Chapter 41: A Dog’s Life

Chapter 41: A Dog’s Life

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"You Think Your Dookie Don't Stink?"

-Ace, (DC League Of Super-Pets)

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(Gotham, 2003)

<(Omniscient POV) {Animan Dialect}>

'Now where did that damn butterfly go? I swear I saw it hovering somewhere around here." Ace, Bruce's pet dog thought as he used his ever-trusty nose to sniff around trying to smell out the multicolored little menace.

It has been quite a couple of years that he has been living with his human best friend, the one and only Bruce Wayne and he was really proud to say that he had the highest amount of trust from Bruce among everyone else except the wise old man, Alfred. Ace had done his best to be as loyal and useful as possible to his human benefactor and best friend but unfortunately, that man was light years ahead of him when it came to being useful.

It didn't matter what happened, Alfred always seemed to perform better than him in almost everything whether it was fetching stuff for Bruce lifting up his mood, or biting the hell out of thieves who dared to try to enter their home. Yeah, they were not only greedy but stupid as well. Couldn't they see that this home was under his mighty protection, the protection of the great hound of Gotham?

Anyway, he had tried to give some tough competition to the old man trying to vie for the position of being Bruce's most loyal but after repeated failures Ace had finally settled for sharing the said title with Alfred. Plus he was also a little afraid of the guy. The butler was quite strict with both him and Bruce whenever it came to etiquette and manners, even more than that crazy guy ninja guy who taught Ace about different tricks and even trained him how to perfectly aim and bite off people's private parts.

Ace although the definition of a good dog and was quite proud of it too, still had his careless accidents. He was always severely admonished by Alfred whenever he forgot his chewing toys on the floor in the living room or conducted his private business outside of his litter box by accidents, accidents of which he wasn't at all proud.

Now, however even though Ace had settled his differences with Alfred, he was still competing with someone else for something even more important. He was going head-to-head with that... CAT GIRL. Yes, it was the girl named Selina, that girl had completely monopolized what was supposed to be one of his most prized spots and titles. She had taken the spot beside Bruce on his bed during sleepy time.

At first, the dog was okay with it because, after all, Bruce had taken her in way before he had adopted Ace. In fact, after he learned of her unfortunate life before Bruce from some of the local birds, he was even quite sympathetic as one stray to another and gladly shared Bruce's bed with her, taking one side of it, and leaving another to her.

But despite all his goodwill, she had broken his trust and betrayed him. Lately, she had been locking the door to Bruce's bedroom at night without even letting Ace in first. Even when Bruce yelled from inside the room that they were too young and she was not mature yet (probably too young and immature to sleep alone without Ace) she still didn't open the door. However, Bruce always showed his loyalty as Ace's best friend and opened the door to him after severely berating the girl. But that still didn't convince Ace to forgive her for her crimes against their sacred human-dog friendship.

But he had a plan for taking his rightful place as Bruce's cuddle buddy back from her in his mind, a plan which was walking towards him this very moment.

"Hey Ace, how is it going? Wait, am I interrupting your monologue or something?" A small orange kitten cutely said in an anime-like voice as it lazily and effortlessly walked through the gate bars.

It was good the defenses on the walls that Bruce had recently installed were controlled by Cortana and were smart enough not to attack the cat, otherwise Ace would probably have lost his only cat friend that day.

"Oh, it's you Whiskers. I thought I would have another stupid human's parts to bite off." Ace said with some amount of disappointment in his voice.

"You seriously have got to stop doing that. The dogs and cats in the neighborhood are all calling you the 'ball biter' you know. I am the one who has to explain to them that you don't chew on them or eat them but just bite them to pieces." The cat cutely informed.

'I guess I can still do some good in this world... I guess you were wrong when you said that I was a useless bad dog only good for getting beaten by your lab experiments professor. I at least am good at something, even if it is to bring smiles to the faces of others... No, you were a bad owner, I have understood that now since I have an actual good owner, a human being who takes care of me and trusts me as much as I trust him. No matter how intelligent you were, you were still wrong.' Ace thought with a heavy heart as he looked at the dark cloudy sky recalling the family he once had, the siblings that were once his only playmates in that dark little cage of his.

He didn't remember much from that part of his life, he was too young to remember, too much of a puppy but he did remember one name, the cursed name of his tormentor, the one responsible for his tragic fate, Ivo.

"No, it's all in the past. I am now Ace Wayne, the hound of Gotham, I am the proud dog of the great heir of the Wayne family. Forged by torment and strengthened by agony, I am... BUTTERFLY BuTTERFLY BUTTERFLY" He barked like a maniac as he finally noticed the butterfly he wanted to chase and excitedly trotted off after it completely forgetting about the monologue he was trying to make.

He had a much nobler purpose currently, for when the city becomes overrun with such colorful menace, a dog must rise and chase them all away.

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<(Omniscient POV)>

"Ah, how nice. Seems like little Ace has made himself a friend. I had been getting worried for the dog. He doesn't have a lot of friends, not even at the dog park. He is actually a lot like you Master Bruce." Alfred chuckled.

"Hmm? Was that supposed to be a joke? I like to judge myself based on the quality of my friends, not the quantity. Also, even then I have a lot of friends. There is Selina, Vicki, Helena, Cortana, Clark, you, and even Slade." Bruce who was much taller and looked even more handsome than before due to his ongoing teen years responded with a smile.

"Yeah but two of them are people thrice your age, two of them are your pen pals and one of them isn't even a living human," Alfred muttered to himself wondering if he was doing a good job raising the kid but he didn't continue on that line of thought for long especially after he remembered all the dangerous things they had in their mansion like guns or explosives or unlicensed drugs, things that HE had allowed Bruce to make or interact with.

Bruce heard Alfred's mutter but wisely chose not to comment since he had no wish to argue with his number one henchman.

"But yeah you are right. I am happy for Ace. He needed an animal friend of his own... But I do wonder what animals speak of in their free time. Do they make sense at all when they talk in their languages? I guess we will never know unless..." He stopped as he began to think about a certain item that was really famous in different fictional works in his previous life.

'A translator chip which can translate what animals say, I wonder if I can make that. Would be quite useful for my Number 2.'

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(A/N: I tried to do something unique in this chapter by writing about Ace a little to give a little insight into his life, his personality, and his past. I don't know if I wrote it well since it was a first for me. I won't be writing from his POV a lot but if you guys think that it wasn't good enough and that I shouldn't write such a chapter ever again, let me know. I genuinely appreciate constructive criticism and would love to know what you guys think.)

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