//------------------------------//
// Extracting Goodway 
// Story: Equus' Unexpected Future 
// by Robert Emerald Fountain 
//------------------------------//

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.