Harry slept in the next day. He got up close to noon and made brunch. He baked fresh scones. He made light and fluffy southwest omelets filled with green peppers, onions, steak, and cheese. He also made waffles, bacon sandwiches, and chicken salad sandwiches. When Neville and Abby came in from patrol and Hermione came back from visiting with Alice they found a table full of food and a happy Harry setting down and tray of orange juice.
"Nice spread!" Neville said taking a seat at the table.
"I got a late start so I thought I'd be productive." Harry said grabbing the bottle of champagne he was chilling in an ice bucket and popping the cork.
"Harry where did you get orange juice?" Abby asked.
"I got a sack of oranges from Salt Lake city. They were expensive and pretty beat up. They were not really that good for eating, a lot of stringy pulp. But they juiced well with a spell." Harry said adding a splash of champagne to each glass.
"Well this all looks great." Hermione said.
They sat at the table stuffing their faces and talking and Harry sat back with a girn on his face. He loved this. This was the closest thing to family he had. Abby saw the look on his face and smiled at him. When they were all done they sat back in their seats and let their bellies stick out.
"I hope everyone saved room for dessert, I made apple pie and cherry cobbler." Harry said with a smirk to watch them all protest.
"Too FUll." Neville said burping. "Sorry." He said.
"Don't be, I wish I could burp. I'm afraid to try. I shouldn't have had that second waffle. Too heavy." Abby said rubbing her visible food bump.
"I'm sure it was the second waffle and not the three big portions of omelet." Harry said.
"It was waffle! All the carbs! They catch up with you. Burp! ahh." She said burping.
"Too much bacon." Hermione said smacking her lips as she drank more water.
"It was all really good." Neville said picking in his teeth with a toothpick he saved from the chicken sandwich he ate.
"How are we going to go back out?" Abby asked.
"We can't, not for a while." Neville said.
"Anything going on out there?" Harry asked.
"Not much. Just patrolling the roads but it's even too cold for the undead. We spotted a group of dire wolves near Hamilton. We tracked them to some trees and took them out. Five big suckers. Kate's taking care of them for us as we speak. We did run into our old friend Shamus. He's living just inside the wall of Hamilton. He took a job with the local watch group and he's hunting the woods nearby for game meat to sell in the town store." Neville said.
"Good for him. Joining the social group is good." Harry said with a smile.
"I want to turn a few of the wolf pelts we just got into a throw for over the couch in the living room." Abby said.
"We should make fur lined long leather coats for the winter. Maybe make some warmer hats too." Neville said.
"I can work on that. We should try getting some rabbits in the forest later. They have the best fur. We'll summon them out of the forest and maybe we can stock up on some more deer as well." Abby said looking to Neville.
"Sounds good to me. We can go as soon as I can move." Neville said.
"I agree." She said as Harry cleared the table of leftovers.
"Well I think I have a new potion. I've been consulting with Alice about a potion I found in a book we got yesterday. It's a general purpose healing tonic that might work for muggles and it's cheap to make in big batches. It might be good enough to replace the healing tonic we use in the operative's kit." Hermione said.
"I have a project of my own. I'm going to tackle the ammo, and then I was thinking of making a few things. I'm going to make 25 more Steel model 1's. The custom Lemat revolvers are damn useful and I think we should have some back up guns on hand. Also I want to mass produce a few really nice guns from the trunks and have them on hand. We'll look into how ready the world is for semi-automatic handguns and if they are then I think we can make some real coin selling Steel Model 1's 2's 3's. You get the point. One man's Colt 1911 is another man's Steel Model 11. Even if we just come out with the first swing out cylinder revolver before colt does we can make a lot of bank." Harry said.
"You know, that's good thinking. We have a few different revolvers in the trunks. Colts, Smith and Wessons, and even Taurus'. If we picked a few and patented them we could get ahead of the curve." Neville said.
"A Colt Single action is going for about $25 a gun. You think we could sell a colt detective special for $47 a gun?" Harry asked with a smirk.
"The Colt Python in .357 magnum which is the same as .38XL." Neville agreed.
"The Smith and Wesson model 29 in 44 magnum." Harry said.
"The most powerful handgun in the world!" They both said.
"Do you boys even have a model 29?" Hermione asked.
"Maybe? But you know what we do have and what we should start carrying is the Raging Judge's in the ditch kits we made. Remember the kit?" Harry asked with a smile.
"I do, that was a fun trip, we should take one like that again." Neville said.
"What are you talking about?" Abby asked.
"I'll show you. Neville you tell the story." Harry said getting up and jogging to his room.
"Back about four or five years ago we both got time off. It was like now, mid november. And at the time we were really into survival shows and books. So we set up a ditch kit. It was a bag with a few guns, a few hundred rounds of ammo, fire starting tools, knives, small axes, you know, survival gear. We called them ditch kits because it was everything you need to survive if you had to ditch out of your plan in a bad place." Neville said as Harry walked in with a beat up looking brown canvas duffle bag with leather straps.
Harry dropped the big bag on the table and unbuckled the straps. He grabbed the strap and flung open the big knife roll style bag revealing a broken down winchester model 12 takedown shotgun in 12 gauge, two bandoliers of shotgun ammo, a Ruger Mark 3 hunter pistol in stainless steel with a small red dot sight, a big revolver with black rubber grips, a flare gun, a long machete, a 24 inch axe, three maglite style flashlights in different sizes, a multi tool and three knives. A folding knife, a five inch drop point knife in a leather belt sheath, and a bigger 10 inch camp knife. In the bottom of the bag was a small tent, a medical kit, a rolled up wool camp blanket, a yoga mat, a mess kit and a pelican case.
"I came up with the bags. They are a knock off of Rick O'Connell's bag from the Mummy. So cool." Harry said looking over all the gear and cataloging it all in his head. He pulled out the pelican case and popped it open to show off the hugely expanded inside packed full of boxes and cases.
"We chartered a plane to take us to a barren spot in unincorporated Alaska, we tossed a GPS beacon out of the plane, and then about twenty minutes later we jumped out of the plane with parachutes and our ditch kits. We staggered our jumps three minutes apart and when we landed we were miles apart from each other and about 125 miles from the GPS beacon. It took us two days to find each other and it took us a little over two weeks to get to the beacon. In that two weeks, aside from the charms and enchantments on our gear we didn't use any magic. In fact we didn't even have our wands. We had basic's like 25 lbs of flour, coffee, cornmeal, salt, and sugar, along with a few boxes of power bars, but that was it. If we wanted to drink we had to find a stream or melt snow. If we wanted to eat meat we had to hunt and kill it. It was great." Neville said with a nostalgic look on his face.
"Just you and me braving the Alaskan wilderness. It was great. Remember when we figured out how to hook our two small tents together to give us more space?" Harry said with a smile.
"You were so proud of yourself. Remember that pack of wolves that would not leave us alone until we killed and ate them?" Neville said.
"That was the first time we had wolf. That trip was the first time we had, wild rabbit and squirrel too." Harry said.
"It was the first time we had to gut something that wasn't human. That was odd." Neville said.
"But this is the gun we're talking about. It's a Taurus Raging Judge with a six inch barrel. It can shoot .410 shotgun shells, 454 casull, or a 45 long colt. We had 50 rounds of each. We even had these custom cross draw shoulder rigs made for them." Harry said pulling the big revolver out of the leather holster it was sitting in and handing the gun to Abby.
"My god! This gun weighs a ton." She said swinging out the cylinder. "And it's loaded. What is with you and the loaded guns." She said dropping out the six very big bullets out of the cylinder.
"If a gun's not loaded it's a paper weight. That gun is a five pound paper weight empty, and just under six pounds of bear stopping power loaded. It's a beast of a gun and without the whisper charm you'd go deaf if you shot it without ear protection." Harry said taking the gun back.
"We definitely need to make a few of these and the rounds for them. We should also look in the trunks and find a few other revolvers to copy. Like you said the colt detective special is a classic I know I saw one or two of them in your bag." Neville said.
"I'll look in the trunk and see what we're working with. We might even find an alternative to our operative guns. After all we tend to hunt more than human these days. We really need an intermediate gun for hunting trolls and things in that size bracket. Those 500 nitro rounds don't grow on trees and we only have so many of them." Harry said taking the winchester model 12 out and putting it together before testing out the action.
"There was a 458 socom rifle in your bag. I want one if you can make it. We also need ammo for it. Something with a lot of penetration. And a magically expanded magazine." Neville said.
"I think we should take a few guns out in the field with us and go hunting with them. If we find something that really works we'll put it into a small production. But we'll start with revolvers. We also need to look into getting a patent." Harry said.
"We need to check in the city about something like that but they might not have anything like that. We may need to head east if we want to file a patent." Neville said.
"We'll add it to the list of shit we want to do when we get to the east coast. Now if you'll excuse me I have work to do." Harry said rolling the ditch bag up and taking it with him to his study.
Harry set aside 6 of the 100 crates of 38lc ammo they got the day before. He then went to work on the big stacks of boxes. At first, Harry spent a minute or two looking at the ten stacks of ammo crates. He didn't know where to starts but then he shrugged, grabbed his wand and waved it at the crates. They floated up off the ground and became a big amorphous blob. He pointed at the ground and ended up with nine 50 pound kegs of black powder, 99 lead bars, 71 brass bars and three small kegs full of primers. He also had 75 crates marked .38XL.
Harry turned 20 of the brass bars and half the primers into 50,000 .38XL casings with primers. He used 32 lead bars and 4 brass bars and made 50,000 brass jacketed 150 grain bullet heads. He packed the casings and heads into 20 crates and set them off to the side. He stood up from his chair and expected to be drained but instead he felt fine. It was odd, the more he used the goblin magic the less it drained him.
He took out the box of gun parts that made up the Lemat patterned Steel Model 1 out of his desk and copied each piece 25 times. When he was done he had a crate full of gun parts. He would sit down later and build the guns but for now he wanted to get all the charms work out of the way. He headed into the storage room and found the trunks with the modern guns. Thank's to his sister's need to label things he was able to pull down the trunk with the revolvers. There were 46 revolvers in the trunk and three ammo cans with .32, .38, .357, .44 magnum, and .500 magnum. Harry dumped the trunk out and started sorting the guns by make and caliber. All of the guns were shiny nickel plated or polished stainless steel with fancy gips and engravings.
Of all the guns he tended to take off bad guys he killed he never liked to take plastic framed guns or revolvers. For him to keep a revolver ment it had to be nice. He sorted through each revolver and set all the .38 and .357 magnum guns off to the side cutting his options down to 26. Next he went through and tested each gun on a bunch of criteria. He looked at everything from how the gun fit in the hand to the weight of the trigger pull and balance of the gun. Everytime he found something he hated about a gun he would toss it back in the trunk. Things like odd shaped handles, clunky mechanics, and shots vs size were all looked at.
In the end he took three different guns. He took a nickel plated colt detective special third generations with pearl grips and factory engravings, a colt python in .357 magnum with an 6 inch barrel like his brother asked for. But he really liked the S&W performance shop 627 8 shot .357 with a 1.5 inch barrel and nice wood grips. But the barrel was comically short. He found a S&W Performance center competition 686 with a weighted barrel and nice big wood grips. He would just swap out the barrels and he would be golden. Not only would the bigger barrel give him better accuracy but the five weights under the barrel would give him less recoil. When you added his Taurus raging judge he had a lot of options to work with.
He went back to this office and starting with the Colt detective special he took the gun apart, making sure to catalog each part, take a picture of the part, and a picture of where it went with his phone. He then went back and copped each part 25 times in steel and wood making a few small adjustments. He made the cylinder just a few millimeters longer to fit the .38XL ammo they had. He also played with grips, making 10 guns with bigger chunky grips, 10 with finger grooves, the last 5 with slim grips. He put all the parts into a box and set them aside before moving on to the Colt Python.
He repeated the steps and copied the gun 25 times. He made 15 guns with the 6 inch barrels but he made 10 guns with smaller 3 inch barrels for concealment. He moved on to the S&W 627 revolver. He repeated his work on the Python and copped the gun and both barrel lengths. When he boxed up the parts he was magically dead. He walked out of his study and headed into the kitchen to get dinner ready. He was making dragon, pot roast style with potatoes, carrots, and onions. He took the big hunk of dragon meat he had marinating in red wine and salt out of the chiller just as Neville and Abby got back from patrol at 5.
"We come bearing the fruits of the hunt." Neville called out carrying a trunk into the kitchen. He dropped it on the floor by the chiller and sniffed the air. "What is that?" He asked.
"Dragon pot roast. It's not going to be done for a few hours. If you need a snack there are still a few sandwiches from earlier." Harry said having a glass of red wine as he browned the big hunk of dragon meat in a huge 18 inch skillet.
"Sound's good. We got 6 dear, 140 rabbits, 6 coyotes, 3 more big wolves, and a 10 foot tall big brown bear. Abby is a hunting machine, although I must admit we summoned the rabbits and snapped their little necks. Abby was much better at it then I was. It feels wrong to kill something so small and innocent like that." Neville said as Abby rolled her eyes at him.
"Big strong killer can't snap a few rabbit necks. He made me do all the work." Abby said pouring herself a glass of wine.
"Killing humans is one thing but the small innocent little bunnies is another thing altogether." Neville said.
"I get it. What's in the trunk?" Harry asked.
"These are the five wolves from earlier. They are all butchered up, packaged in paper, and ready to hand out. Kate's got a lot of work ahead of her. We also got a few more fallen trees and a big sack of pine needles to turn into pucks." Neville said.
"We'll I'm all tapped out. I got the ammo squared away and made 25 copies of the Steel Model 1. I also made 25 copies of the colt detective special, the colt python, and the S&W 627 L frame series. I ran out of juice before I could get to the raging judge guns. But I did manage to make different barrel lengths for the two guns I found in the trunk." Harry said.
"Man your control is awesome with that spell. I wish I had that much control." Neville said.
"I honestly think it comes down to practice. The more I use it the better I get at controlling the end product. I was able to copy the colt factory engravings on the detective special but I changed the name to Steel model 2 .38 XL. Three weeks ago that would have never been an option but I've cast that spell over two hundred times now. It takes less power and I have more control. You cast it what, about 25 times? Give it some time, you'll get there." Harry said transferring his meat to a roasting pan and adding the chopped up onions to the pan with more fresh butter.
"I hope so, I think I'll do all the gold and silver smelting from now on. It will give me more practice time and free you up to do the more important stuff." Neville said.
"If you want to help free up time go in my study and grab the boxes of gun parts. I separated them out by part number. Take my phone. It has step by step instructions and pictures. Start building guns. I want to test fire them. I made sure they can all take the .38 XL. I made 50,000 brass casings and brass jacketed lead bullet heads for Smith. I want to shoot the shit out of these guns until we narrow it down from 3 to 2. Those will be the model 2 and 3 in the Steel line, and that's another thing I was thinking about. Instead of Steel, what do you think of Blackwell and Steel? You know like Smith and Wesson? We'll mark the guns B&S and everything we make can be a B&S product." Harry said.
"As long as you make sure the '&' is big. We don't want people going around calling the guns BS." Neville said.
"Good call." Harry said scratching his chin as his brother walked out of the kitchen.
Harry got everything in the oven and came into the dining room to see all three of them working on a different type of gun. Hermione was working on the S&W 627s, Neville had the pythons, and Abby had the detective specials. Harry grabbed the box with the Model 1's and started building guns. Over the next two hours they finished up their work and they were happy with the end results. At 8 they called Smith over for dinner and they showed off the guns. Smith was in love with all of them. The swing out cylinders and the speed loaders were revolutionary.
"I want one of each. For testing purposes of course." Smith said looking at the guns the way gulum looked at the one ring. He was still holding the detective model with the finger grooved wood grips.
"You can borrow a few of them to put to the test, but these are guns that don't exist in this timeline yet. We can't let them fall into random people's hands. If they get the patent on it before we do we're fucked." Harry said.
"I'll swear a magical oath and I'll keep them locked in my safe when I'm not testing them. I want to see how they hold up to abuse, over cooked ammo, and general day to day shit. I'm going to put a few hundred rounds of black powder .38lc ammo through them before going back to the .38XL and see if it still works. The folks buying this gun will not have access to good ammo all the time. Sometimes you're stuck using the ammo you got. There's going to be a lot of hand loading with cheap black powder and pot lead that these guns have to hold up to." Smith said.
"Well you put a few of them through hell and we'll shoot the shit out of our set. The first gun to crap out on either one of us is out. If they all make it we'll patent them all. We also have to make copies of this bad boy." Harry said showing off the Raging Judge.
"That's not a gun. That's artillery!" Smith said.
"It was made for stopping bear. I thought it might be good for giant wolves and spiders. Things like that." Harry said.
"Good thinking. We need all the help we can get and with the ease of loading and the option of the speed loaders that you showed me these could be the best guns in the world. Have you thought about production?" Smith asked.
"We have not. I was thinking about small scale at first. Sell a few hundred out here in the west. Then we might look into a factory. Maybe we can make more money by just selling the patent to Colt or S&W. who knows?" Harry said.
"Selling might be you're best bet any ways. The price of production might be an issue with these designs. A lot of moving parts. Unless you want to magic up the guns like this batch. Then you're looking at a smaller overhead. If you sell to Colt or S&W you could make a few dollars off each gun they sell and you don't have to worry about anything. That's how most patent agreements work I think." Smith said.
"It's not a bad idea Harry. We'll sell these to Colt and S&W and then we just sit back and collect our royalty checks." Neville said.
"Or you could just make the Model 1. I love this gun. 9 shots of overcooked .38 and a 20 gauge shell? Who wouldn't want one." Smith said picking up one of the Model 1's from the table. "And because it's enchanted you can sell them for a lot. People would be willing to pay $75 or $100 for one. If it's engraved with the nice wood grips like this one you might even get $125. $150 for nickel and gold engravings. You would only need to hire a few wizards to handle the production. Two wizards copying the gun parts. Two wizards engraving the enchantments on the guns, a few people putting the guns together. You sell them in nice wood cases with brass latches and red felt. You would be making a really good profit." Smith said.
"Can't the man that made the Lemat revolver sue us for the guns?" Hermione asked.
"No, because even though the base gun was a Lemat at one point this gun is not. It has a different loading style, the frame is different, the grip angle and frame is different, the barrels are different, hell if you really wanted to dodge any type of lawsuit I can try to make the gun double action using a modified colt thunder spring and hammer set. It might work." Smith said.
"You think you can make the guns double action?" Harry asked.
"It would take some fiddling with, but I think I can do it." Smith said.
"If you can make the gun double action I want one. I don't care what you charge. I'm done carrying single action. Once we have a prototype I can fix the guns we have." Harry said.
"How about this, hire me to help run the company and I'll add my rune string for accuracy and strength to the guns. We can tack on an extra few dollars." Smith said.
"What are we talking about here? A job with a title and a paycheck or a partnership with a percentage?" Harry asked.
"I was guessing a title and paycheck, but I'll take a percentage if you're offering it up?" Smith asked with a smirk.
"How about this, if you can get the double action to work you get a partnership, if not you got a job?" Harry asked with a smirk.
"A challenge, I like it. I'll have the gun ready as soon as I can. I can tell you now you're going to want to patent it at the patent office in Denver before you start selling any of these guns. You might want to head out to the east coast at some point and pitch your designs to Colt in Connecticut and Smith and Wesson in Massachusetts." Smith said.
"Good thinking. If you can get the gun to work in double action then you're in on the ground floor of B&S Firearms out of Eureka Nevada. We can set up a small building in town, expand it, hire a few witches and wizards. Swear them to secrecy and start pumping out guns. We can open a small shop in Salt Lake and sell high end handmade enchanted firearms at a staggering price." Harry said.
"If we're going with that hand built guns for the rich idea then we should make a few 500 nitro rifles and 4 bore guns for hunters." Neville said.
"Good thinking Nev. it's less moving parts and easier to make but we can sell it for five times as much." Harry said.
"I think all three of you boys are getting ahead of yourselves. We still have to go through testing to see if the guns even work. We have to file for a patent. That's going to take some time. Then we have to find people powerful enough to cast the spells to make the parts a few dozen times a day. Not to mention you all still have day jobs. So put the brakes on. We won't need to look for store front space for a while." Hermione said laughing at them.
"True. But we're going to be rich." Harry said.
That night Kate and her workers dropped off the five trunks of meat, fur, and hide. Abby spent some time tanning the hides and furs and then she made heavy winter gear for them. She made each of them a black dragonhide and rabbit fur lined long rifle coat. A black wide brimmed hat made of heavy felt with a fur lined flap in the back that came down and covered your ears and the back of your neck with soft rabbit fur. She also made them all a pair of soft black leather dragon hide pants. She made a wolf fur throw for over the couch in the living room and two wolf fur blankets for their beds. She even fixed the big bear skin and made a rug for in front of the fireplace in the living room.
The next day Harry ditched his normal guns in favor of two Colt Pythons with 6 inch barrels in his gun belt and two S&W 627 with the 6 inch barrels in his shoulder rig he grabbed two colt detectives with the finger grooved wood grips and tossed them in his coat. Abby took two S&W 686s with 6 inch barrels as her mains and two 3 inch colt pythons in her shoulder rig. She also grabbed two detectives and tossed them in her coat. They were about to head out for the day when someone knocked on the front door. Harry answered it and saw sheriff deputy Teddy Cox.
"What's going on?" He asked.
"Request for you in Salt Lake city. Marshal Copland sent you a magical telegram asking for your assistance." He said handing him the piece of paper.
"Understood, thanks for the head's up Teddy." Harry said patting the younger man on the back before looking at the note. "Things have gone tits up in the city. Nev get your things, this might require all of us." Harry said making 30 speed loaders for the python and 30 for the 686s as Neville headed to his room to change. He dumped a few boxes of .38XL rounds into the tray and loaded the speed loaders with Abby's help. They each took ten speed loaders for the colt and ten for the S&W and put them in separate pockets. Neville came out dressed in his gear and grabbed the 6 inch pythons for his gun belt and the 6 inch S&W 627s for his shoulder rig. He grabbed two detectives with the bigger wood grips for his coat before they portkeyed out to Salt Lake City. As soon as they landed in the marshal's office they were in a ball of chaos. The cage was full of criminals, there were deputy marshals running every which way shouting orders at sheriff's deputies, and marshal Chuck Copeland was standing in the middle yelling orders at everyone. As soon as he saw them he relaxed a bit. They jogged over to him.
"What's going on marshal?" Harry asked.
"It's a fucking shit show out there that's what's going on. Word got out that the Mayor and half his staff are gone. But more importantly the sheriff is missing as well. The rumor of necromancy spread through the town over night and we got a full on panic going. The sheriff's deputies are in disarray with a good portion who were in on the dark shit not turning up for work today and many of them fleeing the city during the night. With about 250 deputies out, the police force is very understaffed. The people took this opportunity to go bat shit crazy in the absence of power. We have looting, riots, fires, rapes, murders, and a massive protest at the castle as the staff and city managers all scramble to figure out who's in charge. I got a 100 sheriff's deputies guarding the castle and pushing back the protesters. I got the rest out trying to help but we're in a free fall here with my staff scrambling to fill in for the missing sheriff's deputies." Copeland said.
"Where can we do the most good?" Harry asked.
"I need you three to fly around the city and help put out the fires as they start. We've cleaned out most of this side of high town but there is a crime wave sweeping through low town south and east. The docks to the north west are being looting and the sky docks to the north east are being attacked. There are dead bodies in the streets waiting to be picked up before they get up on their own. I put a call in to the Denver Marshal's office and they are going to be sending over most of their marshals. They should get here in a day, maybe two days if things go bad on their end. They are going to get a ride on the supply ship that should be docking there today. We sent word to Fort Cameron. They are sending 1,000 men to help keep the peace, but it's going to take three days to get here. I need you guys to help me keep the city from burning down for the next three days until they get here." He said.
"We're on it. We'll see what we can do." Harry said leading them out of the office. Outside you could see the destruction. The streets were empty for the most part. Shop windows were broken and goods were on the floor. There were a few dead bodies under sheets waiting for the undertakers to come collect them. They spotted smoke columns from buildings that were on fire.
"Fuck." Abby said looking around.
"That sums it up nicely. We're going to have to split up. Abby stick with Neville and try to help put out some of the fires and clear the streets. Head north and check on the docks. I'm going to head to low town and see if I can help stop that shit down there." Harry said hopping on his broom.
"Be careful out there." Abby said.
"You too. Call me if you need help. Good hunting." Harry said before he took off.
Harry headed south but he didn't get too far. He spotted a group of three men trying to rape two women in an alley. He dropped out of the air just long enough to shoot all three men.
"You two get inside and stay inside. It's fucking dangerous out here." Harry said helping the women up.
He handed them the two colt cap and ball guns with the cut short barrels the boys were threatening them with and sent them on their way. He looted the bodies, pulled a cavalry saber from his bag, and chopped off their heads to make sure they stayed down before he strapped on the saber to his belt and took off again.
He spotted a house on fire being put out by a few magicals. Harry hovered above the house and added his jet of water to the house from the roof and in a few minutes the house was put out. He landed just long enough to check if anyone needed help before heading south again.
He saw three kids looting a general store at gunpoint. He dove right into the store through the smashed front window and stunned the three boys. He took the gun and two knives they had on them and transfigured them into coins before he took off again.
He made it a few more blocks and saw a man robbing a older lady at gun point. Harry stunned the man, turned him into a coin and summoned him and the gun he was holding.
"Get home Ma'am. Here, protect yourself." He said handing her the Remington revolver.
"Thank you." She said crying.
"It's my job, now get off the streets. It's not safe." Harry said flying away.
By the time Harry came back to the marshal's office at noon he had put out 6 fires, stopped 17 robberies, 4 rapes, and caught a gang of men pulling smash and grabs on all the business in low town south. He had been shot and stabbed a few times. None of it went through the coat or vest but it still hurt. He dropped off 28 prisoners and got a round of applause and he handed over the charging documents for each of them.
"This place is a mad town." Harry said pulling out a flask of healing tonic and taking it.
"Your wife and brother dropped off a few dozen prisoners about fifteen minutes ago. You three work better than all the deputies I got." Copeland said.
"It helps that we can use magic to get the prisoners back here faster. You need some magical deputies." Harry said pulling out a candy bar.
"I got magical deputies. They don't have your skills. You wouldn't happen to be willing to train my three guys?" He asked.
"I could try but I gotta tell you the other half of why we're good is practice. I've been killing people for years. Magical government wet work is a dirty job but someone has to do it. The same with my brother. Even Abby was a target shooting champion." Harry said.
"Speaking of which. I think your girl might have had to kill someone today. She looked a little shaken up when she got back. Dead eyed you know?" Copeland sid.
"If so it was the first time she did. I'm almost glad she's with Neville. He's better at feelings then I am. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to head over to east low town. Then I'm going to fly over the city and see if I can help some folks." Harry said taking a drink from his canteen and reloaded his speed loaders and his gun belt from the two boxes of ammo he had in his bag.
"Good luck with that." The marshal said rushing off to deal with a situation across the office.
Harry flew out over the town and watched for signs of trouble. He spotted a group of three sheriffs deputies in a gunfight with six men trying to get away with the loot from a small jewelry store. Harry dropped out of the sky next to the deputies that were hiding behind an overturned cart in the middle of the street.
"Hey boys, what do we got here?" Harry asked.
"These six fucks tried a smash and grab, we were right up the street from here in the gun store where someone tried to rob that place." One of the men said.
"Right, stay down. I'll take care of this." Harry said.
Harry pulled the two 627's out and rolled around the cart. He walked towards the shop and blasted each man in the shoulder. As he got closer he stunned the downed men and turned them into coins. When he got the last guy he summoned the coins and the guns.
"That was crazy!" one of the men said.
"Scure the crime scene and keep your heads down boys." Harry said summoning his broom and hopping on.
Harry spent the next five hours stopping the city from tearing itself apart. By four in the afternoon the sun had set and the criminals really got bold. The amount of people Harry ended up killing as opposed to arresting went up. By five Harry had to go back to the marshal's office because he ran through all 252 rounds of .38XL ammo he had on him. He dropped off 56 more prisoners. At this point they were just chaining them up and making them sit on the floor because they ran out of cell space. Harry was about to head back to the cube to get more ammo when Abby landed in the office with Hermione who was dressed in her vest, long coat, leather pants, and gun belts.
"Oh good, you're back." Abby said.
"What's going on?" Harry asked.
"We were running low on .38XL so I went to get more. I also grabbed Hermione to act as backup for you or Neville. It's not safe to fly alone tonight and we've been going at it for a while. We also grabbed the trunk of meat from the cold storage and we raided the bakery and general store in town. We have meet, bread, cheese, butter, and milk." Abby said handing a trunk and three bags off to a staff worker who was cooking over a big fire in the fireplace to feed all the hungry deputies and refugees staying in the building.
"Good call. You got more .38XL? I'm out too. You run through it so fast out there." Harry said clearing off a desk. Abby set the two loading trays out and handed Harry 30 boxes of ammo from her bag.
"What are you guys running into out there? You each had like 250 rounds of .38XL on you when you left." Hermione said watching Harry reload the speed loaders. He also pulled out a block of steel and made 30 more python speed loaders and 30 more 627 speed loaders. That was a 120 speed loaders all together.
"A little bit of everything. Imagine a city of more than a million people and only about 500 disorganized cops and 50 marshals to keep them all in check during a riot." Harry said loading up bullet tray with a pack spell and loading the speed loaders six at a time as Abby kept dumping boxes of ammo out on the tray.
"And it's been going on for over 16 hours at this point with no signs of stopping." Marshal Copland said walking over to greet them.
"Marshal Copeland, meet my sister Hermione Blackwell. Sis meet the head marshal Chuck Copeland." Harry said lining up the speed loaders.
"Good to meet you Ma'am." Chuck said.
"Call me Mia, I'm here to help. Where do you need me?" She asked grabbing a few looses rounds and loading the two 6 inch 627's on her belt and the two 6 inch colts in her shoulder rig.
"Abby how many spells have you cast today? How many has Neville cast?" Harry asked.
"A few dozen small spells, binding, stunning, water spells, transfiguring people into coins. Neville has been doing the same but his spell count is higher. We ran into a huge gang of 30 men trying to steal a few of the docked skyships. The sky dock is a huge target. But we're both good to go." She said looking a bit haggered.
"Right, you come with me. Hermione can head out with Neville to back him up. I want to be out there until 1am when the temperature really drops below freezing. I have a feeling the temperature is going to slow most of this violence way down. After that we'll trade off shifts to get some rest and food in our systems. As it is make sure both you and Neville get a few food bars in you." Harry said handing Abby 15 speed loaders for her colts and 15 speed loaders for her 627's. He handed double that number to Hermione for her and Neville. He took the last 30. He loaded his guns and his gun belt as Abby filled her's. He handed Hermione a few boxes of extra ammo and they split up with Hermione calling her husband and flying out to meet up with him and Harry and Abby heading out on patrol together.
"How you holding up?" Harry asked as they flew around the city looking for a fight.
"Good. Like I said we didn't have to cast that many spells. It was mostly clean kills. They shot at us and we shot back." Abby said in a cold robotic tone.
"That's what the report says. Those were Neville's words coming out of your mouth. How are you holding up?" Harry asked.
"I thought you didn't like to talk about your feelings?" She shot back.
"I don't but when the woman I love is dealing with the guilt of her first kill I'm going to ask." Harry said.
"I'm fine for the most part. I've talked about this stuff with my granddaddy before. You know, asked him how he felt killing a man. He said something that stuck with me. Sometime it's your job to make sure your face is the last thing a bad man sees before he's judged. It's the job Harry. I wanted to do the job and I'm doing it. Is it as fun as I thought it would be? No. it's not fun. But it's important work. And I'm going to do my goddamn job." She said.
"So you're taking the american sniper approach to this. You want to be a sheep dog. I can respect that. In fact I respect the shit out of that. It's why I do the job. Now get hard because I see some shit going down over there." Harry said dropping out of the sky with her following him.
For the next seven hours until one in the morning they patrolled the city and stopped crime. Both teams made at least 40 more arrests and they killed more than they arrested. With the city like it was it wasn't worth arresting rapists and murders. They didn't have cell space for them and it would take weeks for a judge to sentence them to the rope so they just skipped a step and ended the fuckers now.
To add insult to injury they had more than a few dead bodies turn into zombies on them. As soon as Harry started seeing them he sent out an alert to Neville that they had to start collecting bodies and chopping off their heads before they got up on their own. As it was they had close to a hundred undead walking around the city that they had to take care of. By one when they got back to the station they were all beat to hell. Harry looked at his family and saw the drain and fatigue setting in. It was cold, windy, and visibility was shitty thanks to the lingering smoke in the air from the burning buildings.
"Guys we got to split up to give half of us some time to sleep." Harry said.
"I'm beat, I've got nothing left in the tank." Abby said looking the worse for wear.
"I can keep going if I have to. You know me, I'm good for three days." Neville said but the sentiment was ruined by his yawn at the end.
"I just got started." Hermione said looking beat but still ready for a fight.
"RIght, Mia, you're with me. We're going to pull an all nighter. We'll trade off with them at 8 tomorrow morning. Then we'll sleep until two. At that time we'll both go at it until one and trade off again." Harry said.
"Sounds good to me." Abby said.
"If you need me call me." Neville said looking at his wife.
"Get some sleep love." She said kissing him.
When they portkeyed out Harry and Hermione loaded up on more ammo and headed back out for a long cold night of patrolling over the city. For the most part the cold of the middle of the night did slow the crime wave all the way down. They only made a handful of arrests that night and they only had to shoot at a few people. The sun struggled to rise at half past six and with the small bit of heat that came with the new day the crime wave picked up. The last hour of their very long day was more productive then the whole night before. They traded off with Neville and Abby who both looked fresh and ready to go. Harry barely got his guns and his clothes off before he passed out.
When the phone rang at 1:45 pm and he rolled out of bed the fatigue of the all nighter was still lingering in his bones. He took a hot shower, dressed for the long day ahead of him, and made a quick but heavy breakfast for him and his sister. They ate quickly, grabbed more ammo, and portkeyed to the office. When they got there they were shocked to find the cells almost empty. They spotted Neville and Abby attending a meeting with marshal Copeland and a few other men.
"What happened to all the criminals?" Harry asked.
"We moved them to the Castle dungeons and the Sheriff's station in high town because we ran out of room here." Neville said looking beat up. It was warmer today, and the added nicer temperature must have added to the crime wave.
"Well what's the worst problem area?" Harry asked checking his guns and loading his speed loaders.
"Right now the dodgy end of south low town is still our worse problem area. We could use you two down there." Neville said.
"Right. We'll get on it. How are supplies going?" Harry said loading Hermione's speed loaders for her as she loaded up her gun belt from the three crates of .38XL ammo they brought with them.
"Good, we didn't see quite as many criminals so far today. It seems like we took care of the bulk of them the yesterday. So far it's been a lot of punk kids with junk guns sticking up shops for goods." Neville said.
"Well, we're off then, call us if shit goes tits up." Harry said leading his sister off.
The day wasn't as bad as the day before. It seemed like for the most part they were putting out a lot of little fires instead of big out of control fires both literally and figuratively. Things got even better at four when Neville called them to the airdock to help guard the main postal ship as it docked.
The air dock was made up of a group of nine connected warehouse style brick buildings that had a concrete fifty foot wide dock connected to the second floor of the warehouses allowing an airship to pull up next to the dock and lower a ramp to load and unload goods off the ships right into the second floor of the warehouses. There were two wide rampas at either sides of the dock leading down to the ground level. The St. Mary docked as Harry and Hermione flew overwatch over the air dock and Neville and Abby flew under the air dock on the ground level to make sure no one got too close. The men on the ship as well as the dock workers unloaded the ship as soon as the cargo bay doors in the side of the ship opened and lowered three ramps. In the loading rush 40 Denver marshals walked off the ship with their horses. Harry flew down and greeted them.
"Welcome to Salt Lake. I'm Deputy Marshal Harry Steel from Eureka Nevada. Man am I glad to see you guys." Harry said.
"I'm marshal Walter White, Head marshal of the Denver office. How bad are things?" An older man with a bald head, black hat, glasses, and a goatee asked and Harry had to hold in the laugh that was trying desperately to escape him.
"Bad, but not too bad now. It seems like we arrested or shot most of the bad apples yesterday. It's mostly kids now causing trouble. Your garden variety little shits. But the sun is going down and I expect crime to shoot up again. I'd be happy to escort you to the Marshal's office. We're using it as a base of operations. Are you boys we'll armed?" Harry asked.
"We are equipped with colts and a shotgun or rifle. Each man has 300 rounds of ammo on his person and we have two supply carts with food, ammo, and medical supplies." He said.
"Good. The marshal's office was running low. I've been supplying them with what we could form our small town but supplies were looking sparse." Harry said.
"We also brought a healer with us. Doc Carter back there to look after any wounded." Walter said but he was cut short as gunshots rang out at the front of the dock by the ramp. Harry was in the air headed there in the blink of an eye with Hermione on his tail. They found Neville and Abby hiding behind a stack of crates taking shots at a group of 16 men who were shooting at them. Harry dropped down next to his brother.
"What are we looking at Harry? We got behind cover as soon as the shooting started." Neville asked.
"There are 16 of them, they have rifles and revolvers. Most of them are up twenty feet behind the stack of crates and the rest are hiding around the corner of the building. I'm going to pop over there and start on that side when they turn on me take them down." Harry said grabbing his two colts and popping out.
He ended up ten feet away from the back of the group of six guys hiding around the corner of the building at the front of the dock. Harry shot the men in the back with the last man to go down being the only one to even see him. He ran to the corner and saw the ten men taking shots at his family. He holstered his colts and pulled his 627's. He started on the left and blasted each man center mass in the back. When the last three guys turned to see him Neville dropped them. Harry went through and took off each man's head with his saber before turning them into a brass coin. He flew back to the marshals and they were just getting the two carts off the ship.
"Looters." Harry explained as he reloaded his four guns.
"We're almost ready to go." Walter said rounding up his men with a few arm waves.
"Good. I'll fly escort for you guys. Just follow me and I'll lead you to the office. I'll also take care of any threats we might encounter." Harry said flying up to a hundred feet off the ground and taking up position just ahead of the convoy of forty horses and two carts.
Harry lead them back to the office and he only had to deal with three people that got too close to the convoy. In those cases a fired warning shot from Harry and a good look at the the silver stars the men were wearing was all it took to back them off. He helped unload the carts and get the supplies into the office before he headed back into the air and headed back to the docks. He arrived just in time to join a gunfight in the street by the ramp leading up to the dock between his family and a group of 43 rouge sheriff's deputies trying to steal the ship to get out of town. Harry did a fly over.
"You are all under arrest for shooting at US Marshals. Surrender now or you will die!" He called down.
He got shot in the leg for his trouble and had to dodge out of the way of more gunfire. The bullet did not make it through his dragon hide pants but it hurt like a bitch and Harry got pissed. He dove at the group using overturned carts and crates as cover. At twenty foot off the ground he blasted them with a lumos maximus blinding all of them and disorienting them as he dropped to the ground close by. In their half blind and confused state Harry killed 28 of them in eight seconds before his four guns ran dry and the blindness wore off. He dove behind cover and grabbed the two colt detectives out of his jacket. His sister watched him do all that she sight line apparated to the top of the warehouse and took out five more before they turned on her and shot the building. Harry stood up almost right in the middle of the group and took out the rest of them. They cleaned up the bodies and Harry and Abby headed up to patrol the city as Hermione and Neville finished watching the ship unload and the good transfered to the secure warehouse.
By the time the new marshals got situated and deployed throughout the city it was six. The group took a half hour for lunch/dinner before they took to the skies again. That night they traded off again with Abby and Neville going back home at one and Harry and Hermione patrolling the skies throughout the night. They traded off in the morning and by the time they got back at two the Union army troops were stationed around the city. They spent the rest of the day helping out as best they could but with the number of boots on the ground crime was way down again.
In fact it seemed like as soon at the army got there the city stopped acting out. People stopped protesting. Stores cleaned up and opened their doors to the public. People went back to work. And the streets were full of good law abiding citizens again. By eight that night the streets cleared up and everyone was in bed by ten. The random traffic in the city was mostly the soldiers and deputies patrolling the city. They all headed back to the marshal's office at midnight. Even the office looked calm. In fact deputies were heading home with their families for the first time in two days. Marshal Copeland was sitting at his desk nursing a glass of scotch and looking beat but he perked up when they walked in.
"We're headed home marshal, the city is in good hands now and things are back to normal." Harry said.
"I don't know how to thank you guys for all the hard work you put in. you four saved this city from itself." He said shaking their hands.
"It's all in a days, well three day's work." Harry said with a tired laugh.
"You four will be compensated for your hard work. Mark my words. The council knows who saved this city. Give us a few weeks to get our shit together and we'll pay you for your time. Thank you again for all your help." Chuck said looking close to tears. The week's events had finally caught up to him and he was fraying at the edges.
"Like I said we were happy to do our part. I just wish we could have done more. I know you lost a few men in the last three days and I'm sorry about that." Harry said patting the older man on the back.
"With this mess I'm surprised we didn't lose half the city. I know it's you four that stopped that from happening. Now go get something to eat and have a good night's rest. We got it from here." He said shaking their hands again before they portkeyed back to the cube.
They all limped off to bed. Harry dropped his guns and his clothes on the floor of his bedroom and climbed into bed with his girl. Abby rolled up into his side and looking at him with sad tear filled eyes.
"I killed 39 people in the last three days." She said in a soft broken voice as the tears rolled down her face.
"I know. I'm sorry you had to do that. But I'm not sorry you're here. You were put in a kill or be killed situation and you did what you had to do to survive. I'm proud of you. Not because of what you did but because any one else put into your shoes would have cracked under the pressure. Just know that I love you." Harry said kissing her.
"Harry, make love to me please? I need to feel something good right now to block out the bad." She asked. Harry rolled over and held her. That night they made love for the first time.