With the first phase of Ascendancy completed, it's time for me to take a quick break and throw an idea or two out into the wild!

Let's hope that someone picks this up!

Grand Theft Vale

(Inspired by Grand Theft Auto V)

Welcome to Vale, an American city of pretty lights painted over a seedy underbelly of crime and anarchy. Corruption within the local government is the highest ever recorded, much of the police force is on one syndicate or another's payroll, the tenuous peace between the gangs and crime lords is constantly on the brink of falling apart, and a private military force of mercenaries, on the payroll of local government officials, is moving in to restore order through violent means within the chaotic sprawl of a city.

Looks like Vale is in need of a hero...

Sadly, all we've got are these thugs and idiots.

The first main perspective of this story is centred around Pyrrha Nikos and her group. Pyrrha Nikos is a retired professional criminal, once making her living robbing banks, running drugs and guns across the border between America and Mexico, and transporting and protecting prostitutes from more violent gangbangers on the streets. Now she's a millionaire living in witness protection in the upper estates, with her mother and father having forced her into an arranged marriage to Cardin Winchester, a scummy man who hardly makes any effort to hide the fact that he is cheating on her with several other woman.

To say that Pyrrha is miserable with her life is an understatement. She supposedly has it all, yet she has nothing at all. She misses the excitement of her old life, and she desires the chance to have a genuinely faithful and meaningful relationship with another person.

The friends that she surrounds herself with don't really help in that regard. Weiss Schnee is the daughter of a rich CEO and famous singer, but the chip on her shoulder thanks to her poor family situation and abusive father left her as abrasive and unable to properly socialise with others without being snarky and snappy with them (she also believes that her boyfriend, Neptune, is cheating on her, but has no proof as of yet). Coco Adel, at the beginning of this story, is a far cry from her canon personality, and is much more timid and squeamish as a person, leaving her as more of a pushover than in canon, and also more in the closest about her lesbianism out of fear of discrimination. Blake Belladonna, a police investigator and friend of Pyrrha, faces discrimination of her own thanks to her being a Faunus, and has to constantly deal with the corruption in the ranks, but constantly comes to blows with Neon Katt, a Faunus streamer and VTuber, as the both of them were once part of the White Fang protest group (which broke up over violence and leadership disputes between Sienna Khan and Adam Taurus) and left with very different views on the topic of Faunus rights and liberties. There's also Arslan and her crew, Reese, Bolin, and Nadir, who are training to be Olympic athletes, and also Nebula and her Violettes, a pop group of singers who have struck up a rivalry with Neon, one which can get rather explosive and violent (on Nebula's side. She is a vindictive sort of woman).

But then, just as Pyrrha was about to lose hope that anything in her life might change, Neon hosts a contest to allow one of her fans to see her in real life, and she meets Jaune Arc, taking a young autistic Ruby Rose to meet her.

And here we get into the second main perspective of this story: Jaune Arc and the Fallen Angels. Jaune Arc and his family, like most of those born into the lower districts and poorer boulevards of Vale, was born into the syndicates, and forced to commit crime in order to survive. The crew that he and his sisters, as well as those in the same street as him, were born into is known as the Fallen Angels, a petty street gang that held a waning control over their own block and nothing more, and even that was being challenged by Roman Torchwick and his Jack-O-Lantern criminal organisation.

Jaune Arc did not care for it, though. Within his gang, he held the title of the gangbanger that had never killed anyone, and he was eager to keep that track record up. He was only interested in getting the young Ruby Rose and his sisters out of the gang life and into an actual school, preferably outside of the city less the criminal life suck them back into it.

The others in the Fallen Angels were much more of a mixed bag. All of their parents were gone, so they had no reliable authority or parental figures to turn to, leaving Jaune and a few others to act as the parents of the gang. His eldest sister, Saphron, had already escaped the city and its crime, and his sisters were eager to do the same. Ruby's sister, Yang Xiao Long, and her friend Sun Wukong, were also eager to get Ruby out of the gang life, but they themselves were too invested in the gang to see the real problems, and believed themselves to be much tougher than they actually were. Emerald Sustrai, a petty thief and safe drug dealer, was already considering abandoning the Fallen Angels to join up with Cinder Fall's criminal syndicate known as the Creatures of Grimm, having been convinced to consider defecting thanks to Grimm recruiter Mercury Black. Melanie and Miltia Malachite were secretly spies for the Spider Syndicate, and were feeding information on the gang back to their mother, whilst Vernal was trying to convince Yang to defect back to her mother's Branwen Tribe. Brawnz, Roy, and Nolan were divided on what to do with themselves, Scarlet David and Sage Ayana were considering going off on their own, Velvet Scarlatina was being approached by Black Fang recruiters due to her heritage as a Faunus, and May Zedong was eager to leave the criminal life, but only stayed around the gang because of her feelings for Jaune.

The gang is close to completely falling apart, and their block is closer to being swallowed whole by the competing syndicates around them, but when Pyrrha and Jaune meet, that's when things begin to change between them.

Jaune and Ruby meet up with Neon, and she introduces them to Pyrrha and her friends. Seizing on an opportunity and hoping that Pyrrha and her friends' rich connections would be able to protect them, Jaune is able to get Sun and Yang hired as assistants and helpers for Blake and her police department, whilst also getting Coco to hire Velvet as a maid in order to get her away from the Black Fang and their recruiters. Neon, meanwhile, begins to take interest in Jaune and his gang life, and soon enough, she's dragging Pyrrha along with her to meet up with the Fallen Angels on group meetings, to which the gang members slowly begin to warm up to her and take her in as one of their own, whilst Jaune and Pyrrha slowly begin to become friends, whilst Neon began to get closer to Jaune and Ruby as well.

However, the new peace that was forged between them was soon broken by a tragic event.

During one of her streams, a trio of men break into her house and beat and rape her.

Jaune and the Fallen Angels are quick to remind everyone that they are a gang of criminals as, after seeing the live stream, they rush to Neon's home and beat the trio half to death before driving Neon to the hospital. Upon discovering from the trio of men - Sky, Dove, and Russel - that they had been sent by Nebula and her band to rough her up, the Fallen Angels quickly break into their homes and beat them half to death as well. When they learn that Nebula had been sleeping with Cardin, Jaune shows the information to Pyrrha before returning to Neon's side at the hospital, himself and Ruby refusing to leave her side until she is awake and healed. Pyrrha's relationship with Cardin continues to strain, but the pressure on her parents, as well as Blake in the witness protection program (who is now in a threeway sexual relationship with both Sun and Yang), forces her to stay.

However, it is soon revealed that Nebula and her band were actually on Roman Torchwick's payroll, and the three men had been their protection, and Roman uses this as leverage to put the squeeze on the Fallen Angels, putting them in his debt and forcing them to pay it off, allowing him to gain control of their entire street block.

With no other choice, the Fallen Angels are forced to pull off a massive heist on a string of jewellery shops for millions of Lien, to which we finally see Jaune's true strength within the gang: his leadership and planning skills. Thanks to him, they are able to pull off the plan before any of the police could figure out what was going on, and make off with millions of Lien worth of uncut jewels. Blake is put in charge of the investigation of the crime, alongside Ciel Soleli and Weiss' eldest sister Winter Schnee, whom had been working on the Neon assault investigation, and wasn't pleased at the thought of being pulled off her case.

And it is a job like this that catches the attention of our third and final main perspective of this story: Nora Valkyrie.

Nora Valkyrie lives in the outskirts of the city, and is considered one of Vale's most dangerous and unpredictable criminals. She's become the bogeyman of Vale's criminal underworld. She's manic, wacky, peppy, bloodthirsty, obsessed with explosions, constantly flipping between moods and behaviours, and, according to those who miraculously survived her, "Completely batshit insane."

The last point is probably true, considering the fact that she's been seeing the face of her dead friend, Lie Ren, and hearing his voice as a constant companion in her head.

The people around her would probably attest to that as well. Shay D. Mann, a defector from the Branwen Tribe, had been forcefully promoted to Nora's main goon, and was constantly being forced to go on crazy suicidal jobs with her. He would've left a long time ago... but he feared Nora more than anyone else. The twins Dee and Dudley would say that she was the best boss ever, but only because one, they were terrified of her, and two, she at least paid them after their jobs instead of their old bosses (who Nora had killed in a drunken spree not too long ago). Ilia only hangs around her because she thinks that Nora's hot. Neptune only works for her because Nora threatened him into being her secret eye on Pyrrha so that she can keep an eye on the retired criminal. The only person that actually likes Nora out in the outskirts of the city is the aging Fria, who seems to be able to see something in Nora that no one else can.

However, in the outskirts, something is changing. That private military company that was mentioned before? Their name is Atlas Incorporated, lead by Lieutenant General James Ironwood, have been hired by Vale's mayor, Salem Magier, to restore order to the city through means of force, and they have begun their work in the outskirts, forcing Nora and her crew to retreat further into the city, and forcing her to approach those who may help her get some payback on Ironwood and Salem.

That being the Fallen Angels... and Pyrrha.

As it turns out, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren used to run in the same crew back in the day, and were even all sleeping together at points. But on the last job that they ran together, Pyrrha betrayed them and their clients to the police in order to save her and her parent's skin, and Ren was killed in the crossfire whilst Nora was forced underground. Nora was unstable enough before the incident, but thanks to Pyrrha's betrayal and Ren's demise she finally slid off the deep end, dreaming up an imaginary construct of Ren to keep herself company, and dreaming of all the ways in which she would get her revenge on Pyrrha.

But over the years, that desire for revenge has grown more complicated and confused, as Nora grows dissatisfied with the life that she has been living and now understands why Pyrrha betrayed them, and the voice in her head - the voice of Ren - continuously flipflops between despising her and throwing blame to her and scowling at her for daring to let go of the pain, and being helpful and empathetic towards her and encouraging her to move on from her mourning.

By the time that Nora breaks into Pyrrha's house and finally confronts her, she has the outwardly projection of being her usual energetically violent self, but underneath she's just tired, confused, and desperately looking for a new purpose in life.

But she still wants to take down Ironwood and Salem.

Hearing that the Fallen Angels now have the backing of Nora Valkyrie is enough to get the likes of Roman Torchwick and the Creatures of Grimm to back off for a little while, but the Fallen Angels themselves are hesitant to follow Nora's lead at all, Jaune more than most. He's heard of Nora's reputation, and has no desire to attach himself to a psychotic murderer like herself.

But then it is revealed that the mayor, Salem, has the Spiders, Jack-O-Lanterns, Branwen Tribe, and Creatures of Grimm in her thrall, and when her thugs attach Jaune's home and brutalise his sisters, he is given no choice but to work with Nora.

However, the outside factors that were threatening to tear the Fallen Angels apart finally begin to dig their claws into the group. Emerald finally defects and leaves for the Creatures of Grimm, whilst Velvet is kidnapped by the Black Fang and pressganged into their group by Adam Taurus. Coco's sexuality is exposed by journalists on Salem's payroll and is forced to go underground to escape the discrimination, and Weiss' father begins to pull her away from her friends and lock her away in the escalating tensions. Blake begins to suffocate under the corruption in the police force around her, the Malachite twins leave to join Lil' Miss Malachite once more, and the remnants of the group of new friends threatens to completely break apart under the intense strain that has now been placed upon them.

But then Neon leaves the hospital, and throws her support in for the gang. Becoming a Fallen Angel herself, she contacts an old friend of hers from back in the White Fang protest movement - Fiona Thyme - who now works in the local government as a financial manager, and she is able to feed them information on which banks Salem is keeping all her money. Hers, and the Jack-O-Lanterns, Creatures of Grimm, Black Fang, Spider Syndicate, Branwen Tribe, Atlas Incorporated, and all the corrupt cops in the city.

So they hit them. They hit every single bank. They drain and delete all the digital funds found on the banks' hard drives belonging to the syndicates and Salem, steal the paper and gold in the vaults, and throw it all out into the streets for the people of Vale to take for themselves. Whatever they couldn't take, they burnt.

The Fallen Angels drain the banks of their money and leave the syndicates poor. This marks the first act in the Fallen Angels' counterattack against them, but they have a plan of their own.

Thinking that Pyrrha is much weaker than she is, Salem and Roman pay Cardin off to take her hostage, holding her over the Fallen Angels' heads and ordering them to stand down as Atlas Incorporated's goons surround Pyrrha's estate.

And this is where Pyrrha finally snaps.

Having had enough with Cardin's scummy attitude and terrible marriage, Pyrrha beats her husband senseless and begins to kick the asses of the Atlas mercenaries hounding them. Finally putting her lot in with the Fallen Angels, she and the rest of them publicly dump the unconscious bodies of Cardin and the Atlas goons on the steps of the mayor's office.

Salem and her loyal officials publicly denounce the Fallen Angels, but to the people of Vale, the gang are slowly elevated into Robin Hood style figures, stealing from the rich and the greedy and giving to the poor and the needy. They are now at war with Salem, Atlas Incorporated, and all the major syndicates in the city, and all the people of the city, who have now grown sick and tired of the corruption in the local government, have begun to throw their support in for the gang of vigilantes.

But then the syndicates make their move.

Velvet is held hostage by Adam Taurus, as is Emerald by Cinder, Vernal by Raven, and the Malachite twins by their mother. Without a second thought, all the former members of the Fallen Angels are executed, as punishment for the gang, with the warning that should they continue, the same thing will happen to them.

But it is a panic move. Without their money, the syndicates are losing their grip on their enforcers, and are now beginning to turn on each other. The fragile peace between the syndicates is beginning to collapse, Atlas Incorporated is threatening to terminate its contracts, Salem is losing her power, and the Fallen Angels have not just been united against the syndicates, but galvanised as well.

And that's when the gang make their own move as well.

With the help of Blake and her investigative team, as well as Fiona in the government, they are able to find a vast library of hidden documents and receipts, exposing Salem's corruption and her ties to the syndicates. Now with enemies at every side, it's a race against time to expose Salem's corruption to the world and get her arrested by the proper authorities.

A race that they win.

Salem's dirty dealings are exposed to the world, and Blake and her team are the ones to send her off to a prison far away from the city. The syndicates are exposed to the world and the greater American government, and the FBI and Interpol step in to deal with the corruption and crime. By that time, the syndicates forgo all niceties and begin a gang war in the streets of Vale. The Fallen Angels are caught right in the middle of the violence as they break Weiss Schnee out of her father's home and rescue Coco Adel, who has become a lot more forceful and proactive thanks to everything that's happened to her, but threatens to break apart upon learning of Velvet's death.

Soon enough, the gang split up to deal with the individual crime lords. First Raven is taken out, then Ironwood is knocked off. Cinder and Malachite are tricked into taking each other out, and when Roman and Neo, in desperation, take Jaune's sisters hostage, he and Neon personally canes them both over their heads and leaves them for the cops to find.

Soon, the outer city authorities arrive, and the corruption within the police force is exposed as well, thanks to Blake and her team. The Fallen Angels are arrested, but thanks to their popular public reputation, they only serve a few weeks in prison or are venerated completely.

The crime families of Vale fall apart due to poverty and infighting, Atlas Incorporated is dissolved and Ironwood is arrested, and incorruptible politician Robyn Hood is voted into office as the new mayor. Jacques Schnee is arrested, and his company dissolved, and the various leaders of the syndicates sent to separate prison. They would try to rebuild their empires in prison, but would be met with disrespect and scorn.

With the crime families all gone, there would be a massive power vacuum left in Vale's underworld, but no one else would be able to garner the strength and respect to do so. The Fallen Angels are celebrated as heroes for all that they have done for the city...

And then they disband.

Nora hands herself into the police, who sentence her for all the crimes that she has done, like murder and such. Whether she actually stays in prison or breaks out on her own depends on if she gets bored or not, but from the looks of it, she's finally found a place to call home. It helps that the voice in her head has finally left her in peace.

Ilia and Coco, who has now shifted into her canon personality, move in with each other and become major activists in both the LGBTQ community and against gang violence. The fact that they get married a few years later surprises no one.

The Arc sisters finally move away from Vale and spend some time living with Saphron and Terra before moving out to live on their own, The siblings still talk with each other and meet up from time to time.

Ruby moves away from Vale as well, settling in a town called Patch and making friends with two kids her age, Penny Polendina and Oscar Pine, at Signal High School.

Weiss Schnee and Neon Katt begin to perform and sing together, striking up something akin to a friendship with each other, though Pyrrha has to occasionally step in when their usual bickering threatens to escalate.

Arslan and her crew move out of the city to continue training to be athletes. They still visit their hometown on occasion and in between their performances and training.

Blake welcomes Yang and Sun into the reformed police force as assistants and secretaries. Not as officers, though. Not yet. Not until they can stop being so cow boyish about everything that they do (that kind of attitude is best left for the bedroom. Meow~).

Neptune moves in with Scarlet and Sage, and they all become close friends and bros. Now if only Neptune could get Scarlet to stop with his casual flirting with him. Huh, so that's how all the girls he flirted with over the years felt like.

Fiona Thyme, Blake, and Neon begin to work to reform the White Fang back to its roots away from the Black Fang. That their new insignia is that of a rabbit does not go unnoticed by anyone.

May Zedong stays in the city, choosing to stay by Jaune's side as they both work to heal the city and keep it safe from anyone eager to try and sink their hands into Vale's damaged underworld.

Everyone else goes their own separate ways, finally content to live their own lives now that the threats to them are all gone...

And years later, Jaune Arc, May Zedong, and Pyrrha Nikos, now wearing police badges and with the famous streamer and VTuber Neon Katt as their backer and spokesperson, see all the good work that they have done in combatting crime in the city and lifting its population out of poverty, and smile at it all.

Now if only Jaune could figure out why the girls would give him those strange smiles and stares all the time.

Weird.

Wow, this one turned out to be way beefier than I had imagined it would be when I was writing it. Oh well. More idea content for the rest of you.

As always, if you want to use this idea, then pop me a PM (or comment, if you're reading this on Ao3), and then have at it!

But until then, Titanmaster 117 out!