Jack Dragon's Counterpart

1

Jack Dragon finished his act with a flaming sword that turned into a stream of butterflies until it was gone. The audience clapped as the curtain dropped down.

He began packing up his equipment as the crowd started to leave. Once he was done with the crates, they would go in the back of his van to go home.

"Got a guy who wants to talk to you, Jack." Wojohowitz came through the curtain. "He looks a little strange."

"How strange?" The magician raised an eyebrow. He didn't like the sound of that.

"He looks like you." The manager made a gesture around his own face with a finger.

"I have to see this." Jack secured the rest of his equipment. "It's been a while since I have had to deal with a doppleganger."

"If things get serious, I'll get my bat." Wojohowitz looked out through the curtain.

"Thanks." Jack wrote on the back of his hand with the other hand. "Let's see what he wants before we break out the violence."

"I'll be waiting by the bar." The old man went to the front of the stage and hopped down to the floor. He walked across to the counter at the back of the audience area.

The magician followed a few seconds later. He wanted to let his friend get clear if a problem broke out. Wojo had seen some things, but he would be hurt if the situation went bad.

The visitor came forward. He did resemble Jack with some cosmetic differences. The loss of an eye was a major difference to the magician.

"Jack Dragon?" The man seemed unimpressed.

Most of his clients were when they met.

"Let's sit down." Jack gestured to one of the tables. "What do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

"I have a problem." The one eyed man sat down where he could see the bar and stage at the same time. "A detective recommended that I talk to you."

"Why would he do that?" The magician waved his hand for a bottle of water.

"He said you dealt with strange problems." One Eyed Jack frowned. "Detective Cole said you would know how to fix what happened."

"What did happen?" Jack took the water from the waitress. He smiled as he tipped her and let her walk away.

The visitor broke into a rambling explanation based on quantum mechanics and vibratory layers of planes separated by dimensional barriers thinner than a sheet of paper.

"Words of one syllable, please." Jack cut him off before sipping his water.

"I came from another Earth." The client shrugged. "I would like to go back there."

"Did you tell Cole this?" Jack sipped some more water. That would explain why the detective had sent him along.

"Yes." The second Dragon frowned. "He said you knew a lot about other worlds."

"Not really." Jack stood, picking up the bottle. "Maybe I can help you."

"Maybe?" The visitor stood. His one eye glared beside the patch over the other eye.

"I don't make guarantees." Jack headed backstage. "I have equipment to pack up before I can get started on your problem. Do you have anywhere you can stay?"

"No." The second Dragon shrugged. "I lost most of my equipment and clothes in the transition."

"You can stay at my place until I get ready." The magician waved for him to follow.

"I might be insane." The client followed.

"I doubt it." Jack sipped the water as he pointed to the cases. "You take one, I'll take the other. My van is out back."

"Detective Cole spoke highly of your ability." The second Dragon started pushing the indicated trunk on its roller.

"I'm not a miracle worker." Jack smiled. He finished the bottle and sent it up in a blast of flame. "I'm just a humble magician."

"I doubt that." The client pushed the stage door open. He dragged his trunk outside.

"I'm working on the humble part." Jack pointed at the van across the lot. "We'll load the cases in the back."

"Got it." They rolled the cases across the lot. Jack tapped on the van. The back door opened on its own. "Showing off?"

"Still working on the humble." Jack helped put both cases in the back of the van. He strapped them in their racks.

"You didn't ask about my eye." The visitor went around to the driver's door.

"Not important." Jack dropped out the back of the van and closed the doors. He went to the driver's side and pointed his client to the other side. "It has no bearing on what I'm going to do."

"Really?" The second Dragon climbed into the shotgun seat.

"Really." Jack held up his hand. The symbol on it glowed. "No magic, no lying so far."

"That's good, I suppose." One Eye Jack smiled. "Get many visitors that look like you?"

"The last was a pain." Dragon got behind the wheel.

"Why the cover?" The second Dragon closed his remaining eye.

"IRS." Jack started the van. "They are the vampires of the mundane world."

"I understand that completely."

The van cut across the city, heading toward Jack's house. He paused at the gate when he reached home. Then the van was on the sigil in the driveway.

"We're here." He got out of the van. His client got out the other door. The van flipped out of sight.

"More magic?" One Eye Jack straightened his jacket.

"It keeps things in order." Jack gestured toward the front door. "Now, I'm going to get something to eat and do some research. Then we'll see if I can fix your problem."

"What kind of research do you need?" One Eye Jack scratched his head as they walked up to the door.

"I just want to find out where I have to send you." The magician waited for the door to open for them. "It would be embarrassing if I sent you to the home of the giant shrimp."

"That can't be that bad." The visitor frowned.

"It isn't for the shrimp." Jack led the way into the house. His alternate paused after crossing the threshold. "What's wrong?"

"This is a lot bigger than the outside suggested." One Eye Jack looked around the wide hall. "I didn't expect it."

"It's a trick." The magician led the way. "Kitchen is this way."

"It would have to be, wouldn't it?" The guest followed, looking around as he went.

Jack pulled out ingredients for the sandwiches he liked. The other Jack pulled two sheets off the roll of paper towels. They built two large sandwiches out of the fixings. Milk went into two glasses.

"I can't do magic." One Eye Jack said as they worked on their meal. "I went into science."

"Nobody's perfect." Jack smiled. "What do you do for a living?"

"Research mostly." The guest finished his milk and poured another glass. "I do some consulting work on the side."

"I help Cole sometimes." Dragon finished his sandwich. "There are things the police can't handle on their own, and he calls me for those."

"I do that too." One Eye Jack worked on his milk. "I have some simple equipment that can do some measurements at a crime scene."

"Is that how you knew to ask about me?" Jack threw his paper towel away and drank his milk.

"I guessed that there would be a me around when I saw him." The scientist finished his second glass. "I admit I thought you would be a scientist like me."

"My uncle took me on to follow in his footsteps." Jack put his glass in the sink and ran water in it. His almost twin added his own empty. "Let's see if we can find your Earth and send you home."

"Could you help me over there?" One Eye Jack looked sheepish. "I would like to hire you to help me find out who tried to kill me."

"I could snoop around." Jack scratched his head. "We Dragons have to stick together."

"Thanks." The second Dragon pulled out empty pockets. "I'll have to pay you when we get back home."

"I don't charge money." Jack shook his head. "Don't worry. We'll find your killer."

The magician led the way down to the library. Shelves of books reached to the ceiling in the circular room. A table and chairs took up the center of the floor. He ran his finger over the spines of books as he looked for the one volume he needed.

He took down the book he found. He took it to the table and flipped it open. Jack Dragons jumped off the pages. Each one was different but recognizable. Some had died before they began their careers.

"I think we have our starting point." Jack held up a page with his visitor's picture on it.

Jack Dragon's Counterpart 2

Jack made a note of which Earth his visitor was from before making a drawing on the top of the table in the library. He made sure to put the dimensional address in the writing. He made a note of his own address so he could get home after his business was done.

The other Jack's page put him on the side of good. That had made him a lot of enemies that would have loved to kill him instead of sending him on a dimensional jaunt.

And Dragons should stick together where possible.

"Let's see what happened to bring you here." Jack climbed up on the table. He stepped inside the drawing. "Don't mess up the design. We don't want to get lost."

The second Dragon stepped on the table top from a chair. He looked down at the drawing before taking up a spot inside it.

"What is this supposed to do?" He scanned the drawing as he waited for something to happen.

Jack raised his hands. He brought them down in a push against the air. Light blasted up from the table top. They sank into it like falling into a hole. They emerged in a wasteland.

"Is this the right place?" The second Dragon looked around, his one eye wide. "What happened?"

"Let's find out." Jack climbed to the top of a heap. He looked around. "It looks like this used to be your house."

The magician pointed at the familiar but strange lights of Church Hill in the distance. The Clock Tower stood like a sentinel. The gargoyles around its ramparts were a gothic touch missing in his own city.

"I have some backup equipment stored in the city." The scientist examined the charring in front of where his headquarters used to stand. "We can get that and track whoever did this down."

"What do you think happened?" Jack adjusted his sunglasses.

"Someone fired a high energy weapon at the front of my headquarters." The second Dragon indicated signs on the ground. "It was just luck that I survived at all."

"Let's see if we can get a ride to your storehouse." Jack walked into the road. "Then we can track this guy down. He might go after someone else who doesn't have what you had to protect them."

"More magic to summon something?" The scientist raised his eyebrow.

"I was thinking of calling a cab." Jack raised his cellphone to his ear. "That should get us into town without too much effort."

"I thought you would just call something with fangs and things." The second Dragon made vague gestures with his hands to indicate something horrific but flying.

"I'm saving that for when I need it." The magician smiled. He spoke into the phone as someone came on the line. He gave the address and their descriptions so the cab could find them easily. He put the phone away.

"We'll have to return here with my equipment." The scientist stared at the pile of rubble. "I'm sure the signature of the weapon used will be easily located once I get started."

"Why target your place?" Jack closed his eyes. He had been on the go all day and most of the night. He was starting to feel it.

"I don't know." The second Dragon scratched his face. "Maybe it was a preventive measure of some kind."

"Then the guy knows you personally." The magician nodded. "It makes sense."

"I have a number of enemies." The scientist shook his head. "We can't track them all down to ask if they blew up my building."

"Good point." Jack smiled. "How many could make a weapon like the one we think blew your place up?"

"Almost all of them." The second Dragon shook his head again. "Death rays are a dime of dozen among the people I deal with. It gives them joy to be able to use a modified laser pointer to cut through anything in their way."

"And any one of them would love to shoot your lab." The magician could see that.

His own enemies would love for him to slip up so they could send his house to another dimension with him in it.

The Dragons fell silent as they pursued their own thoughts. Jack felt himself slipping in and out of a trance. That was dangerous when they were about to head into danger. He needed to get some coffee if they were going to continue.

The cab arrived minutes later. The driver seemed surprised to see that his fares closely resembled each other. He said nothing as they got in the car.

Jack decided to sleep in the back of the cab as his counterpart gave the driver an address to take them. He decided he could afford a nap while they were moving. He wrote a spell on the back glass just in case the other Jack's enemy had been watching for them to arrive at the destroyed lab.

He didn't want the cab to be blasted to a million pieces while he was still inside it.

Jack snapped out of his sleep when the cab jammed to a stop. His other self paid the driver off. He climbed out of the back seat and stretched the rest of the dream fog from his brain.

"The locker is hidden underneath the building." The second Dragon waved at the driver as he pulled off. "I put it in so if I was in town and needed something fast in an emergency."

"I should do the same." Jack twisted his spine back into a comfortable position. "I haven't had anything try to take out my house yet so I haven't considered it before now."

"I had a couple of cases where I needed the right thing and couldn't go all the way out to my house to get it." One eyed Jack walked along the side of the small club. Boards covered the windows and front door. "That's when I bought this place and set up my second lab."

He pressed the fan housing on the air conditioner. A small light blinked. He put his thumb over the light. The air conditioner slid out the way.

"Secret tunnel?" Jack smiled. "That's almost a magic trick."

"It was nothing to build." The other Jack led the way down. "I happened to have a molecular compressor laying around that I could adjust to hollow out the main area and build the walls by stopping the motion of their atoms."

"Sounds like magic to me." The magician smiled. "Just happened to have a compressor lying around?"

"Several actually."

Jack Dragon's Counterpart 3

Jack stood in a corner. His other self was back in his own element. He hummed a tune from the old country as he loaded things in cases.

The magician wondered if he should offer help. He decided to let his counterpart follow his own nose. Magic saved time, but sometimes people liked to use the things they were used to having to deal with their problems.

Conjuring was for the last resort when nothing else worked.

He checked his watch. He wondered if the second Dragon needed him anymore.

"Let's see what we can find out." One eyed Jack pulled on sunglasses. The lens over his empty socket glowed for a second.

"Where do you want to start?" Jack pulled on his own sunglasses.

He had a feeling the objects were used to do the same things in both of their worlds.

"We'll start at my house." He placed the cases in the trunk of a car. "We can see what was used to attack, and break, my shields."

"Seems reasonable to me." The magician slid into the passenger seat. He felt the thing shift around him, moving on its own as it adjusted to his body. He raised his eyebrows.

"Simple robotics." The scientist pushed a start button after settling in his seat. Lighted graphs appeared around him. He nodded as everything looked good.

"This is command." A lock sound came from the dashboard. "Destination: Main House."

The car started rolling on its own. It headed for a blank wall. It stopped a few inches short. It started rising from the feel of it.

"I installed a lift to allow me to pull vehicles into the lab for maintenance if I needed to do that." The scientist checked the readings. "We should be home in a few minutes."

"No hurry." Jack settled in his chair and prepared to enjoy the drive.

The car rolled through the streets of the alternate Church Hill smoother than he expected. It was almost like sitting in a theater and watching a movie in action. He noted the similarities and differences in the landscape as it passed.

"Police reports indicate they think I'm dead." The second Dragon shook his head. "They sifted the wreckage and concluded that one of my devices blew up on me."

"They don't know how your machines work." Jack smiled. His own house would give nothing to any earthly authority.

"I have patents for individual pieces." The scientist scratched his face. "I kept some of my gear for myself."

"You don't have to explain to me." The magician kept his own tricks to himself all the time.

"They don't know what was used to wreck the house." One eyed Jack shook his head. "They couldn't tell the direction of movement from the looks of things."

"The place looked destroyed to me." Jack closed his eyes. "It looked like a bomb blast instead of some kind of beam."

"We'll see in a few minutes." The scientist nodded at the picture of his wrecked house moving toward them. A system of graphs played over the place in robotic dismay.

Jack nodded. He could have cast a spell to show them what had happened. It might save time. He decided that his counterpart wanted to find out on his own instead of using a shortcut. He would be the same way if the situation was reversed.

"Give me a scan of the location." The second Dragon watched several of his floating screens. He nodded as the secret workings of the universe revealed themselves to him. He scratched his chin as he thought.

"It was definitely a beam." He touched one of the screens. "Big one from the looks of things."

"Where did it come from?" Jack couldn't tell what his comrade was looking at from his chair.

"It looks like orbit." The scientist frowned. "It looks like space according to this."

"Do you have a way to get to orbit?" The magician hid his smile.

"Yes." One eyed Jack smiled at him. "That's not the problem. I'll need time to find the right satellite once I am there."

"I'll get you time." Jack wasn't about to miss this trip.

"Then let's go." The second Dragon nodded. "Destination: Church Hill Airport."

The car started forward. It rolled smoothly through traffic as it headed for the terminal.

"Why the airport?" Jack pulled out some cards and wrote on them with a pen as they went.

"I have a space program there." The scientist checked his projections on one of the screens. "We may have to take some time to find the right satellite. It's been hours since the strike against the house."

"I have an idea about that." The magician checked the handwriting on the cards. The lines were straight and true. He put them away as he tried to relax about the prospect of leaving the Earth.

"You don't travel much." The second Dragon noticed the tenseness of his passenger. "Destination: Launch Facility."

"I travel six months of the year." Jack smiled. "I just never left the ground for space before."

"Nothing to it." One eyed Jack pointed at an access road coming up. "That's the road to my hangar."

"Does anybody know about it?" The magician found himself looking up at the sky.

"It's possible." The counterpart smiled. "We'll know when we try to launch."

"That's not good." Jack wrote on the back of his hand as they turned on the dark road. He might need the extra protection for the adventure ahead.

"Don't worry." One eyed Jack smiled. "We'll never know if the beam hits there."

Jack put his face in his hand.

The car drove until it reached a particular spot in the road. It stopped. It started dropping into the ground. A hatch closed over the lift.

"Transfer scan records to the Long Boat." The car chirped at him before completing the task before the lift could finish coming to a rest. "Destination: Bay Parking Spot."

The car rolled to a spot out of the way and parked. The doors opened on their own before the engine turned off.

"That's the Long Boat." One eyed Jack pointed at his creation.

The vehicle in question was a red and black triangle with short wings. Jack didn't see any exhaust tubes. He wondered how it flew.

"We need to get you a suit." The scientist went to a locker. He pulled out two suits. "At least we are the same size."

Jack took the coverall. He wrote on it and it covered his suit. He pulled on the helmet and secured it to the neck ring. He nodded.

"Let's get going." The second Dragon carried his helmet up a gangplank to a small airlock. He stepped out the other side and headed to the front of the ship.

Jack followed with slower steps as he tried to get used to the suit.

One eyed Jack pulled his suit on before sitting down. He waited for his counterpart to take a seat in the co-pilot seat before he turned on the engines. They hummed in harmony.

"We're going to taxi over to the lift and head aboveground." He looked at the floating graphs around him. "I'll radio for clearance before we head up."

"They just let you launch into space with no problem from the airport?" The magician waited for his seat to quit adjusting to him.

"I have a hack in the airport mainframe." The scientist smiled. "I put traffic on hold the five minutes it will take to get into low orbit."

"And no one connects that to you?" Jack frowned across the aisle.

"No one has yet." The scientist typed on a keypad. The aircraft floated to the lift.

The road lid had retracted to let them pass. The Long Boat floated up through the opening. The nose pointed up and it leaped away from the city. The hangar lid closed for anyone else who might want to use the road.

The Long Boat hovered at a point where Jack could see the stars and the sun on the other side of the planet. He paused at the sight. It was something he thought he would never see despite his jaunts into other realms at a moment's notice.

"We are almost directly above the house." The scientist set his machinery in motion. "Let's see what we can find."

4

Alarms sounded in the Long Boat. Both Jacks started looking around. The scientist pressed virtual keys as he sent the ship in a jinking turn to avoid whatever was coming their way. His almost twin wrote on the nearest surface with a finger.

The spell took hold as the spacecraft shuddered from a hit that should have sent it to Earth in a burning trail of fragments. The beam bounced off from the magic protection.

"I have a sighting on the enemy." The second Dragon smiled. "It looks like it needs time to power up between shots."

"That's good." Jack wrote more spell symbols on the surfaces around him. His first spell had burned away from the blast. "Can you get us over there before it shoots at us again?"

"We might have a problem." One eyed Jack typed on his keyboard. The Long Boat began executing maneuvers. "Two more hostiles have shown up to shoot at us."

"Do you have any weapons on this thing?" The magician activated one of his symbols. The spell threw an illusion of five more boats in the same area as the ship.

"Firing them right now." The ship rocked as he spoke.

If the enemy was smart, the shooting would reveal which ship was real. It couldn't be helped. They had to fight back. Eventually they would destroy the illusion anyway through elimination.

Jack activated another spell. The hunters might be impervious to what his counterpart could do. Maybe a bit of magic lightning would do something.

One of the enemy crafts blew up from the Long Boat's attack. It had tried to put some kind of protection up. That didn't stop the twin missiles from blasting through it and keep going away from the Earth.

They would explode on their own when they were far enough away.

Jack's lightning hit the second flying machine. It burned through the core of the satellite. The hunk of metal floated in place for the moment. Unless something was done, the Earth would pull it down and it would burn up, or crash into something.

That was a problem for later. Their first enemy shot at them again. The beam seemed bigger than the Long Boat.

One eyed Jack sent his ship skipping in a spinning turn around the beam. He frowned as his machine screamed at him. He sent two more missiles at the satellite as he reversed to let the giant flare pass under his spacecraft.

The missiles exploded short of the target.

The beam cut off. That revealed a thing like a flower floating in space. It gleamed in the naked solar light.

"It's shielded." The second Dragon checked his floating screens. "If it hits us with one of those beams, we're cooked. Any ideas?"

"Get behind that satellite that I shot. I'll have to go out and touch it for a moment." Jack shook his head. "It'll be risky but it might solve our problem."

"Magic?" One eyed Jack typed on his keyboard.

"And some science." Jack made sure his helmet and suit was secure and airtight. "Let's do this before I come to my senses."

"Head back to the airlock." The scientist thumbed the direction. "I'll let you know when to go."

"I'll need you to draw fire so it shoots at the satellite." The magician made his way towards the exit. "I'll also need you to let me know when it's about to shoot."

"Drop in six seconds." The second Dragon brought the ship to hover behind the wrecked chunk of hardware. The inner door opened for Jack to step in the airlock. "How much time do you need before you're ready?"

"A couple of seconds." The airlock pumped air out of the chamber. The outer door opened. Jack jumped outside. "Don't forget to pick me up."

"It looks like its firing." The Long Boat pulled away. "Let's see if I can make it miss one more time."

If it doesn't, it's a long walk home from here.

Jack wrote on his faceplate. He needed more than his other self's notice the thing was firing at him. His spell would give him that. He wrote on his hand. The satellite pulled him to it because of that.

Now for the hard work part of his plan.

A beam lanced out for the Long Boat. One eyed Jack slipped it with a smooth start stop. He turned the ship back toward the dead satellite.

"Get directly behind me and keep going." Jack wrote on the metal as he clung to the floating wreck. He waited for the next beam.

The second Dragon dropped his ship behind the improvised shield and goosed it. He wanted to have more room to move if he needed it. He checked his screens.

"It's readying to fire." He sounded nervous on the radio.

Jack didn't blame him for being worried. The whole plan centered on whether they could get their enemy to shoot the precise spot they wanted it to shoot at the precise time they needed.

His visor spell warned him he needed to do something. He pressed his hand on the spell words and activated it.

The satellite expanded and flattened into a sheet in front of him. He grabbed the frame on the back as maneuvering rockets fired to keep it on course. The beam fired across the dark space. It hit and rebounded as the mirror fought to keep in position.

The enemy froze when the weaker beam hit its shields. Electrical sparks were visible on its surface as some of its systems burned out.

"I think I hurt it." Jack wrote on the jets to carry him forward. "I'm going to try and shut it down before it can fire again."

"I'm circling." One eyed Jack sent back. "Let's see if I can help you out some."

The Long Boat passed silently. The magician didn't see an exhaust anywhere. Did the thing use anti-gravity to fly?

He readied himself for defense if the satellite wasn't as dead as they thought. There were other things he could do with a big enough mirror.

The scientist leaped from his ship. A jet carried him to the stuttering machine. He pointed a weapon at it and pressed the trigger. Jack squinted, but couldn't see any difference from where he was floating.

Shouldn't it have exploded?

"It's shut down." One eyed Jack sounded happy enough. "We now have something we can plunder for clues. Good job."

"That's great." Jack wrote on his spacecraft. It shrank down to a Segway to carry him the rest of the way on wheels of fire. "Can we do this on the ground?"

"We'll have to." The scientist dug into the guts of the machine and pulled out a few of the components. "This is all we need. The rest can be junked."

"Let's do that then." He wrote on the hulk with a gloved finger. The pieces broke down into component parts in a matter of seconds. They headed for the Earth with a little shove of his hand.

People would see fireworks when they hit the atmosphere.

"A mirror?" One eyed Jack headed for the Long Boat on his jet. The pieces he needed were in a bag at his hip.

"The best solutions are the simplest." Jack followed with his floating platform. When they were in the airlock, he changed it to a miniature version of the satellite he had wrecked. He dropped it in a pocket as the inner door opened.

"It bought us some time." The second Dragon smiled as he headed for his chair. "Let's take this apart and see who our enemy could be before he realizes his big gun is gone."

Jack dropped in the other chair. He needed something to eat. He could hear his stomach rumbling.

5

Jack worked his way through some eggs, sausages, and toast while waiting on the second Jack to go over their loot. Throwing as much magic as he had done in space required him to load on the calories. As soon as they had returned to Earth, he had gotten some food from a local grocery and started cooking.

He could have set up a link between the components and their owner, but his counterpart was doing something that looked like his own kind of magic.

It was always better to let others do what they did best. Then you could impress them with your skills if what they had didn't work.

He didn't think that would be the case here. His counterpart already had several computers working on clues taken from the killer space gun.

His machines started beeping as results popped up one at time. It sounded like a chorus of crickets.

"Do we have anything useful?" Jack looked at the various pictures and graphs. They meant nothing to him.

"We have some leads from this." The second Dragon turned. He had a monocle screwed into the empty eye socket. "The best appears to be this piece right here."

"What does it do?" The magician finished his eggs as he looked at the small black box.

"It broadcasts an updated position signal back to its home base every few seconds." He smiled at Jack's expression. "Don't worry. I shut it off as soon as I took it out of the satellite. The enemy thinks his weapon just vanished without a trace at the moment."

"I doubt that." The magician pointed with a fork. "What does the rest of this do?"

"One's a guidance chip for the big gun. One's a control chip for maneuvering in space. This one relays pictures of anything the satellite was over back to home base." One eyed Jack shook his head. "All of it is homemade from the looks of things."

"Do you have an idea where home base is?" Jack finished his toast. He felt better, fueled for whatever they prepared to do next.

"Roughly." The second Dragon pointed at one computer. "It's somewhere in the city."

"Somewhere?" The magician looked at the map. Circles marked certain places. Numbers were written in small print inside the circles.

"Those are cell phone towers." The scientist smiled. "The satellite phoned home with orbital updates."

"You're kidding." Jack gave him a look.

"No." One eyed Jack pointed at the different circles. "He is on the move too."

"Can you track him down?" The magician put his paper plate and plastic fork in the trash.

"Eventually." The second Dragon looked at the circles of the cell phone calls. "I want you to do it."

"Use magic on this?" Jack put on his sunglasses. "I can do it."

"Let me get my gear." One eyed Jack unscrewed the monocle and put it on the table. "I want to catch this guy tonight."

"I don't have a problem with that." Jack looked over the components. Words formed in his mind as he worked on the description he wanted to write down. They would have an answer to the identity of their mystery enemy soon as he got started.

"I'm ready to go." The second Dragon returned in an equipment vest festooned with tools. His sunglasses covered his face.

"Then you drive." The magician picked up the parts. He went over his spell in his mind as he took the pieces from their holders. He stacked the lab equipment on the table before walking over to the car.

"What do you plan to do?" The scientist got in his pilot's chair. The engine and graphs came up.

"I plan to use these to track down their maker." Jack got in the passenger seat. He started writing on the pieces with his finger.

One eyed Jack gave the car the last point on the cell phone locator search. The car drove to the entrance and was lifted out of the secret hangar. It sped down the road away from the airport.

A dragon spun out of the magic working. It entered the car. The scientist looked at his passenger. The man's calm expression reassured him that this was what they wanted.

"The car is going to take us to our man." Jack closed his eyes. "We'll have to be sure which person he is when we get there."

The car drove itself along the streets. Sometimes a dragon's head would erupt from the hood to roar at other cars on the road. That startled the other drivers enough to make them pull off.

"We're giving people nightmares." One eyed Jack looked behind them on a scanner to make sure the latest driver hadn't crashed his car.

"Gas pedal is on the right." Jack still had his eyes closed. "We're getting close."

"How will we know which one we need?" The scientist glanced at threat assessments coming in. "The car won't attack, will it?"

"Depends." Jack opened his eyes. He wrote on the lenses of his sunglasses. "We need to be ready if your enemy decides to attack first."

"I'm ready." One eyed Jack looked at his screens. "If I can get control when we need to do that."

"It will." The magician pointed at another car they were approaching. "I think that's the one we're looking for."

The car in question slid through the traffic smoother than a normal driver.

"It's a robot." The second Dragon looked at his screens. "I don't see anything but mechanicals."

"Makes sense." Jack nodded as he dismissed the dragon in the car. "Our enemy is using robots to do what he wants. He still has to have some way to direct the car."

"Let's see if we can get a signal." One eyed Jack typed on his virtual keyboard.

Another screen appeared. A line rolled from where they were to somewhere toward downtown. Then it crossed to the edge of the city. The address looked familiar to Jack.

"What's over there?" He pointed at the end point with a finger.

"It's a graveyard." The scientist checked the address to be sure.

"That's where we have to go." Jack had a feeling he knew who they were dealing with now.

If there was more than one Jack Dragon, of course there would be more than one version of his enemies.

"How do you know?" One eyed Jack directed his car to aim for the graveyard.

"One of my cases started on my world's version of that graveyard." Jack frowned at the memory of invading a castle with a ghost as an ally. "The Spirit King."

"Bad guy?" The second Dragon glanced at his graphs. The line was blinking a solid green the closer they got to the cemetery.

"He tried to drain dead people of their remaining spiritual energy to boost his own personal power." The magician looked out the window. "He was also draining any ghost in the city too."

"That's bad?" The scientist saw it as using natural resources just laying around.

"It is if you're a ghost just trying to enjoy your afterlife." Dragon frowned at him.

"What did he plan to do with this spiritual energy?" One eyed Jack decided that was a safer ground to walk on.

"He planned to punch a hole in reality and reduce the living to mindless husks while he decided which other plane of existence he wanted to overwrite next." Jack smiled. "What he got was a small living space in a snow globe."

"Ouch." He made a face.

"He shouldn't have tried to kill me." The magician looked out the window.

"So you think his counterpart is behind trying to kill me and blowing up my house." One eyed Jack nodded when his car told him it was rolling toward the gates of the graveyard. "Why? I don't know anyone with that kind of savvy, or intent."

"Maybe he knows you." Jack thought about motives as the car rolled to a stop. "That might be enough if he thought you could stop him and no one else could."

"I just do research." The scientist gave a small shake of his head. "Most of my inventions aren't even patented yet."

"He might want some of your inventions for himself." He wrote on the back of his hands. "We'll know soon enough."

"If he's here." One eyed Jack let the car roll to a stop. He got out, checking that his equipment could be pulled easily.

"He's here." Jack got out of the passenger side of the car. "The graveyard is wired. I can see the energy moving around."

"I guess it would be too much to ask if he will come along quietly." The scientist locked and armed the car behind them.

"If he is like mine, he is probably wondering why his satellite isn't shooting at us right now." The magician straightened his jacket with a flick of his arms.

The two Dragons walked into the cemetery.

6

One eyed Jack examined the tombs as they walked down the rows. Energy signatures leaped out at him everywhere he looked. Their unseen enemy had converted the cemetery into a mechanical playground.

How far would he be able to walk before something tried to kill him? He doubted he could just walk up and knock on the door. No one would allow that after what had happened to his house.

The magician had the same look on his face under his sunglasses where he walked a few rows over.

Where was the security?

One eyed Jack blinked at an energy build up detected by his visor. He pushed the button on his vest. It hummed from the power generated by a fresh battery installed in the generator. His vision blurred from the screen activating around him.

Tombstones raised to allow cannons to flip up and extend barrels. They opened fire at the two Dragons. Other markers began moving on their own as the heroes ran for cover.

One eyed Jack flicked his wrist. A rifle dropped into his hand. He had worked on compressing objects and returning them to full size without bugs. This looked like his first combat test. He charged it as beams sliced the air around him.

One beam hit his shield and sent him down as his gear deflected the shot. He rolled to keep moving away from the beam and came up on one knee.

He pulled the trigger on the rifle. He had designed it for single shots. The rate of fire didn't matter because of the ammunition he designed to be fired by the bullpup weapon.

The defending cannon came apart in a spray of fragments from the bullet the second Dragon used. The turret locked in place as it tried to keep firing without a barrel.

One eyed Jack charged the rifle again and took aim. His visor zoomed in on the next defender in line. He pulled the trigger and watched it come apart. The impact was as silent as his lab tests.

He moved down the row hurriedly. His visor indicated that the other markers had released flying drones. He might need to switch ammo to deal with them.

Where was the other him?

He spotted his ally slicing through one of the cannons with what looked like a piece of paper. He blinked for a second. Then he told himself it was magic and he should keep moving.

Five drones chased him through the cemetery. Two more of the cannons came online, and turned to shoot at him as he ran. He should be happy more weren't lining up to kill him.

The second Dragon winced as light played across his screen. He didn't know how much more his shield could take before it collapsed. If the generator blew, everything would stop working. The only weapon he would have was a Swiss army knife.

He needed to get rid of the cannons first. They threw out more power, they were stationary, and he could shoot them on the move.

He put the next shell dead center of his first target. He charged the rifle and fired again. The second shot hit near the bottom of the cannon. It fell over as its support came apart.

One eyed Jack turned right and cut away from his former direction of travel. He needed another weapon to deal with the flying weapon platforms.

He put the rifle away and pulled out a ring of steel. He turned and threw the ring at the first drone. It sliced through the robot without hesitation. The two halves scattered the others to avoid the pieces falling in their way.

He reached into his vest and threw down a metal ball after pressing a button on the top of it. A bright flash covered the graveyard. That was enough for the drones to pause in flight. They didn't want to crash into each other.

He admitted that was a smart piece of programming.

He still had time to take advantage of the freezing.

He pulled the rifle and shot them one at a time as they floated above the battlefield. Pieces dropped down as the drones came apart in silent explosions of parts pushing from each other.

One eyed Jack took a moment to look for more machinery to destroy. The battlefield looked like a hoarder's yard after years of accumulation.

"The door's over here." His counterpart pointed at a crypt. "Shall we talk to the master in his lair?"

"I don't have anything else planned for the day." The scientist took out a portable compressor. He pointed it at the crypt door. The door separated in the middle to let them through.

"Neat trick." The magician straightened his jacket and tie.

"Applied science does wonders." The scientist smiled. He widened the hole for them to step through into the chamber beyond.

The crypt was a cover for a lift. The platform didn't drop underground to allow them access to their enemy. That was expected.

"I wonder what happens if we take out the floor." One eyed Jack looked around. The wiring was live. Several scanners appeared in their hiding places under his inspection. "I wonder what he's thinking."

"Ways to kill us at a distance." The magician wrote on the floor of the lift. "Let's ask him and make sure."

"I'm ready." The scientist checked his shield, and switched the compressor for the rifle. He wanted to do damage when he reached the bottom.

The mechanism started down. The scientist thought he heard a whine of protest. Apparently his colleague hadn't unlocked everything.

"Looks like he has a backup to try and stall us." Jack wrote on the floor again.

The lift slid through the arm that was supposed to lift it from the bottom. It moved effortlessly downward with the hydraulic shaft piercing the center harmlessly.

"We should get off as soon as we hit the bottom." He pulled out some cards. His finger traced designs on their backs as he waited for the lift to stop moving.

"You want to go first?" One eyed Jack wondered what he was going to do with playing cards. He didn't want to ask.

"Sure." Dragon smiled. "Get ready."

The lift slid to a stop. The doors refused to open. He flung a card at them. The doors melted as the paper turned into a phoenix that burned itself out as it flew.

Gears whirred as defenses kicked in to stop the invaders from getting further into the lair. They weren't prepared for the thing that came out of the elevator shaft as it breathed fire and clawed anything in its way.

"A dragon?" The scientist smiled.

"And for my next trick, watch me pull a villain out of my hat." The magician pulled his next card off the top of the deck. He flung it in front of them. It vanished down the corridor. "Let's talk to the great man."

The Dragons followed their literal namesake's path of destruction until they reached a cross corridor. A card lay on the floor in the left branch. They took that turn. They found another card, then another. The last card hugged a closed door.

Jack flung the next card against the door. The door fell in with the sound of an elephant announcing its displeasure. He stepped inside, looking for the mastermind.

"To the right." One eyed Jack nodded at a tube with hoses and cables running to it. A brain floated inside the tube.

"Hello, gentlemen."

7

The two Jacks walked over to the floating brain. A speaker was plugged into a jack at the base of the cylinder.

"Why did you blow up my house?" The second Dragon pointed his rifle at the life support.

"I found it necessary for the future of my plans." The brain floated in bubbling soup.

"What are your plans?" Jack looked around the lab. "What do you want?"

"I wish to rule the city first, then the country, then the world, then the solar system." The brain bobbed in place. "The first move was to eliminate my only rival, then the heroes of Church Hill, then any other threat one by one."

"Sounds pretty bloody to me." The magician put on a smile.

"It's the only practical way of doing things." The speaker didn't quite convey the smugness of the words.

"I think the authorities will want to talk to you about firing an orbital laser into the city." One eyed Jack put his rifle away. "We've heard enough."

"That's not exactly in my plans." The cylinder dropped into the floor. "Goodbye."

"Did you just hear the sound of an ominous click?" Jack started writing on the floor where he stood. "We might be in trouble."

"We have to get out of here." One eyed Jack started moving toward the exit. He paused at the robots blocking the door. "More minions."

"Get over here." The magician waved his hand. "We don't have a lot of time."

"What are you doing?" The second Dragon jogged over as he pulled his rifle again. The robots walked forward.

Jack activated his spell. The words spread out around them. He looked around for whatever trap was supposed to spring shut.

Flame and sound filled the space where they stood. The roof fell down into the room. The floor and walls melted into slag.

The Dragons floated over the crater left by the sinking base.

"That was impressive." One eyed Jack looked around. "What's your next trick?"

"We find the brain in the jar." Jack smiled. "Then we put him in a cell somewhere."

"What do you think he is planning?" The scientist put the rifle away.

"He's probably planning to kill the other superhumans on his list." The magician propelled them away from the lake of cooling slag so they wouldn't burn their shoes apart on touchdown.

"He didn't seem deterred by our arrival." The second Dragon pulled out a PDA.

"When we sunk his flying laser guns, he had to know it was you back from the dead." Jack let his spell burn away.

"How do we find him again?" One eyed Jack started walking toward his car. "He certainly didn't stick around to go up with the rest of his base."

"Let me borrow your minicomputer." Dragon held out his hand. "Maybe I can get a fix on him before he gets too far away."

The scientist handed over his PDA.

Jack wrote on the screen with a finger. A map of the city appeared. A street address and direction of travel appeared at the bottom. He smiled.

"Let's give this to your computer, and we can follow him anywhere in the city." He handed the small box back to its owner.

"Let's go." The scientist smiled. "We don't want to let him get ready for us."

"He'll probably try to destroy his bolt hole too." Jack pulled out his cards and wrote on several as he walked. "If we can stop him from escaping, we can capture him. I don't know how you will convince a jury that he blew up your house."

"Let's worry about capturing him." One eyed Jack got behind the wheel of his car. "We can figure out how to handle a trial later."

"I don't have a problem with that." The magician settled in the passenger seat of the car.

The PDA dropped into a slot. Its display took over the car's rotating graphics. The car pulled out in the street and headed away from the graveyard.

The automobile rolled smoothly through the streets until it reached the warehouse district. It paused as if trying to decide which building to pull in front of and park. Finally it pulled to the curb beside a warehouse on the left.

"Camera." One eyed Jack got out of the car. He pulled his rifle and blasted the mechanical eye to pieces.

"I got the door." Jack threw one of his cards at the main door where trucks were supposed to load cargo bound to other cities. The door rusted away as the paper caught fire and went up in a puff of smoke.

Robot cannons popped out of the ground to deal with the intruders. It looked like the king hadn't had enough time to work on his defenses.

One eyed Jack activated his screen as he used the rifle on the robots. They fell apart under the invisible blows he dealt out.

Jack threw another card at the warehouse itself. He didn't want another escape followed by an explosion. His prepared spell should stop that from happening.

It was hard to signal a detonator when you were cut off from the controls.

"Let's talk to the man." The magician gestured for his counterpart to go first. "I doubt he's going anywhere now."

The two Dragons walked inside the dimly lit building. Robot defenders stood in the middle of moving to stop the invaders.

The scientist pointed at another tube similar to the one in the graveyard lair. It stood in the middle of a nest of waldo arms caught in the middle of flexing their hands for battle.

"It looks like we have our criminal without too much of a bother." Jack smiled at the brain. "Maybe they will be able to grow you a body in jail."

The liquid in the transparent shell boiled in fury.

"I think that you could have made yourself a robot body from what I see here." One eyed Jack waved his hand to take in the facility. "I wonder why you didn't."

"I think he did." Jack pointed at a headless shell near the life support. "I shut the power down before he could switch to it."

"Let's make that call to turn you in." The scientist smiled. "Maybe the government can take your equipment apart and learn how to use it for the good of humanity."

The soup boiled even more.

Epilogue

Jack Dragon shook his head at the ruined house that belonged to his counterpart. It looked even worse if you walked around it a couple of minutes.

The other Jack frowned at the destruction.

The beam from space had hit dead center and blown the place to the ground as easily as any natural disaster. The second Dragon had been lucky to have survived the blast.

"My repair crew will be here any moment to rebuild." One eyed Jack shook his head. "I'll tell them to increase the shields to prevent something like this from happening again."

"What about the brain in the jar?" Jack wrote on a fragment with his finger. The piece connected to another piece lying not too far away.

"His recorded confession went to the District Attorney." The scientist smiled when he saw a truck rolling down the road toward the destruction. "The lawyers are arguing over his mental state since he is a brain in a jar."

"I guess being a megalomaniac could be a defense." More of the pieces glued themselves to the original piece that he had wrote on. He watched the rubble dance around gently.

"Not really." One eyed Jack headed to where the truck was backing into the driveway leading to the house. "He's still responsible if he knew right from wrong."

The magician smiled. He had done some good, and could go home without any problems following him. He didn't have to testify in court, and didn't have to return unless he wanted to check in with his counterpart.

The only question that remained in his mind was how did the other Jack survive his house's death.

The back of the truck opened. Metal men slid down a ramp that dropped down to the ground. Shelves of tools extended for them to grab when they needed them.

"Just have your guys push everything together before you start clearing everything out." Jack adjusted his sunglasses. "It might make the cleanup easier."

"More magic?" One eyed Jack frowned at the wreckage.

"Something minor that should help you out before I go home." The magician bent down to write on the ground. "I did wonder how you survived."

"I had some equipment set up for viewing across dimensional barriers." The scientist pointed at a spot where the walls had fallen in a V. "When I saw what was about to happen, I used the viewer to send me across to your world. It was a gamble, but I knew I would fry if I didn't do something."

"If you need my help again, don't hesitate to call." Jack poured some of his will into the spell on the ground. He flipped positions and stood in front of his own house in his own Church Hill.

Jack decided to go in and get some food. He felt weak from all the magic he had thrown around. He needed to watch that.

One eyed Jack smiled as the robots pushed the fragments together and the house rebuilt itself. Magic was certainly useful. He needed to study it and learn its principles so he could apply it to his scientific research.

It might help speed up his experiments without hurting them beyond repair.

The headquarters looked almost like home in a few hours. There were several pieces missing when things were done. He figured they had turned into superheated molecules reaching for orbit from the strike.

The scientist checked everything he could before looking for his bedroom. He shook his head at the absence of a bed, or any of his personal things. He should have expected that. He would replace what he could in the morning.

He asked the robots to clean out his bedroom. It still had the burnt smell hovering around it. Once it didn't smell quite so bad, he would take a nap.

He always felt sleepy after working on some new invention, or fixing some problem.

And he had fixed a major problem dealing with the brain king.

One eyed Jack smiled when the robots were done. He laid down, and closed his eyes. He felt himself drift away to sleep. He hoped his counterpart was doing well in his own earth.

Jack Dragon, the magician, finished a huge meal, checked his messages, and drove his equipment over to the Magic Hat. He had the kitchen staff get him something to fill him up before his show started. He should watch the magic. It would burn him out if he wasn't careful.

He went through his performance with practiced ease. He smiled as the audience clapped at his sleight of hand and his illusions. Maybe he should stay with fake magic.

He finished his last trick with a flourish of swords and roses. He bowed at the clapping that greeted the falling of the flowers on the audience in the front row.

He expected screams if he ever did that one wrong.

Jack gathered his equipment and packed the pieces in their trunks so he could take them home. He supposed he could just teleport them between locations, but he liked the work of loading the trunks and making sure everything worked. It reminded him that magic couldn't fix everything.

It did come in handy for what he needed usually.

Wojohowitz appeared at the edge of the stage. He had an eye out in the dining room. He waved Jack over with a wide hand.

"Got another one for you, Jack." He stood with his hand making the curtain give him a peephole. "Where did all these weirdos start coming from all of a sudden?"

"What do you mean?" Jack walked over after making sure his trunks were closed tight. He looked through the crack.

A lone man in a black suit and sunglasses stood at the edge of the dining area. He seemed to be looking around for anyone who might wander too close to him.

"Who's that?" Jack frowned. The man looked familiar.

"He wants to hire you for a job." The club manager scowled. "I told him that I would talk to you. He looks like trouble."

"All of my clients are trouble." The magician smiled. "Otherwise, they wouldn't be my clients."

"Isn't that the truth?" Wojohowitz still scowled. "How do you want to handle this?"

"Tell him to have a seat and I will be right with him." Jack rubbed his chin. "I'll put the trunks in the van and be right there. He doesn't look all that dangerous."

"They never do." He walked down the stage steps into the audience area to talk to the potential client.

Jack rolled his trunks out of the back door and loaded up the van. He secured everything before walking back into the club. He hoped the problem was simple and easily solved.

His stomach still rumbled for more.

He walked over to where the young man stood at a table. The man nodded when he saw Jack. He acted like they had met before somewhere.

"I'm Jack Dragon." His client certainly looked familiar. "What can I do for you?"

"I need some help finding my mother." The young man looked down at the floor. "I lost her."

"Wouldn't the police be of much better help?" The magician sat at the table. He gestured for his guest to take the other seat.

"No." The client sat. "She hasn't been born yet."

Jack rubbed his chin. Where did these people come from, and how did they keep finding him?

"Let's start with who you are." The magician gestured for a drink from the bar. "Then we can work out the rest."

"I'm your son, Jack junior."