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Chapter 26: Everyone's It
Ryder stayed back to clean up the house while the pups left to start work on the Air Patroller. The canines weren't too keen on the idea of leaving their owner alone, but Marshall had agreed with the boy that he should stay behind. Ryder had already overexerted himself by starting to dismantle the wrecked aircraft, and needed some down time. The EMT pup wasn't sure how well cleaning up a house would fit into the category of "down time," but figured it was better than letting Ryder do more work on the airship. Once Gizmo collected some cleaning supplies for the boy, everyone bid farewell to Ryder for the evening. After the pups grabbed something to eat at the hangar, Gizmo split off to start fabrication of the wing, leaving the rest of the pups to finish disassembly of their crashed craft. Time went quickly, and so did work.
By the time Gizmo came back, the sun had begun to set. They had finished taking apart the plane and stuffing it into the side room, and were ducking in and out of the skeletal structure, playing a lively game of Tag. Gizmo opened the door to the hanger and stared at the organized chaos ensuing.
"Chase! I bet you can't climb to the top faster than me!"
"I bet I can!"
"Just wait until I catch you!"
"Oh, you can try!"
"Hey, no fair!"
"¡Cuidado! Look out!"
"TAG! Gotchya!"
"Aw man!"
"Nice, Skye! I didn't see you up there!"
"Zuma's it!"
Gizmo sat down to watch the playing pups when Rubble raced by him. "Rubble, how'd you get this done so fast and what are you guys doing?" Gizmo called out.
Rubble paused to answer, "Oh, work goes really fast when you're used to working as a team. The extra tools Zuma found in storage were a big help. We finished about ten minutes ago and now we're playing Tag!"
"Tag?" the inventor questioned, but Rubble was already gone.
Zuma raced up to him. "Tag! You're it!" the chocolate Labrador yipped.
"I'm… what?"
Zuma leaned downward and wagged his tail in the air.
"You're IT!" He shouted before bolting away.
"But the word 'it' is only used for inanimate objects..."
Everest ran by the still stationary Lab. "It's a game! Try to tag one of us, and then try not to get tagged!"
Gizmo gazed around, gauging the room and everyone's placement in it. He started chasing after Everest, following her until she started weaving through the obstacle course of beams that made up the Air Patroller. Then he diverted to his true target. Crouching down and activating his shoes, he blasted up on top of the frame where Chase and Rocky were hiding out.
"AAAAHHH!"
"LOOK OUT!"
Both Chase and Rocky scrambled to escape. The recycling pup jumped down to a lower level, leaving the German shepherd alone with Gizmo.
"Gotcha!" Gizmo barked as he closed the distance between the two and placed a paw on the police pup.
"No fair! You used your shoes!" Chase objected.
Gizmo laughed, tail wagging. "Then I guess you can use your net!" the Lab replied before he crawled through a gap in the frame and started walking upside down on the underside of the beam.
Chase was about to protest again, but he stopped himself. That was the first time he had actually seen Gizmo wagging, and it made him reconsider. "Ruff! Megaphone! Alright everyone! You heard him! Pup packs are fair game!" Immediately everyone started taking advantage of the rule change.
"Arf, cables!"
"Ruff! Grappling hook!"
"Yip- yip! Wings!"
"Ruff! Screwdriver!"
"Screwdriver?"
"I just wanted to use something!"
"I don't think my shovel will do much good…"
"Ruff ruff, buoy!"
"Ruff! Zipline!"
"Ruff! Water cannon!"
Chase looked around for someone to tag, but everyone had scattered. Skye was taking full advantage of her wings, and Everest and Tracker had joined her and were dangling from the rafters. Rocky was nowhere to be seen, Marshall and Zuma were already on the other side of the room, and Rubble was close behind them. The closest pup to pursue was Gizmo. Usually the Paw Patrol didn't play with tag-backs, but they were never banned. Also, they had never played with pup packs before either. He figured it would be fine, just this once. Chase dropped down into the inside of the Air Patroller and attempted to catch up to Gizmo, still hanging from the mainframe. Then he realized he made a mistake; Gizmo simply climbed back onto the top of the beam. Chase had a fleeting thought of using the zipline he had barked out to get back up, but knew that the Lab would just be able to escape immediately again. Then a flash of green caught Chase's eye, coming from… under him?
Chase looked down where he had seen the bright color and noticed a furry grey paw partially hidden behind a beam. Chase silently slunk along the framework until he was directly above his prey. Then he jumped. "Found you, Rocky!" the police dog shouted as he all but dropped directly on top of the mixed-breed.
"AUGH!" the mechanic exclaimed as his friend tackled him in an enthusiastic tag.
"ROCKY'S IT!" Chase shouted out before ziplining away.
Rocky looked around. He soon determined that there were only three pups he'd easily be able to catch, and they were all on the other side of the room. Rubble, Marshall, and Zuma. Rubble was closest, but that's who Rocky had tagged last time, and he liked to try to keep it even. Zuma was the next closest, but he was faster than Marshall. Besides, Marshall was unfortunately the worst of them at playing tag, so Rocky chased after the fire pup. To his confusion, though, Marshall didn't run away. Then, too late, Rocky noticed the cannons. The engineer dejectedly accepted his fate.
"Sorry buddy!" Marshall called out before completely drenching the mixed-breed.
Rocky stood still for a second as the water dripped onto the floor around him. 'Why is it always me?' the poor pup thought to himself as he shivered from the cold, disgusting fluid.
Marshall immediately regretted spraying his friend. Rocky looked completely miserable; a very accurate impression, considering that he was.
"Hey guys, I think we need to change tactics some."
Skye dropped down on the top of the Air Patroller. "YES! New game! Everyone's It!" the cockapoo yipped excitedly, adding in a backflip before soaring back into the air to chase after Tracker, who gave a yelp before zipping onto a rafter with his cables.
"Everyone's… it? That makes even less sense. 'It' is only singular…" Gizmo sounded even more confused that he looked.
Everest lowered down next to the Lab dangling from her grappling hook, "So, Everyone's It is like normal Tag, except everyone is it! Everyone is trying to tag everyone all at the same time, and when you get tagged, you sit down until the pup that tagged you gets tagged!"
Gizmo thought about it for a second. After the little bit of Tag he had just played and watched, he felt like he understood the rules well enough to extrapolate them into this new format. Well enough to see a potential complication. "What about when two dogs tag each other at the same time? Or if you can't agree?"
"Well, normally people do a round of rock paper scissors, but since we can't exactly do that we just have another go at it."
The retriever nodded. "I think I understand. Looks like the others started, so… Wait, I have one more question."
Everest lowered herself down again to the Lab's height.
"What happens if you're hanging in the air and get tagged?"
Everest thought for a moment, but before she could answer, she felt Gizmo's paw swatting her on her dangling legs. "I guess we'll just find out!" Gizmo called as he pranced away. Everest laughed and dropped onto the top of the air patroller to sit down, watching for Gizmo to be tagged. Skye zoomed overhead, and Everest called to her, "Skye! Gizmo tagged me! Can you help me out?"
Skye hovered in front of her friend, "As long as I'm not your next target, I'll tag anypup you need!"
"Deal!"
"This puppy's gotta fly!"
The aviator looked around for the black pup. Identifying her friends from the air proved a bit more challenging than normal due to their like-colored pup packs. Eventually she spied him crawling on the wall like a spider, attempting to avoid the buoy Zuma kept firing at him. Eventually the water pup was able to get it around one of the black Lab's satchels, and he was pulled off the wall much to his chagrin. Skye contemplated zipping in and tagging Gizmo out, but opted not to. Though jumping in on a 1v1 to make a three-way matchup was fine, sniping during a 1v1 was considered an easy tag and generally frowned upon, so she waited to see what the outcome would be. She knew Zuma was one of the best tag players out of the Paw Patrol, seconded only by maybe Chase, and if he won the match then she wouldn't have to free Everest.
Gizmo jumped at Zuma, who took the golden opportunity to re-launch his buoy directly around Gizmo's waist while simultaneously evading Gizmo's leap. Zuma started to reel in his line, but before he pulled Gizmo into tagging range, the black retriever flung into the air with his boosters, using the rope as a pivot to drop directly behind his brown opponent. In less than a second, Zuma was out.
"Nice one, dude! You played me good there!"
"Thanks! I'm still impressed by your aim," Gizmo admitted as he looked down at the life preserver around his waist. "Speaking of which, I might need help again."
'He's not the only one that's gonna need some help,' Skye thought. She flew over a match between Tracker and a now dry Rocky and dropped next to Rubble, who was engaging with Marshall.
"Don't tag me! I got Chase!" Rubble laughed as he tried to use his shover to shield the torrents of water.
"Wanna team up?" Skye asked the English bulldog and Dalmatian. Rubble turned panting toward Skye and answered while trying to guard himself, "Well, it depends who you're targeting!"
"Gizmo. He tagged Everest, and now she's stuck on top of the air patroller!"
"Everest? Stuck?" Marshall stopped drenching Rubble and whipped his head towards the disassembled aircraft, "I'm ready for a ruff, ruff rescue!"
"No, silly!" Skye said as she tried to keep from bursting into laughter. "She got tagged!"
"Oh! My bad-" the fire pup chuckled. Then he felt a paw on his flank.
"Gotchya!" Rubble grinned.
"Hey, I wasn't ready!" Marshall gasped as he sat down.
"Sorry, Marshall. No immunity unless you're playing rock paper scissors to debate who tagged who first, and we can't do that!"
"Then I guess I'll have to do this!" Skye shouted as she turned into a pink blur in the air. After a few disorienting circles around Rubble, she swooped in and tagged him out.
"Woo hoo!" The sound of Chase's excited barks reached them as the police pup got back in.
"Oh man, now I'm dizzy… Guess I had that coming for me," the construction pup chuckled as he sat down, closing his eyes to steady his vision.
"Thanks, Skye!" Marshall grinned as he jumped back up. "But why'd you do that? I'm the worst one of us at paw-to-paw combat…"
"Sure, but you're more dedicated and determined than most of the others, and I know you'll be a good help," Skye reassured him.
"You're also much better at not getting distracted than I am," Rubble chimed in.
"That's true," Marshall laughed. "Let's go get Gizmo!"
"Alright, but first let's get Tracker on our- oh never mind. Rocky got him out. Let's recruit Rocky instead."
"Why not Chase? He's much better. And why do we need help anyway?"
"Turns out Gizmo's really good. He has quick reflexes and a quicker mind. He used Zuma's lifesaver to his advantage, but I think getting Chase would be a bit unfair of an advantage for Gizmo."
"Ah, I see. It's too late now though. Chase just took out Rocky with his net. Now he's fighting Tracker. Just us and Gizmo left. Say, where is he anyway?"
Skye glanced around for the pup, eventually spotting him by the ceiling. "Up there! I'll get him down. You get ready to soak him and tag him!"
"Sure thing!" Marshall agreed.
Gizmo watched as Skye flew up into the rafters which he had specifically climbed into to avoid conflict. Skye hovered below the roof a few feet away from him. "I've come to get you!"
"You've come to get me? And here I thought I was the retriever." Gizmo grinned at his own joke, but Skye missed it.
"You know the point of this game is to try to tag others out, right?"
"Of course! I just figured I'd wait until everyone but one pup was out. It's safer that way."
Skye had a hard time finding a response to that logic. It was a tactic others (herself included) had used before, but it didn't usually work well. It's a good idea in theory, but it usually takes ages for it to boil down to one remaining player. "The point isn't to win! The point is to have fun! Come on down and actually play!" the pilot appealed.
The Lab smiled mysteriously. "Alright," he conceded right before stepping off of the rafter and plummeting to the ground.
Skye gasped and instinctively flew down after him, even though she knew she didn't have time to catch him. To her relief, he activated his repulsors in time to lower safely to the ground. As much as the pilot would have liked to have chastised him for giving her a heart attack, she figured it could wait. She still had to free Everest. Marshall was poised and ready to start his water cannon at Skye's signal, but upon landing she found herself being targeted by Chase. Apparently in his duel with Tracker, the police dog had surfaced on top.
Chase pounced at Skye, who leaped out of the way and into the air. "Ruff! Net!" Chase barked. Immediately Skye found herself enveloped in the web of rope. She fell to the ground with a thud. The German shepherd ran over to her. "Are you okay?" he asked.
"Yeah… Just… A bit… Winded."
"Sorry… I get competitive…" Chase apologized.
"I know," Skye giggled.
"Speaking of… Tag!" Chase laughed as he tapped Skye on the nose.
"Alright, but try to get Gizmo out for me. I promised Everest I would."
Chase grinned. "Sure thing!" As he turned to look back at the battlefield, he saw only two pups left standing. Apparently Rubble had been instantly tagged out by Gizmo, and only he and Marshall remained. Both were warily eyeing each other. Marshall had taken up a defensive posture. With his unfortunate luck in tag games, he typically chose to let the other player make the first move. Gizmo seemed to have much the same philosophy. 'Guess I'm making the first move, then.'
Chase charged at the Lab from the side. The black dog waited until the last second before jumping into the air, but Chase was ready. He ducked and slid under Gizmo to avoid any possible tags from above as he spun himself around. "Ruff! Net!" His cannon met his bark with an audible click. "Uh oh…"
"Someone already used their net, I see," Gizmo stated matter-of-factly.
"Ruff! Zipline!" A suction cup shot out of Chase's pup pack and attached itself to Gizmo's helmet. The retriever grinned. That was exactly what he had been waiting for. He blasted off the ground to replicate the maneuver he had pulled off on Zuma. Then the suction cup failed. The force Gizmo had exerted on it was too much, and he found himself tumbling through the air, somewhat confused. Then he landed, sliding under the frame for the Air Patroller.
"Uuuugh… Note to self… Replace suction cup. Why I thought that was a good idea and could hold a pup is beyond me."
Chase ran over to Gizmo, ready to tag him out, but the pup recovered faster than he anticipated. Unable to stop, Chase extended his paws, tagging Gizmo at the same time Gizmo tagged him. They both collided in a heap.
"Great, now who's out?" Chase laughed.
"BOTH of you!" Marshall cheered as he dropped on them from above. "Everyone's back in!"
The pups played until the sun set. Fittingly, Marshall won the game they had been playing, marking his first ever win. Skye won the next game after taking a page from Marshall's book, dropping on her opponents from above, then Chase won a third game before they decided to stop. Bidding Gizmo goodnight, the rest of them left for their beds, putting to rest an exciting, productive day.
Finally back with another chapter after 4 weeks! Sorry it's been so long. Exams and homeworks and projects all just combined together these past three weeks in a giant cacophony of chaos. Thankfully I've gotten back into the groove and am really looking forward to publishing these next few chapters! The next two are personal favorites of mine; it's so fun writing drama! So before diving into the emotions and chaos coming soon, this chapter is meant to ease tension and give a fun, exciting chapter where the pups just have fun being pups!
Everyone's It is an actual game of tag I learned years ago. Not many people know about it, but it's SO FUN! Much better than normal tag. The rules were explained sufficiently in the story, so I don't feel the need to re-explain them here. I also went ahead and showed this chapter to my siblings after writing it, and they all agree that this is a perfect snapshot of what a game of Everyone's It is like. Teaming, conspiring, bribing, and all-around general chaos!
