Archive of Our Own

It was a relatively average day in Adventure Bay, nothing too significant was happening, life was pleasant. The PAW Patrol were hanging out at the lookout as they did when there were no rescues, and the citizens were going about their days. Ryder was laying in a lawn chair next to Katie, they were talking while the pups were all discussing the rules of their soccer game with an unimpressed Callie licking her paw on a towel just below beside the chairs.

Suddenly, Ryder’s pup-pad started to ring, it was Mayor Goodway.

“Hey mayor, what seems to be troubling you today?“ Ryder answered smoothly.

“Ryder, I, uh, I’m not really sure how to put this, but I need you to take care of the town for me. I have to leave for a few days. I feel like I’m asking for too much though. It’s not that hard of a job, I can tell you what to do, but I have to go, it’s very urgent.” Mayor Goodway seemed more on edge than usual.

“Of course, no job is too big, no pup is too small!” Ryder assured her, saying his normal catchphrase, but a notable amount of sympathy in his voice as an attempt to soothe the mayor as he hung up.

He told Katie he needed to leave, but he’d try to pop by later when he was done. He then pulled the side-piece out of his tablet to summon the pups to the lookout, and rushed inside to prepare the meeting.

The pups’ tags blinked a few times with a little ‘blip’ noise, and they all stopped in their tracks immediately. They all knew that meant someone was in trouble.

“Ryder needs us!” Chase alerted everyone.

The pups rushed over to the elevator to meet their leader at the top of their tower. Marshall, per usual, crashed into them, and cracked a silly joke. The elevator slowly raised up, but nobody seemed to laugh except a small chuckle from Rubble. Marshall let out a small sigh, he wouldn’t let it get to him. Everyone’s just been tense with each other. The doors slid open, and they all leaped into their formation.

“Ready for action Ryder sir!” Chase announced, looking at each pup diligently to make sure they were all in line.

“Thank you Chase,” Ryder nodded, he had a serious expression on his face. “We have a very important job requested from the mayor, she’s asked us to watch over Adventure Bay until she returns from some kind of important thing she needs to attend to elsewhere. All we have to do is keep things safe, which shouldn’t be too difficult, we’re professionals at that. So for this mission, we’ll need all paws on deck. I've picked a few of you to help run town hall, and the rest will just be going around town and doing what Mayor Goodway leaves for us to do. We’ll discuss this further when we get to Town Hall.”

He skipped his ‘PAW Patrol we’re on a roll,’ he felt this wasn’t the best time to use any more catchphrases. The one earlier was pushing it. Ryder felt this was more of a serious situation than what the mayor was leading them into. Ryder slid down the pole leading to his garage and hopped onto his ATV. The metal number one door opened quickly, and he zoomed off, joining the rest of the pups who were driving up as well. He waved back to some of the people who were doing the same to them as the team sped by. They all reached Town Hall in record time, where Mayor Goodway was standing outside, anxiously fiddling with her sleeve. She had a thick coat on, and a few large suitcases sitting next to her.

“Are you sure she’s going to be gone for a few days?” Ryder heard Rocky mutter behind him- most likely to Zuma- as he heard them both chuckle afterwards..

Chase shot the two a rather angry warning glance, and Rocky snorted, giving him an eye roll.

“Thank you guys for getting here. Like I said, I’ll be just gone for a few days, maybe a week. All you need to do is make sure everyone is thriving and happy. Oh! And keep the paperwork inside of town hall in order.” She explained hap-hazardly, and then started loading herself and her purse-chicken into her little red car.

She practically floored her vehicle before Ryder could open his mouth to ask anything, and she was gone in just a couple heart-beats.

“…Ok.” Rubble looked quite dumbfounded at her frantic departure.

“Better get to it then.” Marshall started forward, trying to remain positive, tripping up the stairs in the process as he went.

“What are we gonna do with him?” Chase muttered, annoyance apparent in his bark.

“Alright, enough muttering, everyone into the library so we can re-group.” Ryder sighed.

He felt like his pups were starting to become distant with each other, like they weren’t getting along anymore. Chase seemed to only hang out with Skye, and was especially brutal to Marshall. The German shepherd used to compliment and uplift everyone around him, but now everything that left his mouth was an insult or something defiant. Rocky was actively avoiding Rubble too, as the bulldog had ruined one of his large projects, he often called him a ‘slob with two left feet.’ Rocky had spent a long time building a model of the PAW Patrol out of old toothpicks, but Rubble stumbled into it… twice. The two pups never really had the closest bond, but to think that their relationship could turn so drastically for the worst so fast, it saddened Ryder. He supposed with the building negativity, everyone was more prone to anger. The teen sat down in a purple armchair, trying to focus on what they should do rather than disagreements.

“Alright,” He stopped to make sure he was pairing everyone with the right pup. “Rocky, you’ll be handling paperwork and citizen requests, you're one of my smartest pups, so I’ll be depending on you to handle the important stuff.”

“You bet.” Rocky answered, giving him a little salute.

“Chase and Skye, I want you two to patrol the town, once in the morning, and once in the evening. Just make sure everything is all set.”

Chase and Skye nodded.

“Marshall and Rubble, you guys can go get Everest, you three will be in charge of keeping citizens happy. I’ll make sure town hall stays tidy.”

“Sounds fun!” Rubble wagged his short tail, Marshall joyfully nodding with him.

“What about me?” Zuma asked hopefully.

“I want you to be my supervisor. You’ll kind of just make sure each pup knows what they're doing, and you’ll be helping Rocky and me a lot. I feel you're best suited for this task.” Ryder answered.

“Wad!” Zuma wrapped an arm around Rocky, both of them wagging their tails.

“So the surfer can be trusted more to be in charge, but me, your most reliable and loyal pup, has to do meaningless patrols?” Chase asked, anger was blazing in his eyes.

“Chase, if you think I don’t trust you, you're wrong. Your job is still important. The mayor needs us to run the town, not control it. You’d be fit for the job, but sometimes you take your job too seriously, so I gave you a job that requires you to be on that level.” Ryder sighed again, Chase had been extremely defiant against all his orders lately, it was making him get surprisingly frustrated with the dog.

The german shepherd ‘tutted,’ storming out with Skye following closely at his side, trying to comfort him.

“Chase has been a real asshole lately, he needs to get his temper managed.” Rocky grumbled as he walked off to the mayor’s office to do his assigned task.

“I don’t understand why he’s been so mean, it’s really been killing the vibe on the team. I’m glad you and Everest haven’t been mean to me at least, but I miss when we all got along and laughed together.” Ryder heard Marshall talking to Rubble as they were heading out the door, most likely off to Jake’s Mountain.

“Hey, we’re always here for you buddy, they’ve been pretty terrible to me too. I don’t know why none of the pups get along anymore, it’s so different from when I first came here.” Rubble responded with a sigh. “I hope Everest is doing alright, I’ve been worried about her.” The doors shut behind them, and Ryder could no longer hear their conversation.

“Did you… choose me to be supewvisow because I’m neutwal with evewyone?” Zuma looked up at Ryder, nervous.

“I’ll be honest with you, I did. I don’t know what’s been going on with everyone. Even Skye, one of the sweetest pups on the team, has been acting so off. She’s only been hanging around Chase. I just want you all to get along again. I mean, weren’t guys playing a game earlier?” Ryder nodded solemnly, resting his head in his hand.

“Not weally. We were twying to set up a game of soccew, but we wewe all awguing. I’m guessing you were too busy talking with Katie to notice.“ Zuma shrugged.

“Why don’t you go off and help Rocky, I’m sure he needs help, especially from you, you're a great supervisor.” The teen tried to lighten the mood after a long pause.

Zuma’s face grew hot, and he looked a little giddy. “Y-yeah! I’ll go do that.”

Ryder smiled, watching him run excitedly over to the mayor’s office. He liked Rocky and Zuma together, despite the mixed-breed’s disdain for water, the two dogs worked well on missions together, and made a cute couple to top it all off.

He pulled out his pup-pad again, and selected Katie.

“Hey Ryder! Did you figure out what the mayor needed?” She answered immediately.

“Yeah, she just needed us to fill in for her for a few days, no big deal.” Ryder felt his mind draw away from his worries talking to her, she was one of his only, and closest friends close to his age.

“Whoa! That’s a big job, huh?” Katie was folding her lawn chair. “Well, me and Callie are packing up here, probably heading back.”

“Do you need a ride?” Ryder offered immediately.

“It’s not that far of a walk.” Katie chuckled. “But if it’s not too much of a hassle for you, I suppose I can accept.”

Ryder nodded, and hollered to Rocky and Zuma that he was heading out for a brief moment. He sprinted over to his ATV and hopped on it again, speeding off towards the lookout. When he arrived he found Katie waiting for him. Callie looked rather unhappy to be in her cat backpack, but it would keep her safe during the ride at least.

“I left both the lawn chairs inside, I’ll come back for it some other time.” She hopped on the back, and held onto his waist.

Ryder felt himself freeze for a few moments, he probably looked like an absolute fool.

“You alive up there?“ She tapped his shoulder, a teasing glint in her blue eyes.

“Um… yeah! Just thinking about how to improve the mayor’s tulips, you know? She sure loves those things.” He blurted out with a nervous snort.

“Tell me about it… I remember when Harold was antagonizing the town with his giant robot, she was so mad about her flowers getting crushed, like, five times in a day. It was kind of funny.” Katie laughed out loud, leaning closer into Ryder as they drove over the bridge.

She looked out to the water, it was already starting to swallow the sun as it set. Maybe it was a good thing Ryder came, it would be dark soon.

“Thanks.” She got off, and noticed him swinging his leg over to slide off as well.

“Of course, an exchange for your troubles.” She gave him a small peck on the cheek.

He jolted, a goofy smile plastered on his face from ear to ear.

“You're welcome!” Katie started towards the door to her shop.

“Wait! I wanted to ask… um… when we’re done, like, taking care of town hall, would you like to hang out or something? We could go to Mr. Porters or hang out at Seal Island-“ Ryder’s blabbering was cut off with a small giggle.

“I’d love to.” Katie looked touched, and she waved.

He watched as she walked off, and he felt giddy as he started to zoom off back to town hall. He strolled through the doors casually, fireworks practically erupting in his chest. Rubble and Marshall were back with Everest; Jake had accompanied them as well.

“I thought I could come help out too, or at least chill in Adventure Bay for a bit, nothing much going on up at the mountain without any snow.“ Jake explained. “Playing mayor for a few days, huh?” The young adult teased.smirk

“Make yourself at home.“ Ryder gave Jake a thumbs up before he directed his attention to Mayor Goodway’s office.

“Chase, could you please go away, go talk to Skye or something, Zuma heard your report, he’ll tell Ryder when he gets back, we don’t need you in here disrupting us.” He heard Rocky‘s annoyed tone.

“Show me the papers, I know you found something, your eyebrows are all furrowed! I deserve to know, I’m basically second-in-command to Ryder.” Chase growled back.

“Could you two please stop,” Zuma groaned.

Skye popped up from behind. “Why don’t we go do something else, Chase. I’m sure it’s not a big deal.” She tried to nudge him away, but the lather dog stood his ground firmly.

“Christ on a cracker! I don’t like arguing with any of you pups, but some of you have been insufferable lately.” Rocky had his paws over his face, his voice slightly muffled.

“Alright, that’s enough, break it up.” Ryder said in a firm voice. “Chase, Skye, please, just go somewhere else for now, ok? If they’ve found anything important, we’ll tell all the pups. I’ll be out soon to feed you all soon.”

“Sure.” Chase had his ears flattened backwards to his head, feeling embarrassed for being scolded in front of everyone.

He was just trying to make sure everyone stayed in line. Chase didn’t understand why everyone was so frustrated with him, he was simply doing his job like always! What was the problem? He looked down to Skye, she looked… unreadable. Chase wanted to comfort her, but he felt too angry to, and he didn’t want to snap at her again.

…He didn’t mean to get so upset with her, or any of the other pups, he didn’t understand why he felt so much rage all the time. Something about his return from Adventure City still wasn’t sitting right, his mind was constantly whirling, and his emotions were all over the place.

Ryder watched the brown dog walk away with Skye, a sad glint in his eyes; what happened to his team?

“I just need some peace and quiet to organize some of these documents. We might’ve found something important, but that dickhead completely ruined my train of thought.” Rocky sighed

“Enough with the name calling.” Ryder raised his finger at the mixed breed sternly. “I’ll leave you two to it. Make sure to come get something to eat.”

Zuma hopped onto the chair next to Rocky so he could get a better look at the papers sprawled onto the desk. He leaned on Rocky’s shoulder, watching as the mixed-breed read through the documents carefully.

“Awe we allowed to be doing this?” Zuma asked.

“Probably not, but I’ve noticed the mayor has been acting pretty strange lately. She seems jumpier than usual, and she left in such a hurry with an overly large suitcase. Like, who packs that much for a few days?” Rocky pointed out.

Zuma nodded in agreement. They continued looking through some more papers, until they found disturbing news.

“This is… a dead body reported.” Rocky said grimly, horrified. “I’m shocked we weren’t alerted to this, it happened in the woods right near the lookout! It says here some kids were poking around there and they decided to post pictures of it.”

“Yikes, it appeaws that they have a gunshot wound too.” Zuma looked closer at the photo, eyes wide

“Nice observation!” Rocky smiled, and then he shook his head to focus himself back in. “Anyhow, there are a few more notices of peculiar activity going on. Unrecognized people at the edges of our city, strange parts scattered about, and messages graffitied to alleyway walls.”

“This is a bomb thweat.” Zuma felt his stomach do flips as he held up the dreaded paper.

“The mayor must not be leaving for a few days, she was fleeing out of fear!” Rocky got down out of the chair. “And to think we trusted her! I bet she abandoned us!”

Rocky felt rage seething beneath him. After all those ridiculous rescues they did for her, after all the contributions the team had made to the town, and just Adventure Bay in general, why did she just leave? He knew Mayor Goodway was definitely a Nervous Nellie, but this was straight cowardness. She never, ever gave up no matter the circumstances. His anger quickly died down after a moment when he heard Zuma sniffling behind him.

“I don’t wanna die, Wocky! We have to do something! I don’t wanna lose you, or anyone else on the team, even if we nevew get along evew again, we’we all a family.” Zuma wailed, tears streaming down his face.

“Zuma… it’s going to be ok. We still need to analyze it full-way through, come on, let’s read more of it together and go bring this to Ryder.” Rocky tried his best to comfort the chocolate lab.

“Hey, look at me,” Rocky gripped his paws firmly onto Zuma’s face so they made direct eye-contact. “We’re gonna pull through, ok? I know it’s scary, I’m terrified too, I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you either, but we need to remain calm. If we freak ourselves out now we won’t be able to help.”

Zuma hugged him tightly, and Rocky gripped back. When they broke apart, Zuma placed a small kiss on the mixed-breed’s cheek.

“Thanks.” Zuma wasn’t panicking anymore.

“Of course.” Rocky smiled warmly at him. “Now, let’s take this all to Ryder, and try to figure out what’s going on.”

“I could definitely use a meal too.” Zuma tried to lighten the mood.

Rocky collected all the documents, and walked out. Everest, Rubble, and Marshall were in one corner, and Chase and Skye were huddled far on the completely opposite side of the hall.

“What rays of sunshine,” Rocky muttered, rolling his eyes.

“I don’t think this is the best time for jokes.” Zuma warned him wearily.

“Sorry. It's just my way of coping with all the shit that’s been going down, and about to go down.” Rocky let his ears droop.

“Hey pups, find something?” Ryder greeted them cheerfully, he seemed much more bubbly than usual.

“Uh, well, this might wuin your day, but we’we found some very alawming stuff.” Zuma sat down as Rocky gave the boy his findings, feeling dread return to his body.

The whole few minutes Ryder was reading, his eyes kept growing wider and wider, and soon his jaw fell open.

“What’s wrong?” Jake got up, Everest following him closely.

“Adventure Bay is in danger! And I-I… I don’t know what to do! I never thought we’d ever have to deal with something on this level!” Ryder gripped the papers shakily in his hands, then he let them drop to the floor, he couldn’t look at them anymore.

The other pups had started to gather around as he pulled out his pup-pad, looking at each other with worried expressions. He dialed up Mayor Goodway hesitantly.

It rang.

And rang.

And rang….

There was no answer.

He pressed her face again, but it would make no difference.

“We’re alone. The mayor is gone. Nowhere to be found.” Ryder announced in a quiet voice, sounding utterly defeated.

“How could she do that to us? We don’t know if these threats are fake or not, but she loves her town! What drove her to run away?” Jake was picking the scattered papers off the tiled floor, skimming through some of them.

“We should leave, Jake.” Everest said in an urgent tone, seeing the bomb threat in big, bold letters.

“What?! But you're a part of our team! You can’t just leave! You stay where we stay and help!” Chase growled at her.

“Everest, I understand you're scared, but we must stay and help, it’s our duty.” Jake bent down, petting her gently on the head. “Come on, you love rescues!”

“I just don’t want to lose you.” She nuzzled into his hand.

“A bomb threat?” Even Marshall’s good attitude seemed to be completely wiped away.

“What should we do?” Skye asked apprehensively.

“We have to make sure we’re stocked up on food-” Rubble started, but an aggressive shove cut him off.

“Yeah, all you think about is food.” Chase snorted rudely. “We need more than just that, basic necessities, evacuation…”

Rubble sat back down, a glum expression on his face, as Chase started listing off stuff. He didn’t understand what happened with all the pups. All he did was trip over something Rocky was working on, and now the gray pup avoided him completely. Chase was so brutal now, and Skye always clung to his side like a burr. The only pups who didn’t seem to hate him were Marshall and Everest, but Everest seemed sad. The husky often talked about her fears of being abandoned or separated from Jake, and how she felt she could barely focus on anything due to horrible thoughts. He felt bad for her, and tried his best along with Marshall to make her feel better, but there was only so much they could do. Marshall luckily never lost his charm, but Rubble could tell the dalmation was hurt by the other pup’s comments despite how much he pretended not to be. Rubble just wanted everyone to get along again, they were all so close before.

It seemed too late to fix any of that now, everyone in the room knew that. They were all awkwardly looking at each other, not knowing what to do next. They could all be dead in the next few days, or everything could be back to normal, it was a play it by ear.

“I definitely believe this may be a real threat, even with little info, I think it is.” Rocky made up his mind.

“Me too.” Zuma added, earning a nod from the other pups, at least they could all agree on that.

“What should we do? Evacuate? Take shelter? Or- or…” Marshall looked terrified.

“It’s late. We’ll figure it out tomorrow, we’re all hungry and tired.” Chase dismissed him. “I’ll hatch up a plan.”

“Why don’t we all figure out something together? Teamwork makes the dream work, right?” Marshall chirped enthusiastically.

“I’m pretty sure all the falls you’ve taken have damaged your brain, the last thing I want is an idea from you.” Chase snapped back at him.

“Don’t talk to him like that!” Everest got in the
Shepard's face. “What are you such a bitch for, huh? You're a complete joke, you used to be cool, what the hell happened?”

Chase jumped at her, teeth bared.

“Enough!” Ryder screamed, he and Jake grabbed each pup by their collars and pulled them apart.

Everyone went silent, some startled, and the rest looked depleted.

“Ok…” Ryder had his fingers resting on the bridge of his nose, his hand still firmly gripping Chase’s collar. “All of you need to learn how to get along, this is serious. Don’t make me break up another fight ever again. Go rest up back at The Lookout.”

“Fine.” Chase muttered, yanking himself away from Ryder. Skye padded up to him, whispering something in his ear, but he didn’t seem to be listening.

“We’re going to stay here with Everest and Jake.” Marshall told Ryder softly. “It’s probably better for us to split up.”

Ryder nodded slowly, patting the spotted dog on the head. He walked into a different room to just get away from all the tension that hung in the air. He sighed heavily, letting himself slowly fall onto the floor against the wall.

“Wyder?” Zuma made him jump a little.

He looked at the lab tiredly, tears welling in the corners of his eyes.

“What will we do after this whole thing is ovew? The team is bawley holding on, and I doubt after something so stwessful we’d be able to keep this up.” Zuma sat next to him, leaning his head gently on the boy’s knee.

He noticed Rocky had followed in too, and was cuddling close to Zuma.

“The team is falling apart right before my eyes. It feels like just yesterday we were all working together, even when we were doing the silliest of missions, we still had so much fun saving people. I want to do something, but I can’t, it’s all just happening, and there’s nothing I can think to do that’s going to help.” Ryder was in tears at this point.

The three sat in silence, reminiscing on what they couldn’t bring back.

“I’m going back to the lookout, I may not want to be around Chase, but it gives me some sort of comfort sleeping there.” Rocky broke the silence.

“I’ll come with you, are you coming too, Wyder?” Zuma looked back at him as he started to follow his boyfriend.

“I have a few things to do first.” He gave them a small, hopefully reassuring smile.

Zuma dove into the boy’s arms, giving him a tight hug before he finally exited. It made Ryder smile. Despite all the anxiety that was building up inside his chest, he still appreciated some of the pups pushing through the best they could.

“Hey Ryder, I just wanted to check up on you.” He heard Jake's smooth voice from behind. “I know you're usually capable of handling things yourself, but this is a lot bigger than what you’ve used to”

“I know… I'm just at a loss right now. I’ve trained in fields like this, I know what to do in a situation like this, I just never thought I’d actually have to do it.” Ryder felt himself start to get emotional again.

“Well, you're still a kid.” Jake sat down beside him.

“I’m almost seventeen!” Ryder felt himself get defensive.

“Yeah, but still. You're still changing and discovering things about yourself. Like, come on dude, you haven’t even gone on your first date yet.” Jake gave him a small, playful punch in the shoulder.

“I was going to take Katie out after I was done helping the mayor, but that’s kind of out the window.” Ryder scratched the back of his neck flushing slightly.

“Look at you, little man!” Jake teased, shaking him by his shoulder with a laugh. “You should take her somewhere nice tomorrow, just in case shit hits the fan. Me and the pups can hold down the fort for an hour or two.”

“Thank you. I’ll take Rocky and Zuma with me too, they deserve something nice too. I may possibly need some advice from them too.” Ryder nodded slowly, coming back to his senses.

“I’m always here if you need me,” Jake gave him a reassuring smile. “But then again, I’m not really experienced much on this, not really into the whole dating thing. I’ll tell you this, though, just be yourself! Cliche I’m sure, but it is the best advice out there.”

“Thanks.” Ryder pulled Jake into a hug. “You’ve always been sort of like a brother to me.”

“I always hoped you’d say that.” Jake broke away, messing up some of Ryder’s hair.

“Hey!” The boy squeaked, caught off guard.

“Go get some rest back at the lookout. Everest, Marshall, Rubble, and I will be here for the night, We’ll let you know if we see anything suspicious.” Jake gave the boy a thumbs up before joining the remaining pups in the main hall.

——————————————————————

The next morning, Ryder woke up bright and early, and spruced himself up a bit. He gave Katie a buzz, asking if she’d like to go out to Seal Island, and she happily accepted. Zuma and Rocky were ready too. Zuma had an orange bowtie on, and Rocky styled up the tuft of fur on his head, similar to the boa-hawk that Katie had given him for the Puptacular contest.

“I’d say we should bring Chase and Skye, but they’re not exactly what you’d call a healthy relationship.” Rocky muttered, hopping into his truck.

“Oh, are they together?” Ryder felt a little wary, was he behind on the pups' lives?

“I think so, but you can never be too sure. The way Chase has her glued to his side all the time says something at least.” Rocky snorted as he offered Zuma a seat in the passenger side.

Ryder thought about that for a moment. Had he really been living under a rock? He felt like he knew nothing about his beloved team anymore.

“I was kind of surprised you two decided to take Rocky’s vehicle instead of yours, Zuma.” Ryder commented, deciding to forget about his worries for now.

“Well, Wocky’s got the tugboat, might as well put it to use.” Zuma shrugged. “I love that he has it, despite him not liking water.”

“I was thinking of that while I was making the edition. I knew it’d bring you two closer together in a way.” Ryder hopped off his ATV as they came to a stop.

Rocky smiled sheepishly, earning a small giggle from Zuma.

“We’ll be waiting for you out here, dude! Take your time.” Zuma called to Ryder before the boy walked into the pet-salon.

“Hey Ryder! I’m just closing up here, I left Callie with Alex, he’s been into pet-sitting lately. That kid tries anything and everything! Katie says cheerily.

She had a pretty, flowy pink dress on, printed with white daisies along the bottom. It was a little jagged towards the end, and longer on one side than when compared to the other. It was quite stunning… to Ryder at least.

“Wow… you look amazing!” He said dreamily.

“Thank you.” She replied, tucking a few strands of hair behind her ear shyly.

“Are you ready to roll? Rocky and Zuma cleaned themselves up super nice.” Ryder felt giddy.

Katie gave him a thumbs up, and followed him outside. As the four of them approached the bay down by the beach, Rocky and Ryder hit the buttons on their vehicles to transform them water-ready. Rocky’s tugboat landed into the water, making a decently sized splash. It made the mixed-breed get noticeably nervous, but Zuma rubbed his back with a paw to try and sooth him. Rocky would definitely say that it helped.

They rode out to Seal Island at a steady pace, small waves forming behind them as they continued towards the oncoming lighthouse. After arriving on shore, they laid out towels, and set down a basket full of delicious pastries and pup treats made by Mr. Porter just this morning. Katie and Ryder sat on the towels next to each other awkwardly; neither of the teens really knew what you did on a date. They watched Rocky and Zuma sitting out near the water, they seemed to be in deep conversation already.

“Maybe we can… walk? I know Seal Island isn’t that big, but it’s still nice.” Katie offered her hand after another long pause, wearing a flustered smile.

He took it without hesitation, and they wandered off to circle the island a couple times

“I know we’we supposed to be having a nice outing, Wocky, but I’m still tewified about all of this. It’s hawd not to think about it.” Zuma sighed heavily, looking into the small waves that moved heave back and forth across the shore.

“I know. I wish I could say or do something to make you feel better. I make myself feel better with jokes.” Rocky couldn’t help but let himself chuckle a little.

“It’s bettew than- wha- hey! You just joked thewe!” Zuma gave the mixed breed a playful shove.

“Clearly it worked then.” Rocky smiled, falling to the ground dramatically. “You’ve got me!”

“You're widiculous.” Zuma rolled his eyes, and then started wading into the water.

Zuma swam skillfully in a circle before paddling closer back so Rocky could hear him.

“The watew is pwetty nice today.”

“If you’re trying to persuade me to come in, it’s not working.” Rocky gave the lab a fake suspicious look.

“I undewstand your negative expewiences in the past have given you your feaws, but we’ll have to wean you out of it eventually. You’d also probably pewform Sea Patrol missions better if you got used to it.” Zuma teased him towards the end of his explanation. “One of the best ways to heal is moving past your twuama.

“I know, I know. It’s just difficult. At first it seemed like it was just gross, but I’ve realized over the years how much water really scares me. What can happen… what it can do.” Rocky sat a foot away from the tide.

“We can start whenevew you want. Even if we just dip your paws in, I’ll be thewe evewy step of the way, I pwomise. Besides, I’m the watew pup, Wocky, out of evewyone on the team, I think you chose the wight guy.” Zuma waded back in close enough to where the water was just barely touching his paws.

Rocky stood up, and very slowly put the very edge of one of his paws into the cool water. While it felt nice in the summer heat, it was just so… wet. He brought his other leg nearly a centimeter further than where the other one was placed. The waves of the tide gently lapped at the white fur that covered his paws, startling him.

“O-ok, I think that’s enough for today.” Rocky quickly jumped back, shaking the little water that got on him off vigorously.

“Hey! That was weally good! I’m pwoud of you, darling.” Zuma bowled into the other pup, bringing him into a tight hug.

“Zuma! You're drenched!” Rocky yelped at salty water dripping into him.

“Wight! Sowwy!” Zuma backed off, but he could still see Rocky’s tail wagging.

A blaring siren noise in the distance made them both suddenly jump.

“Could that be any loudew?!” Zuma covered his floppy ears, annoyed.

“That’s…” Rocky looked up, his eyes wide with terror.

“It’s the alert for incoming projectiles! The threats are real!” Ryder came running over, Katie on his heels.

“What should we do?!” Zuma’s voice was shakey, his heart pumping in his chest a mile a minute.

“We need to get back and get as many as we can to safety! Now!” Ryder commanded, and the four of them all sped off to their vehicles.

“Incoming projectiles!” Cap’n Turbot sped over to them on The Flounder. “I was feeding Wally down by Adventure Beach and the sirens went off!

“I know! We need to go, now!” Ryder was already on his ATV with Katie.

The five of them sped off, kicking up water as they went.

They quickly got back to Adventure Beach, and Cap’n Turbot hopped into the backseat of Rocky’s truck, not even worrying about putting on his seatbelt. Many people were frantic, either frozen in place or scrambling to get to shelter. Ryder dropped Katie off at Mr. Porters, instructing that she help gather people inside. He met up with the rest of the PAW Patrol, Francios Turbot, and Jake near Town Hall.

“Who sounded the alarm?” Ryder asked urgently.

“I did. You're welcome. There are multiple unrecognized aircrafts flying in, I looked through the telescope at The Lookout, they don’t look friendly, it’s definitely an air attack.” Chase answered.

Ryder could see Rocky physically struggling to bite back an angry quip, he was relieved though, this was not the time to start another argument. He could feel panic rising in his chest. His pup-pad started to ring, bringing him back to reality before he could freak out.

“Ryder? Are you guys ok?!” It was Tracker, he and Carlos looked extremely worried.

“I can’t say we are. Look, I’m going to connect you to my ear, I have to help round people up.” He told them; he needed to be strong right now.

He heard a couple more rings. Rex, Wildcat, Ella, Tuck, and Liberty had rung in as well. They were all talking over each other, clearly frightened for everyone in Adventure Bay. All of the reserve members didn’t even live in the same town, the closest being Liberty, but even then, she wouldn’t be able to get here in time to help. Ryder was thankful, he’d rather them stay put where they are to avoid injury.

“Alright pups,” He touched his earpiece so he was muted to the others who had called him, he didn’t have the right mindset to talk to any of them at the moment. “Chase and Marshall, you guys have the loudest sirens and a megaphone, drive around town and get as many people as you can to Mr. Porter’s or Town Hall, those places both have the biggest basements, and should be able to hold the most people safely underground.”

“Rocky, you keep watch of the helicopters from the Lookout tower, keep me updated. Rubble, Everest, and Jake, you all grab as much emergency supplies from The Lookout as you can. Skye, I do not want you up there, help get people into Town Hall, they’ll need some compassion.”

Everyone immediately jumped into what they were told to do.

“Is there anything we can do for you, monsieur?” Francios asked, his voice cracked, and he looked petrified, very different from his usual demeanor.

“I can go clear the beach and bay.” Cap’n Turbot saluted, and Ryder gave him a small nod and watched the man run off back to The Flounder with Zuma on his tail.

“Francios, you ride with me. I know you usually help your cousin, but I think you’d be more useful staying wity me.” Ryder offered gently to the French man.

“Alright.” He responded, clearly a bit relieved to be off the field.

They both got onto his ATV and drove slowly around town. He tapped his earpiece again.

“Ryder? Is that you? Thank goodness you're ok! Sorry if we were being a bother, we just needed to make sure you were all still kicking.” Liberty was the first to talk.

“Well, we’re in a panic, and under attack, but we’ve at least gotten everyone to safety from what I can see.” Ryder felt Francios grip tighten on his shoulders as the distant sound of helicopters was heard.

“If you need any backup, we’re always here to help.” Rex offered, Ryder could hear a slight rolling of the pup’s wheels on the other side.

“No, no. It’s ok. Stay put.”

“Ryder, I’d be perfectly fine. I deal with dinosaurs on a daily basis with no back legs.” Rex replied, determination in his voice.

“Oh Rex… I’d never judge your ability based on that, you know that. It was meant to be directed to all of you. Please, do not come to Adventure Bay unless I say otherwise. Tell Carlos and the other Turbots that too, ok? I'll try my very best to keep you updated. I really can’t talk right now.” Ryder hung up after he heard agreement from each pup and Wildcat.

The helicopters suddenly sped into view, right towards The Lookout and Town Hall.

“Chase!” Ryder quickly called the pup. “Is everyone safe?!”

“Yes.” He answered, and Ryder switched to a different pup tag.

“Rocky! The helicopters are coming! Get out of The Lookout!”

Ryder didn’t even wait for an answer, he needed to act as quickly as possible.

“Francios, get on the ground, turn away from the direction of Town Hall, tuck your hands, and cover your face and ears with this.” Ryder tossed him a large handkerchief, they had no way of getting somewhere safe in time.

Ryder copied all of the instructions he gave to Francios, and just seconds after, a large explosion went off behind them. He waited as the heat waves passed, and then a smaller shock wave. He and Francios waited a couple of long minutes, and then they slowly stood up. Ryder dove for his shattered pup pad, he hoped it still worked.

“Pups! Do you read me?” He called all of them, desperately waiting for them all to answer.

“I’m fine, I’m in Mr. Porter’s basement with as many as I could save.” Chase answered, sounding like he was boasting, but Ryder ignored that for now.

“Town Hall is absolutely wrecked, but everyone here is ok. I should be able to get everyone out of the wreckage with some help.” Skye’s voice sounded dark.

“The Floundew tipped over, but me and the Captain awe ok, we’we swimming out to the beach now, me and him are going to go back with my hovercwaft to hopefully flip the boat back over. We wewe able to get some of the people off the beach, they are swimming back with us, we didn’t sail out too faw.” Zuma reported, and hung up.

“The Lookout is gone… Rubble and Jake are searching for Rocky. We didn’t come out too great, we hardly got cover from the blast.” Marshall replied, Ryder could see blood dripping from his head, and multiple burns covering patches of now gone spotted-fur.

“I can go help Skye with getting people out from Town Hall, I have less severe injuries, just a burn or two.” Everest came into view next to Marshall.

“Only if you're up for it. I’m coming to The Lookout, I need to see if Rocky is ok. Marshall, be ready with your EMT stuff.” Ryder was already running to flip his ATV over.

He dropped Francios off at Mr. Porter’s, and sped off as soon as the man got off his vehicle. He could feel tears streaming down his face as the destroyed ruins of The Lookout came into view. Marshall was limping helplessly around, trying to find things to cool everyone’s burns.

“Rest for the moment. We need to find Rocky first.” Ryder sped over, and had the dalmatian lay down.

The sight of the pup’s swollen and puffy skin was sickening. His fur was almost burned all the way off, and the blood dripped freely from his head. His paw was mangled, he could see a hard lump jutting out at an awkward angle.

“Marshall covered for us, he took most of the blow from the blast.” Jake said grimly.

Ryder shut his eyes for a brief moment, trying to collect himself once again and then rushed over to where Rubble was standing completely still, frozen in shock.

“Is he ok?!” Ryder nudged the bulldog out of the way.

Rocky’s skin and fur were absolutely obliterated. He was coated in black and red splotches, and he could hear the slight sizzling from ashes that still lay on him. He was surprised the mixed-breed didn’t end up with his guts splattered on the ground. Rocky looked nearly unrecognizable; he barely even showed any resemblance to a dog. His body had no fur or skin left, just swelling red muscle tissue tinted with black singes. Ryder could already smell infection creeping up on the dog. How could Rocky even be saved? Everyone standing there didn’t want to accept the dark truth that Rocky should be dead. They could all still hear a few ragged breaths of painful moans coming from his slightly agape mouth as blood started to gurgle out.

Rubble had a paw glued over his mouth, and tears flowed as his muffled sobs escaped him. Jake was frozen in place, the older man hadn’t said a word, he couldn’t even think or anything to say, it was a gruesome scene to look at. Ryder dropped to his knees quickly, he wanted to reach his hands out and pull the pup into his arms, but he couldn’t. Touching Rocky would only bring the dog more pain.

“I’m sorry Rocky! I’m sorry for anything I ever did to you to make you mad!” Rubble wailed out, his loud sobs breaking the silence as he pleaded.

He continued to beg the other pup to get up, as Ryder tried to tell Rocky that he’d be ok. Rubble’s cries echoed what felt like throughout the now completely silent town. Ryder could hear a familiar hovercraft pull the driveway. It was Zuma.

“Is Wocky ok?!” He came rushing over, it made Rubble grow even more upset, and he huddled into Jake’s legs, he couldn’t bear to see this anymore.

Zuma threw himself beside Rocky, trying his best not to touch the burnt skin. He looked into the mixed-breed’s orange eyes, which were wide open hearing his boyfriend’s voice.

“Mawshall!” Zuma ran over to the dalmatian, startling him. “Come on! Get up! Help Wocky now!”

Marshall stood up, and was basically dragged over to where Rocky was lying by his collar.

“You have to help him! Save him! You're the EMT!” Zuma demanded, wetness brimming at the corners of his eyes.

“Zuma… I don’t know if I can, I… he might be long gone by now and-“ Marshall’s voice was shaky, he hated giving others bad news about their loved ones. It had only happened a few times, but nothing quite as severe as Rocky.

“No he’s not! Save him you stupid bitch! Do it you good-for-nothing fuck-up!“ Zuma was screaming at this point, shaking Marshall violently.

Marshall backed away, his head hanging low as he approached Rocky.

“Zuma?” Rocky‘s voice was very hoarse.

“I’m here! I’m here, deawest. Anything you want. Just tell me! I will do evewything I can to make suwe you’we ok!” The chocolate lab was down by his side again in an instant.

Rocky shook his head, wincing from the movement.

“No? No! That’s not an answer! I will save you!” Zuma denied.

Rocky reached his paw out, mustering the last of his strength into bringing it to Zuma’s soft cheek. Zuma nearly flinched as he felt the damaged tissue brush against the fur on his face.

“I love you.” Rocky rasped out, and his paw rested gently back down.

“I love you too. I always told you I would.” Zuma replied softly.

Zuma caught Marshall’s tear-stricken gaze, and he felt himself break.

“Please… don’t leave me. I can take all your pain away, I will work tiwelessly to save you.” Zuma choked out. “You’we my world.”

Rocky shook his head again, and looked lovingly into his boyfriend’s eyes. He motioned over towards a sharp shard of glass with his left paw.

“Glass…?” Zuma was confused, but then it clicked a few moments later, and his expression turned horrified. “You want us to put you out of your misewy? I-I can’t do that!” He backed away.

“I know the best areas that will kill him quickly so nobody will suffer. If his carotid artery is cut open he’ll die within a minute or two.” Marshall spoke up, he couldn’t look Zuma in the eyes, he would break.

“Don’t touch him!” Zuma bared his teeth at Marshall, causing the EMT pup to yelp.

Marshall couldn’t have ever imagined having to do this ever in his life. Despite all the bullying anyone on the team took part in, he still cared about all of them. He didn’t want to do this, but Rocky was beyond repair. If they wanted to see Rocky at peace again, letting him go was their only option. Marshall needed to tend to Rubble, Jake’s, and his own injuries still. The bandages he had wrapped around his head were already soaked through with blood. He didn’t have much time, he was so conflicted with emotions. His vision felt fuzzy, and his head was throbbing painfully. He let out a long, painful sigh, and looked up, light blue eyes glistening with sadness.

Hopefully Zuma could forgive him one day, Marshall doesn’t think he’ll be able to forgive himself.

“Hold him back.” Marshall instructed, eyes closed, and Ryder quickly restricted the lab.

Zuma writhed under the boy’s grasp, and tried biting him. The brown Labrador snarled at everyone, but Ryder forced his jaw shut.

“I’ll miss your jokes and witty remarks, you were always a very clever pup.” Marshall whispered into the mixed-breed’s mangled ear.

Rocky let out a small sigh, Marshall knew he was ready to go. The dalmation barked out a command to his pup-pack, and a small pincer came out, Rocky had designed it for him. He felt melancholy crash over him like a tsunami. Rather than the glass shard, he used a much cleaner scalpel he had on him, and made a clean slice in his neck. Marshall heard the artery break, and blood pooled under Rocky as the mutt thrashed a little. After about a minute and a half, the gray and white dog finally stilled.

“He’s at peace now.” Marshall nodded to Ryder to let Zuma go.

Zuma immediately lunged at Marshall, but the lab fell short in his jump, and landed with a painful sounding thud. Zuma slumped to the ground, sobbing relentlessly.

“We have to go,” Marshall took charge, he seemed the most aware right now. “I’ll go to Town Hall and assist with rescues, there are definitely flames that still need to be put out. I wish I had a joke or something that could cheer you guys up… but I don’t.”

“It’ll be ok, dude. Come on, we have to go.” Jake scooped Rubble into his arms.

Marshall and Rubble’s trucks were out of the question, they were gone and demolished. Luckily Marshall had saved his pup packs, but all Rubble had was his hard hat and vest.

“Zuma, come on, we’re leaving. We need to re-group safel Cap’n Turbot might need you.” Ryder gained a bit of consciousness, he couldn’t lose another pup.

“No. Leave me here. I’m in no state to be useful. Thewe is so much angew and sowwow boiling up inside me.” Zuma was curled around Rocky’s lifeless body.

Ryder wanted to protest, but Marshall put his nose into the boy’s hand, signaling to him that they needed to go before anything else major happened. Getting the citizens to safety was their main priority right now, as much as everyone hated to admit it, they couldn’t stop to grieve, they would lose more valuable time. Ryder mindlessly followed the dalmatian away from The Lookout, and over the bridge that led into town.

“Please, stay here. I’ll try my best at Town Hall. I’ll command.” Marshall left Ryder at Mr. Porter’s with medical supplies without waiting for an answer.

He raced over to Town Hall. He felt his vision starting to get spotty as he arrived, and his head felt like there was water sloshing around in it. He unwrapped the blood-soaked bandages carefully, and poured disinfectant over the oozing gash. His right eye had taken the blow from the wound as well, so he’d be partially blind for the foreseeable future. Marshall then wrapped his paw in a splint using nearby wood scraps, and poured cool water over the burns that scorched all over his body.

Marshall noticed he was starting to get low on supplies. He left most of it back with Ryder, and would have to try and scrape up some more before the next attack.

“Look who decided to show up, the weakest link. And he’s injured too, perfect.” Chase jeered at him.

Marshall tried not to listen to him. He always did. It was easier. Ever since they had broken up a year ago, Marshall mostly just didn’t react to Chase, it would only fuel his anger.

“Wow, that's a good once, Chase!” Everest caught his attention. “Oh, look who the one just sitting around not helping, the most annoying bitch. And he’s an asshole too, perfect.”

Marshall ignored them, he hated to see the two pups he cared about the most fight. He’d much rather work without conversation, he just wanted to focus on getting everyone out and treating their injuries as efficiently as possible.

The spotted pup continued to put out any smoldering embers and fires he could find. Light raindrops were starting to sprinkle from the now smoggy sky above them, they needed to get everyone to Mr. Porter’s as soon as possible.

“Escort them back, Chase. Everest, Skye, and I will see if there are any stragglers. These people need shelter.” Marshall looked back at the German Shepard.

“Since when are you in charge?” Chase asked in irritation.

“He’s not a control freak, I’d rather listen to him.” Everest jabbed back at him.

“Chase, it’s ok, everyone understands you're the boss, but we need to think about the people right now.” Skye tried to reassure him, her gaze serious.

Chase glared icily at the Dalmatian for a brief moment before storming off to his police car. Marshall waited until his sirens and megaphone were out of earshot, and then turned to Skye.

“So, uh, what’s up with you and Chase? I mean… I noticed that your belly is getting a little big.”

“What do you mean?” Skye was trying to act nonchalant, but it was clear in her gaze how petrified she looked.

“He’s asking if you're pregnant with Chase.” Everest cut in.

“Oh.” Skye stopped for a second, then let out an exasperated sigh. “Yeah, I am.”

“Congrats… I think?” Marshall could tell how miserable she sounded, it genuinely broke his heart.

“Thanks…” She replied quietly.

“Alright, I think we’re all set here. Nobody’s left, right?” Marshall turned to Everest.

The husky nodded in confirmation, and they started making their way back. Everest was quiet, and she hardly responded to anything Marshall was trying telling her. He let himself fall back a bit so he could walk beside Skye. Pain shot up through his leg like electricity as he limped forward.

“Do you really like Chase?” Marshall asked, but he wondered if that was too much of a personal question.

“He’s going to be the father of my puppies, of course I love him.” Skye said, wincing.

“That’s nice.” Marshall knew it was a blatant lie.

“Well, at first he was really sweet, but he’s been a huge jerk lately. I think he’s hurting inside.” Skye added after a few moments of dead silence.

“If you ever need to talk, I’m here. I understand, I dated him too.” Marshall offered gently.

“Yeah.” Skye didn’t look at him, she felt too ashamed.

They stopped dead in their tracks seconds later, Chase’s police car was flipped over, and the German shepard was nowhere to be found.

“No!” Marshall wailed. “The attackers must’ve taken him!”

The group of people he was escorting back were all dead, each one of them mangled and scattered gruesomely over the street.

“He’s gone,” Skye’s voice cracked, finding his pup tag shattered on the pavement. “We can’t contact or track him…”

“Our team is dwindling…” That’s what these horrid people were trying to do, wipe them all out.

A small swaddle of blankets let out a wail. Marshall approached it, it was a baby, almost newborn. He let out a choked sob; absolutely heartless.

“Go get someone that can carry her back safely.” Skye decided that she’d take control of this predicament.

Marshall nodded solemnly, and sprinted off as fast as he could on three paws. Skye curled gently around the baby, nuzzling her softly to try and calm her. Even with her own puppies on the way, Skye had no idea how to help. The newborn continued to cry, and Skye could feel herself tearing up too. A whirl of small wheels made her perk her head up, she recognized the rickety sound of the machine approaching.

“Mayor Humdinger… of course you're here to gloat.” Skye didn’t even look up at him as he came to a slow stop. “Well, save it, nobody cares.”

“I… know I’ve given Adventure Bay and Adventure City trouble in the past, for years, but I’m done with all of that. I’ve been punished several times and I was even in jail for a good couple of years, I just got out a few months ago. I’m not even mayor anymore.” He replied, looking shameful. “I’m not looking for sympathy. But this is really the only place I can turn to when I feel bad. I’ve got nowhere to go.”

“Well… I’m sure you’ve heard already, but we’re being attacked. I’d suggest you go somewhere else.” Skye buried her face deeper into the baby, who was still crying.

“I want to help.” He bent down, his kitties surrounding him. “It won’t make up for any of my past actions, but you all have helped me even when I didn’t deserve it.”

He gently wrapped his arms around the baby, rocking it gently back and forth until she finally stopped and went to sleep.

“My mother raised eight children, I was the oldest.” Humdinger answered any questions before Skye could even ask.

Skye nodded slowly, and stood up on her paws. She looked at him and his kitties. They looked pitiful. His kitties clearly had been stressed out, and it looked like only four of them were left. They were all ungroomed and looked hungry. There was an obvious stench of body odor emitting from Humdinger, and he had a bit of an unkept beard growing. He was very clearly struggling. She couldn’t just leave them here, they’d need all the help they could get.

“Your help is greatly appreciated.” Skye smiled tiredly at him, it had been a long day, and the sun was already swallowed up by the bay in the distance.

“Thank you.” Mayor Humdinger dipped his head. “You won’t regret this.”

Skye could hear Zuma’s hovercraft approaching with Katie in it.

“Thank goodness you're all ok. Come on, get in, let’s get back. We haven’t found Chase yet.” Katie hopped out, and noticed the scene.

“Oh my god…” The girl put her hand over her mouth. “First Rocky, and now Chase.”

“What happened to Rocky?!” Skye’s ears perked up, and her pink-toned eyes went wide.

Katie couldn’t look at her, and she just motioned towards the hovercraft. It was a tight squeeze, but Skye didn’t really care about that. She felt dead inside. How would she be able to care for her own young in these conditions? She’d have to leave. But what about Chase? Sure, he was a giant jerk, but he didn’t deserve to be… er, whatever happened to him. Skye assumed he was kidnapped, there were no traces of him being mauled. She just wanted the team to be together again, she missed them all, but it felt too late for any of that. Skye numbly walked into the basement in Mr. Porter’s shop with Katie, Mayor Humdinger, and the baby she and Marshall found.

“Marshall, what happened to Rocky? And where’s Zuma?” Skye asked softly.

Marshall took a moment to collect himself, trying to blink away the water from his eyes.

“Rocky was in The Lookout when it was blown up, he didn’t get out in time. All his fur and skin was burned off. I couldn’t save him...” Marshall choked on a sob. “Zuma is with his body.”

Ryder was sitting in the corner, staring at the floor. He ignored many of the worried shrieks from citizens, putting his head in his hands. He noticed Alex took a seat next to him. The young boy was about twelve now, and liked to help out the PAW Patrol on some of the smaller scale missions. Ryder knew what the boy was going to ask, but he didn’t want Alex involved in any of this business.

“Is there anything I can help you with?” Alex looked hopeful, he seemed to be almost blissfully unaware of the tense atmosphere.

“I don’t want you to get hurt. I’ve already lost too much.” Ryder looked up at him.

“Well, I could do other things, I dunno, maybe I can pass out blankets and rations?” He queried again, kicking his legs.

“Actually, that would be lovely, Alex,” Ryder felt himself a little surprised at the helpful suggestion. “That’s a very kind thing for you to think of, the pups and I are exhausted.”

Alex nodded his head and picked a stack of folded blankets. Francios and Cap’n Turbot came over to help as well.

“Do you think they’re going to send any sort of military reinforcements over here?” Mr. Porter took his grandson’s place, the man had been pretty quiet throughout this whole ordeal, probably to keep a positive attitude for Alex and many others.

“I don’t know. It seems Foggy Bottom and Adventure City know about it at least, same with Tracker and some of the other pups nearby.” Ryder sighed.

“Why don’t you get some sleep, we can hold down the fort for a bit.” Mr. Porter patted the teen on the back.

“I…” Ryder wanted to protest, but he was too tired. He just nodded slowly and layed down against some crates.

Everest watched as many people either quietly ate or slept closely together. It was a heart-wrenching sight to watch. She nor anyone else could say anything to reassure them. Nobody knew whether any of them would be ok. She wanted to suggest they flee, but quite a few people were either in shock or hurt, including the pups. She and the rest of the team had taken the most fatal blows from what she could tell. There would never be enough room in what was left of their vehicles to transport nearly an entire town. Where would they even go?

Everest had been on her paws most of the day doing whatever she could to help, as she was the least injured. She only had a burn along her back, it was covered in bandages, and she had her vest over it. Other than that, she looked completely fine. She didn’t feel fine at all, though. Her anxiety had skyrocketed since the initial threat. If she could lose Jake before, she would definitely lose him now. He had been the first one to accept her with open arms those few years ago when he found her at The South Pole. Everest was terrified that she’d not only lose Jake, but she’d also lose Marshall and Rubble. She’d never been too close with anyone else on the team other than them and Skye, but Skye didn’t really hang out with her too much anymore after she started seeing Chase.

She leaned back against the wall, ignoring the slight pain from her wound.

“You ok?” Marshall sat next to her, his burns were more properly bandaged now, and he was wearing Alex’s bike helmet that seemed a bit too big on his head.

“No.” Everest answered flatly, staring off into nothingness.

“I wish I could help. You can talk to me if you’d like at least, sometimes it helps. I’m basically the therapist, firefighter, and medic for this team.” Marshall let out a pained chuckle.

Everest could see how utterly bone-tired the dalmation was. He’d basically led the team all day despite all the treachery.

“Nah. I’ll probably stay up to keep watch for anything I guess. You should get some rest.”

“Alright, and you know, yelp if you need anything.” Marshall dragged himself over to where Rubble was sleeping not so soundly.

The bulldog had been in absolute hysterics since he got back from the lookout. Rocky’s death took a huge toll on him, and… well he was one of the youngest pups on the team. He had never experienced any kind of mental anguish like this after he was brought in by the PAW Patrol. Even when Rocky hated him, Rubble continued to be himself. It was understandable why he would be so emotional over it; he probably felt as if many loose ends were never bound together.

Everests continued to sit in silence. What was left of the population of Adventure Bay were mostly asleep. She heard a couple of sniffles here and there. The only two that were awake were Mayor Humdinger and Skye talking quietly. Everest mustered up a bit of what was left of her sanity, and slowly dragged herself to sit next to him.

“Hi Everest,” Skye greeted her, clearly drained, but there was a hint of friendliness in her voice. “Did I tell you I’m expecting puppies?”

Everest felt her heart stop, and she felt sick to her stomach. Skye wouldn’t be able to stay here being pregnant! Was she crazy?!

“I understand why you’d be worried… I’m thinking of leaving Adventure Bay. We have to get everyone out of here, we’ll all be doomed if we stay here.” Skye shook her head solemnly, finally saying what everyone had been thinking.

“I haven’t gotten the chance to think that far ahead.” Everest shrugged.

Skye rested her head on Everest’s shoulder. “We’ll get through this together.”

“I think I’ll move back in with my mother until I can get back on my feet.” Mayor Humdinger stroked one of his kitties gently, they were all huddled up closely next to each other.

“Do any of them have actual names?” Skye asked.

“The gray one is Minty, the cream one is Snickerdoodle, the brown tabby is Marshmallow, and the brown and tan one is Fudge. They’re my girls. I would do anything in the world for my kitties, it just took me a while to realize what was more important until two of my others ran away. Ice Cream and Cupcake… I miss you guys.” The mayor sighed, watching Snickerdoolde and Minty play with Cali.

Skye gave him a bittersweet smile.

“What should we do with the baby? Nobody’s claimed her.” Everest nosed the blanket away from its face.

“I’ve been thinking about it, and I think I should take her.” Mayor Humdinger brought his hand to the baby’s face. “She deserves to have a good life.”

“Honestly Humdinger, I haven’t had very many interactions with you, I thought you were heartless, but you seem like a nice man. I hope you find a better life one day after this. Nobody deserves any of this, nobody. I hope the people attacking us are all sentenced to death, how could anybody target this tiny little town in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere?!” Everest could feel the wall she put up over her emotions break.

Her anger rose steadily in her body, she had been suppressing so many emotions for years. Did a simple conversation like this really cause everything to boil over? She just wanted everything to be ok. Rocky didn’t deserve to die, nobody deserves to lose their lives. Her body shook as hot and salty tears ran down her cheeks. Skye pulled her old friend into a hug, letting the husky bury her face into her soot covered fur.

After a while, Skye let go, and went to sleep. She had to take care of herself at least, for the puppies. Everest stayed up through the eerily quiet night. She wanted to take Jake and the other pups and flee, but she had a duty here. God… she felt heartless for even thinking that, she loved rescuing people. Her gut kept telling her that if she stayed that she’d lose everything. They were all barely holding on. Everest wasn’t even sure if she was real in this very moment. She felt herself disassociating from reality, she could barely even tell when someone woke up to ask if she was ok. There was no way this was happening. Everest just wanted to close her eyes and wake up to the last happy figments of imagination she had left. She’d rather be in a dream. She felt that a dream would feel more real than whatever was going on now.

Her unresponsiveness and separation from actuality grew worse by the time the next dreaded morning struck. Rubble nudged her gently for a long time until her pupils finally dilated, she apologized repeatedly.

“Don’t be sorry. You have nothing to be sorry for.” Rubble said with more innocence than a child.

He cringed as Everest started bawling her eyes out.

“No! Don’t cry! I’m sorry if I said the wrong thing!” Rubble strenuously tried to calm her down.

“It’s not you, I just need to be alone.” She hid her face and ducked into a different room to avoid any other interactions.

Rubble’s ears were flattened back. He wished he knew what he could do. He was scared to say the very least; there were so many emotions boiling up inside his stubby legs. He didn’t want to lose his home or his friends. He didn’t want to be alone again. Rubble hadn’t been by himself for too long by the time the PAW Patrol found him as a young puppy, but it had been a struggle and a half on his own. He knew he’d be ok if worse came to worse, he had other outlets that he could escape to, but the thoughts looming in his brain still made him dread whatever was going to happen next. It was getting difficult to believe that they’d all make it out just fine. Many things scared him, some things make believe, or even downright silly, but this was real. Now they were actually under attack.

His rig and tools were all destroyed, Rocky was dead, he had a crying fit, and now he was just here, doing nothing.

Rocky…

Rocky was dead, that’s right.

The reminder basically slapped Rubble in the face. Rocky had treated him like leftover kibble before his death, but that didn’t mean Rubble wouldn’t have tried to make up with him. He hoped his desperate apologies had reached the mixed-breed before Marshall put a stop to his life. Rubble leaned against the wall in one of the door frames. At least Mr. Porter’s basement was spacious enough to hold everyone, and there were a couple of different rooms to explore. They may be here for a hot minute. He wandered around a little, he didn’t want to talk to anyone else, which surprised him. However, his interaction with Everest earlier left a bit of a stale taste on his tongue, so maybe a walk around alone would help him forget about it.

He let his paws lead him to wherever there was to walk, into empty boxes, to good smelling food scraps that fell on the ground, and eventually to a different room every once in a while. There were only about two large rooms, and one smaller one, so there wasn’t much to explore, but it was something to keep him distracted.

Rubble hadn’t seen Ryder since last night, maybe he could find his owner somewhere… or maybe not, Ryder might be hiding away from everyone. Rubble understood, the teen war probably stressed out. Maybe Katie was with him, they were probably doing teen stuff. Rubble couldn’t imagine what they’d do though, he didn’t really understand romantic relationships. Was he supposed to look at other pups the way Rocky and Zuma had looked at each other? The thought made him feel queasy.

Rubble shook his head. He shouldn’t be worrying about those sorts of things right now. He just wanted his mind to clear up, there were too many thoughts cycling through. His head felt too loud, like there were too many tabs open. He plopped down onto his bottom, making a bit of a thud on the concrete floor.

He just wanted to feel happy again.

Rubble sniffled a little, but crying wouldn’t do much, but bottling up his emotions wouldn’t help either. The only thing that could cheer him up like this would be music. He wished he still had his turntables and headphones, or even his vinyls or cassette tapes. Yeah sure, some of his stuff was outdated, but he had been so passionate about it. Sometimes it was nice to just get lost in a nice tune, or make a new one. He stood back up, growling; why did everything have to be so convoluted? He just wanted to be able to skateboard around town, listening to a cassette, but no… now he had to deal with this bullshit! Rubble felt the sudden rage take over him, and he bolted forward, ramming into a pile of empty boxes, and k sent them flying everywhere. His anger turned into curiosity soon after, the boxes he scattered everywhere had revealed another room, it looked big enough to be an apartment bedroom.

Rubble peered around the corner gingerly, and he felt his soul leave his body. His stomach dropped, his heart was in his throat, his legs were turning to jelly, everything felt like it was failing on him. He stumbled away from the room. Was… that real?

Rubble approached the doorway again very slowly, and tears started to brim at his eyes upon seeing the sight again. He wailed out, bawling loudly. He could hear a few others come running over to see what the commotion was. Marshall was by his side first, and tried to find the source of the bulldog’s distressed weeping. He felt himself freeze as he looked up, Everest and Alex were right behind him, they looked like they’d faint.

Ryder was hanging from the ceiling, rope tightened around his neck, and he showed no signs of life. Old foam dribbled onto the floor from his mouth, and his eyes were rolled into the back of his head. His neck was broken, and his body hung limply. Marshall could see the deep, purple bruising on the boy’s neck from where the rope dug in. Marshall recognized the rope from Chase’s spy vehicle, it was a grappling hook.

Everest was staring off into space, her eyes clouded, showing nothing. Rubble continued to cry loudly, it echoed off the walls, and Alex was just standing there with his hands over his mouth. Marshall could tell the twelve-year old wasn’t sure how to feel. Should he feel scared? Angry? Sad? Horrified? Marshall understood Alex’s feelings, he wasn’t sure what to feel either right now. The dalmation started stacking up boxes to cover the room again, nobody else needed to stumble across this right now. His body ached from the burns and his dislocated paw, but he seemed to be the only one still in reality. Marshall finished and turned away from the room and everyone else, his paw over his mouth as he tried to stop his own blubbers from escaping.

They needed to leave.

Now.

“O-ok,” Marshall sucked in a deep breath, a sob escaping his body as he shook. “We need an escape plan, and we need it now.”

Everyone looked over to him. They all looked miserable, he knew that he was too. They all nodded solemnly.

“We’re going to have to tell the others.” Marshall limped into the other room where everyone was waiting tensely.

“I-I…” How was he even supposed to break it to the entire town that their reliable leader was dead? “Ryder… commited suicide. And um…”

Marshall couldn’t even finish the sentence before his vision grew blurry with tears. Everyone in the room went into an uproar. They all cried frantically, and were in a panic. He could make out Skye and Katie, and he wobbled over to them. Katie looked absolutely devastated, she had her head in her hands, hiccuping as she hyperventilated. Marshall could see how much she had liked Ryder, and the new couple had barely even been able to do much together. Skye closed her eyes, water escaped from underneath them. She could feel rage boiling inside her.

“These motherfuckers are destroying everything we’ve ever loved!” Skye’s voice boomed off the walls, frightening everyone in the room.

A loud gunshot suddenly sent everyone in the room quiet. The sounds of machinery were heard, and voices were calling out to see if anyone was there.

“Reinforcements!” Marshall cried out happily, his voice clearly still stricken with grief.

“Zuma, can you hear me?” Skye shouted into her pup tag.

“Yes.” A hoarse reply came through.

“The military is here, and those people are back, you need to run or hide. Chase was apprehended, they’ll get you too.” Skye was trying to keep her voice level, but her anger was too strong.

“I can’t leave Wocky, I haven’t buwied him yet!” Zuma cried back to her.

“Then take the stupid dead body with you!” Skye lost her temper again, and she heard a snarl from the lab before he hung up.

“Skye! You have to be gentle with him.” Marshall fretted, and then turned to the stairwell. “You all stay down here, I’m going up to see what’s happening.”

“Marshall! You can’t! What if we lose you too?” Rubble was a snotty mess.

“Hey, I’ll be fine. And if I don’t come back, uh…” Marshall turned to Everest a bit nervously, and gave her a small peck on the cheek.

She snapped out of her daze again, and a light blush dusted her face. Marshall then brought Skye and Rubble into a tight hug.

Marshall sprinted up the stairs, or he at least tried to, and contacted Zuma again. The lab didn’t answer, so he rang again. After a few more attempts, a gruff snort sounded through his pup tag.

“Zuma, we’re sorry. Your temper is flaring, so is everyone else’s. We’re all very tense right now. You need to hide. You can hide Rocky if you want. We’ll hold him at the nicest funeral in the world if you can just hide. I don’t want to lose you, ok?” Marshall tried to reason with him as he started towards the exit Mr. Porter’s restaurant.

Zuma hung up again, Marshall could only hope that he had gotten through to the water-loving pup. He took a deep breath before opening the door, a helicopter and a couple of large tanks were hovering nearby the cafe. A truck with a good number of soldiers was right behind the machinery. Marshall walked over to them, his injured paw felt almost numb, but he had no supplies left to treat it. The soldiers noticed him, and the truck stopped, one of them hopped out.

“Are there any other survivors?” She asked. “We’re from Barkingburg, the princess sent us.”

“We’re a small population. We have everyone we could possibly save in the basement of this restaurant.” Marshall responded.

“Are you a part of that PAW Patrol team?”

“Yes, we’re barely holding on.”

“It’s alright. We’re here to take all of you out of here. Not all rescue teams are trained for this sort of thing. We have about six buses on the way, will that be enough?”

“Yes! That should be perfect, thank you.” Marshall buried his head into the woman’s leg. She patted his head, and then hopped back into the truck.

“One more step and the shepard gets it!” A voice shouted from behind them, making them stop dead in their tracks.

A small group of people with similar-looking robes were standing in a formation. They had Chase picked up by the collar by a hefty person, and the pup was clearly having trouble breathing.

Everyone froze.

Marshall could see that Chase had been beaten a little. Dried blood stuck to his snout, and a small number of cuts covered his body. Marshall felt slightly relieved to see that Chase was still fighting at least. The pup was wriggling around as much as he could, and kept dropping all his weight down to try and get free of the tight grip.

Chase stopped suddenly, and went completely still. Marshall made direct eye contact with him. He knew that look, Chase was going to do something risky. Marshall cried out to him, but Chase had already flipped over, knocking down the man that was holding him. He swiftly reared back to attack the other people.

A loud shot sounded, making everyone’s ears ring.

Marshall watched, everything felt like it was in slow motion. He screamed Chase’s name again as he heard the “click” of the trigger being pulled. The person with the gun was pushed back a little from the force of the blow, and gunpowder flew through the air. The dalmatian tried to run forward, but a soldier jumped out to restrain him before he could get even an inch closer. Marshall watched as the bullet flew through the air, and hit Chase directly in the center of his head.

“Chase!” He threw his head back in a wail as he struggled in the soldier’s hold. “Please! No! I can’t lose anyone else!”

But Chase hit the ground with an ugly thud, and blood spilled out from his head.

He didn’t get up.

Marshall stopped trying to run, and let his weight fall completely into the ground. He sobbed loudly into the pavement, tears streaming down his fur relentlessly. Marshall could barely even catch his breath anymore. His ears were still ringing as the reinforcements started to fight off the wretched people in front of him. A couple more had leaped out from behind buildings, but the Barkingburg troops seemed to have it handled just fine. Marshall just remained on the ground, he might as well just die out too, right? His team had lost three members. Zuma was still alive, maybe, but the stubborn lab wasn’t going to leave Rocky.

He felt a strong grip lift him carefully off the cracked ground, and he was loaded into a bus. He could see many of the soldiers escorting and carrying people out. The other pups were running over as well. Katie, Mayor Humdinger and his kitties, Jake, Alex… everyone. Almost everyone Marshall had grown up with. They all looked as if they had nothing left to feel. They had to leave their only home. Ryder would be left to rot

“Zuma?” Everest spoke into her pup tag, but all she received was static, his pup tag was disconnected.

“We'll have to leave him.” Jake sighed heavily, and leaned against the back of the bus, tears were streaming down his pale cheeks.

“No!” Marshall screamed out, making everyone jump.

They all felt horrible. The dalmatian had remained the most diligent among them, but seeing him finally lose his cool was fucking heartbreaking.

“Zuma! Please-“ His voice cracked. “Do you read me?” There was nothing.

Marshall stopped for a second, and took a deep breath to try and collect himself.. He made another call on his pup tag, but this time he got through. He was on the big screen from the lookout. Somehow, it remained functional.

“Zuma, can you hear or see me?”

A quiet hum in acknowledgment was heard.

“We’re all being evacuated, the terrorists are being taken care of, please, come with us, you can even bring Rocky if you want.” Marshall pleaded.

“No, Adventuwe Bay is me and Wocky’s safe place. This is the only place we’ve evew twuly felt safe. This is whewe we belong. I’ll stay hewe until I die.” Zuma answered, his voice firm.

“Zuma, you’re being unreasonable!” Everest cried.

“No, I’m not. If Jake died hewe, you wouldn’t want to leave him.” Zuma retorted, and Everest wasn’t sure how to respond, he was right. “Wocky was the most impowtant pup in my life, ok? You guys go on without me. Sometimes you have to make hawd decisions. This is my difficult choice. I want to stay. You could always come visit me someday, I guess. But I’m not leaving.”

“Please come with us, the buses are almost ready to go.” Marshall begged desperately.

“I’m sowwy, Marshall.” Zuma picked up a large rock and whipped it at the screen.

The signal was lost.

“No! No! No!” Marshall tried to run, but tripped over his hurt paw, and a loud snap was heard.

Everyone cringed, and Jake hauled the dalmation onto the seat that Alex was sitting on. They felt the bus rumble to a start, and it soon sped off behind the others.

“Zuma!” Marshall screamed out, nobody else in the bus seemed to react, they had all lost hope long ago.

The only sound that could be heard wasthe pained sobs from Marshall, but they eventually turned to sniffles, and then to soft snores. The bus drove along, it had slowed down a bit once they were at least a couple of miles away from the outskirts of Adventure Bay. The small bumps had rocked many into sleep, but a few lay awake. Those few included Everest, Jake, Katie, Skye, and Alex.

“I can’t believe we just… left Ryder.” Skye’s anger seemed to have drained away, leaving behind heavy grief.

Katie remained silent, staring at nothing in front of her.

“I can’t say I was super close to him, but he made me a member of the team, and gave me my Sea Patrol and Air Patrol badges. He was a good friend to say the least. I couldn’t imagine how it must feel for any of you.” Everest replied, her fluffy ears were pushed back.

Skye sat awkwardly on the seat. Her belly felt heavier than it did yesterday. Everest could see her discomfort, the cockapoo could feel her concerned gaze burning a hole into her pregnant stomach. She wasn’t sure what to feel. Ryder, the first living creature to ever show her that she mattered, was gone. Skye would never see him again, he had given her a home for the majority of her life. He had found her a purpose, shown her that even the smallest pups can still be useful. Ryder helped her live, and learn to love herself. First her home, then her owner, and now her entire home-town. Everything she’d ever known… she couldn’t go back.

“Are you tired?” Everest asked, bringing Skye out of her grief for a brief moment.

“I don’t think I can sleep for a while after everything that’s happened.” Everest wasn’t sure to laugh or not, Skye had a horrified grimace on her face.

“I just want to make sure you're comfy. Respecting pregnant people is very important, y’know?.” Everest’s ear twitched awkwardly.

“While I definitely agree, you should at least stop worrying about me, you look rough, get some sleep.” Skye got up from the seat, and hauled herself onto the one next to Katie, resting her head in the girl’s lap.

Everest wanted to protest, but she hadn’t slept in at least two days, her eyes felt sore, and her body felt as if it were falling apart. Her lavender fur was caked in sweat, debris, and blood. She reeked, desperately needing a bath, and the burn on her back was starting to throb. Her head felt fuzzy, nothing felt real in the moment.

Everest unzipped her vest and nosed it into a makeshift pillow. She lost her hat somewhere in the chaos; her first owner had given it to her. They both lived in The South Pole together long ago, she wasn’t sure where he got her from, but her earliest memories were with him in their igloo. He had cared for Everest throughout her youngest years. One day he got sick, however, other humans had found him, and took him away. Everest never saw him again, but she kept the hat he’d given to her, and rarely ever took it off.

Everest could feel tears start to blur her vision. Jake seemed to take notice, and he came over to sit on the same seat as her.

“We haven’t talked much in the last couple of days, I bet it’s been wicked stressful for you.” Jake stroked her head gently, he noticed her hat was nowhere to be found. “Did you lose your hat?”

She couldn’t stop the hyperventilation that wracked over her body seconds later. Jake sat Everest up, being wary of her burn and pulled her into a hug. She cried into his shoulder, which had a well sized injury on it, but he ignored the pain, his pup was more important. What would she be able to do now without her hat? Sure, she wouldn’t die, but it was important to her. It was killing her mentally. She could feel her stinging eyes starting to droop as Jake rocked her back and forth. She was exhausted, but she didn’t want to go to sleep, because then tomorrow would come, and she didn’t want to live another day like this. She didn’t know what to do anymore. She didn’t want to sleep, because then something would probably happen the moment she knocked out, but she also didn’t want to wake up to the horrors of reality that were finally starting to set in. Everyone else was suffering one way or another, she should be too. It’d be unfair if she just slept through the entire escaping part and not have to endure all the aftermath with her friends.

But she couldn’t keep her eyes open, so she finally gave in after a lot of fighting. She let her eyes-lids fall as slowly shut as she could let them, and then almost immediately slipped into a deep sleep. The last thing she saw was Jake’s warm, hazel-green gaze, making her feel at least a bit safe in her slumber.

_________________________________________

Zuma watched the buses go from atop a tree he had managed to climb up with a half broken ladder. How did he manage that? Don’t ask Zuma, he hadn’t a clue.

He was most definitely one of the very few who didn’t get on the bus. He was now stuck in Adventure Bay. They’d most likely tear it down or condemn the place, so Zuma decided he’d just stay put for now. All of the mysterious, cloaked individuals had either been detained or killed, and he could see a truck driving around, most likely doing a final sweep of the area. Zuma pulled himself up a couple more branches, it took a bit of effort, but now he was more well hidden among the leaves. There weren’t too many trees still standing, but luckily a few remained for him to hide out in for now.

Zuma waited a couple of hours, and the town was finally deserted. He heard someone scream out, and another was crying in the distance. It seemed that some of the stragglers were still trying to pick off of what little remained in the demolished town. His rear-end was starting to hurt from sitting in the tree for so long. Zuma carefully climbed down the broken ladder rungs, nearly falling as one broke off, and then quickly ran over to where the remains of The Lookout were, he needed to check on Rocky. Zuma’s nose twitched a little in disgust, Rocky’s body was starting to smell a little. It wasn’t unbearable, but Zuma could see a couple flies starting to buzz around it. The last thing he wanted was to watch his boyfriend be eaten away by maggots.

Zuma would have to do the one thing he’d been avoiding: bury Rocky. The lab slowly approached where Rocky lay, he had put the other dog into a more comfortable position to rest in. Zuma felt hot liquid welling in the corners of his eyes, and he tried looking up to prevent them. He didn’t want to accept that Rocky was gone.

…What was he doing?

He had his chance to go with his friends, but he didn’t. He cut all contact from them. He failed his job as advisor to Ryder and completely abandoned everyone. Zuma gave himself a few minutes to calm down before he went to a spot right under a tree, and he started digging. It had been Rocky’s favourite tree. The pup had always used the tree to put his up-cycled wind chimes and nick-nacks in it. It had been one of the strongest trees near the lookout, and it still stood tall. Some of the chimes and things from the tree had fallen or been burnt off, but the tree still stood out. Zuma looked at the heart he and Rocky carved into one side. It was so corny, but it had been a time where they’d been alive and happy. A time where their love was still flourishing.

Zuma had a pretty deep hole in the ground now, and he climbed out of it carefully. He looked up at the tree again, and saw the pup tag that Rocky had made just for their relationship. It had an anchor intertwined with a recycling symbol, and a heart in the backdrop of it. It was a carefully crafted thing, it really showed off how talented Rocky really was.
The lab snatched it from the tree, and clipped it onto his own collar. He could probably contact the rest of the team, Rocky was just that brilliant, making a pup tag that wasn’t to be used, well, usable! Zuma felt his small moment of happiness and admiration for his boyfriend fade away as he approached Rocky again.

He settled next to his body, nuzzling gently into the exposed flesh and muscle tissue. Zuma couldn’t say it was a pleasant feeling, oh, what he’d give to feel Rocky’s shaggy fur next to his again, but it was still comforting in a sense. The chocolate-coloured pup lay next to Rocky for a couple more long moments, and finally stood up. He carefully slid the mixed-breed onto his back, and over to the makeshift grave.

Once all the dirt was shifted back over Rocky’s body, Zuma just stood there in disbelief. He had to accept that Rocky was gone now. But it was hard. He had been the first pup to meet Rocky, welcoming him in. He had been there from the very beginning. From some random, but brilliant stray stealing food, to one of the best things to ever happen to him. Zuma had spent a good portion of his life with Rocky, and had planned to spend the rest of it with him too. But it was all over now. It felt like someone was ripping Zuma’s heart out and stomping on it until nothing was left. And yeah, nothing really was left. Adventure Bay, the only home he’d ever known, was done for. It was completely destroyed, and fully abandoned. Zuma sucked in a deep breath, and let it out in a large sigh. He had to call the others, get out of here, there was nothing left for him other than sorrow here.

But first… he needed something to eat.

His stomach cried out for food, he hadn’t eaten in days. He could feel his head buzzing a little. He rang his pup tag, praying- for the first time in his life- that he could reach the rest of the team.

“Zuma? Is it really you?“ Alex answered, Zuma knew the kid would, he felt himself thank Alex internally for once.

“In the flesh.” His voice was deadpanned.

“Zuma! Oh my god…” Marshall snatched the phone from Alex. “We’re on our way to a refugee camp past Adventure City, please, catch up with us!”

“I’ll gwab my hovercwaft, I’m assuming it’s at Mw. Powtor’s?” Zuma felt himself smile at hearing Marshall again, but his heart still felt like it was weighing him down.

He hung up before they could get any other words out. Zuma sat beside Rocky’s grave for a long time. He reminisced far into his mind, when times were much happier. Even the most meaningless things he did with Rocky were meaningful to him. He wished he could stay in his memories forever. After a while, though, his joints grew stiff. Zuma needed to stretch his legs and get out of here. He couldn’t stay forever, no matter how much he scratched, fough, bit, clawed, or punched, he’d have to leave. He couldn’t remain in the past. The past was gone. He stood up, hesitating greatly. Zuma’s body hurt, he was hungry, and his emotions were a boiling pot he couldn’t stir right now.

Food. Go get some food. That’ll at least help me think clearly. He stumbled down The Lookout driveway.

He looked back one more time, his vision fuzzy with tears. He would never sit out in the lawn with Rocky, or play with the other pups and Ryder at The Lookout. The only place he had ever felt like he belonged was ripped out of his paws so easily. Zuma cried the entire way he walked through the desolate town. He could barely gasp in a breath, his sobs were overtaking him. The dog sat down in front of Mr. Porter’s, he was hyperventilating to the point where it felt like he had no oxygen entering his body at all. But he just let himself cry. He let out loud wails as his tears hit the ground. Zuma couldn’t hold back the dam of water that he’d been holding behind his eyes anymore. He slowly crawled inside the cafe and curled into a ball against the door. His sobs echoed throughout the restaurant as his entire body convulsed with melancholy.

But even someone deep enough in grief like Zuma would run out of tears eventually.

The chocolate lab picked himself up to stand on his shaky legs. His eyes stung, and he could feel crust forming over them. He felt even more dizzy than before. Zuma made his way into the kitchen after a couple more minutes of useless blubbering. He had made no progress in getting ready to leave. He didn’t have anything left in him as he stepped carefully down the stairs into the basement.

“Something smells…” He muttered to himself as he wrinkled his nose, it was most likely old food that nobody had time to put away with all the craziness.

He’d most likely be eating packaged/processed food, but it was certainly better than nothing at all. Zuma rummaged through some of the crates, finding snack cakes wrapped in plastic and some dried beef jerky. Something reeked of old blood, and the stench was getting more pungent as he stepped into the next room. Zuma poked around a bit more, and soon noticed another doorway for a tiny room poorly hidden with some cardboard boxes. He went over to it, and peeked through the doorway cautiously, who knew what could be waiting for him?

No.

There was no way, this had to be some sort of cruel joke.

Zuma felt the ticking time-bomb that was his sanity go off inside him, and he just started laughing maniacally. He laughed until tears formed in his eyes, and he started sobbing relentlessly again. He had no clue where he had all these other tears stored, he presumed he’d already cried them all out.

“Down here!” He heard someone with an accent shout.

Zuma froze, and turned around. There were a couple of people in green camouflage uniforms. It looked to be a couple of soldiers, and they were clearly here to take him away from this nightmare. And you know what? Zuma was perfectly fine with that at this point. He had just barely accepted Rocky was dead, and now he’d just discovered his old leader causally hanging from the ceiling. He let the people pick him up, and gently escort him into a truck. Zuma shut his eyes as he was placed onto a blanket. He could hear some of the people in the truck asking him questions, but he just tuned them all out. He had nothing to say. He finally left it all behind, and it was excruciating. Every moment that went by was like tearing his own claws out one by one.

He opened his stinging eyes, and fiddled with the pup tag with one of his paws, at least he’d always have the memory of Rocky. It didn’t feel like it’d ever be enough though. Nothing could ever replace his old life.

——————————————————————

So, what became of the PAW Patrol after this tragedy?

Well, after some time, everyone was able to find peace and rest, with most of them moving to Adventure City. Many Adventure Bay citizens scattered out to other surrounding towns, luckily many of which accepted the estranged people with open arms.

Marshall had to undergo an amputation of his wounded leg, it was messed up really badly, and it would’ve negatively impacted him even if it did heal properly. He and the other pups took time for themselves to recover and regroup with quite a few specialists. Marshall decided to dedicate his life to helping out other people, and landed a job as a doctor in a local town. The dalmatian enjoyed his job quite a bit, seeing families overjoyed when he delivered good news about their loved ones made his heart soar. He and Everest had recently gotten together as well; they waited a good couple of years to let themselves mend before even considering the option. Everest and Marshall lived with Jake in a nice little suburban town, close to Adventure City. They had a nice cozy life, and while the past was difficult to think about, they were ready to make new memories.

Rubble decided to become a DJ full-time, and he was slowly re-building his collection of CDs, vinyls, and cassettes. Rubble had gotten over his trauma from the incident quicker than the others, and he tried his best to help the other pups when they were in need. He often traveled to do DJ gigs all over the country, he’d become quite popular. Rubble liked to see all the sights too. Tracker and Rex often joined him, as the PAW Patrol was now disbanded, so they didn’t have much to do. Tracket accompanied him more because Rex had his duty with the dinosaurs in the Dino Wild, but Rubblr appreciated whatever company he could have nonetheless. Wildcat had the three of them DJ at some of his shows, and gave all the pups free admission to all his shows as a thanks.

Zuma had Adventure City tear down The Lookout the team used as a base within the city, and he and Liberty used the money they got from it to open their own little bookstore. It was mostly Zuma’s, as Liberty was often out with Skye and Katie, but she and him had developed an unexpected closeness, so she didn’t mind helping sometimes. Zuma went on to write a book about his and the other pups’ experiences. It was a big hit with the crowds, and Zuma had taken up the passion of writing. The lab was currently writing a story based on his and Rocky’s romance. Zuma still missed his boyfriend dearly to this day, and it often hurt sometimes to think about him. He’d gotten a therapist, and talked to her frequently about it. His therapist suggested that he go to single meetups or try to move on and meet other people to patch the hole a little, but he refused each time. He didn’t want to find someone new, he wanted Rocky.

Aside from that, however, he and Liberty typically went down to the beach to surf and scuba dive most weekends, and sometimes invited the other pups whenever they were free.

Skye and Katie ended up moving in with each other, they had their own large apartment. Katie continued her business, and opened her own pet salon within their apartment. She had a decent amount of money left over from her old business in Adventure Bay to help her get started. Skye had given birth to three wonderful puppies, they had been little balls of joy. They were all still living in the city, but had forged their own paths. She flew with Ace Sorensen as much as she could, as Katie had helped her buy a new plane. Skye missed her old veichles Ryder and Rocky built for her, she was nostalgic for her old helicopter, but she certainly wasn’t complaining about her new plane, it was fast.

Humdinger often visited Skye with the baby they’d found, he officially adopted her and got custody over her after all the long legal processes. He moved back in with his mother, and was just taking time for himself, his new daughter, and his kittens before he decided where his feet would lead him.

Alex and Mr. Porter lived in the same complex as Katie and Skye, just one floor down. Alex had taken an interest in music, and would hang out with Rubble whenever the bulldog was in town with Tracker and sometime Rex.

Cap’n Turbot luckily was able to save The Flounder, and he fixed it up. He lived in a little beach house in the Adventure City beaches with his boyfriend he had met while rebuilding his boat. His boyfriend was a lovely man, a car mechanic. Francios had gone back to France for a little bit, but decided to come back and live near his favourite cousin. The French man often painted, never really published his work anymore, but still enjoyed it. He also worked at a local aquarium. Francios had absolutely gushed over the fact that Cap’n Turbot had finally found someone.

Ella and Tuck mostly lost contact with everyone, they had moved onto different things. Last time they checked in was over a year ago, they lived with a wonderful family a few states over. The other pups were happy that they’d found somewhere peaceful to live. The same couldn’t be said for Mayor Goodway, though. Nobody had heard from her, and nobody expected to hear from her ever again. She had cut all contact from everyone in her life, even her niece and nephew, who she had loved dearly… allegedly.

Anyhow, now all the pups were now loaded into the back of Rubble’s pick up truck. They were going somewhere, somewhere important. They had all immediately connected again when they met up, they all had the same teamly bond from all those years ago. The five of them planned this specific trip for a while. It was a very special trip, and one that would deal with a lot of emotional baggage; hence why it took a long time to get it in motion. Liberty offered to drive them, and was in the front with Rex and Tracker. The three of them made sure to blast music the five in the back had especially all loved equally.

“Are you sure you shouldn’t have brought Rocket, Rocky, and Remy? This kind of involves them too.” Everest adjusted her new hat Marshall and Jake made for her.

“No, we already went on our own time last month. This time it's a journey for all of us.” Skye replied, her fur and scarf blew in the wind, she had let it grow long.

“Ah, we don’t need any of those troublemakers, there’s not enough room for them back here anyways.” Rubble chuckled a little, all his piercings were shining in the sun that was close to setting behind them.

“Yeah, total troublemakers that all have important jobs in law enforcement.” Zuma snorted a little, earning a small punch on the shoulder in return.

“It’s nice that they’ve decided to leave the land alone, and were careful not to destroy too many important things.” Marshall added, smiling softly towards Zuma, who understood what the dalmatian was referring to.

All of their burns and injuries had healed for the most part. A couple of scars are still shown, but physical recovery had been successful at least. Marshall had a scar running down from his right eye to the back of his head, Everest’s fur was less thick on her back, and Rubble was missing a tooth The other pups didn’t have much to show, as they weren’t close to the explosion when it had happened.

“Marshall, you have to stop doing that, it’s so creepy!” Rubble complained.

Marshall was able to move his leftover nub from where his leg had been removed.

“I’d say it’s a pretty cool trick.” Everest flung a clot of dirt that was sticking to the truck at Rubble.

“Of course you’d say that, he’s your boyfriend.” Zuma laughed a little, but in reality, he could almost feel dread seeping through him as they got closer to their destination.

He hadn’t gone back to Rocky’s grave at all in the years he spent recovering. It was hard to think of going back, because then he might not want to leave. Zuma brought his paw to the pup tag he salvaged from Rocky’s favourite tree, and fidgeted a bit with it. He was the only pup that still had a pup tag, the others had either deactivated them; put them away or destroyed them. His wasn’t for the PAW Patrol though, it was for his love. Zuma ignored the friendly banter between Everest, Rubble, and Marshall, looking off at the trees blurring by as they went.

“Are you going to be ok?” He heard Skye’s voice ask him gently, one of her paws rested on his.

“I haven't visited Wocky since I left, guess I’m long overdue for one.” He smiled painfully.

“It’s ok to, like, you know, not be ok.” Skye leaned into him a little. “Your therapist wouldn’t be very happy with you right now.”

“Heh, yeah, you’re wight. About evewything you just said. I’m not doing too gweat wight now.” Zuma shook his head.

“You wanna talk about it?” Skye offered.

“I… no. Not wight now at least. Let evewyone feel their own things tonight, not have to wowwy about each other’s wowwies.”

Skye raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

“I’m being honest, I pwomise! I just need my own time alone when we get thewe. It’ll help me. I’d like a moment alone with Wocky, and it’d be beneficial to the book I’m wowking on. And… um, thewe’s a lot of weasons, the main one being the one I don’t want to accept. I have to stop letting my gwieving get in the way of things, I know. I need to let myself live my life and move on. And I mean, if you’we not fully convinced and still concewned about my well-being, I’ll come over to your apawtment tomowwow, and we can talk then.”

“I understand. I might need to collect myself and visit Chase’s resting area. Our relationship was complicated, but I still miss him.” She let out a sigh, watching the cars go by. “Sounds like a plan though. If not there tomorrow at exactly twelve, I’ll come looking for you!“

Zuma chuckled softly, and then took a moment to look around at each pup. They had all changed in so many ways. Some had changed mentally, some physically. Whether it was fur grown out, or cut shorter. Piercings, clothes, or perhaps new accessories. None of that was greatly significant though, it was their personalities that stuck out the most. They all were still themselves, but altered in one way or another. Rubble was less cheerful, and had become much more ambitious and focused on his career and travels. Before the Bulldog was more grounded to one place. Skye was still kind and friendly, but she had a new sense of caution when meeting newcomers, and she wasn’t as social as she once was. She used to befriend every cute animal in sight almost immediately; Zuma missed that. Everest was less daring and adventurous, she was a lot more laid-back now, just happy to be doing nothing most of her time. Marshall was more quiet. He was still very funny, and would even do comedy shows sometimes, but he was still noticeably more quiet compared to his old, more chatty demeanor. The Dalmatian seemed lost in thought quite often.

Zuma felt that he himself had changed the most, but that might be a bit biased, every pup probably felt completely the same way. He used to be so care-free and laid back, and he’d always be challenging the pups to all sorts of contests. Now he felt that he’d put an iron curtain over all that. Not over his emotions, but over his demeanor. He just couldn’t let himself be that carefree again. What if he lost more people he loved? Zuma was dead-panned most times, and didn’t really challenge anyone to races or anything anymore. Even when he went surfing with Liberty. Sure, he had fun, and was still a surfer at heart, but it was different.

Zuma shook his head, rolling his eyes a little along with it. It was too complicated to explain to himself, let alone the couple of times he tried to tell his therapist. She had said she understood, but how could she understand while he couldn’t? It didn’t make any sense.

The truck was starting to slow a little, and they passed where the old welcoming sign to Adventure Bay used to be. The holes in the ground where the sign was pulled out were still painfully visible. The old smell of the bay hit all the pups immediately. The water looked a little dirty as they got closer, but it was clear all the workers were helping to improve it the best they could. Many heavy vehicles and machines lay about, none of them turned on, as today was a day off for all of the people who worked tirelessly to fix the land. It was a slow process, and the landscaping was almost done. It was practically half field, half forest now, but even then, it was easy for all of the pups to recognize their previous home.

Skye could feel her chest get tight at seeing the sight. The remains of most of the iconic buildings were gone. She remembered visiting to help them get whatever important historical and valuable resources they could pull out and reserve, but once they scoured up any of the remains they could, the demolition began.

The truck came to a stop near what used to be the area for The Lookout. You could barely even tell it had been there, the place where it had sat was paved over with grass and new plants that were springing up. The five pups in the back hopped out, and Liberty gave them a thumbs up for good luck before they all started heading towards the graves.

“I’m glad they paid for tombstones to be put here.” Marshall put his paw to Chase’s, which was right next to Rocky’s.

“He might’ve been awful, but we both loved him at some point, and he had been a good co-leader to the team before everything fell apart inside him.” Marshall looked over to Skye.

“Chase, you’ve got three absolutely wonderful children. I wish you had been in a better mindset, maybe you would’ve been able to raise them with me.” Skye sighed, looking back to Marshall. She gave him a small smile, they both related to the pain the German Shepard had given them.

Everest sat between Marshall and Skye to comfort them both.

Zuma stared at Rocky’s grave, he was as still as a statue, unmoving and completely silent.

“Would you like us to give you some alone time?” Skye whispered in his ear.

He didn’t answer, but she took his unresponsiveness as a ‘yes.’

“Come on, let’s do a quick walk into the forest, Little Hootie still lives around here, I bet he’s been missing us.” Skye directed Everest and Marshall towards the woods. “He’s not exactly little anymore, though!”

“I’m going to where Ryder died.” Rubble said, his voice cracking a little.

“Take your time, we’ll meet you by your truck in a bit.” Skye patted his paw softly, smiling a little.

Zuma was now alone. He stared at Rocky’s grave. He took off his eye-glasses, and folded them neatly off to the side. Tears immediately streamed down his face, and he slumped into the dirt. Zuma had never gotten over his death, he didn’t know if he ever could. Rocky has been the only pup he ever loved, and he thinks it would probably stay that way forever. He could never find someone else like him. He felt ridiculous for still lingering on all this, it had been what? Three? Four years? Zuma’s muzzle had a few gray hairs sprouting on it. He had his own new life now.

He looked up at Rocky’s favourite tree, studying it closely. Zuma once again dwelled on how much of a genius his boyfriend had been. All the wind chimes he made of cans and random other stuff he found. The streamers are made from old fabrics. Even the stupid flag he made from a pair or Ryder’s boxers that blew slightly from the wind. It all reminded Zuma of Rocky.

The lab stood up, sucking in a deep breath. He strolled over to the tree and brushed his paw over the carving he and Rocky had made in the tree together. It honestly made Zuma cringe, but the fact that they had done it was what counted. It showed how ridiculous the two could be together, and it was sweet. Bittersweet now. He gently traced the heart with one of his claws, feeling the care in craftsmanship. The heart and the ‘R’ were obviously well written, but the ‘Z’ was quite messy. It almost gave Zuma a little splinter when he had gotten to it.

Zuma couldn’t hold back his smile or blush that came to him thinking about that night. It had been a couple days after they first asked each other out. Rocky had been so romantic. He planned dinners for them, walks along the beach, even going out on boat rides despite his apprehension towards water. Zuma felt a little strange. He hadn’t smiled while thinking of Rocky in so long. But this… this felt different. The more good memories that came to mind, the less depressed he felt about Rocky’s death. All he really thought about was his death and how he’d never seen his boyfriend again, but it was different. Zuma felt his confusion melt away soon after though. He had been thinking of the wrong things. He knew it was ok to grieve, but he could see why his previous methods were unhealthy, obviously. He’d be sure to talk to his therapist about it more, this was an important moment for him to realize this, and developed new strategies to reminisce about Rocky.

“Are you ok if we come back to join you?” Skye’s sweet voice asked from a bit of a distance.

“Yeah,” Zuma could feel the walls he put up over himself topple down. “I think I’m weady to go. Maybe we could all get dinner, my tweat.

“Look at you having fun again.” There was clearly a teasing tone in Everest’s voice, but she seemed genuinely happy that Zuma was feeling more like himself again.

“I’d like that… a lot. Haven’t really done much with you guys. I’ve been traveling so much so I wouldn’t be trapped in one place where tragedy could haunt me again.” Rubble appeared, his eyes were a little red, he had definitely been crying, but he wore his typical, dopey smile.

“Mm, I am quite hungry. I think our drivers might deserve a treat too.” Marshall patted Rubble on the back in effort to comfort him, and gestured over to Liberty, Tracker, and Rex talking amongst themselves.

“PAW Patrol is on a roll!” Liberty hopped down from the back of the truck, smiling towards the approaching pups.

“Let’s dive in.” Zuma called back one of his old catchphrases, his heart feeling warm and happy.

“This pup's gotta fly!” Skye cheered, doing a backflip right into the truck bed.

“I’m fired up!” Marshall hopped into the back with a howl.

“Rubble on the double!” You could guess who said that.

“Ice or snow I’m ready to go!” Everest did her little rear up on her hind legs and was sitting right next to Marshall a couple seconds later.

Zuma looked back at his old home. It was hard to leave, but when he looked back at all his remaining friends, his heart tugged him towards them. They were his future, his new memories. Before he knew it, he was sitting right next to them, the biggest grin he had worn in awhile plastered on his face.

Goodbye Adventure Bay.