Greed God chapter 89

January 31st 2016 Gotham City 5:00 PM

Zee's  plan was...not great. I should have probably expected that. The  League's basic idea of strategy, barring Batman when he wasn't relying  on the element of surprise, was to find bad guys and then do justice at  them until they were in prison. How those walking wrecking balls had  been granted a UN charter was completely beyond my understanding, the UN  probably could have saved some money by summoning literal elementals  from the elemental plane of unnecessary property damage.

In  light of that it wasn't a shock that Zee's plan amounted to 'stop that  bad guy by being annoying when he's doing stuff'. Granted she was a  magic expert, so maybe there was some value in 'disturbing his mystical  equilibrium in the midst of a delicate ritual' but it kind of sounded  like she just meant to sucked punch him and hope it worked out. I  checked my pocked for the babylon candle, which I'd made sure to bring  along with me.

It was there of course, as was the Amethyst  Necklace. I had grabbed both on the way out and while I didn't have a  princess handy for the pendant it WAS a magical amplifier so I figured  having it around couldn't hurt. The trip to the estate where the party  was being held didn't take too long, with Zee in the can Barbie was too  distracted to bicker with Cherry much, so in general I just ran through a  mental checklist of our assets barring an armaggedon cloak I was pretty  sure I had everything I would need, assuming Doctor Gotham didn't just  swat us like flies.

Based on Zee's descriptions it was  probable that the old man would have some sort of simulacra of the city  to channel the ritual through. Manually altering those spells last  minute to line up the power flow was POSSIBLE but it was also stupid and  time consuming. Having a model that could be set up beforehand and  synchronized with the ritual sites all at once was smarter, so we'd  decided to look for that and try to destroy or failing that sabotage it.  With Cherry's phantom powers that would normally be easy, but given she  had to stick close to me because of likely defenses it was a tall  order.

As the car pulled up the long drive, I was also  glad Strega had agreed to drive us here, because I'd have gotten lost by  now. This place was stupidly out of the way. Once we pulled to a stop I  climbed out and stared up at the building we'd been driven to  uncertainly. It was situation on top of a cliff and the dark clouds and  tossing waves set as backdrop reinforced the obviously intentionally  creepy image, but still I had to turn to the other. "So, I've been in  and out of Gotham for years and you know what I never noticed?"

Everyone  else was staring up at the place alongside me, and even Zee, who  usually had a pretty come what may attitutde about weird stuff look a  bit concerned. "A castle?" Because it absolutely was. There was a full  sized european castle sitting on the cliffside like it had always been  there, but while I didn't claim to have known every inch of Gotham since  I hadn't lived here for most of my life, I at least thought I'd have  heard about a place like this.

I nodded. "A big fucking  castle. Unless I just randomly didn't notice it? I find that hard to  believe though. Also why does this shit always happen in Gotham, I know  that it's evil magic central or whatever but why the hell haven't I  heard about any of this happening in Metropolis. It's right over the  bridge." For most of my life that wouldn't have bothered me, but now I  lived in Gotham damn it, and I wanted everyone else to deal with the  same shit as me.

Zee chuckled at that. "Because the whole  city is basically one big magical dead zone." That brought me up short.  "Oh magic still WORKS there. But ambient magical energy gets grounded  pretty much instantly. Metropolis is the city of tomorrow, a temple to  cold iron and colder logic. Everything about that place acts as a  magical dampener. It's part of what makes Gotham so mystical, Metropolis  acts as a sort of shunt penning in the magic."

As odd as  that was I kind of saw it. I knew that scientific thinking and logical  mindsets could be a sort of shield against the mystical for some people.  Closing their eyes and minds to what was there by using cold hard fact  as a security blanket. Given how belief could work for magical energy,  if you treated science like it was a religion of it's own, that faith  would probably have an effect as well. Sort of an anti-miracle if you  will.

It also explained how I'd gone so long in Metropolis  without ever really connecting with any magical influences. I shook off  the train of thought, Metropolis being a magic dampener was  interesting, but not really relevant at the moment, we weren't IN  Metropolis. We were in Gotham, and just about to enter the den of a  master warlock. I turned to Zee and, coming up behind her, Strega.  "Alright, so how do we go about this? Zee and I go in and the others  follow behind us? Or is there like a servants entrance? This seems like  that kind of place."

My grandmother had berated my father  for years when we moved into our current place. She insisted not having a  servants entrance was an affront to our dignity as Lords. It got so bad  I was ninety percent sure he purposefully left it out when constructing  the house just to fuck with her. Their relationship was sometimes  confusing, given that she'd raised him to be the person he was, he  seemed to be inclined to put up with her bullshit at least to her face,  but didn't mind more subtle methods of driving her crazy.

Strega,  luckily, understood how the place worked and shook her head. "No,  Doctor Gotham predates that custom. The two of you can just go in  together. I'll go in with you. I'm HOPING that he'll be too busy with  the party and setting up the ritual to bother with me right away. Given  how much he's put into this it's probable at least." She didn't sound  nearly as certain as she was making out, but given the scope of this  operation she wasn't really wrong.

As  we headed in though, a question occurred to me. "Hey Zee, does that  mean if the ritual happens Metropolis will act as a breakwater to keep  the amplified surge of magic from hitting the rest of the country on  that side?" It would be nice to have a place to go that wasn't an insane  funhouse attraction if things went sideways. I wanted to do my own  thing and build my empire in Gotham, but I wasn't a hundred percent sure  committing to living in an evil magic kingdom ruled by a warlock was a  viable long term survival strategy.

Fortunately  (at least for me, she seemed less happy about it) Zee nodded. "Not just  Metropolis, running water is a grounding element for magical energies.  The riven itself will help act as a baffle for some of the power before  it even gets to Metropolis, but yes, the city will help. I'm a bit  worried about how that would play out though. Given the meta population  of Metropolis the dichotomy could touch off a turf war between the meta  and magical factions in the area that would definitely spill over to the  civilians."

That  actually sounded kind of cool to me, metas vs. magical creatures on the  streets of Gotham, but I also recognized that things that amused me  were rarely much fun long term, and the whole world at war thing would  probably lose its entertainment value fast. At the very least Whisper  and Dinah were safe in the Palace. I guessed Ingrid would be too if she  ended up coming over. Just in case though, I texted Roy and Jade to go  over to stay with Dinah. Roy and Dinah had been semi close when she'd  been with Queen so there was a thin excuse, but in reality I just wanted  someone to watch her back.

I  wasn't actually comfortable with how worried I was about Dinah since  she got pregnant. Whisper it was easier to ignore because she was a  feathered serpent kin, she had defenses that most people didn't, but  Dinah, despite her time as a hero, was...vulnerable. Which was all well  and good when you were talking about getting her in bed, but she was  carrying the next generation of the Lord bloodline, and if dad taught me  anything it was that our family were a cut above the rest.

I  needed to make sure my kid turned out as brilliant as dad and I had,  and keep the family business going, which required that he (because  obviously I was going to have a son) be alive, which required his mother  be alive. So now I had to actually worry about her getting hurt, which  was annoying to deal with. Don't get me wrong, I liked most of my girls,  and if they died I'd be pretty pissed at whatever killed them, but  Dinah and the baby were in a sort of weird zone where I felt like their  death would...bother me.

I  shook off the thought. They were in a powerful enchanted building built  to keep out threats, and Roy was on the way over to sit with them. I'd  officially guarded my treasure as well as could be expected. The other  girls were with me mostly and I could keep an eye on them from there. We  finally reached the front door, Zee on my arm and the others trailing  behind, and it was a surprise to see Drench himself standing at the  entrance greeting guests. He smiled smarmily when he saw us. "Ah, Mr.  Lord, and you brought Miss. Gordon as well, and a few other guests.  Quite the turn out."

I  shrugged. "We got two guests a piece, two for me and two for Zee. And  of course we have out guide here who works for your boss." I gestured to  Strega. As I expected he didn't seem to know that she was on the run.  Doctor Gotham didn't seem like the type to farm out something so  personal. He'd have looked for her with magic, and when he couldn't find  her he'd have assumed she was dead or too hidden for someone like  Drench to locate.

Or  I was making assumptions and Drench was going to lie in wait and fry  her once the party ended, but one thing at a time. In the meantime,  Drench noted our group with an amiable smirk. "Of course, the  invitations allowed for two guests each, so your group is welcome. I'm  sure my employer will be thrilled to have such talented young people  attending his big event. We're going to need people like you in the  future. please, come inside and enjoy the party." He gestured us past  and I nodded, Zee and I heading through the smaller door in the massive  wooden castle entrance.

His  parting words to us worried me, Doctor Gotham was planning to build a  kingdom, which meant that he wanted subjects. I didn't care for the idea  of becoming some old warlocks yes man. The Greed System pushed me to  grow and consume and conquer, and playing second fiddle to an old wizard  seemed like a good way to hamstring my burgeoning empire. It just gave  me one more reason to stop this bullshit, but if I couldn't...I reached  into my pocket to touch the Babylon Candle. My dad had always taught me  to always have a backup plan.