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Chapter 29: Stuck in a Puddle

A few days had gone by since the incident with the Bullet Express. Repairs on the Air Patroller frame were almost finished and everyone had plenty of work to do. Well, almost everyone. Zuma laid his head on his forepaws and watched the storm outside. He was in the main area of the hangar where the Air Patroller was stored. The large hangar door remained open, and he lounged just out of the water's reach. Normally on Franklin Island there wouldn't have been any water or rain whatsoever, but Zuma had decided to fix that. He climbed the stairs to the helicopter bay on the roof and turned the firehose up there onto a sprinkler setting so it would spray over the side of the building. The water dog found it depressing to be in a thunderstorm without any rain while retaining the overcast skies and flashes of lightning. The shield dome still prevented him from hearing any of the thunder, but at least this way it felt like it was raining. Zuma watched as the simulated downpour formed rivers in the dirt, and he wagged his tail as a bolt of lightning zapped across the sky.

He never got much of an opportunity to just sit and enjoy water. When he was on rescue, a life was on the line, and that meant it was time to work. As of late, even before their crash on the island, he hadn't been called to duty, and that was the reason he sat there. He had asked and re-asked everybody he could think of if they required his assistance. Rocky, Gizmo, and Skye were in one of the rooms at FIR talking about complicated aerodynamics and discussing slight improvements that could be added to the Air Patroller, Everest, Tracker, and Rubble had been sent off into the forest early that morning to retrieve something, Marshall was checking up on Ryder's leg, and Chase just seemed grouchy. Aside from the crew that had already gone to the forest, all had declined his help for various reasons, and he didn't want to seem desperate by pleading for something to do. To be honest, Zuma felt useless.

He sighed as he observed the raindrops plummet and join the growing puddles and streams. Zuma had always liked water. It was always moving, even when it was trapped in a puddle. The Lab lifted his head and glanced around the hanger. He felt trapped in a puddle of his own, but this puddle wasn't going anywhere any time soon.

Just as a large lightning bolt thundered, a curious thought struck him:

There's always water in a puddle.

Zuma sat up from his position on the concrete floor and shook himself. He looked at the torrents of water cascading from the fire hose and shivered with anticipation. He crouched in a playful gesture as if preparing for a game of tag and then… he heard the quiet creak of a door behind him.

The chocolate-colored pup turned to see Rocky entering the hangar through the back door. The water pup hadn't seen him park in the front, so he must have parked in the back. Whether it was because the back entrance was closer to FIR or because the recycling pup had wisely decided to avoid Zuma's fake rain, Zuma didn't know. It didn't matter much anyway. Rocky hadn't noticed Zuma yet, but the Lab figured he would at any second. Zuma was about to greet him, thankful for some company, when he heard something that he decided instantly that he never wanted to hear again in all of his living days.

"AAAAAAAAAAUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH! I CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE! THAT PUP THINKS HE CAN DO ANYTHING, AND HE'S ONLY FIVE! I'VE LIVED ALL MY LIFE SOLVING PROBLEMS LIKE THIS, AND HE THINKS I CAN'T TELL A SCREW FROM A TAPCON! WHY?! WHY?! WHHHYYYYYYYYYYYY?!"

Here Rocky flopped onto his side, panting. Zuma edged closer to him, staring wide-eyed at his usually quiet friend.

"Dude, you alright?" Zuma tentatively asked. The dog in question started and scrambled to his paws.

"Oh, um… h-hey, Zuma. What are– what are you doing here?" the startled mixed-breed half shouted.

"Oh, I just feel like it's a good place to scream about my deepest, darkest problems," Zuma responded with a cheeky smirk.

Rocky's ears flattened against his head, betraying his embarrassment, "Oh… how much did you hear?"

"I pretty much heard everything after…" Zuma cocked his head to the side, crossing his eyes and pointing his left ear to the ceiling in a goofy impression of the engineer pup, "AAAAAUUUUUGGGGHHHH!"

Rocky laughed nervously, "Yeah… sorry. I didn't mean to have anybody hear that. I was literally holding my breath when I left the building so that I wouldn't say anything stupid before I was alone."

Zuma nodded, "It's okay. I get frustrated with stuff too, man. You wanna talk about it?"

"Sure. I might as well now that you've heard everything. In fact, you'd probably have noticed something was up even if I hadn't shouted out; you know me too well," the grey dog chuckled.

"Oh, totally dude," Zuma agreed with a grin. When he had joined the Paw Patrol, he had immediately become best friends with the mixed breed, as quiet and reclusive as Rocky was. For the longest time they proved to be nearly inseparable, with the sole exception of missions. As they grew up their friendship became something stronger than just friends; they were brothers, through and through. They could always tell when something was amiss with the other.

"Well, I just can't seem to work with Gizmo," Rocky confided as they slowly started walking towards the hanger door.

"Why?" Zuma asked.

"Well, first of all he doesn't fully consider the risks. Well, actually no, he considers the risks, he just doesn't seem to care. We were talking about the reattachment of the wing and he said we could just bolt it on even though the blueprints clearly call for it to be welded on. I mean, that's a serious issue!"

Zuma nodded his head slowly. "I see…" It was clear that he did not see.

"When you weld pieces together you can physically model them as a single piece. When you bolt them together they have to be treated as two separate pieces."

"Oh, so would the wing have broken?"

"He said it wouldn't, and then he showed the math and it turned out he was right. So it theoretically should be fine, but- it's just- it's an unnecessary risk when it's easy enough to just weld it on."

"Well did you tell him that?" The aquatic dog pressed as they sat down a couple feet from the cascading water.

Rocky hesitated. "Well, no… I was too frustrated about him being right and me being wrong. Even before that he was already redoing all the calculations I was doing to make sure I had done them right. It's like he doesn't trust me."

"I'm sure he trusts you, he probably just feels like he needs to get to know you a bit better before he… starts… trusting you." As the Labrador finished his sentence he realized regretfully that he had disproven his point.

The engineer lied down, resting his chin on his front paws. "That's what I thought… He always just seems so sure of himself all the time. He doesn't need me."

"Sure of himself? Is that such a bad thing?"

"No… I guess I just wish I could be sure too. I hate how he always has the answers before me. It just makes me feel so… so… "

"Unneeded? Wasted? Useless?" Zuma filled in. Rocky nodded, showing that any of those words would be a good fit.

"I guess neither of us will be doing much, then," the Lab decided, sliding his head onto his forepaws once again, matching his companion's posture.

Rocky lifted his head up, turning to face his companion. "What? You'll be able to do plenty. You could… um…watch Chase do… stuff. You could… help Rubble build… things."

"Oh, yeah, sounds like my area of expertise," Zuma sighed. He met the other pup's gaze sadly. "Do you really think I sat out here because I didn't want to do anything?"

"No…"

"I just want to be as helpful as any pup, but nobody needs a wet dog right now."

Rocky snickered and covered his muzzle with his paw.

"What? What's so funny, dude?" The brown Lab asked, a little offended.

The recycling pup made no more attempt to mask his mirth, "Ha, ha! No, I'm not making fun of you. Ha, ha! I-I just pictured you standing on Gizmo's blueprints and dripping all over them while you tried to read them! Ha, ha, ha!"

Zuma snorted with laughter. "Whoops! Sorry, Gizmo!" He stepped into the downpour for the full effect. "I got a little water on your blue papers! I hope they weren't important." He imitated himself plodding carelessly on the instructions while being soaked by the water. Rocky doubled over from laughter and Zuma smiled; he could tell that they both felt heaps better.

The saturated pup watched his friend sit up and speak, "I forgot how amazing it was to laugh."

"I think I forgot too."

After a few seconds of silence, Rocky did a double-take. "Wait, how is it raining?"

"Oh, I set the firehose on the roof to a sprinkler setting. Pretty cool, right?"

"Why does the firehose have a sprinkler setting…?"

"Beats me, man, but I like it." Zuma grinned as he squelched his way into the dry interior of the hanger. He stopped and widened his stance in a gesture that any dog knows.

"Waaait, Zuma… NOT IN HERE! ZUMA, NOOOO!"

But it was too late. The chocolate Labrador shook his body vigorously, soaking the horrified Rocky.

"AAAAAH! WET WET WET! EW! GROSS!" Rocky pranced around attempting to get the offending substance off of him. Hurriedly he braced his legs and shook himself. Unfortunately, Rocky was a bit out of practice, and with a yelp he tumbled into the torrential downpour. "I'M MELTING! I'M MEEELLLTIIINNG!"

Zuma hopped outside after the shocked pup, concerned that he actually might be melting judging from the horrible sound. A quick observation of the grey dog confirmed that he was retaining his natural shape.

The water dog laughed at his dramatic companion, "Get up, dude! You're fine!"

Rocky opened one of his eyes and glared at Zuma, "I told you not to do that in there. Now if we go back Ryder will be mad that we soaked the floor!"

The brown dog smirked, "Well, I guess we'll just have to stay out here forever then."

The engineer's eyes widened visibly. Rocky's quick glance around the yard told him there would be no shelter anywhere nearby. His friend's 'simulated rain' was very thorough. "You think this is funny, don't you?"

"Hilarious."

"Well, it's not."

"Oh, come on, Rocky! It's not that bad."

Rocky flicked his paw into a muddy puddle so that it splashed onto Zuma, "Have a taste of your own medicine!"

"Hey!" The chocolate Lab cried. He retaliated with a wave of his own by sliding into the puddle and dragging Rocky into the sludge. However, the mixed breed didn't seem to mind. In fact, he looked as if he were enjoying himself. The two pups wrestled and splashed in the puddle until both of them were exhausted.

Rocky rolled onto his back, panting, "Okay, okay! Ow! Leggo, or you'll make a rip in my other ear!"

Zuma released the ear and copied his friend's posture. "That was fun."

"I hate to say it, but… it was fun… icky, but fun." They both laughed. Zuma turned his head to look at Rocky.

"Dude, you have so much mud on you, that you look like me!" Indeed, while he was caked in dirt, Rocky was the same shade as Zuma.

"Ha, ha! Nobody could tell us apart!"

They lay in silence for a couple minutes thinking of all the possible pranks they could play.

Zuma broke the silence, "Ryder's gonna make us take a bath."

Rocky's eyes widened, the whites of his eyes making a humorous contrast with the mud caked onto his fur. "Maybe we can just rinse off in the hose? Can you turn it back to normal?"

The Labrador retriever shook his head. "Not without making a mess of the stairs."

"It doesn't matter anyway. That firehose would wash your fur off along with the dirt," Marshall told them, his voice echoing from the hangar with that harrowing thought.

"Hey Marshal! Didn't hear you come in!" Zuma exclaimed cheerily as he got back on his paws.

"Marshall! Can you wash me down with your hose?" Rocky hurriedly pleaded.

"It would be my pleasure! Ruff! Water cannon!"

Zuma laughed out loud. "Hah! I never thought I'd hear you say that in my life, Rocky!"

"Hah hah. Don't get used to it."

Huge shoutout to my sister (who wishes to go by Marshall03Charles) for writing over 50% of this chapter! This was one of the one-shots she wrote for me, and I'm so excited to finally be able to incorporate one of them! More of them will be showing up in the future. Story-wise, the Air Patroller is almost finished! Sounds like the pups will be getting back home soon, but as it stands, Gizmo still isn't ready to move to the outside world yet. Some of the pups are also starting to have their own problems with him.
In the scope of things cut out, Marshall's line originally was something a bit more descriptive of reality. I decided it was both out of character for him and too graphic, so it's gone, as funny as I might have found it.