Dial H for Heroics

Josie followed the crowd up to the edge of the tent city. She spotted a clear spot next

to the house. It would be fine for the nurses, but not for the patients. They might need

to move the device later so they could make sure the patients were clear and move

them off site.

They might need more than one of the devices she was thinking about making with

Zatanna.

“I think right here would be all right,” said Jane. She indicated a space next to the

door. “Anyone going on shift can be cleared. Anyone going off can be checked for

the growths when they are done.”

“We might have to move this so we can check the women to make sure they are clear

when Jack and I get done fixing people,” said Josie.

“We might need something smaller once we get started,” said Jane. “For now, all we

need is something to check the helpers. We can come up with other tools when the

moving starts.”

“All right,” said Josie. She frowned. “Moving all these women is going to be the

biggest thing we have done.”

“Missus,” said Beatrice from Josie’s band. “Sally said we can post a job on the board.

It will be up to the adventurers if they want to support us.”

“Thanks,” said Josie. “Post a note to say that we are looking for help and we will put

up a notice when we will start. We still have to secure the buildings for our sick.”

“I will,” said Beatrice. “Laura is talking to Sir Harp about his friend.”

“I’ll let Mister Warner know when I see him,” said Josie. “He might duck out without

stopping going by his history.”

“I understand,” said Beatrice. “Any word?”

“Jack and Mister Warner caught up with the Enterprise and made sure Matilda was

safe,” said Josie. “I’m waiting for them to come back here so I can express my

displeasure.”

“Don’t rip off her ear,” said Hilda.

“I will give her an appropriate punishment,” said Josie.

“I have to go, Missus,” said Beatrice. “There is a fee for the board posting. I already

told Sally you will cover it.”

“We will go by there as soon as we are done with the rest of this,” said Josie.

“Thanks, Bea.”

“You’re welcome,” said Beatrice before she cut the call.

“All right,” said Josie. “Let me get started with this. Anybody who has the growths

in them should step back until we start working. If you don’t want to do that, I

suggest you cover your nose and mouth with a cloth, and wash your hands while

working on these women. When we start moving these women out of here, we are

going to cure the nurses and helpers first, then the women. If things start getting

worse, tell Jane to call me back and I will come up with something on the spot even

if it is just ripping everything out with my bare hands. Okay?”

“The lump on my liver?,” asked Massa.

“If you have anything wrong other than the growths, I will fix that too,” said Josie.

“I’ll do everything at the same time.”

“Are we in agreement with this?,” asked Jane.

The women slowly nodded or said yes. Some of them looked like they didn’t want to

be around magic, but Josie and Jack had saved a lot of them from being tortured and

murdered. They were willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

“Elaine, I need you to hold this paper and pen,” said Josie. She reached into her bag

and pulled out the items. “I’m going to have to copy Jack’s portable sensors.”

“In what way?,” asked Elaine. She took the paper and pen. She stepped back out of

the way.

“We need a sensor that will do a full body scan for the moment,” said Josie. “When

we get them set up somewhere else, we’ll need mobile units to check people to see

how they are doing. Medicine is a big branch of stuff where I am from, but Jack and

I don’t have a lot of training with that. Our watches are helping us to fix any sick or

hurt person we come across.”

“I understand,” said Elaine.

Josie decided she needed to plan the machinery before she did anything else. Once

she had a sketchy blueprint, she could use Zatanna to bridge the gap. Then she could

copy the thing into smaller devices to be carried around by the staff.

Josie wondered if Supergirl would help her with this. Jack was using Mister Fantastic

for his knowledge base. Could she do the same with the list of skills she gained from

the persona? It had given her a lot of options while she was in the air facing certain

death.

She called on the persona. She smiled. The pseudo alien gave her a list of ideas she

could use later if she wanted. She concentrated on the medical scanner she wanted,

comparing it to an MRI. She held out her hand for the paper and pen. She held the

paper against her leg and sketched everything down in a few seconds. She nodded

when she was sure she had what she wanted. She handed the paper back to Elaine so

she could switch bodies.

Josie called on Zatanna. She took the paper back and examined it for a moment. She

nodded at the drawing and list of needs. She could make a medical scanner that

worked like the security scanner from Total Recall.

She needed material to build her device. She could build it out of nothing but if the

air changed, it might collapse. She nodded at the thought that was how Jack did

things with his own magic user.

She grabbed a bush in decline off the paved walk. She exerted her will and it came

out of the ground. She placed the uprooted plant in front of the mansion’s side door.

She consulted her drawing. She wished the plant would become an arch in front of

the door.

She added in features, extending the sides of the scanner for three more feet. She

made sure to add a mana battery to keep it running off the energy in the air. She

stepped back and let the persona go when she was done.

The scanner came to life with a hum. It sounded like a large angry bee.

Josie walked around the scanner. She rubbed her chin. It looked good, but did it work.

She needed to test it. She decided to step inside and walk down the aisle. She reached

the end and heard a ding.

She probably shouldn’t have added a sound notification to the scanner.

“You have a problem with your liver,” said Jane.

“I used to drink a bit,” said Josie.

“Used to?,” asked Jane.

“I had to give it up,” said Josie. “Massa, would you walk through. We already know

what we should see when you are scanned.”

Massa walked through. She quickly went around the end to look at her own results.

The jargon was a bit much, but the picture matched the earlier one. She nodded in

agreement with the finding.

“We need someone else to give us another reading,” said Josie. “Then I have to go

back to work.”

Hilda stepped through. Josie and Massa looked at the reading, then at the blonde

Amazon. She looked at their expressions. She wondered what was wrong. What had

they seen?

“Bad news?,” asked Hilda. She smiled. “Is my liver bad too?”

“I don’t know if you want to get into this right now,” said Josie. She glanced at

Massa. The other woman nodded in agreement. “I don’t know if this is good news for

you, or not.”

“This isn’t like you, Ear Ripper,” said Hilda.

Josie glanced around at the women in the crowd and stepped close enough to whisper

in Hilda’s ear. She stepped back as the taller woman reeled in shock. She handed the

Amazon her readout, indicating the relevant entry on the paper with her index finger.

“I haven’t been with anyone since Corle locked me up,” said Hilda. “Are you sure

about this?”

“I can check with Doctor Occult,” said Josie. “Do you want me to do that? It will

prove the machine is working right.”

“I want to make sure,” said Hilda.

“What’s going on?,” asked Jane.

“We’re making sure that the machine is working right,” said Josie. “Hilda will talk

to you about it when she’s ready.”

She called on Doctor Occult and ran her scan over Hilda. She nodded at the report the

scan gave her. The machine had been right. She hoped her friend didn’t take this the

wrong way.

“The machine is working right,” said Josie. She turned the doctor off. “How do you

feel?”

“I don’t know,” said Hilda. “I’ve never thought about this. I never thought this would

come up.”

“Do you want to hang out with us until you get things straight in your mind?,” said

Josie. “We still have work to do today.”

“I need to be alone for a bit,” said Hilda. “Thank you.”

“Don’t forget we’re there for you,” said Josie. “But don’t ask me about diapers. I

don’t know a thing about kids.”

“I can see that with your dangerous kids, Ear Ripper,” said Hilda. She hugged Josie.

“Thank you.”

Josie patted her back. She didn’t know what to say about this. She pulled away.

“The machine is working,” said Josie. “Go ahead and run your women through it.

Massa will be able to note any problems on the read out. Elaine and I have to deal

with the owner of the second building.”

Josie turned into Zatanna and called for a book of medical terms. She handed that to

the midwife. She turned the persona off.

“If you see something that doesn’t have a clear name,” said Josie. “You can look it

up and get an explanation.”

“You could change the world with this,” said Massa.

“If you didn’t know me, and Jack, would you risk it?,” asked Josie. She nodded at the

thoughts flowing across Massa’s face. “Look after things, keep Jane in the loop. As

soon as I can arrange for better housing, we’ll make a plan to do the rest.”

She turned and waved at Elaine to walk with her. They still had to go over to the

Endwright house and see if they could talk to the lord. If they could get that second

building, they could start moving people. They would have to come up with some

kind of wagon train so they didn’t have to use the transporters to move things across

the city.

“So we are going to Endwright?,” said Elaine.

“He was pretty sick, and his wife was deep in with the Montrose,” said Josie. “He

might not be able to see us. We can ask someone on the staff if we can get permission

to at least rent the building I want to look into. Anything else is anybody’s guess.”

“I don’t think you talked about this,” said Elaine.

“The wagon guy we let go ran to talk to their boss, Endwright’s wife,” said Josie.

“She was deep into the trafficking, but also in the landgrabbing part of their

operation. If she hadn’t tried to grab the Hole in the Wall, she would be on the back

burner. Instead she moved up to the number one slot with a bullet. Jack did something

to get the Lord back on his feet, and we let the staff take over.”

“And now we know he owns the second depot you cleared out,” said Elaine.

“I don’t think he knows it, and I don’t think the wife came by it honestly,” said Josie.

“I think she seized it and ran her operation out of it. And then I seized it. As far as I

know someone else from the Montrose might have moved back in without thinking

about where the women and their guards are.”

“And you will have to clear it out again,” said Elaine.

“That will be the easiest part of all this,” said Josie. “The hard part is a contract where

we, Jane’s House, own the building, and can turn away anyone who wants to take it

back from us.”

“I understand,” said Elaine. “This seems like a lot of work.”

“It’s that or give up the fight,” said Josie. “I’m not willing to do that.”

“What was wrong with Hilda?,” asked Elaine.

“She’s pregnant,” said Josie.

“Hilda is pregnant,” said Elaine.

“It’s a basic fact of human biology,” said Josie. “You do know how babies are made,

right?”

“I do,” said Elaine. “I just never thought of Hilda as a mother.”

“It’s not our problem until it becomes our problem,” said Josie. “When Hilda is ready,

we’ll probably have to be there in case she needs help.”

“I never considered children at the House,” said Elaine.

“I’m sure Hilda is just the first,” said Josie. “But some of the women there were hurt

badly. They may never get to where they can trust anyone again even with work.

Some of them were betrayed by their loved ones. That’s bound to leave scars.”

Josie checked her watch. She decided when it was full, she would use a bird to drop

them at the Endwright estate. They would check on Endwright, and ask about the

building. Then they would check the building itself to see what they should do to

clean it out for the beds they would need.

In the back of her mind, she had decided that Matilda, Aviras, and June would help

clean it out.

“Jack and Matilda?,” asked Elaine.

“They are helping June with Mister Warner and Aviras,” said Josie. “I expect he will

call back when he has news. I don’t know if the Society planned on June being done

today, or if they are going to wait the full three days of her trial before making a

decision.”

“Do you think they will take her on?,” asked Elaine.

“I don’t know,” said Josie. “I don’t even know if June is right for the type of things

we do. We help the helpless, Elaine. I never thought June would even try to do that,

but I could be wrong.”

“So she might take your places,” said Elaine.

“Only if we’re dead,” said Josie. “June might be older, but that doesn’t make her

better.”

Josie heard the ding of a full watch, and turned into Zatanna just long enough to send

a bird out to their destination. They arrived just outside of the gate. She opened the

lock and they strolled up to the door of the large house she and Jack had cut through.

She nodded at the fact that you couldn’t see any of the damage they had inflicted. Her

birds did good work as far as that went. She knocked on the door and they waited on

the wide porch.

When no one came to the door at the first knock, she changed into the Martian

Manhunter and knocked a little louder. She changed back to her normal self so she

didn’t scare whomever came to the door.

“That’s the strangest form you wear,” said Elaine.

“Martians,” said Josie. “Who knew?”

The door opened. The butler stood behind the door. Josie remembered him from when

she was throwing bullets through guys getting in her way. He remembered her too.

She could tell by the sudden tensing of his face, and the way he was about to shut the

door in her face.

“Hello, Jeeves,” said Josie. “I would like to talk to Lord Endwright.”

“We’ve been taking care of him as we promised,” said the butler.

“I’m not here about that,” said Josie. “This is a straight deal about a building he owns

that I want to buy. Is he okay?”

“He is doing better after what your friend did,” said the butler.

“Any problems?,” said Josie.

“We have had some visitors,” said the butler. “I turned them away.”

“All right,” said Josie. “I’m going to talk to Endwright. This is my business manager.

She will be ensuring that he gets the money if he agrees to sell, or just rent us the

place until we don’t need it any more.”

“I suppose you want to come in,” said the butler.

“Unless you want to wheel him out here so we can talk,” said Josie. She gestured at

the large porch. “I’m good either way.”

“Come in,” the butler didn’t look pleased as he stepped back. Josie was used to that.

They headed upstairs to where Endwright still laid on his bed. He looked better after

Jack’s treatment. He rested against a stack of pillows, clear eyes looking at the door

as the group entered the room. The butler went to stand between Josie and his boss.

That wouldn’t stop her if she wanted to do something, whether she used the watch or

not.

“Sir, this is Madam Witch and her business manager,” said the butler. “They asked

to talk to you about a building you own.”

“My name is Josie Fox,” said Josie. “This is Elaine Numera. I have a problem and

your name came up so I decided to talk with you before trying to find another

location.”

“Marl said my wife had poisoned me and my son,” said Endwright. “That two witches

had saved me because of a vendetta with her. He also reported that you had

extended a shield over me until I could look after myself.”

“Jack does that,” said Josie. She sat in a chair next to the bed. She interlaced her

fingers as she thought. “I have a lot of sick people that I need to house until I can cure

them and get them on their feet and back in the world. Apparently you own the

building I want to use for this. I would like to buy that building, or rent it for a fair

price until I don’t need it any more.”

“I have no idea of what was acquired while I was infirm,” said Endwright. He looked

at his hand as if he had tried to use it but it wouldn’t work like he wanted. “My

solicitors and accountants are filing a report for me. I will be glad to loan you the

building until I know what has actually happened to my finances.”

“We will pay you fair rent for it,” said Josie. “Elaine will write out the receipt for you.

Jane’s House will be handling the actual care of these people, so if you need

something, or want to talk to someone managing things, she is the one to go to.”

“Your friend didn’t have to help me,” said Endwright. “You could have just taken my

wife and nothing else.”

“We help the helpless,” said Josie. “That’s all that matters.”