The next day, after Ryder left for school, and Owen left for work, Sam was left at home with the pups. Marshall was quickly getting bored. He checked the clock as it was only ten o'clock. "How long does school usually last?" the pup asked.
"Usually he gets home half past three," Chase informed. Marshall groaned as he couldn't think of anything to do.
"If it makes you feel better," Sam said, "This is usually the time of day Chase and I go for our walk. I've got a spare leash so you can tag along."
"Oh, really?!" Marshall quickly perked up at this sound of this. Sam helped get the spare leash around the Dalmatian's neck as she connected Chase to the other one so they could soon head out. After walking away from the house for a little bit, Marshall had to ask, "Where are we going?"
"Our route's a little different from time to time. Where would you like to go?"
"We can go by the Porter Cafe. Oh, but Alex would be at school at this point."
"Who's Alex?" Chase asked.
"He's Mr. Porter's grandson. Can get in over his head with some of the games, but he's still fun."
"Well, if we don't go to the cafe, where do we go?" Sam asked.
"Maybe we should check on the pups again."
"But…. Aren't they in the city?" Chase asked.
"Yes, they are. What's the problem?"
"…Let's just say not all of us enjoy our time in the city," Sam proclaimed. "We try to stay in the outskirts."
"Right…. Yes," Chase blurted out. Marshall didn't understand why Chase didn't want to go into the city, but he didn't want to question it as he felt it could make things worse.
They simply walked along the sidewalk until they could hear a set of wheels rolling. Some howling was heard and Sam and the pups looked just in time to see Rubble riding on his skateboard.
The bulldog was now wearing a small hard hat as he skated by them. "Hi guys!" he called as he rolled by.
"Wow, look at Rubble go!" Marshall gasped. He tried to run off and catch up but forgot about his leash. This caused him to get yanked back and fall onto the sidewalk.
"Are you okay?" Sam asked.
"I'm alright. Happens all the time." Marshall stood up as they tried to follow Rubble, but he had already gotten a head start.
The bulldog sped along the street, having a blast with his skateboard. "Look at the fastest pup in the world!" he called. "Rubble's on the double!"
People stopped and looked at him skate down the sidewalk. However, his run would be cut short when he saw a pair of kittens walk out in front of him. Rubble swerved around the kitten, ending up on the road and nearly running into traffic. Luckily, Rubble managed to get to the other side of the street just in time for the kittens to slip away.
He did manage to get a good glance at the kittens which seemed to have a similar color of fur to Marshall and Chase. "Huh, that's weird. This is the second run-in I've had with kittens." Rubble was a bit confused about what happened. When he got back to where he originally was, Sam and the pup caught up with him.
"Hey, Rubble," Chase said. "Where did you get that helmet?"
"Oh, the workers at the site said I would probably need it to help protect my head." He bonked his head on a nearby wall, giving a nice thumping sound of his helmet. "See? I can't feel a thing."
"That's cool," Marshall commented.
"And it also doubles as a helmet for my skateboard."
"They let you keep it?" Chase asked.
"Yep. All the other toys they're sending away. But I think I saw those kittens that were with the strange man."
"You mean the one with the top hat?"
"That's the one." Chase began to think as something grabbed their ears.
"As Election Day draws closer and closer, most people have already gotten their minds set on who will be the next mayor." Sam and the pups followed the noise and found a store that had several TVs on display.
Marty Muckraker was on screen, looking like he was deeper in the city. "We went around the city and asked a couple of people who they would be voting for."
The camera then cut to show Mr. Porter. "Well, Goodway seems to be the best choice for me," he explained, "She's shown to have good experience and she also promised to look into a new team of first responders."
The camera showed a woman in overalls with text on the screen showing her name was "Yumi." "I live by the motto of "It ain't broke, don't fix it." And I think Goodway is a good example of that," she said.
The camera cut again to now show a man named Jake. "I don't know anything about Humdinger," he admitted, "So, I have no clue how he would do as Adventure City's mayor."
"You heard it from them, folks," Marty noted, "It's not looking good for Humdinger as Goodway might win by a potential landslide."
Meanwhile, in a small purple car, Ronald Humdinger was watching the news on his phone. "Oh, this is an outrage!" he proclaimed. "I was promising the next generation such fun toys to help inspire my new project."
He looked towards the back seat where he could only see four kittens. He then saw the two missing kittens. "Checkers, Hunter, get in here!" Humdinger opened the door and his two kitties ran inside of the car.
"Get out of my seat," Checker groaned, pushing a brown kitten.
"I was here first!" the brown kitten groaned.
"But the window seats are the best seats."
"Get off my tail," growled the gray kitten.
"Don't take up so much space," groaned Hunter.
"Quiet!" Humdinger ordered. "I need to think." The kittens all sat in silence as the wanna-be-mayor tried to think.
"What can I do to convince these people that I'm the right choice to be a mayor?" He twirled his mustache as he tried to think and then he got an idea. "I know, I'll show them the improvements I can do to transport. I can't change the rail system just yet, but we can work on the airways."
"How are you going to do that?" Checkers asked.
"Remember those balloons I bought for when I won?"
"If you won?" the orange and white kitten snarked.
Humdinger simply started the car and drove down the street. "Just wait for it kitties, we'll soon get that position in the bag once we have our balloons." He began forming his plan as he drove to where he was keeping his surprise.
Back with Sam and the pups, they carried on down the street with Rubble rolling alongside them. "What do you think Humdinger's going to do if he doesn't win?" the bulldog asked.
"I'm guessing he'll move onto whatever scheme he has next," Sam guessed.
"Does he think he can do that?" Chase questioned.
"Some people are just that full of themselves." Chase sighed in agreement before he stopped and noticed where they were at. Because they had followed Rubble, they were now deeper into the city.
Sam quickly noticed the German shepherd looking nervous. "Chase, are you okay?" she asked.
"I'm… I'm ready to go home now," Chase muttered.
"But we only walked for like five minutes," Marshall stated.
"I think we should get going," Sam proclaimed. She and Chase began walking back the way they came. Marshall simply followed them, looking back at Rubble who was just a bit confused.
"Um… Bye Marshall," Rubble said.
"See you later," Marshall proclaimed. As Marshall looked back, he didn't see the crack in the payment, which he tripped over. Because Marshall didn't have a collar like Chase, the leash was only wrapped around his neck and it came loose when he tripped.
When he stood up, the Dalmatian saw Sam and Chase weren't stopping as they turned the corner. "Hey, wait for me!" Marshall ran to try and catch up with them, but they seemed to have picked up the pace, not to mention there were a lot of other people and dogs he bumped into. "Excuse me! Pardon me! I need to catch up… Oops, sorry."
By the time Marshall made it through, he had lost sight of Chase and Sam. "Oh no," he sighed. He wasn't too familiar with the location of Ryder's home. Rubble had seen his pratfall and rolled over to where Marshall now stood.
"Are you lost?" the bulldog asked.
"I think I am," Marshall muttered. "Um… Do you know the way?"
"Not exactly. I think one of the other pups does."
"Probably. I think I know where Rocky and Skye are at."
"Maybe we should ask Zuma too. He and Capt'n Turbot seemed pretty close."
"Maybe. I think know where Zuma lives."
"Then let's got!" Rubble rolled off on his board as Marshall tried to catch up with him on foot.
It was a bit hard, but the two made it to the beach. Marshall took a minute to catch his breath before they looked around for Zuma. They both caught a whiff of something fowl, making both pups cover their noses.
"It smells like a dumpster and outhouse caught fire in a desert," Rubble groaned.
"Where is it coming from?" Marshall wheezed. They looked around the beach until they saw a dock that had a small boat floating right next to it. Zuma and Capt'n Turbot were on board, looking like they were having lunch. Smelling the stench from them, Marshall and Rubble walked over to the boat.
Zuma looked over to the approaching pups, looking like he had something in his mouth. "Oh, hey dudes," he called.
"...Hi, Zuma," Marshall said, "...What are you eating?"
"Squid jewky. Want some?"
The smell of the jerky was already off-putting to the pups, so they didn't want to know how they taste. "No, thanks," Rubble said.
"I'm good," Marshall added.
Zuma shrugged before swallowing the jerky he had in his mouth. "What awe you guys doing hewe?" he asked.
"I get separated from Sam and Chase, now I'm lost."
"Oh. Bummer. I think I know how to get you back."
"You do?"
"Yeah, Capt'n Tuwbot and I dwove the whole way hewe."
"It's true," Capt'n Turbot commented. "You help Zuma home, so I think it's time for him to return the favor."
"Oh, yeah, it kind of is like that," Marshall commented. Zuma hopped out of the boat and walked towards the street with Marshall and Rubble following him.
"So how did you get sepawated fwom Chase?" Zuma asked.
"It was kind of weird. He just looked scared and then Sam took him away."
Not too far away, Chase and Sam were in a denser part of the city where they weren't surrounded by tall buildings. The German shepherd started to calm down. He and Sam stopped before they noticed there was nobody attached to the second leash.
"Uh oh," Sam gasped, "Where's Marshall!?"
"Is he lost?" Chase asked.
"I'm afraid so." They weren't sure how they would track Marshall down, since it was a large city. However, Chase gave the leash a sniff to get Marshall's scent.
"I think I can find him."
"Are you sure? He's likely still in the city."
"I know, but we still need to find him." Chase began sniffing around, following Marshall's scent. It wouldn't take too long for them to find. Eventually, they found Marshall walking down the street with Rubble and Zuma. "Marshall, there you are!"
Chase ran up to the pups before sniffing as he smelt something fowl. "You okay?" Rubble asked.
"I'm okay… It's just… What's the smell?"
"Oh, sowwy dude," Zuma apologized. "Just had some squid jerky." A burp escaped his muzzle and he chuckled nervously.
"Well, at least we found Marshall," Sam noted. She retied the leash around Marshall's neck as Chase had something to say.
"We seem to be meeting up a lot recently," he commented.
"Yeah, a small city probably," Rubble guessed.
"I beg to differ." Chase shuttered as he looked towards the skyscrapers.
"This was easiew than I thought," Zuma said. "I'm going head back to the Floundew with Capt'n Turbot." He and Rubble were about to leave when Marshall spoke up.
"If you want to meet up again, we're going to the University later today," the Dalmatian said. "We could get some new pup packs."
This made the pups excited. "So I could get a diving tank?" Zuma asked.
"Maybe. I wonder what I'll get."
"What time exactly will you be there?" Rubble asked.
"About three-thirty," Sam said.
"Okay. Meet you there." The pups walked and rolled off leaving Marshall, Chase, and Sam to return home.
A few hours later, Ryder biked to the university as he could see that he wouldn't be the only one there. He not only saw his parents arrive in their car with Marshall and Chase, but Rubble and Zuma also showed up.
"Huh, I wasn't expecting you to see you guys again," Ryder admitted.
"Yeah, it's been happening a lot lately," Rubble admitted. He looked over to see Marshall walking over to them as Sam walked over to them with Chase and Owen.
"Kind of feeling like we're missing something," Chase commented.
"I think we remembered everything we need," Sam said. They all walked inside the university with Owen giving his opinion about Ryder's tech idea.
"If we're building Chase and the pups their backpacks, maybe they could have other things," Owen suggested. "Like a kibble dispenser."
"I like the sound of that," Chase commented.
As they walked to where Kendra was waiting for them, they could hear some voices talking. "You seriously think we can make parts of tin cans?" a girl asked.
"If we melt them down and remove the slag, yes," said another voice. Chase recognized these voices and peeked inside the room to see Rocky and Skye talking with Kendra.
"I have been wanting to make my mini foundry," Kendra admitted. "Just don't know what could serve as the container that can withstand the heat."
"You could something like a fire extinguisher," Rocky informed.
Marshall heard a remark about fires and ended up bumping into Chase while trying to peak around the corner. Kendra, Rocky, and Skye heard this pratfall and could see the pups and Ryder's family had arrived.
"Hey, guys, what's up?" Skye asked.
"Um, hi," Marshall said awkwardly. He and Chase stood up as Ryder pulled his sketchpad out of his backpack.
"Hey, Kendra," Ryder said to the scientist. "I heard about the project of shifting vehicles, and that got me thinking of ideas for Chase." He showed some drawings showing Chase sitting in some square vehicles, one was next to a picture of the pup sleeping in some kind of dog house.
"What's this one?" Kendra asked, pointing to the dog house picture.
Ryder looked at this sketch and quickly explained. "I thought of one idea of one of the vehicles possibly being a mobile home for dogs," he explained.
Kendra brought her hand to her chin as she nodded. "I'm loving the sound of this. Though, I'm not too sure about a dog driving. No offense pups."
"None was taken," Chase shrugged.
"I'm not sure how good a driver I would be," Marshall admitted.
"Eh, I bet you'd be better drivers than most humans," Owen guessed. "You should the damages of how many people think they can beat the train."
"Tell me about it," Kendra sighed. "But enough about human intelligence, shall we continue with the pup pack idea?"
"Sure thing," Ryder said. They took a look at the pup pack with Owen joining in to help. Rocky tried jumping up to get a look a the pup pack until Ryder picked him up and placed him on the table. "Curious to take a look at this thing?"
"Yes, I am," Rocky confirmed. "I wanna have some robot arms so I have an easier time picking things up."
"That could be good," Owen commented. "Maybe even some power tools?"
"Yes, I'm up for that." While they began talking, Sam and the other five pups weren't too sure what to do.
"Um… Is there anything we can do?" Rubble asked.
"Hmm, there's not much I can think of other than idea suggestions," Ryder admitted.
"Then what awe we supposed to do?" Zuma asked.
"I have an idea," Skye suggested. "There's an arcade close to here. We can play there until we can go."
"That sounds like a good idea," Sam commented. She looked toward the other humans and said, "Just give us a call if you need us."
Once they were informed, Sam and the five pups left the university and crossed the street with Skye leading them to the arcade. Inside, they could a ton of games that could be played only with human hands. The pups were confused until Skye showed them her favorite game; Pup Pup Boogie.
Instead of controllers, the buttons were on the floor like a mat. There were six multicolored buttons on each mat, and they could see the scoreboard, one of the names in the top ten read, "SKYEHI."
"Skye, how often do you come here?" Chase asked.
"All the time," Skye noted. "I sometimes have snacks from the people here who don't want them. Pup Pup Boogie here is one of my favorite games. Mostly because it is one of the few that I can play."
"So how do you play it?" Chase asked.
"From what I remember seeing, players pick how many of them are dancing to which song. Um…. Sam, could you help us with this?"
"Of course," Sam responded. She helped check which songs they could play as Skye stood on her dance mat. Chase stood on the second mat as he looked up at the screen. Eventually, Sam started up one of the classic songs and the game started up.
"Do the Pup Pup Boogie! Shake it, move it!" As the music played, Skye quickly started stepping on the buttons and scoring points. Chase tried to mimic what she did but only managed to hear a "Quack!" He looked up at the screen and could see while Skye was scoring stars, he was quickly gaining red Xs.
"Um, Skye," the German shepherd said, "How do you play this?"
"It's a simple Chase. Keep your eye on the screen and look at the paws that are coming to certain squares." Chase could see the paw approaching some of the squares, but he was still missing a few.
"Um…. Any tips to memorize the steps?"
"Try to think something like "left front paw on blue."
"Left front paw on blue." Chase did this and managed to score some points.
"Back paw touch green."
"Back paw…. Touch green." Chase kept copying Skye's words and moves and saw he was getting better and better as the game went on. He kept on scoring points until the song came to an end. Looking at the final scores, Skye had won by a landslide.
"Want to try a second round?"
"Could I twy?" Zuma asked.
"Be my guest," Skye suggested. She stepped to the side so Zuma could play against Chase. They started a new game and Chase looked to be improving this time, but Zuma looked like he was catching up with his score.
Both pups missed a couple of steps, but they kept up a great pace until their song ended. Looking at the scores, Chase was just above Zuma. Both pups were then swapped out for Rubble and Marshall so they could have a turn. Both pups did okay for their first time until they saw their avatars start spinning around.
"What's that?" Marshall questioned.
"A tailspin," Skye explained, "Quick, stand on your tails and spin around." Rubble and Marshall quickly performed this move. As soon as they did, both started losing control and Marshall started bumping into the other pups, sucking them in like a tornado. He couldn't stop.
The pups ended up bouncing and spinning around the arcade until they came to a stop by crashing into the snack bar. The bump caused a few cheesy nachos to fall onto Marshall's head. "Ugh," he groaned.
"Are you okay?" Sam asked.
"I've had worse," Marshall noted, "Not ones this cheesy though." He gave a nervous chuckle as he was trying to lighten the mood.
"Wanna try again, Zuma?" Rubble asked.
"Yep, I'm weady fow another wound," Zuma proclaimed. They got up and walked back to Pup Pup Boogie as Skye and the boy stood up. The plate of nachos fell off Marshall's head, leaving some cheese and a few sticking on his head.
"That was some tailspin," Skye commented.
"I know," Marshall sighed. "Stuff like this happens all the time." Sam grabbed some napkins and helped clean the chip and cheese off Marshall's head. There still looked to be some fur stained in his fur and the napkins could only do so much.
"I'll give you a bath once we get home," Sam noted.
"Okay. I'm going to check to see how Ryder is doing." The Dalmatian slowly sulked out of the arcade and back to the university.
"Should we follow him?" Skye asked.
"I'll walk with him back," Chase proclaimed. He ran off to catch up with the depressed pup just as Marshall started walking outside. "Are you sure that you're okay?"
Marshall looked at Chase before sighing again. "I'm a clumsy pup," he muttered. "That's all I'm going to be."
"What are you talking about?"
"I trip over my paws, Chase. I think the reason why I don't have a home until I met you is because…" He was interrupted when he stepped on an empty bottle, making him fall on his face. "That."
Chase helped his friend stand up as they carried on to the university. It didn't take too long and they could hear the sounds of power tools and could even see some flashes inside the room.
Chase knocked on the door and the sound quickly stopped. Owen answered the door before he took off a welder's mask to look at the pups. "You're back already?" Owen asked, "Where are the others?"
"They're still at the arcade," Chase explained, "Marshall wanted to see how the pup pack is coming along."
"We were just about to test a different type of model. Come take a look." Owen moves out of the way to let the pups in just as Ryder was checking the new pup pack. This model looked to have multiple arms, with two claw arms, the other few had a couple of tools on the ends of them.
"What do you think?" Ryder asked. The German shepherd and Dalmatian looked at the new pup pack curiously.
"It looks kind of complicated," Marshall admitted. "You think it looks like a spider?"
"That's what I thought," Kendra admitted. "This model was made for Rocky since he's been curious about having his tools."
"Can I test it out yet?" Rocky asked. He was looking at the tool-based pup pack with his tail wagging with excitement.
"We don't have a reliable way to test it out yet," Ryder noted, "But we've got a remote control." He showed off the controller to the pups and moved some of the switches which made the arms of the pup pack move.
"Can I try?" Rocky asked.
"I guess so. Just start a little slow." Rocky did so, managing to open and close the claws, turning the screwdriver bits, and smacking the hammer on the counter.
"So cool!"
"I'm feeling like the best way for you pups to use these packs would be voice-activated or using Neural-Link."
"But doesn't that tech go in your brain?" Marshall asked.
"It does, but there have been successful tests from what I've heard," Kendra noted. "It wouldn't be too dangerous if we had the proper funding."
"Let's just stick with voice commands for now," Ryder suggested. They heard the sound of grinding metal as Rocky accidentally used the screwdriver on the counter.
"My bad," he apologized. "Wish this thing had faster movement. I wouldn't mind having a chip in my brain if it means I could use my own tools."
"It still means if the chip is in your head it'll likely stay in there."
"Would that cause any problems?" Marshall asked.
"I don't think so."
"If not the chip, we could talk about the car idea," Rocky noted.
"Oh yeah," Chase commented. "Were there any test projects yet?"
"Not yet, but we did make a steering system and seat fit for a pup," Ryder noted. He pointed over to where a seat and steering wheel were sitting on the floor. Chase walked over and sat down in the seat, nearly perfectly fitting him.
"Wow, I feel like I could control this with the right pedals," Chase commented.
"I found a couple of old cars I felt like we could use for spare parts," Owen noted.
"Think we'll be able to build a car that can fit a pup like Chase?" Ryder asked.
"It's worth a try," Rocky commented. "The pup packs work pretty well, other than the controller method."
"You have a point there. Would you really want to use Neural-Link Technology?"
"It's the easiest way these could be used."
"I mean… He's not wrong," Marshall commented.
"We'll look into how that works," Ryder noted. "Do you think we will try a prototype car tomorrow?"
"We'll see," Owen noted. He checked the time and could see it was getting late. "We should probably get home."
"Same here," Kendra commented. "I'll take a look at your plans and see what we'll need to make it work." Ryder gave a thumbs up as he, Owen, and the pups left the university.
"You guys enjoy yourselves," Rocky said. "I'm going to search around for any kind of junk that I can use for our fort."
"You mean the old pigeon coop?" Marshall asked.
"Yep. You never know what can be reused." Rocky set off on a junk hunt as Chase hopped inside of Sam's car.
"Aren't you going to check on the others with us?" Marshall asked.
"I'll just wait here in the car," Chase muttered.
"We'll be back as soon as we can Chase," Ryder said. They left the German shepherd alone in the car, as he just wanted to get home.
Chase didn't pay attention too much after he got in the car, he didn't even look out the window until he got home. Marshall was a little confused by this as he had his bath prepared. "Say, Sam," Marshall spoke, "Why was Chase acting so… Worried in the city?"
"Um, it's a little complicated," Sam said. "Chase doesn't like to be reminded about it so… We don't bring it up too much."
"If it's something I'm not supposed to know, I don't have to hear it."
"Probably not yet. I don't want Chase feeling any worse than he already is." Marshall just nodded as he was lifted into the tub so they could wash the cheese off of him.
Downstairs in the living room, Ryder was getting another idea when he saw his pup lying glumly on the couch. "Are you okay, Chase?" the boy asked.
"I'm… I'm okay," Chase muttered, "Just flustered. What did the other pups do before we left?"
"We told them about the progress we've made on the pup pack technology. We're just postponing it until we've got a reliable way for you to control them."
"What's the plan for the car?"
"We'll likely see if we'll be able to have it compact at all into a small space. If we can, maybe we could have a new pup house for you."
"...Are you saying I could drive it?"
"...It's possible," Ryder said. "We already had the seat and steering system built. We just need to get a car built before we can find out."
"Does…. That means I'll have to go back into the city?"
"We won't bring you down there if you don't want to." Ryder petted the pup to try and comfort him, it seemed to work judging by Chase's smile. "We could bring the car into the country so we can have more space for us to test it."
"I think that'll work."
"Perfect. I've also got one more trick I think I can pull off by myself. Since we're making vehicles now, I don't think it's too hard to make a special pup tag to keep us in touch with each other."
"Like a pup phone?"
"Pretty much. Should be pretty simple, just need a speaker and microphone within a pup tag."
"Doesn't sound too difficult." Chase already looked to be cheered up, looking forward to seeing this new pup tag. It would be nice to keep in touch with Ryder while also not having to go into the city.