Despite it being a warm day in Camden, Domino felt a chill go through his fur.

Today, the Khans were visiting the famous Dalmatian Plantation, one of the most important places in canine history, and Domino was lucky enough to come with.

"Still nervous?" Diggs raised his ears in curiosity.

"Yeah, I mean it's the Dalmatian Plantation!" He gestured with a paw. "As a dalmatian myself, I'm nervous about going there." It was basically sacred territory he was going to walk upon! The weight felt heavy on his shoulders.

Diggs tapped his shoulder with his paw. "It'll be fine, you'll get to learn about canine history."

The pup chuckled. "You have a point…"

"Boys!" Both dogs perked up as Zachary called them. "We're leaving soon!"

Barking with vigor, they hopped off of the bed and headed for the door, where the rest of the family was waiting.

"Hi doggies!" Haley greeted them with very appreciated head pats, Domino barked in delight, he needed one of those.

"The bus is gonna pick us up soon." Karmi told them. "Are you excited to see the plantation?"

Diggs nodded immediately, so did Domino, his nerves eased a little. "Yeah!"

Plus, some of his family was going to tag along, so it wouldn't be that bad.

Meanwhile with the Dalmatians…

Dylan groaned as kibble got everywhere on the floor. "Guys! Food stays in the bowls!"

But his siblings were too busy chomping away happily, already getting more energetic with each bite. "They do this everyday, chill." Dolly barked. "You can be so bossy sometimes."

"I'm just saying, cleaning the house isn't easy y'know."

Dolly sighed, she knew that pain now. The other day, she had to clean Clarissa's place as she had accidentally knocked out Hugo, and the corgi was milking the whole situation, making things worse for her.

At least she got to meet one of the royal corgis afterwards and hung out at the skateboard ramp by the park. That was worth the several hours of scrubbing floors and giving manicures to Clarissa and her friends.

"I'll help you clean the kitchen floor after breakfast if you stop complaining." She offered.

That put a smile on Dylan's face. "Alright, I guess I can tone it down a little."

Ding-Dong!

"Postman!" The Dimitrio chanted, already running for the door so they could meet their old foe. Both top dogs winced, expecting to hear the cry of the postman but hearing an angry bark instead.

"Seriously?!" Ears perked up as they heard Domino's voice. "What do you have against the postman?"

He walked in, and Dylan could see that he was with his humans. "They invade our turf!" Dimitri 3 complained.

"They deliver stuff, it's their job." Domino just shook his head at the triplets. "Nevermind, we're going to the Dalmatian Plantation, anyone in the fam wanna come with?"

Dylan perked up in excitement, the Dalmatian Plantation? It was his ancestor's home, his mom usually paid a visit once every few months with any pups that wanted to visit the old barn. "Oooh." Dolly perked up. "I've always wanted to go there!" She hadn't visited that place yet.

But then her ears flattened. "But… if we both go, who'll watch the pups?"

"I'll stay and watch the pups." Dylan told her. Besides, he could always visit there next time he visited the Canal Crew or even Hansel. "You go have fun."

Seeing the look on his sister's face reassured him he was doing a good thing, he hadn't seen Dolly so happy in awhile. "Thanks bro! I'll be sure to help with chores when I get back, it's the least I can do!"

With a goodbye nuzzle, she padded up to the door. "Yo!" She greeted Domino.

"You're coming with us?" He tilted his head.

Her grin said it all. "Yeah, I might as well see the ol' plantation myself."

"Coolio." Diggs nodded. "Do any of your siblings wanna come with us?"

"I'll go check." Dolly turned to the Dimitrio. "Can you go and ask if anyone wants to join?"

Dimitri 1 looked like he was about to protest, but his younger brother answered. "Sure!" Dimitri 2 beamed with a toothy grin.

"Why do we have to go play messenger?" Dimitri 1 complained.

"Since you're obsessed with attacking the postman, it'd be easy for you!" Dolly replied with a toothy grin of her own.

The oldest triplet sighed. "Well played Dolly, well played."

Friendship Circle group chat:

Karmi K: Guess who's going to the Dalmatian Plantation!

Kirby G: You?

Dolly D: And me too

Karmi K: bus,jpeg

Eleanor M: omg you guys are doing the cutest bleps ever djdjddd

Kirby G: oh yeah hey karmi quick question for you,

Kirby G: it's related to the SF stuff if that's okay

Karmi K: shoot

Kirby G: So is there a supervillain named Steamer still running around?

Karmi K: uch

Dolly D: I guess that's a yes

Karmi K: He's the embodiment of the "old man yells at cloud meme" and tbh I've had enough of this dude

Karmi K: The bay got closed for like 2 weeks bc of him and It's really nice there esp when you're stressing about exams!

Kirby G: Huh

Kirby G: I'll be sure to tell my aunt that you share the same opinion of that guy

Dolly D: idk who your aunt is but she sounds like someone of great taste

Eleanor M: She is!

A couple of pups were going with them, to Karmi's disappointment, Dawkins wasn't one of those pups. It would've been nice hanging with him again. She thought as the group started getting on the bus.

At least Domino got to hang out with his littermates, she could see him happily chatting away to a pup with a green bandanna and a pup missing one of her front legs.

Doris and Dixie, according to Dolly, even if she couldn't understand the skater dog's barks, at least texting made it easier to communicate.

"We're here!" Zachary cheerfully announced to the kids as the bus stopped in front of a large farm.

As Karmi got off the bus, she noticed that the path towards the farm had small paw prints marked on the soil, not from the herd of pups rushing past them, but from the dogs who lived here long ago.

Her mom pulled out a large paper. "Right, all tours are booked today, so we'll just have to explore the barn on our own."

"Is that allowed?" Ryan questioned, seeming a little too good to be true.

"Yes." Baymax answered. "As long as we do not enter unauthorized areas, we are permitted to explore the plantation on our own."

Both twins beamed. "On our own?!" They exclaimed.

"No." Molly shook her head. "He meant without a tour guide, you two are not allowed to wander unsupervised."

"Awwwww."

Karmi felt a little bad for her siblings' sad faces, being told 'no' by a parent was always the worst. "Does that apply to our dogs?" She realized that both Diggs and Domino had left with the Dalmatian family sprinting away from the group.

"They'll be fine!" Zachary waved it off. "This is the Dalmatian Plantation, it's practically made for them!"

"I'm starting to regret splitting up." Domino panted as he struggled to climb up the steps to the barn. "I wanted to see the fruit trees, or other things grown here."

His littermate ignored him. "Dixie says this is the best place on the plantation!" Doris argued. "You can handle some steps."

"Yeah but my house doesn't have this many!" Then again, he usually didn't go up and down the steps, his humans carried him. Note to self, build up stamina in the future.

Dixie, their tour guide, laughed at him. "Wow, you've got one more leg than me and I'm doing better uphill."

"Ha-ha, hilarious." He panted.

As they walked up the hill, their fellow pups were exploring, Diana was running after Dakota, the Debbie triplets, Debbie Lou, Debbie May, and Debbie Lee were trying their climbing skills, Duck was collecting feathers, Domino didn't know what everyone else was up to, but they looked like they were having fun.

Finally, they climbed the last of the steps. "We're here." Dixie was grinning. "This was where I was born, in this very barn!"

Domino's eyes widened. "Really? Does that mean you're-"

"A descendant of the original 101? Yep!"

"Don't brag, Dix." Doris rolled her eyes. "Dylan's a descendant from his mom's side, but he doesn't brag every five seconds."

"Oh, Karmi was talking about that!" He exclaimed. "Y'know when we first heard about you guys, she suspected you were related to the original 101, because why else would humans let wild dogs run free?"

Both pups shrugged. "I dunno, maybe a long time ago the family had a human." Dixie gestured with the wave of her paw. "But that's not important."

"It's cool that you're basically Dalmatian royalty." And to think Haley claimed he was too. "I dunno much about my ancestors, considering-"

"Considering Mother was a neglectful one?" Doris frowned, adjusting her green bandana. "Even if she was a relative of the original 101, it's not like we'll ever know."

Domino felt guilt in his chest, he didn't mean to bring Lillian up, it always upsetted his littermate, who unfortunately got their mother's looks. "Maybe there's a way to find out? Baymax could tell I was DJ's littermate with his scanner!"

"Do you want to find out?" His littermate questioned. "Frankly I don't care if we're the descendants of any of Pongo or Perdita's pups."

"Dunno, it'd be cool, they defeated Cruella De Vil!"

"And I'm sure that was great when she burned-" Doris was cut off by Dixie placing a paw around her muzzle, her green eyes glaring at her sibling.

Dixie glared back. "Don't, just don't."

He frowned, noticing the dark look in Dixie's eyes. "What did she mean by burned?"

"Well, after Cruella tried kidnapping my great-great grandma Cadpig and her siblings again, but got stopped by my great-great-great-great uncle Patch, she was in jail for a little bit, but got out by the time my great-great-great-great uncle Dipstick had his pups." Dixie explained. "Cruella tried again to kidnap more dalmatians, but got stopped by his pups, especially Oddball, Dipper, and Domino-"

"Hey!" He perked up. "That's me!"

Even if he wasn't a descendant, it was cool that he shared a name with one of the dalmatians that had stood in the way of the devil woman's schemes. "Congrats, you share a name with a dog that's passed ages ago." Doris rolled her eyes.

"Someone's jealous they don't share a name with a heroic dalmatian." Domino stuck his tongue out at his littermate.

She just scoffed while Dixie continued the story. "Um, well I think losing to the grandpups of great-great-great grandpa Pongo and Perdita was what caused Cruella to snap."

"Snap you say, as if that lady wasn't crazy enough." Domino gestured. "She wanted to make a coat out of puppies!"

"So she broke out of jail and then set the Dalmatian Plantation on fire, when my ancestor's humans were on a trip." Domino glanced at his littermate with horror, she glanced back at him with sympathy. "Some of great-great grandma Cadpig's siblings well… they didn't make it out in time."

Now he felt bad for interrupting earlier. "That's awful." Domino murmured.

"Tell me about it." Dixie sighed, she had heard that story growing up in the barn, it still was terrible to hear every time. "But if there was one good thing to come out of that fire, Cruella herself burned in the flames she created." Even though they never found her body… and people just assumed she burnt to a crisp in the fire.

Died or not in that fire, she would've died decades ago anyways. Dixie reminded herself.

"Yeah, that's why I said it's better we don't know if we're descendants of the 101 or not." Doris continued. "Even though Cruella's gone, her descendants are still enemies of dog-kind, because when people see a De Vil, they see her too, because they're all crazy dognappers."

Okay now Domino felt even more bad, but he had to speak up. "Do you see Lillian in you?"

"Sometimes." She looked away.

"You don't have to be her if you don't want to." Domino argued. "Her blood doesn't mean you'll end up like her."

Dixie nodded. "He's right, just because I'm a descendant of Cadpig, doesn't mean I'm like her."

"It's hard to believe that sometimes." Doris sighed. "But you're right… I'm not like her, and I don't wanna ever be like her."

"You're not." Dixie reassured her. "The fact that you care about dogs other than yourself proves that you don't have to follow in her pawsteps."

Domino could see that a weight was lifted off of his littermate's shoulders. "I didn't know you felt like that Doris." He murmured. "Honestly, I never thought about stuff like that."

"That's great that you don't." She told him. "I know you didn't mean any harm when you brought up ancestors, it's fine."

Despite that, he still padded over and gave his littermate a comforting nuzzle on the shoulder. "So do you guys wanna see more of the barn?" Dixie offered them. "I wanna show you some of my favorite spots!"

Both siblings smiled. "We'd like that a lot, Dix." Doris told her.

Karmi glanced up at the apples growing on a tree, they were a bright red color and were the size of her hands. "Hey Baymax, do you think I could get away with picking one?"

"I would not recommend that course of action." He warned. "Tampering with another person's crops can lead to a fine of one-thousand dollars or more, damaging the tree can also lead to fines of over-"

Nevermind she should've just googled it on her phone. "Chill, I know about tree law, I was just asking." Karmi was a lot of things, apple thief was not one of them.

"Did you ask about the apple because you are hungry?" Baymax questioned.

She held up her hand. "Little bit."

Baymax's eyes lit up blue. "My scan indicates that there is a farmer's market selling food." He pointed down the hill, where there were a few stalls set up by the corn field, followed by a couple tables. "That way."

The biotech major sighed with relief. "Yay, I was worried I'd have to wait until we got back to the hotel for food." She sent a quick text to her dad, letting him know she was going to grab a snack.

He responded with reassurance that it was fine, and that the family would meet her there when they were done staring at every inch and corner of the gift shop.

Karmi had left to explore since her siblings were taking forever picking what they wanted to buy, how hard was it to pick one stuffed animal? Besides that, the trip had been going very well.

They got to learn about the history of the Dalmatian Plantation, it was owned by the Dearly family after they had adopted all the of the pups that had been stolen thanks to Cruella, the plantation had burned down because of the pupnapper herself after another attempt to get her "puppy fur coat" had gone wrong, and many believed that Cruella herself had perished in the fire as she never appeared again…

That was scary to think about, but after the fire the city rebuilt the plantation and made it a protected dog sanctuary, while still being a farm that sold goods at the market she was getting a snack from.

Baymax followed her down to the farmer's market, Karmi was very tempted to get the large apple pie she saw from the first stand, but she knew in her heart that she wouldn't finish the delicious pie.

That and if she fed the leftover pie to the twins they would skyrocket into "sugar-high mode" and her parents would never let her hear the end of it considering the last time she fed her little siblings sweets ended with them needing a new tv.

"Hey Baymax, you wouldn't have any recommendations of what to get, right?" She turned to the robot.

"I do not, I am a robot, I do not eat."

"Okay fair." She settled on a bag of apple chips that some guy was selling, and was munching on those by the time her family waddled over.

Haley was eyeing the bag of chips. "Can I have one?"

Karmi didn't have the energy to complain, she usually hated it when the twins tried sampling her food, but it was just a snack to tide her over until they got back to the hotel. "Sure."

She handed Haley a piece, her younger sister munched on it for a second, then immediately spat it out. "Ew it tastes like apples!"

"Well it is apple chips." Guess Haley thought they were chips shaped like apples, not made of apples.

Their mother was not amused. "Haley Khan! We do not spit out food."

"But it tasted gross." Haley stuck out her tongue in disgust.

"Apples are not gross!" Ryan glared at her.

"Are too!"

"Are not!"

"Are too!"

Karmi turned to Baymax, ignoring her siblings' squabble. "Hey Baymax, do you know what kind of apple is used to make these chips?"

He scanned the bag. "Gala apples."

"Neat."

Teen Dorks Squad group chat:

Karms: apples,jpeg

Ari: :0 pretty!

Baymax: Are those gala and bramley apples?

Hiro: bram what

Karms: Yes to the first idk what bramley is

Baymax: Bramley is a type of apple eaten cooked due to it being sour

June: Wait how many apples are there?

Rach: 7.5k with 2.5k being grown in the states

Ari: O-O

Karms: O-O

Meg: ok how do you know this

Rach: Jeopardy, the questions are enjoyable on Thursdays

Karms: Speaking of states is anything going on besides apple county?

Hiro: Uhhhhhhhh

Meg: umm…

Ari: im not sure how to answer that Baymax halp

Baymax: There is a new exhibit of pandas at the San Fransokyo Zoo

Karms: Aww

June: Pandas as in panda pandas or panda as in red pandas?

Meg: what is a panda panda

June: y'know… the original panda?

Meg: theres only 2 pandas out there!

Baymax: Red pandas are actually part of the Ailuridae family, giant pandas are part of the Urisidae family

Hiro: WHY ARE THEY CALLED RED PANDAS THEN?!

Rach: Man my middle school science teacher lied to me, again

Ari: We don't talk about that person bc she was anything but a teacher

Domino met back with Diggs by a small pond that had a little dock built on it. There was a small plaque next to it that said that many of the pups who once lived on the farm back in the 50s would go swimming in it.

The plaque also said there was a gator in the pond during that time, but Domino assumed it was just a tall tale to sell tickets.

"You got all your nerves out of your system?" Diggs flecked an ear.

Domino rolled his eyes. "Ha-ha, very funny." He glanced at the pond. "Reading the plaques?"

"No just waiting for-"

Sploosh!

The pup yelped as a blur crashed into the pond and sent water flying into the docks, a familiar head poked out of the water and climbed aboard. "Hey Dom!" Dolly's long fur was dripping wet with warm pond water.

"Aren't you supposed to be watching pups?" Domino raised one of his ears.

"They're smart enough to go around without attracting any humans." Dolly shook the excess water from her pelt. "Speaking of humans, where's yours?"

Domino shrugged. "Last time I saw them they were in the gift shop, Haley and Ryan were trying to pick what toy they wanted." It was adorable, seeing them go around looking at all the stuffed toys they wanted to bring home.

"Why get a stuffed dog when they have the real deal?"

"Tell that to humans who have stuffed humans." Diggs twitched his whiskers. "Unlike the real deal, toys have no other place to be."

Dolly curled her lip. "So what? They're replacements, only to be thrown away when the dog they actually care for comes back."

"It's not like that, Haley and Ryan got a lot of love in their hearts." Domino frowned. "They wouldn't throw away anyone."

The top dog glanced over to Domino, there was a sort of tiredness in her blue eyes. "Well, that's because they care about you."

Something told him that she was thinking of something, or someone else. "Did someone hurt you?"

She nodded. "Yeah, wanna know why I really can't stand humans? It's because my mom, my birth one, left my dad for one." Dolly sighed. "Even worse was how she treated my littermates, and that Dad still cared for that human-chaser after she treated him like dirt! She even took some of my 'healthier' siblings with her when she left!"

"That's horrible!" Domino exclaimed.

"Why was your mother so obsessed with humans?" Diggs couldn't help but ask.

"She used to have one, but that one died so she lived with my dad, guess she 'snapped' without having a pet to care for her every need." She grumbled. "Really grinds my gears when Clarissa brags about her pet when humans are why my dad and littermates were hurt so much."

Domino whimpered. Poor Dolly… No wonder she was so hostile to Karmi at first, not just because of nearly getting captured by one, but she feared they'd drive her family apart.

All she wanted to do was stop the past from repeating, and make sure her siblings weren't hurt again.

"I'm sorry that happened to your family." Diggs bowed his head in apology.

"No need to be sorry, you had nothing to do with it." Dolly frowned, she sat down on the docks, her paws reaching out to tap the surface of the pond.

She wasn't going to mention this aloud, but sometimes… she saw her mother, Dexta, when she looked at her reflection in the water.

Dolly herself had almost left her family for a human, over a stupid contest with the very corgi that reminded her of bad memories.

Somehow, Domino seemed to know what was on her mind. "You're not like her." He sat next to her. "I had this talk with my sister, we're not like our mother, sharing her blood doesn't mean we're gonna end up as bad as our bad moms."

"You're right." Dolly smiled. Unlike her birth mother Dexta, she had turned away from the life of a pet, because her family mattered more than some human. "Thanks bro."

Domino blinked. "Um… no problem sis." Even if he was still getting used to being part of the Dalmatian family, he did care about them and wanted them to be happy.

"Hey!" He got up. "How about we check out the chicken coop, Doris told me about it!"

"That sounds awesome, let's go!" They exited the dock in a happy sprint.

Diggs smiled as he watched the two pups run off, before chuckling to himself and following after them.

Life was good in Camden.

However… across the sea in Switserstan, a boat was dropping a giant box of cargo at a dock.

In front of the cargo, a man readied a net gun as he was surrounded by dog cages. He aimed the gun as he heard paws hit the concrete, only to see a bald cat in front of him.

"I take it the mission was a success?"
The cat shook its head.

The man curled his lip. "Then… what's in there?"

Smoke poured out of the crate as it buzzed open, he couldn't see anything, except a pair of eyes and the sound of someone panting.

He readied his gun as whatever was in the crate stepped out of the shadows. "Woof woof!" He blinked.

What was in the crate wasn't a dog… but a human, that was barking like a dog and on all fours trying to get to the bald cat that was now hiding on his shoulder.

"You're not a puppy." He scowled at the boy with torn clothes and bright brown eyes. "Oi, isn't that Hunter?" He gestured to the bald cat.

Said cat just shrugged, then hissed at Hunter.

The sound of the hissing made him freeze up, as the sound got through to his canine-filtered brain. "C-Cuddles?" He stammered, no longer barking like a dog. "Is that you?"
Cuddles hissed at him again, clearly angry at the boy who botched their mission of capturing the Dalmatian family.

"How long have I been in that cage?" Hunter pointed to the cargo.

"Six months, Mr. De Vil." The man stated. "How did you end up there?"

Hunter growled as the memories came back to him tenfold. "Those pups locked me in there!" He yanked the net gun out of the man's hands. "But I'll make them pay!"

Cuddles grinned, it seems that despite his imprisonment for half a year, Hunter still had that one thing that made him a De Vil…

The ambition of capturing the Dalmatian family, no matter what.

And this time, failure was not an option.

AN: Weee lore! I had a lot of fun writing this chapter and how the Dalmatian Plantation would look in modern times

Also uh oh... plot is starting to kick up now... I will say that it will take awhile for Hunter to get back to Camden though

Thank you so much for reading! Be sure to check out Fallen From Power next week, which takes place the same time as this story!