Sell you a Bridge chapter 234 (Patreon)

April 22nd 2016 Gotham City 11:00 PM EDT

The  wind down of the fight for Gotham was surprisingly orderly. I guess  having the demonic footsoldiers of the evil gods who tried to kill you  floating in the sky kind of evokes a sense of caution. People were pretty happy not to be dead, and I got lots of hugs and thank yous, but  everyone kind of tried to keep a low profile when heading out. 

The others had finished their fights and the New Gods were being restrained by the Atom, who had some kind of sciency handcuffs that stopped them from trying to face murder everyone within reach. Nightwang had ended up handling Savage with some help and they were restraining him with the same cuffs, holding him for transport to the oubliette.

My friends had come back over to check in, though Madame X and Blood left a  bit after the battle to check on their places. Nightshade came to say  goodbye along with the other members of the Shadowpact before heading to the Oblivion Bar, and dad had some organizing to do, since several  Gotham residents had decided to join up during the siege and were  staying on in the family. Apparently Grandpa had been around here  somewhere too, though he'd shown up later than expected and already left  by the time I heard, which was a shame.

At the moment it  was just me and the girls, along with Jim, Artemis, Wally, Reggie, and  Bette. We were all sitting on a rooftop, keeping an eye on the  Parademons in case they decided to attack again despite Virmans orders.  It was looking like a no go though. "So, did the League hassle any of  you about the whole god killing thing? I saw a couple of them croak,  though honestly thinking about it I don't even know if it counts, it's  not like these are their real bodies anyway. They'll all be back  eventually."

Jim shrugged. "I got a bit of flack from the  heroes when I tore mine in half. Bastard just would not stay down. I  pointed out that same thing however, and they grudgingly moved on. I  believe the others who ended their opponent were Blood and Adam, and the  two of them are a bit outside of the current weight class of the people  the League has on earth. I'm surprised that they didn't lay into you  for releasing Adam."

I snickered at that. "Nightwang tried  to bitch at me about that. I pointed out it wasn't my job to make sure  Black Adam wasn't a supervillain. He countered with the fact that I was  supposed to be keeping him in prison, and then shut up when I pointed  out that technically the capture and detainment of all the villains was  extraordinary rendition." The boy blunder had tracked me down after the  battle to lecture me about Adam, though shockingly didn't mention  anything else.

Which was ok of him I guess, but I still  wasn't taking his shit. "Apparently he didn't consider that he was party  to the whole thing and technically a kidnapper since at least some of  them had no active warrant and I was the one keeping them locked up. A UN charter can give you lots of powers, but the power to let a teenager  lock someone up in his basement isn't one of them. No matter how  powerful the teenager or how secure the basement. Since he still needs me to imprison Savage after they caught him, he kind of had to take the L."

Zee  rolled her eyes. "As cute as your whole frenemies bromance is, I still  think the fact that all this started because he had a crush on me five  years ago is a little absurd. Like are either of you really that petty? I  can't imagine he's the first guy to think I was pretty in front of you,  and you can actively see people's emotions. Why did you decide to start  this weird rivalry with him specifically?" Despite her words I could  tell she kind of liked how stubborn I was being about the whole thing,  even if she did also think it was dumb.

Showing she had  absolutely zero understanding of men. I just shook my head. "First off,  Nightwang and I do NOT have a bromance. Frenemy or otherwise. He's a  terminal asshat who occasionally goes into remission for brief periods.  Secondly, his crush on you was just the tinder. Some people just rub you  the wrong way, and he's always been one of those for me. I don't know, I  just don't like his smug face." Even as Dick I hadn't been that big a  fan, but something about putting on that mask made him way too big  headed. It irked me.

Morana shook her head. "Cassie says  he's a really good leader. I think you should give him another chance.  Maybe you two could be friends. He seems like less of a judgemental  prick than some of the other Leaguers." I stared at her flatly for a  minute or so before she put her hands up in surrender. "Or not. Jeeze.  No need to be snappish. I was only suggesting you should try making more  friends. They're pretty great." Her face was almost glowing as she  talked about her only friend, who had from what I'd been told after the  battle, actually helped out in her fight, though I don't think it was  needed.

I couldn't bring myself to berate my daughter for  being excited about having a friend. She and Cassie had talked on the  phone and even spent time together a few times and Rana was ecstatic  about it. I knew that having people outside the family in her social  circle helped her feel more real given the confusing feelings she  inherited from all of us about people related to her. Cassie was a friend that was just hers, and that made her special. I also thought it  was adorable that after knowing having one friend she was acting like  the expert on the subject, though I wouldn't ever say so.

Speaking  of best friends, I turned to look at mine. "So. I heard you actually  helped out a bit with finishing Bloods opponent. Long rang support for  the ground bound demon. What was that like? Fighting against another  divine being?" I was curious about how Artemis's divinity had responded  to engaging one of the New Gods. Her bloodline was still pretty  incomplete, but shedding the blood of another divine being, even if  Etrigan had finished the fight, had probably effected things.

She  frowned a bit. "Weird, actually. I didn't get stronger as I hurt him or  anything, at least not exactly. But my lightning seemed to kind of eat  away at him, and when I got it back it felt...stronger. Not like, a  large amount. But it was there." She shrugged before falling back to lay  on the roof from where she was sitting next to Wally, staring up at the  sky. "So...it's over. The invasion, the fighting, it's all done. So  we're really...retired. I admit, as much as I was kind of looking  forward to it I don't know how to feel."

I  got her point. While we had given up thieving and essentially gone  straight because of the whole statute of limitations thing, it hadn't  really FELT like that. We'd been out in the world fighting and training  and doing our own thing. Now...it was over. We weren't going to be  thieves, we definitely weren't going to be heroes. We were just going to  be...done. Normal people I guessed? There didn't feel like there was  really room in the world for the people we were. I guessed we would just  need to find our places going forward.

Not  that I was done training. I had my power to learn to use, and once I  completed that I had to take care of Apokalips. I'd promised Dreamer,  plus I was planning to kill Darkseid now just out of principle. Dude was  a major asshole. Plus even if he wasn't around now the fact that we  would be fighting him in the future made me pretty certain we'd be  running into him again, so learning to undo his bullshit was still  important. Which led me to the last thing. "Speaking of, I kind of have a  confession. I captured one of the New Gods. I'm planning to try to undo  Darkseids brainwashing."

Dreamer  looked at me sadly. "That isn't a shock really. We felt your disgust  and horror during the battle. Whatever you saw must have been awful.  Learning to repair the damage that HE causes is absolutely a worthy  goal, and you'd have our support even if it wasn't. We're here for you.  Would you like my help on this? Mentalism is something of a specialty of  mine as you know. It's what makes me such a good therapist, as you all  like to point out." She raised and eyebrow in amusement, and I smiled  and reached out to take her hand.

I  wouldn't turn down the help, but it did worry me a bit. "That sounds  nice. We can try to help her together. But we need to be careful and go  slow. My abilities are somewhat out of context, which should help, but I  don't want you to be damaged or infected by his influence. He seems  like the kind of being who could really fuck someone up even when he  wasn't actually present. We work on her together only ok?" She gave a  serious nod, and I smiled, leaning down for a kiss from my goddess.

Zee  snuggled up to my other side, leaning across my chest so she was in  contact with both of us. "Well, you have your project for the near  future. I'm planning to try to reverse engineer and then upgrade the  island defenses. I know you could just pay for more powerful ones, but  those points could be invested elsewhere. Besides, I think learning to  ward better could be a valuable and important skill." I saw a flash of  pain through her aura, recognizable as the ache she felt when she  thought of her dad, and put an arm over her shoulder.

I  kissed the top of her head softly. I considered bringing it up, but  there wasn't a fast solve for the problem so I figured deflecting might  help her more for now. I looked to Artemis. "So, what are you two going  to do? Just go back to living with your mom and Wally's parents? Because  I feel like after being on our own all this time moving back in with  the family might be a bit stifling. Like I love my mom but I need my own  space, it's why I've been living on the island. You're welcome to join  us."

Artemis  shook her head. "That's a nice offer, but aside from my mom getting  boned there on the regular and your girls being louder than a storm  siren, we kind of want to do our own thing. Legally Wally and I are both  like twenty, so we're going to get a place. Nothing crazy just an  apartment for the two of us. Maybe get a dog. Just...spend time  together. I have a nice little chunk of cash from our old life that has  five years of interest, so that's nice. Not that we're leaving Gotham.  You aren't getting rid of me that easily."

I  smiled at Artemis. My best friend. My sister. The person who had been  with me since day one. I couldn't imagine life without her. "I'm still  so rich its sickening, so if you need extra cash just tell me. I  literally don't think I could spend all my money if I wanted to. Even  burning money hand over fist I still have like nine point five billion  plus in the bank." She actually visibly flinched at the amount and I  chuckled a bit as I climbed to my feet. "Anyway, I think things are  pretty much settled here. Lets head home."

I  pulled the girls to their feet, and with a flex of will opened a shadow  portal for us back to the island. Moving or not everyone could crash at  our place tonight given all the damage around town. We stepped through  to find Paula waiting with Claire. She'd come back after the battle to  check on Reggie's mom and let her know we were ok. Seeing Jim happily  greeted by his two ladies made me smile. My teacher deserved to be  happy. Hell, we all did. And I was going to give it my best shot.