Dedicated to all the Balto Source members, my friends, and my family.

 

 

 

Just Another Normal Wolf

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter I: Amaroq

 

 

 

It was noon in late fall and the sky was grey with clouds. Amaroq wasn’t even near his hunting mood, but he had to hunt. Even though his pack consisted of only three wolves, Aleu, Jessica, and himself, one mix, Balto, and one pure bred husky, Jenna, and three humans, Rosy and her parents. Aleu wasn’t going to stay long, but as of right now, she was part of his pack. Winter was coming fast, and they had no food. The caribou population was growing, slightly, but growing, and they still didn’t have enough food. No one else was really in the mood to hunt, either. But they had to. And it was this gloomy day that they had to. They hadn’t done it yet, and tomorrow and for around a week after it would be snowing too hard. And after a week has gone by, all the wolf prey would be somewhere else. They had to hunt now.

“I guess that being a wolf isn’t perfect, but it isn’t bad either,” said Aleu.

“Yes, but we really should get going. If we don’t, we either join another pack or die,” pointed out Amaroq.

“Then what are we waiting for?” asked Jessica.

“Nothing. Let’s go!” he said and Amaroq broke out into a strong run.

 

 

 

Only a few hours went by, and they had enough caribou to last half of the winter. They, obviously, needed enough food to last the whole winter. And they didn’t waste one minute taking caribou back to their food storage area. They would come back to take their food back later. If there was a later to do it in.

Hunters had been abundant this year, even with the new law. Illegal hunters. Hunters shooting wolves for no reason, even though it was against the law. The CWP, or Cold Water Pack, have been cutting back their territory boundaries because of these hunters. There are traps everywhere, and the scent of gunpowder is strong in the air. More and more people are buying aircraft so they can plan aerial attacks on the wolves in the area. And the police aren’t taking it very seriously. Rosy couldn’t stand the fact that the wolves were being killed, and her parents weren’t going to let it happen. They were having a long conversation with the police, and it wasn’t going to end until the police decided to get stricter about the killing of the wolves.

 

 

 

It was almost 8:30 P.M. when the hunting was over. They finally had enough food. They had completed the winter preparation hunting in only a few hours! They wondered if any other pack had done so before, but as far as they knew, no one had. But that didn’t matter now. When they woke up, the trees were going to be white. The rest of their surroundings would be white. All they would be able to see would be white. This was going to be a long winter. And it was almost here.

“My winter is coming fast this year,” said Balto. “But it won’t go by fast this year,”

“That’s for sure,” agreed Amaroq. “If only we were all members of the D-O-G…”

“What’s that?” asked Aleu.

“Nothing. Never mind.”

“No, tell us.”

“Yes!” agreed Balto, and Jenna, and Jessica.

“OK. I mentioned this thing called the D-O-G. Development of Global-Based Technology. It really is the D-O-G-B-T, but it’s a lot easier to say just D-O-G than D-O-G-B-T. It is consisted of only canines, so it makes sense to keep its name D-O-G. Anyways, the D-O-G was founded by DOGworks, but eventually became its own program and now DOGworks is almost extinct. Now, the D-O-G is development, research, info storage, electronic mailing systems, etc. It has grown to a huge size, most of it’s facilities are in Antarctica because of it’s little human activity, and now is, besides in Antarctica, all over the Earth, almost literally. I could go on forever about the D-O-G, but let’s just say that if all of the CWP, other than Rosy and her parents, we would be fine and it would be like summer. The closest facility is right here in Nome, and I have my office in Nome. Yes, I’m an agent of the D-O-G. Anyways that’s all you really need to know for now.”

“How advanced is the “D-O-G”?”

“Very. Other than DOGworks, the most. And DOGworks wasn’t really much. It was a bunch of businesses run by canines.”

“Are the any partnerships with the D-O-G?” asked Balto hoping that the G-T-R was one of them.

“Um, well, we’re trying to establish one with the O.O.C. But it isn’t really working out.” By now, Amaroq had changed his mind about “all that you need to know for now.”

 

 

 

The G-T-R is yet another canine business working with technology. G-T-R stands for Global Technology Research. It is a lot like the D-O-G. And Balto is a member of the G-T-R.

 

 

 

“Oh.”

And even though the D-O-G is really advanced, it isn’t yet able to share much of its technology with the canine public, or CP for short. The DOGNET is open to CP and G-MAIL was created for the CP. And Amaroq wished that DOGNET and G-MAIL were winter survival somethings, but they weren’t. The DOGNET is the canine Internet, and the G in G-MAIL stands for Global. G-MAIL is really CPG or DG -MAIL. G-MAIL is the email system for the CP. The D-O-G has many more programs but they aren’t for the CP, if you were in the CP and you were lucky enough to have a DC (Dog Computer).

“Even if you guys do become members or agents of the D-O-G, then there won’t be any advantage to anyone other than the fact that you won’t have to worry about winter.”

“What about the D-O-G having more agents against the C-A-T?” asked Balto, who met Boris running over to the other side of Nome. Boris said that he was fine and that the screaming was someone else.

Amaroq looked over his shoulder. “Balto? I thought you’d be on the other side of Nome by now. Anyways, how do you know about the C-A-T?”

Balto sighed. “The G-T-R,” he said slowly.

“The G-T-R? I mean, I know what the G-T-R is, but how do you connect to the G-T-R?”

“I’m a member of the G-T-R.”

“The G-T-what?” asked Jenna.

“The G-T-R,” said Balto. “It stands for Global Technology Research.”

“Yes,” agreed Amaroq. “No one really knows about it anymore, but it was huge once. It was one of the first businesses in DOGworks. I didn’t know it was still around other than in Italy and France. I never really paid much attention to it, though.”

“That makes sense. The G-T-R was trying to keep secret, but it leaked out. Now we don’t really care, but we’re not advertising.”

“Isn’t there a car that is named the G-T-R?” asked Jessica.

“Umm, Pontiac GTO and the Ford GT-40, but no…wait. Yes. I know of one G-T-R. The Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR,” Mentioned Amaroq.

“Oh.”

“You know your cars pretty well for a dog.”

“Uh, thanks,” said Jenna, blushing. “Yeah, I guess, but you know them better.”

“Not really. Well, at least I wouldn’t have related the G-T-R to a car.”

“Anyways, could you tell us more about the C-A-T? Who are they? How big are…” Jenna was cut off by her sentence by a small helicopter like vehicle landing almost on top of them.

“Well that’s part of them. Quick! Go hide somewhere! Balto, formation-90846!”

“What?”

“Sorry, D-O-G terms. Formation-N.”

“Got it.”

The helicopter’s blades were slowing down, and three Siamese cats started to emerge, wearing dark goggles and holding some kind of laser gun…and Balto and Amaroq had nothing. Other than Amaroq’s wrist communicator, which he could only use to summon a battle crew…Wait! That was it!

“Amaroq to Nome. Over.”

“You’re read, Amaroq. What? Over.”

“I need a backup crew, here. Over.”

“Okay, you are where exactly? Over.”

“764905. Over.”

The D-O-G has everything numbered. And 764905 is pinpointed where he and Balto were.

“OK. We’ll be there in a few seconds. Over and out.”

“I read. Over and out.”

“But it looks like they’re going to have a little surprise when they get over here. Only some footprints and an H like figure in the snow,” said the cat that was, apparently, the leader of the group, as a lion and five more cats exited the helicopter and herded Balto and Amaroq into it.

 

 

 

A couple minutes later, the helicopter was out of hearing range, and Jenna, Jessica, and Aleu Came out from their hiding places.

“What just happened?” asked Jessica.

“I don’t know, but we’d better ask anyone we know if they know about the D-O-G or know anyone who knows about it,” said Aleu.

“Good point. And we’d better start questioning now,” said Jenna.

 

 

 

About an hour later, they had finally found someone with access to the Nome D-O-G facility.

“OK, you said that a helicopter with at least nine cats in it? And they kidnapped Balto and Amaroq? Who is Balto?” he asked.

“A member of the G-T-R,” said Jessica.

“The G-T-R? I thought that was long gone. Anyways, do you remember which direction the Helicopter flew?” he asked (they were now in his office), sitting down in front of a large screen. He started punching in numbers and letters into the weird keyboard at amazing speed.

“From the south, to the south,” said Aleu.

“OK. I’d guess that’s C-A-T facility #304. Not the most secure, though. We can probably get in there pretty easily. I’ll need about an hour to prepare, though.”

“That’s fine. Just as long as we can get in there safely and get Amaroq and Balto, and us as well, safely.”

“Easy. I’ll need to conduct a small spy crew, and a small rescue crew.”

“Spies? What for?”

“For keeping watch so we don’t end up in a cell.”

“A cell? Like a jail cell?”

“Yes.”

Jenna shuddered. She hated things like that once she had gone to the pound, and it wasn’t really fun in her opinion. And for dogs, the pound is jail. And the cages are the cells.

“How long will it take after everyone is ready?”

“About ten minutes to get there, ten to twenty minutes to complete the rescuing stage, and about ten minutes to get back. Anywhere from 30 to 40 minutes. This is actually an easy job for the D-O-G.”

Jessica was

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