Road Rovers The Ghost Warrior Chap 2 PT.2

Road Rovers
The Ghost Warriors
Chapter two (Part two)

Hunter layed in his bed while staring off into space, as he pondered why Parvo took wolves just to be more mutants.

"Why…?" Hunter thought to himself.  "Doesn't he know his mutants just don't make the cut to beat us? I mean we beat them time and again, and I hate to give Parvo credit, but he doesn't look like much of an idiot…"

As he thought to himself more, he heard his door hiss open. There in his doorway was Colleen, the team medic and martial arts expert. She slowly walked in, wearing the team uniform, and asked, "Still wondering about the wolves eh Huntie?"

Shifting his body so that he could sit up on his bed, Hunter placed a hand over his nose and mouth, with his eyelids half closed.

"You know Huntie; you look sorta like the Thinker sitting like that on the bed…y'know if he were a golden retriever…" Colleen teased.

Hunter couldn't help but smile at her observation and laughed silently to himself. "Colleen…"Hunter began. "For years now, we have kicked Parvo's cano-mutants across the battlefield time and again, but why, after seven months of hiding, does he suddenly appear out of nowhere and do more of the same?  Hasn't he learned?! Nothing he can possibly conjure up can beat us."

Colleen stood near the foot of the bed with a straight face as she put her hand on Hunter's shoulder reassuringly and spoke gently, "Sounds like someone's a little nervous."

Hunter looked up at her, trying to hide the fear of the uncertain future that plagued him. "Naw, I'm not afraid Colleen.  I'm just not certain of why Parvo would just keep resorting to the same old tricks that don't stand a chance against us."

Colleen raised her eyebrow and gave a soft smile as she embraced Hunter in a hug. Hunter felt a jolt of surprise go down his back but returned her hug.  For a brief moment, he forgot his worries entirely as he held Colleen.

Colleen looked up at him and, in a confident yet comfortable voice, said "Don't worry 'bout Parvo, Unter.  We've defeated him a bazillion times before, and we will beat him a bazillion and one times after this."

Hunter smiled and released Colleen, who lets go of him in response.

"Oh Huntie that reminds me why I came in here," she said in an almost alarmed voice before switching over to a serious tone. "The master has called the teams together, saying that it relates to the wolf-nappings"

"We shouldn't keep the master then" Hunter replied in an alerted tone.

"Walk with me then Hunter?" Colleen asked as she was making her way over to the door.

Hunter smiled and responded happily, "It'd be rude if I said no."

The two walked out of the room to the briefing room.

The seven thin robots stood across the Coliseum from Adrian like statues in the winter. The robots where thin, dark grey pieces of metal; with red eyes and a glowing light blue orb in the middle of their metallic torsos. These robots barely made an impact mentally on Adrian, who was expecting a lot more threatening things than seven skinny pieces of scrap. Adrian then heard his master's hoarse voice over the headset.

"Okay Nightblade, these robots will be your first targets."

Suddenly, the light blue orb on the  farthest right robot grew all around the robot and turned it into a white Samoyed with light blue eyes, and from the robot to the Samoyed's left on, the robots turned into his targets which consisted of a German Shepherd, a Doberman,  a Siberian husky, a Collie, and a Golden Retriever.

Once again, Parvo's hoarse voice came over his headset.  "My apprentice, meet the Road Rovers, your packs captors, your enemies. Hunter, the Golden retriever, who has the power of speed; Colleen, the collie, with cunning and martial arts; Exile, the husky, with strength and heat and freeze vision, Blitz, the Doberman, with his powerful jaws; Alicia, the Samoyed, and Travis, the German Shepherd, with super-hearing, super speed, and heat and electric powers."

Nightblade unsheathed his energy swords and, with his eyes glowing a bright red glow coming out from the eye-sockets on the skull from under his cloak, announced in a dark, menacing growl " I will have my vengeance, and you seven don't even resemble a real challenge!"

Holo-Hunter stepped up and, as he pulled out a bazooka and aimed it Adrian, slyly replied, "Funny, we were about to say the same to you."

"Now my apprentice," Parvo came over the canines earphones. "Destroy them.  Remember, your powers flow through your veins, and all you have to do is concentrate."

Adrian closed his eyes, letting his powers feed off of his rage, and answered, "Of course master."

Nightblade opened his eyes as he concentrated on the bazooka.  As Nightblade raised his left arm, a red, translucent orb appeared around his hand. The bazooka was suddenly wrapped in a film of the same color and raised into the air. Nightblade raised his arm, turned his hand around, and as soon as he clenched his hand into a fist, he crushed the bazooka into a light grey, metallic wad and shot it straight at the Rovers.

Holo-Hunter reared back and, with a stunned face, ordered his holographic team, "Rovers scramble!"

The team jumped every which way and fell on the floor. Holo-Travis raised his head and glared at Nightblade and said in a determined voice, "This guy's mine!"

Holo-Hunter raised his head and vainly reached out to retain his holographic comrade. "Travis don't!" he pleaded, but the Rover was already near Nightblade.

As Travis approached Nightblade, he heard his master once again. "You want to know a really fun trick you can do? It's called Nightmare Illusion, and it'll torment the victim with visions of their worst nightmares, making them unable to fight, but first you must scan their minds."

Nightblade glared for a nano-second as the holo-rover approached and raised his fist and shouted, "Take this you undead monster!"

Before the blow could be struck, Nightblade grabbed the Holo-Rover by the collar and raised him off his feet. He stared into the Rovers eyes and said menacingly, "Just as soon as you take this."

Nightblade's eyes glowed dark red. Holo-Travis grabbed his head and released a terrified scream. As Holo-Travis continued to see a never ending view of terror, Nightblade said in his low and hardened voice, "For you and your team, your nightmare has only just begun."

Nightblade spun around with the Road Rover in his hands and then sent the Rover crashing through the wall behind the Holo-Rover team.

Holo-Alicia stared wide eyed at the hole in the wall where Holo-Travis just sailed through and turned around and glared at Nightblade with what resembled rage and sadness. She charged at Nightblade, without any trace of a second thought, and raised her fist, and, as she began to strike, she noticed that her hand went right through Nightblade, who was now translucent.

General Parvo's voice came over his headphones. "Oh, did I mention I made those nano-bots to make you half ghost? Heh heh heh heh. Now, if you like, you can use those powers we talked about as the droids entered the coliseum."

As Nightblade glared back at the still stunned Holo-Rover, who had retracted her hand, he suddenly disappeared into a black fog. The Holo-Rover reared back and began to search for her foe.

"Don't tell me this is one of those everywhere and nowhere bits," the hologram said to itself.

As the Holo-Rover continued her search, she failed to notice her shadow had not moved and was now sporting bright red eyes.

"C'mon out, and I'll make your pain quick," the Holo-Rover declared in a demanding tone.

Nightblade returned to his physical form and said just as snidely, "You'd do that for me?"

Raising his right hand, he grabbed her by the collar, then head-butted the rover and tossed her beside Holo-Travis.

Holo-Hunter directed his attention to Holo-Blitz and commanded in an angry tone "Sick'em Blitz!"

As Holo-Blitz started to stammer a fearful response, he noticed that once again the Phantom Rover was no longer there.

"Sick who?" the Doberman asked with annoyance tone in his voice.

Holo-Hunter pointed his finger and shot back, "The guy who ju-…" He looked to his left and noticed that the lupo-sapien has indeed disappeared once again.

"Now, where'd he go-ski?" asked Holo-Exile.

"Don't know, but we're going to have to keep our eyes peeled," Holo-Hunter said informingly.

Hunter and Colleen entered the Briefing Room as the briefing was about to begin. The two saw Exile, Blitz, Shag, and Muzzle awaiting the briefing as they walked in. Not only where the rest of Hunter's team there, but the Space Rovers also were summoned.

Apparently, Hunter was not the only one who thought things were not looking easy for the near future. "Hey guys how's it wagging?" Hunter said from out of nowhere, trying to lighten the tense air in the room.

The master looked at them with an eyebrow raised and a smile on his face.  "And where have you two been?" he asked amused.

"Probably out on a spaghetti dinner" Blitz huffed with his arms across his chest.

Hunter gave Blitz an annoyed look and countered, "Look, she's my friend, ok?  Even if we took that step, doesn't that seem a bit cliché?"

Colleen stared at Hunter blankly, showing no sign of emotion, but inside she felt destroyed.

"Rovers!" The Master's voice boomed from out of nowhere. "We have bigger issues at hand.  What Hunter and Colleen do in their free time is none of our concern."

The Rovers turned their full attention to the master, who had immediately cooled off. "Now..." the master began.  "We have begun analyzing the dart you found at the scene.  We've discovered that it carried a liquid transdogmifier. We suspect that Parvo has been doing some experimenting during his exile."

Hunter gave no smile or any of his usual playful demeanor.  "Any idea if we can benefit from this dart master?" Hunter asked intently.

"We have no idea what the consequences are if we use as is my pet, but we will still continue to study the dart to see anything out of the ordinary."

"Alright master," Hunter said in an almost disappointed tone of voice. Hunter turned around to see Colleen with a vacant expression on her face, but he knew that she was upset.

The master concluded his brief meeting in an uneasy tone of voice. "Be on the lookout my pets.  Parvo could strike anywhere."

Hunter, along with the others, saluted and said in unison, "Yes master!"

The master smiled and said in a pleased tone, "Your good dogs Road Rovers.  Whatever Parvo cooks up, we will overcome it.  You're dismissed Rovers."

The Rover teams broke up and headed to their rooms or to the kitchen for a quick snack.

Hunter approached Colleen and asked in a friendly and apologetic way, "Hey Colleen, you wanna go get a snack or something?"

Colleen answered weakly, "No thanks Huntie.  I don't feel like it." She walked off into the hallway to her room.

As Hunter watched Colleen disappear behind a corner, Exile walked up and asked Hunter in a confused way, "Wonder what's eating her-ski?"

Hunter sighed sadly and said, trying to hide his disappointment at the situation, "I think I know."

Persia and one of her comrades also surveyed the scene, and with an eyebrow raised, one of the other space rovers asked Persia, "Trouble in the Love boat I think."

Persia faked a smile and said, hiding her lonely tone, "Looks like it."  Inside, all Persia could say was, "I wouldn't know."

Holo-Exile's eyes glowed a bright red, as he used his infrared sight to try to locate the Lupo-sapien assassin.

"Any sign of him, Exile?" Holo-Hunter asked.

"None-ski what so ev-…"

Holo-Hunter noticed Holo-Exile's sudden absence from the field. Holo-Hunter turned around to see a thin robot lying face down on the ground with a dagger in the back of the robot's head. Holo-Hunter reared back and cried out in a shocked voice, "Nightblade! Where are you?!" He turned to Holo-Blitz, who was sitting in a fetal position on the floor in the nearby corner. In a commanding voice, Holo-Hunter asked the cowardly canine, "Blitz, what on earth are you doing?"

"I don't vanna die!" Holo-Blitz sobbed in cowardice.

"Blitz get up and…look out!!" Holo-Hunter pointed to the wall over Holo-Blitz.

As Holo-Blitz looked up, he noticed a blue mist coming from the wall and forming into a foggy blue skeletal wolf. The skeletal wolf picked Holo-Blitz up by the throat, as Holo-Blitz looked up and tried in vain to yell.

The skeletal wolf gave a fiery snarl and said threateningly, "The only thing I hate more than a Road Rover is a spineless weasel that claims to be the best Rover in history." Nightblade clenched his fist to the point where the hologram was cut off, and all that's left of the neck area was a crumpled mass of metal.  With a strong toss, he sent the metal robot back to the floor. The robot struck the floor with a hollow clank, and where the limbs were attached; only sparks were seen.

Adrian looked down to find the final two rovers: Colleen and Hunter.  He found them, and with his eyes glowing a bright red, he dissipated into a mass of blue fog and manifested himself onto the other side of the battlefield.  Back in his cloaked Phantom Rover form, the three Rovers glared at each other from opposite ends of the now battle-scarred stadium.

Adrian raised an eyebrow and, whether it was his blind frustration or the nano-bots' continual influence on his thoughts and feelings or maybe both, spoke to his opponents, "I see fear in your eyes Rovers." Adrian bared his teeth, and his eyes turned dark red. "To be honest, I don't blame you, and when I meet your real life counter-parts, I will give them a reason to be afraid."

Holo-Hunter stared back at Adrian and, in response, retorted his foe with a proud tone of voice, "Maybe we have reason to fear you pal, but we won't let it stop us from doing our job."