Hello, fellow fanfic readers 'n' writers! We now continue with our ship story that we started yesterday. I don't really have much else to add, so please do read and enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: Rights to this show I own not. The rights are by Nickelodeon and co. owned.

It seemed to Rocky to be a coincidence that it had taken the same amount of time for The Expert and himself to deduce and solve the problem as it had for Stefan "The Criminal" to arrive and hear Luna's story, but that was apparently what had happened as he and his investigator friend returned to their guest to check on her.

The gadgeteer genius was having his mind work on overdrive, trying to understand to whom her addiction was directed. He thought about every available possibility and came up blank every time. [Because we need tension.]

Zuma? Sure, but he had never really taken interest in these sorts of topics when they'd come up. Luna would probably have known that if she, in any way, was 'addicted to him'.

Rubble? Unlikely. It was very probable that he was too young even to understand what would have been happening if it was him. [Either that, or he'd like food more than them. Just saying.]

Tracker didn't seem viable either. If he was the source then she would, more than likely, have gone out to the jungle to see him.

Rocky even considered Stefan. It would make sense. A lot of pups seemed to be interested in the albino brothers. But then, he was sure that the girl he'd saved from the white dog killer, Nicole was her name, had an insurmountable infatuation with him - and if Rocky wasn't mistaken, he liked her too.

Himself? That was even more unlikely than the rest of them. He was brilliant, he'd give himself that, but that was it. He wasn't suave or good-looking. He was nothing like that. On a mental scale of one to ten he was a zero. No, a rating that would be even more fitting was a negative twenty. [Technically, he's not wrong. Wish he'd be more sure of himself, though.]

And what made that fact all the more heartbreaking was that he had started to like her. [Wonderful.]

He barely knew her, but there was something about her that drew him to her and he didn't know why. He would have to talk to his friendly neighbourhood expert on things about this later.

But he put those sentiments to the back of his mind as the brothers talked about something that he couldn't entirely catch. He heard around three words, each of which had no definitive correlation to a proper answer to his mental queries.

Suddenly, he felt Stefan's gaze on him and he looked back, tilting his head in confusion. As soon as Stefan saw that, he turned back to whom Rocky assumed to be Luna and stated more words in what looked to be a definitive tone of arbitration. He also caught a glimpse of The Expert performing his traditional half-shrug, after Luna had seemingly asked him a question. All this served only to pique his curiosity. [All the big words!]

Very soon he saw the two albino Bernese mountain dogs step back and then emerged the black Shikoku who had caught his interest. And she proceeded to amble towards him.

Rocky tried hard not to think about how pretty she looked when she walked over to him, and instead tried to think about what she wanted. [He probably failed.]

"Um, h-hi, Rocky. I - um," she paused and swallowed thickly. "I wanted t-to ask y-you i-if you'd show me a-around. They ... they told me you'd b-be able to give the f-full tour, s-since you're the smart one."

Rocky didn't miss any of the stammers. He wasn't an idiot, he knew that that meant nervousness or anxiety, but why would she be so nervous to ask for a tour? Especially after she'd probably spent a good five minutes talking with Stefan and The Expert about this very moment? Perhaps she was naturally shy. [I mean, again, he's not really wrong.]

"Absolutely. I wouldn't reject a proposition to take an excursionist as yourself for a jaunt around the Lookout." [That could genuinely have ended after word one.]

She looked at him blankly, clearly not understanding all the words that were spoken. Rocky caught on and felt his face start to boil. "Uh, I mean, yes. I'd be glad to."

She smiled at him and giggled a little. "So shall we go?" she prompted.

"We shall," he responded, and the pair strode away.

Once they were out of sight, Stefan grinned a big grin that would have made ear-to-ear an understatement. "This is going so well! I can't believe nothing's gone wrong yet." [Key word: yet.]

"Knowing you, something will go wrong," his older brother said, to his false horror.

"How dare ye? I never do such things to my friends and especially not to strangers!"

"Said Marshall and Everest." [Said Marshall and Everest.]

"Yeah, yeah. Fine. But seriously, I promise, I won't try anything funny this time." He put his left front paw behind his back and his right front into the air in what he felt was a stance that emanated the lack of perjury. [I hope he realises that you're actually supposed to put your right on the Book and the left in the air.]

"And then you're going to go behind their backs and trap both of them in a cave somewhere until they confess their constantly growing emotions to each other, and then you're going to bring them back and say "Tastes like diabetes" and feel proud of yourself. So un-cross your digits."

Stefan's face immediately went deadpan, and he brought forward his paw and un-crossed his digits. "You're no fun." [May I please 'XD'?]

The Expert half-shrugged again. "I mean, you can do it, as long as you don't actually do anything dangerous."

Stefan's face brightened. "I take it back. You are fun." And he ran off.

The Expert immediately turned around and went back to accompany the small tour party of two. Needless to say, they were surprised to see him joining them. He only said that he was there just in case something bad happened - they acknowledged that with a smile and a shake of the head yes before they continued on.

Only five minutes later all three were abducted by a hooded figure. [Shock horror twist!]

"Where are we?" Rocky asked groggily as he awoke from his sudden slumber, seeing Luna not far from him. [He asks this as though there will be someone conveniently positioned there to answer immediately.]

"I ... I-I don't know," she stated worriedly as he got up to check on her. "I-I'm f-fine, thanks. What about you?"

"I'm okay, though I'd love to know where we are and how to get out of this place."

"Hmm. Déjà vu." Both Rocky and Luna jumped at the sound of another voice behind them, the latter more so. Though, they quickly recognised the flatness that was characteristic of only one individual in the world.

"The Expert, I didn't see you there," Rocky remarked when he had turned around. "Do you know where we are?"

"Fortunately, yes I do." Luna's face lit up like a hundred suns, as did Rocky's. "Unfortunately," he continued, making their faces drop a little, "we can't exactly leave right now due to that monstrosity." He pointed to his right to a blazing, stationary wall of fire. [Whoa. Really déjà vu.]

"Oh n-no, not f-f-fire..." Luna whispered as she backed away. "I d-don't like f-fire a-at all."

"Why not?" Rocky queried in a soft tone, to which she answered, "I-I haven't had th-the best experiences w-with it."

"A burnt pup dreads fire, after all," The Expert stated. Rocky agreed non-verbally. "What happened?" the white pup continued.

Whoa, is that a cliffhanger? What could possibly have happened to this poor Shikoku? You shall find out in the next chapter! See you then!

'Til next time, ciao!