Behind The Mask

More Company

     Obviously, everyone was shocked that Ryder invited these guests, but they weren't upset about it, aside, they're more excited. Especially seeing Rex, Tuck and Ella. But they were also surprised to see Sweetie there too.

"Sweetie? What're you doing here?" Everest asked in a surprised tone and Sweetie scoffed.

"Humph! It's not like I wanted to come, I had to because she couldn't leave me alone at the castle." Sweetie pouted in her accent, which earned a few chuckles from the pups.

"It's great to see you again, Ryder." The princess said as she slightly bowed down, making Ryder scratch his head.

"Haha, I'm glad you guys can make it." Ryder said back with a smile.

"Of course we'd come dude." Jake said.

"Totally!" Tuck and Ella said at the same time.

"I can't wait to spend Christmas with you guys!" Rex said as he rolled around in excitement.

"Ace!" Skye yipped as she jumped up onto Ace's arms and licked her face, causing the red haired girl to chuckle.

"Hehe, it's great to see you too Skye." She responded as both of them nuzzled each other's cheeks.

"Jake!" Everest cheered as she did the same as Skye and jumped onto his arms and nuzzle her cheek against his, making Jake laugh.

"I missed you too!" Jake said back as Everest began licking his cheek.

Sweetie looked over and saw other adult dogs which caught her by surprise.

"Oh, I forgot. Everyone, these are the pup's parents. These are my other friends that helped the Paw Patrol before." Ryder introduced each other and they all exchanged names. That's when the four guest pups looked over at Liberty and Sylvia.

"Wait, you guys are new." Tuck pointed out.

"Oh, I'm Liberty! I'm the newest member of the Paw Patrol, and I know all about you guys! It's so great to see you. You guys are so awesome!!" Liberty said with stars in her eyes and Tuck, Ella and Rex cheerfully smiled, already taking a liking to the newest member while Sweetie smirked and placed a paw on her cheek.

"Heh, I know. You bet I'm awesome." The small white pup showed off.

"And I'm Sylvia." The blue German Shepherd introduced herself and the four looked at her in confusion.

"Huh? Do you have a pup-tag?" Ella asked, noticing that she wasn't wearing a pup-tag like the rest of the members.

"No, I'm not really a part of the team. I'm mostly just friends with them." She nervously laughed and the four members "ahh'". Ella then glanced as she saw Skye and Everest walking by them. The female golden retriever grinned as she pulled Sweetie with her over to them.

"This is awesome! We've got more girls in the party!" She said, making Sweetie, Skye, Everest, Sylvia and Liberty smile and then they grinned at each other.

"This is gonna be one heck of a party." Jake laughed. Ryder, Carlos and Katie grinned at each other as the others laughed. Then, Ryder's laugh ended a little too early.

"Sorry guys, for now, we might have to wait to prepare since something happened while you were all coming." Ryder said as he put his hands in his pockets as the new members looked at the leader in confusion.

"Huh? What happened?" Rex asked and the dogs in front of them pulled away, revealing the sick Chase, laying on the bean bags as if he was dead.

"Chase caught the flu." Carlos sighed and everyone gasped as they all ran over to him, along with the others behind them.

"Oh no! Is he gonna be okay?" Tuck asked with a worried tone as he looked back up at Ryder.

"He'll be sick for probably a few weeks, but he'll get better...I hope." Ryder whispered the last part to himself and Ella whimpered at the sight of the sick German Shepherd. They watched as Chase roughly coughed and moaned after.

"Will he be okay before Christmas?" Rex asked and Katie sadly shrugged.

"I'm not sure. We'll tell when Chase starts making progress." Katie said and everyone stared back. The Princess slowly kneeled down and placed her hand on the German Shepherd, as she worryingly stared at her favorite pup. Even Sweetie began looking a little bit worried.

Over time, she has really gotten used to the Paw Patrol ever since she worked with them on a certain mission. She has slowly grown to care for him even.

"I'm really sorry, Chase. We'll all be here for you." Her warm voice was heard by his ears. Chase managed to have the strength to squint his eyes a little bit and looked up at the Princess's beautiful smile. Chase terribly weakly smiled as his tale weakly wagged as he kept his eyes open for a couple seconds before closing them back.

"Princess...ness." He whispered with a weak cough, making everyone lightly smile, but also a little bit surprised. Jake and Ace also sadly stared at the pup, but they were glad to see him going so strong so far.

"We've seen what happened on the news." Jake pointed out as he now stood up and looked down to Ryder.

"You mean about Adventure City?" Ryder asked, and Ace stood back up, nodding at the leader.

"Yeah, all of those guys seemed really dangerous. We all became worried when we've heard about these super villains." Ace said and Ryder slightly smiled at her.

"Sorry for making you guys worry, but it's all okay. They've been stopped and won't be causing anymore trouble." Ryder said, keeping the details about the Overlord out since he didn't want to worry the others, especially around the time of the holidays and they just found out that Chase was sick.

"Well I'm glad he's being taken care of. So what are gonna do about Secret Santa then?" Ella asked and Ryder began thinking. They didn't want to spend everyday worrying and being sad, so they should at least try and be happy along with trying to cheer Chase up.

"How about we do it tonight?" Ryder suggested and then he looked back down at Chase as he kneeled down and placed his hand on Chase's side.

"Hey, bud. I...I..." Ryder had a troubling time saying because he felt selfish just even asking Chase that question, while he was enduring this much pain. But, the ten year old didn't even have to ask as the German Shepherd pup already knew what he was going to ask.

"L...L...Let...Let's...d...d...do it." He said weakly, even though he wasn't fond of doing the game, he still wanted everyone else to have fun. Plus, hopefully this will make him feel better in some way. Ryder looked at him with visible shock for a few seconds, but then warmly smiled at him and looked back up at the others.

"Okay then, we'll do Secret Santa tonight."