Sell you a Bridge chapter 190

March 5th 2016 Gojo Penthouse 5:00 PM EDT

I  waited until Zee got back to the penthouse before I questioned Dreamer  about The Reach. Before we did that though we told Zee what Jim said  about her dad and asked what she'd learned. She shrugged. "I tried to  get in touch with him but I couldn't manage. He apparently moves around  pretty often. They said they would pass on the meeting request next time  he shows up at their base but I'm not holding my breath." She frowned  sadly. "I don't there's anything much of daddy walking around in his  body right now."

I put an arm  around her, pulling her close, and Dreamer snuggled in on the other  side. We let her just kind of decompress for a bit, but finally I had to  ask Dreamer about what happened on the island. "So. The Reach. The  friendly aliens with the sports drink the Claire was gushing about, you  know them, or of them. I saw your aura react when she mentioned them.  Are they going to be a problem?"

She  looked up, lips twisting uncertainly. "I...I don't know. Maybe? I don't  know much, we never met them, but I heard about The Reach on my  travels. They're...big. They tend to make an impression wherever they  go. I can tell you what I know about them, but I can't be sure it's the  same people. Alien languages can be complicated, it's possible it just  translates to English the same way. They certainly don't sound like the  reach I know of." She seemed hesitant to speak up, which worried me.  We'd met some bad shit. If she was this worried and this hopeful it was a  mistake they must be bad.

I  reached out to clasp her hand where she held Zee's. "Dreamer. We aren't  going to declare war on them right this second. We just want to know  what you've heard. We can do some recon and look around to see if  they're a threat, but if The Reach are that bad we need all the advanced  intel we can get on them. Nothing we would act on without verifying, so  you don't have to worry about us assaulting some innocent friendly  aliens."

She  swallowed, biting her lip uncertainly. "Ok. It's not that I don't trust  you all, I just worry about casting aspersions on the innocent. But  you're right. This is an important subject and as long as we verify  sharing information is nothing nefarious. The Reach, as I've heard of  them, are...conquerors. They are a war machine that spans almost half of  the known universe, consuming planets to add to their hoard like a  dragon snatches treasure."

I  flinched. That sounded...bad. She kept going, staring off into the  distance as she focused on her memories. "The reach are known for the  use of a sort of sentient armor system called scarabs. They take the  form of a back mounted capsule in the shape of a scarab when not active.  There are a variety of colors, though I don't know them off hand, just  that the places we visited that were in the path of the reach lived in  fear of their scarab warriors. If it is the same force, their presence  on earth is...unsettling."

That  was unsettling, especially since she sounded genuinely worried about  these scarabs, which meant whatever she'd heard put them at a level to  threaten us directly. Considering I was a ghost devil who pretty much  couldn't die, and she was a LITERAL goddess, that was pretty much the  opposite of reassuring. I turned to Zee. "You down for some recon? No  thieving this time. I don't want to blow this whole civilian thing, but I  think wherever they make that sports drink might be worth checking  out."

She  smiled fondly at me. "Which is to say you think I could use distracting  and you know I like helping people. You're going to go full hero if you  keep going at this rate." I grimaced at that. Dealing with robin had  given me a distaste for heroes honestly, and even without it I was more  true neutral than lawful good. My moral compass pointed right at me and  my friends and family, north or south were basically irrelevant. I was  trying to avoid south as best I could recently, but that didn't mean I  wanted to be a cape wearing goody goody.

Dreamer  saw the look on my face and burst into giggles. I glared at her and she  held up her hands placatingly. "I'm sorry. But you look like a very wet  cat. I don't think I've ever seen you pout before, it is...what was the  word you used to describe my milk tea habit?" She grinned evilly. "Oh  yes...adorable." I gasped in faux outrage, lunging across Zatanna to  tackle her playfully onto the bed, pinning her down to be tickled. Zee  swooped in besides me, fingers flying up and down our goddess's rib  cage.

Dreamer  screamed with laughter, trying to escape. "Stop! Please I surrender,  you aren't adorable, you're a stoic and brooding hunk of man, just stop  tickling me!" We tormented her for about five minutes, the entire room  full of giggles from both girls and laughter from me. Finally we got  tired and all slumped down to cuddle up in bed. Dreamer leaned up to  press a kiss to my lips, then one to Zee's.

Zee  smiled softly as she snuggled against us. "Thank you. Both of you. I  know you're trying your hardest to help me through all this. It's a lot  to put on you, on anyone, and it means more than I can say." I just  kissed her quietly in response, and the three of us drifted off into a  nap, lulled to sleep by warmth and closeness and the sound of each  other's breathing.

I  woke up five hours later, according to me bedside clock, to Zee shaking  me awake. I grumbled and I heard her giggle. "Come on baby, time to get  up. We've got a factory to break into." That jolted me awake and she  smirked at me. "You didn't think I'd forget because we took a cat nap?  Would have been too early to go at five anyway. I know you do your best  work in the dark." She shot me a wink and I laughed, sitting up and  shaking Dreamer awake as I did. She took in what we were doing and  frowned in confusion. I left Zee to catch her up as I got up to get  dressed.

I  slipped into the shower, cleaning up as I considered what brought us  here. We were at my moms place again. The island didn't seem like home  anymore with Jim and Claire living there. It was an important place to  me, but I felt like a stranger there. Plus, after being gone so long it  was just nice to be near mom, and with Hana around now I kind of wanted  to get to know my little sister. Because of this we were going to do our  snooping out of mask. We would be busted for trespassing if we got  caught, but it was safer than activating our old aliases since we could  get screwed out of our statute of limitations defense if they decided  we'd been secretly active the whole time.

Once  I got out and got dressed Zee, who had been doing research on this  place since she woke up an hour before us teleported us there without  much delay. As we stood on the hill overlooking the huge factory, I  stared down at it, me aura sense sweeping the place, looking for  anything remotely useful...like a powerful alien aura or something like  that. Sadly I saw absolutely nothing suspicious. I considered sending in  clones, I had a few hundred points left from my daily upkeep without  even dropping below twenty thousand.

Instead,  I turned to the girls. "I've discovered a glaring flaw in our plan to  investigate the reach." They both looked at me questioningly as I  scratched my head. "Do either of you know how to investigate things?"  Zee facepalmed as Dreamer stared at me in shock. I shrugged. "In my  defense, aura vision usually does what I need, and detective mode is  perfect for tracking, but we're infiltrating a chemical production  facility, and I don't know anything about chemicals. From aura sight I  can tell there's no obvious bad guys in there either."

I  could theoretically learn that information at warp speed with my power,  but this didn't seem like an optimal place for that. We did, however,  already know a chemist. Zee came to that same conclusion as she pulled  out her phone, rolling her eyes. "Hey, Arty? You and Wally busy? We're  doing some recon on a potential hostile alien incursion and my boyfriend  the genius didn't bring anyone with any idea what we were looking for."  She gave her the rundown on what was happening and then address and  hung up. I sulked.

Artemis  and Wally arrived five minutes later, also in civilian gear. Artemis  glared at me. "You didn't think I'd want to be invited on the alien  recon mission?" She kicked me in the shin, and I yelped to be a good  sport despite it hurting not even a little. She looked pleased and then  turned to her boyfriend. "Now, what are we looking for babe? Do you need  like...a microscope to...micro things inside."

I  snickered at Artemis being just as scientifically dense as I was. Among  my MANY areas of study to be a thief, chemistry was not one of them.  Jim always said ninety percent of chemists fail or only manage to make a  slight variation on something else, and the rare incredibly valuable  chemicals that got produced could be stolen even if you didn't know how  to make them. Personally I was under the impression he was just a huge  snob about magic being better than science, but I didn't want to argue  myself into more homework.

Wally  shook his head. "No." He patted his pocket. "When Artemis told me what  was going on I snagged some test tubes for samples. We'll take bits of  anything suspicious and run them through a mass spec. My un- I know  someone who has access to one for work." We all pretended he hadn't been  about to say my uncle, nodding our understanding. Before we went in  though, Wally held up a hand. "One minute guys."

We  all stopped, looking at him. "Listen, this is...legally questionable,  but it's still technically hero work. After Arty told me what Dreamer  said I agree these guys are suspicious and need to be checked out. But  this is recon only. No stealing, you're all in the clear now, and  Artemis for one has promised me she's going to stay that way. If you  guys are going to go back to a life of crime please at least wait until I  won't be an accessory."

I  turned to my best friend, raising an eyebrow as she averted her eyes  with a slight flush. I just laughed it off though. "It's fine Wally.  I've been on the fence about a similar decision. Regardless of my choice  though, we won't get you in trouble for no reason. This job is strictly  information gathering." I spawned ten clones, watching their forms  coalesce from ectoplasm right before our eyes. They held out hands and  wally handed out some test tubes.

Before  we went in the redhead lapped the whole place to make sure it was clear  from the outside, and then we all entered from different spots. Dreamer  went with Zee, Artemis went alone, and Wally and I each entered solo as  well. My clones and I went invisible, slipping through the walls of the  place without leaving a trace as we spread out to look for samples. I  did my best to try to move quickly. Hopefully this would just a be a  quick in and out job.