posted 06-22-2008 11:07 AM            

Disclaimer: I do not own Road Rovers or any of its characters, developed by WB studios.

“Rovers, it’s time again, report for transdogmification immediately.” The man in white known as the master says calmly as he stands on a platform above a large room with five separate chambers at the other end of the room. It doesn’t take long for the space in the chambers to be filled out with a different dog in each. The chambers soon become filled with smoke and only the silhouettes of the dogs can be seen as they are transdogrified into their cano-sapien forms.

“This is as we say in Siberia; totally neato!” Exile the Siberian husky exclaims as he steps out of the smoky chamber his ice blue eyes looking down at his muscular form.

“Ja we know Exile you dhat every time!” Blitz the Doberman says in an impatient tone as his own muscular form steps out from the smoke.

“Don’t be weird boy!” Exile replies frowning as he turns to face the Doberman.

“Ah it’s good to be back!” Hunter says a Labrador mix and the team leader. It wasn’t a joke; Hunter had always liked being a road rover and being in the company of his friends, indeed, he wouldn’t have his life any other way.

“Blimey we’re not back two minutes an’ already Exile and Blister are going at it.” Coleen observes running her fingers through her length of fur, checking for any knots.

Shag suddenly appears standing next to Hunter and makes a series of incomprehensible barks.

“It is good to be back, Shag!” Hunter agrees placing an arm around the large Sheepdog’s broad shoulders.

“I’m afraid it’s time to end this little reunification rovers, I need you to report to the briefing room immediately!” The master says firmly from his balcony.

All of the rovers immediately stand still and salute the master loyally. “Right away Master!” They all say at once, each as equally loyal to the master as the other. They all march down a corridor to the west of the room quickly and enter the large briefing room that is filled out with a single table and chairs set around it in a circular fashion facing an enormous monitor that takes up the far wall.

Also inside the room ‘standing’ by the doorway is a Rottweiler fully restrained in a straight jacket, a muzzle and strapped securely to a trolley. “Hey there Muzzle! Did ya miss us?” Hunter asks him, stroking his head as he walks past. Not having been transdogrified Muzzle merely replies with a few growls and excited hops, clearly glad to see everyone back.

Once everybody has taken their seat, they all look up at the large monitor opposite the table as they do a satellite image appears on the screen of a desert region accompanied by the Master’s voice. “Listen up rovers; I believe Parvo has been up to his tricks again, I recently picked up these images of Parvo’s convoy in the Nevada desert, far away from the city of Las Vegas.” The satellite zooms in on the desert floor, to where a small group of vehicles have gathered in a canyon somewhere. “Although there appears to be nothing of interest there, I would feel safer if I sent you to investigate this problem and see what, if anything, Parvo is up to.”

“We understand Master! To the hanger team!” Hunter orders, pointing down another corridor off of the briefing room. Nobody has to be asked twice; each of them stands up immediately and heads down the corridor toward the hanger. Once they have arrived Hunter tells everybody what vehicle they are to take. “Exile! Blitz! You two take the sky rover! Coleen! Shag! We’ll take the street rover!”

“You betcha comrade!” Exile replies eagerly, immediately heading over to board the large jet aircraft. He was always eager to go out on a mission, but he especially loved piloting the many aircraft in the hanger and with his super vision, he was probably the best for this little recon mission from the air. In fact, he was sure that was exactly why Hunter had ordered him to take the sky rover.

“Dha! How comes I always have to go with Exile, why can’t I go with Coleen instead?” Blitz complained waving his arms in the air as he stepped into the aircraft.

“Ah! Don’t worry Fluffy! I’m sure you’ll get your chance one day!” Coleen teased after the Doberman. She had been in the submarine with him before, but of course that time she had, in fact turned into a werewolf.

“How many times do I have to tell you; it’s Blitz!” The Doberman snapped stamping his foot on the floor of the sky rover as the ramp was shut closed with the phrase; ‘Don’t be weird boy!’ coming from the cockpit.

As Coleen steps into the passenger seat in the front of the street rover, Hunter pushes cowering Shag into the back. “Don’t worry Shag, we’ll be fine, we always are!” Hunter tells Shag, trying to comfort him. “Besides, you’ve got the best driver in the world behind the wheel!”

I still hope the airbags work all the same! Coleen thinks, keeping the thought to herself this time.

“Let’s hit the road, rovers!” Hunter calls over the radio to Exile and Blitz in the sky rover, as he turns the key in the ignition before putting his foot down speeding the street rover out of the hanger via an underground ramp.

“Nevada desert, here we are coming!” Exile exclaims, once again spectacularly managing to destroy a normally simple phrase. He flicks the necessary switches to get the engines running and pushes the throttle to full power, raising the sky rover from the hanger floor toward an opening in the ceiling.

“Alright, let me commence in the biting of the tooshies!” Blitz says rubbing his hands together.

posted 06-22-2008 11:11 AM            

Disclaimer: I do not own road rovers or any of its characters.

The sun is high above the scorched, parched ground of the Nevada desert further adding to the image that this was nothing more than a barren wasteland, a place where no life could be supported for long. Indeed, it would be hard to believe that there was a huge city inhabited by millions of people on the edge of the monotonous scenery of the desert. A rare occurrence was to transpire this day though, as activity is seen in the middle of the desert wasteland.

“Looks as though Exile’s having some darned good fun up there, like usual.” Coleen points out from the passenger seat of the street rover, placing her hand in front of her eyes as she tries to block out the glare of the sun reflecting from the armour of the sky rover above them.

“Yeah, I just hope he doesn’t scuff the finish.” Hunter replies in a half-concerned, half-joking manner as he squints up at the jet while it corkscrews and loops above them.

“Oh leave the bloke alone ‘Unter. When has he ever crashed that thing?” Coleen again points out, while in the backseat Shag makes a series of low whimpers and groans. “Yeah, but that was our first ever mission Shag and besides that old scoundrel Parvo did attack us.”

“Since when could you understand him?” Hunter asks in a somewhat surprised tone. Usually, he was the only one that could understand Shag’s…unique way of speaking.

“Not to be funny or anything ‘Unter, but we have been together a good couple o’ years now, you begin to learn after a while.” Coleen explains in a manner similar to that of explaining to a two-year old that 2+2=4.

Before Hunter can reply though, a mildly static message emanates from the radio. “Dha, Hunter pleeze make him stop. He’s out of control und I’m about to lose my lunch!” Blitz pleads into the radio microphone.

“I love being road rover!” Exile exclaims from the pilot seat in the cockpit, spinning the wheel and letting go to send the jet spinning wildly in a series of corkscrew loops. “Look, I am flying without my hands!” It wasn’t hard to tell that he was excited to be back behind the controls of an aircraft.

Blitz in the co-pilot seat next to him on the other hand, was clinging onto the radio microphone for dear life, petrified cries and sobs escaping his mouth. “Don’t be weird boy!” Exile retorts frowning while Blitz makes his plea to Hunter.

“Alright come on Exile, slow down a bit before Blitz has a conniption fit.” Hunter orders from the street rover radio while trying to hold back a laugh.

“You’re the bosski comrade.” Exile replies picking up his own radio microphone and stopping the rapidly spinning wheel of the jet with his left hand. Immediately the sky rover stops turning, the force sending the radio from Blitz hand into his face, knocking him into a daze.

“Oh and Exile was enjoying himself so much.” Coleen says shaking her head and tutting, clearly unconcerned for Blitz’s discomfort.

“Alright that’s enough Coleen we have a job to do, according to intelligence, Parvo’s forces aren’t far from here.” Hunter says to Coleen before talking over the radio to Exile. “Exile, I need you to go ahead in the sky rover and take a look, let us know what’s happening in the canyon. We’ll wait here for ya’ and decide what to do once you’ve reported back.”

“Understood comrade, be seeing you before it is the time of lunch!” Exile replies into his own radio before he puts it back onto its holder. He then pushes a couple of buttons under the throttle handle to give the engines a boost. Just as Blitz starts shaking his head to awaken himself from the stunned daze he had been forced into, he is forced back into his chair with his tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth as Exile forces the sky rover forward.

“Gee ‘Unter, are you sure that it’s a good idea to send ‘em off alone? What if they run into trouble?” Coleen asks Hunter as he slows the street rover down to a stop. In the backseat, Shag seems to whimper in agreement.

“Relax you guys, Exile’s a crack pilot and with that super vision of his he’ll easily be able to spot anything dangerous. The only way something can go wrong is if they knew we were coming.” Hunter replies, lying back in his seat with his hand out of the window and switching the air condition on. “And besides, we’re only a few minutes away if they do need our help.”

“Well I guess your right ‘Unter, still ya’ can’t help, but worry.” Coleen sighs, folding her arms and sitting back in her seat.

Back in the sky rover Exile scans the horizon for any sign of the canyon where Parvo’s forces were supposed to be, using his supervision to his advantage, leaving no stone unturned.

“Dha, Exile! Why can’t you warn me when you are going to fly like a crazy man?” Blitz asks irritably, rubbing his head where a small lump was forming.

“Freeze out weird boy! I am only having a bit of fun. Besides, with my super eyes, nothing can go wrong!” Exile states confidently, grinning cheekily at the Doberman.

“Ja, but still; that really hur-!” Blitz begins before Exile suddenly cuts him off.

“Please be shutting your trap! I can see something!” Exile exclaims, squinting at something in the distance. As they fly closer, Exile can clearly see that it is a canyon, most likely the one where Parvo’s forces were supposed to be. “I think I found the canyon! Let me be getting a closer lookski.” He adds, pulling back on the wheel to take the sky rover higher so as to get a better look inside the canyon.

“That is very strange.” Exile says as they make it to a distance where he can see the canyon floor. “There is nothing down there, nothing at all, just rocks and dirt!”

“Ack! What do you mean you can’t see anything? This is dha right canyon, right?” Blitz asks annoyed with Exile for telling him to shut up. “Don’t tell me you forgot how to use your super vision! Let’s just go in for a closer look.”

“Me? Forget how to use my super eyes? You are being stupid! I am pro boy at this!” Exile retorted. With his Russian pride, he was insulted by the thought that he wasn’t capable. “Fine, we’ll go in for a closer lookski.”

Exile pushes the wheel downward now to lower the sky rover closer to the canyon, as they get closer though, he still can’t see anything out of the ordinary and so he pulls the throttle down a little to slow the jet down for a quick flyby over the canyon.

“See? I told you there is nothing there!” Exile says a little loudly, confused that there was nothing there and still annoyed with Blitz implying that he was useless.

“Dhat’s impossible! This was definitely the canyon; there are no others around!” Blitz replies frustrated that it appeared as though the images had been wrong. Suddenly, an alarm rings and a red light begins to flash and whir around the cockpit. “Ack, du leber! What is it now?”
“That’s impossible!” Exile exclaims with a confused look on his face, suddenly anxious. “It’s saying that we have got somebody locking onto us!”

“What do you mean someone is locking onto us? You mean with a missile?” Blitz asks searching around the canyon. “There is nobody here, but-“ Blitz begins, but is suddenly once again cut off by Exile talking and suddenly throwing the throttle to top speed.

“There is definitely something following us! Look at radar!” Exile shouts above the alarm, holding his hands firmly on the wheel. The radar in between the two clearly showed something following them fast, getting closer by the second. “Hold on weird boy, this not being easy.”

Before Blitz can say another word, Exile pulls back hard on the wheel to send the sky rover straight upwards in a vertical line, the missile narrowly missing the tail of the jet. Steadily the jet struggles upwards, but eventually the engines begin to stall, unable to produce the lift required to keep the jet in the air.

“Ahhhh! Exile what have you done? You are going to kill us!” Blitz screams, cowering in his seat and starting to suck his thumb.

“Don’t be weird boy!” Exile shouts, pulling the wheel toward him while turning it right to make it face the earth again, to try and get the engines working again and to avoid the missile as it loops back to get at them again. Unfortunately as Exile pulls the sky rover back, the sun shines directly into his eyes, blinding him and forcing him to throw his right arm up to guard his face. He feels his insides move as the G-force hits him, telling him that they are now plummeting back towards the earth.

Exile keeps his left hand firmly on the wheel, while he uses his right to rub his painfully sore eyes, unable to see anything but a haze of bright green dots. He growls loudly from the pain and feels a sickening lurch in his stomach as he feels the sky rover shudder violently, accompanied by a loud noise that can only be from an explosion; they had been hit.

He fumbles around the cockpit controls with his right hand trying to look for the radio, keeping his left firmly on the wheel, trying to squint hard through his sore, watering eyes, but it was near useless, he couldn’t see anything except those darned green spots.

Finally, he feels his fingers close around the radio microphone, bringing it to his mouth he yells; “April day! April day!” Into the microphone.

Unlike Exile, Blitz had had his eyes shut tight when they had faced the sun and could now see everything that was going on around them. They were falling toward the earth nose first in a spiralling dive after the missile had hit them and it now seemed the situation was beyond Exile’s control. In between sobs for his mummy, he had been shouting for Exile to pull up or do something to save them, but for some reason he seemed to have his eyes closed and didn’t seem to be able to open them.

“Ack! Du leber! How many times do I have to tell you? It’s May day!” Blitz soon shouted frustrated and scared now that Exile seemed to have lost control.

“Grab your wheel and pull up hard, you stupid weird boy!” Exile shouted back, positively fuming now, he couldn’t see, his eyes were in great pain, Blitz didn’t have the sense to try and help or else was too scared to and on top of that, he had just dropped the radio. Now, he held both hands firmly on the wheel again and pulled as hard as he could, hoping that it would help them pull out of the death spiral.

Blitz shook his head hard to try and bring himself to his senses a little more before he finally grabbed his own wheel and started to pull on it hard. “Mummy, mummy, mummy, mummy!” He kept muttering under his breath as the ground drew closer. They had started to make a small impact on the dive with their efforts, though even Blitz could tell it wouldn’t be enough to avoid the inevitable crash, they were going too fast and the sky rover was too badly damaged, but maybe, just maybe they could do enough to get out of this alive.

Slowly, but steadily the nose of the sky rover began to move upward, but with the spiral so violent, it would be a matter of luck and good timing that they managed to crash the right way.

Hunter and Coleen are comfortably sitting back an relaxing, while Shag sits in the back seat pulling various food items from his fur and chomping them down without much effort. It’s been a few minutes since they lost sight of Exile and Blitz in the sky rover, but they weren’t too concerned, maybe they were just having trouble finding the canyon in the sun.

Suddenly though, the calming quiet in the street rover is interrupted with an emergency message on the radio, clearly from a panicked Exile. “April day! April day!” Is all they can hear before the message is interrupted by some ominous sounds blaring out in the background, including some incomprehensible words from a clearly terrified Blitz, replied to by some angered shouting by Exile.

Immediately, Hunter reaches out and picks up the radio with Coleen and Shag leading forwards to listen. “Exile? What’s happening? Is something wrong? Exile! Blitz! Are you alright! Answer me!” Hunter calls down the radio in a highly concerned voice. After a couple of seconds of continued ominous sounds, the transmission is ended with the sound of Blitz and Exile shouting together and a loud burst of static before the line goes dead.

posted 06-22-2008 11:20 AM            

Disclaimer: I do not own Road Rovers or any of its characters.

His head was pounding; the entire upper half of his body was aching as if he had just been hit by a train. He was lying on something soft and warm, he didn’t know what it was or even where he was, he felt like he didn’t have the strength to open his eyes. He could hear though, hear voices, familiar voices, talking in hushed voices that seemed to echo inside his mind.

“How is he?” One voice asks, a male voice, one with great concern and a certain heaviness to it.

“’e’ll be fine, nothing but a few cuts and bruises, lucky when you consider the state of the sky rover. That must have been one ‘eck of a crash!” A female voice replies in a much calmer tone, as if she was forcing herself to keep it level. “’e took a nasty bump to the ‘ead, dunno how long ‘e’ll be out for.”

“Well, at least we know he’s alive.” The male voice said again with a certain amount of relief to it this time. “The master needs all of us in the briefing room, he needs to discuss-well, you know what with us…” The voice trails off unnaturally, as if the person it belongs to can’t bring himself to say it.

Blitz manages to open his eyes enough to squint through his eyelids; he can see a hazy light above him on the ceiling and can just barely make out the silhouettes of Hunter and Coleen standing either side of him. He can’t keep them open long though and soon let’s his eyelids drop shut again, the effort of keeping them open for a few seconds enough to force him back to sleep.

Slowly, Blitz opens his eyes; his body still aches a bit, but no where near as much as it had since the last time he regained consciousness. His head still hurt, but he no longer felt like someone was pounding it with a pneumatic drill, he felt somewhat heavy, as though he overslept more than just a couple of hours.

His vision eventually slipped into focus allowing him to see clearly enough that he realised he was in a bed in the medical room of the road rovers facility. He turned his head to the right so that the light above him was no longer shining directly into his eyes, as he did so, he noticed Hunter sitting on a chair at his bedside, reading a nature magazine about different types of trees around the world.

“And you tell me I need a hobby.” Blitz says with a yawn having given himself a couple of minutes to adjust himself to his surroundings.

Hunter was so startled by the sudden movement of Blitz that he threw the magazine across the room where it landed in the toilet. “Ah man I was just getting to the good part and-wait-Blitz! You’re awake!” He says loudly, wrapping his arms tight around Blitz’s waist.

“Ack! Hunter! Get off! You are choking me!” Blitz chokes, taking a deep breath as Hunter releases him. That was the last thing he needed, well, no the last thing he needed was a monster bear hug from Exile. Where was Exile anyway? He thought as he glanced around the room, seeing all of the beds empty.

“Sorry Blitz buddy! It’s just that you’ve been out for three days now, nobody knew when you were going to wake up.” Hunter apologised, glad to see that Blitz was well. After all that was a nasty bump he had, his head was wrapped in a thick layer of white bandages.

Three days!? Blitz thought, looking down at his body to see several bandages on his chest and arms. It must’ve been a nasty crash… He couldn’t fully remember what had happened, he could remember the death spiral in the sky rover and how he and Exile had, with all their efforts, just managed to control the dive enough to strike the ground upside down with the rear of the jet. It wasn’t an ideal landing that enough was true, but they had at least managed to reduce the impact of the crash. He couldn’t remember much after the impact though, he vaguely remembered hanging limply from his seat with the seatbelt stopping him from falling from his chair onto the ceiling, but beyond that he had blacked out.

“Hey Hunter, where is Exile?” Blitz finally asked. He knew that if it hadn’t been for Exile bringing him to his senses, he probably wouldn’t have pulled at the control wheel in time enough to help Exile pull them out of the dive.

“Well, er-.” Hunter groans with a suddenly grave look on his face. Blitz wasn’t the best at reading body language, but Hunter’s was obvious enough; he was trying to think how to explain some bad news.

Suddenly, a horrifying thought crossed his mind. But it couldn’t be…could it? “Hunter. Exile, is he de-I mean, did he survive the crash…!?” Blitz asked, gulping as he did, bracing himself for the worst.

“Well, no he isn’t-I mean we’re not sure if he-we don’t know if he’s alive or even where he is…” Hunter replied in a manner that suggested that he was hurting bad inside-and it wasn’t because of a dodgy taco.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Blitz shouted, angered by Hunter’s apparent inability to answer a simple question. Some leader he was. “Did Exile survive the crash or didn’t he!?” He was desperate for an answer now, the wait for an answer practically driving him mad. For all the apparent issues their relationship had; Exile might as well have been Blitz’s best friend.

“I already said Blitz; I don’t know. Nobody does. After we arrived at the crash, Exile was nowhere to be seen, you were the only one in the sky rover, we tried looking around the canyon, but we couldn’t find any trace of him.” Hunter replied quickly, wanting to explain before Blitz could argue anymore. He sighed before he continued explaining. “We brought you back to base and after Coleen fixed you up, the Master ordered us to the briefing room to talk about it. There was nothing on the satellite to say where he had gone either. He’s virtually disappeared from the face of the earth buddy…” He trailed off to let the information sink in. This probably wasn’t the best news to wake up to.

“Exile…is gone…” Blitz repeated to himself, placing his head into his hands. How could anyone just disappear? He thought. Exile had to be somewhere, but from what Hunter had just said, there wasn’t anyway to find out where he was. No trail to follow, nothing, just an empty gap where Exile had once belonged.

“We’re going to try anything we can to find him, we won’t give up until we find either him or-or his body.” Hunter said in a hushed tone, his voice breaking. Even the thought sent a horrible chill down his spine, to think that one their team was gone, apparently disappeared into thin air was an excruciating thought to bear. Even more unbearable was that he was the one that had ordered them on ahead. “I suggest you concentrate on getting better buddy. Coleen says you should be fine to return to missions and to the German chancellor in a couple of days as long as you take some time to rest.”

“Ja, I guess dhar is nothing more we can do…” Blitz replied in an equally hushed tone, lying back onto his pillow and staring up at the bright sealing. After all, what more could he do? He wouldn’t be able to do anything to help until he was better anyway and besides, he needed a bit of time to think about this.

posted 06-22-2008 11:24 AM            

Disclaimer: I do not own road rovers or any of its characters.

Hunter lay awake in his bed, resting his head in his arms, staring up at the dark ceiling of his bedroom. It had been a full week since Exile and Blitz had been ambushed in the canyon, but who they suspected to be Parvo’s troops and Blitz was steadily on his way to making a full recovery, though he was still required to keep his head wrapped up until it had healed a little more, at least he was allowed out of the medical room now. There had still been no trace of Exile though and nobody was feeling any better because of it. One among them was lost, possibly dead and there was nothing that could help to heal the rift that had formed. It was not knowing what had happened to him that Hunter couldn’t bear, and he was sure it was the same for everyone else. He was also sure, that if they could just find some hard confirmation of what had happened to Exile, whether it was to be discovered that he was dead, (the very thought sent an unnatural chill down his spine) or alive, then the very certainty at least, would allow them to cope a little better.

Hunter had thought a lot about the attack since it had happened and his thoughts were about to go over that very mystery again tonight, before he could though, he was interrupted by a message on his dog tag radio. Sitting up, he tapped the gold marker to allow the message to get through. Why would someone call at this hour? He pondered. It must’ve been way past midnight and way into the early hours of the morning.

“Huntie, it’s me.” Coleen’s voice answered from the tag. “The master wants you to come to the briefing room, it’s about Exile. I’ll explain everything when you get ‘ere.” At this point the transmission stopped in a small burst of static.

Hunter wasn’t about to waste anytime in gathering himself together, not even stopping to wonder why the master was requesting his presence this late, if it was anything to do with finding Exile, he wanted to know about it as soon as possible. It was just as well that he hadn’t even removed his road rovers armour yet, in fact, it had been two days since he had last cared to remove it, thinking too much about his missing team mate. He near enough sprinted to the briefing room and was there within the space of about two minutes. When he arrived, he discovered Coleen and Professor Hubert sitting around the table, with the master projecting his image on the large screen on the wall opposite the table. He sat himself on the chair four spaces the right of Coleen, so that he was sitting in between the two with some space between each of them, quickly throwing Coleen a quizzical look before turning to look at the master’s large image.

Before he could speak or ask a question though, the master begins to speak. “Hunter, I’ve called you here because it’s time to come to a decision about Exile.” The master said in a commanding yet, somehow sympathetic tone. “I asked Coleen and Professor Hubert to return to the canyon one last time to look for any trace of Exile, or anything that might suggest what happened to him.”

He stops talking at that point, while Professor Hubert pulled something red and black out of his lab coat pocket, sliding it into the middle of the table where everyone can see it. It didn’t take long for Hunter to realise that it was Exile’s road rovers collar. The material was heavily singed for the most part with the gold tag heavily blemished and apparently partly melted.

“We found it at the front of the wreckage.” Professor Hubert said, his hands cupped together on the table. He sighed heavily before he spoke again and for some reason decided at that moment to clean his glasses on his lab coat. It looked to Hunter as an excuse not look at him while he spoke. “There was also a heavy stench of singed fur in and around the wreckage.”

Hunter’s heart had sunk when he saw the collar, he had hoped they might be able to locate Exile with his tracking signal, but that unfortunately was located on the collar itself, the one that now lay before him. It seemed there would be no way of locating him now. “So what do we do now?” Hunter asked almost instinctively, looking around the table from Coleen, to Professor Hubert and finally to the master. “Is there any other way we can find Exile?”

“Huntie…” Coleen said, apparently struggling to speak as Hunter turned his gaze upon her. “Don’t you realise what this could mean? We found the collar inside the wreckage, near where the flames had been most intense. Professor Hubert also said that was where the smell was most strong, even I could smell it!”

“What are you saying Coleen?” Hunter asked, breathing heavily and a sickening feeling rising in his stomach. He knew exactly what she was implying, but had to hear it himself to be sure.

“Hunter, I know this may be difficult to bear, but it might be an explanation as to why there isn’t any trace of Exile.” Professor Hubert said again, this time looking directly at Hunter. “It appeared to me at the scene that Exile had taken off his seatbelt, probably to try and grab the radio easier; according to Blitz, he dropped it mid-transmission. Its more than likely that he was thrown back out of his seat at the point of impact, it’s not impossible when you consider that the sky rover hit the ground at an angle from the rear. As for why there is no trace of him, well, we use rocket fuel to power the sky rover and it burns at extremely high temperatures and at a rapid rate. Therefore…it would be unlikely to leave any solid trace of anything burned by it…”

A heavy silence fell upon the room, leaving an atmosphere so thick with emotion someone could cut it with a knife. Hunter gulped, trying and failing to get rid of a sore lump that had formed in his throat. He wanted to argue, wished he could argue, but he couldn’t, he knew he couldn’t. Out of any conclusion they could come to, this one made the most sense, with the most weight behind it. What choice did he have, but to accept it? He had wanted the uncertainty to end, wanted some form of conclusion of what had happened, just to end that uncertainty, but this wasn’t the conclusion any of them had wanted, yet it seemed to be the only possible explanation for Exile’s disappointment.

“I’m afraid I have no choice Hunter, I’m going to make an official announcement tomorrow with all of you present.” The master tells the three in the room, showing his strength as a true master should in the face of bad news. “Exile is the first; and hopefully the last road rover to have fallen in the line of duty. I know it’s not what anybody wanted to hear, but we can’t ponder on this while danger could strike at any moment. Professor Hubert, I need you to investigate the mysterious nature of the attack first thing tomorrow; I want answers on this as soon as possible. Hunter, Coleen; I suggest you get some rest tonight, tomorrow will not be an easy day for any of us.”

“Understood master.” They all replied at once, like usual, though with less enthusiasm than would normally be present. Professor Hubert left down a separate corridor from Coleen and Hunter, leaving the room with the collar on the table for all the others to see tomorrow. Hunter couldn’t talk; the lump in his throat seemed to restrict his very ability to express himself. He was thinking again, about how he had given the order for Blitz and Exile to fly on ahead, alone and without support. Was he responsible? Was it that very decision that had lead to Exile’s tragic demise? Had he, without meaning to, played a direct role in the death of one of his comrades? Thankfully, Coleen gave him an excuse not to answer that question, asking if he wanted to spend the night with her, if just so that they didn’t have to suffer alone.

“Thanks Coleen, I just-I don’t-I don’t think I can cope alone.” Hunter accepts the offer gratefully in a heavily broken voice, his throat sore from the lump in his throat. Tears had started forming in the corners of his eyes.

“I know, to tell you the truth, I don’t wanna be alone tonight either.” Coleen replied with a forced note of laughter. Maybe that was her way f coping, Hunter thought, trying to drown the sorrow with laughter.

posted 06-22-2008 11:31 AM            

Disclaimer: Again, I do not own Road Rovers, if I did you could be sure that there’d be another few seasons in the making.

His eyes heart badly if he tried to open them, even if it was just a little squint, the light that poured into them gave him the painful sensation of having sulphuric acid throw into them. In the moments he had managed to open them, he came to realise he was in a tank of some kind, suspended in a watery, but somehow gel like green substance, outside the tank he could see a large room that looked like a state-of-the-art laboratory of some kind. He could see various people moving around as well, unrecognisable dark figures of unknown species. If someone cared to look as he briefly opened his eyes, they would see throbbing red capillaries pronounced against the ice blue iris of his large orbs.

Suddenly, he began to feel drowsy and his body began to relax as a powerful anaesthetic gas was pumped into a black mask that had been placed over his muzzle. He hadn’t been able to work out its purpose when he awoke to discover it there, but now he was certain that it was used to provide him with a fresh supply of oxygen within the cool, somehow soothing liquid. Before he drifted off into a deep sleep, Exile heard a woman speaking in a Scottish brogue, apparently ordering some subordinates.

“Drain the tank and prepare him for the surgery, the general wants no screw ups with this. And somebody go and get those powerful eye drops I left in storage…” The rest of what the woman said was drowned out, as the intoxicating power of the anaesthetic forced him into a state of deep sleep.

“Ouchy! That hurt worst than hard bite on behind by Blitz!” Exile shouted, as he tried to open his eyes, only for them to be greeted by a brightly burning light above him. He tried to rub them, but found that his arms and legs were secured tightly down by some kind of metal restraints. He tried with all his strength to try and break free from the binds, but not even his super strength could break them, they seemed to be specifically designed to prevent one with his strength to pull them apart. If he were to guess, he’d say they were attached to a pneumatic powered device of some kind, judging by the low hiss he heard every time he tried to break them. If only he could see them, he might’ve been able to determine their function.

“Calm down pooch! Those bonds were made especially for you in case you tried to escape, so there’s really no point in trying.” A voice suddenly said, a woman’s the one he had heard before he passed out, one that was strangely familiar, but it couldn’t be-could it? “Now stay still while I fix you up, the general wants you specially looked after. Besides you’ve been out for a week, not a good idea to push yourself.”

He didn’t have a chance to reply before his left eye was forced open by a hand covered by a black leather glove. His eye burned intensely as it was exposed to the light above him, he tried to close it, but the fingers kept it open and he yelped and growled as the pain grew more intense by the second. He could remember how intense the pain had been when he first received the injury from the intensely burning sun and the pain he had felt then.

“Oh, that’s nasty! Your lucky you haven’t gone blind pooch!” The woman said a certain amount of disgust in her voice. “Good thing you haven’t, the general wouldn’t be pleased if he found out you couldn’t use your heat, ice and super vision! What use would you be then?” After she spoke, she poured a clear liquid into the open eye and then proceeded to do the same with his right eye. Blinking rapidly, Exile had expected the liquid to make his eyes burn further, but instead, they actually seemed numb the pain and as he blinked the droplets out, the room started coming into a sharper focus, still a little blurry, but he could at least distinguish different, colours and shapes, he just couldn’t see any great detail.

He focused his eyes on the woman standing over him, from what he could tell, she was wearing a red outfit with black gloves and boots and she seemed to have long, black hair. He couldn’t tell her facial features though, it was still too blurry. She suddenly shined a small, but bright light into his eyes, apparently inspecting them.

“Hmm, a few more drops should do it.” She said, adding a few more drops of the liquid into each eye. The effect was incredible! The pain was gone except for some minor aching, though it was nothing worst than opening the curtains to a bright day early in the morning. On top the pain being dissipated, he could now see almost perfectly once he had blinked the excess fluid out, the only small problem was that outlines seemed very slightly out of focus, but other than that, everything was near perfect! What ever that stuff was; it was good.

He looked up at the woman that had applied the eye drops and gasped sharply as he looked into her face. It was the Groomer, Parvo’s right hand woman! “Wha-wha-what are you doing here!? Where am I!?” Exile growled, panicking and trying to break free from his bonds again. He didn’t like this situation at all. He was in a mysterious medical lab somewhere, fully restrained so that not even his super strength could break him free and to make matters worst; the lead henchman of one of the road rovers’ greatest enemies was standing over him. So then, why was she standing over him tending to his wounds?

“I already told you puppy dog, those restraints have been specially made to hold you, there’s no point in strugglin’, take a look if you don’t believe me.” She said calmly to him as he pressed a few keys on a console beside the stretcher he was on, instructing it to move to an upright position. As it did so, it became known to Exile that he was lying on more of a frame, with lengths of metal supporting his back, head and all his limbs. The room had the look of a medical bay about it; presumably the stretcher was designed this way, so that someone could work on the back of a patient, without actually having to move them.

Exile now turned his attention to the restraints that held, it was times like this it was handy that he was the master at fixing and un-fixing things in the road rovers team. “Hmm, restraints made of metal held back by powerful pneumatic pressure arm made stronger with more help from hydraulic pressure…” Exile pulled at the restraints to confirm his suspicions as the restraints initially moved up slightly as he bent his wrist, only to be held back with a faint hiss as extra air and liquid pressure was immediately applied to account for the extra strain. Not a bad effort he thought, but he wasn’t a road rover for nothing; he had powers normal strong cano-mutants didn’t, his hot eye lasers could easily melt the bonds. With a smirk he focused his sight on one of the bonds ready to blast it with a beam of hot energy, but nothing happened. Raising an eyebrow he tried again, but harder this time, again with no result, for some reason the only response he got was a sharp ache at the back of his skull.

“I wouldn’t waste your energy pooch. We’ve already taken care of that little trick, but don’t worry, we’ll explain everything later. Now hold still while I rub some ointment on those burns.” The groomer said, having watched his failed attempts at escape with an obvious sense of satisfaction. “And to answer your question from earlier, you’re in General Parvo’s new secret base in Siberia, as for the reason you’re here; don’t you remember the crash? Those new underground anti-air missile launchers combined with the decoy worked it seems.”

Exile tried to look around as the groomer moved behind the stretcher where he couldn’t see her, he suddenly felt a painful burning on his right arm, turning his head quickly to see what had caused the pain, and he saw her hand rubbing some translucent gel to some blackened, badly burnt skin he had previously neglected to notice. The skin was exposed where the fur covering a large section of his forearm had been burned off. Of course he could remember the crash clearly enough, he could remember the excruciating struggle to save the stricken sky rover while painfully blinded and with Blitz having a panic attack in the co-pilot’s seat. After the initial impact though, he drew a blank, all he could really remember was flying through the shattered glass window of the cockpit from where he had taken off his seatbelt to try and find the radio and hitting solid ground before blacking out.

“You said something about underground missiles, is that how you attacked without letting us know? First luring us out with a wrong impression?” Exile asked, agitated once more. “And what happened to Blitz!? Did you take him too? Is he safe? And what was that stuff you put in my eyes? Why can I see now?” The questions all popped into his head one after the other, each serving to make him more anxious. It was Blitz he was most concerned about though; being the pilot of the sky rover he was technically responsible for the lives of all on board. If he found out he had failed to save the life of a comrade, his Siberian pride as well as his own guilt would lead him to punish himself for his mistakes. “Also, why can I not use my Siberian deep freeze or anything else!?”

“Well, this is a burn ointment gel, before you ask.” The groomer replied, pausing for a moment after the vast bombardment of questions. “Well that’s quite a list of questions there isn’t it pooch? Now, where to begin, alright I’ll answer them in order.” She resumed applying the burn ointment to Exile’s arm before beginning.

“Well you see, you’ve recently attracted the General’s interest, your uncanny ability to fix, build or sabotage equipment, disable security systems and to create explosives and devices to bypass security locks especially caught the General’s interest. So, he ordered I devise a plan to capture you. You’ve got a few burns behind your ears by the way, could you tilt your head forward a bit please?” She asked, deciding there was a sufficient amount on his arm. Exile obeyed, moving his head forward to allow her to apply the cool gel behind his ears, where there were patches of fur that had been singed clean off, the sensation was similar to that of being scratched behind the ears by the Russian Premier and he might’ve enjoyed it had circumstances been different.

“Anyway,” The groomer continued while she applied liberal amounts of the ointment behind Exile’s ears where the skin had been particularly badly singed. “I ordered a platoon of burrowing tanks capable of carrying missiles to that canyon where you crashed, after we were sure your satellite had picked them up, we ordered them to burrow beneath the surface of the canyon and wait for you to arrive, luckily you arrived alone in that jet of yours with only that coward co-pilot, turned out to be the perfect ambush. After you crashed you ended up outside the aircraft, again making it easier to quickly recover you before your friends arrived. Now, what was your next question? Oh yeah, your friend.” She paused briefly to squirt some more of the gel onto her fingers and began applying it to his left ear.

“Your friend is fine; the other rovers arrived just after we took you and presumably took your friend back to your base when they couldn’t find you. He looked alright, nothing serious enough to kill him; unfortunately.” Exile’s heart leaped and he blew out hard, relieved by the news that Blitz was safe, he was confident that Coleen took care of any injuries he had. “As for what I put in your eyes, they were powerful eye drops we designed to wash out the stuff that was in your eyes, you see, it wasn’t the sun that blinded you, it was a micro-bomb containing some radio-active dust that was thrown onto your front window before we launched the missile, that’s probably what made the glass shatter, anyway, only these eye drops can clear it up, if you don’t have them, it takes a couple of weeks for the dust to lose it’s power.” She stopped applying the ointment and placed it on a surgical tray next to the console she used to control the stretcher. “As for why you can’t use your eye powers, well, the General wants to explain that himself.”

She picked up a radio that was attached to her waist belt and spoke into it. “He’s ready now general, you can come in now if you want.” She ended the transmission without reply and stood in front of Exile, observing his torso. They had removed the upper half of his armour, but left the lower half on, for which he was grateful, being the bashful soul that he was. He thought hard about what happened, the back of his skull aching again, he didn’t know what it was, but it seemed somehow unnatural. So they had been after him all along, no-one else, just him, but why? What great threat did he pose to them? He thought back to the beginning of the conversation, what had she meant by General Parvo using his Siberian deep freeze, of which he was proud of, as well as his other eye powers? Surely Parvo didn’t expect him to turn on the road rovers? He’d never do that, he loved being a road rover, either way, he was eager to get some answers.

It didn’t take too long for General Parvo to arrive with one his cano-mutants dawning a balaclava as a personal bodyguard. In the few minutes it took for them to arrive, the groomer had started applying some anti-septic cream to some small abrasions on his chest, which stung like hell. The first thing the General did before speaking was order the groomer to give him a lozenge to relieve a chesty cough that had plagued him for several years now.

“Greetings road rover, I’ve no doubt your wondering why I had my men bring you here?” The general said in a deep, raspy voice once the lozenge had done its job. He didn’t wait for a reply from Exile before continuing though. “Well, seeing as we’ve taken up quite bit of time just getting you ready anyway, I’ll cut to the chase. I want you to join me and our glorious organisation and fight off the troublesome road rovers, so that we may overthrow the earth’s governments and bring them to their knees!” He threw his fist in the air as a means of expression as he spoke the last few words.

Exile was so shocked by the suddenness of the offer that he didn’t reply for a few moments; surely even Parvo wasn’t so foolish as to assume that he would turn on his comrades? “I do not think you have done very good thinking about this, even you must know that neither one of us, not even Blitz-would ever betray our comrades?” He was going to ask why he had been captured specifically, but remembered that the groomer had already explained this. Before Parvo offer a rebuttal however, the masked cano-mutant spoke to him.

“What is your name road rover?” The masked bodyguard asked in a Russian accent that wasn’t s strong as Exile’s.

Exile tilted his head to one side at the question, it wasn’t often that the cano-mutants spoke, let alone asked a half-intelligent question. “To my comrades, I am Exile, to you, I am Exilo Mikhailovich Sanhusky.” He replied in a defiant tone, showing his lack of respect for his capturers.

“Hah, is that what you call yourself now? You truly have become weak, Alexandr.” The cano-mutant replied with apparent amusement. At Exile’s response, that consisted of a questioning, if frightened look. “That’s right I know you, your true name and identity, the name you carry now is nothing, but a mask.” He spoke the last sentence in Russian.

“How do you know-wait- your voice, you can’t be you di-.” Exile began, his voice shaking with fear now, looking as if though he had seen a ghost.

“-died on that cliff edge all those years ago? No, I’m afraid you do not get off that easily,” The bodyguard seemed to be positively teeming with a sick sort of delight at making Exile suffer now. Slowly, he pulled off the balaclava mid-sentence to reveal the face of a cano-sapien Siberian husky, who could’ve had an uncanny resemblance to Exile, had it not been for bits of grey fur on his face and a long scar running down his left eye. “-my son.”

Exile’s face was frozen into an expression of pure fear for a few moments as he was confronted with the face of his father, whom he long thought to be dead, and buried. Slowly though, his face began to twist into an expression of hatred. “You…you…I KILL YOU!” He suddenly shouted, again struggling to break free of his bonds while straining to let out a blast of his heat vision, a powerful one at the figure that had named himself as his father. The bonds began to struggle against his strength now, screeching as the metal began to stretch. Try as he might though, he couldn’t use his heat vision, all he got was that pain at the back of his skull that grew and grew until finally, a powerful bolt of electricity was sent through his body and seemed to emanate from that very spot.

“Now, now, that’s no way to greet your old dad is it? Though I guess it doesn’t change anything you’re still as weak as you were before.” The figure approached Exile, until he was standing right up to his face. “And what kind of a name was that to choose? Did you truly think it would change who you really are?”

Exile was panting heavily from the shock, every muscle in his body aching painfully, but he did not care, the hatred he felt at that moment was great. He had never needed to hate anything while in the road rovers and hadn’t felt it in a while, but now, everything had changed. “It has a better ring to it than Alexandr Borisovich Vasiliev…” He panted in Russian, his eyes half-closed from the exhaustion of the sudden attack. “And what are you doing trans-transdogrified anyway…?”

“Well, since the good General set up this base in our glorious mother land, it was easy to sign up and besides, it’s more interesting for us to talk this way don’t you think?” He placed his hand under Exile’s chin to lift it up enough that he was looking into his eyes. It was the greatest difference of their natural features together; where Exile’s were bright and full of life reflecting on his happy go lucky attitude, his father’s were dull and listless, reflecting on a life full of nothing but pure resentment for the world. “Hmm, your eyes are still too clear, good thing the general came up with a way to solve that problem eh?” He pulled his hand away, letting Exile’s head drop to his chest. “I’m done here General, I will return to my quarters, be sure to take good care of my son.”

Parvo and the Groomer had done naught, but watch as the ‘reunion’ of father and son took place and didn’t talk until Boris had left the room. “I’m going to go and make some calls to our investors.” Parvo said, turning to the groomer. “If you are finished with his treatment, activate his focus and have him ready for his duties as head engineer tomorrow morning.”

“Of course General, I’ll start his initiation immediately.” The groomer replied, saluting Parvo as he left. She then walked over to the console next to Exile’s stretcher and began pressing some of the keys.

Exile was still panting, trying to control his breathing, it was bad enough having been captured, but to have had his past catch up to him so suddenly was even worst. He looked out the corner of his eye at the groomer too exhausted now to lift his head. His vision was also blurry again; it had been a powerful electrical strike and had seemed to emanate from the very back of his brain. “What was Boris doing here? Where did he come from?” Exile asked, panting still. “If you thought he would help make me join you; you were wrong…”

“Boris? He arrived shortly after we set up this base here, he’s been just about the only dog we’ve had that’s been transformed willingly, except your brother Yevgeny of course, your quite the odd one out in your family you know.” The groomer replied, looking up briefly to answer him. Exile’s eyes would’ve widened had he had the strength. Yevgeny is alive as well! He thought, almost in utter despair now. The whole situation was just getting better and better. “And as for bringing him here to try and convince you to join us; that’s not true. We weren’t going to be so naïve as to think that one of the road rovers would turn on their own willingly. Oh no, we designed something very special to make you turn. You should be honored to have had so much effort made just for you.”

“What you mean something to make me turn?” Exile asked only mildly interested now, his thoughts having turned to the subject of his family he had hoped were long forgotten and lost.

“Well, I could go into a lengthy explanation, but I think it’ll be more sporting to show you.” The groomer replied once more, apparently entering a final command into the console. Suddenly, Exile’s thoughts were interrupted by an over-whelming pressure that had developed on his brain stem, his body began to tense and shake violently as unnatural electrical impulses were sent through his brain. His eyes rolled up into the top of his head and his neck shot up as well, as his body, his mind and his very soul were overpowered by forces unknown. Whatever pain it was causing his body though, was quickly overshadowed by the violent, horrific images that were being etched into his mind now, images pulled from the darkest recesses of his mind, images that were meant to be forgotten.

It stopped as suddenly as it had began and his body hung limply from the binds of the stretcher, his eyelids twitching rapidly over his eyes, not allowing him to close them, confronting him with the aftershock of the experience. He wasn’t being let off easy…Finally though, the twitching began to slow down and his eyelids began to drop steadily, at last allowing him the peace of unconsciousness.