Behind The Mask

The Pup Talk

The sun began rising over the city as the pups were still sleeping. Marshall remembered what Ryder said, but Chase didn't go back to his usual self. He would still sleep in and would wake up a few times and he would act out a little more and would still ignore the rest of the pups.

Ryder and the pups woke up, having to wake Chase up last. Chase groaned and the pups looked at him with a surprised look. His eyes still looked tired, if not, even worse.

"Uh, Chase? Did you get any sleep at all?" Marshall asked.

"Does it look like it?" Chase faced Marshall in annoyance, making Marshall feel dumb for asking that question. Ryder walked up to Chase and scratched his ear.

"Hey, calm down there bud. Do you wanna go back to sleep?" Ryder asked and Chase rubbed his eyes.

"Yeah. That sounds good." Chase sighed as he hopped back onto his bed and threw his blankets over himself. Ryder made sure to close off the windows and a metal shield covered the windows, blocking the sunlight so Chase could sleep easier.

It was dark inside aside from the lights coming from below. Ryder prepared breakfast for all of the pups and they ate.

Zuma kept glancing at Chase after he took each bite of his food. This didn't go unnoticed by Rocky who was eating next to him. He noticed Zuma glancing at the German Shepherd over and over and Rocky could tell that his best friend was more worried about him just as he was.

Zuma felt a paw on his shoulder and looked over at Rocky who had a hopeful smile.

"So, you wanna have that talk now?" Rocky asked and Zuma slightly smiled.

"Yeah." Zuma lightly said and Rocky nodded

When everybody finished breakfast, the adult dogs were helping Ryder carry the bowls over and Rocky and Zuma quickly took this chance to turn to the pups.

"Hey guys? We need to talk." Rocky began and the rest of the pups turned to both of them.

"Huh? What about?" Rubble asked and Zuma gestured his shoulder over to the sleeping Chase. The pups then realized what they wanted to talk about and immediately agreed.

"Hey, Ryder?" Everest called out and Ryder looked over at the pups.

"We're gonna go...and...check up on our vehicles." Everest lied and Ryder looked at them with obvious confusion.

"We just wanna make sure there was no damage because of yesterday's mission." Skye quickly stepped in.

"Oh, okay. Sure, go ahead." Ryder said with a cheerful smile and turned back around, making the rest of the pups smile at each other.

The pups went into another room that looked a lot like the Adventure Bays Lookout living room with the television and bean bags.

Silence

They knew what they wanted to talk about, but didn't know how to start this conversation. But luckily, Liberty was confused and spoke up.

"So, what is this all about?" She asked and everyone looked at Liberty in confusion and remembered that she had no idea what was going on.

"Well recently, Chase began acting weird." Everest started.

"You mean when he first arrived here?" Liberty asked, also began wondering what caused the German Shepherd to change.

"Way before that. We left on a little vacation with our parents and a couple days after we got back, Chase began acting differently." Marshall explained.

"I noticed that he looked different when he got here and acted a bit differently too." Liberty pointed out.

"He's acting way too different." Zuma added

"He's been waking up late. He is usually the first one to always get up early in the mornings and wake us up." Rocky began.

"And now, he's like the last one to be awake. He's never usually like that." Rubble said in a worried tone.

"Not only that, but now he's ignoring us most of the time. Aside from missions, he would never play with us or even talk to us." Marshall mentioned. Skye, who kept quiet most of this time, suddenly spoke up.

"He's not acting like the Chase we know."

The pups stared at the ground in sadness, as painful as it was, they knew it was the truth. The Chase they knew has changed. Almost no spirit, mostly cold, using no megaphone and no effort in hanging out with the pups.

"So, why did you guys wanna talk about this?" Liberty asked.

"Well we need to figure out why Chase is acting this way." Rocky spoke up.

"How are we supposed to do that? Every time we would try and talk to him he would just ignore us." Everest said and the pups thought until Rocky came up with an idea.

"Why don't we ask Ryder?" Rocky suggested.

"He told me that Chase would be back to normal but that didn't happen. I think it's something we have to figure out on our own." Marshall mentioned and the pups went back to thinking.

"I have an idea." Skye said with a bit of a nervous tone and everyone turned to Skye who was slightly blushing.

"What do you have in mind?" Liberty asked.

"How about I go hang out with him? Maybe I can find out, even a little hint, would help out with why he's acting the way he is." Skye suggested and the pups looked over at each other, confused as to why she said "I" instead of "We".

"So, you mean like a date?" Everest asked, making Skye blush.

"W-Wait, no, no. Not like that." Skye denied but then Rocky thought more on it.

"Well I think that could actually work." Rocky said and they all turned to Rocky.

"Well, it's obvious that Chase has a crush on you." Rocky said as he looked at Skye. It was obvious to everyone that Chase had a crush on the little cockapoo, even Skye could see him worry or stutter a lot when he's near her. Skye, at first, was a little annoyed, but acted sweet and caring and looking back on it now. Skye would always see it as sweet.

"Okay. I'll try but it's not a date!" Skye exclaimed and the pups smiled at each other, knowing that it would somehow be turned into a date.

"Alright, but what if it doesn't work out?" Marshall asked, beginning to have doubts.

"Then we'll find anothew way. We won't give up on him." Zuma said with determined eyes which made the pups feel even more determined.

"Alright, let's do whatever it takes to get my-I mean...! Our...Chase back." Skye said with a light blush as she couldn't believe what she was about to say, but nonetheless, everyone cheered in agreement.