Malcolm Tent

Sell you a Bridge chapter 10

We decided to tell our mothers together. Honestly any way we tried to  explain two teenagers getting their hands on high rise condos would  sound like a lie, the only real way we would be able to manage to  convince them was to back each other up. Mrs. Crock didn't know about my  old man's business interests and mom didn't know about Mr. Crock's  nighttime activities so neither would think the other's child would be  mixed up in anything shady.

We spent mos...

Stronger Together chapter 142

The Crying Limey was just as pirate-y and awesome as ever. Arriving  back outside the place reminded me of that time that felt so long ago  when I'd first come here and met Dalton. I'd been a much different  person, less powerful and influential but...still me, still the same  man. Now at nineteen I'd grown and changed so much but I could still  remember my roots. Remember how much I loved my friends and my girls.

I  stepped into the bar and Charles greeted...

Sell you a Bridge chapter 9

The next morning I woke up sore. Luckily I had my handy dandy muscle  powder. But I felt...strange. I'd been so tired I went right to bed when  I got home. We'd stayed at Teague's all day, Artemis and I trading tips  on ranged attacks and weapons and trying out various levels of the  training ground. I never managed a level two shot, and I couldn't do the  obstacle course Barnabas mentioned even on level one. Despite having  muscles I wasn't conditioned at all. T...

Stronger Together chapter 141

Henry's face paled immediately after hearing The Beast's name. I  really wished people would stop reacting like that, it was starting to  make me nervous. He let his head roll back against the chair bonelessly,  staring up at the vaulted ceiling in despair. His voice came out small  and quiet, almost broken "Why is the world like this? So many creatures  out there trying to prey on those who need help the most. I just want my  friends to be safe and happy, but ev...

Sell you a Bridge chapter 8

As we walked through the door into the back room it was like entering  another world. The vibe in the front of the shop was very old world,  like a weapon shop in the medieval era. This new section was very  different in terms of theme, looking more steam punk or factory chic in  design. Despite that it was obviously top of the line and incredibly  pricey in terms of construction, I wasn't sure if Teague had made the  back room himself or commissioned it but whoe...

Stronger Together chapter 140

I admit to being more than a little relaxed the next morning. Barb  had come back and crawled into bed with Raven, Cinder and I, and the  pile of beautiful girls on top of me made me smile. I pulled each one  close and kissed the top of their head slipping out of bed to pad down  the hall to the bathroom. Washing my face I stared at myself in the  mirror, noting how different I looked from the person I had been when  I'd gotten here. My features wore more refined...

Sell you a Bridge chapter 7

The Narrows were pretty awful, obviously. People call Gotham a sewer  and a living hell but the Narrows is one of the few places where I could  see what they meant. The Narrows wasn't...a normal neighborhood. It  reminded me of those castles kids made in preschool out of the different  colored cardboard bricks. Except instead of bricks the place was made  of buildings. Whenever something burned partway down or rotted away they  just tore out the broken layer and ...

Sell you a Bridge chapter 1

Life sucked. It was pointless and boring and empty. Go to school, come home, and sit on my computer. Read some stories, watch some TV, and hit on random girls. Life was a meaningless mess of empty nothingness. Some people might say that was because I lived in Gotham city in a run down tenement building, but they would be wrong. Life sucked because I was normal. When people like Superman are running around firing lasers from their eyes and the flash can violate physics being a normal person ju...

Sell you a Bridge chapter 6

When we got up to the roof Artemis sat down on one of the milk crates and just looked at me skeptically. “A ninja? Seriously?” She was less impressed than I expected, but I still had some tricks up my sleeves to show off my skills. She seemed more bored than disbelieving though, like she knew tons of ninjas. “I mean, you could have learned normal martial arts or even magic if you wanted to go that way and you learned how to what, throw sharp stuff and hide in a corner?”

I scowle...

Sell you a Bridge chapter 5

The next morning found me dragging myself out of bed sore and aching. Artemis and I had sparred for hours, she kept implying we were almost done and then pushing me just a bit further. Oddly looking back each of her exercises seemed to specifically involve certain muscles or skills that didn’t overlap as much as I would have thought. In the moment I’d felt like I’d been using my whole body but I could feel the ache from each and every individual bit of training.

It was Sunday than...

Sell you a Bridge chapter 4

We swung back by the apartment to drop of my social security card and birth certificate and so I could hide my new debit card because carrying it around just seemed like asking for trouble. While we were there I changed into some beat around clothes and we went up to the roof to do the training Artemis had suggested. I was kind of excited about the whole thing honestly I knew her dad had her in martial arts lessons or something maybe she could teach me some katas or even just how to punch rig...

Sell you a Bridge chapter 3

The next morning mom was gone when I woke up. She usually left early enough that even on school days I didn’t see her before work and I had been up on the roof with Artemis until almost five thirty. I booted up my computer to check on my power but sadly the whole one day rule appeared to be midnight to midnight. I would have to wait until tomorrow to try it again. That said I did dig out my muscle powder and make myself today’s shake, carrying it into the bathroom so I could watch the res...

Sell you a Bridge chapter 2

I felt a sudden wave of exhaustion roll over me. Not enough to put me back down but enough to be noticeable, if I hadn’t just been sleeping all day I’d probably have conked out. If I wasn’t sure I was doing something before I was now. I half expected to have to wait hours, but the doorbell rang again as soon as I saw the one pop up on my trash icon. Apparently my powers worked based on my awareness? Or something. Who knew. I walked to the door and opened it up to find a large box in the...

Stronger Together chapter 139

Decided to do a smut chapter since it's been so long. It's official though Cinder had now joined the harem!

When we got home we saw that Barb was asleep in Andi's room. We both  pulled the blanket up over the girls with a smile and kissed our own  redhead on the forehead before retiring to our room. We were exhausted  from the day emotionally but not physically. I smiled at my girlfriend  as I be nudged open the door to our room and we both froze at ...

Stronger Together chapter 138

Over the last year we had all gotten pretty close to Dalton. Ranier  was working with us on distribution and Dalton was a partner so  naturally he was someone we could get in touch with when we needed to.  Not to mention he had a scrolltech phone of his own. So when I called  him to set something up he was more than happy to meet with us that very  same day. Barb was with Andi so it ended up being Raven and I alone  which I didn't mind. We didn't get time to ours...

Stronger Together chapter 137

Andi ended up coming home with us. Barb still had a room technically  but she pretty much lived with Rae and I so she gave up her digs for her  friend. We helped Andi pack up all her stuff. She said once this was  over she would find a new place but she didn't want to come back to the  apartment she'd shared with Kirby alone. I didn't bother correcting her  but I saw Barb's face when she said that. Our supernatural halfway house  had another permanent resident. I...

Stronger Together chapter 136

The drive to Kirby and Andi's place went by in a blur. I was in  shock. I'd known Kirby we'd done game night with Harry and the Alphas.  He was a good guy. I thought I'd saved him, thought I'd changed his  fate, but I'd made it worse. Shagnasty had killed Kirby in battle in the  books, but it hadn't tortured him. Not for information. Whatever had  killed him in this timeline had worked on him for a while it sounded  like. He'd died afraid and in pain and it was m...

Stronger Together chapter 135

It was family dinner night at the Carpenter house, which naturally  included us. Charity cooked every Sunday and she insisted we come. At  first it had just been Kara and Inari, but over time the rest of us  joined in. Not just the people at the house either, Harry and Susan were  here with Maggie, who was only a few months old and adorable. Tera had  come with Conner though convincing her it was safe here had been a bit  of a chore. Conner was playing with Bea a...

Stronger Together chapter 134

Logic is important. It's a fundamental part of our society, the basis  on which we structure our world. Logic can tell you so many important  things. However, staring into the four glowing eyes of a fifteen foot  tall demon tyrant from beyond space and time, the logic voice in my head  froze up just long enough for mind numbing terror to beat it  unconscious with a sack full of bricks. The towering red skinned figure  in front of us was obviously the creature and...

Stronger Together chapter 133

A kitsune, two proto angels, a half demon, and a smuggler crept down  the abandoned hallway of a creepy seaside mansion in search of a  ruthless shapeshifting psychopath from before the dawn of civilization. I  had to force myself not to snort at what sounded like the beginning of  the most elaborate joke of all time. My face went serious as I  considered the circumstances however, hopefully it wouldn't end up being  an elaborate joke after all. We were playing f...

Stronger Together chapter 132

When the lights went out I froze. Not because I didn't know what to  do, but because I knew TOO MANY things to do. The shock sent my easily  distracted super fast consciousness reeling into reaction mode and I had  to force myself not to move and let my muscles relax. Doing something  stupid now would be worse than doing nothing. After a second to calm  down I activated my magic eye. The drawing room was pitch black but  there's magic in everyone. By triggering m...

Stronger Together chapter 131

Our first instinct was to rush back to the room the maids were in and  bust down the door, but after thinking for even a second we realized  that would be pointless. We had no clue which maid was the creature, and  assuming our suspicions were correct, the creature didn't even know it  was the creature except from brief moments of lucidity when it killed.  If we busted in there we would just be agitating all the maids for no  reason because what the fuck were we ...

Stronger Together chapter 130

Nadia was the first person to whirl around and look for the missing  man. As his wife she was naturally concerned. When she didn't see him  anywhere she started frantically yelling for him "Sergei! Sergei!" She  devolved into a string of russian I couldn't understand, bleeding back  into english periodically before getting so agitated she switched back.  She spun around to glare at Dalton with wild eyes "You! You invited us  to this place! You promised us safety ...

Stronger Together chapter 129

Carlos's body was...messy. Like seriously fucked up. It looked like  someone had clawed through the skin pulled the sternum apart and ripped  the heart out with their fingers while making sure to get as much blood  on him as possible. Whoever had done it, and I assumed it was someone  here, must have used magic of some kind to stay clean because not a  speck of blood was showing on anyone here. Everyone looked wary of each  other, I imagined beings like this were...

Stronger Together chapter 128

I only brought out the minimum hundred thousand to start. I didn't  know any of these people or how good they were, so I decided to play  short stacked to begin so I wouldn't lose it all if I hit a bad beat.  The game was no limit texas hold em' of course and Dalton had the  button. Vikram was up first on his left. He set the blind at a hundred  and Dalton dealt out everyone's hand. Being the first hand everyone just  paid the blind to see the flop. I was sitting...

Stronger Together chapter 127

We woke up the the ringing of bells. Despite having been expecting  that before we fell asleep it was pretty fucking jarring to experience  and I sat bolt upright and fell out of bed. Luckily my reflexes were  godsteel enhanced so I was able to catch myself pretty easily. Still the  stifled giggles of the girls as I landed splayed legged and caught  myself looking like some kind of weird crab. I popped too my feet  smoothly, making sure to keep a dignified expres...

Stronger Together chapter 126

The next few days passed without incident. Lot's of time at home with  the girls or over at Harry's or Charity's. Harry decided we should push  magic lessons back a bit since we'd been slammed since getting here. He  wanted me to have a bit of a break between crises. Lily had sent Fix to  drop off the treasure from my first favor, and honestly staring at a  pile of gold bars and assorted gems in front of a Monet was strangely  addictive. I made a little shrine in...

Stronger Together chapter 125

I had no clue what godsteel was worth. I mean sure it was a unique  and uber powerful divine metal, but that didn't help me set a value.  Priceless and worthless are pretty much the same thing when you're  trying to sell something, what's the point in a commodity too expensive  for anyone to buy? So I fell back on that old standby, I shut up and let  Lily take the lead. I could feel out everyone's reactions to her  suggestion and decide how to scale my price base...

Stronger Together chapter 124

I woke up, as I often did. In a bathtub. The water was clear as usual  having been drained of all the medicinal chemicals Kara had dumped into  it. I expected a bit of soreness but I felt great when I got out of the  tub,which I was thankful for. My godsteel weave had definitely  mitigated the damage from my turbo charged Klurkor, but oddly, looking  back, I also thought the damage I was taking may have helped. Lord  Raith's blows to my body had bled off some of ...

Stronger Together chapter 123

The little girl's name was Beatrice (Bea for short) and her bunny's  name was Fig Newton, which was apparently her favorite snack. Beatrice  was a talkative girl, apparently she was ten years old and she and her  mommy had been camping in their car as an adventure because their house  was being fixed. She got really sad when she told me that her mommy had  gone away after she got here and she hadn't seen her anywhere. Seeing  this tiny waif of a girl cry because ...