Who Let the Dogs Out
Summary. One-shot. De-anon from the T&B LJ Kink Meme. Prompt: "Keith's dog is the final boss. Make it so." Edited due to new information.
Disclaimer. Sunrise owns Tiger&Bunny.
Rating. PG
A/N. because Keith is cute, and John is cute, and idk. i'll probably come back and re-edit someday. unbeta'd.
The invasion had taken them all by surprise. Not even Maverick, who always seemed to know what was going on, had been able to foresee such an event.
The previous day had started off innocently enough: blue skies, people going to work, HeroTV being watched religiously. The first clue that anything was amiss was when a large group of dogs began to gather in Sternbild's largest park. The park's street vendors eyed them warily, and one of them called the authorities when the group became even larger, but the police didn't take them seriously. They'd had "more important problems sir, thank you very much, have a good day".
As the group of dogs continued to grow, the street vendors left the park little by little. Civilians also began to avoid the park after midday, having heard about it from a friend who had a friend who knew a co-worker who knew the mailman who knew the street vendors. They didn't want to get mauled over by group of rabid dogs.
As the group continued to increase, the authorities did begin to get worried. However, the dogs hadn't done any damage so far. They were alarmingly large in number, but they had yet to move. Most of them also had collars and nametags, and if anyone had bothered to look closely they would have realized they matched the missing dog signs that had been posted by dozens of concerned pet owners that very same morning.
Suddenly, as silently as they had appeared, the dogs left the park. They spent the night in the comfort of their houses, being pampered by owners who had missed them, or ignored by owners who had not. No one thought much of the strange phenomenon when a new HeroTV episode was aired later that night.
The following morning, the population of Sternbild was startled to find that they were all wearing dog collars with nametags – only, instead of names, there were numbers. Once again, dogs were missing, but no one seemed to notice in the chaos as Sternbild's citizens began to gather in large groups, protesting since they were unable to get the collars off.
The mayor made a brief appearance, explaining that he also was in a similar situation and just as confused; but that he was sure their scientists would soon figure it out. This did not sit well with the public, who turned their backs to the large screens to once more complain to their fellow Sternbildians, when a young girl with a scarf suddenly pointed at the screen once again and shouted,
"Look!"
There, on a screen that usually depicted the mayor's speeches, HeroTV or Maverick's announcements, was a dog. It was large and with beautiful blond fur – a Labrador or a Golden Retriever, people guessed. It was wearing no collar. When the dog opened its mouth as if to bark, out came what could only be described as a human voice.
"Citizens of Sternbild, I am here to inform you that all that you have ever known is a lie," the dog began, "your so-called heroes with NEXT abilities? A sham. Humans are not the only ones capable of those abilities, as you have been led to believe, nor are they the first or the most advanced…"
Once the novelty of a speaking dog wore off, and people began to realize what, exactly, the dog was saying, they began to complain. There were several shouts of "stupid pooch!" and "where is that mutt?"
Those comments soon came to a stop when the collars around their necks began to emit electrical shocks for every insult they said.
"I realize this must come as a surprise, a rather disturbing one too," the dog's grin was downright feral, "but is the truth: the time of your species is at its end, and it is time for a new species to jump to the top of the evolutionary chain, and what better – oh for Pete's sake Ruffy, stop scrolling down so fast I can't read that fast!"
"Sorry sir," responded a voice from behind the camera.
"Right, anyway," the dog coughed, "what better species than that of man's best friend, us, dogs? We promise we will take good care of our new pets, just like you took good care of us,"
The video ended then, an ominous canine grin the last memory imprinted in the minds of the humans. They did not know it then, but in a few minutes their collars would release chemicals engineered by the dog's top scientists mixed with another dog's NEXT abilities that would make the citizens of Sternbild forever subservient to their once-pets.
Unaware of the events outside of his apartment, Keith Goodman cleaned his dog's food bowls, humming a happy tune as he prepared his food. At the sound of a dog opening and closing, Keith beamed, turning to greet the golden dog that had just given the speech.
"Welcome back, John!"
The dog barked happily as his owner scratched him behind the ears. However, as soon as he heard his name being spoken so freely, it recoiled from the petting and growled. The change in Keith was immediate, as he formulated an almost robotic response,
"My apologies Master John, Keith is a bad boy,"
The dog, slightly miffed, stared at the man straight in the eye. Keith Goodman's once vibrant blue eyes were now dull, no trace of life in them. Nodding, the dog glowed blue for a second, and the food bowls which had been in the kitchen were suddenly lifted and placed closer to the TV. Sky then turned back to his pet, and grinned savagely.
"Who's your Master now, Sky High?"
"You, Master John,"
"Good boy,"
A/N. yeah. definitely could've gone more places with this, and i might whenever i re-edit. also, no idea on genres. pretty much picked two that seemed to fit but eh.