lovingly, “Even if he doesn’t see you as a hero anymore, you don’t always need to be a hero… You’re no different than anyone else here… Even if you aren’t a hero to him, you always will be a hero in your heart…”

“I’ll make everything up, Jenna… I promise…” Balto said, tears in the corners of his golden-brown eyes as he stared into her amber eyes, “I know what I have to do now… and I’ll face it with bravery and honor… Do me a favor, Jen… Go back and help Kodi out if he needs it… Tell him…”

Balto thought for a moment, then swallowed hard.

“Tell him that I’m making amends…” With that, Balto kissed Jenna softly before holstering his handgun and walking out of the shooting range with Jenna. She headed back to the Pentagon while Balto headed back home…

            The elevator doors opened on the top level of the Weapons Building to reveal a large laboratory-like area. Different types of ammunition and guns lay across the tabletops. Kodi cautiously stepped out, looking around at the carious chemicals on top of the lab tables. He clutched his handgun tightly, eyes sweeping around for someone, anyone in fact! The labs were completely empty, and this was the only room on this floor!

“I swear, if that guard lied to me, I’m gonna-” Kodi began, then heard three gunshots hit the metal flooring be his feet. His mind snapped back to the moment and he dove behind a lab table. He looked up above at the metal catwalk that formed a rectangle thirty feet above the room.

“Well well, if it isn’t a little American agent come to stop our grand plans, hmm?” came a sinister sounding voice above him somewhere, “This should be amusing! Tell me, is it just you or do you have a teammate with you somewhere?

Kodi seemed to practically crush his handgun grip the way he was holding it. His burgundy eyes peeked out above the top of the lab table and scanned the catwalk for his enemy. A glass beaker shattered beside his head and Kodi spotted his enemy: holding some kind of handgun while strafing back and forth on the catwalk.

“C’mon agent! Let’s see what you can do!” he shouted down to Kodi in a taunting tone of voice. Kodi growled softly and jumped up, firing five shots after the Lieutenant, hitting the catwalk floor and rail beside him every time as the dog ran back and forth down the narrow metal walkway.

“You’ll have to do better than that!” the Lieutenant shouted, firing off the last few rounds in his clip before reloading it and holstering it, grabbing an M-16 from around his back, “Let’s see how you handle assault rifles!”

The Lieutenant lobbed a grenade back where Kodi was and grinned. Kodi stared at the metal object for a moment before registering what it was.

“Oh Hell!” Kodi cried out and jumped over the table just in time to escape the explosion. The Lieutenant spotted him and fired after the agent. Kodi ran as fast as he could, firing back at the Lieutenant, the sounds of the bullets hitting the tables just behind him kept him going. Once he was out of sight, the Lieutenant reloaded and began to move down the catwalk so he could find Kodi again.

“Come on out, little agent!” he called out, grinning as he searched for his prey, “Come out and face Lieutenant Drawn… I’ll make sure this fight ends quickly if you do…”

Kodi gritted his teeth as he reloaded his handgun, holstering it and grabbing the AK-47 he’d taken from the guard. Taking a deep breath, Kodi came back out into sight and fired at Drawn. The Lieutenant’s eyes widened slightly and he began running from Kodi’s rapid firing. Kodi continued to move while firing, trying desperately to hit his enemy. Once his gun ran dry, Drawn began returning fire to the husky below him. Kodi dropped his assault rifle and dove behind a stack of metal crates.

Damn it… He’s got such a big advantage while he’s up there… He can see the entire floor below him, so I’m screwed unless I get him down… Kodi thought to himself, panting slightly as he looked around for a better weapon, But how am I gonna do that?! Kodi then grinned when he saw what was labeled on one of the crates. He pried it open and grinned wider at the weapons inside.

“That’ll do nicely!” Kodi said to himself as he pulled out the long, metal tube. He crouched behind cover again and began to set it up to fire. Drawn continued to slowly walk around on the catwalks, trying to find Kodi. After a few more moments, he saw Kodi pop into view, holding a-

“Shit!” Drawn shouted as Kodi pulled the trigger, a rocket flying toward Drawn. The Border Collie dove out of the way as the rocket hit the catwalk he was on and exploded, destroying that section of it. Drawn now hung onto the edge of an adjacent catwalk, growling lowly that the agent had managed to find a rocket launcher. Knowing that he was vulnerable like this, the Lieutenant had no choice but to drop down or get shot.

Once Drawn let go and hit the metal floor below, Kodi pulled out his handgun and began firing round after round at his target. The Lieutenant dove behind a lab table and drew his handgun, firing a few blind shots after Kodi. Both now took cover and an eerie silence set in over the room. Drawn looked around for something to give himself an edge in this battle. Hell, anything to give him even a slight advantage at this point!

Drawn then spotted something lying next to him on the metal floor and picked it up. It was a small silver dart, loaded with an amber-colored liquid. He checked the label on the dart and grinned widely. He chambered it in a prototype dart pistol and pulled the hammer back, waiting for his enemy to come into view.

Kodi slowly peeked out past the metal crate he had hidden behind and saw nothing. Grinning, he silently stood up and slowly proceeded toward the table the Lieutenant had hidden behind, hoping to get a sneak attack in on him and hopefully kill the dog. As Kodi began to draw closer and closer to the table, Drawn shoot up and fired at Kodi. The husky grunted softly as he felt something sharp hit his neck and reached for it, feeling a dart sticking into his neck.

“That dart was loaded with a concentrated digitoxin, a poison that will affect your cardiovascular system…” Drawn explained with a sickening grin, “In small amounts, digitoxins aren’t too bad, but the amount I just put in you will kill you in ten minutes…” Drawn held up a vial of clear liquid.

“And this is the only serum for that digitoxin…” he stated, tossing it up onto the catwalk above him, “You want it, go get it… But you won’t be able to… In four minutes, your heart-rate will drop dramatically. Not enough to kill you, but enough to stop your voluntary functions… You’ll be immobile, and it’ll take you more than four minutes to get to that part of the catwalk… After those four minutes, the digitoxin will go through your bloodstream to your heart and lungs, shutting them down and killing you in just ten, mere minutes… Have fun…”

Kodi’s vision had already begun to blur slightly, but he shook his head and it cleared again. He gasped sharply, a sharp pain running from his chest through his body. Without a second thought, Kodi turned and ran to the elevator, pressing the button rapidly. Behind him, Drawn laughed wickedly as Kodi stumbled into the elevator and pressed the button to Level 3. The elevator began to descend and Kodi had begun to get worse. He turned on his radio, his breathing becoming labored gasps for air.

Back in the Pentagon, everything seemed normal until a loud, high-pitched beeping was heard. Colonel McIntyre’s eyes hot to the screen on the wall and saw Kodi’s heart-rate and blood pressure beginning to gradually drop.

“This is Agent Kodi… Colonel, I need help…” came the voice of Kodi. McIntyre scrambled for the radio and put on the headset to respond.

“This is McIntyre… Kodi, what’s going on? Your heart-rate’s going down like crazy!” he nearly shouted, the shock and worry clear in his voice.

“I got hit by a dart… It had some… some kind of, digitoxin in it…” Kodi said, stumbling backward and hitting the back wall of the elevator, “Colonel, help me… I’ll be dead in a few minutes…”

“Just remain calm, Kodi… Don’t panic and just get to a safe area so you can begin to heal yourself…”

“Don’t worry about that…” Kodi replied, grinning weakly, his forehead beginning to perspire from the poison as the elevator opened up and Kodi stumbled out into the white hallways, the colors seeming to swirl to him. He walked uneasily down the hall to the Storage Room and pushed the door open, kicking it shut behind him.

Jenna walked back into the Operations Room to see all Hell breaking loose there. Her eyes narrowed in concern and heard the beeping. Her eyes quickly shot to the monitor on the wall and gasped sharply when she saw what was going on with Kodi. She ran up to the Colonel and looked at him nervously.

“W-what’s going on with Kodiak?!” she asked, her voice nearly a shriek.

“Kodi’s been infected with a digitoxin… Don’t worry, I know how to handle this…” he replied calmly, pressing the radio’s button again, “Alright Kodi… Listen carefully to me… First, you need to take a drink of water so you won’t die of dehydration…”

Kodi nodded slowly to no one, then pulled out his canteen, drinking until it was completely empty and tossed it off to the side. His legs began to feel weak and he was losing his vision rapidly. His breathing was heavy and hurt him every time he took a breath.

“Alright… Now what?” Kodi asked, the weakness in his voice easily heard.

“Now Kodi, was there any vaccine or serum for this toxin that you know of?” Colonel McIntyre asked, staring seriously at the wall monitor’s picture of Kodi.

“… Yeah, there was one… On the top