Chapter 49: Teaming Up

Felix was about to jump up and yelp for happy joy when Calhoun cut him off.

"But don't think I'm just gonna to let that Ralph mutt get away with all he's done," she warned him. "He is going to pay for it all...and I will get my collar back."

"Oh, yes, of course!" Felix yipped, undetered by her less-than-appealing threat. He wiggled happily and swirmed over to her front paws- and unexceptedly hugged one of her front legs with pure, uncontain joy.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, ma- I mean, Sergeant Calhoun!" he exclaimed as he smothered her leg. "How can I ever repay you?!"

Despite herself, Calhoun couldn't help but smirk down at the leg-hugging corgi. "Well, for starters, you can quit having a smooch fest with my leg."

Felix stooped hugging and peered up slowly at her face, blushing at the mere thought of...kissing such a beauitful pooch.

Shaking off sure a honey-glowing dream, he bolted off of her, still slightly giddy as he stood before her.

"Great! So, where such we start looking?" he inquired excitedly as he looked all around slyly, ready for action. "I wonder if he ran back to the petshop, and if we should look there first, or-"

"Woah, woah, woah! 'We?'," Calhoun growled out. "There is no 'we', Corgi! You're staying here while I go looking for JunkPile!"

Felix' face faltered slightly as she turned and became walking again, still hiding and walking behind the row of bushes.

"Wha- why?! Why can't I go with you?!" he whined after her.

"Becuase Sergeant Calhoun works anf goes solo on these types of missions!" she told him simply in reply. "Beside, you and your shimpiness could get killed way too easily!"

Felix huffed. "That's not true...I'm a lot tougher than I look," he weakly told her, flatting his large ears in anger.

"Yeah, I'm sure," Calhoun mocked with an eye roll.

"No, it's true!" Felix pouted. "I could totally-"

But Calhoun wasn't listening. She was too transfixed on the rustling branches ahead of them in the bushes, right around the corner of the bulding.

"Scorpion!" she gasped out, before slapping a paw down on Felix' nose to quiet him down. "Shut your chew hole, Corgi!"

Felix' cringed as his little still sore chin came in contact with the ground, but followed orders as the doberman lifted her paw off of him.

He watched with wide eyes before melting to crouch on his legs as Calhoun immedically did, eyeing her as she stared fixated on the moving hedge limbs.

Slowly, Calhoun crawled closer and closer before, not even flinching when the rustling leaves began to move with a a lot more intensity and in frequency.

When she was in poucning distant of whatever the object was, Calhoun slowly rose to her feet...and leaped, into nearly face to face with another dog who had struck his head through the brustling bushes. Fortunately, the sergeant was able to skid to a stop right before colliding with him.

"SURGE!" Calhoun yelped, in slight embarresment and anger at the other dog for scarring her. "What is the name of Sega's Sakes are you doing here in the bushes?!"

Surge Protecter, Acardia's most illtimed security greyhound, just chuckled in reply. "I was about to ask you the same thing, Sarge!"

Felix peered around his hiding place behind Calhoun to see the greyhound he recognized quickly to be the annoying security dog by Acradia's welcome sign. Only in this encounter, Surge had abandoned his usual get up of blue and was now decked out in an outfit of red and yellow, clearly being used for the firefighter squad. He even had a tiny black fire helmet on with a stick-on firefighter badge, ready to earn a laugh or smile from any trumatized children coming out of the soon-to- be-evactutaed buliding.

"I'm on a mission to find a mutt that snunk on my force that went A-WOL," Calhoun bluntly told the police-turned- firefighter pooch, now more irritated than anything else.

"Is he the one who was too chunky for Markowski's vest?" Surge asked her, causing her to start. "And he's name is...Ralph, I think it was, if I'm remembering his smell correctly?"

"Wait...you saw him?!" Calhoun and Felix yipped in union. "Where'd which way did he go?!"

Surge twisted his head out of the bushes to where he could not longer be seen. "Follow me," he called out from the other side.

After a quick check to make sure they weren't being watched by any people, Calhoun and Feix quickly scrambled out of the bushes and hurried after the surge protector.

The three quickly turned the corner around to the side of the bulding...to see a rip police vest laying on the ground before them a few yards down, right underneath a broken glass window.

"That Ralph mutt got stuck leaping through that broken window with an explosive scorpion attached on his snout before the vest broke and he slid out the window like a crazy person," the greyhound told the sergeant and corgi, his voice barely above monotone.

The sergeant listened gravely as she approached the vest, sniffing it deeply to find the repulsive smell of Ralph all over it. She growled to herself as surge continued to mumble.

"I was about to run and get a humans' help to get the creature off his nose -and give him a citation for being on the grounds of an emergency shut down bulding-," he added matter-of- factly, "when he stumbled onto an emergency animal ambulance headed for Sugar Russia City and was gone. Whatever happened after that, I have no clue."

Felix too listened silently, his eyes slowly growing wider and wider as they danced between both the surge protector and the doberman.

The corgi had heard of a multated scorpion...but never an explosive scoripon. And he wasn't completely sure he even wanted to know that it was.

Disgusted by the smell of Ralph, Calhoun somberly looked up at Felix abruptly, her eyes piecing him into his corgi skull. Shaking her slick furred head, she then glared dauntingly at Surge.

It was clear what she needed to do...no matter how dangerous it may prove to be.

"Surge! Tell the others that I'm heading the Sugar Russia City- and not to follow in suit as backup!" The sergeant ordered savagely out as she began to turn to march off. "And do it quickly before I take a chunk out of your rear end!"

Both Felix and Surge watched in a pregant silence as the elegant yet tough doberman slipped off, neither one making a move or saying a word.

"Jeezers...," Felix mumbled outloud to himself finally as he watched her. "Is she always this intense?"

"It's not really her fault," Surge answered him sadly as he shook his head. "Calhoun has suffered through one of the most unspeakable pain one police dog could ever suffer through..."

And with that, the greyhound turned to head off to relay the message to whenever Calhoun's troops surfaced out of the bulding, leaving Felix alone with his racing thoughts.

Felix crunched his eyesbrows together, chewing over Surge's word. He didn't know what all Calhoun had "suffered through" may have entailed, but he didn't care. It merely solidified his determination.

Watching her go off... alone... like that, on such a dangerous mission by herself, with no help...was too much for his little soft heart to handle.

He didn't care how Calhoun may have felt about it; she did not deserve to 'work solo' on the daunting task for finding Ralph, with no telling what in store. Not one bit.

It was clear what he needed to do...no matter what dangers it may have along the way.

"Wait, Calhoun!" Felix called as he hopped after her. "I'm coming with you!"

"Like fun you are, Short-Stack," Calhoun answered as she kept walking stoically, keeping her eyes in front of her. "This misson is dangerous- and could kill an untrained, tiny dog like you."

"Well, if it's dangerous enough, it could kill you, ma'am," Felix countered as he approached her. "And-and Ralph is my responsibility. I've got to find him and fix this whole mess he has...and I have...gotten ourselves in. And- and I cannot ask you to risk your life, no matter how well trained you may be, in order to find Ralph and make things right!"

He paused in speaking and walking when he realized that Calhoun had frozen in place and was peering over her shoulder, seeming to think over his words.

"No flex on this one, ma'am. I am coming with you," Felix finally commanded her, stomping his left front paw on the ground defiantly.

Calhoun's eyes narrowed back at him, half in anger and half in almost something that felt like admiration.

She had to hand it to him- this corgi had guts. Big, stupid, cute guts.

Sergeant Calhoun sighed, seeing there was no way out of this... then, without a sound, she jerked her head foward, beckoning Felix to follow her.

His eyes wide in disbelief and then in sheer joy, Felix bounced around in a happy little circle before finally running to her side, seeking to keep up with her long, easy strides as they set off towards Sugar Russia together.