Exposure
Chapter 7
Rocky's POV
As we hit the beach, Ryder tells us we need to head to the Beach Tower. It rises up from the sand, and I wonder when the boy had time to install it under the sand. I digress though, giving it too much thought would hurt my brain, so I dash inside with the other pups; Zuma, Rubble, and Skye. We change into our Sea Patrol gear, and Ryder commands Robo Dog to dispatch the Sea Patroller toward Foggy Bottom. The giant ship shoves off the shore, and we're off toward the island where we hope our pal Chase is waiting for us. The ride itself doesn't take long, but it feels much longer as my worries for the shepherd evolve into pacing around the interior. It's like I'm trapped in my head. The pups stare at me like I'm crazy, but I don't care, this is my Ex we're talking about, a pup who I still really care for.
Once we arrive at the gloomy island, we all hop off and immediately head toward the beach's right side, since that's where Mayor Humdinger's lair is. Unless he changed it, but I doubt that. Our former hunch turned out to be correct. The giant boulder sat there in front of the entrance, as obvious as ever, and all of us hide behind some nearby rock formations to formulate a strategy.
"Alright, pups... " Ryder claps his hands together, "why don't we wait till he comes out of the lair?"
"Wyder~ that's bowiiing~" the lab whines, stomping his paw. "Let's just dive in, and worry about the west later."
"Okay, Zuma, why don't you try and move the boulder down there?" the boy asks, pointing toward the massive object blocking their infiltration point.
Zuma sighs in defeat. "Eh, fine, Wyder, I get it..."
"I know! I can move it!" Rubble says, excitement oozing in his tone.
Ryder shrugs. "Thanks for the support, Rubble, but the Sea Patroller doesn't carry your normal vehicles, remember?"
"Right..." he whimpers in response.
"Look!" I say, pointing toward the boulder, "it's moving!"
"What?!" everybody else says in unison as they avert their dumbfounded expressions at the rock moving out of the way.
"H-he's opening it? Just like that?" I ask in a hushed tone, partially hiding behind the rock formation with the others.
The boulder rolls over in a slow pace, and once finished, it sits there, nobody stepping out to say "Hi" or anything.
"Let's move," Ryder says, motioning for us to follow him in. Oh boy, my heart is beating fast, and I don't think I'm ready for this. To see Chase trapped in there... with the evil Humdinger. I shiver as I get off the rock formation and onto the warm sand. Ryder stops us for a moment. "Hold up... Rubble, stay here. We need a pup on the outside in case something happens to us."
The bulldog nods and whimpers. "I don't wanna be here all alone, though."
With a sigh, Ryder kneels next to him and says, "Alright, I'll stay back here with you. Pups, go on without me."
We continue onward toward the darkness inside the lair. As we step inside, it brightens up a bit, but not by much. I see Humdinger sitting in his chair in front of the huge monitor. He spins around like a menace, nice and slow, antagonizing all of us. "Hello, everyone, fancy seeing you in Foggy Bottom."
"Where's Chase?!" I yell, stomping my paw down. Not to mention... where are his kitties, too?
The mayor shrugs. "I don't know. Why would I hide him in such an easy location?"
I glance around at the other pups, looking for answers. "Ummm, I dunno, but I have a feeling he's here. Otherwise, where else would you put him?"
Humdinger shrugs. "Not in my lair perhaps~?" he cooes.
I growl. "I know he's here!" I sniff the air, "I can smell his scent!"
The mayor's eyes widen for a moment but return to normal as if they never grew big in the first place. "I-I see..."
I squint my eyes. "Hmmmm, well, I'm going to have a look around..." I say as I maneuver around the vile fiend, piercing my gaze into his own like daggers while I prowl the area.
Sniffing every corner, the scent wafting into my nose, I notice that it's strongest when I reach the far end. My head whips over to the mayor, and then this suspicious wall, and then back again. The last time I glance at the mayor, he looks nervous, his fingers near his mouth, and the crevices creased with worry. Heheh, I think I hit the jackpot. "Hey guys, come over here! I think I found Chase's location..." I yell with a smirk.
"Alwight!" Zuma says, wagging his tail as he trots over to my postion along with Skye. The cockapoo yips as she follows suit. I gesture toward the control panel needing a passcode. Both of them give each other confused expressions. I don't blame them. I don't know what to do about this other than persuade Humdinger to hand us the code.
"Humdinger! Code! Now!" I bark, my tone demanding and hopefully quite frightening.
The mayor jolts in surprise at my sudden tone switch. "E-eh, I don't know if I can just hand it you, you know?"
I growl and stomp over to him, my posture lower to the ground and steps slowed for dramatic effect. "Password!" I shout, "now!" I stomp my paw down and sit, glaring at him.
The mayor takes his foot and slams it into my side, causing me to yip and tumble across the hard floor. I hear the pups' gasping as I roll, the floor banging into my front and hind legs; this is makin' me dizzy...
"Wocky!" Zuma shouts, his voice cracking with concern.
"I'm coming Rocky! We'll save you!" Skye says, beginning to dash at me while the lab heads for Humdinger.
Zuma rushes in to attack the mayor, first biting his leg, making Humdinger yelp in pain as he tries to wriggle the lab off of him. Zuma holds fast, though, and doesn't budge no matter how much vigorous shaking he has to endure. "Graaaah~! Get off of me, mutt!" Humdinger shouts. While he's busy dealing with Zuma, Skye is helping me with the dull, aching pain in my side. She doesn't do much other than help me up, at least. Now on my feet, I head on over to Zuma to help him out, forcing the password out of the mayor should be easy now with the three of us. I watch as Skye beats me to it, since she didn't just get kicked in the side by a massive, overweight foot, and the cockapoo jumps into the fray with a chomp to the mayor's other leg. A smirk forms over my muzzle: only one place left to snatch, and it sure ain't going to be pretty...
I charge in, with one intent in my mind: leave him unable to make babies, heheh. Taking aim, I leap upward, latching onto his groin and biting down, hard. Of course, he yelps really loud, and it pleases me. To hear this evil excuse of a man yelling as I bite his balls off is music to my ears~. He begins to dance like some African tribe, lifting his legs up one by one, flailing his arms around, and overall sounding, looking, and acting like a complete idiot. This is hilarious. I chuckle through the pants I'm currently chewing on, but I know I won't last very long, since the erratic movements Humdinger makes are becoming too much to bear. I glance over to Zuma and Skye, and I do a double take as I observe that one pup is missing. A lighter colored pup. Oh, okay then, if it was Zuma I would've cared a lot more.
At long last, my fun ends as one more shake throws me off too, and I watch in slow motion as I fall to the floor, but the damage has already been done. Zuma, to my surprise, is still hanging on and pissing off Humdinger. Lucky. While that's going on, I'd like to continue my torture session in another manner: manipulation. "So... Humdinger, how do those balls feel?
"Ahhhhh! Please~ get him off of me!"
"Perhaps. On one condition. The. Pass. Word." I smirk.
"N-never!"
"Zuma," I say, my voice monotonous as I glance over to the lab. "You know what to do."
As if he was a robot directly taking orders, Zuma chomps down harder on the mayor's leg. The man yelps in response, and I swear I can see tears in his eyes. I think he'll break any moment. He's endured enough already.
"Ah! Ah! Please stop! I'll tell you! I'll tell you! Just get this mutt off of me~!"
"Zuma," I say again, the lab obeying my command by letting go of Humdinger's leg.
The mayor lets out a sigh of relief. "Thank you..." he recomposes himself, "now, the password is... 1-"
"Wait!" I say, dashing toward the suspicious wall with the panel. "Alright, go ahead." Glancing over to Humdinger, I await the next number.
He clears his throat. "Ahem. 2."
I nod and press the buttons 1 and 2.
"3..."
Lemme guess, 4, right? I think to myself as I punch the number in.
"...5"
What. The. Fudge. Who the hell does that if it's going to be that predictable? I type in the rest of the numbers, and I hear a ding as the wall splits down the middle. Apparently, it looks like an elevator. It probably is one. "Zuma," I call out, "let's go, we have a shepherd to save!"
The lab nods and runs after me into the elevator, leaving the mayor wounded and rubbing his nuts in the dust. Once we make it inside, there's no panel to show which level it heads up or down to, so we just watch it close and hope for the best. It heads down, at a relatively fast pace, and it shoots downward for a loooong time. Well, a long time for an elevator, I suppose. After the ding, the doors slide open again, and it's here that I realize we left Skye upstairs. I shrug. She'll be fine.
A hallway sits in front of us, patience being its middle name while awaiting our arrival. Silence looms in the air. There are metal doors in rows on both sides, with small glass window panes. My curiosity grows, and I approach the first one, nodding to Zuma for a little lift. It sucks being short. As he climbs atop my shoulders, causing pain in the crook of my neck, I wince a bit, but I bear with the pain. Since this is important, we need to check what's inside these rooms, Humdinger wouldn't have them here for no reason at all. Peering inside, the lab notices it's a blank slate, a room of no color with metal walls. Zuma and I look into each room. Every time a bit of hope gets chucked out the window as the growing realization that Chase might not be here becomes more evident.
At long last, we reach the final room on the right-hand side. At this point, our hope has left the building and is decking it far away from Adventure Bay, but something is different about this room; I guess you could call it a gut feeling, a hunch, but I have a feeling there's gotta be something in one of these rooms. Zuma and I do our thing, and this time I hear the lab gasp. He nearly topples over, but I steady ourselves and keep him leaned against the door, but... he's desperately trying to climb down. Speechless, he motions for me to climb up instead, and I nod with a gulp, knowing all too well what I might expect.
Chase. My throat goes dry. I feel tears welling in my eyes, but I bat them away. He's lying there, hogtied, gagged, whimpering and staring at the wall. Even though he's showing emotion elsewhere, his eyes are dull, lifeless orbs. I'm going to kill Humdinger for this. "Ruff! Ruff! Hammer!" I yell, my pup pack complies to the command and brings forth my trusty tool. Cocking it back and forward, it shatters the glass, the shards flying outside and inside the room. They clink and clatter against the floor, and I watch the shepherd, but he doesn't even flinch. I frown. I pick and poke the leftover pieces still attached to the pane and try to squeeze inside. This is where being small comes in handy, at least. As my four paws hit the floor, still no reaction from the other pup. I sigh and walk up to him, lying down to his eye level. "Hey," I say, petting his head gently, "I always knew you were into this kinda stuff." I chuckle, it probably sounding a bit more nervous than I wanted it to.
This time his eyes glimmer, and he mutters something, rolling his eyes at the muffled sounds that escape instead. Or perhaps, he rolled his eyes due to my corny joke. I shrug. Who knows?
"Let's get you outta here, okay?" My voice is sweet and calming. I mustn't alarm him. He needs every bit of his sanity.
The shepherd nods; I use my scissors to cut off the ties, rip off the duct tape, and reach in to grab the disgusting socks in his mouth. He picks himself up, a little woozy and stumbling a bit, but other than that, he shakes himself off with renewed vigor. Somewhat. "Thanks," he heaves as he notices his mouth is a desert, "I'll... thank you later..."
I smile, nod, and recognize immediately a slight obstacle in our path. How do we get out? "Chase, your zipline?"
The shepherd hums and shoots out his zipline, opting for softer barks to call it out. Once he shoots it just above the open window pane, he has me ride it first. Then, as I land on the floor outside the room, I await Chase to follow, and he does. I smile, finally willing to feel an emotional rush taking over. My eyes leak tears as I embrace the shepherd. He's startled, but he wraps my arms around me in an instant. All this fear, fret, and worry, melt out of my eye sockets, knowing he's safe. He's in my arms. But... he isn't mine. I let go, my tears drying up and replacing themselves with only a few sniffles. Zuma casually goes in and hugs the shepherd for a brief moment, and then releases him with a sheepish smile.
With a sigh of relief, I lead Zuma and Chase back over to the elevator, and we go up back to the lair. As we step out, Skye is guarding Humdinger, snarling. Heheh, so she is useful for something after all. I nod my head at the cockapoo, and she scans us, eyes Chase, and yips. "Chase! You're okay!"
The shepherd nods, flashing her a half-moon smile, looking away. With that, the four of us begin to walk out of the lair with our dignity and pride intact. Humdinger has been deduced to nothing, and before we leave, I glance at the pathetic man, but something's off. Is he... smirking? No... can't be. I gotta be seeing things. He's lost. As we step outside onto the beach, the sand cold with fog all around us, I couldn't tell if it was still daytime or not. I'm assuming it's the late afternoon. Needless to say, though, I'm exhausted... hey, wait, where's Ryder and Rubble? I dart my head around, looking for any sign of them, but they aren't here at all. "Hey, guys... Ryder and Rubble are gone..."
Zuma growls in frustration. "I'm going to whip Humdingew weal good this time, dude!"
I reach my paw out to the lab. "Wait, wait, wait, I don't think he has anything to do with this. Let's call Ryder." My pup-tag blinks. I cock my head, confused, but I answer, "Rocky here."
"Rocky? It's Ryder. I need you, Skye, and Zuma in town right away, I think we have a situation here."
I take a deep breath, and I hear the other pups gasp. "What happened?"
"Humdinger's kitties are wreaking havoc all over."
"Now I'm weally going to get him!" Zuma yells, turning around to stomp inside once more.
"No," I say, my voice sharp and cold. "We help Ryder. Take out our frustration on our work, not him. We need to move. Now."
The lab slowly whips back around, a knowing frown on his face. "I'm sowwee."
"It's alright. You can make it up to me when we go save the town." I begin to trot over to the Sea Patroller, and the other pups do the same. Wait a minute... how did Ryder get back? "Ryder? We're going to head over now, but how did you get back?"
"Air Patroller. Robo Dog is back in the Sea Patroller for you pups. I'll see you when you get here."
"Understood. See you soon, Ryder." I dash down to the Sea Patroller, time being crucial here, and I glance behind me to see Zuma and Skye helping Chase walk to the Sea Patroller. I bite my lip. I feel bad... but, we need to move, it's either him or a dozen people. I halt in my tracks, pondering and humming to myself. "The faster I get him into the boat, the faster we can leave," I mutter to myself as I dash back to my Ex. The three of us get him into the Sea Patroller, and without a moment's hesitation, Robo Dog stepped on it toward Adventure Bay.
