AN: The news just dropped on March 6th. Rooster Teeth is officially dead. Not sure what this means for shows like RWBY but we can only hope that a capable company acquires them and continues these shows. All we can do is wait.
What does this mean for me? Well... absolutely nothing. I will continue as I always have and try to get these chapters out.
Anyway, let's get right into it.
The soft hum of her Spider-Sense was the first thing she was greeted to upon waking up. The great thing about her Spider-Sense was that it was more versatile than all of her other abilities. It didn't just warn her of immediate danger, it also allowed her to detect lies and locate people who needed help. In this particular case, it acted like an alarm clock. She subconsciously knew that she had to wake up for school and her Spider-Sense acted accordingly. It was a pretty sweet ability to have.
Spider-Woman slowly pushed herself out of bed until a sharp jolt of pain originating from her chest laced up her skull.
"Ack!" She grunted at the unwelcome sensation. She lowered herself back onto the bed and took a deep breath. She prodded her chest a few times before another bolt of pain shot through her skull.
She completely expected this, even with her advanced healing factor, she was unable to completely heal from all that damage in one night. Although she was healing faster than she had expected. It would take her a few more hours until she was at 100%.
Her eyes darted around the empty infirmary. A small digital clock was hung on the wall. The time read 5:01 AM. Her Spider-Sense had woken her up earlier than usual so she could make it out of Beacon and through Central Vale before arriving at Patch to start her school day.
She knew without a doubt that today would be absolute hell on her body. She was healing faster than she had expected but her ribs were still cracked in places and she had a killer headache. Her legs felt mostly fine, thankfully. She just had to pray that she wasn't called on for combat classes today.
Despite the sharp stabbing pain, Spider-Woman pushed herself into a sitting position. Peering out the window, she discovered it was still dark outside. At least that meant that no one would spot her swinging as long as she kept to the more secluded areas of Vale. And she would be able to see perfectly with her night vision.
Swinging her legs over the bed, Spider-Woman braced herself for agony, she gritted her teeth, sucked in a breath, and stood up.
The pain was...ok...it wasn't as bad as she was expecting. The pain was still there, sure, but it was more like a throbbing pain after you've gotten punched really hard and less of an 'I was caught in an explosion that almost killed me' pain.
Spider-Woman spotted a few snack bars placed on the counter that Garnet had likely left for her which she ate, grateful. She rummaged through the cabinets for a while before pulling out some painkillers. She figured the nurse wouldn't mind if she took some.
Her body's naturally fast metabolism made taking medicine tricky. A normal dosage wouldn't do anything to help alleviate her pain. She would have to take a lot more for it to be effective.
Spider-Woman poured herself a handful of pills, -she estimated there to be about 20 in her palm- and dumped all of them in her mouth. Pouring herself a paper cup filled with water, she drank the entire thing in two seconds.
She wrote a quick note to thank everyone for being so nice to her and placed it right on the pillow.
Spider-Woman gave one last look around the room before making her way to the window. Sliding the window open, Spider-Woman crawled out and shut the window behind her. She slid down the side of the building while being as careful as possible. She reached the ground without any issues.
The funny thing about Beacon was that it was surrounded by Grimm-infested forest. She had to make that trip through the forest the first time she visited Yang because she completely forgot that bullheads regularly took visitors there.
Now, it being five in the morning, all the bullhead transportation to and from Beacon would be closed for a few more hours, and she didn't have time to wait. Not that she wanted to, she was still in her costume after all.
She really only had one choice. So Spider-Woman located the direction that Vale was in and started marching straight through Grimm-infested forest.
Apart from the man-eating hellspawn, Emerald Forest was actually very pretty. The Grimm took care of this place really nicely.
She got used to the pain after walking for a while and barely noticed it anymore. The pain was still there, but she was just numb to it after feeling it for so long.
She heard the distant growls of Grimm from every direction and even a few in the sky. Dealing with a few Grimm would normally be no problem for an incredible hero such as herself, but the state her body was in would make a fight extremely difficult, if not impossible depending on the size and species of Grimm.
Lucky for her, her Spider-Sense buzzed whenever she got too close to a Grimm and she adjusted her path accordingly.
"I should do some training here. I haven't killed a bunch of Grimm in a while. Maybe I'm getting rusty."
It took the better part of half an hour. But she broke the treeline and arrived in the city. This part of the city was dark and lifeless, apart from the street lights littered all over.
Spider-Woman started scaling a building to gain some height before she would begin her swing. Normally she would just jump really high to gain height, but the pain she was in would make that impossible.
Once she arrived at the top, she steeled her resolve and let loose a web line at a tall building. She didn't bother pulling herself up, she simply walked off the edge and let gravity do the rest.
Her arms had been relatively undamaged in that explosion so she only relied on their strength to hold onto her webs as she became a pendulum. No, flips, spins, dives, or any other tricks were needed here.
To an outside observer, it would appear as if a dead body was swinging through the air like some kind of sick prank. Honestly, Spider-Woman felt dead at this point. The painkillers were working but it would take a while before they fully took effect.
It didn't matter, as long as she made it home, everything would be just fine.
The sun peeked over the horizon about halfway through her swing home. The warm sun beating down on her body might've been a nice change in any other situation, but she was still hurting all over and the blinding light of the sun didn't do much to help the situation.
One hour later, Spider-Woman softly landed on a rooftop near her home where she had stashed a change of clothes. After changing and stuffing her ruined costume in her backpack, Ruby slowly descended the building and made her way home in silence.
She could feel her ribs shift with every movement. Her burnt chest rubbed uncomfortably against the fabric of her clothes. Her head throbbed with every step. But she pushed on.
Once she reached her home, Ruby sent a subtle pulse of her Spider-Sense around her to make sure no one was watching before crawling up the wall and into her window.
She breathed a sigh of relief when she shut the window behind her. Her journey home was over but the day was only just beginning. She had to somehow make it through the school day without arousing suspicion.
First things first. Shower.
She examined her face in the bathroom mirror. It was still a little bloody and the rest of her body would no doubt be worse with the burns. She set the shower to a colder setting than normal and stripped down to nothing before jumping in. Ice cold water on burns could actually worsen damage so she made sure the water wasn't too cold.
Ruby hated lukewarm showers. The uncomfortable water pounding on her body felt like getting stabbed with hundreds of tiny icicles, like a physical assault on her body, making her skin tingle and causing her to shiver uncontrollably. But in that moment, with the painful burns littered on her torso, nothing felt better.
The pain immediately began to subside as the refreshing water flowed down her body.
She scrubbed her entire body twice to rid herself of all the blood and smell of ash while being extra careful while scrubbing over her ribs.
Throwing on a fresh set of clothes. Ruby made her way downstairs to where she could smell breakfast being made.
"Arf!"
A Corgi-shaped missile slammed into her stomach. Her Spider-Sense was the only warning she got. It was just enough for her to clench her muscles and brace herself. Zwei might've knocked a rib loose otherwise.
"Gauh!" She grunted in pain and clutched her stomach. Zwei seemed to notice immediately and his happy look morphed into one of absolute horror at having hurt his master.
"I-I'm okay buddy." She pat the Corgi's head. "I'm okay, I promise." She pulled the canine into a hug. He seemed to calm down after that.
"Morning Ruby, you hungry?" Her father called from the kitchen. "We ran out of milk so you'll have to settle for orange juice."
"That's fine, thanks, Dad." Orange juice had more calories than milk anyway so it would benefit her healing factor more than milk would. She needed to heal as fast as possible so no one would know she was injured.
She poured herself a glass and took a seat right as her father slid a full plate over to her. She dug in greedily and messily. She hoped it would be enough to kick-start her healing.
She pulled out her scroll and began scrolling through the Vale news. She wasn't particularly interested in the news before she started appearing in it. Spider-Woman was the talk of Vale right now, and she was even in some other kingdoms from time to time.
Which is why it was unsurprising to find her face plastered right on the front page with the subtext, 'Spider-Woman arrested!'.
The police obviously went right to the media to report that Beacon had apprehended her in an attempt to force Beacon to hand her over. The council obviously knew about it already. She wondered how Ozpin would plan to deal with the backlash.
Feeling curious, Ruby tapped on the article and began to read. The article was obviously written in a rush, as it looked quite sloppy for a professional reporter's work.
"Late last night, the White Fang attempted to steal an entire shipment of Schnee Dust Company dust at the Vale docks. Witnesses report also seeing infamous criminal Roman Torchwick with them. Thankfully, attempts to steal this dust were thwarted by our very own Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Woman."
"Sadly for our masked vigilante, according to police reports, she was gravely injured in the process due to a massive dust explosion that rocked the area. The police attempted to apprehend her in her weakened state before Beacon arrived and arrested her instead. The council is pushing for her immediate incarceration and threatening legal action against Beacon should they refuse to comply. As of right now, Headmaster Ozpin has not yet commented on the situation but we are hoping to get an interview at a later date."
That was it, it was pretty short and straight to the point. The police didn't have all the details and even if they did it would be unlikely that they would share everything with the media. Some of it had to remain classified.
The person who knew most about it was her and she wouldn't be commenting on it anytime soon.
Ruby shifted slightly in her seat and felt her ribs shift painfully in her chest. She forced herself to remain quiet about her pain lest she alert her father. He could not find out under any circumstances.
If her father found out that people tried to kill her every day then there's no way he would let her continue. Vale needs Spider-Woman now more than ever.
She finished up the last of her breakfast in silence before cleaning her dishes and heading off to school. "Bye Dad, see you soon."
"Bye my little Rosebud," he said with a snicker.
"Don't call me that!"
Team PWBY were given the day off to recover both physically and emotionally from yesterday. They didn't need the physical recovery, they were all uninjured from yesterday's battle, but the emotional recovery was desperately needed.
Despite that, the entire team woke up at the same time and got dressed without uttering a single word to each other. They all had the same exact plans, even though not one of them had spoken them out loud. Once Yang had finished cleaning up the blonde hurricane on her head, the entire team strode down the hallway at a brisk pace. They passed by the occasional student going about their business but most of the students were still in their dorms.
They all froze when they arrived at the door to the nursery. The apprehension on their face was visible to all who passed by. Even the happy-go-lucky Penny wasn't smiling.
Yang raised her hand and knocked on the door.
"Come in!"
Yang slowly opened the door, peeking through the crack before fully opening it. "Hello."
PWBY walked through the door to see Garnet typing away on her laptop. She let out a loud yawn, apparently having just woken up.
"How is she?" Weiss asked from the doorway.
Garnet shrugged her shoulders. "I dunno," she answered honestly.
Blake sputtered over her words. "W-What do y-you mean you don't know?" Her voice filled with confusion.
"I mean, I am completely unaware of the physical condition of Spider-Woman at this moment. I don't know if she is ok or even if she is alive."
Team PWBY all entered the room at once to check on Spider-Woman only to be greeted with an empty bed. The team stared for a few seconds before turning to Garnet.
"Probably left a few hours ago. She took the snacks I left for her and some painkillers before she left. Hopped out the window and left without anyone noticing."
"B-But how!? The bullhead docks are closed for another hour! She couldn't have made it to Vale in the condition she was in without transportation!"
Penny chimed in. "Actually, it's reasonable to assume that Spider-Woman made the journey through Emerald Forest in order to escape Beacon. She claimed she had a healing factor that could heal broken bones in a single night's rest. It is not unreasonable to believe that she would've been well enough to simply walk away in the middle of the night."
Garnet nodded her head. "Exactly. Now, I don't have access to the security cameras around Beacon, I'm only given access to footage if I feel that I need to see how someone was injured in order to treat them. The only two people who have access to the cameras are the Headmaster and Deputy Headmistress. But I doubt you need to see the footage to know full well that she escaped through Emerald Forest."
The students were silent for a few moments. The only sound came from Garnet's fingers furiously typing away at her keyboard.
"What do you think Ozpin is gonna do?" Blake asked.
Yang looked confused. Like she was trying to do a puzzle in her head. "What do you mean? Not sure he has to do anything."
"Headmaster Ozpin arrested Spider-Woman by the authority of Beacon," Penny responded. "The police from last night have already told the media and the council about what had happened. Headmaster Ozpin will be pressured to hand Spider-Woman over to the proper authorities. But since Spider-Woman is not here...well...you get the rest."
"The Headmaster willingly let Spider-Woman escape last night. We made no effort to actually restrain her. Ozpin can't tell the council about that or else he risks losing his position on the council and his position as headmaster," Weiss added.
"Ahh...I get it now," Yang sighed.
"Actually," Garnet spoke up, prompting team PWBY to look her way. "Spider-Woman did leave a note before escaping." She held up a small slip of paper for the students. "I figured you would want to read it."
Blake immediately pounced forward to the note before being held back by Yang pulling on her hair. "OW! Dammit, Yang! Lemme go!" She whined.
"Not a chance."
Penny plucked the note from Garnet's fingers and began to read.
"Thanks for saving me last night. You are all heroes to me! —Spider-Woman"
It was shorter than they were expecting. Only two sentences. But the fact that a hero as great as Spider-Woman was thanking them made them all swell with pride.
"I don't believe it," Blake whispered beneath her breath.
She snatched the note out of Penny's hand before she could react.
"I HAVE SPIDER-WOMAN'S AUTOGRAPH!"
…
…
Everyone just stared at her with stupefied looks. Blake's entire face flushed red at everyone's dumbstruck stares.
"U-Um I-I mean. Uhh... Wow, Spider-Woman is thanking us. Ehehe…"
Blake slowly pocketed the note. Everyone noticed.
"Well well well," Yang crooned with a smirk. "I didn't realize we had a fan-girl on our hands."
"W-Well...I really admire her. She inspires me to be better. Oh, stop smirking!"
Yang didn't
"In any case," Weiss began, ignoring the flustered faunus. "I'm glad she's alright. I hope she's taking the time to rest and recover at home."
Garnet shook her head. "Doubt it, you have to remember that Spider-Woman is still a child, I bet she's not even 16 yet. She's probably getting ready for school right now. She can't afford to take a day off because her family might catch on."
"Pft!" Yang snorted. "The thought of Spider-Woman going to school is really funny. I can just imagine her sitting in class stressing over a math quiz or something."
The rest of her team smiled along with her. The tension between them slowly dissipated as their laughs joined together. Garnet smiled at the sight.
"Thank you for your assistance, Miss Garnet. We shall be taking our leave now," Penny said politely.
Her team nodded along with her as they all gave the nurse various degrees of thanks. She watched them leave with a smile on her face.
"Hmph, it was touch and go for a moment there, but I'm glad to see they're getting along again. Things are looking bright."
This sucks.
Ruby's entire body was throbbing. She hadn't taken enough painkillers to nullify the pain for any significant amount of time. Her fast metabolism burned through the 20 pills she had taken in two hours. Now it was nothing but suffering.
She could feel her heartbeat pulse through her skull as a splitting headache threatened to tear her gray matter in two. She shut off her Spider-Sense to lessen the pain by a bit, but it wasn't enough.
Ironically the incredible pain in her chest helped distract her from her headache as her broken ribs hurt much more. Aura did nothing to relieve pain from an injury, but the soothing wave of her soul energy did feel quite nice on her injured body. Like getting into pajamas after a hard day of work.
…
Ok, so not exactly like that but Ruby couldn't really care to devote the brain power to think of anything better at the moment. She just wanted to fall asleep and forget this nightmare of a day ever happened.
She was so unbelievably exhausted. Being a superhero was tiring on more than just her body, she wanted a mental break for a few days. Vale needed Spider-Woman however, she couldn't afford to rest just yet. But taking the day off today to recover from her injuries was necessary.
Her father was spouting some nonsense to the class that she didn't care enough to listen to at the moment. Something about homework...maybe. Her face was buried in her arms on her desk to block out the light of the classroom.
This sucks.
The sounds of combat resonated throughout the classroom, it didn't take a genius to figure out two students were sparring. Gunfire and steel on steel ripped into her eardrums and made her discomfort worse.
"Nnnngg!" She tightened her grip around her head to block the noise.
This sucks!
She let her mind wander to thoughts of Yang and her team. She wondered if they were getting along now after what happened last night. There wasn't much time for team bonding when the White Fang needed to be dealt with, but all of them had gone to search for Blake despite her past. That had to count for something right?
Yang wouldn't care either way, just as long as Blake had the desire to move on and atone for her sins. Yang was cool like that, she didn't hold a grudge for very long. She only genuinely hated one person.
Ruby was convinced that Penny didn't have a mean bone in her body. Ruby could throw an Ursa at her and Penny would just thank her for the extra training.
The biggest problem was Weiss. Ruby genuinely didn't think she was racist but there was clearly some prejudice there. Possibly due to her upbringing. It might take some time, but she was confident they would work their way to being good friends.
Ruby's eyes slowly drifted shut as the sweet embrace of the sandman began to engulf her.
"Ruby!"
That sweet embrace vanished in an instant.
In any other situation, Ruby would've snapped to attention and acted like she was listening the whole time. Maybe offer a few words of confusion as to why she was being called out.
Not this time.
The silver-eyed Huntress, slowly slid her eyes out from beneath her arms, but not enough to fully lift her head off the table. Those piercing silver eyes stared at her father from her seat at the back of the class. Those same eyes promised a slow and painful torture followed by an agonizing death.
"What?" All politeness vanished from her voice. The sweet and innocent Ruby Rose practically spat at her father. She could hear multiple gasps from throughout the room, appalled that she would dare speak to their combat instructor like that.
Her father noticed, his eyes widened a little at her tone. His calm demeanor returned in an instant, unfazed. "I didn't realize it was nap time. Is my class so boring that it causes you to fall asleep?"
Ruby was absolutely not in the mood to deal with this right now. "I was training yesterday and now my everything hurts." She lied swiftly.
Her father sighed. "Your uncle and I tried to warn you of the dangers of over-exerting yourself. Now you're paying for it."
Ruby grumbled in agony and sank her head back into her hands.
"Hey! That doesn't mean go back to sleep!"
"I'm sorry, the person you are trying to contact is unavailable at this moment. Please leave a message after the snore. ZZZzzz..."
She received various giggles from the class at her joke. She liked to think she was getting better with her quips. Her time as Spider-Woman had given her plenty of opportunities to practice.
Her father was not as amused, however. "If you're well enough to make jokes then you're well enough to participate in class. Why don't you gather your weapon and enter the arena? Fang, you will be her opponent."
Ruby grumbled into her arm, she really didn't want to fight right now, but more than that, she didn't want to cause a scene in front of the entire class.
Her classmate, Fang walked past her to go to the locker room and prepare for battle. She was on good terms with the boy, even if they weren't friends.
Fang obviously saw Ruby's intense discomfort if the pitying look on his face was to be believed.
How am I going to fight with broken bones, burnt skin, and a skull-splitting headache? I won't be able to lift Crescent Rose right now, much less swing it around in battle. I didn't even bring it to school today.
Crescent Rose was by no means an easy weapon to use. It took her months just to be able to swing it without falling on her ass. Wielding a weapon of that caliber in the state she was in was out of the question.
Ruby stood slowly and sucked in a breath through her teeth at the pain. She tried to formulate a plan in the little time she had remaining.
Let's see, winning by aura depletion is out of the question. The only way I stand a chance is by ring out. I also can't get hit once, that might do some serious damage to my already broken body. I need to be unpredictable in this fight.
"Aren't you going to get your weapon?" The blonde Huntsman asked her.
The silver-eyed warrior shook her head. "No need, I can fight without it."
It was no secret to anyone in the school that Ruby Rose was helpless without her weapon. She had one of the worst win ratios in unarmed combat. The only people who she managed to beat were those who were equally helpless as her and nowhere near as fast.
There were mutters from her fellow students who were confused as to why she was so confident. They knew damn well she couldn't fight unarmed.
Perhaps they were right in a sense. Even as Spider-Woman, her technique was terrible. She always left openings and her attacks were so telegraphed that even the worst CQC fighters could see it coming. It was only thanks to her overwhelming strength and unmatched speed that allowed her to win most of her fights.
Her sister loved to remind her how badly she needed to improve her unarmed skills. Ruby never really listened because she loved using Crescent Rose so much. Why would she need to learn how to fight without the greatest weapon in the world?
Taiyang's eyes widened for a fraction of a second before regaining his composure. "Ruby, you never fight without your weapon. I really think you should go retrieve it."
Ruby simply repeated her words from before. "No need, I can fight without it."
The class's muttering became louder.
"Do you really think you can fight at a proficient level without your weapon?" Taiyang asked.
"Actually, yeah, I do." Ruby's confidence was staggering. "Why? Do you doubt my ability?"
Taiyang sighed. "Honestly, yes, I do. You're unarmed combat score is one of the lowest in the class. You constantly leave yourself open to counterattacks and your own attacks are so telegraphed that a beginner could dodge them. I keep trying to get you to train in unarmed combat but you always insist that you'll never be left without Crescent Rose."
"So yeah, I doubt you can win a fight without your weapon."
He...wasn't wrong. Everything he just said was true and the entire class knew it. She got her ass handed to her quite regularly in CQC. So much so that the class expected it at this point.
Still Ruby didn't back down. "Then...how 'bout a friendly wager?" She suggested.
Taiyang quirked up a single eyebrow as a smirk graced his lips. "Oh? What kind of wager?" He asked, clearly interested.
The class quieted down, no doubt listening to what the secret vigilante had to say.
Ruby threw her cards on the table.
"It's simple," Ruby began, "I believe I can win this fight without my weapon and you doubt my ability to do so. My proposal is this, if I can win this fight without my weapon then you have to give me the rest of the day off."
Taiyang's expression remained neutral.
"On the contrary, if I lose this fight then I will finally take your advice and let you train me in unarmed combat."
Ruby extended her hand to her father, waiting for him to grasp it and accept her terms. "What do you say?"
Taiyang glared at her waiting hand while his eyes darted between it and her face. The class waited with bated breath, anticipating their instructor's response.
When he took too long to respond, Ruby decided to sweeten the deal further. "Tell ya what, I bet that not only will I win this fight, but I won't take a single hit in the process. How's that for a deal?"
Taiyang threw his head back and laughed. "HAHAHA! If you manage to pull that off then I'll let you go home and I'll give you the day off tomorrow as well." Taiyang grasped Ruby's waiting hand firmly but not tightly.
"I sure hope you know what you're doing."
Yeah...me too.
Ruby remained standing in the ring for a few minutes before Fang entered the classroom with his weapon in hand. He had a massive one-handed sword resting on his shoulder. There was a glowing dust cartridge right above where his hand rested on the handle and a mechanism that fed the dust into the blade. The weapon was very futuristic looking with a design that actually emulated his outfit quite well. The name of his weapon was Eryn. Weird name...but whatever.
Once Fang entered the arena, he and Ruby handed their scrolls to their instructor to insert them into the aura readers.
The aura readers were there to make sure that students wouldn't go too far during spars. A loud noise would sound when someone's aura entered the red. That was normally enough to stop all fighting.
The instant both their auras were displayed on the large monitor the entire classroom, including her father, gasped at what was displayed.
Huh, that's weird. Why are they all acting like that?
Ruby glanced up at the screen to see Fang with a healthy aura sitting at 100% capacity. His aura was about average size from what she heard. Not as big as hers but nothing to be ashamed about.
Her aura on the other hand was a little different. Actually, no it wasn't. It was a lot different. Her aura sat at an uncomfortable 20%. Very much in the yellow and one solid hit away from red.
An aura at 15% or lower is considered a critical level. Fights would be called off when an aura reached that level.
She had expended so much of her aura to heal herself that she had no time to recover what she lost. She was so completely lost in her pain that she totally forgot.
Her father's confused face vanished in an instant and he suddenly looked very worried. "Are you ok?! What happened?!"
"I'm fine. It just hurts a lot." It technically wasn't a lie. She would be fine after she got some more sleep. She wasn't in any immediate danger.
Her father ran up to her to check on her injuries. He never made it, she backed away before he could make it. "I'm fine!" She yelled. "Let's get this over with."
"Ruby, if you're injured, you need to see the nurse!"
"I'm not injured." The lie came easily to her. "I told you I was training yesterday. I used all my aura to repair myself but it wasn't enough. Now my entire body hurts and I just want to rest. That's why I want to go home."
If her father found out she was injured then he would definitely tell Yang. Yang is a smart girl, she saw Spider-Woman get injured last night, so if she found out that Ruby was injured as well then she might put two and two together. Not to mention the nurse will definitely find out she has multiple broken bones. She couldn't explain that!
The only way to end this without arousing suspicion would be to fight. Beating Fang was another matter. Her aura was practically gone, her bones were trying to heal, and there were burns everywhere. One hit from him would not only knock her aura into the red but would also hurt like absolute hell.
Knocking his aura into the red was an immediate no, there was no way she could muster the power to do that. But knocking him out of the ring was completely possible.
She couldn't use any of her obvious spider abilities like super strength or wall crawling. But her Spider-Sense was still viable.
But, just because she couldn't use her spider abilities didn't mean that she couldn't use her Ruby Rose abilities. Or more specifically, her Semblance.
Just because Ruby was working really hard to improve her spider-like abilities didn't mean that she was neglecting her other abilities as well. Her scythe technique, Semblance, and aura control were all improving.
The only way she could win this was to use something that her opponent wasn't expecting.
Luckily for her, she had just the thing.
Taiyang seemed hesitant for a moment before nodding in confirmation. "Very well. The victor of this battle will be determined by aura depletion, ring out, or surrender. Are you ready?"
Ruby nodded her head.
Fang brandished his weapon.
"Very well." Taiyang reached into his pocket and pulled out a small remote. The instant he pressed a button, a countdown started to tick down on the monitor.
10…
...9
...8
Ruby clenched her fists tightly and heightened her Spider-Sense by a small amount.
...7
...6
...5
She felt what little aura she had left burn beneath her skin.
...4
...3
...2
I get the feeling this is gonna bite me in the ass later.
...1
"DING!"
The instant the countdown timer reached zero, Fang blasted forward with incredible speed and a large sword raised above his head.
Ruby remained calm. Instead of focusing on her unbearable agony, Ruby instead focused on the warm feeling of her aura surrounding her heart. It felt really good.
Fang swung his sword down.
The sound of fist meeting face was loud enough to shock the entire class. The sharp crack echoed through the air with an unsettling intensity.
Fang froze solid.
Why did his cheek hurt?
He slowly turned to look at Ruby, she hadn't moved an inch since the fight started. There was no way it was her.
Flexing his fingers to make sure they were still working, Fang shot his sword forward as if trying to impale the young girl.
BAM!
His head snapped sideways and he stumbled backward on his feet. His other cheek hurt now. The other students and her father seemed to notice as well. All of them gave various sounds of confusion and awe.
"What happ-?"
His words were blown out of his mouth when a tiny fist crashed into his lips. Teeth rattled in his skull and his brain sloshed around in his head.
This fist was followed by another.
And another.
And another.
Punch after punch materialized out of seemingly nowhere. The only indication that there was movement at all was the rose petals that clouded his vision.
Ruby Rose had been training with her Semblance recently. The funny thing about her Semblance was that it didn't have a lot of offensive combat capabilities. Simply due to the fact that getting hit with a bunch of rose petals didn't actually hurt at all.
Ruby had to get creative when it came to using her Semblance to deal damage. Luckily for her, she was very creative.
Due to intense and extensive training, Ruby had learned how to activate her Semblance in one part of her body at a time rather than her entire body. Using this technique, she activated her Semblance in her entire arm for a fraction of a second. That fraction was all she needed to get to a very high speed.
At the last possible second, Ruby would deactivate her Semblance and her hand would materialize out of rose petals. Using this technique, she was able to keep all the speed that she gained while using her Semblance while keeping all the mass her fist had.
By doing this over and over again in a short span of time. She could punch her opponent so fast that they wouldn't have time to react. Also, a fist traveling that fast at your face had much more power than a normal punch.
Ruby showed no mercy.
Her arms transformed into hurricanes of rose petals. Rose petals burst forth from her arms in waves that would be enough to suffocate someone had her rose petals not dissolved immediately after.
The blows weren't very powerful in their own right, at least not when she wasn't using her super strength. But they rained down so fast that her opponent couldn't see them coming, much less dodge them.
The audience became deathly silent. The only sound that anyone could hear was the sharp cracks of aura slamming into place to protect Fang's face.
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
Fang backpedaled with every blow, unable to remain in one spot under the onslaught. His feet teetered on the edge of the arena, fighting to keep his balance.
Ruby Rose cocked her fist back and launched it forward.
Her fist buried itself into her opponent's gut for a second before the laws of physics seemed to catch up with him.
The air was driven painfully from Fang's lungs and his feet were torn out from under him. His back bounced off of the wall and he crashed into the ground. Defeated.
His aura was still sitting at a healthy 85%. Her blows weren't all that powerful due to her physical condition, and they likely weren't as fast as they normally would be either. Using her Semblance like that had drained her aura a bit too. Now it sat at a dangerous 16%. Another second and she would've lost due to her own Semblance.
Still, she managed to pull something out of her ass, and it paid off. She turned her head to glare at her dumbstruck father. He was completely frozen, like someone had pressed the pause button on him.
"Looks like I win," she declared to her father.
The entire class was stunned into silence, no one able to utter a single sound at what they had just witnessed.
Fang got to his feet, he was more intrigued than injured. If he had been expecting Ruby to pull something like that then he surely would've found a way to counter it. It was only thanks to the surprise factor of the technique that allowed her to squeeze out a win.
"I'll admit," Fang began, "I was not expecting that. That was really impressive," he said with a smile.
Ruby returned the smile despite her agony. She refused to show weakness to anyone. "You know as well as I do that I only won because you weren't expecting me to do something like that."
Fang rolled his eyes. "Maybe so, but catching your opponent off guard is a valid strategy. You still beat me fair and square." Fang crawled back into the arena. "Congratulations." He offered his hand to the young Huntress.
Ruby accepted the hand with a smile.
Now that Fang was taken care of, Ruby turned to her father.
"So, does this mean I get the rest of today and tomorrow off?"
She could tell that he wanted to protest, but her father loved to pride himself on being a man of his word, and she knew it. He sighed. "I guess I have no choice. You won fair and square, and I'm a man of my word. I'll think twice about underestimating you next time. You can go home."
Ruby sighed with relief before making her way out of the class.
"But!" Taiyang called to her. "I still expect you to hand in your homework on Wednesday. You're not getting out of it that easily."
"Yeah yeah yeah. I got it." Ruby turned around. "Can I get out of doing my homework if I beat you up too?"
"Get out of here, cheeky brat." His voice was filled with amusement rather than malice.
The instant the door shut behind her, Ruby's calm facade shattered. Her face warped into one of unbelievable agony and she clutched her aching stomach. Using her Semblance like that had caused her ribs to shift around painfully. She would be surprised if there wasn't more damage than before.
Tears streamed down Ruby's pale face, she forced her sobs to remain in her throat and brought her hood up so no one could see or hear her crying.
This sucks!
Each tentative step she took sent sharp twinges of discomfort rippling through her weary body, as if invisible daggers stabbed at her with every movement. Even the act of breathing felt like she was inhaling poison gas laced with needles. Ruby desperately wished that her brain would go into autopilot and take her home for her but the pain she was in put a stop to that quickly.
If she stopped for even a second then she wasn't sure that she would be able to move again.
The walk was agonizingly slow, every second felt like ten minutes, but she trudged on. She never once slowed down. She got some concerned words from her neighbors as she approached her house but she waved them off without uttering a single word. It took a few tries to shove her key in the door but she managed. Thankfully, Zwei didn't launch into her stomach when the door opened, he was sleeping on the couch.
Ruby had never wanted an escalator in her house more in her life. Ten stairs looked like a mountain to the girl. Still, she put one foot in front of the other and ascended with great difficulty.
She made sure to softly close her bedroom door behind her so as not to aggravate her skull-throbbing headache.
Her cloak fell to the ground when she undid the clip from her neck. She didn't even bother taking her clothes off, she just crawled into bed without getting dressed.
This sucks.
Now that there was no one around to interrupt her, she allowed the sandman to work his magic and whisk her off to dreamland.
Ozpin kept his composure even under the harsh glares of the council. He knew that the members didn't really like him too much, simply due to the fact that he had more power than all of them. Power can corrupt anyone and the members of the council were no exception.
He had more power than the rest of the council due to him being the headmaster of the biggest Hunter school in Vale and having a seat on the council on top of that. The rest of the council couldn't interfere with Beacon affairs unless all of Vale was involved or every member of the council came to an agreement.
Given that Ozpin had a seat on the council, his opinion also mattered and he would never let the rest of them interfere with his school or the way he ran it.
These were men and women all over 60 years old who were only worried about lining their pockets and blinding the public. Ozpin was older than all of them combined but they would never know that.
He knew why the meeting was called today, even Qrow drunk off his ass could've figured it out. He also knew that they wouldn't like the answer that he was going to give them.
His neutral expression didn't slip as he took his usual seat at the large circular table. "Ladies, Gentlemen, good to see you all again. It has been quite some time."
There were a total of seven seats on the council and Ozpin had one of them. The six other members all surrounded him with various expressions that tried to intimidate the man. It wouldn't work, of course.
The thing that annoyed Ozpin the most about the council was not the desperate attempts to control Beacon, or them adding subtle loopholes in the tax code that allowed them to get out of paying taxes, or the laws that tried to limit the power of the public.
No. The thing that annoyed Ozpin the most about the council was the fact that every single last one of them excluding himself had the most complicated and obnoxiously political-sounding names possible.
"The pleasure is all ours Ozpin," Theodore Percival Winslow-Smythe said while twirling his mustache around his finger. "How are the new students?" He asked, feigning curiosity. "I hear you have some exceptional talent admitted this year. Pyrrha Nikos for example."
Ozpin hid his fake smile behind his coffee mug. "They're a handful and they're already causing my hair to gray, but they are the future protectors of Remnant. They are all skilled in their own right, even if there are a few things that need to be ironed out before they graduate."
The woman who was sitting next to Theodore nodded while she slid a pencil behind her ear. "We are all very glad to hear that," Cassandra Victoria Kensington-Fitzgerald said with no facial expression to speak of. She was always the stoic type of woman. Like Glynda, but less scary. "Running Beacon for 25 years must be quite the challenge. To hear that you're still going strong is excellent."
"It has its ups and downs," Ozpin answered honestly. "But I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Nor would I let anyone take it from me." Ozpin subtly added that last bit in to drive home the fact that he would never relinquish control of Beacon to them.
"While I'm sure we would all love to catch up with one another, I believe we have more important matters to discuss," Reginald Archibald Vanderbilt-Montgomery said with disdain that he didn't even try to hide.
Steam bellowed forth from Ozpin's mouth after he took a sip of his piping hot coffee. Like how someone could see their breath on a chill day. The liquid bitter darkness rippled gently as the immortal placed the mug on the agarwood table. He adjusted his glasses on his nose before clasping his hands together on the table. "Yes, let's get started shall we."
"According to numerous reports from both the media and the authorities, they claim that some of your students apprehended Spider-Woman last night during the incident at the docks," Cedric Reginald Warrington-Winthrop got straight to the point. "They also claim that you were there to put a stop to any attempts for the proper authorities to do their job and take her into custody."
Ozpin didn't so much as flinch under the harsh gazes of the council. "This is correct," he confirmed immediately. "As I'm sure you're all aware. Beacon acts as an independent, we follow the same laws as everyone in Vale, but we have privileges that the authorities also have. As such, I took matters into my own hands and arrested Spider-Woman myself. I acted well within my rights, and you know that."
"But why?" Seraphina Octavia Sinclair-Belvedere asked with a sneer. "Why not leave matters to the proper authorities? There was no reason for you to get involved. It seems to me that arresting Spider-Woman yourself is causing you a lot of trouble."
"Because," Ozpin responded immediately. "Spider-Woman protected one of my students and a student from Haven Academy. I felt it only right to tend to her injuries and repay the favor."
Roderick Magnusson-Harrington chose that moment to butt in. "The police could've done that. You could've looked the other way and had them treat her injuries. You had no reason to do that yourself."
Ozpin snickered. "If you're so naive that you believe the police would've treated Spider-Woman with respect then you're more of a fool than I gave you credit for."
Roderick slapped his hands on the agarwood and rose slightly. "What was that you damn—!
"Enough!" Theodore chastised. "The important thing is that we have Spider-Woman in custody now. She will be given a fair trial and no doubt face criminal punishment."
It took much more effort than Ozpin was willing to admit to keep the smirk off his face. "Yeah… about that." Ozpin reached behind him and pulled out what looked to be a pair of shattered Huntsman-grade handcuffs. The very same pair that he had broken himself last night. In reality, they were nowhere near Huntsman grade, they were made of aluminum. He placed the cuffs on the table with a loud clatter.
"Spider-Woman was badly injured last night. She had multiple broken bones, a concussion, burns everywhere, and a completely depleted aura. Given the state she was in, she should've been unable to so much as walk without support."
Cassandra's eyes narrowed at the immortal. "Where is this going?"
Ozpin sipped his coffee. "In the few short hours that Spider-Woman was in our custody, she had somehow recovered to a point where she was able to break free of these high-quality Huntsman-grade handcuffs and make her way through the entire Emerald Forest and escape into Vale."
Ozpin waited patiently for their inevitable voices of fury.
He didn't have to wait long.
He wasn't exactly sure what everyone was saying. All of the words got jumbled together at one point. Something about 'ending his entire bloodline' or something like that. The various swears and threats joined to form a mess of sounds he couldn't recognize.
It was quite impressive that they could make up brand new words that didn't exist on the fly like that. What was more impressive was that Ozpin understood all those words despite them not existing. None of them were very flattering. Quite the opposite actually.
Ozpin didn't even try to understand what they were saying, he just sat patiently sipping his steaming hot coffee while waiting for everyone to calm down.
Of course, he would never tell them that he let Spider-Woman free on purpose. That would be the quickest way possible to lose his job and position on the council. Team PWBY knew, but they would be smart enough to keep their mouths shut.
He hoped.
Wow, are they still screaming? It's been like 90 seconds already.
Various amounts of spittle flew from the angry mouths of the council and found their way onto Ozpin's face. At least he was fast enough to cover his mug to protect the steaming bitter drink. His coffee was all he really cared about now.
Another minute of screaming later, and the council had quieted enough so that Ozpin could actually understand what they were saying. Not very well mind you, but he could pick out a few sentences.
"You damn fool!"
"How could you let this happen?!"
"I'm gonna shove my boot straight up your—!"
You get the idea.
Another 30 seconds later and everyone had quieted down enough that Ozpin could speak without being drowned out by everyone else.
Ozpin reached into his breast pocket, pulled out a small green handkerchief, and began to clean the saliva off of his face and table area.
"Are you finished?" Ozpin refused to put his saliva-saturated handkerchief back into his pocket, he just placed it on the table to deal with later. "I'd like to get a few words in, if I may."
Ozpin was sure that they would've started screaming again if they hadn't screamed their voices hoarse already.
"Great. Now then. First of all, I would like to apologize, I made a drastic error in underestimating Spider-Woman's abilities." He was lying through his teeth of course. "I assure you that I will take precautions to increase our chances that this does not happen in the future. But I make no promises."
The council didn't accept that answer, but Ozpin pushed on. "Second, while it is unfortunate that I was unable to apprehend Spider-Woman, I must mention that if Beacon was unable to contain her then the VPD would've had a much harder time keeping her locked up. Her escaping was near unavoidable."
"Third, this does not mean that we didn't achieve victory last night. Spider-Woman was able to save an entire shipment of SDC dust from being stolen by Roman Torchwick. You cannot deny that despite her escape, things ended better than they would've had she not been there."
"Ozpin," Seraphina said coldly. "We cannot rely on a vigilante to do the job of Hunters for us. Faith in Hunters is already on a steady decline ever since Spider-Woman showed up. To validate her accomplishments only serves to validate her. We cannot have people putting all their faith in one vigilante."
"She's right Ozpin," Cassandra sighed. "Spider-Woman being successful is a good thing, but it's not a good thing if the entire kingdom knows it was her. This is exactly what we don't want."
"Would you rather Torchwick have been successful in stealing all that dust? That would've been his biggest hit ever," Ozpin countered.
"That's not what I meant and you know it!" Seraphina yelled.
Ozpin brought his mug to his lips and finished the last bit of coffee he had left. "It doesn't matter anyway. Spider-Woman escaped, Roman Torchwick escaped, Torchwick didn't steal any dust, Spider-Woman is alive, and all my students are unharmed. Those are the facts and there is nothing we can do about it."
"Come to think of it," Reginald began. "Why were your students there in the first place? I find it unlikely they just so happened to stumble across the robbery that late at night."
Ozpin thought for a minute about how best to answer that question. "The team that was involved had an argument that caused a rift between them. One of my students ran away from school and the rest were searching for her. Long story short, they heard the explosions and came to help."
Ozpin peered into his empty coffee mug and saw porcelain dotted with remnants of coffee at the bottom. "Rest assured, I will be handling the matter internally. This will not happen again."
"Be sure that it doesn't Ozpin," Theodore sighed with his head in his hands. "We have no other options other than to wait for another opportunity to capture her, or figure out her identity."
"She covers her tracks well. Never unmasks herself in front of cameras or leave evidence behind," Cedric commented. "It's almost like she knows the cameras are there or something."
Ozpin stood up from his chair with a clatter. "While it has been fun to catch up with you all, I do have a school to run, I do believe I'll be taking my leave now." Ozpin retrieved his mug and handkerchief before spinning on his heel and making to leave.
"I recommend not focusing on Spider-Woman and instead focusing on the upcoming Vytal Festival. There are a lot of details that still need to be ironed out. Spider-Woman can wait."
Ozpin reached the door. "Good day to you all."
The door softly clicked shut behind him.
The council sat in silence for a few seconds, taking in Ozpin's words.
"You know what? He's right," Roderick said with a smirk. He raised his hand to prevent any further comments. "We should be focusing on the Vytal festival right now. To ensure that nothing goes wrong, we need to use all available resources.
Cedric's eyes narrowed. "What are you suggesting?"
Roderick's smile split his face in half. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a scroll. "We are going to increase security for the Vytal festival."
His grin took on a sinister edge.
"And I know just who to call."
AN: I wrote this chapter when Tears of the Kingdom was released, so I took a break to play that for a while.
It's a really good game.
Review if you want, or don't, I don't really care.