A New Foe
I called in my special suit made from SDC nano-tech, the Rose Knight, much like Ms. Schnee's White Knight armored suits. With some built in underarm gliders I basically flew all the way to the elevated highway streets. Despite the traffic, it's the best way to the airport from almost anywhere, so it's a good place to look. I land atop the highway sign looking over the traffic. I'm trying to scan the area for my target, but...
Rose Knight AI: "Schnee Network unavailable." Of course I can't access that. Then I pull up a text Cardin sent my phone through my eye lenses.
Text: "HERES DA LADY UR LOOKING 4." Along with a picture of Cardin with a blonde woman in glasses wearing a white long-sleeved, pleated top that has a wide keyhole neckline, a black high-waisted pencil skirt and brown stockings, and black knee-high boots with gold heels.
Rose Knight AI: "Facial recognition unavailable." Then I start hearing a helicopter nearby to which I look to my left to see a news copter, for the Lance of Liberty, mind you.
Ruby: *sigh*"Hi." Just smile and wave. Or just wave I guess, since you can't see my smile with the mask. "Yeah, I can see you." I stand up straight and then turn back to the traffic. I drop down into the street and disable my suit, it collapses into a small unit, reveal my short sleeved dress shirt, red necktie, black skirt and brown shoes on black stockings, and the unit attaches to the belt of my skirt as a rose shaped pendant. I navigate my way through the traffic, and as weird as it seemed, started looking through the window to find Ms. Goodwitch. A few failed attempts, people obviously recognizing me, and I eventually saw a black SUV up ahead where I see a blonde head of hair in the back seat. I walk up to the car and confirm it's her before I knock on the window to get her attention. She looks a little frazzled to see me here but rolls down her window anyway.
Glynda: "Yes?"
Ruby: "Hi. I'm Ruby Rose-"
Glynda: "You do know your in the street, right?"
Ruby: "Yeah, but I really needed to talk to you, but you were on your way to the airport which made me hurry..." At this point I realize I'm rambling away from my point so I hurry up and get to it. "It's about Velvet Scarlatina and Oscar Pine. They're the smartest people I've ever met, and I'm just plain stupid for letting help me, but millions of people would've died if I didn't let them help. So please, don't let Beacon be stupid like me-"
Glynda: "You're saying Beacon is stupid?"
Ruby: "No! I'm saying don't let them be stupid. Kinda like the um... the stupider version of me that wouldn't have let them help." That sounded a bit better in my head. She just looks a little unimpressed.
Glynda: "You didn't rehearse that, did you, Ruby?" A car behind us honks since I'm kinda holding them up. I'd better wrap this up quick.
Ruby: "Basically, what I'm trying to-" Just then, my Spider Sense kicks in and alerts me if something troubling nearby. I jump onto Ms. Goodwitch's car roof for a better view when I see several people running running towards the back. "Why are you running?" I hear some noise and look ahead to see small explosions occuring. "Oh my gosh." I suit up and get ready to fight when I knock on her car roof. "Uh, Ma'am? I think you need to leave now. EVERYBODY GET OFF THE BRIDGE!" Her driver gets out, but she's still locked.
Glynda: "The doors locked! The doors-Hey!" Wow! Not a great subordinate. Up ahead I can some cars moving around from... some strange black and white claws grabbing at them after smashing through the bridge from underneath. Eventually a silhouette shows itself in the cloud of dust and smoke, a skinny man with four tentacles, the tentacles holding him off the ground and walk for him. I get a clearer picture when he emerges from the smoke. He is tan skinned with very short hair greyish black hair along with a thick mustache. He wears a grey overcoat with gold linings, a yellow dress shirt, dark red fingerless gloves, grey pants and brown shoes. His eyes are blocked with black welding goggles strapped to his head. The tentacles are mechanical ones colored black with white plating and red lights in the claws that almost remind me of... centinel's. He smiles a little creepily when he see's me.
Dr. Centinel: "Hello, Ruby." And of course he recognizes me, but his tone makes it seems like we've met before... but I don't remember ever seeing him before in my life. So now I'm a little confused.
Ruby: "Uh... Hello? Um... Do I know you?" He just ignores my question. Two of his tentacles are now hovering above his shoulders in a creepy fashion.
Dr. Centinel: "What have you done with my machine?"
Ruby: "Machine? I don't know what your talking about. What machine?"
Dr. Centinel: "The power of the moon in the palm of my hand... It's gone." Power of the moon? Was is some kind of fusion reactor? If that's all he's after then maybe we don't need to fight.
Ruby: "Listen, Sir. If you stop smashing cars, we can work together and I can help you find your machine." His face shows that he thinks I'm joking.
Dr. Centinel: "You want to play games?" Those two arms mentioned before grabs hold of some nearby cars and slowly lifts them up. One of them even had a pair of people who jumped out. "Catch!" He throws them at me. I jump and dodge the first one but then the second one hits me when I land one the ground. The impact pushes me against Glynda's car and pushes it against the barrier, then me and the car that hit me flip over her car and the barrier. That's when I notice people in the car! A pair of parents and their son. I grab the front bumper and web the bridge to catch us. When I attach the web to the bumper I go to get the family out of there. I had managed to get them back on the bridge, but...
Ruby: "It's okay. It's okay. You guys are fine, you're safe. Get out of here." I didn't notice him getting closer and his top left tentacle snatched me up after they ran off.
Dr. Centinel: "You think your shiny new suit is going to save you?" His right claw clamps at my head and then he slams me against Glynda's car. Breaking through the barrier and putting her front wheels off the road. Then he proceeds to toss me a distance away, through the street sign and straight into a delivery truck. He crawls closer and ends up smashing through the engine of another car. Causing it to blow below him. "I should've killed your little Faunus pet when I had the chance." No doubt he's talking about Velvet there. And that is the last straw for me! The cape of my suit retracts to allow my own mechanical spider legs to sprout from the back of my suit. They pierce through the roof, latch to the side and pull me up through the hole.
Ruby: "What did you just say!?" He looks to one of his claws and... talks to it? Is he okay?
Dr. Centinel: "Looks like we've got competition." I jump onto the street and use my spider legs to combat his arms. I manage to pin him to a car, but he quickly intercepted me with his tentacle and he slammed me into another car's bonnet, creating a huge dent. Then I deflects two potentially deadly blows, counter some more, and propel myself into the air when he goes to pull two cars together to crush me. We end up moving onto an overpass, with a helicopter following us from above. I try to web him but he defends himself with the tentacles, then I spring forward and backflip kick him in the chest, landing on the overpass in my usual Spider landing pose. Then I hear a voice.
Glynda: "Ruby! Help!" Her car is balancing on the edge of the street. I try to move away, but Dr. Centinel here traps me with his tentacles and tries to grind my head against the helicopter's rotor. I manage to free myself and descend onto the street as I retract the legs, with him following me closely. The villain drops a huge concrete tube, to which I evade it, then scurry away from his claw which pierces a car's windshield instead, and then I slide down as he sweeps the street with the same tube.
Ruby: "Don't worry, Ma'am! I'm coming!" Though he manages to hit me with the tube into a car's door, causing me to slow down a bit. The Glynda's car lowers even more.
Glynda: "RUBY!"*gasp* She fastens her seatbelt. Dr. Centinel flings another at me, to which I perform an expert backflip. The car hits some water canisters instead. Mid-air, I web the car and slide down the road as it starts to fall, but I bring out the legs again to pin myself to the highway's edge. The car stops a few dozen meters above the train tracks below all while a train runs by. I manage secure the webline and swing down to check in on the woman while retracting the legs again. Hanging upside down by her window.
Ruby: "Ma'am, just stay calm and take a deep breath. Are you okay?"
Glynda: "No!" Yeah, I guess that was a dumb thing to ask. That's when he appears again, using his tentacles to hang onto the underside of the bridge, and snatches me up and starts swinging me around.
Ruby: "I promise... I've got this all under... control!" I doubt she's gaining any reassurance from that. Then he runs me through the road and pins me to the bridge's downside after dragging me back down. A tentacle rips off a significant portion of my armor's nanites from the chest. Leaving my necktie to dangle.
Rose Knight AI: "Suit compromised." Gee, thanks for that. Not like I could tell that myself.
Dr. Centinel: "Nano technology. You've really outdone yourself, Ruby." He looks on as the nanites start to deform and spread across his tentacles. Essentially change their colors from black and white to red and silver. "I underestimated you." Once their completely covered, one of the opens up and unleashes a blade. "But now you die." He sends his arm out to stab at me through the hole he made in my suit while he's holding me upside down. Luckily, the nanities forming my mask quickly move from my head to fill in my missing chest piece to protect me. That cuts off the tip of my tie and his blade catches it as it hits my chest. The impact did knock the wind out of me a bit, forcing me to gasp for breath, but when he pulls the claw back, the blades tip is bent and the tip of my tie dangles from it. Then he looks confused when he finally see's my face, and removes his goggles as he pulls me closer towards him, revealing some olive green eyes. His face now shows some serious anger. "You're not Ruby Rose."
Ruby: "What the-!? What are you talking about? Now I'm just more confused." Then his arms start acting up a little.
Dr. Centinel: "What's happening?" Then my suits AI notify's me of something I never knew it could do before.
Rose Knight AI: "New device detected." My arm projects a hologram of my suit and his arm harness. I think I know what happened, but just to make sure, a few taps of the system and... "Pairing new device. The two holograms combine and it shuts off. His two arms he's conversing with the point my way like soldiers straightening up upon seeing their superior, and the lights in the claws change to light blue, much like this suits eye lenses.
Dr. Centinel: "You don't listen to her. You listen to me!" I test out my theory by moving my hand around and one of his arms do what I do. Move it up, move it down and make it wave. Ah! This is so cool! And it gives me an idea. I send the other arm towards Glynda's car to grab and lift her back up to the bridge. I now sit atop the arm holding me up, and use the final two to bring this guy up with us. "Hey... Hey! Listen to me! No, not her. Me!" Once we reach the bridge and put the car down, I have the arms anchor him to the ground while I pull her door off, disable my suit and check on her.
Ruby: "Are you okay, Ma'am? It's safe now and you can still make your flight."
Glynda: "Ruby... you're a hero."
Ruby: "Well, I um... I... well..." Okay, that got me. This the first time in months that someone aside from my friends have genuinely called me that.
Glynda: "I'm going to talk to admissions about your friends... and I'm going to talk to them about you." Okay, good. They're getting a second chance and... Wait what?
Ruby: "Hold on. Ma'am, this isn't about me." I can understand why I get rejected from... anywhere, but my friends shouldn't have to suffer the same fate.
Glynda: "I am going to talk to them about your friends and you. Okay?" She's definitely insistent. I guess it's pointless to try and refuse her.
Ruby: "Really?"
Glynda: "And if you keep your noses clean, maybe you'll have a fair shot. Here." She hands me her bag for a minute to get up a little easier. "Get out of the way. Let me get that man. You! I see you. Come here!" She takes her bag back... and then uses to smack him in the face. "That was not okay! Unbelievable." Now that she's had her revenge, she walks away. I get a little close to which he tries to punch me himself. Thankfully I just have to stay out of his reach.
Ruby: "Whoa! Hey, hey, hey! In case you haven't noticed, I'm in control here, pal. So you and your tentacles aren't going anywhere. Alright? Now who are you. What the heck-!" My Spider Sense goes off again. I have one of the arms wrap around him to restrain him while I look to my right to check it out. Towards the back of the bridge leading to the city where I came from, a few metallic like clangs can be heard, before a large explosion occurs in the direction. I instinctively suit up again, my chest piece still missing when I form my mask. And then...
???: "Mwahahahaha!" Emerging from the smoke is a woman in a red armored flight suit and horned demonic like mask on a bladed hover board, sharing the most evil sound woman's laugh I've ever heard.
Dr. Centinel: "Fall?" Wait, he knows her? But he sounds confused... as if like... he's wondering why she's here? She start coming towards me... But the next thing I know, a green flash occurs and I end up... back in the Runes of the Maidens? I disable my suit and look around cautiously until a loud noise occurs behind me! I turn around to see a pitch black reptilian like creature with white plating and green patterns, the kinda reminds me of a Creep, trying to attack me but is being held back inside one of the four vaults by... a barrier of some sorts. When backing up I see the vault to the left of the creature now holds the tentacle guy with his tentacle in an inactive stasis pose. I get my final scare when a hand touches my shoulder only to find Professor Ozpin here... with a bloody scratch on his right cheek... What happened to him?
Ozpin: "Be careful what you wish for, Ruby." Centinel slams his fist on the barrier screaming.
Dr. Centinel: "Let me out of here!"
Ruby: "Can you please tell me what the actual heck is happening?"
Ozpin: "When you ruined that spell where you wanted everyone to forget that Ruby Rose is Scarlet Spider, it started bringing everyone who knows that Ruby Rose is Scarlet Spider from every universe here into ours." ...What?
Ruby: "From every universe?"
Dr. Centinel: "Who are you? Where am I?" Ozpin just keeps ignoring him.
Ozpin: "I think it's better that we don't engage with him, because, frankly, the multiverse is a concept of which we know frighteningly little." Now I'm just completely shocked.
Ruby: "The multiverse is real?" Neo said she was from another universe but after I found out her real story, I just shrugged the multiverse off as fake as well. Back to just thinking it as merely theoretical. Man, do I hate it when I'm proven wrong.
Ozpin: *sigh*"This shouldn't even be possible."
Ruby: "But I thought you stopped the spell?"
Ozpin: "Unfortunately, no. I was only able to contain it. But it would appear that a few of them managed to slip through. Back when the spell was going crazy I saw a few silhouettes within the void, these two included, so I can imagine that they were all who managed to cross over. And after you left, I detected an otherworldly presence that I pursued into the sewers, where I found that..." He points to the lizard creature who had it's back turned to us, but then looked our way when Ozpin started recall this. "...mysterious Creep like creature." Well I guess that explains his cheek.
Dr. Centinel: "Spell? As in magic? Is this supposed to be a birthday party and you're the magician? This is madness!"
Ozpin: "Watch this." He turns toward the Centinel guy. "Do you happen to know a Ruby Rose who is secretly the Scarlet Spider?"
Dr. Centinel: "Yes."
Ozpin: "Is that her?" As he points at me.
Dr. Centinel: "No!" Oz then turns back to me.
Ozpin: "See?" This leaves a little conflicted... And a little hurt in my pride, to be honest. "Now here's what we have to do. Despite what I saw in the void, I'm not entirely certain as to how many visitors we've got-" Then I remember something.
Ruby: "I saw another one. On the bridge before you brought me here. And I'm now certain she is one because this guy recognized her." As I point to Dr. Centinel. "She was like a... a flying red demon."
Ozpin: "Well she sounds pleasant. Why don't you start with her? Because I need you to capture as many as you can while I try to find a way to send them back where they came from before the fabric of reality is destroyed, or worse, Ozma finds out and kills us both." Of course I'm willing to comply but there is a problem about doing this publicly.
Ruby: "Uh, Professor Ozpin?" He stops in his tracks while walking away and turns towards me.
Ozpin: "What?"
Ruby: "I just got me and my friends a second chance at Beacon Academy. But if the school see's me fighting these crazy monsters-"
Dr. Centinel: "Hey, watch your mouth!"
Ruby: "I'm sorry!"
Ozpin: "My god. You're seriously still talking about college?" He uses his magic to pull out enough of the nanites from the stasis unit to form the silver web shooter on his arm. Then he gives it an upgrade that slightly changes it shape and cover it with the symbol that tend to appear in most of his spells.
Ruby: "Hey, what did you just do?"
Ozpin: "This." Now, my design has the nozzle by my wrist and the I press the button in the palm with my wrist facing up to fire. This still has the same concept but the nozzle is by the back of his hand, so he aims with that side facing up and presses the button. The string of web he fires is glowing green and when he hits me with it... I teleport into the vault to Centinel's left, which is also the last vault to the left. The vault to the Creeps right is still empty. I didn't realize it though until I step forward to end up hitting my head on the barrier. Centinel just looks to Ozpin a little confused.
Dr. Centinel: "How did you just do that?"
Ozpin: "Sorry, but a magician never reveals their secrets." He steps up to a pedestal and rotates a plate on top to open up the barrier holding me. Then he sends the magic web shooter my way and onto my own right arm. "Just one shot to send them here and then move one. No need for thanks, just get to work." Okay, but now there's another problem... how am I going to find them? No way I can do this by myself... Then I get an idea!
Ruby: "Uh, Sir?"
Ozpin: *sigh*"Now what?"
Ruby: "I realize this is my mess, and I promise you I'll fix it, but first I'm gonna need some help." I'm definitely gonna need it. Because as far as I'm concerned... This is only the beginning.