"Alright Rovers, our job here is done. Let’s get out of here."

Hunter, leader of the super canine team the Road Rovers, definitely didn’t have to say that again. The other five members of the team - Blitz, Exile, Colleen, Shag and Muzzle - were all itching to get quite far away from their present location.

The Rovers’ mission had been fairly straight forward. A government satellite had picked up anomalous activity in the mountains of northwestern Montana. Upon further investigation by a Rover spy satellite, the founder, creator and commander of the Road Rovers, the Master, concluded that it was most likely a supply base for the super team’s arch-enemy: the infamous General Parvo. As expected, the Road Rovers were called upon to investigate the site and, if it was indeed a supply base to the forces of evil, blow it up.

So far, things had gone much better than expected. The team had met no resistance; Colleen’s life-scan had picked up nothing upon initial penetration into the base. Hunter supposed it was completely automated. Still, the leader had thought, it’s not Parvo’s style to leave a base unguarded…

But despite the prevailing eeriness of the situation, the mission had gone on. Exile and Colleen had gone to the control center of the base to hack into and download all computer records. Blitz and Shag had gone to the main storage area to plant explosives on important things - support struts, power terminals, etc. Muzzle had been left with them as a guard, bouncing along in his handcart. Hunter had had the pleasure of setting up his share of timed explosives in the main and backup power rooms. All of these operations had gone on without a hitch.

After completing their assigned tasks, the group was to meet back with Colleen and Exile in the control center. Due to his super speed, Hunter, the golden-furred American mutt, had been the first to arrive in the small, equipment-filled room. He had quickly spotted the British collie and the Russian husky relaxing near a computer terminal. Hunter had asked if they were finished copying the files.

"Da comrade Hunter. It was easy as cake!" Exile replied.

Seeing the confused look on her leader’s face, Colleen rolled her eyes and explained. "Yes, we got the bloomin’ files, ‘untie. It was simple."

"Ah. Well, once Shag, Muzzle and Blitz get here, we can get out of here. Have you seen them yet?"

Exile shook his head at Hunter’s question, but Colleen just got a mischievous grin and asked, "Shag, Muzzle and who?"

Hunter got a sour expression on his face. "Blitz; the Doberman. Look, I thought we agreed not to use that gag anymore."

"Sorry. I just couldn’t resist," Colleen said. After about a minute of silence, Blitz and Shag came in, with Muzzle bouncing right behind them.

"You know, it’s a good thing there’s no security here. Mop boy here made so much noise it would’ve woken up the entire complex," the Doberman immediately said in his thick German accent. Upon ignoring Shag’s warning growl, and misinterpreting the uninterested nods of his other companions, Blitz opted to inflate his ego a bit. "Of course, I was the model of stealth. Nobody could’ve found me if they tried."

"Uh-huh. Look, did both of you get your charges planted?" Hunter quickly asked. When he saw the nods of the last Rovers to arrive, he gladly made the previously mentioned call to leave.

A few moments later, while the group was walking down the long, twisting passageway to the exit, Exile decided to voice an important question. "Comrade Hunter, I was just wondering, but when exactly is this place going to go ‘kablooieski?’"

"I’m not sure…" Hunter replied after a moment. He then looked down to a small electronic pad on his wrist. "Well guys, it seems we have exactly seven minutes and thirty-six seconds before this place goes ‘kablooieski.’"

"Seven minutes and thirty-six seconds!" Colleen exclaimed angrily.

"Well, now it’s about seven minutes and thirty seconds."

"At least there’s nobody to hold us up while we get out of here," Exile commented before Colleen could really get mad. Immediately after saying this, all the lights in the complex suddenly went red, and an alarm started to sound.

"Oh, that’s just perfect. Looks like you just jinxed it, Exile," Colleen tiredly said.

"Bolshoi! I knew I shouldn’t have said that," the husky angrily said. "Well, at least there’s still nobody to stop us…"

"Oh yeah? Well what are they here to do?" Blitz asked fearfully after glancing behind the group. The other five members turned to see what Blitz was talking about. They were all shocked when they saw that two hidden doors on either side of the corridor had slid open about 20 feet behind them. More shocking, though, was the sight of the massive robots lumbering out of those doors. Bathed in blood-red light, the seven-foot tall monstrosities were truly fearsome. They looked mostly humanoid, except for the facts that their hands were small laser cannons, and the only feature on their face was a centered glowing white circle, for an eye. The lead robot lifted an arm and, taking advantage of the Rovers’ shock, fired a bolt at Blitz.

That white-hot shot of energy, besides leaving a smoking hole between Blitz’s ears above his head, shattered what remained of the super heroes’ shock, and they each spurred into action. Colleen threw a bone-shaped smoke bomb between the Rovers and the robots, hiding the cano-sapiens temporarily from the robots’ lasers, while Exile took potshots through the smoke with his laser eyesight.

Meanwhile, Hunter started yelling out a plan. "Exile, you and I will keep up a rear-guard. Colleen, you, Shag and Blitz…take…the lead," Hunter stopped as he saw that Shag and Blitz have already fled in terror. "Okay. Colleen, you go after Shag and Blitz. Clear the way, and we’ll be at the door soon."

"Right-o Huntie. Looks like Shag took Muzzle…too bad. We could’ve used ‘im here," Colleen said.

"Nah. He takes too long. We couldn’t have Muzzled them," Hunter commented. "Okay, get out of here Colleen. We’ve got things handled here, and the others may need your help," the leader added, seeing the first robot passing through the smoke barrier. As the martial arts expert left, Exile froze the ground underneath the robot. Hunter then fired a shot from his unslung tennis ball launcher, shattering the robot’s eye and toppling it back into the smoke. As the lead robot fell into the haze, another one came out to replace it. As it raised its hands to fire, Exile used his laser vision to fuse the muzzles of the cannons shut. As the robot tried to fire, the energy backfired, and the monstrosity exploded.

Then, over the alarm and other noise in the corridor, a surprised yelp from Colleen was heard by the two rear-guards. "Go help her, Hunter! I shall be right behind you!" Exile exclaimed. Hunter nodded quickly, and then, using his super speed, rushed off to help out Colleen.

A few seconds later, Hunter came around a bend in the passageway and saw Colleen caught in a bear-hug from a robot that just appeared out of a door. Before Hunter could even think about how to help out, Colleen used her elbow to smash in the robot’s eye. As the robot brought one arm up to investigate, Colleen slithered out of the perilous hold and landed on the ground in a crouch. She pulled out a large red frisbee from her pack, and pressed a button on it’s top face. When the frisbee started to make a loud humming noise, Colleen turned and hurled it up diagonally. The disc sheared through the robot’s left hip, traveled up through it’s body, exited at the right shoulder, and embedded itself in the opposite wall.

"Ooooo, nice move!" Hunter commented as the top half of the robot slid off the bottom half in the background.

"Thanks, it’s a gift," Colleen replied. "Look, we’d better get out of here. There can’t be much time left."

"About three minutes."

"Exactly. The sooner we get out of here, the better," the collie pointed out. "Where’s Exile, by the way?"

"He said he’d be right behind me. Come on, we’d better go make sure Shag, Blitz and Muzz are OK," Hunter said. Colleen nodded, and they started jogging to the exit.

Meanwhile, Exile was running down the hallway, trying to dodge lasers. In a flash of inspiration, he quickly turned around and used his freeze vision to create a wall of ice between him and the pursuing robots. "There, that ought to keep them off my tail," he commented. But as he turned around, he discovered his good fortune had temporarily run out. Three new doors had opened in the hall in front of him, and he saw three more robots just beginning to come out. "Oh bolshoi..." he said quietly. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a vent in the wall. As his brain worked furiously on a plan, we skip back to Blitz and Shag.

The entry room is fairly large, with a couple computer terminals and chairs laying about. Unfortunately, there is a huge metal door barring the exit. "All right Shag, I’ve tried clawing it open, but it won’t work," Blitz panted. "I guess you can try now." The huge sheepdog grinned and started to dig around in his fur. After a few seconds of rummaging, he pulled out his Road Rover Missile Launcher. As he took careful aim at the door, we see Hunter and Colleen just appearing in the passageway directly behind them.

"Wait! Shag, the launcher! Turn it---" Hunter started to yell, but it was too late. The launcher went off, sending a rocket away from the door, and directly toward Hunter and Colleen. Colleen quickly pulled Hunter down, and the rocket went sailing over their heads. Surprisingly, it hit a robot whose door had just opened. "Well, wrong way, but right results," Hunter comments. The two got up off the floor and headed over towards the door, where Blitz tried to explain their situation.

"What should we do?" the German started out frantically. "We’ve tried everything, but this door just won’t open! What are we going to do? Come on, Hunter, think of something. I’m too young and beautiful to die!"

"Hey, did you blokes try hitting the ‘open door’ button?" Colleen, who had gone over to a large terminal by the door, asked.

"Well....er....no," Blitz replied, embarrassed. Colleen pressed the button carefully, and watched as the door started to slowly rise up.

"That’d better hurry up. Huntie, how much time do we have left?" Colleen asked after watching the door’s slow pace for a second.

"Ummmmm...Seems we have one minute before this place goes up in smoke."

"What about Exile!? He’s not here yet!" Blitz exclaims.

"Look, I’m sure he’ll make it! He’s resourceful!" Hunter said. As he said this, we see Exile in a ventilation shaft, freezing the area in front of him so he’ll slide faster. The view goes back to the exit, where the door has opened just enough to let the Rovers through if they duck. When he saw that they were all through the door, Hunter yelled out, "Rovers, head for cover! We’ve got ten seconds!"

"What about Exile!?" Colleen asked fearfully.

"Look, we have to get out of here," Hunter replied frantically. "If he makes it, he makes it. But we don’t have time to go back in!" As the last of the Rovers started to run for cover, the ground shook a bit. About a second later, a huge fireball spewed out of the door. The concussion from the blast knocked all of the Rovers through the air, and the noise was deafening. As the fire and noise dissipated, we see that all of the Rovers landed safely, with just scratches and bruises, except for Colleen. She was laying near a small tree, which had snapped in half, holding her left leg. Hunter, seeing she was injured, immediately zipped over to her and asked, "Colleen, are you all right?"

"No, I’m not bloody all right! The blast knocked me into this tree, and I think it busted my leg!" she exclaimed painfully. "Look, I think you’re gonna have to carry me." As Hunter picked her up carefully, Colleen suddenly remembered their husky companion. "Wait! What about Exile? Did he make it?" Hunter just had a sullen expression on his face as he took Colleen closer to the shattered door, which was now billowing plumes of smoke.

"Look, I’m sure he did his best to get out. We just couldn’t help him…Oh man...why’d I have to leave him," Hunter sadly said. As the other Rovers come up behind the leader to pay their respects to a fallen comrade, we notice that there is one vent near the door that doesn’t have smoke pouring out of it. None of the other Rovers saw this however, and they all just stood in silence, mourning. All of them had tears in their eyes, but none openly cried. After a few moments, Colleen quietly said, "You know, he didn’t deserve this." One tear silently rolled down her cheek. "He didn’t deserve to die like this, Huntie. He deserved better."

"We all knew the risks of the job when we signed on," the leader solemnly replied. "But you’re right. Nobody – especially him – deserved this."

"Now who’s going to call me ‘weird boy’?" Blitz asked sadly. "True, I never liked it, but it’ll never be the same without him. Look, I think we should get back to HQ. The Master needs to know about this."

"You’re right...We should go," Hunter said quietly. They all turned to leave, but stopped after a few steps. "Wait, did you hear that?"

"Yah...It sounded like...flash freezing?" Blitz replied, curious. The group turned around slowly as the sound grew louder and louder. After about thirty seconds, the Rovers were shocked to see the bars on the not smoking ventilation grate quickly encased in solid ice. Soon thereafter, the ice shattered as a large form barreled through it. All of the Rovers rushed up to see that it was indeed Exile. His blue and white fur was blackened from smoke, his silvery suit was tarnished, and his eyes were extremely bloodshot, but he was alive.

"Exile! You’re alive! But how ---" Was the cry of Colleen, as she saw him up close.

"Da, da, I’m alive," Exile wheezed, and then stopped to cough. "My path was cut off by those evil robotski’s, so I climbed in a ventilation tunnel, and slid out here. –cough, cough- Now please, let’s get out of here, and go back home. I need a bath and a bottle of Visine..."

"You got it, buddy," Hunter said. As Shag and Blitz picked Exile up, Hunter followed up with a "Let’s hit the road, Rovers!" This was followed by a weak, but still complete, howl from all the Road Rovers as they headed home.