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Jackson looked around, regaining his sense of direction. "It really isn't that far away," he replied, slowly trotting around the buildings. "Considering that the police are on their tail, I'm surprise they didn't try to go somewhere farther." Jackson led Brooke across another street and through another alley before stopping. "That's it," he said, pointing with his muzzle at the brick buildng just in front of them. It looked just like all the others and there really wasn't anything specail about it, but Jackson could sense the faint scent of other dogs on the wind. This had to be the right place.

Brooke looked it up and down. "All right.... Then let's go." She couldn't figure out why they chose a place so close but.... She looked at Jackson and shook her fur. This was going to be a lot more interesting than either of them had been anticipating this morning, she was sure. She nodded at him and led the way closer to the building. She glanced back at Jackson before creeping inside.

Ooc:// So sorry that took a while. I had graduation then I got my nose stuck in a book I couldn't pull out of. Everything else was put on hold till I finished.

Jackson glanced behind them before following Brooke into the building. They entered into a room that at one point must have been similar to the large cement room of the building the two had just left, exept in this place, the large room had been set up with three different fighting rings, all lined with a low but eletric fence. Jackson could hear the buzz of electricity from where he stood. At the far right of the room was a table that seemed to be set up for taking bets while at the left side was another door. The room was empty except for a burly man sitting at the betting table, scribbling some things down in a journal book identical to the one Jackson and Brooke had found. This man had to be Rick, and it seemed he had replaced his journal already. Luckily, Rick was angled away from the two dogs so he could hang his thick cigar out of one of the only windows in the room. Jackson crouched down, ready to attack the man without any hesitation.

Ooc:// Thats alright. I know the feeling. What book was it?

Brooke crouched down, studying the man. He didn't have a friendly smell on him, that was for sure. His scent made her fur stand up on end. She looked at Jackson and laid her tail on his shoulder, throwing him a warning glance. She didn't think he'd jump Rick without reason but she knew that if they could stay hidden, that would be better. This man was dangerous. They may not be able to take him. She had no illusions about that. Greater dogs had been brought down by less. Duke had been sure to tell her that many times. He said it was an important lesson for a police dog to remember.

Ooc:// The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks. It was amazing and so different from most of his! It had romance in it (as expected from Nicholas Sparks lol) but it was mainly a thriller. It also had a great dog in it!

Jackson glanced at Brooke as she touched him, her message clear. He sighed and rolled his eyes at her, but he knew she was right. Jumping Rick now with no motive and no back-up would just be asking for trouble. But they were here and they had to do something. Jackson looked at the door again, seeing it cracked open maybe just any inch, but it would be enough to nudge inside. "Lets check out what's behind door number one," he muttered sarcastically, giving Rick on last glance before slinking into the room. He stayed so close to the wall that his shoulder rubbed against the concrete, but if it meant not being caught, it would be worth a sore muscle later.

Ooc:// Sounds interesting. I've actually never read any Nicholas Sparks books. But I've hear they're amazing.

Brooke slowly crept after Jackson, sticking as close to the wall as she could. She focused on keeping her pawsteps quiet as she crept along. A small shiver gripped her as she thought of what being caught would be like. Who knew how it would go? She glanced at Rick again before looking back at Jackson. Finally, she saw the door coming up. She let out a quiet breath of relief. They were almost in. She didn't know exactly what it was that set her off, but this man made her feel like a puppy being told a scary story. There was something in his scent that scared her.

Ooc:// Oh yeah? They are good. I've only read this one and a Walk To Remember. I highly recommend both but they sure are tear jerkers.

After what felt like a million years, Jackson finally reached the door. He pawed it open just another inch before slipping in. The room was pitch black and the only light come from the ajar door. It took a moment for Jackson's eyes to adjust before he could make out the shape of six dog kennels, all lined up in a row and smelling like rotting flesh. Then, Jackson quickly realized that the kennels weren't empty.

Tango jumped up at the sound of the creeking door, his hair standing on end as he stared out into the dark room at two shadows entering their kennel room. His whole body was shaking so hard that he didn't know how his legs didn't just collapse from under him. His throat was tight with fright and he couldn't have spoken a word even if he wanted to.

Nine's dark brown eyes lazily slid open as she heard something from outside of her kennel. She rolled over from her back to her belly to get a better view at the dark forms entering the room. She cocked her head from curiousity, wondering who these strangers were and why they were here. "Hello?" she called into the grayness. "Who's there?"

DJ finally stirred awake at the sound of Nine's voice. He was known for being a particularly sound sleeper, and hardly anything less than a bomb going off woke him up from his slumber. DJ squinted into the room, the lack of light making him practically blind. He could barely make out two shadows moving where the other shadows weren't. "Who is it?" he asked in a gruff but not unfriendly voice.

Brooke's ears snapped up as she stared around the room. Dogs were in the kennels. They were different breeds and ages but they were all domestic dogs. She looked around, taking it all in, feeling as if the air had been knocked from her body. She heard two of them speak and opened her mouth to reply. No sound came out. Finally, she sucked in a deep breath then said, "I'm Brooke, this is Jackson... Who are you? What is this place?"

Teal watched them suspiciously, eyes narrowed. He didn't like newcomers. Who could blame him? He'd been fighting his entire life. He was in no hurry to answer them and sat down, tucking his tail in close beside him. He refused to take his eyes off of them but kept his mouth shut, letting them know that they were not welcome. He was under no illusions. These dogs could do nothing to help them escape. All they would do is get recruited themselves if they weren't careful.

Maybelle scrambled to her paws, fur bristling until she realized there was no threat and she was safe in her kennel. She padded to the edge of her kennel and peered out at them, head cocked to one side. "My name is Maybelle. Now... What are you doing here?" she breathed, loud enough for them to hear, but just barely. "This is no place for you.... We're fighting dogs."

Jules cocked her head to one side and studied the dogs. They were close to her age but they seemed so much younger... She knew it was because of all that she had seen in the past year. "You need to get out of here," she told them softly. "Before Rick finds you."

Don't worry about him," Jackson replied nonchalantly, stepping closer to the kennels in order to get a better view of these fighting dogs. It didn't help; they still just looked liked shadows. "He's busy with some paper work." He shrugged this off, not really seeing Rick as a threat. "Besides, all your troubles are over. We're police dogs," he announced, with a clear not of smugness in his voice.

"Police?" DJ repeated, as if he couldn't believe it. He backed away from Jackson and Brooke as if they had a disease.

Nine glanced at DJ with confusion, cocking her eye brow at him. "Well, isn't that a good thing?" she asked tentively, not liking DJ's reaction at all. "They'll catch Rick and we'll be free."

"You know what happens to dogs like us out in the real world," DJ growled, hating to be the one to share this hard truth but needing the others to understand that the police catching Rick would not be a good thing at all. "We'll be put down without a thought. No exceptions."

Tango didn't think he could shiver any worse than he had when the two dogs had first shown up, but now his quivering legs couldn't hold him up and he sunk to the floor. "P-put down," he whined in a very shaky voice. The very idea of death had him cowering in the corner of his kennel.

Brooke's brown eyes widened as she glanced at Jackson. Were those dogs right? A shiver engulfed her as she thought about it. It made sense. She had always been told that some fighting dogs couldn't be rehabilitated but she hated the thought. She never approved of it. There was always something. These dogs did not deserve it. She flicked her gaze from dog to another, studying each of them. Some of them seemed to trust them almost while others seemed weary. Her heart ached as she looked from one mistreated dog to the next. "There had to be something we can do." She surprised herself by how steady her voice was. She felt shaky and sick but her voice, luckily, did not reveal that.

Jules gave a harsh chuckle. "If you want to do something, let this case go so we don't get killed." It was a true but sad statement, she realized. These two dogs were brave and they could have been quite a help. However, sometimes the cards didn't play out that way. She didn't feel hostility towards them. If anything she felt regret. They could have helped and they seemed like a nice pair of dogs. However, nice wouldn't free them.

Teal let a growl escape his throat. These two would get them killed. He'd join any escape plan but this? Working with these two police dogs was suicide. None of them would make it out. He felt his fur slowly standing on end and got to his paw, ears slowly flattening to his head. "Get out," he told them, his voice a low growl. "We don't need your "help"."

Maybelle jumped a little bit, not expecting to hear that kind of anger in his voice. "Teal," she said gently, as she eyed Brooke and Jackson herself, trying to figure them out. "There isn't anything you can do for us," she told them, voice still gentle. They were naive and she doubted that they were a real threat. "But we appreciate the offer." She heard Teal scoff and shook her head a little. Teal had always been difficult. These two were just triggering those tendencies more than usual. However, he wasn't making them look good. If they were any kind of threat, that might turn out to be a problem.

Jackson blinked at the caged dogs, not believing what he was hearing. He had made a huge break through in the hottest case at the precinct, and these dogs wanted him to just give all the up! "Well, that's not going to happen," he nearly snarled, baring his teeth more in anger than in threat. "The future of my entire career rests on this case, and I will not let a couple of homeless fighting dogs stand between me and my medal of honor!" Jackson hadn't realized how loud he let his force become despite the desperate whispers of Nine telling him to quiet down or they'd all be dead.

"Shut up!" DJ's deep, loud bark echoed in the tiny room, shaking the metal chains of the kennels. Tango backed up even farther against the back wall of his cage, his quiet whimpers seeming loud in the quiet aftermath of DJ's outburst. The older dog let out a soothing breath, his shoulders sagging down again as the tension left his body, but then the silence was broken by the clatter of a chair hitting the concrete ground followed by a string of curses. Nine's ears flattened against her head at the familiar yelling of Rick, obviously ticked about his paper work being interrupted by the commotion coming from the kennels.

"Now," DJ said, commanding the attention of Jackson and Brooke in a calm voice despite the danger pounding it's heavy feet towards the dogs. "You two better get out of here fast. There's a hole in the wall over there covered by a peice of wood." He pointed with his muzzle towards the space, though it was useless in the poor light. "I'd hurry up if I were you," he added, the foot steps of Rick sounding closer and closer.

Wasting no time, Jackson sprinted across the ground and nosed over the thin sheet of wood, practically the thickness of cardboard. It slid to the floor in a whisper of wind, exposing a squarish hole barely where some kind of utility equiment must have been before the building was abandoned. Jackson crouched to slink through the hole, but paused for just a moment. "Don't think you've seen the last of us," he whispered, a hint of a threat in his voice. In the evning light pouring in from the hole, Jackson finally could see clearly the faces of the dogs who were about to jeopardize his career. He felt no sympathy for them as he ducked through the hole, squeezing his lean body back outside.

Brooke bounded after Jackson and peered over her shoulder at the dogs. Her heart went out to them. All she wanted was to help. Maybe she and Jackson could figure something out. This was no real life for dogs. It was cruel. It was sick. It was wrong. "We'll help you," she whispered just before she squeezed after Jackson, her reddish fur tugging through the wood around her. Once she was out, she hurried to catch up to Jackson.

Teal snorted. "Well, this is just great, isn't it?" He narrowed his eyes and glared after the two dogs. Who did they think they were?! He began to pace back and forth across the cage, his large paws landing heavily on the ground as he went. Pups, he thought to himself. Irritating, know-it-all, nosy pups! "They'll get us killed!" he snarled, whipping around to turn his vicious glare to the others. "They'll get us all put down! Nosy brats!" He lashed his tail furiously. They could help them. They could save them all but no. They had to look out for themselves. That's what everyone did, though. He'd learned that the hard way. No one cared.

"Teal, maybe not." Jules flicked an ear, sitting down. She studied him with an even gaze, as though trying to decide what he'd do next. "They could be different than other police dogs. They're young." Teal's eyes flashed dangerously but she didn't avert her gaze. She'd learned not to let Teal bother her. He wasn't as scary as he seemed. Not really. But when he decided to be angry, he was going to stay angry for a while. She knew him well enough to know that by now.

Maybelle winced as Teal growled, "Doesn't matter. They're all the same. Besides, the male, whatever his name was, seemed quite eager to turn us in." She slowly crawled into a laying position and blinked up at him with her beautiful, round, golden eyes. She had to hold onto hope. She couldn't believe that they'd just be put to sleep. Maybe the humans would take mercy. She was no fool, however hopeful she was. Chances were slim. However, there was always a chance. Always.

Jackson raced back through the alley the two police dogs had entered before, pausing only for a moment to allow his eyes to adjust to the bright evening sunlight after being inside that dark building for so long. After glancing around and remembering which way to go to make it back to Duke and Sadie, Jackson took off again, his mind set on reporting this information to the elder dogs as soon as possible and leading the entire squad to the building before nightfall.



"But the female did not seem so eager," DJ reminded them all in a calm, deep voice. "She has the power to help us." The old dog thought back to the golden dog that had been inside this room only moments ago. He could tell as soon as he saw her that she would help them escape. Now, it was her job to convince her bull-headed partner to help them while it was now DJ's duty to convince his fellow fighting dogs to accept that help.

At that moment, the rusty door hinges flew open to reveal a very irritated Rick on the other side. Red in the face and taking another drag from his cigar, he quickly scanned the room for the disturbance. "Stupid mutts," he muttered, seeing nothing new inside the space. "Better learn to keep your mouths shut. Or else." To emphasize the point, he kicked the metal rings of Tango's kennel, causing the poor dog's heart to leap back into his throat and had him cowering and whimpering at the back of the cage once again. Satisfied with his work, Rick retreated from the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

Without a moments hesitation, as if Rick hadn't even entered the room, Nine turned to the elderly Mountain dog and asked curiously, "Why did you tell them how to escape? I mean, there's a chance that the female will help us, but wouldn't it have been safer to just let Rick deal with them and eliminate the chance of that male brining the entire force here?"

"Yes, that would have been the safe option," DJ responded, his eyes now glued on the very spot where the two dogs had crawled out of the room. "But then were would have no hope of escape. And just a little bit of hope, even compared with a chance of danger, is bettwen than no hope at all."

Nine nodded at this, accepting the old dogs words and praying that the little scrap of hope the dogs were holding on to would be enough to break them free of this place and Rick forever.

Brooke glared at her pinheaded partner as she ran. What was the hurry? Then it hit her. He was going to Duke and Sadie. Not without a fight, she thought angrily. Furious and determined, she leaped on his back, using all her weight to bring him to the ground. "Stop, Jackson!" she growled. "Will you wait a minute?!" Her eyes were narrowed to slits, her heart pounding in her chest so wildly she thought it might burst out of her chest. She would not let her partner ruin this. They needed to help, not make it worse. If he couldn't see that, she'd have to make him.



Teal scoffed. "I think this is a horrible idea. That male is so hotheaded that he'll get us all killed. No tactic that female takes could talk him out of it." He lashed his tail, glaring at DJ. He respected DJ, even if he didn't always show it. However, all he felt at this moment was anger. He was going to get them killed. They wouldn't stand a chance. All because DJ had mercy.

Maybelle shook her head. "I agree with DJ. I think the female can do it." It was their only hope. Being a hopeful soul, Maybelle wanted to believe in everyone. "I think he could really help us. He's so darn stubborn that if he comes to our side, we can't lose." She wagged her tail a little bit.

Jules nodded at Maybelle. "Besides, what's done is done," she told Teal gently. "DJ had mercy, whether they do or not. That means something, doesn't it?"

Teal snorted, "Sure. Right. You keep telling yourselves that." He turned his backs on them and lay down, putting his head on his leg. How could they still be hopeful when they stood no chance? When were they going to realize how life worked?

"Hey!" Jackson shouted angrily as something, or someone, suddenly fell on his back, causing his hindlegs to collapse under the extra weight and bring the rest of him down on the ground as well. "Wait the heck are you doing, Brooke?!" he yelled at her, growling in annoyment as he wiggled out from underneath. Her turned around with his teeth bared, but he had stopped from his running. But what was the point of his partner stopping him? Didn't she want the credit for finding Rick as much as he did?