All four Rescue Mutts along with Cody looked down the hill, obviously confused.
"I know I'm new here but…aren't sabortooth tigers extinct?" Blades asked.
"This one's about to be!" Heatwave growled as he clenched his teeth.
"Heatwave, wait!" said Cody.
"If anyone sees you taking down that tiger on your own, there goes your cover and your mission."
The massive cat looked at the movie screen. It stared as the terrier on screen repeated its irritating barks. The Cat hissed while the scene reflected in its eyes.
"It's attracted to the sound!" Boulder yelled. The saber-tooth prowled into the parking lot and looked into a car with an unsuspecting couple inside. They continued to laugh while the robot narrowed its eyes.
Cody looked at Chase and quickly formulated a plan. "Chase! Bark at it; Now!"
Chase's instincts kicked in the moment Cody said the command. He barked deep and loud. The big cat looked over its shoulder and roared. Chase looked at Cody and cocked his head.
"That got its attention. Now what?"
"We need to lure it somewhere there's no people around." Said Cody.
Heatwave nodded.
"Affirmative, Rescue Mutts: Ruff to the Rescue!" Heatwave barked. Boulder and Chase charged down the hill towards the tiger while Blades engaged his jetpack. Along with Heatwave they all ran, barking loudly and making sure they were the prehistoric animal's focus.
Cody watched them run off sadly.
Heatwave looked over his shoulder and then turned around, feeling sorry for the human. He ran back to Cody and stood next to him. He stared at the tunnel that led back to the bunker and his collar flashed and beeped.
Cody looked and saw the fire truck driving out of the tunnel towards them at full speed. It stopped and opened the driver's door for them. Heatwave motioned with his head for Cody to get in.
Cody got in without hesitation and Heatwave hopped up with him, crawled across his lap and sat in the driver's seat, deciding that if anything happened, he would be the one to stand between Cody and danger. His tag glowed brightly and the fire truck charged forward.
Boulder ran at the saber-tooth and leaped to the side when it tried to take a bite out of him. The cat turned and ran down the mountain after the engineer dog while the retriever flew overhead, the shepherd ran behind and the fire truck brought up the rear.
Boulder, Chase and Blades made their way down the street with the saber-tooth behind them, stomping it's way after them. The fire truck was getting closer to the robot, moving to pass it to get to other up front. As they made their move to get around, the cat suddenly jumped onto the fire truck and clung to the vehicle. It claws scratched at the glass and it snarled at the child it saw inside.
Cody gasped when he saw that the window was beginning to roll down and the big cat began to stick it's paw in; but then, Heatwave leaned over Cody's lap and bit down hard. The cat yowled and Heatwave growled and shook the cat's paw in his mouth. The cat finally began to pull away, and Heatwave was pulled with it. His head got pulled out of the window and he braced himself against the door with his paws. Cody grabbed onto his collar and the truck began to veer of the road!
Heatwave let go when he saw teeth coming toward his head. The Cat tumbled off of the car and rolled on the asphalt as they drove away. Heatwave kept his head out of the window for a while though, barking back at the thing that had just tried to take his head off. They had to keep its attention. It worked and the cat chased them again.
Cody looked out the window with Heatwave.
"He's following, but we're still going to need an assist!" Cody said.
Heatwave began to crawl back to his seat, "I'll comm-link the chief in!" Heatwave said, he tapped a button on the dashboard and got back to his seat when the Chief's face appeared on screen.
"This is Rescue Headquarters, go ahead."
Cody kinda panicked when his Dad showed up on the screen.
"Dad! Uh- First, don't worry. I'm with the Rescue Mutts." He said, hoping to keep his father from getting mad.
It didn't work. "What!? Who gave you permission to-" Cody cut him off.
"They did. I mean, uh, Dad, I don't know how to tell you this, but the Rescue Mutts aren't real dogs, they're from another planet, they're aliens!" He expected his father to react in disbelief or tell him that he was lying, but instead, he looked disappointed.
"How long have you known?"
Cody had to ask his own question. "Wait, you know?"
Chief decided that the questions would have to wait until later. "Cody, where are you?"
The Chief suddenly heard Chase's voice coming through the communications line.
"Chief Burns, if I may?" His panting and coughing to catch his breath interrupted Chase's sentence, he had been running for a while. "We are heading…westbound on…Lake street…with…a saber-tooth tiger… in pursuit." He finally got out before he cut the line to avoid damaging the Chief's speakers with his heavy breathing.
Chief began to get out of his chair. "A saber tooth tiger! Again?" Right before the Chief left to go and collect the other children. Before he realized something.
Cody was looking out the window at the cat still chasing their still unstable fire truck. Then he heard his father's voice. "Cody, you aren't driving, are you?"
Cody looked at Heatwave, who throughout the whole conversation had been rotating the steering wheel. The dog's front paws were at the top of the steering wheel, he turned the wheel back and forth to try and keep the truck stead; fangs were bared in concentration and frustration.
"Uh…no…"
As the chase continued, Chief Burns quickly rounded up Graham, Kade and Dani, hoping to catch up with Cody and the Rescue Mutts.
"Why are we taking the old squad car?" Kade asked.
He then looked up to see an unusual site.
"Huh?"
Graham and Dani grasped when they heard and saw three dogs run passed the car followed by a fire truck and a large cat resembling a prehistoric tiger.
Chief Burns glanced at Kade, giving him a serious look.
"That's why…I'll explain later."
Once the light changed to green, he stepped on the gas pedal, trying to keep up with the Rescue Mutts.
Boulder and Chase split up, one going left and the other running to the right.
Confused by the sudden change in direction, the tiger roared in frustration. He walked slowly among the trees and bushes, eyes watching for any sign of movement. The Rescue Mutts stayed hidden behind several bushes, remaining quiet until they were sure the prehistoric animal was gone. As the warning growls of the cat became more faint, all four dogs came out of their hiding place just in time for Charlie, Kade, Graham and Dani to arrive.
"Cody, you jacked my ride along?" Kade asked.
"Listen, the tiger likes loud sounds, so I think you should…" Cody was cut off.
"Less talk, more action." said Kade as he attached Heatwave's leash to his collar and lead him away.
Before Chief Burns could say anything, he and Cody were startled by the return of the sabertooth tiger. The big cat roared loudly and was ready to pounce but was quickly startled thanks to Boulder leaping it its head.
"Whoa, this dog has a mind of its own!" Graham gasped, as he watched his dog take action without being given any sort of command.
Unable to hold onany longer, Boulder lost his grip and the cat ran off, only for Heatwave to snap at it's nape and pull it down.
"Stay here, Son." Said Chief Burns as he helped him into the squad car and joined up with Chase.
While Heatwave and Chase managed to keep the tiger focused on them, Dani was once again having difficulty with Blades. She tugged on the retriever's collar as he refused to move.
"Come'on, we have to get closer to the tiger or we're useless!"
"Cody, what did you do to our dogs?"
"If you need them to do what you want, you have to ask nicely." Said Cody over the comm-link.
"Cody, get off this channel, it's for emergency responders only." Said Kade.
"Pipe down, Kade…Cody spotted the tiger first, for now…he's on the team." Charlie announced.
"Fine by me, got any ideas, Cody?" Graham asked.
"Not exactly, but I know someone who will." Cody answered and quickly made a phone call.
The phone rang loudly at the Greene residence. Frankie groaned as she got up to answer…who would be calling this late at night?
"Hello?"
She then snapped out of being half-asleep when she realized who it was.
"Cody? The Ice Age exhibit? Fine… now you're interested?"
With Frankie's help, the team was able to come up with a plan. Gathering their rescue vehicles they followed through with the instructions.
Graham and his bulldozer began plowing a hole in the walls of the Police Station. He was nearly finished as he let Boulder dig through debre.
"How's it going, Graham?" Cody asked.
"Almost there," he said, looking at the blueprints on his tablet.
"Just a little more to the right."
Boulder did as he was told and kept digging long enough to clear out the fallen bricks.
He and Graham looked up at the site of an orange and white helicopter.
"Preparing to life the payload." Said Dani.
She lowered the grappling hook and prepared to the steel jail cell into the air. Blades sat in the passenger side, watching and relieved he wasn't doing any actual lifting or flying for that matter.
"Good going, Dani…do you really think this will hold a sabertooth tiger?" Graham asked her.
"We'll find out," she replied and took off.
Meanwhile, Chief Burns drove in circles trying to keep the tiger distracted. Chase was sitting beside his handler, exhausted from running.
"Keep him busy, Dad…Dani's on her way." Cody said via comm-link.
Charlie looked over at Chase then his jaw dropped as he noticed a large ditch just up ahead. Making a sharp turn at the last minute, he managed to avoid going over. Kade and Heatwave were down in the ditch, which was now filled with mud.
Kade shut off the hose and tried to figure out what to do next.
"Now how are we supposed to get that thing over here?"
"I thought you'd never ask." Said a voice.
"Whoa!" Kade yelled as he heard a voice behind him. Before he could react, Heatwave climbed up to the side of the road and let out a loud howl. The tiger swung its head towards them and went in their direction.
He roared once more and pounced on Heatwave, who quickly kicked the beast off him and into the muck. He watched as the big cat growled and struggled in the tar like mud.
"In coming air support!" Cody shouted.
Before the tiger could stand up, Dani lowered the steel cell over him, trapping the cat where he was. He wrapped his jaws around one of the bars and wedged his paws in between the spaces trying to bend the steel. While the tiger seemed to be focused on trying to escape, Cody slowly approached the makeshift cage.
"I hope Frankie was right."
He yelled in surprise as the tiger banged his body against the bars. This gave Cody the opportunity to unlock the control panel on the mechanical feline. He struggled with the switch but managed to shut it off before the cat was able to break free.
"Phew!" Cody sighed; thank goodness the nightmare was over.
The next day the Sabertooth tiger was returned to the museum. Although it was placed back on display it wasn't…quite the same.
Graham frowned at the look of it.
"Uh, think anyone will notice?" he asked as Chief Burns snapped a picture.
Instead of standing up the tiger was laying on back, almost as if it was asleep. The Burns family then left the museum, smiling at their efforts.
All four Rescue Mutts were waiting for them outside. Before getting into their vehicles, Chief Burns decided to take one more photo.
"Wait! I want to get a picture of my heroes." He said.
Cody, feeling disappointed started to walk away.
Charlie, Dani and Graham noticed this and the Chief corrected himself.
"All of my heroes."
Cody's jaw dropped as he stood in front of Heatwave and Boulder. Graham and Dani then joined him, both smiling.
Kade stood off to the side, folding his arms in front of his chest.
"Come'on, Dad just because Cody answered one rescue call doesn't mean he's part of the team."
"Yes it does." Said a voice.
"Whoa!" Kade shouted and backed up as his Dalmatian glared at him.
"Or we're not." Heatwave explained, walking past him.
Dani and Graham cried out in surprise and backed away as Heatwave approached Cody.
The liver spotted Dalmatian placed his left front paw over the boy's shoulder when he knelt down to his level.
"Cody is our liason on this mission and the reason we're even giving this place a chance." Heatwave explained.
He then looked Kade dead in his face, his piecing eyes seemed to burn a hole into the young man standing there.
"Are we clear?" he said with a hint of a growl.
"Aah!" Kade screamed as he ran.
"Dad, did that thing just talk back to me?!"
Dani was just as confused.
"Something is definitely wrong with the dogs."
"We can't use a canine team that is poorly trained." Graham pointed out.
"They're not poorly trained…they're aliens." Said Charlie.
"What?!" Kade, Graham and Dani said in unison.
Seconds later, the timer on the camera went off, snapping a photo.
The end result was a photo of Charlie, looking uncertain, Cody and the Rescue Mutts smiling while Graham, Kade and Dani stood there in shock.
One thing was certain, life in the Burns household would never be the same…
The End…