Housepets!: One for the Record Books

[Blue Braixen]

Seeing as it's been a very long while since I wrote a fanfic, I figured I'd give it another go.
Housepets! is copyright to Rick Griffin and none of his charcters used in this fanfiction are used with permission. This is not intended for monetary gain, but rather just something to do to relieve boredom. After a certain point, the narration will commence dialogue from then on will act as a narrative, while verything else happen within the context of the narrative. I hope this removes confusion. Without further adieu:

"TIIIIIGEEEEERRRRR!!!"

It seemed that every time Jerry Arbelt screamed that name, it would become painted with even more malice. What could the orange dog who was the unfortunate victim of a misnomer be called for this time?

"...WHO WRECKED THE HOUSE?!!"

Okay, that's a new one. In the living room of the Arbelt house sat Zach, Marvin, and Tiger, on their knees, surrounded by collapsed bookcases, a broken TV, near one hundred open books that were now missing several pages each, five remotes, broken glass and ceiling pieces, and various electrical components. All three animals had suffered cuts, scrapes, and bruising that seemed to cover every inch of their bodies. And yet, they were all smiling. The cat, dog, and rabbit all looked toward their owner, satisfied grins plastered on their faces despite the obvious pain they had been afflicted with. Even Zack, the crybaby shut-in, had nary a tear. Jerry, by contrast, looked harried and near the point where one would pull their hair out and run into the neighborhood screaming.

"How can they look... serene... at a time like this," the man thought as he crossed the trench that had become the living room. It was the only existing room of the house. "What happened here, you three?" The man asked, getting down to their level to check on the pets. He was too afraid to cause them further harm by touching them; a visual inspection alone could speak volumes. Marvin smiled at Tiger and then at Zack. "Should I tell him, or will you? Or how about you, Zack? Who wants it?"

Zack's ears perked up. "I will," the rabbit claimed, looking Marvin in the eyes determinedly. The cat responded with, "Be my guest."

The rabbit turned back to their owner. "You might want to find a place to sit. It's a long story."

After staring at his pets with a look that could only be described as incredulous, Jerry nodded and, using one of the half-empty books, brushed the debris from the remaining half of their couch. "I'm ready when you are," the man reported. Zack's smile grew and he took a storytime pose, acting as if he was reading from a book. His voice deepened and became more passionate, and his ears fell back as he pushed his mind to recall the events that had reduced their house and most of Babylon Gardens to a pile of rubble.

"It all started with a meeting of the Good Old Dogs Club. Tiger, though he despises Bino, had decided to attend this meeting because of its topic; the menial "zoning issues" had finally been forgotten. What had taken its place was a conversation about something Fido had unearthed whilst seeking a buried bone."

The memory of Fido reached into a hole for his newly-uncovered prize. With a quizzical look, he examined it. It was a medium-sized ball, colored forest green and blinking a strange blue light every five seconds. "What do I do with this? Should I turn it in to the police? No, they will think I'm messing with them... I'll present it at the meeting. I'm sure one of the dogs may have a good idea of what to do with it."

"Fido, in one of his least-popular moves of all time, brought it to the GODC meeting. After letting Bino give his talk, Fido presented his find to the club. Once the collective awe had subsided, the majority of the dogs came up to investigate the sphere."

Fido ordered the dogs to stand down and asked if any of the dogs had any idea of what to do with it. After suggestions such as 'let's sniff if until it does something', 'I want your puppies', and 'you should put it back where you got it', Fido scoffed and left the meeting. His fear had come true: nobody seemed to know what to do with the darn thing.

"I had gone to this meeting with Tiger to make sure he stayed away from Bino as much as possible. Once Fido's presentation was over and he had left, dejected, I chased after him. I still don't know why; I suppose it was more that I figured I would come up with something while talking to him. He's one of the most educated dogs I know, so I knew it wouldn't be a waste. What I didn't figure on was Fido having become alertingly paranoid in a very short time span since the meeting. When I called out to him, he yelped and dropped the sphere he had found."

The unknown sphere had been dropped on its big, red button. At impact, it shrunk and two long antennae poked out from inside of it.

"What happened next could only be described as pure agony. The antennae that had appeared from inside of the ball began emitting a very loud, screeching signal. Fido and I both dropped to our knees in pain, our paws on our ears, until the noise stopped about a minute later. Frazzled and dazed, we stared at each other before getting up and examining the sphere. The antennae had retracted and now the ball looked as it had before Fido dropped it."

Neither Fido nor Zack had faith in that being a good omen. Fido scooped up the sphere, panting. The noise had prompted every animal in the neighborhood, from the pets, to the raccoons, to the woodland creatures, to converge on its location. It had triggered some gathering instinct in the animals. Even the pets that had been in their homes or asleep had accepted the call.

"Fido and I spent a short while simply examining our surroundings. The other animals had not assembled yet, so we started small talk with each other. Fido's lingering paranoia had left him surprisingly shy and withdrawn, to the point where even I had become a better conversationalist than he. We introduced ourselves, though at this point, I'm unable to recall his full name. At the sounds of the thunder that was a stampede of animals' paws, our conversation was broken short as now everybody has assembled in one place."

Amazed shouts of 'What's going on here?!' soon resounded from the crowd, where Fido and Zack had become stuck in the middle. Fido attempted to overcome his paranoia by speaking to the crowd; his voice couldn't command any respect and fell on deaf ears. Zack, seeing Fido stuck between a rock and a hard place even in public speaking, knew he had to help. The rabbit whistled, garnering complete silence from the crowd. Fido, though not near as confident as he sounded, then commanded the animals to return home.

"Once the assembly had broken up and returned home, Fido thanked me and shook my paw. Not being one to live up a moment such as that, I mentioned the sphere. I asked him what we should do with it; besides the blood-curdling scream it could emit at the press of a button, it seemed harmless. Just in case, I suggested that we have that fortune-teller dog, Tarot, and her friend, Sabrina, take a look at it. If nothing else, they may be able to see if it had any use in the future. Fido seemed to gain a spring in his step as he accepted this idea and we were off to see the fortune-tellers."

Once there, Fido knocked on the with in a tap-tap-taptaptap-tap. The black cat, Sabrina, answered the door. She greeted the two and welcomed them inside.

"While I examined the inside of the shop, Fido seemed to just disappear along with Sabrina. Shrugging this off, I tapped on a bell on the counter. A female's voice from downstairs beckoned me below. Needless to say, I was a little skeptical, but this kind of behavior should be expected at a place like that; I simply heeded the call, disappearing into the dark behind the curtains..."

---
Part one, finished.
Any criticisms are very much appreciated. Just don't say you hate this story. That doesn't help anyone. *giggles* I cooked up the story and wrote it in about thirty minutes on an iPhone at 5:15 AM. There's bound to be spelling or grammatical mistakes, which, if they do exist, I apologize for.
Edit: I corrected a typographical error and added onto the story around the beginning of the flashback. I hope this impoves understanding and helps set the mood better.

[KizerZin]

i'm completely lost and confused... so I think... you must be doing something right!

A intresting start~

[Daggy]

A bit confusing, most because of the instantaneous flip between telling Jerry the story and seemingly living it. Tossed me around a bit, until I kind of ignored how wrong it felt.

There was something else, but now I can't find it. D:

Good start though.

[copper]

Great Start! I hope you continue it.

The narrative is all over the place, and could use some structure, but it is a good story. Can't wait fir the next installment.

[Brian]

It's good to see the humans put into a story. I simply can not wait to know what this object does, where it came from, who made it, why it was placed where it is, and why the Arbelts seem to enjoy pain. The house being destroyed needs an explanation too. But, I'm willing to wait patiently and read out just what you have in store for us.

[Blue Braixen]

I understand what you're saying, Copper, Daggy, and Kizer; this is a trial-and-error portion.

All will be explained in due time. I hope I created enough mysteries for everyone! *giggles*

It's very hard to go from third-person to a first-person omniscient narrative. Most people choose to end the chapter there and pick up in the next one with a dofferent point-of-view; however, I wasn't going to do that to you guys. That would have been a very short beginning, not to mention that I would be terrible to have you wait another week based on three paragraph-lines of text. As much as I'd have liked for the transition to have been smoother, I haven't the slightest idea of how to fix that yet. (Edit: I've attempted a fix; the first post has been updated.) Also, I hope the "narration plus story" way of doing this isn't too confusing. If you're having difficulty noticing the pattern, it will ping-pong between Zack's narration and story events.

Last but not least, I will try to hold on to an update schedule. *laughs* I suppose I did well enough at that last time. This will update twice per week: on Monday (because that's when I started) and on Thursday (because it's a nice midpoint between Mondays).

[copper]

Alright, Housefox. I will be waiting for Thursday's update. And you are doing fine! Transitioning is hard for that kind of interchange. It is a great start to what will surely be a wonderful story.

[Kondog]

Great Job Housefox! -I really enjoyed it and I did't get confused maybe because I am just weird great start and I can't wait to read more from you.

[RandomGeekNamedBrent]

good mystery. nice Sci-fi element in there. it seems a bit like Fido and Zach have switched personalities.

[Blue Braixen]

*giggles* I'm too tired to write today, so I'm gonna sleep instead and the update will come tomorrow, early in the morning. I've already failed at my schedule! XD

[KizerZin]

your failure is to be expected, you are only human after all... I forgive you... for being human

[Blue Braixen]

Chapter 2:

---
"The basement of that place was pretty creepy. The trip down the stairwell was remarkably short. Once I reached the inner sanctum, I got a better view of the place."

Zack looked around as best as he could in the candle-lit room. The room itself was impressive. It seemed to be bigger on the inside than the outside of the shop would suggest. On the floor, a pentagram was transcribed in white chalk and placed in equidistant locations on the edges were many candlesticks with lit candles at the top. Another crystal ball sat on a stand in the back of the room. Overall, the room had a home-like feel to it, and smelled refreshingly of cherries.

"The room itself seemed very uniform and expected for a place like that, except for the Radio/CD player with a stack of CD cases, the top of which being a Queen album. I suddenly wondered why I had been asked to come into this room; the crystal ball lie in the shop portion of the building. If Tarot was going to tell my fortune or ask the spirits for help or however way they operate, why would I have been summoned here?"

As if on cue, Tarot appeared. She was far enough from the candles that Zack could only make out the form of the Pomeranian, however she seemed to be carrying something. Within seconds, she had gotten close enough to the light to be fully identifiable. She was toting around the sphere that Fido had found... with less effort than Fido had put into carrying it. "Whoa, she is having an easier time of it than Fido, and he is pretty darn muscular..." the rabbit thought, watching as Tarot sat the object in the center of the pentagram.

"Tarot welcomed me and immediately began voicing some kind of spell; I began to feel as if we were dabbling in the occult there. Her eyes were glowing this brilliant and beautiful green, which captivated my attention until something happened with the pentagram."

The sphere in the center of the pentagram rose about a foot from the ground. Zack stared disbelievingly, wide-eyed at the spectacle as the pentagram begun to erase itself! Tarot's demeanor changed as her self-assuredness was waned to a slight fear. After a few seconds, the sphere crashed down to earth on a now chalk-less floor. Tarot hurriedly picked up the object and handed it to Zack.

"Tarot gave me instructions on where to take and what to do with it. I had to dispose of it in the nearest lake, Lake Babylon, before dawn tomorrow. Before I could even reply, an explosion outside caught my attention. At the same time, Fido and Sabrina returned, looking highly confused. Tarot immediately sent Fido and I to investigate. Sabrina shot him a glance that both he and I interpreted as a command to follow Tarot's order. He nodded and we both charged back up the stairs."

Returning upstairs, the dog and rabbit were welcomed by the whole front wall of the shop... missing, destroyed! They gasped. What had done this? They ran outside just in time to see a large ship pass by...

"Craning our necks to observe the sky, the next sight was just incredulous. A massive alien ship was passing overhead. Fido and I were alerted by the sphere popping both of its antennae out. Panicking, we forced both of them back into the sphere. It whooped once loudly, then quieted and stayed that way. We breathed a sigh in relief and decided that we very much needed a plan. It was decided that we should look for help getting to Lake Babylon."

At Zack's suggestion, he and Fido headed for the Arbelt house. They would need Jerry to drive them to the lake, and it was closer than Fido's house; it was only a fifteen-minute walk, but they weren't going to walk. The dog and rabbit hot-footed it over to the Arbelt house, knocking on the door and ringing the doorbell. Marvin answered the door and stared at the K-9, his only thought 'Am I in trouble?'

"After some assurance that Marvin was in no trouble, we asked him if you were home. He looked at the clock: 6PM and still no word from you meant that we'd have to do something. As Fido and I started off for his house, Marvin stopped us and asked what was going on. We filled him in on as much as we knew, and a passing Tiger overheard. Both of them wanted to help us get there, so we all went together.

Just before the group arrived at the Byron(?) house, a blast caused the cars parked outside of it to explode. This threw Zack, Fido, Marvin, and Tiger to the ground, and the people rushed out from inside of the house to see what was going on. They shrieked (the loudest shrieker being Fido's owner; this made the dog facepalm) at something across the street, but the pets saw nothing when they looked. They got up.

"We went to talk to the humans that had come out, but they were hysterical. Another explosion across the street destroyed another shop-home and the cars parked outside of it. It was clear that something wanted to stop us from getting transportation to the lake, and so far, they were doing a good job of it! Another blast hit the middle of the street; they were actively targeting us! We all freaked out and ran into the Bryon house. I was the last one in, propelled by another explosion."

---
Chapter 2 done.
Comments/concerns welcome, as usual!

[Private Elliot]

I can't come up with anything to say other than "I like this story, keep it up" so...um yeah.

Also I'm alive.

[valerio]

aliens and spaceship on a rampage. Oh my!

[KizerZin]

life des seam to give out some real "wake up" calls... now all we need is some Nazis... HA HA Haaaa!

This is much improved.

[RandomGeekNamedBrent]

Aliens, Intrigue, action. it's like a summer blockbuster without the romance. at least, no romance yet.

[Daggy]

I feel like...if you put what Zach is directly telling Jerry in italics or something, it might make a difference. I was doing it mentally. I don't know. That's my only concern, hehe.


Oh aliens. Destroy everything, leave no survivors. Or at least, no surviving buildings!

[copper]

Nice update. Sci fi is always fun! Can't wait for the next part.

No real concerns. It was a great update.

Fido is embarrassed by his dad.... awesome.

[Brian]

Wonderful story. The plot thickens I see, well, I can not wait to see where this goes to next.

[Blue Braixen]

Wonderful story. The plot thickens I see, well, I can not wait to see where this goes to next.

...Every Monday and Thursday!... Hopefully. *giggles*

Nazis

Possibly?
Chapter 3
---

"As soon as I landed inside, the humans quickly slammed and locked the door. Every movable piece of furniture, save for a couch and a recliner, was moved to block the door. We all breathed a sigh of relief; we were safe, at least for a while. The humans ran into one of the upstairs rooms, looking for items to fight off aliens with. They came back wielding some very. . . strange weapons that were unsharpened and wouldn't do any damage to us, let alone a bunch of extraterrestrials. We laughed a little bit, and the humans, offended, ran downstairs to sharpen weapons that, for all intents and purposes, didn't seem possible to sharpen. We decided to check the area. . . well, Marvin, Fido and I did. Tiger was curled up in the corner."

The two dogs and cat left the sphere with Tiger while they exited the back door to make sure no aliens were trying to get in. Snooping around the backyard, Zack noticed a couple of windows that provided a very good view into the basement below and two of the humans kissing. "Why do I feel like taking a picture?" the rabbit thought as he continued his examination. After a minute or so of their investigation, it was agreed that there were no aliens in the backyard. They shrugged and headed back inside, locking the door as they entered. Tiger had disappeared, but the sphere had stayed where Fido had placed it. Fido picked up and cradled the sphere.

"We had all of two seconds to wonder where Tiger had gotten to before the wall near the front door was blasted into nothingness. The house filled with smoke and debris from the wall was hurled our way. We all coughed. Tiger came rushing in from the kitchen, and upon seeing the hole in the wall and now what seemed to be a large figure moving through the smoke, dropped the pizza from his mouth in shock. We looked from Tiger to the new door, waiting to catch a better glimpse of whatever was there."

Just then, a large, muscular, purple alien with a cybernetic cannon on its arm stepped through the hole in the wall and revealed itself to the group. It had four eyes and body armor, as well. Its cannon pointed up, smoking, until one of them began to move. It immediately came down and pointed at all four of them, switching between Tiger and Fido, Marvin and Zack. They collectively gulped.

"I thought we were done for right there. Thankfully, one of the humans yelled and charged right at the behemoth alien from the top of the staircase from the basement. This distracted it enough for us to run away through the back door. We were forced to ignore the cries from the human as the alien's cannon illuminated the night behind us. We wouldn't forget him. . ."

Unfortunately, the backyard was only so big. They quickly ran out of space to run with. Suddenly, the fence ahead of them was blown away. Peanut was standing behind the now-open fence, holding in both paws a gigantic cannon similar to the one on the alien from before. He yelled for the group to follow him.

"Peanut told us that Tarot had explained everything to him and that he had a way to get us to the lake. He also informed us that it was about 10:30 PM. We would have to pick up the pace if we were going to make it on time. We had to run, dodging blasts from above, all the way to the Sandwich house. Peanut had done a good job of returning fire, dropping a few of the aliens to keep them from firing on us. The house was, as I expected, missing a wall, but the crazy dog still led us through the front door. Peanut yelled out to warn Grape before we came in. It was a good thing he did, seeing as she had set up on a table a cannon just like Peanut's and it was aimed at us!"

The Sandwich pets convinced their owners to take them all to the lake, but Grape reconsidered at the last second. She wanted to check on Max. Peanut let her go without a fuss. The original group, Peanut, and the Sandwiches all piled into the family van, which had fortunately not been destroyed. Mr. Sandwich issued the standard warning to buckle up or group together for safety (in the case of the animals that didn't get seats due to space constraints) and rushed off down the road toward the lake.

---
I apologize for there not being much this time around, but I couldn't get anything to work for the longest time. Regardless, Chapter 3 is on time! Questions and comments are always welcome!

[RandomGeekNamedBrent]

great update. action-packed and alien-filled.

was that human wearing a red shirt?

[Blue Braixen]

Yes, why do you ask? *giggles*

I'm trying so hard to keep this exciting and PG at the same time without love being the pivotal point. X3

[copper]

Peanut plays too many video games!

Where did they even get those plasma cannon things?

Max is involved somehow, I am sure!

[Blue Braixen]

>.< Crap! I was supposed to update yesterday! Ah well, it'll be today then.

[kurowolfe]

I've only started to read this just now, and I have to say I'm impressed! Plasma cannons, aliens, suspense, the whole nine yards

And woohoo for Peanut with a cannon launcher! XD

I'll be adding this one to my reading list, if you don't mind, TH! =3

P/S: You know, I can somehow tell how the ending's going to be, but I'll leave it to you to see whether it's true or not~

[Blue Braixen]

I've always loved sci-fi. It's my favorite genre because nothing has a boundary. It's always possible to bring in better technology that can have serious consequences, or bring in alien life that may or may not (maybe both! ) be friendly. It blows the saying "The sky's the limit" out of the water. And mainly, it's just fun to write and read. And that's what most writers want: to be read, to have a story that draws interest. The goal is to draw in someone that doesn't even like sci-fi! But that's a difficult one.

Ohh yes. Peanut with ANY weapon is epic.

Of course I don't mind! New readers are always good. :3

Maybe. I may get pretty darn unpredictable soon! *laughs* We'll see~

[Blue Braixen]

So, since I didn't update Thursday, guess what? You get not three, but four updates this week to make up for it (Let's hope I still have four updates worth of stuff to write! )!

Chapter 4:

---
"I remember Mr. Sandwich swerving wildly to avoid incoming blasts from above. For having looked like he was half-asleep, the man's driving skills were as sharp as a tack. The shots fired ahead created some huge pot-holes in the road, making the drive even more treacherous. He always warned us just before a pothole or major swerve to make sure we stayed safe. This was definitely a bumpy ride..."

Another volley farther down the road, just outside of Babylon Gardens, disabled the front passenger tire of the van, sending it reeling off the path toward the direction of the lake, but through a nearby forest rather than the winding road that would have been safer.

"All of us screamed or cried out as the van careened off, narrowly passing between trees and around the occasional boulder until we screeched to a halt just in front of a tree. The vehicle shifted and reared back before stopping dead. Mr. Sandwich turned off the motor and the pets that were belted in climbed out as well as he and Mrs. Sandwich. Those of us in the back... weren't so lucky. We got sandwiched (no pun intended) together, sitting in one giant clump in the corner of the trunk of the van. The others pried us out, Fido clutching tightly to that orb. None of us noticed that the red button had been pushed."

As the pets climbed out of the trunk, the sphere in Fido's grip opened and its antennae stuck out. All anybody had time to do before its ear-splitting scream was cringe as its shriek quickly intensified in pitch, causing even the humans to cover their ears, yelling until it reached a pitch high enough that the Sandwiches could no longer hear it. Mrs. Sandwich, seeing the pets still holding their heads, dashed over and pushed in the button on the sphere, closing it. The pets sighed in relief.

"After we gathered our scattered brains, and Marvin got over his panic attack (which I still don't understand why he had one in the first place), we decided we'd have to trek it on foot. Peanut was keeping up with us, even with lugging around that cannon. I have to say, he was pretty impressive. I never imagined that he'd be this serious."

There was no herd or pets and ferals rampaging to meet at the orb. The group did, however, hear the sounds of the aliens growing in the trees above, and waited for Peanut to ready the cannon. He did, and, using the scouter attachment that came off of the cannon (similar to that of a holographic sight on a regular gun), began to pick off aliens from the trees. They just seemed to disappear before hitting the ground.

"It continued like that for a good five and a half miles before we finally emerged from the forest. We were all achy and sore, and Peanut looked especially drained. Mr. Sandwich's wristwatch told us it was 1 AM. Six hours until sunrise and we had to stay moving every minute of it if we wanted to make it. I volunteered to take the cannon out of Peanut's paws so that he could get a bit of a break. It was really heavy, but I could walk with it. The next part of our journey was even worse."

To get to the lake, the group would have to traverse an wide-open expanse of prairie. This wouldn't sound too dangerous at all... until one realizes that the alien mother-ship was floating directly overhead! Many alien soldiers teleported down from the enemy ship and pointed their cannons at the group.

"I thought we were goners for sure. Then, to my surprise, one of the aliens started barking orders to the other aliens... but in our language! He ordered them to take us alive and transport us to the ship. The aliens crowded around us, forcing us back-to-back-to-back, etc. until they had all closed around us, and then everything went white."

[copper]

Great update! I wonder why that was the only way to the lake.... This is sounding like some made up story and in the end they will all talk about how they could not believe that their dad believed it all!

[RandomGeekNamedBrent]

another good update. this combined with the current comic arc, Zach seems to only serve as a way to tell the story.

[Blue Braixen]

I do find it funny that I had this idea slightly before Rick did. *giggles* But nevertheless, he's a good storyteller.

I apologize for not having updated. I have no excuse. I'm just lazy. *giggles* And I don't expect for that to change! However, there will be an update tomorrow.