A few hours after Jack left, Everest was pacing to and fro in the lower level of the Lookout, worried about Jack. Ryder and some of the other Mighty Pups had gone to go rescue Harold Humdinger after he had gotten himself and his robot stuck on the frozen bay. Strider, Ranger, and Rocky were taking care of some minor repairs around the Lookout. The only ones still in the room with her were Twinkle and Andrew, who were in the middle of an Apollo the Super Pup marathon. Everest let out a rather audible sigh, and Twinkle turned to see the husky as she continued to pace the length of the room.
"You okay, Everest?" Twinkle asked. However does she figure things like this out? the husky wondered.
"Uh, no, I'm not." Everest replied. "I'm worried about Jack. What if he's in some kind of trouble? You saw how abruptly he left."
"We all did, Everest." Andrew piped up, switching off the TV for a moment. Apollo the Super Pup could wait.
"I'm sure he's all right, Everest." Twinkle exclaimed. "He probably can take care of himself."
"But what's if he's actually in danger, and we're the only ones who can help?" Everest questioned.
"Calm down, Everest. Let's not jump to conclu—" Just then, a loud boom—audible only to the pups—sounded, and the three suddenly screamed and cringed in pain. Rocky and the Lightning Twins came rushing in a few seconds later.
"Did anyone else feel that?" Ranger asked.
"Like time itself just turned inside out? Uh-huh!" Everest answered, nodding her head vigorously to emphasize her point. Twinkle and Andrew nodded as well. Then without warning, a wave of stinging cold washed over Everest, and she began to shiver uncontrollably again.
"Are you okay, Everest?" Strider asked. The husky pup felt so cold all over that her answer came out in bursts and gasps. "I think…Jack…isn't okay. I think…he may be…in really, really deep trouble."
At that point, the other five pups were all thinking the same thing: "We gotta call Ryder!"
"A little farther, and…there!" Ryder said as he finished directing Rubble and Ella in pulling Harold Humdinger—who was trapped in his Big Bad Bot—off of the icy bay. Then Rubble climbed up and used his Super-Strong Claw to open the bot's hatch, which had been frozen over while Harold was inside. "About time, Mighty Pups!" Harold growled in frustration as he clambered out and jumped to the ground.
"Maybe if you kept your robot inside where it belongs, you wouldn't get stuck like this." Chase commented as he watched from a few feet away. Just then, Ryder's Pup-Pad rang, and he quickly answered it. "Come in, Ryder!" he heard Twinkle say urgently. There must be some kind of new emergency! Ryder thought as he answered her.
"Twinkle, what's wrong?"
"It's Jack. He's in some kind of trouble!" Twinkle answered. The other pups all gasped in response.
"We don't know what it is yet," Andrew added, "but Everest is shivering pretty badly. We think that you were right about her and Jack being connected now."
"Do you know where Jack is?" Ryder asked.
Rocky, at that moment, decided to add his own input. "Not yet, but if he is in trouble, then we've got to find him!"
"And we will, Rocky. No friend is too missing, no pup is too small!" Ryder exclaimed. Then he opened up his Pup-Pad, remotely activated the Meteor, and then hit the "call" button. The Pup-Pad beeped, indicating that all the pups' Pup-Tags were active. "Mighty Pups, to the Lookout!" He could hear every pup with him and those on the other end of the line saying, "Ryder needs us!" (their typical response to a rescue summons from Ryder). Then the Pup-Pad signal clicked off, and Ryder and the pups that were with him rushed as quickly as they could to the Lookout.
As usual, Marshal was the last one to get to the Lookout, and as usual, he slipped and crashed into the other pups in the elevator.
"Sorry about that. Slipped on some ice." he apologized.
"Twice in one day?" Everest joked. "One more, and you'll have a cold turkey!"
(By turkey, Everest meant the term used to describe three strikes in a row in a game of bowling.)
The pups all laughed at that. Then, as the elevator traveled up to the Lookout, the Mighty Meteor suddenly became active. The pups' powers activated, and they suddenly found themselves in their Mighty Suits, which had been modified for the cold weather. The Lookout suddenly transformed—most of the tower was pulled down and replaced with a golden beam of energy, and the PAW symbol transformed into the Mighty Pups symbol. All that was left of the regular Lookout was the top of the tower, which shifted so that the giant TV screen Ryder used for briefing the pups on rescues was partially elevated above the rest of the tower's top. As Ryder gazed down (having gotten to the tower top with his jetpack just seconds ago), part of the lawn opened up to reveal the Mighty Jet. The pups then materialized a few feet away from Ryder, got into formation, and lit up their Super Paws as Chase declared (as was his fashion), "Mighty Pups, ready for mighty action, Ryder, sir!"
"Pups," Ryder began, "we all know why we're here. Our new friend Jack is in trouble, and we have to help him—fast!" Even though everyone knew what was going on, they all gasped in shock at Ryder's statement. Hearing that one of their friends was in danger was never something to be taken lightly.
"Oh, no! We got to find him!" Skye exclaimed, which was basically what everyone else was thinking too.
"Exactly, which is why I need all paws on deck for this mission!"
The pups barked and howled with delight. They loved it when every pup's help was needed! Ryder then pulled out his Pup-Pad and scrolled over to Everest's symbol as he said, "Mighty Everest—" He tapped the snowflake symbol on his Pup-Pad and it lit up on the screen behind him. "I need you to use your Power-Sense to locate Jack." As he spoke, his instructions were translated into pictures on the screen, just like they did with every rescue mission.
"Ice or snow, I'm ready to go!" Everest cheered.
"Chase, Skye, and Twinkle," Ryder stated (tapping each pup's symbol on his Pup-Pad in turn), "once we pinpoint Jack's location, I need you to use your super speed and whirlwind powers to look for him."
"Chase is on the case!"
"This mighty puppy's gonna do the spin!"
"Time to connect and protect!"
"Everyone else," Ryder wrapped up, "hop on board the Mighty Jet. I may still need your help."
Howls and barks of joy all around.
"All right! Mighty Pups, it's time to go, go, go!"
With that, Ryder launched himself off the top of the Lookout and whirled around in midair as he used a small piece of the Mighty Meteor he'd placed in his suit to activate the Mighty Zipline. Everest was the first one to jump onto her PAW symbol, and the turntable it was resting on rotated so she could easily board the zipline. She leaped with a great leap and slid down the zipline, landing in the snow at the bottom. Chase, Skye, Twinkle, and the others quickly followed, and it wasn't long before they were all aboard the Mighty Jet. The Jet, driven by Robo-Dog, took off quick as a flash, and off they went.
After a few minutes, Ryder said, "Everest, see if you can use your connection to find Jack!" In response, Everest closed her eyes and concentrated hard, trying desperately to focus all her attention on finding her friend. Suddenly a glimmer of recognition entered her mind, and she felt as if her power was tugging her in the direction of something unseen. "I sense him! I sense him!" she shouted.
"You do?!" Ryder cried out in joy. "Where?!"
Opening her eyes, Everest pointed north, and Ryder commanded Robo-Dog to turn in that direction. As they went farther and farther from the Lookout, Everest's Power Sense grew stronger until she said, "Ryder, tell Robo-Dog to stop!" Ryder quickly followed Everest's instruction, and the Mighty Jet touched down in the snow. The Jet opened up, and all the pups rushed out into the snowy drifts. Once Ryder got out, he shouted above the blowing wind, "Chase, Skye, Twinkle, use your powers to scout on ahead. The other pups will follow."
"We're on it!" the Mighty Pups of Speed, Wind, and Connection cried out before getting to work. The other pups and Ryder followed close behind, calling out Jack's name over and over again. At first, the pups' spirits were high. But as more and more seconds passed, they started to grow unsure. "Are you sure this is where your Power-Sense was leading you?" Ryder asked Everest, yelling to make himself heard over the steadily accelerating wind.
"I'm positive, Ryder." Everest replied. "My Power-Sense has never led me wrong—at least, not in the past." Suddenly, Skye came flying back at top speed, with Twinkle running closely behind. When Skye landed and the two pups skidded to a stop at Ryder's feet, he asked, "Did you find anything?"
"Well," Twinkle said hesitantly. "We did find someone."
Everest gasped. "Is it Jack? Is he all right?"
"Not exactly." Skye replied. "Something…strange has happened—at least, we think it has."
"This way." Twinkle added before racing off again. The other pups and Ryder quickly followed. As they got closer to where Twinkle was running to, Everest's Power-Sense grew so intense it almost made her head spin. When the small company stopped, they were looking at a small white-haired boy, not much older than five years of age, laying on his back in the snow. He appeared to be unconscious, but his chest was rising and falling like it should. Chase was standing beside him, as if to keep watch. As the team looked on, Everest realized who she was looking at.
"Ryder, I…I think we found who we were looking for. It's…it's Jack."
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Absolutely."
For a few minutes, everyone just stood there, dumbfounded. Then Twinkle said the one thing that everyone was thinking.
"We need to contact the Guardians."