She smiled
"I'm majoring in Criminal Justice and Forensic Science, though i thinking of adding Xenobiology to the mix as well.  There are a lot of interesting things going on in the world."
The mention of Jessica made her frown suspiciously
'Well,  that's because she IS a stranger.  In every sense of the word.  The first time I'd even heard of her was literally yesterday,  when Xantastic approached me at school with her message.  Dad never never mentioned any siblings,  but then he was alwaysa bit close lipped about his past. As if there was something painful there.
So i still don't know  if this Jessica person is on the up and up.  I mean, it seems a weird way to run a scam, but my world is a weird place.  But, yeah, I'm trying to find her and unfortunately I have literallyno information about her.  Not even a picture."


Barbara leaned in ever so slightly when Dean talked about his relationship with Jill.  She tried to keep her "poker face", both to hide her relief that Dean was married or anything, and to hide her feelings of inadequacy when she learned that Jill was an exotic dancer, a profession much more alluring than college student.
The fact that she, or some doppelganger of her, was famous in Dean's world gave her a boost of confidence,  but it felt fragile and artificial.
She giggled nervously at his questions about her personal life
"What?? 'Batboy'???  Now, that's  just silly!"
Blushing a bit, she idly traced the rim of her juice glass with a finger.
"I've been too busy for dating.   There are cute boys at school, but no time. "

Clearing her throat nervously,  she shrugged
"I don't mean to pry, but i was wondering: How did you get so much Endurance?  Is everyone from your world filled with such superhuman stamina?  I mean no disrespect,  but I've trained with Only athletes,  and you kept walking hours after one of them would have conked out.  If you don't mind, what's your secret?"

  Dean mulls over what Barbara says.  He crunches down some bacon, a few forkfuls of eggs, washes it down with some juice.  As he cuts up his pancakes he shrugs.

  "You know, with the tech that Skye has here for implanted learning you could free up a lot of that studying time and have more time for a social life, you know, get out and have fun and not have to be hitting the books all the time.  Betcha you'd have guys falling all over you if you weren't cloistered away in the library all the time.  I never went to college.  I barely got my GED.  That was the best I could do, what with being in juvie as much as I was."

  He wolfs down a few more bites.  "Surprised?  Horrified?  Well, it's the typical story.  Mom got pregnant with me and dad became a ghost as soon as he found out.  Things were good when I was little, me and mom...but I was always kind of a freak.  Way too strong, way too tough.  Mom got into this weird religious new-age something-bigger-out-there kinda stuff, and she started drinking because she could never quite seem to find it, whatever she was looking for.  Around eleven I started acting out, by thirteen I was a bad kid.  Real bad.  Always fighting, running with a bad crowd, in and out of juvenile detention.  Mostly in.  That's where I was when my mom was killed.  I was sixteen, and this big eighteen year old that bullied everyone started saying shit about her cause it was on tv.  I beat him so bad he was in a coma, almost died.   Because of my repeat offender status they were looking at charging me as an adult, and I was looking at twenty years for attempted murder.  Judge gave me one chance, enlistment.  I went into the marines, and they taught me stuff that decent people shouldn't know, but they turned me against the bad guys, terrorists.  I went special forces right outta boot camp.  Spent six years in the corps doing things I wish I could forget sometimes.  Finally I walked away from it, went back to New Orleans, started working at Vixens, trying to figure out who killed my mom in my off time.  Trying to do enough good to erase the bad I did before that."

  He looks up from his plate, looks Barbara in the eyes.  "I got a lot of flaws, and I don't know why I'm the way I am, but I'm still a freak, but I'm trying to be better."

Xantastic bounces back looking a lot happier and takes a seat at the table.

"Good morning legs."

  Dean looks at the little one and squints.  "Legs?  Really?  Well, so newbie at the table has to tell their story, so looks like you're up, Xan."

"What I look at you and I see legs. Your tall, tall, tall."

She looks up and shrugs, "My story ? What do you mean ?"

Skye comes over and serves Xantastic pancakes with whipcream smiley faces.
Xantastic smiles brightly.

"What do you want to know Dean ?"

  Dean shrugs, "Where are you from, what do you do when you're not out superheroing, how did you get into that racket?"

"Oh, I am from the Chibiverse it is near Ink. I was kidnapped by a sorcerer on Batgirl's world. They summoned me because my people are very magical. I was too young to protect myself. So they used me to commit crimes. Jessica rescued me and I repaid her by helping her out. Her family is very gifted with crime stoppers. She is a Warden and protects the Key to her world. We even adventure on the Stairs sometimes. I got knocked out when someone came through the Door. They busted in which isn't supposed to be possible. When I woke up I looked for her and she left me some things to do. I had to find her." She points at Batgirl.

"I had to give her a package and then help her out as best I could."

"So far I have been trying my best."

  Chibiverse?  Ink?  Sorcerers?

  "Well, seems like you're doing a good job.  Keep up the good work."

The little girl gives a big thumbs up. She then diggs into her pancakes.

"Thank you, Miss Skye."

  “How about you, Skye?  Gonna jump in on the history lesson?” Dean asks.

Unlike a lot of girls, Barbara was never particularly attracted to "bad boys".   Still, there was something about Dean's story of redemption that was compelling.
She vowed to keep an open mind.  There were a number of heroes at her school who'd started out on the other side of the tracks, after all.

She listened to Xan's story with fascination as well.  There was so much to learn.
Skye and her "learning implants were a tempting idea, but the shortcut seemed wrong to her.  Still, open minded,  right?


"If we ever get a chance, Dean, I'd be interested in seeing the limits of your strength and endurance.   You might actually be what my world calls a 'metahuman'. Though you seem to imply that those don't normally exist on your world "

  “If they do, I’ve never met one.  Hell , maybe my dad was some kind of Superman or something.  I’ll probably never know.  As far as how strong and all that, I don’t know.  I have this 24 hour gym membership, and I go at like three AM sometimes when nobody else is there.  I can max out every machine in the place.” He shakes his head and looks down at his plate. “I’m just a freak.”

Barbara made a sympathetic face and reached out,  putting a hand on Dean's arm.
"You're not a freak, you're Special.   And if you ARE a freak, then some of my best friends are freaks, so I'm glad you're here."

"I thought I told my story. Dean now that your mentioning the strength as well as the endurance. I believe you do have it in you to become a Warden. I experienced those things as well. Though I never really thought of myself as a freak more elite."

  Dean nods.  “You did, corrupt government, world ended, politicians got away as did your company....just not so much about you yourself.  Your climb up to becoming a CEO, how you met Millenia, whether or not there’s a Mr. Skye...you know, the personal stuff.”

"Ahhh, I don't really talk about myself too much. No Mr. Skye. As for CEO you might say I come from a legacy family. I had to work my tail off to prove my worth even though my parents were very much the power couple. If I didn't I would have been crushed and forgotten. I didn't have much of a childhood, all work no play, no fun. That is where Millenia comes in. She was my repressed child I suppose. When I was broken she emerged. When she feels overwhelmed or in need of logic or my serious nature she usually calls upon me. We have learned to live with it. I have never really met Millenia though I have more then enough experience with my wild side."

Skye folds her arms, "The Grand Stair is an amazing thing but there are other powers as well. My fellow Wardens delved into them some are dilettantes, others delved deeply into a power. So magic which has been mentioned is a real force it works in most places at least true magic. Be wary some powers have costs."

  With a smile, Dean says "See? Now we're getting somewhere.  This is how people become friends, by getting to know one another.  There are other ways, of course, like a game of naked baby oil Twister, but hey, whatever works, right?"

  He finishes his plate and says, "I'm gonna wake up Jill so she doesn't sleep through breakfast, which is excellent, by the way.  Thank you."

He pads over to wake the still sleeping one. "Waken, waken, eggs and bacon, best get up 'fore it's all taken!"

  Once she stirs, he comes back and refills his coffee and pours one for her.

Skye, "You have a good imagination, that is for sure."

Jill opens her eyes and looks up.

"We still in weirdville ?" She looks around, "Yup."
She rubs her eyes and slips off the med bed.

  Dean hands Jill her coffee when she makes her way over. “Yup, not a dream, sunshine.  We were all just sitting around bonding while you were counting sheep and healing them all.  Skye was telling us about powers and wardens and magic, and we were trying to come up with some ideas on how we go about looking for Barbara’s cousin.  I was just throwing out some team-building ideas.”

Xantastic looks over with a bit of whip creme mustache.
"Good morning Jill."

  Jill smiles at Xan and says, “Good morning.  Sleep well?””

  She then rolls her eyes at Dean.  “Team building?  Not the Twister thing again.”

  Dean counters with, “Hey, it worked at the club when there was all that drama going on between Amber and Chloe and Tanya.  They all became besties after that.”

Barbara studiously did NOT comment on the idea of naked oil Twister,  not even trying to make eye contact with Dean for fear of making an embarrassing noise that might be taken as encouragement.

She looked at Skye
"My apologies for being behind the proverbial class, but I'm still trying to understand what being a Warden means.  Is it a position to be earned somehow,  or is it granted by someone?  Does it have anything to do with the key Jessica left me?"

Skye after Jill is served comes over to the table.

"Alright Wardens are normally chosen by the Grand Stair or if your not in favor of a sentient Stair the subconscious will of the Wardens selects people. Originally the builders of the Stair did this. I do know that usually Wardens are a step above ordinary people. Like Dean here being strong and enduring, I myself was like that but I also became shattered, broken and as bad as that sounds power came with it. That happened while defending my ship from a blackhole." She holds up a hand and it disintegrates slowly turning to dust. She pulls all the dust back and the hand reforms.

"My fellow Wardens who were empowered by the man we tried to save when we all stumbled on to the Stair all like myself recently came into powers. So I think that influenced us becoming Wardens so quickly. As I understand it, it is usually a slower easier process. One feels a call while on the Stairs. You will kind of go into a hypnotic state and wander the stair. During that time the Stair kind of imprints itself on you. You become a Warden. Also if you were not endowed with super human ability you usually gain it at that time. Another way people become Wardens sometimes is touching a Key. If someone holds a Key and wanders the Stair it is almost the same. In fact that is how some lineages of Wardens are formed."

Xantastic smiles at Jill, "Yes I had nice dreams of having a pic nic with all of you my new friends."

Barbara's eyes went wide for a moment when Skye did her hand trick.  She'd seen some amazing things in her world, though,  and was only momentarily startled.
"Van you do that with your whole body?  How does it work?  What's the practical application of that?  If Jessica was a Warden, can i use her key to find her?  Is she liked to it? Who made the stairs?  And Why? "