REMNANT : Buffy, the Vampire Slayer meets Batman and the Red Rider

REMNANT: Buffy, the Vampire Slayer meets Batman and the Red Rider - Chapter 19.

PART 3: LEGENDS OF OLD

Batman led his horse up the steep grade, hoping Buffy could follow him. He cast a quick glance over his shoulder. She managed well enough on the grassy hill and kept up as they proceeded along the dirt path, toward the torch lights of the nearby town.

"So tell me about this Red Rider legend," Buffy said from the darkness behind him. "Because, you know, I've been slaying vampires and demons for a while now, but I don't even get a legend."

"Give it time," Batman said. "You might also become a legend in another four hundred years."

"Okay, was that –?

"No, that was not a joke." He knew she was partly just making conversation, which he would find a bit distracting. At the same time, she needed to know who the Red Rider was, to know how to handle their situation. And how to approach the Red Rider herself, once they found her.

Explaining the legend could help him sort out his own thoughts on the matter, though he would prefer to mull it over in silence. It all seemed too much to conceive. Through his strange associations with other heroes and their spheres of operation, he had traveled to distant planets, traveled through time, and even fought vampires and other demons the same way Buffy had. But to encounter the mythical Lycanthru and their nemesis, the Red Rider – one of the legendary heroes who had inspired his own choices – almost seemed like a fairy tale in itself.

He thought back to his youth, twenty years ago, when he had explored every imaginable study to perfect his knowledge and abilities. Disguising his identity and seeking out mentors to train him. Including a reputed expert in studies of the supernatural.

"The Red Rider is someone you know, somewhat," he told Buffy. "As Xander said, she is the girl known in literature as Little Red Riding Hood."

He could hear the incredulity in her voice. "You're kidding."

"History – in the form of a modified fairy tale – only records her childhood, when she was attacked by a large wolf. One that stood upright and spoke, like the ones we encountered back in the cave. This wolf killed her grandmother and left her scarred, with three triple claw marks across her face."

"Ew! I mean – that sucks."

"It got worse. The wolves also killed her parents and four-year old sister. This prompted her to find ways to fight back. At some point, she learned how to fight and hunt, and somehow discovered a way to kill the wolves, when no else could stop them. She wore a large red hooded cloak, like the one she had worn as a child ..."

"... and that's why the Lycanthru wolves called her the Red Rider," Professor Bristol concluded, adjusting his spectacles on the bridge of his nose. "She terrified them, being the first person who had ever harmed them, let alone killed them, one by one, with her crossbow."

"A crossbow?" Bruce had asked, resting his chin on his fist as he leaned on the professor's oak desk. "How could that work, if she was facing a pack of wolves and had to reload each time?"

The professor smiled, seeming to anticipate the question. "Legend has it that she did not use a traditional crossbow, but a Chukonu."

"Chukonu?" Bruce asked.

"Yes, a unique weapon of Chinese design."

"Of course!" Bruce said, slapping his forehead. "A repeating crossbow! That can hold – uh ..."

"Ten bolts, and fire them in succession, by simply pulling back on the top lever," Professor Bristol said.

"Genius," Bruce said. "Assuming it's true."