Sell you a Bridge chapter 324

June 31st 2016 Mysterious Tower, 8:00 PM EDT

I  had forgotten something very important about my mentor. All this  summoning and defense had drawn attention away from the fact that he  wasn't really specialized in this one specific kind of combat. While  summons and shields were in his arsenal, Jim was actually specialized in  control spells. Once I realized standing and waiting for him was the  stupidest possible move, I dashed toward him, but sadly I was too late.

With  a downward slash, Jim slammed the draconic head of fatal crest into the  sand, and I felt the air begin to chill as the sun was obscured by  clouds. Long shadows fell across the ground as grass sprang up and  massive tombstones tore from the earth. As the shadows elongated, the  space around us seemed to expand, lengthening the distance between us.  Jim gave another slash and the massive doors I knew so well began to  form from darkness above him.

Without even hesitating I  shifted into shadow form, and then pumped a massive amount of magical  energy into my shadow manipulation ability as I expanded myself into a  towering dark shape. As soon as I reached the right size, I pushed with  my power, forcing myself back to physical form, in armor mind you, at a  towering thirty feet tall. I managed to complete the move just fast  enough to swing a massive copy of Tartarus at the doors to count the  huge pair of skeletal hands wielding a gigantic copy of Fatal Crest.

"Oh  come on!" I bellowed. "How the fuck is that fair? It can use weapons  now!?" I felt my feet driven deep into the sand (apparently still under  the grass that had cropped up from Jim's weird field spell. I was BIG,  and really fucking heavy. My armor made me an absolute beast at this  size, but unfortunately I was limited to its native enhancements. I  didn't have the energy, either mana or Deception, to power any of my  strength or speed enhancements at this size. It would be like trying to  run a Ferrari off of a thimble full of gas.

The only  reason I didn't go flying was because I used Lexeaus's defensive stance  to offset most of the direct impact, but whatever that fucking thing  behind the doors was, it was STRONG. Stronger now that I was pretty sure  it had ever been before. Fatal Crest really took Jim to a whole new  level of scary. Considering he was one of the greatest magic users in  the world, that was saying something.

I also realized the  damn keyblade was augmenting the strength of that weird summon thing.  Fuck. Jim just snorted derisively from where he stood. "You? Talking  about fairness? Come now lad. Even if such a thing existed, and I could  swear I drilled into your head that it didn't, it would be height of  hypocrisy for you to complain about it's absence in a pitched battle."

Fuck,  he had me there. I shrugged, setting myself for the next swing and  looking for an opening, when I got smashed by a MASSIVE column of purple  gold lightning. I took a staggering step, blinking in shock as I FELT  that fucking hit through my armor, and turned to glare off to one side.  "Jesus Kit? What are you doing? You're supposed to be handling those  two!"

"I WAS!" Bellowed my red skinned demonic cousin.  "Until SOMEONE made his ass the size of a fucking bus and became an  obvious target for ranged attacks." She cursed as she was forced to  throw herself aside to avoid a slash from Wally, who had pried himself  away from the join lightning attack formation for an attempted sucker  punch. Sadly for him, as she moved, Eddie lit up the area she'd been  standing with a massive fucking ball of hellfire.

Wally  was forced to retreat, cursing as he was knocked sprawling by the  concussive force of the displaced air from the blaze. Rana, thankfully,  was having her hands full with her mothers, because if my daughter had  piled on I doubted I could have stood up to the combined attack. I dove  sideways in a roll, avoiding another skeletal slash and dodging a second  burst of lightning. Luckily we were in the desert and the sand  dispersed most of the impact force when I hit, or my own teammates would  have probably been knocked ass over teakettle.

I was  forced to stop and deflect as another slash came in from the giant Fatal  Crest, only to have a small spot in my armor hammered with electricity  that seemed to sink right through and run riot in my body, forcing my  muscles to lock up in pain and impotent paralysis. "Fuck!" I screamed.

Namine  shouted. "Sorry! That was Mr. Taylor, he got away from John for a  minute and managed to use his gift to find a weak spot in your armor!  Are you alright Morgan?"

Snarling a quick response I waved  the question away, trying to turn myself to the side and cover both  angles of attack with my defense as the skeletal hands used the keyblade  as skillfully as Jim had. I remembered when I was first learning the  sword I'd wanted Jim to teach me, but he mentioned he mainly used a  rapier. Unfortunately that style seemed oddly compatible with a giant  bone key with a dragon head.

I kept that up for another  minute or two until the first change in the situation finally happened.  My girls finally managed to pin down our daughter, overcoming raw power  with a massively improved versatility and at least a bit of mindfuck  trickery on Drea's part. They'd restrained her with some kind of  keyblade based binding spell Zee laid down, and Rana looked pissed if  relatively unharmed. Once that was done, they moved on to helping Kit  and Eddie overpower Artemis and Wally.

With the pressure  off from there, and Namine and Roxas slowly helping John regain his  momentum, I was freed up to engage one on one with the skeletal arms  from beyond the doors of death. I heard Jim cackling over the sound of  clashing keyblades. "It feels so nice to be relevant again! I've been  falling further and further behind the lot of you, but this little  trinket has easily increased my power threefold and massively improved  my utility. Your old teacher still has a few tricks left to show you, eh  lad?"

Bashing aside the keyblade, I cast a massive Cure  spell on the skeletal arms, hearing a curse as the bones began to darken  and crack. Another swing collided the keyblades again, but this time  the bones cracked under the force. Even without augmentation from  demonic energy, someone thirty feet tall in my armor was able to output a  terrifying amount of strength, much less a god.

Jim  flicked his normal sized keyblade again and the shadows began to flow up  from the ground. In the distance the toll of a graveyard bell heralded  my teacher getting serious as the darkness flowed up and subsumed the  arms, ensconcing them in black plate mail armor that glowed along the  seams with a ghostly blue light. I cursed as the attacks redoubled, but  unfortunately for Jim, his teammates had been slowly whittled down and  overpowered through numbers.

Zee and Drea taking down Rana  had been the beginning of the snowball, and they'd slowly helped the  other gang up on each new combatant over time. At least, the ones who  needed it. Apparently whatever memories Roxas had unlocked were fucking  terrifying, because the spiky haired blonde was clashing against Suzie  like the two of them were professional keyblade duelists. Once Artemis  and Wally had been immobilized with magic though, Zee and Drea had  started casting at Jim's construct.

Long vines with pink  flowers and chains of purple lightning wrapped the skeletal limps,  impeding movement despite the massive jump in power from the dark armor.  With a roar of effort, I channeled everything I had into another  gravity spell, infusing it with void and smashing it into the huge  doors. The immobilized limbs began to crack and dissolve, flaking away  to the curses of my mentor, but sadly, he knew this was a lost cause.

I  was still in awe of his strength, even as he conceded the match for his  team. I was a god and half an endless at this point, but the keyblade  was perfectly suited for my mentor, giving him the strength to match me  in direct combat. I remembered how terrifying he had seemed against the  Shade, and I could see a hint of that old oppression now that he'd been  pushed up to a higher level.

As I shifted back down to  normal size, ignoring the burgeoning headache (that move was always  incredibly difficult to pull off) I trudged forward to hold out a hand.  Jim shook it with a chuckle. "Impressive showing lad." He turned to his  teammates who were approaching. "Hope no one minded me throwing in the  towel."

Taylor waved him off. "It's nothing. The tide was  turning, no reason to drag it out. I got a pretty damn good feel for  what I could do, and I'm impressed with how well it all worked out. I  still have plenty to learn about how this thing works, but I could feel  it helping to hone and focus my gift. I don't think my enemies will be  able to sense me using it even in the Nightside as long as I have this."

Sindell  squealed with joy. "Oh, Johnny that's wonderful." She threw herself  into his arms, kissing him soundly, and the rest of us just sort of  froze. We'd seen evidence they were together, but seeing Zee's mom just  glomp Taylor was still kind of jarring. She pulled back with a blush,  giggling slightly. "Oh, sorry about that. You just can't imagine what  this means to John."

Suzie, fortunately, looked completely  at ease, walking over to wind an arm around Sindella and Taylor's  waists. Zee looked...conflicted. Her aura was a complete mess. Guilt,  happiness, relief. In the end she just crushed it all down and moved on.  She'd had some inkling this was coming obviously, and was mentally  prepared enough not to freak out. She'd already had more than one  breakdown about her parents not getting back together. She looked away  from them, and Drea and I each reached out to take a hand.

Namine  cleared her throat timidly, and we all looked at the tiny blonde.  "Excuse me?" She said in a soft voice. "Should we...release Tommy?  Zatanna and Dreamer dissolved their bindings on Morana earlier, but it  looks like Tommy is still trapped." She pointed over to where Tommy was  stuck fast in ectoplasmic ice far stronger than any normal frost. I  winced. I'd actually forgotten about that.

I reached out  to the ectoplasm in the ice, still a part of me despite being elsewhere,  and pulled it back into me, leaving the ice as just normal frozen water  without any reinforcement. The shadows had faded along with the grass  as Jim let the field spell dissipate, and the sun was out in full force,  beating down on the ice even as the hot desert sand worked on thawing  Tommy out.

Of course, it wasn't really needed. Without the  ectoplasm anchoring the ice it wasn't nearly enough to restrain a  keyblade wielder. Tommy groaned and hurled his weight and strength  against the frozen prison, smashing through it and stumbling out to drop  to his hands and knees on the hot desert sand, dripping icy water even  as the melting chunks of broken ice soaked the sand around him.

He  glared up at me. "That...was cold. Please don't do that again." I  snickered a bit at that and he rolled his eyes. "Well, we lost, but I  definitely felt like I did better than I would have before all this.  With all of us wielding keyblades, we've taken a pretty big step." His  eyes pinned me seriously. "The question is...what are we going to do  now?" I turned to regard the others as I formulated my answer. Some of  them really weren't going to like what I had to say.