Illustration by the great super special  Adammaxdavies

Watchdog, extra characters, and Story by  holmgren13

Buck  wilkfiadh

Osprey  aeapanda

Spirit Force  greenery

Captain Doom  carrotwolf

Oracle  ajna

Reaper  foxxian

RabbitFoot  baebunny


1) http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7839303/

2) http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7839309/

3) http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7839316/

4) http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7839323/

5) http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7839325/




Eddy's hand was almost numb as he took hit after hit from his boxing specialist, even when he wore his padded shield gloves. He backed away, holding his hands up as the brown fox followed, striking with blinding speed at each pad, no matter where they moved. The glove dashed up, he stuck high, it moved down, his knee raised to meet it, they moved together, he struck a full strength blow.

Eddy finally slipped his hands behind his back, causing the fox to lower his hands. "Whew..." Eddy put his padded hands to his knees. "You are freakin FAST, I don't think I can trick you at all."

Reaper grinned, wiping his brow of sweat and flapping his tank top to cool his chest. The hero had kept his mask for his training, feeling he was a different person when he wore his mask, and he bounced on the balls of his feet as the Watchdog caught his breath. "I've been fighting for a long time."

"So have I, you're just better at it." Eddy stuck out his tongue and clapped his padded shield gloves together. "Okay, this instead of hitting wherever my gloves are, I want you to aim to break my guard and hit for chest or head, but just hit the padding, okay?" Eddy tapped his padding helmet and chest before putting his hands up again. He was good at defense, but he had another goal for this drill...

"Alright, here we go. Whew..." Reaper closed his eye for only a moment as he took in a few breaths, and then he dashed at Eddy, striking blindingly fast left and right! Eddy was able to move his hands fast enough to keep the blows from breaking past his guard, keeping his eyes open for patterns. The fox even threw in a quick kick from time to time, but after a while, he was pushing almost too hard, striking Eddy's hands to move them, trying to create an opening. He finally opened the mutt and was striking for the side of his head when Eddy quickly ducked down, his hand flying fast to strike the fox's side before backing away. Reaper coughed and a hand fell to his side, not expecting a strike. "Hey! What was that for, I thought you were on defense?"

Eddy cracked his head left and right. "Just seeing if you keep your mind on defense. I think you still have a little work to go." He winked, but Reaper wasn't amused.

"If I knew you were going to be hitting back, I would have been fighting differently."

"Why? You should always assume I might hit back. As fast and hard as you can hit, if I had slipped a knife into that punch, you would have been done for." Eddy clapped his shields together again. "Just trying to keep my teammates out of the emergency room."

"Hmph..." Reaper put his hands back up, going back for the attack. After a long while, he noticed he wasn't getting anywhere near breaking through Eddy's defense, but as soon as he started picking up his hitting speed, another swing from Eddy smacked him right in the jaw. "Grr!" Reaper backed away and took a few breaths as Eddy grinned.

"Don't worry, this is why we're working together. We've got to keep your attacks going full strength while keeping your head in defense to. Come on, let's go one more time, then we'll take a break."

Before the two got back into their spar, their ears perked to the sound of a door being slammed open and quick footsteps coming towards the training room. Eddy turned to look at the door before it was kicked open and a red-faced Osprey came inside. "FRONT PAGE!?"

Eddy cringed at the shout and turned to Reaper, who was wearing a cock grin. Eddy rolled his eyes and pulled the velcro on his gloves. "Let's call it."

"Yes sir~" Reaper said with an almost childish 'told you so' attitude. The fox began to unwrap his hand wraps and took off his tank top, and Eddy watched to see if he'd take off his mask, but as usual he kept it on until he was off in the shower room.

"Front."

"Look, I-"

"Page!"

"..." Eddy looked up at Osprey for a moment, and then continued. "Look, let me try to explain, okay? Come here." Eddy tore the velcro from his vest, leaving a trail of padding behind him as he walked to the training room door, where his second in command threw a newspaper to his chest. He rolled his eyes a bit and looked at the front page where a large picture of himself dominated the smaller stories. The picture was dark and very cool looking, fire surrounding him as he ran out of a building with a young girl in his arms. "I don't see the problem."

Osprey leaned on the wall and rubbed her eyes. She took a deep breath, hating when Eddy got under her skin, but sometimes his arrogance and light heartedness in the most dire situations really dug at her. "You've been photographed in the shadows by the press, that was bad enough."

"I'm still in the shadows..."

Her fist clenched, but she at least wasn't yelling anymore. "You are printed on the front page of a major newspaper. Eddy, this is not good! You told me you'd be careful and that the league would remain a secretive band of heroes not out for a joyride but maintaining the peace!"

Eddy nodded but stayed silent for a moment, rolling the paper in his hands. Once he knew Osprey was waiting for an answer, he cleared his throat. "I know what I said, and I'm not changing what I meant. We are a secretive band of heroes out to serve justice. But, now listen..." Eddy held up his hand as he saw his partner about to protest. "But, I think that some publicity might stop crime before it happens. A picture once in a while might make people think twice about breaking the law, think about it!"

"I have thought about it, and I think that you're giving yourself excuses to pose for a camera."

"They know we're out there, Cadhla, and we're getting support. It's the only way we can afford to feed ourselves, arm ourselves, keep ourselves safe, AND fight crime. How many hours do you spend flipping burgers to get a little spending cash so you can afford a burger?" He gave Osprey a moment to growl before he went on. "People know about us, a picture here and there lets them know that we're doing our jobs, that we're not just a myth. We are real, we're out there, and we are fighting the good fight."

"Not everyone believes that."

"Pff, like who doesn't?"

The archer lowered her head into her hands. "Eddy, do you ever read the news paper?"

"Only articles Buck sends me online."

"...Okay, look." Cadhla took the paper from Eddy and quickly opened it and pointed to a small article. "Read this."

Eddy took the paper back and read quickly. "Hmm... heroes running rampant, blah blah, more trouble than they solve, blah... filling up our hospitals more than our prisons? That's not accurate..."

"Needless to say, however, that not everyone is on our side. If more people read into what Mr J.C. had to say, they'd see that we can be dangerous. More people might not see the heroic image of today's paper as such a good thing if they thought you might be getting in the way of the fire department and making it harder to save the people in that burning building."

"But i-"

"It doesn't matter, Eddy! It doesn't matter what you're pictured doing, it matters what they SAY you're doing. The news is very powerful."

Eddy sighed and tossed the paper into a trash can. "Okay... Well, look, I think we're on the press's good side now, and I think I can stay on it. I've always told the rest of the group to avoid the press, but I still think we need a face for the public." Eddy held back a growl as Osprey rolled her eyes. "Let me do this. I'll be our face."

"You're putting the league at risk."

"I'm putting ME at risk, okay? Let me do this."

"I couldn't stop you anyways..."

Eddy finally grinned again. "Good, I'm glad that's settled. You on patrol tonight?"

Osprey stood straight and began to walk for the door. "Yes, I'm going to head out early and check up on Spirit Force before I'm done for the night."

"Good, let me come with." Eddy was walking towards the showers. "Give me ten minutes and we can take the WatchCar."

"Eddy..." Osprey stopped for a moment, her hand on the door handle. "It's your day off, don't-"

"Ten minutes, please? I don't know what else to do tonight, I'll be so bored. Please?" Eddy gave his best puppy eyes and quivered his lips a bit. He waited until Osprey rolled her eyes again and looked at her watch to start a countdown. Good enough for Eddy, who ran to the showered to get cleaned and then armed.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The patrol was very boring, but Watchdog was glad he had someone to talk to for the night. He drove his partner to her normal patrol route and then drove the streets before meeting her at the end of the route. When she got back into the WatchCar, the smell of tacos made her look in the back seat where Watchdog had put a large bag of food he had just picked up 'just in case'. Osprey didn't look too amused, but Eddy knew he was getting at least a bit back onto her good side.

No major crimes showed themselves that night, and Eddy wanted to make a comment about his picture in the paper must be working, but kept it to himself. They decided that they should check up on Spirit who was supposed to be working near the college. Watchdog parked on a college owned street, and opened his arm-rest to pull out a stack of parking permits. He found the college permit and slipped it under the windshield before slipping out and darting for the closest alley.

Spirit had been sitting on a dorm for what seemed like hours watching the streets before a horny college couple decided it'd be kinky to be on the roof to make out. He had just made his escape without being seen and cursed his luck before making his way to the college strip where all of the punks should be getting out of bars. He almost had to break up a drunk fight, but security intervened. The hero wasn't sure if he was relieved of sad, being so so bored.

Watchdog and Osprey finally caught the fox's attention and brought him back to the car for a mini-report and some food. The super powered hero bit half of his taco in one bite, sighing happily as he leaned into the back seat of the car. "My god, you guys have NO idea how happy I am you're here. And with food!" He wiped his mouth with the thin napkins he found in the plastic food bag. "I've been waiting since the beginning of my patrol for anything to happen, but nothing. The cops took care of the insanely small offenses, and besides that I've been praying for a fight."

Osprey looked back as if she were going to say something, but thought better of provoking the pun spewing fox. "At least we found you quickly. I've been meaning to do a run of the downtown east district, but don't want to run those streets by myself yet. I haven't been in that part of town, and you never know who might be controlling the area."

"Maybe we can take a bite out of more than these tacos." Spirit's comment made both Watchdog and Osprey turn to look at him with each a raised eyebrow. "... You know, crime. Take a bite out of..." He gulped and then took another bite of his taco as the heroes in the front turned to look at each other. Watchdog laughed and started the car as Osprey just sighed.

The eastern downtown district was full of tall grey stone buildings, many with statues in front and gargoyles looking over the roofs. Watchdog gave a soft whistle as he looked up at them, commenting that they would be where batman would be watching the city. He and Spirit shared a high-five, but Osprey didn't seem to be listening to them any more. They walked the streets, looking down each alley as they passed, but besides a few loitering punks hanging out by the trash cans, there was no one around. Osprey was about to break up the meeting, but Spirit pointed out that they weren't really doing anything wrong. With that, they were done with their uneventful search and headed back towards the car.

"Well, this was a real dull night. I guess We should be thankful, huh? ... Osprey?" Watchdog turned to see his archer friend looking back, staring at the gargoyles of one of the many buildings. "Osprey." He tried again. "You okay?"

The wolf girl narrowed her eyes, not looking away from the building's roof. "Someone's up there."

Spirit and Watchdog both looked up, but even with the fox's extra keen eyes, neither could see anything. "I dunno..." Fox grinned and gave a thumbs up. "Well, if we're looking for action, things don't seem to be 'looking up' for us."

Watchdog chuckled and turned back towards the WatchCar parked down the block a ways. "Come on you two, let's get back-" BOOM! Watchdog spun quickly at the sound of the explosion, one of the gargoyles engulfed for a moment in flame and smoke, falling off of its perch and towards the alley. "Spirit! Go-"

Before he could finish his command, the super fox had dashed quickly past him, his body glowing in a feint purple flame, his aura pushing him forward enough to dash down the alley and push the loiterers out of harms way just before the statue crushed the dumpsters like soda cans. He coughed as dust clouded around him, but Spirit stood and brushed off bits of stone off of his shoulders and posed with his hands on his hips. "Thought it'd be a good time for me to 'drop' by and ask you all to go home. I'm sure it's way past your bedtimes."

Watchdog sighed in relief that no one was hurt, and then turned his gaze upwards. "Okay, we need to see what the hell is going on up there. Osprey, I want you to-" The hero turned and saw his second in command already in the alley opposite the building, climbing the fire-escape to get to a vantage point where she can assist with her bow. "...Can I even pretend that I'm the leader?"

Spirit clapped Watchdog on the back. "Don't worry, Cap, I'm still here."

"Thank you, Spirit. Now, the plan..." As he gave his orders, Watchdog lead Spirit to the building, where an elevator protruded to the outside. They had to break into the lobby to get into the elevator, but soon they were rising right to the top of the building. With a swing of his doggy-paddle, Watchdog opened the emergency elevator roof access, and Spirit climbed on top. "Now," Watchdog called up to him, "Be careful once you get to the top. If there's anyone there, give me their position and I'll shoot a disk as soon as the doors start opening, and then you can move in. Osprey's got our back on the opposite building."

"Rodger that, Cap." The heroes went silent for a while, and a buzzing in Watchdog's ear told him that Osprey had taken position on the building near them.

"Watchdog, this is Osprey, we have two hostiles on the roof in masks. I can see you on the elevator, you'll have one halfway across the roof and the other is on the far left corner. Both potentially armed..."

"Got it. Spirit is going to take the attack as soon as the elevator doors open, you stay back in case we need a sniper. You have a zip line arrow in case we need you?"

"I have it prepped and ready for a moment's notice."

"Good work, Osprey. Spirit, we're getting to the top."

"I know... here we go." A moment of silence passed between the trio of heroes, and the elevator stopped, Spirit posed dramatically from the roof of the elevator. Where he would normally insert a silly quip of some kind, he pointed to the villain in the middle of the roof and called out, "One Thirty!"

Watchdog aimed his disk launcher slightly to the right, and as soon as the doors began to open he shot, straight at the masked villain. He dashed out just as Spirit landed in front of him to dash forwards! Watchdog could only see Spirit's back as the fox charged in, but he heard a deathly crack before watching two halves of his doggy-disk fly off in either direction. The hero's eyes widened as Spirit took a swing at his opponent, the masked feline diving between his legs to dodge and then swinging around with a long thin whip, slashing across his aura. Watchdog felt his breath catching in his throat as he quickly turned to find the second villain. The dark cape fluttered lazily in the gentle night breeze like the sails of a dark ship, a head of orange hair pulling at Watchdog's memory almost painfully.

"Rawr!" Spirit flipped himself back to dodge a barrage of whip swings, his aura luckily keeping its wicked fast tip away from him. He landed steadily and dashed forward to break the feline's distance advantage, but as soon as he broke her perfect attack line, the masked villain pulled a second thicker and shorter whip, dodging around the fox and striking across his foot, a heavy flame pouring from the whip and sticking to his leg. Spirit rolled away, kicking out the flame, but was forced to roll away from a second, third, and forth attack! "Jeeze! Let up, lady, and let me up!" An arrow luckily distracted the feline as she spun to swing her whip, cutting the projectile in half, and Spirit was able to get to his feet and turn back to face the woman again. "Cap, get behind and... Cap?"

Watchdog had left the fight, walking towards the caped man on the other side of the building. The caped figure didn't turn to face him, but Watchdog didn't need to see his face to know. "Captain Doom..."

The orange wolf grinned, turning his head to look at his arch nemesis. His emerald eyes seemed to shine behind his mask as Watchdog's remained hidden, but their gaze was solid between each other, and the hero's heart seemed to clench even as his hands remained limp at his sides.

"Watchdog! I could use your help!" Spirit had flipped back again, jumping onto the ledge before jumping over the whip-wielding feline, rolling to his feet again.

"...." Watchdog kept his eyes on Captain Doom for a while longer, but found himself standing behind Spirit, placing his hand on the fox's shoulder. "Stand down."

The fox looked back, his head cocked a bit to one side. "I...I'm sorry? I thought you just-"

"Stand. Down." Watchdog turned towards the other roof, speaking into his mic, "Same for you Osprey. Stand down." The mutt walked back towards the second villain, leaving Spirit to drop his jaw.

"A...aren't these guys the bad guys?"

"Yes..."

Spirit looked back and forth between his leader and the caped wolf, the black cloth wrapped around him as if he were almost a living shadow, and he couldn't stop himself from running in front of Watchdog. "Look, obviously something is wrong. Let's get out of here."

"Spirit, get out of my way." Watchdog's voice sounded off, almost like he was mad, which didn't make any sense.

"No, look, this guy obviously did something to your head or something, so let's leave, or fight these guys. You can't just tell me to-"

Watchdog grabbed Spirit's collar and pulled back, gagging the fox as he forced the fox to step back behind him. The masked mutt glared from behind his mask, his jaw clenched as he almost growled out, "Leave me alone! Get out of here and take the car back home. Take Osprey with you, and don't come after me unless I tell you to."

Spirit looked almost horrified at Watchdog as the mutt glared him down. He hesitated, but the fox finally turned and half-stomped back to the elevator. The fox took one more look back, seeing Watchdog still glaring at him before the doors closed.

Watchdog took a deep breath and turned back to the caped villain. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing, Mr hero." Doom took a step off of the edge towards Watchdog, falling to his true hight a good head and a half shorter than the mutt. His cape opened and sagged over his shoulders, the orange wolf's body just as toned and exposed as ever, his tux themes gloves, boots, and thong all that covered him as he walked the night. "But I think your subordinates aren't as trained as they should be."

Watchdog turned his head and growled as he saw only the very outline of Osprey's hood, still waiting on the other roof. "Where can we talk?"

"I have a car waiting. If we take the elevator, once it comes back up, it'll be around to pick us up at the front."

"And where will we go?"

"Does it truly matter, Eddy?" The orange wolf leaned forward and onto his tip toes, his hands resting on Watchdog's chest for only a moment before he slipped away and towards the elevator. "Oracle." Just her name spoken and the whip cat holstered her weapons, grinning wickedly at the mutt.

Watchdog walked forward, following the Orange wolf as if entranced yet a look of confused hatred on his face, glaring back at the feline. The three of them went into the elevator, where Watchdog removed his earpiece and unplugged his radio. He looked up to where he new Osprey was hiding, making sure she saw what he did. As soon as he was on the ground, there was a limo waiting for them. Captain Doom entered first, and as Watchdog made his way inside, he reached up to pull off his mask...