I made my way inside the storage container housing the cats and dogs I rescued. This was the first time I was going to feed them. I was taking the day off and sticking around here to finally catch up on sleep, but these animals still needed to be taken care of. I already fed the cows, pigs, sheep, goats, and chickens. This was the last container that needed to be fed.

“Smelly cat, smelly cat. What are they feeding you? Smelly cat, smelly cat. It’s not your fault.” I sang to myself as I emptied an entire bag of cat food, and all the cats came running. Picking up the two big bags of dog food, I move over to feed them next. “Smelly dog, smelly dog. What am I feeding you? Smelly dog, smelly dog. It kind of is your fault, stop rolling around in your own poop!”

Pouring out the two bags, I go to leave before doing a scan with my power, and freezing mid-step. I walked backward as I looked in the dog cage at the dog. I was getting signals that he was a powered… Or she, it was hard to tell. I just kind of assumed most golden retrievers were male. I’m not sure why. Probably the same reason, I think most chihuahuas were female.

I pull out a core before thinking about it. Animals were a mixed bag when it came to powers. They could be extremely strong but that wasn’t always a good thing. Some animals protected humans from zombies, while others would actively hunt humans down once they gained powers. Dogs were one of those fifty-fifty cases where they could be good or evil. The dog hasn’t been starved almost to death and seemed friendly enough, so it should be fine.

I tossed the core to him/her like it was a treat, and they(probably shouldn’t assume the dog’s gender, I might get in trouble), the dog doesn’t immediately lock up… Until I hear the crunch of the core, which makes it freeze up. I don’t see any outright changes, so it could take a while to fi-. [H-hello?] I hear a voice in my head. “Hello.”

[Wait, you can hear me!?] The dog quirks its head. If the inside voice matched the sex, then I guessed right, and it was a boy dog. “Yes.” Its tail began wagging as it moved around. [Good, follow me!] The dog pranced around the area, the cats and dogs were separated by a partition, and thankfully, none had gotten stuck between them yet. He moved deeper in before asking. [Can I eat this?]

He pointed at the dogshit that was smeared onto the floor with his nose before looking back at me. “No! That’s not food.” The mental communication increased his intellect, but he was still a dog after all. “Alright. You’re coming with me. I’ll have someone take care of you in the house.” [D-d-do I have to go through the sky bath to get there?]

“It’s called rain, and yeah. For a few seconds until we run inside, you’ll have to run through the…” The dog was visibly shaking in fear. “I’ll get a box to put you in. Give me a sec.” I moved inside and got a dog crate for the dog before bringing him inside. [Thankyou but… Where do I poop at?] “I’ll throw down some newspaper, just poop on that.”

I get some things ready for the dog before I remember to ask. “What’s your name?” [It’s Princess. That’s what my master called me before she found out I was a boy dog.] “Alright, well… I’m not calling you Princess, because that’s a girl's name. What about Dug? Like from UP?” [That sounds great, master. I am Dug… Who is Dug and what is UP?] 

I sat down and started watching up with him. Ten minutes in, Vicky walked passed and just nonchalantly said. “What up? Oh snap, is that UP?” She made it a few more steps before moving back to me and the Dug, who was sitting on the couch, not visible from her view. He looked up and she asked. “Did that dog just talk in my head?” I smirk at her. “I guess only one person can hear him talk at the same time. I’m showing him UP.”

“Let me go grab a bucket of popcorn and a bottle of wine. I don’t like dogs much, but I’ve never had the chance to talk to one before.” Vicky asked Dug about a hundred questions, and more and more people kept showing up, impressed by Dug. They’re acting like a talking dog is something so impressive… But more than half of them had superpowers. A talking dog isn’t even in the top one hundred weird things that happened to me.

That was the thing. I had seen so much in my previous life that I was desensitized to things happening. Oh, a talking dog. Sure, no problem. A crocodile the size of a car tries to kill me? Great, I’ll take his core. A future version of my girlfriend revived from the dead and also started having sex with me? The more the merrier. Right now, four girls were sitting on/around me as they kept asking Dug questions he couldn’t really answer.

“So like, you know that dog food doesn’t taste as good as human food, but you still eat it?” Lissa asked and just nodded her head at whatever the dog told her. I got up and moved to leave. “Hey, I’m going to go give Justin the core to speed up his recovery.” I got a lot of affirmative noises from them before Melissa asked Dug. “What do you think about getting a girl dog to keep you company?”

The gated area was fairly large. Each mansion had about a quarter acre of land for its backyard, each house spaced more than a football field away from the other. The last three mansions weren’t on the hill and were slightly submerged, with each house closer to the fence more submerged than the last. Justin lived two houses down, three houses away from the one that was underwater.

I rang the bell and waited for Justin’s mom or dad to answer. They weren’t nearly as rich as Vicky’s family, but still rich enough to afford a mansion. Everyone in this gated community was on the richer side, but Justin’s father was barely getting by with his wife’s spending. The shorter elderly man was the one who answered the door. He gave me a side eye as he asked.

“So… What’s this about?” He didn’t like me for some reason. I think he was jealous of my height and handsomeness. “Here to see Justin. He is all set up in his room still?” He laughed at his own joke before he even said it. “*Haha* No! He got up and walked away with two broken legs!”

Walking up the staircase, it still felt surreal that I was living in the same community as the rest of these rich people. It stood out more to me than a talking dog, and I still felt out of place living here. I head inside his room, and Justin is playing a console game. The giant TV took up most of the wall of his room, as I asked. “Hey, want to get your powers now? I got a core that will activate them early.”

Justin was a few years younger than I, but still close enough in age that I could still relate to him. When we brought him home, he fought really hard with his parents to not get taken back to the hospital, and even days later, he was still brooding about the fight. “Sure, if you’re telling the truth, that is.” I walk over and put it on him, which causes him to lock up. He doesn’t mention what power he gained, instead getting even more mad. “Damn it, that got me killed.”