101 Dalmatian Street: The Skele-Files

Smart Heart Torn Apart

  Meanwhile, in a rather large and crowded house, a young genius pup was working hard on the kibble dispenser, trying to give it some modifications (such as easier handling). Whenever he was getting exhausted and just wanted to stop, go to his bed, and lie down, he'd take a certain small, plastic eye goggle kept with him, look down at it while holding it in his little paws to remind himself why he was doing this, and then force his body to keep on working.

  Princess Positron had been Dawkins' favorite toy for several years. "She" was given to him as a birthday present from Dylan, back when Dawkins was only slightly older than Dorothy's current age. Ever since then, Dawkins kept the doll with him wherever he went, as "she" served as both his only friend (or at least it frequently seemed that way) and a symbol of "the only time someone ever both remembered and genuinely cared  about his birthday."

  That is, until the night when Cruella de Vil captured him and the rest of his family. That heartless human had snatched away Princess Positron and placed "her" into her skinning machine to "give it a test run." Once the doll was in, "she" was immediately "drowned," then sliced up, and once "she" was ejected, all that remained was a ball of what was once "her" hair and a detached eye goggle.

  This entire event had left Dawkins' usually strong, stoic heart shattered, even after the family had been rescued. No matter how hard he tried (or how many times he banged his head against the walls/tables/whatever was close by at the time), Dawkins could never get that memory to stop replaying in his head, even as he'd been working restlessly on the house's gadgets for hours.

  Suddenly, in the midst of his cathartic working spree, the genius pup felt a comparatively larger paw tapping on his small, spotty shoulder. He turned his little muzzle around and looked up to see Dylan and Dolly standing there with matchingly concerned expressions. "Dawkins, we need to ta-"

  However, the sight of his eldest brother only flashed in Dawkins' brilliant mind the once-fond-now-tragic memory of being given the doll so many years ago, causing his blue puppy eyes to start welling up with tears. The gadget pup tried to turn away from them and start working even harder, only for both eldest siblings to grab his skinny little body and start pulling him away from the kibble dispenser. However, Dawkins stubbornly resisted their combined efforts, leaving him tumbling forward and both of his eldest siblings flying backwards. As the two started getting themselves back up, Dolly commented, "Well, that was a total bust," with Dylan adding, "Now what do we do?"

  Just then, DJ, who'd been walking through the halls, came up to the two eldest siblings and declared, "I'll go talk to him."

  He then raised his two front paws up, spat on each one, and clasped them together, prompting Dylan to disgustedly comment, "Eeww! Do you have any idea how unsanitary that is?!"

  "These pads get dry very easily, okay?" DJ responded defensively, to which Destiny called from another room, "I know a softening paw balm perfect for that sort of thing!"

  DJ then walked up to Dawkins and said to his genius stepbrother, "Dawks, we need to talk."

  "Can it wait until after I'm done?" Dawkins asked as he worked the kibble dispenser's parts with his dexterous little paws (which were now getting shaky due to muscular exhaustion), to which the music-loving pup placed one of his own paws on Dawkins' little shoulder and answered, "Actually, that's just what I wanted to talk to you about. You've been totally losing yourself in working on the gadgets. You've been eating less, not getting as much sleep, and you haven't left the house in about two weeks! Dylan, Dolly, Mom, Dad, the other pups, we're all seriously starting to worry about you."

  "Well, you shouldn't," Dawkins retorted, "I'm doing just fine, thank you very much! I've been keeping a few non-perishable bags of kibble in my room, opening the windows for fresh air and sunlight, and I receive all the exercise I need from working on the machines!"

  With that, Dawkins reached into a nearby box, only to feel nothing inside. He glanced over at the empty container and exclaimed, "Oh kibbles! It looks like we're all out of replacement reeds. DJ, would you mind going out and getting some more?"

  In response, DJ simply let out a sigh and replied, "'Kay... but you have to come with me."

  "Thank yo- wait, what?" Dawkins uttered in a state of confusion/shock, but before he could question further or start to protest, DJ quickly grabbed his genius brother by the blue molecule collar and started dragging him away from his delayed work and over to the front door (which was actually quite easy due to Dawkins' decreased appetite having caused him to lose a considerable amount of weight). Dylan was already right there to activate the paw-scanner, opening the door and allowing DJ to smoothly continue forcing Dawkins out of the house.

  Once they were both out, DJ finally let go of Dawkins' collar. However, as soon as he did so, Dawkins immediately attempted to make a break for it, prompting DJ to quickly step in front of his smaller genius brother. "Okay, Dawks. What gives? What's got you acting like this?"

  "P-P-P-Princess..." Dawkins uttered out as he started whimpering with his bright blue puppy eyes welling up with tears once again. 

  "Ohh," DJ's frustrated expression soon faded into one of concern, "you're still upset about what Cruella did to her?"

  Rather than saying a word, Dawkins simply responded to this question by sobbing into his musical brother's chest. DJ hugged him and said, "Dawkins, I... I'm just so sorry. I-I didn't realize..."

  Dawkins just started crying even harder for a little while (around 10-30 seconds) before finally pulling his muzzle away from DJ's torso and starting to regain his composure. Once this happened, DJ said, "Maybe a day out'll help take your mind off of her."

  "I-I suppose so," Dawkins agreed with his voice still a little broken, to which DJ gave his genius brother a little slap on the back and commented approvingly, "Attapup!" before they both started heading out.