Chapter 4

My shoulder burned as if it was on fire. I just watched Aqualad and Kid Flash talk. Kid had joined us before we left. I couldn't see where we were going. I didn't know how far we were going. I didn't even know how long we were going to be gone. I didn't know a lot of things and it hurt to ask. So I laid there silent, taking in as many breaths as I could. My stomach growled for food. Soon enough we came to a stop and Aqualad carried me out.

I looked around and saw cave walls. I couldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. Bats were flying everywhere and there were all kinds of files. There was high tech. It was the Bat Cave. I heard about it when I was little. A friend of mine told me all about it. I would love to hear about it whenever I saw him. Now I could tell him, I was in it. The guys back at the ally are never going to believe it.

He set me on a cold mental table. I laid there without moving a muscle. I looked around and the two were gone. But I wasn't completely alone. The boy wonder was practicing his fighting moves. I snorted and watched him. He looked over at me and I could tell he was rolling his eyes at me. Normally, I would say something but eh.

"What no remark," he asked.

I just stared at him.

"What? Cat got your tongue?"

I still remained silent.

"Wow. You must be sick. Ace says you never turn down food. But you look like you haven't eaten in months."

One month.

He walked over and looked at me. "Nothing. I thought you were the toughest dog in the world."

I am, but I'm in pain. Stupid.

"Okay, I thought maybe you're just giving me the silent treatment. But now I know you really are sick."

No. Not sick, in pain. There's a difference.

He walked up to me and felt along my stomach. "Let them help you." I could hear Sun nagging in my head. He moved up to my ribs and I flinched. He moved up closer to my shoulder and I snarled at him. Robin got the message and moved his hand off of my shoulder. That's when Batman came in. My tail curled with the pain. It hurt so much. Tears burned in my eyes as Batman felt around again. He took an x-ray and saw that I broke a lot of bones.

I was scared. What were they going to do now? I gulped and let the tears roll down my face. I yelped. Something was jabbed into me, then my body began to go num and I slipped into darkness. When I woke up, everything was starting to feel better. I looked over and saw my ankle was rapped up, my shoulder was in a small case, and my ribs were a lined in bandages. I sat up and rested my head on my paws. Man, I feel great. Not great enough to get up and walk around, but I'm getting there.

No one was in the cave, so I got to my paws and jumped down. I limped around seeing what kind of things I could find. It was warm and was really creepy. Then there was a creaking noise. I turned and saw someone walking down. He wore a suit and had gray hair. Reminded me of the guy at the station. I sat down as he came walking down. I could smell him from where I was sitting and I felt like I knew him from that one sniff. He was kind and warm. He had sweet heart and was wise. I could tell he was going to be a nice person to talk to.

"Ah, nice to see you're awake. Are you hungry," he asked.

His voice was calming and joyful. I love it when I'm right. "Sure."

"You in the mode for anything?"

"You're not scared that I can speak? I understand how the kids weren't, but you've never met me."

"Trust me, I have seen a lot more odder things than a talking dog. I've, also, met your brother. Nice dog."

"Yeah, always was."

"I'm Alfred."

"Gillian."

"Good to meet you. We go back to the question, you in the mode for anything?"

"Turkey?"

"I like the way you think."

I smiled. This is going to be fun.

Mount Justice

April 21, 2012

18:30 pm

Time had passed and I was back to my fit self. The case was gone and I was completely healed. But I was healed a few months ago, in the end of January. But right after I healed, we ran off. They never came looking us. But today I was lying down in a warm trashcan that was clean from the trash part. My head was out of the can getting the warmth of the setting sun. I slept quietly when a rumble noise came above me. I yawned and looked up. The team was in a giant motorcycle that was landing in the ally. I knew the cycle, it was sphere. I would love to talk to her when I was resting my legs.

I stretched my legs and yawned. Through my tired eyes I could see Sun and Jay from the side. What the hell? Ace jumped down and explained everything. "Come on, we really need you're tail," Ace said.

"What! You are not cutting off my tail," I yelled.

"No, barker brains. You're tail venom."

"That makes senses. Sure."

You see the Justice League was under mind control by Vandal Savage, someone from the Light. But thanks to the three of our tail we were able to get them back to their own control. Then midnight came and that same voice was back. "Disappear." It said and that's what we did. Never to be seen again.

"That is some story, Gillian. How do we know it's real," asked a brown haired dog with white spot around his eye.

"Because the three of us lived through it, Tony," I snapped.

"Yeah. Everything that Gillian told you is true. We were all there," Sun agreed.

"Well I believe them," said a mutt with black fur.

"You'll believe anything they tell you, Georgia," joked a mutt with a brown head, white fur, and black spots.

"Shut up, Rex," Georgia growled.

"Cool it you two," Jay snarled.

"Alright, then tell us. What happened after you disappeared," Tony asked.

"We went on a cruise for a whole year," Sun answered.

"Best time of my life, if you ask me," Jay whispered.

"There's another thing I don't get, what tail venom," Rex asked.

"Oh, it's something the pack called it. You see, we can snap our tails at a direct angle. It can stun a person and they called it venom because they thought it poisoned people. But really we are just hitting in really senative pressure points on the body. We learned when we were kids," I explained.

"One last thing. How did you guys come from Happy Harbor to Buldhaven," Georgia asked.

"That's another story. It all happened two years after we disappeared and we were living in Happy Harbor in the train station. Nobody has looked there for years because everyone thought we were dead. So when we were safe from being caught. That is until Dick came. He still went by Robin back then, but he was older than the last time we saw him. We had always kept an eye on the team. Without them knowing, but we never knew that one was keeping an eye on us.

'We were just hanging out, when he came up. We couldn't believe how big he was getting. It was really surprising," I said.

"Oh my god, you've gotten tall," Jay said.

"Sure. Can I ask you something," he said.

"Yeah, why not," Sun said.

"I need you to do me a little favor."

"It's going to cost you," I growled. He threw down three bones. "What do you need?"

He explained his favor and it sounded easy enough for us to do it. So we told him we help. But the team couldn't find out that we were helping them, so we kept it secret. Our job was to ask anybody we knew about this guy (we weren't given the full details) and get it back to him. Easy enough. It was like taking candy from a baby. Our sources would put the information in a hollow bone and we deliver it to Robin. He even pays us in hams or bones.

"Nice work, you three," Robin said. After he threw down the ham. The case was solved and we were about to have everything go back to normal.

"Thanks, we do our best," Jay said as he ripped of meat.

"You could have a real career in this kind of work. You could us you're talents for good and not evil."

"Hey! No, you're right," I said with ham in my mouth.

Sun shollowed. "What are you talking about anyway?"

"Maybe, we can make this a more permanent job. What do you say?"

We looked at each other and nodded.

"Whoa! You got into a line of duty, where you help you're enemies," Tony said.

"When we were on the streets yes, but when Gillian hurt herself we put aside our differences and helped one and other. It was like helping an old friend and we liked the job. It kept us from stealing, which helped us die down. But once Dick turned 18, he was out of the house. We helped him on one more case and he said that he found this great place in Bludhaven," Sun explained.

"After that last case was done, we knew we couldn't help him anymore. We loved that job so much. But the on thing he said before he left, 'my door is always open. If you want a place to stay'," Jay finished.

"Did you take his offer," Rex asked.

"Well we had to talk about it. But we took the job and he welcomed us with open arms. It was almost like the world wanted us to be together," Sun said.

"We both had lost people, we loved and couldn't be without. So it was like he became apart of the family. We'd do anything for him," I said, resting my head on my paws.

"He gave us food, water, and shelter from the harsh world. While we helped him on any case that he had for us. You know it's not really that bad. We get days off, when we just relax and sleep," Sun said.

"So what you're saying is, you're his pets," Georgia questioned.

"Uh, you could put it that way if you wanted to," Jay said.

Dong! Dong! Dong!

"Oh crap, we have to get going. We have to get back home before Dick does," I said jumping to my paws.

"We don't have to be home until 8," Sun said.

"I knew that." I clawed under the collar that hung from my neck and yawned.

"What about your brother? Does he know," Tony asked.

"No. Our job has to be kept secret from the team. We can't let them find out or our secret id blown," I answered, choking on my own words.

"Sometimes, it gets hard for us to keep it a secret from Ace and Honey. We grew up them and we love them. The five of us are the last of our pack," Sun whispered.

"By the way it is, eight," Rex said.

"What," we shouted, turning to look at the clock. By god he's right. We raced out of there we a leap from our paws. "Bye, Tony! Bye, Rex! Bye Georgia."

We ran deep into the streets of Bludhaven. The honks of horns as sped in front of them. We galloped to the building where the landlord waved hello and a man held the door open in the elevator. We slid in and sat down. Jay was panting hard and Sun looked tired to the bone, but for me I was stunned. I looked up and saw Dick standing right there. I wonder how late it was for him to come looking. That is if he was looking, if he wasn't then we're not going to die. But I knew he wasn't, he had sweat on him and the smell was strong to smell.

I wagged my tail and barked. He looked at me, rolling his eyes. There are some things, you may not know. You might know that Dick is great with animals. You also might know, that we're un-trainable. But even a street dog can learn new tricks. When we started to live with him, he taught us to come when ever we heard the song of the mockingbird. He would whisle and mockingbirds would hear it and sing it. We could hear the whisle where ever we were. That's when we drop everything and come running back.

He also taught us to attack anyone in the house when he was away. That's also when the best parts of the job. But for right now, I needed something to eat and a good night's rest. But that never comes to me. Tony was barking, wanting me to come outside. I snorted and went on to the balconey. He was standing there on his side of the building. How do you think we knew Tony, Rex, and Georgia? They were our neighbors.

"Sorry to bug you. But I had to ask about Nicky," Tony said.

"Over the five years, Nicky told us that he was my cousin from my father's side. He told Ace too, but he never said anything about us being alive," I answered.

"Does he know where you live?"

"Yes. Anything else?"

"Yeah. What are you going to do if Ace and Honey or any of them find out?"

"We'll find out when we cross that road, but for right now we don't worry about it. Just don't let word be going around about dogs who steal plans. Then every person we stopped will be after us, Just promise me you won't tell anyone about this."

"Don't worry we won't. But-"

"Tony, I know you have a lot of questions but we're not worried about the team finding out."

"Okay, just had to know. Night, Gillian.

"Good night, Tony."

I Yawned and walked back inside. I jumped on the couch and laid next to Dick as he watched TV. Sun was resting on the carpet while Jay laid on the chair. He stroked my fur and I drifted off to sleep.

The next morning came around and after breakfast I was off. The day was young and I had to talk to Nicky about something new. Rumor had it that the monster, Clayface, was back up on the surface and was going attack Gotham. But I have to find out where and when. But faith had another idea. I walked along the sidewalk with my guard up. My ears were pricked and my fur was on edge. I turned on to Main Street, then made a sharp right to Dogwood. I kept up on a zig zag turns to lose anyone who might be following.

I walked into the Happy Harbor Park with a bone in my mouth. I could see Nicky with his bone walking towards me. We walked passed each other, coming out with bones in our mouths. What people don't know is that we which bones while people walked passed us. I held my head high as I walked back to Canterwood, where a raven is going to pass on a message to Dick. See like I told you, our job is easy. Once at Canterwood Lane, I made a sharp left to Raven's Peak, where a friend of mine is waiting for a message. I rolled up my note and gave it to him.

He grabbed it with his claws and took off. I walked off to another check point of my work. It was a shoot, kind of. I would pass the bone off to a bird, who was then suppose to fly off to the apartment. Then I'm suppose to check up on other open cases to see if there are any other clues to them. Some days we work until nearly three in the morning the next day, sometimes even longer. We travel all around the world at least twice. When the lead gets big, we check out until the very end. But we always come back and when we're done with a really big case or travel out of state/country, we given a month off. I normally, I go out state to Las Vegas.

I love to play the games and explore the different sights. Nobody knows it better then me. But Vegas was last thing on my mind, I gave the bone to a mockingbird and watched it fly off. I was about to head to a cat who said he had a lead about the disappearing people, when a rat ran up to me. I looked at him and growled. "Nicky needs you. It's about the case you asked him about." I hope he didn't give me the wrong one. I'll kill him. I galloped back to the park as fast as I could. I saw him sitting by the tree. I stopped, letting dust fly everywhere.

"What… did …you need… to… tell me," I panted.

"I found out where he's going to be. He is going to be in the sewers on January first. I just found out from a friend of mine. I wanted to give this to you before you send the other bone," he said, showing me the plans.

"You're a little late. Where did you get these?"

"From a undercover agent, where do you think I got it from?"

"Don't need to be rude about it."

"Shut up. Here give this is Nightwing and tell him I said hi."

"Will do. Thank you so much." I rolled up the papers and placed them in a bone. "I will hand deliver myself."

"Gillian."

I snapped around and saw my worst nightmare ever. "Oh no." I might not deliver this at all.