It's well documented that dogs can feel nearly every emotion a human could experience. They're cognitively designed in such ways that they can feel happiness, sadness, anger, and especially fear. It's intriguing how fine-tuned their minds are to that of a person, as opposed to a mindless fish swimming in a cycle of unblinking static. Now, what of more complex emotions? Such things as love, shame, jealousy, guilt, or bashfulness? What happens when a dog is thrust into a situation they have no understanding of? The animal is suddenly bludgeoned with confusion, fear, paranoia, and no way to understand even a fraction of it.
To learn that friends among you may not be what they seem can bring droplets of fear into one's head. Chase was afraid, terrified even, and hesitated even stepping outside. He occasionally glanced outside at the other dogs when they'd come out to play in the sun, trying to read their movements for anything unnatural. He especially narrowed his eyes every time Skye came into his field of vision. She seemed a little better, but a lack of symptoms didn't always mean the sickness was gone. In some cases, the pain suddenly vanishing could indicate the worst was about to ensue. Every now and then, Marshall would knock on his door, to which Chase rarely responded.
The Shepherd slipped out the next day, walking into town while avoiding eye contact with anyone. Despite not being in uniform, he still wore his pup-pack, the visible straps connecting around his body. No one knew of the weapon that lay concealed within the backpack, all it needed was the audio cue of Chase's bark and it would emerge. He had received a note under his door, ordering him to travel to the park for an "important briefing." Usually, Chase would discard such a note and write it off as spam mail, but this note was explicitly signed by the ACG,
As the wind brushed past his sides, Chase left the sidewalk as he crossed over into the grass. His mind still disobeyed his constant grips to clear his head, the static noise filling his ears and taking a life of its own.
"I'm not crazy," the police dog breathed, shaking his head. He had lost significant hours of sleep, anxiety gripping him awake and leaving him afraid to shut his eyes for even a few minutes.
He found a bright patch of grass and laid down on it, purposely straying away from the other dogs as much as he could. His attempts were futile however, as out of the corner of his eye he spotted a small terrier walking over to him. Chase stiffened, snapping his head in the other dog's direction. The terrier carried a smile on his face, a feeling of joy and carelessness, Chase knew this couldn't be the meetup. This dog was just an oblivious idiot, blind to the looming threat only he seemed to be aware of.
"Hi," the terrier smiled, "I like your pup-pack,"
Chase instantly growled in response, flattening his ears. Nothing could be trusted, not a single one of the animals he shared the city with could be trusted. The terrier drew back in surprise, hints of confusion crossing his face. He wasn't at all expecting the hostility from the Shepherd, knowing full well the reputation the Paw Patrol carried.
The terrier held up his paws defensively, "I'm sorry, I-"
"Piss off."
The smaller dog whimpered slightly and hastily turned, speeding off. Chase didn't leave the house thinking he would pull a gun on a random dog in the park, but the parasite could be anywhere.
"You always talk to puppies like that?" came a voice to his left, and Chase whipped his head around. He relaxed slightly when he recognized the Belgian Malinois before him.
"You told me that thing could be hiding anywhere," Chase waved off, "I swear it's driving me crazy."
"Awareness and vigilance are key, sure," Cyrus nodded as he approached, "but you can't snarl at every dog who comes before you,"
Chase raised an eyebrow, then sat up, "how do I know you're not infected?"
"ACG members get screened twice a day," the Malinois explained, "including me."
"Wait, you have a way to test yourselves for the virus?" Chase inquired,
Cyrus nodded, "you give a blood sample on a swab," he explained, "you put it in a machine, and it scans you for Feroxmalis. If you're infected, it'll come back positive."
The Shepherd's eyes widened, "wait, why can't I have one of those?"
"That's why I'm here,"
Cyrus reached into a pocket on his belt, pulling out a small device about the size of a box of cigarettes. It was a dull grey in color, with a small screen and hole at the bottom.
"It used to be for drug testing, but our engineers have modified it," the Malinois nodded, pushing it over to Chase, "they're valuable and limited, so we don't usually give them out like this."
Chase looked up with a confused expression, "then why is it being given to me?"
"You're a special case, being the Paw Patrol and all," he explained it the best he could, "also, have you seen the weather?"
The puppy shook his head.
"There's a storm coming," Cyrus warned, "and not a small one either. It's highly likely most communication lines will go dark, you may lose power as well."
"Oh, how fantastic," Chase hung his head in exhaustion,
"When that storm hits, the ACG will have to temporarily assist in emergency services, and our investigation will have to pause. The reason I gave you that device is that we're going to be up to our ankles in helping out the public, so I'm entrusting you to-"
"Start my own investigation," Chase finished, "but if-" he stopped for a moment, wincing as dark thoughts returned to his head, "if one of my friends... ends up being, it, how will I call you if none of our comms have gone dark?"
"That pup tag I gave you will still work," the Malinois pointed, "it's tied to an isolated radio frequency that works on its own. So if one of your friends becomes compromised-"
"Yes I know, I'll call you," Chase interrupted, growing agitated, "sorry I just," a low wince left his mouth, and he confessed without realizing, "I just don't like thinking about it."
Cyrus sighed, briefly taking a moment to lick his paw. He knew Chase was just a puppy, and although he couldn't show it, he felt great sympathy for what the small dog may be about to go through.
"Look, I'm afraid too," he said softly, "I just want all this mess to be taken care of, all these people safe, you know?"
After a few seconds of staring at the ground, Chase nodded slowly, saddened as he lowered himself back to the ground, "it's my job to protect people,"
"I understand," Cyrus nodded, "but protecting people can be dangerous. Dogs in the army, well, they die all the time protecting their homes."
"That's just war, we've seen that since the dawn of time" bitter words began to seep from Chase's teeth, "this is different, anyone around me could be a monster and I have no way of telling,"
"They're not monsters, Chase," Cyrus looked over at the puppy, "yes, they're a host, but they aren't monsters,"
"Yet," the Shepherd hissed,
"Well, that's why I gave you the blood reader, test your friends, and certainly test yourself," he instructed, "if a reading comes back positive, call us right away."
Chase looked up at him, briefly glancing at a group of dogs that ran past. There was a lingering question that had been on his mind, and he feared the answer.
"Cyrus," Chase asked, "what exactly will happen to someone when you find the parasite in them?"
The Malinois sighed, tilting his head back slightly as he contemplated the answer. He didn't want to unroll the truth onto the puppy, but at the same time, he couldn't lie here, not to Chase.
"We trap them, essentially," he explained, "try to seal them somewhere before Feroxmalis realizes they've been compromised. If we can't do it, and it erupts out of the host, I can only hope we can push it somewhere contained."
"Would the... 'host,' survive this?" Chase asked, voice growing weary.
The larger dog looked away slightly, well aware that his answer wasn't going to be a happy one, "Chase, we use the word 'erupt' for a reason. I've seen the photos, the recordings, Feroxmalis tears itself out of the host's body, emerging out as a massive, gory creature. So... no, the host doesn't survive."
Chase nodded in understanding.
"Get home, okay?" the Malinois offered, "I need to lead the ACG in our emergency relief for the storm. Your job right now is to protect your family."
"My... family," Chase repeated, almost not understanding the meaning of the word. He hated saying it out loud, but there was no denying that he truly loved his friends. Marshall who always made him laugh, Rocky's inspiring persistence to push forward, Zuma being the shoulder to cry on, Rubble as the one dog who everyone just adored, and Skye, the cockapoo Chase had shared countless missions with.
He had to protect his family. He had to protect the ones he loved.
Taking the device back home, Chase made haste in returning to his kennel. The storm clouds were already lurking in the sky above, it would only be a few hours before the rain began. As he entered his den and shut the door, a faint crack of thunder echoed above the city, a wordless warning of the terror to soon come. Sitting on his bed, Chase studied the blood reader before him, not much bigger than his own paw.
He knew his friends would instantly question why the hell he was asking for blood samples, such suspicions would put him in a compromising position. He'd have to be smart about this, and Chase lowered himself down to rest his chin on a pillow. The stress was getting to him, but at least now he had an opening, a flicker of foundation to make sense of the swirling chaos. All he had to do was find a way to retrieve blood samples from the others, it seemed crazy, but there had to be a way. There was a science to deception, and Chase wasn't qualified in the art. Even then, he worried about how the others would even perceive the idea of an unseen threat right under their noises. They had never seen such a thing in all their lives, and it was an open question of how much longer they'd go before they saw something truly disturbing.
As of now, there were things to do. Chase sighed and got up from his bed, walking over to his desk where he kept most of his gear. Opening a small drawer, he rummaged around a few miscellaneous objects until he saw a small bundle of Q-tips, meant for cleaning ears. Collecting them swiftly, Chase searched a little more until he found the shining piece of metal at the bottom. It was a thin razor blade, the kind used to make Exacto Knives. Such a tool was capable of making even the most precise of cuts, not particularly designed for the devastating carnage, but sharp enough to gracefully slice through flesh and muscle.
"I should get this over with," he thought aloud, and gently carried the blade in his teeth back to his bed.
He activated the small machine with the switch on the side, and the screen blazed to humming life. It merely glowed, showing a distinct lack of any on-screen prompts, it would be easy to forget it was even on due to the lack of interaction the device offered. After a few seconds that Chase could only assume was the device configuration itself, it gave a small beep as two words flashed on the screen.
"Awaiting Sample,"
Taking a deep breath, Chase sat back and held out his left paw, dropping the blade into his right. Taking a sharp breath, he pressed the knife into the rough skin under the paw. He winced, sucking air through his teeth as he slid the blade across, all he needed was a single drop of blood. But his metacarpal pad refused to open, forcing him to hold back sounds of pain as he drove the blade in deeper, seeking to defy his own anatomy for the sake of a single blood test.
"Gah-" he breathed out, shaking slightly,
His paw stung, crying a crimson red as he dropped the blade. It was hurting at an atrocious rate, but now he had what he needed. Struggling to see through his own tears, he gripped a Q-tip and glided it across the bleeding underside of his foot. The small tool instantly collected the small stream, its cotton tip turning a blood red. Unable to suppress the pain any longer, Chase dropped everything and ferociously licked away at the cut until the stinging quieted. When he was sure his paw was soothed, he turned his attention back to the blood test. He hesitated before inserting it into the machine, knowing full well that his life was just a flip of the coin now. There were two outcomes, and his body faintly quivered knowing that one result would be the death of him. If it ended up being him, if he was the host for Feroxmalis, he would turn himself into the ACG without question. No one would ever see him again, and he would likely die once Feroxmalis emerged, but he was willing to give himself to keep Adventure Bay safe.
Finally shoving in the Q-tip, the machine gave a whirring noise. The following few seconds felt like agonizing hours, like someone being forced to sit in the waiting room of a hospital while their lover was being wheeled into critical care. Finally, a single word flashed on the screen, a word Chase didn't believe for a split second.
"Negative."
He was hit with a wave of relief so brutal he almost threw up. Despite the roaring storm he was under, the screaming noise and static in his head, and the constant anxiety, there was finally something that pulled a smile over his face. He wasn't infected, at least not yet, he still had a chance to prevent total devastation.
A crack of thunder sounded in the distance, and gentle rain could be heard tapping away at his ceiling. The storm was coming in fast, soon to drape the city in darkness. He was playing a massive game of chess against an opponent he couldn't even see, and now it was time for his next move. Narrowing his eyes, a rush of determination flickered within Chase. All he needed now was for the others to partake in the blood test, he would not rest easy until all five of them were cleared.