Vigilante PAW

Chapter Forty-Two: Perspectives of Past

Hood let out a faint hum as he watched Ryder type away on a laptop off to the side. The young boy was sitting in his bean bag chair as he worked, eyebrows furrowing in the meantime. He occasionally reached over to a mug on the floor beside the bean bag chair and took a sip of the liquid inside.

"What's the human doing?" The wild Dalmatian asked, raising an eyebrow.

Rocky shrugged, "I don't know. Research?"

Following Vigilante PAW's arrival to the lookout tower, Rocky, Everest, Hood, and Anya explained everything relating to Marshall and the various resulting incidents after his suspension. After Rocky asked Ryder and the PAW Patrol for help in tracking down Marshall, they agreed, knowing it could lead back to both Marshall and Chase, who was also missing. Despite having a solid gameplan, though, the three found themselves trying to work out the correct way of tracking Chase's tag, wasting the rest of that day.

Now, after a good night's rest, the three were willing to try and actually make some progress. Any progress.

Ryder, meanwhile, was busy typing away on his laptop, documenting the events of the previous day, just like he had many times before.

"Ever since Rocky and Everest came back to the lookout, bringing two other pups with them, things in the lookout have been quite tense. Well, more tense than usual. I have nobody to blame but myself this time around. I learned from them, as well as the Dalmatian pup they brought with them, that Marshall was truly innocent, as the Dalmatian that came with them confessed to the thefts."

His eyebrows furrowed once more, just like they had many times before during his documenting.

"That does make me wonder, though... Why did the Dalmatian confess to the crime in the first place, especially if he planned to let Marshall take the fall for the crime? It doesn't make much sense. Was there more that they weren't telling me about their time away? Seems likely..."

The young leader looked up from his laptop, his eyes meeting those of Hood's, who was looking at the boy with a mixture of irritation and befuddlement, "I thought you were the one who said we needed to get to work today, human."

Startled, Ryder shook away his looming thoughts to address the pup in front of him, "You're right, sorry, Marsh—"

"Not Marshall."

His eyes widened, realizing his mistake, "Right."

Slowly standing up, Ryder watched as Hood turned around and walked back over to Rocky, whispering something unintelligible. He couldn't help himself. Aside from the identifying black patch of fur over his right eye, and the less tolerant disposition that he held, he reminded the boy of Marshall. Not only Marshall, but the various mistakes he made over the past few weeks. All of the things he regretted, all of the things he wished he could do over. They seemed to all hit him at once upon looking at the Dalmatian in front of him.

It was almost as though the bitterness and ire that Marshall would be rightfully feeling toward him and the rest of the PAW Patrol had manifested into Hood, who didn't seem willing to get along with anyone around him, barely even managing to get along with those he was supposed to be on a team with.

Sighing, Ryder slowly walked over to join the two.

For nearly everyone else at the lookout, the morning hadn't even started yet. The only exception to this was a Cockapoo, determined to start her day off on the right paw, just like the pup she admired would nearly every day of their lives before. Groggily rolling herself over, Skye looked at a small device laid in the corner of her pup house. An alarm clock.