Hurricane Before Christmas

Chapter 1

It was two days before Christmas. Everyone throughout Adventure Bay was getting ready for the big day. There were dark clouds looming about Adventure Bay, but that didn't stop the Christmas spirit. Heck, an alien invasion couldn't destroy the cheer.

Chase waited on main street next to Katie's shop. He was wearing his dark blue jacket in addition to a red scarf. His paws were shuffling along the sidewalk as he paced back and forth. Rocky, who wore his green jacket and his familiar green and white cap, watched as the police pup paced to and fro. He was actually surprised that the sidewalk still held up.

"Chase, just relax," Rocky said, "They'll be here before you know it."

"I know that, but there are a lot of things that could happen." Chase stared determinedly at the freezing-cold sidewalk on which he paced. His ears twitched at that particular moment.

"Such as…?" Rocky, as skeptical as ever, raised an eyebrow.

"Well…" A snowflake fell on Chase's nose. He jumped around dramatically, his eyes wide and his voice hysterical. "They could get caught in a blizzard!"

"It's not snowing that hard."

"Over here it's not, but then Dad's hip could act up again, and you know how well that will play out."

"Not if your mother follows Miracle's instructions."

Chase stopped before he turned to Rocky. "I guess it is handy that your girlfriend's a nurse."

"Just like how yours is a pilot?" Rocky retorted, an amused light in his eyes.

Chase's eyes rolled to the sky as he sat down to ponder Rocky's response. Then he looked at Rocky and replied, "Touche."

Katie ran outside of the shop and over to the pups, "I'm really excited to see your parents again, Chase," she excitedly told the Shepherd as she approached.

"Me too," Chase replied, "And it's not because of Swift this time." After a second, he curled up a bit. "I hope Swift isn't after them…"

"Yeah, so meeting them under good circumstances will be good," Rocky told Katie for his friend and fellow pup.

"Unless something happens to them," he quickly chimed in.

"Yeah, Chase," Rocky said, rolling his eyes and ever-so-slightly smirking. "Look behind you."

Expecting the worst, maybe his parents being carried off by a wild tornado or Swift snarling at him, he turned around.

His parents smiled at him, in surprisingly close proximity. "Hello, Chase," Shayla, Chase's fair mother, greeted, "I've been looking forward to seeing you again."

"I have, too!" He enthusiastically nuzzled his mom's side. "I take it you got here okay?"

"Well, we had a few problems," Pace said, glancing at his hip, "but they weren't too troubling."

"That's good. It's great that you're here."

"And we brought along a few old friends."

"Who?" Chase tilted his head.

"Try a few of your teammates' parents," Shayla said.

Chase's jaw dropped, "No way, really?"

"Yeah, we happened to see Splotch and Scruffy on our way here, along with a few others."

"I bet Marshall will be excited," Rocky said, "I wish mine were here too."

Rocky suddenly felt Katie's hand stroke his fur. "I'm sure they would like the same thing."

"They would…" Rocky sighed, "I think I'm gonna go outside."

"Okay. And say 'hi' to Smoky for me when you see him."

"Uh-huh…" Rocky, considerably subdued, walked outside.

Marshall was at the top of City Hall replacing a few of the Christmas lights. Mayor Goodway noticed that an entire string of lights had shorted out, not very sightly in comparison to the rest of City Hall, which was lit up like a Christmas tree.

Out of nowhere, he heard a familiar voice yell, "Hey Marshall, how's the weather up there?"

Marshall glanced down at the source of the voice and saw three pups, namely Miracle, Skye, and Utsukushi. The latter was a white shiba inu pup with a big, brown spot on her back and green eyes that the Dalmatian pup could imagine seeing up there. "Hey girls, what's up?" he called down.

"You are," Miracle, a green-eyed Australian shepherd, joked from the ground.

"Hehe… So, what are you up to?"

"Skye and Miracle are taking me Christmas shopping," Utsukushi explained.

"Nice. Did you find anything?"

"Well, we did find a few things, but we still have more pups to shop for.," Miracle explained.

"Oh, okay then. Have fun."

"Thank you."

Marshall returned to his work, but not before he saw a certain gray pup walking their way, visibly down. "Oh, and Miracle, I think I see your next patient coming around the corner."

Miracle was brought to full attention. "Huh? Who is it?"

"It's Rocky, and he looks kinda down."

"Oh…" Miracle turned to the other girls, "I better go help him. I'll catch up with you, later."

"Okay," Skye said, smiling in that signature Skye way, "We won't be far."

Miracle ran off. She ran around the corner from where she came, and indeed saw Rocky in a rather depressed state. "Rocky? Is everything okay?"

"Huh," Rocky said as he looked up. He saw Miracle right in front of him. He stumbled backwards and faked a smile. "Uh, y-yeah. Never better."

Miracle frowned, "No, I know that look. Something is bothering you."

Rocky sighed, "I'm fine. Okay?"

"Rocky, you can tell me anything."

"What makes you think something's wrong?" Rocky retorted, a touch defensively.

Miracle rolled her eyes. "Because you aren't usually as clumsy as Marshall up there."

The white pup right then stumbled off the roof, landing on a trampoline with a short scream. Skye and Utsu approached, the former giggling squeakily and the other smiling serenely.

"I… I feel kinda… I don't know…"

"Rocky, what is it?"

Rocky looked down as he mumbled, "I wish my parents were here."

Miracle stopped momentarily, then dashed up to him to catch up. "I see, and what gave you that thought?"

Rocky looked up at Miracle. The look on his face was definitely of confusion, and was even a touch desperate for understanding. Somewhere in the background, Utsu shouted something in Japanese.

"I mean, don't take it the wrong way," Miracle celeriously amended. "I would like for everyone to be with their families, but what triggered that thought other than that?"

Rocky looked down. "Chase's parents are here, and they said some of the other pups' parents will be here, too."

"Oh. I see."

"Yeah. I sound pretty envious now, don't I?"

"No, actually you don't; I understand how you feel." Miracle walked closer to Rocky. "I'll never get that chance to to see my birth family because I don't even know where they are. And then my owners… Well… You know the story behind that."

Rocky sighed. A tear trickled down his eye. "I know, but at least you never saw your parents laying there dead."

Rocky began to walk away, but Miracle stopped him. "Well, that is true, but you still have Smoky, don't you?"

"And you have the rest of the team," Miracle said as she put one of her paws on his, "And me. We're all your family."

"But… I want my parents…"

"I know." She slowly pulled him into a hug. "But you'll see them again one day."

"But-"

"Besides, do you think your friends would want to celebrate Christmas with you looking like this?"

"Well… Uh…" Rocky lowered his head. "No."

"Then let's celebrate with the ones we do have with us."

Rocky sighed, "I guess…"

Miracle then pulled away. "By the way, where is Smoky?"

Rocky tilted his head. "I don't know."

"Well… It might help if you could find him…"

"That's exactly what I'll do. Besides, Katie did tell me to tell him that she said 'Hi'."

"Good," Miracle smiled, "I better catch back up with the other girls."

"Okay then. See ya back at the Lookout?"

"You know it."

"Alright. And if you see Smoky, let me know."

"I will."

And with that, both pups went their separate ways.

Miracle caught up with Skye and Utsukushi. "Is he okay?" Skye asked.

"Don't worry, he'll be fine," Miracle answered, "He just needed a little encouragement."

"That's good," Marshall chimed in from his bush.

"I hope he gets better soon…" Utsu sighed.

"I hope so too," Miracle replied expectably, "In the meantime though, where do we go next?"

"I think we'd better go to Hoss," Skye suggested, "There's some good stuff there."

"But isn't all that stuff last year's fashion?" Utsukushi asked.

Skye lowered her ears with a nervous smile. "Well, yeah, but at least everything's been reduced."

Utsu hmm-phed, "Why would anyone want to wear those old clothes?"

"I'd say the same thing about those who wear expensive clothes," Miracle retorted with a smirk.

Utsukushi rolled her eyes, "Some wear fashionable clothes better than others."

Miracle's smirk was immediately wiped away, replaced by a bemused look.

"So, shall we get going," Skye asked. "I don't want to keep Chase waiting."

Miracle raised an eyebrow. "And what do you two plan to do?"

"Just spend time with his parents, mostly."

"Oh yeah, Rocky did say that they're here, as well as Marshall's parents."

"Marshall's parents?" Utsu was curious.

"Yeah, and one of them is a retired member of the PAW Patrol.

"Hmm, did they serve with Chase's parents?"

"They did actually," Skye said, "And from what I heard, his mother was amazing."

"Interesting…"

The Australian Shepherd of the group nodded. "Yeah. I also heard that some of them did not leave on a friendly note."

"Oh?" Utsu asked, her eyes shooting even more widely open.

"Yeah, some of them apparently left."

"Why?"

"Well, some of them wanted to be associated with alley dogs, as Chase told me."

Utsu frowned, "What? Why on earth would they want to do that? Alley dogs?"

Miracle sighed wearily. "Because of some… things that some of the gangs do that the PAW Patrol would not tolerate."

"So...why would they want to associate with them?" Skye asked, frowning. "Did they just go bad?"

Miracle's white-tipped paws slapped a bit of snow aside. "Because some pups are just bad like that. Believe me, Chase knows."

Skye shuddered at the thought of the incident with Swift. That incident really was a nightmare, especially for Chase. Chase's worst nightmare.

"Anyway, let's get going," Miracle said. "The sooner we get done, the sooner Sky can get to her date."

Skye blushed at Miracles remark.

"And the sooner we get into that store, the sooner we can leave," Utsu added.

Miracle rolled her eyes, slightly annoyed with Utsu's answer. "Right… That too…"

"Well then, let's go."

Rocky found Smoky, sitting at The Lookout, looking over all the snow-covered rigs. He was an dark gray hybrid pup with a black patch over his left eye. He was holding a torn brown teddy bear; a very special teddy bear. He quietly walked over to Smoky.

When he was close enough, he finally greeted his brother, "Hey, Smoky."

Smoky turned suddenly and say his brother's face. "Hey Rocky," he greeted, his voice a little bit distant. The black pup, though normally quite bombastic, was certainly the type to get lost in things.

"Checking out the rigs?"

"Yeah. They look good with the snow on them." He smiled a bit dimly, his eyes a tiny bit unfocused. A tooth stuck out of his upper jaw.

Rocky chuckled, just standing next to the smaller pup and taking in the sight of his, Zuma's, and Rubble's snow-covered rigs. "That they do. So what's up?"

"Well… Uh… Nothing really," Smoky said, pulling his paw just slightly closer. It was the paw clutching the bear.

Rocky sighed. "It's Mom and Dad, isn't it?"

Smokey didn't answer. He just hung his head.

Rocky wrapped one of his forelegs around Smoky's coarse-furred back. "Hey, they're in a better place now."

"But I want them here right now."

"I know… I do, too, but right now, all we can do is celebrate with the ones who are here." Comforting the other pup made Rocky himself feel a bit better.

Smoky remained silent.

Rocky chuckled, "You know, Miracle actually called everyone in the PAW Patrol her family."

Smoky didn't react for a moment, then said, "Come again?"

"Well, she just sees all of us as her family, since she never really had one."

"What about those humans that raised her?"

"Maybe at first, but then they abandoned her-" Rocky stopped and sighed. "And then we took her in. Now she has home, pups who care about her, and even a job."

"Yeah… I guess we do, too… Maybe the PAW Patrol is our family, too…"

"Exactly, so even though our family isn't here, just know that we're surrounded by pups, and people, who care for us."

Just then, Zuma the chocolate lab darted up to Rocky and Smoky. He stopped just millimeters from the two. He looked rather distressed. "Wocky! Did you hear?"

Rocky and Smoky looked at each other, then Zuma. "About what?"

"About the pawents showing up."

Smoky tilted his head. "Yeah, I heard, but why are you-"

"Wowwied! That's because I am, dude!"

"Why?" Rocky asked, his paw unconsciously flying off of his brother.

"My parents hate each other!"

"Why do they hate each other?" Smoky asked.

"Because my mom betwayed the PAW Patwol."

Now it was Rocky and Smoky's turn to exclaim, "What?!"