Chapter 6: Venicebound

	Serenity smiled, hearing the news.
	"Oh really? That's great, I guess, just tell me when Slur's here" Serenity replied, cleaning up the dishes she used for the meal.
	"Yeah, really, she'll be here around, er, I don't know, the plane ride will he a mere twelve hours. Also, it must be like nighttime for you, just go to sleep, and you'll likely wake up to a small, angry girl that- nevermind, you saw Slur just hours ago." Alex was outside the restaurant, and in a car with Terri as the driver.
	"Hey Serenity! This handsome rogue just got his license last week! Now I can dominate the road with my sub-par driving skills!" Terri proclaimed. He was still eating his salad from the restaurant, which Serenity found odd, as she prepared a meal for two and ate it in the time it took Terri to eat half of a salad.
 	"Oh, that's nice, was Slur cooperative enough to get on the plane?" Serenity asked. She put the plates back in Delilah's cupboard, and focused entirely on her message.
	"Oh, kind of. She enjoyed the concept of riding a plane, but there's some pretty strict rules when going on an airplane, Slur tried to bring a sword on the plane too." Alex laughed, then looked at Grant, "Oh my god, I can't get over that dog! What kind of breed is Grant supposed to be anyway" Alex watched as Grant started sweating nervously, seemingly unable to answer their question.
	"Um, er, I am I mix of pug, beagle, Welsh Sheepdog, and magical rock" Grant said, sounding a bit confused.
	"Radical, anyway, we're driving from the airport, and guess what, we found two of our old friends!" Alex took their seat belt off, and jumped into the backseat, despite the car moving. Alex was sitting by two dogs, one a Labrador Retriever, with odd, cobalt fur and pupil-less eyes. The other, a Pomeranian, wearing a small, green hat and pink ribbon.
	"Oh my dog! More of my fellow brethren!" Grant freaked out seeing the dogs, and almost barked in Serenity's face.
	"I guess so, they're both chaotic in their own way. Like, Bingo and Bethany are the worst when they're together" Alex pointed at the Retriever and the Pomeranian respectively.
	"What? No, I've never done anything bad. My owner Hyde, however, has brought awful things to the Richards surname" Bethany pouted, and poked Bingo's nose.
	"Bethany, you like literally enslaved two thousand people, compared to you, I'm an angel" Bingo proudly stated.
	"Well, I didn't show you these two because I wanted to out-dog you, actually, I did, but that's besides the point. Anyway, Bingo is a, wait, are you a full or a half-figure?" Alex asked, petting Bethany.
	"Half, I guess. I am 100% dog though, because my father was like a Mastiff, but like those Mastiffs that can shoot fire from his mouth and literally create meteors." Bingo smiled, and stuck a pose, summoning a dark, murky cloud in the car.
	"Gosh darn it Bingo, now I can't see where my salad is!" Terri grimaced as he heard the sound of a salad falling, and did a random turn, hoping that he wouldn't hit a deer or another car. Everyone was screaming, even Grant. The screaming stopped as the cloud cleared up, and the car was merely in a field with cows.
	"Oh my god we literally fought an omnipotent alien creature last month, and a cloud almost killed us" Alex, without wearing a seat belt, was lying on the ground, their phone had a new, large crack in it from the almost car crash.
	"Okay, Bingo, no more showing off in the car, we almost died because of you" Terri scolded, getting his heavily mutilated salad of the ground.
	"How could have we died? We're on a road with no cars to crash, no lakes to fall in, or Unidentified Flying Objects to be abducted by" Bingo shrugged, and curled up in a ball, immediately falling asleep.
	"Well, don't worry about us Serenity, I only almost lost an arm, go to sleep, and Slur should be at the..." Alex looked onto a map in their pocket "Saint Mark's Basilica. Wow, I'm so jealous of you, you live in a cathedral, anyway, buh-bye." Alex clicked on a button on her phone, and the screen on Serenity's phone turned black.
	"Okay, I'll just go to sleep, and then Slur will be here, but then, what will we do? Those guys stole one of the shards, and are apparently part of the same group that started replacing statues in Reedsport with plastic camels." Serenity threw herself to her bed, attempting to go to sleep. Grant then proceeded to jump onto Serenity's bed, curled up in a ball on her chest.
	"Good night best friend." Grant started adjusting himself, then fell asleep on Serenity, leaving her gasping for air.
	"Grant, you're cute, but you're not a small dog anymore." Serenity started sweating "You're almost eighty kilograms bigger heavier than me." Serenity sighed, noticing her cries falling on deaf ears. She started petting Grant, smiling at him.
	"He's so fluffy" Serenity whispered to herself, and noticed his large, black mane "Well, I might as well have some fun" Serenity grabbed her phone, and put it in Grant's mane, noticing her phone disappearing in his mane. She grabbed her laptop, a hairbrush, and a plain blue shirt, all within an arm's length away, and put them all in Grant's mane.
	"I honestly have no idea what I'm doing, I should be sleeping." Serenity put everything by her bed, and attempted to fall asleep.
	But, she couldn't. She was anxious, and didn't know if Slur would actually be a help with getting the moonstone shard, presuming that would be her top priority. However, even though she was worried to the point of vomiting, she had to go to sleep soon. Serenity tried turning, and eventually fell into a deep slumber. Serenity tossed and turned, waking up constantly due to how heavy Grant was. At eight a.m., Serenity's alarm clock went off with a loud, violent beep, and Serenity hit it, rolling out of bed with Grant still on her.
	"Oh my god, I went to bed at around 10 p.m., but I think I only slept for ten minutes" Serenity groaned. She pushed Grant off of her, and looked into her mirror, with bags forming under her eyes, with her dress covered in white, brown, and black hair. She took off the dress, then put on a light blue tank-top and black shorts. As Serenity got her clothes on, she saw Grant now on her bed, and still sleeping.
	"Wake up Grant, you've been sleeping for ten hours, and I have gotten none!" Serenity jumped onto Grant, ready to suplex him, but she was too tired to lift up a one-hundred and forty pound dog, and almost immediately fell asleep on top of him.
	Then Slur rushed into their room. She appeared angry, and her hair was in a bun.
	"You people, I was on an airplane for like ten hours, and those rules are insane. I had to put my hair in a bun, and now I feel my head-" Slur stopped, seeing Serenity and Grant, who were both asleep. "Ugh, of course. I guess it makes sense for Serenity to be sleeping, but Grant's like, I don't know, he doesn't need sleep!" Slur jumped onto the bed, and threw Serenity to the side, and grabbed Grant.
	"Wake up you fat pile of lard! It's like noon already!" Slur commanded, attempting to throw Grant in the air. She launched him into the air, but immediately regretted everything when Grant landed on top of her.
	"You, child, help me, your dog is killing me..." Slur gasped for air, trying to push Grant off "I'm only fifty pounds!" Slur watched as Serenity got up, just to show her an offensive hand gesture, and went back to sleep.
	Slur sighed, and looked up to the big dog, gently petting him, and flinching whenever he sneezed. Slur thought that her situation wouldn't get worse, but Grant started breathing through his mouth, causing Slur to retch.
	"Oh my god, I hate Alex so much right now!" Slur looked up to the ceiling, thinking of a way to get out from underneath Grant, then an idea hit. She simply pushed Grant away, and got up, looking through Serenity's closet.
	"I hope Serenity has some clothes in here, I think that's what people feed to dogs." Slur picked out a bland, purple shirt, and set it beside Grant. Slur watched as thirty minutes passed, Grant hasn't even eaten the shirt yet, and was still sleeping.
	"Ugh, ungrateful child. I went through all the work to do research on Earth dogs, learning about their dietary habits, and this is how you thank me?" Slur glared at Grant, and slapped him. Despite Slur's below average physical strength, Grant woke up, whining.
	"Hey, why did you slap me?" Grant asked, seeing the shirt on the floor. He jumped on it, and started chewing the shirt.
	"Well, I don't know, maybe I just wanted to" Slur shrugged, and saw Serenity finally waking up. "Oh good morning Serenity, I fed your demon dog like just now. I'm glad he eats cotton and not the souls of children" Slur started gently petting the dog, and watched as Serenity screamed.
	"Oh my god, Slur that's my good shirt-" Serenity stopped, looking at the cheap, purple material "Nevermind, I never liked that shirt anyway, but that doesn't mean you can feed him any of my clothes from now on." Serenity grabbed her baton off of her shelf, and started walking out of the door.
	"Oh my gosh Serenity are we going on an adventure?" Grant asked, wagging his tail violently.
	"Yeah, you can say that, we're going to find J3 and K2, who knows what'll happen if they use the shard" Serenity picked up Slur, and put her on Grant. They headed out of the cathedral, making sure not to wake anyone up, and walked down the staircase that lead up the cathedral. Serenity looked around the area, and saw no one that looked like an SS.
	"Wow, you totally needed my help, you seemed to have trouble fighting of the zero SSs in this area." Slur grumbled, and got off of Grant, sitting on the ground.
	"Slur, can you just not talk for one second? If we can't find SS-" Serenity was interrupted by a breeze. Wind chimes loudly rang, and people closed their doors, leaving the nearby area to have the appearance of a ghost town. The sky immediately got dark, with large, murky clouds raining down hail. One purple cloud rained down hail, and was relatively close to the ground. As the hail stones fell, they went off like flash bombs. Eventually, the hail storm cleared, revealing a small child, about fifteen years of age. He wore dark purple clothing, and was of below average height. Bolts of lightning fell from the sky as he struck a pose.
	"Why hello! 'Tis I, SSN!"