Sell you a Bridge chapter 17 (Patreon)

The next morning was...blurry. I didn't get nearly enough sleep the  night before between the stupid Court of Owls breaking into my house and  my friend calling me in a panic. I stuck Dr. Destro's Dehumanization  Draft in my backpack to offer to Reggie at school after I talked to  Artemis about it to see if she was cool waiting for something else. I  was down to fourteen points now, and I made a mental note to save some  up for the actual theft on Friday if my dad couldn't get us out of it.

Reggie  rode with us to school, my mom was not only ok with him being at the  condo, she spent the whole morning fussing over him like a wounded  puppy. Being thin and pale and very obviously exhausted she was  basically force feeding him pancakes. Artemis came over for breakfast  before we left and it was funny enough to make up for both of us being  so tired it was almost physically painful. When we got to school agreed  to meet up at lunch and head outside the school to talk instead of  hitting the cafeteria and then headed off to class.

My  first class was my English class with Annabel, and when I dropped into  the seat she turned to me with a bright smile, only blanch at my  disheveled state. "Oh wow, Morgan you look terrible. Did you sleep at  all last night? You look like a racoon." While not flattering that was  probably fair, but Annabel was much to nice to say that usually  especially after knowing me only a day because when she realized that  had been out loud she covered her mouth with a hand "Oh god, I'm so  sorry. I just meant you look tired. Is everything ok?"

I  just laughed it off "Yeah, it's fine. A friend got stranded somewhere  last night and woke me up to come get him. I might need a bit of help  with whatever we cover today, I'm so tired I'm having trouble  remembering what I was saying at the beginning of my own sentences." I  really needed to go to the bathroom and splash cold water on my face  from the sink actually but we'd just gotten here so it didn't seem to be  in the cards. Instead, I went with an old trick I'd come up with  studying at the public library near Gotham North because falling asleep  there wasn't really safe. I took out a rubber band an snapped it against  my arm.

A quick jolt of pain  was enough to wake me up, especially since I seemed to always feel pain  more acutely when I was tired. Annabel was looking at me like I was nuts  and I just shrugged. She just shook it off and winked at me "Anyway  sure, I can help out with class, but you'll owe me one. Maybe we could  do coffee sometime, you certainly seem like you need it." I grinned back  at her, not at all against the idea of going out with the pretty little  blonde. She looked around "In the meantime go to sleep. Kaplan hates  people talking or making a ruckus but anything quiet she mostly ignores.  Unless you snore she won't bother you, I'll give you my notes after  class."

I  almost groaned in gratitude but I didn't want to make the noise. I  opened the book I shared with Annabel and put it in front of me so I  wouldn't be too obviously sleeping, I figured it would be easier to  ignore me napping in class with plausible deniability. I was unconscious  within a minute of my head hitting my desk. As per usual I was shaken  awake what felt like two minutes later, classes didn't last that long  and if I was still sleeping when everyone left it would have kind of  made things too obvious to ignore. I thanked Annabel for the cover and  the extra copy of her notes and we made plans to meet Saturday for  coffee, assuming I wasn't dead.

After  class I slipped out as planned to meet with Artemis and Reggie. We  decided to meet up at a tree just outside the school where hopefully we  wouldn't be overheard. When I got there Reggie was running late and  Artemis was already waiting. I plopped down next to my friend and leaned  my back against the tree. She looked like she was about to nod off. I  chuckled "Your first class wasn't one you could sleep in huh? I really  lucked out with Kaplan. She doesn't care what you do provided it doesn't  interrupt class. Thank god I don't talk in my sleep. Anyway I wanted to  talk to you about something important before Reggie shows up."

I  slipped the vial of glowing green liquid out of my backpack. "This is  Dr. Destro's Dehumanization Draft. I'm not sure what was supposed to be  in this, but what's in it now after my power got done with it is a  random superpower. I was going to give it to Reggie. He doesn't have my  power or your training and he has to be a part of this mess at  Shadowcrest. A super power might help him survive longer." I paused  "Well, probably. The email said that despite being random the power  wouldn't cause any harm. Still, you were with me first, I don't want to  screw you over, I can give this to you if you want it. We can just watch  out for Reggie together."

Artemis  looked torn, but finally she shook her head. "No. You're right, giving  it to him is the right call. I have my training to fall back on and you  have your powers but if we want to get out of this now that we're in we  need Reggie to be able to pull his weight." I'd told her when she showed  up this morning about our little visitor last night. "Plus, no offense  but a random superpower sounds risky. Even if it won't harm me what if I  get like laser tits or something?" I gave her an incredulous look  "What? Random means it could be anything. As much as I'd love super  powers if have to whip out my boobs to use them I might as well not have  any at all."

I  heard a throat clear from off to one side and we turned to see Reggie  grinning at us. "That vial gives people the ability to shoot lasers from  their nipples? Because I'll be honest, as weird as that is I would  totally drink it. At least as long as Artemis is sure she doesn't want  it." I cracked up as my friends face went beet red. She rarely blushed  so I couldn't help but savor the moment. Reggie laughed too "But  seriously regardless of what it actually is where the hell did you get a  vial with superpowers in it. Those things don't grow on trees. In fact I  didn't even know they had a stable formula to create metas."

As  planned I just dumped all the weirdness on my family connections.  "About that...so, I know this will be weird to hear and I'd appreciate  you not telling anyone but my dad is Mario Falcone. We're actually  meeting with him soon about Shadowcrest. He got the vial from some crazy  doctor he works with. It's totally safe, but it's not exactly legal. It  also doesn't give you laser titties, though if it did I maintain that  would be an amazing power for you Artemis." She just stuck up her middle  finger at me "The power is actually random. It won't be something that  will actually hurt you but other than that it could be anything. We have  to hit Shadowcrest Friday so we thought we would offer it to you. If  you want it."

He  looked stunned "I...don't even know what to say. So many people would  love meta powers. You guys are already doing so much to help me. I mean,  obviously yeah I accept but still this is just a huge thing." His smile  was a bit watery around the edges "I can never repay what you guys are  doing for me. Seriously though, I appreciate the help more than you  could know." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath "Well, I guess if  I'm taking this I should do it now. Who knows if I'll need time to  recover before class." He hesitated a bit "Also, I know you said this  was safe but if my head explodes please tell my mom and sister I love  them. And tell Bette I had a dream one time where we co-owned a bodega.  It was really nice."

I  didn't actually have a response to that so I nodded and he toasted to  both of us, popped the cap and downed Dr. Destro's Dehumanization Draft  in one pull. Thinking about it not telling him what it was called was  probably a good choice. Regardless of the name though he would be fine.  My power changed reality. The email said it would be a non harmful power  so it would be a non harmful power. Reggie stood there fine for a  second then he started to choke. He grabbed his throat and his face  turned purple and Artemis and I both started freaking out. We looked at  each other frantically trying to figure out what to do as he collapsed  to his knees.

Then  suddenly he just stopped. He looked at our faces and burst out  laughing. "Oh god, sorry guys not the right time I know but you should  have seen your faces." Unfortunately for him he was so busy cracking up  at his joke at our expense that he didn't notice falling to his knees  had put him within range or Artemis's feet. She kicked him in the nuts.  This time the choking and falling over was real, and it was our turn to  laugh. He laid on the ground gasping for a minute or two before crawling  up to his hands and knees before croaking out "Ok, I may have deserved  that."

I  finally stopped laughing and patted him on the back "So, did it work?  Can you fly? Or turn into a man made of cheese, or throw exploding  energy bananas? Hell are you slightly better at juggling now? I'll take  anything at this point." I had neglected to find out if there was a way  to tell what the power was. I could only hope that like my other  artifacts it gave him an instinctive grasp on how to use the ability.  Still knowing that I could let other people use items was pretty  amazing. However somehow my power was communicating to me it would only  work once per person.

Without my  the energy from my power which could be any kind of energy the person  would develop their own native energy pool once they took the formula or  did the lessons or what have you. My ninja arts used qi, Reggie's meta  powers used some other kind of energy. I could use my points as both but  anyone else was limited to a single type. It was interesting that  knowledge was somehow intuitive but I suspected it was just my ability  making sure i didn't accidentally blow up one of my friends. Probably  one of the changes from the points used to add the values to the emails.

Reggie  meanwhile was grinning like a loon now as he got to his feet and dusted  off his knees. "Hell yeah it worked. You are now looking at a  metahuman. My power is translocation. I can switch places with another  object or switch the places of two objects I can see. It even works on  other people. I can only do it like once every ten minutes right now,  but I can tell as I get stronger I can increase that. It's the weirdest  feeling, it's like I've known how to do this my whole life. I can just  feel how it works." He shot us both a grin "So, who wants to test out my  super powers before lunch is over?"