Sell you a Bridge chapter 283

June 13th 2016 The Street of Gods 10:30 PM EDT

I  had, at our last meeting, been slightly annoyed at Gojo for his  teaching methods. I'd been pretty sure he hit me harder than necessary  to get his point across, just to be a bully. Granted, looking back, it  was probably at least partially an attempt to scare me off this path of  power so I wouldn't get mixed up in things pretty much exactly like the  situation I was currently in, but I hadn't had my insight or my powers  telling me the lies within others are the time, so I wasn't sure.

What  I was sure about, watching Satoru Gojo fight fucking Darkseid, was that  while he might have hit me slightly harder than necessary, he'd also  been holding back A LOT. Gojo crossed the void of space in a single  blink, appearing in front of Darkseid, and when his fist lashed out, it  did so with the force and inevitability of a fucking world destroying  meteor. I could see small flickers blue and red along his form, in a way  that made me pretty sure they were only visible because of the  similarity in our powers, but the raw force of the punch was what really  shocked me.

Darkseid, one arm still missing, threw his  own punch, and his fist slammed into Gojo like a freight train, only to  stop an inch or so away from my stepfather, much to the shock of the  giant New God. Despite the failure to connect though, Gojo jerked like  he'd taken a real hit, even as his own punch smashed into Darkseid's  jaw, driving the massive god back on his heels with the force of the  blow.

Gojo reached down and touched his ribs with a  grimace. "Damn, you're actually tougher than you look, and you look like  an overcooked steak. Still, let's not pretend you're in top form here.  The domain cut off your connection to the entity that puppets this body  and that arm isn't growing back after getting it erased from existence.  Why don't you let me take your head off with a hollow purple and you can  just write off this meat suit as a loss. The original won't know, and  we both know the process of getting beaten down will be long and  agonizing."

The massive god sneered. "I am no mere  imitation, clown. I am Darkseid, ever present, inevitable. All Darkseids  are me and I am all. Managing to isolate this body from the whole  temporarily is impressive for a gnat, but I will not bite my own hand.  That would be foolishness. In any case, it hardly matters." He grinned  nastily. "For while I may not be capable of killing you in this form, I  can surely tax you. There are more forces than I attempting to destroy  your ward, and denying him your aid will serve the purpose of the whole  as surely as ending him by my own hand. Even if it will be less  entertaining."

"Fuck off." Gojo snarled. "I can finish you  in record time. You're a useless brute with too much muscle and no  finesse. You think having a bit more muscle to swing around is going to  matter when I get serious?" I silently cursed my power as I heard the  discordant twang of a lie under his words. As if a second identical  voice spoke beneath the first, admitting aloud, even if only to my ears,  that Darkseid was right. That he could hold him pretty much  indefinitely, but he wouldn't be able to get free quickly, and that the  others might be in danger with me stuck in here.

Gojo had  pulled me into the domain to let me heal up, confident he could protect  me from anything, and while that might be true, especially in here, he  couldn't leave anytime soon. Darkseid was going to need to be pinned  down, especially since as long as we were in the street of gods, even if  Gojo DID kill this vessel, Darkseid would be able to send another  through from the sphere using that damn temple. I was going to have to  leave him here to fight if I wanted a shot at saving Kit.

Not  that Gojo himself would be in any danger. Especially in the domain,  Darkseid had no chance of turning the tables in peak condition, much  less down an arm. But Gojo was going to need to open the domain to let  me out, and Darkseid would use that moment of distraction to attack me  with everything he had. I had to heal up before that came, and I had to  make damn sure I was as prepared as possible to tank whatever attack he  was going to use. Once I was out Gojo could just smack him around for a  few days until we were clear of the street of gods and then go home, but  that presumed I could survive the attack.

In our favor  though, was the fact that I needed to heal some more still, which gave  Gojo time to work the New God over for a while and soften him up. With  another flash he was back on Darkseid, obviously done talking, and he  started to fight, this time moving with even more speed and ferocity. I  watched closely as the two of them battled, memorizing this so I could  use my Outer Body meditation to learn from the exchange.

And  what an exchange it was. Darkseid, despite having only one arm, was  managing to keep pace with my stepfather. Not easily, but he was pulling  it off. His arm seemed to be everywhere, somehow imposing itself into  every gap and blow. Darkseid's combat style was brutal and dominating,  but it was surprisingly unrefined. Darkseid wasn't a skillful or  crafting fighter. He was a beast on two legs, overpowering everything in  his path.

Not that he was sloppy or left openings, he  managed to cover any gaps with pure animal instinct, but there was no  craftiness or cunning in his battle style, just pure, overwhelming  force. As he rained down blows though, Gojo still managed to counter  every punch. I focused on gathering my energy as best I could, healing  the damage still present in my body. The blows to my ribs were taking  longer to heal completely than expected.

Through my  obscured aura sight, I could see remnants of a disgusting, corrupt  energy in my bones I hadn't noticed until I looked carefully. I was  thankful I'd ended up having to stop for this, because I wasn't sure  what that would have done if I missed it. I started grinding away at the  energy with my own concept, though it was both less powerful and less  condensed.

Almost immediately I felt the tenderness and  slight pain in my ribs start to fade away, albeit slowly, and I sighed  in relief as I handled the fallout from Darkseid's attacks. I wondered  if Gojo had noticed the energy and that was why he had me wait before  leaving. It seemed likely, and that just made me marvel at how powerful  his eyes were, and how the hell he wasn't insane from walking around  with them uncovered in the street of gods.

While I worked  though, I kept memorizing the battle. Either Gojo had an absurdly  diverse and spontaneous fighting style (which was highly possible  knowing him) or he was purposefully drawing out as much of Darkseid's  battle ability as possible for me to remember. Either way I was learning  quite a bit from watching the fight, from both of them. I couldn't wait  to work this into my combat style later. It had been ages since I'd  come across anyone with a combat standard worth incorporating into my  own style.

Finally though, I managed to grind down the  energy in my ribs enough to disperse it, and my body finished knitting  together the damage, a feat made much easier by my ectoplasmic form.  Once I was done, I stood up and focused on my physical form in a  different way as Gojo held Darkseid back. Specifically, my durability.  My armor was extremely durable and could take blows like no one's  business, but my augmentations tended to amplify its physical  capabilities rather than its defensive ones.

This time I  was going to use my demonic energy to augment the defense instead of the  strength and go full tank. Demonic energy should be capable of doing  basically anything I needed it too, but on the off chance it couldn't my  power would be able to bridge the gap anyway. I closed my eyes, focused  on my body, and began to lie. I pushed with the part of my mind and  soul that altered the world, drawing demonic energy from my power  directly in a way I wouldn't have ever been capable of I didn't know  that it came from my power to start with.

It was mostly  the same as using my power to enhance my strength, but with an added  layer of complexity as I lied to the energy just that little bit more,  shifting its purpose to suit my current needs. Once I had it finished, I  stepped forward, and, lacking another way to communicate my needs, I  shouted to Gojo. "I'm ready! Do it!" I focused as hard as possible on  reinforcing and bolstering my defense as Gojo nodded with out looking  away from Darkseid. He waved a hand and a hole opened in the domain, a  tear in the fabric of space showing me the street of gods where we had  just been standing.

I bolted for  the gap, pushing myself forward with my wings and my ghostly flight.  Luckily neither of those abilities required concentration of use of my  actual power, they were just inherent abilities, so they didn't distract  from my brain-melting concentration on keeping up my defenses at this  level. I was hoping to get out before Darkseid had a chance to attack,  but looking back over my shoulder disabused me of that notion as I saw  those same eye lasers he'd attacked Gojo with spearing toward me.

Being  an absolute badass with insane triple reaction time even within the  context of my armor, I actually managed to see the attack coming and  dodged it, hoping to avoid needing to test my new defensive technique at  all. To my shock though, as I dipped to one side to avoid the beams,  the fucking things TURNED. Not subtly either, they literally jerked into  a right angle and changed directions to adjust to my evasion. My eyes  went wide and I jerked a few times to either side, trying to shake it,  but it just kept getting closer and closer even as I blurred toward the  gap Gojo had made.

I  was so close to getting out when it finally reached me, only a few  inches from escaping completely. I turned in midair as it approached,  calling Tartarus and crossing my arms in front of myself as I fell  backwards the last little bit. I gritted my teeth as the beams SLAMMED  into my like a fucking freight train, and I mentally praised Gojo for  being able to take this attack as I was hurled backwards. I reached out  with my powers, brain spasming in pain as I lied to the universe to make  sure the blast hit me at exactly the right angle to drive me out of the  hole.

I hit  the pavement on the other side as the gap in reality closed behind me,  and I skipped like a stone as I did, smashing holes on the road until I  hit the side of Darkseid's temple and left a nice big Morgan shaped  crater in the wall. I groaned as I let the defensive charge drop, my  brain relieved to be out from under the crushing pressure or a new  technique as I pulled myself out of the wall.

When  I stepped free, I noticed DeSaad nearby, staring at me in horror, and I  grinned back at him, ignoring the dead and dying parademons my friends  had finished off. Only one more target to deal with and we could be on  our way. I was a bit sore, but without worrying about Darkseid I was  pretty sure he wouldn't be too tough to deal with. I cracked my neck and  stepped toward him. I was glad he was nearby. I had some frustrations  to work out.