7
Walking Down Memory Lane
Author's Note: I do not own Road Rovers or any characters pertained to the show. However, I do own Alexandra, Connor, and other characters who would be mentioned by name only. This series of interrelated one shots will primarily feature the original Rovers. Feel free to review and make suggestions for future chapters in this little series.
Chapter 1: Hunter's First Flight
It had been months since Operation: Last Stand, and the entire world had been recovering from the massive battle between the Rovers and the nearly invincible biocybernetic army of Grudge. Not only did the Rovers have to stop Grudge, they also had to prevent Project Javelin from launching and destroying Earth and had to defeat Grudge on his moon base, which was located in the Sea of Tranquility. Most of the allies that the Rogue Rovers acquired throughout their past missions offered their help where necessary during Earth's recovery and rebuilding process.
In a quiet and recuperating neighborhood somewhere in the North Eastern United States stood an average size house, and inside the house, there were several cardboard boxes strewn about the place as the occupants sorted through the contents. Throughout the house, furniture had already been set up.
The house's living room was quite spacious with a large rectangular window on the left side of the room that peered outside to the neighborhood. On the wall to the left of large window was a fireplace, and hanging above the fireplace was a large picture frame with a family portrait of the occupants. In the picture, there were five canosapiens, a female African-American, and a white tiger felosapien. Two of the canosapiens, a female Collie and a male Golden Retriever, stood behind the female African-American, a male Shiba Inu canosapien, and the white tiger felosapien and were holding a pup each in their arms. All of them were dressed in either a dress or a suit and were smiling at the camera.
A grunt followed by sounds of objects being jostled around was heard coming from outside of the room. The source of the grunt, the male Golden Retriever, entered the living room with a cardboard box in his hands and struggled handling the heavy load. Placing the box on the table that was located in front of a couch that was located in front of the window, the Golden Retriever plopped onto the couch and released a tired breath, feeling a rush of relief flow through him as he removed the burdensome weight from his arms. Massaging his sore arms, the male canosapien reclined his head back until it touched the top of the couch and closed his eyes as he enjoyed his little break.
As he was enjoying his little breather, his wife, the female Collie, entered the living room and noticed him on the couch. Walking over to the couch, she sat down next to her husband, causing the male canosapien to crack open an eye and steal a look at his lovely wife before smiling at her with his trademark caring smile.
"'ow are you 'olding up 'untie?" the Collie asked as she took over massaging her husband's sore arms.
"Quite honestly, I'm not getting any younger," Hunter replied as he rolled his left shoulder for a moment. "I tell ya, Colleen. Unpacking all this stuff is definitely tiring, especially for someone of our age. If only we were a few years younger, then this would've been a breeze." He made a swiping motion with his left hand to emphasize his point. "It's a shame that we couldn't get our kids to help out."
"True," Colleen agreed with a nod of her head. "But the reconstruction efforts are currently top priority for them. Why don't we take a break from all this unpacking?"
"I'm way ahead of you honey," Hunter laughed while propping his feet onto the coffee table and accidentally knocked the contents of the box onto the floor.
Getting up from the couch, the couple got down onto their hands and knees and started to pick up the fallen objects from the floor, placing them back into the cardboard box. As they were placing the things back into the box, Colleen noticed a book made of brown leather. Picking it up, she turned the book over to the front to reveal a similar family portrait on the front cover of the book. Below the portrait was the words 'The Retriever Family' in gold lettering.
Standing up, Colleen held the book in here hands and shown it to Hunter. "Look what I found 'untie."
"Whoa cool, our family photo album," he said as he stood next to his wife to look at the cover of the photo album. "Why don't we take a walk down memory lane?"
Colleen nodded her head as Hunter linked his arm with hers and led her back to the couch, where they could sit down and view the album. Sitting on the couch, Colleen placed the photo album on their laps so that they could easily view it together. Before opening the pages, the couple admired the family portrait of them and their kids.
"To think, several years ago, we were holding Alexandra and Connor in our arms," Hunter noted as he stared at the two pups who the couple were holding.
The pups had dirty golden fur, making them slightly darker than their father but lighter than their mother. Alexandra, Alex for short, had a pink bow on her head. Connor had brown eyes like his father, while Alex had blue eyes like her mother.
"Time sure does fly," Colleen agreed as she opened the photo album to the first page. "Do you remember this picture 'untie?"
Hunter looked at the first page of the photo album, and after taking a brief look at it; he closed his eyes and shook his head as a nervous chuckle escaped his throat. The picture showed a slightly embarrassed Hunter with a sheepish grin on his face standing in front of a damaged Turbojet Rover in the South American jungle.
"Wasn't that from my first time flying the Turbojet Rover, during our mission to South America?"
"It sure was, and I still remember what 'appened too," Colleen replied as she looked up from the picture with a thoughtful expression on her face as she recalled the event of that particular mission.
It was a month after the Road Rovers were first established as a team. The United Nations received word of an illegal smuggling ring in the forests of South America and notified Master of the situation. After receiving the latest information on the situation, Master contacted the Rovers, informing them that they are needed for an assignment. A few minutes later, the Rovers entered the Briefing Room and sat at the table, awaiting their mission from Master.
"Greetings Rovers," Master greeted the team of five. "The reason I've called you is that I've received word from the United Nations of an illegal smuggling ring in the forests of South America. Based off the information I've received so far, the United Nations sent troops to handle the situation there with little to no success and are presumed captured by the smugglers. You're assignment is to head to South America, put an end to the smuggling ring, and rescue the troops. I want you to exercise extreme caution. These smugglers may be heavily armed and may use the area to their advantage."
"Don't worry Master, we've got it covered," Hunter reassured as he stood up from his seat and faced the rest of his team. "Alright Rovers, let's hit the sky and stop those smugglers."
Giving their now traditional battle howl, the five canines rushed out of the Briefing Room and toward the hangar. As they entered the hangar, a large mechanical arm that rode along a rail brought out the Turbojet Rover and lowered the aircraft to the floor. Once the aircraft touched ground, the ramp automatically opened up, allowing the five canosapiens to enter the aircraft. Inside the aircraft, Hunter and Colleen took the pilot and co-pilot seats respectively. Behind them were Exile and Blitz, and behind Exile was Shag. After everyone was strapped into their seats, Hunter and Colleen began the preflight checks.
During the preflight checks, Colleen looked over at Hunter and asked, "'unter, do you 'ave any experience flying this?"
"No, but I do have my license though," Hunter replied as he continued to check the aircraft's instruments.
"Your pilot's license?"
"Nope, my dog license is good enough," Hunter answered as he started the engines and eased on the throttle.
After hearing that, Shag dug inside his fur and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen and started to write his will. Exile and Blitz had concerned looks on their faces. Colleen held back a response and shook her head as she focused on the task at hand, in case something goes wrong with Hunter's flying.
As the aircraft reached its desired altitude, Hunter directed the aircraft south and inputted the coordinates into the automatic pilot. Once the coordinates were set, the autopilot took over and flew the aircraft toward the destination. After several hours, the autopilot alerted Hunter and Colleen that they were nearing their destination. Switching over to manual, Hunter grabbed the yoke in his hands and took over flying the Turbojet Rover.
Exile got up from his seat and went over to a console on the right side of the cabin to investigate the South American forest below for the smugglers base camp by using the aircraft's radar. Watching the screen for a few minutes, the Husky noticed two blips appearing on the screen and moving toward the center of the screen.
"Comrade Hunter, bad men projectiles are coming toward us," Exile warned the Golden Retriever as he kept his focus on the screen.
"Well, I guess we'll have to perform some evasive action then," Hunter calmly noted as he saw an oncoming missile.
Blitz simply rolled his eyes and commented, "Brilliant guess oh wise one."
"Thanks Blitz, I do my best," Hunter responded as he pushed the yoke forward, bringing the plane into a dive and avoiding the first missile.
Leveling the aircraft out of the dive, Hunter pulled back on the yoke and nearly grazed one of the trees as the Turbojet Rover started gaining altitude again. Exile informed him of the other missile that was riding their tail, and Hunter performed an immelmann to shake off the deadly projectile with no luck. However, the maneuver that Hunter pulled was too close to the forest canopy. When he realized he was going to collide with the trees head on, Hunter pulled back on the yoke as far as he could to level out the aircraft to some degree. As it neared the forest below, the aircraft leveled out just in time for the hull to crash into the trees, with the second missile crashing into the ground behind them.
Inside the cabin of the Turbojet Rover, the Rovers were being jostled around in their seats and were grateful that they had their seatbelts fastened. The bumpy descent finally ended as the aircraft touched ground and made contact with one of the trees.
"Uh, did we crash?" Hunter asked as he rubbed his throbbing head.
Without missing a beat, Colleen replied, "No 'untie, we're testing the Earth's gravity to see if it was still working."
"Well, it seems to be working alright," Hunter confirmed with a nod of his head, which earned a collective groan from the others.
"Well, it was nice of the troops to offer us lift back to New Mexico after busting that smuggling ring," Hunter commented as he continued to look at the picture.
"It sure was," Colleen agreed while leaning against her husband's shoulder. "At least you've improved your landing over the years."
Hunter chuckled and nodded his head as he turned the page in the photo album.