Sell you a Bridge chapter 304

June 16th 2016 ???, 9:30 PM EDT

We  emerged from the keyhole into water. Again. I was fucking pissed and  started splashing around, worried we might be about to drown or  something, until I realized that the dark and wet was just a literal  night sky (one with a LOT of stars) over ankle deep water. "Gods damn  it!" I shouted. "Can anyone tell me why every fucking world in the dark  multiverse is fucking WET!" If this was another damp Gotham I was going  to lose my fucking mind.

Artemis stepped up next to me,  snickering. "Because we're standing in the ocean, you dumbass." She  pointed behind me. "There's a beach like...twenty feet that way. Looks  like we're right next to some kind of tropical island." I froze, trying  not to wince at the mistake.

"Ah." I said, turning around.  "Right. The ocean. Of course. So...anyone have any idea which ocean?" I  started wading through the surf toward the beach, thankfully dry  because of my armor. "Maybe we ended up Hawaii. Or like...Bora-Bora.  Since we need to find the keyhole here we might be sticking around for a  while. Might as well enjoy a nice vacation." I was going to have to  check my email for some kind of beach vacation accommodation. I was  betting I could either find or tweak a hotel email to conjure up a  resort for us.

"We definitely aren't in Hawaii." Cut in  Wally. The redhead had waded up next to us. "In fact, we aren't anywhere  I recognize. The stars here aren't anything like the ones I grew up  learning about. No constellations I know, I cant even see Polaris. I  don't think we're on Earth at all. Which isn't a huge shock given the  way we got here. Makes sense that the dimensional weak points wouldn't  line up one to one. Still, it means we might need to be careful. Who  knows what kinds of things are in this ocean. Or on that island."

Artemis  threw an arm around his shoulder in pride. "Awww, babe. Look at you  being helpful with your nerd brain." She pointed to him triumphantly,  announcing loudly. "My man, ladies and gentlemen, the scientific genius.  We would have been screwed if we'd treated this like Earth. Might have  sailed off looking for land we'd never find or something." She laid a  long kiss on Wally, whose eyes were out of focus and glazed by the time  she pulled away. "That said. Morgan, there any enemies nearby?"

I  flicked on my aura sight, greeted by the glow of Artemis's relief and  gratitude to be out of the evil version of Gotham where everyone she  loved was most likely dead. I looked around, seeing nothing except the  usual dense dark energy in the air and the occasional school of fish. I  shook my head at my overly excited sister. "Whoo! Beach sex!" She  grabbed Wally, who looked like he was about to explode from a  combination of mortification and excitement, and dragged him off toward  the beach at an angle. "Don't follow us, nerds! I've got some stuff to  work out." She shouted over her shoulder as she dragged him away.

Zee,  who was just catching up, snickered at that. "That poor bastard. Well,  at least he can limp at super speed. Though I don't know how quick he  can heal a broken pelvis." She paused. "Wait, I taught Artemis the cure  spell. Shit, we aren't going to see them for days, are we?" Despite the  words she didn't sound too upset. I got that. This place was...pretty.  Peaceful. Not exactly lively, but like a dark place that time forgot.

Looking  over to the others, I spotted Jim strolling across the surface of the  ocean. I'd forgotten he could do that. "Hey." I called over to my  mentor. "Any ideas where we should go? I know we need to stop and talk  over a plan but we should get out of the water first, but any plans on  which direction would be nice." I extended that to all the others. Kit,  Eddie, Rana, Sindella, Tommy, Suzie, Johns, and Drea. Making sure  everyone knew there wasn't any limits on who could contribute

Jim  sighed. "Well for one, I'd prefer to go that way." He gestured with his  cane to a section of beach off to the left of the area directly in  front of us. Opposite the right handed path Artemis had taken. "I'd  rather not hear the...youthful indiscretions of a girl who might as well  be my stepdaughter. Despite knowing all the lewd behavior you children  get up to, I prefer to aspire to ignorance, or at least some semblance  of it."

"That's  rich." Snickered Zee. "Coming from the guy whose fucked every morally  questionable immortal hottie we've met so far." She paused. "But  probably not a bad idea. We slept near them on New Genesis more than a  few times, and even with some distance between us, they were NOT quiet."  She immediately shot me a quelling look. "And if you make a comment  about how loud I am in bed in front of my mother, you won't be hearing  any of those noises anywhere but your dreams for quite some time."

Sindella  shot her daughter a patronizing smile, with just a hint of mischief in  it. "Oh don't be such a prude dear. You come by it honestly. Before we  moved into Shadowcrest, the neighbors at our old apartment used to call  in noise complaints nearly every night. All the officers at the local  police station knew us on sight. They were always so friendly when we  saw them out in public. Your father got so many high fives the year we  lived there."

It  made me literally stop and stare. Not because Sindella made a dirty  joke (possibly?) but because Zee, MY Zee. My raunchy sex elf girlfriend  with no filter, had stopped and was now staring at her mother with her  mouth hanging open, face painted with daughterly horror. Rana,  meanwhile, was cackling like a madwoman. "Hah!" She crowed, pointing at  her mother. "Now you know how it feels! Serves you right!"

For  his part, Taylor looked almost as disturbed, and Suzie looked amused. I  wasn't sure what the hell was going on there, it seemed obvious Taylor  still had a thing for Sindella, and Suzie didn't seem too upset about it  anymore. I was pretty sure they'd had a discussion about it among the  three of them. Maybe Jim gave them some tips. He seemed to be managing  his own three way relationship pretty well. Granted mine was stable too,  but that was mostly because of Drea, so I was hardly in a position to  offer advice.

"Alright  children." Scolded Jim. "We have larger concerns here. To the left it  is, but once we get there we need to figure out somewhere to hole up.  Even if this place isn't inherently dangerous, which we can't be sure  of, we don't want to be exposed to the elements in case of storms that  might blow in from the seas. Islands this small can be dangerous in  their own right, even without supernatural enemies to fear."

Which  was something I hadn't considered. Luckily Artemis and Wally were  powerful. Some story wasn't likely to hurt them, though I had a sneaking  suspicion 'beach sex' wasn't going to be as much fun as Artemis seemed  to think. I snickered internally about teasing her with that idea once I  got the hotel set up. I remembered one specific email that would work. I  had about two hundred fifty thousand points left. I got a pretty  consistent influx, but I'd burned some off in that last fight.

As  we reached the sand, I shifted between one step and the next out of my  armor, my foot coming down on the beach dry. I grinned and shuffled  around, enjoying the feeling. It was so novel I even took off my shoes  and stepped barefoot onto the shore. I groaned in enjoyment. "Drea, Zee,  you have to try this. It's like sugar sand. This is way better than any  beach I've ever been on."

Drea,  who had caught up with us, stepped out of her shoes and sunk her toes  into the sand. "Oh, that is nice. I've been to many seaside realms, and  this is perhaps the most luxurious sand I've ever put my feet in. The  water was absurdly clear and pretty as well. Remind me to come out and  work on my tan while we're here." She shot me a flirty smile and I  grinned back at her. I would definitely remind her.

The  difference in vibe from Gotham was...jarring. This place was quiet and  peaceful and relaxing as hell. I honestly wouldn't mind spending a few  days on the search for the keyhole, given how nice it was. Some downtime  with the girls would be nice. We'd had that talk a while ago about a  beach vacation, and the idea of them in bikinis was definitely a good  one. With that pleasant thought in mind, I slipped my phone from my  pocket and started flipping through emails.

Lots  of cruises, but they were all round trips, which wouldn't help. I'd  briefly considered using one to get back to our Gotham, but that seemed  to be out. Vacations were MOSTLY location dependent or required you to  charter your own flight. I focused on the few that weren't and flipped  through them until I found one that was close enough that I was pretty  sure I could use my power to make it fit. It was vague, so I knew it  would be doable to tweak the parameters.

I  considered how to go about this. Eventually I came to the conclusion  that making sure it showed up down the beach and out of sight would make  this easier. It was why the smaller items always got left at the door  in a box. Uncertainty played a big part in my powers. I hit the button  on the one I found, paying two hundred thousand points (apparently  adding a resort with full service staff and other guests was a big  change for this world). At least I still had fifty thousand left. I knew  some of that was from the moon base, I had leftovers after bringing  Sindella back, but still, I didn't like being empty.

When  I turned to the rest of the group, they all just stared at me. I  guessed I'd made a big show of hitting the button, and they all seemed  to be waiting for something. I just smiled. "So. I went ahead and  checked up on something real quick. Why don't we take a walk down the  beach, I'm sure we'll find a place to stay." Everybody here basically  knew about my power, Taylor and Suzie possibly excluded, and they had a  good idea since I was training with Tommy. Eddie might not know, but I  wasn't too worried about hiding it as strong as I was now.

They  all just shrugged and we headed off in the opposite direction. As we  came over the sand dunes, we saw a massive resort building out in the  distance, further down the beach. I grinned as I got close enough to  read the sign, pointing it out to the others, who all seemed extremely  excited to have stumbled on it.

I  got a few looks but I just shrugged it off. "Well." I said happily.  "Looks like we found a place." I read the sign I could see posted by the  entrance (thank you divine eyesight). Apparently this was a Marriott.  That was nice, I'd always like the ones I'd seen in movies. Plus, aside  from the name of the company there was even a name for the individual  location listed above it. It kind of supported Wally's not on earth  theory. Despite being written in english, it wasn't the kind of name I  would have missed hearing about. Still, it did make this place sound  nice. I could deal with a vacation on the Destiny Islands.