Season 3 Episode 10: Aftermath! A Time Of Reflection And Incapacitation!
May 5th, 2030
Things had been quiet ever since the Cloud Catcher incident. Ben and Ryder had been sidelined, since they had sustained several moderate injuries while rescuing Humdinger. "I hate being stuck like this…" Ryder grumbled.
"Yeah, I'd hate to be sidelined. Now I understand." Liberty commented.
Ryder groaned as he got to his legs and went off to use the bathroom. "I imagine Ryder isn't off work often, is he, pops?" Liberty mused as she and Ben watched Ryder stagger to the restroom.
Liberty had quickly settled into referring to Ben as 'pops', her own version of the other pups calling him and Ryder dad. "Oh, absolutely not. There have been only a select few times when he's been put off of duty. One notable time was when he got super sick." Ben chuckled.
"WHAT!? The leader of the Paw Patrol, sick?! You gotta tell me more!" Liberty gasped.
"I'll tell you all about it! It all started a few days after Ryder had this awful nightmare…" Ben began.
March 19th, 2030
As soon as Ben had heard the pups were sick, he had come home right away from Adventure City. These past few days, all of the pups had gotten better, but Ryder's condition had deteriorated. Rubble had come in earlier that day to try and wake up Ryder. "Ryder, Ryder, wake up!" Rubble cheerfully said. Then he noticed Katie sitting by his bedside, and Ryder looking absolutely miserable as he laid there. "Ryder? Ryder, you look like you're in really bad shape!" Rubble gasped.
"He is, Rubble." Katie confirmed.
Rubble sniffled and ran to the elevator, going back down to the ground floor and getting Ben. "Ben, Ben! Ryder's in really bad shape! I've never seen him this bad!" Rubble wailed.
"Worse than yesterday!?" Chase cried out worriedly.
"That's awful! We just got better from our colds, and now Ryder's even sicker than before!?" Marshall whimpered.
Ben stood up and hopped off of his bed. "Is Wyder going to be okay?" Zuma anxiously wondered.
"I hope so!" Alex responded.
"Ryder will be fine, everyone. I'm going to go talk to Katie. Then I'll get breakfast for everyone." Ben told the rest of the Paw Patrol before taking the elevator
"He's not getting any better, is he…?" Ben whispered to Ryder's female friend.
Katie shook her head no in response. "I'm afraid not. I think he's come down with a nasty case of the flu." Katie answered.
"That's horrible…" Ben murmured.
Ryder hadn't gotten this sick in his whole life. Looking upon his pale, ashen face lying in bed, Ben saw just how frail his friend could be at times. "Ryder's been acting differently from usual for the short amounts of time that he's awake, you know." Katie mentioned.
"He has? How so?" Ben mused.
"I'm not quite sure how to put my finger on it, but I think he's been a bit more… open? With his emotions…?" Katie replied uncertainly, blushing as she said this.
"Gonna have to give me examples of this, Katester." Ben chuckled.
"Well, he's called me pretty… multiple times." Katie admitted.
Ben's eyes widened as she revealed this piece of information. "You sure that isn't the fever talking?" Ben questioned.
"If it was, I don't think he would have said it multiple times." Katie pointed out.
Ryder tossed and turned in his sleep, mumbling inaudible words. Suddenly, they heard the clanging of metal from the kitchen area on the first floor of the Lookout. "I'll go check on the pups." Ben immediately said, taking the fire pole to the main level. Running into the kitchen, Ben saw the microwave spinning with some sort of meal inside, and Chase, Marshall, Tuck, Ella, and Rocky in a pile on the floor. "What's going on here!?" Ben demanded.
"Sorry, dad! We've seen you use the microwave dozens of times, and we wanted to help Ryder out, since Rubble told us all about how Ryder was super sick, so we tried to make him a microwaved meal! My pincer claws were barely able to put the pizza on the paper plate and get it in the microwave." Rocky apologized.
Ben stared at the pile of pups in amazement, then tossed his head back and let out a burst of hearty laughter. "You pups are so adorable and amazing, you know that? That's the sweetest thing, trying to make him breakfast!" Ben giggled, giving all of them head scratches.
"Aww, really?" Tuck chuckled.
"You think so?" Ella blushed.
"Sure thing I do! It's really admirable that you want to help Ryder out like this." Ben answered.
When the timer on the microwave went off, Ben took the paper plate and pizza out of the microwave and started to carry it up to the Lookout control room where Ryder was sleeping. Marshall, Chase, Rocky, and Skye went up with him in the elevator. As a precautionary guideline, Katie had created a rule that no more than four pups at a time were supposed to be in the Lookout control room at a time while Ryder was sick.
When they reached the control room, they saw Ryder sitting up in bed, drinking from a canteen of water and smiling weakly. "Ben. Chase. Marshall. Skye. Rocky. It's nice to see you." Ryder softly said.
"Hey Ryder!" Marshall yipped.
"Hi dad! We made you some leftover pizza for your breakfast!" Chase greeted his owner.
"You should have seen them, Ryder. They had formed a little tower together and Rocky was using his pincer claw to put the pizza on the paper plate and into the oven." Ben giggled.
As Ryder ate his pizza, Ben got a call from Mayor Goodway. "Ben!? Ryder!? I'm afraid I've gotten myself into a bit of a pickle." Mayor Goodway anxiously said.
"What is it this time, Genevieve? Did Chickaletta get herself stuck in a tree?" Ben sighed.
"What?! Oh, don't worry about my chicky wicky! I left Chickaletta with Farmer Yumi to visit her family today. No, I was going down to the basement of City Hall to retrieve some decorations and plans for the upcoming Easter celebration when the doorknob to the basement entrance fell off and the stairs started to break! I ran to the basement, but the stairs are impassable now, and I'm afraid that I'm trapped!" Mayor Goodway exclaimed.
"Don't worry, Mayor, we'll be there soon." Ben promised. He looked at Rocky, and nodded. "Chase, Rocky, let's go and grab Rubble. We can't tell Genevieve that Ryder is sick or else she'll get into a real panic. Rescue Force, roll to the rescue!" Ben told them.
Chase and Rocky went down the elevator and Ben took the fire pole to his motorcycle. When he exited the garage, he saw Chase, Rocky, and Rubble driving their vehicles along the road, and he followed them to City Hall. Going inside the museum-like area of the building, they passed through a hallway and came across the basement door. Thankfully the knob was still on this side, so Ben pulled it open. They saw Mayor Goodway at the bottom of the stairwell, waving her arms and jumping up and down. "BEN! There you are! Wait, where's Ryder?" Mayor Goodway asked.
"He's… um…" Ben stammered, having forgotten to think up an excuse for why Ryder wasn't accompanying him on this mission.
"He's sick!" Rubble interrupted, causing Ben to groan.
Mayor Goodway blinked a few times before gasping. "Ryder is sick!? Oh my goodness, how bad is it?" Mayor Goodway questioned.
"Rubble!" Rocky hissed at the bulldog.
"What!? Was I not supposed to say that? I didn't get the memo!" Rubble protested.
"We can get the Easter decorations another day, Mayor. Right now, we need to get you out of that dusty old basement." Chase spoke into his megaphone.
"All right, all right, and then you are taking me to my house, and then I'm coming with you to the Lookout!" Genevieve insisted, ducking into the storage room and grabbing something before coming back to the end of the stairs. "I'm ready!" Mayor Goodway announced.
Using his net, Chase was able to snag the mayor in it and pull her up the stairs to safety. "Rocky, Rubble, can you two get to work on repairing the stairs?" Ben suggested.
"Sure thing, Ben! You and Chase go with the mayor and help her fix some soup for Ryder." Rocky assured.
Groaning, Ben drove along with Mayor Goodway's car to her house, and Chase sat down in his police cruiser, bored, as Ben went inside. He had visited Mayor Goodway's house with Ryder dozens of times in the past, so he didn't feel the need to go inside with her. "Let's see, there's the broth, there's the other ingredients…" Mayor Goodway murmured to herself as she placed the items she needed to fix the soup for Ryder in a picnic basket.
"Genevieve, don't you have other things to be doing? Like paperwork or something?" Ben pointed out.
"I actually do not! My schedule is clear today, so I'm free to spend it however I want." The mayor happily said as she closed up her picnic basket.
"Race you to the Lookout!" She chuckled as she went to her garage. A race!? What was she on about? Ben shook his head and went out the front door, hopping on his Dragon Cycle before getting passed by with a blue motorcycle.
"Holy mother of squeaky toys! Is that the mayor on a motorcycle!?" Chase yelped in shock as he started to follow after her, with Ben pursuing close behind.
"SINCE WHEN DO YOU KNOW HOW TO DRIVE A MOTORCYCLE!?" Ben yelled at Goodway. The dark skinned woman threw her head back and laughed.
"There's a lot you don't know about me, sonny!" Mayor Goodway announced to Ben as she sped past him.
Ben stared at her in shock and amazement as his motorcycle went on autopilot as it drove back to their home base. It took a few minutes to process the fact that Mayor Goodway was a very good biker, and by the time he had finished wrapping his head around this fact, they had arrived back at the Lookout. When Ben walked inside, the elected official was already working on making the chicken noodle soup, and Chase was telling the rest of the PAW Patrol all about how she had effortlessly driven a motorbike, which impressed all of them, especially Wild. "Meow-WOW! I never knew that she had biking talent! She's riding that thing like a seasoned pro!" Wild exclaimed.
"Mayor, why are you taking so much time and effort out of your day to help Ryder?" Ben asked.
Genevieve smiled as she stirred the soup with a wooden ladle. "You and Ryder have taken so much time out of your lives to help me with the simplest of things, like the balloon race, or saving Chickaletta from the top of city hall, or helping set up decorations… It's only fair that I do the same. Besides, you two boys need someone to fawn over you like a mother would, and although I might not be able to have a child of my own, I can certainly try to be there to support you and the pups." Genevieve answered solemnly.
When she was finished, she took the bowl of chicken noodle soup to Ryder, and she was frightened at how sickly the seventeen year old looked. "Ryder, here, eat this soup I've made for you. It will make you feel better." Genevieve told him.
"Soup! Why didn't I think of that!? He's been sick for three days by this point and not once did I think to give him soup!" Katie exclaimed, facepalming in frustration at her single-mindedness.
"Thanks, mom…" Ryder murmured to Mayor Goodway, and she blushed as he called her mom. Mayor Goodway made a vow that she would help Ryder get back to a proper healthy condition as she gave him the bowl of soup, as well as a white dog plush.
*End of Flashback*
"Ben, you forgot to mention that Katie was in a nurse uniform." Ryder reminded his best friend.
"And the pups and I keep telling you that you hallucinated or imagined that part!" Ben snickered.
"Wow, that was quite a story you just told, Ben. Adventure Bay seems like a really nice town." Liberty mused.
"It really is! We'll be heading back home soon." Ben replied.
Liberty gasped and shook her head. "Wait, you guys are leaving Adventure City!? Pops, why!?" Liberty blurted out.
"We have to go back to Adventure Bay. They don't have the resources to deal with emergencies on their own. We've been their primary rescue force for over seven years now, almost eight." Ben explained.
"You've got fourteen pups now on your team with my addition to the Paw Patrol! Adventure City might not need you guys for everything like Adventure Bay does, but you should still maintain a reasonably sized presence in the city!" Liberty pleaded.
"All right, all right Liberty. We'll discuss this. Right now though we need to rest." Ben sighed. Liberty nodded her head before leaving.
Ben turned on the TV in the room, and saw a news report with Mayor Humdinger standing in front of a podium. "Greetings. I am Henry Humdinger, and I have gathered you all here today to confess. When I was suggested by Butch and Ruben to become Adventure City's mayor, I foolishly believed them. I took their bait like my kittens swarm when I offer them canned tuna. Through their manipulation, unknown to me, they managed to make it so I was the only candidate running. That was when I began to become suspicious." He began.
"With my influence as mayor, I started to dig into the electoral race and I was shocked to discover that every single other candidate dropped out. You may or may not know this about me, but I've always had a childish heart. That's why I made mistakes. I made that scatterbrained roller coaster train, I had that reckless firework festival, and I was the one who allowed the Cloud Catcher to overload and nearly destroy your beloved city." Henry continued. He paused to clear his throat before picking up where he left off.
"You may notice that I refer to this city as YOUR city, and not MY city. That is because… Adventure City is not my home, and it will never be. I have to take care of Foggy Bottom. Reform it. My near brush with death, nearly losing my life and seeing the two teenage boys risk their life for my foolish self, as well as all of you… it made me change. I want to make amends, atone for my misdeeds." The purple top hat wearing man resumed his speech.
"However, I cannot do that while I still remain in office. Hence why, effective immediately, I'm resigning from office. I'm sure you can convince one of the dropouts to take my place. And as I am no longer mayor, I'm no longer above the law. For my reckless endangerment of civilians, I would like to be placed under arrest for a certain amount of time. Perhaps some time in the slammer will help me fix my life." Humdinger kept on going. A collective gasp from the audience was heard.
"Do not fear, citizens of Adventure City, because while this period where you lack a mayor may be frightening, take solace in the fact that the Paw Patrol will do everything in their power to protect you. That is all. Have a wonderful day." Mayor Humdinger concluded, raising his arms in the air. Hesitantly, two police officers placed him in handcuffs before taking him away to the prison.
"Well, now that the city is going to be in a state of unrest while they sort out the mayoral replacement, we have to stay in Adventure City longer." Ryder pointed out.
Ben groaned as he threw his fist into the air in frustration. He had about as much of a liking for this stupid city as Chase did- next to none.
Wild, Shade, Rory, and Leo were working on a secret project. Chase and Skye were renewing their bonds and snuggling together. Rocky was teaching Zuma how to play chess. Marshall, Tuck, and Ella were talking to their long distance relationship mates Everest, Tracker, and Rex.
Rubble was gorging himself on food, and Alex adjusted his shades as he saw Liberty come out of Ben and Ryder's infirmary room. "Hey pretty. We've been doing this dance for a while. What do you say we make things official?" Alex chuckled.
Liberty giggled as she nuzzled Alex on the cheek. "I don't see why we can't." Liberty answered with a cheeky sly smile on her face. "Meet me at eight!" She then told Alex before darting off.