Season 2 Episode 13: Pups Save Tiny Marshall! The Smallest Hope Saves The Day!
February 24th, 2030
Four days ago, Ben had teamed up with Jayden to recover Yumi's stolen scroll from Harold. During their discussions, Ben had brought up the dilemma of transporting the Dragonzord from the ocean to Adventure Bay, and Jayden had brought up the idea of making the Dragonzord a more manageable size. Thus, they had begun to create a miniaturization ray.
Jayden's visit had not only inspired Ben and Marshall, but also Tuck. The male Golden Retriever had dedicated himself to not only increasing his fighting proficiency, but also to helping out around the team. This worried his twin sister, Ella. Tuck hadn't been this intense about something that only he was interested in. Were they growing apart?
Tuck was tired of being on the reserve team, he was tired of not being able to help. He was tired of watching Wild's mother grow weaker and weaker with each passing day. He was sick of it all! He needed to feel like he was making a difference. So when Ben and Rocky needed help building a shrink ray, Tuck leaped at the opportunity.
In the garage, Tuck, Ben, Ryder, and Rocky were putting the finishing touches on the shrink ray. "Thanks for the help, Tuck. You've been a real handy assistant!" Rocky chuckled, with Tuck circling around and pacing as he wanted something to do.
"Is there anything else that I can help out with? Anything at all?" Tuck begged.
Ben took notice of this, and set down the wrench he was holding to kneel down and make eye contact with Tuck. "Tuck, what's the matter?" Ben wondered.
Tuck sighed as he looked down. "I'm on the reserve team, meaning I don't get called out for missions as often, and I'm often just support. I want to be helpful, I want to do something meaningful. And I always get partnered up with my sister when I'm called out. I just... I want to do something on my own to help." Tuck explained.
"Tuck... that's how you feel? I wish you had said something sooner. Trust me when I say that when the time comes, we'll need you, and you alone, to accomplish something." Ben promised.
Tuck smiled. "Thanks Ben." Tuck replied.
Ben gave Tuck a pat on the head and a pup treat from his pocket. "Now you should go and tell your sister about this. Siblings as close to each other as you two shouldn't be keeping feelings from each other." Ben suggested.
Tuck thought about that and then nodded. "You're right. I'm going to go tell her how I'm feeling right now! Thanks again, Ben!" Tuck thanked, before running into the Lookout to have a talk with his twin sister.
Marshall came into the garage, causing Ben and Ryder to cover the shrink ray up with a sheet. "Hey, what are you guys doing? It looks like you're building something! Ooh, is it a treat maker? A belly scratching machine? Will it make beefy puppy pops? Tell me!" Marshall excitedly mused.
Ben and Ryder laughed at Marshall's enthusiasm. "If we tell you, it'll spoil the surprise." Ryder giggled.
"Hey Marshall! Let's finish our pupball game before it gets dark!" Chase called out.
"COMING!" Marshall yelled as he ran back to continue playing the game. Ben, Ryder, and Rocky went back to working on the machine as Marshall ran back to his spot on the pupball field. Using his launcher, Chase fired a ball, and Rubble smacked it with a bat he was holding in his jaw.
"I got it... I got it...!" Marshall cried out, but the ball bounced off of his tail and landed in a gopher hole. Marshall ended up getting stuck in the hole. "Guys? A little help? My paw's stuck!" Marshall yelped. Skye and Zuma ran over to help extract the dalmatian's paw from the hole, and the three went flying. "Thanks, you guys. If only I was smaller, I could've gone down the gopher hole to get the ball!" Marshall apologized.
"It's okay, it's just a game!" Skye said.
"I'm gonna take a nap. Getting stuck made me tired!" Marshall yawned, before going to his pup house to take a nap.
Less than ten minutes later, he was hit by a ball that was thrown at him. Eyes shooting open, Marshall saw the gopher standing in front of him, and it looked upset. Chittering angrily at him, Marshall sort of got the gist of what he was saying. "Sorry about my ball getting stuck down there, mister gopher." Marshall mumbled. He started to leave his puphouse, but then he slipped on the ball and went flying into the machine. Ben and Rocky had rolled it out of the garage and then went inside to get a snack.
Marshall's eyes widened as he saw the machine they were working on was some sort of futuristic ray gun. "WOAH! What's that?!" Marshall gasped. The ray gun shot Marshall's puphouse, which made it shrink into a tiny size. "HEY! My puphouse!" Marshall yelped, running over to his shrunken home. A crow flew onto the futuristic ray gun, causing it to point at Marshall and shoot at him. Marshall screamed as he was shrunken down, and landed on the ground.
"Hey, that tickled! I guess that must be a shrink ray! Guess I'm dreaming then. Oooh, I wonder if pups have lucid dreams?" Marshall chuckled as he got into his fire engine. Being small was going to be fun. Activating his fire engine, he started to drive it around, enjoying the added challenge of swerving around the obstacles that were now a problem due to his miniscule size. "WOOHOO! I never knew the backyard was such an awesome race course! This is just like the Whoosh!" Marshall cheered, before chasing after a group of ants. His ball must have been shrunk in the blast too! He had to go and chase after those thieving ants. "That's not food, that's my ball!" Marshall yelled as he pursued the ants.
"Marshall, you up? It's still light enough to play pup ball!" Chase yelled. The other seven pups froze when they saw that Marshall's pup tag was on the pavement and his fire truck was gone.
Ben whistled as he came out of the Lookout lobby. "Hey Rocky, are you ready to finish up the minimizer?" Ben asked.
Rocky shook his head no, an anguished expression on his face. "We've got bigger problems, Ben... or in this case, a small problem. Look." Rocky said, pointing to Marshall's missing fire truck and the pup tag on the ground.
Ben let out an ear piercing scream as he saw Marshall's pup tag on the ground and the fire truck missing. "MARSHALL!" Ben sobbed, sinking to his knees.
Tuck ran over and his tail drooped as he saw the shrinking gun had been fired. "You two left this out in the yard!?" Tuck exclaimed.
"We were about to do a test run, but then we went for a snack break..." Rocky explained. Feeling the device, it was warmer than it had been, meaning it had been fired. Rocky began to piece together what had happened. "When we were inside, Marshall must have somehow activated the shrink ray, and miniaturized himself and his fire truck!" Rocky realized.
They then looked down and saw tiny tire tracks leading into the grass. "HE WENT INTO THE GRASS!" Rubble yelped, before starting to walk into it.
Tuck pulled him back by the tail, panting. "Rubble, you can't! You could easily step on him, he and his fire truck are the size of an ant right now!" Tuck protested.
"Then what are we going to do!? How are we supposed to search for him without risking him getting squished?!" Chase argued.
Ben was panicking, he was afraid of losing Marshall. With his mind clouded with worry, he couldn't think straight. "Everyone, you're thinking too big! If we're going to save our shrunken friend, we have to think small!" Tuck exclaimed. Running over to the shrink ray, he opened up a compartment and pulled the meteor shard that was powering it up out.
Tuck's paws started to glow silver once he took hold of the meteor shard. Rocky gasped and nodded his head in approval. "That's it! Think small! Tuck, you're a genius! You can shrink down to ant size and go search for Marshall!" Rocky cheered.
Ella's eyes dilated when she heard this idea. "Tuck, you can't! I've seen you shrink down before, at that size you'd be in danger of getting eaten by bugs!" Ella argued.
Tuck shook his head and growled. "Ella, I literally just talked to you about this! There's going to be times where we can't both do the same rescue. I know it's hard to accept that we won't always be doing everything together, but what did you expect!? Besides, even if we don't do everything together, that doesn't mean we aren't family! We're twins, we've known each other since birth!" Tuck countered.
"I know... I'm just worried. I don't want to lose you, Tuck. You were my first brother." Ella sadly said, looking down at the ground and sniffling. She was having trouble accepting that things would change as they grew older. She had already been through so much... and she was having more trouble adjusting to having more people caring about her than just Tuck. Having a much bigger family sort of scared her.
"Ella. You're my twin sister... but we're part of a bigger family now too. Marshall is our brother. I'm going to go and save him. Don't worry. I'll be back. I know I will. Just have hope, like I do." Tuck promised his sister. Placing the meteor shard inside his pup tag, Tuck stepped onto the edge of the grass where the tire tracks had been. "It's morphin time!" Tuck declared as the Mighty Pup armor flew out of his pup tag and encased him. "The Smallest Hope, Mighty Pup Silver!" Tuck shouted before shrinking down and charging into the massive forest of grass blades.
Ella sniffled as she started to cry. "Be safe, Tuck! Don't do anything stupid!" Ella yelled at her twin brother.
"I'm the smart twin, I won't do anything stupid!" Tuck chuckled.
"Where'd those ants go...? And this is our lawn? It's so tall! I should call Ryder." Marshall mused as he drove through the grass and dirt. Looking down, he gasped when he saw he didn't have his pup tag on him. "My pup tag is gone! It must not have shrunken with me! I'll have to get back to the Lookout on my own..." Marshall sighed.
Suddenly, a crow started to chase after him, and the pup whimpered as he saw the massive bird try to catch him in its talons. "I can't hide from something like that... LADDER!" Marshall screamed, his fire truck's ladder shooting upwards and smacking the crow in the beak. The bird shrieked in rage and flew off as Marshall took refuge behind a discarded toy boat.
Then Marshall saw a bunch of ants, with one of them holding a ball in its mouth. "Hey, my ball! Give it back!" Marshall exclaimed, running up to the ant. There was some rustling in the grass behind them as the ants raised their heads, antenna twitching. The ball dropped out of the ant's mouth and they hurriedly skittered away.
"What made them leave in such a rush?" Marshall asked. The rustling behind him grew even louder, and Marshall turned around to be met with a horrifying sight. Eight beady black eyes, massive mandibles, and gigantic hairy brown legs. It was a massive wolf spider! Marshall felt something wet running down his leg as he was utterly and absolutely terrified. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Marshall squealed in fear.
The spider then spat a web at Marshall, ensnaring him and trapping him in the white adhesive. "No, no, no, no! Wake up, wake up! I'm ready to wake up, brain! WHY AM I NOT WAKING UP!?" Marshall screamed as the wolf spider got closer and closer, clacking its mandibles hungrily. Thrashing around desperately, the web was too strong for him to break. Was this how he was going to die?
"GET AWAY FROM MY BROTHER!" A familiar voice cried out as Tuck ran up to the spider from behind and kicked it in the rear, flipping it onto its back.
"TUCK!" Marshall cheered.
"Marshall, I'll free you in a second. Let me take care of mister big, mean, and ugly here first!" Tuck shouted as he rolled to the side as the spider shot a stream of webbing at him. Hissing angrily, the spider ran forward to get Tuck, but the golden retriever vaulted over the spider and landed on top of its abdomen. Digging his claws into the large bulbous end of the spider, Tuck began to grow in size, growing until his weight was too much for the spider to bear. Squish! Stomping on the arachnid a few extra times for good measure, Tuck then shrank back down and ran to Marshall's fire truck, getting the hose out from it. Pulling the hose out and turning it on, Tuck sprayed water from it, dousing Marshall off and freeing him from the spider web.
"Tuck, you saved me!" Marshall ecstatically said, running up and hugging his friend. "We're family, of course I'd save you. Come on, let's get back to the lawn. Hop in your Fire Truck. I'll walk with you." Tuck chuckled.
Marshall grinned as he got back in his fire engine and started to drive, with Tuck growing in size and giving instructions to Marshall on how to get back to the blacktop pavement. "Growing back to full size, Tuck removed the meteor piece from his pup tag and placed it back in the shrink ray. "Let's hope this works..." Tuck murmured as he fired the shrink ray at Marshall and the fire truck.
Marshall and his puphouse grew back to their regular stature, and Marshall tackled Tuck in a hug. "Thank you thank you thank you! I was about to be spider food!" Marshall sobbed happily.
Tuck giggled as he patted Marshall on the back. "Anytime, bro." Tuck answered.
"Well, we know that the shrink ray works. Let's go and retrieve that object from the ocean. Then we can put this shrink ray away where it can't harm anyone." Ben sighed.