17214/The Open Door: Wormfood (Gotham)

The Open Door: Wormfood (Gotham)
Date of Scene:	19 February 2024
Location:	Summerset
Synopsis:	Slugs appear at the Gotham ritual site in Summerset. A mix of police and characters show up to see what's happening. Pets are acquired, as is a strange young witch.
Cast of Characters:	Lucifer, Julien Renard, Flatline, Xander Prescott, Stephanie Brown
Tinyplot:	The Open Door

---

Lucifer has posed:
On 1515 Emerald street, in Sommerset, Gotham City, crime scene tape STILL flutters loosely across the bushes in front of the three bedroom home. It's been that way for a few weeks. It's set in the angle of a lazy elbow of suburbia, about as far from the industrial side as possible. The crime, weeks ago now, was a mysterious body found by the neighbor of 1517: they had gone searching about a smell, and had looked over into the yard of 1515.

As far as such crime goes, that was where the 'normal' part of it ended. The interior of 1515 was a confusing and uncomfortable puzzle. For those that can see the police materials, the reports are a mish-mash: confused pictures of what the police call some kind of 'satan worship' drawings that were attempted to be cleaned up, and evidence that a vast variety of things were traveling through here (drugs, weapons, who knows what else?). It was full of things, but now stands mostly emptied.

The next report was that a police officer was 'possessed' by insanity after touching the big black statue inside, and supposedly an exorcism helped. The man does have memory of what happened, and reports that a young lady led him to touch the statue. He described her, and there's an artist's sketch for it.

The main feature of the place is that weird, human-sized black statue in the center of the otherwise empty master bedroom, jokingly referred to as the 'bat', "perfect for bats to deal with instead of the police". It's barely a 'bat': more like a huge chess piece. It has no wings, more a strangely carved rounded top like a wasp nest, with a few spine 'ears' at the top. It's big, at least 5' tall.

--

The most recent report, though, is two part: first, that horrible, strange black slugs have erupted from the home, and are milling around the neighborhood. Each slug is about a foot long, and are terrifying the residents. The other information, primarily known to just the Bat clan, is that the young woman matching the artist's rendition has just appeared inside the place, by the statue. It's unclear how she got inside, but she is sitting in there, with the statue that is now broken in half.

Julien Renard has posed:
This so is not a scene Julien would officially be dispatched too. But that doesn't mean he hasn't heard the rumors, the gossip or even had someone stealthily show him some case files out in the field. Curiosity, it's one of the qualities of an investigative mind. Often than not, it leads to trouble.

He approaches the area in street clothes, although he does have a badge in his possession should it become relevant. His GCPD sidearm is in place underneath a long, battered leather jacket. For the moment, he's just a spectator and, maybe, a big old doubting Thomas.

Julien is convinced the possessed officer must have inhaled some serious psychotropics. It's not that he's not opened minded, it's not that he hasn't heard some tales of demons and all that, it's more that such things seem abstract, difficult to grasp onto and have it feel real until it's been experienced.

Flatline has posed:
    Flatline was getting REAL TIRED of being dispatched to Gotham City by her mentor LORD DEATH MAN -- yes, that is his actual moniker. Yoga master turned evil regenerating weirdo.

    However, she is known to the Batfam, both for being murderous, violent, and volatile -- and also weirdly for helping Robin free a bunch of shipping containers full of human trafficking victims *and* saving a pair of mutant broadway actresses via violently murdering six anti-mutant gunmen (they prevented her from getting a refill of her soda, she was totally justified).

    Her chin-length white hair flits slightly in the breeze, the death-obsessed teenager crouching on a nearby rooftop as she looks over the black slugs and flitting tape.

    "Hooookaaaaaaay this is definitely more on the creepy side." she murmurs quietly, hopping across side-yards to approach 1515.

Xander Prescott has posed:
    It's not surprising, stumbling across a news article that reeks of the paranormal. Not in Gotham, at least, which is dark and violent enough to probably have a hell-mouth below it.

    Xander has no idea if hell-mouths are real things. He's pretty sure he just absorbed that concept from pop culture. Anyway, demonology is not his particular bent, nor is it in his aunt's realm of expertise, so he probably should keep his nose out of this, whatever *this* is. That would be the smart thing to do.

    And yet here he is. Not as Xander Prescott, but as someone with dark, messy hair, and deeply tanned skin that is pockmarked with scars, eyes obscured behind a pair of thick-rimmed glasses. No one anyone would recognize, just some random person walking the streets. This street, in particular. Emerald Street.

    He passes over to the opposite side of the street at the nearest crosswalk, moving away from Julien out of pure paranoia; best not to get too close to anyone. Besides, Xander doesn't have to be right up on the location for his senses to get a magical whiff of the place, not with how sensitive his mystical senses remain. So across the street is a perfectly fine place to loiter about and try to get a sense of the house's vibe. Or maybe locate some of these strange black slugs, if they're anything supernatural in nature.

    Could be that they've just crawled out of the Gotham sewers. Stranger things (and beasts) have happened!

Stephanie Brown has posed:
<< The black slugs that are spreading around the neighborhood are about a foot long >> the voice of Batgirl (Part Deux) says over the Bats comm network. Then a wet squishing noise is caught by the subvocal mike in her costume.

<< And they are not particularly resistant to telescoping metal bo staffs swung at full strength. They squish quite effectively actually. If kind of gross too. >>

Batgirl flips the slug away from the bowl of dog food that it was working its way through, to the dismay of the Pomeranian whose noisy yapping at it had drawn Batgirl into the fenced in backyard. She wipes her bo staff off and there is a soft clink as it shrinks back down and is attached to her utility belt.

"Sorry Benji, probably best you not eat any of this," she says, picking up the bowl from the side the slug wasn't overtop of. She carries it over to a trash can sitting near the gate and dumps it in. Going back to the slug, she gathers a couple of samples, then the slug goes into the trash also. "Ok, now for the house and the girl," she says, stowing the samples and jogging at the fence. A quick leap and one hand on the top and the former gymnast deftly clears the fence and continues on her way towards the house in question.

Lucifer has posed:
Screams burst from 1519 - a blue single bedroom down the street. A man (presumably the screaming source) is weilding a kitchen knife and a frying pan, and clearly in some sort of scuffle in his kitchen area, back door flung open. Six slugs are there, trying to climb each other and dodge to attempt to get at the man. He ends up hitting one, and it goes flying into the yard, twisting and landing near Xander's shoes as he crosses the street onto that side. The thing is writhing horribly, pulsing body, and it vomits up something shiny a messy, as if the impact made it sick. It appears to be loose, wet, crumpled money - three fifty dollar bills in a wad.

Benji the pomeranian yipYIPYIPs at Batgirl more, as another intruder to his yard, and food thief. He attempts to hop along with her, but cannot quite make the fence, and instead cries his displeasure at not being able to help out in a wail when she goes.

Going through side yards will cause Flatline to have her own encounter; a slug trying to squish itself into a mostly-closed window on the first floor of a home. It pauses, noticing her, and suddenly starts to fade, turning invisible, slowly, like a weird little chameleon.

Julien Renard has posed:
Okay, so big ugly slugs. Maybe they're some deep ground species that got disturbed somehow. Girl by a statue in that mess, a little odd. She could be higher than a kite. Now that's something Julien can deal with if that's what it comes too.

Despite the explanations he keeps running through his head, something about it all just has him unsettled. Julien has no way of sensing magic, hasn't a clue about any of that mystical malarkey. But he does have a sense for when something just 'isn't right'. And this whole mess seems more 'isn't right' than surface appearances. In fact, it's making the typically pretty stalwart detective nervous.

It's the scream that sets Julien to motion and the motion is toward the scream. That creepy feeling vanishes in the rush of adrenaline that scream caused. He draws his sidearm along the way.

"Get back!" he calls out to the about to be the victim of being slimed by a giant slug? Details later, Renard, there's someone in trouble. "GCPD!" Something he never announces in any large crowd. He doesn't want to fire just yet and risk hitting the civilian.

Flatline has posed:
    Big ugly slugs. Screaming. People next to big broken statues and -- well c'mon. She's not a heroic type. THe guy screaming is probably fine.

    It's Gotham what's the worse that could happen?

    She does hear the Yip Yip Yipping of the Hounds, and she swings herself down off one of the houses, and hops the fence to investigate the yipping and the yapping.

    If there's been Death there, or bodies, she might even start getting a read off them!

Xander Prescott has posed:
    The screaming from one of the nearby houses certainly gets Xander's attention, but he's not a first responder or a vigilante. He doesn't have the innate urge to run *towards* danger when it rears its ugly head. But he is looking towards the source of the noise.

    So of course, he sees the guy who runs by, doing the exact thing Xander would never do himself. And then he announces himself as a cop, so Xander is doubly glad he didn't run that way. Not his place, anyway, and besides, what is clearly some kind of demon just plopped itself on the ground in front of him. Juuuust let him take a quick look around to make sure no one is looking at him...

    "Ignis," he hisses, hand outstretched towards the slug. Searing heat rushes out from his core, up through his shoulder, down his arm and into his fingers, and with a modicum of effort, he pushes that energy out into a quick little fireball he aims at the slug and the paper money it just vomited forth. Best not to take any chances with demons, after all!

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Batgirl is finishing unlocking a window to another room, and is just about to enter the house stealthily. Already planning to slip into the master bedroom and perch herself in the corner of the room behind the girl, up in the corner between two walls and the ceiling, and leaving the girl wondering how, or when, she got there.

It's a Bat thing.

But then the yells of the man in distress are caught, and she leaves the window unopened. Batgirl's cape flies behind her as she rushes around the side of the house and out towards where Xander and the frying pan-armed man are confronting the half dozen slugs.

A batarang whirls through the air towards the nearest slug, one with the edges sharpened for maximum penetration. Behind it, Batgirl's footfalls pound on the pavement as she moves over to assist the officer. "Let's get the public out of here if you can," she suggests as Batgirl grabs her bo staff and it extends again with a quiet *shtick* sound.

Lucifer has posed:
The slugs aren't mindless-- some have snuck in behind the man in his kitchen, to consume whatever it was he was making, and to cover his fridge in their sluglike bodies. There's probably a total of fifteen in the situation of the kitchen -- the six in front (well, five, since one was flung out at Xander). They seem to be working to distract the man and steer him out, while cohorts rob his kitchen. It's violent - he's taken some bites on his legs.

Outside, the flame sears into the slug. It does work, but it's not super effective. A slug from hell seems to have some fire resistance going on, but with enough pressure from the magic, it does scorch through and cause the slug to writhe. The money has no such resistance, and burns to a crisp instantly like paper.

Flatline's investigation could lead her to the recent death of the slug Batgirl killed, to get a read from it, and it's recent origin and desires. It can think and plan: it probably has a full language. During this, though, Benji hops along at Flatline's legs, yipping his head off. Bounce bounce bounce. So fierce, he'll get the slugs (now that they are dead and not scary).

Inside the bedroom, the screams drew the woman to the window Batgirl had recently been at. She didn't see batgirl, but she does come to look out. She's probably mid twenties, in a gray hoodie, light brown hair braided to one side. Sunglasses at night, and frowning a little.

Julien Renard has posed:
When the man actually listens and falls further back into the house and out of any danger of catching a bullet, Julien takes it as an open invitation to put some lead into those slimy little bastards. They're smallish targets, but he's a damned fine shot. He's just inside the range of his weapon when he fires off two shots in short succession.

He's still moving and is closer for the next one.. What the fuck /are/ those things. Julien's brain is having a bit of a disconnect still, his brain still wants to believe they can't be anything but some weird species of actual slug. But that brain is starting to catch up, starting to listen to the doubts. Well, whatever they are, they need to be dead if they're trying to harm people. Should he hit the first three, Julien holds his shot on the fourth. Despite the growing apprehension and the brain moving toward all this being not so explainable, his curiosity has him wanting to see one alive, up close and personal.

It's only after the adrenaline rush has faded, only after it seems the man is out of harm's way, that even takes stock of Batgirl's presence - and the fact that she took one out with her weird boom-a-rang thingamabob. Sure, he saw her, he made sure not to shoot /her/, but an object in motion stays in motion and he was already heading that way, already prepared to fire.

"Yeah, not a bad idea. What the fuck /are/ this things?"

When he gets up close and spots the one he left alive outside, he mutters, "never mind, I don't want to know," before finishing it off with one more shot.

Flatline has posed:
    The slugs aren't mindless. The young woman with the pale hair startles a moment as she gets a couple memories from a slug's point of view. Starving Slugs in Hell is one, fantastic name for a B rate horror movie, and two a little terrifying.

    But there is also a small dog.

    This she scoops up, and simply seats him in her sweatshirt with his head sticking out (provided he isn't totally objectionable to it, muttering in Russian <Stick with me little barker, we'll get outta this together.>

    She pauses, catching sight of a flash of purple, and her head tilts to the side. Bat activity always means added danger, right?

    And there's a whole lot more dead slugs incoming to her conciousness.. much the same in memories.

    Someone yells out what the fuck they are, and she leaps to the fence, perching there like an alleycat. With a dog.

    "Demons!" she replies in a giddy tone of voice, her pink eyes looking out over the yards. "They're demons, who are sent to consuuuuuuuume." she waggles the fingers of one hand, the other hand holding to the edge of the fence.

    "So..." <BARK!> "Sup." <BARK!> "Hi!"

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Batgirl tells Julien, "I'm not sure. Hell slugs or something that have to do with the house over there. There's a girl inside, I'm going to go investigate if you can take care of the people here. If not, shout," she says.

The blond Batgirl turns, assuming Julien doesn't immediately ask for help, surveying the house and then making her way over to it quickly but quietly. Lenses drop into place in front of her eyes, one of them having a projection of the camera feeds that Barbara Gordon placed inside.

She pauses as Flatline hops up on the fence. Stephanie Brown's jaw muscles tighten, though she glances to the house before looking back to the sometimes criminal. "She'll have to wait," Batgirl murmurs sotto voce, before directing across the comms network, << Flatline is here. But I'm going to focus on the girl in the house if she doesn't harm anyone. >>

"Ok, different way in then," she murmurs to herself as she sees the girl has moved from her place by the statue. Batgirl heads to a window on the other side of the house. A slim Jim sort of tool slides down between the top and bottom windows, undoing the lock there and allowing her a hopefully stealthy entry.

Xander Prescott has posed:
    "Huh. Demons from hell are resistant to fire." Xander, in his mystery guise, puts his hands on his hips. "In hindsight... yeah, that makes sense." He purses his lips, frowning at no one and nothing in particular, but then he realizes that the slug is, uh, still kickin' it.

    So herein lies his current problem. There are, apparently, a lot of slugs. But he doesn't exactly have a lot of options here. "I'm going to leave you to be someone else's problem," he says, apparently to the slug, and then gives the thing a wiiiiide berth as he walks around it. This seems like the perfect time to slip underneath that old crime scene tape! Everybody's busy with slugs, so Xander just wanders himself right on in to see if the door is unlocked, or there are any easily accessible open windows, unaware that a Bat is committing a similar amount of B&E just on ye olde opposite side.

Lucifer has posed:
The girl at the window is looking directly out because there's shouting and GUNFIRE. It's not like she'd just sit in the room and ignore gunfire right outside the window. She moves to one side some, then, out of the window more, to just keep a look on things. But that means Batgirl can certainly stealth in behind her to get inside the house. It's locked, though just from the police keeping it secure. Lots of windows were broken on the first floor, by the slugs maybe.

Xander leaves, but .. he has a fan. After Xander goes under the tape? ... "waaaaait," asks the slug to Xander. "Fire master? Is nice?" The slug asks, in a weird, tiny, voice, despite that it's lightly smoking. It followed Xander. Evidently the use of fire magic impressed it. A single eye starts to open in the front of that slug, the mouth low in front, round like a lamprey's. It's sort of confused, and quietly stares after Xander.

Julien Renard has posed:
"I said I didn't want to know!" Julien shoots back. Really, he didn't need that confirmation. "Yeah, I got it," he reassures Batgirl. Too bad he's not so reassured himself. He enters through the back door of the house the same way he might if he was clearing one on a call, room to room. He's stopped, however, right there in the first room.

"Jesus," he mumbles when he sees all of them milling about on the kitchen floor. He forces himself not to call Batgirl back. He's a big boy, he's got this.

Julien just begins picking them off one by one while trying to avoid any of them actually touching him. He's probably not successful. If one gets too close it's a boot, then shoot situation.

After he hits the twelve shots fired mark, he has to stop and reload.

Flatline has posed:
    "Tough! If you were a demon slug from Hell you would have wanted everyone to know too! Especially if you came to paaaartay while your boss wasn't looking!" she finger-guns to Julien, and seems extremely surprised when ... one of them begins to talk to the guy slipping under the police tape.

    "Hey, looks like you made a friend! What's your name little guy?" Flatline inquires to the slug.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Batgirl slides the lock open with the tool, then returns it to her utility belt. She slips inside, channeling her inner Cassandra Cain as she moves stealthily across the bedroom that she entered by. She peeks out of the doorway and down the hall towards the master bedroom, and then moves that way, the noise-dampening soles of her boots helping keep the passage quiet.

When she reaches the room, she checks the camera again to make sure the girl isn't looking towards her entry point. Batgirl peeks around the corner to confirm the location of the statue, and that nothing else is in there waiting for her, then continues inside, her bo staff in one hand, a batarang with a line on it for restraining someone in the other.

Xander Prescott has posed:
    Broken window seems to be the way to go, now all that remains is which one. And Xander, given the givens, is lazy, so he chooses the nearest to the front door. He's about to try and contort his way in without cutting himself, one leg lifted to prop his leg on the sill, when he realizes he's being spoken to.

    "In the sense that it is an element and therefore responds to my beck and call," so long as Xander can muster the energy for it, which isn't everlasting, "Then sure. Fire Master."

    His leg quickly drops and he oh-so-casually folds his arms over his puffy vest (the one he'd recently transmogrified to have ceramic plates inside it), looking around as if he's just taking in the sights and wasn't just about to crawl into an abandoned crime house through a broken window. He blinks once at Flatline and then reaches up to brush hair that is semi-familiar to himself out of his eyes. "I didn't realize this was demon social hour. Because that's definitely a demon."

    He missed the big announcements about it due to his attempts at skullduggery, so pardon his repetition.

Lucifer has posed:
The woman in the upstairs bedroom by the statue has moved - but just to be on her phone. Her attention is down, she's texting something rapidly, with the expected skill of a twenty-something to do a very rapid one-handed text. She isn't aware of Batgirl, and hasn't reacted to her, it appears. She doesn't seem to have any weapons. The room is in disarray from the collapsed and partially destroyed statue; the top of it has fallen over, leaving a huge empty part of it where the slugs perhaps were located before they emerged everywhere like a plague.

The slug looks at Flatline and drops flat against a shrub, distrustfully. It rolls into a rose bush ... and eats a rose off of it in a single NOM, as if eating might be a comfort or automatic mechanism for the slug. It doesn't talk more.

Benji HATES the slug, and starts to bark rapidly, as if Flatline didn't see it. He'll give good warning! IN THE BUSH.

Julien Renard has posed:
Drug lords, totally trippin' meth heads, pimps, getting shot at, being beaten, being cuffed and thrown in a jail cell to protect his cover? Those things and more are well within Julien's wheelhouse. These things? Demon slugs? Way over his pay grade. Doesn't mean he's going to leave the residents of the house to fend for themselves or bail on the other people outside. It just means that his heart isn't beating as steadily in his chest as it does when he's faced with meeting Big Fish that might just shoot him on sight.

His main objective is to clear a path for the civilians in the house to make an escape. Being inside the house likely means Julien doesn't hear Xander's commentary. Probably for the best, no more talking about demons - despite the fact that he's standing in a room teeming with them.

Once he reloads and puts bullets into the slugs in the kitchen, he moves on to the next room. He's really trying hard not to think about the goo on the bottom of his boots from stepping on the dead ones along the way.

"GCPD! If you're safe somewhere, call out and stay there! I'm coming to you."

Flatline has posed:
    "I mean, yeah, I'm pretty sure all the slugs are demons." <BARKBARKBARKBORKYIP!!>

    The pale-haired girl hops down from the fence, dog face sticking out of the zipper of her sweatshirt, and she sticks her hands in the pockets as she makes her way over, and she peeeers alongside Xander and to the windows and the front door. "There were dead people in there." she states to Xander, in fact trying to sound Super Creepy. WHich given the fact that she's white-skinned,

    "Well. I bet you that they all came outta some put through an egg thing. I think." she tilts her head back a moment, watching the slug's lamprey like mouth open and eat a whole rose.

    Her lips purse a moment as she gives a soft 'huh' sound.

    She shrugs, walks past Xander and kicks open the front door, and starts sing-songing "Heeeellllloooooooooooo?! Demons, its ya girl, Flatline!"

Xander Prescott has posed:
    Xander looks this way and then that way for the slug that was talking to him. "Aww, man. I wanted a pet," he says, sadly. "Maybe he could have been my familiar! Wait, am I unnecessarily gendering a demon? Do demons even have that, like, conceptually?" Staring upwards at the sky as if someone up there (maybe an angel, given the topic of conversation) might float down and explain it all to him... and then he realizes he's being ridiculous.

    No, not for hoping for an answer from on-high. For wanting a demon slug as a pet. He shakes his head, looks side-to-side to see if anyone aside for Flatline might have overheard him.

    Why she was immediately discounted probably has something to do with her meme-ing at the demons. She clearly wouldn't judge him.

    And then he hears the guy from earlier shouting about being from the GCPD, so he ducks in through the now-smashed front door, away from the potential police presence.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
While the girl's actions don't seem to be particularly aggressive, if she caused the cop to get possessed earlier, Batgirl is taking no chances.

She pulls out her sticky launcher and quickly slips in a payload. A jammer that will block commercial cell phone frequencies. Batgirl is rather sure that Barbara's cameras will be operating on some other frequency, but if not, their feed will go down too. She points it at the ceiling and the launcher silently ejects the little payload which sticks to the roof, and then Batgirl activates the jamming.

Soon as that is done, she holsters the launcher and lets fly that batarang. With a weighted cord behind it, it flies towards the girl, skillfully launched so the batarang will arc around her and the cord will bind her arms to her sides wherever they are caught within the wire.

"So, one cop affected wasn't enough for you?" she says now the girl is aware of her presence.

Lucifer has posed:
"Here!" Calls the man that retreated earlier. "My son is here too. Don't shoot. We're in the laundry," he answers. He'd moved back to collect his infant son, and will work with wherever Julien asks him to go. "Our neighbors said we shouldn't stay next to that place... how right they were. This is hell," he says to Julien, ready to get out when directed. "My neighbor next to me is still here too, maybe hiding, on the left white house." Hiding from slugs, no doubt.

And yes... there are plenty of other slugs consuming in the neighborhood, sneaking into all sorts of places to consume whatever they can.

The girl inside the house first notices the jamming, trying to resend her message, but then yelps as a lot of other things happen all at once. "No no! I wanted to talk. I stayed here to talk about what's happening," The girl says quickly, totally alarmed and bound with the wire, stumbling against the wall and then forced to kneel-fall a little, from lack of balance. "But only if you can protect me. But you're the good guys -- right?" she asks, in a ramble.

Flatline bursting into the lower floor probably lacks the audience she'd like. In fact, just an old mcDonald's wrapper flutters by in the empty front room, like a weird trash tumbleweed. It's empty. Of all furniture, in fact.

Julien Renard has posed:
Does doing battle with demon slugs merit hazard pay? Julien leads the man and his child out of the house, but after that he's not really sure what to do with them. Is anywhere safe? It's not so easy for him to call for backup, no cruiser, no standard issue radio. Technically he's not even supposed to be announcing his status.

"You have a vehicle here? Get in it and go," is the best he can do outside of sending the man down the street to his car - still might not be safe.

"I'll get your neighbor."

Julien does wait to see if the civilian actually has a way out before he moves on to the house on the left.

Flatline has posed:
    Flatline watches the cheeseburger wrapper tumble lone-ily accross the room. She pauses, and looks to Xander a moment, then motions to the inside. "SLUGS ATE THE COUCH!" she assumes, loudly, and then she rolls her arm and draws out several of her knives, and breathes out.

    "Just so you know, blondie, my responsibility is first to the dog and then to myself. IF I can save you, maybe I will." she states to the mage. "Also. Flatline." she introduces herself, and tilts her head, to the side a moment.

    "Did you hear that?"

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie Brown moves over to take the cell phone from the girl's hand before it can lock, automatically or otherwise. She keeps it active, planning to check what was being said and to what number, though first responds to the girl.

"Of course I'm the good guys," Batgirl says, motioning to the Bat logo in gold on her costume. "Do you think I wear this because it makes my butt look good?" she asks, the lenses on her cowl going up so the blue eyes can look over at the girl more directly.

"Seriously though, it does make my butt look good, doesn't it?" Batgirl says, turning about to show what she means, and looking over her own shoulder. "Why can't jeans companies design like that, I ask you?"

She turns back to face the girl fully, and moves over to help her up. "But that's not what's important. If you have an idea what's going on, talking is definitely what you need to do," Batgirl says, walking the girl forward intending to leave the room and get the girl, and herself, further away from the statue.

Xander Prescott has posed:
    Into the house they go! It's a proper adventure now, and Xander feels woefully unprepared for it. At least with Flatline leading the way, there's someone out in front to take the initial aggro should something happen.

    He adjusts his glasses, which aren't actually glasses. Well, they're real, the lenses are just regular glass. He doesn't need them but the person he's pretending to be does, and it'd be weird to go without.

    When Flatline gives her name, Xander responds with an easy "Evan," then immediately regrets it, but covers up that flash of guilty grimace by looking up towards the ceiling. "Sounds like a confrontation. One of the Bats interrogating someone?" He looks towards Flatline. "Shall we?"

    And off he marches, towards stairs, his head cocked to one side as Flatline's had been as he listens in. A finger raised to his mouth is an attempt to prompt Flatline to silence as they continue dropping some eaves.

Lucifer has posed:
Outside, Julien is getting good control of the area-- or so it appears. He does almost probably shoot a cat, but maybe it shouldn't be hiding in a bush. The neighbors appreciate the help, and everyone gets into the neighbor's car to get out of there... and crush a few slugs on the way. They also called the police, so they will be showing soon, most likely, anyway.

Upstairs, the message most active that she was trying to send is 'There's gunfire, I don't know if I should leave. What if they blame me for everything? I don't want to get shot' and some earlier encouragement that she's brave and can do it, etc etc, from a person marked 'Hannah'.

"Your butt? I don't..." She's trying to orient to this weird quippiness, when she's been captured. "Yeah, looks great." She can pivot, go along with what she's supposed ot say! "I'm supposed to do some ritual stuff here ---. But I'm not. Okay? I just ... I didn't know what I was getting into. I'll help you, but they'll be angry with me. I'm in a little deep." Demon-contract deep, perhaps.

Benji is quiet now, but peeking alertly like he's actually a part of all of this, a silent secret agent, here to help Flatline. His dogtags are the only sound, little metal chime as he shifts his weight more and looks around.

Xander still has a friend, a slug following him, but it's being crafty, and waiting at the window with one big peeper peekin'.

Julien Renard has posed:
As he's moving to the second house, Julien fishes for his phone, keeping his sidearm in the other hand. He hasn't a clue if backup is on the way or not. 9-1-1 is the quickest and easiest way to get from a to b so that's what he dials. "Detective Renard, 021769, I need someone to find Detective Benson yesterday. We have a situation at 1515 Emerald and there's no code for this one." Is there a code for demon slugs taking over the neighborhood? It's not one he was ever taught.

Once he has her on the line, "You need to get here, soon. I don't... slugs, everywhere." He doesn't even know how to begin to really describe the situation. If this Detective Benson knows anything about Julien's reputation, he's not one that rattles easy, never one that calls in an assist like this and is never this unprofessional when he does call in an assist. He dumps his phone back into the pocket of his jacket, leaving the line open but not waiting for a reply.

He still has the line open after he has everyone off safely. It'll stay open until someone else arrives.

Now what. Oh, yeah, creepy house, creepy girl. "That handled over there?" he yells as he's heading that way.

Flatline has posed:
    "Yeah. Sounds like Bat Business." she pauses, and then she turns on her heel, crossing her arms under Benji, and she goes to make an exit.

    "Which invariably means they have it under control, their city their business, blah blah blah --" she states, and she reaches for Xander's shoulder to pull him out too.

    "C'mon Slytherin Boy. Let's go."

Xander Prescott has posed:
    "Vibes are bad," Xander says under his breath, his eyebrows shooting towards his hairline at the mention of "ritual stuff" from an unfamiliar voice up ahead. So when Flatline says let's get outta here? Oh yeah, he's so ready to get outta here. "Really bad vibes. Holy shit. Were they trying to open a portal straight to the 9th circle of hell up there?"

    He has no idea what any of the 9 circles are for, beyond that they represent something. Actually, wait, that's from Dante's Inferno. He has no idea if that's even legit or just a work of fiction.

    Pulling his keys from his pocket, he unclips the carabiner and sacrifices it to form a set of... yep, those are kitchen tongs, the metal twisting and stretching and reforming under his will, his tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth in concentration. He make them go CLACK CLACK because that's what you do.

    Then he finds that slug that was following him and tries to scoop him up with the tongs! "You're coming with me, buddy," he mutters, trying to be threatening. Though then he despairs. "My aunt is going to hate me bringing home demon slugs." Oh well. He sighs.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie Brown's lenses flip down again so she can work the HUD controls to deactivate the cell phone jammer. She'll have to go retrieve it later.

"If you give us the straight details so we can help people, then this will definitely go easier on you and I'll do what I can to take care of you," Batgirl tells the girl as she's walking her down stairs.

"Do you know what these slugs are? Any way to send them back to wherever they came from?" she asks, wanting to make sure the people of the neighborhood are safe first.

<< I captured the girl. She is willing to cooperate she says. >> Batgirl's lips move, talking so quietly only her subvocal throat mike in her costume picks it up. Then she turns to the girl again, "And after that, who is Hannah and how is she involved?" she asks.

Hannah's number goes out to the Batcomputer so someone who is free can start working on retrieving her as well.

Lucifer has posed:
The girl is willing to talk, evidently, but is having balance problems from being tied up and contained. "I know what they are, yeah, but sending back? No... none of this was supposed to happen. It's way out of hand, and I'm /out/," the girl expresses. The question about Hannah? "Just my friend, she's not invovled, she's helping me get out of this, she's not part of anything," she says, loyally and scared she got Hannah involved too deeply. She'll go where Batgirl leads (not that she has a choice, but she's being helpful where she can to do what's needed to leave quickly.)

Xander is able to capture the slug with tongs, but when he is mean to it, it is mean back: hissing and spitting a few quarters and a shiny gold button at him while trying to escape. It's pretending not to talk anymore, since Xander has gotten hostile.

Benji seems to love his new home, little tongue out, head tipped, and licks Flatline's neck. Maybe his old owner wasn't so great anyway, leaving Benji in a yard to get eaten by slugs.

Julien Renard has posed:
Julien doesn't go for the house, doesn't seem anything horrible is happening up there. He'll wait outside for that backup to arrive and give whatever information he can manage to piece together.

It won't be much. 'I have no idea, slugs everywhere, got the civilians out' is not much of a report.

When he finally makes it home, he's seriously considering hanging a crucifix over his door.

Flatline has posed:
    Flatline hums a song in Korean as she moves along, taking Benji with her.

    "And I found You-u-u... oooh. You-u-uuuu-- ooooh... she pauses, and she looks over to Xander. "Uh... you... need money for a cab man?"

Lucifer has posed:
Xander's slug drops another wet twenty at Flatline's feet when squeezed. Maybe he has money for a cab now.

Xander Prescott has posed:
    "Calm down, slug child," Xander says, voice quiet, as he holds the demon slug out as far away from himself as possible to avoid getting the spit-up stuff all in his face. "You want to stick around and get smashed under the boot of the Gotham City Police?" He squints a little, and the disguise melts away from his features, leaving him back as Xander Prescott once again.

    He dangles the slug from the tongs as delicately as he can, as he makes his way towards the nearest light rail entrance. Though the offer of cash from Flatline makes him pivot. "Yeah I probably can't take this on the train, can I?"

    Then, plop. "...do you think it's safe to accept that without it becoming some sort of sealed demon contract?"