Jack had gone to dinner and the show. He enjoyed sitting in the box with Elaine and

watching the story of Hurley hurling monsters across the stage. He had various ideas

for putting special effects for the show, but Elaine told him to write everything down

and if he wanted, he could try to sell them to the stage manager to see which ones

would work the best.

He acknowledged that he still had a lot of miniature quests to get done before he

could go into business as a prop man for a small theater. Even if he worked for free,

they couldn’t afford the exposure. And if something happened to him, no one would

know how to use anything he built.

Elaine led him back home, stopping by a small place still open to get him a slice of

pie to eat as they went. She smiled at his enthusiasm. It was almost like he had never

seen an apple pie before.

They entered the Hole in the Wall and paused at the singing coming from the living

room. The narrator was burying her brother where the wild things were.

Jack turned to leave. Elaine put her hand on his arm. She smiled lightly, and shook

her head.

They walked into the living room. The girls had settled in a circle in the living room

with Josie and June forming ends. Josie had her guitar in hand, and strummed the

song to a close.

“What you doing?,” Jack said. He smiled to cover what he felt, and that he had made

all the girls jump with his sudden appearance in the door. He should have ditched and

checked on things to avoid dealing with his sister.

He should have credited Josie more with what she could do with her watch. He kept

forgetting how insanely powerful they were.

Elaine kept a grip on his arm. He didn’t know if it was to hold him in place, or keep

him from becoming something awful and doing something worse.

“Jack!,” said June. She jumped to her feet. She stepped around the girls to charge

him. She picked him up in a hug, folding his extended arms that tried to keep her at

bay.

“Long time, no see, Juni,” said Jack. “You can stop crushing me now.”

“Hello, Madam Lee,” said Elaine. She wore her own smile. “I’m Elaine.”

“Josie and the girls say you are the brains of this outfit,” said June. “I can see they

were right. Call me June. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

June put down her brother, and extended a hand. Elaine took the hand. She didn’t

know what a handshake was, but she nodded as they shook hands.

“What brings you by, Juni,” said Jack.

“Jo-jo sent me a letter, telling me about this job you are doing, offered to arrange

transport here if I wanted to drop by,” said June. She shrugged at some of the

explanation. “I have a fight at the end of the month, so I decided to give up three

training days to come by and see how you are doing. Would you mind if we talked?”

Jack waved his arm to include the other women and dragon in the room.

“I don’t want to be embarrassed in front of Jo’s wolf pack,” said June.

“Ducklings,” called one of the girls.

“Ducklings,” agreed June.

“They eat like a pack of wolves,” said Jack, wearing his grin. “We can go for a walk,

I guess. The show was okay. I learned a little about Hurley the Hurler. If you could

tell the kids about it, Elaine, we’ll talk about whatever while we’re walking around

the neighborhood.”

“Don’t make us smurf you,” said Alicia. She shook her fist slightly.

“Are you wearing a shirt with the Avengers’ logo on it?,” said Jack. He grinned

harder. “And you don’t ever want to smurf with a smurf because you’ll get the smurf

smurfed out your smurf, small fry.”

“What did you just say?,” said Elaine.

“I’ll explain about the smurfs while Jack and June hammer out their problems,” said

Josie. “Go ahead. We have a lot of work to do, and we have to get up with the sun.”

“We will be back,” said Jack. He gestured for Juni to follow him as he headed back

to the front door.

“Elaine is your girlfriend?,” asked June. They stepped out of the Hole in the Wall and

paused long enough for Jack to lock the door.

“I had already planned to send you an invite to the wedding whenever we set the

date,” said Jack. “We haven’t set it yet though. We just met and we are still working

out living arrangements and things like that. Jo and the girls are an added

complication. And then there is our new job. We might still be living together ten

years from now and still pushing the big day off into the horizon.”

“You didn’t tell us you were discharged,” said June. “You haven’t even called since

you got out of the Army. Jo implied that you are being incredibly reckless. What’s

going on?”

“I would never be reckless,” said Jack. He directed their steps toward the Coin. If they

made it there, he could stop in and see how things were going. If they didn’t, that

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

would be good too.

“Baloney,” said June. “Try again. I don’t like that some guy my brother just met is

asking me why you are angry all the time. And you are. You can’t fool me, and you

probably don’t fool Jo and Elaine. So what’s going on? We used to talk all the time

before you went in, and we talked all the time when you were deployed, and now this

sullen silence. And you won’t look at me.”

“I didn’t have anything to write home about,” said Jack. “This is a chance for me to

start over, so I am working on it.”

“What about the girl you were seeing in the Army?,” asked June. “This Maria girl.

The letters you sent home about her were gushing. Mom used to read the letters to us

with smiles in her voice.”

“She died,” said Jack. “Blown in half before we could get out.”

“You’re kidding,” said June.

“Nope,” said Jack. He stared at a couple of muggers as he walked. They broke off and

went the other way.

“Josie doesn’t know, does she?,” said June. “You’re still grieving.”

“I don’t think that’s any of her business,” said Jack. “And neither should you.”

“Elaine is your rebound,” said June. “Does she know? Cause that is her business if

you want to settle down with her when you’ve only been together since you got here.”

“I’m doing the best I can,” said Jack. “I don’t talk to you about your personal stuff.”

“You used to,” said June. “And I didn’t mind. This is my last fight, Jack. After this,

I’ll have to get a real job and settle down. I’m thinking about asking Josie to get me

a spot here.”

“There’s no indoor plumbing yet,” said Jack.

“Would it matter to you if I did settle here?,” asked June.

“I don’t know,” said Jack. “Most of the continent is wilderness and cold wars. It will

be dangerous to live beyond the wall by yourself. Working in the city would take

more muscle than brains. I guess Josie could set you up a fund for the rest of your life.

Why move here at all when you could find things to do at home?”

“I don’t know,” said June. “I don’t know how far my retirement fund will carry me

in my old age, and I’m not photogenic like Rousey.”

“June,” said Jack. “What we do is extremely dangerous. Josie adopted those girls

because she killed a ton of guys that had put them in chains and was going to rape and

sell them. I have personally changed the local government and dealt with local

officials in a horrible way. If it came out that you were related to us, you would be in

a lot of danger here. I mean if you want to live here, I will find you a house and set

something up for you. You’ll have to do your own housework unless you hire a maid.

Then you have to work after the conversion of your funds to the local money.”

“So if I wanted to move here, you would help me?,” said June.

“I said I would,” said Jack. “The place looks like an isekai and it’s just as dangerous.

You might have to learn how to swing a sword and shoot a bow.”

“I still have some skills,” said June. “I think you should write home to tell Mom

what’s going on.”

“I’ll think about it,” said Jack. He turned the corner and headed for a building with

a line in front of it.

“So a soft no,” said June. She walked in step with him, frowning at the line of people.

“I said what I said,” said Jack. A trace of irritation crossed his face. “I’ll think about

it. When I figure out what I want to do, I’ll hand Josie a letter to send home. That’s

how it is.”

“You can do better than that,” said June.

“But I’m not,” said Jack. He went to the head of the line. He exchanged a few words

with the door men before stepping away from the door. He waved a farewell as he

started down the street.

“What was that?,” asked June. She pointed behind them with her thumb.

“Gambling house,” said Jack. “One of our partners owns it.”

“Partners?,” asked June.

“We have eighty five women and an unknown amount of soldiers that we are going

to have to operate on,” said Jack. He kept moving, walking through the dark streets.

“He’s helping us get the necessary space for when I pull them back to the real world.”

“Eighty five?,” asked June. “I thought you guys had things under control.”

“The neighboring country decided to try to create a zombie plague,” said Jack. “So

we had to deal with it. That’s the new job. Our boss gives us a job, and we have to

figure out where the action is going to be and handle it. We got by with some luck

and Josie and I basically murdering anyone in our way. It’s not clean, but something

has to be done to deal with these screwheads.”

“The dragon is one of your jobs?,” said June.

“He was going to drain the elves’ kingdom, so I had to put him in his place,” said

Jack. He veered along, looking for the street sign he wanted. “For some reason, he has

taken to Matilda.”

“You not worried about that?,” asked June.

“Matilda likes him, and he likes Matilda,” said Jack. “When she is an adult, and doing

her own thing, I imagine he will still be hanging in there and trying to get back to his

full size again.”

“I guess,” said June. “There was some talk about a curse, but I wasn’t paying

attention.”

“I’ll be dead long before the shrinking wears off,” said Jack. “The things we’ve faced,

some of them could have gone worse. At least I didn’t have to cut Elaine’s arm off

to save her life.”

“I’m glad about that,” said June. “She wouldn’t stay on if you did that.”

“So are you going to stay with us, or do I have to put money down for an inn?,” asked

Jack.

“You’re still mad about me coming over,” said June. “I can see that.”

“It was a surprise,” said Jack. “We’ll put you up in the Hangar. That way you can

have a whole spot to yourself until the morning. I’ll show you how to use the gate

back and forth. It’s empty since the quinjet is on the Enterprise.”

“The quinjet?,” asked June.

“I made a jet before I made the Enterprise,” said Jack. “We left it aboard the

Enterprise and used the transporter to come down.”

“I still can’t believe you built a replica starship with magic,” said June.

“I had to destroy a small town and a bunch of trees,” said Jack. “The engine is being

run by natural life energy so I don’t know if it can leave orbit. It is sitting high above

us so we can call on it and use it as a transport.”

“What else are you going to build?,” asked June.

“Josie asked me to tone it down,” said Jack. “I could have built a Tardis but I didn’t

think about it before the embargo came down.”

“I think the Enterprise is a lot for this backwards place,” said June.

“We’ve dealt with some things,” said Jack. “The city could have been destroyed if we

hadn’t been here. There are things underneath that are worse than back home, unless

there are people back home doing what we are doing and stamping things out.”

“That bad?,” said June.

“We could have lost the country just on the zombie job,” said Jack. “And we have

no guarantee that the government involved will take the warning seriously and stop

what they are doing.”

“Do you need a hand?,” asked June.

“I’m not in charge of that,” said Jack. “Old man Warner got a watch too, but he didn’t

put it on. Josie sent him a letter to let him know what happened to us, but we haven’t

seen him yet. He might be scared of getting quests again.”

“The comic book guy?,” said June.

“Apparently he was the guy in charge before we got the job,” said Jack. “I found his

ring and am working on letting Bea have it after I make sure it is safe.”

“What about the other girls?,” asked June.

“I have some ideas,” said Jack. “Let’s head home, and I will show you how to get to

the Hangar. Then we can get you some blankets and stuff so you can have a pad.”