In a lab in a remote area in the outskirts of Elmwood County, sat Leandro- left thinking deeply about his childhood…
He had in his hands old pictures of him with his dog. His old RED DOG.
"*sigh* Don't worry…I'm gonna get you back…" he began and then looked at the unconscious Lightning, who lay on the steel table in front of him. "…Lightning…"
Leandro began to circle the room, switching on a few [switches?] that he passed. Then he opened a bright fluorescent lamp which hung above the sleeping Lightning.
"Oooh…what happened?" Lightning groaned silently as he began to wake up.
"I captured you and your feline friends and now you're in my remote laboratory in Elmwood." The blonde man answered, not taking his eyes off what he was working on.
Scratching, Lightning suddenly stopped and backed up a little. "What?"
"You heard me, I captured you and your friends and you're in my lab."
Facing Leandro with both of his eyes wide open, Lightning asked in a nervous tone: "You can understand me?!"
One nervous laugh later, Leandro answered, "Yeah."
"B-but I'm an animal." The dog said, getting up.
"Heh. It is weird isn't it? A human with the power to talk to animals…don't you think it's weird?" Leandro remarked.
Lightning didn't answer.
"Well, that was my story." Leandro continued as he turned some more stuff on. "When I was eight, I started to hear voices coming from nowhere. Then I realized, they were coming from my parents' cats. I talked to them a lot, and soon enough I got along like home around any animal."
"…Then, when I was ten, I got my first pet. He was an orange colored German Shepherd dog- Lightning…" Leandro came closer. "…and he looked just like YOU…"
"Me?" Lightning reacted.
"Yeah." Leandro resumed his technical arrangements and such.
"What does that have to do with capturing pets?"
The man looked hardly at Lightning with his answer. "It was during that day. The 26th of November. We were having a cookout. It was a family reunion. Then everything took a turn for the worst. Everything was a disaster. The tree next to the house caught fire while me and my cousin were in the garage with *swallow* Lightning. All of us were caught off guard and before we knew it, we were engulfed in flames."
Lightning (McQueen) could only stare.
"I thought we were goners, stuck under the debris but Lightning (not McQueen) came in and pulled us out. The exit was right in front of us, but then Lightning was still inside. Before I could come back in and save him, the firemen took us out and then the entire thing collapsed. We lost everything. I never talked about it for days. I don't know how many days I spent mourning over him. But when I finally mustered up the courage to go for a second pet, my parents said: 'No.' and do you know why? Because they said it was one of his kinds that almost cost lives. Because some stray dog that invaded our celebration knocked over the grill, causing the entire fire. But it wasn't him! And yet they denied that fact."
The on-the-verge-of-crying Leandro paused.
"So now, here I am. A 30 year-old man grieving over the death of his dog which happened 20 years ago…doing tests on animals to hopefully bring back my precious dog."
"Why can't you just let it go?" Lightning asked, almost angry.
Downed, Leandro didn't answer and restrained the once-a-car dog onto the steel bed.
Ironic, isn't it?
