Chapter 8: Promises, Part Two
They arrived at a building inside the mountain. The building was lit up with lights leading to the entrance.
"How is this even possible?" We are inside a mountain!" Margareth said it with a wide, open mouth.
"A little bit of dragon magic, earth to be specific; I carved this place out myself; it took a lot of work, but so worth it," Spyro told her as the PAW Patroller stopped.
"Okay guys, we are going to do this thing in the group. I need to set up for the transformation, so I will need Moby because I need to do a few tests before we get started. Everyone else can go with Hunter since he knows his way around here, and anyone is welcome to come with me if they want," Spyro tells them.
"Can I go with you, Spyro?" Gabriel asked him.
"Sure, and you can come to Coral; I had a feeling you would ask," Spyro tells him and Coral.
Coral was surprised; he knew she was going to ask, "How did you know I was going to ask?" Coral asked with a slight blush.
"Maybe it is because he knew you wanted to look after a certain pup?" Margareth teased.
Coral playfully shoved Margareth as she blushed. Spyro couldn't help but giggle. "As much as I love to watch this, we need to get moving; is everyone else going with Hunter?" Spyro asked, and the other pups nodded.
"Okay, let's get going," Spyro said, leading everyone outside.
Ryder and the pups were still in awe at the fact they were inside a mountain; the building was big, and they could see a long pipe leading to the top of the mountain. "I still can't believe you made this," Sebastian said as he looked around.
"I can do a lot of things, Sebastian, but you already knew that," Spyro tells him with a smile.
Spyro's callout did not go unnoticed; Chase found the way he said it to be strange, almost like they knew each other. Spyro opens the doors to let the pups in. "Welcome to Dragon's Den, my pride and joy," Spyro tells them, holding open the door as the others walk in.
They all walk in as the door shuts with a click. They are in an open room, like a welcome area. Marshall sees a glass case on the side and runs up to it. Inside is a pair of gloves and boots and a grappling hook. "So cool," Marshall says as he looks at him, but Hunter tosses something at him.
Marshall catches it to find a similar grappling hook in the case; this one is red and black. "Wow," Marshall says as he looks at it.
"Just don't go firing it; it is meant for human hands, not dog paws," Hunter tells him with a smile.
"I think I could make something similar," Gabriel says while looking at the grappling hook in Marshall's hands.
"Really?!" Marshall asked with a huge grin.
"It doesn't look that complicated." Gabriel shrugged.
"I can do you one better," Spyro said and went into a box and pulled out a different version of the grappling hook; it looked like it was meant to attach to something. Spyro tosses it to Gabriel: "This is a grappling hook model made for Salem, our only dog on the team."
Gabriel looks at it briefly before walking up to Marshall and asking, "Can I have your pup pack for a minute?" Gabriel asked him.
"Sure." Marshall hands him the pup pack as a few tools pop out of Gabriel's pup pack.
He opens a top hatch on Marshall's pup pack and quickly attaches the grappling to it with a few screws. Gabriel pulls and pulls it, making sure it is in place before he hands it back to Marshall. "This should do it; just don't use it here; I am sure Spyro has a testing room," Gabriel tells him as Marshall pulls out the new attachment.
"Why would you give him that? Now he is never going to relax," Margareth groans as Marshall looks at the grappling hook.
The other pup giggled as they looked at Marshall excitedly. "Hunter can show where that is since he should be heading there soon," Spyro told them.
"But this is where we part ways for a bit, Coral, Gabriel, and Moby; follow me," Spyro said as they walked off.
"Can I come too?" Rocky asked right before they walked out of view.
Spyro smiled at the mixed bread, "Sure, kid, Rocky, right?" Spyro asked him.
"Then let's go, Rocky; let's go get ready," Spyro said as Rocky ran to catch up to him.
"Well, this way, guys, I think everyone should be in here," Hunter said, opening a door to find a room with a long table and many chairs.
Raven had her feet on the table as she scrolled on her phone. Bolt and Kade were next to each other, playing on a switch. Raven was the first to look up to notice Hunter, Ryder, and the pups. "Welcome, PAW Patrol, here to look after Moby."
"Yup, and a little field trip will do us nicely," Ryder answered.
"Well, let me introduce myself. I am Raven, but you call me Rainbow," Raven tells Ryder.
"And these two Pokemon crackheads are Bolt and Kade." Raven giggled and pointed at them.
"Shut it, Dash, Pokemon is amazing," Kade scoffed.
"I think she was referring to the fact we haven't looked up to greet our guest, not to slander Pokemon," Bolt tells Kade.
"Whatever," Kades says while getting up.
"Come on, kid, we have training to get done; the sooner we finish, the sooner we can have fun," Kade said, dragging Hunter out of the room.
That left Ryder and the pups confused. "What just happened?" Marcus questioned.
"Oh, it's just Kade's turn to teach Hunter some tricks, but I think today is going to be special; if only Kade actually listened to the meetings, then maybe he would be less aggressive," Raven sighed.
"Where did he take Hunter?" Marshall asked her.
Raven takes a quick look at the pup and smiles. "To the training room, and I would assume you are Marshall, correct?"
"Yeah, why?" Marshall asked the girl.
"I have something I want to show you, Bolt. Can you take the rest to the training room?" Raven asked Bolt.
"Yeah, just don't take too long; we both know what is happening today," Bolt warns her.
"Just to keep things straight, I can take Marshal for a second." Raven asked Ryder.
Ryder shrugged. "I don't see why not; just keep an eye on him; he tends to wander off," Ryder joked.
"Hey! I am not that bad!" Marshall protested.
"No, you are that bad." Chase laughed as the other pups laughed too.
"Okay, let's go, guys. I think you will like the training room," Bolt tells them as he leads them into another room.
Spyro, Gabriel, Rocky, Coral, and Moby walked into a room. Inside were two huge tanks, some big computers, a few tables with tools, and a man standing while looking at a blue, transparent tablet.
"Paul, glad you could make it." Spyro greets him with a smile and holds out a claw.
"Oh, Spyro, we have quite a past together; I am happy to help you with anything you need." Paul takes his claw and shakes it.
Paul looked down to see the other pups. "And who might you guys be?" he asked with a smile.
"Gabriel, glad to meet you," Gabriel introduces himself.
"Rocky is my name; nice to meet you," Rocky tells him.
Paul scratched his chin when he heard those names. "Gabriel and Rocky, I know I have heard those names somewhere," Paul muttered.
"I am Coral," Coral says with a smile, "and this is Moby."
"So you are Moby? I am going to need some blood samples. Do you mind if I draw some blood?" Paul asked the pup, forgetting about Gabriel and Rocky's names.
"Draw blood?" Moby asked, confused.
"Oh right, you probably have never seen a doctor before; well, then, let's get everything in order," Paul said, and he grabbed some tools for doctors.
"If this is your first time, I would recommend having somebody by your side to comfort you; it shouldn't be too much." Paul approaches him as he grabs a needle and canister for blood.
Just seeing the needle send a shiver down Moby's spine, "D-do I have to?" Moby asked, showing fear.
"Don't worry, Moby; this kind of thing is normal for dogs; I am going to be right by your side." Coral reassured him and got closer to him.
"I won't do it unless you say I can, but we can't do anything without it," Paul tells him.
"I don't know about this," Moby said as Coral felt him shiver from fear.
"I know how much you want to be a land pup; this is the first step. I am right here; I am not going anywhere," Coral tells him with a small blush.
"Okay, just do it already," Moby said, also with a small blush.
Paul carefully yet quickly drew some blood from Moby as he winced. "All right, now let's see what we are dealing with," Paul said, and put the vial of blood in a slot on the computer as it displayed his genetics and any other stuff.
"Well, you are healthy and fully Merpup, so I think I can work with this," Paul said, and he grabbed a box under one of the tables.
He pulled out another vial with the name dog on it. "Now all I need is Fritz," Paul said with a grin.
"Hey Gabriel, can you go get Fritz? He is right down the hall, in the room labeled Research," Spyro asked him.
"Yeah, I can do that, but who is he?" Gabriel asked him.
Spyro smiled. "Fritz is an inventor; he makes all of our gear; in fact, I think he is working on something for Hunter right now."
"Sounds like our kind of person," Rocky said with a smile.
"Yeah, let's go get him, Rocky," Gabriel said as they left.
They both walked down the hall with smiles on their faces as they reached the room labeled "Research.".
They opened the door to see a mess of parts. The room had different pieces of equipment scattered around as they carefully walked over it. There were a few big pieces of equipment at the ends of the room. Fritz was welding something with a welding mask on.
They both walked over to them as he finished welding and took the mask off. Gabriel and Rocky looked at the thing he was welding; it was a small leg, about half a foot long, with one joint.
Fritz grabbed the leg and put on a small robot; it had four legs, a longer body to fit all the legs, and a small head with a visor, scanner, and two antennas in the shape of ears. "Now, I just need to give this thing some life," Fritz tells himself as he turns around to find Gabriel and Rocky staring at him.
Seeing two puppies stare at him with admiration and wagging tails gave the man a bit of fear. "Um, hello," Fritz said with a wave. "How did you get in here?"
"Through the door," Gabriel answered with an innocent smile.
"Did you really make that robot?" Rocky asked with glowing eyes.
"Well, technically, I call it a droid since this model is made from Star Wars; well, most of it is; I add the four legs and ears," Fritz answered with a shrug. "But what are you two doing here? I have never seen a pup here outside of Salem."
"Oh, Spyro brought us here to help with Moby," Gabriel answered.
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that; that must mean he is here then?" He asked.
"Yup," Gabriel answered.
"Then I better hurry and finish this up," Fritz said, pulling out a laptop and plugging in the droids into it.
"I think I can help with that," Rocky said with a smile.
Fritz raised an eyebrow. "This is a lot more complicated than you would think; it took me a few days just to get this far in the programming," Fritz told him.
"I have done this a hundred times; the Lookout has a lot of programming in it," Rocky said, jumping up onto the tables and grabbing the computer.
Rocky looked it over. "I see what you want, hm, a little bit of this, and a bit of that, here, try this," Rocky said, handing Fritz back the laptop.
Fritz looked it over before smiling and saying, "Pretty guy, kid, now let's see if it worked."
Fritz clicked a button before the robot got up and started to move around. The visor glowed red with yellow eyes, then it started to dance around.
"Wow, this is so cool, but what did you need this for?" Gabriel asked with a tailwag.
"Well, I designed this after a BD-1 because Star Wars is Hunter's favorite movie and show. I thought I could make it for him; he is a bit of a loner, so I thought this might cheer him up," Fritz tells him with a smile.
"Well, we better hurry," Rocky said with a smile.
"Yeah, let's not keep Moby waiting," Fritz said, holding out his hand for the droid as it climbed up his arm and rested on his back. Fritz grabbed a weird gun-like object. They all started to go back to each other.
Meanwhile, Raven opened a door to a room as Marshall watched with a smile. Inside brought joy to Marshall, plushies in every corner. Marshall immediately knew where he was. "Wow, I guess Hunter never changes. He has been collecting these things all of his life," Marshall says with a smile.
"Hunter sure is special," she said as she watched Marshall run around the room looking at everything. "But I brought you here for a for a special reason."
Rainbow brought out a box from a closet. "Open it," she told him with a smile.
Marshall opened it with a big grin, but it only got bigger. Inside were a bunch of plushies of Marshall in all of his different gear over the years. "Hunter really got all of them?" Marshall asked as a tear rolled down his face.
"Even after three years, his love for you never faded; I can't even count how many times I have heard him mention you in conversion, but he was scared; he was scared to face you after three years," Raven tells him.
"Hell, I probably know more about you than the PAW Patrol itself, and my daughter loves you guys," Raven says with a smile.
"He even has you on his nightstand," Raven points to the nightstand, which had a Marshall plushie on; there was even a self just for PAW Patrol plushies.
A few more tears fell as he stared at the plushies. "You mean the world to him, as does your entire family; now, how much does he mean to you?" Raven asked, leaning on a wall with a stare.
"Hunter was always like a second dad to me; he was there when my dad wasn't, ALWAYS, and then he wasn't. I was never told what happened until this Christmas; I didn't know; I didn't know what he was going through." Marshall fell to the ground in tears.
Raven saw the emotion in him and sat down next to him as Marshall continued to cry softly. "You think you have a problem until you see other problems," Raven said as a tear went down her cheek.
"I didn't know how people like him could keep going; it amazes me; maybe that is why I stayed, even though how dangerous this job is," she tells him with a smile.
"We are a family here; we share laughter, joy, sadness, and pain. I want you to know he is in good hands," Ravens says with a smile.
Marshall sniffled before answering her, "I know he is; I've seen the spark he used to have with us come back." Marshall answered with a small smile.
"I wanted to give you something, something special," Raven says, handing him a box.
Marshall opened it to find a sword that was very similar to his other sword, but the blade had a red color and a weird handle.
"I saw the sword he gave you for Christmas, but it didn't represent anything special; this one does. Hunter fights with two swords, and now you have two too, and a special surprise Spyro thought of," she tells him with a smile.
Marshall opens his pup pack to see another slot for a sword. He slots in the sword and closes it. "Thanks, Raven," Marshall says with a grateful smile.
"You're welcome, kid. Now let's get back to the other before the training session." Raven patted him on the head, and they ran off to the training room.
Gabriel, Rocky, and Fritz walked in to meet Spyro and the others. "Spyro, Paul, is everything almost ready?" Fritz asked with a grin.
"Yup, all we need is your help before we can start," Spyro tells him.
"Got it," Fritz said, and he walked up to one of the computers.
"Say, Spyro, theoretically, could do the same thing to me but, ad say, dragon DNA?" Gabriel asked hesitantly.
This question shot a shiver down Spyro's side. He knew the answer, but he didn't want to answer. "Kid, you wouldn't want that; my DNA is unstable; it is dangerous," Spyro tells him with hesitation.
"So you could?" Gabriel said, hearing his hesitation.
"Gabriel, you are not understanding; that would be irreversible; you would be a monster, just like me," Spyro tries to tell him.
"So what if I am a monster? I am not blind, Spyro. I know someone is after me; I don't know why, but I know they want me," Gabriel tells him.
"I don't want power; I want to protect the people close to me. Those people wanted me dead, but I know I can't stop them the way I am now," Gabriel said as a tear rolled down his cheek.
"Now, PLEASE! Tell me there is a way for you to do it," Gabriel asked desperate.
Spyro looked at him in the eye. "If I give you my DNA, I need you to promise me something," Spyro tells him.
"Anything," Gabriel said, determined.
"Never use this power with hatred, and never use more than one mutation at a time," Spyro warns him.
"I promise," Gabriel says.
"Paul, do you have the files on Flarezion and Lizzie?" Spyro asked him.
"Already on it; this is going to take longer than just Moby; go to Ryder and tell him what is going to happen," Paul tells him, handing him a file with Lizzie and Flarezion's names on it. "Also, another blood sample."