Chase ran around in the dark, looking left and right, yelling at the top of his lungs
"IS ANYONE THERE?! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?!"
He hoped against hope that he would get an answer, just then he bumped into something and fell back with a thud.
"You don't deserve any of this Chase"
That voice, it sounded so familiar...
"I should've left you in Adventure City"
Then it hit him
He looked up fearfully, watching the cold lifeless eyes of the person who he had trusted for the first time in along time. He felt his chest tighten as his heart pounded against his chest.
"R-Ryder, sir, please! I-I- I didn't mean to say any of that! I promise it won't happen again! Please!"
"Shut up Chase, you can't control something as simple as your emotions? Really? Gosh I was so wrong picking you. You are no longer a part of the PAW Patrol"
Chase's tears were now flowing like a river out of his eyes, his mind racing like a bullet train, trying to process everything Ryder was saying.
He tried screaming, apologising for what he had done, he was desperate to fix everything. Why did he lash out at his friends? Why couldn't he control his damn emotions?! He had planned everything, it was so simple, then why..?
Chase's sensitive ears suddenly started picking up a few other sounds, sounds of foot steps, or more like, paw steps.
He turned around and looked at the dead eyes of his teammates, all of them towering him as he felt small and hopeless.
"You're an awful friend Chase"
"Really wish you were never here"
"You're pathetic"
These words painfully echoed through his mind, repeating themself, "selfish", "pathetic", "stupid", "worthless", "burden", but a certain sentence stood out from the rest and it broke the sheperd's heart to pieces.
"We don't care Chase, never did, never will"
And all of a sudden Chase woke up with a jerk, panting heavily, his face stained with tears.
"Oh, it was... just a dream..."
*DING*
Ryder proceeded to walk out of the elevator and into the lounge area but stopped in his tracks as he saw his pups bawling.
"Pups! What's wron-"
"He's gone" Marshall said, entering the lookout.
"What?" The rest of the group collectively questioned, a mixture of concern and worry in their voices.
"Chase" Marshall said looking up at Ryder, because right now, he was probably their only hope of finding the shepherd. As soon as he looked up, Ryder saw how much the dalmatian had been crying, "Chase is gone, he ran away"
"Ran away? Where?"
"I DON'T KNOW OKAY?!"
The pups flinched a little, and Ryder stood there wide eyed, he wasn't entirely sure where all the pup's anger had come from, he began to wonder what had caused one his most carefree pups to get this agitated.
Marshall noticed this, and his expressions immediately softened a little as he began apologising
"I- I- I'm sorry Ryder, it's just, Chase ran away after... an incident and we dont know where to, and now I'm worried he might never come back because he probably hates us now and it's all my fault and I dont know what to do an-"
"Woah, ok, Marshall slow down. Pups, care to explain what exactly this "incident" that you're referring to is?"
A nightmare would be a better description of what Chase had seen but he could care less about what word he was using to describe the vivid images he just saw.
He sighed as he slumped back down to the ground. He had been trying to take nap in his pup house which he had parked at a tree trunk. This place held a special place in his heart.
He closed his eyes and let his mind wander back to the past few hours. The sun was rising and the sky was coloured with a beautiful red-yellow-orange gradient, but the pup was too engrossed in his thoughts to be vigilant about it.
He had driven his vehicle at full speed and despite hearing his 'best friend' calling, or rather, screaming his name, he didn't dare turn back.
He wasn't sure where he was driving too, but what he did know was that he couldn't come back to the lookout for a while. Especially not after what he had done.
So he drove and drove, eventually it started raining, in the beginning it was only a drizzle but then, after a while, it began to really come down.
It was at this point that the German shepherd realized that he needed to stop and take shelter somewhere, the rain had begun pouring heavily and Chase couldn't find shelter anywhere within a 5 mile radius. He began worrying because he knew his police truck would be marred by the time he would actually find a place to stay at for the night.
Then a light bulb went off in his head and he proceeded to drive in the direction of a certain location that held a very special place in his heart, and that was where he stayed the entire night.
In the midst of the flashbacks he was having about what he had said to the pups, he was reminded of a certain 10 year old boy, his owner, Ryder.
He knew Ryder, he knew that he would have found out about what happened by now and would have gone out looking for him.
To find him and bring him home?
Possibly
To scold him for what he had done?
More likely than not
But whatever the reason may be, Chase didnt want Ryder to find him, he thought it was best for the team to take a break from him, and that was the reason Chase had disconnected his pup-tag as soon as the lookout was out of view. It wasn't the smartest choice, he knew, and Ryder being Ryder would definitely find him sooner or later but he wanted to stay away from them as long as possible.
The pups then told Ryder everything, they told him how they were horrible friends to Chase, and how Chase felt no one cared for him and didn't regard them as friends anymore. They told him how he looked so broken and how he took off without another word after yelling at them.
And Ryder listened, a wave of emotions across his face and by the end of it he just sat there, silent.
"R-Ryder..?"
The boy then proceeded to pull out the mundane device he used every so often to call the pups on missions, except this time, the reason for using it was different.
"Ryder to Chase" he said grimly to the pup-pad, but there was no response, just a static sound, the sound you usually hear when a tube TV refuses to work.
"RYDER TO CHASE!" he yelled at the device and the pups lowered their ears in fear.
"RYDER. TO. CHASE." He was now full on screaming at the device in his hand, but nothing changed, all they could still hear was the static sound from the beginning.
"Ryder, yelling at the pup-pad won't connect you to Chase, he must've disconnected his pup-tag because he knew you would try calling him." Skye said with a straight face
Ryder then sunk to the ground, burying his face in his knees.
"It's not your fault pups, it's mine, I've been a horrible owner, I knew something was wrong yet for the sake of my own comfort and his, I refused to look into what was actually bothering him. This is all my fault, I'm so sorry."
The pups all sat around him, some staring at the ground, some looking at Ryder sympathetically.
Then they heard sniffles and Ryder began crying, one by one, so did the rest of the pups. Each blaming themselves for what had happened.
"No Ryder, it's my fault too" Marshall said, "I knew something was wrong too yet I didn't do anything"
"I knew too, we all did, and we did try but we should've tried harder or done something else, or-" Skye whimpered
Ryder saw his pups bawling, he felt bad for them but also knew that the more time they spent here, the more difficult it would be to find Chase.
"Pups, look, we messed up, but crying isn't going to fix anything" he said, standing up, wiping away his tears.
"We have to find him, as quickly as possible, I don't want him wandering off to pup-knows-where and doing something stupid"
Chase started going through the events that led him up to this point. He yelled and screamed at his friends, but why?
Skye did ask him if he wanted to go, she asked him multiple times and he was the one who said no.
Marshall didn't ask him because the last time he did, he got yelled at.
Ryder gave him reassuring looks and told him that he could always come to him if he ever wanted to talk to him.
And all through this, Chase had tried hard to hide what was happening to him, he shut them off, he bottled up his emotions.
And the bottle just burst, it wasn't the carnival that led him to holler at them. It was an accumulation of events, everything inside him had come out at the wrong time, it had clouded his judgement so bad, he didn't know what he was saying.
They all tried helping him, he was the one pushing them away.
This was all his fault.
The brown shepherd then continued whimpering and crying.
Unlike their usual missions, where Ryder would call all the pups to the lookout tower and assign them their respective roles, he decided to just tell them what to do then and there. He didn't want to lose anymore precious time for the sake of formalities.
"Skye, search the area with your helicopter."
"Zuma, you look for Chase out in the bay."
"The rest of you pups, look for him around town, let me know if you find any clues to his whereabouts"
"And what about you Ryder?" Marshall asked
"I-" he hesitated a bit before continuing, "I'm going to look for him in town too, I'll let you all know if I find him"
No one said anything else and they all went off to find their friend and bring him home.
The town wasn't where Ryder was heading off to to look for Chase, he knew where he could have gone and was almost entirely sure he would find him there, but he didn't want to give the pups false hope. And besides, he couldn't confirm anything until he saw it for himself.
The pups' engines and Ryder's ATV collectively roared as they exited the lookout and got onto the streets to start the search, each pup going to their assigned place while also quietly blaming themselves for what had happened... again.
When Ryder was sure no one was looking, he took a detour into the forest and raced past trees, shrubs, bushes, flowers...
The forest was damp, considering the fact that it had been raining hot too long ago, however, the rain had finally stopped and the clouds were beginning to clear out of the sky. There was still some damage done by the storm and Ryder knew that the PAW Patrol would be called to clear up the mess sooner of later. There were still quite a few puddles here and there and slippery rocks but Ryder managed to dodge all of them skilfully and headed in the direction of the location.
After a while of driving, he stopped in front of a tree. Unlike the other trees in the forest, this one was special, it had flowers that only bloomed once every 5 years and it was a beautiful sight to witness. This was also the place him and Chase adored the most.
Back when Ryder had newly adopted Chase, the pup ended up being more active than expected and Ryder would spend half his day looking for him as he tended to run out of the lookout multiple times. It wasn't because he was trying to run away, he just wanted to explore the area but he was Ryder's responsibility and he had his doubts about letting a little puppy go off on his own.
One day, Ryder decided to follow him and in doing so, he discovered the tree, Chase would run up there and wait for the flowers to bloom for hours on the end. Ryder ended up joining his shenanigans too and they would sit there for hours in each other's company admiring it's beauty. It had ended up becoming something of a comfort spot for them and no one knew about it, it was their little secret.
Ryder smiled a little at the memory, he hadn't come here in a long time and it was mostly due to the fact that they had been super busy with all the PAW Patrol rescues they had been having, more now than ever. Maybe after this was all over and they would be reunited, he would bring the rest of the pups here too.
Ryder began walking towards the tree and suddenly stopped in his tracks, in the near distance, he was the dark blue pup-house and he gave out a huge sigh of relief while tearing up in happiness, then using his pup-pad to contact the rest of the pups, he gave them the news:
"Pups"
There was a pause
"I found him"
A/N: Ah yes, back to uploading only once every few months, this wasn't intentional though.
This is probably the longest chapter in this entire fanfic, then again, none of the chapters are that long anyway so...
A few things I wanted to say:
1. The last chapter of this fanfic (yes, this chapter in the second last chapter, I know this fanfic wasn't that long but more on that later) will be posted soon, I've begun writing it but I've only made a dent in the chapter so I can't say for sure when it will be out.
2. Yes, I watched 'PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie' and it was PAWESOME!!! I'll be posting a review chapter too once this fanfiction is complete.
3. The fanfiction itself will be 8 chapters long, 2 more chapters, 1 consisting my review of the new movie, which will obviously contain spoilers and another about the future of this book will be posted along with the last chapter.
Thank you everyone for reading this chapter, see you in the endgame.
Lydian out
