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PART 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND
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There's a land submerged deep in the ocean
Safe from sea's spray and cold
A city lies in the world; it is hidden
The secret of knowledge it holds.
A weathered world with no weather it boasts of
Scarred with death and debris
A willing prisoner hides in his tower
Too afraid to take the key.
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Chapter 3: A Yelp For Help
It wasn't too long before Ryder arrived at Marshall's location. The freezing boy's heart melted in relief as he saw his Dalmatian alive and well, though he looked chilled to the bone. Marshall's right front paw was buried in the snow and his ears and snout sparkled from melted precipitation. The dog's head lifted up and his face broke into a grin when he heard Ryder's vehicle pull up, followed closely behind by everyone else's. Ryder practically flew to the fire pup's side. "Oh my gosh, Marshall, I thought I lost you…" the teenager whispered in a broken voice as he scooped Marshall into a hug.
"OUCH! Watch my leg!" Marshall yelped at the searing pain. "It's broken. Just a hairline fracture though- don't worry."
Ryder immediately set down his pup, hurriedly wiping his eyes dry. "Oh I'm so sorry! Quick, pups, hugs will have to wait. We need to get Marshall examined."
Thankfully, Ryder had the foresight to tell Rocky to drive Marshall's fire truck just in case they needed the medical gear. As the secondary builder of the pup houses, Rocky had the best knowledge of how to drive everyone else's vehicles. After a quick scan and confirmation of his injury, Marshall's leg was put into a cast, after which everyone enveloped him in hugs and tears of stress and relief. For nearly an hour the entire Paw Patrol had thought they had lost a member.
Time passed. Nobody had asked, but Marshall found it hard to not tell his friends about what had happened. Missions were a good relief and did well at distracting him, but the cast he wore was a constant reminder of his encounter, and his injury wasn't showing any signs of healing. He loathed the down-time. Whenever he wasn't on a mission or playing with the others, he would typically be training and practicing his skills, but that wasn't the case anymore. Not only would he have to stay at the lookout and sit out of the emergencies, but he was having a hard time hanging out with the others. In between missions he found himself having to seek seclusion so he wouldn't tell anyone about his rescuer. So naturally he told everyone everything that had happened the next day after the incident. They were definitely surprised and skeptical, but they believed him; they could tell he was convinced. He made them swear to secrecy, which they did. Though it was a relief to tell them, it still didn't help him to keep his mind off of it. Using all the clues at his disposal, he tried to figure out where and who Gizmo was, but to no avail. There simply weren't enough hints or leads. Thankfully his paw was showing good signs of healing now that more than just one day had passed. After a few weeks, he gave up on his search. There was nothing else he could do. And then something happened that changed everyone's lives.
It was early February, and a horrible ice storm was approaching Adventure Bay. Everyone had been ordered to stay indoors for safety, and all the pups, including Tracker and Everest, who had been visiting when the weather alert came, were cooped up in the lookout. However, just because civilians were ordered to stay indoors doesn't mean they would, so Ryder was monitoring for any signs of trouble. It was late one evening that he picked up a weak signal on a distress channel coming from out at sea. The message was as follows:
".. . aw Patrol ⠤ ⠤... ... ⠤... thing ⠤... . app end. If you hear thi . messa .. .. ... ⠤⠤.. ⠤.. I guess I didn't ⠤.. out .. ⠤...⠤.. ... no ⠤.. . failed. Now ⠤... . tuck alone .. ... few ⠤.. ... ⠤...⠤. need help. ⠤...⠤.. ... .. stuck out at sea .. ... ⠤.. ... ⠤.. worry. I ... ⠤..⠤ supplies ⠤...⠤.. .. . last hope. Find ... forty shape ⠤.. ... low ... map .. ... ⠤...⠤ locat ... .. . .. never escape ... sea ... ⠤.."
Bewildered by the strange message, Ryder kept listening, but it simply repeated itself and never became any clearer. Never one to leave people in trouble though, Ryder called everyone together and informed them of the situation. He told them they would be using the Air Patroller since the conditions were too poor for the Sea Patroller and he wasn't about to send Skye out on her own. Minutes later they were in their aircraft and on their way out to sea.
Flying above the clouds, Ryder attempted to trace the signal and make out what was sending it while the pups watched the lightning flash through the clouds in the storm below. Nothing was showing up on the radar, but Ryder kept getting the same message coming from what seemed to be the exact same location. The signal strength continuously grew stronger, but the words never got any clearer. "Strange..." Ryder thought.
"Ryder," Chase said, breaking him out of his reflection, "we're at the location, but the scanner shows nothing beneath us but water. What do we do now?"
Ryder took off his headset and stood to face the pups, "Someone's sending the signal, even if it's repeating. I'm not sending any of you out into that thunderstorm blindly. It's far too dangerous. We'll go down inside the Air Patroller. Get ready to enter the storm."
This caused some concern from several of the pups. Everest piped up, "What happens if we're struck by lightning?"
"Lightning shouldn't be a problem," Skye reassured her, "Even if we do get struck, normal airplanes are usually fine after a bolt hits them. And the Air Patroller is no normal passenger plane."
"Yeah," Rocky agreed. "We're built for this kind of stuff. Even if we're struck by lightning we should be a-okay!"
"They're right. We'll be fine," Ryder confirmed as he began to lower the craft below the clouds. The waves were high and foamy with no sign of any vessel to be found. Stretching out 30,000 feet below them, the water was dark and looked somewhat strange, as if a painter had smeared their canvas before the paint had dried completely.
"Odd..." Ryder mused. "I guess our radar was accurate after all; there's nothing on the surface. Maybe it's an underwater craft like the Diving Bell. I'm going to take us down to the surface for a closer look."
As he finished speaking, a lightning bolt struck the plane with a thunderous boom. Startled, everyone looked around, but everything did in fact, seem to be fine. "See?" Ryder smiled. "What did I tell you? We're perfectly-"
CRUNCH
The lights turned red and alarms started blaring. Ryder turned quickly to the control panel. "Something hit us! We lost our right wing!" he exclaimed. The entire ship started plummeting out of the sky. "Get in crash positions!" Ryder shouted. Everyone raced to get buckled up and secured as they started to accelerate downwards, sending them into freefall. Ryder struggled with the controls momentarily before realizing that maneuvering the aircraft without a wing would be a vain attempt, so he jumped over and strapped into his seat as well.
Then they crashed, and everyone blacked out.
Tracker and Everest both deserve more love, so I decided to add them in with the main six pups with this story. They'll both be permanent from here on out. For fans of pups introduced after season 4, I must apologize; I've watched everything through season four, but that's all; life got too busy in 2018 and so I wrote this story solely from the shows I had watched. They will most likely not be appearing. Here you can start to see some of the research I've put into this story. Everything they say about the planes is true. Also, remember that message. It'll become important later. :)
(Also, I realized that fanfiction automatically gets rid of all but three periods if you put more than three in a row, so I've fixed the message. Now it has the correct number of periods in each word. Braille characters are lifesavers.)
