Chapter 10: The Plan
The four dogs continued walking down the street on their way to the Lookout.
"So are you gonna fill us in on your plan or just leave us in the dark here?" Tuck asked.
"Ok so before I go on this mission I need the tracker in my pup tag disabled so Ryder or the pups don't follow me there or find me at the hideout" explained Chase.
"Wait a minute, you've had a tracker on the entire time you've been with us!?" Ella asked in bewilderment.
"Yeah yeah I know, I got enough scolding from Everest already"
"Did she smack you upside the head?" Tuck asked.
"No, she didn't"
The twins gave each other a quick look before both of them smacked Chase on the head.
"That's for being stupid" Tuck said making Everest laugh and simultaneously earning a glare from Chase.
"I should've said yes" Chase mumbled to himself.
"Yes you should've" said Ella hearing his comment, "now what's your plan to shut it off"
"As I was getting to before, I don't know how to shut this off and I'm sure none of you do either. The only one I can think of that can turn it off besides Ryder is Rocky and since the others can't know about this I need you three to distract them. Just hang out with them until I'm finished and if they try to look for either me or Rocky, lead them away"
"Can do/you got it" said the twins.
"Thanks guys" said Chase as they continued walking towards the lookout.
As they were walking Chase began rehearsing how the plan would play out when they got there. Everest and the twins would distract the pups with a game while he pulled Rocky aside and got him to disable the tracker. Although this plan seemed fool proof, Chase was nervous about the others finding out. What if they eavesdrop on my conversation with Rocky. What if they find out what I'm doing. What if Rocky cant disable it and Ryder and the pups follow me. What if they get hurt because I was too stupid to-
"Chase!" Tuck shouted a third time.
"What!? What!?" Chase said, snapping back into reality.
"We're at the bridge. You should probably take off your blade so the others don't get suspicious of anything" said Tuck.
"Oh…y-yeah thanks for reminding me" Chase said as he took it off and stuffed it into his pupack.
"Are you alright? You seem nervous" asked Ella.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just lost in thought is all"
"Chase, don't worry, everything's going to go as planned. Plus this will give me and the twins a break from all this crazy stuff. We haven't seen the other pups in a while. It'll be good to catch up" said Everest, putting her paw on his shoulder.
Chase took a long breath before looking at the husky again.
"Thanks, I needed some reassurance. Now come on let's get this done"
With the plan ready and Chase's nerves calmed down, the four made their way over the bridge.
The Paw Patrol, minus Chase, were currently playing a game of tug-o-war with a rope. It was Rubble and Zuma on one side and Marshall, Rocky, and Skye on the other. Both sides seemed to cancel out each other's strength since every time they pulled, the rope didn't move. Slowly but surely however, Rubble's team started to pull the other team. They were caught off guard by the sudden burst of strength but continued to try and hold their own.
"Hey guys I brought some friends who wanted to say hi" Chase announced, making Marshall's team let go of the rope causing Rubble to fall back on Zuma.
"No way! I haven't seen you guys in forever!" Skye said running over to the four followed by Marshall and Rocky.
"How have you guys been?" Marshall excitedly asked.
"Good, although we haven't seen much action. Not too many supervillains recently" Tuck said with a laugh.
"Yeah, not many snowy rescues either" Everest added.
"Hey Everest, how was your trip?" asked Rubble.
"It was… is Zuma okay?" Everest asked noticing the lab stuck under Rubble.
"Dude youw cwushing me" said Zuma struggling to breathe.
"Oh sorry Zuma. I forgot you were down there" said Rubble getting up, allowing Zuma to take a huge breath causing the others to laugh.
"The trip was good. I always love visiting the arctic" said Everest, answering Rubble's previous question.
"How have you guys been? Anything interesting?" asked Ella.
"Not much. Just a few rescues here and there, nothing major" said Skye, "hey do you guys want to join our game?"
"Yeah sure" said Tuck as he, Ella, and Everest walked over to start a new game.
Chase however caught Rocky before he could get back.
"Hey Rocky"
"What's up Chase?"
"Can you come with me real quick? I need to ask a favor" Chase said leading Rocky away from the others.
"What's up Chase?" asked Rocky, slightly tilting his head in curiosity.
"First off where's Ryder?"
"Ryder? He's inside, why?"
"Good. I need you to do me a favor but you can't tell anyone, especially Ryder"
"Wow" Rocky exclaimed, "It must be serious if Ryder can't know. You usually tell him everything"
"Usually I do, but I don't want him or you guys accidentally getting involved in what I'm doing. So I need you to disable the tracker in my collar"
"What!? Chase you know I can't do that" Rocky said nervously.
"Why not!?" asked Chase, taking a quick glance at the others.
"You know why! Ryder would flip out on both of us if he knew I did that. Plus he'd probably notice pretty quickly since you've been out alot, and since you're asking me to do this, I would assume you'll continue to be out"
"I will be, and that's why I need that tracker disabled. I can't have people following me, especially you guys and Ryder. I don't want any of you getting hurt because of me"
"I still don't know. This really won't be a great idea, primarily on my part"
"Come on Rocky. You owe me, remember"
Rocky sat there, arguing with himself in his thoughts for a few minutes. He then gave Chase a stern look.
"Okay fine, but only because I owe you for testing out that prototype, not because I want to do this"
"Yes! Thank you Rocky!" shouted Chase wrapping the mix into a hug.
"Yeah yeah, just let me get this over with" said Rocky pushing the shepherd off him, "give me your collar and wait here, I'll make some quick adjustments to it that'll help you out"
"Okay just try to be quick" said Chase handing over his collar, "I don't want the others noticing we're gone for too long"
"Don't worry. I'll only be like, five minutes"
"And we win again" said Zuma as Marshall, Everest and Ella were pulled over the line once again, "Anyone want to do something else?"
"Sure, what else do you have in mind?" asked Marshall as his team got up off the floor.
"How about we play hide and seek" said Rubble, pitching the idea.
"Yeah sure, although we should probably get Chase. He loves being the seeker. Speaking of Chase, where did he go?" asked Marshall looking around for the Shepherd.
"Also where is Wocky? I haven't seen him since you guys got hewe" asked Zuma.
"Oh uh, Chase just needed to ask him something. He should be back soon. Let's just start" said Everest, trying to start the game in an attempt to change the topic.
"I don't know, it's one of his favorite games. I'll just go tell him we're playing so he doesn't miss out" said Marshall running in the direction Chase went.
"Wait Marshall I can just be it!" yelled Everest trying to get him to come back.
"Don't worry I'll only be a minute!" Marshall yelled back as he continued running to Chase.
"Oh great" Everest said to herself as she ran after him.
Chase had been waiting patiently for Rocky to return for the past six or seven minutes until he heard a voice call out his name.
"Chase!" shouted Marshall running towards him.
"OH! M-Marshall, what's up" Chase responded, noticing Everest running over shortly after Marshall. He looked over at her as she mouthed the word "sorry". Not wanting to make the dalmatian suspicious of anything, Everest walked back over to the group.
"We just wanted to know if you wanted to play hide and seek. I didn't want you and Rocky to miss out on the game"
"Thanks Marshall, that's nice of you. We'll be over in a few minutes" said Chase.
"Okay great" said Marshall about to leave until a certain mixed breed walked back over.
"Okay Chase I'm finished with the…"
He paused upon seeing the dally. Rocky stood there, unaware of what to do. He wasn't expecting Marshall to walk over while he was bringing back Chase's collar.
"What are you guys working on?" asked Marshall as he looked between the two noticing Rocky holding Chase's collar.
Rocky and Chase both glanced at each other with a nervous look before Chase responded.
"Rocky was just... helping me with my collar"
"Y-yeah I was just uh looking over Chase's collar. He said he had some problems with it"
"It's been glitching out a bit recently" added Chase trying to make it seem more believable.
"Well why didn't you just ask Ryder?" Marshall asked looking over at Chase.
"W-well I didn't want to pull him away from his work. He probably has bigger, more important things going on"
Marshall eyed the two as he dwelled on Chase's reason for not going to Ryder, the boy who created the collar's.
"Okay, just come over when you guys are done" said Marshall finally walking away.
Chase and Rocky both exhaled in relief as they watched Marshall walk away.
"Anyway, like I was saying before Marshall walked over, I didn't exactly shut off the tracker, permanently at least" said Rocky handing the collar back to Chase.
"What do you mean?" Chase asked as he put his collar back on.
"Let me explain. Shutting off the tracker permanently would cause Ryder to notice something wrong. What I did instead was install a little knob on your collar that, when turned, can shut the track off or turn it back on. This way, Ryder won't know anything is going on. The downside is that I couldn't find a way to shut only the tracker off so when you shut off the tracker, you shut off the entire collar. This means that when you shut it off no one will be able to find you if you're in trouble. I would recommend only shutting it off when you absolutely need to" Rocky explained sending chills down Chase's spine with that last sentence, "with that said, we're now even"
"Yeah, we are. Thank you so much Rocky. Just remember, you can't tell anyone about this"
"I'll remember. Now come on, let's get back before they send Marshall to find us again" said Rocky leading Chase back over to the others.
Hey everybody. I apologize for not uploading a chapter last week, I wasn't home for a majority of the week so I wasn't able to work on it. With that said expect another chapter by next Sunday. As always, I hope you all are enjoying this story so far. Let me know if you have any questions about this chapter or the story as a whole and as always constructive criticism is appreciated. See you all in the next one. Peace.