No Use Thinking 'What Might Have Been' That Was Then, and We Have Taken Different Roads ...
"Gadget what's that?" Chip ask dismayed pointing to a squat gray remote with four large colored buttons on top.
"This is a T.V.R. or Time Vortex Re-aligner. I've wanted to test a theory about the existence of alternate time lines for while now, but ..."
Chip tuned Gadget out through most of her spiel until he heard her say:
"... Anyway when I push this blue button on the T.V.R it should fix everything, well not everything, just the time lines," Gadget continued, "at least I think it will. Of course it could open up a black hole, or a ..."
The other rangers weren't listening. Their eyes swam wildly then snapped back into place as they turned toward one another and cried, "Should?!"
"Yep, here it goes!" Gadget shouted joyfully pushing the yellow button. Then there was a flash of white.
"Oops!" Gadget exclaimed, "maybe it was the red button."
"Um guys?" Gadget sat there alone in the vast nothingness, "Golly." Her voice echoed back to her.
"Hmm, if there's an echo there has to be something for the sound to bounce off of. Maybe if I walk in a straight line I'll bump into a wall or something," she mused.
She put out her hand grabbing for anything as she stood up. Her hand griped at the whiteness, she pulled and it came down in a sheet. It was a sheet.
Gadget looked at the sheet in her hands, she was now surrounded in blackness.
"Now if I had ..." she trailed off groping at the blackness and finding it smooth and solid, a wall.
"I wonder ..." she wrapped the white sheet around her arm and climbed up the black wall behind her.
Soon she popped her head out of the black box and hopped out.
More whiteness everywhere.
She kicked the box over onto it's side.
"Now if I had a ..." she tripped over a pencil, "perfect."
She laid the sheet and pencil next to the box and looked around, "I just need a string to," she looked down at her foot something was tickling her, ah I loose thread on her overalls.
She bent down and grabbed the thread hanging from the cuff of her pants and pulled it up the seam a little past her knee then cut it off with her teeth.
She used the purple thread to tie the pencil and sheet to the box. Smiling at her achievement she took a few steps back to look at it.
Then her face fell. "What was I thinking!" Gadget struck her forehead with her palm, "that would only work if a northeasterly wind blew through here at exactly four mph going southwest!"
She pulled a lighter out from behind her and torched her invention. Moments latter a breeze blew in stirring the chard debris.
Gadget snapped. She grabbed the lighter clicked it on and randomly dashed back and forth trying to ignite everything. The flame flickered in the breeze, the end of her hair fell across the flame and caught fire.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh," she ran madly about finally falling into a shallow pan of water which left her with a lopsided crew cut.
"Gadget all you all right?" a voice asked.
*Crash*
Gadget lay on the floor. She was in her own room in her night gown. Her sheets were all twisted and hung off her bed. The others hearing the crash came running in.
"Gadget all you all right?" the voice asked again.
She looked up at pair of chipmunks standing over her.
"Chip! D-dale?" the mouse asked confused, "Chip, why is Dale wearing a dress?"
"It's a nightgown and why wouldn't she?" Chip answered concern showing on his face.
"Chip, is she gonna to be ok?" the female Dale whispered worriedly.
"I don't know," he whispered back.
"Um, where's Zipper and Monty?" Gadget asked.
"Zipper? Do you mean Cody?" Chip asked pointing to a young slim mouse in a jacket, he looked worried.
"I don't think so ...," the mouse girl said uncertainly, "Where's Monty?"
"Over there." Cody nodded.
A insane looking Monterey Jack sat by the door giggling shrilly holding a stick of dynamite.
"Where did he get that!" Chip cried in alarm.
Cody grabbed the munk's arm before he could do anything, "Don't worry. It's just a birthday candle I painted to look like dynamite. He's been holding it for hours now."
Gadget huddled against the wall trying to tap her heels together as she murmured, "There's no place like home, there'snoplacelikehome, there'snoplacelikehome, there'noplacelikehomethere'snoplacelikehome ..." repeatedly.
Chip walk over to examine the candle, "You painted this? It looks very realistic."
Cody beamed.
"You even wrote 'Dynamite' along the side," Chip remarked.
"Wha?!" Cody interjected, "I didn't write ..."
*boom*
"G-gadget? are you ok?" Chip asked, "you must have had a nightmare."
Gadget looked up at her friends, they were all there.
"It was a dream? But it was so real."
"It's ok Gadget. You're awake now, right." Dale stated happily.
Gadget smiled up at her friends, "It was so real. You were there Chip. And Dale you, uh .. my head hurts .."
"Was I there?!" Dale asked glancing at Chip.
"Dale," Gadget smiled nervously, "You were there," she grimaced, "sort of."
She turn her head toward the others, "Monty you were there, and Cody was there.
"Cody?" Monty asked, the chipmunks shrugged.
"Was I there?" Zipper asked.
"I don't think we've met," Gadget smiled at the fly, "I'm Gadget. I'm the mechanic of the team. The Rescue Ranger team that is. It was Cody's idea to form the group. He and I grew up together. Chip and Dale joined us after our first HQ was destroyed. "
Gadget smiled again and stretched. She touched her ear with her fingers as she stretched."Hm. My earrings must be in my jewelry box, huh."
"Earrings?" the guys asked confused.
"Gadget luv, you don't have a jewelry box, or earrings? Are ya feelin' alright?" Monty asked.
"I'm fine," Gadget looked over at her feet, "I guess I already took my sandals off huh."
The munks stared at Gadget shocked.
Zipper whispered to Monty, "Remember when you said her elevator didn't go to the top floor, maybe it crashed?"
"Crashed after going thru th' basement, foundation, an' who knows wat else." Monty murmured back glumly.
Aloud he said, "Looks like our Gadget could use a bit of a rest lads."
The munks nodded, still casting odd looks at the mouse girl, as they filed out making their way back to their room.
Gadget had drifted back to sleep by now, albeit a restless sleep. Monty sighed as he closed her door heading back to his own room.
He looked upward for a moment, "Look after 'er Geegaw. I've done what I can."
Gadget's tossing and turning ceased. A peaceful smile graced her face for a while and she slept the sleep of those who do not wake.
{Thank "The Magic School Bus" cartoon which taught me all I know about echos and how sound works.}