Sell you a Bridge chapter 73 (Patreon)

The Clock Tower August 5th 2010 8:00 PM EDT

We  were exhausted. All of us just collectively beat. Zee was home tonight,  her dad had taken time off to spend time with her because the Labyrinth  didn't appear to be going anywhere. Despite my intention to avoid the  dungeon we had gone back in the last two days, but without Zee we were  benched now. I was sulking because I missed my girlfriend and Reggie was  texting Bette while Artemis talked animatedly on the phone to Wally.

Wally  had been in town the last few days apparently, but his relatives needed  help around the house. He sword that he would have time soon and spent  every night on the phone with Artemis. I kind of got her point about Zee  and I because the two of them were nauseating and it made me smile. My  best friend deserved to be happy, and loud mouth or not the redheaded  seemed determined to get the job done. I wasn't going to be inviting him  to dungeon delve with us anytime soon mind you but still, he was ok in  my book.

We  were all interrupted from our various introspections by a loud bang. Jim  was standing at the foot of the table with a big ass book he had just  dropped. Our mentor sadly couldn't get into the dungeon, but he said  he'd had enough adventure in his death anyway. He had been out and about  pulling jobs while the League was busy and stocking his coffers, but he  seemed to finally have something for us to do, and I for one was  excited. With no dungeon tonight some thieving was just what the doctor  ordered.

I  grimaced at myself for becoming one of those guys that felt like shit  after not seeing his girl for a day, but was momentarily distracted as  my mentor picked up the book and tossed it in a corner, clearly not  intending to use it. I glared at him. "Was that a prop? You brought that  huge book in here just to drop it on our table to scare us didn't you."  I sneered at him, with very little malice but plenty of mockery. "You  know, prop comedy is the lowest form of humor." Jim leveled a single  white gloved middle finger at me then sat down.

Kit  had been dragged away from her studying and pulled in here though I'd  just noticed her, and he gestured for her to sit down as well before  turning his monocle to face us as Artemis said goodbye and hung up the  phone. "It was an instructional aid. You're all horribly dense at times.  Regardless, I come with news." He reached into his white coat and  pulled out a series of invitations. "Through some string pulling, I  managed to get us invited to a rather grand event. An auction of sorts,  where the most powerful and dastardly objects are sold. A market of  menace proprieted by none other than that grand duke of graft and  larceny. The Dealer."

I  was intrigued. I didn't know who the dealer was, but if Jim was hamming  it up this much he must have been a big deal, no pun intended. Artemis  however, was not so sanguine. She shot to her feet, eyes wide. "You got  us invited to Mirror House?" We all turned to look at her in puzzlement  (except Jim I assumed though since he didn't have a face currently I  couldn't be sure.) She noted the looks and grinned excitedly. "Mirror  House is a moving auction, only the highest class of Gotham criminals  get invited, they sell all the coolest stuff. Supervillain tech and  magic items and everything in between."

Jim  nodded approvingly. "This year's auction will of course contain more  than it's fair share of powerful artifacts from the Labyrinth, but there  will be plenty of other amazing objects to bid on as well. A few years  ago Icicle won the lease on some kind flying weather fortress. We will  of course also be contributing to the auction. Which will be held in two  days, so if any of you have any spare gear to get rid of, anything  relatively potent can be put up for bid." We did of course have a ton of  stuff. We'd been running the dungeon for about a week and only a  portion of our loot was usable for us.

Reggie  looked excited. "Do they accept gold? Because all my money is in gold  right now, but I have a ton of it." Reggie had been fucking over the  moon about all the gold. To the point that we actually gave him most of  it. I had plenty in the bank and the others didn't seem as attached to  it as he was. I swear I'd seen him sketching plans for a scrooge mcduck  style gold swimming pool at one point. The next time we'd gotten some  gold I'd casually mentioned the old show and the infeasible nature of  swimming in gold coins and he's seemed pretty miserable about it, but I  was glad to have saved him from breaking all his bones.

Jim  chuckled, aware of our friends draconic gold madness but just nodded.  "Dungeon gold is accepted. They've been testing it around town and  apparently it holds enchantments incredibly well. It's actually more  valuable piece for piece than regular gold, though people have started  minting dungeon coins out of the normal stuff to try to cash in so  they're careful when they accept it. Expect to have whatever you bring  in thoroughly vetted." He reached down and pulled something out to set  on the table. "One last thing of course, you'll all need one of these."

He  pointed at a white gas mask, and Artemis nodded. At our inquisitive  looks she explained. "Mirror House is completely anonymous. Everyone who  enters has to wear a gas mask, it gives low rent villains that swing an  invite a choice of anonymity and prevents most people from using their  reputations to bully other bidders. There are exceptions of course,  people who have obvious physical differences, but for the most part it  keeps the bidding pretty fair from what I hear." She seemed fascinated  by the place and I smiled at her teasingly.

She  blushed a bit and coughed. "I always thought the auctions were cool. My  dad was never invited but some of his clients were and I heard about  them when I was young. I did a ton of research on the streets about  them." She narrowed her eyes, once dark grey but nor a shining silver  after her transformation into a Heavenly Punishment Elf. "I don't want  to hear any shit from any of you nerds, especially not you Mr. Graveyard  Expert. I might have been a bit of a researcher as a kid but at least I  wasn't an emo."

I  scowled at her, standing to glare back. "I was kind of gothy but it's  not like I was jerking off to Tim Burton movies or something. Between  this and the Greek mythology research you were pretty much a mini  librarian. Does your boyfriend know he's dating a brainy nerd chick?  You've clearly blinded him with your tight track pants and convinced him  you're this kickass jock girl. Poor Wally." Her mouth was open in an  outraged gasp as she glared at me, and I flicked on aura vision to watch  her work through the mockery. Schadenfreude was so much funnier when  you could enjoy it visibly.

She  raised a finger at me, leaning over the table to shove it my face.  "First of all, Wally is a science geek. He LIKES my nerdy hobbies thank  you very much. Second of all, maybe I should tell your very catholic  girlfriend that you used to sleep in coffins and compose sonnets about  death? How long do you think it'll be before you get some if she finds  out you're a wrist slitting my chemical romance listening bitch."Now it  was my turn to be outraged. That coffin thing happened one time! And I  had never slit my wrists.

There  was another thump and we looked over to see Kitrina, my cousin having  gone and picked up Jim's book and brought it back over to drop it on the  table again. "Enough. Knowing you two this could go on for hours, and  there's a non zero chance Artemis might start throwing lightning at you  Morgan, so we're separating you. You aren't allowed to speak to each  other unless it's to apologize." She glared at us as if daring us to  respond but we just looked down sulkily. Kit smiled and gave us a nod.

I  exhaled slowly, not really mad any more than Artemis was. Under her  mild outrage her aura was seething with amusement and fondness. This  wasn't fighting just a bit of sibling rivalry, Artemis was family and  she felt the same. But Kit wasn't wrong about the bickering escalating  and I'd prefer not to get a bolt of holy super lightning to the face. We  hadn't tested that yet so we had no clue what it did. I just turned to  her and mumbled. "Sorry Arty." And she did the same thing, each of us  giving a brief non and silently agreeing our busbody friends were  annoying,

I  shook off my irritation, turning to my boss. "Anyway how many tickets do  you have. Because I was hoping since we'll all have masks we could  bring." Jim moved his hat in that weird way that made it clear he was  rolling his eyes at me despite not having any eyes or a face for them to  sit in and passed me a pair of white cards embossed with gold leaf.  "Yes you can bring your lady love. You're insufferable now boy, I wasn't  even this bad when Nimue and I were together. Just make sure she knows  not to start trouble. These auctions are heavily defended."

I  had pretty much assumed that honestly. Any place where people sold  powerful magic and supertech would be watched like a hawk by the owners,  to prevent theft if nothing else. Not to mention they would have their  own stock to use to enforce security, and I didn't relish the thought of  trying to keep up with that. I gave him a somber nod and took the the  invitation, slipping it and it's counterpart into my jacket with a grin  as I imagine dhow happy Zee would be about a date to an underground  magic and super science auction. She was going to be so psyched.

Jim  snorted and waved us off. "Well, go ahead. I can tell you all have  various things you're itching to do. Don't let me keep you." We all  scattered. Me to call Zee, Artemis to get back in touch with Wally, and  Reggie to go count his gold and text Bette back. Their relationship was  going surprisingly well actually, and it was nice to see my excitable  friend settling down a bit. Bette was a calming influence though I  suspected my spaz teammate would forever remain a spaz to at least some  degree. I wouldn't have it any other way.

I  shot a text to Zee on our burner phone line where I knew it would be  safe and told her about the tickets (my top tier computer expertise made  hacking into the phone company and creating a pair of untraceable ghost  lines easy) and she was as excited as expected. I closed my eyes to  check my points, already up to a hundred and sixty after two level ups  worth of points brought me to thirty per day. I wished I had a way to  make it to three hundred before the auction so I would have that extra  layer of protection but between all of us we should be fine. Two more  days until the auction, two more after that until mom and Paula got back  with Reggies family. It was going to be a big week.