Jack wished he had a long range teleport like Josie. He would have to settle for using

the Enterprise to get where he had to go.

He peeked in the room. Emily looked at him from the window.

“Have to go,” said Jack. “Some giant monster is tearing up the south. We’ll be back

as soon as we can to deal with the rest of this.”

“We’ll still be here,” said Emily. She shooed him out of the room.

Jack nodded and retreated into the hall. He headed for the elevator. He needed to get

up to the Enterprise. Then he needed to head south to Tern as fast as possible.

He triggered his com band as he ran.

“Communication opened,” said the machine.

“Beam me up, Enterprise,” said Jack. “Then we have to head south. There’s trouble

brewing down there.”

“Affirmative,” said the machine.

A cloud of blue sparks surrounded Jack as he paused at the elevator door. He

vanished from the hall.

Jack ran to the lift to the Bridge as the Enterprise’s engines engaged. He couldn’t feel

the ship turning but he knew that was happening. He hoped he could bring the big

guns to bear before the others were wrecked.

He made it to the command center and descended to his chair. The big screen was

momentarily blacked out as the ship rushed across the sky.

“Bring up torpedoes and phasers, Enterprise,” said Jack. He sat down. “We need to

head to Tern on the southwest coast of the continent. Mister Warner and Juni found

a giant door in a cliff.”

“Affirmative,” said the machine.

It was probably a good thing they didn’t have a crew manning the Enterprise yet.

Most people would lose their minds if you told they were going to have to fight a

giant radioactive lizard spraying nuclear flame everywhere.

The Enterprise’s AI was I have five rounds rapid for the brute, sir.

Jack liked that in his machine.

“Position marked,” said Enterprise. “I am taking station above the water.”

“Need a picture of what’s going on,” said Jack.

The big screen snapped on. A horde of snake heads fired bolts of flame at the three

humans on the ground. A cloud of sand became a wall of stone to stop the onslaught.

Smaller beasts rushed from the cliff. Some veered from the fight and ran to get clear

before they became targets too.

“All right,” said Jack. “Our forces are standing too close to use torpedoes. Can you

fire phasers at the snake heads?”

“Affirmative,” said the machine.

Pulses of golden light started picking out the fast moving targets. The energy blew

the heads up on contact. Jack smiled until he noted something happening to the

stumps left over from the shooting.

Two heads grew out of some of the stumps, dividing from the injured necks.

“It’s a hydra,” said Jack. “Great.”

He thought about what he could about it from where he was. He needed to do

something from the ground. What could he do?

He had an idea what he could do. He had already used it once. All he needed was

a little bit of time.

He couldn’t call the others. They were all using their personas to fight the beasts

trying to escape the cave in the cliff. He had to go down and rig up that kind of

surprise.

It meant getting close to those dragon heads while they were spraying death across

the stony beach. He didn’t like that at all. He frowned. He needed to get to it if he

wanted to save the day.

He could gloat about this for years if he lived.

Josie would be tired of it after the first five minutes. That made it all the sweeter.

“Enterprise, I want you to stay up here and shoot at any moving target, go for body

shots on the big one,” said Jack. “I’m going to go down there and try to save the day.”

“Affirmative,” said the machine. The sound of phasers firing filled the hull.

Jack took the lift down to the cargo bay. He didn’t want to use the transporter. He

might beam down and get struck by his own side by accident. It was better to dive

from the cargo bay and drop to the edge of the battle.

Then he could inflict his surprise move.

He jogged over to the cargo bay exit and triggered the massive doors to open. He

slipped through the shield that snapped into place by the glowing lights on the edge

of the door. He became Ikkaris and headed toward the ground as fast as he could.

Stolen story; please report.

He watched as June used Kami to create sand and rock hands to grab any of the

monsters trying to break free. Mister Warner had turned into a green giant and

wrestled with the hydra while Josie tried to keep the heads from biting him or setting

him on fire with her birds.

It was time to add his ability to the mix and stop the problem where he could.

Jack dropped Ikarris. He had one chance to do this. He didn’t know if he would be

able to create the spell fast enough before his watch timed out.

No guts, no glory was what everyone said back in Basic. Did he still have any after

coming to this place? He smiled.

You had to have plenty of guts to keep up with Josie Fox.

He summoned Magik. He drew a circle in the pebbles to create the basis for his ring.

He transformed the raised edges into a fragile thing of iron. He grew it on the beach,

expanding it to take in the fighting group. Then he contracted the ring. A much

smaller hydra looked up at him from his feet. He watched as the flames hit the air

above the ring and stopped.

“This is how I like to do things, little guy,” said Jack. He let his persona go so he

could recharge his watch.

“We’re not bringing that home,” said Josie.

“Juni?,” said Jack. He grinned at his sister, who was huffing in her persona.

“There’s not a snowball’s chance in Hell I’m bringing that menace to my new house,”

said June. She pointed at the lizard still blasting the invisible wall around it.

“No,” said Mister Warner from his height looking down. “We still have to round up

these other things before they make it off the beach.”

“I’ve got it,” said June. She sent out a multitude of puppets to latch on to the monsters

trying to flee. She pointed at the cliff face so the rock golems knew where to take

their burdens.

“I’m about to time out,” said Josie. “Let me see if I can get the others who ran away

back.”

She sent out a flock of birds to match with the beasts running down the beach, some

of them headed for the water. The birds popped and the monsters appeared inside the

cave just inside the mouth. They fled back into their prison in front of June’s golems.

Mister Warner let the giant go, and shrank to his normal height. He looked at the

damaged door. The hinges had eventually given way. Then the thing had been

knocked out of place by the giant hydra. He could fix it with a touch of Marvello.

“How much power do you have left, June?,” he asked.

“I have enough for one, or two, more spells,” said June. “What do you need?”

“I need you to pick up the ground under the hydra and place it back into the cave,”

said Mister Warner. “Then we close it back up.”

“Got you,” said June. She flexed her hand and yanked. The ground around the ring

separated into a floating platform. She moved her arm and sent it into the cave.

“I have enough to fix this exit,” said Mister Warner. “It will be temporary until we

can recharge and use our full resources. It should be enough for the five minutes we

need to recharge.”

June timed out. She groaned. If the monsters got around her still moving creations,

they would have to resort to thrown rocks to defend themselves for the necessary

recharge time.

“I got it,” said Mister Warner. He pulled on Marvello. He grabbed the metal door. It

straightened out. He flung it back into its space. He jammed pins summoned from the

stones into the hinges to keep the thing in place. He sealed it with his own signature

magic rune.

“That’s pretty good,” said Jack.

“It will be all right until they get smart and figure out they can dig out through the

walls,” said Mister Warner. “Then we will be dealing with this again.”

“Matilda and Aviras will be dealing with it by then,” said Jack.

“Where’s Boim?,” said Josie. “She didn’t get hurt, did she?”

“No, we left her on the top of the cliff,” said June. “We didn’t want her coming down

here and getting into danger with us when someone might have needed to go back to

Hawk Ridge and tell you guys we screwed up.”

“Let’s take a minute to recharge before we have the Enterprise beam us up, and we

head for home,” said Jack. He took a deep breath. “The watches will be slowed down

by the Enterprise’s engines.”

“There’s a path we can walk up to get to the top,” said June. She pointed at the side

of the cliff. “We can use that to get back to Boim, and the Red Lion.”

“Can you drop me off at the village on the way back to Hawk Ridge?,” asked Mister

Warner.

“Sure,” said Jack. He frowned as he looked at the top of the cliff. He checked his

watch. He waited for it to tick one more time so he could call on Magik again. “That

was a cool giant version of you.”

“It’s a guy known as the Green Giant,” said Mister Warner. “He was around in the

first wave of heroes that became public domain. I think he had gigantism that was

always on.”

“That would be a terrible disadvantage as proven by Susan,” said Jack. He grinned

as his mentor rolled his eyes.

He transformed into Magik, and raised his hands. He pushed the rock wall that

formed the mouth of the cave over the door. He slapped the air and more rock

covered the whole thing and made it look like a more natural cliff face that always

stood there.

“I think that will hold them for a while,” said Jack. He let the persona go. “Let’s get

to the top of this walk and we can rest for a moment before we have to get back on

the road.”

“How did things go with the other two quests?,” asked Mister Warner. He matched

Jack’s casual amble so they walked at the back of their little group.

“Princess Caroline is at the hospital being watched over by Fass’s Fighters,” said

Jack. “One of his guys asked the princess out. Josie said we would help enable that.”

“The king must love that,” said Mister Warner.

“It’s Case,” said Jack. “He’s never met a girl he hasn’t asked out.”

“The other thing?,” asked Mister Warner.

“Shemmaria found something so I swooped in, yanked it out of the soldiers on duty,

sealed the original hole, and buried what I yanked out on the moon,” said Jack.

“Sounds okay,” said Warner.

“And then Josie had a meeting with Boim’s sister’s boss and told him that if he didn’t

cut things out she was going to put holes in his head, and everyone else she could

reach, and then she arranged a practical demonstration to show them the meaning of

the words coming out of her mouth,” said Jack.

“Yikes,” said Mister Warner.

“Hopefully she won’t have to go back and talk to them, and the rest of their

government again over a job from the Society,” said Jack. “Except if they have a

problem they aren’t causing.”

“I’m glad I live south of all that,” said Mister Warner.

“How’s the village life?,” asked Jack.

“Simple,” said Mister Warner. “I like it, and it keeps me out of trouble.”

“You want to go up with us to see if we can get June some place to live up north?,”

said Jack.

“No,” said Mister Warner. “I want to rest my regenerated bones on my new couch.

I’m going to have fun wearing it in.”

“Tell Elena and Yoff I said hello,” said Jack. “I was thinking about taking the kids

fishing. I should ask her if she wants to go.”

“I’ll ask her,” said Mister Warner. “She’s the only kid in the village. She might jump

at the chance.”

“Any trouble with the local authorities?,” said Jack. “I can swing by with the

Enterprise and blow something up.”

“I think that is the last thing I need at the moment,” said Mister Warner. “Rope

and Dot have things under control. I just have to lend a hand a little. They are

slowly rebuilding with what you gave them.”

“They were in a tough spot,” said Jack. “Who else was going to help them if not us?”

He smiled slightly.

“And it was my pleasure.”