Jack plopped the wagons down inside the gates of the Corle estate. He had chosen a

flashy way of doing things, but he didn’t regret it. Now he had to look for Corle’s

body and his magic ring.

First he had to recharge his watch. All that flash had cost him some in resources.

“All right, ladies,” said Jack. “The house should be open to you. I would suggest

looking around and figuring out what you want to do. I have to head back north. If

you need anything, send a runner over to the Coin where you guys were and Master

Guin will look out for me.”

“What about the taxes on this place?,” asked one of the other women.

“I have no idea,” said Jack. “I would be more worried about what could happen if

Corle’s partners want to know what happened to him. Tell them the truth. Tell them

the Montrose murderer did away with him, and is looking for them.”

“Do you think that will help?,” asked the head woman.

“Only if they know enough to be scared of what Josie might do to them,” said Jack.

“I’ll check back with you in a few days. Keep your heads down, and think about what

you want to do the rest of your lives.”

“I would like to meet this Josie,” said the head woman. “I want to see if she is as

formidable as you say.”

“Probably more than I think,” said Jack. “I will swing around when I get back to the

city.”

He checked his watch before he scaled the wall. He dropped down on the other side.

He turned and started north. He only had enough of a charge to clear the city.

He walked along the streets, waiting for the ding of full power. Once he was sure he

had enough to last for a while, he would use Gravity to carry him north to where he

had encountered the wagon train.

He could use Makkari, but he wanted to fly more than travel fast. He wanted the time

to think as he traveled across the continent.

Questions about the ring and how Corle got it cycled through his mind. He put them

away. He wasn’t getting any answers unless the gangster had survived the orbital shot

he had been sent on.

Jack didn’t expect anything like that to happen. He could be wrong, but that was why

he was going upcountry to keep things on track.

The thought of real magic in the air made him think of becoming a real magician.

Could he do it with his watch? That would be nice, and give him more options other

than punching things.

He wondered if he could build a ton of artifacts with his watch that he could power.

What would a magic staff look like in this world? Could he build a ring to power him

up like the ring at Accordly, or the Dark Rider’s tomb?

He put the thoughts aside as the watch told him it was ready to go. He called up

Gravity and flew over the wall and headed north. He decided the place he should start

was where he had turned the Dark Rider’s tomb into a lake.

Then he could start looking for Corle’s body.

He kept an eye on his countdown time as he traveled. It wasn’t as fast as Makkari, but

it was still fast. Once he had that starting point, he had to figure out a search pattern.

He thought Josie could find the ring a lot faster with Zatanna, but the girls were good

for her. She didn’t need to run around helping him when she should be keeping an eye

on the kids.

And they didn’t know if they could stay since they had completed all of the primary

quests in record time.

Jack had to land and recharge the watch after minutes of air time. He used that to

walk along the road, eye out for the local wildlife. He wondered where the strange

animals like the jackalope he had seen had come from. Were they all magical in some

way too?

He could invent quests about finding out the answers for all these questions forever.

Would the Society step in and tell him to cool it? Did he want them to? How much

could they push things with their sponsors?

Jack decided that was the real question. How far could they go before there was a real

threat of them losing their watches and the sponsorship? Would they be stuck in

Fantasy Land with nothing but their skills? Would they be sent home, and someone

else selected to do things?

He took a breath as he paused on the road. The watch dinged again. He switched to

Makkari and ran the rest of the way to the new lake he had constructed. He stopped

running when he came within sight of it. He let the transformation go so he could

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think about what had happened.

He had been the Human Torch, got blasted, became Gravity and flung Corle into the

air as high as his power reached. Now he needed to know if the gangster had survived

his rough treatment.

He might have if the ring allowed him to fly. The only evidence that it hadn’t was that

he hadn’t tried to stop Jack from dealing with the Dark Rider, and the women being

allowed to run away with his treasure.

Jack thought that maybe the angle falling down from above was on the other side of

the lake. How did he check everything out?

What could he do with his watch? He had some brains on the dial. Would Mister

Fantastic still be a genius? Would he be able to figure out the angle of descent from

memory?

Would he be able to make an artificial arm for Master Harp like he had been

promised?

He decided to try Mister Fantastic, and if it worked he could use the persona to build

telephones and trains to revolutionize the world.

Jack hit the dial and switched bodies. Concepts flooded his brain, but he concentrated

on what he needed. He nodded at the required math and the spread of landing spots.

Apparently Mister Fantastic remembered more than he did about the fight. He didn’t

have any way to mark the area, but he thought since he had an area to search he could

exchange Mister Fantastic for one of his fliers and search from the air.

He switched to the Falcon and took off with a flap of his wings. He soared over the

forest, checking the trees as he went. He found a hole in the canopy after a few

minutes of searching.

Had Corle survived the crash with his shield? He could be trying to get back to Hawk

Ridge to cause trouble. He wasn’t going to like his former slaves moving into his

house.

Jack landed in a tree. He let the Falcon go. He decided to recharge the watch before

he tried to narrow things down further.

He wasn’t going to give Corle another chance. The mobster had proved himself too

ruthless to live. And if he could stop him from wrecking anything else in Hawk

Ridge, it would be worth it despite the quest to get the ring.

He liked doing good when he could. It lightened his soul.

When the watch dinged to tell him it was at full power again, he decided the best way

to search the forest was as Doctor Druid. He called on the other persona and sent out

a questing note from where he stood.

Everything turned to point him toward his goal. He smiled in satisfaction. If Corle

had survived his fall, he hadn’t gone far. He had the trees hand him along until he

found the impact site.

Corle had tried to use his shield to save himself from the look of the crater in the

ground. It had partially worked. Then the shield had winked out and he had hit a tree

without its protection. Then he had tried to crawl away, but his broken bones hadn’t

let him go far before something hungry had come across him.

But the ring was still there. It remained on what remained of his hand. Apparently he

hadn’t enough stamina to fight off the predator that had come for him. Or he had died

and been scavenged.

Jack took the ring to settle the quest, nodding at the ding in his head. Then he

gathered the body together and buried it. He didn’t put a marker on the site. No one

but him needed to know about it.

He would deal with the ring when he reached the city. Then he could ask Elaine to

check on artifacts loose in the world. He wasn’t going to trigger a quest to start

searching for them, but he did want to know what he might have to face if he stayed.

He might should ask her if there were more legendary monsters they might have to

clean out in the future. That could give them a jumpstart on exorcizing all of the

problems ahead before there were quests for them.

Maybe the next time he talked to the Reed Society, that should be something they

should discuss.

He let Doctor Druid drop and walked along. He needed to head south. By the time he

got home, Josie and the girls would be finished at the hall. He needed to stop and get

ice cream so he could rub his victory in.

He smiled as he walked. Once home, he could take the rest of the day off, or take the

ledgers by Master Guin. He had a few hours of traveling time to decide on what he

wanted.

He didn’t like that the Money Exchange seemed to be behind the slavery ring. When

they ripped that up, plenty of innocent people would be harmed by their actions. It

meant having to put new administrators in charge that they could trust. And he only

trusted Josie and Elaine.

If Josie and he finished their quests, they would be gone. It would be up to the people

living here to fix the problem. And he didn’t trust them to do that.

Maybe they would fix the problem if they knew more about it. Elaine did say some

adventurers had attacked part of a group that had been exposed when they put the

curse down.

He decided he couldn’t count on that. He was surprised he had been able to strike a

deal with Master Guin.

He supposed that having a wizard on the payroll outweighed any potential problems

that the wizard could cause by pursuing his vendetta across the continent.

Master Guin would probably cut them loose as soon as their usefulness was over.

Jack could see that. Who wanted two crazies on the payroll if they didn’t need them?

The Iceman only kept working because the mob needed to kill people. If he had

started killing anybody he wanted, they may have turned on him sooner.

He called on Makkarri and headed south. He wondered how much he was beating

down the road with his superspeed. He might be creating a local legend like the Ghost

of the Road.

He arrived at Hawk Ridge. He flew over the wall and looked for an ice cream shop.

He found one after minutes of searching. He smiled at that. He bought a gallon of the

stuff and took it home.

He put the desert in an icebox he created and got a bowl down. He dipped out the

bowl and took it to the dining room table. He smiled as he ate the ice cream.

The ladies arrived while he was eating his second bowl. He waved his spoon at them

as he leaned back in his chair.

“How’s it going?,” he asked. He took another bite of ice cream. “This stuff is good,

but they only have vanilla.”

“You are a fiend,” said Alicia.

“I know, right,” said Jack. “It’s part of the charm.”

“We’re thinking about doing a raid tonight,” said Josie. “Do you want in?”

“I don’t see why not,” said Jack.

“All right, girls,” said Josie. “Since Jack has graciously bought ice cream, let’s see if

there is any left for us.”

“Hold on,” said Jack. “That’s my ice cream. They have to earn it.”

“We’re getting the ice cream,” said Josie. “Then we’re doing the raid. That is all.”

“Okay,” said Jack.