Sell you a Bridge chapter 9 (Patreon)

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. Turns out muscle powder works like  anaerobic exercise, which was highly unfortunate because it meant my  lung capacity and cardio was still pretty terrible.

Speaking  of muscle powder I had my morning shake, bit more definition not much  size, I wasn't actually cut yet but I was getting there. I had the  beginnings of a six pack now. I'd done my ninja training, which for  today had been entirely based on balance and was most likely going to be  useful as hell. But none of that explained the strangeness. I closed my  eyes, focusing on the odd fullness in my body and suddenly I could see  something. Floating behind my eyelids was a big red number twelve. Which  was when I got it. My points, I hadn't used them yesterday and the  energy kept building until it reached my max and kept going.

My  powers were adapting to the way I saw them, which was weird, but  useful. I decided not to question it. I had twelve points, time to see  what I could do with them. I booted up my computer to flip through my  emails and check what I could do. I had dozens of spam emails available,  but there was another change, next to the name of each email there was a  number. Any email with a number higher than twelve was written in red. I  furrowed my brows. Was this a change from learning a skill that used my  powers as fuel? Some of the crazy emails had absurdly high numbers, and  some useful looking ones were a bit low.

After  a bit of deduction I figured out a few basic things. Like I'd seen  before the categories were, items, skills and abilities, and actual  changes to reality. Items were pretty low cost mostly, stuff like the  muscle powder or pills to make your dick bigger was usually between two  and ten points. Stuff like super soldier formulas and mad science items  were much more expensive with the latter going as high as a hundred  points which would take about ten days of no points use at all to  manage, and the former sometimes reaching into the thousands.

Skills  had a wider range, anything that seemed natural or mostly natural like  my ninja stuff was between five and twenty. I was guessing since any  special skills in the ninja lessons were minimal tricks that only used a  point or two they kept the price down. On the higher end of skills  there were things like superpowers and magic, like with the crazy over  the top stuff there being superman level strength and flash level speed  or incredibly strong magical powers. Some of the magic skills were  surprisingly low cost but they were all incredibly specific. Rituals or  potions or tantric magic. I put a pin in those.

Finally  there was the third category. Changes to reality. Most of the emails  I'd had before were money stuff, which was usually pretty low cost, five  to ten. I saw a few emails from a prince of some country that required  me to send money to him and he would wire me back a massive profit,  those I was surprised to see were around a hundred. I suspect that the  act of actually creating a new prince in a country was a huge strain on  reality or something. Whatever the case those were the cheap ones,  things like good luck and creating a business to rival LuthorCorp were  even higher.

I  took out my notebook and compared the estimates I'd made when I  discovered points to what was on the screen. I realized that some were  on the nose but some of my estimates were woefully off. Looking at the  screen I only had one thought. Thank god I had started slow and gotten  lucky. I somehow knew if I'd tried to use my powers on one of these  thousand point emails I would have been sucked dry of all my energy. I  briefly wondered how the hell this had happened, but thinking back it  was probably when I decided to make the point system.

My  power could affect reality which meant it could probably affect itself.  I was up to twelve points but it was around noon. I figured I should  have more if I got ten a day. Since I was three points down I suspected  it had used points to correct itself, It didn't appear to count toward  my one email a day limit but I had no clue how I'd done it and doubted  I'd figure it out soon. I debated turning my computer off and letting my  points build up so I could get something amazing, but I had something  pressing I had been wanting to look into. Housing. I wanted a new place  to live stat.

I  skimmed through all the emails that mentioned real estate. Most were  training courses on how to start a lucrative real estate business. Oddly  the point values differed. Some of them were like three or four points,  some of them were dozens. Most likely the more effective ones were  pricier. I scrolled past those to listings for roommates. Most of them  were ads claiming to be horny teen girls who wanted a big strong man in  the house, those were interesting but I lived with my mother so it  mostly sounded awkward. I wavered slightly on the email about the  sorority house that needed a man around to help them "relax" but finally  moved on.

It  took about twenty minutes but I finally found one that worked. An email  advertisement for a starter home in an up and coming condo development.  The email claimed that they were selling the first ten homes for the  low low price of fifty thousand dollars with no hidden fees. Moreover it  insisted the deal would only be valid today and that tomorrow the homes  would return to the normal prices which started at upwards of four  million. The reason this one caught my eye was the part where it said  the first ten homes. It had a yellow green number eight next to the  email header, well within my range, so I clicked the link to take me to  the site.

As  per usual the email vanished. I'd focused hard on buying two of the  homes and I wasn't sure if it worked, but when the doorbell rang and I  walked outside to check the mat I saw two envelopes instead of one  sitting there. I picked them up happily walking back inside. Curious  about how the transaction worked since the email had said I would be  charged I rifled through the first envelope. I saw several documents,  deeds, insurance papers and even a key, I finally found the invoice  tucked neatly into a signed housing contract with my name written in my  own sloppy signature.

The  invoice said that I had paid via wire transfer and listed a bank  account from...GNB. I opened my online banking account and sure enough I  was missing a hundred grand plus in my account. A hundred from the  condos and some extra for the weapons from Teague's. I dropped one  envelop on the table since mom wouldn't be home for a while and took the  second one with me up to see Artemis. I'd specifically found this email  so we could both have a better place to live. She was my only friend  and she knew my secret, of course I wanted her to come with me out of  this shithole.

I  considered multiple avenues of approach here, but I finally decided to  just tell her. She knew her family best she would know how to convince  her parents. Or at least her mother. I doubted Mr. Crock would turn down  a free highrise condo. The building in the picture was right along the  edge of the river across from Metropolis. Though with enough distance  from the bridge that they swore there was no danger living there. Which  of course was true. Because I'd made it true. Safest place in town.

I  knocked on the door and when Artemis answered I asked her to come up to  the roof. She agreed of course and we headed up to sit on our usual  milk crates. When we sat down I told her about the developments in my  powers and then about me moving and using an email to get condos in a  better part of town. Her face grew remote and her jaw clenched but she  forced a smile. "That's great moneybags. I'm happy for you. You deserve  better than this place. Guess this is the beginning of your rise to  glory huh? Come by to visit sometime. I'll miss seeing you around. I  know we just started hanging out but it was kind of nice to have a  friend."

Her  voice was tight and a bit angry, but at the end it just became a bit  sad. I just shook my head. "You weren't paying attention. I said I used  my power to get CONDOS. As in two of them." I handed her the envelope  with the papers and key. "Fully paid off. Only cost fifty grand, god I  love my powers. It's on the nineteenth floor, right next door to mine.  We would be neighbors." I grinned broadly at her. I expected her to be  happy, but she mainly just looked a bit suspicious. I raised an eyebrow.  "Unless you don't want it? I thought you'd be happy."

Her  face was conflicted, like she wanted to be happy but couldn't bring  herself to do it. "I can't take this Morgan." When I opened my mouth she  shook her head. "No, I get it. You want me around, you have a crush,  we're friends and you think I'm nice to look at. But I'm not going to be  your kept woman. I like spending time with you, but if I let you buy me  a house it's going to change our whole dynamic. I'd feel pressured to  do what you want. I don't think you would use it to manipulate me, not  on purpose, but there's a certain level of obligation that comes with  stuff like this. There's strings, even if you don't want there to be."

I  shook my head. "You're wrong. This isn't charity, or me being a horny  idiot. My mom has been the only person I've had to count on for my whole  life. When I told you about this it's because I was scared and alone  and i didn't know what to do. I needed a friend, any friend, I needed  someone to make me feel like I wasn't a crazy idiot having a breakdown  or some future victim for a super criminal to use like a weapon. You  helped me. You trained me. You kept me alive. I owe you more than any  number of condos could repay"

She  tried to speak but I cut her off "And I'm not even done. I still need  you. I can't imagine doing any of this without you around. Without you  to help guide me and take me places like Teague's and show me how to  navigate the world I find myself in now. So you want strings? Fine. Help  me survive. Be my friend and tell me when I'm about to do something  stupid. Kick my ass until I know what I'm doing and keep me safe until  then. Be my partner, hell be my bodyguard if it makes you feel better.  Just be there. Please?"

She  must have seen the desperation in my eyes, have sensed how out of my  depth I was. This power thing was cool and fun but I wasn't an idiot.  The reason I latched on to Artemis was because she was the only person I  felt like I could even begin to trust and I needed help. I had no clue  what I was doing and I was going to get myself killed. Seeing all that  in my eyes Artemis sighed and rolled her eyes. She looked at the  envelope and then nodded. "Fine. You'd be lost without me anyway. Now I  just have to figure out a way to explain this to my mom." I winced. That  made two of us.