Chapter 19

It was the next day, the group woke up from their individual vehicle (the pups still could transform theirs to their pup houses while the humans just laid in Ryder's car) and cruised the streets, all spitting up to cover more ground. They all had a pretty uneventful morning, Chase through the lack of crime was due to it being light out.

"This is getting boring," Sebastian complained, changing the radio station for the hundredth time. They had been waiting for anything that either came through the radio station or something happened nearby. Ryder just shrugged and caressed his knuckles. They had cuts over them from when...Ryder shook his head, not wanting to think about the day before. The teen noticed. After he and the pups were kicked out of the hospital room, Ryder came out fifteen minutes later with bandages on his knuckles and expressionless. The optimistic leader hadn't spoken since. Sebastian sighed.

"Is something wrong man?" he asked, concern evident along with his accent. "You've been acting weird since that whole thing in the hospital."

Ryder looked away, ignoring the question as he searched the road for any odd behavior.

"You hold a lot of emotions for a ten-year-old-" his joke was cut off by the said boy.

"Is that all that you think of me? A kid?!" He asked, slightly startling the teen, unaware he was going to get a response. "Is that why you wanted to be my friend? Because I got mad? Well news flash amigo, I'm furious!" With that, Ryder got out of the car, slammed the door shut, and walked away while maintaining a casual look. At least, besides the terrifying scowl he was giving. Sebastian sighed once again and followed the silent order to stay in the car. The last thing they wanted is their car to be stolen.

Chase was searching all along the roads that passed neighborhoods and stores, sometimes getting odd looks from the passersby, but currently parked by the side of the road (not on the 'no parking' spot of course). Though his body obviously showed authority, his mind kept wandering off to his leader. 'I wonder what happened to Ryder' Chase thought, lightly whimpering to himself. 'He seemed okay before...until he started talking to Mr. Rroderiguez! That guy must have said something to upset Ryder. If I see him again, I'll bite his head off. I'm going have to talk to Ryder later though. I'm his second in command. Not only that, we're best friends and he always told me how he felt.'

"I should do one more lap around the neighborhood and then I'll check the outskirts of the town, "the police pup decided out loud. He started his vehicle again and went along the decided route.

Zuma was walking along the perimeter where the police and fire stations were. He left his vehicle back at mayor Humndinger's hideout, not wanting to spend his entire time driving. Being young and naive, he preferred walking around and enjoying what the town had to offer. The chocolate labrador was a little concerned about his leader but it didn't cloud his mind with sadness. As he was walking around, he actually found a park that was near the police station and a school. 'This place is so cool' the pup thought. 'This pawk is way bettew looking than the one back in Adventuwe Bay, not like it's bad ow anything.' He hopped on a bench that was in the shade and lay down. He wasn't on break but he couldn't help it, the park soothed his tense nerves. The pup sat silently, listening to the leaves sway along the wind, seeing the children play happily on the swings, and the sun hitting directly onto the patches of grass. Zuma loved this park, unlike Adventure Bay's that had their park stripped from any plants and organic life. The pup sighed contently and rested his head on his paws, exhaustion from the past couple of days taking a toll on him.

Not even an hour went by and he woke up to quiet sobbing next to him. He saw a little girl, knees tucked in and head down, crying about something. "Why awe you cwying?"

"Huh?" She asked, wiping her tears and looked at him, but her tears didn't stop.

"I asked why you wewe cwying."

"I-I can't find my mommy!" She wailed and launched herself to Zuma, clinging the pup in distress.

"Hey it's okay. I'll help you find hew!" Zuma cooed. The girl let go.

"Really?"

"Totally dudette!" He hopped off the bench and turned to her. "I'm Zuma by the way, what's youws?"

"I'm Brianna."

"It's nice to meet you. Whewe did you last see hew?" He asked, wagging his tail.

"I saw her near the swings. Why do you talk like that? Can't you pronounce your r's?" She asked, she and the pup started walking to the said area. The labrador shook his head, happy that she asked an underrated question. The pup didn't understand why no one asked that question, at some point he thought that he just didn't get enough attention. He even cursed that he didn't have that disability, making him sound more like a baby. Ryder told him otherwise though, saying that he should be happy for who he is. "No, but it's cool being diffewent. What does youw mom look like?"

" She has brown hair, blue eyes, white skin, tall, and she also is wearing a blue dress with white polka dots," the girl explained, putting a finger on her chin to emphasize that she was thinking. The pup searched the whole area there but didn't see anything. After a couple of minutes of walking, Brianna spoke up again. "Do you have an owner? You were laying there by yourself."

"I do have an ownew, his name is Wydew. I actually help people that awe in twouble but I wanted to take a nap because thewe wasn't anything. I wowk in the Paw Patwol befowe you ask."

"I saw with my mommy on TV at my house that you, your owner, and another pup were taken to jail. Is that true?" The pup was speechless. One of the worst days of his life and just seeing Chase and Ryder like that didn't make it better. He realized that he didn't say anything yet so he solemnly nodded his head.

"Why? Are you bad?" She suddenly asked, getting nervous by the thought of being with a criminal. Zuma quickly shook his head. "No. I'm not bad, not my fwiends eithew. We just wewe fwamed. Someone made us look bad."

"Oh okay." A few quiet moments went by, making it a little awkward for the pup, but once again it was interrupted by Brianna. "MOMMY!"

"Oh my precious baby!" The women that matched the girl's description ran up to her daughter and squeezed her, relief evident by their posture. Once they let go, the women turned to the pup and immediately recognized the pup from the TV and snatched her daughter away from him. Zuma was a little discriminated against by the action. Her daughter pulled away though and hugged the pup. "Thanks for helping me find my mommy."

"Your welcome," he said and licked her face, making her giggled. "If you ever need help finding your mommy again, just yelp for help!"

"Thank you for helping my daughter," the mother thanked after understanding what happened. Zuma nodded and kept his smile. After waving goodbye, they went their separate ways. The labrador knew that he still had unfinished business. He was putting off Ryder's problems and not facing the truth. He needed help.

"Wydew always helped me when I was upset, it's time to wetuwn the favow," he declared, speeding up to go get his vehicle. Once there, he hopped inside and sped off to the alleyway where they met up to start their stakeouts. As he arrived, Chase came up along with him. They both drove through the back way where they parked their vehicles that faced the street. "Awe you hewe to talk to Wydew too?"

"Yeah. Somethings up and I'm determined to find out," Chase said, both of them hopping out of their vehicles and walked over to the car. Before they even got close though, the passenger's door opened to reveal a worried teen. "Please tell me you two know where Ryder is?"

"No we don't. He's not here?" Sebastian shook his head.

"He hasn't been here for over an hour. I made a joke about him being ten and keeping a lot of emotions but he blew up on me about being furious then he got out of the car and walked off," the former gang member explained. Chase started sniffing the ground, then looked up afterward to the awaiting friends. "He went this way. Let's take our vehicles, he might have gone far."

"Right!" They agreed in unison. Zuma and Chase zoomed to their carriers while Sebastian went to drive Ryder's car, then they all dashed off following the german shepherd. After a couple of long minutes, they all arrived at a junkyard near the back area of town. The sun started setting when they arrived. They all turned off their headlights, Zuma used his cover camouflage to block out their vehicle's vision to look like a pile of junk. The pup thought that Rocky would be pretty jealous of their current whereabouts. They all hid behind a pile of junk and scouted the area. Chase pointed with his paw to a small warehouse in the middle of the area. "That's where he is."

"Oh great," the teen sighed. They got their weapons ready, the teen had a knife while pup had their pup packs, and prepared themselves for a break-in.

Ready to save their friend from any danger.

To be continued…