Sell you a Bridge chapter 127

Doomhollow Hall December 12th 2010 9:00 PM EDT

The  news that I could grow my stats was welcome, and I made plans to come  back tomorrow and try the Tier 2 dish. Based on the way Tiers seemed to  work here I was betting it would be ten points, though I wasn't sure in  which stat. I wondered if it was random or if Jambalaya was some kind of  strength boosting specialty. Maybe because of all the meat? What would  boost Dexterity? Dessert? Regardless we finished our food and got ready  to head over to check out the ritual chamber when I felt a panicked  thought slam into my head. "MORGAN! ZEE!"

I  almost fell over but managed to shake off the mental assault, taking a  minute to recognize Artemis's voice. She sounded terrified for some  reason, but she seemed to understand exactly that she hadn't been clear  because I felt another, slightly quieter but equally panicked thought  chase the first. "Morgan my sister is in trouble. I gave her a  burner number to use to contact me, and she just called me. She sounded  out of breath, like she was being chased. Apparently the Penguin Mob is  making a move on the Shadows. My mom was here when I got the call and  she took off for the teleporter, I'm worried she might get hurt."

I  cursed. Paula was one of the most rational people on the island, so  giving her teleporter access hadn't been a huge deal. She liked to dip  into town to get the lay of the land with Jim sometimes. Going by their  auras I was ninety percent sure they had a fuck buddies thing going on  and almost equally positive I didn't want that confirmed so I never  brought it up. I looked at Zee, seeing on her face she'd heard it too.  Paula was a sweet lady who looked at all of us as her surrogate kids.  Zee was literally only closer with my mom, and I cared a lot about the  former assassin myself.

I nodded  to her, and we were so in sync she didn't even need to ask, she just  took off for my room at top speed as I slipped into the nearest empty  room to suit up. I'd taken to keeping all my stuff in the spacial ring  because it was so damn convenient so I had it on me. I got changed in  record time, meeting a sprinting Zee at the teleporter in time to run  into Artemis and Reggie, likewise in costume. This section of the castle  was off limits to the civilians, as enforced by some neat magics from  Zee so being costume wasn't a problem, but when we stopped to get ready  to leave we all froze.

I  looked at Artemis. "Shit. Did your sister tell you where she was  exactly?" We had a few teleporters spread out through the city, so we  needed a general direction to pick one. The Shadows had a decent sized  chunk of territory, and our own pads dropped off on either side of it.  She shook her head. I considered using the map, but the demonic magic  was a points sink and this had already happened a few times. I slipped  my phone from my spacial ring and scrolled through my phone to an email  I'd been eyeing for a while.

Detective  mode fit pretty well with my personal style actually, and even better  with my aura sight. Allowing me to see traces of people to track them.  Used with my aura vision I should be able to read details of the traces  to pick up information about the situation the target was in. It only  cost a hundred points, pretty cheap for a passive sight boost like that.  Probably because it was of such limited use. The thing came in the form  of special goggles that would upload the ability to you brain and cost a  thousand bucks. I barely batted an eye as I clicked the order button.

I  turned to Artemis with a nod. "Ok if we check which pad she left from I  should be able to track your mom from the exit point." I mentally gave  her permissions to access the teleport interface. "I'm going to go get  that." Before she could respond a knock sounded on the nearest door, an  alcove I was pretty sure was some kind of storage closet. I grinned and  headed over to the door as Artemis checked things over. I popped the box  open without missing a beat and slipped my mask off and the glasses on.

I  stumbled as a series of flashing images poured into my brain, making  even my impressive mental faculties buckle, and my purposeful momentum  and focus fractured for a second as I fell against the wall in agony.  Ouch. This one was worse than usual. Maybe because I already a vision  upgrade? I'd mostly given up on figuring out how my power worked. I felt  a soft hand slip into mine and looked up to see Zee looking at me in  worry. Artemis and Reggie were behind her, and though I couldn't see  them behind their masks their auras showed concern.

Artemis  walked up and pulled me into a hug. "Breathe." I released the tension  in my body, closing my eyes as I adjusted to the still fading pain as my  best friend pulled back. "Don't do that again. Just burning a bunch of  points and shotgunning an upgrade with no preparation is dangerous. I  get you're worried, I am too, but my mom is a big girl and she can  handle her self for long enough for us to catch up to help. You running  yourself into the ground doesn't help anyone, even if I appreciate the  sentiment. Sorry if I was freaking out and pushed you."

I  saw that her worry had made her pause and take a breath of her own. "I  know. Sorry, I was just reacting. That was stupid, I'm supposed to think  more now, gods know its burned me enough times just going with my gut."  I took a deep breath like she said, exhaling and trying to push out  that panicking urgent feeling in my gut. I smiled at her. "Hey, this is a  role reversal though, normally Reggie and Zee are the level headed  ones. You're usually just as stupid and impulsive as I am." I shot her a  wink as I pulled off the goggles.

She  rolled her eyes. "Please, I'm so much more cautious than you. Half the  time we're out you're staring at Zee's ass. The only thinking you're  doing is thinking of clapping those cheeks." I opened my mouth to retort  but...I had no response to that. She wasn't wrong. I just shrugged and  my girlfriend sputtered and punched me in the shoulder. The byplay  seemed to help calm Artemis even more than the short break in our  momentum and she chuckled at our antics. Zee smiled at her blood sister  looking more relaxed and I took the opportunity to grab her around the  waist and pull her against me.

I  buried my face in her lavender and chamomile scented hair as I let my  brain adjust to my new upgrade for a minute. She wasn't actually mad at  me and just let me hold her until the last of the pain faded and I  stepped back. I slipped my mask back on and turned to Artemis. "Ok.  Taking things a step at a time, thinking through our actions. Next step  is figuring out where Paula went so which pad did she use?" Artemis  nodded, her aura showing relief as she led me over to the pad that  connected to the school. Of course.

I  activated the pad as we stepped on, the four of us vanishing and  appearing on the pad on the other side instantly. Once we came out I  looked around to see if I could find any traces of Paula. Detective  vision was...weird. When I activated it the world took on a slightly red  tinge, like thermal vision, except instead of heat I was seeing traces  of people. I was incredibly glad to have aura sight, because detective  vision absolutely did not limit itself to just the person I was looking  for. I saw traces and footprints from a dozen people here, I just  counted myself lucky we'd put this thing out of the way or it would have  been way worse.

Luckily  I was able to focus in on Paula's tracks once I recognized her aura and  sort of tune the rest of them out, focusing in on just the one specific  set of footprints. I could see from the aura in her tracks that she had  been frantic and in a hurry but she hadn't been in danger. I set off in  the direction her tracks led immediately and the others followed  closely behind. I kept my voice low as I talked. "In retrospect we maybe  should have left someone at the map on overwatch." I blinked for a  second. "Hey Jim, you near the map room?" He hadn't  really been a priority before but having someone shot calling would be  useful here, and I was pretty sure we wouldn't need him even if I  thought I could make Artemis wait.

Clearly  in her panic Artemis had only contacted the two of us, Reggie must have  been nearby. Jim, who seemed a bit distracted responded after a moment  to process. "Ah Morgan, yes I'm nearby, I suppose I can drop in.  I was simply enjoying a cup of tea with Claire. Delightful woman, and  quite lovely. Did you know she collects pressed butterflies?" Reggie,  who could hear this because Jim hadn't aimed his thoughts in any  particular direction looked horrified, and Artemis looked amused, an  expression I was pretty sure would vanish when she found out our ghost  mentor had been sticking it to her own Mom.

I  rolled my eyes at my ridiculous man whore of a boss. One of the main  downsides to Jim's "take what you want, give nothing back" attitude was  that he liked to "live life to the fullest" which mostly meant nailing  any attractive woman who showed interest. Jim, as you might expect from a  career thief, was a hedonist, and he had no issues indulging that. The  one thing I will say is that he seems to be pretty up front about his  womanizing, and I haven't seen any of his love interests actually ever  get mad about it. I was pretty positive Madame Xanadu knew he was  banging Paula, and even though they had broken up, the number of fucks  she didn't give was impressive.

I  said a mental prayer of thanks for Gojo, who had taken my mother off  the market before my ghostly mentor added her to his milf harem. Which  it totally was, because seriously, every woman I'd seen Jim hook up with  or reference having had sex with was a stone cold stunner. His little  black book was basically a milf parade. I shook off the completely  irrelevant thoughts. "We have a problem boss man. The Shadows  are under attack and Cheshire called Artemis. Paula heard it and took  off to find her. We need some long range support so we don't go into  this blind, think you can pull yourself away from trying to bang  Reggie's mom to help save Artemis's mom who you're already banging?"

I  made sure to watch Artemis's face when I said that, and I was rewarded  with a horrified look, Reggie's own cringe had shifted slightly but not  gone away, he was clearly torn on whether he was more horrified that Jim  was putting the moves on his mother or amused at Artemis for  experiencing the thing she just mocked him over. Jim meanwhile saw none  of this and simply sighed over sending, which was completely unnecessary  and entirely for dramatic effect. "Must you be so crass Morgan?  I would of course be happy to locate the lovely Mrs. Crock. A fact that  has nothing to do with any supposed romantic entanglements. Let me get  to the map room and I'll guide your path." As his voice went silent I had to admit, this night was turning out even more exciting than expected.