AN: This is probably the most slapstick-heavy chapter to date.

"Please, please, please, please, please, please." Dolly mentally prayed with crosses fingers.

The night shift wasn't particularly popular with anyone. Sure the ISCPO had their specialized regular night shift staff, commonly nicknamed as 'The Graveyard Patrol', but sometimes they needed a little more manpower to supplement their numbers. Tonight was one of those dreaded nights. In an attempt to get around the complaints of being assigned to it, the force had set up a raffle system that would randomly select officers for the job. With just one spot left, Dolly hoped and prayed with all her heart that she'd be left out of it.

"And the last name is..." Ryder called as the he shuffled around the raffle box.

He pulled out a random slip of paper, unfolded it, and read it. He then called out the name through the PA system:

"Officer Dolly Dalmatian!"

Upon hearing that, she groaned and slammed face first onto her desk. Seeing that, Dylan sighed. He had been picked himself and the last thing he wanted tonight was his sister/partner complaining.

"Come on, Dolly. It's not so bad." He tried to assure her."

"That's easy for you to say." Dolly replied. "You're probably the biggest workaholic here."

"Hey, if anyone's a workaholic, that's Dawkins." Dylan retorted, pointing to their brother who was sitting right next to him.

Dawkins opened his mouth to try and rebut that statement, but quickly lost his resolve as he really started to think about it. After a few seconds, he sighed in defeat.

"Fair point." He admitted.

"I'll tell you what. I'll partner up with you and we'll try to make it fun. How's that sound?" He offered with a smile.

"Yeah. 'Fun'." Dolly grumbled.

Later, the two were parked at the outskirts of town. To pass the time, Dylan suggested to do bit of stargazing. He was having fun gazing up at the heavens, but the same couldn't be said for Dolly.

"And if you look closely..." Dylan tried to say until she interrupted him.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! I get it! Andromeda, the Bears, the Dogs; you told me so many times, I actually know them all by heart at this point!" She groaned.

"Well, what do you suggest we do to pass the time?" Dylan asked.

Dolly smirked as her brain hatched an idea. Dylan gulped in fear of said idea in response to seeing her face.

Dylan tried not to lose his lunch and held on for dear life as they sped down the bumpy terrain with Dolly at the wheel. She suggested that they do some late-night off-roading to see what the force's patrol cars were fully capable of. And the area was perfect since it was relatively isolated. As you can figure out, Dolly was having the time of her life while her brother wasn't.

"Dolly! This isn't police regulation!" Dylan cried.

"BOW-WAKA-WOW!" She cheered as she cleared a jump, too pumped with adrenaline to hear his whining.

Finally, after doing some donuts, they finally stopped. The two were panting for obviously different reasons.

"That was awesome!" She laughed.

"Not exactly the word I'd use." He replied with a glare.

"Come on, Sergeant Sourpuss. You gotta admit that was pretty fun." Dolly insisted.

Dylan had to admit, it was pretty fun. Even if he was reluctant to begin with.

"I guess it was kinda fun." Dylan admitted in defeat. "Plus, the car is still intact."

"See? What'd I tell you?" Dolly said.

"I still do miss Dawkins as my partner, though." He said.

"Speaking of Dawkins, who's he partnered with tonight?" She asked.

"Dante."

"...Oh that poor soul."

You'd think Dawkins would be annoyed to death with Dante's constant paranoia and nihilism, right? Nope! That wasn't the case at all. Instead, the two were enjoying themselves and thoroughly engaged in the Wells and Lovecraft novels they had brought along.

"I say, I had no idea what I was missing out on." Dawkins giggled as he finished the book of Lovecraft's short stories.

"Told you that you'd love it, dude." Dante replied as he put down the book 'War of the Worlds'. "You know, I'm seriously considering starting a book club. You want in?"

Dawkins scratched his chin as he pondered it over.

"Not a bad proposition." He said. "I wonder if Dylan would be interested."

"Not to mention Gus and Hunter." Dante said.

"Hunter?"

"No, not him. You know? Blonde? Scars all over his body? Evil only-known relative?"

"Yes, that's the boy who saved us, isn't he?"

"No, no, no. The new guy! The one with a the crush on Officer Park."

"Ah, him."

Before their conversation could go any further, a bright streak zoomed across the night sky before crashlanding in a field about a half-mile away.

"Did you see that!?" Dante exclaimed.

"You drive, I'll contact backup." Dawkins said.

With that, the black Dalmatian floored it, turning on the lights and sirens.

When they finally made it to the crash, they were greeted by Dylan and Dolly who had already made it to the crash site and were accompanied by a few Sheriff's deputies. They had already blocked off the area with police tape.

"Guys, you're just in time." Dylan said.

"Anything we missed?" Dante asked.

"We just found this weird space rock." Dolly said, climbing out of the crater and tossing the meteorite up and down like a ball. "It's surprisingly light."

"Dolly!" Dylan scolded. "You can't just handle a meteor like that!"

"Yeah! You have no idea what that thing is capable of!" Dante warned.

"Come on, guys. It's not like I'm gonna drop it." She scoffed.

The second after she said that, she lost her grip and accidentally threw it at Buena Vista captain's head. Out of instinct, the captain grabbed onto his female colleague dragging both of them into the crater. The meteor then bounced back into Dolly's hands as they winced at the sight.

"Sorry, Hitch! Sorry, Sunny!" Dolly laughed sheepishly.

It was at that moment, Dawkins, who had put on a mask and gloves, snatched the space rock away and put it on an evidence bag.

"I'll take that." He deadpanned.

With that, the four ISCPO officers drove away with the meteorite.

"And that concludes our session." Deepak said as he ended his yoga session to his class and the officers who joined him began to leave the gym.

"Thanks, Deepak."

"See you tomorrow, little dude."

"Great sesh."

As Deepak left the gym to return to his desk, he ran into Dylan, Dolly, Dawkins, and Dante with Dylan carrying the bag.

"Guys, you missed our-" He tried to say.

"Sorry, Deepak." Dylan cut him off. "Dawkins and I have gotta get this thing to the lab, pronto."

"What happened out there?" The zen pup asked.

"We found a some sort of weird meteorite." Dolly said.

"This feels... vaguely familiar." Deepak remark.

"Call me crazy, but this feels like the classic start of and END OF THE WORLD scenario." Dante chimed in.

"Okay, you're crazy." Dolly said.

"You really need to cut back on the cosmic horror." Deepak sighed.

Just then there was a loud crash as the Dmitri's rolled by on office chairs while firing off paintball guns. The boys then noticed the look of excitement on Dolly's face.

"Don't even think about it." They sneered.

"So, you're telling me that Officer Dolly was bouncing this?" Lisa asked.

"Yeah, and like she said, it's surprisingly light." Dylan responded.

"Well, whatever it is, we-"

Dawkins was cut off when a foul stench wafted through the air. In response the officers covered their noses and retched in disgust.

"Ugh! Who cut the cheese?" Dylan gagged.

"Lincoln! Did you bring peanut butter and sauerkraut sandwiches again?" Dawkins called.

"Don't look at me!" They heard his voice rebut.

Fighting through the stench the officers followed the smell until Dylan noticed the smell's origin: the meteor. He motioned for them to follow him and, with pinched noses did. As they approached the space rock, they were taken aback when the thing jerked a bit.

"Did you guys see that too?" Dylan gulped.

"Affirmative." Lisa replied.

"Positive." Dawkins concurred.

The meteor jerked and bounced on the counter and the three officers could do nothing but watch in bewilderment, unsure of what to do next. Suddenly, the 'rock' suddenly split open, sending an even worse odor into the air. In response, the Dawkins pulled out three gas masks for him, Dylan and Lisa. It was at that moment, Dolly, Dante, Lincoln and Clyde stepped into the lab with their noses pinched.

"Egad! What is that smell?!" Clyde retched.

"And what happened to the rock?" Dolly asked.

They approached it, they saw something moving around. Suddenly, something slithered out of the meteor. Upon closer inspection, they saw that it was some sort of worm-like organism. It was dark grey in color, no more than one and a half feet long, had very prominent mandibles and seemingly no eyes.. Reactions ranged from disgust, to horror, to confusion, to fascination or a combination of all of the above.

"What the heck is that?" Lincoln whispered.

Out of sheer curiosity, Dolly slowly reached her hand out to touch the worm, only for Dylan to diffuse the effort with a slap to the wrist.

"What are you doing?!" He scolded. "You don't just touch a specimen like that!"

As soon as he said that, the worm immediately launched itself at Dante, causing him to fall onto the floor in fright. The officers initially panicked until they saw the worm crawling all over him.

"Oh my dog! What's it doing?!" The black Dalmatian panicked.

"I..." Dawkins stammered. "This is unprecedented."

"Dude, I think it likes you." Dolly laughed.

"Incredible." Lisa commented.

Dante was dumbstruck and could only let out a confused "Huh?" as the creature nuzzled against his chin.

"Aw, in a weird way, it's kinda cute." Clyde remarked.

"We'll need to study its behavior. And with Dante around, it seems we might get a better chance to do so." Lisa said. "Come along, Dante."

"Um, okay?" Dante replied nervously as he followed her and Dawkins out of the lab, the worm having wrapped itself around his neck like a scarf.

"Man, that went better than I expected." Dolly remarked, almost relieved that nothing too bad happened.

Meanwhile in the breakroom, Dante was sitting on the table, chowing down on a bag of chips and occasionally tossing one to the worm, which eagerly accepted them. As this was happening, Lisa and Dawkins kept a close eye on it.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm starting to like this little guy." Dante said.

Just then, the Dmitri's came by with Dmitri 1 holding a mug of piping hot coffee.

"Oi, you lot. What the bloody hell is that?" He asked.

"Well, if you must know, this happens to be a worm-like creature that hatched from the meteorite we recently recovered." Dawkins explained.

"Ew." Dmitri 2 retched. "Tell us more right now."

Just then, the worm perked up, and . It leapt off Dante's neck and slithered up Dmitri 3's body.

"Wormy, NO!" Dante

"Really?" Lisa deadpanned.

"Dante, get your bloody worm off me!" Dmitri 1 said as his triplets laughed at his misfortune.

After a bit of struggle, the worm finally reached the mug and immediately slurped up the coffee.

"At least we know it likes caffeine." Lisa noted, trying to stifle her giggles.

"My coffee!" He griped. "Oh, you little...! What's happening?!"

He quickly put down the mug as they slowly backed away from the worm as it hissed and screeched. Suddenly, it lunged at Dmitri 1. He screamed and the worm went straight into his mouth. He was able to grab it by the tail before it could slither down his throat, but its slimy body was hard to grip.

"Don't worry! I got it!" Dmitri 2 called, pulling out his baton.

In the middle of his swing, the worm leapt out of his mouth and out of the way, resulting in Dmitri 1 taking a baton straight to the kisser. He was knocked to the floor as he clutched his nose in pain and the others grimaced at the sight

"You don't got it." Dmitri 3 winced.

"You idiot!" Dmitri 1 groaned as he got up and kicked is brother in the shin in response.

"There it is!" Dante pointed.

The looked and saw that the worm was quickly slithering away. In response, they pulled put their guns and proceeded to let the lead fly. But due to the worm's size and speed, it was hard to get a clear shot.

"It's too fast!" Dawkins as they kept an eye on the creature.

Just then, the door opened and Lincoln stepped in.

"Guys! Is everything OK?" He asked.

"Lincoln! You've let the worm out!" Dante screamed.

"Catch that worm!" Lisa she called.

He looked down and indeed saw the worm trying to crawl away. Acting quickly, he took off after the worm and they followed. He lunged at it and was able to trap it under his hat.

"I got it!" He cheered.

The worm thrashed and struggled under the hat, forcing Lincoln to lean down on it to hold it down.

"Care to explain what's happening?" He inquired.

"Okay, so long story short, that thing attacked and tried to slither down one of the Dmitri 1's throat. We don't know why, but it can't be good." Dmitri 2 explained.

"Well, what do we do?" Dante panicked.

"Hey, guys. I think it stopped struggling." Lincoln told them.

Lincoln slowly peeked under his hat to see what was going on, then his heart shrank. It wasn't struggling because it was chewed through the floor and dropped down to the lower level.

"Uh oh." They all gulped.

Elsewhere, Dylan, Dolly, Deepak, and Clyde were playing cards.

"Got any fives?" Clyde asked.

"Go fish." Dylan responded.

"Read 'em and weep, boys!" Dolly boasted as she slammed down her hand.

"Dolly this is Go Fish." Dylan chided.

"How about Charades instead?" Deepak suggested.

"No way! You're the most flexible one here." Dolly argued.

Before their conversation could go on any further, Deepak's eyes shrunk when he spotted something on her shoulder.

"Dolly!" He wheezed out in fear.

She looked on her shoulder and spotted the worm, resting on her shoulder.

"Oh, shoot." She remarked, a bit startled but proceeded to scratch its head. "Hey, little guy."

"What is that?" Deepak asked.

"That's the worm that hatched from the meteor we told you about." Dylan explained. "It seemed to have taken a liking to Dante."

"Well I'll be." Deepak remarked, feeling his apprehension disappear.

"I'm just wondering what it's doing here." Clyde said.

Suddenly, the first group burst into the office.

There it is!" Dante exclaimed.

"KILL IT!" The Dmitri's roared, aiming their guns at it.

"Whoa, guys! What's going on?" Dylan cried as he, Deepak and Clyde shielded Dolly and the worm.

"That thing tried to crawl down Dmitri 3's esophagus! It's evil!" Dawkins warned.

"Do not, under any circumstance, let it near any sort of orifice." Lisa added.

"I thought it was harmless." Clyde said.

"Then how do you explain that?!" Lincoln pointed out.

The three turned around and their eyes widened in horror. Dolly was struggling as hard as she could to yank the worm our of her ear.

"Little help here!" She screamed.

"We got you!" Dylan assured as he grabbed a firm grip on the worm. Deepak, and the Dmitri's grabbed onto Dolly while the others grabbed onto Dylan. Both groups tugged as hard as they could, trying to dislodge the slippery little monster. With one might yank, they were successful, but ended up losing their balance and falling on their butts. Dolly and the Dmitri's accidentally dogpiled Deepak while Dylan had lost grip on the worm.

"You okay, Dolly?" Dylan asked.

"Yeah." She replied.

"I can't breathe." Deepak's muffled voice squeaked.

In response, they got off him, allowing him to catch his breath.

"Sorry, Yin Yang." Dmitri 1 apologized.

"It's alright." He replied before he looked around. "Where's the worm?"

They all checked all over themselves for any sign of alien, but they couldn't see any sign of it.

"Ah, crap! Where'd it go?" Lincoln wondered.

Just then, Clyde noticed something on Lincoln's back. It was the worm. Becoming transfixed on it, he balled his hand into a fist.

"Lincoln." Clyde whispered.

"What is it?!" He asked.

"Don't move."

Just as Clyde thrust his fist forward, the worm leapt out of the way, resulting in punching the plate in Lincoln's vest. He clutched in his hand pain and whimpered.

"Clyde!" Lincoln exclaimed.

"There it is!" Dmitri 2 pointed out.

As the worm tried to crawl away, it dodged the various stops, baton strikes, taser zaps, gunshots, and whatever other crap the officers were able to throw at it. Their efforts were in vain as the worm crawled into the vent. In response, Dolly yanked the grate off and yelled down the shaft:

"YOU CAN'T RUN FOREVER, YOU LITTLE SNOT!"

"Now what?" Deepak wondered.

After a few seconds of thinking, Dylan came up with an idea.

"Dante, you follow Dolly down the vents to find that worm." He ordered.

"What?!" Dante griped.

"The rest of us will check the vents for any sign of it."

"Right." The other officers, sans Dante, responded with a nod.

With that, they put the plan into action. Dante, meanwhile, was still a bit unsure.

"Come on, we got a worm to catch." Dolly pressed.

"Okay, okay. I'm coming." Dante sighed reluctantly.

"Aw, man." Dolly coughed as they crawled through the dusty airducts. "We really need to have this deep-cleaned and that's coming from me."

"You're telling me." Dante replied. "There's probably hundreds of vents in this building."

"Keep your eyes peeled, bro and remember your training." Dolly said.

Just then a familiar screeching echoed through out the system.

"We must be close!" She cheered.

"Actually, that's juts my new ringtone." Dante said.

"What kind of person gets a ringtone like that?" Dolly asked.

"Me." He replied bluntly before answering the call. "Hello, Summer? Yeah, I'm down for next week. Sure, okay. Love you, too."

"Wait, you got with Summer?" Dolly asked, absolutely awestruck.

"Yeah?" Dante answered before Dolly burst out laughing.

"Oh man, Dylan's gonna be crushed!"

As soon as she said that, they heard faint gunshots in the distance. Suddenly, bullets came flying up from underneath them. Fortunately, they weren't hit by any of them.

"Hey! Watch it down there!" The both yelled.

"Sorry!" Dmitri 1 called

"You kinda scared us." Dmitri 2 added

"We thought you were the worm!" Dmitri 3 finished.

Speaking of Dylan and the worm, the young sergeant was in hot pursuit of the worm. He chased it down the hall with a shotgun. It dodged his blasts, resulting him in blowing things to bits or blasting holes in the walls.

"Guys, I'm on the third floor, currently in pursuit of it. It looks like it's headed for the lobby." He called through his radio.

"Roger that!"

"I read you loud and clear."

"On our way."

Back in the vents, Dolly and Dante were trying to find their to the lobby, but after several minutes of crawling, the reality started to dawn on them; they were utterly lost.

"I knew I should've taken a left at the third floor men's bathroom." Dolly groaned.

"You mean to tell us we're lost?!" Dante fumed.

Meanwhile in the lobby, Marshall was working the front desk. He propped his head his hand as he stared sleepily at his computer. He was about to nod off when his attention was grabbed by the sound of the vent above him clanking and clattering.

"What's going on?" He wondered.

He got his answer when air duct collapsed, sending Dolly landing right on top of Marshall. The two Dalmatians groaned in pain for a minute before they were able to recover and pulled themselves up.

"Sorry, about that." Dolly moaned.

"It's alright. I'm fine" Marshall replied. "I think

Suddenly, they heard the sound of screaming. The looked over and saw Dylan stumbling out with the worm latched onto his nose, followed by the Dmitri's and Lincoln, who was trying to pry it off. Shortly after, Deepak, Dawkins and Lisa arrived.

"What is that thing?!" Marshall exclaimed.

"No time to explain! Just help me get it off him!" Lincoln yelled.

"Get it off! GET IT OFF!" Dylan screamed.

"I got it!" Dmitri 2 exclaimed as she charged in with his baton.

The worm let go in the nick of time, resulting in Dylan taking the strike straight to the nose. The worm quickly slithered away, but this didn't go unnoticed.

"Don't let it evade you!" Lisa shouted.

The officers tried their best to stomp on it, but it once again proved too quick. When Dmitri 1 made his attempt, the worm quickly crawled up his pants. Thinking quickly he scrunched up his pants like a tourniquets, blocking the worm at his thigh.

"That was clos-AAAAAAH!" He screamed when the worm bit down on his thigh, causing his to fall onto his butt in pain. "Do something!"

"Don't worry! unlike him, I got this time! I swear!" Dmitri 3 called.

He slammed his baton down onto his triplet's thigh, only for the worm to somehow dodge that and latch on to another part of his thigh, only causing Dmitri 1 even more pain. And this went on two more times as the others could only grimace at the sight.

"GIVE ME THAT!" He roared, snatching the baton away and clonking him on the head with it.

Dropping the baton, Dmitri 1 reached into his pants, held the worm in a firm death grip and, screaming in agony and anger, he dislodged the worm. It flew through the air when it landed in Marshall's hand. He screamed as the worm screeched. Panicking nd not knowing what else to do, he threw the creature. At the same time, Dante popped up from a vent close to the floor.

"Hey, guys. Dolly and I got separated, but-"

Dante was cut off when the worm flew into his mouth and he instinctively swallowed it. Everyone was wide-eyed at what just happened as Dante felt his stomach and throat.

"Oh, kibbles." He gasped.

"So, you mean to tell me you encountered a hostile alien lifeform last night and Officer Dante accidentally swallowed it?" Ryder recapped in disbelief.

"Yes, sir. That's why he allowed us to lock him in one of the holding cells and monitor him all night." Dawkins explained.

"I see." Ryder said as he turned his attention to the surveillance monitor and pressed the microphone button. "How have you been feeling so far, Dante?"

"I feel fine, though that's not really comforting, given my situation." Dante replied.

"Nothing at all?" Dylan asked.

Dante shook his head. Suddenly, let out a loud sneeze. As he wiped his nose on his sleeve, he heard the speaker come on.

"Uh..., Dante?" Dolly nervously gulped.

"Yeah?"

"How do we break this to you?"

They debated themselves on how to tell Dante, who was oblivious to the black tentacles that had emerged from his back.