Keenan has a canine fur suit he takes around the city, cheering up children and simply having a good time with his friend, but everything changes when mysterious energy splashes on him during a visit to the infamous Allspark Tower.
Keenan walked the park and while a few people gave him looks, the children he passed pointed with giant grins. He waved back to them, sometimes giving them a high five or stopping to take pictures. He looked like a cartoon character to them; a purple Australian Shepherd with black and blue patterns and a white underbelly certainly drew their attention against anything else in the park. Kids loved abnormally colored animals and so did he.
Several Cybertronians complimented his suit. He found that they were much more open about dressing like animals than humans were, which was somewhat ironic. Given half the Transformer populace had animal-based bots, it wasn't surprising.
The suit was expensive but worth it. The Australian Shepherd was his favorite dog, and he laughed inwardly that he found the breed became the talk among many in his neighborhood out of curiosity. Very few knew he chose it for a secondary reason as well. It was because of his mother's dog, Princess, whom he grew up with. The late Princess always had her royal purple bed; his mother loved to spoil that dog. He couldn't blame her.
"Starting without me?! Bad doggie!"
Keenan gave out a howling laugh as his partner-in-crime, Emma Lee, appeared on his left. In a white unicorn fur suit with a rainbow mane and tail, sparkling split hooves, rainbow cartoon eyes and a swirl-patterned horn, Emma Lee playfully jogged up and gave Keenan a high hoof-to-paw.
"And here I thought you wouldn't show up," Keenan chuckled. "You finally got the suit fixed! What was wrong with it?"
"Remember the night you and I went to May's place, and I fell through the balcony door?"
"Yeah?"
"Glass got embedded in it and I couldn't find all the pieces. Finally, I managed to but had to tear a portion of my suit in the back because the glass wasn't coming out no matter what I tried hence the patchwork," she said, showing him the backside where he noticed there was now a pink saddle patched in.
"That looks sick...but you know how the people here spread rumors and will think that's for-"
"Eh, not going to lie, one day I just might use it for that. My boyfriend would love it. Besides, I'm a big, sparkly goddamn unicorn! You think I give a shit now what others say?"
Keenan shrugged, "Good point."
"Exactly," Emma Lee said.
A few children and younglings approached in awe but the most gleeful was a little girl. Both Keenan and Emma Lee saw she had a unicorn backpack and the latter of the two crouched down.
"Hello!"
The little girl giggled and waved, "Hi, Un-e-corn!"
"My name's Emma. What's yours?"
"Mackenzie," the girl said swaying in place with her hands together.
Emma Lee bopped the kid gently on the head when she noticed the pink snow beanie she had, "Nice to meet you, Mackenzie."
As Emma Lee interacted with the girl, Keenan greeted a few of the other kids before he was met with a woman no older than 24 accompanied by a Toy Minicon of bright yellow. He expected the woman to be scoffing like most other adults did but instead she smiled.
"My daughter likes you guys. She's with your friend."
Keenan nodded, "Oh, yeah, kids love the colors and the suits."
The woman then said, "It's her birthday tomorrow and we've been trying to give her a few special days beforehand to build up to the excitement. This probably made her day meeting her favorite animal."
"Birthday girl, huh? Well, we're glad we could help!"
The Toy Minicon replied, "She's probably going to ask if you two will appear tomorrow. Hopefully, the truth of the matter won't make the day any less special."
Emma Lee then spoke, "We can swing by, Keenan."
Keenan acknowledged his friend and said to the woman and the Minicon, "If you want, we could both come over."
The woman put a hand on her chest, exchanging a pleased glance with her companion before growing concerned. "You would do that? I mean, um, I don't want to mess up any plans you have tomorrow-"
"No, no, honestly, I was just going to clean my house tomorrow. I got nothing on the schedule, and I'd love to make your daughter's birthday special. Emma only has yoga class tomorrow morning then she's spending the rest of her day off at her house. Name a time and the place and we'll be there."
"Thank you so much!" The woman said pleasantly, "Allspark-Sumdac Tower Gardens is where we're hosting the party at 2 PM. I'm an employee there so they let me do that for her. I will pay you and everything."
"You're welcome. See you, tomorrow."
As the woman, Minicon and Mackenzie said their goodbyes, Keenan was smirking underneath the dog head at Emma Lee who turned to him giddy. "Ay, we got a gig!"
"Yes, we do. Children smiling warms my heart. Does it defrost yours?"
The unicorn punched him in the shoulder, "Hey now."
They walked through the park for the next hour, waving at kids and talking to curious strangers, some of whom were furries themselves asking about the costume. All in all, a perfect day.
The next day, both Keenan and Emma Lee showed up as promised. The kids of all types were immediately on them like glue, petting the fur on the top of the suit's head and asking funny questions which Keenan and Emma answered as best they could. While Emma was Mackenzie's main interest, he was the mascot for at least half the audience.
The gardens held many flowers, beautiful scenery and the setup was just in the shade guarded by the Tower's large shadow. The gazebo held the gifts and the banner while the cake and the treats were on a table nearby. The glow of the Allspark high in the top of the building reeked of power, adding a luminescent glow to the plant life around it, especially the garden itself. One could say it was like walking among a fairytale world, and the kids loved it.
From birthday cake to presents, they stayed throughout the party, longer than they believed they were going to. Pictures were the most fun...but a few parents didn't seem to enjoy their company. Keenan knew the common bias against furries and knew the parents thought of them that way. He wanted to clear up the confusion but decided against it to keep the kids from having any drama. The parents seemed to hold their tongues just for the same reason but when he went into the Allspark Tower complex to take a breather...
"I know what you are, you scoundrel!"
Keenan sighed at turned to look at an older lady who eyed him like he was some type of pariah. "Lady, I'm just doing my job."
"You keep your perverted 'paws' off those kids. They don't need to be exposed to whatever filth you touched, given you want to be an animal so much you probably live like one."
"Okay, first off, there's only a portion of furries who dress up for pleasure. Secondly, do you think I like children like that? Hell no," Keenan said, taking off his expensive toon dog head to reveal his jet-black hair. "Third, you aren't even close on that assumption."
The lady scoffed and after dissing him, walked off. He scowled before taking a second to shake off the negativity. Not in front of the kids. He placed it head back on and stretched, allowing some of the suit's stiffness to be broken through.
The Allspark sent energy throughout Sumdac Tower. It gave and received equal amounts to keep the entire system up and running. The whole city was in its reach. As the galaxy-themed ceiling and walls made the illusion of floating in space, it purred happily.
It sent a beam of energy to cackle through one of its outputs to the Tower's security bay, a mild hiss echoing through the chamber. As the energy whipped and twisted, droplets of its power hit the floor and crept into vents. The floor of its room had several vents in which excess energy was collected to be fed into the system. However, a few drops hit the corner of the room and dwindled on the slope before merging. As it headed toward its designated vent, it hit a crack and was diverted away.
Following the crack instead, the energy sparked and stopped at the wall before suddenly sinking down the wall through the floor. It left behind the blue-tinted room and bounced off several pipes before hitting a crevice that led it down several stories. By the time it reached the second floor, it left a scar upon the piping in its wake. The pipe disappeared behind another wall, and it fell off onto a ceiling grate above the main lobby.
It accumulated over the seconds through the grate until it was a single strand of energy again. The droplet fell towards the ground.
"'You want to be an animal so much you probably live like one.' Yeah, lady, so I don't have to deal with the likes of you. Stupid people today."
After simmering down from the comment, Keenan walked back towards the gardens through the lobby having gotten a drink and was ready to trade places with Emma Lee for her break from the energetic kids.
As he approached the doors to the outside, a sudden drop of something glowing blue hit the corner of his dog head's fake eye and fell through it onto his cheek. It felt warm but foreign. Oddly enough, it seemed to dissipate as fast as it came.
After a second, he simply shrugged and believed it to be in his imagination. Maybe he was sweating and didn't realize it and the glare of the windows reflected it a different color. When he went outside, he winced as the light of the afternoon sun hit him now that the shadow of the Tower had moved since he had gone ever so slightly. The sun, however, was much more tense than normal and he was beginning to heat up a little within the suit. It never bothered him before.
Emma Lee walked towards him with a chuckle. "Keep them busy for me, Keenan, while I have a smoke."
He suddenly flinched without warning, and he looked back to see she was about to tap his shoulder yet never saw her raise her arm to do so. He didn't know how he knew to move and felt bad seeing her look at him either peeved or a bit thrown off by his reflexes. He wanted to say sorry, but she had already left.
As kids surrounded him with questions and wanting to play, he heard the adults talking to themselves about him, whispering from across the garden...something that normally couldn't be heard by a human, especially one wearing a fake head. But his hearing was ten times better and if he could believe it, a part of him started thinking he was hearing through the fake ears themselves.
A newfound rush of energy was taking hold with a glaring blue tint to his eyesight. He wanted to play; he needed to do something. He led the kids to the various activities around the garden. Like the little foosball set up, the soccer set up, pin the tail, and more. Each one made him excited just as much as the children...and he wasn't sure why. His heart seemed to go faster than normal, pulsing almost to an indescribable beat. Even when Emma Lee returned to help with the kids, his adrenaline kept going higher and he smiled.
By 7 PM, most of the kids were out, taken home finally by their parents. Mackenzie's mother paid them a good $300 each for the five-hour visit, a generous payment for making her daughter's birthday special. Her Minicon companion was equally grateful. But while Emma Lee was wiped out, Keenan was not.
The drive to his house in Emma Lee's car was silent as she eyed him, both heads of the suits in the back seat. "Are you okay? You look like you're on cocaine or something."
"No, I just... didn't know birthday parties could be so much fun, you know? I had a blast. Maybe I should be a furry clown."
Emma Lee snickered as she continued to drive. She stopped in front of his house and as he walked up the steps, she called out, "See you tomorrow?"
"Maybe. I'll call you to let you know."
"Okay. Goodnight!"
Keenan entered his house and locked the door behind him. When he got to his bed and after a few grueling minutes of staring at it, he still felt high on something. He didn't know why still, and it was bugging him. Turning around, he placed his dog head back on again and collapsed onto the bed backwards contemplating what to do. Slowly, he closed his eyes and tried to force himself to go to sleep even with the suit on.
The silence of the house was abruptly filled with whispers growing louder. They sounded like they were in his head, and he shot up immediately. They echoed, telling him gibberish. He was trying to get out of the bed completely when a sudden flare of pain shot through his spine and through his skull. He screamed and grabbed the fake head over his own...but he couldn't take it off. No matter what he tried, the dog head refused to budge.
The suit grew tight against him with a burning sensation running across his body. His bones began to shift within, growing, moving, readjusting in the suit itself. Then the cold feeling of metal started to appear on the suit, through the suit. His jaws enlarged and protruded at slant as his eyes fused with the fake eyes of the dog head before suddenly glowing blue.
Bio lights of a light blue warped across his body as he held his head no longer human but armored and animalistic. The fake tail began to wag on its own, acting on his screams as he dragged his new claws across his snout. The claws of his feet growing fast damaged the flooring of his bedroom. His chest expanded to a metal overlay as he could feel his heart no longer beating but instead humming, caving into a ball of pure energy. A spark. His legs felt like they were breaking in several places as metal embodied them, knees turning to mechanical joints. His spine grew panels of steel that flexed up and down to react to his misery.
The suit was gone, destroyed, he should say...because it was him. By the time the pain faded, his head touched the ceiling. Harsh breaths came from a canine-like snout with his fangs and mouth snarling. He stumbled to the ground, pausing when he saw the clawed servos holding him from hitting the floor entirely. He lifted a shaking servo with a whimper, his ears folding back which he took notice of and grabbed them as best he could, stunned.
Bumping into everything around him, he turned as quick as he could, ignoring the mess his tail made by swiping everything off his furniture in his haste, to look at himself in his closet mirror. He gasped as he saw the reflection of a Shephard-like bot staring back. His faceplates looked about the same as any other Transformer's but with the addition of an elongated snout. His optics were a bright blue and on his chest was a neutral symbol in the shape of a circle with rings. His armor was purple with black fading into it on his limbs. Blue and black specks on his backside and back helm decorated him, and his abdomen and inner thighs were white. These were all the same colors as his suit...
"No, no, no, no! Wha-?!"
He pawed at his faceplates terrified before growling at himself. He forced himself to stop by slapping his cheek and quickly grabbed his phone with the tips of his claws. After several failed attempts, he carefully dialed Emma Lee and tapped his claws against the floor anxiously.
"Pickup, pickup! Please!"
Emma Lee's voice came through as a pre-recorded message after one minute. He left an emergency voicemail, one pleading for her help. In a brief bout of anger, he threw his phone across the room.
Frantic and scared, Keenan crawled on all fours through the house, breaking through doorways and forcing furniture out of their places as he moved towards the door. Unfortunately, he busted down the damn thing and tumbled out of the house with part of the frame stuck on his neck. He ripped it off in frustration before peering around.
The streets were dead with seldom cars moving but upon seeing someone walking in the distance, something in his mind became defensive. Too close was that person to his home. Who's to say that person didn't do this to him? Fear and paranoia pushed his instincts into overdrive. Slowly, he crept towards the figure with fangs bared. He wanted to attack them, the energy coursing within desired to do something, anything!
But before he could do anything, someone screamed behind him. A neighbor had heard the ruckus of him moving around his house, specifically the damage done and went outside. Soon, multiple lights in various houses and apartments were on and many figures peered out their windows in search of the disturbance. All they saw was a monster.
Scrambling away as lights of the neighborhood seemed to follow towards him, he ran unsteady across the asphalt still not used to being quadrupedal. He turned the street corner and slid when he nearly bumped into two truck Transformers simply enjoying the night. The black and beige one growled and reared up ready to squash him while the blue and dark green one immediately backed away startled. He recognized them as companions to a couple on the block, brothers who he had encountered day by day...but they didn't seem to recognize him.
Upon alerting the two brothers, several other Transformers were awakened by the screams and angry shouts, stretching from their makeshift hideaways in the yards or the driveways they rested among occasionally. From Predacons to Minicons to even a Junkion Pygmy Distiller dragon one neighbor had; they all snarled at the false intruder, and Keenan feared for his life with his tail between his legs cowering.
One Predacon, hippogriff-like, climbed on top of the roof and upon spotting Keenan, lit up its throat before spewing blue fire down with utmost malice. Keenan dodged the flames as they died upon touching the asphalt, feeling the heat skimming his armor. An elephant based Kanjian trumpeted and nearly crushed him, his tail inches from being caught as the heavy pede came down.
He was nearly on the verge of tears as sirens of patrols sped down the neighborhood paths. The Transformer and human neighbors didn't hesitate to guide them his way. He jumped on top of a roof right under the faded moon, his glowing eyes peering back. A big mistake. The cops, now being escorted by a professional team of cybernetic animal control, started shooting tranquilizers and destabilizers at him.
They missed as he jumped from house to house, stirring up shingles and leaving claw marks. Keenan, out of ideas, only had one choice left. Go to Emma Lee and try to get her to understand his predicament. If she believed him, she could help him fix the curse.
Abruptly, he whimpered when he felt something hit his thigh and halted to look back. A tranquilizer dart meant for cybernetic animals as big as a Kanjian monogoliath was embedded in the cracks between the armor direct into the protoform. Another one hit his shoulder and a third on his neck. He tried to run but merely stumbled as the tranquilizers began taking effect.
No, he couldn't give up now. Keenan tried to press forward but his legs refused to work. As his vision became fuzzy, he slipped off the roof and tumbled, hitting the porch overhang and cracking it. With a bang, he hit the lawn of a neighbor and panted as the blaring red and blue lights impaired his limited vision. Silhouettes of officers closed in on him.
"Contact Detroit Regional Animal Convey Outpost and have it put in a temporary hold," an officer said, "until we figure out what it is."
"Doesn't look like any cybernetic canine species on record. Could be a new type or one of those color-changers, the ones Black Ops use in their missions."
"I don't care what it is. It broke into someone's house, maybe killed them. Investigate the house on Prescott Avenue and put this mutt away."
That's all he heard before his world went dark.
When he awakened, he found himself on grass. Groaning, he placed a paw on his head before trying to rub his face when his senses went haywire and immediately made him perk up to peer around. His breath hitched as he saw various bones, a specialized temporary housing area with trees and brush, but, worst of all, he was in a giant enclosure...and people were staring at him through glass. A sign that read Danger: Hostile Animal was placed at eye level of the audience. Above, the sky was caged to prevent him from escaping in case he climbed the trees. He was trapped like a zoo animal. He was caged like a dog.
The kids seen pointed at him the same as they did when he was human in a suit but was more focused on the fact that he appeared to be an unknown breed of cybernetic canine than the color scheme. They laughed at his hesitance; the adults now looked at him with fascination but not for the reason he wanted.
"Please, somebody help me! I don't belong here! Get me out!"
His cries went on deaf ears until he noticed the children clapping while a few backed away startled. He heard someone mutter, "Oh, look, the big doggie's barking!"
Barking? Barking. They couldn't understand him because he wasn't talking. He was barking like a dog. He froze, ears drooping with a whine. His blue optics weren't very bright as he moved backwards scared and mortified. He hid in the brush shivering, much to the disappointment to the kids and complaints from the adults.
But his newfound position allowed him to see the tip of the Allspark Tower glowing blue. He slowly put the pieces together and stared at it shocked. The droplet on the suit that went through the fake eyes...it was Allspark energy! How else could this have happened?
"No..." He whispered defeated.
Maybe there was a way to contact the Allspark to undo the curse.
"There's the dog that did it."
Three officers near him on the other side of the glass came up with a late 20-year-old woman. Emma Lee. He instantly raced towards her only to find his enclosure dropped off into water right before the glass to prevent him front ramming it to escape. He peered at her as he overheard the conversation.
"We found this canine wandering in the neighborhood. Seems that it went through your friend's house and ate him."
That was a lie! He was right here! Emma Lee stared at him and at first, she noted the color scheme. He smiled, wagging his tail when he thought she recognized him.
"I got a message from his phone, but the sound was nothing but barking and whining. Inhuman." She then asked, "Why are its colors the same as Keenan's suit though? Unless-"
Keenan's hopes were shot down immediately when a Cybertronian officer said, "Some canine and feline species on Cybertron and Caminus have the ability to scan colors, imprinting on a few of their liking and changing their armor to match. Pseudo-impersonation and camouflage. Seems this one took a liking to your friend's animal suit which has happened to other victims in the past of Cybertron's aggressive dogs as well. It's nothing new, to be honest, only a confirmation that the dog met him and...well, for the time being, it'll be here."
Keenan's hope as Emma Lee accepted the explanation died. He barely blinked as he watched her nod and walk away, not before giving him one last look. Children, younglings, humans, and Transformers took their place in seconds to be front seats to the spectacle that was him.
Worse, the news of the potential that he was going to be stuck here possibly forever made his spark sink. He slowly peered towards the ground then at the water, still unfamiliar with the reflection. From human to beast, furry to fur. There was nothing on his mind except just why this would happen to him of all people. What were the odds? What are any odds of such a massive spiral that wasn't even his fault.
He didn't know how long he stood there in disbelief, though the rest of the day hearing officials of the enclosure talk about him and those who came to study him like he was a new species, nor did he know how long it was when a few of the handlers came through with the vials to take blood with and restraints at the ready that night. He didn't move. He only looked at them pitifully as they approached him like he was a wild dog...and now, he was.
It didn't even hurt, and all he could think of was the irony of his life. He wanted to be a dog, dressed up as a dog and got what he wanted. He was just another animal in the zoo.
AN: Before anyone gets angry, I am not jabbing at the furry community. They are excellent people, and deep down I believe everyone is a furry in some way, but I do have to explore horror aspects of everything and this kind of came to mind. Of course, how do I turn a furry into an actual animal? Allspark power! Uncontrollable, raw energy. There was an alternate ending to this and that was Keenan was put down after being at the zoo for a little while but I decided to prolong his misery instead as being forever an attraction at a zoo. Is there any way to reverse this curse? Probably not...