Ultrawoman moved carefully, she at least had an idea what she faced, which was more than the SWAT team and Police had.  Thankful for the gift of a near perfect memory that her powers gave Lois recalled her memories of visiting South America and the small group of New Kryptonian's researchers hidden there. At the time she had other more important things on her mind and had promptly forgot about the creature she had seen and a human interest interview habit had caused her to turn the demand for an explanation into.

She had just walked out of a Seven month Kryptonian pregnancy checkup and encountered a little girl playing with a creature.  It was obviously reptilian and looked very odd in a coat of fine fuzz.  It had a row of spikes along it's spine, tall, thick, and blunt to the front, but growing progressively sharper and shorter toward the tail.

A soft growl jerked Ultrawoman's attention back to the present and idly she note this creatures spinal spikes were taller and extended closer to it's tail.  Using her memories of that earlier encounter Lois slowed her pace and started to extend a hand.

Fighting the urge to swallow nervously Lois continued taking slow careful steps toward the creature as it stood over the child. The Super hero had just realized the creature's undivided attention wasn't on her eyes, it was focusing on her throat. Careful to keep her eyes away from the sniffling child and to let the creature stay between her and the child Lois inched closer.

Pausing at ten feet Ultrawoman glanced around the Bank parking lot looking at the ring of badly bruised policemen and SWAT officers.  She winced in sympathy they had learned the hard way to keep a respectful distance and not to stare at the child.

Ignoring the blood and bodies she could see through the metal of the shattered armoured car, Lois turned back to the creature and focused on her memory of seeing a Kryptonian child give an almost identical creature a command...

"TANZTAL!" sighing in relief when the creature dropped into a resting position exactly matching the memory of the one in Brazil.  This time she noted how it was careful to avoided crushing the child even as it tried to give the four year old maximum protection with it's body.

Reaching touching distance to the creature Lois reluctantly fully extended her open hand and let the things long prehensile tongue snake out and taste her. After a few seconds it released her and she settled to the ground careful to make no moves toward the child.  She spent a long moment staring at the creature from it's eye level before being prompted by another memory.

Lois slowly reached a hand up and went to scratching around each of the largest spines near the creatures head. Fighting to not release an explosively breath or collapse with relief as she heard and felt the creature's spinal spikes start to vibrate. The sound, now, like then, reminded her of a ultrasonic cat's purr. According to the confused kryptonian agroscientist she had buttoned holed about the insanity of  leaving such a small child with such a monster had explained that the creature was saying in it's species own unique way "I will protect."

After nearly two minutes of methodical scratching Lois was greatly relieved when the sniffling child came around the creature's body and crawled into her lap. After a moment of watching her closely the boy went to scratching the base of the spines and the ridged bones between them.  Thankfully the Growlie hadn't reacted it's "purr" faltering only slightly and it gaze only sharpening for a moment before it settled in to enjoy the now doubled pleasure of a good back scratch.

The creature relaxed noticeably and the little boy seemed to almost forget the horror he had just been through almost laughing several times as the ultrasonic vibration of the spines tickled his finger tips.

Taking a deep breath Ultrawoman looked around the ring of worried and bruised faces before finally settling on the boy's father. Using her free hand she motioned for him, while mouthing the words "Slowly Slowly."

Dividing her attention between the creature, the boy and the man slowly approaching Lois waited never stopping her scratching as she methodically worked her way down it's spine.

When Sam's father had reached five feet she had looked at the man's tear stained face and spoke softly saying "Hold out a bare hand let it..." hesitating for a moment Ultrawoman finished "taste you, once it knows you are Sam's father it will let you hold him."

Standing slowly Ultrawoman stepped back the boy sobbing in his fathers arms the creature whimpering in sympathy as it rested beside them. Stepping back she paused as the man looked at her and asked "what is it?" nervously nodding toward the creature beside him.

Delving once more into her memories Lois almost smiled as she remembered that at the time she had encountered a five year old kryptonian girl and an almost identical creature she had asked the same exact question.

Ordering her thought's Lois used her memories and started parroting the answer given her by a New kryptonian agroscientist in Brazil, unaware her voice had taken on an almost identical undefineable accent. 

She answered and said "It's a Growlie, for over 18,000 years it has run with Kryptonians standing with them against the giant reptiles of  lost Krypton, for the last 15,000 years it has been the pet and guardian of our children."

Ultrawoman stepped back and watched as the child sob in his fathers arms the man absently held the child in one arm and scratched the same area of the Growlie's spiked and bony spinal ridge.

Taking another step back Lois sighed her features showing her sadness through her "Ultrawoman mask" the boy and his mother had been the victims of bad timing walking into the bank at the moment a group of five heavily armed men had tried to rob both the bank and the armoured car.

The police didn't know what had went wrong, but when they arrived there had been shooting going on inside and three masked men had run out dragging the woman and carrying her son as shields and then hostages. They had been forced to hole up in the armoured car.  After a twenty minute standoff complete with ever more desperate demands one of the robbers had suddenly lost it and started screaming "He wasn't bluffing and the kryptonians wouldn't get him." He had shot the woman in the head and then started to point the gun at the child, at that moment the armoured truck had seemed to explode leaving the crying four year old and the creature holding him standing in the middle of the parking lot.

A single surviving security guard from inside the bank had said before passing out the thieves had just suddenly started shouting and shooting people.  He had gotten to his hold out gun after being shot and killed two of the thieves before they had retreated outside.  

Jolted out of thoughts by soft whispers Lois watched as the man whispered softly to his son "Let's go" after a moment the sniffling boy nodded his head and crawled from his fathers arms to hug the Growlie.  At that moment Ultrawoman came into full agreement with one of the SWAT captain's earlier remarks. "That boy knew the creature and it knew him."

Crawling back into his fathers lap the man slowly stood keeping the boy close to his chest. Stepping away from the Growlie both the Growlie and boy went to whimpering.  It was very evident that both wanted to stay together. Worried about the kryptonian creatures actions Ultrawoman came to decision and said "Hold it." to the man and then searched her memory after a moment she looked at the Growlie and said "NANTALA" pointing at the boy and his father.

The Growlie jumped to it's feet and moved to the man's side the spines vibrating in a way that somehow conveyed relief and determination to Ultrawoman.  At the Questioning look of the father Ultrawoman said "Let it go with you it's doubtful I could easily hold it. It has attached itself to your son and that means you have some control over it". After pausing for a couple of seconds Ultrawoman said "Make sure you introduce anyone that approaches little Sam to the Growlie first."

Ultrawoman watched as the ambulance carrying the man, his son and a Growlie, which was resting quietly in the floor staring intently at a very nervous medic trying to check the boy's vitals. Shutting down her x- ray vision as the ambulance rounded the corner Lois turned from watching them to the police working around her.

She hoped her instinct was right and that the Growlie now that it had a clear source of command was reasonably safe to be around, at least for the moment. Rising into the air Ultrawoman started to scan the area with her senses giving what help she could to the forensic team.

"Captain Astaire my I have a mo..." Lois watched the SWAT captain spin a half formed draw dying as the man recognized the voice and costume.  Almost Involuntarily Lois's vision revealed a hidden weapon and she silently chided herself for both the invasion of the man's privacy and pulling a newbie stunt by silently flying up on a crime scene officer.  She knew better than that, that had been one of the first lessons Clark had taught her.

"I'm sorry Captain I didn't mean to sneak up that way." apologizing Lois waited listening as the man down played Ultrawoman scaring him.  After a moment when he run down she said "Captain can I borrow some of those polaroid you took of the Creature. I agree with your assessment they both have been together before and I want to check a idea."

Lois settled into a chair and stared at her computer screen, it had felt odd using her reporter skills in her Ultrawoman persona. In this case her costume had allowed her to quickly learn what she needed to know.  The Photocopied pictures had helped during the nearly forty interviews with teachers, parents and especially students going about various after school activities. It had given her a clear and mostly reassuring picture of the "Ambersville Growlie".

It had been in Ambersville for about three years and had become an open secret among children of the five nearest preschool and elementary schools. Most parent had ruefully admitted to thinking the "ugly doggie" stories had just been excuses for more candy and childish imagination fueled by a stray.

There had been a few complaints about the schools letting strays on campus, but no adult had ever caught more than a glimpse. Well at least an adult that would be believed. She had talked to several local police officers and it come out that night time breaking and entering in the area had dropped to nearly nothing. About two and half years ago a spate of "dog attacks" had left behind hysterical thieves usually hanging in a tree and screaming about a monster dog guarding various homes in the district.

Obviously it had been left behind during the New kryptonian invasion. A quick fact finding trip to South America with the photocopies had revealed several things about Growlie biology and training.

The first thing Lois had learned was that it was an older Growlie. A New Kryptonian had glanced at the photocopy and said it was between 50 and 70 years old. When she asked him to explain he had pointed to the spinal spikes and told her the thickness and bluntness of the spikes near it's head along with the number and size of the spikes down it's back allowed a rough estimate of where it was in it's roughly 140 year kryptonian life span.

The Second thing she had learned was that it had probably been Lord Nor's personal pet that had been with him from childhood. It had escaped from a spaceship the day Lord Nor had died and last seen pulling ten gravities headed for Earth at what looked like a dead run. The fact that it was a high Kryptonian's pet also explained why it had remained hidden so long.  Royal Growlies were trained to not be seen and unless protecting their masters they were to be as unobtrusive as possible to adults. The only exceptions occurred with children and when specifically called by their master.  Magnify a Royal Growlies training to not be seen with a kryptonian enhancement and you effectively had something that was a ghost to unenhanced senses.

Lois had spent the remainder of the day in South America undergoing a crash course in Growlie biology, history, training and psychology.  Both she and the New Kryptonian Agroscientist had used every bit of technology and speed to make her an expert on the Kryptonian equivalent of a dog.

The strict population control required throughout the new kryptonian colonies made children very precious and meant that all Growlies were trained to protect them and to play and watch them. Not that that was hard to get a Growlie to do.  Kryptonian children like Earth Children and the Growlie had a sweet tooth a mile wide.

Most of what she had learned had relieved her, for one thing it was very hard to get a imprinted Growlie to kill any human. In fact the new kryptonians were sure it took the bank thieves being strangers to the area and the combination of murdering the child's mother and threatening the child to get such a violent reaction.

One thing was sure Ambersville probably wasn't going to lose it's Growlie any time soon. The New Kryptonians had all agreed that the children and by extension their families had become the creatures herd and no Growlie not even the incredibly well trained royal Growlies gave up their herds easily.

The Growlie were originally pack hunters much like a reptilian analog of a wolf, except for two oddities they were omnivorous and "herdsman".

There had been a grazing dinosaur on Krypton that secreted a sweet milky substance and the Growlies collected herds of the creature leaving their young with them and guarding both as if they were their young.

The relationship was purely symbiotic the Growlies never killed their herd beast instead using the sweet milky substance, which was never produced under stress to supplement their hunting and favorite plants.

The modern domestic Growlies had about as much in common with the those wild herdsman as the dog did with the Wolf. Roughly fifteen thousand years of selective breeding followed by nearly 3000 years of genetic tampering had produced a creature very much at home in a urban setting.

Lois paused her hands resting lightly on the Keyboard she was going to have to create three reports all "dictated" by Ultrawoman. One for the Ambersville Gazette  and the Daily Planet, one for the Chief of Police in the Ambersville's police department complete with a careful listing, explanation and recordings of the commands a Growlie were trained to react to.

The last much larger report was going to a certain general who in spite of a very bad first impressions had turned out to be a friend.  He was not going to be happy to discover that a number of  kryptonian animals were on Earth. 

The aborted krypton invasion and the death of several high lords had led to several animals being "misplaced" and left on Earth. The head of the Agricultural clan had reluctantly admitted that at least one mated pair of Growlies was missing along with it's "herd".  More worrisome was the fact they didn't know exactly what made up that "herd", they were sure most of the animals couldn't or wouldn't reproduce quickly... They hoped... When she had finally pinned down the clan's science experts they had admitted they still weren't a hundred percent sure they understood what effect superhuman abilities were having on the animals or themselves for that matter.

Lois reached out and picked up a plastic sheet from the two stacks beside her laptop and marveled at the technology.  She had seen Kryptonian 'holosheets' before from other dealings with the New Kryptonians, but the technology still hadn't lost it's wow! effect for her.  Each plastic sheet had been 'printed' for her by the New Kryptonians and at first glance held only a single hologram positioned over a few lines of english text.  Looking at the "holosheet" for the "honey beetle" Lois idly pressed her finger against a black bar running along the picture edge and slowly moved it downward watching as the image seemed to come to life presenting her with a silent holographic movie.  After a few moment of running through the images she put her finger on a black bar beside the text and started reading the rapidly scrolling text as her finger moved slowly down the bar.

Tossing the holosheet back on it's stack Lois smiled in anticipation of GI Jane, the Generals and their research techs reaction when she handed them the stack of  holosheets and explained how to use them.  The new kryptonians had 'printed' her a double set one for her to keep and the other for GI Jane's research team.  It was clear they expected America to reverse engineer the holosheet and had made it easier by including a top sheet with an overly long set of instructions explaining how to use the holosheets.  Those instructions contained a virtual road map to reverse engineering the linked molecular stress technology that made the plastic holosheets possible without the need of electronic components or any other source of power besides the pressure of a figure.