M: Hello again,
Two weeks ago I posted the first part, and now I'm posting the second and final part.
I must say that it took off better than I had expected, and I'm happier for it.
I hope you enjoy!
- Tuesday, 7 am –
"GOOD MORNING EVERYONE" Chase yelled through the microphone, according to his daily morning routine.
"Ugh, one of these days I'll destroy that megaphone" Rocky grumbled as he crawled out of his puphouse. As all pups walked to breakfast, Ryder was waiting right by the bowls which he had already filled. All pups walked to their respective bowls, and they started to eat. Usually, Ryder would leave to get his own breakfast, but this time he walked over to Chase, and he pulled a paper file from behind his back and put it at Chase's paws, at which point the shepherd discovered it to be the DEA personnel file.
"When exactly were you going to tell me that the crash victim was a DEA agent?" Ryder asked Chase at a tone that wouldn't be considered friendly.
"When I had closed the case, sir, Ryder, sir" Chase said "I am investigating his death"
"It was an accidental car crash, nothing more" Ryder said "I am ordering you to stop wasting your time with this"
"But Ryder, sir, I am close! I almost have everything I need to bring down the killer! All the proof is downstairs, I could show you" Chase said, but as he tried to withstand Ryder's angry glare, he caved. "Yes, sir" the shepherd said with lowered ears before Ryder left to get his breakfast like he usually did. As the shepherd made his way to the elevator with the file, he snuck a quick glance at Rocky, whose face displayed the same amount of tension that Chase was feeling.
As Chase left, Rocky kept eating, like he had nothing to do with the file. When Chase returned, it happened to coincide with Rocky finishing his breakfast. The mix then cleared his throat, loudly.
"Everyone, I feel like I need to tell you something" Rocky said, having the attention of all the pups, and Ryder. "I have spent quite some time away from everyone to do some thinking, which is why I've been in the basement so often, to be alone with my thoughts. And I have reached a conclusion" Rocky said, before gulping down the tension growing in his stomach, and taking a deep breath. "I am gay"
Rocky didn't know how he anticipated the others to respond, but the remarks that came from Zuma, Skye and Marshall were the last things he expected.
"Not surprising" Skye replied
"About time you came out" Zuma said
"What they said" Marshall stated
"Wait, you knew?!" Rocky asked, his eyes filled with disbelief.
"Dude, you awe all about wecycling" Zuma said
"And I noticed you staring at Zuma's butt from time to time" Skye said
"He does what?" Zuma asked, while Rocky started to blush like crazy.
"S-So, you guys approve?" Rocky asked
"Of course we do" Ryder said as he petted the mix. "You are who you are, and you are our friend"
"Thanks, guys" Rocky replied, before turning to Marshall. "And, will you tell them about you?"
"What about me?" Marshall asked
"About you being bisexual?" Rocky asked
"WHAT?!" Marshall yelled "I'm not bisexual, or gay! In fact, I have a crush on-" he stopped just in time, swallowing the words that would have revealed his crush.
"On who?" Chase asked
After sighing deeply, Marshall replied. "On Everest"
"Well, I think you'd be vewy happy togethew" Zuma said
"Thanks, Zuma, I really appreciate it" Marshall said
"Hey guys, I'm going for a walk" Chase said with a complete lack of emotion on his face. "I'll be back shortly"
- Tuesday, 1 pm –
Rocky spent most of the morning playing with Zuma, Marshall, Skye, and Rubble, who didn't tease him one bit about his coming out earlier, which the mix found comforting. By the time they were tired enough to sit down, they decided to go for an early lunch, which is when they found a letter lying on the floor of the dining room. After reading its contents, Zuma immediately called Ryder through his pup tag.
Once Ryder came down, Rocky handed him the letter, as Zuma had been vague about its contents. The pups watched intently as their leader read the letter about their co-leader resigning, and as Ryder looked up from it, and looked upon their guilty faces, his reaction was about what they had expected:
"What the hell happened?!" he asked
"W-Well, sir, he mentions that he loves a male pup, and that he reached a conclusion due to this morning's events" Rocky said "I think he may have been in love with Marshall, and today, he realized they would never be a couple, which is why he left"
"Well, go find him!" Ryder said "I want him back here, so I can say goodbye, at least"
"Yes, sir!" The pups yelled together before running to their puphouses which transformed into vehicles.
Each and every one of the pups was searching for Chase, Zuma down at the beach, Rocky in the city, Skye from the air, Marshall in the forest and Rubble by the mountains. Ryder was contributing by searching through the telescope. But they weren't acting as a team, they lacked the coordination that they usually prided themselves on. And this allowed one of the pups to sneak back into the lookout, to easily avoid Ryder and to go down to the basement, where there was believed to be a damning cache of evidence against the murderer of DEA agent Patrick Stride. And there was only one pup who would want to go there without being spotted, the pup who killed him and staged the car crash. The pup that funded the PAW-Patrol, the pup that was in charge of the syndicate, the one pup that had been hiding for so long. This pup walked back into the lookout, into the elevator, and pressed the button to go down. As the elevator doors closed and the elevator started to descend, the pup was calmness itself. When it stopped, the pup got out, turned left, and walked straight to Chase's room. The pup checked if the door was unlocked, which it wasn't, so the pup took a set of lockpicks out of the bag the pup was carrying. The pup picked the lock with ease, and once inside, surrounded by all the evidence, the pup took a jerrycan out of the same bag and started to douse the entire room in gasoline. Just as the pup took out a lighter, there came a voice from the door opening.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you"
As the pup turned around, there were two people standing in the door opening, both dressed in blue, FBI-labelled jackets, both aiming a gun at the pup. The pup then noticed two dogs standing behind the men, Chase and Rocky.
"Well, fancy meeting you here, Skye" Rocky said as he smiled at her. A smile that was as devilish as they came.
"I really can't believe it was you" Chase said "But then again, you did try to seduce me"
"Yeah, and I failed miserably" Skye replied "How on earth could I have missed the fact that you were a pillow-biter?"
"Oh, I'm not gay" Chase said, causing a look of surprise on Skye's face. "It was just a trick to make you believe you had an opportunity"
"But- but-" Skye started "But what about Marshall's confession?"
"That's where I came into play" Rocky said "You see, we needed an excuse for Chase to disappear so that we were scattered. Although my coming out was real, it was just part of an act. By me coming out, I could put serious pressure on Marshall, forcing him to confess his feelings towards Everest. This, in turn, gave the motive we needed for Chase to run away"
"Setting the trap itself was easy enough, we needed the bait, all this evidence" Chase said as he gestured at the tables around Skye. "It wasn't much harder for Rocky to make Ryder believe I was investigating the DEA Agent's death. He simply needed to play the worried friend. No, the trickiest part was to find backup that wasn't dirty. Luckily, my older brother the detective knew a few honest FBI agents from the New York field office, and with a simple, temporary reassignment, here they are, with the jurisdiction to arrest you. And now they'll do just that"
"Skye Blue, you're under arrest. You have the right to remain silent…" the first FBI agent said as he took out his cuffs and cuffed the cockapoo.
"Come on Chase, let's go tell the others" Rocky said "That'll be fun"
- Tuesday, 8 pm –
There Rocky sat, at the top of a cliff, overlooking all of Adventure Bay, he could barely make out the lookout in the weak light of the setting sun. As he sat there, he thought about the events of the past days. First, he discovered Chase's secret investigation, then he joined it. Later, due to his own plan, he was forced to come out, and it all ended in the arrest of one of his teammates.
"So tell me, did you ever figure out why Skye created the PAW-Patrol?" As Rocky turned around, he saw a young, red and black golden retriever approaching, who bore a claw mark scar on his face.
"Turns out, the site she had given to Ryder was right on top of an anti-nuclear bunker. The blueprints she had provided had the construction crew dig just deep enough to enable her to use the elevator to go down to it. She installed a secret operations centre in the bunker, with a single way to access it, a hidden switch behind the panel in the elevator" Rocky said "That's how she controlled the syndicate from this town"
"Well, that's interesting" the Ragger said "But the question is, will you use it?"
"Well, it is still secret, I stopped Chase from finding it" Rocky said "And considering that with her gone, the Syndicate's mine, I think I just might"
"She used it perfectly to rule the syndicate, and so could you" the Ragger said "Whatever you decide, I'm with you. You know that, right?"
"Of course I do" Rocky said as he kissed his mate. And I'll always love you.
M: Sorry about the deception, and the lack of an actual pairing, but I do rather like how this story turned out. Any feedback or advice is always welcome, and I hope to see you all at the next story.
Truehound, out
