Sell you a Bridge chapter 18 (Patreon)

It was like pulling teeth to get Reggie to promise not to use his  powers for the rest of the day. I didn't want him teleporting shit in  class and getting caught but he really wanted to try it out. I reminded  him of his date with his dream girl later today though and it shut him  up, though who knew how long that would last. Classes passed pretty  quickly. Reggie pestered me about Bette in chem instead of his new  abilities, seeming to have put the whole marked for death thing out of  his mind after getting superpowers.

I  couldn't blame him there. Getting superpowers had been a big shift in  worldview for me too. It was hard to hate your life when you could break  the laws of physics. Something about having unnatural powers just made  confidence that you could solve problems sort of a knee jerk reaction.  After school we met up and headed down the street to the Charcoal Pit.  Bette was supposed to meet us there. Artemis was coaching Reggie  "Remember, tell her she looks nice, comment on her hair, but only the  way it looks, talking about how people smell is creepy unless you've  been dating a while. And what's the number one rule of making a good  impression?"

Reggie  nodded solemnly "Don't talk about her butt. Even if it looks really  good today I shouldn't mention it." I was genuinely shocked no girl had  stabbed Reggie yet, he must be way more charming to women than he was to  me. Still he seemed to be taking Artemis's advice to heart so we might  be able to train him to talk to girls yet. He must have seen the looks  because he glared at us. "I'm not an idiot alright? It's just that  whenever I talk to Bette my brain just goes blank. She's so pretty, and  her eyes are so blue. I just blurt out the first thing I'm thinking  which when speaking to her is usually something about her butt."

Artemis  snickered "Yeah, well you certainly made an impression on her. Luckily  she pretty much left your presence after one sentence every time you  talked so it wasn't that big an impression. If you can get past fifteen  or twenty words without mentioning her ass you might have a shot to  impress her. Remember. You have superpowers now. Be confident." His  tense expression seemed to ease. I was so glad we had planned this for  today, since later we would be going to his house to scope things out  and make sure the Court wasn't lurking nearby.

After  talking with Artemis we had decided not to tell Reggie about the  court's visit. He already knew the stakes if we failed and letting him  know they applied to us now too wasn't going to make him any more  motivated than his family being in danger, it would just freak him out.  Having powers apparently made him feel like this would be an easy job  now, though I was withholding judgement on that until we spoke to my  dad. Either way Reggie was motivated but not afraid and that was pretty  much the best possible outcome for us.

The  meeting with my dad was set up for tomorrow, the day before we were  supposed to rob the place, so hopefully we would be able to learn a few  things about our targets. I had a sneaking suspicion that the Court of  Owls wouldn't have bothered sending us if it was a normal place,  considering how easily that Talon guy got into my house. No matter what  they said about tests or debts this was a fucking circus, they were  clearly using us to test the defenses on this place. If we pulled it  off, great, if not they could use the info to do it on their own or just  send another team of lackeys to smash themselves against the security.

When  we got to the Charcoal Pit I was kind of surprised. Somehow I had  expected a fifties style diner or something. Which it definitely was,  but it was clearly authentic. I'd been expecting something shiny and up  to date, like a knock off, not actual stuff from the fifties that was a  bit faded from age. Still I liked the atmosphere, jukebox, booths, the  whole nine yards. When we came in Bette waved to us, standing up to call  out for her friend "Artemis! Over here!" She seemed excited to spend  time with Arty outside school which I thought was really nice. Artemis  deserved as many friends as she could get.

They  hugged when we got to the table, which must have been a girl thing  because I didn't hug people unless I'd known them for ages. Hugging  someone after knowing them a day seemed weird to me, and I was a pretty  huggy person. We all sat down and Bette called over the waiter so we  could order. As discussed we got two kitchen sinks. I knew it was just  asking for brain freeze but still, I had to try. Bette looked amused and  glanced at Reggie for the first time, not warm exactly but not cold  "You didn't try to talk them out of this? No one ever manages to finish  it."

Suprisingly  Reggie just shrugged and gave an easy smile "Neither of them are the  type to change their minds easy. It's good to see you by the way. It's  been a while." She was clearly surprised by his ability to form a  coherent sentence that wasn't incredibly dickish, and Reggie seemed to  get that. "Look, sorry I never made the best impression. You make me  kind of nervous and I babble. Artemis talked some sense into me, and to  be honest I'm more afraid of her than I am nervous of you which kind of  helps." He gave a full body shudder as he remembered her kick earlier  and I winced right along with him. Some kinds of pain you couldn't help  but feel sorry for. Even if they were hilarious.

She  look dubious, but rolled her eyes "Fine, I'll play nice, but if you  mention my ass even once I'm going to drown you in that ice cream." She  glared for a second to show she was serious and then seemed to relax  before turning to Artemis. "So, why don't you introduce me to your  friend and we can talk about your audition for the track team. You  seriously need some extracurriculars. It's already junior year and you  don't have any yet from what you said." She gave Artemis a teasing smile  "As long as you're sure you're not up for joining the cheer squad?"

The  rest of the afternoon passed pleasantly enough. Bette was a cutie and  very fun to hang out with, she had a ruthless sense of humor and tended  to tease everyone. She fit right in with us. Reggie and she actually got  along ok once he got past his nerves and actually talked to the girl,  and Artemis and I did our best to help our buddy out. Reggie was in on  at least one of my secrets and we were going to rob a house together,  that made him pretty much one of us. Besides he clearly had it bad for  the the pretty blonde.

At the end  of our little outing Artemis and I had finished our kitchen sink, and  Bette and Reggie got about halfway through. It may have been slightly  unfair to them since we were both built out of muscle and whatever that  powder did to me made me pretty damn hungry all the time. Regardless  Arty and I high fived and mocked the two of them to their faces, much to  their shared annoyance, and the commiseration over how we were terribly  ungraceful winners actually motivated Bette to give Reggie her number,  though only after warning him that if he texted her anything  inappropriate she was going to castrate him.

Our  friend was kind of floating as we left, and started rambling pretty  much immediately "That was amazing! Bette is so cool! I never realized  how awesome she was because like ninety percent of the time I was just  staring at her but she's actually really funny and smart and..." he  trailed off noting the boredom on our faces "sorry to rant about it. I  owe you guys." The smile slipped off his face "though I guess I already  did. Speaking of which, it's probably about time to head back to my  place to check things out." He brightened a bit "I can introduce you to  my mom and sister! We can't tell them about all this of course but still  they'll be so happy to meet my new friends."

We  whistled up a cab and then headed to his place. Reggie was fun to be  around, he had the same energy as a big blonde puppy, he was actually  pretty smart, just kind of simple. Naive almost. It made me wonder what  had happened to him before at school to make him act so dark and ominous  that first day. I made a mental note to ask him about it later. As we  drew closer he filled us in on his place "So we live in Crest Hill, most  of the really old families do. The house is a bit empty because we've  had to sell all out furniture and stuff but the place itself belongs to  us so no rent or anything. We manage utilities by keeping several wings  of the house shuttered but other than that things are tight. Just  warning you that the inside doesn't really match with what you see  driving up."

Which  wasn't shocking because Reggie's house was absolutely massive. It was  an old school Victorian manor house complete with towers and gable roof.  We both turned to stare at Reggie and he shrugged. "Like I said, the  Wilowbrooks are old Gotham money. We fell on some hard times but we  haven't gone broke enough to lose the house. Trust me, the inside looks  like the leftover stock at an everything must go furniture sale. Come on  in. I'll introduce you." We stepped out of the cab and started up the  very long and winding path to the door. His yard was bigger than a  fucking football field, and that was just the front.

He  slipped an old brass key from his pocket when we reached the door,  turned it in the old fashioned door knob, jerked up and kicked the wood  panel twice and the door popped open. He caught our gaze "Antique doors  are more pretty than sensible. The lock sticks if you don't know how to  work it." He stepped in taking off his shoes and gesturing for us to do  the same. As we did he bellowed into the big empty entry way "Mom!  Callie! I'm home and i brought friends!" Within seconds I heard a  rhythmic pounding on the stairs as some came barreling down them and a  small blonde girl hurled herself off them into Reggie's arms.

He  swung her around in a circle and the little girl squealed. "Reggie!  You're home! Where did you go? Mom said you left before she got up this  morning. She said you left a note but she sounded kind of worried. Is  everything ok?" As children often did the little girl babbled all of  this in a nearly non stop stream of speech. She looked about ten or  eleven and reminded me a lot of Reggie himself. Reggie made a few  excuses and then just bull rushed past her questions with enthusiasm and  playfulness. He finally sent the girl off to find their mom so he could  introduce us.

He  turned to us and smiled "Sorry Callie can be a bit of a handful but  she's a sweet kid. She just worries about me lately. Anyway my mom will  be down soon enough, if she didn't hear that she's probably in dads old  study. In the meantime how about I show you around." His eyes flashed  "We can make sure those bastards aren't lurking around my house or  watching me." I had to admit despite them probably not killing him or  pissing him off before the mission the latter option was pretty likely.  Well then, guess it was time to figure out if ninja training could help  you find electronic bugs.