//------------------------------//
// Capture of the PAW Patrol 
// Story: The New Era for Equus 
// by Robert Emerald Fountain 
//------------------------------//

Three years after getting their new allies trained, Twilight and Flurry brought Twilight’s friends and the Young Six to the Harmony’s dock to keep them up to speed on their skills, and their Disney allies had come to Equus for a vacation. They had come on personal ships instead of the Disneystar so they could test their new warp drives to ensure they worked properly. Everyone was doing well when an update call came in from the PAW Patrol.

“Adventure Bay to Equus. This is Ryder.”, he said.

“Go ahead, Adventure Bay. This is Twilight.”, Twilight replied.

“We have just gotten a call for a space rescue. Listen to this.”, said Ryder.

**

“This is Star-lab. We are having a rapid depressurization near the storage module. The area is isolated, but we don’t know how long the seal will hold.”

**

“What’s the Star-lab?”, asked Rainbow.

“Star-lab is a recently constructed space station. We trust the message because it sounds like a crew member, but we don’t know how a depressurization could be happening this early. The station’s construction was finished just last week. We are gearing up to investigate. If this is legitimate, it could mean something was not assembled properly. However, we still have suspicion that this may be sabotage.”, said Chase.

“Who would sabotage an entire space station?”, asked Twilight.

“I’m not sure. Most of our rivals are in custody, and Humdinger is on parole. If the officer noticed anything suspicious, it would be reported.”, said Ryder.

“Well, whatever the case is, be careful.”, said Fluttershy.

Ryder acknowledged and they continued to gear up.

**

After they had finished gearing up for the space rescue, Ryder led everyone to the PAW Patroller and set it for water travel. Arriving at the hangar for the Space Patroller, they put on their space suits and boarded their personal ships instead. Ryder had suggested this in order to take their personal ships on their first official mission. After lifting off, they ascended into space and located the Star-lab. Skye tried to get close to the station, but the air flow was too much and she had to fly sideways. To compensate, she zoomed in with her suit’s visor and confirmed the breach in the station’s hull.

“Skye to Ryder. The hull breach is present, but you might want to take a look at it.”, she radioed.

“Copy that, Skye. I’m bringing Rubble to repair the station. I have everyone else on lookout for any threats.”, he replied.

When Ryder and Rubble arrived, they saw what Skye was talking about. The breach was HUGE. What was more was that the metal was punched inward on one side and outward on the other side in a straight line. As Rubble pulled the bent metal flaps back and welded them together to seal the leak, Ryder took pictures of the breach and called to Chase.

“Chase, take a look at these pictures. The breach is double sided in a straight line and it is HUGE. I think something really big hit the station.”, he said as he sent the snapshots.

“I see it, Ryder. However, my scanners don’t show any asteroids that may have passed through, so I am worried if this was a lure to bring us up here. I wonder if something was shot at the station.”, Chase replied.

Ryder became suspicious if Chase was right. On a hunch, he called the space station’s crew.

“Star-lab, this is Ryder from the PAW Patrol. Did you feel anything before the alarm went off to signify a hull breach?”, he asked.

“We hear you, Ryder. Yes, we felt a large jolt before the alarm sounded and we saw what looked like a giant metal ball flying out of our range of vision. However, We don’t know where it came from.”, replied the station’s Commander.

“Your deduction is correct, Chase. The Commander reported that they felt a jolt before the alarm went off and they saw a metal ball fly out of their sights.”, said Ryder.

Once Rubble had finished sealing the leaks and the pressure was stabilized, Ryder and Rubble returned to their ships and they regrouped with the rest of the members. Suddenly, they got an alert on their displays. It said: “PROXIMITY ALERT: Ship Approaching!”

“SHIELDS UP!”, shouted Ryder.

He did not know they had waited too long.

As the Paw Patrol started to raise their shields, Ella spotted a cannon lowering from the unidentified ship and charging up. Running a scan, she realized it was bad news and called to Ryder.

“Ryder, I’ve got a bad feeling about this! The unidentified ship is actually a space station and is aiming an electromagnetic pulse at us!”, she shrieked.

“BRACE YOURSELVES!”, Ryder shouted to everyone.

Chase quickly scanned the station itself and gave Ryder some bad news.

“RYDER, CONDITION RED! I have identified the shape of the station. It’s a top hat.”, he said before all of the systems went dead.

Ryder felt his heart jump in his mouth. Humdinger was supposed to be on parole. The pulse caused sparks to fly from everyone’s controls and knock them out. Hearing the sound of their ships powering back up awakened everyone and they looked around with flashlights after getting off their ships. 

“Grab your weapons. We’d better prepare for company.”, said Ryder as he pulled a plasma rifle from the weapons locker on his ship.

The pups and the cats complied and grabbed their blasters before joining Ryder. When the hangar door opened, they spotted Humdinger’s nephew, Harold, with a weapon of his own. Ryder managed to shoot and stun Harold before he had a chance to open fire. Rushing out of the hangar, they started looking for a way to escape. However, they quickly realized that time was short. They passed a screen that indicated sleep gas was being released. 

After running for a while, they ran into Humdinger’s kittens. Chase started sneezing uncontrollably due to his cat allergy and he passed out before he could get away. As they ran, Ryder made a recording that described their situation. They soon reached a section of Humdinger’s space station that contained a lineup of airlocks. An alarm began blaring and the doors began to slam shut and trap them. Ryder tripped over the tip of his boot and was not fast enough to get up before the door trapped him. Seeing that Marshall had made it through, he called out to him. 

“MARSHALL, FIND AN ESCAPE CAPSULE AND SHOOT THE DISC TOWARDS EQUUS!”, Ryder yelled as he threw the recording disc to him before the door shut.

Marshall nodded and then put on his oxygen mask. He didn’t care if he was clumsy or not. He just knew he had to send the call for help. Reaching an escape pod bay, he activated the manual override and threw the disc into it. After starting the launch sequence, he ran as fast as he could. He soon ran out of air and passed out from the gas.

When Ryder woke up, he was all alone in a dark shadowy room and his boots were stuck to the floor. Humdinger walked in with a snarl in his eyes.

“You’re supposed to be on parole!”, Ryder hissed.

“True, but I grew sick and tired of it. I killed my parole officer and devised a plan to get rid of you and your pups and cats.”, Humdinger replied as he pulled a lever on the wall.

Ryder quickly realized he was standing on a hydraulic platform because part of the floor began to move downward, taking him with it. When the platform stopped, the magnets in it shut off and released Ryder’s shoes. However, he was too deep to climb out of the chamber he had been lowered into. Something that looked like smoke suddenly filled the chamber and forced Ryder to shut his eyes. As the air slowly became cold, Ryder felt something taking hold of his arms and legs. As his teeth began to chatter, they were suddenly frozen in place along with his limbs. Moments later, he could not feel anything anymore.

Chase woke up to the feeling of cold air around him. He was bound to a wall in a circular room and all of the other pups and the cats were in the room with him. Their suits had been stripped off, all the way down to their fur. He was the only one who had woken up because the sleep gas wore off from him faster. As he looked around, he saw that everyone’s paws, including his own were locked in ice-covered shackles. He was startled to see frost forming on his fur and he began to shiver. The sound of his teeth chattering woke everyone else and they started to struggle with the shackles. 

“It’s s-s-so c-c-cold in here.”, sputtered Skye before she sneezed.

“Y-You s-s-said it, S-Sk-kye.”, said Zuma.

Panicking, Liberty called out to Chase.

“W-W-What d-do we do n-now, Ch-Chase?”, she asked as she started to get lightheaded.

Chase was shivering too much to answer. Eventually, they all blacked out from hypothermia.

From the control room, Harold and his uncle watched with evil grins as the pups and the cats all froze in the cold room.

**

At the base on Equus, the Disney Fleet was visiting to get an up-close look at their allies’ equipment. Everyone was eating supper when the emergency siren began to blare. They all jumped out of their chairs and Twilight ran to answer the alarm. Mickey and his friends had never heard the siren go off, so they covered their ears at how loud it was. 

“Is this a fire drill?”, Mickey asked in confusion.

Once Twilight had stopped the alarm, she explained the alarm while Flurry Heart opened a communication channel that Neighsay had established on the “Priority-One” frequency.

“That alarm tells us that there is a sudden emergency that we need to respond to right away.”, she said.

Once Flurry had secured the channel, everyone gathered at the screen.

“What’s so sudden that you had to utilize the “Priority-One” frequency?”, Flurry asked.

“I spotted a capsule coming towards Equus and I retrieved it through E V A. The contents were startling. The entire PAW Patrol has been captured.”, he said frantically.

“WHAT? HOW?”, asked Minnie in an alarmed voice.

“Here’s the footage from the disc I found in the capsule. Take a look.”, said Neighsay as he switched over to the recording on the disc.

“Ally Forces, this is Ryder! We need help, NOW! The call we received about the damaged space station was real, but it was used as a lure to ensnare us in a trap! Former Mayor Humdinger has built his own space station and disabled our ships! We did not know we were captured until we woke up after he pulled us on board with a tractor beam. Come to our aid at star coordinates X: 44, Y: 62, Z: 79 as soon as you get this call! HURRY!”, cried Ryder in a panicked voice.

“How is that possible? He told us last year that Humdinger was released on parole. If the parole officer noticed anything suspicious, it would have been reported.”, asked Twilight out of confusion when the footage ended.

“I don’t know how it was possible. Whatever the reason, you need to get there and stop him before it’s too late. There’s no knowing what he is planning.”, Neighsay replied nervously.

“Acknowledged, we are on our way.”, said Mickey.

“That’s the spirit, Mickey. Let’s get suited up and get going.”, said Twilight.

In only 12 minutes, everyone was in their space suits, on-board their personal ships and taking off. After setting the star coordinates, they set warp drive to maximum and shot towards the station. Arriving in range, they raised their shields and armed all of their weapons to prepare for their attack.