Sell you a Bridge chapter 144

New Genesis December 30th 2010 9:00 PM EDT

I  know I should have been surprised, but honestly, shit like this  happened to me way too often. Of course the natives were hostile and  decided to capture us. Because why not right? But unfortunately I wasn't  even remotely confident in beating all of these people. My clones were  glass cannons that could only fire once, and these people were literal  gods from what I knew of this place. Even just based on aura any one of  these assholes could throw down with me on my best day.

On  the bright side, despite their obvious aggression here they didn't seem  to want to actually kill us, more like...they needed our help with  something. The others meanwhile, had no idea what was going on, mostly  because they didn't speak Low Genesisian (which is what my Language  ability deemed this particular tongue to be). They only saw us being  surrounded by randomly appearing primal looking naked people who live in  the forests of a planet exclusively populated by literal deities.

They  were understandably displeased with this turn of events, so I tried to  calm everyone down. Since my voice would be translated to them but still  English to my friends I help up both hands to placate everyone. "Whoa  there, we appreciate your generous invitation but we really need to get  to Supertown. Still, if you could help us out there we'd be happy to  help you with something in return. I imagine you have something specific  in mind to require our help so urgently?" That was about the most  diplomatic way I knew how to ask them what the hell they wanted, so I  hoped it was enough.

The  woman's sharp features tensed, her eyes narrowed in suspicion, but her  aura cooled slightly. They obviously really needed us for...something. I  wondered why they wanted our help specifically. I could only assume  they had been watching us for a while and seen one of us use an ability  that they needed. That implied some of them had stealth that could avoid  even my senses, which wasn't comforting but made sense considering they  were actual gods.

The  woman's frown dropped as she sighed, gesturing to the others around us  who all stepped beck in unison. She was clearly the leader here. I  sighed in relief and she started talking again. "We have watched you,  this last week. This land is ours and none can enter without our  knowledge. We have seen your means and your stealth, and we find your  abilities...intriguing. If you truly mean as you say we will indeed help  you reach the City Gods. But the task with which we seek your aid is no  mean feat. Will you accept it?"

It  sounded like it would be a pain in the ass, but if it got us home  faster I wouldn't bitch about doing a job. The issue was that they  hadn't told us what the hell they wanted us to do. In my experience  someone trying to get you to commit to a job before taking it was never a  good sign. Sadly I didn't have much of a choice here. Still I wanted  them to at least say it before we agreed. It would seem more like a  favor than blackmail that way.

I  raised an eyebrow. "I don't know, maybe you can start by telling us  exactly what you need done." I made sure to be as cavalier as possible  with my tone, making it seem like I didn't care much. While we couldn't  take these guys in a straight fight most likely, they didn't know that.  Plus I could teleport so getting away wouldn't be out of the question.  Our position wasn't good but it wasn't untenable either.

The  woman's nostrils flared and she looked ready to start a fight for a  second, but in the end she sighed again, her shoulder slumping in a way  that definitely didn't make her very large, very bare breasts bounce  noticeably. I winced as Zee elbowed me in the ribs again turning to  glare at my irritated girlfriend and shooting her a message via sending.  "Oh come on, how am I not supposed to look?"

She  didn't respond, arching en eyebrow and then very deliberately looking  away. My attention was drawn back to woman as she spoke. "You possess an  admirable ability to slip unnoticed into the most secure places.  Recently we were raided by a small party of the bio-freaks." I blinked,  thinking my Language skill was messing up somehow, but upon reviewing  what I'd heard it seemed pretty seamless. Huh, weird name. Her eyes  flashed with pain as she continued. "They took captives. Among them my  daughter, Naka."

I nodded in  understanding. It was my turn to sigh. I knew very well no one in my  group would leave a little girl in the care of anything called  bio-freaks. I turned to look at the others just to be sure and as I  suspected they all nodded. I turned to the woman. "Fine. We'll help get  your daughter and the other captives free. In return you have a way to  get us safely to Supertown? Because if not we can always just walk."

She  burst into giggles, covering her mouth as she snorted a bit in her  laughter, seeming embarrassed by the noise. After she stop chortling she  apologized. "I am sorry, it is just that at your current pace, you  would arrive at the City God's territory in roughly a thousand cycles of  the sun." I was pretty sure that last bit was a weirdly translated way  of saying days, but that wasn't the part that caught my attention.

My  eyes widened in shock. "Days? A thousand DAYS?" I glanced up between  the trees to see Supertown off in the distance. I had apparently low  balled how fucking huge the place had been. I'd used the mountain as a  reference, which meant they were probably also much bigger than the ones  on Earth. Supertown wasn't the size of a small continent, it was the  size of fucking Eurasia, at least. I silently cursed perspective tricks.  I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply then out one. "Ok, that's fine.  We were already going to help. So you have a faster way to get us  there?"

She  nodded happily. "Oh yes, New Genesis is a vast planet, and we, as the  children of it's soil are relatively few in number, at least relatively  speaking. We have means of transport to any part of the planet's  surface. We can bring you to the peak of the nearest mountain to  Supertown, Mount Creation. The City Gods keep a guard post there to  retain contact with us in case of emergency. Traversing the natural path  to the mountain will take hours at most."

That  was much less horrifying, and all of us calmed down a bit when we heard  it. Saving some kids in exchange for skipping literal years of walking  seemed like a pretty fucking good deal to me. Focusing back on the task  at hand I cleared my throat, regaining everyone's attention. My friends  had been gaping at the floating city in the distance. I looked at the  woman. "Ok, so tell us who and what these bio-freaks are. Also where?  Because I'll be honest, if they can travel like you can we might all be  out of luck."

She  shook her head vigorously. "Oh no, the bio-freaks possess no means of  transportation. We would have been overrun long since were that the  case. They are the failed experiments of the Old Gods, disgusting  abominations created in an attempt to create the perfect warrior. The  bio-freaks possess monstrous strength, but their intellect leaves much  to be desired. They swarm within the planet, only coming out to hunt.  They mainly live in small burrows, though there is a larger society of  them in the bug mounds."

I  winced, great. Evil godspawn super soldier mutants. Because that  sounded pleasant. Still, if they were stupid that might make this way  easier. I could slip right by and teleport the natives out past the  bastards and then split. I kind of wished my bloodline had been some  kind of all consuming destruction force or something, but then berated  myself. That would have been way too overpowered even for a cheating  bastard like me. There was no use in wishful thinking.

I  stepped forward with a smile. "Alright, can you lead us to the burrow  where the bio-freaks took your daughter? I assume it's nearby? Also do  you have any information we might be able to use on the bio-freaks?  Weaknesses, phobias, food allergies?" I'd take literally anything that  would give us some kind of leverage to use against these things. They  sounded horrifying.

She  gestured for us to follow turning to walk and drawing my eyes to a very  expansive jiggling rear that was as naked as the rest of her and just  as colorfully tattooed. I caught myself staring and jerked my eyes to  Zee worriedly but I just saw her staring back at me and when she noticed  my gaze she rolled her eyes, using the stone to send. "Oh  please, like I wasn't expecting you to be staring at that wagon she's draggin. I know how you get about butts, I'll let it go since we're  going to go save a little girl, but try not to stare TOO hard. And if  you touch her I'll never have sex with you again."

I  smirked lightly at how well she knew me and slid my hand down her back  to grab a handful of her own generous rump. I leaned down to whisper in  her ear. "I think I can keep my eyes off her, after all, I've had  better." She gave a shuddering breath and pressed back against my hand. I hadn't realized exactly how much her elfin nature increased her sex  drive. I made a mental note to make sure we got that alone time on new  years. Those bio-freak's asses were grass if they got in the way of my  sex life. God weapons or not.

Meanwhile  Zee's little interlude had dragged my eyes from those fat bouncing  cheeks, which allowed me to have the brain space to hear the woman  filling us in on what they knew. "We do not know much about them. They  predate us, as New Gods we are those who came after, the Old Gods are  those who came before. Their power and magics dwarf our own by a  considerable degree. Even the City Gods, who embrace technology over the  powers of nature, are hard pressed to understand the bio-freaks."

She  hopped lightly over a log in her path, not stopping as she did so and  chattering away in a relaxed manner that belied the strenuous activity  we were all engaged in as we followed her punishing pace. "The  bio-freaks fear no magic that we are aware of, only overwhelming force,  though they are susceptible to attacks of the spirit." I wondered if  that counted attacks FROM a spirit, because my ectoplasmic bolts could  be just what the doctor ordered. Hell, if I got the hostages out first  my ghostly wail might clean out the whole lot of them.

I  pondered the issues at hand as we we led deeper into the forest,  through fields and over streams until we came to a massive open field of  dead grass. The yellowed plant life drew even more attention to the  giant fuck off hole in the middle of the field. The woman (who had  informed us on the way her name was Vana) stepped to the side and  gestured at the whole with a single expansive gesture. "This, my  friends, is the location of your trial. May it be only a proving ground  on your path to glory, and may you return safely with our kin." I had to  smile at that, it was the nicest way anyone had ever told me to fuck  off.