Sell you a Bridge chapter 215

April 15th 2016 Infinity Island 6:00 PM EDT

I  met up with Morana last, to check if she needed me, but as had been  obvious from the beginning, she HADN'T. She'd kicked Circe around like a  soccer ball until the goddess was so beaten and insensate that I barely  even needed to think about shoving her through the corridors before she  dropped into the prison. I considered locking her like I had Klarion,  but I suspected it wouldn't work the same without the self imposed  binding to anchor. I'd have to do more research on how the thing worked,  it had been damn useful.

I grinned at my daughter after  we deposited the last heavy hitter into a cell. "Well, you certainly  don't mess around. I'm impressed. We'll have to have a more dedicated  sparring match some time." I was planning to put this million points  into a new power up, and I didn't think she was going to get the  upgrade. Having someone as strong as Morana to train against would be a  huge advantage going forward. Outer Body was great, but sometimes  matching steel in real time gave you a bit more bang for your buck.

Zee,  for her part, appeared out of nowhere and tackled out daughter, talking  about exactly how proud she was of her for curb stomping a literal  goddess. I had to admit it was damn impressive work. Circe was much  stronger now, and she'd been a tough fight before. With everyone in the  sky sorted we touched down on the beach to wait for the others. Wally  and Impulse showed up first, having already taken out the guns, with  Wonder Girl and Superboy on their tail.

Wonder Girl was  carrying Superboy and dropped him into the sound with a thump before she  landed, nodding to us. "Impressive work. I can't believe you took down  Black Adam. He's a straight up nightmare to fight. I know Nightwing  wants to see where you're keeping them to make sure they're alive, but  other than that I think everything went great. This is a huge blow to  The Light. At least as long as we managed to get the Shadows  leadership."

Superboy grunted. "Yeah. Not bad." Despite  the lackluster reaction his aura was impressed. I'd expected him to  still be pissed about Black Beetle, but it seemed like he'd taken some  of what Impulse had said to heart. "Now we just wait for the others.  Shouldn't take too long." Jim, Madame C, and Blood approached, the  latter two having been on the beach firing up during the fight with  Klarion, and everyone gathered together to make sure we were all safe. I  doubted there would be another attack, but it still helped us all relax  a bit.

I stepped up next to Jim. "So, what the fuck was  going on with Klarion? He didn't have his cat with him, which I didn't  think he could do. How did he manage to ditch the anchor?" I was  figuring Circe or Darkseid, but I didn't have any more specific ideas,  and it seemed like the kind of thing that would be useful to know.

He  growled in frustration. "I haven't the faintest idea, my boy. Whatever  it was it certainly did us no favors. Without he anchor he was a  nightmare to pin down. Whatever you did there at the end was exactly  what we needed. It was a frustrating battle to say the least. I just  hope the others are doing well."

A voice cut in from off  to one side of us. "Well, wishes just happen to be horses today." Paula  stepped out of the trees, dragging a large blonde form in a mask behind  her by the ankle. He was tied up securely, but he looked heavily beaten,  not least of which from the obstacles on the ground Paula had clearly  dragged him through. I was pretty sure I saw ants scurry under the mask.  She dropped him unceremoniously on the ground, kicking him in the ribs  for good measure.

Jim chuckled at the display. "Clearly  you had some things to work out. Feeling better love?" She glanced  sharply at him when he used the term of endearment, but instead of  getting angry she just stared pensively for a minute or two before  marching up to him, staring him in the monocle. Jim seemed flustered.  "I...I didn't mean-" He was cut off when she yanked him in for a kiss.

I  cursed and reached into my pocket, pulling out a hundred and passing it  to my smugly smiling sorceress. Everyone stared, first at them, then at  us in equal confusion. Zee pocketed the money and I rolled my eyes. " I  bet they would talk things out first, have a heart to heart about what  happened. Zee said they weren't the type, and that they would just kiss  and make up and try to put it behind them."

My girlfriend  smirked smugly. "Suckers bet. There was no way those two were going to  have an honest emotional dialogue. That whole family is as emotionally  mature as a six week old hyena. I love them to bits, but it'll be a cold  day in hell before honest discourse is a first resort for any of them."  I snickered at that and she arched an eyebrow. "What are you laughing  it Mr. avoid-my-problems-until-they-go-away?" Her lips were quirked to  take the sting out of it, but I was still offended.

"I'll  have you know I've gotten much better about discussing my feelings. I've  matured a ton over the last few months. Just ask Dreamer." My  beautiful, not at all scathing goddess, nodded solemnly at my plea for  help, and I arched my eyebrow right back at Zee smugly. "Besides, I'm  not the one who uses sex to avoid uncomfortable conversations, oh,  didn't think I noticed that huh? Just because I let you get away with it  doesn't mean it slipped by me. The amount of time you spend braless is  directly proportionate to how annoyed I am at you at that moment."

We  stared at each other archly for a minute before we burst out laughing  at exactly the same time. She hopped into my arms and I pulled her into a  deep kiss. She pulled back, resting her forehead on mine. "You really  scared me there for a minute. Dreamer too, not that she'll admit it."  She looked over at our goddess who was avoiding out gazes. "Get over  here you."

The new god smiled almost shyly and walked over  close enough for us to pull her against us, and she snuggled up to our  side. She kissed my cheek. "That was an impressive battle, my love. Not  many warriors could equal you in combat." Her eyes were warm and happy  and adoring and I saw in her aura how much she was starting to idolize  me. How she was starting to believe I really could end the war her  people had been in since time immemorial. The idolization wasn't really  my thing, but I enjoyed the faith and trust. I leaned down and captured  her lips in a kiss. Softer than the desperate one I'd shared with Zee.

A  loud throat clearing cut us off. "Can you guys please not?" It was  so...normal, it took me a minute to realize it was Morana, who was  staring at us with a grimace of distaste. "Newly made or not you're  still my mothers and father. It is...disquieting." I noticed her  purposefully slip back into her previous formal cadence and narrowed my  eyes suspiciously. Was she playing up the stranger in a strange land  thing so we wouldn't expect anything from her? Because I would totally  have done that.

I decided to let it go for the moment  because we had bigger fish. But I would be coming back to that little  outburst later. I looked at Paula. "Where are the others?" I couldn't  imagine her leaving her daughters if Shiva was still at large, much less  Ra'as al Ghul himself. Sure enough, when she pulled back from Jim she  look smug, clearly having helped take down the big fish.

She  chucked her chin at the forest. "They're coming behind me. Artemis was  invaluable. That crazy lightning bow of hers dropped most of them one  shot. I'm pretty sure she was holding back too." She had been, but it  was actually a benefit to her, faster shots were weaker, less time to  charge, so a blitz let her essentially spam tazer arrows. Paula grinned  proudly. "She hasn't been slacking hand to hand though. She and Jade  teamed up with the bat brat and managed to take Shiva before I even got  to her. Uppity bitch was losing it getting her ass kicked by a bunch of  teens."

Having  fought her myself I could see her being irritated at the loss,  especially with Cheshire helping. It made me smile to think of Artemis  ganging up on her like she'd done to me. Sure enough, after another  minute Shiva was carried out of the trees. Unlike Sportsmaster, Shiva  was tied down to a length of wood to make sure every limb was completely  immobile, she looked just as beat up, and just as unconscious, but her  aura told me she was awake and waiting for a chance to escape.

I  strolled up to Artemis and Jade, very nice, careful with that one,  she's slippery. I fought her once. Also she's faking being unconscious,  so don't give her any openings." Shiva's eyes snapped open, flicking up  to glare at me angrily. "Yeah fuck you too lady. Where's Nightwang, he  carrying the big boss down here?" As satisfying as it was seeing  Artemis's dad and his horrible boss get theirs, the main purpose of this  was to capture an active member of The Light. With Klarion out of the  picture we could either use Ra'as to get information or magically track  the others through him.

Artemis's  smug smile dropped. "We got him. Me and Jade jumped in to help Roy and  Nightwing put him down. That old man was a beast. But we had to lock him  up for a bit, you'll need to go retrieve him personally. We're worried  about moving him through his own compound. He's been on this island for  hundreds of years and there's a solid chance that he might have some  sort of secret traps set up that he could try to escape into. We figured  it was safer if you just transport him directly to the prison.

I  could see the logic there. "Yeah I could see that. Here, I'll free you  guys up to help." Rather than the corridors, I used actual shadow  porting to drop the two of them into the prison, each on the own cells. I  spent a few minutes, setting up the teleports to avoid as much  expenditure as I could, but it still cost me a hundred points or so a  piece. That was a drop in the bucket, but I also didn't want to go below  a million. I was excited to see what kind of upgrade I could afford for  that kind of point value.

Once  that was done I made my way up through the island,taking Dreamer's hand  and flying incorporeal to skip all the woods and traps and things, and  finally arrived where Nightwing was guarding the door to our VIP. We  nodded to him when we got up there. "Wow, you look like shit. Did you  get your nose broken by a two thousand year old eco terrorist?" Despite  his aura indicating he was glad to see I survived, Nightwing was also  genuinely annoyed by my comment, so I twisted the knife a bit. "Remind  me to leave you out if we ever have to raid on old folks home. The  elderly are clearly a weakness of yours."

I  sword I saw his lips twitch a bit at that, but he just flipped me off  and stalked away, muttering about insufferable criminal spawn. Rude.  Once he was gone I turned to Dreamer. "Well love, this old bastard is  known for being tricky, so the interrogation is on you." I opened to  door, the light splashing across the bound and beater form of the  Demon's Head. "But remember to get everything you can from him. We need  the locations of his partners." Ra'as' eyes widened in horror as  Dreamers began to glow. Then the interrogation began.