Sell you a Bridge chapter 280

June 13th 2016 The Street of Gods 9:00 PM EDT

Eddie  brought us down the street of gods through a series of twisting side  alleys. The Street of Gods was technically an inaccurate name. While there WAS in fact, a single street at the center of the are lined with  all those churches, there were multiple side streets and offshoots  branching from the main thoroughfare, containing much smaller and less  ostentatious buildings. Not as shabby as the ally shacks, but much less  grand than the ones of the main avenue.

I'd wondered  briefly why they called it the street of gods, but then  I realized 'the  neighborhood of gods' sounded pretty stupid, and realized that it was  probably either a rule of cool thing, or they had just named it back  before the other streets sprung up and hadn't felt like changing it. I  was extremely fascinated by everything we were passing though, and I was  staring raptly at the buildings as we went by. Which was probably why I  was the first person to notice that something was wrong.

Stopping  abruptly, I held up a hand, gesturing for everyone else to come to a  halt, which they all did. Taylor turned to me in confusion. "Listen,  Morgan, I get that this is an interesting area, but you heard what Eddie  said, we need to get to that temple before we get noticed by whoever is  looking for you. We can sight see later." Despite what I suspected was  supposed to be a lackadaisical tone, I could sense the lie well enough  to know he was worried. It wasn't the only lie I sensed.

"Sorry  to tell you man, but I think it's a bit late for that." I said with a  grimace. "We haven't actually moved in the last fifteen minutes. This is  some kind of illusionary treadmill spell. The changing area around us  is a seeming designed to turn us off course. It took me a minute to see  through it, which means its damn good, because my powers are almost  perfectly suited to piercing a facade like this. I'm sure the rest of  you can pick out the flaws if you look close though."

Jim's  head snapped around, monocle flashing as he scanned the area with a  curse. "Damn! I can't believe I missed that. Whoever did this is  excellent, but this is also an unfamiliar environment. I hadn't bothered  to study the surroundings because I wouldn't have know the difference.  Good catch, Morgan." He raised his voice, not addressing me, but casting  his shout out into the night to find whoever might be listening. "That  said, even a genius wouldn't be able to hold an illusion this seamless  over people like us from a distance. Too many possible gaps. Why don't  you come out, whoever you are."

A dry, rustling chuckle  rolled across the street around us, and where the sound traveled, the  images peeled away. The small churches and houses dissolved, showing me  unfamiliar ones, each gray and unimpressive, but arranged neatly and in a  tight grouping that allowed them to grant what little majesty they had  to the much larger, darker grey temple that towered over them. The  shadow that the temple cast seemed almost darker than it should, and I  felt a cold and brutal presence permeating this area, a presence I  recognized, and my stomach dropped like a rock.

I stared  up at the jagged, uneven monstrosity of a temple that loomed in the  darkness of the side street, and then glanced down to the red robed man  with the deformed face who stood grinning hideously at us from the steps  at the base of the columns. Despite the obvious power he commanded  though, he wasn't the presence I'd been sensing, no, that presence I''d  have recognized anywhere, even having only felt a shard of it. I didn't  even need to glance up at the pair of ornate black velvet banners  adorning the front columns, each one sporting an identical blood red  Omega symbol.

The man in the robe's chuckle turned into a  howl of sickening laughter. "Your face! I see you've realized now boy.  That you understand the magnitude of your folly, but it is far too late.  You shouldn't have interfered. My lord is not forgiving, he does not  suffer challenges lightly. You stood in his way, took what was his, and  now he will take that which belongs to you. You should not have come  here. This place is connected to the Sphere of the Gods, here, out power  is at it's zenith. Did you enjoy my little show?"

"Oh, my  mistake." He giggled, covering his mouth as if he'd made a social  blunder. "I should introduce myself. I am DeSaad, high priest of  Darkseid. I'm something of a master of illusions, and it was my task to  retrieve you. I do hope you have the time to visit. My lord has been  awaiting your arrival. He'll be arriving to greet you in person soon,  but even in a halfway place like this manifesting a being of his glory  is time consuming. Since my manners were so lacking earlier, how about  we greet you properly."

He snapped his fingers, and the  entire street was full of parademons. I didn't mean one or two, more  like a thousand, and I grimaced at the numbers. Granted, I could tear  through them like wet tissue paper, but I had the feeling that fighting  this many opponents with DeSaad around wouldn't be simple, even with my  ability to see through his illusions with some effort. Still, I wasn't  too worried. There were other ways to counter that kind of thing, and as  long as we got out of here before Darkseif himself showed up we would  be fine.

If we couldn't...we were fucked. I was damn  strong now, but I'd SEEN Darkseid, seen what he really was. Not all of  him obviously, since I wasn't a gibbering pile of twitching meat curled  up on the ground, but even seeing that tiny fragment of him connected to  Tina had been enough to make me understand that I was fundamentally  incapable of dealing with that beast as I was now. That might change  someday, but if I fought Darkseid right now, I was going to lose. Badly.  And I somehow doubted he was going to be a graceful winner.

Which  meant we were going to need to leave. Pretty much now. I reached for my  armor, feeling it roll over my body, enclosing me in liquid metal. I  tapped into my demonic power to augment my strength, unleashed my wings,  and communicated with Zee and Dreamer to coordinate a defense before  hurling myself at DeSaad. I felt the powerful surge of a shield snapping  into place around my friends, with Jim, John, and Sindella all helping  to reinforce it. Once the fallback position was established Suzie and   Artemis both got out their weapons, starting up ranged attacks from  inside the dome to cull the parademons numbers safely as Eddie slipped  out among the soldiers and began to kill.

I, meanwhile,  was playing distraction, and I slammed into the steps of the temple like  a metal cannonball, conjuring Tartarus to my hand as I sailed through  the air and crashed into the stone. DeSaad saw me coming, and it seemed  like he hadn't moved, but I froze in place on landing. My senses were  tripping. I was being lied to and I didn't know how, but I wasn't stupid  enough to attack a New God head on when he had tricks up his sleeve. I  wasn't invincible, and these people were pretty much universe level  threats.

DeSaad scowled at me, which admittedly wasn't far  to go from his normal twisted facial features, but it was a distinct  enough motion for me to tell he was annoyed. "How are you doing that?" I  smirked. I'd made the right call, he had some sort of horrible trap  prepared. "I thought the illusions were a fluke, but you shouldn't be  able to sense any problems right now. How are you distinguishing my  illusions and traps like that?" He sounded almost offended by the very  idea. As if I'd insulted him by being competent.

Which was  stupid. I hadn't insulted him. "Because you're a bitch." Ok, now I'd  insulted him. I enjoyed the expression of anger that flashed over his  face so I kept going. "Seriously, what are you even good for? You're  what? The ugly convincing guy. The one who whispers in people's ears to  make them do things they shouldn't? Do you really think Darkseid, the  god of tyranny, has any patience for your bullshit? I'm surprised he  even bothers with you. What are you god of exactly? Spineless cowards  who can't do anything themselves?"

His eyes flared with  rage. Literally. They blazed red for a second before he choked it down.  "A pathetic attempt. "He sneered in a voice that told me he was  geniunely bothered. "Lord Darkseid knows my value. I am his vanguard.  His herald. I tread the path ahead, lighting his way, and twisting the  minds of his future victims to pave the way for his greatness. Lord  Darkseid knows that brute force corruption isn't the only way to  accomplish his goals. There is darkness in the human heart, and I am the  gardener that tends the bloom."

I cocked my head. "I'm  sorry, did you say gardener or meat shield? Because you used a lot of  fancy words there, but where I'm from, when we send annoying assholes  ahead of our forces to stir up trouble it's because we don't care if  they live or die. I mean seriously, could you be more expendable? You're  like a cheap copy of Darkseid, but not as good and way uglier." I  paused. "Well, I assume. I've never seen Darkseid, but you're setting a  high bar, so I somehow doubt his face is more fucked up that yours."

DeSaad  was seething. I could feel it. Despite only talking, we'd already  started the battle. DeSaad's powers were mental, he used his mind and  words to corrupt and twist the truth, that's how he managed the  illusions. I could pick up flaws in his technique with my abilities  because in the end, this was all one big lie. If I could disturb his  calm enough he would lose control of any tricks he had waiting and  potentially damage him. Not just this meat suit either, damage the  actual god behind the mask.

He knew I was doing it too,  but that was the thing about lies. Once you stripped them away, the  truth could still hurt you, even if you already knew it deep down. This  asshole built his whole domain off lies, and if I could break it, it  would seriously damage him long term. Which was important, because  Darkseid coming or not, running through the street of gods with an  insane illusionist trying to warp our minds was just asking for trouble.  There was too much trouble he could trick us into getting into, even if  I might notice if he used his power on me, my friends wouldn't.

I  had him on the defensive too. He was so busy reacting to my insults  that he hadn't bothered to try to dig into my own insecurities. I was  sure that he could do some damage if he managed it too, his powers  seemed similar to mine. This battle of falsehoods was odd, but it WAS a  battle. Either of us could come out ahead. DeSaad's insecurities were  buried deep, but they were there. Still, I didn't have time to dig too  thoroughly. I needed to finish this so we could fucking leave. Darkseid  was coming. I went on the attack again. "Hell, I bet he wouldn't even  care if I killed you. I might even be doing him a favor, getting rid of  his annoying knockoff before he became a problem. I should just take out  the trash for him."

"How  kind." The voice wasn't loud. It wasn't angry. It wasn't harsh or  rasping. But it commanded my attention. My fear. I looked up, my eyes  drawn like a pair of stars crashing to earth to the massive, hulking  form of the being standing at the top of the steps. The glowing red eyes  bore into me like a pair of dying stars, no less terrible for their  banked radiance. I swallowed hard as I met them, and felt the  unassailable presence of the god of tyranny crush down on me, my body  seizing like a mouse in front of a cat. Darkseid had arrived.