Chapter sixty-one: Bobbing For Pups!
"Chase is floating down the river!" Rocky cried.
"If only we had our pup packs, we could help him!" Snowflake commented as she and Ned ran with the pups.
"How did we forget that?!" Zuma exclaimed.
"Hmmmmm. Any rocks blocking his path?" Snowflake wondered.
"I can't tell.." Rocky replied, peering downstream. "Too many trees in the way."
"Then how can we stop him?" Snowflake wondered, still running after the ball-encased pup.
"Jump on and pop it?" Ned thought.
"No! Then there will be two pups going down the river!" Snowflake exclaimed seriously.
"And it's not a balloon that can be popped." Rocky pointed out. "It's made from recycled plastics."
"Then what do we do?" Rubble asked.
"I'll fly ahead and see what's up there.." Skye said, flying off. Chase sat up from the bobbing motion just in time to watch Skye fly by, partially wondering what she was doing.
"See anything, Skye?" Snowflake called out.
Her goggles zeroed in and she could now clearly see the rough waters ahead.
"No big waterfalls up ahead, but there'll be less than smooth sailing in a little while." the cockapoo responded.
"Uh oh.." Chase remarked, trying to hold himself up steadily.
"Woah!" he cried as he descended the bouncy rapids and landing into a more even flow, surprisingly without being knocked around or spilled over too many times.
"What's up ahead?" Snowflake asked loudly.
"Um.. looks like we're good for now.." Skye replied. "The river seems a lot more smooth up here."
"Good, then that gives us time to figure out a way to get him out of there." Marshall mentioned.
"Yes, but.. Skye! Can you push Chase and the ball to land?" Ned said before thinking of a possible solution.
"Great idea, but.. then what?" the aviator pup wondered.
"Guys,.. a little more rescue would be great!" Chase pried.
"We're working on it.." Marshall called back. "Just sit tight.."
"Um.."
"Nevermind.. just hang in there.." Marshall rephrased himself.
"Uhh.."
"YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!" Marshall exclaimed. "We'll get you out just.. just.. *sigh* Anyone got an idea?"
"Have Skye get him to shore then we'll pull him out!" Snowflake suggested.
"That's what I was thinking!" Ned agreed.
"Got it! This pup's gotta fly!" Skye called, soaring in after Chase's bubble.
"Are you sure about this?" Chase wondered, curiously.. "I mean, by yourself?.."
"I gotta try.." the cockapoo replied. "After all, friends have each other's backs." and Chase just smiled at this.
"Ok, hold on.. I'm gonna guide you over to shore. Just hang on.." the pup warned then began to push.
"Ah! To what?!" Chase gasped, jostling for a firmer base of support.
"Oh right.. Uh.. why don't you just.. Lay down so you don't keep falling over." Skye realized awkwardly. "I'll let you know when it's safe to get up again."
Chase fell forward so he was laying on his left side.
"*sigh* I guess I gotta trust you." Chase decided in defeat, when glancing up at her. Skye just smiled and pressed on, her jetpack firing on all circuits to add power.
"Almost there, Skye!" Marshall called. All the pups screeched to a stop where Chase was approaching and they split off to be on either side of the ball, so that when Skye was able to finally push it up out of the water it rolled forward into their paws so they could carefully guide it away from the muddy bank.
"Whoof! Finally!" Chase sighed, standing up again at Skye's nod. "Thanks.."
"Chase! Hang on!" Ned exclaimed before carefully diving into the ball once he found the hole. He crawled through like he was swimming to get to Chase. Once he got to him, he turned around so they both faced the same direction.
"Crawl onto my shoulders and hang on. I'll get us out," Ned offered.
"Um.. why?" Chase wondered, a little confused.
"To get you out. You've had fun, but going down the river wasn't part of the plan. Besides, we don't want you to be in danger again!" Ned explained sympathetically.
"I wasn't actually in any danger, you know.." Chase pointed out a bit dryly. "This river doesn't have any big waterfalls or anything.. Just a few mild rapids. It was more of a wild ride than anything."
"Well we can't have you going on a wild goose chase, Chase! Now come on!" Ned said, before hugging Chase and starting to crawl out in an awkward way.
"Ah! Ok,.. but.. I got it! You go, I'm right behind you!" Chase surrendered, pulling away from Ned firmly, and beginning to crawl after him.
"Sorry," Ned apologized before crawling towards the hole in the plastic ball that was both the entrance and exit.
"You sure you're ok?" Marshall asked as soon as the two pups came out. "I mean,.." but Chase's dry look cut him off with all he needed to know.
"Ok, nevermind." he gave in willingly. "Let's just get out of here and go home."
"Agreed," Snowflake and Ned responded at the same time. Then they all worked at rolling the ball up the slope so they could get it back out of the woods and to the Lookout.
XXXX
"Hey.. now that I think of it.." Rocky realized the next afternoon. "Did we even finish showing Ned our other gear?"
"No. I don't think you did. Though it would be nice to find that parachute Skye let Marshall borrow!" Ned replied remembering when he had been with the team the other day.
"Of course you'd think of the parachute! But, what 'other gear'? I thought you pups only used your regular gear on missions. Police gear, firefighting gear, flying gear, recycling gear, ect." Snowflake countered now a bit confused about what the pups and her brother were talking about.
"Oh right," the mixed breed remembered.
"We kinda got a little bored while you guys were hanging out, so we decided to show Ned some of our specialized gear for different rescues. But we only got to show him our Sea Patrol gear, Moto gear and Air Pup gear." Marshall explained.
"That's nice. What other gear can you show us?" Ned asked curiously. Snowflake was surprised.
"I didn't know you had more gear for missions? How come I haven't seen you use them before?" Snowflake wondered as they kept pushing the big, plastic ball.
"Maybe you were back at home with me, or busy doing something else?" Ned guessed. "Or you were stuck somewhere."
"I don't get stuck every other day! Only once in a while," Snowflake retorted to the male husky.
The PAW Patrol pups all exchanged glances.
"Here we go again." Rocky sighed, as the rest of his friends dispersed to their vehicles, rolling his eyes up as he said this before racing after them to get to his truck.
"Come on, guys," Marshall remarked, simply climbing into his vehicle. "We'll catch Snowflake up and then we'll continue with the 'gear tour'."
"Okay," Snowflake said, before she and Ned jumped into her vehicle and followed them.
xxxx
Mere hours went by, before blaring sirens and roaring engines finally returned to the Lookout.
"Annnd now we can continue.." Marshall began again, hopping down off his truck.
"Air Pup gear?.." Skye wondered.
"Later," Marshall decided. "Let's just move on to the others.. and we'll pick that one up after."
"Works for me." Chester decided. "Especially if we can finally get to the super hero gear!"
"Chess, you know that's not what we call it?" Chase rolled his eyes with a small smirk.
"Did I?" Chester wondered.
"Sounds good to me," Snowflake said casually.
"Super hero gear? You mean costumes?" Ned asked.
"Uhh.. sure! We'll go with that." Chester recovered with a shrug.
"Chess!" Chase hissed, nudging him.
"What?! Then it'll be a surprise." His older brother reasoned, earning him a dry arch of an eyebrow in distaste.
"Well then, show us please!" Snowflake said suggestively.
"Ok, then let's go find Ryder." Chester said, nodding his head back behind him.
"Lead the way, Chase," Ned insisted, lifting his left front paw politely.
Why's he talking to me? Chase wondered in confusion.
"Ok,.. come on." the younger German Shepherd replied, overtaking his brother and entered the Lookout with all his friends in tow.
"Ryder?!" Chase called into the silent room.
"Ryder?" Snowflake also called out curiously.
"Where is he?" Zuma wondered aloud, making even Chase turn round toward his voice.
"I'm here.." the boy said, appearing from seemingly nowhere. "What's up, pups?"
"Uh,.. could we activate the meteor to show Ned and Snowflake our Mighty pups gear?" Chase asked, slowly coming toward him.
"Sure,.. I guess." the boy shrugged. "Let's head on up."
Then hopping into the elevator, they rose up as the building shape-shifted into the charged up tower. And the two huskies marveled with the transition and were surprised by the changes in each of the pups, when they floated up on the golden beam of powerful light, and landed as the famous Mighty Pups.
Racing up the ramp to the control station, the pups took on their usual places while Snowflake and Ned continued their awestruck observing. Ryder had jetted his way out from where the pups had floated from, and had been standing at his usual post by the big screen for several minutes until they had all arrived.
"So? What do you think?" the boy asked the two huskies, shrugging then placing both hands on his hips in full flight gear.
"This.. is.. AWESOME!" Ned practically screamed as his tail wagged like crazy! "I wonder what your powers are?"
"This is so cool! I wonder why I never got Mighty Powers? Does anybody else have powers?" Snowflake asked, still in awe at what she and Ned were witnessing.
"Well for starters,.." Marshall began. And all six pups' paws glowed their respective colors. "I've got superheat.."
"I've got super flight!" Skye said, hopping up into a whirlwind, then dropping back down again.
"Mine is super tools." Rocky said, summoning a screwdriver for a moment.
"Super strength!" Rubble howled.
"And I got wicked cool water powers, dude." Zuma followed.
"What about you Chase? What are your Mighty powers?" Ned asked.
"I see you have a jetpack, Ryder. I'm guessing you didn't get any Mighty powers huh?" Snowflake guessed with her ears folding back. She felt sorry Ryder got left out.
"Pff! Like you gotta ask,.." Chase scoffed. "I have.." then blasting around them in a hypesurge he stopped out of it suddenly to yell.. "Super speed! Wah-hoo!"
But speeding down the ramp tweaked something in his shoulder, and he went tumbling out of it, somehow landing on his paws in a screeching halt. A small grimace got their attention, but as they came down to him, he seemed far more fine than he previously had been.
"Chase? Are you okay?" Snowflake asked, seeing him grimace. "It's cool you have super speed, but you should probably be careful"
"Ryder, you only have the jetpack, right? No powers?" Ned asked.
"Nope, no powers, just a flightpack." Ryder replied.
"I don't get it.." Chase's voice drew their attention once again. "I was fine a minute ago.. Still do.. Better actually.. So how come.."
"Your Mighty Powers might just be lessening the effects of your injury.. Not masking them completely." Marshall figured. "Snowflake's right, you need to be careful.. Especially since you can't quite gauge when you've had enough quite as well anymore."
"Yeah.. what Marshall said," Snowflake commented. "So is that all the powers you pups have or no?"
"Not quite.." Skye said. "Everest was there the day the Meteor blasted us."
"And some twins named Ella and Tuck joined us later." Rocky recalled.
"And Humdinger's nephew, Harold.." Rubble added, thinking briefly on this. "He was also there the day we got blasted too.. and he kidnapped Ryder and came after us,.."
"Until Chase happened." Zuma smiled at their speedy German Shepherd, who smiled fondly at the memories.
Snowflake's eyebrows narrowed suspiciously.
"What did Chase do? Make Harold dizzy?" she asked half jokingly. "Or did Everest help him out by throwing snowballs at Harold?"
"No,.. but close.. He definitely gave that 'Harold' kid a 'run for his money'." Chester quoted. "From what I heard, by the time Chase was done with him that robot of his was scrap."
"Not exactly, Chess." Chase shrugged loosely.
"What do Ella and Tuck do? Who are they?" Ned asked, slightly confused.
"They're twins that happened to wander into town one day." Ryder explained. "We ended up facing some super baddies and ended up needing their help. One of them can grow really, really big,.. and the other can shrink really, really small."
"And they say opposites attract.." Chester smirked.
"Chester! Not like that!" Chase cried, almost disgusted by his brother's implication.
"NOOOOoooo! They're siblings for Pete sake! Get your mind out of the mud!" Snowflake commented, equally as grossed out by the implication.
"Well, it's true! Just like Snowflake and I-"
"WE'RE GOOFBALLS NED! WE'RE NOT DATING!" Snowflake snapped, correcting her husky brother.
"What do you mean? He said 'opposites attract'- Oooh. Ewww! No!" Ned replied before being grossed out too.
"Hey, maybe I meant their parents.. Not,.. them.." Chester shrugged innocently.
"Moving on.. What other powers do you pups have? What about Everest?" Snowflake said, trying to redirect the topic.
"Well.." Skye thought aloud as Marshall strode forward next to Chase. Then the German Shepherd and Dalmatian exchanged glances before bumping paws, and embracing the explosion that changed their appearances slightly. Then Chase barked a sonic wave and Marshall super jumped.
All four remaining pups charged up so Zuma could catch Marshall in a mighty bubble, Skye could whip a stormy cloud wall up for Rocky to walk confidently through and Rubble to bounce on through in his wrecking power ball.
"I see.. Thank you," Snowflake said in awe.
"That's cool! But where did Rocky go? Rocky? Huh, the orange bubble Zuma made looks bouncy. Can I jump on the bubble?" Ned commented also looking in awe.
"I'm right here.. I have x-ray vision, I'm not invisible." The mixed breed deadpanned, appearing next to the husky.
"A better question would be how do those super barks not hurt your throat? Aren't they loud?" Snowflake asked, turning attention to Chase.
"Not really.." Chase replied, taken aback by this questionable fact. "I.. barely notice it at all.. I just know it happens and it's powerful."
"Okay, I was just wondering. Don't want your throat to get hurt," Snowflake replied with a smile, earning her an odd smile from Chase.
"Can I bounce on the orange bubble Zuma? Please?" Ned politely pleaded before heading towards the orange bubble that encased Marshall.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no! You are not bouncing!" Snowflake exclaimed before hugging Ned from behind. That didn't stop the husky pup from trying to continue his goal.
"But it looks so SQUISHY, BOUNCY, AND FUN!" Ned whined with determination.
"I will not let you jump on a bubble with Marshall inside it! You'll turn him into pudding! Or jump to the moon! Both are bad!" Snowflake exclaimed as she struggled to restrain her goofball husky brother.
"Sorry dude," Zuma apologized, slowly setting Marshall down and popping the bubble to release him. "Mighty bubbles don't exactly work like that."
"Awwww. Okay," Ned replied, slightly sad the bubble wasn't also a trampoline.
What a fun way to open this new chapter! Between Chase and Chester's banter at the end of the last chapter and the banter between Chase and Marshall at the start of THIS chapter I don't know which one I love more! Leave a comment on which one was YOUR favorite! I'd LOVE to know which one you guys liked.
And now on to next week for the next addition! Hope to see you then! Thx!