*Thwoomp!* A tennis ball comes flying out.

*Krrk!* the ball gets skewered on a long, thin blade.

*Thwoomp!* another ball comes flying out.

*Krrk!* the ball gets skewered on the long, thin blade as well, pushing the previous ball back.

*Thwoomp!* this ball flies out a little harder, seemingly out of vengeance for its fallen brethren.

*Krrk* it failed as the long, thin blade pierced through it, now creating a kebab of tennis balls on the blade.

"Excellent. My accuracy is improving." Weiss thought to herself, as she pushed the skewered tennis balls off Myrtenaster, before walking up to the ball launcher she set in the Command Centre, looking to set it to launch balls faster.

*Thwoomp!* *Thwoomp!* *Thwoomp!* the balls come out flying faster this time, just merely a second between each launch.

*Krrk!* *Krrk!* *Krrk!* Weiss intercepted each ball with flawless accuracy. Feeling a little proud of herself, she did a quick twirl with Myrtenaster before preparing to intercept the next ball…

"I BURN! CAN'T HOLD ME NOW, YOU GOT NOTHING THAT CAN STOP ME. I BURN! SWING ALL YOU WANT. LIKE A FEVER I WILL TAKE YOU DOWN."

"Woah!" the sudden burst of noise surprised Weiss, causing her to lose her balance, missing the ball, which smacked into her face, bruising the white as snow skin on her face.

The launcher, lacking any thought processes of any sort, couldn't decide to stop pelting the heiress with its balls, and continued to do so, knocking Weiss onto the ground, still launching more balls until it finally expended its ammunition of somewhat fuzzy pain.

Turning around, she saw Yang, who up till then was just observing her and listening to some song about 'super sayins' and 'humen torches' or something. At least, she was supposedly using her headphones. She could still hear that song playing audibly out of something. Upon closer inspection, she realised that the song was still coming out of her headphones, just turned up to an incredibly loud volume.

"Yang! Yang!" Weiss tried to get to Yang, but those infernal headphones were sealing Yang in her own world of badassery, immune to Weiss's harping. That is, until Weiss took things into her own hands, literally as she ripped the headphones off Yang's ears and turned the volume down.

"Yang! Are you trying to deafen yourself?! I could hear your song even with the headphones on!"

Yang seemed irritated for a brief moment, before returning to her regular jovial expression, "Well, just a few minutes ago, I would have agreed with you, but I realised something! You know how Aura acts like a force field, protecting us from physical harm?" Weiss nodded at that, "Well, I just found out that it also covers our eardrums! I was trying to see how loud I can go now, until you rudely interrupted me. What gives?"

"Your little 'experiment' made me lose my focus. You see these bruises?" Weiss rolled up her sleeves and gestured to herself, especially her face, normally a pearly white, now with an obvious red spot on her cheek.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Set the launcher too high, huh?" Yang said with a big, sheepish grin, "What were you even trying to accomplish damaging school property over and over again anyway? I know the Headmaster has a lot of money, but I think he'd prefer not to burn it away like that."

Weiss frowned at what she saw as ignorance from Yang, "For your information, my 'damaging school property' was practice. I'm training to be more precise with Myrtenaster. After all, practice makes perfect. Oh, and I did ask the Headmaster for permission. After all, I can afford it."

Yang snorted a little, "Pfft, practice? Just rote repetition like that won't get you far in actual battle. You need flexibility."

Weiss was not really amused, "Really? Like you should be lecturing me? Your lack of discipline and control led to you wrecking that nightclub you went to, right? The Headmaster wasn't too pleased at having to foot the bill there."

"Hey! I was going to leave with Blake all easy and quiet, then someone had to make a move on her. Everything else was just them escalating the conflict."

"That you started. Point is, you're too undisciplined to lecture me on this. At least Ruby can get pretty driven when she needs to. Maybe you should try training your technique instead of generally lazing around, hmm? Even the dolt- I mean, Ruby spends some time training with me, and I've see Blake doing so as well!"

Yang stretched her arms out, before putting her hands behind her head, "Nah, punching is fine for the most part, and besides, I train through other ways."

"Lying around, or joyriding in that bike of yours?"

Yang's expression shifted from her originally relaxed stance to aggressively pointing her finger at Weiss, "Hey! Bumblebee the Bike is a work of art, and I'll not stand for you just calling it a 'bike'! Arrgh, this isn't going anywhere, I'm out of here." Yang said as she walked towards the exit elevator, putting her headphones, playing another song on equally loud.

Weiss couldn't be more pleased with that, "Thank you! Now I need an ice pack. Where can I find one…"

Long ago, the Creatures of Grimm threatened mankind, but they were sealed away, leaving mankind at peace. However, the Creatures of Grimm have returned, and four youths have unlocked the power of their souls, called 'Aura' to fight against them.

They are the…

Aura Rangers!

Hunt 4: A Sticky Situation

Across the magnificent and somewhat oversized hallways of Beacon Academy, Ruby was just walking along, wanting to get back to the dorms for some rest, only to come across a familiar raven haired figure.

"Cinder?" Ruby asked. The girl turned around, showing her gold eyes, answering Ruby's question.

"Oh, Ruby? Uh, nice to see you!"

"Good to see you, um, where are you going?"

"The Northern Dormitories," Cinder replied.

"Huh, I'm going there too! Um, wanna come with?" Ruby asked.

"Oh, er, sure!" Cinder nodded, giving a smile.

Despite the presence that Cinder carried around with her appearance, it was scaled back from her behaviour, always looking down, shy and unsure of herself. With her not really speaking up, Ruby felt the greatest sense of awkwardness about it.

"Oh please, say something, please…"

"So… where did you come from? Beacon has students from all over the world, after all."

"Thank you!"

"Well, just west of Vale, a nice but kinda boring place, come to think of it. What about you?"

"Oh, uhh… further from here, from the city of Mistral."

"Mistral, huh? What about your family? It can't have been easy to leave them to come all this way to study."

Suddenly, Cinder's hands clenched up into fists, "Nrrgh… my family… is gone."

"…!" Ruby's eyes widened, looking straight at Cinder's eyes, "I… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to drag those memories back up."

"It's ok, I'm fine."

Ruby's eyes looked up into the air for a moment, "I know how you feel…"

Ruby held onto Cinder's hand, with a comforting smile on her face, "If there's anything you need help, don't hesitate to call me!"

*Buzz! Buzz!*

Ruby stiffened, feeling her Aura Changer going off, indicating a Grimm attack, "I'm sorry Cinder, but I remembered I've got something urgent to attend to. Seeya!" She said as she proceeded to run off into the distance.

While others around Cinder just found it a little odd that Ruby would just 'remember' something apparently so urgent, they paid little heed. Cinder however, kept staring at her right wrist instead…

It was a noisy Saturday afternoon at Vale's shopping district, with people bustling about with bags full of all kinds of stuff, chatting to one another about all kinds of stuff, from fashion trends, to how this year's lineup of toys in their favourite merchandise driven franchise compared to last year.

At least, that is usually the case. This time, it was noisy for a completely different reason, for a skinny beast with weirdly massive shoulders covered in some white material with an orange cone for a snout of sorts came walking through the street along with Beowolves and Boarbatusks, causing a massive pileup of cars as the drivers rushed out screaming for help along with the pedestrians running away, clearing the area.

Fortunately, their cries for help will not go unanswered, as four colour-coded teenagers ran out to face the Grimm.

Yang was the first to speak, "Ewww, what are you covered in? Is that…"

The monster, despite having an inflexible face, mostly taken up by the orange cone, was clearly offended, "How dare you insinuate such things about me, Glugorm?"

"Glugorm…? Oh thank goodness."

Ruby butt in loudly, trying to erase the previous exchange as much as possible, "ANYWAY, we're here to stop your rampage! Ready girls?"

"Aura Form, Change!"

In a flash of light, the Aura Rangers were suited up and ready to go.

"Swift Justice! Aura Red!" Aura Red gave a thumbs up.

"Cooling Calm! Aura White!" Aura White gave a polite bow.

"Silent Shadows, Aura Black!" Aura Black lowered herself in a crouch, with her legs spread and one hand on the ground.

"BURNING PASSION! Auuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrra Yellow!" Aura Yellow bent over a little, clenching her fist hard, before thrusting it up high in a fistpump.

"AURA RANGERS, READY!"

*BOOM*

Having morphed, the Rangers readied their weapons and rushed towards the crowd of Beowolves and Boarbatusks, cutting a swath through them as their lack of coordination was no match for the Rangers who under Red's commands, either stayed close up or apart from the Grimm to deal maximum damage.

Irritated at the uselessness of his minions, Glugorm decided that some direction may help out, "Divide and conquer! Split them up!"

Heeding his orders, the Boarbatusks started to roll around Red and Black and Beowolves started to pounce on them, cutting them off from White and Yellow, whom Glugorm decided to face on his own.

Yellow, predictably moved forward onto punching range, dealing hits as she adapted to Glugorm's odd size and shape, directing her punches towards his massive shoulders instead of his skinny waist.

White stayed back, loading Fire Dust into Myrtenaster and striking from afar with great precision, dealing the hurt on Glugorm.

However, this was not to last, as while White continued to strike at Glugorm, Yellow looked at the trees that bordered the roads, she got a bright idea, smacking Glugorm in the face, dazing him before getting a running start up a tree, then jumping off and backflipping and sitting onto Glugorm's head, the excess weight knocking him down, allowing Yellow to pummel him.

However, White was in the process of firing another fire bolt at Glugorm, and Yellow knocking him down caused the bolt to fly literally right above Yellow's head, and sailing right to the next tree near them, tearing right through it.

With a great big hole in its trunk, the tree has no choice but to fall down – on Yellow. White, panicking, quickly slotted in a canister of Accel Dust into Myrtenaster and triggered, creating a glyph shaped like a speedometer on the ground that accelerated her movements, rushing towards Yellow and dragging her off the pathway of the tree and onto the sidewalk.

Glugorm rolled out of the way, and upon seeing White still grabbing onto Yellow's arm, decided to take advantage of the situation.

"This should help with your lack of coordination!" he said as he launched a glob of white, sticky stuff on White and Yellow's wrist, before congealing into a tough, rubbery substance, handcuffing them together.

"WHAT?!" both Yellow and White Yelled out as they both tried to point their weapons toward Glugorm to fire on him, only for him to launch another gluey glob onto their other wrists, restraining both of them onto the other.

Yellow and White cooked at their wrists, seeing the glue cuffs covering their wrists, thankfully not completely engulfing the Aura Changers, knew that it was trouble immediately.

Yellow tried to move forward towards Glugorm, only to be met by swift resistance from behind her, as White was trying to move backwards to a more advantageous position.

"What did you do to us, you freak?!" Yellow yelled out.

"Oh, isn't it obvious? I've seen that the both of you clearly don't mesh well together, so I've taken it upon myself to teach you two a lesson on that, preferably one that you don't survive!" Before either of them knew it, Glugorm was up in their faces, punching them both in equal measure.

Yellow tried to punch him with her right hand, but White struggled against her, trying to use Myrtenaster held in her own left hand, but being bound facing each other only made that much more disorientating for both of them, giving Glugorm even more opportunities to strike them.

Before Yellow could get upset though, a red blur flew across Glugorm, striking him and turning him around, face to face with Black. Naturally, he tried to punch her, only for Black to fade away, its true nature revealed while Black struck him in the back multiple times, driving him away from the bound Yellow and White.

"Ohh… that smarts! Staying here any further is risky!" Glugorm tried to make a run for it.

Red, realising his intentions, zoomed quickly towards him, only for Glugorm to turn around and launch another glob of glue on Red, splattering across her right shoulder and torso, throwing her off balance and somewhat restricting her movement.

"Oof! Nargh! Ow!" said Red as she fell and started rolling across the pavement. Upon getting up, she scanned the area, but couldn't find Glugorm anywhere, only the rest of the Rangers, as well as the dissolving corpses of the Beowolves and Boarbatusks left behind.

Upon finding out that Weiss and Yang couldn't teleport after Glugorm's attack on them, the Rangers elected to walk back the Beacon together. However, even with Ruby and Blake supporting them, the trip back could charitably be called 'eventful', as the air was filled with Weiss and Yang's bickering among each other about whose fault it was about getting cuffed together like that, as well as the numerous times they tripped and fell, even on each other, eliciting blushes, giggles and taunts about their 'sizes'.

Finally making it to Beacon, the Rangers boarded the elevator masked by a perception filter down to the Command Centre, hoping that there's a way to deal with their predicament.

"Ready?" Ruby said as she raised Crescent Rose, ready to strike.

"Go!" The scythe swung down… and bounced off the glue cuffs on Weiss and Yang.

"D'oh!" Ruby cried out as Crescent Rose's large weight worked against her, and threw her off her feet as it bounced off the glue cuffs, landing on her butt.

Blake tried the same, only for the cuffs to continue resisting all attempts of break it. Even using Myrtenaster to cut it didn't work, as it only punctured it, while any further attempts to cut it still failed.

"Oh come on! Can't anything break us free?!" Yang yelled out, now really nettled with her predicament.

"Hey! It was you fault for trying a stunt like that *without* alerting me! Have more awareness of your surroundings!" Weiss said back.

"You should have seen it coming! Glugorm was a little too large to knock down, so I took advantage of the scenery, simple as that!"

"Not everyone can see the world as you do, and I'm grateful for that. Besides, you made me use up a precious vial of Accel Dust as well. This stuff doesn't grow on trees!"

"Ugh, whatever!" Yang wasn't interested in continuing.

Ozpin, who was using some strange looking tool to analyse the glue cuffs, sensed that things had cooled down, if just a little, and cut into their conversation.

"Well Weiss, Yang, the good news is that the Aura Changers are still intact and functioning mostly properly, the problem is that some of the glue has seeped in through the casing and clogged the vial of Zone Dust that allows for teleportation.

Weiss spoke up, "Wait, how did you get… nevermind, is there any way to get rid of these cuffs? I can't stand another moment being so close to Yang!"

Yang snorted a little, "Heh, maybe more like jealous…"

Weiss's cheeks lit up just a little, "Hey! Get your mind out of the gutter!"

Ozpin cut in, "Well, on first glance, the glue has simply solidified and should be easy to cut, but I've detected plenty of negative energy in these cuffs, constantly supplied by Glugorm. It seems that defeating him is the best way to get these cut. Just trying to slice them outright seems more likely to end up in hilarity rather than actual success."

Ruby thought on that for a while, "Wait, constantly supplied by Glugorm? Does that mean that we can track the negative energy coming from him into the glue back to him?"

Ozpin gave a small smile at that, "Wonderful thinking Ruby, by using the chunk of glue stuck to you, you should be able to do that. Here, take this," he passed the device to Ruby, "use it to track him down with Blake. Mind you, Glugorm could be anywhere in the city now, so it could take a while to locate him. Meanwhile, Weiss, Yang, stay around Beacon. I'd rather you two not risk yourselves beyond amusing incidents."

"Understood, headmaster!" Ruby and Blake moved out.

Ozpin looked to Weiss and Yang, "Good. Now I have to go, Beacon doesn't run itself you know," exiting the Command Centre and leaving Weiss and Yang alone.

Turning to each other, Weiss had only two words for their situation.

"Oh no…"

Yang however…

"Hey Weiss, I guess we'd better make the best of this sticky situation, huh?" complete with large, goofy smile.

Weiss realised the true depth of horror that she was going to face.

"Oh no…"

After a couple torturous hours of Yang's glue puns, definitely aimed at needling her, if Yang's grin was any indication, Weiss has had it.

Yang started to talk again, "Hey Weiss…"

"Wait a minute, I'm tied to her! What am I doing just sitting here?" Weiss proceeded to put her arms to work, twisting Yang's left hand and restraining it behind her, along with pulling her other arm around her neck, putting her in great pain.

"Ow, ow, ow! Stop that Ice Queen!" Yang struggled against Weiss, but in her pain, she couldn't muster up the strength to break free.

"Stop calling be that! I'll only let go if you stop torturing me with your terrible puns!" Weiss said as she pulled a little harder."

"OW! Okay, okay! Just stop!"

"Good. Now let's just sit here and wait…"

*growl…*

Weiss blushed a little, realising that the sound came from her stomach, "Or maybe, we try to get to the cafeteria to get a bite, alright?"

"Errgh, sure. But I'm pretty sure we'd move faster if you'd release me! Ow!"

"O-oh, right," Weiss let of Yang, though that didn't stop her from complaining about the rough treatment.

"Left, right, left, right, woah!"

"Come on Weiss, keep up!"

"Take it slower! Rushing is just going to make us trip again!"

"Because of you."

"Hrmm…"

Weiss and Yang trying to get from the Command Centre to the cafeteria proved to be a challenge, with both of them still not exactly coordinating properly for move in unison. However, Weiss went from complaining about her situation to trying to get Yang to move in unison with her to prevent tripping.

Making matters worse, Beacon was busy and lively with students at that particular hour, leading to many staring eyes at Weiss and Yang being bound together like that.

"What do you think is going on…"

"What is this, a club bonding exercise?"

"I know that Beacon is a 'be yourself' kind of place, but still…"

Cardin, being a judgemental jerk, decided to butt in with his opinion.

"Huh. You two having a lover's spat or something-" He tried to finish, only for Yang to 'accidentally' butt in as well, literally. This sent Cardin crashing face first into a nearby wall.

"Oof! Ow, come on!" Cardin yelled as he rubbed his aching cheek.

Yang, annoyed at the prying eyes, looked around for a solution, her eyes landing on a particular person within the crowd with her face covered by a book, with her only a sliver of green from her eyes visible.

Recognising her, Yang yelled out to the students around them, pointing towards the girl.

"Hey, is that Pyrrha Nikos over there?"

Suddenly, the crowd quietened down, their eyes focused on the redheaded girl. Lowering the book, she could only say one thing.

"Uh, hello there?"

The crowd started to gather towards Pyrrha instead, gravitating away from Weiss and Yang, with people attempting to 'impress' her, or asking where she had been, or just getting an autograph, anything.

"Woah, so there's where she went after Mistral." Weiss herself was filling up with adoration for her, only for Yang to tug at her.

"Oh, right, let's get away, at a proper pace this time, ok?"

"Fine, fine, I'll try to follow."

Walking down an alley, Ruby and Blake continued to follow the trail of negative energy pouring into the glob of glue on Ruby's upper right torso, like a dog following a scent, except with less sniffing around everywhere.

"Phew. It has been hours since we started searching for him. Where could he be?" Ruby said, holding the device around detecting the trail of negative energy.

"You know that we can take a break if you need, right?" Blake cut in.

"What? No! Not when we can do something to stop Glugorm before he harms anyone else."

"Vale is a huge city. I highly doubt that we're going to find him anytime soon. You should take a break first, eat something maybe."

"No! I'm going on."

"But we probably aren't going to find him before he attacks again-" Blake tried to continue.

"Even so, we still have the means to stop him before he hurts anyone else. Even if it's a slim chance, we still have to take it. If not, how can we call ourselves heroes?" Ruby said, her silver eyes shining with determination.

"*Sigh*, I'm not going to change your mind, aren't I?"

"Nope!" Ruby responded with a huge grin reminiscent of Yang's own.

"Call ourselves heroes, huh…" Blake muttered under her breath, before facing Ruby, "Ok then, Ruby." Blake started to walk away from Ruby.

"You're still going? Fine! Go! I'll just search for Glugorm myself! Hmph!" Ruby yelled out in frustration.

Continuing the search by herself, Ruby went on for the next half an hour, but just as she was walking down an another alleyway, before she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Huh wha-" Ruby could barely get a word out before froze in shock. Realizing that nothing was happening, she turned around, only to see Blake standing there, holding out a packet in her hand.

"You're back? I thought you gave up?"

Blake looked mildly offended at Ruby's assumption, "I didn't give up. I just went to get something for you, since you clearly won't be getting any for yourself."

"Oh-oh, thank you." Ruby stammered out, taking the packet and peering inside, "Strawberry chip cookies? My favourite! Thanks Blake!"

"Hm, think nothing of it." Blake replied, with a small smile on her face.

Finally, the sun had set, but with a slow and controlled walk coordinated by Weiss, both her and Yang managed to get to the cafeteria, located in a massive hall that would make anyone feel positively tiny. It was mostly empty, except for the cook/vendor there, some old, balding man with hair that flared out, as well as constantly shut eyes.

Slowly and carefully walking up to him, Yang slammed her and Weiss's hand on the counter to get his attention.

"Hey! A roast chicken for me!"

"And a tiramisu for me."

The cook raised his eyebrows without opening his eyes at the sight before him, but didn't raise a word about their condition, opting to just bring them their food.

Sitting down at a table, they tried to eat their food, only for the fact that Weiss was left-handed and Yang was right handed kinda get in the way.

"Let me go first, Ice Queen."

"Only if you stop calling me that."

"Eh, I'll probably still call you that out of habit you know."

"True, true. So the answer is no."

"Alright then, then you force me to do this!"

Opening her mouth wide, Yang smashed her face into the chicken, munching on it just using her mouth and going "OMNOMNOMNOMNOM", probably just to irritate Weiss even more.

"Alright! Stop it! I'll let you go-" before she could finish her sentence though…

*Buzz! Buzz!*

After a brief struggle, they managed to activate their Aura Changers, connecting them to Ruby and Blake.

"Guys! We've *munch* found *munch* Glugorm! Stay put, me and Blake will take care of him!" Ruby said, munching on the cookie that Blake bought, while Blake herself was viciously tearing into a grilled tuna like a ravenous beast, defiling the poor tuna in ways that few wish on anything.

The area that Glugorm was hiding in was a riverside area, lined with rustic old buildings that were preserved and then renovated to hold modern pubs, restaurants and the like, covering the whole place in bright lights, music and delicious smells, becoming a trendy place for people to go.

Glugorm himself was hiding in a dumpster, squeezing his tall figure into the dumpster somewhat painfully, waiting for the right time to strike.

"Hmm… I've recovered back to full strength, good. Come out, Beowolves!" Glugorm yelled out.

However, before he could summon any Beowolves, Crescent Rose came flying out, spinning and shearing the dumpster he was in in half, scaring him greatly.

Before him stood Aura Red and Black, standing at the ready, as Crescent Rose returned back to Red's hand.

"Hold it! You're not going any further, Glugorm!" Red said, crouching into an attacking stance with Crescent Rose. Facing the civilians around them, she yelled at them to run off, scattering them and clearing the area for the fight about to happen.

"Well, I'd like to see you try, Beowolves!" Glugorm shot back, summoning a bunch of Beowolves in front of him.

"Let's go!" Red yelled as she sped into the mass of Beowolves, giving them an alluring, flashy target with her massive scythe cutting through swathes of them, while Black snuck behind the distracted Beowolves, stabbing them in the back if they got too close to Red.

Bit by bit, the Beowolves were worn down, but Glugorm wasn't just sitting there twiddling his thumbs, just waiting.

"Hmm… there!" He waited, until he saw Black getting up on the final Beowolf, which was facing away from him and as such, leaving her back wide open. He opened fire from his nosecone, hitting Black right on the back and engulfing her in a glob of glue.

"Uh… whaa!" Black fell off the Beowolf, losing balance. She tried to get up again, only for Glugorm to push his advantage and splatter even more glue on her, rendering her onto the ground.

"Black!" Red yelled out, cutting through the final Beowolf, and speeding off towards her. However, the glob of glue still on her slowed her down just enough for Glugorm to fine up a good shot on her, sticking her onto the ground helpless.

"Nngh… nargh!" Red tried to struggle from her bonds, but to no avail.

"Now, you're mine!" Glugorm said, as he continued to blast at Red and Black, smothering them except their heads completely.

Hearing the anguished cries from Red and Black through their Aura Changers, Weiss and Yang's faces paled.

"We're going now." Yang said, her voice not particularly loud, but her words still struck like a force of a tsunami to Weiss.

However, Weiss was hesitant, "Not yet! Are you even sure we can beat Glugorm in our state now?"

"We will." Yang's response was short, curt and still hit incredibly hard.

Weiss gave a sigh, "you're right, we have to. But we can't even teleport now, how are we supposed to reach them?

"I know one way."

Without even waiting for Weiss's response Yang proceeded to twist around her bonds, resulting in her and Weiss's backs facing each other, and used her upper body strength to lift up Weiss, carrying the stunned and flustered heiress up towards Beacon's carpark.

*VROOM!*

The loud roar of a powerful bike engine sounded out across the streets, as Yang rode Bumblebee down the road leading out from Beacon, rushing out with little care for traffic rules.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Weiss cared little for fast bikes, especially since she was being strapped to Yang's back in, effectively sitting backwards with her arms stretched out towards her back, tied to Yang's won hands as she gripped on Bumblebee's handlebars tightly.

"Don't worry! You'll be fine!" Yang yelled back through Weiss's screams, as she lifted her right hand up, causing Weiss to scream even harder, activating the Aura Changer on her left, as well as Weiss's own Changer on her right.

"Aura Form, Change!"

Now morphed, Yellow accelerated, zooming through the streets before taking a sharp right into a narrow alleyway.

"NONONONONONONONO!" White vocalised her displeasure.

"Come on, have more faith! I know what I'm doing, after all, you're still alive right? Just open your eyes!"

"NO! I CAN'T BEAR TO LOOK!"

"Trust me!"

Reluctantly opening her eyes, she expected to see her life flashing before her eyes, only to find something else instead.

The beautiful night sky, as well as the streets quickly passing by them as Yellow sped through them skilfully, weaving through vehicles as naturally as a gentle stream split and weaved its way around rocks and the like. Soon, they hit Vale's main business district, still moving as fast as possible around the bright skyscrapers, their lights turning into streaks from the speed Yellow was travelling at.

However, that wasn't what White was really looking at. As she calmed down and felt safe, her eyes fell on the person she was leaning against.

Contrary to her usual happy-go-lucky self, Yellow wasn't rambling about stuff to White, just looking straight ahead. Despite never even turning her head to look for incoming traffic, she seemed to have a complete awareness of everything around her. It didn't feel like she was riding Bumblebee, it felt more like Bumblebee was an extension of Yellow. Even with her helmet on, White felt a completely focused gaze coming from Yellow.

White was speechless, though her mind was not.

"Woah, her brain is in top gear now…"

"White?" Yellow was curt in her question.

"Hmm, yes?"

"When we get there, I'm relying on you to help me move faster and more precisely with your skill, ok?"

"What?" White was confused.

"Outside of Bumblebee, I know that I'm not the most disciplined person, so I'm relying on you to help me out with that, alright?"

"Heh, of course. In exchange, I also want you to use your adaptability and creativeness in battle to help me out too. I'm not exactly the most flexible person around, after all."

"Thanks, White."

A few minutes later…

Glugorm was sitting there waiting, his very presence taunting both Red and Black, who were helpless, being stuck down on the ground by his glue.

Red was defiant, "You won't get away with this!"

Glugorm wasn't particularly impressed, "Oh, defiance in your imminent death? How cute. The only reason I haven't finished you and your silent friend off yet? To lure your yellow and white friends here! Now just wait until I-"

*VROOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*

Glugorm couldn't finish his words as a huge mass of metal and horsepower came roaring through the riverside, and flaming gunshots flew right at him, striking with pinpoint accuracy, disorientating him. Before he could recover, Yellow rode Bumblebee up to Glugorm, flipped it around, landing the rear wheel against Glugorm's chest before grinding it against him, launching him back a few meters into a wall, knocking him out.

Red was both overjoyed and panicked, "Guys! You came!"

Yellow and White got off Bumblebee, and carefully strutted towards Red.

"Red! Are you ok?"

"No…" Red uttered out.

"What?! Where? Is anything broken?"

"No! Look out! Behind you!"

"Hah! Open for me, just like I planned!"

Glugorm recovered quickly, taking advantage of the fact that Yellow and White will be more likely to check on Red and Black, took aim at them and started to launch multiple globs of glue at them.

Black tried to struggle against her bonds, but it was futile.

The globs came closer and closer, until…

*squelch!* *schwoop!*

White quickly intercepted the glob of glue with Myrtenaster, before allowing Yang to quickly force her arm to swing away, allowing the glob of glue to be thrown off before it could attach and stick itself onto the blade.

"What?!" Glugorm was surprised.

White continued to intercept the globs, while allowing Yellow to fling them off with her superior upper body strength, until there were none at all.

"Hmm, most unfortunate. Fortunately, that's not all I've got!" Glugorm slammed his hands on the ground, causing the manhole covers around White and Yellow to shake, before flying off as glue spurted out of the manholes, threatening to cover their feet and make them a sitting duck.

White slotted some Ice Dust into Myrtenaster, before firing on the glue, trying to make ice platforms on the glue, only for them to get engulfed by the glue instead.

Before White could think of another way, Yellow commandeered White's left arm, pointing Myrtenaster at the nearby slow moving river, and yelling "Fire!". Weiss pulled the trigger with her well-honed reflexes, launching an ice bolt that impacted the surface of the water and froze it, creating a platform of ice.

White, understanding Yellow's intent, followed through, jumping on the platform while firing Myrtenaster over and over again, creating more ice platforms for them to jump on. Quickly, both of them pointed the Myrtenaster and the right Ember Celica at Glugorm, who had made himself a sitting duck, and fired on him repeatedly.

"Oww!" Recoiling in pain, Glugorm tried to direct the glue flood onto the river to overwhelm White and Yellow, but instead of floating on the surface, the glue mixed in with the water, becoming diluted and useless.

Yellow acted quickly, pointing Myrtenaster and getting White to fire it repeatedly around the glued water, creating a perimeter around it and preventing it from spreading any further.

Glugorm was enraged at how his trap was falling apart, and proceeded to shoot out multiple globs of glue at White and Yellow in desperation, but to no avail, as they dodged in sync with each other, hopping on the platforms they created while shooting at him in between.

Soon enough, Glugorm was knocked down, breaking his concentration and stopping the flow of glue, allowing White and Yellow to jump upwards, creating more ice platforms on the ground before landing on the one closest to Glugorm, all in the span of a few seconds.

"What?!" Glugorm was unable to keep up with their movements.

White quickly raided Myrtenaster and proceeded to stab Glugorm multiple times, puncturing his glue hide in several spots, before allowing Yellow to rear up a punch, with White using her arms to direct them on the precise spots that she punctured him, dealing maximum damage as flames filled Glugorm's wounds.

"Oww! Stop that!"

Focusing her Aura into Myrtenaster, White used the rest of the loaded Ice Dust to create a great big ice lance, before Yellow focused her own Aura into Ember Celica, before firing it onto the lance, covering it in swirling flames. White swung up the lance, batting Glugorm up into the air, before pointing it directly at him.

"Aura Art: Freezerburn Lance!"

The flames on the lance burned even hotter, firing out in a flaming vortex that engulfed Glugorm, before both White and Yellow thrusted up the lance just as Glugorm fell into its range, impaling him on the burning ice lance.

"Oh no, that lesson worked too well! I'm coming apart!" *BOOM!*

As Glugorm exploded, all the glue quickly lost their impervious properties, turning into masses of ordinary white glue, allowing the Rangers to easily break out of their bonds.

"That. Was. AWESOME YELLOW!" Red squeed hard at the fight, jumping up and down like a little child having consumed a large bag of tooth-rotting candy.

"Thanks, Yellow." Black said a short but sweet show of gratitude.

"Yeah, I'm awesome like that!" Yellow boasted.

"Hey, what about me?" White cut in, annoyed.

"Oh yeah, you were great too, White!" Red said, still jumping, but less so now.

Their celebrations were short-lived though, as soon enough, a large rift opened up releasing not a gigantic Beowolf, but two gigantic snakes covered in the glue that Glugorm was covered in.

"That's… unexpected." Black said, trying to be as calm as possible.

Their helmets crackled to life with Ozpin's voice, "King Taijitu. They commonly operate in pairs, coordinating and splitting when needed. Looks like spending time in the subdimension gave Salem a sense of humour. Nonetheless, the best option would be to split them, only because they're deadlier paired up together."

"Got it! Let's go Rangers!" Red commanded.

"Aura Zord, Activate!"

In a bright flash, they were in their Zord forms.

"Rose Aura Zord, ready!"

"Frost Aura Zord, ready!"

"Shadow Aura Zord, ready!"

"Blaze Aura Zord, ready!"

Quickly, they split into two teams, Red and Black, as well as White and Yellow. They started to fire upon the giant snakes, trying to pull them apart from each other.

However, they weren't stupid. Instead of splitting, they encircled each other, creating a formation where they watched each other's backs, dodging any further gunfire in a synchronized manner.

Red moved in, swinging at one of the Taijitu, while Black leapt up, trying to get it by the back, only for the other Taijitu to quickly react, swinging it's head and batting Black onto a hill, bringing many tears to environmentalists as they saw the needless destruction of trees.

Red herself was doing her best to ward off the Taijitu she was battling, but she wasn't making much progress against it. Yellow put a step forward, about to run in and support her sister.

However, before that, Ozpin cut in.

"Wait. Going in individually isn't a very good idea now. It's time to use another functionality of your powers.

"Wait, what?" White was confused.

"Just say the words 'Aura Form, Combination', trust me."

"Alright, got it! Ready, White?" White nodded in response.

"Aura From, Combination!"

"It may tickle a little," Ozpin quickly commented.

"Wait, wha-oooh!" White tried to ask, but was interrupted by her body bending in ways that it really shouldn't, starting with her tiara flying off head before it folded into her torso.

White's feet pointed down, before disconnecting, her arms folded onto her shoulders, while her shoulder cannons lowered, joining with her arm cannons, before they disconnected from her as well. Her torso then attached itself onto Yellow's front, her shoulder jets extending back and mounting themselves on Yellow's shoulders.

Yellow's two gauntlets moved up her forearms, allowing White's legs to mount onto her right arm, while her arms mounted onto Yellow's left. Next, the gauntlet's outer covering lowered around them, creating a combined cannon-gauntlet and spiked gauntlet.

"Wooah, that felt weird!" Yellow commented, swaying a bit from the experience.

"You don't know the half of it," White said, dizzy from splitting apart like a toy.

"Ahem, anyway, individuals who have unified their wills and minds can use their Aura to combine, making their power increase exponentially. I have to say, I'm impressed at how smooth your first time was"

"Well, why didn't you tell us this earlier?" Weiss asked.

"To be honest, I wasn't sure that you all were prepared for it before, plus it wasn't really necessary for your previous fights, so I refrained from mentioning it.

"Ok…"

Yang cut in, "Nevermind that. Ruby. Now!" Synchronizing their thoughts, White and Yellow moved towards the twin snakes attacking Red.

The King Taijitu surrounded Red, prompting her to spin around, swinging out her sickles. While she managed to nick them, they weren't slowed down. Instead they started to wrap themselves around Red, covering her in a thick layer of glue and keeping her locked down in a single position.

As this was happening, Black recovered, leaping up to wrap one of the snakes with her whip, swinging it down and slamming it onto the ground. However, that left her open to the other Taijitu, who reared up, ready to attack.

That is, until White and Yellow zoomed in with their jets boosting them across the field, giving a punch right into the attacking snake's face, unloading their cannon arm onto it, tossing out onto the nearby hill.

Both of them turned around, only to see that the Taijitu that Black snared twisted its body and snared Black as well, creating a strange version of tug of war as both of them pulled as hard as possible, trying to last longer than the other.

Black need not endure much more, as White and Yellow strode up to the snake and yanked on it's head, causing it to loosen its grip over Black, allowing her to break free.

White and Yellow proceeded to wrestle with the snake, but it was futile for it as the combined Rangers managed to use their superior strength to hold onto it, before skewering it with their spear arm, lifting it up and throwing it onto an empty field, knocking it out.

Next, Black wrestled with the other Taijitu, locked in a struggle with it, and failing at that, until Red, still capable of moving, albeit slowed, dug her sickles into the snake's back, injuring it and allowing Black to back away from it, before she threw her whip on the Taijitu and ensnared it.

"White! Yellow! Now!" Red yelled, her voice strained from the beatdown the snakes dealt on her.

"Understood!/Got it!" Both White and Yellow said in unison. Using their shoulder jets as a boost, they rushed down a wide street and used their cannon gauntlet to deal a devastating uppercut onto the Taijitu, before firing the cannon, launging it even further up into the air, where it proceeded to fall onto the other Taijitu, which was just recovering from getting knocked out.

"Come on, let's end this!" Yellow said to White, who nodded in response, giving Yellow a strange sensation of nodding to her own words.

"Freezerburn Piercing Full Burst!"

Focusing their Aura into their arms, both their spear arm and cannon arm glowed with an awesome power, before letting loose on the King Taijitu, with the spear stretching out a pillar of ice right through one of them, while the cannon fired a condensed stream of fire at full blast at the other, obliterating the both of them in a magnificent pyrotechnics display.

"Grimm, Hunted!" said both Yellow and White in unison, posing behind the explosion.

A week later…

*Thwoomp!* A tennis ball comes flying out.

*Krrk!* the ball gets skewered on Myrtenaster's long, thin blade.

*Thwoomp!* another ball comes flying out.

*Krrk!* the ball gets skewered on the long, thin blade as well, pushing the previous ball back.

*Thwoomp!* this ball flies out a little harder, flying right at Weiss

*Krrk* it failed as the long, thin blade pierced through it, now creating another kebab of tennis balls on the blade.

"Just as good as before," Weiss thought to herself as more balls got launched out, even faster than before.

*Thwoomp!* the ball came flying out, just as it reached within Weiss's range…

"Mirror, mirror, what's behind you? Save me from the things I see!"

Music, albeit softer than before disrupted her. But before the ball could smash her face again, she quickly flung a hand up, knocking it out of the way, before quickly pinpointing the source of the noise and firing an ice bolt from Myrtenaster at it.

The ice bolt flew quick and true, and within a split second, struck a pair of headphones, knocking them off the wearer's head and sticking it onto a nearby wall.

"Woah. You're getting better." Yang said, a little stunned at the quick reaction.

"Hmph! A Schnee learns quick!" Weiss said, her voice tinged with pride, "Though it's really only reactions like that. I still can't really come up with things like you do."

"Fine by me, Ice Queen." Yang said, before getting up and yawning, "Ahh, I better get to bed now. See ya!"

Weiss was now alone in the Command Centre, though instead of turning the launcher back on, she sat down, whipping out a rectangular device, opening it up, revealing two screens on it.

Upon turning it on, the flashed with all kinds of colours, while Weiss settled her thumbs on the d-pad and face buttons on it.

"Even I have to take a break every now and then. They must never know of this."

Having experienced a particularly strange series of events, the Rangers have grown closer, and unlocked a new ability in their fight against the Grimm. However, they will not let up against their resistance…

Aura Rangers Hunt 4… ends here!

Woah, that took longer than I expected. Life in general got in the way, and it isn't going to lighten up anytime soon. Hopefully I'll still find time to work on this though.

Also, this episode and Dust names may feel familiar to some, heh.