Sell you a Bridge chapter 65

The Cathedral July 29th 2010 8:00 PM EDT

We  managed to make it back to the dungeon the next night. The next stretch  of the second floor was a bit different. As opposed to the rooms we'd  been seeing this part was more open concept. Lots of wide spaces full of  coffins and the odd chest here or there. Skeletons and the odd Ghoul  covered the place, listing slowly toward us and easy pickings for our  archers. As we kept an eye out I sidled up next to Zee putting my arm  around my girlfriend. "Hey sweets, how goes the magic study? Having  fun?"

She shot be a beaming  smile "Hell yes! I used that book when I got home and learned a healing  spell. It's a totally different magic style to my own. I was able to use  it in combination with that identify scroll to forcefully learn the  spell. It's crazy magically inefficient right now but I can do it!" She  grabbed me by the shirt and planted a passionate kiss on my lips,  leaving me dazed and tasting blueberry cheesecake. "God baby I love  this! Learning new spells is such a fucking rush! I can't wait to find  more!"

I  smirked at my magic crazy girlfriend, using the very close contact as an  excuse to get a handful of her very generous rear, but my hand got a  quick smack. Zee gave me a smirk of her own "Woah there cowboy, hands  above the waist. Don't get greedy." She was laughing but I felt my face  fall and she must have seen the guilt because she gave me a soft kiss.  "No harm babe, I just feel like we're moving a little fast. You can  still put your hands on all the places you've already touched." She gave  me a devilish grin and glanced down to her straining button up.

I  laughed and kissed her again, slower and more carefully. Her eyes were  fluttering as I pulled away and I pushed a strand of hair behind her ear  like I always loved seeing her do. "I'm sorry Zee. You know I'd never  want to make you uncomfortable, I guess I just caught up in the moment.  Seeing you so excited about magic got me worked up. But I don't need to  cop a feel to enjoy spending time with you. You know I like you for more  than your body right?" My damn teenage hormones were messing with me,  and the last thing I wanted was for them to make Zee doubt me.

She  pulled me into a hug "Baby of course I do. If I thought you only wanted  some ass I'd never have agreed to date you." She pulled back and raised  an eyebrow in a snarky manner "Though I won't say I haven't noticed all  the attention you pay that particular part of my anatomy. You're a boy,  god knows daddy has warned me enough that boys only want one thing, and  while I don't think you're like that it makes sense you would be  thinking about it sometimes. Hell, I think about it sometimes. You're a  hunk, and from what I've felt pressed up against me when we're having  alone time, you're hung like a horse."

I  flushed at that but she just laughed and kept going. "But we aren't  exactly objective about this. I don't want my first time to be something  I do in the heat of the moment. I want it to be special. I have so much  fun with you, I don't want to rush into anything and then ruin things. I  love what we've already done, I just don't want to keep pushing." I  opened my mouth and she cut me off "And I don't mean you. I mean me. I  want you too Morgan, and if I let you go any further I'll have trouble  holding myself back. So above the waist only. Just for now. Just until  we're ready."

I  tipped her chin up and stared into those bottomless blue eyes that put  me in a trance every time I looked at them. "Of course baby. Anything  you need. And if the stuff we do now is ever too much you tell me. I  want this to work, and if that means we go hands off for a while I don't  mind. You're worth it Zatanna." Her eyes shone as she stared up at me  in what my aura sense told me was adoration. I couldn't believe I was  with someone like her, she was just so damn amazing. Our moment was cut  off as someone cleared their throat.

We  turned to see Artemis glaring at us "Can you two be sickening somewhere  we aren't about to get eaten by fucking zombies please? Your  relationship makes my teeth ache and it's throwing off my aim." Her aura  didn't have any actual malice in it though, just a bit of exasperation  and a hint of frustration. I smiled apologetically and stepped back,  putting my hands up in surrender. She stared a bit harder then sighed  "Sorry. My boyfriend is out of the country on some stupid club trip in  South America. He hasn't been able to visit and it's pissing me off."

I  winced, I knew Wally and Artemis had been getting closer lately. They  had a weird amount in common actually, and their relationship was  incredibly close. I'd gotten to know Wally a bit over his visits and he  was a nice guy, if a bit over the top. He seemed to have a lot of  problems interacting with other people, but Artemis said he was really  smart so that wasn't a surprise. Apparently he could be a bit forward  when he flirted, which was fine with Artemis because she was confident  as hell and knew what she wanted but it scared a lot of girls off.

Artemis  herself had trouble letting people in because of her dad. Wally  respected her privacy and didn't pry and it meant a lot to her. Plus as  she was fond of saying even when no one asked he had an "ass that could  crack cement". I was happy for my friend, though I felt bad that she was  so down being away from her boy. I decided to distract us all. "Ok so  how's the haul. We find anything decent so far today? We haven't run  into any real threats, just the off wandering skeleton or Ghoul. I wish  this place wasn't so fucking huge."

That  got a laugh from Kit, who was standing nearby. "Guess your lady had you  a bit distracted huh cousin? But yah we got a few trinkets. A ring, a  dagger, and a buckler, all blue. We're stopped at a chest right now,  it's one of the gold bordered black box things you always tell us to  leave to you." I nodded, those chests were usually trapped, and my super  reflexes were the perfect response to something like that. I walked  over to the aforementioned chest and glanced down, looking for any wires  or anything but finding nothing.

I  leaned down and flipped up the lid. There was a weird sort of reverse  xylophone sound and a skeleton constructed itself from disparate bones  behind the chest. I lashed out without thinking, smashing the thing  apart with a single blow and moving on to look through the chest. Pile  of gold, healing potion, scroll of town portal, nothing huge. I  addressed Artemis as I rooted through the box. "So what is Wally doing  in South America anyway?" He didn't strike me as the cultural  appreciation type, more of a hard science guy. I was surprised he was in  a club like that.

She  snorted "Fuck if I know. He babbles when we talk on the phone.  Something about snakes I think. He was supposed to be back days ago, but  he said his club found some weird ruins or something and they were  going to explore them. He said he'll be in Gotham soon though.  Apparently he's going to be spending a lot more time here, his relatives  in the city need his help with some stuff." I could hear the fondness  in her voice "He's pretty reliable about stuff like that. Always willing  to help out if you need it."

I  laughed at the obvious fondness in her tone before freezing in place.  My eyes strayed down to the side, near the corner of my field of vision.  "Umm. Not to be that guy, but does anyone else see a red plus sign in  the bottom corner of their...sight? Because there seems to be an icon  floating there that says level up above it." I was in shock. I hadn't  herd anything about anyone being able to level up like in the game.  Which meant either I was the first person to ever get enough experience  or I was the only one for some reason.

I  had a sneaking suspicion my powers had something to do with it. My  points seemed to be able to act as a universal power source, maybe they  worked for this too. Everyone just stared at me blankly and I shrugged  and hit the button mentally. A big ass screen appeared, full of  information. A gray character screen just like in the game. It listed my  name, level, the amount of money I had, some attributes, resistances,  and a few other things like health. But there were some differences too.

Firstly  I had no mana indicator, and instead of magic I had a points stat,  which was at ten. My strength was also at ten,as was my vitality, with  my dexterity lagging behind at seven. I assumed it was based on my  actual physical movement ability which was somewhat limited by my bulk,  and I was tempted to dump some of my available five stats into dex to  round it out, but I realized it was a mistake. I put all five of the  stat points into the points category, and I felt something inside  me...shift.

This  wasn't a one time thing. I knew for a fact my daily points allotment  was at fifteen now. I'd finally found a way to increase my points  income. Based on how long it took to get one level it wouldn't be fast.  But it still worked. I'd begun to assume that I would be stuck at ten  points a day forever. Now I finally had a way to get stronger. To  potentially buy some of those insane high priced abilities and powers  I'd seen. I grinned to myself, excited beyond belief. I was interrupted  in my reverie by a hand in front of my face.

I  snapped out of the haze to stare at Reggie who was looking at me with  concern. "Dude, can you not say vague shit about seeing things that  aren't there and then drift off into weird trances? It's creepy and a  bit worrying. Are you ok?" He looked concerned, and I winced as I  realized no one but Artemis knew about my powers. This could be written  off as its own thing though, and had nothing to do with my abilities  from an external point of view.I decided to play it off as a weird  Gotham thing.

I shrugged "Guess I  can level up now. Maybe it's a meta ability or something. Still very  cool." I could use the leveling down here to explain away any increase  in my abilities from my real power, which was pretty amazing in itself. I  felt bad not telling Zee and Reggie about my powers but it just didn't  seem like time. I smiled at my friends, anxious to do more before we  left, to try to get another level, to get up to twenty points. "Anyway  I'm fine, we'll have to see how this all works as we go on. Now are we  going to sit around jabbering or are we going to go kick some ass. I  want to slay some monsters." Unsurprisingly, that comment got no  arguments. I do love my friends.