Dusk soon arrived, as the pups were off to bed. Aside from Marshall and Rocky, who he had seen in their pup houses before night even fell. Ryder, meanwhile, was sitting at a desk in his room, documenting the recent events. He had taken to a habit of writing down the day's notable events before going to bed, serving as a virtual diary of his. His fingers skillfully danced along the keys as the events of the day flooded his mind.

As he was typing, he remembered what had happened aboard the Sea Patroller a few days back. He couldn't help but to remember upon seeing Marshall and Rocky hanging out with the other earlier that day. He couldn't blame them. That near death experience must've really helped the pups bond. As morbid as that sounded.

The young inventor's eyebrows then furrowed at the mere thought of Marshall's reckless choice. He wasn't mad at the choice he made, not even close. But he wasn't sure what to do about Marshall's tendency to throw all caution to the wind when on a mission, or when trying to save someone. Similar to tunnel vision, the Dalmatian had no idea what he was throwing at the problem until the problem was solved.

Out of all of his pups, Marshall seemed to be the least cautious. He seemed to be the least worried about injuries if they were his own. He always put others before himself, and Ryder loved that about him. He would do his best and literally forget about the rest.

The second pup to have been a part of that event was almost the complete opposite of Marshall. Rocky. Instead of charging in with reckless abandon, the recycling pup was more analytical. More of a thinker. When he really thought about it, that made up perfectly for Marshall's lack of thought. But Rocky wasn't perfect, either. While Marshall during missions didn't think at all, Rocky, without anyone leading him, thought too much.

He couldn't really blame Rocky for it, though. Out of the main six pups he lived with, he and Zuma, their aquatic specialist, were the two with the least mission experience. Rocky's intelligence factors well in the field, but when it comes to snap decisions on the fly, he had much to desire.

Ryder leaned back in his chair. How funny was that? Marshall's faults were helped by Rocky, and vice versa. Maybe there was more of a reason why the two had grown closer over the past few days.

The boy reached to his right to grab a small glass of water, looking over to focus his attention on the fluid he desperately needed. Before he grabbed it, though, he noticed something odd. The water, which he hadn't touched in minutes, was rippling. It was shaking as though it had just been placed down. Something else was influencing the water, something that he wasn't aware of.

He turned his chair, as well as his body, to the right, staring at the water within the cup. The shaking hadn't ceased one bit since. An earthquake? No. Couldn't be. Since when did Adventure Bay ever have earthquakes? Was there something wrong with the Lookout's foundation? No, that's impossible... The Lookout's almost just as old as he is.

His eyes slowly drifted over to a small device next to his laptop, his pup-pad. This was the device used to contact Ryder for any emergency. Whether it be saving a kitten from being stuck in a tree, or saving the whole town from being flooded by sealing up a dam, no job is too big, no pup is too small.

Seconds passed. Minutes. As Ryder stared at his pup-pad, his mind began to drift off. What could be causing something like this? Was staying up late for writing finally getting to him? After realizing that he had been sitting there for five minutes, he sighed faintly. No calls were coming in.

As he finished up, the young leader kept an ear out for any calls. Any reports, sightings.

Nothing.

Marshall slowly opened his eyes, the sun beaming down on him. He let out a faint groan. The firefighter pup instinctually turned himself over to avoid looking at it. That was the first indication that something wasn't normal. His eyes slowly drifted around. The air was crisp, cool. The sky seemed to be lighting up by the second. Was it morning? The Dalmatian sat up, groaning faintly. As he rubbed his head, Marshall slowly registered his surroundings.

"What?" He looked to his left, "What?" He looked to his right.

He wasn't in his pup house like he would usually be, and he wasn't woken up by Chase like he would be every morning. Last he could remember, he was on his way to Mr. Porter's restaurant after agreeing to talk with Rocky. From there, everything was fuzzy.

He had been laying behind a bush near the driveway to the lookout.

"What the!?" He sprang up, his head darting around, "What happened to me? I can't remember a thing..."

He soon focused his attention on the lookout. It would probably be best to go there first. He was starving. Marshall went to take a step forward, but with his first motion, his left forepaw slipped on a patch of grass, sending the fire fighting pup crashing face first into the ground.

A muffled voice soon came up from the grass, "I'm good..."

As the disoriented Dalmatian walked into the lookout, he quickly came to realize that things were quiet inside. Usually, he'd hear the sounds of any of his friends playing, Rubble watching Apollo, hearing Skye playing her favorite game upstairs, or even Rocky working on the latest scrap invention.

But there was nothing. Nothing at all.

"Everyone must be out somewhere..." Marshall's eyes narrowed, "Yeah, has to be that."

He reached up to grab his pup tag, "Ryder? Ryder, come in. Where are you guys—oh it's not there..." The Dalmatian was slow to come to the realization that he didn't have his pup tag on him. His eyes squinted, confusion filling his mind. He almost never had his pup tag off.

Marshall looked at the elevator leading to the top of the lookout. He would probably be able to call someone from there. Maybe Ryder or one of the other pups knew what had happened to him. That was probably his best bet.

Question after question after question, Marshall decided to stop and think for a moment. So far, the only information he had was that he was by himself, tagless, but still at home. The Dalmatian tried to rack his brain for answers, but quickly realized that he had been ignoring a headache. Marshall groaned with pain before his eyes shot open. The cogs in his EMT mind began to work.

He ran out of the lookout, stumbling along the way. He was substantially more off balance than he usually was, which worried him even further. He broke into his pup house, nearly tackling the door down. He looked around the small room, trying to focus his thoughts on what he needed to find. He found it progressively harder to concentrate, forgetting what he needed for a moment.

"Why am I having problems focusing...?" He asked himself, holding his head, "Ugh, my head is pounding..."

He suddenly gasped, rifling through his stuff until he pulled out a small notebook, flipping through the pages until he stopped at page twelve. He read through it. Then again. Then again. Once more.

He couldn't understand it!?

Marshall groaned, laying his head down, "I can do this... I can do this..." Looking back up at the notebook, he read one more time.

"...Headache..."

"...Mental confusion..."

"...Lack of coordination..." He listed, as though he didn't already have that problem from the get-go.

"...Excessive fatigue..."

"...Sensitivity to light..."

Not to mention his memory loss on top of all his other symptoms. Marshall had gotten lucky that he was the EMT pup of the team. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to come up with a diagnosis as quickly as he did. After reading out all of the symptoms he could remember having from the moment he woke up, his own diagnosis seemed more and more obvious as time ticked by. Eventually, the Dalmatian stopped reading, now able to properly self-diagnose himself.

"I have a concussion!"

On Ryder's end, the morning started out as all mornings with the PAW Patrol usually did. Chase woke the pups, they all went to get breakfast, and soon afterwards, he had gotten the call. He and the team wasted no time rushing over. The mission was more time sensitive than it had been in a while.

Pulling up to City Hall, the young inventor was surprised at what he saw. The building, just like Mayor Goodway, the mayor of Adventure Bay had reported, was sinking down into the ground. Again. Ryder immediately drew the connection between the sunken building, and the rumbling he had noticed the previous night. The reason why he wasn't called during the night was because Mayor Goodway was away from the building.

Whatever the reason, Ryder resolved to figure it out. When assigning roles for the job, he had noticed another pup wasn't with them. But upon checking the tag's location, he agreed with the theory that Marshall was sick. Pressed for time, the ten year old wasn't able to check his pup house and see how the pup was doing, instead declaring PAW Patrol to be on a roll as they left the Lookout to investigate.

While Skye, Rubble, and Zuma were helping with trying to pull the building out and keeping it in place, Ryder and Rocky descended into the ground beneath the building to investigate the possible issue. Chase, meanwhile, was tasked with asking Mayor Goodway about the security footage and possibly obtaining it in order to see if anything had been tampered with.

The PAW Patrol certainly was busy. Too bad Marshall was too sick to join them. At least, according to Rocky.

As the recycling pup followed his owner down into the area beneath Adventure Bay, a series of tunnels under the town spread out in all directions as a labyrinth would. As Ryder began the charge in navigating the area, Rocky couldn't help but to think about Marshall. The previous night was pretty stressful, and it wasn't made any better knowing that Marshall was still back at the lookout, still asleep if he had to guess. Rocky sighed. He did what he had to do to keep Marshall's secret.

"Rocky, look at this!" His owner shouted, running ahead.

The recycling pup quickly followed behind, wondering what Ryder found. The duo walked up to the wall leading to the area below City Hall, which was supposed to be sealed shut with a bunch of bricks after Humdinger was forced to fix it up after a mishap involving his direct influence.. Strangely, though, a chunk of bricks at the bottom were displaced, thrown to the sides. The hole made wasn't big enough for Ryder to fit through. Rocky, though. He would be able to get through. Just barely.

The boy and his pup nodded at the other, knowing what was to come next. Rocky slid under the hole in the bricks, trying his best to prevent scraping any part of his body on the rough bricks. Sure, this was a hole that Rocky could fit through, but as he sifted through, the bricks on both sides of him brushed his fur and ruffled it up. It was ridiculously narrow. Once actually making it through the bricks and tumbling in, the recycling pup began to look around the still illuminated area. The first thing he noticed was the still sinking City Hall. Any more, and it would sink into the ground completely.

He thought for a moment before pressing his pup tag, "Ryder. I found the problem."

"What is it?"

"The golden bones!" He shouted, "They're gone!"

Chase, meanwhile, was talking with a dark-skinned woman in a blue blazer with a dark blue skirt. This was the Mayor of Adventure Bay, Mayor Goodway.

Goodway had always been a pretty active Mayor when it came to events in Adventure Bay. She was one of the main reasons why the town was as unique as it was. The events she would plan, the things she would do, sometimes, the upbeat Mayor didn't feel like a fully grown adult, more like a kid wearing a really large trench coat.

"This is a disaster! City Hall can't sink! If It sinks, where will I attend to my duties?" Goodway panicked, "Where would Chickaletta roam freely?" She asked, referring to the chicken that was currently asleep in her bag.

While the purse chicken was unassuming at a first glance, Chickaletta was the reason for a good portion of the PAW Patrol's missions. Chase always found it strange that such a seemingly braindead chicken would cause so many problems. He was surprised that Goodway even let that thing roam free after all the places it would usually end up. The German Shepherd offered the distraught Mayor a smile.

"I assure you that won't happen, Mayor Goodway," Chase sat up straight, using a more formal tone of speaking that he had a habit of using whenever he was outfitted in his police gear, "Now, I have something to ask you."

"Ask away, Chase."

"I know you have security features around the premises, but did you happen to have any cameras installed?" The Shepherd inquired, "Ryder is worried that the foundation below has been tampered with in some kind of way, so it's my job to figure out what—or who— it could've been."

"Hm..."

Before Mayor Goodway could answer, though, Chase's pup tag lit up with a blue glow, "Chase, Rocky and I went down under City Hall. A good portion of the golden bones are gone!"

"Gone?" The German Shepherd pup looked down at his tag, "Does that mean they were taken?"

"Looks like it. I'm coming back up with Rocky. While he goes to find a way to support the building, I'm gonna investigate with you."

Chase nodded obediently, "Copy that, Ryder, Sir."

Back at the lookout, after Marshall had struggled to remember the treatments for concussions, he buried himself in his blankets to create a dark space before falling asleep. After all, the best treatment for a concussion was lots and lots of rest.

An indiscernible amount of time passed before the Dalmatian opened his eyes again. He was still in that dark space he had created for himself with his blanket. His headache was a little less painful, his thoughts wore more coherent, and the slight nausea he had been pushing to the back of his mind had subsided.

Despite knowing he should've gone back to bed, the Dally decided that he would make a quick ice pack in the lookout. The ice pack wouldn't cure his concussion, but it certainly would be a good way to deal with the headache once and for all. Slowly sitting up, Marshall removed the blanket, eyes scanning the familiar surroundings of his pup house.

He stopped, however, when he felt his paw touch a familiar item to his left. Looking down at the paw, his eyes widened to see his pup tag sitting there. The Dalmatian grinned at the sight. Maybe his luck was beginning to turn for the better!

If only he knew how wrong he was.

Ryder and Chase sat in the dark room, the faint buzzing of the computer's static being the only noise to fill the room. The two had asked Mayor Goodway if she had any security footage, and if there was a way to access it. The Mayor told them that the only way to access it was inside the building. With their Mayor's permission and the promise to fix it later, the two broke into the building through the roof, the only part of the building to still be above ground level.

They thought they wanted to find out who the culprit was. They thought they would be glad to figure out what happened to the missing golden bones. But the only things running through their minds was regret, confusion, and sorrow. The young leader was beside himself as he heard the breathing of his first pup begin to hitch. Ryder's hands clenched into fists as they rested on his knees.

How?

Chase stared at the static of the screen, his eyes not moving for a second. He tried to rationalize what he had just seen any way he could. But upon a second thought, he couldn't help but to allow his breath to hitch.

When?

One of Ryder's hands reached up to his head, his fingers beginning to nervously run though his own hair. What was he supposed to think? What was he supposed to say? He wasn't even entirely sure if what he saw really was what he thought he saw.

Breaking through the melancholic atmosphere was a sudden glow from Chase's pup tag.

"Chase? Chase you there? You won't imagine the morning I just had!" Marshall's excitable voice came through, "I woke up, and I was just outside the lookout. I looked for you guys, and you were nowhere! Where are you guys?"

Before he could stop it, Chase's mouth began to move, "City Hall."

"So I went looking and trying to figure out what was wrong with me... And I figured it out! I might have a slight concussion... Wonder how that happened... So, you guys on a mission? Should I come?"

"No, it's fine, Marshall..." Chase quietly replied, "Stay where you are. It's over."

"Okay, get things wrapped up and I'll give you the play-by-play when you get back! Bye!"

"See you later."

With that, the light on Chase's tag faded, soon disappearing altogether. Ryder looked at the German Shepherd pup.

He looked back at his owner.

Both spoke in unison, their first time speaking to the other since the security footage ended, "Let's watch it again."

Ryder leaned forward in his chair, rewinding the footage to around two in the morning the night before. Leaning back in his chair, he and Chase proceeded to watch the footage once more. As they watched the footage, the small amount of hope they had drained away from their faces. Nope. Nothing had changed. No hidden details or things they hadn't seen on their first watch.

The two felt the building begin to rise. Rocky must've begun his efforts to stabilize the building once more, and the pups outside were helping the effort.

"Ryder! Chase! You might want to get out of there in case the building slips. I don't want you guys getting hurt..." Skye's voice came through Ryder's microphone.

The young leader suddenly pulled something out of his pocket, turning his attention to the security footage in front of him, "Yeah, keep going. We'll be out soon."

Things began to move outside of the building. Skye had put her helicopter into overdrive, pulling the yoke as far as she could away from City Hall in an attempt to pull it out. As Skye did, Rocky used something similar to the upcycled Humdinger contraption to hold the building up. Once the building returned to its normal height, Skye flew herself right above the building in order to distribute the weight of holding the building between herself and Rocky.

Rubble and Zuma, meanwhile, began filling the gaps with wet cement. They would make sure the building wouldn't fall again.

"I wonder who took those golden bones..." Rubble commented as he and Zuma walked around the building to make sure every crack was filled.

"My bet's on Humdinger, or Ladybird..." Zuma shrugged, "We haven't seen Ladybird in a while, so that means it would be the perfect time to come in and steal the shiny bones!"

"Does Ladybird still have her powers?" The English Bulldog inquired, making Zuma stop in his tracks.

The aquatic rescue pup muttered, "Okay, that's a really good point. So Humdinger?"

"What about the Ruff Ruff Pack?"

"If it were them, we would've caught them dude!" The Chocolate lab snickered, "They're not the best at getting away with stuff. That Husky though, Gasket... She's kinda cute. Too bad she's evil."

"Cute? I'm gonna be sick..." Rubble, who was still in that phase of thinking anything involving romance must be avoided like the plague, nearly threw up in his mouth at the mention of Zuma's slight interest.

The Lab laughed at his friend's mannerisms, "Oh Rubble. One day, you'll be old enough to understand..."

"Aren't we almost the same age?" The construction pup looked confused, "Actually, aren't I older—?"

Zuma began to sweat, "If you were older than me, why were you so small when you joined the PAW Patrol?" He quickly reasoned, "The rest of us were the same size as we are now, so..."

"Yeah, that makes sense!" Rubble, ever the gullible pup, believed his friend's words without a second thought, forgetting completely about the question he was yet to finish asking.

"Guys, the building is secure!" Rocky's voice came through both Zuma and Rubble's pup tags, "I've got support pillars set up that... Aren't solid gold."

"Pawsome!" Rubble exclaimed.

Zuma smiled, "Nice work, dude."

Skye's voice then entered the conversation through their tags, "Good job, Rocky!"

While the cheers of celebration could be heard surrounding City Hall, Ryder and Chase slowly opened the door to leave the building. The young leader quickly slipped a flash drive into his pocket as they closed the door behind him. Both owner and pet exchanged a look before the rest of the team came running up to them.

Chase quickly nudged Ryder, snapping him out of it as he got one knee and greeted the four pups with a tight hug, tighter than he ever had before. The German Shepherd remained to the side, his expression unreadable. It was a little rough to watch for him. His eyelids lowered slightly as he looked away.

Why?