Behind The Mask

Special?

     Chase walked all the way back to the lookout, carrying the bag with his new hoodie on his back and holding the necklace in his paw.

Flash Back

"No. Thank you. I have to admit, Chase. You're special."

Flash Back Ends

Chase couldn't stop repeating that sentence over and over in his mind. It was the first time anyone has ever told him that in his life. His whole walk back, Chase had a smile on his face, but not a fake one, an actual smile. He hasn't felt any emotion like this before, and now it was all weird to him.

But then his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of laughter coming from the lookout from the pups. Chase frowned at the front doors. With everything they said, Chase wanted nothing more but to run away, or just end it all but something told him not to, for whatever reason.

He walked over to his pup-house and opened the door, lightly putting his hoodie inside, along with the necklace. During his walk back, Chase came up with an idea. If he was gonna make some changes, then he needs to see what should be done. Which is why, tomorrow, he's gonna be putting on a mask just to see what really needs to be done. Chase smiled at the thought because after tomorrow, everything will change for him.

"Oh. There you were."

Chase turned and his eyes squinted a little bit at the sight of Marshall, standing there with a casual smile on his face.

"We've been waiting for you for quite some time, bud. Is everything okay, bro?" Marshall asked as he placed his paw on Chase's shoulder. Chase smiled at his "brother" and opened his mouth to respond:

"Yeah, everything's fine. Don't worry about it, bro." Chase grinned. Marshall then seemed a little bit fazed. Something to him felt wrong or out of place but he couldn't seem to figure it out. He slowly removed his paw from Chase's shoulder.

"Well, everyone else is waiting for you inside, you coming along?" Marshall asked.

"Yeah, let's go!" Chase cheered and both of them walked inside the Lookout.

With Ryder

"Are you being serious? You're telling me the whole place is thrashed?" Ryder asked as he was on top of the lookout where he would usually call the pups to inform them on their mission. On the screen was Mayor Goodway and they seem to be having some sort of weird conversation.

"Exactly. The construction workers over there told me that there must've been some sort of brawl or whatever that caused the building to collapse like that, but nobody could tell who." Mayor Goodway explained.

Apparently, a building near Adventure City has been knocked down by something, but nobody could tell what it was or who did it.

"And they've got nothing on who it might be?" Ryder asked and Mayor Goodway nodded in denial, making Ryder sigh.

"Would you like us to go over there and investigate?" Ryder asked.

"Don't worry, save yourself from the troubles, the police and detectives are investigating the place right now. I'll inform you if there's anything they find." Mayor Goodway said and ended the call, leaving Ryder there to think to himself.

"Is everything okay, Ryder sir?"

Ryder looked over to see Chase walking up to him with a worried tone in his voice.

"I'm not really sure. I've just been told that a building was taken down near Adventure City." Ryder explained and Chase gasped at hearing that.

"Seriously? Was anyone hurt? Did they find the ones who did it?" Chase quickly asked.

"No, nobody was hurt and they couldn't find the ones responsible for it." Ryder explained to Chase.

"So, are we gonna go over and try to solve it ourselves?" Chase asked but Ryder denied.

"No. There's already an investigation going, we'll be informed if we're needed." Ryder said and sighed and looked back at Chase.

"Anyways, was there something you needed?" Ryder asked, knowing that Chase wouldn't just come up here for no reason.

"Yeah, I wanted to ask a favor." Chase said and Ryder was confused and saw Chase run into the elevator and pull out his police uniform.

"I wanna do something about this." Chase referred to his police uniform, but Ryder didn't understand.

"About your uniform? Is something wrong with it?" Ryder asked as he picked it up.

"Nope. I wanna re-design my uniform." Chase stated and Ryder looked down at him with a surprised look.

"Re-design it? Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad thing. but why is there something wrong with it?" Ryder asked again, surprised by this sudden change.

"Trust me, there's nothing wrong with it. I just feel like I need to make some changes." Chase admitted and Ryder looked at Chase straight in his eyes and the realization hit the young boy.

"Chase...I understand things haven't been easy, but isn't there a better way to handle this?" Ryder suggested, obviously not knowing what Chase knew about the pups.

"Ryder, I'm still that same afraid puppy years ago, and I'm sick of it. I think you and I both know I need to make some changes. Trust me on this." Chase said and Ryder looked deep down to Chase's eyes that was filled with nothing but determination. Even though Ryder didn't have a good feeling about this, he knew he could trust Chase no matter what. So he agreed.

"Alright. If this is the case, then I'll help you." Ryder agreed and Chase grinned.

"Alright!" Chase cheered and Ryder handed the German Shepherd his uniform back.

"I'm gonna go downstairs now. I'll see you later!" Chase said and went inside the elevator which took him down.

Lookout Basement

Chase had his uniform sit on the table and Chase was looking over it's design. He then glanced at his black hoodie which was sitting right next to his uniform. Chase switched his eyes between the police uniform and the hoodie, he felt like he needed to combine these two somehow, but none of the designs he could think of were good. He then turned to Robo Dog who happened to be there in the basement.

"Hey, Robo Dog, can you show me some police outfits?" Chase asked and Robo Dog quickly looked through online to find a few and when he did, he showed Chase who was looking through each of the different cop designs.

"Woah, there are ones with capes too, huh? Old style outfits, modern ones, royal outfits too? There's a lot to go off from." Chase looked through and then he looked back at the necklace which was lying beside the hoodie and he looked at all three objects on the table as an idea came to Chase's mind.

"I got it!"