A/N: Recap: *two twin girls wearing red bowties, glasses, and PBS themed shirts sit in the front row of a movie theatre (They are the only teenage girls spending their Friday here willingly) They are huge fans of the original cartoon if you can't tell so they are here to see the movie.*
Sherman: Because I'm a dog! Everyone: I'm a dog too!
Twin 1 (Purple) : -eye twitch- We wasted an hour and a half for that!?
Twin 2 (Coolio) : Nopenopenope. They did not just say something that stupid! This was the build up!?
Chapter plot: My take on how the climax speech should have gone.
It was terrifying, really, to watch the one person you've always viewed as a quick thinking escape artist suddenly caught in a snare with no way of getting out of it this time. No tricks and aces are left to play because after the mess that's been caused, they would all become reduced to nothing but dust the moment they were sprung on a waiting crowd. It feels almost like the side-show act of a circus performance, with all of the audience watching in wonder as a talking animal is pleading for not only his life, but the life of the lost boy who he raised as a son. Bright lights from blinking cars, each containing its own set of cages and bars, shown down brightly on the two, making it the center of attention.
'And before your very eyes folks, you'll witness the death of a family!' You can almost hear the woman in a pink blazer announce in that loud and evil tone of hers. 'If we're lucky, we might even see the innocent life of a child crumble from beneath him!'
In the corner of your eye, you look to see the star of the show himself, your dad for God's sake, being dragged away by his neck and so far only he is doing anything to stop it from happening. The family trio who you thought had bonded with yours over the course of the night just stand there, as if they were simply emotionless dolls with no thought to process or movement to make. In a way, you feel like one of them as well, like the world around you is on a stand still now, and only that dog beside you can move through it all, just as he always has. The only difference between this movement and all the rest is that it is desperate, no planning or calculations behind it. Its a desperate attempt to cling to not only his life, but also the life of the only family you have ever known, and even in his darkest hour, he tries to keep it together just for you.
He always does this for you, and in return all you do is stand there and watch, hoping to any God out there that is listening that your mindless shouts and pleads (God, you don't even know whats coming out of your mouth right now) will someone hold back the hands of the clock, or at least the hands of animal control back long enough that he can think of one of his brilliant plans and somehow free himself from all of this. Anything you say right now flows out freely now, in the hopes that at least one of these garbled strings will be the right thing to say. '
Then, all at once, its stops. The lights go dim, and now the spotlight is on you. All eyes are turned in your direction and finally everyone begins to blink as the world and reality around you suddenly comes to a crashing halt all around you, and you realize just how loud everything had been up until now.
"What did you just say?" The pink woman snapped, her tone a few octaves higher than it should have been, as if she had taken a shot from a helium balloon moments before you had spoken.
"I said..." What had you said? What does it even matter now? Anything you say now is a stall for time, and anything you say now will change just a small thing in the whole of time and space. "I asked you if what I have to say matters."
"What do you mean, child?" The woman's voice turns sickly sweet, almost the same consistency of snake venom. "Of course it does."
"Then let me say something, before you kill my family forever." Your voice is stronger now, and it sounds foreign when you hear it in the air as it strikes the woman with a deadly blow. "Because up until now, no ones asked me how I felt about all of this!"
The woman visibly tenses as she pulls out her clip board and looks down at the notes she has taken, seemingly fixing her eyes on something that was not you. She knows you are right, but she doesn't really care, as long as she has enough evidence to make your words null and void against hers again.
"No one ever once asked me if I felt neglected or abused in my home, or even why I bit Penny!" It feels good to raise your voice against the woman, so you raise it a little higher. "If you did, then I would have told you that never once has Peabody done anything that made me not trust him! All he ever did was be there for me during my life and tried to bring me up the way any other parent would! He also taught me that if someone tries to hurt you, that it isn't right! That's why I bit Penny when she hurt me both physically and emotionally!"
There is no need to swear in this situation, so you pick your words wisely and just keep on firing the shots, looking out at everyone in the crowd, dead in the eye to make sure that they understand what you are saying to them.
"It does not matter, I was attacked by that dog myself an-" Ms. Grunion's words die right there in her throat when you give her a stern death glare that clearly states 'you had your turn to talk, and now its mine.'
"That dog is named Peabody, and as a father what he did was justified! So you better come up with a better excuse than that if you want to present this case in court!"
"Justified!? How on earth was biting me justified!?" She shrieks, and you take this moment to hold up your Indian-burned wrist, which got that way from her grip on your arm.
"You came into our home uninvited and tried to force me away from my home and family, you also hurt me by pulling on my arm!" You announce loudly so every police officer present can hear your claim. "He bit you for hurting his child! All he was doing was protecting me from you, because those are his natural instincts. They have nothing to do with him being a dog, but everything to do with him being a father! You were hurting his pup, and that makes you a threat!"
"IT DOESN'T MATTER!" Ms. Grunion booms, trying to keep everyone else from agreeing with you.
"You said it did!" You announce, balling up your fists. "And if it does then you would realize that again, you forgot one thing."
"Oh really, and what is that?" Ms. Grunion spits out in an annoyed voice. "You have one chance left to change my mind you know."
"That we're a family." One last chance at this, so you better make it right. "And family does whatever it takes to keep each other safe."