Flipping the Script (Honkai: Star Rail - Stellaron Hunter AU)

Chapter 1: A Twisted Timeline Begins.

In a quiet moment in time, the Cancer of All Worlds began to cause ripples across the stars, like a rock tossed into a pool of water. Before anyone noticed, this twisted and unknown matter had already corrupted a great number of worlds, but resplendent and mesmerizing gems accompanied this corrosive mud—gems known as the Stellarons.

Death and despair followed wherever Stellarons went. For many civilizations that have experienced the disasters it brings, Stellarons are symbols of destruction. However, despite the Stellarons' nature, there emerged the fearless few who travel between worlds to obtain Stellarons. They call themselves the Stellaron Hunters.

No one knows anything about the Stellaron Hunters aside from what they have done. Which Aeon do they worship? What do they want with the Stellaron? With the cosmos filled with rumors about them, only one thing is for certain: Though the Stellaron Hunters are few in number, each of them holds incredible capacities and powers.

And each was incredibly dangerous.

Kafka. Beautiful, cool, and collected. Her name and pastime were the sole details on the Interastral Peace Corporation's wanted list. She had always been seen by others as graceful, honorable, and desirous of beauty—even when engaged in fights.

Silver Wolf. An exceptionally skilled hacker. She was an expert in "aether editing," a technique that allowed her to manipulate real-world data. As a result, she was always excited to pass the next level and saw the universe as a huge, immersive simulation game.

Yingxing, AKA Blade. A swordsman who gave up his body to become a living weapon. To his dismay, he was unable to die due to his horrifying self-healing abilities, and had sworn allegiance to Destiny's Slave.

And Firefly. A young girl wearing a suit of mechanical armor called "SAM." She was born as a weapon but developed Entropy Loss Syndrome as a result of genetic alteration. She joined the Stellaron Hunters as she tirelessly pursued methods to elude fate and discover the meaning of life.

The IPC had bounties on every single one of these miscreants, and the wanted notices all said the same thing. "The four mentioned above, dead or alive, do not hurt Destiny's Slave, and do not let them lose their ability of independent thinking."

Destiny's Slave, commonly referred to by his followers as "Elio," was the leader of the leader of the Stellaron Hunters. In the words of Madame Herta, one of the members of the infamous Genius Society, he was "a maniac who claims he can see destiny, leading a bunch of wild lunatics in pursuit of the most dangerous objects in the universe."

Referring to his special ability. With the power to anticipate future possibilities, he employed "scripts" to guide his hunters on their missions.

To be honest, the Stellaron Hunters understood little about Elio's past, despite their willingness to rally around him and carry out his orders. At some point, he recruited Kafka for Pteruges-V via a scheme involving a canned drink. She accepted his offer when he specified conditions that piqued her curiosity. After some time, he sent her and SAM to find and bring him Blade. He offered Blade an endless end to his life and everything he had ever despised, winning him loyalty. He became aware of Silver Wolf after she clashed with Screwllum, another member of the Genius Society, and was there at her induction.

There were only two things that all of them knew for sure. First, Elio's ultimate goal was the destruction of...well...THE Destruction. The Aeon of Destruction, Nanook, whom was responsible for creating the Stellarons in the first place.

The second was that if Elio saw something in his script, it was never wrong. Everything happened just as he said it would...

...Usually anyway...