has?  home?"

"No," Angel whimpered, "it's different--"

"What? What is it?" Fang asked, words coming in short breaths.  "A family? If that's what it takes--"

"No. No, you don't understand." Angel sighed. She shook her head. "Even if I told you."

Fang leapt back onto the boxes. "Why can't you leave 'em behind?" he said. "What would it take?" His heart slammed in his chest. His paws trembled; the fur on his neck rose. Why did she have to go back? What was it in Scamp that wasn't in him?

He turned away from her, standing with his back to her on the top crate.

"Fang?" Angel had her front paws between the boards on one of the bottom crates now, looking up at him. "Haven't you ever had a family?"

Fang turned, eyes suddenly filled with anguish.

Memories swamped him. Thunder as a door creaked open, revealing the eyes of many trapped canines. The shadows of two full-grown dogs. The words of a human with a net. A loud bang. 

Fang's eyes hardened. "Never," he answered. "I never had a family," he said loudly, "an' I never will!"

"Fang..."

"Go home!" Fang ordered, baring his famous teeth. "Go home an' don't come back!"

Angel turned to go, then shot over her shoulder, "Why can't you tell me the truth?"

"What's 'at s'posed to mean, doll?" Fang snapped.

"Nothing." Angel shook her head and trotted out of the alley without looking back.

Fang watched her until she was out of sight. He had felt so strange around her. Different than any other female pup. What did she want from him? A family? Forget that. He didn't need one. He never had one anyway. Never.

 Chapter 9

Fang lay on the crates after Angel left, not moving or making a sound. He rested his head on his paws, defeated.

"Fang! Fang, hurry, you have to come!" Rose skidded around the corner of the alley a few minutes later.

Fang raised his head. "Whaddaya want?" he mumbled, eyelids lowered, ears drooping.

"It's Angel!" Afghanna came up behind Rose. Skip followed.

The hair on Rose's neck lifted a few inches. She'd never seen Fang look like this. "Are you sick? What happened?"

Fang stood up, shaking his head twice. "Never mind that. What about Angel? What's wrong with 'er?"

Afghanna shouldered Skip aside and stepped forward. "She's in big trouble!"

Fang hopped from crate to crate, landing in front of the gang. "Show me!"
 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 Fang and his gang of Street Pups raced to the rescue, finally leaping into another alley, one unfamiliar to them. They skidded to a halt. There was a huge wooden fence, locked as usual, to block their way.

"She's on the other side." Afghanna tilted her head towards the fence.

"How d'you know?" Fang panted, Rose gasping for breath beside him.

"Uh, you can hear her," Skip growled, irritated by Fang's interrogations.

"Pipe down," Fang snarled at him. Skip ducked. Fang's eyes were ablaze, like scarlet fire. Something had taken hold of him.

They were all quiet then.

The sounds of snarling and snapping--horrible sounds--came from the other side of the fence. Then a voice, familiar, that sent jolts down Fang's spine.

It was Angel.

"Back off--I told you, I don't want any trouble. I just want..."

There was a snarl and a snap. A bark. A whimper from Angel. That did it. Fang bristled and turned this way and that, paws sliding on the sidewalk, desperately looking around for a way to the other side.

"Forget it," Skip muttered, a little regretfully. "There isn't any way in. We've tried."

"We figured you could find a way..." Rose began, staring after Fang with large, worried blue eyes.

"You figured he could. Not us. It was your idea to get him." Skip muttered.

Afghanna's eyes were mournful. "We can't help her. Sorry Fang, but this is a waste of time. We'll have to--Fang?"
 

Fang had disappeared.

The gang looked around, concerned.

"Fang?"

Rose looked around frantically. "Where'd he go?"

"Calm down. Calm down." Afghanna ordered, panting hard. "We'll find him."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the wooden fence, Angel was backing away slowly from two malicious, slobbering, mangy, huge dogs. One was gray with a squinted eye. Another was brown with crooked ears and a web of lighter tan fur around his neck.

"Get away from me," Angel growled bravely. "I'm not afraid of you."

"Then you're one stupid House Pet," came an amused voice from above.

Angel looked up. So did the rabbid canines.

There was a triumphant bark, familiar to Angel--and to the Gang beyond the fence.

"Fang?" cried Angel. "Fang?"

"That's my name, try to spread it around," the Golden Retriever woofed. He winked. He was on top of a brick building, looking down on them. "Calvary's arrived, Ang'."

He slid down onto a few trash cans, appearing at her side, facing the brutes before them with drooping eyelids and a doggie grin.

"What're you doing?" Angel whispered, both of them still backing away slowly. They were trapped; on their way in the rabbid mutts had knocked crates and trash cans into the opening of the alley.

"Saving your fluffy tail," Fang answered, the good-naturedness vanishing from his voice, replaced with a blanket of serious concern. "Get behind a box or somethin' an' stay there."

"Over my dead body," Angel replied angrily. "We can take them!"

"Who's 'we'?" Fang snapped. "Look, when I say hide, it means hide, no two ways about it, doll! Now move it before they turn you into their next free entertainment toy! Scram!"
 

Angel opened her mouth to protest. But the dogs sprang just then.

Everything seemed to move into slow motion. Fang turned and butted Angel aside with his head and all of his strength. She careened behind a trash can, momentarily stunned but unhurt.

Fang collided with the larger mutts, snapping and snarling, using his famous fangs to do great damage. The gray dog yelped in agony, but grabbed Fang by the scruff and shook him like a rag. The puppy screeched in pain, but when he landed, jarred, he continued fighting.

Angel was on the brown mutt in a second, tearing into his back fur with her teeth. The brown mutt whipped around and slammed her with his snout, knocking her into the same trash can, toppling it over and upsetting its contents. Angel lay still, paws throbbing, trying to catch her breath.

A snarl erupted from Fang, and threw himself on the brown dog, biting into its ear and yanking--hard. The dog barked loudly, whining, and bucked, flinging Fang off. Fang slammed into a crate and stayed there.

The brown dog's ear was ripped and bleeding, and the gray mutt was limping. But they advanced on the limp form of Fang anyway.

A screech of fury sounded from behind. Skip was biting down on the brown mutt's tail, growling fiercely, green eyes ablaze.

"Follow his lead!" Afghanna shouted to Rose. They were on the roof of the same building Fang had gotten onto to get into the alley where Angel had been trapped.

The two female pups swarmed all over the ugly dogs, giving them severe beatings--if you count puppified growls and digging claws and teeth into the mutts' fur coats severe beatings. Skip continued to dodged the snapping jaws of the brown dog, all the while keeping a tight, painful grip on its tail. Rose took one look at Fang, squeaked in horror, and bit the tar out of the gray brute's legs. Afghanna barked loudly in the mutts' ears while leaping onto the gray one's back and clinging to its extra skin with her teeth.

The rabbid dogs finally gave in, tripping over themselves on the way out of the alley, leaping over the rubble that had trapped Angel in before.

"You think they'll come back?" Skip panted, looking towards the entrance to the alley, the crates and trash cans toppled still.

"Nah," Afghanna shook her head. "We only did part of the work. They don't call him Fang for nothing..."

Afghanna heard a clang and turned around, ready to attack.

Angel was staggering, fur crumpled and dirty, out from behind the toppled trash can, tripping over its muggy contents as she went. "Wh-Where's Fang?" she croaked.

Afghanna's ears dropped, and she turned, heart panging, towards the dented crate where the mound of golden fur lay.

"Fang?" cried Rose, who rushed to the Golden Retriever's side. "Wake up, Fang! Wake up!"

The red-eyed pup didn't move.

Afghanna let out a soft whimper. No, she thought. Oh, no no no no no, please...

"Fang?" Angel crept up to him. She glanced at Skip. "Is he..."

Skip looked away, tail dropping and tucked between his legs, green eyes wet.

"...Did they...?" Angel looked at Afghanna.

Afghanna sighed softly, hanging her head, eyes closed.

"Fang? Fang!" Rose kept nudging Fang, moving his head up and down with her nose. He