Part c of the second chapper of BHS and Napalm

   "I oughta give him a flat tire." Napalm threated angrily as he followed his canine friend away from the cab. Having to use mortal transportation was one thing, but to be given lousy treatment on top of it was inexcusable. He watched as Blue ducked into an alley, keeping close behind him as they arrived and at a very high stone wall, running a good city block along this face of what was surely the Awarding's town house.
"Ok," He whispered softly, "This is your plan, now what?"
   "How should I know?" The dog whispered back, "I'm making it up as I go along. Why don't you peak over the wall?"
   Napalm briefly wondered what he was getting himself into, but then shruged and noded his assent. Afterall, he was a pheonix. It wasn't as if they had anything in there that he really had to fear. Without further hestiation he rose slowly up to the top of the wall and peaked his head over the wall. Settling back to the ground he informed his companion of his findings.
   "Ok, this is what I see. There are four guards outside, one at each corner of the yard, however, there is a shed or out building and the south east corner, we can cross over there out of sight."
   "Okay, lets do that then." Blue said athoritatively. The crimson wolf shruged again before silently heading off toward the proper corner, the dog close behind him. Using his heat sense to check once again on the position of the guards he lifted them both over and landed behind the out building.
Blue glanced carefully about the grounds, noting the nicely manicured lawn, the imposing three wing, four story building, dominating the grounds.
   "Do you suppose this out building could be connected to the main one though some underground tunnel or passage?" The wolf questioned thoughtfully, still in a whisper.
   "That's a long way from the main building to here. I don't think so, but we need to search that house." The dog whispered back to the wolf. "Let me distract that guard. Then we can slip over to a window or something."
   "Ok, go for it."
   With that, Blue peaked around the same side, spotted the guard he intended to 'distract' and began to concentrate on him. Slowly he notes a very hazy look in the weasel's eyes, knowing that he was currently experiencing a myriad of colored lights all around him.Making a quick check to note the positions of the other guards within his view, he sprinted for the corner of the building at top speed, his padded feet making almost no sound over the well manicured lawn. However, just prior to reaching what he figured was halfway to the building, and relative safety, a strong arm latches to his waste and lifts him upward and forward and an even greater speed. Only suprised for a moment, he realized his flying companion must have a slightly different destination in mind than he did.
   Napalm did indeed have a slightly different plan of action. Afterall, when he consider's entering a structure, he never was prone to stopping at just ground level entrances. In fact, he prefed rooftop entrances above all others, though they were few and far between in such a place as the city. However, his destination was neither extreme in this instance. The opened third story window he had spotted was obviously the path of least resistance, and as good as any other window as they did now know the lay out of the stucture. Barely clearing the small opening the window made, they rolled smoothly into the room and rose to their feet. A quick survey of the room showed they were in no immediate danger.
   "Much better." Blue commented, relieving the buffudled guard of his colorful visions.
   "Yes, I just hope that guard is dumb enough not to realize what you did to him."
   "He'll be dazzled for a little longer, so we have time even if he does figure it out. Now, this looks like a bedroom. We want either an office or a lab."
   "Yeah, I'd think the labs would be in the basement, however I would assume the offices would be on the upper levels. Let's see if we can't get up to the fourth floor." The wolf responded, motioning toward the door, in and indication that the canine should preced him. Blue easily reading the gesture, padded over to the door, listened carefully with his ear pressed against it, then opened it quickly stepping out into a very empty hallway. Almost disappointed that he had yet to encounter any resistance, he began carefully walking towards the stairwell at the far end of the hallway. He carefully inspected the floors, walking around the rugs, staying clear of anything that might be disturbed or knocked over, Napalm never more than a few feet behind him, and always several inches off the ground.
   He began inspecting the stairs as they arrived. Carefully he started his ascent, checking each step before placing pressure on it. The wolf floated along silently and patiently the whole while, not once touching anything in the house, occasionally glancing behind them to check for anyone who might arrive from the rear. Suddenly, he puts his hand on the dogs shoulder. Blue stops cold, his paw just about to set down on the next step. He looks back expectantly at the wolf.
   "I can see faint red haze over the next several steps. Do you have any kinda of powder or dust handy?" Blue shakes his head in a negitive responce, only just realizing that they might have taken some time to equip themselves first. No, this had been important, and still was. Time was their first priority, they would just have to make due with what they had at hand.
   Napalm frowned a bit, glancing around the hallway, then in a moments inspiration floats up to a very dusty ceiling fan in the middle of the hallway. The fan showed no signs of movement, and from the looks of it, it had not been moving in quite some time. The wolf wondered briefly if it was even in working order as he scraped some of the loose dust from it into his cupped paws. He returned quickly to the dog, waiting rather impatiently in the same pose he had been left in, one foot hovering over the step in front
of him.
   Smiling broadly, he says casually, "No one ever cleans those things off."
   Flying forward over the upper set of steps, he begins clapping his paws together, creating a decent amoung of dust. The grey cloud began to settled slowly toward the stairs revealing several red beams across many of the steps.
   "Infrared?"
   "Yup, cool trick, huh? My vision, even in this form, extends slightly farther along the spectrum than standard mortal eyesight. These things are faint though, I almost missed them. There are several more beyond those I uncovered though, I had best carry you over them."
   Blue nods, and puts his arm around the wolf's shoulder. The wolf in turn, secured his passenger by the waist and floated them both effortlessly to the top landing.
   The canine, back on his feet, looks left and right down the hallway past the landing. He pauses, his eyes staying on the checkeredd tile floor, pondering. Napalm stares at the dog blocking his path with a puzzled expression on his face. As he continues to ponder his friend, Blue places his arm back around his friends shoulders and motioned upward with his paw. Not entirely understanding, but also not wanting to question the dog at the moment, Napalm nods and accomodates his friend by floating a few inches above the tile. At another signal from Blue he heads for one of the doors down the hallway. Blue looks carefully at each door they pass, obviously hoping to find something. Suddenly his free paw flies up, signaling a halt, then he motions toward the door to his right. Stopping, the wolf floats within arms reach of the door in question and waits for Blue to perform some quick inspections before opening it and allowing them both to float through.
   After a glance at his passenger, Napalm lands in the room then turns to carefully close the door. Without hesitation, Blue pads over to a desk and begins sniffing around it. Napalm turns back to the room just in time to see his friend climb under the desk. Somewhat confused, he walks over to a filing cabinet. Opening it up, he thumbs through, finding with surprising
ease one marked "Sunfire, B."
   Climbing out from under the desk, Blue looks over at the wolf with surprise. "A second later and you would not have liked what would have happened."
   "Probably not. Explosives?"
   The dog starts ransacking the desk. "Who knows?"
   Shruging, Napalm pulls out the folder he found and is further suprised to find others marked "Sunfire." Several are tagged with various symbols and experiment numbers. Removing these also, he starts searching for the 'R's.
   Blue finishes his search of the desk and turns around disgusted. "Nothing here," he states flatly, as he pacing over to the wolf. "What did you find?"
   Without a work the wolf passes the folders over to the dog and continues to search. Blue glances through the information in his paws hissing as he browses through the one's marked "Experimentation."
   The wolf pulls out a very light folder with the name "Richgast" on it, then closes that drawer and taps the dog on the shoulder. Handing over the final folder to the canine he says, "We have what we came for, we can read it later. For now we'd best get out before they catch on to us being here."
   A quick nod toward the window clues in the wolfs partner to the meaning of his suggestion. They walk together to the window, Blue holding the folders, Napalm holding onto Blue. The wolf's free paw opens the window and time seems to slow down. His paw, only a quarter of the way up the window, the first bleat of an alarm hits his ear. He realizes the alarm in this room is being sounded by a speaker in the upper right corner, noting consciously that the sound waves hit his right ear slightly before his left. He takes no time to contemplate this very odd sensation as he also sees a metal sheet descending much faster down than his paw is moving the window up. With what seems like horrid sloth his body propels itself out the window, dragging the body of his friend with him. Looking up, and over his shoulder, he sees the metal sheet now halfway down, his friends legs still halfway in the room.
   He continues to watch as with agonizing slowness, the metal curtain descends and he and Blue continue to move through the ever shrinking opening. For a minor fraction of a second, absolute terror passes through him, as he thinks they arn't going to make it. Then miraculously, they both are clear and the sound of the the metal plate striking the bottom panel of the window resonates in his ears. Then time returns to normal, if not faster than normal. Snapping his head forward again he realizes how fast he is heading toward another very solid structure. He curves upward, coming
inches away from an outstreched fire escape. Slowing down, feeling much more in control again, he inspects the condition of his passenger. Taking some satisfaction that he seemed no more sure of the success of their escape than he had. Turning his head back to survey the scene of their rather narrow escape he nearly drops Blue as he ducks a very large, very red blast from a very large laser canon. A very large laser canon that
apparently could fire very fast. He takes off again, flying in a direction he was really certain of at the moment. Just as some of the dodging paterns start to come to him the voice of his friends interupts his thoughts.
   "Fly fast!"
   "What do you think I'm doing?!"
   "FASTER!!" Napalm dives down behind a tall building as the cannon blows several holes in the side of it. "Don't go to the inn. Go to some empty building, like there." Blue points to an obviously run down and abandoned warehouse.
   Hoping that the immediate danger was, in fact, passed, Napalm flies between a few more smaller buildings and lands quickly in the alleyway behind it.
   "This is well enough away from that canon that they shouldn't be able to hit us. And we should be well away before any ground searches catches up."
   With a litte encouraging the rear entrance to the building yielded and they entered quietly. Blue pulls a loose piece of old, but sturdy pipe from its fastener on the wall, and uses it to brace the door against anyone who might happen upon them. The wolf dust off an old and forgotten crate and takes a seat on it, waiting on his friend for some comment. His wait is a very short one.
   Turning from the door with obvious satisfaction Blue says, "Well, I don't think the bastard will be happy." He laughs loudly at the prospect of what unhappy fate awaits anyone responsible for that building's security. Napalm return's a malicous grin. Blue moves another box over toward a half boarded window where he'll be in the light. Taking a seat, he reads the top folder.
   "Lets see, Alexander Rowlings SunFire, that's him." Blue opens the folder, reading quickly through the papers inside. "According to this he was received in when he was only three, a member of project Verbatim."
Napalm leans close, listening intently.
   "He went for experimentation," The dog's recently happy voice took on an edge of anger. "And this continued until he was 10. Says that the final control elemets were never administered due to his escape."
   Napalm nods, "That fits with what we know so far. Does it say exactly what they did to him?"
   "Not exactly. It does mention he didn't do well at the studying. There are quite a few notes on instances where he kept trying to rebel."
   Napalm smirks abruptly. "So there IS a family resemblance."
   "It also says that he was reprimanded. Sometimes severely. He and, Richgast.
   "Ahhhhh, here we go." Blue looks over some complex scientific formulas. "This one is labled strength, this one, agility. Can you make heads or tails out of these?" Blue asks, passing the relevant pages over to the wolf, who's eyes were starting to wander.
   "Well, math is as ancient as I am, so I feel a certain kinship with it. If I can't figure it out, I doubt anyone could. Did I ever tell you about the time I spent with Gorranar? You know, the father of anaylitical geometry? I must say it was a very educational expierence for the both of us. He was quite...." The wolf's voice trails off entirely as his eyes begin to glow a very
bright red. They continue to get brighter and brighter, bathing the pages in a soft crimson light. Suddenly his head jerks up, his eyes immediatly returning to their normal state, the light disappearing as if a light switch had just been shut off somewhere in the wolf's head.
   "These are very complicated formulas, just look at them. I mean, I have to give them credit, this is quite an achievement, though I don't think much of their methods. In fact, even if I had wanted to, it would probably have taken me years to come up with this kind of specialized virus. After all, its just not that easy to alter a living being's DNA.
   "But look at all they went through to do it. The standard kinetics, thermal equations, quantum dynamics. Oh yes, and the resequencing formula. It appears to be started by some kind of ray that alters a single living cell in the body, mutating its DNA perfectly, and then causing that dna to perpetuate the mutation through an entire body. That must have hurt."
   Blue returns his gaze shortly to the remaining pages. "Unarmed combat. You can genetically imprint that? Hmmm, one for control, hmmm, nothing written there. That must have been the one that would have made him their tool."
   The dog continues to page through the remainder of the folder, his eyes stopping on a particularly long entry. "There were test combats. They pitted my father and Richgast against each other. It says something about 'the other subject being almost lost.' What could that have meant?"
   "Let me see Richgast's file, I'll see if his account of the event is more complete."
   "Hmm, did you notice those scars on Richgast?"
   "I'm afriad not, what scars?"
   "On the sides of his muzzle and on his chest by the heart."
   "Hmm, no I didn't. Do you think they're related to this?"
   "Maybe."
   The last statement gave way to several moments of silence, which was broken by Napalm's discovery. "Aha! Here it is. It says your father broke most of the bones in his body. Would have killed a normal wolf of his age."
   "Thats where those scars must have come from. A very disturbing reminder."
   "I imagine your father had more than a few reminders himself."
   "I didn't remember that many. Hmm, it says the investigation to find out how he escaped never turned up anything. Perhaps they trained him a little better than they realized." Blue sets the folder in his lap, staring blankly ahead of himself, lost in thought. "But HOW could my dad ever work for and with such a man?"
   "Well, he did get away long enough to have a family and there is no record of either of the test subjects ever having met any of the Awardings. He probably never knew that his captor and future employer were one in the same? The Awardings might not have known either."
   "No, I imagine its more likely that our enemy manuevered the arrangment, but I can't be certain."
   "Then why did it take 29 years for the Awardings to kidnap him
again. And try this all again."
   "I don't know. I don't care. It probably suited their needs to let him live. For all I know they were hoping he'd...." The dog's voice trailed off into deep though as a sudden realization strikes him.
   The wolf's mind, in a rare show of attention span, was already completing the thought. "What if he knew about you? And knew you had the same abilities as your father? What if he decided your father was a lost cause but his son would work in his place. He DID try to marry your mother, in essence becoming your father. That has to be it. He wants you." He stares at his companion blankly, then another thought occurs to him. "But why you and not your brother?"
   "Well, my brother doesn't have all the same abilities. He has some powers, but he got my mom's healing gift. I took after my father's side."
   "A useful power, but not one that the Awardings would be interested in exploiting I don't think."
   Blue's ears perk up as he hears voices. "Shhhh!"
   Glancing at the rear wall, the wolf holds up three fingers then points, indicating there were three figures approaching from the rightside. The two of them wait impatiently, no moving as they track the figures through their various sense. Each holds his breath as one of them tries the door, finding it securely braced. After a few tense moments the group moves on. Safe once again, their conversation renews.
   "I think we should head for the hotel. It is getting late, and I'm relatively sure they don't know where we are, so we need not worry about being followed."
   Blue grabs the folders and stands up, nodding in agreement.
   "Yea, that would be a good idea."
   "Lets use the front door. Stay in view of the public and walk it. We should attract less attention that way."
   "Lead on. A good bath does sound nice."
   They walk together and make the uneventful trip through the city streets, eventually coming to the well lit parking lot of their hotel, a very welcome sight at the end of a long day. Blue wastes no time in drawing up a warm bath and soaking in it, while Napalm lies in his bed once again and goes over the events of the past two days. Only the mortal world could be so unpredictable, he thought. After all, it was only yestarday he had been visiting one of his best friends. And now? He was caught up in a whole new world of deception, kidnapping, murder, and danger. I should visit him more often, he concluded with finallity and a sincere promise that he would do just that. Getting up he walks over to the only window in their room and looks upward toward the sky, wondering what the others of his kind are up to right now. With a satisfied smile he concluded they probably weren't having half as good a time as he was. Still smiling at the though, the wolf sat back down on his bed and, briefly wondering what was keeping Blue so long, closed his eyes, hoping to recreate the dream that was so rudely interupted this morning.
   Meanwhile, Blue enjoys the relaxing bath while he can. Tommorow he may not get another chance. For all he knew he may not be alive to see tommorow. None of that mattered though. The Awardings were out to get him, and he was not about to let them make a slave out of him. He would sooner die. Pushing such depressing thoughts out of his head, he sighs. He steps out of the tub then drys slowly. Quietly opening the door he sees his good friend lying prone on his bed, and a mischevious smile spreads across his face. The phoenix have many powers. Afterall, a race does not last eternities if it is weak. One of these many gifts seemed to be an inate danger sense. There were also another early warning sense. Not one for danger, but for something unusual or unexpected. That split second of warning was the only reason Napalm's eyes opened. Opened just in time to see a flury of blue fur and feel the wieght of a mature canine pounce him with an almost sadistic glee. Blue took a few moments to gaze down at the pinned wolf, a minor gloat for being able to sneak up on his normally alert companion. Then his smile softened to something more serious. Then, unexpectedly, he wrapped his arms around Napalm in a strong embrace.
   "Thanks for being here and helping me." He said meaningfully.
   "I wouldn't have missed it for the world." Napalm smiles back, just as meaningfully. Blue takes a deep breath then smiles and climbs into his own bed, starting to let sleep over take him, then the voice of the wolf interupts his progression.
   "Of course, being of a race of near omnipotent beings we could probably take over the world anyway, if we were to ever want it."
   "Yeah, right." Blue says sleepily, the laughs. A few moments later he speaks again, serious once again. "Thanks a lot. You really are a true friend."
   Napalm smiles at his friend, then his face and voice take on an uncharacteristic serious note as well. "You have no idea how much that means to me." Then his usual amused smile returned. It was the last thing Blue saw before sleep overtook him.