Chapter 35
Let’s start off this story with a flashback to about 5 years ago in Solitas. Things looked peaceful for the most part with Atlas still floating in the air, Mantle still where it is on the ground and mistreated people making a home in the slums that lie in the crater where Atlas once was. But then, something enters the atmosphere and crashes in the frozen tundra beyond Mantle’s walls. The crash didn’t go unnoticed by the Atlas military, so they sent a group of soldiers to investigate. Along with a few SDC scientists. But instead of a meteor or a satellite, they find a but metal pieces that look like they form some kind of cage, and at the center is some kind of mass of black goo, moving on its own in the shape of several tendrils.
Soldier: “The hell is that thing?”
Scientist: “I don’t know. We'd better bring it to the lab, along with what we can salvage of the metal pieces. Mr. Schnee is going to love this.” Back in the present, it’s been a few weeks since Tyrian’s conviction, late October, and the city has once again been trying to return to some semblance of normalcy. Me especially, because it won’t much longer until Halloween, AKA my 16th birthday. But surprise, surprise, things eventually always go awry at inopportune moments. At the SDC, they receive a delivery from a recent transfer from Atlas and Jacques oversees the process personally.
Jacques: “Finally. We can continue where we left off is seeing what makes this thing tick.” As they unload a clear container contain the gooey tendril creature. “Bring it up to the main lab. We can work on it there without any prying eyes.” Meanwhile, I work on the streets and clear out another crime in progress, but then something unexpected happen: Someone else aside from Velvet is here taking my pictures.
???: “Hey, Spidey! Care to smile for the camera?” We have a grown man with brown hair with wolf ears and kind of tanned skin and silver eyes wearing a dark grey dress shirt, black leather jacket and blue jeans with black shoes.
Ruby: “Sure, but who are you?”
Grimm: “Daniel Grimm. I’m the new guy at the news station.”
Ruby: “New guy, huh? But where’s Velvet?”
Grimm: “Ha! That amateur? I mean, she’s alright, but college student really doesn’t have a place in a professional station. Best to leave things to the actual pros.”
Ruby: “Well, last I checked, she’s definitely better than any pro I’ve seen. So, I’d watch out for her if I were you.”
Grimm: “Yeah, very funny. Too bad for her I’ve already got this gig. If she wants these photos, she’s going to have to do better than that.” As he walks off. That’s when I take off into the air again.
Weiss: “Nice work Ruby. The city is mostly quiet now for the day. How about we call it a day and go on that study trip I promised you?”
Ruby: “Yeah. Good call. I could a use moment to relax my muscles.” Once I reach Weiss’ place, I change back, and Weiss and I head out to the SDC for a quick study tour that Weiss got us passes for. This'll allow us a more in-depth look into the kind of things their working on. Though as we’re walking through the streets, we bump into Velvet and knock her over.
Velvet: “Ow. Ow!”
Ruby: “Huh? Velvet? Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry.”
Velvet: “Oh, no harm done. Wait, is that you, Ruby? Weiss?”
Weiss: “Good to see you again. I hear your doing well at the news station.”
Velvet: “Oh no. I’m only a part time freelancer. And to be honest, I’m not really doing so well at the moment.”
Ruby: “Did something happen?”
Velvet: “They just hired a new full-time photographer whose been hogging all the good stories. He's even been cutting in on the Scarlet Spider photos which was already my turf. At this point, I’ll be lucky if I can any stories to document at all. And you know the worst part? The guy is really a major jerk. He is not at all a pleasant person to get along with on account that he thinks he’s the only one around there with any real talent, even when comparing himself to veterans at the station who have been at this a lot longer than he has.”
Weiss: “So in other words, he’s full of himself.”
Velvet: “Exactly! Ugh! I can’t stand him. But I won’t let him get the best of me next time. I’ll show him. I’ll show everyone!” As she runs off without another word.
Ruby: “Well, that just happened.”
Weiss: “You think she’ll be okay?”
Ruby: “Are you kidding? This is Velvet we’re talking about. If there’s anything we know about her, it’s that she never gives up on anything.” And with that said, we move on to the SDC and continue on with our tour. Unfortunately, the main lab is closed off at the moment. Likely, knowing Jacques, do to experiments that he wants kept secret under the guise that their too dangerous for the public to be around. Meanwhile, inside said lab, we have four scientists observing the creature in a cage with a lab animal, and two others with one of the metal panels with devices attached as if their trying to extract data from it. All the while, Jacques oversees the whole thing.
Jacques: “How are we with the test?”
Scientist 1: “At the moment, we don’t have the clearance to request human test subjects here in Vale unlike in Atlas, so we have to improvise with bigger animals than usual. We're starting with this stray dog the pound picked up last week.” Inside the cage with the creature is a large and vicious looking dog growling and barking up a storm at the creature.
Jacques: “And what of the panel analysis?”
Scientist 2: “Same as the last five years. Though we’re able to hook up to it, the code inside is like nothing we’ve ever seen. It's like it’s written in an entirely different language completely unknown to Remnant.”
Jacques: “Well keep at it! I'm not about to give up any time soon.” He looks over the cage to see the creature creeping closer to the dog until it finally makes contact and seems to absorb itself into the dog. The dog starts writhing for a good minute before it eventually collapses. Another minute later, it stands up and stares rather intently at the scientists. The pads they have show them an x-ray of the dog as they aim their camera over it, and they can see the creature pulsing inside.
Scientist 1: “Vital signs seem stable. No overwhelming problems so far.” The dog backs up to the far end of the cage before a layer of black goo begins to cover its body before becoming solid and making grow a bit in size, with a white skull looking mask covering the face. Then it moves to charge and breaks right through the glass and starts attacking one of the scientists, making him back up until his back hits the light switch, leaving them all in complete darkness.
Scientist 3: “Whoa! What’s going on!?” TO which we hear the sound of a door opening.
Jacques: “Someone get the lights!” When the lights come on, we see the dog back to normal and cowering in a corner, and the scientist it was attacking gone from the room, leaving only Jacques and five out of six scientists in there. “Damnit! We lost it! Put this place on lock down! I want all security to sweep the building and find that Symbiote!” to which they trigger the alarms. The Symbiote controlled scientist can be seen running through the halls but starts reeling from pain as soon as the alarms start. The Symbiote leaves his body and escapes into the vents to try and get away from the noise as well as evade security. Meanwhile, we’re still on tour with Mr. Glass, but then we hear the alarms.
Ruby: “Agh! What’s going on?”
Glass: “Oh dear! I’m sorry girls, but I’m afraid you must leave for your safety!” As he starts escorting us to the entrance.
Ruby: “Wait what?”
Weiss: “It’s the alarm! It means something alive in the lab must have escaped! And their generally very dangerous. So, he’s right, we have to go!” Back to the Symbiote, it’s made its way to the vents in the lobby and can see us down on the ground on our way out. As it looks it makes a strange sound as if sniffing or something as it looks directly at me. It makes it way down and exits a vent by the waiting lounge, compressing itself small enough to not be noticed as it crawls its way towards me, up a nearby pillar and jumping to land in my backpack.
Glass: “Terribly sorry to cut your tour short like this, but we can’t risk anyone of the public getting hurt on our account.”
Weiss: “It’s okay. We understand. Besides, I think we have enough for the coming science test.”
Ruby: “Hopefully. Professor Peach NEVER makes it easy for us.” To which we leave and make our way to the station. But then I notice trouble on the police radio. “Sounds like we have trouble.”
Weiss: “Go on. That alarm at the SDC is troubling me, so I’m going to see what I can find out with PENNY.” Then we go our separate ways. I go into an alley to climb up onto a roof before removing my clothes to reveal my suit and then stuffing them into my bag before grabbing my mask, gloves and cape. And then I swing off into the city after getting those on. While I’m out handling this crime, the security at the SDC are still searching the building for the Symbiote.
Jacques: “I can’t believe this. How did know how to do that?”
Glass: “Well, like it or not, Sir, it was a living organism. We should’ve expected it might’ve had some kind of intelligence.”
Jacques: “Well I can see that now! It must have been biding its time this whole. Waiting for some kind of opportunity to get the jump on us and escape. It must have realized the equipment here doesn’t quite match that of the main building and so took advantage of the weaker cage, as well as the buildings less complicated layout compared to Atlas.”
Glass: “And what do we plan to do if it managed to slip past us?”
Jacques: “I don’t know. What I do know though is that if did escape and word got out about it, Ironwood is going an even bigger pain in the ass to deal with as he terminates this project. We can’t let that happen! We must find it no matter what!” After a while, I finish up the crime in progress and come back to retrieve my backpack.
Ruby: “Yeesh. This job just never seems to get easier, does it? Ah well. At least I know I’m able to handle it. Everything seems quiet for now, so I should probably head back and get some rest.” But then here’s where things get complicated, cause as I open my bag, something jumps on me and my vision blacks out for a few moments! And when it clears, I look in a window reflection to see what had happened. And it is by far the weirdest thing I’ve ever encountered.