with an angry fire, “You think I won’t?! I swear to God, I’ll tell them to shoot you two dead right now!” The two agents could see Niju wasn’t one to take a mock or taunt and began to pick on that.

“Go for it then… You probably won’t though, what, with you being a coward and all…” Kirby said casually, acting as if he didn’t have a dozen weapons pointed at his face, “Why don’t you guys just let us run along?”

“Why the hell should we?!” Niju growled back furiously, “I’ll show you! Soldiers! Open fi-” However, Niju  stopped his command halfway through it when he realized their trick. Kodi and Kirby were standing right in front of a rack of missiles. A single stray bullet from one of the twelve rifles was nearly assured to happen and would kill them all! Kodi, knowing Niju had caught on, held his handgun up to the missiles, glaring at the wolf.

“Now, you’re going to do as I say, and only what I say or we all blow sky-high…” Kodi said, a low growl building up in his throat, his eyes gleaming with triumph, “Put your weapons down on the ground and take ten steps backward… Then turn around… Got it?”

“You wouldn’t dare… You’d fail your mission pulling a stunt like that…” Niju said, his words cold as ice. Kodi pulled the hammer back on his handgun and gave Niju a very serious look.

“Our mission was to kill you and destroy the missiles… Doing this will do just that… We don’t have to come home alive, or even come home at all to accomplish our mission…” Kodi replied darkly, “You wanna push your luck? Go ahead… Try me…”

Everything seemed to stand still, time seeming to freeze on that very moment. Niju thought hard for a few moments, his hands clenched tightly into fists of anger as he knew he’d lost this battle. He gave a slight motion and the soldiers dropped their weapons, backing up along with Niju before turning around. Kodi nodded to Kirby and both agents made a mad dash for any exit they could find. They weaved their way through the many racks of missiles, hearing the guards behind them beginning to give chase.

“Well, we at least bought ourselves a head start to the exit!” Kodi said, running as fast as he could, eyes darting left and right as he looked for a doorway out of here. His eyes eventually fell upon a steel door set into the wall to their left. “Over there! Quickly!” Kodi pulled the door open for Kirby, but didn’t go into the hallway himself.

“What’re you waiting for Kodi?! Get in here! They’re right behind us!” Kirby nearly shouted to his teammate. Kodi gave Kirby a small grin, a gleam of anticipation in his eyes.

“Trust me… I just wanna find something out…” Kodi replied back calmly, “You go on ahead, find a place to lay low and just rest for a bit… If I don’t radio you in the next twenty minutes, proceed with the mission and try to call me…”

Kirby hesitated for a moment, then nodded and ran off down the hallway. Kodi kicked the door shut and climbed on top of a rack of missiles and hid from sight. As the soldiers ran by, Kodi watched as Niju ran behind them, stopping right beside his rack and pulling out a radio. Not allowing him any advantage, Kodi dropped down onto the wolf, knocking him to the floor and crushing his radio beneath his boots.

“No! My radio! You little bastard! I’ll make sure you’ll regret trying to fight me!” Niju growled at him, pulling out a combat knife and slicing at Kodi, missing his chest by an inch. Kodi delivered a swift, powerful kick to the wolf’s stomach, dropping him to the ground. Niju snarled and lunged his knife for Kodi’s throat, missing the agent as he coolly side-stepped out of harm’s way and grabbed Niju by his shirt.

Kodi felt something inside the chest-pocket on Niju’s shirt and his interests perked up. Before the wolf could do anything, Kodi reached inside and pulled out a chain attached to a dog-tag.

“Thanks…” Kodi said, then rammed his head powerfully against Niju’s, knocking him out like a light before tossing him to the floor. Kodi shook his head to clear the slight impact-caused daze he was in and glanced at the dog-tags in his hand. He looked back to Niju and raised his handgun to finish the fight until the sounds of running boots began getting closer. Not wasting anytime to see who was coming, Kodi ran through the doorway and down the desolate white hallway. A platoon of guards approached Niju and shook him gently.

“Sir! Sir! Wake up!” the Squad Leader said, shaking Niju gently before taking out his radio, “Medical Team to the Missile Room. Rouge Leader is down; repeat, Rogue Leader is down…”

Kodi continued to dash down the hallways, breathing heavily as he ran onward. His eyes darted from side to side as he looked for any hint of a place Kirby had been. C’mon, Kirby… Where the hell’d you go? he thought to himself. He pressed the button on his headset and began to speak.

“Kirby, where the hell are you?!” Kodi nearly yelled into his communicator, desperately hoping he’d get a response from his teammate. A few moments later, he got what he had wanted.

“I found a small provisions storeroom, about five minutes down the hall from where you come into the hallway from the Missile Room...” Kirby replied. Kodi nodded to no one and sprinted like mad down the hallways until he came to the door marked ‘Provisions’. Kodi swiftly kicked it in and saw Kirby sitting, his back to the wall. Both agents pointed their handguns at one another, only lowering them when they realized who it was. Kodi rushed inside and shut the door behind them, locking it and praying to God that they wouldn’t be found…

After what seemed like an eternity of waiting and keeping as silent as a mouse, Kodi and Kirby heard boots run past them. The guards… A few minutes later, they ran off, continuing their search for the agents. Both agents sighed with relief and Kodi looked down at the silver dog-tags in his hand, reading them slowly and gasping sharply when he saw whose they were…

“Kirby… I may have a problem now…” Kodi said, his voice filling with fear and worry, “… A very big problem…”

            Jenna pulled her car up the driveway to their house and sighed softly. Balto had definitely come home, mainly because his car was here. Getting out of her car, she walked along the front path and up the porch, opening the front door and locking it behind her. She could hear the TV on farther into the house and followed the sound, finding Balto sitting in the den, watching the TV.

Jenna sighed softly once again and slowly walked up to Balto and sat beside him, gingerly placing a hand on his shoulder and kissing his cheek. He didn’t even do so much as move a muscle as her touch. Jenna snuggled close to him and wrapped her arms around his chest, staring up at him.

“Balto… Will you talk to me? Please?” she asked softly, her voice nothing more than a hushed whisper, “Talk to me… I know you’re hurt and I know you feel terribly, but please, just let it all out…”

Balto remained quiet for a long moment. After that, his eyes began to water up with tears, forcing him to shut his gold and brown eyes as he began to cry softly. Jenna turned the TV off and held Balto tightly, knowing he must have been hurt more than she could have ever guessed.

“It hurts, Jenna… Knowing that your own son hates you… It hurts like nothing I’ve ever felt before…” he said, his voice shaking as tears cut their way down his muzzle like two rivers, “I should never have not wanted Kodi to become an agent… I could see how much he wanted to be like me… I just… I just didn’t want to see him get hurt- or killed…”

“Balto, he knows that you were only looking out for him… He doesn’t hate you, Balto… He’s just upset that what he thought wasn’t true… He’ll get over it… I guarantee he’ll come back and then you two will make up and be friends again…” Jenna said, gently stroking down Balto’s neck to try and calm him down, “… Kodi almost died today…” Balto’s eyes suddenly widened and his ears perked up as he stared at Jenna.

“W-what? Kodi nearly died?! How? Is he alright?” he asked frantically, only stopping when Jenna covered his mouth.

“He’s fine, Balto… He was injected with a digitoxin… Fortunately, Kirby saved his life… He’s alright now…” Jenna explained calmly, placing a hand gently on Balto’s tear-stained cheek, “See? You’re worried to death about him, like I was… That’s the only reason you didn’t want him to be an agent…” Balto took a deep breath and wiped the tears away from his eyes.

“Thank you, Jenna… I don’t know where I’d be if I hadn’t met you…” he replied softly, kissing her passionately before slowly pulling back and staring into her amber eyes, a small smile on his face, “… Do you remember, years ago… Back in Alaska… When I had nearly died and you nursed me back to health? I thought that I had been terrified then, just by nearly dying… But now that Kodi’s thousands of miles away, I’m more afraid now than I ever was before…”

“I know, Balto… I felt the same way when I saw you passed out in that empty office… I was afraid that you wouldn’t wake up again… But I’m so glad you did…” Jenna said quietly, hugging her husband affectionately, “I’m terrified for Kodi’s life… But I have faith in him and I believe he’ll come back alive, with the mission complete… And when he does, you’ll be there, beaming proudly at him as Colonel McIntyre presents him with a medal of honor…”

“I hope so, Jen… I hope so…” Balto whispered back, caressing her and closing his eyes once again. Everything was still and quiet as they sat together, wrapped in each other’s arms…

            There was a click at the door as it opened and Brad walked in, turning on the