Jack switched gears when he heard what had happened at the bank. He was glad the

phone bands worked. Instead of days later, he could look at things minutes later. He

still had to look at the recluse for Guin, but this way he could dig into the Exchange

in a way that he hadn’t thought about doing before they had sent someone after Josie

and Elaine.

He used Falcon to get across the city. He landed on the building he and Josie had

invaded. He dialed back to let his watch recharge. He looked at the names on his

watch as he waited. He really needed someone who could infiltrate the building and

let him listen to things until he was ready to spring his diabolical trap.

It looked like Invisible Girl was the primary there, maybe Ghost Rider depending

on what his actual powers were. It would be great to be able to walk through walls.

He saw Vapor and remembered her from the U-Foes.

He laughed at himself. If he had known he would be stuck in a Dungeons and

Dragons world with the whole of a Marvel roll call at his beck and call, he might have

boned up on what could be viable, or not. He supposed a lot of X-men would be

perfect for this situation.

He wondered if Bucky would be good since Brubaker turned him into a kid assassin

when they brought the sidekick back in Captain America. He smiled. Retcons are

the bread and butter of writers. Some of them work better than others.

At least it wasn’t as bad as some of the stuff that Josie groused about.

A company who didn’t know what characters were usable didn’t seem that aware

about what they were doing.

He needed to get across to the other side of the street. Then he could break into the

building and start looking around.

Maybe he should think about taking Josie’s bar of gold back.

He grinned at the thought of just stealing the bar back and putting it back in their

account until someone noticed something odd was going on. He decided to hold on

that until he had an idea of what he wanted to do about the rest of things.

He turned into the Falcon and flew over to the other roof. He realized that he had an

infiltrator that could fly. He returned to normal just long enough to turn into the

Wasp. He dropped down in the crack under the roof access door and headed down,

listening for voices to eavesdrop on.

He decided to find an empty office to recharge the watch before he ran out of power

and got into trouble. He frowned at each of the rooms on the top floors were barracks

for the staff. He kicked himself for not using the Vision to look at things before he

plunged in.

He found a linen closet and let the persona go. He listened to people talking as they

moved in the hall outside of his refuge. The gold bar and dead guards were all the

talk.

There was no doubt that Josie had done the deed. They didn’t know how.

He wondered how long it would take before some knucklehead decided to raid their

place on the wall.

He decided there was nothing he could do about that right now. The best thing he

could do for everyone involved was removing the Montrose and helping the city fix

the wound he was going to cause. That was all he could do.

Anyone coming at him while he was doing that had made themselves fair game in his

opinion.

He turned into the Wasp and flew up and down the corridor. He found offices under

the barracks. He worked his way down, and found the vault room and the counting

paraphernalia. Ledgers for each customer stood in shelves lining the wall.

They could use some computerization in his opinion.

He worked his way down to the main room where the clerks waited on people. A

check on the door showed they were locked and barred from the inside. So the

officers had already gone for the day, or they were upstairs in the barracks area.

How many needed the Blade treatment? He charged his watch behind the counter

as he pondered the question. Should he get them into a big room and ask some tough

questions, or should he just hunt them one at a time like Jason Vorhees? He tapped

the counter as he thought.

Maybe a quiet talk with Emer would give him something he could use. Then he could

think about what he wanted to do with the rest of the staff.

Letting them live seemed out of the question.

He had time to decide. He should go ask Emer some questions. Maybe some of these

people were prisoners that needed to be looked after.

He wondered when he had decided to embrace vigilantism. He decided that his time

in the Army had not been as good as he had thought. It had taught him the value of

hurting people who got in his way.

He walked up the stairs, looking for people who might want to get in his way. Maybe

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Captain America was the way to go here. He didn’t need to kill everything moving,

just persuade them to stay out of his way until he was done.

He had a goal in his search. He could let the rest run if they wanted.

And if they didn’t, he could deal with that too.

The barracks were mixed company. He hadn’t realized that when he had come

through as the Wasp. He frowned at the flower tattoos on the women he could see,

and the Makeover on the men. Some of the men reached for weapons when they saw

him.

He pressed the button on his watch. He would love to have a Bulletgirl on his roster.

He would have to make do with good old Cap, even if he had an eagle head and a flag

for clothes.

The next few minutes of the watch counting down on its use was filled with the

sounds of breaking bones and cries of pain. Jack let the persona go when no one came

at him. He looked around as he tried to decide what to do with the women. He

decided that it was up to them if they wanted to leave after the display he had put on.

“Jack?,” said one of the women. He recognized her as the clerk that had checked him

in with the sheets of gold they had made. “Jack Lee?”

“Have you seen Master Emer?,” Jack asked. “I wanted to have a talk with him.”

“There was a meeting,” said the clerk. “He went to see what was expected of him.”

“You wouldn’t happen to know where?,” asked Jack.

“I don’t,” said the clerk. She looked around. “Marsella?”

“I think it was with a man named Hent,” said the other woman. “They were meeting

at his estate outside the city.”

“Naturally,” said Jack. “It looks like you ladies are in charge of this branch of the

bank until someone comes down to try to take over from you. It would probably be

for the best if you sent a note to let the next guys in line know that something

happened here. That will give me fresh victims.”

“What about these?,” said the clerk. She waved at the broken bodies groaning on the

floor around them.

“What about them?,” said Jack. “If they’re smart, they will get out of town and try to

get a job with someone who doesn’t mind the way they look.”

“We can’t have them here in the Exchange,” said the clerk. “Not if you expect us to

take over.”

“So I need to get these guys out of here?,” asked Jack.

“Please,” said the clerk.

“None of you guys know how to fight, do you?,” asked Jack.

He could see they couldn’t defend themselves unless they got desperate. He frowned.

He needed to do something about things. He didn’t like it, but he couldn’t leave them

without someone looking after them.

And he couldn’t hang around either.

He had warned Guin this could happen. He didn’t expect it to be so soon.

“All right,” Jack said. “I’m going to call a guy and see if he can get guards for the

building. I’ll talk to Josie about getting another bar of gold to fund things for you. I

doubt the bank will pay to guard you from itself.”

He hit the button on the band for Guin. He waited for the answering ding.

“I’m here,” said Guin.

“I need a group of guards for the Exchange,” said Jack. “It looks like the local

officers are meeting with your target tonight. I am going over there and seeing what

is going on.”

“I will let Linus know,” said Guin. “I will have to hire adventurers to do this.”

“I will cover the cost,” said Jack. “I don’t think we can let the Exchange have the

building back. It will be up to you to hold it while the staff work out what they want

to do now that I have dealt with their guards.”

“I will talk to my accountant to see what I can do about this,” said Guin. “This is

somehow better and worse than what I thought would have to happen.”

“I want to keep the people here safe until we figure out what we can do to mitigate

the problems,” said Jack. “We might make you head of all the Exchanges

everywhere.”

“That’s the last thing I need,” said Guin.

“I have to go,” said Jack. “Tell the adventurers to keep things safe, and not to let

anyone give orders other than you.”

“I understand,” said Guin.

“All right, ladies,” said Jack as he cut the connection. “Master Guin will send over

adventurers to look after things until we get things sorted out. If any of you want to

get out, let me know when I come back and we’ll work something out for you.”

“We’ll talk about it,” said the clerk. She gestured at the writhing bodies at her feet.

“Can you do something about these men before you leave?”

“I got them,” said Jack. “I’ll talk to your boss about this, and maybe I can get

something done.”

“They will want to go after this new business when they find out you were involved,”

said the clerk.

“It’s not like I can kill them more than once,” said Jack.

He flipped through the roll call and paused when he saw Warlock on the list. He

thought about using that persona. He decided to let it wait until he had some

downtime. He needed the boost from Majik, then he could look at the meeting.

They were probably trying to plan out how to get rid of him and Josie. Maybe killing

the Ducklings and Elaine were in the offing. Or maybe they weren’t a big enough

threat yet, and the meeting was about future endeavors.

The women pushed away from the shifting numbers and letters he had become. He

pushed on the wounded guards and they fell out of the building. He gave the women

a salute before pulling himself across the city towards where he had to be.

He landed gently at the edge of some trees. He didn’t see a wall, but maybe there was

a fence away from the road he was standing on. He could see lights in the distance.

That was where he had to be if he wanted to talk to Hent and Emer.

Fixing things for the clerks meant fixing things for the city. That was the only way

he could make a change that stayed around after he was gone.

“Josie,” said Jack. “Are you guys looking out at the Hole in the Wall?”

“Yes,” said Josie. “Everything is calm so far.”

“I have to crash this meeting,” said Jack. “The Exchange managers are meeting

Guin’s recluse. I have to go in and find out what’s going on. Also we might be

running the Exchange branch through Guin.”

“I guess that will make any charity work we do easily done,” said Josie.

“Hopefully when I get done, they will want to move out of town instead of trying to

take us on,” said Jack.

“I doubt that,” said Josie. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to flood the city looking

for us.”

“They won’t have to look far,” said Jack.

“Someone is banging on the door,” said Josie. “It looks like I’m going to have to do

some things myself.”

“Be careful,” Jack said. “They might try to swoop in with the police.”

“We’ll see about that,” said Josie. “Ask them what they want, Elaine. I have to change

into something on fire.”

The connection cut off as she activated her watch. Jack frowned. He could hurry

home, or deal with the problem in front of him. He decided that Josie could handle

things. He had to rely on her for that. He had to handle what he had in front of him.

It was time to see what Hent had going on.