Chapter forty-four: Sea Tales
Sighs of boredom could only be heard in the open yard of the Lookout. Rocky sighed again to break the silence for a moment and rolled onto his back. Zuma had already resorted to counting clouds and aimlessly muttering the shapes he could see in them.
Marshall sat by the tire swing nudging it with his paw to keep it steadily swinging back and forth. Rubble was nodding off against the tree while Skye lay leaning against him, but just when he would almost be asleep he'd jerked himself awake and start the cycle all over again.
Chester lay on the ground as well, steadily rolling back and forth on his back like he were scratching an itch on the ground but not as violently.
Ned watched the pups as they tried to distract themselves from the boredom. He had to do something.
"Any pup want to play or do something? This boredom is making us act crazy!" Ned commented. The silence of boredom as well as the pups' reactions was growing annoying!
"What do you mean, dude?" Zuma wondered when he and Rocky rolled over to sit upright. "I don't feel crazy yet.. anyone else?"
And various shaking of heads spread across the group.
"I'm so bored I could take a nap right here." Rubble sighed, laying his head down while trying to keep his eyes open.
"That's not exactly saying much Rubble." Marshall pointed out, making some pups among them chuckle. But strolling forward a few paces, just past the group, Marshall held his gaze out towards town from where he stood, a rather focused glance showing across his face for anyone who might wander over to see.
"Something wrong, Marshall?" Skye asked, as she and the other pups came up beside him.
"I wonder how Snowflake and Chase are doing on their bonding adventure,.. that's all." the Dalmatian replied, though he sounded more distraught than he would've liked.
"Well, don't worry." Rocky piped up. "I'm sure they're doing fine."
"My sister knows what she's doing. She wouldn't have asked to bond with all of us if she didn't have a plan for Chase to feel better. She's not the kind of pup to go into action without thinking. Give her and Chase time. If she helps or finds out anything, she'll tell us," Ned reassured the pups.
"Well.. yeah but.." Marshall trailed, dropping his gaze to look out again. "Its.. still weird putting the truth of Chase's weirdness in someone else's paws.. I mean.. even with the PUP Pals.."
"We've all tried. So it's not like Chase hasn't had a chance to come out of his shell to anyone. He can't stay silent forever. Just give him time with Snowflake," Ned reasoned.
"In the meantime, want to hang out? We got to have fun somehow!" Ned suggested.
Glances spread throughout the group, till one of them thought of something.
"Hey,.. what if we showed him some of our gear?" Rubble remarked. "You know, all our special gear that we use on some of our unique rescues."
"We can't exactly show him all of them,.. Some of them are too far away." Marshall pointed out.
"But we can show him the ones that are here and nearby." The bulldog recovered. "And just not worry about the others for now."
Ned tilted his head.
"Okay. But what do you mean by 'too far away'? Don't you have all your gear here?" he wondered.
"Not exactly.." Marshall shook his head. "I mean, yeah we have everything we need to handle emergencies that happen here."
"But sometimes when we need to go help the Princess of Barkingburg, we've got all the gear we need there to handle whatever situation we're called there for." Rocky added, turning to Zuma who nodded with a smile.
"Okay. So what can you show me?" Ned replied curiously.
"Let's start on the beach!" Rubble decided, and a couple pups, Zuma among them, dropped to an excited crouch with tails wagging high in the air.
And Ned looked at them just as confused,
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"Ta da!" the pups announced standing before the Adventure Beach Lookout Tower.
"So... you have a Lookout hangout place on the beach? That... makes no sense," Ned retorted.
"We're Lifeguards." Rubble explained.
"And in the summer, whenever the Beach is particularly busy, we're on duty." Zuma added.
"And we can usually stay dry while we do it." Rocky mentioned, making everyone laugh..
"And that's not all,.." Marshall continued, leading them into the tower.
"After we get our gear?.." He said, as they emerged into the inner room where the big screen was. "Ryder gives us our assignments like always and then we step back to this line where we lower down into our spots on the bench of the coolest part of this tower,.. The Sea Patroller!"
"The Sea Patroller?" Ned asked.
"The lower deck of this building retracts down and detaches from the tower to be the bridge of this huge rescue boat that we use for rescues out on the water,.." Rocky explained.
"Or on surrounding islands." Skye added, slightly chuckling. "Once, we had to rescue Carlos and Tracker from a booby-trapped island, belonging to a long lost pirate who'd hid his loot on it, and enchanted animals to protect it for him."
"Oh okay- wait what?!" Ned said before his eyes widened at the last statement.
"Why the heck would an island be booby trapped with enchanted animals?! That's dangerous! Why didn't someone make sure it was safe?!" Ned stated as he started to freak out over the dangers the pups must have faced.
"Let's just say we didn't take it seriously enough." Marshall replied calmly. "But spoiler alert,.. it all worked out in the end. We got Carlos back and freed the animals from the spell thanks to Tracker, and the song his great granddog taught him."
"And Chase no less." Chester recalled, shaking his head knowingly. "Gotta admit, my little bro is a LOT brighter than he first appears."
Ned had an even more confused look on his face.
"How could you not take it seriously?! You were all on a mission! Chase was in danger! How on earth did none of you get hurt?!... WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?!" Ned exclaimed, thinking the whole situation was accomplished by some miracle.
"Well the story of Jack Scallywag was just a silly Legend.. but it actually turned out to be true after all.." Rubble explained.
"We were searching for the treasure,.." Marshall went on. "When we found the magical whistle he used to hypnotize animals into being his pirate crew.. And when we played it, the spell took over the animals and they accidentally kidnapped Carlos inside the treasure chest, thinking he was part of the treasure. Once we tracked him down to the island where the loot was buried, Chase rode over in the rescue cage to try and distract the animal with treats, so we could rescue Carlos. But the hypnotized monkeys started throwing bananas at him and one of them hit Ryder and he almost dropped the cage inside the lair while he was still in it."
"Shh!" Skye hissed. "Not helping!"
Then realizing the way he made it all sound Marshall bit his lip.
"Um.. I mean.." he chuckled lightly.
Ned's left eye twitched.
"AND YOU GUYS WERE OKAY WITH ALL THIS?! POOR CARLOS! HE MUST BE TRAUMATIZED GOING THROUGH THAT! SAME WITH CHASE! Almost falling from a cage to hypnotized animals! How did he not lose his mind?!" Ned cried out after Marshall explained everything. It was a miracle the two friends didn't need therapy after said rescue.
"Woah, dude, it wasn't that bad! Really!" Zuma told him. "Chase wasn't scared more than a second.. and Ryder handled it anyway.. and.. he ended up finding the rest of the tune we needed to finish the spell-reversing song."
"You mean the counter spell song?" Skye put in more specifically.
"Yeah.. that.." Zuma nodded, pointing a paw at her.
"Then why did you make it sound like things were going terribly wrong?!.. And thank you Skye! Aaaahhhhh!... Please tell me things got better and that nobody ended up in therapy," Ned replied before rubbing his head. "You're all making this sound like the rescue was scary and bad until you got out by some miracle."
"Ohhh.." the pups realized, all looking to one another.
"Yeah, no, it was not like that." Rubble replied.
"Like we said, Chase found the last few notes of the song inscribed on the wall he almost hit." Rocky explained. "And it helped Tracker finish the song to stop the animals and help us rescue Carlos. And then as we were leaving, we found the treasure and helped him get it back to the jungles where Carlos and Tracker live."
"Okay. Wait, Chase almost hit the wall? Was he hurt?" Ned said, as he started to calm down.
"No, cause he almost hit the wall." Rocky emphasized. "But probably relieved he didn't.. and probably glad he wasn't getting bananas thrown at him anymore."
"Oh. Okay," Ned replied. "Can I try some of your gear?"
"Oh yeah, um,.. Let's go show him some of our gear, pups." Rocky remembered, then turned back toward the doors and they headed off into them.
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"This,.. is where we gear up.." Rocky announced dramatically, as they all approached the entrance to the high tech cubby system.
"Nice, and this turns the building into a boat?" the male husky asked.
"Part of it, yeah." Marshall confirmed. Then he led the way into the sliding door.
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Coming through the two narrow doors again in full gear, they entered into the main control room the pups instinctively took their places as though they were on a mission, leaving their police pup's space open till his double took his place.
"Chase,.. Er.. I mean,.. Chess is on the case!" Chester announced, but made an odd face after a moment.
"Nah, doesn't sound as good." he sighed flatly, making everyone around him chuckle.
"Anyway this is the stationary part of the building." Skye said, "and the deck just below us is the part that becomes part of the Sea Patroller."
"And your gear? It looks like you got lots of space to relax and walk around," Ned replied as he admired how roomy the inside of the Sea Patrol Lookout was.
"All right here.." Rocky said, turning his shoulder to show off his pup pack for a moment. "And we have a wetsuit and air tank that we use for underwater rescues."
"Rocky's all in on that one, right dude?" Zuma joked, looking to the mixed breed with a smirk.
"Well, I'm still not a big fan of the water,.." Rocky continued, slowly letting his gaze fall thoughtfully. "But at least my wetsuit keeps me mostly safe and dry, and I don't hardly feel the water on my fur either so.. I guess it's not so bad."
"No problem for the rest of us." Marshall smiled. "We became lifeguards right away,.. but with some encouragement, and a little courage of his own,.. Rocky became a lifeguard by saving the day for everyone!"
Ned was puzzled by this.
"How? Did you clean up the Bay? Create a no splash zone? Please tell me," Ned said, still looking confused.
"Um,.." Rocky and the pups' glances wandered to each other then back to Ned. "Clean up the Bay?"
"Yes, but how did you save the day?" Ned emphasized.
"Oh,.. well there was this Octopus baby that accidentally followed Capt'n Turbot and Francois to the Adventure Beach Luau.." Rocky ventured.
"And he brought his mom, who couldn't see very well." Rubble added.
"So when we figured out that the baby octopus had a toy rattle that it really loved,.." Skye went on. "Ryder decided we would try to lure the octopus baby out to sea, and lure its mom out with it."
"But then we lost the rattle in the shallow water!" Rubble gasped, like it had just happened.
"And Rocky jumped into the water, metal detector and all and found the rattle.." Skye nodded, exchanging a glance with the bulldog. "Without it, we might not have gotten that mama and baby, safely reunited."
"And away from the luau." Marshall put in with a decided nod.
"Oh wow. So Skye, what do you do on the Sea missions?" Ned responded politely.
"What I always do.." the Cockapoo shrugged. "I'm the sky-high scout!"
"And one time, we got to be pirates for a Sea Patrol mission!" Marshall beamed, their tails wagging with excitement of the fond memories.
"That's when Chase was almost dropped into the lair of the magical pirate crew." Rubble whispered over to him.
"Okay," Ned said casually. "But I meant what gear do you use, Skye?" Ned clarified.
"Oh,.. I have a parasail,.. Ryder mounted a propellor on my pup pack so I can somewhat control where I'm going." Skye explained. "And I always have my goggles, when I go on missions.. They're the only way I can see things further away and find things quickly."
"And all our vehicles are stored on the turntable at the back of the beach tower." Marshall added. "So when Ryder needs us,.. RoboDog selects our pup-tag icons and the beach tower will load our vehicles into the hold of the Sea Patroller."
"Like a rotating circle? Nice. Um, Skye do you have any other parachutes you use?" Ned asked curiously.
Then a thought occurred to him.
"Wait, what's the time? Will we be able to see everything?" Ned wondered.
"No,.. I don't think so,.." Skye thought aloud. "Well, I guess there's my Ultimate Copter gear if that's what you mean."
"And the parachute you lent me that one time." Marshall piped up thoughtfully.
"Oh right, for the underwater volcano rescue, I remember that." the air pup recalled.
"Wait, wait, wait. Who has the parachute? Can I see it?" Ned asked, both confused and excited.
"Oh,.. uh,.. I'm not sure where it is now.." Skye said, meeting a confused Marshall's gaze, who shrugged innocently. "Maybe Rocky stashed it."
"I don't recall doing that,.." the mixed breed thought, "but it sounds like something I would do."
"What?! You don't know where it is?! What if you need it for a mission?!" Ned exclaimed, shocked the pups could accidentally lose an item that could help in a mission.
"It's ok.." Skye smiled easily. "Ryder always comes up with something to finish the mission."
"And it's usually not in the ways you'd expect." Marshall added, stepping a couple paces closer to the husky.
"Yeah... but if you weren't using it, you could play with it. Or make a big hammock out of it. You know, something fun," Ned replied, trying to give the missing parachute a possible use if not used for missions.
"I don't know,.." Marshall shrugged. "But I'm sure if we do need it we'll be able to find it,.. if we happen to eventually need it."
"Okay. Maybe Ryder would know. I kinda wanted to play with it," Ned replied with a tail wag.
"I think we'd know more than Ryder would about where it could be,.." Skye thought aloud. "But since none of us remembers,.."
"Oh, we'll figure it out eventually." Zuma shrugged in his usual laid-back manner.
"Okay. I just hope we find it at some point. Anyways, what else can you show me?" Ned responded, trying to be positive.
"Hm,.. what next?.." Rubble thought out loud, as every pup wondered.
"Oh! I got it!" Zuma gasped,.. "We're not far from the edge of town,.. wanna go moto?"
And at his meaning the other pups just grinned.
"Moto? Moto what?" Ned replied, now confused again.
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"Welcome,.. To the Moto HQ." Zuma announced, as they rolled to a stop by the small PAW Patrol styled dome.
"I'm still confused. Moto as in what? Moto means cars right?" Ned retorted.
"Nope,.. Moto as in motor,.." Zuma grinned, "come on."
Racing forward to lead the charge into the building, they didn't stop till they were staring straight down. Zuma stood on the lowered platform, closest to their vehicles while the others peered down at him from the upper HQ level.
"Cool right?" the water pup swagged, "Chase would've been a better pup to show you all this, but I'll stand in for today just to say how awesome these motorbikes are!"
Ned looked at Zuma, then at the motorbikes.
"Does my sister have one too? How did you pups learn to drive motorbikes? And why motorbikes? I thought you pups already had your trucks and other vehicles?" Ned replied not understanding why they needed motorbikes when the PAW Patrol used their regular vehicles most of the time.
"Mm, don't think so.." Skye wondered, turning to meet glances with Marshall, who shrugged.
"Okay. So.. why have motorbikes when you have your normal vehicles?" Ned asked again, as Zuma came back up to their level.
"Well first of all, they're awesome!" Zuma grinned, coolly.
"And also Ryder's that kind of leader that sees the usefulness in all kinds of things,.." Skye said.
"Even small two-wheeled stunt vehicles that are usually used by drivers who do dangerous stuff with them." Rubble mentioned.
"And Ryder ingeniously found a way to use it for the good of Adventure Bay." Rocky added.
"But you should ask Chase what it's like, to get to use all your gear in one day." Zuma smirked.
"So they are rescue motorbikes? And how would you use them?" Ned asked, still slightly confused. "Wait, use all your gear in one day? What do you mean, Zuma?"
"Well they work just like regular motor vehicles." Zuma replied. "And Chase had to use all his gear one time, when his fear of hurting our friend, Wild Cat's feelings got out of hand."
"His allergies were making it hard for him and Wild Cat to practice their moto skills." Rubble informed him, answering the unspoken question. "So he took off into the desert to get away from Wild Cat, so he wouldn't make him feel bad for making him sneeze so much."
"Or,.. so he thought." Skye sighed.
"And then we were freeing him from a cave-in in the desert." Rubble finished a bit dryly, to match Skye's tone.
"Okay. So anything else you want to show me or should we head back to The Lookout?" Ned insisted.
"Actually?.. that's exactly what we should do.." Rocky put in confidently.
"Huh?" The rest of the group queried, all conveniently cocking their heads in the same direction, at the same time.
XXXX
"Soo what now?" Chase wondered as they finished stacking the leather covered shapes neatly off to the side.
"Hmmmm. The cube foam pit? or something else," Snowflake suggested.
"Um,.. sure, I'm down for that." Chase shrugged lightly.
"Okay, cube pit it is. Want me to lower you into the cubes? Yes, they are soft, but still.." Snowflake said kindly.
Perfect! Chase breathed.
"Nah, I got it." He smiled. "After all,.. where's the fun in playing it safe?"
Then taking off in an awkward run, he took a leap right at the edge of the pit. Launching himself in a typical doggie leap, he braced himself with all four legs. But it was when he hit the foamy surface, that he realized what a bad idea this was. Though the cubes absorbed some of the shock, the jolt was enough of an impact that it sent aftershocks up over his shoulder and down his spine. And he hoped and prayed no one would see, if his fur would stand on end.
"Uh- see?" he said finally, looking over his shoulder to force a smile. "Fun!"
Snowflake tilted her head surprised and confused.
"Ummmm. I thought the PAW Patrol was safe when it came to doing stuff. Even if it's fun. You guys never risk danger on your missions or playtime. Otherwise you'd miss rescues. Also.. did your fur stand up? It looked like you were surprised by your landing. You landed in foam, not sticks!" Snowflake commented, before jumping into the foam pit next to Chase.
How could she tell!? Chase gasped. I wasn't THAT easy to read was I?.. WAS I?!
Flopping his front paws over to face her better, he did his best not to wince painfully. But his left leg dropped below the surface through a small gap in the cubes beneath him, and he struggled to get back up again.
"Ugh.. These cubes can be hard to move in sometimes, though." he said.
"Oh yeah. That's why it's best to swim through them. See?" Snowflake replied before she doggie paddled along the cubes as best as she could.
"I don't even see how that would even work." Chase commented, while watching her go.
"Pull your leg out, then act like the foam is water. Makes it easier to move around." Snowflake explained.
By now he'd already been trying to put one foot in front of the other to walk forward,.. but with his front half sprawled and his back half submerged, moving was near impossible.
"Yeah,.. easy for you to say." he sighed, then straddling his front paws out a little, he worked to get his back paws up out of the cubes. Then carefully crawling across it like he were on thin ice, all he could think was ouch, ouch, and DOUBLE OUCH!
"Good. Come on!" Snowflake said, as she kept crawling forward on top of the foam cubes.
As he crawled across the sea of cubes, he began to realize that he was beginning to sink again, given by how the cubes were shifting. Suddenly, he dropped down into an open pocket that had formed under the surface, and the feeling of resistance at his back clued him in that he was near the bottom of the pit. And even though he made several attempts to roll back over, or move in anyway that would help him start to get out.. He found it was either too hard or too painful to get out of there on his own.
"Um,.. help?" He called lightly, and he almost felt like Marshall in the moment.
"Coming," Snowflake said before going over to him. She tried to pull Chase out but it was tough with all the cubes.
"Um. I don't know if I can get you out. The cubes are making it hard to pull. We better call Ryder," Snowflake commented.
"No, you don't need to do that-ah!" Chase shifted, hoping to fix it, but figured out he couldn't rather quickly.
"No problem. What was that last part?" Snowflake said, before pressing her pup tag.
"Uhh,.. what.. last part?" Chase wondered, knowing she wouldn't have seen him freeze up in immediate understanding.
"I thought I heard you say 'ouch' or 'ah'. Something like that," Snowflake responded.
"Oh that,.." Chase replied loosely. "Uh,.. no.. um,.. just.. hard to maneuver down here.. That's all. Trying to get out. Yeah we- don't need..- -to call.. -Ryder!" His progressive struggling only really made movement, but no progress. "Urgh,..ih.. Uh! *sigh*"
"No, you're stuck in the foam cubes. If you or I can't get you out, then you'll need help. You don't want to be stuck in here forever do you?" Snowflake replied.
"Ryder? Ryder? Come in, it's Snowflake!" The husky pup spoke into her pup tag.
Oh, please, no! Chase groaned internally, but he just sighed.
Hey everybody! We're back! A new installment has arrived! And we can't wait to see how you guys like it! Some of the interactions in this chapter were some of the most interesting ones we've had so far! No to mention the moment Chase got himself stuck in the foam pit! LOL! XD
All this to say.. We hope you enjoy, and we'll see you next time! Thx!