Anubis Kruger had no idea the dark secrets the Road Rover project had been hiding at the time. When the truth came out, and Interpol scrapped the entire project, Kruger had somehow managed to retain his position in the organization. There had been investigations, and those had cleared him of any wrongdoing, and frankly he would have understood the whole affair just as much if they’d said it had all been his fault.
But even now, years later, he was still under a great deal of scrutiny. Rangers under his command operated with the unspoken assumption Kruger was true cano-supremacist and looked for evidence to the fact retroactively. Even canines on his team either transferred when they realized their commander wasn’t going to favor them unfairly, or made complaints that they thought he was.
Meanwhile cases piled up, work went undone, and the big threats, the ones normal Rangers weren’t equipped to handle, were unchecked. What he needed was another group, like the Rovers, who could operate more independently. Just… not dogs. Something diverse. Something that would reach out to the community, make them look good--maybe not anything as transparent as ‘teens with attitude’ but in that general direction. And if they were equipped to take down the likes of Grifforzer, Rouki, and Terror Toad? Then that was two out of three of his problems solved.
If they were willing to ‘relax’ with him, the same way the Rovers had used to do? Then that was three out of three of his problems solved. -----
Marrying the two depictions of Kruger was maybe not as difficult as I made it out to be at the time. He’s pretty much ready-made furry bait already, and there are plenty of depictions of him on FA I could’ve referenced. But, I think it still works out.
I like this one enough I put a fair bit of effort into fixing, and the original poses were easy enough to alter without needing to redraw entire sections. And I fixed Fox’s tiny, scrawny tail. ...And now it looks too big, but other people reassure me it looks fine.
It wasn’t until I did this remaster that I figured out what it is these two are even talking about. I kept it vague and noncommittal in the original. But now I have the lore built up I have somewhere to put them.