Sell you a Bridge chapter 118

Gotham City November 7th 2010 6:00 PM EDT

Triangulating  Wally through the map was helpful, but it wasn't exactly the instant  solution I expected. Once I actually showed up to follow him I realized  he wasn't really always with his team. Since I was planning to enlist  all of them to help (team work makes the dream work, and also I wouldn't  have to risk my own crew) I ended up having to follow him around for a  while. This was extremely annoying, because Wally was a speedster and  zipped every fucking where for no reason so I had to keep using the  sending stone to verify his position with the girls via the map.

On  the upside, my sneaky ninja ass was undetectable so it wasn't like he  was actually trying to get away, and I was able to follow him without  detection all day, despite having to use the map to catch up more than a  few times. I also had Artemis make sure not to call Wally while I  followed him, that way when I stumbled on the justice bros they wouldn't  be able to connect him speaking to her with my appearance in any way.  Granted it was pretty unlikely she would have decided to call right  before they noticed or ran in to me, but better safe than sorry.

Finally  though, I managed to follow him back to a warehouse where he and the  other justice bros were holed up. With my aura sight I could see them  all sitting around planning. Robin, Aqualad, Superboy, Red Arrow, Miss  Martian, and Wally being the last to arrive. I couldn't hear them from  where I was, so I slipped crept in as close as I could then slipped into  shadow form and flowed under the door. Theoretically I didn't think  Miss Martian could read my mind in this state, since I was pretty sure  my brain was in another dimension right now, but if she noticed me I  could just pretend I'd been here the whole time to throw them off or  teleport out.

Luckily  as I got within hearing range I saw no reaction from the martian, and I  made a mental note to use my human form shadow state to talk to them  instead of manifesting in front of them to make sure it stayed that way.  The last thing I needed was her picking up that I knew Wally's identity  or who Artemis was. It took a few minutes to get close given the speed  of my shadow form when I wasn't overclocking with points, but finally I  got within range in time to hear Robin talk. "...and I personally don't  want to see what Gotham looks like on a juice cleanse. We need to figure  out some way to feed the civilians. Rationing would be best but we  can't enforce it without the city devolving into civil war."

Miss  Martian spoke up, the christmas colored superheroine sounding upbeat  and cheerful even while discussing a potential upcoming famine. "I'm  sure some people would be willing to cut back. Why don't we ask for  volunteers to donate non perishables to a large stockpile for once the  limited shelf life stuff goes bad?" That actually wasn't a bad idea,  plus knowing Gotham SOMEBODY had a crazy canned goods fallout shelter  under their house somewhere in town, probably more than one person too.  Her voice lost some of it's cheer. "I can't think of any other way to  help those poor people."

Which  seemed like the ideal time to show myself, granted in a limited and  pretty much invulnerable form, I wasn't stupid. I shifted to a humanoid  form, still keeping to my shadow state, as I said cheerfully. "I can."  The justice bros all jumped out of their skins, which was pretty  satisfying, and a few of them literally fell over out of surprise.  Luckily my shadow form didn't have a face so they couldn't see me  laughing at them. They came to their feet in a fury, readying their weapons to attack me, but I held up my hands in supplication. "Whoa, don't shoot. I'm here to help."

Robin  scowled at me. "Is that you Random? I recognize that weird modulated  voice you're using. If you're here to help why not show yourself  properly, this whole shadow ghost thing is pretty suspicious." I saw his  hand twitch toward his belt and smirked. This asshole still wanted to  arrest me or something. Not that it would do him any good in the bubble  but still, I'd keep it in mind in case he tried to pull a fast one after  our team up. However, I suspect he'd done enough research on me to know  he couldn't touch me like this, so he held himself back.

I  shrugged. "Can't be too careful these days bat brat, I'm more worried  about your intentions than your feelings." That seemed to annoy him, and  I mentally snickered at his tightening jaw before nodding to Miss  Martian. "Like I said to her though, I do have a way to help feed the  hungry around here. It just so happens my team and I have been worried  about the same thing. This is our hometown you know. We have a plan to  get massive amounts of renewable foodstuffs incredibly quickly, but we  need a little backup to pull it off."

Robin  raised an eyebrow. "And what? You're planning to help all the hungry  people in the city out of the evilness of your heart? Forgive me if I'm  not exactly whelmed by your offer." I cocked my head, confused by his  weird phrasing, but he just cleared his throat. My aura sight showed  embarrassment and I made a mental note to bring this up again later. He  glared at me for a bit. Finally he gestured at me impatiently. "Well?  I'm waiting? Just because I don't believe you doesn't mean I can ignore  my options, tell me your plan if you think it's so great."

I  hadn't really been expecting him to be willing to listen, but then I  guess being intangible kind of limited his options. I shrugged. "Fair  enough. You need a large amount of food very quickly, healthy food would  be best, preferably something you can get more of in a short time."  They nodded along as I spoke but I suspected this next part wasn't going  to go down quite so smoothly. "Easiest answer for that would be  produce. Growing food quickly is a pretty limited skill set though, and  the only person I know who has that knack. Specifically I'm talking  about-"

Robin's  shout cut me off, obviously enraged I would even suggest it. "Poison  Ivy? Are you insane? First off she hates pretty much everyone, secondly  even if you convinced her to help temporarily, which you wouldn't by the  way, she would just turn on you as soon as it was convenient. Not to  mention she likes plants more than people, so good luck convincing her  to grow a bunch of them for people to eat even if she was willing to  help us all survive this mess, which again she wouldn't be. That's not  even going into how illegal it would be to break her out of prison."

I  rolled my eyes. "First off, we have arrangements with a third party  that has ties to her. They've assured us they'll keep her under  control." Which sounded way better than 'the shadows said we can trust  them, it'll all be fine I'm sure'. Since I didn't want to admit that  though I just kept going. "Secondly I think a prison break is a bit less  morally dubious than letting tens or hundreds of thousands of innocent  people die of starvation. This is a siege in case you missed it, expect  they're already in here with us. Plus correct me if I'm wrong aren't you  guys vigilantes? That's illegal as hell, and even if the League has a  charter no way it extends to their teenie bopper sidekicks."

I  saw them all tense up at that, and made a mental note to save the  S-word for when I wanted to really piss them off. That was a sensitive  subject apparently. I held up my hands again. "Alright just back it up.  Is this drastic, yes, but it's not like I'm asking you to directly hurt  anyone. We need helping getting in and out of Blackgate. That island is  apparently the former home of some sort of evil criminal religion, as  dumb as that may sound. Our magic is seriously hampered and getting into  the place is tough unless we want to blow a hole in the side and let  all the others out when we do it. I for one don't want to see the  inmates of a super prison unleashed on the populace."

Before  any of them could respond though, Aqualad spoke up. "He is right." Even  I came up short at that. I had to hand it to the guy, he was one of the  most mature, composed people I'd ever met. His aura basically screamed  'Mr. soft owl has seen some shit' but I hadn't expected him to be  rational enough to listen properly without me nattering on for an hour  to drive the point home. Heroes were bad about that usually, at least  from what I'd seen of the League and their mini-me's.  He noticed the  stares and turned to face me. "The civilians are our first priority.  Allowing them to die to salve our own consciences would be that actions  of a monster. The safety of the people of Gotham is our first priority."

Robin  looked shocked, but then sighed, rubbing his temples. "You're right  Aqualad. This isn't about moral superiority. Lives are on the line." He  turned to glare at me. "But we will be following her EVERYWHERE she goes  while she's out. This isn't a prison break. It's a work release.  Just...not one we got permission for or warned anyone about." Even I  smirked a bit at that one, and I nodded in confirmation. "You can  explain to your mysterious third party that she'll be going back after  this is over, in the meantime we need to hear your plan."

I  grinned, not that they could see it, and I was minorly jealous of Jim  for not having a face. "Well we had a few ideas for getting in, but they  depend on how well you can still utilize your resources. Specifically  how much are the cops still functioning, how much do they affect what's  happening on Blackgate, and how much influence do you still have on  them?" I tried my best to keep the expectation out of my tone, not  wanting to give anything away, but I could see on their faces they got  what I meant.

Robin  looked horrified. "Please tell me your plan isn't to get locked up and  stage a prison break from the inside. Aside from being insane it's also  literally the first thing they expect from anyone. It's literally their  entire job to stop that from happening." He looked like he was about to  pull his hair out in frustration. "I thought your mentor was supposed to  be the worlds greatest thief? You're supposed to be able to come up  with a better plan than any random movie director." He was glancing  around for support from his friends who admittedly did look worried.

I  waved him off. "Our plan is much more complicated than you could  imagine." It wasn't. "We obviously have other contingencies in place for  once we reach the island." We didn't. "No way would we be stupid enough  to just drop ourselves into a super max prison for capes and expect to  slip out with our own abilities." We were. But to be fair I had escape  artist skills and a ton of powerful abilities these junior white hats  couldn't imagine, and Jim had trump cards even I didn't know about. We  would definitely be fine. Maybe. Probably. Fingers crossed.