Sell you a Bridge chapter 230

April 22nd 2016 Gotham City 8:00 PM EDT

We  put out the call to all of our allies and then headed for Gotham via  the teleporters. I was fucking pissed. I had been planning this entire  thing for days if not weeks if you counted the whole plan as a single  series of ideas, and I'd basically been fucked over by my own hubris.  Lex and Ra'as hiding from me made perfect sense, they were cautious and I  was a badass. Hell, even Savage was known to lie in wait at times. What  was NOT a reasonable expectation was that the assholes Darkseid sent to  play babysitter would just sit around and wait.

I should  have expected them to try something before me in retrospect, but now  wasn't really the time for that, we just had to react and hope we could  prevent them from messing up Gotham too bad. Gotham may be a shithole,  but like...half my stuff was there. So we met up with the others outside  the clocktower. Not just the Team, but the League (or what there was of  them that wasn't in space), Blood and Xanadu, Adam, The Shadowpact,  Artemis and Paula, Reggie and Bette, Jade and Roy, hell even my dad had  shown up with about two dozen mobsters strapped for mayhem.

Taking  in everyone I was pretty shocked. This was...a lot of people. Like the  raid on infinity island had been a decent force, but there was like a  genuine crowd here. More than that though...I had zero fucking clue what  to do here? Planning and executing a raid was pretty easy. Punch the  other guy where he tries to block. Defenders show you their weak spots  when they protect them, but this...this was going to be a fucking free  for all. Which, I reflected, staring up at the fucking warships coming  into view over the skyline, was probably a given.

The Team  was glaring at the villainous contingent, including my dad, but their  attention was half-hearted, and I felt the need to interrupt. I cleared  my throat, getting everyone's attention. "Excuse me." No real reaction  so I put a touch of ectoplasm in my voice. Not enough to actually damage  anything, but enough to give it some punch. "I said excuse me!"  Everyone jolted, knocked a bit askew by my shout. I just grinned as  their glares turned on me. "Thank you. Now I realize this is last minute  and not everyone here is happy to be working with everyone else."

Barbara,  who was in a bat costume and standing by Nightwing, was glaring over at  dads group. "They're criminals. Literal scum of the earth. And they're  all carrying guns! Like we're just going to let them commit mass murder  in the streets of Gotham!" Her blue eyes were blazing with anger, and  while I understood where she was coming from, I also wasn't going to be  dealing with any of that bullshit.

I didn't talk around  it, or try to build up. I just cut her off. "Get over it." Her eyes went  wide, and she turned on my angrily, but a flick of my will formed a gag  out of shadows around her mouth. "No, we don't have time for this. I  humored you all during the raid on The Reach because they're sentient  creatures, but from what I know Parademons are barely even that. The  majority of the forces here are going to rabid alien war beasts with no  conscience, bred for wholesale slaughter, and they're about to be let  loose on my fucking city."

She glared from under her bat  cowl, but I didn't back down, in fact I stepped forward, looming over  her as I spat out. "You want to bitch about ethics, I'll throw your ass  in a dark hole until this is over, because I'm not putting my family and  friends in danger because you want to respect the rights of all living  creatures. That's an army, which means this war, and we're going to  fucking fight it like one, because your morals aren't worth the lives of  Gotham citizens. You under-fucking-stand me?"

As soon as  she was able to open her mouth she retorted, even as I let the shadow  gag fade away, zero points used as I'd flexed my power a bit. Before she  could talk though a voice cut her off. "You're right." I blinked in  shock and turned to see fucking Nightwing staring back at me. He turned  to Barbara, or Batgirl I guess. "He's right, and you know it. Parademons  are monsters. They barely think, and we need to prioritize human life  here. I'm not saying mow them down." He glared at me. "But...if some of  them don't make it that's better than thinking feeling people dying. And  we need all the help we can get."

Blue eyes were  absolutely blazing with fury ash she basically spat at him. I could tell  the very idea of letting criminals run loose with guns to kill things  was anathema to her, probably something to do with being the daughter of  a cop. "How can you say that? Batman-"

Nightwing cut her  off. "Isn't here. I am. And I'm making this call. I don't like it any  more than you do, but Gotham is our town, and I'm not letting innocent  people get killed because I want to spare emotionless cannon fodder. It  might not be what Batman would do, but it's what I've decided. So get on  board, or I'll let that smug prick leave you on Mt. Kilimanjaro or  something for the rest of the battle." His voice was flat, and I saw her  actually flinch a bit at that, her aura rippling with hurt and shock.

Black  Canary stepped forward to stand between them. "This isn't necessary.  Batgirl, I understand your hesitation to end lives, and commend it, but  Nightwing is right. This is an emergency situation, and we need to stand  together here. We don't need to go all out trying to slaughter them,  but they're going to need to be taken down. There are too many of them  to take the time to hold back." She looked up at the ships, and despite  her calm facade I could see real fear in her aura. She wasn't at all  prepared for a fucking alien invasion, but she was a pro, so she played  it cool.

Honestly I think all of us were freaking out. Bad  odds were one thing, but seeing a literal handful of Apokaliptan troop  transports over my home town was...chilling. Still, I was more focused  on the insides. "Savage is in there. But he isn't the problem. I see  about ten auras that are absolutely blazing with power, and I'm thinking  those are probably New Gods. Not sure which ones but...this is going to  be fucking rough." Almost two dozen New Gods was a tall order even with  this force, especially considering how many of us were human and would  be on Parademon duty by default.

The worst part was we  couldn't plan this out the same way we had the last few times, we  couldn't deploy our forces to best advantage, all we could do was go out  and fuck shit up and hope we ended up in the right spot to do some real  damage. I turned to Artemis. My best friend was probably the least  defensible member of our group. She was a glass cannon when it came to  fights like this. "Artie, I need you with my dads guys. Parademons are  mindless thugs but they're still powerful. The guns might not be  enough."

My dad actually  chuckled at that from where he was standing nearby. "Guns aren't all  we've got. Every one of my boys is strapped with enchanted armor from  the dungeon along with a melee sidearm. We'll be fine." I glared at him,  I'd been hoping to stick her and Reggie with babysitting duty to keep  them out of the god fight, but that was officially out of the question  after that comment.

Artemis,  knowing me better than anyone, rolled her eyes and slapped me upside  the head. "Don't be a dipshit Morgan. You can't keep me out of this.  Besides, Wally has my back as always. Just because I can't punch out  Superman doesn't mean you get to leave me behind, you try it and I'll  take a sledgehammer to your nuts while you're asleep. We'll see how weak  and fragile you think I am then."

I  was positive I could survive that of course, but I was equally positive  I probably wouldn't want to while it was happening. Every guy there  winced in sympathy at the phantom pain. I knew she was right though.  This was her town and I couldn't stop her from protecting it with the  others, but that didn't mean I had to like it. "Fine you vindictive  bitch, but if you die I'm not talking to you any more." This was  bullshit. If we'd planned the attack I could have made sure Artemis was  safe and attacking in the right place for her talents. But in this free  for all she was easily in the most danger out of all of us.

Even  Reggie was better able to protect himself, since he could just  transport himself away. Plus he'd spent years honing his powers but  Artemis... She just rolled her eyes, stepping forward to hug me. "Don't  go all power snob on me now, you dick. I survived New Genesis, I can  survive this. If you think I'm letting my brother and BOTH of my sisters  fight a bunch of gods without me you're very stoned. Plus Roy is here,  and gods know he needs someone to keep an eye one him during all this."

Aforementioned  redhead looked scandalized at the implication, but sadly we didn't have  any more time for pep talks. The Parademon armies had deployed, and I  saw the flare of godly auras between them. I didn't know who was who,  but it didn't matter. I triggered my torc and with the power of  augmented wings and ghostly flight, exploded from the ground toward the  nearest godly signature and the demons around it. "Don't die!" Was the  last thing I said, to both Artemis and the rest of the group, with a  pulse of love through my connection to Dreamer,Rana, and Zee to let them  know I was thinking of them and to stay safe.

I  hit the crowd of Parademons like a fucking blender, I'd conjured the  Abyssal Alloy teeth on Tartarus again as I called it to my hand, and  there was a dull roar as my chainblade ripped through demonic  supersoldier flesh. I took out about a dozen of them with each swing,  but even then they kept coming. Those transport ships had more of the  things than I'd been expecting. I could see whichever god was there past  the curtain of cannon fodder, but couldn't reach them, and I tore  through wave after wave of Parademon as I tried.

Before  I could process it though, the signature vanished, and while I didn't  stop killing Parademons I DID strain my senses to try to detect where  the hell it might have gone. It was the only reason I caught the  signature behind me in time to move out of the way of the lunging sword  blow aimed at my heart from behind. As I did, I caught some of the blade  on my ribs, and was shocked as my armor actually parted under the  blade, scoring a long line across my side that began to bleed freely. It  knitted up pretty fast given my ghostly nature, but it was still a  surprise, and I turned to face the god I was about to fight.

Tall,  blonde, and honestly kind of hot, she held a massive razor sharp  longsword of some gleaming metal I didn't recognize. Her face was set  into a glare. "I am Gilotina, New God of the sword." That was it,  nothing past that as the flying disks beneath her feet drove her forward  in another lunge. I deflected it neatly and despite everything, a slow  grin crawled across my face. It had been a while since I'd had a proper  match with the blade. Worry or not, I was going to have fun with this.