It took some ten minutes to determine the rough population of the train: ten crammed cars' worth of passengers (counting the one they had broken loose), and way too many cano-mutants. Holing up in the first of the empty cars towards the front of the train, Hunter locked the doors and called a meeting.
"Okay, the good news is they don't seem to care about the people once we leave a car. So now that we're up here, they're not going to bother anyone else. They mostly seem to want to get this little gizmo." So saying, he held up the stabilizer.
"So we've got their undivided attention," Colleen concluded. "Lucky us."
"Dah only ones lucky are dem," Blitz boasted, pointing to a door which shook as one of the mutants tried to beat on it. "Lucky dat dey are out dere and I am in here."
"Don't be crazy," Exile told him, pushing his arm down. "They will be in here soon. Hunter, what is plan-ski?"
"Well," said Hunter, "all we have to do is get them all to the front of the train, and then cut loose the cars with us and the passengers in them. They go on ahead…"
Exile laughed. "And we are coasting to nice, easy stop," he concluded. This was followed by a slap on Hunter's back which nearly flattened the retriever. "Comrade, you are sharpest egghead in box-ski."
Hunter wobbled a little to right himself. "Uh, thanks. Whatever you said."
Shag rumbled something that sounded like a question.
"Oh, yeah. Well, getting them all go go forward is easy. All we have to do is-"
At that moment a loud crashing sound came from the back end of the car, followed by a similar one from the front. Massive hands gripped each battered door, ripped it loose with a screech of tearing metal, and threw it off the sides of the tracks. This was followed by a mutant climbing in at each end of the car.
"Blimey!" cried Colleen.
"Rohhh, hoo-hoo!" cried Shag in terror.
"Huh," Hunter remarked. "I thought the doors would keep them busy longer. Bummer."
The heroes circled back-to-back, facing their oncoming enemies.
"I'm guessing you don't have a plan for this," Colleen ventured, glancing over to Hunter.
Hunter gulped. The one girl on the team, and she thinks I'm an idiot, he thought. "Uh, well, it mostly involves not dying."
"I like that part. What's next?"
"Next paht is we kick deir butts!" shouted Blitz, lunging at a mutant.
Hunter threw out a hand to stop him, but too late. "Blitz, no!"
It was like David going up against Goliath… except with David taking a stab at arm wrestling instead of a slingshot. Before Blitz could deliver a single swipe, the mutant back-handed him into a wall, pulverizing a couple of seats in the bargain.
"Doh-ohh-ohh-oahhh..." groaned the Doberman.
Fortunately, Blitz managed to come back to his senses fairly quickly – or at least, such as his senses were. Unfortunately, it took just a little less time for the mutant to pick him up by the torso in one hand and a leg in the other. Its intention was clear: it meant to tear him apart.
Hunter thought fast and pulled out the case containing the stabilizer.
"Let him go!" he demanded, holding it up. "I've got what you came for. Put him down."
Blitz cringed. "Okay, I liked dah first choice of words bettaaaaah!"
Regardless of Hunter's phraseology or Blitz's wish to be a beggar and a chooser, the mutant holding him heeded Hunter's offer. With a mighty heave it flung the doberman through the air. Hunter ducked in time, but Blitz crashed into Colleen and Exile, flattening them against Shag. The four of them could only watch as the mutants advanced on their friend.
"Huntuh!" cried Colleen in dismay, struggling to free herself from the weight and tangle of her male colleagues. "Don't give it to them!"
In answer, Hunter only gave her a grave look and tucked the case under his arm. "Sorry, guys. Guess I'm on my own now. Stick to the plan!" he shouted, rushing off up the length of the train.
Exile watched in admiration. "There is going very good dog," he eulogized their departing comrade.
While Hunter was keeping the mutants busy, a dispute broke out among the other Rovers.
"I say we stick to dah plan and break off the train," said Blitz.
"And I say you're bloomin' daft if you think we're lettin' Huntuh get himself killed," snapped Colleen, starting forward.
Exile caught her by the arm. "Hunter said stick to plan. He got-ski device from mutant bad dogs once, he can do now."
Colleen felt sick at the idea of leaving Hunter to face who-knew-what at the hands of those beasts, but she couldn't help thinking of the people in the cars behind them. As a team, they had risked their lives to get them away from the mutants.
"Alright," she agreed, "But only if a couple of us go after him. We'll stay on the front half of the train when it breaks off."
"Dah," agreed Exile. "Blitz, you and Shag stay with the back half."
"Hey, don't boss me around, fluffy dog," snarled Blitz, poking an index claw at Exile's nose. "I think I should go where the biting is."
"What, and deprive a bunch of panicked humans of your marvelous charm?" asked Colleen, folding her arms.
The remark was actually meant as sarcasm, but Blitz took the bait. "Well, since you put it like dat, fine. I'll stay."
Hunter ducked and wove through a crowd of mutants endlessly massing behind him, racing desperately for the locomotive.
"Gotcha!" he shouted, slipping through the final door and throwing the bolt shut. He couldn't resist a satisfied smirk as, having collided with the door, the foremost mutant struggled in vain with the lock. His satisfied smirk vanished, however, when a massive fist bowed in the shatter-proof glass window set in said door.
"Well, I guess this means I can forget about a victory toot-toot," the retriever mix noted as he dashed to the control panel. The mutants which had previously occupied the space had chased after him when he ended his last visit, which gave him the whole car to himself for the moment. Unfortunately, the mutants battering on the door behind him – though hampered by others crowding from behind – weren't going to give him a very long moment.
"Okay, let's see," he mused, surveying the controls. "Master, any idea which of these is the speed control?"
"Look for a large lever that says-"
"Oh, this one," Hunter cut him off, spying a rather large lever. Not taking the time to read the label, he pushed it forward.
Nothing happened.
"Huh. Guess someone put the speed control in backward."
"No, Hunter! Wait!"
It was too late. Hunter yanked back the lever and threw the brakes into full.
Screee-eee-eeee-eee-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
With an ear-splitting racket of scraping metal, the train began to grind to a rapid halt, slamming Hunter against the controls and the mutants against the swiftly crumbling door behind him.
Naturally, the sudden deceleration tumbled the Road Rovers forward too.
"What the bloomin' heck?" asked Colleen. "Exile, get off my back."
"Sorry, comrade," he offered helplessly. "I could not be helping it."
They picked themselves up and made their way forward to where Hunter was. It was hardly any time before they began to see mutants, but the whole mob seemed concentrated on getting to the front of the train.
"How are we getting past them?" asked exile.
Colleen studied the situation carefully, and realized she really had no idea what to do next. "Uh, maybe we should try to find out what's going on. I'll try to sneak up ahead. You work on trying to disconnect this car from the one behind it."
Exile nodded. "Dah, but you be careful. These evil dog-men kill you."
"They'll have to catch me first," she replied, and set off to see if they had already done so to Hunter.
Hunter groaned from his spot on the control panel as more squashed-sounding growls emerged from the broken remnants of the door. The good news was that the sudden stop and resulting forward lurch had stunned the mutants on the train. The bad news was, it had pulverized what remained between them and him.
"What happened?" he asked.
"Brake lever," explained the professor. "Are you alright?"
"I think so, but how do I speed this thing up?"
"Put the last lever back where it was and find another one. It should have a triangular gauge next to it."
"What's a triangular gauge?" asked Hunter, sitting back down and releasing the brake.
The answer was preceded by a weary sigh. "Something that's pointed at one end and wide at the other. The wide end should be forward."
"Oh, this thing. Alright, here goes!"
The frontmost pair of mutants had just managed to pry themselves free of the wreckage and their comrades, and made to spring for Hunter as he grasped the speed control.
"See ya!"
The rest of the mutants never knew what hit them.
"Woo-hoohoohoo!" cried Hunter as the train blasted forward. "Too cool!"
As the whole train shot forward, several mutants tumbled back along the length of the cars. In the process, they came across Exile, who was kneeling one car back and struggling with the disconnecting mechanism. They didn't understand for a moment what he was doing, but they did remember that he was one of their enemies.
"Oh, no," groaned Exile. Jumping back a car, he continued to struggle with the connection. "Bolshoi! Start… Russian!" He grunted and strained at the mechanism, but for all his efforts it stayed stubbornly put. He was still gripping it when one of the mutants punched him, sending him hurtling backward.
"GAH!" he yelped, rolling down the center aisle of an empty car. Head spinning, he sat up and dimly realized that the mutant which had hit him looked strangely far away. As his senses cleared, he realized that it was also scrambling to keep its grip on the back of the train – or at least, what was now the back of the train. The mutant's own punch had given him the extra oomph he needed to yank the mechanism loose.
"Doh," he grunted, rubbing where it had hit. "Almost worth trouble. Now, that just-"
All at once his heart dropped like a ton of bricks. Hunter and Colleen were on the front part of the train, trapped with the cano-mutants!
Exile was actually only half-right. As soon as the train took off at rocket speed, Hunter had jumped out and used his super-speed to blunt the impact of his tumble. Clutching the device to his body like a football, he watched the train go by – and thought his eyes must be playing tricks on him again. He could have sworn he saw Colleen up on top of the train.
At a closer look, he realized it was Colleen. When the train lurched ahead, some of the mutants had spotted her creeping among the seats. They had tried to catch her, and she had bought herself some time by slipping between cars and up onto the roof.
Unfortunately, at about two minutes max that bit of time bought was not exactly the bargain of a lifetime.
"Well, this day just gets more fun by the minute," remarked Hunter wryly, dashing after the train.
"Aieeya, Akita!" yelled Colleen, driving her heel into a mutant's pelvis. This was followed by a brutal uppercut and a roundhouse kick, each accompanied by a yell. "Sit up! Roll over! Play dead!" she finished as the beast toppled. More were coming, however, and she was quickly losing ground – or roof. Ground was one thing she did not want to think about at the moment.
"Colleen!" yelled Hunter, racing after the train. The thing had to be going over a hundred miles an hour, and even he was struggling to keep up. His vision was doing that blurry thing again, his throat felt like sandpaper, and his lungs felt like they were on fire.
To make matters worse, it seemed as if she couldn't hear a word he said. The wind whipping past blew everything right back in his face – along with a shrill "ay-yiyi-yi-yi!" she let loose as she pulverized the face of what must have been some kind of spaniel once.
Gotta get her attention, he thought. Struggling to focus his eyes, he wound up and threw the only thing he had: the case housing the stabilizer.
He could have stood to aim better. The case knocked into the backs of her ankles, causing her to stumble. With a yell, she and the case fell from the back of the train.
Time seemed to go strangely slow as Hunter watched his teammate fall. He was going fast, but he'd lost precious inches throwing the case; inches that could mean death to Colleen if he didn't do something.
Reaching out, he managed to put on a last frantic spurt. With a thud he felt as well as heard, he caught her across his outstretched arms, staggered under the weight, and barely managed to avoid a tumble that would have broken their necks. Struggling with fatigue, he slowed to a stop and dropped to his knees, unable to keep her from tumbling out of his arms.
"Whoo," he panted, wincing at a pain in his right shin. "I'd really like to never do that again."
Colleen, sprawled across the tracks, managed to get up and gape at Hunter. "What the bloomin' heck was that all for?" she asked, putting a hand to her side.
He cringed. "Uh, trying to get your attention?" he asked with a shrug.
Judging by the look on her face, she was seriously thinking about clobbering him.
"I did just save your life," he pointed out.
She propped her wrists on her hips in annoyance. "After almost killing me," she pointed out. As an afterthought, though, she held out her hand to give him a lift up. "Thanks, Huntie. Guess I owe you one. Where's the stabilizer anyway?"
It hit him like a flying brick that he'd forgotten all about it. "Oh, uh…"
The search was short-lived. A broken case on the tracks some way behind them revealed the equally decimated pieces of the once-powerful device.
"Oops." Hunter turned and shrugged helplessly. "Well, he did say not to let them get their hands on it."
Colleen rolled her eyes, but gave him a hearty smack on the shoulder. "Y'know, Huntie, you're alright."
"Ow. Uh, thanks." He reached up to rub the sore shoulder. "By the way, why do you keep calling me that?"
"What, Huntie? Y'know, Hunter, Huntie. It's your new nickname. Don't you like it?"
Hunter thought about how it would sound if everyone called him 'Huntie.' "Uh, let's keep it between us, alright?"
She made a show of thinking about it. "I guess I can handle that."
At a radioed warning from Professor Shepherd, the Rovers hid out in the woods until the man who had rescued Hunter from the pound showed up.
"How'd you get here?" asked Hunter, pointing at him in surprise.
The man regarded him with an enigmatic expression. "I get to a lot of places," was his sole reply. "Right now I need to get you five out of here before someone sees you."
"But why?" asked Exile. "We are heroes. We save day, we-"
"You're a six-foot-tall dog-man who talks," the man answered simply. "Forgive my rudeness, but the world's not ready for you yet. The fact is you're in it, though, and there's a lot of good you can do – if you don't get stuck in some laboratory somewhere. I'm here to see to that, and to pay back an old debt to Professor Shepherd."
They all looked at one another. "Well, guys?" asked Hunter.
Colleen shrugged. "Well, seeing as our own rides are out, I don't see any other way of getting 'ome."
Exile nodded. "I trust this comrade. He smells like honesty."
"Pretty sure that's Earl Gray," Hunter replied.
Blitz regarded the man skeptically. "How ca we be sure you're on our side?" he asked.
The stranger jerked a thumb towards the area around the disconnected train cars, which was a buzzing hive of activity as rescuers and army personnel swarmed about.
"Because if I wanted to take you by force, I could just call all two hundred soldiers over there to come and do it."
This didn't impress Blitz, but it won Shag over, and Blitz decided he didn't feel like being outvoted. "Okay, we'll go," he consented.
The man led them to a truck parked a short distance away, out back of an abandoned factory. "In here," he instructed, opening the back. "Sit tight. No talking if we stop, and no sticking your heads out."
"Does he have to be so bossy?" asked Blitz.
The Rovers piled in and took seats in the canvas-covered back.
"By the way," asked Hunter as their friend closed them in, "who are you anyway?"
A mysterious look crossed the man's face, and then he threw them a stiff salute. "Friend of the Professor," he answered. "General Andrew Malone."
As the tarp fell across the opening, Malone saw Hunter throwing him a salute in return.
Wait, an OC this late in the game? Yep, I know. Don't worry, he has a part to play yet. The question is, what exactly is his role in this, and whose side is he on anyway? Meanwhile, what's happened to Groomer and General Parvo?
Well, unfortunately you'll have to wait to find out. The bad news is we're not quite at the end yet. I decided to stretch this fic out just a little longer because I'm looking to get this story some cover art. I have one artist in consideration (and since I don't have a yes or no yet, the position's still open), and figure if I wrap up with a new cover art I can give the selected artist some advertising "on the ground floor" (so to speak) in exchange. So until next month, hang in there (and maybe get out those sketchpads).
Also, my three seasons job is opening up again, so I'm not sure what kind of time table I'll be operating by in the future. A chapter every month was admittedly a bit much, so I may change it up as I go along. I do plan on continuing the project, however, and already have some scenes written for the next story. You folks out there who take an interest in Colleen's love life really ought to love this. So stay tuned!