Chapter 39
Not even a second after I enter the lab and everyone is all tense.
Ruby: “Hm? Everyone okay?”
Weiss: “Uh, yeah. Everything’s fine.”
Yang: “No. Everything is NOT fine. Ruby, you need to get rid of that suit right now!”
Ruby: “Huh?”
Blake: “Yang! What are you doing?”
Yang: “Saving my sister!”
Weiss: “Telling her at this point isn’t going to help!”
Ruby: “Tell me what? What is going on?”
Weiss: *sigh*”It’s about that suit. We found out it’s an alien the SDC found 5 years ago. They call it a Symbiote, and it bonds with its host at the sub-cellular level, granting them its abilities at the cost of them losing themselves.”
Yang: “Which is what’s been happening with you. Ever since you got that thing, you’ve been gradually changing into a very volatile person, picking fights with people for even the smallest things. This kind of behavior isn’t you!”
Ruby: “What? No! I am still me! And look at the good I’ve been doing. I’ve been handling myself just fine and doing so much better in protecting this city.”
Weiss: “And the public fights? You've even been picking fights with Cardin of all people, and you never stand up to him on purpose.”
Ruby: “I-I don’t know. But what I do know is that I need this suit! It makes me a better hero!”
Blake: “Maybe so. But being a ‘better hero’ isn’t worth losing your morality.”
???: “Do not listen... Embrace the power!”
Ruby: “Shut up. Shut UP!” Tentacles sprout from my back as kneel with my eyes shut. The tentacles grabbed them by the throats and slightly lifted them up. “You can’t do this! This suit is the best thing to ever happen to me! I’m nothing without with this suit. So why don’t you all just back the hell off!”
Yang: “R-Ruby! S-Stop!” I finally look up and can see them being strangled. *gasp*”NO!” The tentacles retract and they drop to their knees. I look down at my hands before I get up in anger.
Ruby: “You guys are infuriating.” As I remove my clothes and reveal my suit and put on my mask. Then I break open a window and jump on the ledge. “Don’t bother following me.” Then I jump and swing off into the city.
Weiss: *cough, cough*”Nice going, Yang! Now she’s going to avoid us prevent the separation.”
PENNY: “At this point, reasoning with her isn’t going to work. We'll need to resort to force.”
Yang: “But what we hurt her?”
Blake: “You think we want to hurt her either? We don’t have a choice.”
PENNY: “Well, to be fair, the Symbiote itself is taking most of the damage anyway.”
Blake: “Regardless, whether or not we hurt her won’t matter if we lose her to the Symbiote completely. We have to do this.”
Yang: *sigh*”How do we even find her though? Her transport method makes her kinda hard to track.”
Weiss: “Maybe when unprepared. But since I made her equipment, I am prepared. I made sure to install a tracking device in the event that we lose contact with her for any reason. Since her actual suit is still underneath the Symbiote, we’re still able to access the gear within, as evidence by us still being able to use the commlink and lenses camera.” As she started the tracking system, and the screen showed an overhead map of the city with a red spider logo moving along the screen. “There. She’s still on the move.”
Blake: “Now we just need a plan.”
Weiss: “The best way to go about it may be to abuse the Symbiotes weaknesses.”
Yang: “Even if the Symbiote is taking most of the damage, I still don’t feel right about potentially setting Ruby on fire.”
Weiss: “Which would only leave the sound weakness.”
Yang: “Right. But where are going to find something capable of such a noise on such short notice. I doubt we have much left to go making our own super speaker or having one delivered for immediate use.”
Blake: “Hm...” That’s when they hear a church bell from a short distance away. “I think we may already have something that can help.”
Weiss: “And how are we supposed to use the bell? Even if we can meet with her again and lure her there, I doubt the Symbiote will just let her stick around as it writhes. Not to mention the fact that we likely won’t be allowed access to the bell.”
Blake: “We’re acting as vigilantes, remember? We don’t need permission. I need you two to work the bell up top. You can leave it to me to keep Ruby in place. It may have to result in a fight, but at least we’ll be able save her in the end.”
Weiss: “We should do this tonight when there’ll be no one around. Less chance of anyone getting hurt AND of anyone catching us there.”
Yang: “And what about the Symbiote after we get it off of her? We can’t just let it go.”
Weiss: “Leave that to me. We still have time before nightfall. I’ll use this time to make special containment to catch it once we’re done. My main concern is how we’ll get Ruby there at all.”
Blake: “I’ve got a plan for that too. You two stay on standby at the church once the cage.”
Yang: “Then we’ll all meet again tonight.” Meanwhile, Grimm can be seen at a hospital taking a checkup to ensure how well his health while he still can now that he’s been fired from the news, he’ll need to rely on something that pays much less. It was at this moment when he made a dreadful discovery.
Grimm: “What the hell are talking about!?”
Doctor: “Just as I’ve said. You've developed a cancer we are unable to cure. The only silver lining is that it’s a relatively light one, so you’ll still have a decent amount of time, perhaps a bit longer with some treatments we have to hold it back for a time, but I’m afraid its lethality is inevitable and unfortunately incurable. I am sorry.” This was quite the shocking moment for Grimm. And as he left the hospital, he came across a thrown-out paper being blown around. This paper being the one about him being responsible for the slander, unauthorized swapped stories and thus effectively the mass recalls. This reignited his anger towards three specific people: Lisa Lavender and Velvet Scarlatina for calling him out and firing him and...
Grimm: “Damn that Spider. Her so-called heroism has won everyone’s favor to the point where they all ignore the truth of the matter. The fact that she’s no hero at all! Just a shameless attention seeker! I don’t know how I’m going do it yet, but I swear I will ruin her.” Later that night, Weiss and Yang went to the church and went up the bell tower, Weiss carrying the folded-up containment unit on her back. Blake stands atop a nearby roof and has called for me to meet with her regarding something she needs help with.
Ruby: “Okay, Blake. What’s up? This better not be a trick to surrender the suit.”
Blake: “Don’t worry, it’s not. I know you may not trust me after that, but right now I really need your help with something serious. Something too big for me to handle by myself.”
Ruby: *sigh*”Okay. So, what’s the sitch?”
Blake: “I got a tip about a Maggia smuggling operation happening tonight. You and I both know that with them involved, their forces are bound to be quite numerous. Too much for even me to handle alone. Mind giving me a hand?”
Ruby: “Fine. Where is it happening?”
Blake: “Main Street. We can get there quick if we go straight that way.” She points in the direction towards the city with the church sitting along our swing path.
Ruby: “Okay. Those Maggia scum won’t know what hit them.” She and I start swinging through the city. But as we get close to the church...
Blake: “I’m sorry.” She gets ahead of me and cut my line, causing me to fall. She then uses her grapple to close the gap between us and grab onto my hands to keep me from swinging away. A moment later, we land in the courtyard behind the church. “NOW!” Up in the bell tower, Weiss and Yang work the handle together to ring the bell. The loud sounds causing the Symbiote to writhe in pain!
Ruby: “AAAAGH!!!” And I can feel it’s anguish in my head! “GRAAAAGH!!! Get out of my head!” I managed to aim my arms at the tower, to which the Symbiote managed to sprout its tendrils up into the tower, which in turn pushed Weiss and Yang towards the inner walls and left some goo behind to leave them stuck when they retracted.
Blake: “Crap!” Not long after, the bell slowed to the point where it’s sound was no longer a problem, and the Symbiote stopped writhing, giving us the chance to push Blake off me! I tried to swing away, but Blake recovered quick and used her grapple to pull me back down. “You’re not going anywhere till we get rid of that thing! I won’t stop even if I have to fight you to do it!” I get another surge of power like what happened with Watts, causing my voice to distort again when I talk.
Ruby: “So be it.”