This started off as a simple thing. What's Dogpund's life like? Then it sort of got away from me. I don't know if I'm going to more with this or not, so if you like it, please say so. To think that this all started just with the idea of Mikey taunting Dogpound with Donnie's stick.

He's running in the park, chasing something. Just running and running, chasing a vague outline of a something. He doesn't know why, but he has to catch that something! As he gets closer, the something takes a shape, and can be seen as a squirrel. Not just a normal squirrel, but a green one armed with ninja weapons. He gets "this" close to that squirrel, and then he wakes up.

"Bradford! Bradford come here!" bellows a deep voice from outside the room where Dogpound was sleeping just a few seconds before. Dogpound gets up to go to his master, all the while thinking. More of these dreams, this is starting to get out of control. "Yes, Master Shredder?" asks Dogpound as he kneels as best as he can before Shredder.

"Despite your repeated failure, I have decided to keep you around, cur. I have a mission for you."

"Anything Master." Said Dogpound, bowing lower and flattening his ears in submitance.

"I need you to go down to a lab, and steal a high-tech weapon that they've been developing. Then we can use it in our battle with those accursed turtles."

"Yes, Master. Of course. I promise, this time I will not fail you." Shinng

"I should hope not, for your sake." Dogpound bows once more, then rises and leaves for his room. "This time, I will not fail Master Shredder, dreams or no dreams" said Dogpound as he walked back to his room. "Dreams? What dreams?" asked a feminine voice from behind. Dogpound turned around and saw Karai, who had a smirk on her face, as usual. Dogpound growled and replied, "None of your business, Karai."

"Now, now, is that any way to talk to Shredder's daughter?" said Karai, with her hands on her hips. Another growl made its way out of his throat before he replied, "You think you can do anything you want, just because you're Shredder's daughter. But remember, princess, you're still just a little girl. I could rip you to shreds."

"And my father could put you to sleep" retorted Karai, "You're like the family pet, really. How'd you like to play fetch sometime? Here, Bradford! Good, Bradford! Get the high-tech laser, Bradford! Not too much different from what you did when you were human, really." Dogpound could only growl again, this time with teeth barred, before shoving Karai out of his way so that he could continue on to the closet that was the closest thing he had to a room, now. How could this of happened to him? He went from rich and famous martial artist superstar, and one of the Shredder's top henchmen, to being a mutant freak, serving underneath Shredder's brat, Karai. In the middle of his angry, self-pitying thoughts, a feeling bubbled up from the back of his mind. A sudden feeling of love for Karai, coupled with a want to play and protect. As soon as a stupid smile started to make its way to his lips, Dogpound shook his head to rid himself of these thoughts. He walked into his room, and looked into his mirror. The mirror was shattered in the top left corner, from when Dogpound first moved into this room. It was shortly after his mutation on the rooftop of the Wolf Hotel, when he saw himself in the mirror and smashed it out of disgust at his own appearance. After all those times he had called those mutant turtles freaks, now he was the freak. The irony was almost more than he could bear. But still, in the corner of his mind, there was the thought, the feeling, of play, and lots of it. Every day, those thoughts were there, and it had been getting harder and harder lately to shove them aside, so he could continue to be the cold-hearted, evil minion that Shredder wanted.

Dogpound prepared for his mission, going over katas as best as he could. He stopped when he could hear the heavy, clunking footsteps of Fishface as he came down the hall. He expected Fishface to barge into his room at any second, with some smart remark or other. But his improved hearing had deceived him, and Fishface was actually several minutes away from his room. Well, at least there are some good things about this. Dogpound's amazing senses of hearing and smell were certainly an advantage, especially in the field of the ninja, when people (and turtles) were always trying to go unnoticed. There wasn't much time to mull over these thoughts, because at that moment Fiashface walked in, and yelled in his accent, "Come on, mutt. Or did you forget that we have a mission to complete?"

"No, I haven't forgotten, sushi-boy. I don't want to fail Master Shredder anymore than you do. Let's go." They left the old abandoned church that Shredder used for a lair, walking out into a cool night on the streets of New York. They had with them a group of about 20 Foot grunts, the only people that they were actually higher than in status, and since the lab wasn't far off, they went off on foot to get there. They got to the lab without any trouble, and bust in, setting off an alarm on the building. The high sound hurt Dogpound's ears, so he lashed out at it, smashing it and effectively shutting it up. "So far, so good" he grumbled. Then, from above them came a loud battle-cry. "Booyahkasha!" Cried Mikey, as the four turtle brothers jumped down to stop the Foot clan. "It's the turtles!" yelled Fishface.

"Get them!" yelled Dogpound in reply. Then, pointing to a group of grunts, he ordered, "Get that laser out of here, failure is not an option!"

"Dude, haven't you ever seen Mythbusters? Failure is always an option!" said a familiar annoying voice, one that Dogpound regretted that he had ever heard. As Dogpound turned to fight Mikey, hackles raised, he was distracted by the fight between Donnie and a Foot grunt in the corner of his eye. More importantly, Donnie's bo staff caught his eye. Taking advantage of Dogpound's distraction, Mikey thwacked him hard in the side of the face with his nunchuk. "Come on! If you don't focus, this battle isn't nearly as fun!" Recovering, Dogpound got up and struck at Mikey, which he easily dodged. "You seem a little off today, Dogpound. Distracted by something?"

"Shut up!" growled Dogpound, as he rushed at Mikey once again. As Mikey dodged, he wondered out-loud, "Seriously, what's going on? You seemed so interested in Donnie's fight. Really, you're hurting my feelings a little." Mikey kept up the running commentary throughout the fight, (which was really more like him kicking Dogpound's tail.) "I said: shut it! You little twerp!" Dogpound struck again, this time actually making contact, throwing Mikey into Donnie and knocking them both on to the ground. "Hey, Donnie! You were just the turtle I was looking for!" Shoving Mikey off from on top of him, Donnie asked, "Why, Mikey?"

"Well, you're not going to believe this, but I think I have an idea!" Donnie stared incredulously at Mikey then replied, "Mikey, this really isn't the time for jokes."

"No, no joke! I actually have an idea! But, I'm going to need to borrow your bo staff."

"I am not trusting you with my staff, just so you can break it with your stupid plan! What is it, anyway?" Mikey whispers it to Donnie, and Donnie smiles and laughs a little.

"Man, if that actually works, it would be worth losing my bo! But do you think it will?" To this, Mikey just shrugs and replies, "You don't know unless you try." Donnie thinks about this for a bit, and then reluctantly gives his bo over to Mikey. "Hope this plan of yours works." Mikey heads back into the fight and runs over to Dogpound, hitting a few grunts with Donnie's staff baseball bat style on the way.
"Hey, Dogpound!" yells Mikey. Dogpound turns around from where he was fighting Leo, and looks at Mikey, ready to crush him with his huge hand. As he moves towards him, Mikey starts to shake donnie's bo staff up and down, saying, "Oh, Dogpound! You want Donnie's stick? You want the stick?" Try as he might to fight it, Dogpound really wants that stick. And because of all of the adrenaline in him from the fight, his control is lacking. He stares at the stick, while Leo stands in the back watching, temporarily forgotten. "Well, then, go get the stick!" With that, Mikey throws the stick as hard as he can out of the fight, and away from the laser. Almost without thinking, Dogpound runs after it, first on twos, then switching to fours. With their best fighter out of the fight, the rest of the foot soldiers give up and run for the roof tops. The turtles gather up the laser to keep it out of the Foot's grasp, and head back to the lair, laughing all the while. "I can't believe that that actually worked!" exclaimed Donnie with a laugh. "Seeing that almost made it worth losing my bo staff!"

"I know, right!?" said Mikey, "That was so awesomely funny!"

"What, what happened?" asked Raph, who too busy fighting Fishface to notice what was going on with Dogpound.

"Well, Mikey had a little game of fetch with Dogpound. Made him chase Donnie's staff right out of the fight!" Raph laughs until he almost can't breathe. "Seriously? That's awesome." All of the turtles continue to have a good laugh at Dogpound's expense all the way back to the lair.

Stick! Stick! Ohmygosh I want the stick! Screams Dogpound's thoughts as he chases after the staff thrown by Mikey. The same feelings of his dreams come back to him as he runs after the stick. When he gets to the stick, he grabs it in triumph, realizing after a few seconds that he just left the fight to play fetch with one of the turtles. He breaks the stick in half in his fist, and screams to the sky in anger, "What is wrong with me!?" What's Master Shredder going to say when he learns that I lost the fight to chase a stick?! And Xever will never let me live this down. But, deep inside, he liked the overwhelming feeling of joy. It gave him a feeling of freedom that he never had when serving Shredder. Shaking all of these thoughts away, Dogpound heads back to the site of the fight in shame, with his tail between his legs.