Josie clenched her hands into fists. She could feel her knuckles crackle as she
watched what was going on. She felt a presence at her side. She glanced over. Warner
stood at her side with a frown on his weathered face.
“It’s not going to go like she thinks,” said Warner. “Zu is not going to make things
easy. That’s not how he likes to do business.”
“You look like an old Matt Smith as the Doctor,” said Josie.
“Not enough chin,” said Warner. “We’ll be able to talk in a few hours. What are you
doing here?”
“You are going to have to be a bit more specific,” said Josie. She kept her eye on the
proceedings.
“You aren’t supposed to stay here after you get done with your quests,” said Warner.
“I’m at war with the local nobility,” said Josie. “I don’t have time to go home.”
“These kids?,” asked Warner, gesturing at the girls around them.
“Adopted when I went to war,” said Josie.
“The dragon?,” asked Warner. He waved a hand at the giant beast standing beside the
youngest girl.
“Jack brought him home,” said Josie. She huffed at the memory of finding the girls
chasing Aviras around the living room. “Some of this is in our case files which I
would have sent you if you had answered my letter.”
“I wanted to see for myself,” said Warner. “I already knocked out two of the quests
given me when I put on the watch. I planned to talk to you, then knock out the last
one.”
“We wanted to talk to you about your old quests,” said Josie. “We have something
that we can use to pick you up and ferry you to Hawk Ridge.”
“Send me a letter when you wake up,” said Warner.
“Juniper Esmeralda Lee,” said the leader of the Society, Zu. He smiled. “This is your
watch. Please put it on.”
The ugly guy Jack called Hap held out a tray with a band much like the one the other
champions wore on a pillow. Violet light sparked around it. Juniper took it and put
it around her thick wrist. It glowed with the locking of the clasp.
“Let her pick her three choices,” said Zu. He leaned back in his stone chair.
Hap took the tray away, and limped back with a transparent jar full of jewels. He
smiled as he held the jewels out. Josie frowned that she couldn’t read any lettering on
the jewels.
“This is where the trickery will be,” said Warner. “He didn’t ask what Juniper wanted
to draw on for her watch.”
“She might not be getting Astro City at all,” said Josie. “We have to warn her.”
“If we interfere, she won’t get a chance,” said Warner. He held an arm up to keep
Josie back. “We have to let this play out. Your girl isn’t the one that is going to be
trying to do the quest.”
“Jack will lose his mind,” said Josie.
“You’re going to have to keep him on a leash until this is over,” said Warner. “A lot
is riding on how smart June is, and how smart her coach is. This could change both
their lives, but if we interfere, June will get sent home with no money, and having to
face whatever she is trying to avoid.”
“Grab three,” said Hap. “They slot into the face of the watch.”
June grabbed three of the marbles randomly. They had three different colors that
gleamed under the night sky. She carefully placed each one in their slot. She looked
up from what she saw on the watch face.
“Good luck,” said the lady on the left.
June vanished in a pop like a bubble.
“She didn’t look happy with what she got,” said Josie.
“I noticed,” said Warner.
“Matilda Raylen,” said leader of the Society. “This is the quest.”
He reached down and touched her forehead. She blinked her eyes.
“I know we can’t get Josie and Jack to carry us,” said Matilda. “But we can ask to use
some of their resources?”
“Whatever exists right now other than a communication band that needs to be made,”
said Zu.
“Thank you,” said Matilda. “That will make things easier.”
“Good luck,” said Zu. “I think you will do a good job, you and your dragon.”
Matilda and Aviras popped out of existence.
He looked at the rest of the girls glaring at him.
“You can all go home,” he said. He waved his hand and dismissed the Ducklings.
“Oliver, I will try to have a meeting with you before you go home,” said Zu. “It was
good to see you again.”
“I am going to talk with the kids and check on this last quest,” said Warner. “I doubt
I will be on the field more than a couple of days.”
“Be careful,” said Zu. “You’re not as spry as you used to be.”
“I’m a little smarter,” said Warner. He smiled. He nodded at the members of the
Society, pausing at the most beautiful woman alive before he woke up in his shelter
in the woods northeast of the city.
“Jack, and Elaine Numera of Karieda,” said Center right. “I don’t know where to
begin with you, Jack.”
“I’m a little miffed that you let my sister horn in on my action,” said Jack. Josie
covered her face in dismay.
“I’m a little miffed that we told you to cut back and you built a city in the sky,” said
Zu. “That seems the opposite of our agreement.”
“I considered it the lesser of two evils,” said Jack. “And thanks to Elaine and Aviras,
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.the job was done with no loss of life on my side.”
“What was the greater evil?,” asked the second in command.
“I was going to nuke the country until it glowed for the next five hundred years,” said
Jack. “Luckily, my support team and my partner came up with something better.”
Josie paused. She had thought Jack was having problems, but he was really a little too
casual about killing thousands, possibly millions. with a push of a button.
“Nuclear warfare is something we would like you to refrain from engaging in,” said
Zu. He frowned at his champion.
“I am willing to let things lie,” said Jack. “I don’t have a preference on how I do the
job.”
“No time travel,” said Josie. She frowned at her partner.
“I said I wouldn’t,” said Jack. He gave her a look. “I will stick with what I got.”
“I think multiversal travel should be off the table too,” said the owl woman.
“Otherwise I think you will get an idea about how many Elaines you can assemble as
your wives.”
“I didn’t have that idea before now,” said Jack.
Elaine shook her head.
“Shall we be serious?,” she asked quietly.
The second waved her hand in a go ahead gesture.
“I admit that Jack is a little rough around the edges, but he is doing what you asked,”
said Elaine. “I understand that you are uncomfortable with his view of things and his
unorthodox ways, but we still have injured that Jack and Josie have enabled to be
cared for, and the victims on the Enterprise itself. We had no other way to save the
ones we could without the Enterprise. I think that merits some consideration.”
“Would you like for us to ask Kord to come to the wedding?,” asked Zu.
“Yep,” said Jack.
“We will put in a word for you,” said Zu. “Keep a lower profile, Jack. We will
consider the matter of the Enterprise. Work on getting the injured cared for a little
faster.”
Jack and Elaine popped out of existence. Josie frowned at being alone, but she always
seemed alone more than she was with others.
“Josephine Antoinette Fox,” said Zu. He frowned at her. “You have declared war on
the world. How do you expect to continue?”
“One step at a time,” said Josie. “That’s how the mortal world does things.”
“Do you oppose us?,” asked the head of the Society.
“If you get in my way,” said Josie. “You called me, not the other way around. If I
didn’t have the girls, I wouldn’t stay in your backwater longer than I had to.”
“You are fond of your Ducklings,” said the second in command. “And they are fond
of you. They will be carrying on your legacy until their children take over from them.
You have done a good thing for the world just by being you. Can you continue on the
path you have selected for yourself?”
“Some of this is Jack’s fault,” said Josie. “Do you want to let me in on what’s going
on with him and his sister?”
“Why don’t you ask them?,” asked the bow woman.
“Because they will lie like rugs,” said Josie. She crossed her arms over her Mage
lightning bolt. “I read enough Phantom Stranger to know when someone is
obfuscating around a question. I understand if you don’t want to get into it being who
you are, but I would like a straight answer to a straight question. Mystery has its
place, but not when I want to know something.”
“You know who we are?,” asked the owl woman.
“I’ve read Percy Jackson too.” said Josie. “So you want to tell me what’s up so I don’t
have to take a hammer to the knuckleheads.”
“Jack hasn’t been in contact with his family since his discharge from his Army,” said
the bow man. He could be the male twin of the bow woman. “He was hurt and doesn’t
want to pick at the scab.”
“This girl he said stepped on the explosive,” said Josie. “I thought he was joking.
Juni?”
“She has been fixing fights,” said the hat man. “And not doing it well.”
Josie wondered why her eye had a sudden pain in a dream.
“They’ll realize you cheated,” said Josie. “Especially if Jack uses his persona to look
at the memory again.”
“Cheated?,” said Hap. “I would never do that.”
“Your face isn’t built for lying either, Jimmy Jack Crack,” scoffed Josie. She looked
at the twelve personalities on their thrones. “I appreciate that all of you are trying to
maintain the greater good, and are empowering Jack and I, and Mister Warner, and
Juni if she passes your test, to do that. I appreciate that you have some concerns about
how we do our business. I appreciate that you can’t get involved in mortal things
since that isn’t your reputation where I am from.”
She took a moment to scowl at her nominal bosses.
“On the other hand, I have a job to do and I don’t need you guys getting in my way,”
said Josie. “If you have some concerns, send me a letter and I will do what I can to
address them. I already talked to Jack about building the Enterprise. I will try to keep
him on the straight and narrow. Anything else will be handled as well as I can without
actually setting someone on fire.”
“And if you deem you have to set someone on fire?,” said the sword man.
“Then there will be some frying tonight,” said Josie. “Is there anything else?”
“I don’t think so,” said Zu. “Try not to break reality.”
“I can’t promise anything beyond the next few days,” said Josie. “Are you coming to
the proposed marriage?”
“It is something to think about,” said the second. “We haven’t had a celebration in a
long time.”
“We’ll see how celebratory it actually is,” said Josie. “I have to go and get my
knuckleheads in line. This has been something.”
“It has been something for us too,” said Zu. “We don’t usually have a meeting like
this.”
Josie woke up. She pulled on her clothes. She expected the others to be getting up and
arguing about what happened. She decided not to tell the others how the Society had
cheated.
Juni would be demonstrating what they had given her soon enough.
She expected Warner, or Jack, to realize what had happened, but she wasn’t going to
tell them.
Warner already knew their bosses would do whatever they could to accomplish their
objectives through their agents, and Jack would either think it was fair, or foul,
depending on his mood.
Bea came out of her door as Josie started for the steps. The eldest rubbed her face to
get some of the remaining sleep out of her eyes.
“We have a long day ahead of us,” said Josie. “Can you get the girls up and running?”
“Yes,” said Beatrice. “I thought Jack was fooling about his dream talks.”
“I didn’t think they would talk to us at all either,” said Josie. “I have to check on June.
Then we can see how bad things really are.”
“I will get the others together,” said Beatrice.
Josie nodded before heading downstairs. She kicked Jack’s door as she went by.
Elaine would get him up and ready for the day. She had to deal with Juni before she
started the rest of their day.
She hoped the Society would not load them with more quests while they were trying
to work out the aftermath of what she was going to call the Lich Queen-Enterprise
War.
She put in the number to open the gate and stepped through to the Hangar. The air
was toasty. She crossed the empty space. She felt bad that the quinjet wasn’t in its
cradle where it belonged. She found June still asleep in her cocoon of blankets and
quilts.
She knelt quickly, pulled back her hand, then dealt the hardest slap she could to
June’s face. The fighter lurched up, one hand to her face.
“Let’s go,” said Josie. “You have less than sixty hours to get your act together. Time
to rise and shine.”
“Was that necessary?,” asked June. She pushed back her blankets.
“No,” said Josie. She stood and headed back toward the gate. “We’re having breakfast
as soon as I can cook it. After that, you are going to have to start on your quest.”
“Give me five,” called June.
Josie stepped through the gate and crossed the living room. The ambient noise was
high while the girls and Elaine and Jack tried to get themselves together. Aviras
sat on the dining room table and watched the movement around him.
“Breakfast, and then you and Matilda are going to have to get ready,” said Josie.
“I’m always ready to bite off someone’s face,” said the dragon.
“That’s what I like to hear,” said Josie. “Keep Matilda safe. I don’t care about
anything else. The Society doesn’t want us birddogging this, but if anything comes
close to hurting her, I expect you to call me. Got it?”
“I understand and do not want cancer,” said Aviras.
“All right,” said Josie. “I am going to get my coffee and plan out my day. Then we’re
going to do what we got to do to clear everything we have on the list.”
“Can I have ice cream?,” said Aviras.
“If June gets through the next three days and Matilda is not hurt,” said Josie. “I
will give you Jack’s weight in ice cream. Until then, no.”
“How much does Jack weigh?,” asked Aviras.
Josie went into the kitchen. She got her first cup of coffee for the day. Once she
finished that, she got another and sipped at it while considering what they had in the
icebox she could cook and feed everyone.
She decided on toast and bacon to get started. Water and ice went into mugs for the
girls to drink. If Jack wanted coffee, he would have to make it himself.
She loaded everything on a big tray, grabbed a stack of plates. She wished for
everything to be on the dining room table. The food vanished in a cloud of steam.
She thought she heard Aviras curse but she ignored it.
He would have enough reason to curse in the next few days in her opinion. She
carried her coffee into the dining room.