(A/N: I do not own Paw Patrol, enjoy!)
Framing Complications
*Bleep bleep* "Paw Patrol, to the Lookout!"
"Ryder needs us!" the pups chorused from all around the Lookout. As one, they dropped what they were doing and dashed for the elevator. They all ran inside before turning to face the door.
"Whoa!" Marshall and Everest yelped together as they bounced like a beach ball toward the elevator.
"Marshall!"
"Be careful!"
"Lookout!"
It was all in vain as Marshall and Everest bounced into the rest of the pups with a resounding crash. Heads immediately poked their way out of the pile
"Maybe next time, don't let the drugged Dalmatian drive the ball" Marshall quipped.
Every pup burst out laughing as the elevator carried them up to gear up. The pups all leaped to their spots in the control room seconds later.
"Paw Patrol ready for action Ryder sir!" Chase sounded off.
"Thanks for hurrying pups" Ryder said warmly, "but we are here for some good news." Ryder waved Claire forward.
"Marshall," Claire began, every pup focusing their attention on her. "Based on the test we ran today and evidence found, we have determined that someone is trying to frame you for this fire. Effective immediately, you are restored to duty."
"Whoohoo!" Marshall howled in happiness, the other pups joining him with their own howls. "Thank you Claire" Marshall bubbled.
"Thank Augie, he is the one who found the evidence" Claire waved the Belgian Shepherd forward.
"Just doing my job" Augie said abashedly. He was not prepared for what happened next.
Cinder leaped forward and grabbed the startled arson pup in a hug. "Thank you for keeping an open mind" she softly whispered in his ear, making his tail wag rapidly.
Augie felt the hug starting to crush his ribs. "Can't…breathe" he softly whispered.
"Deal with it" Cinder softly giggled before she released him.
"That was from both of us" Marshall said, amusement dancing in his eyes as he gave his twin a high paw as she returned to sit next to him.
"Now you can lend her your strength too?" Augie gasped for a breath.
"You have so much to learn about us" Cinder softly giggled, "you've barely scratched the surface."
"You'll figure it out eventually" Everest added with a laugh of her own.
"So, who is trying to frame Marshall?" Chase asked, bringing everyone back on the investigative track.
"We found fingerprints and other evidence pointing to his guy," Darrell said, gesturing to the screen. Ryder pressed a button on his pup pad and a picture appeared on the screen.
"Mayor Humdinger!" All the Paw Patrol pups chorused together in surprise.
"I know he is a troublemaker, but why would he want to frame Marshall?" Skye asked.
"Maybe he thinks that he could stop whatever his next plan is" Rocky chimed in, "but Marshall is hardly alone in that capability."
"We are about to find out" Ryder said as he pressed a button on his pup pad.
"You are calling him now?" Claire gasped in surprise.
"Yes," Ryder replied. Any more discussion was cut off as Mayor Humdinger appeared on the screen.
"Ryder? Paw Patrol? Why are you calling me?" Mayor Humdinger asked in surprise.
"Mayor Humdinger, are you aware that there was a forest fire between Adventure Bay and Foggy Bottom yesterday?" Ryder asked.
"Of course I'm aware" Mayor Humdinger replied, "I'm the Mayor of Foggy Bottom, I know all these things. I hope you aren't expecting me to thank you for taking so long to put it out…"
"No, not calling about that" Ryder said placatingly, "but we do need to talk to you."
"Well too bad, I'm on vacation on a cruise ship, right kitties?" Mayor Humdinger said. The video frame immediately filled with all of the Kitten Catastrophe Crew swarming over the Mayor.
"Vacation? When did you leave?" Ryder asked in surprise.
"Yesterday morning" Mayor Humdinger replied, forcing his way back into the video. "We are taking an Alaskan cruise. Now if you'll excuse me, we have to go whale watching." With that, Mayor Humdinger hung up the call.
"I'll just say it, that was strange" Darrell said, confusion evident on his face.
"He is quite eccentric," Rocky replied. "Most of his mischief is self-serving and ridiculous."
"Can we confirm his story though?" Augie asked.
"Way ahead of you" Ryder replied from where he was typing commands into the control panel. Moments later, a security video came up on the screen, showing Mayor Humdinger boarding a cruise ship, and the Kitten Catastrophe Crew almost knocking him into the water.
"He definitely boarded the ship, and he was definitely there when we called," Ryder said. "and there is no indication that he brought any of his gadgets with him." Ryder looked at the time stamp on the video, "and this video was taken less than an hour before the fire started. There is no way he left the ship, framed Marshall and made it back."
"So he probably never left the ship," Chase surmised. "So someone is trying to frame Mayor Humdinger framing Marshall."
"Why couldn't this just be easy?" Claire asked in despair.
"Don't wowwy Claiwe" Zuma said, putting a paw on her thigh, "you have the whole Paw Patrol to help you now, we'll figuwe it out!"
"Yeah, no case too convoluted, no pup is too small!" Rubble added.
"We've got this!" Skye added fiercely.
"Ok, what information are we missing?" Ryder asked.
"We don't know how the fire started" Augie stated, "that is our biggest information gap right now. But we will also need to figure out why whoever started this wanted to frame Marshall. Beyond that, just a few loose ends like how they made the tracks and got Marshall's paw prints on everything."
"Skye" Ryder said, tapping her icon on his pup pad, "get up in your helicopter and conduct a surveillance scan of the area. See if you can find anything unusual."
"This pup's gotta fly!" Skye sounded off with her signature backflip.
"Chase" Ryder continued, "you and Augie tear apart the inside of the house for any remaining clues."
"Chase is on the case!" Chase sounded off proudly.
"Rubble, once you get the all clear from Chase and Augie, start dismantling the cabin. We need it taken apart carefully in case there are clues hidden in the remains of the structure" Ryder directed.
"Rubble on the double!" Rubble sounded off.
"Rocky, get down stairs and help Ted as needed" Ryder told the tech pup.
"Green means go!" Rocky sounded off.
"What about us?" Darrell asked.
"The three of us are going to go over everything else we have and look for inconsistencies" Ryder said, "whoever did this is good, so we'll have to be better than them to ferret out the trail."
"I think Marshall knows some ferrets," Everest said with a laugh, "any of them holding a grudge against you Marshy?"
"None that I know of," Marshall replied laughing, "but maybe I can get them to help if needed."
Everyone laughed at that. "Hopefully it won't come to that Marshall" Ryder said with a smile. "Paw Patrol is on a roll!" Pups howled as Ryder ran to his pole and slid down. Rocky jumped and grabbed onto the pole as well, sliding down to help Ted. The rest of the called out pups ran to the slide.
"Follow me," Chase said to Augie. The two police pups jumped into the slide together and slid down. Augie was barely able to contain his excitement as he slid. He watched as Chase barked at his pup house to change it into his cruiser, landing smoothly. Augie landed behind him and their seatbelts clicked. Chase howled as he activated the lights and sirens, leading all the pups to the scene.
"I wish we were going with them," Tracker said after everyone had headed out.
"We'll see how it goes, maybe they'll need us," Everest replied hopefully.
"In the meantime, I think we have something to talk about" Marshall said with a sly grin at Cinder.
"I don't know what you are talking about," Cinder softly replied.
"Who said anything about you, dear sister?" Marshall teased.
"I'm confused," Tracker said , cocking his head to the side.
"Me too," Texas added.
"Trust me, you are safer that way" Everest replied as she watched Marshall and Cinder exchange thoughts. She wasn't sure where that discussion was heading, but she wouldn't miss it for the world.
Over the scene, Skye was puzzled. Everything looked perfectly normal about the fire scene, she could even see the faint outlines of the trail from where Marshall and Everest had been tranquilized to the cabin. But something still felt off.
"Ryder" Skye called over her pup tag, "I'm done with my initial pass. Nothing looks abnormal but I have a feeling."
"What kind of feeling Skye?" Ryder asked.
"Like something simple is off," Skye replied, "but I have no idea what it is."
"Copy that, continue your low altitude pass" Ryder replied, "I'm going to feed your camera data to Rocky."
"Copy that Ryder" Skye replied as she spiraled down lower.
"Rocky" Ryder said as he opened a channel to the tech pup.
"I'm here Ryder," Rocky replied immediately.
"I'm feeding Skye's data to you, can you feed it into the tracker program?" Ryder requested.
"Copy that Ryder" Rocky said as he manipulated the Lookout computer in front of him.
"What is this program?" Ted asked quizzically.
"Something Ryder and I have been working on," Rocky replied, "it is supposed to be able to recognize trails and sort out one trail from another."
"Interesting" Ted replied as the screen came alive with Skye's camera data.
Rocky cocked his head to the side. "Skye, you are flying steady, right?"
"Affirmative Rocky" Skye's voice came back, "steady and smooth."
"Does something look off about this trail to you?" Rocky asked.
"I can't put my paw on it" Skye replied, "but yes, something doesn't feel quite right."
"What do you mean?" Ted asked.
"I can't quite explain it," Rocky said, swiping his tag with his paw. "Come in Marshall."
"I'm here Rocky," Marshall immediately responded.
"I need you to do me a favor," Rocky said, "walk to one side of the control room."
"Um, ok" Marshall replied. Tracker, Zuma, and Texas had gone downstairs so now only Everest and Cinder watched Marshall with curiosity.
"Ok buddy, now walk normally to the other side of the control room" Rocky directed.
"Got it," Marshall said, picking his slowest walking pace.
"Good, now trot back" Rocky directed.
"Is this really necessary?" Marshall asked as he trotted across the control room.
"Only two more times" Rocky shrugged off the question, "now run to the other side."
"There isn't really enough room for that but I'll try" Marshall said. He barely got up to a good speed before he had to slow back down to avoid crashing into the wall.
"Ok, now sprint this last time" Rocky said.
"I can't," Marshall said, "there isn't enough room."
"You could run around the control room" Everest suggested, "would that work Rocky?"
"To get up to speed and slow down, yes" Rocky replied, "but I need at least one straight line pass across the middle at sprint speed."
"Here goes nothing," Marshall said. He ran a lap around the edge to get up to speed, cut across the middle as fast as he could, before turning to do another lap. Trying to turn anyway.
"Whoa!" Marshall yelped as he slipped and slid into the wall. "I'm good" he softly groaned before anyone could reach him
"Perfect, thanks Marshall!" Rocky said happily.
"What was this for?" Marshall asked but Rocky was already gone.
"Are you ok Marshy?" Everest asked as she helped him up.
"I'm fine, just really curious now," Marshall replied.
"So, Rocky has gone loopy," Cinder softly said.
"Maybe, but don't change the subject sis" Marshall said, pulling their conversation back on track.
Ted was just as confused as the other pups. "What exactly are you doing?" he asked Rocky.
"I want to match these tracks to Marshall," Rocky replied. "We know that the paw prints match his, but does the whole trail match how Marshall walks?"
"I would guess not, since he was unconscious," Ted replied.
"Exactly, and if we can figure out how they made the prints, maybe it will tell us something," Rocky concluded.
At that moment, the computer dinged, calling their attention to the screen. "Bingo" Rocky said, "it looks like someone arranged Marshall's paws like he was trotting, and then just put him down on his paws over and over again. It is a perfect repeating pattern."
"What is this over here?" Ted pointed to the screen next to the trail of paw prints.
"It looks like someone tried to obscure their own trail" Rocky replied as he zoomed in, "possibly whoever was making Marshall's trail."
Hitting a couple buttons, Rocky tried to pick a footprint out of the obscured trail. It took a bit, but farther along the trail, there was just enough footprint for a match.
"Gotcha!" Rocky said happily as the computer brought up the match. Mayor Humdinger's face and shoe appeared on screen. "Not quite what I was hoping for," Rocky said sadly.
"More misdirection to shore up the idea that Mayor Humdinger tried to frame Marshall" Ted noted, "this person is good."
"They may be good, but we are better," Rocky stated determinedly. "We'll catch them."
"Yes we will," Ted said with a smile. "Speaking of that, can you pull the logs and days for the maintenance panel for the main door to the lookout?"
"Sure" Rocky replied, "anything in particular we are looking for?"
"I'm not sure" Ted replied, "Augie said he saw something was off about it."
"Then let's go check it out," Rocky said, jumping down and heading for the door. Ted followed right behind him.
At the scene, Chase and Augie had not found any additional evidence in the cabin. "Ok Rubble, start deconstructing" Chase said to the Bulldog.
"On it," Rubble replied. Using his crane, Rubble carefully started lifting sections of the cabin off. First the remains of the roof, followed by each of the walls one by one.
As Rubble was lifting one of the walls, Augie caught a glimpse of something metal. "Hold on Rubble" he called out, making his way to the wall.
"Be careful" Chase said as he followed Augie.
Unfortunately, where Augie was looking was shrouded in darkeness. "Chase, can you shine a light in there?" Augie requested.
"Ruff, flashlight!" Chase barked. His flashlight extended out and shone in front of him. Chase turned and shone the light where Augie needed the light. Illuminated were several pipes that fed into the kitchen. "I don't see anything abnormal," Chase said after a moment.
"Something doesn't look right here, but I'm not sure what" Augie replied, "Rubble, can you slowly keep lifting the wall?"
"Up slow" Rubble replied, tapping the controls for his crane. The wall slowly lifted up until all the pipes were free. Rubble set the wall down and then came to look. "It looks like these pipes have been modified," he said after a moment.
"Help me sort them apart," Augie requested. Rubble got out his spray paints and they started marking each pipe. First the fresh water pipes for hot and cold water, then the drain pipes, leaving only the natural gas pipe unmarked.
"I don't think that is normal," Rubble said, pointing to a tight collection of natural gas pipes.
"Chase…" Augie said slowly, "I think we found our ignition site." There, amongst the tangle, was something Augie unfortunately recognized.
Back at the Lookout, Claire, Darrell and Ryder had not found anything. "This is pointless," Claire said in frustration.
"We've only been at this a few hours," Darrell reminded her.
At that moment, Rocky and Ted burst in. "We think we found something," Ted proclaimed.
"Someone has tampered with the main door," Rocky added, "they short circuited one of the activation sensors to manually open the door."
"Can you figure out when it happened?" Ryder asked.
"I am going to try," Rocky replied determinedly, "they bypassed the alarm trigger but they didn't damage anything other than the one secondary sensor."
"Ok," Ryder said, "good luck."
"I've got Ted, I don't need luck" Rocky said with a smile.
"And I've got Rocky, so I don't need the luck either" Ted said with a smile as they went back to their working lair.
"That is something we don't see everyday," Darrell said with a smile.
"Ryder" Chase's voice echoed from Ryder's pup pad.
"Go ahead Chase" Ryder replied as he lifted the pad up, "did you find something?"
"More than something, we found the ignition source" Chase yipped happily.
"That is great!" Claire said from over Ryder's shoulder.
"We'll see if you say that once we show you" Augie said darkly. Chase panned the view over to the pipes that they had found. "Recognize these?" Augie asked.
Claire sucked in a gasp so sharply that Ryder looked at her in surprise. "You recognize this jumbled mess?" he asked.
"Ted," Claire called her technical lead over, "is this what I think it is?"
Ted peered at the pipes. "I'd have to get a better look, but initial looks says yes" he said as his eyes darkened.
"Rubble, can you cut that out and bring it back intact?" Ryder asked the construction pup.
"I can try Ryder," Rubble said, "but I think Rocky would be able to do it cleaner."
"Copy, I'll send him your way" Ryder replied before tapping an icon on his pup pad. "Skye, come pick up Rocky from the Lookout and take him to the scene."
"On my way Ryder" Skye yipped in acknowledgement.
"So what is this?" Ryder asked as he disconnected from the pups.
"It is a device designed to start fires," Darrell replied, "remotely activated and controlled."
"You've seen these recently" Ryder surmised.
Claire nodded, "we have a serial arsonist in Heartland that is using them exclusively. He is the one that caused the fatalities that brought Cinder here last weekend."
"Sounds like he is dangerous" Ryder replied, suddenly acutely accurately aware that his pups were out there without any backup.
"Dangerous and clever," Claire replied.
"Pups" Ryder called all the pups at the same time. "It looks like the person who started the fire is a serial arsonist from Heartland. Watch your backs, each other, and be extra careful." A chorus of acknowledgements flowed back to Ryder.
"This is the one you were telling us about?" Everest asked hesitantly.
"It is," Cinder softly replied.
"Just like you predicted when we first thought I was being framed," Marshall said softly. Everest looked at the Dalmatians in surprise.
"I told Marshall not to tell you or anyone else, or even thinking again" Cinder swiftly and softly interjected. "I hoped I was wrong and that this was something unrelated. I didn't want to risk influencing the investigation."
"I understand," Everest replied gently, "but why frame Marshall?"
"I have an idea about that," Cinder softly said.
"Ryder" Rocky called to his leader.
"What do you have,Rocky?" Ryder replied.
"I found him," Rocky simply said. Ryder was beside him in a moment, staring at the screen. He was looking at the feed from the interior and exterior cameras at the main entrance of the lookout. Rocky tapped the play button with his paw.
At first, nothing happened. Then, Ryder saw Chase poke his head out of his pup house and look around as if he was investigating something. The police pup on screen went back inside after his initial scan found nothing. Out of the corner of his eye, Ryder caught a shadow dart from between the pup houses to the maintenance panel for the door. A few minutes later, the door to the Lookout opened and Ryder watched as a shadow detached itself from the exterior of the lookout and slipped inside.
Inside, the shadow froze for a split second before disappearing off screen, moments before Texas appeared and looked around. Finding nothing, Texas headed to the kitchen and came back a minute later with some snacks.
"Did we catch him leaving?" Ryder asked.
"Yes, but there is even less to go on" Rocky replied as he fast forwarded. When hit hit play again, everything happened very quickly. In the space of a few seconds, Ryder caught a glimpse of the shadow coming down the stairs and then out the door. If he had blinked, he would have missed it.
"I'm here Rocky," Skye reported. Rocky ran outside to meet her so she could ferry him to the scene.
"Not much to go on," Ryder said quietly after Rocky had left.
"I'm actually amazed you caught anything at all" Darrell said, "this is more than we have caught of him."
"But why frame Marshall?" Ryder asked.
"I don't know," Claire replied, "and that is what concerns me."
At the cabin, Chase, Augie and Rubble had made good use of the time that they had. They had taken down the rest of the cabin down to the foundation and found nothing else worth reporting.
"Are we ok to just be hanging out here, Chase?" Rubble asked nervously.
"We should be ok in a group," Chase replied, "which is why we haven't gone back yet because I don't want either of us to go alone."
"That and we can't risk the arsonist being here and taking our key piece of evidence," Augie added.
Fortunately, they heard Skye rapidly approaching. She released Rocky before landing herself. "One eco pup air delivery special" she said with a giggle.
"Ok, what do I need to cut?" Rocky asked.
"Over here Rocky" Augie called to him. "This is the key piece," Augie said, pointing to the device, "cut off as much as you think we need."
"Hmm" Rocky pondered as he examined the device. "This is quite interesting in its design, whoever made this knows what they are doing."
"Uh, Rocky?" Chase got his brother's attention. "Remove first and study back at the Lookout if that is possible, please?"
"Oh, right, sorry" Rocky apologized. "Ruff, welding torch! Gas is secured, right Rubble?"
"All safe and clear for you to cut it out, Rocky" Rubble replied.
"Chase, Augie, please support it so that it doesn't fall when I cut the pipe, we don't want to damage it" Rocky directed. Chase and Augie got into position as requested. Rocky dropped his welding visor over his eyes and neatly sliced the pipe.
"Ok, let's get this loaded," Chase said. With Rubble's assistance and Skye's help spotting, they managed to get the device loaded safely into the back of Chase's cruiser.
"Hey Augie, how about I ride back with Chase and you ride back with Skye?" Rocky offered.
"Can I?" Augie asked breathlessly, the thought was so amazing that Augie couldn't believe he was even being offered the opportunity.
"Of course" Skye replied with a smile, "just hang tight while I take off and deploy the harness."
"Is this really happening?" Augie was bouncing from paw to paw in anticipation. Skye brought her copter into a hover over Augie, "Arf, Harness!" The harness descended from her helicopter, automatically clicked itself closed around the arson canine before cinching itself snug. Skye slowly started lifting up out of the clearing.
"Whoa" Augie yelped as his paws left the ground. "This is so unnatural…"
"But…" Chase, Rocky, Rubble, and Skye said together.
"Also so AMAZING!" Augie howled in delight as Skye started flying forward. The other pups hopped into their vehicles and headed toward the Lookout. Skye flew with them, with Augie beside himself in happiness as he flew with her.
A/N: Special thanks to PawPatrolAllStars for the time and talent of his character Texas
A/N: Soecial thanks to 18 For the idea for this chapter.