Chapter 7
We spent the rest of the weekend working on improving my suit and equipment. Using a form fitting material that could be mistaken for spandex, we made a more professional looking black suit with red details, dark red in the chest area and the mask with black web designs, a silver spider logo in the chest and a custom cape with hood that clips over the shoulder instead of having to be tied around the neck, which was red on the outside and white on the inside. My web fluid formula pretty much stayed the same for now, it still has room for improvement, but the shooters have been upgraded, now completely able to hold way more fluid in a sort of revolving cylinder fashion around the wrist. But more importantly, the suit now has some serious tech befitting of a superhero built into it. Primarily the eye lenses basically acting as built in computer screens and cameras. Anything I see, they analyze and show the results on the screens, as well as a piggyback program on the police surveillance network to help pick any crime data currently going on in the city. The same can be said for the rest of the suit having sensors made for checking my vitals. And as hesitant as I was about it at first, Weiss convinced me to have all of these designs and data stored on her personal server, which she actually barely used anyway, and gave me my own laptop connected to said server to work with. And as a cautionary measure, Weiss connected the camera feed of my lenses to that laptop and her own devices, so anything I see, she can see too. Come Monday after school, I take this new look of mine out to the streets with Yang, Weiss and Blake staying up on the roof of Weiss’ apartment building.
Ruby: “WHOOOOHOOOOO!”
Yang: “Well you sure sound like you’re having fun.”
Blake: “I honestly can’t blame her.”
Weiss: “Then I take it everything is to your liking?”
Ruby: “Honestly? I wasn’t so sure about the tight material at first, but after moving around for a little bit, I’m feeling pretty good. It's actually more comfortable than I thought it’d be.”
Weiss: “You can thank Blake for that. She provided the suit material while I provided the tech. Where did you get it, anyway?” Directing her eyes to Blake.
Blake: “The material is a Kuo Kuana specialty. While it’s primarily used in the uniforms for the Menagerie Guard to make the armor pieces more comfortable, the material is still available for public use. It’s used in some of our tight clothing and as part of manufacturing certain harnesses because of its durability compared to most other fabric like material. Recent attempts at cultural exchange between Kuo Kuana and the rest of the world have resulted in the material being shared with the four kingdoms.”
Ruby: “Well, I love it! It feels nice and is quite breathable.” And the moments ruined by a crime alert. “Uh oh! Got a narcotics sale going on. Better go handle that.” I swing by the reported area and find the sale happening in an alleyway. Five guys in total, two of them trying to sell drugs to the other three and a duffel bag full of Lien on the ground between them, and none of them with guns. This should be easy. “C’mon guys. Don't you know how bad drugs like that are for the body?” As I use my webs to grab one of the sellers from a nearby ledge and hang him there by the foot.
Thug 1: “It’s the spider!”
Ruby: “Great observation.” As I use my fire off a blast that webs the other seller to the nearby wall and then swing down into one of the buyers, knocking him out cold.
Thug 2: “Man, forget this! Let's get outta here!” The other two try to run, but I use my webs to drag them back, one of them hitting a dumpster and flipping over onto it, and the other getting close enough for me to kick them in the face. Once they're out, I web them up where they lie to keep them there for the cops.
Ruby: “Sorry guys. But stopping criminals like you is my anti-drug.” And then Velvet kinda shows up out of nowhere.
Velvet: “I think you need to work on your quips a bit.”
Ruby: “AH! Where did you come from?”
Velvet: “I heard the commotion and thought I’d come and take a look.” Pretty convenient if you ask me. “But since I’m here, you mind if I get another shot?”
Ruby: “Uh, sure.” To which she takes the shot of me by the scene, with a clear view of all the knocked out crooks.
Velvet: “I’m loving the new look by the way. Very professional. You make it yourself?”
Ruby: “U, sorry. Trade secret.” Queue police sirens. “Whelp. That's my queue!” And I swing away as the cops show up.
Weiss: “Excellent work with those brutes. Though I have to agree with Velvet on the quips. Still, it seems like the gear works well enough.”
Blake: “So Ruby, how do you plan to handle this flying woman problem?”
Ruby: “We don’t have enough information to go off of, or to confirm whether she actually exists besides that witness account. The only way to go forward is to keep an ear out for anymore explosions fitting these criteria and investigate from there.”
Weiss: “Than we’d best keep your patrol close to any SDC facilities around the city since that seems to be the primary targets.” For the next couple of days, we’ve been keeping our eyes out on untouched SDC facilities while fighting against crime around the city... and racking up more attention.
Lisa: “More reports and photos have come in of the Scarlet Spider, who has now been sporting a new look, one leagues above her original outfit from when she first appeared. The new heroine has now stopped an illegal narcotics sale earlier today. Leaving both the buyers and the sellers unconscious and leaving both the seller's drugs and the buyer's money for the police to collect. And has continued to fight against Vale’s crime population.” This report happening later that day. “As the new Scarlet Spider continues their acts of heroism, the criminal underworld has become slightly more docile, and the police continue to stay silent.” This report came up the day after, which would be yesterday. And now we move to today's report. “After constant remarks towards their silence and the following criticisms because of it, Captain Vernal Tomo had this to say at the station this morning.” As they cut to Vernal at a podium in front of the police station with a large crowd before her.
Vernal: “If I’m completely honest regarding this new Scarlet Spider character, then I say it’s really nothing new considering that Vale already has two vigilantes with that Black Cat appearing a few years ago and the Grim Reaper appearing five years before the cat. I know regulation says that we should be talking about that we do plan to try and catch these guys due to them acting outside the law. And while I would agree with this believe since people like the spider have effortless knocked these criminals out, I also believe that since these people are working to protect the citizens, I say we shouldn’t waste our efforts on them when there are actual dangerous criminals out there compared to these vigilantes.”
Reporter: “You mean like this flying explosive woman?”
Vernal: “Exactly! The Spider has just been beating up criminals who probably would’ve done more harm than necessary if left unchecked. But the other woman has been blowing up buildings filled with potentially dangerous technology and experiments, causing not just major property damage, but also endangering a lot more people than you’d believe. That’s why we plan to put more of our focused on more major threats like this mystery woman. And if that woman is listening, then believe me, we will catch you!” We cut to Cinder in her apartment shutting off the TV after hearing that report.
Red S.: “Quite a bold statement when my glider can fly faster than police choppers.” Her voice in Cinder’s head at the moment.
Cinder: “Still. This Scarlet Spider has had me on edge ever since she appeared.”
Red S.: “Your right. A spider themed superhero starts appearing after what happened at the lab... this has to be the work of that spider that went missing before our little accident.”
Cinder: “She could be a problem.”
Red S.: “Then we’ll just have to get rid of her. Won’t we?”
Cinder: “And I already have an idea on how to draw her attention...” The next day, I hear chatter on the police radio, saying they received an anonymous tip of another SDC warehouse downtown was going to be targeted next. With that in mind, Weiss was able to provide the exact address, and I head downtown and swing around the area while Yang and the others find a suitable rooftop to stay close enough in case of emergencies, but not so close as to be in any immediate danger.
Ruby: “Alright guys, I’m here. I’m up on a nearby rooftop and have got eyes on the warehouse.”
Yang: “We’re setting up about a couple blocks away.” Taking another look, the police have already begun patrolling around the same area.
Ruby: “It’s all quiet so far.”
Blake: “Maybe the tip was wrong?” That’s when I hear some distance laughter. Laughter that got louder as something flew by me towards the warehouse! A person with a womans laugh in red armor and a black hood flying on a glider.
Ruby: “Or maybe not.” As I follow after her! She prepares a few grenades and throws them at the building, but I manage to pass her and grab the bombs mid-flight with my webs. Once I land, I throw them as high as I could and continue webbing them up until they explode. The excessive web coverage was to minimize the resulting explosion. “Sorry. But I think we’ve had enough fireworks for a while!”
Red S.: “Heheheh...” I look to see her face under that hood, and I see these golden eyes behind a red domino mask, along with some black hair peaking around the left eye, practically covering it. “So we finally meet.” Meanwhile, seeing Yang and the others.
Yang: “So the rumors were true.”
Blake: “And on top of that, we also seem to have found the missing SDC tech.”
Weiss: “Focus! We still don’t know who she is. But something tells me we’re not going to figure anything out without a fight.” And back to me.
Red S.: “You really shouldn’t be sticking your nose into things where it doesn’t belong little girl. You could end up getting hurt.”
Ruby: “And shouldn’t underestimate me.” She then throws another bomb that I catch and send it right back at her, the resulting explosion knocking her off her board and onto the building rooftop right behind her. I zip over to her roof and get in close. The armor on her arms extend blades above her hands that she proceeds to swing at me, which I end up dodging. Luckily even the very close calls. She's faster than she looks. “Whoa! I didn’t that suit came with blades!”
Weiss: “It didn’t. She must’ve added them herself.”
Red S.: “So you’re familiar with it, huh? You like my upgrade, little Spider?” As she continues to swing at me. I dodge a number of her attacks until I trick her into stabbing one of her blades into the ground, the right one, and she gets it stuck. I take this opportunity to kick her arm and break the blade, leaving her only with the left blade. Looking bewildered by that move, I take the opportunity to give her a good slug to the face, which knocks her mask and hood off. She also ends up turned away from me. I use a web to take her mask once I see it.
Ruby: “No use hiding now. You might as well show me who you really are.” She then gets up and turns around, showing her face... being Cinder Fall.
Red S.: “Heh. Not bad.”
Ruby: “What the-!? Dr. Fall!?”
Yang: “HUH!?”
Blake: “Looks like Schnee was right for once.”
Weiss: “Considering the circumstances, it was pretty obvious. But now the question is why?”
Red S.: “Ahahahaha! You think I’m little miss Cinder? Oh no, honey. I’m afraid she’s on sabbatical... up here.” As she taps the side of her head. “You can call me... the Red Succubus!” She catches me off guard as she runs up to me and swings her blade. I barely dodge but also drop the mask, which she recovers and puts back on, followed up by her hood. That’s when she finally notices the news chopper flying around. “Damnit!” Then she looks back at me with an angry scowl. “Next time we meet, you won’t be getting off that easily!” She does a whistle which calls her board to her, flying below the ledge behind her, ready to catch her when she steps back and off the ledge. Afterwards, she can be seen flying away from the scene at top speed.
Weiss: “Ruby! I think now might be your chance to get out of there!”
Ruby: “Ah! Right!” I get a running start and jump off the building to start swinging away. “Let’s all meet up back at your place and regroup. We have a lot to talk about.” Cut back to Cinder in her apartment packing up what she can from the hidden room. Red Succubus back up in her head
Cinder: “I can’t believe that happened! What if we were seen? We have to find somewhere else to go!”
Red S.: “Would you calm down already!”
Cinder: “This is all your fault! You were too careless!”
Red S.: “I said calm down!”
Cinder: “How can I possibly calm down!? We were already on thin ice as is. Now it’s possible that news chopper saw our face. Now we have to move elsewhere before the police coming knocking on our door.”
Red S.: “And I agree. But with the commotion caused by this incident, I think we now have more than enough of Schnee’s attention,”
Cinder: “And that would mean...”
Red S.: “It’s time to move forward to the next part of the plan. The final confrontation with Schnee himself.”
Cinder: “How are we even going to get to him though? He'll likely have heavy security around him since we’ve targeting his businesses all over the place.”
Red S.: “Have you already forgotten? We have a glider and explosives. We can easily reach him in his office through the window!”
Cinder: “I guess there’s no other option... Regardless, we should hurry up and find a new place to lay low and prepare to proceed tomorrow.”
Red S.: “Yes! And if the spider tries to get in our way again, I plan to uphold what I promised her!” Meanwhile, we all regroup at Weiss’ place like we planned and meet around her computer.
Yang: “Okay. So where do we start?”
Blake: “We now know that Cinder Fall is the Red Succubus as she called herself. But then she also said a few weird things, things that implied she and Cinder were completely separate people.”
Weiss: “You mean how she introduced herself as the Red Succubus after saying that ‘Cinder’ was on sabbatical?”
Blake: “Yeah. The way she tapped her head while saying that implied more than this is a case of split personality, and that Cinder was currently up in her own head and not in control, while the Succubus was.”
Yang: “Oh com on. You don’t seriously buy that garbage, right?”
Ruby: “I do. And I think I have a theory as to how it happened. The way she fought and practically matched me in speed... it’s possible she may have gained the soldier serum herself. And I don’t mean the altered version adapted to a spider's venom. I mean the actual serum, straight up. And I remember Mom’s drive saying the unaltered version came with bad side effects on a person’s mind, compared to me getting powers like my spider sense since the serum of offset because of the venom.”
Blake: “And a split personality syndrome would definitely fall under such categories.”
Weiss: “But why would she give herself the serum like that?”
PENNY: “About that, Ma’am. I hope you don’t mind, but I did some digging around the SDC systems on my own and found some interesting data hidden in the vast sea of the company servers in an attempt to delete this information. Further investigation found that that the source of the deletion came from Dr. Fall’s own office computer.”
Weiss: “And what did you find?”
PENNY: “Video footage of an incident within her own lab.” She shows the footage of Cinder’s accident the other night where she slipped and fell into her serum supply. Then we see her get up and leave the office. PENNY then fast forward the feed to later on when she comes back, gas the spider cages and works the computer before collapsing. Which is where the feed cuts. “The still existent security the next day shows her waking up and getting her suspension from Mr. Schnee.”
Blake: “And there we have it. We now have full confirmation that she has the serum.”
Weiss: “Which adds some validity to Ruby’s theory. But why gas the spiders? And why attack the SDC like this?”
Yang: “I think the spiders might be to keep others from getting the power.”
Blake: “Hm. A sound theory. Not implausible. But we still don’t know her motives…”
Ruby: “Ugh. We just don’t have enough to go off of. Our only chance to figure this out is to get it out of Cinder herself. And next time, I’ll be ready!” I can’t let myself be caught off guard like that again. No matter what, I will stop her!