Marauder sat comfortably in his seat as he overlooked a screen that showed the Rovers heading out and a sly smirk was on his face.
"Everything falls into place.", he chuckled, "As it was ment to."
After a bit, a shadow slipped in the room, but Marauder didn't flinch.
"I know you're there.", he said still smirking, "Report."
Out of the darkness into the light the room provided, Charae in her true self stepped out looking firm.
"Our captive is stubborn and not breaking.", she stated.
Marauder turned around and faced her with a raised eyebrow. With what he had going was certainly something he had to focus on and the Rover in his captivity was not cooperating. It would seem he had to interrogate him again.
"Prepare the test.", he said as he stood, "Perhaps some first-hand experience might help."
Charae smiled maliciously.
"I'll fetch him at once."
She left with Marauder right behind her. Before he got to the door however, he paused at the mirror and reached up to undo the metal straps on the mask's sides and slowly pried it away to reveal his real face. The moment he saw his face, an old memory came to the surface. It was back in his ordinary dog days. He was a guard dog with another dog named Blitz. It was a common burglary which they had done many times in the past, but Marauder wasn't satisfied. The humans couldn't understand them at the time, but both dogs knew what they talked about.
"We should just leave and let these vermin rot out here."
Blitz looked horrified.
"Darren how could you say that? We only steal to get by. Never for pleasure."
Marauder's expression grew colder as the mention of his old name, but at the time, he would have shaken it off.
"All we do is stand guard and bark if there's trouble.", he had grumbled, "We're much better than these overgrown monkeys."
Unfortunately, they were so into conversation, that it allowed authorities to get too close. Bullets went off, bodies dropped and even then Blitz refused to leave. Marauder closed his eyes as the memory of fleeing the scene reared its ugly head. He didn't know what became of Blitz, but he had found comfort in a far away home. Luckily the family that found him had taken pity on him and assumed he was a stray in need of love. Marauder replaced his mask as the resentment burned greater as he found out that Blitz had been moved to the German Chancellor's home and then a Road Rover later on. Instead of being happy for his former coworker, jealousy festered. And after a while, he was finally out of his adoptive family's roof, he had observed the treatment of puppy mills, dogs slaughtered for meat, and all the abandonment or mistreatment of others. Man was evil and though dogs were ment to be unconditionally loving, this was not right. Marauder walked out of the room as the last glimmers of the memory had recalled seeing the Rovers in action. This was his chance to even the score. The power, the skill, and the potential of everything that dogs could do that humans could only dream they could do. Marauder's expression softened under his mask as his plan continued to form.
"I should thank you for staying Blitz.", he chuckled, "If it hadn't been for that fateful day, I wouldn't be on the complete purification of the world."
/
Blitz was feeling a bit more at ease now that Hunter was back on the team, but as he wheeled Muzzle to the meeting room, the memory of finding it empty back in Russia was a mystery to him.
"What is going on now?", he couldn't help but ask himself, "It's like the whole cano-sapian thing is going wrong or something."
"Not really."
Blitz halted and Muzzle helped look around but both saw nobody.
"It was just luck and now it's being used that way for the wrong reason."
Blitz gripped the release on Muzzle's restraints in case there was unwelcomed company.
"Who's there?", he asked.
No answer this time, but Blitz kept his guard up. He wheeled Muzzle a bit further and then Muzzle seemed more calm than he usually was. Maybe his craziness hadn't kicked in yet and maybe he was released and came back when his crazed state calmed down. As he came in he found the other Rovers already there and Shepherd already looking over the room from his balcony.
"You're a little late Blitz."
Blitz looked a bit embarrassed, but took his seat beside Hunter.
"Sorry, I overslept."
Colleen rolled her eyes comically. Blitz may be giving her space, but at least his humor remained similar. Shag looked a bit nervous as Muzzle was placed beside him, but calmed down once Shepherd started talking again.
"The operation in Paris was okay, but the rescue mission was a success."
Hunter stood up looking firm.
"We can't rest when there's a group of fanatics out there with the technology to make their own Rovers."
The whole room went into shock and surprise. Someone had managed to copy Shepherd's technology and making other Rovers?
"How could someone do that?", Colleen stated, "Nobody could get into our secret base."
Hunter's expression hardened as he placed a small device on the table in front of everyone.
"This was found on one of our transformation chambers just this morning.", Hunter said as his eyes darted from one side to the next, "Apparently someone was not who they seem."
Now the others grew tense as eyes darted from one to another. Shepherd looked worried and thoughtful at the same time.
"It would seem that we have a spy in our base.", Shepherd said with concern, "Until we find out who it is, I'm putting the base on lockdown until this is all cleared up."
As the Rovers filed out, they kept distance from each other. Hunter however went to his room calmly as he was a well out of sight and out of earshot. Once in his room, he made a call as he sifted into his true Black Russian hound form grinning ghoulishly.
"Phase two now in motion.", he chuckled as he made a call on his receiver, "The base is on lockdown."
"Excellent work Carlos.", Marauder said smiling, "We've already set in motion our operation to obtain the control rods. Have fun while making a bit of chaos along the way."
Carlos nodded as Marauder hung up and he shifted into Hunter's form again. If chaos was going to happen, he knew where to start.
/
As the lockdown got underway, Blitz was feeling pretty down.
"So an imposter in our base?", he thought, "Who could it be?"
As he paced in his room, a knock came on his door.
"Come in."
The door opened and Exile was standing there looking a bit worried.
"Oh Exile.", Blitz said smiling, "What brings you here?"
Exile came in and after checking the hall, closed the door behind him before starting to talk.
"Blitz, I'm kind of tense. Colleen is sure to accuse you of being the imposter due to… reasons."
Blitz frowned slightly, but knew that getting angry about the past wouldn't solve anything.
"Colleen can't focus on the past.", he said calmly, "I trust that I'm pretty clear."
Exile then shuddered for a moment and his expression lightened.
"Well, I'm going to see if the others are going to be okay."
He went out, but Blitz noticed something strange. A shimmer on Exile's leg as the other Rover left. Blitz then sat down looking thoughtful and confused.
"That was odd."
As Blitz was in his thoughts, a small tap came on a table and he turned to see a little note on his desk by his mirror. Blitz was a bit more confused cause that note wasn't there a moment ago, but he decided to read it anyway.
"An intruder is in your base, but Hunter is on his way back.", Blitz read before looking hopeful, "Maybe Hunter might help us find out who it was."
As Exile walked down the hall, he paused to turn to another hall as he shifted into Shag and then knocked on Colleen's door.
"Who is it?", he heard Colleen ask.
Shag babbled a bit and Colleen opened the door to let him in.
"What's with you?", she asked him.
Even though Shag's eyes were covered, Colleen could tell that he was concerned. Shag babbled some more and Colleen looked a bit harsh.
"You certain?", she asked him.
Shag nodded and made some gestures while babbling some more.
"Shag, Blitz may have had issues, but he ment well. I guess I just didn't see it since he was too forward, but he seems to be doing much better."
Shag tensed and after a well meaningful farewell, left Colleen's room and went behind a counter where he shifted to his true self: Carlos the black Russian Rover and Marauder's spy.
"This is not working as I thought it would.", he muttered to himself.
Then his communicator went off and he answered it.
"Yes?"
"We have a problem.", Charae stated on the other end, "It would seem our attempts to gain the control rods are taking longer than anticipated."
Carlos frowned.
"Should I pull out?"
"No.", Charae told him, "You'll give yourself away."
She paused as a cunning smile came to her face.
"Carlos, I have a special favor to ask of you."
Carlos grinned wickedly.
"I am at your service."
/
Hunter slumped in his chair tired out from all the struggling.
"I guess Marauder was right.", he thought, "I'm not going to get out of this with all I got."
He was so distracted by his thoughts that he didn't notice the door opening and a shadow moving towards a panel nearby. A beep came out and then a couple clicks later, Hunter felt his bindings break. He lifted his head to see another Rover (a Keeshond) who was standing near him and looking concerned.
"You alright?", he asked offering a water bottle.
Hunter took it cause he felt pretty thirsty and after taking a few gulps, felt well enough to stand again.
"Follow me.", the Rover said to him, "And play along."
Hunter looked confused as the Rover slapped on a set of cufflinks on his wrists and started leading him out of the room. What was this Rover doing and why? Hunter didn't know, but as they passed a room, Hunter noticed chambers being assembled by some scientists and engineers that looked awfully familiar. It was only a glance, but Hunter memorized it enough to know it resembled the transformation chambers back at headquarters.
"You, halt!"
Hunter and the Rover froze as a couple more Rovers (bulldogs) marched over looking curious and suspicious.
"State your business.", one said harshly.
The Rover with Hunter looked insulted.
"Marauder wishes this Rover be given special treatment."
The bulldog Rovers looks amused.
"You mean the special kind of treatment?", the other asked ghoulishly.
Hunter's captor nodded.
"How else to break him?"
The bulldogs looked satisfied and marched off chuckling to themselves. Hunter's captor then led him further as Hunter started thinking of what the treatment was. He didn't have time for that for he soon was led to what looked like an emergency exit.
"What's going on?", he asked.
The Rover looked his way a bit apologetic as he unlocked Hunter's cuffs.
"I'm Dale and you need to get back to Shepherd quickly.", he stated, "He's in danger."
Hunter looked confused.
"Danger?", he asked, "From who?"
"Never mind that.", Dale told him, "Listen to me, once you get out, run away from this place as fast as you can, keep running and never look back."
Hunter was confused, but seeing as he had an escape, decided to take it. Dale started to leave, but Hunter put a hand on his shoulder making him pause.
"Come with me."
Dale looked confused.
"You'd give me a second chance?", he asked a little surprised.
"Shepherd says that every dog has potential to be a Rover.", Hunter told him, "What do you say?"
/
Back at headquarters, Shepherd was looking over security footage of the halls when a particular tape caught his eye. He rewound it a bit and noticed Shag slip into a shadow and then Exile came out.
"That's odd.", he thought.
Then there came a knock on the door.
"Who is it?", he asked.
"It's Colleen sir."
Shepherd opened the door and sure enough, there was Colleen looking at the ready as she normally was. She entered and Shepherd went back to the tape.
"I can't understand what is going on."
Colleen closed the door and started walking up behind him smiling.
"It's actually pretty simple. We have a shapeshifter in our midst."
Shepherd tensed and started turning around, but he didn't get that far due to Colleen firing a blast into his back and shifting into Carlos who stood there smiling.
"Target down.", he chuckled as Shepherd wasn't dead.
The door started opening and Carlos then shifted into Charae's true form as Colleen, Blitz, Exile and Shag came in and saw him. Blitz looked especially surprised.
"You again."
"Yes, it is I Charae the chameleon.", Carlos said imitating Charae perfectly, "I'd like to thank you for all your help. Now Marauder has all he needs."
The Rovers started forward, but then Carlos pressed a detonator in his hand and a massive explosion went off sending the Rovers into the wall. When they came too, whatever was in the room before them was blown to bits or vaporized.
"Shepherd?", Colleen asked quickly getting to her feet.
The others followed her inside and after a bit, they found Shepherd's body and Blitz checked his pulse. The others looked his way worried.
"Is he…", Colleen started to say but couldn't finish.
Blitz looked apologetic and crushed.
"He's dead."
As the Rovers howled in despair, Muzzle who was nearby was especially crushed. Shepherd was his owner and even if he couldn't talk, he still felt the pain of having his owner taken from him. Then a shimmer made him look to see Theo materialize nearby.
"You ready to help your friends?", he asked.
Muzzle nodded and Theo walked his gurney towards the transformation chambers.
"I don't know what will happen Scout, but we can't let Shepherd's death go in vain."
Muzzle tensed as he heard his old name. He felt comforted and now was eager to get started.