Disclaimer: I do not own PAW Patrol or any of its characters. I only own Blight.

Marshall

Being stuck in a cage did a number to Everest, and I worry for her.

Being used to the great outdoors, Everest did not cope well with the limited space. The fact that we had no confirmation that our friends are okay isn't helping either.

Honestly, I don't blame her. We heard nothing of our friends whatsoever, and no one had come to our cell. The bars were rather sturdy, and nothing we did made a dent. I've always dreamed of being alone with Everest, but the situation was...less than ideal.

The next morning, we found a bowl of slop in our cell. Everest didn't touch it. Neither did I. However, I knew that if it came to it, we would need to eat whatever that disgusting slop was to prevent ourselves from starving.

Note the word 'if'.

Around an hour passed before my nose picked up a familiar scent. The sewer grate in front of our cell creaked open slowly before Blight and Skye exited it, their fur wet with...I don't even want to know what they were wet with.

"Uugh, that sucked," Skye coughed out some sewer water. "Good thing no one had to bear that boring trip besides us."

Everest yelped in joy upon seeing them, "Skye! You escaped?"

"Never caught in the first place," Blight grinned. "Girl's lucky she's so small. Now quiet down, you don't want them hearing us do you?"

"The door's a traditional one," I said. "I don't think you'll have much luck hacking it."

"Who said anything about hacking?" Blight raised his front paw to reveal several sharp claws. "If you live my life, you'll learn quickly that you can't just rely on a single skill, no matter how good that skill is."

It took a few minutes, but eventually, Blight successfully opened the lock with his claws.

"The sweet air of freedom!" Everest exclaimed. "I was getting claustrophobic in there."

"We're not out of the woods yet," Blight stated. "We need to find the rest of the PAW Patrol first."

"How did you know we're here anyway?" I asked.

"I hacked one of their phones on the way out," Blight said. "They didn't have a complete map of the place inside, of course. But I figured out the general direction of the holding cells from texts."

"Detective Blight indeed," I smiled, remembering one of Chase's jabs on the wolf.

"No detectives here," Blight said. "Only a guy trying to survive. Come on, no time to waste. Let's bust out the rest of your friends."

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After a while, we have freed most of our friends, including Ryder. However, 2 of us remain missing.

"Where's Chase?" Skye asked worriedly as we checked the last chamber in the hallway of cells. "And Rocky? Why aren't they here?"

I sniffed the room, "They were definitely here before, maybe they got taken to another place?"

"Zane likes to talk others to his side," Blight said. "But I'm pretty sure he prefers talking to only one person at a time. More personal, you know?"

"Yeah," Ryder said. "He tried to talk me into helping him before."

"So either he made an exception for them both," Blight reasoned. "Or..."

"Why do I have a feeling that I don't want you finishing that sentence?"

"No use in worrying for now," Blight turned to face us. "This place is way too big to cover, we need to split up."

"Again?" Rubble asked.

"Yes, again," Blight said. "It's not just about covering more ground either, roaming in a group will just make us easier to spot."

"And this is no place for children," Blight looked at Rubble and Zuma specifically when he said that.

"Hey, you ain't getting wid of us that easy dude," Zuma protested. "We wanna help!"

"You can help by leaving the building," Blight said calmly. "Putting age aside, you and Rubble are both terrible at sneaking around. If you get caught, you might compromise all of us."

Blight looked at Ryder. "Can you bring them outside? No offense, but humans aren't nearly as good as tracking others down."

"None taken," Ryder faced Zuma and Rubble. "Come on pups, let's get out first."

"Just because you're leaving doesn't mean you're excused from helping us out," Blight added upon seeing the two's reluctance. "Call the police if I give the signal. Or maybe the fire department, who knows what'll happen in here?"

Finally, they conceded. "What's the signal?" Rubble asked.

"You'll know when you see it," Blight said. "Though, I guess that if stuff starts blowing up, it's a no brainer, huh?"

"You aren't gonna blow anything up, are you?" Skye asked worriedly.

"Wasn't planning on it," Blight shrugged. "But again, who knows?"

"You both," Blight pointed to me and Everest. "Go together. I'll go with Skye. Any questions?"

No paws were raised.

"Good," Blight grinned. "Let's go."

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After taking down the guard standing at the entrance of the holding cells (and throwing him into one of the said cells), we parted ways. Ryder brought Rubble and Zuma outside, Blight and Skye went upstairs while Everest and I went to the basement.

It was just like when we were in the abandoned mansion, except this place was significantly less abandoned.

Many guards roamed the hallways in search of potential intruders. I didn't have any difficulty in sneaking past most of them, being skilled in pup-fu, but I worried for Everest at first. However, it turns out that my worries weren't necessary, Everest was even quieter than I was, her time in the artic forcing her to practice stealth to hunt and avoid being hunted herself.

We discovered many rooms holding drugs and weapons of all kinds, it seems that they used the basement of the building as a storage or something.

Just as we're about to leave, my nose picked up a familiar scent amongst the smell of drugs and gunpowder.

"Everest," I whispered. "I think I smell Rocky."

Everest smelled around and nodded in confirmation before slowly pointing at one of the shelves.

I walked towards the shelf and noticed a small hidden room on the other side. I gestured for Everest to help push it aside, revealing a hidden staircase leading deeper down into another room.

I glanced at Everest, who nodded knowingly. Rocky's scent was strong, he is in that room.

I led the way, quietly walking against the door before slowly creaking it open. Inside, Rocky was struggling against a chain, attempting to break it with no avail. In front of him stood a tall, muscular man who was grinning sadistically as he watched Rocky strain against the metal leash, in his hand was a-

Oh, gods.

The man was holding a freaking whip in his hand, not your garden variety rope strap either, it was finely crafted, made to maximize the victim's pain.

Everest, seeing this, immediately became furious. Before I could stop her, she had already rushed in, tackling the man inside forcefully.

The man was surprised by the sudden attack and stumbled to the side, Rocky, however, was elated, "Everest!"

I slowly crept into the room, trying my best to stay out of the man's line of sight, preparing for a potential ambush.

Although the man seemed stunned by Everest's sudden attack, he recovered quickly and grinned maliciously, "Ah, so your little friend has decided to come join the fun, eh?"

"If by 'fun' you mean 'kicking your ass', then yeah, I have," Everest growled. "Let go of my friend, now!"

"Let me think about that," the man said mockingly. "No, I think I'll capture you instead."

"Try me," Everest growled before leaping onto him, trying to attack.

This time, however, the man was prepared.

In a blink of an eye, the man pulled out his whip and brought it down hard upon Everest. She yelped in pain before nimbly getting back onto her feet, preparing for a follow-up.

However, the man did not seem particularly rushed, he simply smiled and readied his whip.

I tried to analyze the situation. The man wasn't using a gun, that's good. This is probably a torture room of some sort, so having a gun will be kinda against the point.

The man held a whip, which had long range and can be incredibly versatile in the right hands. It's fast and can inflict pain rather effectively, though whips tend to struggle in landing lethal blows. From what Chase taught me, if someone held a whip with the intention to kill, they'll usually attempt to choke their target instead of actually whipping them to death.

For a moment, both sides simply circled around each other, waiting for their opponent to make a mistake. I still crouched low behind a table, waiting for the man's back to turn against me.

Everest was the first to make a move, rushing towards the man with uncanny speed. He tried to attack her, but she dodged to the side before biting the man's leg, making him grunt in pain. However, the man was quick to retaliate with another swing of his whip, hitting Everest once again.

That was my moment.

I sprinted towards the man and bit deep into his shoulder, drawing blood. The man was obviously surprised by another attack but quickly struggled to get me off him. I held on persistently, but his constant movement forced me to land back onto the ground. While mid-air, I noticed something flying from the man's pocket, but I didn't pay it any mind.

Though battered and bloodied, Rocky's tormenter didn't seem to slow down on his movements. He quickly lashed his whip towards me, but I dodged it, my pup-fu training not going to waste.

"So another little puppy has decided to join in," the man said amusedly. "No worries, even if 3 is a bit of a crowd, I'm sure Zane won't mind."

He looked at something behind me and smirked, "And it seems that he's watching right now."

I turned to look at what he's talking about and saw a camera positioned in a dark corner, blinking steadily with a blue light.

That was a mistake.

Taking advantage of the distraction, the man kicked me harshly and forced me into a laid position with his foot. Everest rushed forward to help me but was hit in the nose by the man. That, coupled with her other injuries, knocked her unconscious.

"Everest!" I shouted helplessly.

"Don't you worry little pup," the man grinned sadistically. "You and your little friend will meet each other soon. Whether it'd be in this torture room, or in heaven will be Zane's decision."

Turns out, it wouldn't be.

A loud BANG was heard before the man fell down, unconscious. Rocky stood behind him, a metal bar of some kind in his mouth.

"Rocky?!" I shouted surprisedly. "How did you get free?"

"The guy dropped his key while he was trying to get you off him," Rocky dropped the bar from his mouth. "It took a bit of struggling, but I managed to unlock the chain. I didn't kill him, did I?"

I checked his pulse, "Nope, still alive."

"Everest?"

I rushed over to the Husky and checked hers, "Alive, but she's seriously injured."

"This is bad," Rocky's eyes darted around the room. "We're being watched at this very moment, they saw all that and are probably sending reinforcements right now! What do we do?"

Good question.

I honestly do not know what my answer would've been.

But at that moment, an ear-ringing explosion from upstairs answered all the questions we had.

"I'll carry Everest," I looked back at a surprised Rocky. "Run!"

What story would it be without explosions, right?