Different Horizons-A Paw Patrol Story

Chapter Thirteen

"Um, you're a bulldog again," Rocky replied.

Rubble looked down at his paw. "How?"

Chase thought about it. "Maybe . . ." He started. He closed his eyes and concentrated.

"Chase?" Skye asked. "What are you doing?"

Chase concentrated on his memories as a pup. He focused on having a tail, walking on all fours, and eating out of a dog bowl. But most importantly, he thought about being a German Shepherd again.

Chase felt as he shrank in size and fur covered his body. When he opened his eyes, everyone's attention was on him. He looked down at his hands, which were paws again.

He closed his eyes and thought he was human. When Chase opened them back up, he was taller than Skye again, and his hands returned.

"We can change back and forth from pup and human," he thought aloud.

"But why?" Zuma asked.

"I don't know," Chase confessed. "But we have to find out. We have to find a way back to Adventure Bay."

"Chase is right," Ryder said as he got up. "We need to get back home. I don't know where we are or how we ended up here." Ryder thought back to those images he saw. Maybe they weren't illusions. "I'm guessing the power of all the crystals overpowered the machine. When it did, it teleported us through space and somehow jumped us into a different timeline altogether."

"Wait, wait, wait," Rocky said. "A different timeline? Are you saying that we jumped through some form of multiverse paradox?"

Ryder nodded. "It would seem like it."

Rubble raised his hand. "Uh, what's a multiverse paradox?"

"Well, many believed there were universes like ours," Ryder explained. "They believed there is an infinite number of universes, and some of them are just like our own, but for one or two significant events, completely the same. Records of these date back as far as Ancient Greece, but no one has been able to prove it existed."

"A universe just like ours," Chase repeated. "So there could be a Paw Patrol here as well?"

"Maybe, but it's also possible that we never existed in this reality," Ryder said. "Like I said, no one has ever traveled the multiverse before."

"Until now," Rocky said, a grin pulling at his lips. "Ryder, we may have created the greatest invention in history."

"I think so, too, but we can't worry about that. We have to find a way home and to our lives." Ryder looked down at his body and realized he wasn't a ten-year-old boy anymore. Ryder was now a twenty-two-year-old six-foot-two male with brown straight hair, warm pale skin, and brown eyes. Instead of his original vest, he wore a red military cotton bomber jacket, a light gray tee, dark blue slim cargo pants, and Midnight Navy Jordan 5s. His hair didn't stand straight up anymore but was tapered on the side and longer on top. Ryder couldn't see his face, but he felt slight hair around his mouth and chin as if he had shaved a few days prior, and it started growing back.

Ryder looked around the area. He noticed a shack with a speedboat down by the water, which he didn't notice earlier. Ryder looked out into the horizon. Now that the fog dissipated, he saw a city across the water.

"Let's go over there," Ryder said as he pointed at the city. "We'll borrow that boat by the beach and ride across the water."

Rocky shifted his weight. "We won't have to get wet, right?" he asked. They all laughed at the comment, which made their situation less stressful.

Ryder and the others walked down the trail towards the beach. Occasionally, they had to stop because one of them tripped over their foot, hit their head on a branch, or to take a breather. The pups were still getting used to walking on two feet. It was fine until they thought about it. Then, they would fall or trip.

Eventually, they reached the beach and found the shack, which was a booth. Ryder noticed a man sitting inside the booth, reading a magazine. He wore a button-up shirt with flowers and a gold chain. His white beard reached down to his chest, and his sunglasses covered his eyes. When he saw them coming, he put down the magazine and leaned forward.

"Welcome to Adventure Island, tourists," the man said with a forced smile. "Enjoy the wonders of nature with our tropical beaches, thick woods, crystal clear waters, and ..."

"Uh, sorry to interrupt," Ryder said, "but we're not tourists."

The man frowned. "Not tourists? Then what are you doing on the island?" He turned to his left and looked at the dock where the speedboat rested. "And how did you get here? This dock is the only one on the island."

"We didn't get here on a boat, sir," Chase replied.

"We kinda fell through a portal in the sky," Skye said.

The man threw himself onto his chair and grunted. "Of course, you youngin's just came here to make fun of me, didn't you?"

"What?" Ryder asked. "That wasn't our intention."

"Oh, sure," the man exclaimed sarcastically. "Just because I claimed to see two men fall out of the sky two years ago, everyone thinks I'm crazy."

"Sir, that's not what we meant," Chase said.

"Well, guess what? I'm falling for it again."

"I'm sorry," Ryder said. "But could we use your boat to get to the city?"

"First, you mock me, and now you try to take my boat?" The man asked. "That's not going to happen. Get out of here, ya hooligans."

Ryder and the others walked out of hearing distance of the man. "What do we do now, Ryder?" Marshall asked.

Ryder thought about it. "I got a plan."

The man noticed the group walk towards him. "I told you no," he yelled. "Go away."

"I tried asking nicely," Ryder said. He stretched out his arms to his sides. "Now, you will let us borrow your boat."

"Or what?" The man asked. Ryder tapped Chase's shoulder, who acted as if his stomach ached. He slumped to the ground and turned into a German Shepherd. "What in the world?" the man exclaimed. He watched as Ryder touched the rest and as they dropped to the ground and turned into pups.

Ryder turned to the man and smiled. "Now, it's your turn."

They expected the man to bolt out of there, but he screamed and passed out in his chair instead.

Ryder and the others stopped in their tracks. "Uh, that wasn't supposed to happen." Ryder noticed something shiny in the man's hand. He checked to see what it was, and it was the boat keys. "Well, I guess we have a new plan."

The pups, now humans, climbed onto the boat as Ryder wrote a note on a sticky note, reading:

Sorry for all the trouble. We'll return the speedboat as soon as possible, good as new.

From Ryder and the Paw Patrol.

Ryder stuck the note onto the man's hand, got on the boat, and they left for the big city.