With Yang

Yang walked eastward through the forest, hands behind her head. After completely nailing her landing, she had been walking for what seemed like forever. She had used her sense to see that her sister was in this general direction, but she hadn't seen hide or hair of anyone.

"Helllooooo. Ruby! Anyone there? Getting bored here..." Silence was the only answer Yang got. Before she could reiterate herself in a louder voice, the sound of a twig snapping drew her attention to some nearby bushes.

"Ruby, is that you?" Yang ran up to the bushes, pushing them aside to see what was behind them. "Nope" was all she said as she got a good look at what was there.

Backflipping, Yang dodged a swipe from the Ursa's claws. She landed in the middle of a small clearing and got into a fighting stance, extending Ember Cilica. The large bear Grimm crashed through the undergrowth after her. It was soon joined by another Ursa and so Yang was left facing two Grimm.

Yang frowned slightly; this was it? Only two measly Grimm was hardly a challenge for her; certainly not what she expected as the test to get in Beacon. She had thought that it would be a whole horde of them at least.

Whatever. She would wipe the floor with these teddy bears and get back to locating her sisters. With a feral grin that match those of her opponents, Yang launched herself at the Ursai.

The beasts of darkness seemed caught off guard by this and Yang was able to get a solid hit on one, sending it tumbling away. Its partner responded with a wide slash of its claws, which Yang easily ducked under. A swift uppercut staggered the Ursa back and series of shotgun-filled punches had it on the backfoot. Yang was about to go for a finishing blow when a blur of pale blue dashed in front of her.

She saw that the first Ursa had gotten back onto it's feet far faster then she thought and had tried to attack her while her back was turned. Instead, the beast was getting strangled by a long serpent and with a sickening crack, it broke it's neck. The large beast fell dead and Yang got a good look at what killed it.

The serpent has a white, circular, gem-like object on its forehead, and its eyes are light purple. It has two wing-like ears at the sides of its head. It has a white belly, and is light blue the rest of the way.

"Tini? Tiniii?" It cooed in concern for the blond bruiser

It slowly slithered up to Yang, who slowly backed away making sure not to provoke it. The other Ursa was about to strike the little snake, but a blue beam of energy caused it to literally freeze in place. Yang recognized the beam instantly and looked around for where it came from.

"Braaaaaave!!"

Yang looked up to see a large bird, an eagle of some kind, dive down to the Grimm. As it dived down, something blue jumped off of it and the bird began to light itself on fire. It crashed straight into the Ursa, many limbs and pieces of it exploding everywhere. The bird came out of the dust cloud and managed to catch the blue figure that jumped off.

The bird and the unknown shape began to fly away, barely recognizable from the far distance.

"Tini?" She looked and forgot about the serpent, as it stood just a foot from her.

"I coulda taken him." She said, trying to play it cool. She was kind of disappointed that those two creatures took all the fun from her.

"Tini" It seemed to disagree.

"Shut up." She said, somehow understanding it.

The serpent giggled at her.

"Something wrong?"

They turn to see Blake along with a companion of her own.

It was a small feline creature mainly deep purple fur, with cream-colored patches on its muzzle, forehead, chest, forelegs, back, and back feet. It has green eyes with slit pupils and large angular pink eyelids. It has a blunt catlike muzzle with a small black triangular nose, pointed catlike ears and whisker-like tufts of fur on each cheek. It has a sleek, slender body with small dainty paws and feet and a long, skinny tail with a crescent-like tuft at the tip.

"Purr." It, well, purred.

The serpent slithered away from the cat, eager to stay away from it. Yang rose a brow at this.

"Well I guess so if the killer snake thing is afraid of a small cat." Yang said.

Yang walked over to it and held out an arm. The serpent hesitated, but slowly slithered up her arm. It was really light, despite it's size. It wrapped around her like a sash and it didn't even try to squeeze her neck.

"Did that snake just kill an Ursa by asphyxiation?" Blake asked wearily.

"Nope." Yang said with a smile, "It broke it's neck before it asphyxiated."

"Purrli" The cat shrugged and shook it's head.

"Shut up." Yang said to the cat.

Blake rose an eyebrow at the blond. "You can understand them?" She asked.

Yang shook her head. "No, I just make guesses on what they're saying by reading their body language." She pointed a finger at the purple cat. "The cat just disagreed that asphyxiated isn't a real word."

Blake was surprised. "You got all of that just from a few gestures?"

"Yep, it's no big deal." Yang replied nonchalantly.

From above, Bravairy and Glaceon flew above them, watching the whole thing. That Dratini was strong, but it seems to be a little young to be alone. That Purrlion looked pretty suspicious, but when were they not? They glided above them, keeping an eye on them from the sky.

Beacon Cliff

"Interesting..." Ozpin observes the journey of all the applicants through a screen. As Glynda approaches him while holding one as well, she presses a few buttons.

"It appears our last pair has been formed, sir." She reports. "However, I have to say that some things have happened."

"Oh?" Oz continues to look down. Glynda pushes her glasses up.

"The last pair that has formed was that of Lie Ren, and Nora Valkyrie." She first announces. "But it seems like a few students have found some, unusual company."

"...Go on." Oz responds.

Glynda began pulling up images of Ruby finding Zorua and Weiss with a white fox with six tails. She began to pull some more images of Yang watching the serpent break an Ursa's neck then slowly backing away from a purple cat.

The last image, however, was one taken at the academy. The image was hard to make out, but some of its characteristics matched the description Qrow gave of another dragon Cynthia had. Despite the video, it was still hard to believe, but this image confirmed that Qrow was right.

"Well, that's pretty much our report. However, I have to say something about this 'Jaune Arc', though." She taps a screen showing him and Pyrrha.

"With his presence here, I expected a more professional profile of activities and abilities. Compared to Ms. Nikos, this boy looks like a trainee who just started off in basic combat operations. He's clearly a fellow that isn't ready for such a level of combat, and I don't care what his transcript says either."

"Uh huh..." Oz glances back for a moment, before looking back down.

"Well, I suppose we'll find out soon enough." She finally realized he wasn't really paying much attention to her. "At their current pace, they should be reaching the temple in a few minutes."

"Hmm." He simply replies. Glynda sighs, and begins to walk off. The man in glasses watches as two screens intrigue him. One of Weiss and Ruby, and the other, which was Cynthia.

"This will certainly be an interesting year, won't it Amber, Ironwood?"

Emerald Forest

"I thought you said you knew where we were going?"

Weiss halted at Ruby's question, holding the six-tailed snow fox in her arms. "Of course I do!"

"Weiss, we've passed this same tree at least three times." Ruby deadpanned.

"How would you know?" Weiss turned to face her new partner.

"Vul?" The fox looked at the tree like it was the most interesting thing in this forest.

"Because I thought it looked familiar the last time we passed it." Ruby told her.

Weiss struggled to respond. "Well, I just got turned around. It's definitely...this way!" Weiss tore off in another direction.

Ruby stayed still. "You're lost, aren't you?"

"I know exactly where I'm going!" Weiss argued.

"Oh yeah?" Ruby replied skeptically.

"We're heading to...the forest temple!" Weiss proclaimed poudly. The white fox yipped at the heiress, causing her to smile.

Ruby stared at her partner. "We've been lost this whole time, haven't we?"

"Oh, stop it!" Weiss conceded, startling the fox. "You don't know where we are, either!

"Well, at least I'm not pretending like I know everything." Ruby retorted.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Weiss narrowed her eyes at the younger girl.

Ruby got frustrated at how dense Weiss was. "It means you're a big, stupid jerk and I hate you!

Weiss sighs to herself, spinning around and walking in another direction. She wasn't going to let some child stop her from becoming team leader. "Just keep moving!"

"Stop acting like you're perfect!" Ruby shouts at Weiss, her temper getting the better of her.

"I'm not perfect!" Weiss barks, but she does give the girl a smug smile. "At least, not yet. I'm still leagues above you."

Ruby twitches an eye. "You don't even know me...!" She says as she starts to follow the girl again. As the two start to approach a cliff side, Weiss looks around.

"Now then, where is that temple?" She asks out loud as she squints her eyes around to scan the area. The fox started to sniff the air, using it's nose to find the temple. Ruby continues to grumble as she catches up.

"I'm so perfect...I'm part of a major company and...Hey, Weiss?" Ruby stops muttering, and slowly speaks to the girl. Weiss sighs.

"...Yes? What is it this time?" She asks.

Ruby watches as a large black feather drops in front of her. "What's the type of Grimm that resembles a giant bird again?"

Weiss raises an eyebrow, but continues to look on. "That's basic knowledge. They're called Nevermo-"

"Well, there's one flying right up there!" Ruby interrupts her as she slaps her shoulder to make her look up. "We can hitch a ride to see from a bird's eye view.

"What?! Are you insane?!"

"Vul!?" Weiss's outburst startled the poor fox and it jumped out of her arms. Undeterred, Weiss looks at the girl as if she was crazy. Ruby merely smirks.

As the giant bird like Grimm comes flying near them, Ruby reloads Crescent Rose with red Dust. Grabbing Weiss, and the heiress grabbing the fox, the snow haired girl screams as the other girl fires off several rounds into the ground, sending them flying up towards it with a glorious background of explosions.

"Here we come, birdy!" Ruby grins as they rapidly approach the bird. Going above it, they soon start to descend onto the large bird's back. Shooting one more round, Ruby pretty much stomps onto the Grimm's back, causing it to squawk as the two girls land on it.

Weiss grabs onto its feathers with her free hand for dear life, the other holding the fox close to her. The fox didn't like this as much as she did, as the Grimm continues to fly on. "You. Are. Crazy!" She yells. "I told you this was a terrible idea!"

"We're fine!" Ruby responds through the harsh wind. "Stop worrying!"

"Worrying?! I am beyond worrying!" The snow hair girl growls. "And not in a good way!"

"Why don't we just jump then!" The scythe girl suddenly proposes, making her face fearful.

"NO! YOU MUST BE SUICIDAL IF YOU WANNA DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT!" She screams to the top of her lungs as she tries to look back at the girl, only to see a mass of black feathers instead. Weiss groans as she looks over her shoulder.

"...damnit." Weiss cursed.

"Vulpi." The fox agreed.

Forest Temple

"Huh, I don't see anyone."

Yang and Blake slide down a hill, there new "friends" in tow to reach the abandoned temple, which was a landmark with broken ruins, and 16 pillars.

"Tini?" The serpent slithered up to the temple, confusion on it's face.

The other three approach them to see that there were...chess pieces. Some of them were missing though.

"Chess...pieces?" Blake says as she looks at a black rook. Yang goes the opposite way to view some of the white pieces.

"Some of them are missing. Seems like we weren't the first ones here." She guesses. Blake shrugs.

"Well, I guess we should pick one then." She suggests. Yang nods, and she turns back to the white pieces.

Looking down at a white knight piece, she smiles as she grabs it. "Hey, how about a cute horsey then?"

Blake gives her a small smile actually. "...Sure, alright."

The cat snatched the chess piece away from Yang. The action was so quick, she didn't even know it even happened. Yang felt her hand was empty, then saw it wasn't in her hand anymore.

"Hey, what the-"

She could hear snickering and saw that the cat snatched it away from her. Adding insult to injury, it was mocking her.

"You thief!! Give that back!!" Yang started to chase the cat around the temple.

What she didn't know was that the cat had set it's gaze upon her next target. With A quick percision, it snatched the bow on top of Blake's head. Yang stopped, hearing Blake gasp so suddenly. She turned around and saw that her bow was missing. In it's place were...cat ears?

Blake looked fearfully at Yang. Her secret had been revealed. She started to run away, but was stopped when she bumped into Cynthia.

"Woah, woah, easy Blake!" The Champion put her arms on her. "What's..." She saw her cat ears, then looked to Blake.

She looked scared. Really scared. Whatever happened was causing her to hyperventilate. Blake tried to escape but Cynthia didn't let her go, her arms wrapped around Blake to keep her here. She kicked and flailed around in her grasp, but Cynthia still kept her here. Seeing that her efforts to escape were in vain, Blake went still and tears fell from her face.

"It...it wasn't supposed to be this way." Blake said, her head resting on Cynthia's shoulder.

Cynthia didn't let go, instead she loosened her hold and started calming the teen down. They fell to there knees as Blake held on to her like a lifeline, desperately hugging her as if she'd go away.

Yang ran up to them, panting lightly from all the running she did. Cynthia looked up and gave her a stern look, the one a parent gives when their kid did something wrong.

"What happened, Yang?" She said, still holding the crying Blake close.

"I-I didn't do anything!" Yang rose her arms in defense. "It was that damn-" Yang looked at Blake's cat ears and figured she should speak her next words carefully. "Purple creature!" Yang pointed to the cat holding her bow.

Cynthia's eyes shot up. It seems that Darkrai was telling the truth. The cat in question looked guilty, as it walked over and placed the bow by Blake's feet. Cynthia turned her gaze and saw the pale blue serpent beside Yang.

"Blake." The girl didn't look up, but she was listening. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but there is something we do need to discuss." Cynthia said.

Blake could hear the rustling of trees and saw a blue, jackal creature carrying a small black fox. A living plant humanoid creature arrived beside them as they. landed near the group.

"We'll wait for your friends to get here but for now," Cynthia picks up the bow. "Here." She hands it back to her. Blake slowly lifted a hand and gently took it from her.

"Thanks..." Blake said quietly and placed it back on her head, covering her ears. They stood up before hearing a high- pitched sound.

"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

Hearing the scream, the two turn in the direction from which it came from. Yang blinks a few times, before responding.

"Some girl's in trouble! Did you hear that?" She then asks Cynthia. She was about to respond, but before she could, Blake saw something that caught her attention as she happened to look up.

"Hey, what should we do?" She asks. Neither of them respond, and Blake simply points a finger up. Yang looks, only to suddenly see Ruby flying down towards them.

"Heads uuuuuuuuuuuuuup!"

Before Yang could react though, before the arm swinging girl collides with her, Spiritomb appeared out of a shadow and used it's power to catch her. Jaune's body suddenly flings against Spiritomb, breaking it's concentration and knocking the two back and all the way towards a nearby tree. Blake and Yang watch as the leaves ruffle by, and the Cynthia turns to Yang in question.

"Did...your sister just fall from the sky?" Cynthia asks.

Ruby moans as her eyes go through a daze. "Ooooh... What was that...?" Shaking her head, her attention goes towards Jaune, who coughs as he was seen dangling upside down from some of the leaves. Beside him was Spiritomb, the Forbidden Pokémon looking very unhappy.

"Hey Ruby..." He says lazily.

"Tooomb." The Forbidden Pokémon groaned. Ruby blinks for a moment.

"Oh, hey Jaune. Spiritomb. Where'd you both come from?" She then asks.

"So, I know Cynthia asked this but...did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake asks.

"I-" Before she could speak, once more she was interrupted, this time by the falling of trees coming from the nearby area of forest.

They look to see an Ursa walking upright while flailing its arms. It growls a few times, and they shudder their eyes upon seeing and hearing an explosion hit its back. As the Grimm falls to its death, an orange haired girl carrying a large hammer pops into the air as she falls off its neck.

"Yeehaaaaw!" She yells as she lands in front of the corpse. After dusting herself off, she looks at the dead Grimm with a sad face.

"Awww... I broke it." She lamented.

She dashes onto its neck and observes the carcass as a young man wearing green comes up behind her, along with some kind of...rock?

It was a living rock with bulging, rocky eyebrows, trapezoidal, brown eyes and a wide mouth. Its arms are muscular with five-fingered hands.

They began panting and leaning on the monster.

"N-Nora! Please...don't ever do that again." He begs.

"Geo...dude." The rock agreed, breathing hard.

Looking up though, both dart their heads, or lack their of, around because she was nowhere to be seen. After looking outwards towards the abandoned temple, Ren sighs as he walks over.

Said orange head glitters over a white rook piece. Clearly interested by it, she grasps it and starts to dance in celebration.

"I'm Queen of the Castle~! "I'm Queen of the Castle~!

"NORA!!" The boy calls out to her.

The girl giggles as the piece slides off her head and into her hand. "Hehehe, coming Ren!"

As she playfully skips over to him, Cynthia and Blake take a moment to retort once more against this weird, escalating turn of events.

"Did that girl just ride in on a monster?" Cynthia asked.

"Does that boy have a talking rock?" Blake asked

"I..."

"STUUUUU!!"

Yang was cut short from her talking as the screaming of another creature catches their attention.

Just then a Deathstalker burst through the trees. The Grimm was on the tail of a rather tall and sturdy looking redhead, who was accompanied by two creature.

The first was a quadruped creature resembling a bear cub. Its body and head are mostly pink, while its legs are brown. Each foot has a single pink paw pad on the bottom. There is a white, semicircle marking around its face similar to a headband, and it has a white muzzle with a triangular, black nose. Its white-tipped ears are situated on the sides of its head, and there is a small, white-tipped tuft of fur under each. Around the center of its short, puffy tail is a dark pink ring marking. Under the tail is a small, white flap resembling the tag on a stuffed toy.

The second was a canine with orange fur and black stripes along its back and legs. The fur on its muzzle, chest, belly, and tail is beige, as well as an additional tuft of fur on top of its head. Its coat is noticeably longer on its chest and tail. It has gray eyes, a black nose, and large, round ears with beige interiors. Its forepaws have two visible claws, while its hind paws have three toes each. Each paw has a brown pad.

As it swipes its claw out, Pyrrha grabs the pink bear and makes a dive, rolling away as it continues to chase her.

"Groowl!!" The dog breathed an ember of fire at the scorpion, doing little damage. The Deathstalker lashed out it's stinger at the dog, barely missing.

Growing closer to the group, Pyrrha sees Jaune, Spiritomb, and Ruby up on the tree.

"Jaune! She calls out. Her partner struggles to get out of the tumble of grass as Ruby and Spiritomb jump to join up with the group.

"Ruby! Spinny-thing!? Come on, someone get me out of here!" He yells. Unfortunately, they had already leaped off the branch, and landed next to Yang. The blonde blinks at her sudden recovery.

"Ruby?" She smiles. Said girl chuckles as the sisters attempt to do a double high five.

"Yang!" Before they could do it though, Nora pops up between them.

"Nora!" She yells with a grin.

"Spiritomb!" Cynthia ran up to the Forbidden Pokémon, checking for injuries. "Are you okay?"

"Spiri." It said in affirmation. Cynthia brought out Spiritomb's Pokéball and returned it.

Blake however remains surprised as she once again points at the current scene. "Did...she just run all the way here with a Deathstalker on her tail?"

"OH that's it! I can't take it anymore! Can we all just chill for two God forsaken seconds!?" Yang finally explodes as she gets the opportunity to retort. She briefly combusts into flames as her eyes turn red.

"Yang, your Semblance." Ruby pokes her cheek. Ren finally manages to come over, though he had to lean against a piece of stone while panting heavily. Nora merely giggles through this entire thing though.

Ruby however suddenly remembers something, and as she looks up, she pokes Yang's shoulder. "Um...Yang?"

The sister looks to Ruby who points upward. Up above, Weiss is revealed to be hanging on a talon the size of her entire body that belongs to a gigantic Nevermore.

"How could you leave me!?" She screamed.

"Vuuuul!?" Screamed the fox.

"I said 'jump'!" Ruby shouts up at Weiss

"She's gonna fall." Blake said to Ruby.

"She'll be fine." Ruby says offhandedly.

"She's falling." Ren said, pointing up.

Weiss...was indeed falling, and quite fast as well. Ruby gulps.

"Oh crud." She shivers. Jaune finally stumbles out of the leaves and lands on the branch. Seeing Weiss in the air, he grins at the opportunity to make some good points with her.

So, running to get a speeding start, he quickly dives for her. Unfortunately, someone, or something else, beat him to it. Another bird grabs her by her outfit and carries them away.

"Huh?" Noticing that they didn't reach the ground, her face turns to Bravairy. On top of the Valiant Pokémon was Glaceon.

"Brave!" "Glace!" They said.

The blonde's smile immediately does a 180 upon realizing that he didn't catch Weiss and he was in the air.

"Oh God..." He whimpers. He flails in the air, and finally, reality kicks back in as the he descend down to the floor once more. Pyrrha unconsciously breaks a stone with her foot, something that Ren took notice of as he flinches.

'Does she...?' He wonders for a second. However, the sound of Jaune's back cracking makes him turn to see him on the ground, groaning in pain.

Bravairy gently drops Weiss on the ground, unscathed. She looks over to the fallen blond, unimpressed.

"My hero..." She utters sarcastically.

"My back..." Jaune whimpers as he uses his sword to stand up like a cane.

"Bravairy, Glaceon!"

They turn to see Cynthia running to her Pokémon. Weiss looks between them, the connection now obvious to her.

"These are yours?" Weiss asks.

"Yes." Cynthia replies and left it at that. She looks to Weiss who was holding a scared six-tailed fox, it's claws digging into Weiss's clothes.

"Poor thing." Cynthia sympathized the poor creature by running her hand through it's white pelt. It felt cool to the touch yet its fur was soft as snow.

The Death Stalker is still hunting Pyrrha, but she eventually trips. The Deathstalker roars as it successfully smacks her away with its claw, but Pyrrha manages to land on her side at the feet of the others.

"Great! The gang's all here! Now we can die together!" Yang said sarcastically

Ruby gives her sister a grin. "Not if I can help it!" She declares. Suddenly running out with a grin, Cynthia's eyes contract as she tries to reach out to her.

"Ruby, wait!" Cynthia called out to her but it fell on dead ears.

Ruby opens up Crescent Rose, and propels herself using a shot as the Deathstalker starts to crawl itself over to the group. Putting her arms up in an attempt to over-swing, as she was about to smash it down, the Deathstalker whacks her away with a claw with ease, pushing her back a few meters.

"Ruby!" Yang yells in fear. The girl gets up after a few seconds while groaning a bit.

"Urgh... I'm okay. D-Do-Don't worry! Totally fine!" She shouts back as she turns around with an unsure look on her face, only to see the scorpion Grimm in front of her.

"Eep!" She yelps as she launches herself back with Crescent Rose. The Deathstalker yells as it starts to chase the girl.

Putting the weapon back, Ruby attempts to run as fast as she could. Yang finally runs off in to group up with her, but as she does so, everyone looks up to see the Nevermore turning back to them.

"Watch out!" Cynthia yells as the Nevermore starts to flap its wings.

Launching a flurry of feathers like arrows, the projectiles start to scatter and cover up hundreds of yards as they start to land near Ruby. The scatter attack finally managed to reach its mark after a few seconds, pinning Ruby down by pinning her cloak into the ground. The attack continues onwards until it reaches Yang, who skids a little.

The feathers barely dodge the blonde girl, but they manage to trap her slightly. Yang looks over towards her sisters as she tries to get out.

"Ruby, get out of there, NOW!" She yells. Ruby tugs on her cloak in an attempt to get it out, but it was futile.

"I'm trying!" She shouts back.

The Deathstalker chatters with its front teeth as it arrives near Ruby. The girl's widen in shock as she sees its stinger starting to rear up. Yang watches in horror as it begins to slide down, yelling for her name.

"RUBY!"

A large blur races past Yang and reaches the stinger just as it's about to pierce her. Suddenly the Deathstalker was dragged away violently, getting pulled by its tail. Then with a mighty swing, the Grimm was thrown against the forest. The cloaked girl had shut her eyes as she waited for the blow to inflict upon her, but it didn't happen.

Opening her eyes, Ruby goes wide eyed as she and the rest of the group have their jaws drop down in surprise, except Cynthia. The Sinnoh Champion looked relieved. Even Weiss managed to react similarly after witnessing the surprise attack, standing in shock next to Ruby. She was originally going to save her but it appears that someone beat her to the punch.

Suddenly, the blur raced back to Ruby, standing in front of her with it's back turned to her.

"GAAAAAAR!!!" Garchomp gave out a roar, dragging it's feet in the dirt like a bull ready to charge. Cynthia knew it was time to step in.

"Yang, hold him for me." Cynthia handed Zorua to the blonde bruiser, then walks out to the field.

Garchomp looked back to her trainer then nodded her head.l as Cynthia does the same. She could feel her heart beating as the adrenaline got her excited. She could feel her intensity from years ago growing. She gave the Deathstalker a determined smirk.

"Well, monster. Show me how you'll beat the Champion!"

To be continued

*Head to the second notice for an important update*