Chapter 1 - The Machine
The early morning sun began to creep over the horizon as our heroes lay sound asleep in the quiet darkness. Well, all except one... Colleen rose before anyone else most mornings so she had some peace and quiet to practice her martials arts. As she warmed up with a few quick kicks and punches on an old tattered practice dummy, her mind began to wander.
"Sometimes I wonder why I still gotta fight for me own still. Huntie has super speed... Exile's got super strength and super vision... Fluffy got super teeth and jaws... Blimey, even Shag has super strength and can pack for a small army. Why did I only get a better ability to do what I already could?" Colleen muttered to herself as she maintained her focus on her target.
No one could blame her for feeling the way she did though. After all, is it wrong to want an easier life when you had to fight tooth and claw for every scrap of food you could? Oh well, at least she didn't have that to worry about.
After a few hours of nearly tearing the old dummy to pieces, Colleen meandered back inside the complex to find everyone else had made their way to the kitchen and dining area. Shag was happily mixing away at a bowl filled with who-knows-what. It was better to not ask questions at this point, just eat it and go on. Blitz was slowly nursing a cup of coffee, trying to let the caffeine flip the 'on' switch to the rest of his body. Exile roamed around the kitchen helping Shag out where he could, trying not to trip over Muzzle who seemed to be right in the middle of everything. Hunter was the only one who seemed to be cognitively alert as he had today's newspaper flipped open browsing through the top stories.
"Good morning, Huntie," Colleen greeted as she came behind him and gently kissed his cheek.
"Morning, Colleen.." Hunter said returning the chaste kiss.
"Ach die lieber, how do you get up so early, pretty dog girl...?" Blitz asked.
"Da, Comrade, how can you be upski when sun isn't even awake?" Exile groaned.
"I don't know what to tell ya, gents. I guess havin' to survive on the streets back in London made me determined to be the first one to the scraps," Colleen answered.
Shag rang a small cowbell jolting everyone out of their early morning daze. A delicious smell enveloped their noses as Shag passed out each dog bowl filled with the mysterious concoction.
" Smells good, Shag," Colleen said as she took a small bite.
"Rawww... Rara Re Raa..." Shag said explaining his creation.
"Huh... you don't say..." Hunter said as he continued eating.
"Whatski...?" Exile asked as he licked the crumbs off his lips.
"Sorry... sworn to secrecy..." Hunter said with a wink.
"Probably bettah dhat vay..." Blitz commented.
"I agree..." a familiar voice came from out of nowhere.
"Master, is everything okay?" Hunter asked.
"I'm afraid not, Hunter. Rovers, I hate to interrupt breakfast, but there has been a development," Master Shepherd explained as he activated the viewscreen on the far side of the room.
"Vill I get to bite enemy tooshies?" Blitz asked a little too enthusiastically.
"Don't be weird-boy," Exile said giving Blitz's shoulder a small shove.
"Strange creatures have been appearing across London..." Master Shepherd began.
"Oh don't tell me... more werewolves... because I'd want to have a pass if it is..." Colleen blurted out.
"No, Colleen... these creatures don't even look like anything recognizable. Take a look at these photos..." Master Shepherd explained as he pressed another button to reveal the pictures.
Horrible... that was the only word that could even begin to describe the appearance of these monsters. The initial outline resembled a large grizzly bear that had been given steroids. The eyes shone bright orange. The face was grotesquely deformed, deep scars ran across its forehead and jaw. It had jagged claws jutting out from its four appendages that resembled a cross between a wolf and a dragon. It had teeth that overlapped its extended muzzle like a crocodile. It had a murky dark grey fur stretched tautly over its frame. It seemed to emanate pure evil.
"AHHH...!" Blitz squealed as he and Shag started shaking.
"UGH!" Hunter reeled.
"Mother Russia..." Exile grimaced.
"Ewwww, gross..." Colleen commented.
"Rovers, your mission is to figure out the source of these monstrosities and stop the ones that have already been released. Be warned, these creatures are highly unpredictable and very dangerous. Please be careful," Master Shepherd commanded.
"Well, up for a visit back home, Sweetheart...?" Hunter asked, trying to keep morale light.
"Oh why not... always wanted to hunt for creatures that defy all natural explanation..." Colleen replied rolling her eyes.
"Let's hit the road, Rovers!" Hunter rallied.
With their signature howl, they rushed down the hall to the vehicle hangar. They quickly boarded the Sonic Rover and input the directions needed along with a map of where the creatures had been sighted. As the engines roared elevating the plane into the bright morning sky, Colleen felt her heart sink.
"What could someone possibly want to even consider making creatures so gruesome?" Colleen thought.
Ever since the werewolf incident, Colleen began keeping a close watch on things around her home country. How could she have possibly missed something so big?
After bring the Sonic Rover up to a safe elevation, Hunter switched the auto-pilot. He turned and noticed Colleen's sad expression.
"Colleen, are you okay?" Hunter asked grasping her paw gently.
Colleen struggled to keep her worry from surfacing, but managed to swallow it before answering.
"Yes, love, I'm alright... I guess I'm just a bit weary," Colleen answered, feigning a yawn.
"Are you sure?" Hunter asked with that compassionate tone that melted her heart every time.
"Yes, Love, I'm sure..." Colleen stated in a blunt tone.
Although his better judgement told him otherwise, Hunter knew that if he kept pushing she would probably end up extremely mad and that was a line he wasn't willing to cross... ever.
Several hours later, Blitz and Exile were passing the flight with a game of checkers while Shag messed with a handheld video game with Muzzle watching over his shoulder. Colleen had her seat extended out all the way sleeping to the hum of the engine. Hunter kept an eye on the dash instruments as he watched his girlfriend sleep.
"Ha! King me, Snowball!" Blitz boasted as he moved his piece to the opposite end of the board.
"About timeski, Weird-Boy..." Exile laughed placing the customary piece on top of the checker piece.
"Ha ha, very funny..." Blitz replied.
"How much more timing are we having, Comrade Hunter?" Exile asked.
"About thirty minutes according to the GPS, Exile," Hunter answered.
"Just enough time for me to kick Exile's tooshie in dhis game..." Blitz said confidently.
Exile turned around and looked at the board and moved one of his pieces around the board jumping every one of Blitz's pieces.
"Hey, no fair...!" Blitz pouted.
Exile crossed his arms proudly across his chest with a satisfied smirk. Hunter just shook his head as he looked over the map of the creature sightings.
Inside Colleen's mind, she found herself running, but not knowing where she was going. Everything was dark and nothing made sense. Suddenly, she found herself surrounded by a strange orange light watching it swirl around her body. She felt like her body was being crushed and blown up from the inside out at the same time. Before she couldn't take it any longer, she felt her body pool like melted butter on the ground. Suddenly, a dark figure with glowing orange eyes loomed over her and reached for her.
"NO!" Colleen shouted as she shot up from her resting place.
"Colleen! What's wrong?" Hunter said scooping her up into his arms.
Colleen couldn't even think to answer. She had never felt so frightened before. While crying was never a part of her nature, she buried her face into Hunter's chest, trying to forget the horrible nightmare.
"It's okay... what happened?" Hunter comforted.
"A... a bloody awful dream, love..." Colleen answered as she calmed down and returned to her seat.
"Are you wanting to be talking about itski, Comrade?" Exile coaxed.
"Destination arrived... please prepare for landing..." the computerized voice of the GPS system recited.
Everyone buckled back in as they began their descent into the London air field. Worry filled Hunter's heart seeing Colleen so emotionless. Something had frightened her, but she wouldn't admit it. Hopefully, it was just what she said... a bad dream... nothing more.
Upon landing, the Rovers exited the large jet and gathered together to lay out their plan of attack, so to speak.
"Alright, Rovers, looks like most of the sightings occur on farms outside the city. Let's start there," Hunter led.
The group of canine heroes made their way down road after road of farmhouses and small villages, but no leads had surfaced. All they found were a few slightly less than believable 'eyewitnesses' and animal carcasses. Each one had split off on a different path to cover more ground.
As time wore on, Colleen found herself reminiscing. She remembered spending sunny spring days along these same roads watching the cattle and sheep, enjoying the sunshine. There was one last farmhouse on the road when a strange noise came from one of the pastures.
"What in the world...?" Colleen wondered out loud.
She slowly made her way over the grazing land and nearly screamed in terror at what she saw. One of the gruesome creatures was feasting on a freshly killed cow. It had blood covering its muzzle dripping down its fangs. Colleen froze. What could she do? If she made a noise, the creature would surely attack her. She watched as the same orange glow glimmered from the creature's eyes as she had seen in her nightmare.
For what seemed like an eternity, she just stood stiff as the creature devoured its kill seeming to not notice her presence. Suddenly, its head whipped up as if it had heard a call of some sort. Colleen watched as the creature ran through the area of grassy plains.
"I should follow it... maybe it will lead me to whoever's behind all this..." Colleen thought as she began her pursuit.
As the guys gathered back on the main road, no one seemed to have found anything of much help. Unbeknownst to them, Colleen was hot on the trail, literally.
"I'm starting to believe dhese people are seeing dhese creatures..." Blitz said nonchalantly as he filed one of his claws.
"Maybe so, Comrade, but how are you explaining photos we sawski...?" Exile questioned.
"I don't know, guys, but something's not right... Hey... where's Colleen...?" Hunter said, noticing her absence.
The others just shrugged their shoulders in response.
"Let's go see where's she at..." Hunter said as he followed the scent of her perfume down the far end of the dirt road.
Meanwhile, Colleen managed to stay just a few steps behind the creature as she observed it frantically pawing at the side of a small knoll.
"What is it looking for?" she asked herself.
Suddenly, a hidden door opened up out of nowhere and the creature dashed inside. Before asking too many questions, Colleen dashed in right behind it before the door closed. Upon hearing the metallic clang of the door locking behind her, Colleen braced herself for what she had stumbled into.
She quickly hid behind a large rock crevice and saw a sight that made her blood run cold... an orange light glowing in the center of the room and a tube-shaped chamber similar to the Transdogmafier back at Headquarters, only creepier looking.
"What in the bloody...?" Colleen began to question.
Suddenly, a dark figure emerged from the darkness and stood in front of the power console. The tube began filling up with a bright orange goo as electric sparks surrounded the chamber. Illumination was so dim Colleen couldn't make out any details of the figure behind all this misery.
The mutated creatures that she had followed in seemed to anxiously await as their master entered the sequence into the mysterious machine.
"At last, my precious pets will pave the way for me to usher in a new age for the world..." a raspy voice hissed through its teeth.
The creatures growled and grunted their approval seeing their master's joyous expression. The chamber began filling slowly as the machine purred along.
"Oh no... this is not good..." Colleen thought.
As Colleen watched the scene unfold, one of the creatures whipped its head around and began sniffing rapidly. It began roaming around following its nose to source the apparently foreign smell.
"What is it, my pet?" the dark figure asked.
"Uh oh..." Colleen thought as she realized she had been detected.
On the outside, the rest of the team followed Hunter as he kept his nose to the ground following Colleen's special perfume. They soon found themselves right outside the secret cliff door.
"That's weird..." Hunter commented as his nose knocked into the rock facing.
"Whatski, Comrade...?" Exile asked.
"Colleen's scent stops right here... like she went through this rock wall..." Hunter said as he stood up.
"Vell, she doesn't phase into valls..." Blitz commented.
"Reah..." Shag agreed.
"Something's not right here, guys... look around and see if you can figure out where Colleen went..." Hunter said.
As the team spread out, Hunter acted on a hunch and put his keen ear to the rock wall. What he heard was definitely not what he was expecting...
Just behind the wall, Colleen began to sweat profusely as she tried to sink into her hiding place as much as she could to keep from being found. Both of the creatures were furiously searching for the scent she was giving off. Colleen darted her eyes around to see if she could find any route of escape. A miracle seemed to emerge when she noticed a small tunnel behind a lockable grating just on the other side of the chamber. All she had to do was run as fast as she could and slam the grating.
Unfortunately, before she had time to enact her plan she felt hot, stale breath breathing her the back of her neck
"Phew... ever heard of a breath mint, guv..." Colleen exclaimed as she waved her paw over her nose.
The creature growled ferociously in her face letting more of the putrid out of its throat.
"HIYA! MADONNA! JACKIE CHAN! SHARON STONE!" Colleen yelled as she threw the creatures from her personal space into the main corridor.
"Oh... so I see we have a visitor. Well, so sorry, but I didn't send out any invitations. GET HER!" the dark figure commanded.
The creatures recovered quickly and began surrounding her. Colleen used her martial arts prowess as she fought off the creatures with kicks, punches, and combinations of both from several styles she had mastered.
As she dodged their attacks, Colleen darted into the mutation cell of the machine by mistake. Suddenly, the metal door sealed shut as the orange goo began to fill the chamber.
"HEY! LET ME OUT! JUST WHAT IN THE BLOODY WORLD DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" Colleen screamed through the small view port.
"I've been wondering what the effects of my mutation project would be on one of you Rovers... my master would be proud if he was still here..." the dark figure sneered as the orange goo had made it to Colleen's hips.
"What are you talking about? Who's your master?" Colleen demanded.
"Oh... you and your friends are pretty familiar with him..." the figure said as he brought his hands up to remove the covering over his face.
The dark shroud began to lift as Colleen's eyes filled with horror. A metal helmet... a robotic arm... it couldn't be...
"You... you follow PARVO!" Colleen screamed as she gasped for breath as the goo had reached her neck.
"Right you are, missy. But I have succeeded where Parvo failed... I managed to get a Road Rover inside my Transmutator... I knew with the appearance of my pets that you Rovers would be poking around... it was only a matter of time..." the Parvo double said.
"You'll... you'll never get away with this..." Colleen gasped.
"Oh... I believe I already have... now, take a deep breathe... this next step might hurt a bit..." the man said as he pressed a few buttons on the control panel.
Outside, Hunter frantically searched for the secret switch to open the rock wall. He could hear everything going on inside. A Parvo double... and Colleen was in danger!
"It has to be here somewhere..." Hunter thought as he ran his fingers along every crevice.
"I can not be seeing anything, Comrade," Exile said as he searched.
"Ja... are you sure about dhis?" Blitz questioned.
"YES, I'M SURE!" Hunter snapped.
Blitz backed up to keep out of Hunter's wrath, but suddenly stepped down on a protruding rock in the soft earth. The rock wall disappeared into the side of the facing as the rest of the team rushed in to find their friend.
"COLLEEN!" Hunter called out.
Colleen saw her boyfriend and tried to beat on the glass to get his attention.
"Look!" Blitz said drawing Hunter's attention to the chamber Colleen was suspended in.
"Well, look who decided to show up. You're a bit behind schedule you know. Detain them, my pets!" the Parvo double commanded.
The creatures emerged from their place and began stalking towards the rest of the Rovers. The Parvo double pressed the 'INITIATE' sequence.
Streams of electricity swirled around Colleen's body before making her entire form glow. Her body began to stretch and deform in several ways.
Before the rest of the Rovers could deal with the hideous beings in front of them, high-pitched hissing began filling the room.
"NO! This can't be...!" the Parvo double exclaimed.
The machine began to glow the same bright orange as the goo inside as the pressure built up.
"We've got to get out of here. If you want to survive, you'd better call off whatever these things are and come with us!" Hunter said.
"Never...! I will never give up my master's work!" the man screamed as he began to make a beeline for the tunnel Colleen had spotted before.
"Sick 'em, Blitz! Freeze 'em solid, Exile! Shag, you're with me!" Hunter ordered.
Without second thought, Blitz lunged at the creatures and began tearing into them. Exile swept his ice vision across them turning the creatures into popsicles.
Shag jumped to the tunnel's opening blocking the path as Hunter grabbed him from behind and knocked him out with a strong right hook to the face.
"You guys, get the creatures and this guy outta here! I'll get Colleen!" Hunter said.
"But Hunter..." Blitz began.
"GO!" Hunter ordered.
Everyone obeyed as Hunter made his way to the machine and looked at the overheating console.
"Okay... okay... where's the 'OFF' button?" Hunter rambled to himself.
He frantically searched until the obvious realization hit him to just follow the power cord and unplug the stupid thing. After his initial facepalm, he waited as the goo in the chamber drained and the door opened.
"Colleen... are you okay, Baby...?" Hunter asked tentatively.
Colleen's hand appeared but then began to stretch around the door facing making Hunter's jaw drop. The rest of her body followed as she finally formed back to her normal shape.
"What... what's happening...?" Colleen said shakily.
"I don't know... but we're gonna find out. Come on..." Hunter said as he gripped her hand.
Unfortunately, her arm began to just elongate instead of her just walking with him.
"Okay... I guess I'm carrying you..." Hunter said as he scooped her up in his arms.
Colleen's body became like hot taffy as she nearly melted out of his grasp.
"Colleen... all jokes aside... could you try and... pull yourself together...?" Hunter asked as he tried not to crack a smile.
"Well Huntie-Wuntie if I knew how to do that I BLOODY WOULD HAVE DONE IT ALREADY!" Colleen burst out.
"Okay... okay, sorry... here.. maybe I can... there we go..." Hunter said as he tucked her body into itself forming a nice little ball.
Colleen just glared at him in annoyance and embarrassment as she was now a ball with a face.
"Just don't try to play fetch with me..." Colleen groaned.
"Don't worry, Sweetie. We'll figure this out..." Hunter said as he held her close to his chest.
Upon exiting the cave, Hunter saw that the local authorities had taken the Parvo double and creatures into their custody, so they were clear to go home.
"Hunter, where is Comrade Colleen?" Exile asked as they boarded the Sonic Rover,
"Ummmm... here..." Hunter said tentatively turning Colleen the ball around to face everyone.
"No, seriously, vhere is she?" Blitz asked, not believing the sight in front of him.
"Right here, Fluffy..." Colleen said sadly.
All the boys, save Hunter, just dropped their jaws as they looked at the talking ball in Hunter's hands.
"Comrade... how...?" Exile stammered out.
"You got me there, Exile..." Colleen replied.
"It had to be something with that machine he trapped you in. Maybe Professor Hubert can figure this out," Hunter suggested.
"I hope so..." Colleen said as her form began to melt into a puddle on the floor of the plane.
"I'd like to have you in one piece... it's almost like you've been turned into elastic glue..." Hunter said as he manned the controls.
"Colleen just sighed as she squirmed her jelly-like form to her seat finally being able to reform into her usual anthro-canine form, but something else had changed.
"Hey look... her uniform is different now..." Blitz noticed.
"Da... is like made for different uses than ours..." Exile added.
"This is getting weirder by the minute..." Hunter said as the plane began the journey back home.
"Indeed..." Colleen agreed as she looked over the new uniform.
It had become a dark blue underlining with light blue accents and a large "R" in the center of her chest.
Colleen curled herself up in her seat forming herself into the ball again and remained that way for the remainder of the trip.
Upon landing back at HQ, Master Shepherd and Professor Hubert were already there to welcome them home and congratulate them on a job well done.
"Welcome home, Rovers," Master greeted as they all exited the plane.
"Good job out there," professor Hubert added.
"Thanks, Professor, but we have a bit of a problem..." Hunter said as he held Colleen the ball.
"How's that, Hunter?" Master asked.
"Well... look at what happened to Colleen..." Hunter said he held out the sphere in his hand.
"Huh...?" Professor Hubert questioned upon closer inspection.
"She's all stretchy and moldable... it's like she's turned into rubbery molding clay," Hunter said.
"Interesting... Colleen, do you feel anything strange?" Master asked.
"Apart from being stretched and molded into shapes I wasn't meant to be in... yeah.. I'm just BLOODY PEACHY!" Colleen exploded as steam flew from her nostrils.
"Easy, Colleen..." Hunter soothed scratching her head fur.
"We'll have to run some tests and see just what happened to you, Miss Colleen. Come on... to the lab, boys," Professor Hubert said as everyone followed.