RWBY: SPIDER-MAN
"There is a thin line between power and responsibility. Lean too close to one edge, and you may risk losing yourself in the process."
001
Under the night sky of Remnant, a lone figure perched on the roof of a skyscraper looks out intently for any sightings of criminal activity. For the first few minutes or so, the figure, dressed in a makeshift, yet highly-advanced red-and-blue outfit was met with only the cold howling wind brushing against his face. His name is Peter Parker, a scientifically gifted student who has dedicated his time to protecting the city of Vale as the crime-fighting vigilante: Spider-Man.
Plshckbleh! The sound of shattered glass catches Peter's attention. His enhanced senses allow him to faintly pick up sounds from the commotion that based on his estimations, is occurring ten blocks away. Almost immediately, a digital map of the nearby vicinity is uploaded into the heads-up-display system in his lenses, while the suit's internal systems analyze the data to provide him the quickest route to the ongoing crime scene.
He does a quick check to see if his web-cartridges are fully loaded, before launching himself off into the brisk, chilly night. Setting his pair of weapon, the Grimm Slinger, into the web-shooter mode, Peter sends a powerful jet of liquid web-fluid from his right gauntlet at an apartment block, feeling the tug as the web attaches, causing him to swing forward at incredible speeds. He presses his fingers into his left palm to release another strand of webbing towards a nearby building.
The proportional speed of a spider and web-slinging made for a handy combination. In under ten seconds, Peter was close to the scene of the commotion. Both his spider-sense and the suit navigation systems were pointing him in the direction of the shop From Dust Till Dawn. Aside from the broken glass door, the single-story building was oddly out of place in the midst of several taller buildings.
Sticking to the wall of a nearby high-rise building, Peter watches as Roman Torchwick and a group of henchmen gathering dust inside the shop. Roman Torchwick was the notorious Kingpin of Crime who was responsible for single-handily orchestrating the numerous dust robberies that had occurred over the past six months. The master criminal had always managed to evade and stay one step ahead of the wall-crawler, till today. 'Maybe today's my lucky day.' Peter mused to himself.
Peter carefully scales down the building, making sure to keep out of Torchwick's sight. To his surprise, the window of the dust shop shatters, as a henchman and a girl dressed in red-and-black come crashing out of the window. The action gains the attention of a slightly annoyed Roman Torchwick and the remaining henchmen who witness the girl get up and unfold her weapon, Crescent Rose, into its scythe form. The girl was Ruby Rose, whose appearance bore a striking resemblance to the fairy tale character: Red Riding Hood. However, the giant red scythe in her hand told a whole different story.
Torchwick scowls in contempt, but Ruby smiles in return before gracefully twirling her weapon around, striking it into the concrete ground. 'Whoa, even I gotta admit, that does look pretty badass.'
"Okayyy... Get her!" Yells Roman to his remaining henchmen.
The henchmen rush out of the shop towards Ruby, who spins around her scythe and kicks the first approaching man straight in the face. She fires a shot which provides her the momentum to send the second henchman flying after hitting him with the blunt side of her weapon. She fires another shot, bringing down the blunt side of her scythe onto the third attacker.
The remaining three henchmen were about to ambush her from the back when a red-and-blue blur suddenly delivers a powerful drop kick to one of them.
"Look out! Did I say that too late? Oh well." Peter extends his wrist, sending a powerful jet of webbing towards one of the remaining two henchmen. The force of the web-projectile instantly knocks the criminal unconscious. In a desperate attempt, the last remaining henchman begins firing wildly at Spider-Man, frantically trying to pin down the wall-crawler. Ruby stops to admire the fluid movements of Vale's famed vigilante, while a sense of trepidation slowly crept up Roman who was none to please to come face to face with Spider-Man, a constant thorn in his side.
"Go, Spidey!" Ruby cheered with enthusiasm, beyond happy to finally meet her longtime hero.
"Thank you. You handled yourself pretty well out there." Peter replied, pausing mid-fight to have a conversation with the girl.
Ruby blushes slightly after getting a stamp of approval from the hero himself. "The name's Ruby. Ruby Rose." She added.
"Man, you guys are in dire need for some target practice lessons." Peter quips, sending a salute towards Ruby before swiftly evading the many bullets shot at him. In an instant, he knocks the last remaining henchman unconscious with a punch to the face, sending the man flying away to Roman's feet.
"You were worth every cent. Truly, you were," says Roman sarcastically to the downed henchman. "Well, Spider-Man and Red, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening," Roman said, turning his attention towards the duo as the sound of police sirens were getting increasingly louder. "And as much as I'd love to stick around..." He pauses to raise his cane, revealing a rifle with a cross grid at the bottom of his cane. "... I'm afraid this, is where we part ways."
Without warning, Roman fires a red, explosive dust round at the duo. With the help of her weapon, Ruby fires at the ground leaping over the explosion, while Peter effortlessly performed a backflip, courtesy of his superhuman agility, to avoid the blast.
When she lands, Ruby looks up to find Roman isn't there. Scouring the area, she spots him climbing a ladder on a nearby high-rise apartment complex.
Peter meanwhile checks up on the shopkeeper. "You okay?" He asks, ready to go after the oranged-haired master criminal.
With a short "Uh huh" given by the shopkeeper, Spider-Man and Ruby set off in a mad dash towards the building.
Torchwick makes it to the roof, only to have Ruby high-flying alongside Spider-Man and land behind the criminal. "Hey!" Ruby shouts, with determination, this causes the running criminal to halt to a standstill, stopping at the edge.
"Persistent." Torchwick begrudgingly comments. Out of nowhere, a getaway VTOL tilt jet aircraft appears, shocking the duo long enough to allow for the criminal mastermind to board the plane through its open hatch.
Roman turns around, holding a red dust crystal in his left hand. "End of the line, heroes." The criminal mastermind throws it towards Ruby's feet before firing a well-aimed shot at the object.
'SPIDER-SENSE!' With absolutely no time to spare, Peter grabs onto Ruby and sprints away as far as he can from the impending explosion. He narrowly avoids being burnt by the rather spectacular explosion.
"Whoa-ho-ho!" Roman cackles manically only to stop when he sees the faint outlines of Spider-Man and Ruby through the ash-filled smoke. "We've got a problem! It's the Spider." Roman says to a woman in red, as he enters the cockpit of the aircraft. The woman gives up the controls to Roman and proceeds towards the hatch of the plane.
"Where do you think you're going? The party's just starting!" says Peter as he sees the aircraft begin to make its ascent and wastes no time, shooting two web-lines that connect to the haul of the VTOL jet. With the steel-like properties of the web and his superhuman strength, Peter manages to halt the plane's ascent, much to the annoyance of Torchwick.
The mysterious woman reaches the back of the aircraft, making her presence known to the duo. The majority of her face and torso was hidden away in shadow due to the darkness of the cockpit. However, her figure was made visible due to her glowing amber eyes and burning parts of her arms and chest. Her long pale white legs were also put on display, stretching on for miles before ending on a pair of elegant, dark, glass high heels.
"Okay, I think you've taken the word hot a little too seriously, lady." Peter jokes as the woman sends a highly intensified blast of fire at him. His spider-sense warns him of the danger but causes him to lose a grip on one of the web-lines as he performs a one-handed cartwheel to avoid the attack.
Ruby, finally acting, reverts her scythe into its sniper rifle form and begins to fire round after round at the woman to take her attention off the spider-themed hero. Ruby's effort was to no avail as the woman easily countered all her shots. The mysterious woman summons two blazing circles underneath her opponents. Peter attaches the remaining web-line onto the ground before rolling himself and Ruby out of harm's way.
While the wall-crawler was distracted with Ruby, the woman takes the opportunity to deal with the remaining web-line that is currently anchoring the aircraft to the rooftop. Despite its fire-resistant properties, the webbing eventually melts under the intense heat of the woman's flame-based attacks, enabling the aircraft to continue its ascent. "Spidey, don't let them get away!" Ruby says as she resumes her attack, firing multiple rounds at the women.
"Roger that, Ruby." With a running head start, Peter performs an inhuman three-storey leap into the opening hatch of the plane, coming face to face with the silhouette of the mysterious burning lady. 'My spider-sense is going off the charts!' Peter thinks to himself, having only once encountered an opponent of the woman's caliber.
"What's with the hostility, lady?" Peter questions as he attempts to lunge at the woman. "C'mon, we've only just met." He continues, swerving to the right to avoid a fire blast aimed at his head. Peter extends his wrist, sending rapid web barrages at the woman. She manages to counter most of the projectiles, but a lucky shot tags her left hand. The spider-themed hero would have pressed onto his advantage if not for the woman summoning multiple glowing rings around herself that expanded and send him flying out of the now-closed aircraft hatch.
'Not my greatest moment.' Peter thinks to himself as he hurls a spider-tracer onto the fuselage of the plane. The spider-tracer was a self-invented tracking device that made for the perfect reconnaissance tool, due to its size and camouflage abilities. Peter watches as the VTOL tilt jet aircraft flys away, leaving a sonic boom behind as it breaks the sound barrier. He braces himself to the inevitable impact against the rooftop, only to find himself suspended in the air.
He looks to see the doing of a blonde-haired woman with bright green eyes who has her hair tied into a bun, with a curl hanging from the right side of her face. Her thin pair of glasses accompanies the teal-green earrings and the hanging pendant on her collar. She wears a white long sleeved top that exposes part of her chest and wears a black high-waisted pencil skirt with bronze buttons alongside black-brown stockings. Finally, she has black-bronze boots and a stylized cape that was purple on the inside and black on the outside. She is holding onto a wand which Peter presumes helps her to keep him afloat in the air.
"Uh, any chance you can put me down?" Peter asks politely. Without warning, the woman relinquishes her telekinetic hold on Peter. If not for his spider-like agility, he would have landed somewhat painfully on his butt. Instead, he nimbly performs a double somersault to slow down his momentum, and lands gracefully on his feet. The blonde-haired woman, whose name is Glynda Goodwitch then turns her attention to an awe-stricken Ruby.
"You're a Huntress!" Ruby squeals in excitement, "Can I have your autograph?
Ruby Rose was having the best day of her life. She finally got the chance to fight against some actual bad guys, met her longtime hero Spider-Man, and even a Huntress! She was looking forward to polishing her weapon after the fight only to land herself in trouble with said Huntress, what a bummer.
The girl was so enamored over what transpired moments ago that she failed to notice a dazed Spider-Man who was dejectedly sticking to the back of the wall. 'Beacon Academy, I shouldn't be here. I remember coming here once, before the spider-bite before I ruined everything.' Peter thinks to himself.
"I hope you realize that your actions tonight would not be taken lightly, young lady. You put yourself and others in great danger." Chided Glynda as she paces back and forth around Ruby, who is seating underneath a bright light in an otherwise dark air-conditioned room.
"They started it!" An exasperated Ruby immediately counters, in an attempt to explain herself.
The Huntress is left unconvinced, "If it were up to me, you'd be sent home... with a pat on the back..." She says, stopping mid sentence after noticing Ruby's smile, "... And a slap on the wrist." She continues before swinging her wand towards Ruby's wrist. Ruby manages to recoil her hands in time to avoid the slap, as she gives out a small "Eeek!" in slight surprise. "But... there is someone here who would like to meet you." The Huntress finally concludes, which peeks Ruby's interest yet fails to get any reaction from Peter, who remained in a trance-like state.
Glynda steps out of the way to allow a middle-aged man with tousled silver hair with shaded glass spectacles to make his way through the doorway. The man is dressed in an unzipped black jacket over a buttoned vest and a green shirt with black trousers while holding a mug and a plate of cookies in his hands.
"Ruby Rose... " The man says, leaning in to look at her face. "You... have silver eyes."
"Uh, um," Ruby replies, unsure of what to make of the man's comment.
"So! Where did you learn to do this?" The man gestures with his head to the video of Ruby and Spider-Man's fight.
"S-Signal Academy." She responds with slight discomfort.
"They taught you how to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?" He quickly asks in interest at this revelation.
"Well, one teacher in particular." Ruby clarified, not wanting the man to start thinking that Signal was getting more dangerous with their weapon usage.
"I see..." The man says as he places the plate of cookies on the table in front of the red-caped girl.
Hesitantly, Ruby reaches for one of the cookies and gobbles it down. Seeing as to how there was no reaction from the two adults, the enthusiastic fifteen-year-old girl shoves the rest of the cookies into her mouth.
"It's just that I've only seen one other particular scythe wielder of that skill before. A dusty, old crow." The man cryptically says.
"Mmmm. Thash muh unkul!" An excited Ruby responds, forgetting that she was mumbling through her full mouth. The man is slightly taken aback by Ruby's behavior.
Ruby notices, quickly swallowing her food before wiping her mouth in slight embarrassment. "Sorry, That's my Uncle Qrow! He's a teacher at Signal. I was complete garbage before he took me under his wing. And now, I'm all like— Hooowaaah! Witchaaaa!" Ruby replies as she proceeds to make some karate-chop poses and noises.
"So I've noticed." The intrigued man says, placing his cup on the table as he leans in with his arms on the opposite side of Ruby. "And what is an adorable girl such as yourself doing at a school designed to train warriors?"
"Well... I want to be a Huntress." Ruby answers, doing her best to sound confident.
"You want to slay monsters?" The man inquired.
"Yeah! I only have two more years of training left at Signal! And then I'm going to apply to Beacon!" Ruby says with excitement as she begins to speak at a faster pace. "You see, my sister's starting there this year, and she's trying to become a Huntress, and I'm trying to become a Huntress 'cause I wanna help people. My parents always taught us to help others, so I thought, Hey, I might as well make a career out of it!" She pauses to giggle. "I mean, the police are alright, but Huntsmen and Huntresses are just so much cooler, and gosh, you know!"
"Do you know who I am?" The man finally asks.
"You're Professor Ozpin. You're the headmaster at Beacon." Ruby immediately replies.
"Hello." Ozpin courteously says with a small smile on his face.
"Nice to meet you." Ruby politely responded.
"You want to come to my school?" He asks in a serious tone, looking at her directly in the eye.
"More than anything." Ruby confidently replies.
The Professor exchanges a glance with Glynda, who shows her slight disapproval with a "Hmmph" before turning back to face Ruby. "Well, okay." Ruby grins in delight with wide eyes and her mouth slightly agape. "Now if you could excuse us, Ruby, I still need to speak to our friend up there." He says pointing to Peter who is still sticking onto the back wall of the room. Without further prompting, Ruby quietly leaves the room alongside Glynda who closes the door behind them.
"Spider-Man," Ozpin says, turning his attention to Vale's famed vigilante. Peter is finally snapped out of his trance, thinking to himself 'Huh, where am I? Oh, right...'
"I'm sorry, Professor Ozpin," Peter says sheepishly after getting off the wall. It's just that, I... I have to go." He said, heading straight for the exit.
"Before you go, I want you to know that I am aware of who you are, Peter." The professor suddenly revealed.
'What?' Ozpin's comment immediately gains the undivided attention of Peter who suddenly freezes up, stopping dead in his tracks. "What makes you so sure of that, Professor?"
Without a word, Ozpin motions for Glynda to make her way back into the room. Glynda then places her scroll compiled with all available information they have on Spider-Man in front of the table, for Peter to see. The video was dated two years ago and showed a then amateur Peter Parker getting into his Spider-Man get up before stopping a carjacking. The video fasts forwards to the time Peter gets into his first fight with a notable criminal, the Shocker, in an all out brawl across a row of dust shops. The top left portion of Peter's tattered mask exposes part of his face as a result of the fight. Finally, the video ends with Spider-Man taking down one of Vale's then biggest mob bosses, the infamous Tombstone, nearly a year ago. 'Good ol' Parker luck... All this time, I assumed I was careful with concealing my secret identity, guess I thought wrong.'
"Peter Parker." Ozpin suddenly says. "A gifted science prodigy at Midtown Academy, you graduated from the academy at the age of fifteen. You were offered a place at both Atlas and Beacon Academy, solely based on your incredible academic merit. Why did you turn down the offer? Why did you spend two years risking your life as a vigilante when you could have used the head start you were given to be a well-trained Huntsman?" The man questions.
"Getting these powers was more than I could, and can, ever ask for, I knew that I could do so much, yet my selfishness got in the way. My inaction cost me, my beloved Uncle and Aunt. As an orphan, they were all I had, without them, Peter Parker had nothing left to fight for in his life," Peter dejectedly says, referring to himself in third-person. "But Spider-Man had a city to protect. I wasn't going to let my grief get in the way of my duty. I had these incredible powers. And with it, came responsibility." Despite the tragedy life had dealt with him, the young hero affirms his stance with a certain sense of optimism around him.
The two adults sympathize with the boy after hearing his heartfelt response, yet they can't help but be impressed by his act of selflessness.
'Did I just blurted all that out?' Peter questions himself. 'Guess I forgot how good having a genuine conversation with someone was.'
"Thank you for sharing this, Peter. While your methods are somewhat unorthodox, I have seen the good you have done. Your role as the vigilante of Vale has helped to reduce the city's crime rate by a significant amount. Vale's citizens feel safer as a result of your presence, steering the city further away from feelings of negativity and thereby the Grimm." Ozpin says to the boy.
"I try my best. Thank you, Professor." Peter replies, not knowing what to say.
"However, while your incredible powers and uncanny intellect have aided you tremendously in your many battles, I'm afraid they will no longer suffice," warns Ozpin, who looks directly at Peter in the eye. "You're involvement in taking down a substantial amount of crime in Vale will inevitably attract the attention of some of Remnant's most dangerous criminals who are likely too powerful for even an enhanced individual, such as yourself, to handle."
"I observe your combat skills are somewhat lacking, and that you rely far too heavily on your instinct," Glynda added as she reviewed footage from Peter's fight with the Shocker.
"As the headmaster of Beacon, I would like to once again offer you a place at Beacon. Let us help you, guide you in reaching your full potential. Rest assured your secret identity is safe with myself and Glynda." Ozpin says, with Glynda nodding in agreement.
Joining the school would indeed give him the edge against stronger opponents, but doing so would take him away from his crime-fighting duties as Spider-Man. Contemplating his situation, Peter eyes the Professor and Glynda who are both currently awaiting his response.
"One question, Professor Ozpin." Peter requests before making his decision, "Let's say I decide to join this school, how can I be sure you wouldn't just bar me from my crime-fighting related activities?"
"I assure you that will not be an issue." Answered Ozpin. "Now Peter, what is your decision?"
A quick A/N to everyone who has read this, I sure hoped you enjoyed it! As you know by now, some of Peter's villains do exist in this Spider-Man/RWBY crossover world. I thought it was a cool idea to make Roman Torchwick the Kingpin of this world. Took some liberties with renaming the web-shooters as the Grimm Slinger, but that's because web-shooting isn't the only trick this device has got up its sleeve. Stay tuned for more!