Waking up
"Gosh." Chase drawled feeling dizzy and having a terrible headache after waking up. He touched his forehead and opened his eyes only to see darkness. German Shepherd kept his eyes open for some time but nothing has changed. Still the same darkness. He put his paw up only to felt some cosy material on him. While trying to put it off It turned out that he was under several layers of blankets and some soft material which turned out to be a curtain. After digging out of them he saw that he got up from the couch in the middle of the villa.
Immediately after getting up, he looked around the room unable to believe what he saw. He rubbed his eyes once more and looked around again. A lot of rubbish was lying on the floor. There was a pyramid builded of bottles on the table. On the small table on his right was smoke rising from cigarette and food scraps. Fortunately, apart from the curtain and one painting no more furniture was damaged.
"Marshall, Rocky, Zuma, Rubble. Did you wake up?" He yelled.
"Chase. Did you have to wake me up." Marshall said whose voice was heard from beneath the blankets next to Chase.
The Dalmatian tried to get out from several layers and saw that Chase was right next to him. Shepherd jumped out of bed immediately and both of them shouted at each other.
"Did we sleep in the same bed?" Chase exclaimed after a moment.
"Oh my God!" The Dalmatian replied at him "Your head!"
"What about it? He asked.
"Oh my. What a terrible headache." Rocky said rising from the duvet on the floor wearing a crown of Statue of Adventurer on his head. "Do you have any painkillers, Marshall?"
Suddenly Rocky become silent for a moment. He looked around the room noticing the mess. Marshall tried to get up from the couch but he fell over and his head fell into the bucket. Right after that Rocky heard him vomiting into it. Trying to avoid seeing it, he looked away. However, after turning the other way another thing drew more attention to him.
"Chase!" He screamed.
"Yes, I know." Shepherd replied. "I don't know why it's so messy here."
"No. Your head."
Chase immediately ran to the mirror to see that ...
"No, no, no... Skye's gonna kill me if she sees this. Who did it?" Chase saw that a long, furless strip ran directly through the centre of his head. There was only pink pure skin on that strip. "Rocky, did you cut me off?
"Me? Definitely not… augh!" Rocky shouted getting up from the bed. When he found out what hurt him, he saw a bandage on the elbow of his right front paw.
"What happened to me?" He asked.
"Bandage. Can you tell me how bad it hurts?" Marshall said leaving the bathroom after washing out due to throwing up.
The Dalmatian looked at the bandage and wondered what could have happened to Rocky. After a few inquiries, he replied "It hurts only when you touch it at that point. Fortunately, you can move your paw and walk. It's good. There is no broken bone."
"Why don't you take that bandage off and see what happened." Rocky said.
"Some bandages cannot be removed." Marshall replied. "I need to know what happened exactly."
Meanwhile Chase walked away from the mirror and decided to find the others. They were not in the other beds in their rooms but as he reached the last one he heard the sound of pouring water in the bathroom. He immediately went in and saw that water was pouring from the shower. He went inside to turn off the water and saw Zuma below him. What's worst, the Labrador clogged the water drain which made the water level almost equal to his head. Chase immediately shut off the flow of water.
"Marshall. Quick. Come here." He shouted.
The Dalmatian ran up and saw Zuma. Immediately with Chase, he tried to take him out of the shower. The Labrador woke up slightly confused and said "Hey, you got me out of bed."
"You were in the shower." Chase said. "Some more time and you would drown."
"What? Really dude."
"Seriously."
"Hey, what happened to your head." Zuma asked still being in shock.
"I don't know how it happened either." Marshall said, trying to defend his friend. "What did even happen last night? Anyone remember something?"
Everyone shook their heads with a small grin, even Rocky who came to bathroom after a while.
"Hey, where's Rubble?" Zuma said.
"I haven't seen him anywhere. I'll call... Hey, I don't have my badge." Chase said.
"Neither do I." Marshall replied.
"Me too." Zuma said.
"None of us have them." Rocky said. "How did this happen?"
"Damn it. Let's find Rubble. He has to be here." Chase said. Boys started searched the entire room until Zuma spoke finding the silver table at his room.
"Did anyone ordered the catering?"
"I didn't." Marshall said.
"Here's a note." Zuma said. "Oh my. From this it can be made a nice beverages tasting."
"How much did it cost?" Marshall asked running to Zuma. He approached him and Zuma showed the bill. After a while Marshall grabbed his head.
"No." The dally shouted. "Ryder is going to kill me if he finds-"
Marshall didn't finish his sentence because pigeon just flew to the room thought the door and pecked him on his forehead.
"Augh. What the hell." He shouted.
Chase ran to their room and saw that pigeon was pecking Zuma now. "Sorry. He was in one locker. He pecked me too when I opened it." Shepherd said when pigeon got out of Zuma and began to fly around the apartment.
"Augh... what did we do to you?" Zuma said still feeling the pain. "Can we open a window here?"
"No. But there is a window on the corridor. Only have to open the door." Rocky said reaching the handle and opened the door. Pigeon flew to the doors, pecked Rocky few times and flew away.
"Hey. Let me open the window." Rocky said leaving the apartment. He got back after a minute. "Augh. He pecked me on the bandage. Hurts a little but I'm okay. Hope it is not a bad wound." Marshall touched Rocky on his shoulder which put a small smile on their faces.
"What was pigeon doing here?" Zuma asked.
"I don't know." Rocky said. "Anyway, did you saw what he had on his neck. It looked like some kind of a small camera. Was he spying on us?"
"Spy. Pigeon. Are you kidding?" Chase replied only to hear a silence for some time.
"Hey. Here are keys with a boat keychain." Marshall said picking them up from the table close to the entrance. "Aren't they yours Zuma?"
"No." Labrador replied. "I have with a different keychain and secondly I didn't take my hovercraft keys anyway."
Dogs searched the villa for some time until Zuma sat down in the middle of the villa and Marshall joined him soon.
"I'm sure Rubble isn't here. I checked everywhere." Rocky replied as he searched the last piece of furniture. "Maybe he's in the hotel somewhere. Besides, my throat is completely dry and I need a drink."
Four friends nodded and as they walked to the door to leave. Before this Chase touched his furless head. "Wait. I won't go like that. Is here a wig or something else."
"Take that hat for now. We'll figure something out later." Rocky said handing him the beret from his suitcase. Before leaving Chase made sure in front of the mirror that nothing was visible from his shaved head.
After checking that Rubble was not on their level, they took the elevator down to the reception desk. Marshall rode up to check the observation deck. When the others got downstairs, they split up to check every part of the hotel as soon as possible.
After a dozen or so minutes, they met again at the reception desk. Rocky and Marshall had already made sure he was not on the terrace, conference rooms, around the reception area and outside the hotel.
"He's not in the casino, the disco, and the bar." Chase said returning to them after a moment.
"He isn't also in the swimming pool and in the saunas." Zuma added as he arrived.
"There's still the restaurant left." Marshall replied. "If he won't be there then I don't know where.
They entered the restaurant slowly hoping to find a bulldog somewhere. But just as they entered they heard a familiar voice.
"Hello Paw Patrol. Hi Zuma." Casey said at the sight of the team and waved to the Labrador. Zuma also raised his paw and waved the waitress saying "Hey beautiful." She smiled and soon asked "Will Rubble come for breakfast?"
Everyone was confused until Zuma quickly replied. "His head hurts. He preferred to stay in the room."
"So he's back already." Casey replied as they followed her to the table. "I was worrying that something happened to him but you said that he had to do something in the city. Besides I already ordered you a clean up. Usually I like order and peace, but I had fun with you guys." The female Border Collie said as they followed her to the table.
"What do you want to drink." Casey asked as they sat down.
"Water." They all replied.
"I'll get it right away."
"You heard it." Chase said as Casey left. "She said that Rubble wasn't in villa when she came in with catering. It means that he has to be out in town somewhere."
"Damn it." The Dalmatian replied. "Calm down, Marshall. It's just a little accident. Chase. What should we do?
"I don't know. Maybe let's analyse what could have happened during the night."
"What if they attacked us yesterday and stunned us?" Zuma said.
"Probably not. I don't remember the robbery. I don't even remember us going back to the room."
"Same. I remember that after dinner we went to the terrace, to a disco, karaoke, and then nothing. I don't remember anything more." Marshall said.
"So do I." Chase and Zuma replied.
"Karaoke?" I don't remember even that." Rocky said.
Casey came with the water. She asked also about the dishes so they quickly chose the first thing that caught their eye on the breakfast menu. Zuma asked for the course that Casey recommends like yesterday which put a big smile on her face. They continued their conversation when the waitress left.
"Okay." Chase said. "Dinner, terrace, disco, karaoke. What time was then? Nine?"
"Ten to nine as I saw on the clock." Zuma said.
"And when we got up it was?" Chase asked.
"Twenty to nine." Rocky answered.
"Less than twelve hours that are completely out of our minds. Damn it." Marshall nodded.
Some time passed and they tried to analyse further yesterday night but they couldn't get more details. They sat in silence for a moment until Casey approached them with the dishes. She put Zuma's course last, bent down to him, put her paw on his chest and whispered into his ear. "You were amazing in bed. I look forward to our next meeting at nine o'clock."
"At nine?" Zuma asked.
"Yes, you promised me a date when I finished work. I hope you will not forget about it."
"Ooo… Oh yeah. I promise I will not forget it. Also do you have time for a small chat?"
"After breakfast I'll have a moment." She said and kissed Zuma on the cheek. As she left the table she was waving her rear cheerfully. The Labrador turned to his companions and saw that their jaws dropped.
"She kissed you… She-" Chase tried to continue his sentence but was interrupted by Zuma.
"I know. But the weirdest part is that she whispered into my ear that I was amazing in bed."
"Did you mate her?" Rocky asked.
"Dude, I don't remember." Zuma whispered. "If so I would certainly do not forget that."