Chapter 36
Once my vision clears up, I instinctively move my hand to my head, but then I see the fingers of my gloves have turned white over the usual red. So, I look in a window reflection and see my entire suit has changed. I now an all black suit with a large white spider logo, some of the legs forming into the white lines going down my arms and legs. The fingers on my gloves and the soles of the feet are now white as well. The eyes of the mask are still white but have altered shape. Even my cape has become all black with the end changing shape and the underside now being a dark red with a sort of veiny looking pattern. Plus, my web shooters don’t seem to be visible.
Ruby: “What the heck...?” On top of all of that, I keep getting this weird feeling in my head, as if something is trying to push its way in.
???: “You are strong. But you’ll waver eventually.”
Ruby: “Huh? What was that?” Then I hear some nearby tire screeches, followed by some glass breaking not long after. “I can worry about it later.” As I move to swing towards the noise. And I notice my webbing is as black as my suit and seems more... alive as it warps and writhes. Once I get there, I see a few thugs trying to rob a jewelry store with the glass door blown wide open. “Not so fast, boys.”
Thug 1: “Crap! It’s the spider! Shoot her!” Naturally, I’m able to dodge these with ease, so all they really did is just blow out the front window. Then I use m webs to pull them all out onto the street before giving them a good blow to head and knocking them out. But then, another car stops by, and more thugs come out.
Ruby: “More of them? Guys! If you worked this hard in a real job, you wouldn’t need to be criminals.”
Thug 2: “Ah great! Time to break out the big guns!” Then the other three guns bring out some sniper rifles from the back seat!
Ruby: “Whoa! What in the-?”
Thug 2: “Fire!” They all fire at once, and I have to ben backwards real far to dodge them all, Matrix style.
Ruby: “Phew! Way too close!” They then begin to reload. “Oh no you don’t!” I move to use my webs, but before I could, several black tentacles came from my arms, two each, and grabbed them all by the face, making them drop their guns as they were lifted up. “What the-? What is happening!?” I can see people staring at me and that the thugs are really struggling. “Okay, that enough! Put them down!” To which the tentacles slam them to the ground before retracting. “Whoa...” The groaning tells me their still alive, thank goodness, but I’ve still gotta figure out what the heck is going on. I get out of there as I hear the police sirens approach. Though in the chaos, I didn’t notice Velvet and Grimm on opposite end of the fight getting pictures.
Velvet: “Well this is a development. Though, something doesn’t seem right about this.”
Grimm: “Hehehehe. This is gonna be good.” Yang is already asleep, so I save the big surprises until we meet up at Weiss’ the next day.
Blake: “Okay, Ruby. I think we all need some answers.” As she shows us todays paper, featuring pictures of my tentacle attack on the thugs. Seems like they compromised using a shot from both Velvet and Grimm since the front picture is in a split fashion showing both the front and back.
Ruby: “So would I.” As I lay out the new suit on the table.
Weiss: “Since did you even make this?”
Ruby: “I didn’t. I was just trying to change to go home, but then something jumped from my bag that turned my suit into this. And ever since then, I’ve been getting these weird feelings in my head.”
Weiss: “Hm. Maybe we should give the suit a scan.” We put the suit through the scanner and figure out a couple of things.
PENNY: “Well, as far as I can tell, the original suit still lies underneath. But I cannot seem to identify the black substance covering it as of yet. The only thing I can figure out about it is that it seems to be... alive. Its chemistry is almost like that of a living organism.”
Yang: “You’ve got to be kidding me.” And then there goes the alarms.
Blake: “Oh, what now?”
PENNY: “Something really bad. Arthur Watts has escaped prison, and he still has the Centinel arms attached.
Ruby: “Crap. We need to go!”
Yang: “Oh no! You're not going anywhere in that suit. Not until we actually know if it’s safe or not.”
Blake: “I don’t think we have a choice. There's no way I can face him by myself.”
Weiss: “She’s right. Let me just take a quick sample before she goes and, so long as we keep an eye on her, she should be okay until we figure this out.”
Yang: ‘Ugh! Fine! Just try to restrain yourself. I’m still concerned with the way that... thing handled those thugs.”
Ruby: “Don’t worry, I’ve got this. It’s just a matter of mind over matter.”
Weiss: “You’d better. Otherwise, things might get complicated.” As she takes her vile with the sample writing inside and puts in the genome reader before she hands me the suit. Once I put on the suit though...
???: “Kill or be killed...”
Ruby: “Huh?”
Blake: “What’s wrong?”
Ruby: “...Nothing. Let’s get going.” It’s all just in my head. I know this. I just need to keep pushing it out until we know more.