Sell you a Bridge chapter 11 (Patreon)

Predictably the move was not delayed overly long. My mom called and  left a message to withdraw me from Gotham North and decided we would  spend Monday moving and getting settled and I could start Tuesday. She  figured a day off school was a good reward for getting into such a  prestigious academy. After our dinner she rushed me to bed so I could  get up early and start our packing tomorrow morning.

Anyone  who grew up somewhere that wasn't here would probably think this was  rushing or a hasty decision, but in point of fact it was fairly normal.  The odd apartment emptied out every day in this place, the tenants  leaving to move up in the world, getting committed, arrested, or just  killed. Gotham wasn't a kind city and even less so to people in this  part of town. Luckily this wasn't The Narrows so our actual homes were  safe enough as long as we locked up, but everyone here knew and played  by the rules if they didn't want to die.

The biggest rule  was mind your own business. Don't ask questions about where your  neighbors went, because you might not want to know, and don't ask about  where they're headed because they might not want to tell you. Add the  complete lack of consequences for leaving to the fact that we really  didn't have that much stuff and a quick move was well within the realm  of reason. Plus, though it was left unsaid, this place really sucked,  who would want to live here if they didn't have to.

The  next morning found me waking up to a red number nineteen behind my eyes.  I debated trying to work in a use of my powers before I was officially  up but it didn't seem worth it. Instead I popped out of bed, watched my  ninja training video for the day and drank my daily shake (made with  water in the bathroom so mom didn't know I was up) . I felt my muscles  get a bit denser as opposed to larger or more defined, which was nice  because it was less obvious a change and the video taught me a technique  that built on the balance lesson called water walking.

Contrary  to what the name might imply it wasn't specifically for walking on  water, it was a method of using my points to lighten my body and allow  me to walk across or on top of things that couldn't possibly support me.  Combined with my perfect balance I could walk across the points of the  links of a chain link fence without bending them at all, hell if I was  up high enough and somehow needed to I could walk on literal clouds. The  energy requirements for water walking were actually really low, but it  was of pretty limited utility in my day to day life.

Once I  was done I emerged from my room to find my mom awake and beaming as she  packed up the living room. She gave me a sunny smile as she saw me  awake "Morning sleepy head, thought you were going to snooze the day  away. This is your day off so I figured I'd let you stay in bed. Now  that you're up why don't you get your room packed up." She was moving  with surety and fluidity, neatly boxing and packing random knick knacks  with bubble wrap and the deft touch of someone who spent all day  balancing trays of glassware.

I chuckled and leaned down  to kiss her on top of the head "Sure thing ma. You got any spare boxes?"  She pointed wordlessly to a large stack of cardboard in the corner  where she had stacked the piles of broken down boxes she always shoved  in the closet when we got out hands on anything boxed for just such an  occasion. I rolled my eyes "Just because these came in handy this one  time does not validate years of cardboard hoarding. This is a one off,  an isolated incident, and I refuse to admit your ridiculous pack rat  habits are reasonable."

She just smirked at me and handed  me a roll of tape. She was never going to let me live this down. I  picked up a bunch of boxes and headed back to my own room to get started  packing. I'd expected to be sentimental about leaving at leas ta bit.  This was my home for most of my life and where I made my first real  friend, but in the end all I felt was relief. This had never felt right  to me, it had just been a pit stop my mom and I had been taking for way  too long. We were destined for better things, and now that I had the  power to change things we were going to get them.

Seeing  all of my stuff as i packed it away didn't exactly make that impression  fade. I had so little, not because my mom hadn't provided for me or  anything but because it wasn't safe to keep things that were too  valuable around here. and because I had never really wanted anything.  Just another reminder of I spent so long frozen by apathy. Now that I  was finally thawing I felt a burning hunger waking up in me. I began  thinking about what I could get for our new place, the new furniture and  clothes and food.

I was going to make sure that we lived a  good life, as soon as I figured out how to make it less suspicious that  I suddenly had hundreds of thousands of dollars to throw around for no  apparent reason. My packing was done fairly quickly, just a few boxes of  clothes, my computer, my muscle powder and dvd player and a few odds  and ends. I couldn't help but stare at the empty room. From the stripped  mattress that wasn't worth keeping to the small stack of boxes that  represented my entire life that I had piled in the hallway. With one  last look, I closed the door on the room I'd spent most of my life in.

The  drive to the new condo felt...final. Like I was shutting the door on a  huge part of myself. Nothing to do with the place I was leaving and more  to do with the person I was leaving behind. I smiled at the feeling  though. That severance didn't feel like tearing a hole but more like  cutting a rope tying me down. When we pulled up outside the building we  sat in the car and just kind of stared. A briefcase full of money is an  overwhelming thing to look at but it's just money. Just potential.  Intellectually you know what it can do but its not the same as looking  at a high rise condo and thinking "That's mine."

Apparently  my mom agreed. "Wow." I glanced over to find her eyes locked on the  building. "This feels like it's going to be a joke. Like we're going to  get to the lobby and they're going to tell us they were messing with us  and to take our dirty boxes and get the hell out." She turned bright  eyes on me. "I just want you to know I'm proud of you. No matter what  you did to get this chance for us." My eyes must have shown my surprise  because she laughed "Oh come on. I'm not stupid Morgan. Scholarships  don't come with the deed to a high rise condo."

My  heart broke at the sadness in her eyes when she looked at me. I  swallowed hard "I-I didn't do anything wrong to get the money. It's hard  to explain but I-" She reached up to put a finger to my lips with a sad  smile, shaking her head. I could see she had the wrong idea, she  thought I'd begged for the money from dad or gone into the family  business. But the worst part was I could see the sadness in her eyes  wasn't tinged with anger, it was tinged with guilt. She thought I'd  become a criminal because she couldn't afford to help me live a better  life.

I  grabbed her hand and looked her dead in the eye. She had opened her  mouth to respond but I cut her off. "We live in an amazing world where  amazing things happen. One of those things happened to me, but it isn't a  bad thing. I can't talk about it, but I'm different now. I'm going to  do better for us both. I love you, and I love the life you made for us  all by yourself. But you aren't by yourself anymore. You have me. Let me  help. Trust that I'm the person you raised and that I wouldn't do  something you would think was awful. Believe in me."

That  was the most I could say. Because despite playing around with Artemis I  knew the truth perfectly well. Having powers was going to bring me into  a world where bad things could and did happen on a regular basis. If my  mom knew what I could do she would want to know what I was using my  powers for. She would worry herself sick as I risked my life trying to  do...whatever my final goal was going to be with my powers. I couldn't  allow that. So I would let us pretend ignorance with plausible  deniability.

We  got out of the car and I carried the boxes to the elevator door and  then we hit the button. Once it was open I pushed the stacks inside the  elevator car and hit the button and when we got to our floor I did it  again. Even pushing a pre made stack I had set up for that purpose onto  and off the elevator so I could save trips I still had to fill the  elevator about three times to get all our stuff up. Once it was all in  the upstairs hallway I carried it down the hall to our door one or two  boxes at a time until I had it all finished.

When  I finished getting everything in I stopped to catch my breath and shut  the door before turning to take in our new home. It was gorgeous. Mom  came to stand beside me, having slipped in past the boxes and closed the  door and put an arm around my shoulder. Her voice was strained with  emotion "There was a time when I thought I would live in a place like  this with your father. Not a long time, but there was a period there  where I imagined it." She smiled and kissed my cheek. "I love you  Morgan, I try to say it often, but in case you didn't get the message. I  can't imagine having a better son."

I  smiled back at her and then leaned my head on her shoulder while we  took in the view. The river gleamed outside the window, with the  beautiful shining city of Metropolis across the water from us. The  floors were polished dark wood aside from the recessed living room which  was thick black carpet and the stairs up to the roomy second floor were  flat panels of wood on a metal frame with spaces you could see between.  The whole place looked modern and elegant and just perfect. I made a  silent prayer of thanks to my power.

After  a few minutes I picked up some boxes and started moving them to the  rooms upstairs. First my boxes then moms, I gave her the master bedroom  because she was my mom of course, plus even the small bedroom was five  times the size of my old one. I'd have to buy some new stuff to fill it  up. With mom non verbally approving of me being the one to get us this  place (which meant Artemis's mom must have known too and played along  for her own reasons, both of them were insanely talented actors) I could  afford to buy us some new stuff. Guess it was time for some shopping.  Thank god every place in Gotham delivered for a big enough tip.