Chapter One
The first thing I smelled that morning was the delicious smell of a grocery bag, chock full of meats and maybe a sandwich or two. I rolled over on my bed of shredded and stained blankets, sniffing the air. I slowly opened my eyes, looking around to try and find the source. Breakfast had come to me this morning.
My eyes soon fell upon a white plastic bag, with red letters running down its side. That was the first thing I noticed. But of course, another dog was already there. He had black fur and brown points. His muzzle was blunt, but it looked strong, as his entire muscular body did. I was still half asleep, and I wouldn't have recognized the dog except for the dead give away. He was wearing a black and red baseball cap. It sat backwards on his head.
I smiled and heaved myself up from my bed, trotting over to the bag.
The name's Bolt. Zap Wolf Bolt, and I'm a canine agent at Dog World headquarters, where we fight off the worst of the worst evil felines. My team's got the best skills on this side of Main Street.
"You always beat me to it." I remarked, standing beside the dog.
The dog pulled his head out of the bag, and he was holding a piece of fried chicken in his mouth. "You're just lazy." He teased.
"Rocky, you'd do almost anything for a bit of food." I said, pawing at a bit of bread and beef that was on the ground. "It's not like we're in a life or death situation here. If we ever ran out of food, we could get some at H.Q."
"Yeah, well I'm not taking any chances." Rocky barked with his mouth full of meat. "Especially when the idiot humans are careless enough to leave an entire bag of chow out here for the takin'." His head had soon disappeared in the bag again.
I gulped down a hoagie full of all the essentials, and sat down to bite a bit of dirt from my paw pads. It had rained a little bit, and the mud in the alleyway was deep. A rustling came from behind me; I turned around to see a brown dog with long hair jumping out of a dumpster. Ivy.
"Hi Zap!" She barked cheerily, with an old pack of french fries in her mouth.
"Hey Ivy." I replied, lapping up a bit of water that had collected in a garbage can lid.
Ivy ate the fries in three seconds and then jumped up onto the lid of a dumpster. She yipped loudly and knocked open the top. The head of a gray dog popped up. She had short hair and floppy, long ears. It was Shades. She yawned.
"I was trying to sleep Ivy… " Shades growled. "I didn't get to bed until late last night with you howling like Headquarters had fallen!" She dragged herself out of the dumpster and over to a dust patch where she dropped down a rolled in it. "How do any of you sleep?"
"We're good at blocking out the noise." Rocky answered, shaking his fur clean of dirt.
I grinned and left the pack. I had to get my trainee, Sage, the little Newf puppy up and ready to go for the day. She was a Landseer, with a black and white coat and amber eyes. But of course, the rookie hadn't quite gotten used to the whole 'getting up early to go to work' thing yet.
The pup lay on an old pillow that was up against the corner. I went over to her and jostled her awake. Sage rolled over to face me.
"Time to get up already?" She softly said with a little yawn in her voice.
"The early dog gets the scraps, kid." I said. "When you're an agent, you gotta be on alert. You could get called in at any minute."
"Thanks for the lesson boss." Sage got up and reluctantly followed me over to the food.
Our day had officially begun.