Justice League And The Hounds Of Hell

Chapter 7: To Die like a Dog

Tim, under the guise of Alvin Draper, was enrolled to the camp. It seemed like a harmless place that allowed children to participate in fun and games that kept them healthy and taught them basic self-defense. However, the camp counselors were up to darker activities, and used the camp as a front to find members to recruit into their gang of thieves. He used his training with Batman to his advantage and impressed them. They instituted him in without missing a beat. He reported to us that their next attack would be on the Museum of Natural history. Batman and I made the necessary preparations to intercept them.

In the meantime, the vet had called to inform us of the dog's transfer to the shelter. Alfred took us to pay the veterinary fees and then we went to the shelter to see him. It was full of dogs, some of them stuffed two or three to kennel. The place smelled like a thick cloud of wet fur, and the dogs barked and shouted as soon as they saw us. The other side of the facility was full of mewling cats. A volunteer lead us to the back of the facility where yellow tape marked off a section of quarantined animals due to aggression. 

"Normally, these kennels would go to adoptable dogs and we would put these ones in the kennels behind the offices. But there's no space, so we had to tape off this area. Here he is." 

We stopped in front of a kennel where a large wolfish looking dog laid in the corner, watching us with raised fur along his back and a thick muzzle that reminded me of Bane. His face, snout and ears were a solid black. So was his chest and stomach. However, his back, his legs and paws were a silvery grey, it was a beautiful contrast, and something I'd never seen before in any dog. 

Jim Gordon was there, kneeling in front of the kennel and speaking to the dog in low tones. He straightened when we approached and nodded a greeting.

"Commissioner." Bruce shook his hand. "I'm surprised to see you here."

"Me, too." He looked at all of us and glanced into the kennel. "I understand you found this dog." 

The story Alfred had given the vet was that he had picked me up from the town and we had hit the dog with the limo. He hadn't been going too fast, so the damage to the car was minimal, however the dog had been injured. It had been a worthy story to explain the trauma wounds on the dog. I repeated it to the commissioner. 

He nodded and looked at me closely. "What were you doing out so late?" 

Bruce rested his hand on my shoulder. "I've been wondering the same myself." 

I managed a sheepish grin and looked away. "I'm in enough trouble with my father as it is, commissioner. I think I will plead the fifth on this one." 

He chuckled and turned to Bruce. "I remember when my daughter was around her age. She used to sneak out all the time. It drove me crazy, seemed like nothing I did could get her to stay in." 

There was a flash of pain in my father's eyes. He covered it with an easy grin. "Teenagers. I've heard they are the toughest years, and it turns out, all those stories were sugar-coated." 

I lowered myself in front of the kennel like Jim had been doing moments ago to get closer to the dog's eye level. His dark eyes flashed to me, burning into my soul. So much anger, and behind that, fear, lots of fear that bred mistrust. I noticed his tail quiver when we looked at each other and I was certain he recognized me just as I recognized him.

"Do you know this dog, commissioner?" 

"No, I was going to, but I'm afraid he was taken from me before I ever could." 

I stood with question on my face and he told us the curious story. "About two years ago the GCPD purchased a batch of pups that had just graduated from a training facility in Belgium. It was a very costly endeavor. Each dog was only about a year old and cost over $20,000. When they got here, we were going to train them with the K-9 department for another year and then induct them as cops. But the pups never got to us. The truck carrying them was destroyed. Out of the ten, half of them were found dead on site, the other half were missing. We investigated for months, but eventually we had to close the case and could only figure that someone had gained knowledge of the new dogs which would have put a huge strain on drug empires and they stopped them, which resulted in a huge financial loss for us. To this day we're still suffering repercussions from it, and the mayor hasn't trusted us with another grant to grow our k-9 unit since."