing separating them was a series of ruins, with a similar structure to an ancient castle, and a vastly deep chasm below.

However, Blake noticed a shadow flying overhead. "We have company!"

They all took notice of the Nevermore that flew over them, causing them to split up and take cover amidst the ruins around them as the Nevermore perched itself at the top of the tallest tower as it gave a loud caw, effectively blocking their path.

"Well, that's great. I thought our new friends were handling it." Yang recalled.

"Probably doubled back when it saw us." Ruby assumed. "But we can take it."

"Incoming!" Pyrrha exclaimed, alerting the students to the incoming Death Stalker as well before it shivered…..and suddenly collapsed into a pile of black sludge. To say that the students were flabbergasted…..would be understating the situation.

"What the what?!" Sputtered Weiss.

"Just what's going on?!" Screamed Yang.

"Did that Grimm just….. turn to sludge?!" Ruby yelled.

"Pretty much did." Ren and Blake both deadpanned at the same time, stating the obvious.

"Well, that's that. I guess we have just the birdie to deal with then." Remarked Nora nonchalantly.

"Well, I guess that's one way to see this." Sighed Jaune. "Besides, what could possibly go wrong?"

However, the sludge suddenly started to boil and bubble before bursting up, tendrils of the sludge twisting together upwards and sidewards to create the Kingu Grimm. This Grimm had the lower body, jointed legs and tail of the Deathstalker, but at the place where the Deathstalker's head and arms would be, there emerged a humanoid bone-covered torso that had muscular arms covered in bony armor that ended in jagged pincer claws and a humanoid head covered in that same bony armor which was shaped in a greek hoplite helmet that had a single horn sticking straight out like a unicorn's horn. It roared before it turned its head towards the students, glowing red eyes fixed on them.

"You were saying?" Gulped Yang.

"He jinxed it, didn't he?" Deadpanned Blake.

"Yeah, he did!" Panicked Weiss.

"Ah man, run!" Jaune exclaimed, leaving the group of eight with little chance but to push on ahead despite the Nevermore blocking their path.

"Nora, distract it!" Ren told her. She nodded in response as she rolled out of the way of the Nevermore's razor-sharp feathers it sent her way, she quickly drew Magnhild and converted it into its grenade launcher to open fire on the giant bird-like Grimm. This seemed to work as the explosive projectiles forced the Nevermore to fly away, but the Kingu quickly came up behind her. Fortunately, Blake and Ren came to the rescue, swerving from opposite ends to slice at the front with their respective weapons. Weiss came to Nora's aid, conjuring a Glyph underneath both to allow them to jump and gain some distance.

As Ruby, Yang, Jaune, and Pyrrha continued to run on the stone bridge, they happened to glance to the far right at the sound of a roar and saw the Goliath chasing Raiden and his friends.


A short distance away…

Team Drake had emerged from the forest and was far enough from the ruins where the students were so they couldn't get mixed up in their own fight, but close enough to see the action. The four then came to a stop at the edge of the cliff and turned to face stampeding Goliath.

"Raleigh, Earth Spike!" Raiden ordered.

"Soren, Great Burst!" Raxtus also ordered.

"Got it!" They both nodded as Raiden got into a running stance and prepared a charge attack. Raleigh charged his magic and slammed his fist down to create a ramp made of stone that Rai used to send himself straight toward the charging Goliath like a cannonball.

At the same time, Raxtus jumped up, summoning a drill construct made of light and Soren punched forward with a powerful gust of wind to send Raxtus flying in the same direction as Raiden, drill-first.

Rai and Raxtus both collided into the center of the Goliath's outer skull with enough force to stop its advance, and even crack the skull a bit, but it wasn't enough to do any major damage as both dragonets saw when they landed.

"We barely made a dent in that thing!" Raxtus noted, worried.

"Yeah, this feels like a real pain in the ass, but we can take it." Rai said. "Let's go!" He zoomed toward the massive elephant-like Grimm with his usual speed, literally running circles around it, all while delivering Thunder Discharges across its body. However, the Goliath lifted both its front feet into the air before slamming them down to shake the ground with enough force and trip Rai up, sending him flying head over heels.

However, Soren was quick to help as he had already picked up Raxtus and flew up over the beast to toss him toward the Goliath, allowing him to land on its back, where he proceeded to attack with his sword, while Soren joined up with Rai to try and attack it from underneath. Raleigh had already leapt to climb up the Goliath's front left leg before leaping at the side of its face, digging one of his fists into the skull as he came close to its left eye, which he pounded in with his free fist.


Meanwhile….

While Team Drake dealt with the Goliath, Pyrrha had turned back to provide covering fire for Nora, Blake, and Ren; converting her javelin, Milo, into a rifle and placing it over her shield, Akouo, and firing at the charging Kingu. This allowed the students to regroup as they ran across a stone bridge, but the Nevermore circled back around and delivered a headbutt into the bridge, breaking off a large piece of it and separating the students.

Ruby, Weiss, Yang, Jaune, and Nora ended up on the side near the tower with Ruby already pulling out Crescent Rose to shoot the Nevermore as it flew away; while Jaune looked back to see Blake, Pyrrha, and Ren facing the Kingu alone, and it was not going well.

"Man, we gotta get over there! They need help!"

Nora ran to his side. "Let's do this!"

"Yeah… but uh…" Jaune looked down into the chasm, noting how wide a gap separated them from their fellow students. "I can't make that jump!"

Nora merely smirked as she knocked him back with Magnhild before converting it into its hammer mode. She leapt into the air and slammed it into the ground, shattering that part of the bridge, while also catapulting Jaune over the gap.

"No! No! No!" Jaune screamed.

Nora then positioned herself on top of Magnhild's mallet and fired its grenade to send her soaring over the gap as well, using the gathered momentum to pull up on Magnhild and slam it into the Kingu. She saw its stinger about to lunge, but fired a grenade again to push her off and knock the Grimm further into the ground and avoid the stinger.

This action however, ended up pushing Blake off the edge and into the chasm. But she quickly threw one piece of Gambol Shroud, while it also fired to provide extra boost to embed the blade into a piece of the bridge, where she used the ribbon to swing herself under the bridge and vault herself toward the Nevermore, producing a shadow-clone to further close the gap, where she sliced at the Nevermore's face repeatedly, producing another shadow-double to land on the Nevermore's back, rushing down and slicing with her weapon before leaping off its tail feathers to land on the perch of the castle ruins alongside Ruby, Yang, and Weiss.

"It's tougher than it looks!" Blake said.

"Then let's hit it with everything we got!" Yang stated as she readied Ember Celica.

Ruby briefly looked down toward Jaune's group fighting against the Kingu, while Team Drake continued to do battle with the Goliath. One look told her that they could handle themselves, they needed to focus on their own objective.

Ruby, Yang, and Blake fired their long-ranged gun attacks from their own respective weapons, while Weiss swung Myrtenaster to send waves of fire, ice, and lightning at the incoming Nevermore. But the flying Grimm seemed to pass by or tank several of the attacks before flying down to ram the supporting pillars of the tower, causing the entire structure to collapse.

But the girls remained calm as they used their respective Semblances and weapons, however they could leap from each piece of falling debris before landing on the bridge.

"None of this is working!" Weiss noted, which Ruby agreed with. But she also took notice of Blake using Gambol Shroud's ribbon, as well as Yang standing on a broken pillar, firing shotgun shots from her gauntlets at the circling Nevermore.

"I have a plan! Cover me!"


Meanwhile….

Rai had leapt straight to the Goliath, performing repeated Thunder Discharges between its tusks, but the Goliath was able to shake him off and send him falling into the chasm, but Soren quickly flew in to catch Rai and bring him back up to solid ground.

"We might be able to crack its armor, but nothing we got can deal any severe damage!" Soren told Rai as the lightning dragonet looked to see Raxtus and Raleigh leaping up and around its sides to punch and pound at it, but this only seemed to anger the creature. But as he glanced past it, he also noticed a piece of the broken bridge from the Nevermore's attack had landed nearby and was positioned just right, almost like a ramp. He then turned around to note how wide the chasm was before he smirked.

"I got an idea! You see that piece of rubble right there?" Rai pointed for Soren. "Be sure to get Dumbo in front of it and as close to the cliff as you can, he's gotta be positioned just right! And have Ral weaken the ground just in case, I'll handle the rest!"

Soren saw where Rai was going with this and agreed instantly. "On it."

Raiden then ran past the Goliath, moving as fast as he could to get to where he needed to be fast enough.

The Goliath lifted its upper right foot to stomp on Raleigh, but he stood his ground and caught the massive foot with both his hands. Despite the Goliath's incredible strength, Raleigh wouldn't budge, even with the ground caving in underneath him. It was a bit of a struggle for the earth dragonet as he groaned, sweat flowing down his body from the strain. But with a mighty yell, Raleigh pushed up hard enough to knock the Goliath back, causing it to back away and nearly trip up on its own feet.

"Easy there, David." Raxtus ran to his side and helped Raleighup before he could fall on his knees. "Don't be a hero, that's Rai's job."

"Very funny." Raleigh said, getting both jokes.

"Guys, over here!" Soren called for them, prompting Raleigh and Raxtus to join him closer toward the edge of the cliff as the Goliath recovered and moved toward them.

"Where's Rai when you need him?" Raxtus complained.

"Getting enough distance to finish it!" Soren instructed. "But we have to keep it in this spot! Ral, dig into the ground and try to make it unstable! Raxtus, we gotta keep its attention focused on us! We can't let it move away!"

"Alright!" Raleigh and Raxtus both understood as the Goliath was already on them. Raleigh then proceeded to use his natural digging ability to dig into the ground while Soren and Raxtus flew and ran literal circles around the Goliath with Soren flying in the clockwise direction while Raxtus ran counterclockwise.


Back with Jaune's group….

The Kingu pulled its stinger back, causing what remained of the bridge that they stood on to collapse.

"We gotta move!" Jaune told them as the four quickly ran up the collapsing bridge, right as the Kingu lunged its right claw at them. But Pyrrha moved faster, using Akouo to parry and bounce the claw away, while Jaune used Crocea Mors' shield to block the left claw that swung at them. They both pushed back to clear the way and allow Ren to fire StormFlower at the Death Stalker's face before it lunged his stinger at him.

Ren dodged and grabbed the stinger as the Kingu pulled back, allowing him to shoot at the Kingu's back while Jaune and Pyrrha kept it distracted with their respective blades. Nora came in, firing more grenades from Magnhild, which the Kingu shielded itself from with its claws, also forcing Pyrrha and Jaune to slide back, though the latter did fall on his back. But Pyrrha threw out Milo in its javelin form, which also fired to provide an extra boost to embed itself in one of the Kingu's eyes. This caused it to screech in pain, flinging its stinger to send Ren flying and crashing into a nearby pillar.

"Ren!" Nora exclaimed, not noticing the Kingu raise its tail to stab her…..Only for Kamen Rider Prime to kick at the tail to distract it.

"Whoa boy, I should have been more alert." Nora chastised herself for letting her guard down. "Thanks by the way, mysterious armor hero guy."

"You're welcome." Prime nodded before turning to face the Kingu.

Jaune pushed himself up to see the Kingu's stinger was partially dislodged from the rider kick and got an idea. "Pyrrha!"

"Done!" She saw his intent and threw out Akouo like a frisbee, slicing off the stinger and allowing it to fall onto the ground and dissolve as the shield returned to its owner.

Priem then turned to Jaune. "So, you're the leader of this team? Could you please help distract this Grimm so that I can finish it off? And no, I don't want the credit for the kill."

"Got it!" Jaune said. "Nora, nail it on the head!"

"Heads up!" Nora converted her weapon into its hammer mode and leapt toward Pyrrha, who caught her with Akouo before jumping up and vaulting Nora, just as she fired Magnhild again. The combined momentum sent the girl flying high into the air with a laugh before coming back down. She fired again to provide a bigger boost as she spun around, gathering more momentum before slamming her hammer into the head of the Kingu, disorienting it for some time.

Prime then raised the Hang Glider Fullbottle, and a Pink Fullbottle with sakura designs on it before shaking the bottles rapidly, enormous equations appearing in the air behind him.

"Whoa…" Trailed Jaune.

"That's new." Remarked Ren before turning to see Nora passed out from the mathematical equations frying her brain "Oh, dear…."

Keith then adjusted his grip to move the tops of both bottles before slamming the pink one in the left slot, then the red one into the right slot on his Driver.

[SAKURA! HANG-GLIDER! BEST MATCH!]

He then began cranking the lever, and a Snap Ride Builder manifested, this time bearing a pink, flower-themed body in the front, and a red body with a set of hang glider wings in the back.

[ARE YOU READY?]

"Build up!"

The halves slam together, and steam sprayed from the whole assembly, as Team JNPR looked upon the Kamen Rider's new form.

[HEIWA NO KAZE! SAKURA-GLIDER! YEAH!]

He had the Hang-glider Halfbody from earlier, but he also had another Halfbody, this one being pink in color and having the Drakken armor being replaced by a sakura-themed one.

"That's so….cool!" Jaune practically fanboyed.

"All right…." Said Prime before he began to crank the lever yet again. "It's time for you... to meet your Maker!"

[ARE YOU READY?]

Suddenly, a sakura petal tornado appeared, sending the Kingu flying into the air, limbs and tail flailing. At the same time, Prime leapt up into the air, using his wings to go higher than the Kingu, before streaking down, his left leg poised to kick and covered in a pink energy aiming for the chest. His aim was true.

[VOLTECH FINISH! YEAH!]

Kamen Rider Prime slammed straight into the chest of the Kingu, pushing it down to the bridge before the force of the impact hit, completely piercing and shattering the Kingu's armor, as well as the remainder of the bridge underneath it.

This action also helped to catapult Jaune and Pyrrha over the collapsing bridge just as Nora launched herself over with another shot from Magnhild. All three landed near the recovering Ren before they collapsed in exhaustion, with Ren and Jaune landing face-first, Nora on her bum, and Pyrrha on her hands and knees.


Raiden had managed to make it back to the temple where the relics previously were, while also using his own speed and power to clear the way of trees, and even a few remaining Grimm, to literally carve a straight path from that spot all the way back to the cliffs where the Goliath was. He could barely see it in the distance.

"Alright, time to roll!" Raiden got into a running stance, gathering as much energy as he could, while also remaining stationary. He had to time this perfectly.


Meanwhile, Yang continued to fire multiple shots from Ember Celica at the circling Nevermore, and even got a lucky shot at the side of its face. But this only angered the beast as it flew at Yang, who leapt straight at its open mouth. She used one arm to keep its upper beak from closing before firing several shots with her free hand down its throat.

"I! Hope! You're! Hungry!" Seeing the Nevermore about to close in on the cliff wall, Yang leapt off just in time, causing the Nevermore to crash into the cliffside before landing on the platform that Ruby, Weiss, and Blake were on as they had their own attack planned as well.

Weiss used her Glyphs to slide herself quickly across the bridge, gunning straight for the recovering Nevermore. She wouldn't give it a chance to fly away before using a Glyph to propel herself upward and lunge Myrtenaster into its tail feathers, creating a cluster of ice that kept the Nevermore pinned. Weiss then flipped backwards and used another Glyph to propel herself back to the main group.

Standing on a pillar, Blake threw out Gambol Shroud, extending its ribbon as Yang caught the weapon and embedded it into another pillar. Ruby then fired Crescent Rose to propel herself upward and land with the back of the scythe on the ribbon, her own feet on the weapon as well, while Weiss conjured a black Glyph to pull Ruby and the ribbon backwards, creating a massive slingshot that was aimed at the struggling Nevermore.

"Of course, you would come up with this idea." Weiss commented, readying herself.

"Think you can make the shot?" Ruby asked.

Weiss only smirked confidently. "Can I?"

That caused Ruby to look in confusion. "Can y…"

"Of course, I can!"

Ruby loaded up Crescent Rose, reading another round of shots, while also combining her own Semblance with Weiss, causing the black Glyph to turn red before they let loose. The Glyph turned white as Weiss shot Ruby straight toward the Nevermore with an extra boost provided by Ruby's Petal Burst. She continued to fire from Crescent Rose to close the gap before catching the Nevermore by the neck with her scythe's blade, still firing to drag the Nevermore toward the cliffside just as Ruby landed.

Weiss quickly created a long line of large Glyphs under Ruby, leading straight to the top of the cliff. That gave her more speed, before she shot herself upward as she combined the speed of her Semblance with shots from Crescent Rose to drag the Nevermore up with her, while also driving the blade of the scythe deeper into its neck. Right as she reached the top…

*SLICE!*

She had completely decapitated the Nevermore, flipping through the air before landing gracefully at the top of the cliff. The Nevermore's body already began to disintegrate just as what was left of its corpse fell.


Even from his position and building up as much speed and power as he could, Raiden could see what Ruby had done and gave an impressed whistle.

"Not bad. Let's see if I can top it."

Confident he built up enough of his power, Raiden shot himself down his own path, leaving a bright yellow crackling energy trail as he ran.


The Goliath remaining, Soren and Raxtus kept flying and running over and under and all around it with such speed and moving in separate directions to keep it distracted and unable to move. All the while Raleigh dug in and out of the ground underneath the elephant-like Grimm repeatedly, causing the ground at the edge of the cliff to become more and more unstable.

As he flew over, Soren looked on to see a bright yellow light moving in their direction. It was time.

"HE'S COMING! MOVE!" Soren called to his friends as Raleigh had just emerged back up and ran from under the Goliath along with Raxtus with Soren flying away as well. The Goliath was about to turn and chase after them, but it was already too late.

Rai had zoomed down the path and up the piece of rubble he spotted before, using it like a makeshift ramp. While he was no physics expert like Soren, Rai knew himself well, and how fast he needed to be to pull this off. Timing it just right and gaining enough momentum, that by the time he shot himself up the ramp…

*BOOM!*

The roar of the Sound Barrier breaking echoed throughout the forest, the force of it broke apart the ground as Rai himself pierced through the Goliath's whole body like a bullet and flying straight up at the right angle to land gracefully on his feet and right hand at the top of the cliff next to the shocked Ruby.

With the force from Raiden's impact, and the ground shattering from the shockwave of the sonic boom, the Goliath fell into the seemingly bottomless chasm. Even if Rai's attack piercing through it didn't kill the beast, the fall would finish the job.

Soren and Raxtus both smiled as Raleigh merely crossed his arms with an unsurprised smirk; they totally expected something this dramatic and effective from their electric friend.

Jaune's group looked in shock and amazement. "Wow…" The blonde boy looked in awe, while Pyrrha and Ren's mouths had formed perfect O's, and even Nora had been rendered speechless.

"Holy crap…" Yang muttered as she stood with Blake and Weiss, the former holding her hands over her bowtie for some reason.

"H-He… broke the… sound barrier… t-that was a freaking sonic boom… It sounded like thunder!" Weiss stuttered.

"Hence his name…Stormbringer…" Blake said, recovering from the ringing she felt in her own ears, that her own friends didn't seem to feel.

Rai dusted his hands with pride as he looked down the cliff. "And that is how it's done." He turned to see Ruby, who held her hands near her cheeks as her silver eyes sparkled and a squealing sound was heard from her mouth, like she was ready to explode with joy.

"That… was… AMAZING!" She practically screamed. "How'd you do that?! That was so cool! You made a sonic boom! Oh, that's why you're called Stormbringer! I've never seen anyone go that fast! And you knocked that thing off the cliff! You're awesome! Your friends are awesome! That is so awesome!"

"Whoa there…!" Rai chuckled as he grabbed Ruby by the shoulders. "Calm down. Take a deep breath." He took one himself for demonstration, allowing Ruby to do so. It took three deep breaths to calm her down at least slightly. "Yeah, that was cool. Nice finishing move yourself, by the way. You got a natural talent there, Ruby."

"You really think so?" Ruby asked somewhat bashfully.

"Yeah, trust me. You got skill." Rai confirmed before raising his hand. "Now give me five!"

Ruby smiled as she and Raiden exchanged a high-five.

However, there was another party watching everything that had been occurring in this forest. Hovering from high in the clouds, where nobody could see it, an Eye-Scope had seen everything from Raiden and his team entering the forest with the students, to their battles with the Grimm.

Feeling the summons from its master, the Eye-Scope flew away from the forest, and not a single soul would know it was here.


Back at the school, all the returning first years had gathered in the auditorium for the official formation of their team. Among them was a group of four young men that stood before Professor Ozpin as the holo-screen above showed the students names and faces, as well as their team name.

"Russel Thrush, Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark… the four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces." Ozpin announced. "From this day forward, you shall work together as Team CRDL, led by Cardin Winchester."

Following an applause from the audience; the newly formed Team CRDL stepped away and allowed Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren to step up next.

"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie… the four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR, led by Jaune Arc."

While Jaune looked in surprise, Nora leapt at Ren with a hug. "H-huh? L-Led by…?" Jaune did not expect to be made leader, but Pyrrha smiled

"Congratulations, young man." Ozpin told him.

Pyrrha gave Jaune a friendly punch in the shoulder, but this knocked him down onto the ground, much to her surprise and the amusement of the audience before they stepped off and allowed the final team to step up.

"And finally; Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long… the four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY, led by Ruby Rose."

None were more shocked by that than Ruby herself, even as her older sister pulled her into a hug.

"I'm so proud of you!" Yang declared.

At the same time, the ceremony was witnessed by Team Drake as they stood from the highest part of the auditorium, out of sight of the audience. Though the rest of Beacon would probably come to know Rai and his friends at a later date, it was still best to let the newly formed RWBY and JNPR have their moment, it was certainly well-earned.

"Teams RWBY and JNPR, huh? Sounds catchy." Rai said.

"I've got a good feeling we'll be working more with them in the future, even against Terrorblade." Soren remarked.

"How do you figure?" Raxtus asked.

"Call it a hunch." Soren replied.

"Alright, I'll admit, those kids could handle themselves just fine." Raleigh said. "Maybe this Huntsmen Academy stuff isn't so bad. But, against Terrorblade, it's best if they work with us. Fighting him and his Obsidian Warrior army is completely different from a bunch of mindless monsters like the Grimm."

"Yeah, you're right Ral." Rai admitted. "But with all of us working together, we can take 'em down. Just like always."

"Plus, there's still Gavin, Celia and Tania out there." Soren added.

"Once they join up with us and we fill them in, we'll be truly unstoppable!" Raxtus cheered excitedly.

Raiden chuckled. 'Terrorblade, wherever you are… hope you're ready! Cause we're coming for you! Whatever you're planning, it's not gonna get off the ground!'

Meanwhile, a short distance away, Keith looked at the two white king pieces that he had taken from the ruins.

'Well, now that I've joined Beacon, I guess that it's smooth sailing from here on. I wonder what sort of craziness is going to happen next?' He mused. 'Besides, why on earth did I decide to take the two white King pieces that were there? Is this some sort of sign that I'm gonna be a team leader soon enough?'

Little did he know how true was that going to be...


Somewhere else…

"What?! Are you telling me that the plan failed?!" Snapped the figure from earlier into his scroll. "Wait, you don't mean that…yes, at last…. Keep an eye on that boy…. I don't care how, just do it! It is imperative that we must find the secret of how the SpliceDriver ended up in his hands…..yes, okay, Heil Neo-Faust."

He then cut the call and reclined back, a quiet smile on his face.

"So that's where it was…..after all this time….."


Meanwhile, Terrorblade sat back in a chair in an unknown location, looking at the holographic projection of the planet of Remnant with a meditative look before he felt a familiar aura return.

"Hey Boss!" Jinrai called as he and Gawain entered the room. "Guess who's back?!" He moved to the side dramatically as Terrorblade's creation flew toward its creator.

"Welcome back, my pet. Enjoyed your little field trip?" Terrorblade asked as he swerved his chair around.

The eye blinked twice before it projected a recording of Raiden fighting alongside Ruby and Weiss in the Emerald Forest, before it shifted to a clip of Raleigh, Yang, and Blake; then one of Soren, Jaune, and Pyrrha, then another of Raxtus, Nora, and Ren. Finally, he showed the recordings of their battle against the Nevermore, Kingu, and Goliath.

"It looks like Raiden and his friends are in Beacon, Boss." Jinrai observed. "No sign of Gavin though."

"Oh, he'll show up soon." Terrorblade brushed off. "After all, birds of a feather always flock together."

"Wow, these kids look amazing!" Gawain gushed. "Those are some cool weapons, and they got superpowers too! It's almost like they're superheroes!"

"It seems that maybe Rai is already befriending the students at Beacon." Jinrai said as the Eye-Scope turned off the projection.

"Let him make as many friends as he wants, it won't be enough." Terrorblade said as he swerved his chair around to see the Remnant hologram again. "He can't stop what I have planned for this world! No one can! I have plans, such plans yesssss…"


This chapter was pretty fun to write! Team Drake has already met and befriended the newly formed Teams RWBY and JNPR, establishing pretty good dialogue with them, Kamen Rider Prime debuted a new form, and there was our first interactions of Keith with team JNPR.

For the most part, the remainder of Volume 1 will be relatively short with only three chapters remaining, and it will remain somewhat consistent with the canon storyline, there won't be many changes; but we will be seeing some of that in Vol 2, along with the action. Either way, things are going to get interesting here as Keith, Rai and his friends will have a large impact on not only Beacon, but Remnant and the SSB-Nexus Verse as a whole.

Also, for those who don't know where this series starts in their respective universes, It starts after Voltron season 1 and during Rwby seasons 1-2. Another thing, with the current 18 Fullbottles, there are only 6 Best Matches that can be made with those Fullbottles. Hence, the reason that Keith is fighting these Mythic Grimm: to collect their Nebula Essence and get more Fullbottles and Best Matches. Think of these Mutant Grimm as the Hazard Smash of this world.

As for the design of the Eye-Scope, well... Think of the Crystal-Bats from The Dark Crystal and replace the crystal with an yellow eyeball. Yeah, in a nutshell, it's a eyeball the size of a baseball with batlike wings and clawed feet with the eyeball acting as a body of sorts. Nightmare fuel much?

Up next, the first day of school at Beacon, Team Fyre meets up with Team Drake, and Keith gives Ruby some valuable team leader advice.

Kamen Rider is owned by Tokusatsu

RWBY is owned by RoosterTeeth

Voltron: Legendary Defender is owned by Netflix

The rider forms are owned by TajadorCombo, Coeghepher, and DarkTidalWave on Deviantart.

The only thing I own are some OCs, Shippings, and Plotlines.

Thank you and comment down below!