"Okay... All I have to do is connect the communicator to Ryder's discarded pup pad, that will reroute the power and give us an image in the form of two points..." Rocky's eyes squinted, "Liz, you might want to roll down the windows in case it explodes again."
"Explodes!?" Everest immediately backed away to the opposite side of the back seat, "Again!?" The Husky then grabbed Marshall and protectively held him close to her.
Marshall's cheeks went pink under his fur as he tried his best not to melt in her grasp.
"Well sorry!" The creative canine tried to defend himself, "I've never worked with such little tech before! I've used old parts before, but when it comes to making sense of Ryder's old wirings on my own... Sometimes it doesn't work the first time."
"Let's give him a shot, okay?" Marshall looked at the former mountain pup with a smile.
Liz, who's eyes remained on the road, "He's got a point, you know?" She joined the conversation, "Right now, he's carrying this operation. We wouldn't have even known which way to go if Rocky's initial device was a total dud."
"Yeah, give me a little credit..." Rocky sat on his haunches, smiling triumphantly.
Letting Marshall go, Everest only sighed in defeat. She was outnumbered. She was a fair pup. If Liz and Marshall thought that it was okay, then she'd believe them.
Marshall, Rocky, Everest, Katie, and Liz were all on the road, heading in the direction Rocky had discovered Hood to be going with a prototype device. While the device had blown up within minutes, Rocky was able to learn that Hood was south of Adventure Bay, and was quite far from what he had inferred. So they did the next logical thing. Head south while Rocky worked on a way to repair the device.
Katie, exhausted from running around earlier that day, was already asleep in the passenger seat of the car, having been given one of the three blankets the group packed to bring along with them. She hadn't even been woken up by the conversations around her.
Rocky waited for Liz to lower the windows, which she eventually did. He gulped softly before connecting the communicator to the old pup pad. The screen of the old pup pad lit up before displaying two glowing dots on the screen. One was blue, and the other was red. The mixed breed's face lit up upon seeing the device didn't blow up in his face.
"I did it! We have a visual!"
Marshall and Everest howled with excitement. Liz smiled widely as she pressed on the gas a bit harder.
"Okay, judging by the way the dots are moving... I'd say that this device is the blue dot. The one attached to Hood's cloak is the red one."
"Are we headed the right way?" Marshall inquired.
The mixed breed looked at the Dalmatian, a nervous smile on his face, "We are not."
Marshall stared out of the window as they passed by Adventure Bay once again. Since they had gone north instead of south, they had to cross through the town once more. The moon was now high up in the sky, providing natural light to the town. The Dalmatian's lids lowered a bit before raising up once again, his body jolting upright once he realized he was falling asleep.
His eyes gazed at a single building that towered over the rest. A building that was a slight distance away from the others. The PAW Patrol lookout. The Dalmatian remembered the nights he spent looking for Hood, standing atop various buildings while gazing at the lookout. He couldn't help it. The place he used to call home remained there unshaken by his departure.
The Dally finally took his eyes off of the lookout, which soon landed on the two sleeping pups beside him in the backseat. Rocky, who was curled up in the middle, and Everest, who was on the right side of the backseats, slept soundly. The mixed breed's tracking device was placed up front so Liz could make sure they were always going in the right direction.
Before Everest and Rocky showed up, he wasn't sure how he was going to prove his innocence. He just aimlessly looked around for Hood, trying his best to find him. But then what? He never thought about what he was going to do next until he actually found him. That didn't exactly go the best. He was glad that the two pups decided to come with him. Because no matter what, they had his back.
He audibly yawned, catching the attention of the only other person in the car who was awake.
Liz raised an eyebrow, looking into the rear view mirror, "Who's still awake?"
"Me..." Marshall smiled awkwardly.
The woman didn't have to see who it was to recognize his voice, "Oreo, go to sleep."
Marshall shook his head, sighing, "I can't."
"Why not?" The woman inquired, focusing her attention back on the road, "I can hear you yawning."
"I'm too excited..." He admitted, "It feels like we're actually gonna do it this time. Then I can go back to the lookout!"
Liz's eyelids lowered slightly, "Hey, can I ask you something?"
"Yeah?" Marshall peeked out from behind her seat to look at her.
"What do you think of the PAW Patrol?"
"The PAW Patrol is amazing!" He exclaimed, "They save a whole bunch of people and do great things for Adventure Bay and even beyond that!"
"Maybe I should've phrased that differently..." Liz sighed, "I mean, what do you think about those other pups? Chase, the flying one, the Bulldog, the water one?"
"Oh the pups?" Marshall asked, "They're pretty cool. Skye is Everest's best friend and Zuma is Rocky's. They really get along, and—"
"But what do you think of them? You specifically."
"I... I umm..."
"You seem excited to go back to them. Does that mean you forgive them?"
The Dalmatian fell silent, his eyes widening. Marshall shook off his surprise before opening his mouth to speak. Much to his surprise, nothing came out. Just like when he was stopping himself from speaking, it seemed as though he didn't want to talk again. But he did. He thought the answer would be obvious, and he was more than willing to give it to her.
Memories of his friends flooded his head. He remembered the times they spent happily together. Back when they all had that innocent friendship day to day. Back when problems wouldn't last longer than a single day. He yearned for those days. He always cherished the times he spent with his friends, and he was glad he did. Because when it was all ripped away from him, he was able to think back on those times with joy.
But that was the past, wasn't it? Things could never truly be the same moving forward.
Liz, noticing the pup's prolonged silence, sighed faintly, "Don't worry about it, Oreo. You'll cross that bridge when you get to it."
Marshall nodded, looking back out of the window, "She's right. I need evidence first."
After a noticeable amount of time passed, Marshall felt his body be picked up and pulled out of the vehicle. He recognized the scent close to him, so he didn't panic. Either way, he was way too tired to try and resist any potential pupnapper. That was until the one carrying him jerked forward, nearly dropping the former fire pup.
His eyes shot open, his forelegs flailing around to keep himself from falling just in case the person carrying him wasn't able to anymore. Once he realized that he was safe, he looked up to see who was carrying him.
Katie, who held the Dalmatian close to her chest, smiled nervously, "Did I wake you? Sorry... I tripped..."
"Maybe his clumsiness is contagious?" Marshall could hear Rocky lightheartedly joke, which was followed by a gentle giggle from Katie.
Marshall looked around, a permanent veil of confusion shrouding his mind. Katie, who was carrying him, had visible backpack straps over her shoulders. Her hair was just as messy as it had been when she nearly got run over by Liz, but she had made an attempt to push the mess away from her eyes and out of her face.
He looked down at the ground below, where Rocky and Everest were walking in front of them. He noticed that both had the gear that Rocky made for them on, and they looked around cautiously.
"He's up?" The Dalmatian heard an older voice ask from behind himself and Katie.
Marshall groaned, "...What's going on?"
"Okay, here's the deal," Liz moved up so that she was walking on Katie's left. She held Rocky's tracking device in her hands, staring down at it, "Rocky's device says that we're getting close, but it's through this forest."
"What forest?" The Dally asked as Katie put him down. The four friends around him all looked further down the grassy path they were taking. Marshall followed their gazes before he let out a shocked squeak.
Laid out in front of the five was a large forest, which was parted by a small path that an average car couldn't fit. That meant, they had to proceed on foot. Katie and Liz quickly pulled out flashlights that were packed in the backpacks they were wearing, turning them on.
Being the oldest of them all, Liz stepped ahead of the group and led the charge into the forest. Following close behind her was Marshall, who wanted to stay close to the redhead. After him was Everest in the middle. Behind her was Rocky, and Katie was at the rear, making sure to shine around behind herself occasionally.
Liz slowly scanned her flashlight around the forest, making sure to listen out for anything that could possibly be a threat to them. She knew it was a bit of a dumb decision to go looking around for Hood so late at night with barely any visibility aside from the flashlights she and Katie held, but the longer they let the doppelganger Dalmatian roam free, the greater the chance became that he'd discover the tracker attached to his cloak and remove it. They already spent a day up at Jake's Mountain. They couldn't afford to waste another second.
The three pups between the humans remained close to one another. Both Marshall and Rocky knew that if anything were to happen, their best chance would be to stick together. Rocky's projectile pack relied on being able to see ahead of him, and with barely any light, he wouldn't be of much use. Marshall, meanwhile, didn't have his plunger harpoons on him, as he was sleeping when the group initially left the car. Besides, he felt safer huddled up close to his friends.
"How's it looking on the tracker?" Rocky asked Liz, who occasionally glanced down at it, "Are we any closer?"
"We're getting closer, but it doesn't seem like Hood's moving much. He's staying in one place..."
"Really?" Marshall seemed confused, "He always seems like he's on the move..."
"Maybe he has a home?" Katie wondered, putting a finger on her chin.
Everest turned to look at the blonde, "If he did, then why would he be stealing food from Adventure Bay?"
As Liz listened to the four discuss, she suddenly stopped in her tracks. The tracker had led them away from the trail they started on, and she realized why there was a trail guiding them through the forest. It was to keep those wandering through the forest away from any danger. The walk through forest seemed to be a lot more perilous when factoring in the notion that none of them knew the landscape.
In front of them was an at least ten foot drop.
All five stared down the steep cliff mere inches from their feet. A stunned silence fell amongst them while they took a few steps back.
"I don't understand..." Liz stared at the tracker in her hand, "Hood's this way. At least, that's what it says."
Katie looked at her aunt, "Maybe there's another way around."
"Katie's right," Rocky agreed, "We've been following Hood's tracker this whole time, but it doesn't exactly trace the direction he went in to get where he currently is. Which means we have to find a way down there."
Marshall turned around and began to walk, "Yeah, we should just keep—-" He began to say, but stopped the moment a small fly flew close to his face.
Out of reflex, the Dalmatian immediately shot back, taking a few steps back in turn. One of his hind legs soon tripped over a tree root behind him, causing Marshall to tumble backwards. He kept tumbling until there was no ground left to tumble on. He had fallen off of the cliff.
"Marshall!!"
Rocky, surprisingly, was the first to act, reaching his forelegs out to grab onto Marshall's hind legs. The Dalmatian's weight quickly threw Rocky off balance, and he began to slip as well. Everest joined the fray, grabbing onto the mixed breed's tail as they all went over the ledge, falling off of it.
"Grab onto me!" Everest quickly ordered the two, who obliged without hesitation.
The Husky quickly slammed her paws together, activating her artificial claws. Everest then stabbed them into the side of the cliff, slowing their descent exponentially. Despite Everest slowing the trio down, the three still hit the ground hard.
"You guys okay?" Katie asked loudly, calling down to the trio.
"We managed to survive!" Rocky answered while Marshall helped Everest to her feet, "We're not getting back up there anytime soon, though."
"That's fine, keep moving forward!" Liz ordered, "We'll find a way down. But you three need to keep moving in the direction we already were. We'll catch up."
Following her directions, the three pups began to walk in the direction they had been before encountering the cliff. Unfortunately, they were now without any light source to scout ahead. Everest, her breed skilled at seeing in the dark, took the lead as she whipped her head left to right.
"So, what do you think we should do when we find Hood?" Rocky inquired, "We can't really take a picture now, since Katie and Liz were the ones with phones..."
Marshall, on the path to returning to his usual optimistic self, looked at the mixed breed, "We'll figure something else out. Or we could just stall till Liz and Katie find us."
"Hopefully he won't try to fight again," Everest eyed her chrome claws, which were damaged from using them to save them from sustaining serious damage, "I don't think the claws you made can take it..."
"Honestly, I never thought about using the claws to dig them into surfaces..." Rocky began to think, "If we still need the claws, I'll give them an upgrade to be stronger."
Everest grinned, excitement filling her to the brim. She continued to lead her friends in a straight line, using the remnants of her artificial claws to hack away at the greenery blocking their path. The Husky squinted, trying her best to see beyond her usual limits to be prepared for any kind of danger ahead. The desolate area around them reminded her of back when she was in the wild. Sure, there wasn't an overabundance of trees in the arctic, but the wild was the wild, and it unsettled her to be so far away from any kind of society.
At least, she thought she was far from one.
Marshall suddenly bumped into Everest's backside. The Dalmatian, confused, looked ahead at the Husky, who seemed to be frozen in place. Marshall soon walked up to stand beside her, inquiring as to what the problem was. That was until he looked forward. Rocky, noticing that the two had stopped, moved around to stand beside Marshall.
"Guys, what are you waiting for?" The mixed breed asked, "We have to keep moving so we can..." Upon looking forward, his sentence ran cold, trailing off and vanishing into the air.
The three pups found themselves dwarfed by what seemed to be a crudely constructed gate.
Marshall sat on his haunches, confused. What was a gate doing so far out in the forest? Let alone one made of wood? Rocky, meanwhile, was beginning to get anxious at the sight. The gate standing mere feet away from them didn't seem to have been made decades ago. Despite how shabby-looking it appeared, it seemed to have been made recently. Maybe a year prior, but no more than five years ago.
"Doesn't this forest only have wild animals?" Marshall asked confusedly.
Rocky nodded slowly, "Yeah, it should be... There's no way a whole bunch of humans could run through the forest with a bunch of wood and build a gate here. It'd be impossible... Or at least a little weird."
"Well, let's find out why this is here then!" Everest grinned, "No use sticking around here right now. We have to keep looking around."
Nodding, Marshall and Rocky followed the Husky as they began to walk along the side of the gate.
As the three walked, a cloaked figure was watching them from on the branch of a tree nearby. A faint growl slipped from out of his mouth as the figure hopped toward another tree branch, "How'd they get here!?"
Eventually, the pups discovered an opening. There was a decent amount of wood laid down in front of the opening, similar to the wood that was used on the gate surrounding them.
"This gate is in construction!" Rocky quietly exclaimed.
Marshall seemed disbelieving, "But by who?"
"C'mon, let's slip through while nobody's around..." Everest whispered, "If the gate is still in construction, that means that someone will show up to construct it, right? I don't know if they're good or bad, but I don't want to be caught by them."
"Good point," The mixed breed nodded in agreement, following the Husky as she walked past the gate.
Marshall was the last to step in, looking around in astonishment. The place the three stumbled into seemed to be a community of sorts. As he proceeded alongside his friends, he noticed little houses built with the same type of wood the gate had been.
"People... Live here?" Marshall's eyes widened.
Rocky turned his head to look at something else nearby, "I don't think the ones living here are people. Look."
Everest and Marshall followed Rocky's point to an area filled with grass, where two little puppies were playing around with one another, laughing and running wherever they felt like. The trio watched as the two small pups chased one another until one of the pups spotted the three.
"New friends!" The pup, a little Border Collie, exclaimed.
"New friends?" The other pup, an excited Pomeranian parroted, looking in the direction of the three.
Everest gushed, "Awww, they're so cute!!" The Husky held her arms out as the two pups scurried toward them, a big smile spread on her muzzle.
Before they could make it to her, though, A larger Border Collie tackled the two pups, holding them close to her body.
"Stop!" She shouted, "You two know how dangerous interacting with dogs like them is!"
"Umm... Miss?" Marshall asked, approaching the three, "Are you okay—?"
"Get away!!" The Border Collie growled, drawing her claws and swiping at the confused Dalmatian.
Thanks to his growing skills in combat, Marshall was quick to avoid the swipe and jump back, but clumsily stumbled back and landed on his rear.
"Woah!!" Rocky took a step back.
Everest was quick to step forward, "Leave him alone!"
The Border Collie stood, hoisting the two little pups on her back, "If you get near me, or any other dog again, don't expect the same levity, Dociles."
As Marshall stood to his feet, his brows furrowed with confusion, "What the heck just happened?"
"Dociles?" Rocky parroted, cocking his head to the right slightly.
"They see your collars," A familiar voice answered the question that lingered within all three of their minds.
Turning around, Marshall's eyes widened once he saw who was speaking to them. The Dalmatian immediately jumped back, yelping. Standing there with an unamused grimace on his face was Hood.
"You!" Marshall shouted.
Hood immediately put his paws up, "I don't know how you found me, but I'm not going to fight you all. Not here, at least."
"Where is here anyway?" Marshall asked, making sure he and his friends maintained a slight distance from the other Dalmatian.
"Home."
"What?" Rocky raised an eyebrow, "Home? Then why did you come to Adventure Bay like you were some stray, stealing everybody's food?"
"That's because I am a stray. Those two little pups and that big Border Collie? Strays. Every single dog here is a stray, and now that we've been discovered by Dociles, us strays are gonna have to find a new home."
"What?" Marshall seemed confused, "We don't want to put anyone out of a home, I just want to prove that I wasn't the one who stole those bones!"
Hood raised an eyebrow, "You mean those yellow bones?"
"Yeah?"
"They were useless."
"What do you mean by that?" Everest asked, glaring at their adversary, "Those things must be worth thousands of dollars!"
"Dollars?" Hood initially seemed confused, "You mean that currency humans use? We have no use for it. I went there thinking that they were edible, but they're harder than rocks! It was a waste of time."
Marshall's eyes widened, his pupils narrowing to the size of pinpricks. Useless? A waste of time? The golden bones were the reason he was out there in the first place! Had those bones never been stolen, he'd be sleeping in his pup house with his warm blanket and pillow instead of being out in the forest in the middle of the night.
The former fire pup's head immediately sunk as he looked at the floor, "Then what do you want!?" He shut his eyes tight, "Why did you have to do this? If they were a waste of time, then what was I, collateral damage?"
Hood didn't withhold the truth from the other Dalmatian, "Yeah. You were."
Something Marshall didn't even know he had began to bubble and brew within his chest, coming out of his body in the form of an ear splitting scream. His eyes shot open, fresh tears stinging the corner of his eyes. In a moment that Marshall could only describe as blinding, he immediately lunged at the doppelganger Dalmatian. For one of the first times he could remember, he was blinded by rage.
"Marshall!"
Both Rocky and Everest grabbed him, holding him back as he flailed and kicked against their grips. The two pups looked at the other with abundant fear in their eyes. Never had they seen him as angry as he was, if at all. Not only that, but the force of their friend trying to get at Hood was something they hadn't been expecting, lurching them forward once they tried to grab him.
"He said he isn't gonna fight!" Rocky tried to reason with him, "As much as I want to hit him too... We don't attack those who have already agreed to be civil!"
Hood slowly closed the distance between himself and Marshall, standing just far enough away to be out of the former fire pup's range.
"But wouldn't that only be fair?" Hood asked, "I take your home from you, and in turn, you come here and take mine."
"What are you talking about?" Everest inquired, befuddled, "We're not here to take your home!"
"You three are here for evidence that I exist, so that Marshall can go back home..." The wild Dalmatian explained, "If you prove that I exist, you'll also prove to your hometown that this place exists, and we'll be found."
"He's right?" Rocky, still holding onto Marshall, was just as confused as Everest, "And it seems like they don't want any humans around here... Will they take it from you?"
"They already have before, they'll do it again," Hood nodded, "Why else do you think the older dogs are so wary of pups with collars? That's a sign that you're connected to humans."
Marshall, who had gradually stopped trying to get at Hood, stared deep into his eyes, "Why did you steal from Adventure Bay?"
"I'll show you."
Hood walked through the small village-esque landscape, occasionally looking back to make sure they were still following behind him. Marshall, who was trailing directly behind the doppelganger Dalmatian, averted his eyes the moment Hood checked up on them. He had been staring at the wild Dalmatian. As an EMT, he couldn't help but to notice how skinny Hood was without his cloak. While most Dalmatians, like himself, were naturally skinny, he was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to be easy to see the outline of one's ribcage.
Despite his rage toward Hood, he threw that aside to ponder. It confused him. If he could remember correctly, the wild Dalmatian managed to take most of the meat that was left out by Liz when they hatched that plan to get closer to catching Hood. If he did, he should've been eating pretty well, as there was only one day between Rocky attaching the tracker to Hood's cloak and them setting out to find him.
Speaking of the creative canine, he was busy looking around at all of the small houses they passed by on the way to wherever Hood was taking them. Now that he knew that they were made for dogs and pups, he had to acknowledge how spacious they were. Initially, when he imagined that they were built by humans for humans, he questioned why the agent used for keeping the wood together seemed to be made of clay, but knowing that they wouldn't have much access to nails and hammers, it made more sense.
Everest, meanwhile, were focused on the many dogs and pups that were watching them walk with disdain. At an initial glance, many weren't phased by their presence, but upon noticing that she, Marshall, and Rocky still were weaning their collars, they performed double takes. The lighthearted expressions would transform into spiteful grimaces. It unnerved her to know that their very presence was unwanted, but they weren't there to do anything bad. She just wanted Marshall to be back with the PAW Patrol again.
Eventually, the wild Dalmatian came to a stop, standing in front of a building. This building, though, was different. Instead of being constructed with wooden planks most likely salvaged from another location, the building's walls were made of another material.
"Brick walls?" Rocky put his paw on the side of the building, pressing his paw against it. It was solid, "You guys know how to make bricks?"
"No, we found a bunch from an abandoned house. We used them for the Medical Bay."
"Medical Bay?" Marshall seemed confused, "You have doctors here?"
Hood shook his head, pushing open the shabbily constructed door and gesturing for them to come inside.
The confused faces of the three pups soon contorted to horror once they saw what was inside.
Rocky and Everest froze at the door, only Marshall proceeding along with Hood. On both his left and right were groaning dogs and pups alike, who all seemed to be skinnier than Hood was. All of them were laid on piles of straw, slight gaps between the piles. Marshall was used to the sight of medical emergencies, but what he was seeing was unprecedented and unknown to him. Not only that, but a foul smell lingered over the place, causing all but Hood to recoil in disgust.
"They're... they're so skinny..." Marshall exhaled shakily, "What's wrong with them?"
Hood answered flatly, "They're dying."
Everest and Rocky finally caught up to the two after freezing at the door, their eyes glued to the various suffering dogs around them.
"Dying?" Marshall repeated, looking at Hood, "They can be saved, right? We have to do something!"
"What do you think I've been doing all this time?" The wild Dalmatian eyed an older dog, who's breathing was thinning more and more by the minute, "This isn't just some common flu or virus, they're starving to death."
Marshall gasped. It was horrific, yet it made a lot of things in the Medical Bay make sense. The Dalmatian quickly concluded that most, if not all of the dogs in the building were in the later stages of starvation.
"The body will attempt to save the brain above all else..." Marshall robotically recited, remembering something in one of the numerous medical textbooks he had read before, "...It will begin shutting down the most metabolically intense functions first... Like proper digestion... That'll lead to..."
Marshall immediately stopped what he was saying, shaking his head. That horrific realization explained the smell...
"You know about this?" Hood seemed confused, "I thought you were a firefighter..."
Marshall walked over to one of the younger pups laying nearby, "I'm an EMT too..." He observed the body of the little pup, "And I know that without food, the body will find a way to get it, even if it comes from inside..."
"What does that mean?" Rocky asked, standing beside Everest, who was shaking as she remained close to the mixed breed.
The Dalmatian didn't respond, tears welling up in his eyes as he held the little pup's paw and gently apologized to them for their circumstances.
The mixed breed stepped closer, "Marshall, what does that mean?"
"Their bodies are gonna use up everything it has to keep the brain alive in the latter stages of starvation..." Marshall explained softly, so that the young pup couldn't hear him, "In the simplest terms, their bodies will consume themselves..."
"Oh man..." Rocky took a few steps back, mortified.
That was the final straw for Everest. She couldn't take it anymore. This was all way too much for her. She knew almost exactly how the dogs around felt. She remembered not being able to eat. She could remember the pain that resonated within her stomach, pounding away at her guts until she was able to find any kind of sustenance. It took her back in every way but good. The former mountain gagged, covering her mouth with her paws.
"Stop... Please stop!" The Husky begged, her voice muffled by her paws, "I can't... I can't— Mmph!"
Her cheeks swelled before she made a mad dash for the door, stumbling as she was using one of her paws to cover her mouth. As Marshall watched her wobble out of the door, he remained still. He had almost forgotten the symptoms and effects of starvation after his initial EMT training.
He remembered gazing at the pages in front of him, wondering when he would ever have to deal with starvation. After all, that was when he was in Adventure Bay, and looking after that location. Everyone got to eat their fill. Nobody would go hungry there. It almost seemed like extra preparation to him. A precaution just for the 'just in case' scenarios that would never come.
Yet here he was, standing in the middle of a room filled with those going hungry, and it pained him to know that the sole pup in the room doing something about it wasn't him.
After leaving and meeting back up with a shaken Everest, Hood told them there was somewhere else he wanted to take them. He led the three pups to a small, empty house. There were small, dirty blankets laid out around the floor of it, various scratch marks etched permanently into the wood on the walls. The doppelganger Dalmatian soon approached a greater collection of blankets, pulling something out of it. A small book.
"Are you all familiar with the tale of Robin Hood?"
"Yeah?" Rocky was the first to speak up, "Robin Hood was a tale of an archer who stole from the rich to give to the poor."
"Well, I guess you can say I'm some sort of Robin Hood myself..." He put the book down and began walking out of the small house, sitting in front of it.
Marshall was confused, "Why steal though? You're wild! Can't you hunt in the forest?"
"We all tried that at first, but..." He trailed off, "...There are various other wild animals here. Bears, wolves, the list goes on. It's too risky to go out and try and hunt."
The three fell silent at Hood's statement.
"So I steal. I grab any food I can, and bring it back here..." Hood admitted, "It's the only thing I can do to set things right to make sure they have a fair chance at life. Even if that life's out here in the wild."
"Why are you telling us all of this?" Everest, still shaken up by the sights in the Medical Bay, asked, "Why didn't you just kick us out when you found us?"
"Because, I want someone to know when your humans get here..." The wild Dalmatian looked at the grass beneath his paws, "When Marshall proves his innocence, the humans you're associated with will want evidence, and you'll come here. The strays will be taken away, and I know they'll try to put an end to the ones who haven't been getting enough food."
Marshall walked past Hood, sitting in front of him with a glare on his face.
Hood stared back at him, "So, capture me. Take me back to that leader of yours and prove your innocence. I won't keep you around for leverage any longer. Just, don't mention any of this place... I'll go with you so that they'll think that I'm a stray from just anywhere."
Marshall had a choice to make. A choice that he seemed to be ready to make from the moment they crossed through the Medical Bay. Here he was, being given the golden opportunity that he had been dreaming for from the moment he ran away from the lookout. A single chance presented itself to him on a silver platter, just waiting to be taken.
But...
Marshall shook his head, "I'm not gonna do that."
"What?" Both Rocky and Everest asked loudly, surprised by what they were hearing.
It just wasn't in his nature. He was a rescue pup through and through. As it stood, this place seemed to need some rescuing. Way more than Adventure Bay needed.
Marshall turned his attention to his friends, "I'm gonna stay here and help. I'll help collect food, treat the dogs in the Medical Bay, whatever I need to do."
Rocky and Everest stared at the Dalmatian, surprise on their faces.
The Dalmatian bowed his head in shame, "I know you guys left the PAW Patrol just to get me back on the team, and I'm sorry for wasting your time, but I can't just leave them when they need help! I want to—!"
In a familiar move, the two pups ran over to hug their friend. Rocky pressed his forehead against Marshall's left temple, while Everest put her forehead on his right temple.
"You really love making us repeat ourselves..." Everest sighed, a playful annoyance coloring her voice.
Rocky chuckled, "She's right. I don't remember how many times we have to say it before it gets through that thick skull of yours..."
"We're in this together."
Marshall, shocked, was once again rendered a listener to his friends as they continued to speak.
"When we left the lookout in search of you..." Everest lifted her head up to look him in the eyes, "Once we took off our pup tags, we swore that the next time we put them on would be by your side as we all rejoined the team. And we're not going back on it!"
Rocky gave the female pup the side-eye, "Yeah, that Everest is as stubborn as an ox..."
"Hey!" The Husky barked.
The ex-eco pup laughed, "Okay, okay, I am too."
"You guys..." Marshall slowly hugged them back, "...You don't have to—"
"Nope!" Everest quickly cut him off, "Unless the next thing you're gonna say is 'you don't have to go back to the lookout if you don't want to', I don't wanna hear it!"
"So you're really gonna stay for me?"
"We're not staying for you..." Rocky shook his head, "We're staying with you! Big difference. Besides, I was looking around, and I think there are some things I can do to help too."
"Same here!" Everest grinned, "We're all rescue pups!"
Marshall soon let go and turned back around to look at Hood, who had a look of genuine surprise on his face, "You."
Hood immediately got on his guard. Marshall slowly walked over to the wild Dalmatian, an unreadable expression spread on his face.
"You got me accused of a crime I never committed. You told me I was collateral damage to a mistake. Had you never shown up, I would've never been kicked off of the team. Had you never been to Adventure Bay, we would be home right now, sleeping late at night."
Marshall's foreleg shot toward Hood, making him wince in preparation to receive a punch to the chest, but the impact never came. Opening his eyes, the doppelganger Dalmatian realized Marshall was holding out his paw, offering to shake it.
"But, had you never shown up, I would've never connected with Rocky and Everest like I have. The things we've been through together, and the feelings shared between us would've never existed. Me and Rocky were becoming closer friends before you showed up, but him and Everest? I never expected to see them grow closer as friends. I would have never met Liz. I wouldn't have lived with her and Katie, cherishing the good times we had when things seemed impossibly tough..."
Marshall sighed.
"As much as I want to hate you, Hood. I just can't...." The Dalmatian looked down, "Call it a weakness... Maybe I'm too kind for my own good, but I like it like that. I like me like that."
He then inhaled once again, "So I'm asking you. Will you let me... Let us help this place?"
As Marshall's extended paw raised a bit more, Hood noticed the sun beginning to rise behind him. The daybreak behind him provided just a tad bit more visibility, rays of light shining down in multiple places, and conveniently, right on Marshall's paw.
Hood, his eyes narrowing, took Marshall's paw and shook it.
In the darkest of nights, the sun will always be there to give the world its glow once more. For Marshall, Everest, and Rocky, the night that was fading away by the second was one of their darkest. Despite that, Hood saw the glow of a paw reaching out through the darkness to signal the beginning of a new day. The beginning of a new start.
And the beginning of an unlikely team up.