Jack hugged Elaine close as they sat at the dining room table. He started making his

breakfast into a sandwich. He frowned at the mug of water, but if he wanted coffee

he would have to make it himself.

“We’re going to have to get things sorted out,” said Josie. She looked around the

table, holding her cup of coffee in hand. “Beatrice and Laura, please take the girls

except for Matilda down to the Hall for practice. Advise Sally that we might have to

hire the adventurers to help us out with the goblin tree patients after we make sure

they are safe.”

“Yes, missus,” said Beatrice. She nodded.

“You might as well tell Sir Harp that Old Man Warner is back in town,” said Josie.

“He may want to see his old friend before the guy takes off again.”

“Elaine, I need you to talk to Jane and see how she did with the buildings,” said

Josie. “We need to know if we have a viable hospital in place.”

“She might still be haggling with the Exchange over the deed,” said Elaine. “We

moved fast to nip the initial problem, but bureaucracy will have slowed her end

down.”

“Tell her that I will front her another brick of gold to get the job done,” said Josie.

“Once we have the women off the Enterprise, that will prevent problems for them that

might happen if the transporter goes down.”

“I don’t understand,” said Elaine.

“Star Trek transporters turn matter into energy and back into matter again,” said Jack.

“The pattern is stored on a buffer so that anything that gets taken apart can be put

back together. If the buffer goes down for any reason, we could lose everyone we

have stored. I don’t foresee that happening here, but another frog god might be

enough to knock the Enterprise for a loop.”

“Another frog god might be enough to make the Enterprise come to life in the most

horrible way we can conceive,” said Josie.

“Is it not already alive?,” asked Elaine.

“No,” said Jack. “It has a machine that responds to our voices and carries out our

commands, but it doesn’t have anything that lets it take any initiative.”

“And I don’t think we want to find out what would happen if the Enterprise turned

into a flying monster,” said Josie.

Jack considered the question. Without a crew, the Enterprise would run out of

torpedoes quick, but the devastation would be tremendous. Hawk Ridge would lose

most of itself in the explosions.

And the phasers were unlimited ammunition line of sight weapons that could

punch through most of the fortifications he had seen on the planet so far.

“I have two jobs for you, Jack,” said Josie. “I want you to make a band for June so

she can call Matilda, or us. And I want you to find Mister Warner and pick him up.”

“The model will make finding him easy enough,” said Jack. He shrugged. “It depends

on what he’s using on how tough it will be to pick him up.”

“Can you find anyone with this model?,” asked June.

Jack opened his mouth to answer. He caught the warning glare from Josie and paused.

“Are we allowed to answer that?,” he asked instead. “If I do, does June immediately

get booted home?”

“Let’s say she does,” said Josie. “Which is why we are not going to foul up June’s

chance to fix her problems.”

“We can use resources,” said Matilda. “We can use the model for the quest.”

“You will be allowed to use the model for the quest,” said Josie. “But you will have

to do it on your own after we have our talk. Comprende?”

“We got it,” said June. She tucked into her food. “Could I have seconds?”

“I will get you some more,” said Josie. “Does anybody else want anything?”

“Could I have some coffee?,” said Jack. He turned his glare on his sister.

“Yes,” said Josie. She took some more orders, but he wasn’t listening. “We need

a way to call the Enterprise from the ground.”

“I’ll do that when I make Juni’s band,” said Jack. He looked up. He hadn’t thought

about having to call the Enterprise with a band. That had been a terrible oversight on

his part.

“Okay,” said Josie. She vanished into the kitchen with her cup.

“So the quest says we have to find this Russ guy,” said June. “Why?”

“Because he may be a threat to humanity,” said Elaine. “Or he might be capable of

causing problems at the lower end of the line.”

“Or he’s just missing and needs to be found,” said Jack. “The Society doesn’t get into

why they form quests but the ones we have taken have been some things.”

“I read through the casebooks last night,” said June. “Aviras is all over the one as a

major threat.”

“And now he is your coach’s assistant,” said Jack.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“And I will be a major assistance,” said Aviras. “How much gold do you owe?”

Jack leaned back. He had wanted to ask about what was going on, but the dragon

had beat him to the punch.

“A little,” said June. “It’s not how much I owe, but whom I owe it too.”

“Does Dad know?,” asked Jack.

“No,” said June. She pulled a face.

“Maybe you will be able to repair your finances with your watch,” said Elaine.

“I have to check to see how that works,” said June. “I never had a magic watch

before.”

“It won’t work like it’s supposed to except if the name is specific,” said Jack. “I

don’t know how much I can get into it until the challenge is over. I don’t even know

if I can tell Matilda and Aviras anything without sending you home.”

“I think you can show us something since we are looking to use the resources we

have available,” said Matilda. “It will give us some idea on what to expect.”

Jack frowned. He had promised not to sabotage his sister. On the other hand, he

wasn’t really invested in that promise. He had broken his word to people he liked

more over less.

“I think you can show them something,” said Elaine. “Then June will have to practice

with what she has.”

“All right,” said Jack. “The first thing to realize is that whatever you got is not going

to be the same as what you are familiar with so the Falcon is like a guy with wings

but on the watch, he is a bird.”

He changed into a bird for a second before changing back.

“Most animal heroes are animals,” said Jack. “The second thing is some of the heroes

are close to what you want based on the name.”

He changed into his werewolf form which didn’t quite match up with Jack Russell.

It was close enough to demonstrate his point. He released the persona.

“What was that?,” asked Melanie.

“Werewolf by Night,” said Jack. “He was created in the seventies when Marvel

was doing their horror, kung fu, and blaxploitation phase. They had a lot of books

based around monsters, hand to hand fighters, and black people. As a werewolf, he

didn’t have a lot of control at first, and seemed to be facing off against monster

hunters and other monsters a lot.”

“I wonder why,” asked Matilda.

“Now the third type is a hero with a name that is changed into something completely

different,” said Jack. He turned into Quicksilver just long enough to be a mass of goo

before letting it go.

“Who was that, Jack?,” asked June.

“Quicksilver,” said Jack. “That’s the reason I use Makkari all the time as my speedy

travel guy.”

“Okay,” said June. She looked at her watch and twisted her settings around. “I don’t

know any of these guys, unless Bond is James Bond.”

“We’ll go out to the Hangar and test it,” said Josie. She put Jack’s coffee on the table

by his hand. Food appeared in front of the crowd. “What’s the quest?”

“I have to find some guy named Boim Russ,” said June.

“Mine is to help her find Boim Russ,” said Matilda.

“I can’t tell you how to use whatever you got to find him,” said Josie. “Knowing

the Society, he will probably be dangerous, Juni. Do you want to keep with this?

I can send you home with enough money to cover your debt and get you out from

under.”

“There’s not enough money for that,” said Juni. “It’s not about the money anymore.”

“All right,” said Josie. “Eat up, and we’ll head out to the Hangar to practice. I think

you could put the archery range out there too, Jack. Alicia can go out there and

practice as long as she stays in the fear ring.”

“What do you think, Number Two?,” asked Jack. He turned his grin on her. She

looked at him with an emotionless face, and raised a fist.

“Archery!,” she said.

“You damn skippy,” said Jack.

“All right,” said Josie. She smiled as she sipped her coffee. “I have to write a letter

to Warner. Then we go.”

“I have to start on the com bands,” said Jack. “I don’t think the regular coms have a

chance to call upstairs.”

“It will be a couple of hours before we have to go to practice,” said Bea.

“And the flight over is fast,” said Laura.

“Don’t let anything happen to your sisters,” said Josie. “If there is trouble, call me.

I’ll straighten it out.”

“I don’t think anyone at the Hall who knows who you are is going to bother us,” said

Laura.

“There is always some clown trying to ice skate uphill,” said Jack. He smiled.

“What does that mean?,” asked Melanie.

“Even though, Josie has a bad reputation, there is always going to be someone who

will try to do something because they don’t believe the stories,” said Elaine. “It’s

human nature.”

Jack grinned and raised his hands to present Elaine to the room. He knew he had

found the right woman at the right time.

“We all know she is smarter than you,” said Juni.

“You looked great for your date night,” said Laura.

“I agree,” said Bea. “I was jealous.”

“I guess we have to clean up before we go?,” said Angelica.

“Go ahead,” said Josie. “Juni, Matilda, and Aviras. Shall we go?”

“I’ll call when I have the bands ready,” said Jack. He took his off. He should have

thought about a need to call the Enterprise for future work.

“We’re just going to see what Juni can do,” said Josie. “I still have to write the letter

to Mister Warner. We should be back in a few minutes.”

“I’ll be waiting,” said Jack. He leaned over and kissed his beloved on the cheek.

“I love you,” he said. “You were great standing up to the Society. I thought this

woman is too good for me.”

“You’re right about that,” said Melanie.

“I should have told you about some of what was revealed,” said Elaine. “I didn’t think

it would come out quite like that.”

“We can talk when there aren’t so many nosy parkers in our business,” said Jack. “I

don’t imagine Josie will take long with her coaching, so I have to get my part in this

done. So to the office.”

“Not nosy,” declared Alicia.

“Not tall either,” said Jack. He stood and picked up his com band. “Since some of us

have to clean up this mess before the Wicked Witch gets back, elbow grease should

be applied rapidly to the process.”

“Yes, Milord,” said Beatrice. She stood. “Is Matilda going to be safe?”

“Yep,” said Jack. “I’ll keep an eye on her while I’m doing things. I might be able to

con Old Man Warner into actually helping Juni with the quest. He might not be on

the restricted list.”

“We’re counting on you,” said Beatrice. She waved her hands at the other girls to get

them moving.

“Archery,” said Alicia happily. She hugged Jack before taking her plate into the

kitchen to be cleaned.

“I should see if Jane is up to be called,” said Elaine. “I’m sure she will need more

help with what we proposed.”

“If you need me, I’ll be up in the office working on the com band stuff,” said Jack.

He examined his band as he headed for the stairs. He passed Bea’s room, his old

room, and entered the office. He sat down behind the desk and looked at the band as

he thought about what he needed.

He would have to do the same with Josie’s band too. Elaine’s might also need to be

altered. He doubted he wanted to give that much access to the kids, and Aviras didn’t

have a band yet.

He should make the dragon a band so he could call Matilda at least.

Juni’s band would just go to him, Josie, and Matilda. When the challenge was over,

he would think about expanding her call list. And he would have to put on a button

for her so he and Josie could call her to see how much trouble she was in.

Did he have to go home to straighten out her problems? Would the Society even

allow him to put his list on pause until he fixed her thing? If he got a chance to ask,

he would.

Until he knew if he could, he would have to act to make her a place in his new home

no matter how much he didn’t like it.