Sell you a Bridge chapter 282 (Patreon)

June 13th 2016 The Street of Gods 10:00 PM EDT

I  stared up at Gojo in awe, barely able to lever my head sideways to look  at him. He radiated power, anger, and genuine malice. Looking at him  like this, standing between me and Darkseid, one of the most terrifying  monsters in the known universe, a million thoughts flickered through my  head. Questions, comments, a thousand possible responses to this  situation. But despite all that, one single comment bubbled to the  surface, one absurd question probably induced by pain and distress.  "What the fuck are you wearing?"

Those shatterglass blue  eyes flicked to me and then rolled up into the sky. "Yes, because that  is clearly the important part of this situation. We're standing in some  sort of conceptual pocket dimension populated by strange and horrible  deities attached to a fragmented reality jammed into the void through to  bottom of one of earth's largest cities, where some kind of titanic  being of unknowable evil is attempting to beat you to death, but my  choice of outfit is definitely the priority." His voice was dripping so  much sarcasm I could have mopped it up with a towel.

I  coughed in embarrassment, then again in pain as that aggravated my ribs,  but dragged myself up to a sitting position. "Right. Sorry. Glad to see  you Gojo. Sorry to drag you down here. How did you know that I was in  trouble? More importantly how did you even find this place?" I chose not  to address the 'my kid' comment. It was...confusing. I could understand  his protectiveness, given how much I meant to Hana and Mom, but it was  still something I wasn't really equipped to deal with right now.

Another  eye roll. "Please, you actually bother to call and check in and you're  not about to risk your fool neck for something? You have more than a few  decent qualities kid, but you are not considerate. Marie spends half  her time worried about you and the other half distracting herself so she  doesn't have to be. As soon as she hung up with you she called me and  asked me to come find you. I had to drag that asshat demon puppet to  London to make him show me how to get in. Sadly I wasn't able to bring  him with me. He got jumped by a bunch of guys in plate mail outside the  subway station."

That didn't answer how he'd found us  here, but there were people who could have told him. Julian for one. It  was staggering he'd done it so quickly, but then, Gojo was pretty  fucking powerful. With the questions answered he turned away, dismissing  me to focus back on Darkseid. "Alright you ugly bastard. The boy   picked up a few tricks, but I have more to teach him about using his  powers. I figured I'd leave him his own devices but he's clearly not  growing fast enough. His mother would go kill me if I did any actual  damage to him so I had to hold back a lot. It'll be easier to teach him  with a practice dummy."

Darkseid sneered at Gojo lazily.  "Practice? What a pathetic excuse. If you wish to aid him in his battle  simply declare it. There is no reason to hide behind shields of teaching  to save face. I sense a small feeling of pressure from you. You may  even pose some sort of a challenge. If I'd known that attacking the boy  would draw such an interesting opponent I'd have done so after the  invasion failed." He smiled again, this one bloodthirsty and sadistic as  opposed to the predatory baring of teeth from earlier. This was the  smile of someone who didn't just want to hurt me, he was looking forward  to it.

"Aid him?" Gojo actually laughed at that. "Buddy,  aid implies we'll both be fighting you. You've got a pretty beefy aura,  but its stagnant and sluggish. I don't need the kid to help with a big  clumsy brute like you." Gojo turned to me, and I saw something new on  his face. Kindness. "Lie back down kid. You're hurt. Don't worry too  much about the backlash, as long as I'm here you'll be fine." He pushed  on his chin with a palm, cracking his neck. "Just watch close. I'll show  you the next step in your path."

He turned back to look  at Darkseid, just in time for a pair of red beams from the New God's  eyes to smash into his face with a rumbling boom, the explosion filling  the entire alley with dust and debris from the force. My eyes widened in  horror as I stared at the cloud of dirt, trying to see Gojo through the  obfuscation. Darkseid's voice drawled lazily. "Another pathetic  braggart. How disappointing. I was half expecting you to be a small  challenge. Pity. It's so much more fun to see their hearts break once  they get their hopes up."

An exasperated sigh echoed  through the cloud. "I was TRYING to do the cool step dad thing. Marie  tells me I need to be more reassuring with him. But you just had to ruin  my awesome moment with your stupid face lasers. Rude." There was a  quick flash of blue energy and the dirt was blown away, revealing an  annoyed Gojo standing completely unharmed, still between me and  Darkseid. "Alright kid, listen up, because this is an important lesson  about the next steps you can take to get stronger."

Gojo  rolled his arms in their sockets one at a time as if limbering up as he  continued speaking, ignoring the shocked and outraged Darkseid.  "Applying your concept directly is an important and powerful application  of our gifts, but it's ultimately limited. Reaching out to affect the  world is important, but using that aspect of your power on one item at a  time is an inherently incomplete technique. The more holistic way of  utilizing that energy is called a domain. Domain expansion is when you  imprint your concept on the entirety of the space around you in a  limited area."

I reached into myself and, using my ability  did the same trick as in Griffin Hall, where I partially obscured my  aura sight, letting me activate it without driving myself insane. I knew  I needed to see this with more than my normal vision, even if seeing  the whole thing would drive me insane. As Gojo's powerful energy leaked  out an infused the area around us I watched in awe as reality itself  began to change within a limited space. "Spreading out your domain  always consumes a ton of energy, but the advantages are worth it."

Darkseid's  aura, which I could barely look at despite the obscuring protection,  tried to seep into that area, but is seemed much less dense, even if  there was way more of it. Like mud dumped on mercury. "When you imprint  your concept on the world and someone else does the same it becomes a  battle of depth. The more refined one will dominate that space, though  compatibility and the amount of energy can factor in." He shook his head  with a chuckle. "Here, I'll just show you." He raised a hand lazily.  "Domain expansion: Infinite Void."

Gojo snapped his  fingers and everything...stopped. Sound, power, light, motion,  everything just...ceased. I could still see, but other than me and Gojo,  it was just Darkseid, floating a little ways away from us. He was  suspended in the nothingness of space, and behind us loomed a massive  swirling pupil, staring at him with the intensity of the most terrifying  predator, pinning him where he stood.

Despite the insane  change, that wasn't what was scary though. The scary part was what had  happened when Gojo snapped. His energy, the stuff inundating the space  around us, had melded with the world, and then separated again, and  taken the space around is with it. Gojo had basically carved out a  section of the universe and made a NEW universe in a limited area, one  that he controlled with his concept.

I stared at my  stepfather in awe. This was...insane. I'd known he was powerful, but  this went beyond even my concept of power. The thought of trying to do  this with my own ability was staggering. I didn't even know where to  start. Though knowing there WAS something to start would certainly help.  Gojo grinned back at me, and the small amount of aura sight I had  leaking through could see him easier in here, inside his aura where the  concept of infinity was both omnipresent and muted.

He was  excited. He'd given up on teaching, on passing on his skills. He'd  taught me before grudgingly because he knew my mom would be sad if I got  hurt, but being around Hana, seeing her grow and learn and seeing how  alike his her power was, he realized that ignoring the next generation  wasn't really an option. This was his attempt to make up for that, to  excuse how bitter and detached he'd been before. He did care about me,  even if he was a bit more draconian and laissez-faire about how he  showed it. It was a strange thing to realize.

He noticed  me looking and I saw the huge pupil contract before he frowned slightly  and my view of his emotions just...stopped. Apparently he'd noticed me  looking. He glanced away, obviously planning to ignore my discovery, and  then froze. "Oh. Well. That's not a good sign." His voice was casual  and cheerful as always, but my eyes snapped up to stare in the direction  he was looking anyway and I froze too.

Darkseid was  moving. Now, I didn't know what this thing was supposed to do, but I was  pretty sure he was supposed to be pinned. Now his form was shifting. It  started with a strange sort of vibration, his body blurring in fits and  starts, first one limb, then another, then his head. Finally his entire  body started to shake and he began to move slowly,his form dragging  through the void around us like a bug through molasses as he started to  slowly walk forward toward us.

Gojo looked...disturbed.  His usual cocky grin was gone, as was the rage from earlier, and in its  place was a sense of grim determination. He addressed me, his eyes never  leaving Darkseid. "Kid. You healed up yet?" He kept his voice quiet,  muttering aloud but obviously hoping it wouldn't carry, which seemed  strange in this echoing void. I croaked out an affirmative,m my vitality  was insane, especially in my armor, and my ribs had healed up during  the conversation, though they were still a bit tender. I could move at  the very least, which was a damn sight better than I'd been doing  earlier. I even stood up slowly, barely groaning at all.

He  let out a relieved sigh. "Alright. I need you to step back a bit. This  is going to be a crazier fight than I expected. He's resisting my  domain, which means this will be head on engagement. It might get rough,  so just stay out of range. You can't go too far sadly, the domain will  restrict it, but try to put some distance between us while I fight him."  I agreed, conjuring my wings and flying as far as I could within this  separated space before turning back to watch what I was sure was going  to be an amazing fight.

Even from a distance I could see  the wide grin on Gojo's face as he raised a hand on either side of his  body. "You're pretty annoying, but since you're still having trouble  moving I might as well give you a hello punch like you gave me." He held  up his left hand. "Technique amplification: blue." His right came up.  "Technique reversal: red." He smashed the two balls of glowing light of  each color that had formed in his hands together, forcing them to  combine. "Hollow purple." Then he flicked the ball of now purple light  at Darkseid.

It ripped through the void, growing into a  massive sphere the size of a car, and the New God's eyes widened. He  gave a roar of anger and tore himself free of the restraining space,  hauling back and punching the orb as hard as he possible could. There  was a blinding flash of purple light, and the glow faded, leaving behind  a furious Darkseid, now missing an arm and a decent chunk of chest,  glaring at my stepfather. Gojo just gave an annoyed sigh, raising his  fists. "Ugh, somehow I knew you would survive that. Fine. We do this the  hard way." Then he blurred forward, and the real battle began.