"My Lord...I am sorry..."

"Never mind that, Hum, tase them and break into their Headquarters. Bring Sweetie's six sisters and brothers, but not Rocky and Chase, not her cousins, they should never know that the are cousins of my cousin Sweetie. Do you hear me! He shall never know that I'm their cousin! Just 6, not 7. I do not want anyone else to become a family member of Sweetie when they get married, a knowing to us! You know that Sweetie is my cousin, the cousin I am now working with!" He turned to Sweetie. "Thanks for the other reason to hate Rocky and Chase."

The female Terrier chuckled. "Oh, they're idiots, anyway. Getting all the attention..."

Axton smiled and turned to the Humdingers. "Get them."

"Y-yes, sir...but is it possible?"

Silence.

A silence to make sure Humdinger feel scared, an icy one.

"Do you say," whispered Axton threateningly and coldly, "that even though you are a mayor you will not follow your always-right master?"

"N-no, sir..."

"Then go. Sweetin is in Toronto, Sweeter is in Mississippi, Sweetkins is in Placentia, Sweetnum is in Euphoria Town, Sweetling is in Solitude Square, and Sweetest is in Nadir Village. Hurry up, won't you?"

"Yes, I will go... I promise, sir..."

Mayor Humdinger, Harold, and the Cheetah left, and Sweetie, smiling viciously, watched them go. She had no regrets, not even to kill her own cousins, father's side and half or not.

The pups stopped as they came upon 4 rooms.

"I'll have one to myself, Rocky, Chase, and Marshall sleep and rest in one, Skye, Rex, and Everest in one, and Tracker, Rubble, and Zuma in another. Sound good?" Ryder asked.

"Yes!" every pup agreed, Chase almost jumping out of his wits in excitement that he was sleeping with Rocky, and with no other pups to interrupt them. Marshall usually kept to himself, sometimes asking for a little game or something—but he wouldn't complain if they didn't oblige.

"You can sleep earlier if you want, it's only 8. But our normal sleep time is half an hour past 8, it's up to you." Ryder grinned.

"Well, I'm going in, I'm exhausted," muttered Chase, who had bags under his eyes. Rocky and Marshall followed him. They heard the distant sounds of doors shutting, meaning everypup had decided to retire.

Their room was nice and roomy. A wardrobe rested at the corner, a small table of marble beside it. A few chairs of plastic were stacked neatly against a wall, and a carpet patterned with marigolds was smack in the middle of the room, with no flaws. The room seemed very clean, with maple-wood flooring like the corridor they had walked on, the one with the stain that was a good clue, whether in later help or not. An analog clock was on the wall, old and lonely looking as the only thing on the wall. A nice and comfy-looking sofa sat below the clock, new and red.

Marshall smiled. "Whoa, nice pup-beds."

They were all different colours: red, green, and blue, decorated by the symbols on their pup-tags. Each was quite spacious, probably three times their size could fit in one, and lined up against a wall. There were blankets and pillows on each one, both draped brown on blue, grey on green, and white on red, each matching their fur colours, so that when they lied down they pillows would be camouflaged.

They all trotted over and took the beds according to their colours. Chase was happy to find out that his was beside Rocky's, whose bed was in the middle. Marshall yanked his pup-bed away, muttering that he wanted a place to himself.

"It's fine, M-Marshall," said Rocky, yawning widely. "If you want, Chase, I can move my bed away too."

"No, it's fine," Chase smiled, in what he thought later a would-be-casual voice. Rocky smiled and dozed off. Chase made himself comfortable, and in no time he was asleep as well, and inside a happy dream in which they had just recovered Sweetie, who had said thank you a million times and said that she would never ever do anything wrong again.

If it were only that easy.

Chase woke up that morning. He realized that, beside him, Rocky was still sleeping. The Shepherd got up and changed into his uniform, folding his pyjamas in a neat pile on the marble desk. Marshall, in the corner, had rolled off his mattress and sleeping head-down. Chase couldn't help but giggle slightly at the comical sight, but not loud enough to wake the other two. He looked over at the clock and became aware that it was one minute to seven. He saw an alarm clock beside Marshall's bed and realized the Dalmatian had set a timer for 7:00.

The alarm clock took off.

"Erm..." muttered Marshall, waking.

Chase saw that Rocky had stirred as well.

"Morning," Marshall murmured sleepily.

"Did you really have to set a timer?" whined Rocky. "I was having the best dream ever, we captured Axton..."

Chase did not smile. "Change, we gotta hurry," he said, in a somewhat quieter tone than normal.

Marshall jumped up. "Oh yeah, we're in Barkingburg, I almost forgot. Shame how a good night's sleep can really disorient you, yet it's so great. I'm having regrets on it..."

He had evidently not noticed the tone of Chase's voice, but Rocky had, and he put on his uniform quicker than lightning. Marshall did the same, and they all headed out. They found that Ryder was up and was waking the others.

"Morning, pups," he said, as Rubble, Tracker, and Zuma hobbled from their room.

"Morning," said Rex, much more awake. Beside him, Skye was yawning.

"Let's go eat eat breakfast and get some of Cook Cookie's cookies!" Rubble said enthusiastically. "Say that five times in a row. Even though we can't eat those cookies, they sound fabulous." He licked his muzzle, and the others laughed.

"I'm hungry, too," said Chase. "I wonder what we'll have for breakfast, but I really want that bacon again."

"It was good," agreed Rex.

"We'll get a break after Lunch," Ryder said. "We need a break."

"We do not," said Chase. "We need to do it all 12 hours."

"Why not?" asked Rocky, sounding surprised.

Chase hesitated. "Well, it may sound silly, but-but I want to see Axton as much as I want to save Sweetie," he said finally.

"What?" said Rocky incredulously. "If it weren't for him, we wouldn't even be here! We wouldn't even be saying this, nothing would've ever had happened! Sweetie wouldn't be gone! We wouldn't be in danger, not at all!"

"I know," said Chase patiently, "but envy can do such things. How can I dumb this down for you?" He paused. "Envy—well—captured Axton. He couldn't fight it, and it was a royal who preferred me. He'd been put down for nearly all his life. Owners got them for summers, he was looked down by his parents, they only wanted girls. And now me getting all the attention, hardly anyone knowing that I was a friend of him. I-I want to take him away from that envy, so he can become that pup again. But if you want a break, I can look for clues on my own."

"Okay, no break" agree Ryder. "Can we have a break on weekends, though?"

"Sure."

They headed down to breakfast.