It was early in the morning, on the day the pups all planned to save their friend, and Ace was just waking up. The shepherd opened his eyes and was almost blinded by the light hanging from his roof. He then turned over, wanting to just go back to sleep, before he remembered what he had to do that day. He then stood up and streched, before hopping off his bed and getting his collar and puptag on.

Ace then opened his door and left his room. Immediately noticing Sierra waiting in the hallway, leaning against the wall across from his room. Ace shut the door behind him before walking up to the husky.

"Hey Sierra, I didn't expect to see you awake. You don't normally wake up until...what? 10?" Ace greeted the husky, confused as to why she was awake so early. Especially since she didn't normally wake up for a few more hours at least.

"Yeah, sorry, I woke up extremely early today. I tried to fall back asleep, but I couldn't, so I just got up and decided to wait for you to wake up." Sierra explained, glancing down at the ground.

"Is it only us awake?" Ace asked, wondering where the other pups were.

"No, Chase and Skye are hanging out upstairs. The only one we're waiting on now is Rocky." Sierra replied. Ace looked back at her with a confused look, clearly noticing that she forgot someone.

"And Rubble. You forgot about Rubble." Ace pointed out, Sierra silently laughed before responding.

"Well, Rubble isn't joining us on the mission. It's only me, you, Chase, and Rocky going there to get Zuma. Everyone else is waiting here for us to return." Sierra responded, explaining why she left Rubble out.

Ace then walked up next to her and leaned against the wall, joining her in waiting for Rocky to finally wake up. He didn't know why Chase didn't just wake everyone up with the megaphone, but he assumed his father had a good reason not to.

Meanwhile, outside the lookout

Chase and Skye were hanging out next to the shepherds favorite tree, admiring the bay as the sun rose over the horizon. Skye was clearly worried about the shepherd, as the person he was hunting was clearly armed, but she also knew Chase could handle it. Afterall, Chase dealt with armed suspects all the time, why would this be different.

"Chase, can you promise me something?" Skye asked the shepherd. Chase glanced over at her, thinking for a moment before speaking.

"Sure Skye, what is it?" Chase replied, still admiring the sunrise in the distance.

"Can you please be extra careful on this mission? I know you do stuff like this all the time, and you're more then capable of doing it. But I still want you to be safe, especially after what almost happened in Barkingburg last month." Skye said, wanting him to be extra careful. Chase sat there, silent for a moment, before responding.

"Skye...I promise you, I'll be safe." Chase responded, assuring her that he'd returned safely. And hopefully, uninjured.

The two canines continued admiring the sunrise for a couple more minutes before Chase received a call from Sierra over his puptag, informing him that Ace and Rocky were awake, and that it was time. Chase then turned and began walking toward the lookout, with Skye following behind.

Back in the lookout

Ace, Sierra, Rocky were sitting in the elevator as it rose to the first floor, stopping there to pick up Chase and Skye, before continuing to the top floor. Once the elevator reached the top, the pups all left the elevator and got into formation, immediately noticing Ryder pacing back and forth, clearly worried for the safety of the waterpup. Sylvia sat next to him and noticed the pups in formation a couple meters away. She then got Ryder's attention and pointed to the pups, whispering something to him.

"Hey pups, thank you for coming so early." Ryder said his standard greeting. Chase was the first to notice something was off with his owner; he seemed to have not gotten much sleep last night.

"Ryder, sir, are you alright?" Chase asked, clearly wanting to understand what was wrong with his owner.

"I- No, not really. Anyways, that's not important. What is important, is saving Zuma! You all already understand the plan, right?" Ryder asked, wanting to make sure that his pups understood before they left.

"Yes sir!" The pups replied in unison.

"Alright. Chase, Rocky, Ace, Sierra! You all will be the pups going on this mission. Sierra will be assisting you remotely with her drone, while the rest of you will be on site. You're main goal is to save Zuma. Capturing the person who kidnapped him would be great, but Zuma's safety is the priority!" Ryder told them. The pups nodded their head, signalling that they understood.

Ryder then sent them off. Chase, Rocky, and Ace went down the slide to their vehicles. While Sierra returned to the elevator and went down to the first floor, making her way to the server room. She then entered the room and walked up to the monitor, before activating her drone and following the other pups as they drove off.

Sierra was hovering the drone not too far above the Fuchs. She was struggling to keep up with him, as she hadn't planned to use the drone so early and especially wasn't expecting to be pushing the drone to such high speeds. Ace luckily slowed down when he actually arrived in the town of Adventure Bay, although only barrly.

Meanwhile, In the TPz Fuchs itself, Ace was focusing on driving the large, armored vehicle. He wasn't exactly being careful though, as he made many sharp turns and even drove over the corner of sidewalks occasionally, trying to get to the warehouse as quickly as he could. He eventually received a call on his puptag, and answered it without checking who it was, as he was too busy driving through the streets.

"Relax there kiddo! Remember, we're trying to do this undetected. Driving at those speeds won't help us." Chase told him over his puptag. Ace glanced over to the mirror on the side of the Fuchs, seeing the other pups vehicles just turned the corner a few dozen meters back.

Ace sighed before slowing down significantly, understanding that his father had a point; They did need to stay undetected. He glanced back at the mirror and saw Chase catching up, he then noticed the drone flying above him, and was surprised that the drone managed to follow him at such a high speed.

A couple minutes later, Ace arrived at the location they were heading toward; An empty parking lot a few blocks away from the warehouse. They didn't want to drive up to the warehouse itself, as whoever kidnapped Zuma would likely recognize their vehicles, and move Zuma to a different location before they'd be able to save him.

Ace hopped out of the Fuchs and looked up at the drone, seeing the red blinking light on the built-in camera as it watched him. He then heard the engines of the other vehicles arriving, and saw Chase and Rocky pull into the parking lot. The two canines parked next to the Fuchs before hopping out themselves and joining Ace in staring at the drone.

"So, you all prepared for this?" Chase asked them, preparing himself for this. Despite him being the cop, he had never needed to deal with a hostage situation like this before.

"Yep." Ace replied, already prepared for the mission. Unlike Chase, thanks to his time in the Kriegshunde, he had experience in this type of situation. This was one of the only times he knew more then his father did about the mission.

The three pups then began making their way to Zuma's location, with Sierra's drone following behind, ready to save one of their friends. Rocky especially, as he couldn't imagine a world without Zuma by his side.

Meanwhile, in the warehouse

Zuma was still tied to the chair, with the German Shepherd standing a couple meter aways, leaning over a table covered in many different tools.

The Labrador still couldn't see very far, as the light that was hanging above him only covered a couple meters in every direction, but it was enough to clearly see the features of the shepherd. They looked like Chase, but slightly taller, thinner, and had darker fur. He couldn't discern any facial features due to the mask that they were wearing, but they definitely weren't Chase.

"Something on your mind?" The shepherd asked, turning his head toward the Labrador slightly. Their voice was lighter than Chase's, but Zuma could tell that under that mask, they were holding a smug grin.

"Nope." Zuma replied, turning away from the shepherd and looking at the ground, not wanting to start a conversation with them.

"Alright then." The shepherd said as they redirected their attention back to something on the table. Zuma glanced back at the shepherd, trying to see what they were doing, but the light just barely didn't reach far enough.

They both then began hearing faint footsteps outside the walls, which definitely caught the shepherd's attention. Zuma then heard a loud click and saw the shepherd holding a handgun.

"Welp, looks like your friends arrived to finally save you. Give me a moment to deal with this, please." The shepherd said as they trotted past Zuma, disappearing into the darkness. Zuma could hear a door open and close, and then, nothing but the buzzing of the lightbulb.

Outside the warehouse

Chase, Ace, and Rocky arrived outside the warehouse, looking up at the large building as they examined it for an entrance. The group of pups found no way in at the front, so they went to the side of the building, and soon found a single, metal door that led inside. Chase rested his paw on the door handle before turning his head toward the other two pups behind him.

"Rocky, you're coming with me to search around the building and find Zuma, then getting him out. Ace, you focus on the person who kidnapped Zuma if he's still here." Chase told them. Rocky and Ace nodded to him, acknowledging what their jobs here were.

Chase unholstered his .30 Luger and gave it to his son, before opening the door and entering the building, with Rocky and Ace following, before they split up. Chase and Rocky began searching the first floor, while Ace went upstairs and began searching the second floor, slowly and carefully.

Chase and Rocky went through the hallways, opening door after door, with each one leading to small, dark rooms that seemed to be used for storage. Zuma wasn't in any of them. When they reached the end of the hallway, they turned the corner and saw yet another long hallway, with even more doors on each side.

"How many rooms does this building have!?" Rocky asked, his soul dying a little at the sight of so many rooms to check.

"If the rest of this building has as many rooms as these two hallways, probably about a hundred." Chase replied, estimating the amount of rooms this place contained.

The two of them went up to the first door and opened it up, seeing a dark, empty room. They then went to the second door and opened it up, seeing another dark, empty room. Then they went to the third door and opened it, seeing yet another dark, empty room. The two went up to the third door, before stopping and looking at one another.

"Is every one of these rooms empty?" Rocky asked, Chase didn't respond and just laid his paw on the door handle. He waited a moment before opening the door.

They expected to see another empty room, but were surprised to see a familiar Labrador tied to a chair, with a single lightblub lighting up the room. The Labrador was staring at the ground, so he didn't noticed the two canines enter the room at first, until he heard one of them speak.

"Zuma! Are you alright?" Rocky asked, running up to the Labrador. Zuma shot his head up and saw Rocky and Chase standing in front of him.

"Yeah, for the most part." Zuma replied with a wide smile, relieved that his friends finally arrived to help him. I honestly began losing hope that you guys would come save me. Zuma thought to himself.

Chase used his claws to carefully cut through the rope, as Rocky looked around the room. He saw Zuma's puptag, smashed into a hundred different pieces, on a table across the room, with a crowbar lying next to it. Chase soon got Zuma free, and the two of them helped him up, before Chase picked up his puptag and called Ace.

"Hey dad, what is it?" Ace asked.

"Me and Rocky found Zuma. Have you found the Kidnapper yet?" Chase asked him, hoping that they could kill two birds with one stone.

"No, not yet. I'm not even sure if their her-" Ace got interrupted mid sentence. Chase, Rocky, and Zuma heard a loud bang before hearing someone in the background yell something intelligible. "Nevermind! I found them!" They heard him yell into the puptag before the call ended.

Chase let go of his puptag and went silent. Rocky and Zuma stared at him for a moment, waiting for him to say something, before Rocky spoke.

"What was that sound?" Rocky asked, worried.

"That was a gunshot." Chase replied before running out of the room. "Get Zuma to safety! I'll meet you back at the lookout!" Chase yelled to them as he disappeared down the hallway.

Meanwhile, with Ace

Ace was talking with his father over his puptag, beginning to lose hope that he'd find this person, when he felt the air trying to cut through his coat as he was almost deafened by a loud noise. He quickly turned around and saw a masked canine holding a handgun, aiming at him. He then realized that he had been shot at, and had barely missed having his life ended right there.

"Fuck!" The masked canine yelled before dropping the handgun and running off, trying to get away now that his plan had failed.

"Nevermind! I found them!" Ace yelled into his puptag before hanging up and chasing the masked canine, now filled with adrenaline after almost getting shot.

Ace followed the masked canine as they ran through the building, trying their best to get away. The canine then ran to the roof entrance and began climbing the stairs, and by the time Ace got there, he saw them push through the door at the top of the stairway. He quickly climbed the stairs and saw them climbing a ladder up to the roof of a neighboring building.

He must've have this whole escape planned out. Ace said to himself. He then jumped to the ladder and began climbing up to the canine, just as the canine reached the roof.

The masked canine then began running across the roof, but came to a sudden stop when reaching the edge of the building. They leaned over the ledge and saw a long fall, probably around 5 stories. They then looked up and calculated the distance of the jump across the gap, assuming it was about 4 meters, much too far for them to jump across. They then turned around, hoping to find another way to escape, but saw Ace climb onto the roof.

"Stop right there sir! You're under arrest!" Ace yelled to them. He then glanced to the right and saw Sierra's drone fly up and begin watching them from a distance.

"Under arrest for what?" The masked canine asked, staring at the shepherd with a blank expression. Ace was silent for a moment before responding.

"...For kidnapping!" Ace replied, clearly a bit nervous to actually be arresting an actual murderer. His "I'm invincible" mentality was shattering into a hundred pieces, for a second time.

"Heh, sure... You're going to arrest me for kidnappin- Oh fuck!" The shepherd yelled as he fell backward off the roof. He managed to grab the edge of the roof and stop himself from falling.

Oh shit. Ace thought to himself, running toward the masked canine to save him before he fell. They may have been a criminal, but he didn't want to be responsible for his death.

The shepherd tried to pull himself back up, but as he tried, he glanced down at the long fall and froze in place, as his fear of falling kicked in.

Flashback...

A suited man, wearing a bright white mask, was holding a briefcase as he spoke to a large monitor; Informing the world of his great plan.

"I'm just going to launch a few-" John was interrupted by a loud elevator ding behind him, he swiftly turned around in surprise. "What!?"

He saw another man step out of the elevator as it opened, staring at him with a look of pure hatred. John rolled his eyes and pulled out a handgun, aiming at the man as he prepared to pull the trigger.

"One moment, let me deal with this real quick." John said as he gripped the handle and pulled the trigger.

*Bang*

The other man raised a metal plate, just in time to catch the bullet. The bullet impact pushed him back into the elevator, but the metal plate prevented the bullet from going through him. He then stood up and quickly pulled a nearby lever before John could pull the trigger again. The catwalk John was standing on split apart, but John managed to grabbed the catwalk, preventing him from falling to his doom.

"Woah agent, let's not be too hasty! You don't want me, you want --! I can tell you who Dr. -- is!" John yelled, promising to give them the information they wanted if they saved him from his predicament.

However, his smugness died when the monitor changed and he heard a chilling voice speaking to him.

"How unfortunate." The voice said, John then regained his confidence and spoke back.

"No one is left in this building to stop me, I'm still running this show!" John yelled back, confident that he'd was still in charge of the situation.

"Oh Juniper, you were never running the show." The voice told him. "Fabricator, if you may." The voice commanded someone else, not present at the base.

"Goodbye john!" The third voice said, clearly happy about doing this.

"Wait! Doctor, please! I'm-" John was interrupted by the mask glowing bright blue as he was suddenly electrocuted. His screams filled the room before he lost his grip and fell off the catwalk, falling into the missile silo beneath him.

Upon reaching the bottom, he slammed into the ground, seemingly dead. His pet german shepherd slowly walked up to him, with a worried expression on his face. He lowered his head and tried to push his owner over, becoming even more worried as he didn't respond.

"John... are you alright?" The shepherd asked, slowly tearing up as he began realizing that his owner was gone.

He then picked up his owner's mask, staring into the eyes of the now-fried mask as tears flowed from his eyes. He then began walking away, with the mask in his paw, promising that he'd continue his owner's legacy.

Modern day...

The masked canine snapped back to reality as Ace called to him, wanting to help the clearly scared shepherd. He looked up at the police pup, trying to decide how to respond, but stayed silent. Ace then turned to look at Sierra's drone, silently signally for her to call for backup.

The masked canine then decided that he was going to be arrested anyway, no matter what happened, so he pulled out a knife from his suit jacket and stabbed into the scar on Ace's front leg, digging the blade deep into the wound. Ace screamed out in pain and fell onto the ground, as his scar was extremely painful when pressure is applied, and being stabbed there was even more painful for him.

The shepherd then finally managed to climb back up onto the roof, and stared down at the police pup that was now holding his bleeding leg. The masked canine then grabbed the gun off the pup and shot at the drone that was watching them, causing it to fall to the ground. He then smiled as he aimed at the police pup on the ground next to him.

"Welp, this is the end of the road for you. You shouldn't have tried to save your friend, police wannabe." The shepherd told him. Ace tried to shove his head into the ground, waiting for everything to go dark, when he felt someone jump over him.

Ace slowly moved his head upward and looked to see who it was, noticing his father standing between him and the masked canine. He then tried to stand up, but the pain in his leg was too much, and he fell back onto the ground. He then noticed the .30 Luger lying on the ground, and began slowly crawling to it.

"If you try to harm my son ever again, I'll be sure to make sure you go home with broken bones!" Chase threatened the masked canine, barring his teeth to show that he was serious.

The shepherd backed up a couple steps, before swinging at the police dog, aiming at his neck to knock him down quickly. Chase managed to dodge the attempt and swung at him, pushing the shepherd toward the edge and causing him to fall. Chase leaped over and looked down, seeing the shepherd on the ground at the bottom. He then turned his attention to his son, trotting over and helping him up, before lifting the younger shepherd onto his back. He then began carrying Ace back down as he called Marshall.

"Hey Chase, what do you need?" Marshall asked, wondering why the shepherd was calling him.

"I need you to meet me at the lookout as soon as you can! We found Zuma and got him out, but Ace was stabbed in the leg during the rescue." Chase replied.

"I'm on the way!" Marshall said before hopping up and running toward the door of the resort, worried after hearing that one of his friends was injured.

Chase ended the call as he and Ace got outside, being met by Rocky and Zuma. The four of them then began making their way back to their vehicles, but Ace noticed something as they moved. He saw Sierra's drone sitting on the ground, with an obvious bullet hole in it from where it was shot out of the air. He stopped the other three and got their attention.

"Rocky, grab the drone and bring it with us. We should bring it back to Sierra for her to repair it." Ace told him.

"If it can be repaired." Rocky muttered as he called out the claw from his puppack and used it to lift the drone. He then continued making his way back to his truck, with the other three pups following behind.

Meanwhile, in a nearby alleyway

A masked canine was lying on the ground, looking up at the roof he fell from as he slowly stood up. His back was hurting like hell and he assumed that something broke from the fall, but he survived.

The shepherd looked around, trying to find something, before he saw his handgun on the ground a couple meters away. He limped himself over to it and grabbed it, before making his way to a safe location, trying to get as far away from the scene as he could.

That damn police pup is going to be a problem. The shepherd thought to himself, knowing that this would cause issues for him. He was also dreading telling The Architect about what happened, as The Architect didn't take failure well.

Back with the other pups

Chase was driving the Fuchs back to the lookout as Ace sat next to him, trying to slow the bleeding of his leg. The police dog had Zuma drive his truck so that he could take over the TPz Fuchs, he didn't want his son driving with an injured paw.

Ace looked out the window and watched as what seemed like half the police force rushed past them.

Someone must've called the cops after hearing the gunshots. Ace thought to himself. He understood why they would send some officers to respond to the call, but this many officers seemed a bit overkill to him.

Chase glanced over to the younger shepherd as they began driving over the bridge that separated the lookout from Adventure Bay, hoping that he'd be alright. Ace didn't seem to be freaking out, and he didn't seem like he was in severe pain, but Chase knew that the stab wound had to of hurt him.

"You okay?" Chase asked, wanting to make sure that the shepherd wasn't in pain. Ace quickly turned his head toward him, looking at Chase in silence, before resting his head back against the passenger window.

"Yeah..." Ace replied. Chase could tell that he was lying, and gave him a look that said so. Despite him looking away, Ace could tell the expression he was getting from his dad, and sighed before continuing. "No, not really."

"What's wrong?" Chase asked, wanting to know what was bothering him. Ace didn't sound like he was in pain, he sounded like he was trying desperately to think of something.

"I...don't want to talk about it." Ace replied, still staring out the passenger window. Chase was about to push further, but he decided to drop it as they pulled into the parking lot of the lookout.

Chase parked the TPz Fuchs just as they saw Marshall drive his truck into the parking lot and pull up next to them. Rocky and Zuma parked in the further spots from them, not wanting to get in the way of the three.

"Where's Ace?" Marshall asked as he hopped out of his truck. He already had his medical puppack ready, having no clue how serious the wound could be.

"I'm right here." Ace replied as he limped around the front of the Fuchs. Marshall ran up to him to check on him, while Chase tried to help Ace stand still, as he seemed like he'd fall over at any moment.

Rocky and Zuma walked past the three canines as Marshall examined the wound, not wanting to interrupt them. The two entered the lookout and immediately saw Sierra rushing out from the server room and trotting to the doors they entered through. Rocky stopped her before she could run past him to speak with her.

"Hey, Sierra, can I ask you a couple things?" Rocky asked, Sierra stopped and looked at him before replying.

"Uhh, yeah, sure. What is it?" Sierra replied, clearly wanting to hurry with the conversation.

"One, could you make Zuma a new puptag? His got destroyed when he was kidnapped." Rocky asked, looking at the Labrador as he did.

"Of course. It might take a couple hours though, they're fairly complicated." Sierra replied, glancing over at Zuma and noticing that he was indeed missing his puptag, and even his collar.

"Alright, now for the second thing. I'm sorry that it got damaged, do you think it's repairable?" Rocky asked, lowering his claw to show Sierra the now-destroyed drone. Sierra inspected it, noticing the large hole through the camera on it that the bullet left behind.

"I think it might be. If it isn't though, I can just build another one. Also, don't worry about it. It wasn't your fault that it was damaged." Sierra replied. She then walked away and exited the lookout, wanting to make sure Ace was okay.

Meanwhile, in a lab inside Adventure Bay

Two Golden Retrievers, dressed in lab coats, were inside a lab, hard at work designing new equipment for The Architect and their associates.

Tuck and Ella were focusing on how to improve one of their already complete projects, when they heard someone climbing the stairs and enter the building. The twins turned to see who it was, and saw a very familiar shepherd enter the lab, holding the mimic mask in his paws.

"Hello sir." Ella greeted him, trying to be friendly. She then noticed the expression on his face and assumed that something had pissed him off. "Is something wrong?"

"Is something wrong? Is something wrong!? Yes! Something's wrong! Those stupid pups took our hostage!" The shepherd blew up at her, erupting in anger.

Ella froze there after hearing the word hostage, and was soon followed by Tuck. Neither of them were aware about what was happening, as neither the shepherd or The Architect told them about their plans, they just instructed them to build equipment for them to use in their plans.

"I'm sorry sir, did you say 'Hostage'? You're taking hostages?" Ella asked, not wanting to believe that she heard him right.

"Yes! We had that damn Labrador. What was his name? Zuma? We had him captured and being held in a secure location, and those bastards came in and took him!" The shepherd continued, getting more and more pissed off as he did.

Ella wasn't even listening to him anymore after learning about Zuma's kidnapping. Even after they left the PAW Patrol and moved away from Adventure Bay, even after all these years, the twins still considered the PAW Patrol members to be their friends. They couldn't believe that the equipment they made was being used to harm their friends. The two Golden Retrievers shared a glance, silently agreeing on something.

They couldn't let this continue.

That's the end of Chapter 13

-König der Könige