The Adventures of Stevo-Chapter 11-Babylon Gardens,2013

Story by Steven Dalma on SoFurry

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*rustling*

'Ugh... where am I now...?' Stevo said to himself, then struggled to get himself up on his knees after landing in a bush. He heard a cracking noise under him, and scooted some to see that the binoculars he got from Lazlo broke in half. He frowned "Crap."

As the breeze blew through the bushes, he suddenly heard people talking from a distance. He turned his head around and looked through the bushes with his hands making the gap, seeing that he was in a suburban neighborhood... with two cats walking, like humans, on the sidewalk across the street and into an alleyway. A sudden thought came to his mind as he circumnavigated the place undercover.

"Hm... I think I know that cat from a comic I read, yet I don't remember his name. Is it Marion... no. Marty... no... Ma-"

"What are you doing?" "MAXWELL!" Stevo jumped when he heard someone from behind talking to him. He turned to see a brown dog standing over him.

"Uh..." Stevo looked at him, with his thought-out words suddenly gone and eyes widened.

"Oh, sorry. You must be new... are you?" The dog looked closer, adjusting his bifocals. Stevo looked at himself to see that he was still in his Dalmatian form, not only with a military dog tag that had a cross and his name on it (and his ring is still attached), but sadly, no clothes. He looked back up.

"W-why yes, I just moved in earlier today." The dog took a step back and lent him a hand. Stevo grabbed his hand and stood up, brushing the grass off of his own fur.

"Well then, *adjusts glasses again* I'm Fido, and welcome to Babylon Gardens. I'm-"

"Going to make an opportunity you can't refuse!" A mouse popped from atop of Fido's head. He gritted his teeth and squinted his eyes and looked above him.

"Spo, don't interrupt me like that again. And stop with the movie quotes." He patted him back down in his fur, and went back into discussion.

"Anyway, I'm the community pet leader. What's your name?"

"Stevo."

"Well nice to meet you, Stevo. Is there any questions you want to ask me?" Stevo looked around quickly.

"Um, can you give me a tour around here? I've been getting quite lost today." Fido patted his shoulder.

"Sure I can. In fact, want to go to the Good Ol' Dogs Club tonight?" Stevo nodded, then heard his feet cracking against the broken binoculars.

"Is that yours?" Stevo looked down.

"Yea, I accidentally broke it when you snuck up on me like that."

"Sorry for that. Here, I'll take it." Fido picked the pieces up and threw it in a trashcan beside the bush.

"There. Now on with the tour!" And so Fido and Stevo began their walk around the neighborhood. 'Maxwell, that's the name."

In the evening at the club, Stevo was following behind Fido through the crowd when another dog tapped him on the shoulder. Stevo stopped and turned around.

"Excuse me, but you know if Tarot is here?" said a brown dog with a red collar.

"I don't know who that is, actually. I'm new here."

"Oh, sorry. I'm Peanut. You must be...?" Peanut stuck his arm out for a handshake. Stevo shook his hand.

"Stevo. Stevo Dalma." The sound of a gavel beating against wood grabbed everyone's attention and they all turned towards the back of the room. It was Fido.

"May I have your attention please?" Everyone turned quiet and continued to stare at him as he adjusted the microphone. "As you may all know, you've heard about me call an emergency meeting here tonight. And the reason why? It is because that time of year has arrived. Canine brothers (and sisters), grab your water guns and water balloons, because we're in war with the cats." Then the sounds of water guns pumping and small chattering roared through the room. Stevo looked to see every dog, even Peanut, have one, but not himself.

"Peanut, where'd you even get that?" Peanut turned to him.

"I don't know. We'd just like to bring stuff to meetings." the gavel went off, breaking the silence again.

"Now, after careful observation on the enemy's plans earlier today, here's how our strategy will be." And for the next few minutes, every dog, ears perked upward, listened to what attacks and other movements they must make throughout the plan. After Fido finished speaking of the plans, he made one final note to the meeting before smashing the gavel: "Remember: all of you, and K-9 Squad, meet in the alleyway at 6:45 tomorrow morning, I will give you your position and when to attack. Okay? *all nodded* Good. Meeting dismissed! *gavel goes off*" Everyone started to leave to head to their owner's homes, except for Stevo, who didn't have a owner nor a home.

'Ugh, if only Figure was here. He could've at least gave me a warmed-up towel, or a doghouse.' he thought to himself while shivering. Stopping and looking around to find somewhere to sleep, all he could find was a car parked near the curb of a house, so he walked over to it, crawled under, tried to get comfortable, and went to sleep for the rest of the night, despite of the steam rising from the pavement all over the street.

The next morning, after the sun rose, the sky turned cloudless blue, and the calm, warm wind began blowing, Stevo was still sleeping under the vehicle when a piece of paper hit him in the face, waking him up. He grabbed the paper from his face and looked at the message, but couldn't tell what it said because of the darkness. So he crawled from under and began reading it where the sunlight is.

WE HAVE YOUR WATER BOWL

_'_Hm, I don't get it.' Suddenly, someone yelled from a distance in a warning tone, getting his attention and causing him put the paper down.

*SPLASH* A water balloon popped in front of his face, getting him soaked, wet, and smelly like a wet dog.

"Oh, ha ha. What a wake-up call."

"Watch out!" he looked to see a gray bulldog running towards and shoved him away from a big stream of water that was fired at where he formerly stood. They both went behind a bush where some other dogs were, firing and throwing water at the enemies.

"Boy, do you have any idea how close you were from being hit?!" the dog snarled close to Stevo's face.

"Do I look like a radar to you?!" Stevo snarled back, and they both grew angry at each other's faces when a gray wolf-hybrid with a yellow bandanna broke them up.

"Both of you stop!" the dog pushed his arms out, pushing them away from each other. "Are we here to fight our own kind, or fight the cats?" Both of them turned quiet and looked down a bit.

"That's what I thought. Now, Rex, go get some more water balloons, in mint package condition!" Rex saluted and ran into the flooded road while wearing a cooking pot over his head.

"And you, um..." Stevo looked up at him.

"Uh, Stevo, sir, I-I happen to be new in the neighborhood since yesterday. Sorry about that." The dog saw his expression and grabbed his arm and pulled him up from the ground. He grinned at Stevo.

"That's alright, I didn't mean to be mean, I'm just mad with this war. And Rex may look scary, but trust me, he wears pink oven mitts whenever he cooks."