Days soon went by, after Ryder got off from school, he would head to the University to help Kendra build the test car along with Rocky, who kept showing up to try and practice with the tool pup pack prototype.
He was allowed to practice on some scrap wood and metal while Ryder and Kendra built on the car. Though Ryder wasn't sure he'd win the competition since he was having some help, he was still curious about having more tech for the pups.
While at home, Ryder also started working on Chase's pup tag while also helping his dad fix up the ATV. While this went on, Chase spent most of his time at the house.
He had Marshall to help keep him company. Whenever there was a chance to go to the university in the city, Chase would always choose to stay home. Sam still let them out on walks, but they usually stayed outside of the city.
Marshall wanted to know why Chase stayed away from there, but he remembered what Sam said about not liking to talk about it. So the Dalmatian stayed silent as he stayed with his friend, while the rest of the pups would often show up to check in the process. Though they did wonder why Chase was never present.
On the third day of Ryder's car project, Chase was upstairs looking at the cars and trucks that drove past the house. Marshall soon joined him and saw a pickup truck pass by. "See anything interesting?" Marshall asked.
"Not really," Chase muttered. He sighed as it looked like he was bored. Marshall wanted to help cheer him up.
"How about we try digging in the yard to see if we can find something fun?" Marshall started walking downstairs, Chase decided to follow him since he had nothing else to do.
Once they walked outside the doggie doors, they saw something big and purple stopped nearby the house. It looked to be a purple bus that was blocking most of the street. "Who's driving that?" Chase questioned. The pups went up to inspect the large vehicle as the door opened up.
They couldn't see any kind of driver in the seat, and there weren't even any passengers on board. "Maybe this is another kind of driverless vehicle Rocky and Zuma had trouble with," Marshall guessed.
"Another one? Who is making these?"
"I don't know, but they seem to be too dangerous to be standing in." The two quickly started getting out of the bus until Marshall missed a step and tripped a bit, making him stall on the steps.
"What are you doing?" cried Sam as she came running out.
"We were just seeing what this vehicle was doing, Sam," Chase stated.
"Yeah, we think it's the same one that…" Marshall was unable to finish his sentence when the bus's door suddenly closed, trapping him inside. "Uh oh!" The bus quickly took off done the street with the Dalmatian trapped inside.
"Marshall!" Chase cried. Without hesitation, Chase sprinted after the unmanned bus while Sam quickly went to her car.
Marshall trying to keep his footing on the bus. There seemed to be something wrong with the steering system as the bus kept swerving down the street. While Marshall couldn't see where they were going, he did hear a loud "THUD!"
That thud was a truck with some construction materials, that was just about to be unloaded at the site Rubble was at. He and one of the workers just looked at the mess the bus made as it kept on trucking.
"That bus driver is crazy," the worker commented.
Rubble then heard panting and he looked to see Chase run past them, trying to keep up with the bus. Rubble got his skateboard and construction helmet, before rolling after the pup. "Hey, Chase, what are you doing?" Rubble asked.
"Marshall's stuck on that driverless bus," Chase panted, "He needs help!"
"I can catch up with him." With that, the bulldog picked up the pace in his skateboard just as Chase began running out of breath. He slow down for a minute to rest before he took off again.
"I must catch Marshall…. I must."
Up on the rooftops, Skye and Rocky were awake and the cockapoo was trying to jump from roof to roof. Rocky just watched her as he wasn't so confident in his jump abilities.
"Come on, Rocky," Skye called, "Follow me!"
"Um…. Skye, I'm not a kangaroo," Rocky stated, "I don't think…". Rocky paused as he could hear some honking and crashing. He could see the runaway bus narrowly avoid causing a crash as Rubble and Chase struggled to keep up with it.
"What's going on down there?"
"I think we should check it out."
"You go on the ground. I'll keep an eye on the rooftops." Skye ran in the direction of the bus while jumping across the rooftops as Rocky scampered down the nearest fire escape.
After a bit of running, he caught up with the pups. "Hey, guys," Rocky said, "What's happening?"
"A bud without a driver kidnapped Marshall," Rubble explained. "Is that right?"
"Pretty…. Much," Chase panted. He was putting all of his strength into keeping up with the bus. "How do we…. Stop it?"
"Maybe if we pop the tires we could slow it down," Rocky guessed. "I know a place where I can get some sharp things."
"Take my skateboard, you'll get there faster," Rubble proclaimed. "You'll be able to catch up later." He hopped off the board and the mixed breed jumped on before rolling off to collect something to help stop the bus. This left Rubble and Chase to carry on after it.
Skye was having the best luck keeping pace with the bus since she had plenty of experience running on the high roofs of Adventure City. When she was getting onto the lower she could see some sort of hatch on top of the bus.
This was an emergency exit in case the regular exit was blocked. Marshall also saw where the emergency exit was inside, but he didn't have a reliable way to reach it. Not only that, but he could barely stand on his own feet.
The bus kept driving around aimlessly as drivers and pedestrians had to steer and jump out of the way in order not to get hit. Chase and Rubble were still in hot pursuit, despite their fatigue.
Chase looked up and saw that Skye was getting closer to the lower buildings. "Skye?" he questioned.
"Hey guys!" the cockapoo called. "Need some help?"
"Can you get to the emergency exit on the bus?"
"I'll try." When the bud started getting close to the buildings, Skye took a leap of faith and managed to land on the bus's roof. She bit down on the latch and struggled to get it open, the swaying bus wasn't helping.
Soon, Rocky returned to the group now carrying a bag of nails in his mouth. "Oh, good," Rubble panted. "Place those nails in front of the bus!"
"On it," Rocky replied. He skated ahead of the bus, which was a bit of a struggle. Eventually, he got a safe distance in front of the bus before tossing the nails onto the road. The bus ran over them, popping the front tire, crippling the steering capability. This would sort of backfire as the bus was unable to steer away from the ocean, which it ended up crashing into.
The sudden stop would send Skye flying into the water a short distance in front of the bus. Marshall wouldn't be as lucky, as the sudden splash forced the door open and it quickly began flooding with water. Things would look up as Zuma was nearby, he saw Skye was in the water and quickly hopped onto his kiteboard.
He hopped on the board and surfed over to help Skye out of the water. "What's going on?" the chocolate lab asked.
"Marshall's stuck inside of that bus!" Skye proclaimed. She pointed to the open emergency exit on the sinking bus.
"Um, guys?" Marshall called, "A little help?" Zuma looked down through the exit and could see the water filling up in the bus. Zuma looked at his stitched-up sail and then had an idea.
Marshall couldn't see what was going on, but he could hear some ripping noises before he saw the stitched sail slide down through the hole. "Gwab on!" called Zuma. The Dalmatian did so, biting down on the cloth as Skye and Zuma pulled him out.
Once he was free, Marshall ran and jumped off the bus back onto the shore just as Chase, Rubble, and Rocky arrived. "Are…. You okay…. Marshall?" Chase questioned. He was fairly out of breath.
"I think so," Marshall replied. They looked at the crashed bus which wasn't going anywhere now. "Thanks for saving me pups."
"You're welcome," Rubble proclaimed. Rocky took a good look at the bus and saw the colors were familiar.
"This kind of looks like the dump truck that trashed my fort," he commented.
"Yeah, and the one that sent me out of contwol," Zuma added.
"That doesn't sound like a coincidence," Chase commented. They soon noticed people were starting to crowd around the crash, taking pictures with their phones.
"Zuma," called a voice. The pups looked to see Capt'n Turbot pulling up in his boat. "I believe this bus is beyond becoming a boat because of its buoyancy. Why would a wild wreck happen like this?"
"It was one of those driverless buses," Marshall explained, "And a bad one at that."
"I'll say. Who is making these miserable machines?"
"I have a hunch," Chase muttered.
Elsewhere, Humdinger was looking down at six guilty-looking kittens. "What did I say about the land vehicles not working?" he asked.
"It was Tabby's idea," Hunter cried, pointing at the said cat.
"But Sora was the one who wanted to get more tuna," Tabby said in defense.
"Dusty ate the last can!" Sora proclaimed. The kittens soon started to argue and fight with each other until Humdinger spoke up.
"Enough!" he shouted. This made the kittens all stop their squabble and looked towards him. "I've only got one more chance to show them I can improve this city with its transport. If all the land transport has failed, then my elections must rely on this."
He looked toward what looked like a hot air balloon. The odd part was that it had some fan blades attached to it. "What is this supposed to do again?" Checkers asked.
"Hot air was something that was used to help transport people in the past," Humdinger explained. "Since land travel with buses and trains improved, they didn't need the balloons anymore."
"Um, couldn't people just use planes?" Tabby asked.
"Planes are only efficient if they're used for long distances. These fan power hot air balloons will allow city transport to increase its flow of traffic, likely clearing the roads."
"Are you sure this is going to work," Hunter asked.
"This has to work! I failed to put my faith into those "high tech" computers, these fans will be fully controlled by people."
"It still looks very cheap," Checkers admitted.
"I know that. I'm no mechanic, but my nephew Harold isn't here, so this is the best I can do."
"That explains the quality of the trucks," Dip whispered to Dusty, which couldn't hold back his laughter.
"I have to get this to work if I want to get the approval of Adventure City's voters." Humdinger went back to working on it. The kitties just went about their own business as Humdinger turned on his phone.
He was about to look for the instructions he had saved until he saw a notification of the news pop up. He then found the bus was on the news. "Oh, that's just terrific," he groaned. "This idea better work."
Humdinger wasn't the only one who saw the news, however. At school, Ryder could see the live report, seeing the pups, and was immediately worried for his own.
He quickly raised his hand to get his teacher's attention. "Um, sir, I need to leave for a family emergency," Ryder proclaimed.
"Are you sure?" the teacher asked.
"Yes, and I need to go now!"
"Alright then. You'll have to catch up with…". Before he could finish, Ryder sprinted out of the school and hopped on his bike before racing off to where the bus had crashed.
Back at the scene of the crash, people were still looking at the bus. Even the news was trying to interview them. "And how was it to be on this unintentional wild ride?" Marty Muckraker asked Marshall. He held his microphone down so the pup could speak.
"It was pretty scary," the Dalmatian admitted. "I could barely stand on my paws and I'm clumsy already."
"And you say there was one driving this bus?"
"No. It was just driving itself. My friends had trouble with these kinds of vehicles except they had trouble with garbage trucks."
"I'm guessing this means we shouldn't have computer-driven cars."
"Maybe. Things are pretty unpredictable."
"I can agree to that." Marty stood up and turned back to the camera. "It seems that these unknown and unwanted vehicles are still causing havoc in our beloved city as Election Day comes closer. Hopefully, the right mayor will find a way to either make them work or get them out of town."
Marshall walked up to the pups after his interview was done. "Can we go home now?" he asked.
"Probably a good idea," Chase said, "Sam's going to be worried about us." The German shepherd and Dalmatian began to walk back the way they came, with the others beginning to follow.
"So, Rocky, where did you get those nails?" Rubble asked.
"I often find them at a junkyard," Rocky replied. "Most of the stuff there I used for my fort…. Until it got destroyed."
"Don't the people there get mad at you?" Zuma asked.
"Oh, most of the stuff I take is just junk. They wouldn't make much off or with it."
"Off with what?" Rubble asked.
"I think he means money," Marshall noted.
"You mean those papers and cards people use?" Skye asked.
"Yeah, I've seen them used all the time at the Porter cafe. Chase, do you see your owners use them?" There wasn't a response.
"Um, Chase?" Rubble spoke, "Did you hear us?" They saw Chase was just looking around the city as he seemed to be nervous.
"Um…. Sorry guys," Chase muttered. He looked up at a street crossing light which showed a man walking. "Sam's going to be worried so we just…". As he talked and started to walk across the street, a car drove right in front of him without even attempting to slow down.
"Watch it, roadhog!" Rocky cried out angrily. "Chase, are you okay?" The pup didn't answer, he just stood on the curb of the street with his breaths sounding heavy.
"Chase?" Marshall asked, concerned. The German shepherd looked at the skyscrapers towering over him and jumped at the sound of cars driving on the street with the occasional honk of the horn.
The poor pup was starting to have sensory overload as his friends were starting to get worried about him. "Chase? Chase?!" Marshall cried trying to get his attention, but they were just echoes to the panicking pup.
The German shepherd didn't respond and just kept hyperventilating as the pups had no idea what was going on, nor knew what to do. Ryder quickly arrived at the scene and got off his bike so he could kneel beside Chase.
The young boy didn't say anything and simply petted the pup, which seemed to help calm him down. Chase's breathing slowed as everything started to sound normal again. Ryder soon picked up his pup and carried him to the other side of the street, with the other five following closely behind them.
After a moment of awkward silence, Sam arrived, parking on the side of the street. She got out and saw her son trying to comfort Chase. "Oh, thank goodness you're okay," Sam said, sighing with relief. She opened one of the backseat doors to let Chase inside before she looked toward her son. "Ryder, you should be in school right now."
"I know, but you saw how Chase looked," Ryder responded, "I had to be there for him."
"I understand, and I'll work any issues out with your teacher. Just hurry back before there's any more trouble." The young boy just nodded, got back on his bike, and pedaled back to school.
Sam was about to get back into the car before she looked toward Marshall. "You should come with us too," she said. The Dalmatian nodded as he hopped into the car once one of the doors was opened.
"See you guys later," he muttered. Sam drove both him and Chase home, leaving the others confused and worried.
That afternoon, Chase was still upset after his near miss with the car. Marshall stayed by his side until Sam came home, she had left to chat with Ryder's teachers after he had left.
The two were on their own for a while. Soon they could hear some scraping followed by the sound of voices. "You think he'll be wanting to talk," asked one.
"It's probably what he needs," another noted. Chase stood up and quickly went to investigate and was surprised to see the other four pups had made their way inside through the doggie door.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" the German shepherd asked.
"We wewe getting wowwied about you," Zuma explained, "What happened back there?"
"...I don't like talking about it," Chase said.
"Are you sure about that?" Marshall asked, walking up to them.
"Look it's just…. Are you sure that Sam and Owen will be okay with you all here without warning?"
"Let's just say that we didn't walk here," Skye noted. On cue, Ryder and his parents walked through the door to see all six pups together.
"Oh, Chase you're up," Sam sighed. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm okay," the pup responded.
"That's good. Let's see if I can find some bowls for our guests." Sam walked to the kitchen as Ryder and Owen walked in and looked down at the pups.
"We seem to be meeting a lot lately," Owen noted, "Intentionally or not."
"Yeah, it feels kind of weird when you think about it," Rubble admitted.
"Weren't you guys meeting up to see the tools that Ryder has been building for us?"
"Not all of us show up at once," Skye noted.
"I can only get thewe if Capt'n Tuwbot could dwive me thewe," Zuma noted.
"Same with me and my skateboard," Rubble added.
"But… The projects have been coming along well, right?"
"Of course," Ryder confirmed. He showed him some photos on his phone with the new vehicle halfway built.
"Wow, that looks so cool."
"I know, we're almost ready to take it for a drive. Couldn't do much work today given I just walked out of school for a while… That and I just had to place my attention on something else." He gave his pup a pat on the head before he took his backpack up to his bedroom.
"Come on, Chase," Owen said. "Let's find a movie for us to watch." The father and the pup walked to the couch, leaving Marshall and the four guests unsure what to do.
"Think we should join them?" Rubble asked.
"I want to know what happened after that near miss," Rocky noted.
"Me too," Marshall commented. He looked upstairs to where Ryder had gone, then he glanced at the couch and the kitchen. "Follow me." The Dalmatian led the guests upstairs to Ryder's bedroom, where the said boy had taken out the incomplete pup tag.
He was figuring out how to fit a microphone and a speaker into a casing when the five pups walked in. "Oh, hey," Ryder said, "I was about to start on Chase's new pup tag. What's up?"
"We were wondering…" Skye started before feeling awkward given how things had gone downtown. The others were feeling the same until Marshall spoke up.
"Why did Chase panic after missing that car?" he asked.
Ryder looked at the pups in silence for a moment before sighing. "It's not something he likes talking about," the boy noted.
"That's what Sam said, but we're worried about him. Why did Chase react like that."
Ryder knew they were going to have to talk about this sooner or later. "It started when Chase was younger. Back then, he had another owner but for some reason, they just left him on the side of the street. Chase says he hasn't seen them since."
"Wait, he was just… Thrown out?" Rubble questioned. Ryder just simply nodded as he swore he could hear one or two of the pups growling.
"But how did he find you?" Marshall asked.
"The city was… No place for a pup his size. Then one day, Chase got into a crowd and found himself in the middle of the crosswalk. A van was coming and he swore it was going to hit but… I was just happy I was there." The pups all paused as they could believe what they had heard.
"He was okay aftew that, was he?" Zuma asked.
"Of course. My parents and I took him home with us and… He's lived here ever since."
"So that's why he was so scared of that car driving by," Rocky commented. "That owner…" He began growling as the other pups thought about what they heard.
"I guess Chase was lucky to have you," Marshall said.
"So are you," Skye noted. This confused the Dalmatian and Ryder. "Listen, you've now a real roof over your head, a bed, food that comes to you. I wished I had that stuff."
"You're not the only stray," Rubble noted. "Um…. Would it be any trouble for us to stay here?"
"I'm not too sure about that," Ryder admitted, "We're still trying to figure out how to make things work with Marshall. I just don't know if we have enough space for six pups." They were upset to hear this, but the four guests knew that Ryder was right.
Later that evening dinner was served and the pups had already eaten their kibble. Once Rocky was done, he quickly started walking towards the front door. "Hey, Wocky, whewe awe you going?" Zuma asked.
"Back to our coop," the mixed breed replied. "Skye, are you coming?"
"Um, I'll catch up later," the cockapoo answered. Rocky just shrugged and walked out of the dog door.
Rubble looked down at his bowl, which had been licked clean. "I think I better go too," he said. "Thanks for the meal." He quickly exited the building as Zuma wasn't too far behind.
"Yeah, I don't want to hang out longew than necessawy so I won't be a dwag," the chocolate lab spoke. "See you, dudes." Zuma soon left, leaving Skye as the only guest left in the house.
"…This is awkward," Marshall admitted.
"Yeah it kind of is," Skye agreed. Ryder could feel there was some kind of tension right now.
"Hey, how about I show you guys what I was working on before dinner," the boy said. "I just need to put on a few more touches." Ryder ran back to his bedroom and was gone for a few minutes but managed to return with a bulky-looking pup tag.
"What's that?" Skye asked.
"Chase's special pup tag." He started attaching it to the German shepherd's collar before pulling out his phone.
"You said this was a special tag," Chase reminded.
"Yep, and if I did this right, I'll show you how." Ryder left the room, leaving the pups a little confused until they heard his voice again.
"Testing. Testing. One two. Can you pups hear me?" Ryder asked.
"Wait, Ryder?" Chase questioned.
"Sounds like it is working. This pup tag will allow both of us to stay in touch with each other now." With that experiment done, Ryder walked back in feeling proud of himself.
"That's a great creation you have there," Owen commented.
"I honestly didn't think it was going to work so easily."
"It's still nice," Chase admitted. "It'll be easier for me than using a phone."
"No kidding. Speaking of which, try saying "Call Ryder" into your tag."
"Um… Okay. Call Ryder?" After a few seconds, Ryder's phone began to ring. He quickly canceled the call feeling proud of himself.
"The boys are going to wish they didn't miss that," Skye chuckled.
"Yeah, bet they wished they had more of those," Marshall added.
"Well, I only managed to make one," Ryder noted. "Hopefully once I get more time on my hands, I should be able to make you one." Marshall's tail wagged when he heard this.
Skye checked the clock and could see that it was starting to get late. "I better go before it gets too late," she said, "See you guys later." The cockapoo quickly left the house only leaving two pups inside.
"So now what?" Marshall asked.
"We've still got a nice movie to watch," Owen noted. "I think we agreed on the Apollo Super Origins movie."
"Yep, that's the one," Chase confirmed.
"I didn't know there was an origin movie," Marshall admitted. "What's it like?"
"Don't know, we haven't watched it until now." Chase and Marshall both ran into the living to sit on the couch before they were joined by the humans after they finished cleaning up. The pups sat next to Ryder as they started to film.
It seemed that Chase had calmed down from his near miss earlier that day. Marshall meanwhile was in a bit of a deep thought. He remembered how Chase looked nervous a day or two before the car missed him but he didn't seem nervous during his attempts to catch the runaway bus.
He would've asked this, but things had just calmed down and the movie was starting so the Dalmatian just sat and enjoyed it.