Sell you a Bridge chapter 219 (Patreon)

April 17th 2016 Doomhollow Hall 12:00 PM EDT

The  next day found me preparing for the raid on Lex Luthor. Dreamer had  managed to pry the secret of his most secure safe house out of Ra'as,  who had investigated the shady billionaire thoroughly when they were  "working together". Lex had no clue the Demon's Head knew where he was  holed up, but that was one of the reasons we went after a guy who ran an  organization called the League of Shadows first. Take down the  spymaster you can get access to all his info. He had plenty of it too,  but despite what I'd expected, it was looking like Lex's place would be  even harder to crack than infinity island.

We'd  made a mockup of the compound in the Appalachians and managed to get it  uploaded in the map room. It wasn't real time since it wasn't within  range, but it helped with planning at least. Unfortunately we were  hitting a bit of a wall based on the information presented. "Why the  fuck does he have so many robots? Like I get that he's Lex Luthor, but  that's too many robots for one person. Like does he even own other  stuff? Is everything he has secretly a robot? Because seriously, I can't  figure out how the hell he managed to put to together a hundred  thousand robot army."

The number wasn't even certain.  It was a fucking estimate Ra'as had come up with after tracking  shipments he'd been able to find and estimating storage space. There  could very well be even more of them. Nightwang, who had come when I'd  mentioned having info, was grimacing down at the map. "Unfortunately  that's just Lex. He's paranoid at the best of times. It won't just be  robots either. I'm pretty positive he has some kind of powered armor  that lets him fight evenly with superman."

That wasn't  as big a deal as it sounded. I had my own armor now. But from his  expression he had worse news he was less than willing to share. "Ok,  just spit it out. You've spent the last fifteen minutes looking like you  were in the process of trying to shit out a blackhawk helicopter. You  clearly have some sort of insight I don't or some sort of bad news, and  unlike my girlfriend, I'm not a mind reader. So how about you cut the  shit and just tell me."

I expected a sneer or an eye  roll, but he genuinely looked uncomfortable. "We...can't help." I  blinked at him, taring dumbly and waiting for him to make that make  sense. "Infinity Island is a known criminal hotspot in international  waters housing an organization made up of literal murderers for hire. As  an extension of the League the team was more than able to intervene  when faced with evidence of collusion with outside forces. Lex Luthor  however is a well known and respected businessman with a team of very  expensive lawyers and a habit of not leaving evidence."

I  sighed, gripping the bridge of my nose. "He's also on US soil, and  because of your UN charter you have to respect national sovereignty.  Without evidence of wrongdoings on Luthor's part you're completely  unable to touch the bastard. Why the hell didn't you mention this  before?" I wasn't exactly in a position where I needed them on this, but  it was annoying to find out my op would be short a few powerful  superhumans right after finding out I had to fight a robot army and a  guy in a super suit.

He actually looked genuinely  unhappy about the circumstances as he answered. "We didn't think he  would be in the US. It's too obvious. Plus, the other members of The  Light are international criminals. If he'd been holed up with Savage or  Ra'as we would have had an excuse to bring him in for harboring a  fugitive. Since he appears to be running things in the bunker on his own  though I doubt we have a leg to stand on." I doubted that actually. I  was pretty sure given his position as primary partner we'd be dealing  with the scarabs when we got there, but I chose to keep silent.

Savage  would be the last one there, and if he was like his buddies he would  have someone waiting for us when we arrived. Probably one of Darkseid's  goons, or multiple goons, but that was a problem for future Morgan. For  now we needed to handle Lex and his alien buddies, and what occurred to  me here was...I didn't WANT the team around. The Reach had hit my  berserk button, and I was in a position to massacre those bastards  wholesale. Without the junior heroes to deal with I could get away with  it too.

But I wasn't about to let Nightwang catch onto  that fact, or he might follow me just to double check. So I looked at  him coldly, like I was furious. "Ok well you told me. Now get the hell  off my island. But hey, don't worry about the fight with Savage once we  find him. I'm sure I'll call you when you're useful again." He actually  flinched at that, clearly no happier with this than he thought I was,  and the turned and stormed out of the room. A white clad form faded into  existence next to me once he was gone.

My mentor's  voice was amused. "I notice you don't seem nearly as upset by this turn  of events as you let on. I don't suppose you'd like to share whatever  thought is percolating in your absurd little head?" He wasn't judging,  Jim wasn't the type, just interested to hear what I'd noticed. I could  tell from his aura he'd noticed something too, but as I'd mentioned I  wasn't a mind reader so I wasn't sure if it was the same something, nor  was he. He was obviously testing me, and it brought a slight smile to my  lips as I was reminded of better times.

It was hard  to put my suspicions into words exactly, but I figured Jim trusted my  intuition enough that I could just say it. "I think The Reach will send  their scarabs to reinforce Lex. He's their main partner here. They're  using his factories, working with his company, and his whole tech thing  fits better than Ra'as and his Shadows or Savage. From what I can see  the Shadows were more magic leaning than the other factions, with Savage  preferring to work with metas and Lex having a hard on for tech. The  Reach century goes with that theme."

It was thin, but  it kind of went with the whole thematic nonsense that The Light seemed  to enjoy. i wasn't even sure if they did it on purpose, but they seemed  to hyper focus on a single niche, which I supposed WAS sort of the point  of a team. Jim didn't seem to disagree with my read on things either.  His hat tipped in a nod. "I could see that. I take it based on our last  encounter with them you're hoping to avoid their nattering about the  grim realities of combat? Against a large force of scarabs I daresay  even your new capabilities would be hard pressed to disable then en  masse."

I  snorted at that. "If I can even engage. These Light guys seem to run  from the same playbook. I imagine there will be a big gathering of heavy  hitters clustered up around Lex aside from the scarabs and robots. We  won't be able to bring our weaker members on this run. The robots will  overwhelm anyone who isn't a legit heavyweight. Blood, Zee, Dreamer,  Artemis, you, me, Morana, and Madame Xanadu. Eight of us along with the  soulless. I don't know how everyone is at wholesale destruction, who  should we have on the robots?"

That  got a malicious snicker from the ghost. "Blood. Etrigan is an army  crusher who specializes in property destruction. It basically doesn't  matter how many they have on hand if we let him deal with it. I suspect  Nimue will be more than capable of playing second to him. I take it  you'll be handling the scarabs yourself then?" He seemed eager to watch  my torc match up against the scarabs, and I was right there with him but  sadly I had other things to concern myself with during this fight.

I  made a promise to myself to jump in if I had time, but I still shook my  head. "No. Morana will be taking care of the scarabs. She's more than  strong enough, but if Nightwang's info is legit then I'll need to handle  Lex himself. What kind of bullshit power armor lets you punch at  kryptonian levels I have no idea, but I'm going to take a can opener to  the thing and pry his ass out of it one limb at a time. See how clever  that Mr. Clean looking son of a bitch is when I shove him in an  inescapable demon prison."

I  checked my points. I wanted to make sure I was topped up for the  battle. Twenty thousand, which was plenty for some demonic augmentation  if it was necessary. I was about to move onto more of the tactical  delegation, but I was interrupted by a demure cough. I turned to see  Dreamer entering the room. I gave her a wide smile and leaned down for a  long, slow kiss. "Hey Drea, what brings you down here? We're happy to  have your help planning things out if you're not busy. You have been to  actual war a few times and your input would be welcome."

She  nuzzled against me, inhaling the scent of my clothes deeply, clearly  enjoying the chance to just relax in my arms, but eventually she  breathed out deeply. "I would love that Morgan, truly I would, but I'm  afraid I have some bad news to pile on. I've been working with Zee to  establish contact with some of my old sources around the galaxy via  magic, just to try to get a better idea of what The Reach is willing to  commit to this endeavor and exactly how much we have to deal with before  they consider earth a sunk cost."

She  looked troubled, biting her lip in agitation. "They aren't sending more  this way, but apparently one of their operatives has been on the planet  lying low for some time. He appeared a few months ago hunting  Kroloteans, and engaged in battle with the League and it's affiliates.  An alien bounty hunter of exceptional power and skill who calls himself  Lobo." She paused. "Well apparently he calls HIMSELF the Main Man, but  everyone else calls him Lobo, because it sounds much less ridiculous."

I  snickered at that. It was a pretty stupid name, but if The Reach had  this guy in their back pocket it wouldn't do to underestimate him.  "That's good info to have going in. If this little throw down is going  to be The Reach's last hurrah, they'll put it all into one last push. We  just need to beat them and we'll be home free." We wouldn't. As much as  I wanted to believe this would end with The Reach I knew it wouldn't.  We would have to chase off Darkseid's posse too. Probably not as many  since he was doing the whole shadow war thing, but they wouldn't go  quietly.

It  was just one thing after another since we got back, hell since before  that. Once this was over I was taking a fucking vacation. Me and my  girls on a beach somewhere, me sipping umbrella drinks while I watched  them frolic in tiny bikinis. Well, watched Zee frolic. Dreamer wasn't  the frolicking type, too serious.

In any case to get there I needed to get through this battle, and then  the next. Before that though, we needed to recharge a bit. If this was  going to be such a huge fight I could use some more points, so we would  wait a few days to move. I turned to my goddess. "Hey Drea, what do you  say to a second date tomorrow?" In the end, if I wanted downtime I'd  have to make it myself, and this seemed like as good a time as any.