The Tale of a Dog Hero

The City Dallo

Over time, Oscar and Zuko had managed to change topics from Oscars writing to his fighting. Tippy had walked up and put the bird on Oscars back. "Hey boys. Sorry to break it up, but we should probably leave." Oscar turned around to tippy, then pet his bird. "Hang on Tippy. Zuko was telling me about how I get get better at fighting." "Patience, my boy. Waiting for the enemy to move is very important. With your speed and power, I reckon that a boxing style would suit your fancy." Tippy grabbed Zuko and Oscars hands and began pulling them into the forest. "Walk and talk guys. Walk and talk." Oscars eyes widened and pulled his hand back. Tippy turned to look at him, but he already composed himself. "So... Zuko. What kind of boxing styles are there? Maybe Tippy can learn some too." "No. She doesn't seem like much of a boxer... Or a fighter. As for your question. There are generally four styles of boxing. Some argue that there are five. Out-boxing, swarmer which is also known as pressure boxing, slugger, and boxer puncher. The fifth is counter-boxing, but I think you should focus on swarmer. It requires a lot of practice though, as you need a near perfect stance along with high stamina to keep outpacing your opponent. If you'd like, I can give you a few tips, or be a sparing partner." "I'd be down for that. We don't really have a safe space though. We need to find shelter and whatnot." Tippy turned to Oscar. "Hey, there's a city I remember the seekers had talked about. While they were tying me up, one of them spoke about an advanced, large city." "I remember their leader saying something about getting revenge on the people there. The city is called Dallo. Think they would let us buy a house if we worked hard enough?" Zuko chuckled and look at Oscar with a side eye. "You won't need to do that." "Why not?" "I make riches in a day, that would take any working man a month. Just point to a house, and I can afford it." Tippy's face lit up with excitement. "What? You would really do that for us? That's so cool of you!" "Nonsense. I'm doing it to keep an eye on Oscar. If I'm to be living with you both, I would like to live comfortably." So where is this city, Oscar? You seem to have more information than me." Oscar turned and began walking toward the broken down temple. "It's a bit of a walk, but it's past that place the Resistance was hiding. If we get there, I can climb a tree to try and find it."

It took the rest of the day to make it back to the makeshift camp Tippy made, but when they got there, Tippy set up a fire, and Zuko and Oscar began sparring. It didn't take long for Oscar to catch on the concept of blocking. As soon as he had the basics, he worked on punching specific targets. Before it got too dark, Oscar tried to hunt a deer, but when he fired his pistol at it, all the meat in it's torso was ruined. Luckily, Tippy had caught another rabbit in one of her traps and they all went to bed for the night. When morning struck, Oscar, Zuko, and Tippy made it to the temple and Oscar began climbing a nearby tree. From above the forest, he managed to find the city, and they all continued on.

"Hm. Alex. Kenny? Bit? Piper? Nick? Doc?" Oscar tried listing off names to his bird, but it only looked at him in disappointment. Tippy smiled and rubbed Oscars head. "Have you tried using actual bird names? Maybe less female names too?" "A name is a name, regardless of gender.. I'll just try rapid fire... Bobo, Arc, Kiwi, Jackie, Stock, Blue, Kay, Turnip, Kip, Nala, Rio Max, Kochi, Liz, Tick, Nina, Jace, Aria, Ohm-" The cardinal bird look up and chirped. "Oooh. Tippy. I think i found out his name. Its Ohm." "Odd name for a bird." "I kinda like it... Ohm. My bird. Oh! That reminds me. We gotta train together, Ohm." *chirp* "yeah!" Oscar put Ohm on his back and kicked off the ground. He made an attempt to get Ohm to fly, but he just thought Oscar was jumping for fun. Oscar tried again, but he didn't understand. "Ohm. Try gliding or flying. Or... Something." Oscar tried more three times before Zuko walked up and patted the bird on the head. "Allow me Oscar. Eleanor?" The wisp flew out of Zuko and looked at Ohm. Eleanor flew into his body, then right back out. Immediately, she began chirping to him, and he chirped back. Zuko was staring at Ohm after Eleanor finished their chat. "Oscar. You need to give a visual or physical command to Ohm right now, and he will understand it means 'fly'. Eleanor will speak to him again, for 'glide', and a third time for 'hover'. Go ahead and make the command." Oscar lifted both his shoulders twice. Eleanor started chirping for a moment and then Zuko gave the go ahead for glide. Oscar lifted his right shoulder twice. After the third time Eleanor talked to Ohm, Zuko put a thumb up. Oscar lifted his left shoulder twice. Zuko recalled his wisp and walked infront of Oscar. "Alright. Ohm does know the commands now, but it will take time for him to master them. He may be a bit slow to react or mix them up every now and again. That just comes with training, so." "Hey, thanks. Im glad you arent trying to kill us anymore." "Eh. It can wait. I never said how long this truce will last." Tippy playfully punched Zuko's shoulder. "It better not be soon. You still have to teach me some stuff about fighting." "I do still recommend you not fight. Defence may be better suited for you anyway." "Wha- You be defence! Maybe fighting isn't for me, but I can do more than any regular person. These months with Oscar have been great learning opportunities, as well as physical training with Artemis." Oscar's head twitched. Zuko lifted his arms up halfway and lowered his head. "Now, I did not say you weren't qualified to be a fighter. I said you don't seem like a fighter. You would have a much better time helping out the group if you would support the team with things you, or Oscar may need. You do not HAVE to play a defensive role. You could be a healer of sorts. Do you know magic?" "No. Is magic even real?" Zuko became very disappointed in Tippy for even asking the question. He slowly too off his hat and pulled out his cards. He took one and made it float in between his fingers. Tippy scoffed. "Oh, please. There is a string holding the card i- iin... place..." Zuko had quickly tossed out every card and made them float all around him. He smirked and continued walking behind Oscar with the cloud of cards surrounding himself. After all morning, The small group had made it into Dallo. The buildings and land itself was completely different from what they were all used to. All but Zuko. He seemed to be familiar with this type of scenery. Oscar touched the ground and tried to grab at it. Zuko chuckled lightly. "You can't grab at it Oscar. It's all a solid chunk. What you are standing on is a sidewalk. I'm sure you can figure out that over here is a road. Its made of concrete, cement, tar, and asphalt. The first two are what makes up a lot of things in the city. Well, that, and iron or steel." Oscar looked around as Tippy did the same. This is... Very different from the dirt roads and wooden concrete houses." "Indeed, my dear boy. Worry not. You will get adjusted to this new setting very quickly, as I had to your land." "Well... Where do we go from here?" "Find who runs this place. There is likely a Chief, or Mayor who is marked as the face of this city. I recommend we go to that store over there first. I'm quite hungry for fine meats instead of campfire rabbit." Oscar and Tippy followed Zuko into a small restaurant that serves all sorts of meats, plants, and grain product. Everyone was a bit shocked when they saw a seeker running the place. "Hey! What the hell are you three? Is that a live bird on your back?" Zuko walked forwards and tried to a dress the situation. "Please calm yourself, sir. We are a different species, but would like to try your dining. We are paying customers." "The hell you are! I ain't never seen your kind in my life! Now get out, before I call the cops!" Oscar decided to chime in as well. "Woah, hold on. We are hungry, and mean you no trouble. We just want some food." "Hmm. Now that you say it like tha- NO!" The seeker pressed on a small tablet he had in his arm and almost immediately, there were sirens being sounded in the distance. "You ain't making it outta here without life in jail! Shoulda left when I warned ya!" "You're a dick..." Oscar said as he turned to walk outside. In no time at all there were police at the restaurant and handcuffs on the group. Even Ohm had a tiny pair on his legs. The police had no clue what to do with them on account of them not commiting any crimes, yet being something they have never before seen. In one hour, the news about a different species in their city had made it to the mayor. Not long after, the police had taken them to the mayor's office. The building was all white and had no windows. Along with it looking like a 20 sided die, the material did not appear to be made out of wood, metal, concrete, or any of the sort. When the group was inside, the police removed everyone's handcuffs and left the building. "So. A new species of what I assume to be... Anthropomorphic animals comes into my city. Then the first thing they do is disturb the peace." A voice echoed all around the room, but there was no person to link the sound to. Oscar started looking around quickly. "Not exactly. We just wanted to eat at one of your restaurants and the owner declined us service." The echoing voice got quieter the more it spoke. "Well, the owner does have that right. Was some food the only reason for your presence?" Zuko walked up the stairs to his left and saw an older man. He appeared to be in his late 60's and a lot of his mechanical body looked outdated. He wore a half decent tuxedo, and slippers that had his emblem on the top. The mayor was standing at a table, pouring himself a drink before walking towards Zuko. "Back up for me. Y-yeah. Back down the stairs. You're messing up the carpet- c'mon." Zuko went back downstairs and joined the group again. The mayor eyeballed everyone, then slowly took a sip of his drink. "Well, I suppose we can start with names. My name is James, but you will have to call me mayor in public." "My name is Oscar. Behind me is Tippy, and to the right of me is Zuko. This bird on my back is Ohm. Like the electrical kind. We are working to be hero's one day." James lightly chuckled to himself before taking another sip. "Is there any other way to spell it?" Zuko interrupted. "Apologies for changing the topic, but I was curious about me and my companions having citizenship in your fine town." "No need for such formalities. So, you are all heros? I have an issue that you could do for me. If you succeed, then I will grant you citizenship. I'll do all the paperwork for you and everything. All you would need to do is sign the papers." "Where do we need to go?" "We are currently dealing with some trouble makers at the edge of the city, West side. If you could take care of them, I would appreciate it. You may deal with those people in whatever manner you see fit." Oscar turned and walked out of the building. Without another word Oscar jumped into the air and flew west.
It took only a moment for Oscar to reach the edge of the city and get behind cover. There were 6 shooters opening fire on a police squad. Oscar quickly rushed behind a cop car and sat with his back against the front tire. A few cops ducked back down and looked at him. "Just what the hell are you?" "Backup." "You think you are gonna take them down? Yeah... Good luck pal." Oscar rolled his eyes and spun around from behind cover. Everything begun moving slowly and the bullets could easily be dodged.  He could only see 4 of them at the moment, and he wanted 5. As everything sped back up, Oscar used the hood of the car to leap into the air. Ohm had started hovering over the crowd with Oscar, so the criminals started opening fire above. Everything begun moving slowly again. Oscar looked at the most left seeker to the most right seeker. He had a view on all 6 of them. Ohm dropped Oscar and flew back behind cover. Upon hitting the ground, Oscar rolled on his left shoulder and summoned his pistol. In half a second, Oscar flipped the hammer back with his left pinky, and 5 of the seekers heads were blown away, but the last seeker had a shotgun sized hole in her lower chest that left her screaming in pain. Before she bled out, Oscar grabbed her by the collar and had begun his interrogation. "Why did you and your friends start unloading rounds at the town?" "I- not t-lling you sh-..." "You dont have to tell me then. I could just find someone who can extract your information. It cant be to hard to strip a robot of it's parts. Why do you think I left you alive?" "You w-ldn't dare." Oscar puller her closer "Oh, I think I would. I'll even make sure you remain active so I can hear you scream as we start deleting your memory files until you forget why you are even screaming at all!" "Alr-t! Alright. We w-re paid to get rid of the cops and cause da-ges to as much prop-ty damage as possi-le." "Who hired you? Where are they?" "A powe-ull man who... goes... by..." Oscar stood at the now dead body, and felt anger. He grabbed the body and tied it to his back. As he was leaving, he heard the cops talking to themselves. "He just came down here and wiped them all away. It took us over 2 hours do get as close as we were and he finished it in 10 seconds. How did he even do that? Who the hell is this kid?" Ohm landed on Oscar's right shoulder and he begun to head back to the mayor. It may be best to keep what he knows a secret for now.