Chattachee, Georgia. Rowdy is standing at the edge of the protester crowd. He gets a running start and then begins to kinetically skid over the ground toward the anti-protesters. He's soon spotted by them and they hurl beer bottles and other debris at him. He skids closer and starts slapping faces and making rude gestures. This sends the hatemongers into a frenzy and some start to chase him. At the end of his skid Koji is standing there, grabs Rowdy and teleports away. Riot police surge forward and the hatemongers go ballistic. The pro-sapien counter protesters begin to retreat in the opposidte direction. Among this surge are the Rangers and the other Rover operatives. Tex rallies his friends together, he has to shout over the din to be heard

"Do what you can to diffuse this! Go!"

All eighteen of them scatter in different dirrections.

Tug the bison is seen among the crowd and he starts running over everybody. Samson notices and heads for him, Tug see's him and they make a beeline for each other and collide with such force, they bounce off each other. They pick themselves up and begin to circle each other, all the while the crowd streaming around them.

Meanwhile, Clyde the horse, of the Roughnecks jumps in from a roof, lands and shoves people out of his way. Sheila jumps in behind him, and using her tail to stay upright, kicks Clyde with both feet sending him sprawling. Clyde snorts with anger and confronts Sheila. Both jump into the air and fight each other as if in a kung-fu movie. Clyde goes for fighting room and jumps from building to building all the while with Sheila behind him. Clyde jumps away from a building towards Sheila, but she's prepared for it and spins in mid-air and strikes Clyde in the chest with her tail. He crashes to the ground, causing a small crater around him. He stays there groaning in pain as Sheila walks up.

"Your under arrest, mate."

Elvis the raccoon of the Roughnecks appears in the crowd and grabs a Neo-Nazi skinhead by the face and drains him of energy and he collapses in a heap. Another skin head comes at Elvis with a crowbar and swings but misses. Elvis grabs him and he also collapses. Taj suddenly appears in front of him.

"That's enough!" shouts Taj.

Elvis merely reaches out to tough him, but his hands pass through Taj. Elvis stands there with his jaw dropped and Taj boxes him in the ears. Elvis shouts with pain.

"I said that's enough!"

"Come here, dog!"

Elvis lunges for Taj but his fist passes through him and he sends himself to the ground. He quickly gets up and charges again, and passes through again. When he's cleared Taj's body, Taj grabs him by the his collar and slams him to the pavement. A karate chop to the neck finishes him off.

Jasmine and Chance are fighting side by side. Using her freeze breath, Jasmine is freezing the feet of the protesters to the ground, while Chance puts them to sleep with his mind control

A group of protesters has Beowulf backed against a store front.

"Let's get the freak!" one of them shouts.

As they surge forward, Beowulf unleashes his sonic boom clap, several times in an arc and they all go down in agony, holding there ears.

"Pathetic hatemongers."

Tala, in her monster form, has appeared. She's cornered a protester and raises her claws. But before she can rend him to ribbons, Buck appears and shapeshifts himself to look like Tala's equal; he tackles her. Tala gets up, furious and lunges at Buck, who sidesteps and Tala crashes head first into a brick wall, which causes Tala to revert back to her original form and notices Buck, who shifts back to his original form. Tala begins to crab-walk backwards in fear.

"No, no don't hurt me! Rowdy made me do it! I swear, I'm terrified of losing it in my other form!

Buck raises a hand to calm her down.

"Easy now, I'm not going to hurt you."

"Stay away from me!"

She gets up and runs away. Buck just stands there with a confused look.

Kiona has appeard in the crowd, and as police and protesters surge towards her she unleashes a tornado force wind at the crowd and most of them are knocked off their feet. She directs her wind at a store front and forces the front half of the building to collapse. But before the debris lands on people, Montana appears and uses his telekinesis to hold up the debris. Kiona directs her wind at Montana who's hard pressed to stay upright. Puffball grabs her from behind in a bearhug and headbutts her unconsious. Montana safely piles up the debris and cotinues on.

Some members of the Human League are trying to get at Felix the Lynx of the Roughnecks, but his forecefields prevent them from getting any closer. As if taunting them, he shuts down his forcefields, and they surge toward him. Mere feet in front of him he turns it back on the Human Leaguers bounce off and sprawl on the ground. Someone taps Felix's shoulder, he turns to find Rio amd Illanov there and before he can react, they both punch him out. Rio holds out his fist to Illanov and they bump fists.

"Amigo."

"Da, comrade."

Ling and Athena are fighting side by side, both ladies a whirlwind of punches and kicks. They find themselves all alone for the moment, a groaning pile of rioters around them.

"Where'd you learn to fight so well?" says Ling.

"Colleen, you?"

"Chinese Kung-Fu masters."

"I'm always looking to improve my style." says Athena "Can you teach me?"

"I'd be happy to."

Cody finds himself being confronted by a bat wielding Neo-Nazi with an over the top multi-colored mohawk. Cody shoots an electric bolt out his finger and and the skinhead drops the bat in a pained yelp.

"Riverdance, Mohawk!"

Cody fires more bolts at his feet and he's hard pressed to keep his feet from being shocked.

"Now git!"

Cody jolts him on his backside and he runs off yelping.

Tex and Blackjack are busy holding off their own rioters. They get seperated and Tex goes to help Blackjack who's on the ground being kicked by a rioter.

"That's enough!"

Tex grabs the rioter on the shoulder, turns him around and standing there is his mother, Mimi McCoy. Tex gasps in shock

"Mom?"

"Get you filthy paws off me you mutt!"

She moves to attack Tex but Blackjack judo chops her on the shoulder and she goes down unconsious.

"Sorry about that." says Blackjack

"Don't apologize. I guess it's inevitable that I'll come into conflict with my parents in the near future."

Blackjack sighs

"My random chance strike's again."

Riot Police and the Rovers are getting the upper hand. Rubber bullets, flash bangs, stun guns, batons, tear gas, and water hoses are deployed by the police and the protesters that haven't been incapacitated scatter out of the town. From the water hoses the police spray an unusal foam on the ground. Whenever someone's foot steps in it, the foam rises to encompass the foot up to the lower calf, sticking that person in place. But the damage is done, and downtown Chattachee is in ruins.

The Rangers and allies gather near the town hall, battered, bruised, but victorious.

"I was wondering when the police would use the new Riot Foam." says Beowulf

"Riot Foam? says McTeague

"It was invented by Wesley as a riot stopper." says Beowulf "And I'm glad to see it works."

"How do they get them out of that stuff?" says Amani

"A special spray that breaks it down. Look."

As one policeman cuffs a rioter, another uses a spray bottle on the Riot Foam covering his feet. It breaks up and the rioter is led away.

"Fascinating." says Puffball.

"Is everyone all right?" says Tex

"I'll let you know." says Samson, as he walks up, who's sporting a black eye.

"What happened to you?" says Cody

"Tug happened. But I got a little something out of it."

Samson holds up one of Tug's horns, broken off in the fight.

"Ah, so that was the bellow I heard." says Beowulf

"We managed to capture four of the Roughnecks." says Ling

"Who'd we get?" says Tex

"Clyde, Felix, Elvis and Kiona." says Blackjack

"And we captured quite a few wanted fellons." says Jasmine.

"Good job everyone." says Tex

Buck steps up to Tex

"I had an encounter with Tala."

"How'd it go?"

"She begged me not to hurt her. She said Rowdy was making her do it."

"And you let her go?" says Tex

Buck shrugs.

"Well, she may be right." says Blackjack "You've heard the report on her that Hunter gave us. She's terrified she'll lose control."

"Agreed." says Tex "But right now, we need to contact the Master."

"I'm ahead of you." says McTeague "I've got a video phone in my hotel room with a holographic display."

"Ah, lemme guess" says Amani, looking at Beowulf "Another invention of Mr. Hawk's."

"Is it that surprising?" says Beowulf

"This Wesley Hawk sounds like a genius." says Ling

"He is." says Beowulf

"Let's get going." says Tex

******

Unknown location, Roughneck hideout. The remaining Roughnecks are gathered here.

"Look at what that mutt did to my horn!" frets Tug

"Oh, quit complaining!" says Dakota

"Shut up, both of you!" says Rowdy "I wanna hear this news report."

*******

Sam McTeague's hotel room. All eighteen of them are crammed infacing a projector, a holographic screen hovering over the projector with the Master and the Rovers on it.

"Good to see you again Constable McTeague." says Master "Report Mr. McCoy."

"Chattachee has seen better days, sir. But we managed to capture four of the Roughnecks. Clyde, Felix, Elvis and Kiona."

"None of them are second generation." says Hunter "Have them transfered to our Georgia office so we can change them back."

"Yes sir."

Rommel runs into the room at Mission Control.

"We got it! Sheldon McCoy's benefactor! We get him, the Human League may dry up."

"I recomend when we confront this benefactor, that the team be entirely human." says McTeague.

"Agreed." says Master "And I know just who to send."

"Who do you have in mind?" says McTeague

"You, Amani, Wesley Hawk, Lisa McCoy, Corsair and Andrew Shpeherd. Rommel, be sure they have a copy of the information"

"Yes sir." says Rommel

"In the meantime, Tex, I want your Rangers to stay in Georgia for now in case the Roughnecks make trouble."

"Yes sir."

"Perfect." says McTeague "When they get here, we'll get right on it. Cheerio professor."

She cuts the connection.

"Ready when you are." says Amani

"Let's have a look at our bounties." says Buck

Tex shakes paws with Buck, Beowulf and Illanov.

"Thanks for you help."

"No problem." says Buck

"Glad to see action again." says Beowulf

"Da, comrade."

"Lets move out, Rangers." says Tex

Chattachee Georgia is in ruins, the Human League's benefactor has been identified. Who can it be? Read on in the next "Rangers" story.

to be continued.......