Disclaimer: I don't own Paw Patrol

Rating: K+

Chapter 4: The Opportunity

*April 23, 2013 8:30 PM*

Location: Abandoned Fire Station

Marshall's POV

"Bye Chase, thanks for playing with me!" Chase gave me a nod before disappearing from my view. I was alone again. I just went back inside the fire station, and pulled out my phone. It wasn't a smartphone, but it had Max's contact information on it, so that was enough. I sent him a message

Hey Max, when will you be home? You've been gone for about a week, what are you doing that needs you to be at the hospital 24/7? Did you try to convince your boss to let us live in a room there? Living in this old fire station is getting creepy and lonely for me. Please respond soon.

I sent him the message, hoping he would reply, but he hasn't been replying to my messages for the past couple of days. That night, I went to bed, by myself. I started to consider asking to live with Chase and his owner if Max would allow it, because I don't want to leave Max without him knowing.

*April 27, 2013 2:40 PM*

Location: Abandoned Fire Station

For the next couple of days, Max didn't answer back, and I was getting worried. Even more so because I was running out of scraps to eat. During the time I was alone, Chase would come and play with me, everytime he would offer me to come with him to his home, but I would refuse every time because I'm still waiting for Max, but I was losing hope.

I didn't have any breakfast that day, and so during one of our little games, I started to slow down, and Chase noticed.

"Hey Marshall you okay?" He asked worried

"Yeah, I'm good" I replied before falling onto the ground

"Marshall?!" He ran up to me. I tried to get up, but I was too weak. He then noticed how starved I was "Marshall! You're malnourished! Come on, you need to eat!" I tried to deny it and say I was fine, but I couldn't talk, and my stomach was killing me, so I gave in. I tried to get up, but couldn't so Chase came up to me and placed me on his back before walking fast to his home.


After some time, we made it to his home, a tower that was on an island. Chase walked up to a human boy and the boy saw me.

"Chase, who's this?" the boy asked

"My friend Marshall Ryder sir, he hasn't had enough food, can we please give him something to eat?" Chase said to Ryder

"Of course! Come on!" Ryder said, and I was picked up by Ryder and he took me inside the tower. He placed me on the floor and poured a lot of food in a bowl with water. He pushed the bowls over to me and I had tears in my eyes. I know I turned down any offer for food that Chase was giving me, but seeing Ryder pour food for me made me cry, and I devoured the food and water, before asking for more, I had 7 servings in 2 minutes before I was full.

"Jeez, you really have a hard time finding food huh Marshall?" Ryder said out loud, I didn't respond to him

After I was done eating, I gave Chase a hug "thank you Chase" I said with tears down my eyes

Initially taken aback, he gave a hug back "I didn't want to see you starve to death Marshall, you're my friend"

I looked over and saw a beanbag and I instinctively made my way over before looking at Ryder "You can go on the beanbag Marshall, you need to rest anyways" with permission, I jumped onto the beanbag. After I sat down, I spoke up

"I'm guessing you want to know a bit more about me?" I said

"Only if you're okay with talking a bit about yourself" Ryder said

"Well, what questions do you have?" I asked

"Well… why aren't you with your brother?" Chase asked

"Even though he's a medic, he doesn't have the money to buy us a place to live, and we're trying to find an owner we can live with" I said

"Why don't you live with us?" Ryder asked

"I would like to, but I need to see what my brother thinks. I don't want to leave him, since he's the only family I got left" I replied, a little sad at the memory

"I remember when we first met, you called me Butch. What was up with that?" Chase asked me

"He's a bully of mine. He's a german shepherd like you, but picks on me whenever my brother isn't here. He likes to make fun of my clumsiness. I try to stand my ground, but he'll just keep pushing me to the ground."

"How long has he been terrorizing you Marshall?" Ryder asked

"Since… my parents... and he's been doing it ever since, using my emotional pain to his advantage"

"If you don't mind me asking, what… what happened to your family?" Chase asked

"They're… they're… gone. They died in a fire" I said, tears in my eyes. They both looked at me with sympathetic looks, but I kept talking "The fire station me and my brother live in is where my parents used to live. Before Mayor Goodway became the Mayor, we had another Mayor, he wasn't the best and was greedy, taking all the money and leaving the town. Doing so made the fire station employees not get paid and they left to try to find a place to work, some stayed, but over time, the equipment was getting worn out and started to break." My voice began to crack since this was the hardest part for me "Eventually, t-there was a building o-on fire, and my parents went t-to put it out, but since their equipment w-was broken, the hose wouldn't work. T-They heard vo-voices c-coming from inside th-the building, s-s-so they tried to get the p-people o-out, but like I said, the equipment was broken, making their gas masks fail. N-nobody got o-out of the building a-alive"

"Oh my… Marshall" Chase said giving me a hug

"My parents taught me everything I know to be a fire pup, and my brother learned how to be a medic, so I wouldn't get hurt."

"That's… nice to see that your brother cares for you" Chase said

"Like I said, he's the only family I have left, and I'm all he has left" I said "Ryder, could I try and compete to be your fire pup? If I win, me and Max will finally have a place to live" I asked, Chase looked at Ryder with hopeful eyes

"Of course Marshall, just as long as you train hard, I'll lend you some equipment to practice with since yours is unreliable." And Ryder left to get said equipment. Now determined, I will try my best in winning this competition for me and Max. I pulled out my phone and sent him a text

Hey Max

I got offered to compete against other fire pups to see who can become The Paw Patrol's Fire Pup. I took the offer so I could give us the chance to live with an owner, and it'll be better than living in the fire station. Please respond soon, I haven't heard from you in a long time.

Love Marshall

Chapter ending there readers!

I need to say something real quick. After this story is complete, I may not be able to upload my next story for a long time because I'm a Co-Writer for Sisu the Last Dragon, and they need A LOT of help with their story. It's complete, but they need helpers (like me) to proof-read the story and see what changes can be made to make it better.

Besides that, See y'all later!