Quanta

Hey guys, I'm back! I think. I'm actually writing most if not all of this chapter during online school cause I'm bored as heck, so hopefully that didn't affect how this story was written. The COVID-19 outbreak in my family has mostly died down. What's weird about it though is that everyone in my family except for me and my father developed symptoms. Either me and my dad are asymptomatic or we're immune. Idk, I just thought that was cool. XD Anyway Imma try a shot at writing again, though I may be a little rusty. I almost forgot the most important thing: I can't thank you guys enough for the support you guys gave me and my family during our quarantine and stuff. Thanks a bunch! :D

Disclaimer: I don't own PAW Patrol.

Chapter 2: Old and New Faces

Zuma squinted and tried to shield his eyes from the blinding light streaming onto his face from the opening titanium doors, the rays penetrating the semi-dark hallway. Ren stood next to the control panel with a goofy grin, and walked right into the blinding space in front of them, pulling Zuma's bubble along with her. Zuma squirmed, scared. She had a special suit; all he had was a bubble, and he had no idea how fragile that bubble was. It could be just a regular ld soap bubble for all he knew. Zuma just closed his eyes, tears falling down his cheeks as he kept being pulled along to his supposed demise. "But I don't wanna die." He thought. Ren stopped walking right in front of the wall of light and chuckled. "Oh, you worry wart! You're not going to die! I'm taking you to the lab!" "Lab? What lab? And how did she know that I thought that? Can she….wead my mind!?" Zuma's thoughts were followed by another chuckle from the female chocolate lab. He almost broke the bubble he was encased in, he was so scared, but his physically broken state wouldn't allow him to. Besides, Ren wouldn't open it. "All agents in Quanta can read the thoughts of those who need help or don't have the mental power to block them from doing so. Clearly you're pretty wounded," She turned back and glanced over Zuma, taking note of the many wounds. Zuma couldn't help but blush; "So that must be why." She kept walking, and Zuma shut his eyes again. But Ren didn't stay just walking; she ran. And boy did she run fast. Carrying Zuma's bubble with her, Ren broke the sound barrier as she sped through the seemingly endless abyss of heavenly light, finally arriving at a massively spacious circular room.

Computers and monitors lined the walls, with pups of all shapes and sizes bustling about them, each wearing the same logo of the Q on their purple and grey latex suits and lab coats. Steps on the other side led to a slightly higher raised stage, where an official-looking Great Pyrenees looked down on the busy progression in the room. Beside her, two menacing security guards, both bulldogs, wearing latex suits and holstering AK-47's and multiple combat items. But the centre of the room was most amazing. There, levitating half a foot above the basin below it, floated a sphere that somewhat resembled the Sun. Zuma stared at it in awe, in all it's golden beauty, but Ren just kept walking past it, heading in a curved path towards the Pyrenees at the front. However, when she saw Zuma staring at the Sun replica, she cringed and walked a little faster. Zuma noticed this and wondered what was up. "What so bad about a scientific replica of the Sun? It's not gonna huwt anybody." He thought, hoping Ren would get his message. If she did, she didn't show any sign of having gotten it. Zuma decided to take his focus off of the sphere and instead focus on wherever and to whomever Ren was bringing him.

Ren was scared. What if Commander Zolas didn't like the new recruits she brought? What if Zuma was too broken to be healed? What if…..What if….." The constant worry bombarded her thoughts as she slowly climbed the steps up to the Commander-in-Chief, pulling Zuma along behind her. The Commander raised her eyebrows as she stood authoritatively on the stage. Zuma was worried. Who was this pup? What did she want with him? Was she….going to hurt him? Zuma didn't know if he could take it if she decided she wanted to torture him or something.

Ren now was walking the shiny, probably waxed, marble floor, and stopped a couple feet away from the Commander. As Zuma's bubble was pulled up beside his "carrier," He made eye contact with the important looking person in front of him. She glared his way, and his gaze fell to the floor, in a somewhat humble, reverant bow of sorts. Ren sat down, unholstered her pistol, and saluted. Zuma tried to copy her salute, but due to the fact that he was in a sphere, he couldn't really lift one pup up without upsetting himself. Besides, it hurt too much to move his legs like that. Zolas' gaze was still locked on the male chocolate lab sitting inside the mobile containment unit, the "bubble" they called it. He looked rather…..beat up to her, and she supposed he was, considering the fact that he was in a bubble to begin with. His skin was peeling, some bones looked out of place, and a small pool of blood slooshed around in the bottom of the spherical cage. He looked helpless and pathetic. But there was a fire in his eyes that she couldn't explain, a stubborn braveheart lurking beneath the pain. A warrior. She almost smiled at the thought. This young pup would do splendidly as a recruit.

Ren still stood at attention, shuffling slightly around in her nervousness. This was her first capture, and she really hoped it would be good enough to impress the Commander. It didn't help that the Commander made no sound, showed no expression, and didn't even move. She just continued to stare at Zuma. She didn't really blame Commander Zolas though, Zuma was quite something to look at; his beautiful green eyes, his cute tail, his,-wait, WHAT!? AM I FANTASIZING ABOUT ZUMA!?" She became even more nervous now as she tried to combat her feelings for the chocolate lab she had only really first talked to about ten minutes ago. "I can't like him! I just met him! I captured him, I can't love him!" That thought scared her even more, and it showed on her face. Zolas glanced at her and raised an eyebrow, thinking the evident worry on the female chocolate lab's face was just anxiety over whether or not she would accept the new recruit.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Commander Zolas spoke. "I think he will do splendidly. Take him to the Med Bay and fix him up. Then we can start the Training and eventually the Transfusion." Ren cringed at the last word, and Zuma began to wonder. "What's the Transfusion? It sounds….scawy."

Ren just smiled, saluted, and walked back down the steps towards the main deck with all the computers and the Sun globe. Except this time, she exited the main deck not through the "tunnel of light" as Zuma had come to think of it; instead, she turned off to a set of sliding doors that read, "MED BAY" in big bold letters. The doors slid open as Ren walked in, pulling Zuma along. Once both in, the doors slid closed, and Zuma felt a twinge of fear. "What kind of means of healing do they use hewe?" He thought, worry again consuming him. Thankfully Ren read his thoughts and answered matter-of-factly, "Quantum Conversion Therapy, or QCT for short." "I wish Rocky was here. He'd tell me what the heck that means." Zuma thought. And then it struck him. Rocky and Eleftherios were whisked away by the same purple whirlwind that he was! They had to be in this facility too! "Hey Ren." He asked quietly, not wanting to disturb the eerie silence that always accompanies a medical facility. He knew the room was empty, but you know, you never want to disrupt perfectly quiet rooms "Where are my friends?" "What friends?" asked Ren. That kind of hurt. "The other two pups you took from our Lookout! Whewe did you take them?" "Oh, them! They are still blacked out from the trip. They'll be awake soon though." Zuma sighed, knowing there was no way to get them out, but he resolved that they'd meet up at some point and figure out how to get out of this, this, Quanta, or whatever they called themselves here.

Ren flicked on the lights with a swipe of her key card, and the LEDs overhead buzzed to life. Zuma now got a good look around the room, and what he saw shocked him. Not only were there the standard medical facility machines like an EEG, MRI or CAT scanner, but there were many other machines that Zuma had no idea what they were for. One mystery machine stood out though; or at least a couple of them. A row of 5 coffin-like incubators sat in the centre of the room, surrounded by monitors, bleeping machines, and other things normal hospitals definitely don't have. Ren walked over to one and looked in. Naturally Zuma was pulled up alongside her, and he looked in as well. And screamed bloody murder.

"W-WHAT THE HELL! Y-YOU MONSTEWS! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO WOCKY! H-HE'S MY BEST FWIEND, GET HIM OUT!" Zuma thrashed around his bubble, scared out of his mind now for his own demise. He looked into the coffin machine again and burst into tears. There laid Rocky, all his right side limbs severed cleanly from his body and being replaced with prosthetic cyborg parts. His face was also being cut into, and a partial face plate, complete with an eye, sat waiting in a container a little ways off.

Ren just sobbed as she saw the pup in her bubble growl and clawed, desperate to escape the demise he was sure he was going to receive. She swallowed her tears and tried calming him down. "Zuma! Calm down, please! It's for the greater good! We're making him better! Stronger! Smarter!" "YOU'WE CHANGING HIM! HE'LL NO LONGER BE THE FWIEND I KNOW ONCE YOU'WE DONE WITH HIM!" Zuma screamed, and Ren hurriedly tried to tase him through the bubble to get him to stop resisting, but Zuma fainted from the pain and exhaustion he felt. Ren slowly walked up closer to Zuma, who was still levitating in the bubble, breathing heavily and groaning in pain. She hovered her face close to his, and Zuma moved his neck slightly to be able to see her. "Please…...get…..him…..out." panted Zuma, blood now seeping faster out of his wounds.

Ren cried, and reached up to the right side of her face. She pressed on her right temple, and almost half of her face faded away to reveal a cyboric eye and cheek, along with half of her skull. Zuma's eyes got wide, and he looked down to her right side, and sure enough, they were now cyboric legs. Hee looked back up at her, confused and scared. "Evewyone at Quanta is a cybowg, awen't they?" He asked, putting the pieces together. Ren sobbed and choked out a "yes" before the tears began to fall. "It doesn't really make you smarter. That was a quick ploy of mine to get you to calm down. Besides, I don't think your friend over there," she nodded towards Rocky's coffin, "could get any smarter. He just rambled on about Mechanical and Quantum Physics as we walked around the complex." Zuma chuckled. "Sounds like Wocky." Ren smiled quickly, but then sighed and looked away. "We need our people here at Quanta to be able to fight against the supersoldiers in Siberia. The only way to do that is either through the chemical process the supersoldier's scientists have uncovered, which is still a mystery to us, or through cyborical-DNA transfusion." She again nodded to the five coffins. "That's what those are for." She pressed her right temple again, and the holographic half of her body returned to looking like a regular puppy. "Almost my whole life I've been a cyborg. You learn to live with it, plus it gives you pretty cool advantages when it comes to certain things. But, it doesn't come without pain. A lot of pain." She cringed again, and Zuma cringed right along with her.

She bowed her head down, and Zuma flopped his head back down, looking at the ceiling through the bubble. He heard Ren start moving, but he didn't take much notice. He was thinking about what would happen if they ever got back to the PAW Patrol lookout. It'd never be the same. Rocky and most likely Eleftherios would be cyborgs, and could probably do everything the other pups could do and more. Ren stopped moving, and Zuma felt his bubble being lifted up higher. But, what would Ryder say? Would he look at them the same way ever again, or as half-pup freaks? He hoped he'd still love them, he couldn't live in a world with a broken Rocky. His bubble began to lower back down, and he noticed white walls getting higher and higher around him as he was laid down on something soft but course at the same time. He snapped out of his thoughts and looked around, confused. He saw the cyborical parts lying on his right side. He looked up at the ceiling and attempted to sit up, as he noticed he was no longer in his bubble, but the pain and Ren's paw pushed him back down to the bottom of the coffin.

Ren looked down at the handsome chocolate lab who was about to have his entire life changed forever. She tried and failed to hold back the tears as she closed the glass lid, sealing Zuma's fate. As soon as the electromagnetic locks engaged, gas began emitting into the coffin. Zuma began to hyperventilate as he looked up at Ren through the glass, terrified for his life. And as his mind fogged up and clouded as the gas took effect, Ren mouthed a sad, "I'm sorry" before turning away, and Zuma finally blacked out.

A/N Writing again felt so good I kinda want to write the next chapter already; this chapter was sooooo much fun to write, I loved it. I won't write the next chapter yet though, I gotta finish up RGR. Please tell me what you think of this story/chapter in a review, and I'll see yall later! Oh, and Thanks again for the support and understanding you guys gave me for my family predicament. It was really uplifting and encouraging. ;) Catch ya on the flip side!