Sell you a Bridge chapter 194

March 7th 2016 Gotham City 1:00 PM EDT

I  was unimpressed by the zeta tube. Well...no. I was kind of impressed by  the tube itself, but I was unimpressed with where they hid it. I turned  to look drolly at Wally. "Really? A phone booth? It's not even a nice  phone booth. This thing would be at home in a garbage dump. Hiding in  plain sight is fine but you couldn't have used a transformer box or  something? Like this is the end of an alley, why would this even be  here?"

He grinned. "Everyone  says that the first time. But it's never been compromised before. You  have a reason to question it, but most people don't care. Not to mention  it's locked all the time and the doors are reinforced despite looking  to messed up. The combination of looking like garbage and being able to  tank an rpg strike has kept anyone who decided they needed to make a  call out of our business."

We  were standing in a random alley in downtown Gotham, somewhat close to  the old apartment complex Artemis and I had lived in when we were kids.  After we talked over the whole issue with the League and had something  to eat we headed home, only to get a call from Black Canary. Apparently  they had someone on duty to watch the team the next day and were willing  to let us have a tentative meeting with their junior squad, which led  us here.

The  zeta tubes only functioned if you knew what you were doing. At fifteen  thousand points give or take a few for my aura trick yesterday, I could  have probably bought some kind of hacking or tinkering ability that  would let me get through them, but reasonably just having an invite was a  much more convenient way of getting through. He punched in a bunch of  numbers on a well hidden keyboard and the door popped open. He gestured  to us. "After you guys."

Us  in this case was me, Zee, Dreamer, and Artemis. We'd considered  inviting Bette and Reggie, but they had active criminal records and  history with the League that we didn't after five years as thieves, so  we kept it small. I took a deep breath and stepped into the box before  nodding at Wally. He hit a button and a robotic voice spat out some  number and letter combo and then there was a flash of light and...I was  somewhere else.

I  stepped out into what looked like a fairly tricked out cavern. The  stone floor was polished smooth, the walls were chiseled flat, and there  was a comfortable couch set off to one side. In front of the weird  tunnel thing we'd ended up coming out of was about ten people, all  looking tense and confrontational. Some were our age, and some were  older, but looked familiar despite that age difference. I zeroed in on  one aura in particular.

I  nodded to the tall dark haired man. "Robin. Or is it Nightwing now.  Heard something about that." His aura pulsed with surprise at my  recognition, though none of that showed on his face. I turned to take in  the others. Some I knew. Superboy, who was looking shocked to see  Dreamer show up behind me, Miss Martian, Red Arrow was missing, and  Aqualad was gone as well.

There  were new faces though. A tiny blonde a year or so younger than us who  was surprisingly buff for such a delicate looking girl, and a kid a few  years younger who was literally green. Also what I could very obviously  tell was a scarab, but judging by color and aura this was Blue Beetle,  who had been taken 'off mode'. There was also a red robot guy and a kid  in a white and red striped sort of jumpsuit with lightning bolts at the  temples who I assumed was some kind of Flash adjacent person like Wally.  Last of the newbies was another green guy with antennas and gills, and a  tall dark skinned guy in a gold helmet. Also a fucking literal wolf,  for some reason.

Last  of all was Captain Atom, who was out chaperone for the night.  Apparently my show had spooked them enough to put a real heavyweight on  babysitting detail, but I didn't mind. This was a meet and greet anyway  and I had no plans to do anything nefarious. The metal man nodded when  he saw me. Nightwing's lips twitched in annoyance. "Random. Or I suppose  it's Morgan these days. How...nice to see you again." His voice sounded  less than enthused, but not nearly as bratty as I expected.

I  raised an eyebrow but flicked my gaze past him. "Where are Aqualad  primary colored archer number two?" His lips twitched again. I expected  someone to make a comment about green not being a primary color, which  was wrong from a physics standpoint, but no one took the bait. To my  surprise though, his aura became genuinely agitated. Not enraged or  anything but he clearly did NOT want to talk about it.

Captain  Atom cleared his throat. "Why don't you all come inside and we can  introduce you to the team." I nodded and we all headed over to the  couches, everyone seeming a bit on edge as we walked, which ended up  coming across like we were all inching sideways in lockstep like we were  in a mexican standoff or something. When we finally reached the couch I  flopped down on the cusions, Zee and Dreamer sitting down next to me,  while Artemis stuck close to Wally. Captain Atom looked to Superboy.  "Conner. Why don't you start us off."

The  boy of steel nodded. "You remember me, I'm Superboy. Conner when I'm  here, I don't bother with a secret identity really. Dreamer, it's good  to see you again. Curious how you all met, but that can wait. You know  Miss M of course, and Nightwing." He pointed to green furry and green  fishy respectively. "That's Beast Boy and Lagoon Boy." Then to the  blonde. "Wonder girl." He gestured at the jumpsuit kid and helmet guy.  "Impulse and Guardian." He paused. "Oh. And that's Wolf."

I  burst out laughing at the terseness. "You should be a tour guide man.  You get right to the point. Good to see you again of course. As for my  people, you already know us. But that's Dreamer, Zee, Artemis, and  you're well acquainted with Wally." I waved vaguely to my people and he  shot me a small smile. He clearly wasn't one who liked to mince words,  and being concise had obviously made him more comfortable.

The  jumpsuit kid, Impulse, blurred across the room to stand in front of me.  He was fast, faster than Wally used to be, though he didn't have a  patch on speed force levels of running speed. I could track him still,  given my reflexes and my dexterity. He appeared in front of us, grinning  widely. "You're Morgan O'Malley! That's so Crash! I heard all about you  growing up." He closed his mouth, hand going over it. "Whoops.  Spoilers!" I smirked as he held out his hand and shook it. His pulse was  like three hundred beats per minute against my palm when we shook.

I  chuckled. "I don't know what that means. But it's nice to meet you kid.  Impulse right? Wonder how you got that name?" He flushed a bit but  never lost the grin, and the others chuckled, releasing some of the  tension. I turned to Captain Atom. "So, how much of this mess have they  been briefed on? I know Wally said you guys sometimes do the need to  know thing, and I don't want to spill anything I'm meant to keep  secret."

The  idea was clearly unpopular with the younger members of the team, but  luckily for them Captain Atom just shook his head. "Not necessary kid.  This is going to be a big project and we need all hands on deck, not to  mention Blue Beetle is involved. He needs to know what's going to be  coming for him." His face hardened as he spoke, and I felt myself  developing a modicum of respect for the uptight hero.

I'd  never really had much use for Captain Atom. He was a huge stick in the  mud who could blow shit up, but seeing that he just wanted me to lay all  of it out made me rethink my stance on the man. I nodded. "Ok. Well  then. Basically we found out a couple things about The Reach." I  proceeded to explain everything we'd dug up, both from grilling B'arzz  and from the chemicals we found in the factory, and by the time I was  done there was a lot of very pale faces around the room. Even the green  guys seemed a lighter shade of green.

Blue  Beetle, who had let his scarab armor drop and was revealed to be an  olive skinned teen with slightly shaggy hair, was clearly the most  effected. He staggered to the couch and slumped down onto the cushion.  "I was...almost a spy? A brainwashed meat suit." He flinched, whipping  his head to the side to speak to empty air. "Hey I should be blaming you  for this! They created you to control my mind!" He waited a minute  before letting out a lengthy sigh. "Yeah. Agreed. Neither of us wants  that."

He  noticed all of us staring and flushed. "Sorry. The scarab talks to me  sometimes." His eyes widened. "Not like, in a creepy mind control way.  In fact, it's kind of a dick. It mostly just complains and says alarming  stuff about blowing people up...which I realize sounds just as bad but  trust me. It's not that bad once you get past it's natural kaboom  tendencies." Despite his babbling, I didn't suspect his scarab. I could  see his aura, and he didn't have the underlying web I'd identified from  B'arzz before he went full murderhobo on me.

I  waved him off. "You're fine, I can tell. I was able to see the other  scarab was in control before he attacked, and you don't have that vibe."  I turned to the others. "So...that's whats on the line. Human beings  being tagged and kidnapped, probably experimented on, as they try to  fatten us up for the slaughter. Earth is under attack guys and dolls,  they aren't shooting all the jobs yet, but they're worming their way in  to mess us up. I for one have stuff to lose here, so I'm not gonna put  up with that shit. You guys down to help?"

The  blonde, Wonder Girl, cracked her knuckles. "I don't know about politics  or espionage or any of that stuff really. I'm new to the team. Mostly I  just hit stuff. I only joined a few months ago, but I'm pretty sure I  signed up to stop stuff like this. So obviously I'm going to help. I  don't know how far I trust a bunch of former thieves, but I know it's a  damn sight more than I trust the aliens kidnapping and experimenting on  civilians."

Superboy  nodded. "Agreed. Morgan is agreeable in his own way. i don't exactly  approve of all his choices, but he's legally in the clear, and we need  all the help we can get." He looked around. "These guys are coming at  Earth from under the radar, which puts them on our level. The Team  exists to work outside the limelight, so that's what we do."

He turned to me. "I'm pretty sure we're unanimously with you. Now I  know this was supposed to be a meet and greet, but I doubt you would  bring this up if you didn't have a plan." He smiled grimly. "So, let's  hear it. You have a knack for annoying strategies that make everything  fall apart for your enemies. Kind of looking forward to seeing it happen  to someone else." I couldn't help laughing at that. I knew there was a  reason I liked him.