Sell you a Bridge chapter 142

??? December 22nd 2010 12:00 PM EDT

I  should clarify. When I say giant, I don't mean giant by the standards  of a normal city. I mean giant like there was a fucking continent  floating off in the distance. The sun was massive and shining white, the  sky was the clearest crispest blue I could imagine, everything above  the skyline looked like a wonderland. The actual planet however, was  anything but friendly. I didn't see any sign of life or habitation on  the ground, in fact, aside from what looked like hundreds of miles of  fucking trees I could only spot a massive mound of dirt, presumably the  hellhole my clone mentioned, which was admittedly way too close for my  liking.

So, obviously, our best  move was going to be to head for civilization. I wasn't sure where the  actual fuck we even were, but I would pick shining golden city in the  clouds over monster infested bug pit or looming terrible forest every  time. I melded back into the shadows and slid down the tree soundlessly,  once again bypassing whatever killed my clone. I made sure to pay  special attention to the direction of the city, and even marked the side  of the tree when I got to the bottom so we would know which way to go.

Artemis  and Wally were hugging when I came down, which was a good sign I was  hoping, but I had to break up the love fest sadly. I cleared my throat  and they jumped and turned to look at me. Artemis was glaring. "Gods  Morgan, do I have to put a bell on you? I've told you not to sneak up on  me like that. What did you see? Anything important? Do you know where  we are?"

I  exhaled heavily. "Yes and no. I know where we aren't. I know we're  nowhere on Earth, which we already kind of knew, and we aren't anywhere  near civilization, though I did see some from the top of the tree.  There's a giant floating fortress city made of gold in that direction." I  pointed towards where I'd seen the floating continent. "Well, city is  an understatement maybe, but it's made up of buildings, which means  probably sentient life. Most likely gods if we go off the theory that  Circe opened a portal to the Sphere of the Gods. Though given its  unstable nature maybe not."

She  puffed out her cheeks, clearly annoyed. "Well at least we have a  direction we can head in now. You want to wake sleeping beauty over  there?" She nodded to my girlfriend, who was amazingly still snoozing  away. I smiled softly at how gorgeous she looked like that, even dirty  and curled up on the ground my Zee was something else. I nodded and she  and Wally headed over to the tree I'd marked, giving me some space to  wake up Zatanna. I crouched down next to her and gently brushed some of  that silky black hair from her face.

I  shook her by the shoulder gently. "Zee? Wake up baby." She grumbled and  tried to bury her head in my hand to block out the noise. I had to  smile because Zee was always a huge pain in the ass to wake up. Even on  an alien planet sleeping in the middle of a primeval forest she managed  to be grumpy in the mornings. I shook her again. "Rise and shine love,  we need to get going." She grumbled a bit more but peeked open one eyes,  already pouting before she even saw me. The pout vanished however when  she saw where we actually were.

She  was sitting bolt upright in an instant. "Morgan? Where are we? I  remember..." Her face paled, which was a trick considering how milky her  skin already was, her elfin nature causing her to develop an almost  shining pallor to contrast with her pitch black hair. Still, it was  clear she was distressed as she looked around. "We went through the  portal. Is this the Sphere of the Gods? She spun in circles, coming to  her feet ready to fight, but when she saw no one in the nearby wood and  noticed how relaxed I was, she calmed down.

I  beckoned her over to Wally and Artemis, filling them all in on the  things my clones and I had seen despite the other couple already knowing  some of it. Zee frowned when I finished. "Did you try the sending  stones? They can't be interfered with right? Maybe we can reach them  that way?" I shook my head. That had been one of the first things I'd  attempted. She cursed. "Alright, well, maybe we have other options? What  about..." She trailed off, eyes darting to Wally. I instantly got what  she meant.

I  hadn't actually considered that, my power might still be working, even  if I didn't have any new emails even the list I'd managed to gather  before might have something helpful, the only real issue here was that  we were in mixed company. I wasn't going to let my girlfriend and my  bestie die because I was reticent to share my secrets, but at the same  time I didn't have to go full idiot and completely expose myself to the  enemy, or whatever Wally was at the moment.

Luckily  I had other options, just because he realized I could do something  doesn't mean he would know what, and as long as he didn't see my phone  he wouldn't know how it worked. That was an easy fix, I just raised a  wall of shadows around me to stop him from seeing what I did. It wasn't  exactly a brilliant plan, but hell it could be much worse. Since the  girls wouldn't answer even if Wally asked a question, at least I could  preserve some of my secrets this way. Besides, hopefully he would  respect professional courtesy at least until we were out of this.

I  opened my email on my phone, not surprised it was fine because I'd been  smart enough to store it under my Armor of Gloom, which was durable as  all hell. I opened my email and flipped through my various spam. The  usual items were on there, the weird stuff I got from visiting odd  forums and so on, but when I sorted the emails by most recent I saw that  there were indeed some from the last few hours. I had no idea how  because I wasn't connected to any networks, but I was definitely still  getting spam mail. Thank you reality bending super power.

The  emails were weird, and the point values were insane. Luxurious high  rise dwellings in "Supertown", which I had to assume was that giant  golden continent sized city until I knew better. Golden apples of Divine  Might imbued with divinity to help strengthen the consumers godly  power. Various weird elixirs and potions with effects ranging from  changing the nature of someone's divinity to turning them into s  Verrofax, which based on the pictures seemed to be some kind of giant  eight armed ogre bear.

All  of these were in the hundreds of thousands of points at the low end,  and some even in the millions. The most expensive, sitting at a hundred  million fucking points, was an ad for a black market version of  something called a "Mother Box" whatever the fuck that was. I put my  phone away and sifted through the information I'd gathered before  dropping the shield and giving the non scam related stuff to the others  as info. Wally looked curious as to how I learned any of this, but that  curiosity was washed away by recognition at my last tidbit.

His  eyes widened in excitement. "I know that term! One of Conner, er  Superboy's friends used it. Some big weird guy named Bear. He traveled  with a group of three other guys and this super hot girl named..." He  trailed off when he realized Artemis was there. "Er, a very nice young  lady named Dreamer. They came from a place called New Genesis, and they  called themselves New Gods, which kind of fits with that Sphere of the  Gods thing you were all talking about. That must be where we ended up!  Those Forever People or whatever might have a way home!"

Artemis  didn't seem too bothered by Wally's slip, but I knew she was trying to  train him not to be such an incorrigible flirt, so I didn't expect her  to let that comment lie. She raised an eyebrow and Wally sheepishly  apologized. She just gave him a sweet smile that would have immediately  put anyone who knew her on guard. "Oh no need to be sorry babe, we're  aloud to find other people attractive. I don't even mind talking about  it if you don't." Casually she turned to look at my girlfriend.  "Speaking of Zee, did you see that hunk of beef Superboy? I'd love to  ride that pony."

Zee  snickered while Wally looked halfway between horrified and disgusted,  clamping his hands over his ears. "Argh, no, I can't get that mental  image out of my head Arty! Point taken, I wont drool over other girls,  especially in front of you. Just...never say anything like that again?  There's not enough bleach in world to burn that out of my brain." She  winked at him and he chuckled a bit himself, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, I  figure we can try to find the Forever People at that city you saw."

I  nodded. "It's as good a place to start as any I'd say, slight problem  though. When I said I saw it I meant in the distance, like...barely the  size of my pinkie nail in the skyline, which considering the scale of it  based on the mountains nearby means it's REALLY far away. It will  probably take months to get there even at our top speed." I remembered  something and mentally skimmed the list of new emails with my perfect  memory. "I might have a solution though. If we wait a week or two I can  get us something called a "Whiz Wagon". It's some kind of god car or  something."

Wally  once again looked curious but wisely tamped down on that. He seemed to  be much more upbeat given our possible way home, but I had to let him  down again. "Also, sorry to tell you but that city is like the size of a  small continent. Even once we get there it might take us a while to  find your friends." His shoulders drooped, but I didn't want to crush  his spirit completely. "It's more than we had earlier though, and hope  is always better than nothing." Plus worst case I could save up over a  few years and get us the mother box. It sounded like that was how they  traveled.

I  gestured off into the dark woods in the direction of the city. "In the  meantime we head for Supertown I suppose. Better start walking." We set  off in the direction of the city. I put an arm over my girlfriend's  shoulder and sent out an invisible clone or two to scout for us as we  walked, but other than those precautions I tried to take in the scenery.  Other than the forest being dark and primordial and full of weirdly  large plants this place was actually pretty cool. I looked over to  Artemis. "So does this count as a really long double date?"

My  best friend snorted. "Oh sure. Other friends double at the movies or a  diner or something, but an alien super planet full of literal gods  definitely seems more like the kind of place we'd take our significant  others." She looked to Zee. "What do you think? These boys getting lucky  tonight, because I don't know about you, but nothing gets me hotter  than the thought of small sticks poking me in the back when a big one is  poking me in the front." I grimaced at that mental image and Wally  groaned at the joke but Zee just burst out laughing. I began to  reconsider my stance on this place. I hated it here.