Arcanine continued to follow Greed, but was still uneasy around him. He definitely wasn't human, that much she was sure about. But he wasn't a chimera either. No, Greed was something very different. As they got closer to the hideout Arcanine was able to pick up the scent of other chimeras, some of which she knew were dangerous. Her tail fur began to spike up again, and Greed just laughed. "No one here's going to hurt you", he laughed. This guy could never take anything seriously, could he? They stopped outside of a bar called the Devil's Nest. How could anyone live in a bar and not get caught? "It's just a decoy", Greed explained to her. That meant it was just to fool other people. Arcanine nodded and followed greed into the Devil's Nest, unbeknownst to them that they were being watched.
They entered the hidden room underneath the bar, and Arcanine noticed a few other chimeras, including the one that had attacked her earlier. "So she came", the other dog chimera said. "Yeah, but not without a fight", Greed explained. Arcanine silently huffed and turned away from the other chimeras, and Screech did the same. "Someone's a brat", the other dog chimera said, and Arcanine shot a few embers at him causing him to leap back. "She's stubborn, but at least she has good traits", Greed explained. Arcanine was introduced to the other chimeras, Martel the snake chimera, Roa the cow chimera, Bedo the lizard chimera, and Dolcetto the dog chimera. However it would take time for her to trust the others, especially since one of them (Dolcetto) was sent to attack her.
The fact that she couldn't speak at all hindered her ability to make friends even further. The first few days with the group were okay, but Arcanine still distanced herself from them. Screech had begun to warm up to them, but Arcanine's grudge prevented her from doing so. However, she couldn't bring herself to leave, no matter how much she wanted to. She would sometimes sneak away to practice fighting, though. Anything to help her get stronger and to get her away from the others. She also wouldn't accept food from them, but instead hunted for her own food.
A few more days later, Arcanine had gone off hunting again, but this time, Greed sent one of the other chimeras to follow her. Arcanine was about to pounce on a decent sized rat when she sensed a disturbing presence. It was a chimera, but not one that she knew.
Before she could determine who it was she had to dodge a fire attack. A strange chimera jumped down from one of the roofs, and Arcanine growled at him, but this time she was able to make a sound. The chimera was wearing mostly black, with a patch of orange on his shirt. He had white bands of what looked like bone around his wrists and ankles, and on his back. On his head he had what looked like a skull helm, as well as ears like a dog. "So", he said, "You're a Poke-chimera too." Arcanine tilted her head as if confused, but regained focus and attacked him. The chimera that Greed had sent after her ran back to tell the others, while the other chimera just shook off the attack. "Arcanine, please stop. It's me, Houndour. Don't you remember, we used to be best friends". Arcanine stopped in her tracks as memories came flooding back, memories from what felt like years ago. She shook her head confused, did she really know this guy? How did he know her? No, this couldn't be true. She put her paws on the sides of her head as if in pain, the memories troubled and confused her.
She saw herself as a small canine playing with the animal form of Houndour. They were having so much fun together, but then a human came and took them away. That was how she ended up in the 5th lab. Houndour suffered the same fate. But she wouldn't let this faze her. She would kill him and win the fight, anything to protect her pride and bring her closer to reaching her goal. She began to glow, and when the glow faded she was in the form of the beast she was fused with. "If you want it that way", Houndour growled as he too glowed before changing into his animal form. "BRING IT ON". The two started off by launching fire attacks at each other, Arcanine using ember and Houndour using flamethrower. At first the two attacks seemed evenly matched, but flamethrowers higher attack power blasted through ember and hit Arcanine hard. Luckily her ability flash fire stopped it from doing too much damage, but the force of the impact still caused intense pain.
Arcanine knew she needed to up embers power, but how? She tried ember again, but this time it came out like a spiraling version of flamethrower. She had just learned a new attack, fire spin. Houndour tried to counter again with flamethrower, but fire spin burst through, slamming him into a wall. The wall collapsed, crushing him under hundreds of pounds of brick and debris. Arcanine reverted back to her human form. She laughed at her victory, but the laughter soon turned to silent crying. She had just killed one of her only friends, and for what, to protect her foolish pride.
Greed and the other chimeras showed up, but the battle was already over. Arcanine was weeping over killing the other chimera. They tried to comfort her, but this time she didn't try to push them away. After this, she never ran away. She stopped isolating herself from the others, and she actually began to listen to what she was told. Maybe Greed and these chimeras would be great friends for her after all.