"Gadget Camera"
Authors: Robert Brown and Francis Tolbert
Disclaimer: This story uses characters created and copyrighted by Disney
(except where noted, in which case they were created and
copyrighted by us or by another and we have permission to use
them). The authors hereby give permission for this story to be
downloaded and/or printed at 1 copy per user as long as (1) no
changes to the story are made without our express written(not
e-mailed) permission and (2) no attempt is made to profit from
this story. If either or both rules are violated, it will be
considered a violation of copyright law.
Author's Note: Well, seems our last story didn't go over quite so well as
the others. The reason for that was because I was working from our original
blueprint of it which I wrote about 10 years ago. Instead of revising and
updating it like we normally do, I just plowed ahead and tried to get it done.
Be assured, we will not make that mistake again. Some of the points here will
help to clear up what was and wasn't said in "Brotherly Love." If anyone
still has questions after all is said and done, you know where to reach us.
And as a quick note, we are trying to write this as if it had continued on
from the series, so the setting of it is the year 1991. Till next time
everyone, Happy Reading!
Cast of Characters(in order of appearance)
Zipper
Monterey Jack
Chip
Dale
Foxglove
Gadget
Tammy
Rick***
Jim***
Thomas***
#7
It was a warm spring night, not so warm as to be really uncomfortable,
but warm enough to hint at the coming summer. It was the type of night that
most people and animals alike are happy to spend outside with their friends,
enjoying the weather before the heat truly sets in. But for the Rescue
Rangers, that was sadly not the case.
They had just returned home from a daylong case involving Fat Cat and
his goons and were more tired than they had been in a long time. Most of them
were just barely able to get out of their clothing and into bed before sleep
claimed them. Poor Foxglove was so tired though that she wasn't even able to
hold onto her perch and ended up sleeping on the floor.
As the night deepened and quieted, it became eerily still in Central
Park, especially in the Headquarters. It was so quiet, one could hear a pin
drop, provided you were awake to hear it. But as tired as our six heroes
were, it's doubtful they would've been roused by a tornado ripping their tree
apart by its roots. So it should come as no surprise that the slight sound of
the front door's locks being picked went completely unnoticed, as did the
silent footseps of the three animals that slipped inside the opened door.
The night soon passed and the next day dawned bright and warm. Zipper
roused himself from his heavy slumber not from an outside noise, but from his
own stomach grumbling. Once he got his bearings, he remembered that it was
Monterey's turn to cook breakfast. Mumbling to himself because he knew how
hard it was to wake up his best friend, he flew out of his hammock and yanked
on his friend's mustache.
Monterey, on the other hand, was quite content to continue his slumber,
especially since it was filled with cheese, cheese, and more cheese. But when
one of those cheeses began pulling on his mustache, he sat up with a jerk.
"Zipper?" he asked, rubbing his eyes and yawning. "What's the problem?"
Zipper chattered at him, rubbing his stomach and then pointing in the
direction of the kitchen.
Monterey scratched his head for a moment before he realized what was
bothering the fly. "Oh yeah, my turn to make breakfast. Sorry about that, I
was distracted by my dreams of cheeeeeeese." Zipper rolled his eyes at the
mini cheese attack that was occurring. "Oh all right," Monterey said, tossing
off his blanket and jumping out of his own hammock. "Besides, I got me a new
recipe that I've been wanting to try out. Cheesy omelet supreme!"
Both Zipper's and Monterey's stomachs growled at the mention of food.
Chuckling, Monterey opened the door and headed out to get the cooking started.
He opened the fridge to get the ingredients and discovered a problem: it was
empty. "That can't be right," he thought, closing the door. He opened it
again and looked inside, sure that he had been mistaken. But it was still
empty.
"What's going on here?" he wondered, slamming the door shut. "We just
went shopping the other day, this thing should be full of food! Maybe I'm
still dreaming, but if I am it's a nightmare now. I know! I'll go back to
bed and wake up again. That's all." And so with a yawn, he headed back to
his room with every intention of going back to sleep.
At least he did, until he got a view of the living room. Not believing
what he had seen, he ran into the living room and skidded to a stop.
Everything was gone. The TV, the sofa, the chairs, everything that wasn't
either nailed down or part of the tree itself. "Crikey," he murmured, taken
aback by all this. "What happened?"
Monterey looked around for any sign of just what had occurred when he
noticed something. The front door was wide open and swinging in the slight
breeze. As soon as he noticed it, he knew the lock had been picked, and why
it had been. "We've been robbed!" he roared in anger, slamming his fist into
the nearby wall.
He ran over to the emergency horn, the same one he'd used to wake
everyone up when they were on their exercise kick. Taking a deep breath, he
blew into it with all his might, releasing a noise that shook the tree to its
roots.
A few moments ago, both Chip and Dale were slumbering peacefully. But
as soon as that horn sounded, both of them were shaken awake, literally, as
they were rattled out of bed and to the floor. Chip pushed Dale off of him
and got quickly to his feet. The brothers simply looked at each other before
dashing off to the living room. "What's the big idea Monty?" Chip asked,
glowering at the bigger mouse.
"Yeah, this better not be another of your exercise kicks," Dale said,
his eyebrows drawn together in annoyance and anger. "The last one nearly
kicked us!"
"Hey, what's all the hubbub?" Foxglove asked, blinking the sleep from
her eyes as she walked into the living room. "Can't a girl get a couple
extra hours of beauty sleep?"
"Now Monty," Gadget said, pushing her hair back out of her eyes, "you
know we agreed to only use that horn in an emergency. There had better be a
good reason behind this."
"Look around Gadget luv," Monterey said, sweeping his arm around.
"Notice something a little different?"
"What do you expect us to see Monty? I mean it's just...our...."
Gadget stopped talking when she realized just what Monterey was referring to,
and all she could whisper was, "Golly."
"Hey, where'd all our stuff go?" Dale asked, looking around at the
nearly bare room.
"That's what I've been trying to tell you, pally," Monterey said. "I
found the door forced open this morning, so I think it's safe to say that
we've been robbed!" he roared for the second time that morning.
"Who would do such a thing?" Foxglove wondered aloud, picking up a
broken picture frame. "I mean, we're the Rescue Rangers aren't we? We solve
robberies, not suffer them."
"All right everyone, split up and see what else they've taken," Chip
said, taking charge. "I'm going to check on the Ranger Wing."
"I'll check my workshop," Gadget said, sprinting off.
"Zipper and I will scrounge for some food to tide us over till we can go
shopping again," Monterey said, heading out the front door, not realizing or
not caring that he was still in his nightclothes.
"I'll get some paper so we can make a list of everything that was
taken," Foxglove said. She turned to go, until she just saw Dale standing
there, the most pitiful look imaginable on his face. "Dale sweetie?" she
asked, going up to him and putting a wing around his shoulders.
Dale had been both motionless and silent since they had all discovered
that they'd been robbed, but at the first touch of Foxglove's wing, he had
turned into her embrace and broken down, blubbering about the missing TV and
how it was the gravest of injustices.
Foxglove held him for a moment, letting him cry it out of his system.
"As much as I love holding you like this sweetie," she whispered, "we really
need your help. From what Monty was saying, I think they got at our food too.
Could you go in there and see what's left, if anything?"
"All right," Dale said quietly, sniffling away a couple tears. He
walked into the kitchen just to confirm what Monterey had found earlier.
"Completely empty," he grumbled, slamming the refrigerator door shut. He was
about to tell Foxglove this when an idea struck him. He nearly tore open the
door to one of the cabinets and looked inside.
It was empty, just like Dale had anticipated, but then he saw what he
hoped he wouldn't. The bottom of the cabinet was missing, revealing a hidden
compartment that just yesterday had been filled with many types of sweets,
especially chocolate. "They took it," he said, closing the door in disbelief.
"Not only did they take the TV, they took my chocolate! Now they must pay!"
A look of mixed determination and anger crossed his face. Dale stormed
off into the bedroom he shared with Chip, pulling off his nightshirt and
tossing it into the corner angrily. He pulled a shirt from his closet and
pulled it on, getting his head stuck until he remembered he had to unbutton
the top button.
Dale dropped to his knees and crawled into the closet, pushing things
aside until he found what he was looking for. Grunting with the effort, he
dragged a box marked "COMICS" and covered with various air mail stamps that
seemed to originate from France out and set it in the middle of the floor. He
ripped off the tape holding it closed, mindful not to let it get caught on his
fur because he knew from experience how painful that would be to get off.
Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath or two, Dale reached into the
box and pulled out a white bandanna. He opened his eyes and stared at the
cloth in his hand before clenching his fist around it. "It's time to
decaffeinate some thieves," he muttered angrily, fixing the bandanna around
his head.
Outside in the living room, Chip and Gadget were comparing notes on what
they'd found. The Ranger Wing was only minimally damaged, with some
navigational components and the batteries missing. Gadget's workshop, like
the living room, was almost completely gutted. "It doesn't make any sense,"
Gadget said, shaking her head. "When we moved most of this stuff in here, we
made enough noise to wake half the park. How did they get it out without
waking at least one of us up?"
"Who knows how long these guys were planning this," Chip said. "For
all I know they pulled everything apart and moved it out bit by bit. All I
know is that whoever these guys are, they've done this before." He went to
remove his hat only to find that it wasn't there. Blushing sheepishly, he
smiled as Gadget chuckled at him. "We'd better get dressed, then we can try
to get some replacement stuff until we find who did this."
"I'll get on it right away; it didn't take me long to put things
together in the first place. With Foxglove's help, it shouldn't even take
that long."
"Of course I'll help out," Foxy started to say, until she jumped from
the sound of a door being slammed open. She spun around and looked, one hand
over her heart. "Cutie?" she asked in surprise.
Dale, or should I say RamDale, undid the safety on his coffee bean
machine gun and narrowed his eyes. "Let's go percolate some crooks!" he
yelled, running toward the front door.
Chip and Gadget stared at him for a moment before diving at him in an
attempt to bring him down. The only thing they managed to bring down was each
other, however, as they collided heads and fell in a heap. "Stop him!" Chip
managed to yell though being under Gadget.
Foxglove didn't know what was going on, but she knew it wasn't good.
She hurried to the door and saw RamDale already on the ground. Spreading her
wings, she dove down, levelling off just early enough not to crash but late
enough to build up an incredible amount of speed.
RamDale, however, knew nothing of this as he was singularly focused on
his goal. But just as he was going to disappear into a patch of dense
underbrush, Foxglove swooped by and hooked her legs under his arms. "Hey!"
Dale yelped as he felt himself lifted up into the air. "Put me down!"
"Calm down Dale!" Foxglove pleaded, pumping her wings hard to gain
altitude. "You keep struggling and I'm going to crash!"
The threat of him causing Foxglove harm broke through his haze of anger
and Dale quieted down immediately. But the struggle combined with the early
hour had weakened her, causing her to have to glide to the ground a few yards
from the tree. Dale immediately tried to run for it, but two beefy hands
lifted him easily off the ground. "Here now, what's this?" Monterey asked
before he recognized the contraption Dale was wearing. "I never thought I'd
see this thing again."
"I don't know what's going on here," Foxglove said, stretching her sore
wings, "but I'd sure like some answers."
"I'm sure we'll get some when we get back," Monterey assured her,
picking Dale up on his shoulder despite the chipmunk's protests.
Back in Headquarters, Chip and Gadget were sitting on the floor with
their backs to each other. "I thought it was Dale with the hard head," Gadget
said, gently rubbing her forehead.
"You don't grow up with Dale for a brother and not get a thick skull out
of it," Chip joked, wincing a bit as he laughed. "You think she caught him?"
Gadget's answer was cut off by the arrival of Monterey, who threw Dale
down on the floor next to them. "Someone mind telling me what's going on
here?" he asked, crossing his arms over his stomach.
"That's what I'd like to know," Chip said, standing up and helping
Gadget to her feet. "Where did you get that thing anyway? I could've sworn
we left that thing in France."
"You did," Dale said, putting the safety back on and taking it off his
back. "But a few weeks after we got back, this package arrived for me from
those poodles we helped. In it was this and a note expressing how happy they
were to be home. I didn't want you guys to know about it, so I hid it away
in the back of the closet."
"And how come I never noticed it?"
"Well, I didn't want you to do anything to it, so I marked it 'COMICS'
so you wouldn't go near it." Dale couldn't help the smirk on his face at
finally putting one over on his big brother.
Chip just shook his head. "Do you know how dangerous that is? You're
just lucky no one got hurt."
"Oh someone's gonna get hurt all right, the guys who took our stuff!"
"Now Dale," Gadget said, getting between the boys, "you know that's not
our way. Look, we can replace all the stuff we lost, it's not that big a
deal."
"Yeah, calm down Dale," Foxglove said, holding onto his arm. "I don't
like seeing you like this. It sorta scares me a little."
Dale sighed and slumped back against Foxglove. "I'm sorry Foxy," he
said. "It's just that these guys came into our home and took our stuff. What
if they wanted to hurt you or something? I couldn't live with myself if that
happened because of me."
"Because of you?" Chip demanded, incredulous. "What is that supposed
to mean?"
"I was supposed to stay up last night to watch the late night movie
marathon. If I'd been up, I could've woken you guys up and nothing would've
happened."
"Dale, you can't blame yourself for that," Chip said, putting his hand
on his brother's shoulder. "We were all exhausted last night, and if you'd
fallen asleep out on the couch, who knows what they would've done to you. We
should just be glad we're all safe. So put away the RamDale stuff, OK?
That's one outfit I don't ever want to see you in again."
"All right Chip," Dale said, pulling the bandanna off his head.
"But that does give me an idea," Gadget said, walking quickly through
the tree and studying various vantage points. "We really need to set up some
kind of security system here, in case this happens again. I could rig up a
couple of cameras with motion sensors that'll snap off some pictures if they
detect something."
"I don't know about this Gadget," Chip said worriedly. "I mean, I don't
want my every move to be watched by cameras all day."
"Oh don't be silly Chip," Gadget said as she took the paper and pencil
from Foxglove and started to jot down some notes. "First of all, we can't
even use video cameras because they don't make them small enough to fit in the
tree to where they can't be seen. I was thinking something more like what
Dale used when he was playing that spy. And, they'd only be active at night
when we're all in bed. I can even fit them with night vision lenses. If I
do this right, I can make them take 5 pictures in succession and...."
"Gadget," Chip said calmly, walking up to her and taking her by the
hands, "we can worry about that once we find a way to replace everything.
Don't you think we should have something to protect again before figuring out
how to protect it?" Gadget flushed slightly and looked down. But before she
could apologize, Chip tilted her face up to his and kissed her softly. "You
don't have to apologize," he said quietly. "Let's just focus on that for now
and we'll see what happens, OK?"
"All right," Gadget said with a smile. "I'll head to the junkyards and
see what I can scrounge up. I...I think I'll focus on getting the Ranger Wing
running first."
"That's the way," Chip said, drawing her into a warm hug. "If you want
the rest of us to get anything, just make us a list and we'll do our best."
Gadget nodded, then reluctantly pulled away from his embrace. "Let's
get started then," she said, turning the paper she was carrying over and
making a quick list. "Now I just need to figure out how to get all the stuff
to fix the Ranger Wing."
"I can take you," Foxglove said with a smile. "That is, if you don't
mind leaving the flying to me. Of course, I want to hear just what you
meant about Dale playing spy while we look."
Two weeks passed in this manner, and a sense of normalcy was finally
restored to Ranger Headquarters as summer crept closer. The Ranger Wing's
full capabilities had been restored, and Gadget had even managed a couple of
upgrades. The new television they had was smaller than the old one, which
Dale grumbled about every chance he got. But on the bright side, their new
sofa, which Zipper had found in a dollhouse that had been thrown out, folded
out into a fairly comfortable bed that Dale could use for his late night
marathons. Every thing else was comparable to what they'd lost, although
Monterey swore the new frying pans didn't let him flip his cheese flapjacks
the right way.
It was at this time that Chip and Gadget were putting the final touches
on the security system she'd designed. "I really appreciate you helping me
with this," Gadget said, fitting a false panel over the last camera and making
sure it could still see out of the hole she had cut in it.
"I'm still not completely convinced it's a good idea," Chip said,
hooking up the wire to a motion sensor Gadget had placed in the ceiling.
"Don't forget Chip, we all promised to give this two weeks and then see
if it was worth it. You'll see, in a couple days, we won't even remember
that they're here. At least, you won't. I'll be checking them every morning
to see if they've snapped anything."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Chip muttered. But his frown turned into
a smile as Gadget hugged and kissed him. "Not fair," he pouted playfully.
Gadget kissed him softly again and then checked the timing mechanism.
"Everything seems to be in order. With this in, I'll sleep a lot safer."
Chip merely nodded, but inside he still worried about what might happen.
But because he had agreed to, he kept it to himself.
Later that morning, Gadget and Chip were in a storage room the others
had just finished cleaning out, setting it up as a darkroom. "Chip?" Gadget
asked quietly, stringing up a bunch of red Christmas lights along the ceiling.
"Yeah Gadget?" Chip asked, making sure the shelves that would hold the
developing chemicals were sturdy and secure.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Of course! You should know that by now."
"I know," Gadget said, looking down worriedly, "it's just that I have a
question about Harold, and I was wondering if you could answer it for me."
Chip dropped his hammer in surprise, nearly hitting his foot. "What do
you want to know?" he asked slowly.
"Well, I've been trying to make sense of this whole thing, but it just
doesn't. I mean, I know you said he has honor, but how could he after what he
did?"
Chip sighed and sat down, pulling Gadget into his lap. "Harold grew up
in a very 'strict' family," he said after a few seconds of thought.
"By 'strict,' do you mean 'abusive?'" Gadget asked in a whisper.
"Yeah, but it was something no one ever talked about. His father was
really bad, punishing Harold for the smallest infractions against his honor
code. Honor was everything to him, and he demanded no less from his son.
"So when Dale made those comments to him, he felt dishonored. From that
moment on, his father wanted nothing to do with him until he restored his
honor. That's why it became an all consuming obsession to him. And that's
why our parents moved us, to get away from that."
"Why didn't anyone try to stop it? That must've been so horrible for
him. Not that I blame you or anything, but surely all the adults there must
have known."
"I'm sure they did," Chip agreed. "But this was a small town where no
one wanted trouble. I guess every town has dirty little secret no one wants
to talk about. This was ours."
Gadget looped her arms around Chip's neck and rested her cheek against
his temple. "I won't let our children go through that," she promised.
Chip pulled away slightly and looked Gadget in her eyes. "Children?"
he asked, a smile curling his lips.
Gadget flushed as pink as her nose. "I-I'd better get back to work,"
she stammered, standing up and nearly leaping over to the work table she'd
set up.
Chip watched her for a moment, a warm smile on his lips. "You have
no idea how long I've been wanting to hear that," he thought before getting
up to help her.
Nothing happened for a few days and the cameras were soon forgotten,
just as Gadget said. But then one night, when everyone was asleep, one of the
bedroom doors opened unexpectedly. A few moments later the refrigerator door
opened. Some rustling of the contents inside occurred, followed by a rather
large gulping noise before the door closed. Finally, that same bedroom door
closed quietly, and all was still once more.
That morning, it was Chip's turn to make breakfast. "I think I'll try
something simple today," he said, opening the refrigerator and rummaging
through it. "Wait a minute, where'd all the cheese go?" It only took a
moment of pondering for the obvious. "Monty must've been sleepeating again,"
he realized, letting his head rest against one of the refrigerator's trays.
"Oh well, I guess I'll just have to make do."
About an hour later, the rest of the Rangers had woken up and were
gathered around the kitchen table, waiting for Chip to get finished. "It
smells good Chip," Foxglove called, rubbing her stomach lightly.
"Yeah, Chip always was a pretty good cook," Dale said above his stomach
growling. "Not as good as our mom, but still pretty good."
"Well then, this should be a real blast from the past," Chip said,
carrying over a plate and setting it down in the middle of the table. "Acorn
waffles!"
"No way!" Dale asked, his eyes shining and his tail wagging a mile a
minute. "I haven't had these since we left home!"
"I figured you'd like them," Chip said, smiling at his younger brother.
"Well come on everyone, dig in!"
Most of the other Rangers grabbed a waffle and started muching on them.
Monterey, on the other hand, just looked at his. "Couldn't you have made mine
with cheese or something?" he asked, poking it with his fork.
"I would have, but someone ate all the cheese last night," he said,
pointing his fork at the portly mouse.
"Well I never! How dare you accuse me of that?"
"Monty," Gadget said, taking a sip of her cherry juice, "we all know you
can sleepeat at times. And since it's cheese that's gone, it has to be you."
"Yeah," Dale said after finally managing to swallow the waffle, which
he'd shoved into his mouth whole. "And besides, if it's chocolate missing,
you're always the first to blame me."
Monterey just crossed his arms in a huff. "Well, it's not like I'm
doing it on purpose," he said. "But I'm still not convinced I'm doing it at
all."
"Don't take it personally," Chip said. "Besides, it gave me the excuse
to dust off this recipe."
"I suppose I can try it out," Monterey said, cutting off a forkful and
putting it into his mouth. "Not bad," he admitted grudgingly. "Still...."
"It could use some cheese!" the others finished for him.
"Too right," Monterey said with a smile.
After breakfast had been finished and cleared, Gadget ran her usual
rounds to check her cameras. To her surprise, even though it really shouldn't
have been, the camera in the kitchen had snapped off it's measure. Pulling a
spare roll from her overalls, she changed the film and placed the used one in
her pocket. None of the others had been activated, so she went off to the
darkroom to develop what she had.
When this was first being set up, Gadget had no idea what she was doing.
Sure, she had found a book or two on the subject, but when it came to actually
developing the film, she ruined more practice pictures than she saved. But as
always, she was a quick learner and she'd now gotten to the point to where she
could handle a small batch with little difficulty.
Gadget stood back after she'd developed the five pictures, more than a
bit proud that she had not messed up any of them. Once she had stopped to
think about it, she knew what the pictures were going to be about. So it was
no surprise that it showed Monterey's sleepeating the cheese last night. "Oh
Monty," she sighed, shaking her head.
When the pictures were dry, she took them off the line and turned on the
regular light. Flipping through them, she found something that caught her eye
and set the other pictures down on the worktable. "I don't believe him," she
said, exasperated. Pushing her goggles up off her face, she stalked from the
room.
The other Rangers were waiting for Gadget so they could go to the police
station in hopes of finding a case or two. So when Gadget came walking down
the hallway, they were glad and getting ready to go. That is, until Gadget
jumped up and grabbed Monterey's ear. "Yeouch!" Monterey yelled, shaking
free from her grasp. "What was that for Gadget luv?"
"Don't you 'Gadget luv' me," Gadget said, her eyes narrowed as she
stared at Monterey. "Did you really think we wouldn't find out about this?"
Without waiting for an answer, she shoved the picture she was holding in
Monterey's face.
"What's this?" he asked, taking the picture and holding it so he
could take a look at it. When he saw what it was, his whole face drooped,
even his mustache. "Uh oh."
"What's going on?" Chip asked, taking the picture from Monterey. "So
what?" he asked when he saw it. "It's just a picture of Monty eating a piece
of cheese."
"Not quite Chip," Gadget said, still glaring at Monterey. "It's a
picture of Monterey eating a piece of cheese last night, in the kitchen,
caught by one of the night-vision cameras I installed."
"You mean we have proof of him sleepeating?" Dale asked, looking at the
picture over Chip's shoulder. "Finally! Maybe now he'll believe us."
"Take another look Dale. His eyes are wide open, so he's not doing any
sleepeating, he's just eating."
"Now Gadget luv, let me explain," Monterey said, holding his hands up
in front of him.
"Explain what? Why you ate the cheese? Why you let us think you were
doing it in your sleep? Or maybe you want to explain why you lied to us?"
Monterey seemed to shrink somewhat under Gadget's glare. "OK, I was
wrong," he blurted out. "I'm sorry, but when I wake up with a hankering for
cheese, I just can't stop myself!"
"That doesn't explain why you lied to us," Chip said as everyone else
started to glare at him.
"I didn't lie exactly," Monterey said, tracing circles in the imaginary
dirt on the floor with his toe. "You were the ones that thought I was eating
in my sleep, and I told you I wasn't."
"Yeah, but you didn't tell us the truth," Gadget said, her voice falling
to a whisper.
Nothing hurt Monterey more than the hurt and disappointment he heard in
the voice of the mouse he'd come to treat as his daughter. "You're right,"
he said, pulling off his cap and running his fingers through his hair. "I was
wrong. I'll try not to do it again."
"The cheese eating, or the lying?" Foxglove asked, arching an eyebrow.
"I don't know if I can stop the cheese eating, but I won't lie about it
anymore."
"I guess that'll do for now," Gadget said. "But the next time we get
some cheese in here, I'm going to find a way to lock it up at night so you
can't get to it."
"Don't you think that's going a little far Gadget luv?" Monterey asked
in almost a whiny voice.
"Not after what you just did," Gadget said, turning and going to get the
Ranger Wing started.
"Stupid cameras," Monterey muttered, jamming his cap back on top of his
head. "I always knew they were a bad idea."
"Oh, you're just saying that because you got caught," Dale said, poking
Monterey in the side with a smile.
"Yeah, well let's see how much you like them when you get caught." Dale
scoffed at Monterey's prediction, not knowing that in only two short days,
Monterey would be proven right.
It was early morning when it happened. Dale was sneaking around, trying
to filch some chocolate from his new secret stash when he tripped over
something. He caught his balance quickly enough, but that's when he decided
to goof around a little. He careened around the hallway, acting like he was
going to fall flat on his face only to veer off in another direct and have to
"catch his balance" all over again.
Dale was having a lot of fun, until he overbalanced himself too far and
went headfirst into a wall. Now while he didn't hurt himself, he did knock a
picture off the wall. He cringed at the sound of breaking glass, looking
around quickly to make sure no one had awoken from it. After a tense minute
of holding his breath with his pulse pounding in his ears, he let it out
slowly when it was obvious no one had.
He looked down at the shattered picture frame and blanched. "What am I
gonna do?" he wondered. Then an idea hit him and one could almost see the
lightbulb going off if they had been looking. Being very careful not to cut
himself on any sharp edges, he managed to rearrange the picture and frame in
such a way that it looked perfectly normal and would stay together on the
wall, even if just barely. He replaced it in its position and crept back to
bed, the chocolate run forgotten.
Later that morning, while Gadget was cooking a breakfast that acutally
didn't smell like motor oil yet, Zipper flew down the hallway toward the
kitchen. A stray gust of wind from an open door nudged him off course in
mid-air, making one of his wings just barely graze the glass in the frame.
But because of its rather precarious nature, it broke apart with just that
much of a nudge and fell to the ground in pieces.
"Zipper!" Chip gasped, coming up running when he heard the commotion.
"What happened here?" Zipper tried to explain, but even as he did so, he knew
it sounded bad. "You expect me to believe that you broke it just by brushing
against it?" Chip asked, tapping his foot.
Zipper just sighed and floated down to the floor. While he began
cleaning up the mess, everyone else ran up and wanted to know what was going
on. Only Gadget seemed to think there was something fishy involved with the
story. After she finished cooking breakfast, she excused herself early and
went to check on the hallway camera. Sure enough, five pictures had been
snapped. Quickly removing the film and replacing it with a fresh one, she
made her way down to the darkroom and set to work in finding the truth.
It was a couple hours later that Gadget emerged once more, the set of
pictures clenched in one hand. "I don't believe you Dale," she said, moving
to stand between him and the TV.
"Umm, what's the problem?" Dale asked, scratching his head.
"Yeah Gadget," Foxglove said, sitting up from where she was leaning
against Dale. "What's going on?"
For answer, Gadget simply showed them the pictures that had been
taken. In it was a clear series showing Dale hitting the wall, the picture
falling and breaking, and Dale's attempts to hide what he'd done. "Hey, I
thought those things only ran at night," Dale said.
"They run until seven AM," Gadget said. "These were timestamped at six
forty-five."
"How could you Dale?" Foxglove asked, pushing away from Dale in her
annoyance. "We all thought that Zipper broke that picture frame, and it was
you this whole time? You know how much that picture means to me; it's my
first as a Rescue Ranger! When were you going to tell us that?"
"Umm, I wasn't," Dale mumbled into his shirt.
"Just great. Well you can forget about that date we have tonight until
you fix it and apologize to Zipper."
"Foxy! That's not fair!"
"And blaming Zipper for your actions is?"
Dale looked down, ashamed. "It's not like it matters anyway. Zipper's
already fixed it."
"Oh is that so?" Foxglove asked, her hands on her hips. She turned
around and walked down the hallway. A few seconds later, a loud crash could
be heard. "There," she said, dusting off her wings, "now it's not." Everyone
just looked at her as she stormed off into her bedroom and slammed the door.
Dale got to his feet with a loud sigh. "Stupid cameras," he muttered,
walking toward the broken picture frame with the air of a condemned rodent.
"Oh, you're just saying that because you got caught," Monterey taunted,
mimicing Dale's words of a couple days ago.
Chip quickly got between the two before a fight could break out. There
were a few tense seconds of staring, but eventually they both went their
separate ways. "Still think this is a good idea Gadget?" he asked in a quiet
voice.
"Now Chip," Gadget said, struggling a bit to keep her voice level, "the
cameras have been doing exactly what they're out there to do. If everyone
wouldn't do things that would get them in trouble, there wouldn't be any
problems. You can't blame the cameras for that."
"Maybe not," Chip allowed reluctantly, "but is it worth it? It feels
like the only thing these cameras are really doing is making everyone upset."
"We're already through the first week. Please, let's just finish out
the trial period. Then we'll figure out what to do."
Chip sighed and covered his eyes with his hand. "A promise is a
promise, even though I have a really bad feeling about all this."
"What could go wrong?" Gadget asked innocently.
Chip slapped his hand to his forehead. "Famous last words Gadget.
Famous last words."
It took Dale all day to fix the picture and frame. Not only did
Foxglove smash it into pieces tinier than he had, pieces of the glass were
just about crushed into powder. After a number of hours trying, he just gave
up and got the materials to make another one. It was slow going because he
had to do it himself, and he nearly left it half finished for the night. But
when Foxglove came out of her room in a slinky, low-cut red dress to remind
Dale of their missed date, he finished it in record time. Too bad that by the
time he got it hung up on the wall, Foxglove had already turned in for the
night.
The next morning, Foxglove woke up early, yawning in the sunlight that
fell across her form. She looked over to her roommate as she flipped down
from her perch, landing gently on her feet. Seeing that she hadn't woken
Gadget, she crept over to her dresser and unlocked the bottom drawer. Lying
inside were a collection of bottles, each labeled with unusual names. Looking
them over for a second, she selected one that was filled with a dark red
liquid and pulled it out. Carefully closing and locking the drawer, she stole
out of the room and headed toward the kitchen.
Once there, she waited outside the doorway until the clock chimed seven
times. "Wouldn't want Gadget to get a picture of this," she thought, placing
the bottle next to the stove as she went to gather the other ingredients for
breakfast. Unfortunately for her, she never realized that the kitchen clock
was set just about five minutes fast....
After another filling breakfast courtesy of Foxglove, Gadget quickly
made the rounds of her cameras. She was surprised when the first camera she
checked, the kitchen camera, caught something. "Did something happen last
night?" she thought as she changed the film. "I'd better hurry and see what
these are."
Minutes later, in her darkroom, Gadget was just finishing developing the
final picture. To her disappointment, it was only Foxglove getting breakfast
ready. "And here I thought I'd get lucky," she said, hanging the pictures up
to dry. "If something doesn't turn up soon, there's no way I can convince
Chip this is a good idea."
Once the pictures were dry, she got ready to throw them out when she
noticed something in the corner of one of them. It was an unusual looking
bottle, one that Gadget had never seen before. "Could that be her secret
ingredient?" she wondered before suddenly putting the pictures down. "No, I
can't do that to her," she said aloud to convince herself of that fact.
She picked them up to throw them out, but her curiosity got the better
of her. Against her better judgment, she looked at the bottle in the picture.
"Sānge," she read, confused. "Must be in her native tongue or something. Too
bad I have no idea what it is."
Gadget sat down on the stool and put her mind to work. "Well, it
definitely sounds familiar," she admitted. "Almost sounds like the Spanish
word 'sangre' and the French word 'sang,' but they both mean...." Gadget
threw down the pictures as if they'd burned her. "No way," she thought, her
entire body shaking. "She wouldn't...she couldn't!"
She lurched from the room, the sudden nausea making her stomach clench
violently. She made it back to the living room where everyone was watching
TV before collapsing against the wall. "Gadget!" Chip yelled, rushing to
her side. "What happened, are you ok?"
Being in Chip's arms was helping Gadget feel better, at least until the
others rushed over and she caught sight of Foxglove. There was no way she
could hide the horror and revulsion from her expression before she turned her
face into Chip's chest.
Foxglove's eyes narrowed when she saw the look Gadget was giving her.
She had seen that look a couple times, and each time it was because of the
same dream. "How?" she asked, her voice shaking. "How did you find out?"
"Cameras," Gadget mumbled, her voice muffled somewhat by Chip's fur.
"But I waited until they should've shut off!" Foxglove yelled. "I
don't belive this."
"What? What's going on Foxy?" Dale asked, as confused as the others
were.
Without answering, Foxglove stalked off into her bedroom, only to come
out seconds later holding a small bottle in her hands. "This is what you
saw, right?" she demanded. Gadget turned to look at the bottle, then turned
away quickly as she felt the bile rise up in her throat. "That's all the
answer I need," Foxglove muttered, uncorking the bottle. "Smell it."
Gadget shook her head violently, nearly unbalancing Chip. Foxglove
grabbed Gadget's chin and forced the bottle under her nose. Gadget tried to
hold her breath, but her nausea made that a bad idea and she was forced to
take deep breaths to not regurgitate her breakfast even though she knew that
the smell from that bottle would make things ten times worse.
But instead of the smell she was expecting, her nose picked up a fruity
smell, but one that was mixed in with many different herbs and spices. "Huh?"
she asked intelligently. Foxglove took the opportunity to pour a few drops of
the liquid down Gadget's throat. Gadget choked and sputtered at the burning
sensation it produced, but there was none of the revulsion or coppery tang she
was sure she'd notice. "But...."
"Will someone tell me what's going on?" Chip asked, getting frustrated
as his confusion grew.
"Gadget's cameras must have caught me making breakfast this morning,"
Foxglove answered. "And since I used this bottle, she translated the label to
see what I've been using as my 'secret ingredient' so to speak."
"Yeah so?" Dale asked.
"Cutie, the label on it translates to 'blood,'" Foxglove explained. At
the look all of them gave her, she couldn't help but laugh. "Don't worry,"
she said as her laughter faded, "it's not really blood, I just mark my bottles
like that so I know if someone goes snooping. All it really is is some spiced
wine from my homeland. My mom keeps me well stocked on a bunch of cooking
stuff. And no, you can't get drunk on this stuff," she added, seeing Chip's
eyes harden. "The alcohol in it burns off in the cooking."
"That's a relief," Chip admitted.
"But what's not a relief is what you did," Foxglove said softly, looking
at Gadget. "Why? You knew how important it was to me that this remained a
secret."
"I didn't do it on purpose," Gadget said, her eyes downcast.
"I believe you, but it still hurts that you did it at all."
Gadget nodded, turning away from Chip and hugging her knees to her
chest. "I'll be taking out the cameras today," she said. "Don't worry, this
will never happen again."
Chip pulled Gagdet to lean back against him. "The hardest thing to
admit is when you're wrong," he said. "Come on, let's get those cameras
down."
"Umm, am I interrupting anything?"
The Rangers all turned to look at the now open door to find a familiar
red-haired squirrel standing there, nervously smoothing out her pink shirt.
"Oh, hey there Tammy," Chip said. "What brings you by?"
"Hey Chipper," she said softly. Like most of the other animals in the
park, Tammy had heard of the new relationships that had formed within the
Rescue Rangers. And even though she knew that her own feelings for Chip were
just a crush, it had still hurt when she found out that he and Gadget were
officially an item. But that wasn't why she was here, she reminded herself.
"Umm, if this is a bad time, I can come back later."
"Naw, everything's OK," Dale said, getting behind her and bringing her
down to the others. "So, what can we do for you?"
"Well, I heard about how you guys were robbed," Tammy said, wincing
inwardly at how different the headquarters looked. "And well, I think I might
know something about it."
"And how would you be knowing that?" Monterey asked, looking intently
at her.
Tammy seemed to wilt a little under his gaze. "Well, one of the kids I
hang out with has been bragging to anyone who'll listen about how he got one
over on the Rescue Rangers. No one believed him, until he showed off one of
the pieces he took off the Ranger Wing. Now they all treat him like some kind
of superstar."
"Do you know where he lives?" Foxglove asked.
Tammy nodded quietly. "But even if I took you there, it wouldn't
matter. His parents think he's a little angel, and they'll throw you out of
their tree for even suggesting he's anything but."
"So what, we can't do anything to him?"
"I didn't say that," Tammy said, a crafty smile forming on her lips.
"I know where they're keeping your stuff. If we actually catch them with it,
the parents can't deny that."
"Wait a minute, you said 'they' just now."
"Well yeah, it's him and his two goons. They're all in on this."
"All right Rangers," Chip said, helping Gadget up. "Let's go get our
stuff back. Rescue Rangers Away!" he yelled with the others joining in.
But as the others ran out, he grabbed Tammy's arm gently. "After this is
over, I am going to want to know just how you know these things," he told her
in an undertone.
Tammy swallowed noisily and nodded. In the back of her mind, she hoped
that Chip would forget all about it by the time it was over. But she knew
deep in her heart that he wouldn't. After all, if he did, he wouldn't be the
kind of guy she crushed on.
That evening, three teenage squirrels walked into their "secret hideout"
and flopped down on the first piece of available furniture. "That was a
riot," the first one, a red squirrel with a freckled face said as he picked up
an acorn to much on. He pulled a worn baseball cap over his eyes and tilted
his head back on the couch.
"Yeah, but it's starting to get kind of old," the second, a brown
squirrel with white markings on his chest and palms said. "I mean, there's no
challenge in it anymore, no thrill."
"Well I'm about to change all that," the third one, a grey squirrel with
dark black hair, slicked back and falling almost to his shoulders, said. "The
next thing we're going to do is big, bigger than when we hit those goody-goody
Rescue Rangers."
"Sounds promising Thomas," the brown squirrel said, leaning forward.
"What do you have in mind?"
"I'll tell you Jim," Thomas said with a leer. "You're tired of robbing
from rodents? Fine, let's start stealing from the humans. Those big oafs
won't even realize they're missing anything until a week later. So we can
hit the same house night after night and laugh ourselves silly when they're
none the wiser."
"I don't know about this," the red squirrel said. "I mean, if they do
catch us, they won't think twice about turning us over to a lab or something."
"You worry too much Rick," Thomas said. "To catch us, they'd have to be
smarter than me, and there's no one alive who is."
"Oh really?"
The three squirrels jumped up at the voice and looked around. "Who's
out there?" Jim demanded, reaching for a toothpick and holding it as one
might hold a javelin.
"RESCUE RANGERS AWAY!" Before the squirrels could react, six Rangers
jumped out of the shadows. The Rangers were on them before they knew what was
happening and within seconds it was over.
"What do you think you're doing?" Thomas yelled as Chip secured his
wrists to his ankles with a piece of twine. "You can't do this to me!"
"Oh, and you could steal from us?" Chip asked, looking over to make
sure the other two were secure before standing up. "What made you think you
could get away with this?"
"And who says we won't?" Thomas said with a smirk. "It's not like you
can put us in jail or anything."
"No, but we can tell your parents," Tammy said, stepping out of the
shadows and walking in front of Thomas. "I wonder what they'd say about
this."
"What are you doing here Tammy?" Jim asked, his look of surprise
mirroring what was on the faces of the other two.
"Isn't it obvious? I led them here. Geez, your egos are even bigger
than I thought they were."
"You mean you set us up?" Thomas screamed, strugging against his bonds,
but the twine held secure.
"Of course I did," Tammy said with a smirk of her own that made her look
mature beyond her years. "Honestly, I don't know what's more pathetic: that
you thought you could steal from the Rescue Rangers or that you thought I
actually liked you!"
"Why you little b--!"
"Finish that sentence and you deal with me," Monterey said, clamping his
hand over Thomas' mouth.
"It's not like you can prove this to our parents anyway," Rick said,
though his voice betrayed his nervousness.
Zipper chattered excitedly in Monterey's ear, pulling him over to
something in one of the junk piles. "Here now, what's this?" Monterey asked,
pulling out what Zipper was pointing to. Then a smile broke out on his face.
"Hey Dale, remember this?" he called, tossing something to the chipmunk.
Dale grabbed it out of reflex, then he smiled seeing just what it was.
"I think this solves that problem," he said, undoing the clip and fastening
the bowtie around his neck. "Hey guys!" he called, wiping off the camera
lens as a look of fear crossed the boys' faces. "Say cheese!"
It wasn't until much later that night that the Rescue Rangers and Tammy
returned to Rescue Ranger HQ. "That's the last of them," Chip said, flopping
down on the sofa.
"Yeah," Gadget said, sitting down next to Chip and reclining against
him. "It took a while, but we finally got everything back to its original
owner."
"Yeah," Tammy said with a weary smile, "but the most rewarding part of
the night was trying to see those three weasel their way out of this in front
of their parents."
"Well, their parents aren't bad," Gadget remarked as everyone else
found a place to rest, "they just have tunnel vision with their kids. At
least we broke them out of it before it got too far."
"Maybe," Tammy said. "For me, I'll believe it when I see it."
"Speaking of which," Chip said, putting his arm around Gadget, "what
were you thinking, trying to infiltrate a gang like that? Do you know how
badly you could've gotten hurt?"
"I did," Tammy admitted, rolling her eyes, "but I knew you guys would
do the same for me. And it's not about being a Rescue Ranger or trying to
get you to like me; it's about helping my friends out."
"Can't argue with that," Dale said, snuggling his head into Foxglove's
chest.
"No, I guess we can't," Chip chuckled tiredly. "Look Tammy, it's not
that we don't appreciate it, but we just don't want you to get hurt. And I
think I know the perfect way to do that."
"Really?" Tammy asked. "And just what is that Chipper?"
"How'd you like to be a Ranger Reservist?"
"A what?" everyone else asked together.
"It's like being a Rescue Ranger, just not full time. Basically, we
call on you when we need you, but that means you stay out of trouble other
times. Can we count on you for that?"
"It's a big responsibility," Tammy said, pretending to think about
it. "But I think I can handle it."
"I know you can," Chip said, smiling over at her. "I don't know when
it happened, but at some point you grew up on us."
"Glad you finally noticed. Now, if you don't mind, I have to be
getting home. Remember," she said as she shuffled to the door, "call on me
when you need me!"
"We will!" Gadget promised. "That was very nice of you Chip," she
said after Tammy closed the door.
"She deserved it," Chip said. "But I'll tell you what we deserve. A
nice long night of sleep. We can figure out what we're doing with our old
stuff tomorrow."
"No arguements here," Foxglove said, yawning. And soon enough,
everyone had curled up in some fashion and was sound asleep. (
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