"Oh my pup treats they're communicating!" Rubble spoke into a small headset, "Guys, guys, clear the TV room! They're coming!"

"You're the only one in there!" Rocky replied through his headset.

"Get your tail outta there dude! you're compromising the mission!"

"Rubble getting out on the double!" The Bulldog tried to head to the exit, but stopped the moment he realized that he would be seen if he left the room, "Or not!"

"You just had to catch the newest episode of Apollo, huh?" Marshall groaned.

"Of course I did!" Rubble shouted in a hushed voice, "It doesn't feel the same watching it on a different day than the premiere!"

"He has a point, Marshall."

"Who's side are you on, Zuma?"

"Guys, shut up!" Rocky shouted through his headset, "Rubble, ditch your headset and act casual. Maybe you can escape while the love pups are busy watching the show."

"Rubble on the causal double!" The Bulldog hopped onto his dog bed, picking up some snacks and getting to munching. He took his headset off before putting it under his bed.

"You remember that time Farmer Yumi and Farmer Al got married?" Skye asked, "I remember seeing you tear up when they kissed."

"Hey! Love is a beautiful thing!"

Skye laughed at the Shepherd's attempt to defend himself. She couldn't help but to find it cute, how easily he broke his tough pup persona when attending a wedding.

"Oh hey Rubble!" Skye turned her attention to the youngest pup of the original six, "Have you seen Zuma, Rocky, or Marshall lately? They've been gone all day."

"I think Zuma went to speech therapy again..." Rubble acted like he was thinking, "And Rocky and Marshall went out to Jake's mountain to visit Everest."

"Wow, dude... Does speech therapy always have to be my alibi? It's getting better..."

Marshall hummed faintly, "To be fair, you use speech therapy as an alibi way more..."

"Fair enough."

"To visit Everest?" Chase repeated, "I guess it's been a while since we've seen her."

The Dally chimed in, "...Or Tracker."

"Who?"

"Okay that's just rude..."

"What? I had to be honest, Rocky!" Zuma tried defending himself, "Tracker is a cool dude and all but we barely see him. When's the last time Tracker was on an actual Mission PAW? Or on a Mighty Mission?"

Rocky and Marshall remained quiet.

"Oh, and... I don't think Tracker met Liberty either..."

"Have they met?"

"I know a lot of people out there think I'm underused, but Tracker is just a bad case, dude."

"Can we get back on topic? Please?"

"Sorry Rocky..." Zuma apologized.

Rocky cleared his throat, "Here's the current mission. We need to get Chase and Skye away from each other so we can question Chase and get a confession out of him."

"I could just challenge her to a game of Pup-Pup-Boogie..." The Chocolate lab suggested, "Her and I are tied 50-50, after all."

"Go for it."

Zuma disconnected his headset from the channel before putting it down and heading toward the television room. The Chocolate Lab put on his best; "I'm totally not scheming" face as he walked in.

"Skye!"

"Hm?" The Cockapoo turned around.

"You. Me. Pup Pup Boogie. Tiebreaker."

Skye stood up, walking towards Zuma, "I'll see you later, Chase. Somebody wants to lose a match today."

"I'd like to see you try and beat me."

Their voices soon faded as they ascended up the elevator of the lookout, leaving Chase and Rubble alone to watch Apollo. He was fine with this, but he couldn't help but feel as though he was being watched. Turning around, he could spot the familiar eye with differently colored fur around it.

"Rocky...?"

"Chase!" Rocky suddenly walked in, "Just the pup I was looking for!"

As Rocky passed by Rubble, the two exchanged a quick glance and nod before Rubble left the room. Rocky knew that Zuma wouldn't be happy if others found out that Rubble was in on it, being the most innocent on the team. Besides, it remained advantageous to keep Chase in the dark about at least one of their members.

Soon after Rocky sat down next to Chase, Marshall walked in as well, giving Rubble a quick high paw as he went.

"Hey guys–woah!" The Dally slipped over a chew toy, landing face-first on a dog pillow, "...I'm good."

"Marshall? Rocky? I thought you two were at Jake's."

"Nah, it got a little warmer up there today..." Rocky lied, "And warm snow means water, and water means wet. Yuck..."

Marshall finished, "So we turned back before we got there."

"What were you up to?" Rocky asked, feigning innocence.

"Considering that you were watching me for the past half hour..." Chase suddenly shot the two a sharp glance out of the corner of his eye, "...I think you know that I was watching Apollo with Rubble and Skye."

The Dally and mixed breed gulped.

"We're caught..." Rocky thought, trying to figure out a new plan, "But that doesn't mean we're out of the game just yet."

Meanwhile, Marshall was internally panicking, beginning to sweat and smile awkwardly. Rocky quickly took notice of this change in demeanor. He knew that Marshall and Chase were close, if Chase picked up on how weird Marshall suddenly started acting, it was game over.

"Marshall, didn't you say you were hungry earlier?" Rocky asked him, trying his best to avoid stumbling over his words, "Maybe you should grab some pup treats before you starve to death."

"R-Right!" The Dally chuckled nervously, standing up to leave, "I'll be right back–"

"No, no." Chase cut him off, "Rubble left some treats here, fresh for the taking. You don't have to leave at all."

The Shepherd gave Marshall a feigned kind smile, beginning to pick up on some strange vibes from his best friend. And whatever it was, it was something that Rocky didn't want him to notice. He couldn't let Marshall leave just yet. He wouldn't have any luck breaking through the more intellectually gifted Rocky.

"Dang!" Rocky gritted his teeth beneath his lips, "He's good."

Rocky's ears twitched faintly as he began reaching toward the pup treats. He had to do something, anything. He wasn't going to let Chase win and figure out what they were up to. Marshall would be a dead giveaway.

"Let me get some of those–" Rocky began to ask before intentionally knocking the bowl from Chase's paws, spilling treats all over the floor, "Whoops! Guess Marshall's been rubbing off on me lately... Maybe you should grab some more, Marshall."

Rocky gave a fake nervous grin as he chuckled beneath his smile, as though he was laughing at his own incompetence. In reality, he was chuckling with his wit. He had managed to receive the spike Chase shot at him.

Chase turned to the mixed breed, "It's alright, Rocky. We're dogs. We can just eat off the floor just this once. Besides, you wouldn't want some good food to go to waste. Aren't I right, recycling pup?"

Rocky's grin quickly dissipated, a much darker smirk replacing it. 'Don't lose it, reuse it'. There wasn't anything in the world he loved more than recycling and preventing things going to waste. But this wasn't about him. This lengthy battle of wits and cunning was all for Chase's sake, and he wasn't ready to back down now.

"You'd eat off the floor? In front of Skye?" The mixed breed inquired, unsure of how Chase would react to such a question. It was a calculated risk. There was a good chance the Shepherd would lash out at him for that question. Who knows? Maybe Chase could actually try and fight him for that. It was just getting to the point of crossing the line, but he had no other choice.

"W-What does Skye have to do with this?" Chase stammered, dropping his composure.

Rocky held back the cackle he felt brewing in his chest, "I know we're dogs, and eating off the floor isn't exactly wrong for us. But we've been eating out of pup bowls since the last time I could remember. Would you really want to take that risk? Who knows what Skye's view is on this?"

Dropping his head, the Shepherd faintly sucked his teeth. He knew that there was slim to no chance of Skye returning, but now that it was in his mind, it was a risk he wasn't willing to take.

"I'm not hungry..." Chase breathed, looking back up at Rocky, "You pups can dig in."

The Shepherd's stomach soon rumbled.

"Oh really?" Rocky asked, raising an eyebrow.

Chase looked away, "...I'll go get the pup treats."

"But why?" Rocky feigned confusion, "Marshall's already halfway out the door. You don't like being around me? Did I do something wrong?"

The Shepherd's eyes widened as he stared at the mixed breed. Was he seriously being guilt tripped? And it was working? Out of options, Chase soon let himself rest on the cushion once again.

"Get the pup treats, please Marshall..." Chase muttered.

"On it!" The Dally quickly left the room, tripping over himself in the process. He was relieved that he could finally escape the tense situation. He was by no means stupid, but all of the mind games thrown back and forth between arguably the two most intelligent of the PAW Patrol sent him for a loop. His head arguably felt a bit more full leaving the room than he was coming in.

Rocky, on the other paw, was over the moon. He won! Now, time to really begin.

The two remained in silence for a while. Chase noticed this, and remained mentally alert. He knew it was a common strategy for investigations to give the one being questioned some time to calm down and settle into a sense of security. He might've lost the battle, but there was no way he was going to lose the war, whatever it was about.

Eventually, the mixed breed spoke up.

"So... Why were you so concerned about Skye seeing you eat off the floor?" Rocky asked.

Chase, instead of getting flustered again, remained composed, "As the second in command, I must be mindful of my image, even off the job."

"But you were willing to do it in front of us?"

"You and Marshall are close friends, I could handle that."

"But we're a good third of the team, with you, it makes half. But not Skye? A sixth of the team?"

"You've got to stop asking about Skye. She has nothing to do with this."

Rocky could tell that Chase was beginning to get a bit defensive. The mixed breed began to feel a bit bad about what he was doing, "Sorry, Chase... But this is for your own good..." Rocky exhaled, "You wanna tell me about our most recent mission?"

"What about it?"

"You came to the beach, without an official dispatch, mind you, and immediately dashed over to Skye."

"As the second in command, it is my responsibility to care for the wellbeing of my teammates and–"

"Not this again!" Rocky cut him off with a groan.

Marshall had told Rocky a few days prior about Chase's defense concerning his worry for Skye. He had completely forgotten about it until Chase began to spout the same excuse the Dally warned him of.

"Again?" Chase's eyes narrowed.

"Crap, back on defense!" Rocky flinched, realizing he had let more out than he had anticipated, "Well... Um..."

"What do you mean, 'again', Rocky?" The Shepherd pushed, "I have never spoken to you about this matter."

Rocky, although not drastically smaller than the police pup, could feel himself shrink under the weight and delivery of the words spoken. Whenever Chase was confident about something, he would always have some kind of stronger aura about his tone of speech.

"I gotta call for backup..." Rocky's paw slowly inched closer to the headset lying next to him, "Hopefully, somebody still has their headset on or nearby..."

Upstairs, Zuma and Skye were dancing their hearts out. While this had originally been a plan to distract Skye for long enough so Rocky and Marshall could handle Chase, it soon became extremely competitive with the female pup as Skye was actually trying to beat them.

The new score was 55-54. Skye had the lead.

Zuma, in all honesty, had completely forgotten about Rocky and the others, focusing on just having a good time and beating his friendly rival. This all was shattered, however, when he heard a suspicious beeping from a headset strategically under his dogbowl.

Skye, on the other paw, hadn't noticed the beeping in a great effort to keep and extend her lead over Zuma. The Chocolate Lab, however, had to split his attention between the game and the beeping behind him.

"Rocky and the dudes need help! I have to end this game... But there's no way I'm gonna lose to her!"

"Hey Zuma!" Skye teasingly called over to him as she continued moving, "Let's hope that Rocky isn't up here to see you get beat like this!"

The Chocolate Lab nearly stumbled, "What!?"

Zuma's eyes then widened. The two had been playing so long that they could often hold conversations during the game, and as of recently, they mutually agreed that trash talking wasn't going to be a problem for either of them, leading to more aggressive, but greatly more entertaining games.

"Yo Skye!" Zuma called over to her while doing a tailspin, "Maybe we should call the pups up here! I think Chase would be excited to see you lose."

"H-Huh?" Skye's eyes bulged as her head whipped over to the smirking lab, "W-What are you talking about?"

She had become wrapped up in what Zuma had said, so much so to the point where she even stopped moving, losing her the game.

Zuma stopped once it was revealed that he had won.

"Why'd you stop dancing?" Skye seemed a bit confused.

"I don't know, why'd you?" The Chocolate Lab pointed at the screen with a toothy grin.

The Cockapoo slowly turned her head to see the familiar winning screen. But instead of seeing her own avatar, she saw Zuma's. The realization that she had lost sunk in as the Chocolate Lab ran towards the elevator.

"Stay right there, Skye!" He shouted at her, "I'm gonna go get the others to watch our tiebreakers."

"O-Okay..." She nodded, trying to calm her own nerves.

The instant the elevator doors slid open, Zuma rushed out and to where he knew Chase was. He decided that in order to prevent being suspicious, he would have to just jump into it.

"Hey dudes!" He grinned, running into the room, "Skye and I are running some Pup-Pup Boogie tiebreakers! Wanna watch?"

Rocky was relieved at the sight of his best friend. Any more time alone with the already suspicious Chase would have proven to be his downfall. Yes, he considered himself to be fairly intelligent, but the Shepherd was specially trained to deal with investigations and interrogations. That proved to be the biggest problem. He was too good at dodging questions.

Chase smiled, "Sure, I guess that could be fun. But just so you know, I'm not picking sides if that's what you were expecting."

"Nah, relax!" Zuma laughed as Chase walked past him, "We just thought an audience would be better for this. More cinematic if you know what I mean."

As Chase went up the elevator, Rocky immediately ran over to Zuma, "You saved my butt, Zuma! I could kiss you!"

"What?" Marshall, who was walking into the room, asked with confusion.

"It's an expression."

"Now let's get upstairs and beat Skye!" Zuma cheered, "I mean, try to further Chase and Skye's relationship!"

"You completely forgot about the mission, huh?" Rocky smirked at the Lab.

Zuma whimpered faintly under his sharp gaze, "I got weally into it, Wocky!"

Marshall only stood between the two with a deadpan gaze, "I'm gonna leave without you two."

"Coming!" Both Rocky and Zuma chorused, heading over to the elevator with Marshall.

Also approaching the elevator was Rubble, who had just woken up from a nap, "What'd I miss...?"

Rocky exhaled, "A lot."

Marshall chuckled, "We'll have to schedule another meeting. About that much."

"That much?" Rubble's eyes widened as he repeated what Marshall said.

Zuma nodded, "There's tons to go over now."