Nora Valkyrie was a peppy young Huntress-in-training with many different likes and hobbies.
She liked the color pink.
She liked her best friend, Lie Ren.
She liked pancakes.
She liked bouncing on her bed.
She liked Beacon, her school.
She liked her team, Team JNPR.
She liked Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos, her teammates.
She liked explosions.
She liked her giant, silver combat-hammer that could serve as a lightning-rod and launch grenades. She also liked her weapon's name: Magnhild. It was her idea, of course.
She liked smashing monsters and bad-guys with Magnhild.
She liked building up enough electric-energy to jump explosively into the air, supercharge her weapon, and (if she absorbed enough) zap people! Oh, what fun!
She also liked breaking legs. Especially if they were the legs of a bully and she had Magnhild. But, unfortunately, when the time came for her to live this hobby up to the maximum, she was in no way prepared.
But there was no way that she would be backing down from what finally allowed her to break Cardin Winchester's legs. But this time, it wasn't because of Nora's hobby.
It wasn't because Cardin was a jerk.
It wasn't because of what Cardin did to the Faunus at Beacon.
It wasn't because of what Cardin did to her leader, Jaune Arc.
Sure, all of those emotions were vented in the encounter, but the hammer that broke the Death-Stalker's back was something Nora came across one night in Vale that pushed her over the edge.
Sun Wukong was a pretty laid-back Huntsman-in-training, and to many people, he was many things.
Some people considered him a troublemaker, due to his 'hobby' of stealing (returning anything that wasn't edible) and getting into 'harmless' encounters with the local law-enforcement. He wore that title proudly.
Some people considered him a leader, seeing as how he was the leader of Haven's Team SSSN. Sun wasn't so sure how he felt about that responsibility, and he honestly didn't like people looking up to him. Sun was a more shoulder-to-shoulder/fighting-as-equals sort of team leader. He didn't give out orders unless it was absolutely necessary.
Lots of people considered him a friend, seeing as how the boy didn't care what you looked like, where you were from, or about your past. He saw everyone for who they were, then and there.
His teammates considered him their little brother, even though he was supposed to be the leader. Sure, he was the youngest of the four and the most playful and the most mischievous and the most likely to get in trouble and- Where was Sun going with this argument, again?
Sun could also spin around and be the big brother when times got tough, taking on an air of maturity that most people didn't know how to deal with due to his usual attitude. Sun would always internally smirk or laugh at people's expressions when he went into that overprotective, focused state of mind.
Some people considered him a flirt, since he was known for winking at girls he didn't even know and utilizing his charming-side and good-looks to render girls speechless. But he tried not to lead girls on too much. He was more interested in making friends than raising an army of love-crazed fangirls. The only recent object of his real attempts at romance were towards Blake Belladonna, a quiet and mysterious member of Beacon's Team RWBY.
Some people considered him a degenerate, due to his status as a monkey-Faunus. He didn't care about any of that... At least, not entirely. He came from Vacuo, where if you could survive, you were accepted and welcome everywhere, no matter what your species was. And in Mistral, since he went to school at Haven, most of the really racist people just glared at him or avoided him all together.
So, Sun wasn't expecting what happened to him one night while exploring the city of Vale. He wasn't ready for it, he didn't know what to do, and worst of all: he wasn't even given a chance to fight back.
/\
Nora Valkyrie hummed merrily as she walked down a sidewalk in the city of Vale, holding a bag of groceries and smiling brightly.
Nora had short, choppy orange hair and bright turquoise eyes, and for the jaunt to Vale, she had put on more casual clothes than her Huntress-outfit. Nora wore a bright-pink shirt with a heart-shaped hole at the chest under a white hoodie with her emblem on the back in pink, and she wore white shorts with her usual white/pink sneakers and pink socks. Magnhild wasn't with her.
"Ren's making pancakes, Ren's making pancakes~!" Nora giggled to herself, then frowned as she heard the sound of some sort of commotion coming from an alleyway as she passed, pausing and looking down the dark gap between buildings. She was only a block away from the airship port, and it was late at night. If Nora didn't get back to the Team JNPR dorm, soon, her teammates would be angry at her.
Especially Ren.
Slowly, Nora started walking down the alleyway, looking around with suspicion as the noise grew louder. Finally, she came across...
"Well, well, well." Cardin Winchester of Team CRDL smirked, he and his teammates turning and looking at Nora. "If it isn't everyone's favorite psychopath." Nora raised an eyebrow.
"Psychopath?"
"Why don't you just get on out of here, Pinkie?" Cardin's partner, Russel Thrush, asked with a devious smile. Nora's eyes narrowed, and she looked around the alleyway.
Her eyes widened as the fell on something peeking out from behind a dumpster. An arm, bruised from a beating and probably connected to a seriously-injured person. A golden monkey-tail was also barely-visible.
"So..." Nora looked up, dropping her bag and clenching her fists, giving a dark smirk. "Going around and giving Beacon's Huntsmen and Huntresses a bad name, again?" Nora cracked her knuckles and neck. "And here, I thought I wouldn't get to break any legs, today."
"Hey, Pinkie!" Dove Bronzewing, another member of Team CRDL, asked. He didn't realize the danger. And seriously, no one could come up with a better nickname than Pinkie? "Just how long have you been suffering from insanity?" Team CRDL laughed, only to pause as Nora started laughing, too.
The Bubbly-Bomber clutched her sides, laughing harder and longer than Team CRDL had, tears racing down her face due to lack of breath or rest.
"S-suffer from insanity?!" Nora asked, looking up and smiling brightly. "I don't suffer from insanity!" The smirk returned, Nora's eyes narrowing. "I enjoy every minute of it."
The final member of Team CRDL, Sky Lark, got fed up and threw a punch, only for Nora to grab his hand and flip him over her head, slamming him head-first into solid concrete. His aura protected him from any damage, but the impact knocked him out cold.
"You little-!" Dove charged, and Nora did a low-kick to sweep out his legs, kicking the fallen boy's head and leaving him dazed on the ground. Nora clenched her fists as she faced Russel and Cardin, the smirk still on her face.
Russel and Cardin charged, but Nora leapt up sideways and planted her feet on a wall, pushing off and kicking Cardin in the face, he and Russel getting sent into the opposite wall. Russel was the one who made impact in the wall, and he was left dazed as Cardin stood.
"If only I had Magnhild." Nora grinned, staring down her opponent. "I guess I'll have to do this the hard way." Nora pulled a fork from her back pocket, noticing an outlet on a wall.
Cardin watched her with wide eyes as she walked over, kneeled, and jammed the fork into the socket, electricity racing up her arm and across her body. Slowly, the bolts of power turned pink, and Nora laughed as her whole body was supercharged, standing.
"W-what are you?!" Cardin asked. Nora looked over, giving an almost-innocent sounding laugh as she slowly walked and approached her final victim.
"I can bench two-thousand pounds on a bad day." Nora announced cheerily. "A zap of static electricity can give me enough strength to smash a Nevermore's skull in one go. No one knows that, they think I'm just the happy girl with a hammer who doesn't really think about how strong she is, who doesn't care about being the strongest. But that's okay, I like being underestimated. It makes it so much more exciting when some jerk decides to push people around, and I get to have some fun." Electricity crackled around Nora.
"N-no!"
"You didn't say please!" Nora pouted, then leapt up into the air at least thirty feet, rocketing down as electricity sparked across her body. Her feet made contact with Cardin's legs, the electricity breaking Cardin's aura and Nora's momentum breaking his legs. Cardin screamed in pain before passing out, his recovered teammates quickly running over as Nora placed her hands on her hips, smiling brightly before pointing at them. "Tell anyone about this, and your legs are mine!" Nora clenched her fist, smirking, and Team (C)RDL ran off, carrying their fallen leader. Russell looked back, glaring.
"YOU CRAZY BITCH!"
Once they were gone, Nora sighed, letting the energy around her die down, then looked over at whoever she had saved, running over and kneeling next to the fallen Faunus.
It was a boy, a blonde monkey-Faunus wearing jeans, black/yellow sneakers, white wraps on his arms and legs, red armored-gloves, a white collared-shirt that opened in the front to expose his chest and abs, and a golden medallion.
He was covered in dark bruises and a few minor cuts, and Nora put it together that he had probably just been walking around, minding his own business, and CRDL jumped him.
Nora slowly reached out and pulled the monkey-Faunus' upper-body into her lap, supporting him into a sitting-position, shaking him lightly to try and wake him up, frowning.
"Ugh..."
"Hello?" Nora asked, her eyes wide as the boy started to shift. "Are you okay?" The boy winced, somewhat conscious but unable to open his eyes due to the bruising in his face. "I saw what happened and took care of those boys. You're safe, now... I'm Nora. What's your name?"
"S-Sun... I have to go... Beacon..." The boy tried to sit up and failed, gripping his ribcage. Nora's eyes widened as the movement exposed a weapon on his back, showing that this boy was a Huntsman-in-training.
"Okay." Nora nodded, her eyes narrowed and her expression determined. "I'll get you to Beacon's infirmary. It's going to be okay, Sun."
Sun winced, wishing that he could see whoever had saved him.
"It's going to be okay, Sun." The girl who had called herself Nora assured. She seemed to be his age from what he could hear in his dazed state, and she didn't seem to be a Huntress (judging by the feel of her clothing).
Still, she had managed to somehow scare off the four Huntsmen who had managed to get the drop on him. Sun honestly couldn't believe it.
He also couldn't believe it when the girl actually picked him up and started walking like his weight was nothing. Nora had to be at least a head shorter than Sun from what he could tell from the tip of his tail dragging on the ground, and she had that much strength? Sun wished he was strong enough to shout how awesome that was. Instead...
"How..?"
"Oh, I can bench five of me!" The girl replied happily, like she wasn't at all fazed by the question. "And that's on a really, REALLY bad day! On just a normal bad day, I can bench two-thousand pounds! I haven't really tested my limits on a good day, yet! Or a normal day..." The girl paused, somehow defying the laws of physics and holding Sun up with one arm as she picked something up off the ground. "Mind holding this?" Nora plopped a grocery bag into Sun's lap, and she started humming merrily as she carried him. "My friend, Ren, is gonna make some pancakes! I'll bring you some while you're in the infirmary! They always make me feel better!"
"T-thanks..." Sun didn't know what to think of this girl. She was bright and cheerful, innocent even, yet whatever she did to get rid of those guys must have been terrifying to witness. Sun was really starting to wish that he had seen what she had done. Maybe film it and post it on DustTube...
"No problem!" Nora laughed as they arrived at the airships, carrying Sun onboard. Sun heard someone sigh disappointedly, yet without any surprise in his voice.
"Stirring up trouble again, Valkyrie?"
"Maybe~..." Nora replied nervously, then grew serious. "My friend here is hurt really bad, sir. Can you get us to Beacon really, really fast?"
"Sure. This isn't the only injury, tonight. A whole team got hit by a bus!"
"Oh no!" Nora gave a somewhat-guilty gasp. "Who was it?! I hope they're not hurt too badly!"
"Team CRDL. Bunch of assholes... Well, sit down. We best be going."
"Okay!" Nora carried Sun over and sat down, supporting him as the ship took off and still humming. Sun raised an eyebrow even though he couldn't open his eyes, curious.
"Whatcha humming?"
"Oh, that?" Nora asked. "I just make things up sometimes! It's really fun!" A moment passed, then Nora sighed. "... I'm sorry, about those boys.I have some friends who had trouble with Team CRDL earlier this year. They told me not to help... Well, it looks like you helped me keep a promise!" Nora pepped up. "I broke Cardin's legs!"
"You're... You're a Huntress?"
"Yep! Nora Valkyrie of Team JNPR! I go to Beacon!"
"H-Haven."
"You're a visitor?" Nora asked, then she mumbled darkly. "Shoulda broke his arms, too." Sun cringed lightly upon hearing that.
Just what kind of Huntress had saved him?
The airship arrived at the docks outside of Beacon, and Nora carried Sun through the grounds.
"I really am sorry about Team CRDL." Nora admitted, looking down at Sun. "They're a bunch of meanies!"
"Understatement of the century." Sun winced as he tried to speak without stutter. Nora frowned at that, then pepped up.
"Don't worry! I'm friends with the head-nurse in Beacon's infirmary! She'll take good care of you!"
"Why are you friends with her?" Sun asked curiously, still uncomfortable. Nora smiled, seeing that he was regaining enough strength to speak clearly without a break.
"I'm the reason why she got her pay-raise!"
Sun had finally had it.
He was opening his eyes and looking at Nora Valkyrie, even if it killed him.
Sun expected a short, dark, insanely-cheerful version of Yang Xiao-Long, his new friend from Beacon's Team RWBY. Someone who was terrifying enough to have scared off Team CRDL. Someone who he wouldn't be entirely embarrassed to be seen getting carried by.
He had a reputation to uphold, after all. And if he was going to have any chance with any girl, notably Blake Belladonna, he couldn't risk getting publicly humiliated.
Sun forced his eyes open, and they were immedietley met with a pair startlingly-bright turquoise eyes. The boy blinked a few times in surprise, shaking off the blur, then his vision seemed to zoom-out to the rest of the girl.
Short, choppy orange hair, pale skin with a pinkish-tint (especially on the cheeks), and an outfit of pink and white. She was short, as Sun had thought, and actually kinda cute or maybe even hot. Not big, muscle-covered, or even remotely scary in appearence. A human girl, his age.
... This was the person who saved him?
"You don't look like how I thought you would." Sun admitted, his eyebrow twitching. Nora's smile fell, the girl looking self-conscious.
"Is that a bad thing?"
Yes. Bye-bye, reputation.
... Oh, what the Hell?
Who could stay mad at a face like that? So cute and innocent and happy. And currently, so concerned and worried, so unsure. Nora Valkyrie was obviously one of those special people who could brighten a mood or darken it with their mere facial expression.
Sun didn't like the pit that formed in his already-aching stomach at the thought of him making the bubbly girl upset. Not leg-breaking upset, but sad upset. That almost hurt more.
Almost.
"No." Sun weakly shook his head, giving a tired smile. "You're a lot less scary." Nora beamed, her normal, happy attitude returning.
"Okay!"
Sun, even though Nora was a stranger, decided that he liked Nora best when she was happy and smiling. A frown on that face just didn't seem right, in his head.
Sun winced as they descended a staircase, snapping back into the reality of his exhaustion and pain. He knew Nora was doing her best to be gentle, but damn - couldn't Beacon have installed more elevators?
Nora carried Sun all the way to the infirmary, humming merrily while, inside, she was deep in thought.
Team CRDL was getting more and more out of control by the day. People like Velvet and Jaune were getting bullied, but Sun had been outright attacked. Maybe she should go to Ozpin...
But, if she went to Ozpin, she'd have to confess to beating-up Team CRDL. And if she did that, she could be expelled. Or worse, sent to detention with Professor Goodwitch.
Nora shook out of the thought and shuddered. She'd probably wait until the next incident to go to Ozpin. It didn't sit right, but she had her teammates to think about, after all. Jaune and Pyrrha. Her partner and best friend, Ren.
Finally, Nora and Sun arrived at the infirmary, the boy having fallen back into unconsciousness due to the pain, a nurse looking up from the front desk with wide eyes.
"Oh my goodness!" She got up and ran over. "What happened?! Don't tell me that this one was hit by a bus, too?!" Nora shook her head.
"I found him in an alleyway." She told a half-truth. "He's one of the visitors from Haven... Can you help him?" The nurse nodded, quickly scanning the boy's scroll and frowning.
"Sun Wukong, leader of first-year Team SSSN. You're right, he's from Haven... Let's get him into a room."
"Okay!" Nora followed the nurse to a room, smirking as she passed the one holding Team CRDL, and the Bubbly-Bomber gently laid Sun down on a bed. "Is he going to be okay?"
"Let's see." The nurse started examined the monkey-Faunus, who winced at every touch. "There's definitely some cracked ribs, maybe a few broken. These bruises are pretty bad, but these cuts are minor as long as they're treated properly... I'll get him on some medicine that will increase the healing-aspect of his aura. He should be fine in a few days. Can't have him like this for his first mission, or that dance... The only problem is that he won't be allowed to take painkillers."
"I think I can help with that!" Nora beamed, picking up her grocery bag. "Pancakes always make people feel better! I'll even try to save him some syrup!" The nurse gave a small laugh, shaking her head.
"This boy is lucky to have a friend like you, Miss Valkyrie. And he's really lucky that you're not his enemy. I've seen your handiwork." The nurse looked down at the boy, then looked at Nora and gave a sly wink. "Nice work with CRDL."
"Thanks!" Nora smiled, then frowned. "But I only just met Sun, tonight." There was a buzzing noise, and Nora pulled her scroll out. "Uh-oh."
"Your teammates?"
"One of them."
"Which one?"
"Do you have to ask?" Nora pulled away from Sun's bedside, smiling brightly at the nurse. "Thank you, Nurse Darby. If Sun wakes up, can you tell him I'm bringing him some pancakes, tomorrow morning? I'll even try to save him some syrup! ... No promises."
"It'll be the first thing he hears." The nurse assured. Nora beamed, then turned and departed, skipping and humming as she went..
Well... BLACKSUN AND RENORA FANS, ALONG WITH THE REST OF YOU SHIPPING-NUTS, I'M READY FOR YOU!
*puts on full-body suit of knight-armor over over a bullet-proof vest and padded armor, slams chest with fists in a challenge*
HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT!
Ahem... Sorry. Just best to be prepared. I know that lots of people don't like ships with Sun that don't envolve Blake (or Neptune), and even more people don't like ships with Nora that don't envolve Ren. Well, those of you who know me and my work know that I like thinking outside the box and exploring all realms of possibilities. To name a few:
- Adam x Yang
- Adam x Penny
- Sun x Yang
And that's just what I've uploaded, so far. If you saw all of the ideas and drafts in my notes, you would pass out from shock. That's how many. They range everywhere from RedSun to Labyrinth. Be thankful if you don't know what that second one is. You haven't been to the dark side of the FNDM... DON'T LOOK IT UP!
Ahem... I must admit, I'm a little crazy. Okay, a lot crazy. But this story is one of the few that I've decided is ready to be seen. Do you agree with me on that?
I think that - if this gets enough support for me to continue it - I'm going to set this one in a world where Beacon never falls. At least, not in the same way. I might still include the Breach and I probably will include the Tournament, but there will be no worrying about Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury infiltrating Beacon or the Black Queen Virus. It would just make it easier for me to construct a plot that will focus on the idea of this story. I may construct an entirely new plot with the villains to create some conflict and suspense, but as far as I can tell, for this story, the real plot of RWBY just went POOF!. It's gone!
So, yeah... My first AU story that doesn't involve an OC making it AU. Let's see how this goes.
I own nothing. Please read, review, check out my other stories, etc. Thanks!