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Chapter 15: Old Blueprints and New Designs

Zuma was completely dumbfounded and rendered speechless. There was his hovercraft. His hovercraft that had been left back at the Lookout. Not only was it here, but it also had a different paint job. The black inflatable underneath was its normal black, but the main body shone a brilliant silver. Zuma's expression was one of such amazement, excitement, and utter confusion that Gizmo couldn't help but laugh. "Looks like I was right!" he exclaimed.

The chocolate Labrador padded over to his ride in disbelief. Reaching out a paw, he brushed the side of the vehicle.

"I expect you have some questions, huh?"

Thankfully Zuma was able to find his voice again. "How on earth did you get my hovercraft? And why is it silver?"

"I didn't get it," Gizmo explained, "I built it! As for the color, I didn't feel the need to paint it, so I just coated it in chromium."

This only made Zuma more confused. "You built this? How?"

The black dog tilted his head to the side. "I used the blueprints?"

Zuma shook his head, "But where did you get them?"

Gizmo paused. Then he smiled. "Who do you think made them?"

"You?!" The water dog looked at his new friend in astonishment, "But I thought Ryder built them!"

"Well, I'm sure you're not wrong that he built them, but I designed the transforming vehicles and rescue packs years ago. It was one of my first projects. Someone took interest and bought the designs online. Not that I needed the money, but they wouldn't accept them for free. Shoot, I can't even use the money. Anyway, I kept designing more gear and they kept buying my designs. It's funny. I never expected to meet the person that used them."

"You think Ryder was the one that bought your designs?"

"Absolutely. You said he built them, and you thought he designed them, and judging from your level of surprise at seeing this, you've never seen anyone else with any of the gear here, so you're probably the only ones that use them. Not only that, but your leader said you were the Paw Patrol instead of a Paw Patrol."

"That's totally awesome!" Zuma exclaimed ecstatically. "I can't believe you made these! That's incredible!"

Gizmo beamed at the praise. "Oh, it's nothing much."

Zuma noticed that his black friend's tail was wagging. It was the first time he had seen it doing so since they had met him. He realized that without anyone else here, Gizmo probably had rarely taken time to enjoy himself before, and he definitely had never received much affirmation. Zuma felt sorry for him. He decided to see if he could convince Gizmo to go back to talking with the others. "We have to show the others! Come on! Let's go tell them!"

The black Lab hesitated. "Well, um, I still need to get the schematics. Besides, Rocky and Rubble are about to stumble on the rescue pack room on their own, assuming they keep to the room search pattern they were taking."

"Which room is that?"

"Room 119."

"Want to race there?" the brown dog asked, putting his paws out in front of him and bending down, tail wagging.

"Race?"

"Yeah! See who can get there the fastest! We'll start on the count of three! Ready?"

Gizmo seemed apprehensive, but agreed. "Okay."

"Alright!" Zuma confirmed as Gizmo got ready to run. "Three… Two… One… Go!"

Both pups shot off, but one of them immediately got a head start. On the word 'go,' Gizmo's hover shoes materialized around his paws, and a helmet appeared on his head in much the same way. Half a second later the black dog blasted out of the door, redirected his feet, and immediately blasted down the hallway from a second impulse.

"Woah-ho! I've got to try that sometime!" the chocolate Lab shouted as he raced to the stairs, a considerable way behind his opponent.

Thirty seconds later, Zuma reached room 119. "That was awesome, dude! Can you show me how to do that sometime?"

"Maybe. It takes a lot of practice though. Rocky and Rubble are in the next room over. I'm gonna go start collecting schematics. I should be done soon and then we can get to work. Bye." The black Lab bolted out the door before his companion could object.

"Oh well. At least I tried," Zuma sighed.

Within seconds three sets of running paws could be heard from the hallway. Presumably two of them were Rocky and Rubble, but Zuma wasn't sure who the third one was. However, it immediately became obvious.

"Wooooaaaaaahhhhh!" an all-too-familiar voice exclaimed.

"Marshall!"

"Look out"

THUD

Zuma cringed as Marshall, Rocky, and Rubble collided, leaving them all in a heap outside of the doorway.

"Sorry guys," Marshall apologized, "This floor is really slippery."

"It's okay," Rocky reassured him.

"Are you okay?"

"¿Estas bien?"

Everest and Tracker both ran up to them from the direction Marshall had come from.

"Yeah, we're okay," Marshall confirmed.

"That was quite the wipeout dudes!" Zuma chuckled from the doorway.

"Oh, hey Zuma!" Rubble said as he untangled himself from the pile. "I didn't notice-" Rubble stopped and gasped. "Hey Rocky, I think I'm gonna win our contest!"

"What? How? You'd need seven more points, and you only have three!"

"I just got eight! Look in this room!"

All the pups looked into the room as Zuma stepped aside. Plastered along the walls were blueprints for their pup packs, and on the tables were completed versions. They were unpainted and chrome plated like Zuma's hovercraft, but all of them were instantly recognizable.

"No way!" Everest gasped.

"That's what I said too!" Zuma laughed.

Marshall looked at his pup tag. "Chase, Skye, come here, you're gonna want to see this!"

Rocky raced into the room. "Where did he get these blueprints?" he wondered.

"He made them!" Zuma exclaimed excitedly.

"Gizmo designed our pup packs?!" Tracker exclaimed.

"And our vehicles! He has them downstairs!"

"He has our vehicles downstairs?" Rubble asked in disbelief.

"That explains how he was able to override our pup packs!" Everest realized. "He must have put in a safety override!"

"I always wondered how Ryder was able to design Tracker's Jeep and pup pack so quickly!" the recycling pup mused as he continued examining the schematics on the walls. "Building it wasn't too hard but it makes sense now that you say Gizmo designed it ahead of time! I can't believe he made these when he was two!"

Skye and Chase appeared. "Hey guys, what's-" Chase and Skye both gasped as they saw their pup packs in the room in front of them.

"My wings!" Skye gasped. "But how?" Zuma briefly explained the origin of their gear to the two newcomers. Skye was ecstatic. "Now I can fly again!" the pilot pup yipped as she backflipped. "Think I can put it on?"

"I don't see why not," Zuma shrugged.

Skye ran into the room. Disengaging her broken pair of wings, she pulled the pilot pup pack off the table and put it on. "Woah, this is weird. It's not quite what I'm used to," the pink pup noted, "It's a lot looser."

"Well, it's currently adjusted for my size and body weight," Gizmo explained as he re-entered, presumably having already gotten the supplies he needed.

Skye struggled to keep the backpack from flipping over and sliding down under her stomach. "Can you adjust it to my size?" the cockapoo asked.

"Sure, it'll probably be helpful if we want to get you back home," Gizmo agreed.

All of a sudden, the backpack started to shift. Metal plates bent and reformed, shrinking down to fit Skye on its own accord.

"How did it do that?" Rubble questioned in wonder.

"The blueprints for these designs are slightly different than the ones that we have. They're newer. Are these nanomachines too?" Rocky inquired.

"Well, not really. It's just a smart adaption technology using an alloy with properties similar to Nitinol, but scores higher on Mohs scale without sacrificing toughness, and contains multiple shape memories coordinating to specific AC electric impulse frequencies smaller than a milliamp, letting a simple potentiometer frequency control unit alter the size and shape of the individual components."

Chase narrowed his eyes in confusion. "I understood none of that, but how did it do anything at all? You didn't give it a command," the German shepherd pointed out.

Gizmo smiled, "Same way I use my own gear; with a neural transmitter in my helmet."

"A mind reader? Cool!" Rocky exclaimed.

"But you aren't wearing your helmet," Skye observed.

"Are you wearing an earpiece?" Tracker guessed.

Gizmo turned to him, impressed. "I am! It's small enough that my fur hides it. It has a more limited range of things it can control than my helmet, but it works. Once you go back home I can design something and send it to Ryder so you don't have to use your voice commands anymore either. It'll help cut down rescue delays."

Everest smiled, "That sounds cool!"

Chase seemed skeptical. "I'm not sure I want something reading my mind all the time…"

"Oh, don't worry," the inventor reassured him, "It doesn't work that way. I'll teach you about it later. As for now, though, I have the schematics for the Island Dome and Dome Generator here, along with the city electrical grid and island demographic and infrastructure layout. I'll get the scans loaded into the table of room 105. Meet me there once you all get on these new packs. We might need them."

Sorry about the extended cliffhanger. I've used this last week to catch up on stuff and get ahead in the story a bit. The idea of having had someone else design the Paw Patrol's vehicles seems to be an uncommon one, but it made sense to me back when I came up with it. It would make a lot more sense for Ryder to have already had Tracker's gear designed ahead of time rather than have to design and then build it. I'll hopefully be able to start releasing chapters a bit more frequently in a couple weeks, but until then I'm going to try to get ahead.