THE MOMENT
The young woman in a red riding hood tensed when she caught the scent. It was a cool, sunny afternoon, and she was walking out of the adventurer's guild with the reward for her latest bounty. She narrowed her eyes and scanned the villagers walking past.
She was bitten by a werewolf well over a decade ago, and by now, she was making a comfortable living hunting other monsters. She developed the experience and insights to help her identify dangers that could look like innocent people, and two such dangerous people happened to be walking by in conversation.
A teen girl in a white blazer with pink braided hair was accompanied by a pale teen boy in black. The girl was obviously a werewolf, that was what the woman in red smelled. But, the boy was more concerning. She initially judged him as a vampire, except the sun was still out.
"You didn't even give her a chance?" the teenage girl asked.
"Why would I do that?" the boy laughed. "She needed to learn, so I completely destroyed her," he replied. The woman in red didn't know what they were talking about, but she didn't like the sound and began following them.
She needed to keep an eye on them anyway. She didn't have a quest to kill them, so there wouldn't be any reward. But, she was still determined to rid the world of their evil. And even moreso once the werewolf girl continued the conversation.
"Yeah but she's only like, 10, right? You didn't have to be so mean about it." The vampire destroyed a child, and now they were treating it like some kind of game. If they weren't still within the village, the woman in a red riding hood would've already taken action. As it was, she followed, lagging behind to give them space.
She let them get ahead as they passed the outskirts of town. Once there were fewer people milling around, she was able to hear more of their conversation as she followed.
"...and so Melody wants to know when we're announcing your birthday bash." The teen in white finished her sentence and watched the vampire shrug.
"Not yet," the teen boy replied as he suddenly came to a stop. They were out on a path in the middle of nowhere, and the young woman in red was surprised. She immediately hid behind the largest tree she could find, just in case they decided to look back for some reason.
"I want the Halloween event to get all the attention right now. Even if we waited until next month, or December, there's still plenty of time for everyone to get some practice in," he said.
The woman in red braved several opportunities to peek out from behind the tree to try and gauge when they started to move again. Except, she saw something completely unexpected on the last attempt. The teen in black had his arm stretched out as he reached into a vertical black hole.
She had plenty of combat experience, but she was so focused on what he might be doing that it was a complete surprise when someone grabbed her red hood from behind and pulled hard. She was flung back, through a flash of black. And suddenly, she was on the ground in front of the two teens, looking down at her.
"Is there a reason you're following us?" the vampire asked. The young woman was battle-hardened, but they took her by surprise and weren't attacking. She had enough sense to respond as she got to her feet. She seemingly relaxed and dropped her hands to her sides, near her weapons.
"You're a vampire," she replied to him, then turned to the pink-haired teen. "You're a werewolf," she said.
"So are you," the teen nodded with a smile and a shrug. "Do you need help or something?" she asked.
"I heard you talking, you destroyed a little girl," the woman replied. She didn't have complete confidence she would survive the encounter, they were out in the middle of nowhere with no one else around. But it was important to her that they knew she stood for something. And she was confident she could handle at least one of them, more likely the werewolf girl.
"Yeah, it was a slaughter," the vampire laughed.
"But, it was just a game, he didn't actually hurt a girl."
"I don't know, she had that same huffy look Aury gets when he loses. I might've made her cry," the vampire continued to enjoy the conversation, but his response did ease the woman in red's mind. If he was talking about making her cry, then she already misjudged the situation.
"You're not helping," the teen in white replied to him, and he shrugged.
"You're right," he nodded. "I don't need to be here, and it looks like you found some work. I'll see you later," he nodded at the girl in white, then turned and met the woman in red's eyes.
"I don't expect to see you ever again," he smiled and exited through another black portal that didn't exist until he needed it. Then, it disappeared the moment he was gone.
"What'd he mean by that?" the woman in red got defensive again and raised a silver-bladed dagger between them. The girl in white did step back, but she kept her smile. "What 'work' did you find?"
"My name's Justice, what's yours?" she asked.
"Don't need one," the young woman shook her head. "The guild registered me as Red Riding Hood, that's been good enough."
"Oh, no way!" Justice's resting smile lit up even brighter and her eyes sparkled. "So, I work for a company named Sharp Development," she said. "It's a multiversal corporation and we own billions of alternate Earths," she said. Red understood most of the words, but not quite the concept. How could someone own even one Earth? "It wasn't a threat or anything, the multiverse is just so big that you can go the rest of your life without ever seeing Oren again. Oh, you didn't get his name, that was my friend Oren. He is a vampire, like you called it," she admitted.
"It would be my honor to introduce you to the multiverse and take you on a tour of some Sharp Development communities," she said. "That's the 'work' Oren was talking about."
"I hunt monsters like you...," Red replied. She was confused by the immense revelations, and most notably, the fact that they weren't fighting yet. Usually, the fur was flying moments after cornering a monster, or after being cornered in her earlier days.
"Oh that's great, we could use your skills," Justice nodded.
Red's senses were enhanced after years of engaging with her feral side. Justice was being entirely sincere and Red didn't know what to make of it. It wasn't a deflective quip, it was an honest offer. Justice was entirely confident in herself in a way that Red had never seen, nor felt. If they fought, there was little chance of Red winning. And, both of them were aware of that.
"Other universes?" Once she realized they didn't need to fight, her mind was able to start processing the rest of the details that were revealed.
"Absolutely," Justice nodded. "We can visit any Earth you imagine." Red realized she was still brandishing the dagger and she finally relaxed enough to sheathe it again. She had an opportunity she'd never considered before, and she didn't want to accidentally ruin it.
"Can we find an alternate version of my grandma?"