Disclaimer: Brotherhoof12 does not own RWBY or the Spider-Man franchise.
Chapter 60 The Origin
Alright, let's take this from the top. My name is Maria Calvera, and I was bestowed a great gift from the Spider God and have been using my skills as a Huntress and spider powers for over 60 years.
At first, I was already special when my father told me that having unique eyes made me a threat to Grimm. Naturally, I was taught the skills of a Huntress and earned my Hunstmen license with ease. For a while, I was doing solo missions. I tackled many significant numbers of Grimm to the point where people wished to know my name so it could be remembered for the next generation of Huntsmen.
I honestly attempted to agree and let them know who I was. Just imagining my name to be famous, to be a living legend, did sway my ego to just let people know who I am, but my father warned me of such things as letting fame get to my head. That is why he told me to always wear a mask and never tell anyone my real identity.
At first, I was mad that no one would know who saved them, but it seemed that I didn't need to worry, as people had decided to give me a nickname.
The Grimm Reaper.
Everything was going smoothly for some time being a Huntress. However, things started to turn bizarre when I began waking up and sticking to walls. It didn't stop there, for I began to exhibit strength and speed beyond that of Hunstmen, silk being produced from the tips of my fingers, and the most challenging was the flaring pain from my head.
My first thought was that my semblance was changing, only for my father to tell me it was not a semblance.
These sudden powers came from my mother's side of the family.
My mother, who I had never met, came from a secret society that worships the spider God, the Great Weaver, and was gifted with powers that match an arachnid.
They were called the Spider Society, and the people who worshipped the Great Weaver were hunters. Unlike the Hunstmen, they fought more than monsters.
The Spider Society fought men who worship our natural enemy, but that is a tale for another time.
So not only did I have silver eyes that Grimm feared, but I also had powers that came from a god too.
Needless to say, my pride in my heritage was soon eclipsed by my arrogance about how superior I was to my fellow man.
Sometime after that, I started to hone my new powers further, and soon it got to my head that I was undefeatable by both Grimm and mortals.
How can Grimm ever scare me when I can merely erase their exitance with but a glance?
Why worry about making enemies when I have the powers to know who will attack me before they do?
Such pride in my powers kept getting bigger and bigger. Only when losing did I finally see that I was mortal like everyone else.
In a distant land filled with large mountains and dense fog that makes it difficult for people to see even the ground. A robed figure walked calmly on a long rickety bridge to get to the other side. The boards that made up the bridge were old and showed signs of breaking, and the ropes that kept it suspended seemed that any more weight applied could snap it and have the stranger plummet to an endless fall.
Each step could have had the long bridge to shake, and yet no signs of it shaking happened as the mysterious stranger walked forward. It was as if she knew which step to take to limit the chances of the bridge collapsing. Taking a step made the bridge finally shake and had the stranger stop moving. Only it was not the action of taking a step that caused the bridge to shake; the sound of the wind billowing and a faint screeching noise followed behind it.
Strong winds shook the bridge, yet the robed wanderer did not seem bothered or unbalanced, as if their equilibrium was attuned to such hectic imbalances. Due to the heavy fog and the wind, it would be impossible to know where the screeching was coming from. Yet again, the robed traveler seemed to do the bizarre and turned where the danger was coming from as if some unknown force was telling them trouble was approaching.
Through the dense fog, a dark shape appeared in the form of a massive avian Grimm. When the Nevermore's entire appearance broke through the mist, it wasted no time in bellowing an enormous scream, opening its beak, and chomping down on its meal.
Its attack resulted in the bridge breaking, causing the two broken halks to fall into the fog, leaving no evidence of the Nevermore swooping in and killing someone.
That is if the prey was an average person and the Grimm Reaper was no such person.
"CAAAW!" pain came in the form of two sythes piercing its wings, confusing it with what attacked it as it did not see anything. If it was bright, it would have looked above as the one who retaliated was none other than the prey it thought it swallowed.
Above the dense fog, the sunlight could shine on the now revealed Grimm Reaper in all her glory. With the drab robes now gone, Maria was shown to be wearing a blue full-body suit decorated with spider webs running throughout the suit. The back of her costume had a web with a shawl-like look to it, and on her chest was a skull that had an appearance to that of a Spider. Maria's final piece of wardrobe was on her head; it was covered in a human-sized skull followed by red accents shaped like a spider.
With the avian monster still in pain from the attack, Maria didn't waste a single second as she unleashed web lines that limited the Nevermore's movements. Immobilized, it soon lost altitude quickly and crashed into the side of a mountain if not for Maria's quick thinking by her using web lines to guide it to the ground level. Seeing a flat land, Maria jumped off the Nevermore, shot two more web lines to pull out her sythes, named Life and Death, from its wings, and swung down using the web lines like whips. At the tip of her web lines had the sythes, and the force behind the blows was strong enough to sever its wings, turning the once strong bird into a pitiful worm. Crashing onto the ground, Maria used the large body of the Grimm as a cushion and, thanks to it, made her suffer no signs of being injured from the fall.
A cloud of dust caused by the crash began to settle, and seeing as the monster was no longer moving, Maria dropped her guard and jumped off the avian. Tugging at her web lines made it retract and caught Life and Death with both her hands. Holstering her weapons on her back, Maria attempted to walk away from the monster. She did not notice that the Nevermore had yet to disintegrate, and its four glowing eyes locked on her while her back was turned.
Despite being a Grimm, its mind was still similar to an animal, and with such a mindset, it had a fight-or-flight response. Knowing that in its final moments before disappearing, the Nevermore used what little strength it had, poured it all into its neck and head, and unleashed its last attack at Maria, hoping it could take the Huntress that defeated it.
So close to the prey that it didn't have a chance to dodge, the Nevermore's powerful beaks caught Maria its beaks and crushed her!
"CWA-UGH!" Not feeling the warm liquids of blood or flesh, it felt an intense vice holding its beak in place!
"Got to say, I tend to forget that it's always the large ones that hold the most sentience." Maria, the Grimm Reaper, spoke casually while holding the Nevermore's jaws with just her hands. Try as it might to break free or apply more force, Maria's strength outclassed it and only made its demise quicker as it thrashed around. "Aww~! Poor thing. Here, let me help you die quicker."
The eye sockets of her mask flashed a bright light that enveloped the two of them, and soon the light faded. When the brilliant light stopped and receded into Maria's eyes, what was left of the Nevermore was its form beginning to disintegrate into dust before a gust of wind blew it away. Dusting off her suit when some of the Nevermore particles clung to her, the silver-eyed spider woman looked back at the Nevermore once and smiled underneath her mask.
"Another job completed. A straightforward mission with easy pay."
'It was pure coincidence that the village I was walling through had a request to kill a Nevermore that was attacking their traders. Now that it's gone, the village can rest easy and get some revenue back.'
"Sucks that the bridge was one of the few needed for the village even to have traders come through. Oh well, it's not my problem if that dang bird broke the thing. It's not like I was getting paid as a bridge builder."
Her plans to return to the village got cut short when she felt danger was coming from behind her. When the threat was getting closer, Maria immediately shifted her body to avoid the oncoming attack.
She didn't even need to see what she avoided as Maria was familiar with the sound of a bullet whizzing past her before hitting the side of a boulder. Unfazed by the attack, Maria turned to where it was coming from and saw four Hunstmen, three of whom were males, and the last being a female Faunus. Gazing at each enemy, Maria could already surmise that the three men were nothing much to consider a threat. Two are armed with a blade and a gun, and the third only has a giant sledgehammer that may look intimidating. Yet, Maria couldn't help but smirk to herself at how funny they thought only four would be enough actually to kill her.
The most fearsome of the four was the female Huntress, that was sporting twin swords and an actual clock on her waist, which made Maria wonder if that was part of her semblance or just for show. Other than that, appearance-wise, she was also more unique than her teammates, for she had green scaly skin, her eyes were a bright yellow with irises that resembled a lizard, and to tie off the looks, she smiled, revealing her pearly white sharp chompers.
"Well, that's a fancy trick, now it'nit?" The female Faunus brought a piece of the broken nevermore and crushed it in her hands. "'fraid it comes with a price though, love."
While Maria was looking at who she could only assume to be the leader, the rest of the goon squad spread out and got ready to fight. All the while, Maria showed no tension and only stood static, showing that she had no intention of giving them any sign of taking them seriously.
"Whot? Not gonna say anything, Grimm Reaper? Scared?"
Maria tilted her head but didn't talk to her attackers. The silver-eyed spider woman seemed to be focusing on something else.
"I see you know my name, but could you hold off on your little attack? The real trouble finally decided to show themselves?"
"You smug litttl- Whot are yah on about?"
Just when the lizard Faunus was about to start the clock, a new sound came from around, startling the four as they were surprised that there were other people besides them.
Upon listening to the new sound, it became clear that it was the sounds of clapping the echoes throughout the area. It then abruptly stopped, and a tall, muscular man walked out of the fog with black hair and a thick beard wearing leather pants and a vest that looked like the pelt of a lion.
"As always, ever the perceptive spider!" The new guest laughed at how easily he was caught trying to be stealthy.
"Kravinoff," Maria sounded happy to see a familiar face, only to drop the cheery tone as she hated him for his obsessive plan of killing her. "I thought I smelled cat urine, and it seems I was right. What brings you here in these neck of the mountains? Wait, let me guess; you want to hunt the biggest game, right?"
"HA! HA! You are correct!" Walking to face her properly, the now-known Kravinoff didn't show any concern at the four Hunstmen pointing their weapons at him. "Did you think we would lose you after our last hunt?"
"Honestly, yeah, I really did." Maria chuckled. "By the way, speaking about 'We,' does that mean...?"
"RROOEEEAAAARRRRR!" Kravinoff bellowed a mighty roar that made the hunstmen cover their ears. At the same time, Maria still stood static as soon as the hunter stopped screaming; more people with similar clothing to Kravinoff started to emerge from nowhere. "You are correct! As the Chief of the clan of Kravinoff, I bring the pack with me! How else will they bear witness to seeing the clan's greatest prey die today."
'I keep forgetting that this weirdo named his entire group by his name. Overcompensating much?' Maria was thankful she was wearing a mask to get away with rolling her eyes.
"Oi!" Finally, having enough of being played as some joke, the lizard Faunus pointed her sword behind Kravinoff's head. Sounds of blades unsheathed and guns being cocked as the hunstmen and the hunters of Kravinoff were soon in a standoff. Despite being outnumbered, the lizard Faunus showed more courage than Kravinoff thought. "I don't care about whot is happenin. We were 'ere first, so back off!"
"Hmm?" The Chief of the clan rubbed his bearded chin. "Spider, out of courtesy and respect, I could have my hunters handle these poachers, and the two of us can finish our fight once and for all."
Maria did like the sound of not needing to handle these tools, but again, she didn't want to fight Kravinoff either. She didn't stay in one place despite her pride in having silver eyes and spider powers. Certain groups of people want her dead such as the Kravinoff clan, a crazy tribe that didn't just hunt Grimm for sport but other people they deemed worthy of hunting.
'I can make just these four idiots as a distraction.' A plan started to form in her head. 'Fight these hunstmen, and when the moment is right, I can make a break for it and hightail it out of here. If a fight breaks loose, I'm pretty sure the huntsmen and the Kravinoff clan would start fighting each other before chasing me.'
"Thanks for the offer, but I can handle them. I'm sure, um, what is your name, miss?"
"It's Tock."
"Right, so I can handle Tik-Tok, and you guys can just sit back. It won't be long; I guarantee it will be over in a minute."
"Hmm, very well," With one sweep from his hand, Kravinoff's clansmen put down their weapons. "I will allow these poachers to enact their futile fight with you. But be warned, when I kill you, don't make an excuse that these Hunstmen were the ones that weakened you."
Giving a small salute to the chieftain, Maria and the four Hunstmen watched as the hunters surrounded them and kept an eye on their actions. It was so that in case none of them would think of escaping or if when the winner emerged, the hunters would all attack said winner.
"So, now that you lot have some heavy competition. Still feel like having a go at me?"
"Don't sound all uppity thinking got me mates, and I rattled." With a quick head motion to make her teammates focus on the fight, Tock pulled the large clock strapped to her waist and began to wind it. "Besides, the one who should be confident in this fight bein' over in a minute is me."
With one more twist to the clock, Tock put the timer back to her waist, and soon it started to tick. All four Huntsmen were in position, and when a green aura began to encase the lizard Faunus, Tock started to move.
Dashing to attack Maria before she could even lift her weapons, Tock attempted to chop the Grimm Reapers' head off with her swords, only to miss her mark. Not slowing down her attack, Tock kept swinging her blades while remaining close enough for Maria to be unable to use her sythes. But even without using her weapons, Maria has shown no effort in dodging Tock's skilled swordsmanship.
Tock was going for an overhead strike with her right, at the same time a rising sword swing with her left, and was surprised when Maria finally started to take action. Getting closer to Tock to where the left sword strike missed, Tock's left arm landed on Maria's shoulder, and her right caught with Maria's left hand. Not fast enough to take a step back, Maria performed a right uppercut that lifted Tock off the ground. As she was in the air, Maria twisted Tock's body, pulled her right arm that Maria was still holding, and used her super strength to perform a shoulder throw.
Maria was about to stomp on Tock's head to have it buried in the dirt, only to dodge a sword stab from a still conscious Tock. Maria's eyes widened beneath her mask as she noted that Tock's reaction to being brutally thrown on the floor was unnatural. Maria's pondering had to be put on hold when the back of her skull warned her of trouble. Reacting to said trouble, Maria moved her head to dodge a dust round, and looking over her shoulder; she saw two of the hunstmen with guns firing at her. Deciding that handling the other three was more manageable than fighting Tock, Maria trapped Tock by webbing her to the ground and charged toward the other three.
Surprisingly, the fastest one to react to Maria's charge was the one wielding the large sledgehammer. The wielder of said hammer angled his swing to have it aimed at Maria's skull, and if it connected, it would toss her away and take a good portion of her aura. Only she wasn't a typical huntress, and just as she was an inch away from getting hit, Maria displayed a fantastic display of agility and reaction time by dodging the attack and following up by striking the man's legs with her twin scythes.
The force behind her blow was far stronger than the man using the hammer, thanks to her being gifted by the spider god with super strength. Being unable to react to Maria's blinding speed, the hammer user's body flipped 360 degrees before landing on his back with his aura used to shield him from harm flared up.
All that happened in the span of two seconds, enough for the other two Hunstmen to aim their guns at Maria. The silver-eyed spider woman thought of dodging, only to have a better idea. By dragging her right scythe, life, in between Hunstmen's legs, pulled and, using her super strength, lifted the hammer wielder as a human shield.
The Hunstmen who used a sledgehammer had his aura flare up again as he was shot in the face by his fellow brother in arms. Dazed at the point-blank shot, he could not recover when Maria shifted him again to take another dust shot from the second shooter. The second shot that hit him caused his aura to flare once more before shattering, making him defenseless to the elements and Maria's bladed weapon still firmly between his legs.
What little peace he had was turned into pain as he screamed in anguish as Maria pulled her weapon upward and split the Hunstmen from the crotch to head.
Unprepared by seeing such a graphic end to their teammate, Maria capitalized on their weakness and attacked the first gunman. Ducking underneath the firearm, Maria wasted no time or effort as she swiped death to knock away the gun. The Hunstmen, with his only other weapon being just a short machete, attempted to unsheath but was too slow. Maria crossed her duel weapons around his waist with both blades pointed at his back. He was going to shout for his friend to help, only to stop when Maria brought both her legs up and kicked him in the face with full force.
The pain he was experiencing was as if a cannon was fired right at his face! The sheer leg strength was unbelievable, and the huntsman's aura breaking from taking the brunt of the force left him defenseless. Next was another display of brutality coming from the Grimm Reaper, for she pulled her weapons back with her super strength that tore the man in half. Maria sprinted to the last gunman without slowing down before the torso could hit the ground. Registering his last friend dead, he tried to fire at Maria to slow her down. Only for her to shift her weapons together and use her newly formed scythe to deflect each bullet.
The sound of the gun clicking made it apparent that he ran out of ammo and the look on the man's face paled as he realized he had no other choice but to fight at close range. However, his option was not to be as Maria used her super speed to close the gap between them, slam her shoulder into his chest, and the force behind the blow knocked him off his feet. Before his back could touch the dirt, Maria attached a web line on the man's chest and swung him to a nearby boulder.
Dazed and winded by the influx of movement, he could not raise his guard when Maria shifted her scythe back to duel blades and threw them at the Hunstmen. Just as the edges were halfway to the target, Maria latched a web line between the two making them spin in tandem.
The first blade, life, was the final stake in the coffin as the aura finally shattered as the blade pierced his stomach. Blood pooled out of his mouth, and just as he was about to scream, only to see that the second blade, death, veered off course and missed him. Of course, it was an illusion of mercy, for the web line attached to the second blade wrapped around the rock and stabbed itself into the man's mouth.
"RAAAH!" Now free from her webbed binding, Tock screamed a warcry and tried to attack Maria while her back was turned.
Smiling underneath her mask, Maria evaded the attack and kicked her legs using Tock's momentum, making Tock fall face first. Dirt could be tasted in her mouth, and Tock was sure that her time of invulnerability was almost up, so, in a last-ditch effort, she charged back at Maria.
Using her webbing to make some batons, Maria deflected and counted each attack that came from her. Her enhanced speed, strength, and spider-sense easily handled whatever Tock's attacks were. At the same time, Tock's semblance of invincibility made it easy for her to tank each strike Maria gave her. Their stalemate came when Tock's swords were finally able to slice Maria's web batons making the spider woman resort to catching them with her hands!
Maria's aura was flickering, holding the blades back from cutting her hands. Despite the fact that her danger sense informed her that she was in trouble, Maria could not foresee that the crisis would come in the form of Tock spitting out saliva and dirt at her face.
"Gah!" Stunned at this development, Maria couldn't process what just happened, and she dropped her guard in that sliver of weakness.
'That moment of weakness was finally here!' Thought Tock, who slashed her swords at Maria making the Grimm Reaper's aura flare up. 'Just another swipe from my swords, and she's dead!'
Tock was going for a broad sword swipe from the left, and just as it was about to sever Maria's head, the spider woman regained her cool and dodged the strike.
'Thank goodness my semblance helps me handle attacks even if I can't see it is coming.' Maria's one eye could see that Tock was getting ready to perform another sword strike and was getting prepared to counterattack. 'I can see it! Her next attack is going to be another swipe!'
Maria's danger sense started to flare up more painfully. It was as if a hot iron was getting jabbed into the back of her skull. 'Ignore the pain. I need to see the attack coming! Just focus on what is in front of you!'
Maria's perspective of what was around her was moving slowly, making her aware of what was around her. Even as the back of her skull was getting more painful, Maria kept her sights on Tock. As if the spider-sense had a mind of its own, it turned the pain to the point where Maria felt her head was going to explode.
'What!?' It was sudden, but Maria's eye no longer saw Tock's sword about to hit her. What replaced the Huntress was another person who was a young male with Blonde hair and blue eyes walking in a city she has no memory of seeing. The Grimm Reaper was not sure what she was seeing and wondered what she saw, only to have the image of the boy be replaced with another person. It was a girl with short brown hair with red highlights and silver eyes that confused Maria even more about why she was seeing this. 'Why is this happening to me!? Who are these people, and what is making me see all this?!'
Once more, the image of the blonde boy came to view, only this time he was not dressed in regular clothes. Maria's heart stopped as she saw the boy garbed in a style similar to hers, dressed in a suit with a spider symbol in the center of his chest. Again and again, Maria kept seeing the boy and girl performing different feats, battling different enemies.
She was beginning to think she was going insane, only to have her vision turn black, making her fear she was dead. Thoughts of crossing the other side were stopped when she finally saw the light, and in the light was a massive web with no end in sight. Each pocket of the web displayed several images of the boy and girl at different times performing different actions that resulted in victory or defeat.
'OOOAAAHH!' Suddenly, Maria felt like her body was falling towards the web. As she got closer, she spotted someone at the center of it all. That mysterious figure was hard to see, yet she could faintly see the person's outline. Whoever the person was was tall with their face covered in a mask that had several eye sockets, and even more weird is that Maria could count eight limbs that looked like legs!
'Who are you?!'
Whoever or whatever she was seeing seemed to notice her. As its head moved to look at her, Maria's sight of the being was cut short when Tock finally landed a severe blow to Maria's eyes.
One moment she saw what could be thought of as the multiverse and then a flash of steel before Maria could no longer see anything. She landed harshly on her back, and she could have groaned in pain from hitting her head on the hard floor, but all she could think about was her blood pooling out of her now blind eyes.
"AAAAHHHH!" Maria clutched her bleeding eye sockets and rolled around on the ground. While screaming, her ability to sense danger still screams that she is in danger. Yet, her panicked state made it impossible for her to concentrate on where it was coming from, making her even more panicked. 'Tock! Where is she coming from?!'
"Raah!" In a pitiful state, the young spider Huntress tried to ensnare Tock in webbing only to miss by firing too far to the right missing Tock altogether.
Tock's giant clock rang, signaling her 60 seconds of invulnerability had ended. The green aura that shielded her started to fade before dulling, then returned to normal as she could now feel pain. A sigh of relief came to Salem's servant, as she did not expect even to win the fight. Sure she heard tales of the Grimm Reaper, but she has heard rumors before regarding Hunstmen, and when facing them, she sees that their tales were all talk. And yet when fighting the Grimm reaper, it made her see that Maria's skills were top-notch, and if Tock didn't bring those three Hunstman along for backup, she was sure Maria would have killed her.
'Speaking about Hunstmen,' Tock had to give credit where credit was due. The title of 'Grimm Reaper' was indeed an appropriate name for maria after she witnessed the silver-eyed spider decimate and mutilate those other guys. 'She was able to handle them in less than 40 seconds. I'm honestly surprised that in the last second before my semblance was up, she could have easily dodged my second strike, only she didn't. Oh well, maybe she just didn't see the attack coming. Either way, I need to kill her as ordered.'
Tock was walling to the weak form of Maria; swords raised to kill her target and then screamed as an intense pain erupted from her chest. Her thoughts of where the pain came from were stopped when Tock vomited up blood from her mouth. She looked down, and soon the reason for her pain was because someone threw a spear at her!
"Gah!" Tock couldn't hold her gasp and allowed more blood to leave her. Some landed on Maria making her scream in fear and crawl away. "W-whot!? You stupid git! Who-"
Whatever profane curses she was about to spout from her mouth died as Kravinoff appeared from behind her, wrapped his arms around her head, and twisted it so far that she was looking behind her. Tock's dead body went limp, and the only thing that kept her body up was the spear she was impaled upon.
"Ha...Haa!" Maria had no idea what was happening for due to the sudden loss of eyesight and the bleeding headache of her danger sense spiraling out of control. "EEE-GAH!"
Someone from Kravinoff's tribe, a young man with a similar but more youthful look than Kravinoff, held Maria by the throat and stared at her whimpering form. He sneered at such a sorry state of the once noble prey, for she was nothing more now than some wailing creature who no longer held the will to fight. He was about to gut her before the leader of the tribe pushed the young hunter away and grabbed Maria in a bridal style.
"What do you think your doing, boy?" Laying Maria gently on the ground, the Chief of the tribe looked at the young man with a cold, neutral stare.
"What am I doing? What are you doing?" Not scared of Kravinoff, the young man walked up to his leader. "You went back on your word about not interfering, you killed the better hunter, and now you are sparing our prey? Just look at her. She is no longer the great challenge you discussed, so I believe it is a mercy to finish her off."
"You grow impatient in trying to earn your stripes, boy."
"And you are just afraid that all that talk about how the 'Grimm Reaper' would be the greatest hunt for our tribe. Face it, father, your prey is no longer worthy."
Not wanting the rise to the argument, the father turned away from his son and kneeled at Maria. Leaning in close to have his face close to Maria's, the young Huntress was too scared even to try and fight back, for she knew that in her current state, Maria was no match to fight the leader of the tribe.
"Grimm Reaper," That name held respect before, and now it was pity coming out of Kravinoff's lips. In an act of kindness, the chief hunter took out some clean medical wrap and tended Maria. As he wrapped the wrapping around her eyes, Kravinoff started to talk again. "How many years has it been between you and my tribe? It feels like a lifetime, with every encounter being in your favor. You always had some way of escaping every problem and trap, and now you are in such a sorry state. So, I must ask you. Why?"
"...!" A chill ran down Maria's spine at hearing the cold tone from Kravinoff. Even worse is that she doesn't even know why it happened. One moment she was about to dodge Tock's attack, and then the next, she saw people and places that were similar to her world but were not. Her silence became a choked sob when the Chief wrapped a hand around her throat. "I... I need you to spare my life."
Maria's request seemed to be the wrong choice of words, and Kravinoff started to tighten his hold to choke her when Maria explained why. She whispered into his ear about how she saw a more significant challenge. This new prey was better than herself, and if she died now, Kravinoff would not be able to find the challenge they sought.
"I need to seek him out, so I can train him and make him better. After all, I was self-taught with my powers, so if I find this new spider, I can train him and make him far greater than myself."
A lie. Maria didn't really particularly didn't know if the person she saw was even born yet. Maria said she needed to train this new spider so she could live and not die in a place like this at the mercy of Kravinoff.
"You'll get the hunt you desire. You just need to let me go." She begged for her life and, despite feeling a pit in her stomach at how pathetic she was acting, kept her pride in check and prayed to any god who could hear her that she stays alive.
Kravinoff's hold around her neck has yet to tighten. Maria was worried that her begging was enough to spare her life. Only for the welcome feeling of air rushing in her lungs as the leader of the hunters let her go. Landing on her knees, Maria went on all fours and could hear the feet of Kravinoff walking away from her body.
"My family!" Kravinoff's baritone voice echoes throughout the area. "I have decided to show her mercy!"
Sounds of anger at letting the prey they have fought and died for to allow to go free made many protests at their leader's decision. Some brought their own thoughts on the idea, with a majority being swayed to side with the Chief's son and just kill the now crippled Grimm Reaper.
However, the leader of their tribe did not waver or feel pressured by his people's opinions. He waited for his people to quiet down, and it did not take long for them to hold their temper and allow their leader to speak.
"I wish to let her go for in doing so will allow us to hunt an even bigger game! She has promised us a spider who is stronger, faster, and even more of a challenge than could ever bring us! Is it not our right to allow such a game to grow until it is ready to be hunted? If we kill her now, do we not forsake ourselves by locking away prey that can truly test our skills?" His ways with words seemed to sway his peers, with only some still standing their ground with their opinion on still killing Maria. "I see that some are still against me. If so, then I suppose you all think better of me? As in, some of you who are against me?"
That seemed to silence everyone. No one talked nor moved as they stood still and observed their leader. What made it even tenser was that the wind stopped making it easier to hear Kravinoff speak with a more deadly and threatening voice.
"We all know the rules of the tribe," Kravinoff removed his leather vest. As the lion's skin dropped to the ground, the clan leader brought his muscular arms in the air and displayed his scarred yet chiseled body for all to see. "If one of you think better than me. Then I welcome any of you to take the title of 'Chief' by trying to kill me!"
No one answered the proclamation of taking the leadership role and showing commitment to the current leader; everyone bowed their heads.
Everyone but the son looked at his father with defiance.
"Well?" Not showing any signs of favoritism to his eldest boy, Kravinoff pulled out his knife, twirled it to have his hand hold the blade, and pointed the handle to his son. "I will give you a handicap if you are so inclined to take charge finally."
A power move if everyone could guess, yet everyone knows that Kravinoff would stab himself, fight with such an injury, and still win. That is who Kravinoff is, a man with drive, focus, and will to see the hunt through to the end. Eyeing the handle, the Chief's son looked tempted to take the knife, yet instead, he showed his subservience and bowed his head.
"We all follow you, my Chief." The son said through gritted teeth.
Turning around, Kravinoff knelt to the blind Maria and whispered into her ear.
"I expect you to keep your word. For if you don't, we will end you. If you think you can hide the rest of your life, then you indeed have fallen from grace. For you, above all, know how tenacious we can be when our sights are on worthy prey."
"Ah!" She yelped when Kravinoff picked her up with one arm and placed her back on her feet. Maria was unsure what he would do and soon felt the familiar feeling of her weapons being placed in her hands.
"With all that said. Run."
"What?"
"I said run!" He screamed, and Maria ran as fast as she could without repeating himself. She did not care if she tripped and stumbled. Maria only cared about getting far away from here as soon as possible. "Farwell, Grimm Reaper! May the next hunt be worthy and hope we never find you!"
"After that horrible ordeal, I renounced my persona of being the Grimm Reaper and hid like a coward for quite some time." Maria could remember the turning point of changing her lifestyle. Her once signature garments were tossed aside and stuffed in some ditch while she walked away. To this day, she does not know where she discarded them, but it must have been a populated village, as the next day, words spread that the Grim Reaper was announced dead. "I was adrift; I hid my face and became a hermit. What made it far worse was that my spider sense activated randomly and showed me things that had yet to happen. My mind was almost at its limit when I was saved by my father, who then helped me get back on my feet and taught me to handle being blind."
"Whoa!" At some point, Jaune removed his mask and allowed his face to show. Jaune was at a loss for what to say about Maria's sad fate of losing her silver eyes. He didn't want to ask how she had gotten blind and assumed she was blind from birth. But now, knowing that she lost her sight due to Salem's influence made him fear what would happen to Ruby if she ever encountered the immortal witch. "I can't imagine what you had to go through. How did your father even find you?"
"When I said my spider sense would trigger at random times and show me images of places. It also made me instinctively follow these images while avoiding dangerous people working for Salem. That is when I finally met my father, Ezekiel."
"Yeah, your dad was the one to help you, but how did he help you?"
"My father taught me how to live with the blindness, as he had family members who had to deal with losing their silver eyes." Her simple answer just made Jaune shiver at how easy and calm for her to tell him. "Above all, my father kept me grounded and helped me through with my spider sense. For he had to deal with the same dilemma as my mother."
The blind teacher looked up and held a sad smile.
"My mother, who I have no idea who she was, had to carry such a burden all her life while I used these gifts to further my gain. At some point, I just wished to remain hidden and live the rest of my life in seclusion."
She looked down and laughed.
"But my father didn't give up on me. He pulled me out of my despair, and thanks to him, I turned my depression into purpose and drive. That turning point made me hone my craft, and soon I could use my future sight to help others. Also, my spider lineage made me understand the weight I must bear for being part of the great web. No longer was I the Grimm Reaper the Huntress. I became Madam Web, the fortune teller."
After saying that, Maria used her webbing skills to create a bo staff and faced her student. "I have left some parts of my life out and will only tell you more if you can withstand what comes next. Be warned; the training before was for you to get used to the stress. Now get ready for the true combat experience of fighting like a spider!"
Smiling at his teacher's declaration, he placed his mask over his head and used his webbing to form two web batons in both hands.
"Wouldn't have any other way!" No other words were said between them, and soon, the two fought until the shattered moon signaled that their sparring session had come to an end.
"I'm home," Jaune Arc walked into the front door wearing his regular clothing. What injuries he sustained were hidden underneath his clothes, so when he entered the front door. He was greeted by the sight of Aunt May and Mr. Lee, Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha. "Oh hey! Long time no see you guys! How you guys been?"
"Jaune!" Nora yelled out his name. "What are you talking about? We've been living at Beacon all this time! You just haven't been talking to us, is all. What, you think we're some side characters or something?"
"He doesn't mean that, Nora." Ren stepped in and pulled her back. "It's good to see you, Jaune; we've been using our free time to help F.E.A.S.T. and hang out with Mr. Lee."
"We came back and brought leftovers!" Nora showed Jaune a tupperware full of backed chicken and mashed potatoes. "Mrs. Parker thought it would be nice to have us eat here!"
"We can't thank you enough for your hospitality." Pyrrha made a slight bow, thanks to the matron of the house.
"You don't need to thank me; I don't want you to head back so late after you all helped me. I'm just so glad that one of your teachers agreed to let us house you three for the night."
"Yes," Mr. Lee smiled at Mrs. Parker, who showed him why she was the most generous person he had ever met. "I had intended to have Ren and Nora tag along and visit along with their team leader. But unfortunately, I got a call that required my immediate attention. Sorry if things turned out this way, Ren and Nora. I promise to make up for it later."
"It's fine, Mr. Lee. We know you are busy." Nora showed that she can be calm at times and spoke to Mr. Lee in a respectful and normal voice. "Just promise us next time that you will treat us to a nice breakfast!"
"Oh? Then tomorrow, I'll take you all to a nice little local diner that sells the best pancakes!"
"Yay!" Nora did a small jump for joy. "Come on, Ren! Let's go set up the table. And Jaune, I hope you like slumber parties! Oh! Do you guys have board games?!"
She droned on while dragging Ren to the kitchen to get the plates, and soon all six of them spent the evening enjoying each other's company at dinner. After eating, Mrs. Parker washed the dishes with the help of Pyrrha, who cleaned the dinner table. Ren and Nora were outside saying goodbye to Mr. Li, and Jaune was in his room getting some spare bedding for the house guests.
"I'm here with the bedding." Called out Jaune, who walked into the living room. "Here you go, guys," He handed them off the Ren. "Let me get back to my room. I think I stashed some games we can play."
"Yes! I hope you have Monopoly! I call dibs on the race car!" The ginger spoke up. Jaune quickly nodded and headed to his room to check his closet, and as he was doing so, he felt his scroll vibrating in his pocket.
Pulling out his scroll, Jaune sees that Whitley messaged him. INsoctevly looking behind him to check if someone was watching, Jaune unlocked his device and read the message left by Whitley.
'We got our first mission.'
Hope you all liked the re-telling of Maria's origin story. Since I have used her in place of Madam Web, I feel I should give more detail about how she became a fortune teller. I made sure to keep the scene where Maria loses her sight instead of being quick enough to dodge Tock's attack. Something that makes no sense to me as her semblance practically has a spider-sense. I mean, seriously, she had a power similar to that of Spider-Man, and like all writers, they have to nerf such ability for the character to grow from a mistake. However, RT should have explained why Maria lost better, but that is beside the point.
The alternate reason for her blindness is due to her inexperience when handling the spider-sense. Just like when Jaune is frozen when being overwhelmed by his spider-sense when seeing the future, Maria had the same issue, only it was done in the wrong place and wrong time. What was also an interesting twist was to introduce you all to the many different realities. It is more of a way to introduce the spider-verse, but I have yet to try my hand at that. I'm actually thinking of making a separate story about it that involves Jaune going to different fanfic universes that revolve around RWBY. I had the thought to place it in the story, but I might just make it a sequel to this one.
The Tock fight was more mature than the one in canon. Maria, in the chapter, showed to be more confident, if not arrogant, due to her upbringing being both part of the silver-eyed warriors and those of the spider society. However, it has its downsides, with Salem killing off anyone with silver, yes, and hunters that are enemies to the spider society. Speaking about hunters, Kravinoff is in this story! Well, more like the clan of Kravinoff is in the story. Some will probably not like that I am adding more characters that are from Marvel and not RWBY, so I will say that despite the added characters, we will not really see much of them, for they just side characters that do not need that much screen time. Sure, some would want Spider-Man to fight the Kravinoff clan, but that could be written in a different story sequel.
Speaking about time, I believe it is time to go on with the start of the Avenger's first mission to find the Spring Maiden. But don't worry, I know I said that Jaune is getting back to school and such, and this mission is just a way to speed things along before it goes back to being a bit normal.
I hope this chapter was a nice read and hope you all will fav, follow; if you have any questions, please PM me, and I will answer as soon as possible. Thank you!
Oh yeah, the Weiss Roast will be posted in the next chapter. The Omake I have is something I wanted to make for a while. My plan was to create a story arc about it, but I decided to make it just a side adventure via Omake.
[Omake: The Ghost of Menagerie]
On a different day and time, Vale had its' common issue involving the police and the Maggia.
The cops seemed to handle the situation well, only for the Maggia to stop playing around and bring out some heavy weapons that turned the tables. Their guns looked more high-end than the cop's standard firearms, so Spider-Man didn't waste a single second stepping into the dog fight and helping the cops handle the gang.
"Hey! It's been a while since I last saw you guys!" Spider-Man spoke to one of the Maggia gang like they were friends. "Last time I saw ya'll, beekeepers with sci-fi weapons tried to kill us. Man, it feels like forever since we saw them. You think they're doing ok?"
"Waste this fool!" One Maggia goon, who Spider-Man can assume to be the leader as he was holding a briefcase, screamed out to the rest of the grunt before running away. When every goon started to fire again, the leader ran away and disappeared when turning a corner.
'Oh no, you don't,' Spider-Man's quick reflexes and reaction time made it easy for the hero to fire a spider tracer at the briefcase and then dodge the dust bullets. 'I'll handle the guy running later. I need to end this fight before people get hurt from a stray ricochet.'
Fighting gunmen was a simple task for the hero, for as he fired impact webbing towards the bag guys, it didn't take long for the Maggia to be trapped and unable to fire the guns. Checking the goons that they were all fine and disarmed, Spider-Man turned to the cops and saw that they were all ok and moving forward with handcuffs at the ready.
"Thanks for the save, Spider-Man." A woman with short black hair with a badge strapped to her belt waved her hand to make the rest of the cops lower their guns. "I'm supposed to arrest you for multiple counts of vigilantism, but I'll let this slide since you saved my men and me."
"Appreciate it, but I still need to chase their boss." Web swinging away to chase after the last guy. Spider-Man's spider-sense assisted him in tracking where the spider tracer was. "This is where he stopped?"
He expected the last Maggia gangster to find a car, but he stopped one block away from the fight and was now hiding in an alley between two apartment complexes. The hero went deeper into the alleyway by wallcrawling on the wall. When reaching the dead end, he found the Maggia already wrapped up.
"Who did this?" Spider-Man asked out loud. Removing himself from the wall, Spider-Man checked to see if the criminal was still breathing. "He's alive, just knocked out. The next problem is," Walking away from the sleeping gangster, Spider-Man crouched down to pick up the now empty suitcase that had his spider tracer. "What did they take?"
"Another lead," Somwhere in an abandoned building, a different section of the city. A lone shadowed figure looked through the stolen content that detailed schedules of hand-offs and locations that held illegal weapons. This recent snatch and grab made the paperwork show a message between the Maggia and the White Fang. "While the city was burning, the Maggia used the chaos to steal any broken tech from Atlas and robbed dust stores. Now, it looks like the White Fang is trying to regain strength after their loss by buying what the Maggia are selling."
Flipping the page, the mystery person read the manifest that half of the stolen goods had already left Vale and headed to another location that was erased from the manifest.
"Don't need to be a genius to know who is making such moves." Adam was acting more and more radical than they imagined. It was bad enough to know he was willing to cause massive death tolls, whether human or Faunus. But their disappointment further increased knowing that their mentor decided to get assistance from a vile criminal organization like the Maggia. "Better get started handling the remaining half that has yet to be shipped."
Stepping out of the shadows, Blake Bellodinna stared into the city and analyzed her next course of action. Gone was her usual apparel, and in its place was a skin-tight purple suit; the only color besides purple was a black ribbon wrapped around her body. Stepping close to the edge of the building, Blake was about to start her hunt when she felt her scroll vibrate.
Answering the scroll, Blake could hear the sounds of chatter coming from the background before hearing Ruby talk.
"Blake!" The team leader of RWBY shouted in excitement. "How have you been? I hope you're doing well on your own."
"I'm fine, Ruby," Blake slightly smiled when talking to her teammate. It feels like forever since she last saw them. "How's Yang?"
"She is getting some training from our dad." A loud 'BOOM' was heard from the scroll, followed by muffled arguing. "Heh, heh, we're doing fine. Yang's still getting used to her new powers, but we'll get back to Beacon soon! I can't wait!"
"Me neither," Ruby's excitement was infectious, and Blake would be lying if she denied that she missed them. "Have you tried calling Weiss?"
"No," Ruby's tone turned sad. "Her calls keep going straight to voicemail. I'm worried about her, Blake. I hope she is ok."
"I know she will, Ruby. We just need to find a chance to meet her. Who knows, maybe the opportunity to go to Atlas is just around the corner."
Blake couldn't help but find this moment funny that she would be the optimistic one. "Just have faith in your partner, Ruby. She chose to go back for a reason, and we just need to believe she is fine, Ruby."
"Your right, Blake," Once again, sounds of explosions could be heard in the background, making Ruby drop her scroll. "Sorry, Blake! I might need to call you later. I'll tell Yang you said 'Hi.'"
"Take care of yourselves. I'll see you at Beacon." Hanging up her scroll, Blake Donned her mask and stared down at the city below her. "Until you guys return, I'll keep doing my own thing."
Blake thought she had let go of her regrets, but it seemed like her regrets didn't want to let go of her. She's ok with that and accepts that running away from her fears was not the right thing to do.
Her rational side would have waited for her team to return to Beacon and ask for their help to correct her past by stopping the White Fang. Use her knowledge to get help from the staff, her other friends in Beacon, or better yet, get help from Spider-Man.
'But not with Adam, no,' The cat Faunus could still remember what happened that day during the Vytal festival. The fire, Grimm, screams, and in the center of it all was Adam, who viewed everyone who was not on his side as the enemy. 'That man was my mentor, someone who I thought was always right and everyone else was wrong. If I just removed the rose-tinted glasses, I would see that he was just another person who twists words and manipulates people for their own gain.'
"Adam thought he could get away with killing so many people. Try and kill my friends! If the ghosts of my past have come back to haunt me, then so be it!" Jumping off the building, Blake used her ribbon to swing her around the city. "I'll be the one to take the responsibility of stopping this madness! But if Adam thinks Blake will just run away, then fine! It just makes it easier for the 'Wraith' to drag that monster down to the deepest depths of hell where he won't hurt anyone anymore!"
