A BIG RED FLAG

With Cinder sashaying ahead of them, Emerald, Mercury and Reese followed her lead.

On a first glance, it would obviously seem like she knew where she went. But behind her confident guise, Emerald continued to fuel her with the knowledge of sensible direction. Rather than spinning in circles and talking about herself even longer as a result, the thief's help ended up bolstering their sense of progression in the trip.

Mercury, on the other hand, just enjoyed the pretty company. Three chicks and none of them want me dead, he told himself. This seriously can't be jinxed by anything even if I begged for it.

And he truly knew that for once, he was completely right. While the Reese girl looked way too unorganized to set up a death trap for him, he'd come to know Emerald to be pretty straightforward with him. She was far less earnest when they first met, but Cinder's existence ended up letting the two share a familiar sentiment.

Then there was Cinder.

"Where are all the Grimm?" She smirked, her eyes glazing over the forest as they continued to walk. "Clearly, my epic proportions of power may have just scared them all off. How befitting of unsympathetic creatures!"

Well, actually, Emerald thought as she glanced at Cinder, I think you're just beaming with too much positive radiance for them. There was no doubt that the four indirectly possessed the rare advantage of having nothing to be negative enough about to lure Grimm in. While Cinder might disagree, Emerald knew that it let them waste less energy on needless mobs in their way.

"Man, I really didn't think I'd bump into you, Em," Reese smiled awkwardly, turning to Mercury and Cinder as she bowed informally to the former. "It's nice to meet ya too again. Merc, was it?"

A single smirk answered her question. "Got the right man," he confirmed for her with a playful wink. "Only heard about you possibly getting into Beacon cause of Emerald. Is this the part where I say 'Congrats'?"

"Psh, don't do that," Reese dismissed casually, though she seemed more shy at the compliment than the look he gave her. Looking up, her eyes gained a gleam of interest as she asked, "Though, I totally didn't hear about you guys being interested in Beacon, too."

Remaining ahead, Cinder turned to Reese as she walked backwards with a wide grin. "Oh, it's actually a pretty last minute decision for ourselves, too. But our perfectly average grades got us in here without a hitch. Isn't that right, Mercury?"

"Uh, Cinder? Behind you."

"Hm? What are you-"

Before she finished calling her silver-haired comrade, a rude tree bark decided to have Cinder crash straight into it headfirst.

"OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!"

Emerald and Mercury simply stared at Cinder in pity as they sighed. Ah, crap. Here we go again.

While her head did seem to bump into the tree harshly, it wasn't as loud as Cinder's ensuing whine. It almost sounded reminiscent of a valley girl losing her Scroll for the first time.

"Uh, are you okay, Cinder?" Reese asked, almost concerned at the woman so highly regarded by Emerald. A part of her also felt concerned because this woman was supposedly her new partner, yet she almost fell over because of a tree…

"W-Who would put that tree there?" She grumbled as she hissed, touching the back of her head.

"Cinder, I thought you knew that trees grow on their own-"

"Zip it, Mercury, you know I knew that!"

"…Yeah," the boy nodded hopefully.

Coughing, the ashen-haired woman picked herself and took a deep breath. "Anyways," she spoke as if nothing odd happened, "let us go find this relic the headmaster told us to acquire. I think there are some ruins not too far from here."

Despite Reese's inclusion in the group, not much had changed. While Emerald knew her the most out of the three, Mercury and Cinder themselves were quite acquainted with her. The former often chatted about games or any sports news that were interesting, yet not mainstream, while the latter just enjoyed talking with Reese in general.

As general as her topics were, Cinder just had so many things to talk about- and a whole lot of them centered around herself. It wasn't a wonder one of the heaviest impressions Cinder gave Reese was when she genuinely asked, "Do you like ketchup in your hamburgers?" No one ever asked Reese that aside from the fiery woman herself.

Eyes brightening at the sight of a set of old ruins revealing themselves, Cinder pointed forward as she began running. "There it is!" She exclaimed joyfully. "Hah! That Ruby doesn't know what she's talking about. Of course I'm good with directions!"

That's the reason she was so motivated this whole time? Emerald gaped at Cinder as her boss almost laughed out loud, though she ended up letting out a small giggle instead.

The ruins weren't impressive for Emerald and Mercury. They were old structures and contained some random fetch quest items their headmaster assigned them to bring. End of story. But Cinder seemed to feel her ego ignite at the sight of the relics.

That didn't mean she was blind, though. Briefly freezing, Cinder slammed a foot against the ground, propelling herself backward as a large pincer crashed into where she once was.

Somersaulting next to the other three, Cinder huffed as they readied their weapons. Her gaze fell on Reese, who smacked her hoverboard before tossing it on the ground, leaping onto it stylishly.

"Aim for the pincer's limb," Emerald spoke, observing the Death Stalker's physical attributes. It didn't look too big, indicating its youth, and Cinder could most likely destroy the thing by just whacking it enough.

As she had yet to see Reese's current combat capabilities, however…

"Reese, anything new you could do with that hoverboard?" She asked, the girl in question turning to her with a smirk.

A quick shrug made its way to Emerald as Reese began heading towards the Death Stalker with Mercury. "Eh, I do," she admitted. "But I could do my old stuff even better."

"Waste it, then."

Saluting playfully at Emerald, Reese slammed the back of the hoverboard with her foot as she shot forward like an arrow. Behind her, Mercury twirled as he fired two Fire Dust rounds at the Deathstalker, each of them ejecting from his feet in spiral paths. The two Dust rounds soared past both of Reese's sides as they quickly made their mark, exploding on the hard shell of the Deathstalker.

With the Grimm winded from the momentary impact, Reese leaned backwards as her hoverboard suddenly made its way on top of the Grimm itself. Grabbing the tail, she spun twice, kickstarting the hoverboard's boost function before she proceeded to spin wildly. As she steadily moved up the tail, Reese eventually slammed her board right against the appendage connecting the pincer and the Deathstalker's tail.

A mighty blast erupted from the bottom of Reese's hoverboard as she propelled off the Grimm, instantly tearing apart the pincer from the tail. As it fell on top of the Deathstalker, penetrating its own head through its thick bone armor, Emerald ran up and slammed a foot on the pincer as she brought out her twin revolver sickles.

Relentlessly filling the Grimm with piercing Dust, Emerald only stopped firing when the Deathstalker ceased its movements.

Easy, but it could've gone faster.

As Reese hovered back to the group, she found Cinder pouting grumpily.

"Something wrong, Cinder?" Reese asked curiously, wondering if any of them did something wrong.

For a moment, Cinder remained silent, averting her gaze with crossed arms. As her personality dictated, however, she eventually glanced at them, probably trying to look annoyed.

"You could've left some for me, you know…"

Mercury rolled his eyes with a smirk as he pat Cinder's back. She glared at him, though she refused to say anything. "It's alright, boss," he said meaningfully. "I'm pretty sure there're bigger ones than this."

Reese grinned. "Yeah! Cheer up, toughie. Let's go get those relics and bail out of here, yeah?"

Interestingly, Emerald felt the need to observe Cinder's reaction at that moment. She turned to Cinder, attempting to come up with a rough estimate of how quickly her face would change.

Much to her amazement, Cinder Fall was already beaming at their compliments with an impossibly happy smile. Coughing, she flipped her hair, accidentally slapping Mercury with it as she nodded.

"Well, then," she recovered. "The relics it is!"

"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 Juniper, led by Jaune Arc."

It didn't take long for the team arrangements to begin after Initiation.

An applause came from the crowd gathered in the auditorium, the letters "JNPR" clearly shown on the two large hologram screens. The official statements of teams formed for every first year directly after successful Initiations. There was no reason to boo fellow Huntsmen and Huntresses, though certainly not everyone applauded. But at that moment, an overwhelming majority gave the applause every student deserved.

That didn't stop some of the students from laughing when the red-haired girl playfully punched Jaune so hard he fell on his posterior.

"Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long." Ozpin smiled, standing before the four girls who waited eagerly. "The four of you retrieved the white Knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team Ruby, led by Ruby Rose."

At his words, Yang jumped in pure glee as she hugged her sister tightly. Weiss seemed utterly surprised at Ruby's position in the team, though she remained standing quietly. Blake, on the other hand, smiled at the two sisters' jovial surprise.

As the four got off the stage, Ozpin looked up as the final team got on the stage. Again, he smiled, though his gaze remained fixated on the girl who strutted forward for the team.

"And finally," he continued, "Emerald Sustrai, Reese Chloris, Mercury Black, and Cinder Fall."

While the three he mentioned first politely remained quiet with idle expressions, Cinder stared at Ozpin especially expectantly with a wide smile.

"The four of you retrieved the black Knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team Crème, led by Cinder Fall."

Smirking at the name of their team, Mercury nudged Emerald's elbow with his own as he whispered something to her. Rolling her eyes, she resorted to almost smacking his elbow in return, annoyed that he dodged it at the last moment. He couldn't stop laughing at whatever he told her.

Reese grinned as she whispered to Cinder,"Well, congrats, Cinder! Don't overwork us, ay? I like getting physical but I'm no robot."

Turning to Reese, Cinder gestured towards herself as she melodramatically answered, "It's fine, Reese. I only expect that you-"

Suddenly freezing, Cinder blinked as she steadily reached for her cheek. Plucking something off, she distanced it from her face to analyze it.

"…"

…

"B-B-B-B-B-BUG. IT'S. A BUG. OH MY GOD. REESE GET IT OFF MY HAND, PLEASE!"

"Wait, what-?"

"DO IT."

As the cyan-haired girl panicked at the sudden request, Emerald and Mercury glanced at the two briefly. They could help. They knew well, but in the chance of pretending like they didn't exist for the sake of saving their own faces, the two took the chance together in perfect harmony. Some of the audience laughed at Cinder's apparent panic at the tiny bug in her fingers.

Ozpin, on the other hand, could only smile curiously at them.

"Looks like things are shaping up to be an… interesting year."