One Strawberry Sundae and a Banana Split

"He's my seizure alert dog."

The teenager looked up at the woman with wide, baby-blue eyes. She was the picture of innocence, with a face still retaining the soft curves of baby-fat and an amazing ability to mimic the complete solemnity of a child stating an irrefutable fact, with her blonde hair trailing down her shoulders, dressed in a bright red coat. The woman wilted in the face of it-- she may not have been happy about the huge, furry beast that came into her bar alongside the girl, but she wasn't about to argue with the monster's blue service-dog vest.

"He's got very good manners, I promise," she added pleadingly, and finally, the shop's owner gave in. She directed her to the seat in the far back of the ice cream place, not that the girl, or her canine companion, minded much.

The dog settled under the table at first, next to the girl's feet and as out-of-the-way as possible; he stayed there until a waitress came to deliver the ice cream the teenager had ordered, a banana split and a strawberry sundae ("I just can't decide!" she'd claimed, while somewhere by her feet, there was a sneeze). Then, now that they were assured privacy, he came out from under the table and climbed up on the seat, keeping his head low enough that he wouldn't be noticed right away.

The girl rolled her eyes. "I could've put it on the floor for you, you know," she said as she nudged the banana split towards him. "It'd be less likely to get us noticed and kicked out."

The dog made a noise that was best described as a long-suffering grumble, before leaning forward to dig into it's ice cream. The girl sighed and took a spoonful of her own sundae.

After getting home from work Andree got changed and went to the ice cream parlor that she had met her Mom at a short while ago. She walked down the street dressed in her usual blue jeans, black tank top and red plaid, button up shirt which she left unbuttoned. Eventually she got there and lined up at the counter to order her ice cream. Pushing a bit of her blonde and brown hair out of her face she told the lady at the counter, "Could I get a cookie dough ice cream please." After a few minutes of waiting she got her ice cream and went to find a seat. It was pretty full today but she found a table next to a blonde girl and a dog. You look familiar, where have I seen you before?" She asked herself before recognizing him as the dog from the other night. Holy crap. Tapping the blonde girl on the shoulder, she asked "Um, do you know where your dog was two nights ago? I seem to remember seeing him that night." She tried to ask this as innocently as she could but it probably came off as a bit suspicious to the girl. "My name's Andree, what's yours?" She asked before giving the dog a look that basically said; You know I know you and you recognize me, don't you?

The dog stared right back with her with wide yellow eyes; immediately, he tried to go for his usual, dopey, friendly look, tail wagging, but it was half-hearted at best, and he glanced at the girl with a look like nervous pleading.

Yep, he recognized her alright.

The girl, however, jumped in surprise, before turning and fixing the newcomer with a rather irritated attempt at a smile. "Sahara," she replied in response to the request for a name. "And I honestly don't know. Some nights I let him wander, he's not good at staying cooped up too long. Why, did he get into any trouble?" The look she fixed her pet with promised many unpleasant things in the future, an with a whine, the dog put his head down on the table, next to the cleaned-out bowl that once held a banana split.

"Well Sahara so you know, he did bite quite a few people. For a good cause though. He also dragged some guys out of a burning warehouse after I may or may not have burnt something valuable to the people inside." Andree said, hoping no one else could hear. She was nearly one hundred percent positive that this was the same dog. "You know it may be best if we continued this conversation some where else." She smiled a bit after saying this, shooting the dog another look telling him; just tell her you know me, come on I've seen other dogs do stuff like that. "Your dog has a pair of very distinct eyes and some fur markings I would recognize."

The dog pricked his ears forward and made a disgruntled noise at Andree. Who do you think I am, Lassie?

Sahara sighed and shook her head. "You know, I've been thinking about trying to dye him. Think pink would be a good colour for him?" That made him lift his head, to give her an utterly scandalized noise that made her laugh. "Just let me finish my ice cream. This sundae's too good not to finish." She was halfway done already, so it wouldn't take long.

"Pink might be nice. Maybe you could do some of his fur up in ponytails. I'm sure he'd love that" Andree responded to the Sahara after noticing the dog's glare. "I agree it's good here, my Mom brought me here not long ago." She said, noticing that she had slipped up she was glad it wasn't too specific. Her's was about as full as Sahara's was so they finished at about the same time. "Well, I suppose now we can finish this conversation somewhere more private. Maybe an apartment?"

"Sounds better than my motel room," Sahara said brightly as she stood up, the sullen canine hopping off the chair. If Andree hadn't meant her own apartment, well, that was a little too bad. Their motel room really was rather shitty. "Lead the way, Andree!"

Harsh experience had taught the girl to be wary of strangers. She wasn't about to let some chick her older brother had run into be treated any differently, especially after she confronted them like that.

"Okay." Andree said, leading the way to her apartment. She never liked letting Strangers in, but this dog was no stranger and if the girl was with it then she must be fine. She lead them over to the elevator "Finally it's working again." She muttered before getting inside. Once they reached her floor she lead them down the hall and to her apartment. Inside the place was a mess.Her bo staff was propped up against the window, her closet was open and some of her equipment was poking out. There were cans with arrows pierced through them lying around. And then to top this all off there was a desk filled with papers and a laptop which was showing various security camera footage. "Sorry about the mess." Andree said as she dashed at super human speeds to close the closet and slam the laptop closed."Make yourself as comfortable as you could possibly be in this mess." She said, gesturing to the three office chairs in the room.

Sahara couldn't help a tiny smile as she glanced around the place; Andree's super-speed, however nearly made her jaw drop, and the dog froze next to the doorway, staring her in surprise. "Wow," the blonde said. "So I'm guessing you're... some kind of superhero?"

She wasn't as into superheroes and stuff as her brother was, but that didn't mean she wasn't familiar with the most famous ones, even if only because she was used to hearing about them all the time. Still, it was something else to be actually meeting one-- not to mention it added a bit more nervous tension to her body. She gave her companion a pointed look and nudged him with the side of her boot before following Andree further inside. Don't you dare transform around her, it said, making him lay his ears back and whine defensively.

"I wouldn't call myself super really. I just help people. Which is how I ran into your dog over there." Andree said while thinking to herself, Damn it, i thought you were a genius Andree. Why the fuck did do that in front of them? The dog, sure but the girl? "Anyways, time to for you to tell me something. What's up with your dog? I don't know any dogs that go about at night taking down drug dealers so what's really going on here?" She continued, trying to change the subject. Making her way over to the seat nearest to the laptop, she sat down waiting for her answer.

Sahara raised an eyebrow, grinning a bit in a way that didn't reach her eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm not in the habit of divulging my secrets--or those of my companion here--to people I just met. It's not always in our best interests, you know? I mean, I'm sure you can understand, or do you tell just anyone how you can run like the wind?"

The dog snapped his head up to glare at her, giving a barely-audible growl. Okay, maybe she wasn't being on her best behavior, but she was still mad at kibble-for-brains for putting them in this position in the first place.

"Now, if you're wiling to have an equivalent exchange of information, that I might be amenable to," she said, folding her arms over her chest. "But I don't have to tell you anything. Capisce?"

"No, no I understand. I honestly was probably a bit too trusting." Andree told the pair before letting her continue. "Now, what could I tell you. You already can tell what I do with my nights, you've seen me run. What else do you want to know?" She asked, unsure of what this girl wanted. "Is that not enough to know more about your dog?"

((sorry it's short, tired))

"You already know he's not a normal dog." Sahara shrugged, looking unimpressed. "You probably guessed he's more intelligent than your average dog, since he's out running around fighting crime like he thinks he's Krypto the superdog."

That got an honest-to-god yelp from the canine in question, whose expression had become absolutely insulted as he glared up at the girl, before trotting over to where Andree was and leaning against her leg in what he hoped was a supportive gesture. He turned his head back to glare at the girl in the red coat.

Just because you don't trust her doesn't mean you've got to be a bitch about it.

Sahara sighed and shook her head. "Look, just-- you know something weird is up with Grey there, and we know you're not normal either. But that's all we know about each other. What is it you wanna know about Grey? What he is? How he got that way? Cuz, hey, I'll be up front--I can't tell you everything, but what I can tell you, I only will if you give me a reason to trust you, so you gotta be willing to answer your own questions. That's all I'm saying."

"No need to get worked up about it." Andree said to Sahara while stroking the dog. "Look, ask me whatever you want then you can decide if you want to trust me or not. You spill these secrets to anyone, anyone at all, and you will find yourself dangling off the side of Sears Tower." She warned, still rubbing the dog.

((sorry it's short can't think at 11:00))

"You're telling me," Sahara muttered to herself, glancing down at Grey with a look of irritation. The dog replied with a sharp bark as he nuzzled Andree's hand, and the girl rolled her eyes. "Alright, then--how did you get to be able to move so fast? You don't need to go into detail or anything, just... was it some kind of lab project, or magic, or something?"

((Haha, it's cool!))