Sell you a Bridge chapter 84

Tower of Fate August 19th 2010 6:30 PM EDT

Nobody  moved. Literally we all just froze. People talk about fights and  encounters between capes all the time, but they never mention how  absurdly awkward things can get, and running into a random team here was  definitely awkward. Speaking of teams, I couldn't believe the boy wonder and my best friend's guy were in a super powered teen social club.  Which was way different than our team. For some reason. I shook off the  shock, but I wasn't the first, a really large guy with blue eyes and  dark hair who was better looking than me even after my recent upgrade sneered at us. "Who are you!?"

Dude  sounded pissed. Serious anger issues when he yelled at me, but I  couldn't blame him. We did look like supervillains. Luckily we hadn't  done anything they knew about yet, so they had nothing on us. Zee  meanwhile did not like muscle guy snarling at her boy, and stepped in  front of us. "I'm Zatanna Zatara, and I'm here to see my Uncle. I have a  key, I should be asking what YOU'RE doing here." I winced, she had done  that on reflex I was betting, but her dad would definitely hear about  this.

I kept  my aura sight on to watch them, though they were watching back, and if  Robin didn't stop shooting lust vibes at my girlfriend I was going to  throw him off this tower to see if he could learn to fly. I couldn't  just glare though because I was looking around for whatever that red  light had been. It wasn't sticking around to attack us, which seemed  like a bad sign because it meant it had more important things to do  here, and I was of the opinion we should hurry up and go figure out what  that was.

I  noticed something strange though, the green girl (which was strange  enough to begin with) had extended her aura out from herself. Some kind  of tendrils that were reaching for our heads. I glared at her through my  mask. "Hey, jolly green, quit that shit!" Everyone froze and turned to  look at me in surprise. I pointed at the red haired alien girl. "She's  doing something to our heads, or trying to anyway." Luckily her tendrils  were having trouble getting through the masks. I had a sneaking  suspicion I knew what I was doing and I mentally thanked Jim for giving  us masks that interfered with mind reading.

She  actually blushed and looked down, letting the aura fall away. "Oh no,  not mess with them! I was just going to read them. Sorry. I forgot earth  people don't like telepathy used on them without permission, it's just  kind of the way we do things back on Mars." Right, green mind reader  meant Martian. Wild, I'd never met an alien before...probably. She  smiled shyly and waved. "I'm Miss Martian, and this is my team. Robin,  Kid Flash, Superboy, and Aqualad. We came to check in on Mr. Nelson,  nobody has heard from him in a while. Might I ask your name?"

I  was feeling petty, and now distracted and worried about Zee's Uncle, so  I just reflexively spat out the most sarcastic answer I could think of.  "I'm the Black Weasel, Brave and Heroic Leader of the Bold Bush  Dwellers." Every single person on both sides stopped and turned to gape  at me. Which made sense, because the title was a mouthful and I'd had to  practice it a bunch to be able to say it, which I'd done when I read  Split Heirs by Robert Aspirin as a kid because it was hilarious. I'd  been wanting to use that name for years and now that I had I was glad my  mask hid my smirk.

Aqualad  cleared his throat, looking...weirdly disturbed by my claims of being  the Black Weasel. I guess he had issues with colored animal names, who  knew? "Ah apologies Mr...The Black Weasel. We simply came here at the  behest of our...mentor, Red Tornado, to check in on Mr. Nelson out of  concern. They were teammates back in the day. We would be happy to  travel with you all to check on him if you would like." He was  respectful and polite, but it was pretty obvious he thought we looked  shady and wanted to keep and eye on us.

Kid  Flash spoke up. "Well whatever we're doing can we do it please? Being  around all this superstition makes me itch. I don't care if we have to  wander through some kind of nested pocket dimension but if everyone is  going to be oohing and aahing about it being witchcraft for the rest of  the night I'm going to lose it." His aura leaked annoyance like a sieve,  and it honestly shocked me that Wally could spend so much time in the  dungeon and not believe in magic. More importantly though, despite  having a decent mask, Wally did NOT use a fake voice, and Artemis seemed  to be suspicious.

The  last thing I needed was my best friend losing her damn mind because she  found out her boyfriend was secretly a superhero. I decided to derail  that train wreck as best I could and cleared my throat. "Sure, you guys  can come with us. The Bold Bush Dwellers always have room for stalwart  allies." Robin hadn't noticed my own voice, which I found odd, or I  would have if I hadn't noticed him drooling over my girlfriend. I  suspected his enhanced observational skills were actually hurting him  here, since he must be picking up on the spillover from Zee's glamour.

Not  that my lady wasn't sexy enough even pre elfing to turn his head, but  Robin didn't strike me as the distractable type. Preening and showing  off was one thing, but being oblivious to my presence made me think the  kid was whammied but good. Regardless I figured telling our real cape  identities to a bunch of kid heroes was a bad plan since it was more  than possible they had heard of us from Zatara. As long as it was just a  resemblance and Robin stayed distracted though we should be fine.

We  followed Zee as she headed for the place her Uncle was supposed to be,  which I was forced to note was in the direction the red light had gone. I  had a very bad feeling about all this, and honestly having the junior  justice bros with us was kind of a relief in case of a fight. A relief  that faded quickly as my best friend sidled up to Kid Flash. Despite  wearing a mask she wasn't in her glamour charm, and was turning on the  full court press for her unsuspecting boyfriend. "Hey there. Love the  costume. It's tight in all the right places." Her voice was a veritable  purr of seduction, with the hundred and twenty one charisma doing it's  work well.

I  didn't know for sure, but I suspected she was hitting on Wally in  costume to see if he would react. She was angry at him and wanted a  reason to dump him over this, but Artemis did her best never to be a  hypocrite so she wouldn't let herself dump him for having a secret  identity. This was petty and unnecessary but I knew better than to  interfere. Luckily I didn't need to. Wally stepped deliberately away.  "Thanks. But I have a girlfriend. I could introduce you to Kaldur if you  want though, he's single I think."

I  smirked under my mask as he deflected her attentions, not only was he  turning her down he was actively offering to introduce his girlfriend to  other men. Despite that however Artemis just turned and stalked away to  sulk over near Zee. The weird thing was her aura was both annoyed and  pleased. Women make no goddamn sense to me at all. Kit meanwhile  actually was talking to Kaldur, and seemingly hitting it off too. She  was asking him about his tattoos and seemed fascinated, while the  uptight Atlantean was playing cool but judging by his aura wasn't  uninterested.

Reggie  was bugging the big angry one in the superman T-shirt, Superboy, and  honestly it was pretty much the beginning of the most hilarious buddy  cop movie of all time. My friend was nattering on to the taciturn  musclehead who was almost as big as I was in terms of bulk, though  slightly taller.The guy's aura was pulsing with annoyance but also  amusement. Like he couldn't decide whether to be pissed at Reggie's  antics or not. I got the impression not many people just came up and  fucked with him, and his reaction to it was odd, like it was a novel  experience he found interesting.

Finally  we came to Robin, who was trailing after my girlfriend asking innocuous  questions about anything and everything, at least until I shadow ported  in front of him and he walked into my back. I turned slowly. "Oh, sorry  about that little guy. Guess I was so anxious to get to my lady I  didn't see you there." I stepped up and put an arm around Zee's shoulder  possessively. It might be petty but I didn't like him staring at her.  Zee just giggled and rolled her eyes, leaning into my chest a bit. She'd  had her own possessive episodes so she couldn't exactly complain.

Despite  her tense giggle over my antics my girlfriend was tense. Her shoulder  were locked up in worry and she was looking around furtively trying to  figure out what was going on. That red light had gotten in here and she  knew it from the conversation we'd had beforehand. She was worried about  her Uncle and I didn't blame her. I rested a hand on my sword hilt as  we walked, ready to shove her behind me if needed. At fifteen dexterity  and with my sword and reflexes there weren't many things that would be  able to get the drop on us, but I had to try to make it look natural so  Robin wouldn't use the danger as an excuse to get underfoot.

We  got to a study and library and Zee barrelled in, slipping out from  under my arm to worriedly check the room to no avail. She looked upset.  "Uncle Kent should be here. He's always in his study when he's home."  She turned and shouted. "Jeeves!" An image flickered into existence, a  holographic illusion of an old man. "Jeeves where is Uncle Kent? Why  hasn't anyone been able to reach him?" She was starting to sound  frantic. As the old man illusion answered her questions I took a look at  my girlfriends aura and winced at what I saw.

This  was her nightmare. After losing her mother Zee was crazy protective of  family and loved ones, and the idea of losing her Uncle Kent, who had  helped raise her when her dad wasn't around and who had been there for  her through some of her best memories with her mother, had her nearly  insensate with terror. She finally got enough information and we  barrelled out of the room, heading for the roof along a back staircase  that appeared in the wall at Zatanna's say so. She was so frantic even  the justice bros didn't complain, just following after us worriedly as  we ran for what was apparently the roof. We burst out onto the top of  the tower in a panic, and what we saw up there did not help. An old man,  the same one from the illusion but real, was kneeling exhausted under a  dome shield of yellow energy.

Standing  in front of it, grinning a too wide smile of teeth that would better  fit in the mouth of a shark, was an unusually pale boy with overly  formal clothes and ridiculously pale skin holding a cat. The boy looked  irritated but somehow gleeful at the same time as he raked his claws  over the yellow energy in a sadistic show of force, and I knew this was  the red light thing I had seen before. When we saw the boy Zee's eyes  flicked to her Uncle and locked on his labored breathing. "UNCLE KENT!"  And then the holy lightning of heavenly punishment tore apart her  glamour and my elven warrior goddess of a girlfriend rained down  destruction on the unsuspecting thing that looked like a kid.