Jack gave the address for the Silver Coin for his delivery. He wondered how Guin’s

bagging and tagging the dead bodies he had left behind was going. He should swing

by and talk to the man.

Did he have time to swing by and watch how things were going? How fast could he

make a fake arm? At least he had enough metal to make some false starts before he

got it right.

He probably had enough to make two, or three, arms. He thought that he should make

it natural looking, but maybe Harp would like some kind of switchblade so he could

stab someone by surprise. The older adventurer seemed like someone who would like

that.

And Jack thought he could hide something in an extradimensional space with the help

of Magik. How hard could it be?

He decided that he needed to prepare a little better. He would need a plan for the arm,

some way to connect it to Harp’s shoulder, and a way to power it so the weight didn’t

drag the swordsman around every time he moved it.

He might need to put in a brace in Harp’s shoulder so he could move the thing as

naturally as a real arm. He should have watched the Six Million Dollar Man reruns

more when they were on the air. They would be a big help to him now to show him

how they had did Steve Austin’s arm, and legs.

“I have the technology,” said Jack. He smiled at the voice of Oscar Goldman running

through his head.

Jack arrived at the Hole in the Wall, and went in. It felt good to be able to lounge

around without the girls getting in the way. The only thing to make it better would be

a football game and some beer.

He wondered if he should put a platform as the top of the bubble he had constructed.

That way he had a patio to lounge around without having to deal with people in the

street.

He decided to put that up for group consensus when the group came back. This was

his lazy day. He was not chasing anything until the sun came up tomorrow. The only

exception he was willing to make was the girls getting into trouble and needing to be

bailed out.

He wondered what the next quests for the Society would be like. They seemed to like

the save the world type thing he used to see in books. He thought that petty stuff was

beneath them.

Jack laid down on the couch and closed his eyes. He thought about what he could do

for Harp. Various weapon designs sprang from his imagination, but he put them all

aside. He would have to talk to the knight about any he might build into the arm.

He didn’t want the man to stab himself, or his loved ones, by accident.

He certainly wasn’t going to try to put any kind of gun, or laser, in the thing. That

would make it easier to have an accident by just pointing the thing in the wrong

direction.

A simple hand and arm should do the trick. He needed to quit overanalyzing the thing

and get his metal and gauntlets from the Coin. He could talk to Guin while he was

doing that.

He wondered what else he could do.

“Jack?,” said his wristband.

He checked to see who could be calling him. He smiled when it was Elaine. He

wondered what the deal was. She should still be at the girls’ practice sessions with

Josie.

“I’m here, Elaine,” said Jack.

“A group of adventurers asked Josie for some help,” said Elaine. “She wanted me to

let you know that she will be busy with that for a bit.”

“She hasn’t tried to call me, so I guess she’s all right,” said Jack. He sat up. “What’s

the deal?”

“One of the group lost his sister, and they asked Josie to help them track her down,”

said Elaine. “She said she would help them.”

“Montrose stuff?,” asked Jack.

“It looks like it,” said Elaine. “It was the same group that was at the Tower when your

Makeover was put in effect.”

“I see,” said Jack. “Should I get involved?”

“I think Josie wanted you to know in case you had to follow in her footsteps,” said

Elaine.

“I’m expecting some metal to be dropped off at the Coin so I can work on Harp’s

arm,” said Jack. “I might have to put that on hold if this is real trouble.”

“I don’t think Josie will have trouble with the adventurers,” said Elaine. “I do think

that she will be fighting before the day is through.”

“We wait,” said Jack. “Either Josie handles this and comes home, or we give up

waiting after a day, and go look for her. I think that’s the way to go. If she is all right,

she won’t like us cutting in her business. If she isn’t, there’s nothing we can do for

her now.”

“I see,” said Elaine.

“I’m not happy about it,” said Jack. “But she will really not be happy if I save the day

for her and she didn’t need it.”

“I understand,” said Elaine. “I am not happy about it either.”

“You can’t keep your kids at home their whole lives,” said Jack. “Sometimes you

have to let them fly on their own.”

“I see,” said Elaine.

“At the very least, the Society will let us know if something does happen to Josie, and

she needs some kind of avenging,” said Jack. “Keep an eye on things, and we’ll

decide what to do in the morning.”

“All right,” said Elaine. “I also have to talk to the Rick if he comes in for the girls’

archery lesson.”

“If something comes up there, I will trade with Josie and deal with it for the Elves,”

said Jack. “That way we can get the quests done without too much trouble.”

“I will let him know,” said Elaine. “I have to go. The lesson is ending. I will tell Sir

Harp that you are working on his arm.”

“Ask him if he wants a concealed weapon in it,” said Jack. “I think I can do that, but

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I am not sure.”

“I will ask,” said Elaine. “Will you be able to make arms and legs for others?”

“I sort of saw this as a one time deal for someone who is helping us out,” said Jack.

“Does he want limbs for other people?”

“He said he would like to think about it,” said Elaine. “There are a couple of old

comrades who would love to have their arms back.”

“That’s fine, but I’ll have to at least look at them,” said Jack. “I don’t really know

what I’m doing with this.”

“All right,” said Elaine. “That was probably not what he wanted to hear.”

“I’m working part of the kinks out in my head as we’re talking,” said Jack.

“Eventually I am going to need to take measurements and look at his shoulder. Then

we are going to need to block out a period of time for him to get used to the arm and

make sure he can use it without hurting himself. If it works, and it doesn’t kill him

through any sort of nerve pain, then I can try to fit up any of his comrades he wants.

This won’t be like an assembly line where I can just slap an arm on anyone I want.”

“We understand,” said Elaine. “An assembly line to put arms on people would change

the world.”

“It would change mine too,” said Jack. “But such a thing is just out of reach. It would

take a minor miracle to get such a thing working there, and a lot of hard work to get

it working here. I have to get the metal so I can put together a toy arm to see if the

process works. If it does, a full-sized arm will be the next thing I’ll do.”

The call ended. Jack thought about the arm. Had he bitten off more than he could

chew? He thought that he could do the job with the help of Magik and Doctor

Strange. If he had to resort to the Angel, he would without a second thought.

He had promised a man an arm, and he would deliver it.

If he couldn’t, hopefully Harp would understand.

He decided to go over to the Coin and check to see if his metal had arrived. He would

figure some way to get it home from there. He might need to put together a work

room so he could put the parts he thought needed together.

Hopefully, Josie would have something to tell him by the time he got back. He didn’t

want to worry all night before taking matters into his own hands.

He was not going to put a letter together to send back to Josie’s mom to tell her

she had run off with some guys and got killed. He just wasn’t going to do that.

Jack got off the couch and headed out. He made sure to lock up behind him. He didn’t

want his neighbors thinking they could just break in while he was gone. Hunting

down thieves was just extra work he didn’t want to take on at the moment.

If someone did break in, he would turn the wrath of Josie on them in a second.

He flew over to the Silver Coin. He landed at the front door. They weren’t open

yet. He knocked on the door. Quint should talk to him for a moment. Then he could

get his stuff and move on to the next phase of his plan.

He had always wanted to be a doctor back home, but things had never worked out

for him. And the Army hadn’t really did anything for him. Now he had the chance

to do something with a force multiplier right out of a comic book.

“You again?,” said the manager of the casino. “What do you want?”

“I ordered some metal to be delivered here, and three gauntlets,” said Jack. “I’m

trying to build an artificial arm that works like a real one.”

“Of course you are,” said Quint. “I had a delivery of bars and said to myself, ‘Do

you think these are for an arm? Sure do.”

“So they came already?,” said Jack.

“No,” said the casino manager. “I will hold them if they do show up, but quit

bothering me.”

“But your sunny disposition makes my whole day better,” said Jack.

“Be that as it may, I have things to do,” said Quint. “I can’t do them if you are in my

way.”

“I can come in and help,” said Jack. “I can make a salad like that.”

“I don’t want you around,” said the old man. “What makes you think I will allow

you to make anything called a salad in my place. Go away.”

“One day, you’re going to need me to fix a problem,” said Jack. “Don’t think I won’t

gloat.”

“If that day ever comes, I will take any gloating with good grace,” said Quint. “Until

then, begone.”

Jack exhaled a sigh as the door slammed shut in his face. He sat down on the steps

and sulked for a moment. Maybe he needed to hunt up some excitement.

As he watched the street, a cart rolled up to the front of the casino. The blacksmith

waved at him from the shotgun seat. He got to his feet and waved back. His material

was here.

“Is this place yours?,” asked the smith.

“It belongs to a guy I know,” said Jack. “Let me help you unload things and I’ll take

it the rest of the way. Thanks for bringing it this far.”

“I would like to see whatever you make with this,” said the smith. “Usually the guild

doesn’t like outside competition, but I couldn’t see how what you said you were

making was possible.”

“This is a one time thing, maybe,” said Jack. “If it works like I think it will, then I’ll

be happy. Right now, I am still trying to figure out if I can hook it up to the shoulder

without killing the guy.”

“I can see where that would be a problem,” said the smith.

“Either way, I am not going into smithing as a full time job,” said Jack. “I have a lot

of other things I have to worry about before I can devote any time to that. If my friend

likes the arm, and it works properly, I will ask him if he wants to show it off to you.

That’s the best I can do.”

“That would be excellent,” said the smith. “Where do you want us to put the bars?”

“Just unload them right here, and I will finish moving them along,” said Jack. “If I

need more metal, I will come by and order from you.”

“That sounds good,” said the smith. He climbed up in the back of the wagon and

let down the gate. He pushed the bars of iron to the edge of the wagon. His assistant

gave Jack the three gauntlets he had ordered to show him how to put the hands

together.

Jack waited for them to pull off before he switched to Gravity. He yanked everything

in the air and flew home, using the roof tops as cover. He had to change back long

enough to open the Hole in the Wall before taking on Gravity again to bring the metal

in and stack it in the living room. He made sure the door was closed before letting

Gravity go.

Now he had to let the watch recharge before he could start working on things.

He decided to make a sandwich and get some water before he started working on the

metal. He might need to change into Doctor Strange and make notes about how an

arm should work so when he became Magik he could build one out of the metal

without too many problems.

How hard could it be?

He decided to see what Doc Strange had to say about things. He had time before the

girls came home. He didn’t really want them to see his other form. That would be a

little embarrassing for him, and he supposed horrifying for them.

He could do without either reactions.

His persona sprang up and put down a model for what a human arm should look like

from a waxy secretion. He nodded. It looked good to him.

He changed back to examine the arm. He nodded at the look of it. He could turn

it into something real for Harp. All he needed was a little bit of time and some Magik.

He grabbed up a gauntlet and went over it. He concentrated on the arm. He could

do it for a model, but he would have to be Strange again to put it on.

“How long would it take for me to put it on without hurting Harp?,” Jack asked

himself.

He didn’t have an answer for that. He waited for his watch to recharge before working

on the next step. He became Magik when the machine dinged readiness. He grabbed

an ingot and ran about twenty spells through it at the same time. It stretched out, but

he knew he didn’t have enough metal in one of the bricks. He added the rest one by

one, layering them in, until he had a complete prosthetic. Then the watch timed out.

He checked it out as he waited for the watch to recharge. It looked complete. He

needed to check it with Strange before he made some adjustments with Magik. Then

he needed to get with Harp to show him what he had, and explain what he planned

to do.

Getting his arm back would probably be as upsetting as losing it in the first place.

He decided to wait on the arm. He needed to psych himself up so he could just tell

Harp, and then do the operation as fast as possible. He needed a block of time and a

big charge on his watch.

He probably needed Josie to help with the fix. He didn’t want to run out of power in

the middle of things, with no backup.

He liked that as an option. It would make putting the arm easier if he had her on

hand to help him if he ran out of time.

He thought that he should hunt her down and wrap up her job, so he could get her

assistance. How fast could he wrap up her task so he could wrap up his?

He also had to deal with Guin over the mass killing he had committed.

He wondered who the new Duke would be. It might be his chance to get in with the

local government to help him do whatever jobs the Society wanted done. He looked

at the other side of the equation. It could also be an unveiling of new targets to get rid

of if they were in with the Montrose.

He wondered if Guin would try to get rid of him if the problem escalated.

It was something to consider.