Disclaimer-see previous chapter.

The next morning I woke up feeling better then I had the previous night, untill I rememberd that I still had lots of explaining left to do. I stared up at into the darkness of my room wondering what punishment Satoshi would give me when I heard the door knob start to turn. The room was suddenly filled with light as Satoshi entered the room and shut the door behind her. "So, your'e finally awake. Your'e brothers and I were wondering when you were going to wake up."

This was a good sighn. Satoshi didn't sound preticularly angry, in fact she seemed to be in a fairly calm mood. I turned my head to look at the clock on my nightstand and saw that it was just after eleven in the morning. "How come you let me sleep so late?" I asked as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes.

"Well, you had a rough night last night. The fire department called this morning and explained to me what happened. I have to admit that was a brave thing you did. Incredably stupid, but brave none the less. What posessed you to run into a burning Neohome, anyway?"

That was a good question. Looking back on the events of the previous night what I really had no good reason to do what I did. Not even Yakkul would do something that stupid.

I don't know I guess. I guess I just wanted to be just like Yakkul is all."

Oh really? Well Yakkul would have more sense then to do what you did. And just to let you know your'e grounded for the next week. Yakkul has another battle tonite so Taraku is going to stay home and keep an eye on you. Now come on and get something to eat. I think your'e brothers saved you dome breakfast.

That night Satoshi, Yakkul and Vegiito headed for the battledome leaving me and Taraku home. I have to admit it was nice not to be left completly alone for once, though I might as well have been alone since Taraku, ever the loner, spent all his time on the couch with Michidzure watching T.V. He barely spoke to me the entire night, that was untill he saw the Neopia Channel 1 nightly news.

I was already asleep (it was ten at night, after all) when I felt someone shaking my shoulder. When I opened my eyes Taraku was standing over me, a worried look on his face. "Get up, Jiro. Come see whats on the T.V., quick!"

"What is it?"

"Just come and look. Thers no time to explain."

Yawning I followed Taraku into the living room. The words "NEOPIA 1 NEWS ALRET" flashed accross the bottom of the screen in huge capital letters. Below that in slightly smaller print were the words, "Battledome roof collap eses,injuries, casualties unknown". The rest of the screen was filled with a live shot odf the Battledome. The huge dome roof had indeed completly caved in, and part of the walls had also come down.

Thats where Satoshi and our brothers are". Taraku said quietly. I nodded and continued to stare at the screen and listen to the news anchor giving a live report.

For those of you just joining us we have a major breaking story unfolding tonite. The roof of the Battledome, as you can see on your'e screen, has completly caved in. This happenes just about fifteen minutes or so ago, just as we here at Neopia Channel 1 were preparing for tonite's news cast. The Neopian Emergency Management Service is on the scene but so far we have limited information on any injuries or casualties. NEMS is schedualed to hold a press confrence in about a half hour or so which we will bring to you live as soon as it happenes...

At first I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Yes I detested being the lowest ranking pet in the family but I loved my owner and brothers and ceartainly wished them no harm. My eyes drifted to the telephone hanging on the kitchen wall. If Satoshi was alright she would have ceartainly called home by now. I looked back at the T.V. screen as the images of the ruined Battledome were intercut with shots of the news anchor, a green Uni, sitting at his desk giving his report.

Taraku, we have do do something!" I exclaimed suddenly. "We can't just sit here, we have to go and see if they're alright!" I left up and started running for the door. Taraku grabbed me by the ear and pulled me back.

Oh no you don't. Your'e not going to play the hero again, not after last night! I'm going down there to see whats going on for my self and you are going to stay right here in the apartment where it's safe."

"Byt Taraku...

Don't argue with me! Look, if you get youre'self into trouble again Satoshi will ba angry with me...

We don't even know that Satoshi is alright!

DON'T SAY THAT! Satoshi is just fine, and so are Yakkul and Vegiito! Look, if you really want to come with you can but you have to stay by me no matter what and do exactly as I say, alright?

I nodded. "O.K. Do you really think they are alright>

Taraku looked like he wanted to slap me for even making the suggestion that something bad had happened to our owner and brothers. "Of course I do. Now come on, lets get going!"

Taraku and I left the apartment building and ran twards what was left of the Battledome. The pictures on T.V. could never have prepared m,e for what I saw when we arrived. Another wall had collasped and thick black smoke and debris of all kinds filled the air. Humans and Neopets were milling aimlessly about, some were badly injured. Ambulance crews were attending to the injured and transporting them to the Neopian hospital, and rescue workers roamed what was left of the Battledome looking for suvivors. Taraku and I made the rounds of all the ambulances on the scene looking for Satoshi or our brothers but after over an hour of searching we had found no sighn of them. It was beginning to seem hopeless when we heard a voice behind us.

"You two are looking for a fire Lupe?

Taraku and I spun arround to see a small boy holding a yellow Skeith plushie tightly in his hands. He had some bruises on his face and he was covered in black ash but otherwise he seemed fine. He had obviously been crying though, and he stared at the two of us with a blank, far away look in his eyes.

"Yes we are looking for a fire Lupe!" Taraku exclaimed. "Our brother, Yakkul_chan! He was here with our owner, Satoshi_chan and out other brother, a red Gelert named Vegiito_chan! Have you seen them?"

The boy sat down on the ground and nodded slowly as he wiped a gresh tear from his eye. "Yakkul_chan was schedualed to fight my Skeith but before the fight started the roof came down. Lucky for me I was at the concession stand so I got out in time but my Skeith..." The boy hugged the Skeith plushie and began sobbing uncontrolably. Taraku put a paw on his shoulder to calm him down."

"Listen, I'm sure your'e Skeith is alright. Now listen to me beacuse this is very important. Do you know where Yakkul_chan was when the roof collasped?"?

The boy shook his head no and started sobbing again.

Taraku reassured him that his Skeith was probably just fine and then we left the boy to his emotions. By this time I felt like crying myself. We had been here for over an hour and still no sighn of Satoshi, Yakkul or Vegiito. The situation seemed completly hopeless. Finally Toraku turned to me and shook his head.

"Well Jiro, the only thing we can do now is to go to the hospital and see if they have already have been taken there. If you don't mind though, I want to go alone. Your'e just a pup and you've been through enough for one night. I want you to go back to the apartment and wait there. I'll call if I find them, O.K.?"

I just nodded in response. Taraku was right. I was still a pup and the best thing I could do for Satoshi and my brothers was to let Toraku handle the situation. He knew what to do and esids, no Neopet, especially as young as I was then, should be exposed to a situation like this. So the two of us went our seaprate ways. Taraku got a ride to the hospitan in a Chia Police car and I started walking twards home. Thats when I got the idea.

I know I should have learned my lesson from the previous night but most young Neopets. much like young humans, don't learn easily. And besids, this was no stranger's burning Neohome. My owner and brothers were missing, possibly seriously hurt, and I wanted do do everything in my power to help. And the one thing I coyuld do was sniff through the rubble that was the Battledome for survivors.

Now one thing you have to understand about Gelerts is that we have an extrordinary sense of smell, the best of any Neopet in fact. We rarely get to put this trait to good use, but in a situation such as this one it was not only conveniont to have but could actually save lives. There were already several Gelerts siffing through the rubble already, most of them were volunteers who had seen the news report and had come to help. I knew that even though I was ypung I could still be of help so I ran twards the ruined Battledome untill I came to the poliece barrier. Who should I meet there but one of the Lupe firefighters that hd saved my life last night.

"You again? What are you doing here? Didn't you learn anything from last night?"

I explained the situation to him and told him that I wanted to volunteer to search the rubble for survivors. He was at first reluctant to let me help but he finally took me to see the rescue coordinator, a bit red Lupe wearing firefighting gear. He stared at me with a disbeliving glare as I told him the story. When I weas finished he slowly nodded.

"Normally we wouldn't let a pet as young as you volunteer, it's too dangerous. But since your'e owner and brothers might still be in there I'm prepared to make an exception. I'm going to assighn you to search the north side of the structure. You will be fitted with a walkie-talkie and a supply of oxygyn incase you have trouble breathing in there. Any questions?"

"No, sir."

I was then fitted with my equipment and taken to the north side of the ruined building. What had once been the battledome was now a mess of meatal beams that had once held the roof up, spectator seats, and other debris. Even though I had been fitted with special boots to protect my feet I still had trouble walking. I lowered my nose to the ground and began to sniff, but found nothing. I slowly worked my way up to the north wall, one of only two walls left standing, but still found nothing. After about thirty minutes I finally lifted my head and pulled the oxygyn mask over my face to get a breath of fresh air. The oxygyn tank on my back was heavy but I was definatly glad it was there. After I caught my breath I resumed searching. I eventually made my way out of the stands and into the rooms under the stands where Battledome competadors prepared for their fights. I was searching what was left of one of the locker rooms when my nose suddenly filled with smoke. I lifted my head to sneeze, and in the process I accidently bumped into the lockers. The lockers fell back to the ground and hit one of the support collums still holding the noth wall up. Before I knew what was happening a large portion of the wall crumbled and went falling onto the street outside...

TOO BE CONTINUED...