Marian slapped him flat on the bridge his nose with the pewter tankard, stunning him enough to make him let go and her hop up. Robin yanked her behind him.

"Oi! You!" he yelled.

"Robin..." Marian whispered worriedly.

The man shook his head and looked up at Robin.

"That is no way to treat a lady. I see you manhandle her like that again, I'm going to--"

The man stood up, a good two feet taller than Robin, his chest looking as hard and wide as a barrel. "You'll do what, little man?" he sneered.

Robin reached out to punch him at full force, but the blow didn't even move him. As Robin stood there, John, Much, Alan and Will stood up. Will realized he was still holding onto Djaq, and sat her down as the man's very large friends also got up from the table. Everyone went running in, Djaq included, but Marian grabbed her by the arm to stop her.

"We're in character?"she reminded gently.

Djaq nodded but sighed, watching from the background, antsy. This was not a position she was used to being in. She winced as they took punches, but, eventually the boys got the upper hand until the larger man finally knocked Robin on his ass. But, he finally reached out his hand and offered it to Robin. Surprised, Robin took it and allowed the man to help him back up.

"Good fight!" he said heartily, tossing an arm around Robin's shoudlers. "You and your crew must join us! Come, sit."

The gang exchanged glances, but quickly decided just to sit.

"Wenches! Ale!" the man yelled out as he sat. He then turned to Robin. "I am Robert of Bagel."

Robin thought for a second; he couldn't very well tell him that he was Robin Hood... "A nobleman, impressive..." Robin said with a grin. "I'm just plain ol' Travis Chochran."

"Pleasure to meet you, Travis; you and your men sit, have some ale, and perhaps we should talk of how good fighters like you could be useful to the Black Knights..."

"Black Knights?!" Robin burst out, pretending to be very impressed. "Oi, fellas, you hear that? We got pratically royalty 'ere..."

"Yeah, right, hear you're a pretty big outfit..." Alan added.

"And growing." another one, Roger, added. "All the time people are coming to the smart side."

"Don't know about that, just know it's better to be on the winning side than the loosing one." Robin said, though it tasted bad coming out of his mouth, and it made his skin hot and uncomfortable for a moment.

All three of the waitresses, Djaq, Marian and and Camellia, the waitress Djaq had earlier drenched, were bringing the men drinks now. Djaq bent down a bit, brushing Will's shoulder with hers as she handed out some of the drinks. Will smiled at her serendipitously, but then frowned as he noticed the man on her other side staring right at her ass, making little hand gestures.

The other man, who's name turned out to be Monte of Markham, nudged Will with his elbow when the girls had gone.

"Oi, they got some pretty ones in here tonight..." he whispered.

Will nodded, but said nothing.

"Man, that little cocoa dream... I could break my dick off in that sweet little ass..."

Robin squeezed Will's leg warningly under the table, and John sat up straighter in his chair. Alan and Much merely looked at Will to see if he was going to do anything. For now, he decided to let it lay at Robin's order, but, that didn't keep him from squeezing his tankard so tightly that his knuckles were white...

"So... Travis..." Robert asked, "How would you like a job?"

"Depends on what sort..." Robin said, pretending to be careful.

"It's working for the right side... the side that actually cares about the people of England, not some flippin' crusades in a country nobody's ever heard of..."

"Sounds promising." Robin nodded. "When would we start?"

"You don't just 'start'." Roger, interjected. "You have to be tested first."

"Ey, what kind of a test?" Alan asked.

"Meet us tomorrow at first light in Guiridella Fields. You'll find out..."