Sell you a Bridge chapter 125

Blackgate Penitentiary November 11th 2010 4:00 PM EDT

As  soon as the ceiling came down on Myrina I turned and blasted the other  Amazons holding up Ivy and co with a ten point burst of shadow and we  fucking booked it. I was absolutely not equipped to fight her again  here. I might manage something outside the island where I could teleport  but for now discretion was the better part of valor. I focused on the  sending stone "Hey babe we could use an exit plan. I just  dropped a building on some Amazon super assassin and I don't think  she'll be down long. You got an escape route for me?"

We  bailed in a random direction and I was just hoping we hadn't fucked  ourselves by going the wrong way, after a few minutes of running I got a  response. "Go left." I did. "Now right. Keep going until you hit the end of that hall then wait. Ok, now go. Right again. Left and then stop." With  our target acquired we didn't need to worry about keeping a low profile  and could just run full out. With that in mind Zee was able to guide us  in real time to circumvent the other groups running around and get us  out of the prison.

The  Amazon's didn't catch us when we hit the shore but we had another  problem. We'd arranged a signal to call for another boat, but with the  whole place surrounded I wasn't sure anyone could get through. We  stopped at the shore and I scowled. "Shit, how are we supposed to get  out of here if we can't get a boat in to pick us up." I bit my lip and  looked down at the ocean before my eyes widened, I spun to look at  Kaldur. "Hey Aqualad, any chance you've seen pirates of the Caribbean?"

He  seemed confused by what I meant, so I guessed not, but luckily Robin  got it. He rushed over to explain to his friend what to do while I made  my way over to Ivy, speaking quietly. "Stick close once we're down  there." I didn't have time to say more but luckily that little message  was easy enough to pass. Luckily movies lied to us and Aqualad had to  put way more effort into a spell like that than one would expect, so  they were temporarily distracted. It was still viable however so we  quickly got in position and set off.

Aqualad  had us all standing close together, though I somewhat tweaked the  positioning by messaging Jim and working with him. Miss Martian was too  distracted by Ivy and staying in character now that we were out of  danger tom notice. With that done Aqualad pulled the water from the  ocean around us in a huge bubble and we started to walk. We took it  slow, taking things a step at a time through the fine sand on the bottom  of the ocean as we headed for shore. This would be a fucking  mindnumbingly long walk unfortunately, but it couldn't be helped.

Walking  along the ocean floor was weird. The sand had been stripped of moisture  by the magic used to make the bubble but it still felt different than  beach sand, and every step had to be carefully placed. Things like fish  had been pushed clear but there were mollusks and small animals clinging  to rocks or hidden in the sand that could easily be stepped on or even  sting us. Once we got further out things seemed to calm down, and I  turned to ask Robin about getting out of the water. "So what's the plan  here? We going to walk a few miles and then meet up with a boat? Because  its like twenty miles tom shore and I don't fancy being down here for  that long even if it is kind of pretty."

Robin  looked around slowly, as if expecting something awful to jump out from  behind a rock before shaking his head. "We'll need to wait. We can't  call for a boat this close to the Amazon fleet, they'll just sink it or  get into a fight. We should get a few miles away and then check the  situation up top. We can't even send for Atlantean reinforcements  because of this shield so our only real option is to walk it for now."  He sounded nervous and his aura was tense. He was absolutely trying to  figure out a way to arrange for a League pickup and screw us over.

Of  course it wasn't really an issue anymore, because right after he said  that I felt my powers unshackle as we stepped through the edge of the  wards on the island. Since I'm not a Disney villain I didn't exclaim  "Fools! Now we make our escape!" And teleport right out, but I started  gathering power for the teleport. There were quite a few people here and  despite preparing it was going to cost me. I'd be at about a thousand  even after this jump, so I wanted to do as much as I could to minimize  further expenditure. Through trial and error in the Outer Body trance  I'd figured out ways to mitigate the cost of transport but it took time.

Finally  I was completely ready, but instead of just firing of the teleport I  turned to look at Robin. "So, you're going to arrest us all when we get  back to land huh?" He stiffened at that. As he eased himself into a  combat stance I spread shadows along the sand below us, encompassing  Jim, Arthur, and I along with Ivy and her friends minus Miss Martian. I  smiled at Robin, who was clearly distracted waiting for me to attack.  "Hey it's fine, that's your job right? Catching the criminals. But me?  My job is to not get caught." I saw his eyes widen as he realized what I  was doing but it was too late. "Don't feel too bad, you can always  remember this as the day you almost caught the archcriminal Random." And  the shadows swallowed us all. Ok, maybe I'm kind of a Disney villain.

Of  course, I felt much less cool when the whole group got dropped on our  asses in the Botanical Gardens. I winced as I stood up. I hadn't really  perfected the cheap teleport yet, apparently the Outer Body trance could  only do so much with stuff like spacial transport. Ivy and the others  stood up fast, spinning around in circles to try to find the source of  the attack but I put my hands up to stop them. "Whoa, calm down. It's  fine. I'm just dropping us off. No need to get upset. Sorry we left your  friend Della behind, she was Miss Martian in disguise, couldn't tell  you with them listening in."

Ivy  lashed out with her hand and a wall of greenery rose up around Jim,  Arthur, and I. I winced. Ok, this had not been my best plan ever. Her  dark green lips were peeled back from gleaming white teeth. "And why  should I believe that? I don't know you. I don't know if you even work  for my employer in reality or were just trying to use their name to take  advantage of my abilities. Even if you were, what makes you useful now?  Why wouldn't I just smash you like a bug and move on with my day?" I  winced again, that was another valid point. But I had one of my own. I  shifted to shadow form.

Jim,  being Jim, was in zero danger here, and I doubted she cared enough  about Arthur to try to get past my mentor. I doubted the plants would  even slow him down, so my main focus was in maintaining my safety while I  talked. Luckily I could have a conversation just as easily as a shadow.  Not that it would be necessary for long. I raised my voice. "You know,  your lurking is not useful. You could just come out and solve this."  With my aura sight it was easy enough to spot Talia nearby, and I  definitely wanted to avoid have my murder attempted by the crazy plant  lady with the admittedly nice butt.

A  soft laugh rolled across the room as Talia stepped out. "Very well,  peace Pamela, Mr. Random and I have an understanding." I noted that she  waited until I was functionally invulnerable to physical hard to make  that statement. Fucking assassins and their backstabbing. Was there no  one that could be trusted aside from my team? Hell the justice bros were  supposed to be the good guys, and if they hadn't underestimated my  teleport range and neglected to keep track of the boundaries of the  island wards I probably would've been arrested.

Arthur  for his part looked pretty relieved when the plant wall around us  started to retract. I felt for him really, but come on, I'd broken him  out of prison, a bit of a scare wasn't that big of a deal in comparison.  After Ivy put up her plants I manifested beck to my humanoid shadow  form. I wanted to be able to interact but I didn't want to be too  vulnerable in case someone he tried something. I turned to face Talia.  "You have our payment?" Despite out humanitarian reasons for doing this  we still had a rep to maintain. Jim had negotiated us a new payment,  considering the shitty gems were useless to us.

Talia  nodded and gestured to a shadowed corner. Cheshire and Lady Shiva  carried out a large crate and set it down nearby, stepping back to give  us space as Jim flicked his cane to pop the top open. I looked inside  with a grin. Metal. Ten bars of the stuff sitting in nearly packaged  foam cutouts. This stuff was grade A material we could give to Artemis  to work into weapons. I raised an eyebrow at our employer. "Is it  unprofessional to ask how the hell you got this? I mean sure, there are a  ton of Amazons in town, but Amazonium is rare even for them? You must  have stolen a bunch of the stuff and melted it down, unless they brought  it with them?"

Talia  laughed. "That information is hardly relevant to you. We paid a high  price to acquire the material, but given the speed with which you  accomplished your goals I have no complaints. It was a pleasure working  with you both, and I hope our future partnership will be just as  fruitful." Jim stepped up to knock on the crate, storing it in his  spatial ring and Talia look surprised. Luckily she probably assumed it  was some crazy Gentleman Ghost trick. She turned to look at Ivy. "Come  Pamela, we have much to discuss, our guests can see themselves out."

She  turned and sauntered away, clearly expecting to be followed, and she  wasn't disappointed. Ivy trailed after her, looking suspiciously back at  us as she left. I exhaled in relief as I manifested back to my  corporeal form. "Damn, that was tense. You good boss, Arthur?" Both of  them nodded and I exhaled with relief. I looked at Jim. "By the way,  don't you think it was ridiculous how bog of a crate they put those bars  in? Like they would have fit in a shoe box probably. Just seems  needlessly dramatic to stuff a huge crate full of styrofoam like that  for presentation's sake."

My  mentor snickered as we headed out of the gardens. "It's showmanship my  boy, one of our later lessons. I'll teach you all about the fine art of  presentation when you're older." I rolled my eyes at him but I felt my  shoulder relax. Despite a huge clusterfuck we'd managed to get Ivy out  of Blackgate and retreat safely. Granted we'd pissed off the justice  bros something fierce, allied with the Shadows and potentially got the  League members in town on our trail, but hey, omelets and eggs right? On  second thought, it might be time to hole up on the island and work on  the base. I had training to do anyway.