A night watchman was doing his usual patrols around the area. It may have been a beautiful night with the clear skies, the full moon bathing the world below in moonlight, and the gentle breeze, except it wasn't. He was on edge cause earlier that morning, as he was heading home for the night before, his employer had informed him that he needed to take the next night.

"Usual watchman is out that day.", they had told him, "You mind filling in?"

As much as this night watchman wanted to object, he had a job to do and this hidden bunker was something he couldn't let anyone past. Just as it looked like nothing was happening, a rustle in the bushes made him tense.

"Who's there?", he asked trying to sound brave as he prepared to fire.

Out of the shadows came a very official looking woman who strode right up to him.

"President Clinton sends his thanks for being such good security to this bunker.", she said in a sly and silky tone.

The watchman blushed as he noticed her badge she held out to him.

"Oh, my apologies Ms. Nelson.", he said standing at ease, "I almost mistook you for a threat."

Ms. Nelson nodded as he stood to the side and allowed her to get near the door and punch in a secret code which opened the door. The watchman went back to his rounds forgetting about what was going on inside. Ms. Nelson walked past all the abandoned stuff that Clinton had stashed here, but she paused when a large container caught her eye. It looked large enough to be lifted by four strong men, but that wasn't going to be a problem. Ms. Nelson's body shifted and melded until a large female Ibizan hound rover stood in her place with steely grey eyes, a black leather outfit complete with boots and gloves, as well as a belt of small gadgets which she used if necessary. She put a finger to her ear and activated the hidden signal there.

"I'm in.", she reported, "Target secured."

"Excellent.", came the other end, "Retrieve and return to base immediately."

The rover hung up and walked to the container. She punched in a code and the container started lighting up and a large slot appeared in the side. The rover slipped a hand to her belt and pulled out a small disk like device and inserted it. A few tense moments and five beeps later, the lock on the container opened to reveal a glowing sphere in a glass box large enough to fit in a briefcase. The rover pulled out a briefcase which grew from a small box. She then carefully lifted the glowing sphere's box from the container and into the case. Then she heard the outside doors shifting. Someone was coming in and she had to hurry! Quick as a wink, she punched in the code and the container shut itself and her outfit shifted to one of a high ranked admiral as a couple soldiers came in.

"Hey Admiral.", one of them said, "What brings you here?"

"Retrieval.", the rover said keeping in character, "Clinton's orders."

The soldiers shrugged and moved on as the now disguised rover made her way out with her prize. It wasn't long til she was outside and heading for the pier.

"Not so fast."

The rover paused, but her guard was up. A couple other night watchman were moving towards her at a distance.

"Turn around."

She did, but when the watchman saw her snide grin, a small projectile came down from the sky, landed at their feet and dispersed a very thick and horribly smelling fog. With the distraction out of the way, she lifted her arm and gripped a handlebar that hoisted her up as she shifted back to her rover form, flipped herself onto the rope and then pulled herself up into the now departing stealth plane like vehicle with another rover (a male Whippet) who was driving.

"Mission Successful.", he reported into his communicator as his partner took her seat beside him, "Repeat, mission successful. Project Rover is a go."

As the plane kept flying, it shimmered and then vanished as if it were a ghost.

/

Theo was soon inside the base and clearly in awe.

"It sure looks bigger on the inside.", he muttered to himself.

As he turned a corner, Exile was heading down. Theo recognized him as the Siberian Husky who lived with the Russian ambassador and loyal to a fault along with the ability to freeze things with a ray he fired from his eyes.

"Oh, it's you.", Exile said looking like something foul was on his foot.

Theo knew who Exile was talking about, but he didn't buckle.

"Hey Exile, you okay?"

Exile was a bit taken aback, but wasn't silent.

"Blitz, I… when did you get so polite?"

Theo thought fast.

"Oh, I just took a run outside. To do some thinking."

Exile looked less annoyed and a little more interested. Clearly he wasn't used to Blitz being nice and Theo could tell. Still, Exile took a breath and collected himself.

"Well, I'm going to go… um, check the monitors."

"Sure.", Theo told him, "I'll go do some training to get out any tension I might have."

Theo moved on and was soon in a training room where he could tell the Rovers would train if they had time. As he got into a routine he thought he had, he remembered Blitz and paused for a moment to take his mirror out as well as make sure he was alone.

"Blitz.", he thought as he materialized the rover in his mind.

The mirror's surface rippled like a body of water after a small rock was tossed into it. Then Theo saw his reflection be replaced with an image of Blitz relaxing on the beach in swim trunks, sunglasses, and applying a layer of sunscreen before putting the sunblock on a table near him and pick up a coconut cup with a lemon wedge and straw.

"Ah, this is ze life.", he sighed clearly content, "No insults, no pressure, and no kickback from being forward. I should've made a deal with zat Theo character a long time ago."

He took a drink from his cup and laid back on his chair before a native came up to him looking a bit curious.

"Hey, you coming to the session later?"

Blitz looked his way after lifting his glasses up a bit.

"Session?", he asked.

"We're getting together a therapy group to talk about issues we might have.", the native answered, "Interested in coming? It might help out."

Blitz pondered for a moment and then nodded.

"Sure, I'll give it a go."

The native smiled and after giving Blitz the address, headed off and Blitz went back to his tanning. Theo felt better seeing that Blitz was finally getting a break and maybe this therapy session would help him straighten out. As Blitz took another swing on his smoothie as Theo found out it was, the mirror rippled again and went back to showing his reflection. He put it away and got up to get back to training when he saw Hunter already entering the room.

/

Hunter looked firm at Theo.

"Blitz, I want to get one thing clear."

"You want me to keep my distance and tone down the ego.", Theo stated knowing what Hunter was getting at, "Sure thing."

"Actually, I was hoping that-", Hunter started before pausing and looking confused, "Wait, what?"

Theo looked toward the goldador (Golden Retriever and Labrador mix) in the eye smiling.

"I think I've been a bit too forward and blind with myself and maybe you all have a point.", he said calmly as he got to lifting weights, "Guess I'll take you up on it for once. See how it goes."

Hunter was now surprised. Blitz wouldn't have agreed with him this easy after all the difficulty the rest of the team had with him, but here he was siding with him. Hunter pinched himself as to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Needless to say, he wasn't, but he tried to cover it up.

"Well… it's nice of you to take us seriously Blitz.", he said thinking of a good explanation, "Carry on."

He left, but as soon as he was out of sight of Theo, his mind was awash in confusion and shock. In a break room, he got himself a coffee while yet another rover Shag came in with Muzzle on his cart. Unlike the others, Muzzle was still mostly like a Rottweiler he was and Shag was only transformed halfway. Shag took a moment to say something that sounded like gibberish, but Hunter knew what he was saying.

"Sorry Shag, I just…", he started saying before sighing and taking a sip of his coffee, "It's Blitz."

"What about him?"

Shag and Hunter turned to see Colleen come into the room clearly overhearing and looking curious. For a Rough Collie, she sure had a zero-tolerance for nonsense, and seeing her romantic interest concerned only made her want to find out more.

"What did Blitz do this time?", she asked.

Hunter took a breath as if the issue hurt him.

"He's… taking our advice."

Now Colleen looked surprised.

"Wait, he's what?", she asked.

"He's going to tone down the ego and give us a little space.", Hunter explained, "I don't know what made him do so, but… it worked."

Shag shrugged and babbled again.

"I'm with Shag on this.", Colleen said nodding, "Maybe what we were trying to teach him finally clicked."

Hunter didn't look sure.

"Then why do I feel like something's off?", he asked.

"Off about what?"

All four rovers turned to see Theo enter the room looking interested.

"Just for the record, it is rude to talk about your teammates without them in attendance.", he said plainly as he helped himself to a glass of water.

Colleen frowned.

"Okay Blitz, what's going on?", she said firmly, "Why are you being so…"

She paused for a moment as she saw Theo wasn't even looking her way which made her annoyed.

"Hello?! I'm talking here!"

Still, Theo didn't turn which made Hunter, Shag, and Colleen's jaws drop. Blitz never ignored Colleen and even Muzzle seemed to be surprised.

"Blitz is ignoring me?", Colleen asked, "Since when does that happen?"

They didn't take their eyes off Theo as he left after putting his now empty glass in the sink in a polite way. Something was wrong here, but what was it?

/

Unfortunately for the Rovers, the alarm went off. The thought about Blitz's new behavior will have to wait as they gathered in the meeting room where Theo noticed William Shepherd himself on the ledge looking concerned. The moment Theo saw his eyes, something binged in his mind and he saw the whole thing. William was a scientist who was working on some kind of experiment to make dogs anthropomorphic, but also have superpowers. His dog was taken by a client and was almost murdered. Luckily he had survived and could salvage enough to get five dogs from around the world to build a team to fight off against the one who betrayed him: General Parlov. Formally William's cat turned human through the same process and now his eternal foe.

"We got trouble.", Shepherd informed, "Someone broke into a military bunker at this location."

The table where Theo sat with the rovers' center opened and a hologram of a map appeared in midair showing a location. Hunter suddenly looked alarmed.

"What was taken?", he asked, "Core?"

"Core?", Theo asked looking curious, "Is that bad?"

Hunter looked Theo's way firmly.

"Is it bad?", he countered, "Are you familiar with the old "Demon Core" project?"

Theo suddenly tensed and thought of a quick answer.

"The core that killed most of the people who worked on it?", he asked.

"The very one.", Hunter answered, "Clinton had some rogue scientists who somehow got a hold of it so they could use it on anyone else, but we caught them before they could do so. That thing was locked away until we had a team that could diffuse it safely."

Now the others looked worried.

"You saying that there's a core out there that can literally put the world in jeopardy?", Exile asked.

Shag looked especially scared as he quivered in his chair. Theo however tried to keep a straight face.

"Who would steal a core with boundless danger?", he asked.

"We don't know.", William answered, "But whoever it was, they were good."

Colleen frowned.

"What are we going to do?", she asked, "We can't let that core go off."

Theo looked thoughtful.

"Does that core give off any kind of radiation?", he asked.

Hunter looked interested.

"Yeah, so what are you suggesting Blitz?"

"If we can set our radars for radioactivity from the place it went missing, we can find where it went.", Theo explained.

William looked impressed.

"Wow Blitz, that makes sense.", William said before pointing toward the door, "Okay Rovers, move out."

Nobody had to be told twice and within a minute, Theo was with the team heading out into the night thrilled to be along for the ride although surprised Muzzle came too, but put it aside.

/

General Parlov stomped through his office looking annoyed as he ran a finger across his large moustache while Groomer, his most loyal follower stood by at the ready if she was needed.

"When is that core going to get here?", Parlov asked harshly, "They should be here by-"

He was cut off as the door opened nearby and a soldier came in looking distressed and concerned.

"Sir, we have problems."

Parlov's cold sneer darkened.

"Well, what is it?", he snapped.

The soldier gulped.

"The core was… stolen."

Parlov exploded in fury.

"Stolen?!", he thundered, "How could you let it-"

He was cut off as he started to choke and Groomer came forward after tossing her dark hair out of her eyes and giving Parlov a special pill which he took.

"Thanks.", he said to her to show he was thankful before returning to his hateful state again only speaking less loud, "So, who took it?"

The soldier trembled, but didn't stay silent. There was no telling what Parlov would do to any of his men who held out.

"A couple of rovers took it."

Parlov paused and raised an eyebrow as he looked towards Groomer.

"Rovers stealing from themselves?", he questioned.

Groomer shook her head making her dark hair wave.

"Unlikely.", she stated, "Must be a new team or something. Whatever this is, it's not Shepherd's work."

Parlov nodded as he turned to his soldier.

"Get what you can and report to me once you find something.", he instructed.

The soldier saluted and left as if eager to leave. Parlov looked up at the ceiling.

"I wasn't expecting a couple rovers to turn bad, however, this might be a break we need to turn the tide."

Groomer nodded as she fully agreed with him. Something was going on and she was determined to find out what it was and why it wanted such a dangerous core at all. It may not have been something she and Parlov would plan, but who would? That she wanted to find out.