MEANWHILE

Spike laid lazily next to Max's seat staring off at nothing in particular. His stomach rumbled, signifying that it was time for him to tack in a delicious meal. It didn’t help that the smell of food hung strongly in the air and other guests sat nearby chatting away as food sat steaming on their plates. Spike lifted his head and licked his lips as an Auto Droid passed by with a rack of food.

The dog looked back at his leash tied around the front leg of Max’s seat and stared at it for a moment, hoping it would magically get loose somehow.

His head jerked up towards Max when the woman suddenly backed her chair out and stood up, walking over to Anna. “I’m heading to the restroom, be back in a jiffy,” Max had said before disappearing.

The dog watched her disappear into the building then turned his head in Annas' direction. It seemed like the girl was off in her own thoughts at the moment. Spike then turned his head towards the leash wrapped around the leg of Max’s seat. 

He let out a huff before jerking slightly on the leash in aggravation. The leash buckled and unwound slightly. Unfortunately, Max hadn’t tied it as securely as she thought. And Spike, being the smart dog he is, noticed.

He looked in Annas direction once more as if to check if the girl hadn't noticed anything and begin subtly tugging on the leash. Slowly and surely it became loose enough for him to get free. The dog immediately eyed an Auto Droid that was going inside of the building with a plate of half-eaten food and gave chase, moving carefully at first and occasionally looking back at the table Anna was seated to see if she noticed before disappearing inside of the building. 

Spike immediately was lost in the crowd of people. He glanced around and proceeded to move as carefully as he could around the humans and androids within the arcade before stopping at the first table with food he saw.

He proudly trotted up to the table as its inhabitants took notice of the dog. A group of girls that seemed to be in their late teens to early twenties.

“Awww,” one of them, a blue-haired girl, exclaimed before reaching down to rub his head. He jerked back, wary of them at first till he remembered why he was there, and immediately kicked in his puppy dog act allowing the lady to rub his head.

“Aren’t you just the cutest thing,” she said in a bubbly voice as Spike stared cutlery at her.

“Where did he even come from,” one of her friends, a lady with wine red hair, asked curiously.

“I think he’s hungry,” said another with blonde hair as she grabbed a fry off of her plate and waved it in front of him. 

He followed the fry intently waiting for the human to give it to him.

“Don’t do that. You don’t know if he’s a stray carrying something,” the red-haired girl said. 

“Come on, how can you deny this face,” the blonde replied gesturing to Spike with the hand holding the fry.

Before anyone could register what happened, Spike jumped up and swiped the fry out of the lady's hand. 

Unfortunately, he bit her in the process.

“OWWWWWW,” she exclaimed in a mix of pain and aggravation. “THAT LITTLE RAT BIT ME!”

“Told you,” the red-haired girl responded a bit smugly.

An Auto Droid that was moving by happened to notice the commotion. “What seems to be the problem, ma’am.

“This stray mutt just strolled over and bit my hand,” she complained. “Why is it that this place still lets people bring pets in here anyways!”

“I apologize, ma’am. I will make sure to note your complaint for management,” the Auto Droid said courteously before reaching down to pick Spike up.

The dog growled and snapped at the Auto Droids' hand but the machine was not deterred. It wordlessly picked him up with ease and walked towards the front door, sitting him outside, and closing it.

Well, that’s just great. Spike sat at the door for a moment before scratching at it. After waiting for a good ten minutes he decided to walk off. He was still hungry. And he was going to find some food one way or another.

Max and Anna searched up and down the inside of the arcade looking everywhere for the dog even asking a few guests if they had seen a dog matching his description roaming about. Eventually, they came to the front of the arcade with little to no progress made.

“Oh, no, no, no, no, nohohohohoooo,” Max whined as she placed her face in between the palms of her hands. “That’s it. I’m dead. Beatrice is going to kill me.”

Anna pated the troubled woman on the back as three girls around Max’s age walked past them and towards the front door. One of them was rubbing a bandage on her index finger.

“You think it’ll get infected,” one of them asked out loud to her friends. 

“You better hope not,” one of them responded.

“I’d be more worried about rabies,” the third girl in the group said causing the one with the bandage on her finger to adopt a worried look.

“Don’t say that,” she exclaimed back half worriedly half annoyed. 

“I’m just saying.”

“Stupid dog. Who even thought it was a good idea to bring such a mutt into an arcade anyway?”

Upon hearing the words, “Stupid dog,” come from the injured girl's mouth Max immediately perked up and stormed after her.

“Yo,” Max shouted out causing the passing trio of girls to look back at her and Anna as they approached. “You said you saw a dog around here,” Max said a bit hastily.

“Yeah, why,” the blonde girl with the bandage on her finger asked cooly.

“He wouldn’t happen to be yay tall and covered in white and brown fur would he?”

“Sounds like the one,” the girl replied before a look of realization came on her face followed by a scowl. “Are you its owner?”

“No, I’m just dog sitting,” Max said hastily. “You wouldn’t happen to have seen where he went, would you?”

“Yeah, he got kicked out for doing this,” the girl said in an aggravated voice sticking her finger out for Max to see clearly. Anna stood a couple of ways back with an expression on her face that screamed, “Oh no.” The girl placed a hand on her forehead in shook it.

“Oh, uh, sorry about that,” Max replied sheepishly. 

“Yeah, whatever,” the Blonde responded dryly before walking off. “Some dog sitter,” she muttered to her friends as they departed.

“Come on,” Max said as she grabbed Annas hand and walked hurriedly out the door where he immediately darted her head in every which direction to see if Spike was still around. “Where are you damn it,” she muttered.

Anna noticed Spike off in the distance coming off of one of the plaza's walkways and onto the main sidewalk. 

“MaxMax! Over there,” she pointed frantically. 

Max barely caught a glimpse of Spike's rear end as he rounded the corner and off down the sidewalk. “OH NO YOU DON’T,” she exclaimed ash began running after him, dragging Anna along with her.

Spike walked briskly down the sidewalk occasionally eyeing the pedestrians. He slowed his walk once he caught the scent of something delicious in the air and immediately walked towards the source coming across a hot dog stand. 

He sat there watching one of the hot dogs rolling around slowly in the cooker and licked his lips His eyes sparkling with the heavenly image of the food item as his mind was filled with the fantasy of him prancing around in a field of hot dogs.

“Thank you very much,” he heard a man say causing his thoughts to briefly be broken. 

“I tell you what Jimbo,” the dark-skinned man in a uniform resembling a dog catcher said to his to another man in a similar uniform. 

“This place most differently has the best dogs in the state. Probably even better than your typical Coney Island straight from my hometown. And that's really saying something.”

“Yeah you’re right about that boss man,” his partner, Jimmy, responded. 

The par paused once they noticed the small furry figure staring up at them.

Hey, boss look at this cute little fella,” Jim said, gesturing to Spike. The man's senior knelt down to Spike's level.

“Hey, there little guy.” The man took notice of the leash around his neck and frowned. “Wheres your owner at buddy?”

Spike's gaze was caught by something else for the moment. The man tracked Spike's eyes towards his lunch. Before he could react or properly compute what happened, Spike lept up and caught the hot dog in his mouth, giving it a few munches on his way back down. 

The man darted his eyes between his hand and Spike a few times as Jim struggled to hide his laughter. 

“MOTHU... HEY,” the man shouted out as Spike ran off with the hot dog still in his mouth. “My lunch man,” he cried it in a slight whine. 

He snapped his head over to his laughing partner. “Oh, you think that's funny do ya!?” He walked up and swiped his hot dog from his hand. “Go start the van, we got a wild dog to catch,” he ordered before munching on Jims' hot dog causing the man to walk away dejected.

Max and Anna followed the direction Spike trialed off towards till they came across a hot dog stand where they saw two dog catchers quickly hop in a van parked nearby and the stand's owner chuckling to himself slightly. The pair walked up to the stand owner as the vehicle sped off.

‘Oh no,’ Max thought to herself worriedly. “Excuse me,” she called as she and Anna approached the stand owner. “You wouldn’t have happened to see a dog pass by would you?”

“Yeah. Little devil nabbed that dog catcher's lunch and took off like a cheetah. Funniest shit I’ve seen all day,” he responded with a chuckle.

This confirmed what Max was beginning to suspect once she saw the dog catcher speed of in the direction that they’ve been following Spike.

“Thanks,” Max responded hurriedly as she grabbed Anna, who was distracted by the sight of the hot dogs cooking and sped off towards the direction she saw the dog catchers go.

“H-heeey,” the girl complained as she was suddenly dragged off.

‘Damnit, Spike. When I find you I swear to God I’m going to end you!’