Hunter leaped clear as the knife came toward him. he couldn't see who this was attacking him, but he had a pretty good idea who sent it- Parvo! Who else but Parvo would be trying to kill him? Somehow he had gained access to the Headquarters, had had a Clone of Hunter built to kidnap him, set up a speaker system to torture Hunter with sounds of his own funeral, and came back to finish the job. it had to be, Parvo was the only one who knew where Hunter was.
Colleen looked up as the sounds of the struggle got louder and louder, and come right from the open door. Knowing light was more important than anything else at this point, she switched on the light, grabbed her pistol, and proceeded to run down the stairs.
As if he held a baseball bat, Hunter swung his arms at the place where he guessed the stomach would be. The ropes around his wrists constricted painfully, but he hardly noticed, he found his target. Hunter's wrists were still tied together. One of his legs was also tied to a leash-like rope with just enough cord to drag him to a foul-smelling toilet a few yards away. But this Parvo Clone had miscalculated the first knife thrust. Instead of stabbing Hunter, he'd sliced through the leash!
Now Hunter dived and rolled on the cement floor. He only had rusty tasting water since he'd been there, from the steady dripping of a leaky water pipe into a metal pail, he was weak from hunger, the Clone was strong and quick. He felt his shoulders hit the floor as the Clone landed on top of him.
"Now it's time to die,' it whispered, it's face close to Hunter's, but invisible in the gloom. Was THIS how it was going to end? Would Parvo win? Would he never see the team again? Would he never see Colleen again?
"NO!!" he screamed, leaning with all his might and forcing the Clone off him. The knife clattered to the ground and they both went after it, when a blinding light illuminated the room, temporarily blinding both of them. Clattering footsteps were heard on the stairs and a womanly figure became silluetted in the door. "Colleen!" They both cried. Colleen held the gun on them, her eyes wide with panic, shifting it back and forth.
She doesn't know which is which! Hunter thought in a panic. He wanted to cry out to her, but his Clone was eyeing the knife, any minute he could go after it. Slowly Colleen's hand touched the trigger.
Colleen hoped no one could see how her hands were trembling as she held the gun, first on one dog, then the other. One was Hunter, the other an imposter. One was the dog she loved, the other wanted both of them dead. One was wearing the silver uniform, the other the brown pants and green shirt. But she couldn't remember what Hunter SHOULD be wearing.
She shifted the gun, she couldn't think. She couldn't imagine shooting anyone at all, much less someone whose face looked exactly like the dog she loved. She heard footsteps in the distance and knew she couldn't hesitate one minute longer. Looking carefully at both dogs on the floor she made her decision and to Hunter's great relief she pointed the gun at his attacker.
Groomer groaned as she slowly came around. She looked around and realized Colleen had disappeared. She felt around and found her computer was gone. "Damn her, damn her!' She cried out, running down the furnace door.
'STAY AWAY FROM THAT KNIFE!!" Colleen cried out. Hunter quickly grabbed the knife and sliced his way out of the bands that held him.
"You don't know how glad I am to see you, Colleen," he said as he began to tie up the clone.
"Not half as glad as I am to see you, Huntie," she said, taking her eyes off the clone for only a minute to glance at Hunter.
"How did you know I was down here?" he asked her. "Did you know this was one of Parvo's creations?"
"You're not made by Parvo?" Groomer asked as she made her way down the stairs.
Hunter glared at her. 'Good try, but you can't trick my girlfriend. We know THIS was," he turned to Colleen. "This was Parvo's alright. Who else but Parvo would kidnap me and pull me down here with a Clone of me, speed and all? It's not as if there are hundreds of dogs in the world who look just like me."
"Not hundreds," Colleen said. 'But two if them did, now there's only one." She looked at Groomer. "Was this one of Parvo's, too?"
"No, it's mine," Groomer said. her eyes grew wide as a thought became clear to her. "Oh my.." she said like a lost child.
"That's right," Colleen said, reading her thoughts. 'The one you killed was Parvo's Clone. Which means it was Parvo's Clone who kidnapped Hunter and brought him here."
"I destroyed my own general's invention.." Groomer said. "I destroyed it.."
Hunter looked at Groomer, thinking how easily HE could have been the one she shot to death that night. The he looked at Colleen. 'Oh, Colleen, I'm sorry you guys had to go through all this. I'm so sorry."
Colleen looked at him, and smiled for the first time in what seemed like forever. 'I hope I never have a week like that again," she said quietly. "And the boys are sure gonna be happy to see you!"
"One question, though," he said. 'When the Clone and I were down there fighting for the knife, how did you know who to point the gun at?"
Colleen smiled. "What do you mean?" She asked. "I love you. How could I NOT tell?"
"But he looks just like me," he explained. "How can you be sure you weren't pointing a loaded gun at ME?"
She smiled again. 'Well, besides my intuition, I did have one teeny-tiny hint." She then pointed to his collar. "You're wearing your ring!" Just then she heard a familiar noise.
"Comerade, it is done!" Exile cried as he came down the stairs with Shag and Blitz. "The Clones are creating havoc, tossing them around, causing..uh,,huh.." he slowly took in the scene in front of him.
"HUH?" Blitz cried. "But..how...but..you.."he stared at Hunter for a bit, then fell in a dead faint.
"Uh...why am I standing here feeling like my IQ has more zeros in it then the temperature of Siberian winter?" Exile mumbled and Shag screamed.
"Hey, Shag, wait, Shagster..I'm not a ghost!" Hunter cried, running over to him and grabbing his arm. "Look..can a ghost touch you?"
Shag stared for a bit, then realizing the truth took Hunter in his arms in a huge bear hug.
A little bit later, Hunter and Colleen emerged from the basement with Exile, Blitz, and Shag close behind, their arms round each other's waists as they moved together as one. Colleen gladly supported Hunter, who seemed weak from hunger and stress, but otherwise uninjured. She turned to Exile and gave what she knew full well would be her last command as Leader.
"Exile..now," was all she said. Exile knew what she meant and pulled out a self-destruct compact. After making sure they were all out, he pressed the button as the entire structure exploded. They were able to see the many business people run out of the building as well as Parvo, Groomer, and Storm, who all piled into a plane and took off. They wanted to follow, but Exile glanced at Hunter and knew the important thing was to get him home.
"Never mind them for now, Comerades," Exile said happily. Let's go back to the NEW headquarters Master saved for us. Hunter will like it, I'm sure. I'll take Hunter to the back where he can rest." Colleen looked at Hunter as an unspoken agreement passed between them.
"No, thanks, Exile," Colleen answered for both of them. "You fly the Rover, I'll take Hunter to the back. We have a lot of lost time to make up for."
"I am NOT a happy person," Parvo said, finally speaking after hours of the silent treatment. "All my hard work…all my business...gone...all because YOU didn't want to listen to orders."
'Yes, general," Groomer said quietly. "Please forgive me, general. It won't happen again."
"I don't know if I should believe you," Parvo said.
"Please do..I'll do anything."
"Clean up after my Cano-Mutants for now. Then we'll talk," Parvo said, gesturing to the few monsters that were able to make it out.
"Yes, general," Groomer said. She knew lots more punishment was to come for her, but she would handle this one for now.
"It''s the darndest thing," Master said when they were all back at headquarters. 'I really have to apologize, Colleen. I thought you were losing your mind when you said you saw Groomer climb out the window."
"And I owe you one," Colleen said. "I owe all of you one. I know I shouldn't have just taken off and left you like that..but I knew no one would believe me when I said Hunter was here and alive."
"I sure didn't believe you," Exile said. 'I guess I should take this psychic connection stuff more seriously when it comes to you two!"
Shag glanced at Hunter, ravenously hungry, Shag could tell. Reaching into his fur, he pulled out turkey, sandwiches, even a whole ham. He set it down in front of Hunter, who smiled and began to eat and eat. Colleen watched and smiled, but felt hungry herself. When was the last time SHE had eaten? She couldn't even remember. As if reading her mind, Hunter motioned for Colleen to join him.
"Well, I can assure you it won't happen again," Master said. "Now that we've got this new Headquarters down here, I've made CERTAIN no one can discover it, no one will ever know where this is." Hunter nodded, impressed. Master thought of everything! Colleen smiled at him. She carefully and gladly slipped off the leadership collar she had worn and put it back over Hunter's neck, where it rightly belonged.
Hunter smiled and embraced her warmly, it was so wonderful to run his fingers through this hair once again, to lick her tender cheek and feel her body once again pressed to his. For the next few minutes, he forgot anyone else was in the room.
Hunter stood up on a chair a few days later and tapped a glass for attention. "Alright, alright," he said. "Everyone has had their chance to say something, so I guess it's my turn now."
"Speech, speech!" Blitz cried. Colleen groaned and pushed him in the ocean. They were all gathered at the beach where the old headquarters was, and not just the Rovers, but Starbright, Luka, his mother, Oso, Sport, the Space Rovers, and all the people who were at the funeral. When the Master returned him to Bush and Laura later on that afternoon, explaining that the dog found wasn't Hunter at all, just a look alike while the real Hunter was found safe and sound. The entire family was so glad to see him, they couldn't stop playing with him and petting him.
"First of all, " Hunter said, waving his glass. "I want to thank all the Rovers. This is the best 'Welcome Back From the Dead' party anyone ever had!"
Exile smiled. "Now that you're back from the dead Comerade, we kind of want to keep you for a while. I think I speak for all of us when I say I'd feel a lot better if you got down off that chair."
Hunter carefully stepped down from the chair and went to his mother, hugging her gentily. Starbright smiled. "I don't know if you all realize this," he said, "But I could hear every word of my funeral when I was down in the furnace room."
"You're not gonna get a big head are you?" Blitz said. "We all like you the way you are right now."
Hunter rolled his eyes. 'I'll remember that,' he said, "Especially when it's coming from such an expert on the topic!" Everyone laughed. But Blitz just couldn't stay angry, not that night. Blitz grinned at him, Hunter smiled back. It was great to be back from the dead and know how much his friends missed him. But he also knew there was one person who deserved an extra thank you- the one responsible for saving his life.
"I want you all to know how much I love each and everyone of you guys! Yeah, even you, Blitz!" They all laughed. "But there's one person here who deserves special recognition," he moved nearer to Colleen, who smiled and kissed his cheek. "After more than three days in that basement, I was starting to freak out. I made it through the first few days by thinking of all of you, but by the third I didn't know if I could take any more. Then I heard the most beautiful poem in the world. I repeated these lovely words to myself all day, 'Soul-Mate, lover, truest friend'. For the rest of the day I kept repeating those words to myself. I want Colleen, and everyone, to know I feel exactly the same way about her. And if anything WERE to happen, I'm comforted to know you're all in good hands. She did a wonderful job as Leader, and I'm proud of her. Thank you for my life back Colleen. I'll always, always love you."
Colleen smiled and embraced Hunter as everyone applauded. "Welcome back, Huntie," she whispered. Tenderly Hunter took her hand and lead her far away from everyone, where he kissed her tenderly as the moon shone down.
The Master watched them from his monitor in the New Headquarters. He smiled. "Welcome Back, Hunter. Welcome Back, Rovers. You're all good, good dogs."
THE END