Sell you a Bridge chapter 160

February 7th 2011 New Genesis 10:00 AM EDT

The  rest of the night was pleasant, just a nice relaxing nap with my girls  and my new pooch. Patches was surprisingly warm for a creature made of  sentient non existence, and he snuggled up between the three of us,  fitting perfectly and creating a living space heater that helped lull us  all to a deep and restful sleep. It was honestly the best sleep I'd had  in years, and waking up to get ready to greet the Forever People was a  let down.

I climbed out of bed,  careful not to wake the girls before I needed to, and went to get  dressed. I'd stored my headache inducing nightmare book in my space  ring, along with the interesting box it came in. Then I headed into the  bathroom to shower. The water pressure was good at Stanga's place, and  water heaters on New Genesis went MUCH higher than the ones on Earth. I  personally loved scalding hot showers, and with my vitality at two  hundred fifty I could really crank the heat. I was pretty sure the  temperature would have left permanent burns on a normal person but it  just felt pleasant to me.

When  I got out Zee and Dreamer were already awake. I stepped into the room  and leaned against the door as I watched them Zee stumble around looking  through her clothes for something to wear. I kept backup wardrobes for  my team in my ring because...space ring, why not right? Wally fit in  Reggie's stuff pretty well but Zee had her own clothes and she had  unpacked a bit after a few days here. I had to fight a smile at her  frantic digging as she looked desperately for something to wear.

I  walked over and put my hand on my panicking girlfriend, stopping her  where she stood. She glared at me. "Let me go I have to find something  nice." I raised an eyebrow. She glared a bit longer then dropped into a  pout. "What? Is it so wrong to want our new girlfriends friends to like  us?" It was adorable seeing her all worried like this. Zee and I were so  close it was hard to remember she didn't have much experience in  romance. None in fact, aside from me. Seeing her get all nervous from  this side of things was cute.

Dreamer  smiled from over on the bed cuddling Patches. "I told you Zee, my  friends are sweet. They'll love you. You don't need to go out of your  way to dress up or try to impress." She gave our girlfriend a beaming  smile. "You're amazing, and I'm sure they'll see the same thing when  they meet you." Over the last month Dreamer and Zee had gotten much  closer, I'd gotten to know her much better as well, but Zee and Dreamer  had a pretty deep connection from the start because of their Divine  natures.

Oddly  I wasn't jealous of that at all though. It was nice to see Zee get  close to someone, and Dreamer and I had very different roles in her  life. Aside from being completely secure in my relationship with my  girlfriend, Dreamer was much more submissive than I was. She let Zee be  the one in charge, which I think was something she needed to grow as a  person. She still preferred me to take charge when we were interacting,  she just liked having a person that she could be in charge of.

Dreamer  for her part seemed to enjoy Zee calling the shots so it all worked  out. Despite that bond, Zee didn't seem placated at all, she glared at  our new girlfriend next. "That's such a stereotypical significant other  thing to say, and it's the opposite of helpful!" She threw her hands up  in frustration. "What am I supposed to just decide I don't care and say  fuck it?" She huffed, stalking back over to a different pile of clothes  she'd already gone through and thrown on the floor, ignoring us to dig  through the scattered garments.

I  walked over to Dreamer who looked exasperated. I smirked at her. "Don't  take it personally. She gets snappish when she's nervous. She'll  apologize later once she calms down. In the meantime I propose we leave  her to her search so we don't get our heads bitten off. We can introduce  Patches to Arty and Wally" She laughed as I helped her to hear feet,  waving to Zee as the dog squirmed over her shoulder to watch our  sorceress rifle through clothes on the way out. Once we got downstairs  we found Artemis and Wally already out of their rooms eating breakfast.

When  they saw me Artemis dropped her fork, eyes going wide. "What. Is.  That?"" I grinned and took Patches from Dreamer, earning a pout from my  goddess as I passed him to Artemis. He licked her face and she squealed  in glee, something I would never let her live down. She nuzzled the  little shadow pup. "He's so CUTE! I love him! What's his name? Where did  you get him? Are we keeping him?" She was giddy as a kid on Christmas,  and I smiled at seeing this side of her, one I rarely got to witness. So  Artemis was a dog person, go figure.

I  chuckled as he licked her face. "His name is Patches, blame Zee. As for  where we got him I crafted him from a chunk of primordial darkness with  a book that tells you how to shape the abyss between worlds. I used my  own void form though, so he's completely loyal. Also yes, we can keep  him. He's got some growing to do still, but once hes full sized we'll  have out very own cornerhound." From what I'd been able to figure out  from the info in the book, using myself as the source of the void in  Patches' body would bind him to me. It was a workaround other people  wouldn't be able to use, but a big advantage for me.

I  wasn't able to hear her response to that however, because we were  interrupted by a high pitched keening sound from outside. Dreamer's head  snapped up and an expression of joy spread across her face. "They're  here!" She jumped up and bolted outside at top speed. Artemis, who was  still holding Patches, looked at me questioningly for a second before  she shrugged and followed the New God outside, dog in hand. Wally and I  just smiled ruefully and followed them out of the inn to meet Dreamer's  friends.

When  we got outside it became obvious how she'd known who it was who had  arrived. Their ship was...weird. It was hard to describe the transport  adequately except that it was weirdly square. Also oddly colorful and  just generally strange looking. Like someone built a ship out of legos. I  walked up next to Dreamer. "I thought you guys traveled via the Mother  Box. What kind of ship is that?" The noise had been caused by the  engines of the thing as it was smoothly lowered to the ground, which  told me it probably wasn't running on propellers.

Dreamer  giggled. "The Mother Box is a transport to and from the sphere. Withing  the sphere we obviously use different means of travel. This is a ship  we picked up in the Wildlands, one of the larger kingdoms ruled by an  anthropomorphic mouse. It's called a Gummi Ship. The ships are brilliant  modular devices that can be stuck together out of large blocks of  varying types, creating a nearly endless number of available  configurations for the ships. Serifan loves the thing more than his  life, and is always tinkering with it."

I  stepped up, shooting her a questioning look, but when she nodded I  reached out to touch the smooth block of...something. It felt like a mix  between stone and plastic. I turned to her. "So each of these blocks  does something different and you can just slap them together?" I  realized my lego analogy earlier had been pretty spot on. It was a  really interesting idea for a ship building system, since it let people  without technical knowledge make their own vessels. I would love to get  my hands on some of them. "How many kinds are there?"

She  beamed at me, clearly happy to talk about the ship while her  friends...came out? I wasn't sure what was taking so long but Dreamer  distracted me with her enthusiasm. "Oh thousands! Engines, wings,  cannons, shields, jammers, radars, cloaking devices, the list goes on.  There are so many different kinds of parts you can make anything you can  imagine. The Gummi's themselves can be tough to get, but the mouse king  was very kind and offered us full trading rights with his kingdom any  time we were in need."

I  blinked at that. That kind of versatility was amazing. As for the  second part... "Wait, didn't you have to stay under an illusion in the  Wildlands so they didn't kill you because of the anti human sentiment?"  She seemed surprised by the question, but sadly my chance to hear the  answer was cut off as the Gummi block in front of us split down the  middle and split open, allowing me a view inside. An inside I might add,  that was bigger than the outside would allow without some serious  spatial shenanigans.

Our  of the hull emerged several forms. A tall dark skinned man, towered  over by an even taller tanned behemoth with wild red hair, and a small  blonde man in a cowboy hat all stepped out. When they saw Dreamer their  faces lit up and she rushed over to throw herself on them for a group  hug. With my aura sight it was easy to tell this was a familial love, so  I wasn't jealous or anything, just happy for my new girlfriend to be  back with her family. She grabbed them tightly and started dragging them  over. "I'm so glad to see you! You have to come meet Morgan and  Zatanna!"

I  chuckled at the immediate enthusiasm she showed for introducing us. The  dark skinned man stopped first and held out a hand to shake. "Greetings.  I am Vikyn, you must be Morgan. I admit I haven't heard of you, but for  Dreamer to be so excited to introduce us you must be a very special  person. I greet you on behalf of the Forever People." He nodded to the  other two. "This is Bear and Serifan." His grip was firm as he clapped  me on the shoulder with a smile, and when he stepped back the big guy  jumped in for a back breaking hug, with the blonde offering a shake of  his own. They seemed friendly.

I  was happy they were so understanding, and had to admit that Dreamer was  right, Zee hadn't had anything to worry about. Not that I would ever  tell her that. Speaking of my lovely girlfriend I heard a shout and saw  her stumbling out of the inn, hopping to put on one shoe. It was a  struggle not to laugh as she somehow gracefully hopped on one foot until  she stopped in front of all of us with a grin. "Sorry, sorry, I'm here!  Is this them?" She waved enthusiastically. "Hello, I'm Zatanna! It's  nice to meet all of you!"

I  put out a hand to steady here as she put her shoe on and then smiled at  the new arrivals. "We're very pleased to meet you all. Dreamer had told  us so much about you and we can't wait to experience her famous friends  for herself." I snuck a peak behind them and cleared my throat. "That  said, I am a bit curious about this wonderful machine of yours, I've  never seen anything like it. Dreamer was explaining how it worked to me  earlier, but I'd love to see more of it." I grinned wolfishly. "So, do  you think you can offer me a tour of my first Gummi ship?"