Arachnea

where arachnophobes fear to thread

Rebecca waited, and waited, she had aranged another meeting with Ruby to deliver some suplies, but she was late! it was almost two hours past the agreed time, and honestly, Rebecca grew worried, suddeny the door was thrown open, Rebecca had her guns out before the young maid was inside the room.

"Hands up, no sudden movement" she said loud and clear.

The maid raised her hands "miss Midnight, please, you have to come, miss Ruby was kidnapped!"

Rebecca frowns, then nods quickly "okay, where and how did it happen?"

The maid leads her to the limousine Rebecca saw once before when she met Wilhelm and Ruby Robins, the driver speeds towards the wealthier parts of Azure Bay, where expensive mansions are built on the cliffs overlooking the sea, they stop at one of the larger ones and the maid leads Rebecca to the mansion, Wilhelm was there in the main hall.

"Midnight, thank you, i... Ruby, she" he said, confused and in shock.

"Start from the begining, did you recognize the kidnappers?" Rebecca asked softly, trying to calm him down.

"That's just it! it was an ambulance from Azure Bays mental institution! they just came up and grabbed Ruby as she left! i went there imediately but they wouldn't allow me in! they said Ruby was commited by her own free will, maximum security, no visits allowed, they showed me the paperwork, with her signature!" Wilhelm cried out.

"That's... suspicious to say the least" Rebecca agreed "i'll sneak in there tonight, see if i can find anything, could i get a ride there?"



Less than an hour later Rebecca stood before the institute, a large, white brick mass, thick walls, heavy doors, barred windows, just getting close to the building would be problematic, she decided that the best thing to do now was to circle wire fence and search the net, just maybe she could get any kind of information, a blueprint would be the best thing to find, but she doubted it, she'd have to go in blind for this one.

Having followed the fence almost all the way through Rebecca found a small tear in the fence looked promising, Rebecca began to saw at the wire using one of her knives and soon had a hole big enough to climb through, Rebecca put her knife back and toggled the night vision mode of her visor and began a heat scan, but even combined neither revealed any guards, but then again, the patients where all locked up in their rooms, guards wheren't needed.

Rebecca made a run for the building, hoping to find an unbarred window to sneak in through, she found one which lead into the nurse's office, peeking in she found it empty, Rebecca tried it and found it locked, she tried to pry it open using her lockpicks and soon she was inside, it was eerily quiet inside, the silence only broken by occasional footsteps and screams, Rebecca seats herself at the computer and finds it doesn't require a password, so far for security.

She pulls up the patient files, and finds one for Ruby, from it she learned Ruby has been taken in for a voluntary stay until her symptoms are gone, under the doctors notes she finds a rather foggy explanation about them, from the looks of it they're keeping Ruby locked up as she thinks the nurses are out to get her, and that she's hostile, digging deeper she finds seperate notes left by staff, one mentions the need to get ruby to sign more of her papers to make everything legitimate, Rebecca soon pieces it all together, the hospital is keeping Ruby locked up, using her defiance to fake symptoms of a form of paranoia to cash in on money for the treatment, money her father would be forced to pay, she doubted it'd pass a thorough police investigation, following Williams words, no doubt they had a few men at the station in on the scheme, Rebecca checked more patient files, and found half a dozen fakes, all from females coming from wealthier families, she downloaded the fake files and then got up to find and free the captives.


Rebecca had little trouble navigating the building, having pulled a map from the main site and combining it with her echolocator to create a detailed map of the facility, she headed deeper inside, past the public area's where visitors where allowed, towards a long corridor with multiple small rooms, she theorized these where padded cells where the kidnapped women would be, it was only when she turned the last corner to her destination that she ran into trouble, a nurse, she hadn't seen her yet, using duct tape to attach a note to a door, Rebecca couldn't surpress a smile, the nurse gave her the tools she needed!

Rebecca reached for her gun but the nurse turned, with no time to aim before the alarm was raised Rebecca lunged into a shoulder tackle to knock the air out of the woman, keeping her quiet, they both fell, Rebecca on top, and the nurse tried to get enough air in her lungs to start yelling, Rebecca jabbed her elbow into her mouth to shut her up while she wrestled for the tape, Rebecca felt the nurse bite down but her suit prevented her from doing more than nibble, she pushed down her elbow and finally got a hand on the tape, sticking the roll to her victim's cheek, Rebecca pulled back her elbow and quickly wound the silvery material over her mouth, grabbing her by her hair so she could easily apply a thickly layered wrap gag, passing the tape over the nurse's eyes a couple of times to make sure she remained disoriented and easy to work with, next the forced the nurse's hands together at her back and wrapped them together into a single package, then wrapped the last bit of tape around her albows and mid section to restrain her, she then opened the nearest padded cell and found it empty "well i found myself a nice place to stash you" Rebecca said as she placed her foot on the nurse's bum and pushed, sending her face down onto the soft floor of the cell "goodnight, i'm sure you'll be released come morning"

With the nurse out of the way Rebecca checked the note she posted on the door, a list of the girls she was after, warning other nurses about which girls where legitimate patients and which ones where victims of their schemes, with this information Rebecca hurried to Ruby's cell and opened the door "Ruby?" she called out, the girl in the corner of the cell moaned softly, strapped tight into a straitjacket and gagged with tape, Ruby jumped up to her knees when she saw Rebecca.

"Hmp-hgt! hnng ghm!" (Midnight! thank god!) Ruby moaned as Rebecca knelt down to remove the gag, once the tape was gone Ruby spoke clearly "finally, that stuff stinks of adhesive, anyway, Midnight, there's more victims in other cells!"

Rebecca hushed Ruby "yes, i know, but keep it down, i'll unbuckle that jacket for you, you free the other women, i'll keep watch, quickly!" she whispered as she struggled with the buckles, they where aged and seemed to have a tendency to get blocked halfway, by the time Ruby was a free girl once more Rebecca heard footsteps in the hall.

"Oh no they're here" Ruby whimpers, Rebecca smiles "calm down, take this" she said as she gave Ruby a couple of sleeping gas grenades "if you or the others get caught, use them, take this too" she then gave Ruby a tracker round "keep it on you, i can track you by the signal, now go free the others! they're patient numbers seven, nine, twelve, sixteen and seventeen!" Rebecca gave Ruby a pat on the shoulder and then ran out to face the nurses.

There where two of them, Rebecca guessed they came looking for their colleague, they where surprised by Rebecca's sudden apearance, which gave her time to pull out her guns, one of them flings open a door and uses it to shield herself, her friend quickly fell to one of Rebecca's sleeper rounds, Rebecca rushed forward trying to get a chance to shoot the second nurse when she lunged from the door, she grabbed Rebecca's wrists and tried to make her lose the guns, Rebecca wrestled her for a while until she saw her chance for a high kick, the nurse yelps and reaches for her face, Rebecca quickly follows up with a kick to her chest, sending her backwards into the cell with her taped up colleague, Rebecca quickly shut the door to lock her in.

"Ruby? you done yet?" Rebecca asked, looking down the hall, Ruby had freed two of the other women and where busy releasing the other three, things where looking good, until an alarm started ringing, either there where more nurses who had gotten suspicious, or the nurse she just locked up had a remote, either way, it was time to go "once they're free, run" she yells at Ruby as she tosses her a few small bombs "stick it to the door, and take cover, press the green button and then enter the code seven-two-five to arm them" she told the blonde before running into the institute to lure away any nurses who could trap Ruby and the others.

Rebecca soon ran into a group of nurses heading for the cells, four in total, she kept running and performed a sliding tackle to knock the first one of her feet, jumped up and spin kicked the second nurse, then grabbed the third in a chokehold while simultaneously, kicking the fourth one in her stomach, then, a large and hairy spider crawled up from her victim's blouse, and Rebecca recoiled in disgust, the nurse fainted, just like her colleagues did as three more of the hand sized spiders emerged from their clothing, Rebecca jumped back, away from the potentially poisonous creatures, and heard a sickening crunch, looking down, she had stepped on a fifth specimen, fearing there might be more Rebecca turned to check, and nearly fainted, the floor, walls, and ceiling where a hairy sea of spiders, ranging from the hand sized giants to behemots the size of a small dog, this had better be a nightmare...

It was not, the spiders where real, and like an avalanche they came crashing down on her, Rebecca ran, hoping Ruby and the others would make it out, she had dropped some bombs but the gaps blasted in the sea of arachnids where quickly filled with more spiders, emerging from every crack and air vent she passed, and worse of all, they seemed to herd her, blocking off passages but leaving doors free, slowly but surely leading Rebecca towards the hospital's cellar, Rebecca had little choice, shaking on her already tired legs she dove into the darkness, a suffocatingly narrow corridor led to a large double door, Rebecca burst through and blocked it, blocking it with a chair, she was in a store room it seemed, but was it safe? for all she knew there were more of the hairy horrors around, she heard a soft hiss in the darkness and toggled her night visor, only to be greeted by the outlines of a massive spider, thrice her size!

Rebecca screams in pain as the venomous fangs rip into her leg, and a cold darkness spread through her body.



When she regained her senses Rebecca became aware of a suffocating heat, her body felt burning hot, she tried to move and found herself to be very stuck, looking around she found herself inside a small white room, a window in front of her seperating her from the next room, looking at herself she saw she was stuck inside a cocoon of silk which was attached to the wall, underneath she felt a straitjacket, together with her latex suit this explained why her body temperature had gone up, Rebecca pulled and struggled, but found it quite impossible to work her way out of her bonds without any of her tools at her disposal, as she struggled she noticed a woman coming into the room behind the glass.

"Hello Midnight" she said "you may like to hear that you successfully allowed my little cash cows to escape, and no doubt the police will be here soon, forcing me to abandon my rather lucrative business, so, to show my apreciation, i'll leave you here while i make my escape, ah, maybe i should mention, the vents and door have been sealed with duct tape and ample amounts of webbing, by the time the police gets here you'll be quite dead, goodbye" 

Rebecca watched her leave, somehow thankfull she didn't rattle off a monologue like in the movies, nevertheless, her words did encourage her to escape her predicament fast! Rebecca pulled and twisted, but found the buckles and webbing to be tight and secure, maybe if she managed to tear herself of the wall she was stuck to the cocoon would come loose and she could try reaching her toolbelt, as she struggled she noticed her legs felt a lot cooler, but the thick cocoon over her chest obstructed her view, a glance at her reflection in the glass told her her legs wheren't fully bound, just webbed to the wall at her ankles and knees, maybe she could set of one of her bombs if she got her legs free and damage the cocoon and jacket, her suit would prevent her from seriously harming herself.

The struggle seemed useless, the stretchy silk kept her feet firmly glued to the wall, the thiner layer of silk around her ankles her loosened long ago, and by now, Rebecca breathed thin air, desperately she tried to work her foot out of her boot, slowly slipping it out, it was a painfully slow procedure without her hands available, minutes passed, and still her heel remained stuck in the boot, Rebecca pulled desperately, gasping for air, then her foot came loose, twisting it towards her toolbelt, she gently felt around until she found her bombs, setting them off would blow the jacket wide open and allow her to escape, but would potentially wound her, Rebecca eyed the discarted medical tape which was used to tape off the vents, she'd probably need it, and began to tamper with the bombs in her belt, slowly feeling out the buttons, pressing them gently...

Beep

Rebecca closed her eyes, preparing for the pain

Beep

She turned away, gritting her teeth

BeepBeepBeep

the bomb went of, detonating the whole set of them and restroying most of her toolbelt and her left handgun, but more pressingly, ripped a tear into her suit and creating a painfull gash in her hip, it wasn't terribly deep, but she'd bleed out, the jacket was torn up, as was her right front arm, she quickly got her hands out and took her remaining knife to slash away the webbing before dragging herself to the roll of tape, by now dizzy from the carbon dioxide thick air, after she taped herself up she'd have to get out quick, using scraps of the jacket to keep the sticky tape out of the wound she wrapped half the remaining roll around her hip, using the rest to make a rudimentary bandage on her arm, Rebecca was gasping desperately now, and tried to open the door, but the tape and webbing on the other side held it firmly shut, and her remaining sleep gas bombs wouldn't have enough force to blast it, sinking to her knees, Rebecca pulled out her gun, at first aiming for the door, but then remembering the window, she fired and the glass cracked, one more shot, she needed one more shot, her vision blurred, darkened, Rebecca pulled the trigger but missed, she fired again, and again, but could barely lift her arm or bear the recoil, struggling forward, she crawled to the cracked window and with two hands steadied her gun, and fired.

Glass rained down on her, and air flooded into the room, breathing deeply, Rebecca barely even felt the glass cut her cheek, staggering to her feet Rebecca collected her broken gun and stuffed it in it's ruined holster, using a little bit of tape to stick it together for long enough to make it home, still, she'd have to find that woman, maybe she was still around.



Rebecca ran through the building, pain spiking through her body, she heard a helicopter, she headed to the roof, and found the woman "stop right there!" Rebecca called as she aimed her remaining gun.

The woman turned "my, Resilient are we? but good lord, what did you do to escape? you look torn up, in no condition to fight me really"

"You're alone" Rebecca spat "i can take you in one shot"

"No i'm not alone, and no you can't, this time my dear spiders wont knock you out with their venom, but i'll use my fangs" the woman replied as she stepped away from the helicopter before mutating into a humongous drider, her lower jaw splitting into a pair of sharp mandibles while her legs split and her lower body grew into a large bulbous body, hordes of giant spiders emerged from the shadows and surounded Rebecca "introductions are in order maybe? i am Arachnea, i am a spider woman, and can telepatically controll spiders as well as create little ones of my own, with a lot of funny poisons like the knockout one you experienced earlier, and the mind controlling venom i used to take this dump over"

"And here i thought monologues where for dumb movie villains, turns out they're real" Rebecca countered as she aimed her weapon "just surrender, i'm not even going to bother with sleeping darts"

"Wise descision" Arachnea said as she charged forward.

Rebecca fired wildly, but Arachnea's huge body seemed to deflect the bullets, Arachnea swiped her front legs at her, and Rebecca dodged, she changed to her thunderclaps and fired once more, this time Arachnea cried out in pain before atempting to stab Rebecca with her pointy leg, barely missing her, Rebecca was in bad shape, and in the back of her mind knew she'd loose, one of the large spiders pounced and bit her in the shoulder, it felt as if hot lead was injected into her body, then Arachnea's swipes hit her mark, flinging Rebecca of the roof.

Rebecca coughed and whinced, she had defintely broken a few ribs, then she smashed into the tree, missing its trunk but taking with her most of the thin branches, luckily these slowed her fall, allowing her to land in the bushes beneath without dying, Rebecca rolled out of the plants and felt her shoulder, it was swollen and hurt terribly, she had to get that poison out quick, she tried to stand and noticed a puddle, her hip wound had started bleeding heavily, she wasn't in any condition to treat herself anymore, she needed a doctor, reaching for the phone Nuke left her, she prayed it'd still work, she called Nuke and as the line conected she heard Arachnea's chopper leave.

"Yo Midnight, what do you need?" Nuke greeted her.

"Doctor" Rebecca coughed "broken ribs, bleeding, poisoned, Azure Bay mental hospital, i think i'm in the courtyard, or the garden, look for a tree with broken branches, i'm under the bush under it" she whimpered as she dragged herself underneath the thick foliage "hurry please" she whispered before passing out.



Rebecca woke up in a white room, her visor intact, the pain was mostly gone, as was her suit, she threw back the blanket and whinced, her shoulder hurt, her hip had a fresh scar, as did her arm, she looked around and found Ruby asleep in a chair.

"Ruby, what happened? where am i?" she called.

Ruby woke with a start "Midnight? you're okay! great!" she said "i found that doctor like you asked! didn't think you'd need one, but then i ran into that big guy, Nuke, he carried you away from the hospital, said you needed a doctor, you where lucky he was in the city on business or the police would have found you first! we took you home, my home, to get you treaded, you where asleep for two days!" she rattled.

"Calm down" Rebecca said "where's Nuke? and Arachnea?"

"Arachnea?" Ruby said puzzled.

"Our very own local supervillain" Rebecca said "believe me the less you know the better you'll sleep, she's the one who banged me up, well, the ribs and shoulder, about that, what'd the doctor say about the venom?"

"He never saw it before, he managed to neutralize it though, but said your shoulder would probably stay numb for a long time, you'll only feel really strong stimulations like pain, but other than that it's perfectly fine, you're lucky he said, whatever bit you didn't get to inject much, else the venom would have probably caused necrosis and would have cost you your arm or worse"

"Well, thats a relief, and Nuke?" Rebecca asked.

"He's out, left with dad's helicopter to visit a friend to get your suit repaired, he left your toolbelt though, said his friend couldn't repair that" Ruby said as she handed Rebecca her weapons.

Rebecca checked the belt, she'd need a new one, the damaged gun was beyond salvation, she'd have to make a new one, her body would heal too it seemed, and Nuke would get her suit repaired, she'd hate to tell him she'd have to remake it with her own tech, the biggest damage she sustained however was to her ego and confidence, if Arachnea was on the same level as other supervillains... she'd have trouble.

Author's Note

What better way to introduce a supervillain than make one that makes my skin crawl? god i'm afraid of spiders

Rebecca encounters her first true supervillain, and bites the dust in an epicly short confrontation, because Rebecca is just a girl with guns, not a superpowered crimefighter, she'll be at a disadvantage a lot in the future!