Malcolm Tent

Stronger Together chapter 188

The next morning was pretty relaxed. Cinder and I spent all night in  bed, Raven and Barb got back later and joined in but I eventually fell  asleep at about four in the morning. I woke up the smell of breakfast  cooking, sausage by the smell of it. Probably eggs too, and I glanced  over to see Raven was already out of bed. She couldn't have woken up  that much earlier than I did though, because she was making breakfast  and the clock said it was two thirty.

Sell you a Bridge chapter 54

Shadowcrest July 20th 2010 8:30 PM EDT

Zatanna's  room was...girlier than I had expected. Not pink and frilly or  anything, but the baby blues mixed with the midnight blue and the silver  accents were all made up of decidedly feminine stuff. She had several  stuffed animals on her bed, which was well made and tucked in and her  midnight blue blanket was a big fluffy throw with a unicorn rearing up  against a sky full of stars.

She &nb...

Stronger Together chapter 187

If seeing Cinder in her pajama shorts earlier had been an unexpected  treat, seeing her in that bright red lingerie was a four course meal.  She was...fucking divine. I knew that of course, I'd seen her naked, but  something about a woman in lingerie is just...different. The last time  we'd had sex had been with Raven around to steal focus, not to mention  before we really had a chance to connect much on a personal level.

This  was different, she was gorgeo...

Sell you a Bridge chapter 53

Shadowcrest July 20th 2010 8:00 PM EDT

Fun  fact about being an effortless genius in stealth and subterfuge, able  to blend into the foliage and vanish into the shrubbery. It hurts. Being  a genius at avoiding breaking branches and rustling leaves doesn't make  not doing those things feel good, not does it make sitting motionless  in a bush for literal hours suck any less. However, I had to stay this  far away to avoid tripping the wards I ...

Stronger Together chapter 186

I was exhausted. Just fundamentally tired. Even with my decision to  slow down and let other people handle things I ended up running around  like a chicken with it's head cut off during this wolf mess and I was  just tired. Luckily the next week was totally free of any obligations,  and I decided to take the time off to enjoy myself and relax. Once I got  back to the house I talked to my master about it, and he grudgingly  agreed to the time off, with the promise...

Sell you a Bridge chapter 52

The Clock Tower July 19th 2010 10:00 PM EDT

So  my dead girlfriend wasn't dead. I hadn't even considered the  possibility, which in retrospect felt stupid of me. Little details about  my interaction with Staunton and comments he'd made when we fought  started adding up. Annabel was a Talon. I didn't know the exact  procedure for becoming one but I did know that it involved dying. The  question was how the hell had she become one?

Give...

Stronger Together chapter 185

Sitting in the clearing on Demonreach with Munin next to me I  couldn't help but stare at the invitation. It was formal as hell of  course, because fairies, but the most interesting thing about it was  what was written on the paper. A call for a full conclave of the  unseelie lords. Even Ethniu had barely rated that. I guess killing  Fenrir was big news, but still that could be spread to the necessary  parties with an email or even a nice personalized card.

Sell you a Bridge chapter 51

Powers Estate July 19th 2010 8:45 PM EDT

Aside from the eight Talons that had been dropped by my Uncle's creepy  fucking gun (which I was now convinced was definitely evil and would  absolutely be showing to Jim at the first opportunity) I managed to drop  another ten of the bastards by myself over the course of the fight.  Unfortunately reflexes only work if you notice the attack and I had  gotten tagged with more than a few non serious wo...

Stronger Together chapter 184

We buried Fenrir near the beach. Not on the beach, because of the  tides and because digging in sand is literally the most frustrating  thing you can do, but pretty close to the waterline. I wasn't sure if he  would have liked that, I hadn't known him that well, but something  about the freedom just seemed to suit him, so that's where we did it. It  was a strange feeling, burying someone who tried to kill you with  honors, but in some ways he'd been kind of a tea...

Sell you a Bridge chapter 50

Powers Estate July 19th 2010 8:30 PM EDT

This  was...pretty bad. We were supposed to have an easy time here, Jim and  Madame Xanadu gang up on Morgana, the rest of us take out that Talons.  Granted there were a ton of them and they were immortal super soldiers,  but the more experienced of us had been pretty confident so clearly they  weren't worried about the undead army. The impression I got however,  was that the main reason for that was...

Stronger Together chapter 183

Despite having the armor to drain off a large portion of the power,  the extreme damage from overloading my body ended up serving about the  same purpose. I was about eighty percent godsteel at this point, and  condensing all of it back down into its original form of one arm and a  network through my body took about six hours. It also hurt. A lot.  Apparently all the new godsteel that had replaced my muscles was the  denser and more powerful type my arm had becom...

Sell you a Bridge chapter 49

Powers Estate July 19th 2010 8:00 PM EDT

The  Powers Estate seemed...bigger and more imposing than I remembered it. I  imagined part of that was the trauma I'd gone through here spooking me,  but I flicking on my aura sight I could see the entire place was  shrouded in a dark, noxious looking energy. Paying attention I noted  some similarities to the normal miasma of Gotham that I had assumed was  just normal city darkness. I understood wha...

Stronger Together chapter 182

I did not, of course, hold back at all when I punched Fenrir. I  shifted into the third form of klurkor and activated the Archangel  Armor. I'd only expected to be able to last ten minutes, but the massive  soulfire consumption managed to somewhat offset even my klurkor state  and slow the mettalization process. I felt like I could last ten  minutes, which should hopefully be enough. On top of the power of the  armor I also stacked my triple force combo, aspect, ...

Sell you a Bridge chapter 48

Hokus and Pokus Occult Curioso July 18th 2010 6:00 PM EDT

I  was glad to see Madame Xanadu relax after she realized what day it was,  but that joy was short lived. Once she realized thing's weren't  pressing she drafted all of us into service cleaning up her wrecked  shop. We had to rebuild tables and put the shelves back and as we worked  she dispatched Jim and Blood out to various places to pick up her  stolen goods. Seeing my mentor play...

Stronger Together chapter 181

The next few days went by in a blur, between getting Billy and  Georgia and the other Alphas back to the main land and making  preparations for our big fight we had quite a bit on our plates. My  master finished up all the armor for the girls and we contacted everyone  and laid our plans, but in the end there wasn't too much to plan out.  Fenrir was a monster of cataclysmic proportions, he wasn't the kind of  enemy you fought, he was the kind of enemy you survive...

Sell you a Bridge chapter 47

Hokus and Pokus Occult Curioso July 18th 2010 11:00 AM EDT

Standing  back in the shop after having just been here the other day was fairly  surreal for a few reasons. First of all Blood was here with us. After  we'd turned the book over to Circe she had just vanished, and Jim said  we probably wouldn't see her again. That said Blood had the venom  already and had concocted the panacea so we made plans to meet the next  morning to cure Madam...

Stronger Together chapter 180

Stepping onto the beach this time was even more nerve wracking than  the first time. Despite the spirit of the island being on good terms  with us now I couldn't help but worry about Raven. The thought of her  getting captured was only mildly more disturbing than her torturing  herself into insanity with the concentrated madness and hate of all the  people who had died here and the monstrous creatures interred beneath  the earth of the island.

But she was R...

Sell you a Bridge chapter 46

Gotham Cemetery July 17th 2010 9:00 PM EDT

Once  I'd gotten the information from my Uncle I'd called Jim, who had been  able to get the venom from Circe in advance. I'd been a bit surprised  she'd handed it over, but Jim said she wasn't really worried about being  ripped off. If I didn't deliver, she would just do something horrible  to me and then force me to work it off for eternity. Jim is not a  comforting person. Despite that, because ...

Stronger Together chapter 179

After our little heart to heart my master kicked me out. He insisted  he needed to concentrate on his forging. He had me send the girls out  two at a time to be measured and then started up the forge to begin  work. I asked about watching but he told me being introduced to certain  concepts too early might confuse me and mess up my foundations. He'd  seen many apprentice smiths end up ruining their budding style by  incorrectly trying to repeat advanced technique...

Sell you a Bridge chapter 45

Arkham Asylum July 17th 2010 11:00 AM EDT

In  the papers and on TV they make Arkham out to be this terrible creepy  place where all hope goes to die. They paint pictures of madness and  despair and the breaking of the human spirit and talk about the place  like the devil spends his summers there. I always thought those stories  were exaggerations and hyperbole, it was just an asylum after all. It  couldn't possible be as miserable as everyo...

Stronger Together chapter 178

Naturally the girls decided to invite the old bastard in to stay.  Luckily my abusive teacher preferred solitude and chose to retrofit the  garage to his own liking. Apparently the girls were thrilled to meet  him, with Raven and Cinder being excited to meet an experienced  enchanter and Barb wanting to hear all about the amazing projects he  worked on. Yang was trying to pump him for embarrassing information on  me, which I'd kind of expected and Kara had brough...

Sell you a Bridge chapter 44

The Clock Tower July 16th 2010 8:00 PM EDT

I  had been confined to the tower since the incident with the crazy Talon.  Jim forbade me from leaving and honestly I was mostly with him, until I  though about how much fun I'd had with Zee yesterday and started  feeling a bit of cabin fever. Luckily Jim had finally got in touch with  Circe and arranged for her to meet us here tonight so hopefully this  nonsense would be over soon. In the meantim...

Stronger Together chapter 177

Six weeks later...

The  sun shone in my eyes as I stepped out of the svartalf compound. For the  first week I tried to get home as often as possible but eventually the  commute just became a hassle. I'd negotiated with my master to stay full  time for six weeks in exchange for a few considerations like daily  phone calls and deliveries of my medicine baths by Kara. Since he wasn't  against my daily klurkor practice that had been basically all I needed.

Sell you a Bridge chapter 43

Gotham City July 15th 2010 8:00 PM EDT

I  felt pretty amazing. I'd spent the whole day with Zee, having fun and  being stupid. We went to the movies, to an amusement park, to eat lunch,  we went to Haly's Circus, which was in town, and just generally had fun  and made fools of ourselves. I hadn't smiled this much...well ever.  Even with Annabel I didn't have as much fun. I was practically whistling  as I walked back to the clock tower,and e...

Stronger Together chapter 176

My everything hurt. Badly. It had been nearly twenty four hours (my  sadistic master had at least allowed me to stop and call home so they  didn't worry) and I had made over forty daggers. Every time I made one  Brokkr would point out half of my mistakes and then make me spend five  minutes studying the thing and meditating on my process at the end  before starting the next one. If I repeated one of the mistakes, either  one he mentioned or one he didn't he would...

Sell you a Bridge chapter 42

The Clock Tower July 15th 8:00 AM EDT

I  adjusted my jacket again and looked in the mirror. I'd chosen one of my  world class tailored suits. Then changed into a shirt and jeans. Then  changed back into the suit because my mask looked fucking stupid with  knock around clothes. Then I switched to standing in front of my mirror  trying to iron out all the flaws in my outfit before I had to go meet  Zee and worried that I might be dressing too...

Stronger Together chapter 175

I had absolutely no idea how to forge iron. I knew nothing about  smithing or metal at all. I figured this out mind you, after the  fifteenth whack with that goddamn stick hit my fucking head. First I  tried molding it with my hands, they were strong enough that I could do  it like that. Whack.  Then I tried using force magic. Whack. Then I  tried using force Aura combined with light taps with my fist to mimic  hammer blows. That got me two whacks.

The...

Sell you a Bridge chapter 41

Gotham Park July 14th 2010 7:00 AM EDT

I  had skipped school again today. Not that anyone was aware, I'd hacked  into their servers and changed my attendance records along with  switching a few missed assignments to A's. It wasn't like I needed the  lessons, I'd already memorized the books anyway. I glanced around the  park at the grass and trees and couldn't help but remember my picnic  here with Annabel. My phone rang, I reached down and ...

Stronger Together chapter 174

Despite the overt threat in the words, I didn't actually feel any  danger from the ancient elf. That said, I was in the middle of their  extremely heavily enchanted underground city, and even I might have  trouble fighting my way out of here. I was pretty sure I could, since my  arm should be strong enough to crush most of their enchanted items, but  it would probably suck. So I decided to try diplomacy. "Because my arm  isn't a tree. Godsteel doesn't grow out of...

Sell you a Bridge chapter 40

Home of Jason Blood July 13th 2010 6:00 PM EDT

I  glanced up at the townhouse with a bit of trepidation. Over the last  few days we'd made zero headway into figuring out what the hell the  Court was trying to do, and we'd finally arranged a meeting with Jason  Blood. I closed my eyes, seeing a burning number fifty behind the lids  and feeling pretty confident that it would be enough points if I needed  to use any of my abilities. Artemis wa...