Sell you a Bridge chapter 25

The fingers on the Hand were getting a bit low as I stumbled out of  the cellar doors. Avoiding that shitty green thing had been annoying, I  assumed that it was for some reason considered to be outside the Hand's  restrictions. I had to use my shadow movement again to get out, but  after I'd completed the mission I could spare the extra power to push  the speed up. By cranking it to four points an hour (leaving me with  only three) I could actually push myself to the blistering speed of a  lazy walk. Still, I managed to get out in ten minutes this time.

Jim  and the others were waiting outside when I got there. When I held up  the tube his hat dipped in respect "Good show, lad. We'll make a proper  thief of you yet." His hat and monocle swung side to side as he looked  around for any sign of me being followed. "Well, come along then, second  rule of being a second story man, get while the getting is good. Never  linger on a job when there's escaping to be done." He whirled on the  spot and lead us back towards the car. I couldn't help but smile in  relief as we began the trek down the incredibly long stairs and then  down the even longer driveway, we had made it.

Of course, the second I had that thought the still lit hand of glory fucking combusted in  a ball of spectral fire, vanishing in a puff of ash. I turned to glance  at Jim "Uh, any chance it was supposed to do that? Because call me a  cynic but that seemed like a bad thing." Jim froze, his monocle pointed  right at the spot where the Hand had just been. Jim didn't seem like the  freeze in place type, so I was guessing that had been a bad sign.  "Yeah, I was afraid of that. So...what kinds of things could manage to  burn through half of a jail broken Hand of Glory when we weren't even in  the house anymore."

The  icy voice that responded did in fact have an accent. It was not  however, British. It was Italian, and it didn't come from the ghost to  my side it came from above and behind us. "Very angry fathers." We all  turned slowly. A man stood in the air. He was dressed in a tuxedo, with a  yellow vest and a red bow tie. He had a top hat every bit as tall and  showy as Jim's and while he clearly wasn't dead, the icy look on his  face definitely contained the chill of the grave. "Craddock. I should  have known. Tell me what your little minion did to my Zatanna and I  won't banish you back to hell where you belong."

I  winced. Guess he found the girl. She was fine of course, but it  probably didn't look great that he found her lying on the carpet in his  show room, unconscious and dressed in skimpy pajamas. Jim gave a jovial  laugh and a wave with his white gloved hand. "Giovanni old bean!  Cracking to see you my lad, just absolutely swimming." I blinked.  Apparently Jim somehow got more British when he was nervous, if  that was even possible. "Your lovely daughter is perfectly fine I'm  sure. Just having some sweet dreams for a bit until the dream dust wears  off. In fact, you could go and wake her up right now if you like."

The  very pissed off Italian magi floating in front of us smiled, but it was  neither friendly nor reassuring to see. "Well, that is good to hear.  She can take a peaceful nap as I apprehend all of you." He raised a  magician's wand and snarled "Erif" and a fucking ball  of fire came sailing down right at us. I briefly considered taking my  shadow form to escape, but my friends would be screwed if I did that. I  had no clue what to do here, I froze stock still. Dad had said Zatara  wouldn't kill us, so hopefully this was just going to hurt a lot.  However, I'd forgotten one important detail. We were all amateurs here.  Jim was not.

A  white cane appeared in his hands, and almost lazily he twirled it  between his fingers. The fireball hit the whirling length of white and  just sort of dispersed. Jim's voice wasn't uber british anymore when he  spoke this time. It was every bit as icy with rage as Zatara's.  "Terribly sorry, old boy. I'm afraid we're leaving. You're obstructing  our way out. You can either step out of the way and let us pass, or we  can go through you." Zatara's face seemed to shift from chilling wrath  to a serious expression as he recognized that for the threat it was.

He  did not however, move. Jim's hat shifted from one side to the other,  and I heard a slight click, as if he was cracking an invisible neck.  "Very well then. So be it." Jim lashed out with his cane and as he did  he spoke . Not with words or even syllables,  but with sensation. The sound that issued forth from my mentor's mouth  was the sigh of the wind over a cold grave. The rustle of leaves at an  execution ground. A symphony of death and despair and a chorus of lost  souls wailed out and a wave of fucking departed spirits sailed toward  the floating magician.

Zatara cursed. Not literally, in fact he pretty much did the opposite of that in a literal sense. He snarled "Yfirup".  A golden wave of light issued forth and slammed into the numerous souls  jim had seemingly called from nowhere. Before Zatara could  counterattack though a column of icy mist smashed into the floating  magician as Jim followed up on his own spell with a second. Jim  continued casting, hissing out more unfathomable sounds. From some  unknown place the deep toll of a bell issued forth, and the shadows  lengthened and bent, twisting into dark horrible parodies of themselves.

We  were all staring at Jim in a mix of awe, horror, and respect. My mentor  was apparently fucking terrifying. However, you don't become the  Justice League's go to magical muscle by collecting bottle caps. With  another string of nonsense words Zatara lashed out with a vortex of  spinning chains of flame. Each chain slammed into a shadow, seeming to  pin it to the ground as the lines of fire dispersed the mist and lit the  cold darkness that had been forming around us. Zatara looked wary  "Surrender, James. It's too late for you but these children have only  just started on this path. Zatanna is only sleeping, there's no harm. I  can just return them to their parents, no need to involve them with the  law."

That  was actually pretty nice of him, but sadly the Court of Owls didn't seem  like the type to give out trophies for making an effort. We didn't  really have the option to walk away, even if Zatara hadn't known Jim's  name. Though come to think of it, I wondered how Zatara had known my mentor's name.  He insisted we call him Gentleman Ghost in the field, if Zatara knew  his real name maybe they had been friends at one point. Of course Jim  had also been dead a long time, maybe Zatara was just part of the  circles who knew his real name. Madame Xanadu had certainly seemed to.  Jim knew as well as I did that we needed the knife however.

Zatara  hadn't mentioned the thing, but I saw his eyes focus on the tube and  knew he was at least aware of it. He just didn't want to spook us by  mentioning it. Jim's hat shifted from side to side in a sad shake of his  head. His voice sounded almost sad when he spoke this time. "Damn  decent of you Gio, really it is, but I'm afraid we're a bit beyond such  things at this point. Goodbye old boy, I do hope you aren't stuck for  too long. I know you'll be fine, but if you aren't careful you might be  away for a while. The bell tolls for thee old chap. Ta."

He  rapped the cane on the earth three times. With each strike that same  terrible deathly bell tolled anew. One, two, three times it rang, and on  the third ring a set of ghostly blue double doors appeared in front of  Zatara. His eyes widened in momentary panic "James! Don't you dare!"  Sadly he was a bit too late. The doors swung open, revealing a whirling  void of endless black on the other side. Before Zatara could move a  massive skeletal hand shot out and wrapped around the magician. His eyes  widened with anger and he opened his mouth to shout but he didn't  manage it before he was yanked through the doors, which slammed shut  with a bone rattling thud and then faded slowly from view.

We  all stared at Jim, who was using his gloves to tug at the cuffs of his  shirt, straightening them out and pulling them out of his sleeves until  they were nice and even. Artemis was the one to speak up "I think I  speak for all of us when I say, what the actual fuck Jim?" She  waved around at the aftermath of the battle. "What the hell was any of  this even? An army of ghosts? The mist? The shadows? And what the hell  were those doors? Where did you send him?" She sounded like she might be  on the edge of a breakdown, and honestly I didn't blame her. I was  almost there myself.

Jim  turned towards the car, walking casually away from us with the cane  slung up over his shoulder. His voice floated back to us. "Not to worry  dear girl, old Gio will be back in a few days at the most. I shoved him  onto the ghost roads. A magic user of his skill will be back in no time  at all. In the meantime we really should make our exit, Gio has many a  friend who might come to check in if the magical defenses stay active.  His lovely daughter will be more than safe inside the house until he  returns. Now chop chop children, we must away." That was all we needed  to hear, we all followed him to the car and climbed in behind him as he  drove us away.

I  slumped bonelessly into the seat in exhaustion as we drove off. I  handed the knife off to Reggie, who had taken his mask off and was  giving me a look of such gratitude it made me deeply uncomfortable.  "Thank you Morgan. Thank all of of you guys. I can't believe this is  over. If you ever need anything...well we're a team so you don't even  need to ask. Just...you don't know how much this all means to me. I've  been scared out of mind." He stared down at the tube with the huge  ancient knife in it and smiled in pure relief, clearly just as shocked  that all this nonsense was over as I was.

Artemis  was the one who answered, much to my surprise. "It's no big deal  Reggie. You're one of us now. Anyone I've broken into a magical fortress  with or stood beside as a giant skeleton hand summoned by my ghostly  mentor dragged a wizard into the realm of the dead with has earned the  right to be called a friend." She shot him a grin of her own. The  tension in the car snapped and we all burst out laughing. The laughter  was deep and relieved and a bit hysterical but it felt good. We were out  of the woods. Now I just had to focus on my life. I had a date with a  cute little blonde tomorrow to get ready for. What a fantastic problem  to have.