*yawn*
"Ow, my neck." Chase woke up slumped over in a beanbag chair with cards all over himself. He rubbed his eyes but when he opened them he saw Skye just across from him in another beanbag. His cheeks flushed.
"W-Wh-, o-oh... right." Chase remembered yesterday.
"I should find Zuma." Chase justified as he quickly stood up from the beanbag. He quietly walked over to his door and carefully slid it open. The early morning sun was softly glowing against the outside of his door as he slowly shut it.
"How early is it?" Chase questioned to himself.
"And why doesn't my pup tag have a clock function?" Chase realized as he didn't have a way to check the time out here. He took a second to listen for any sounds, but other than the nearby nature; it was silent. Zuma wasn't the quietest pup, so Chase assumed he and the others were still sleeping.
"*sigh* It's not important, time will move just as slow even if I don't know what time it is. As long as he wakes up before the sun comes up." Chase said quietly to himself. He turned his head towards the weak light of the sun that was barely peeking over the horizon. He walked away from his pup house, over the grass and towards a lone tree standing in the sun.
Chase sat down next to the tree and stared out towards the golden horizon. He had fallen asleep quite early the day before, but with this beautiful sight—he wouldn't mind falling asleep again. He sat down under the branches of the tree and saw the calm ocean from atop the lookout mountain.
He thought about his life, it was great. He had wonderful friends, a home, and a job he loved. He thought back on a word Marshall said a lot 'brother'. A bittersweet tear formed in Chase's eye. He felt so happy every time Marshall called him his brother, but Chase, however much he tried could never bring himself to call Marshall or Rocky brother and he felt terrible about him. Every time he tried he would always be reminded of his mom, his dad... Marshall never knew his family, neither did Rocky as far as he Chase knew. But Chase, he remembered them as if they were right in front of him. As he got older and thought back on his life with his parents he realized how bad they had it, but no matter what, Chase always had something to eat and something soft to sleep on.
"Thank you." Chase wiped a sad tear off his grateful face.
"I hope you are okay, I miss you... I hope you don't miss me as much as I do you." Chase said quietly as he looked out over the horizon.
Chase's ear twitched a little as he heard a sound behind him. Looking over his shoulder he saw Skye closing the door to the blue pup house, she rubbed her eye before spotting Chase a good distance away by the tree. Chase looked back towards the ocean as she walked up to him.
"Hey." She said in a hoarse tired-sounding voice.
"Hey." Chase responded.
"What are you doing? Enjoying the sunrise?" Skye asked.
"I'm waiting for Zuma to wake up." Chase said as he turned his head over his shoulder towards her. Some of her fur was still messy as it looked like she had just woken up.
"Oh, you're going this early?" Skye asked.
"Yeah, as soon as he wakes up." Chase said. Skye was standing partially behind him as the conversation went silent.
"Can... Can I tell you something?" Chase broke the silence.
"Uh, yeah..." Skye could sense something different in his voice. She walked up and sat down parallel to him an arm's length away.
"About my past..." Chase said. Now Skye was confused, she knew that he had been abandoned by his previous owners in Adventure City.
"What most of you guys know isn't true." Chase began. Now Skye was really confused, what was the truth then?
"And uhm... and I don't really wanna be lying to my friend." Chase became quiet for a moment.
"... I haven't had any previous owners... I lived with my parents." Chase continued.
"He knew his parents?" Skye thought. She didn't think him, Marshall, nor Rocky knew their own biological parents.
"...B-But... they... got taken by animal control... back when dogs had to have owners... we were living on the streets." Chase continued quietly.
"I... I'm so sorry Chase." Skye said. She couldn't even begin to imagine how she would feel if she lost her parents.
"Don't be... I just... felt like you shouldn't be believing in a lie... a lie a told when I was scared..." Chase said.
"Who else knows?" Skye asked carefully.
"Just Ryder and Marshall..." Chase said.
"I..." Skye didn't really know what to say.
"You don't have to say anything, I just thought you should at least know." Chase said. Skye turned her head slightly and glanced at the German Shepherd. He was staring dead ahead towards the horizon, his expressionless face was lit up golden as a tear ran down his cheek.
"Thank you... F-For telling me I mean." Skye said quietly.
"No, I'm sorry for lying." Chase said.
"Hey... d-don't beat yourself up about it, you don't owe anyone the truth." Skye consoled, even though she couldn't even imagine what he felt like.
"People keep saying that..." Chase sighed. Chase owed a lot of people a lot. His parents for keeping him safe, Ryder for taking him in, Marshall and Rocky for always being there for him.
Chase and Skye both heard the rattling of Zuma's terribly maintained door slamming into the doorway. They both turned their head and saw the Chocolate Labrador stepping out of his pup house.
"Sorry, I gotta go." Chase said as he wiped his eyes.
"Y-Yeah." Skye said as Chase stood up and walked off—presumably towards Zuma. Skye kept her head still facing towards the horizon. Chase cleared his throat as he quickly stepped away from Skye, towards Zuma.
"Hey Zuma." Chase called out to the Chocolate Labrador that was stretching just outside his door.
"Yo." Zuma said with a yawn as he stretched out his back.
"Did Rocky finish the pack?" Chase asked.
"Oh, uhm, I'd imagine so." Zuma responded, squinting towards the rising sun.
"Alright, we need to grab that and go." Chase said as he began walking towards Rocky's pup house.
"Can we at least have bweakfast fiwst?" Zuma asked causing Chase to stop and turn back around towards him.
"Yeah, you can go eat and I'll get the gear." Chase said.
"You'we not going to eat?" Zuma asked.
"I'll eat later." Chase said before he turned around and walked towards Rocky's door.
"Uh, o-okay." Zuma said as Chase walked away from him.
"I guess I'll go eat then." Zuma said to himself as he turned towards the lookout door.
"Sun's almost up, no time to waste." Chase thought as he raised his paw to Rocky's door.
*knock* *knock* *knock*
Chase barely had to wait before the door slid open.
"Hey." Rocky said in a hoarse voice as he squinted in the light of the early sun. He looked as if he had barely slept—there were faint dark bags under his eyes.
"Did you fix the pack?" Chase asked.
"Uhm, yeah, I'll grab it." Rocky said before he shut the door.
"*sigh* It's not that hard Rocky." Rocky said quietly to himself as he looked over at the open notebook in his bed. The one he had spent all night staring into—thinking.
"Just tell him..." He continued to himself as he picked up the finished pup pack off his desk. He quickly looked it over as he walked back to his door.
"Here.. I also put a camera on the helmet, just press the button to record." Rocky said after opening the door again and reaching out the orange gear to Chase.
"Thanks... Uhm, are you alright Rocky?" Chase asked as he grabbed the pack.
"Yeah. I just.. didn't sleep very well." Rocky said.
"Oh." Chase said.
"Did you need something else?" Rocky asked.
"No. Thanks." Chase said
"No problem." Rocky said before shutting his door again.
"Hm, I guess people have trouble sleeping sometimes." Chase thought before shaking the thought. He looked at the orange pup pack before picking it up again and quickly walking towards the lookout. The sun was now casting a clear shadow of Chase on the wall as he walked, soon it'd be up—and they would be wasting valuable time.
Chase entered the lookout and saw Zuma eating in the corner he usually sat in. Zuma still had some time to finish as Chase had to talk to Ryder first. He walked over to the boy's room and knocked firmly as usual. Then he waited.
"Morning Chase." Ryder said after a moment as he slid the door open.
"Good morning Ryder sir, me and Zuma are heading to the beach." Chase quickly informed.
"Okay." Ryder looked at the two pups in the room and then at the orange pack Chase was holding.
"Bring Rocky in case the pack needs last-minute maintenance." Ryder said.
"Okay, will do." Chase said.
"Also Chase, listen to Zuma, wreck diving is dangerous." Ryder said.
"Yes sir." Chase assured confidently.
"Okay, be safe." Ryder said before slowly shutting his door again.
"Zuma, we need to grab Rocky, then we're off." Chase called out to the Labrador in the corner.
"Okay." Zuma said, looking down at his food trying to quickly finish it before he ran over and grabbed his own gear.
"Let's go." Zuma said, now more awake after having food. He walked up to Chase who was leaving the lookout and then they walked towards the green pup house again. Chase quickly knocked on the door. Shortly thereafter it opened again.
"Hi?" Rocky said.
"Yo, Wydew said you gotta come with." Zuma said.
"Okay, one second." Rocky said in a tired voice as he shut the door.
"He definitely shouldn't be driving like that." Chase thought to himself before Rocky sluggishly came out of his pup house again but now with the tag around his neck.
"Alright you're coming in my car." Chase said.
"Uh.. okay." Rocky said seemingly not entirely sure what was going on as he followed Chase to his vehicle.
"Since we have to take two vehicles, we'll have to take the land route." Chase said to Zuma as he started his vehicle.
"Alwight Chase." Zuma acknowledged as he too turned on his vehicle.
"You strapped in back there?" Chase asked over his shoulder.
"Yeah.." Rocky said.
"Alright come on Zuma." Chase said as he pushed down the accelerator and quickly drove off.
"Hey Wocky?" Zuma asked over the communicator in their vehicles as they drove over the bridge.
"Yeah.." Rocky answered absently.
"Awe you feeling okay." Zuma asked.
"Y-Yeah. Just didn't sleep well." Rocky answered.
"Oh, okay." Zuma said as the conversation fell silent.
A short while later
After a short silent drive—the three arrived at the beach. The sun just casting its first white rays as everything around them was now clear as day. They didn't miss a single minute of daylight light. The dive itself was probably not going to take long, but the earlier they got there the better chance Chase had of finding intact evidence.
"Here are our tracks from yesterday." Chase pointed out as he stopped his vehicle.
"Rocky, you stay here, I'm sure you aren't very fond of going with anyways." Chase said as he jumped out of his vehicle.
"..."
"Rocky?" Chase turned around and looked into his vehicle. Rocky was asleep in the back seat.
"I guess he needed it." Chase said to himself as he ran over to Zuma's vehicle.
"Alright, I got the gear, let's go." Chase said as he hopped into Zuma's back seat.
"Is Wocky staying on land?" Zuma asked.
"Yeah, he's asleep anyways." Chase said.
"Oh, he did seem vewy tiwed." Zuma chuckled before he drove off the beach towards the water.
"Yeah, It's probably best that he gets some shut-eye." Chase yelled over the wind as they sped out over the water.
"How far out are we?" Chase asked.
"It's not faw, the GPS should be pwetty much on the dot." Zuma said as they were gliding over the water towards the now brightly shining sun. The deep blue water below splashing up the sides of the craft as the powerful engine spun the fans propelling them forward.
"It should be wight below us." Zuma said as he brought the craft to a halt.
"Right, let's see." Chase said as he looked at the gear next to him. He grabbed the helmet and tightened the straps under his chin, before he strapped on the pack.
"Ow, my ears." Chase tried readjusting the helmet but the holes were not in the right spot for his pointy ears whilst they were perfect for Zuma's flat floppy ones.
"Alright that looks good. Ruff, uhm..." Chase began.
"Wegulatow." Zuma said.
"Ruff regulator!" Chase called out causing the breathing mouthpiece to appear in front of him from the pack.
"Chase just wemembew, the most impowtant thing is to stay calm." Zuma said before calling out his own regulator.
"Yeah." Chase acknowledged as he was turning on the camera on his helmet.
"Is it blinking red?" Chase asked.
"Uh, yeah, it is." Zuma said.
"Great, I'm ready." Chase said as he climbed over the side of the hovercraft.
"Let's go." Zuma said, jumping straight out of the seat into the water, splashing up ocean water on Chase. Zuma appeared on the surface again placing the mouthpiece between his teeth. Chase placed the mouthpiece between his teeth and climbed down into the water.
Zuma swam down below the surface and Chase put his face under the water, and with the built in visor that acted as goggles he could see Zuma using the propellers to swim down towards the boat a fair distance away.
Chase called out the propellers on his own gear and followed Zuma down. As he got closer he saw the boat rested on its side in a patch of low seaweed. It was a commercial fishing vessel with a partially melted net hanging from an arm, there were rust stains everywhere and even some rust holes next to the bridge windows. Chase saw how Zuma flicked on his narrow flashlight and circled something on the hull, there were scrape marks going across the front of the hull leading to a fairly small gash in the metal.
"Probably hit a rock." Chase noted that the scrapes were inconsistent in shape ruling out a vessel-to-vessel collision.
Chase moved closer to the hull before calling the propellers back into the pack. He swam the last distance to the boat. He looked at the side of the hull for any identification—but he didn't see anything.
"Strange." Chase thought as he ran his hand along then hull before he felt something; the hull identification number was engraved in the hull but had been painted over. He moved back a little and squinted at the rusted hull, some of the letters and numbers were illegible but he could make out a few.
"...3MR...B101. That's a partial at least." Chase thought as he made sure that the camera also got a good view.
"If it's stolen we should be able to find a match pretty easily." Chase thought as he backed up from the hull. Chase turned around looking for Zuma but didn't see him, he did a full spin but still couldn't see him, until Zuma flashed his light at Chase—he was floating a little distance above him.
Chase swam up to the Labrador and pointed to what looked like a door to below deck. Chase motioned for Zuma to follow as he swam towards the open door. They swam closer to the sideways boat and looked through the door—they saw a staircase leading down.
"I guess this is where they went in." Chase assumed from the open door. He swam closer to the door and saw the angle grinder marks around the locking mechanism.
"Rocky went through here." Chase deduced as he slowly swam through the sideways door, the steps were on his right as he made his way through. Once he reached the dark inside of the ship he turned on the flashlight mounted opposite of the camera on his helmet. It was a strong narrow beam.
"I can barely see a thing." Chase thought as Zuma swam past him into what looked to be a fairly empty room with a corridor connected. Chase moved his light across the room looking for anything of interest. But the room mostly contained nets, plastic containers, and some assorted commercial fishing gear which all looked to be completely unused.
"Checks out, not used for fishing as thought. Now, let's see where this lab is." Chase thought as he moved his attention to Zuma who was lighting up the corridor with his flashlight. As he moved away from the light of the staircase it became harder to keep his bearings. He swam up to Zuma and looked down the corridor; from his orientation the doors were below and above instead of left and right.
"Right, let's do this slowly." Chase told himself before he cautiously swam towards the first door. Peeking down inside he could see a few bed frames that were attached to the boat as well as a couple sets of bedsheets floating around in the room.
"This doesn't look like either room Marshall or Rocky described." Chase thought. Now swimming up towards the other door he saw what definitely looked like something Marshall would describe as a lab. The place was a mess, there were flasks that had sank against the wall but there were some that were sealed with air and therefore floated up towards the other side of the room.
"The flasks must be burner flasks considering that they haven't shattered in the heat." Chase noted before he swam inside towards something metallic on the floor, as he neared; his narrow flashlight only illuminated what he was looking at right in front of his face. It was what looked to be the remnants of the gas burner Marshall had mentioned.
"Must have fallen over when the boat hit the rock." Chase thought. It appeared to have been fused with the metal floor in the fire as it was still hanging onto the floor and not sinking towards the wall as most other things had. He looked up from the burner at the charred walls, they were barely reflecting any of the light from his flashlight, it was like he was staring into a void at some spots.
"I understand why Zuma wanted this flashlight switched out for something better." Chase thought as he could barely see a thing in the tight spaces. He looked back towards the door... or where he thought was the door was, but he was faced with a wall, the exact same looking wall as the one in front of him.
"Wait." Chase turned around again, still facing a charred wall, or was it a floor, a ceiling? It felt like he was looking through a tube with the narrow flashlight, but every time it passed over a flask or something white it shined back into his eyes as if he was staring into the sun.
"Wait wait wait." Chase felt his head spinning as no matter where he looked it seemed like he wasn't even moving his head. Everything was dark except the flasks floating about that were shining the flashlight straight back into his eyes.
"Shit shit-" Chase felt a paw on his shoulder, he turned around to see Zuma holding onto his right behind him. Zuma grabbed his other shoulder and held him in place for a second before angling away his flashlight as to not blind Chase. Zuma moved one of his paws in front of him as to tell Chase to take deep breaths while he held onto him with the other.
"Okay, okay, right relax, stay calm." Chase told himself as he signed 'okay' back to Zuma. Zuma briefly removed his regulator causing a cloud of bubbles to rush out of it but they went almost straight down. Zuma pointed in the direction of the bubbles before twisting him and Chase around so that the bubbles were floating up from their perspective.
"Fuck, I really got turned around." Chase got annoyed at his own stupidity. He understood that the bubbles would always float up—the absolute direction up. Zuma signed 'okay' as if he was asking, Chase signed back confirming he was indeed okay; so Zuma let go of his shoulder. Zuma pointed his flashlight back straight forward and aimed it towards the door below them.
"I need to get one of those bags, then we're done." Chase told himself as he slowly swam toward the door. He could tell Zuma was following closely behind due to his flashlight leaving a big shadow on the wall in front of Chase. He stayed close to the corridor wall as he moved to the second door on the top side of the corridor.
This door opened inwards and was shut due to the ship resting on its side. Chase put his back against the door and pushed as hard as he could. But it barely moved before he let go and it fell back shut.
"I need your help with this one Zuma." He thought as he waved Zuma over.
"On one." Chase thought as he pointed to the door and began counting down on his paw. Zuma nodded and upon Chase reaching one; they both started pushing as hard as they could and they just barely managed to get the door open. It opened and went all the way around, slamming against the wall behind it as a loud thud echoed through the ship.
"Marshall wasn't kidding." Chase saw a room filled with at least a hundred ziplock bags, most of them seemed to be sealed as they floated to the furthest wall while some seemed to have been improperly sealed and filled with water and sank towards the door.
"I should grab one of every color." Chase thought as they may be chemically different. He swam towards the sealed bags and pulled down four bags; one blue, one pink, one white, and one green. Zuma swam up to him and poked him to get his attention, he pointed to the mesh pouches attached to his uniform.
"Good idea." Chase thought as he carefully put two of the bags in each of Zuma's pouches before sealing them back up.
"What's the hand signal for that again?" Chase tried remembering what the signal for 'return' was but couldn't remember. Instead he just rotated his paw in a circle and then pointed his 'thumb' behind him. This seemed to get the message across as Zuma gave an 'okay' sign in response.
"Time to get out of this place." Chase thought. They both swam towards the door. Once they were in the corridor; Chase could see the faint blue-tinted light shining down the stairs on the other side of the room with the fishing gear.
"Finally." Chase thought as he swam the last bit out of the ship. He could finally see the sun refracting through the calm waves of the surface casting godrays onto the ship's deck.
Chase looked to his side; seeing Zuma call out his propellers and start swimming for the surface. Chase quickly followed suit; calling out his propellers and swimming after him.
Chase shortly reached the surface and climbed onto the hovercraft skirt and sat down. He quickly took off his helmet and put it on the back seat. At the same time; Zuma breached the surface just in front of Chase.
"Gah, my ears." Chase said as he rubbed his numb and aching ears.
"That thing was made fow my head, I'm suwpwised that it even fit you." Zuma chuckled as he climbed onto the hovercraft.
"It didn't." Chase said.
"I need to get back so I can find the boat owner and test those pills so we know what we are working with." Chase said as he climbed back into the hovercraft and grabbed the helmet.
Meanwhile
"Dammit." Rocky angrily put his paw to the table.
"There is no reason for you to not work." He said in an annoyed tone as he pushed the broken pup tag to the side. He slumped back in the chair in his pup house.
"*sigh* I need some air." Rocky sighed as he stepped off his chair onto the asphalt outside his pup house.
"It's nice out today." Rocky said as he looked up at the blue cloudless sky above. But as he looked down he froze for a second; he saw a Chocolate Labrador sitting right in front of him on the beach facing away towards the water.
"O-Oh, hi Zuma." Rocky said after a moment.
"Hi Wocky." Zuma said with a smile, looking over his shoulder at Rocky.
"It's nice out today." Rocky said as he sat down next to Zuma in the sand.
"Yeah." Zuma agreed as he moved his eyes back towards the sunset on the horizon of the orange sky.
"Tell him..." Rocky heard a faint voice coming from seemingly nowhere but everywhere.
"U-Uhm, hey Z-Zuma." Rocky's mouth moved.
"What's up dude?" Zuma asked, turning his head towards Rocky again.
"I-I..." Rocky began, he took a deep breath and shut his eyes.
"I-I really care about you Zuma, l-like... I-I love you." Rocky finally blurted out.
"Why...?" Zuma asked.
"W-What?" Rocky stuttered, opening his eyes again.
"Why didn't you tell him earlier?" He saw Zuma ask, but there was something wrong with his voice.
"I-I, I'm sorry, I j-just-" Rocky was interrupted.
"What's your excuse for being emotionally distant again? Your selfish insecurities hurt the ones you say you love, even if you don't realize it." Zuma said. Rocky looked into his eyes but the eyes looking back weren't Zuma's.
"I-I didn't want t-to ruin our friendship." Rocky stuttered nervously.
"If you truly loved him; you wouldn't let fear stop you." The distorted voice coming out of Zuma said as he began slowly walking towards Rocky.
"I-I do love you!" Rocky said shakily as he began nervously backing up.
"Yet you deny him the truth." The ever distorting voice from Zuma's mouth spoke.
"I-I-" Rocky was interrupted.
"You're just running away from anything you don't understand—hurting anyone that has the misfortune of being in your way just because; YOU'RE. SCARED. TO. FEEL." The voice spoke angrily, but Zuma's face remained blank.
"I-I'm sorry, I-I s-swear I didn't m-mean to hurt y-you." Rocky felt tears forming in his scared eyes.
"But you did, and there is nothing that can change that." Zuma's distorted voice said. Rocky suddenly bumped into something behind him; he couldn't back up any further.
"You had your chances..." Zuma stopped, his face just in front of Rocky's.
"...but you were too scared." The distorted voice spoke as those eyes blankly stared at him.
"AH!" Rocky's eyes shot open as his paw quickly swiped at the face in front of him.
*smack*
*thud*
"Ow! Dude!" Zuma exclaimed from the sand next to the police cruiser. Rocky's head darted around, he saw how he was in Chase's police vehicle parked on the beach next to Zuma's hovercraft.
"Oh no! I-I'm sorry!" Rocky quickly jumped out of the vehicle onto the sand next to Zuma who had apparently woken him up.
"The hell was that?" Rocky heard Chase say.
"A-Are you okay?!" Rocky frantically asked as he helped Zuma to his paws.
"Yeah..." Zuma groaned as he rubbed his cheek.
"Awe you?" Zuma asked.
"W-What? Why?" Rocky asked in a concerned tone.
"Well, you woke up scweaming and punched me in the face." Zuma deadpanned.
"O-Oh, I-I must have just had a nightmare." Rocky tried quickly dismissing.
"Must have been some nightmare." Chase interjected questioningly.
"N-No I'm fine." Rocky quickly affirmed.
"Uh-huh..." Chase said as he exchanged a look with Zuma.
"Well.. I need to get this back to the lookout for some tests. So.. let's go." Chase said as he broke the look with Zuma.
"Y-Yeah, that's important evidence." Rocky quickly agreed.
"Yeah.. let's go." Zuma agreed as he wiped some sand from his fur and jumped into his hovercraft.
"D-Did you find everything?" Rocky asked, trying to rid the silence as he and Chase stepped into the police vehicle.
"A partial hull identification number and the bags; so yes." Chase answered.
"Good." Rocky answered as the conversation fell silent again anyways. As Chase turned on his engine he glanced over and met Zuma's identical confused look. They both noticed how weird Rocky was acting.
A short while later
After a fairly short silent drive; the three were finally back at the lookout driveway. Chase was ready to devour some breakfast as he hadn't eaten yet, but first he had to get the bags into the lookout basement so Ryder could run some tests on them. He also needed to speak with Zuma—alone.
"Hey Zuma?" Chase asked as he was parking.
"Uh, yeah?" Zuma responded.
"You wanna help me carry these bags?" Chase asked.
"Yeah I can do that." Zuma said as he jumped out of his hovercraft and transformed it.
"Thanks, they're on the seat here." Chase said as he grabbed two bags and jumped out of the vehicle.
"Whewe awe we taking them?" Zuma asked as he grabbed the two remaining bags.
"Just to the basement." Chase answered.
"I'm just gonna be in my pup house." Rocky said, excusing himself as he quickly walked away.
"O-Okay dude." Zuma acknowledged as he walked off. He looked towards Chase who had already started walking towards the lookout doors.
"Hold on." Zuma called out as he ran after Chase.
"Sorry." Chase apologized as his mind was in other places. They both walked into the empty lookout first floor and into the elevator.
"Rocky is acting weird. He's been for too long now, Marshall brought it up a few days ago too. Do you know what's up?" Chase blankly spoke his mind as the elevator doors shut.
"No, I was going to ask you the same." Zuma said.
"Hm, have you got any ideas?" Chase asked as the elevator reached the basement. The room was big and contained a lot of devices and machines that Chase had no idea what they did. All Chase really knew about this place was that Rocky would sometimes spend extended periods of time down here.
"What do you mean?" Zuma asked.
"Do you have any ideas how we can figure out what's going on with him?" Chase clarified.
"I mean, you could go and talk with him." Zuma said as they walked out of the elevator.
"Yeah I'll do that, I have to get the footage off the camera anyways. But I don't think I'll get anything from him. He never opens up, never really has." Chase sighed as he placed the bags on a table.
"No come on, you'we his bwothew, he'd talk to you if something was up." Zuma said as he placed his bags next to the ones Chase put down.
"You should talk to him after I've got the video." Chase said.
"Why not Mawshall or you?" Zuma asked as Rocky had known them his whole life.
"Sometimes it feels like he's known you longer." Chase said.
"What..." Zuma thought to himself.
"Both me and Marshall know how much more he talks with you. You two really are great friends." Chase smiled softly as they got in the elevator.
"W-Weally?" Zuma asked. This couldn't be true, could it?
"There's probably stuff you know about him he's never told us. He really trusts you." Chase said.
"I thought..." Zuma still didn't really believe what Chase was saying. How could he know Rocky better than his own brothers?
"If he tells you; you don't have to tell me, just make sure he's alright." Chase said, patting Zuma on the shoulder before walking out of the elevator. Zuma was left frozen in thought, standing in the elevator.
Chase walked out of the lookout and towards his police vehicle standing in his parking spot. He jumped up inside and grabbed the helmet from the seat, he looked at the camera and realized that it was still on; so he turned it off. He jumped down and walked over to Rocky's pup house with the helmet.
*knock* *knock* *knock*
"Oh hey Chase, what's up?" Rocky asked upon opening the door.
"I need the footage from the camera." Chase said, handing Rocky the helmet.
"Right." Rocky grabbed the helmet and walked over to his desk as Chase sat down on Rocky's bed.
"Do you still have the old laptop I gave you?" Rocky asked as he placed the helmet on his desk.
"Yeah, I do." Chase responded, he knew it was in his nightstand; but he hadn't touched it in forever.
"Good." Rocky said as he pulled out his own laptop from one of the drawers. Chase looked on as he started and unlocked it before grabbing the helmet again. Rocky pulled out something small from the camera before inserting it into the laptop.
"I've never heard anything about you having nightmares before." Chase said suddenly.
"I don't often." Rocky responded.
"I have nightmares sometimes too" Chase said.
"Yeah, the mind is weird." Rocky said as he pulled something small out of a drawer and plugged it into his laptop.
"Do you ever remember your nightmares?" Chase asked.
"No, barely." Rocky responded was speaking swiftly, trying to discourage further questions.
"Hm, that's a shame, people say that every dream has meaning. But I guess that wouldn't be something you'd believe when I think about it." Chase chuckled slightly.
"Done. Here." Rocky said as he pulled the small thing from the laptop and stretched it out towards Chase.
"It's a USB stick, you know how those work." Rocky said.
"Yeah, thanks." Chase stood up and grabbed the USB.
"See you later." Rocky said.
"Will do." Chase said as he walked towards the door.
"I need food." Chase groaned silently to himself as he left the green pup house.
Rocky was still a little freaked out from the nightmare he had. He opened the file that was still on the camera memory card, trying to get his mind in other places. As the file opened the video started playing.
"Is it blinking red?" Chase asked.
"Uh, yeah, it is." Zuma said.
Rocky scrubbed forward on the video a little, he saw Chase running his paw along the hull of the ship. He scrubbed forward further, he saw Chase swinging inside the corridor of the ship.
"I don't know what I expected, I've been there." Rocky thought to himself as pushed the progress bar aimlessly towards the end. He saw a strange angle as he could only see Zuma's hind paws standing on the police cruiser as Chase seemed to be holding the helmet instead of wearing it. Suddenly he saw Zuma fall backwards.
*thud*
"Ow! Dude!" Zuma exclaimed.
"Oh no! I-I'm s-"
Rocky paused the video.
"*sigh* At least I'm not that strong." Rocky sighed as he looked down at his paw. He felt really bad regardless.
"Yo." Rocky heard a familiar voice say as a door slid open behind him. Rocky quickly closed out of the video player.
"H-Hey." Rocky responded as he turned around on his swivel chair.
"What's up?" Zuma asked as he walked over to the desk.
"I-I was just helping Chase with the camera." Rocky answered as Zuma leaned against the side of the desk.
"H-Hey uhm.. sorry for uh... p-punching you." Rocky apologized again.
"Eh, it's alwight, I've had wowse." Zuma chuckled slightly.
"Y-You have?" Rocky asked.
"Hmm.. no, no i think you'we the fiwst one to punch me in the face actually." Zuma said after thinking about it.
"Oh.. right." Rocky's head fell a little.
"So, why'd you punch me?" Zuma asked.
"W-What?" Rocky asked nervously.
"Well, you said you had a nightmawe ow something—what was it about?" Zuma asked.
"W-Well, I-I-" Rocky's eyes slightly glanced up at Zuma standing against his desk.
"I-I don't remember." Was the only thing he managed to say.
"Oh... uhm, okay." Zuma said with a subtle saddened hint in his voice.
"Y-Yeah." Rocky quickly said, keeping his eyes down.
"You.. you should get some sleep then." Zuma said as the stood back straight.
"O-Okay." Rocky silently agreed as he didn't know what else to say.
"If you want to talk, I'm hewe, don't keep it pent up in youw head." Zuma said silently before disappearing out of the pup house behind Rocky, shutting the door.
Flashback
"If you evew need to talk like this again, don't keep it pent up in youw head." Zuma placed his paw on Rocky's shoulder. A warm feeling emanated through Rocky's body as he felt his heart beat faster.
Flashback Ends
The same thing he had told him the moment Rocky realized what love was.
Zuma's saddened tone echoed through Rocky's head.
Flashback
"You're just running away from anything you don't understand—hurting anyone that has the misfortune of being in your way just because; YOU'RE. SCARED. TO. FEEL." The voice spoke angrily, but Zuma's face remained blank.
Flashback Ends
"Why am I such a horrible being..." Rocky said quietly, his voice breaking.
"NO!" Rocky suddenly yelled at himself.
"You're not allowed to feel bad for yourself for being an insufferable unfeeling idiot!" Rocky said angrily as tears welled in his eyes.
"You're gonna tell him! That's final!" Rocky yelled at himself as tears came rushing down his cheeks.
"*sob* Ahh!" Rocky broke down.
"*sob* Fine! *sniffle* Cry! Whatever! *sob* Pathetic being!" Rocky began crying his eyes out against the desk. He just couldn't care anymore, all of this pain he had felt for days on end, all the ups and downs. It was all just numb.
Meanwhile
"No. Not that one either. Definitely not. No." Marshall thought aloud as he was looking at the differently colored food bowls in the store. It was a small family owned business on the beach side street of Adventure Bay. Luckily for Marshall; it had a few handmade dog bowls as well.
"Does it really need to be that specific?" Skye groaned slightly as she was growing a little impatient.
"Of course it does! It's for Everest." Marshall said, maybe a little too loudly at the start.
"Damn, okay..."
"S-Sorry." Marshall apologized awkwardly.
"No, I get it." Skye said.
"What about this one?" Skye asked holding up another bowl.
"No." Marshall quickly dismissed.
"But this one!" Marshall said, excitedly reaching over to a bowl he had just spotted.
"You think she'd like this one?" Marshall asked.
"You're asking me?" Skye was a little confused.
"Well, you are her best friend, thought I might as well." Marshall said as he held out the ice blue bowl with a snowflake pattern.
"She does get unreasonably excited over snow, even though she lives on a mountain. So I think that's perfect." Skye smiled.
"She really does love snow. Let's take this one." Marshall said as he decided on that blue one.
"Let's pay, we need to hurry if you wanna make it back before lunch." Skye said.
"Right, smart." Marshall said as he quickly stepped towards the register.
"*gasp* Marshall!" Marshall heard from behind himself before he turned to look at Skye.
"W-What?" Marshall asked, a little concerned about her tone of voice.
"You should paint her name on the side." Skye said excitedly as she held out a small tube with dark blue paint she had found on a shelf.
"Yes!" Marshall said, matching her excited tone at the thought of the idea; his eyes lighting up at the wonderful idea.
"Come on let's go, I have a brush in my pup house." Skye said as she quickly sprinted towards the register.
"Hi! The bowl and the paint please." Skye said hurriedly to the young woman behind the counter.
"Right, that is eight dollars for the bowl and three for the paint." The woman smiled.
"Here, keep the change." Skye jumped up and placed a twenty on the counter.
"Come on Marshall!" Skye said hurriedly as she sprinted out the door.
"Right!" Marshall ran after her.
"Thank you! Have a good day!" The woman yelled after the running pups.
"You too!" Marshall yelled over his shoulder before turning and running along the sidewalk, out of view from the store.
"Why did you have to insist on walking here?!" Skye yelled as they ran towards the bridge. She was balancing the bowl on her head as they ran.
"It's healthy! And we don't have personal vehicles! They're rescue craft!" Marshall yelled back as the wind blew his floppy ears back. The tube of paint gently between his teeth.
"Fair!" She responded.
"Why are you so worked up about this anyways?!" Marshall asked as the ran onto the bridge.
"I love affectionate gestures!" Skye responded simply.
"Why didn't you buy Chase something then?!"
"What?!" Skye abruptly stopped. Seeing her stop he attempted to do the same. He pushed his front paws forcefully against the ground—a little too hard.
"Whoa!" Marshall tumbled forward, dropping the small paint tube in the process. He landed on his back as the paint slid forward a little bit before stopping.
"I'm good." Marshall said before he looked back at Skye.
"W-Why would I?" Skye asked clearly flustered. Marshall's upside-down eyes deadpanned at her from the ground.
"I-It's not like that!" Skye said with red cheeks.
"Uh-huh... right." Marshall said sarcastically as he picked himself up off the ground.
"Come on we still gotta hurry." Skye said quickly trying to avoid the conversation as she began running again. Marshall quickly picked the paint back up and ran after her—quickly catching up to the short-legged one.
"What is it like then?!" Marshall asked, reformatting her response.
"Nothing!" She responded, looking away from the Dalmatian.
"All these years you've known him and you're telling me you aren't even friends?!" Marshall asked with a smirk. Although Marshall could basically only see the back of her head; he knew exactly what her face looked like.
"I didn't mean it like that, and you know it!" Skye responded, yelling a little louder as the wind picked up a little towards the end of the bridge.
"How did you mean it then?!" Marshall asked as they made it off the bridge.
"Marshall! I don't have feelings for Chase!" Skye yelled.
"I didn't say that!" Marshall said smugly.
"That's what you were implying!" Skye said.
"Was it?!" Marshall continued in the same manner. Skye didn't respond.
"I should probably lay off her now if I want to keep my head attached." Marshall thought, internally chuckling as they sprinted the last bit up the lookout driveway. They both ran straight towards Skye's pup house to retrieve the paintbrush.
"Hey Skye?" Marshall tried getting her attention again as they stopped in front of the pink pup house.
"What?" She asked, still not looking at Marshall as she opened her door.
"Do you know what Chase's favorite color is?" Marshall asked as Skye disappeared into the pup house looking for the paintbrush.
"Uh, blue?" Skye said as she could be heard rooting through a drawer.
"Purple." Marshall answered.
"Really? I didn- Oh I found it!" Skye cut herself off as she came out with the paintbrush, quickly holding it out to Marshall.
"Purple..."
"Right, uhm..." Marshall looked back and forth between the brush and paint.
"Put the paint on here." Skye said as she grabbed a piece of paper from her pup house and slid it on the ground in front of Marshall. He grabbed the small paint tube and screwed off the cap. He dabbed a little paint on the paper before grabbing the paintbrush and dipping the tip in the darkblue paint.
"Okay, focus, steady." Marshall thought to himself as he brought the brush against the side of the bowl.
"E, V, E, R, E, S, T." He thought with every letter he carefully wrote in the beautifully contrasting dark blue paint.
"That's beautiful!" Skye exclaimed, impressed by his steady paw.
"Come on, let's get it inside." She continued.
"Yeah, yeah, hold on one second." Marshall said as he put the brush inside of the bowl and carefully moved it around; out of view from Skye.
"What are you doing?" Skye asked.
"Okay, now I'm done." Marshall ignored her question as he fanned the drying paint.
"Right.. let's get it inside." Skye said.
"Yes." Marshall agreed in a giddy tone as he excitedly walked towards the entrance. But as the doors slid open—he saw Everest walking towards the common area with the dull gray bowl already filled with food.
"Darn it, too late. *sigh* I'll have to wait until dinner." Marshall muttered.
"No I can't wait that long, stay here." Skye said as she quickly walked past him towards Everest.
"W-What?" Marshall asked, confused about what she could possibly do. She didn't say anything.
"I guess she really does gestures." Marshall thought to himself as Skye walked up to Everest.
"Hey Ev. Whoopsie-daisy." Skye bumped into Everest making her drop her bowl upside down on the floor; spilling food all over. She wasn't even trying to hide how she very purposefully did that in her tone of voice.
"Hey! My food." Everest said as she looked at the bowl and then at Skye.
"It's fine, come on let's watch TV." Skye said, ignoring Everest as she pulled her along towards the beanbags where Rubble was still watching TV.
"Skye, I need food." Everest looked over her shoulder at the mess behind them as she was being pulled along.
"That's what you got Marshall for now." Skye smiled as she basically pushed Everest into one of the beanbags.
"Marshall! Everest! Food! Now!" Skye yelled out to the Dalmatian who had just hidden the bowl behind something in case Everest would have looked over at him.
"Skye." Everest disproved of Skye's yelling in a hushed tone. Skye just ignored it with a smile.
"Sorry Marshall, Sk- *gasp* Is that for me!" Everest exclaimed excitedly as she saw the name on the side of the beautiful blue bowl.
"It is." Marshall said as he placed down the bowl in front of her. He couldn't help but have a big smile on his face as he did so.
"I love it!" Everest said excitedly as she stepped past the bowl and hugged Marshall.
"I'm glad." Marshall said with the same giddy grin he always had when she was happy. Marshall met eyes with Skye over Everest back, and he silently mouthed two words to her 'thank you'. Skye gave a warm smile in response.
"I'll give them their time." Skye said as she stepped away a little. She quickly glanced around the room before her eyes landed on a Chocolate Labrador in the usual corner. He was holding the small instrument Skye could never remember the name of. He was quietly playing it as she walked closer.
"Hi Zuma." Skye greeted.
"Hey." Zuma responded as he stopped playing.
"Do you wanna play pup-pup boogie or something?" Skye asked, sitting down across from Zuma.
"Sowwy, not wight now." Zuma said, almost sounding a little down.
"Are you saving up energy to play with Rocky?" Skye chuckled as she had heard from Marshall that Rocky had played it recently. She also heard that he wasn't particularly good. But before Zuma could answer; Skye's ears perked up to two voices behind her so she turned around to look.
"Awww, Marshall." Everest cooed, looking up from the inside of the empty bowl at Marshall.
"That was fast, guess he didn't fill it all the way." Skye thought as Everest's bowl was already empty.
"It's true." Marshall said.
"What's true?" Skye wondered.
"Awe you done spying yet?" Zuma asked from behind Skye as she was turned towards Everest and Marshall still.
"No, one second." Skye responded without looking back. She stood up a little taller to look into the bowl a distance away, her perfect pilot's vision allowing her to barely make out a small text in the bottom of the bowl; 'you're beautiful'.
"Aww, that is cute." Skye agreed to herself.
"Anyways, what was I saying? Right. Are you gonna play with Rocky?" She asked again.
"No he's busy in his pup house." Zuma said as he plucked one of the kalimba tabs—creating a quiet hum.
"Really? I didn't see his pup house in his parking spot." Skye said as she didn't remember seeing the green vehicle when she came back from the store with Marshall.
"Maybe he was missing a pawt ow something." Zuma said distantly, plucking at the kalimba.
"Most have been one specific part then. I don't think I've seen him purchase anything but car parts." Skye responded as she was only half paying attention to the conversation as she was glancing longingly over at Marshall and Everest.
"Me neithew..." Zuma said quietly as he looked down at the kalimba.
With Rocky
He felt the Sand below his paws as he sat on the beach—his head hanging low with his eyes shut. The calm waves of the bay; calmly washing up against the shore in front of him.
"*sigh*" Rocky sat there listening to the rhythmic waves—the ones that always calmed him before. But right now, everything was just...
"Numb..." Rocky quietly spoke his mind. He opened his eyes and raised his head a little; looking at the sun reflecting off the top of the small waves.
"You can't talk to him like this." He looked down at himself; wiping a tear from his eye.
"Why am I even crying? I could just tell him right now if I wasn't. Not that it would be easy but..." Rocky tried reasoning to himself—something he realized that he hadn't done in a while.
"Why am I so emotional? I've never let emotions bother me before." Rocky realized.
"It's like I have no control at all." Rocky continued as he tried his best to think logically, like he had always done.
"Why am I so fragile all of a sudden?" Rocky was focusing as much as he could; recalling the past few days. He realized something.
"Is this because... because I told Zuma about my past? Because I opened up?" He realized that ever since then he had been like this.
"Why did I even tell him? I've never even thought about telling him or anyone else before." Rocky wondered. Rocky was entirely lost in his head, completely focused. He was sitting still as a rock, just looking forward blankly.
"No... it was because of the water." Rocky recalled how he had broken down as Zuma had made him step into the ocean.
"Am I... Am I scared of water because... because I'm scared of my past?" Something that had never crossed Rocky's mind before; despite all the intriguing psychology books he had read on multiple occasions in his life.
"I'm repressing my trauma..." Rocky realized that he was doing something he had read about so many times.
"Is that why I is was so vulnerable and told Zuma? It is isn't it?" Rocky continued.
"Before; I was repressing it and didn't even realize it. Then; I was too vulnerable to realize what was wrong, especially with everything happening with Zuma. But now; I guess... I just needed a little of both to realize it." Rocky recognized. He looked up at the water in front of him. He took a step forward, then another one, and another; finding himself by the edge of the water.
"I-It's time I do this." Rocky said quietly to himself. He hesitantly lifted his paw above the water.
"Rocky it's just water, simple dihydrogen monoxide." He hesitated for a moment; his paw hovering over the very peak of the waves just barely making it up to him. He took a deep breath... finally putting his paw down.
As soon as he touched the water a feeling shot through his body, like his body was telling him to get away from the imminent danger as fast as possible. He closed his eyes as he took another step. He could hear the blaring fire alarm again; ringing through his ears. But he continued slowly walking forward; step by step. He could hear the loud metal scraping of containers sliding across the ship deck. But he kept walking, all the way until the water reached his knees.
"I won't let it control me." Rocky told himself as he could feel tears running from his tightly shut eyes down his face. He stopped... suddenly he pushed off the ground and let himself fall backwards into the water. His body now resting against the sand below the water as his mouth and eyes were just above the surface.
He was not trying to tune anything out anymore, everything was coming back at him. The alarm and scraping sounding clearly despite his ears being under the water; subdueing all actual sounds. He began feeling the dull pain in his right ear; as if he had just hit his head against the metal deck again. In the right he felt the searing pain return; as if the wound was freshly cut open. It was like he was back in the water next to that ship... that ship that had taken him from his home... that ship that had taken him to his home.
"It's not real, there isn't anything to be scared of." Rocky was managing to keep himself calm by just allowing himself to feel and think at the same time. Tears kept on trailing down his face as all the sensations intensified until suddenly-
*BOOM!*
He heard the ship explode again, he winced at the sound as a shiver shot down his spine. But as the explosion faded—everything went quiet. No more overwhelming sounds or reoccurring pain. Everything was just—calm.
Rocky lay there as the tears dried on his face. He could hear the sounds of the sea that always calmed him before; but now even closer as his ears were completely under the surface. The muffled sounds of the sea louder than anything else as he was gently pushed back and forth by the waves. Something he had never had the pleasure to enjoy before.
He decided what was going to happen from now on, but his emotions were welcome to come along. Embracing them, but not letting them control him. Maintaining a balance. Equilibrium.
"... just like an equation..."