Chapter Text
The world is full of magic and wonder. From the rural towns to the big cities, magic flowed through the world and through the people that lived in it. This story tells of a young man, walking down the path of vengeance.
Robin walked swiftly through a New York street, hands in his pockets, trying to keep his head down. The morning sunlight blazed through the streets. It would've been nice to stay and enjoy the weather but that wasn't possible. He needed to get out of the city as fast as possible. He'd been in this city long enough to know there were no tracks of what he was looking for. And there was also the other problem he was trying to avoid.
"OI, BLOND KID!"
There it was. Robin froze, slowly turning to face the problem. Standing there a few paces behind him next to their bikes, were a local gang. A gang he may or may not have accidentally bumped into before.
"Uh, hey guys. How's it going?" Robin greeted with a nervous grin.
"Don't act dumb with us," the leader spat. "You stole from us and we're here to get it back."
Ah yeah, that. Robin may or may not have stolen some money. In his defense, the goons weren't that smart and it was quite easy for him to slip in and take their money. And his defense, Robin was likely to actually need it more than a gang of thugs.
"Sorry guys. If you didn't want it stolen, you shouldn't have let me steal it in the first place," Robin stated, beginning to slowly step backwards.
The leader stepped forward, a wooden bat in hand. "I don’t think you have a choice in the matter," they growled.
Robin chuckled. "Oh I think I do."
He then pulled his skateboard from his backpack and jumped onto it.
"Buh bye now," he waved, kicking off the pavement, sticking his tongue out, swerving onto the road.
The goons in the gang yelled in anger and jumped onto their bikes, beginning to chase after him. Robin sighed and continued skating through the street, weaving through cars.
"You just had to piss them off, didn't you?" a voice from his collar bone said.
That voice belonged to Al, his snake familiar and his best friend. Al had red scales with black patterns, a white underbelly and soft yellow eyes. For all these years Robin had been on his search, Al had been by his side. And luckily, he was the more logical of the two.
"To be honest, they deserved it. They're criminals; they were probably going to do something illegal anyway," Robin said in a hushed tone, not wanting to draw more attention to themselves.
"Like you haven't done illegal stuff before and aren't doing something illegal right now," Al pointed out.
"Okay. Firstly, I needed to do those; And secondly, I'm trying to not get beat up by a street gang," Robin countered.
"You're still doing it though," Al commented.
"You can argue with me later. Can we please focus on escaping these guys first?" Robin argued.
"Yeah alright then," Al admitted, slithering onto Robin's head.
Robin heard the distant shrieks and someone screaming out. "THERE'S A SNAKE."
Robin sighed. "You couldn't be a little more hidden?"
"Says the one skating down the middle of the street," Al argued.
"Fair fair. Can you see where we are?" Robin asked.
Al was quiet for a few moments before answering. "Park Avenue."
Robin quickly went over the options in his head. They could get out of the city on foot; but that was too far and the bikers would catch up to them. There was another option that would give them a slight chance of a clean narrow escape.
"How far are we from Grand Central Terminal?" Robin asked.
"Not far. I think it's up ahead, a few streets if I had to guess," Al commented.
Robin nodded, glancing behind him. The bikers were still in pursuit, attempting to weave through cars, gaining on them. Robin smirked and turned his head back around.
"Since we've lost our cover, how about we pick up a bit of speed?" Robin commented. Al slithered back into Robin's scarf as Robin pulled out his wand from its place in his sleeve.
"Auge celeritatem," he whispered and the tip of his wand glowed a vibrant gold colour.
He tapped it against his skateboard and instantly felt the increase in acceleration. Robin barely managed to keep his balance. He briefly glanced behind him and saw the bikers getting further and further behind them.
"HAHA, SEE YOU SUCKERS," Robin called out behind him.
"Uh Robin?!" Al yelled, sounding somewhat worried.
"What?" he questioned, turning back around and his face fell.
They were heading right for the side of a building. The problem was they were going a bit too fast to stop so Robin ended up tripping on the sidewalk and faceplanting into the side of the building. He slowly peeled off the building and fell on the sidewalk, holding his face. Somehow neither his nose or his glasses were broken which was a relief. His face still hurt however.
He felt Al nudge his cheek. "Are you alright?"
Robin grunted as he pushed himself into a sitting position. "I'm good, just a bit sore."
Al sighed in relief. "That's good. We should get going to the station."
"What's the rush? We lost those bikers; We have time," Robin stated.
Al shook his head. "I think we only lost them for a few moments. They'll catch up quickly enough," Al informed him. Robin sighed, brushing himself off.
"Come on then," he said, holding out his arm.
Al slithered into his sleeve and up his arm 'till his head peaked out from Robin's collar. Robin walked over to where his skateboard was and picked it up. He placed it back in his endless space of a backpack and began to walk through the archway.
Walking along the pavement, Robin took one last glance at the city around him. He really hoped he didn’t have to wait for a train out of here. He was kinda tired of New York. No offence to the people who lived here, but it's a lot to handle.
They were nearing the edge of the station when he heard it.
"We caught you now thief!"
Robin sighed, not bothering to turn around this time and just started booking it down the street. He heard the angry yelling of the gang behind him but he ignored it. He sprinted down the luckily empty street. Reaching the end of the street, he saw that he was infront of the station.
"We're here. Now where's the door?" he pondered, quickly scuttling around the front of the building.
"Check down below," Al suggested.
Robin ran over to the banister and looked down at the street below. It was somewhat busy but that would give him the needed cover to get away. Leaping over the banister, Robin fell into the street below, landing on a cab. He made a slight dent in the roof and he heard the driver angrily yell at him.
"Sorry!" Robin apologized, jumping off the roof and sprinting into central.
His sneakers squeaked loudly across the floor as he rushed to find a train that would get him out of here. In his search he accidentally knocked into a man. Robin rubbed his head as he landed on the floor. He quickly picked up his stuff which included his fallen wand and Al who had dropped onto the floor. He put his stuff away and stood up.
"Sorry sir," Robin apologized before running off.
He heard the distant shouts of the biker gang indicating he didn’t have much time. Scanning the train times and platforms, he picked a random train and ran with it. He ran down the corridor, hoping he wasn't late for the train. Robin briefly glanced behind him and saw the gang catching up
"How do these guys keep catching up to us?"
"Stop talking and keep running," Al snipped, whacking Robin on the back of the head.
"Alright alright," Robin replied turning back around.
He quickly spotted the track they needed in the distance. Robin then pulled out his wand and began chanting. "Manhattan habitant oblitus es mei magicae."
The tip of the wand began glowing an enchanting gold and a large orb began forming, small sparks flying off. Robin reached the train and was about to board it when something caught his scruff and pulled him back. He was picked up and was turned around, facing the leader of the gang.
"You tried to escape but even then, you're still just a weakling. No power, no importance," the leader growled.
Robin was starting to feel weak from the building spell but he managed to find enough strength to pull through.
"That's where you're wrong," Robin corrected.
He then preceded to kick the leader in the jaw. The leader let go off him, cradling his jaw while Robin did a backflip into the train.
"DIMITTIS!" Robin called out as he flipped, the ball of enchanting light bursting into various streams of blinding light.
Robin landed on the train floor with a thud. The train doors then closed and he could feel the machine shift and move away from the platform. He lifted his head and saw the golden light starting to fade.. Hopefully the spell worked.
Lifting himself up and leaning against the wall, Robin moved through the doors leading to the coach. Luckily, there was no-one else in there which was good as he didn’t want to deal with anyone at the moment. He found a seat that seemed nice enough and collapsed into it. Leaning his head against the wall, Robin closed his eyes and let himself drift off, all his energy depleted.