Dial H for Heroics

Josie looked at the gray space surrounding her. Information filled her head. She didn’t like the telepathic bullet list and the implied threats it implied.

Quest Four was especially worrying since she didn’t have a clue what it meant. Use your heroes to survive entry.

Then the gray cleared away to reveal blue sky and she was falling to what looked like a vast forest below. She noted something that looked like an old fashioned castle, but that was a worry for if she survived hitting the ground.

Use your heroes.

Josie touched the watch face. She saw the names of heroes pop in her mind. Spinning the watch face lit them up. She decided to try Supergirl. Flight and invulnerability would make survival ridiculously easy.

She frowned as she kept falling. Abilities filled her head. None of them were flight.

She had an instinctive understanding of freefall and spread her limbs to slow down. It wouldn’t save her but it would buy time. What could she do to get out of the situation?

If she had some kind of rope, she could try to catch a tree and swing her momentum out so she wasn’t killed when she hit the ground.

Her increased mind fed her more conclusions as she fell. She needed to change bodies if she wanted to survive. What could she change into?

A white light appeared in the sky. It looked like a greeting card angel the size of a building with a giant flaming sword. It pointed at her before it vanished.

“Hey, Josie,” said a voice that sounded almost like Jack. “I don’t have a lot of time to send this message. The counter on the watch says I only have a few seconds because of what I am using. Enough time to put this message together and save myself, but not you.”

“Figures,” said Josie.

“There is a city between us,” the automated voice continued. “We should meet there and figure out how to do these quests. We’re not going to be able to go home until we solve them.

“Best bet is to pick something specific and hope it gives you something to use like Hawkman. That might help you out.

“Also I’m probably going to forget everything I’m seeing right now. I think it’s a

function of this hero, and when the hero is gone, so are all the secrets. I’ll see you in the city.

Be careful.”

“Hawkman?,” said Josie. She realized Hawkman was probably the only winged hero that Jack knew from her side of things. She thought that was fair. She only knew Phoenix and Wolverine from the X-Men.

A human wolverine was the best origin she had ever heard outside of the Badger talking to his spirit animal, breaking apart into a bunch of personalities and using his kung fu and wrenches on the bad guys.

Josie touched the watch face. She still had time on the countdown timer. She

twisted the watch face until she had Northwind dialed in. She pushed the button and became the wind.

The timer was still visible as she flowed through the air. She had to get close to the ground before her other self wore off. She looked down and descended toward what looked like a clearing in the middle of the trees.

She decided to dismiss the wind power when she was low enough. Now she had to think about her next moves.

She heard a small ping and Quest Four vanished from the list implanted in her mind. Two more had taken its place. She hoped that wasn’t the way her career as a dimensional wanderer was going to go.

She needed to find the city that Jack had been talking about in his message. Then she could start there. Her watch should help with anything in the woods as long as she wasn’t between chargings, or taken by surprise.

If she had picked either of the Hawks, would she have turned into a bird? That was something to consider when she started putting things together to use.

She would also like to have words with whomever sent the watches to her. She had a problem with being trapped in a bad situation by a faceless clown. She was definitely willing to see what Firehawk did at close range.

She supposed Jack had got a Marvel list in his watch. She paused when she

considered the third watch. Mister Warner wouldn’t put it on. He didn’t seem that interested in it. He was safe back home.

She rubbed her face as she thought about the old man trying to use the watch so he wouldn’t splatter into the ground.

She couldn’t worry about that now. He hadn’t appeared in the sky. That meant he hadn’t put on the watch. That meant he was safe.

She had to concentrate on her and Jack getting home. She decided to check on Warner when she got back to the real world.

What did she have that could fly? That would help her cross the forest if she avoided any large predators. Then all she had to do was walk around the city to try to catch Jack when he approached the opposite gate from where she happened to enter.

She decided to try out a Hawk, or Black Canary. That should get her wings to carry her across the forest. She could even use it to circle the city. She figured Jack would be doing the same thing with any of his own heroes.

Once they were together, they could start tracking down the quests they had been handed.

She checked the watch. The cooldown still rolled the numbers, but she should be able to use it to partially get to where she needed to be.

Then she could let it recharge so she could finish the rest of the trip.

She activated the Hawkgirl name. She changed into a large bird. She took off with a flap of her wings. She climbed and glided, spotting the castle she had seen on her fall. She figured she could make good time with the wings. Even if her power rolled out, she could walk the rest of the way as long as she stayed out of trouble.

Josie glided toward the castle, keeping an eye on the walls. She spotted several guards looking out over the city. None of them seemed to have bows. Did they save those for people trying to boost through the walls.

Did they have monsters lurking around? Was Jack safe out in the forest? She could search for him, but she knew which way he was traveling. She hated to wait for him.

She also had a problem with the local money and clothes. Everyone wore stuff she associated with King Arthur stories. She doubted a woman in a t-shirt and jeans was going to pass muster. And she didn’t have any money to get anything.

What was she going to do until she figured out how to get started? The princess wasn’t going to find herself. She needed a source of information and a cloak to hide her clothes.

She landed on a tower right before her power ran out. Two more quests filled her brain for a second before fading back to background noise. She needed to stop adding on while trying to get the goals she already had completed.

There were so many questions in her mind. Most of them revolved around where should she really start. She didn’t think she could take on a Dark Rider, or find a princess, but maybe her Supergirl could help her break things down into doable chunks.

The hero was like Mr. Terrific, possessing a number of skills and a photographic memory. What would the Mr. Terrific do? Would it be more of the same? Did she want to find out right where she was, or wait until she had a private space to practice with the watch.

Another Quest popped up as soon as she thought about needing a place to plan.

She growled at herself. She didn’t need any more quests. She needed some place to lay low, get some money and clothes, and keep an eye out for Jack. He had to have some flying heroes he could use to close the distance.

The thing he had used could probably cross the distance, but it would cause a panic in the city. A huge angel bearing down on a normal person would cause a lot of bad things to happen.

Could they even speak the language?

Josie paused to listen to the crowd moving below. They were speaking something like accented English. She should be able to get by except for her accent.

She lay down on the roof. She needed food and water, money, clothes, a place to stay for a few days, and a guide. Once Jack got there, they could hash out a plan for some of it.

Her mind returned to the watches. Why prepare such a random trap for someone? Did they know enough about her to predict she would give a watch to Jack? Maybe they thought she would give it to someone else so their two main victims wouldn’t be trying to overcome things at the same time.

She could see her captor trying to send three people randomly into the trap one at a time instead of two at once. What happened if the two got together? What would they be dealing with other than the Dark Rider?

How did they get home from here? She didn’t see any way to do that.