Chapter 2 – Little Brother Lost
Tommy let out a long yawn as he stretched after a peaceful nap before sitting up to find that his friends were all still in a snooze and given that he hadn't heard a thing from Dil throughout the entire nap, chances are he had been sleeping too.
"Boy, Dil, you sure have been quiet for a..." Tommy was about to comment, but his words fell as he turned to where Dil should've been, but instead in place was an empty doughnut cushion. The infant stood up and walked closer to the play pen fence and called out.
"Dil! Dilly! Did mommy and daddy give you a fresh diapie?" Tommy turned his head sideways in hopes that he would hear Dil call back to him, but no such response was heard. That was when Tommy noticed something else near the cushion which made him gasp in horror.
"Dil's rattle! He never goes anywheres without it! Oh no! You guys, wake up!" Tommy quickly urged his friends with worry as they groaned and rubbed their eyes.
"Uuugh… You probably left your stewdriver under the couch again, Tommy." Phil groaned groggily, evidently annoyed that his nap had been interrupted.
"No, not that! Dil's gone!" Tommy explained.
"Dil's gone? Where's the last place you sawd him?" Lil asked as the news had now fully woken the three up.
"There! That was where we last sawd him before we took our nap and now he's missing!" Tommy pointed to the doughnut cushion as his friends were now in a justifiable panic.
"Call the police!" Phil yelled.
"Call the millon terry!" Lil exclaimed after Phil.
"Call me when it's over!" Chuckie said, covering his hands with his eyes.
As Tommy's friends were in a frenzy about his lost brother, Phil accidentally stepped on a ball that shot out from under his foot due to the pressure and flew straight at a glass of milk on the table that knocked over as a result… and ended up dumping it's contents on the prototype dog translators Stu had recently invented, the devices flickering with small bolts of electricity before stopping.
"...Oops." Phil could only say as they watched the accident unfold.
"Oh great! Now not only Dil is missing but now Tommy's daddy's invenshun is broked! Can this day get any worser?!" Chuckie ranted in near despair as Tommy pulled a plastic screwdriver out from his diaper and threaded the end in between the gates, unlocking the play fence before pushing the now unlocked gates apart and walking to the table where he reached for and grabbed the liquid-damaged devices and looked at them.
"Maybe we can fix them after we find Dil… Or… Or maybe they still work!" Tommy said in vain hope as he remembered watching how Stu used one of them and inserted it into his ear.
"Now what?" Lil asked as she and the others joined Tommy.
"Well, my daddy says these thingies are s'posed to tell you what doggies say, like with Spike." Tommy recalled as he looked at the remaining earbud translators in his hand.
"Did someone say my name?"
Tommy gasped when he heard the sudden unrecognisable male voice which he knew did not belong to any of the grown ups. He turned to find a brown dog with grey spots and a red collar facing him and the other babies with his head tilted in curiosity.
"...Spike? Was that you?" Tommy hesitantly asked his beloved pet whom's ears pricked up from being aware that he was being talked to.
"Well, who else could it be, Tommy?" Spike said with a chuckle as Tommy's jaw nearly fell to the floor.
"What's going on, Tommy?" Chuckie inquired as his best friend turned to him in response.
"Chuckie! The invenshun worked! Spike is talking!" Tommy explained in a mix of shock and amazement, earning a funny look from Chuckie and the twins.
"...Tommy. I think you need another nap." Phil commented, clearly not believing what Tommy had said.
"Yeah. It's probably just Angelica doing the talking again!" Lil assumed before Tommy held out his hand which had the remaining devices.
"No! Put these on, you guys! Spike really did talk!" The other infants all looked at each other before deciding to take Tommy's word for it as they all inserted a device in their ear each.
"My ear feels kinda funny." Chuckie said after he had put in a translator.
"I think the same thing when it itches, Chuckie." Spike replied to Chuckie which earned a gasp from Phil and Lil and a yelp from the aforementioned orange haired infant who fell backwards in shock.
"Woah! You were right, Tommy! Spike really did talk!" Phil said amazed.
"Yeah, it must be these thingies that make us hear them talk!" Lil pointed out as Tommy walked over to the cushion.
"Okay, now we gots to find Dil! I hope he hasn't gone too far away!" Tommy said as Spike padded over to him.
"I saw two young puppies take Dil with them actually! They said something about wanting him to say "Hi" to their family." Spike was quick to give his witness testimony to Tommy, having been awake during the whole time.
"Puppies? Where did they take him, Spike?" Tommy questioned as Spike looked over at the front door.
"Outside somewhere! Maybe in one of the other houses!" Spike said as the babies approached the aforementioned door.
"Good dog, Spike! Now come on, guys! Help me get this door opened!" Tommy instructed, being barely able to reach the door handle.
"But Tommy, it's the outside! Dil could be anywheres! He's probably doomed!" Chuckie quickly pointed out, being overfilled with uncertainty. Tommy turned to the babies as his eyebrows furrowed into a determined look.
"A baby's gotta do what a baby's gotta do!" Tommy declared, holding a finger up as if making a speech.
Meanwhile at the front hallway of the house opposite, Dylan was just vacuuming up the remaining soot off the floor, making laser noises until the floor was completely spotless to which he turned the vacuum off and grinned down at the clean floor with an exclamation of "Clear!"
"Dylan!"
"Open the door!"
Dylan's small victory was interrupted as he heard two familiar voices from outside the front door that chanted the phrases he heard over and over again as he walked to said door and lifted the mail slot to find Dizzy and Dee Dee's faces appear repeatedly as they jumped into the slot's view, repeating what they were saying before.
"Dizzy? Dee Dee?" Dylan asked, having been left confused on why they were outside before placing a front paw on a scanner next to the door to find out what the fuss was about as the scanner beeped and the door swung open.
"Ta da!" The two girl pups said happily with a paw each on what they had just brought to the front door.
"Yucky yucky!" Dil said with a laugh as it only took a second for Dylan to register what it was he was looking at.
"AH! A human?!" Dylan yelped in shock before scampering backwards a little.
"He's our new neighbour!" Dizzy replied.
"You know, from across the street!" Dee Dee finished as she and Dizzy looked at the babbling infant, their faces grew an infatuated look at the sight of him before they wrapped their forelegs (...or arms) around him.
"...Can we keep him?" Dizzy asked, having already grown attached to Dil as had Dee Dee.
"Can we call him 'Mr. Curly'?" Dee Dee asked, the name coming from the fine curls of hair on Dil's head.
"Pleeeeeeeeeeeease! Mmmmm?" Dizzy and Dee Dee quickly rushed up to Dylan and pressed their faces against his with pleading grins accompanied with puppy eyes, their tails wagging in hope that Dylan would say "Yes".
"No way! We can NOT have a human in the house!" Dylan protested, holding out a paw to stop them. Unfortunately, his response fell on deaf ears as Dizzy and Dee Dee were already in the process of taking Dil through the house and to the backyard.
"AHH! IT'S IN THE HOUSE!" Dylan yelled in horror before quickly rushing after the three as Dil was brought to the backyard where he was met with the sight of around ninety-seven other Dalmatian puppies whom stopped what they were all doing when they noticed the infant visitor.
"Awwww!" The puppies gushed as they literally dog-piled onto Dil whom laughed and cooed from the puppies giving him a barrage of kisses.
"Uhhhh… Who let the human in?" Dolly who was watching the whole scenario asked a trio of puppies in confusion.
"More specifically, a human baby?" One of the pups chimed in, the spots on his face aligned to resemble facial freckles as his collar bore a tag that resembled a molecule cell.
"Wait, so that's what a human baby looks like? No wonder it looks so small." Dylan noticed as he joined them before clearing his throat. "Regardless, I'll handle this!" He said firmly before making his way through the crowd of pups to the infant.
"Listen sir, I'm sorry but clearly there's been some sort of mistake-" Dylan would begin, but Dil would only hear barks and yips as the teen pup had his face a little too close within the baby's reach, which would prove to be a mistake seconds later.
"Mine MINE!" Dil yelled out before lunging out with his hands outstretched as they grabbed hold of Dylan's ear tightly and he began to roughly pull it towards him.
"Ah-! Ow ow ow! Mr. Curly, not my ear-! OW!" Dylan exclaimed in growing agony as Dil continued to play too roughly with Dylan's ear.
"Pft yeah, you are so handling this!" Dolly couldn't help but say sarcastically with a smirk as she watched her brother's plight.
"May I suggest we try to find out who's parents this infant belongs to?" The puppy with the molecule collar strained a little as he attempted to help Dylan free of Dil's grasp.
"Yeah, couldn't you..." One of the pups who was donning a collar with hearts agreed.
"Have found, like a..." Another pup who looked exactly the same as the one of the heart collar with the exception of the collar being braided with gems and a single one serving as a tag continued.
"Shinier one?" A third pup finished, also a carbon copy of the two of the trio minus the collar which instead had a circle with an 'X' in the middle for a tag.
Before anyone could answer, Dylan and the pup with the freckle spots suddenly fell backwards onto the ground as Dil suddenly let go of his ear. Dolly blinked in confusion at this before looking down at the infant who was now squirming in place with his face scrunched up as if he was in slight pain.
"Uhhhh… I think there's something wrong with it." Dolly pointed out with a bit of concern.
"Oh no! Mr. Curly, are you okay?" Dizzy exclaimed with worry.
"Does he have an owie?" Dee Dee asked as she, Dizzy, Dylan, Dolly and the molecule collar pup all surrounded the infant and looked down at him.
"He looks like he's about to blow up!" One of the other pups said as Dil continued to struggle and groan.
"Poopie!" Dil strained through his grimace.
"What did he say?" Dolly asked as Dil groaned once more, his face turning dark pink.
"POOPIE!" Dil suddenly yelled out which was followed by something squelching from under him. It took the horrible stench that started to emanate seconds later for the pups to realise what had happened.
"Ewwww! He's not toilet trained?!" Dolly recoiled in disgust, holding a paw over her nose as did Dizzy and Dee Dee, though the latter instead had a paw over her mouth as if she was trying not to vomit.
"I've… ulp… read about this. Human babies cannot be toilet trained and have to have their parents, ahem "change their nappy"." The molecule collar pup managed to say, gagging at the odour that Dil's soiled diaper was making.
"Well… Looks like it's going to be us to do it then." Dylan said in defeat, his face scrunched with dread.
"What do you mean "us"?!" Dolly quickly protested, her head arched backwards.
While this was happening, Tommy and his friends joined with Spike were just outside the Dalmatian's house as they paced around the side walk in search of Dil with some of them looking under parked cars and behind sign posts.
"Diiiiil!" Tommy called out in hopes he'd heard something as Phil, Lil and Chuckie followed suit. Neither of them got any responses however.
"Ohhh… Where could he be? It's almost time for his diapie change and if no one changes him, he'll get diapie rash!" Tommy said with worry.
"Wait, you guys… I think I got something!" Spike said as he sniffed the air for a moment before his eyes widened. "And it smells like Dil!" The dog turned to the Dalmatian's house door and padded to it as the infants followed him.
"Good dog, Spike! Let's see if they took Dil in there!" Tommy said as they approached the door to try and open it.
Back in the backyard, the silence was disturbed with coughing coming from Dolly, Dizzy, Dee Dee, Dylan and the freckled face pup as Dylan was trying to apply baby powder that they had managed to find in a storage cupboard in their home but had completely surrounded themselves in the clouding up powder.
"The powder goes on his bottom, Dylan!" The molecule collar pup said in frustration between coughs.
"I'm doing the best I can!" Dylan retorted, having the powder bottle in his front paws. Dil's legs were wrapped around Dylan's neck as he swung him side to side which made the application of the baby powder more difficult. Dil reached for the freckle faced pup and briefly tugged his collar before kicking Dylan off of him.
"Pee!" Dil laughed as suddenly he started… well, you know.
"Look out!" Dizzy yelped as she and the other pups backed off to try get and out of the way of the stream of urine coming from Dil. Unfortunately, the stream flew far enough to have a few drops of it land directly onto the head of the female pup with the gem collar.
"AAAAAH! SO TOTES GROSS!" She screamed in horror as she tried in vain to shake Dil's pee off of her to no use as she groaned and stormed towards the infant.
"N-Now Dallas, don't do anything you may regret later!" The pup with the molecule collar tried to deter the stained pup from possibly harming Dil out of anger.
"That human just marked me as his territory!" Dallas yelled as she glared down at Dil who just babbled and laughed as usual.
"Stop it! You stop it!" Dallas demanded.
"We really have to find this thing's parents..." Dylan said with a groan before his ears perked up as if he had heard something.
Tommy looked around as he poked his head through the dog-flap door, taking in the sight of the front hallway.
"Wow, whoever lives here must have a lot of babies." Tommy said as he noticed the floor was abundant in toys, the other babies following him in with Spike coming in last.
"Or they have an Angelica of their own." Phil assumed, knowing all too well that Tommy's cousin would definitely have this many toys alone.
"Welp, we've looked and Dil's definitely not here, let's go." Chuckie quickly said as only a second passed, his nerves getting the better of him.
"AAAAAAAH!" The babies were suddenly startled by a scream as they too screamed, especially Chuckie.
"WHAT ARE MORE HUMANS DOING HERE?!" The source of the scream exclaimed in panic, making the infants turn to see Dylan pointing at them with a terrified look on his face.
"Hugh muns?! Where?! What even is a hugh mun?!" Chuckie screamed, his head darting around in all directions, under the belief that a "Hugh mun" was a monster.
"Calm down, guys, he means you!" Spike immediately tried to diffuse the situation, which seemed to be futile as Chuckie was still in a full-blown panic.
That is until a ringing was heard which made everyone silent. Chuckie then felt two small paws gently press and rub his forehead in a circular motion as a voice softly spoke to him.
"Your aura is many shades of yellow, otherwise fear. You should always try to compose yourself as you have those who ensure your safety." Chuckie fell onto his rump with a content expression on his face as the other three babies saw a puppy with a fur pattern that appeared to resemble the formation of the Yin and Yang and a collar with one side red and the other blue on Chuckie's head.
"Are you okay, Chuckie?" Tommy asked, earning a smile from the orange haired baby.
"Guys, I feel light as a feta!" Chuckie swooned in euphoria which elicited confused looks from the babies.
"Ah yes, the common Guru Miaow mental treatment. So it works on humans too." Dylan said in slight astonishment.
"What's Goo Roo Meeyow?" Tommy looked at Dylan as he asked this.
"Well, it's a common practice that Deepak here follows which..." Dylan was in the process of explaining when his words suddenly fell before he looked down at Tommy.
"D-Did you just… understand me?!" Dylan asked in shock and disbelief that Tommy had just responded to him with a question.
"He sure did, man!" Spike confirmed to Dylan, but the teen pup asked Tommy a question just to make sure he wasn't hearing things.
"U-Uhh, human. What's your name?"
"Well, my name is Tommy. And that's my bestest friend, Chuckie. And this is Phil and Lil." Tommy replied whilst gesturing to his aforementioned friends for emphasis.
"Though usually Angelica calls us "dumb"." Phil said with slightly annoyance whilst Dylan's jaw dropped.
"T-This is impossible!" The molecule collar pup who had been watching the whole thing said aloud, trying to add any form of logic to the current scenario. "It's practically zero zero zero zero zero zero zero point one percent impossible for humans to understand dogs, let alone human babies!"
"I guess these guys are the point oh one, then." Spike said with a chuckle under his breath.
"Dylaaaan, Mr. Curly drooled on my tail!" The girl pup with the 'X' circle collar appeared behind Dylan, letting out a whine.
"Mr. Curly?" Tommy asked with confusion before he and the others heard familiar laughter from the backyard.
"DIL!" The babies exclaimed with realisation as they and Spike rushed to the backyard, leaving Dylan alone with the other two pups.
"...Dawkins! I need you to run a test on these human babies and try to figure out how they can understand us!" Dylan instructed the pup with the molecule collar who nodded before he and Dylan quickly followed after the infants.
Thanks for the review, WriterofGod42. To answer your question, I believe this story takes place during the sixth season as that was the only season to take place after the first movie and before the second. Season seven took place straight after Rugrats in Paris.
Also, a sequel where the Dalmatian family and the babies join forces again in Paris?
That's… actually not a bad idea. Hmm.
