RUBY

Real Name: Presumably Ruby

Identity/Class: Extra-dimensional (Ultraverse) human

Occupation: Cook; shop keeper. See also Powers and Abilities.

Group Membership: None known

Affiliations: Freex, other unnamed "freaks".

Enemies: Bloodhounds, Master of the Hunt

Known Relatives: None. See Comments.

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Her grocery store, where she apparently lives

First Appearance: Freex#4 (October 1993)

Powers/Abilities: Ruby was exceptionally motivated to understand and accept people for what they are. She was also a good 1960s decorator and seemed to be into natural food. From what little we saw she looked to have a good talent for social psychology, and - unless she lied about caring for strangers in the last thirty years - she obviously had good social work skills.

History:

(Freex#4 (fb))- About thirty years before meeting the Freex, Ruby decided to become receptive to those in need. The extent and reasons for that decision are unrevealed, but include at the very least feeding those who are desperate enough to break into her home. By her own account that has not always been a wise or prudent decision, but nevertheless it led to meeting and knowing many good people. She felt it was worth the trouble.

(Freex#4) - Ruby met the Freex (Angela, Lewis, Ray and Valerie) early on the team's career, at a point in time when they were fleeing the authorities and being chased by the Master of the Hunt. Ever the pragmatic one, Valerie was attempting to convince the others to break into a grocery store, when they were interrupted by Ruby. She wielded a flashlight and explained that she was the owner of the place and that they could enter freely and have some food.

Despite their understandable suspicion, the Freex had no reason to refuse the offer and accepted it. Ruby's place was quite the 1960s tribute, and its owner matched it. She was very kind and supportive to the team, but unfortunately their conversation was cut short by the sudden and violent arrival of the Master of the Hunt and his Bloodhounds, who had captured Michael (in a robotic body) in the meantime. Ruby was shot upon their arrival and stayed down, obviously hurt.

(Freex#5) - Despite her injuries, Ruby still showed compassion to her attackers, asking the Master of the Hunt what kind of life he had to hate life so much. During the fight between the Freex and the Master of the Hunt, Michael drove a car over Ruby's place, resulting in a fire that disrupted the fighting at a cost to her home. The Freex rescued Ruby and left her at a San Francisco hospital.

(Freex#7) - The team developed internal conflict for various reasons, one of them being Lewis' insistence that they visited Ruby at the hospital. Michael and the others realized that such a course of action would be dangerous and achieve little, but even so he convinced Angela to go along with him. The two of them managed to enter Ruby's room through a window, but Captain Rome had decided to watch over Ruby and later question her about the Freex and therefore a couple of police officers entered the room before Angela and Lewis could even evaluate her health condition or talk with her. The pair would probably be captured were it not for the timely intervention of the Old Man, who provided cover fire.

(Freex#16) - Ruby was present at Michael's funeral along with the Freex, Contrary, members of her Academy of the New Elite and Night Man. She was happy to see her friends, but wished it had been under better circumstances. When the Academy tried to convince the Freex that they needed to stay with them, Ruby explained that there were other ways for people to join together: some involve more risk...but they have more rewards. Later, when they told her about their adventures in the land of the Fire People, Ruby offered to go with them and "help as much as an old hippie chick can." They appreciated the offer, but declined it and headed out.

Comments: Created by Gerard Jones, David Williams and Michael Christian.

    Ruby seemed to be somewhere between 45 and 65 years old. From Freex#4 (all that I have to go with so far) it looks like she had a turning point about thirty years ago, when she began to go out of her way to help those in need. Her dialogue hints that she has no living relatives, or at least does not have strong attachments to them. It also indicates that she has past experience with young rebelion and does not particularly like conformity, although she is by no means a violent person. She admitted to have had significant experience with LSD. For no good reason at all, I want to believe she actually lied to Angela about that - her commitment to helping young people with hard choices seems to be just strong enough that she could produce such little lies in order to make the Freex feel welcome.

    Lewis may care deeply about keeping the Freex together, but he doesn't always do what is best to the team: his insistence on paying Ruby a visit is understandable given his story, but very ill-advised all the same - she was already under adequate medical care, and the team was being hunted by both legal and criminal powers at the time. Visiting her could (and did) only endanger all of them even further, although it probably helped the Old Man in contacting them as well. Such dumb decisions led to the whole team briefly leaving Lewis at the ending of #7 and during most of #8, until their experience in Lost Angel's Garden made him a bit more mature.

Profile by Daevanator and Snood

Clarifications:

Ruby has no known connections to

• Ruby ??- mother of Kevin & Mickey, formerly dated Thug Thatcher, killed by Zaniac/Wolfe--Journey into Mystery I#89
• Ruby Thursday (Thursday Rubinstein) - Headmen, organic computer grafted to head.
      artificial red plastic head, able to shape into any form, project energy blasts--Defenders I#32
• other "Ruby" characters

Ruby's apartment was located on the upper floor of her store, and was decorated in typical, almost stereotypical 1960s style. She gave the Freex access to it on sight, instinctively trusting them.