Jack hurt. He realized he was lucky to still be alive. His Human Torch was simple fire, but now he was spread out all over the place. He should have considered the presence of artifacts but hadn’t. He might have to reconsider his dealings with Master Guin in the face of magic rings punching through his body.

He needed to get back together and figure out if he had someone he could use to heal up and recover. Then he could deal with his enemy.

He needed to reset after the mistake he had made.

Jack willed himself together, ignoring the pain that caused. He picked himself off the ground. He flung a lance of fire at the marked man as a cover. The beam shattered against a shield the ring threw in front of its owner.

Energy cut the air toward the fiery human as his target shot back. He scrambled out of the way.

He worked the dial and the flame snuffed out. He moved to the other side of the wagon as carefully as he could. He noted the other man didn’t track him with the ring. That was a break for him as long as he could be quiet.

He needed to think of what he could do to take the ring out of the equation. He tried to create a force field like the original Invisible Woman. Nothing happened.

All right. He needed to switch to something that could do work. He needed something to heal himself up also. Did he have anybody he could use to regenerate.

Not Wolverine. That would turn him into a cousin of a badger.

He went over the list on his watch. He didn’t have anything he could trust to heal himself other than Doctor Strange, and he wasn’t sure he could heal himself up when he was someone else.

Maybe there was someone he could use. He just needed to think.

He looked at Doctor Druid and Brother Voodoo. They could maybe do something if he could switch to them.

Doctor Druid might be able to create an elixir to fix any damage he might have taken as the Human Torch. All he needed to do was get away from the wagon before his enemy fired another beam at him from his magic ring.

Brother Voodoo might be able to summon spirits to fix things. He closed his eyes. He should have tested it before now that he needed to know what it could do.

Jack took a moment to think about what he needed to do to put his plan in motion.

The first thing he needed to do was get some distance. Then he could worry about the rest. He couldn’t take a hit in this body.

He looked around. At least most of the captives had been able to get out of the road. That meant he didn’t have to worry about them getting hurt while he did what he could.

He needed to think about a way to get them back to where they belonged too. He didn’t want to strand them in the middle of nowhere close to where an eldritch monster might turn them into some kind of demons to do its bidding. That would disappoint Josie so much.

And it would potentially make him a bad guy if he had to hurt them to stop the Dark Rider.

He could switch to Gravity and see if his enemy knew how to fly. That could buy him some time to come up with a better solution.

He liked the idea. Could he use it to win? What happened if the guy did know how to fly? That was another kettle of fish he would have to fry.

He worked his dial. Pain shot through his body again. He must have been really hurt from the blast his other body had taken. He had to ignore it for right now and do what he could to shut everything down.

And Gravity seemed the best way to go with this at the moment.

The ringmaster came around the fire he had created with his ring. He pointed the artifact at the glowing figure in blue. It was time to end the game. He screamed as he shot straight up in the air.

Jack smiled as he watched the body launch out of sight. By the time he came down, the caravan would be headed back to civilization.

Where had he got the ring? That was the first artifact that Jack had encountered in this new world. Where had it come from? Were there more out there?

Stolen novel; please report.

He resisted any urge to find out the history of the thing. That would be another side quest that would lead him away from fixing the Society’s problems and going home.

He felt like he was already over committed to tracking the rest of the Montrose and dealing with them.

Jack switched to Doctor Druid. He created a drink from some of the nuts he found on the ground. He switched back to normal and downed the elixir. He fought the urge to gag as he settled down in the shade of a tree. He pulled leaves and branches over himself and pushed into a crevice in the ground. He checked his watch. He had a few more minutes of use. He called on Druid to finish concealing his hiding place so he could sleep unmolested.

It wasn’t exactly a cabin and he was leaving the women to fend for themselves until he could get back on his feet. He closed his eyes. He had to let the elixir work long enough to get him back on his feet. Then he could solve the rest of things with his personas.

Hopefully, he wouldn’t be knocked out for so long he couldn’t fix the things that needed to be fixed.

And he really needed a way to talk to Josie so she wouldn’t be worried. They were in a strange land with strange stuff going on. He didn’t want her to come up and get hurt looking for him.

And he hadn’t anticipated a bad guy would have something to blow him up like that. The magic they had seen had been ritual stuff from Lovecraft. Someone had been able to make a blaster to try to stop him from doing what he had to do.

It hadn’t been the first time he had walked into something bad for him, and got away with it. He just needed to keep his lucky streak going.

He closed his eyes and let the elixir take effect. It was the only thing he could do at the moment. When he woke up, he would decide what he could do about the rest of the mess he was trying to fix.

The women would have to take care of themselves for the rest of the day at least. When he woke up, he would try to think of a way to get them home. He supposed some kind of magic carpet would be great.

Maybe he could enchant the wagons to take them back home like a self driving Tesla. He needed to put more work in if he wanted to avoid the wagons going into a lake, or river, between there and Hawk Ridge.

He wondered if Josie was doing all right, but noticed the bog hound quest was gone from his list. He smiled at that as he dropped off to sleep. She didn’t need him at all.

Jack came back to himself, wondering why everything was dark. He took a moment to gather his wits. Once ready, he switched to Doctor Druid and dug his way out of his nest.

Jack still felt drained. He fixed another elixir up and switched back long enough to drink it. Then he called on Hawkeye to check his surroundings.

His vision ranged out and showed him the woods around him. The guards for the wagons seemed to have fled with one of the wagons. He expected that was the treasure wagon. He could get it back if he wanted to do that. And the surviving guards were on Josie’s hit list.

The women had built a fire and moved the other two wagons in to act as a shelter from one side of the road. If something wanted to get to them, it wasn’t much protection. On the other hand, it was the best they could do with what they had.

He looked up at the night sky. He had lost a lot of time recovering. He groaned. There was nothing he could do about that. He had to reset and hope for the best.

He switched back to his normal self as he considered how to get in touch with Josie. Maybe he could send her a message after he figured out what he wanted to do.

“Hello the fire,” Jack called. “Can we talk for a minute?”

“Who’s there?,” shouted one of the women. She held a sword in front of her. Maybe she knew how to use it, maybe not.

“Jack,” said the traveler. “How goes it?”

“We’re fine,” said another woman. She approached the first, and gestured for her to lower her sword. “Are you the one that got us out of the cages?”

“Yep,” said Jack. “What are you going to do now?”

“Some of us would like to return to our homes, some of us have nowhere to go, and some would like something to do,” said the second woman. “What are you going to do now?”

“I’m out here hunting a monster,” said Jack. “It’s not really safe for you to be out here. If you want, I can help you get to Hawk Ridge so you can think about where you want to go from there.”

“We’ll have to talk about it,” said the second woman. “Can we camp here overnight?”

“I don’t see why not,” said Jack. “The surviving guards took the other wagon and fled south.”

“It had their treasure in it,” said the first woman.

“Do you want the treasure back?,” asked Jack. He stood in the trees. He felt he blended in the dark well enough. “It might help you start over.”

“Can you do that?,” asked the second woman. She looked at her bedraggled

companions. Some of them looked hopeful.

“I don’t see why not,” said Jack. “They were going to be hunted down anyway. Right now is just as good as later in my opinion.”

“We would like it if you could do that,” said the second woman. “Then we can split the treasure and move on to other things.”

“All right,” said Jack. “Just wait here and keep an eye out. I don’t know where the monster lairs so you should be okay as long as you don’t go further north. I’ll get the other wagon and bring it back. Then we can discuss you moving south and setting up.”

“Why are you helping us?,” asked the first woman.

“I’m on a mission from the gods,” said Jack. “I’ll be back in a bit. Have dinner and be ready to move out.”

Jack retreated deeper into the trees. He wondered what had happened to the guards he had wounded. Had they joined their brothers on the stolen wagon, or had they been left to lie where he had dropped them as Makkari?

Or had the women taken their revenge once they had seen the guards had been downed by him?

It wasn’t his worry unless they showed up and got in his way.

Jack called on Hawkeye and zeroed in on the moving wagon. He marked the distance as he switched bodies for the Falcon and took flight. He climbed into the sky and glided down the road, blinking when he saw the wooden conveyance rolling ahead of him with the power of the four horses pulling from the front.

He soared ahead and looked for a place to set up an ambush. Gravity should be enough to deal with most of the guards. He could switch to something else if he couldn’t get things done with his first choice.

Either way, he planned to have things settled before the night was over.