Sell you a Bridge chapter 185

March 4th 2011 The OZ 8:00 PM EDT

It  took about five days for everything to settle down. Azkedelia released  her mother, who was happily reunited  with her daughters and husband.  She also made the longcoats stand down. The Queen took back control with  her daughters blessing, and began the incredibly long and arduous  process or removing the rampant corruption that had flourished under the  witch's tyranny.

I'd never run a  country before but I was guessing unfucking the shithole the witch had  let this devolve into when she unleashed her corrupt guards on the  populace with zero fucks given about reigning them in would be annoying  to say the least. Luckily, the rest of the developments were actually  pretty positive. First of course was Glitch. He was fine, Cain had  overpowered the doctor or whatever that had knocked him out and they'd  even gotten him his brain back. I suppose I should call him Ambrose now,  but he still felt like Glitch to me.

Cain  and his son had been promoted to royal guards. The kid was still icy  around Azkedelia, but he grew up hero worshipping the Queen so he kept  his mouth shut about it. Azkedelia was...not well. DG was spending lots  of time with her sister, but having been basically a puppet since you  were twelve and being the only hated member of a beloved royal family  was not great for mental health. Dreamer had spent the last few days  giving her therapy sessions to try to help, but after we left it would  be a long road.

DG  was over the moon. Her robot parents had been de-reprogrammed after  Azkedelia had apparently replaced DG with herself in their programming  under the witch's influence. She had her old family, her new family, and  all her friends nearby, and the OZ's newest princess was almost  vibrating with happiness at all the love. She was trying not to overdo  it around her sister though, and she was around Azkedelia as much as  humanly possible. The former evil queen seemed to only be at ease around  her little sister and their shared protective magic, and I didn't blame  her.

I was  up to twenty thousand points, after days of both regenerating and  stockpiling points from tantric rituals where I was able. We'd asked the  Queen about getting home, but it had to be put on hold until today  because we needed to let Azkedelia get past the trauma a bit. Apparently  bringing her daughter back from the dead had tapped the Queen out for  big magic, and DG and Azkedelia would be getting the instructions on  making a travel storm to bring us home. Which left us here, outside the  lake estate, with everyone gathered to say goodbye.

It  was...rougher than I expected. I'd gotten used to all of them. DG was  like the sunny little sister I never had, despite being older than me,  Cain was the gruff father figure, and Glitch was the fun uncle. The  Queen had been grateful to have her girls back and welcomed us with open  arms, and after seeing everything she went through it was hard not to  like her. Raw was the only one I hadn't connected with much, though I  did like the hairy empath. Well, I wasn't going to miss Ahamo. That guy  was a dick.

DG was wringing her  hands, making sure everyone was ready to go. "Are you sure you don't  want to stay a while longer? It would be so much easier putting things  right with everyone around. I don't know what I'll do without all of  you. We can always send you back in a month or two." Her eyes were  rimmed with red as she stared at us with a forlorn expression, and I  could see in her aura she would be missing us when we were gone.

Artemis  body checked me out of the way to pull the older girl into a tight hug,  with Zee swooping in on the other side to box the princess in. I glared  at me best friend but she ignored me, seeing that they were bogarting  DG I decided to put her goodbye off and headed over to Cain, who was  looking stiff and formal in his royal guard attire. I raised an eyebrow  at him. "You sure you don't want to come with us? Gotham could use a man  like you."

Wally  snorted from behind me, stepping up to give Cain a quick hug. "Damn  right it could. That place is a pigsty. But I get it. This is his home.  Still, we'll definitely try to come visit if we can ok? Artemis and I  already talked about it and we want to take our next vacation over here.  This lake villa is swanky and you guys don't charge for a room." It was  my turn to snort, giving can a hug of my own.

I  turned to Jeb, offering my hand. "Take care of your old man ok? He's  got a good heart but he's a bit of a loose canon. Needs us younger guys  to keep him in line." He took my hand with a laugh and I shot him a  wink. I turned to the man next to use, waiting with a patient smile.  "And you...I think I'll miss you most of all Glitch." Because I just had  to, then I paused for a second. "Nah I'll miss DG the most, she's by  far the most likable of any of us." We all burst out laughing, though  only Wally got my reference.

Todo  was there, having regained his position with her heroics during the  final battle, and I gave the old man a firm handshake and a smile  because he earned it. Then I turned to Azkedelia. Dreamer had decided in  therapy that losing her connection to the mobats was one of Azkedelia's  biggest traumas, so I'd decided to leave the five cornerpups with her.  Patches was staying because the girls would murder me if I tried to  leave him, but the nameless puppies hadn't had time to bond with any of  us yet so we were leaving them to guard the princesses.

I'd  spent maybe two days with my nose in my void book to figure out how to  tweak the spell so they would passively absorb void. They would grow  MUCH slower, but they would grow. "So, you two are getting us home huh?  You're the one whose done a travel storm recently, how tough are these  things to aim?" I really didn't want to end up in Timbuktu, or worse, on  the wrong earth or something. The League had dealt with alternate earth  shit a few times. Evil twin? No thanks.

She  shrugged. "You can't? Or not really. There's a natural thinning between  the OZ and the other side. The travel storms just kind of shuffle  things between them. You'll end up within a few dozen miles of the same  town where DG came from. Smallville I think she called it?" Which wasn't  bad. Smallville was within an hour or two of Metropolis, which was  right over the river from Gotham. We could make our way home on foot  from there. Or fly more likely.

I  exhaled, and walked back over to DG. Bumping Artemis aside. "Enough you  jackals, I want to hug my friend goodbye. Don't be princess hogs." I  stuck my tongue out and got an eye roll from the girls as DG laughingly  put her arms around me, I pulled back. "You're the kindest, brightest  person I've ever met Deej. Don't lose that. The OZ needs someone like  you running things when your mom steps down, and I'm sure your sister  will be all good with someone like you watching out for her."

She  swallowed hard, tearing up. The girl was such a crybaby. "I don't know  how to thank you for everything you did. You came out of nowhere and  saved us. You were our rock out there, and you never let us down. I  couldn't have done any of this without you showing me how to stand  strong." She put a hand on my chest. "I heard some of what Dreamer said  to you back at camp during one of your talks. You've got a good heart  Morgan. You don't mind breaking some rules, but at the end of the day,  law or not, you ARE a hero. You're MY hero. The OZ will always remember  you."

Great.  Now I was going to start crying. It was contagious. I didn't, but just  barely, and I pulled the girl into a tight hug. "Keep it one hundred  princess. And come visit if you get back over earthside. We're in Gotham  but this is my number." I wrote it down for her on a pad from my  spatial ring. "Call first, never know what crazy shit is going on in  Gotham." She giggled and hugged me again with an agreement. I called to  the others. "You guys come on. We're heading home. Wally, Artemis, Zee."

I  stopped short as Dreamer stepped up next to me to take my hand. I  looked at her in surprise. She smiled. "I'm coming with you. I'm looking  forward to seeing more of Earth and it's culture. Plus Zee and I are  working on her powers still." I smiled at her as we all lined up. I  nodded to DG, who walked over and took Azkedelia's hand with one of  hers, waving with the other. Their auras which I hadn't seen during  their last sister power incident, melded together and sort of caught  fire. They were powerful as hell together no doubt.

DG  and Azkedelia focused, and there was a shift in the sky, the clouds  darkened, wind began to rise. The sound of the air beginning to swirl  was audible as the votex started at cloud level. I grabbed the others,  holding on tight as the funnel cloud slowly lowered from the air above  us, touching down around us, slowly cutting off our vision from the  others. There was a slight resistance before the suction grabbed us and  hurled us up into the air. I held on tight to the others as we were  pinballed back and forth across the inside of the funnel, until we  slowly slid back to the ground.

The  vortex faded, and in it's place we saw...farmland. Slightly rumpled  farmland but still farmland. I grinned. "I think we're in Kansas now  guys." That got various groans and boos, except from Dreamer who either  didn't get it or was too sweet to boo her boyfriend. I took a long, deep  breath. "We're home guys. We're back. I bet I can get us a ride too." I  fished my phone out to scroll through my emails, looking for something  about cars or rides.

I  scrolled through all of the options, some from new genesis, some not,  but I didn't see anything that wouldn't be overkill for a quick ride. I  got to the most recent emails and froze. I double checked. In New  Genesis the emails had stayed consistent, a side effect of my power most  likely. But now that we were back I was getting up to date messages  again, and what I was seeing from them was...jarring. Zee came up behind  me, looking concerned. "You ok baby? What's wrong?"

I  handed her the phone wordlessly, pointing at the date. She looked where  I was gesturing and her eyes went wide. She recoiled in horror,  dropping my phone, which I easily plucked from the air under her limp  fingers. I could understand the reaction, the other crowded around and I  showed them. I wanted to think it was a mistake. But my power had never  made mistakes before. I stared down in shock at the date on the email.  The first part was right. March fourth. The issue was with the year that  was listed. March fourth, two thousand and sixteen. We'd missed five  whole years while we'd been gone. What the fuck had happened? And what  were we coming back to?