#dragon guy dispatch

It looks like a zoo or pound for people like him - people that look part animal.

A place where the "caretakers" strike if Arthur covers his ears or hides his tail.

The pup is tossed into a communal cell with other children like him until he can be assessed by the Menagerie's doctors. A form of quarantine.

Arthur is barely six years old, and he's housed with other children as old as seventeen.

The bigger kids are meaner and hungry, quick to shove little ones away to steal daily food rations. In-fighting is a daily occurance - older pups biting and hitting the younger to express frustration. Arthur quickly learns thats there's a hierarchy he's not fitting into.

Despite this aggressive atmosphere whenever one of the better-dressed men appears; every single one of the hybrid children go quiet.

A well-dressed man takes Arthur to a room resembling an operation theatre with a dentist chair.

A doctor with a face mask asks the pup basic personal questions with an artifically sweet tone. Then he puts something into the back of Arthur's head.

Arthur is dumped back with the other children without fanfare.

There are adult hybrids too. Some big, some small, some scary, some soft. Sometimes they leave at the behest of a guard and return hours later with injuries. Sometimes they don't return at all.

One day, they put a baby into the childrens' wing. The guards say its an emergency placement until they find someone to taje care of him.

The older pups are jealous. Babies get treated better than them. Babies get guaranteed food rations and a Mama to take care of them

An older boy tries hurting the baby.

Arthur sees red.

The guards only react when the sounds of violence turn to pained whimpers. They see Arthur on all-fours, hunched over the baby wolf-hybrid like a shield. And at least five larger hybrid children beaten to submission.

A well-dressed man visits him. He's impressed by how violently the pup fought. He asks who Arthur really is.

Arthur doesn't mince words, telling his captors that his father is Mecha Man, and that he's probably trying to find him as they speak.

This only makes the well-dressed man grin even wider.

He orders the guards to take Arthur and the baby away to another cell.

Arthur tries to fight against his restraints, but a guard grabs the back of his neck like he's a dog.

The new cell is barely nicer than the children's wing - it has a drain, a water trough, and an area with a crude bed.

On that very crude bed sleeps a much older wolf-hybrid. He's skinny and scarred like the other adults, but there's signs of him seeing the doctors recently.

The well-dressed man says this is Mecha Man - and he will be taking care of them from now on.

Arthur is too shocked by this knowledge to process the cell door clicking shut behind him

What world is he in?

-

When Robert comes to; he sees a pair of scared hybrid pups. The elder shielding the younger even while shaking with fear. The baby crying for a mother that has long abandoned him.

Robert's body hurts in so many ways, but his first act is to try and soothe their whimpers.

The older boy calls himself Arthur. He looks exactly as Robert did at that age.

Fuck. Either it's time travel, or his captors managed to clone him with some memoroes intact.

The baby doesn't have a name. Arthur says that he doesn't have a Mom anymore. That the other inmates tried hurting him.

Robert knows this has to be a mind game. Exploit his inate heroic instincts to protect these pups so he's more likely cooperate.

But these two need him right now. He can plan his escape around them.

He holds the baby and the mini-Robert close as a parent would. He'll find a way to get them out of here.

Or he'll die trying.

-

More ideas for Dragon Guy's (aka "Dagon" and hc birthname "Ryūnosuke") lore.

In previous AU ideas; I suggested that Dagon was an excommunicated yakuza, and that his oyabun (boss) gave him a choice: Death or Mutilation & Exile. Dagon chose the later, losing his tail and leaving for the US.

What the quiet dragon-hybrid was not warned of; was that his clan saw his survival as a liability. The second Dagon landed in the states, he was snatched up by the traffickers - told that he still needed to work off his debt to his criminal family. Dagon agrees to participate in the pit fights, although his accommodations leave much to be desired.

Due to Dagon's slightly higher status among the captives, he's granted more freedom to roam the halls. He quickly becomes aware that many of the others housed in the same complex aren't there of their own free will or moral obligation as he was.

The most obvious being the child hybrids kept under lock and key by the staff.

Dagon is unable to comfort the crying pups directly, but he strains his frayed vocal cords to sing a lullaby from his homeland through the separating wall. The younger pups soon falls asleep, and the elder one stifles their cries to try and be strong.

A small pup reaches through the bars at the large man - claiming that his name is "Arthur" ("Like the hero king"), and that he had tried asking a cashier for help finding his father - only for the vultures to snatch him up. Arthur is already thin and bruised from trying to protect younger pups from staff and crueller inmates.

Dagon feels a new pit of anger form in his gullet. If he could offer anything for the little ones' release, he would.

(The dragon hybrid may adopt his new title of "Dagon" from how the pup mispronounces "Dragon".)

Some time into Dagon's "career"; a new face appears in the adult ward. A beauty with red-brown hair and skin decorated with freckles and scars. The staff seem inordinately invested in keeping the catatonic man alive and well - keeping him on around the clock medical watch.

One day, the "Sleeping Beauty" is whisked away to part of the facility other inmates dub "The Body Shop". A place where their animalistic traits were encouraged, often with medical assistance.

The Sleeping Beauty is soon housed with Arthur and a baby wolf-hybrid for reasons soon made clear. Whatever glamour or modifications hid the man's wolf-hybrid traits falls away like shed skin.

The pups are confused and frightened, but their new cellmate is quick to try and soothe them. His tone is near-maternal, cradling both as if they'd birthed from him.

The Beauty's name is "Robert". Arthur seems confused by this knowledge - "Thats my dad's name."

(Dagon's stomach feels as if it can't sink any lower.)

During his next scheduled fight, Dagon manages to get a good look at the wolves' cell. The elder pup Arthur is indeed, the vision of his caretaker. The younger pup is sports grey fur and a longer snout, casting question to his origins. Robert refuses to relinquish his hold of either of them, staring at the passing guards and inmates with deep calculation.

Dagon wonders if they could have been friends in another life.

-

Shroud knew from early on that Robert could have been swooped-up by hybrid-trafficking vultures, and uses a proxy to buy an ex-yakuza's contract. He couldn't go straight for the jugular, less he scares those cockroaches into moving shop.

He strikes gold when his purchased bodyguard recognises the photograph he shows him.

Dagon, testing his new throat augment: "Ro...bert." Shroud, hiding his elation: "Yes. He is my son. He is currently missing, and I suspected that the Menagerie have him. He is a part wolf-hybrid, and they no doubt are exploiting that." Dagon, using a writing slate: "Seen him. More wolf now. With two pups." Shroud, tone darkens: "Pups..? How old?" Dagon: "Elder pup five maybe six? Younger pup baby, small." Shroud: (*goes quiet for some time, calculating*) Shroud: "I need to call in a favour. Robert won't be excited to see me, but perhaps he'll listen to a hero."

Later that night, Chase receives an anonymous tip about a suspected "dog fighting ring" in his inbox. He swears he recognises the typing style.

Robert, the two pups, and countless others held captive by the Menagerie, are soon rescued in a massive sting operation.

Though, not before Sonar nearly gets torn apart by a dire wolf!Robert thinking he's a threat to his pups. Sonar is quick to indentify himself and teamup with the feral wolf-hybrid.

SDN holds the trio on medical watch aa they process all the rescued captives. Robert identifies the two pups as *his*, and refuses to be parted from them. Sonar backs up his claim.

In bar closeby; Shroud watches the news report of the historic sting operation with apt interest.

He's already let his new henchman tear the well-dressed director of the Menagerie apart.

The older boy in Robert's arms is the very vision of him. The parentage of the baby cradled by the rescuing manbat is unclear, and Elliot hopes that Robert isn't the parent. Less he nearly killed his own grandchild, and left them to be born as a captive.