Wolf lies in the grass. His forepaws are crossed with his chin resting on them, eyes closed. He lets out a contented sigh.
Red, leans out of the portal again, seeing him in a food coma and resting on his feather-filled field of conquest. “Lazy glut,” she says shaking her head, smiling. “Hey Wolf! You about ready?”
“Five more minutes,” he mumbles.
She reaches into the back of her cloak and removes the scabbard.
“One of the more restrictive worlds?” Jack asks.
She nods. “That’s probably all we’ll be in from here on out. The only reason to be in anything less would be to rest.” She slides the blade into the scabbard, then looks at the exposed part of the blade between the katana’s handguard and the mouth of the scabbard. There is a one-inch gap where the handguard would normally sit flush against top of the scabbard. “Grandpa added the compression feature to keep me out of places I shouldn’t be. Guess I made a habit of getting into trouble—even back then.”
“He sounds like a wise man.”
“Yeah,” she says, brushing her thumb across the handguard. “If we’re going to get into more dangerous places—more dangerous worlds, and eventually the hag’s fortress—I’ll have to get strong enough to compress the space further and for a greater amount of time.” She sighs. “Unfortunately, strength seems to be the hardest thing for me to improve, so I don’t know when I’ll be able to manage enough compression—or if I ever will.”
“Well, we could always quit. No sense in keeping this going if you don’t think we can win. We can just go back to that world with Little-Red. You could probably be something like her big sister, maybe even teach her some stuff, like her first swear words.” Red smiles. Jack leans against the opposite side of the portal from her and gestures through it. “We can just forget about this world here. Just leave it behind, and let the hag do what she wills with it and your grandfather’s stuff.”
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Red’s face hardens. “No! She doesn’t get free reign with what Grandpa—what we worked so hard on. This was our dream, and she doesn’t get to kick it around in the dirt. She can’t! I won’t let her.”
“Oh, so what do you suppose we do about it then?”
“We burn the bitch.” She clutches the scabbard with white knuckles and walks through the portal. She wraps her other hand around the hilt, closes her eyes, then screams as she forces the compression. Wolf’s ears jump, and he is on his feet in an instant, looking Red’s direction. She pulls the blade from its sheath, a cyan glow following it. She turns to meet Wolf’s eyes, her gaze cold. “It’s time we got moving, Wolf.” She swings the blade and walks into the new world.
Wolf walks towards the gym portal as Jack is stepping out. “What just happened?” Wolf asks.
Jack shrugs. “I just told her about you not liking her braid. She must’ve taken offense.”
Wolf’s eyes go wide, and his mouth drops open as Jack continues into the new world. “Wait, I never said that!” He charges after, both portals closing behind him.
Another portal opens immediately after, and a colossal figure steps out onto the feather strewn field. The figure is shirtless and only wears a pair of tattered slacks and the upper portion of a Robocop helmet. A low mechanical-whining can be heard from the servos in his neck as he turns the narrow red visor to scan the open field. His frame is something like the Hulk, but he has a “Y” shape stitching running up the center of his torso and towards his shoulders. The rest of his skin is also a patchwork of cuts and stitching, accented at his joints by exposed metal components where the skin had been drawn tight to try and conceal them.
“Destroy Dux,” he says, then turns, leaving back through his portal.