Taking flight with four pairs of wings spread wide, a lone figure breezed through the clear summer sky, reflected in the ocean's blue below. The morning sun radiated down, and the soaring Cupid paused to wipe the sweat from his brow. In the many millennia of his existence, he had circumnavigated the globe countless times, and yet he couldn't help but feel lost. The music in his life had stopped.
"Ah shoot, my headphones broke," he said to no one. "Damn."
With a swift grip and speedy toss, Cupid catapulted the damaged headphones as far he could across the horizon. He watched as it plopped and settled on the water's surface, floating along the calm waves, up and down, up and down, hypnotically, until it had sunk below his visibility. Still, he stared at the sea a little while longer, and let out a sigh. Breathing in the sea breeze, his thoughts drifted to how busy the past few centuries had been for him. Fulfilling his role as Cupid was significantly easier when most marriages were arranged and the concept of "dating" hadn't been invented yet. Day after day, shooting countless arrow after arrow, had worn down his passion for his work. In other words, he was bored.
I need a day off, even if it's a couple decades earlier than my scheduled break.
Surveying the ocean surface around him once more, he picked a direction at random. This would be the way that he flew until he found land again, and once he was there, then he would decide what to do with his 24 hours of freedom. From midair, he threw himself up in a gust, and with a newfound vigor made haste, unaware that it was the exact same direction he had been flying in before he littered his headset on the ocean floor.
Cupid soared between the few clouds along his path, observant of his surroundings in case he saw shoreline. Jellyfish and seaweed floated aimlessly on the surface, pushed by the tides. He enjoyed watching the life that these waters teemed with, and was especially pleased when he experienced the rare sight of two merpups begin a mating dance, making a mental note to himself to use his arrows on more of them later. Soon, he saw what really excited him, an island. Land! Not just any land either, but land with a lighthouse and small cabin on it. Though no one was on the island at that moment, Cupid beamed with happiness since he knew that this meant more land couldn't be much further. Sure enough, just seconds later he saw his first glimpse of Adventure Bay, and he halted while still airborne to fully soak in the sight.
Wrapped in the translucent feathers of his wings, Cupid concealed himself from mortal eyes and began to meander around the town, brainstorming ways he could spend his day off here. As he approached Porter's Café, Cupid noticed a young, blonde man who looked to be in his early 20s about to pass a woman his same age heading in the opposite direction. Not allowing such a perfect moment to go to waste, Cupid reached across his torso and pulled two golden-tipped arrows from his quiver, loaded them onto the bowstring, and fired with rapid precision. Both the man and the woman were jolted as the arrows struck, but recovered immediately as the arrows magically vanished, and with them the pain they caused. The man then asked the woman if she wanted to enter Porter's Café, and when she said yes, Cupid left satisfied, and continued on his way.
After going up and down the city streets, Cupid grew bored once more, and frustrated that he still hadn't found something to soothe this burning boredom. Without many options left, he gazed up towards the shining tower on top of the hill that instantly catches the eye of any visitor to the bay, the Lookout. He hadn't gone there yet because he wanted to save the most interesting seeming place in the city for last, and now it felt necessary to go there in order to relieve his boredom. Gliding across the wind, he wasted no time looking around, for as soon as he was close enough, he could immediately see all members of the PAW Patrol in the lobby, through the windows. Fascinated and curious as to who these pups were, he phased through the walls, into the Lookout to observe up close.
"And that's checkmate," declared Rocky, as he slid his black rook along the chessboard, trapping Chase's white king piece in the corner square. He smiled cockily, and asked "Ready for another rematch?"
"Ten matches is enough for one day," interjected Ryder. "It's certainly enough for me to be your judge for, at least."
"Ryder is right. There's always tomorrow if you want to whoop my butt at this again," Chase pouted, sulking into his chair. This was the 129th consecutive match that he had lost to Rocky over the past week.
While Zuma and Rubble were congratulating Rocky on continuing his winning streak, Marshall and Skye consoled Chase, and hyped him up for tomorrow's inevitable rematch. Cupid found it amusing that, despite the fact that this group seemed to be some sort of rescue team, based on all of their technology and equipment, and yet they could all become invested in something as small as a chess rivalry. Pondering this lit a spark of inspiration in Cupid's imagination, and suddenly he knew exactly how he was going to entertain himself for the next day, and it involved these pups. However, it couldn't involve one of them… I have to pick just one… but which one?
Ultimately, unable to quickly pick a member of the patrol through any rational decision process, he decided to go with Rocky, purely on the basis that he won the chess match Cupid saw. Locked onto a target he lurked and waited as they dispersed from the Lookout, and as Rocky strolled towards his pup-house, Cupid drifted silently behind him like a ghost.
Exhaling as the door shut behind him, Rocky flopped onto his messy bed under the assumption that he could work in a power nap. Cupid, however, had other ideas, and at this moment unfurled his wings, revealing his presence. Panicked by a strange dog's sudden appearance in his room, Rocky instinctively reached down and grabbed a screwdriver that he left on the floor, and pointed it threateningly in his direction, barking "Who the hell are you !?"
"Relax," said Cupid, raising a paw and effortlessly lifting the screw from Rocky's grip into his own, then dropping it back onto the floor. "I'm friendly."
Rocky didn't believe his eyes. The mysterious man in front of him just made his screw fly out of his paws like a wet bar of soap. It didn't help that at this moment, Rocky also noticed the aquiline pair of wings perched on Cupid's back. Cupid had assumed taking form as a dog, and sticking with only one of his pairs of wings, would appear normal enough not to startle Rocky, but as he now realized, that assumption was completely unfounded.
"Who are you," Rocky repeated, after regaining composure. "I'm not going to ask a third time so you better answer quickly," holding a paw on his pup-tag, ready to call as soon as the situation escalated.
"None other than the one, and the only, Cupid," answered Cupid, bowing dramatically for his self-introduction.
Baffled at this, Rocky took a moment to respond. "Cupid?" he laughed skeptically. "Like, the cupid in paintings that's a chubby human baby? You seriously expect me to believe that?"
"What can I say, other than that artists have been incredibly cruel in depicting us cherubim," shrugged Cupid.
"No, no, no. A stranger just magically pops up in my pup-house and expects me to believe that he's some supernatural being, and something as absurdly ridiculous as a cupid, nonetheless. Where's your proof?"
At this request, Cupid reverted from his current appearance to his true cherub form, an angelic being with four faces and four pairs of wings, radiating pure light from his skin, which gleamed like polished brass. Nearly blinded by the sudden brightness, Rocky turned away from the cherub, shouting for him to return to how he previously looked. Once more, Cupid obliged and returned to his pup form, which, other than the wings, closely resembled a Setter dog.
Satisfied with Rocky's reaction, Cupid asked him, "Do you believe me now?"
"Enough to listen to you. Speaking of which, why are you here?"
"'Here' as in this general area or 'here' as in your room?"
"Both!" shouted Rocky.
"Well," Cupid began explaining. "I'm in this town because I wanted a day off and it was closeby. You see.."
"Hold it," interrupted Rocky. "Since when do supernatural beings have to have days off?"
"Listen, that part isn't important. When I take a day off, I have to give someone my bow and arrows for the day so that people don't stop falling in love. When I take an unscheduled day off like this one, I have to give them to a mortal. That mortal is YOU, because you and your friends caught my attention."
"Wait a minute," Rocky objected, furrowing his brow. "Even if I assume all of this is true, if the entire patrol 'caught your attention' then why single me out?"
Cupid, unwilling to say the actual reason, fabricated one. "It's because… uh," he ad libbed "because I judged you to be the best fit! Yes, you! For example your friend, the Dalmatian, um…. Marshall! You know he's too clumsy to safely handle a bow and arrow, let alone one infused with intensely powerful divine energies like mine is. There's similar reasons for all the others!"
At this point, Rocky realized that arguing with Cupid any further would be a futile task, and reluctantly accepted whatever the grinning cherub had in store for him. Sitting down and holding his paws pads up, Cupid summoned his bow, his arrows, and their quiver to loan to Rocky. Unlike anything ever made by mortal methods, the bow was shaped like a typical composite bow, yet made entirely out of a lightweight, flexible, gold-colored metal that Rocky couldn't identify, and it had markings painted all across it in an unknown language, written with a magenta ink. The arrows were just as odd, with the arrowheads slender, almost needlelike, and also made out of that strange golden metal. The quiver was the only item somewhat normal, a simple, slim leather container for the arrows, with a belt to keep it attached to one's side, though the quiver too had magenta letters all over.
Cupid looked over at the clock, which read 12:30 p.m., declaring that Rocky now possessed the ability to summon his bow and arrows, and that at precisely 12:30 p.m. the next day he would return to take this ability back. Not wanting to sticking around for much longer, Cupid used that time to make sure Rocky actually knew how to conjure the bow and arrows, and then give him some last second tips which seemed rather obvious to Rocky; don't tell anyone about this, don't let anyone see you shooting the bow, and so on. Only an idiot would be too dumb to figure that out on their own, and Rocky was no idiot. The only advice that Rocky actually did deem possibly useful is that the arrows would disappear as soon as they struck their target, reappearing in the quiver once they were needed.
Once more wrapping himself up in his wings, Cupid left as he had entered, without a trace. Finally, Rocky was alone in his pup-house. However, that whole encounter left Rocky feeling restless, like he needed to get out. Stepping out onto the grass, Rocky saw Marshall, Chase, and Rubble all kicking around a ball nearby, and let them know he was going on a walk. As he strolled along, he practiced calling forth the bow and then unsummoning it. He kept doing this until the process was as easy as picking up a stick and putting it back down.
In a nearby oak tree, Rocky spotted two robins, and for the first time had the idea to test whether or not the arrows actually functioned as Cupid claimed. Holding onto the bow, he grabbed an arrow from the seemingly empty quiver and drew back the string, firing. Rapidly, the bird was struck and, as perhaps Rocky should've expected, it was knocked right off its branch. Thinking the poor thing dead, Rocky began to make his way where the bird fell to bury it, when suddenly it flew up and began pursuing the other bird it had been with. This was enough confirmation for Rocky that the weapon he held did indeed contain the power of love, and with that discovery ran back home to brainstorm how to best utilize this new power.