Back at the base, Professor Shepherd received the Rovers with no small relief.

"You did well today, Rovers. You've got a long road ahead, but you did well."

"Long road?" asked Colleen. "I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm plenty tuckered already."

Hunter nodded. "Not to complain, but I'm wiped out too – and we took care of the cano-guys just fine. Not bad for the first time out, huh?"

Shepherd nodded. "As I said, you did well, and I am grateful. You should rest well tonight, but you'll need to do a few exercises to get used to your new bodies, and I'll need to run some tests to make sure they're working properly. This may have been your trial run, but it was also the cano-mutants'. General Parvo won't give up so easily, and his next mutants will be more dangerous."

Shag whimpered, and Blitz asked what they all were thinking. "What exactly have we signed up for?"

"Don't worry, Blitz," the professor assured him, "I intend to make sure that you're as ready as possible for whatever happens. Now come. It's pretty late for a full tour of the base now, but I'll show you your rooms and the more basic facilities on base. Rest well, Rovers; you'll need it."

Getting the Rovers settled in was fairly simple and straightforward. Despite having slept on the ride back to base, they were all more than willing to settle down - though, with their unfamiliar builds, it would take some time for each of them to get comfortable enough to sleep.

Shepherd, on the other hand, returned to the room where he had first met the Rovers - what might be called the Command Center - to find Malone still waiting for him.

"How bad is the situation?" he asked.

Malone frowned and folded his arms. "Well, turns out the maniac running this freak show cut or jammed all the communication lines before he made his attack, and the cell phone service was spotty along the train line. He wanted witnesses, but he didn't want them talking too soon."

Shepherd nodded. "So the world doesn't know about cano-sapiens yet," he reasoned hopefully.

"The Pentagon's going to do it's best, I'm guessing," Malone agreed, "but you realize you've left quite the mess for us to clean up."

The professor nodded. He turned his gaze down the hallway toward the Rovers' quarters. "I suppose I have, but you know I couldn't just sit back and do nothing."

"I know," was the answer. "It would be a lot easier, though, if-"

"No," came the quick answer. Only a trained ear could have caught the fear hidden under the firm, decisive tone. "And you know why I can't. I'm still not sure it's even right for me to play God like this, but I know the technology is too dangerous to entrust to anyone else."

Malone sighed, but he really hadn't expected anything different. Professor Shepherd was, as he well knew, a man of principle and decision. "I understand," he admitted, "but it won't be easy to explain this to the folks at the Pentagon."

Shepherd nodded. "I'll assume full responsibility for the matter," he promised.

After a long silence, Malone got back in his truck and drove away.

Over the teeming search of Coast Guard, police, and army personnel, two helicopters met. A man leaned out of one with a bullhorn, hanging onto a grip inside with his other hand.

"Attention unidentified chopper!" he called. "By order of the United States Armed Forces, this is a restricted area! Leave immediately or you will be fired upon!"

Inside the chopper, General Parvo growled from the back. "Do as he says, Groomer," he commanded. "There's nothing more we can do here."

"Aye, sir." She set the controls to hover unattended for a moment, then leaned out the side and saluted to the other chopper. Returning to the controls, she brought theirs around and headed directly away from the incident.

"What about the cano-mutants?" she asked.

Parvo spat. "Let them rot for all I care. Eventually they'll return to their canine forms and be of no more concern. Those other mutants, though, they have me worried."

"There's only one man on earth who could be responsible," she answered, affirming his unspoken suspicion. "But Ah thought he was long dead."

"Yes, well, we'll have to settle that little oversight, won't we-he-ha-hach-hach-hach…!" Parvo broke into a coughing fit. "Losenge!"

Groomer drew a small, paper-wrapped pill from her pocket and threw it back to Parvo. "Ah ought tae make some sort of dispenser for those," she noted.

Parvo tore the wrapping off the cough drop, popped it into his mouth, and paused a moment before answering. "Yes, well, Shepherd's mutants may have won this battle, but I will have my revenge!"

His fist came down, demolishing the arm rest of his secluded seat in the back of the aircraft. Groomer winced at the thought of the damage, but then smiled as she pictured the future ahead for those interfering dogs.

"Aye, sir."

Aaaand, cut! That's a wrap, folks! Episode One of Road Rovers Rebooted!

For fans of the original, don't worry about the changed ending. I dare say I'll find a way for the Rovers to slip Parvo a bomb sooner or later.

My thanks to everyone who offered such encouraging feedback on the story. I'll keep my plans for episode Two to myself, but it should be good and will probably give more attention to developing the main characters. I'm still undecided as to when to bring Muzzle into the mix (since without him, certain episodes such as "Storm From The Pacific" and "Still a Few Bugs in the System" would be quite different), but ideally I'd like to give him his own all-new introductory plot.

My apologies that this chapter was kind of truncated. I meant to develop it more, but life got crazy and then I realized I was overdue to post. Not to worry; once I get to the next one I'll be sure to weave in the material I would have used here.