Part a of the story of BHS and Napalm

   The canine walked slowly through the forest, enjoying the smell of the trees in the late afternoon. The air was slighty chilled with the coming fall, but the sun still shone clearly in the east. As he walked slowly along a slightly worn path, he finds he is a bit thirsty and walks in the direction of a lake he knows of. As the dog bends over and takes a sip he catches a glimpse of himself in the lake. He smiles at his rather odd appearance. Few enough dogs could lay claim to that color of fur. He looks undeniably canine, haveing blue fur completely covering his body with the exception of a small white patch in a rather private area. His muzzle, forarms, and forlegs have reddish-brown fur covering them. His hair, also blue, he has pulled back in a pony tail that went halfway down his back. His deep piercing grey eyes and black nose giving him a very handsome appearance. He is of average height, but possesses an undeniable strength apparent on his light frame. He comes out of his moment of self-reflection as his keen canine hearing detects a faint noise. Stopping and sniffing, he moves off into the cover of some nearby underbrush. "This should be fun." he thinks to himself with a grin. Shortly thereafter, a familiar wolf slowly walks up from the opposite direction, obviously not paying much attention to where he is going. His orange and red fur stood out blatently against the dense green foliage. He stood about and inch or so taller than the dog and was of a considerably heavier build, but it was overly apperant that none of it was fat. He appeared to be lost in thought, pondering the forest as he slowly passes it. The dog waits until, the wolf walks past his hiding place, before pouncing out tackling the unsuspecting wolf.
   "Gottcha, Napalm!"
   "Ack!!!!, Napalm cries, as he falls under the dog's weight.
   "Blue, don't you know you're playing with fire..."
   "And your point would be?" The dog says off-handedly. "Anyway, how are you this fine afternoon?"
   "Great!" The wolf says with an evil grin, grabbing the dog tightly in his arms, and suddenly rushing upward at a great speed, with no apparent method of flight. Branches whip by them at a great speed until the burst through the canopy and soar high over the forest. "Hold on tight." Napalm says with a wink.
   The dog holds the wolf tighter, not quite prepared for this turn of events. Spotting a huge and ancient tree far above the forest roof, Napalm glides gently over and sets the dog among its branches. "Great!" Blue exclaims, "You know how high we are?"
   Napalm responds with mild sarcasm in his voice, "What happened to your great agility? Don't tell me you can't climb down a little old 200 foot ancient redwood."
   "Yeah, I could," Blue says, then adds quickly. "But it would take me forever!"
   Napalm sits across from Blue on a branch and gives him a lop-sided grin. "I guess we'll have some time to talk then." He is about to say something further when he suddenly looks off into the distance. Blue follows his gaze, trying to find what had caught the wolf's attention. "You have better eyes, Blue. Tell me what you see over there." He lifts one paw, indicating some dark specs far above the ground to their north.
   The dog squints and looks, "I see some figures. I think they're flying this way."
   Both watch the figures slowly moving closer. Squinting himself, the wolf says uncertainly, "Yeah, I count about five of them. Lets get below them and see what they're doing."
   "Why? We should face them ready and all."
   "And lose the element of surprise? Naw, lets do it this way." Blue nods, annoyed that he cannot fault the wolf's logic. He grabs onto Napalm's back and signals he's ready. The wolf steps lightly off the branch and floats closely down the side of the tree, setting down among the branches of a much shorter one. They crouch quietly in the branches and await the arrival of the mysterious fliers. Their wait is not long. Shortly, several winged figures start coming into view overhead.
   "It looks like they're searching for something, but I can't imagine what it could be." The dog says thoughtfully. "There's nothing out here, except us."
   "Well, I doubt they would be looking for me. My kinds existance isn't very well known."
   "That's true, then again, they could be..." The dog trails off for a moment. "But no, that would not be possible."
   "What?"
   "Well, my dad disappeared 7 years ago. He was a watchdog for the government. He was murdered for some reason."
   "How do you know he was murdered?"
   "My mom told me. I have no reason to doubt her. My brother has been receiving some death threats, he runs a small cargo plane business. I didn't think anyone would come after me. But who knows, they may just be looking for gold or somethin.." Blue stops talking as the searchers fly overhead, stopping for a moment, then continuing. "Hmm, they stopped for a few seconds." He looks over at his friend for a moment. "I wonder what that means."
   "You don't think they found what they were looking for do you?"
   The dog looks up, "Where did they go?"
   "I can't see. Lost them in the sun. Blasted mortal eyes!"
   "I can see in the sun, and they're not there."
   "Hold on." the wolf pulls the dog to him and flies up. They look around, but fail to see any sign of the figures. They land in a clearing near their last known postion hoping they landed somewhere close-by.
   Blue sniffs as he is set back on the ground. He leans over to Napalm and whispers, "There's someone here."
   The wolf looks casually, sensing the presence of several figures by their body heat. He whispers back, "I count, at least 4 distinct body heats."
   Blue sniffs again, "I've got them all."
   The wolf decides its time to force the encounter. Stepping forward he declares boldly, "Come! Show yourselves! We know where you are!" Four tall cloaked figures move from the underbrush and surround the two. All of them have their hands hidden in their sleaves, in positions of mock relaxation. They are all dressed alike, in long black cloaks that drag on the ground as they move. The hoods on their cloak conceal their faces from view.
   Napalm looks at one, standing slightly ahead of the others, the apparent leader. He stares hard at him, asking, "Who are you and what do you want?"
   The cloaked form responds in a squeaky, high pitched voice, "Who we are is none of your concern. And we have found what we want. You will surrender now and save yourselves much pain." The dark figure fondles something nervously in his sleeve, but does not reveal it yet.
   Blue raises an eyebrow and whipsers to the wolf, half smiling, "Like they could hurt us."
   The wolf smirks and states arrogantly, "Lets just say that we won't."
The lead figure draws a small but deadly looking object from his cloak aiming it at the two. His paw shakes a bit and his voice betrays how nervous he is, despite his efforts to control it. "Then you will die...." Napalm stares straight ahead, his eyes take on a red glow. His thoughts leave his surroundings and focus on the object in the dark figure's paw. He expertly locates it and begins transfering huge amounts of heat into it, the metal rapidly absorbing it and heating up. He continues until he hears a scream of pain, looking up in time to see the glowing red weapon hit the ground.
   Napalm flashes the leader a mocking half-smile, "I would like to do this peaceably."
   Blue whispers to the wolf, "When I say blue, close your eyes."
   Napalm acknowledges him with a short nod. The leader growls, angirly signaling to the others. They rush forward with only slight hesitation, drawing weapons of their own.
   "Blue!", the dog shouts as he tosses something at the cloaked forms. Napalm closes his eyes as the mini-sun explodes in the clearing, blinding the four rushing figures. Without hesitation, Blue pounces and kicks one of the figures, while Napalm flies forward, digging his claws into the chests of two of the stunned figures, carrying them out of sight. Blue sees the last cloaked fur stumbling toward him from behind. He roundhouse kicks him as he nears hearing a sharp crack. The figure falls to the ground moaning. Napalm flies up behind the dog, as he picks up the still stunned figure that he had first attacked, holding him to the wolf. "Would you like to do the honors?"
   He smirks. "Gladly." He turns calmly to the cloaked form.
   "Lets try this again, shall we? What are you doing here...for that matter WHAT are you?" Not receiving an answer he pulls pack the hood, revealing a weasel beneath it. The creature screaches and hides his eyes. Napalm hears Blue hiss as he catches sight of what he is holding. "I would suggest you talk." Napalm grasps the weasel by his throat, pulling him within inches of his face, eyes blazing, and demands in a resonating tone, "What were you doing here?" The weasel squeals out his story without further difficulty. Though somewhat incoherent they manage to gather that they were trying to find a dog, one Blue Heeler SunFire, but they don't know why. "There isn't anything else, Blue. He's drained."
   The dog nods, about to go on when a thought hits him. "Wait! Where's the fifth figure?" No sooner than the question escaped his muzzle do they hear the flapping of large wings and see a great bird and rider taking off into to the sky above the tree tops.
   "This one's mine." the wolf says, vaulting into the sky. The dog watches as his friend seems to lose his form, becoming fully engulfed in flame. The flames expand and grow, taking on the rough appearance of a bird before dissappearing over the trees. The dog glares menacingly at the cloaked figures, one still unable to rise, the other sitting fearfully where he was tossed. The dog appears to be about to do someting when a huge flaming bird rushes into sight and hovers overhead. His flames cast a warm red glow over the entire clearing. The great phoenix holds in one huge talon yet another cloaked figure.
   Blue looks up at the great bird. "Well, Napalm, are you gonna put him down or just hover there?" The bird opens his talon, the figure falling in an ungraceful heap at the dog's feet. Slowly the bird decends, shrinking and eventually coalesing into his usual lupine form. The wolf walks up as Blue tears the cloak off of the figure, looking at the insignia. He snarls at the revealed canine. "What are you doing here? Why are you after me?" The dog says nothing, spitting in the face of Blue. Blue grabs the dog by the throat, moving towards a tree and slams the dog into it. "SPEAK NOW!" The dog does nothing. Blue squeezes until there is a crack, then tosses the body down. Napalm looks at the dog, then at Blue starting to say something, but doesn't. Blue moves over to the other figure on the ground.
   "You know him?"
   "Yeah, he's from the Awardings."
   "The Awardings?"
   "The father worked with my father in the government. We think he knows what happened to my father, but after two years of investigations, nothing happend. And the audacity of the man, he tried to marry my mom, she refused. Now, they're after me." Blue picks up the half dead body of a weasel and tosses him at the tree with a strength that causes a squish.
   "Was that really necesary?"
   "It was a weasel, and he would have died a slow death out here. Now he's out of his pain." Blue walks over to the object that the first weasel had tried to fire.
   "You know how that works?"
   "No." Blue aims at the dead dog..and presses some buttons. The object starts to make a sound. The sound gets louder and higher. Blue starts to writhe in agony, and falls to the ground. Napalm grabbs the dog and flys off quickly. They land just out of hearing range. "Thanks. I should have thought that it would be trapped." Blue grimaces as the explosion shakes the ground. "First it prevents a canine from escaping, then it blows him up."
   "Hmmm...our enemy seems to be cruel enough. Now what?"
   "Well, I guess we can't do to much, as we don't know where they're from."
   Napalm nods. "Yeah, or we could follow that bird. With any luck its heading home." Napalm points at a one of the large birds the weasels rode in on. "Hold on." Napalm once again shifts into phoenix form and allows the dog to mount. The flames, surprisingly, do not injure the dog and soon they are in hot pursuit of the retreating bird.
   "I guess he's not going to the compound of Awarding."
   "Doubtful, he doesnt sound like the kind for would be directly involved."
   "No, he isn't. He didn't when he kidnapped and killed my father. He didn't get dirty at all. Now rather than being a watchdog for corruption, he IS corruption. He's trying to take over, slowly, but steadily. Hey, it's going into the capital."
   "Sure is."
   "Looks like it's going to the seeder side of town."
   "You wouldn't expect it to head into the good side of town now would you?"
   "No. He's landing on that warehouse, the Den of Weasels."
   "Hold on, we're going in." Napalm lands on the roof, transforming back to wolf form.
   Blue sniffs, the yells, "DUCK" as laser fire fires across the roof. Blue dives and rolls behind some boxes.