Author's Note: Hey, thanks for the reviews and favourites! Glad to see people liking this. Some people have managed to guess my original plot so ahem ahem, rewrite.
Zuma and Skye were playing water polo in the bay while Rocky was apparently in a giant hamster ball. Oh well, at least he was in, err, on the water. It's a start.
"Are you sure you don't wanna join in, dude?" Zuma looked over at his boyfriend lazing about in the ball. "It's totally hot today and you're just lounging about in the sun."
"You need to get over your fear of water, Rocky." Skye said as she did a front flip, hitting the polo ball over to Zuma. Zuma responded by using his muzzle to spin the ball, not unlike a seal, before tossing it back to Skye.
"No thanks, you two, but I'd much rather be safe and sound in here. You know how I hate water, Zuma." Zuma shrugged and continued his game with Skye. Skye had done two front flips this time and hit the ball back, but it bounced on the net and rolled over to the beach where it found Chase. With a thud the ball lay at his paws.
"Hey Chase, what's up? Wings!" At Skye's command, her pup pack sprang to life and emerged the familiar miniature jet engine, which Skye used to glide gracefully before doing a bunch of acrobatic moves, landing perfectly onto the ball. Chase smiled. Zuma and Rocky looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
"You want to come play water polo with us, Chase? It's a hot summer day and I think it's perfect for such a thing." Chase shook his head. "Thanks for the offer, Skye, but I've got something I need to discuss. See, it's about Marshall." Chase explained the situation to her. Rocky and Zuma also listened, eyes growing wide in concern.
"Oh dear. That does sound like a bit of an issue. Are we sure everyone's busy? You and me, Zuma and Rocky, Rubble and Ryder, Everest and either Jake or Mayor Goodway…it does seem like everyone is occupied." Skye got off the polo ball and started walking around on the sand, thinking. "Hmm…"
"Aw man, I can't believe we neglected Marshall all those months! Poor guy must be so sad, to see everyone else happy together and he himself has no one to go to." Zuma had gotten out of the water and was now falling Skye's example, hitting the polo ball idly. The ball bounced and hit Rocky's giant hamster ball.
"I think-" Rocky began to say, but before he could go further the tags on all of their collars beeped. "Rocky, Chase, Zuma, Skye. Report to the lookout." The four pups looked at each other, the same question in all their minds: Why only them? And why the difference in tone? Ryder sounded so serious. Regardless, all four pups ran as quickly as they could towards the lookout, heading into the elevator. Rocky, on account of his being in a giant hamster ball, couldn't stop in time and bowled over the other three, lying in a pile on the floor.
"Rocky, why are you even in a giant sphere anyway?" Asked Chase, exasperated.
"It's my waterproof water protection anti-water ball." Replied Rocky. "Remember when we cleaned up Adventure Bay for the Tidiest Town Competition? I saved all the plastic water bottles and made this." With that, the elevator started ascending, though when they reached the top, none of them were in their uniforms. Rocky was still in his hamster ball.
"Huh? This is weird. Where's my pup pack?" Asked Zuma.
"Rocky, what in the world is that thing?" Ryder and Rubble were standing next to the TV screen that they had many debriefings on.
"It's my waterproof water-"
"Never mind that!" Chase said, "PAW Patrol reporting for duty, Ryder sir! Sorry about not being in uniform, there seems to be an issue with…"
"I know, I disabled it. We're not going on a rescue, guys. We're here to discuss Marshall." Ryder plonked himself down onto a beanbag chair. "Did Chase tell you about the predicament yet?" All heads nodded in agreement. "Good, then we can move on to the next part: finding a solution for Marshall. Anyone have any ideas?" Unfortunately, no one did. It seemed like the entire town was busy on one thing or another. Half an hour passed before Ryder gave up and called the meeting to a close. Disappointed, the pups headed back down to their pup houses for the night.
"Oh, and that reminds me, PAW Patrol. A new pup would be coming in tomorrow. I'd like everyone to be up at 7 to greet him." At this, the pups immediately turned back, asking Ryder a flurry of questions.
"A new one? You said you would rather disband PAW Patrol!"
"Who is he? What's he look like?"
"Is he going to be replacing us? You'd need more than one pup!"
"Wait, you never told me about this! Ryder!"
Ryder raised his hand to get the pups to quiet down, which they did. "Everyone, I know this is rather sudden, but I promised you everything would be explained. Now please go to sleep; you'd need to rest if you want to be up and early in the morning." With that, Ryder headed back into his room, and the pups discussed this news excitedly all the way back down to their respective homes.