Sell you a Bridge chapter 76 (Patreon)

Mirror House August 7th 2010 8:30 PM EDT

Despite The Dealer having literally no distinguishing features from  the rest of the people in here, somehow after a while it became easy to  tell him apart from the others. He just had this kind of...presence  about him. A weight of confidence or certainty the others lacked. Which  considering the people under those masks was pretty impressive. I leaned  over to whisper to Jim. "So who is this guy again? You weren't really  clear on why he's so special or impressive?" They had talked a lot about  The Dealer, but mostly things he did rather than who he was.

Jim  just shrugged. "That's a matter of some debate really. Over the years  people have figured out his current position, he's part of some evil  cult that worships the darkness in the the human heart, but as for who  he actually is we have no clue. We can't find anything about his origins  or even his real identity. And trust me we've looked. Just about all of  us have tried to puzzle out his secrets, but even with the whole Gotham  criminal world working on it no one had gotten anywhere. He seems to  have severed all ties with his past, and he did it thoroughly."

That  was pretty impressive considering the quality of some of the scarier  people in Gotham and their information gathering operations. Keeping  personal secrets like my power was one thing, I could just never tell  more than one or two people, but erasing all traces of your own  existence was a feat I couldn't even imagine. Every piece of information  from school, the doctor, the government, even casual mentions and  photos by friends or people who had been at the same events, there was  just so much information to curb and erase.

My  musings on the man came to an end as he finally reexerted his control  on the room. He had allowed the listeners to lapse into a pitch of  fevered whispers after his dramatic proclamation, which for most would  have seemed over the top. Despite the obvious theater (no pun intended)  The Dealer didn't come across silly or cartoonish, with his sheer  presence he recaptured the attention of everyone present before  launching into another announcement. "As you all may know, a powerful  rift in the world has appeared in our city. Many have dove into it's  depths and come out with treasures."

He  gestured to one side and a bright spotlight flipped on with a loud  clack, illuminating a white marble pedestal with gold veins. I  recognized it as Calcatta Oro Marble, a specialized and expensive luxury  stone from Italy, and one of the many materials I learned about in my  research for Jim. Upon the pedestal sat a ring, one too far for me to  identify easily but which they helpfully announced the name of in a  plaque below it. The ring was made of a dull gray steel with a large  clear jewel set into it and I was positive before I even saw the plaque  that it was unique.

The  Dealer gestured at the displayed ring with a flourish. "First up we  have a particularly impressive specimen. As any who have entered the  dungeon beneath us may know, magical items are marked with blue  lettering when identified or beheld. The yellow lettering on this item  proclaims it to be Unique, based on our sources. While not truly one of a  kind, these rare magical artifacts are few enough that even with  thousands of people delving the dungeon we've only managed to find a  minuscule number."

His  voice took on a smug tone. "While normal blue artifacts will be  auctioned in bulk at the end of our proceedings, none of them rate a  place of honor in our collection. This is the Empyrean band. It provides  a flat plus two to all stats, through trial and error we believe that  the human peak of all statistics is a flat ten, and one fifth of that  added to what appears to be strength, speed, endurance, and magical  power is nothing to scoff at. It also increases your light radius in the  dungeon, as well as allowing faster recovery from being struck and  absorbs half of the damage done by traps or ambushes."

I  wasn't sure how the hell they got this one honestly, in the game I  remembered it being a reward from Griswolds Magic Rock quest, but quests  didn't exist here so maybe the dungeon just spawned quest rewards on  drop like other uniques. I didn't bid on that, because I could find it  myself if I looked long enough and even if I didn't I could increase my  stats other ways. The auction for that ring was quick and very pricy,  and by the end the price had gone from a starting value of ten thousand  gold pieces to nearly ten times that.

It  seemed everyone was using gold pieces at this auction, which  considering Jim's revelation about their enchantment potential made  sense. But to have this much they must have been either buying the coins  in bulk from adventurers or sending gold farming teams down into the  Labyrinth. Either way it didn't bode well for us. We only had about  fifty thousand gold pieces total between all of us, and most of them  were Reggie's. They accepted cash too, but at a ten to one exchange rate  for the dollar bidding with normal money would be tough even for me  after a certain point. Hopefully prices stayed as low as they were now.

The  next item up, thankfully, was not dungeon spawned. Nor was it even  magical. A second pedestal lit up on the other side of The Dealer with  another flourishing gesture and the light on the first one went out. The  gas masked auctioneer sounded positively gleeful about this one. "Now  this is a wonderful piece of technology. A synthetic super serum known  as BRZK, or Berserk, this little beauty is perfect for creating  disposable minions. This vial will creak a super powered berserker  soldier from any living being,and in its second stage becomes unstable  enough to turn them into a living bomb."

I  could almost hear the nasty grin in his voice as he spoke and I winced.  That was pretty dark stuff. He shrugged before continuing. "We only  have a single vial of the compound unfortunately, and our attempts to  recreate it have been less than fruitful, perhaps one of you may have  better luck however. In any case this is a must have last resort for any  super villain. Simply inject the compound into your rear guard as you  slip away, and you have a distraction and a finishing blow all in one,  not to mention the possibility of a berserk super minion getting lucky  and killing your enemy themselves."

Zatanna  grabbed my sleeve. "Morgan that's horrible, are we really going to let  these kinds of people buy something like that?" I winced. When Jim said  it was a supervillain auction, I assumed he meant like a weather machine  and some magic bullets or something. Nothing this...obviously evil. I  considered myself neutrally moral most of the time, hence my career as a  thief, but this pushed my limits and then some. But that wasn't what  made me angry. It had been Jim's idea to invite Zee. This wasn't an  outing, it was a fucking test. He was vetting my girlfriend, either to  join the team or to make sure she could be trusted.

I  took her hand in mine. "I know babe, I don't like it either, but this  isn't the place to start something. We won't win that fight. I can  figure out a way to track them down after, no matter what precautions  they take." I meant it too, I would use my power to get a device for  finding these people. I wasn't a saint but letting dangerous criminals  have this kind of gear rubbed me the wrong way. Which I suspected may  have been another point to this. It wasn't just a test for Zee, but for  me as well. Jim wanted to see what I would do.

My  assurances didn't seem to make Zatanna feel much better, but they  calmed her down enough to not do anything stupid and I was grateful for  that. The serum finally sold for a million gold pieces, and the men in  masks came up to take it away carrying the thing off the stage in a box  that they sealed tightly before lifting it. Whoever bought that might  want to be careful about that little display, but the sale had been  finalized so there was no going back now. Luckily for all involved they  accepted credit, mostly because they knew where the invitees lived, and  plus carrying that much gold was prohibitive.

Reggie  and Artemis were fairly unsettled by the kind of goods being put up  too. The ring was a pretty neutral piece of gear, but exploding super  soldier serum was too malicious to ignore where it was going, it might  by hypocritical but once we heard what it did we suddenly regretted  coming here. I was right behind Zee honestly, I wanted to raid this  shithole, and only worries about my friends kept me back. The Dealer  stepped forward, gesturing for them to shut off the light on the second  pedestal and relight the first, which now had a jar of...something on  it.

It  was...hard to describe. Green and metallic but somehow misty and liquid  at the same time, like it was constantly shifting between states of  being, the disturbing riot of material slight changing to a different  green with each change, but all of them eerie as hell. "This!" Crowed  the maniacal auctioneer. "Is Dionesium! A sample found by an explorer in  the catacombs beneath Gotham, in a pool he subsequently lost, this  miraculous material possesses amazing regenerative capabilities, so  potent it can bring even the dead back to life. This jar of liquid metal  is completely unique and it's like has never been seen."

That  wasn't true. I'd seen it's like. Electrum, the compound the court used  to raise their Talons. But this seemed stronger. Electrum was a limited  commodity that required long term exposure and replenishment. This stuff  was one and done from the sound of it. Zee leaned in. "We can't let  them get something like this. It's much too dangerous. The Court is bad  enough with that crazy metal you told me about but this seems way worse.  Someone could go and dump this in a supervillains coffin or something  and bring back someone terrifying. We need to stop them from auctioning  this." She turned to Jim. "Is there really nothing we can do?"

I  turned with her, despite not being able to see his face, Jim's  invisibility made his body language more expressive, at least with  people he trusted. I could see the tension in him, and it occurred to me  that we had overlooked something pretty huge. Jim was dead. He might be  able to use this to come back. He must have predicted my thoughts  though because when I turned to look at him he shook his head. "No. It  wouldn't work on me. I have no body to revive. I am but a spirit. Even  my mortal form is simply a simulacra, though it means a great deal that  you would think of me."

He  turned to face Zatanna directly. "The answer, I'm afraid, is no. The  security on this venue is astonishingly tight. Even more so than usual I  can feel the presence of some powerful beings here. If I am not  mistaken, Teth-Adam himself is in attendance, acting as a silent threat,  and as terrifying as some may find me, I am not match for that old  beast. It would take a fool of the highest order to attempt to stage a  theft at such an event." Which was, of course, when the Vampires decided  to attack.