Ben was ready to face the fight. Their canine hearing could distinguish every single paw-fall upon the damp mountain ground despite the hush of rivers and the icy mountain wind that sang its continuous low lullaby. Danny allowed himself a last brief look at the portal.
They were standing in a large plateau about a quarter of the way up the mountain’s side. In the centre of the ground stood the diamond portal – half the size of a house. It would have been beautiful beyond compare had it not been for the fact that the diamond was spinning at such a speed it defied even canine vision. Danny and Ben, being neurodes by birth, could slow the scene down mentally. They saw the diamond’s beauty despite its raging movement.
Just at the edge of their hearing was the humming noise the diamond made as it sliced through the thin mountain air. It seemed to be chanting a mantra. The tone was at once both very high and very low and once you noticed it, it grew louder. Danny tore himself away from the sound and faced the rocks edge from where he knew the man-dog would any moment appear.
The creature sprang around the corner and braked its passage forward with a single great bound. This took him within a few feet of the cowering, snarling dogs that were Danny and Ben. Danny backed away toward the whirling diamond. All he could see, all his mind could focus on was the dog’s massive dark-brown head, the saliva dripping from its snarling jaws and the evil black pupils in its unforgiving eyes. For a moment, Danny left his body and in his imagination saw his Labrador body and his terrier friend ripped to shreds, limbs strewn in a bloody mess over the blood-wet mountain grass.
‘Don't be weak!’ screamed Ben telepathically, ‘We can do it! Don't give up!’
As they backed away Danny's tail got caught in the spinning diamond portal. It was sliced off cleanly midway along its length. The blood-spattered scarf of bony flesh was flung at the man-dog hitting it square across the eyes. Danny snapped back to reality. There was a sharp stinging in his tail but amazingly, it didn't really hurt.
Danny launched himself at the creature whilst it was still blinded with shock and tail. Danny plunged his sharp yellow incisors into the animal’s neck, aiming for its jugular. He hit. Blood spurted everywhere.
The animal's strength was incredible and its massive jaws clamped shut upon Danny’s pelvis. A burning electrical pain flooded through him. A high-pitched canine scream tore through the air as the beast flung him away. Danny came to rest against an outcrop of rock with a damp forceful thud. Danny could see the man-dog’s red aura. It was pulsing like an angry fiery liquid. But in there, amidst the blur he could see a faint yellow. It was Golden Frog! His eyes, legs and body seemed to be repeated in a random pattern throughout the creature's aura. The creature's strange aura formed itself into a ring around the animal's neck. It was staunching the flow of blood from the animal’s artery. A trail of thick, strongly scented blood had soaked the grass. Finally the blood flow stopped as the huge beast now stood towering over the terrified terrier. Ben was snarling, backed up against the rocky outcrop, there was nowhere to run.
The animal paused for a cruel second. Then the great head shot forward with terrifying speed and encased Ben in its teeth. Ben held his breath, all fear having long since departed. He waited for his spine to crunch, to exit this brief but exciting canine life. But it didn't happen. He waited for another moment. And still he was alive. The man-dog was cradling him in its jaws, as gently as it would its own puppy.
The man-dog walked over to the stricken Labrador with the terrier held securely in its jaws. Danny got a look at his helpless friend. The creature, when it spoke, had a growling, menacing voice. There was an air of insanity to it. The words, which came from the environment, flowed over Danny.
‘I've got your friend. So, don't try anything. You're going to do exactly what The Leader says, or I kill both of you. Your stupid friend here first. Open the Akashi gate. OPEN IT!’
Danny crawled on his front legs dragging his broken body back toward the whirling diamond. Pain seared across every inch of flesh. The man-dog took pleasure in it.
‘This is going to take a few seconds,’ Danny murmured. Instinctively once again, Danny knew what had to be done. He focused his mind on the almost imperceptible sound the diamond made and tuned in to it. He became the sound. Once he had become one with the vibration he started slowing the sound's echo within himself. As the echo slowed the diamond's rotations gradually decreased.
‘FASTER DOG! You can do it faster than this! Stop the diamond NOW!’
‘I'm going as fast as I can. This diamond's huge, if I was stronger...’
‘YOU LIE!’
Ben yelped as the creature tightened its grip.
‘I HAVE TO CONCENTRATE,’ yelled Danny. ‘Leave Ben alone and I'll do it.’
Danny slowed the diamond some more. He could have stopped it in one go but he had no other card to play. No other avenue to explore. The thought that maybe he had done his best and should now just accept defeat flashed through his mind. Before he had time to witness the doubt he overheard a telepathic communication: it was the dog-thing.
‘Golden Frog, is he lying to me? Tell me now!’
‘No he isn't master,’ Golden Frog spat with curt venom.
Golden Frog screamed.
‘You forget that the agency gave me the Mindsnapper! You'll do whatever I damn well tell you!’
Golden Frog screamed again.
‘And make sure you heal that neck proper good,’ added the Leader. ‘I’ve got enough scars on me neck don’t need no more. You got that, slave?’ The commander of the agency's team for gaining the Akashi gate felt he had victory in his sight. He had waited so long for this moment. He wasn't going to let a stupid mind-programme get the better of him. If he had time to kill the two human-dogs before he gained the gate so much the better.
‘Agency no tell you it take time to still diamond gate?’ said Golden Frog with a tone of condescension.
‘You're stalling. Does “Mind-snapper and Unlimited Use,” mean anything to you?’ snarled the Leader in reply.
The man-dog held its cold nose to Danny's Labrador abdomen in the soft flesh below the ribs. Danny could feel the warmth of Ben's fur mingled with the cold breath of the man-beast. The terrier was still dangling in its jaws. The air spoke its words, ‘It'll be your kidneys next. I'll rip them out after I've killed your friend here. And I’ll do it nice and slowly.’
Danny swallowed his fear. He held his breath, this was it, I can't hold out any longer. Danny tuned into the repeating sound of the diamond and slowed it right down till the diamond stopped spinning altogether. It turned to a fluorescing watery substance held within the diamond shape. It emitted a fantastic yellow light that seemed to ignite the entire mountainside from within.
The man-dog flinched. In the sudden light he couldn't see very well but he knew it was just a matter of stepping into the diamond. The gateway would then transmute itself inside his body and be his to do with as he pleased. With a sweep of his oversized paw he swept Danny's dog body aside and spat Ben into the grass with a sickening thump.
‘I don't need you two losers now,’ said the creature venomously. ‘And there isn’t time to kill you neither so I'll keep my promise,’ the Leader wanted to smile triumphantly. ‘You thought you could outrun, "The Leader!" How pathetic you are. Maybe you can think on that when you’re in spirit!’
The Leader tried to laugh but he had forgotten how. Embarrassed, his mind searched within his host body but that didn't harbour memories of laughter either. The blood-fragrant air echoed with a hollow half sigh, half growl, both menacing and pitiful at the same time.
Just as the man-dog was about to step into the fluorescing diamond portal a streak of fire swept across the sky and hit a nearby tree. With a sizzle the green wizened mountain tree branches turned instantly to charcoal. The whole stooped tree then burst into flames. A limb fell igniting the Leader's tale with its tip. The creature knew he had very little time. Ignore the pain. Step into the Akashi gate. Yet he had to know what had dared to confront him.
Just one look and then he would accept his victory. He took a glance backwards. Orb had calculated this. She knew the Leader's need to know, to control. Immediately she left her ball of fire amongst the blackened branches and shot straight into his skull. She hit him square between the eyes. The creature howled in pain and fell backwards, away from the watery diamond.
‘I'm free, I'M FREE!’ shouted Golden Frog. The Mindsnapper field that had been controlling him had collapsed with the man-dog’s state of shock. There must be a Fargone involved in this thought Golden Frog.
‘Are you are a Fargone?’ cried Golden Frog telepathically to Orb. She was still encased around the creature’s head as a halo of fire.
‘Yes! Aren’t you on their side?’
‘I just slave. I hate them.’
‘No time for this. Get rid of this thing and you can come with us,’ screamed Orb as she struggled with the great creature.
‘I’m in,’ said Golden Frog. ‘Release the beast. Now for REVENGE!’
Golden Frog had little power of his own but he could undo his own handiwork. The severed jugular of the man-dog had been held together by Golden Frog's own field emanations. Golden Frog viciously pulled the remains of the field apart and tugged at the artery. Blood spurted from the animal's neck in great torrents. The animal walked around in circles half-out its crazed mind.
The Orb had been waiting just above the creature. Now she could see the animal posed no further threat she flew into Danny's dog body and disappeared through his ‘psychic eye’ spot on his forehead. A few seconds passed and Golden Frog, after kicking his enemy with a burst of energy, followed Orb into Danny’s body. His golden yellow field entered smoothly through the large Labrador ears.
Danny could not move but Ben the terrier managed to crawl. Once Orb and Golden Frog had entered the Labradors' body a glowing, pulsing blue field reached out from Danny's mangled blood-struck torso. It formed a molten hand-like shape held out toward the struggling Ben. The man-dog noticed what was going on. He summoned his last departing reservoirs of strength and tried to pad toward the diamond-portal. The powerful blue field emanating from Danny's body reached out with a second pod-like arm toward the diamond and steered it out of the Leader's way. The creature collapsed, exhausted from lack of blood.
The diamond started to rotate. With an increasing high-pitched murmur it engulfed the two dogs, Labrador and terrier. In a moment the water turned back to the hardest diamond and began spinning at an unimaginable speed. Within the diamond there could be a seen a blue fire. The fire held four connected minds. Their bodies had become pure energy. Orb and Golf together healed Danny’s crushed vertebrae and Ben’s broken ribs whilst they were in this intense state of energy-fire. A moment later the diamond shot off into the sky leaving the dog-thing alone and bleeding.
The dog-pack had recovered from Orb’s earlier attack. They had regained their group mind and were busy searching for The Leader.