Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge the passing last month of Joseph Campanella a month ago today as of this posting. He will be missed by many for his extensive work, including voicing Professor Shepherd on Road Rovers and Dr. Connors on Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
Dust and gravel flew under Hunter's feet as he sped after the fleeting train. He soon regained sight of it, and in about a hundred yards he thought
"Hey Master," he called, "is my eyesight supposed to blur when I run?"
There was an uneasy silence before Shepherd's voice came through. "No; no it isn't. There must be a small error from the mutative process."
"Is that a problem?"
"It will be if there's one in your vital organs."
"Yet another unexpected twist. Bummer."
Under the circumstances, Hunter decided to just concentrate on catching up to the train.
On top of the train, Colleen, Exile, and Shag were doing their best to regroup on the less-than-stable ground beneath them.
"So," asked Exile, "how get to device and stop mutants?"
Shag pointed ahead and rumbled something. Exile looked blankly at Colleen.
"Did you understand tha-?"
"Duck!" yelled the Collie, tackling them both behind the crash-landed pods. There was little reason to ask why when, an instant later, a massive explosion hurled Exile's craft off the plane, tearing a piece out of the roof in the process.
Up ahead of them, Blitz was slowly backing away from the crowd of mutants as one of them reloaded the bazooka. "You stay back!" he shouted, baring his teeth.
One of the mutants came forward, swinging arms almost as thick as Blitz's waist. Blitz slashed back, leaving a trail of long cuts in the mutant's arm. It was only then that the Doberman noticed his new augmentations.
"Wow," he said. "I love dese new claws. Dey ah so shahp and dan-"
While he was still talking, the mutant returned the favor, batting him back to where the train was just curving around a bend.
"Aaah-AAAAHHH!" shrieked the Road Rover, tumbling over the side and catching – just barely in time – on a ladder.
"Dat was no fair!" he shouted, holding on for dear life. "I wasn't looking!"
"Impossible!" yelled General Parvo, bringing his fist down on the control panel. "There can't be other cano-sapiens!"
"Ah'm afraid there are, General," answered his assistant, suppressing her own surprise.
"Don't tell me what I know, Groomer," he snapped, tapping at the keys. When nothing happened, he scowled. "Why isn't this connecting me to the com unit in the locomotive?!"
Groomer braced herself for another angry outburst before she answered. "Ah think you just ruined the controls, sir."
There was an audible sound of the general's teeth grinding together. "Then why are you standing around? Get me the mobile unit!"
Stifling an annoyed sigh, she headed off to get the device. "Right away, sir."
Parvo, meanwhile, continued to watch the feed in a seething temper. "This can't be happening. Only one man had the technology, and he's long gone! ... or is he?"
The other Rovers had seen what was going on with Blitz, and knew they had to do something fast.
"Shag," she ordered pointing to half a wing of Exile's plane, which had somehow stayed on the train. "Throw!"
Shag obediently darted to the wreckage and lifted it over his head.
"No!" cried Exile, realizing what the sheepdog was about to do. "Throw it at-!"
Shag tried to check his throw, but lost his footing and toppled to the roof of the train car. The wing tumbled from his grasp and fell over the side.
Colleen slapped her leg in frustration. "Great. Any other ideas?"
"Running would be good-ski," Exile offered.
Colleen looked up just in time to see the bazooka pointed their way. Having seen what the missed shot at Blitz had done before, she wasn't really in a hurry to let them take another.
"Shag, look out!" she yelled as the shell hurtled toward them.
Shag dove clear as the blast tore another hole in the roof, drawing screams from inside the car.
"Oh, good," said Exile, still covering his head. "We know where prisoners are."
Colleen, also thrown flat, got to her feet. "That one's the first to go," she muttered, racing toward the mob. "Exile, check on the hostages! Shag, come with me!"
The mutants weren't expecting a frontal assault, and for a moment they stared as Colleen charged them headlong. By the time they got their wits together, she had turned her run into a dive, sprang off her hands, and drove both feet into the startled face of the one holding the bazooka. The weapon dropped, and Colleen went to work.
Exile, meanwhile, stuck his head down through the hole, drawing screams from the people crammed into the train car. One of them, braver than most, threw something in his face.
"Wait, comrades!" shouted Exile, hastily dodging. "Is dokey-okey! I am good mutant dog-man!"
They stared at him, too stunned or too afraid to speak. Under the circumstances, he was willing to call that progress.
"Anybody hurting down there?"
One by one they shook their heads. He wasn't sure what else to ask, but yells from Colleen's direction caught his ears and he drew his head out. The Collie was jumping and twisting, landing punches and kicks among the mutants at a dizzying speed. Yet at every strike she came only inches shy of being captured by one or more of the mutants.
"Shag!" shouted Exile. "Help Colleen!"
The sheep dog wanted nothing more at the moment than to wake up and find he was in a nightmare, but after glancing around he ripped a piece off the remaining aircraft and ran at the mutants. He met the crowd of them to Colleen's left, scattering several like bowling pins. Seeing the tide turn, Exile stuck his head back in the hole.
"Hold tight, comrades! We are getting you out-ski!"
It was a noble ambition. Unfortunately, he hadn't the smallest idea what the heck he was doing.
For all that the machine had given Shag super-strength, he didn't know the first thing about how to use it. After the initial rush he soon lost the piece of aircraft and quickly lost ground, barely holding the mutants at bay.
"You ah disgrace to dogs everywhere," said Blitz, climbing back up and charging past the sheepdog. Slashing and biting, he managed to drive them back briefly before falling into a plight much like Colleen's. Still he kept up the battle, and even found breath and time to berate Shag.
"This is how you fight, mop-boy! Just hit dem! Hit dem with anything you can!"
Something clicked in Shag's brain, so with a lunge he grabbed the nearest weapon.
"HEY, PUT ME DOWN!" shouted the weapon, better known as Blitz. "What do I look like, a bat?!"
Shag, however, was not about to give up on his newfound advantage. With Blitz's height added to his own arms, his reach was massively better than even the largest of the cano-mutants. As an added bonus, Blitz's flailing claws made him a veritable cat (or dog) of nine tails, and his head made a fantastic bludgeon. Just as he was beginning to warm to his work, however, Exile shouted a new order.
"Shag! Throw Blitz here!"
Shag looked over his shoulder and saw Exile waving to him. "Blitz! Need Blitz! Start rushin' comrade!"
"Dooooaaaahhhhhh…" groaned Blitz.
At that moment, Colleen managed to KO one of the mutants, which had been trying to ready a bazooka. The weapon fell at Shag's feet, and he instantly saw it as a better club than Blitz.
"Rokay!" he called, flinging Blitz toward Exile.
"DAAAH!" screamed the husky as the doberman crashed headlong into him, flattening him to the top of the train car.
Colleen made the mistake of looking over her shoulder to see what had happened. "Blimey!" she exclaimed. She was about to remonstrate Shag for his recklessness, but at that instant Shag swung the bazooka. Colleen ducked, narrowly escaping having her brains knocked out. The mutant making a grab for her wasn't so quick.
"Ruh?" rumbled Shag, seeing Colleen on her knees with her arms thrown over her head.
Peering out from under her arms, Colleen saw the mutant tumble off the train with a roar.
"Well, I suppose that makes up for it," she offered obligingly.
At that instant one of the mutants grabbed the bazooka, ramming the end of it into Shag's chest and throwing him backward. Colleen was left alone, staring up at the crowd of mutants circling around her.
"I also suppose this would be a really nice time for some backup."
Miles away in the villains' headquarters, Groomer raced back to General Parvo with their backup communications device. The cano-mutants in the locomotive already filled the screen with their hulking forms.
"Mutants!" Parvo ordered, snatching the device. "Bring me the new cano-sapiens dead or alive – and whatever you do, don't let them get the molecular stabilizer!"
"Uh, 'scuse me," chimed a voice behind the two brutes at the front. "Is he talking about this gizmo?"
The mutants turned and saw Hunter holding the red case in question. For a moment both the mutants in the car and the maniac on screen could only stare in silence.
"I think the clever phrase you're looking for," suggested Hunter, "is 'get him.'"
"GET HIM!" bellowed Parvo.
One of the mutants let out a roar and dove for Hunter, but with a quick blur he shot out of the way, letting the mutant dent the wall instead.
"Whoa, whoa, big guy," he chided. "I heard the creepy guy and he said not to let you guys get this doohickey. Or was he talking about me? Oh well. Buh-bye."
The last they saw of him was a blur shooting out the door.
By that time, the cano-mutants had begun to warm to their work. As the fledgling Rovers' skills became more familiar, the tide of the battle was starting to turn by numbers.
They were not, however, ready for a strike at their rear.
"'ScusemepardonmeonesiderushdeliverycomingthroughhiColleen!" shouted Hunter as he darted in among them. The startled mutants stumbled into one another, grabbed at empty air, and often as not fell off the train. Hunter, taking advantage of their greater size, zipped up to his fellow Rovers and snatched Collen back to buy a little breathing room. Just then the train gave a lurch which, for a moment, made both heroes and monsters pause as a scream came from the new back of the train.
Behind them, one of the cars was drawing further and further away. A moment later, Exile and Blitz poked their heads up.
"We broke car loose and- Hunter!" exclaimed Exile.
"Where have you been, puppy-boy?" demanded Blitz.
Hunter held up the case. "I got the gizmo," he boasted cheerfully.
Alas, the mutants noticed, and began to press in with new and more determined intent.
"Oh, dat's ducky," complained Blitz. "Now dey want us twice as dead."
"Huh," Hunter mused, starting to back up and then realizing they had no space to speak of. "I would not have predicted this. Hold them off, Rovers!"
Nobody questioned the command as Blitz and Exile joined the fray and everyone fought with renewed vigor. Hunter, meanwhile, contacted the professor.
"Any idea how many hostages are still on this train?" he asked.
"News feeds say the train was carrying between two and three hundred people. I'm guessing the whole back half of it is packed."
"How much is that?" asked Hunter.
"You haven't freed enough, if that's what you're asking."
Hunter wracked his brain for a plan as more mutants came climbing up out of the train.
Wait a second. The idea that came to mind was incredibly stupid, but it was also the only plan he had. "Okay guys, who's the best fighter?"
"I am!" answered Blitz, slashing at a pair of hands as big as his head as they tried to grab him.
"She is," replied Exile, pointing to Colleen.
"Hey, watch who you're calling a she!" snapped Blitz, thinking Exile meant him.
Hunter took a moment to survey the team's fighting and decided Colleen was the most capable fighter. Her lithe, deft movements drove back the mutants as fast as they came, leaving some shaking their hands as if they'd been smacked with hammers while others grasped at blackened eyes.
"Alright. Shag, Blitz, Exile, back down the ladder and into the train."
"But Hunter!" protested Exile.
"Now, Exile!" barked Hunter with an air of authority he'd never imagined he had. He wondered if he was super-commanding as well as super-fast. That would sure be cool.
Without a clue what the retriever mix was up to, the three Rovers did as Hunter instructed and left him and Colleen up top, still fighting.
"Now… what?" asked the collie. She was beginning to run short of breath.
Hunter backed up a little. "You know that ladder they used going down?" he asked. "We're gonna grab it."
"How are we supposed to grab it while hey!" Colleen's question turned into an indignant yell as Hunter suddenly hooked an arm around her waist and yanked him tightly to her body.
"Going down!" he yelled, and with a thrust of his legs he flung himself and Colleen off the back of the train.
More on reflex than any pretense of a plan, Colleen grabbed the top rung of the ladder as Hunter caught it in his free hand.
"Inside!" he called, and letting go of her he swung himself through a door which Exile, unfamiliar with door handles, had pragmatically torn away hinges and all. Rebounding off a car full of people (and three canines) crammed in like commuters on a Japanese subway, he caught himself on the door frame even as Exile and Shag caught him by the arms and Blitz by the uniform. Moments later, Colleen jumped in to a similar reception.
"What are you guys?" asked one of the passengers. "You're not like the monsters that took the train."
"Dat's because dey are ugly mutant monsters, and we ah perfect. At least I am," boasted Blitz.
The others all rolled their eyes.
"We are here to rescue," explained Exile. "Hunter here is leader."
"I am?" asked Hunter. "I mean, I am."
"WHAT?!" cried Blitz. "Who ever said he was dah leadah? Since when is he in chahge?"
"Because he's the only one who knows what the heck we're doing now," answered Colleen, folding her arms. "What exactly are we doing, Huntie?"
Hunter coughed. "Uh, that's Hunter," he corrected. "I'm guessing those mutants'll take a bit longer to get down than they did to get up. That should buy us time to head them off."
At his request, the passengers obligingly packed towards the sides to make a way for the Rovers to get through.
"Shag, you're a bit too big for this," Hunter noted. "Guard the back door and don't let those mutants in. You other guys, follow me! Let's hit the road, Rovers!"
"Where have they gone?!" raged General Parvo, watching the topside cameras from his base. "This can't be happening!"
Groomer stood by, equally baffled. "D'yeh suppose they've got inside the train?" she asked.
Parvo scowled. "They're only prolonging the inevitable if they do that," he snarled. Then he rubbed his chin with one finger. "Still, I suppose we can't take chances." He pressed a button which would broadcast his voice to everyone on the train.
"Attention all cano-mutants. Recapture the molecular stabilizer and bring me the mutants who took it – now! Nothing else matters!"
Exile looked uneasy at the voice that had come through the train's speakers. "I am thinking that is not good news for us," he observed.
Hunter frowned. "We need to know how many cars on this train have people inside. Blitz, Exile, you guard the back of each car we enter. Colleen, you and I will take the front."
"But why?" asked Blitz.
"You'll see when we get that far – if we make it."
"And if we don't?" asked Colleen.
Hunter shrugged. "Well, then you can complain about my terrible planning."
O-kay, sorry for the untimely cut-off (okay, I'm not really sorry at all). So, what's Hunter planning, and how are they going to get out of this mess?
I had a rough time working on this what with adjusting to a nocturnal schedule, but I'm making better use of my nights off now so I think I'll be able to manage decent productivity. However, once I post the next chapter (which may take two months; probably won't, but thought I'd give fair warning), I'm not actually sure where I'll go with this. Input and suggestions are welcome, though, so remember (as always) to fave, follow, and review.