Dial H for Heroics

Josie thought about what she would do if she was hiding in a one horse town in the middle of nowhere. Hiding out seemed doable as long as she had some way to get food and water without anyone knowing what was going on.

Theft of food could be a way to live if you didn’t have a way to get a job and make money.

How many places were there in town where her princess could hide without drawing attention?

Josie decided that she could just look around before she used her watch to find the princess. She could afford to take a little time. She still didn’t have an idea on how to make the princess go home.

She didn’t want to complete the quest only to have it reset because the princess ran away again.

She wondered if that had happened to Old Man Warner when he wore the watch.

She already guessed why he hadn’t said anything to the customers who came into his shop. No one would believe that he was a hero in another world, dealing with problems for the Reed Society.

She didn’t believe it herself, and she was doing the same thing.

She wondered why Warner hadn’t warned them before they put on the watches. Maybe he had forgot what they did. Maybe his original device wasn’t a watch at all. What would they have sent him when he was younger?

Josie did an estimate of Warner’s age. She thought about what was out there when he was her age. She thought a Green Lantern ring might be what he had used when he was her age. She doubted Robby Reed would have been a thing back then.

But Green Lantern, Atom Blake and his magic ring, and others were a thing. She could see that being an earlier template for the Reed champions.

She wondered how many had been pulled to this world to fix problems. How many were still around trying to finish their quests? She thought about that. She might be in the same situation chasing the Montrose until they were gone from the world.

She frowned. She couldn’t take the quest back once she had started. She should have been more careful about that.

She paused when she reached the building she had drawn back at the hole in the wall. She knocked on the door. She had no reason to bust down the thing. She just wanted to talk. This might be a problem that was easier to deal with than what it had looked like at the start.

Things might turn to violence if the princess hated her family enough to fight back against anyone trying to take her back.

Josie listened as she waited. She heard movement inside the building. She wondered if she would have to knock the door down after all.

The door opened a crack. An old man peered out at her. He didn’t appear to have a lot of teeth, and his eyes looked fogged over with the beginnings of cataracts.

“I’m looking for a princess,” said Josie. “I’m supposed to return her to her family. I’m on a mission from the gods.”

The old man orientated on her voice. He tried to glare at her. It seemed hard since his eyes didn’t quite line up with her.

“A mission from the gods?,” said the old man. “What kind of nonsense is that?”

“The kind that will make it easy to punch you in the face,” said Josie. “You’re a

terrible liar. You want to tell me the truth?”

“I think you should go before something horrible happens to you,” said the old man. “You don’t want to end up like me.”

“I’m really here to help the princess,” said Josie. “I can fix her problem if I know what it is.”

“No one can help her now after what happened,” said the old man. “I think you should leave. There’s nothing more to say.”

“I still have to return her to her family,” said Josie. “You know where she is so I need you to tell me that much at least.”

“I can’t tell you anything,” said the old man. “Go away.”

“All right,” said Josie. Something was going on, and she didn’t have the lever to push it out in the open.

She decided the best thing she could do was walk away and keep watch. Maybe she could spot the girl and talk to her without the old man around. Something was going on. She could feel that much.

Josie took a spot on a wooden roof across the street from the decrepit cottage. She had a small amount of time she could wait. After that, she thought another scry would help her.

She had a lot of questions but decided it was better to wait before she did something stupid. The spell could have been wrong about the cabin. She could have went to the wrong cabin while thinking it was the right one. And did she want to beat up a blind old man over a complete stranger?

And she had time. The girls were at practice and Jack was still out doing whatever he could about the Dark Rider. She was surprised that he hadn’t sent a message to let her know how close he was, but he could take care of himself.

She would be more worried if he didn’t have the watch, and the knowledge of Marvel that he did have.

She wondered if there was other heroes she could use to solve her problems faster. Some of them seemed useless with the way the watch switched talents, or too dangerous, or not fitting for most of the situations she had found herself in so far. She had been lucky that Zatanna was almost the same as her fictional counterpart without the backward talk spellcasting.

If she could deal with the Montrose with one spell that would be good in her opinion.

Maybe she could do a summons that did the job like a quest without her having to oversee everything. She wondered if that would work to clear the quest so she could go home.

She didn’t know if she wanted to go home. She didn’t have anyone to miss her but Jack and Mister Warner. And Jack was roaming around with her, and Mister Warner might show up at any moment to tell her how she was doing everything wrong.

She would like that.

Josie watched as the old man left his place. He walked down the street with a stick. She wondered how blind he was. Did he have enough sight to stay out of trouble, or was it all gone? She shook her head as she stood and walked to the edge of the roof. Two changes later, she stood in the cabin and looked around.

It was kept up, but she found that there was only belongings for one person. Had her magic made a mistake? That was a first. Something was wrong. She just didn’t know what.

She decided to do another scry for the princess. Maybe that would tell her what was going on.

She called on Zatanna and sent out the bird. She followed it with Johnny Quick, watched as it alighted on the old man’s head. He didn’t seem to notice, but the townspeople backed up from the glowing bird on his head. He looked around, trying to figure out why they were afraid of him before the bird vanished.

Josie returned to normal and walked up to the old man. He glared at her.

“I think we should talk, princess,” Josie said. “Let’s find a place to sit down and have a drink.”

“What do you want?,” said the princess.

“I have a quest to return you to your family,” said Josie. She gestured at a nearby inn. “All I want to do is fix your problem and move on to the rest of my goals as fast as possible.”

“Do you think this will be so easily undone?,” asked the princess.

“I don’t know,” said Josie. She took the other’s arm. “Maybe if you told me what happened, it will make things easier for both of us.”

“I don’t see how,” said the princess. “But let’s see what happens.”

They took seats next to the door because the princess wanted to be able to run if she had to, and Josie wanted to be able to see out a window to the street in case of trouble. The place was near empty so she wasn’t that concerned with being stabbed in the back.

“Why are you really here?,” asked the princess. She leaned forward so that no one else could hear her.

“I already told you,” said Josie. She held a hand up to attract the lone waitress’s attention. “Someone drafted me into helping you out of whatever this is. How did you get stuck as an old man in the first place.”

“It’s a curse,” said the princess. “I only look this because I am here. If I were to return to my rightful place, I would become my normal self again.”

“And you can’t return because?,” asked Josie.

“I will be summarily executed for crimes against the state,” said the princess. “Exile was the best that could be done in the situation.”

“Everyone thought you were guilty?,” asked Josie.

“Yes,” said the princess.

“Were you?,” asked Josie.

“No...Yes...Maybe,” said the princess. “I don’t know any more.”

“Let’s put aside the question of guilt for the moment,” said Josie. She ordered two beers from the waitress and two dishes of whatever they had on hand as food. “If I were to fix things for you, what would happen?”

“I would still be considered a criminal and executed if I returned,” said the princess. “There is no way to reverse the judgement.”

“This looks a lot tougher than I thought it would be,” said Josie. “There’s no way to reverse the judgement at all?”

“There is a challenge, but it is trial by combat, and no one would stand up to defend me. And I don’t think you would be able. You don’t look like you know how to handle a sword. You would be killed in the first exchange of blows.”

“I have to agree with that,” said Josie. “Jack might know how to fix your problem. He might even stand up for you.”

“No human has survived a challenge from the Tuantha in my memory,” said the princess. “I doubt your Jack would do better.”

“I think we should lay things out for him and see what he thinks,” said Josie. “He might have an idea we can use.”

“It has been a long time since I went home,” said the princess. “I don’t know if it’s possible.”

“I think we should find out what Jack thinks, and see if he will stand for you,” said Josie. “Then we can think about clearing your name. If you had a way to reopen your case, we wouldn’t have to think about any fighting. We could just show people what happened.”

“I don’t think that will do me any favors,” said the princess.

“Sometimes exact words is the wrong thing,” said Josie. “If you have to speak the truth, you should embrace it and make it yours.”

“My people are bound to speak the truth,” said the princess. “Obfuscation prevents giving your word so that you don’t have to answer the demand.”

Josie shrugged. She couldn’t blame someone for getting caught up in the machine of the state and getting ground up and spat out. The question was how guilty was the princess and should they help her at all?

That part was a little fuzzier and full of obstacles.

Jack might have a solution to the problem. He might be able to stand up to the Princess’s people with the right persona. Would he want to do that, or would he want to come up with something else that would fix things without them getting involved in the criminal history.

Their bowls and beer came while she thought.