Chapter 4
"So how are you all enjoying Station Square on your first visit?" Shadow asked the pups the next morning as everybody took a tour of the city. They rode in some of the Thorndyke family's vehicles, and because Chris's parents, Nelson and Lindsay were present (keeping their promise to spend more time with Chris in spite of their occupations; Lindsay was a world-famous film star while Nelson was the CEO of Starship Software, Inc.), the pups felt like VIPs as they toured the city and got a look at everything that made Station Square what it is, including Casinopolis.
"It's amazing!" Everest smiled. "Tracker, look at all those great buildings!"
"Don't really care for the casino, but otherwise, the city is maginificent! ¡La ciudad es magnífica!" Tracker put in, and then his ears perked up at the sounds of traffic moving in and out. "And yet it sounds chaotic. Y, sin embargo, suena caótico."
"I didn't know you were bilingual," said Chris.
"Si. I am."
"I bet that comes in handy when you're roaming the jungle, doesn't it?" Vector asked.
"Indeed it does." Tracker nodded as his ears calmed down.
"How often do you get to dig for treasures?" Knuckles asked. "Rouge and I are treasure hunters."
"Oh, are you? I didn't know that. Most of the treasure hunting I do is with the boy I work with, Carlos." At Tracker's mentioning of Carlos, Ryder brought up a picture of him on his pup-pad and showed it to Sonic and the gang. "Anything we can find, we sometimes send to the Adventure Bay museum."
"Oh, yeah; I think we were there the last time we came by, although that was because Eggman was at it again. What all has he found?"
"I think his biggest find," Ryder replied, "was this monkey statue here. It's a crazy story, but it's true; it represents a lost monkey tribe, whose descendents were waiting for their queen to return. The crown you see there was the queen's crown. One day we came in contact with a monkey named Mandy, who is what you'd expect a monkey to be: hyperactive. It turns out that she was the long-lost monkey queen."
"That sounds weirder to us than the chicken statue," Espio put in, "but we know you wouldn't lead us astray. How did she discover she was queen?"
"She pulled out a sacred banana from this shrine right here." Ryder slid over to the next picture; all pictures he was showing at this point were projected onto a screen in the limo they were riding in, instead of him passing the pup-pad around to the hedgehog and his friends. Sonic sat next to Ryder, though, and so he just looked at the pup-pad.
"Whoa; it's just like the legend of King Arthur and Excalibur," he said. "My friends and I have had some pretty crazy adventures you probably wouldn't believe, and one of them was me diving into the legendary King Arthur's world and wielding Excalibur."
"The genuine sword?" Rubble asked.
"None other."
"Amazing!"
"Isn't it?"
"Yeah!"
"Anyway, so if that isn't your biggest find, Tracker, then what is?" Tails asked.
"That's not an easy question to answer because we've found so many treasures over the years. Hemos encontrado tantos tesoros a lo largo de los años. I would have to say, though, that the most valuable thing the PAW Patrol ever encountered, however, was the mighty meteor."
"And that's what gave you your superpowers, yes?"
"Si."
"I take it you weren't expecting that to happen to you, then," Silver commented.
"No, sir; not at all," Chase replied. "Neither were we expecting a second meteor to give us the ability to switch from four legs to two legs. Everything happens for a reason, though."
"Which is what confused us the last time we were at your place," Shadow put in, "because you didn't have that ability before."
"No, we did not."
"Do you find that it makes your jobs easier or harder now that you do have that ability?"
"I'd say slightly easier. One reason is the fact we have ultimate rescues when need be; in other words, normally I'm the police pup, Rubble is the construction pup, and so on, but if the situation calls for it, then we all do those jobs."
"So even though you have your own special skills, you can all be police officers if necessary. I like that." Sonic and Shadow gave Chase a thumbs-up.
"Thanks!"
"You're welcome."
"And I've heard you pups even have your own rock band," Sonic put in. "It looks like we've got ourselves new competition."
"We do," said Tuck, "but I think we alternate between rock, jazz, and fusion, or something like that. I mostly play the trumpet. Then again, Ella and I aren't regular members of the PAW Patrol; we're specialists in reserve, so to speak."
"If you narrow it down to the main six," Marshall added, "then I think we're more of a rock band at that point."
"I joke about being the band's manager as well," Ryder added, showing the hedgehog and his friends pictures of the pups as a band. "But I take it you don't have one?"
"Well, yes, and no," said Sonic. "We manage ourselves. That way, we don't have a middleman. And no, Eggman is not part of our band."
Ryder then showed some more pictures, all of which showed that while the pups alternated between instrumets, the most common lineup was this, and please note that all the pups sang vocals:
Rubble: saxophones (when necessary; he alternated between alto, tenor, and baritone)
Rocky: lead electric guitar
Skye: bass guitar, acoustic bass
Chase: drums
Marshall: keyboard (he played a full-sized 88-key keyboard)
Zuma: auxiliary percussion (mainly tambourine), acoustic guitar (when necessary)
Everest: saxophones (alternating with Rubble), rhythm guitar (electric)
Tracker: auxiliary percussion (mainly conga drums)
Rex: trombone
Tuck: trumpet, flugelhorn
Ella: electric guitar, acoustic guitar
Rubble, in his role as a disc jockey, also used his turntable. Zuma and Tracker were also teaching themselves melodic percussion instruments (vibraphone, xylophone, marimba, glockenspiel, etc.) just in case the song required one of those.
In return, Sonic showed some pictures of him and his friends as the band Sonic JAM. It had a bunch of lineup changes over the years, but as of now, this was the lineup, and again, all the members contributed to vocals.
Sonic: lead electric or acoustic guitar, sometimes trumpet (but not very often)
Tails: saxophones (alto, tenor, or baritone), sometimes keyboards and synthesizers
Knuckles: bass guitar, acoustic bass
Amy: vocals only
Cream: tambourine
Shadow: drums
Silver: rhythm (electric) or acoustic guitar
Blaze: vocals only
Vector: piano
Charmy: auxiliary percussion (mostly shakers or maracas)
Espio: trombone; note he still played the shamisen as a hobby, but for the purposes of the band, he was a trombonist
Each of the members also took turns being lead vocalist.
During the tour, Ryder also revealed to the pups that due to the effects of the second meteor giving them the ability to walk on two legs on like humans, it also had an effect on the first meteor, so because they could make the switch, they could virtually access their superpowers anytime they needed it. "Normally, I'd still summon you pups to the Lookout," he said, "and use the special feature on my pup-pad; without that, the Lookout wouldn't turn into the Mighty Pup version. But if Sonic needed your help in the event Eggman was to attack us right now, you could become the Mighty Pups in a flash."
"Wonder what we say to make that happen?" Marshall asked. "Would I say, 'Super form?' Like this? Ruff! Super form!"
A bit of a blinding flash occured, but fortunately it wasn't distracting to the driver, because of the tinted windows. When everybody's vision cleared, however, Marshall was suddenly Mighty Marshall, and his paws began to glow. "Oops; I guess I can do that," he said. "Better change back. Ruff! Normal pup!" Another flash happened, and then the Dalmatian was his regular self again.
"Well, that answers that question," said Vector.
"You might want to be careful with that ability," Ryder agreed, "but since you pups do have the ability, and, in a sense, are the Mighty Pups all the time, I'll have to make a note of that."
"What else do they do besides be superheroes?" Silver asked. "Do they have other themes they go by?"
"They do," Ryder nodded, opting not to mention the dinosaur adventures since he assumed Sonic and his friends would have had to see it to believe it. (But they didn't have problems with Rex being an expert on the subject of dinosaurs.) "Sometimes we have them do the ultimate rescues as we mentioned earlier. Sometimes we travel to a different city, Barkingburg, where the missions require us to act as a secret service, known as Mission: PAW, or as Rescue Knights." He brought up a picture of Barkingburg.
"Whoa; that's fancy!" Amy exclaimed. "The royal family must really be happy to employ you, then."
"They sure are. Note that our first cat member, Wild Cat, is not with us since he's busy with his life as a professional stunt cyclist, but I deputized these pups to be Moto Pups at certain times, too."
"That's incredible!" Blaze exclaimed. "Is there anything these amazing dogs cannot do?"
"Yes," said Zuma. "We can't let the forces of evil have their way."
"What a good answer!"
The conversations continued, and everybody was having a good time getting to know one another. When the group returned to the Thorndyke residence, they ate lunch, and they played some board games together.
TO BE CONTINUED
PAW Patrol © Spin Master, Nickelodeon, and everybody else who owns the rights, and created by Keith Chapman.
Sonic the Hedgehog © SEGA