When Push Becomes Shove...
Mr. Porter accepted the sandwich that the boy, who appeared almost timid towards him, handed over to him, his gaze darting off to the side. "Thank you. Uh... you by chance have a name, don't you?"
The boy nodded slowly, eyeing the man before him warily. "Ryder." He left the room, leaving the injured man by himself once more. The first time since he woke up just the day before.
Mr. Porter closed his eyes, wondering vaguely which pup was going to approach him next. He had already learned all of their names, Chase the police pup, Marshall the fire pup, Skye the pilot pup, Zuma the water rescue pup, and Rocky the repair pup. At least that is what Mr. Porter thought Rocky was referring to himself as. He wasn't entirely sure. "Hey there Mr. Porter!" Ah... speaking of Rocky...
Opening his eyes, he found himself staring at the young pup, his head tilted to the side as if curious about something. "Hey Rocky." The friendly pup wagged his tail excitedly, before sitting down in front of him.
"Do you need anything Mr. Porter sir?" Rocky latched his eyes onto Mr. Porter's.
Mr. Porter shrugged, before shifting just slightly, "Now that you mention it. I would very much appreciate it if I could get back to work today." Truthfully he would have preferred to go back to work yesterday.
Rocky jumped up, still smiling at him. "I'll go get Marshall. He's the closest thing we've got to a medic."
"Ah yes. Thank you Rocky." Mr. Porter settled back against the wall, eyes closing briefly. When he opened them a second later, Rocky was already gone, though he could hear the pup's yelping that he always did whenever he would get wet.
A minute later, Marshall trotted into the room. "Morning Mr. Porter! Whoa!" The yelp of whoa escaped the clumsy pup as he tripped seemingly over thin air. Mr. Porter lurched forward, catching the pup before he could get seriously hurt. "Thanks!"
"No problem. Just glad to be of a help to you after all you've done for me." Mr. Porter straightened back out.
Marshall reached a paw up, gently touching his forehead. "I think you could possibly get back to work today. I think Chase was planning on heading to town today. I'll ask him to escort you back there since you kinda, ya know... don't really know where the Lookout Tower is in comparison to town."
"Thank you."
"No problem!"
...
Mr. Porter sighed with relief as he unlocked his store to find it mostly the same as the last time he had been there. There were a few missing items, and he suspected that if he checked his cash register, that it would be mysteriously empty. Still... walking over to the counter, he quickly unlocked the cash register to find that there was still a few dollars, not much, left in it. Grabbing all that was left, he walked over and handed it to Chase. "Here. Consider this payment for helping me out even though you really didn't have to."
"Thank you sir!" Chase accepted the cash, placing it into a bag he was carrying for supplies. Supplies that Mr. Porter was determined to give them himself. No more eating disregarded leftovers for Ryder and his pups.
"Give me a minute. I'll get you those supplies that you need." Mr. Porter disappeared back into the store.
An alarmed Chase followed him, his ears almost flat against his head as he peered over at him. "You don't have to do that sir."
"Please! It's Mr. Porter, and besides that. You are such good pups you deserve to be spoiled." He worriedly assured his young friend.
"Mr. Porter! You're back! I was getting really worried when you didn't show up for work yesterday!" Ms. Goodwill swept into the store right then, anxious eyes darting about the place as if expecting to find a thief hiding in the shadows.
Mr. Porter smiled at the sight of his friend, reaching a hand out to squeeze her fingers. "Ms. Goodwill. It's good to see you again. I'm afraid that I had an injury that needed taken care of yesterday. Did you manage to let everyone know about the rally?" Ms. Goodwill had, with Mr. Porter's and one of the farmers help, had arranged for a rally where she would explain why they should vote for her to be mayor.
"Yes... it's tonight. Oh! I'm so nervous I think I'll pass out!" Ms. Goodwill fanned herself with her free hand.
Chase, who hadn't left when she came in, stepped forward. "If your worried about fainting at this rally tonight, we can arrange for Marshall to be there. It's at Farmer Al's place, right?"
"Err... yes?" Ms. Goodwill appeared confused at the presence of Chase. "Who are you again? I don't believe we've met."
"Chase at your service ma'am!" Chase lifted a paw up to salute her.
"Oh my, aren't you just the cutest thing." Ms. Goodwill smiled at that, placing a hand over her mouth to hide a smile.
Chase moved to leave, running out of the door. "We'll see you tonight at the rally!"
...
Ms. Goodwill nibbled her bottom lip, worry creasing her brow as she looked out at the crowd that had gathered. Unsurprisingly, hardly anyone in town had shown up. What was surprising though was the fat the current mayor and a few of his friends had shown up. Farmer Yumi walked up to her, tugging on her broad hat. "You ready over here Ms. Goodwill?"
"No." A pause. "Yes." Ms. Goodwill flung her hands up in the air, exasperation flooding her. "I don't know! What do you think I should do?"
"Try being yourself." Farmer Al suggested from where he was standing next to Captain Turbot close to the makeshift stage.
Captain Turbot nodded his head, even as Jake and Katie, the only young'uns in the entire town at the time, showed up quickly claiming seats next to Mr. Porter. Which was the problem. Farmer Yumi, Farmer Al, Captain Turbot, and Mr. Porter were the only ones there that didn't have a criminal record minus the those two. Groaning, she moved to step onto the stage only to freeze as she heard sirens rent the air. Startled, everyone turned to the road in time to see a four wheeler with a boy sitting on it that they didn't recognize. What more, he was surrounded by emergency vehicles that were being driven by a variety of pups, one of which she recognized as Chase... who was driving a police car.
Parking next to Farmer Al's truck, they jumped out of their respective vehicles, moving as one unit to stand near the stage. Mayor Schurke stomped over, his brow creasing in anger. "Who exactly do you think you are?!"
The boy flinched at the harsh tone that he used, turning his head away from him even as the pups stepped forward to block the mayor from the child. Chase lifted his chin up, his eyes flashing in defiance. "We're the Paw Patrol. We might be new in town... but you only need to ask Mr. Porter to know that we're pretty good at protecting this town and its citizens. If any of you have a problem with law enforcement, I recommend leaving town."
Murmurs of unease rippled through the larger group that had been gathered at the back of the rally, glaring at Ms. Goodwill. Suddenly feeling somewhat more confident, Ms. Goodwill stepped onto the stage. "Right. If you vote for me to be your mayor, not only will I promise to beautify our fair town, but I will help the Paw Patrol in any way possible!"
A/N: Reviews!
Zuma Lover: Why would they get caught..? They're not exactly hiding themselves from the townsfolks since they need to know who to call for help. Eventually they will all get everything that they have in the show... including teammates. Hmm... with that rally, and Paw Patrol's introduction to the rest of the town, who do you think will be mayor? How is this like Cinderella..? Zuma simply doesn't have his speech problems in this story. You'll have to keep reading to find out... but it's Marshall, his clumsiness is legendary. I can't answer your questions about Ryder's uncle without spoiling the story. Ryder's and Marshall's parents are dead. Don't ask how, I'm not sure about Marshall's parents... but Ryder's parents were murdered. Kinda surprise you didn't ask about Skye's parents... or Rocky's for that matter.
Skye rules: I'm not following. Can you clarify please? I mean, if you want to see how they met, that would be one of the earlier chapters. Might of been the second one, I can't quite remember. Thank you!