Peter's day had started pretty abruptly.
He was sleeping on a mattress in the corner of the dorm on the floor, deciding to volunteer for that position the night before. He was just trying to be nice, after all, he did feel a bit awkward, being the only guy on a team of girls, and didn't want to ruffle any feathers by making one of them have to sleep there. He still found it comfortable, so he quickly fell asleep when it was time for bed. That comfort ended suddenly in the morning, when Ruby decided to wake the team members who were still sleeping, using a whistle, like some kind of drill sergeant.
In a panic he shoots up shouting, "I'm up, I'm up!"
He then saw everyone staring at him, and followed their gaze down to his upper body.
Peter realizes he wasn't wearing a shirt, with his eight-pack and scars visible for all to see.
He also failed to notice that all of the ladies were a bit red in the face, with Ruby having the biggest blush out of all of them, or the smirk Yang had on her face.
It got hot last night, with five bodies cramped in a small room, so in his tired state, he took off his shirt without thinking much of it. He wished he didn't, as he was self conscious of his scars.
They were mostly from gashes here and there, but his most prominent one was a three-clawed slash diagonally across his chest, courtesy of Dr. Connors when he was the Lizard.
"Uh, sorry for the shout, wasn't really expecting that…" Peter shyly states as he fumbles for his shirt and puts it on.
Turning away to get her blush unnoticeable to Peter, Ruby then says, "S-since everyone's now awake, we can officially begin our first order of business."
Still angry over her rude awakening Weiss goes, "Excuse me?"
"Decorating!", Yang replies.
"What?!"
"We still have to unpack." Blake informs her as the suitcase she was holding opens and drops everything in it. "Aaand clean."
Weiss is still in a bad mood, which isn't helped by Ruby knocking her over with a second blast from her whistle.
"Aalright! Weiss, Blake, Yang, Peter, and their fearless leader Ruby have begun their first mission! Banzai!" Ruby yells with her fist in the air.
"Banzai!" Everyone else replies except Weiss.
Everyone arranges all of their belongings around the dorm, with Peter mostly just watching, since all he has to his name is a backpack filled with clothes (including his Spider suit), and a small chemistry kit, along with his textbooks, so arranging his things in the dorm was easy, allowing him a bit of free time.
He uses that time to sloppily put together his uniform. Even with Glynda teaching him how to tie a necktie multiple times, he still couldn't get it quite right. He just wasn't used to it, since he only wore one maybe twice in his life, let alone any kind of suit.
Soon after the rest of the team finishes unpacking, they realize that they grossly underestimated the amount of space their dorm had, especially with a fifth person added in, leaving no room for their beds.
"I think there might be a problem about the sleeping situation here." Peter comments.
"It is a bit cramped." Blake agrees.
"Maybe we should ditch some of our stuff…" Yang looked disappointedly at her things.
Peter looks to his corner, "Uh, I can try and see if I can move my backpack somewhere, and maybe prop the mattress against the wall when I'm not using it or something…"
Feeling bad that Peter's trying to save space with his stuff, despite not having a lot of anything, Ruby suggests, "Or we could ditch the beds… and replace them with bunk beds!"
Weiss disagrees with that idea, "Umm, that sounds incredibly dangerous."
Yang, happy with not having to get rid of anything, responds, "And super-awesome!"
"It does seem efficient." Blake rationalizes.
"Unless ya got stuff you're willing to let go of…" Peter chimes in.
Weiss, still thinking it's a bad idea, tells the group, "Well, we should put it to a vote!"
"I think we just did." Ruby states.
Everyone strikes a pose showing their support, excluding Weiss, who sticks her tongue out in opposition.
With the decision being made, the girls go about with making their makeshift bunk beds, with Peter helping by lifting the beds with his strength.
Viewing their handiwork, Ruby proudly states, "Objective: Complete! Allllright! Our second order of business iiiiiiiis!... Classes." Bringing out a book and pencil, Ruby reviews their schedule. "Now, we have a few classes together today. At 9, we've got to be-"
Shocked, Weiss asks, "What?! Did you say 9 o'clock?
"Uuumm…"
Exacerbated, Weiss shouts, "It's 8:55, you dunce!"
The team then rushes out in an attempt to not be late, while Peter thinks, "Well, the day's off to a rocky start, but I'm sure that's gotta be the worst of it right?"
"Of course not. Thank you Parker luck."
The slew of problems only continued throughout the day. Ruby and Weiss were still tense towards each other, which had led to another argument, from Ruby trying to encourage her partner during a match with a boarbatusk, only for it to result in Weiss getting upset at her again. She still was not accepting that someone like Ruby was chosen over someone like herself to be leader.
Peter didn't really stick around to for it, deciding it was best to stay out of the conflict, but it was clear to him what was going on.
When Ruby entered the dorm, only Peter was there with her, writing some formulas for new dust infused web fluid in what he labeled with tape, 'Peter corner'.
"Hey, uh, how you holding up?"
Ruby looks dejectedly back at Peter. "I just want to be a good leader and for us to get along. I didn't mean to do anything to Weiss."
Peter thinks for a bit then closes his notebook to offer some comfort. "I know this might be cliched to say, but just do your best at being a leader, and you'll be holding up your end, the rest is up to Weiss. That's what I'd do."
Ruby sits on the floor, bringing her knees to her chest. " I'm not sure if Weiss is going to see that I'm doing my best, or that it'll be good enough for her. You ever felt like that? That the other person isn't going to come around, even when you're doing what you can?"
"You have no idea…" Peter thinks to himself. "Actually yeah, I have."
Intrigued and wanting to take her mind off the Weiss situation, she looks over to the young arachnid.
Deciding it was story time, Peter continues, "Back home, I tried to do the right thing with, you know, the… huntsmen training, and the skills you get with it. But there was this bigwig, who thought I was just doing it as a glory-hound, not because I really wanted to help people. He insisted I was a criminal who created the problems I was supposedly fixing, telling anyone who'd listen that I was nothing more than a 'public menace.' He even once got a warrant issued for my arrest." Seeing the look on Ruby's face, he quickly adds, "Uh, long story."
Surprised, Ruby asks, "He ever come around?"
"Not to my knowledge, no." Peter states, then lets out a small smile. "But my Uncle taught me something, that with great power comes great responsibility. He told me that I had given a gift, and that I needed to use that gift responsibly. I mean yeah, it sucked that I had some old mustached guy yelling slanders at me, who also sicked the cops on me, but all that mattered was that I tried to do my best helping people, no matter what anyone said or thought. And don't worry, the cops never caught me!"
Ruby smiled at that, glad that Peter actually had something helpful to say that made her feel better. "Thanks Peter. I'll do what I can to be a good leader for you guys."
Peter smiles back, but notices that it's now evening. "Oh I got somewhere to go, but I'll catch you later!" He rushes out, grabbing his backpack.
Confused, Ruby still yells back, "See ya!" Ruby climbs to her bed, getting ready to start studying. She then looks over to the closed notebook Peter left, feeling curious about it, but respecting his privacy. She got a quick glance when she entered the room, and could tell he was writing some kind of blueprints, but couldn't tell what it was. "I wonder what that's for… And where does he gotta go at this hour?!"
"Alright, got a few hours of Spideying around, let's see what the baddies are up to!"
Peter was looking forward to this for a good while. After being denied from what he felt was his true calling for days by Glynda, he could finally go out as Spider-Man!
Unfortunately, or rather fortunately for the city, there wasn't much crime tonight.
"Man what is up with the bad guys?!" Spider-Man says out loud. "I swear, it's like I scared them off or something! Guess that's a good thing though…"
Peter still wasn't used to his crime fighting being this… comparatively easy. With no villain every week or some interdimensional or cosmic entity looming all the time, Remnant was actually kind of safe in Peter's opinion.
Sure the Grimm and White Fang were no pushovers, but he still thought he'd choose them over threats like his usual rogues gallery or Thanos any day.
Tonight though it seemed like the most dangerous criminal was going to be an armed carjacker, so Spidey was able to swing around with his thoughts until he got to the next petty crime.
"I still can't believe that old fart Ozpin actually thrusted us all into action on day one! He's really setting himself up for a child endangerment lawsuit! And I thought Professor Xavier was extreme with the danger room! Actually, scratch that, those might be the same level of deadly."
Ending his inner monologue was some White Fang members he saw walking down a dimly lit sidewalk before slipping into an alley.
"Would've thought they were sneakier than strolling around in the open like this."
Stealthily following them in the dark alley, Spider-Man is led to a seemingly abandoned warehouse by some train tracks, with some more White Fang waiting for them.
"Aw yeah, this looks like bad guy central. And I thought this was just gonna be a quick web 'em up. Looks like it's not gonna be a slow night after all!"
Spidey gets ready for long awaited action. "Might even get some decent photos for VNN to get a good payday."
Getting onto a top front window, he looks down to see that there were many more White Fang than he thought. "Oh, this might be challenging. Oh well, time for a dramatic entrance!"
Preparing for the fight, Spider-Man gets his camera, and webs it to one of the broken windows for it to get a good view.
Finding a window big enough for him to go through, just below the camera, he puts his hand on the glass, then using his clinging ability, pulls it off the frame and lets it fall to the ground before he launches himself into the building.
"Hope you all don't mind me dropping in!"
After some yelling, the White Fang trains their weapons on the young hero, and starts firing.
"Saw this party happening, and I know you wouldn't hold something so fun without inviting everyone's favorite wall-crawler! I'm sure my invite got lost in the mail!" He continues, webbing the gunmen and dodging the other's strikes as he counters with his own.
"You know how the post office can be!"
"Shut up!" A White Fang thug yells as he fires a dust round at Spider-Man.
Feeling his spider-sense go off, Spidey quickly turns around and notices that the round he just dodged was now about to ignite a container full of dust. He also noticed one of the grunts was near it. Knowing the reaction the dust will have to the round, Spider-Man quickly thwips two weblines, one to the grunt, and the other to the container. He then pulls the container to the other side of the warehouse, while pulling the grunt towards himself, out of harm's way.
"Take it easy guys! Ya nearly barbequed one of your own!" He quips as he webs the grunt he rescued to the nearest wall.
The initial shock of the fact that their persistent enemy actually tried to save one of them allowed Spider-Man to quickly dispatch the strongest of remaining baddies. With them now webbed up, the spider-sense goes off again, warning him of a shot coming from behind, causing the wall-crawler to doge as he glances to where the strike came from.
He sees that the guy who was apparently the one in charge of this operation finally making his appearance. He had a rifle with a machete blade under the barrel, with a guarded hilt serving as the stock, making it better for swinging.
"Well, looks like I missed one, but don't worry, ya got my attention!"
The leader doesn't respond to Spider-Man, but only raises his hands and orders his subordinates to stand down.
"He's mine, I want to personally squash this bug."
"Okay, arachnid. Since when were spiders ever bugs? I take great offense to that, you know!" Spider-Man responds.
The leader only smirks and breaks into a run, with the hero also running to meet him.
Once they meet, the boss swings his machete rifle towards the top of his head, only for Spider-Man to spin to the left and counter with a kick to the head as he shouts "Headshot!"
Unexpectedly, the White Fang leader catches his foot and takes advantage of the situation to try and take a hack at him.
He doesn't get the chance, as the Spider uses the hand trapping him as a leverage point to jump in the air and kick himself free.
"Gotta hand it to you, most don't even get this far!" Spider-Man exclaims, impressed, as he shoots webshot at him.
"I'm not like most." The White Fang retorts as he counters with a fire dust round at the webbing.
"Evidently!" Spidey shouts as he fires several webshots back.
The Leader blocks most of them, only for him to miss one, which got his ankle, with the surprise causing him to shout out.
"Got your shoe!"
With his combatant now stuck to his position, Spider-Man gets ready to finish the job by webbing him up, only for a barrage of dust round to be fired at him, but managing to successfully dodge them all. Unfortunately, this allowed the machete guy the distraction he needed to free himself with his now heated blade, and starts reloading his weapon.
Remembering that there was still a whole crate of explosive dust nearby, Spider-Man does some quick thinking and decides to use it to his advantage.
"You know, that was a rather reckless move there, ya could've cut your own foot off while all you had to do was wait! That stuff dissolves in an hour!"
"Don't you ever stop running that mouth?! Most fights don't have so much talking in them!" The White Fang leader yells back.
"I think you'll find just about all fights with me do!" Spidey quips back.
Now getting annoyed more than ever, he prepares to fire another barrage at the arachnid, having just finished loading, which was what the arachnid was counting on.
Surprising the leader, Spider-Man shoots a webline, not at his enemy, but behind his left. He ignores what he thought was a miss, continues to fire, only to realize too late what the red and blue clad teen was planning, as the rounds collide with the crate Spidey slams towards them.
"Bang, boom!"
With everyone in the building rattled and blinded by the explosion, Spider-Man relies on his spider-sense to make quick work of the rest of the White Fang by webbing them up.
Having now effectively put an end to whatever was going on at the warehouse, and knowing that the commotion from all the shooting was definitely gonna attract the police, he decides now would be a good time to get some answers before they arrived.
Turning to the grunt he rescued, who was webbed upside down, the costumed boy asks, "Now, before Vale's finest take you all to the big house, I'd like to know why tonight was uncharacteristically quiet, considering you guys. I've usually stopped like, three of your schemes by this time."
Glaring at the web-head, she answers, "Why you think?! Ever since you came along, we haven't been able to get anything major done, we're running low on supplies, recruits, cash, everything! The higher ups decided to cut their losses and run out as quiet as possible while we still can, with what we've got! You made business in this place more trouble than it's worth!"
Looking around him, Spider-Man saw that it did appear that they were packing up a lot of stuff for shipment.
"So the plan was to what, head out for greener pastures? That sure was easy to get out of you. How can I be sure you're telling me the truth, and not leading me on a wild goose chase?" He wasn't very convinced of the explanation.
"It's not like we have anything more to lose… the White Fang's finished here, and some of us aren't going to able to go with them. Might as well make it easy on ourselves…"
"Alrighty, that actually makes sense, you pass."
Knowing that hanging upside down can't be comfortable, Spider-Man sets his webshooters to their dissolving mode, pulls the grunt off the wall, spins her right-side up, and reapplies the webbing.
"Tell the cops what you told me, and try to score a deal for being cooperative, hopefully they'll cut you a break."
Not expecting for him to actually care about what happens to her, the White Fang grunt stares in confusion at him, as the sirens are heard nearby, signaling to the arachnid that it's time to leave. She continues staring at him as he swings away through the way he came in.
"Well, mission accomplished I guess…" The brown haired teen thinks to himself as he gathers his camera. "But there's no way I'm buying that story. That whole thing was way too easy for it to be the last hoorah of the White Fang, even for here. Don't really feel like that girl was lying though. And it would explain the lack of baddies that have been around tonight… Something definitely weird is going on here. Especially with how there didn't seem to be more than one particularly strong member back there. Least I got some decent photos."
Ruby was having a much better night. After she fell asleep studying, Weiss came back and made amendments, and even went to get her a coffee. Things were looking up! After she took it, Ruby noticed that someone was still missing from the dorm.
"Hey, did you see Peter on your way back?" She quietly asks so not to wake the others.
Weiss looks over to Peter Corner and notices that the only male resident of their room is gone.
"Didn't he get here after class?"
Ruby nodded yes. "But he left soon after once it got dark."
Immediately then something clicked in Weiss's mind. "Wait a second… isn't he the photographer who always manages to get a decent photo of Spider-Man?"
Ruby quickly catches on to what Weiss was implying. "You think he went out to get some photos?"
"I don't doubt it, anyone who is crazy enough to follow that vigilante around would certainly be willing to sneak out of school somehow for that."
Ruby gives a small pout. "I don't think it's crazy, I think it's actually kinda brave. But how would he be able to sneak out, especially with needing a ride to Vale?"
Weiss shrugs, "I don't know, but don't forget he always manages to get pictures of Spider-Man when no one else is really able to. I don't think secretly securing a means of transportation is out of the realm of possibility for someone like him. With how desperate the news is to get photos of that guy, they probably set up an airship to get him or something."
Becoming curious about that now, Ruby decides to take a break from studying, and look with Weiss on one of their scrolls to see if there were even any sightings of the wall-crawler.
Sure enough there was, with a news team already reporting on an explosion in an old warehouse, with witnesses saying Spider-Man was seen leaving the scene shortly after.
Ruby stares at the screen for a while. "Well that doesn't necessarily mean that Peter was there."
Weiss looks deadpanned at her. "Where else could he possibly be this late?
Ruby pauses for a moment. "Okay you got me there… Hey, you ever seen him? Spider-Man?"
"Not in person, would like to though, he is a truly admirable character." Weiss says with a smile.
Ruby didn't expect Weiss to be a fellow Spidey fan. "Really? Would've thought you'd think he was some thug, or something."
"What? No! Anyone with eyes could see he's a hero! An honorable hero! You had to have heard how he rescued all those SDC employees from that fire! I know some say he does this for the glory, but if that were true, he wouldn't wear a mask."
"Others say it's for the thrill." Ruby responds.
"That may very well be, but even so it's plain to see that he's still reduced a significant amount of crime in Vale. Not to mention all of the countless lives he's saved."
"I actually met him." Ruby brags a bit.
Excited Weiss asks Ruby, "What?! When was this?!"
Happy that they had something in common to talk about, Ruby replies, "It was when that guy, Roman Torchwick, was robbing a dust shop that I just happened to be at, then Spider-Man came in to stop them!"
Although she thought it was super cool that Ruby met someone she greatly admired, she was still puzzled at her story. "Wait, if Spider-Man was there how did Torchwick still escape? I heard he's still at large."
Frowning a bit, "He had the lady who was piloting his bullhead help out. She had some kind of fire semblance or something, and Spidey wasn't really prepared for it."
"Spidey? You're calling him that?" Weiss had heard the nickname fans affectionately gave Spider-Man, but thought it was kinda dumb.
"Well, yeah, why not?" Smiling and blushing a bit at the memory Ruby continues, "He was really just like they say! He was so agile, those henchmen couldn't even hit him! Except for the fire lady, her fireballs acted like homing missiles… But the way he moves! The only one I've ever seen with that kind of reflexes is Peter!"
"You both aren't very quiet." Blake states. "Can we talk about your crush tomorrow?"
Completely blushing now Ruby denies, "I-it's not a crush, I-I just think he's cool is all."
"Oh no, it's definitely a crush." Yang interjects, having been awake and listening for a good while. "She talks about him every chance she gets, follows all news reports about him, and got even more obsessed after meeting him. Especially after he called her cute! Ruby would've brought her poster here too if she was able to fit it!"
"...H-he's just c-cool is all…" She replied, having a completely red face.
"Whatever he is, please, can we all go to sleep now? You both have been talking about that guy for an hour." Blake tiredly says. Though she did want to hear more about Ruby's personal encounter with Spider-Man as she found him interesting as well, she much more wanted sleep, Spider-Man could wait.
The whole team decides that they really have been talking long enough, and that it was now time to go to bed, with Ruby thinking about her hero as she drifts off.
"Guess I should wait here a few minutes till everyone's asleep." Peter thinks as he's perched on the wall next to the window, with a slightly red face hearing about how much Ruby likes his alter ego.
Elsewhere, in an underground bunker somewhere in the city, Roman Torchwick is smoking his usual evening cigar as he discusses the night's events with his fiery female associate.
"So everything went as we planned?" She asks.
"Yep, though as annoying as the bug is, he's not that stupid. You think he might see through our little ruse?" Roman questions.
"Doesn't really matter if he believes it or not, the people are going to praise their hero as the one who drove out the White Fang, while we sit back and wait for the right moment to make our move."
Of course the White Fang wasn't going to be gotten rid of that easily. The hope was that they would lie low for a bit, hiring common thugs and other third party means to keep up their dust heists, and the police, and hopefully Spider-Man, lose their edge as crime would get more manageable for them. For this reason, they decided to scale back on their heists weeks ago, and send out newer recruits for them as well, which also culled their weaker members that would only slow them down.
Just like they did with the group used as bait for Spider-Man tonight.
The hope was to have the added effect of leading the cops and vigilante on a false steer to get rid of their small, but troublesome competition, while allowing for their more covert operations to go undetected with less attention being on the White Fang.
Not that the recruits had any idea of this plan. They were fed some story that the big, bad, nasty Spider-Man made life too difficult in Vale, so they were packing up shop to set up operations elsewhere. Though one of the more skilled members did have to be sacrificed for the plan, but that was a cost they were willing to live with.
It was still a bit difficult to explain that to the White Fang, but a certain leader helped to convince any who had cold feet. Roman just didn't like the waiting, but thought it would be worth it if it meant the arachnid would be squashed in the end. He'd have to wait anyway, as the twins' services required a notice weeks in advance. Again, the hardest part was just the waiting, with Roman not used to just sitting around for however long it would take. Oh well, he'd find uses for his time.
"We're risking a lot by this waiting game. Not to mention how much business is being sacrificed for it to work." Roman complained.
"It would be lost with the child's meddling anyway, which is what this will hopefully bring an end to. Just try to picture the end result. It's all gonna work out."
Roman did have to admit that part sounded good to him. How one kid, goofing around in his pajamas, had managed to strike such a blow to their plans was beyond him, even if the creep definitely had incredible skill. Roman only hoped that they would be able to get the bug alive after the whole ordeal, so he could personally continue long-awaited revenge. He could only smirk to himself in anticipation.
"Believe me that's what I'm thinking."