Chapter 4

While the other pups helped Al and Yumi fix their barn and calm their animals down, Ryder caught up to Skye, Chase, and Wild Cat, all of whom were were still pursuing the Ruff-Ruff Pack. By now, however, they were heading for Jake's Mountain, which was scaring the daylights out of the skiers and snowboarders that had come to visit. "It's a good thing I added a snow mode to the bikes," he said as everybody activated their snow modes.

While she didn't have a motorcycle of her own, Everest was getting annoyed by the antics of the Ruff-Ruff Pack, because she was trying to use her snow vehicle, the Snowcat, to repair some damage to the snow course that previous weather had cause. "Whoa!" she gasped as she caught sight of the gang, and had to duck to avoid Hubcap jumping over her head. (He was trying to crush the vehicle, not knowing she was driving it.) "Will you watch where you are going, for crying out loud?" (Note she was her anthro self, not her regular self, when she was doing this, because she found it easier to do chores like that.)

"We don't watch nobody!" Hubcap snorted, using incorrect grammar for effect. "The Ruff-Ruff Pack doesn't do safe, and we don't listen to your stupid mayor who worships a chicken! This is our territory now, and there's nothing you can do about it!"

"Ruff-Ruff Pack! Ruff-Ruff Pack!" the trio chanted. (By now, Dwayne had caught up to the pack, but Hubcap was still acting as if he fired the Great Dane from the pack.)

"Ryder!" Everest called when she activated her pup tag. "There's a crazy trio of motorcycle pups messing up the slopes! They almost killed me!"

"We're already on our way, Everest," Ryder replied. "Do you have a way to slow them down?"

"I can try." Everest thought for a moment, then said, "Wait! I've got it! Ruff! Snowball launcher!" (Ryder had installed a snowball launcher to update her pup-pack when she first became an anthro, and she sometimes used this to help set up the course if the mountain was to host a competition or race; while Jake was a supreme snowboarder, he never competed at home. He just presided as emcee for the competition.) She then proceeded to fire a series of snowballs that hit the ground, and as always seemed to be the case with cliches acting in reality, the snowballs were small to start with, and got bigger and bigger as they rolled towards the biker pups.

Hubcap and Gasket each jumped to avoid the snowballs and ended up on top of them, continuing to roll, but Dwayne drove off to the side to avoid the snowballs, and came to a stop. "Well, I stopped one of them, anyway," Everest reported, "but the other two are rolling with the snowballs now."

"Oh, no!" Skye winced as she watched from the skies with her goggle vision. "And it looks like they're headed for a big crash if they hit those trees!"

"Chase! Wild Cat! Don't let them crash!" Ryder called.

"Don't worry; we'll stop them!" Chase called as he and Wild Cat took off after the two snowballs. Although Chase didn't have a super speed boosted like Wild Cat, he was still able to keep up the pace. He then had an idea of his own. "I have an idea!" he said to his fellow motorcyclist. "I'll shoot a net at those trees so the snowballs can bounce off it. Then maybe you can steer them towards it."

"That might work," Wild Cat replied. "Let me set this up for you!" He purred and then said, "Gripper claws!" The gripper claws on his bike activated, and soon he found himself smoothing out the course after the pups did damage to it. It was a total accident, but according to Everest, the course was now exactly like it was supposed to be.

Ryder then switched his pup-pad over to Marshall's logo and buzzed him. "Marshall, I need you up at Jake's Mountain! The Ruff-Ruff Pack could cause some serious damage, and I don't know if any fires will start, or if you'll need to do an EMT check on the pups."

"I'm ready for a 'VROOM, VROOM!' rescue!" Marshall replied, speeding towards Jake's Mountain.

The courageous cat and heroic police pup then drove over to the left side of the snowballs so that they could get in front, and came upon the pair of trees Chase had in mind. "Ruff! Net!" Chase barked, and the bike shot out a net that landed precisely where he wanted it. It almost looked like a spider-web. Wild Cat then activated his yarn ball launcher in order to make the net more effective. Afterwards, Chase grabbed his megaphone and shouted, "Attention, Ruff-Ruff Pack! Slow down, or you might get hurt!"

Both snowballs approached the configuration, and Gasket was the first to notice it. "Yikes! Look at that giant spider web!" she said as she got herself and her bike off the snowball. "Abandon snowball!"

"You traitor! You're going to believe some kitty cat over me?" Hubcap shouted. "Some biker gang you and Dwayne turned out to be! I'll just bounce off and keep on going!"

Though the contraption worked by getting the snowball to stop, Hubcap and his bike continued to fly through the air with the greatest of ease, at least until they hit the ground. But they didn't land in the same spot. They landed about 50 feet apart, and the bike kept going until it hit another tree, doing damage to itself. By that point, Marshall had arrived, and he used his water cannons to ensure a fire wouldn't start, even though there were embers that were burning from one tree. The tree had already fallen down, and the bike, when it hit the tree, started a few sparks.

"Whew; that was a close one!" the Dalmatian commented.

Hubcap, on the other hand, landed almost head first on to the slope, and started to roll like a bowling ball until he got to the bottom of the mountain. By the time he flattened out again, Marshall had caught up to him and summoned some of his EMT gear.

"Whoa; what a rush!" Hubcap commented as he fell unconscious, with the cold weather having something to do with that. He continued to lay there on the ground as Marshall examined him, and Ryder and the others, including Gasket and Dwayne, also arrived on the scene. Skye landed her moto-plane and ran over to the scene.

"How's he doing, brave red puppy?" Dwayne asked.

"No damage done to his bones or anything," Marshall reported. "He just got the wind knocked out of him. He'll be fine once he has time to rest."

The others let out a sigh of relief. Then Chase made it official by turning to Gasket and Dwayne and saying, "As soon as he's back on his feet, we're taking you back to Adventure Bay to face Mayor Goodway. You owe her an apology for calling her a psychopath who worships a chicken; that is not what she is. She is our mayor, and Chickaletta is her pet. She also happens to be the town's deputy mayor, but that's a different story."

"You don't have a jail?" Dwayne asked.

"No, but I wish we did."

"In most cases, Mayor Goodway prefers to give out community service," Ryder added. "But she stands firm to her declaration that the three of you are banned from the city forever. Also, don't think we're going to fix your bike for you, because we aren't."

"I didn't think you were," said Gasket, motioning for Ryder to come closer, which he did, and then she spoke in a softer tone of voice. Some of the others came closer as well. "Besides, everything he wrecks, we fix, only to have him wreck it again. Sometimes he's not worth the trouble."

"Why did you even form this gang?" Skye asked.

"Why not? We enjoy the motorcycle lifestyle."

"But does it have to involve trashing everything and putting people down with extremely harsh words?" Chase asked.

Gasket didn't have an answer for that. "You don't know, do you?" the police pup continued.

"Why did you two join?" Marshall asked. "Did Hubcap promise you something and then revoke his promise?"

"To be honest, I don't remember why I joined in the first place," Dwayne admitted, "but now, I want out! I know I'm banned from your town, but I still want out of this game! I only stayed because I drove the bike with the sidecar Hubcap rode in, but that was before that shiny meteor came down and made us all, well, able to walk on two legs just like you humans!"

"I can tell you," Ryder confirmed, "that your actions from the past disqualify you from ever being in the PAW Patrol, even if you were to turn over a new leaf. I noticed that you almost always bail out if you think the stunt your boss is doing is dangerous."

"Yes. If it's 'too ruff-ruff,' I don't do it. Yet Hubcap never listens to me."

"Or me," Gasket added. "Things would work out better if I was in charge."

"Why do you say that?" Chase asked.

"Then Hubcap wouldn't be doing stupid things, or taking credit for what wasn't his idea. When it works out like we want, he takes all the credit for himself. When it doesn't, he'd blame it on us."

"Me-ouch!" Wild Cat winced.

Later, when the pups all returned to City Hall after Hubcap was back to normal (with Everest and Jake as extra witnesses), they made their apologies to Mayor Goodway and to the town. As expected, Dwayne's was the most sincere of the three, while Hubcap wasn't willing to say he was sorry, although he did so reluctantly. And as expected, Mayor Goodway assigned them to 100 hours of community service, starting with repairing the damage to City Hall, including the chicken statue. "I can't believe we have to do this!" the boss dog complained before turning to what would be his former comrade. "Oh, and Dwayne?"

"Yes, Hubcap?"

"You're fired!"

There was an awkward silence before the pups continued to do their community service, but for Dwayne, it was a surreal moment. He had said he wanted out of the gang, and now his wish came true. Would he ever fully turn good? It was possible. He had a softer side to him that one didn't see in Gasket or Hubcap, not to mention his love for sandwiches. Yet his loyalty was to Hubcap, at least until he got the boot. Now it was a question of what was going to happen to him since he was a dog on his own.

"I have a feeling they'll be back," Rubble commented to the mayor, "but the difference now is there's only two. They kicked the other one out."

"So I noticed," said Goodway. "At least getting one of them to change their ways is better than nothing, isn't it?" She then turned to Ryder and said, "And thank you to you all, Ryder and Moto Pups, for getting them to stop all that racket! You, too, Wild Cat!"

"You're welcome," Ryder smiled. "Whenever a trio of troublemakers terrorize your town, just 'VROOM!' for help!" Everybody chuckled at the comment.

The next day, the Ruff-Ruff Pack was still working on their community service, while the pups enjoyed some more quality time together, whether it was enjoying the latest episode of "Apollo the Super-Pup," playing "Pup Pup Boogie," or just playing games together outside.

THE END

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