Gifted/Normal [DAXAM and BOWELS]

[bowels]

If Robin knew of her father’s actions, she would have apologized. In fact, if she knew, she would have run a long time ago—and on purpose, too. She may have denied her connections to him it would have disturbed her so much.

“Alright,” she said with a small smile, quite unobservant to the turmoil that had whipped through Isaac before he made his decision.

She waited for him before she began to walk, and Brutus moved immediately at his side, his curly tail, fat with fur, slapping against her nearly bare thighs contentedly. She stroked the top of his head on his sweet spot and he gave a pleased groan.

“So,” she began, eager to break the silence, “what’re you doing out here if it’s so dangerous?”

A smile flickered onto her lips. “Or, are the dangerous things afraid of you?”

[Daxam]

Isaac hesitates a moment before answering. "I'm not here because I have a choice. I've been living here on the streets for as long as I can remember. As for the dangerous things..." He looks down an alleyway and sees a dark shape moving around in the shadows. The figure turns it's head and, seeing Isaac, runs farther into the shadows. "I guess you could say that I have some pull around here." Although, it isn't necessarily my doing, he adds silently.

Damn right, Vincent remarks. Compared to me, you couldn't fight your way out of a wet paper bag riddled with holes.

Ignoring him, Isaac Looks down at the dog and says, "I've been meaning to ask; what's his name?"

[bowels]

Robin frowned. She’d just met him, but she already felt sympathy for him; no one deserved to live on the streets. A part of her felt compelled to invite him to stay in her home, but luckily her sense caught up with her before her gut-instinct could and she recognized how bad of an idea that was. They had over five vacant bedrooms in their house, after all, and plenty of room for one more resident—but her father wouldn’t view her bringing home a random boy as very appropriate.

Then, he shifted the subject and the smile was resurrected. In response to talking about her dog, she scratched behind his ear again, and the fluffy Chow gave a content groan.

“This is Brutus,” she clarified, and finally looked back up at Isaac. “He doesn’t like strangers. You’ve got to have some ability with dogs.”

Impatiently, Brutus stepped a few feet ahead of them, as though he were leading the way.

“Thank you,” she finally said, with a kind smile. “I’d have no clue how to get back. I grew up here, but I’m not from here—not really. I’m from California.”

[Daxam]

Isaac smiles as Brutus trots ahead, tail swaying slightly back and forth. "Strong name for a strong-looking dog," he mutters.

Since he was a kid, animals, not just dogs, would come up to him without any incentive. He remembers someone, one of the nicer people looking after him, saying that the reason why they did that was because he knew he was a good kid. Nowadays, however, after everything Vincent has put him through, he's started to wonder if there was another reason. "Don't worry about it," Isaac says. The smile vanishing, he says, "Why would the mayor's daughter not live in the city her dad runs? Did something happen?"

[bowels]

Some may have viewed the question as delicate, but Robin didn’t think much of it. There weren’t many things she felt uncomfortable sharing and therefore all she did was shrug.

“I suspect it’s because my mom died,” she said. “They weren’t together, and I’d lived with my dad all my life, but I think it bothered him. It was some car accident in the city.”

She’d been born out of wedlock, and though she’d love her mother as a daughter should, she never felt strongly attached to her mother. She’d been nine when she’d passed, but her mother hadn’t done much for her in life besides show her everything she didn’t want to be; she was unstable, and irresponsible, and didn’t know how to have fun without having consequences at the end of the tunnel.

“But, he always tell me that the city is dangerous.” She frowned a bit. “Ever since I was nine, I’ve been going to an all-girls’ boarding school on the coast, and I only ever come home ten or twelve weeks out of the year.”

Robin lifted her head up and looked at the night sky. “I’m not supposed to leave the gates without extreme supervision, though. I don’t know why; he'd kill me if he knew I left. Tonight was an accident.”

[Daxam]

Isaac and Robin reach the corner and turn right. Straight ahead, they can see the lights of the mayoral mansion, still quite a distance away. Isaac smiles lightly and says, "I figured it was an accident. People don't normally let their dogs loose just so they can chase them and get lost."

Isaac, Vincent says, his voice dead serious.

I know, he replies. Casually looking over his shoulder, he sees a small group of guys following them. Any idea how long they've been following us?

A couple of minutes after we met up with her. I knew she would be trouble.

Lowering his voice, Isaac tells Robin, "Don't look, but we're being followed. If I tell you to run, take Brutus and run straight to your home. Don't look back, otherwise you'll learn just why this place is dangerous."

[bowels]

Robin hadn’t expected him to say that, and at first, she didn’t believe him.

Then, it clicked and she began to turn her head. Before she could follow through, though, she caught herself, then clenched her teeth.

“Alright,” she said lightly, and it was no more than a breath.

Her gait became rigid, but she tried to stay fluid. Just when she worked the courage to say something else, pretend as though no one were following them, Brutus stopped.

He came to a halt, and remained very poised. Then, his snout lifted into the air, and he sniffed. Almost immediately after, his head snapped back, and his eyes bored through her and Isaac to rest on the group of stalkers behind.

Robin’s eyes widened. Brutus tore into a large, deep bark, and he burst into a full-speed run. Before Robin could move out of the way, or at least try to detain him, he plowed between her and Isaac and knocked her right to the ground.

“Brutus!” she called out, and got back to her feet as quickly as possible. Before Isaac could stop her, she was running after her dog, who was (yet again) on the run.

[Daxam]

"Dammit!" Isaac growls, chasing after the two of them.

The largest of the group smiles as the three of us run in their direction. The person on his right steps forward and swipes his hand through the air. A strong gust of wind blows toward Isaac, Brutus, and Robin. Isaac summons some iron and uses it to cover his feet, anchoring him in place. He stretches his arms out to catch Robin and Brutus as they get pushed toward him. After the wind dies down, Isaac motions toward a nearby alley and says, "Take Brutus and go into that alley. Don't come out until I tell you to."

[bowels]

Things moved in a blur.

She was hit with a gust of wind so strong that even Brutus couldn’t weather it. Before she could be hurled back to land on the ground again, though, she watched as Isaac quite suddenly rooted himself to the ground—by iron? Then, he reached out his arms, grabbed the two of them and prevented them from experiencing a rather nasty fall.

Robin gasped, but she didn’t spend time to gawk. Instead, she obeyed immediately, and after gripping onto Brutus’ collar with both hands began to run to where Isaac had said. Unfortunately, her dog wasn’t nearly as accommodating to his commands.

“Brutus!” she groaned, and fought against his movement. He was forty pounds of pure muscle, and seeing as Robin lacked much mass in the first place, he was winning the battle. He was bent on getting at their attackers.

“Brutus—stop!” she pleaded, and tugged backward quite violently, though he barely budged.

Then, in another vain attempt, she landed on the ground again, her long legs getting all tangled up in one another. Instantly, Brutus felt the guilt rack itself, and he turned his head to her with a small whimper. Finally, he scampered over to the alley they’d been assigned, and Robin quickly followed suit.

But, from the side of the alley, she watched eagerly—peeking at what the hell was going on.

[Daxam]

There are three of them: the largest standing in the middle, obviously the leader, the small guy on his right who summoned the wind, and the guy on his left, who is relatively well-built, but not as big as the leader. The guy in the middle grins and says, "Well, if it isn't the Iron Warrior, Isaac Rider. I guess you didn't know, but you were walking with the mayor's daughter, there. Hand her over, and we'll leave you alone."

"Sorry, but that's not an option," Isaac replies.

The three thugs exchange surprised glances. Then the small one speaks up, saying, "But rumor has it that you hate the mayor more than anyone here. Why would you wanna protect his daughter?"

A faint glow starts shining through the sleeve of Isaac's over coat as the ground around Isaac starts cracking and small spheres of iron begin rising around him, coated in a black cloud of carbon. "I have my reasons."

The leader sighs. "Look around you. There are three of us and one of you. Even the Iron Warrior can't take all of us on by himself."

Isaac replies by taking a challenging step forward, the iron fusing together, becoming a long, double-edged sword in his right hand as the carbon coats his left, turning it as black as the night.