Sell you a Bridge chapter 151

December 31st 2010 New Genesis 9:00 PM EDT

Artemis  went first, because of course she did. My best friend was the least  patient person I knew. "Well I ate the fruit, which was fucking  delicious by the way, and then got an upgrade. My bloodline integrated  with me in some weird way, and now I'm pretty sure I'm actively part  god. In any case it really cranked my lightning up a notch so I'm all  for it." She nodded to Wally. "The bigger surprise was what happened to  him."

The redhead picked up his  part of the story seamlessly. "When I ate mine I got this weird feeling  and then my body started to kind of eat the electricity I had been  generating. I freaked out but Arty was there with me so she started  doing that supercharge thing she did before, pumping lightning into me  to juice me up. It just kept getting swallowed though. We sat there like  that for like an hour, just pumping electricity into me until it  suddenly pulsed and I just kind of...came online?"

Artemis  nodded. "It was weird. Like the worlds longest jump start. There was  this big surge of power and he got way faster but then he went into this  kind of trance. His eyes were flickering with lightning kind of like  Zee's are doing, but it was red and gold and not purple." She looked at  her boyfriend in concern. "The next part I wasn't there for actually,  not exactly. Wally saw a vision or something. He told me about it after  though."

He  took her hand with a smile. "I'm fine babe. I told you it wasn't a bad  thing." He turned back to look at us. "I was in a vortex of lightning,  like some swirling tunnel of electricity and power. There was a person  there...someone I knew, but not. Like another version of them. They told  me some things I didn't know. Weird things." He hesitated for a second,  and his aura showed uncertainty, but in the end he seemed to come to a  decision. "They said it was called the Speed Force."

That  sounded...dramatic. Wally smiled at my expression. "Yeah it's a bit  over the top sounding, but apparently that's because it's a huge deal.  The Speed Force is one of the seven forces that make up the entire  multiverse. Don't ask me to explain what that means or what the other  six are because I have no clue. Suffice to say the Speed Force chooses  people to be it's champions, speedsters. In most universes that's The  Flash and people he works with. I guess our universe was somehow cut off  from it though, and we ended up with crippled versions of the power."

There  was a flash of lightning and he zipped over to my side of the table,  took a roll from my plate and flashed back, sitting down to butter it. I  rolled my eyes at his antics but still, that was some crazy speed. Even  with my dexterity and reaction time I'd barely registered him moving. I  blinked. "Wow. You have gotten faster. I would have been able to stop  the old you with how fast I've gotten recently, but I barely saw that." I  nodded to the roll. "I'm guessing you've gotten hungrier too?"

He  grinned, popping it in his mouth. "Only been a few hours but it kind of  seems like it. Given how much faster I've been moving increased caloric  intake makes sense." He grabbed another roll and started to butter it.  "Aside from being hungrier though I just feel amazing. I've never been  this fast sure, but I can also feel the energy blazing through me all  the time now. I get the feeling my connection is stronger here than it  would be back home." He scarfed down the second roll and gave a  satisfied burp, only to have his head smacked by his glaring girlfriend.

I  snickered at the byplay, which earned me my own head smack. I glared  back at my girlfriend, getting a sweet smile in return and rolled my  eyes, facing Artemis and Wally. "Well, sounds like you two have been  having a crazy time, but that does sort of lead us into my next point.  What we should actually be doing while we wait for the Forever People." I  laid out my idea for the blacksmithing. "It would be even more  efficient now that we have Wally for super speed manual labor."

He  glared at me but Artemis cut in excitedly. "I could totally smith some  great stuff. My understanding of my power has increased and I feel  stronger and faster now for sure. Plus Wally would love to help me  create some gear, wouldn't you babe." Wally sighed and nodded in  resignation, a fact that Artemis either didn't notice or didn't care  about at all as she started bouncing in her seat in excitement. "Oh man I  really missed smithing, I bet the New Gods have some awesome forges  too! This is going to be so much fun!"

I  grinned at her. "That's the spirit! The main issue now though is  getting a building. I can probably help with seed money, but we actually  have to find the right place." I looked at the girls. "So you have any  requirements or anything? Do you need to find some mystical convergence  or a place that was built by blind monks during the new moon or  something?" I'd already checked my emails and while there was some real  estate scams they were either WAY too big or meant for living in, which I  had to assume made them a poor choice for smithing.

Zee  shook her head with a chuckle. "Not even a little. This entire planet  is a magical nuclear reactor. Any given gas station bathroom is more  magically significant than the most magic dense places on earth." She  paused. "Assuming they have gas stations here. I don't think they use  gas, maybe some kind of equivalent?" She shook her head cutely, as if to  shake the idea out. "Regardless, no we don't have any special  requirements for the location. Well, I don't anyway, how about you  Arty?"

My  best friend chuckled. "I mean, if we could get a place on top of a  volcano it might be helpful, but in the city not really. As long as I  have enough ambient magic to work with and can get some good materials  I'm good." On that note I was really missing the island. The base had  been a great place to buy stable resources. It was much more annoying to  count on a random and unreliable resource like spam emails than to just  buy things from a shop with points.

Still,  I did have a few options in terms of mats. There were a few emails from  back home that advertised buying materials in bulk for bargain basement  prices. I wrote out a list and passed it to Artemis. "Pick out some  supplies, I'll see about setting up a shipment. I know it's all mundane  stuff but I'm hoping to find a supply of something nicer here in  Supertown that you can use for an alloy." There was no way I wasn't  going to be able to find some super metal scam in a place like this.

I  wanted to check right now but we still weren't telling Wally about my  actual powers. When I had that thought however, I paused. Why weren't we  telling Wally? He'd told me about his powers, and it wasn't like my  phone was necessary or anything, I just needed email access. He couldn't  take my source of power or anything, and even if he wanted to deprive  me of access to my ability in the short term he would be shooting  himself in the foot because we needed every advantage. Honestly at this  point I was more than strong enough for it not to matter anyway.

I  exhaled slowly. Then I took out my phone and started scrolling through  emails. Artemis and Zee's eyes widened and Wally just looked confused. I  smiled at the three of them faintly. Then I addressed the redhead. "You  showed me yours so I'll show you mine. Mostly because it's not like you  can do anything with the information anyway but still, one good turn  deserves another. My ability allows me to manifest spam emails into  reality with some limitations. That's why the crow thing freaked us all  out so much, I never bought that power."

I  didn't go into too much detail, just like I was pretty sure he hadn't  told me every little thing about his trip into the Speed Force. Still, I  gave him a basic overview. I wasn't expecting his eyes to light up at  the explanation, or what he said next, which fundamentally knocked me on  my ass. "Oh, well that makes sense. Spam emails and rumors are kind of  similar right? Like your power is related to lying or telling stories." I  blinked. I...hadn't noticed that. At all. The girls looked just as  baffled.

The  more I thought about it though the more I thought it was the right train  of thought but on the wrong track. It felt...close. But not quite  right. It was a frustrating thing to have in your head. Like I had the  answer on the tip of my tongue but I couldn't quite get it. I huffed and  shook the feeling off. "Thanks man, that's a good lead to chase I  think, even if it's not exactly right. It's a new avenue to explore at  least. Anyway, so yeah I'll look around for some building scams to try  to get somewhere pretty nice and for some materials for Artemis to use.  Probably take a few days."

Wally  nodded genially. "Oh sure, I'm pretty positive my lovely girlfriend is  going to make me lug all the stuff around like a super speed pack mule  anyway so take your time with the supplies. The longer you wait the less  work I have to do anytime soon." Artemis elbowed him lightly in the  ribs and he gave an exaggerated yelp, holding his side and pouting at  his girlfriend. She just rolled her eyes with a smile and cuddled up  close to him.

We  finished out the rest of the evening just talking. We got enough of a  second wind to order dessert, there was a really delicious berry cobbler  available and we all dug into it with gusto. Amusingly enough I was  pretty sure it was made with the same berries we'd been picking on our  trip through the wilderness, the ones I'd won off the girls for my  victory in our little prank battle. In any case with the revelation of  our powers we seemed to get closer as a group. I could really feel Wally  letting his guard down and genuinely trusting us, and his aura showed I  was dead on.

Being  forced to accept Artemis or lose her had made him question some things  that I didn't think he'd been comfortable questioning before. I wondered  how much of this would stick around when we got back, and how the other  heroes would treat him if it did. I knew there were cross sides  friendships back home, especially on the magic side of things, so I held  out hope for Wally and Artemis. I was less sanguine about my chances of  not having to fight Zatara once we got back.

Zee  had been worrying about her dad non stop since we showed up here, even  if she tried not to bring it up. They'd been in a bad place when we  vanished, partly because of me, and I knew she was afraid of what he  might do trying to get her back. For her sake I hoped he didn't take it  too far. If nothing else there would be clues on the island we were  alive, the two character sheets being chief among them, and Jim knew  enough to track them down. Until then I guessed I'd just enjoy the time  with my friends.