Shopping, Sales, Wonderment, All on the Grand Stair

In reply to Little Mammoth (msg # 1):

  Dean follows up the rear of the expedition, Jill in front of him, Barbara, Xan, and the shapeshifters out in front of them, and Millenia leading the way.  She knew where they were going, with the critters giving her direction from the scent.  He kept a situational awareness as the group travelled.

Dean sees all kinds of wares.

A short squid like humanoid says, "Brain shining, get your brain shined ! Brain shining, would you like your brain shined sir ?"

In reply to Little Mammoth (msg # 3):

  "Nah, man, I'm good.  If I get my brain too shiny I won't be able to sleep." Dean says with a slight shake of his head.  He didn't want to get overly distracted from his role as rearguard.

"Ok Sir, just someone has clogged up your head with junk." Two tentacles rise almost in a mimic of a shrug. "I understand about the sleep though."

There is a stage with dancing girls kind of like the nightclub with a belly dancer type motif.
The tiny bells shaking in time is almost hypnotic.

Jill chuckles, "Men always the same."

Trying, perhaps with limited success,  not to appear awed or even impressed,  Barbara subtly took in her surroundings.  It was Basic Survival 101 on the streets of Gotham to not gawk around like a tourist.   It marked you as a target.

The vulture among them picks up and flaps.
The others say, "Have scent." One of them also turns into a vulture but one remains humanoid and with the group.


The vultures take off and begin to circle.

Barbara follows, trying to get ready for anything

As Barbara takes off to follow she sees a crime or what is probably a crime. Some small woman looks like she is being shaken down by several crowmen.

Barbara gasped and ran towards them stealthily,  trying to figure out what was going on

They seem to be pushing the young elf ? girl between them and cawing loudly.
Like in Gotham she sees nearby people trying to ignore it and going into tents or otherwise scooting away.

She hears a pap pap sound and looking around Xantastic is by her side and tapping her hammer against an open palm.

She throws a baterang to stun as many as possible

Dean follows, letting Barbara and Zan handle the fight for now while he keeps his eyes peeled.  It could be a setup, after all.  He watches everything, his eyes darting from the commotion with the crows, the circling vultures, the remaining shapeshifter, and the rest of the party.  He could move up easily enough if needed, but his duty as rearguard held him back for now.

The Batarang flashes out striking one of the crow like men in the back of the skull. It then ricochets to hit another high up near the beak. The bird folk fly into a bit of a rage. Save for the two who were hit who sink to the ground in short order.

Another soon gets hit by a huge hammer by a small Xantastic. There is a loud thud and crack. A Crow like screech and a kicked Xantastic who skids across the ground for several feet.

Dean sees a hand come from under a tent  and slide a pistol like thing which skitters across the ground and bumps against Jill's foot.

Millenia now noticing the battle snaps her attention that way and a swirling black mass appears before her.

Barbara went into a martial arts stance, ready to fight

The crow peeps point their crossbows but start squaking and put them up.

"Wardens, two wardens. Well this is a private matter but we don't wish to ruffle Warden feathers." They help their fallen companion up the one hit high up on his beak. He is bleeding. The other is out cold.

One looks to the small elven woman, "We talk later." There is a hint of menace in his voice.


Jill looks down, "Where the heck ?" She picks up the pistol.
The crow peoples feathers rise a bit when she does.

  Dean glances at the pistol.  It wasn't a familiar make or model, but it definitely got noticed.  He knew that Jill knew how to shoot.  They had gone to a range on a not-a-date once.

  "Not sure if you want to keep that handy or slide it back under the tent.  Crows seem a little worried by it, so might pack a punch." he whispers to her.

  He shrugs.  It was Jill's call.

  "So, what's the deal, Camile?" he asks of the group, both the woman and the Crow-people.

Barbara looked at the elf girl, trying not to stare at the exotic looking woman
"Are you okay, ma'am?"

The woman moves over to Xantria and helps her up then moves to Barbara.

"Im. I am ok Warden, thank you. Two wardens wow. Thank you both of you." though she deemed leery of the umbra near Millenia.

The crow folk begin to merge into the tents and backdrop unless stopped.

Barbara nodded to the woman
"What's going on here?  Who were those people?"
She wanted to ask how the woman knew they were Wardens, but wasn't sure how

The elf relaxed some, "They are part of the underworld. I owe some money not much but I just don't have enough to pay yet. Whenever I do the interest kills me I don't think I will ever be able to pay it off."

  Dean digs out his wallet, looks through it, offers the green and white pieces of paper to the lady.

  "Hundred and forty two bucks is all I got on me, if that helps.  Don't know if that's any good here, but if ya need it, it's yours."

Barbara,  admittedly,  wasn't as fast to shell out valuable resources on a stranger,  who may or may not even be telling the truth.
"What actually is local currency here?  And how much do you owe?"

She looks a bit surprised, "Oh I thought you would know."
She takes out some black coins that seem to be metallic but very light weight.

Millenia nods, "Yeah the lady of goods here invented that currency. How much do you owe ?"

The woman frets a bit then, "Two million thirty thousand, and I am able to pay off the original but they keep raising the vig on it."

Xantastic whistles, "Wow."

Millenia tilts her head and then shakes it, "What did you need that kind of money for ?"

The woman says, "My world it was in trouble we needed something to repair our atmosphere. I am the only one that can pass through the Door." She pulls out a Key.
"I found what we needed here, but it was so expensive I was desperate."

"Is there something valuable on another world you could trade them instead?"

She says, "Possibly but I only have the key to my Door and I am not a Warden."

"Yeah well, they are a bad sort. Getting mixed up with them. You know there is a place other then the Agora you can go to. Nexopolis might have helped you or perhaps you could have sought out a Lord or Lady, or Warden. All past tense now of course." She smiles.


The squid like man heads over to the group near Jill specifically, "Thought you might need that." he points to the pistol. "Dirty lot those sorts !"

  Dean gently takes the pistol from Jill and uses the bottom edge of his t-shirt to thoroughly wipe it down before handing it back to the man.  No fingerprints left behind to pin something dicey on her down the road.

  "Thanks for the assist, friend.  You know, if good people stick together, the lowlifes don't get a foothold.  Maybe form a block watch or citizen's patrol or something.  Keep an eye out for those who might become prey for the jackals out there.  The name's Dean, by the way, and this is Jill, Barbara, Xantastic, Millennia, and three dudes trying to turn over a new leaf."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:28, Wed 10 Mar 2021.

The Man says, "Cathal is my name." He takes the pistol back and slips it into a pocket.
"We try to help each other out but they will shake us down and ruin our tents. That was only a few of them and they have access to some dark worlds." He sighs and the tentacles around his mouth squirm.

He whispers, "They have killers too." He rings his hands a bit.
"Thought they might try to kill you or her. The Wardens less so. Millenia is known, but well a bit wild and chaotic. Not sure about the other Warden."

Cathal squints a bit. "You sure you don't want a brain shine ?"

  Dean shrugs.  "I did some time in the military back home.  People trying to kill me isn't that new to me, but maybe to the others."

  "Hey Millenia, do I want to get my brain shined?  It doesn't really sound like something I'd want, but you know more about this stuff than I do." he asks.

  He looks back to Cathal, "What exactly is brain shining?"

Barbara debate with herself how much to get involved

But she was on a mission

"I don't know. Hey could you give me a shiny brain ?"

Cathal almost falls over throwing up his hands defensively, "No, no, no company policy I don't brain shine individuals with the Umbra, way too dangerous for me."

Millenia pouts.

Cathal then says, "Brain shining is to sharpen ones psychic abilities and remove brain fog or other mental tampering like you have on you. That is why I offered."

He then adds almost embarrassed or at least from body language it seems so.
"I didn't mean to imply you couldn't handle yourself young man, just some of us are not military types. My own people are more strategist then soldier."

Cathal's words caught Barbara's interest
"What are the risks?  And what's the cost?"
The fact that Millennia was interested wasn't necessarily the best endorsement,  but the unusual woman certainly hadn't balked at the idea.

Cathal says, "Risks none really my people are experts at working with brains though depending who fogged your friends brain if their psyche is sharper or more insidious I suppose their is a danger in that. In that case I need to work around booby traps and the like. I charge from ten to forty black discs depending on the difficulty."

Millenia spouts, "Oh yeah I didn't notice it before there is an enchantment in place."

Barbara looked at Millenia
"What's that now?"

"Dean has a spell or working on his brain, it is kind of old and corroded matches the umbra probably why I missed it. I could probably remove it blow right in there and tear it out. Magic won't hold up to the umbra for long."

Barbara looked at Dean, curiously.

Cathal holds up his hands, "You might want to be delicate working with a brain Warden."

  "Wait, you're saying I have some kind of spell jamming up my brain?  I mean, I may not always be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I don't know that I'm all gunked up."

  Dean turns to Jill.  "You're the medical expert, you think I should get my cerebral cortex all polished and chromed?  Even if you say yes, I don't have any of them discs to pay for it."

Jill shrugs, "Medical science here not metephysical Dean. I don't know."

Cathal, "Ahhh hmmm, that does pose a slight problem."


Millenia, "What now that is easier to cover then two million, I could pay for it if you want or I could blast it off."

  “Well, I’m not sure I want Umbra tearing around through my noggin, cause you said that stuff is super dangerous, right Millenia ?  Cathal, just how exactly do you do this sort of thing?  Magic, surgery?  I want to know all my options before messing with my brain.  Don’t wanna end up walking down the street thinking I’m a chicken.”

Cathal, "It is closest to very light psychic surgery. Im quite good at it. I have to say I am curious though. Why do you think you would think your a chicken ?"

Millenia looks kind of bummed but she nods, "Yeah Umbra is potent stuff it would work I am pretty sure of it but it might cause some problems of it's own. An Eidolon user might be better."  a few moments later, "Might."
She hands a small bag to Dean and then counts out something handing them to Jill.

She heads over to the elven woman, "Give me a few days, I don't carry that kind of cash on me. I don't like slavery even debt slavery."

  “It’s kinda a joke back where we came from, hypnotists making people think they’re chickens.”

Dean looks inside the bag, curious as to what it contains.

  “Jill, what do you think I should do?  I mean, if I have brain fog and all, maybe I shouldn’t be making decisions.  You ARE my designated medical decision maker and Power of Attorney, after all.”

There are roughly a hundred of those black discs in it.

Jill says, "Well anyway to tell who put the whammy on him ?"

Cathal, "It depends though in this case as old as it is probably not as their signature has probably degraded. I see the condition is not hampering your friend physically but having a mental booby trap just waiting. I would wish it removed myself."

Jill looks at everyone then back to Cathal, "You hurt him, I will let her go into your hear." She points at Millenia.

Millenia for the most part looks shocked not horrified but shocked.

Cathal, "I am a professional madame. This isn't something I do as a hobby though I understand your concern."

Barbara frowned in thought
"So where do we get these metal disks?"

The elven woman says, "Oh you can get them from a money changer. Or from the Lord who owns the Agora but well ok your Wardens so you probably could get an appointment."

Millenia, "Money changers are easier, they should take the money from your world and give you somewhat of a fair deal."

Barbara nodded but shrugged
"I didn't think to bring a lot of money, since i didn't know about money changing.  Perhaps this is a idea for a later day."

Xantastic hands Barbara twenty black discs, "It's all I have but you can have them."

Barbara nodded and smiled
"Thank you very much!  A 'brain cleansing' might be useful in solving this mystery,  I'll admit.    How much was it?"
Her brain being her biggest asset, she was very nervous about messing with it

Cathal looks at Barbara, "For you only ten since I see no spells and it will only sharpen your senses and help you concentrate."

Barbara nodded,  mulling it over.  She looked at Millennia
"Can you keep an eye out, just in case?"

Millenia nodded, "Sure thing. I have things covered."

She seemed to focus more then normal looking around and a light red glow came from her eyes.

Still obviously nervous,  Barbara gave 10 disks to Cathal and nodded
"Okay, I'm ready"

Cathal takes the discs and brings Barbara into his tent.
Xantastic and Millenia follow.


Cathal then steps back, "There you go, how do you feel ?"

Barbara did a self examination for a few tense moments , then nodded, visibly relaxing
"I don't feel...completely different,  but i feel good.  Thank you. "

Cathal nodded, "Your welcome. Happy to help. I keep the cost low. I would help you folks out for free but, it takes discs to survive here in the Agora and to keep a tent up. By the way you have a very sharp mind. My own people would be very impressed by you."
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:20, Sat 13 Mar 2021.

Barbara smiled
"Thank you,  i appreciate that.  Hopefully this is the start of a fruitful relationship "

Cathal nods, "I hope so. I try to make friends in the Agora. It is always good to know people for information, just to have a friend, someone to share a meal with. You will find good and bad types here I try and stay on the good side of the divide. I have found that in this I have a vast array of friends quite a different thing then minions like some have."

"I am loathe to say this but if you see others that look like me they may not have your best interests at heart."

Barbara nodded
"Thank you for your honesty.    We need to continue our mission,  but hopefully we'll see you again soon. "

Cathal, "Take care and best of luck on your quest."

Smiling,  Barbara left and returned to the others

  Dean fishes out the discs that Cathal requires and follows him into the tent next.

  “Do what you gotta do, man, just don’t mess up the libido section.” He says with a nervous chuckle.

Cathal says, "No guarantees." then chuckles.

"Don't worry I won't mess with your libido."

He engulfs Dean's head in his facial tentacles and starts to shine Dean's brain it take longer then Barbara. Quite a bit longer but fifteen minutes later Dean feels sharper his senses more honed and more importantly he remembers things. Things his mother told him about a key should she ever be in danger for him to seek out.

He also remembers more clues about his mothers death and something that isn't right about it. He strongly feels like it was not his mother, but that he believed it was his mother before this.

Other memories are different as well (Will clarify as things come up)

  Dean steps out of the tent, walks stiffly with his hands tucked up under his armpits to where the group is standing, widens his eyes and lets out a loud, “Bawk...bawk...bawk... BGAWK!!”

Barbara smirked and nodded
"Definitely an improvement "

Cathal looks out from his tent, "I have the POWER." Then slips back in.

  Dean looks at Barbara, laughs, “Man, tough crowd!  Well, I had something of a breakthrough in there, but not something to be discussed in public.  Shall we continue on, or is anyone else getting their medulla oblongata massaged?”

Xantastic, "Did it hurt ? It looked kind of scary."

Jill looks at Dean and inspects his head for a few moments.

  “Nah, it felt kinda weird, but it didn’t hurt.” He says to Xan.

  “Whaddya say doc, still the same lumpy noggin you know and deep down actually love?”

Jill smiles, "Well he said surgery, but I don't see any lacerations or punctures. You seem fine but let me know if you feel off ok ?"

Barbara nodded
"It was definitely strange,  but i certainly feel better.    Let's continue and see if things improve "

  Dean agrees.  “Yeah, let’s keep moving while they still have the scent.  If our elvish friend here would like to come along for protection for a while, I wouldn’t have an issue.  Maybe along the way we can help find a solution to her problem as well?”

The elven woman, "Oh I am sorry. My name it Lita. I forgot to introduce myself in all the excitement. I can come with you especially if we might visit a world where I might find something to sell here. I come here to try and make enough black discs to pay my debt but as you can see, it's also dangerous for me to come here. Like they would rather have me in debt to them then able to pay them."

"I bet they do. I hate people like that. They remind me of the kind of people who summon demons and try to bind them. Even when they do whatever rotten task they were summoned for they try and keep them longer."

Her fist clench and shake a bit.

  “Hmm, that sounds like a conversation involving a LOT of alcohol.  I could probably take a wild guess or three why people would summon you... but you’d think a simple invitation would be a better starting point.”  Dean chuckles.  “If nobody has strong objections, Lita, welcome to the party.  Let me make the introductions.  Millenia, Barbara, Jill, Xantastic, and I’m Dean.”

Lita nods, "Nice to meet you all."

People start welcoming Lita when Millenia gets an odd look and walks off a bit.

With Dean and Barbara's brains so recently shined they can tell something psychic is going on.

Millenia paces and motions with her arms like she is in conversation with some invisible person.

  “You think someone is trying to summon her?” 

Jill, "Who knows, it is kind of creepy if someone is."

Xantastic shrugs, "I am not sure could be someone is using an icon to talk with her."

"Those scumbags actually came crying to you !" Millenia's hands are now in the air obviously angry. Her voice rising beyond conversational.

Barbara raised an eyebrow
"What do you mean?"

Xantastic, "They are like a phone and doorway."

Barbara looked at Xantastic with confusion

“Man, that sounds like a conversation I had with the cops once after I threw some guys out after I caught them dealing drugs in the men’s room.  I wonder if the crow-guys went wayyy up the food chain.”

"Fine. No, Im not going to agree to that. Hmm oh looking for a friend. Probably do some shopping after that, or sing." She gets quieter her voice dropping back to a conversational volume.

Xantria looks up at Barbara, "Icons, someone must have used her icon to contact her. Jessica got like that from time to time too."

Jill starts running, "Come on Dean were being signaled."

In the distance one of the three creatures they had scenting was waving them on.

Barbara nodded and moved to join Jill, while talking to Millenia
"Tell me about Icons.  What entails 'having your Icon'?"

(Xantastic or Millenia ? as Jill is running off and Xantastic is at your side. While Millenia is having a chat seemingly with someone)

In reply to Little Mammoth (msg # 88):

If Millenia is distracted,  she'll try to get information from Xantastic

Xantastic smiles, "Well someone makes an art piece of you. Like those little tiny figures we found, or pictures, or things like that. Then you really stare at it. Jessica did that and could talk with people she had icons of."

Around the corner the three have a man backed up against a table he looks frightened.
They are all claws, teeth and snarls.

Looking over to Dean and Jill, "Smell leads here."


The man looks over, "Call them off, Im just a merchant..."

Barbara frowned
"That sounds terribly invasive.   Was there any defense against it?  Oh, wait....hold that thought. "
Seeing the kerfuffle up ahead, she moved to join the others.

  Dean follows, trying to find a vantage point at the corner that allows him views of both sections of the party.  He didn’t like them getting split up, and he wasn’t willing to leave anyone behind without backup.  He knew that Batgirl could certainly handle the questioning, and Millenia could undoubtedly handle herself, but it still felt like a setup.  Back in the Corps that had been a standard tactic, divide and pick off the enemy....and they still didn’t know who their enemies were, or how many they numbered.

Barbara looked at the trackers
"Are you sure about this?"

They all nod at the same time.

She looked at the merchant
"We have reliable intel that our kidnapped friend is here, or came through here.  So you, my friend,  have a choice to make.  Either you help us, and we continue our search, or you get in our way, and we continue our search after moving you aside, whatever it takes. "
She gave her best Batman like stare of intimidation
"Choose......Wisely "

"A little girl and an even littler girl ? Listen I don't even know who your talking about. Please call off your attack people ? I will help if I can."

With her newly shined brain she can tell the man is sincere and terrified.

Barbara signaled to the trackers to stand by
She approached the merchant
"An excellent decision.    What have you seen around lately that's strange, at least stranger than normal?  And do you recognize this person?"

She showed a picture of Jessica

Xantastic looks around and walks over to the three, "Good job."


The three stand down becoming adorable kittens again and Xan picks one up petting it.


The merchant says, "Oh yes, yes that is Lady Jessica, I know her she is a Warden. I haven seen her in a couple of weeks. She is the one missing ? I don't know where she might be."

The two kittens mew at him threateningly with much less success.

The one in Xantastic's hands is to preoccupied.

Barbara nodded,  though her face is neutral
"Well, her scent was definitely here, so we're going to need to look around for clues.  With your help, we'll do our best to be as undisruptive as we can "

She motions for a kitten to follow her to sniff around the area

The search doesn't take long and among the sale items are a few things they pick out and even Xantastic goes, "Hey that is Jessica's."

They are not necessarily exotic items. Some clothing, some things Jessica recognizes as bat themed items, a keychain no keys, and a hair barrette with cat ears.

The Merchant says, "I was sold those recently by a crocman. Three days back. I buy and resell things. I don't recall ever seeing Jessica with these things."

The kittens seem pleased with their findings.

Barbara nodded,  eyes narrowing
"And where do we find this 'crocman' now?"

"He lives on Jorasco, I don't know where exactly on that world as I have never been to it. He is a bit of a mercenary so he must advertise."

Barbara looked for Millenia to confirm

Barbara sees Millenia looking around back where she was.

Impatiently,  Barbara waved her down

Millenia runs over once she sees Barbara.

"There you are, were good no problems with the Lady of Trade."

Barbara nodded politely,  not really caring
"Yeah,  that's great....um, do you know the world of Jarasco?"

Millenia wrinkled her nose, "Yeah, uhm why ?"

Barbara shrugged.
"According to this merchant, a 'crocman' mercenary from there sold some things to him belonging to her."

"Oh, well I guess we have a new place to go. A new really lame place to go. Buy some waders. Oh." Looks at Xantastic, <Red>"Might be best if someone carried her."<Red>

Barbara frowned at the vague answers
"What else can you tell us?"

"Place is a swamp world, it's stinky and sticky, muddy and..." She sighs a bit.

"I have been there before, it has some trade goods, but it is not the most pleasant of places. a boat might be a good investment. Oh wait I forgot." She shakes her head.

"I can make things for us with the Umbra once we are on a world. The last time I did that was on a friends world. Had to stop a zombie apocalypse."

She comes back from her memories, "Right, Jorasco, yes I can get us there and probably find this crocman since the world is mostly populated by humans. A crocman will stand out."

Barbara nodded, deep in thought.
"Should we go back to Earth for some things, or is there time for that?"

"Well I can make things, or we should be able to buy anything here, Jorasco."

She paces a bit.

That red glow comes to her eyes again.

"Right the tech level of Jorasco is roughly the same as on Dean's world but the inhabitants there are used to lower technology. It can handle higher tech then they tend to use."

Barbara nodded,  but had questions
"So it's lower than my world, then?  And how are they used to a lower technology level than they have?"

"Your world has very high technology Barbara but it is kind of all over the place. Well it is not like the people there know of other worlds and the like. At least not the last time I was there. Does your world not have places where tech is lower then it could be ? It is like that there."

Barbara nodded

"Sounds good,  then.   Where do we begin?"

  “My guess it’s back to the stairs and find our way to Jorasco, right?” suggests Dean.  “Go find this Crocman and find out where he got it from.”

"Should we buy her things ?"

Jill, "I think so Xantastic. We need swamp exploring gear like Deep Woods Off and other things."

Barbara nodded
"Buying her things would also give us a good source of her scent as well "

The Merchant says, "Since they were obviously stolen I will sell them to you at half price." He gives a wide but worried smile.

Barbara raised an amused eyebrow at the "generous" merchant,  and looked to Millenia

Millenia said, "Sounds fair, I mean you didn't know you were trading in stolen goods right ?"

The Merchant nods, "Right, right."

Millenia, "Oh your such a liar. Were a bit low on funds just got our brains shined and all. How about a quarter for them."

The Merchant says, "A quarter then and your stealing me blind. Mmmm 15 discs."

Barbara let Millennia do the talking,  but stood by as a "figure of menace"

The Merchant looks at the black clad bat girl who does look for her part menacing. As well as Millenia who is more menacing by accident.

Millenia looks at Barbara then the Merchant a few times then smiles at Barbara.

The Merchant goes pale and just hands everything over to Barbara. He looks almost terrified of her.

"We appreciate your cooperation "
She spoke in her best deadpan "bat voice"

He just nods and tries to put one of his counters between him and batgirl.

She packed everything

Xantastic gets close to Barbara and tugs on her cape a little.

Whisper, "Your not going to send me home are you ?"

Barbara looked down at Xantastic distractedly
"What do you mean?"

Xan looks around then stand on her tip toes to whisper, "Your remind me of Batman right now and he used to send me home when he got like that."

Barbara blinked in surprise,  but smiled
"Well, thank you for the compliment,  but while he's a good role model, I'm not Batman.   As far as I'm concerned,  the job isn't over until we've recovered Jessica.  You can stay as long as you want "

Xan beamed a smile so honestly that perhaps Batman himself might not have been able to resist smiling at the little chib.

She stood faithfully at Batgirls side.

Soon everything is turned over and the group is ready to do whatever they decide.

Barbara has a few more Bat items as well.

Barbara does an inventory and prepared to leave with the group

Millenia says, "Do we want to buy any goods for your travels here ?"

She looks all around, "Other then Nexapolis, this place is a melting pot of merchants of all kinds."

Barbara shrugged sheepishly
"I don't have any local money,  so it feels pretentious to spend yours.
If you want to finance this, however,  i wouldn't argue"

  Dean pipes up, "I'd suggest some neoprene wetsuits, to keep out leeches and other parasites.  Don't want some swamp funk climbing up into delicate places."

(Just get me a list of what you might want. As long as it's not super exotic chances are it is here. Some super exotic things are here too.)

Millenia can bank roll basic things for everyone.
The Elven woman says she has never been to worlds beyond her own and the Stairs and Agora looks forward to seeing new places.

Xan though looks a bit depressed.

Barbara helps Dean with the list

"Inflatable Raft.  Bug Repellent.  First Aid Kits.  Towels."


She looked at Xantastic
"What's up, my friend?"

"Im short, I don't want to sink into a swamp." Xan says looking up at Barbara with large expressive eyes.

Barbara nodded
'We'll try to look after you'

Xan nodded and kept close to Barbara.

She adds rope and mini flotation devices to the list

There is a sound that while distant catches Barbara's ears at first, then Millenia's finally Deans then the others.

It is steady repetitive and growing louder.

To Barbara it sounds like any number of organized groups of armored villains or heroes from her world.

To Dean it sounds like marching storm troopers.

Barbara looked around,  both for what was happening,  and for any high ground.
"Heads up, everyone.   Something is happening "

Barbara if she wished could easily shoot up to high ground there were several levels of the Agora and many stairs a healthy amount with convenient guard rails. If she wanted to use an item of her trade.

Barbara bounded up to get a better view

Up the stairs she can see on about the third level a group of well armored and armed goons or police, or army, or something humanoid, several in fact like twenty marching in precision towards the Agora. She then sees a bright flash and with her newly shined brain and time with other heroes she recognizes it as a magic teleport and a woman appears before the armored figures.



The woman is conversing with them and it looks heated.

The woman is gesturing quite a bit when all at once the figures open up on her and start firing energy blasts from their weapons.

They seem to hit this as beautiful as Millenia's dark cloud is terrifying shield of light and designs before the woman which absorbs the shots from the men but the woman is falling back but she calls out in louder then what would be humanly possible, "Warden's I call upon you !"

Barbara was stunned at the scene before her, and tried to make sense of it.
It was obvious that the woman needed help, however,  due to the armed men firing without provocation.   She looked at the others.
"There's a woman there, another warden maybe,  who needs help!!"
Using her grappling hook, she swung over to the woman's aid, throwing a baterang to attempt to disarm some, if not all, of the men.

Several vendors duck for cover some tents are set ablaze by the shots.
Screams of fear can be heard. The woman dodges shots displaying some pretty amazing acrobatic skill. When Barbara from her vantage throws her batarang the men ignore it and it hits some kind of field around one of them but it goes through. Which seems to amaze them as it hits into a power pack causing an explosion several of them men are blown back in the aftermath.

Xantastic is somehow up by Barbara's side she blocks a couple energy blasts with her hammer though there are black marks where it was hit it doesn't look badly damaged. Xan looks determined.

Jill looks to Dean, "Even if I had that gun I don't think I should get involved in that but I will patch people up."

Millenia grows wings and preps to jump looking Deans way, "If you want a lift get over here because this rocket isn't waiting." She gave a wide smile of excitement.

Up in the aftermath of the explosion the men look around scanning the area forgetting about combat almost entirely till they find the Batarang and put it in a hip pouch.

The Woman takes out a pistol by then and starts firing nearly taking out a man with each shot seemingly lethal like with the Batarang there is a field that stops the bullets for a few moments lessening the impact but not enough.

Barbara yelled angrily
"Hey!!!  That's mine!!!"

She swung down to engage the men in hand to hand combat

Barbara is able to swing into one and it hurts just as she suspected they have some kind of force field she gets through it and connects sending the man back into a wall but she also receives a bit of a jolt that stuns her for a moment.

The men closest to her start switching out weapons for what look like small thin technological clubs. She has shaken off the stun by then.

Barbara throws down a smoke bomb

  Dean nods to Jill. "Take cover until it's safe.  I'll be back."

  The big man had been in firefights before.  He had run up a line of machine gun fire in the desert on more than one occasion, and had been quick and lucky enough to have never taken wounds.  His Kevlar had been toast afterward, but he had come through unscathed somehow.  He had no idea why.

  Taking his quickest line into the fray, Dean starts moving fast and direct.  He needed to get close, inside their ranks, hand-to-hand.

Seeing Dean run towards the fray and not take her offer of flight Millenia looks confused a moment but used to chaos more then she most she shrugged and leapt into the air to fly up.

Dean is able to make his way through obstacles or around them easy enough as almost all people have taken cover. As he takes a turn on the stair he sees Barbara about to get swarmed then WHOOMF there is a purplish smoke where she had been and it quickly fills the area making it hard to see.

Dean arrives somehow before Millenia. There is a woman up there who looks at him she has a very fancy looking pistol. "You here to help ?"

She then looks past Dean and her optimistic look is replaced with exasperation.
"Millenia..."

  "Yup."  It was a simple enough reply, and he charges into the squad without hesitation, swinging hard.

Barbara you can sense Dean coming in the billowing smoke you have trained yourself to fight in. The men not so much even so they are moving more effectively then normal people would and seem to be gathering their fallen though they don't seem to be able to sense you they do seem to be able to sense each other.

Dean you occasionally see motion in the smoke it does remind you of some of your fighting during wartime. In fact it is due your knowledge of Barbara being in here and your training that you avoid clocking your young new friend. Then you see a glimpse of someone in armor you connect and though you feel a jolt your able to shrug it off mostly and the man after the crunching sound of contact sails off into the smoke.

A bit more movement and Dean feels his foot contact something a glance and by the feel of it a grenade ?

  “Sunuvabi...”

  He might have been able to kick it somewhere away, but no telling where it would land.  There were civilians around here, including Jill.  At least she might be able to patch him up.

  Without hesitation he drops, covering the grenade with his torso.  Maybe somewhere it’d count for something, he thinks as he clenched his teeth and waits for it.

There is a loud Whumpfff sound and though Dean thought there might have been an explosion it was a pathetic one. Then Dean rose about a foot in the air as he was buffeted by strong winds.
A vortex that blows the smoke about though not as much as it would have with Dean above it.
No damage from it but very disorienting.

Though for the moment Dean has a clear view of peoples shoes, and boots including Barbara's.

The arguing discussion between the woman and Millenia stopped as the smoke billowed out their way.

Barbara could see better now as the smoke has lightened up some. She can feel the strong winds from where Dean seems to be floating above the floor.

Barbara goes full tilt, trying to use her marital arts skills to take out the men under the cover of smoke

Each strike is a bit stunning to Barbara and after taking out four attackers she can hear her heartbeat in her ears and her body is shaking as if she had been tazed.


Dean the wind stops and you land with a thump on the grenade.


From the direction of the women. Millenia calls out, "Oh technology, I love technology so much can go wrong."

Dean hears one of the men curse, "Umbra user light her up, light her up."

A blaze of fire comes from the dissipating smoke. Puncturing one of Millenia's wings causing her to drop to the ground. In a way good as a hail of other fire misses where she had been.

Dean you can see only about ten men left.

  Getting his feet back under him, Dean charges.  He puts everything into his swings.  As his DI used to say, he wasn’t simply punching the man in front of him, but through him to hit the guy behind him.

One, two, three men down bleeding and some scorch marks from shocks on Deans sleeves.
Two rifles  get turned in Dean's direction but they seem to lock up and his arm goes through a man and the other is sent back colliding with a wall.

The remaining men break and run from death on two legs and seemingly failing equipment.

Barbara feels her limbs coming back under her control again.

Since hand to hand combat was getting dangerous,  Barbara switched to throwing baterangs to stun people

Does Barbara try to go after the fleeing ? or let them flee ?

In reply to Little Mammoth (msg # 167):

If they truly seem to be fleeing, she'll let them, but she's wary of them backing off to get a clear shot.

They seem to truly be fleeing there is a lot of gore where Dean is standing.
Groans and death rattles.


The woman says, "Thank you Wardens, your help was timely." She leans against the nearby wall catching her breath and putting her pistol away.

Barbara nodded
'Who were those people??"

  Once they break and run Dean let’s them go.  He looks down in disgust at what looks like a chunk of liver that got wedged and was hanging from between the iron knuckles and his fingers.  Shaking it loose, he looks to one of the fallen for something to wipe the gore off of himself.  His clothes were a wreck, covered in blood and goo, his sleeves were scorched, and the front of his shirt and pants  blackened from the grenade.

  “Ick.  I need a shower.”

Barbara glanced at Dean, and then had to quickly glanced away to keep from being sick

The woman extends her hand, "Stisarith You can call me Stis or Lady of Sales everyone here does. They are a new threat and a real damn annoying one. I don't know what they call themselves but we call them the Incursion. Very advanced tech it usually fails but they keep trying and trying until they find something that works. They adopt technology like your throwing dagger. Always upgrading and invading worlds even the stairs on rare occasion this was pretty arrogant of an attack on the Agora. Besides myself there is usually a Warden or three in the area." She glances from Barbara to Millenia and back to Barbara.

Millenia sits up looking at her wing, "Ooooh they broke my wing."

Barbara frowned and nodded as she listened
"....great, interdimensional borg...."

She looked at Millennia and Dean.
"How are you two holding up?"

The Lady of Sales says, "You can get a shower in the Agora or are you adverse to magic ?"

Millenia looks to Barbara and pouts, "I can't believe they shot my wing what do those guys have against Succubi anyway ?" She puts her hand through the hole in her wing.


People come back out of their tents and while it looks like people might scavenge what the Incursion had they see the Lady of Sales and let things be.

In reply to Little Mammoth (msg # 175):

Barbara nodded to Millennia
"They seem to be against everyone "

  “Maybe it’s something Jill can take a look at?” Dean suggests, looking at Millenia’s wing.  “Other than that, anyone else hurt?”

  He nods to Stis. “I’d shake, but I’m kinda gross.  I’m not adverse to magic, I guess, if I can get cleaned up.”

Stis nods, "Ok, I will take you to where you can get a shower in the Agora. They can get you and your clothes cleaned in mere moments. Millenia isn't that like chipping a nail for you ?"

Millenia turns angrily, "What a hole in me ? No it's not this is like during the battles those were potent weapons. Dean Im glad your ok, your very brave to have just gone in there like that, you too Barbara."

Stis leads you all to a place to get cleaned up she has her people go gather the fallen Incursion soldiers and their equipment.

Barbara shrugged,  smiling with a blush
"Just doing my job "

  Dean gets cleaned up while his clothes get refreshed.  He keeps the iron knuckles on in the shower to get them clean as well.  He takes extra long in the shower, just letting the water run over him.  It had been a while since he had been in a firefight and had to kill, but today's refresher left him feeling cold.

  The training never goes away.  You're a killer.  You're a Marine.  You'll always be a Marine.  You never lose a fight until you finally do, and on that day you'll drag your enemy with you into the gates of Hell.

  He looked at his bare belly as the water rolled down him.  There should have been a gaping hole from the grenade.  He looks at where the energy weapons had hit his arm, but there was no mark.  He should have died a half dozen times in Afghanistan during his deployment there, another few times in Uruguay.

<i><b>  What the hell am I?</b></i>

  He emerges from the shower, towels off, and silently dresses in the clean clothes.

  "I'm guessing someone did all the introductions already?  I'm Dean."  he extends his hand to shake.

"Stis, or Lady of Sales Warden of the Agora. I thank you for your help. You look in amazingly good condition for going into that." Stis has a wistful grin on her face.



"The Incursion are usually not this brash, they must have come for something in particular in the Agora that they would risk such an action."

A man in nondescript uniform enters and hands her a Batarang.

Stis looks to Batgirl, "I believe this is yours." She says handing it to Barbara.

Barbara nodded to the man with a smile
'Thank you,  sir!  I appreciate it "

She looked at the other warden, nodding thoughtfully
"I hope it's not due to us, though i can't imagine why"

"It is hard to say, it might be do you have unique technologies ? I know they wouldn't be within a hundred miles of her. You lot are new though." She gives a brief sideways glance to Millenia.


Jill is tending Millenia's wing. Millenia is chatting nicely with Jill and only wincing a little and asking if she might cut around the whole a bit and Jill asking why since it seems to have cauterized from the energy used.

Barbara frowned and nodded grimly
"If they want to 'assimilate' anything new, then we'll definitely have to watch out.  We'll be leaving soon, so hopefully that will help "

"I am going to see if my own people here know of anything new brought in that might have drawn their interest. I have all kinds of things come in and out of here and I usually have a good grasp on what is here at any time. Sometimes though even I am surprised."

Barbara smiled
"Thank you.    We'll try to get out of your hair as soon as we can "

  Dean looks around to make sure their little bloodhounds haven't run off.

 "Yeah, we're planning on moving on, trying to find some alligator man that sold some items belonging to Barbara's cousin.  She's missing, and we're trying to find her."

"Best of luck to you then. Hope you find your missing cousin."
Stis stands up smiling and takes out a small gold disc moving her fingers she reveals three of them.  "For your help today, you can trade these with the money changers here in the Agora or in Nexopolis which Millenia could explain to you if she hasn't already."

Barbara takes the disks with a smile
"Thank you very much.   We were happy to help,  but we appreciate this. It will certainly help us find our missing people "

In reply to Lady of Sales (msg # 188):

  "You ever need help with thugs like that again, just find us.  We're happy to help."

Stis, "Oh I will be sure to keep that in mind, especially now that I know you can handle yourself." She gives a warm smile.