Chapter Text
Ever since one particular night shift that ended with him swallowing a worm-like organism and gaining some new abilities as a result, new protocols had been put in place regarding Officer Dante Dalmatian. For one, while he had been allowed to continue with his duties, all officers around him have since been under strict orders to report anything new. So far, he he could practically recover from any damage that wasn't caused by acid or heat and he could sprout extremely strong, dexterous and highly venomous tentacles from his back. Aside from a new appetite for raw meat and his blood now being purple, he was just peachy.
Or about as peachy as someone like him could be.
One day, Dylan, Dolly and attending physician/fellow officer Cindy Bear watched from a window in the MRI room just as Dante had finished undergoing a scan, something he now had to regularly do.
"Am I good?" Dante asked as exited the room and put his vest and badge back on.
"Alright, let's see what see what we have here." Cindy mused as she turned on the monitor.
The three dalmatians turned their attention to the screen, particularly the zoom-in shot of Dante's chest cavity. The very same worm that he had swallowed that night had latched onto his heart. What used to be its head had fused with branched-out tendrils that wrapped around and buried into the organ like roots. Being as firmly cemented as it was, it would've been next to impossible to remove with without it killing him.
"Ugh, still not used to seeing that." Dylan retched as Dolly struggled a tiny bit to keep her lunch down.
"Everything seems to be in order." Cindy commented. "So to speak."
"Thanks, Cindy. I'll see you later." Dante said as he and his siblings got back up.
Once Dylan and Dolly put their capes back on, the three made their way out of the hospital. Seeing as the distance from the station was pretty walkable, the three decided to walk through the park and took this time to talk a bit.
"I honestly still can't believe how well you're taking this." Dolly commented.
"Eh, well if you're anything like me, I guess it kinda softened the blow a lot." Dante shrugged.
"As long as you can and there's nothing new to report, I'm just happy you're OK." Dylan said.
Just then, a high-pitched, muffled screech came from Dante's pocket. He reached down and, after digging around in there for a bit, pulled out his phone. His siblings had gotten used to this ringtone by now.
"Hello? Oh hey, Portia. Sorry, I still have work later." Dante said.
As the couple talked over the phone, Dolly couldn't help but look at Dylan. She then saw his scrunched up frown and narrowed eyes, prompting her to stifle a laugh and smirk at him.
"Don't tell me you're still salty about them getting together." Doll teased.
"I'm not." Dylan quickly denied, trying to look away and stifle his blush. "Dolly, I'm over her! I'm just concerned as to how she'll treat him; that's all.""
"Uh-huh. Sure. Keep telling yourself that." Dolly scoffed.
The elder dalmatian growled under his breath. As he clenched his teeth in annoyance, he felt his fangs sharpening and elongating slightly.
"Yeah, alright. See you then." Dante said he finished his called, pocketed his phone and turned his attention back to his siblings.
Just as he was about to say anything, Dante's face contorted and his breathing was become all too indicative of an upcoming sneeze. Dolly and Dylan's eyes widened with dread the minute they saw that.
"Incoming!" Dolly cried as she and Dylan got in front of Dante.
Dante let out a sneeze. At the same time, the pitch black tentacles burst from his back and embedded themselves into a nearby tree. When Dante noticed that, he cringed as the tree shriveled up and lost its leaves almost instantly. Even a crow, that had been perched in the tree, was skewered right in the brain and envenomated. Cringing at the damage, he immediately retracted the tendrils into his back. The three hesitantly stood there for several seconds, unsure of what to do.
That was, until Dylan got a call on his radio.
"Dylan?" Dawkins' voice came. "We have something to show you that you might want to see."
"Copy that, Dawkins. We'll be right there." Dylan replied
The three dalmatian siblings whistled innocently as they hastily walked out of there, leaving a withered tree and a twitching bird on the ground.
When they made it back to the station, Dylan made his way to the station's laboratory. Dante and Dolly, meanwhile, made his way to his workstation. There, he found Hilda, David and Frida, with David nose-deep in a copy of the ISCPO Handbook (Revised Edition). Of the officers in this precinct who were transformed, David was the one who took it the hardest. It took several weeks to acclimate him to his new un-life as a vampire. And seeing there was no cure for vampirism or therianthropy, David and Hilda opted to study all they could about their new species.
"Hey, guys." Dolly greeted as she and Dante sat down
"Hey, Dante. Hey, Dolly" Hilda greeted before turning her attention to the former. "How's the checkup?"
"Good." Dante answered. "Worm is still fused into my heart. Accidentally stabbed a tree and a bird in the head, killing it."
"Again?" David asked. "That's the fifth time that's happened this week."
"At least you've been learning and getting better at keeping it under control." Frida remarked.
"Speaking of learning, I never knew about this." David said as he pointed at one excerpt. "It says here vampires are can mimic the powers of those whose blood they suck. And if they gain a target's powers permanently if they drain them completely."
Dolly turned to Frida, who glowered at her.
"Don't even think about it." She sneered.
"I kid! I kid!" Dolly laughed defensively.
Just then, their attention was grabbed by Dolly's radio.
"Dolly, Dante! Quick! You better see this!" Dylan called urgently.
Without wasting any time, they hopped off their seats and rushed towards the lab.
When they made it to the lab, they found Dylan, accompanied Dawkins, Lisa, Dr./Det. Fox, and Mouse, waiting for them.
"What's up?" Dolly asked.
"Care to explain?" Dylan asked the scientists.
"Oh dear, where to begin?" Dawkins gulped.
He led them over to a table. On it were various petri dishes and other scientific instruments. But what really caught their attention were the glass boxes each containing a dead rat. Morbid curiosity washed over Dolly and Dante. Mouse quickly cleared his throat.
"To start, we decided to test the extent of the of the effects of Dante's venom." Mouse began, trying and failing to contain how shaken he was after using rats in the experiments, considering he was a rodent himself.
"Let's just let the video speak for itself." Lisa said as she grabbed a remote
She pressed a button, turning on a nearby screen. On it, they watched what the one of the rats being injected in the heart with one of the syringes containing Dante's venom. The moment the toxin entered the rat's body, it just immediately flatlined and went limp like a noodle, without so much as a twitch. The officers watching couldn't help but wince. Things got worse with the next rat. This time it was injected into its spine. The rat was still alive, but much like the first, it went completely limp and was unresponsive.
It was alive, but paralyzed
"Oh Dog..." Dolly cringed as Dante watched with wide eyes.
The third one came up and this one was inject in a random part of its body. This was the most gruesome as the rat flailed and rolled around, squeaking in agony. It was about this time the rat was put out of its misery by another shot of venom, courtesy of Lisa.
"It was this time we decided to end the rat tests, due to the toll that was having on Mouse." Dr. Fox explained, patting a visibly trembling Mouse.
"It's fine, I'll pull through." Mouse said as he shook his head and clicked on a different video. "And that's not the only thing we've found. This time, we tested the venom on some cell samples we got from Dante shortly after his first mutation."
"Wait, I don't remember do that." Dante interjected.
"Better safe than sorry." Lisa said, discreetly eyeing a bottle of chloroform and tranquilizer gun in a glass case in the wall.
The video showed a microscopic view of the Dante's cells and some foreign cells amongst them.
"As you can see, even several months later, Dante and the worm's cells haven't fully assimilated. We're honestly surprised this hasn't led to any more dire effects." Dawkins explained. "But when we added the venom..."
Right at the moment the venom was added, the cells seemed to merge together, before abruptly disintegrating.
"That right there." Lisa said. "We hypothesize that Dante may not even be immune to his own toxins. But we will never whether that is the case or not without killing you or any other adverse effects. And I doubt you'd be willing to do that."
While a gobsmacked Dolly was trying to process all this information, the group's attention was caught by the sound of munching. They turned towards the sound and saw Dante munching away at one of the dead rats.
"Dude, seriously?!" Dylan groaned, facepalming as he did.
"Sorry!" Dante apologized before swallowing the bite. "I haven't eaten all day."
"We were meaning to dispose of them anyway, so we may as well kill two birds with one stone." Dawkins sighed.
Later, the three dalmatian siblings had left the lab. What they had heard earlier was going to take a while to digest. The three dalmatians decided to head for the gym, hoping to take their minds off it by practicing their powers a bit. When they got there, they were startled when Hawkodile came flying before slamming into into the wall next to the entrance, courtesy of Dog, who was in his werebeast form.
"Sorry!" Dog apologized to both his sparring partner and the three dalmatians as he went over and helped the vampiric hybrid back on his feet. "You okay?"
"Yeah." Hawkodile chuckled as he grabbed Dog's outstretched hand to pull himself up. "Good round."
"Looks like you guys are just in time for sparring." Deepak noted with his usual serene smile as Hawkodile and Dog (who shifted back into his normal form) made their way back to their seat.
Either side the young zen officer, were Pat and her new boyfriend Liam. The both of them had been brought in to help train the turned vampires and werebeasts in the precinct. On the benches adjacent to the walls, Nate and Malika sat, waiting for their turn to spar. With that, Dylan, Dolly and Dante took their seats.
"Nate, Malika. You're up." Liam called.
"Wish us luck, guys." Nate and Malika whispered as they got up.
After standing back-to-back for a few seconds, they took ten paces away from each other before facing each other once more.
"Remember our lessons, you two." Pat reminded them. "Work with the beast, don't try to control it."
"And try not to destroy anything again." Deepak added with a sigh.
Nate and Malika both smiled and chuckled nervously at that memory. The latter took a few deep breaths and the former bounced up and down slightly to hype himself up a bit. With a blow of Deepak's whistle, the duel commenced. Malika levitated off the ground before rocketing towards Nate. He responded by charging back. Just as it looked like they were about to collide, the werewolf juked her by sliding underneath her and grabbing her leg. Malika responded by kicking him in the gut.
Nate tumbled the entire time and the wind was knocked out of him, but quickly recovered and stopped himself from sliding any further by digging his claws into the floor. The two charged each other again, this time with Malika running and Nate going on all fours, shifting into his werewolf form with every step. This time, it was Malika's turn to mislead as she quickly transformed into a bat and flew just out of his reach, leading him to spin around and around trying to grab her. Once he was disoriented a bit, Malika shifted back and attempted to put Nate in a headlock.
He quickly reacted to this by using his superior size to his advantage by prying her arms off him through brute force. He then grabbed one of her arms before, twisted it and spun her around a bit before using the momentum to trip her over his leg, sending her tumbling to the floor. Once she was down, Nate was about to pin her down, only for he to roll out of the way.
Scrambling back onto her feet, Malika removed her cape and threw it into his face. Nate staggered back as he fumbled with the the black cloth in an attempt to get it off him. By the time he was sable to get it off him, he avoided a claw swipe from Malika by the skin of his teeth. She tried to go for a roundhouse kick, but Nate quickly grabbed her leg and, with a mighty yank, sent her flopping onto her back. Before he could go in for the final pin, Malika levitated out of the way and, with a hard jerk, forced Nate to release her, nearly knocking him over and allowing her to fly all the way to the gym's ceiling. She then rocketed towards Nate.
When the two finally collided, he caught her. With hands locked together, the two hissed and growled as they pushed against each other, cracking the floor in the process. With Nate's size advantage, Malika's knees threatened to give out. That was until she had an idea.
She suddenly smashed her lips against his. Feeling him flinch, she took that chance by ramming straight into his gut and sending him flopping onto his back. After he got himself onto his stomach, Malika reacted quickly grabbed one of his arms, twisted it, and held it while placing her foot against his neck.
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5." She counted with the smuggest of tone.
"Malika wins!" Deepak announced.
"Vamps for the win!" Dolly laughed as her brothers smiled and rolled their eyes.
"Hey, no fair!" Nate complained as Malika got off him and helped him up. "You can't just kiss me!"
"I just couldn't resist your fuzzy little face." Malika giggled half-jokingly, playfully poking him on the nose as she picked up her cape and put it back on.
"I might love my girlfriend as much as you do your boyfriend, but I doubt a real opponent would be so receptive." Liam chuckled as they went back to their seat.
Turning his attention to the the three dalmatian siblings, he waved them over. The three of them got up and walked up. This time it was going to be a 2 v. 1.
"Ready, you three?" Deepak asked.
"Ready as I'll ever be." Dylan replied.
"Just blow the whistle." Dolly chuckled, cracking her neck.
Dante didn't say anything. Instead, nodding silently. As soon as they heard Deepak's whistle, they were off. Dante's tendrils burst from his back, attempting to swipe at his siblings. Dylan and Dolly bobbed, weaved and dodged his attacks. Suddenly, Dante's arms morphed into tentacles and shot them both at his siblings, they narrowly dodged, resulting in the tendrils sticking themselves into the floor. They turned back to Dante, whom they quickly realized was using them to slingshot himself towards them. Dolly responded by turning into rat to dodge while Dylan leapt over his head, breaking his fall by tumbling.
Still in her rat form, Dolly found it easier to dodge Dante's attacks. She then scampered up his leg and into an untucked part of his shirt. Her movement around in there was quite tickling to Dante, making for quite a comical scene for everyone watching.
"Gyahaha- Dolly! STOP! HAHAH!" Dante screeched with laughter as he tried to get her out. "HahAHa- knock it-HAHAH-KnOck iT OfF!"
Thoroughly satisfied with herself, she climbed out through his shirt collar. There, she shifted back to her normal form. The sudden weight caused Dante to fall to his back. She attempted to pin him down, but Dante, eager for some revenge, plucked her off him with a tentacle.
"Oh, you're gonna get it." Dante growled.
Before he could inflict his vengeance, he was forced to drop her when Dylan came up and put him in a headlock with his baton. Dante tried to pry the baton off him, Dolly came to Dylan's aid by grabbing Dante's arm and twisting it. Before ling, the two were able to overpower him and wrestle him to the ground. However, he still had one more trick up his sleeve. Dylan put his mouth against Dante's neck to simulate biting him, the latter's arm morphed into a tendril once more, this time grabbing Dolly's hand and pinning her to the floor, while another tendril emerged his his back and touched Dylan's chin, as if threatening to stab him right through the mouth.
"Oh my God." Pat gasped.
"I think we have a draw." Liam added.
"That was amazing, you three." Deepak commented. "If a bit nightmarish on Dante's part."
"Thanks." Dante said as he, Dylan, and Dolly dusted themselves off and picked themselves up.
As they made their way back to the benches, they received high-fives and fist bumps all around.
"That was sweet." Nate complimented.
"Hey, you and Malika were no slouches yourselves." Dolly said as she picked up a bottle of blood and chugged it.
"You should've seen Dog and Hawkodile's spar." Malika said. "That was insane."
As they spoke, they failed to notice a crow with a bloody hole in its head watching them. Or, more specifically, Dante.