Dog on Duty (20 chapters (SO FAR)

[satuurnity]

CHAPTER TEN

I went to Kelly and asked what mission Kaya was supposed to send me on. She confirmed it, I was supposed to be inside that gap. So that meant Kaya had purpously trapped me there. I couldn't say that to Kelly's face. She'd never believe me.

Texas came up to me later that day.
"You know, we still gotta find Ruki," He said. "We've got all the troops ready to go, we just need to get the equipment sorted, ok?" I nodded, and we headed to the entrance. When we got there, we grabbed all the weaponry and aid we needed, and set off. Me and Loki in the lead, we got to the canyon pretty quickly. If Ruki would be anywhere, it would probably be here.
"Right, split up," Texas instructed. "Look for any signs of life."

I did as told. It took us an hour to even pick up some tracks, and they were made by a fox. It was hopeless. There was no way we were gonna find her. She was like a needle in a hay-stack, impossible. Then someone jumped infront of me, and I took a step back. I was surrounded. And if my calculations were correct, they had already captured Texas, Rita and Loki. And by they, I mean Kat and - by the looks of it - Ruki's army. Damn.

We had been walking along the canyon for hours, and then trekked into the gloom. It turns out Ruki, the rest of the rouges and KAT had a secret tunnel, concealed by the rock face. We had been lowered down, and then pulled into the darkness below. I would certainly be telling Kelly about this when we escaped. That was, if we escaped.

Ruki laughed and swiped me across the face. I growled. Yes, we had come to find her. No, not to get trapped. The others were taken to their confienement, and I was left with the despicable dog stood in front of me. I mean, how dare she? The rouge took a seat and looked at me. Then another dog came out of the blue. Kaya... She looked at me with a cold, hard stare - containing the slightest trace of evil excitement.

"Why so down?" Kaya chuckled. "This isn't easy for us, but you know to much. I mean, about me. We wouldn't want you going to tell her now would we?" I hated that word - her. She emphasised it, and I knew straight away who she meant. She meant 101.
"And why would I do that?" The words slipped off of my tounge. She wouldn't believe me anyway, so what was the point? I had to think of a way to escape, that was my only hope now. But how? Escape from this place was impossible. There were armed guards at every door, and Ruki always had something up her sleeve. There was no escape.

Kaya smiled cheekily, her evil glare piercing my soul.
"I have no idea," She answered, "But let us just consider all the options,"
"What if you didn't return, that way you wouldn't breath a word to anyone, would you?" Now I knew what she was getting at. If I died, then Kelly wouldn't know anything about Kaya, and it would be too late.

"Let's just say that a match - for instance the one over there," Kaya gestured to it for Ruki. Great. I wasn't only going to die, I was going to die slowly.
"Set that rope alight, and you accidentily got trapped in this room," She chuckled. How was I supposed to get out of this one? Of course! Kaya and Ruki would leave the room when they set it alight - along with the guards. But what if I escaped before that, and they got trapped? What if I were to use the rope to climb to the cave roof, and then swing out the door, locking it behind me? It was the perfect plan. Now all I had to do was get the timing right.
"See ya!" Kaya chuckled, and just when she threw the match, I leapt. I leapt as far as I could, clinging on the the rope for dear life. Using my teeth and my claws, I struggled to the top of the rope. Fire began to spread, but oblivious, I continued. I threw down to the ground a smoke grenade which I had hidden in my belt. That way the dogs wouldn't be able to escape, because if they moved, they wouldn't see the ember for the smoke, and be burnt. In mid air, I began to swing backwards and forwards, until I knew I would land safely out of the door. I then let go...

Hallelujha! I was alive. I slammed the door behind me, locking it, and raced off. I knew someone would spot me - and that Kaya and Ruki would eventually escape - but I was going to get out of here. Down the corridor I flew, until I found where my allies where being kept. Out of my belt came a flare pen, which I had also hidden. I swiped it with my teeth along the metal bars, which were keeping my friends to their cells. The metal swiftly burnt away, letting them come out to greet me. All that was left now was a bent iron pole, and some lop-sided pieces of black steel.
"Thanks, Hawk," Texas smiled, whilst Rita and Loki nodded.
"No problem, but we don't have time for that now. Let's get out of here."

Together we ran. We ran until we were safe. I knew that Ruki and Kaya would escape, villians as devious as that always did. Sighing, I looked at Texas. He looked at me. We were alive, and that was all that mattered. Though to my suprise, our special moment wasn't going to last much longer. For as I gazed over at the rockface, where we had only seconds ago emerged from, Pixa came running. She climbed over the slippery ledge, and charged at me. The dalmation barged past Texas, her eyes fixed. She bowled me over, yowling.

Texas was about to join in, but I turned, so that he couldn't touch Pixa. This was my fight, and my revenge. This was something I had to do alone. I yelled at him, and my voice echoed against the red boulders that were scattered all over the canyon.
"Texas, quick, grab the radio! Get help!" He did as I said. He sped to the place where the rouges had made us drop our weapons. Picking up the radio collar and turning it on, he yapped into the speaker,
"Quick! We're at the canyon and in need of backup! No time to explain, hurry!" All of a sudden he dropped the means of communication, and came running back to me. Yes, I had to admit, I was in need of some accistance. But this wasn't going to turn into a regular thing. He knocked the dalmation off of me, then began to scrap with her. They rolled around in the dirt, his hind legs kicking at her stomach, claws retracted. She yowled, and was just about to boot him off the steep canyon edge. When I stepped in.
"Not this time, mutt!" I yowled, charging at her. Instead it was her that went flying. Pixa yelped, as she went down into the crashing waves below. But I went with her...

Surely this was my end, but no. I managed to grab onto the rockface just in time, though I was slowly beggining to fall.
"Help!" I screamed, hoping that the others would hear. They did, and Texas came running.
"Grab my paw!" He yowled, and I did as instructed. He just about managed to pull me up, but I slipped. Instead it was Loki. Loki pulled me up, and I owe him my life. Those words were spoken to soon though, for as I came up, he went down.
"No!" Rita yowled, running to the scene. I tried to pull him back up, but it was too late. I couldn't, I almost did but I didn't. It was my fault the hero had died. Mine...

[satuurnity]

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[satuurnity]

CHAPTER ELEVEN

That night, my dreams were filled with events that had happened the day before. My head reincarnated every single detail, it wasn't pretty. I woke up all of a sudden that morning, heart pumping, gripped with adrenaline. This was it. I had to remember all the information that had been on my computer before Pixa had wiped the database, and type it back into the settings. I had to attend Loki's funeral - I never thought i'd see the day - and wait until a mission was availible. I wasn't excited as usual, I was tired, exhausted even, all the energy had been drained from my body in the last twenty-four hours. Never in a million years would I have guessed that Pixa and Kaya were in it together - and I certainly never thought i'd kill one of my closest friends.

This was one of those days where you can't get out of bed, but you have to, because there's something pushing you forward - telling you that you must. So I heaved my whole aching body out of my bed, and into the corridor. I sauntered down to the main hall, and to my suprise, everyone was awake. The computer screens were alight, their white faces blaring at everyone. The entire service was ready and rearing to go. They all had their heads in gear - they were all hard at work. Even Rita was doing her bit, though the boxer dog was still in grieving. And Kaya - who was back on the job - glared at me. She was with Kelly, sat at a computer by her side. I have no idea how she got out of the fire, but she did. Something had to be done, but I couldn't be bothered now. I didn't have time, I didn't particularly need to, and seen as there was no trouble at the minute, I just wanted to get on.

I flicked the switch beneath me and the blank screen of my computer was suddenly staring me in the face. There was nothing. A whole database, gone. I slowly began to type, causing my paws to ache. Words appeared, and programmes were stuck back onto the desktop. I added all the important information I could remember. But it didn't matter if there was somthing that I couldn't, because no body else could either. After an hour and a half, I had almost finished. It turns out there wasn't as much data as I had excpected. I saved my settings, shut the computer down, and decided to take a walk. I needed to let some steam off.

Slowly strolling through the gardens (which you would never have guessed HOWLS had) I sighed. This was boring. And completely worthless. I was never going to stop thinking about Loki. The chaos. My whole life. It was so exciting, yet so exhausting and disasterous. Everything right now seemed to be going wrong.

I continued to walk. There was nothing else to do after all. I stared at the floor and stopped. Then just fixed my eyes on a random position and began to scrat at the ground like an un-entertained pup who was attending a three hour course on ways to defy gravity. Ouch! That hurt! I suddenly got a pain in my paw and began to bleed. Little crimson droplets trickled from where one of my claws had been ripped of. Turns out I hit a stone.

"You ok?" Texas asked as he passed. He stopped and padded over when he saw me bleeding. I nodded, but he insisted and licked my paw. Only after a few minutes did the crimson river stop, and my paw-pad was dyed red. After that we continued to walk, and some how started off one of the weirdest - yet most interesting and colourful conversations I have ever had.

"Hey I was wondering..."
"Yeah?" I was also wondering. Why was he acting so weird all of a sudden? It was as if somebody had taken the words from his lips. We walked on, looking at each other. Rita approached, and Texas quickly ushered me into a bush.
"Hey!"
"Shhhh," I did as he said. When she had gone he looked at the ground.
"I, I was wondering. Do you like me?" What sort of a question was that? Texas definately had something on his mind, and it was my job to figure out what.
"Of course I like you! You're my best friend, Tex, don't be silly."

He looked up at me, trying his best not to crack up.
"No, not like that. I mean, like, like me,"
"You mean as in..." He nodded. Wow. That was a suprise. I didn't know what to say, and all of a sudden felt myself turn bright red under my fur. We were pretty close, and had been that way for a long time. I had never expected him to say that, though. But I couldn't deny it, I kinda did like him. I looked at him.
"I suppose..." Then he just leant over and kissed me on my forehead. Now I didn't feel so isolated. I smiled.
"Look, we have to go now, were gonna be late and-"
"It's ok. I know," I waited until I knew for certain that no one was watching, and headed out into the open, just behind Texas. We then made our way through the gardens, into the main hall, and then back out into the Memorial Yard. A tear fell from my eye, and I tried to smile at Rita as me, her and Texas entered the yard together.

We sat in a row on the ground, and Rita tried to keep her tears in.
"I loved him with all my heart," She whispered before the ceremony began, "and now he's gone..." She sighed and I gave her a nuzzle as Kelly began to speak. I was beginning to wonder why they didn't do this for Falcon. He deserved it just as much as Loki, but I suppose his death wasn't the best timing in the world. HOWLS was chaos then.

"We are gathered here today to remember one of our bravest agents. Loki. I know he didn't particularly listen to what we told him, but he did what he thought was right," In between these words, Rita began to cry. "And if it weren't for him, Hawk wouldn't be here today. And so we look to the stars and remember,"
"We remember," The whole audience murmered in unison. I joined in, and Rita tried fruitlessly to suck up her tears. Though she too spoke these words. Funerals weren't the happiest of occasions, but they helped agents to forget the bad times and start remembering the good ones. You know, that sort of thing.
"So I will take this opportunity, and clasp it with both paws, to tell you all how much I miss him. He was but the nobele-"

"Them," I muttered, standing upright.
"What?" Kelly questioned, bemused. This was my chance. It was Loki's service, but I didn't see why Falcon couldn't be included. They were friends and besides, the point was that nobody had spoken of Falcon since he departed. He deserved to be remembered.
"Them," I repeated, but louder this time. I walked over to Kelly then turned to face the audience.
"Yes, we all miss Loki. He was brave, and he does need to be remembered. But has anyone thought of Falcon recently? They were two amazing dogs - two friends - and we should think of them together."

I heard dogs muttering in the crowd, and Kelly nodded.
"She's right. They were friends, they were our friends, and they were amazing. So we will remember them, and all the good times we had with them. Up in another world, a better place, we hope they are happy."
"We know they are happy," The yard seemed to echo. We all missed them. That was the only thing we knew right now. And we would remember.

[satuurnity]

Bump

[JiaPop]

Very nice! I feel bad for Nikki.

[Shadowflight13]

This is great! Poor Nikki. Come on, Nikki! You can do this!

[satuurnity]

C: I'm ill at the moment so I wont be able to post often

[satuurnity]

Bump

[satuurnity]

Ok. So I know there is a LOT of action in this story, maybe too much. So in chapter 11, I plan to take it down a notch.Maybe with a small romantic twist, though I'm not really sure yet. And I also have a plan for chapter 12. It's going to be called 'Wild Goose Chase', any guesses?

[Alnitak]

Ok. So I know there is a LOT of action in this story, maybe too much. So in chapter 11, I plan to take it down a notch.Maybe with a small romantic twist, though I'm not really sure yet. And I also have a plan for chapter 12. It's going to be called 'Wild Goose Chase', any guesses?

How about for chapter twelve, they have to find KAT and Pixa, but then realise once they catch up that Ruki, KAT, and Pixa were never really there?And that Kat, and Pixa were using Pixa's genius to trick Nikki and the rest of HOWLS? Just a suggestion. xD
Also, a great story, I'm really enjoying it. :')
-Lion