Sell you a Bridge chapter 226 (Patreon)

April 21st 2016 Gojo Penthouse 4:00 PM EDT

We  headed up to the roof, leaving Morana and mom to play with Hana. I  admit to being slightly nervous. I'd gotten much stronger since I met  Gojo, but regardless of who I'd run into so far, his aura was  always...next level. It was like looking into the heart of a black hole,  just raw, endless power. It was profound in a way I'd never seen from  anyone else. Qualitatively different, as well as quantitative. I didn't  know exactly what his deal was, but I was pretty positive I'd never met  anyone quite like him.

Del  was probably the closest, just in terms of the feeling of being around  her. Regardless, Gojo and I were similar in some ways and if anyone  could help me learn how to use my powers it would be him. When we  reached the roof I looked out over the city, exhaling loudly before  turning to him. "Like you said. I want you to train me. I know that  isn't ideal for you. You don't want students, I'm pretty sure of that.  But you have a power that works similarly to mine, so I was hoping you  could help me learn to use it properly."

Gojo  put his hands behind his head and leaned back...against nothing. That  was actually unusual, he didn't really flex like that so it was either a  nervous habit or a deliberate move to show me what kind of power I was  dealing with. He made a noncommital sound. "What makes you think my  power works like yours? Do you even know what my power is? Because most  people get it wrong when they guess." He reached into his khakis and pulled out a familiar plastic bottle full of orangish liquid, popping the top and taking a pull.

I  just stared at him. "Why are you still drinking that stuff? You know  it's got genetic tracer chemicals they're using to find people with the  meta gene right? Like we straight up told you that stuff is chemically  treated." I watched with horrified fascination as he continued to  swallow down the rest of the bottle before holding it up. The plastic  shape crumpled inward and vanished in a flash of blue light.

He  grinned at me. "Tracking chemicals huh? Let's see how that works out  for them. besides, I really like the peach flavor. It's impossible to  get peach juice in Gotham. Reminds me of home. Regardless, you didn't  answer the question. What makes you think I can teach you anything?" He  looked at me over his sunglasses, letting me see those weirdly intense  blue shattered glass eyes of his.

I  gestured to his empty hand. "Because I saw how you did that. Or rather,  I saw your power when you did it. It's not the same, but it  feels...similar, to other beings I've seen that I know have a relation  to my powers. Not to mention you've made comments in the past about  conceptual abilities that make me think you have at least some idea what  I'm dealing with. So, the question becomes, will you help me? I don't  know how much use the training will be, but it's better than nothing."

That  got a light chuckle. "Well, fair enough. You have better eyes than  most, I shouldn't be surprised. Still, I don't know exactly how similar  our abilities actually are. I suppose I could give you a bit of advice  on how to use what you've got. But honestly I'm not sure you can handle  my training. I don't softball it in like everyone else around here.  Learning from me is going to hurt." Despite the grim warning his  cheerful smile never slipped. His tone was light and unconcerned through  the entire speech.

My  answering snort probably wasn't the most diplomatic response, but I'd  been through some shit. I wasn't scared of learning from Gojo. "I can  handle whatever you need to throw at me, as long as it helps me get  stronger I'm not concerned about-" I stopped talking at that point. Not  because of any conscious decision but because my brain caught up to the  fact that I'd traveled about ten feet and was lying on my back. Gojo  appeared in my vision, occupying a big chunk of the empty sky I found  myself staring up into.

He  grabbed my hair and hauled me up carelessly. "Well, fair enough. If I'm  going to teach I need to learn." He reached up and removed his  sunglasses, folding them up one handed and slipping them into his khaki  pocket. "If you have some kind of transformation to use or something,  I'd do it now. You're going to be a bit busy for a while." Despite my  ringing head and those terrifying eyes I triggered my torc instantly.

The  liquid metal coated me and I grinned beneath it as I hauled back and  punched Gojo right in the fucking face...to literally no effect. He just  stared at me. I hit him again. His head didn't even turn. I hit him six  more times, so fast my fist would have vanished to any other person. He  just stared drolly. "No, sure, that's obviously working. I'm sure one  more punch will be the last straw. Try it another few times. That'll do  the trick."

I  reached out for the darkness, slipping into it. I felt some resistance  for a minute but then it slid away. I reappeared on the other side of  the roof. Before I could blink Gojo was standing right there in front of  me. I tried to dodge his lazy kick but for some reason I  just...couldn't escape. It slammed into me and I felt it through the  armor, the crushing force smashing into my ribs and sending me flying.

Gojo  caught me by the ankle, swinging me down into the rooftop, which didn't  crater at all like it should when I hit it. Once I was on the ground he  just started kicking me. The whole time that cheerful smile never left  his face. He was just happily beating the shit out of me. I saw what he  meant by his warning. This wasn't like any training I'd ever had,  because I could tell he absolutely didn't plan on stopping. I would have  to stop him myself or he would just keep beating me until I blacked  out.

I  was pretty sure he wouldn't kill me, given how pissed mom would be, but  he wasn't letting that stop him from fucking demolishing me either. I  didn't even know what he wanted me to do. he hadn't given me  instructions or advice, and I couldn't imagine what he was 'learning'  from all this nonsense. Whatever I was supposed to figure out I wasn't  getting any help with the process. I couldn't even think properly  because he just kept fucking hammering down kicks on me. His foot  smashed me down onto the roof so hard it should have been rubble but it  felt like I was hitting a solid plane.

I  tried to think. How was he hurting me? Was he that strong? Was I that  weak? I should be able to at least touch him, but every inch of him  seemed impervious to attack. I'd been lashing out as best I could so far  and nothing was happening. Hell I didn't even know if I was making  contact. I was hitting SOMETHING but who the hell knew what that was.  His power was total bullshit. I could see why people were so annoyed  fighting me, if my power could do something like this...then I froze.

Well,  no I laid there and got my ribs caved in, but I had a thought. That's  what the whole fucking point of this mess was. My power being like his.  If he could hit me and defend with his ability, maybe I was supposed to  hit him with mine. i reached out with my power, touched the universe  around me, and then swung a kick at his shin as hard as I could while I  told the universe that it would land. I lied to the world like I had  before, and this time I focused on using that to make sure a hit I knew  wouldn't hurt him would find its mark and seriously fuck the bastard up.

I  felt the impact of my leg on his shin, though I also felt some  resistance before it made contact. Regardless he dropped my foot and  hopped back. "Ouch! Hey, you should be careful. You might hurt  somebody." I climbed to my feet, my body feeling like stepped on bubble  wrap, and glared at him, but he just grinned happily. "Well, that was  all the information I needed, how about you? You learn anything  important?" His voice was teasing, and I absolutely wanted to knock his  block off despite knowing I couldn't take him.

I'd  landed a blow, but whatever the hell Gojo was doing he was a hell of a  lot better at it than I was. I could barely keep my feet after that one  kick. I deactivated my armor, pretty sure he was finished beating me. I  spat green glowing blood on the ground. "I learned you're an asshole.  How was that teaching? You just assaulted me for five minutes." He  raised an eyebrow, stepping forward, and I threw my hands up quickly.  "Wait! I...I learned that I could use my powers to hit you? That they  could cancel out yours? You were waiting for me to do that."

He  rolled his eyes, taking his sunglasses back out and slipping them back  on. "No. Once again you missed the point. Put since you got part of it  I'll just tell you the rest. You're lucky I'm such a cool doting  stepdad. You're using your ability wrong. You use it like it's this  special gift, an ace in the hole. For a power to really be yours you  need to be able to use it at any time. You need to flex it constantly.  Integrate it into everything you do. Until it's part of you you aren't  going to really be a master of it."

I  let my head fall back, groaning in annoyance. "But I can't DO that. I  need to get better at my ability before I'll have enough power with it  to try using it more. I'm looking for some kind of insight into how to  use it BETTER. Telling me 'practice makes perfect' isn't insight, it's  not even really advice. I didn't need to get my ass kicked for you to  tell me THAT. You don't have any other pearls of wisdom here? Nothing  you can tell me except 'use it a bunch and you'll get better?"

I  was about to lose it. If I went through all that just for some trite  practice more bullshit I'd be pissed. To my surprise though, he nodded.  "That's a fair criticism. But you're missing the obvious. You already  have a training mechanism. Your power gives you these points to get  abilities. The abilities are supposed to be the bridge between your  normal power and your automated purchases or whatever right? So wouldn't  the common sense move be to use your power ON the automated purchases?"

That...was  a totally valid point. I'd used my ability on my point gain before. It  had almost killed me granted, but that was a REALLY direct application.  What if I used it on my shadow port to make it cost less, or cost  nothing? Or used it on one of my clones to make it free. My abilities  already made those things function, what if I just used my powers to  fine tune them and make them work BETTER.

I  blinked a few times and Gojo chuckled. "See, there's the lightbulb.  Good work." He turned and headed back towards the door into the  building, waving casually behind him without looking back. "Yay team! If  you need anymore training time just let me know, I'm, always happy to  help out my precious stepson." I glared at the bastard as he walked into  stairwell. He had literally just beaten me for five minutes and made me  figure it out myself. As soon as I was strong enough, I was so kicking  his ass.