Sell you a Bridge chapter 229 (Patreon)

April 22nd 2016 Doomhallow Hall 6:00 PM EDT

So  I was in the market for a new perk. Forty thousand points and I needed  something that could counter Darkseids influence. That asshole was like  the Da Vinci of fucking with peoples heads and I needed some way to  identify and counter that influence or I was going to have a bad time. I  pulled out my phone of course, scrolling through the options I had  available to try to find something that would work.

It  wasn't that I couldn't find some kind of mind reading ability. I had  access to A LOT of mind reading abilities. I wanted literally none of  them. The reason I picked the sending stones way back when and had  picked up my mind blinding power was that I absolutely HATED the concept  of telepathy. The stones bypassed my issues by being focused enough to  not expose anything personal about the user, but the idea of having  anyone in my head or being in anyone elses made me incredibly  uncomfortable.

The mind is your sanctuary, your identity,  everything you are or have ever been is locked up inside your head, and  poking into that is wrong in my opinion. I knew other people were fine  with it, and I didn't begrudge them that, as long as they didn't play in  MY head they could do their own thing, but I didn't want the power  myself. Which kind of limited my options as far as this problem went.

Every  power I could find that would help was some variation of telepathy, a  power I absolutely didn't want. So I went to my foremost expert on the  subject of mental bullshit. Dreamer. My violet eyed goddess was upstairs  in her room, so after I escorted Adam to somewhere comfortable (and out  of the way) and left him with Morana and Jim, I went to go get some  advice from the only psychic I actually liked. I knocked on her door  softly, knowing she could hear no matter how softly I tapped given her  godly hearing.

She opened it with a smile, pulling me into  a hug when she saw me. "Morgan, come on in! I was just thinking about  you." She put an extra sway in her hips when she led me into the room,  but sadly there wasn't time for that. I walked past her and flopped down  on the bed, which drew a laugh from my goddess. "Not in the mood for  playtime, fair enough. So you here for a therapy session or just some  bonding time? I admit we haven't really had time to ourselves since our  last date." She climbed into bed next to me. "I've been missing you."

I  leaned in for a kiss, deciding that an extra second or two wouldn't  hurt anything. Dreamer was right, we hadn't had enough time together.  She responded eagerly, and we just lay there for the next ten minutes or  so, cuddling and making out. Neither of us was in a rush to push things  further, we were just enjoying each others company. Eventually though  she pulled back, breathing hard. "As much fun as this is, and believe  me, it's very fun, I believe you had some kind of question or something?  You seemed focused when you came up here."

I blew out a  long breath, focusing and cooling myself down. You would thinking being  half ghost would help with that, but no such luck. After a minute or so  of deep breathing, through which Dreamer smirked like a cat who caught  the canary, I finally let out a chuckle and got to the point. "Right. So  I came up here for some advice. Specifically advice on mind reading.  I'm looking into a power so I can identify and counter Darkseids ability  to twist people to his will, I figured as a mind reader yourself not to  mention my expert on all things Apokalips you might have some ideas."

She  snickered a bit. "Ah, the mind reading phobia." I glared at her and she  threw both hands up defensively. "Which is completely reasonable.  Sorry. But yes, I can understand the issue. Can I see the list of  possible abilities?" I glared for a second, weighing how sincere that  apology was, but in the end I just rolled my eyes and handed her my  phone. She took it and opened my email, scrolling through them slowly,  scanning for something useful she could point out."

I was  pretty sure she couldn't see the actual point costs, but I didn't need  her to. If whatever she found was too expensive I could just wait a bit.  We weren't in so much of a hurry we couldn't afford to take a beat so I  could charge up my points. I hovered nervously as she scrolled, trying  to look over her shoulder much to her annoyance. Finally I slumped back  on the bed and stared at the ceiling while she looked. "So I'm trying  for something that'll let me do what I need to do without actually  having to deal with the downsides of telepathy."

I heard a  hmmm of understanding but she took a second to respond. "I know you  worry about the ability to read minds, even though you're protected you  insist you don't want to know what people think of you, which is fair  but it makes things harder. My personal pick for this would be something  that requires an initiating action. Touch based telepathy is possible,  but it's still not what you're looking for. You want to learn more about  things without knowing the persons thoughts, so we want touch based but  not telepathically rooted. Something like...this."

She  stopped scrolling and handed me my phone, letting me read the email on  the screen. I scanned through the email and what I saw was...good.  Psychometry. It was definitely a psychic ability, but it had more in  common with my aura sight than telepathy. It would synergize well with  aura sight actually, and it required touch to be active. Plus I could  learn to control it if I worked on that, something Outer Body should  help with immensely. It was, in a word, perfect. Also a steal at twenty  five thousand points.

Still, psychometry sounded good, but  it also sounded risky. I'd read books where it was mentioned and that  particular power pretty much turned the used into a glove wearing shut  in. "Are you sure I'll be able to learn to control it?" I read through  the email again, just in case. I knew what it said of course, but the  action of skimming over it was one that brought me a small measure of  comfort, perfect memory or not. It didn't mention debilitating side  effects, which normally wouldn't matter with spam, but considering my  power treated the emails as gospel was a good sign, but not enough to  take to the bank.

She shook her head. "Not entirely I  suppose, but I don't think it will be an issue. Psychometry is a  powerful gift, but those who are crippled by its use are normally  relatively weak of mind and body. You are neither, so I don't see you  having a problem with it." She leaned up to give me another kiss, this  one slow and reassuring. "I think this will help. The email mentions the  ability to find out anything you want about a person or object. Normal  psychometry is limited, and I don't think it would work to root out  Darkseids corruption, but this should."

I'd noticed that  line too. In the end, I decided if I wasn't going to trust her advice it  didn't make sense to have asked for it, so I nodded, sighing bitterly.  "Well, I guess it's better than being a telepath at least. Besides, I  bet I can find some nice gloves." Before I could change my mind I hit  the button to order the 'draft of the touch reader' which was apparently  some kind of potion that would give me psychometric powers. It cost  about a hundred bucks on top of the twenty five thousand, but that was  basically a grain of sand in the Sahara in terms of my finances.

I'd  considered stealing everything Lex had after our fight. My computer  skills were up to it still, but in the end decided it was a stupid risk  for not much reward. I was already one of the five richest people on the  planet, and while the money might be useful, I could just get more with  my powers if I needed it. Considering Nightwang had been combing  through my bank statements with a fine tooth comb looking for stolen  cash, stripping Luthorcorp for parts was pretty much asking for trouble.

Still  the money I had was pretty much enough to live lavishly on for the next  hundred years and a hundred dollars wasn't even worth thinking about so  the money was easily and quickly deducted. The predictable knock on  Dreamers door came seconds later of course, and I popped to my feet,  slinking over to open the door and pick up the box that was waiting for  me.

This one was lacquered black with a bronze latch on it  and only about the size of my palm, and I was excited to add it to my  collection after I finished using it. I bumped the door shut with my hip  and turned to show off my prize to my girlfriend. I flipped the latch  and opened the box as I did, so both of us could see the draft. "In case  you were wondering, this is what magic potions look like" I told her  with mock seriousness, figuring a little teasing might lighten the mood.  Though to be fair, she probably didn't need it. I was the one feeling  nervous.

She rolled her eyes good naturedly, smirking a  bit, and I set the box down, removing the glass vial. I rolled it in my  fingers experimentally, a bit surprised by how warm it was. The inside  of the glass was a riot of glowing gold liquid, made even more  mysterious by the container. The vial was round and fat, with a pair of  tiny glass rings extending off the sides and a tightly latched gold  stopper. The body of the piece was raised, with swirling patterns of  glass tracing along the face of it. I held it up to my mouth, popped the  stopper, and opened it, ready to swallow down whatever was inside the  bottle.

I didn't get the chance.  Instead when I popped the top a torrent of gold energy came barreling  out of the bottling and literally crawled down my throat. Luckily as a  half ghost breathing wasn't so much of a problem, but it absolutely  wasn't a pleasant experience either. I wasn't down for the count on this  one, just a bit dizzy, so I took a beat to center myself and then  looked at Dreamer with a pretty big smile. "I believe I need a test  subject. Any volunteers."

She  rolled her eyes, walking over to throw her arms over my shoulders and  plant a kiss on me. I could feel the power there, feel that I didn't  NEED to use it, which was a relief, but clearly Dreamer was fine with me  reading her, so I did. I kissed her back, and as I did, I reached out  with psychometry, and I could FEEL her. The love, the kindness, the  bravery. I could feel everything about her, and it almost brought a tear  to my eye just taking it all in. I pulled back, swallowing hard as I  held one of the most amazing women I'd ever met.

Which  was interrupted by the OTHER most amazing woman I'd ever met barreling  into the room. I assumed it was just her playing eavesdropper again for a  second, but then the bottom fell out of my stomach as I saw her face.  Zee looked...terrified. "Gotham is under attack! Vandal savage and a  huge army of flying demon things are laying siege to the city." That  stopped me in my tracks. Huh. I'd spent so long preparing for this final  battle that I'd kind of forgotten the enemy could attack first...oops.