Chapter 18
The group had arrived at the infamous Foggy Bottom, the town supporting it's given name. The shadowed and foggy area covered the town, sort of making it look like you're walking on clouds. The people of the town looked happy though. It's actually pretty cool looking and refreshing, considering being in Adventure Bay is in line with the sun twenty-four seven. The town consisted of a town hall, police station, fire department, prison, courthouse, restaurants, grocery stores, entertainment areas, parks, and scattered homes. It was very supplied and better than Adventure Bay, which only had seven buildings in total. Anyways, the group met up with Mayor Humdinger, along with his kitten catastrophe crew, at the town hall. "Oh look it's the Paw Patrol."
"Alright Mayor Humdinger, where do we start?" Ryder asked, ignoring the sarcasm in the mayor's voice and got out of his car.
"Hm. Nice rides. You're going to need them with the crime that holds these streets," he acknowledged. "You start anywhere where there is a crime."
"Why did you call us? Can't your kittens help?" Chase asked, who was standing beside his leader along with Zuma.
"My kittens do all they can to help but they are younger and I don't want to see them hurt. The Paw Patrol has more experience in helping than my catastrophe crew. And just so you know, I didn't call you. Your leader was the one who asked if you could help out here," the mayor rolled his eyes. The pups' eyes shifted to Ryder, but he didn't make contact and only stared at the area around them. "So what type of crime usually occurs here anyways? It seems peaceful."
"Uh, let's see: burglary, mugging, murder, rape, speeding, public display of alcohol," the mayor counted on his fingers. "The list is pretty long. I'm sure the Paw Patrol can handle...wait. Where's the rest of the Paw Patrol?"
"Thewe back at Adventuwe Bay. Thewe woles awe mowe impowtant thewe anyways," Zuma shrugged. The mayor laughed.
"Oh boy! You three won't survive then! I thought that maybe the whole Paw Patrol could stand a chance but only three? Haha!" Ryder and the pups gave him an irritated expression. "Wow! What was I thinking? Sending a ten year old and two young pups!"
"Listen mayor. We're here to do a job and that's that. We're also going to prove that you're wrong and that we can handle such crimes," Ryder said, trying to calm down in the process. He didn't want to lose the job that they wanted by blowing up on the mayor.
"Sure, when I'm respected at Adventure Bay, I'll believe you but unfortunately it's not the case." He paused and smirked. "Tell you what, if you succeed in finishing your duty in Foggy Bottom for the week, and by 'succeed' I mean not getting yourselves killed, then you are welcome in my town at any time." He held out his hand. "Deal?"
"What do you think pups? Should we do it?" The boy looked down at his awaiting friends, who nodded their heads vigorously.
"You know we can do it!" Chase exclaimed, his face full of determination.
"Yeah, this will be totally easy!" Zuma followed, standing up and grinning. The boy looked back at the waiting, and slowly losing his patience, mayor.
"We have a deal mayor Humdinger," Ryder agreed while shaking his hand.
"Alright. Well, you can sleep in your vehicles by my secret lair," he said as he retracted from the handshake and started heading off. "Your shift starts in ten minutes so you better get your move on. Oh and by the way, I called off my police and fireman for you to work your 'magic' better. Good luck Paw Patrol."
They moved back to their vehicles and hopped in, then Ryder led the group to an abandoned alleyway, secluded to the area by the guide of Sebastian. They sat there and waited. Chase and Zuma activated their camouflage mode when the sun started setting, so all they looked like were three dark silhouettes. Ryder was tuning into the police radio frequencies, just like what Chase was doing, and searched for any crimes. But then a voice came through. "Attention all units. We have a code 215 approaching the east side of the town."
"Wait. I thought the mayor told us not to answer any calls," another voice came through along with a couple more agreeing.
"Really? I guess I wasn't informed."
"Yeah. Apparently the Paw Patrol is coming over to help out. What a bunch of babies. Their kids for crying out loud! What will they know about helping people-?" Ryder angrily turned off the radio. Sebastian turned to him but didn't comment. The boy turned on his pup pad and dialed the police and aqua pup, who picked up immediately. "Chase. Zuma. I'm assuming you heard the radio."
"Yeah," they said simultaneously.
"Zuma. You are going to be on a pursuit with the driver and will be telling us where he's going. Chase. You are going to be putting out spiked strips along the road, since you have those as well. Sebastian and I are going to help block his path," he instructed. They all turned on their engines. "Paw Patrol is on a roll!"
The speedy car was going along the east highway, unaware of the pursuing Paw Patrol. He looked at his rearview mirror and gaped at the sight of a strange-looking vehicle with a chocolate labrador driving it. "What the fuck?" he cursed, bewildered by the strange sight. He realized what the pup was doing, since he followed the exact moves as the driver, so he made abrupt turns to lose him. He checked his side mirrors and let out a breath when he didn't see anyone there, then focused his eyes back on the road, now wearing a smirk.
"You know it's dangweous to be dwiving this fast?"
The driver snapped his head to the voice and slightly flinched at what he saw. There was Zuma, slightly frowning inside his vehicle near the passenger's side. "W-who are you?!"
"That's not impowtant. I need you to pull ovwe now befowe you get huwt," Zuma said seriously, quickly glancing at the rode. Then the man darkly chuckled, taking the pup a little off guard. "Now I recognize you! You're one of the stupid pups from the Paw Patrol. What, did they fire you?"
"U-uh..," the pup stuttered, getting a little upset being called stupid. The man noticed.
"Oh, did I hurt the stupid pup's feelings?" He chuckled again but then it turned to a scowl. "If I were you pup, I would get out of the way before I got hurt." Before giving the labrador a chance to respond, the man rammed into his vehicle and sped off at full speed. Getting back on track, he called his teammates through his pup tag. "Guys, the guy won't slow down. He is going to exit the fweeway on Smoke Boulevawd."
"Copy that Zuma. Chase, use your equipped spike strips to a line it by the exit," Ryder came through.
"Got it Ryder!" Chase followed. The pup tag went off and Zuma zoomed away to get back on track with the driver.
With Chase, he quickly laid out the spiked sheets and got out of the way, not wanting to be crushed when the car came by. As if on queue, the yellow sports car came in with unbelievable speed and went over the spikes which popped his tires, but unfortunately because he was going so fast, the car made a summersault and crashed into the road, the roof to the ground. Ryder came up when the whole thing happened so he acted quickly when he smelled gasoline in the air. Both boys came out of the car and rushed to the crashed one. "We need to get him out of there fast!"
"Right!" Sebastian nodded. They both checked if there were any visible injuries to the driver but didn't come up with anything. "Sir, can you move?"
No response.
"He's probably knocked out," Ryder concluded. He then turned to the awaiting police pup. "Chase, I need you with your winch to pull out the car door."
"Okay. Arf! Arf! Winch!" The said item popped out of the front of the vehicle to which the german shepherd pulled it and handed it to the boy. Ryder hooked it to the door handle then gave the signal to his pup, who barked at his tool to retract. The door popped off like it was a bottle cap from a bottle. Sebastian carefully checked for any injuries. "There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with him, as far I can tell amigo."
"Good then let's move him." Zuma had arrived by then so Chase filled him in what was happening. Sebastian pulled the man out carefully and Ryder carried his legs, Zuma even helped by going underneath the man and using his back as a support. Chase opened his SWAT car's carrier so that the three put the man inside, then closed it afterward.
"Alright. Good job team," the leader praised, getting tail wags and a high-five in response.
"What should we do with him?" Sebastian asked, motioning his head to where the man was.
"We have to take him to the hospital and we'll report the car to get it cleaned up. We're here for crimes not clean up," he decided. The others nodded in agreement. They went ahead and got into their vehicles then drove off to the hospital, with Ryder calling up a tow truck to remove the car and notified the hospital that they were going to arrive with a patient shortly. Once they arrived, nurses that were waiting for them outside went ahead and pulled out the man from Chase's SWAT car to a gurney then rolled him away. Because they needed to, the gang waited inside the waiting room to see if the man would be okay and needed to arrest him. After a few moments, a nurse came up to them. "Mr. Rodriguez only suffered a mild concussion and has a couple of bruises and cuts but nothing major. He's also awake. He is in room A451 if you want to visit him."
"Thanks." With that she left. They left to the respected room and were greeted by a smirk from the man covered in bandages.
"Well if isn't the Paw Patrol...wait. There's only three of you. Let me guess, all three of you fired and were sent here by the mayor as punishment? Am I right?" He guessed.
"No, and it's not any of your business either," Chase spoke up. The man mocked being shocked.
"Oh, looks like I made the puppy mad!" He laughed. "You are not going to stand a chance in this town. It changes you for the worst."
"Alright that's enough," Ryder scowled at the man. He bent down to Chase's pup pack and took out a pair of handcuffs from a pocket. The pup looked shocked. 'I didn't know I had those!' Chase thought incredulously. The boy went over to the man and handcuffed him to the bed.
"You aren't going to stand a chance," the man intensely stared and mumbled for only the boy to hear. Ryder continued to adjust the cuffs, not paying attention to the man. "You and your pups should have stayed in jail after what happened. If only you knew who did that to you."
"What?" The boy's head snapped up. The man chuckled once more but it only fueled the boiling anger in the child. "What do you know?"
"Well, it's like your pup said, it's none of my business…," he smiled innocently. Ryder's eyebrow twitched in fury and swiftly grabbed his wrapped arm and squeezed, to which the man yelped in pain. The others watched silently, mixed emotions showing and mixing with the tense air.
"Tell me. What you know," Ryder growled. The man just chuckled again in response.
"You sure are some kid but you are still pathetic," he spat after his laughter. The boy closed his eyes and took a deep breath then smiled. He turned to the silent teammates. "Hey Sebastian, pups? Can you leave us a moment?"
"Whatever you want," the teen muttered and left. The other two were a bit reluctant but followed. Once they closed the door, the boy turned back to the man. "Now where were we?"
"I'm not saying anything, boss would kill me if I did," the man shrugged.
"You have a boss? So there's more of you." The man's eyes went wide when he noticed his mistake, then snapped his mouth shut. Ryder sighed.
"We could do this the easy way or the hard way. I'm giving you the option to choose," the boy told him, to which he got laughter as a response.
"No way! No way! The famous Paw Patrol leader threatening me!" He wiped a tear. "I'm sorry kid but there's no way I'm saying anything to help you. Your just a kid! Nothing but a weak, sad excuse for a hero."
That's it. He pushed Ryder over the line.
If only he took the warning seriously.
To be continued...