Chapter three: Rescue Rally!

The rocks fell suddenly into place and the sharks scattered. The only thing visible through the dust cloud was a falling object, which Coral immediately ejected to swim forward to retrieve. And what she caught and brought back up to them was a cracked helmet.

"Oh no.." Ryder breathed.

Chase's pup tag flashed.

"Chase, are you ok?!" Ryder's voice asked hurriedly. But as much as he'd like to have answered.. he knew he only had so much time that he couldn't waste. So all he could do was tap his pup tag.

"What's that?" Zuma asked, pointing to the red bean pulsing off of Chase's pup tag icon on Ryder's dash screen.

"That's an SOS beacon, it means he's activated it to let us know he's ok.. but in big trouble.. we have to get him out.. without his helmet he'll run out of air!"

"But how do we move those rocks?" Marshall asked. "They're huge!"

Just then, noises and various shadows followed by a big dark one floated over them and they all looked down and then up.

"Look!" Coral squeaked.

"Our fishy friends got the giant squid to help us!" Marshall gasped.

"Awesome!" Zuma breathed. The various critters chattered to the giant squid and the large creature, in response, fluttered down toward the rocks. With its big strong tentacles, it pulled on the fallen rock to recreate the opening.. while the lobsters reached in and pulled the German Shepherd out. Noticeably trying to hold his breath, the team could tell it was beginning to get difficult to the point that swimming was just starting to be less effective. But before they could do anything.. a shark came up under him so that Chase could hold on to its fin, as it began to swim up towards the surface.

"Let's follow them, pups!" Ryder said, immediately steering his vehicle up.

And even though bubbles leaked air from his lungs, Chase still felt like he couldn't let go of the fin, only fearing the possibility of losing his grip as the forward momentum continued faster.

xxxx

Bursting through the surface, he was immediately hit with a rush of air that made his breath catch in his throat, which started him coughing on the water that splashed down his throat. And the instant relief of air was also an attack on his lungs as he gasped for breath upon the wet body holding him up.

Ryder and the two pup vessels emerged, as Chase finally spit some water from his mouth.

"Chase, are you ok?!" Ryder asked.

"*Cough*cough*y-yeah.." Chase spluttered, then cleared his throat. "I'm good. We gotta get the statue back!.."

"Skye, Rubble and Rocky are working on that.." Ryder said.. "And we're gonna go help them. But first we need to get you a new helmet.. and I have a spare in the Whale Patroller. Coral, if you can help our fish friends get Chase back to the Whale Patroller. Marshall, Zuma and I can tow Chase's shark sub back to him so we can go help our friends."

"Sounds like a mervolous plan, Ryder." Coral smiled, then yipped something to the critters. Then the dolphins clicked something at Chase, and he nodded, as if understanding them, before drawing in another deep breath and holding onto the shark's fin for them to dive back down.

"Okay, let's go Marshall." Ryder decided, switching gears again. "Let's go get Chase's sub." And the two vehicles dove away again.

xxxx

"Are we there yet, Skye?" Rocky asked, then the cockapoo pulled up the map next to her manta drone's camera view.

"Almost.. now let's get a closer look at who we're dealing with.." she decided, sending out the instruction for the drone to move closer. As the view panned up and around the dragging statue, a familiar color scheme began to provide an answer..

"Is that.. Moby?" Skye wondered, squinting in confusion.

"Why am I not surprised?" Rocky shrugged, rolling his eyes dryly.

"Looks like you were right, Rocky." Rubble commented.

"And I can't even enjoy it." The mixed breed sighed.

"Come on, let's catch up to him.." Skye said, powering her vehicle faster.

XXXX

Chase held on to the shark's fin tightly, until he felt a tap on his shoulder, which ended up being Coral. Who then grabbed his paw to pull him toward the waiting Whale Patroller, and he waved his thanks to the animals as he tried not to release what little breath he had left.

"Coral.. We've got Chase's shark sub." Ryder reported hauling it up to send it into the hatch below the giant sub's helm. "How's Chase?"

"Wet and out of breath.. but fine.." Coral replied, watching the German Shepherd heavily breathing back to normal, while making a puddle where he sat from the drops coming off him.

"Glad to hear it," the boy smiled. "I'm coming in to get him his new helmet. And as soon as he's ready, we'll deploy to help the other pups. Stand by, Marshall."

"You got it." The Dalmatian nodded, then Ryder turned his vehicle toward the open hatch and jettisoned into it.

xxxx

"Here it is." The boy announced raising the helmet in his hand as he approached the two pups. "How you doing, Chase?"

The German Shepherd stood up to shake one more time.

"I'm ok.." he replied, sitting back down. "But we gotta find that statue."

"You always were good at staying focused on the task." Ryder smiled, kneeling to place the helmet on his pup.

"And we will.. are you up for another hot pursuit?" He added standing back up.

"You bet! Chase is on the case!" Chase asserted.

Then turning to hop into his shark sub, he settled into position and rocketed off into the open water.

"Then let's go, pups!" Ryder called motioning for Coral to get to her vehicle and Zuma to follow him to his, so they could speed off together after the other pups.

xxxx

"Skye, we're headed your way, what's your status?" Ryder called, appearing on the Cockapoo's dash screen.

"Well Rocky was right about Moby being the one behind the stealing of the statue.. but we can't seem to catch up to him." The pup replied.

"Hey, I see them all on the sonar.." Zuma pointed out, over Ryder's shoulder.

"Send that my way.." Chase called. Then Ryder pressed something to project it over onto Chase's dash screen.

"I've got an idea.." the German Shepherd decided after looking at the imaging for a few moments. "But I'll need a little help."

"How can we help?" Ryder asked, as Coral and Marshall sped up next to them.

xxxx

"Almost home free! Then we can remake this statue into a statue of me!" Moby cheered to himself. "McSquidly, how much longer before we make it to the underwater volcano?" The yellow squid peered out the windshield and pointed looking back at him.

"Ah, yes.. nearly there. Excellent!" Moby reeled with anticipation. "Soon there will be no more happy songs and no more cheerful dancing! My kind of place!"

Suddenly, they were bumped slightly off course when something hit their vessel, and Moby had to yank the steering over to return to his objective. However moments later another blow nearly knocked them completely off course.

"Hey! What is doing that! Make them stop!" Moby demanded to his little squid friend.

"You gotta catch us first!" Chase teased, steering his sub past the windshield slowly, then zipped away again. Another big thing hit them and the sharks that came by seemed to smile and snicker.

"How dare you, try and stop me!" Moby accused in disgust. "I'm doing everyone a favor! Especially myself."

"As a pup who didn't understand what the animals were saying, I didn't understand why they were trying to get my attention the way they did.. But now that I do.. I know exactly what I need to do to get you to forget what you're doing." Chase told him. Then the cables of Moby's ship were cut loose.

"Hey! Stop that!" Moby exclaimed. "That's mine now!"

"No Moby, it belongs to Puplantis. And it's going back where it belongs." Coral asserted as Rubble and Rocky took up the net with all new cables and began to carry it back the way they came.

"Arrrrgh! Fine, keep it.. I didn't want a statue of me anyway! Hmph!" Moby pouted, but thinking on this a moment a devious thought came to mind. Spraying ink clouded their vision, but coming out of it Chase could see where he was headed.

"Oh no you don't.. Ruff! Winch!" His sub shot a hooked cable from its mouth and successfully hooked the sub, jamming one of its propellers.

Moby grunted, jerking over his controls with the sudden stop.

"Rrrg, you won't stop me!.." the former merpup sneered to himself.

Then kicking it into high gear, he propelled forward, still being held back by the shark sub that had leached itself onto him.

Chase strained to keep his controls from slipping, but the tug of war that had begun was continually making it difficult as he held him back from his objective.

"Unnnh!-Ryder! I've caught Moby's sub wrong and I don't know how long I can hold him." Chase cried, struggling to keep holding steady.

"Help is on the way, Chase." Ryder announced through his pup tag. "I'm calling for backup!"

"Robo dog, bring the Whale Patroller to our position right away!" Ryder instructed flipping channels.

The robotic bark that came back signaled its response.

"Ok Robo dog is on his way." The boy announced on an open channel. "Now let's help Chase, by running interference in case Moby is able to break free."

"Annnnh.. Ryder?!"

"Almost there, Chase.." Ryder assured his pup. "Rocky, Rubble, the Whale Patroller should be here any minute.. but I need you to get the statue as far away from Chase and Moby as possible."

"But this statue is really heavy." Rocky mentioned. "We can only go so fast without letting it drag us down."

"And our rigs can barely keep it from dragging on the ground." Rubble added.

"Do what you can, but we don't know how long Chase can hold Moby back and we need to keep that statue away from him. Coral and the merpups are counting on us." Ryder said. "You can do this!"

"Ok.. then let's go for it!" Rocky said.

"Full power.." Rubble decided. "3.. 2.. 1.. full throttle!"

Rocky and Rubble pushed their vehicles as hard as they could, which did successfully add speed.. but not much more. Then Ryder noticed a spark of light in the distance, which turned into a sight for sore eyes.

"The Whale Patroller!" Zuma gasped, happily wagging his tail. "Pawsome timing, Robo-dude!"

"I don't know about that.." Chase mentioned, watching the gauge on his dash turn red. Metal creaked while he groaned, holding down the controls firmly hoping it'd hold for even a moment longer when..

Crack! The hook release and Chase plummeted backwards, hitting the ground in a cloud of dust.

"Haha! We're free! Now to get my statue back!" Moby cheered. However, he started to drift off at an odd angle and as he tried to correct it his dash began to scream with warnings of errors.

"What? Propeller malfunctions? How is that possible?!" The ocean pup exclaimed.

"Chase, are you ok?" Marshall asked, as he arrived over the fading cloud.

"Aoh.. other than a bit of whiplash and slightly overheated sub.." he groaned lightly, shaking his head. "Ok, I guess."

"Hey! It's not whiplash until I determine it's whiplash.." Marshall asserted, shooting a cable down to hook the shark sub from the top.

"But you might be right." He added, as he towed it back toward the Whale Patroller.

"Woah.. woah.. -wah!" The spinning suddenly stopped and Moby was almost stunned to realize this. Until the reason why was viewable through his windshield.

"There you go, dude." Zuma said as Ryder's vehicle set them down on the seafloor. "Now you can make whatever repairs you need to.. while we take care of this.."

"What?! No! That's not-.. rrgh!" Moby grumbled to himself.

Rocky and Rubble entered the Whale Patroller despite Moby's protest and the other pups soon followed.

"Ok, pups.. let's get this statue back to where it belongs." Ryder said.

"Hooray! We did it!" Coral cheered.

"Now let's finish it!" Ryder agreed. "Robo-dog take us back to Puplantis."

XXXX

Lowering the statue back into place seemed to make the kingdom feel whole once again. And any merpups that happened to be there watching cheered with happy songs of thanksgiving and praise.

"Thanks for all the help, pups!" Coral smiled gratefully. "I couldn't have gotten the statue back without you guys."

"And thank you for helping us with the sharks." Ryder said. "We may not have figured out why they were bothering Chase without you."

"Yeah! We probably wouldn't have been able to help the other pups with Moby if we didn't." Chase agreed.

"Aww, of course." Coral beamed. "But I didn't do it alone. Our fishy friends deserve some of the credit.. they not only told us what was going on, but they also helped when you got into trouble. And came to help when Moby was refusing to give the statue back. And I'm so glad that everyone is safe and sound, especially you, Chase."

"Thanks.. Hehe.. I guess we better thank them again.." Chase smiled. "Great work, guys!" And the sharks gathered nearby among the other critters and swam a backflip to show they're appreciation while everyone laughed and cheered!

~Paws and Jaws~

Hooray! Happy Thanksgiving guys! What a way to end this fun new story! As always, thank you so much for sticking with me on this impromptu story post. Hope you enjoyed it and I can't wait to hear your thoughts on how things went down. More is yet to come as far as stories, even if this one has already come to a close. But! That be how the rock rolls..

And as is tradition for this holiday, I am soooo thankful for all of you! At the end of the day the writing is for my enjoyment and you guys! You make it all the more worth the time and creativity I put into these, so thank you from the bottom of my heart! I appreciate the following I have built up over the years and hopefully you'll stick with me for many more! Thanks again.. and have a wonderful thanksgiving holiday! Thx!