Before she got her spider powers, Ruby would need special glasses or a magnifying glass to see things really close up. She used them when she was building a particularly small component for Crescent Rose and needed a way to see it more easily.
The spider bite had enhanced her vision to a point that she didn't think was even possible. Her vision had been enhanced so much that she could read clearly from several hundred feet away.
By focusing, she could also see things that were really small as well as notice smaller details about something. This was more of a blessing than it seemed on the surface. For one, she could see if someone had a hidden weapon by looking at their clothes and seeing if she could notice a weapon in their pockets.
Her Spider-Sense normally handled danger for her but it was nice to have the extra option available.
She was currently using her enhanced vision to modify her web-shooters. She had long since toyed with the idea of modifying the way her webbing was discharged, besides simply adding different dust to her webbing.
One of her cooler ideas was something akin to a grenade made of webbing. She wanted to do this by discharging her webbing from her wrist and having her web-shooters compress her webbing into a tight ball that would explode upon impact. It was quite an expensive ordeal.
It got even more expensive when she finally decided to buy a neural transmitter and two neural receivers. The days of her voice-activated web-shooters were no more. Now she had to simply link the neural transmitter to the receivers and place the transmitter into her mask while installing the receivers to her web-shooters.
This would allow her web-shooters to be controlled with her mind rather than her voice. The technology wasn't very new but it was really expensive. She only got around to doing it when she had enough with her voice-activated web-shooters.
The only downside is that it wouldn't work if she didn't have her mask on. This was fine because she would never use her webs while not in costume unless it was an emergency. Even then, she could always manually switch her web-shooters anyway.
Selling photos to the Bugle didn't pay all that well but considering she was only 15, she didn't have many expenses anyway. She could afford to buy what she needed as Spider-Woman without draining her bank.
Ruby delicately slid a small sheet of metal into place and pressed down so it let out a satisfying click. Her small screwdriver spun in place to tighten the tiny screw which fastened the two sheets of metal into place.
She tossed the old web-shooter nozzle into the trash and fished out a brand-new one from her drawer. This nozzle was key if she wanted to improve her webbing. The nozzle had multiple tiny gears inside which would shift the metal plating of the nozzle and allow her to discharge her webbing in various ways.
Science!
Testing her different web combinations would come later. Right now she really wanted to finish her spider tracers. She was getting really tired of Roman Torchwick slipping through her fingers at every opportunity. Also, him blowing her up every time was getting annoying.
Next time she would make sure to place a spider tracer on him just in case he got away again. That way she could track him and apprehend him later. It helped that her Spider-Sense could detect radio signals and point her in the correct direction. She didn't even need to use a special device to find the trackers.
The way the tracers interacted with her Spider-Sense was very interesting. As far as she could tell, she would have to 'link' up the tracers with her Spider-Sense. Her Spider-Sense would then latch on to the tracer for her to track wherever it was.
She tested her range on the trackers by leaving one active at home and traveling across the entire city to see if her Spider-Sense would still pick up on its signal. Surprisingly, her Spider-Sense picked up on the tracers without issue. However, the further away she was from the tracer the more vague an idea she had where it was. She always knew the general direction of the tracer, but she would get a better idea of where it was when she was closer.
It was super useful.
Peering out her window, Ruby saw the sun rest at the highest point in the sky, bathing the entire city in its beautiful glow. Now was the perfect time to try something else she had been working on for quite a while. It wasn't a very important project but it was something that she really wanted to do. Removing the false bottom of one of her dresser drawers, she pulled out her beautiful spider suit.
But not just any spider suit.
A brand new spider suit that had a totally different design than her last one! She loved her old suit, but this one added more color to make her stand out more. She was working on an all-black one to help her blend in with the shadows easier but this one looked much brighter.
Her new suit had red boots, gloves, mid-section, and mask. There was also a black web pattern to cover the red portion of her suit. The rest of the costume was changed from the black of her last one to a bright blue. There is a beautiful black spider between her breasts and a much larger black spider on her back. The spider on her new costume was more angular than her last one. The design was much sharper, which she liked a lot.
Her chrome lenses were made larger and brighter. The mask still muffled her voice so no one would be able to recognize it. She wasn't sure which costume she liked more. Not that she was going to pick favorites anyway. Ruby slipped her clothes over her new spider suit and headed for the city
One of her most favorite things to do was to climb to the very top of Oscorp tower – the tallest building in all of Vale – and plummet to the ground at terminal velocity. The feeling of the wind on her face coupled with her spandex suit flapping in the breeze spiked her adrenaline like nothing else. Her Spider-Sense buzzed loudly to alert her of the approaching ground. A simple web line slowed her descent and swung her upward into the sky.
"Helloooooo Vaaaaaale!" She yelled into the sky.
She landed on a large truck and began to run along it before leaping into the crowd below. She never hit the ground due to her ejecting a web line and yanking her through the crowd, not once bumping into anyone.
"Looking good Spidey!" Someone yelled to her.
She received various awed looks and excited cheers from children as they admired her new suit.
"New suit, same old me!"
She soared above the buildings as she spread her web wings and glided above the city.
"What you got for me today Vale?"
Spider-Woman pulsed her Spider-Sense to get a layout of the danger in the city. It wasn't long before she was nudged in a particular direction.
"No rest for the wicked it seems." Spider-Woman aimed a web at the corner of a building and allowed gravity to do the rest and swing her in the direction she wanted to go.
Kicking off a fire escape, Spider-Woman gained some extra height and momentum to start running on the buildings wall. This technique took a while to master due to the awkward position her legs were put in, but she persisted simply due to how cool it looked when she got it right.
Spider-Woman kicked herself higher and gripped a flagpole displaying the Vale flag before spinning around it and pushing herself even higher into the air.
Two helicopters roared by her ears as their massive blades sliced through the air to keep them airborne. The choppers weren't interested in her however, which was appreciated. They instead ignored her entirely and continued to follow a scene down below in the streets.
It was actually quite impressive that so many police cars could fit into one street at the same time. There had to be at least 20 cars all following a single giant armored truck.
"Guess I'll help."
Spider-Woman latched a web onto both of the helicopters and proceeded to slingshot herself through the air at high speeds. She unfolded her wings once again and glided down to the chaos below.
Controlling herself while gliding was a lot easier than she thought it would be. Really the only thing she needed to do was move her arms to steer in a direction and bring her arms up when she wanted to stop.
She twisted her body to cut a tight corner and follow the armored truck. Whoever was driving that truck didn't value human life all that much considering that they ignored any cars in their way and drove over them.
"Oh my god! They just ran a red light! Does evil know no limits!?"
She was starting to lose speed. Folding her wings back into her suit, Spider-Woman ejected a strand of webbing and yanked with all her might to send her rocketing down the street.
"It's Spider-Woman!" Someone on the sidewalk yelled.
"Hello pedestrians! Please no flash photography."
Upon further examination, the armored truck was actually not the one driving, rather, the armored truck was sitting on a larger truck and being taken along for the ride.
The truck was fast but Spider-Woman was much faster. She quickly caught up to the truck and landed on the back. Her adhesive digits kept her locked in place. She scurried along the truck and made her way to the driver's side before politely knocking on the glass.
"Excuse me!" She motioned for the bald tattooed man to roll down the window. When he didn't do that she gripped the glass with her fingers and yanked the glass clean off the door.
Well...it wasn't clean the glass shattered into a thousand pieces and landed on the street below.
"Hello Mr. Criminal, my name is Spider-Woman, you can call me web-head, you can call me amazing, just don't call me late for dinner you get it?" She held out her hand waiting for a handshake.
The man responded by throwing a punch at her face which she promptly ducked away from.
Now sitting on the roof of the vehicle, Spider-Woman hung her head upside down so she could see the man. "Not a shaker? Are you a hugger?"
He pulled out a fully automatic assault rifle and pointed the barrel directly at her head. "I am killer!"
"Woah, okay!" She flipped onto the roof of the vehicle to avoid the bullets that nearly struck her aura. She then plunged her fist through the roof and trusted her Spider-Sense to tell her where to grab. She gripped the weapon he had and crushed the entire thing with her fingers.
Her Spider-Sense buzzed louder and directed her to the front of the truck. There was no way she could move everyone out of the way in time but she could simply move the truck so it didn't hit anyone.
Spider-Woman dropped back to the driver's side door and gripped the wheel with her adhesive fingers. The man tried to overpower her and control the truck.
Try being the keyword.
Spider-Woman steered the truck to avoid the cars that were blocking its path. She couldn't fully move out of the way of all of them and managed to clip a few cars, but the lives of the occupants would be in no danger.
"I think you need to go back to driver's ed. This is over the speed limit."
Her Spider-Sense was buzzing even louder now, but this time it was directing her to the armored truck that was being dragged along. Spider-Woman had no clue what was in it but she had a feeling that it was very dangerous.
Having enough of driving the massive truck, Spider-Woman flicked the man in the temple, knocking him out in an instant.
"They're so cute when they're incapacitated."
The masked vigilante made her way to the front of the speeding truck and braced every muscle in her body. She then slammed her feet into the tarmac and gripped the truck with all her might. Her feet dug into the asphalt as she desperately tried to bring the speeding vehicle to a stop.
It took a few seconds but that was a hell of a lot better than she would've done when she first started. She had gotten a lot better at using her super strength. The truck came to a stop and Spider-Woman was allowed to breathe a sigh of relief.
"Nothing to it."
The sound of screams and gunshots sounded from behind the truck as well as the buzzing of her Spider-Sense. She leaped into action in time to see every police officer for miles aiming and firing their guns at two men inside the armored truck who also had guns aimed at the officers.
Not wanting to wait for anyone to get hurt, Spider-Woman fired two web lines at the men's guns and disarmed them in an instant. She then fired two web lines at their torsos and pulled them into the air before stringing them upside down on a light post.
"Hands up!" The police yelled as they pointed their guns at the men.
Her Spider-Sense buzzed again right before the giant truck started moving again!
"Really? He must have a really thick skull to be able to wake up already."
To her surprise, a man sitting in the driver's seat of the armored truck took the opportunity to jump out to safety. He must've been the man who was driving the truck before it got stolen. Just an unfortunate man in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"Get 'em Spidey!" He yelled to her.
Spider-Woman was about to pull the criminal out of the driver's seat before a bright orange glowing liquid caught her eye in the back of the armored truck. Her Spider-Sense told her that it was the more pressing issue at the moment.
She landed in the truck with little difficulty and grabbed the vial that had caught her eye, she had no clue what this stuff was but it didn't look like harmless orange juice.
There were also eleven other vials bouncing around which alerted her Spider-Sense. Kicking her radar into overdrive, Spider-Woman's limbs snapped in every direction as she attempted to catch all the vials.
"Gotcha! Gotcha! Nope, got you too! You're not going anywhere, come to Mama. Not that way! Don't blow up!"
There was a speaker in the back of the truck that piped up at that moment. "Warning, Grade D Dust is a highly explosive material."
"Of course. Nope! This way! Come back here!"
The ordeal ended when Spider-Woman became a tangled mess of limbs hanging from the ceiling with all the vials in her grip. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.
"Phew…"
Her Rose luck decided to make an appearance once again as one single vial that was still sitting where it was supposed to, decided at that moment to shake loose and bounce out of the truck.
"Oh come ON!"
Thinking quickly, Spider-Woman threw herself out of the truck and released all the vials of dust in a single direction along with a net of webbing. The net caught all the vials and slung them up on a light post.
She landed on a police car that was chasing the armored truck while trying to grab the vial that was gaining distance on her.
"Hey! Come back here!"
It was like a scene straight out of a cartoon. The vial somehow managed to hit every single thing it could and bounce further and further away from her. It hit a fire hydrant, a bell, and even managed to nail some guy in the head before rolling to a stop in the street. That glass must've been made of some next-level stuff!
She scooped the vial into her hands before coming to a stop in the middle of the street. In hindsight, that might've not been her best move as her Spider-Sense alerted her of a rapidly approaching police car.
She didn't jump out of the way. Instead, she allowed the car to get closer to her before she stuck herself to the front bumper and allowed her to be taken along for the ride.
She used her enhanced vision to look closer at the vial of dust. It seemed to bubble in its confines, it was quite mesmerizing actually. It was like a hundred fireworks being detonated in a small glass case.
"Wait... wasn't I doing something? Oh right, madman driving through the city trying to steal a highly explosive material."
She kicked to the skies and used her webs to take her in the direction her Spider-Sense was pointing her.
It didn't take long for her to spot the truck barreling through traffic with no regard for the citizens going about their day. Spider-Woman landed on the hood of the car which startled the man inside.
"I told you to obey the speed limit! Pull over before I-" The man then proceeded to spray her with windshield washer fluid. "Come on man... not cool!"
Spider-Woman reeled her fist back and blasted it into the windshield. The glass cracked but didn't shatter. She pulled her fist back again until the roaring of her Spider-Sense directed her to a bus that the man was about to crash into.
She pushed her Spider-Sense even further as time slowed down for the young Huntress as she leaped into action.
She attached a small web line to the dust and threw it away from her. Her aim was true as the web latched onto a light post and out of harm's way.
At the same time, she leaped off the truck and over the bus as the truck made contact with a horrifying crunching noise. Metal buckled and glass shattered. She wanted to stop the truck from hitting the bus at all but she wouldn't have enough time to do something like that.
She took a deep breath and tensed her muscles as she made contact with the ground. She felt the bus crash into her back an instant later. She dug her heels into the ground, dug her fingers into the bus, and pushed back with all her might.
The asphalt around her heels got gouged out and her fingers made imprints on the cold metal of the bus. She could hear the screams of the terrified citizens inside and refused to give an inch.
The force of her superior strength caused the bus to come to a screeching halt before it rocked backward and slammed into the ground.
Spider-Woman spun around to see if everyone was okay. The way her Spider-Sense was calm put her fears to rest as well as the cheers of happy citizens that were saved.
"Okay, good, good. Now where did the devious delinquent go?"
She hopped on top of the bus and scanned the area, then she noticed the dust she webbed up was gone. A small application of her Spider-Sense pointed her around a building which she promptly followed. It wasn't long until she spotted the criminal in question hauling ass in the opposite direction. He looked back in time to see her approaching and pointed a second assault rifle at her face. Where he was hiding the assault rifle, she had no idea.
Time slowed for the vigilante as she flailed her limbs to prevent the bullets from poking holes in her aura. She could see the bullets wiz by her mask. It was quite cool actually as she could see the bullets push air out of the way.
She landed with a thud and snatched the gun from the man. "That's not yours." She then snatched the dust from the mans other closed fist. "I'll take that."
She tossed the dust and the gun up into the air as the man threw a punch at her face. She promptly wrapped the fist in webbing and anchored it to a nearby building, preventing him from moving. "Almost got me with that one," she lied.
He tried again with the other fist only for the same thing to happen. "Missed me missed me now you gotta— well...never mind."
She caught the dust safely on her foot and began to walk away from the dumb criminal.
"This is not the end spider!" He yelled toward her.
"I think it is... right about... now."
On cue, the rifle she had tossed into the air came crashing down on the man's head, knocking him out.
"Another day, another batch of criminals going to jail. I love my job!"
The police had rounded the corner at that exact moment and stumbled out of the vehicle with their guns drawn. Upon realizing that the major threat was taken care of, they lowered their guns. Most police officers learned that trying to apprehend her was a waste of their time considering her speed and strength, so they prioritized capturing criminals and saving lives rather than trying to take her in.
Spider-Woman strode past an officer and shoved the vial of dust into his chest. "Careful, it's highly explosive." The look of panic on his face was funny, like he thought that the vial would detonate and destroy a city block.
"Keep up the good work officers. I'm gonna go grab some lunch."
Spider-Woman took to the skies and allowed her webbing to take her on a trip through the city. It was quite funny really, there could be a disaster somewhere in the city and another part will continue as if nothing happened.
The normalcy was something she appreciated, even if it was just citizens screaming profanities at each other.
"Hey! You cut me off!"
"Babe! It's not what it looks like!"
"You son of a-"
Ah...I love this city.
Spider-Woman felt around her pockets and was relieved to feel some spare lien sitting comfortably in them. She then pulled out her scroll and ordered lunch from a sandwich shop she frequented as Ruby.
Landing on a rooftop, Spider-Woman retrieved the camera that she had set up to take photos of her actions. Jameson would have a field day with these, though he would probably try to spin it in a way that made it look like she was in on the robbery the whole time.
It didn't matter to her, as long as she got paid then she was happy. Not like any of the things he said about her were true.
She flipped through the photos for a few minutes to delete the ones that were blurry or otherwise unfit for the paper. Most of them actually turned out better than she thought. She might start saving up her money to get a much better camera so Jameson would pay her more.
Thoughts for another day. Spider-Woman leaped off the building and swung through the city before arriving at her backpack. She was working on a utility belt that would allow her to carry things with her if she needed but it wasn't quite ready yet. For now, she would just have to make do with what she had. She shoved her camera into her backpack and shoved it back into her hiding spot.
She pulled out her scroll and flipped through her contacts before arriving at the name that she was looking for. It rang for a few moments before a familiar voice spoke.
"Hello, thank you for calling the Daily Bugle. This is Betty speaking. How may I help you?"
The short introduction was said with practiced ease. Betty had been saying that same line several times a day for two years so it would make sense that she memorized it. There was no real emotion behind her words. More like the voice of someone who was tired and wanted to go home and eat something.
"Hey Betty, it's Ruby," she said with her upbeat voice.
"Ah, Ruby." Her voice changed from one of practiced professionalism to a softer one that one might use when talking to a friend. "Do you need to talk to Jonah? He's a little busy at the moment but I can interrupt him if it's important."
She shook her head before realizing that Betty couldn't see her. "Nah, it's alright. Can you just let him know that I got photos from the chase that should be on the news now? The one with Spider-Woman. I'd rather not have to replace the speakers in my scroll if he thinks I didn't get photos."
Betty chuckled. "Will do. You're really on top of this stuff. How do you always manage to be at the right place at the right time?"
Spider-Woman couldn't tell her the truth for obvious reasons but she did have the perfect lie that had a bit of the truth mixed in.
"My Semblance makes me super fast," she said with pride. "All I do is listen to the police radio and run to wherever the crime is happening. Assuming that it's not on the other side of the city of course."
"Wow, I'm surprised Jonah doesn't pay you more with a skill set like that. You're a Huntress too, which means you can get much closer to danger and still be fine. You should ask for a raise."
"I'd love to. But I'm still a freelance photographer. It's not like I get a check at the end of the week. I just get paid whenever something interesting happens and I happen to get pictures. Hell, I don't even consider myself a photographer. I just needed the extra cash and took the first opportunity that presented itself."
"Well, whatever the reason, you still do better than any other new freelance photographer. Even if Jameson doesn't say it, I know he appreciates your work."
"More like he appreciates how much money my photos bring in," she said which caused Betty to laugh. "I might drop them off later today, I just gotta get them printed first. Just let him know when he's free."
"Will do. Thanks, Ruby." And with that, the line went dead.
Ruby really liked Betty. She was sweet and always had a smile on her face when Ruby showed up at the Bugle. She was quite young too, only 20 years old.
She reached into her pocket and counted the few plastic lien bills she had on hand. It wasn't much but it would be enough to buy herself lunch at the very least.
Spider-Woman leaped off the building and swung herself upward with a single strand of spider silk. Her wings unfolded and allowed her to glide through the streets with ease. She waved to the pedestrians who noticed her soaring.
She didn't need her Spider-Sense to notice a shady-looking man with his hood up following some woman down the street. The man bolted past her and tore her purse out of her hand before she could react.
Spider-Woman responded by shooting two balls of webbing at the man's feet. He immediately halted in his tracks and faceplanted into the hard concrete sidewalk as the purse flew out of his hand.
Spider-Woman never even slowed down as she twisted her body to weave between a truck and pull herself up with a web. Spider-Woman landed on a building a few minutes later when she arrived at the sandwich shop she ordered lunch from. It didn't look too busy.
Being too lazy to change out of her spider suit, Spider-Woman simply dropped down from the building and landed on all fours right in front of the shop, startling a few pedestrians in the process.
She pushed open the door and fished her lien out of her pockets. The woman by the register must've noticed her drop from the sky if her facial expression was anything to go by.
"Hello," Spider-Woman said with a smile. Not that she could see it behind the mask but the happy tone of her voice should help get the point across. "Number 65," she recited her order number to the cashier.
The woman reached beneath the counter and pulled out a small bag with her food. "H-Here you go. That'll be ten lien."
Spider-Woman pulled out exact change and handed it to the woman. "Thank you." She grabbed her food and exited the building without another word. She could smell her meal from the bag, her mouth was watering, and her stomach was rumbling.
She leaped into the air and swung down the street a bit until she arrived at a rooftop where she could enjoy her meal in peace.
That White Fang recruitment rally is happening soon. I need to finish my spider tracers tonight just in case things go south. Knowing my typical Rose luck things will definitely go wrong.
How do I sneak in there anyway? I could finish my stealth suit in time but the fact that the entire place will be filled with faunus who have night vision doesn't help.
Maybe I can just go in as Ruby Rose instead of Spider-Woman. But that poses another problem, if they ask me to prove I'm a faunus then I can't exactly shoot a web to convince them. I could pretend to be some type of lizard faunus that can stick to things, not all faunus have obvious physical features after all.
Dealing with all those White Fang members at once will be tricky, but many of them will be either new recruits or those who are considering joining. Maybe if they see me kick Torchwick's ass then they'll reconsider.
Whatever, I can worry about the small details later.
Spider-Woman compressed her wrapper into a ball before tossing it off the building and into the back of a garbage truck with ease. She clapped her gloves free of any crumbs before she got to her feet.
She almost took to the skies once more before remembering that swinging after eating was a recipe for disaster.
Reluctantly, Spider-Woman made her way to one of her hidden stashes of clothing and changed back into Ruby Rose.
Vale will be fine without me for a while, I need to finish those tracers. Ruby thought to herself as she made her way home. Also, I want to test out my new web-shooters. Those web grenades will prove useful if they work like I want them too.
I probably shouldn't have just left those on my desk, I doubt Dad will look at them and figure out I'm Spider-Woman but I can never be too careful.
Ruby expertly melted into the crowd and made her way home.
Ruby whipped the sweat from her brow before placing her screwdriver on her desk and removing her protective glasses. Oil painted her fingers and cheeks as a sign of her hard work.
The smell of oil to Ruby smelt just like progress. Few things smelt better.
Ruby tossed her brand new modified web-shooter around into the air with practiced ease before it landed on her wrist and snapped into place. The web-shooter had to be a little larger to accommodate the new parts but when it was folded away in its bracelet form it wouldn't be a problem.
Rapidly twisting her wrist back and forth unfolded her web-shooter to its full size. The color was perfect for blending in with her suit and its size wasn't obstructive in the slightest.
Ruby grabbed her mask and slid it over her face, the neural transmitter in her mask immediately connected to her brain waves which in turn allowed her to control her web-shooter. Ruby thought of a simple command, one which would twist the nozzle in such a way that would hopefully allow her to use a web grenade.
The neural receiver in her web-shooter reacted to the transmitter in her mask and sent a signal to the web-shooter which caused the device to move around slightly to obey her command.
"So far so good."
Now for the real test.
Ruby pointed her web-shooter at the ground in case something went wrong and carefully applied pressure to her palm with her middle and ring fingers.
She felt her webbing discharge from her wrist but instead of a thin strand of webbing firing from the nozzle of her web-shooter, the webbing stopped at the tip and began to condense into a ball. The ball of webbing got bigger and bigger until Ruby relieved her palm of the pressure.
The ball of webbing dropped from the tip of the web-shooter and fell into her awaiting palm. The ball of webbing was heavier than she expected it to be, it was also more elastic than she was expecting. It kinda felt like a stress ball.
Ruby tossed the ball in the air and caught it to test its weight. She could've made the ball bigger if she had just let it grow but she didn't want to risk it covering her entire room in webbing.
Still, deciding to take a risk, Ruby took aim at her wall and firmly tossed the ball of webbing at it. The ball struck the wall and bounced off. But an instant later, the firm web shell tore open and sent the still liquid web fluid exploding in the direction of the tear.
The second the webbing made contact with the air, it began to solidify into many many strands of spider silk that trapped anything that was unfortunate enough to get caught in the blast radius.
"...oops…"
Well...on the plus side, her grenade had worked perfectly on her first test. But... testing her grenade inside her bedroom wasn't the smartest idea.
A good portion of her wall was covered in webbing, some of it even stuck to the ceiling.
The grenade was pretty quiet though, it would be suitable for stealth missions if she needed such a thing. She just had to be careful not to add stress onto the ball before she was ready for it to explode.
Ruby let a satisfied smile paint her lips and a small chuckle escape them as she admired her hard work. Knowing her hard work was paying off was one of the greatest feelings in the world.
Ruby spent a few minutes cleaning webbing off the wall before tossing it in her trash can to wait to dissolve in about a week.
The grenade wasn't the only setting her new web-shooters had, she had multiple settings that could be used for multiple situations. She would wait to test those because she didn't want to mess up her room any further.
"...what now?"
Ruby was at a loss. She was pretty much prepared for the White Fang recruitment rally and was just waiting for that. Her new and improved web-shooters were finished, her spider tracers were finished, her new costume was finished. What else was there to do?
"Guess I should get those pictures printed and handed to Mr. Jameson. Ugh...I got homework I need to do too," she grumbled.
Being a superhero didn't mean that she could just ignore her human responsibilities. She had shit to do that didn't involve kicking ass.
Ruby took a quick shower to clean the oil off her face and hair before throwing on a pair of clean clothes over her spider suit and heading out.
Printing pictures was booooring. The only thing she had to do was plug her camera into a machine and wait for like an hour. Her foot tapped impatiently as she scrolled through social media.
Some news outlets had already reported on the incident from earlier but there were very few pictures out already. Even then, the pictures weren't very good. They were blurry and taken from far away. There wouldn't be a high quality picture published until she took hers to the Bugle.
She grabbed her pictures once they completed their printing process and made her way to the Bugle. Once she became a regular freelance photographer for them they gave her a special pass that allowed her to wander the building without being stopped by security.
Of course, she wasn't allowed in restricted areas but she never had any reason to enter them anyway. She really only used the elevator to go to Jameson's office and get paid for her work.
The elevator opened with a soft ding and the silver-eyed Huntress stepped out while being careful not to bump into anyone.
"Hey, Eddie. What's up?" She waved to the man walking around the corner.
Upon hearing her voice, Eddie turned around and smiled at the short girl. "Ruby! You're just in time. Jonah was looking for you. He wants to get the paper published as soon as possible. He just needs your pictures."
"Hm. Better not keep him waiting then. Thanks, Eddie."
Ruby slithered her way through the busy employees and arrived at Betty's desk. She was busy talking on the phone but smiled once she approached and pointed to Mr. Jameson's office, indicating that it was safe to go in.
The smell of freshly burnt tobacco filled her nostrils as the door opened. The window was open so at least it wasn't as strong as last time. Ruby approached the man in question with her freshly printed pictures.
"Ah, Ruby. Just the girl I wanted to see. Ms. Brant told me you got pictures of the Oscorp robbery and car chase earlier today."
Well, I didn't know that truck belonged to Oscorp. I should pay more attention to things like that.
"Yes sir," Ruby cheered as she handed him a stack of photos. "Fresh off the printer."
Mr. Jameson took a puff from his cigar. "I was about to call you and ask if you got photos when Ms. Brant told me you called her. Nice thinking ahead. Keep it up."
Mr. Jameson took the pictures and flipped through them for a few seconds while occasionally placing a few down in a pile. Those were presumably the photos that he liked better than the rest.
After sifting through the photos for a few seconds, Jonah handed Ruby a stack of photos while shoving the rest into his desk. "Give these to Robbie, he'll know what to do with them."
Jonah ripped a sticky note off a stack and scribbled down a few words she couldn't make out due to his sloppy handwriting. Ruby already knew she was to give this to Betty so she could get paid.
"Thank you, sir!" Ruby said before snatching the sticky note and exiting the man's office. She breathed a sigh of relief when she no longer smelt the tobacco.
Betty was still on the phone when she exited. Ruby placed the sticky note on her desk for her to deal with when she was done while she went to go find Robbie.
Robbie was one of the editors for the Daily Bugle as well as being a reporter. He was quite tall, about as tall as Jaune. He also had dark skin and a short haircut. Very nice man who she respected a lot.
His office wasn't hard to locate, she knocked on his door and entered when a soft click echoed from the handle.
Robbie was sitting at his desk scribbling something down on a notepad while typing at his computer. His steaming mug of coffee rippled along with his movements.
"Hey, Robbie," Ruby said with a smile. "Mr. Jameson asked me to hand these to you. Photos I got from the Oscorp robbery earlier today." Robbie paused what he was doing and accepted the pictures from Ruby.
"Thanks, Rose. I'll get these in the paper before it gets printed." He dropped the pictures onto his desk. "Jonah got you working too hard?"
Ruby shook her head. "Nah, I was in the neighborhood. Danger just seems to follow me anywhere. Typical Rose luck in action. Though, my attraction to danger still gets me paid. I ain't complaining."
Robbie chuckled. "I can't relate. I rarely get the kind of stories that you just stumble across. I suppose being a Huntress helps in that regard."
Ruby shrugged. "If you keep on slacking then I might just take your job, old man."
"Get out of here. Cheeky brat," he laughed as he shooed her out of the room.
Ruby returned to Betty a minute later who had just finished writing her check. "Busy day?" Ruby asked the woman.
Betty pinched the bridge of her nose. "You have no idea. Have you heard of Lisa Lavender?"
Lisa Lavender? Isn't that some new reporter that's been making waves recently for coming across so many crazy stories?
"I know the name but I've never met the woman myself. What about her?"
"That's just it. We know nothing about her. She just keeps popping up and taking all the big news for herself. Jonah wants to hire new reporters to hopefully get the edge over her but that's much harder than it sounds."
Sounds like a pain, she's taking all the good stories before the Bugle can. That must cut into profits a lot.
"A multi-billion lien company can't compete with one rookie?" Ruby asked bewildered.
"Believe me, I think it sounds insane too!" Betty looked like she might start pulling her hair out. "But it's the truth. She's everywhere and we have to double down on pulling ahead. I dare say she might've already been ahead if it wasn't for your photos of Spider-Woman."
Huh... maybe I should ask for that raise after all…
…
Nah.
"Anyway," Betty handed Ruby her check, "I have a few calls to make, enjoy the rest of your day Ruby."
Ruby took the check from Betty. "Thanks, I'll be seeing you."
Ruby left without another word.
I HATE QUADRATICS!
Well, she really just hated learning useless information that only a rocket scientist would need to know.
She was smart, but she wasn't that smart.
Still, Ruby knew that she had to finish her homework otherwise her grades would drop, so she just sucked it up and scribbled the answers on her worksheet. Her Spider-Sense didn't make her smarter, unfortunately. It would've been pretty nice if it could just tell her what the answer was. Though, that was wishful thinking.
It took her a good hour to get everything done. Her brain felt like it was melting by the end of it. Not because of the difficulty of the work, but because of how boring it was. She would much rather sit around and play video games all day.
Speaking of which.
After a hard day of illegal vigilante activities, Ruby earned some time to herself to relax and let her brain wander with a video game.
Ruby grabbed the portable console from her dresser and sat down as the device lit up like a Christmas tree. She began playing an RPG that she recently got into but couldn't remember the name of. Hyper-something.
Well... what the hell do I do now? I finished basically everything I needed to do until the White Fang recruitment rally. But I really don't wanna just sit on my ass until something happens. I guess my only option is to continue acting as Spider-Woman and try to do good wherever I can. The superhero thing seems so much more exciting in the comics. But it's really just a lot of waiting. There isn't action every five seconds.
New web-shooters are completed.
New costume is completed.
My utility belt still needs some work but it's almost done and I need to take a small break.
Roman Torchwick better prepare himself. She would show him just how badly he screwed up.
AN: Amazing Spider-Man 2 reference is obvious
Sorry for the late chapter. I was writing chapter 26 before I published this chapter and that chapter is a LOOOONG one. Over 18,500 words long!
Anyway, review if you want.
Or don't.
I don't really care.