á…ź

Chapter 21: To the Shield Sphere!


The pups woke up early the next morning. They had slept in their pup houses which they had all parked in the hangar while Ryder slept in one of the side rooms to the aviation bay. It was one of the few rooms he could stand up comfortably in. At least, almost comfortably. If he stood up without ducking his head he would hit it on the ceiling, but he could live with it for the time being. They had all stayed up late the night before, telling Ryder about everything that had happened over the past two days. Skye had only had time to give him a quick summary earlier, so there was a lot of catching up to do. In consideration of this, they decided to let Ryder sleep in some. Or rather, Marshall told the others it would be best to let him sleep in; doctor's orders and all that.

In general, everyone was doing their own thing. Marshall was running around with Chase and Zuma outside, enjoying the increased leg movement without his cast. Rocky and Skye were examining the schematics for the Air Patroller while Rubble checked the craft itself, attempting to figure out what all would need fixing. Tracker was outside practicing swinging with his new cables, and Everest, not used to the constant heat, was laying down behind Zuma's hovercraft fans to stay cool. Suddenly, all of their pup tags chirped, lighting up. Everyone looked down at their collars expectantly.

"Hello, are you guys ready to go to the Shield Sphere?"

"Gizmo?"
"How did you-?"
"Yes!"
"Wait what?"
"Wow, you weren't kidding!"
"You're in our coms? Cool!"

"I heard a yes, is everyone up for going?" Gizmo repeated his question amid the hubbub of voices. After everyone chorused their yeses, Gizmo spoke again, "Alright, meet me at the entrance to the Bullet."

"Yes! I was right! We are taking the train!" Zuma cheered as they all raced to their vehicles.

A short drive later, the rescue crew parked in front of Crater Square. Gizmo came outside to meet them at the entrance as a few of the pups greeted him.

"Hi Gizmo!"
"Good to see you again!"
"Hey dude!"
"How'd work go?"

"Hi guys. I got a lot done; I'll tell you about it on the way to the Shield Sphere." The black Lab led the way down the stairs in the side of the building.

As they walked through the dingy stone passageway, Rubble shuddered at the cave-like atmosphere. "Gizmo, why is this tunnel so damp and dark?"

"I actually don't know. I think it just wasn't maintained well. I also don't use it all too often, so I don't bother to clean it up much, as you saw from the dust in the train. It wasn't used too much since the dogs mostly stayed in the city, or so I gathered. That's why it only has one train car on it, with the engine in the front of the car. It's more like a bus to go around the island it seems. They had buses to go around the city, but it seems like they were expanding around the island or something, and wanted to use the Bullet as a more common means of transportation. There's a junction for more cars on the back of the engine. It also seems like it was an operation kept a bit more quiet from the public; probably was going to be unveiled later. You can tell from the elaborate hidden passage at the beach and other places, but it seems the passageway at FIR was already being turned into more of a subway type entrance. It's funny, I used to imagine it was a super secret place and there were guards everywhere. It was fun stealthing around and exploring the place. Anyway here we are. I'll get the door. Go on in and grab seats."

As he readied the maglev train for departure, Gizmo gave them a rundown. "So normally this would be a two minute trip, but we'll have to go through the roundabout because the backwards LSM acceleration is out of commission. That or the contacts need cleaning or the wires need replacing, which is probably the case. I might have not had to do any maintenance on this train, but that doesn't mean it doesn't need it. The five year mark between maintenances is coming up soon, but I might have to just jump the gun on that. Anyway, the trip should be about four minutes long staaaaartiiiiiiing… now." Gizmo pushed a lever and the Bullet shot off amid gasps of surprise from the others as the acceleration pressed them into their seats.

"I don't know how you stay standing when that goes like that," Marshall awed.

"I use the electromagnets in my shoes. You also just get used to it after a while. Anyway, I finished the analysis of the Air Patroller last night and have a complete list of parts that need replacing and repairs that can be made. Obviously the hardest one will be the missing wing, but aside from that all the other repairs should take about a week with everyone's help. I'm told everyone excels at their jobs so I figured I'd assign you tasks. Rubble and Rocky, as the mechanical and civil engineers you'll be helping oversee the project is done right. Skye, you'll be paying attention to the aerodynamics and alignment of the wing. Marshall, I'm told you're handy with car engines. If so then you might be able to help with repairing the jet turbine. It's not too much of a difference, except this is electrical. So actually it might be quite a big difference but hopefully you'll still be good at it. Chase, you'll be on workflow. Everest, Tracker and Zuma, you can help wherever you're needed. First thing we'll be doing is the missing wing. I finished the design last night and got parts selected from the warehouse for machining. We can start on that when we get back. Sound good?"

Everyone nodded their agreement. They were somewhat surprised; nobody had really expected a task assignment, but they welcomed it willingly, especially if it meant they could get back home in a week.

"So how long did you stay up working on the wing?" Skye questioned.

"Oh, not too long. Just about midnight."

"Midnight?" Tracker exclaimed, "Why on earth didn't you go to bed sooner?"

"Habit I guess? That and that's when I finished the work."

Marshall raised his paw. Gizmo looked at it for a second before doing a double take. "Oh interesting."

The fire pup tilted his head in confusion. "What's interesting? That I have a question?"

"Oh, no. Sorry, what's your question? I'll say what I was thinking afterward."

"Oh, okay. My question was how different are racing engines from the engines on the Air Patroller?"

"Oh, um, honestly they're basically completely different, unless you're familiar with electric motors. If not, don't worry, I'll try to teach you."

"I know a bit about them. Some racecars are electric. So what had you noticed?"

"Oh, well first of all I noticed you had taken your cast off, meaning you scanned it with your X-ray, and I was wondering if you used your old one or if you had discovered the one included in your new pack."

Rocky answered, "Oh, I noticed the changes on the pup packs yesterday while checking out the blueprints. I definitely appreciate the welder as well!"

"Oh, good!"

Rubble spoke up, "So it's been about seven minutes. Are we there yet?"

"Oh, yeah. Sorry. If you'll remember from last time it has really smooth stops. I should clean the windows sometime. Come on and I'll show you around." As the others hopped out of their seats, Gizmo stepped over to the entrance and pushed the door open. Then almost fell to his death as the door flung off, smashing against the wall of the tunnel as it raced past. A brilliant shower of sparks flew by Gizmo's ears as the vacuum caused by the air pressure sucked him out of the Bullet. The pup just managed to activate the magnets in his shoes, barely holding him to the side of the vehicle. A chorus of voices sounded behind him simultaneously.

"Ruff! Net!"
"Arf! Cables!"
"Ruff! Grappling hook!"
"Ruff! Buoy!"

All four devices caught him as their wielders jumped to the door, and just in time too. The side panel his boots had magneted onto detached from the side of the train. It skipped on the floor and flew off, almost sending Gizmo soaring into the darkness behind them along with it. The four pups rapidly pulled the flailing pup back into the train car, where they all laid down panting.

"Oh thank goodness you're safe!" Rocky exclaimed.

Chase stood back up and looked out the door, his muzzle contorted in worry. "Safe? Not yet we aren't. We're on a runaway train."


The first time the Bullet Express was introduced I feel like I didn't give it enough world-building. I figured it was important to do that before this next chapter. I've known I wanted to do a runaway train scene since chapter 12 or so, and it was originally going to be chapter 14, but I decided to save it until now, seeing that it fits better story-wise. Let me know how I'm doing in balancing out world building, character development, and action, and what you'd like to see more of. Same thing with balancing out the use of characters and if there's any you feel are being underused/underappreciated. Keep a lookout for the next chapter!