Dial H for Heroics

Josie carried her potential victim down to the dungeon part of the building. She put the chair down, and cut the Vampire off.

“I’m going to talk to these girls and see what they want to do,” said Josie. “Then I’m going to think about what I want to do with you.”

“As soon as my leader finds out what you’ve done, he’ll look for you,” said the

trafficker. He shook his hands under his restraints.

“That won’t matter to you,” said Josie. “You’ll be lucky if I let you live for more than the next five minutes. I have a quest to kill your organization. That means it’s open season on Montrose, no matter how big, or small you guys happen to be.”

“You can’t be serious,” said the trafficker.

“Look at yourself,” said Josie. “Think about it. I’m on a mission from God.”

Josie went into the cells with the keys she found on her first victim’s bones. She unlocked the manacles and asked them to get dressed. She knew they had been hurt, but she had no way to deal with that other than consulting with the various magicians in her watch for a memory wipe.

She wanted to give them a chance to decide on something like that before she cut them loose.

“How’s it going?,” she asked. She shook her head at that. Of course things were going poorly. “My name is Josie. I need to know what you want to do. Then I’ll do what I can to make that happen.”

“What about those men?,” asked one of the girls. She seemed more hardbitten than the rest. Maybe she had been snatched off the streets.

“The ones that attacked you are dead,” said Josie. “The rest, the ones we could reach, are marked like our friend here. They will be following the first batch as soon as I can put my hands on them. My friend, Jack, is going to help with that.”

“You don’t want anything from us?,” asked the hardbitten girl. She looked around. She seemed the oldest of the group, outside of Josie.

The rest of the girls were on the verge of breaking down again.

“Not really,” said Josie. “I have some things I have to do. Once I’m done, I’ll be gone. If you guys want to stay here until you have a place to go, that’s fine. If you want to go home, I’ll take you home. If you want to forget this happened, I think I can do that too. I’m letting you choose what you want. Anybody marked is dead. One way, or the other, I’m not letting them live if I don’t have to.”

“You’ll help us?,” asked the youngest girl. She cowered from Josie’s stern eyes.

“I said I would,” said Josie. She ran her fingers through her short hair. “I have to go out for a while. That’ll give you time to think about what you want to do. I don’t think there’s any food in here, so that should be a consideration.”

“Could you bring something back,” said a middle girl. “I think I haven’t eaten since yesterday.”

“I’ll rustle up some grub for you,” said Josie. “I’m hungry myself.”

She admitted she wasn’t as hungry as she should be, but she thought it was because the Vampire fed the watch instead of the other way around. Thank goodness for minor heroes who only lived on as c-list hero cameos.

“If we wanted to go home, you would let us?,” said the middle girl again.

“I said I would,” said Josie. “If you don’t have a home, or don’t want to go home, I’ll make a space for you here. I don’t think Jack will care, and I don’t.”

“What about him?,” said the hardbitten girl. She gestured at Snidely in his chair.

“We’re going to settle our personal business,” said Josie. “Think about what you want to do. Leave Jack alone. He’s a grouchy riser.”

“What would you do?,” asked the girl.

“I don’t know,” said Josie. “Probably stab someone. I don’t have any family, and I don’t have a lot of responsibility other than to myself. I don’t think that’s the same for you girls.”

“It is for some of us,” said the hardbitten girl.

“Think about how you want to change that,” said Josie. She checked her watch. She had plenty of time to use. “Come along, Snidely. I have something to show you.”

She became Zatanna again and seized the back of the chair. She wanted to be hovering high in the sky. She smiled as her prisoner looked around and started screaming.

She slapped him in the face to stop the screaming. He looked up at her.

“Please, don’t kill me,” cried Snidely.

“Who’s your protector, Snidely?,” asked Josie. “I would like to talk to him first

before I start on the rest of the minions.”

“It’s Third Captain Warham,” said the trafficker. “He allows us to send the

merchandise through the wall, diverts investigations away from us.”

“Where can I find him?,” asked Josie.

“He is usually in the main guard tower when he is on shift,” said Snidely. “Please don’t drop me.”

“Which one is the main guard tower?,” asked Josie.

“The one on the right of the South Gate,” said the trafficker.

“I’m going to let you go,” said Josie. She released the chair.

The trafficker screamed until his chair hit the ground. It took most of the impact, but he still went through the wood and broke every bone in his body. Witnesses wondered where he came from up there in the night sky.

Josie stepped to the indicated tower. She checked her watch. She didn’t have a lot of time on the counter. She let the hero body go to let the watch recharge. She stood in the shadows and waited for it to get to full power.

She watched the small amount of guards moving around. They weren’t on the lookout for someone like her standing on their ramparts. They were more interested in people moving on the ground inside the wall.

She frowned. She wondered what would be the best for this. She decided to call on Karate Kid and moved forward to the tower door. She tested the door. It swung open for her.

I guess they only lock it when they’re being invaded.

Josie checked the rooms. Most looked like barracks. Some of the men were asleep in the cots. Their equipment rested in stacks at the foot of the beds. She couldn’t tell if any of the men had Jack’s hex on them from the door.

She decided to let it wait. She was only here to talk to Third Captain Warham. She had no doubt that he would be wearing the hex.

She found the man’s quarters and office. He woke up as soon as he heard the door open.

“Who’s there?,” the guard demanded.

“Josie Fox,” said Josie. “I would like to talk to you if I could. A problem has come up with your dealings with the Montrose.”

“What are you talking about?,” asked Warlawn. He sat up, sword in hand.

“Do you have a mirror?,” said Josie.

“There’s one in my kit,” said the captain. He reached over and turned the nearest lamp up. Then he pointed at the bag next to the wash basin. “A wall mirror is too expensive.”

Josie opened the kit bag and pulled out the mirror. She tossed it over to the man. He raised it to his face. He gasped at the names crisscrossing his skin in unearthly ink.

“You shouldn’t have got into taking women from where they wanted to be and selling them,” said Josie. “The whole region knows what to look for, and they are going to be looking at you.”

The two empty bottles of liquor and the alchemy vial explained why he hadn’t heard the voice of his doom.

“Who are you?,” asked the captain. “Why are you here?”

“Your partners kidnaped me earlier,” said Josie. “I killed all of them. I’m here to kill you too. Then I have to go back and check on your other victims and make sure they get as much help as I can give them.”

Warlawn stabbed forward, extending across the medium sized room. Someone was here to kill him. He couldn’t let them make the first move, especially since they seemed smaller than he was.

The kit bag knocked the sword out of line. The move turned into a circular swing that flung the sack at the guard’s face. He raised his free hand to knock it away as he tried to recoil to get to his feet. Then a heel took him in the face, and that helped him out of bed.

Warham swung his sword to buy him time to get to his feet. He had to keep his distance from his enemy. She was faster and more sober than he was. He couldn’t let her get close to hurt him with her hands.

A grip of iron caught his sword arm. Kicks sent him to his knees again. And then he felt pain in his neck. He started choking.

Josie took the sword from his hand. She tossed it on the desk.

“I’m going to hunt you all down,” said Josie. “I can do that before I go home.”

She walked out of the office, letting the brown clad Kid go back to her limbo. She still had to get back to her newly acquired den and talk to the girls. Then she had to get some sleep.

Who knew being a masked vigilante took so much work? Her respect for Batman went up at that moment. Too bad she hadn’t stuck to his no killing rule. She had jumped down that slippery slope head first.

She flew back to her new quarters and entered the building. Her temporary charges had pulled their blankets from the cells and made pallets to sleep on. She went upstairs and nodded at Jack still sleeping.

She settled into the visitor’s chair. She closed her eyes and let sleep overcome her. She had to think about food and water in the near future. And indoor plumbing. She mustn’t forget indoor plumbing.

Her dreams showed her an army of clay figurines. Some were broken. She knew that she would have to break the rest to get to the locked chest at the back. A few of the clay army went up as she watched. She nodded. Apparently she wasn’t their only enemy.

How many other forces would she have to oppose to get what she wanted?