//------------------------------// // Initiation 1.6 // Story: SNST // by Jninja15 //------------------------------// “Oh, my Oum.” Yang breathed out. “Did Sunset just decapitate a Rathalos?” “Incredible.” Pyrrha shared in Yang’s awe. “She’s falling.” Natsu pointed out. “And she’s not slowing down.” Yang sprung into action. Her weapons clicked as she tried to fire them for a boost. She growled and picked up her pace. Yang heard Ruby call out to Sunset as she fell past the cliff’s height. Yang reached the edge of her path when she heard a ‘thwip,’ followed by two more. Then she saw a red and blue blur rush by, catching Sunset midair. Another ‘thwip’ and their descent slowed before accelerating upward in an arcing movement. “Spiderling,” Yang chuckled. She hefted out an exhale, relieved to see that Sunset was no longer falling to her death. Peter Parker swung his way over to the gang gathered at the base of the broken bridge, landing as softly as he could before gently depositing an unconscious Sunset onto the ground. “Hey! It’s spider-boy!” Jaune greeted. “It’s Spider-MAN.” Peter corrected as he held an invisible block between his hands. He then took in a calming breath before he put on a broad smile and retorted, “How’s it hanging, Vomit boy?” Jaune glared at Peter as Nora laughed uncontrollably, pointing at Jaune. “Did you SEE that!?” said an unfamiliar voice. The voice belonged to a boy with brown hair, wearing a white tunic on top of a black undershirt with black shorts, sandals, and a gold laurel crown on his head. His white wings, barely one and a half times larger than his arms, fluttered as he made his landing, carrying Ruby Rose with Sunset’s weapon. Weiss put Ruby’s arm around her shoulder to help her stand. “First, Ruby went BANG! BANG! BANG! Schwing! Decapitating that nevermore! Then the Rathalos was all like, ‘Rah, I’m gonna kill you!’ Pew, pew, pew! And then this girl- what’s her name?” “Sunset.” Ruby responded. “Sunset was all like ‘Nuh-uh’ and ‘Bwooooom!’ rocketed to the Rathalos, and ‘Ka-schwing’ cut his head off!” he was left panting at the end of his retelling of the recent event. “I know, Pit,” Peter said calmly. “I was there.” “How come she gets a ‘Ka-schwing’ while I just get a ‘schwing’?” Ruby asked indignantly. “Well, she had to cut through not only armored skin but muscle and bone. Where the grimm,” Pit started as he held an invisible sphere in his hands, “are- like- made of some kind of - energy held together by some kind of tar. No wait, it’s tar held together by some kind of energy. Or something.” Ruby puffed her cheeks indignantly and growled a bit. “Ruby!” Yang shouted as she ran up and scooped Ruby into her arms and hugged her tightly. “Ow, ow, Ow! Burns, Burns!” Yang let go, staying close to help her keep weight off her feet. “Sorry, we need to get you to a nurse.” She then looked to Sunset, seeing her legs twisting at odd angles and a whole arm turned purple. “We need to get HER to a doctor.” “Good thing I brought one.” said a tired voice with barely enough energy to actually call it a shout. It was Mister Aizawa. Behind him was a short old lady wearing a blue visor, her hair tied back in a bun and pinned with what looked like a syringe. She wore a white coat that was long enough to drag across the ground and walked with a cane that also looked like a syringe. “Who’s that?” Natsu asked. “This is the school nurse, Chiyo Shuzenji,” Aizawa said. “AKA: Recovery Girl.” Recovery Girl approached the unconscious Sunset and appraised her injuries. “Hmm. This is the worst kind of injury I’ve ever seen someone survive in initiation.” “Can you help her?” Ruby pleaded. The nurse smiled at Ruby. “Of course I can. And then, I’ll help you.” Recovery Girl leaned down and kissed Sunset on the forehead. Chiyo’s aura flared up and washed over Sunset. The snapping of bones crackled like a fireplace, but her legs took their normal position, and the purple slowly disappeared from her arm. Sunset groaned, and her eyes fluttered open. Everyone, except Aizawa and Chiyo, sighed in relief. Sunset smiled when she saw everyone around her. “Hi everyone,” she said weakly. Then Recovery Girl aggressively pinched her cheek. “I saw what you did, young lady,” Chiyo said in a threatening tone that a parent would give when reprimanding their child. “I don’t take kindly to such reckless behavior. I won’t heal you so quickly next time you pull a stunt like what you just did.” “Yesh, ma’am.” Sunset managed. She had kind of forgotten just what she did but figured she’d agree anyways, as she’d probably remember later. “Good.” Chiyo said as she let go and patted Sunset on the cheek. Sunset was way too tired to lift an arm to rub her cheek and just stayed on the ground, hoping she could catch a nap. Meanwhile, Recovery Girl went over to Ruby, kissed her forearm, and the burns faded away like dirt in the rain. “Oh! Me next!” Natsu said. “You’re not injured, sonny.” He paused. “Maybe I could-” Chiyo whacked him on the head with her cane. “Don’t you dare. I’ll make you wait the full normal recovery time if you do. And you’ll spend the entire time in a hospital bed.” --Later, the Auditorium-- “Samus Aran, Rhundas Phrygia, Ghor Wotan, and Gandrayda St. Clair.” Ozpin listed the students’ names as their pictures appeared on the monitors above. “For obtaining the red knight piece, you will be assigned together and be henceforth known as team ‘Surge’. Lead by: Samus Aran.” The audience applauded the newly formed team as they walked off stage for the next group to arrive. “Star Butterfly, Marco Diaz, Tenya Iida, and Rainbow Dash. For obtaining the red queen piece, you will now be known as team ‘Storm.’ Lead by: Star Butterfly.” More applause. Then Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, Natsu Dragneel, and Starlight Glimmer stepped onto the stage. “... for obtaining the white bishop piece, you will be known as team SNST. Lead by: Sunset Shimmer.” Sunset was taken aback by this. Her? The leader? It feels wrong. She didn’t think she had what it took to be a leader. Still, if Ozpin, the headmaster of the most prestigious huntsman academy, says she’s the leader, then she must have some kind of potential. Twilight was also shocked by this development. Meanwhile, Starlight merely eyed Sunset, skeptical of the headmaster’s decision. Natsu, however, gave Sunset a one-armed hug and cheered loudly with a raised fist. “Congratulations,” Ozpin said to the newly formed team. “Let’s hope the four of you can work together and become great huntsmen and huntresses.” --Later, Team SNST’s Dorm Room-- Sunset and her team arrived in their dorm room and began unpacking their belongings. The room was fairly spacious, with a window on the back wall and four beds lined up underneath the window, all equally spaced apart. Four desks with chairs sit under an array of shelves mounted on the wall with the entrance door. A low and wide bookshelf sat against the left wall, the door next to it led to the bathrooms, and on the opposite side were their closets. Sunset claimed the bed to the far left, slid her guitar case underneath, set her luggage on top, and began to unpack. Natsu took the second bed to the left. He simply tossed his luggage bag at the foot of the bed, then just dove onto the bed with a belly flop and laid there sprawled out as he gave a contented sigh. “After that fight with the rathalos, I’m exhausted. Is anyone else?” “You didn’t fight the damn thing,” Twilight complained as she claimed the bed on the far right. “If anyone should be exhausted, it should be Sunset for breaking every bone in three of her limbs and me for having to put up with her before that.” Sunset’s head began to sink into her shoulders. “Hey!” Natsu shot up and sat on the edge of his bed, pointing a finger at Twilight. “That’s no way to talk about your teammate, especially your partner in initiation.” “Whatever.” Twilight scoffed, and Sunset relaxed as Natsu returned to lounging on his bed, looking at the ceiling. “I wonder what we’re going to do tomorrow.” Natsu mused. “Classes.” Starlight responded flatly as she claimed her bed. “Obviously.” Natsu groaned. “And the first one is at 8:30 in the morning.” Twilight said in a chipper tone. Then it turned sour, “So none of you better be late and make me look bad. Even so, I am not going to waste my time dragging you out of bed.” “Thanks, maaom~,” Natsu replied sarcastically. He sighed and put a forearm over his head. Sunset stopped unpacking halfway through, realizing with embarrassment that she should probably take the remaining clothes to the closet if she didn’t want Natsu to see any of them. She closed her bag and looked at Natsu. “Hey, are you alright?” “Hm? Wha-? Oh! Yeah. Just thinking about my mom.” “Is everything okay?” “Yeah. Yeah. I just want to make her proud, you know. She- uh- kind of has set a high bar, so to speak. Also, I miss my cat.” Sunset chuckled. “Well, unfortunately, I don’t think they allow pets in the dorms.” “Stupid rule.” Sunset finished closing her luggage and made her way to the closet. She opened the first door and saw a small hallway that had four doors, two on each side, with little whiteboards and a dry erase marker on each door. She picked the first door on the left and wrote her name on the whiteboard. Twilight then walked up to Sunset, aggressively grabbed one shoulder, and turned her, so they stood face-to-face. “Now listen here, Sunset,” she said in a harsh whisper. “Just because we were partners in initiation doesn’t mean we’re friends.” Sunset looked at her quizzically, “I know, you’ve already told me that.” “I just wanted to reiterate that as the role of leadership sometimes gets to a person’s head.” “I wouldn’t dream of-” “And it’s not that I have a problem with authority. In fact, I can tolerate having anyone else as my team leader, maybe except Natsu. But, I already don’t like you. You have shown subpar combat capabilities, you run from a fight when it gets tough, and worst of all, you don’t know how to use your own semblance without getting hurt.” Sunset wilted under Twilight’s rampage. “I would never want such a person to lead me into combat.” Twilight turned to leave, then glanced back. “And if I were the type to make friends, you wouldn’t be one of them.” Sunset put a hand on her upper arm as if she had just been punched and a massive bruise had developed that would be healing for days. She simply squeezed her arm, feeling the muscle she had built up over almost a year. She took comfort in the resistance it gave, a sign of how far she’d come from when she started. But is it enough? “Hey,” Starlight said from her bed, breaking Sunset out of her thoughts. “Natsu. Your last name ‘Dragneel.’ It sounds familiar.” she contemplated for a few seconds. “You wouldn’t happen to be related to Celestia Dragneel, would you?” “Yeah,” he said nonchalantly. “That’s my mom.” A pin drop could be heard over the ensuing silence. Then, like the shattering of a window, all three girls screamed, “She’s your mom?!” Twilight leaned down to whisper to Starlight. “Wanna switch beds?” Starlight was somewhat startled by the request.