Chapter 30

With Chase and Sebastian

The teenager drove Ryder's car (or the PMV, patroller mini-vehicle, as the boy named it) with the german shepherd pup sitting in the passenger's seat, sitting with authority, while he was a little more relaxed. The music was playing but it was slightly awkward so the human decided to make some conversation.

"So, how do you like Foggy Bottom, pup?" He asked, turning down the volume. Chase looked at him and raised both his eyebrows from his bored eyes that say 'are you seriously asking me that? Have you not been paying attention the past week?' "Yeah, I know, dumb question. Just wanted to make some small talk."

"It's okay, but if you ignore all the crimes, it's a nice place. It would be cool if Adventure Bay and Foggy Bottom worked together in a way, but that's never going to happen with the mayors running it," Chase shrugged as he turned back to the window.

"It would be cool," he agreed. The rest of the ride was silent but it was more comfortable than the last. After a few minutes, they made it to the planned convenience store near the destroyed hospital. Sebastian parked the car and they both hopped out and walked inside. They had to wait for a while since there were customers but eventually, they made it to the cashier, who was named Chuck according to the name tag.

"Hi, are you getting anything?" Chuck asked politely seeing that they didn't put anything on the counter.

"Uh, no, we are actually here to investigate the explosion at the hospital near here. We just want to see the security cameras to see if it captured anything incriminating," Chase informed with professionalism. The cashier was a little skeptical and suspicious, as seen by him narrowing his eyes.

"Can I see your badges?" He asked. Sebastian just showed his. The young adult with ginger hair looked closely at the badge, inspecting anything that might say it's fake but in secret, he was just looking without knowing the meaning. He had no idea what he was doing because he didn't prepare for that kind of situation. After a long weird minute, he nodded and looked up. "Come with me, I'll show you the camera footage."

"Thanks," the Latino nodded and put away his badge. The three went inside the break room and positioned near the old computer. Chuck just let them go through the footage and left to go back to his misery that he called work. Sebastian opened the security camera's footage. There were four in total but only two saw anything important. The two boys saw two suspicious-looking figures wearing all dark clothes walk into the hospital then around ten minutes later, they walked back but in a hurry and into their black van. The vehicle sped away off-camera and then reappeared going the same direction of the police station. Chase pushed the 'fats-forward- button to minutes before the incident and sure enough, the hospital exploded.

"Looks like we got our suspects," Chase remarked. "Was it able to capture the license plate numbers?"

"Ah...nope. Let's check in with the other two and see if they got anything relating to it," Sebastian sighed. Chase nodded and activated his pup tag, which turned blue in response.

With Ryder and Zuma

The boy and the pup drove over to the supermarket after seeing that there wasn't anything at the gas station cameras. They were getting some strange looks from the people though because they were looking at the funny sight of seeing a ten-year-old boy hanging on the side of a watercraft vehicle zooming by with a dog driving it. Ryder and Zuma smirked when it happened. 'Obviously they don't know how the Paw Patrol work' they both thought. Soon enough, they stopped at the local grocery store that was literally called 'The Local Grocery Store'.

"How...accuwate," Zuma remarked referring to the name of the store as he parked the vehicle. The boy and pup got out/off and walked into the store. They went through multiple areas but eventually asked an employee where they could find the manager. Sure, they sounded like ones of those 'Karen' people but less aggressive, so the employee agreed to it. They were led to a back area of the medium-sized grocery store and found the office. They knocked on the door.

"Come in," they heard, so they did. When they entered, the two noticed that it sort of looked like a business office. The two smiled when they made eye contact with the lady, named Sarah according to the plaque on her desk. "What can I help with you two?"

"We would appreciate it if we could see the security cameras' footage that are posted all around the store. If you haven't heard, there was an incident at the police station so we want to see anything that may look suspicious on the footage if that's okay with you," Ryder explained.

"I felt it more than heard it, I wondered what it was. But you can surely see the footage. I already know who you too are so I didn't need any confirmation badges or anything," Sarah waved off with a smile.

"Thanks, miss," Zuma wagged his tail. They both giggled. The lady manager moved her computer so they could all see and rewind the camera footage that was near the police station since the window was already open. She played it again minutes before the explosion happened. Ryder and Zuma watched a clack minivan pull up to the side of the building, watched two men pile boxes near the station, and drove away. On another camera, they watched the minivan speed away and another suspicious-looking van following them. Eventually, the both took a left and disappeared off the camera. A moment later, they reverted their eyes back to the police station and saw it go up in flames. Sarah gasped a little when it happened.

"Okay, I think that's it," Ryder sighed heavily. The manager nodded and stopped the footage. The three bid their goodbye's and thank you's then went their separate ways. Ryder and Zuma walked back to their ride, about to call up the other two but they beat them to it. "We were just about to call you two. Did you find anything?" The boy asked into his pup pad. He positioned it so he and the pup with him could see.

"Yes, we do. In the video, we saw two of our suspects drive off in a black van into the police station's direction," Chase reported with him and Sebastian in the car. It was a mystery how Ryder designed it to see the video feed from the pups who are dialing from their pup tags because there is no freaking camera! But it was.

"We actually saw the same van thwough ouw camewa footage. It was following anothew van that came fwom the police station," Zuma explained.

"We'll come to you then we could follow them together," Sebastian nodded.

"Alright, we'll see ya," Ryder said. They hung up and did what planned.

Four men walked into an altar-like room where a boy around ten-years-old sat on an overly large throne. These four men were the same as the ones who blew up the police station and hospital them being Rich, Ray, James, and Zeak who stood in front of the boy in skateboarding type clothes.

"What do you guys want?" The boy snapped, looking at them with a tight glare.

"We completed our mission, boss. Should we move in now and make yourself known?" Rich questioned.

"Good. We move in tonight, take down the Patrol in the process, and make ourselves known at the beach," he commanded.

"Should we kill the pups at their home?" James asked this time.

"No. We'll do it in front of everyone. Contact the mayor the next morning to meet us there, along with the rest of the people. I have a feeling that the Ryder and the rest will come after us so put a border made up of the rest of our men that separates Adventure Bay and Foggy Bottom."

"Yes, sir. Is there anything else?" Ray slightly bowed.

"Take out that older one of the four 'heroes'. It should distract them long enough to make our move. Now off you go," the boy commanded. The four nodded and left the room, going back to the minivan knowing perfectly well when the kid said 'take out'.

The four finally met up and followed the area where the two vehicles went off in. It took a little longer because Ryder thought it would be more useful to use Chase's SWAT cruiser so they picked it up along the way.

"Chase, you could use your super-spy goggles to follow a specific tire tracks that the suspects left," Ryder suggested. "Could you give them to me so I could adjust it to that setting."

"You got it, Ryder sir!" The pup exclaimed, getting the said item from his vehicle and giving it to his owner/leader. The boy took a few moments but eventually gave them back and put it on the pup. "Wow! It's like the marks left by them are the only ones glowing!"

"Yup, now all we have to do is follow those tracks and arrest those guys," the boy smiled. The four went into their vehicles and drove off after the remains, Chase being in the lead. They all took the same trunks and roads as the two cars did earlier. Unknown to them, the minivan from earlier was watching them and secretly following in a distance. One of them, Zeak, was in the passenger seat. With permission, he took out a sniper-like pistol from under the seat and aimed it at the passenger's head in the PMV. After a few seconds of alining the weapon, he shot the silent bullet that made contact.

When this happened, he happened to be on the call with Zuma and Chase. The boy cut himself off when he saw his friend drop forward into the dashboard and slide off, exposing the bullet hole in the back of his head. It was so terrifying that Ryder, in the second time in his life, screamed in shock and swerved out of the road and to the empty plot of land they were just passing. He heard the pups asking him what happened and what was wrong but his mind was going to shock so when the car got out of the road, he hopped out of it and ran out to some nearby bushes, vomiting when he got there. When Ryder finished, he shakily wiped his mouth and looked up to the car. He saw his pups looking at the murdered boy in the bloody passenger seat, well more like Chase frozen to the spot and Zuma doing the same as the boy did a few seconds earlier.

"D-Don't look," Ryder weakly stuttered, guiding his pups away from the sight, to which they agreed. All of their bodies feeling as light as feathers. Numb. They took a moment to collect themselves but as they did, Chase saw from the corner of his eye the same minivan from the video footage pass by them.

"The van," he whispered, looking in the direction. Ryder and Zuma looked and just about caught the vehicle in view.

"Let them go for now. We'll get justice," the boy shook his head. He took a deep breath in, let it out, and slowly walked over to his car and unlocked the passenger's door. He cringed when he saw Sebastian's eyes wide open and blood drip from his head and mouth. Ryder closed his eyes and slowly pulled the dead teenager from the seat, a few tears escaping from his eyes. While he did this, Chase called the last remaining paramedics to pick up the body while Zuma silently cried. When the boy was done removing the body, he looked down at himself to see his hands and some part of his favorite vest covered in blood. With shaky hands, Ryder reached into the glove compartment and pulled out some cleaning supplies. He had to be driving so he couldn't focus on the seat next to him drenched in his friend's blood. He was able to get most of it but others just managed to stick.

"Are you sure you can drive?" Chase asked him, coming up from behind along with the chocolate labrador.

"Yeah. Can you two?" They nodded. Seeing that they are clearly upset, he bent down and hugged them. "It's okay to be upset." That's all he needed to say when he felt tears soak his shirt and the two bodies rock with sobs. He did the same but didn't make it as noticeable, he needed to stay strong for them. It took around ten minutes but they finally calmed down and pulled away. Without saying more, they stood up and walked to their vehicles but the boy took a while to start the ignition as he just stared at the seat next to him. The sounds of the ambulances' sirens startled him out of his trance and start the car. "Okay, Chase. Lead the way. We now have the more reason to bring these guys down."

"Yes, sir," the pup responded in a dead tone. He leads the group to the area they were originally following. It was not even a mile away from Mayor Humdinger's hideout actually so they parked in a distance and snuck up. Guns, cannons, and tranquilizers ready for the fight. They walked up to the entrance and entered the area just noticing that it had been dark for a while.

To be continued...