PAW Patrol (TAF): Pups Go for a Spin Chapter 3, a paw patrol fanfic

Chapter 3

The pups and Ryder walked throughout Foggy Bottom trying to find the sources of what sounded like a group of monkeys laughing and being hyperactive, but without Tracker and his super sense of hearing, it was much more difficult. "Is this your first time in Foggy Bottom, Liberty?" Ryder asked.

"I don't recall," Liberty replied, "but it's nothing but miles and miles of BORING!"

"I have to second you on that," Rubble chimed in. "Why would anybody want to live here? Well, anybody other than the Humdinger family, I should say."

It seemed like a dead end, but just then, a banana suddenly dropped out of nowhere. The fog prevented anybody from seeing it until Marshall slipped on it, resulting in his clumsiness getting the better of him. "I'm okay! I'd make a joke," he said, "but I can't think of any right now."

"Maybe it's best you didn't," said Chase. "Still, it's a banana, and monkeys love bananas." Then his cruiser made a buzzing sound. "Oh; that's my drone!" he exclaimed. "Let's see what it found." He pulled over and brought out the screen on the back, and everybody gathered to look at it. Ryder used his pup-pad to track the drone's progress, and so Rocky, Zuma, and Liberty looked at that screen. Skye had to use her jetpack to hover so that she could get a better view. "Ruff! Wings!" she barked, and soon, she was airborne.

"If I didn't see this, I wouldn't believe it!" Chase commented.

"I wouldn't believe it either, dudes," Zuma put in. "It's definitely monkeys, and there's our merry-go-round. But why is numbered 1 to 6? I don't remember us putting that on there."

"Let me zoom out," said Chase, and he did so. Then the story became clear. "Oh, wow. It looks like a giant...board game?"

"Apparently so," said Ryder. "The type that needs a spinner. They must have not had one of their own."

"So they stole the merry-go-round to use it as a spinner for their board game, then. We need to get it back!"

"But we also need to do so without them knowing it is gone." Then the drone made a different buzzing sound. "Oh, wait. What's it buzzing about now?"

"Ruff! Drone! Silence!" Chase barked, and the drone stopped buzzing, although it still zoomed in on the target in question, confusing the PAW Patrol even further when it revealed the sight of a familiar looking man in a moustache with a top hat. "Wait. Is that...?"

"Mayor Humdinger?!" everyone exclaimed!

"But he's supposed to be in prison!" Rubble objected. "For a total of 540 years! Did he escape?"

"Either that or the sentence got overruled," said Ryder, "but still, we've got to get him out of there. It looks like the monkeys have taken him hostage! Let's go, pups!" The 10-year-old boy got back on his ATV and led the others to the scene. Along the way, Skye called Tracker to let him know what was going on, and Tracker, in turn, told Carlos. The latter used his phone to look at the footage filmed by Skye's pup tag.

"Do you know these monkeys?" she asked.

"I think so," said Carlos, "because one of them is Big Hairy. He's always causing trouble, it seems, and he never learns his lesson."

"Pero eso no explica nada. But that doesn't explain anything," Tracker put in. "Why do I see Mayor Humdinger?"

"We're going to find out right now what's happening."

When the pups got to the scene, they could see the board game that the monkeys were playing indeed was using the merry-go-round. The score was kept in bananas, and the board contained a spot where Mayor Humdinger was tied to a pole, as if they were going to burn him at the stake. However, they weren't that mean. The object of the game was to have the most bananas, apparently, because whichever monkey got that would get to release Mayor Humdinger from his trapped state and claim him for his own.

Humdinger didn't revert to his old habits, though, of demanding to be free and then showing no gratitude for it. Instead, he said, "I know this is the most awkward moment you've ever had, possibly, but could you get me out of this, please?"

"We'll do our best, Mayor," Ryder replied. He tried to get close to the mayor, but the monkeys got in the way. Taking the initiative, Everest contacted Tracker and asked for his help. "They're using the stolen merry-go-round for a spinner for their giant board game, and their decision was to use Mayor Humdinger as bait. Whoever wins gets to claim him for themselves. Can you help us out?"

"¡Por supuesto! Of course!" Tracker replied. "This is so out of character for these monkeys, though! What's gotten into them?"

Later, when Tracker arrived, his cables helped him swing through the tree tops, which was enough to distract the monkeys so that Rocky's claw could free Mayor Humdinger from the trap. It also gave Rocky the idea to use some of the items he recycled to make a new merry-go-round for the monkeys, so that they could continue to play their board game. They would just have to settle for using a new prize instead of having Humdinger as the prize. Zuma and Skye helped guide him to safety while Rocky began drawing up plans for the new spinner.

At that point, it was too dark to see, and the monkeys didn't have lights, so they called it a night, committed the spot they had left off at to memory, and went to sleep.

"I'm sorry you pups will be up all night," said Ryder, "but we've got to get the merry-go-round back." He then turned to Mayor Humdinger and asked, "So what were you doing out of jail?"

"Well, it's not what you think it is," Humdinger replied. "I wasn't escaping from prison by plotting anything. You can see the device on my ankle here." He pointed to the ankle device typically used for somebody that was under house arrest. "The prison I was in got a new warden, and his family think I am the lowest human being in the history of mankind. As a result, they somehow negotiated a deal with the authorities that I be switched to house arrest, even though it's a lifetime of house arrest. I only know this because I overheard the warden and his father talking about it over the telephone, and he had accidentally put his phone on speaker. I think he's going to be in quite a lot of trouble himself. I don't know."

"The entire world does have a hugely negative opinion of you," Liberty commented, "but I'm guessing that's really because you were once the mayor of Adventure City."

"Oh, you are from there; I forgot."

"Yes."

"In any case, I was the only one on the ballot, but I did ask my kittens to help rig the election and sabotage my opponent. He had to drop out as a result; if my memory is correct, he is now the mayor of Adventure City."

"I believe so, yes."

"Anyways, the arrangements were made, and I was let out of prison. I am to return to my lair as my home, but without the kittens, of course. But before I could get there, these crazy monkeys took me hostage so they could play this silly board game. I'm the prize! What's gotten into these monkeys?"

"That we're still not sure about," said Ryder. "All we know for sure is that the merry-go-round they were using for the spinner actually belongs to the Adventure Bay playground. We helped install it yesterday."

It was a long and tiring night, but thanks to the objects he had recycled over the years, Rocky and the others were able to make an exact replica of the spinner so that they could replace the merry-go-round. Ryder also took some special earmuffs he had made for the monkeys and had Tracker and Rubble place them on the ears of the monkeys so that they wouldn't hear a thing. "But Ryder, if Humdinger isn't here, what will the monkeys use for a prize?" the bulldog asked.

"That's a good question," Ryder replied. He turned to Carlos and asked, "What was the latest thing you donated to the museum, by the way?"

"It was some sort of ancient monkey shrine. It's only a temporary exhibit; it would have been brought back." Carlos then realized something. "Oh, no. What if they were going to use that as a prize for the board game?"

"If that's the case," Ryder replied, "then the monkeys were probably upset that they couldn't have their regular prize, and so they captured Mayor Humdinger."

"I have to admit," Humdinger interjected, "I thought they were trying to punish me for everything I've done by actually sacrificing me. The last time I was in the jungle, those monkeys wanted me to stay in one place forever, but they were trying to worship me as if I was a god or something. I don't understand that."

"Some things are better left unknown," Carlos put in, and everybody agreed.

The pups now understood why the merry-go-round was taken, and when Ryder called the prison Humdinger had been in, the warden confirmed that he had indeed negotiated with the authorities to have Humdinger instead placed under house arrest. His ultimate reason was not wanting to deal with the man, simply because his family hated the Humdinger family with no rhyme or reason.

What was left to determine was why the monkeys were playing in Foggy Bottom instead of in the jungles, and what the actual prize would have been if it wasn't the museum exhibit. After all, the monkeys were overprotective of everything; they demonstrated this when they prevented Carlos and the gang from being able to donate a special crown to the museum. (The crown belonged to a lost tribe of monkeys waiting for their queen to return. The long-lost monkey queen turned out to be Mandy, since she had pulled a sacred banana out of a different statue.)

"We have to work fast, pups," Ryder called as the pups escorted Mayor Humdinger back to his old lair, which (as of this point) was still his, since nobody knew where it was. After all, nobody ever wanted to visit Foggy Bottom, and in Humdinger's absence, it had become a ghost town (literally). Now Humdinger was once again the one resident. (Note that he didn't have his kitty carrier with him, so he rode on Ryder's ATV and wore a separate helmet.)

"We'll find a way," Rubble replied, "just as Apollo the Super-Pup does!" He then began to sing the theme song for the show, and all the pups laughed.

TO BE CONTINUED