© 2006-2007 Mayhem. CnDRR and almost all characters contained within are the copyright of Disney Corp and are used without express permission blah blah you know the score by now.


Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers: The Pivotal Divide

“The inevitability of life is that ultimately it leads to death.” - Anon


Chapter 1 – Dawn Of The Dead
Morning. When darkness trails off into non-existence as the sun crawls above the horizon. When the birds inevitably start their random twittering and rouse countless number of people in the process. When the Rescue Rangers crawl out of their beds, ready to face another day and maybe another adventure. Sounds just like any other. Except today would turn out a little different, not that they were to know that when sitting down to breakfast.

Monty was already up and working his magic in the kitchen when the rest of the team stumbled in, half-asleep, to join him. There had been a big case solved the previous night that had left the team exhausted, though from Monty’s energy levels, you wouldn’t have guessed that.

“Ah, you’ve finally decided to join the land of the living eh?” he dryly said to his approaching colleagues. “Well sit down and get ready to enjoy one of me specials this morning, we deserve it after last night.”

“No thanks Monty,” replied Chip looking rather the worse for wear as he plopped down on a chair. “Me neither,” chimed in Tammy as she joined him at the table. Monty looked both sad and disappointed by this turn of events. “Zipper, you’ll have some won’t you?” he asked. Zipper shook his head in unison to turn down the offer.

“Blimey, what’s gotten into you lot this morning?” he inquired.

“Having to eat our way out of that cotton-candy machine put paid to any appetite I might have today,” answered Chip. “Every time we go to visit Cassandra, someone gets a weird prediction and we end up in the midst of a case to boot. So much for having fun!”

Tammy looked at Chip in agreement, slumped her head into her hands and made like she was definitely feeling the after-effects of a sugar rush. “I am all sugared out,” she grimaced, “I don’t think I want to see another sweet related product for a long while! And I don’t fancy going outside today anyway after that Cassandra made that screwball look into my future.”

“Now Tammy,” Monty chided, “Cassandra has never been wrong about any of her predictions. Sure, one of them almost saw poor Chip flattened like a pancake, but what could be so bad about meeting a sinister man now?”

“What could be good about it?” she spontaneously retorted back.

“Well, I suppose that’s true,” admitted Monty, “but it’s gonna happen whether you stay in or not, so you might as well just forget it and get on with today.” Monty turned his attention towards his cooking to see it was just coming to the boil. “Well if none of you are eating, then I guess I’ll just have to manage it all by myself!”

“That shouldn’t be a problem Monterey,” teased Chip, “Let me guess, it isn’t at all in any way cheese related perhaps?”

“Well maybe just a little,” Monty remarked, “All right you got me, a lot!”

While Monty made his way through four servings of food in double quick time, the rest of the team sat slightly bleary-eyed and very much not bushy-tailed about the kitchen, letting their minds slowly wander back to the events of the previous night.

The case at the funfair had been the first incident dealt with in a week, and even that had been a random encounter because of their visit. The Rescue Rangers, once renowned as the greatest crime-fighting unit in the animal world, were perhaps losing their touch. And their fitness. It had all been self-inflicted however. So good had their efforts been over the years in thwarting the plans of those they came across, including Professor Nimnul and Fat Cat, that many of them had called it quits, given up or been driven out of town. Crime and evil were a lot harder to find in the city, well the sort that the Rangers were used to dealing with.

As a result, overall crime in general had started to decrease, as the police were no longer moping up the aftermath of as many weird and wacky plots the Rangers had stopped, and could devote more time to dealing with real human incidents. It was a win-win situation for all, human and animal. Not much had changed at the local police station, the Rangers would sometimes see Kirby and Muldoon out on patrol and Spinelli was still head of the precinct. Occasionally tracking the crime figures listed was proof enough that the efforts of the Rescue Rangers in all that time had made a difference to many, not that anyone was to realise that.

What had changed was the team itself, due to circumstance, opportunity and invitation. Due to the gradual lack of adventure and action, two founding members were currently on sabbatical, doing their own thing in the wider world. A few months earlier, Gadget had been invited to join a team of laboratory mice, with the blessing of the rest of the Rangers, who were being toured across the country as a demonstration that rodents could indeed be shown to be smart. The fact that she had become slightly enamoured with the self-appointed leader of the team during the time she got to know them before leaving may have had something to do with accepting, much to Chip’s annoyance, but there was little he could say to dissuade her, as he was still reluctant to actually show his true feelings. This had been weighing on his mind every day since she had left; it was akin to strawberries missing its cream.

The other member not present and correct was Dale, who had recently been invited by Foxglove to assist her with a project she was carrying out near her home. The Rangers had stayed in general contact with the reformed bat since their first magical encounter and over time, Dale had gradually fallen under the charms of the lovable Foxy. Though this invite was under the guise of assistance, everyone in the team just knew it was an excuse for Foxglove to get Dale by himself and spend some quality time alone together. No one actually said that of course, but the cover story was about as effective as a solar-powered torch.

In their place was Tammy, drafted in to provide a much-needed set of hands about the HQ in lieu of the Rangers effectively being down to just three. No longer the moody teenager of the past with an insane crush on Chip, she had blossomed into a caring adult with thoughtfulness and consideration on her side. When asked to join the Rangers she accepted immediately because, although reticent to admit it, she still had some feelings left for Chip and knew this would be a way to repay the Rangers’ help all that time ago. She also provided an extra notch in the list of the skills available; following an illness to Bink, she had rapidly starting learning all about health issues and was starting down the path of being able to treat those she encountered. Given the Rangers were gradually starting to feel the effects of their adventures more, then it was a welcome addition.

She was still a bit green in terms of experience however. The incident the previous night had only been the third case she had partaken in, and it showed at times. Monty had to rescue her on one occasion from falling through a trap-door, and she wasn’t quite as decisive as needs be. Chip knew that she would grow and get better as time progressed, but leading the life of a Rescue Ranger was never going to be easy, and for Tammy, she was discovering that for herself. She wasn’t about to quit though, which pleased everyone, she knew her shortcomings was solely down to just needing to learn how things worked in the team dynamic.

And what of the two major villains that had plagued the Rangers’ lives over the years? At some point after the incident with Ratso Ratskiwatski, Professor Nimnul, he of much brain and little sanity, disappeared from view. Not a trace was to be seen of any plots, schemes or ventures that involved unexplained acts of nature, robbery or destruction. Rumour had it that the big men in black suits had finally come a-calling, but the Professor had been one step ahead and escaped their clutches. Whatever the truth was, the Rangers were glad they were no longer dealing with any fallout from any of his madcap ideas.

As for the lynchpin of the feline underworld Fat Cat, the Rangers had more direct knowledge about his fate. The last time they had seen him, he had come a cropper during another fishbrained scheme, and had disappeared beneath the waves, not to return to the surface. Like Nimnul he appeared to have gone, and they had assumed in all likelihood, that was the last they were to see of him. Even if they hadn’t formed that conclusion, the Rangers would not have been able to assess his familiar haunt for signs of life; the cat food factory was now a dog food factory, and the huge golden cat on the roof replaced. With it came the surprising discovery by the construction crew of a huge stash of stolen valuables, which in due course had been mostly returned to their rightful owners. Fat Cat, if he was still somewhere out there, was sans home, sans wealth and sans status.

About this moment, Monty was just finishing up the last dredges of his cooking, and as expected had a satisfied look about his face; never deny a mouse his cheese now, especially a mouse such as Monterey Jack.

“Ah, nothing like a good breakfast to start you off for the day,” he stated. The others looked weakly up at him and faintly nodded in agreement even though none of them felt like eating at all. “Now how about we blow those cobwebs away with a nice jaunt in the Rangerwing?”

Chip, Tammy and Zipper seemed in no mood to argue, and had little energy to put up a fight anyhow.

“Just so long as that’s all we do, I don’t fancy landing in the middle of another case just yet,” stated Chip. “And we stay away from anyone suspicious,” added Tammy.

“All right, all right, we’ll just cruise over the city, enjoy the weather and watch everyone go by beneath us, how does that sound?” asked Monty.


Chapter 2 – Undersize Me
And at some point shortly soon after, the Rangerwing was prepped and ready for takeoff for a casual pass-by of the wide city they knew as home. The weather, it has to be said, could not have been much better; clear skies, warm temperatures and a low humidity, just perfect for cruising and chilling out from the night before. In Gadget’s absence, Chip had assumed permanent piloting duties, with Tammy taking the co-pilot seat. In time, Chip had hoped to teach Tammy the rudimentary aspects of controlling the Rangers’ airborne vehicles and this was another chance to show her how it was done. Behind them, Monty and Zipper stretched themselves out, ready to enjoy a relaxing flight. But you know what they say about best laid plans now.

For thirty minutes everything was fine. The Rangerwing soared through the city, as the occupants watched those below go through their normal mundane lives without a clue they were being watched. Chip had swapped places with Tammy to let her get a feel of the controls, and let her try switching between cruising and hovering flight modes. It was during one of the hovers that something seemed amiss; not with the plane but some commotion further along the street from where the Rangers currently were.

“Blimey, something going on down there by the looks of it,” stated Monty.
“I suppose this means we’re getting involved then?” recanted Chip.
“Well not necessarily, we can at least see what’s happening. Hit the power Tammy,” replied Monty.

Tammy switched the Rangerwing back into cruise mode and flew towards the scene of the disturbance. Upon reaching there it hovered, and the occupants scoured the ground below for any sign of trouble. There were a few people visibly panicking but no obvious reason why. Suddenly out of apparently nowhere came a flash of light and the nearest street post disappeared before their eyes. In actual fact, upon really close inspection, it hadn’t vanished, but become very, very small. This point was rather lost on the members of the public who witnessed this latest unexplainable incident and two people started to hightail it from where they had been standing.

“Ah… random destruction, I’d forgotten how happy it made me feel. And it’s even better when no one has any idea what or who is causing it!” The voice seemingly came from nowhere, but it had a rather telltale laugh at the end. It seemed to emanate from almost directly below the Rangerwing.

“That voice sounds awfully familiar to me,” pondered Monty.
“If it’s who I think it is, it already partly explains what all this is about!” concluded Chip.

Remember those two people who were running away? They were coming towards the Rangers as they watched on, though being up in the air, there wasn’t any possible danger looming. After knocking over a guy on their way through down the street though, they didn’t spot an old lady coming out of the grocery store with a bag filled with food. Without even stopping or being slowed in their progress, the runners collided with the woman, sending her bag and the food right up in the air. Unfortunately right into the airspace the Rangerwing currently occupied.

“Incoming!” warned Monty as the Rangerwing was attacked by Inter Continental Ballistic Mushrooms raining down upon them. While the plane could withstand the assault of flying fungi, it wasn’t designed to resist the attentions of canned food, and one such tin thwacked the right wing hard, sending the plane into a downward spin. Tammy panicked. She wasn’t prepared for this sort of incident. Jamming on the controls hard and switching back to flight mode, she managed to steer the plane around the line of stores, down a side alley and into a waiting trashcan.

“Well that could have been a lot worse,” stated Monty. “Reminds me of the time I went skydiving with a bunch of lemmings off the coast of Norway actually.”

The Rangerwing had survived, but had sustained a serious amount of damage including a large break in the right wing. No one would know whether that was the result of the tin hitting it, or the actual landing, but Tammy was clearly upset by the whole experience. Clambering out of the plane, the Rangers went to assess the severity of the repair job.

“I’m… sorry,” she blubbed, “I’ve wrecked the Rangerwing!”
“It wasn’t your fault Tammy,” Chip reassured her, “in fact I’m very impressed at your skill in getting us down in one piece.”
“Really?”
“Really! Seems you may make a good pilot yet.”

With Chip’s words, Tammy’s expression brightened and she started smiling. However upon turning back to look at the plane, she became depressed once more.

“Listen, we can think about fixing the plane after we’ve investigated this case, okay?” said Chip.
“Okay!” came the reply back.
“Right… Rescue Rangers away!”

While the Rangers had been sorting themselves out from the rubbish, that unfortunate old woman was still sitting on her backside on the street. Helping her out was the guy who had been knocked down before her. Most of her shopping seemed intact, and he was busily reloading it into a new bag for her to take away.

“Thank you, young man,” she stated, “everyone’s in a right panic here, what’s going on?”
“I have no idea,” he replied, “but it’s probably wise to leave the area as quickly as possible!”
“That I will do, and thanks again,” she smiled as she took the bag and turned to leave. “What a nice lad, you don’t find too many of them in this city.”

The guy in question though was not a resident. He wasn’t even from the USA. Just an ordinary tourist doing ordinary touristy things, minding his own business and enjoying himself on holiday. Sadly he was about to find out the old adage of being in the wrong place at the wrong time can be devastatingly true.

As he watched the old woman walk away, he scratched his head and wondered what had been causing trouble in the city that morning, unaware that someone unseen was lurking behind him.

“Awww… everyone’s run away, how disappointing. Hold on, what have we here? Well… it would be a shame to let this opportunity go to waste.”

And with that, another beam of light shot forth and hit Mr Tourist in the back…

By this time, the Rangers had run out of the alleyway and were looking left and right to observe any further signs of disturbance. Walking forwards towards the kerb, their attention was drawn to a rather small object lying on the ground. It looked remarkably like a miniature pole.

“Blimey, that thing isn’t making objects vanish, it’s shrinking them!” stated a highly observant Monty.
“We’ve seen this before,” remembered Chip, “twice in fact. Professor Nimnul appears to have gotten his Gigantico Gun back and gone mad, terrorising the city.”
“Well, face it Chip, that’s not really any different to normal now, is it?”
“Except we can’t see him anywhere, that’s somewhat different, wouldn’t you say?” chimed in Tammy.

Tammy was right. Nimnul, if he was about, was invisible. This hypothesis was proven correct by another random flash shooting past their position and hitting the table outside the grocery store, causing all the fruit and vegetables mounted upon it to come crashing down and roll towards them.

“Run for it!!” cried Monty spotting the danger early. Chip and Zipper reacted almost as quickly and ran out from the oncoming path of the five-a-day delivery service. Tammy though was frozen in position, not moving, just staring in awe at the bouncing oranges and lemons.

“Tammy, no!” shouted Monty, turning around to see she was still stuck where they had been standing. But they had run too far to be able to return to her in time. Now it was just Tammy versus the organically grown fruit of doom. The others could only watch on in desperation that somehow she’d come through unscathed. She shut her eyes in anticipation of the inevitable.

Do you believe in hope? The last remaining contents of Pandora’s Box when it was opened and all that was inside flew out. The belief that when something is going wrong, that somehow there is the possibility that it can still turn out alright. Hope is sometimes all you have left to cling to. Hope can bring miracles, and a miracle was what was needed here. Sometimes you get what you wish for.

The Rangers saw before them someone race right in front of the oncoming consumables and tackle Tammy out of the way just as they reached her position. The two of them tumbled a couple of times before coming to a halt lying horizontally on the pavement; Tammy on her back looking now up at her rescuer looking down. It was the shrunken tourist guy.

“Hi!” he said.

Approximately 0.23 nanoseconds after saying the words his brain decided to kick in, for performing such a rescue was not a rational action in the first place, and it started processing what had just happened.

“Okay, why have I just said hi to a squirrel now?” was the most immediate thought going through his head. “And why have I just done this?”

“Hi!” came the reply back from below him.

It took a second or so for reality to strike deep, but when it did, the reaction was somewhat loud.

“Arrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh!” came the scream as he leapt upwards Tom-like, as if an invisible Jerry had just shoved a pin up his backside. Now on his feet, he took a couple of steps backwards in total disbelief at what was transpiring. The rest of the Rangers ran to where Tammy had finished up and was now slowly making her way to her feet.

“Tammy, are you alright? That was a close one!” stated Chip, as he helped her up.
“Too-rah-loo, would you get a load of her rescuer now!” shouted Monty as he approached the mysterious stranger who had apparently saved the day. Clad in blue jeans, black shirt, boots and sunglasses, he was the same height as the Rangers but was definitely not of the order rodentia. Zipper was mightily intrigued by what appeared to be a small human standing there and started flying all about, trying to examine him from all angles.

“Okay Matt, get a grip of yourself here. You’ve shrunk to the size of a mouse, you’ve dodged dangerous perils, and now you’ve got a group of apparently talking animals in front of you. This has to be a dream, surely.” In his struggle to comprehend everything, the last words ended up being accidentally vocalised as he thought them. In response to this, Monty walked up to him and pinched his arm.

“Owwww!” was the predictable response.
“Well, if ya dreaming mate, then you haven’t woken up and we’re all still standing here!”

Matt rapidly came to the sullen realisation that Monty was right. He turned away from the Rangers and walked towards the kerb, before sitting down and putting his head in his hands in sheer wonderment of how exactly he was going to get out of this situation. The Rangers grouped together and started to discuss what had transpired and what could be done about it. They were talking for a little while when finally the subject of their new “friend” came up.

“But Chip, he did save me now,” said Tammy in the cutest voice possible.
“I don’t know,” pondered Chip, “we’ve never had to deal with such a situation before.”
“Now Chip,” butted in Monty, “haven’t we always been about helping the little guy out?”

Their discussion had grown slightly heated and their voices had gotten a little louder than the whispers they had started out at. While they were talking, they hadn’t noticed that Matt had gotten up off the kerb and walked back to where they were huddled.

“And like, just how much more little do I have to become before I qualify?” he quipped.
“Pleeeeeease Chip?!” pleaded Tammy as she squeezed Chip’s arm. Although Chip was always going to place Gadget top of any list made, he wasn’t above being persuaded by the whims of another woman now.

“All right then, we are all agreed on this?” he conceded. Turning towards Matt, Chip was to make an announcement of sorts regarding their decision.

“My name’s Chip, this is Monterey Jack, Tammy and Zipper,” he introduced, pointing his finger at each member of the Ranger team in turn. “Collectively we are the Rescue Rangers, dedicated to help anyone in trouble no matter how big or small.” He dryly added “And it certainly seems like you are in big trouble, or should that be small trouble?”

“But,” he added before Matt could respond, “there is something I would like to ask of you. If we are going to help you regain your proper size, then it would be not be too much to ask if you could help us out by joining the team?”

“That seems a fair enough deal to me,” came the response. “Oh by the way, my name’s Matt”, he said, extending his left hand out with which to shake on it. With this, Monty burst into furious laughter, the sort that came from deep within the belly, spiralled round the larynx before billowing out of the mouth to resounding effect. No one else had the slightest inkling as to what had caused this spontaneous burst of happiness.

In between laughs Monty managed to spit out, “There’s your sinister man Tammy, he’s standing right in front of you!” pointing at Matt as he said it.

The other Rangers were still none the wiser to what Monty meant. It took Matt to step in and explain the situation.

“The word sinister comes from the Latin meaning left-sided, that of which I most certainly am.”

Chip, Tammy and Zipper finally understood what Monty was talking about, and began laughing themselves. Cassandra’s prediction had once again come true, though not quite in the way that Tammy had imagined it. Once the joviality had subsided, the decision of what to do next and what needed doing to the Rangerwing passed through Monty’s mind.

“Welcome to the team mate,” he stated giving Matt a hearty pat on the back, “now I don’t suppose you’re any good at fixing things, by any chance?”


Chapter 3 – A Crash Course In Learning
While walking back towards where the Rangerwing was parked, well crashed more precisely, Matt was being rapidly fed all sorts of pertinent information about the Rangers and his situation. It made for mind-boggling and chin-scratching thought as he accompanied his new friends who were, by all impressions, treating this as just another day and just another incident.

“Incidentally mate,” started Monty, “ya don’t sound like ya from around here.”
“Well neither do you now,” replied Matt sarcastically, “I’d know an Aussie accent anywhere, even if it was dressed as a needle and hiding in a haystack.”
“You got me there, but I do have many British ancestors to my credit. We’ve even been there a few times researching them.” Monty pulled in close and lowered his voice so that only Matt could hear him. “Though I don’t think they fully appreciated all the creepy, mysterious homes and castles we visited now!”

Monty and Matt chuckled to themselves quietly, prompting a glance from Chip wondering what they were laughing about. Monty’s next comment was a bit more to-the-point however, and one that everyone could hear.

“I should warn you mate, that the life of a Rescue Ranger is not easy. It’s all about danger, and adventure, and helping people, and getting yourself in a lot of trouble. I don’t think you know what you’ve let yourself in for here.”

Chip, Tammy and Zipper turned to acknowledge Monty’s statement with a knowing nod of the head, though Matt’s expression was that of someone who’d just been told the funniest joke in the world and had not gotten the punch line. “Well, I guess I will see that for myself in due course,” he commented.

“That’s the attitude lad, always look on the bright side of things!”
“There’s a bright side?!”
“Hopeful of the chances of success then?”

Matt laughed at Monty’s truthful statement. “Pessimism is life’s way of ensuring you are never disappointed by the slim hope of expectancy!” he responded.

“Phisopholi… sophilos… pholisis… ah darn it, you’re using one of those fancy phrases about how life treats you, ain’t ya?” Monty stammered. “Monterey Jack was never one for looking at the bad side of a situation now.”

The others looked at him with slight disbelief, as Chip managed to counter “Er, Monty…”

“Alright, maybe not all the time, but most of the time! You don’t get anywhere by moping around. Now are we gonna get this plane fixed or what?”

By this time, the group had made their way back to the location of the Rangerwing. Clambering up the nearby boxes and rubbish bags, they were able to re-enter the trashcan and fully assess just what needed doing to the damaged plane. It was somewhat worse than first thought, and some loving care and attention was needed desperately just to get it back to base where proper repairs could be performed. Chip wandered to the back of the plane where a small storage compartment resided.

“Boy, I am glad Gadget let us borrow some of her tools while she was away,” he said as he dragged the holder out containing a multitude of various implements.

“Gadget?” Matt inquired.
“A member of the Rescue Rangers who’s currently elsewhere at this moment. Inventor type, quite a unique girl. Knew her father, best pilot I have ever met and she’s not bad at it either,” answered Monty. “Sounds like you might get along with her quite well if circumstances were different.”

“Well there’s something to look forward to perhaps. If she returns I guess…?!”
“She’s probably enjoying herself in the company of similar brainiacs as we speak,” muttered Chip. Even after all this time, he was still somewhat sore about Gadget leaving. This attitude was not lost on Matt, but he decided not to say or ask anything more about it.

“Right then, let’s see what I can conjure up for us here,” mused Matt as he took out a spanner and set to work performing emergency surgery on one battered airborne vehicle. A bit of hitting here, a bit of tightening there, a bit of a rewire job and then connect some parts back together. The right wing was a mess, though some chewing gum and masking tape found in the trashcan would help to patch it up, and the gum wrapper itself would help complete the circuit needed between the battery and the propeller.

“Frankly I’m astounded,” he stated as work neared completion, “this contraption is an amazing piece of hardware engineering and performance. I would never have thought something like this could be constructed on such a scale. Now I really wish I could meet Gadget and congratulate her.”

“You’ll get plenty of time to size up some of her other interesting ideas and projects when we get back,” said Chip. “And the fact she’s been away for so long is the other reason why I was hoping you were technically adept.” Matt looked up at Chip with an inquiring expression to his intent. “Some of the other, how shall I say, appliances that we sometimes rely upon have fallen into a slight state of disrepair, so I was thinking that you could also sort them out as well Matt.”

“And if you like the Rangerwing, then there’s plenty more back home that will widen your eyes,” exclaimed Tammy. “It’s a really good place to live, much better than where I was before being asked to help out temporarily.” She looked a little sad upon finishing the sentence. “In fact, I’m not sure I’d want to go back now.”

“Right then,” as Matt replaced the last tool back where it came from and slapped his hands together in satisfaction, “that should work now.” Chip and Tammy looked at each other with that ubiquitous sense of déjà vu and fear for the worse. Monty clapped both hands around them in a huddle and spoke down low.

“Now then you two, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt for now eh? Who says it’s going to go wrong just because he said that word.”

Meanwhile Zipper was looking over the Rangerwing, inspecting Matt’s handiwork and repairs. In the course of doing so, he spotted what appeared to be a loose wire and pointed at it with a squeak. Sadly however he put his hand too close to the wire and it connected with a spark, causing him to be lit up like a bulb.

“Problem? Oh, best fix that I guess!” announced Matt, looking over his shoulder to see what the noise was about. Monty looked up to see what the commotion was and then turned back to the other two.

“Okay, soooooo maybe I was wrong and it’s going to be exactly the same!”

With this last issue sorted, the Rangers climbed into the Rangerwing and hoped that it would be able to not only take off, but last long enough to make it back home. Hitting the ignition, Chip pulled back on the controls and the plane slowly rose into the air, the rotors spinning properly and the wings holding steady. After ten seconds or so though, there was a slight clunk on the right, and the wing dropped suddenly, tipping the aircraft to an angle briefly before recovering and levelling out once more. Everyone looked somewhat panicked at this state of events, apart from Matt who appeared to be the epitome of calm.

“Don’t worry, she’ll hold together.” He then offered up a silent prayer. “Hear me baby, hold together!”

Twenty seconds later, the propeller on the right stopped turning entirely causing the plane to lurch horribly while the one remaining rotor managed to keep the whole ensemble airborne. Matt was clearly perturbed by this state of events, clambered out of his seat, calmly walked onto the wing and kicked the propeller hard. As if by magic, it started up once more and the plane levelled out again, and with that, he climbed back into the plane and sat down.

“Percussive maintenance, the magic is all in the foot!” he cheekily joked. “I don’t think we should have any more problems with it.”

And with that, you didn’t have to be a mind reader to predict that the two sitting in the front visibly froze ever so slightly for the second time. A quick lesson in word usage was needed, and it took the old hand to deal a lesson in advice to the newcomer.

“Now mate,” Monty said putting his arm around Matt, “I sure you mean well when you say it, but I advise you to try and refrain from using the word should in our company. Long story, just trust me on this one.”

So ingrained was the reaction to the word that it got a twitch out of Tammy and Chip just by Monty saying it. This didn’t pass Matt by and he responded, “I see your point. Cutting out that word, no problem!”

“Ngggghhhhhhh,” came the response. Say no more. And so it was back to concentrating on the flight and getting back in one piece.

It was clear that the Rangerwing was aerially limping back to base, but it was holding, despite one or two more minor hiccups during the trip. It was with a grateful sign of relief from all when it touched down on the strip outside Ranger HQ several minutes later. The whole experience was then summarised completely by that right wing drooping then breaking off straight after. Chip looked at Tammy sitting next to him, Matt looked at Monty in the back.

“See, told you,” Matt stated with a nervous laugh. “I’ll get on fixing it properly in due course I suppose. As long as I have access to everything I need, and whatever materials are required.”

“There should be everything you need inside,” stated Chip, “I can give you the full non-public tour of the place if you like.”

Everyone disembarked the Rangerwing and entered Ranger HQ. Upon walking through the door, Matt’s eyes widened slightly in awe of just how sophisticated and relatively hi-tech it appeared to be.

“A television?” he asked as he pointed towards the screen set in the back behind the sofas. “Wow, I’ve only seen this one room so far and already I’m flabbergasted,” as he looked all around him at the features and equipment.

“Through there is the kitchen, where you can probably expect some culinary magic to happen courtesy of Monty in the morning,” stated Chip as he pointed with his finger, “now let me show you the rest of the rooms in the place we call home.”

So while Tammy, Monty and Zipper decided to flop out on the couch after another hectic day of activity, Chip took Matt round the entire HQ, pointing out various parts of interest, bits that he felt needed some work performing on them, and the various rooms that everyone slept in. Monty’s room as they walked past smelt ever so slightly of cheese, it was unmistakable.

“Like cheese?” asked Chip.
“Well I’ll survive eating it if needs be,” came the reply.

As they walked past Gadget’s room, Chip commented, “This is where Gadget usually would be but Tammy is sleeping there at the moment while she isn’t here.” Matt nodded in acknowledgement.

Upon reaching his own room, Chip led Matt inside and directed him towards the bed. “Well this is our sleeping arrangement now, Dale usually slept on the top, so I guess you can have it seeing as he’s not here either.”

Matt had already starting walking around the room giving it the once over, and looked over his shoulder to see what Chip was talking about. It was a nice room, with all the trappings that both Chip and Dale had accrued over the years adorned about the walls and shelves. The pile of comic books stacked up in one part of the room especially caught his eye. His attention was then drawn to a framed photograph sitting on top of one of the cupboards in the corner, and he picked it up to have a better look. It showed a mouse in the middle with her arms around two chipmunks, one each side.

“Gadget I presume?” Matt asked as Chip walked to where he was standing to see what he was talking about. Chip then looked longingly at the photograph itself.

“Yes,” sighed Chip confirming Matt’s question.
“She’s very cute… for a mouse.”
“Yes,” replied Chip, sighing once more as he took the photograph from Matt’s hand and replaced it on top of where it had been resting previously. Matt smirked, as if there had been some invisible joke. Chip looked mystified as to what was so funny.

“If a picture paints a thousand words as they say, then your sighs have given me countless more to chew on!” he teased. Chip was about to contest his opinion but decided not to because deep in his heart, he knew Matt was right. Why confirm it just like that so bluntly to a person he hardly knew? No one else in the team truly knew even now after all this time just how he felt about Gadget.

The final part of the HQ on the roster of visitation was Gadget’s workshop. Chip showed the way forward and let Matt enter first, so he could get the full first impression on display. Matt stopped still, scanned all around the walls and benches present before finally coming to the conclusion, “Woah, this is some impressive setup here!”

“Gadget only really took her most vital and personal bits of equipment with her, so anything that’s left you are quite welcome to use in whatever tasks need doing.”

“Frankly I’m not sure where I should start… all in good time I suppose, I’m not going anywhere probably for a while!”
“If you need anything, then just ask, I’m sure one of us will be quite ready to help out,” mentioned Chip, exiting the workshop and leaving him to it.

“Will do. Now let’s see here,” muttered Matt as he picked up various tools sitting on the nearest bench: a set of spanners, a small set of screwdrivers, a mallet and a hand-modified knife for stripping. “Maybe I’ll get right to the major task at hand and fix the Rangerwing. Now I just need something to carve out an entire new wing from somewhere… not as if I can’t see the wood for the trees now hah!”

And for the rest of the day, that is what most of the Rangers were enlisted into doing at various intervals. A brand new wing section was cut, sawn and shaped from a branch further up the tree from where the HQ was situated, and carefully lowered down via pulley system to the runway area outside. By examining how everything was connected and performing on the still functional left side, Matt was able to duplicate it on the new right with a little bit of trickery and the odd corner cut or two. His appreciation of Gadget’s masterful handiwork could only grow minute by minute as he toiled on trying to reproduce her efforts and get everything back to the way it had been at the start of the day.

After a couple of hours and as the light was starting to fade in the sky, he put down the last tool, wiped his brow with the back of his hand, and smiled in satisfaction that the job appeared to be complete. Not knowing how the Rangerwing operated though, he would need to call on someone to test whether all was working. Calling inside to Chip, he walked back to the plane and gave it a final visual look over.

“Fire her up, let’s see if the rotor starts and this baby is able to fly once again,” he asked Chip who had managed to wander out and was in the process of climbing into the cockpit. Chip set the plane into hover mode, rechecked the settings and fired the ignition system. Both propulsion systems gave a metaphorical splutter and whine, before the left one kicked into life and started whirling just as it always had. However the right one just refused to show any signs of functioning.

“I don’t understand this, it all looks fine to me,” came the explanation as he scratched his head not knowing what was wrong. Chip turned to look at Matt and then the rotor, as Matt was now busy tracing all the connections back to the source, the large battery in the hub of the plane.

“Maybe you could try…” wondered Chip, but then was cut off by Matt holding a solitary index finger up as if to indicate “wait a moment here”. Producing a large mallet he then proceeded to swing it hard at the rotor casing and connected flush, the collision making quite a substantial noise. Suddenly the rotor became to hum and spin and eventually was rotating at the same speed as the left one.

“I have this uncanny knack of fixing things like that,” Matt commented as Chip stared in amazement that two random acts of violence against equipment had produced a result in the same day. Chip then shook his head in disbelief, as if thinking “what have we let ourselves in for here?”

With the light fading quicker each moment, it was decided a test flight would wait until tomorrow, and the two of them walked back inside to join the others, have a good rest and contemplate the amazing events that had happened that day. Everyone was also quite tired, so it was no surprise that all decided to knock off early and go to bed. They would need all their energy the next day as the possible hunt for a solution to Matt’s predicament would commence.

The lights were off, and everyone was lying down, trying to get to sleep. All except Matt, who was still awake and in no mood to be nodding off just yet. He rolled onto his back, looked figuratively up to the sky and tried to attract some attention.

“Chip…?”
“Yes, Matt?”

Evidently Chip wasn’t asleep yet either. And then there was an interminable pause, silence, quiet, nothing said to respond to Chip’s initial prompt, the only noise being the low chirp of insects outside the window.

“Matt…?”
“Oh… yeah… I was just trying to think how to phrase what I wanted to say.”
“Oh…”
“Why do you do this?”
“The Rescue Rangers?”
“Yes, why this band of unsung heroes?”
“Well, we help anyone in need and put right what is wrong.”
“Yes, but why?”
“I… well… hmmm… we just do. We do it because it’s the right thing to do.”

Matt thought on this answer for a few seconds before giving a reply.

“You’re a better man than I, Chip. I don’t think there would be many people in my world prepared to do as many unselfish acts that I’m guessing you have done.”
“To be honest Matt, there are not many in ours who would either.”
“Then I guess we’re not so different after all.”

There was another pause before Matt continued again with thoughts from the left side of his brain.

“You know, I’ve had two fundamental, supposedly incontestable, beliefs broken like fragile china today. Not only has it been proved to me that a device light enough to be carried could reduce the size of matter by several orders of magnitude, but animals can actually communicate with language just like us. A lesser rational person would probably go insane thinking about it.”

Matt laughed. “No problem here, I’m already mad!”

And with that, Chip couldn’t help but start laughing as well. “A sense of humour… now?”

“Well you need to laugh in the face of adversity. And I don’t think there can be many more situations more adverse than this now!”

Chip nodded to himself and called up, “It’ll be fine. Now let’s get some rest.”

And just like that, they both turned over and went to sleep.


Chapter 4 – Foibles And Traits
The following morning was bright and still, with nary a cloud in the sky nor breath of wind to speak of. Ideal flying conditions, if you were of that mind to consider it. And as a promise to test the new and repaired Rangerwing, it would be taken out for a spin in due course, but not immediately. At this moment it was still early, but noises were emanating from the workshop.

Not loud enough to wake everyone who was sleeping though. When Chip did eventually rouse, he rubbed his eyes, got dressed and wandered towards the main area before hearing that something was going on in said workshop. His natural investigative nature couldn’t let it drop and ignore. Upon reaching the entrance and stepping through, he was immediately confronted with a suction dart whizzing next to him and clattering into the wall, firmly attached to what appeared to be a rudimentary mannequin. At the other end of the room, Matt was sitting flat out on his backside. He looked up to see Chip’s entrance with a smile.

“Can’t sleep?”
“Sort of, I think some bug’s bitten me. Metaphorical of course.”
“I see you discovered Gadget’s crossbow, I’m sure she won’t mind you toying with it,” Chip stated with aplomb.
“I’ve made some, err, modifications to it as you may have just seen. I hope she doesn’t mind that!” replied Matt somewhat coyly. “Ramp up the tensile strength and double up the leverage, and then, well you saw for yourself.”
“Indeed, it went a bit quick there.”
“Yeah, kicks like a shotgun now, which is why I’m currently sitting down at this moment.”

Matt got to his feet and walked towards Chip patting the crossbow with satisfaction. “Actually there is something I noticed around this place, Gadget does appear to have a fascination with suction based objects. Is there a reason here?!”

“Oh, Gadget’s not the most confrontational of mice now,” Chip answered. “She tends to prefer non-violent methods to brute force. Although there was this one time with this baby… but I’ll tell you all about that later.”

“Ah, so nothing sharp? I had this great thought about having a dart launcher, but I think that can go on the backburner for now then.”
“Probably best, I’m not sure how she’d feel about besmirching her equipment in that way!”

“One thing puzzles me by the way,” pondered Matt, “after all this time, you hadn’t found a replacement for Gadget?”
“There’s one highly charged rat we could have asked at MIT, but when we tried to contact him, we found he was out on assignment elsewhere. So we’ve had to make do ourselves in the meantime.”

Matt put the crossbow down on one of the benches and followed Chip out of the room. “Hungry?”

Post food consumption and when all were awake and ready, it was time to fly out and check the handiwork performed the previous evening on the Rangerwing. It looked, for the most part, to be in as good condition as when Gadget had first built her many years before. But then given the nature of the Rangers’ work, both planes had required several refits and rebuilds over time. How was the next one going to fair?

Exiting last from Ranger HQ onto the runway area, Matt was surprised to see that the seat next to Chip in the front was vacant, with Monty, Zipper and Tammy currently occupying the backseats.

“I don’t get it,” he queried.
“You helped fix her, it’s only fair in return we show you how to fly her,” came the answer from Chip.

Climbing in the front, Matt could only respond, “All these years playing flight simulators, and now I get to test the real thing in the strangest situation possible.”

“Ah, there’s nothing to it mate, hey even Dale managed to fly her without too much incident!” stated Monty.
“Does that say more about Dale or the plane though?” quipped Matt sarcastically.
“Really, it’s quite simple,” interjected Tammy, “I haven’t had any problems. Apart from landing!”

She laughed embarrassedly at this statement, prompting a pat on the shoulder from Monty. “Don’t worry Tammy, we know it wasn’t your fault.”

Chip turned the power over on the dashboard and the rotors sprung into life, whirling furiously, straining slightly at the casings due to their desire to lift from the ground. He gently pulled back on the controls and the Rangerwing steadily rose into the air, before turning around and gliding out of the tree called home in flight mode. Everything looked to be back to normal.

“Very smooth mate, I’d say you’ve done an excellent job there,” commented Monty.
“Thanks, not bad for a first attempt. Out of interest, how fast can she go?” asked Matt.
“Too fast for some of us at times,” he replied, looking a little uneasy. “We all don’t have the airlegs that Gadget does.”

Matt chuckled. “Hopefully no issues here, cast-iron constitution and all,” he said looking back to where Monty was seemingly a little ill just from thinking about all the previous times being up in the air had resulted in problems. As the flight progressed, Chip couldn’t help but inquire about Matt’s general status in the world.

“So… what do you do… in the human world that is?”
“Oh, a bit of this, bit of that. Computers and such. And as you’ve seen some electrical and mechanical tinkering from time to time.”
“Gadget’s always considered getting a computer into Ranger HQ, but they are still too big.”
“Could always think about a PDA or similar… I’m sure they’d be small enough to fit.”
“Hmmm, I suppose it’s a thought. Now, on with the demonstration…”

Turning to face him, Chip started to introduce Matt to the various buttons and instruments present in the Rangerwing, and then allowed him to have a go on the controls in front. With a controlled push forwards and a pull back, with a turn to the left and then to the right, the Rangerwing gracefully arced about the sky in a parabola.

“She’s quite responsive, which probably comes in handy…?” he noted.
“More than you think,” answered Chip. “And now to our intended destination this morning, if you would do the honours Matt.”
“Erm, where are we going then?”
“The centre of most of our investigation gathering, that’s where.”

“The police station?” inquired Matt as he set the plane on a ledge outside the building, having been guided there by Chip’s directions.
“The police get lots of cases coming in that they don’t have time to handle, many of them are the sort of ones we can,” replied Monty.
“So you actively go looking for trouble?”
“It’s what we do,” countered Chip, “and in light of yesterday’s events, there’s bound to be something they can’t deal with. And besides, we can also see what the police have found.”

Making their way around the building’s exterior and via a passage long since developed and unseen to human eyes, the group secured themselves in the usual spot in the main lobby, sitting on the air-conditioning fan high atop the room. There down below the lives of other humans played out like a reality show, just without the television, as they were watched unseen from above. Amid the vast hustle and bustle there were several reports that stood out, not to the humans that is, just the Rangers. Given the furious commotion the previous day, the police were mainly focusing on anything to do with Nimnul’s exploits, with many other minor incidents falling by the wayside.

“Hey Spinelli,” yelled Muldoon, “I’ve got another two kids here reporting missing model airplanes.”
“I’m up to my eyeballs here in paperwork from yesterday. We’re still taking statements from witnesses, though we have nothing really to go on.”

“Makes no surprise there,” commented Chip.

“That makes seven similar thefts in the last few days though,” continued Muldoon. “I’m sorry guys, but we’re still dealing with all the reports from yesterday’s drama,” he said disappointedly to the children. Their faces were sadness personified and one of them was trying hard not to cry. “Look, come back in a couple of days, maybe we can help you then.”

“Not if we get there first,” announced Tammy, “I would say this is a case for us!”
“Too right, now we’d better get going before we lose them on the way home,” added Monty.

“And we got another three reports regarding cheese thefts today,” interceded Kirby to the proceedings.
“Cheese thefts? On second thoughts, this is more important!”
“Planes, cheese, street signs… the world’s going mad and vanishing before our eyes,” complained Spinelli out loud to his colleagues.
“Hmmm if experience had taught us anything, then these two facts are probably related,” mused Chip.
“So what’s the plan Chipper?”
“Normally I’d suggest staking out somewhere to watch for trouble, but there are so many places that sell cheese, I don’t know where to begin.”
“If we knew some more details, that might help. Any chance of snagging those reports?” asked Tammy.
“Doubtful given the commotion currently going on,” stated Chip rather to the point. “Zipper, it’s down to you to see if there’s any leads mentioned in those case notes.”

Zipper already knew what his task was going to be, and flew down towards the desk where the case files had been left open in haphazard fashion. There was so much human traffic and no time to spare that the police had not been so careful in laying their notes down so no one could read them. Upon scanning many of the report sheets present, Zipper returned to where the Rangers were camped out to report his findings.

“This had better be something hopeful Zipper, I can’t bear the thought of yet another cheese shortage around these parts,” stated Monty.
“Is he always this worried about cheese?” whispered Matt to Chip.
“At least there’s still plenty left for now, it wasn’t a pretty sight the last time it all vanished in the city,” came the answer. “Trust me, Monty and cheese are an unholy, unstoppable force at times.”

“According to Zipper, the crooks have been stealing only one particular make of cheese… Limburger!” announced Monty.
“Limburger? Not the most popular cheese,” mused Chip.
“And one of the most aromatic of course. There’s only a few shops around here that sell it because I believe only one place in America is allowed to make it. Which makes deciding where the next robbery is going to take place a lot easier to predict,” added Monty. “Given the places already hit, I’d say it would be wise to pay a visit to the small shop out on 23rd street.”

“Your call here Monty, you’re the expert!” smirked Chip.
“You knows it Chipper, and this old nose knows it too.”

Returning to the Rangerwing and firing her up into the air, the Rangers set out across the city to the small specialised shop that was located just where Monty had said it would be. It was family owned, very traditional looking and compared to most of the others around with its wooden trimmings and hand-painted sign outside, very old fashioned. But Monty didn’t care about appearances, it was what it sold that was most important.

“I’ve always liked that shop,” he stated matter-of-factly during the flight, “especially its Brie.”
“Of that certain year?” Tammy inquired.
“The one and the same, amongst others.”
“Just as well the thieves aren’t after that then, eh?” teased Chip from in front.
“Exactly, otherwise there really would be trouble!” replied Monty.

Upon reaching the shop, there was no sign of unusual activity or any possible indication that a theft or robbery was taking place. Business was going on as normal, with the occasional customer entering and then leaving in due course with a bag full of lactose related products. Chip parked the Rangerwing on top of the roof sign of the shop and switched the engine off.

“So we just going to wait and stakeout the place?” asked Matt.
“There’s little more we can do for now,” answered Chip, “until such time that we follow whoever is committing these robberies back to where they are based.”

After roughly half an hour, there was still nothing to report. The hardest part about watching something is knowing not to let your guard down, otherwise true to form regarding Murphy’s Law, it’s bound to all start going wrong as a result. Taking his eyes off all that was going on below, Matt happened to look up briefly to prevent getting a stiff neck, and spotted small dots in the sky in front of the plane slowly getting larger.

“Err guys, do you think we have company here?” he inquired aloud, pointing in the general direction of the objects that were definitely approaching their position.

To those informed people who knowing their aviation, the three planes that were flying towards the cheese shop could be readily identified as a Messerschmitt, a Stuka and a Fokker. A strange selection indeed, something that Matt picked up on and conveyed to everyone else.

“Odd choice of model planes being flown there,” he commented, “they are all… old. More than that, they all appear to have working engines. These are no ordinary kids’ toys, they are something more than that.”
“If they are the missing planes, then I don’t care what they are as long as we either stop them or return them to their rightful owners,” stated Monty.
“There’s no way I see that they could transport any significant amount of cheese though,” voiced Chip to the rest of the Rangers.

True to his words, the group watched as the planes dropped altitude and flew in lower when close to their intended target. Having slowly buzzed past the shop window a few times, and presumably examined the contents laid out there, they sped up, rose in height, and started to depart the scene.

“Probably scouting the shop for Limburger,” surmised Tammy.
“Probably true, they’ll be back to collect it in due time. Unless we have anything to do about it!” announced Chip.

Firing up the engines of the Rangerwing, Chip lifted the plane into the air and started to tail the three model fighters at a safe distance as they headed out of the city. Or so he thought.


Chapter 5 – Tora! Tora! Tora!
The Rangers had been following their targets for about twenty minutes, and had been led on a journey away from the noise and traffic of the city out towards more rural areas. There on the horizon appeared a small local airfield, complete with hangars and real sized planes for proper sized humans. It appeared quiet and little used, there was no obvious sign of activity currently either on the ground or up in the sky. Two old-style metal hangers straddled the solitary runway, both had their doors closed and given human propensity, probably locked to boot.

“An airfield!” stated Chip seeing it come into view.
“Makes sense, a place to repair and refuel, ideal for a base,” added Monty.

The Rangers were still following the three aircraft as they made a change of direction towards the left hanger, seemingly in preparation for landing. If there was a base inside, then the doors obviously couldn’t be completely shut. Everyone was so focused on what was ahead of them and preparing some way to land nearby and approach on foot, that what was going on behind only became obvious when a shot flew right over the plane. Everyone bar Chip turned their heads around to see where it had come from. Now sitting distant on their tail were another three planes, notably the same type of motorised construction, but these models happened to be a Hurricane, a Spitfire and a Japanese Zero. And the Spitfire appeared to have real firing action built-in.

“What is this, a World War Two convention?” asked Matt rhetorically.
“What a bunch of Fokkers!” complained Monty.
“But I thought Matt said there was only one of… oh!” said Tammy, realising what Monty really meant.

Chip was busy keeping the plane level and jinking slightly to avoid any more possible enemy fire, when Matt scrambled over the back of the seat into the rear and took control of the mounted gun launcher, right in between Tammy and Monty. Monty wasn’t exactly certain what the point of this was going to be.

“I don’t think the range of the gun will reach them mate,” he stated.
“Oh, I upgraded the power of it while I was repairing the wing,” Matt replied off-the-cuff.
“WHAT?!” exclaimed Chip. “Any other unannounced modifications you care to mention in the meantime?”
“HmmmIdon’tthinkso.”

Another two shots whistled past their position, one cutting just to the left of their heads, and the other skimming the top of the right wing. “Just keep her steady, she’s almost in range,” asked Matt, though Chip was in no mood to keep the Rangerwing on their present course, and was prepared to perform evasive manoeuvres. A sudden thought then struck him. “Hold on, isn’t the rope attached to…”

Then the plane juddered forward slightly as the recoil of the new and improved gun kicked out and the suction-headed missile screamed from the barrel towards its target. It cut a path clean through the other two planes and connected directly onto the propeller of the Spitfire, causing it to stop turning immediately. And as surely as the lack of propulsion would dictate that gravity would take over, the plane slowly began to dive and glide its way towards the ground. The rope was still wrapped on its spindle, seemingly not connected to the sucker dart after all.

“Knew I’d forgotten to reconnect something,” announced Matt as he scratched his head.
“Terrific shot there mate,” congratulated Monty, “but there’s still two more of them out there.”
“Make that five,” exclaimed Tammy, as she pointed ahead to where the three planes the Rangers had been following had now turned about face and were flying directly towards their position instead.

“Great… but we can still outmanoeuvre them!” proclaimed Chip. “Now buckle up all!”

He was calmness personified, not a trace of worry or panic about his being at all. In the few seconds it took for the planes ahead to almost reach their position, Chip kept the Rangerwing on a steady path, as if it appeared he was going to play chicken with the opposition. Monty was about to interject with a query on this direction of action, when Chip wrenched the controls forward and took them into a sharp dive. The three oncoming planes blasted over where they had been positioned and careered directly into the two remaining planes behind, causing them all to scatter in different directions to avoid a collision. Sadly for the Rangers, none of them were taken out of the equation, and all five circled around to pursue the Rangerwing.

Chip was still holding the plane in a dive as it raced towards the ground, on a heading that would take everyone towards the airfield. He levelled out and the Rangerwing flew along and across the tarmac area, merely feet above the ground. In response the planes behind had descended to the same low altitude and were gunning it at a staggering speed in an effort to catch up.

“How fast did you say she could go?” inquired Matt once more, looking worriedly behind.
“You’re gonna need everything she’s got Chipper, these guys ain’t giving up!” stated Monty.

Executing a controlled turn left and banking out towards the hanger area, Chip aimed the Rangerwing on a path towards the solitary fuel truck that was parked away from the buildings. A standard utility vehicle, with a cab at the front for driving and a huge metal cylinder on the back for holding all the fuel, it looked like it hadn’t been moved in quite a while. Rust adorned parts of the framework and moss was visible on the tires. Not something that any of the planes in question would win if they collided with it of course. Faking a climb, Chip pulled back briefly on the controls before executing a perfect barrel roll and taking the Rangerwing back into descent, shooting right through the undercarriage of the truck.

In response their pursuers had been so intent on matching their course that when they realised just where it was taking them, most had to pull up very sharply in order to avoid hitting the truck and soared into the air, gaining the Rangerwing some precious breathing space. Only the Messerschmitt matched the flight path and just about squeezed through the gap, the model being somewhat larger than the Rangerwing itself. Its wings scraped against the metal undercarriage supporting the tank, and it bobbled around from the force of the impact. Noticing this, Tammy began to make a suggestion, “Chip, we’re smaller than all of them, can’t we…”

But Chip was already ahead of her in the thinking. “I’m looking, I’m looking, somewhere we can get into that they cannot!”

Pulling hard to the right, the Rangerwing screamed round the corner of one of the many outer buildings of the airfield and headed back towards the hangers. The Messerschmitt was still valiantly right on their tail, but the other planes were currently nowhere to be seen. Making a beeline for the right hand construction, Chip noticed that its doors were not fully closed, the real question was would the gap be large enough for the Rangerwing to pass through?

There was very little choice in the matter as Chip gave the plane more height before perfectly executing a ninety degree roll to the left as it approached the outer doors. Keeping the controls as steady as he could, the gap loomed ever so small in their vision as the Rangerwing raced towards it. Looking behind, the pilot of the Messerschmitt had also orientated the plane in similar preparation for following right on through. This was going to be mighty close.

As sure as thread through a needle, the Rangerwing split the sides of the gap perfectly in two, with the merest inch or so above and below the plane as it passed. However the plane behind was not going to be so lucky, and found itself too large to fit. It crashed right into the sides, stopping dead in its tracks, and slowly but surely slid down the doors as gravity gained hold. Righting the plane level, Chip threw it into hover mode and lifted it upwards inside the hanger towards the roof support beams, where it landed atop one. It was time to hide and let the situation outside cool down. It would also give the entire team the chance to catch their breath after that exhilarating chase as they climbed out of the plane and stood on the high-positioned beam.

“Hopefully they’ll think we’ve gone once they can’t find us,” stated Chip.
“And then that’s when we can slip in and POW, give ‘em what for,” added Monty, planting fist into palm as he said it.

Way down below on the ground sat a couple of human two-seater planes, parked neatly in the centre of the hangar. There was nothing else present apart from the wreckage of the model squashed between the sides of the doors, having now reached the bottom of the gap. Its pilot, a well-built rat, was busy trying to bash his way out of the cockpit to exit the Messerschmitt in less than graceful fashion, and when he finally got it open, climbed out in less than steady circumstances. In the few seconds he was clearly visible before staggering out of view towards the other hangar, it was seen that he was wearing what looked like pseudo-traditional pirate clobber.

“Air pirates?” queried Monty.
“They’re in the air and they’re pirating cheese,” added Tammy.
“Regardless of their motives, we have to stop them,” announced Chip.
“So what’s the plan Chip?” asked Matt.
“I’m thinking, but in the meantime Zipper, go check that the coast is clear, I want to land the Rangerwing on something more stable than these roof beams.”

Chip looked in pensive mood as Zipper left the group and flew downwards and through the gap at one end of the hangar. When he had left, Chip turned towards Matt to admonish him for his actions.

“What on earth possessed you to alter the Rangerwing without asking?!”
“It got the job done, did it not?”
“That’s not the issue, the real point is no one knew until that moment. Imagine if we’d needed the gun attached to the rope in a situation, it would have gone horribly wrong!”
“I suppose…”
“I only ask that you don’t surprise us like that again.”

Chip paused for effect before continuing with his next utterance. “It was an unbelievable shot though,” as he turned away and went with Tammy to check to see if there was any damage to the plane.

By this time, Matt was looking more than a little confused by the change of attitude. “Good chipmunk, bad chipmunk?”

“I think that was a backhanded compliment there mate,” whispered Monty to Matt.
“Is he always like this?”
“More or less, Chip can get annoyed when things go out of his control. But that’s just him, he’s like that with all of us from time to time.”
“We all have our failings now. I guess I’m just a bit… overconfident in my abilities. That I think what I do will always be of benefit to others. I wanted to show that I could help the team while I’m here. After all, you’re my only real chance of getting back to normal.”
“Now if Gadget were here, she’d probably give Chip a talk for being on your side in that situation.”
“You know, I’m starting to like her more and more from what I’ve heard and I haven’t even met the girl yet!”

“Hey Chipper, what’s the score with the Rangerwing?” called out Monty.
“Nothing obvious thankfully, I think we got out of that quite lightly.”

A few minutes later Zipper returned to report on his findings. As it turned out, he had been observing the movements and actions of all concerned who were on the ground, which is why he had taken longer than anticipated to come back.

“Zipper says that all the planes are parked in the other hanger across the airstrip from here, because there is another smaller fuel supply present inside,” announced Monty.
“They couldn’t move it, so that is why they have to base themselves there,” concluded Tammy.
“Oh no, only the planes are there,” responded Monty. “All the action appears to be taking place around one of the other buildings on the airfield. I guess we’re heading there and finding out just what is going on here.”

Everyone turned to look at Chip, who was still thinking things over. Normally he didn’t take very long to come up with a solution, but something was obviously ticking in his mind regarding the next course of action. After a short pause, he looked up to see the rest of the group staring at him. “Oh,” he said surprised, “didn’t realise you were all waiting on me. Right, best set the Rangerwing down on the ground and investigate this building Zipper mentioned.”

Following the short take off and landing onto concrete ground below, the team exited the plane but before they started towards the target construct, Chip announced he had a separate task for Matt to carry out.

“I’m not going in there?” Matt inquired a little disappointedly.
“No, I want you to take the tools we have and disable the other aircraft. Just in case we need to get away quickly and they decide to come after us again.”
“Well okay, understood there.”

As the others set off quietly and sneakily towards their objective, Matt grabbed the bag of tools from the Rangerwing and headed out quickly towards the other hanger…


Chapter 6 – Attack Of The Cheese
Stealthy. Rather like Solid Snake. Silent. Also rather like Solid Snake. Well, why not just call it Metal Gear Rangers instead? Matt lugged the bag of useful implements at his side as he gradually made a path to the left side hangar, frequently checking for signs of any of the supposed pirates patrolling and occasionally glimpsing his new friends getting smaller into the distance as they approached their target in similar fashion.

“I suppose I’m missing out on all the fun here,” he grumbled under his breath. “Still, Chip has a point, we don’t want to go through all this chasing again if need be.”

Upon reaching the entrance, to call it that, it was more like the other hangar, a gap between the sliding shutters but this was easily large enough to fit all of the model planes through without even needing to roll on one side, he peered around inside to see if anyone was present. The hanger was still. Still cautious, he crept in and could see the other five planes neatly parked in a row just across from where he was. The Spitfire he had “shot” down earlier was present, with the suction dart still firmly attached to the front. Evidently the pirates has pulled, drawn or moved it there manually and not even thought about removing the interfering object. Either they were supremely overlooking this obvious fact, or they were preparing for something and couldn’t even spend the time to perform this supposedly simple task.

“Well we’ll have this back,” he thought to himself as he tugged on the dart. It was stuck rather strongly. That extra kick from the gun really must have caused some suction. Levering it hard with one of the tools, it eventually gave up the fight and detached, causing Matt to fall slap on his backside again in response. Picking himself up, he reached into the bag of tricks, produced a spanner and got to work on making sure these planes would not take off once more.

In the meantime, the rest of the Rangers had made it to the door of the building. It was looking old and weather beaten, but was still strong enough and locked to resist wanting to be opened. Stepping lightly to the one of the corners, Chip peered around to see if the coast was clear. Visible were two other rats, also dressed rather like pirates, walking towards the building wall. There were some boxes stacked against the wall itself, and the two rats walked behind them and then… nothing. Whatever was there, the boxes were blocking Chip’s view from seeing it. Signalling to the others, Chip moved around the corner and towards the boxes in question. Zipper flew above and ahead to see if the rats were still there, the squeak back to Monty confirming that they were not. They had disappeared.

“They couldn’t have just melted into thin air,” stated Monty.
“A secret entrance?” suggested Tammy.
“Can only be,” replied Chip.

Walking up to the obstruction and around, they were unsurprised to see no obvious signs of the way in. This was going to be a puzzle on how the door was to be opened.

“Now what?” questioned Tammy out loud.
“Find a button?” suggested Monty.

Looking about them, there was little to suggest where a button might be, if indeed one existed at all. All the boxes stacked in their vicinity were largish, made of wood and wholly too heavy to shift by a solitary rodent. Except one, but even that looked like it would take some effort to move, being almost size of Monty himself. He looked at it, examining all sides, before picking it up with a struggle, giving it a momentary shake and concluding that it was just an ordinary empty box. Meanwhile behind him, the sound of scraping concrete could be heard as a largish entrance to the building opened up and beckoned all inside.

“Well who woulda thunk it?” he stated, replacing the box where it had been sitting. The four intrepid Rangers starting moving slowly into the darkness, the only illumination being the shining bright glint at the end of the entrance tunnel.

Back in the hangar, Matt was having a fun time disassembling the aircraft in front of him. He was midway through attacking the second one in line when there was a shout from behind. “Oi, what do you think you’re doing?” Without breaking step, action or thought, he immediately replied “Oh, just checking the planes over.”

Whoever was behind him wasn’t impressed with this answer to his question and started to approach where Matt was working. “Now look, fixing the aircraft is my job here, who gave you the order to…”

He was cut short by Matt turning around to face his accuser, and was stunned momentarily by the revelation that the person in front of him was not any sort of animal but a human. Seizing an opportunity for a little distraction work, Matt focused above and beyond their position with a puzzled look on his face, and uttered a vague “Huh?” to no one in particular. In response, the pirate patroller turned his head to stare at whatever Matt was supposedly looking at. With his attention diverted, Matt brought his right hand up and over containing a spanner and clonked him on the head.

“Oldest trick in the book,” he muttered as he dragged the unconscious guard away to a hiding spot and returned to working on the airplanes.

By this time, the Rangers had stepped into the light at the end of the tunnel. Light by comparison though, this place had been reached through a gradual decline so that it probably resided right under the building and was haphazardly illuminated, parts were reasonably bright and others were cast in shadow. Other tunnels branched off this entrance hall to directions unknown, and placed in the middle of the room was a large piece of machinery, slowing chugging away and letting off the occasional burst of steam. Primary to its construction was a large rotund metal pressurised cylinder, with various pipes and dials coming off it and the output apparently diverted towards an enclosed transparent flask that rattled every so often and contained a slightly opaque gas.

“What is it?” inquired Tammy.
“I have no idea, but Gadget would probably be able to tell us if she were here,” replied Monty.
“Zipper, keep watch while we take a look at what this thing is,” Chip asked to his flying friend.

With Zipper doing a routine round of the connecting tunnels to make sure no one was approaching, the others congregated around the strange production plant and puzzled over what it was producing. Taking the bull by the horns figuratively, Chip grabbed hold of the output flask and managed to partly open its tightly held cover. One whiff from that knocked him completely sideways. It was going to have a somewhat different effect on one of the others.

“Che-eee-eee-ese!” stammered Monty in response to sensing the aroma on the air, his moustache puffing out and his eyes glazing over in a reaction the others had seen countless times before. Before Monty could completely freak out and try to devour the glass container, Tammy gave him a right royal slap around the chops to break him out of his hypnotic state. Chip wisely secured the lid back down again and left it to its own devices, still percolating nicely.

“Who, what, oh… sorry there, entirely predictable that wasn’t it?” blurted Monty. “That was some smell though, that ain’t ordinary Limburger to me!”
“Well at least we know where the cheese has gone. Or at least some of it. But what’s with the chemical production thingy?” pondered Chip.
“Perhaps it would be best if I stepped back from this one Chipper. I’m liable to have a cheese attack at every turn if this keeps up!”
“Ah, but Monty, we want you to have another cheese attack. It might lead us to where the rest of the cheese is being kept.”
“Excellent plan Chipper, as long as you can keep me on a tight leash should it happen.”

At that moment Zipper flew back and squeaked that there were two pirates approaching their position from the right. All hid behind the warm, clanking machinery as the guards passed by them and into a tunnel on the other side, talking to each other as they went.

“I still don’t know what all this equipment is about.”
“Something the Captain is preparing, that’s for sure.”
“You think this is what she is finally going to discuss at the meeting?”
“Probably. Though something about that professor gives me the creeps.”

The Rangers glanced at each other following this small insight of knowledge transfer, and looked even more puzzled than they had been before.

“Only one thing for it, we’ll have to follow them and find out what their plan is,” suggested Chip.

Staying at a safe distance, which this time proved to be true, the Rangers tailed the two pirates through the tunnel, another couple of rooms and a further short tunnel before entering into what appeared to be the main hall of the underground excavation. Present there was a sizeable group of rodents, perhaps twenty in number, all similarly dressed and standing around waiting for something to happen, with a largish mount at one end of room carved from the natural rock. Our heroes secured themselves at the back of the room out of sight behind one of the many supporting pillars, towers of rock left over from clearing out the ground. To produce such a cavern system either took quite some effort, or had been there forever and “discovered” by the pirates.

After a couple of minutes there was silence as a largely built female rat, dressed in pirate garb and adorned with a tri-cornered hat, appeared on top of the mount. She had the look of someone who was battle weary and hardened through experience, a rat who had seen and taken on the world. By her side was the ubiquitous cutlass, a weapon that looked almost as old as she, and had been with her through thick and thin. Although by far not the largest in the hall, she commanded respect from her subordinates. Raising her hands in front of her to calm the assembled throng, she began to speak.

“My crew, our date with destiny is almost upon us. As I speak, final preparations are being made to execute our plan, with the weapon of delivery waiting patiently in the building above.”

This news was greeted with rapturous excitement and applause from the gathered crew. Their captain called for calm again before continuing.

“I know this has been a long time in coming. For too long I’ve had to remain in the shadow of my incompetent brother, but no more! It is time for Molly Roger to make a name for herself at last!”

Once again, her words caused the assembled pirates to shout and clamour for more. As they quietened down, there came a shout from the group below. “What about the intruders that were found earlier today?”

Molly’s response was designed to be reassuring. “There is no need to worry. They came, they didn’t see and we ran them away with their tails between their legs!” Cue more frantic rousing. Tammy looked at her friends and whispered “How little they know. Jolly never mentioned he had a sister, did he?”

“Given her appearance, I’m not surprised,” added Monty disparagingly.
“Shhh you two, it’s hard enough trying to listen,” responded Chip.

“Ah, Professor van der Kaaslechte,” continued Molly, “please come up here and inform everyone how things are progressing.”

Slowly rising into view as he ambled up the slope of the mount was an older, somewhat wise and intelligent looking rat, dressed in a stereotypical white lab coat with a small pair of spectacles perched on his snout and a mess of grey hair flopped over his head. He could in some respects look like a doting grandfather, but inside there were flashes shown of a more sinister mind behind the exterior. His talents were being used for a rather serious purpose, one which was still a mystery to the hidden Rangers.

“My dear,” he began, taking Molly’s hand and patting it, “things are going rather well. Our processing equipment is nearing optimisation to transform the only slightly potent aroma of the Limburger into something a lot stronger. A few test shells have been manufactured so far, but soon we will be ready to produce many more.”

His voice was calm and steady, but slow, with an air of simplicity, sincerity and malice about it. His eyes glowed with enthusiasm as he spoke, as if he had been denied for a long time and was suddenly let loose again. Molly looked at the professor before turning to address her audience.

“This plan would not be possible without the professor’s help here. His ingenuity and thought is what will allow us to finally strike a blow for rodent kind and put us… our group, on the map.” The whole room started to cheer as Molly prepared to deliver her final statement of intent.

“It is near time… for us to finally wipe Cat Alley off the map for good!”


Chapter 7 – Taking Care Of Business
“Cat Alley? Wiped?” spoke a rather amazed Chip.
“And why not? Good riddance I say Chipper,” replied Monty. “I’m of the mind to just let them get to it as quickly as possible!”
“You are forgetting Monty that you do have some friends in that place.”
“Hmmm… I can’t say you’re not right there. Ahhhh, I guess this means we’re gonna have to stop them, right?”

“Am I right in thinking that somehow they intend to use this hugely potent new smell to drive all the cats out of the location forever? And then never let them return?” surmised Tammy.
“It would probably seem that way,” answered Chip, deep in thought about what to do next.

While the Rangers were discussing their options and what to do next, the hall started to empty as the assembled crew went back to their previous tasks, leaving Molly and the professor where they were. Wisely the Rangers kept low in their positions so not to attract attention, though they couldn’t leave without being spotted by the two conspirators at other end. When all had gone though, the two walked down to the floor and started talking in private, their voices just about audible to the Rangers.

“I thought he might have arrived by now, it’s not like El Grande to be late,” started Molly.
“There is no need to worry, everything is in hand. In fact we don’t need his help at all anymore,” replied the professor.
“He’d slice you to ribbons if he heard you saying that.”
“Ah hah hah, this old rat knows by now who to trust. And I don’t trust him. Even if he did come up with this whole plan.”
“Still, it’s probably right that we keep this from everyone else. I’d hate to think how they would react if they knew what he was.”

Having finished their conversation, the two of them walked out one of the side entrances to head out towards continuing whatever their nefarious scheme required them to do. When sure the coast was clear, the Rangers emerged from their hiding place and began to discuss the situation. Uppermost of thought was halting the pirates’ supply of ammunition and disabling whatever was going to be used for delivering the noxious gas.

“It sounds like someone else is pulling the strings here,” suggested Tammy.
“We can worry about that later, first we need to locate where they are keeping the rest of the cheese. Monty, it’s time for your nose to be called into action,” announced Chip.
“Right on Chipper, though you do know I’ll be hard to control once I get a whiff of it. Zipper, you’re going to have to keep track of me and lead the others should I disappear from sight!”

Zipper squeaked in agreement, and the team headed off down the same tunnel that Molly and the professor had left via. Realistically though, this was going to be game of hide and seek, in that they would hide from any patrolling pirates coming their way, and hope to randomly stumble across the scent of the supply of Limburger somewhere in the process of exploration.

After fifteen or so minutes of playing this game, Monty caught scent of something on the air. It was just a faint aroma, but it was still enough to trigger off a mild cheese attack. Reacting quickly enough, Chip and Tammy each grabbed an arm and prepared to hold on tightly in anticipation of Monty just blithely rushing as quickly as possible towards the target. Somehow though Monty managed to limit himself, only just a bit mind you, but he jogged rather than sprinted to the origin of the smell, dragging the others behind him as he went.

Thankfully for everyone involved there were no run-ins with patrolling pirates and the Rangers shortly reached a locked door blocking their progress. Monty took a sniff at the lock before attempting to peer through the keyhole inside and beyond. What he could see was a reasonable amount of heaven-sent goodness. He twitched sporadically, unable to take his gaze off the cheese he could see.

“I assume it’s behind this door?” asked Chip rhetorically.
“Too right Chipper, all we have to do now is open it,” replied Monty, now frantically pulling on the handle in desperation to get inside.
“Gadget would usually open locks, right? Zipper, can you do it?” inquired Tammy.

Zipper disappeared inside the lock, with the low sound of clicking and rotating heard as he attempted to manipulate the tumblers of the mechanism. Monty was patiently, if that’s possible, pacing back and forth in front of the door during this, trying to control his cheesy urge while Chip and Tammy were keeping an eye open for anyone approaching who might interrupt their attempt at lock picking. After a minute or so, Zipper emerged looking very tired, mouth open and gasping for breath.

“A no-go Zipper old chum, it’s too heavy to shift?” assumed Monty. Zipper took a couple more breaths before being able to shake his head at Monty’s question with a look of success on his face. Faster than a speeding bullet, the door was open and Monty was inside, diving about the cheese in joyful glee before stuffing one chunk inside his vacuous mouth to “sample” the flavour. The rest looked on with expectant expressions of knowing what was going to happen next as they too walked into the storage room. Chip turned about to close the door behind them before noticing that it didn’t actually have a handle on the inside. A strange design for sure, but it meant not being able to shut it if they then wanted to leave.

While closing it as best he could, Chip talked behind him to Monty, “There’s no way to shut the door, so in these circumstances it would probably be wisest to dispose of this stack of cheese as quickly as possible. And then we can get out of here!”

“Erm Chip,” responded Tammy tapping him on the shoulder, “I don’t think that’s going to be an issue.”

Chip turned around to witness that Monty had finished off almost the entire stack of Limburger within the room. He didn’t know whether to be pleased or completely astonished at the rate of consumption on display. Monty in the meantime was parked on the ground, fatly bloated up and licking his fingers to keep the taste of the cheese alive in his mouth. This mouse was not going to be getting back on his feet again in a hurry.

“Do you think we can roll him out of here?” asked Tammy blankly to Chip.
“I don’t know, but we’re going to have to think of something.”

Their thoughts were cut short by a dull object arcing through the air and clunking Chip squarely on the head. Three pirates were situated in the doorway, looking none too pleased that not only did they have intruders, but their entire supply of “ammunition” had been consumed by just one mouse. Chip was now sitting on the ground looking very dazed and confused, while Tammy could only meekly respond and put her hands up in the air in mock surrender. Monty was having none of this giving up malarkey but unsurprisingly was finding it hard to put up a fight.

“Right, which one of you’s is first then?” he stated, staggering to his feet and trying to keep his balance before plodding slowly forward ready for a rumble.

“Oh, tough guy eh?” replied one of the pirates, levelling his weapon and jabbing Monty in the stomach sending him straight back down onto the floor again.
“The Captain is going to be none too pleased about this now,” stated another to the group. “We’d best take them to her and see how she wants to deal with them.”

However the third pirate was looking a little nervous for some strange reason and went to address his two colleagues. “Err lads, I think we’ve got… company here.” Wondering what on earth he was talking about, the others stepped backwards slightly and directed their attention to where their comrade was pointing to down the corridor. In a look of sheer panic, all three of them turned and fled in the opposite direction as fast as they could run.

“What was all that about?” wondered Tammy, looking at Monty. “I have no idea,” he replied. Looking at Chip who was just about coming to from his bash on the head, he managed to get back on his feet and picked the leader of the Rangers up and carried him out of the storage room. Zipper flew out ahead to see what had caused the pirates to disappear in a hurry, but there was nothing present. Zilch, nada, the corridor was empty and vacant. He shook his head in curiosity. When the others joined him, they too were still puzzled. It would be a question that would have to remain unanswered for now.

Having been informed of the situation now he was back to thinking straight, Chip suggested it would be a wise idea to leave considering the pirates in question would most likely inform Molly Roger of what happened, and the whole gang would be after them with intent. Commanding the rest of the Rangers to follow him, Chip began to move progressively faster down each corridor that was turned into but the maze of twisty passages, all alike, was seemingly confusing and leading them around in circles. Sounds of the pirate crew could be heard echoing through the tunnels, their source indistinct and indeterminable, but what was definite was their desire to find the intruders.

Doing their best to move away as best as could from the cries and shouts of their pursuers, the Rangers suddenly found themselves back in the same entrance hall they had originally encountered. The large production facility was still operating, doing its thing, manufacturing the potent gas. They may have entered this way, but there wasn’t any obvious way to leave that way. The Rangers paused for a moment, contemplating which direction to go next in an attempt to get out.

Suddenly from one tunnel appeared a group of four pirates, bursting forth and spotting the Rangers standing in plain view. With a moment of inspiration as the patrol approached menacingly, Chip took a few steps towards the manufacturing construction, grabbed the vial of gas and threw it at the group, landing a couple of steps in front before crashing open and enveloping them in gas. While they were coughing and spluttering profusely, the Rangers dashed down another tunnel to escape.

“Nice going Chipper,” commented Monty as they ran down another identikit tunnel towards who knew where. All this excavation work was certainly impressive, but nobody had bothered to signpost any of the locations to give any indication about where they led. The pirates probably didn’t know either, there appeared to be so much done. And then they came across a smaller tunnel leading upwards, and in the best interests of getting back to the surface, decided to follow it in case that hypothesis just happened to be true.

Somewhere else in the mire of rock passages Molly was screaming at her cohorts for letting these intruders get away. “But,,, but…!” stammered one of the guards in question as he was then roundly shouted at before he had a chance to explain why their group had run away. “I don’t care about excuses,” Molly shouted. “Now go prepare the weapon above in case they make their way out. I want to lay a surprise, and it will give us the chance to test it properly.”

“Ah yes hah hah, a perfect demonstration against live opposition!” cackled the professor rubbing his hands in anticipation.

On the surface, Matt had just finished his tinkering and manipulation of the assembled aircraft and was packing the tools back into the carry bag. While walking to exit the hangar onto the tarmac with the bag in one hand and the sucker dart in the other, he came across the guard he had knocked out earlier, who was steadily coming to. Without much of a second thought, Matt clonked him over the head once again as he walked past, and left to head back to the Rangerwing. He would give the plane a final check and replace the plunger dart back in the gun when he got there.

The Rangers by this time had reached the end of the upward tunnel they had been following and emerged into almost darkness at the other end at their level, with only a couple of artificial lights creating beacons of illumination in which to gather bearings. Both partially highlighted a large object, casting partial shadows across it though it was hard to determine just what it was. The light was just enough to see that they were inside a building, the small windows situated near the tops of the walls doing little to help their situation on the ground.

“Where are we?” wondered Tammy.
“By my reckoning, inside the building we couldn’t get into earlier,” answered Monty.
“I don’t like this… and Molly Roger did mention that their weapon was right above the caverns,” pondered Chip. “Whatever it is.”
“Though no obvious way how it was moved here. Unless it was built from scratch,” commented Tammy, looking around as best she could. Zipper flew up to look out one of the windows, but couldn’t see either way to determine exactly where they had ended up, before coming back down and rejoining the group.

Suddenly a few extra lights switched on inside the building, lighting it up far more clearly and allowing the Rangers to see exactly what was present. Sitting at a distance behind them, the large object previously overshadowed was revealed to be a tank. Not some toy tank, but a largish scale model of a Tiger mark II that was observationally just as operational as the model planes they had encountered earlier. Big enough for a three man, well animal, crew to be stationed inside and operate it. Behind the tank on a raised platform was another object, unknown and unseen because it was covered by a large dark coloured sheet. Aside from these two objects, there was nothing else present bar the lighting equipment itself and a few tools on the ground, the walls and floor rather dirty and dull as if no one has really cleaned up properly in a long time.

Operational indeed however. The tank started to rumble and vibrate as the engine fired up and came to life, the tracks turned slowly and it began to crawl towards the Rangers.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this, guys,” voiced Tammy, looking to the others around her. The turret rotated to face their position. “Ah,” started Monty, “we could be in trouble here.”

A loud, low frequency booming sound reverberated around the building as a shell tore out of the barrel, flying right over the Rangers’ heads before hitting the door and creating a hole in it. A hole sufficiently large for all to fit through but not the tank, though there was no way to venture near it currently because surrounding the hole was a partially visible cloud of gas. Where the output of the production facility was ending up was now clear to see.

Splitting up and then heading towards the hole separately, the Rangers were relieved to see that the tank itself was not moving very quickly. In fact they were outpacing it quite easily. Upon running around and attempting to draw fire before going for the newly created exit, the gas dissipated sufficiently for passage to be possible. As if it was neatly timed, all four members converged to their target at almost simultaneously.

“No sweat there,” commented Monty, “that thing ain’t going anywhere fast!”

There was a grind and clanking of gears from the tank itself, much akin to someone trying to change gear in a manual car and completely forgetting to push down the clutch. All of a sudden, the tank started shooting forward much more quickly. A lot more quickly.

“You had to open your mouth Monty!” complained Chip, as all four Rangers passed through the hole back to the outside and made for the hangar where the Rangerwing was parked. A few seconds later the tank burst through the door in pursuit of our heroes, sending splinters flying in all directions.


Chapter 8 – The Rangers Strike Back
“Maaaaaaattttttt!” came the cry from Chip as the Rangers ran for their lives followed by the now speedy tank, “Get the Rangerwing fired up noooowwwww!”

The shout for help barely carried to the hangar situated some fifty metres from the building, where Matt was giving the Rangerwing a final examination in preparation for the Rangers’ return. He lifted his head and gave a look in the direction he thought he could hear noise. Through the gap in the doors he could spot way off in the distance several bodies coming into view with a much larger mechanical object chasing them.

“Now what have we got ourselves into here?” he wondered as he jumped into the pilot’s seat and started up the rotors. A few seconds later an explosion rocked the outer doors, prompting Matt to clamber back out and go take a look at the situation. He could now see the Rangers close by with a tank on their tails. Such circumstances could only prompt one answer to his earlier question.

“Trouble!”

“I hope Matt has put those planes out of commission or this could be a real short flight!” shouted Monty to the others as they continued to run for all they were worth.

The tank fired once more, missing the Rangers who were busily trying to avoid being run over as much as being shot at, sailed into the hangar, flying over where Matt was standing and exploded about halfway inside as it hit the ground. Matt took a look at the impact point before turning back to look at the tank, and then mentally calculated something before dashing back to the plane. Climbing into the pilot’s seat once again, he looked over in shoulder in anticipation of the Rangers bursting in and scrambling into the plane as quickly as they could.

And as inevitable as night following day, four very frantic and panicked Rangers entered the hangar shortly afterwards and made a beeline for the plane, with Chip bundling into the front and the others getting into the back.

“Get us out of here now!” Chip commanded to Matt, as all turned about to see the tank slip through into the hangar as well and level the turret towards the plane. Matt pulled right back on the controls and took the plane straight upwards into the air, with the tank tracking their movement, the turret gaining angle all the time until it was almost vertical.

“What the…?!” shouted Chip, unable to understand what Matt was doing. “Don’t worry, I’m on it!” he answered, as he brought the Rangerwing to a halt in the vicinity of the roof structure, and looked down to where the tank was a smaller dot on the ground. As to be expected and what Matt was banking on, the tank fired another shot, the shell shooting right up, up, upwards towards the plane, missing it by inches but then hanging in the air right next to it as gravity stopped its acceleration. Monty looked at it with vague amusement before realising it could be quite useful to grab hold and use.

“Hmm, that was quite well judged then,” Matt mused to himself as he saw what was happening, loud enough for the rest to hear. Monty already knew what he was going to do with his new found toy. Taking a quick look downwards, he let go of the shell yelling “Bombs away!” as it started to descend. It hurtled towards the ground right where the tank was still stationary, and slotted straight down the barrel. A couple of seconds later there was a huge internal explosion, rocking the sheer construction of the tank itself, before the hatch opened very rapidly afterwards and the crew members, the three rats who had confronted the Rangers earlier, emerged coughing and gasping for any sort of oxygen they could get.

“Crikey, right on the money there!” cried Monty as the rest of the Rangers celebrated their temporary victory. The tank may have been disabled, but there was still the matter of getting away in one piece. Descending to sufficient altitude to leave the hangar and flying out into clear air, all passengers could see that there were a group of pirates heading for the other hangar, naturally to climb into their planes and take off.

“You did take care of things, right?” asked Tammy nervously.
“Oh, I don’t think we’ll be having any trouble from them now,” replied Matt smugly.

In a deliberate attempt to taunt and tease those on the ground, Matt took the Rangerwing into a steady arc around to head towards the other hangar before flying over the heads of the pirates and then inside. Shouts could be heard from the ground as they were spotted, but this was all a purposeful execution. Matt parked the plane in hover mode in the middle of the construction before shouting down to their would-be pursuers, “Come get us!”

Watching onwards, the pirates each climbed in their respective planes and made to start the engines. All seemed perfectly normal, until each of them attempted to taxi the aircraft forwards, upon which it shook and rattled and then gracefully deconstructed itself into pieces on the floor. Matt had removed all of the connectors holding the parts of the planes together. Cue furious shouts and ranting down below from the infuriated pirates as the Rangers all laughed at their misfortune. Matt made to turn around and exit the way they had come, flying back out into the now warming air before asking if they were to now head for home.

“I think our work is done here,” stated Chip, as Matt put the plane on a heading towards the city. Meanwhile unseen, a roof entrance started to slide open atop the building that had housed the tank.

“Thinking about it,” pondered Monty, “we never did find out just how they had gotten the tank to this place, or the cheese for that matter.”
“You had to ask again Monty,” replied Tammy, pointing behind them to where something was appearing out of the building.

Rising upwards into full view was a replica Mi-24 Hind-D helicopter, appearing fully operational, fully loaded, fully armed and at least double the size of the other model planes so far encountered. At its controls was Molly Roger, looking very angry and determined to deal damage to those who had thwarted her plans. Matt looked around to see what they were up against, before turning to face front again and muttering “I’m sure I’ve seen this situation somewhere before.”

Hitting the thrust, he took the Rangerwing off and away as fast as possible to control at breakneck speed with the helicopter thwuping through the air behind, gaining upon them. It was quite evident that it was capable of going a lot quicker but due to its size, was likely not to be as manoeuvrable. Heading towards the outskirts of the airfield, Matt spotted two buildings situated close to each other, a gap between that was on first sight just about big enough for the Rangerwing to fit through. Diving the plane towards the gap, it slotted neatly through with a little to spare on either wing, before Matt switched the Rangerwing into hover mode and everyone looked backwards to see where the helicopter was. There was absolutely no way it could follow down this channel.

And a few seconds later the helicopter appeared, hovering and buzzing away at the entrance to the channel, watching them just sitting there in a stalemate.

“So now what?” asked Matt. “I’m not sure,” replied Chip, “there’s no way to outrun it easily either.”

A stalemate that needed to be broken, but it wasn’t going to be by the Rangers. Suddenly two rockets shot forth from the helicopter, blasting down the channel directly towards the Rangerwing. With quick reactions Matt shifted the plane straight upwards, dodging the missiles and taking the gang out of their hiding place. It was no longer the safe haven they thought it could be.

“Oh terrific, that thing’s operational?!” shouted Matt.
“Blimey, that was close, good piloting mate,” added Monty.
“We’re far from out of it,” replied Tammy.

The missiles that had passed them slowly dived to earth and exploded as the fuel ran out. Given how bristling the helicopter appeared armament wise, there were plenty more where that came from. Upon rising up to new heights, the Rangerwing turned to face the helicopter, the Rangers looking directly at Molly Roger, staring each other down.

“Thoughts?” asked Matt.
“I’m out of ideas,” replied Chip despondently.
“Everyone buckled up securely?” inquired Matt to all present.
“Yes.”
“Yes?”
“YES!”
Squeak!
“Alright then, this may require some fancy flying,” Matt stated, cracking his knuckles, “hold onto your seats!”

Shifting the Rangerwing back into flight mode, he jammed the throttle down and shot straight at the helicopter, pulling up at the last moment to skim right over the blades in sheer bat out of hell mode. In response Molly turned her vehicle around and started off in pursuit once more. In the game of cat and mouse, the mouse always has to be smarter, more agile and able to exploit its terrain. However in this instance the latter was going to be a non-starter as there was nowhere to really hide. Matt would have to use the abilities of the Rangerwing as best he could to cause the charging helicopter to make a mistake.

Not much fortune in the beginning as Molly exploited her advantage to keep right on top of the Rangers as Matt threw the plane around as best he could, trying to prevent her from getting a lock on. Having taken the plane back into the main arena of the airfield and tearing down the outsides of one of the hangars, the Rangerwing tore around the corner and towards the lone fuel truck that had been flown under earlier. In response Molly had decided that enough effort had already been expended attempting any sort of lock and unleashed four missiles at once in the hope that one of them might hit the Rangerwing.

“Incoming!” announced Monty who was constantly looking behind him during the chase to see where the helicopter was at any moment. Matt threw the plane into a ninety degree roll, as the missiles raced past the plane, two on each side barely missing the frame and the Rangers’ heads, and shot straight into the fuel truck. Those rockets must have been packed with some potent explosive heads because upon connection with the truck, the whole backend containing whatever fuel store left went up like a bonfire in a huge detonation. Correcting the plane back rightwards, Matt had barely enough time to haul it upwards and over the flames. In fact, the Rangerwing shot through the top part of the burning vehicle like some lion at the circus with a flaming hoop.

“Woah, we got a little cooked there!” worried Monty, patting himself down in case any part of it had happened to catch alight. “But we’re alright still… for now,” corrected Tammy, furtively scanning the Rangerwing in case any of it had started burning. In pulling up and gaining altitude, Matt looked behind him to see the helicopter rise above the flames but at a slower rate than the Rangerwing was capable of achieving. Seeing this gave him an idea.

“Hold on everybody, we’re going vertical!” he exclaimed.
“Vert.. waddahesay?!” cried Monty.
“Don’t worry… saw this in a film once!”

Pulling back and taking the plane into a steep climb, he continued to hold the controls and narrow the angle, putting the Rangerwing up and then around into a loop. To this end, the helicopter foolishly was trying to follow, but as the laws of physics dictate, helicopters can’t really do vertical rolls now. As the Rangerwing went horizontal once more at the peak of the arc but now underside down, belts straining slightly as gravity attempted to haul the passengers downwards, especially Monty, there were frantic cries of terror from all but the supremely calm person handling the controls.

Coming back around to complete the circle, the Rangers looked upwards to see the helicopter was almost stuck in position, floating somewhat vertical in the sky, neither coming nor going. There was only one thing left to do now.

“Monty, aim for the tail rotor!” shouted Matt.

Unbuckling himself as Matt held the Rangerwing in position, Monty turned around, grabbed the controls to the gun and aimed at the helicopter. After a few seconds it let loose the shot, and connected directly with the spinning blade on the end, causing it to stop and send the helicopter, and Molly with it, spiralling downwards at an increasingly rapid rate. The Rangers tracked its progress earthwards while holding steady, until it crashed spectacularly into the ground.

“And remember, falling doesn’t hurt you, it’s the sudden stop at the end that does,” quipped Matt.

A few seconds later, Molly could be seen exiting the wreckage and stumbling out in a daze, before regaining her composure and spotting the Rangerwing above, unleashed some inaudible expletives in the process. This mission was now officially over.

“Now can we go home?” asked Tammy.

Matt shifted the Rangerwing back into flight mode and set a course towards the city and the park where Ranger HQ was located, leaving the airfield and the events that occurred there behind.

“I’m going to need a good rest after today,” commented Matt. “How does this compare to normal?”
“By comparison, today was rather an easy affair,” replied Monty, causing Matt to look worried about just how he would survive long enough to regain his size. “But yeah, I think we’re all going to need to relax after all this airborne excitement.”

Meanwhile back on the ground, Molly had almost made her way back to the building where her precious contraptions had once stood when she ran into someone.

“Oh… it’s you. I was expecting to see you earlier.”
“I was… around. I see things turned out the way I was expecting them to.”
“You expected this?”
“Indeed, especially when they are involved.”
“So where do we go from here?”
“Oh I don’t think you need concern yourself with that. Like the professor already, there is no need for you to worry about anything anymore.”

The only thing highlighted in Molly’s eyes was sheer terror.


Chapter 9 – Integration Personified
For the next few days, life at Ranger HQ was quiet by comparison with very little happening or of note to report, except for another random outbreak of shrinkage from Nimnul that once again made the news but caught the Rangers off guard and so were unable to do anything about it or track his whereabouts. Even spending the following day at the police station again yielded little new evidence, and no new other cases they could investigate either. Chip reassured Matt that they would find him eventually, and that he would return to his rightful place in the world, though he wasn’t ever-so-sure about that. He also thought back to their aerial adventure and couldn’t help but think he’d heard the professor’s voice somewhere before, way in the past. In the meantime, Matt spent his time fixing and repairing certain areas of the HQ, seeing how wonderful all this micro-technology was being employed for the benefit of rodents. He also spent it recovering from his first adventure and assessing his place in this new world of existence, one that was small and where he now had to look up at his fellow man.

During such time Chip decided to have a chat with Matt, to see how he thought he was fitting in with such a radical new lifestyle and to assess just what sort of a person he had decided to let join the Rescue Rangers. Matt didn’t strike him as the type who liked to work in a team.

“Hey Matt,” Chip interrupted while he was in the middle of some electronic tinkering, “how are things going at the moment?”
“Not bad,” came the reply, “I’m almost done with this… I think.”
“And around here?”
“It’s… pretty good. It’s still going to take a while to get used to being this way though, everything so big by comparison. It all looks so easy on the other side of the coin.”

“Listen, I didn’t get around to congratulating your flying skills a few days ago.”
“Skills? Hardly, I was winging it, literally, most of the way there. How we got out of that, I’m not sure. Anyhow I am sure you would have handled it fine had I not been there.”
“You,” stated Chip patting him on the shoulder, “put yourself down too much at times.”
“I figure the only person who can truly assess your own worth is yourself. It helps being a bit of a lone wolf in life.”
“Which brings me to my other concern about how well you can work in a team such as ours.”
“Ah… making decisions usually only comes down to choosing what to do yourself most of the time.”
“Exactly. While you’re here I hope you consider letting people know before doing something.”
“Fair enough, though you know what they say about old dogs and new tricks now.”

“Hmmm,” pondered Chip, “something often levelled at humans from our experience.”
“They don’t change? Seriously, now that I’m looking at things from your perspective, how do you see us in the world we live in?”
“You may be, or may not be depending on your line of thought, surprised to learn that the animals down here have many of the same fundamental flaws and weaknesses as humans. Most humans are fine, it’s the ones who display an overt sense of madness, greed, selfishness or malice that we have to concern ourselves with. Similarly such animals exist in our smaller universe. The only difference is taking on the humans requires a lot more cunning and trickery due to their rather obvious size advantage!”
“Like Nimnul?”
“Amongst others. Professor Nimnul was one repeating annoyance we had hoped had disappeared for good, but he is apparently back and little has changed. We had a similarly perennial enemy in our world too, but he’s thankfully gone and not returned.”

“Regardless of such differences, it’s just as well you can understand me, otherwise I’d be right in it.”
“Understanding what humans are saying yes, but actually understanding them? I don’t think we will ever figure out all your quirks.”

While talking Matt was occasionally dabbling back and forth rewiring a circuit, and got partially distracted with all the chatter. Misplacing his finger slightly, a sudden jolt of electricity shot through his hand. “Ack… shocking!” he muttered as he jerked his hand back in reaction and flexed his fingers to make sure they all still responded.

“I’m rather pleased you’re able to cover some of Gadget’s technical know-how while she is away. Not having her here had left rather a sizeable gap to fill,” stated Chip.
“I’ve heard so much about her since running into you guys, she sounds rather unique.”
“She’s one in a million, or billion at that,” replied Chip wistfully with a noticeable twinkle in his eye.

Matt couldn’t help but chuckle at this moment. “Face it,” he said, “you like her. And not just for being an integral member of the Rescue Rangers,” pointing a finger directly at Chip, who declined to reply to his statement. “Your silence speaks volumes, you know that?” he laughed again. Chip by now was getting more than a little riled at the emotional teasing but remained stoic and apparently unmoved by Matt’s words.

“Okay, level with me here, I am right, am I not?”
“Maybe. All right, you’re warm. But keep it to yourself.”
“My lips are silent on this matter. Why however?”
“Gadget has always seemed married to her work here. One wonders if she really takes her mind off that long enough to let her heart communicate with her brain.”
“I get it, you’ve got absolutely no clue on this planet how she feels about you.”
“Correct. And if I do something it could possible jeopardise the entire group if I’m reading it incorrectly.”
“Been there myself, and royally screwed things up by guessing wrong.”
“So you know why it has to be this way.”
“For now. Hey, things may change in the future at least.”
“Where did that fit of optimism spring from?”
“I allow myself that if I happen to be talking about other people. Myself on the other hand…”
“Take a break for a second and let me tell you a story…”

Matt sat down and Chip related over the best part of the next hour the wonderful, incredible, unbelievable tale of how all the founder members of the Rescue Rangers came together and how they were able to solve their first big crime together. While Chip was in the grips of storytelling mode, Matt couldn’t help but run through a gamut of emotions as it progressed, and commented that it would make for a terrific book, if only there was really a feasible way for it to get published without letting the whole world know about the Rescue Rangers.

“So any weird news items turned good I happen to hear about, I should consider it may have a touch of rodent interference about it then?” chuckled Matt.
“You could say that!”
“And if you end up splashed across the front of Time magazine in the future?”
“I shudder to think of the consequences. I’m just glad we’re completely invisible to most humans.”

Matt’s thoughts turned back through the story, and decided to focus themselves on one particular aspect Chip had unwittingly been keen to describe in just a bit more detail than expected.

“So you and Dale… and Gadget. And certain first impressions.”
“That stepping out of the strange defence contraption,” began Chip, blissfully unaware in his recollection that Matt was deliberately encouraging him to be as verbose as possible, “like some supernatural alien, then taking off her helmet to reveal this gorgeous mouse with flowing blonde hair and eyes you could drown in and…”

Chip’s brain suddenly got the message through that he was rambling on and once again giving away far too much information. Matt looked at him with a smirk on his face and asked, “Shall I take the shovel from you now, or do you want to keep digging?”

Chip clammed up for a few seconds before continuing along a line of more logical reasoning. “Dale was pretty gaga about Gadget as well I should clarify. And then Foxglove came along and the rest is, well, her doing to lead Dale’s heart in her direction!”

“I have a feeling I know what’s coming next.”
“Probably. Dale and I used to compete in everything to try and gain just a little of Gadget’s appreciation, affection and thought. It was pretty intense at times looking back, but that’s what can happen when you felt like we did. With Dale now taken out of the picture, it’s made controlling myself harder in the light of no competition.”
“No competition… except for why she’s not here currently.”
“Did Monty tell you about that? Yeah, she seems to have a thing for anyone scientific. It associated them with her work no doubt.”

“By that virtue she’d be interested in me then,” Matt joked rather non-seriously. Chip was taking the comment far more seriously than Matt was giving him credit for, but declined to elaborate further. Seeing this, Matt decided to change the subject back to that related to his predicament.

“So… tell me more about this Nimnul bloke, sounds like a recurring pain in the proverbials to me.”
“That’s one way of putting it. This is the third time we’ve had to deal with the results of his Gigantico Gun…”
“Gigantico Gun? Is that what it’s called?” butted in Matt to Chip’s words.
“Nimnul’s own words, not ours. The first time he turned ordinary pillbugs into supposed aliens from outer space in order to steal gold, the second time it was stolen and used by a local mobster to steal local buildings to use for his daughter’s playroom.”
“If I wasn’t sitting here in this situation, I’d scarcely believe either story to be honest.”
“That’s the way it goes, we get to deal with the mind-bogglingly strange a lot of the time.”
“Needless to say despite it being stolen, Nimnul must have gotten his hands back on the gun somehow.”
“True… that’s one thing I can’t explain how!”
“Still, am I right in thinking therefore it has the power to both shrink and enlarge?”
“Yes. And before you say it, that’s why we need it to get you back to normal. We did have our hands on it once… boy was that an experience. I really wish we hadn’t left it behind.”

Matt pondered this for a moment before replying. “So step one, find Nimnul. Step two, secure the gun. Nice easy plan. Shame step one’s a real doozy.”
“Ah, don’t fret he’s bound to turn up again. Experience tells me he always will.”

Chip turned and left Matt to his own devices, to carry on doing his small repair jobs. In due course, Tammy happened to run across him, needing assistance to fix a faulty switch in Gadget’s room as there was no light coming on to illuminate the soon-to-appear darkness.

“Hey Matt!”
“Ah Tammy, how goes things?”
“Darkly it would appear, there’s no light in Gadget’s room, would you care to take a look at it?”
“Lovely, why throw away another superb opportunity to electrocute myself today.”
“You mean you won’t…”
“Of course I will… sorry there, sometimes it’s hard to rein in the sardonic side of my nature.”

Upon reaching Gadget’s room and walking inside, Matt took a good look around at its furnishings and design given that it was one place Chip had not shown him during the earlier tour, thinking it would maybe yield more clues towards what sort of person Gadget was. Your typical expected girlie type of room it was not. Aside from the occasional little flourish, a certain colour chosen here, a slight flowery or lacy moment there, it would be hard to tell that a girl actually resided inside. These were offset by the spilling over of Gadget’s true life, that of a mechanic and inventor, in parts with the occasional tool, half-completed idea or blueprint haphazardly placed about the room. It would seem Tammy had left Gadget’s own property completely alone and not touched it since moving in, with her own items neatly stacked in one place out of the way.

At times like these you make your own tools. Matt grasped a shrunken Swiss Army knife in his hands, for it was on his person when he had been zapped by Nimnul, and got to work with the screwdriver blade. While fiddling with the front plate and doing his best to avoid getting a second jolt that day, Matt began wondering just why he was doing this with the power on. Banishing them from his mind, he turned his attention onto the fact the job seemed reasonably easy now he could see it was only a loose wire that needed reattaching. The thoughts replacing them happened to be regarding Tammy’s recent enlistment into the Rescue Rangers, and whether her experiences had matched his.

“So Tammy… how is this new lifestyle treating you?” he asked while switching over to a new attachment on the utility knife.
“It’s great, I’m really enjoying it,” she replied earnestly.
“Despite the life threatening situations?”
“Now you’re teasing… but thanks,” she smiled in appreciation.
“I’m assuming that’s for what I think it’s for.”
“Yes… the day you ran into us. Me, literally.”
“Makes me wonder if I’ll survive long enough to make it back,” he stated bluntly.
“No different to when I first ran into the Rangers years ago. Or more precisely they almost ran into me, as they gatecrashed our house and rendered it a mess.”
“Some entrance!”
“And from then on, things have never been quite the same, given the risks myself and my sister Bink put ourselves in trying to help.”
“So why come back?”
“Truthfully? I saw that my life was in a rut. Having Chip suddenly ask me to help has given it a new start, I had little reason to say no to his request. Back then when I was just a teenager it seemed all so exciting and new. I’m not regretting this for one second.”
“To be honest, I think I’m beginning to see the appeal. Normal life would seem rather staid by comparison to this existence, and that’s coming from me as a human.”
“You know,” she chuckled, “your entrance into my life was rather similar to that of Chip come to think of it. All big and heroic!” as she latched onto Matt’s right arm and squeezed up to him.
“Eeeep!” came the response, he didn’t see that one coming.
“Don’t worry, just teasing you now.”
“You still like him, don’t you?”
“Oh… maybe, just a bit. It was a silly crush when I was young, I can see having grown up what everyone provides to the team. Chip’s the leader, he is really the only one who can do it.”

Matt was just about done correcting the problem and was putting the screws back into the fixture with Tammy watching on intently during the entire procedure, maybe thinking she could pick up a thing or two about basic maintenance. Matt flicked his eyes right every so often, keeping an eye on Tammy watching him as he had fiddled with the clips and wires.

“So where’s Bink at the moment?”
“She’s still at home living with mom, she’s quite a bit younger than me.”
“Oh, didn’t realise that.”
“When I told her that I was coming here, she got all excited and started dancing around. I think she’d like to be part of the Rescue Rangers when she’s old enough.”
“Kids and their dreams, eh?”
“If you can live them of course.”

The following morning, with activity going on bright and early, Chip and Tammy were out in the Rangerplane looking to secure some food supplies while Monty and Zipper were occupied with creating some room for the new stock to be stored away. In other words, happily munching their way through an extended breakfast. Having eaten already, Matt was busying himself with a new invention of his own design in the workshop, but it wasn’t quite working out as planned. Like all good designs, it was experiencing a few technical difficulties, some of which had left him with a few bruises to show for it. He figured it may need a different set of eyes looking over it to find out where he was going wrong.

In the midst of all this, the front door sprang wide open all of a sudden. Someone was about to make an entrance.


Chapter 10 – Return Of A Genius
Standing there in the doorway with a look of outrage and fury on her face, her clothes dirtied and grubby, her figure still as shaped as it ever was and with a collection of tools slung over her shoulder was a very familiar person to all who lived there. Her hair was slightly straggled but still as beautiful as it was want to be, and she maintained a dignified stance despite all that appeared at first glance to have happened to her. Hearing the clatter of the door opening so quickly, Monty and Zipper stopping eating and went to investigate the noise. Their response was to be both surprised and puzzled at the same time to what they saw before them.

“Gadget love! Welcome…” began Monty in delight with open arms as he then watched Gadget walk into the Ranger HQ and past him without even batting an eyelid to his greeting. “…back?!” he continued as his words dropped off in bemusement to her indifference. Gadget however was completely caught up in her own world of frustration and was about to unleash, dropping the tools on the floor with a loud clank. “I think she’s about to go off on one,” Monty whispered to Zipper who nodded in agreement. Gadget turned around and continued to pace about, building up to a moment where she would finally reveal what was going on in her head.

“Arrrrrgggghhhhh…. MEN!” she screamed, right in the direction of Monty and Zipper, who took no offence at her outburst. “I take it things didn’t quite go as planned?” inquired Monty. “Does it look like they went as planned?!” she cried back using her hands to illustrate the current state of her clothing, before realising she was going way over the top in the faces of her two friends and decided to calm down somewhat. There followed a large sigh of acceptance before continuing with her explanation.

“I take my eye off my work for one second, just one second you know, and look where it gets me,” she started to ramble off to no one in particular, even though Monty and Zipper were listening intently to her words. “I know Chip and Dale always liked me from the start, but I didn’t heed it too much because I was so focused on my work. It kept my mind from thinking about that too much because it might have upset our group dynamic. But here I get the opportunity to spend time with someone who’s on my level and I thought I liked and trusted, and this is the result.”

“So what happened Gadget?”
“Real smooth talker that Maurice now I find. He seemed so interested in me, and I let my heart fall right into his trap.”
“So he wasn’t?”
“Oh he was all right, interested in my abilities to make and create wonderful mechanical marvels. At first I put it down to misunderstanding my feelings, but as time went on I realised all he wanted me there for was to pick up the slack of the rest of the group. By the time I quit two weeks ago, I was doing all of the work and the rest of them were being completely idle!”

“Two weeks?”
“We were halfway across America by that time. Even I can’t travel that quickly and return home, having to improvise every step of the way, but you know I’ve done that before for us on missions.”
“Too right, ain’t nothing that can stop you now Gadget love!”
“Of course as you can see, I’m a little worse for wear being on the road for that long.”

Gadget chuckled slightly at her predicament, in vast contrast to her previous mood before. “I must look like some vagrant who’s wandered off the street. Good job everyone else isn’t seeing me like this,” while looking around. Monty figured now would be the time to mention things that had changed since she had departed.

“Well Chip and Tammy are out currently, so you don’t have to worry about them.”
“Golly, Tammy’s here?!” came the surprised reply.
“Dale’s gone off to see Foxglove for a while so we asked her to join us temporarily. Speaking of which she’s in your room currently, so we’ll have to figure out some new arrangements.”
“We can worry about that later, all I want for now is to drop my tools off and then take a long shower!”

Gadget picked her tools back up and departed the room, making her way towards the workshop. After she had left, Zipper realised something and made to tell Monty what he’d overlooked.

“What’s that Zipper? The workshop?” Monty then understood what Zipper was going on about and looked a bit worried. ”I completely forgot to tell Gadget about Matt. I bet he’s in there now. What do you think her reaction will be?” To this Zipper shook his head in thinking it may come as a bit of a shock.

As Gadget returned to her true home, her workshop, location of all things magical and creative, she was humming a tune softly to herself and glad she was back where she belonged, in the place she knew so well and with the friends that she loved so dearly. She dropped the collection of tools on the floor and was starting to put them back where they belonged when she noticed that the workshop looked a little tidier than when she had left. Actually thinking about it, it was a lot more tidy.

In response to the noise caused from dropping the tools, a head popped up from behind one of the worktables to see what was going on. It was now that Matt saw Gadget for the first time and realised that not only did the photo not do her justice, but why Chip seemed so smitten over her. He also decided this was as good a time as any to introduce himself. “Hi there, I guess you must be Gadget!”

He wasn’t anticipating the reaction he was about to get. Gadget yelled rather loudly in shock and surprise and ran right out of the workshop, back where she had come from, heading towards Monty and Zipper once again. Hearing this Monty turned to Zipper and concluded, “I guess you were right there pally.”

A few seconds later Gadget entered where they still were standing, zoomed right past and leapt behind the sofa area in mock hiding fashion, peering over the top like some petrified sentry. “Sorry about that Gadget love,” Monty stated, “I forgot to mention there’s someone else here at the moment. Someone a bit, well, different to normal.”

Shortly thereafter Matt walked in to join them, looking curious and tentative around the corner especially after what had just happened, and went up to Monty who spoke low enough so Gadget couldn’t hear him, “Do you have this effect on all the women mate?”

“Only the good looking ones,” Matt replied dryly with a certain amount of truth to his answer. Seeing Monty talking to Matt, Gadget clambered out of where she was and walked up to properly greet now that she was a bit more calm about this strange situation.

“Golly, a small human, wow this is so bizarre, how did you get like this, no wait don’t tell me, let me guess… a freak radioactive accident? No that can’t be it, gosh it makes no real sense unless… nah can’t be that, it would be too strange to think about that again.”

After babbling like this, she suddenly realised she hadn’t even done what she’d originally set out to actually do. “Oh sorry, would you look at me, all dirty like this, excuse the clothes, I’ve had a long trip. I’m Gadget by the way,” she stated holding out a hand to Matt with which to shake, “oh but you already know that because you told me so. Sorry, slipped my mind there. Well don’t mind me I need to get cleaned up, I’ll join you guys later!”

She smiled at the three of them and left to go take that shower she had promised herself earlier. Matt watched her exit with a certain amount of nonplus before staring blankly ahead and thinking quite rationally to himself with hand on chin.

“What you thinking mate?” Monty inquired.
“I’m thinking I’ve just seen strands of myself echoed by a small female mouse,” came the reply. “I also think I see what everyone’s been telling me about her.”
“She’s something special,” mused Monty with a certain amount of satisfaction in his voice.
“Special may not cover it all,” added Matt with an agreeing smile on his face, before giving a little “heh” in continued non-believement about the parallels apparently present and then looking at Monty who seemed to understand where he was coming from.

After a short pause Matt continued, “So what now, we wait for her return?”
“Zipper and I are gonna finish our breakfast, but yeah… wanna to hear more about what happened.”
“What did happen?”
“Those guys she was with? Got on the wrong side of her.”
“This isn’t going to be treading on eggshells is it?”
“Nah, Gadget’s a tough cookie mate, takes a lot to get her going. Just stand back when she does, that’s all!”
“Advice noted!” laughed Matt in response.

Twenty minutes later, with Monty and Zipper having concluded their ingestion fest and Matt chilling out watching something on the TV, Gadget returned to greet them looking far better for it, all sparkly new, clean and washed of thousands of miles worth of accrued grime.

“Much better Gadget love, I can recognise you at last,” commented Monty with Zipper nodding in agreement with a hearty squeak.
“Golly, was I looking that bad?” wondered Gadget.
“Not possible in my book,” came the reply. “And now perhaps I can introduce you finally to the most recent member of the Rescue Rangers.”

Matt had in the meantime switched off the TV via the remote and got up, wandering over to where the three of them were standing. “Gadget, this is Matt,” announced Monty, “Matt, this is Gadget.” Matt proffered a hand with which to shake, a greeting to a like-minded individual though Gadget didn’t know this until Monty happened to add, “Matt has been keeping our technical side ticking over in your absence since he joined.”

“You’re an inventor?” she inquired as she clasped Matt’s hand with her own.
“I dabble, I tinker, I like taking things apart to see how they work.”
“Really? I got some neat stuff I want to show you then!” as instead of releasing Matt’s hand, she started to pull him along involuntarily as she took off towards the workshop. Matt only had time to silently mouth “What do I do now?” to Monty, who could only shrug his shoulders in response, before he disappeared from view and around the corner.

Entering the workshop, Gadget proceeded to show and demonstrate some of her smaller efforts that were secreted in various cubby-holes with a distinct amount of pride, perhaps relieved or glad that the person she was presenting them to had no chip on their shoulder, higher sense of superiority or view of disdain by comparison to a number of other individuals she had come across in her days. She was happy that Matt actively was interested in her handiwork rather than look upon them as the foolish foibles of a self-taught engineer.

Eventually Gadget got around to picking up her most trusted weapon, the crossbow, and started spinning around a few times, pointing it in various directions in mock attack mode. “This happens to be the one piece I can always rely on,” she enthusiastically commented to Matt, who was looking a little wary for obvious reasons.

“Ah yeah that,” he replied, “I wouldn’t go firing it though.”
“Why not?” she asked as she took aim at the ceiling and made to demonstrate.
“Because it’s now a bit more…”

Matt didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence as Gadget let rip and found herself flung two feet backwards as the sucker connected with the ceiling in double quick time. She looked at the crossbow in bemusement, she didn’t recall it being that powerful.

“Golly, it never was as quick as that!” as she picked herself up and reeled the sucker back in before resting it back where it had originally sat.
“Sorry about that,” Matt apologised, “I… was having a test with some things and this got the souped-up treatment along the way. I really shouldn’t have touched your stuff, I hope you don’t mind.”

Gadget smiled and made to reassure Matt. “No need to apologise. Gosh, you managed to make it a lot more powerful, I’d like to see how!”
“Sure, it wasn’t that difficult to implement. Now in return I wouldn’t mind you having a look at something I’ve been working on…”

In amidst all the fun of the show-and-tell, what Matt had been putting together got lost under a swathe of other items and he had to shift a few out of the way to dig them out. Grabbing one in each hand, he emerged almost triumphant in his holding up to the light what he had created.

“Wow!” exclaimed Gadget, “Err, what are they?” to which Matt laughed.
“Something I had been inspired to a long time ago but until now, and a couple of hundred pounds lighter, didn’t think would be possible.”

Matt lobbed one of them to Gadget, who studied it carefully before looking back up at him to explain just what it did. Slipping the other over his right arm and tightening a small band across the palm of his hand, he waved it about slightly before extending it straight and aimed at the ceiling. In the meantime Gadget had done likewise with the one she now possessed. The devices were metallic, showing obvious signs of being hand-made from all the beating and dents present, structurally curved and elongated to fit around the forearm with a compartmented chain system and a grappling hook sticking out of the end by the hand.

“When I was little,” began Matt, “I always wanted to soar through the air, defying gravity, just like many other animals do. Now that I’m like this,” he pointed downwards in reference to his current condition, “it might be the only chance I have of realising that ambition.”
“So this is like a hookshot then?” inquired Gadget.
“Indeed… aim, fire, and then you can haul yourself in to where you are attached. There are small controls on the palm band allowing you to activate the device. I scrounged parts from all over the place, spare pieces lying about, wires, circuits, chains, though a fair amount of it I’ve made from scratch.”

Gadget took a close look underneath and saw what Matt was talking about, before turning it over and running her hand along the outside, feeling each depression where he had hammered it into shape. “Golly, I’m actually rather impressed,” she stated.

“Unfortunately they’re a bit twitchy still,” he countered, to which he flicked a finger inwards and sent the hook of his device upwards where it attached itself to a beam in the ceiling. Looking upwards he pondered, “Oh… if this one’s fired off, it means then that…”

Suddenly Matt disappeared from Gadget’s view as he zoomed straight up and crashed into the ceiling with a bit of a thump. “It means you have the one that doesn’t want to fire at times. I’ve got the one that insists on reeling in when not told to!” looking down to where Gadget was staring at him.

Shaking his head slightly, both in disarray and reluctance, he poked at the controls with his left hand before it slowly lowered him back to the ground, let go of the ceiling and hauled the chain back in. “And that’s what I would like you to examine, perhaps your technical ability can spot where these damned gremlins are that are affecting the operation.”

“You trust my ability that much?” she asked unconvinced.
“If it’s what I’ve been told, then it is much more than mine. A lot more.”
“What else have you been told? Not all bad I hope!”
“Hardly… I don’t think anyone has had a single negative word to say about you,” he smiled.

There came a slight look of surprise as she took off her hookshot and had Matt hand her his as well, turning about to lay them down on one of her benches and grabbing a set of intricate small tools and a magnifier to look at the workings more closely.

“Do I detect a lack of self-confidence at times then?” he queried, with Gadget looking up at him but not being able to hide a reaction that showed he was on the right lines. “Ah, don’t sweat it, I can from time to time read people. This coming from pessimism personified here. Confident in one’s abilities yes, confident in the outcome, that’s something else,” came the outpouring as he leaned up against the bench and turned his head to watch her work.

“Sometimes I’m disappointed in the way things turn out,” she muttered as she started fiddling with one of the hookshots using a screwdriver, tweezers and miniature welder, not taking her eyes off the job while she talked. “My inventions have a tendency to backfire… from time to time.”

“No one can expect to be perfect every single time.” Gadget’s brow furrowed slightly at Matt’s words, but there came no comment as she beavered away, so he continued on the same thought line. “Okay, so you are putting pressure on yourself to be that way?”

“I have a lot to live up to, especially my father’s legacy,” she replied. “He was an exceptional pilot, probably the greatest, and I can’t come close to touching that.”
“Yeah, Monty did mention your father to me in passing.”
“Oh,” came the response, a little mournful and sorrowful.
“He also said you’re a terrific pilot as well. And besides, you can’t be in his shadow forever. I bet you’re the better inventor though.”

Gadget smiled to herself but remained focused on her task at hand, “You’re right, you know that? Dad would scuff the plane up occasionally and I’d figure out how to put it right again. Even he wasn’t always perfect.”

She closed up the hookshot she was working on and switched it over to the other sitting patiently by the side, all the time not letting up visible concentration as if she was “in the zone”. Matt watched Gadget at work, transfixed by the attention to detail and dedication she was exerting towards something that wasn’t even hers to begin with. He reasoned she really was one with her tools.

“I have to congratulate you on everything around this place,” he announced, “it is something of a marvel to behold. The plane’s even better, well, was even better.”

To this Gadget looked a little shocked and stopping working, turning her head slightly to look at Matt, “What do you mean was? Don’t tell me it’s come a-cropper in my absence.”

“And in some way related to how I’m here at this moment, leaning against a bench and having a discussion with a female genius mouse. Don’t worry, I managed to put it back together almost as good as it was before, it really is an amazing feat of engineering. No thanks to the efforts of this Nimnul guy however.”

“Nimnul? Gosh, I’d hoped we’d seen the last of him.”
“Appears to be a common sentiment around here. Chaos, mayhem, flying consumables, something called the Gigantico Gun and me rescuing Tammy from rolling melons of doom. That in a nutshell is how I came to be in this place, apparently running into the only people capable of helping me.”
“Not that gun again?! Still it explains how you are the way you are.”
“Yeah, Chip let me know the previous on the damn device. Baaaaaad science.”

Gadget was looking at Matt and smiling as he continued then to ramble on about his situation and background and circumstances and the adventure he’d already taken part in, something he wasn’t above noticing over time, and wryly smiled back in response. This mouse seemed more than just interested in what he was having to say, he thought to himself. It was a different sort of smile, one that belied an involuntary thought process behind it.

“It looks like you’re thinking about something there,” he inquired.
“Oh, just how it sounds like you’d make a good Rescue Ranger,” she hastily bluffed.
“Selfless heroics are hardly my forte now.”
“Your heart seems to be in the right place though.”
“Aaaaahhhh… maybe. Just don’t let anyone know that.”
“And besides, it’s always nice to have someone to talk to about things such as this,” Gadget stated as she turned her attention back to the second hookshot, “I don’t get to do that often.”

“Hmmm… speaking to like minds, Monty did brief me about your cross-continent extravaganza,” Matt spluttered out to continue the dialogue. Maybe not the best thing to say, as Gadget visibly tensed up to this reference of what a waste the last few months had been.

“As long as you are nothing like Maurice, then everything will be fine between us,” she tersely said.
“Hey Scout’s honour and all that,” he managed to reply with a metaphorical salute to the head.
“What a funny thing to say… you British always seem so peculiar at times,” as her mood lightened again.
“Can’t say I’ve ever been regarded as normal now.”
“Neither have I,” Gadget muttered softly to herself, still intently tweaking the inner workings before her.

“So how’s it looking?” Matt asked after a lull in the conversation, curious to know if Gadget had solved what issues lay within the cold steel mechanical contraptions.
“I think that might be it,” she gladly replied, closing up the second device and then patting them both as they lay on the workbench.
“Fancy taking them for a spin?” he wondered. Gadget looked more than just enthusiastic to the proposal.


Chapter 11 – The Tsunami Effect
Meanwhile outside Chip and Tammy were returning from their excursion, laden down with acquisitions and in want of a good rest from the effort of gathering everything together. The Rangerplane was on a slow course to the tree that housed their home, and as it entered the branches and foliage, gradually decreased speed further to allow maximum manoeuvring to the landing strip by virtue of the cargo hanging underneath. With the strip in sight and preparations for landing ready, there whizzed by two objects, one each side of the plane, so quick it was hard to see what was going on. Tammy and Chip looked at each other in surprise and wonderment, before Chip realised he needed to turn his attention back to ahead and land the plane properly. Having dropped the supplies onto the strip and put the plane down, they could then question what they saw.

“What was that?” asked a startled Chip.
“I don’t know, it looked like… a mouse?” replied Tammy, “It was going too fast to really make out.”
“But there were two of them.”
“Really? I only saw one my side.”
“And there was one my side. I wonder if Monty knows what’s going on.”

Rolling half of what they had gathered inside Ranger HQ, they were greeted by Monty and Zipper who were relaxing in the aftermath of their meal. On the way towards the storage area, Monty interrupted their progress to inform them about a certain piece of important news, one a certain chipmunk would be very interested to hear.

“Chip, Tammy,” he began, “I’ve got some news for…”
“No time to waste Monty, we need to get this stuff inside so we can find out what’s going on outside,” stated Chip, hastily barrelling his items towards where they were to be kept.
“Who? Where? What’s going on outside?” Monty stammered in confusion.
“As we were coming in to land, something whooshed past the Rangerwing,” clarified Tammy.
“Oh, that would probably have been Gadget and Matt,” replied Monty.

One chipmunk stopped immediately in his tracks, letting the items he had roll on out of control and bash themselves against the nearest wall, as he turned around to face Monty in light of this information. “Gadget’s back?!” he managed to spit out, as his heart felt a flutter and his brain just started to go a little doolally once more. Tammy noticed Chip’s reaction, for it was subtly detectable, and stifled a giggle in response.

“Which is what I was tryin’ ta tell ya mate when you came in!” explained Monty. “It sounds like a bit of a long story, one which I haven’t heard me self yet, as she was intent on dragging Matt off to the workshop. Those two are out there, havin’ a test of something Matt’s constructed.”

“What would that be?” inquired Chip.
“No idea Chipper, those two have kept themselves to themselves ever since they disappeared together. I’ll sure they’ll let us know when they get back.”
“Golly,” started Tammy, “ooops, I’m starting to sound like Gadget now… if she’s returned, where does that leave me?”
“Don’t worry Tammy, you’re still a Rescue Ranger as of now, we’ll figure something out,” stated Monty, “right Chip?”

Chip managed a vague nod to confirm Monty’s words, but his mind was more lost on welcoming back Gadget and clasping his eyes on her after all this time. Whenever that would be, seeing as she was out there somewhere doing something. All so mysterious it seemed, but he figured it would be explained in due course.

Outside Gadget and Matt were concluding their test-run of the hookshot technology, and finding it working even better than Matt had actually planned them to operate. All of the bugs, niggles and things to make you go ouch had seemingly been eliminated via Gadget’s fair hand and a modicum of nous and skill, no longer misfiring but operating as smooth as they ever could. After hauling themselves upwards and straight past the approaching Rangerwing by accident earlier, they couldn’t help but look at each other and chuckle as Tammy and Chip were wondering what had gone on. The only limit to how far they could push the devices was their own accuracy and the length of chain present within, aiming at each branch and being pulled along for the ride before dropping down to a safe landing underneath.

“Well, sometimes I amaze even myself,” concluded Matt sitting down on a branch high up in the tree and looking his construction over in delight to its function. “It certainly gives you a bit of an adrenalin rush each time you’re using it,” added Gadget, parking herself next to him.

“I am at a slight disadvantage compared to yourself, and the other Rangers, in regards climbing trees and the so forth,” he stated. Gadget was somewhat unsure of what he was talking about and threw a quizzical look his way. “Claws, or lack of them,” he responded. “Don’t think I’ll be tearing up the trunk with my bare hands and these boots now. This evens things up!” he laughed.

Gadget made to take her hookshot off and hand it back to Matt, but he stopped her in mid-action by placing a hand over the device on her arm. “This one is yours,” he said, “only fair really seeing as you made it possible.” She smiled and reattached it back how it had been. “They might come in handy in the future as well,” he continued.

“Shall we head back? I should say hi to Chip and Tammy now that they’ve returned,” asked Gadget. “I did really miss everyone while I was away. There was I, deluded and evidently enjoying myself, and yet in the back of my mind there was always a homesick reminder of what I’d left behind.”

“I can see myself missing the place when I get back to normal as well. And yes, note I said when there rather than if,” he hastily continued, “though I can’t but help feel I’ll be stuck this way forever.”
“Nothing is forever,” stated Gadget, giving him the same look as he’d earlier seen in the workshop.
“Spoken for truth Gadget. Maybe you’ll be the one to reaffirm my faith in matters.”

Having gotten up and made their way downwards towards Ranger HQ, upon entering through the door they were greeted by a welcome committee of Chip and Tammy who had been patiently awaiting their return. While Matt stood by and watched on, Gadget first hugged Tammy, two sisters-in-arms who had not laid eyes on each other since that fateful day with the Maltese Mouse. It had really been Chip who had for the most part kept in touch with Tammy, occasionally checking up on her, and it had been his direct decision to recruit her as a temporary Rescue Ranger. Whatever he felt about her crush on him when younger, he was still looking out for her. However in the intervening years it was now apparent by comparison that Tammy had grown ever so slightly taller than Gadget.

“Gadget!” Tammy cried, “It’s great to finally see you again. We… have a lot of catching up to do!”
“Golly, you’re not wrong there,” came the reply, “and I want to hear all about how you’ve been doing since joining us.”
“I’m sure we’ll get the chance to, though it’s really his fault I’m here!” Tammy chuckled, pointing at Chip with a blaming finger.

Gadget looked at Chip, and let go of Tammy to give him a hug as well. This one was going to mean a lot to him. “It’s great to have you back,” he said sincerely. “I… we missed you. More than you know.”

Chip pulled back slightly to look Gadget right in the eyes and smiled at her, their arms still interlocked in front of them. She broke the silence by looking around and stating, “I’m sure you’re all interested to hear what happened to me, but all in good time. It still hurts. A lot.”

“Whenever you’re ready,” replied Chip. “In the meantime, what was going on outside?”
“Oh that, sorry for startling you!” answered Gadget with amusement. “It’s all because of these things that Matt created,” finally showing Chip what was attached to her arm.
“What is it?” he questioned.
“A lot of fun. Maybe Matt will let you have a go as well.”
“If he can handle it,” interjected Matt to the proceedings with a sound of daring in his voice.
“Of course I can!” replied Chip determined to prove him wrong in such matters.
“Then perhaps later… all this has given me an appetite. Now what food did you bring back?!”

While Gadget and Matt had been outside gallivanting about the trees, Chip had come up with a temporary solution to the sleeping arrangements, which he rattled off in low-key fashion while Matt was enjoying a small snack to sate his hunger. Naturally he needed approval from those affected, but he felt there wouldn’t be any arguments.

“Okay, step one, the girls can have my room for the moment, I’ll let you fight over who wants to sleep upstairs. We’ll sort out building a new bed for Tammy in due course. I’ll take Gadget’s room and Matt,” to which he looked up as he heard his name mentioned, “can use the sofa tonight if that’s alright.”

“Hey, no qualms here, I can crash most places.”
“Right then, that’s settled.”

Matt looked over to Monty and softly quipped, “Gadget’s room… and how long I wonder,” to which Monty knew exactly where he was coming from with that remark and while amused, figured it was worthy of a little discrete correction.

“Now pally, less of the teasing towards Chip.”
“I’ve had the rhetoric from him, but to me it seems an awful long time to be waiting.”
“He has his reasons.”
“Yeah… can’t help but remind me of Niles Crane though.”
“Who?!”
“Ah, pay it no matter there, a fictional character with a similar distant admiration issue.”
“By comparison you seem to have clicked with Gadget quite well already.”
“A little too well perhaps.”
“Mate, are you seriously telling me that…”
“I don’t know… I just don’t know. But I’m not going to be here forever, and that’s what worries me.”

Come night-time all was still across Ranger HQ, the only sign of life being the faint phosphor flickering of the television beaming out towards its surroundings and being watched by one still awake human. Matt idly flicked at the remote several times before settling on one particular program, camped lazily with a blanket across his body and a pillow violently pummelled to death at one end of the sofa. His attention after a while was distracted by the sound of footsteps getting closer, their source revealed to be Gadget who wandered into the main area kitted out in her nightgown.

“Can’t sleep?” he asked diverting his attention away from the goggle-box to look to her.
“I have a few things on my mind,” she replied, “and besides, Tammy snores!”
“Oh dear!”
“I was just going to get myself a drink, see if that helped,” as she walked towards the kitchen.
“Pull up a pew here,” he invited patting the sofa seat, “maybe we can help each other out.”
“Can’t sleep either?” she called from inside the kitchen.
“I suffer the occasional bout of insomnia, sometimes my brain just doesn’t want to shut up.”

She returned shortly after holding two cups containing a warm, mildly pungent liquid, and handed one of them to Matt as she sat down next to him.

“So what is this?” he inquired, taking a tentative sniff at the contents.
“Something herbal we have, it might help to calm our heads a bit.”
“Hmmm not bad actually,” he commented having taken a couple of sips.
“So what are you watching?”
“Oh, I flicked onto a documentary about the Battle of Britain. Bizarrely coincidental considering what happened in the last few days. Made me a bit homesick too I guess.”
“Better than Dale’s constant stream of monster movies,” she chuckled, watching the vintage planes dance before her eyes.
“They do say television is the retina of the mind’s eye now.”
“That’s probably an accurate reflection of Dale’s mind then!” as she tried hard not to laugh too loud.
“Yeah, I did see the piles of superhero comics stacked up in his room, not that that’s a bad thing, I do read a couple myself.”

By this time, Matt had finished his cup and set it down to the side. “You’ll have to give me the recipe for that in case I need it again.”
“It usually does the trick,” added Gadget, putting her cup down and leaning against him on the sofa, looking as if it was starting to have a soothing effect.

“I’m a fool,” she muttered, looking up at Matt with her eyes after a short pause.
“Huh?”
“Actually you may be the only person I can talk to about this, as you’re the newcomer you don’t know me as well.”
“You want an objective listener?”
“Yes.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been called that, someone I knew a long time ago in my past revelled in the fact I would never be prejudiced against her. I miss her so much.”
“Then I’m glad you are here.”
“But in the end I couldn’t help her enough.”
“Oh…” she said turning her gaze down.
“So what is on your mind then?” he asked, changing the subject back.

“The disappointment of the last few months and everything that happened. I was misled badly and yet I didn’t see it early enough.”
“Love has a funny way of making you blind to certain truths.”
“I wasn’t in love… but I accept your point. My work has been so important to the neglect of anything else. Maybe it’s time to change that. But if it always results in this debacle…”
“Better to have loved and lost, than not to have… ahhh, what am I saying here? That’s a bunch of crap, take it from me. I can’t say I’ve had any more success in that side of things compared to you.”

“So we are sitting in the same boat then?”
“Perhaps we can just wallow in our own failings together?” he asked rhetorically with a faint laugh.
“You have a strange way of making people feel better about themselves.”
“If you can’t laugh at yourself, then what is left? Once that is sorted, the rest is easy.”
“Spoken for truth,” she laughed, mimicking what Matt had said earlier, “and it’s working.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” he replied thankful that his actions were having the desired effect.

“Gadget,” he said after a period of silence, “there’s something on my mind as well. And it’s pretty much you. After this short time of knowing you, I appear to be on the same page already and there’s so much about you I like. But I don’t know where we can go from here. What I’m trying to say is… hmmm?”

But Gadget never heard these last words Matt had said, she had fallen asleep in the meantime, curled up looking so innocent and serine. He looked at her and smiled before pulling over part of the blanket to cover her body, thinking to himself how typical that the person you were expressing something towards was no longer able to hear it. Contemplating the situation, now consciously alone once more, he couldn’t help but start humming a tune, one which turned into soft murmuring.

Sometimes, the last thing you want comes in first
Sometimes, the first thing you want never comes
And I know, the waiting is all you can do
Sometimes

I’ll put a spell on you
You’ll fall asleep and I’ll put a spell on you
And when I wake you, I’ll be the first thing you see
And you’ll realise that you love me

“If only…” he mused, “if only the circumstances were completely different and not so convoluted,” to which he laid back in the chair, closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep.

With morning broken, Matt awoke to find himself alone on the sofa, with everyone else seemingly awake and active given the distant noises he could hear. Giving his head a scratch and his eyes a quick rub while removing his glasses, he turned his attention to sounds coming from the kitchen area and called out.

“Anyone in there? No one thought to wake me then.” The voice that came back in response was from Tammy. “We saw you on the sofa and just decided to let you sleep,” she said.

“We?”
“Yes, everyone else passed by and saw you two.”
“Oh… terrific,” he commented less than happily.
“Problem?” Tammy asked walking into the main area carrying some food for Matt.
“I’m not sure, can’t be good… thanks,” he mentioned taking what Tammy had brought him.
“I don’t understand,” she replied, not knowing what Matt was going on about.

At that moment Gadget entered the room, and having spotted Matt sitting up on the sofa, turned towards him with that same look, wistful and happy, and said “Good morning!” to him. “Morning!” was the reply back from both he and Tammy. As Gadget opened the door and exited Ranger HQ to go off and do whatever it was she was going to do, Matt turned to Tammy and stated, “Now we really have to talk!”

Matt’s thought process was still trying to figure out if what was going on was genuine or just specious, and that was an issue he needed to broach with Tammy, for good reason. However she was properly confused now. “Is there a problem between us?”

“Nah… let me rephrase that,” he laughed, “I need to talk to you about something. You saw that, right?” indicating his head towards open space.
“Saw…? Gadget, about Gadget?”
“Yeah… she gives me that look, it’s almost unreal.”
“You’re thinking…?”
“Maybe. And I can’t talk to Chip about it for obvious reasons, Monty wouldn’t understand and I can’t understand Zipper. Which rather leaves you as someone I need to confide in.”

“What’s the issue? If she likes you, she likes you, though I admit from what I’ve been told she doesn’t often show that sort of emotion.”
“The issue? Erm, in case you had forgotten, I’m not exactly of the same origin!”
“Neither is Chip, and that hasn’t stopped his feelings.”
“True, a good point.”
“On the other hand, he hasn’t done anything about it, he was like that when I first met him.”
“Another good point. You appear to be one rather astute young lady.”
“Why thank you,” she blushed slightly.
“Reason me this now if you can. She’s come back from an emotional kick up the rear, finds another like minded individual as soon as she gets back…”
“A rebound?”
“I like your thinking, it’s nice to know I’m not alone.”
“I don’t know Gadget well enough to know what she’s thinking.”
“I’m jumbled myself. Why did she have to go and make things so complicated? Here I was on holiday enjoying myself and I’ve ended up in some pseudo-living version of Dante’s Inferno. What have I done to be punished like this?! To have something out of reach.”

The pangs of anguish were tempered by the knowledge that he could still extricate himself from the entire situation if luck was on his side in the end. “You don’t appreciate the interest then?” Tammy inquired. “Far from it, I’m not one to turn down a pretty girl now, but I will be going back eventually, staying here just isn’t the natural order of things.”

“Oh,” said Tammy disappointedly.
“You’d miss me too?” he inquired a little surprised.
“Yeah. You’ve been fun having around already.”
“Blimey… okay tell you what, we get myself out of this whole mess, and I promise I’ll come back and visit some day. Deal?”

At that moment, their conversation was broken by a loud knock at the door, to which Tammy went to investigate to see who was there. Someone else was about to make another entrance.


Chapter 12 – Sleeping With The Enemy
The person at the door crashed right through onto the floor as soon as Tammy went to open it, sprawled out and looking incredibly worse for wear, as if they had been through a terrifying ordeal. There was method to the appearance however, because they had experienced something truly awful, something that the Rangers had no idea what it was, but they knew exactly who it was. Lying there face first on the ground and gibbering like a broken wreck was Molly Roger, her clothes torn in several places and showing all signs of being attacked.

“Oh my,” gasped Tammy as she crouched down to examine Molly and the extent of her injuries.
“Is that who I think is it?” inquired Matt, looking at the situation and getting up off the sofa.
“Yes it is and she’s in a terrible state.”
“How on earth has she found her way here?!” as he walked to where they both were.
“I don’t know, but she needs our help,” Tammy stated looking up at him.

This statement sat very uneasily with Matt, and he wasn’t about to hold back his opinion on it. “Our help? She tried to blow us out of the bloody sky not some days earlier, now you want to assist?!”

“She’s in trouble and that is all that matters in this situation,” she replied succinctly.
“You are a lot more forgiving than I am… I’m in the mind to cart her out of here right now!”
“Don’t you dare do such a thing!”
“And are you going to try and stop me?!”

Matt was focused on one thing and one thing only, ejecting their “guest” as soon as he could. However when he tried to lay hands on Molly, Tammy swatted them away with a look of determination to protect her at all costs, to which Matt scowled in response and stood back up.

“Fine, have it your way,” he angrily commented, “though I feel everyone should know what’s happened here right away.” He walked and opened the front door, calling out to Gadget and anyone else who happened to be present to come to the main area as soon as they could because something totally unexpected had occurred. “Women… can’t live with them, can’t *mumble mumble*…” he muttered afterwards.

And in due course Gadget, Chip, Monty and Zipper all assembled forthwith to see what Matt was yelling about, by which time Tammy had gotten Molly onto the sofa, propped her head with the pillow and covered her with the blanket. Molly was still shaking like a leaf in a force ten gale, her eyes widened and almost vacant with barely a response registering.

“Blimey,” commented Monty, “how has she managed to find her way to here?”
“That was my first question,” added Matt, “to which I haven’t the foggiest.”
“This is your adversary from just a few days ago?” inquired Gadget.
“Yes, and it’s puzzling why she is in this condition,” mused Chip, “I smell another case brewing right now, I fear all our questions from before were not answered.”

“What’s the assessment Tammy?” asked Gadget.
“She’s seems as if she is in a trance, brought about by some terrible shock. No thanks to Matt either, he wanted to boot her out of here!”
“I’m not about to change my opinion of the situation,” Matt stated with firm conviction, arms folded in front of him.
“He has a point,” added Monty.
“Whilst I agree, we as Rangers are not like that regardless of the person in trouble,” corrected Chip.
“I don’t like it but I’m not about to argue with you,” replied Matt.

“Have you got anything out her Tammy?” asked Chip.
“Not much… all she’s managed to splutter are the words control, professor, escape and claws.”

In reaction to Tammy saying that last word, Molly shrieked and curled up under the blanket, pulling it over her head. Tammy went to sit with and comfort her, there was no way she could be left alone. “If you guys want to go investigate, I’ll stay here and look after her. If anything, I can practice what I’ve learnt, see if I can snap her out of it.”

“I guess this means we’re heading back to the airfield then,” proposed Chip. “Zipper, stay here with Tammy and assist her in whatever she needs in the meantime.” Zipper registered the request and went to sit with Tammy, watching and observing Molly in her every contortion and mental spasm.

“We have a date with this Professor van der Kaaslechte again I fear,” mused Chip, still trying to remember in the back of his mind why he seemed familiar as the rest of the Rangers trooped out to the Rangerwing to embark on a return journey much sooner than they would have thought possible.

With Gadget behind the controls, a seat that took getting used to after all these months, Chip navigated a course out towards the airfield at cautious pace, just in case there happened to be another set of patrolling defence keeping an eye over things. During the flight Gadget couldn’t help but comment that Matt’s repair job was indeed as good as his word had been, and that she couldn’t tell any difference in its performance compared to before she left. Matt couldn’t help but comment back that these would likely be famous last words on the situation.

“The Rangerwing has been through some pretty hairy situations in the past, that it doesn’t concern me. I’ve learnt over time to ignore such thoughts going through my mind,” joked Gadget, prompting the odd glance from the rest of the team for its rather too-close-to-the-truth intention.

“Mind you, you’re not one to miss a trick regarding upgrading your inventions,” replied Matt.
“Hmmm…? Oh, the batteries. Yes, humans do invent some things that make my life easier. I can get a lot more power out of the Rangerwing that I thought possible when she was first built.”
“I think I discovered that a few days ago…” mused Matt in response.

“So guys, honest opinions here,” Gadget proposed, “how good is Matt at being a Rescue Ranger?”
“He appreciates good cooking for starters!” replied Monty.
“And he has done a good job mechanically, as you’ve seen,” added Chip.
“Well I’m pleased to hear that,” concluded Gadget.
“Still needs to work on a few things though,” countered Chip.

Matt didn’t really respond to that aside from not directing his next comment at anyone in particular in a suitably dry way, “No one’s perfect now of course,” though Chip may have felt that was a deliberate riposte. With the airfield coming into view, everyone’s attention was turned to that instead and anything going on.

It felt strange to be back at a place only visited so recently, one that had seen a bizarre plan even by Rescue Ranger standards unfold and collapse on itself due to the stomach of a mouse and the random flying skills of a human. Instructed by Chip, Gadget put the Rangerwing into hover mode above the building where it had all gone down and the four of them scanned the ground to observe the activity below. There was not much to report, but there was the occasional foot patrol by groups of pirates, something which piqued the curiosity of more than one occupant.

“Something’s not right here,” mused Chip.
“Too right, we’ve got Molly and yet those lads are acting as if nothing happened,” added Monty.
“Why do I get the feeling we’re going to need to take a closer look?” asked Matt aloud.

Famous last words. At that moment the right propeller on the Rangerwing decided it was no longer going to play nice and cut out, causing the plane to lurch in that direction. “I fixed it, that stupid thing, this is not my fault!” ranted Matt towards the other Rangers, as he then decided to apply a little fixative measure himself in the same way as before. However by the time he got onto the wing to sort this annoyance once and for all, the wind turbulence had gained and he lost his footing as the plane jerked about, causing him to stumble and dive over the edge towards the ground.

“Monty…!” shouted Gadget, towards the back of the plane.
“Already on it Gadget love,” as he leapt up, got a hold of the gun and aimed it at Matt.
“He did fix it, right, as per my instruction?” Chip wondered as Monty let fly with the suction dart.

For Matt’s own sake, yes he had. Monty’s aim was still true and the suction dart connected with its target, though maybe not quite in the way intended, leaving Matt swinging about in the air as the dart was firmly attached to his backside. The right propeller was still not turning and the distribution of weight now caused the Rangerwing to slowly lose altitude with each second.

“Hah hah, very funny!” quipped Matt looking at those flying above him as he sailed through the air with the greatest of ease with no trapeze in sight. “Any chance of putting me down on the ground now?”

Gadget turned to look at Chip and stated, “Gosh, look at him, wouldn’t want him to be airborne too long, best that we land and sort the Rangerwing out before we continue, don’t fancy trying to retrieve him in this condition,” as she took the plane into a slow controlled descent. It was at this moment that Matt noticed that those on the ground had noticed him, a group of three pirates watching his every twitch and brandishing their weapons in preparation. In all the hurry to save his life, no one else had spotted that they had been spotted.

“Oh guys,” Matt yelled above, “some assistance would be appreciated down here!” but no one could hear him as he was getting within striking range of some rather pointy implements. Expecting someone to actually do something wasn’t coming forth either and all of a sudden Matt had to rapidly twist and turn himself to avoid a flail and swipe of weapons from below.

“Hey!” Matt shouted at the limit of his lungs, frantically trying to climb up the rope he was attached to and gain some height over his attackers, prompting Gadget to look over the side to see what the commotion was about. “I’m feeling like a human piñata here, anyone care to help the hell out?!”

“I’m finding it hard to raise the Rangerwing,” Gadget noted, “and Matt’s in trouble!”
“Leave this to me,” stated Monty, leaping out of the plane and grabbing hold of the rope, sliding down it at increasing velocity. Approaching the bottom, he let go and sent himself on a direct course with those below, landing on top of all three at the same time. Matt watched on as Monty set about taking apart the three pirates and teaching them some manners, especially when it came to his friend. By the time he had finished, the three pirates were stone cold out on the ground and Matt was just within touching distance with his feet. Monty walked over to Matt and managed to get the suction cup off his posterior with a couple of strenuous pulls, causing Matt to comment that the blood could now flow back to it and perhaps he’d regain some sensation in due course.

Shortly thereafter the Rangerwing landed bumpily, the right propeller still not functioning; however a quick conference between Gadget and Matt followed by a little bit of careful attention got it back running again and ready to spin. “Don’t do that again,” Matt could be seen mouthing to the machinery.

“Never got a chance to test myself against these lads earlier. I might be getting on but I’ve still got it in me,” stated Monty rather pleased with himself, flexing his arms with the words.
“There was something odd about them though,” pondered Matt, “as if they were hypnotised, they had this strange stare about them.”
“Hypnotised?” queried Chip. “This is starting to ring another bell. Maybe I’ll remember later.”
“What’s now Chip, as I’ve not been here before,” asked Gadget, putting the tools away in the plane.
“Assuming they haven’t blocked off the passage, we will probably have to go back in the way we originally came out. Which means flying into the building,” he said pointing upwards to the skylight. “Best choice for us to sneak in and not get spotted probably.”

The four Rangers climbed back into the plane and it took off and upwards, not before lumping the unconscious bodies of three pirates somewhere out of view should anyone else come around and see something was amiss. “Are we expecting any trouble inside?” asked Matt, as they hovered over the still-open skylight and began to descend into the darkness. “This was where the tank and helicopter were stored,” replied Chip, “and by the looks of what little we can see nothing has been done to the area since we left.”

Once back at ground level, the light that permeated the tiny windows and roof filtered down to allow a small degree of visibility, though everyone’s eyes would adjust to it in due time. Matt scoped out the inside of the building, turning his head around in all directions, noting that there appeared to be nothing of interest. “This is what it was like when we came across it,” added Chip, “as spartan as it currently appears.”

The lights that had brightened and illuminated the interior before were now switched off, and with no obvious way to turn them back on, meant the Rangers would have to carefully progress and seek out the entrance to the tunnel network. “At least when we get down there, it’ll be easier to see!” commented Monty, who then proceeded to stumble over Gadget as he had turned his head around to address Matt who was behind him. It didn’t take Chip very long to relocate what he had been searching for, the entrance a small halo of light reaching up from below, as he waved everyone else along to join him in re-entering hell below.


Chapter 13 – Descent Into The Unknown
“I assume we’ll still have to be on our guard?” asked Matt as they emerged into the tunnel system and an altogether more well-lit environment. “Too right mate, who knows how many of those guys are keeping watch down here,” responded Monty. Matt took a slow look around the cavern, assessing the structure and running his hand down some of the walls. “Hmmm, I’d almost say some of this was natural and some of it was excavated. You certainly can’t manufacture those now,” he said pointing to the odd stalactite on the roof.

“Golly, I would never have expected to find all this underneath the airfield!” commented Gadget, also admiring the handiwork. “Though you’ll be telling me next you’ve seen stranger,” tagged Matt onto the end of her words. “Well, actually…” she began but was cut off by Chip.

“Hush you two,” he commanded, waving his hand back to signal everyone to drop into cover. Grouped together in a darker corner of the cavern they observed a patrol of pirates wander across their vision from right to left, oblivious to their presence. Chip made note to recall Matt’s previous comments, and paid attention to their facial expressions.

Once the pirates had passed, the Rangers sought to continue their expedition into the unknown. “I have to agree with you Matt, they do seem under some sort of control,” concluded Chip.

“We’ve had to fight against this sort of technology more than once before, but why aren’t we affected this time?” pondered Gadget.
“Maybe it was a one-shot job, or there’s something on them doing the controlling,” countered Matt.
“Ah, maybe we should have examined the ones I took care of outside a bit better then,” wondered Monty.

They had only taken a few more steps when Gadget happened to comment, “Oh you might get your chance there Monty,” in a suitably world-weary, how-did-I-expect-this-to-happen way as doubling back on themselves was the same patrol that had just passed by. A patrol that had now spotted the four of them and were starting in rapid pursuit.

“Right then, let’s be having you!” announced Monty confidently, readying himself for action as the three pirates got closer.
“Monty, the element of surprise is not on our side this time. I advise we try to lose them,” proffered Chip as he and Gadget turned about face and started to run. Monty only partly caught Chip’s words and looked back to see only Matt standing by him, causing Matt to look backwards, then at Monty and then backwards once more.

“Discretion? Valour? Erm, yeah I think so!” came the suggestion as he too started to run.
“Ooooooh, darn it, I can’t leave me pallys alone now,” as Monty changed his mind about facing up to them and completed the escape route out of the cavern.

Through some winding tunnels, hollowed out by all views though they had little time to examine them, Monty caught up with the others after a minute or so, spotting them standing still in front of what appeared to be nothing in their way. He was just about to head past them, looking at the three strangely because they were no longer running, when Chip shouted “Monty no, wait!” but it was too late.

Click!

“Why do I get the feeling I shouldn’t move?” asked a despondent Monty, realising what he’d done. Hidden partly beneath the dirt on the floor were copious triggers and switches, all designed no doubt to activate the ominous looking laser device mounted on the ceiling, and Monty’s foot was now firmly resting upon one of them.

“We were trying to figure out how to get past them when you blundered in amongst,” ranted Chip. “Now there’s a completely different problem to solve!”
“You’re not going to have long to think on it Chipper, those guys were not far behind me.”
“Oh, terrific.”

True to Monty’s words a few seconds later the three chasing pirates came into view, brandishing their weapons in readiness for attack. Matt looked at Gadget who looked back at him, pulling a rueful smile. “Chip,” she called, “remember that day you first met me? I can’t see any other solution.”

“You mean…?”
“Yes.”

“Huh? Whaaaaa!” yelled Matt as Gadget grabbed his hand and proceeded to pull him along as she ran for all her worth across the myriad of buttons. At the same time Chip had begun to run, levering Monty off his statuesque pose and getting him back moving. The laser began rotating, attempting to aim and get a fix on a target, any target it could acquire, however the four of them had moved too quickly for its systems to catch up and instead it found something else to shoot at… namely the pirates who were pursuing behind.

One loud zap later and our heroes turned back to see three rather frazzled and unconscious pirates lying on the ground on the other side of the trap.

“That was close,” obviously stated Matt. “You never mentioned tricks and traps were gonna be down here!”
“That’s because we never came across any before,” responded Chip.
“After having you run around before, I wonder if he put them in… there were signs that it had recently been constructed,” observed Gadget.

Pausing for breath, Chip was about to come out with something highly pertinent but not what anyone wanted to hear. “We could really do with taking a look at those pirates to see how they are being controlled.”

Of course they were still on the opposite side. “I’ll go,” volunteered Gadget. “Are you sure Gadget love?” inquired Monty, rather worried having seen the effects of the laser and knowing it could have been him. “I’ll be fine,” she reassured, “and besides I’m probably best qualified.”

And with that she took off like an express train, not across the floor however but instead a little way up the curved wall of the tunnel, using it like some banked velodrome track. Matt chuckled at the ingenuity remarking “Now that’s smart!” to all around.

“I’d expect nothing less from our Gadget now,” commented Monty. While the three of them kept an eye out for any more unwanted attention, Gadget bent down and examined the prone bodies of the pirates. Her varying facial expressions told their own tale as she carried out the diagnosis, before returning back the same way she had gone.

“If I’d thought about negotiating this problem in that way earlier, we might not have risked our lives with that trap. On the other hand, we wouldn’t now know why everyone is acting strange,” Gadget concluded.

“So what is it Gadget love?” inquired Monty, dying to know the answer.
“A miniature receiver of some sort,” she answered, producing her hand in view of the others with a tiny little sliver of metal resting on her palm. “I would need to study it closer, but the technology at first glance appears incredible. There was one of these stationed towards the back of the neck of each pirate over there.”

“We’ve had sound based mind control before, but this is purely technical?” asked Chip.
“Definitely Chip. Which means we might be able to disable it. But where? And how?”
“We’re not going to find it standing about here,” stated Matt impatiently.
“It must be one very powerful transmitter to penetrate the rock down here,” thought Gadget as they continued on their way.

However they were shortly to be confronted by a set-up that made the previous one look like a child’s toy. “Blimey, this professor really IS the paranoid nutcase isn’t he?” exclaimed Monty giving everything before him a cursory glance.

An intricate stream of barely visible trip beams criss-crossed the tunnel walls, covering all heights and angles, and all linked into the twin laser cannons stationed on the ceiling. Breaking one would needless to say invoke the wrath of the weaponry above. “How on earth are we going to get through this?” wondered Chip. “Gadget…?!”

But she was always way ahead of him in thinking through a solution, any solution that might enable them to pass, even if it meant some of the craziest thinking of her career. Chip, Monty and Matt watched her pace about, sizing it all up, the gears of the brain ticking over as each stage metaphorically dropped into place. Then she took a close look at Matt’s face, prompting a little visible jealousy from Chip, unseen by both, before she smirked and lifted off his glasses.

“Oooookay,” Matt said, “what next… my boots? My jeans?”
“Now I want you to stand right here Monty,” Gadget asked as she positioned the large mouse just by one of the sets of crossing light beams.
“You’re worrying me Gadget love, more so than you usually do!” quaked Monty.
“It’s just as well I can see pretty well without those on,” Matt commented to Chip, pointing to his face as Gadget made a couple more tweaks.
“Now raise your arms like so,” she continued, abusing poor Monty like some shop mannequin before finally dropping Matt’s glasses into his possession and giving his body one last alteration.

Suddenly like Moses and the Red Sea, a substantial path opened up right through the middle of the beams as the glasses refracted some of them back and onwards towards different receivers in the walls. Matt emitted a small laugh as Chip stood slack-jawed in sheer amazement. After all this time, Gadget could still surprise him with her MacGyver-like qualities.

“That’s most of the way, now what?” inquired Matt.
“We’re going to pass through unscathed. Well actually I still need you Matt,” replied Gadget.
“Huh? Why do I get the impression…”

With Chip now safely on the other side of the entire security cordon, Gadget positioned Matt somewhat close by Monty, in a similar fashion to before, striking a very interesting pose. She then got him to take hold of his glasses, now freeing Monty up to slip right on under and also to freedom. All three of them stood there looking at Matt and started joking between themselves.

“If you move backwards at the same time as retrieving your glasses, you should be fine Matt,” chuckled Gadget in between laughs.
“Oh should huh? I was told to beware of that, it’s my operative word as well,” he responded.
“No problems,” added Gadget.
“Now you’re just rubbing it in.”

In one motion Matt soft shoe shuffled back and pulled his arms towards him, slipping his glasses back on with one confident motion, before turning to look at Gadget and pulling a cheesy smile. Behind them the laser beams returned back to normal and all was how it was. Everyone looked at each other with a sigh of relief. Time to move on. Though they wouldn’t be going far without another reason to pause and consider.

All of a sudden there was a commotion that caused all of them to stop and listen. Off in the distance was the voice of the professor, echoing down the corridor they were standing in, berating his charges and listening to their updated patrol reports.

“So you haven’t heard anything from one of the outside patrols and you discovered three whom had triggered one of the defences inside? This is not good, not good at all. I want double the patrols from now on, I don’t want to risk anything interfering with my plans. I want to keep him out at all costs.”

“Shall we?” inquired Chip rhetorically.
“After you matey, lead the way,” replied Monty.
“I’m still wondering who he is referring to,” pondered Chip as they moved along, attempting to catch up to the origins of the voice, which was now starting to move away.

Five minutes later and no closer to catching their target, the Rangers found themselves hopelessly befuddled in the winding maze of corridors, though thankfully there were no encounters with any pirates either despite the professor’s orders.

“This is reminding me of something from a long time ago involving a maze of twisty passages all alike,” commented Matt. “Now you see why we had so much difficulty navigating the darn place originally,” responded Monty. Chip was a bit more concerned about their current surroundings than everyone else. “I think we’ve lost him… anyone care to suggest which way to go next?” he asked.

Rounding another corner, the Rangers came upon a metal lined archway, its strong straight edges and slightly curved top gleaming faintly off the light sources beaming away. Stepping on through presented them with a choice, or choices more precisely, as there were three possible exits leading out from the oval shaped room they had entered, all of them constructed in a similar manner to the entrance just used.

“Now which way Chipper?” inquired Monty.
“Much that I hate to suggest splitting up,” started Gadget, “I wonder if we should do that?”
“In this labyrinth I don’t think that would be such a good idea,” answered Matt.
“I agree with Matt,” said Chip, “we should pick a direction and go with it.”
“I’m not liking this room…” mused Matt giving it the once over.

They didn’t have time to pick a direction though, and Matt was right to be curious. Suddenly the doors slammed down on all four entrances, big thick metal plates that locked the room so tight that even bacteria would have trouble getting out. Monty dashed to one of the doors, gave it a tap before attempting to first shift it upwards and then shoulder barge it to little effect bar a sore shoulder. “This is too thick for me to budge Chipper, we’re trapped!”

“Like rats,” added Matt completely involuntarily, prompting looks from Gadget and Monty. “And you’re mice… besides I like rats too,” he followed on. After he’d finished speaking, a low hissing noise could be heard from multiple directions within the room, prompting the Rangers to scan around for the source. “Marvellous… where’s Schrödinger’s cat when you need it?” quipped Matt. Quite unexpectedly Monty went into a cheese attack, quickly followed by a hacking cough and splutter as the concentration of what was being siphoned in became quite overwhelming. “It’s that darn gas again from earlier!”

“It’s filling the room!” stammered Gadget, who frantically tried to think of a way to stem the flow but was soon overcome. One by one the four of them fell to the floor, seemingly rendered unconscious, the last to drop being Matt who tried to fight it as long as he could.

Watching unnoticed in the comforts of his control centre was the professor, who stared at the events in the closed room via one of many small monitors, the screen flickering and refreshing constantly as he contemplated the situation. “Ah… good,” he muttered to himself before activating the internal communication system to direct his next set of orders. “Group eleven to section eight of the underground network, to retrieve our new captives hah hah.”

After a short while the air cleared and the doors re-opened, and four pirates walked inside to cart the Rangers off to pastures new, two at a time. Dragging them out with arms over their shoulders either side, they first took away Chip and Monty and following a few minutes later came back for Gadget and Matt.

“Once our friends are safely in their new home, I wanted triple the patrol and guard around that area. I don’t want any more surprises,” came the orders from the control room. Its resonance was enough to shake one captive from his temporary slumber. Poking an eye open and flicking it left then right, he realised something wasn’t quite right before attempting to stand up and finding out his legs were too long for the floor. This rather caught the two pirates carrying him off guard and they stopped still, giving Matt enough time to draw both his arms towards each other and clonking their heads together, knocking them out.

Without this support, Matt dropped to one knee, still under the effects of the gas. Staggering to his feet and swaying about like some punch-drunk boxer, he was relying on pure instinct to figure out what to do next. His brain seemed to recognise where he was. A few seconds later it realised it happened to be the same cavern they had all first entered earlier, and that the way out to temporary safety and a possible hiding place was upwards and right next to him.

Moving as best he could, he got himself back inside the building where the Rangerwing was parked, shuffling in the partial darkness and feeling his way forward gradually, until he came upon his target, climbed up and collapsed on the back seat, once again losing consciousness.


Chapter 14 – The Void Below
“Urrghhhhh,” moaned Monty clasping his noggin with one hand, “feels like a herd of wildebeest trampling through me brain, which is almost what happened this one time I was wanderin’ across Africa and…”
“You’re awake Monty,” commented Chip, sitting opposite him.
“Yeah… barely… what happened?”
“We got ambushed by some rather familiar gas.”
“Ahhh… now it’s coming back.”
“Gadget’s still out by the way… oh and I don’t advise looking down either.”

Needless to say telling someone not to do something inevitably results in them doing it anyhow, and this was no different. “Yikes!” came the response from Monty upon diverting his gaze downwards. Below them happened to be nothing. Literally. A black gaping void that sucked in all the surrounding light and refused to let know just how far it travelled in its pursuit of the centre of the Earth.

“I don’t right fancy finding out how far down that goes!” stated Monty. The three Rangers found themselves in a predicament that would stress even the most minor vertigo sufferer, encased inside a three foot cubed translucent box, from tapping on it probably thick glass on all sides, with small holes at intervals to allow any inhabitants to breathe. Said box was suspended from the ceiling of the cavern they happened to be in via a chain that ran into the rock, allowing a wonderful picturesque panorama of the entire surroundings. Frankly it was nothing to write home about, the excavated room was barren, the walls gleaming with haphazard moisture from a couple of steam pipes running from one side to the other, occasionally letting forth little jets as the pressure became too much for the rivets to withstand.

The only thing of note was across the way, situated on the other side and somewhat below, where some form of complex mechanism was obfuscated by the construction around it. Attached to the side was a box with three switches and two buttons on it, both unlit. The whole apparatus could be assumed to have nothing to do with their situation if it wasn’t for the tell-tale chain exiting the roof and heading into the wall, most likely the controls to their prison.

As things stood, or more precisely sat, Chip had propped himself up against one side of the cube, Monty was sitting on the other side looking at him and Gadget was lying face down, still unconscious. Monty looked around, thinking there was no obvious way out, and somewhat unbecomingly appeared to resign himself to the destiny of fate.

“How we getting ourselves out of this one Chipper?”
“I have no idea, maybe Gadget will think of something when she wakes up.”

Their pondering was interrupted by the arrival at ground level by a familiar person. The professor had decided to pay his captives a visit, though as Chip immediately noted, something was a little different to before. Instead of walking into view, he now… floated, his being carried by a levitating circular platform that partly integrated with his lower half. Mounted to the side was an energy pistol of some description, most likely for those self-defence times when you absolutely, positively have to shoot every living thing in the room. The only other obvious difference was that the professor’s breathing was slightly stilted, a wheeze and a cough intermittently interrupting his attempts to let forth something from his mouth. After composing himself a couple of times, he finally got around to addressing his prisoners.

“I see my interfering interlopers have recovered from the effects of my defensive systems. So nice to know they actually work properly now in doing what they were designed for.”

Chip and Monty looked down at the professor in silence to his words, with Chip still racking his memory, trying to dredge the past in an attempt to remember. His thoughts were interrupted by a question more relevant to their current situation.

“We destroyed all the cheese before, where did all this new gas come from?”
“And you don’t think I had any backup plans hmm?” replied the professor. “Now I know the chemical makeup I can produce the stuff at will. The original plan will be continuing as scheduled.”

“They say third time’s a charm,” he continued, “well *cough* I don’t intend to let this opportunity go unlike the previous two. Or don’t you recall them, you *cough* contemptible chipmunk?!”
“Recall… recall?! That’s it! That’s where I know your voice from!” exclaimed Chip. “The incident with Sabine von Karma! But that was so long ago.”
“I don’t remember that at all,” muttered Monty looking puzzled, though only Chip heard him.
“Indeed, and I would have had my revenge for that *cough* sometime after if it wasn’t for your mousey friend sticking her nose in and *cough* unfreezing you,” the professor angrily stated, indicating he meant Gadget here with a pointed finger to her prone body.
“Now that I do remember,” added Monty.
“That was you as well?” inquired Chip a little disbelievingly. “Gadget never said in the end.”
“Oh yes,” stated the professor matter-of-factly, “though that took a long time to recover from, no thanks to her.”
“A long time then to wait merely for some payback,” mused Monty disparagingly.
“Revenge is not something that ages my inquiring friend,” replied the professor callously, “it sits, lurking in the shadows, gnawing at your soul, consuming your being if left unchecked. I may be a lot older now but some things never change. And I certainly did not will myself through an encounter with fe*cough* *splutter* to be denied seeing this day!”

“So why let us live if you are that keen to see us die?” asked Chip.
“All in good time my impatient *cough* incumbent ingrate. If anything I first wanted to see you suffer, before discovering if you had any use to me before such things come to an inevitable conclusion.”
“If you think we’d willingly help you…” shouted Monty angrily, before being cut off in mid-sentence.
“Who said anything about it being willingly heh heh?” chuckled the professor, “I’m sure you must have seen *cough* the guards patrolling around here.”
“Yes… and now that I know where you fit into my past, it makes a lot more sense,” stated Chip.
“It’s amazing what the ingenuity of humans can help perfect… still, it’s been wonderfully entertaining talking to you,” the professor announced sarcastically, “but I have other pressing matters to attend to. I’ll leave you to hang around for a while…” as he made to leave via the way he had come in.

Five minutes later, Gadget finally stirred from her slumber, her head also feeling dulled and groggy from the effects of the gas. Having gotten her bearings, she too was alarmed to see just where and how they were presently situated. She also noticed something else immediately.

“Where’s Matt?” she inquired.
“We don’t know… we can only hope he got away somehow,” answered Chip.
“I also hope he comes back for us,” stated Monty.
“You think he wouldn’t?” Gadget asked a little surprised by Monty’s words.
“I have faith in him Gadget love, but he’s going up against a lot here by himself.”

Lying in the Rangerwing was Matt, who caressed his head carefully, thinking and wondering when he was out on the stims to give him such a pain above. Raising his right arm he looked to his watch, figuring he must have been out an hour or two since crawling there to hide. “Uuuuhhhh… now what was going on… oh yeah now I recall. Guess no one found me here.”

Sitting up, he looked about with half-closed eyes and thought that it was up to him to keep whatever trouble the rest of the Rangers were now in from harming them, because without them he wasn’t getting home. So much for following a gold-painted stone boulevard to freedom. That was just for telling kids at bedtime, this was the reality instead. One other question did cross his mind, just why had he not been affected by this strange gas as much as the others?

Giving it some careful consideration, he reached with his left hand and took the pulse emitted by his right wrist. Half a minute later he had his answer. “Hmmm, interesting… despite shrinking down, it would appear my heart rate has remained the same,” he thought to himself. “Whereas basic biology taught you that rodents have a much higher rate. Conclusion would be it infiltrated and affected their systems faster than myself. Good for me, not so good for them. Actually, good for them, in that I’m still kicking here and raring to help them.”

Tumbling out of the plane, he picked himself up, shook his head and pondered while moving to the back of the aircraft to retrieve something he happened to have stashed there prior to their departure from Ranger HQ earlier. Something that would turn out to be highly useful in this situation.

“Might as well go as fully equipped as possible,” he decided as he pulled out both hookshot devices from where the tools were kept and slipped one over each arm, extending them in various directions to examine and marvel at this quaint piece of handiwork he’d actually managed to construct. “Don’t you dare let me down,” he muttered to them as he set off to re-enter the tunnel network and discover what lay before him.

Thirty minutes later his attitude was rather different to that when he had started, a combination of often having to use the hookshots to hide above the roaming patrols and the aimless exploration made him think he wasn’t getting anywhere fast. The cavern system was extensive, huge and probably vaster than he could possibly imagine, and he realised that despite all the traipsing earlier they had seen only a fraction of what existed. He could only remember so much of the directions they had taken together.

What he needed was a break. He could only assume from seeing a greater number of pirates amassed in a couple of adjacent areas shortly after that they must be guarding something important. Sneaking through unseen overhead, there was only one way he was going to find out what was past their position, and that was to actually get in there himself. And that’s when he ran across where the Rangers were currently suspended in mid-air in their sealed prison. “That’s unusual for me,” he thought to himself, “don’t normally get plain lucky on a hunch like that!”

“Gadget,” started Chip, who had been aching to bring this topic up since they awoke, “why did you never tell us you had dealt with the Professor before?” She remained silent for a while following the question before bluntly stating, “It’s not something I wish to talk about.”

The coast appeared clear, no one in sight. Taking another look around to make sure, suspicion levels intensified, Matt raised one arm straight up and let fly with the hook into the roof of the cavern, the noise of which disturbed the encased Rangers from their depressed stupor and made them glance at what had caused it. Their immediate reaction of elation was tempered by Matt raising a finger as if to quieten them, lest someone overhear the jubilation and raise the alarm.

His next shot with the other arm was to take him directly above the clear cage, before letting go and dropping the couple of feet or so onto its top. Now all he had to do was get them out somehow.

“You came back for us!” cheered Monty.
“You really think I’d leave you in the lurch?” asked Matt rhetorically. “And aside from that, you’re my only ticket back to normality. Though given how long it’s taken me to reach this point, I am a little surprised to find you without a solution yourselves. I guess this answers the question of who will rescue the Rescue Rangers.”

Chip and Monty turned to look at Gadget, who could only shrug her shoulders and utter, “Well gosh, sorry guys, guess this time I’m fresh out of glasscutters!”

Matt thought on this statement for a moment before taking his musings out loud, “Glass? Is this what it is?” before knocking on it with knuckles as if to check. “Any ideas pally?” inquired Monty. Matt patted one of his jeans back pockets to check, before reaching inside and producing his miniature Swiss Army knife. The reaction of the Rangers was akin to pouring cold water on a thirsty hermit, as if this was what they’d been waiting for all this time.

“Excuse me for asking mate,” interrupted Monty, “but do you always carry that around with ya?”
“Only when I might have a need to use it,” came the reply. “Hmm, that sounded awfully blasé there, it’s useful to fix things on holiday… like these blimming glasses.” Matt then turned his attention back to what was in his hands.

“Okay, let’s see… carving knife, straight blade, corkscrew, nail trimmer, nasal hair trimmer, woah… erm, scissors, toothpick, descaler, screwdriver, wire stripper, well there’s gotta be something in here surely,” Matt wittered on as he went through all the facilities of the device. “Hmm… this might be worth giving a go,” he suggested, pulling out one blade that looked like to could be use for scoring glass.

Matt studied the top of the glass box, considering where to begin attacking it. “What’s keeping you?” inquired Chip, before being interrupted by Gadget. “Chip, if he strikes the glass too hard it could stress and fracture before he had a chance to create an exit.” Matt chimed in with an additional comment in this nature, “Exactly, and I don’t think any of us want to find out just how deep the rabbit-hole goes. This ain’t something that can be done in a trice.”

Assessing just how large Monty was, for he would have to create a hole large enough for all to pass through, Matt dug the tool into the surface of the glass and started to score a circle as deeply as he could mount downwards pressure. Halfway through the procedure there was an ominous sharp, short cracking noise, though the source of it couldn’t be located. The trapped Rangers looked at Matt, and he looked back at them wondering if they wanted him to continue.

“Ain’t no going back now matey,” stated Monty. Matt sized the situation up before continuing on the same path around, just with slightly less pressure than before. Completing the trace he ran his fingers along where he had created an indenture, trying to feel if he had removed sufficient glass for the middle to be removed. Taking the blade and planting it vertically in the middle of the circle, he whacked the top with his other hand and all of a sudden a hole appeared in the roof as a chunk of glass fell through.

“All right, nicely done there!” congratulated Monty to Matt’s efforts. Their celebrations and plans for escape however were to be cut short.

“I knew there was someone missing, but those dolts didn’t believe me. So nice of you to join us!” The professor was hovering by the controls to the cage mechanism, feeling very satisfied with himself as if he was a cat who’d got the cream. Not that he’d want to be a cat now. At the range he was from our heroes though, he couldn’t quite see that Matt wasn’t like the others. Nonetheless it did not matter to him who this extra complication was; he would deal with everyone with one swift stroke.

The Rangers all watched him press the top button on the controls and the mechanism clunked into life, gears turning and chains clanking as they fired up and became ready to operate. “And now, goodbye,” he said pulling one of the switches down. The Rangers shut their eyes in anticipation of suddenly falling very quickly. They reopened them a couple of seconds later when it became evident they weren’t moving, looking across to see the professor ranting furiously and yanking the switch up and down repeatedly in an attempt to get it to work. “Arghhh… this has to be his doing, I don’t believe this! How…?!” the professor shouted.

“I think that’s our cue to get out of here!” suggested Chip.

Chip clambered up through the opening first, followed by Gadget, and then all three looked to haul Monty against the ever powerful nature of gravity to join them. It was a bit of a struggle considering their strength versus Monty’s bulk and the height of the box, but success was to be theirs in due time and effort.

Matt quickly removed the hookshot from his left arm and handed it to Gadget, thinking this was going to be the easiest way to get them all onto the ground across the room. “Gadget, you take Chip, and I’ll carry Monty… I hope these are strong enough to hold two persons now!” stated Matt. “Gotcha,” acknowledged Gadget, “but there’s still the issue that there’s only two ways out and he’s guarding both of them!”

Giving up on dropping the Rangers right in it, the professor took possession of the gun attached to his platform and levelled it at the assembled group, letting rip a shot as best as he could. Thankfully for all involved it missed, but instead struck one of the steam pipes causing it to fracture and part of it was left dangling, gushing high temperature water vapour into the near vicinity. “We’re sitting ducks here,” stated Monty, “which reminds me of the time…”

But there was no time for idle chit-chat in this situation. Gadget and Chip swung across the gap, landing on their feet on the other side of the ledge to where the professor was currently situated. Assessing whom to now turn his attention towards, the professor chose those closest and turned to face Gadget and Chip, brandishing the gun threateningly. In response Matt took off through the air with Monty on his back, but on a path directly at the professor. As they came to arc upwards in the parabolic trajectory Monty deliberately let go, sending himself soaring on a collision course like a mouse torpedo. Unfortunately his aim wasn’t perfect this time and instead of hitting the professor, he missed to the right and ended up face first into the mechanism housing, sliding down to the ground before turning over and rubbing his head.

Somewhat bemused by all of this, the professor smirked and aimed the gun directly down to where Monty was on the floor, looking to at least reduce four of his problems into just three. In the meantime, Matt had ended up swinging back onto the roof of the glass prison from surprise at Monty’s gusto, and was now wondering what anyone could do to help him. “Save yourself guys, I think me ship’s had its final voyage!” squeaked Monty as he stared at his predicament.

Without thinking Matt let rip with his hookshot onto the steam pipe, grabbing part of the dislocated section and ripping it off before swinging his arm around and retracting the chain, sending the tube hurtling like a javelin towards the two of them. The first anyone else knew about it was when it embedded itself in the housing right in front of the professor’s face, in fact almost following the exact path Monty himself had taken. Caught off-guard the professor faltered, giving Monty time to get to his feet, grab the pipe with both hands, swing forward and kick the platform away and through one of the entrance archways, taking the professor with it.

Swinging over to join the others, Matt congratulated Monty, “Nicely done there as well.”
“Seems ya getting the hang of this teamwork idea,” commented Monty back, with a hefty pat to the back. Although this crisis had been averted, overall matters were still at hand which Chip was at pains to point out, “You let him get away Monty!”

“But… I… had to… oooooh!” he replied, not entirely thinking this criticism was justified in any way. “Now look here Chip…”

“Guys, we can sort your differences later, we’ve got to catch up with him!” interrupted Gadget, planting her arms wide to metaphorically keep the two of them apart. Both rapidly came to their senses and the gang of four headed out the same exit in pursuit of their nemesis.


Chapter 15 – Pursuit Of The Impossible
The next cavern over was entirely different to the one they had been confined within for the last few hours, being wide and open with a smooth floor looking like it had been mechanically treated, although the roof was quite low in places. In the haste of the chase, Matt had overlooked to mention something rather relevant.

“I should warn you that there will probably be quite a few…”

Everyone else got to see what he was talking about immediately as he said it, a lot of controlled heavily equipped pirates were now converging on their position very quickly, ably directed by the professor himself. “Ah, there’s a load more of these bozos to deal with, this time I’m in the mood for another workout so don’t stop me again,” stated Monty getting ready to rumble. “Careful Monty,” interjected Chip, “they’re not really our enemy, it’s all due to the mind control so don’t go too rough on them!”

“We really could do with finding out how to shut it down right about now!” deduced Gadget.
“One other thing for certain, it’s not looking too promising,” stating Chip as a wall of bodies began to encroach on their position.

Matt and Gadget looked at each other for a brief moment before turning to face the approaching mob and unleashing their hookshots in an attempt to create a pathway. Instead both happened to latch onto weapons carried by the pirates and wrench them out of their hands.

“Ah, I’m feeling mighty more confident now,” stated Monty purloining the weapon Matt had snatched, swishing it about in the air in front of him like a firebrand to a pack of feral dogs. In response Chip took possession of the weapon Gadget had grabbed; now everyone was armed if still not quite so dangerous.

“Go you two!” commanded Chip, attempting to keep back the still pressing pirates, waving his metal armament about in the direction of anyone who came too close. Matt and Gadget saw that as a request to break through the path Monty and Chip were trying to form, as they split the pirates and continue the pursuit after the professor. “We’ll hold them off and try to find where we can deactivate the control,” Chip continued.

“Fine plan Chipper, but errr,” mentioned Monty looking a little worried, “we only have one way to go and that’s backwards.”
“Which is the way I want to go,” answered Chip. “I have a feeling the control room is that way.”

With Monty metaphorically scratching his head to Chip’s reasoning, the two of them eased in reverse, still keeping those who would threaten at bay.

“Let me guess Chip… at some moment shortly, we’re going to turn and run, right?”
“Correct… I just want to figure out what lies behind us before doing so!”

The two of them steadily continued backwards, ending up once more in the room where they had been imprisoned for a while, and then through the other entrance, all the time fending off the slowly advancing hoard. Chip glanced over his shoulder, to see they were now in a long winding corridor carefully crafted out of the solid rock.

“Now?” inquired Monty impatiently.
“Now is as good a time as any!” replied Chip.

With that the two friends turned about face and began to dash as fast as their legs would carry them, still holding their weapons just in case they happened to need them in their mad race for freedom. Behind them the sound of a multitude of feet upon ground resonated through the tunnels as the pursuit continued, but started to get fainter as they evidently were pulling away. All of a sudden Monty’s tail shot up straight and started to misbehave, causing both of them to stop still.

“Crikey, me tail’s acting strange, it’s telling me there’s a chance of lightning nearby!”
“Don’t be silly Monty, how can there be possibly any weather down here?”
“You don’t doubt me tail again, do you Chipper?”
“No but… even you have to admit this is too strange.”

Monty considered Chip’s words and was inclined to agree but knew his tail was right. A conundrum indeed.

“What is lightning technically?” Chip pondered aloud.
“Electricity!” answered Monty.
“Precisely. And there could be a high concentration of it right under our noses… in fact how about through that door there?” pointing to a large metal plate in the wall just down from where they were standing.

Monty’s tail was still doing its thing, probably more so, as they examined the door and the keycard swipe mechanism mounted in the wall. “Whatever it is, it’s located inside,” concluded Monty.

“I wouldn’t have expected the professor to leave a supposedly important room such as this unsecured,” said Chip disappointedly.
“What room?”
“Large supply of electricity and locked, I’d almost bank on this being where the mind control device is housed.”
“Darn,” shouted Monty, unconsciously bashing the mechanism in frustration with a wayward fist, “and we were getting so close!”

In response the metal door slid open before their eyes. “Open says me!” chuckled Monty as they entered the room beyond with the door closing behind them. Chip wondered if it wasn’t just Matt who had the talent.

“Strike me starkers and bring on the sunglasses!” commented Monty seeing the veritable bank of equipment and monitors inside emitting an exceeding bright glow. “It appears the old professor can keep tabs on just about anywhere within this darn complex.”

Chip ran his hand over a bank of small switches, all numbered up in haphazard and random order, thinking about where to begin. Their concentration was temporarily broken by noises outside approaching and then disappearing, realising that the pirates had been and gone, most likely now leaving them in peace to continue.

“Gadget was wrong by the way,” Chip mentioned as he studied a few dials mounted near the communication post. “There is no one giant transmitter down here. Everything runs off the same supply… the voice transmission, the mind control signal, it all is distributed together in individual packets to each part of the cavern.”

“Blimey Chip, you almost sound like Gadget there. And you could determine all that just by looking at the controls?”
“That and the handwritten scribbles and diagrams on notes stuck here,” Chip revealed with a smile.
“I wonder if we can spot how Matt and Gadget are doing?” thought Monty aloud.

Chip flipped a few switches chosen at random, and the images displayed on a couple of monitors changed over as he did so, giving a small view onto other parts of the underground network. One such flick did indeed bring up the other two as they made their way through some tunnel neither viewer had any idea to where it was in the maze of passages. Unfortunately the next marked camera along showed they were walking into an ambush.

“Blimey Chip, do something before they get taken by surprise!” shouted Monty.
“But what can I do? Hold on, I’ve got one idea…”

Switching the comms unit into life, Chip looked at the monitor display carefully at the pirates who were heading right for Matt and Gadget. In his best simulated voice he then boomed a command over the microphone.

“Pirate group… ohhh,” as he stumbled, “…you lot there, yes you in the red with the cutlass. Bring your group immediately to the control room!”

The pirates looked at each other a little peculiarly before heading off in a different direction, one that took them away from where Matt and Gadget would momentarily reach.

“Great work Chip… though shouldn’t we be going as soon as possible, you just sent those guys in our direction!”
“Not before we shut down these systems. Any thoughts?”
“How about this large button in the transparent case here marked Emergency Shutdown?”

Picking the microphone unit up Monty swung it heartily against the case, breaking it sufficiently to allow Chip to reach his paw in and firmly depress the button. Expecting a whirl of flashing lights and alarms to signal this momentous action, Chip and Monty were both disappointed and relieved to find everything just switched off with nary a fanfare. The whole room was draped in darkness except one low powered light that remained on mounted in the ceiling; all the monitors and other equipment was now, for all intents and purposes, dead. Chip peered at Monty through the gloom and smiled.

“We’ve done our part, now let’s hope Matt and Gadget can do theirs. Or maybe the pirates will collar the professor first now they are not being controlled,” he commented.
“Erm Chip, only one problem. The door was electronically controlled. How are we getting out?”
“Oh,” muttered Chip as his celebrations were temporarily halted. “I suppose we’d better try and find something to lever it open with…”


Chapter 16 – Army Of Two
In another part of the underground system, Matt and Gadget were relentlessly pursuing the professor but never quite catching up with him, always just a couple of steps behind but keeping track of where he was going. Said pursuit was also surprisingly pirate-free except for one potential flash point that didn’t come to pass thanks to the actions of Chip and Monty, not that they were to know this.

Turning a corner and passing through a reinforced entrance, they were greeted with a much larger room than anything they had encountered since being down there. In the ceiling was a large sliding door, looking as a way to lift something out, and directly below there appeared to be some large object, although the lighting present was keeping much of it in the dark. Suddenly the doors on the exits both fore and aft slid down, locking them inside.

“Not again,” thought Matt to himself, but his thoughts were interrupted by a voice on the speakers. It was coming from the small, dark-tinted glass fronted observation platform embedded in the left side of the wall.

“Welcome guests,” taunted the professor observing his two captives. His words stopped short however as he took a proper look at who was present. The annoying female mouse again he knew, but the other person… he didn’t quite look animal like. But that can’t be, surely. He tried to take a closer view, adjusting his glasses, but Matt had turned his back on him as he seemed pre-occupied with the other occupant in this prison.

“I see you are interested *cough* in my little project,” the professor continued. “Let me introduce you *cough* to one of my finest creations and why this plan is continuing… on schedule!”

A couple of lights came on, removing much of the silhouette surrounding the mysterious metallic object. And there is stood, a bipedal attack vehicle with a cockpit mounted in the middle for one person, or rodent, to pilot. However it was empty. The visible weapon systems, designed to deliver the armaments and gas developed, were not though. Gadget couldn’t help but be impressed, almost running to take a better examination of it before snapping herself into realising this was not the best idea in the world.

“Cute,” spat Matt, disguising how taken aback he was, “though shouldn’t you be in that thing?”
“Oh don’t worry,” laughed the professor, “it can operate perfectly *cough* well without anyone piloting it. I call it Rex, king amongst machines. And now would be a perfect time to test it.”

The professor pressed a button on the control panel and the machine powered into life. “Me and my big mouth,” commented Matt as it rose up and rightly towered over both him and Gadget. They both took a few steps backwards in fear and awe.

“Isn’t this the point where the master criminal wanders off and doesn’t view his underling failing to kill the good guys?” asked Matt with a touch of irony in his voice.
“Oh no, I shall quite enjoy watching you suffer,” replied the professor.

“Now what?” asked Matt towards Gadget.
“Gosh… I don’t know. I’d need to take a better look, but I don’t think it will be willing.”

She then spun around quickly and launched her hookshot at the glass in front of the professor, but it ricocheted off, leaving a small impact mark. “Worth a go I guess,” stated Matt disappointedly as they moved away from each other as the monster machine starting walking towards them.

Mounted atop of the giant biped were two portable lasers, which now rotated and attempted to aim at both targets on the ground. The first shot slammed a mere inch or two in front of Matt’s feet and with that he looked once more at Gadget. “I think we’re in trouble,” came the obvious message.

The other laser now fired at Gadget as she made a forward move to try and get behind Rex so they could keep it distracted on both fronts. While it was occupied more with Gadget’s motion at that moment, Matt launched a backstab hookshot grab at one of the lasers, hitting it square and true and wrenching it from its mounting as the claw returned to its owner. Evidently Matt had made these things more powerful than he had realised.

Sadly without the power feed it was going to be useless to use himself against Rex, and he tried to remove the laser from the grasp, but it seemed stuck. However this meant he wasn’t paying attention to what was in front, as Rex turned back and aimed its remaining laser at him. In a burst of speed, Gadget ran through its legs and shoved Matt away just in time, the shot narrowly avoiding her in the process. The impact dislodged the laser from Matt’s claw and it bounced away into the corner.

With Gadget having her back to the target now, Rex decided to swing itself about and down, knocking her across the room and hitting the wall with a crunch. Collapsing on the floor she was dazed and unable to move as Rex angled itself for another shot with the laser. Matt could only hope that he would be able to save her with his own shot. Launching the hook out it grabbed Gadget by the scruff and yanked her forwards just as the beam smashed into the rock and burnt a hole in it.

But Matt had been somewhat off balance when firing as it was a reactionary instinct and as Gadget hurtled towards him, he fell over, causing her to spin around his body. Matt deliberately jerked his arm upwards and released the grip, sending Gadget arcing through the air and landing right on top of Rex.

“That was quite unfair!” screamed the professor. “Now play nice and die quietly will you?!”

Rex appeared not to notice this as Matt stood up, beckoning the robot over with a taunt of the hand in classic Bruce Lee style. “I’m nuts,” he thought as the robot turned its sights once again onto him. Gadget in the meantime had regained her senses and realised where she had ended up. Examining the top plate carefully where Matt had ripped off the laser she knew that this was the entry point she so desired. She just needed some way to open it up a bit more to work her magic.

“Matt,” she called, “throw me your tool set!”
“My tool set?” he replied confused as to what she meant.
“Oh, you sure?!” he then asked when he realised what she was going on about.
“It’s the only chance we have,” she proposed as Matt ran an arc around Rex as it tried to track him.

Reaching into his back pocket he produced the Swiss army knife again and lobbed it up to Gadget’s waiting hands, all the time doing his best to avoid the machinations of the manic metal monster. “Cummon!” he screamed in a further attempt to distract Rex from what Gadget was going to do, for around this time he had just about had enough of this charade cat-and-mouse game.

Gadget plucked the fat handle of the blade from within the sturdy confines of the utility device and spun around the loose screw fixing the plate under her feet. As it flew upwards having been loosened, Rex was bearing down upon Matt and he was running out of steam running about everywhere, avoiding all the attention.

Prising the plate slightly upwards, Gadget slammed the blade down into part of Rex’s internals, causing it to twitch and momentarily stop, before lurching backwards slightly and audibly growl. “I think it’s pissed,” commented Matt, surprised that the robot even had any audio circuits upon it. Regaining its balance, Rex started to shake violently, trying to throw Gadget off its top now it realised that someone was causing havoc aboard.

In response Gadget could only cling on as best she could, and had to delve her hand inside the gap she’d created to gain a sufficient handhold for the situation. Doing so made Rex react in more unexpected ways, and as it turned to aim towards Matt one the rockets mounted on the side ignited and launched at maximum velocity. Diving down as fast as he could it passed right over Matt’s head and impacted into the observation room, shattering all the glass into tiny pieces and flinging the professor into the wall with the blast.

“Holy….!” cried Matt as he turned his head to observe the result of the explosion. The professor staggered to his feet, visible shaken by this turn of events and realised the situation was not going the way he had planned. Plucking a card from his coat, he moved to the door within, swiped it through and entered what appeared to be a lift. Exit stage left leaving our two protagonists to deal with a now loopy mechanical construction.

“Can’t you shut the bloody thing down?!” shouted Matt to Gadget as he randomly sidestepped in both directions to avoid the unpredictable stomping of Rex’s size 56 feet. Gadget shoved her hand further into the circuitry, her shoulder hardly visible, and feeling a bunch of wires grasped hold and yanked them out for all she was worth.

And in doing so, everything aboard Rex just fell dead, the metal beast tilting over and crashing to the floor with Gadget leaping clear as it wilted from lack of power. Gadget threw the Swiss made destroyer of robots back at Matt stating “Golly, the penknife really IS mightier than the sword!”

“We’re still trapped in here though,” he responded putting it back in his pocket, “and the professor has gotten away again.”

Gadget aimed for the now mangled control room and shot herself up there, landing with a crunch amid the broken glass. Carefully treading about to avoid cutting her feet, she gazed over the panels and switches present, mostly now inoperative. Any attempt to try and prise the door of the lift open was also met with resistance. Turning her attention back to where she had been looking, there was one section still seemingly intact. A flick of one switch revealed that it was still receiving electricity, and in a flurry of hands she flipped every single one present. Amidst the blur of fingers, the doors to the room shot upwards allowing them to progress.

“It appears luck is still on our side,” commented Matt as Gadget leapt down to join him to continue their pursuit.


Chapter 17 – This Is How The Story Ends
Having made their way out of the room and through another tunnel, across a narrow walkway and around the edges of the caverns via slim outcrops, Matt and Gadget emerged into another spacious area on a wide ledge overlooking the entire scene, with a large rock perched near the edge the only company they had. While it was lonely sitting high up on the face, down below it appeared where all the action was happening. For down below they could see the professor who was stationary solely for the reason he had been accosted by two pirate guards brandishing weapons, though they weren’t talking loud enough for the two of them to hear above.

“Looks like Chip and Monty managed to disable the mind-control device,” commented Gadget.
“Yeah, let’s hope those pirates can hold him long enough for us to get there, I’m in the mood for some retribution after that last battle.”

“You’re not going anywheres until ya tell us where da Captain is!” demanded one pirate.
“Dead probably,” replied the professor emotionlessly.
“See, I told ya we couldn’t trust him,” exclaimed the other pirate to the first.
“Not by my hand it was,” the professor riposted, which was entirely truthful for once.
“Yeah like we can believes ya here.”
“Now I really must be going…”

In a split second the professor drew the pistol from the side of his hovering device, a reaction that would have impressed in Tombstone way back when, and levelled two shots at almost point blank range hitting both pirates and rendering them unconscious on the floor. “Imbeciles,” he muttered looking at his handiwork.

“Right that does it,” announced Matt preparing to make a flanking position in the air, “we’re taking him down ourselves, he’s too dangerous to be left unchecked.”
“Taking down?! Matt!” exclaimed Gadget as she watched him take off across the cavern with his hookshot.

The professor was about to start on his way again and holster his pistol before sensing that someone else was in close proximity. Call it intuition, call it ESP, call it what you will, he slowly turned around to look behind him, to which Gadget ducked behind the rock present. Matt had already moved too far forward to be caught within the professor’s line of view as he scanned the region behind him, thinking carefully, wondering if he was mistaken by a gut instinct. Matt in the meantime was hanging tight, watching what was transpiring and assessing the situation as to what to do next.

The professor squinted slightly and pursed his lips, certain that he wasn’t reading this wrong. He widened his eyes back to normal in realisation, took aim and fired a full-power shot at the rock on the ledge, causing the top fragment of it to crumble and fall in tiny pieces, bouncing down the side before tumbling over the ledge onto the floor of the cavern. In response there was a tiny visible twitch of tail as Gadget flinched in reaction to being shot at, something the professor did not overlook.

“I know someone’s there,” he shouted. There was no response to his callout. “I could just keep shooting, I’d eventually find out *cough* if I’m right or not.” Still nothing, Gadget was hoping he was bluffing. The professor fired again, once more hitting the rock and reducing another chunk of it to rubble. “Sooner or later I’ll hit something far less solid than rock you know!”

While the professor was occupied trying to determine whether Gadget was doing her best impression of how not to be seen, Matt had manoeuvred his way around the cavern roof, avoiding the large stalactites as he went, to a position hanging almost directly above him. As he lowered himself slowly down, the professor slowly advanced forward towards where he had been shooting, unawares of what was going on out of his vision. Unawares that is, until Matt landed and recalled the hook, the soft noise of which in the fairly tranquil cavern still lit it up audio wise like a proverbial Christmas tree.

As Matt rapidly approached the professor thinking he was going to catch him by surprise, the professor turned around to address his would-be attacker and fired out a blast directly at him. It caught him full-on, such was the shortage of distance between the two of them, but some of the energy was absorbed by the hookshot as his arm was across his body at the time. Nonetheless it sent Matt crashing to the floor, dazed and scrambled of bearing, with a shake of the head not clearing his senses. He managed to get onto his hands and knees before noticing that the professor had closed the gap and was pointing the gun straight at him. Looking down at his arm he saw that the hookshot was useless, some of it melted from the energy it had dissipated away from his body, though that was probably the reason he was still conscious, if not alive. He turned to look back at the professor, who was visibly gloating in his position, with a snarl and a look of indignation to his situation.

“I scarcely thought it was true watching you earlier,” began the professor, “but it really is a marvel… a tiny *cough* human. Fascinating… testing you shall be most interesting.”

Matt made to try and jump his assailant but a quick wave of the gun in his direction gave him second thoughts about that line of approach. “Ahh ahh, not so quick there my little friend,” teased the professor, “though I must admit, I don’t know how you managed to get from up there to down here unseen while I was shooting.”

“You can’t hurt me anymore.”
“Oh but I can… pain happens to be one of my specialities.”
“It doesn’t matter what you do to me, I am already dead,” Matt spat with a certain amount of vigour.
“Not until I say so. And that won’t be for quite a while.”
“I’m not going anywhere fast now that you’ve shot me… gah what a mess. Feels like I’ve gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson.”
“I’m sure this little baby,” the professor stated patting the side of his travelling device, “has enough grunt to drag you out of here if need be.”

To which he started laughing at the situation, full of confidence that he would slink away and regroup to concoct some bizarre new scheme in the future despite having his plans thwarted once more. However he stopped when he saw Matt was looking a little too smug for what he was expecting. “You seem to have an answer for anything,” Matt stated, “but answer me this. What’s five inches tall, dressed in lavender and looking to kick your arse into the middle of next week?”

Matt’s attention was drawn to beyond the professor, who turned his head around to see what was being referenced while still keeping the gun levelled at Matt. Walking into view was Gadget with determination written all over her face, and in no mood to mess about or be messed about.

“How are you?” she yelled out to Matt.
“Doing great here!” he replied sarcastically.
“You were right by the way. We are… taking him down.”

She stopped about three feet away and stared hard at the professor, who looked back at her with a similar expression. It was just like a West West shootout though the initial sparring was going to be verbal rather than physical.

“Ah, it’s the little inventor mousey,” the professor taunted towards Gadget.
“Same as always… you still don’t deign to accept me in your presence.”
“Your abilities are a trifling insignificance compared to mine.”
“I’m shocked that you are still alive after what happened.”
“Genius such as myself shall not be allowed to die so wastefully. It took me a while to recover but I’ve been looking forward to meeting you again for some time.”
“This ends right here. Now.”
“You’re right… except this time you don’t have your guardian angel to protect you. Which means,” he stated, fully turning towards Gadget and aiming the gun at her, ”that I have the upper hand.”

Gadget tensed with energy, her body barely able to contain her contempt, her anger, her frustration, in readiness for doing something to resolve this situation. What though she didn’t quite know at this moment. She flexed her fingers on her right hand and came rapidly to the only idea she thought possible that could have any chance of levelling the odds in her favour.

The professor was the first to break the stand-off, squeezing the trigger and sending a bolt of energy forth towards Gadget’s position. However she was quick enough to react, crouching out of the way and balancing her weight towards her left side as she extended her right arm forward and let rip with the hookshot. It launched out at such a speed that it caught the professor unprepared and he only had enough time to jerk his body slightly to the right to avoid it as the chain whooshed past his left shoulder. As it turned out, the hook itself came to a halt a foot or so behind Matt as the chain snapped taut at full extension before the device looked to recall everything it had spat through the air.

“Too bad you missed!” retorted the professor as he re-aimed the gun at where Gadget was positioned. She hadn’t in a way. As the hook looked to return home, Matt made a leap upwards just sufficient to grab the chain with his left hand and he started flying through the air towards the both of them. He might have been getting on, but the professor’s ears were still good enough to pick up this change in sound, as if a larger weight was disturbing the air currents. Spinning around to see what was going on, he was met with a clunk as Matt clotheslined him with his right arm as he flew past, causing the professor to spin right out of his platform and onto the ground, dislodging the gun from his hand as he landed and it bounced a couple of times in front of him.

Although Matt realised he was going to ram right into Gadget and let go of the chain, his forward momentum still carried him right into her and they both tumbled to the ground in a heap. Matt recovered his directions first and upon noticing the gun was lying there to be taken, he made steps to try and collect it. However the professor in response to seeing this scrambled forward with his hands, pulling his body across the bare rock, clutched the gun in his right hand and levelled it upwards slightly, grinning as he knew he’d beaten Matt to the punch. Matt took a few steps backwards to give himself some breathing room, though he didn’t fail to notice the professor’s desperate actions and that indeed it appeared that he couldn’t use his legs anymore.

“Blast you!” screamed the professor, “I’ll give you what you wanted.”
“There is nothing left for me to fear,” replied Matt, expecting the inevitable.

Gadget had picked herself up while this exchange was going on and looked across to see Matt was in dire trouble. She dashed the few paces it took and dived in front of Matt, just as the professor pulled the trigger. “No, you don’t!” she yelled as the blast struck her, sending both her and Matt to the ground with the impact. Gadget though had only absorbed a small part of the energy unleashed, the rest deflected off her hookshot upwards, striking the base of a large stalactite above them all.

Matt had his arm around Gadget, trying to protect her although she didn’t need it. “You alright?” he asked frantically as they lay on the ground together. “Gosh yes, don’t be so worried, I managed to deflect most of it away! Though I think mine has suffered the same fate as yours…”

They then both turned their attention to the professor, still prone on the floor who was looking at them incredulously, wondering how he failed again to enact the punishment he so desired. His look of wonderment soon turned once more to anger and revenge.

“This is impossible!” he yelled, “Strike three and you’re out!”

He was about to shoot when there was an ominous creaking noise from far above, where rock met ceiling. A few nuggets of rock spilled out and hurtled to the floor, crashing and cascading about, as the stalactite hit by the blast swayed almost unnoticeably, so fine and miniscule that it was hard to make out. The noise got louder as all three of them watched the large pointed growth that had built up over the ages, transfixed by its antics, until a few seconds later its hold over the ceiling collapsed and it started to come spiralling downwards.

“Move, move, MOVE!” shouted Matt, though his legs were not obeying his commands and it took Gadget to haul him upwards as they started to vacate the area before collapsing once again a few metres away. The professor was not going to be so fortunate, his frantic attempts to move thwarted by his lack of mobility and the shots he fired at the stalactite were not affecting it at all.

A long piercing scream was then ended by a monumental thud that reverberated around the entire cavern and beyond.

Matt and Gadget had covered themselves up from the ensuing collision, but still ended up coughing dust for several seconds as the large cloud that had arisen as a result hung in the air, daring anyone around to drag it down into their lungs. When it had settled enough to see what had happened, Gadget uttered not a word but buried her head into Matt when it became obvious. Matt just stared at the rock, thinking to himself, contemplating just how much more of this he could take. They lay there for what seemed an age, just trying to take it all in. In time, Matt then looked at Gadget who was peeking back at him. “Cummon,” he muttered, “let’s get out of here.”

Eventually he managed to lug his body upright, patted down his clothes bedaubed with dust, trying to remove all that had accumulated upon them, and reached out with his left hand to assist Gadget in getting up herself.

“You’re left handed?” she inquired a little surprised as she made it to her feet.
“Hold on… we’ve just managed to take care of a metal monstrosity and its creator, and avoided getting squashed by a large pillar of rock, and now you happen to notice I’m left handed?!”
“Golly… it’s just how my mind works at times, I keep flitting between different thoughts.”
“You and I have more in common than we could possibly imagine. What’s the significance though?”
“Dad was left-handed, I suppose there are many parts of you that remind me of him.”
“Oh,” mused Matt putting his arm around her shoulder as they started walking, “then you don’t need to tell me just how much you still miss him.”

They had taken a few steps when Matt had a thought. “Any idea how we get out of here?!”

That question was to be answered by Chip and Monty bursting through the ground level entrance to the cavern to meet them both, all full of smiles and happiness upon seeing them. While Monty gave Gadget a hug, Matt shook Chip’s hand with a nod of understanding and acknowledgement of respect.

“Where’s the professor?” asked Chip.
“He had more… pressing matters to attend to,” answered Matt with an indication of his head towards the large rock on the ground.

Although extremely shocked by this outcome, Chip somehow managed to take it in his stride. “It’s hard to believe that this tangent of my life is now at an end,” he solemnly stated. “You’re gonna have to tell us about this earlier encounter Chipper,” pondered Monty. “All in good time Monty, but first let’s get back to Ranger HQ and see how Molly is doing before we return her here to be with her crew.”

Upon returning to Ranger HQ, having first reassured the pirates present that their captain was indeed still alive and well, they entered to discover an altogether different situation to when they left. Sitting together on the sofa was Tammy and Molly, the latter with a cup in her hand, half-drunk, and a remorseful look on her face, with Zipper parked on the back. All looked up when the door opened, with Tammy then getting up and dashing across to greet them giving Chip a big hug, for reasons unexplained, though it did get a chuckle out of Gadget.

“I see your patient is doing a lot better,” observed Chip, acknowledging Molly’s presence.
“Looks like you managed to work your magic then,” added Monty.
“It’s still going to take her a while to come to terms with all of this,” replied Tammy.
“Mission accomplished, if that’s what you wanted to hear Molly,” announced Chip.

Matt in the meantime had slowly wandered over to the sofa, looking down at Molly and glaring at her. She noticed he was standing there, looked at him for a couple of seconds before looking down again, emotionally beaten. Gadget spotted this before anyone else and made haste across to the two of them in case something happened to spark off, putting her hand on Matt’s shoulder in equal part to reassure and restrain him from doing anything silly.

“Matt, she knows what she did, she can’t sink any lower than she currently is. I’ve been in that downward spiral myself, to a place full of despair and depression.”

Matt turned to look at Gadget, raised an eyebrow before turning to look back at Molly. He slipped the hookshot off his right arm and handed it to Gadget stating, “Here… keep this as a memento, maybe you can fix them in the future if there’s a call for their use again.”

“And you owe us, more than you can know,” he stated to Molly, pointing a finger. “Words can never erase the past, but they can lay the destiny of the future.”

“I know… and I’m sorry, to all of you,” apologised Molly, looking around the room to make eye contact with every Ranger who was present. “Maybe my brother’s ways, full of folly and ideal, aren’t so bad after all. Maybe this is the excuse I’ve been looking for to make up with the old fool.”

“If something good comes out of this whole incident, then it was worth what we went through,” said Chip. “And boy do I have a tale to tell you pally,” Monty said to Zipper, who still looked a little worried. “What..? You thought we might not come back?” to which Zipper had a sad face while nodding. “You must be psychic or something, this is not something for the faint of heart!”

Zipper looked concerned as Monty broached the inevitable in a quiet manner to his friend so that Gadget couldn’t hear. “This Professor, why did we never find out he was responsible for freezing us all those years ago?” Zipper pondered and then was openly honest about the answer. “What?” muttered Monty in surprise trying his best to keep his voice down, “She asked you not to mention anything about it to us pally? Blimey, I never thought our Gadget would be one for keeping herself to herself.”

“I have one favour to ask, if that is possible,” inquired Molly.
“I think I know what that will be, and we had planned on taking you back anyhow when we returned,” answered Chip.
“Then thank you, for all that you’ve done, much that I don’t deserve it.”
“We are the Rescue Rangers, and that is why you came to us, right?”
“Yes… Jolly’s faith in you was not misplaced. Had I known it was the Rescue Rangers earlier, events might have been so much different. His friends are my friends now.”

Chip made to attract Monty’s attention before helping lead Molly outside. “Cummon Zipper, let’s join them and I can tell you all about this adventure on the way there.”

“I’m proud of you Matt,” said Gadget as they watched the group of four exit Ranger HQ.
“For what?” he replied quizzically.
“Letting it go.”
“Hmm… patience of a saint at times. Then again, I’m glad to have met you Miss Gadget Hackwrench, the supposed alpha to my omega. Another side to the story is always welcome.”
“And I’m glad to have met you,” she smiled in that way back at him. “Being a Rescue Ranger is more than just exciting harrowing narrow escapes and outrageous fights to the bitter end.”
“Could have fooled me.”
“Humph… as seen here with Molly, knowing when you were wrong and trying to make amends is merely the beginning.”
“Which is a good point… something I need to do, excuse me,” he stated, as he noticed Tammy walking out of the main area and towards the bedrooms. Upon reaching Chip’s room he knocked on the door, the voice inside telling him to come in.

“Matt,” Tammy stated as she looked up from what she was doing, “what’s up?”
“You seem surprisingly happy to see me at this moment.”
“I’m glad everyone made it back safely.”
“So am I… look, about earlier, I’m sorry I flew off the handle over our visitor.”
“I thought about it after everyone had gone. I understand why you were like that.”
“That doesn’t excuse it however.”
“Perhaps. Perhaps not. We’re not all the same, we all handle things differently.”
“True… so… friends?” he asked holding a hand out to shake with.
“Friends!” responded Tammy with gusto, opting to hug him instead.
“Now about what you did while we were out, I’d be interested in hearing…”


Chapter 18 – Nobody Said It Was Easy, It’s Such A Shame For Us To Part
Another case had been successfully solved, and you would think that everyone would be celebrating. To all intents and purposes they were on the outside, but for a certain chipmunk, he couldn’t but help be influenced by the supposed demeanour of a mouse he longed to be close to. Having Gadget back after all this time had just solidified his feelings.

And so the next day, while Tammy and Zipper were cleaning up parts of the HQ, and Gadget and Matt were helping each other out building some new zany contraption ideas they had been brainstorming together, it was left to Chip and Monty to talk turkey in the main area. Chip was looking emotionally altogether a little annoyed and Monty was doing his best to cheer him up.

“It seems as if Matt has more resonance with Gadget, and he’s not even really one of us now, or been here very long for that matter,” stated Chip, more than a little perturbed. It was maybe just as well that no one else on the team could hear what they were talking about.

“You know what Gadget can be like around these inventor types, she gets these flutters in her head that she’s met someone else on her level of kookiness. You’ve only got to remember how she was when we met Sparky for instance.”

“I suppose you’re right.”
“Course I am! And what has happened every single time? They’ve let her down in some way. And you’re always the one still here being the strong leader and being there for her,” as Monty gave a soft jab with his finger on Chip’s chest. Monty continued with his rhetoric.

“You know with being a good mate of Geegaw that I treat Gadget almost as me own daughter. And I can’t see a finer example of someone who deserves to be with her than you Chip.”

Chip smiled at his metaphorical recommendation of compatibility. But it wasn’t Monty who needed convincing here.

“I wish Gadget would see that though, sometimes I wonder if she actually notices.”
“She’ll figure it out in her own time when she’s good and ready mate. Once we’ve managed to get Matt back to his proper size, then things should be back to the way they always have been.”
“Until the next time she meets someone similar that is!”
“Blimey, now who’s being the pessimistic one, I thought that was Matt’s job around here!”
“Well, I have an idea, a plan, something to do that will be maybe help both myself and the team.”

Chip’s eyes lit up, burning with brightness of an idea behind them. Monty looked a little confused as to what Chip was going on about.

“A plan mate? What sorta plan?”
“Given Matt was filling in technically during Gadget’s absence, what is stopping me from starting to learn all about building things?”

It was an interesting thought, one though that Monty wasn’t overly sure about.

“I dunno Chip, Gadget’s a whiz at these things and look how often they go screwy.”
“Oh I’m not expecting to build my own Rangerwing in a day, but if I can learn about drawing blueprints, what each tool does, and other mechanical knowledge, then maybe it can help the team with another hand and get me closer to working with Gadget on them at the same time!”
“Bonzer idea Chipper, maybe she’ll see you as another one of these inventor types.”
“Exactly.”
“First things first though, solving the mystery currently sitting in another room. Things didn’t go so well today on that front either.”

“Yeah,” replied Chip sullenly with reality suddenly heaped back upon his shoulders and removing most of the uplifted feeling he had just been experiencing. If they had known what was being talked about in the workshop at that time, their conversation might have gone a whole lot differently.

In said workshop, both Matt and Gadget were working individually on novel new weapon ideas, mainly involving loaded tension and vast sucker ended objects. Although sat pretty much side by side, they were so intently concentrating on their own project, neither one of them had said anything to the other for almost twenty minutes. The silence was to be broken by the actions of both; Gadget reached with her right hand for a spanner as Matt went for it at exactly the same time with his left. Matt got there first and Gadget’s hand ended up on top, but instead of retracting it just stayed there, resting gently on his for a few seconds before both of them looked at each other. Matt was the first to say something.

“Does any of this actually feel strange to you in any…”
“No.”

Gadget’s answer was sincere and to the point. She knew what Matt was asking about and it didn’t matter to her who he was, just the kind of person he was instead. He turned to face her, taking both her hands in his and looking straight ahead. She wondered what he was going to say, maybe how he felt. She was right, though not perhaps in the way she was expecting.

“This whole experience has been wonderful, and everyone has been great especially yourself, but…”
“But what?” she blurted, cutting into Matt’s words.

“But you know deep down that it cannot last forever. Remember, you said that yourself.”
“Why not in this case? You’ve become an invaluable member of the team, and I really enjoy working with you. And much that you might not say it, but you have enjoyed being here now, right?”
“True,” he answered with a rueful smile, “but I have to go back sooner or later.”

Gadget looked both shocked and sad by Matt’s intentions, and lowered her head slightly in disappointment. In response he raised their hands, and dipped his head so that his touched hers. A deep sigh was heard through the room as it had become so quiet in that instant, but only the person making the sound would be able to tell you who had actually made it. Matt raised his head and Gadget responded, as he was about to explain the reason behind his decision.

“Even if I wanted to, I can’t stay here for the rest of my days. There are people out there who would miss me, who would wonder where I had disappeared to. Their pain is something I couldn’t live with knowing I had deliberately caused. How do you think the rest of the guys here would be if you suddenly vanished and they didn’t know where you were? They would be worried sick, and after time maybe think you were never coming back. This is what is true for the people who love me.”

Gadget knew he was right, that his words were undeniably logical and without lie. Everyone in the Rangers would feel a part of themselves die if she was no longer a real presence in their lives. With this, she started to cry, though it wasn’t a flood, but a single tear that formed around her eye, welled up and then slowly trickled down her cheek to hang off her chin. But before it could drop, Matt raised a finger up to collect it, and in doing so, lift her head up once more as it was now dipped in sadness.

“Gadget, even though I’ve only known you a short time, I’ve grown to really like you. In fact I probably think the world of you. Now if only I could find a woman in my world with the same qualities as yourself! You of all people deserve someone special.”

Gadget managed a smile and a nervous laugh at these words. “And so do you,” she replied.

“Now, unless you’ve been somewhat blind to see it, there is someone else here who thinks about you in a similar way.”
“You mean Chip, right?”
“Well you’ve got that part figured out at least, are you ever going to do something about it?”
“I do rather like Chip… but there have been reasons in the past for me not going there.”
“Fair enough, but he is nuts about you, maybe you didn’t realise that.”
“Golly, I knew he liked me too and he does flirt a bit, but he hasn’t ever made a serious move.”
“Hello, this isn’t the Victorian era anymore, girls are allowed to make the first move you know!”

“Hmmmmidunno,” Gadget seemed hesitant over any further comment.
“Okay so I know both of you are being coy on this one. Blimey, I’ve had some interesting jobs in my time but I never thought I’d be adding Guidance Counsellor (Rodent Division) to my C.V. now!”
“There’s no need to get annoyed about it.”
“It just frustrates me that when looking at it, here are two individuals who would be superbly great for each other and they are, to me, reluctant to make it happen. At this rate, what’s it going to take, some sort of tragic incident for you to finally reveal your feelings to one another?”

“Matt, I don’t need you lumping all of this expectation on me considering what has happened recently and just now.”

With that Gadget stood up and turned to leave the workshop in a steadily forming flow of tears. She managed all of three steps before her exit was interceded by words from behind her.

“Gadget… I’m sorry.”

She turned to look at Matt and started to dry her eyes. “An apology?”
“An apology is the most heartfelt thing I can offer.”

Gadget smiled as she stood there, and hurriedly tried to dry her hands on her overalls as if she had something to hide real quick. “I accept.”

“Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same. Now, shall we continue working where we left off?” he asked proffering a hand out.

And for a while it seemed that everything was alright, that the troubles and thoughts of individuals had been quelled and understanding made. But it was not to last. The dark clouds of depression happened to swell over Matt’s being instead, and at some point later on during the evening, he wandered out of the Ranger HQ carrying what appeared to be a battered guitar. No word, no explanation as the rest of the Rangers were occupying themselves and watched in silence as he made his way to the door. It was almost Captain Oates like in its execution. The Rangers looked at each other and got up to stand together and talk.

“Where did the guitar come from?” inquired Monty. “Oh it’s Dale’s,” answered Chip, “he’s had it stashed in our room for ages. Though it’s so out of tune that I doubt he’ll be able to play anything properly on it.”

“What’s come over him? Is he really that down now?” wondered Tammy. “It may be because of a talk we had earlier today. And Monty’s news probably didn’t help either,” stated Gadget.

“Monty, you told him?” demanded Chip. Monty was a little taken aback, but was going to be forthright about any answer here, in the same way he’d been forthright about the news he delivered.

“I told him that we’d spotted Nimnul again today causing a small wave of panic, but we lost him by the abandoned warehouses on the East Side. Sorry Chipper, but I felt he had a right to know.”

“He probably is thinking that he is always going to remain how he is, that he may never return to the size he was,” suggested Tammy. “That’s the third time we’ve seen Nimnul’s handiwork since Matt joined us and yet nothing else seems to be coming of it,” pondered Chip. “Could he really be this cautious? Or is he making a number of test runs before revealing his true intentions? That invisible technology he is using may be the key, he could be preparing to use it for something far more nefarious than simply shrinking objects unseen. The Gigantico Gun only appears to be a means to an end here.”

As the Rangers talked, time passed by and thirty minutes elapsed with no sign of Matt returning inside. The sky was darker, and rain had started to fall, slowly at first, but had now developed into a full-on storm. The mood inside was almost as dark as that outside, as everyone worried what might be as this was no weather to be bearing, no matter what the situation.

“He still hasn’t come in, should we go check on him?” asked Tammy. “Probably, but I’m not sure what I could say in this situation. Anyone?” replied Chip, looking for any ideas from his friends. There were blank looks from all in response to the question. Finally there was one voice answering the call.

“I’ll go.”

It was Gadget offering to see what was going on outside. What WAS outside? Anything could have actually happened without them knowing.

“What will you say Gadget love?” asked Monty.
“I don’t know… but I’m sure it will be the right thing.”

She opened the door slowly, peering around it in trepidation. What she did see was Matt sitting out on the steps by the runway, the cover of the trees only partially protecting him from the elements. Although mostly wet through by that point, the guitar was still in his hands and he appeared to be singing to himself. Egged on silently by the others, Gadget slowly stepped out of the door, closing it behind her and took a few paces forward, listening to what Matt was saying. It became evident that he had just started a certain poignant song.

So tired that I couldn’t even sleep
So many secrets I couldn’t keep
Promised myself I wouldn’t weep
One more promise that I couldn’t keep

It seems no one can help me now
I’m in too deep, there’s no way out
This time I have really led myself astray

Runaway train, never going back
Wrong way on a one way track
Seems like I should be getting somewhere
Somehow I’m neither here nor there

With those words, Gadget walked forward and sat down next to Matt. He threw her a glance and stopped playing for the moment, looking back at the guitar.

“Golly, no need to stop playing on my account,” she blustered.
“You know,” Matt replied tweaking at the strings, “this guitar is so tuned out, it actually sounds better playing it left handed now.”

His subtle attempt at changing the probable topic of conversion about to be wrought was not successful. Gadget put her arms around him and leant her head against his shoulder. In that instant she managed to murmur the only words that came to mind, but they were said with such sincerity and emotion that it truly sounded as if she would do anything to make them come true.

“We will find him. I promise.”

Gadget smiled as the two of them were slowly getting wetter as the rain lashed down around them. Just two tiny individuals in a giant world, but locked together on a promise that everything would come right, that order would be restored to the way it should be. He was convinced though he was lost to the world and now wondering whether he had ruined the friendship of the mouse sitting next to him, just as he had lost someone years earlier. But hope presents it sometimes when you believe in it.

Little by little, could you be everything I ever dreamed of?
Little by little, the wheels of your life were slowly falling off
Little by little, we have to give it all in both our lives
And all the time, I just ask myself why you’re here with me

There was still one avenue left to try. And Gadget knew exactly what that was going to be.


Chapter 19 – The Final Solution
“Are you sure about this Gadget?” inquired Chip as preparations were made the next morning for a long distance flight in the Rangerplane. “Golly Chip, I thought you’d be fully behind our attempts to get Matt back to his proper size,” Gadget replied with a knowing wink. Chip was left somewhat bemused by the wink (though we know why she did it of course), but bluffed his way along by blurting “Of course I am.” Just in time for Monty to walk out with a large wedge of the yellow stuff in his arms.

“Is everything set? I’ve got an extra large stash of cheese packed with me just in case,” he announced. “The trip’s only going to take an hour or so Monty, you sure you need all that?” wondered Tammy. To which Monty answered “Well, I might get a bit peckish, you know, can’t be flying on an empty stomach now. Not to mention the weather ain’t looking so great, we might get blown off course for all we know!”

“Yes, and we all know what he can be like if he can’t get his cheese now,” whispered Chip to Gadget, Tammy and Zipper, resulting in low-level sniggering. “Oi you lot, are we going or are we just chattering around here? We’ve got a mission to complete!” shouted Monty.

“Now where’s Matt got to?” wondered Chip as he wasn’t out on the strip at that moment. “Just coming along,” he announced exiting the door and closing it behind him. “Don’t want to miss my visit to the Last Chance Saloon now.”

“This is going to work, trust me,” confided Gadget, patting him on the shoulder in encouragement. “Actually, I wonder why none of us thought about it sooner.”

Everyone bundled into the plane and prepared for takeoff to destination remote. The last fortune cookie prediction left in the jar? It was that the company of two should soon be rudely interrupted by many. The Rangers were journeying out to say hello to a certain chipmunk and bat canoodling together currently.

When the Rangers had first met Foxglove, she was under the guidance, to call it loosely, of the wannabe witch Winifred. Foxglove’s reward, had it come to pass that Winifred made it to full witchdom, was to become her assistant. However the Rangers were successful in thwarting her plans, with some help from Foxglove herself who had become rather enamoured with Dale. Although Foxglove was in no way magical at that moment in time, she realised that magic was just another power, just another tool that beings could use for whatever purpose was deemed fit. To that end, she vowed after that incident she would learn magic and instead of using it for inherently selfish reasons, which Winifred was aiming for, she would instead use it for good.

So gradually over time Foxglove became adept in the mystic arts using, ironically, some of the same material Winifred had referenced, and had been able to demonstrate a few substantial feats of trickery. Gadget’s idea and the whole of the hope resting on Foxglove’s shoulders, not that she knew yet, was that in some way her magic could make visible that which was currently not.

One fairly uneventful journey later, which was pretty unusual for a Ranger flight apart from Monty managing to finish off all the cheese, it was touchdown in the large tree that Foxglove now called home. It was a mighty standing structure, seemingly older than anything surrounding it, and by far the largest thing in the remote area. Yes, remote. There was more than one reason for picking such a spot to live now.

Upon getting out of the plane, Chip went to knock on the door. Then knocked again. There was no answer to the noise of paw on wood. “Maybe they’re still asleep?” wondered Chip. “They could be already out somewhere,” suggested Gadget. “Zipper, have a quick fly around the area and see if you can spot them!” asked Monty. Zipper did his trademark salute and buzzed out of the tree to look for any sign of bat and chipmunk. A couple of minutes later, he returned and gave a squeak and nod to indicate he had found them.

Under Zipper’s instruction, the rest of the team followed in the plane to a clearing a little way from the tree. There sat Dale and Foxglove having a talk, and preparing for what seemed a possible new magical ability. As they approached, Dale happened to spot them and waved up in greeting.

“Hey look Foxy, seems the guys have come to pay us a visit. Guess this will have to wait until later.”
“Amongst other things,” replied Foxglove with a wink. “Though it’s always good to meet your friends, I haven’t seen them in a while.”

Once the plane had landed nearby and the passengers were walking towards their position, it became evident to Dale that there were more present than he was expecting. He got to his feet and started walking towards them. His first target of salutation was going to be Gadget herself.

“Gadget, you’re back!” he cried as he hugged her and swung her around. “Now don’t you go running off on us again.”

“Look who’s talking,” she smartly responded to which Dale chuckled. “Tammy,” he continued, “They brought you in because of my little holiday trip right, how you doing?”

“Not bad so far, though it would have been a lot shorter if not for the actions of why we are here to see you two,” she answered, pointing towards Matt who was standing next to her. Up until that point, Dale had not noticed him at all.

“Zowie, it’s a… a… little human guy. Can we keep him as a pet, please Chip, oh please, oh please?!”

Matt raised an eyebrow to the proposition with a look of bizarre amusement while Chip was a little more serious about the comment.

“I hope you’re joking there Dale, this guy’s saved us a couple of times already!”
“So what happened to him Chip?”
“Nimnul’s back and he’s brought his old favourite the Gigantico Gun with him.”
“Nimnul? Awww not him again? That guy’s been nothing but trouble for us, I thought he was gone?”
“So did we. And we can’t even find him, which is why we are here to ask for Foxglove’s help.”
“My help?” Foxglove interceded. “And how can I help the Rangers now?” she continued with a smile.

And with that, the whole gang sat down to hear Chip explain what the plan of action was to be and how Foxglove was going to assist. It was hoped that her magical powers would in some way be able to dispel the invisibility that was cloaking Nimnul the next time he appeared, figuratively, to cause trouble, or at least be able to track him long enough to find where he was hiding out.

With little further ado, everyone just about managed to squeeze back into the plane, and it made for taking off back to Ranger HQ. At the second attempt at least, after trying to get the thing into the air due to slightly more weight than anticipated being onboard! More than one set of eyes was on Monty for bringing all that cheese and eating it, but Monty is as Monty does, and he brazenly refused to apologise.

The gang was all present and correct. In fact because everyone was now back together, it prompted Gadget to make an astute comment early on into the return journey. “Golly, if we keep adding people like this, we’re going to have to permanently run both planes together on missions.”

This got Chip thinking about the future of the Rescue Rangers. No more did he want the group splitting up or fragmenting, it was always better if everyone stuck together. Turning around in the front seat to face behind, he addressed both Tammy and Foxglove who were sitting next to each in the back.

“Tammy, Foxglove… you are both long time friends of us here, and I want to ask you both something. I’ve had a think about it, and the Rangers could always do with more hands to help. So, my question is… would both of you consider permanently joining the Rescue Rangers?”

Tammy and Foxglove looked at each other with a certain amount of awe and nonplus at Chip’s question, before turning towards him in unison and answering “Of course!”

“Well then that’s settled, when this mission is over, everyone is now welcome to stay at Ranger HQ!” stated Chip. “We’re gonna need a bigger base,” Monty quipped to himself in response.

Matt at this moment was squeezed on the end of the back seats next to Foxglove. She turned to him and introduced herself properly, to which he responded “I guess I should get to know my erstwhile saviour now.” Foxglove giggled at Matt’s words, “I was warned about you not being the most forward looking person. But don’t worry, I think I know what needs doing to assist you.”

“That’s… reassuring at least.”
“I have to admit, for a human you are awfully calm about being this close to a bat.”
“Bats? I like them. Hey, who couldn’t fail to like you now either? None of those small creature phobias that many others seem to have affect me at all. Mind you, if I was someone I knew right now I’d be screaming my head off!”

Matt made like a lunatic headless chicken to accompany the words, a reasonable replica of said reaction he was trying to describe. Everyone else just cracked up laughing at his antics, which pretty much set the tone for the entire length of the return trip back to Ranger HQ.

However the Rangers never made it back as far as home. Passing over the city on the way to the park, another small disturbance erupted down below to the general consternation of the public who happened to witness it. It was the chance encounter everyone had been hoping for, though perhaps a bit sooner than they had been anticipating. Gadget needed no second invitation to nosedive the plane to a lower altitude in order to give Foxglove the range needed to work her magic.

“Just follow the screams and flashing lights Gadget love,” instructed Monty, “it’s all you can do for now.”

“Okay, give me some room to manoeuvre here everyone, let’s see what I can do here!” announced Foxglove. Those in the back just about managed to push themselves away to allow her wings to fold out properly in front of her, as she began some incomprehensible mutterings and closed her eyes. In response, everyone who could began looking below the plane to see if it was having any effect. The occasional light was still going off and some random item was disappearing, well shrinking as we know, but there was still no sign of Nimnul.

“It doesn’t appear to be working,” Chip commented disappointedly. “Is that it, are we going to give up now?” asked Tammy. Foxglove meanwhile was not resting on her laurels and giving up, it took all of a second or so for her to slap her forehead and babble, “Silly Foxglove, where magic fails, natural ability shall prevail!”

With that she took off from her seat and started flying ahead of the plane. Everyone in the back who had been squashing themselves to make room suddenly found they were flung together as the pressure was released.

“What on earth is she up to?” as Monty scratched his head. “I dunno, but she’s got something in her head by the looks of things,” replied Dale. What Foxglove had in her head was the image of Nimnul himself, now carefully defined and outlined via the power of sonar. “Got you in my… ears now!” she commented as she slowly guided the others along wherever Nimnul was walking. Sooner or later he was going to return to whence he had come from, and then a plan could be made to finish this caper one way or the other.

“All right, go Foxy!” cried Matt, as he tapped his ear in demonstration that he knew exactly what Foxglove was up to and how she was tracking Nimnul’s progress. He may have been invisible to the eye, but he was showing up loud and clear under sonic vibration. And when Nimnul had finished with his fun, he started walking back completely unaware there was a group of very interested observers watching his every move.

After twenty minutes of tracking Nimnul’s progress, the Rangers came across a building sitting all by itself. It was large, white, with many floors and not many windows allowing a view from outside in. Directly around the outside were dense rows of flowers, a multitude of flora with a wide variety of colours and sizes, all protected by large black metal railings, tall in standing with nasty pointy bits on the top to dissuade anyone from thinking of trying to climb over. The design of many parts seemed curiously non-American, as if this was a structure that had stood for a comparatively long time and had been renovated and updated as the years passed.

Further outside was the obligatory security fence and entrance guard, watching for anyone wishing to enter or leave. Security cameras were placed all over the perimeter of the enclosure, and floodlights stationed for night-time surveillance. The Rangers would have no problem with getting by all of these defences, it was getting inside the building that would be tricky.

“Are you sure he’s gone in there Foxglove?” asked Gadget. “No doubt about it” came the reply, as she returned back to where the plane was currently parked vertical on the building’s wall via the power of suction.

“What sort of blinking place is this anyways?” inquired Monty. Zipper took that as a cue to go flying about the front of the building looking for any sign of what was inside. His return was met with some curious looks about what truly was happening with their nemesis. Written upon the smallest sign possible right by the solitary entrance door were the words “Ammontex Research Laboratory”.

“Nimnul’s gone legit?” pondered Monty to Zipper’s information. “Hardly legit if he’s wandering out causing trouble,” countered Chip. “I have the funny feeling that he’s not authorised to be doing this sort of research now,” stated Gadget. Everyone nodded in agreement to that statement.

“Now then, how are we getting ourselves inside?” Chip wondered. “Well,” thought Tammy, rubbing her chin, “we could just use the tried and trusted method of following someone in when they arrive.”

The old methods often prove the most useful when things come to the crunch. It took patience and waiting though for any progress to be made on that front, as no one came or went for more than thirty minutes. Dale surmised they must all have gone out for lunch or something. The problem was even the front door was security key card activated, so the Rangers couldn’t have tried forcing it open anyhow. Finally, Zipper spotted an approaching car to the gate entrance, and squeaked to alert everyone else that finally they had a chance.

“Right, we’re going to have to be quick on this, everyone rush the door on my command and no dawdling!” announced Chip. This was probably going to take some timing to get everyone inside. They made like sprinters and got ready for the off, to dash through the gap before it shut. The man approaching the door was in his fifties, with short greying hair, looking very professional and business like. He removed his identity card and swiped it through the slot, then grabbed at the door handle before pulling it open wide and stepping through.

It was more than enough time needed for all of the Rangers to hurry along behind him into the building before the door closed and locked once again. Keeping track behind at a reasonable distance, they followed him to the reception desk where he started speaking to the woman present.

“Has Professor Lumnin returned back from his lunch break yet?” he asked.
“I’m not sure,” answered the receptionist, “I didn’t see him come back, but then again I never saw him leave either.”
“Fine, I’ll go up and see him for myself. Floor six wasn’t it?”
“That is correct Mr. Ammontex”

It would appear the elderly gentlemen the Rangers had followed was the head of the business. Whatever business it was that was being conducted inside that is. However they had no real clue as to where to start looking or where to go.

“Zipper, I’ll distract this receptionist lady, and you have a look for any employee list that might indicate where Nimnul is working,” suggested Monty. “Right then,” he thought to himself as he walked around the desk to where she was sitting, “let’s hope she’s afraid of mice like they all seem to be!”

The resultant scream seconds later was to prove confirmation to that surmise. While the poor woman starting wailing and standing on her chair at Monty’s antics, Zipper was busying scouring her desk for details on employee records. There was a printed list of floor numbers and telephone extensions pinned to the right side of her booth which he ripped off the drawing pin and brought back to the waiting group. With that, Monty disappeared from view as quickly as he appeared.

“I suggest we go find a safe spot to look down this list,” he said, “her screams were loud enough to wake the dead, and I’m certain someone is going to come looking to see what was going on.”

Monty was right of course. The Rangers departed to the other side of the reception area just as a co-worker on the same floor popped his head around the door to inquire about the receptionist’s wellbeing. Needless to say he was dismissive of the reason why all the noise had been produced, and went back to what he was doing.

“Right then, let’s have a look here,” Chip stated as everyone looked down the long list of names mentioned. “I can’t see any Nimnul here,” blurted Dale. “He’s right,” concluded Tammy, “he isn’t listed at all on this sheet.”

More intrigue. Could Nimnul be working off the record for the company? Could his past be that needy of secrecy? Actually the truth was to prove a little more obtuse. Nimnul was deceiving everyone, as he usually was want to do. The answer was staring them all in the face, but only Tammy spotted the connection between one name and the truth. One name that the Rangers had all heard very recently.

“I think we should be going to floor six,” she announced. The rest of the team stared at her with wondrous looks of why that should be the case. “A little bit of simple word play. Remember who Mr. Ammontex was looking for? What do the letters of that name rearrange into?”

“Nimnul!” they all shouted as the truth hit them squarely between the eyes. Seems Professor Nimnul was working under an assumed name and using the laboratory as some sort of legal front to conduct and prepare for whatever his next scheme was going to be.

The group made cautious their approach to the nearest elevator, careful to avoid any more female entanglements along the way. Foxglove flew up and hit the button to call the elevator down to the bottom floor where they were. Thankfully they didn’t have to wait long, the ubiquitous “ting” sound signalling that their transport had arrived and was waiting to whisk them to pastures vertical. Upon bundling inside, Foxglove pressed button 6 to ascend to where Nimnul was supposedly working. But even upon arriving at that floor, they still didn’t know where exactly he would be.

“Phew we got lucky there,” stated Gadget as they exited the elevator, “thankfully no one called it at the same time. It might have been difficult explaining why a group of rodents were in there all by themselves!”

“Where now Chipper?” inquired Monty, looking left and right from where they were standing. The sixth floor was, from a cursory inspection, exactly the same as the floor they had just left. It was probably identical to all the floors in the building, painted a clinical shade of white and seemingly spotless. The floor was hard and slightly waxed on the surface, making walking a little tricky for those with small feet.

“Now if I was big again, I’d help carry all of you about!” joked Matt as everyone carefully stepped along the edges of the corridor, trying to keep their balance at the same time. Only Matt seemed to be doing alright by virtue of his shoes, the rest were digging their claws into the surface as best as possible.

After what seemed like ten minutes or more, and walking down several similarly looking hallways and through a couple of laboratory rooms, it appeared that the Rangers had gotten hopelessly lost amidst the maze of identicalness. “We’re probably going round in circles at this rate,” complained Dale, “who knows where we are supposed to end up.”

Pushing their way through another set of doors and coming towards the end of yet another white corridor, the group happened to overhear a familiar voice approaching from the right. Coming out in front of them was Mr. Ammontex, and as he walked towards and then past the Rangers he was muttering to himself about how he couldn’t rely on staff these days, and complaining that this Lumnin guy was nowhere to be found.

“Seems we are on the right track at last,” mentioned Tammy. Soon after Mr. Ammontex’s departure, another voice could be heard from the room to the right, this one definitely familiar to all those present.

“Whoops, almost got caught there. I’m sure Mr. Ammontex wouldn’t be very happy if he knew that I was borrowing one of his company’s secret inventions now for my own use. But no matter, I’ve almost finished what I have been preparing. Soon I won’t need him or his company, just this wonderful little invisibility suit. Best take it off and go see what he wants I suppose.”

And with that, Nimnul stormed out of the room and followed the same path Mr. Ammontex had taken moments earlier, probably doing his best to try and catch up before Ammontex reached his office and started fuming even more. The door to Nimnul’s laboratory area seemed unlocked, there was no key card reader attached to it. Chip signalled to the group to proceed and they managed to push open the door and enter the laboratory.

Inside, it was a lot more spacious that first anticipated. Rows of workbenches lined the room, all seemingly with something going on but when situated way down below, there was no way of telling what it was. The room was quiet save the odd sound of bubbling and mechanical movement, and painted in the same disgustingly pure white they had already seen elsewhere. The search was now on for what they had been after all this time.


Chapter 20 – Making Right What Was Wrong
“There is it!” cried Monty, pointing his finger high above their heads to a workbench just in front of them. It was a workbench like many of the others in the room but this one was special. Although the angle the Rangers were standing at made it impossible to see most of the object fully, there was no disputing the small part peeking out from the ledge belonged to the Gigantico Gun.

“Foxglove, Zipper, see if you can push that thing off the bench onto the ground for us,” commanded Chip. The two of them flew straight up and over the top towards the target. After a few seconds, the low sound of scraping could be heard as the gun edged its way to a date with gravity.

“Hold on you two,” Gadget exclaimed, “if that thing falls, I don’t think any of us would be in a position to catch it without it breaking. Can’t you, you know, just pick it up and bring it down here?”

Foxglove and Zipper looked at each other as if to say “why didn’t we think of that in the first place” and proceeded in an attempt to lift the gun off the bench instead. Despite its somewhat compact nature, for an object that had the power to alter size at will that was, the gun was heavier than first thought.

“Guys, I’m feeling mighty exposed here,” warned Dale, looking somewhat worried. “Too right,“ agreed Monty as he furtively scanned around for any sign of disturbance, “that Nimnul could be back at any moment.”

Foxglove and Zipper were making progress, but it was slow going. There was no issue in actually being to grasp the gun, but taking off with it and landing gently onto the ground below? That was going to be another matter entirely. Foxglove looked over the edge of the bench below to see the expectant faces of the gang gazing up at her. She shook her head as response to not knowing exactly what to do next.

“Come on Foxy, we know you can do it!” cried Dale, “Just give it all you got. Monty and I will catch you.”

Dale gave Monty a nudge with his elbow in encouragement, stating quietly “No problem, right?” Monty’s resultant look of trepidation was wholly unreassuring, though for the benefit of everyone else present, no one got to see it. “Not ready when you are!” he called up to the two on the bench. Dale only had time to throw a quizzical double take on what Monty had actually said before Foxglove and Zipper emerged with the gun in its entirety no longer supported by wood and structure. It floated there in mid-space temporarily like poor Wile E. Coyote before commencing its inexorable descent towards the Rangers, dragging Foxglove with it.

“She’s coming in a bit too fast for my liking here,” concluded Monty as the gun loomed ever larger in his viewpoint, with Foxglove’s frantic attempts to keep it up denied by the laws of physics. “Dale, get ready to receive mate… Dale?”

At this moment Dale had somewhat frozen, his head and eyes fixed on his love and the gun coming towards them, arms out statue-like in readiness. There wasn’t any time to do something about it, in a split second judgement Monty yelled, “Let it go!”

While still being on the ball listening wise, upon letting go of the gun itself, Foxglove forgot to stop flapping so intensely and shot up into the air like a firework, spiralling past Zipper who had remained in position atop the bench, and almost collided with the ceiling before realising that continuing in such a fashion wasn’t going to do her health much good. She floated back down to the top of the bench to join Zipper who was watching her drop.

“Are you alright?” he squeaked.
“Just about, that thing was much heavier than I thought,” she answered. “Now I guess we should see what happened to it.”

They both looked down to view the result of their efforts. In releasing the gun at such short notice, it had altered the trajectory slightly and instead of landing firmly in the waiting arms of its intended recipients, it had wiped out Dale completely and missed Monty.

“Blimey,” said Monty, as he was about to come out with the blindingly obvious. “I hope the gun is alright after that fall.”
“The gun?” cried Dale, “What about my head? My body? The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can all go home. Any chance of getting this thing off me now?”
“And in today’s sports results,” continued Monty, “the match of the day saw the end score of Newton 1 Dale 0.”

Foxglove and Zipper flew down to rejoin the group, and while the rest of them were busy shifting the gun to get Dale from out under it, Gadget was scrambling all over making sure nothing had actually broken or disconnected.

“Well it appears that nothing’s wrong with it, obviously I can’t tell for sure just by looking at it here, something could have broken inside but,” she babbled. Chip, as was sometimes usual, cut into her explanation, “We won’t know for sure until we actually try it.”

Everyone turned to look at Matt, the reason why they had come this far and why they were doing this.

“Let’s do it!”

Matt’s words were laced with command and action, and sounded almost as if Chip had said them himself. Everyone nodded in agreement. The time for finally completing the circle had arrived.

“So, how do you want me?” he teased with a rye smile. “We’ll try propping the gun up this end and you make your way to where we came in,” decided Chip. Matt started walking back towards the doors along the right side of the pathway next to the benches, while looking over his shoulder at the Rangers’ attempts to aim the gun in his general direction. “You know guys, this has an awful air of familiarity to it,” mused Gadget.

“Right, seeing as I’m the one with the most muscle here lads, I guess I’ll be taking the responsibility for holding the blooming thing up,” decided Monty. “Cummon Chip, lets help him,” responded Tammy, dragging Chip along behind her as she went to join Monty at the front of the gun. Dale and Foxglove meanwhile had positioned themselves at the other end, trying to keep it steady and upright. Gadget gave the gun a final look over, checking that the dial was indeed set to “reverse” in readiness for pulling the trigger.

“Would ya hurry it up back there, this thing’s giving me neck ache already,” complained Monty, noticing complete agreement from his two compatriots standing next to him. Everyone was so busy dealing with the gun, there was only Zipper left to spot what was about to happen next. Appearing large in the window of the door was Norton Nimnul, who paused slightly before pushing it open and walking into the room.

Despite Zipper’s audible warnings, no one was paying any direct attention to the door; it was all focused on the gun. It was only after Nimnul had taken a couple of steps inside that they heard someone had arrived and was now busily focusing his attention downwards towards them. Due to Matt’s position, Nimnul had not spotted him at all and he stuck like glue to the side of the bench as Nimnul passed by. He watched, unable to do anything as the by comparison huge professor stomped his way towards the Rangers. Needless to say Nimnul’s reaction was entirely expected and predictable.

“Rodents? Here? Can’t a genius get any rest from these interfering creatures? You’d think that by hiding away from view and then making a covert return that I’d be rid of these animals, but OH NO, they are destined to follow me wherever I go!”

At this moment Nimnul was approximately a third of the distance into the room to where the Rangers stood somewhat transfixed by his sudden appearance and random spiel. Nimnul took another step towards them with intense determination, as if to deal with them once and for all, before noticing what exactly they were holding. He froze still, a wise move considering the gun appeared to be pointed in his direction and gently wavering from left to right as the Rangers struggled to keep it under control.

“My Gigantico Gun!” he exclaimed. “Nice rodents, good rodents, give the gun to Uncle Norton now!” The worry and fear that he would be subjected to the gun’s rays was stretched all over his face. Matt in the meantime was still stuck to his position, but suddenly decided to allow himself two paces away and a head tilt right to assess the position of everything involved in this pseudo Mexican standoff.

“Well it’s now or never I guess,” he thought to himself. Taking another three paces further forward away from the bench, he looked to his left past Nimnul towards the Rangers and caught Gadget’s attention, who at this time was firmly attached to the middle of the gun with hands on trigger. He nodded his head and Gadget nodded back in agreement. Gripping it tightly, she levered her weight backwards and moved the trigger. A ray of energy left the end of the gun and shot towards its mark, spiralling between Nimnul’s legs and flying beyond.

In reaction to this, Nimnul decided he had had enough of the confrontation.

“Hah! You missed!” he cried. Making the rest of the distance to the Rangers, he reached down and grabbed the gun from them before they had a chance to even think about maybe firing off another shot. Of course if they had, it may or may not have been a very good decision. The world would either be subjected to the B-movie classic “Attack of the 60ft Nimnul” in full 3D real-o-vision or he would suddenly find himself their size once more.

“My baby, did those nasty rodents hurt you?” said Nimnul caringly as he patted the gun now resting in his arms. “In fact now is the perfect time to put them out of my misery!”

He pointed the gun directly downwards in his left hand and made to turn the dial with his right, and with doing so altering it to “shrink” to make the Rangers mere specs of their former selves. As he walked forwards, the Rangers collectively staggered backwards, awaiting the inevitable outcome. He paused for a second, looking slightly confused. “Blast this dial, always never doing what I want it to,” he muttered.

It was all the time that was needed for help to come to the rescue in another precariously balanced situation. In an instance, Nimnul suddenly found himself flung left and pinned against the metal cabinet he was standing next to. Holding him firmly against the cabinet was Matt, now fully restored to proper size and keen to exact some revenge on the man that had put him in the predicament in the first place. He was just now an average guy, of average height and average build, but his pent-up rage was definitely more than average.

While Matt’s left hand was grasped cleanly on the professor’s jacket like some human clothes hanger, his right pinned Nimnul’s left arm flat on the surface, where it still held the gun tightly. Nimnul’s feet dangled down with clear air below, Darth Vader-esque, as the sheer force of impact had lifted him clean off the floor.

“All right, way to go mate!” shouted Monty as all the Rangers cheered in celebration.

“Wh-wh-where did you come from?” stammered Nimnul in sheer surprise. He hadn’t been expecting any interference from humans in his plans now. Or so he thought.

“Well something had to be hit by that gun burst, and it just so happened to be me,” stated Matt. “It’s finally nice to be back the way I should be, and meet the man responsible for putting me there.” His next words were said with much more conviction and menace. “Or had you forgotten about that now, Professor?!”

Nimnul’s mind raced, struggling to think what Matt was talking about. After a few seconds, his expression changed slightly, as the penny dropped and the true meaning of the words came through loud and clear.

“Lo-oo-ok, I’m sorry about that, can’t you just…” he began, but was rapidly cut off by Matt.

“Too late for an apology Professor. You’ll never know the trouble I’ve seen, how my eyes have been opened to another world by a group of rodents.”

“YOU. HAVE. NO. IDEA!”

Each word was stated with anger and accompanied by Matt pulling Nimnul away from the cabinet slightly and slamming him back into it hard. There was no doubting there was one extremely emotional and very pissed off individual in control of the situation. Even the Rangers themselves were somewhat taken aback with just how much frustration was being vented out on Nimnul, this was more than they had really seen during his time as someone small.

No one really knew what to do or say next, and a distinct calm and quietness fell across the lab. It was broken by the sound of small pattering feet approaching from the other side of the room, hidden behind a perpendicular bench as it moved across from left to right. Everyone’s attention, the Rangers, Nimnul, and Matt turned to look at the source of the new noise. When it eventually emerged around the corner into plain view, more than one person was going to get a huge shock.


Chapter 21 – Feline Persuasion
“Well, what do we have here? A human I don’t know, that stupid scientist… oh and a group of rodents I’ve truly come to despise! What a pleasant surprise this is.”

“Klordane’s cat?!” squeaked a bemused Nimnul upon setting eyes upon the mysterious visitor. Everyone who was just a few inches tall knew him by an altogether more familiar name.

“Fat Cat?! But aren’t you… you… we saw you sink!” stammered Chip.
“Ah yes, that. Drowned but not out you might say,” came the reply. “Rather like my old master was. And I have you Repugnant Rangers to thank for that. Three days I spent out at sea before I found a boat to take me back to shore, three days! And after that, another two months before I made it back here. I have a score to settle with you inferring rodents!”

This was definitely one very annoyed kitty intent on revenge in the most horrible way possible. But Fat Cat wasn’t about to stop talking just yet. He stood there smugly as the Rangers watched in amazement that he was still alive, while the humans present were also strangely captivated by this animal showdown and looked on at the action.

“No doubt you are wondering where I have been since then,” he continued. “Out on the streets!” came the next sentence, spoken with rage and fury, “living like some common furball. And my beautiful lair, destroyed as well, you could say it’s gone to the dogs!”

With that, Fat Cat calmed down and quipped, “Oh what a wit I am being today, ha ha!”

“Yeah, we often called you a fat wit!” retorted Dale somewhat foolishly.
“Silence rodent!” screamed Fat Cat in response, who then went back to being mellow once more, “you’re spoiling my moment here.”

“Now where was I…? Oh yes, you miserable Rangers not appreciating all the effort I’ve gone through just to save your worthless hides!”

“I... I don’t understand?” spluttered Gadget ever so quietly. “Neither do I,” continued Monty.

“Oh, but you wouldn’t. Who else was responsible for scaring away those pirates… amongst other things recently?”
“You?!” came the rather amazed reply from most of the group. Dale and Foxglove naturally didn’t have any understanding of what had been happening in the most recent adventures. “Why?”

“Well I couldn’t let you fall into any harm prematurely… it would have been most disappointing,” continued Fat Cat, the next words truly spoken to their meaning, “if I could not be the one to take care of you myself!”

“So it was you behind the scheme at the airfield then?” stammered Chip.

“Yes… you could say so. And if you are wondering how I managed to find myself here, then there are ways of ingratiating yourself with the humans now. They just seem to love cats. Once I found out this idiot was back,” indicating Nimnul, “then it was only a matter of time before you found him also. Hence… why I am here!”

While this one-sided conversation had been going on, Nimnul had been formulating a get-out plan in his head. However it required the help of an unwitting volunteer, and the fact he’d noticed the gun was currently set to “grow”.

“Here, kitty, kitty!” Nimnul called out in the direction of Fat Cat. “Now what does that mad fool want with me?” he wondered as he glanced up at Nimnul, who was still pinned to the cabinet at this time. “No matter, it’s time for less talk and more action,“ he added, brandishing a paw and flicking out the claws on it in an instant. The Rangers managed a collective gulp of nervousness and terror in response. “If being on the streets taught me anything very quickly, it was do first, ask second. And I don’t think I’ll be asking anything more.”

Having said those words, Fat Cat slowly stepped forward, and kept stepping forward purposefully and menacingly with a look of malice in those eyes. The Rangers could only take steps back to keep the distance apart the same, but they knew it was a classic case of being between a rock and a hard place. There was only so far back they could probably go as the high benches either side prevented escape, and sooner or later they’d be tangling with the humans. Matt could only watch on at the unfolding circumstances, and was frantically debating in his mind whether he should help or keep hold of Nimnul.

That particular choice was about to be made, but not by Matt himself. Sensing his opportunity, Nimnul lashed out with his left foot, catching Matt squarely in the region where no man should get hit. Matt winced somewhat but kept his hold on Nimnul despite the pain, however his right hand loosened its grip. That was all Nimnul needed. Directing the gun slightly downwards, he fired out a shot that flew over the Rangers’ heads and hit Fat Cat full-on. Where once there had been a slightly overweight moggy, for being on the streets had trimmed some of Fat Cat’s weight, there now stood a mountainous furball of doom. Bigger than any living normal member of the feline species, this thing was just… terrifying to behold. Something that got the humans rather frightened, even Nimnul himself who had created it.

“Oh you have got to be kidding me…” came the rather resigned response from Matt. “Erm, guys, remember that offer to carry you about? I think it’s about to become available again, I advise a rapid exit stage left at this moment!”

He had no need to say it twice, or even once for that matter, as the Rangers made a mad dash backwards and leapt onto Matt, grabbing and clutching at whatever part of his anatomy or clothing they could find, as he turned about and made a bolt for the door, letting go of Nimnul who dropped standing to the floor. Fat Cat, still slightly dazed over his apparent size increase, was a little slow off the mark to react, but as soon as he saw that everyone was leaving without him, fired up the legs and began the charge in pursuit. It only took three bounds to make it past Nimnul, who was sent flying by the tangential collision and landed several feet away on his back.

“Ah ha ha ha,“ he laughed to himself, “I guess the kitty wants to play with the nasty rodents.”

First though he was going to play with the wall. Nimnul’s laboratory was at the end of a corridor that only went left from the entrance, and Fat Cat didn’t realise this. Splat he went straight into the brickwork upon clattering the doors open going through, almost sending them off the hinges. While Matt and attached rodent company grimly hanging on for dear life were pelting it down said corridor, with those that could fly doing so instead, he afforded a look over the shoulder to see what had made the noise. They had been given a little breathing space, but such that it would not last long, as it was quite obvious this cat was going to outpace anyone present over short distances.

“He’s gonna end up with a flat face if he keeps doing that,” shouted Monty from below, who was at that moment locked tightly onto Matt’s right leg. Matt however was oblivious to anything said, he was doing his best to just get away. “I believe we’re gonna have to figure out something real quick here,” he stated out loud, reaching the end of that particular white hallway and turned to bust open the unlocked door on the left and enter the laboratory behind it.

“All Rangers debark for ground assault,” commanded Matt upon walking inside. His attention was immediately caught by two items within, with which a very quick fire plan was going to be hatched. Striking his left arm straight out sideways he whipped a long white lab coat off the mounted hooks by the door and folded it over his arm, then immediately walked right forwards to where a large, and seemingly heavy metal cylinder was sitting on the floor just off centre of the room. It was a pressurised gas container that wasn’t being used in any experiment currently being performed, and there was no one present from the company working there. For now.

“No chance that’s gonna get moved I think,” pointing to the item in question. The cylinder was about four foot tall and somewhat rotund in fact, a decent diameter, with a domed top. The Rangers looked at him with curious expressions, until he brandished the lab coat in front of him and obscured the cylinder. At that point, the emergency plan fell right into place, and no words needed to be uttered as to what Matt had in mind.

“Rescue Rangers, I know we’ve been in some tough spots before, but I believe in us,” stated Chip. “Now let’s distract Fat Cat enough so that he wants to run directly at Matt!”

And right on cue, the proposed target of takeout charged through the doors to this laboratory and scanned eagerly about the room for signs of his prey. What he saw first was Matt leaning against the cylinder with his arms crossed, though there was no real way to tell it was there because the coat was still draped across it. At that point, just as Fat Cat was about to commence primary ignition in his direction, he happened to hear shouts from down below.

“Oi, Very Fat Cat, down here, I’ve got a score to settle still with you,” taunted Monty, metaphorically rolling his sleeves up ready for action. He was, by all accounts, much more rational than that, and wasn’t going to any way contemplate taking on his opponent. Which was different for once.

“Yeah, you eight hundred pound lardball on legs, come and get us!” shouted Dale. “Easy up there lad, we don’t want to rattle his cage that much!” replied Monty.

“Oh, aren’t the Rangers talking big for some so small,” Fat Cat smugly mused. “Still, I have no real idea who this human is or why he’s helping you, but I’ll deal with him soon enough. After I’ve had my fun with you flea ridden pests!”

The distraction tactic had worked for now. Fat Cat charged forwards a bit quicker than many were anticipating, and it was an uncoordinated mad dash in random directions to escape being trampled. Foxglove and Zipper having the ability to fly went straight up, and hovered above, ending as mere spectators to the action below. Christians fed to the lions? You might think so, but despite his obvious size and speed advantage, the tiny Rangers were proving just a bit too nimble for him to catch or get a swipe at with one of his now massive paws. This went on for about a minute, going round the entire laboratory and in the process knocking over or destroying a significant portion of the equipment present. You had to wonder if someone was going to notice all the noise, but no one came to check it out, they were as Dale thought, probably all out to lunch.

And then Fat Cat rounded the side of the laboratory in his frantic chasing and came face to face with Matt again. Stepping up off where he was leaning, he casually walked two paces round and took hold of the laboratory coat, fluttering it in his hands like a red rag to a bull. It should be noted that bulls are actually colour blind, and what gets them going is the action of the cape itself. In this situation it probably made no difference what Matt was holding, Fat Cat seemed to have had enough of chasing rodents and was setting his sights on something rather bigger.

“Olé, gato, gato!” came the cry from Matt’s lips. Fat Cat looked bemused and then incensed at the flagrant taunting and ridicule being aimed towards him, and went straight at him. Closer and closer he got, with Matt looking still supremely calm about the whole thing. By this moment, all the Rangers had grouped back together and were looking anxiously on. Could this really work? Or was Matt about to get rammed by the feline equivalent of Digby?

And then at the last moment, Matt slid one step to the left while still holding the coat in the same place, and the contest between immovable object and undeniable force was about to be won by the former this time. A sickening clunk erupted around the room as Fat Cat went straight on into the coat and the unseen cylinder behind it. This kitty was apparently out for the count. “Well that was straight out of the Bugs Bunny school of pranks. It worked. Amazing!”

In one swift motion Matt yanked the coat up and around himself, sliding his arms into the sleeves in preparation for the Lab Tech of the Year Awards, and then tugged on the collar as if it was some posh tuxedo he was wearing. “Hmmm, pockets. Hey guys, wherever you are, I think the travelling arrangements are going to be a little more spacious now. All aboard!”

The Rangers needed no second invitation to dash out and clamber into various orifices of the coat as Matt slowly and proudly walked towards the other door to the laboratory. Chip climbed all the way up into Matt’s top shirt pocket while Monty, Zipper and Tammy made it to the left coat pocket, and Dale and Foxglove went to the right. Well, Foxglove carried Dale to the right.

“Hey Chip, you told me cartoons and comic books couldn’t teach you anything!” shouted Dale to his now incredulous friend. And where was Gadget? Rather unsurprisingly she was distracted by the equipment now lying on the floor during all this and hadn’t heard the call to leave.

“Gadget, get on a move on love!” called down Monty to where she was standing. “Golly, sorry, got a bit taken up with all this neat stuff,” she replied. Her response was also met with a sound coming from behind. Fat Cat in his enlarged state had gotten a much thicker head than anyone had given him credit for and was coming to in a much more angry state than could be imagined. His immediate focus was on the large white coloured blob before his eyes, and this time he wasn’t going to miss.

“Huh… oh for… bugger it!” came the utterance from Matt as he realised that the chase was once again going to be on. However he hadn’t realised that Gadget had not gotten herself somewhere on his person just yet and made like anything to leave the room before the Cattanooga Choo Choo built up a full head of steam once more. Gadget began to dash after him and leapt as high as she could, managing to just grab hold of the lab coat tail in time as the person wearing it crashed through the door and out. Not before he randomly grabbed one of the few items left untouched in the entire room, a glass vial containing… some clear liquid or other.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!” screamed Gadget as she was holding on with all her might as she literally flew by the seat of her pants behind Matt as he tore down the next white-painted corridor. A few seconds later, the doors disappeared in a fur-filled explosion as Fat Cat started his pursuit once again. All rational thought by this time had left his being, he was just acting on pure instinct and rage to seek his target, one human and several small animals secured aboard.

Whilst running at full pelt, Matt was trying to read the label on the bottle he’d grabbed. “Ole… no, not that again… hmmm a light oil. Could be useful.” It was bouncing around a fair bit as his arms were flailing back and forth trying to increase speed, but steady enough to make out what was inside.

Dale meanwhile had popped his head out of the pocket and looked back at their pursuer, who was getting ever so closer with each step. “Must go faster, must go faster,” he muttered nervously to himself. Foxglove lifted her head too because Dale had done so and emitted a warning shriek that Fat Cat was now a little too close for her liking. Matt was reaching the end of this corridor when he spotted a sign on the wall indicating stairs. Another quickly thought plan was needed, and he reached for the stopper in the bottle, and angled the vial downwards pouring the oil along the floor as he clunked his way through the end doors before the steps starting going downwards.

In his haste to unleash this tactic, Matt rather omitted to remember that he was not supposed to go down the stairs as well. He’d taken a few steps as well before realising and turned around to climb back up, but it was too late, Fat Cat burst through the doors completely out of control on the oil that had been laid down and was heading straight for him. By this time everyone lodged on his person was seeing what was transpiring as they were peaking over the edges of the material of the pockets they sat in, and became rapidly fearful of the next few seconds. All except Gadget who was still valiantly hanging onto the coat end despite being subjected to several Gs worth of force on the turn.

The stairs that everyone was now situated upon were hard, surfaced with the same material as the floor accompanied by an old fashioned wooden balustrade, and spiralled around in a square shape every twenty or so steps all the way down to the ground. By virtue of this, if one was to look over the edge of the rails then they could see the floor way down below in the middle of the wrap-around staircase. A staircase where there was only going to be one way out of this predicament.

Without a second thought, Matt flipped himself over the balustrade just as Fat Cat came tumbling down at him, and hung there by his fingers on the edge of the wooden handrail, watching the large moggy gradually turn, tumble and spin his way past without being able to stop at all. However by launching himself thus, Gadget’s grip finally failed her and she was popped into the air by two to three feet and starting falling down the middle gap in the stairs once gravity took hold. It would be a long way down before she hit, and the consequences of that are too horrible to think about. Falling… falling… and then floating.

And there she hung by her tail, grabbed at the last moment by Matt’s outstretched left hand. He had managed to reach out and still keep himself there on the edge with his right hand at the same time. He looked down along with everyone else, watching Fat Cat still slowly roll around the stairs towards the bottom, before lifting his left arm up to look at Gadget face to face, and smile.

“Thank you,” she gratefully said.
“No problem,” he replied.
“You… you can hear us still?” she stammered.
“Can we save the science lesson until we’re back on solid ground Gadget love?” called Monty.
“Probably a good idea,” agreed Matt.

With that, he moved his left hand to deposit Gadget into his shirt pocket where Chip hugged her tightly upon arrival. “That was too close!” he commented. Matt grabbed for the balustrade with both hands now, and pulled himself up and over, landing with a slight thud on his knees. He picked himself up and made the few steps back to the landing before turning right and aiming directly for the elevator located halfway down the walkway in front to the right.

“He can still hear us Chip,” stated Gadget. Chip was a little intrigued by this piece of information and shouted out to Matt, “How is this possible? When we’ve tried to speak to humans before, they can’t understand us.”

Matt pressed the down button on the elevator, and it started up with a thunk, before the slow whine of cabling got louder as the box rose up the shaft. “Now if I was that cat, I’d be tearing up those stairs again once at the bottom, so we’re taking the easy way down this time!” he said.

“As for your question I have no idea, but I can hear high frequency electrical resonance. Have to unplug stuff at night usually, drives me crazy sometimes. You might have to shout but I can hear you fine otherwise.”

Pausing to think momentarily he continued, “You know… thinking about it, this makes sense of a few things in my past, voices in my head. Maybe I wasn’t going mad after all.”

“No sign of Fat Cat yet,” commented Tammy looking furtively to the right for anything coming up the staircase. “I’ll be glad to get out of this in one piece,” laughed Dale. The elevator sounded as if it was almost at the floor, when Matt had a funny look at it. “Why do I get the impression…?”

The lift went “ting”. “Oh….. crap!” came the response as the doors opened. Inside was Fat Cat, who had somehow not only managed to squeeze himself into the box, but pressed the right floor as well. Matt had enough time just to spin out of the way before Fat Cat launched himself like a cannon out of the metal encasing and right into the opposing wall. Again. Sadly Matt had moved the wrong way. This end of the corridor was finished by a large glass window, one of the few that were actually present on the building. Either side at the end was a door, which were tried in turn. Matt pushed at the left one, but it refused to move. He then pushed at the right, which also refused to budge. Kicking at it didn’t help matters either. This was a dead end for sure.

Meanwhile Fat Cat had picked himself out of the plasterwork and was slowly moving down the corridor towards them. He soon realised that his prey had nowhere to go, nowhere to run off and hide and nowhere to escape from his clutches. He could afford to take his time savouring the moment.

“If you’ve got any suggestions guys, now’s the time to mention them!” prompted Matt, now staring down the barrel of a very large fur covered gun.
“Is there any exit at all?” asked Monty towards Matt.
“Well yes,” he responded looking over his right shoulder out of the window, “but I don’t think we’ll be wanting to take that one.”

Fat Cat was now revving up for action and started gaining speed towards the trapped compatriots. Was this really going to be the end for the Rescue Rangers? Matt flicked his eyes about his entire surroundings, looking for something to do or someway out of this mess. The Rangers could merely duck inside his pockets and pray for the best.

And then… Fat Cat made the mark and leapt towards…


Chapter 22 – End Of The Line
One human. Seven Rescue Rangers. One flying furball of magnitude. An equation that would not look like having a welcome ending. Remember hope though? Ah yes, our friend hope. Matt had spotted something at the last moment and knew it was the only slim chance of making it out alive.

There was no way of avoiding the collision with the airborne Fat Cat however, he was just too large. Matt did his best to leap upwards and to the side in reaction to the approaching velocital mass but a swipe of the right paw across his body confirmed that he, and everyone else, was heading out of the window. At that moment in midair he reached up and grabbed what he had seen… a material rollerblind attached to the top of the window. He was going to hang onto this for all he was worth.

Man and cat flew right out of the window, sending most of the glass everywhere in a catastrophic explosion of noise and debris. Matt was going backwards at first, and then flew upwards in a sweeping arc as the tension in the blind caught hold once it had been pulled out to full extension. He hung there for a brief moment, before swinging back down, twisting a half turn and crashing shoulder first into the brick work with a loud crunch.

And what of Fat Cat? He had nowhere to go but down. Down, down, out of control past all the floors of the building, accelerating all the time towards the ground below and the large metal railings with the nasty pointy bits on top. Matt could only observe and see what was going to happen next. It was probably not going to be pretty.

“Oooooffff,” he winced upon seeing Fat Cat’s landing, “I don’t think he’s going to be walking away from that now.” The rest of the Rangers, upon realising that they were not falling all of a sudden, looked out of where they were hiding to see what the situation was. Most of them could only stare at the situation presented way down below on the ground.

Death sometimes is an easy way out of a situation. Death would be a fitting end to one of the Rangers’ most troublesome and petulant enemies. But death does not come to all so easily. Fat Cat was not dead, but instead was now face down in row upon row of flowers, backside upwards, trapped between the railings and the building itself. He was stuck, unable to move or do anything except flick his tail about in anger and wriggle ever so slightly.

“Well that’s an unwelcome sight!” stated Tammy. “How he missed I don’t know,” commented Foxglove. “He didn’t quite miss if you see what I mean,” added Chip. “Golly, we’re still here?” laughed Gadget, quite shocked that everyone was still hanging about. It was left to Monty once more to state something rather obvious but blatantly pertinent to the situation.

“I think it might be an idea to get ourselves on firm ground before commenting more!”
“You and that solid ground Monty, I thought you were able to handle any situation?” teased Dale.
“Sure I can laddo, but hanging six stories up by thin material ain’t my idea of safe!” replied Monty.

Everyone climbed out of where they were situated and gradually made their way up Matt’s body, over his arms and leapt into the wide open window, being careful to avoid any residual glass still left within the frame. Given the velocity and size of the collision, this wasn’t much at all, and almost all the fragments were now lying on the ground outside the building rather than inside on the floor.

“Guys,” Matt called out to the Rangers who were now inside, “somehow I don’t feel so good here. And it isn’t anything to do with heights.” Continuing to think to himself, “better get myself inside too I suppose.”

Hauling himself slowly up on the material, he felt a dull pain in his right hand size. But there was no time or chance to look down at this moment, it was a question of just getting himself through the window first. And then, as if fate would dictate it, the material started to slowly tear at the top now it had finally reached its stress point. Pulling as fast as possible, he inched his way up the side of the building as the tear got larger. The Rangers inside could only turn around to see the blind give way and flutter out of their view as it too headed towards solid ground.

“Nooooo!” shouted Chip in anguish. And then there was silence.

Chip looked at Gadget, who looked at Monty, who looked at Tammy, who looked at Zipper. Dale and Foxglove looked at each other in disbelief. “I can’t believe he’s gone,” moaned Gadget. No one wanted to go check to see what had happened.

And then there was a scrabbling sound, of brickwork and of contact, as a solitary hand appeared into view clawing at the window frame and a face emerged over the wooden horizon as the arm pulled it upwards. “Gone? Not if I have anything to say about it!” came the relieved response from Matt. His appearance was met with universal cheering from the Rangers in complete amazement.

Pulling himself up and through the window, having first used a sleeve covered hand to knock out the last remaining shards, he flopped onto the floor and was now lying face up, staring at the white painted ceiling and thinking suddenly just how much pain he was in. Clutching at his side, he tilted his head forward slightly to see that there was a distinct red stain starting to appear through the white of the laboratory coat.

“Trainee medic coming through!” blurted Tammy as she ran to Matt’s side to assess the situation. “Let’s have a look to see what we have here.”

The truth was about to shock her somewhat. Pulling away the coat revealed a number of serrated gashes in Matt’s shirt and equally deep cuts in his body. Blood was slowly seeping out of the wounds. It would appear that Fat Cat’s contribution to Matt’s general wellbeing was more serious than first thought.

“I think these injuries are a bit beyond your capabilities Tammy dear,” commented Monty, grimly assessing the extent of the damage.
“I think you’re right,” she replied, wincing slightly at the sight of all that blood before her. Life sometimes has a harsh way of revealing itself to those who are not ready for it.

“We still have a mission to finish, stopping Nimnul!” blithely mentioned Matt from his resting place on the floor, circling a finger waywardly in the air. “Well then, on your feet soldier!” cried Foxglove, looking to him to now get up and somehow walk on despite what had befallen him. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” asked Tammy. “We can’t call for an ambulance, he’ll have to do it himself if anything,” finished Gadget, “and that means getting to his feet anyhow.”

Matt managed to sit up and get to his feet with a lot of discomfort, and the occasional grunt of pain, though it took a couple of attempts and a pause in between to do so. Leaning against the wall to catch his thoughts, it was evident that the loss of blood was already making him feel slightly faint. He was also about to start philosophising again in his somewhat less than lucid state as he walked slowly down the hallway with the Rangers accompanying him, looking ever upwards to make sure he was alright.

“You know… the inevitability of life is that ultimately it leads to death,” he began, “and this,” holding up his left hand with the tiniest of gaps between thumb and index finger, “is the pivotal divide.”

“Between?” inquired Chip.
“Success and failure. Flying away into the sunset or being blown out of the sky. Seeing another day or getting crushed by falling rock. Walking away from this or ending up on the ground.” Matt’s expression took a more serious tone. “Life and death itself.”

“It’s funny though,” he mused, “you would have thought there would be some response to these events that have transpired, but I can’t hear much going on outside.”

The Rangers were inclined to agreed and nodded to acknowledge this comment. “We got one destroyed window, several destroyed doors and Kitty Kong parked outside, you’d have thought some authority would be sniffing about by now,” pondered Monty. There was the odd panicked shout and noise audible downstairs within the building, as if it was gradually dawning on the workers who were present that something truly bizarre had happened.

As the group were approaching the stairs once more, having passed the elevator on the way, a voice just about listenable was growing louder, muttering to itself as it got closer to their position.

“Better make myself scarce, they’ll probably want to blame this on me somehow, so it’s time to leave. Premature maybe but needs as must in these circumstances.” There was a slight pause before the next comment. “Hmmm, what’s this peculiar substance on the floor? Never mind, it’s nothing.”

Stepping through doors that were barely hanging on their hinges was Nimnul, right in front of the Rangers and Matt. He turned to see what had caught the corner of his eye, and saw who was standing there. Nimnul may well have been wearing the invisible suit once more, but he hadn’t gotten around to pulling up the hood, meaning that for all intents and purposes there was a gun and disembodied head floating right in front of the Rangers.

In one swift motion, Matt grabbed the gun barrel with his left hand, pushing it up slightly and aimed a closed right fist directly into the side of Nimnul’s head, causing him to stumble backwards and lose his grip on the Gigantico Gun. He also then lost grip with his feet as he stepped onto the residue of the oil Matt has spilt earlier, and tried to regain his balance, failed, and toppled over the first step of the stairs and tumbled down them just like Fat Cat had before him.

He wasn’t about to go all the way down though. His progress was halted with a sharp smack against the wall of the first flight, and then all of a sudden his entire person was now visible. Hitting the wall had destroyed or interfered with the operation of the invisible suit in some way. Nimnul shook his head to get his bearings following the collision, and looked up to see Matt now pointing the gun straight at him from the top of the stairs.

“What do you say, how about a taste of your own medicine?” Matt smirked as he made to turn the dial on the gun with an audible sound. Nimnul went almost white with shock and shook his head and hands in front of him, as if that would in some way deflect the shot due to come his way.

“Please, anything but that!” he stammered, as he managed to pick himself up and scramble down the stairs as fast as anything before Matt pulled the trigger.

“Awwww Matt, why didn’t you shoot him, it would have been fun!” asked Dale.
“Because the dial is stuck on ‘grow’, that’s why,” answered Matt.
“But that noise we heard…?” inquired Chip.
“That was me fooling Nimnul with my voice,” came the reply.

Everyone laughed at the deception but it was Chip who broke the happiness with a stab at reality. “All well and good, but we need to return Fat Cat to his proper size at least.”

This statement of intent was going to cause a schism within the Rangers.

“Reduce?” queried Matt, “I thought it would be nice to leave him that way for the local animal laboratories to pick up and experiment on.” With that, everyone else stared at him with invisible daggers. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding! But give me one reason why we should help him now. And yes, this is despite what you said before Chip, there’s a world of difference regarding him and history.”

“Yeah Chip, why should we help him out after all the trouble he’s caused in the past. Not mentioning what’s he done to poor Matt!” asked Monty. Matt at this moment was doubling over a little in pain as the continued gradual blood loss was taking hold. “I think we should leave him where he is,” stated Dale. Foxglove nodded in agreement.

“But guys, that would make us as bad as him now,” countered Gadget. “Are we really that cruel? It would belie our principles as Rescue Rangers,” added Tammy. “Not to mention for exactly the reason we just all glared at Matt for his comment, would we really want that to happen, even to Fat Cat?” concluded Chip. Monty, Dale and Foxglove all reluctantly agreed that Chip’s words were the truth, much that they might wish otherwise.

Everyone turned and started walking back the way they had come, towards the window and a view onto a cat needing the world’s biggest weight loss program. Trudging more in Matt’s case as his steps were getting steadily more uneven and haphazard.

“All very well and good leading us down the virtuous path Chipper, but if the darn gun is stuck on grow, how we gonna shrink Fat Cat?” asked Monty. Responding to Monty’s question, Matt lifted the gun up with his left to examine it closely, turned it either side to examine both angles, and then proceeded to slam his right palm into the area just in front of the dial. Putting fingers to the dial resulted in it now rotating back how it was designed to.

“How does he do that?!” wondered Chip in bewilderment.

Reaching the end of the corridor and peering out of the broken window revealed little had changed, bar the odd person leaving the building in a hurry, occasionally spotting the trapped Fat Cat and running away even faster in response. Way off in the distance, the faint sound of sirens could be heard and tiny little flashing lights visible in the distance on the road leading to the research lab.

“Oh, at last, someone’s called it in,” stated Matt sarcastically. He leaned out of the window and aimed the gun directly downwards towards the intended target. But not, though, pulling the trigger. After a few seconds, he lifted the gun back up and contemplated if this really was the right thing to be doing, given all that had happened to himself and his small friends. He looked down at the Rangers looking back up to reaffirm this was the right course of action, and shook his head slightly in resignation.

“You know it’s the right thing to do Matt,” stated Chip.
“As long as I don’t live to regret this,” he countered back.

Aiming the gun back out of the window, he squeezed the trigger and sent a bolt of energy downwards, hitting Fat Cat squarely upon on the behind. As if by magic, which considering the technology it would appear to be so to a layman, Fat Cat began to shrink and reduce and within a second or so was back to his original proportions. He looked up at where Matt was looking down to see the results of his handiwork, and shook a clenched paw in his direction.

“Curse you Rangers, I’ll get… ahhh, what’s the point perhaps,” as the ranting tailed off to a quiet murmur of indignation. Despite being small again, Fat Cat was going to have to find his own way out of the cage he was in, the railings too narrow to fit through and too high to climb, well for a cat his weight and stature now. Everyone turned back and left him to his own devices.

Matt leaned against the nearby wall for support, his head getting more clouded and harder to think with as the blood loss was now significant. Foxglove looked worriedly at him, with a definite concern for wellbeing enveloping all the Rangers, “you need to get that looked at right now.”

“But first,” replied Matt, “this infernal contraption,” looking at the Gigantico Gun. “Is it to be destroyed?”

“Like many of Nimnul’s inventions, I think this one has run its course,” answered Chip. “I wouldn’t blame you if you were to get rid of it.”

Matt took one last look at the gun before stating, “Without it, I wouldn’t have these memories. But you’re right, I need to end it here.”

Looking over it closely, he then swung his arm around violently before letting it slip from his hand towards the ground where it collided with a clatter and a loud noise, smashing it into several pieces that rapidly scattered in all directions. Just to make sure he stomped upon a few of the circuit boards and components that had been inside. The Gigantico Gun was no more.

“Time to leave this place,” he suggested. Dragging himself towards the elevator, he pressed the button for down and the doors opened immediately, no one had called the box that Fat Cat had come up in since that time. Stepping into the car and leaning against its side for support, he watched the Rangers join him in triumph at a job well done. Upon hitting the button for the bottom floor, the car shook slightly and chunked into life, taking everyone slowly downwards towards the exit.

“I’m sorry it came to this in the end Matt,” Chip apologised.
“Oh don’t worry, it’s not your fault. And besides, most of us don’t get a chance to be heroic at some point in our lives. You guys do that almost every day by the looks of it.”
“You sure you’re gonna be okay?” inquired Monty.
“I’m still talking, if that’s any sign!”

Upon exiting the elevator, the ground floor was quiet. No one appeared to be about at all, and the receptionist scared earlier was not in her seat, most likely fleeing along with anyone else who witnessed what happened. The group made a beeline for the telephone, as fast as an asthmatic ant with heavy shopping could travel given Matt’s current state. He picked up the receiver, hit 911 and was informed upon speaking to the operator that medical services were already on route to the location.

“I’ll probably have them all to myself!” he quipped, but upon trying to laugh was halted immediately by the convulsive pain from his side. The stain on the coat had gotten considerably larger since he first checked it despite applying pressure.

Pressing the button next to the entrance door, it needed several pairs of hands to push it open as Matt’s strength was rapidly disappearing and he couldn’t do it by himself. He took a few steps out into the clear air and bright sunshine before stopping still.

“We’re finally out!” stated Dale, overwhelmed with joy and leaping about.
“Slightly exuberant there,” commented Tammy, watching Dale now dancing about with Foxglove.
“I guess we just stay here and wait,” voiced Gadget, looking fervently for signs of humans approaching the scene.

“How do you feel Matt?” asked Monty, but he somewhat misheard what Monty was asking.
“Funny… you know… it felt… good.”

And with that Matt slumped to his knees before keeling over sideways unconscious.


Epilogue
“There’s something mighty unsettling about walking through here.”
“That same pure disgustingly clean white colour?”
“Yeah, that’s probably it. It’s reminding me too much of the research lab.”
“Just be glad that you don’t have to be here all the time then.”
“True, imagine if you had to be a patient here for days on end!”
“Too right, but like what are the chances of that ever happening to one of us?”
“Or work… yeesh!”
“Now where are we supposed to be going?”
“Room 107 apparently.”
“Who’s leading this expedition, are we actually going in the right direction?”
“You were saying…?”
“Oh… Foxglove, go see if you can open the door.”

“He’s sleeping Zipper? Should we disturb him?”
“We’ve come all this way now, it would be silly not to wait it out.”

“I see I have company. Best keep it quiet, you’re outside visiting hours!”

Three days after the incident at Ammontex Research Laboratory, the Rangers found themselves at the local hospital checking up on the progress of their human friend. Ambulance services had found the unconscious Matt lying near the entrance to the building and had brought him in where he was immediately operated on and given a blood transfusion. Given all the fuss and chaos surrounding Matt at that point, there was no way until now that the Rangers would have been able to see him. They had all climbed or flown onto the bed, where they sat watching Matt pull himself up slightly to a seated rather than lying down position.

“How are you feeling Matt?” asked Monty, “though I’m sure I asked you that before.”
“A lot better, thank you,” he replied before joking, “anyone care to see my scars?!”

Most of the Rangers cringed at the thought. Tammy was rather intrigued but decided not to say yes anyhow because it would likely freak the rest of the team.

“When do you think you’ll be able to leave?” inquired Chip.

“Doctors say in a couple of days or so, as long as I’m careful moving about and don’t disturb the stitches. They used dissolvable ones so I don’t need to return to have them removed if need be.” Matt pondered for a moment before continuing, “Which is just as well because I think my holiday is supposed to finish shortly.”

“I wonder what the hotel is thinking given I’ve not been there most of my stay!” he laughed.

“Hospitals are mighty expensive,” stated Dale, “are you going to be able to pay for all of this?”
“Thank heavens for travel insurance!” was the response.
“It seems all the possible angles have been covered then,” concluded Foxglove.
“For once, usually such incidents don’t fall so neatly into place for me.”
“I think I speak for all of us here,” stated Gadget climbing up Matt’s arm and giving him a hug on the cheek with a big smile on her face, “that we’re glad to see you are going to be okay.”
“And I’m glad that I managed to get all of you out of that place okay.”

“Tell me,” he said low to Gadget, “I suspect Gadget isn’t your real name, is it?”
“No,” she smirked, “it’s…” as she whispered in his ear, to which Matt smiled back.

The sound of footsteps could be heard approaching the door to the room. All the Rangers disappeared from view as quickly as they could as the door open and a nurse popped her head in to check on Matt.

“Is everything alright? I thought I heard voices.”
“Oh, no problems here, just thinking out aloud to myself.”
“Doctor Stipenski will be with you in a couple of minutes to give you a routine check-up and possible clearance to leave tomorrow or the next day.”
“Thanks.”

The nurse closed the door and made to leave for the next room. The Rangers came out of their hiding places to address Matt once again.

“I guess that’s our cue to leave,” said Chip disappointedly, “take care of yourself Matt.”
“I will… and thanks for everything. I never did say that during all the time I’ve been with you.”
“It’s our job,” replied Chip, “which reminds me, I brought this for you.”

Out of his pocket Chip produced a small Rescue Ranger badge and handed it to Matt. “To us, you will be an honorary Ranger for the rest of your life.”
“Thanks… I’d wear it proudly, but I’m not sure I’d be able to explain what it means to everyone who asks!”

Matt laughed, and everyone else joined in with him at this statement. And with that, all of them turned to leave the room and Matt to his own devices, sneaking out of the door as the doctor entered to give him a final once over.

And that would be it so you may think. However two evenings later, a figure was seen walking through the park while the sun was low, making it hard to see who it was. It made a direct path towards the tree where Ranger HQ was situated, before looking around to see if anyone was present and then climbing up to try knocking on the tiny door. It was Dale who happened to answer it and he was pleasantly surprised to see who was there.

“Hey everyone, Matt has washed up on our doorstep again!”
“I thought I’d come to pay a final goodbye before I fly back tomorrow. But not before inviting everyone to spend a night relaxing with the comforts of hotel room service, all the cable channels you could want to watch and a fully air-conditioned room environment.”

“Is there cheese present?” came the loud cry from inside Ranger HQ.
“Yes, I’m sure there’s cheese on the menu Monty!” came the flippant reply.
“Then count me in,” he said, rushing out of the door and almost knocking Dale over.
“Well, what do you say everyone?”

And so one human and seven Rangers passed into the night, forever bound by the experiences they had shared and would not forget for a long time.

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test and don’t ask why
It's not a question but a lesson learned in time

It's something unpredictable but in the end it's right
I hope you had the time of your life

So take the photographs and still frames in your mind
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time
Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial
For what it's worth, it was worth all the while

It's something unpredictable but in the end it's right
I hope you had the time of your life