Behind The Mask

Tundra

     The group surrounded Tundra, surprised by the huge crowd around her.

"Woah, I didn't know you were having a whole party, Ryder." Tundra chuckled, and Ryder nervously scratched the back of her head.

"I had no idea you were coming. You lived really far away." He said.

"So, you didn't invite me?" Tundra deadpanned, making Ryder even more nervous.

"Hehe, sorry about that." Tundra only sighed as she gave him a forgiving smile and looked over at Rex, Liberty, and Sylvia. Of course, she recognized Ella, Tuck and Sweetie as they met a couple of times on missions in the past. But these new pups were new to her. But then, she slowly recognized Liberty.

"Oh wait, you're the newest member right? Liberty?" Tundra spoke. And Liberty cheerfully barked.

"That's my name! Nice to meet you, Tundra." Liberty gave her best smile, making Tundra smile too.

"Nice to meet you. And who are you guys?" She then turned towards Sylvia and Rex.

"I'm Rex."

"And I'm Sylvia."

"Nice to meet ya, the name's Tundra." The Husky introduced herself again and the pups smiled. Tundra then noticed the other adult dogs, and a lot of them.

"Woah, who are they?" She asked and Ryder chuckled.

"These are the pups' parents. They're staying over for the holidays." Ryder explained. After Tundra introduced herself to the pups parents and they introduced themselves. Tundra looked around and smiled as she saw Jake, Ace, Princess, Katie and others.

She then turned towards Rocky.

"It's great to see ya again, Rocky!" Tundra said and Rocky slightly blushed.

"I-It's great to see you again, T-Tundra." Rocky then tried to hide his blush with his grin. Tundra chuckled at the Mixed Breed and looked over to the other pups, and quickly realized something.

"Hey, where's Chase?" The now confused Husky asked, and the pups stood aside to reveal Chase, lying on his bean bag.

"Yo." The German Shepherd held his paw up, and Tundra only slightly blushed at the sight of the shepherd by how much he's changed, but he looked a bit, more than different.

"Uh, you look different." She pointed out as herself and the other pups walked over to him.

"Yeah." Chase said right before he sneezed to which he covered with his paw. Tundra got even more confused as she noticed that his voice got raspy a little as well. Considering that he was also wearing a blanket and an ice pack by him, she only concluded that he was sick.

"Are you sick?" She asked.

"He's got the flu." Marshall sadly sighed. Needless to say that Tundra was surprised and worryingly stared at Chase. She always considered the boys as brothers, and whenever one of them got sick, it worried her nonetheless.

"Actually? Are you okay?" Tundra asked in a worried tone, which made Chase giggle.

"Yeah, I'm feeling better." He answered, which made her sigh in relief. Now, Chase got the chance to ask the question he's been wondering.

"So, what made you come here?" He asked.

"I saw the news about Adventure City, and all of these supervillains coming up. Especially the fight that happened in Adventure Bay Park a couple days ago. So I figured I should stop by and see if everyone is doing alright." Tundra explained and took another look around. "But, I guess everyone's doing fine." She chuckled with slight embarrassment.

"W-Why don't you stay here? Christmas is coming up and you should definitely spend it with us." Rocky suggested in an excited tone, hoping that Tundra would take up on the idea. That honestly doesn't sound too bad Tundra thought, especially if it means she gets to spend the holidays with a certain pup.

They were interrupted by a couple coughs from the German Shepherd. They looked back to see Chase give them a tired smile, letting them know it was all okay.

"We'd love you to stay, Tundra. If you're up for it." Ryder agreed while he kneeled down to scratch Rocky's head who nuzzled against his hand. Tundra's tail then began wagging as she barked in agreement, making everyone else, except Chase, cheer around her.

"Alright! So what do you guys wanna do?" Everest asked.

"Why don't we play pup-pup boogie?" Rubble asked, really wanting to play and the others looked at each other and nodded in agreement.

"I get to take on Tundra first!" Ella called out while raising her paw.

"Huh? You really think you can beat me?" Tundra asked in a competitive tone and grin, Ella then stared at her right back with the same expressions.

"Game on!" Ella responded and the pups howled as they began setting the game up. Chase watched as he knew he was gonna sit this one out, but it wasn't like he wanted to play. Chase then glanced at Rocky, who was helping them set up the game and sighed.

The German Shepherd knew Rocky had a "bit" of a crush on the Husky that just arrived. Even though he made it less obvious, the police pup could tell. Again, he doesn't have any issues with Tundra since she didn't do anything, but once again, he never felt that close to Tundra to call her family yet, even though she considers him like a brother.

Kushina and Edan each walked up to Chase's side.

"Hey, don't worry, you'll play with them soon." Edan encouraged.

"At least I'm feeling better." Chase happily sighed, having Kushina slightly nuzzle the adorable shepherd.

"And I'm glad." She responded.

While the other pups were setting up the game, Tundra was the only one who noticed the small exchange between Chase and Marshall's parents. She then glanced at the group of parents who were talking to each other. Huh, that's weird. Where are Chase's parents? The Husky thought and was even more confused to see Marshall's parents treating Chase like his own.

There isn't anything wrong, but again, doesn't Chase have parents to treat like that? Questions became flooding into the Husky's head until Ella placed a paw on her shoulder.

"Hey, c'mon! Let's do this." Ella said with a smirking grin.

"You're goin' down." Tundra got back into focus as both her and the Golden Retriever stood on the pads as the music began playing and their competition began.

The others were having fun while Chase just watched.