Chapter Text
It was a particularly hot, sunny day in Adventure Bay. The heat made the air wavy and melted throughout the town.
Scattered around the outside of the Lookout Tower are six pups, all lying lazily.
Chase pants slowly. “It’s… too hot…!”
“I agree…” Marshall flops like a ragdoll onto his belly.
Meanwhile, a little English Bulldog is lapping the water in his bowl, making little shlap! shlap! shlap!s with his tongue. “There’s… not enough water in the world for how thirsty I am!”
While the pups cook like sausages on the asphalt, Zuma and Rocky stroll around the grass surrounding the Lookout, with the former looking much chipper and lively.
“Zuma, I don’t get how you’re not heating to death!” Rocky comments, his paws trudging against the grass.
“I got short Labwadow fuw, dude! I’m built fow the heat!” Zuma smirks, trotting happily alongside his downtrodden friend. “Youw fuw is a gway mess of who-knows-what!”
“Hey!” Rocky laughs.
“What? It’s twue!” Zuma smiles, not understanding that Rocky took his comment backhandedly. “I’m just saying you should listen to what I always say: buzz it!”
“No way!” Rocky stomps in playful protest. “I love my beautiful locs!”
“Suit youwself!” The Labrador shrugs as the two keep walking.
As the two circle around the back of the tower, a thought crosses Rocky’s mind. “Hey, Zuma?”
“Yeah, Wocky?”
“Have you ever thought about how different we are from each other? Like, how you have short fur and I have long; how you love water and I hate it; how you’re chill and laid-back and I’m focused?”
With each point, Zuma shrinks a little. “Y-Yeah… why do you bwing that up?”
“I just think it’s funny how despite our differences, we’re best friends! If two other pups with our traits met up, it would be a dogfight! Literally!”
“You’ve gotta point, dude!” Zuma shrugs. “I like to think of it as a balance wathew than a fight!”
“Woah…” Rocky stops walking. “That was insightful!”
“Thanks!” The two continue on their journey of circling the base of the tower, with Rocky wilting like a flower from the heat.
“Speaking of ‘deep’...” Zuma gently tosses his head back. “I’d love to take a dip in the bay’s cool watews!”
Rocky sticks his tongue out. “Have fun with that! I’ll stay on the nice, dry sand!”
“Let’s go, befowe we melt like pup-sicles!” The Chocolate Labrador happily gallops across the warm grass to his parked orange hovercraft, with his gray mongrel friend in tow.
While the rest of the pups are left roasting in the sun, Zuma and Rocky leap into their respective vehicles and drive down the driveway and across the Adventure Bay Bridge to the sandy shores of the bridge’s namesake.
Rocky smiles as the wind combs through his shaggy gray fur, cooling him off.
Soon, the two touch down on the sands of Adventure Bay Beach. The two park their vehicles and hop out. Thankfully by the time they got there, the cooling winds began to pick up, creating beautiful waves crashing against the shoreline.
“Wocky, dude!” Zuma dances eagerly, his tail wagging. “Those awe some gnawly waves! I can’t wait to wide ‘em!”
“I dunno, Zuma…” Rocky winces. “Those look dangerous!”
“Ya think?” The Labrador tilts his head.
“Kinda!” Rocky approaches the furthest edge of the tide, looking out at the sun-speckled blue.
Suddenly… quite literally out of the blue, something leaps out! Rocky gasps. “Zuma, did you see that??”
“See what?” Zuma swivels his head across the flat waters, just missing the mysterious figure diving back into the deep.
“Something just jumped out of the water!” Rocky recalls in a somewhat-panicked tone.
“It was pwobably Wally! Ow maybe a whale ow dolphin!” The playful lab shrugs off. “I’ll watch with you in case it jumps up again!”
“Okay!” The two plant their paws in the sand and stare out at the water, with the wind blowing through their fur and the waves barely missing their paws.
The two wait.
And wait..
And wait…
As they wait, the waves gradually grow larger, crashing more violently against the rocks and sand.
“These awe some wough seas, Wocky… maybe we should go?” The lab says with downturned eyebrows.
Rocky sighs. “Yeah, you’re right…”
Just as they are about to turn, it happens again! A figure leaps out of the water! From the glimpse the two could see, this was no ordinary figure! It was too small to be a walrus and way too small to be a whale.
“Dude!” Zuma’s ears perked up.
Before he could finish, Rocky chimed in. “I saw that too!”
By now, the waves were beginning to pick up, each crashing hard against the rocky shores. Each crest grew taller and created a harsher, foamier impact than the last. The two pups backed away nervously as the sea grew wilder.
As the waves crashed violently, the mysterious figure leaped up again. This time, Rocky and Zuma were able to get a good look at it…
…Or so they thought. What they saw was baffling. As they squinted, they were both fairly certain that it was, in fact, another pup out there! The floppy ears and snout were instantly recognizable to both of them. As their gaze moved down, however, that is when things became confusing. Sure, the top half of the figure was definitely pup-like. The bottom half, however, was… fish-like!
“D-Does that pup have a… tail?” Rocky’s lip quivered.
“Dude, we all have tails!” Zuma smiled, always finding a way to brighten these situations. “But I definitely saw that too! It looked like a mewmaid!”
“More like a mer-pup!” Rocky commented, his brows furrowing. “Do you think it’s trying to escape the waves?”
“Maybe!” Zuma nervously bit his lip. “Do I have time to go get my buoys?”
But before his gray friend could say anything, his question was already answered.
The merpup leaped out of the water one last time. On its descent, it fell like a homing missile. Rocky and Zuma could do naught but watch as the merpup fell… and landed head-first onto the rocks…
Rocky and Zuma gasped. “Wocky!! We have to help them!” the latter shrieked. “Stay hewe!” he commanded as he ran back to his parked orange hovercraft.
The Chocolate Labrador ran as fast as he could, leaping up to the seat of his hovercraft. He revved it up and slammed on the gas pedal, causing it to glide across the sand and cross onto the rough waters.
Zuma kept his paw down on the pedal as his plucky orange hovercraft was tossed between the waves. He stared at the limp, lifeless figure floating at the surface with teary eyes.
In a quivery bark, he shouts “W-Waff, Buoy!”
At this command, the hood of his hovercraft opens like a trapdoor, launching out a red-and-white ring attached to a rope. It lands on the surface with a splash and bobs up and down with the waves.
Pushing through the choppy water, Zuma slides his hovercraft over to where the body of the merpup floats lifelessly on the surface, being pushed by the waves. The Labrador drives his wobbling hovercraft closer to the unconscious merpup until… he finally slips him into the buoy ring.
“Yes!” He cheers as he slowly begins backing up towards the shore.
He is moving slowly across the waves, making sure the merpup remains inside the ring (albeit, hunched over unconscious). After a couple minutes, he finally slides onto the dry, sandy shore, and pulls the merpup out of the water.
At least, that’s what Zuma and Rocky had expected.
Instead, Zuma pulled out a regular, non-merpup. This pup had four legs and chocolate fur (similar to Zuma’s), with white accents on their paws and chest. A cowrie shell necklace wrapped around their neck. They had floppy, fluffy ears and a white snout. Finally, he had four pup-like paws and zero fish-like tails.
The pup’s eyes were closed and his mouth was open slightly. Worst of all, ruby blood began to emerge from his head onto the sand.
Zuma panics. “Oh gosh, he’s bleeding!” He looks around in distress. “Wocky! Do you have anything in youw twuck we can use to stop the flow?”
The gray mongrel springs up. “Don’t lose it, reuse it!”
Rocky runs back to his green recycling truck and pops the trunk open. He hops in and begins looking, with Zuma biting his lip anxiously.
“Aha! This should do it!” Rocky echoes as he emerges from the trunk with a yellow beach towel in his mouth.
He trots over to Zuma and drops it onto the sand next to him. The Chocolate Labrador gently lifts the unconscious pup’s head with his paws and the mongrel uses his snout to nuzzle it under.
Zuma sets his head down on the towel and uses his teeth to wrap it around his head.
“What awe we gonna do?!” Zuma gulps.
“Let’s take him back to the Lookout! We can treat him there!” Rocky suggests.
“How awe we gonna tweat him??” Zuma asks, his voice descending deeper in concern.
“We’ll…” Rocky pauses to think. “We’ll just use Marshall’s medic stuff! He’s bound to have something!”
“Okay, let’s get him back quickly!” Zuma looks down at the unconscious pup with the towel wrapped around his head. “Come, help me cawwy him into my hovewcwaft!”
The gray pup stamps his paw on the sand in salute as he bites down gently on the shell necklace, mindful to keep his bite gentle to not break it. Towards the pup’s lower back, the Chocolate Labrador uses his snout to support his behind.
The two walk in tandem towards the orange hovercraft, and gently sit him down into the back passenger seat, completing the trip by clicking the orange seatbelt around him.
“I wonder whewe this dude came fwom!” Zuma comments. “At fiwst, it looked like they had a fish tail!”
“Maybe the heat’s messing with our heads… let’s go back to the Lookout and take care of them!” Rocky exclaims as he hops out of Zuma’s vehicle and into his own. The two start their engines and begin driving back to the Lookout.
Back at the Lookout, Ryder was carrying a spool of green hose on one arm and a metal sprinkler on the other. He walks out of his garage with Marshall, Rubble, Chase, and Skye all scurrying around his feet in excitement.
“Yay! Sprinkler!” Rubble cheered. “I love the sprinkler!”
“Me too!” Marshall beamed.
“Try not to knock it over like last time!” Skye snickered playfully, causing her Dalmatian friend to erupt in blush.
The human boy approaches the side of the tower and kneels towards a rusting faucet jutting from it. He twists the sprinkler to one end of the hose and screws the other to the faucet.
He places his hand on the handle expectantly. “Alright, pups! You ready to have some sprinkler fun?”
“Yeah!” The four pups shout in unison.
“Okay!” He smirks as he turns the handle.
After a few seconds of anticipation, the sprinkler erupts with streams of water shooting in all directions. The pups all eagerly run towards the water and begin running and playing in it.
At this moment, two vehicles sped up the driveway and swerved into their parking spaces. Zuma hops up from his driver’s seat and unbuckles the unconscious brown-and-white pup.
The Chocolate Labrador calls out to his friend. “Bwing him to Mawshall’s puphouse! I’m gonna go ask to use his medic supplies!”
The Mongrel nodded in affirmation as he leapt from his truck into the hovercraft. Zuma then jumped down and ran to Marshall, who was follying himself in the sprinkler water.
“Hahaha! Woo-hoo!” the Dalmatian cheers.
“Mawshall!” The Lab approaches him in a hurry. “We need to use youw medic supplies!! It’s an emewgency!”
However, Marshall did not hear the Lab’s cries and continued playing and laughing in the water.
“Mawshall!! Please!!” Zuma growls, worried. Yet again, he’s met with blissful ignorance. “Oh, fowget it! I’ll just get it myself!” He grunts as he storms off to the bright red puphouse, with the Dalmatian none the wiser.
As he marches into the red-walled puphouse, Rocky is already waiting there, with the unconscious pup lying on Marshall’s bed. The wall behind the bed is decorated with printed photos of the PAW Patrol and their various adventures. Along the left wall of the puphouse is a redwashed wooden chest with the name ‘Marshall’ painted in gold calligraphy.
Zuma approaches the chest and pops it open with his nose. Inside there is… well, a lot. Rubber balls, stuffed animals, Apollo comic books, everything that the young Dalmatian pup loved.
“Wow, Mawshall weally needs to owganize!” Zuma chuckles.
“Hurry, Zuma!!” Rocky yells, snapping his Labrador friend back into the task at hand.
“Wight!” Zuma uses his snout to push away the various knick-knacks and tchotchkes until he finds a white box with a red cross on it. “Aha! A fiwst-aid kit!”
Zuma picks it up with his mouth and trots it over to where the unconscious pup is. The Labrador pops the kit open and sees a spool of bandages. He picks that up in his teeth and faces Rocky.
“Hewe, I’ll hold the bandages and you wwap his head!” he instructs with the bandages in his mouth.
“On it!” Rocky nods. Using his teeth, he tears up the bandage and pulls it from the spool. He unwraps the unconscious pup’s towel and begins to wrap their furry head in bandages.
It’s a bit of a tricky task, with Rocky holding his breath every time he got close to the blood. Finally, his head was all wrapped up nice and tight.
Rocky sighs. “Phew! We did it!”
“Dude, that was so awesome!” Zuma celebrates. “We just saved this pup’s life!”
“Let’s stay with them until they wake up!”
“Sounds like a plan!” The Lab confirms, smiling toothily at his friend.
Suddenly, their joy dissipates as they hear something get closer.
The sound of a joyful Dalmatian’s laughter grows closer to the puphouse. Marshall’s coming! The two look at each other, then at the bandaged pup on Marshall’s bed. Hurriedly, Rocky picks up the red blanket and pulls it over the pup, covering them just in time.
Marshall, sopping wet, trots inside his puphouse, where he sees Rocky and Zuma. “Oh, hey guys!”
“Um… h-hey!” Zuma says behind nervously-gritted teeth.
“What are you guys doing in my puphouse?” The Dalmatian asks.
“Umm…” Zuma smiles awkwardly, before tossing the responsibility to Rocky. “I- I’m suwe Wocky would love to tell you!”
“U-Umm… we were just… looking at all your photos! Yeah! A little trip down memory lane!” Rocky lies with a smile.
“Oh… okay!” Marshall smiles, none the wiser. “All that playing in the sprinkler sure made me tired! I think I’m gonna take a nap in my bed-”
“NO!!” Rocky and Zuma shout in unison.
Marshall steps back, startled. “Woah, what’s up with you?”
“Just… why don’t you do something else?” Zuma gulps. “I- I’m suwe they’we doing wewuns of Apollo in the Lookout!”
“Ooh, good idea! Thanks, Zuma!” Marshall beams as he happily trots away, and the two pups release a huge sigh of relief. “That was close, dude…”
“Yeah…” Rocky winces.
Just then, a noise could be heard from Marshall’s bed.
A low groan rumbles from under the bed.
Rocky tentatively pulls the blanket back with his teeth, which reveals the blue-streaked pup now beginning to stir.
“They’re awake!” Rocky drops the blanket as the two stand at the side of the bed.
The pup’s brown eyelids flutter open, revealing two beautiful blue eyes.
Slowly, they groan in a higher-pitched puppy voice—hinting that they’re around the same age as Rocky and Zuma themselves. “Wh-Where am I…?”
“Um…” Zuma begins. “You hit youw head on wocks at the beach! We saved you!”
“Huh…” the pup looks around, taking in his surroundings. “A-Are you my dads…?”
“Huh?!” Zuma raises an eyebrow. “I- I don’t think I’m youw dad…”
The pup sniffles and a watery tear begins to well in the pup’s eyes. “D-Dad-?? Where are you?”
Rocky and Zuma’s jaws drop a bit as they watch the pup cry. Zuma gulps as he carefully places one of his paws on the pup’ white-furred chest. “Shh… it’s okay… you’we safe now…”
The pup begins to calm down, and he sniffles. “I love you, Dad…”
“I love you too…” Zuma shakily smiles.
Rocky looks on in confusion. “Zuma, what are you-?”
“Shhh!” The Chocolate Lab cuts off his friend before turning back to the bandaged pup. “You hit youw head weally hawd! Do you wemembew anything?”
“Umm…” the pup stares up at Zuma with watery blue eyes. “My name is Moby… I’m a pup… and um…” He trails off.
“Where did you come from?” Rocky chimes in.
“It’s a little fuzzy… I remember lots of blue… and… a castle?”
“Oh, wow…” The mongrel winces. “You hit your head hard!”
Moby sniffles again. “Oh, Dad! I’m sorry I swam past the reef like you told me not to! I’ll never do it again!” He wails into Zuma’s paw.
“Uhh…” Zuma coughs awkwardly. “It’s okay, Moby. I… love you?”
“I love you too, Dad…” A slight smile grows across Moby’s face as his eyelids gently shut again, and light snores sound from his nose
Once the two were certain Moby was asleep, Rocky pulled Zuma aside angrily. “What on Earth are you doing??”
“What?” Zuma shrugs. “He’s in pain and can’t wemebew a thing! We can’t just leave him like this!”
“What are you implying…?” The gray mongrel raised a suspicious eyebrow.
“Wocky… We need to take cawe of him until he’s bettew!”
“Like… his parents?”
“Yeah!!” Zuma beamed. “We’ll be the best dads he’s evew had!”
“Well…” winced. “He looks to be the same age as us! How much care does he need?”
“Look at him!” Zuma notes. “He’s wegwessed to his little-baby-puppy yeaws! We gotta help him!”
The Gray Mongrel sighs with a smile. “Alright… we’ll do it!”
“Yay!” The Labrador cheered.
Just then, Moby’s chocolate-brown eyelids gently fluttered open. His streak of piercingly blue hair covers half of one of his eyes and he yawns widely.
He groans a little and he looks his ocean-blue eyes up at the two pups. “D-Dads…?”
The two look at each other, then down at Moby. “Yeah… Dads!”