Ryder sat on his bed with his head buried in his hands. A million thoughts were flowing through his head.
"Am I really that bad of an owner that Chase would run off like that?" Ryder thought to himself. "I can't think of anything I've done or any of the other pups would've done to anger him. It just doesn't make any sense."
Ryder was so deep in his thoughts he didn't hear Marshall and the others come in.
"Should we say something?" Whispered Everest.
"I think we should." Agreed Rocky.
"Alright, I'll say something." Said Marshall. "Ryder?"
"AHHH!" Screamed Ryder jumping a foot in the air. "Oh I'm sorry pups, I didn't hear you come in. What's on your guy's minds?"
"Well," Marshall started. "It's you."
"Me?" Echoed Ryder.
"Yes, you!" Everest said with a little more force.
"Why am I on your minds?" Ryder asked confused. "And where's Rubble and Skye?"
"They went to Katie's real quick." Answered Marshall. "You're on our minds because you're showing the same withdrawal symptoms as you did two years ago when you thought you… lost… m… m… me."
Marshall was able to hardly finish saying that before breaking down into tears, remembering all of the pain Ryder, the others and himself went through. With the mention of that horrible event, everyone started to cry.
"Anyway," Marshall continued while wiping his face. "We found something in front of Rocky's pup house. Rubble and Skye are taking it to Katie's for testing."
"What was it you found exactly?" Ryder asked now interested.
"It was a white powder of some kind." Answered Zuma.
"So you don't think Chase ran off then?" Ryder asked with emphasis.
"No" Answered the pups in unison.
Ryder relaxed and sighed in relief, only to tense up again.
"If Chase didn't run off, who took him?" Asked Ryder.
Meanwhile, Rubble and Skye were racing over to Katie's as fast as they could.
"Can't your truck go any faster?" Skye said annoyed. "We have to get this over to Katie's.
"I have it pegged to the floor." Rubble yelled back. "This truck isn't exactly "light" Skye."
"You have a point," Skye said in defeat. "I just want to know what happened to Chase."
"Don't worry, we'll be there soon." Rubble said reassuringly, causing Skye to smile.
Soon Rubble and Skye arrived at Katie's, only they found a note saying she would be back in thirty minutes.
"Now what?" Skye said in a pissed off tone.
"I guess we wait." Answered Rubble. "Let's walk down to Mr. Porter's to see what he has for treats?"
"Sounds like a plan." Agreed Skye.
With that, the duo ran off down to Mr. Porter's leaving Rubble's truck and the bottle inside behind. Little did the two pups know, they were being watched.
"Shit," Ember thought to herself. "I must have spilled some of the sleeping powder last night, I can't have them find out what it is. I need to think, where would I have spilled some?"
Ember thought for a little while until she remembered that Rocky scratched his ear right as she tried to put sleeping powder on his nose, causing her to spill some.
"This is great, how am I gonna keep them from finding out?" Ember continued to think. "I know, I remember seeing talcum powder in Rocky's pup house, if I could switch the powders, I would be in the clear."
With that, Ember carefully went over to Rubble's truck and grabbed the bottle and ran off to a nearby alley.
"Let's see them try to figure this out now." Ember said to herself while dumping out the bottle into a dumpster. "Now to replace it with talcum powder, good thing I carry some with me.
Ember quickly refilled it and placed it back inside of Rubble's truck, just as Katie walked around the corner. Katie was whistling to herself trying to keep her mind off of what had happened the day before when she looked up and saw Rubble's truck parked in front of her shop.
"That's odd?" Katie said to herself. "Rubble's truck is here but where is he?"
Katie proceeded to unlock the door only to hear yelling off in the distance as she opened it.
"I'm gonna beat you, Skye!" Yelled Rubble.
"Oh, I don't think so!" Skye yelled back while gaining ground.
"Skye your shoe is untied!" Rubble said with a chuckle.
Skye started to slow down only for her to remember pups don't wear shoes.
"I don't wear shoes!" Skye said before breaking out into laughter.
"I know, but I made you look." Huffed Rubble as he slowed down.
"I guess you win then." Skye said in a defeated tone while trying to catch her breath. "Guess we got back just in time too."
"Hey, pups." Katie said happily. "What's up?"
"You have lab equipment right Katie?" Skye asked, still trying to catch her breath.
"Yeah, why do you ask?" Katie asked with a puzzled look.
"Whoever took Chase last night left a powdery substance in front of Rocky's pup house, and we think it's tied to Chase being taken." Said Rubble.
Once Rubble had said that Chase was taken, her confused look turned into one of sadness and grief.
"Oh," Katie said flatly with a tear going down her cheek. "Glad Ryder told me."
"Well…." Skye began. "There's more to the story, we should fill you in."
Rubble went to his truck and grabbed the bottle before following Katie and Skye inside. Katie sat down in one of the chairs as Skye began filling her in on the morning's events.
"Oh man." Whispered Katie. "I hope Ryder doesn't go through that kind of withdrawal again, that's the last thing we need."
"We agree." Said Rubble. "But as long as Ryder thinks Chase ran off, he probably isn't gonna get better. That's why we brought you this."
Rubble then gave Katie the bottle, Katie then took off the cap and cautiously took a smell.
"I can run a composition test, it should only take a few minutes." Katie said as she stood up. "Follow me."
Rubble and Skye followed Katie into the back of her shop until Katie stopped in front of a door neither of them had noticed before.
"Okay, I need you two to stay here for a moment, I don't have any pup sized protection gear, it will only take a few minutes.
"Okay." The pups said in unison.
Skye and Rubble waited patiently as Katie ran the tests, about five minutes went by before they heard Katie start to laugh.
"What's funny?" Skye asked.
"Yeah, this isn't a funny matter." Added Rubble.
Katie opened the door showing she had on a hazmat suit and was holding a piece of paper in her hand.
"It'stalumpoder." Muffled Katie through the suit.
"What?" Skye and Rubble said, looking at each other then back to Katie.
"ITSTALUMPODER!" Katie said again but louder.
Still, both the pups just gave her blank stares. Katie realized that it was hard to understand what she was saying, so she took off her hood and repeated,
"I said, it's talcum powder, aka baby powder."
"Baby powder? Why would Rocky have that?" Asked Rubble.
But before anyone could answer Rubble, the lights went off.
"Huh, that's odd." Katie said confused. "I don't think we lost power, just the lights went off. You pups stay here while I go check the fuse box."
Katie pulled out a flashlight from a drawer and headed down the hall to the utility room. After ten minutes, Skye and Rubble were starting to get nervous about Katie not coming back.
"Do you th th think we should go check on her?" Rubble shakily asked.
"We probably should." Answered Skye. "Let's go."
Slowly the pups walked down the hall following where Katie had walked. Rubble hummed to himself, trying to calm his nerves. But Rubble was so focused on his humming, he never noticed that Skye had disappeared behind him. Rubble finally came to the utility room, only then did he notice Skye was missing.
"Skye, you ready?" asked Rubble, only for him to get no answer. "C come on Skye this isn't funny. But Rubble still was left without an answer.
"She probably had to go use the bathroom or something." Rubble grumbled to himself.
"Just remember, there is no such thing as ghosts, no such thing as ghosts." Rubble said as he opened the door.
As Rubble opened the door, he could see Katie's flashlight laying on the floor, but with Katie nowhere to be found. Now Rubble was terrified.
"Katie, this isn't funny!" Snapped Rubble. "Guys, cut it out!"
Rocky slowly walked into the room, only to find that Katie was in the room, but she was lying down in the corner behind the flashlight.
"Katie!" Rubble cried while running up to her. "Katie are you okay?"
Rubble got an answer, just not from Katie.
"Oh, she will be fine." Ember hissed with enjoyment. "You will be too, along with Skye."
"Who, who are you?" Stammered Rubble backing up into a corner."
"Me?" Echoed Ember. "Why, I'm your worst nightmare!"
Rubble's fight or flight kicked in and he made a dash for the door, only to find it was now closed. Rubble ran around the room, breathing heavily in panic, thinking of what's going to happen to him. Soon the room began to smell sweet, sweeter than Katie's perfume. Before Rubble knew what was going on, something tackled him, holding him to the ground while holding a wet cloth to his nose. Rubble yelped and thrashed as hard as he could, but it was no use. Soon everything began to go fuzzy, Rubble's breathing slowed down, and he became calm. The last thing Rubble saw was a woman standing in front of him, only for everything to go dark.
It wasn't until noon when Carlos, Jake, and Tracker returned. Only to find the remaining pups up in Ryder's bedroom.
"What did we miss?" Jake asked confused.
"Yeah, what's going on?" Added Carlos.
Everyone just stared at Jake, Carlos and Tracker, almost to the point where they felt they had poked a hornets nest. Marshall realizing that no one wants to answer the question, decided he would.
"You might want to sit down for this." Marshall said flatly. "It's a long story."
Marshall proceeded to fill in the others on the mornings events, ending with Rubble and Skye going to Katie's with the bottle.
"Oh, wow dude." Jake said while his head fell to his chest.
"Lo Siento, I'm sorry." Added Carlos.
"It's alright." Marshall said with a smile. "We're sure there is a reason for this."
"I hope you're right. Ryder said just loud enough for everyone to hear.
Everyone turned their attention to Ryder, who now wanted to fade away into existence.
"Cheer up amigo." Tracker said finally speaking up. "Things would get better."
Before Ryder could say anything to defend himself, an alarm started to go off.
"Oh NO!" Ryder cried as he got up.
"What is it, Ryder?" Marshall asked perplexed.
"It's Skye and Rubble." Ryder yelled over the alarm. "Something's wrong."
"What do you mean something's wrong?" Rocky echoed back.
"Remember how I installed GPS trackers and a life-detection device into all of your pup tags." Ryder said as he started to walk towards the computer.
"Yeah." Everyone answered back.
"Well, there was another feature I installed but I had it turned off until recently. Whenever a pup tag no longer detects a pulse, it sets off an alarm, I only just unmuted it when Chase disappeared."
Ryder proceeded to click around on the computer, silencing the alarm.
"Well if it's saying thewe is no heawtbeat, whewe awe they?" Asked Zuna.
Ryder clicked around some more before turning white as a ghost.
"It's saying they're at Katie's, we need to leave NOW!"
Ember strikes again, will Ryder and the others make it over to Katie's in time to catch her in the act, or will Ember make a clean escape.
I'm going to ask you guys, the readers for help writing the next chapter. In any order, pick the numbers 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, or 13. It doesn't have to be in that order, this is just to help me make a few decisions that will happen next chapter. To reply, feel free to PM me or just leave it in a review. Anyways, thanks for reading,
Chunkman128