Jack decided that the first thing he needed to do was get the dining room table out in

front of the Hole in the Wall. And then he needed to figure out a way to expand it to

hold everybody who decided to come.

He decided that he could do some timey-wimey, weebly-wobbly, jellied space-time

to fix that.

He was also going to have to create some phantom chefs to help fix the food. He

could do both things.

He needed something temporary for this dinner. He didn’t want phantoms using his

kitchen. There could be accidents that would make Josie mad enough to wreck things.

“What do you think the menu should be, Elaine?,” said Jack. He paced the front of

the apartment, measuring things with his eyes.

“We could load up a wagon full of vegetables,” said Elaine. “I don’t know about any

meat we can get.”

“Get whatever you can,” said Jack. “I’ll do what I can with what you bring back. If

you have to, just send it with a messenger and I will throw it on the barbie.”

“That sounds doable,” said Elaine. “We have three hours before the girls are done

with their training.”

“All right,” said Jack. “We can work with that.”

“Do you know how you are going to do this dinner?,” said Elaine.

“I have an idea that will make the kitchen unusable until the dinner is over,” said

Jack. “If it works out, will things be done by sundown, or will I have to serve the food

in waves?”

“Plan to serve in waves,” said Elaine. “That will keep things simple.”

“All right,” said Jack. “I can do that.”

“I am going to get started on gathering things before I have to escort the Ducklings

home,” said Elaine. She kissed him on the cheek. “Try to stay out of trouble.”

He gave her a stealth hug before letting her go about her business. She looked good

in her dark green dress and undershirt. She looked good out of it too.

He needed to set up a bubble. That would allow the table to be stretched to hold the

extra people and chairs. And the best way to do that was to mark out a space for the

table. And he had the technology with his ring discovery using Magik.

So the first thing he needed to do was mark that space out with a ring of metal but he

didn’t have the metal on him.

He could get some from around the Hangar. All he needed to do was grab a tree from

out there and convert it into metal that he could turn into a ring of space.

He needed to do that before he actually moved the table outside. Once he had the ring

in place, then he could put the table outside so things would be in place. Then he

could figure out how to do his assistant chefs.

Then he would have to fix anything that went wrong with his experimental means.

He went to the stargate and stepped through to the hangar. He opened the roof from

the metal floor. He climbed up to the surface and looked around before he went to the

nearest tree. He looked back toward the city.

There was no way he could just blast this material back to his place. He could, but he

didn’t know where it would land on the other end.

He could do something with the stargate. He looked around for a taller tree. He could

turn that into steel to be used.

He could do a transfer to move the transformed wood into the hangar. Then he could

move everything through the gate. Once that was done, he could set up his space ring.

He wondered how the watch was handling the energy transfer of all the magic he was

throwing around. At least the quinjet was getting charged from the ambient air, and

mana charger in the hangar. He decided to ask the Society the next time they wanted

to talk to him.

He became Magik and formed a ring around the target tree. He formed another ring

he could carry with him. He dropped down inside the hangar. He placed the ring

down in front of the stargate to their apartment.

He activated the spell. Metal chips piled out of the ring at his feet. When it was done,

he went back to where the first ring sat and picked it up for later use. He dropped

back down inside the hangar. He closed the lid before he moved to the next phase of

the plan.

He opened the door and sent the chips through the gate. When he was done with that,

he followed them to his living room. He looked around for something to carry the

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metal chips.

He found an apron in the kitchen. He laid that down on the living room floor. He put

everything on the apron and carried it outside in the street.

Once he had the chips laid out in a rough circle, he moved the table out in front of the

former hideout. Once he had a rough size to judge by, he had to put his bubble in

place. He could just make the ring and wait until everyone arrived. He didn’t want to

drain the street of energy before he needed to.

He still had to put the ring in place. He looked around. He might need a public

bathroom. He doubted the one in the apartments would take care of forty people.

He put the consideration aside for later.

He used Magik to turn the metal chips into a ring with the words he needed inscribed

on the hoop. He stretched it out four feet beyond the table. He walked around it with

his sense active. It was ready. All he needed to do was light it up.

He returned to normal. His neighbors were in the street looking at what he was doing.

He waved at them. He still needed to do something about the kitchen help.

He stepped inside the kitchen. Things would be easier when he had the ingredients.

He could look at them and then come up with dishes. Then he could have his

imaginary servants help him make the food. He would have to have real people to

help him serve his guests.

He thought Elaine would help him with some of it. Maybe he could get the girls to

help him carry the rest.

Maybe he should have everyone come up to a buffet/cafeteria style setup, and then

he could portion out the food for them.

He grinned at himself. He should have given more thought to the process. He could

be stuck trying to serve everyone if his help turned out to be no good.

He lit the fire for the hearth. He made sure the grill was in place so he could cook on

it. He definitely needed to come up with an oven.

He decided to use pylons to be the base of his chefs. He could build in telekinetic

hands for them to chop up vegetables, cook meats, and season things.

He needed some more metal for the pylons. He would have to go back to the hangar

and change another tree. He looked around the kitchen, thinking about things.

He might need to temporarily expand the kitchen to keep things going so that he

didn’t have to work so hard.

Maybe he needed to expand the hearth so he could cook more than one thing at a

time.

He could do it with enough metal to act as his space ring. He definitely had to go back

to the hangar and get enough material. That should take a moment. He wondered how

long he had to cook everything.

He might have to do something to make the hearth cook at a hotter temperature. He

should look at that and cook something before the crowd got together.

Maybe he should try for the cake that Josie wanted. He would need eggs and milk for

that.

He needed to make those servants and see how they did cooking. That would show

him how to finetune them. He nodded at the decision. He should try for something

small first, before he let them do the big one.

First, he had to build them and make sure they could do what they wanted. And that

meant he needed the metal. And that meant going back to the hangar and using his

magic to transform trees into the material he needed.

He went back through the stargate. He found the biggest tree near the hangar. He cut

it down and chipped it into parts. He moved the parts back through the gate. He took

everything into the kitchen and built the three chefs he needed and created a space

bubble for the hearth and icebox.

He felt a surge. He needed to take the bubbles down when they were done with

dinner. They were eating up too much energy, and he was sure they were grabbing

whatever from his watch and com band, and people in the street. He couldn’t let the

spells eat people while he was feeding them.

He needed to keep the girls out of the apartments. The drain would swallow them up.

He couldn’t allow that.

Bea’s boyfriend was another hand.

He stepped out in the street. He needed the ingredients. He couldn’t do anything else

until he had those. He wondered how Josie was doing over there across the country.

He should have went with her. They would have already been on the way back.

Then he could have sent her with Elaine to get the kids and ingredients. Then they

would get to cooking that much faster.

The neighbors were watching his table. He wondered if they were going to ask to sit

in with him and the others. He didn’t mind, and he had asked Guin to quit extorting

them for protection.

He looked up at the sky. He could fly above the city and check random things out

until his stuff showed up. He could start trying to find the Lich Queen with the rest

of his time.

He wondered if he could use the maps to do what Josie had done with her scry birds.

He didn’t know. He was using Magik to specialize in strange tech. That had to be

better than just wishing for a result to happen.

He didn’t really like that. He was a big supporter of heroes with explanations for the

things they were doing. Green Lanterns with their magic rings would never be as

good as Captain America in his opinion.

He wondered what else he could be doing. Maybe he should visit the elves and look

around for the Dragon that was supposed to kick up. He would love that. It was right

out of King Arthur.

The cart rolled up with the girls and the food. He smiled. He admitted to himself that

he had been quietly going crazy waiting for them to get home. Now he had to put

everything away and get to work.

“Don’t go into the kitchen,” said Jack. “It’ll kill you. Just change and get ready for

the guests if any of them show up. I want to see if the chefs I made can put together

a fruit plate for us to snack on until dinner is ready.”

“A fruit plate?,” asked Angelica.

“It’s a plate that has squares of fruit on it,” said Jack. “They’re snacks until the main

courses can be served. Let me get things started while you girls clean up and get

ready. I don’t see the boyfriend.”

“He’s coming later,” said Beatrice. “I told him what to expect.”

“I don’t see how when I don’t know what to expect,” said Jack. He checked his

watch. It was running slower than he expected. He definitely needed to shut things

down after dinner was served.

“He’s really timid,” said Alicia. “I think Josie scares him.”

“She scares me too,” said Jack. “Let me put things up, and we’ll do our test run. Go

ahead. I want to see if these things will do a good job, or if they explode and take the

kitchen with them.”

“Why do you say things like that?,” asked Melanie.

“Army training,” said Jack. He smiled at her. “Time for some Gravity.”

He changed bodies and picked everything up with his power. He dragged it into the

kitchen and put everything away where it went. The chefs flexed their hands at the

sight of things to turn into food.

“Can you chop up some fruit into squares for the kids?,” said Jack.

The chefs went to work.