2 Weeks Later

Ryder was still in a coma. Chase has done his duty as second-in-command and stepped up as (acting) leader of the Paw Patrol due to Ryder's current predicament. Unfortunately, Chase is suffering extreme stress because he isn't used to leading the team. Marshall has replaced Chase as second-in-command and somehow become more careful. Everyone in Adventure Bay noticed his increased focus and caution and applauded the new and improved Marshall. Marshall gained a bit of an ego and headed to chew Chase out for being stressed.

"Chase!" Marshall yelled as he ran up to Chase's puphouse. "Chase! Open up! We gotta talk!"

"Marshall, leave me alone, I'm thinking," Chase's voice replied from on the other side of the door.

"No way! Since when do you just sit down and self-reflect? That's a Rocky thing!"

"Just leave, please"

"NO!"

"I only want to think in silence and solitude."

"But I'm your best friend! We're practically brothers! You can't abandon your brother!"

"You sure aren't acting like my best friend nor my brother. What kind of 'best friend' ignores and disrespects my needs? And besides, I'm not abandoning you, it's not like I left or anything."

"You don't 'need' to be alone Chase! Also, why do you sound so exhausted?"

Chase opened up the door and looked Marshall right in the eyes.

"AAAAHH!" Marshall screamed. "WHAT happened to you?"

Chase's eyes were red and bloodshot, he was panting heavily, his legs were wildly shaking, and he looked even looked skinnier. And older.

"Just leave me alone please," Chase grumbled as he closed the door again.

(AN: The previous scene was not meant to be emotional. Ego Marshall was just being dramatic)

Now Marshall was confused. What was wrong with Chase? Why did he look like that? He may have had more responsibility on his shoulders, but Marshall took his spot after the incident and also had more responsibility but didn't become all stressed and stuff. Was it because he was the temporary leader and leaders are responsible for the entire team? That must be it.

Poor Chase. These guys aren't pulling their own dang weight and now Chase is stressing out because he has to look out for everyone, thought Marshall. I'll fix'em.

Marshall headed into the Lookout and turned on the main computer. He would've used his puptag, but those are one-way only.

"How to use this thing?" He asked himself. He raised up on his hind legs and looked for a keyboard. Surprisingly, there wasn't one. That's when he remembered that Ryder controlled it with his pup pad. Marshall had to find the pup pad. Chase didn't want to be bothered, so asking him was out of the picture. He doubted that anybody else knew, so he couldn't ask them. BING! Marshall got a brilliant idea. He ran out of the Lookout and jumped in his rig. He turned on the siren, and soon enough, they all came running over to see what he had his siren on for. Including Chase, who looked extremely cranky.

"MARSHALL WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Chase shouted at him with a hoarse voice.

Marshall flinched at the tone. Chase was significantly upset. Marshall's little 'visit' earlier had done nothing but stress him out even more than he already was, and now Marshall had disturbed his rest with a loud siren. He was pissed off.

Marshall had to fix this. He opened his mouth but couldn't think of anything to say. So he just winged it. "You can go back to bed Chase, I just wanted to talk to the other pups."

That should be good enough, Marshall thought. Chase let out a sigh and hobbled back to his puphouse. Once Chase was gone, Marshall glared at the rest of the pups with as much anger in his gaze that he could muster. "Chase has been worrying himself sick over you guys!" he yelled at them.

"Hold on a minute Marshall, that's what you turned on your siren for?" An irritated Rocky asked (he was working on an invention). "To get our attention so you could lecture us about Chase being uptight?"

"YES!" Marshall shouted. Rocky flinched. He didn't expect for Marshall to be so angry.

"You guys are so CARELESS! And STUPID!" Marshall ranted. "Ever since Ryder fell into the volcano and nearly died, Chase has been on edge! Yet for some reason, none of you see that! You all seem to think that just because I'm a medic, you can afford any and all injuries!"

"Mawshall-" Zuma began, but was cut off.

"LET ME FINISH!"

Zuma went completely silent. He had never seen this side of Marshall.

"How can you think that Chase would be fine seeing you take unnecessary, low-reward risks after what happened? Not only that, but Chase is acting as the leader of the team with Ryder comatose!"

"Yeah, he has total authority. What does that have to do with anything?" Skye asked.

"AND total responsibility, Skye. Chase is responsible for all of us. He's been leading the team to the best of his ability with Ryder gone, but if we all know that Chase is a worrywart, and logically speaking, total responsibility plus seeing Ryder nearly die would do nothing but magnify that trait of his, then why are you all just recklessly jumping into danger and not heeding my warnings nor his?"

"We need to do whatever is required to complete the mission Marshall," Rocky argued back. "If we don't perform everything in our power to the best of our ability, ninety-nine percent of our missions will fail. And the few that we don't fail will be done extremely poorly."

"Well what good is nearly or straight-up dying on a mission is it means that the next one won't be optimal because someone is out of commission?!"

"Not every mission requires 'all paws on deck', or did you forget that?"

"Stop thinking in a general sense! Ever since Ryder fell into that volcano, we've been less organized, less efficient, we've been expending more time and energy for menial tasks, Chase is barely getting any sleep, heck, I bet we're all sleeping less, and guess what? Every mission thus far has required all of us to go!"

Rubble has been quiet the entire time. He was watching the debate between Rocky and Marshall and trying not to get noticed. He didn't want anyone to be focused on him. When did Marshall become so smart? he wondered.

As the argument became more and more heated, Zuma began to slip away. Eventually, so did Skye and Rubble. Marshall and Rocky were so absorbed in their shouting match that they didn't even notice. They didn't even notice Chase arrive.

"SHUT UP!" Chase roared.