Sell you a Bridge chapter 205

March 21st 2016 The Himalayas 7:00 PM EDT

We  blew the wall in when we attacked the compound. The point of the  forward strike team was to strike forward. We wanted them to pay  attention to us, so I threw a cluster bomb of shadow spikes packed into  an orb of ectoplasm and armed with demonic energy at the wall and the  thing tore apart the outer perimeter like it was made of cheesecloth. It  was as much a test as an attack, seeing how much Tartarus lessened the  usage of my points for things like cluster bombs or blasts of ectoplasm  when I used it as a focus.

The  answer was...a lot. I whirled the blade around, feeling like I could  spam blasts all day and barely dent my reserves. Literal fractions of a  point in cost for every attack. I stepped through darkness and into the  base ahead of everyone else, my Knights following my lead, melting into  the shadows and then emerging in the midst of a huge group of reach  soldiers. While there were no scarabs, the bastards were all packing  advanced energy weapons, and a blizzard of light and power came raining  down on us.

I  shifted into my incorporeal form, but the subpar weapons, while  incapable of harming my armored minions, did manage to push them back  through sheer quantity. I snarled at that. This was going to be an easy  battle at this rate, but my bad feeling was just getting worse. This was  too organized. They had been waiting for us. The question was were they  really this weak? Had they underestimated us this badly? I couldn't see  it. Not after I nabbed the green scarab. They would have assumed I had  something that could take on one of their elites.

Maybe  they didn't connect the incidents? But no, that would be stupid. The  smartest move would be to assume all their enemies were arrayed  together. Always over prepare rather than under. So why would they- My  thought's were cut off as I felt a fucking massive ripple in the fabric  of space around us. A huge transparent blue bubble blazed into existence  around the entire base, entrapping every single person in our group and  sealing us in. I tried to reach for darkness, and found it was there,  but slippery and hard to catch.

Well,  shit. Now I knew what that bad feeling was. This was a trap. Because of  course fucking Nightwing couldn't run proper surveillance. I should  have scouted the place myself. Though it might have been the mercs who  tipped them. I paused. Nah, when something goes wrong blame Nightwang.  That massive cock was responsible for all of my problems. Still, I  hadn't known The Reach had some sort of space disturbance tech. If I  couldn't enter the corridors of darkness I would be stranded, and as it  was I couldn't bring anyone I actually cared about into those without  making them go nuts.

Luckily,  these idiots had no clue how much firepower I brought. I just really  hoped it would be enough to stop- I winced as a series of massive auras  lit up the sky, cutting off my train of thought. The scarabs. Because  stranding us in a giant bubble with a bunch of worthless cannon fodder  wasn't actually a trap. Stranding is in there with seven insanely  powerful scarab warriors, each one even stronger than Green and Blue?  THAT was a trap. I mentally added some sort of aura concealment tech to  their capabilities. Joy.

Still,  this fight was far from lost. Two Knights per scarab, and Sig teaming  up with me, would be enough to hold six of them. Leaving Beetle and the  rest of the frontline crew to handle the final scarab alone with backup  from the magic users.  Sig and I would take the big one since he was the  strongest Knight and I had the most tricks up my sleeve. I turned to  face the auras directly, even as the others shouted with anger and  confusion, not yet understanding the situation.

I  rolled my eyes at the theater as they waited in silence, watching us  scramble and worry. I raised my voice so everyone could hear. "Hey, you  seven. I can fucking see you. I realize you fucking roaches have a  natural instinct to scrabble into the dark and hide, but you kind of  missed your cue. The optimal moment for your big reveal was when the  shield went up, before any of us had time to adapt to the situation." My  tone was bored, which wasn't exactly accurate, but I was pretty  confident we could take them.

Green  had kicked my ass, and alone I had no shot at taking down a scarab much  less one even stronger. But I was an assassin. With a proper tank like  Sig to throw down with the big asshole I was free to take potshots from  behind. Not to mention with the keyblade I could basically use my shadow  and ectoplasm attacks for pretty much nothing. Hell even my demonic  power was substantially cheaper. This thing was WAY more of a game  changer than even I had expected.

A  form stepped from the shadows where I saw the biggest aura, and it  was...fucking huge. Seriously, the beast of a scarab stood easily eight  feet tall. Almost as broad across the chest as Beast Boy was tall. I  gave the reach credit for style, that black scarab armor was fucking  terrifying. The aura wasn't just big either. It was fucking malevolent.  Rather than being inside his psyche like B'arzz, the Black Beetle seemed  to have grown AROUND the scarab. I was guessing he got the thing young.  Their coordination was most likely pretty impressive.

He  gave me a sneering chuckle. "You have a lot to say for meat." His voice  was absurdly deep. Like full on bass rumble that rattled my bones. "Do  you really think a few pathetic toys will be enough to save you? You  should be honored. Forcing us to mobilize even a century of scarabs to  this backwater world is an achievement. Shame we can't put them to  proper use because of those simpering lanterns. Bringing their full  might to bear here would call too much attention. Still, even these  seven will be enough for a pile of worthless meat like you."

I  winced internally. A century. A hundred fucking scarabs, presumably all  monsters like this. That was...not ideal. Then again he said they were  limited, so we still had time to build our forces. That meant however,  taking care of the bastards that were already here. We needed to  restrain them so they couldn't report about the Knights to their bosses.  Which meant beating them. Luckily for us, while the shield meant we  couldn't run away, it also meant the same thing for them. They were  stuck in here just as much as we were, a decision they were going to  regret.

Prior  to the meeting I'd arranged for Miss Martian to get one of my sending  stones. I mentally apprised her of the situation and had her relay the  information and the plan to all the others on the team, even as I let my  clones maneuver the Knights into position. I could communicate with  them through my link to my summons, another useful ability of Tartarus,  and I gave them all their positions as I slowly walked forward, drawing  the scarab's attention as I let them do their thing.

The  hulking beast of an alien tensed, clearly eager to start killing, but I  didn't start the battle. I needed to keep them all busy while everyone  got situated so I did the one thing that no villain can resist. I gave  him an opening to brag. "I admit you're pretty impressive, but I can  teleport. Not just myself I can take others with me. Why would I bother  stepping on some bugs when I could just leave." I was betting he didn't  know my corridors of darkness could bypass whatever spatial nonsense  they were jamming this place with.

Sure  enough he grinned down at me brutally. "Oh is that so? Well go ahead  meat. Run away. Flee with all your little friends. If you can do it I  welcome the excuse to hunt you down to the ends of the earth. I can get  away with so much more bloodshed if I'm in pursuit of someone as  slippery as you. Maybe I'll even let you keep running for a while so I  have an excuse to have my fun." His aura burned with malice. He actually  did like hurting people, and would welcome the excuse, but he also knew  that I was 'trapped' here.

I  made a show of rolling my shadows up over my body, letting them fall  away as I allowed my eyes to widen. I looked up at him with an  expression of false fear. "Wh-what did you do? My  teleportation...it's...not working." It was, and I was absolutely going  to abuse the shit out of that fact during our fight, but in the meantime  giving the big thug a reason to gloat and lord his dominance over me  would keep him focused on me for a bit. The others were moving slow and  trying to remain inconspicuous only getting into the right general area.

He  laughed uproariously. "Look at it's face! The meat is frightened! Do  you want to grovel? Your kind loves to debase themselves. Maybe if you  beg and lick my feet I'll kill you loved ones quickly. The rest of your  pathetic race will suffer as livestock for their entire lives, but I  could spare a few worthless humans with a casual execution or two. What  do you say meat? All you have to do is humiliate yourself. Prove you're  every bit the trash I view you as and I'll-" He stopped talking when I  shot him. Well, TRIED to shoot him.

Listen, I have a lot of good qualities. Patience and proper control of my  temper are not among them. Threatening my loved ones was not a good idea  on his part, and despite being ostensibly one of the good guys I just  genuinely didn't feel like listening to his shit. I drew and fired right  into his head. Sadly I neglected to realize the major flaw with my uber  powerful conceptual death gun. It was just a gun, and bullets don't  actually move that fast at these kinds of levels.

All  of my stalling went out the window as the scarab reacted faster than  thought, activating and forming a rocket booster that propelled Black  Beetle to one side, allowing the bullet to pass right by him. I put the  gun away, annoyed that I couldn't use it on the stupid machine hybrid. I  wouldn't waste the bullets now. If I managed to pin the bastard down  I'd put one in his brainpan, Leaguers or not.

He  was torn between snarling in rage at my audacity and gloating at the  miss as he glared at me. So torn in fact that he missed the titanic form  of Sig rising through the darkness and smashing a giant armored fist  into that stupid smirking face. As the fight started the others, who had  mostly managed to get in position, attacked. I put the Team on the  weakest scarab, a green, and set the summons two apiece on the others as  the battle kicked off.

The  whole courtyard we were in devolved into a massive free for all as  every single one the major players got ready to throw down, and every  single one of the random reach cannon fodder got the fuck out of the  way. I got the feeling their bosses weren't any more concerned about  collateral damage than I was. That was actually good, because I was  pretty sure the Team would be, but I didn't have time to really think  much about it. Sig followed up on his attack and slammed into Black  Beetle, catching the bastard in a grappling hold. It was my turn.