Sell you a Bridge chapter 255

June 4th 2016  The Nightside 11:00 AM EDT

Suzie,  it appeared, did not fuck around. She popped that Belle woman in the  skull so fast a normal person couldn't have even seen it. She was  something a little more than human I suspected, or she was cheating.  Still, we were all pretty shell shocked at the speed at which that whole  incident had gone sour. Despite having capped that bitch, however,  Suzie didn't lower her gun, just staring at Belle, who stood motionless,  head snapped back from being shot but still not falling over. "Oh stop  playing up your melodramatic slag."

Belle stood there for  another few seconds, then here head tipped forward, and she made a  hocking noise and spat, letting a bullet clink to the ground from her  mouth. A neat hole between her eyes was closing as we watched, and her  pretty face was screwed up in annoyance. "Barbarian." She said in thick  french accent, completely ignoring the fact that she had shot Suzie  first. The tall blonde just glared at the other woman, and Belle rolled  her eyes. "Yes, fine, they double booked you. But to be fair, you have a  reputation for letting our dear John talk you out of proper business.  I'm just...insurance."

The glare on the blonde's face  intensified. "He's not YOUR John anymore, you insufferable arsehole. And  I don't get talked out of anything I don't want to. I have reason to  believe I was given bad information, and only a sap does a job when  they're lied to. But that isn't a problem for you is it Belle? In order  for someone to to violate your standards you'd need to actually have  any. What exactly did you do to yourself this time? To get such a  convenient healing factor." Suzie sniffed a few times. "Wait, no, don't  tell me. I smell wet dog. You hunted yourself a werewolf didn't you?"

The  french...bounty hunter I guessed? Glared at the blonde. "Nasty little  psycho aren't you. But it doesn't matter. I have more than one trick up  my sleeve. I even have ways to deal with him." She chucked her chin at  me. "So why don't we all just keep things nice and friendly, and I'll  take the demonspawn boy to my clients. No need for anyone to get hurt.  If you make a fuss though..." She trailed off threateningly. "Well,  let's just say that even your cute little magic tricks won't be enough  to stop the measure I have in place."

Everyone was looking  at me now, clearly curious as to what I would do. Zee looked terrified,  Dreamer looked worried, and Artemis looked pissed off. But I just  smiled at her casually. "Really?" I wasn't afraid of her little tricks.  First off I had the dolls to stop and instant kills even if she could  get past me. But I didn't need them anyway. Belle had appeared out of  nowhere earlier, even I hadn't noticed her. If one person can sneak up  on you than so can others, so I had quietly manifested a few clones in  an invisible intangible state and sent them out to check the  surroundings.

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me  twice...well the fifteen or twenty times people had fooled me had  finally started to sink in. I'd decided to do everything in my power to  keep my friends safe, and that included making sure to use my assets  properly. My clones were perfect for recon, and when used that way, they  could be insanely effective even if they weren't as powerful or combat  capable as I was. Belle gave me a nasty smile. "Oh, the pretty boy  thinks he's impressive does he? Maybe I should give you a demonstration  that I'm serious." She raised a hand and snapped her fingers.

Nothing  happened. She frowned. She snapped again, then a a third time. Like her  signal might have been missed and she needed to get it through her  people's heads. I made a noise of sympathy. "You seem frustrated. Were  you expecting something just then?" She glared at me, and I couldn't  help but return the expression with my own nasty grin. "For instance,  did you maybe think one of the multiple snipers you have posted up on  rooftops casually dotting this street would put a bullet in one of my  friends?"

Her eyes went wide, the blood draining from her  face at the statement. I waved a hand and a series of corridors dropped  the men my clones had subdued on the street in front of us. Their  expressions were vacant and afraid, and they were drooling as the  slumped limply on the ground, staring off into nothingness. Corridors of  darkness weren't safe for normal people to move through. Not safe at  all. Neither, as it happened, was pointing GUNS at my friends, and  especially not at my girls.

I stared coldly down at the  men on the ground. They weren't dead, they were making low keening  noises in the backs of their throats, but they were going to be in bad  shape for a while. I was not, however, under the mistaken impression  that they couldn't possibly survive or get better. The Nightside had  lots of things other places didn't. If anyone could treat them, it would  be someone here. My eyes flicked up to Belle. "I think I broke your  snipers. My bad." My icy tone made it absolutely clear that it was NOT  my bad, but she was a bit busy panicking to question that anyway.

She  forced her face into a calm expression, sneering at me. "You think  those were all I brought boy? I have scores of men stationed around  here. Don't think you're safe because you found one of my teams. You  can't do anything to me. If you raise your hand to me I'll have you all  mowed down where you stand. Contract or not, I don't play games with my  life." Her tone was arrogant and full of certainty...it was also a lie.

I  knew lies. Knew them better every day, and trying to bluff me was just  pure stupidity. But it didn't matter. I just smiled at her. "Oh, I'm not  going to hurt you. I know you don't have any backup, but unfortunately,  while you threatened my loved ones, you didn't actually shoot me. I  can't really justify taking your fate away from someone who deserves it  more than me. I'm going to let Suzie be the one to handle you." I shot a  grin at the blonde bounty hunter. "Consider it a thank you for being  willing to hear us out."

Even I shivered slightly at the  sheer glee on Suzie's face when she turned to Belle. "Well now, I like  you already. I'll be sure to take good care of our friend here." She was  almost cooing when she said that, and I made a note to never piss off  Suzie if I could help it. She lowered a hand to a second gun, not even  wincing at the movement despite the bullet would she'd just plugged up.

Belle  looked ice cold, but the lie was simple for me to see. She was  terrified. Her sneer deepened. "Well, if you want to leave me with an  easy target I suppose I should thank you for it. Suzie has never been up  to my standa-" She yelped and dove sideways so fast I imagine most of  the people here couldn't follow it. The bullet Suzie fired hit the  building behind her and gouged a line in the cement column. I noted a  gleam of bright metal from inside the column and smirked. Silver bullets  didn't deform as easily as lead, it was pretty simple to tell what this  one was.

Belle could tell it too obviously because her  eyes widened with fear. She spun to Taylor. "John. Sweetheart. You know  how I get. I was just excited. There's no reason to kill me over it. We  cared about each other once. Can't you let me go just this once?" She  dodged again, using some kind of magic shield to deflect the bullet this  time because she wasn't fast enough to clear the line of fire.

Taylor  looked...uncomfortable. I was pretty sure he wanted to let her go. I  was also pretty sure that he knew that wasn't going to fly with any of  the people here except maybe Wally. The redhead had actually been oddly  quiet, I'd expected him to try to intervene, but aside from taking the  whole 'law of the land' thing seriously, especially after the OZ, I saw  him staring in rage at the downed snipers piled up off to one side. He  knew what they were there for, and the thought of them hurting any of  us, especially him or Artemis, was hitting him hard I was pretty sure.

The  big detective just shook his head, looking away. He was telling himself  he didn't care, and that she deserved it, but I could hear the lie even  without him speaking it. Taylor didn't care too much about conventional  morality, though he did have lines he wouldn't cross. His biggest  virtue though was personal loyalty. He protected his people. He'd  protected us even though we'd only met him a few days ago. Belle had  been someone to him once, and having to ignore it as she died hurt him  in a way I don't think he was comfortable admitting.

If  I'd known him better or been a better friend to him I'd have stopped it  because of that. But I wasn't. I was angry. I wasn't going to let some  french bounty hunter get away with trying to use my girls or my friends  against me. No one fucked with my loved ones. Suzie grinned viciously as  she moved in to get close to Belle. I personally thought she should  have stayed back, Belle clearly had some kind of superhuman power thing  going on, but Suzie walked calmly towards the woman, obviously intent on  violence.

Belle realized she  didn't have an out and jerked up a gun I hadn't seen. Suzie, who had  holstered the original weapon she used for the headshot and slipped a  hand into a pocket, pulled it out and gave a light puff us she opened  it. Belle inhaled the shimmering dust, and started hacking and coughing,  hands going to her throat. Suzie holstered the other gun, pulled out a  bandana, wrapped it around her mouth and then slipped on a pair of very  shiny knuckle dusters, one on each of her hands.

The  next several minutes were...disturbing. Suzie beat Belle so thoroughly  that I wasn't entirely sure the woman could have been injured in any  more places. She broke every joint, smashed her knee caps, caved her  face in, and just generally worked her over until Belle was a whimpering  pile of meat on the ground, then she spit on her and kicked her a few  times for good measure. I expected her to execute the bounty hunter, but  she gave Taylor a soft look and then turned away coldly, clearly  planning to let her live for his sake. Taylor didn't see it since he was  looking away, and I think that was on purpose too.

Artemis  was staring at the woman in absolute awe. "I want to be her when I grow  up." We all turned to look at her. With her fathers career I'd have  thought this would have been too brutal for her and she shrugged. "That  bit was going to have either me or one of my loved ones shot just to  prove a point. As far as I'm concerned leaving her alive is all the  mercy she deserves. That was awesome." She chased after Suzie, catching  upto the taller blonde as she stared at her with wide eyes. "How did you  do that? What was that stuff you blew at her?"

Suzie  was untying the bandana, and she shot Artemis another bloodthirsty  smile. "Diamond dust and silver particles. Even a werewolf doesn't want  to breathe that." I winced at her proclamation, but followed after her  as she headed off to a nearby building where I suppose she wanted to  talk this out. I didn't think it would take very long. We'd won some  points with how we handled this. I looked over at Taylor, who was  staring at Belle with a bit of sadness, though no pity. Maybe he and  Suzie had some discussions of their own to have. Hopefully he would wait  until after we made it to the Londinium club.