AN: The title of this chapter is the first dog pun.
Chapter 2 — Love Bites
After being in the Danger Room, Dep felt that he needed some much needed rest. He went down to create his room in the Suites. On the way, he found Tiny sitting outside of her room, curled up and sulking about something. He could not help but talk to her.
"What's wrong?" Dep asked her.
"Don't worry about it." Tiny replied, with the sound of her voice muffled.
"What?"
"Don't worry about it..." she said again. The sound was unchanged.
"I can't hear you..." Dep told her.
Tiny lifted her head. "I said don't worry about it, idiōta!"
"Sor-RY! I couldn't hear you with your head in your knees!"
"Well when a girl wants to be alone, won't you listen?"
"Not if I want to make her feel better!" Dep replied.
"How?" Tiny asked, calming down a little.
"Let's start by stopping all the yelling." Dep said, kneeling down to her.
"Just who do you think you are?" she questioned.
"Deputy Harrington, a friend." he replied. "Now I'll ask again... what's wrong?"
Tiny sighed. "A relationship crisis—my boyfriend broke up with me."
"That sucks..."
"Easy for you to say. I bet that you're better off than I am."
Dep looked off from the chihuahua. "Actually, I'm not. I wouldn't know how you feel, since I haven't had a girlfriend."
"Very funny..." Tiny murmured with sarcasm.
"I'm telling you straight up; I haven't even been kissed yet. What I find 'funny' I why someone would break up with you."
Tiny leaned in closer to Dep. "Funny... in what way?" she asked, now with a lighted smile.
Dep smiled back, getting Tiny to change her facial expression. "Let's just say that it's hard to explain with words..."
"Okay, I see your game... but I'll play along, on one condition: what do you want out of it?" Tiny asked. She secretly planned to make Tracker jealous; in other words, use Dep. However, she would have to be willing to do anything to keep Dep close.
"First off, this really is completely new to me... so I don't know how these relationships really go. To answer your question, I already told you: I haven't been kissed. Could you at least teach me how to be a good kisser?"
"I'm not the best, but I'll try. Oh, and one more thing..." Tiny replied.
"What?"
"Try and be funny." Tiny suggested.
"Hey, I made you smile, didn't I?"
Three days later, Dep found Sly, Durango and Fortress to train with them again. Tiny came along to watch them, since she was "with" Dep. In the Danger Chamber, Dep had more one-on-one time with Fortress to help his energy stability. While watching, Tiny was more intrigued and not skeptical seeing the two of them train together.
Suddenly, Tracker entered the control center. He saw his former girlfriend. "What are you doing here?"
"Um..." Tiny was cut off.
"Don't answer that." he interrupted her, going over to the mic again to kick out the four Titans inside the Chamber. "Hey, I need to let off some steam." he told them.
"I really don't want to hear him grumbling... let's just go." Sly said.
"No." Dep responded aloud.
"What's that?" Tracker asked.
"I really don't know what your problem is, but you don't have the right to just order us out of here. If you wanted to train, why can't you ask nicely?"
Sly and Fortress widened their eyes.
"Oh damn..." Durango whispered, knowing the consequences of talking back at Tracker.
"Are you sure you wanna keep talking?" Tracker warned him.
"Wake up, man! Even Tiny in there can sense that you're acting... loveless. You're not considering anyone else's feelings into what you want... so there's no other word for it."
That word triggered Tracker. "All right, that does it." Tracker bolted into the Chamber to commence a battle with Dep. Sly, Durango and Fortress went to Tiny's location, to watch.
"Durango, put on the rocky field simulation. Someone's about to get crushed..." Tracker said.
After a few seconds, the entire Danger Chamber shifted into a vast, rocky valley battlefield. This was one of the Danger Room's many functions. It could put anyone into any form and size of an environment of their choosing. In addition, there are no boundaries in the requested simulation, giving unlimited space for training or sparring sessions. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case for Tracker and Dep.
Durango turned the mic off.
Spunky entered the control center once the fight began. "What's going on?" Spunky asked the group.
"Dep accidentally picked a fight with Tracker." Durango replied.
"Oh... wait—what kind of fight?"
"A real one... not a sparring contest." Sly clarified.
"Dep and Tracker? That's an accident all right!" Spunky exclaimed.
"Why?" Fortress questioned.
"I don't know if you all know this or not, but Dep is my eldest son."
"Wait, what? They're brothers?" Tiny responded in utter shock.
Spunky looked at the four Titans near him. "Judging by your faces, I don't think he knows that either. *sighs* Dotty, where are you when I need you?"
"Right here." Dotty said, entering the control center from behind.
"You're back already?" he asked.
"I'll explain later. What's the problem?" Dotty then moved to the window to see what was going on between the two dogs in the Chamber.
"I meant to tell you this before you left: the one that Tracker is fighting is Dep, his older brother and our son."
Dotty was startled. "That's Dep?" She looked at the status boards; Dep was actually much stronger than Tracker was, but his energy control was not fully stabilized.
In the battle, Tracker seemed to have the upper hand after connecting with two of his best combinations. After that, he heard his mother on the mic.
"Tracker, I say this because I love you: stop fighting or you'll be grounded." Dotty said.
"What? You haven't ever said that to anyone!" he replied.
"I'm being serious, just give it up or face the consequences."
"No way, I have a reputation! I just need to finish this match; I already used my Wolf Fang Fist and Shinryuken combos on him—he should be done for!" he told her, rushing in to attack Dep again.
Dotty sighed.
"Aren't you gonna stop him?" Spunky asked his wife.
"It's his choice. Besides, I wasn't the one planning on grounding him..."
"I have you now!" Tracker shouted, charging with a flaming fist.
"Rock Crash Wave." Dep murmured, getting up and summoning a "wave" of earth to rise and crash upon Tracker, inflicting great damage upon him.
"What the...?" Tracker thought, who never seen any of Dep's earth moves.
"Not another word..." Dep said, extending out his right hand and generating energy within it. The earth form of the Rasengan was manifested—the Gaia Sphere. Dep bursted at Tracker at a high speed, leading with the Gaia Sphere.
Tracker braced himself, locking his arms on his chest as a defense.
"That won't matter!" Dep told him, plunging the Gaia Sphere at Tracker. Upon impact, a stream of volatile earth pressured against Tracker, causing severe damage. Tracker was motionless afterwards, but Dep looked to make sure of that, with another Gaia Sphere in his hand.
Tiny was tired of seeing the fight, so she immediately used her Flash Step to get in between the two of them, before Dep used the powerful sphere again. After the explosion, Dep stopped fighting, seeing that Tiny was completely unharmed, despite taking the Gaia Sphere head-on.
"Tiny, how did you...?" Dep asked her.
"Iron Defense. It completely protects me from any attack. If you didn't know, metal is my first element."
"But why'd you protect him? I thought you were over him..."
Tiny sighed. "I lied, okay? I am over this game that I'm playing on both of you."
"So you were using me?"
"I love Tracker... I'm sorry."
Heartbroken, Dep left the Danger Room without saying a word to anyone, not even his parents.
"That's not fair. I feel sorry for him." Fortress said.
"I hear ya; he's only been here for a week." Durango added.
Dotty crossed her arms and tapped her foot, disappointed in both Tracker and Tiny. "Okay, I must've missed a lot of things besides my eldest son. Sly, can you explain about what happened while I was gone?"
"Hmm... I don't know if I'll be on point, but here it goes. Dep hung out with me, Fortress and the horses after Spunky brought him in, until Tracker barged in and kicked us out of the Danger Room for his own time. Then, I suppose that Dep found Tiny and hooked up with her. However, as we have just witnessed, she only agreed to be with him only to make Tracker jealous; instead, she realized that their breakup didn't help." Sly explained.
"Yeah, that sounds about right." Spunky responded.
"I'll talk with Dep later." Dotty said.
"What about Tracker?" Durango asked.
Dotty looked into the chamber to see Tracker and Tiny kissing. "Okay, now he's getting grounded."
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