Sell you a Bridge chapter 147

New Genesis December 31st 2010 12:00 AM EDT

Del  looked up at me with that same hazy, absent expression and suddenly she  was wearing a small paper party hat and blowing a noise maker. She  didn't put them on, they just literally appeared from one blink to the  next. She blew the noisemaker with a smile. "Happy new year!" I blinked,  not entirely sure what the fuck was even happening as I stared at the  very powerful and mysterious entity I hadn't seen in months.

Zee  pulled me inside the room and shut the door, glancing from Del to me,  and clearly feeling the mixture of wariness and interest through our  tantric connection. She cleared her throat. "Hello. Happy new year. You  have me at a bit of a disadvantage. I'm Zee, Morgan's girlfriend. Who  might you be?" Del had already gone through about a dozen different  faces before she finished talking so I was pretty sure she knew who this  was. I'd told her about our last meeting, but formalities are a big  deal to higher beings.

Del giggled. "Oh I like her! I'm  Del. It's nice to meet you Zee. At least this version of you. Some of  the other's are unpleasant. I'm glad you didn't end up with that  terrible Necro man in this universe. You seem very happy with Morgan."  She clapped her hands. "Well, pleasantries out of the way I don't have  long. The new year is a bit of time of flux, so I'm cheating just a  touch, but I can't stay long."

I nodded. The last time we  met was in her little world when I was unconscious. I'd never seen her  show up in front of me so it made sense it was a special thing. She  cleared her throat as if ready to recite a speech, then paused, looking  lost. "Hmmm. What was I going to say? It was something important I know.  I'm so many people so often it can be hard to remember what plans I had  for the me I was when I'm not the me I am." Her eyes lit up as she  seemed to remember. "Right! Don't go home!"

I blinked. I  had expected lots of things from her. But that wasn't one of them. "What  do you mean don't go home? We have to go home! We can't just live here  from now on! Why wouldn't we go home? Will something bad happen if we  do?" I had to admit having my crazy superpowered...what? Fairy  godmother? Tell me not to go back to Gotham was jarring in a pretty big  way. What did I even do if I never went home? It was insane to even  think about.

She giggled waving her hands. "No, no. I  don't mean never go back. I mean don't take the mother box." She pursed  her lips, flicking her eyes upward before her mouth firmed. She nodded  to herself. "I'll have to be direct. I can manage for a few minutes,  especially when the rest of the world is in flux like this. When you  came through that portal you ascended to a higher realm. You know about  that right?"

We nodded and she smiled. "Well, the  residents of this realm are...different. Coming here the way you did  changed you, made you more of what you were and a bit of something else.  It prepared you for things that are coming. You've already seen a bit  of it with your friend. His connection to what he's meant to be is  growing stronger. The mother box will undo that change, it'll reverse  the ascension. Make you lesser again."

Ok, that made a bit  of sense...kind of. But that didn't tell us how to go about getting  home then. I raised my hands helplessly. "Can you give us directions  back to Earth then? I mean being ascended beings sounds neat and all but  if we can't use the mother box how do we get home? It's not like  passages to the Sphere of the Gods grow on trees or anything. Do you  have another option?"

Her face took on a satisfied smirk.  "I do. Earth is technically part of the Magiclands, which exist in the  Sphere. The Rock of Eternity connects the Magiclands, and you can use it  to travel from here to there if you can find one of the entrances. The  Forever People are traveling adventurers so I think they can help you  find an entrance." Her head jerked up, her eyes narrowing with a curse.  "Damn! Time's up. See you around you two. Have a great year." And then  she was gone.

I just blinked at the bed. Turning to look  at Zee I saw the same baffled expression on her face. With a sigh she  walked out of the room and across the hall, knocking on the door and  bringing Artemis and Wally back. I caught the two of them up on what had  transpired, though Wally need some background on Del, not that we had  much, but once we were finished filling them in they looked as confused  as we were.

Wally in particular seemed torn between  intrigued and annoyed. "So she said something about me? My connection to  what I meant to be? What does that even mean?" He kicked a small basket  on the floor. "Man, I hate when inscrutable entities don't say what  they mean. It's always cryptic nonsense. Nobody ever draws you a  diagram." He turned to look at us. "So...do we trust her? If the Forever  People have another way home I don't see much difference in using it  that."

I nodded, he wasn't wrong. "Yeah. She seems like  she's ok. Plus Teague seems to trust her and he's a good guy. Plus like  you said we have to wait for them anyway. Might as well take the advice  she obviously worked hard to get us. A slightly longer trip isn't that  big a deal as far as I'm concerned." Hell given the way we left things  it might be better. Us being gone might mean mom and the others could  get through the aftermath without the League breathing down their necks.

I  was almost positive that Robin at least had put together our  identities. He knew Artemis personally from school, and knew she spent  time with Reggia and I. Once he saw her face figuring us out would have  been child's play. I was most worried about Reggie being left behind,  but Jim would look out for him, and he still had access to the island  and he had Bette to lean on. With mom being looked after by Gojo I was  willing to take some extra time getting home if it would mean we'd be  stronger later.

In  the meantime we had other things to worry about. "Either way we're  stuck here for the moment, so we need to figure out something to keep us  busy until the Forever People get back. Speaking of, I had a bit of an  idea about that. Artemis, Zee, how have your bloodlines been feeling  since we got here? I saw Artemis mix her lightning with whatever was  coming off Wally and it seemed to supercharge him was that part of  whatever is going on with him or is your bloodline stronger?"

I  suspected that since their natures were divine, that thing Del said  about becoming more applied to them too. In fact, if I was right, we  might have a way to increase their power by using those fruits I'd seen  mentioned in my emails. Sure enough Artemis nodded. "Yeah, I've been  kind of feeling twitchy since we got here. When my bloodline connected  with Wally's power it kind of resonated, and I finally realized that the  odd feeling I'd been having since we showed up was from that."

Zee  chimed in right after her. "I've been feeling weird too, a bit stronger  than normal, metaphysically heavier? But I knew you were worried about  my bloodline so I decided a while ago to be careful about trying to  increase my connection." I blinked. I'd forgotten about that, I'd  decided to trust her to handle that herself, but apparently she'd backed  off because she thought I wanted that. Given the fact that she followed  my lead on the whole murdering enemies thing that kind of made me feel  like an asshole.

I  stepped up and took her hands. " I trust you. I know you can handle it,  and I'm sorry if it seemed like I doubted you before. In fact, I think  we can improve your bloodline with some of the resources we have here  and maybe even help you ascend to become an actual goddess." I turned to  Artemis. "You too I guess, though I honestly feel like giving you any  more power would be a mistake. God knows you hassle me enough as it is."  I winked at her and dodged as she tried to shoot me with a lightning  bolt, but she was laughing as she did it.

Artemis  just rolled her eyes once she realized she couldn't hit me. "Oh  whatever, you would be lost without me anyway. I'm honestly surprised  you haven't blown yourself up or something by this point. You almost  never have any idea what you're doing. Though to be fair, no one else  ever does either, so at least you have that going for you." She giggled.  "Your reputation has been getting a bit out of hand back home among  those in the know. Did you know when I was on one of my fact finding  missions I heard someone claim you can summon crows? How does that even  relate to your powers?"

I  smirked at that. "Yeah, I do my best to stay mysterious. Helps scare  off the challengers. I hadn't heard any rumors of new powers or  anything. But hey if they want to start claiming I can do things I can't  I'm not going to argue. Plus I kind of get it. All the dark themes and  now the death stuff, though admittedly they didn't know about that yet.  Plus the wings. I could see crow summoning being one of my abilities." I  snickered. "How would I even do that. Just gesture to the air and yell  crow. Maybe say it in latin or something." I adopted a faux serious  mystic posture. "Corvus!"

And  I froze stock fucking still when a CROW appeared on the end of my hand.  I stared. Artemis stared. Zee stared. Wally wasn't really up on my  powers so he didn't really stare but he seemed a little surprised and he  joined in when they all looked at me in shock. I stared at my hand. At  the living, not made or darkness, not devil magic conjured not ghostly  crow that I definitely shouldn't have the power to make. I closed my  eyes. Twelve thousand nine hundred ninety points.

I  blinked. "I...I shouldn't be able to do that. I don't have that power.  That's not one of my abilities." I knew it wasn't because I had a  perfect memory and knew exactly what I'd bought and when. I couldn't be  more specific about things because Wally didn't know how my power  worked. But I knew how it worked, and it wasn't like that. I had to  spend points to buy new abilities. I didn't just develop them out of  nowhere. Right?

Was  this the only power I had that I didn't know about? How had I gotten  it? Was it just because people told stories about me having it? That  didn't seem to fit with the whole spam thing at all. But then, what did I  actually know about my power? I didn't know where it came from, I  barely knew what it did. I swallowed and stared at the crow on my hand.  Aside from getting those fruits for the girls so they could get stronger  and possibly helping Wally with his thing I had a new goal in mind for  what I could do while I was here. I needed to find out what the fuck my  power actually was.