Woo! Next chapter!
Thanks for all the great feedback - it's great to know that people are enjoying my stories!
Just want to say, this is not based on any particular version of Spiderman. For example, the Doc Ock we saw last chapter was the one from the Spiderverse movie, but the 'sticky hairs' thing is from the Sam Raimi films (I think) - however, Ruby lacks the natural webbing that the Sam Raimi version has. She also doesn't have Miles' shocks or his invisibility - my Spidergirl has her own, internally consistent, set of abilities related to her semblance. Just wanted to get that out there.
Finally, this story doesn't have a fixed end point - it will have arcs that govern its storylines, some of which will focus on the rest of the team (I have some plans) but there is no end result as of yet. I'll go for as long as I feel is necessary.
With that out of the way, enjoy the chapter!
Ruby Rose: Spidergirl
Chapter 2 – Great Power
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Ruby had finished getting dressed by the time that the others woke up. Her clothes adequately covered her hard-to-explain musculature, but her height was far harder to conceal. Yang was, of course, the first to notice.
"Ruby!" She had yelled, causing Blake and Ruby to wince and rub her head. Weiss looked at Yang in mild confusion as Ruby wondered why everything was suddenly so loud.
"Yeah?"
"Look – you're taller!"
Ruby looked at her in feigned surprise. "Really?"
"Yeah, look." She stepped up to Ruby and dragged a hand from above Ruby's head to her chest. It only met her nose, but Ruby remembered it being far lower before. "You're like, way taller."
"Huh. Guess all that milk did its job." She laughed, and Yang laughed too. Weiss looked inquisitively at her, as did Blake. Yang looked over Weiss and smiled predatorially.
"Hey, I guess that makes Weiss-Cream the shortest of us now."
Weiss squawked indignantly and stormed over to compare herself to Ruby. But Yang was right: Ruby could see the top of Weiss's head. Weiss, clearly noticing the same issue, scurried back to her bed while grumbling. Yang laughed again.
"Well, we need to find out how high you are now. I must not have noticed it last night."
Ruby nodded nervously. She didn't know what was going on, but comic books had told her that superpowers should be kept secret. Were these even superpowers, or something else? Was this because of something she ate? The spider from yesterday came to mind; could it have been that? Comic book logic told her yes, but this wasn't a comic book. She resolved to find out when she next had the chance.
"Hold on, what's the time?" said Blake, looking up to the clock. Weiss and Blake froze.
"10:00!" Said Weiss, eyes wide. "I need to go, or I'll be late for my restaurant reservation!"
"I told the bookshop I'd be there to pick up my delivery by 10:30!" Said Blake, hurriedly grabbing her clothes.
Yang just laughed as they frantically dashed around the room, trying to get ready to go. Ruby slumped in relief. They had finally changed the subject, and they were leaving to boot. Now just to get away from Yang…
A thought struck her.
"Hey, can I join you? I've been meaning to check out some new weapons parts in Vale."
Weiss barely spared her a look before nodding.
"Sweet." She turned to Yang. "Enjoy your alone time I guess."
"Eh, I'll just hang with Pyrrha. JNPR aren't going out today, are they?" At Blake's shaking head, she smiled. "Nice. Nora wanted to train some new moves with me."
Ruby nodded and grabbed her stuff. She needed to test some stuff out.
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The ski mask fit snugly over her head as she pulled it down. Ruby, once she had evaded her teammates, had changed into clothes she would never usually be caught dead wearing – a grey jumpsuit that she had once worn for a school play, still baggy and itchy despite her new size, as well as a pair of cheap sneakers she had borrowed from her sister and a ski-mask she had found at a thrift store on the way here. If there was one thing that comic books had taught her (which there wasn't, there were many things) it was that superheroes always hid their faces. Secret Identities and all that. She looked around the alley she was in – small and cramped, and empty apart for an open dumpster. It was time for superhero training.
She had wondered on the flight there what had caused her sudden empowerment. Was it something she had eaten something strange – or maybe it was all the milk she was drinking! But she had eventually decided that it had to be the spider. She didn't care what Doctor Octavius had said; maybe something had been different about this spider, maybe the procedure failed or something else, but one thing was certain to her: it was the spider's fault. She just had this feeling.
It was this realisation that had given her an idea. Her palms were now extraordinarily sticky if she wanted them to be, but it wasn't until she had thought about the spider that it had clicked. What do spiders stick to? Walls. And now here she was, testing her ability to stick to walls in a back alley next to a rotten dumpster. She cursed whatever god had done this to her and placed her palm on the wall. It stuck.
She placed the other above it; using her rock-climbing skills from when she was at Signal (rock-climbing lessons were good for her upper arm strength, important for wielding Crescent Rose) she began to climb, focusing to release and stick each hand. Soon, however, this became effortless, and she was clambering around on the wall like- well, like a spider. She reached the top and climbed on.
The building's roof was flat, with a slight slant to encourage water into a gutter drain in the lower wall. She walked across it and looked across Vale.
The sight was beautiful; hundreds of buildings stretching off, cut off only by a wall. From here, the sound of the docks could be heard, and the sun glowed in the sky. She looked across the rows of identical green and grey roofing and had the sudden urge to jump across them.
The first gap was easy - just a hop. She broke into a run, jumping further and further as the gaps got harder to cover the gap. Suddenly, she fell short, grasping the edge of the roof. Looking down momentarily and being spooked by the view, she pulled herself up. To her surprise, she not only climbed onto the roof but launched herself upwards, flipping in the air and landing on her feet. She stared at her arms in awe.
Upon walking to the other side, she looked over the roof edge to see cars beeping and flowing below her. If she fell from this height, it was bound to kill her – or at least, aura considered, seriously maim her. The gap was huge – there was no way she could jump that, not even with her apparent super strength. She looked around, resigned to go some other way. Then she saw a spool of rope.
A few seconds later, and Ruby was readying herself to jump. The rope had been knotted with a lasso knot and thrown at a lamp post, and she had calculated the trajectory by eye. She could do this. And hey, if she fell, she was a huntress in training! She had a landing strategy, even though it was based around, y'know, having your weapon or being in a forest. This would be easy! Not fooling herself in the slightest, she jumped.
And swung.
She laughed as the air rushed past her ears, eyes closing reflexively at the sudden barrage. She moved like a pendulum – down, and then up again. When the wind disappeared, she opened her eyes and panicked, falling. She had been launched up by the swing and was now hurtling down onto the concrete of the other roof. With no other options, she curled into a ball and hoped for the best.
She landed with a thud and rolled a few feet before coming up standing. She turned to see cracked concrete where she had landed.
Do I have super-resilience or something?
Confused, she tried to figure out what would happen next when she heard an explosion off in the distance. She turned, suddenly aware of her lack of a weapon.
Well… let's put these powers to the test!
She launched into a sprint.
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Ruby arrived at a bridge in the middle of Vale that was strewn into chaos. Cars were shoved across the road at strange angles, severed tension cables dangled from the side and two (empty) cars lay aflame on the road below. Pieces of the bridge that hadn't survived had fallen to the ground as well, exposed rebar poking up like deadly spikes. She landed on one of the pillars and slid her way down onto the bridge.
People were cowering behind upturned cars from the man who stood in the centre of the bridge. They looked up in confusion and dulled fear as she passed them to get a better look. The man's hands were emitting a cold and ominous glow from steel gauntlets on his wrists. He wore a brown and yellow jumpsuit and a strange mask over his face that failed to cover his maddened eyes. He must have heard her approach, as he turned to meet her gaze.
"Well, well well…" He said, bringing up his fists. "Look what we have here!"
Ruby felt a strange emotion rising within her, or… was it an emotion at all? Distracted, she momentarily focussed on the strange sensation.
-DODGE-
She moved without thinking as the man blew towards her, fist outstretched. She had barely a moment to consider this before he turned and attacked her again, blocking his fists as best as she could. She tried to land a hit, but he simply sent a fist into her gut, sending her flying. She finished rolling and looked up at him as he primed his gauntlets.
"I can see this is going to be interesting!" He laughed maniacally, staring her in the eyes.
Ruby struggled to her feet. "Who are you?"
He lifted his visor, smiling madly. "Call me The Shocker."
Well would you look at that, a new challenger approaches - and you may find him shocking!
I had to do some research on Shocker, as he isn't a villain I am super acquainted with, so don't be shocked if he is crazier in this version - way I figure, in a world of Grimm, you'd have to be crazy to incite negative emotion on such a large scale. This world is an AU because of the villains that Ruby will have to fight - ones that are transplanted into this world from the Spiderman ones. Suffice to say, Vale is a lot more like New York this loop than it is in baseline RWBY.
Ruby - shockingly - doesn't have her spider suit yet or her webbings, so she's at a disadvantage here... wonder how she'll get out of this one!
So yeah. Ruby is up against a mad Shocker - and the people are counting on her...
See you dreckly!