THE MOMENT
Scorpius struggled to comprehend the five words on the note. He was a wise, vicious man who knew many things. He knew how to disassemble all races across the land piece by piece. He could guess with reasonable accuracy how long it would take to drain anyone of their blood at a glance. But, despite the scribbled assertion in his hand, he did not know what to DO. The more he thought about it, the more he realized he never really knew what to 'do'. He went along with whatever seemed like the next apparent step at the time. But, for the first time in his life, nothing was obvious.
The new thoughts left Scorpius feeling uneasy and agitated. At that point, the next step was finally clear; remove the agitation. Scorpius lifted his armor foot over the sleeping infant and brought it down.
"STOP!" Scorpius froze with his foot an inch above the baby's skull. He didn't intend to stop; but, his body refused to carry through just the same. He looked toward the voice and saw two teen girls dashing toward him. The shorter one had bright blue hair and wore blood-red leather armor. The other wore silvery-white chainmail armor and a crystalline pink crown glowed with golden light above her head. It was almost the same shade of bright pink as her hair.
"What are you doing?!" The blue-haired teen asked as she knelt to gather the infant from under his foot. Once she had it safely in her arms the crystal crown faded away from above the other girl's head. All at once, Scorpius finished the crushing motion and cracked the ground under his foot instead.
"Who are you?" Scorpius ignored her question and asked his own; in his mind, what he was doing was self-evident.
"What's your favorite number?" The pink-haired girl asked.
"35!" Scorpius answered even while growing angry at the number of questions being thrown around.
"Okay," the pink-haired girl nodded as both of them giggled. "My name is Justice, and this is Liberty," she introduced herself and the blue-haired girl. "You're going to have a lot of questions; but, we'll answer some of them and set you up to find answers to the rest," she said.
"What makes you think I have questions?" Scorpius asked. His gaze moved to and from both girls to study both of them. But, even as he asked his question, something bothered him. He was distracted before he could think about it too much.
"Oh, you don't?" Justice asked. "Okay, well, good luck!" She waved as Liberty threw a black card on the floor. A wide black spot opened and both teens walked onto it. They began to sink and Liberty waved too as Scorpius realized they were leaving.
"Wait!" Scorpius shouted. He was willing to let them disappear; but, he realized what was bothering him. He took his eyes off the girls to search the immediate area. He saw his useless guards patrolling the walls and the courtyard, despite the intruders standing in front of him. But, he did not see what he was looking for. Luckily, they stopped sinking and merely looked up at him from half inside the hole. The lower half of their bodies was hidden beneath the dark surface. "Where is the infant, you're not leaving it here with me, are you?" Scorpius asked. Thinking back on it, it disappeared almost as soon as Liberty picked it up.
"I put it away in my inventory," Liberty answered with a shrug. Scorpius narrowed his eyes at her. He stared for an extended moment, long enough for both girls to rise up out of the hole again.
"Do you have more questions?" Justice asked.
"What was I supposed to do?" He asked.
"Take it in and raise it," Liberty replied.
"Why would I do that...?" Scorpius shook his head. That didn't sound like something he would do.
"'Cause it's what the quest says you do," Liberty replied. "You wouldn't have actually raised it. It's not a real baby, it's just a quest item. You take the baby in and lower your guard then I assassinate you."
"You're here to assassinate me?" Scorpius was more amused than threatened. He didn't entirely understand everything that was happening; but, they were just teens. And girls at that. He doubted they would have been much trouble.
"Not anymore," Liberty shook her head.
"You Woke up," Justice added. "You're not an NPC anymore."
"I...don't know what that means...," Scorpius had difficulty admitting that. He was used to projecting an air of infallible leadership. But, these teens didn't know that. And, now, he could clearly see how to get out of his own way. "..I'd like to learn that and more...," he said.
"No sweat," Justice grinned and stepped closer to him. She offered him a small rectangle of glass. But, it came alive as soon as he touched it, glowing numbers appeared on its invisible surface.
"That's called a node; there's a tutorial in it that will teach you everything you need to know, and the contact list is loaded with helpful people." Scorpius studied the node and tried to press the numbers. Nothing happened and he tried different motions until a swipe up changed things. Now he was staring at half a dozen small pictures; but, he saw the word 'tutorial' under one of them and nodded.
"Thank you," he said. Justice returned to the hole and both girls began to sink into it again.
"Good luck," Liberty waved.
"See you around," Justice added. After both girls said their goodbyes, they turned to each other and began their own conversation. Scorpius heard part of it before they disappeared completely.
"Thanks for stopping him," Liberty said. "It took me two weeks to get the baby; I'd have hated to start all over."