Chapters The Call from the Lost Probe
On Earth, there lived two sets of hybrid species between humans and either squids or octopi, known as the Inklings and the Octarians. The two species had once been at war, but now a peace treaty had been signed between the Inklings and the Octarians.
Some of the inklings were members of a group of soldiers, called the Squidbeak Splatoon, that worked to protect the world. Two of the members were inklings that were cousins. Their names were Callie and Marie, and they were both married to inklings named Andrew and Michael.
Callie and Michael’s son, Taylor, had just graduated from college with master’s degrees in electrical engineering, and computer aided design. They were both proud of him, along with Marie, Andrew, and their daughter Lizzie. Two years before Taylor’s graduation, Lizzie had walked the line with master’s degrees in both biology and chemistry. Both Lizzie and Taylor had huge dreams to become astronauts.
Callie and Marie’s parents were proud of their grandchildren as well. The family was coming home from a mass vacation when they heard a news report about something falling from the sky into the ocean. After getting home, Callie and Marie assembled the Squidbeak Splatoon to recover the unidentified object. Once they had brought the crashed satellite to dry land, they examined it to find out where it had come from. Taylor and Lizzie had come along as well. Taylor would figure out how the satellite was constructed and where it had come from, while Lizzie would study the planet where it came from afterwards. As Taylor examined the satellite’s construction, he was intrigued by how well it was built, as if done by a professional. When he found the navigation system, he pulled it out and hooked it to his laptop to find out the satellite’s origin.
“Mom, according to the satellite’s GPS, it has come from a planet named Equus. Star coordinates are X-96, Y-21, Z-73. Whoever built this must have been really tech-savvy.”, he said after a minute.
“Good work, sweetheart.”, said Callie.
Now, it was Lizzie’s turn. She studied the data that Taylor had found and was intrigued by what species inhabited Equus.
“Here’s what I have found about Equus’ inhabitants. There are ponies, griffins, dragons, hippogriffs, yaks, and changelings. The changelings are a species that can transform into any other creature. According to some of Taylor’s data, all of the races have united and they’ve also modernized their world.”, she explained.
“Great job, Cupcake.”, said Marie.
After a short discussion, the decision was made to organize a mission to visit Equus after establishing contact with them.
Over the course of the next two months, Callie and Marie brainstormed ideas on how they would establish contact with Equus and later journey there. Michael, Andrew, Taylor, and Lizzie helped them out until they had finalized their plans.
Their plan was that Taylor would figure out the satellite’s transmission frequency and calibrate a communications array that ran on the same frequency. Once this was working, they would call out to Equus until they made contact. After this, they would talk to Equus’ inhabitants and explain who they were and that they were coming to visit after building themselves a ship. They started right away to find the radio frequency in order to contact Equus. After a week, they had success.
**
On the E S S, Thorax was making his rounds when he picked up a call.
“This is the Equestrian Space Station.”, he answered.
“My name is Callie Cuttlefish. I’m here with my cousin Marie, and our children, Taylor and Lizzie. A satellite crashed on our world and we traced it to your world of Equus.”, said Callie.
“Stand by, I am going to broadcast your call.”, replied Thorax excitedly.
Marie gave him a thumbs-up, and Thorax radioed Celestia and Luna.
“E S S to Canterlot. I’ve received a call on the same frequency as the probe that we lost.”, he reported.
“Broadcast it worldwide!”, yelled Celestia in excitement.
Thorax broadcast the signal all over the world and everyone saw who had found their satellite.
“I am Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria. I hear that you found the satellite we lost.”, said Celestia.
“That’s right, Your Majesty. We had to bring the satellite to dry land before we could examine it, but I found its GPS and traced it to you.”, said Taylor.
“Once Taylor had traced the satellite to you, I looked at the information and was intrigued by all of the different species on your world.”, said Lizzie.
“That’s great to hear.”, said Celestia.
“I’m impressed that you recovered our satellite. It was hit by an asteroid before it crashed.”, said Luna.
After talking to representatives from all of the different species, the Squid Sisters revealed something that made everyone’s eyes light up in astonishment.
“We are planning to visit you at some point, but we need to build a ship first. It will be called the Inkstar .”, said Marie.
“NICE! We’ll see you when you get here.”, said Twilight.
Finishing the Modernization
After getting the message from the Squid Sisters, the time had come to begin building the ship for exploration and battle situations. This ship would be equipped with powerful warp engines for traversing long distances, strong weapons and shields for defense, and shuttles for making excursions in areas where the main ship could not go. The full construction, along with the design and testing phases, took a year and three months to complete. Once everything was tested and the ship was fully assembled on the space station, the Main Six, the Young Six, Flurry Heart, Luna, and Celestia met up to discuss what the ship would be called. After much debate, a name was finally settled on. The ship was soon christened as the E S S Harmony and the exploration mission was scheduled to commence in three months. Everyone was excited to begin searching deep space for possible life signs. They also hoped to explore the planet that was discovered by the probe before it was destroyed. All that remained was for a crew to be formed and to explore the planets that had been seen.
Twilight decided that she and her friends would direct the exploration from Canterlot. Flurry Heart and the Young Six would make up the crew and explore the planets. Celestia and Luna agreed to this and the seven crew members were flown to a training area that had recently been constructed in Griffonstone. The first stage of training included how to properly get into a space suit for E V A in case they had to perform repairs outside the ship.
Once they were certain that they knew how to put their suits on, and how to monitor their oxygen levels, they proceeded to the next stage of their training. This involved sitting in a capsule on the end of a spinning arm. The operator gradually increased the arm’s speed in order to acclimate the crew to g-force. To begin with, all seven crew members got motion sickness from the intense speed and they threw up. After a while, they were all acclimated and they were ready to practice E V A in the next stage.
Training for E V A was done underwater to mimic weightlessness, and a life-size model of the Harmony was in place to give them a first-hand experience. Divers moved the crew members between work areas for different situations that would involve repairing their ship in any emergency.
After the E V A training was done, it was time for the final stage, which involved simulated emergencies such as fires and depressurizations. This stage also involved learning how to properly enter the different shuttle bays and how to dock the Harmony on its space station. Once all of the training was finished, it was time for the real deal.
Flurry and the Young Six boarded a helicopter that took them to a launchpad in the North Luna Ocean where a shuttle was waiting to take them to the Harmony . Once they were strapped in their seats, the shuttle was tilted back until it stood vertically on the pad. At that point, Twilight began counting down from Mission Control in Canterlot. After blasting off, the shuttle flew higher into the sky until the crew had cleared the atmosphere. Once they were in orbit, Yona took the controls and flew the shuttle to the space station. After docking the shuttle, everyone changed out of their space suits and into their crew uniforms before taking their seats on the Harmony . They had three star systems that the first probe had spotted before its battery died. They would be exploring the systems in accordance with their distance from Equus. The closest system was forested, the second system was oceanic, and the farthest system was volcanic.
All of the systems were equidistant from each other, which meant that it would take the same amount of time to go from one to another. After locking in the coordinates for the forested planets, Flurry Heart gave the main order to proceed.
“ENGAGE!”, she cried.
Gallus pulled the switch and the ship zoomed forth, bound for the first leg of its mission.
**
When the Harmony arrived in the first planetary system, everyone got ready to begin mapping the five planets. After landing on each planet, they marked the Harmony’s location and headed into the woods. The air was safe to breathe on all five planets, so they were able to wear only their crew uniforms.
The inhabitants of these planets were very friendly and kindly guided everyone through the lush forests as they took pictures. Three planets were rainforests while the other two were deciduous forests. In the rainforests, they came across what looked like ancient ruins that could be explored by archaeology teams, so the crew made sure to record the locations for when they got home.
On all five planets, they forgot they were on another planet, because the forests looked nearly identical to the forests on Equus. Once they were all finished, they packed up their supplies and boarded the Harmony to move on to the ocean worlds.
**
Arriving in the oceanic system, they saw six planets and noticed that one was not receiving any sunlight. They would definitely need their headlights for this one. After landing on a platform above the water on each planet, everyone put on their scuba gear and dove under the water to look around. They took pictures of all of the marine life from distances to avoid startling the fish.
They also learned from inhabitants on planets two and three that they could keep the sharks away by using a fluid that reeked of dead sharks. This was helpful because they had to escape from sharks on the first planet. This fluid almost made Silverstream throw up as it was being smeared on their gear, but she pressed on. The sixth planet was the one without sunlight, which was due to the fact that storm clouds were constantly wrapped around the planet.
Landing on this planet was tricky, because they had to avoid being hit by lightning, but they made it to the landing platform without too much trouble. After boarding a submarine to avoid being exposed to the water, they started looking around for the marine life that awaited them. Aside from there being hot-water vents and many different types of large fish, they also found underwater mines on this planet. This meant that explorers could mine for different metals and crystals for research in the future. Taking note of the mines, Flurry piloted the submarine back to the landing platform and everyone thanked the inhabitants before taking off.
**
Having mapped out the forested planets and the ocean worlds, everyone knew they had one more group of planets to chart out before they went home to Equus. The system of volcanic planets had seven planets to map out. Upon entering the first planet’s atmosphere, the exterior thermometers jumped WAY up, more than anyone anticipated. Even Smolder was shocked when she read the final result.
“There is no way we are going out there unless we are wearing our heat-suits. The temperature is close to 900 degrees Fahrenheit. In that amount of heat, we would be cooked alive in less than a second.”, she reported.
Flurry Heart was blown away by this. She sent probes to scan out the other six planets, and they showed similar temperature ranges. After getting their suits on and starting the liquid nitrogen pumps for coolant, they exited the Harmony after raising the heat shield. The inhabitants of these planets were used to the intense heat, and gladly assisted the crew with their mission. All of the planets had giant rivers of lava and the volcanoes were erupting at least twelve times a day, which was very dangerous. It was also why the inhabitants had heat shields around their bases because they were worried about the lava wreaking havoc and damaging their equipment.
With the temperatures being so high, this portion of their mission was very grueling and difficult. Everybody was sweating even though they had their coolant lines at maximum, and they came close to heat exhaustion at least once on all seven planets. In the end, they successfully charted all seven worlds and identified possible areas where research bases could be constructed and rare metals could be mined.
Once all of the planets had been mapped out, it was time to return home to Equus. Flurry Heart and the Young Six took their seats on the Harmony and set their course to head home. Once the switch was thrown, they were well on their way. Three days later, they arrived in orbit and then docked on the space station. The exploration had taken two years to complete. After disembarking and getting on the shuttle, they descended to the ground and added the information they had gathered to the star-charts.
**
During the course of the Harmony’s voyage, the Inklings and the Octarians were hard at work designing the ship they would use to reach Equus. The time passed slowly, but in a productive manner. Multiple simulations and test launches were run in order to find out the right materials, parameters, and designs with which to build the Inkstar . This was not an easy task, because many of the tests for vacuum environments had a negative result where the hull would rupture, and some of the launch tests resulted in the engines not firing correctly, which caused the ship to flip over and explode. Once they had these issues nailed down and the rocket engines fired correctly, it was time to start designing the Inkstar .
This stage was where Taylor got to use the skills he had learned in college. He chose that the warp drive core would be at the center of the ship to provide sufficient power at all times and the bridge would be towards the front. Cabins would be constructed partway back from the bridge for all of the crew members to sleep, and the escape capsules would be close to the rear. The ship would also include a gym for the crew so they didn’t lose bone density or muscle mass.
After Taylor had finalized his designs and generated the blueprints, the construction began. During the construction, Callie and Marie decided on who would be manning this mission. They would command the mission on the bridge, Taylor and Lizzie would work the controls, Agents 3, 4, and 8 would keep tabs on the ship’s structural integrity and navigation, and their parents would chaperone the trip. Callie and Marie’s grandfather, Craig Cuttlefish, along with 12 engineers, would oversee the mission from a command center on the ground. The crew’s lives were in their tentacles. Octavio’s workers were stationed in the white-room and at the launchpad to get the ship going.
Along with the Inkstar , a second ship was constructed at a larger size. This second ship was called the Inkblazer and would house a fleet of smaller ships in case war ever broke out and everyone had to defend themselves. Both Inklings and Octarians were trained for this fleet in every way possible, from piloting to shooting down targets. All of the training was done in simulators that were programmed to create lifelike situations, such as fire in a spacecraft, depressurization, and power failures. The Inkstar was small enough to be constructed on the ground, whereas the Inkblazer had to be constructed in orbit after a hangar was built for it.
Once all of the ships were built and the training was complete, the time came for the Inkstar to make her trip to Equus. Everyone started gearing up at once. They were ready for the voyage of a lifetime.
**
When everyone was ready to go on the excursion to Equus, they were quarantined a week in advance to avoid exposure to germs. Once the day had come, the white-room technicians started getting everyone into their space suits. They started by hooking up electrodes to monitor everyone’s health during the mission and then started getting them into the suits. The first part of the suit was a temperature regulation jumpsuit to prevent overheating. This went over regular clothes that the crew was already wearing.
After the jumpsuits were on and the coolant lines were running, it was time to put on the main suit. The main suits were lightweight and the crew needed very little assistance to put them on. Once the white-room technicians had hooked the oxygen packs to the suits, the crew started putting the last few components on.
The first piece they put on was a radio headset which they plugged into the suit’s electrical conduit, then they put on their gloves. These gloves were custom-fitted to each crew member, so they did not feel uncomfortable. Once the gloves were locked in, it was time to close up the helmet, which was attached to the top of the suit and closed with only a zipper. After a quick radio check, it was time to board the Inkstar . The crew collected their luggage and walked down a pressurized tunnel to the main hatch on their ship. Crowds clapped and photographers took hundreds of pictures as the Squid Sisters, their parents, their children, and Agents 3, 4, and 8 walked down and began boarding the Inkstar for their trip to Equus.
Once all of their luggage was secure, everyone made their way to the bridge and started buckling in. After they had fastened their seatbelts, Callie radioed that the hatch could be closed. The pad workers acknowledged and sealed the hatch snugly in position before turning the latch handle. Once Mission Control got word that the hatch was sealed, they started checking all of the systems to ensure the mission was ready to begin.
Craig checked the mission status with the flight controllers to make sure everything was reading nominal. All of the flight controllers said “Go”, which meant the data was good. Knowing that the mission was all-clear, Craig radioed Octavio. Marina was on the launchpad intercom to announce when the crew was ready for takeoff. The plan was for the crew to state the time they cleared the tower by using military language. The launch was scheduled for 2:12 PM, or 14:12.
“Launch Control, this is Cuttlefish. We are go for launch.”, he said.
“Copy that, Cuttlefish. Pad Leader, what is your status?”, said Octavio.
“We are go for launch. T-Minus sixty seconds, and counting.”, said Marina over the loudspeaker.
Everyone who had come to watch the takeoff started clapping and cheering.
At Mission Control, the flight controllers were as follows. Frye was on CAPCOM, meaning she worked with the radio. Shiver was working EECOM, meaning she was in charge of monitoring the atmosphere, environmental controls, life support, and emergency procedures. Pearl’s position was Flight Surgeon, which meant she monitored everyone’s health. Sheldon was on GNC, which dealt with the ship’s orientation.
Thirty seconds before the countdown began over the speakers, Frye radioed the Squid Sisters to tilt back to get the Inkstar in launch position. The ship was mounted on a hydraulic frame that tilted backwards to get vertical for launching. When the crew boarded, this frame was horizontal.
“Inkstar , this is Frye. It’s time to enter launch position.”, she said.
“Copy that, Frye. Tilting back.”, said Marie as Taylor and Lizzie flipped the switches to lean the ship back.
Once the Inkstar was vertical, the time came to take off. All of the crew members counted down from 15 seconds together in excitement.
“T-Minus 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, ignition sequence start.”, they said.
Fuel began to spew from the main engines.
“Five, four, three, two, one, IGNITION!”, they concluded.
A pad worker in a protective suit clicked the ignitor switch to light the fuel. Thrust began building up once the fuel was ignited.
“The clock is running.”, said Callie’s mother Sally.
True to her word, a clock had started counting the seconds after the fuel was ignited. Taylor and Lizzie had unlocked two pairs of switches that would release the clamps holding them in place on the launch pad. Once the correct amount of thrust built up, Marie’s mother Iris called out to them.
“Release the clamps.”, she said.
Taylor and Lizzie flipped the switches and the clamps opened up. At once, everyone felt the g-force on their bodies.
“We have liftoff.”, said Marie’s father Michael.
“Pops, we have cleared the tower at 14:12.”, said Callie’s father Jerome as he looked at his watch.
“I hear you, Jerome. Be careful on the mission you all. I love you.”, said Craig.
Callie and Marie quickly acknowledged what their grandpa had said as they made it into orbit.
Once the Inkstar had reached low orbit, Agent 3 engaged the artificial gravity so they didn’t have to be floating weightless on the mission. Once gravity was confirmed, everybody took off their space suits and changed into regular clothes so they didn’t have to worry about their space suits’ heavy weight.
After returning to the bridge, they took their seats and Taylor started entering Equus’ star coordinates into the navigation computer. Once the coordinates were set, Lizzie spoke to Callie and Marie.
“Mom, Aunt Callie, Taylor has set the star coordinates. We’re ready to fly.”, she said.
“Fasten seatbelts.”, said Marie.
As everyone buckled in, Taylor reported he had set the warp engines to fire at half-power. This meant they would arrive at Equus after six months. They had intended to arrive after six months so the mission would be more relaxed instead of rushed. Once the warp engines fired off, which had a little bit of g-force to begin with, it was safe to take off the seatbelts while they were in transit.
During the flight, everyone learned more about space and got plenty of exercise to avoid losing muscle mass and bone density. Taylor and Lizzie checked the escape pods regularly to make sure they were working fine in case they had to bail out in an emergency. At this point, they were three months away from reaching Equus.
**
After the Harmony had finished its voyage, Thorax picked up the makings of a meteor shower. He ran simulations and determined that it would be spectacular to watch, but Equus was not in danger of being hit. Everyone started planning for this out of excitement. Even though everyone knew that the Inkstar was coming, they had no clue that they were about to meet two more groups of individuals.
Four weeks after the modernization was finished, everything was running like clockwork. Late one evening, Twilight had taken her friends, Flurry Heart, and the Young Six to go stargazing on a hill at the edge of Ponyville. As they were looking up at all of the constellations, they got a call from Thorax on the communications space station.
“Twilight, this is Thorax. I have spotted two starships appearing in orbit. One is badly damaged and is already entering the atmosphere. The ship’s tracking signal says it is not the Inkstar , so that means it is not the Squid Sisters and their children. The other ship seems to have been shooting at it but it did not shoot at me. That second ship had put out a scanning wave a minute ago and is now leaving the area. Keep an eye out for the first ship to see if you are able to spot it.”, he said.
Twilight acknowledged the message and sent word to Celestia and Luna via radio. Minutes later, Luna saw what looked like a shooting star, but a closer look through binoculars revealed this was the ship that Thorax had seen. The Main Six tracked it to Froggy Bottom Bog where it touched down and skidded to a halt. The engines were still red-hot, which resulted in fires being started. Rainbow Dash rushed to Cloudsdale to inform Spitfire that several rain clouds were needed to put out a large fire.
Once the rain clouds had been taken to the crash site and the fire was extinguished, Twilight and her friends began searching the ship for survivors. They found no-one on board, but they did notice that all of the ship’s escape pods had been jettisoned. In one part of the ship, they found eleven vehicles which they promptly extracted and moved to a secure area for storage. They had also seen a red-white-and-blue symbol that consisted of a badge and what looked like a paw print on the ship’s exterior, but didn’t know what to make of it. Flurry Heart had taken a recording of the ship as it came down from the sky and played it back slowly to look for the pods, but there was too much fire around the ship to see which way the pods had gone when they were released. However, Twilight wondered if the pods were jettisoned before Flurry started recording. Unknown to Twilight and her friends; one of the crew’s members had landed in the Everfree Forest.
**
Millions of miles away, on a planet similar to Equus, there existed a group of rescue-trained dogs, called the PAW Patrol. Ryder, the group’s ten-year-old leader, and most of the pups had recently finished a massive rescue mission and were getting ready for bed. However, their biggest enemy, Mayor Humdinger, had been spotted acting suspiciously two days ago with his kittens and his nephew Harold. In the event that they would need to escape, Ryder had sent the Patrol’s largest vehicle, the PAW Patroller , to a giant barge in the ocean that they had built six months ago in order to launch into space for newer missions that took place in zero-gravity. They had trained for these missions by going underwater. By now, they had already carried out four successful space missions. Ryder was about to lay down when the alarm system at the Lookout began to BLARE!
“WHAT NOW?”, asked Chase with an annoyed growl as the loudly screaming alarm woke him up along with the other pups.
Ryder looked at the computer screen and immediately became hysterical.
“RED ALERT! Pups, get in space suits and hustle to the launch barge transport, NOW!”, he cried over the intercom as he sent a signal to transform the PAW Patroller into its space mode.
In a FLASH, all of the pups began rushing to their cubbies in order to get into their space suits. One of the pups, Rex, had originally been a paraplegic, but he’d recently had surgery to restore his hind legs. This meant he could walk normally and needed no help with suiting up.
“Ryder, what’s happening?”, yelped Marshall when Ryder came running down the stairs as he finished locking the right glove on his suit.
“We’ve got to get out of here. Humdinger is charging towards the Lookout. A scan indicates that he is heavily armed and may be trying to kill us.”, said Ryder in a shaky voice.
This startled all of the pups at the Lookout and they started moving faster to get suited up. Once they had all confirmed that they were secure, they got on an elevator that would take them underground to the transport car. After boarding, they got a call from Tuck and Ella.
“Ryder, Humdinger is firing on the Lookout. From what we can see through our binoculars, he’s got MISSILES!”, they shrieked.
“LET’S GO!”, yelled Ryder as they heard the blasts overhead.
As the ceiling began to crack under the rubble’s immense weight, Ryder hit the switch to engage the transport car’s rocket engine. As the car began speeding down the track, the pups saw on a video feed as the wreckage from Humdinger’s attack on the Lookout came crashing to the ground. This made them burst into tears for a moment, but they quickly refocused on escaping the evil mayor. Little did they know that Humdinger had seen the transport’s headlights go speeding through the underwater portion of the tunnel that led to the launch barge.
“Harold, track those lights with your binoculars and find out where they are going.”, he said with a snarl.
“Uncle, they are headed for a structure in the ocean, and it seems the PAW Patroller is standing upright on the top platform as if ready to blast into space.”, Harold quickly replied.
“Not on my watch.”, Humdinger replied angrily as he transformed the vehicle into its jet form.
After boarding the PAW Patroller ; everyone started the launch sequence. Ryder was about to begin the countdown when Skye stopped him.
“I have a red light. Give me a second to check it out.”, she said.
Just then, Wild Cat appeared on one of her monitors.
“Skye, you don’t have a second to spare! Humdinger is headed your way as I speak! We just saw him transform his vehicle into a jet and take off!”, he mewed in a panicked voice.
“I can confirm that, Wild Cat!”, yelled Chase as he spotted Humdinger’s signal on the radar.
As Humdinger flew closer to the launch barge, he lined up a crosshairs with one of the support legs in order to launch a missile designed to create a seismic shock. Harold pulled the trigger and the missile fired off. The missile detonated when it struck the support leg and the barge’s lights were shorted out by the shockwave. At the same time, the shockwave weakened the ocean floor under the barge. Humdinger, Harold, and the kittens began laughing maniacally when the shockwave was released and the barge began to sink.
“Skye, what’s taking so long? We’ve got to get out of here!”, screeched Liberty desperately as the PAW Patroller began to lean backwards and to the left.
“Liberty, we went over the systems for the space mode TWELVE TIMES with a fine-bristled brush prior to the first space mission. If there are any problems with the launch, we could end up a fireball.”, Skye said in a state of worry.
“Skye, Liberty is correct. WE’RE SINKING! If we don’t launch in the next thirty seconds, we’re DEFINITELY going to be a fireball.”, said Rocky as he looked at his screen and examined the seafloor’s integrity decreasing.
“Here he comes again. He’s charging up a second weapon and is aiming STRAIGHT at us! Everest, can you blind him long enough for us to take off?”, shrieked Chase.
“I’m on it.”, said Everest as she activated one of the barge’s automated defense turrets.
The turret locked in on Humdinger’s jet and sprayed a mist of icy vapor that covered the main windshield in frost. Humdinger immediately started flying in another direction to avoid crashing, which bought the pups the time they needed. Seconds later, one of the PAW Patroller’s bracing arms became overstrained and broke off.
“WE’RE TILTING! 10 degrees off axis and climbing fast.”, said Tracker.
“ALL CLEAR! It was just the indicator light on the fuel pumps. Must’ve burned out again.”, Skye said in relief as the red light turned green.
“RYDER, PUNCH IT!”, yelled Chase.
“HERE WE GO!”, said Ryder as he slammed the launch button to ignite the engines.
The engines fired off and propelled the PAW Patroller upward from the launchpad right in the nick of time. Had Ryder been any slower, the engines would have been too close to the water to fire successfully. Humdinger had just finished defrosting his windshield as the PAW Patroller ascended into the night sky and the barge continued sinking to its watery grave.
“Argh!!”, he shouted.
“No!”, growled Harold.
Once the PAW Patroller had broken through gravity and gotten into space, Ryder engaged the artificial gravity and started scanning for a place to hide from Humdinger so they could sneak back at a later time. He found a planet with a similar atmosphere and set a course to go there. However, after going to warp speed, Chase picked up Humdinger’s radar signal again and remembered when they found out he had a space form as well.
“Ryder, he’s transformed his ship and is chasing us. We need to raise our shields!”, he wailed.
Before Ryder could put up the shields, Humdinger opened fire and took out the warp engines along with both of the ship’s wings. The PAW Patroller was left spinning out of control near the planet and her orbit was rapidly decaying. When Ryder looked at the ship’s status, his heart sank. They were caught in the planet’s gravity and unable to get high enough to avoid falling.
“ABANDON SHIP!”, he shouted.
He and the pups ran to their escape pods as the PAW Patroller started to begin atmospheric entry. Since the ship was spinning, everyone tripped and got bruised while running, and the pods initially went in different directions when launching, but most of them soon got together in a group. Chase and Ryder’s pods were delayed because the ship was spinning too fast. They ended up getting hit by shrapnel, which led to them getting separated from everyone else. The damage also led Chase’s pod to open up early after he had cleared the hottest phase of reentry. He got ejected, and his pup-pack’s parachute deployed to slow his descent; but he was out cold from the massive amount of g-force.
Ryder did not pass out during reentry, but he was thrust forward so hard that he felt as if his neck had caught fire. As his pod glided to the ground, he got worried about landing in rough forest. So he popped open his hatch and clipped his parachute’s rip-cord to the door. Unfortunately, as he jumped, his helmet fell off as he glided over the trees and into a desert area. His right arm hit a ledge, and pain shot through him like lightning.
“No pain, no gain.”, he said to himself with a groan.
Seconds later, he hit his head on another ledge and everything went black. Earlier on, as the escape pods were released, Harold and his uncle put out a scanning wave to see if Ryder and the pups had survived.
“Looks like they’re dead. My scanners aren’t picking up their life signals.”, said Humdinger as he ran the wave.
He and Harold cackled in an evil tone as they left, thinking they had succeeded in getting rid of the PAW Patrol. Little did he and his nephew realize that they were wrong. During the atmospheric entry, everyone got banged around inside their pods which damaged their bio-monitors and shorted them out, tricking Humdinger into THINKING they were all dead. The empty ship glided to the ground and touched down in a muddy area. Fires broke out from the intense heat, but a rainstorm passed through and put the fires out. Miraculously, neither the pups’ personal vehicles, nor Ryder’s ATV, were damaged or destroyed in the crash.
When Chase regained consciousness an hour and a half later, he was hanging from a tree. His parachute was tangled in the branches and he was 7 feet off the ground. He barked to disconnect his pup-pack in order to free himself, and then he fell to the ground. Unfortunately, his front right paw landed sideways and got sprained. Limping through the woods, Chase headed towards the lights in what appeared to be a town. It was the middle of the night, so he had his flashlight turned on. He tripped over an exposed tree root and landed on his face, which resulted in him getting a nosebleed and a nasty bruise on his forehead. Nevertheless, he continued running until he emerged from the forest. Since his suit’s GPS was damaged, he didn’t know where he was.
“Ryder, this is Chase. Do you copy?”, he asked after switching on his radio.
He got nothing but static.
“Skye? Rubble? Marshall? Anyone?”, he asked out of desperation as his eyes began welling up with tears.
Still, he only got static.
“DRAT! My radio’s out! I’d better find someone who can help me.”, he said to himself as he began to cry.
Spotting what looked like a castle, he broke into a sprint. As he reached the doors, he began to feel lightheaded from dehydration. Once he reached the doors, he was dizzy and near the point of passing out. He reached up and knocked weakly on the door before everything turned completely black.
**
Twilight was asleep in her room when Spike ran in.
“Twilight, wake up. Someone just knocked on the door.”, he whispered.
Twilight got up, put on her robe, and walked sleepily to her castle’s front doors. Opening the door, she saw a German Shepherd dog in a space suit lying unconscious in front of her.
“Poor thing.”, said Twilight as she pulled the dog inside.
Rolling the dog on its back, she saw a nametag that said Chase. She saw the bruise on Chase’s forehead and his bloody nose, which caused her to realize that she needed to get him to the hospital. Taking off her robe and spreading her wings, she scooped Chase up and flew to the Ponyville Hospital. Chase was admitted at once. The doctors hooked him up to a heart monitor, put a breathing tube down his throat, started an intravenous line to give him fluids, stopped his nosebleed with ice, and bandaged his head and his paw. Twilight hoped that she could get answers by morning about who he was. She also noticed that Chase had the same paw print symbol on part of his suit, so she hoped he could shed some light on the ship that she and her friends had seen earlier.
The Next Morning …
As Chase’s senses started to come back, he could hear something beeping and he felt something in his mouth. When he opened his eyes, he saw that he was lying on his back in what seemed to be a hospital bed. To his left was a heart monitor and a breathing apparatus. When his eyes followed the hose from the respirator, he realized it ran to his mouth. He also spotted wires running from the heart monitor to electrodes on his chest. He also felt something wrapped around his head and figured it was bandages, and he saw that his sprained paw was splinted. When Nurse Redheart came in to check on him a few minutes later, Chase spoke to her after the breathing tube was removed.
“Where am I?”, he asked.
Nurse Redheart was quick to respond.
“You’re in a hospital, recovering from injuries you sustained last night. I will inform the one who brought you in that you’re awake.”, she said.
Ten minutes later, Twilight showed up as Chase was being checked out.
“Chase, I’m glad to see you’re awake.”, she said.
“How did you know my name?”, Chase asked in shock.
“You were wearing a nametag when I found you outside my castle’s doors last night.”, replied Twilight.
Chase slapped himself in the face for forgetting that. Nevertheless, he followed Twilight to her castle so he could explain who he was and what was going on.
It was late in the evening when Twilight assembled her friends to hear Chase’s story. After Chase had explained who he was and about the PAW Patrol as a whole, Twilight and her friends were amazed. When he was explaining how he and the other pups, along with Ryder, had gotten to Equus, everyone perked up their ears.
“Wait, back up! DID YOU SAY YOU WERE CHASED HERE AND SHOT DOWN?”, shrieked Fluttershy.
Shaking nervously, Chase nodded his head. For a moment, the room was silent. Then Twilight finally spoke up.
“Goodness gracious! We will help you find your fellow pups and then we will team up with you to save Ryder.”, she said.
Chase was overwhelmed to hear this. Twilight and Flurry Heart were ready to go two hours later. They boarded a rescue helicopter and took off to search for the rest of the pups.
**
Skye and the rest of the pups had touched down in the Galloping Gorge. They had exited their escape pods and made a small base camp. Unlike Chase, they only had the bruises from being banged around during atmospheric entry. Rocky had the brilliant idea to transmit Morse Code by removing the tracking antenna from his pod and attaching it to Marshall’s suit radio. Marshall’s radio was the only one aside from Chase’s that did not get smashed during reentry, so it was fully intact except for the microphone having been ripped off. This meant they heard Chase call out to them the night before, but they could not respond.
**
Prior to takeoff, Twilight gave Chase a pair of night-vision goggles so he could search for anything regarding his comrades’ whereabouts. As the helicopter flew over Equestria, Chase looked back and forth and zoomed in and out multiple times to keep an eye out for any signs. Unfortunately, it was too dark to see anything, even with the goggles on. Flurry was keeping an ear to the radio in case the pups were trying to call out for help. As they flew over the Galloping Gorge, she heard a high-pitched noise that was painful to hear through her headphones. Screaming in pain, she took off her headset to let her ears readjust.
“What’s the matter?”, asked Chase.
“I was hearing a high-pitched sound that hurt my ears.”, Flurry replied.
“Try putting it on speakers. That might be better.”, said Chase.
Flurry said that was a good idea and unhooked her headset to allow the sounds to play directly. Chase heard four sets of beeps. They were as follows: short-short-short-short, short, short-long-short-short, and then short-long-long-short. He listened to the sequence twice and then realized what he was hearing before pulling out a Morse Code chart.
“That’s Morse Code, a series of short and long pulses we learned about a while back. Centuries ago, it was used for communication. They’re transmitting the word HELP.”, he explained.
Flurry put her headset back on and called out on all frequencies to alert the pups that they were receiving the SOS.
“We are receiving you. Please shine a light to indicate your position so we can pick you up.”, she said.
Skye and the other pups heard Flurry’s voice and began cheering. Then Liberty pulled out a signal flare from her pup-pack and lit it.
Chase spotted the bright glow from the flare and hollered to Twilight.
“They’re right below us!”, he crowed.
Twilight turned on the helicopter’s spotlight and shone it straight down onto the pups. Then, Chase took off the night-vision goggles and got into the helicopter’s rescue basket. After putting on a safety harness to avoid falling out, he nodded to Flurry and she pressed the button to lower him. When Chase reached the ground, all of the pups quickly gave him a hug as they climbed into the basket.
“Bring us up.”, he said over headset to Flurry.
Once he and the other pups were hoisted up and on the helicopter, Twilight flew back to Ponyville and led them to her castle where they would stay until they could get their ship fixed.
After the pups had gotten their vehicles back, everyone started searching for Ryder’s tracking signal on radar. Tracker soon found his signal in the Badlands, but it was very weak. Twilight suggested carrying out the rescue at night so that heat would not be an issue. Chase and Marshall agreed to this and boarded Skye’s helicopter that evening. After Skye took off, they flew to pick Ryder up.
Arriving in the area, Chase turned on his spotlight and immediately saw Ryder. He was lying face-down on the ground with his parachutes out behind him. When Skye touched down, Chase and Marshall rushed over to Ryder and started checking for injuries. Marshall’s x-ray lens revealed something that worried both him and Chase. Ryder’s right shoulder was dislocated, his left ankle was sprained, he had suffered from whiplash, and he had a minor bruise on his forehead. Skye brought a gurney over and helped Chase and Marshall lift Ryder up so he could be put in. Once Ryder was strapped in the gurney, Chase bandaged his forehead and Marshall splinted Ryder’s arm after pushing his shoulder back into position. Then, Chase helped Marshall put an orthopedic shoe on Ryder’s left foot to hold his ankle still, and to put a c-collar around his neck to brace his head.
After Ryder was on-board the helicopter, Skye took to the air and flew back to Twilight’s castle. When Ryder woke up the next morning, he saw the splint on his arm and felt the tight gauze on his head. He also felt a c-collar around his neck, which gave him a startle. He started trying to take off the collar, but then he heard someone yell out.
“RYDER, STOP! YOU WERE SWOLLEN LAST NIGHT!”
Looking to his left, Ryder saw that Chase was sitting next to him, and he quickly calmed down.
Twenty minutes later, Marshall came in and examined Ryder’s injuries with his x-ray lens.
“Your arm and your ankle are still healing, but the damage could have been worse.”, he said as he removed the c-collar.
“Chase, you said I was swollen when I tried to take off the collar. What did you mean by that?”, Ryder asked Chase.
“You’d suffered from whiplash. We put the collar on you to keep your neck still.”, Chase explained.
“Chase will lead you to the one who rescued us.”, said Marshall.
Since Ryder only had one hand free, standing up was tricky, so Marshall pulled a table over for Ryder to push himself up with. After getting up, Ryder followed Chase to the throne room and met Twilight who told him what had happened and where he was.
“My name’s Twilight Sparkle. You’re on the planet Equus. We were told that you were shot down after being chased by someone.”, she said.
“That’s correct, Twilight. I would rather tell you the whole story once our ship is fully repaired. Other than that, I’m glad we survived the crash.”, Ryder replied.
“I’m glad too. Once your ship is fully repaired, I hope to learn from you about where you are from.”, Twilight replied.
Ryder’s arm and ankle were healed after only three days, because Twilight had given him an accelerated healing serum. Twilight and her friends began helping Ryder and the pups repair the PAW Patroller so they could get home when the time was right. She advised that they not launch straight after the repairs because Thorax had been tracking a meteor shower for the past week. As the repairs took place, Twilight and her friends also trained Ryder and the pups on how to defend themselves in space and how to fly individual ships. When the PAW Patroller ’s radio was repaired, Ryder sent a written message to secretly inform Tuck, Ella, and the Cat Pack that they were still alive. Twilight also reminded Ryder to wait before launching, since the meteor shower was coming any day now.
Two weeks into the repairs, Twilight got a call from Thorax. He had spotted YET ANOTHER starship in orbit, and it was damaged from a solar flare. The crew was calling for help.
Once Thorax had patched the signal through to Twilight, she was able to speak directly to the crew on this new ship.
“My name is Twilight Sparkle. What is your emergency?”, she asked.
“My name is Mickey Mouse. Our ship is called the Disney Cruiser . We were passing through here on an exploration when a solar flare shorted out our systems. Our radio and camera are hooked to an auxiliary generator, which allowed us to contact you for assistance.”, replied one of the ship’s crew members.
“Can you bail out?”, asked Twilight.
“That’s a negative, Twilight. With only the radio and the camera working, our escape pods are locked in place. What’s worse is that our heat shield is damaged. It’s not damaged to the point that the ship will burn up, but we’d still be vaporized by the intense heat. If you can get up here and get us extracted, we can get a safe ride to the ground. We do not know how we can save our ship though.”, replied Mickey.
“How many of you are there?”, asked Twilight.
Mickey expanded the camera view so that Twilight could see the rest of his crew. The bridge crew consisted of himself, his girlfriend Minnie, her twin nieces, Millie and Melody, Goofy, Professor Ludwig Von Drake, and Donald and Daisy Duck.
“I have an idea on how to get you out. We will send our ship, the Harmony , into orbit and you will use transporters to beam over. After that, we will surround the Disney Cruiser with an energy bubble that resists gravity, in order to prevent a crash. Once it has passed through reentry, we will use tractor beams to move the ship to a safe landing area and set her down.”, she explained.
“That sounds like a plan.”, replied Minnie.
Twilight sent word to Flurry Heart that she and the Young Six had a rescue mission to carry out. Flurry quickly replied and they started boarding the shuttle to the Harmony . They were in space in less than twelve minutes.
After boarding the Harmony and undocking, Flurry Heart and the Young Six got in range to beam the Disney Cruiser’s crew over to safety.
“Harmony to Disney Cruiser . We’re in range. Energizing transporters in five seconds.”, said Smolder.
“Acknowledged.”, replied Mickey.
“Five, four, three, two, one, ENERGIZE!”, cried Silverstream.
Beams of energy appeared around the crew members and they vanished from the Disney Cruiser . Seconds later, they reappeared on-board the Harmony . After doing a head-count to make sure everyone was evacuated, Flurry called out to Twilight.
“Aunt Twilight, this is Flurry Heart. All of the crew members are accounted for. Deploying anti-gravity bubble.”, she said.
Yona locked a target reticle on the Disney Cruiser and released the bubble, which wrapped itself around the ship. Twilight’s friends had come up on personal ships and fired their tractor beams once the bubble was sealed. As Flurry turned the Harmony back towards Equus, she called out to the Disney Fleet over the intercom.
“Strap yourselves in. This is going to be a rough ride.”
Mickey quickly responded, saying they had gone through much worse.
As the Harmony passed through the atmosphere, everyone was shaken violently in their seats, but they were alright. Millie ended up with a headache, and Melody got motion sickness and threw up once they had cleared the atmosphere. After beaming everyone down to the ground, Flurry and the Young Six flew back into space and then came down on the shuttle.
**
Once everyone had introduced themselves, Flurry took to the air with signal wands to guide the Disney Cruiser to the ground once she found a clear spot in the San Palomino Desert. Mickey had also given her a remote-control for the landing-gear. Moving her signal wands carefully, she led her aunt and her friends gently to the ground. Once they were close to touching down, Flurry dropped the landing-gear and slowly disengaged the anti-gravity bubble so the ship settled on the ground. After the crew had been brought to the ship, Twilight and her friends teamed up to help assess the damage.
When the Disney Fleet looked at the damage assessment, they were relieved that it was minor. The heat shield’s damage was only a single panel that had come off. Mickey suspected that the panel was not fastened correctly and had come loose as they were flying. The solar flare had caused it to fall off and the radiation had shorted out the main reactor.
Fixing this panel was simple, but Twilight became suspicious when she looked at the wiring diagrams. For some reason, the camera and the radio were the ONLY things with their breakers set to backup. Out of confusion, she asked Mickey about it.
“We didn’t know it until it was too late. We thought we had calibrated the generator to power everything. Unfortunately, when we ran a simulation, we realized it was not strong enough to withstand all of the energy. Had we tried to switch all of the breakers over, the generator would’ve been overloaded. We had planned to correct that issue when we got home.”, he explained.
“Well, there’s no time like the present.”, Twilight replied.
Mickey agreed and they recalibrated the generator so it could handle more power. After adding stronger protection against radiation and running tests to check that everything was working well again, Twilight said that the Disney Cruiser was ready to go back into space. Mickey and his crew began packing at once and prepping their systems. Once they were airborne, they would continue their exploration.
They took some time to visit Canterlot and meet Celestia and Luna as well. They enjoyed learning about Equus’ history and were intrigued when they heard how Twilight helped to spread the knowledge of friendship beyond Equestria’s borders.
Three hours later, Mickey and his crew were ready to go home and were getting ready to take off. Suddenly, Goofy yelled to stop. Ryder was running towards their ship and waving his arms as if to warn them about something.
“What’s going on?”, Minnie asked Ryder over the radio.
“Twilight and her friends started tracking a meteor shower approaching here four months ago. It should be arriving at any time, which means it is too dangerous for you to launch.”, Ryder explained.
Mickey acknowledged and his crew disembarked. Two hours later, Celestia and Luna contacted Flurry Heart, who then contacted Twilight.
“Thorax says the meteor shower will be arriving TONIGHT!”, she crowed.
Twilight and her friends grew excited and started getting everything ready. They set out chairs and snacks, put up telescopes, and began counting the minutes until the light show would start. Once the meteors came into view, everyone was impressed. Some of the meteors broke others apart, which was part of Thorax’s simulation, and was very exciting to see. When the show was ending, Thorax picked up a call from a starship that he’d waited on for the past four years.
“Inkstar to E S S. We’re on approach.”, said Callie.
“I hear you. Be careful though. A meteor shower has just passed through and there may be debris lingering in the vicinity.”, he replied.
“Acknowledged.”, said Marie.
“We are getting readouts on the debris. Plotting safe route to Equus.”, said Agent 8 as she and Agents 3 and 4 looked at their screens.
Taylor and Lizzie kept an eye on the readouts as they made minor maneuvers to avoid the meteor shards and navigate safely to their destination. None of them knew that four shards had not been picked up, due to their composition. Their landing was about to be compromised.
The Inkstar's Compromised Arrival
Seconds after Taylor and Lizzie began adjusting the Inkstar ’s course, the radio channel went dead. Thorax quickly ran a radar wave and spotted the Inkstar in a flash. She had been hit by a large shard from the meteor shower which knocked off the communication dish. Three more shards had also damaged the wings and torn up the engines.
“E S S to Canterlot. The Inkstar is in trouble.”, said Thorax.
Celestia quickly alerted the Main Six and they sprang into action. They started tracking the ship on radar until she was low enough for visual tracking. They were unsure if the escape pods had launched because they couldn’t see anything among the debris except the ship itself. Luckily, the Inkstar did not crash on the ground. Instead, she splashed into the Celestial Sea.
Ten minutes later, Thorax contacted the Main Six. He had spotted the 13 tracking signals from the crew members. Two of them were in the same place where the Inkstar was, so they were still on-board. The remaining 11 were scattered all over Equestria. As Twilight started setting a plan to rescue everybody, she had an idea.
“Ryder, Mickey, I want you and your crews to help us out with these rescues.”, she said.
“Count us in.”, said Ryder.
“We’d be honored.”, said Mickey.
A second call from Thorax indicated that one of the escape pods on the Inkstar had not launched. Twilight suspected a malfunction and decided to raise the ship and extract the trapped crew members first before getting everyone else. Ryder and Mickey agreed with this because it was unknown how much time the ship had before her hull ruptured.
**
On the Inkstar , everyone was knocked out of their seats when the meteors hit the ship.
“NOT GOOD!”, cried Mike.
“WE’RE IN TROUBLE!”, yelped Andrew.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this. Looks like there were meteor shards that our scanners didn’t pick up.”, said Agent 4 nervously as she looked at her console.
“Taylor, Lizzie, what’s the damage assessment?”, asked Iris.
“Our communication dish has been broken off. Our wings are not responding to the navigation controls. Our engines have been badly ripped up too.”, Taylor quickly replied in a shaky voice.
“Orbit is decaying rapidly as well. We’re going to crash.”, added Lizzie.
“Callie; does that mean what I think it means?”, asked Sally.
“Yes Mom, it does. ABANDON SHIP, NOW!”, Callie answered a split-second later.
Without hesitating, everyone jumped up and began running to their escape pods. As they ran, the temperature began to rise as they started entering the atmosphere. Taylor and Lizzie tripped and fell down at one point, but they picked themselves up and kept on going until they had reached their pod. They reached theirs as their parents’ pods were being launched. They fastened in and started the launch sequence, but then a warning came up that the doors were blocked.
Taylor looked at the camera feed outside their pod bay and realized that the communication dish had landed over the door and covered it completely. He and Lizzie became nervous and they contacted Callie and Marie.
“We can’t bail out. The communication dish has covered our escape pod bay doors and trapped us on-board the Inkstar .”, they said.
“We hear you both. Go to one of the crash compartments and secure yourselves inside. Once the ship has come to a stop, it will be safe for you to watch the windows for rescuers.”, replied Callie and Marie.
Taylor and Lizzie did as their moms instructed and fastened themselves in a secure area near the center of the ship. Five minutes later, they felt a jolt and heard what sounded like a splash as the Inkstar plunged into the ocean.
Once the shaking had stopped, they unfastened their seatbelts and started watching out the windows for rescue personnel. They also opened their suitcases and put on wetsuits in case they had to swim. Agent 3 had designed these suits to protect both Inklings and Octarians from water since they would usually die otherwise. The view out the windows was pretty, and allowed them to see many different forms of marine life while they waited for rescue. Little did they know that Twilight and her friends had seen them splash down and were coming to get them.
**
After pinpointing the Inkstar ’s location in the Celestial Sea, Twilight led her friends, Ryder, Mickey, and some of their volunteers to bring the ship to land. Skye took to the air in her helicopter, Mickey and Minnie followed suit, and Ryder and Zuma rode out to the site on their watercrafts. As Zuma started attaching floats to keep the Inkstar from sinking; Ryder knocked on the hatch to alert Taylor and Lizzie that help had arrived. Taylor and Lizzie knocked back to signal they had heard him. Then, Lizzie got on radio to speak to Twilight. At the same time, Skye, Mickey, Minnie, Rainbow, and Fluttershy started attaching cables to the top of the ship to fly it to safety.
“Twilight, this is Lizzie. Taylor and I are grateful that you came to our aid. Once we are at your castle; we’ll show you where the other escape pods have landed.”, she explained.
“Understood, Lizzie. Thank you very much.”, replied Twilight.
Once Taylor had depressurized the ship’s interior, he opened the hatch and then Lizzie followed him outside and jumped into an inflated raft that Zuma had deployed after attaching the floats to the Inkstar . As Zuma and Ryder headed back to shore, the remaining helpers lifted the Inkstar out of the water and flew to a clearing at the edge of Ponyville. Once Taylor and Lizzie were on dry land, they followed Twilight into her castle and pinpointed where everyone had landed. Twilight was generous enough to give them a map of Equestria so they could specify the exact locations. Taylor and Lizzie also gave her a copy of the crew’s manifest.
“My parents touched down in the north.”, said Lizzie as she pointed out an area near Mount Everhoof.
Twilight marked that to be where Marie and Andrew had touched down.
“What about your mom’s parents?”, Twilight asked.
“They landed in this swamp here.”, said Lizzie as she pointed at Froggy Bottom Bog.
“Got it.”, said Twilight as she marked that spot with Iris and Michael.
“My parents landed in this forest.”, said Taylor as he pointed to the White Tail Woods.
“Where did your mom’s parents touch down?”, Twilight asked after labeling where Callie and Mike were.
“They touched down next to the largest waterfall in your land.”, said Taylor as he pointed to Neighagra Falls.
“Very good.”, said Twilight as she labeled where Sally and Jerome were.
The last pod contained Agents 3, 4, and 8. Taylor and Lizzie both pointed to the Dragon Lands, and Twilight labeled the area accordingly. The mission was now fully laid out for everyone. They would begin the rescues the next morning since Taylor and Lizzie were rescued in the middle of the night.
Rescuing the Squid Sisters
The next morning, it was time to start planning how everybody would be rescued. Twilight assembled her friends along with Ryder, Mickey, Taylor, and Lizzie in her castle’s meeting room.
“We will save Callie and Marie first, then we will save the Agents and then we will save everyone else.”, said Twilight.
Ryder looked at the locations and determined which pups would help on which rescue.
“Skye will help out with rescuing Marie and Andrew, Sally and Jerome, and Michael and Iris. The areas are open, so she can provide aerial assistance if necessary. Marshall will help to save the Agents by using water to cool down their escape pod. I say this because the topography shows that they might have landed close to a volcano. Tracker and Rex will help to save Callie and Mike because they are both experienced with rescues in wooded areas. Zuma will also help out with saving Iris and Michael since they landed in a swampy area. His hovercraft will float over any quicksand and keep him from sinking. Lastly, Everest will help to save Marie and Andrew. She is very well experienced with rescues in snowy environments.”, he explained.
“Sounds like a plan.”, said Lizzie.
Mickey said that he and his friends would decide on their own which rescues they would help with. Once the plan was finalized, everyone started gearing up for the rescue missions.
**
Everyone opted to rescue Callie and Mike first. So Taylor was a part of this group. Daisy and Donald were assisting on this rescue as well. Taylor joined Ryder on his ATV and the group set off for the White Tail Woods. Arriving at the forest’s edge, Taylor called to his parents.
“Mom, Dad, I’m here with a rescue group.”, he said.
“Taylor, it’s good to hear your voice. We are switching on a radar beacon in our pod to give our exact location in these woods. Stand by.”, said Callie.
Mike turned on an EPIRB and the radar signal started transmitting. Seconds later, Taylor radioed back that he was seeing the signal on the map.
“They are 60 yards south and 15 yards west of us.”, Taylor said to Ryder.
“I can hear the sound of their beacon, thanks to my strong ears.”, said Tracker.
“Let’s go guys. Be on the lookout for any hostile creatures. We don’t know what could possibly attack us.”, said Rex.
“That’s why I always come prepared.”, said Taylor as he prepped an ink gun.
After Ryder had pulled out a laser rifle and set it to stun, everyone proceeded into the forest. They came across a few snakes and some timberwolves, but Ryder easily knocked the wolves out and Taylor blinded the snakes with ink. At one point, Tracker called out over radio.
“I see what looks like orange fabric tangled in the branches. It might be your parents’ parachutes.”, he told Taylor.
“Lead the way.”, Taylor replied.
Tracker led the group to a small clearing and they spotted the escape pod hanging low over the ground. Once Taylor had opened the hatch, he helped Callie and Mike to the ground before giving them each a hug.
“Good to see you both.”, said Taylor as tears came to his eyes.
“You too, Sport.”, said Mike as Taylor gave him a hug.
“Yes, you too, sweetie.”, said Callie after she kissed her son.
After Tracker expanded the seats in his jeep, Callie and Mike got strapped in while Daisy and Donald helped Ryder and Rex set the escape pod on a trailer and tow it back to Ponyville. Twilight showed Callie and Mike to a guest room in her castle while they waited for Marie and Andrew to be rescued.
**
As Callie and Michael were being extracted, Mickey and Minnie, along with Everest and Skye set off with Lizzie to save Marie and Andrew. Lizzie made sure to put on her winter coat, scarf, and snowsuit for the cold temperatures. Skye flew everyone to Mount Everhoof on her helicopter and then released Everest on her snowcat. Mickey and Minnie supplied Lizzie with a snowmobile so she could traverse the slopes with them. A snowstorm was in effect when they got into the area, so they had to put on goggles and face scarves as well.
“Mom, Dad, this is Lizzie. We’re coming for you.”, she said over her headset.
“We hear you, Cupcake. Give us a minute to transmit our position.”, said Andrew as Marie turned on the EPIRB.
Once the location was specified, Everest called out to everyone.
“Looks like we’ve got some climbing to do when we get close. They’re up on a ledge.”, she said.
Everyone acknowledged and started riding through the snowstorm. Visibility was zero, even too much for Everest to see through, but they pressed on by using sonar until they reached a tall rockface.
“Skye, can you fly above to see if my parents’ escape pod is at the top of this rockface?”, asked Lizzie as everyone started attaching crampons to their boots.
“I certainly can, Lizzie.”, replied Skye as she brought her chopper higher.
A few minutes later, the storm started to let up and Skye spotted the escape pod.
“I can see their safety light.”, said Skye.
“Going up.”, said Minnie as everyone fired ascension cables up to the ledge.
Climbing up the wall was extremely hard. Wind gusts reached up to 60 MPH, and there were ice patches everywhere. Luckily, no-one’s ropes came loose and the crampons kept them from slipping. Once they had reached the top of the ledge, Lizzie knocked on the hatch to let her parents know they had arrived. Marie and Andrew quickly put on winter clothes before opening the hatch. The ledge was also at an altitude where oxygen tanks were needed, so everyone made sure to put them on before climbing and then gave one each to Andrew and Marie. Skye dropped a rescue basket from her helicopter and Lizzie helped her parents get in after getting in herself.
Once Skye had taken them up, everyone else rappelled back down to their snowmobiles and made their way back down to the mountain’s base. After getting clear of the storm, they loaded their equipment onto Skye’s helicopter and she flew them back to Twilight’s castle. After exchanging hugs, it was time to get ready to save the remaining crew members. Callie and Marie quickly geared up to save the Agents and their parents. They knew that the rescues would not be easy, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered to them was saving everyone. They were also curious about who the other visitors were.
Beginning the Inkstar's Repairs
The morning after everyone had been rescued, it was time to look at how severe the damage was before the repairs could begin. After towing the Inkstar to a hangar, Twilight flew over the ship to assess the damage and then she came back down to give a report to the Squid Sisters. As she explained the severity of the damage, Taylor looked back over his blueprints of the Inkstar .
“From what I can see, the communication dish just needs to be reattached and welded back into place. The wings aren’t as bad as you thought, they only got jammed when the meteors hit them. The engines, however, are going to be a real challenge. They got torn up to the point of almost being destroyed.”, she said.
“Sounds like we can repair the dish and the wings first, then we can replace the engines after we take a tour of your world. After all, visiting you was our main intent.”, replied Callie.
“I agree with Mom, Aunt Marie. From looking at my blueprints again, we didn’t reinforce the dish’s shaft. That means it was only strong enough to survive a launch and an atmospheric reentry. I will get some metal plates and put them on a scaffold with a winch. That way, you can reel them up when you’re ready.”, said Taylor.
Callie and Marie put on their inkjets and flew up to the communication dish. Twilight followed them up and projected a bubble around the dish so it could be lifted up and moved back into position. Lizzie was waiting inside the ship for Twilight to move the dish over its connection point so she could rewire it. The dish was very heavy, but Twilight did not give up. Once the dish was at the correct orientation, she lowered it down carefully and then Marie called to Lizzie over radio.
“Okay dear, Twilight has the dish in place. Go ahead and reattach the cables.”
Lizzie acknowledged her mom’s instructions and began plugging the cables back in. Taylor had already removed the broken wires from the crash and had plugged new ones in. He had also told Lizzie which cables went where, since they were color coded. Following her cousin’s wiring diagram, Lizzie succeeded in reattaching the power cables to the communication dish.
“Okay Mom, the cables are in place. Bring it down.”, she said to Marie.
Callie and Marie helped Twilight bring the dish into position and then they attached magnetic clamps. These clamps would brace the dish while they welded it back on. After putting on welding goggles, Marie started fusing the two ends of the shaft to the top of the ship. Once she had done all of the areas between the clamps, Callie took them off and Marie welded the spots that the clamps had blocked. Then, Callie pulled up the plates that Taylor had readied for them on the scaffold. After those were welded on, Callie went inside the ship to weld more plates to the shaft’s interior. These plates ensured that the dish would never break off again.
Once Callie and Marie confirmed that the dish was secure, Taylor and Lizzie moved on to get the wings unstuck. As they examined the wings with flashlights, they saw that there were bits of the meteor shards lodged in the joints between the flaps. In order to clean out the debris, they would have to take off the flaps first. Twilight helped them lower the flaps once they were disconnected. After putting the flaps on the ground, Taylor and Lizzie pulled out two air hoses and blasted the shards out of the joints.
After the joints were cleared, Taylor and Lizzie shot lubricant into the spaces to keep the flaps from getting stuck, and then they reattached the flaps. To save time with repairing the engines, Taylor siphoned the coolant and unhooked the lines before attaching a magnet on the hangar’s gantry crane to lower them to the floor. For safety, he and Lizzie removed the engines one at a time. Now that the communication dish was reinstalled and the wings were repaired, it was time for the crew to chill out and take their tour of Equus.
Finishing the Inkstar's Repairs
After finishing the tour, everyone gathered back together to finish repairing the Inkstar . Taylor grabbed the blueprints for the engines since Twilight’s assessment indicated that they would need to be replaced, and then everyone got to work. They started by taking the old engines apart to clear the floor for building the new ones.
Luckily, there were a few parts that were not damaged and could be used in the reconstruction. These were some of the main transformers and the power crystals that were used to convert energy from the main core into warp propulsion energy.
Assembling the new engines was quick to do for the main bodies, but the interiors took way longer. This was because the interior components were extremely sensitive to static electricity, so much so that even the slightest discharge could render them unusable.
To compensate for this, everyone had to wear an anti-static wristband to dissipate any static buildup on their bodies. Some of these sensitive parts included the plasma coils that concentrated the energy, the transformers and power regulators for controlling the voltage, and the power crystals.
After the new engines had been built, installed, and tested, the Inkstar was ready to return to space. However, before they got going, they decided to get a proper introduction to everyone the following day. To make sure no-one got worried, Callie and Marie called to Mission Control.
“Inkstar to Mission Control. We ran into a meteor shower and crashed, but we are alright. We have just repaired the ship and are ready to come home. There are two more groups of individuals here, and we will get properly introduced to them before we return.”, said Marie.
“That good to hear, girls. All that matters is you’re safe. We’ll keep an eye out for when you return.”, said Craig.
Callie and Marie acknowledged what they were told and then they ended their transmission before getting some rest. They were very exhausted after repairing their ship, and had stated their preference to learn about the other two groups the following day.
The morning after the Inkstar ’s repairs were finished, her crew met up with the other two ships’ crews to properly introduce themselves.
“My name’s Callie. This is my cousin, Marie.”, said Callie as they shook hands with Mickey and Ryder.
“We’re Callie’s parents.”, said Sally and Jerome.
“Marie is our daughter.”, said Michael and Iris.
“Twilight showed us the crew manifest for your ship. It said that you two were married to Callie and Marie. Which of you is paired with who?”, Mickey asked Andrew and Mike.
“Callie’s my wife, and Marie is Andrew’s wife.”, said Mike.
After getting this confirmation, Ryder turned to the Agents. He was curious why they didn’t have their actual names on the list.
“Where we come from, there exists a group of soldiers which includes us, along with the Squid Sisters. Callie is Agent 1 and Marie is Agent 2. It is easier for us to memorize each other’s Agent numbers than our names.”, said Agent 4.
“What relation do Taylor and Lizzie have with you and Callie? I ask because they look much younger than you.”, Ryder asked Marie.
“That’s because they’re our children. Lizzie is my daughter and Taylor is Callie’s son.”, answered Marie.
Both of the other two crews were speechless for a moment, but then they were impressed.
“Mickey, how did you and your crew reach Equus?”, asked Taylor.
“I’ll let Minnie’s nieces answer that.”, said Mickey as he motioned for Millie and Melody.
The twins came up in a flash and quickly explained how they reached Equus.
“We were doing a test flight of our ship, the Disney Cruiser , to make sure she was ready for long space voyages. Unfortunately, our systems got shorted out by a solar flare.”, said Millie.
“In contrast to you and Ryder, our ship didn’t crash. We were rescued in space and our ship was towed to the ground.”, added Melody.
After shaking hands with the Disney crew, everyone turned to face Ryder and his pups.
“How did you guys get here?”, asked Sally.
“Melody says you guys crashed just like we did.”, added Iris.
“We ended up here by accident, and we were knocked out of orbit.”, said Ryder shakily.
“WAIT, WHAT? You were knocked out of orbit?”, asked Mike in a confused voice.
“How could you possibly end up somewhere by accident?”, asked Andrew in a similar tone.
“We were chased here.”, screeched Skye.
“WHAT?”, screeched Flurry Heart as she dropped her glass of water.
“Ryder and Skye’s reports are accurate.”, said Chase shakily as he started sweating.
Suddenly, as if a record scratch had occurred, everyone fell completely silent and their mouths dropped open for a moment. Minnie even ended up doing a spit-take.
Hearing Ryder say that he and the pups were chased to Equus had come as a shock to everyone.
“What do you mean you were chased here?”, asked Minnie out of confusion.
“It’s going to be a frightening story, so brace yourselves.”, said Marshall nervously.
Everyone nodded their head in acceptance.
“We’re called the PAW Patrol. Where we come from, we are famous as rescuers in the city of Adventure Bay. However, we have an enemy named Humdinger. He is the Mayor in another city. Recently, he and his nephew, Harold, had been spotted acting suspiciously in our area. We had just finished a large rescue one night, when an alarm sounded at our headquarters. To our horror, they were charging towards us with a multitude of weapons in an attempt to kill us. Growing desperate, we boarded our largest vehicle and converted it for space travel.”, explained Ryder.
Lizzie threw her hand up in shock.
“Did you just say they tried to KILL YOU?”, she asked with a shriek.
“Yes, you heard Ryder correctly.”, said Chase.
“They chased us all the way here and shot our engines and wings to the point that we had to abandon ship. Most of the pups landed together in one area. Me and Chase, on the other hand, landed far apart from everyone else.”, continued Ryder.
“Do Humdinger and Harold know that you’re still alive?”, asked Taylor.
“No they don’t.”, answered Ryder.
“How come?”, asked Iris.
“Good question. It turns out that our bio-monitors got damaged and shorted out as we entered the atmosphere. If they had tried to find us on radar, they wouldn’t have picked up our life signals.”, said Rocky.
“I was the one that started the search for everyone. I landed in the woods near the edge of the town here. I sprained my paw when I cut free from my parachute, but that was minor pain. As I ran to Twilight’s castle, I tripped on an exposed root and ended up with a nosebleed and a bruise on my forehead. I was dehydrated when I reached the castle and I passed out after knocking on the doors. I was in the hospital when I woke up, and then I told Twilight what had happened after I was checked out.”, explained Chase.
Everyone was quiet for a moment, and then Marie spoke up.
“That’s terrible. Why would someone do that to you?”, she said.
“Well Marie, that’s a simple question to answer. Humdinger doesn’t like us.”, said Liberty.
“He did this only because he doesn’t like you? GOOD GRAVY! That’s ridiculous.”, said Callie.
“You said it.”, growled Everest.
“Should we help them fight back?”, asked Minnie.
“Let’s meet in my castle and figure that out.”, said Twilight as she opened her castle door.
“Give us a minute.”, Flurry said to Ryder as Twilight led everyone inside.
Tour of the PAW Patroller
After getting word that they were being helped to stop Humdinger and arrest him, Ryder decided that he and some of the pups would give everyone a tour of the PAW Patroller . Everyone was supplied with two-way headsets in case they saw anything cool, or if they wanted to update each other. The headsets were also a way to get Ryder’s attention if something was noticed that he needed to know about right away.
Ryder took the Squid Sisters, their parents, Mickey, Goofy, and Donald to show them their vehicles, Marshall took Andrew, Lizzie, Taylor, Millie, and Melody to the bridge, and Chase took Mike, the Agents, Daisy, and Minnie to the engine room. Twilight, her friends, and the Young Six were free to look around the ship on their own. Ryder, Marshall, and Chase planned to rotate between their areas after 10 minutes so that everyone could see the different areas.
“Your vehicles are very well-built.”, said Callie.
“You’d be right, Callie. Whenever we are carrying out a rescue, the pups only have to bark and use voice commands to use their tools.”, explained Ryder.
“WOW! That’s incredibly convenient.”, said Marie.
“No wonder you’re so famous.”, said Jerome and Michael.
The groups were 4 minutes away from rotating when Ryder’s headset started ringing. Without hesitation, he hit the Talk button.
“This is Ryder, go ahead.”, he answered.
“Ryder, this is Taylor. Marshall was almost done showing us around the bridge when the indicator light started flashing to signify an incoming call. You’d better get up here.”, said Taylor.
“Copy that, we’re on our way.”, Ryder replied.
As Ryder’s group began hurrying to an elevator to the bridge, he radioed the rest of the pups to get on the ship and meet him on the bridge. Chase caught up to him at the elevator and they quickly got on. When they arrived on the bridge, everyone else was waiting there for Ryder to answer the call.
Ryder rushed to the controls and hit a button on the panel to answer the call.
“Hello?”
The screen was very fuzzy and the transmission was hard to make out, but Ryder saw that Tuck, Ella, and the Cat Pack were all present in front of the camera. Although the speech was garbled, he managed to distinguish Tuck’s voice.
“Ryder, do you read me?”, he asked.
“Tuck, stand by. I’m getting tons of interference.”, Ryder replied.
Skye and Liberty sprang into action to clean up the transmission. Once the screen was cleared up and the voices weren’t garbled anymore; Ryder called back to Tuck.
“Okay Tuck, I can hear you more clearly now. What’s going on?”, he asked.
“Ryder, we’ve got a serious emergency here. Shade captured some rather frightening footage while spying on Humdinger and his kittens a short while ago. I think you should have a look.”, replied Tuck.
Shade turned the camera to face a monitor and then put in a disc. The footage showed the following images.
As Shade got close to Adventure Bay to get a close look at what Humdinger was up to, she saw Mayor Goodway running her errands. She continued to look around for any sign of Humdinger and she spotted his police kitten shoot its net at Mayor Goodway, causing her to trip. Moments later, Harold jumped out from behind a bush and shot Goodway with a stun laser, knocking her unconscious. Realizing this was terrible, Shade turned her camera off.
“After I had turned my camera off, I shot a tracking device that attached itself to Goodway’s purse, and then I started rushing back to our hideout. Unfortunately, I was spotted by Humdinger himself as I ran through the woods. He tried to catch me, but I got away and successfully shared the footage with everyone. Three minutes later, Tuck powered up our communications array and started calling out to you.”, Shade explained after she turned the camera back.
“The bottom line is that Humdinger has captured Mayor Goodway.”, said Ella.
“Now he’s gone WAY too far!”, screamed Ryder.
Chase snarled and growled loudly.
“You’ve got the idea, Chase. Time to get ready.”, Skye hissed furiously.
Everyone nodded their heads and started planning how they would strike back.
The two crews boarded their ships early the next day and fired their engines. Reaching space, they radioed back to Ryder and Twilight.
“We’ll meet you in orbit once we have our troops mobilized.”, said Agent 8.
“Understood! See you soon.”, said Zuma.
“Acknowledged, Agent 8! We will see you there.”, said Twilight.
The two ships set coordinates for their home worlds and blasted their warp engines. From the space station, Thorax watched as the two ships disappeared from radar.
“There they go! I hope they have some good soldiers.”, he said to Twilight.
“Me too, Thorax. Me too.”, she replied.
“We’d better start getting ready, Aunt Twilight.”, said Flurry Heart.
Twilight agreed and she set up a worldwide broadcast.
“Attention all citizens of Equus. This is Princess Twilight Sparkle. We must prepare ourselves to assist Ryder and his pups with bringing Humdinger and his nephew Harold to justice. All soldiers, gather your weapons and board your area’s shuttle for immediate launch to the E S S Harmony . This is a Priority-One mission. I repeat, this is a Priority-One mission.”, said Twilight.
At once, all of the soldiers around the world started getting their weapons and equipment together before getting on the transport shuttles to head for space. After blasting up to the Harmony’s dock, they boarded the main ship and headed for their cabins.
Ryder brought the PAW Patroller to the dock as well so that both ships could start out from the same place at the same time when all of the soldiers in all four fleets were prepared.
**
When Mickey and his crew returned home, they opened a live broadcast similar to how Twilight did hers.
“All soldiers, this is Mickey Mouse. Our presence is required in order to help a ten-year-old boy named Ryder, and his group of rescue-trained pups to bring their enemy to justice for trying to get rid of them. Once we have landed, we will board shuttles for immediate transfer to the Disneystar at once. Ryder and his pups are known as the PAW Patrol, and they are famous in their home city. Their enemy, Humdinger, is the mayor of another city nearby. He and his nephew Harold joined forces to try to kill the patrol, but Ryder and his pups survived without Humdinger knowing.”
Everyone was startled to hear this. A call came in for Mickey from some of their friends.
“Mickey, this is Elsa. Why would someone do such a mean thing to an innocent person who is simply doing his job?” asked one of their friends.
“This is Aladdin. Just as Elsa said, why would Humdinger do something so mean to Ryder and his loyal dogs?”, asked Aladdin.
“I’m afraid that Humdinger did this only because of hate. He doesn’t like Ryder, nor his pups. This is a terrible reason to try to kill someone. However, as I said, Ryder and his pups survived the crash. The sensors for tracking their vital signs were damaged in the process, which caused Humdinger to assume that they were dead, but he is wrong.”, Mickey replied.
Everyone was shocked to hear this, and the soldiers began suiting up for battle. As the crew was suiting up, all of their friends gathered at the launchpad in order to cheer the troops on. Once the crew had transferred to the shuttles for the Disneystar , they started strapping in and getting ready to help the PAW Patrol stop their enemy.
**
When the Inkstar returned to Earth, Callie and Marie set up appointments for Taylor and Lizzie to appear on the news the following morning. They gave the announcement to both Inkopolis and Splatsville at the same time. Taylor gave the announcement at Inkopolis while Lizzie gave the same announcement at Splatsville.
**
“Attention all Inklings and Octarians! We have agreed to assist a ten-year-old boy named Ryder, and his group of rescue-trained pups, with bringing their enemy to justice. Their enemy tried to kill them just because he hated them. INEXCUSABLE! Gather your weapons and board the trains to the nearest launchpad as soon as possible. We will launch as soon as all soldiers are on-board, then we will proceed to the Inkblazer . This is a Priority-One mission, and the PAW Patrol is depending on us to help them.”, they said.
**
Nobody knew what to say. Even Craig and Octavio were beyond words. Nevertheless, everyone began packing their gear, saying goodbye to their loved ones, and getting on the trains to board their ship. As they arrived at the launchpad; they met with Callie, Marie, Octavio, and the Agents to discuss their plans of attack. Callie, Marie, Octavio, and the Agents were in charge of six squadrons that made up the Squidbeak Army. Since Callie and Marie were married, their squadrons included Mike, Andrew, Taylor, and Lizzie, as well as numerous other Inklings and Octarians. Octavio had assembled his best octotroopers and Octarians to fight against the evil mayor as well. Once the troops were all accounted for, they ran through a few practice exercises with their weapons before getting on their shuttles.
Once both fleets were ready to board their flagships, it was time to shine. They knew that if they didn’t join up with Twilight to help Ryder and his pups bring Humdinger and Harold to justice, the end would not be pretty. Even then, they had only heard that Humdinger had captured Mayor Goodway. Nobody knew what other evil and devious actions Humdinger and Harold had taken, or if they had even tried to stop any emergencies that Ryder and his pups would have stopped easily.
Who knew if Humdinger had tried to stop any emergencies, or if he had only made things worse? They would all find out once they reached the spies’ hideout and gotten information from Tuck, Ella, and the Cat-Pack. One thing was for certain though, it was time for his tyranny to meet its match.
Once the entire Squidbeak Army had boarded the shuttles, it was time to lift off for the Inkblazer and set their course for the rendezvous point over Ryder’s home planet. Right before the countdown began, Callie and Marie were given special wishes by their parents.
“Babydoll, we wish you good luck. Teach that evil Humdinger what happens when he messes with the wrong people at the wrong time.”, Sally and Jerome told Callie sternly.
“Thank you, Mom and Dad.”, replied Callie.
“Sweetie, you know that what Humdinger has done is wrong. You go and put him in his place.”, Iris and Michael told Marie intently.
“I plan to. We will see you when we are all done.”, replied Marie.
As the crew members fastened their seatbelts on the shuttles, Craig called out to Callie and Marie.
“I have known, ever since you were newborn squids, that you would do great things. You go and do what has to be done in order to stop that evil mayor’s wrongdoings.”, he said.
“We will, Grandpa!”, they replied.
“We are go for launch.”, said Marina over the loudspeaker after Mission Control confirmed all systems were go.
“COMMENCING COUNTDOWN!”, yelled Lizzie.
“T-Minus: fifteen, fourteen, thirteen, twelve, eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, ignition sequence start.”, cried Taylor.
Fuel began spewing from the shuttles’ takeoff boosters.
“Five, four, three, two, one, IGNITION!”, Taylor continued.
A loud roar broke the quiet atmosphere as an ignitor fired off a single spark to light the fuel. After lifting off from the launchpad, the shuttles flew high into the sky until they had cleared Earth’s gravity. After docking on the space station, everyone started boarding the Inkblazer and getting into their crew uniforms. Once the star coordinates were set for Ryder’s home world, Callie and Marie told their kids to fire the warp drive.
“Taylor, Lizzie, punch it!”, they shouted.
Taylor and Lizzie gave their moms a salute and then turned their seats around to engage the engines. The engines blasted the ship deep into space, bound for the rendezvous point.
**
Once the Disney Fleet’s soldiers were strapped in their seats, the 30-second countdown began. Fuel spewed from the engines when the timer was five seconds away from zero. When the fuel caught, some of the crew members were shaken to the point of dizziness by the intense vibration. After clearing the atmosphere and docking on the space station, Daisy set the star coordinates for Ryder’s home after boarding the Disneystar .
“All crew members, this is Captain Mickey. Brace yourselves for maximum acceleration.”, said Mickey over the ship’s intercom.
Millie and Melody fired the warp engines and propelled the Disneystar into deep space, bound straight for Ryder’s home world.
**
Once Twilight and Ryder had received word that the other two fleets were on route, they set their coordinates for Ryder’s home world.
“Warp speed in five seconds.”, said Ryder.
“Five.”, said Twilight.
“Four.”, said Chase.
“Three.”, said Ocellus.
“Two.”, said Skye.
“One.”, said Smolder.
“ENGAGE!”, yelled Marshall.
The warp engines fired off and the two ships shot forth.
**
At this point, all four ships had set their course for Ryder’s home world and sped off. Two hours after going to warp speed, the fleets reached their meetup spot, which was between the planet and the moon. As soon as all of the ships were visible, Ryder called out to them from the PAW Patroller .
“All fleets, this is Ryder. Report in!”, he said.
“E S S Harmony standing by.”, said Twilight.
“Inkblazer standing by.”, said Callie.
“Disneystar standing by.”, said Mickey.
With confirmation that all of the ships were present, the cloaking devices were activated and Ryder called out for a security sweep to check for probes. This would tell them whether or not Humdinger was waiting to catch intruders. Callie and Marie volunteered to scan for the probes, and they had Lizzie send out a scanning wave. Seconds later, they radioed back with their results.
“Ryder, my scan shows positive results. Humdinger has launched defense probes to shoot down any ships that pose a possible threat.”, said Lizzie.
“Copy that, Lizzie. We need to find out a way to take them out without being seen. Using energy beams would give away our location.”, Ryder replied.
“We could release rocks and simulate a meteor shower.”, suggested Minnie.
“Good idea. Humdinger won’t suspect intruders if a meteor shower takes out his probes. Meteors pass through naturally.”, said Chase.
After the ships had laid out their plan for landing, Twilight called out over radio to inform Ryder’s spies that they had arrived.
“Tuck, this is Twilight Sparkle. We have arrived in orbit. Get ready to specify your location so we can land without being seen.”, she said.
“Twilight, this is Tuck. I hear you. We are preparing to activate a beacon to show you where we are.”, he replied.
Ella proceeded to activate a device on the ground which started transmitting radio waves. After spotting the beacon on radar, the crews started cloaking their ships in order to hide from Mayor Humdinger. Then they started preparing to destroy the security probes that had been launched into orbit. Spotting the probes on the view screens, they shot them down by placing meteor shards from a recent shower in their airlocks and then shooting them out with the air pressure. After lining their ships up in the entry corridor, all of the ships’ Captains called out to the crews.
“All hands, prepare for atmospheric entry.”, they said.
The ships moved closer to the planet until they felt gravity pulling them downward. Friction caused flames to appear around the ships as they dropped faster towards the ground. Humdinger saw the flames in the sky and suspected that a few large meteors had gotten pulled down, but he couldn’t have been more wrong. He was seeing the four ships, which included the PAW Patroller , coming down to the ground. Thanks to the ships being cloaked, he did not see them on radar after the flames had dissipated.
After getting through the most dangerous phase of reentry, the ship’s officers took manual control and Ryder told Ella they were ready to perform final landing. Ella acknowledged and had the Cat Pack shine a light into the sky. Once the ships had spotted the light, flown to the area, and touched down, they met up with everyone who had stayed behind to spy on Humdinger. After an introduction, everyone got down to business.
“Humdinger’s kittens have allergic reactions to the vegetation in this area, so they don’t know we have a secret place here to spy on them.”, said Tuck.
“The tracker we put on Mayor Goodway’s purse has given us her location. Tomorrow, she is being taken by train from this detaining area in the jungle to a tight-security prison high in the mountains. This prison is nowhere near Jake’s ski resort, so we don’t know how much Everest would be able to help out with rescuing her.”, explained Ella as the Cat Pack projected a holographic map of the area.
“I might not be able to get involved in much of the actual rescue, but I can help with ascending the mountains.”, said Everest.
“You’ve got a point, Everest.”, said Rory.
“Which car on the train is Mayor Goodway being held in?”, asked Ryder.
Wild Cat said that Goodway was being held in the rearmost car, and this gave Octavio an idea. He had Ryder zoom in on the mountain portion of the tracks and then he stated his ideas.
“I will send two of my best octolings in covert ops to a ledge overlooking the tracks. They will zip-line from the ledge and get on top of the train. They will climb down to a door and get inside to free Mayor Goodway and then detach the car from the train. In case the train has security cameras, my soldiers will use smoke as a cover. I will monitor communications from Skye’s helicopter during the rescue.”, he explained.
Ryder was shocked at how well Octavio was able to plan out the rescue mission. Callie said he used to be their enemy, but now he was reformed. Leo stepped up to say they had also spotted several citizens from Humdinger’s home city, Foggy Bottom, coming to Adventure Bay and forcing harsh curfews on the citizens while telling them to ignore emergencies. Ryder became enraged and demanded that something be done to make them leave.
“I have an idea on how we can do that.”, said Marie.
“What’s your plan?”, asked Skye.
“Once Mayor Goodway is rescued and brought back here, our squadrons will parachute down to the water and swim to shore. Then we will stun them with ink blasts.”, Marie replied.
“Once we have them taken care of, we will track down Harold and put him in handcuffs. We suspect that Humdinger will be in the city as well, so we will knock him down with ink as well. However, we will not be the ones who will arrest him. You will be the ones to do that.”, Taylor said to Chase.
“How will we keep our identities concealed?”, asked Chase.
“That’s easy, we will modify your suits so they turn black and Humdinger won’t recognize you. Once Humdinger is handcuffed, you will reveal yourselves.”, said Lizzie.
Accepting the plans, Ryder informed everyone that it was time to gear up.
One hour after the plans were laid out, a thought crossed Ryder’s mind in regard to how Mayor Goodway would be extracted.
“Even if we cut the last car free from the train, how will the last stage of the rescue be carried out? The altitude in that area is twelve miles above ground, and the cliffs are treacherous. One wrong move could result in falling to your death.”, he told Octavio.
“You’ve got a point there, Ryder. If we had helicopters to lift the car off the tracks, we could fly to safety.”, Octavio replied.
“Don’t sweat it, Octavio. We’ve got plenty of helicopters. There are two on our ship, along with Mickey and Minnie having one on their ship, and Skye has hers. Last but certainly not least, some of us can use our own wings.”, said Flurry Heart.
“Are you sure we’ll need all of that power?”, asked Octavio.
Knowing Flurry was right, Ryder assured Octavio that her plan was a good one.
“It’s always a good idea to have more power than you need instead of not having enough.”, he said.
“I never thought of that. I learned something new, which is good.”, said Octavio.
After determining that the planes for the paratroopers would be black to hide better in the night sky, it was time to get ready.
All of the rescuers started putting on their black suits at once. After he had gotten his boots on, Taylor started prepping his splattershot, as well as a bow and some ink arrows. When Ryder saw the bow, he was puzzled.
“Wouldn’t a bow and arrows be loud?”, he asked Taylor.
“That’s true for a regular bow.”, said Taylor.
“However, Taylor’s bow is made with specialized materials, therefore allowing it to shoot whisper-quiet.”, added Callie.
Taylor brought Ryder to a quiet area of where they were and set up a target. Before getting ready to shoot, Taylor instructed Ryder to put a hand up to his ear. After nocking an arrow, he pulled back and then let go. Ryder only heard the arrow hit the target, which surprised him.
“Your mom wasn’t kidding when she said your bow shoots whisper-quiet. I’m impressed.”, said Ryder after Taylor retrieved the arrow.
Returning to the base camp, Ryder met the two octolings that Octavio had assigned to rescue Mayor Goodway. One of them was his granddaughter, Jenny, and the other’s name was Rosa. Both of them would be wearing night-vision goggles to see in the dark once they were on the train. Normal flashlights would be seen on the security feed and give them away.
“I assume you have a plan to cut the car free in a quiet manner. After all, this mission involves stealth.”, Ryder inquired.
“You would be right. We can’t use a plasma cutter or an acetylene torch. They make a loud hiss as they cut through metal. Also, we don’t have enough space in our backpacks to carry a water-jet cutter. An apparatus of that size is HUGE and is designed to stand on the floor in a metalworking shop.”, said Jenny.
“That’s why we have this device.”, said Rosa as she pulled out a laser cutter.
“This laser only makes a quiet buzzing noise when cutting metal.”, explained Jenny as Rosa demonstrated with a metal plate.
Skye looked at a forecast for the mountain area of the train tracks and saw that it would be very windy, which would dampen the sound from the laser. Checking her watch, she also saw that it was time to mobilize.
“Here we go. It’s now or never.”, she said.
Right away, Skye started up her helicopter’s engine as Jenny and Rosa put on their helmets. As they waited for the helicopter’s engine to warm up, they checked their gear to make sure it was properly calibrated until they were certain that all was in check. After grabbing their zip-line equipment and rescue tools, they joined Octavio and Everest, boarded Skye’s helicopter, and shut the door.
“Skye, this is Octavio. We’re ready.”, he said over his radio.
Skye quickly acknowledged Octavio’s confirmation and started getting her rotor up to speed for takeoff. At the same time, all of the other helpers took off and flew to a hidden area in the mountains. Skye took off a minute later and flew to a ledge in an area to the right of the tracks and above the tracks at the same time.
This ledge was way too small for Skye to land on and she was starting to reach critical on her altimeter. So she flew to a lower ledge below the tracks. After Skye had said her chopper was stable; Everest, Jenny, and Rosa all rappelled from the chopper until they touched down. Before unclipping, they drove an anchor into the rock and then tethered themselves to it. After flashing a light to give Skye the all-clear, they unclipped from the helicopter line and started climbing up the rockface until they were on the ledge overlooking the tracks. They were not at an altitude where they needed oxygen tanks, which was good. After Everest had radioed Skye that they were ready, Skye flew to meet up with the other pilots.
After Skye had landed with the other helicopters, Octavio set up a radio with which to tune into the train’s radio so he could listen in and figure out who was driving. He was also wearing a headset to keep Ryder informed on their progress. Currently, the train was not moving yet, so he couldn’t tap into the radio yet.
Jenny looked out over the tracks through her binoculars to find a spot where Rosa could shoot the zip-line at an angle where it would run parallel to the train. This angle would allow them to board without landing sideways and possibly falling off. She spotted a fairly small crack in the rockface and then Rosa loaded a rocket with a spike on the tip into a launcher. This rocket had their zip-line cable attached to the side, which meant this zip-line could be deployed anytime and anywhere. Once Rosa had loaded the rocket, she put the scope over her eye and switched on the laser sight. After aligning the crosshairs with the narrowest part of the crack that Jenny had found, Rosa pulled the trigger.
With a pop and a loud WHOOSH, the rocket fired off and flew straight at the crack until the spike was driven deep in. The other end of the cable was coiled around a ratcheted winch. Jenny cranked back on the winch to tighten the cable and to check whether or not the spike was secure. When the cable didn’t snap back, which would indicate a failed attachment, she and Rosa knew the cable was locked in tight.
“BULLSEYE! Good shot, Rosa.”, she yelled.
“Thank you very much.”, Rosa replied as she put away the launcher.
“Grandpa, this is Jenny. Deployment of zip-line is successful.”, said Jenny.
Octavio relayed the news to the others at the base camp and they started cheering while the others clapped from their helicopters. As soon as the train got rolling, it would only be a matter of time until Mayor Goodway could be rescued.
Prior to ascending the cliffs, Jenny had asked Twilight to follow the train tracks to their point of origin and alert them once the train got going. At 9:45 PM, she radioed in that the train had started rolling. After receiving word of this, Octavio started working with his radio to tap into the train’s audio. Three minutes later, he had success and could hear Harold’s voice.
“The train is on a computerized route, but Harold is on board to monitor the speed. Girls, you’d better get ready.”, he told them via headset.
Jenny and Rosa put on their helmets and their night-vision goggles and then started prepping their reels to attach them to the cable. Two minutes later as they were starting to attach the reels, they heard a low rumbling sound as the train got closer. Everest borrowed Rosa’s binoculars and noticed the train starting to speed up. Knowing that time was of the essence, she told Rosa and Jenny to hurry up.
“It sounds like the train is accelerating. Better get ready.”, she said to the girls.
Jenny nodded and prepared to jump off the ledge as she held her reel handle. Rosa was right behind her and doing the same.
“NOW!”, yelled Everest.
Jenny leaped off the cliff, and Rosa followed her five seconds later. The train sped underneath them and they let go when they were close to being right on top. Once they landed on top of the train, Jenny used a remote to disengage the hooks holding up the zip-line and they laid down on their stomach and then began crawling towards the front. To make sure they didn’t fall off the train, their gloves and boots were fitted with strong electromagnets. This train had a total of five cars, one of which was the engine. Twilight had said earlier that the only door aside from the engine’s was on the second car back from the front. Through their night-vision goggles, they spotted a tunnel and quickly laid back down.
Once the train had cleared the tunnel, they climbed down a set of rungs on the car and yanked the door handle to open it. Once inside the car, Rosa grabbed the inner handle and pulled the door shut.
“We’re on the train. Proceeding to Mayor Goodway for extraction.”, Jenny whispered to Ryder over her headset.
“Acknowledged, Jenny. Good luck to you both.”, said Ryder.
Once Everest saw that both Jenny and Rosa had landed on the train, she reeled in the zip-line and made her way down to the tracks. Then she followed a signal light that Twilight was using to show where they were until she reached them.
Jenny and Rosa deployed smoke canisters to hide from any cameras on the train and then began sneaking to the back of the car until they had made it to the middle. Then they continued until they had reached the rear car. This car was their target, and Mayor Goodway was in there. The other cars were all filled with frozen food as rations for any other hostages at the prison. Jenny and Rosa were relieved that their smokescreen didn’t wear out when they were making their way to the hostage car.
After reaching the back car, Rosa heard what sounded like someone groaning as if struggling with something, along with the sound of rattling metal. Before searching the car, Jenny sent a small drone to look for security cameras, and she found that the entire car was packed with them. She pulled out a second remote and used it to pause all of the cameras so Harold wouldn’t see them.
“Grandpa, we’re all clear.”, Jenny told Octavio after seeing that the cameras were paused.
She and Rosa walked quietly through the train car until they reached a chair welded to the floor. They saw a blindfolded woman shackled in the chair, and she was clearly trying to speak, but she had a strip of fabric tied in her mouth. Rosa cut the gag out of the woman’s mouth and then took off the blindfold so they could be seen.
“Are you Mayor Goodway?”, she asked after opening the shackles.
“Yes, that’s me.”, answered the woman.
“Jenny, cut the car loose. We’ve got her.”, said Rosa.
Jenny gave Rosa a thumbs-up and headed back to the car’s door to cut the car free from the rest of the train. Mayor Goodway was confused.
“Who are you, and why are you here?”, she asked Rosa.
“We’re here to rescue you, Your Honor.”, Rosa replied.
Mayor Goodway’s eyes grew large as she heard Jenny cutting the car loose with her laser. Seconds later, she heard the door slam and then Jenny came back to her.
“We’re loose.”, she said as she walked towards the back end of the car.
Jenny pulled on a cord to apply the car’s emergency brake, and the car came to a screaming halt.
“Aerial team, we’re stationary. Ready for pickup.”, said Rosa over her headset.
Two minutes later, they all heard clicking sounds as the helicopter winches were attached to the car’s roof. Then they felt the car moving upward as it was lifted off the tracks.
After a few hours, they felt a sudden shake and heard a loud clang as the car was set on the ground.
As Mayor Goodway was helped out of the train car, she told everyone what had happened.
“GOOD HEAVENS! First, Humdinger kills the PAW Patrol, then he captures me and brings goons from his town to Adventure Bay. What am I to do?”, she asked in a shaky voice as tears began pouring down her face.
“Beg your pardon?”, asked a voice that she recognized in a flash.
Whipping her head around, Mayor Goodway saw that Ryder and the 10 pups that were with him were standing behind her and waving.
“RYDER, YOU’RE ALIVE!”, cried Goodway joyfully.
“Yes they are, Your Honor.”, said Flurry Heart.
“Who might you guys be?”, Goodway asked everyone else.
The three fleets gave explanations on who they were and how they had met the Paw Patrol. Goodway was floored when Twilight said they met Ryder after they had modernized their home world.
“We were six years into our ten-year modernization project when we heard from the Squid Sisters. One of our two satellites crashed on Earth and they recovered it.”, explained Twilight.
“We were only doing a test flight of our newest ship, and we got hit by a solar flare upon passing Equus’ orbit.”, said Mickey.
“After Ryder and his pups had been saved and the Disney Fleet had gotten their ship repaired, we finally arrived, which was four years after we recovered the satellite. However, we got hit by stray shards from a meteor shower.”, said Taylor.
“You guys have certainly had the craziest meetup with Ryder and his pups.”, said Mayor Goodway.
“You could say that. What matters now is bringing Humdinger and Harold both to justice.”, said Ryder.
“Stage one of our mission was rescuing you. Stage two involves getting Humdinger’s goons out of town, and stage three involves catching both Humdinger and Harold. Then we can charge them and put them behind bars.”, said Silverstream.
Mayor Goodway agreed with the mission, and everyone got ready for the next phase.
Beginning the Final Mission
For several hours, the allies kept watch through their binoculars and by using camera-drones to track Humdinger’s forces. No-one was spotted, and the drones revealed there were several patrols on the water and keeping a close eye on all happenings. Once everyone had a general idea of how the patrols operated, it was time to engage them.
“Alright everyone, SUIT UP! It’s now or never.”, Ryder shouted intently.
All of the troops got into their clothes, which included the Inklings and Octarians putting on wetsuits for swimming underwater. Then they boarded the automated jets to be taken into the front lines. These jets would self-destruct when everyone had jumped off to prevent tracking. These planes’ destruct mechanisms were also designed to ensure no lives or equipment would be threatened in the blast, so no-one would be in danger as they jumped off.
When everyone had boarded the planes, Twilight gave a remote command for all of the planes to taxi into position on the runway and then take off in sequence. After reaching the target altitude and course, everyone prepared to jump. Twilight and Flurry Heart had opened the hatch on their plane and were ready to give the commands to begin jumping when explosions suddenly began ringing out in the sky.
“LOOK OUT! FLAK TURRETS!”, shrieked Ryder.
“What does that mean?”, asked Mickey.
“ANTI-AIRCRAFT SHELLS!”, Taylor yelled back in response.
“We’ve been spotted and Humdinger’s forces are trying to shoot us out of the air.”, cried Skye in a worried voice.
Twilight adjusted the courses accordingly, and prepared to say, “jumpers away”, but then something scary happened. After she and Flurry had clipped their parachutes to the door, her legs and wings abruptly went rigid, her mouth began to foam, she started to shake violently, her eyes became glazed over, and she let out a sound similar to a loud hiccup. Flurry immediately saw what was happening, and screamed out over the radio.
“ALL TROOPS, THIS IS FLURRY HEART, SPEAKING FOR MY AUNT TWILIGHT. SHE’S HAVING A SEIZURE! JUMPERS AWAY!”, she cried.
Twilight went limp and collapsed out the door before Flurry could catch her, and she quickly jumped out after her. Unfortunately, Flurry lost sight of Twilight when her parachute opened. As all of the soldiers jumped, their chutes opened and they glided softly to the ground. The Inklings and Octarians cut free from their chutes as they reached the water to avoid getting tangled up, and then they started swimming into their strike positions while staying out of sight. After everyone had touched down, Flurry quickly searched for Twilight and she found her in the woods, caught between two trees and with her parachute lines around her throat.
“Aunt Twilight, wake up.”, she said.
Twilight managed to get her eyes open for a moment, and she spoke weakly to her niece.
“Flurry, sweetie, it’s too late. My parachute lines have strangled me. You’re in charge of the Equestrian Fleet.”, Twilight replied with her last breath.
Flurry burst into tears for a moment, but then collected herself and took charge of her branch.
“Equestrian Fleet, this is Flurry Heart. Aunt Twilight has been strangled by her parachute lines. She has given me orders to take charge.”, she said to the soldiers.
The Equestrian soldiers quickly acknowledged and everyone began getting ready to engage their enemy. With the Inklings and Octarians armed with their ink-based weapons, and the remaining soldiers armed with energy weapons and natural abilities, it was time to evict the patrols from the city.
Eliminating Humdinger's Forces
The patrols quickly spotted the four fleets, which included the PAW Patrol in disguise, and began fighting back to defend themselves and make sure Humdinger would be well-protected, but the fleets had many tricks up their sleeves. For example, Taylor’s quiet bow made it easy for him to sneak up on enemies in the water and shoot them from a distance. The Squidbeak Army used its share of ink to blind and distract the patrollers and sink their boats so the others could shoot them with their energy blasters and knock them unconscious in order to force them out of Adventure Bay.
“Taylor, you’re a spectacular shooter.”, said Smolder over radio when she saw how well he was clobbering the enemies he hit.
“Thank you Smolder.”, he replied.
Lizzie, Marie, Andrew, Callie, and Mike all had their share of straight shots as well. Marie was a natural at shooting with a sniper-style rifle, known as a splat-charger, Andrew was extremely accurate when using his splattershot, and Lizzie herself put strong feelings into her splat dualies so she could shoot in two directions simultaneously. Callie was an expert at flinging ink with her splat roller, and Mike used his splatling gun, which shot ink at an amazingly high rate, as if he was born with it in his hands. The Agents and their soldiers were also shooting very well and bringing many of Humdinger’s security personnel into the water as they shot the boats and sank them, or by knocking them out of the boats to fight them in the deep waters of Adventure Bay’s harbor.
Some of the Disney soldiers with special abilities, such as Elsa, were able to restrain or frighten Humdinger’s patrols and force them to run for their lives. Elsa herself possessed the ability to produce ice from her fingertips and freeze enemies in place before they realized they were in the wrong place and messing with the wrong people at the wrong time. In only hours, all of Humdinger’s patrols were gone from Adventure Bay.
Flurry had even given a handwritten note to one of the soldiers herself, and told the soldier to deliver the note to Humdinger personally. This note told him that he had messed with the wrong individuals and that Ryder was still alive. However, when Humdinger received the note, he only laughed and sent a reply that he and Harold had both checked for Ryder’s life signs and found nothing. Therefore, he did not believe the note. Little did he know that he and Harold were both in for a shocking surprise.
Catching Humdinger's Kittens
Humdinger may have laughed when he received the letter that Ryder and his pups were still alive, but he was nervous too. These soldiers were far stronger than he anticipated, and he was starting to worry that this was the end for him. He and Harold agreed that they needed to escape before they were caught.
“Oh no you don’t!”, yelled Flurry as she tapped into Humdinger’s radio.
“Who is this?”, asked Harold angrily.
“My name is Flurry Heart. We come from the planet Equus and are one of the allies that has joined to take back Adventure Bay. I was not wrong when I said Ryder and the pups were still alive.”, she replied.
“SHUT UP! We scanned your world ourselves and their life signs DID NOT SHOW! How many times do I have to say that?”, Humdinger yelled back.
“Yell all you want, Mr. Mayor, but we are not lying.”, said Minnie.
“You tell him, Aunt Minnie.”, said Millie and Melody.
“I will only believe you if I see them with my own eyes. Deal?”, asked Humdinger.
“Deal!”, said Flurry Heart.
Suddenly, Humdinger’s kittens scattered to get away. Flurry quickly gave a plan of attack to the soldiers.
“Mickey, you and your guys catch the kittens. My fleet will go after Harold. Callie and Marie, you guys chase after Humdinger. Take Ryder and the pups with you. Ryder, you and the pups unmask yourselves and arrest Humdinger once he is flat on the ground.”, she said.
“You got it!”, said Mickey.
“Ten-four, Flurry.”, said Lizzie.
“Let’s go!”, said Skye.
Mickey and his troops broke into a sprint to catch Humdinger’s kittens. Since the kittens had split up, they broke into groups in order to catch them all in a shorter time rather than catching them one at a time. Aladdin took to the air on his magic carpet to chase after Cat Skye, along with Daisy and Donald getting on jets to follow him.
“Here’s the plan. I will pursue from behind to distract her. You two fly around while hiding in the clouds. Damage her wings so she goes into a crash dive, and I will catch her.”, said Aladdin.
Daisy and Donald acknowledged what he had told them and they broke off in opposite directions to hide in the clouds. As Aladdin continued to chase Cat Skye, Donald aligned his crosshairs with her goggles and shot the lens to break it so she couldn’t see, and Daisy shot a blast at the right wing, which sent her spinning out of control. Aladdin flew faster and caught her before she fell too far to the ground. After landing, he put Cat Skye in a large cage that Mickey had assembled with reflective walls.
Snaring Cat Chase was an easy task. Minnie and her twin nieces volunteered to take down this one. They figured that Cat Chase would be easy to catch if they used a toy mouse. So, Millie set one out with a rope tied to it and Melody held the other end of the rope. Minnie was waiting far ahead with a stun laser when Cat Chase came running past to grab the toy mouse and play with it. Sure enough, he took the bait.
“Aunt Minnie, I’m coming your way.”, said Melody over her headset as she began running.
As Melody ran past her aunt, Cat Chase followed behind her quickly. Minnie fired a beam of energy and it hit him. Once Millie had confirmed Cat Chase was unconscious, she pushed him into a cat carrier.
Cat Marshall was an easy kitty to catch as well. Goofy hid behind a bush with a tranquilizer and a water hose while Mickey used a ball of yarn to lure the kitty into the area. Once Mickey had gotten Cat Marshall close enough to the bushes, Goofy opened the water valve and soaked Cat Marshall which made him panic and try to run. Goofy had other ideas and shot the tranquilizer to knock out Cat Marshall. After Cat Marshall was knocked out, Mickey carried him to the cage and put him in as Minnie was putting Cat Chase in.
Cat Rubble and Cat Rocky were together, and Minnie went after them once Cat Chase was trapped in the cage with the others. She had her own cat, Figaro, lure the two kitties to a park where she was hiding with a loud bell. When the two cats saw Figaro, they ran over to play with him and he started running towards the park. Minnie had hidden at the top of a slide, and Figaro ran up the ladder to her once he was close enough.
After Minnie had Figaro cover his ears, she clanged the bell loudly to startle Cat Rubble and Cat Rocky. This plan worked and the two kitties began trying to run, but Millie tossed a canister of sleep gas towards them and they passed out. Once the cats were unconscious, Millie scooped them up, carried them over to the cage, and put them in.
Cat Zuma had dived underwater in the bay, and Ariel volunteered to lure him to the surface. She transformed into her mermaid form and dove into the water to chase him. As she reached Cat Zuma, she pulled out a knife and pierced his air tank. Cat Zuma immediately noticed he was running out of air and began swimming to the surface. As he popped out of the water, Elsa shot an ice bolt from her hands to freeze his paws and restrain him. Ariel transformed back and grabbed Cat Zuma after putting on cold-resistant gloves. Elsa’s ice tended to be EXTREMELY COLD, so Ariel had to use the gloves to avoid frostbite.
Once Ariel had put Cat Zuma in the cage with the other kittens, Mickey put on dark glasses and flashed a special light in the cage to make them all forget everything they knew about Humdinger. Now that the kittens were brainwashed, it was now just a matter of catching Humdinger himself as well as Harold.
Flurry’s plan to catch Harold was that she would have the Young Six split up to bracket him and then Sandbar would handcuff him. They found him in a flash as he tried to run to the edge of town and then they split up to take him down. Smolder and Ocellus gave chase from behind, Gallus and Silverstream waited to pull a rope and trip Harold as he reached the edge of the city, and Sandbar and Yona stood ready with handcuffs for when he was down. When Smolder let out a roar, Harold became spooked and started running faster.
“YIKES!”, he cried.
As he ran, he failed to see the rope that Gallus and Silverstream had laid across the road. When they pulled it tight, Harold’s foot snagged the rope and he fell flat on his face. Before he could stand back up and keep running, Yona planted her hoof on his back to hold him down.
“GET OFF ME!”, Harold shouted in protest.
“Not a chance, Harold Humdinger.”, snapped Smolder as Sandbar handcuffed him.
“You’re under arrest, young man.”, said Flurry Heart as Ocellus stood him up.
Flurry marched Harold to the Harmony and locked him in a detention cell to await trial with his uncle for trying to kill Ryder and the pups. On the way to the cell, Harold was forced to take off his clothes and change into a striped jumpsuit. He tried to argue that the striped clothes made him look silly, but Smolder responded by angrily slapping him on the cheek and rolling her eyes at him.
Catching Humdinger Himself
The plan for catching Humdinger was laid out in an ingenious way. The Squid Sisters and their kids would use their ink to slow him down and then make him fall on his face. They made a last-minute choice to cuff him themselves and then have the PAW Patrol line up in front of him and reveal themselves with rage in their eyes.
“CHARGE!”, screamed Liberty.
The Squid Sisters and their kids pulled their ink weapons out and everyone started chasing after Mayor Humdinger. Taylor was not only a great archer, but he was also a very fast runner. Lizzie was a fast runner too and she was able to stay on Humdinger’s tail along with Callie. Taylor climbed on top of Katie’s boutique and took aim with his bow. Once he had settled his crosshairs after nocking an arrow and pulling back, he splattered Humdinger in the face with ink, blinding him and getting ink in his mouth. Humdinger started coughing and spluttering as he tried to get the ink out of his eyes, but he couldn’t see where he was running.
“THAT TASTES TERRIBLE!”, he shouted in a disgusted voice when he got the ink out of his mouth.
Lizzie opened fire and shot ink onto Humdinger’s back at a great level of speed, which made him lose balance. At the same time, Marie watched where he was headed and shot a patch of ink into the road. As soon as Humdinger got his sight back, he spotted the puddle and started trying to slow down and regain his balance, but it was too late. He stepped into the ink puddle and he began to slip. As he got close to the middle of the puddle, Callie jumped up and hit him on the head with her splat roller, causing him to fall down and splash face-first into the ink. He started coughing as he tried to push himself up in the gooey slippery ink when Andrew planted a foot on his back and Agents 4 and 8 put him in handcuffs. At this point, Humdinger’s pants, suit jacket, and top hat were splattered in four colors of ink and his hair was disheveled.
“We’ve got you now.”, hissed Mike as Agent 3 forced Humdinger to his feet.
Once Mayor Humdinger had been handcuffed and Agent 3 had stood him back up, Ryder and the pups lined up in front of him and Andrew disabled the disguise on their clothes. When the PAW Patrol’s clothes had been fully restored to their original colors, Ryder and his pups took their face masks off and glared angrily at Humdinger with their teeth gritted. Ryder had even clenched both of his hands TIGHTLY in fists. Humdinger saw that Chase was snarling as if ready to lunge forth and bite him, which made him gulp in nervousness. Just then, Flurry Heart swooped down and landed in front of Ryder.
“DO YOU TRUST ME NOW?”, she screeched as she flared out her wings.
“Yes I do.”, Humdinger said shakily.
Chase deployed a pad of paper from his pup-pack and gave it to Ryder. After getting the notepad, Ryder started jotting down a list of what Humdinger and Harold would be charged for. As Humdinger watched Ryder list the charges that he and Harold would receive, he began to regret what he had done and tears began welling up in his eyes.
After Humdinger and Harold had received their sentence, Mayor Goodway organized an award ceremony that evening for all of the new allies that had teamed up with Ryder. They were called forth to receive medals of honor for their brave and heroic actions both saving Ryder and helping to bring Mayor Humdinger to justice. Ryder himself was the one to hang the medals on each of the ally soldiers, and they each took a bow when the medals had been hung around their necks. Once the medals had been given, everyone turned to face the audience.
“Let’s hear it for the brave soldiers who saved the PAW Patrol and helped to save Adventure Bay.”, yelled Mayor Goodway.
At that point, the audience began clapping and cheering as a fireworks display lit up the night sky. The day after the celebration, the project began for rebuilding the Lookout. Humdinger and Harold showed up without delay and began working right then. The project was started by rebuilding the original tower with the periscope, and then a satellite was constructed to search for missions on a larger scale so they could perform rescues anywhere in the world.
After launching the satellite, some new additions were made to the main tower. First, the display screen was upgraded to give live footage at any site where rescues were needed, and a 3D map was added to show the area’s topography. Another addition was a second 3D map built into the floor right in front of the display screen, allowing Ryder to use hand motions with special sensors in his gloves to show simulations of which pups would be involved in the rescues and how they would carry out their tasks in the area. He still had his pup-pad to contact the pups if they were needed for a rescue. The next addition was a separate set of vehicles for space missions. These vehicles would be automatically loaded by computer onto the PAW Patroller for such missions. Once the tower was fully rebuilt, it was time for Harold and his uncle to be taken to jail.
The final additions were designed by Taylor and made for Ryder and the pups themselves. Skye’s goggles were redesigned with a crosshairs reticle so she could get a precise bearing on anything Ryder needed her to search for, and her rescue harness was upgraded to a larger stronger version that went around more than only the waist. Her helicopter was also fitted with a canopy lens and a gyroscope ball for navigation through heavy clouds during storms.
Marshall’s water cannon was made stronger for when he had to cool down something that was overheated, or if he had a hard time putting out a fire. A nozzle for foam was also added for fires that couldn’t be put out with water. He also had his oxygen tank replaced with a rebreather so he could search for trapped people in burning buildings for a longer period of time if necessary.
Chase’s police cruiser was fitted with a launcher that shot globs of expanding black goo, designed to stop an out-of-control vehicle instantaneously if the spike strips weren’t cutting it, and he also had his pup-pack fitted with a louder megaphone.
Zuma’s scuba gear was fitted with a depth monitor which indicated whether or not he would need to breathe a special gas mixture at different points below sea level, and his hovercraft’s submarine mode was given a special apparatus with which to repel hostile predators.
Rubble’s tools were upgraded to stronger versions that did not require maintenance as often. Rocky’s recycling truck was fitted with a Geiger counter in case he had to deal with radioactive waste, along with a device to deploy receptacles for the same purpose. If Rocky had to do a cleanup like this, Taylor also equipped Rocky’s truck with a sensor that would dictate whether or not he would need to wear a hazmat suit. If this sensor said it was necessary, it would put the truck on an automated drive for twenty seconds while it put the suit on Rocky. Rex was given an attachment for his helmet that would translate his voice into different dinosaur sounds so he didn’t have to alternate languages. Everest’s snowcat was given stronger treads for getting through tough snow.
Tracker’s multitools and swinging lines were strengthened by using newer metals that were far more resistant to rust and corrosion. Liberty’s motorcycle was given a canister of nitrous-oxide in case she had to move faster to reach her destination. The Mighty Twins and the Cat Pack were all given new precision tracking equipment and had their vehicles’ computer ranges strengthened. Lastly, Ryder’s ATV was given solid tires that wouldn’t go flat if he ran over sharp obstacles, and he had an infrared laser installed in his helmet for better navigation. The six vehicles stationed at the Lookout were also designed to extend their upgrades to their ultimate models whenever a mission in a certain category was being carried out.
Everyone was impressed by how well Taylor was able to design the upgrades for their vehicles, and Callie was quick to explain how well-skilled he was in engineering. Lizzie also contributed to the upgrades on Rocky’s truck, because radioactive waste could be poisonous to certain forms of life, and she had incredible knowledge on how different elements could be dangerous in different parts of the world.
Once the Lookout was rebuilt and the additions were made, it was time for everyone to return to their home worlds. After a test run to try out their new equipment, Ryder and the pups bid their allies goodbye. After returning to Equus, a memorial was held for Twilight and Flurry Heart became the new ruler of Equestria. The four groups of heroes became legendary for years to come and no-one ever came close to matching their skills. Nevertheless, the groups stayed in contact and were inseparable from each other.
Harold and Humdinger’s sentence was later reduced to only ten years in jail and they were released on parole. During this time, Humdinger quickly got over losing his kittens. He had learned from his mistakes and he respected the PAW Patrol. However, his past crimes disqualified him from being a Mayor ever again. Harold had learned the same thing. They soon became close friends with Ryder and were a huge help on space missions, even if all four groups had to join up.
Flurry Heart did a spectacular job as Equus’ new ruler and Millie and Melody became excellent recruiters for the Disney Fleet. Callie and Marie retired from the Squidbeak Splatoon once they got older, and Lizzie and Taylor became the new leaders. They trained the new soldiers very well and made their mothers proud. In the end, the universe was made a better and safer place until the end of time.
Starting the Modernization
Twilight’s School of Friendship had been doing very well and the Young Six had recently graduated with honors. During the Young Six’s graduation party, Twilight received a message from Celestia and Luna.
“Dear Twilight,
Equus has been thriving for many years and your campaign to start friendship schools has ended all of our wars between the other races around the world. We feel like it is time to bring the world into a new era with modern vehicles and technology. At the same time, we hope to begin exploring the deep reaches of space and possibly establish research bases while searching for new forms of life. We kindly request your presence in Canterlot tomorrow so we can give you the plans.
Signed, Celestia and Luna.”
Twilight spread the word to all of her friends, the Young Six, and to Flurry Heart, who had recently turned 18. They were excited to bring their world into a modern era. So they all boarded the train the next morning and arrived at the royal palace. After following the Royal Sisters into a conference room, they took seats to hear the plans.
“Our intent is to start out with new vehicles that move under their own power, then we will start the missions to explore space. Along with building research bases, we will also send automated probes to venture further and search for other possible forms of intelligent life.”, explained Celestia.
Twilight accepted the new plans and began preparing everyone for what was to come. A news report went out all over the world and got everyone excited.
**
A few months after receiving word of the upcoming modernization, construction began for motorized vehicles on the ground, water, and in the air. Trains already moved under their own power, so this would focus on building cars and other road vehicles. Much trial and error occurred for the first three weeks, but the new vehicles were soon built, tested, and mass-produced. After designing ground vehicles, the time was right for new forms of water transportation to be created. This mostly included submarines for exploring areas under the water. Pre-existing ships for cruises and cargo were enhanced to increase safety so that there was a low risk of injury when the ships were in motion or in dock.
Eventually, after one year, the time had come for constructing aircrafts. Over the course of the next two years, planes and helicopters were built, tested, and given to transportation and rescue areas. Airports were also built so that the planes and the helicopters had places to land and take off at any time. Everyone around the world was thrilled at the idea of travelling by air or having their own vehicle for moving on the ground.
Six months after perfecting the aircrafts and creating the radar systems for tracking them, it was time to create new technology for Equus. This included TV’s for seeing the news and computers to keep a close eye on what was going on. The computers would also be a large help in the upcoming missions to explore space and with designing ships for a defense fleet if Equus were to ever come under attack. Some of the computers had touchscreen monitors and others included motion control that required wearing special gloves or goggles to operate the equipment. Some of the new computers were installed on ships and submarines to allow for faster operation of on-board systems. Shortly after getting their new technology perfected to the highest level of efficiency, which took three years, it was time to begin the campaign to explore space.
Luna oversaw the space exploration to make sure it all ran smoothly. The plan was to make six landings on the moon and then build probes and space stations for experiments and searching faraway areas before constructing a starship fleet for battle and defense.
The first two landings on the moon brought back samples of different rocks and metals. Rock samples included basalt while metal samples included zinc, cobalt, and nickel. The next four landings formed the project to build a research base. A larger ship was constructed to carry the pieces of the base, which were built on the ground. After flying the pieces to the moon, they were carefully assembled to construct the base. Building the research base took only three months, since the designers were quick to build everything. This base was going to be the nexus of all future missions to explore deeper into space.
Once the moon base was operational, the transport ship was used to build two space stations. One would be used to process communication data between Equus and any other ships in the area, along with the moon base. Thorax volunteered to man the communications space station. The other space station was the dock for larger spaceships that would be constructed later. Gilda stepped up to man this one.
After the two space stations were built, Luna requested that two small probes be sent into deep space to search for life. Once the probes were launched from the dock, they set off on their automated missions. At this point, a total of six years had passed since the initial plan to modernize Equus.
One of the probes revealed several star systems that were worth exploring once the technology to travel long distances in short amounts of time had been designed and tested. The other probe reached one star system and detected a planet with intelligent life, called Earth, but it later went offline before all of the data was gathered. Looking at the probe’s flight path, Luna made the conclusion that a stray asteroid had struck the probe and damaged it to the point that it shorted out. Little did they know that the probe would be found soon and they would be making new friends.
Rescuing the Remaining Crew Members
Millie and Melody joined the mission to rescue the Agents in the Dragon Lands, so Marshall gave them a lift on his fire truck. When they arrived in the Dragon Lands, Twilight and Spike saw Ember waving a flag to show where the Agents were. Callie and Marie had come along as well and quickly put on fire-resistant suits to shield themselves from the intense heat. Marshall got his fire truck as close as he could and then yelled to Millie and Melody.
“OPEN THE VALVES!”, he shouted after putting on his oxygen mask.
The twins each grabbed a hose and started blasting water onto the escape pod. At the same time, Ember and Spike each grabbed a hose and started dousing Callie and Marie to make sure they didn’t get fried to a crisp.
“Agents, this is Marie. What is the temperature like in there?”, asked Marie over radio.
“CALLIE, MARIE! I can’t say how glad we are to hear from you. We’ve been sweating quite a bit, but we are alright. It’s good that you guys started shooting water to cool us down. Otherwise, it would have gotten hotter than an oven in here.”, replied Agent 8.
“Great to hear that you’re okay. I would recommend that you put on your oxygen masks in order to stay alert. We’ll have you out as soon as possible.”, said Callie.
Agent 4 quickly acknowledged the suggestion and they put the masks on. Chase volunteered to help with this rescue since he had a winch on his police cruiser. Callie and Marie attached the winch to the escape pod and towed it away from the volcano so they could open the hatch. However, opening the hatch was easier said than done, because the heat from the volcano had melted the hatch, fusing it shut. Millie gave Callie a plasma torch so she could cut the hatch open. The Agents were coughing from being so hot when they got out, but they were alright, nevertheless. After taking the Agents back to Ponyville, Callie and Marie knew they had four more inklings to save, which were their parents.
**
Two hours after the Agents were rescued, Marie joined up with Ryder, Zuma, Skye, Minnie, and Goofy to rescue her parents in Froggy Bottom Bog. Fluttershy went along since she had been to the bog in the past, and she knew the lay of the land. Arriving in the swampy area, they turned on flashlights to light their way since the sun was setting.
Iris told Marie over headset that they’d seen the headlights and she shot a flare to let everyone know where they were. The path to Iris and Michael was treacherous and everyone came close to falling in the water at least twice, but they pressed on until they reached the pod. The capsule was already opened from the point when Iris shot the flare, but Michael had deployed the safety floats so they wouldn’t sink. Zuma threw his buoy to them and Michael caught it. Once the pod was pulled to shore, Marie helped her parents get out before giving them each a hug.
“We’re glad you’re safe, dear.”, said Iris.
“You too, Mom.”, replied Marie.
As Skye flew Marie and her parents to Twilight’s castle, she spotted a red light flashing on her controls.
“Ryder, I will need to refuel my chopper before I set out to help Callie save her parents.”, she said.
“Ten-Four.”, said Ryder.
After arriving at Twilight’s castle, Ryder helped Skye attach a fuel pump to her helicopter while Marie led her parents inside. Callie went ahead and took a seat on the helicopter while she waited for Skye to finish fueling up.
**
After Skye’s helicopter was refueled, it was time to save Callie’s parents. Callie had put on a life-jacket in case she had to swim and then she told Skye that she was ready. Chase had sent out his camera drone in advance to examine the location where Sally and Jerome had landed, and he noticed they were on a cliff. He suggested that using his zip-line would be a possible solution, and Ryder agreed.
“Let’s go get my parents.”, said Callie as she fastened her seatbelt.
Ryder nodded and Skye started her rotor. After taking off, Callie radioed her parents that she and some helpers were coming.
“Thank you sweetheart. We’ll use the safety light on our pod to show you where we are.”, replied Jerome.
Twenty minutes later, everyone reached Neighagra Falls and Callie pulled out her binoculars to look for her parents’ safety light while Ryder got ready on the ground. Once Callie spotted the orange glow from the light at a high point, she informed Skye, who flew her and Chase up to the ledge. After Skye had stopped and lowered Chase down to the ledge, Callie rappelled down, hammered a spike into the rockface and tethered herself to it so she wouldn’t fall to the ground. Chase deployed his zip-line while Callie opened the hatch and got her parents out. Ryder was standing ready to catch Callie, Sally, and Jerome as they came down to the ground.
After Callie had given her parents each a hug and a kiss, they clipped onto Chase’s zip-line and zipped down to Ryder. Skye lifted Chase back up to her helicopter and then attached an electromagnet to the escape pod in order to carry it to the ground. Once all of the crew members were back together, they started planning out how they would repair the Inkstar and when they would do a tour of Equus. The final plan was to start the repairs the next morning, visit all of the different regions of Equus, and then finish the repairs before doing a proper introduction to meet everyone that was with them. For the moment, it was getting late, so everyone laid down to get some sleep before they started the repairs the next morning.
The next morning, the Inkstar ’s crew got together with their cameras and notebooks to begin their tour of Equus. Twilight started off by giving them a tour of Ponyville and her castle. Lizzie was impressed by Rarity’s creativity when designing outfits at her boutique, and Taylor was amazed by how Applejack was able to harvest apples by only kicking the trees with her back hooves.
Canterlot was a very beautiful place to visit. When they met Celestia and Luna, everyone knelt on the carpet as an act of politeness.
“Welcome to Equus. We have waited for the past 4 years to meet you before retiring.”, said both princesses.
“Your world is a very beautiful place, Your Majesties.”, said Iris with a warm smile.
After telling the princesses about themselves, the crew members wished them a happy retirement before going to visit more regions in Equestria. In Cloudsdale, everyone got to meet the Wonderbolts and tour the weather factory as well as seeing where Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy went to school.
Many of the other areas, such as Yakyakistan, Seaquestria, Griffonstone, and the Dragon Lands were interesting places to see. Seaquestria was the only area where they had to put on scuba gear and swim underwater, but they had no problem with it.
At the Crystal Empire, Flurry Heart gave them the tour herself since Cadence and Shining Armor were preoccupied with royal duties that involved training guards and signing off on documents at the time. Later on, they were able to meet the couple and learn about the Crystal Empire’s history, which was very interesting. They thoroughly enjoyed themselves on the tour and loved learning about the history of the world they had come to see with their own eyes.
Twilight gathered the Disney members, her friends, and the Inkstar ’s crew together in her castle’s conference room to discuss whether or not to help Ryder.
“Humdinger and his nephew must be out of their mind. Just because you don’t like someone, that doesn’t give you the right to try to kill them.”, said Callie.
“Aunt Callie is right. In my opinion, they should pay the price. They need to be put in jail.”, added Lizzie.
“I agree with them. Both Humdinger and Harold should be arrested.”, said Mickey.
“Then it’s settled. We will help Ryder to confront Humdinger and Harold and put them behind bars.”, said Twilight.
Flurry Heart went outside to deliver the news to Ryder and his pups.
“We are helping you. The mere fact that Humdinger doesn’t like you does not give him the right to try to kill you.”, she said
Ryder and the pups began to cheer that they were getting assistance with bringing down their enemy. They immediately started to prepare for their return to Adventure Bay in order to make Humdinger and Harold pay the consequences for their actions.
Three days later, Celestia and Luna announced their retirement and crowned Twilight as Equestria’s new ruler. Everyone was present to wish the Royal Sisters a happy retirement and Twilight gave her first decree.
“As my first royal decree, I say that our fleet must get ready for war in order to assist the PAW Patrol with stopping their enemy and bringing him to justice.”
Everyone cheered in agreement with the decree and the preparations began the following morning. Twilight would go on the mission herself as a Commander, and Flurry Heart would be her replacement if anything were to happen.
After ending the transmission, Ryder spoke to Twilight, Mickey, and the Squid Sisters.
“What is the best plan of attack for this?”, he asked.
“We have a fleet here on Equus for defense and attack missions. They will be mobilized as soon as I broadcast the situation on the news.”, said Twilight.
“The Disney Cruiser is designed only for deep space travel. We have another ship which is designed for battle. It is called the Disneystar .”, said Mickey.
“Similar to what Mickey said, the Inkstar is only for exploratory missions, but we have another ship that is five times larger. The bigger ship is called the Inkblazer , and the crew is trained similar to Mickey’s fleet. When we return to Earth, we will assemble them. We can participate in the mission, along with Mike, Andrew, Taylor, Lizzie, and the Agents.” said Marie.
“Why can’t your parents help out?”, asked Ryder.
“What Marie means is we can’t be involved in the mission itself. We will wish them luck for the mission, but that’s all we can do.”, said Sally.
“That makes better sense.”, said Twilight.
“I know the lay of the land where our spies are, but I am not sure what kind of security patrols Humdinger may have set out while we’ve been gone.”, said Ryder nervously.
“Is the PAW Patroller fitted with a cloaking device?”, asked Flurry.
“No, but that would be a good way to make sure we are not found.”, said Rubble.
“We have an extra in storage. We’d be more than happy to install it for you.”, said Twilight kindly.
“That’s nice of you.”, said Chase.
The cloaking device was installed in less than three hours, and Sandbar taught the pups how to activate it. At this point, it was time for Mickey’s crew and the Inkstar’s crew to gather their troops and then meet up with Ryder and Twilight in space above Adventure Bay.
Until he reached the prison facility at 6:15 the next morning, Harold was unaware that Mayor Goodway had been rescued. Upon arrival, the guards asked where she was, which confused him.
“What are you talking about? She’s in the back car.”, he said.
“No she’s not. The rearmost car is filled with frozen rations. Also, your uncle said the train would have five cars. We only see four, and it appears that the camera footage from the back car is frozen to fool you into thinking the car was still present.”, said the warden.
When Harold looked at the coupling and saw it had been cut, he became angry and immediately contacted his uncle.
“Uncle, we have a problem. Mayor Goodway has disappeared somehow. The car has been cut off the train.”, he explained.
“What do you mean the car has been cut off?”, asked Humdinger.
Harold sent him a picture of the connection, which rendered him speechless.
“You’re not kidding. I also see what looks like boot prints on the floor. Someone must have boarded the train in order to cut the car loose.”, said Humdinger as he looked at the snapshot.
Harold reviewed the camera footage from the front of the train and spotted a critical clue.
“Uncle, I have a lead. At 9:50 PM last night, the front external camera spotted a cable that had been shot into the rockface on the left side of the train. Whoever cut the car loose had boarded from a ledge above the tracks by using a zip-line. Also, the warden here said that whoever did this had paused all of the cameras in the rear car to make me think nothing was going on.”, he explained.
Upon hearing this report, Humdinger called out to the mean patrols he had brought in.
“Your attention please. All officers must double their searches for anyone and anything suspicious. Mayor Goodway was rescued last night, and I don’t know who did it. If you see anyone you don’t recognize, open fire on them. Also, shoot down any unidentified aircrafts you see. This is Mayor Humdinger, signing off.”
Little did he know that Octavio had tapped into his radio frequency.
“This is not good. He’s clamping down on security.”, he said to Ryder worriedly.
“You’re right. Now we need to be more meticulous when going in to take out his impostors.”, Ryder replied.
Everyone realized at this point that their mission had just gotten harder. Their plans were to use stealth planes to get into the area undetected, but now they needed to be more careful. Even the slightest wrong move could result in disaster.
Once Ryder had written down all of the charges that would be pressed, he gave the notepad to Chase who approached Humdinger with a snarl on his face.
“Mayor Humdinger, you are under arrest for attempted murder, arson, invasion, kidnapping, and fleeing.”, he growled.
“What do you have to say for yourself?”, screamed Lizzie.
“I’m sorry and I never should have done this.”, Humdinger replied as he looked everyone in the eye.
“Tell it to the judge!”, yelled Ryder in a sour voice.
“Ryder, I do have one question for you.”, said Humdinger.
“What would that be?”, Ryder asked through gritted teeth.
“Harold and I put out a scanning wave to check for your vital signs after you had crash-landed on Equus, but your signals were not picked up. Why is that?”, Humdinger asked.
“We didn’t get properly strapped into our escape pods, which resulted in us getting banged around. This damaged our bio-monitors to the point that they shorted out. That’s why nothing showed up on your radar.”, said Rocky.
After Humdinger was sprayed with water from Marshall’s fire truck to get the ink out of his clothes, Callie and Marie seized his arms, led him to a cell beside Harold’s, and locked him up for the course of the night. Humdinger and Harold were taken to court the next morning for a hearing. All of Ryder’s new allies served as the jury, while Ryder himself, the pups, and Mayor Goodway were the plaintiffs. The judge’s name was Katherine.
“This hearing will now come to order.”, said Judge Katherine as she tapped the gavel.
After everyone had stated their names, Katherine read off the charges.
“Mayor Humdinger, you and your nephew are charged with attempted murder for trying to eliminate the PAW Patrol, arson for destroying the Lookout, invasion for bringing citizens of Foggy Bottom to Adventure Bay in order to inflict harsh security, kidnapping for capturing Mayor Goodway, and you are also charged with fleeing for trying to run and avoid being arrested. How do you plead?”, asked Katherine.
“Your Honor, we confess to doing everything you have listed off. So we are authorized to plead guilty.”, said Humdinger.
“Very good.”, replied Katherine.
“My uncle and I have done some thinking and we feel that it is proper to perform public service as an apology to the PAW Patrol. We will do so by helping with reconstruction of the Lookout.”, said Harold.
“Permission granted. However, you are still sentenced to life in jail as a consequence for your crimes.”, replied Katherine.
“Understood, Your Honor.”, said Humdinger as he and Harold signed the documents to accept their consequences.
“This hearing is adjourned.”, said Katherine as she tapped the gavel again.