Chapter 7: Training Begins
"Are you serious!? You'll help us!?" exclaimed Everest, her tail wagging furiously.
"As serious as ever" said Chase as a smile crept onto his face.
The pups howled in excitement. Everest had done it, she got Chase on their side, despite how stubborn he was. The little celebration was cut short however, when a new voice entered the scene. The pups turned around to look who it was. Although never actually seeing his face before, Chase knew exactly who it was.
"What's with all the noise?" he asked.
"Our friend here has decided to help us" explained Ella, "His name is-"
"Yeah I know who Chase is. We've had a few run-ins before" he explained.
He then walked up to Chase and stuck out his paw.
"I'm Sean. Nice to finally-" he said getting interrupted by a sudden punch from the shepherd. He fell back, stunned from the sudden attack. Before he could get up and return the strike, Tuck, Ella and Everest ran over and stood between the two, holding back Chase and Sean.
"You think you can just leave me to fucking rot in the middle of the forest and introduce yourself like nothing happened!" Chase yelled.
"Hey I told you to walk away and you chose not to listen! What happened was your own damn fault! Plus I sent that SOS signal from your collar, if anything you should be thanking me that you're not still lying face down in the snow in the forest!" Sean shot back.
Before either party could speak again, Tuck raised his voice.
"Both of you shut up! What the hell happened between you two?"
"I don't have time for this. Ella follow me" Sean said, "I have a mission and Everest, keep that thing on a leash"
He then walked away followed by Ella.
"Now I remember why I hated this group, because it has dogs like that" said Chase.
"Believe me, I'm just as pissed about him almost killing you, but now that you're with us, you're with him"
"I don't know…" he said having second thoughts.
"Chase you don't have to do it for him. Do it for us" Tuck said referring to Everest, Ella, and himself, "do it for the Paw Patrol. I may not know you as well as Everest might, but I know if something happened to any of them you wouldn't be able to live with yourself; and with this group around Adventure Bay, the likelihood of something happening to them is high, especially since their one of Adventure Bay's first responders"
Chase thought on Tuck's words for a few minutes.
"Ok fine, but I'm not gonna like it" Chase said, mumbling the last part.
"Great. Before you start, you need to go through some training" said Everest.
"Training?"
"Yeah, we have to show you some things before you go into the field" said Tuck.
"Like what?"
"Follow me" Tuck said leading Chase over to a sparring mat.
"First off, you need to know how to play both sides of a fight, offense and defense"
"I think I can hold my own in a fight"
"From what Everest told us, your fighting is sloppy and a bit reckless"
Chase looked over at Everest.
"What? It's true. You're lucky I wasn't trying" said Everest.
"Okay, when I'm all healed up I want a rematch" said Chase.
"Fine, you'll get a bit more than a black eye this time"
"Please, I'd like to see you try"
"I have already, nothing's stopping me from giving you another one"
"Are you two done flirting yet?" Tuck said, making the pair turn red "I'll take that as a yes. Now Chase, when you're in a fight, you need to have a firm stance. This will allow you to dodge easier and if you can't dodge, then you will be able to take a punch without falling back. Now lets try it"
Chase then got into the stance. Tuck walked around him, adjusting his footwork, then stood in front of him.
"Now I'm going to hit you with a variety of strikes. Either dodge, block, or take the hit"
Tuck then threw a punch from the right which Chase managed to block. He then threw another punch from the left which, once again, Chase blocked. He finished with a lunge to which Chase dodged.
"Okay so your defense is good. However, that's your defense when you're ready for a fight. Some fights you won't be ready for. For the time that you're here, I'll be randomly attacking you to test how well you can fight when caught off guard. This is gonna be fun" said Tuck.
"Great so now I have to watch out for you around here. Anyway what about my offense"
"Yes, your offense. I know this will sound kind of cliche, but the best offense you can have is your defense"
"Are you serious? What is this Karate Kid"
"Maybe an example will help you. Try to hit me" said Tuck getting into a fighting stance.
"Alright" Chase said with more than a hint of doubt in his voice.
Chase quickly threw a barrage of punches to which Tuck blocked two, dodged two, grabbed hold of Chase's paw on the last one, and flipped him onto the mat while simultaneously getting him into a submission.
"What just happened?" asked Chase on the floor.
"Like I said, defense can be your best offense" said Tuck helping Chase off the floor "I'm sure once you're feeling a bit better, and when you have some more practice under your belt, you'll be as good as me"
"I hope so" said Chase.
"I think Ella is next up to play the teacher" Everest said as Ella walked back in.
"That's right, follow me. Your next lesson is on stealth" said Ella walking to the exit.
"Where are we going?" asked Chase.
"We're going up onto the streets. The only good method of teaching you stealth tactics is through example" said Ella walking out the door.
Chase followed her while Everest and Tuck hung back.
"So how's he doing?" said a voice from behind them.
"Why would you care?" Everest said with hostility in her voice.
Sean looked at her quizickly, "What do you mean? I'm not allowed to see the progress on a new recruit?"
"Oh for God sakes, you left him to die in the middle of the woods!" she said.
"Why can't you just get over it. First of all, if my intention was to kill him, he would be dead. Second of all, I activated that beacon on his collar"
"Yeah, after you beat him half to death. When I found him he had cuts, bruises, and was on the brink of hypothermia"
"Can someone please explain to me what happened?" Tuck asked breaking the argument.
"Gladly" said Sean, "When I was tasked with killing that messenger, I managed to track him down to the forest. When I found him I managed to kill him. The task was complete. It just happens that her boyfriend was looking for the same guy"
"What so now I'm not allowed to worry about someone if I'm not dating them, grow up!"
"Everest! Let him finish" said Tuck, he then looked back to Sean.
"Anyway, I was about to leave when Chase found me next to the corpse. I told him to leave but he wouldn't listen and I wasn't going to let him take me to jail, so I did the only thing I could do. I beat him down and left. Before I left, however, I activated a beacon on his collar. So despite me causing the problem, I also solved it"
"It doesn't matter if you solved it or not, you almost killed him!" Everest yelled.
"Again with this. It was his fault for not walking away. Like I said, I gave him a chance to"
Before either of them could speak again, Tuck walked between the two. "Ok, ok. So the way I see it, Everest you should be grateful he activated that beacon. We both know how stubborn Chase can be, especially when he's on a case"
"Thank you"
"And Sean, you shouldn't have left him in the snow. You should have at least brought him to the rest of the Paw Patrol. If what Everest said was true, then there is a big chance hypothermia could have killed him despite you activating that beacon. So can we both just drop this already, we have much bigger problems to take care of"
Sean and Everest looked at each other.
"Fine, I'll admit leaving him in the snow was a bad idea. I'm sorry"
"I'm not the one you need to be apologizing to. Chase is"
"Well he can do that when he and Ella come back. Right now we have some issues to deal with" said Tuck.
Everest and Sean both nodded as they followed Tuck over to the target board.
Chase and Ella stood in an alleyway next to the hideout
"Okay Chase, think of stealth like a game of hide and seek except you're the hider. Let's try an exercise that will test your ability"
"Sure, what's first?"
"First" said Ella, nodding her head towards the people and dogs walking by, "I'll show you how to blend in. Follow me"
Chase followed Ella into the crowd.
"All you have to do is go with the crowd. Keep your eyes forward, don't talk to anyone, and most importantly match the speed of the people around you. If someone's looking for you, they will easily pick you out of the crowd if you're constantly looking around, if they hear your voice, or if you're walking faster than everyone else."
The pair continued walking around the neighborhood for ten minutes until Ella stopped and turned to Chase.
"Great, since you got that down, now comes the real test" Ella said.
They walked down the street as Chase began looking around. Ella seemed to be looking for something as Chase followed suit.
"Bingo" mumbled Ella.
Chase shifted his gaze to where Ella was looking. It was a dog walking down the street. A pitbull to be exact, and he was much bigger than the both of them. He was pretty intimidating to say the least.
"Ella whatever your thinking, no"
"Relax Chase, where not doing anything too bad"
Once the two got next to him Ella hit him in the back of the head, knocking him on the ground. Chase froze as he watched the pitbull get up. He spun around and glared at Chase. Chase looked back to Ella only to realize she was nowhere to be seen.
"Great, she knocked him on the ground and left me standing here right behind him. Suspicious much?" Chase thought to himself
"You're dead" he said, getting up and glaring at the shepherd.
Chase quickly spun around and ran down the street, the pitbull hot on his tail.
"Easy Chase, remember what Ella showed you" Chase thought as he turned the corner and matched the speed of the crowd.
The pitbull rounded the corner looking around for his assailant. After a few minutes of walking Chase rounded another corner. He poked his head back around the corner and saw no sign of the other dog. He sighed in relief before walking right into Ella.
"You did great!" she said, making Chase jump.
"Ella! What was that!?"
"That was the test, and you passed!" she said excitedly.
Chase looked at her and sighed.
"I can tell you now I wasn't expecting a test like that"
"That was the point. You may need to disappear at any given moment. Now come with me, one more person wants to teach you" she said as the pair walked back to the hideout.
What's up everyone. First off I want to apologize for the long wait. Teacher's piled work on me the last week of school. Also being stuck on what to write didn't help either. I wan't to try and get back on the weekly schedule I was previously on so I believe the next chapter should be out May 20th(Next Thursday). I hope everyone enjoys this chapter and I'll see all of you in the next one. Peace.