I'm going to call it here, this is the shortest Chapter throughout the entire story. Mark my work. This one was quite disappointing but it's my first attempt at trying to show deeper feeling.
Letting it out
The pups were around the lookout doing their own things. Some leave the lookout to attend things like Zuma who always leaves at the same time and comes back joyful every time. Ryder was busy at the town hall preparing the next celebration party for the PAW Patrol. Zuma, Arrby, Catherine, Skye, Ella, and Tuck would be the featured pups for their skill and courage on last weeks mission with the capsized boat.
Chase nervously chuckled. "This is safe right?" He said rethinking his decision to help Rocky out. He wasn't even sure what he was looking at
Rocky thought it over. "Yeah yeah, worst case scenario this thing blows up in front of our faces. It won't happen though." Rocky smiled. Chase grew worried at Rocky's clearly improvised answer.
Rocky looked at the nervous German Shepherd. "Oh stop being a little girl. All of a sudden you want to act all scared? In front of everyone else you are stone cold. Almost as bad a Luna." Rocky insulted. Chase took it as a compliment. It just assured him that he was doing his job right.
Rocky dropped his goggles down to his eyes and flicked his head really quickly. It was one of many weird little actions he did. Chase followed his actions minus the head flick, not completely sure what to do he looked at the bowl. Rocky got some green powder and dropped only a couple of grains into a bowl. Chase was in awe as it radiated a bright green.
"Wow...What is it?" Chase questioned.
Rocky looked at Chase with honest eyes. "I'm not really sure at the moment. I found it awhile ago and it's been glowing ever since. I figured something had to make it more reactive." Rocky explained. Chase nodded surprisingly knowing what he meant.
It reminded him of something Rubble likes to mention. "It's like that thing Rubble talks about. Superman's weakness or something like that." Chase said.
"Kryptonite?" Rocky asks as he turns around and accidentally spilled a lot more than a couple of grains into the bowl. "AAHHHHH!" They both yelled as the room turned a bright green.
After what seemed like forever it stopped. "Holy shit!" Rocky exclaimed.Chase took deep breathes. He didn't acknowledge he curse word from him. "It was like the sun was an inch away from my face" Chase stated as he rapidly blink trying to regain his full vision. Rocky looked back at the bowl and noticed it was a dark green and no longer glowed "Noted." He mumbled.
Rubble walked down the stairs and noticed there was green light seeping through the floorboards
Second laters Rocky and Chase walked out and received a funny look from Rubble. "I think you two might need a bath. You look like Hulk and Yoda." He joked.
Chase was confused by his statement. "Who?" Rubble and Rocky rolled their eyes. "You two need a bath...Buzz kill." He said before walking away. Rocky and Chase took off their goggles and saw that Rubble was right about needing a bath "I'm never helping you again." Chase chuckled.
Rocky started to laugh as well. "I had the scare of my life. I'll just get Zuma or something." He blankly replied. Chase nodded and hurried out the door. He let out a sigh of relief knowing he didn't have to do that anymore.
"Alright, is that it?" Ryder asked as he dropped his pencil. "Yep, thank you for your cooperation and thank heaven for those wonderful pups you have." The mayor said. Ryder nodded and walked out. He had something planned for the pups.
He pulls out his phone and presses a paw symbol. "Paw Patrol, I want you guys at the lookout by the time I'm back." Ryder ordered as he gets into a blue pickup truck.
Marshall, Skye and Ash were outside when Ryder called. "Race you inside!" Skye exclaimed as she bolted towards the door. Ash followed quickly gaining on the small canine. When the two got inside they found Chase, Luna, Rocky, Rubble, and basically the entire PAW Patrol already waiting and talking. "Where's Marshall?" Luna asked fearing something worse was coming.
Seconds later Marshall bursted through the door and fell onto Rocky and Chase. "Convenient." Marshall chuckled. Chase rolled his eyes and pushed Marshall off. "What do you think Ryder needs us for?" Rubble asked.
"Eww what is this stuff?" Marshall said in a disgusted tone. He clapped his paws together and green powder flew into the air.
Everyone looked towards Rocky. "I was messing with something, I think it's harmless." Rocky replied as he waved a paw. Marshall noticed Chase had it aswell. He tried thinking of ways he could retrieve revenge against Rocky even though he walked into him.
Rubble asked his question again. "What do you think Ryder needs us for?"
Everyone again looked towards Rocky.
"What? Just because I'm smart doesn't mean I think like him." He bitterly replied.
Rubble decided to take his guess and free it. "We didn't mean anything bad but I think we're bringing in a new member, wouldn't that be cool? I already predicted the jungle unit and snow unit." Rubble said. The pups nervously looked around. Rubble was right about predicting new member, he is surprisingly good at predicting things in general.. "I doubt it, Luna joined 2 months ago and made herself right at home." Chase replied giving Luna a friendly punched. "Don't do that." She replied. Chase nodded and went back to the conversation. As much as he tried to be nice to her she always seemed to despise him. Other members of the PAW Patrol also despise the original pup of their job. Catherine and Arrby aren't so nice towards Zuma. Ash was a different picture. She seemed to have something for Marshall.
After a couple more minutes of talking Ryder and Zuma walk into the lookout. "Alright pups. Since there is always more room for new members on the Paw Patrol it should've been a good idea to have a way of introducing ourselves properly." Ryder started. The were once again worried that Rubble predicted the future. "So I want you to come up with a way to introduce yourselves. It's an assignment without a due date. I just want to see you have it the next time we have someone over. Also we will have 3 things on the agenda for the next couple of days. Number one, the party for last weeks amazing save by our water team, emt team and Skye. Great job on saving everyone." Ryder complimented. The mentioned pups gave a head nod.
He continued "Thing number two is a 50/50, there is a missing item up at jakes mountain so Everest and Jake might need some help. Chase Luna, I'm looking at you two. Thing number 3 is Tracker coming over." Ryder said revealing all 3 things. The pups expected something a bit more...interesting for number 3 but they were fine with it.
Skye's lit up. She's only seen him in pictures with someone named Carlos. "Tracker? Like the jungle unit Tracker?" She curiously asks in excitement.
"Nahhhh the Tracker down the street." Catherine sarcastically replied. Some of the pups giggled at it
Ryder didn't heed Catherine's comment. "Yep, I'll try to get confirmation if Everest and Jake are coming down for the party." Ryder added. Skye spun in a circle.
"When is the party?" Ash asked.
"In two days. Get your party faces on." Ryder replied as he walked up stairs.
Rocky wasn't pleased with the vagueness Ryder left. He left nothing for them to work with "Should we include backstories and how we ended up on the Paw Patrol?" Rocky asked everyone.
"I guess for the people who have interesting ones, I won't include mine though." Chase replies. His is very simple. Originally he was supposed to work with Ryder's father but an accident befell on Ryder's father and his own father when he was a puppy. He got handed over to Ryder. You can tell what happens from there.
"We should set a criteria." Rocky explained.
"Criteria?" Zuma asked.
"Yeah like things that should be on our introductions. I for one think we should say why we're in the Paw Patrol." Rocky explained. Most of the pups looked around and nodded.
"So we have to memorize this?" Ash questions.
"It should be short and sweet." Rocky replied. The pups all nodded and left to go think on their quick little introductions. Tuck and Ella were quick to do a duo introduction since it seemed like a fun idea to them.
Arrby and Catherine also had the same thought as the twins. "We should head into the doghouse for something, I forgot my self control in there." Catherine winked. Arrby willingly agreed to follow her.
Skye sat in her pup house thinking of what she could possibly say. First she started of by saying "hello, I'm Skye the teams pilot." She nodded in approval of it. In her thoughts she thought heard some knocking on her door. "Who is it?" She called out.
"It's Chase." He called out. She was tempted to say "I'm busy" but she felt kinda bad about it. She pressed a pink button and the door opened on its own. "What do you need?" Skye asked. "Do you have some extra space?" Chase asked.
Skye looked at him confused on why he would want to come into her pup house. "Sure...what do you need though?" She asked wanting to know what the weird behavior was about. "I need help, I don't know what I should say for my introduction thing." Chase explains as he takes a seat in the small dog house. Skye was relieved, she thought it was something else. "And you came to me?" Skye asked.
Chase looked at her. "Well I was going to go to ask Marshall but he decided to head to the beach. The heat is killing me out there." Chase replied.
"Go to Katie's to get your coat thinned out, you still have a lot of winter fur." Skye suggested. Then she realized Chase still had the green stuff on him. She was going go complain but it was already too late and it would've made things uncomfortable in her head.
Chase shook his head. "It feels good...way too good. I fell asleep last time and when I woke up Marshall had my face covered in whip cream." Chase replied not wanting that to happen again. Skye sighed. "Stay up at Everest's then, take Rocky and Luna with you to." Skye joked. Chase realized he was slacking off. "What have you got so far?" Chase asked getting back on track.
"Hi I'm Skye." She laughed. Chase didn't really find it amusing. "Forgot you're a buzzkill." Skye replied. Chase ignored that statement.
Rocky walked around the lookout to see if anyone wanted to play or needed help with their introduction. Luna, Arrby, and Catherine had already turned down his offer. As he was walking something threw him off guard. He could hear the faint noise of someone sobbing. He lowered himself and tried to stay as silent as possible.
The sobbing noises drew him closer and closer. When he arrived at the placed it stopped. He looked around to try and find the source but he had no luck. "Here goes nothing." He muttered as he started to sniff around for a scent. He wasn't sure if he could even do it.
His nose lead him towards a nearby tree and the scent went up. He didn't realize his eyes were closed the entire time. He opened them and saw Ash looking down at him with red eyes. "Oh..." Rocky said. He was usually prepared for anything but never once has he had to make someone feel happy. "I..uh...I don't know how to deal with the situation we're in? First of all how did you get up there so I can sit up there?" Rocky asked thinking that was a good start. Ash found some humor in his straight forwardness. She helped him up and Rocky looked at her. "Why were you crying?" Rocky asked in almost a demanding tone. Rocky looked at her decide her answer.
"I'm not sure." She replied.
Rocky squinted her eyes at her. He may not have the best social skills but he's not dumb enough to believe her. "That was a lie." He replied with a blank face.
She sighed. "I was thinking of my reason to be in the Paw Patrol and I didn't mean to think of my parents." She replied. "What's wrong with you're parents?" Rocky asked. She dropped her head and mumbled. "What?" Rocky asked. "They're dead!" She exclaimed bursting into tears.
Rocky panicked not wanting her to draw any attention. "Shh shhh shhh, I don't want anyone else here." He said looking at the panicked Dalmatian. He looked around to make sure nobody was getting near. She turned her crying down to inhales with tears.
"I understand." Rocky replied. He tried to continue but was quick to stopped.
"H-how? Everyone else knows their parents. I'm just the odd one out." She said. Rocky felt bad for her. She was forcefully separating herself because she didn't have parents.
"I can name 3 other members who don't have parents, or missing a parent." Rocky replied. He knows things about almost every pup on the team. Nobody really had any issues with him. "Don't tell anyone I told you this. First of all I never met my parents. I don't know where I come from or where my original home is. If I had one." Rocky said.
Her faced changed expressions from sad to interested. "There's also Ryder which everyone knows. Everest doesn't know her parents, Skye has a very very bad relationship with hers. Like they hate each others guts. I'll try to fill you in on everything after." Rocky winked. Ash quickly nodded wanting to hear more on the others like her. "And of course there's Chase, it's quite annoying how he can include himself into everything without even trying. His father died which is quite unfortunate. Turns out Ryder's dad and Chase's dad died in the same accident. Chase wasn't really impacted that much since he was a puppy...I could've combined Chase and Ryder's part thinking on it now." Rocky said as he looked into Ash's eyes. They were dark blue almost to the paint of purple. Marshall, Everest and Ash were the only ones on the team with different colored eyes. "I wanna know more about Skye and her parents. I never really talked to Skye that much. I wanted to when I first joined but it was nerve wracking even be in the same room as her. Now we work together."
Rocky started to realize how split the Paw Patrols original 6 member are from the newer members. "I'll tell you more once you tell me about yourself and your parents." Rocky replied. Her faced turned back to sadness. "You know that movie big hero 6? There's a reason I hate it. You know that one scene where tadashi runs into the building and it blows up?" She asked. Rocky nodded trying to mentally guess where this was going.
She took a deep breath "Okay well, when I was training to become firefighter my parents were already firefighters and a building was up in flames. I wasn't aloud to go in but I saw my parents go in and out At least 5 times. On the 6th is where...they...never...came out." She replied taking a deep breathe. "Oh my..." she mumbled. Rocky got worried once more thinking she was gonna burst into tears. "I'm sorry...I didn't mean to make you feel bad bu-
He noticed that her face looked relieved and relaxed. Still distressed but not as bad. "No No...That felt good to get off my chest..." she sighed. Rocky agreed. "Yeah I heard this quote like 'a burden isn't as much of a burden if it is shared' something like that, it was awhile ago." Rocky said.
"Thank you. I don't think you meant for it to go this well but thank you for trying anyways." Ash said with a bright smile. She was still a mess but a lot better than before.
Rocky was internally pleased with his good deed. "Just don't single yourself out just because you think you're the only one who has a bad experience. I can guarantee you that someone on the team has felt the same way or experienced something similar." Rocky assured.
"You know you should really give that speech to everyone else." Ash suggested.
"Can you be an example?" Rocky asked.
Ash had a quick change of heart on the thought. "Know what never mind." She chuckled.
"So can I know more about Skye now?" She asked.
Rocky nodded going into detail about everything he knew on her relationship with her parents and her royal background. Little did they know they'd be talking for 2 hours about Skye and 2 other pups.
During those two hours most of the pups were having fun at the beach. Especially the twins, Rubble, Zuma, and Marshall. They thought it was nice to cool off in the water. "Summer is surely the best season out of all of them." Zuma sighed and inhaled the fresh coastal air. "I think your furrier friends would say otherwise." A deep voice said.
Zuma snapped his head up and saw his mom and dad. "What are you two doing here?" Zuma questioned. "We've been coming to the beach almost all summer so far." His mother said. She saw a cute little couple walking by. "Have you found yourself a girlfriend yet?" She asked.
Zuma rolled his eyes. "No mom, I got this job to take care of." Zuma said trying to use it as an excuse. She nodded.
Marshall ran up to them. "Hey Mr and Mrs Lynch." Marshall greeted. "Hey Marshall, where's Rocky?" Zuma's father asked.
"At the lookout, the heat is too much for him and he refuses to even get near water." Marshall said explaining the predicament.
"I wonder why." Mrs. Lynch said.
Marshall chuckled knowing why Rocky's afraid of water when he's around. "You got a cool last name, Zuma, Lynch..." Marshall said trying to change the subject.
Zuma's parents planted an umbrella into the ground and sat back. "We're pretty young for having 3 pups." His father said.
"Yeah, 7 years old and got another 10 to live." Zuma's mother smiled looking her husband. He wasn't anything special like strong but he was...geeky which gave his kids a wonderful childhood. Unlike you're generic tough and hard dad he was soft and squishy.
Marshall's eyes bulged. "You're telling me Chase is only three years younger than you? Jeez!" Marshall exclaimed first time hearing this.
"Times change, plus you guys are hard working dogs which doesn't give you time to have a love life. Plus in my day we'd have our first born at age 3. Zuma rolled solo until his brother came along." His mom said. Zuma was uncomfortable with them talking about his past even thought it wasn't that embarrassing. Marshall on the other hand was intrigued.
"Thank you, the help was very needed." Chase replied as he walked out of Skye's pup house. Skye looked at where he was sitting and noticed a bunch of loose fur. "Great now I gotta clean." She as she closed the door. Chase felt bad and went inside. Now the thought of going to Katie's seemed mandatory since it would solve a lot of issues. He found Rocky and Ash sitting awfully close to each other and of course Arrby and Catherine making out in the kitchen. "There's an outside you two!" Chase called out to them. They stop and gave Chase a look before exiting. "You two alright?" Chase asked the mix breed and Dalmatian.
"Yeah, Ash was a little torn up on mommy and daddy issues." Rocky joked. Ash pushed him letting him know it wasn't that funny. "Been there, didn't affect me to much." Chase replied and he walked to the elevator.
"Why would you say that?" Ash said the moment Chase left.
Rocky looked at her. "Didn't we just talk about other people having similar experiences?" Rocky asked. Ash rolled her eyes and scooted away from Rocky. "Don't get to comfortable either. We aren't anything close to a thing." Ash stated so he doesn't jump to any conclusions.
"Nope I'm good, someone else already interests me...It seems crazy but I believe it'll happen." Rocky vaguely replied. Ash didn't even feel like asking who it was.
Chase walks to the edge of the lookout where the wind blows the most. He shook his body in the same manner dogs shake when they are wet. He watches as a bunch of dog hair and green powder get taken away with the wind. After awhile of shaking he felt almost no difference. He sighed and decided to watch the sunset. He could see the little specks of Zuma, Marshall and Rubble on the bridge walking towards the lookout.
He liked this sunset. He never really paid much attention to them since they were a common thing but once you take time to really see it, you'll enjoy it. Chase jumped as Skye spoke. "Beautiful isn't it." Chase looked to his left and saw Rocky, Ash, and Skye sitting down. He contemplated on how he didn't notice them.
"What are you four doing? Going on a double date?" Tuck teased. Nobody responded and just looked out into the distance. He looked towards Ella and shrugged. The twins sat on Chases right side since the left was getting quite crowded.
Soon Zuma, Marshall, Rubble, Arrby and Catherine found their way to the top where everyone else was. Slowly one by one everyone fell asleep.
Marshall felt a Boulder fall on top of him. He looks down to his stomach and sees that Rubble fell asleep on top of him. Not only Rubble but some other members were completely laying on top of each other. Marshall felt his heart warm up to the sight of everyone sleeping and dozed off.
Luna was no where to be found during this precious moment. None of the pups were affected by her not being there since she's always been so to herself. It really makes some of them wonder what she does.
There's chapter 3 for ya, quite underwhelming and short but it's fine.