This chapter is seen in the Robodog's POV.
Adventure Bay, Lookout
1300
A robotic canine suddenly gains vision; it's blurry at first, but he can make out a four-legged creature and a humanoid being standing in front of him. The canine's expression changes to excitement as he turns toward the human and says something the robot dog cannot quite understand. After a few seconds of watching them talk, the human walks over to him with the canine in tow and sits in a nearby chair.
"01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111?"
The robot dog could tell the human had said something because his mouth was moving, but he couldn't make out what he said; it just came across as a bunch of random numbers. He did, however, seem to have some sort of system that might allow him to translate it, so he attempted to translate it so he could understand.
"01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111? 01111001 01001111 01110101 awake?"
The robodog began slowly understanding, he could make out the word 'awake'.
"Hello? Robodog? are you awake?" The human asked.
The robodog looked at him and without even knowing the language, responded. "Hello? Who are you?"
The human and canine shared a look with each other before turning back to him. "My name is Ryder, this is Rocky. We're the ones who built you." Ryder said to him.
"Built me? Creator?" The robodog asked.
"Y-Yes, we're your creator." Rocky replied.
The robodog looked around the room and noticed he was sitting on a large metal table; he also heard very distant footsteps from a higher level of whatever structure he was in.
"Where am I?" The robodog asked.
"You're in the lookout, the HQ of the PAW Patrol." Ryder replied.
"lookout? HQ? PAW Patrol?" The robodog said, clearly wanting more information.
"Uhh yes, the building is called the lookout. HQ is an acronym that means Headquarters. While PAW Patrol is the name of our organization, it's members consist almost entirely of pups! With the obvious exception being me." Ryder responded.
The robodog nodded, signaling that he understood. He looked around a little more before standing up and hopping off the table. He heard the humans and pups next to him say something, but they didn't immediately stop him. He walked up to a large, metal rectangle that seemed to be the only exit. He tried pushing through it, but failed. So he then tried clawing through it, but failed again as the metal door resisted his efforts to brute force through it. He heard his creators laugh at him a little before the human walked over to the door and grabbed the handle, twisting it and opening the door, allowing him to leave the small room. He found himself in a long hallway with many more doors with different-colored badges on them. At the end of this hallway was a large, circular platform.
"You're very eager to explore I see." Ryder said to him.
"I have this... urge to explore my surroundings and collect information, I can also hear other things moving on a higher level of this... 'lookout'." The robodog responded.
"That's called curiosity, it's natural to be curious of the world around you." Rocky said to him.
The robodog jumped on the weird, circular platform. He looked up and saw a long tunnel going as far up as he could see.
"I see you're eager to meet your other friends." Ryder said.
"How do I go up?" The robodog asked.
"It's an elevator, you press the button right here and it'll bring you to the next level of the lookout." Rocky replied as he and Ryder got on the elevator with him.
The robodog walked to the button Rocky gestured to and pressed it. The platform began rising quickly, which startled the Iron Canine. Ryder saw this and put his hand on the robodog's head; the robodog looked at him. It was weird - he was suddenly perfectly calm. He couldn't describe it, but something about this human's presence was calming. Soon, the elevator stopped and the three got off the platform and began exploring the new room they found themselves in. It was much brighter in here, being made of many different, interesting colors. He hopped onto this large, red rectangular thing the human told him was calling a couch. He soon hopped off it and spotted another entrance to a different room, he trotted over to it and entered the room, with the human and canine following.
He immediately noticed all the different canines sitting around the room, most of them glancing up at him and giving him confused looks. He noticed a certain shepherd, however, that didn't look confused; instead, he had a smile on his face. The pack of canines quickly began swarming him and asking him many different questions.
"Pups, pups, give your new friend some space." Ryder said to all the pups.
The pups looked at him before slowly backing away. The robodog saw Rocky stand next to him and clear his throat.
"This is my latest invention and newest member of the PAW Patrol, Robodog. He was built to assist us in missions and potentially be more helpful than our robopups are. He'll be able to do all that the robopups can, plus more. He can freely think and act, and is almost fully autonomous." Rocky told them.
"So... you built a tewminatow?" Zuma asked.
"Uhh... Anyway, he is coded to take commands from other members and will immediately do his best to complete the command given to him." Rocky added. "I know what you're thinking and no, don't worry about wording the command carefully, He'll only follow a command if it's possible to complete it without causing harm."
"What if... It isn't possible to complete it without causing harm but it must be done?" Ace asked.
"In cases where it isn't possible... he'll ask for permission to use lethal force. This is hopefully only needed in the worst case scenarios, and on the off chance something goes wrong, there's a special command to immediately shut him down. All you have to do is say Emergency shutdown!-"
Everything went dark for the robotic canine; he couldn't see or hear anything but his own thoughts. He also couldn't move his limbs, no matter what he tried—all he could see was a black void. His confusion reached its peak as he tried to call out for his comrades, but he couldn't even open his mouth. Soon, however, his vision returned and he could hear normally again. Immediately, he saw Rocky standing in front of him, holding some sort of tool in his hand.
"Okay, he's back online. Sorry about that." Rocky said. The robodog looked at him, with pure confusion of what just happened.
"Does he have a name?" Skye asked.
"Uhh no, not yet. I was actually planning on letting you guys vote on what he should be named." Rocky replied.
The robodog sat there and watched as all the canines started talking to each other. He wasn't exactly sure what they were speaking about; they were almost whispering to each other, but eventually, after a few more minutes, they all returned.
"How about AL?" Skye proposed.
A vote was raised, and it won by a landslide. Both Ryder and Rocky were genuinely surprised; they had expected it to take an entire day of arguing and fighting to choose a name. They were both grateful that it hadn't. Rocky waved his paw in front of the robot dog to get its attention. The Iron Canine turned toward him and tilted his head.
"Yes, Creator?" The robodog questioned.
"How do you feel about us using the name AL to refer to you?" Rocky asked him.
The robodog sat there silently, seemingly thinking about the question.
"AL... AL... Sure, sounds good enough. It's short for efficiency yet not too basic to be confused for something else." AL replied.
The pups all welcomed AL to the team and began touring him around the lookout. AL followed as the pack of pups lead him all over the lookout; he was happy to learn so much about the environment he had woken up in. Though he did begin questioning why he had woken up there, he didn't want to interrupt his comrades as they led him around the large tower, but he was still overwhelmed with curiosity.
Eventually, he was brought back to the elevator and began being informed of the top floor. Suddenly, he heard someone yell "Watch out!" He looked ahead and almost immediately got hit by a flying dalmatian, apparently named Marshall, according to his friends.
"Ugh, what just happened?" AL asked, his vision blurring once more and hearing only loud ringing. His vision and hearing soon fixed themselves, and he saw his comrades staring down at him from above.
"You okay AL?" Marshall asked, worried that he damaged him.
"Huh?" AL questioned, processing the question. "Oh yes, I wasn't damaged. It merely scratched the paint. What even happened?"
"Marshall crashed into us again. Get used to it, it'll be an almost daily occasion." Chase replied.
"Sorry." Marshall apologized.
AL accepted the apology quickly, and the elevator began taking them upward. They soon arrived at the top of the lookout, and AL immediately noticed a large monitor on the other side of the large, circular room. He walked up to it and, though his face couldn't show emotion, as he was a robot, he was still impressed by the technology he saw. He inspected it and noticed hundreds of different small buttons and levers-like things on a table in front of the monitor.
"What is this?" AL asked.
"This is whewe we go when we'we called fow a mission. Wyder descwibes the mission to us and tells us who is needed fow the mission and who isn't. He uses that monitow to help him descwibe the mission or make video calls to othew membews like Evewest and Twackew." Zuma informed him.
"Everest? Tracker?" AL questioned, he looked around the room before looking back at the pack of pups. "Where are they?"
"They don't live here, Everest lives over on the mountain and Tracker lives in the jungle." Marshall told him.
"Why don't they live here? With the rest of you? Doesn't being in different locations far away from one another make completing missions much less efficient?" AL asked.
"They have their own owner's that they live with, and it doesn't really affect efficiency as they aren't used in missions too often." Rocky explained.
The pups soon finished giving him a tour of the lookout interior and decided to take him on a tour of the surrounding area; they traveled back down to the first floor and began heading toward the exit of the lookout. As AL walked toward the glass doors of the lookout, he accidentally bumped into one of them. He shook his head and looked ahead, confused. He then walked through the door again, but this time, it was open, and he exited the lookout. The pups watched this happen and some of them giggled as they left the lookout.
"AL can't see glass, that's good to know in case he does go full tewminatow." Zuma said.
"Chill out Zuma, he isn't going to turn into some sort of terminator." Rocky assured him.
"That's what you say, then boom! He stawts weawing someone's skin and begins hunting down some wandom pup!" Zuma said to him.
"What exactly is a terminator?" AL asked.
"It's a ro-" Rocky got cut off mid-sentence.
"Nothing! Nope, nothing at all." Zuma replied. "Don't tell him what it is." Zuma whispered to the others.
AL was confused and his curiosity was at an all-time high, but he decided not to push as it was clear that the Labrador was stressed about something; AL didn't know, however, that the 'something' was him.
The pups explained to him all the vehicles and Puppacks they used and what each of their jobs were. AL was extremely interested in Chase's spy gear, as it was much more high-tech than the others. He also took interest in the many gadgets Ace had in the TPz Fuchs, but was disappointed upon learning that most of them were prototypes. Once he was done learning about all the vehicles and Puppacks, he reentered the lookout, after slamming into the door yet again, and went to the main room.
"So, you guys are an organization that people call when they need assistance of any kind. Did I get that correct?" AL questioned.
"Yep." The pups confirmed.
"Alright, when's the next mission?" AL asked.
"Not sure, we can't predict when people will need help." Rocky told him.
"Okay... What do you normally do when not on a mission?" AL asked.
"Whatever we want." Rocky responded.
AL nodded. He then looked at all the pups as they stood there, staring at him.
"Y'know, now that we have a new member..." Marshall said.
"Yeah, we'we fowgetting something." Zuma responded.
All the pups turned toward AL and smiled, AL took a step back and stared at them.
"What's going on...?" AL asked.
"DOGPILE!" All the pups shouted as they jumped on him. AL locked himself in place and tried to stay standing, and surprisingly managed to succeed for quite some time, but eventually he was overcome and collapsed. The pups soon got off him, giggling. AL listened to them for a while before deciding to try joining in with them, even though he didn't fully understand what giggling or laughter were.
"Ha. Ha. Ha." laughed AL in his empty, robotic voice. This caused the pups, plus Ryder, to start losing it as if they'd lost their minds. AL just stared at them all in pure confusion.
"So, will I be able to meet the other members soon?" AL asked.
"Don't worry AL, you will eventually." Ryder told him.
That's the end of Chapter 3, it's definitely the shortest chapter so far and probably one of the least detailed.
Responding to Foxfire69 - Unfortunately, AL isn't evil (At least, not in this world) so you don't need to worry about him causing chaos for the PAW Patrol.
Anyways, until the next chapter. Bye everyone!
-König der Könige