I don't own anyone here except for OCs

CH18

The ride back to the Lookout was a peaceful one for the German Shepherd. The now pinkish horizon giving way to the darkening sky did ease his mind of worry somewhat. Even though he didn't know it was about to be ruined.

He was immediately dismayed by the sight of the pup houses on the Lookout grounds. Crap! I knew I took too long!

Ryder's going to freak out, he just knew it.

As he pulled into his spot on the yard, the rest of the pups except for Skye came running out of the lobby to greet him. He parked and his cruiser transformed back into his pup house.

"Chase! Where have you been man!?" Zuma was the first to speak.

Chase leaned out of his pup house and could see the pups were clearly shaken up. "I just took a long ride around the bay, is something wrong?"

"We've been calling you for the last two hours!" Rubble exclaimed.

"Oh… sorry?"

"You were riding without your pup tag?" Marshall asked, holding the tag up in his paws.

"Oops, must have forgotten it." Chase laughed sheepishly as he took his pup tag from the dalmation and put it back on.

The pups exchanged bewildered glances before Rocky spoke up.

"The rescue from earlier today went wrong, like real wrong…" He trailed.

"What happened?" Chase asked, now impatient.

Marshall hesitated before answering. "We failed, the guy he… didn't survive."

Chase stared at him for a moment, shock began to settle in. "Wait… WHAT?"

"Yeah, his truck was hanging off the road. Skye was about to get him out before she acted out of it and crashed, we couldn't hold the truck any longer." He finished.

"Skye crashed! Where…!?" Chase started to panic.

"She's alright dude, at least physically. She's been locked in her pup house ever since we got back to the Lookout though, won't speak or eat." Zuma explained before Chase could have a panic attack.

Chase calmed a bit but his heart still ached with worry, he looked over to her pup house which was shut.

"And they took Ryder!" Rubble barked.

The German Shepherd's eyes widened and his heart started to pound again, he felt pale as he fully processed Rubble's words.

"…WHO!?" Chase barked, startling the bulldog.

"I don't know! Some guys in suits just came in a black car and took him away!" Rubble fearfully answered, Chase's outburst causing him to recoil.

The German Shepherd's eyes widened and stared past the other pups, his mind went static. What Ryder warned him about, like it was his biggest fear, happened. There was no doubt in his dreadful mind that this wouldn't have happened if he just left that place alone. He… might not ever see him again, and it was all his fault.

"Dude?"

Zuma's voice snapped him out of his panicked thoughts, he looked past them to Skye's pup house.

"I have to talk to her." He said as he moved past the others to her pup house.

The other pups exchanged worried looks as they watched Chase knock on her door.

"Hey Skye, it's me." Chase spoke.

"…"

"Look, I'm sorry about what happened. I just want to talk and see if you're okay, can I do that?" He pleaded.

That did the trick as her door slowly began to flip up, stopping about a quarter of the way.

A sigh was heard before a weak voice invited him in. "Come in."

Chase creeped under the door before it closed, and he looked to see an emotional drained Skye. Her facial fur was matted with dry tears and redness surrounded her usual joyful pink eyes. She clearly wasn't okay.

"Skye, what happened?"

She shook her head and fell on her bed, her face buried in the covers. "I messed up Chase, the truck driver… he died." Her voice turned to a whimper.

"It, it wasn't your…"

"No it was! I should've slept in and let you go in that place by yourself." Skye quickly cut him off. "It's all over the news in Adventure City, about how we failed, we never failed before and I was the one that did it!"

Chase listened, feeling hurt and anguish for his friend.

"Now I'm hearing voices in my head and seeing weird symbols!" She spat tearfully.

"Wait, what?" Chase asked, interest peaking.

"I know I sound crazy but right when I was about to harness the driver, I started hearing this scary voice before I passed out. I had this vivid dream where the voice led me to symbol on a wall and that's all I remember, I don't know what's wrong with me." She finished hopelessly.

"Hold on."

Chase stepped out of her pup house and made for his own. Skye looked up from the covers in confusion and got up and watched through her cracked door. She saw him retreat to his dwelling and shuffle around, he re-emerged with a small object in his mouth. She identified it as the flash drive they found in the labs when he returned.

"What was on that thing?" She asked.

"Way too much." Chase answered simply. "There is still a part I can't access, but it has something I think you want to see."

"Oh."

Skye waited patiently as Chase plugged the drive into his pup tag after he removed it from his neck. The FIP Corp logo popped up before the screen changed to two documents, Chase picked the one that wasn't locked. He scrolled down the doc and stopped at a picture.

"Is this the symbol that you saw?" Chase asked as he presented his tag to her.

Skye peered at the two images, then her eyes widened. Six lines above an oval pointing up to an eight pointed star, there was no mistaking it. She stared for a minute then read the text surrounding it.

"That's… that's the symbol I saw. It glowed a greenish yellow when it appeared." Skye described.

"I saw it too, and heard the voice." Chase admitted.

"What?" Skye asked, shocked.

"Yeah, except I was back at the labs."

The two sat there for a moment to gather their thoughts and try to piece together something with this new revelation.

"What do you think this voice is, or that mark?" Skye asked.

Chase sighed. "I don't know, but I think you might want to look this over from the beginning." He said as he put his pup tag on her bedding. The two hopped on her bed and started reading through the text together.

The four other pups remained outside, talking amongst themselves about the day's events as they observed Skye's pup house. They saw Chase come out several minutes ago to get something from his pup house but couldn't see what it was, it weirded them out now.

"Is it just me, or have those two been acting off lately?" Marshall asked, remembering Chase's expression last night.

"Totally." Zuma agreed. "Ever since this morning when the two were like tired or sick or something."

"I think you guys might be overthinking it a little." Rubble stated.

"I don't know Rubble, the two definitely seem like they're out of it, like they know something that we don't." Rocky noted.

"Skye might just be having girl problems." Rubble tried to reason.

"What do you know about girls?" Zuma shot him a quirky glance.

"I could ask you the same thing." Rubble shot.

"Ouch." Marshall winced.

"Got me." Zuma put his paws up, knowing Rubble was right sense he didn't really pay much attention to females as much as males.

"Whatever, you guys think too much, I'm hungry." Rubble said as he retreated to the Lobby to get some dinner, earning chuckles from the other members.

"Save some for us!" Rocky called after him.

They turned back to Skye's pup house, where they heard an audible gasp. They were able to distinguish it as Skye's.

"I wonder what they're doing." Rocky said what was on the other's minds.

"I don't know, but it sounds like they're looking at something, maybe it has something to do with what Chase grabbed earlier?" Zuma spoke.

"AWW WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THE BACON FLAVORED KIBBLE!?" Rubble yelled from the Lookout.

He came running out in a panic. The pups looked back at him in confusion.

"Dudes, half our food is gone!"

"HUH?" The three pups said in unison.

"But who could have stolen our food while we were gone?" Marshall asked.

"Chase was the only that was here!" Rubble barked.

That was it, all the pups turned to Skye's pup house. Thinking back to how Chase had pulled up after they got home, something wasn't adding up. Rubble was the first to go marching to pup house with a stern look while the other pups followed behind.

Skye sat there on her bed, looking more troubled than ever, her mouth still agape.

"I know." Chase said softly. "I still can't believe it myself."

The video on the doc, showing the birth of Gasket and Everest and their injections. Skye didn't even blink.

"Skye?"

"How can we go on? It's all a lie… we're just experiments." She whispered, staring straight ahead.

"Look we have to keep going, or else they'll take us away." Chase reminded.

"…but, but we have to tell them!" Skye nearly squealed.

"Tell us what?" Rubble grumbled outside.

Chase's eyes became saucers and he put his claw on his lips and shook his head fiercely, pleading for her to hush. "You can't." He choked out.

Skye just stared at him.

"Hey what's going on bud? Let us in." Marshall begged from outside.

Chase broke his gaze from Skye and opened the door, he was met with stern and worried looks.

"What happened to our food?" Rubble interrogated.

"And what are you two looking at?" Rocky questioned.

Chase put his head down and tried to think of an excuse, anything.

"Look we just want to know what's going on, we won't be mad or anything, at least not too mad." Marshall reasoned.

Skye stared at the German Shepherd expectingly, as much as she wanted to let everything out right then and there, she was willing to give him a chance.

"We're waiting." Rubble grunted.

Chase looked up, his mind made up. He'll tell them half of the truth.

"I've been giving our food to the Ruff Ruff Pack." He stated.

"What!" Barked Rubble, understandably more shocked than the others.

"Dude, they're like our enemies, why?" Zuma asked.

Chase shook his head. "I saw them yesterday when they stole the s'mores, they look hungry and desperate and I don't think they should starve even if they do cause trouble." He explained boldly as he put his paw down.

"That's… actually pretty noble of you." Marshall seemed to agree with that answer.

Skye hid a growing smile of approval.

"Yeah except you probably shouldn't do that without Ryder knowing." Zuma remarked, though his response left them feeling awkward, reminding them of Ryder's absence.

Rubble relaxed, letting his tension fade. "Alright, I'll eat the bland stuff tonight but next time save me some bacon kibble!"

Chase chuckled. "Don't worry Rubble, I will."

"Hey what were you two looking at when the door was closed?" Rocky asked, not forgetting his question.

"Oh." Chase had something for that too. "Some of what the media said about us. They were being pretty nasty, especially to Skye."

"Yeah." Skye muttered lowly, nearly breaking down because it was true.

The pups exchanged saddened looks.

"Hey don't listen to them Skye, they weren't there." Marshall said.

"They probably can't even do your job half as good anyway." Rocky added.

Even though their support was expected, she did appreciate it.

"You know, I think it's time for a group hug with the way the day's been." Rubble suggested with a smile as he looked around to the other pups.

"Me first!" Marshall yelled as he practically tackled the bulldog. Next was Zuma, then Rocky, and Chase and Skye both jumped in the puppy pile in a laughing fit. They all felt their stress simmer away as they embraced each other.

"Whatever happens," Chase began. "We've got it, we all got it."

"Yeah!" They all agreed.

As they parted from the hug, a set of headlights coming from the road to the Lookout caught their attention.

"Who could that be?" Skye asked.

"Guess we'll find out." Chase said.

The vehicle got closer and closer. They could now tell it was a green van of some kind. The van soon pulled into the Lookout and stopped before the garage, the vehicle made a click as they saw it was in park mode now.

The pups watched as the strange new vehicle cut off, and the passenger door opened. A husky pup toting a weekender bag in her muzzle crawled out.

"Everest?" Marshall chirped, his tail wagging.

He went over to her, "Can I help you with that?"

She gave a muffled "sure" before she dropped it and let Marshall take it. "Take it to the lobby, please." She said in a light voice.

"Hi guys." She greeted in a weak tone, yet still managed a smile as she followed the Dalmatian to the lobby.

"Hi Everest." They greeted back, bewildered.

"Hey pups," They heard Jake call from the driver's side of the vehicle before he made for the back door. "Got some news for you."

"Are you guys staying here?" Chase asked.

"We sure are and guess what? I'm gonna be leading you all now." Jake said enthusiastically.

He was met with a series of 'huhs' and 'whats' as he grabbed his bags from the back of the van.

"Yep, gotta look after you guys." He said simply.

"Don't you have a Ski Lodge to run?" Chase asked.

Jake shook his head. "It's the off season right now, it'll be alright."

"But where's Ryder?" Rubble asked in desperation.

Jake froze. "He's… gonna be gone for awhile, he wasn't feeling too well."

The pups stared at him, now dumbfounded as he shut the door to meet their gazes.

"He looked alright to me, just shocked." Zuma quipped.

"Those guys sure didn't look like doctors." Rocky remarked.

Jake laughed with a hint of nervousness. "They are, they were just specialized ones for the condition that he had."

Jake frowned as their stares now made him uncomfortable so he tried to change the subject. "How do you guys like my van? Nice rental option until Everest gets a new snowcat."

"Do you think we're that stupid?" Skye asked, her voice void of emotion.

"Whoa whoa, hey!" Jake was taken aback by the small puppy's question. "Look I know you guys had like beyond the worst day, but I promised Ryder I would look after you guys until he got back so… I'm sorry?"

The pups exchanged glances and some shook their heads before they left for the lobby, except for Chase. He stood his ground and used his guard dog blood to look hard at Jake's features. Jake scratched his head, the German Shepherd puppy actually struck fear into him.

"You're lying." Chase growled.

Jake put his hands up. "Look little dude, I know that…"

"Where's Ryder!" He barked, cutting Jake off.

Jake sighed, and kept his voice low. "Honestly I don't know, but he's gonna come back, I promise."

Chase never loosened his glare on the boy.

"Can I put my stuff up now?" Jake pleaded, slightly annoyed.

Chase eventually backed off, allowing Jake into the lobby but never took his eyes off him.

The door shut and he huffed, troubled by this new turn of events. He made for his pup house, looking to be alone for the rest of the night.