Rahne's eyes fluttered as she drifted in and out of consciousness. "How is she Master?" She heard a voice ask, male: One of the ones from before.
"Her injuries are extensive. I see only one way to help her."
"You mean?" Another voice asked.
"Yes. The Transdogmafier."
Rahne blacked out again.
When Rahne awoke next she groaned. She felt that she was lying on her back. She also felt that she had a headache and clenched her eyes shut, trying not to think about it. Rahne heard her company walk up beside where she was lying down.
"Hi there love. Are you feeling better?"
"Herrrrwha? Wh-who are you? Where am I?" Rahne moaned as she opened her eyes, sat up and started to put a hand to her head. She paused when she saw her arm encased in some kind of silver armored uniform. Rahne started to scratch her neck and paused when she realized that she had lifted her leg to do it. It was incased in the silver uniform too, but she was more surprised by the instinct to scratch herself with her hind leg—I mean leg!—Rahne thought furiously. She sometimes had that impulse as a wolf, but rarely as a human.
Puzzled further, Rahne scratched her neck this time with her glove-covered hand and was surprised when she felt fur. Rahne looked down at the shiny floor to see her reflection. The muzzle and face of a reddish wolf, on a human frame covered with fur. Rahne turned to look at her visitor and saw a cheerful looking collie smiling at her.
"'ello!" She chirped in an English accent.
"Wh-what did you to me?!" Rahne stammered as she felt her own muzzle and looked over her shoulder to see a tail—her own tail!—poking out of the back of her uniform pants. "Yipe!"
"I take it she's awake?" A friendly sounding voice asked. Rahne whipped her head around to see another dog-person, this one a golden retriever, walk in. "Hi! I'm Hunter and she's Colleen. Welcome to Road Rovers Mission Control!"
"What did you do to me?" Rahne fairly shrieked as she felt her own face again, as if trying to assure herself that she wasn't dreaming.
"When we found you were were badly 'urt." Colleen said. "We used a device called the Transdogmafier to turn you into what we call a Cano-Sapien. What's your name?"
"I-It's Rahne." Rahne stammered.
"Lovely name. We'll have a collar made for you in no time." Colleen smiled.
"But I'm not a dog!" Rahne exclaimed.
"We know you're a wolf, but that doesn't bother us." Hunter said kindly.
"No, not that!" She protested. "I'm human!"
"Riiiight." Colleen said as she patted Rahne's hand. "Of course you are."
"Maybe you're a little confused, it's understandable considering what you've been through…"
"You don't understand!" Rahne said in exasperation. "I'm a mutant! I'll prove it to you!" She slid off the table and stood in front of Colleen and Hunter. She concentrated and started to change back to her human form. The fur started to vanish from her body and she started to shrink—her Cano-Sapien form was taller than her human self.
Unfortunately, her clothes didn't change with her. She was either too weak to make them change with her or simply weren't conducive to shape shifting. Rahne's head shrunk and became mired inside her shirt and only a quick grab prevented her pants from falling down, preventing further embarrassment. But Rahne couldn't maintain her form. She soon snapped back into her new Cano-Sapien body.
"What happened to me?" Rahne asked herself.
"That's what we'd like to know." Hunter blinked in confusion. "I would not have predicted this."
"Your predictions are consistently off."
"Awww, you noticed."
"The psychic-hotline you're not."
"Umm, excuse me?" Rahne interrupted. "Can someone please tell me where and what I am? What's a Road Rover?"
"Why don't we show you?" Hunter replied. "Come on in guys!"
"Huh?" Rahne asked as several other dogs—Road Rovers she supposed, came in.
"I'm Colleen," Colleen said again. "You've already met Hunty-wunty. The others are Shag, Muzzle, and Exile."
"What about me?" A Doberman with a German accent whined.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see you there. Have we met?" Colleen asked.
"Yes! You know me! I'm Blitz!"
Colleen held her head in her palm in thought. "Blitz…Blitz…sorry, no. Doesn't ring a bell." Blitz smacked himself in the forehead. "Maybe you need a new name that better fits you. How about Fluffy?"
"How about Weird Boy?" The Siberian Husky named Exile muttered in Russian-accented English.
"Moving along," Hunter interjected. "You see our master invented a device called the Transmadogifier. It turns ordinary dogs—like we were—into a new species called Cano-Sapiens."
"Why would he make it?" Rahne asked.
"Hmm, you know I never really thought about it." Hunter admitted. "I guess it does sound a little weird. Anyway when we're needed we come down here, hop into the Transmadogifier and go out and save the world."
"Wait, you mean, you can change me back?" Rahne asked.
"Yes, but the Master said that you were hurt so bad he doesn't want to risk returning you to your other—well, one of your other—forms for a while."
"Maybe you can tell us what you were doing in the streets of London, like that?" Colleen suggested. Rahne's eyes widened as she remembered what happened.
"My friends! We were attacked by this villain—"
"Did he happen to wear a metal helmet and go around in the company of an evil woman with black hair and an accent?" Hunter asked.
"Well, yes actually." Rahne blinked. "You know Destro and the Baroness?"
"Huh? Oh sorry, I thought you meant our enemies, General Parvo and the Groomer." Hunter said. "They must shop at the same stores."
"Anyway…we were ambushed and—"
"Who's 'we?' " Colleen asked. "More mutants like you?"
"Yes. They're called the Misfits. I'm, well, sort of with them for the moment. Long story. Anyway, we were attacked by Destro and the others were captured!"
"Sounds like our type of job." Hunter said. "Maybe we can help."
"I'd really appreciate it but Destro does have a lot of resources and men…" Rahne started to say.
"And I would get great pleasure in biting them all on the tushie." Blitz grinned.
"Don't be a weird boy." Exile muttered.
"I don't feel so good." Rahne said, a combination of weariness from her transformation mixed with the realization that these were the only allies she had at the moment.
"Hold on." Hunter said. Rahne watched as he turned around and promptly sped off with such great speed that a blazing trail of fire followed him. Rahne gaped in amazement. He was even faster than Pietro!
When Hunter returned he was carrying water in a—you guessed it—water bowl. Amazed and unable to drink normally anyway, Rahne lapped up the water with her tongue before asking, "How did you do that?"
"Oh I'm super-fast. It's one of my powers." Hunter shrugged. "Want a biscuit?"
"Maybe later." Rahne demurred. "What other powers do you have?"
"Well, I'm super playful, super friendly, super loyal, super trusting, and super, super lucky!" Hutner grinned. "Want me to sniff you? It's all part of being super friendly you know."
"Um, any other actually powers?" Rahne clarified.
"Well, Colleen is super graceful and knows how to do all sorts of things." Hunter said as Colleen went through her practice motions. "Exile is really strong and can freeze and burn things with his eyes. Plus he's Russian!"
"Being Russian isn't a superpower." Rahne said as she watched Exile's eyes turn blue and freeze the remaining water in the water bowl and then blinked as his eyes turned red and he melted the ice back into water. It was like seeing Scott and Bobby's power combined and put into Peter!
"It is if you're Russian." Hunter shrugged. "Blitz has powerful jaws—he mostly uses them for bragging—and claws. He likes to fight and bite a lot. He's a one dog performance of Itchy and Scratchy!"
"Like Wolverine." Rahne thought with a grin. She then turned to the giant sheepdog named Shag, who didn't wear a uniform and in fact didn't look very human-like at all. "What about him?"
"Well Shag is really strong and he cooks!" Hunter said as he liked his chops.
"Nice to know Freddy will like him. He doesn't seem to talk much though." Rahne commented. Shag muttered something in a canine language. Rahne didn't understand a word of it. Apparently the other Rovers didn't either and turned to Hunter for a translation.
"He asked if you wanted a foot-long hot dog covered with bacon bits." Hunter said. Rahne shook her head. Shag shrugged and pulled one out of his fur and started munching on it.
"And Muzzle over there is super crazy." Blitz finished as he pointed to the final member of the Road Rovers, a un-transdogmafied dog who was strapped up on a vertical cart in a straight jacket and muzzle, hence the name.
Muzzle growled and started hopping up and down in anger. Blitz shrieked shrilly—a lot like Pietro, Rahne thought—and dived behind Exile.
"Aww, the big bad Doberman said some nasty words." Hunter said as he started scratching Muzzle's head using a tone of voice that Rahne would've found patronizing but seemed to calm Muzzle down. "Aw, who's a good boy? Muzzle's a good boy isn't he? Isn't he? Okay buh-bye!" He said as Muzzle hopped away. Hunter looked at Rahne. "He's a friend of mine."
"You certainly have some interesting friends." Rahne grinned. "He reminds me of Wanda though."
"I'm just super lucky that way!" Hunter grinned.
"So…will you help me find and rescue my friends?" Rahne asked. The Road Rovers nodded.
"Of course, you're one of us." Colleen said.
"We're dogs on a mission!" Hunter proclaimed. "We are…"
"Road Rovers!" Everyone cried at ounce.
"To the power of the pack!" Hunter cried.
"Awhooooo!" The Rovers howled. Rahne, caught up in the moment, joined in.
"Let's hit the road rovers!" Hunter said.
&&&
A/N: Road Rovers are © to the WB