Norman Osborn was a man defined by two things, his determination and his wealth.
Norman had humble beginnings. Born to a very poor family, he had to work at a very young age just so his parents could keep food on the table. He had no friends because he never had any money to spend to hang out with them. Besides, who wanted to be friends with the weird poor kid? But these experiences taught Norman how to respect money. As such, he never spent what he didn't need to. He rarely bought something just for the sake of having it.
Norman was determined to get himself and his family out of the hole they were in. He wanted to pay off their debts, move into a better house, and never have to worry about money again. Norman had the best parents he could ask for. Never once did they ask for anything in return, besides asking him to help pay bills. It wasn't like they had a choice either, they relied on Norman to help.
He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.
Not only did he manage to pay off their debts, buy a new home, and start a successful company, but he was now the richest man on Remnant. He even managed to find love. He married his college sweetheart, Emily Lyman. They even had a son together, Harry Osborn.
Needless to say, Norman Osborn was the hardest working man in the world.
Scientists and mechanics scurried throughout the lab, working on various tasks. Some were jotting down notes while others were elbow deep in large machines. There wasn't a single person that wasn't doing anything.
"As you can see, we've managed to improve the dust efficiency by 11% with this newer model," the head scientist explained to the board of directors. "This will cut down on dust usage significantly when we roll these out to the Hunters."
"I've seen enough weapons Dr. Stromm. That's not what I'm here for."
Stromm opened his mouth to respond before a voice called from a nearby open door. "General Slocum, welcome back. Always a pleasure to see our board of directors," Norman Osborn called out clad in his lab coat. "What can I do for you today?"
"I want an update on the progress of the human performance enhancers," General Slocum demanded.
Dr. Stromm explained. "In the rodent test subjects that had an active aura there was an 800% increase in strength."
"Any side effects?"
"In one trial yes."
Norman cut in before Stromm could continue. "It was an aberration, we think the rodent had an allergic reaction to the vapor. Every test since then has been successful."
General Slocum didn't even glance at Norman, instead, his gaze remained focused on Dr. Strom. "In the one trial that went wrong, what happened? What were the side effects?"
"Restlessness, violence, aggression, and insanity."
General Slocum looked like he was expecting that answer. "And what would you recommend?"
Norman once again cut in before Dr. Stromm could respond. "That was only one test. With the exception of Dr. Stromm, our entire staff certifies the product as ready for human testing." Norman had a wide smile on his face as he said that.
"Dr. Stromm?" General Slocum eyed him questioningly.
"Um...W-We need to take the whole line back to formula."
General Slocum released a deep breath while Norman looked to Dr. Stromm with eyes full of rage. "Back to formula?!" He whispered to Stromm.
"Norman, we can't risk human testing without being absolutely sure that it's safe. Doing it now is a PR disaster waiting to happen."
"Dr. Osborn," General Slocum began. "I'm gonna level with you. I never supported your little program. Oscorp is going down the drain and you know it as well as I do. Your nanotech progress has been close to zero for three years now. Atlas is making strides in its weapon manufacturing division and I hear they're working with Pietro Polendina to create real-life androids. Not only that, but I hear they've been successful. That's more than I can say about you."
Norman felt his heart stop. All color drained from his face.
"You've got two weeks to conduct a successful human trial with the performance enhancers or we'll pull your funding. Until then, I wish you luck." General Slocum and the rest of the board of directors left without another word.
Norman stared straight ahead for what felt like hours, in reality, it couldn't have been more than three minutes.
Norman Osborn had two weeks to perform a successful human trial or Oscorp was dead.
"Drastic times call for drastic measures."
Ruby Rose was awoken by the sounds of her stomach loudly yelling at her to eat something. Ruby couldn't recall ever being this hungry, it felt like her stomach was trying to eat itself. She might eat her own arm if they don't have any food.
Opening her eyes, Ruby discovered that she never made it to bed yesterday, she just collapsed on the floor with Crescent Rose still strapped to her back. She didn't even remember making it home yesterday, she remembered getting on the bus to go home, but it's all a blur from there.
"Ughhh, what a terrible night."
Ruby slowly pushed herself to her feet, wincing at how tense her muscles felt.
Removing her baby from its place on her back, Ruby quickly noticed something odd. Ruby was practically blind after her encounter with that spider, but now? Now she felt like she was truly seeing the world the way it was meant to be seen. She was seeing colors she never knew existed, not only that, but the image her brain was processing was so much sharper and clearer than ever before. It was like having the best pair of glasses in the world times ten implanted in your eyes!
"Weird." Ruby quickly brushed off her enhanced vision.
"Holy woah I smell! I must've been sweating a lot last night, all my clothes feel sticky too. Ugh, disgusting." Ruby muttered to herself disgusted that she slept in a puddle of her own sweat. She quickly grabbed a change of clothes and headed toward her bathroom. Ruby didn't normally shower in the morning, she preferred to shower the night before because she would just get all dirty again from the hard work that the day was sure to demand, but she would gladly make an exception this time.
Ruby quickly ran the water and got undressed. I wonder what happened to me, why was I so sick yesterday? Why didn't my Aura take care of it immediately? Thoughts for another day I suppose. Ruby shrugged off her thoughts and got ready to hop in the shower.
Then she looked in the mirror.
...and her jaw dropped.
Ruby was always pretty small. She wasn't tiny but her body was always smaller than most of the kids in Signal, this was fine as she relied on speed more than anything to fight. She accepted that she would likely never get much bigger.
Well, not anymore.
Completely gone were any and all traces of baby fat across her naked body. She suddenly had a 6 pack that would make even the strongest students in Signal jealous. Her arms were heavier too, not heavy in the sense that they were hard to lift but heavy in how they felt. Her muscles felt like they were forged from the toughest metal in the world, yet somehow they felt looser than ever. She was absolutely shredded!
She was pretty sure her breasts got a little bigger too.
Ruby felt heat creep up her neck at the sight of her body in the bathroom mirror.
"What the hell happened to me?" Ruby asked under her breath.
She didn't have much time to dwell on it as she still reeked of sweat. Hopping into the shower, she quickly began to scrub down every inch of her body twice to rid herself of the terrible smell. Running her hands over her new muscles was a surreal experience, not even Yang's muscles felt like this. How could her muscles be so dense yet still feel so loose? How could she suddenly triple the quality of her already 20/20 vision?
I'll think about it later, for now, I'm absolutely starving! Ruby dashed out of the shower, got dressed, and headed downstairs. Her dad was already awake making breakfast. Smelled like bacon, YUM!
"Morning Dad. What's for breakfast? Bacon? Eggs? I'll take 5 eggs please, also some toast, and orange juice! Let me help!" Ruby quickly got to work before her dad could say good morning. Chucking 4 slices of bread in the toaster, and cracking the eggs into a bowl. By the time she put the eggs in the hot pan, the toast was already done. After quickly buttering the bread and devouring all 4 slices in 30 seconds, she got to work on her massive omelet.
Her dad watched her work with confusion. Ruby almost never made breakfast, she definitely knew how, but she only did it if she needed to.
Ruby slid the completed omelet onto a plate and grabbed a few slices of bacon, after pouring herself a tall glass of orange juice, she rapidly dug into her breakfast. About 3 minutes later she was already throwing more bread in the toaster and got started on another omelet.
The footsteps coming from the stairs indicated to Ruby that Yang had woken up. Yang was never a morning person. She always preferred to party all night long and regret it later. Also having to deal with that mop on her head every morning can't be fun.
"Morning guys," Yang said as she let out a massive yawn. "What's for breakfast? I smell bacon, YUM!"
"You better hurry and grab a plate before your sister devours her third omelet" Taiyang pointed out. "She has quite the appetite this morning."
"You feeling better sis?" Yang asked with concern. "You were practically a ghost yesterday, you barely made it up the stairs."
Ruby was quick to reassure her sister. "I'm fine Yang, actually I'm better than fine, I feel amazing! But I skipped dinner yesterday, so I'm absolutely starving right now. I should be back to normal by tomorrow."
Yang wrapped her arm around her sister. "That's good to hear, remember you have hand-to-hand combat training at school today, I just thought you were trying to skip out."
Erk! I totally forgot! Ugh. Ruby hated hand-to-hand combat. Well, actually she just hated being without her baby for more than five minutes. She felt naked without Crescent Rose on her back. She made the best weapon in the world and she wanted to use it dammit!
"I didn't forget," she lied, "I was just feeling terrible, I didn't even make it to bed, I passed out on the floor."
"Well, I'm glad you're feeling better darling," Taiyang said with a smile as Ruby sat down with her second omelet.
"Hey Ruby, you have a giant lump on your hand. You good?" Yang pointed to a large mark on Ruby's hand.
Ruby inspected the mark, it was red and swollen with two black marks in the center. That's right, I was bitten by that weird spider! That's definitely what made me so sick yesterday. "I'm fine Yang, just a bug bite, it'll fade in no time. I promise." Thankfully Yang didn't delve further into the mark.
After finishing her omelet, Ruby packed her stuff and ran out the door ready to start her day. She got her morning exercise by running to school every morning. It was a 20-minute run, although she could shorten it to 5 if she used her semblance the whole way.
What's going on with me today? My vision is incredible, I'm absolutely jacked, and my appetite is insane. What prompted this sudden change? Ruby's thoughts were cut off as she arrived at Signal Academy...wait...she just left her house.
Checking her scroll, Ruby realized that she left her house about 2 minutes ago. "D-Did I just run 3 miles in 2 minutes?" Ruby asked herself. Despite knowing that no one would answer her, Ruby still waited in silence for the answer to fall out of the sky. Shaking her head, Ruby ran to class.
"Might as well do some studying before class begins." Ruby pulled out her notes and started to review the material, but her mind was drifting toward her surprising abilities. This should be impossible, there's no way I got that muscle in just one night, it takes years of training to get a body like that.
Ruby's thoughts were interrupted as the rest of the students started pouring through the classroom. Each one ready for the challenges of the day. Signal was a very diverse school, there were both Humans and Faunus. There was still racism in the school sure, but those students were punished quite rapidly, if they acted out a second time, they were expelled. Simple as that, that's why the more racist students keep to themselves, fear of losing their place in the school will do that to them.
Some students chatted to each other, while others frantically tried to finish homework that they haven't even started, Ruby just studied the material in hopes to get a better grasp of what they were learning. It wasn't long before the teacher walked into the class and set his things down. Her combat instructor was her father Taiyang Xiao Long. You would think this would be awesome, him always letting her get away with stuff. Hahaha no. If anything it only made him harder on her to show the rest of the class that he doesn't go easy on anyone.
"Alright everyone, settle down please, as we discussed yesterday, today we will be training your hand-to-hand combat skills," Taiyang explained. "You'll never know when you'll be in a situation where you have been disarmed and need to rely on your bare fists in a fight. Those of you that are already proficient in hand-to-hand will be helping me with demonstrations, those of you that aren't will have to pay close attention."
Ruby was terrible at hand-to-hand combat, she spent so much time designing and building her weapon that she wanted to excel at using it, as such she never learned how to fight with her bare fists.
Taiyang called down a student who was proficient in hand-to-hand to demonstrate some basic maneuvers. "Make sure to throw your weight into a punch." He says. "Don't just use your arm, you'll barely get any power that way. Also, don't stop moving your fist just because you make contact, keep that momentum going and dig into their gut. Watch me."
Taiyang and the student quickly went into a friendly spar, each combatant dodging blows and following up with counters. It's quite impressive how someone can move their body like that. Your opponent can be faster, stronger, and tougher than you, but if you're smarter then you could find a way to pull out a win.
The demonstration came to an end and each student was partnered up to practice. Ruby was paired with a male student that didn't particularly like her, in fact, he was quite the bully. Flash Thompson walked up to the mat across from her and got into a fighting stance, he wasn't the most experienced in hand-to-hand, but his skills certainly surpassed Ruby's, and they both knew it.
"Hope you're ready for a beatdown Red," Flash said while rolling his shoulder. Ruby would be lying if she said she wasn't nervous. Flash was bigger and stronger than her, he definitely had the advantage in an unarmed fight. Luckily, everyone else was busy with their fights so they likely would see her get her ass handed to her.
Flash started the match by charging straight at Ruby. Clearly, he intended to end this in one blow, not caring how badly Ruby was hurt. Ruby got into a basic defensive stance and prepared to block.
BZZT!
Then she felt a commanding tingle from the back of her skull, every instinct in her body was screaming at her to move out of the way. Ruby obliged and vaulted over Flash and stumbled a little before landing clumsily on her knees.
What the hell was that?! Ruby didn't have time to dwell on her predicament before the tingle came back stronger. Ruby launched herself to the side just in time to avoid a devastating stomp from Flash. Flash clearly didn't want to give her any room to breathe, as he quickly followed up with a series of rapid blows, each one intending to badly hurt the girl.
Time seemed to slow down for the young huntress, each and every blow thrown by Flash clearly had power behind them, and yet Ruby felt like she was in absolutely no danger. Ruby dodged each and every blow with incredible ease, not even breaking a sweat. Ruby performed flips and spins with no effort. The tingle in her skull was telling her exactly where each blow would land before it was even thrown. Despite the multitude of openings that Flash was leaving her, Ruby just kept dodging.
Holy WOAH! I'm not even trying! It's like I've been doing this for years! Something is definitely wrong with me. All of this is just too perfectly timed. The amazing eyesight, physique, speed, appetite, and now THIS! I need to look into this when I get home.
Ruby just barely dodged another punch but this time she clamped her hand down on Flash's wrist very tightly. She could see his aura spark beneath her fingers and a look of shock and pain on Flash's face. Spinning on her heel, Ruby heaved and flipped Flash over her head with impossible ease before slamming him into the ring.
A small amount of dust was kicked up upon impact. Flash clearly had the wind knocked out of him. He was gasping for breath and not able to retrieve any.
"Oh my god! I'm so so so sorry!" Ruby apologized to the struggling teen.
"Nice work Ruby," Said Taiyang, walking up to her mat. "I didn't realize you were that strong, but I'm proud of you," He said with a smile.
"T-Thanks Dad," Ruby replied with an embarrassed look.
Ruby quietly walked over to her desk internally freaking out while Flash was still struggling to breathe. What the hell was that!? I know for a fact that I was never that strong before. And that buzzing in my skull! It was like I was being warned before I was hit! Did I unlock a second semblance or something? That's never happened before, not even once. Sure, some semblances are very versatile and allow them to do multiple things, but I'm pretty sure my Petal Burst and a danger sense aren't related in the slightest.
The rest of the day went unbearably slow for Ruby. After what felt like an eternity, the final bell rang and Ruby bolted out of the room and zoomed home. She made it home in just one minute. Flying into her bathroom, Ruby rapidly removed her shirt.
She wasn't hallucinating, all of her muscle was still there. She pinched around her abdomen to see if someone was pranking her. Nope, 100% real.
"Time for some tests," Ruby said excitedly. Running back into her room Ruby quickly looked for something heavy. A dresser! That'll do! Ruby bolted toward the dresser and gripped the sides, she tensed her legs and prepared to lift.
The entire thing came off the floor with zero strain on her body.
Wow! I'm not even trying! It's like lifting a pencil!
Gently placing the dresser on the floor, Ruby looked at her legs with curiosity. Bending down, she jumped up with only a fraction of her strength and promptly crashed into the ceiling. "Ow!" Yelled Ruby as she closed her eyes and tensed her body, prepared to crash onto the floor.
Plummeting toward the ground, a familiar tingle alerted her of the approaching ground, Ruby with incredible grace and agility, flipped mid-air and landed on all fours.
Slowly standing up, Ruby slowly processed what this series of unusual events meant. "I have superpowers," Ruby said to herself in awe. "I. Have. Superpowers! I HAVE SUPERPOWERS!" Ruby jumped for joy with the widest smile possible on her face. "I can't believe this! I actually have superpowers straight out of a comic book!" Ruby was more excited now than she had ever been in her life. She would always read stories where someone with an unwavering sense of justice suddenly gained the power to help people, and now she could do it too!
"How did this even happen? What happened yesterday that would give me superpowers? Let's see, I went to Oscorp, I looked at some really cool weapons, I saw their progress on nanites, oh, and I was bitten by...that...s-spider."
OhmygodohmygodOHMYGOD! I GOT SUPERPOWERS FROM A SPIDER BITE!
"Ok calm down Rose, calm yourself, you need to figure out the limits to your abilities, you need somewhere quiet and abandoned to test your new powers. Luckily, I have just the place."
Quickly throwing on her shoes and grabbing her camera, Ruby ran outside.
Ruby was very familiar with the dump. She always loved to scavenge parts from old machines to tinker with. Sometimes she'd even find a used weapon here that used to belong to a huntsman, she'd either strip it for parts or fix it up and sell it. But that's not why Ruby is here today.
"Ok, time to see what I can really do." Ruby wanted to document her findings so she could study them and learn how to improve her powers, so she brought her camera with her. "I guess I should test my strength first, there's a lot of heavy equipment laying around here." Scanning the area for a heavy object, Ruby discovered an old worn pickup truck. "Perfect!"
Setting up her camera Ruby prepared herself for her first official superpower test. She pressed record. "Ok, this is Ruby Rose, and this is Super Power Test one." She skipped over to the truck with visible excitement. "Ok ok ok, here we go." Ruby gripped the front bumper and heaved. The force of her grip caused the bumper to buckle and crack, and the truck was lifted over her head with impossible ease. "Holy cow!" Ruby removed one of her hands, she was lifting a 2-ton truck with only one hand, and she was barely trying! She couldn't help but burst into laughter. "Haha, HAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHA! YEEEEEES! I HAVE SUPER STRENGTH! THIS IS AMAZING!"
Casually she tossed the truck behind her and watched it crash to the ground, glass shattering upon impact. She brought her hand to her face to protect herself from any stray shards. "Ok ok ok, time to test my leg strength." Bending her knees, Ruby took a deep breath and jumped, leaving a small crater underneath her. "WOOOHOOO!" Ruby yelled in amazement. Getting a little fancy, Ruby performed a few flips and spins before landing perfectly on her feet. "This is so cool!"
Ruby twirled around with excitement. This was beyond her wildest dreams. Giggles escaped passed her lips despite her efforts to keep them contained.
"Hee hee o-ok, okokok. Calm down. Hee hee." Ruby brought her hands to her face to massage her cheeks which had become sore from all her smiling. "Don't freak out. Please don't freak out. I'm freaking out! AHAHAHA!"
Ruby pulled her hands away from her face.
Or she would have if not for the fact that her palms had clung to her face like super glue. "Huh?" Ruby pulled harder. "Common! Stop sticking!" She pulled hard enough for her aura to flood her cheeks before she gave up with the brute force method.
Ruby looked at her camera. "I'm in a bit of a sticky situation right now. Oh god, did I just make a pun? Nooooo... I spend too much time around Yang." Heat crept up Ruby's neck.
Instead of trying to force her hands off her face, Ruby instead decided to try being gentle. Relaxing her fingers and palms, Ruby slowly and successfully pulled her fingers away from her face.
"Huh...That was weird."
Ruby brought her fingers close to her face to examine them. She was surprised to realize that she was able to effortlessly see every single individual detail of her sticky digits. "Better add enhanced vision to my list of powers."
Examining her fingers, Ruby discovered thousands of incredibly small barbs protruding from her skin. They only seemed to be getting bigger too. "Huh, do these barbs allow me to stick to things? It would make sense I guess. Well, actually, nothing makes sense right now but I don't have much of a choice but to accept it."
Upon further examination of her hand, Ruby's eyes noticed a small white mark right below her wrist. It was slightly sticky to the touch and definitely wasn't there before.
"What the heck is that?" Ruby brought up her other hand and noticed the same exact thing. "The heck are these supposed to be?"
Ruby had no idea what these were. They just appeared to be scars that had somehow appeared on her wrist that served no purpose at all.
That was until she pressed on her palm in just the right way.
THWIP
"Eek!" Ruby yelped, startled. Her fear quickly turned to amazement as she noticed a long rope coming out of her wrist that latched itself on a scrap piece of metal. "H-Holy...shiii...WEBS! I HAVE WEBS! THAT SPIDER GAVE ME SPIDER POWERS! THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER!" Ruby was actually crying with excitement. Ruby ran towards the camera she set up and started speaking to it with tears in her eyes. "Ok, here's what I know of my abilities so far, I have super strength, super speed, amazing agility, I have a sixth sense I think, I can cling to any surface, and I have webs that I can shoot out of my wrist! This is so cool, I can actually be a real-life superhero now! OHMYGOSH! I need to make a costume, I need a name, I need a slogan, I need...I need..."
Ruby Ran through all of her available options in her head before setting on one.
"I need to go to Oscorp! It was their spider that bit me! They would know what's happening to me. Maybe they can even replicate it and give other Hunters superpowers."
Ruby grabbed her camera and bolted.
It was just about dark by the time she reached Oscorp, the streets were almost empty, with the occasional person walking passed without giving her a second glance. The street lights flickered on to illuminate the darkening street. The parking lot still had quite a few cars sitting in the staff spaces so there would definitely be someone to speak to.
Not having any better options, Ruby simply walked through the front door and approached the man at the front desk. "Um, excuse me." The man looked up from his work to address the young Huntress with narrowed eyes. His gaze made Ruby feel smaller. "I-Is there someone in the genetics department that I could speak to?"
"Do you have an appointment?"
"Um, n-no. B-But it's really important! One of their spiders-"
"Sorry kid, but unless you have an appointment or have special access from an employee then I can't let you in."
Ruby knew that was gonna be his answer. It still stung to hear it out loud though. "O-Oh, ok. Sorry to bother you, sir."
Ruby exited the building with her head hung low. Dangit! How am I gonna get answers now?!
Ruby glanced back at the gargantuan skyscraper piercing the clouds. The building was beautiful. Pure black with the word "OSCORP" vertically placed on the side of the building. There really was no way to get up there from the outside.
Ruby scratched her chin in thought. What should I do? Just give up? No! Momma didn't raise any quitter!
With refilled determination, Ruby made to pull her hand away from her face until her fingers clung annoyingly to her chin.
...
...
"Oh...there's an idea."
Ruby felt her heart speed up as she once again glared in awe at the massive building behind her. The towering skyscraper loomed over the cityscape like a giant monolith of steel and glass, stretching up into the clouds with dizzying heights that seemed to defy logic. Its sleek, modern design gleamed in the moonlight, but to her, it was a terrifying obstacle that stood in the way of answers.
Ruby shakily walked into the alleyway right next to the building away from any prying eyes. Once she was sure that no one could see her, she faced the building and tried to hype herself up.
"Common Rose, you've got this. It's gonna be just like rock climbing with Dad and Uncle Qrow. Except there will be nothing to grab onto, and you have no safety harness, and it's much much much higher, and you're going to use superpowers you've never used before, and if you fall then the impact will surely be lethal, and if- NO! Stop talking and just do it!"
Ruby was sweating bullets. Her hands became clammy before she even touched the building. She could see her terrified reflection in the glass.
"There's only one way Ruby. You just gotta do it. No matter the danger...No matter the risk."
Ruby flexed her trembling digits as sweat saturated her eyebrows. She shakily lifted up her tiny hand and placed it gently on the cool glass. Her heart was beating so loudly that she was positive it had become audible. She gave a few experimental tugs to make sure that her hand wouldn't slide off unexpectedly. After confirming that she was safe, she lightly pulled herself off the ground and stuck her other hand higher on the building.
"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod. I'm gonna die. This is stupid."
Despite her internal protests, Ruby didn't plant her feet back on the floor. Instead, she stared above her toward her goal.
"I've got this!"
Pushing down with her feet, Ruby was surprised to find out that her feet refused to cling to the wall. It only took her a few seconds to realize that it was because she was wearing shoes. She reluctantly kicked off her shoes and peeled her socks off with her toes before testing to see if they stuck. To her relief, they stuck without any issues.
Here we go.
Ruby pushed up with her foot and clung to a higher pane of glass.
So far so good. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down! I'm looking down! Dammit! Oh, I'm not even ten feet off the ground yet.
Ruby ignored the heat rising to her cheeks and continued to scale the building. The glass got colder and colder the higher she climbed, and the wind got stronger too. She had to be careful to climb around the windows that had lights on inside in order to avoid being spotted. It was nothing short of a miracle that no one on the ground had spotted her climbing yet.
Ruby never had a fear of heights but climbing a verticle wall with no safety equipment and nothing to catch her if she were to fall was quite terrifying.
Inch by inch, the young Huntress slowly but steadily scaled the gargantuan tower. The temperature of the air slowly started to decrease. She could see her veins pulsing from how hard her heart was hammering in her chest. Despite the rapidly cooling temperature, Ruby was sweating heavily.
The wind buffeted her small frame strongly. Her hair whipped back and forth as the mighty gale slammed against her body. Her fingers held true and she remained stuck to the building showing no signs of releasing her grip.
So far so good.
Ruby refused to look down again, she firmly kept her eyes above her and never let her gaze waver.
Ok, I think the genetics lab was toward the top of the building. I need a way in there.
Ruby continued to skitter up the building trying her best to ignore her fear. Her mother had told her that the best way to hide how scared she was was to just fake confidence. Act like everything was alright and everything would be alright.
So Ruby forced a smile on her face and let a half-hearted laugh escape her lips. "Aha...this is nothing. So easy a spider could do it."
...
...
It didn't work, she was still terrified.
Another few more minutes of fearful climbing later and she reached her desired floor. The only problem was finding a way inside.
Her gaze swept along the exterior of the tower before she came upon a single vent cover resting between two windows.
Perfect.
Ruby made her way to the vent and adhered her sticky fingers to the cool metal. She made sure not to overdo it with her super strength when she pulled the vent cover from its place on the wall. It pulled away with zero resistance.
I really hope that didn't trigger an alarm.
Once she crawled into the small vent, Ruby let out a deep breath she didn't know she had been holding. Every muscle in her body relaxed all at once. The cold metal of the duct along with the refreshing breeze blowing through it helped cool her down and calm her beating heart.
"Heh...Heheh. I...did...it." A quivering smile grew on her face as she took several deep breaths. That was the most exhilarating and terrifying thing she had ever done in her life, and she's killed massive Grimm before! She had Superpowers! Like actual Superpowers! Amazing abilities granted to her through a freak scientific accident! The chances were likely one in a billion and it worked! That spider would've killed anyone else if they got bit, and yet she became this!
"This is my destiny, I know it. Not a single doubt in my mind."
Ruby's fist clenched tight enough to cause her aura to spark. With newfound determination, Ruby pushed herself up and began to crawl through the ducts.
"Okay, I need to talk to someone that knew about that spider...Actually, I should probably just steal some documents that mention it. I really don't need to get caught here." Ruby skittered through the ducts making sure to be as quiet as possible. There were a few exits that led her to nowhere she needed to be, but she wasn't deterred.
"At least these ducts are clean. How they aren't filled with dust is beyond me."
It was getting pretty late so there weren't many scientists still around. She saw a few of them taking care of last-minute paperwork and some were just packing their things.
Ruby continued to crawl through the ducts until she came upon a very familiar room. The room had multiple monitors displaying data of some kind and multiple glass containers with a single spider residing in each one.
All except for one.
One single cage was devoid of all life. The only sign that life existed there at all was the spider web that still sat unbothered within.
The fact that that single spider had managed to escape somehow and find its way to her and then proceed to climb onto her hand and bite her, and give her superpowers in the process was incredible. The odds of such a thing were so inconceivably low. It was nothing short of a miracle that it happened.
Or maybe fate was involved.
Shaking her head clear of her thoughts, Ruby resumed crawling through the ducts.
I need to find an office of some sort. There has to be information on that spider somewhere and I doubt I'm going to find it in the ducts.
Actually, come to think of it, where is that spider? It didn't die after it bit me, I saw it crawl away. If that thing manages to bite someone else then that could prove to be a bad thing. That one bite nearly killed me, and I have aura. I can only imagine what it would do to someone without any.
Actually, why did it bite me in the first place? Spiders NEVER attack someone unprovoked, they are way too smart for that. Of course, a spider would attack someone if they were threatening them, but I wasn't being threatening at all. I was just standing there taking pictures! So why did it bite me?
Maybe it was in pain and lashing out. I really have no way of knowing what the hell they were doing to that poor spider. It's possible that it was suffering and just attacking anything it came across.
Ruby examined the bite mark on the back of her hand that would be sure to scar. That bite hurt like hell too. I wonder what kind of spider that was. Maybe it was a new species they created or something.
"So, it's gone then?"
Ruby was gently pulled from her subconscious by a voice coming from one of the nearby rooms. Despite the distance between the speaker and Ruby, she could hear them just fine. Better add enhanced hearing to my list of powers.
Ruby quietly crawled forward until she happened upon a vent cover right above a room with a man and a woman inside. They were clearly agitated given how much they were sweating and how white their faces were.
"I'm afraid so, it's almost like it vanished," the man spoke with his head in his hands.
"And we have no idea where it could possibly be? Is it possible that one of the researchers took it for analysis?"
"There are very strict protocols that must be followed for something like that to happen and only a few people are authorized to take the arachnids at all. We talked to everybody who had access to the spider and not one of them claimed to take it. We talked to the general staff too and they had no idea that it was even missing. The spider vanished and we have no idea where it is."
They're talking about the spider that bit me! They know what was up with that thing.
"So..." The female scientist began. "What are our options?
"We don't have any options," the man said dejectedly. "We can only hope that the spider shows itself sooner rather than later. Given the state of the arachnid, before it went missing, I bet it'd only live for another two weeks outside of its enclosure."
They don't have long to find that thing before it dies and all their research is gone. I bet the only way they'd be able to recover that research is through me.
"There's no way to recover the spider's enhancements without the spider itself?"
"Not unless someone managed to ingest the DNA of the spider and survive. That spider was a new species that Oscorp created called Araneus Oscorpeus. Given the limited research we have on the new species, we have no way of knowing if it is aggressive enough to interact with someone in that way. Even if it did then the likelihood of the person surviving is unlikely. Even if they did survive then they would most likely be in a vegetative state for the rest of their life."
"So you're saying that we could recover our research if someone swallowed the spider?"
"Yes, or if they get bitten by it. But as I said, the chances of survival are small. That little thing was highly radioactive. A single bite from it could kill a full-grown man."
That spider was radioactive!? No wonder I felt so sick after it bit me! I thought I was gonna die!
The female scientist tapped her finger against her chin in thought. "How could we harvest the DNA through someone who got bit?"
The man sighed. "They would have to survive to make the option viable. But if they did survive then we would need to harvest their brain stem to recover our data."
Ruby's entire body shivered.
"That...That would kill them wouldn't it." She didn't say that as a question but as a statement of fact.
"Absolutely. But what's one life compared to furthering our research?"
Ruby couldn't hear the rest of their conversation, her ears were ringing and her eyes were watering. Her bodily functions started to falter one after the other.
The only sound she could hear was the loud hammering of her own heart. Her arms felt like trillions of ants made of ice were crawling through her veins. Despite the feeling of chilling dread, she couldn't stop sweating from every pore in her body. Her entire body was trembling and her breaths became shallow and rapid. She felt like she was suffocating.
Fuck...I'm...I'm having a panic attack...Oh fuck, I'm gonna die!
She felt the walls of the ducts start to close around her and was acutely aware of every sound around her, which only served to further her panic.
I...I gotta get out of here!
Ruby hastily scurried her way back to where she came from, uncaring of who would hear her crawling around in the ceiling.
I can't...I can't breathe!
The air felt like it was getting thinner around her, every breath felt like one-third of a normal one. Her vision was starting to blur as well. The multitude of voices that reached her ears from every direction amplified her panic tenfold. Her limbs felt like they were slowly being turned to lead with how hard they were to move.
After what felt like an hour of crawling -but in reality, it couldn't have been more than 30 seconds- Ruby caught a small glint of moonlight through the opening where she entered the building. She desperately clawed her way to the exit.
Let me out!
Ruby's head burst through the vent opening as she took a deep breath of fresh air. Air had never tasted sweeter to the young silver-eyed warrior. Her heart was still throbbing painfully in her chest but she could at least breathe easier now.
Calm down, Ruby. You're stronger than this!
Slowly but surely, her senses started to return to her and her bodily functions came back online. Her dizziness slowly subsided as the world righted itself before her eyes. Her quivering arms calmed themselves and she regained feeling in them. Her stomach was no longer doing backflips while threatening to expel her breakfast.
Her heartbeat evened out when she forced herself to slow down her breathing. She took multiple slow deep wheezy breaths through her nose and exhaled gradually through her mouth.
After taking in one last deep breath, Ruby exhaled it with a loud sigh. "I-I'm okay. I'm okay."
Ruby crawled out of the vent and placed the cover back on before crawling the short distance to the top of the tower. She couldn't bring herself to be afraid of the climb anymore.
Ruby heaved herself over the top and rolled over onto her back with her eyes facing the beautiful Vale sky. The shattered moon shone brightly tonight along with the millions of stars that dotted the vast expanse of space. Ruby had always used to stare at the stars for hours with her mother when she was younger. Her mother had told her that her eyes shimmered brighter than any star.
Tears slowly gathered in her eyes before overflowing and streaming down her face. Heart-wrenching sobs escaped passed her lips and the tears blurred her vision of the night sky.
"I-If anyone finds out I have powers...then...I'll be killed," Ruby choked out. "How could they do this to me!? I'm a Vale citizen! I have basic human rights like everyone else. It's not my fault I got bitten by that thing."
Wails of sorrow continued to pour from Ruby's throat. She could tell absolutely no one about her powers. Even a single person knowing is beyond risky. Bad people would try to harm her family to get to her if anyone found out.
Ruby continued to cry into the night sky. She stared at the beautiful silver moon in hopes that it would have the answers she was looking for.
"Mom," she whispered. "What should I do?"
The sky remained silent.
"You always have the answer, you always know what's best for me."
The only reply she got was the chill of the wind stinging her tear-stained cheeks.
"...I miss you, Mom," she choked out while burying her head in her knees. "It gets easier with time, but nothing will ever be the same without you."
Ruby spent the next few minutes softly crying in between her knees. "This isn't fair. I didn't want this. I just wanted to be a normal girl with big dreams."
Ruby slowly climbed to her feet and made her way to the edge of the skyscraper. The lights of Vale combined with the beautiful shining stars on top of her enhanced vision was truly a sight to behold. Billions of different captivating colors entered her retinas all at once and produced the most beautiful image she had ever seen.
"What now?" She spoke to the city. "Do I hide my powers forever and continue living as normal? Do I run away from home to protect my family? Do I say 'screw it' and use my powers regardless of the consequences?"
The sounds of the city that never sleeps provided her with no answer.
Ruby sat down on the edge of the building and cried into her palms. Her life as a normal girl was over and there was nothing she could do about it.
"What terrible luck. Just when things were starting to look up too. Here I thought I would be able to use these powers to help people." Ruby stared at the vast expanse of space as the strong winds buffeted her small frame and chilled her tear-stained cheeks.
"I guess this isn't too different from the comic books," she grumbled to herself. "Those heroes get superpowers and have to hide from the public to protect their families too. Though they always have to resort to vigilantism to use their powers to help people."
Ruby's eyes snapped open.
Just like the comic books.
Just like all of her favorite heroes.
"THAT'S IT!"
Everything became clear all at once.
"If I can't reveal my powers to anyone, then I just need to make sure no one figures out that Ruby Rose has any powers to begin with!"
"But what about someone other than Ruby Rose?"
She could almost hear her mother's voice echo in the wind.
"Whatever life holds in store for you, you must never forget these words. With great power, there must also come great responsibility."
In that single instant, a fire unlike any other in the world had just ignited right in the depths of Ruby's very soul. The flames burned with the passion of a hero and threatened to melt her soul out of its metaphysical prison. Her heart continued to fuel that fire with every single pulsation.
That fire burned brighter than any star and hotter than any supernova. Her eyes burned with the desire to be a hero.
"I swear. I swear on my honor as a Rose, I will become a hero...no. I will become the greatest hero in history."
"I will become the greatest hero this world has ever seen!"
"I SWEAR IT!"
Ruby was a woman on a mission. She couldn't reveal her powers to anyone, but she needed to use them to help people. If she suddenly showed new abilities in school then people would start to catch on. She needed to act like she was weaker than she was. She was easily stronger than Yang now. Without using her semblance, Yang could lift around a ton, though even Yang had no idea what her limit was with her semblance. Ruby had lifted 2 tons with no effort and one hand. She could easily kill someone with this newfound strength, so she would need to hold back a lot.
"First things first." Ruby needed to design a costume. Her mind was swirling with ideas, she obviously needed a spider theme, also red was a must, it was her signature color after all. Eventually, she came up with a design she liked. The drawing consisted of a skin-tight suit with the torso having a red center starting at her shoulders and going down to cover her breasts going even further and stopping at her hips, the red portion was lined with a spider web design. Her sides, back, and arms were a simple sleek black that made stealth easier. The arms had some red in for a little variety.
Her leggings were completely black, going down just below her knee. Her boots were completely red with the same spider web design completely covering them.
The mask was the most important part. The mask was red all over with two sharp white bug-shaped eyes on the front with a black border, with the same web pattern on the rest.
On the back of the costume would be a big white spider symbol placed just below the shoulders in the center of her back. There would be a much smaller black spider symbol on the front of her costume placed just between her breasts. The spider was her icon, whenever somebody saw this spider then they knew they would be okay.
She really wanted to add an awesome black hood but that might just get in the way so she wisely decided against it.
"It's perfect, now all I need to do is buy materials." At first glance, Ruby didn't look like the type to be good at making clothes, but she had always wanted to give herself an awesome costume for when she became a professional huntress. So she studied hard and eventually became proficient enough to use a sewing machine. She even made a fabulous red cloak that she wore everywhere.
It would take some time to make her costume, Ruby needed to keep testing her abilities anyway so she would need to wait before she went out as a hero.
"I also need a name, something catchy. Hmm. Arachnid? Nah...Spider Rose? Oh no, god no, that will get me caught immediately. Scarlet Spider? No not catchy enough. Spider-Bite? No, that's lame. Maybe simple really is best. Ugh! I'll think about it later."
"Dang I'm starving! My metabolism is going crazy, I need to eat something. It's already around dinner time, maybe Dad is making something." Dashing downstairs she discovered her sister tinkering with Ember Celica, and her father stirring something in a pot. She walked up to her sister with curiosity as to what she was doing. "Hey, Yang. Whatcha doing?" Ruby said with a smile.
"Oh hey Rubes, just oiling the gears. Don't want them seizing up ya know." Yang replied with a soft smile. "I gotta get ready for Beacon, it's the best school around and I gotta be in tip-top shape to even stand a chance. I'll need to up my training."
That's right! I totally forgot about Beacon. Yang sure is determined to get into the best school possible. I wanna go to Beacon too, but I'm still a little over two years away from that. I'm almost in my third year of Signal, and Yang is almost graduated.
"I know you'll get in Yang! You'll do great, I believe in you!" Ruby shouted words of encouragement to her sister.
"Aww, thanks, sis." Yang grabbed Ruby and pulled up her into a bone-crushing hug.
"Yaaaang, lemme go!" Ruby struggled in her sister's grip.
"Wow Ruby, you've got pretty firm abs, you've been working out definitely," Yang said in a teasing voice while poking her sister in the belly.
"Y-Yang please stop!" Ruby replied cheeks heating up. She may have superpowers but she was still very very ticklish.
"You're really growing into your body, I think your boobs got bigger too. Pretty soon you're gonna attract the attention of all the boys in Signal," Yang said with a sly smile. "Don't worry, you can always come to me for advice."
Ruby's entire face flooded red as she covered her chest. "S-Stop looking! I don't need any advice, I'm fine all by myself!" Ruby pleaded to her sister.
"If any boys wanna get to my daughter, they'll have to go through me first." Her father said in a threatening voice.
"D-Dad, you can't forbid boys from talking to me. I won't be a kid forever," Ruby replied, still beet red.
"I can and I will, you can't date until your 30!" Taiyang said with a serious face.
"Ugh, you're way too overprotective Dad," Yang responded to her father's threatening words. "Pretty soon Ruby will be sneaking out to make out with some boy she likes because she's afraid you'll kill him."
Ruby wasn't very interested in boys right now anyway, though that's likely due to the fact that she has no friends. Maybe if a certain boy caught her eye then she'd sing a different tune. But right now she was only thinking about food.
"Bah! I don't want a boyfriend right now anyway, I just want food!" Ruby yelled at her family.
Taiyang laughed at his daughter's antics. "Ok ok, it's almost ready, just be patient." He said, ruffling Ruby's hair while she pouted.
After dinner, Ruby grabbed a quick shower to get the smell of trash off of her. Slipping into her pajamas, she quickly discovered that they were very tight. "Guess I gotta get new clothes. Ugh...whatever."
Ruby shut off the lights and crawled into bed, all too excited to get started on her costume tomorrow.
Only to discover that she could see perfectly well in the pitch-black room. "Common, night vision too, this is just getting annoying now. I'm gonna have to buy some sleeping masks tomorrow."
"Come to think of it, how am I gonna make money? I'll need to keep my finances up so I can keep doing this vigilante thing without having to get a job."
"Maybe I can get a job, maybe something part-time? Whatever, I don't have to worry about it right now."
Closing her eyes, Ruby slowly drifted into unconsciousness.
AN: Thanks for the support on the first chapter. Didn't expect anyone to read this.
Review if you want, or just PM me to give me ideas.
Next chapter whenever I feel like it.
