Sell you a Bridge chapter 28

The Clock Tower, July 4th 10:30 EDT

Artemis  was glaring at me as she pulled off her mask when we got back to the  clock tower. I winced and averted my eyes. After a minute or two of  silence she finally erupted "I can't believe you knocked out a nine year  old!" I had been expecting that a lot sooner honestly, and I was  grateful she waited until we got back to the lair. She exhaled slowly  "Ok, you didn't punch him or anything, so why don't you tell me exactly  what you did before I lose my mind over this. I'd like to think I know  you well enough to know you wouldn't do something harmful to the kid."

I  slumped into one of the comfy chairs we had in the clock tower, rubbing  the bridge of my nose. Reggie and Jim seemed to be waiting for my  response before weighing in but that wasn't a shock. Artemis was by far  the most dominant of our group, and Jim wasn't interfering tonight.  "He'll be fine. No marks, no headache, and he won't remember we were  ever there. He'll have a long restful sleep and wake up in the morning  in bed where we left him, completely unaware we were there. It's one of  my ninja abilities. Ninjas are sneaky but bad luck happens. It isn't  exactly subtle to leave a pile of corpses behind whenever you get seen  in the act."

I  smiled wryly "So one of the pressure point combos I know does a bit of  work with the nervous system. Think of it like a soft reboot of the  brain, all the short term memory gets dumped during the restart. When  they wake up they don't remember the hour before they got knocked out  and they don't feel any soreness or discomfort at all. He'll have the  best sleep of his life and wake up happy and refreshed." She seemed to  be calming down about it but I felt like I had to add "I panicked, but I  would never hurt a kid. We were in costume, if I hadn't had a safe way  to take care of things with him we would have just run. Worst case  scenario we would've changed costumes."

Artemis  sat down across from me with a sigh. "Ok, fair enough. I'm not going to  assume I know your abilities better than you. If the kid is fine and  you say you knew he would be that's good enough for me. You guys good  with that?" Reggie nodded seriously and Jim just shrugged the shoulders  of his spectral suit. I suspected Reggie went with whatever we said  because we had saved his family and given him superpowers, but Jim would  have told us if we went too far. Speaking of which, Artemis turned to  our mentor "So now that that's settled, how did you think we did boss  man? Clyde has the bottle and he even paid at the last price it sold for  which I didn't expect."

Jim  chuckled "He paid you the last sale price because he was ripping you  off." We all turned to him in shock and his chuckle turned into a full  throated belly laugh "Wine is an appreciating asset. The sale price on  that bottle was from about six years ago. Not to mention accruing value,  you didn't even account for inflation. Not that I expected you to. You  did good work tonight, aside from a slight snafu with the boy that you  took care of in a traceless and non damaging fashion. I'd say you  passed. You're allowed to do jobs without me. I still have plenty to  teach you of course, but you're qualified thieves on your own merit  now."

We all  winced at that, but no one gets it perfect their first time. I'd already  had everything wired to the proper accounts so Reggie and Artemis  headed home. I told them I was staying at the clock tower for a while  longer to do some computer stuff but as soon as they were gone I took  out my phone. Jim had taken off to give us time to enjoy the fruits of  our labors so I was alone in the clock tower for the night. I dialed a  number I had memorized but not in my contacts. The phone rang three  times before someone picked up. A pretty, musical voice answered "Hey  there stranger, was beginning to think you wouldn't call."

I  chuckled "Sorry, got held up. Or at least that liquor store did." There  was a long pause on the other end, and after it dragged on for a minute  I couldn't take it anymore "I'm kidding Zee, damn. You know I don't  talk about work with you. Plausible deniability. How was your fourth of  July? Your dad still seething over Gentleman Ghost trapping him in the  ghost roads?" Zatara had gotten back a few days after he was banished,  and he was spitting mad about it. He'd been on a rampage across magical  Gotham since trying to find Jim, but my mentor was always a step ahead.

That  was actually how Zee and I had started talking. I left my number  because I felt bad about knocking her out and she was hot, but she'd  called fuming about her dad and when I told her he was going to be back  soon she threatened me and hung up. I called back the next night and by  the time he finally came home she liked me enough to keep talking as  long as I didn't openly admit to any crimes when we were on the phone.  Honestly I think part of it was just that she liked being secret phone  buddies with a criminal, Zee had a bit of a wild child side.

Her  laugh was a bit relieved when I revealed I was joking about the liquor  store thing "Right, of course you were joking. You don't do hold ups  anyway. You're a gentleman thief." She said that last part teasingly and  I rolled my eyes "Anyway he's starting to calm down. I don't even think  he's that mad about the ghost roads anymore, he's mostly pissed about  you knocking me out. I mean, I'm not even mad and I'm the one it  happened to. From the way he's acting you would think you knocked me up  in a hay loft or something."

A  pleasant image I pushed down because I had a girlfriend who I liked  very much. I enjoyed talking to Zee, she was sweet and funny and hot as  hell, but I sometimes felt a bit guilty about our relationship. We never  went too far, but I wasn't just hiding our calls from Annabel I was  hiding them from Arty and Reggie too. We were the three musketeers and I  hated lying to them, but something about my talks with Zee was  just...private. We didn't even talk that often because her dad was a  crazy overprotective helicopter parent.

I  forced my mind back onto talking about the holiday "I'm glad he's  letting up. What did you guys do? I had lunch with my girlfriend before  work." I made sure not to give out any information that would lead to  me. I trusted Zee but better safe than sorry. We were using a pair of  encrypted burners I'd found on the dark web so as long as I kept the  details light we wouldn't be in danger of figuring things out about each  other. Well she wouldn't be in danger of figuring things out about me.  Her life wasn't exactly a mystery she spent all her time in that damn  mansion.

I  heard a thump as she flopped down on her bed "We had a barbecue in the  back yard. He invited some friends from work over. It was nice. Have you  ever noticed all the guys on the Justice League are weirdly hot? Like  what is it about super heroing that makes you look like a male model?"  The women on the Justice League were all hot too, but that kind of just  made her point for her. "Anyway it was really fun. Green Lantern cooks a  hell of a burger. They're actually still out there, apparently there  was some big emergency so they all got here super late, including dad."

I  raised an eyebrow "And emergency? I didn't see anything in the news so  I'm guessing it wasn't local. Also I'm surprised your dad would let  anything with a penis within a mile of his precious baby girl. Did he  make all the Justice League guys wear chastity belts? Or just you?  Actually jokes aside I could see you really rocking a pair of iron  underwear." Nope, bad brain. I had to redirect my mental images to the  Justice League guys in chastity belts, which made me wince for a totally  different reason.

She giggled  at that "I totally would. And he isn't that bad, he's just a little  protective. Besides all the guys on the League are too goody goody to  bang a teenage girl. Not that I would be interested without some serious  wining and dining of course, but he knows they're safe to have around  me. He wouldn't even let the sidekicks come because they're close to my  age. He said they were all on probation or something from some big mess  in DC tonight but I don't buy it. Honestly maybe you have a point about  him being over protective. Ever since mom died he's just been so  terrified of anything happening to me."

That  was a much better reason than I wanted to attribute to the old man. I  didn't like how isolated he kept her. Zatanna was a funny, sweet,  engaging person with a big personality. She was incredibly social, but  because of her dad she spent so much of her time alone. I think more  than anything that's why she kept up our phone calls. I was probably her  only friend in the world. I chose not to say anything about my feelings  on the subject. She may question his methods but Zatanna loved her  daddy. If she felt like you were bad mouthing him she wouldn't take it  lying down.

We  talked for another hour or two. Mom was used to my odd hours by now and  talking to Zee made me happy. I considered calling Annabel after we got  off the phone but I figured she would be busy. Finally we had to say  goodnight, though Zee made me promise to call back tomorrow and we hung  up. I sat there alone in my clock tower staring at my phone after we cut  off the call. My life had changed so much over the time I'd had my  powers, I sometimes wondered what things would be like if I'd never  gotten them, but the thought was too awful to think about.

Without  powers I'd never have approached Artemis, never have been able to help  Reggie or met Jim or gotten my mom her new place. I'd never have met  Annabel or Zee or be in this kick ass tower. I took a long look around  the beautifully decorated room that Jim had obviously had far too much  influence on judging by the dark wood panels and wall hangings. The  penthouse was great, but this, this was home. I was lucky to have all  the people and places I did in my life.

I  walked to the face of the clock tower, enchanted by a craftsman Jim  knew to show an image of what was outside like a giant TV screen, and  gazed out over my city. Gotham may be kind of a shit hole sometimes, and  it may be dark and terrible at others. But there was something  beautiful about this place. About the triumph of the human spirit people  showed just by getting up and going to work every day in a city so  dangerous. It was a jungle out there, and I was damn proud to live in  it.