Kristen Jones had been a rising star in the MMA community. She was one of the top ten contenders for the straw weight title. She had fought her way up the ranks with an aggression unmatched by the other fighters in her division. Routinely bullied in high school due to her small size, Kristen used all that pent up rage when she trained and when she was in the octagon. Commentators and fight fans alike often mentioned the mean scowl she wore before, during, and after her matches.

One fight fan from Brentwood, who felt that putting mere girls in the ring to fight each other was barbaric, saw past her tough exterior and decided to rescue her from that world and from herself. After paying to have her imported, he had her modified at the Happy Paws Obedience School and shipped to his home—he preferred to train her himself.

Even after she had been modified and stripped of her muscle, Kristen, who he renamed firecracker, still tried to act tough. Every morning, her Owner would lay out her toys and tell her it was “time to train”, which was just a painful reminder of everything that she had lost. Firecracker would scowl at him and growl in response, but the effect was completely different. Now that she was soft and pale, stuck on her hands and knees, drooling, with her hair in ridiculous dog ears, and her face tattooed to resemble a dog’s, she was no longer remotely intimidating.

She was, in fact, even cuter when she scowled.