Author's Notes (reading very recommended):

This fanfic is divided in three parts, each one having a different perspective and featuring different characters.

Team M: Marshall, Skye and Tracker.

Team R: Rocky, Zuma, and Robo-Dog.

Team C: Chase, Rubble, and Everest.

In all of these three parts, the POV will be the narrator's.

These story 'parts' will occur simultaneously in the story. This means that Chapter 1 of Team C will happen at the same time as Chapter 1 of Team R and Chapter 1 of Team M; the same applies with Chapter 2, and so on. Currently, you are in the Team M part of the story.

This also means that the chapters that feature two or three of the Teams will appear on their respective parts. This very first chapter features all three of them, so it will be on the three parts. However, there will be differences on each part depending on the part you're on. These differences can range from just one word, to entire paragraphs, so it is recommended to read all of the parts despite having repeated chapters.

In this AU fanfic none of the characters know each other, except for Marshall and Skye, who happen to be childhood friends. Rubble and Tracker also are acquaintances, but nothing more than that.

Since this fic was written before Tracker officially debuted on the TV Series, his personality and traits might be a bit off, although I guess it's going to be okay since most of the characters' personalities will be very different.

Disclaimers: Story based on the Zero Escape game series. Cast based from PAW Patrol. Both of which I do not own.


[M] DISPERSION [1]

It was too dark to see anything clearly, but it could be assumed that this was quite a small room, with a large barred door from which a light from a lamp could be seen.

The floor felt very cold and uncomfortable, like if it was made from pure, cold iron. Inside this very small room, where three dog puppies were inside, all submitted to slumber.

Suddenly, one of them opened their icy blue eyes, stretching his paws, feeling the cold metallic floor. His body felt disoriented, and his vision was slightly blurry.

The Dalmatian didn't take long to figure out he wasn't sleeping in his comfy bed back at his dog house, in Adventure Bay.

"Whoa... Where...?" He was very confused. It felt very different to any location he had ever been to.

A male voice with a rather Mexican accent greeted him. "Hola!" It came from what looked like a male Chihuahua. Apparently he spoke both Spanish and English fairly fluently. "It's good to see other pups here."

Despite the dark atmosphere, the Chihuahua seemed rather calm, which looked a little bit suspicious to the Dalmatian. "Where are we?".

The brown-eyed dog moved his head sideways. "No lo sé. What I know is that we aren't supposed to be wherever we are."

The spotty dog took a look around the room once again, turning around to look everywhere. The first thing he noticed is that there were another rooms beside the one they were trapped in. There were two cell rooms that looked just like this one, connected by a circular room at the center. To the opposite side he could see a very dark and long hallway, but he couldn't make to see anything else.

Turning his head to the right, he found the third dog. She looked just like a Cockapoo with a light cream fur. She was sleeping very peacefully, but she suddenly woke up, revealing her pink eyes. The female dog gazed at the Dalmatian.

"W-Who are you...? And what is this place...?" she asked.

The spotty dog didn't take time to answer. "I'm Marshall... And well, I don't know."

The Chihuahua heard the conversation and took the chance to introduce himself. "Soy Tracker. I'm with Marshall: I don't think we should be here..."

She was so impressed by the bilingual trait of the Mexican dog called Tracker, she curved her lips upwards, smiling. Her white, healthy teeth could be seen from afar.

While the Cocker hybrid was talking to Tracker, also revealing her name – Skye – the Dalmatian named Marshall took a look beyond the grated door.

The left side showed a cell room, a German Shepherd could be seen behind the metal bars. The dog apparently was talking to the dogs on the Dalmatian's right side: A dog with a chocolate colored fur and greenish brown eyes, and a grey dog that didn't seem to have a particular race. Marshall couldn't see his face since the dog was facing back. However, he could perfectly hear their voices.

"Just how many pups awe thewe?" Asked the chocolate Labrador. He had a very particular way of speech that seemed to bite Marshall's curiosity.

"From the looks of it, nine pups in total" The German answered to the dog on the other side. "Three in my cell, three in your cell, and I presume there are other three in that one."

Marshall reached forward, revealing himself from behind the bars. "Uh, what's wrong with your voice? And yes, we are nine in total."

The Labrador bit his lip. "Well… I kinda have a speech impediment, so..." The mutt quickly responded, interrupting him. "Rhoticism, right? It's when you can't pronounce the R sound. Most of the times it sounds like if it were to be an W sound." The chocolate dog did nothing but speechlessly nod to him, with a surprised look.

There was a bit of silence. Marshall looked back at Skye and Tracker, who were staring at him, or probably paying attention to the conversation. Nevertheless, the Cockapoo stepped forward, like if she wanted to have a chat with the dogs out there. The Dalmatian moved aside, giving enough space for her to reach out and greet to the other dogs.

"Maybe we should introduce ourselves, so we can know a bit about each other..." She put one of her paws to her chest, in a way of introducing herself. "My name is Skye. What are your names?"

One by one, the identities of each of the pups were revealed, apart from the ones from the room where Marshall, Skye and Tracker were.

Inside the German Shepherd's cell, whose name was Chase, were the rather buff yet young bulldog named Rubble and the lavender Husky named Everest. Her presence seemed to be quite cold, just like her name.

The grey mutt introduced himself as Rocky, and the chocolate Labrador as Zuma. However, it seemed like there was a third dog, that looked like a robot, according to Zuma.

"What about you, wobot dog?" Zuma decided to ask the robot himself. "What's youw name?"

The robot made a beeping sound that could be heard from Marshall's room, which sounded to be like if it were to be 'processing' what he heard. In a matter of two seconds, some sounds could be heard from his bark. "Robo-Dog", he said. "Call me Robo, please."

There was a bit of an unsettling silence for a while, which made it easier for every pup to hear the footsteps coming from a hallway that connected to the prison vault. They seemed like footsteps from a human. "Oh, oh! Are we going to get rescued?" said Skye with a joyful smile.

However, the human's voice destroyed that positive thought. "Unfortunately, that's the wrong answer. Actually, I'm your enemy."

The bulldog, who had been silent all this time, spoke with a loud and low bark. "Who the hell are you?!"

The human seemed to be a man… Or not? It was hard to tell because he was wearing a dark robe with a theater 'laughter' mask. The voice seemed odd, as well, so it was very hard to determine their gender. His presence was very... Dark, especially since they came from the very dark corridor at the opposite side of the spotty dog's cell.

"You may call me Y. And I'll be your host of The Game." All of the pups were very confused. What did they mean?

Only Chase was brave enough to speak. "What game?", he replied in a very serious tone. The masked human took a few seconds governed by silence to answer. He then showed a coin that was hidden under his sleeve.

"Twenty-three days ago, a man was killed. As a result, a dog was falsely convicted to the murder and consequently sacrificed, his lawyer would later kill herself after realizing her mistake. A taxi driver had an accident along with his passenger, a vet surgeon. The puppy who awaited a critical operation also perished. The vet, due to his negligence, started a fire at his apartment, killing five people, including himself. Why did these nine people die? Because of a puppy. A single solitary puppy caused the deaths of nine people. Life is simply unfair; don't you think?"

Everyone was speechless. Nothing that the masked person just pouted out made any sense. Almost everyone who were close to the door tilt their heads in deep confusion.

"Today, the truth of these unfortunate events will be revealed, justice will finally be made, and the future will be decided. All of this will happen in The Game."

Despite Y's declaration, the pups still didn't understand what was going on, or what they've just heard. However, one thing was clear to them: They were going to play a game with the person who kidnapped them, and it would start very soon.

"I'll explain the rules of The Game now." The masked man announced as he showcased the white coin to everyone who was looking. The only ones who didn't see the coin were Robo and Everest; they weren't looking at the perpetrator, who after a few seconds proceeded to throw the coin.

The metal coin spun fast in the air, causing it to reveal its two sides. One was the white side that every pup could see. The other, which remained unknown to them, was black. With such spinning, it seemed like both colors were overlaying each other, forming a dark shade of gray. Black and white, imposing each other on each side, like light and darkness, but like a yin-yang, their destiny depended on each other.

Nevertheless, after the edge of the coin hit the floor, bouncing just one time, the man in black stepped on top of the spinning coin to stop it, hiding it under his foot.

"It is not possible to know which side was up and which one was down. But you can take a guess – in fact, you must take a guess." Said the evil human. "If you guess right, you will win the game and I will set you free."

That was very confusing, but very comforting. Marshall and Skye sighed of relief.

However, Chase was suspicious. "Are you serious you'll make me believe that?" He lowly growled.

Y looked at Chase. It was impossible to figure out the emotion behind Y's look, as it was completely hidden by the mask. The mask made them seem to be lifeless, emotionless, hopeless.

"You would sleep for twenty-three minutes and twenty-four seconds. After that, you would wake up back at the lookout in Adventure Bay as if nothing happened."

That was very specific statement. Chase still had his doubts, but he was interrupted by Rocky. "So what if we guess wrong? What if we lose?"

There was a short silence, but Y gave an emotionless response. "The game will not end until at least six of you die."

Everyone except Robo and Chase gasped. Marshall bit his lower lip very hard. Chase maintained his serious look, whilst Robo's look was still lifeless. The masked man called Y opened his arms wide open.

"So, what it will be? Will it be white? Or black?"


The pups started arguing. Zuma, Marshall and Rubble took a wild guess right away and said their preferred option: "It's black!", "No, it's going to be white!", "It'll be white!"

Rocky, Skye and Tracker said that it was very risky, that there was a 50% chance of guessing right. Chase, Everest and Robo merely didn't say anything.

Y stopped the argument, taking the attention again, by yelling the name of a certain dog.

"Chase. What's it going to be?" Y asked. "You will choose for the entire team. You have to."

Marshall yelled at him "Choose white!", while at the same time, Zuma yelled at him "Choose black!". All of the pups started yelling again, encouraging him to take a decision.

Skye was deeply gazing at Chase, who started sweating due to the tense atmosphere and the riskiness of his choice. The Shepherd started looking frenetically at all dogs.

After a couple of dozens of seconds, Chase finally let an answer.

"…White."

The pups stopped quarreling, now deeply looking at him. Marshall didn't quite hear his answer: "Sorry, what?" He asked.

"…It's going to be white!" Chase yelled with determination and authority. He started clenching his teeth.

All of the pups now gazed at Y's foot. What they felt in a matter of seconds, which felt like minutes, were huge waves of pure fear and tension, despairingly hoping for the white side of the coin to be up. Their hearts were racing like they had never experienced. They were sweating heavily. Except for Robo, who was just emitting some smoke, apparently his body temperature was rising heavily.

There was just a fifty percent chance that the shiny, light white side of the coin would be up. At first it seemed like a very high chance of that they would guess it right. However, now that Chase gave an answer, that number seemed to be very small. It seemed like it would be more likely that the cold and dark black side of the coin would be up.

Every pup in the metallic cell rooms felt like their heart skipped a beat when the foot of the dark man started revealing the coin…

The side that was up... was black.

It seemed like time returned back to normal. Rocky, Zuma and Tracker gave out a huge gasp, with shocked eyes. Marshall had a somewhat grossed-out kind of look, like he couldn't accept what happened. Rubble and Skye deeply stared at Chase, with a very angered expression. The German Shepherd looked down, with a very guilty expression. Everest looked sad after hearing the dogs' reaction. Robo started beeping, like he was yelping in shock.

"Damn you, Chase!" The bulldog Rubble cursed the Shepherd, hitting his back paws on the floor.

"Don't blame him!" Rocky objected to Rubble. "There was a 50% of chance of getting it right. We were just… Unlucky."

Silence, again, apart from the constant beeps of Robo. Rubble, annoyed, let out a huge roar. "Tell that iron dog to shut the fuck up!"

The beeps were gone. One second after that, Y finally spoke again.

"You have lost the coin toss. Therefore, The Game will continue until at least six of you are dead." The masked man revealed from the sleeve where the coin was not hidden in, a remote with a yellow button. "Now, it is time for you to sleep. When next you wake, I will keep explaining the rules of The Game."

Marshall extended one paw, passing through the metallic gate, but it was way too short to reach the masked man's legs. Despite that, he yelled. "W-wait! This can't be over ye-"

A click could be heard. That evil masked man pushed the yellow button. Half a second after that, he mentioned his last words before turning back, heading straight to the dark hallway.

"Sleep well, pups."

Hissing sounds came from above the center of the room. It looked like it was coming from a circular hole that no puppy had noticed before, at the ceiling of the circular center room.

Suddenly, the trio from the room opposite to the dark hallway started feeling tired. Their legs shook, feeling weak. Skye whimpered, and fell asleep very quickly. The Chihuahua cursed the man who had played with the dogs. "Bastardo..." Without any remaining strength, he subdued to slumber.

Marshall could stay awake for a little while more, looking at the room, he saw how some of the puppies had already gone to the world of dreaming. The only pups who could see were awake where the Labrador, the mutt and the Shepherd.

Eyelids half closed, Zuma stretched his paw, trying to get to the lock of the metal grate. "D-damn you, Y..." Those were his last words before falling asleep.

It didn't take look before he couldn't handle staying awake anymore. He lost balance, with his eyes almost completely closed, he was on the verge of sleeping. Eventually, he stopped moving, and his eyes closed shut.

He imagined that whenever he woke up, he would most definitely not be back home.