The Four Lords of Brooklyn
Chapter 3- Old Faces and Old Places
Rita blushed a deep scarlett, difficult for her fur color. Dodger glanced at her with a raised eyebrow. "Well, well, well Reet, you never told me you were a player yourself!" He winked. "No wonder you won't look my way."
Rita barked a laugh. "Dodge, I won't look your way because we've been friends forever." Rashad looked at Rita with a glint in his eye that reminded her of the good old days,"Come on guys, we'd better get this little guy home," She said, waving for both groups to follow.
As the group of now eight dogs walked down the street to Central Park, heads turned from both human and dog alike. Suddenly, coming from the corner of the street was the one thing all strays fear, "Hide, mek haste!" Cross barked as a white Chevy van with a blue badge on the side of each door drove along the street slowly like a creeping snake.
Everyone hid where ever they could, "I am a bush...tink like a bush," Davey whispered using his dreadlocked coat to disguise himself in the bushes of an apartment complex, "Ollie mon, stay unda' ma coat," Oliver his under his dreadlocks Cross said the coast was clear Dodge ducked out from behind a trashcan, checking to make sure everyone was ok. It seemed as though they all were.
"Well, seems like we'd better hit the back roads." Rita suggested. "If he's here once he'll be back again."
"Good idea," Dodger agreed. "Come on, we'll go out the way we came in." With a fluorish he led the group of dogs down an alley, away from the busy streets of downtown New York.
"Well, what have we here boys?" A growl errupted from a near by box. Dodger groaned. This couldn't be happening. Roscoe and Desoto, two Dobermans with a beef for both groups of dogs slinked out from the shadows.
"Give a path, punks," Vladimir growled, "I'm warning you," his accent made him sound more intimidating than he looked. A former show dog but doesn't mean he's not a fighter, using all 30 inches of his height and flashing his canines. Roscoe and Desoto eyed the Russian dog with amusement. The two of them could take him- no sweat. Or so they thought.
"Move along Roscoe," Dodger growled. "There's nothing for you to see here."
"Looks to me like there's a lot to see," Roscoe contradicted.
"Walk. Away." Rita warned. Einstein and Vladamir backed her, surrounded by Dodger, Cross, Davey, Rashad, Francis, and Tito who was behind the group looking after Oliver.
"I guess gettin' a shock from da' tram not 'nough for yu bwoys," Cross snarled and stood her ground though she was shorter than Desoto and Roscoe, "yu wanna romp wit' me, yu ragamuffins, ya' bes' not, so move yu backside!"
"Oh scary," Roscoe said sarcastically, Rashad and Davey stepped in which brought memories of when Rashad was on duty, "well well well, if it isn't the washed-up cop and the walking throw rug, I've waiting to get my paws on you ever since you threw in the river,"
"'Soto, I can always throw you back in," Rashad growled, "you don't a chance, my man, you out-numbered and out-matched, so BEAT IT! or I bust you up!"
"I'd listen to them if I were you guys," Dodger grinned, supporting his friends.
"Yeah, yeah, ye-" Tito began to chant but Einstein did him a favor and sat on him.
Roscoe glowered at them. "You know Charlotte, you haven't aged a bit. I wish you'd pick the other side of the tracks, MY side of the tracks." He winked.
Charlotte charged and head-butted the doberman between his ribs and shoulder, sending him flying 7 feet backwards into a couple trashcans, "I only say dis' one ma' time and not 'gain, move yu backside!" Charlotte growed with great rage and backed up Rita with Rashad on the right and her on the left,
"So that's how it is, you're a dead dog walking, Cross," Roscoe threatened as he and Desoto made a run for it. Charlotte watched them with a glare that could make a bullmastiff think twice.
Dodger jumped in, tackling Roscoe to his side. The great dog flipped in the air and smacked into the side of a building, knocking himself unconcious.
"You ok Cross?" Rita asked but there was no time for an answer, Desoto had charged them now and Vladamir was intercepting him, throwing him off his heels.
"This could get ugly," Francis growled.
"That all you got, Old Timer?" Desoto said flipping himself back onto the his feet. The two dogs circled like vultures, growling and flashing their canines, "I admit you're good...for an old man,"
"Keep that fork tongue behind your teeth, Desoto," Vladimir snarled back. Meanwhile, Oliver leaped up to a window ledge about 8 feet above the danger zone.
"I have to help somehow," Oliver said watching the fighting from above. He looked at a small clay flower pot with an marigold growing out of it and got an idea, "oppsy," he said knocking the pot off the ledge and right on Desoto's head,
"Ouch!" Desoto exclaimed as the pot hit dead center on the top of his head. He shook his head to get the dirt off, "Roscoe, let's move, we'll deal with them later," the two dobermans high-tailed it to another alley. As the two dogs high-tailed it out of the alley, Dodger rolled on the ground, howling with laughter.
"Kid, you're a regular chip off the old block!" He said between fits of laughter. The look on Desoto's face when Oliver dropped the bomb, so to speak, had been absolutely priceless.
"Maybe we should keep him around," Francis grinned. "He might just earn his status as 'dog' one day."
Oliver smiled at his friends, but the offer gave him chills. He like hanging out with the dogs, but he could never leave Jenny. Not now. He needed to get back to her, and he voiced this opinion to Cross and Dodger.
Charlotte looked up at the nightsky, they still had a long way to go, "Tis gettin' late, Vladimir, Davey, Rashad, we gwine to 'Da Hall'. The Hall was the nickname Cross's Gang gave to the old abandoned 'City Hall Station' first opened in 1904
"We gwine deh, Cross, deh a duppies (ghosts) in deh, mon!" Davey exclaimed showing he was a good fighter but not good with ghosts and other superstitions.
"Yeah yeah, like I haven't heard that one before," Rashad said rolling his eyes and looking down at Tito, "dawg, there ain't no ghosts in there," he joked as the group looked at the rod iron gates of the old abandoned station,
"No ghost can get the best of us!" Oliver stated proudly, yelping when Tito stumbled on a trashcan. The group laughed at this.
"Looks like a nice set-up Cross," Dodger praised. Despite the Station's elegence, He missed the ramshakle hut that signified Fagin and home. The skinny middle-aged man would be wondering about them now, confused as to where his loyal dogs had disappeared to.
"We'll have to find Fagin in the morning." Francis announced, trotting after Vladimir.
"Agreed," Rita yawned. That night the group rested in the old station. As the cloak of night covered the station. Davey heard the sounds of footsteps coming down the stairway.
Davey's eyes wided under his coat, he shifted his eyes from left to right and started to sweat. He nudged Vladimir to wake up, "Vlady...Vlady...s'iting comin' mon,"
"Ugh...quiet, you dust mop," Vladimir groaned trying to catch some sleep. But Davey became even more scared as the steps grew slighly louder,
"Vlady...mi hia footsteps, dis a duppy," Davey whispered shivering, looking to where he thought the steps were coming from. his dreadlocked coats began to stand,
"Davey, there is no such thing as...wait I hear it too," Vladimir said getting up from his slumber, "it's probably the janitor-,"
before he could finish his sentence, he saw the ghostly figure of a train conductor and the two dogs screamed bloody murder and woke everyone up. "Dear God what was that?" Dodger demanded, rolling off the stand he was slumbering on and crashing to the floor, his foot disrupting Oliver who'd been asleep beside him. The kitten meowed in fright and jumped up, his fur standing on end, while the rest of the group scrambled up, causing a commotion loud enough to wake the dead.
"Everybody quiet down!" Rita barked. She had caught site of the ghostly train conductor standing only a few feet away. The conductor stopped to regard them for a moment, tipped his hat, and continued down the hall.
"Man that was spooky man!" Tito ruffed. "I need ta get outta here man!" He began to run in circles, his green bandana slipping into his eyes until he could no longer see and ran head first into Francis. The next morning, the group continued the journey with the events of last night still fresh in their minds,
"'Ey mon, les not gween deh 'gain," Davey said walking down the street with Dodger and Charlotte leading the way. Unfortunately, there was trouble waiting for them at an alley way.
"Hello Dodger, we...missed you last night," said Roscoe with Desoto to his left. Neither of them had the time to deal with these meatheads and breakfast was on the two heroes minds.
"We always inna crosses...," Charlotte mumbled and quickly shifted her eyes over at a Collie across the street from them, "OH LAWD, I SEE LASSIE!" She exclaimed,
"Lassie?" Dodger repeated with disbelief. He hadn't seen the collie in years, what was she doing here?
Roscoe and Desoto looked up at the sight of the dog, but paid no mind. They were focused on the group of 8 dogs and one cat you'd gotten the better of them last time. It wouldn't happen again if they had anything to say about it.
Vladimir looked over at a long crowd of people and had an idea, "That would make a good cover," He thought noticing Oliver wasn't in the group but standing behind the two Dobermans in the bushs for safe cover.
The Borzoi looked at him with a wink. Oliver knew what to do, "Hey, Roscoe, there's something funny growing out your butt," He turned around at Oliver's voice but he wasn't there, "it's your tail genious!" He said leaping out and clamping his little teeth onto Roscoe's docked tail.
"EYOUCH!" Roscoe wailed in pain as the cat showed his inner Rottweiler, holding on and never letting go. Roscoe leaped in circles to try to get him off, "get off me you lil' hairball, Desoto help me!"
Charlotte rammed Desoto with her vicious head-butt, making the Doberman eat a mouthful of concrete with the help of Rita and Dodger, "Mek haste!" Charlotte said running toward the crowd, "Ollie, grab on!" Oliver leaped on to Cross's back and dug in his claws to stay on, "Oi, dat huts, lilly mon!"
"We got to get to Fagin's, he'll know what to do!" said Rita running into the crowds and vanishing with the rest of the group to the dismay of Roscoe and Desoto.
