Season 2 Episode 5: Pups Save Skye! Searching Through The Snowstorm!


January 28th, 2030

Ben and Ace were sitting inside Jake's cabin, gulping down some drinks. Ben was drinking from his thermos of iced water, while Ace was enjoying a cup of hot cocoa. Skye was supposed to be joining them soon. "Wow Jake, your cocoa is amazing!" Ace complimented the mountain man.

"I know! I'd have some, but Jake says it wouldn't be very good for me." Everest giggled.

"And that's why Jake is your owner. He's smart. He keeps a little furball of adorableness like you out of trouble." Ben chuckled as he picked Everest up and cradled her in his arms as he gave her a belly rub.

"Ooooooh, yeah, that's the spot! Thanks Ben!" Everest purred. After a few minutes of cuddles and belly scratches, the eighteen year old set Everest down, turning to Ace with a solemn expression on his face.

Ben started to strike up a conversation with Ace: first it was about hobbies, vehicles, music, and then it turned to more personal matters. "What's the relationship with your family like?" Ben inquired.

Ace's expression soured as she looked down at the table. "Dad served in the Canadian air force, and he was reported to be MIA after an operation went awry. He disappeared when I was five, fighting for our country. They gave me his badge, and I've kept it with me ever since to remind me of him. My mom Barb and I lived on our own for a while. Mom was a commercial flight pilot, and she continued to teach me how to operate aircraft." Ace began.

Pausing to take a drink of cocoa, Ace sipped her beverage before continuing her story. "When I was 13, we got Skye from our neighbor, who had discovered her in their backyard. Mom didn't like Skye much, but tolerated her since that meant she didn't have to deal with me as much. Skye and I built Amelia together with the help of one of Dad's old Air Force friends. We started doing air tricks. Things changed when Skye turned three. Mom started to get more antagonistic with me and Skye, but then one day Mom told me she needed to take Skye with her on a flight. Barb and I had a huge fight when we got back home, she was completely unapologetic for losing our pup. That was the last straw. I took Amelia and ran away from home." Ace finished, wrapping up her story about her and her family relationship.

"...Wow, Ace. I'm sorry." Ben sadly said.

"It's okay. I got my pilot's license, one of the youngest people to ever get one, and I started doing trick shows. I attracted a lot of crowds due to my age, Dad's air force friend became my manager. It made a lot of money at first… but as I got older and older, I guess the crowds started to see less of the appeal. That's why I jumped at the chance to do a show here in Adventure Bay… but that kind of flopped when my plane exploded. I don't know what I would have done if Skye hadn't been here to emotionally support me these past few days." Ace answered. She smiled softly at the thought of her little pilot puppy, and of the fond memories they had shared over these past few days. She really does need Skye in her life right now… Ben mused in his head.

Back at the lookout, Skye was getting her pup pack ready to go while Chase, Zuma, and Tuck played tug of war against Marshall, Rocky, and Ella. Whichever team got the ribbon on the rope over their side of the line won. Chase and Marshall dropped their sides of the rope when they saw Skye trot out of the Lookout tower lobby with her pup pack on. "Hey Skye, wanna play tug of war with us?!" Chase asked excitedly, almost a pleading tone in his voice.

"Sorry everyone! I'm meeting Ace, Ben, and Everest at Jake's cabin in the mountains! Gotta fly!" Skye apologetically said as she barked out her wings and took off into the air.

As it started to snow, Skye thought about Ace's offer to go back to living with her. It sounded so amazing! She had missed her original owner so much over the past four years. Even though they had reunited three days ago, it felt like they had barely begun to catch up with each other. Going back home with Ace would give her that opportunity… but that would mean leaving the Paw Patrol behind.

The storm winds started picking up and blew Skye around, throwing off her flying and causing her to tumble into a tree. The top of the evergreen made her pup tag fly off and she turned upside down due to the gusts assaulting her, causing the jet engines for her pup pack to be scratched up as well as one of her wings to be bent. The high pitched beeping of the error warning blared from the device, hurting Skye's ears. As she tumbled through the snow, her pup pack began to get hotter and hotter. "The tree must have scratched my jetpack and caused some sort of internal damage! PUP PACK, DISCONNECT NOW!" Skye shouted in terror, forcing the pup pack to disconnect via voice command. The jetpack piece flew off of her and did a twirl in the air before it nosedived into the ground and exploded.

"My pup pack is completely destroyed… I don't have my pup tag to call Ryder… I guess I should hike up to Jake's before I freeze out here." Skye whimpered, sighing as she started to make the trek up to the cabin, using the smoke in the sky that was coming from the fireplace in Jake's cabin as a guiding point.

Back at Jake's cabin, Ben was pacing around anxiously. "It's not like Skye to be late…" Ben groaned.

"She should be here by now!" Everest added.

An alarm started to go off on Ben's pup pad, causing him to pale. Pulling the device out of his pocket his expression morphed into a horrified one. "Oh god." Ben whispered.

Ace stood up and glared at the eighteen year old. "What!? What is it?!" Ace demanded.

"That alarm only plays when a pup pack is disengaged by the pup." Ben quietly said.

"Disengaged…? Why would Skye remove her own pup pack?" Ace asked.

"The disengage is only to be used if the pup pack becomes dangerous to the wearer… Skye's pup tag signal stopped moving a few minutes ago as well and I'm getting silence on her end. She could be hurt." Ben explained.

" What?! We have to help her!" Ace shouted.

"It's going to take more than just the three of us to find her. We need our friends." Ben replied, opening his pup pad and pressing the multicolored button. "I need everyone at the Lookout. NOW." Ben ordered over the communications, everyone's pup tags lighting up as Ben's command was relayed to them.

"Ben's calling!" The canines exclaimed as they started heading to the Lookout tower, with Marshall spinning his way into the tower lobby and getting tangled up in the rope they were using to play tug of war.

"Why are there so many of you…" Marshall mumbled as his vision spun.

The rest of the pups laughed as they rode up to the Lookout tower, though Chase was worried. Why wasn't Skye here? The glass elevator paused at the halfway point to dress the pups in their gear, and then resumed ascending until it reached the control room. "PAW Patrol, ready for action, Ryder sir! Except… Well, Skye's missing." Chase cried out, before noting their absent member.

The control room display showed Ben in the facecam, making Chase further concerned. Their calls never had a face cam view unless it was with one of the other members. "Everyone get ready. I need all paws and hands on deck for this rescue. Skye was flying up to Jake's mountain, but we haven't heard from her since the sudden snowstorm. In addition, her pup tag symbol has stopped moving and her pup pack was forcefully disengaged by her voice command." Ben announced to the group.

"Poor Skye!" Rubble whimpered.

"We'll find her, even if it takes all night. Everest, head down the mountain and search for her. Try to catch her scent and track her that way. Chase, Ryder, you will head to where Skye's pup tag signal is coming from and use the spy drone to look for Skye. Rubble, Marshall, Ella, Tuck, Rocky, Zuma, Alex. Follow Chase and Ryder to the pup tag signal and then spread out to canvas as much possible area as you can. We don't have time to mess around. With the way this blizzard is coming down, Skye could easily freeze out there. RESCUE FORCE, MOBILIZE!" Ben instructed, before cutting the call.

The pups took the slide to their vehicles and shot out of the parking circle, making their way to Jake's mountain as fast as possible. They needed to find Skye fast. Chase was hyperventilating as he drove his police cruiser off the road to Jake's mountain. Even if they rescued Skye, would she stick around? Or would she go back to living with her old owner?

Chase wouldn't be able to bear Skye leaving the team. Noneof them would. Sharing a glance with Ryder, the German Shepherd could tell his owner was equally shaken by this possibility. Chase harbored feelings for Skye, but didn't know if the cockapoo reciprocated the affection.

Marshall was almost as torn up as Chase was about the very concept of Skye leaving them. She was the second closest of the pups to him, second only to Chase. Skye was his sister, someone he could confide in. Someone that always laughed at his jokes, even if they were awful. Her leaving meant him losing the best sister ever!

While not as despondent as Chase and Marshall, Rocky was very upset about the possibility of Skye going her separate way from the rest of the patrol. Who would he talk to about mechanics and other sciences? Marshall knew a lot about medical science but when it came to mechanics and stuff, he was a little clueless. Chase wasn't interested, and neither were the other pups.

Tuck showed some fascination with the concepts, but he got lost in Rocky's explanations. The mixed breed wished he could make an invention to make Skye want to stay, but knew that the choice was hers and hers alone.

Zuma, on the other paw, became extremely sad, wondering what he did to make Skye even consider choosing her old owner over her family. Was it the one time he had accidentally bumped into her because of Marshall? Was it because he had a lisp that made him sound super silly? Did she think he was annoying?! All of those thoughts made him really sad and guilty. The youngest of the group, Alex, had similar thoughts to Zuma's. Why would his big sister leave him, her baby brother?

Rubble, however, was completely oblivious to the fact that Skye might be departing. The bulldog had no idea what he was about to lose, and the other four envied him for that. The Golden Retriever twins, Tuck and Ella, also felt guilty. Like it had been their joining of the team that had pushed Skye, as if their presence in the Lookout Tower had upset the balance of the Paw Patrol. Maybe if they hadn't touched the meteor, Skye wouldn't be thinking of leaving.

The group all arrived at the spot where Skye had crashed, and found her pup tag. Chase set up his drone. "Okay everyone, spread out. Stick in groups of two, and contact the others if you find Skye's scent or any of her tracks." Ryder announced as he got off his ATV and started trudging into the snow.

Meanwhile, Ben, Ace, and Everest were making their way down the mountain behind Jake's cabin. The two humans were riding on the back of Everest's snowcat, and Ace looked up at the sky. "It's getting dark… if we don't find her before the sun sets, it'll be a lot harder to find her." Ace sighed.

Ben gave her a glare before resuming his search using thermal vision in his helmet visor. "Are you saying we should give up?" Ben growled.

"What!?" Ace asked.

"You're wanting to give up, just like you did the first time! You don't deserve to take Skye back with you if you're going to give up! She has a family here, and you want to take the pups' sister away, yet you're ready to stop looking for her!" Ben yelled.

"STOP ARGUING!" Everest snarled, whipping her head back to look at the two and give them an ice cold stare to shut them up.

"I won't give up, I'm not stopping like I did before. I'm going to search until I either freeze to death, or I find my pup." Ace determinedly declared.

Skye panted as she trudged through the snow, shivering due to the cold seeping through her fur. Her pup pack normally kept her warm, but it had gotten destroyed, so that wasn't helping her anymore. As a group of bunnies popped up from the snow and chittered at her, taking her to lie down underneath a tree and snuggling against her to keep themselves and her warm, her thoughts wandered to the other members of the Paw Patrol. Lying down and fluttering her eyes shut, she started to fret about what the rest of the team would do if she left, and how they would feel.

Tuck and Ella certainly would be upset: she had formed a considerable bond with them in the short few weeks that the twins had been on the team. Rocky would get a little bit lonely, since she was the only pup he could really talk to about mechanics. She certainly would miss their fun discussions about the intricacies of their puphouses and vehicle modes.

Zuma, Rubble, and Alex would be absolutely bawling on the floor. Her heart twisted in pain as she imagined them blaming themselves for why she left… Especially Alex. The wolf cub was only two years old. He wouldn't be able to fathom why his big sister would leave her baby brother behind. Marshall would also be distraught, even though he understood the reasons why Skye would go back to living with Ace.

Chase… How could she leave Chase? She knew that she loved Chase in a different way than the way she loved the rest of the Paw Patrol. Skye wasn't sure how Ryder would react, as he was the most understanding of the group and he supported her decision. He would likely still be saddened by her leaving, but Ben would be heartbroken. It was no secret that the primary six pups and Alex viewed the eighteen year old as a sort of father figure. Skye couldn't imagine the pain he would go through when

As the sun started to set and the colors of the sky initiated their change, Ben began to despair about finding Skye. To keep his spirits up, Ben started to open up to Ace about Skye and her history in the Paw Patrol. He described how she was brave, fearless, and would risk her life to save others. How she saved Alexander Porter when he got swept away while playing on Zuma's kiteboard, saving Callie from the train rooftop, how she helped find Jake when he was stranded in the snow with Everest, helping guide Fuzzy back to his flock, retrieving the statue of Grover Goodway from the bottom of the ocean… Each tale he told awed Ace, and made her realize just how important she was to the team.

Their story sharing was interrupted by a transmission from Ryder. "Everest, we found paw prints leading away from some bushes near Bear Rock!" Ryder yelled enthusiastically.

"ON OUR WAY!" Ben roared as the snowcat picked up speed and shifted in direction. As they moved through the snow, they heard Chase's drone sirens start to blare, and then a familiar voice.

"SKYE!" The two humans and the husky shouted in excitement as Everest put her vehicle into turbo, driving to the drone and finding their cockapoo friend at the bottom of a slope.

"YIPPEE! You guys found me!" Skye squealed happily, doing a backflip before wincing as she landed. "Ow, ow, ow!" The pilot pup whimpered, rolling over onto her belly as the pain in her paw flared up.

Ben and Ace quickly dismounted from Everest's ride and ran down the slope to their pup, with Ben picking up Skye and cradling her in his arms. "Hang on, Skye. The slope's too steep to reach you on the snow cat. But I know another way to get you up!" Everest chuckled as she deployed the sled from the back of her vehicle.

"No backflipping for you until we have Marshall check you out." Ben teased Skye. Ace started to scratch her belly as Everest drove them to Jake's cabin.

"I'll have you up at Jake's chalet and cozy warm in no time." Everest promised the group.

Ace gazed into Skye's eyes with worry and sadness. "Skye, remember how I offered you to come back to living with me…?" Ace asked.

Skye sniffled and frowned. "Y-yeah… I can't choose! I've been with Ryder, Ben, Chase, and everyone so long… Chase is really special to me too." Skye whined, pouting and giving a really sad expression.

"I know… I shouldn't have asked you to leave the Paw Patrol. They're your family." Ace apologized.

At Jake's Cabin, all of the pups came back and gave Skye a warm welcome as Marshall examined Skye with his x-ray scanner in the EMT gear. "You'll be good to go soon, Skye. You just have a swollen paw. Don't worry, the swelling will go down within a few days!" Marshall reassured her.

Ryder and Ben had a discussion while Ace talked with the rest of the pups and promised them that Skye wouldn't be leaving them, though Ace seemed really sad that she would be leaving Skye behind. "I talked with Ace today… she doesn't really have anything waiting for her back home, especially now that she doesn't have a plane. But she's brave, courageous, and she knows how to build an airplane." Ben spoke.

"Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?" Ryder grinned.

Ben nodded. "I'm saying we bring her on as a consultant and aviation specialist. We've been meaning to begin the Air Patroller's production for a while now, and having Ace to help will speed up the production. Ace really needs Skye in her life right now. Besides, we did the same for Captain Turbot and the Sea Patroller and Sea Lookout. SPD and Lightspeed are assisting with the construction of the Sea Lookout as well since we signed that contract to share the meteor for the purposes of research." Ben continued.

"I'll admit that having those organizations helping us with funding and construction is great, it beats having to rely on the infrequent sales of the merchandise." Ryder agreed.

"So it's settled. Ace can start to live with us in the Lookout. We'll get her a room set up in the basement or the lobby." Ben concluded.

Ryder walked over to Skye and Ace, who were cozied up by the fire. "Ace, we know you don't want to leave Skye, and Skye doesn't want to leave you. That's why we have an offer for you." Ryder began.

Ace and Skye looked at Ryder, with Skye sprouting a huge grin across her muzzle. "We know that Skye wants you to stay, and that you don't really have anywhere to go. Ben told me about how you and Skye built your plane together with some help. That's why I want to offer you a position on the PAW Patrol." Ryder solemnly said.

" Me ? On the Paw Patrol? But I thought that only dogs could be on the team!" Ace gasped.

Ryder chuckled. "That's not entirely true. While our primary rescuers are canines, we also have humans on the team who serve in an advisory capacity. Captain Turbot is our marine life expert and also our boating specialist, helping us with our work in progress sea base. We were thinking you could help us with making the Air Patroller, as well as help train the pups for aerial rescues. Parachuting, flying, and more. You could stay at the Lookout with us." Ryder explained.

Ace put a hand over her mouth in shock. "I… I don't know what to say! This is so sudden!" Ace exclaimed. "A simple 'yes' would suffice." Ben chimed in. Ace and Skye giggled at that. "Well, of course I'm going to accept! Thank you, Ben and Ryder. This means a lot to me." Ace gratefully said. Skye howled in pure elation. Now, she was going to get the best of both worlds. She was going to get to stay with her family, and Ace would be with her!