First of all, I am so very sorry I haven't updated in a month, because of that this chapter is extra long.
Chapter 25: Race to Dawn (Part 1)
Zuma had arrived at the once small river minutes after the flash flood hit, there were no sign of Rocky nor Natalie.
"Whewe awe they?" He was forced to take a step backwards due to the water rising.
A noise behind him, caused him to jump in the air releasing a scream. He almost landed into the now raging river, until a paw grabbed hold of his collar and pulled him backwards.
"Buddy are you ok?" Chase questions letting go of him, "You nearly-"
"Don't you buddy me." Zuma spat standing to his paws.
Both pups glanced at each other, staring into one another's eyes as though they were having a staring competition.
Marshall cleared his throat. "Um pups, shouldn't we be looking for-"
"H-Help!" A faint and weak voice made all three pups spin around. "C-Chase! H-Help m-me!"
Zuma gasped upon seeing Rocky clinging onto a rock in the middle of the river. "Wocky! Don't wowwy dude I'm-" He went to run passed Chase but Chase grabbed him and pulled him back. "Don't to-"
"Are you crazy!?" Chase yells narrowing his eyes at the Lab. "Look at the river Zuma, if you go in there you'll drown."
"Chase is right," Marshall says walking in front of Zuma.
Zuma takes in a sharp breath before nodding, "What do we do then?"
"What we always do, rescue him." Chase then opens up his communication with Ryder.
Ryder answered straight away, "Chase? Did you find them?"
Chase kept his eyes on Rocky as he answered. "Ryder sir, Rocky needs help-"
The ground starts to shake, and the river's water level rapidly rises. Within seconds Rocky is swept off the rock, Chase, Zuma and Marshall are swallowed up by the river.
"M-Marshall!" Chase yells trying to keep his head above the water while his eyes scan around for Marshall and Zuma. "Marshall! Zuma! Where are you!" His head gets pulled under the water, then his vision goes black.
"Chase! ... Chase! ... Chase ..." A voice calls, Chase feels a hand on his head. "Wake up!"
Groaning he manages to open his eyes, he looks up at a blurred figure.
"Hey, stay with me." The voice calmly says, causing Chase to blink trying to fix his vision.
At last it works he rubs his eyes, and the figure comes into view. "Pedz?"
She sighs with relief and smiles down at him, "oh thank goodness! I thought I lost you for a moment there, are you alright?"
"Yeah I think so." Chase looks around at his surroundings to discover the were somewhere in the forest. "Where are we? and where's-"
"Marshall is over there, so is Zuma, Natalie and Rocky." Pedz points to John who's attending to the unconscious pups.
"How did you find us?" Chase asks, sitting up with a groan.
Pedz smiles down at him, "Easy, I tracked you using your pup-tags, John found Rocky down from you pups."
"H-how are they?" He asks sitting up as Pedz lights a camp fire.
"Rocky and Marshall both sustained bad injuries, but Zuma has life threatening wounds." Pedz takes in a sharp breath before continuing, "Zuma has a piece of wood lodged into his chest, very close to his heart, he needs Anna to operate straight away."
"He'll be ok right?"
"I am afraid I don't kn-"
"He should be fine," Natalie half smiles scaring Pedz, causing the Super-star to jump in the air putting a hand over her heart. "Oh I'm sorry Pedz I did not mean to scare you." She says wagging her tail.
Pedz and Chase both look at the Poodle.
"I could have sworn you had a broken paw." Pedz says, lifting up Natalie's front right paw.
"Nope," Natalie shook her head and sat down. "Guess I just sprained it."
Pedz stood up rubbing her chin, "Well either way, I suggest you keep off that paw."
"My-Lady, we need to get Zuma out of here." John says, feeling Zuma's pulse. "He's getting weaker."
"Right, John do we know our currently location?" Pedz questions, kneeling next to Rocky and Marshall.
"No My-Lady, I'm afraid our locator is damaged." John frowned covering Zuma with a blanket.
When Pedz checked Marshall's injuries, a frown spread across her face. "This cannot be right."
Chase limped over as did Natalie. "What is it?" They both questioned in sync.
"I don't understand, his injuries are no where near as bad as Zuma's," Her frown deepened, "Marshall is dying."
"WHAT!?" Chase gasp looking at the unconscious Dalmatian. "H-he can't die Pedz! He can't!"
Pedz put her hand under Marshall's neck and lifted it up a bit, "Chase, his injuries are not as bad as Zuma's I don't know what's wrong with him."
Natalie on the other hand, did know. "It is not his physical Injuries Pedz, everything that has happened to him from the very beginning is effecting him, he dying simply because his body cannot handle all the stress."
"How do you know that?" Chase asks looking at the Poodle. "Oh yeah you were trained."
She nods, "Yes but even I cannot save him."
"Natalie, if what you say is true then no-one can save Marshall." Pedz gently placed Marshall's head back down on the ground.
Natalie thought for a moment, "Excuse me for a second." She said walking off to the nearby flooded creek, once she got to the edge of the water, sighing she looked down at her reflection. She saw herself for a moment, then it began to warp and blur, becoming unrecognizable.
Looking back towards the group, she could see John wrapping Zuma's injuries up and Pedz talking to Chase who was crying, she diverted her attention back to her reflection, which was still unrecognizable.
The reflection cleared to reveal... "Natalie my girl, what troubles you?" The image of Silvex spoke, but in a tone only Natalie could hear.
Tilting her head she sighs, "I would say it is indeed very good to see you again, but Marshall is edging close to death I am afraid I cannot help him."
"Zuma too? Shadex can feel death in the auras near you..."
She nodded taking a glance at Zuma, "Yes, Zuma has wood lodged closely to his heart, I cannot risk exposing who I am to them, the time is not yet."
"i can help discreetly. Shadex can take care of the wood, and I can calm Marshall."
"That would be perfect," Natalie smiles, "But Marshall's injuries are not physical,"
"I said, I can calm Marshall. His aura is full of distress and anxiety"
"We will need to be quick, neither one will last by the night." Natalie says looking to the stormy sky, the sun had began to set.
"Don't w-rry. I w-ll t-ke care -f the r-st. C-nnecti-n g-wing w-eak-r... Se- y- so-"
Natalie turned around to see Chase next to Marshall.
Chase sat besides an unconscious Marshall, "He has to live, he can't give up... He's been through so much to just die like this." He placed his paws on Marshall's chest, "Please Marshall, you have to live,"
Rocky had woken up, tears filling his eyes. "I-is he ok?"
"Why would you care!" Chase suddenly snaps.
"Enough," Pedz sighs and knelt besides Rocky, "Let me dress your injuries." She said, Rocky nodded.
Chase could only watch, as Marshall's breathing slowed down, becoming less and less.
Inside Marshall's mind...
Marshall meanwhile, could hear and feel everything that was happening around him, but his heart ached and the darkness was growing stronger.
'...Marshall...'
Marshall looked around but all he could see was darkness, pain within his heart got more intense.
'...Marshall... Don't give up...' A shining light broke through the Darkness
'I-I can't... I-it hurts...' He cried out, visions of everything that happened to him in the past flashed through his mind, all the good, and all the bad, the memories of Rocky attempting to kill him seemed more and more real. 'IT HURTS!' he screamed gasping for air.
Marshall felt waves of soothing and relaxing energy flow over him as a figure that was shining brightly walked closer to him. '...I am here for you, I am always here for you, just as i've promised, so long ago...'
He stood shakily to his paws, the voice, he thought he recognized it, then it hit him. 'S-silvex? is it r-really y-Ow!' he buckled over clutching his chest.
The light dimmed a little to reveal Silvex. 'Yes, it is I. Do not worry, I am here now," Silvex said, walking up to Marshall
"I'm d-dying ar-aren't I?" Marshall asked, tears now forming in his eyes. "It h-hurts so much"
"I'm not gonna let you die. I will ease your pain," Silvex said hugging him. And true to his word, Marshall's pain slowly faded.
Marshall hugged back, while crying into Silvex's chest. "T-thank you,"
"Long ago, I made a promise to protect you. No matter what." SIlvex hugged tighter. wrapping his wings around the dally.
Voices started filling the area.
"He's alive!" Pedz's voice calmly said.
"Marshall might be My-Lady, but Zuma is dy-"
The voices cut out causing Marshall to let go of Silvex, "What's wrong with Zuma?"
"He's not fairing well either, but Someone else is taking care of him. He's my brother, but I would appreciated it, if you kept this a secret. I have already interfered enough in this world, the residue of my powers are the reason why the FBI are so interested in the park and Rocky. And now they'll be even more so after Shadex finishes."
"Rocky? Why do they want Rocky?" Marshall questions slightly confused.
"When I use my powers, I leave a little tiny amount of after-energy. Me, Max, Shadex, and someone else have been using our powers a lot at the park, and around Rocky. We also leave background radiation every-time we enter the universe when we slip through the fabric of space.
We've entered and left so many times, combine that with the large amounts of after-energy, and that makes something the FBI CAN Detect. And knowing humans, especially the FBI, they'll do anything and everything to find out everything about the after-energy, the background radiation, me, Max, Shadex, that other powerful being, and they'll do it at any and all costs. And unluckily, a huge chunk of the stuff is centered around Rocky, so they most likely think He's a part of all of this."
Shadex, was currently swirling around in Zuma's mind as he vaporized the wood into nothing.
Before Marshall could reply a woman's voice cut him off, "Marshall you have to wake up now, you have been there for too long."
"Wake up? How do I wake up?" He asked looking at Silvex then searching for the other voice, "Wait, Silvex can you answer me one question?"
"Yes, what is it?"
"R-Rocky, has he t-truly changed? I-I'm so afraid when I'm near him Silvex," Marshall says, hurt evidence in his voice.
"Yes. Yes he has." Silvex said, with no hesitation
Marshall nodded, "I'll try to forgive him, b-but it's hard.."
"It is indeed a hard task, but don't ever give up." Silvex said as he began to fade away."
...
Suddenly Marshall's eyes shot open, causing Chase to jump backwards.
Chase, shocked, grabbed Marshall engulfing him in a hug. "I-I thought we lost you!"
Marshall coughed a few times before chuckling, "It's ok Chase, I'm here now." he stood up shakily to his paws.
"It is indeed good to see you awake Marshall." Natalie spoke behind him, a smile on her face.
"I do agree," Pedz finished wrapping up a injury on Rocky's side, "There all done."
"Thanks," Rocky says sitting up with Pedz help.
Pedz smiles, then looks over at Zuma, "How is he?"
"He's alive My-Lady." John responded shock filling his voice.
Lightning exploding throughout the clouds, adding to the colors in the orange/red sky from the sunset.
"We better get moving, Marshall can you walk?" Pedz asks, picking Rocky up in her arms.
Marshall nods, standing up with Chase's help.
John picked Zuma up, "The water is rising," He pointed behind them at the rising water.
Elsewhere...
"Mate there's no point in continuing the search, it's getting dark and with this storm around we won't find them." Silvera says through Ryder's Pup-pad.
Ryder pinched the bridge of his nose, "No, I won't give up on them Silvera."
Without warning, Lightning struck the Air-Patroller, causing it to malfunction, Ryder lost control and it began to fall from the sky.
"Pups hang on!" Ryder instructed, doing his seat belt up. "Silvera! We're going down!"
The Ranger Helicopter flew beside the falling Air-Patroller, they could only watch as it plumed from the sky.
"Ryder! Pull up! You're going to hit Scenic Lookout!" Silvera shouted into her Communicator, but she got no response back. "Pull up! Ryder! Pull up!"
With a loud crash, followed by an explosion that lit up the clouds, the Air-Patroller smashed into the Mountain side just below the park's Scenic Lookout.
"Oh no, this isn't good, Mark put us down!" Silvera instructed, getting her rescue gear ready.
When they landed, the Air-Patroller was completely destroyed, flames threatened to engulf the wreckage.
...
"What was that?" Marshall asks leaning on Chase
They all turned as an orange/yellow glow shone in the distance, it was not the sunset.
Pedz looked over at John, "What ever it is, I have a feeling it is not good."
"You are right," Natalie replies, "I can sense-Ohhh Nooo!"
"Natalie?" Chase looks at her in concern.
A call came in on Pedz phone, she pulled it out. "Weird it didn't work before," She said answering it. "Hello Pe-"
"P-d-z mate! It's S-v-era! The - Air-Patroller -crashed-" Static caused the call to end.
"Did she just say-" Chase is cut off.
"That's not all our problems, look!" Rocky pointed ahead of them, then behind them.
They had not realized that, water was now surrounding the group who were standing on a small hill made up of mud.
"Can this day get any worse!?" Marshall groaned, but then the ground began to shake, causing the mud to crumble. "I had to ask..."
To be continued.
A/N: Because I love you guys, I'll update this again in the next 48 hours.