Waking up was an incredibly unpleasant experience, Ruby was no stranger to hurting herself during training. When she unlocked her semblance, she would regularly smash into hard objects and would usually come out of it with a fractured or broken arm. Sometimes she would push herself too hard when training and would pull a muscle.
The point is that Ruby knew what pain felt like, and she knew how to deal with it effectively.
The pain that Ruby was currently feeling blew all of those experiences out of the water. She didn't even know it was possible to be in this much pain. She most definitely had a concussion and wouldn't be surprised if her skull was fractured. Her right arm was easily broken and her left was scorched and bloody. Both of her legs were broken too. She had broken a few ribs as well, she was lucky that none had managed to pierce her lung. Her head was throbbing and her costume was covered in tears and soaked in blood.
The only time she had ever been in worse pain was when she was bitten by that radioactive spider. She never wanted to experience that kind of agony ever again. She could feel her muscles tear and repair themselves only to tear all over again when it happened.
The sound from the explosion had managed to deafen her as well, all she could hear was a ringing in her ears. The bright flash had made her vision blurry too, also the blood dripping down her face obstructed her vision even more.
But the worst part of all wasn't her broken bones, her destroyed costume, or even her near blindness. It was that Ruby knew she had to get up. Despite barely holding on to consciousness, Ruby knew that if she stayed here then she would be captured by the police. She had to get up and she had to do it now!
Painfully moving her only working arm, Ruby used every ounce of strength that she had left and forced herself to a sitting position. Her ribs audibly creaked with every movement she made.
"Come on Ruby, Come on. Stand up NOW!" She hyped herself up. Spotting a metal pipe on the ground next to her, Ruby grabbed it and used it to give herself more leverage when forcing herself to stand up. Ruby grunted in pain upon placing weight on her damaged legs. Trying to force her aura into her limbs to relieve some of the pressure revealed that the explosion had completely drained all of her aura. She was helpless.
The already excruciating pain seemed to double when Ruby was forced to stand on her broken legs. She wanted nothing more than to take a second to breathe, she wanted to rest and regain her strength. But she knew that if she stopped even for a second, then she wouldn't find the strength to move again. So with monumental effort, Ruby slowly and painfully took her first step. She damn near collapsed right then and there, it wasn't her strength that kept her upright, but sheer force of will.
Ruby took another step, and another, and another, each step sent sharp bolts of pain to her skull, but she didn't stop. She grunted with pain after each step, she could barely breathe, her entire body trembled and she could hardly see.
It took well over five minutes, but she managed to make it down an abandoned alleyway. The explosion had luckily scared away any homeless people living here. She arrived just in time for the police to show up at the destroyed building. The easy part was over, now she had to make it home.
The trek home was worse than she could've possibly imagined. Bloody tears were streaming down her face and seeping through her mask. Her shoulder had managed to dislocate itself at one point. Luckily for her, she was in so much pain that her body started to go numb, this made the journey home at least bearable.
She managed to arrive at the town neighboring her own. She was forced to take the backways unless she wanted to be spotted and caught. The blood loss was starting to affect her, she was convinced she was going to pass out at any moment, but she refused to stop.
After three hours of absolute hell, Ruby spotted a familiar two-story home in the distance. All the lights were still off, so the good news was that as long as she was quiet then she wouldn't get caught. Upon reaching her house, she realized that she couldn't use the front door for fear of waking anybody up, also she hadn't brought her keys with her. The only option was her window.
Dropping the piece of metal she had brought with her and making a mental note to dispose of it later, Ruby placed her left hand on the siding and heaved with all her might. Despite her body screaming in protest, she refused to stop for even a second. It took her two minutes, but with one final heave, she managed to throw herself through her open window.
She made it, but her work wasn't done yet. She continued to her bathroom to examine the damage. Flipping on the lights she saw her destroyed costume staring back at her through the mirror. Her costume was torn in places and burnt in others. The left lens was cracked and the right was completely gone. Her bloody silver eye stared back at her. Reaching up and gripping the hem of her mask, Ruby slowly pulled up, peeling the blood-soaked mask off her face.
Her bloody face was revealed to her. Honestly, it wasn't as bad as she was expecting, she must've pushed most of her aura to her face to protect her. There was blood streaming down from her forehead, and her hair matted itself to her face through a mix of blood, sweat, and tears. The costume would definitely need to be repaired. Slowly stripping herself out of her destroyed costume, Ruby tossed it all in the bathtub and ran the hot shower for a few minutes in an attempt to wash off most of the blood.
There was one matter that still needed to be addressed. She needed to reset her shoulder. Luckily, through many failed attempts at using her semblance, she had gotten quite good at resetting her bones. Gritting her teeth and grabbing her shoulder, Ruby prepared to shove it back into place.
"Ok Ruby, On three." Taking a deep breath, she began to count. "One." CRUNCH. Ruby didn't allow herself to continue counting as she shoved her shoulder back into place with all her might. "Agh!" She grunted quietly as more tears started flowing down her face. The sound of bone popping back into place was enough to make just about anyone cringe.
Even with aura, this will still take a few days to heal completely. I just hope ill be able to hide it from everybody, maybe I can make an excuse and stay in bed all day tomorrow. Taking one more look at her bloody body in the mirror, Ruby decided against going through the trouble of getting dressed and just decided to pass out in her underwear.
Grabbing a few towels that she planned on disposing of in the morning, Ruby dropped them on top of her sheets so she could sleep without fear of getting her sheets all bloody. After making sure her door was locked, Ruby slowly and painfully dropped her body onto her bed.
She passed out before her head could even hit the pillow.
"Explain," Demanded Cinder Fall. This had never happened before. One moment everything had been going smoothly, the next Roman had pressed the panic button he had been given. Hunters had often tried to stop Roman while he was in the middle of a job, but Roman was strong enough to deal with them most of the time. Even if he wasn't, he often had Neo with him to provide backup. But if a situation was unwinnable, then he would take a hostage and use them to secure an escape. Of course, he never killed the hostage, but they provided him with a bargaining chip if he was ever backed into a corner.
Not this time. This time, Roman had completely failed at his mission. Not only had he managed to lose every man he brought with him, but he didn't secure a single dust crystal. Not only that, but he managed to lose to a child. A CHILD! A child who couldn't have been older than 16. He was completely helpless against one little girl. It was only thanks to her bailing him out, and him sacrificing all the dust he had on him that he managed to get rid of her.
There's no way that she could've survived an explosion that big even with aura. That blast had managed to blow up an entire building, and it detonated right in front of her face. Yeah, she was dead.
Right?
Roman took a long drag of his cigar before explaining the situation to Cinder. He didn't omit any details, from the moment he entered the shop to the second she came to his rescue.
Cinder didn't speak until he was finished. "How could you lose to one little girl?" She asked with fury in her voice.
Roman visibly shivered from the tone of her voice. He was scared of her. Good, fear is a good motivator. When someone truly fears for their life, that's when their true colors show. It was also very easy for her to instill fear into others considering the power she possessed. She could boil somebody's insides if she wanted. She could reduce somebody to ashes and even beyond that.
Making somebody fear her was child's play.
"That one little girl managed to take out all of my men without anyone in the shop noticing. That one little girl managed to grip my wrist so hard that my aura was only barely able to keep my bones from breaking. If she held onto me for another second then my aura wouldn't have been able to take it. That one little girl managed to dodge rapid gunfire with no effort. That one little girl didn't even have a weapon, and she still managed to beat me in a one-on-one fight."
As much as it pained Cinder to admit, he was right. That little girl was dangerous, dangerous enough to damn near ruin all of her plans in a single night. If she hadn't been there, then it all would've been over.
Roman said that she called herself 'Spider-Woman.' One quick internet search revealed a little about this so-called 'hero.' Apparently, she was quite new to the business, her only notable accomplishment was managing to rescue five people from a burning building. That was only yesterday, and that was her first appearance.
According to eyewitness reports, as well as Roman's words, she appeared to be a Spider Faunus with a hero complex. She could stick to walls and shoot webs from her wrist. But what didn't make sense was how she was able to overpower Roman with little effort. She was just one little girl, how could she be so strong?
"I suppose it doesn't matter," she replied to no one in particular. "She's gone now, so we can continue as planned. But I won't tolerate another failure like this Roman." She ignited her hand to make sure he knew what the consequences of such a failure would be. Roman started to sweat at the sight of the orange heat crackling from her palm.
"Y-Yes, I understand. Don't worry, we're almost done anyway. Only a few more robberies, then we'll have enough dust. Then we can move on to phase two of this master plan of yours," Roman replied before taking another long drag of his cigar.
Cinder had purposefully decided not to tell him every detail of her plan until the moment when it was time to act, this would ensure that he was in too deep to back out. "Yes, and you play a very important role in phase three, but phase two will put you in the perfect position to act."
Roman discarded his cigar before it could burn his fingertips. "So when will you tell me what role I play in all of this?" Roman asked annoyed.
Cinder ignited her eyes before responding. "I'll tell you when I'm ready to tell you, Roman."
Roman didn't react with fear this time, instead, he only scoffed. "Ok ok ok, fine. I'm heading to bed, my wrist is killing me. Wake me if you need something." Roman stood up and leisurely walked away from the woman.
Cinder allowed her fury to subside, lashing out at nothing is only good for relieving stress, and she had long since learned to keep her cool in stressful situations. She also firmly believed that the only way to truly get rid of stress was to eliminate whatever was stressing you out. Stressed out because of a large amount of paperwork? Just finish it all so you won't have to do it later. Is someone stressing you out through their incompetence? Kill them. Simple.
Reaching deep inside of her, she felt the familiar warmth of another incomplete soul interacting with hers. Calling upon this soul, her eyes exploded with a magical searing flame.
"Mark my words Fall. I'm coming for you, and I am ready."
Ruby wanted nothing more than to lay in bed all day, luckily for her, that's exactly what she was going to do. After getting blown up and nearly dying last night, her aura had been completely drained, and she had suffered multiple broken bones. She was going to be in a lot of pain for a few days while her aura took care of the damage.
*Growl*
Her stomach had other plans for her, as it loudly yelled at her to get her ass out of bed and get something to eat. She couldn't recall ever being this hungry before. It felt like she hadn't eaten in weeks.
Ruby prepared for agonizing pain as she slowly pushed herself into a sitting position.
...
...
There was no pain. She completely failed to register any pain in her body. Ripping the blankets off her bloody form, Ruby expected to see multiple gashes along her abdomen that had slowly started their healing process. Instead what she was greeted with was her perfect shredded body without a single injury to be seen. It didn't even leave a scar!
"What the hell? This isn't possible!" Taking quick glance at her legs revealed something similar, every single cut, bruise, and broken bone she had received last night had been completely healed.
Shooting a web line to gather her scroll on her nightstand and opening it up revealed something even more unexpected. Her aura had been completely refilled. If someone was as injured as bad as she was, then their aura would work overtime to repair the damage, it would focus less on protecting the body and put more focus on healing injuries. It should've taken like four days for her to fill up on aura.
It had been completely replenished in half a night's rest.
"Accelerated healing factor, just when I thought I couldn't get any more awesome," Ruby said with a smile. While her newfound ability had healed her injuries, it did little for the dried blood that covered her body. Nor did it mask the terrible smell that filled her room.
So Ruby lit a scented candle and hopped in the shower, her destroyed costume was still in the bathtub, she set it aside for later. Scrubbing down every inch of her body to rid the smell of blood, as well as washing her hair thoroughly to remove the dried blood from her scalp.
The warm water felt nice over her freshly healed body, Ruby always got lost in thought while in the shower, most of the time she would think about upgrades she could make to her baby, but sometimes it would be about the day she had.
This time however it was about her newfound healing ability. "Let's see, I healed from near death in eight hours, so while this is incredibly useful, this ability isn't something I can take advantage of in battle. But the weird thing is how it refilled my aura too. My guess is that my spider healing is working in conjunction with my aura to heal my body efficiently. Seems to make sense."
"But wait a second, if I have a new healing ability, then that means that my muscles will repair themselves even faster after a hard day of training. My aura heals my muscles better than my body's natural healing ability, so if I combine my spider healing with my aura healing when training, then that should mean that I can get stronger much faster than I normally can. I wonder how long it will take for damaged muscles to heal. I can push my aura away from my muscles when training so they can get damaged and grow back stronger than before. "
"My current limit is 15 tons, maybe a little more if I push myself. I think I just discovered a loophole in my abilities. My potential just skyrocketed." Ruby stood there with an enormous smile on her face. Once the water started to chill, Ruby hopped out and got dressed.
She heard the sounds of combat coming from outside, her enhanced hearing picked up grunts of effort from her sister and father. Yang was working hard to get into Beacon. Wait...BEACON! Yang takes the written exam today, If she succeeds, then she can take the practical and earn a spot in the best Hunter school in the world! I can't believe I forgot...Ok actually, with all the crazy stuff that's been happening to me, it's actually not surprising at all that I forgot.
Glancing out the window revealed Yang and her father throwing a rapid series of blows at each other. Her father was clearly holding back so Yang can get some training done.
The battle came to an end when Taiyang caught a punch thrown at him and then proceeded to throw Yang over his shoulder and slam her onto the ground. He grounded her other arm with his foot to prevent any retaliation. Yang relaxed her muscles and took a few moments to catch her breath before slowly getting to her feet. They shared a few words and a laugh before making their way inside.
Ruby got started on her breakfast by chucking whatever looked tasty into a pan and frying it. She wasn't the best cook in the world, but she was miles better than her uncle. That man once set a glass of water on fire somehow.
"Mornin Rubes," called out her sister. She was all sweaty and covered in dirt and grime. Her enhanced sense of smell didn't help in the slightest here. Yang came up behind her and wrapped her arms around her sister, pulling her into a bone-crushing hug.
Ruby immediately flailed her limbs wildly in an attempt to extract herself from her sweaty smelly sister. She loved her sister to death but even she had her limits. "Yaaaang! You're all sweaty, lemme go! I just got out of the shower!" Her complaints seemed to have the opposite of the desired effect as Yang only hugged her sister even tighter.
Ruby could practically feel her sister's devilish smirk painted over her face. Before she could react, Yang ran her fingers over her abdomen and started to tickle her wildly. Ruby instantly collapsed into a fit of laughter due to her sister's deadly assault. "Haha! Y-Yang s-stop!" Her protests fell on deaf ears as her sister didn't let up.
After a good 20 seconds of unrelenting ticking, Yang finally showed mercy to her little sister and ceased all tickling. Ruby took several deep breaths as she tried and failed to force herself to her feet "I'll...get you back for that," Ruby said gasping for air.
Her father only chuckled at the sight of his daughter sprawled out on the cold hardwood floor in a fit of giggles, Yang retreated upstairs without replying to her sister, and Ruby slowly stood up and resumed making her breakfast.
After pouring the completed breakfast onto a plate and pouring herself a glass of milk, Ruby dug in with reckless abandon. My metabolism has been going haywire ever since that spider bite. It's possible that my body needs the extra calories for my healing factor to work effectively, that would make the most sense...Or maybe I'm finally hitting my growth spurt! I knew drinking all that milk would make me grow!
Ruby quickly dumped her entire glass of milk down her throat before pouring herself another glass with a big smile on her face. Her father switched on the TV in the background and started to mindlessly flip through channels. Eventually, he stopped on quite the interesting story about a certain masked vigilante stopping a dust robbery in Vale. Ruby paused eating her breakfast to listen to the TV.
"Breaking news! Late last night Roman Torchwick had yet again attempted to rob another dust shop here in Vale. Fortunately for the owner, the Spider-Woman came in to save the day. Here is the security camera footage from last night." The camera then shifted to footage taken from a camera hidden inside the store. The camera just barely managed to catch her sneaking in through a vent. What followed was her masterful takedown of Roman's goons and eventually her humiliating Roman in a one-on-one fight.
"While Spider-Woman was able to foil Torchwicks plans, it seems that she was unable to do it without causing some property damage. An abandoned building across the street has been blown to bits in what has been confirmed to be caused by dust. No bodies were recovered, so we can only assume that both Roman and Spider-Woman managed to escape. But the question still remains, who is the Spider-Woman? Now to Morgan with the weather."
Ruby knew that her actions would make the news, not because she managed to stop a robbery, but because she managed to indirectly cause a building to explode during it. Looking at the rubble on the TV made her wonder how she ever could've survived something like that. A good 30% of the building was gone and she fell a good distance when she exploded.
Better add enhanced durability to my list of abilities. My aura wouldn't be able to take that by itself. I'm lucky to be alive.
Ruby continued to eat her breakfast in silence while she contemplated her plan for the day. She wanted to get some spider training done today so she could more effectively use her powers. She had plans to tinker with a new device later tonight as well and she needed to pick up parts.
Ruby used to know her body's limitations. She had been training for years to go beyond those limits and exceed everyone's expectations of her. She would exercise until her legs hurt too badly to move. There were multiple instances where she needed someone to carry her home because of her overworking her body. Training with Uncle Qrow was brutal, but that was her fault, she asked him to never go easy on her so she could improve faster. He knew how important it was to her to get stronger, so he happily would study until her eyes hurt, and she bought herself a pair of glasses to ease the pain and help her study even longer than normal.
It was through this action that allowed her to masterfully design and construct the greatest weapon ever. The many upgrades that she had applied to the Scythe-Rifle Hybrid helped increase its lethality in combat. The point is that Ruby Rose was aware of what her body was capable of and how to effectively push herself beyond her limits.
Or at least she used to. A fated encounter with a radioactive spider managed to shatter every single limitation that Ruby had previously established on herself. Her weapon was quite heavy, so before the spider bite she could at max lift around 300 pounds, which was nothing to scoff at, but the majority of students at Signal were able to lift much more. Yang without using her semblance would max out at around a ton, but when someone had fueled her semblance, she had been capable of lifting much more.
Yeah...Ruby was MUCH stronger than Yang now. She could lift 15 tons but might be able to push herself to 20 if she needed to. She had tested her new spider speed before but she never pushed herself when running, nor had she combined her Semblance with her spider speed.
And after her near-death experience last night, it was clear that while she was incredibly skilled, she still had much room for improvement. There were a few problems with this though. For one, where on Rement was she going to find anything that heavy that she could reliably lift? She couldn't go to the dump because people often went in and out of there. She was no exception. She often went to the dump to gather scrap metal for Crescent Rose.
After a quick search on the internet, she came across an address for a train yard that would be perfect to "train" at. Train yards had sections where old or damaged trains would be dumped. Most of these trains would be stripped for parts and left there until someone decided to do something about them. This was perfect for Ruby as she could use these to lift and get stronger
Now obviously, Ruby wasn't strong enough to lift a train, those things could weigh in excess of 200 tons. But luckily for her, there were many empty train cars that were littered all over the place that would be perfect to lift.
She spotted a particularly small train car off in its own little corner that would be a good starting point. The car was damaged and had all the windows and seats removed. It sported many dents on its exterior, the paint was old and faded, and there was graffiti spray painted on the side. It looked to weigh about 12 tons.
"Ok, time to see what I can really do." Ruby gripped the car with her adhesive hands and bent her knees to prepare to lift. "Grraaahh!" Ruby grunted with exertion as she extended her knees and lifted the heavy train car over her head. The force of her grip caused the metal to buckle around her fingers. She strained and grunted as she lifted the heavy train car, her muscles bulging with the effort of hoisting the weight.
"OK, let's do this!"
Ruby then lowered herself by bending her knees with the car still on her shoulders before extending them once more, bringing herself to her full height. "One!" Ruby repeated this process over and over again, counting up with each successful squat. Sweat started forming on her forehead and slowly ran down her cheeks as her energy started to deplete.
"95!" Ruby yelled with trembling legs as she forced them to extend once more. "96!" She could barely see due to the sweat that had managed to make its way into her eyes. "97!" Her arms were begging to be relieved of the weight of the 12-ton car. "98!" She had pushed herself to her limit and then some, her sheer determination was what was keeping her going. "99! Common Ruby, one more. Common, COMMON! Do this NOW!" Barely able to stand upright, Ruby once more slowly bent her knees while just barely able to keep herself from collapsing. Using every available muscle in her body, Ruby forced her shaky legs to extend one more time. "ONE...HUNDRED!" Ruby yelled in triumph with the car high over her head.
After slowly placing the heavy car on the ground so as to not make any noise, Ruby collapsed onto the ground. "Haaahhh Haaahhh." Ruby breathed heavily, as she was finally allowed to rest her sore body. She flooded her aura to every inch of her body to kickstart the healing process. "Holy...hell...I did...it." Ruby couldn't help the satisfied smile that came over her face as she admired her strength.
I knew I was strong, but this is beyond my wildest dreams! I just did 100 squats with 12 tons on my shoulders!
After wiping the sweat from her forehead and taking a few minutes to relax her exhausted muscles and drink some water, Ruby shakily got to her feet. "Ok, now I know the limits to my strength, but I still need to work on my speed, specifically how my semblance will react with my Spider-Speed." Ruby knew full well that she couldn't use her semblance while out as Spider-Woman, but in case of an emergency, she might not have much of a choice.
Speed was always Ruby's forte, her small frame and thin body allowed her to excel in speed and agility. Unfortunately, that meant that her strength and defense would suffer because of it. Ruby was ok with that sacrifice because if she never got hit then what did having an unbreakable defense matter? After that spider bite, she got bulkier but somehow got even more agile than before. Her muscles were much denser and yet they felt looser than ever.
After doing some quick stretches to loosen out her arms and legs, Ruby found a suitable spot to do her run. She lowered herself to the ground in preparation to launch herself forward. "Three...Two...One!"
BOOM!
The force of Ruby's feet blasting forward caused the ground below her feet to crack and explode behind her. The shockwave from her departure shattered the glass of the train cars around her. To an outside observer, Ruby would appear as nothing more than a red blur that left crimson rose petals fluttering in the breeze.
Time seemed to freeze for the young Huntress, she ducked and weaved through obstacles with help from the commanding tingle of her Spider-Sense. Every step left deep footprints embedded in the ground.
She deactivated her semblance and skidded to a halt before she smashed into a train and became a Ruby pancake. She had no idea how long she was running for, what she did know however was that her feet felt a little too hot for her liking. Glancing downwards, Ruby was met with a face full of smoke that rose out of her running shoes.
"Ahh hot hot hot!" The Silver-Eyed Hunteress kicked off her shoes before they combusted into flames while soaring through the air. "Well...damn...those were my only shoes. Note to self, buy higher quality shoes and make my costume resistant to high amounts of friction."
She was much faster than before, that much was obvious. All that was left to do was keep training her abilities to get stronger and smiled as she began to train like her life depended on it.
Ruby couldn't run without shoes, so she spent the next few hours doing advanced strength training. Having Yang as an older sister definitely helped as she would often observe her sister's training regimen and knew the right techniques to use. She would continue to do squats with heavy train cars, place heavy things on her back and do pushups, or just straight-up lift heavy a few hours and when the sun began to set, Ruby began to walk home.
She would need to buy shoes on her way, hopefully, they'll let her in with only socks on. She would also need to upgrade her suit to be able to handle the friction from her high speed. Ruby was more than just strength and speed though, she was also very smart, and a smart person with a head full of ideas was dangerous indeed.
The young spider had a few ideas on how to upgrade her webbing through modifiers. These would be specially designed wrist-mounted devices that her webbing would pass through and be combined with different kinds of dust. The design was something that she had already thought about, and it was quite simple. It only needed to have a rotating cylinder that would have multiple dust cartridges that could rapidly infuse dust into her webbing as it was fired from her wrist.
The dust would make her webbing combust on impact, ice dust would freeze her opponents in place, and gravity dust could save falling people or keep someone or something off the ground. The possibilities were vast, but she was quite interested in the electric dust. Her webbing is highly conductive so using electric dust would be very lethal. She never wanted to kill anyone, but she should be prepared for any situation.
She was gently pulled from her thoughts when her scroll started vibrating in her pocket. Pulling it out she came face to face with a picture of her older sister.
"Hel-"
"I passed!" Yang yelled through the scroll before Ruby could greet her sister. She beamed with pride for her older sister. She knew Yang would pass the exam, she was the smartest person she knew.
"I knew you would Yang, I'm so proud of you!"
"I still gotta pass the practical exam to earn my spot, but that'll be a piece of cake."
"Do you know when the exam is? You graduate signal in one week so it can't be too far away," Ruby asked her sister.
"Apparently, the practical exam is on the day of initiation, if we pass on that day then we'll be put on our teams and get our partners, anyone that doesn't pass will either die or get sent home."
Ruby shivered at Yang's casual tone when she brought up the very real possibility of death during initiation. It has been years since anyone died during initiation, the last time it happened, it was because someone had decided to not listen to the rules and go far away from their objective. The staff at Beacon would walk through Emerald Forest for a week before the exam, taking care of the more dangerous Grimm in the area, and leaving the smaller ones for the students to take care of. But there was always a chance for a more dangerous creature to slip through and injure or even kill someone.
"W-Well I know you'll pass. You're the strongest student in Signal, I believe in you, Yang."
"Aww thanks sis, I love you."
"Love you too Yang, I'll see you at home." Ruby ended the call with a quick tap of her scroll. Her screen switched to her contacts list, and she was reminded of the extra number that she added yesterday. "That's right, Jaune is taking the exam today too, I wonder if he passed. Should I call him? I don't wanna bother him if he's busy." Ruby muttered to herself for a few minutes debating if she should call Jaune to ask him how he did.
"Ugh, curse my shyness, why can't I just talk to someone without getting nervous and stuttering my way through the conversation." Not having any friends growing up caused the young girl to isolate herself from everyone and not develop any social skills. But remembering how easy it was to talk to Jaune the other day washed away her fears as she tapped the call button.
The scroll rang a few times and Ruby was about to hang up before she heard a familiar voice on the other end.
"Hello," Jaune answered from the other end of the connection.
"J-Jaune?"
"Ruby? Is that you?"
"Y-Yeah it's me, I'm just calling to ask you how you did on the Beacon exam." She was a little afraid that her new friend wouldn't have passed the exam and would be sent home. He mentioned that he lived in a small village he didn't name, she didn't know anything about the village, but Jaune had said that it was quite far away. If he failed then they wouldn't get to hang out. It scared her a little, but he wiped away her fears with two words.
"I passed!"
Ruby's smile shone brightly upon hearing the good news. "Really? That's great!"
"Yeah, I don't know if I have a chance at passing the practical, I'm not very strong," Jaune admitted miserably. "My father refused to train me because he was always afraid that I would get hurt, he never wanted me to become a huntsman."
Ruby was shocked, upon hearing this sudden revelation. Her father always wanted Ruby to be the best huntress possible. For Jaune's own father to not believe in his dreams must've been painful. But this pain brought forth another question. "If your father didn't train you, then who did?"
Jaune didn't respond for the longest time. She would've thought he hung up if not for his breathing. "W-Well, that's the thing." Jaune took a deep breath. "I don't have any training."
Ruby's Spider-Sense buzzed faintly at hearing Jaune's words. "Really? T-Then how were you even allowed to take the practical exam?" Someone had to be quite skilled to be able to even take the practical exam at Beacon, if their transcripts were rejected then they wouldn't even get that far.
"Look, this is something that I'd rather discuss in person," Jaune replied. "If you're free tomorrow, then I'll explain everything, I promise."
"O-Ok, can we meet at Mikey's Ice Cream at five?"
"That works for me, I'll see you then."
"Ok, bye Jaune, and congratulations on passing."
"Heh. Thanks. See ya."
Ruby ended the call nervously. Jaune had just admitted to having no combat training, so how was he allowed to take the Beacon entrance exam? It's possible that he had been self-trained, it wasn't unheard of for someone to get accepted to a combat school like Beacon by either training themselves or just having an extremely powerful semblance, not all Beacon students went to prep schools like Signal, a few students got in through nothing but recommendations from veteran Huntsmen.
According to the media, there was a certain student that had already been guaranteed a spot in Beacon this year because of her outstanding track record, apparently, she had won quite a few championships several times in a row or something like that. But she had still chosen to take the exams like everyone else. Ruby didn't know or really care why she wanted to take that risk though. What the heck was her name? Ugh, whatever. She'd worry about it tomorrow, right now she needed a new pair of shoes and some new fabric to repair her shredded and bloody costume. But first, she needed to put her engineering skills to use.
Ruby made her way to a special shop after stopping to buy a pair of shoes that were much more expensive and durable than her last pair. These would hold up much better than what she was wearing before. But she still needed to buy materials for her dust infusers. She would also need to come up with a better name for them. Some of the parts will have to be custom ordered, such as the adjustable nozzle.
It would take a good few hours to repair her costume so she couldn't go on patrol tonight. In the future, she would make sure she always had a spare costume ready if this happened again.
She spotted her destination around the corner, it was a shop that specialized in machinery and weapon design. The owner knew her well, this was the shop that provided her with the necessary materials to construct her baby. This place was special to her.
As far as weapon shops go, this particular one didn't have the largest stock, but it more than made up for it with one crucial addition that not many others had. There was a special corner of the shop that had a couple of highly advanced computers that would allow someone to design and print components for whatever they were building, or if the shop didn't have the necessary materials, then it would send the design to a professional to be built and sent to the shop to be picked up. Very expensive but sometimes necessary.
The bell tolled above the door with a soft chime as Ruby entered the shop. She was immediately greeted with a sweet smile and a sarcastic greeting from the store owner.
"Well well well, look who it is. If it isn't Ruby Rose, Huntress extraordinaire, master mechanic, cookie devourer, and cutest girl on Patch." The voice was one that Ruby would recognize in her sleep. Across the counter sat a woman in her mid-30s with long lavender-colored hair with pointed bangs. She had a serious face that was sure to scare off children if she wanted it to, but Ruby knew that she was just a big softie who was really passionate about her work.
"Hello, Miss Chrome," The silver-eyed Huntress said with a cheerful smile. Chrome was a nice lady that shared her passion for weapons, she was the person who taught her everything she knows about the ins and outs of a weapon, Crescent Rose would've never been constructed without her help. "Been a long time, how're the kids?"
Chrome let out a deep sigh, she seemed to age 40 years in about three seconds. Despite that, she still managed to put on a smile for the young Huntress. "They're a handful, but I'm happier than ever thanks to them. They say they want to become Hunters, which I suppose isn't too much of a shock considering my husband is one too. He said he'd be more than willing to train them once they're old enough."
Ruby smiled warmly at the woman. "You must be proud of them."
Chrome chuckled. "I'll be proud of them once they learn to clean their rooms without being asked. But enough about my family, let's get down to business. What can I do ya for?"
"I just need to use the fabricator, I might need an order placed for more advanced components though." The fabricator was a great tool, but while it constructed custom parts for weapons, it wouldn't assemble them. Ruby would need to do that herself.
"Knock yourself out," Chrome replied "I'll open one of the rooms for you."
After fiddling with a control panel under her desk for a moment, Chrome directed Ruby to the fabrication rooms. The room was very large to accommodate the giant machine sitting in the middle of the room. There were multiple racks with different tools and metals, as well as cleaning supplies. Only someone that had a license could use the fabricator, so Ruby was very fortunate to have acquired one.
"Time to get to work."
Opening up the computer, Ruby quickly went to work designing the components for her wrist-mounted devices. The design was quite simple, the only mechanical elements would be the rotating chamber that would store dust
After a solid two hours, the Spider had successfully designed the basic parts for her new weapon, all she needed to do was print them. While they were printing, Ruby would get to work on the more complicated parts that needed to be custom ordered. It was tiring work, but it would be worth it in the end. Luckily she had some money saved up to afford this.
The machine whirred to life as soon as she gave it the command to start printing. The freshly oiled large mechanical arms began to move with fluidity as they slowly began to assemble the multitude of machined metal that would form the shell for her device. After placing an order for the special parts she needed, Ruby decided that now was the perfect time to catch up on the latest issue of X-Ray and Vav.
DING!
Ruby practically jumped out of her skin at the sound of the machine signifying the successful completion of its job. What was left on the table were a few bits of metal that had been printed with absolute precision. It was exactly what she needed.
After briefly cleaning her workspace and shutting down the fabricator, Ruby approached Chrome to pay for the material. The woman appeared to be deep in a riveting book. Ruby briefly contemplated scaring the shit out of her before realizing that creeping up on a woman that owned a weapons shop and knew how to use most of them was a bad idea, instead deciding to approach her like normal.
"All finished Chrome," Ruby cheerfully said as she approached. "I have some parts coming in a few days, just gimme a call when they arrive."
Chrome looked up from her book and smiled at the young Huntress. "Done already? I was almost sure that you'd fall asleep in there again."
"Erk! C-Can we just forget about that?" Ruby said with blazing red cheeks. "It was only one time!"
Chrome laughed at the girl's embarrassment, which only caused her cheeks to darken even further. She got really into her work one night and she just passed out at the desk before she could finish. Chrome would never let her live it down.
"Nope! I'll never forget it, and I'll make sure you don't either." Chrome said with an evil smirk.
Ruby groaned miserably in response. Some things never change. Though she'd be lying if she said she didn't enjoy the familiarity.
After paying for the material, Ruby made her way back home. My body already feels like it's been healed from my training. I bet I'm stronger than I was before, now all I gotta do is keep this routine up so I can keep up with more experienced fighters.
GROWL
If Ruby weren't in the middle of the city, then she surely would've thought the loud growling noise to be a Grimm ready to pounce on her. Instead, she looked down at her empty stomach and chastised herself internally for forgetting to eat again. Glancing around the street, the young spider spotted a pizza place that was still open. "Perfect."
Pizza is the god of all foods. Pizza makes everything better, no one in history has ever had a bad time with pizza in their mouth. It's cheap, filling, and absolutely delicious.
Ruby walked into the restaurant with a smile on her face. The cooks were hard at work tossing dough in the air with practiced excellence and tossing toppings onto the perfectly rounded discs. Ruby always got distracted while watching professionals do their jobs, the way they performed techniques with perfect fluidity was something that she could watch for hours.
"Hello, welcome to Joe's!" A man behind the counter greeted her with a friendly smile. "How can I help you?"
Toppings were what turned a good pizza into a great pizza. Everyone had their own opinions on what toppings were the best, and Ruby would forever respect those choices.
Except for pineapple, which just made Ruby want to cry.
After many years of careful consideration, Ruby had chosen her absolute favorite pizza topping.
"Hello, I'll just take a large pepperoni, please."
Scribbling her order on a notepad, the man quickly got to work. "Sure thing, that'll be ready in 20 minutes."
Sitting down at a booth to wait for her pie, Ruby pulled out her scroll to check out what was happening in the world.
Her fight with Torchwick last night had apparently made the national news, it wouldn't be long before the entire world knew about Spider-Woman. Vigilantes were nothing new, but a vigilante who managed to go toe to toe with Roman Torchwick was something that would definitely make her more well-known. The fact that a building exploded probably helped spread the story even more.
She needed to do some digging, Roman obviously needed the dust for some reason other than to sell it. Selling dust illegally was risky, especially when doing it legally was much faster and easier. Also if he just wanted to sell the dust to make money, then why not steal the Lien too? Roman never took any money from the dust shops he robbed, so money was not his goal.
She needed to gather information on Roman and his plans. Maybe there were some smaller criminals that she could "ask" for information. There was no shortage of crime on the streets of Vale, even if it was one of the safest Kingdoms. Atlas was the worst by far, with the people there being the most racist out of all the Kingdoms, it was no wonder that gangs like the White Fang preferred to attack places that were more discriminatory to their kind.
Ruby didn't blame them, to be honest. Obviously, she didn't approve of their actions, but she understood where they were coming from. There were a lot of better ways to go about it though. The White Fang had started out as a peaceful group of Faunus that protested for equality. Their words were completely ignored, no one bothered to listen to them. People always refused to listen unless someone acted, so the White Fang did. They decided that being friendly wasn't working, so they got mean instead, attacking racist companies like the Schnee Dust Company due to their unfair treatment of the Faunus.
They hoped that by doing this, the people would be too scared of them to discriminate against the Faunus anymore. Instead, their actions only reaffirmed their beliefs that the Faunus were a bunch of animals that needed to be locked away.
What the White Fang should've done was try to help their community through action instead of attacking it. Small stuff like cleaning the local parks and beaches, or helping citizens with everyday tasks. The fighters in the White Fang should've become huntsmen instead to help people.
Ruby couldn't comprehend why they thought attacking people was a good idea, but everyone thought Spider-Woman was a Faunus. It was the obvious conclusion considering her name and the abilities she has. Maybe her actions will help inspire other Faunus to leave the White Fang. She hoped that no one else would try to be a Vigilante too, she only did it because she had no other choice.
Alas, what's done is do-
Ruby's thoughts were interrupted by the familiar warning of her Spider-Sense. Snapping her head up, Ruby looked around the store for danger, only to have it come to her instead.
BANG
The door to the shop was thrown open with way more force than necessary. In strode multiple men all armed with guns and masks covering their faces.
BANG BANG BANG
The robber in the front fired multiple warning shots into the ceiling, this caused screams from the patrons that were eating as well as the cooks behind the counter.
"ON THE GROUND NOW!" One of the men shouted while walking to the counter. "Money, now!" He demanded.
The nice man who had taken her order began to frantically try to open the register. His trembling hands made this task extremely difficult. Meanwhile, the others were walking around the store to collect everyone's wallets. A family of four in the corner was trembling as a masked man pointed his gun at them. The husband pulled out an expensive-looking wallet and tossed it to the criminal.
"That's it? I know you've got more! Hand it over!" He screamed to the cowering man.
"That's all I've got, I swear! Don't hurt my family." The man was crying now. "I don't carry much cash on me!"
Ruby's Spider-Sense buzzed louder.
The robber pointed his gun at the man's wife, she was crying while using her body to protect her children. "I'm not kidding around, give me everything you've got!"
"Please! That's everything, I swear." The man was pleading with the robber.
Ruby's Spider-Sense buzzed so hard it started to hurt, she had to move and she had to do it NOW!
The robber's finger twitched on the trigger.
SMASH!
Ruby crossed the distance so fast that no one could even see her move, her tiny fist smashed into the man's cheek with a crunching noise. His head snapped to the side as he was launched across the restaurant. He smashed into a wall and crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
"HUNTRESS! KILL HER!" One of the men shouted as they all raised their guns at her. Ruby dashed away from the family to avoid getting them caught in the crossfire. Whipping Crescent Rose from her back, Ruby used it as a shield to block all incoming gunfire. She could dodge them herself, but she didn't want to arouse suspicion.
Bullets pinged off her weapon as the criminals began to fire. Ruby knew that their ammunition wasn't infinite, this theory proved to be correct as after a few seconds all gunfire ceased as she heard their guns click empty. Ruby took advantage of this situation and threw Crescent Rose at two of the robbers. The impact caused them to fall to the ground in a pained groaning mess.
Not having enough time to reload, three of the men surrounded her and prepared to attack with knives. Ruby caught the wrist of one man and twisted it to the side painfully, causing him to drop his knife. Her Spider-Sense allowed her to whip her head to the side and allow a knife to pass her cheek, however, this caused the knife to be impaled into the shoulder of the man who had attacked her first.
The man fell to the ground with a pained scream and blood soaking his shirt. Ruby punched him in the face, knocking out a few of his teeth and knocking him out cold. Ruby vaulted over the third man before his knife could make contact with her aura, and kicked him in the back of the head. This caused the man to launch forward into the man second man with great force knocking them both out instantly.
"STOP!"
Ruby ceased all movement when she saw a man with his arm around a young girl's neck, she was no older than five. The gun he pointed at her head didn't make the situation any more favorable for her. The girl's mother and father were crying off to the side, they knew that he would kill her if they made a move. The young girl had tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Let her go now," Ruby demanded. She knew that he wouldn't listen, but she needed to buy time to come up with a plan. She knew the man wouldn't kill the girl unless Ruby made a move, he couldn't afford to lose his hostage right now.
"I don't want to kill her, but I will if I have to. Just let me go."
Ruby needed to stall for time. "Perhaps we can come to an agreement. You let the girl go, and I let you go."
The man only laughed, "Haha! You must think I'm stupid or something. I wouldn't make it five feet before you tackle me to the ground."
Ruby opened her mouth to respond before she glanced behind the man. Her eyes widened for a second before she smirked victoriously.
Her plan was a complete success. The man panicked and spun around to shoot whatever was approaching him. There was nothing behind him of course, that was just a bluff. In that instant, Ruby blasted forward faster than anyone could see. The man realized his mistake too late. He tried to spin back around to shoot her, but Ruby ripped the hostage from his grip and delivered a devastating uppercut to the man's chin. The force launched the man through the air before he smashed into the ceiling and came crashing to the ground out cold.
It was over, Ruby had won.
"Damn, how thick is your skull?" Ruby joked while shaking her hand in faux pain. "Feels like I struck a brick wall." She glanced around the restaurant, admiring her handiwork. Every robber was completely out cold, lots of them sporting broken bones, and one had a knife in his shoulder, though that wasn't her fault. She remembered the young girl that she was still holding onto, she was looking up at her with tears in her eyes. "Are you okay?" Ruby asked.
The girl only nodded in response.
"Good, I'm glad." She put the girl down before she ran over to her relieved parents.
Ruby calmly walked over to each of the downed robbers and retrieved the wallets that had been stolen before handing them back to their rightful owners. She received various degrees of thanks from each of them. She was just glad that no one had been injured. There was a small hole in the wall from where she had launched the first man into and a crack in the ceiling from her last uppercut.
She gathered Crescent Rose and sat down without another word.
Eventually, a woman came over and placed her steaming hot pizza in front of her. After thanking her, she dug in like it was her last meal. The perfectly melted cheese coated her tongue, and the slightly burnt crust help contrast with the sweet sauce to produce an amazing flavor. She was so invested in her pizza that she failed to notice the arrival of the police.
One of them walked up beside her. "Excuse me, Miss," He started, "We have some questions for you if you don't mind."
Honestly, Ruby only wanted to cause as little conflict as possible, if she had to answer a few questions then so be it.
The questions were exactly as expected, he was just asking her a little about herself like her address and phone number. Dad and Yang would no doubt be called as soon as possible. Of course, they asked about what happened, and she answered as honestly as possible. She didn't have any reason to lie anyway, it wasn't like she had done anything wrong.
The man sighed. "Normally we would bring you down to the station for further questioning, but considering that there were at least ten other witnesses and they all had the same exact story, we can consider this matter solved. You did good kid." The nice Police Officer got up and walked up to the counter, presumably to get something to eat after a long day. Ruby just continued to eat in silence.
She was interrupted by the sound of a very familiar voice behind her.
"Ruby!" She was then enveloped in a tight hug by a blond missile with way too much hair.
"Y-Yang...can't...breathe." Yang pulled away and checked her up and down for injuries, she hadn't taken a single hit during the fight so she wouldn't find anything. "What are you doing here?"
"We got a call that you were involved in a robbery and came to see if you were alright," Yang replied relieved that she didn't find any injuries on her younger sister.
"Wait...we?" Ruby asked.
On cue, the door opened and a blond man stumbled in looking about ready to throw up, he could barely stand on his own two feet and his face was white as a ghost. "D-Damn it Y-Yang. That's the last *Urp* time I let you drive." Her father collapsed on the floor, presumably to stop his world from spinning as well as to prevent him from emptying his stomach all over the floor.
"Heh, I'm fine guys. They didn't put up much of a fight, not very smart either."
She could hear a tired "Fuck you" from one of the robbers before he was dragged away.
Yang nabbed a slice of pizza off of the tray, Ruby briefly considered biting it out of her hand before deciding it wasn't worth the effort. "Damn, you took them all out by yourself, and without taking a single hit either? You really are the bee's knees."
Ruby groaned at her sister's choice of words. "I don't wanna be the bee's knees, I don't wanna be any kind of knees, I just wanna be a normal girl, with normal knees."
Her father recovered from his near-death experience and took a seat across from the two girls. "Either way, I'm very proud of you for handling the situation so well. You managed to prevent a robbery, didn't receive a single injury, minimized property damage, and even save a few lives in the process."
To drive the point home, her father added one extra line. "Your mother would be so proud of you, I just know it.
Ruby's eyes watered but she managed to keep herself from crying. Despite that, she allowed a smile to cross her lips. "T-Thanks Dad."
They all ate while Yang went on about the exam that she had taken. Apparently, it was quite difficult, luckily Yang had studied quite hard to be prepared. Ruby would be taking a similar exam when she applied to Beacon.
Finishing her meal, Ruby went to the register to pay. The man refused to accept her money, "You saved all our asses tonight, this is the least I can do to repay you, it's on the house."
"Thank you so much, I really appreciate it," Ruby said with a light blush and a bright smile. She didn't like the idea of not paying for her meal, but she blew a lot of money on the materials that she bought today so she would let it go this time.
Turning to leave with her family, she was stopped by a small tug on her skirt. Looking down, she spotted the small girl who she had saved. She was nervous, that was obvious.
"Um...T-Thank you for saving me. Um...What's your n-name?" The girl was adorable, she was glad that she was alright, she wouldn't be much of a huntress if she couldn't save one little girl.
"My name is Ruby. What about you, what's your name?"
"I-I'm Mia," The girl replied nervously. "Um." The girl's face went bright red. "C-Can I have your a-autograph p-please?"
Now it was Ruby's turn to be surprised, of all the things that she expected to come from being a huntress, signing autographs was not one of them. That didn't mean that she would refuse though. "Of course, you can!" She accepted the piece of paper from the young girl.
What do I write? I need a slogan or something. Something catchy. After thinking for a moment she came up with something perfect. She scribbled it down on the sheet of paper before handing it to the girl.
"T-Thank you!" She replied before turning to run back to her parents. Before she ran off though, she turned and left one final message to the young huntress.
"You're my hero!"
Ruby failed to control her joyful expression.
Or stop the tears from pouring down her cheeks.
The young girl read what her hero had written on the once-blank sheet of paper.
Ruby Rose
One person CAN make a difference.
AN: I had fun writing this one, even if I'm not all that confident in my writing yet, but at least I'm enjoying myself while writing these.
I'm going to sleep now...
