A Wolf in Dale's Clothing

by Proforce

Story 9. Humanlike wolves are robbing the city blind, so the Rangers think Nimnul is up to his old tricks again. Dale, of course, has a very different opinion: werewolves! He wasn't right the first time, is he now?

"A Wolf in Dale's Clothing"
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 guys, it's finally happened. As you might know, it's been taking longer and longer for me to get fics out of any universe. I think last year I only got out 4 fics in total. I was pushing my body too hard, and my mind and heart were paying the price. But now, as I sit here writing this Author's Note, my body has finally said "Enough is Enough!" I've been laid up for the past week now with an illness I've been fighting off for probably months now that just never seemed to go away. I won't go into details, but out of the first 96 hours of my illness, I spent about 80 of them asleep. This minor scare helped me to realize once and for all that I need to be a little less selfless and a bit more selfish with my time and energy. I don't know what this means for the stories yet, but be assured it's probably going to be good. All will be updated in future Author's Notes.

As a side note, I know some other Rescue Ranger fanauthors have said that they only eat nuts, fruit, and cheese. While I agree for the most part, I know that at least once, in the episode "Dale Beside Himself," he asked the aliens for a hot dog. So I feel pretty confident that Disney took creative license with their diets and we're going to follow their precedent. Till next time, Happy Reading!

Cast of Characters(in order of appearance)
Stan Blather
Dale
Chip
Monterey Jack
Gadget
Zipper
Foxglove
Henrietta(new-R)
Harold(new-R)
Hortense(new-R)
Harriet
Harry
Norton Nimnul
Deagul(new-R)
Deana(new-R)

#9

It was a quiet spring night, one where the humid air just hung without a breeze to stir it up. It was the kind of night where one could sense that summer was just around the corner if you just stood outside and breathed. But no one was out under the night's full moon, preferring their own air conditioned apartments to the night's swelter.

The quiet of the night was soon shattered as an alarm rang out. The alarm was cut off before anyone came to investigate. But the sound that replaced it was even more worrisome to those who heard it: the baying of a pack of wolves. Even taking into account that a pack of wolves would be very unusual in New York City, the sound was so unearthly that anyone who had heard it couldn't help but shudder in fear.

The next day, the Rescue Rangers were gathered around their TV set listening to the morning news. "This is Stan Blather reporting live from the scene of a mysterious overnight robbery," the newscaster said as the Rangers watched. "A bank known for having the most updated security system in the country was cleaned out of nearly every dollar in its vault. Nothing solid could be found on either the videotapes or the scanners, and what physical evidence was recovered was contradictory at best. What few witnesses there were reported seeing wolf-like creatures running away from the bank with sacks of money. Ordinarily the reports would be dismissed as hallucinations, but since it was the final night of the full moon last night, police have agreed to look into it."

"Wolf-like creatures?" Dale asked as Chip shut the TV off. "Full moon? Wowie! This could only mean one thing!"

"You're right Dale," Chip said, pounding his fist into his palm. "It sounds like Nimnul is up to his old tricks again."

"Nimnul?" Dale asked, confused. "No, I thought that--"

"Crikey mate," Monterey said, talking over Dale, "you don't think Nimnul's using that transformer thing again, do you?"

"That's 'transmorphizer' Monty," Gadget corrected absently. "I'll get the Ranger Wing ready. Looks like we'll be paying Harry a visit at the zoo."

Chip smiled and took Gadget's hand in his to give it a little squeeze. "Just what I was thinking," he said, smiling at her for a moment. "Rescue Rangers away!"

Foxglove turned to go after the others as they hurried outside, but she stopped when she noticed that Dale was just standing there. "Cutie?" she asked, gliding over to her boyfriend. "What's wrong?"

"Aww, nothing to worry about Foxy," Dale said, forcing a smile. "I just wasn't thinking this way. Still, Chip's probably right. Come on, they're probably waiting for us." Foxglove let herself be pulled along, but in the back of her mind she made a promise to get to the bottom of this.

It didn't take long to arrive at the zoo, but the wolf enclosure was empty. "I wonder where everyone is," Chip said, scampering around the penned in area.

"Didn't the witnesses say that there were more than one of them?" Gadget asked. "Maybe Nimnul took the whole family."

Dale scratched his head as he looked at Gadget. "Whole family?" he asked. "What? Are Harry's relatives visiting or something?" Gadget started to answer him, but stopped when Chip gestured at her. Dale suddenly felt like the butt of a joke when all the others stared at a point just behind him. He slowly turned around only to see three shadowy shapes leap at him. "Waaa!" he screamed, ducking and covering his head.

"Henrietta! Harold! Hortense!" Harriet barked, walking out of the cave and into the moonlight. "You leave him alone right now!"

The three wolf cubs slunk away from Dale and over to their mother. "Sorry Mother," they chorused, sitting on their haunches next to her.

Henrietta glared at her three cubs until they laid their heads on the ground and covered their noses with their paws. "That's better," she said, satisfied. She walked over to where Dale lay and nudged him gently with her nose. "Are you all right?"

Dale slowly uncurled himself, checking his body for injuries. "I'm fine," he said, relieved. "I just took an early bath is all,"

"And you'll be taking another one when we get back," Foxglove said, wrinkling her nose in distate at the wolf cub slobber that literally dripped from Dale's body.

A look that could only be described as evil intent crossed Dale's face. "Aw come on Foxy," he said, walking slowly toward her with his arms open wide, "it's not that bad."

Foxglove's eyes widened when she figured out what Dale was up to. "You stay away from me!" she squeaked, spreading her wings. But before she could get airborne, Dale leapt into her and wrapped his arms around her tight, nuzzling his cheek against hers. "Eeww!" she whined, shuddering as the slobber on Dale worked its way into her fur.

"While they flirt," Chip said, rolling his eyes at his brother's antics, "is Harry around? We need to see him about something."

Harriet looked at the mouth of the fake cave that served as their home. "He's asleep right now," she said, a smile touching her muzzle briefly. "He's such a help watching after the kids at night. But the poor dear gets worn out by them."

"I can see why," Dale said, now hugging a disgruntled Foxglove from behind. "But does that mean he's actually been here all night?"

"Why yes," Harriet said, taken aback. "Is something wrong?"

Chip shared a worried glance with Gadget before saying anything. "There are reports of wolves doing robberies again around the full moon, so we think Nimnul is up to his old tricks."

Harriet looked surprised for a moment but then chuckled. "Oh, I see what you're saying. But don't worry about it, it's definitely not Harry. Trust me, I can vouch for him being here during the entire full moon."

"Can she ever!" Harry growled, poking his head out of the cave's mouth for a moment. "Believe me, I haven't been able to go anywhere at night with trying to get the kids to sleep."

"There are a few other wolves in the city," Harriet suggested, seeing how the Rangers' faces fell at that revelation. "Maybe he's using them so as not to draw attention to himself."

"It's definitely worth checking out," Chip said. "Maybe we can hit the other wolves tonight and find something out."

"You go do that," Monterey said, twirling his mustache. "But if I know Nimnul, he's not using one that can be easily found. I'll drop by the docks with Zipper and talk with a few of me friends. Maybe they've heard of some... err, less than legal wolf imports."

"Let's meet back up at headquarters," Gadget said. "Thanks again for your help Harriet."

Harriet just waved a paw in goodbye. "Don't mention it, especially after everything you've done for us. But you know, you don't just have to visit when you're on a case."

"We'll keep that in mind," Chip promised as they boarded the Ranger Wing. "We'll see you soon!"

It wasn't until much later that night that everyone met back up at the tree, and none of them were in a happy mood. "Well, that was pointless," Foxglove said, looking more refreshed after having taken a shower. "Not one lead we followed turned up anything useful."

"Welcome to the real world Foxglove," Chip said, leaning back on the couch and tipping his hat down over his eyes. "Sometimes we don't get cases that crack right away. Don't worry though, there hasn't been a case yet that we haven't solved. This one won't be any different."

Dale waited a moment to see if any other comments were forthcoming. "So that's it then?" he asked. "No other ideas? No clue as to what it could be?" When everyone shook their heads, he just smiled. "Well then, we all know what is has to be, right?"

"Oh no," Chip groaned. "You're not going to--"

"Werewolves!" Dale yelled, making everyone but Chip jump.

"Dale..." the others started warningly.

"Oh come on!" Dale huffed. "You said yourselves that you can't tihnk of anything else! Why can't I be right about this?"

"Because the last time this happened you thought it was werewolves and you were wrong!" Chip argued.

"Maybe so, but none of you can come up with anything better."

"But Dale," Gadget said soothingly, "from those movies you made us watch I know that werewolves are supposed to be out of control killing machines, not thieves. If they were werewolves, why would they rob a bank?"

Dale had to think about that for a second, sticking his tongue out of the side of his mouth. "Well, Nimnul found a way to hypnotize mice once, didn't he? Maybe he has a way to do it to werewolves."

Chip sighed angrily. "You know what," he grumbled, forcing his body to stand, "let's just go over to Nimnul's and prove Dale wrong so that he can give it up."

"Can we wait till morning?" Monterey asked.

Chip fixed Monterey with a slightly annoyed stare. "You're not the one who has to share a room with him," he pointed out. With assorted grumbles and groans from everyone except Dale, the Rescue Rangers set out once again, heading for Nimnul's laboratory.

It was nearly midnight when they reached their destination, the waning gibbous moon high in the sky as they snuck inside. They took one of their common routes, a new experience for Foxglove. "I've heard a lot about this guy," she whispered as they crawled along a pipe.

"He's a lot different when you see him in person," Gadget assured her. "Believe me, he may not look like much, but he's still a dangerous mind." Gadget was about to give an example when they emerged through a vent, but she just stopped and stared once she got a good look at the lab. "Whoa," she breathed softly.

The only way the expression on Gadget's face could be described was "kid in a candy store." Unlike the usual patchwork conglomeration of odd bits and pieces of machinery and scientific equipment that used to inhabit Nimnul's lair, what she saw before her was a beyond-state-of-the-art laboratory that would make any scientist or inventor green with envy. And Gadget was no exception, even in the bright moonlight.

The other Rangers watched, amused, as Gadget ran to each piece of equipment, rambling off what it was, what it could do, and how much it cost. "He even has the newest chemical-proof lab coat!" she cried, touching the coat almost reverently. "There has to be something going on here. There's just no way Nimnul could afford one of these things, much less all of them."

"Are you so sure of that Gadget?" Chip asked, studying a stack of papers on the table that he was standing on. "I can't believe this, but Nimnul actually has receipts for all this. Paid in full at that."

Gadget was by Chip's side in an instant, moving so fast that the others were startled to see her there. She rifled through the receipts at an advanced rate, going over each one carefully before moving on to the next. "I don't believe it," she muttered. "These are all legitimate receipts from respectable companies. No way he could have faked these."

"Crikey," Monterey said, taking off his cap and scratching his head. "So how do you reckon he could afford these things?"

"Looks like we were right," Chip said, pounding his fist into his palm. "Nimnul is connected with the robberies. But no he's not using werewolves!" he added, seeing Dale puff up his chest with pride.

Dale stuck his tongue out at Chip. "Well, I haven't heard you come up with anything better."

Chip had to be physically restrained by Gadget from going over to Dale and bopping some sense into his head. "Let's just try to figure out how he's doing this," Chip grumbled, stalking over to one corner of the lab to look for clues.

The others were about to search around when Gadget noticed something else on the table. "Hey guys, look at this," she called, walking over to a small, hand-held crossbow. "Is it just me or does this seem out of place here?"

"It's definitely not Nimnul's usual M.O." Chip agreed. "Way too ordinary for the guy who made a weather weapon and that gigantico gun."

"Maybe he went low-tech because all the high-tech stuff wasn't working for him?" Foxglove suggested. Everyone else shrugged, not having any other ideas. "I wonder what its for though," she continued, voicing the thought on everyone else's mind.

Gadget fiddled around with the quarrel loaded into the crossbow. "Maybe something in here will give us a clue," she said, trying to pry the casing open. "Whoops!" Everyone hit the deck as soon as Gadget said "Whoops," not even waiting for the sound of a released spring that they knew was coming. Just like they thought, Gadget's fiddling had accidentally released the firing mechanism, shooting the loaded quarrel just above the surface of the table until it shattered against the far wall.

"Is everyone all right?" Chip asked, getting up and looking around at everyone else.

"We're fine over here Chip," Monterey said, speaking for himself and Zipper.

"Golly, sorry about that guys," Gadget said sheepishly.

But anything else she had planned on saying was stopped when the lab's lights came on. "What's going on in there?" Nimnul's voice thundered as his footsteps sounded on the tile floor.

"Scatter!" Chip yelled and the Rangers clambered for the vent they had entered through.

Nimnul entered the main lab just as the vent grate slid back in place. Wordlessly, he took in the shattered quarrel and the fired crossbow. His gaze swung to the vent that the Rangers had left through and he frowned. Scowling, he whirled on his foot and marched from the room. "I need to get some rodent traps," he muttered, slamming the door to his bedroom.

The Rangers emerged on the roof and caught their breath. "That was too close," Foxglove said, wiping her forehead with the back of her wing. "So what do we do now?"

"There's nothing we can do tonight," Chip said. "Let's head back to headquarters and see what else Nimnul does."

As they walked to the Ranger Wing, Dale stumbled and had to catch himself on Foxglove's shoulder. "Are you all right sweetie?" she asked, helping to set him back on his feet.

"I'm fine Foxy," Dale said. "Just feeling my leg burn a bit."

Foxglove look down at Dale's leg and gasped. "You're bleeding!" she yelped, causing the others to look back at him.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Chip scolded, checking out Dale's leg.

"Aww, it's just a scratch," Dale protested, wiping away the blood to show that it had already healed. "That dart thingy must've nicked me or something. See, nothing to worry about."

Foxglove didn't look at all convinced. "I'm still going to clean it out when we get back," she insisted. "And I'm not taking no for an answer," she added, putting her foot down both literally and figuratively. And she was good as her word, not letting Dale even watch TV until she'd cleaned that scratch with peroxide and bandaged it. Dale was a little disgruntled over the whole thing, but Foxglove kissed him all better and got rid of his bad mood.

No peep was heard from Nimnul in almost four weeks, but the Rangers were anything but bored. Minor cases kept coming up that kept them busy. None of them were anything too big and it allowed them to continue listening out for any Nimnul activity. The only thing that was even featured on the news was a sharp drop in the number of homeless people in the city.

But over the course of this almost month, a change was coming over Dale. It was subtle at first, all the others noticed was that his fur was growing a bit shaggier than normal and that it was even harder to get him up in the morning.

The first thing that really stood out as "wrong" was what happened the night that Monterey and Zipper offered to go out for some fast food, about a week after the incident at Nimnul's. "OK, how does everyone want their burgers?" he asked, fixing his cap as he stood by the door.

Everyone called out their usual orders, until Dale shocked everyone by yelling out "Rare!" When everyone looked at him in surprise, he scratched the back of his head in confusion. "What?"

"Dale, are you feeling OK?" Chip asked. "You've never been able to stand the sight of blood, much less the taste."

"What are you talking about?" Dale demanded, his eyes narrowing.

"Dale," Foxglove said, laying one hand gently on his shoulder, "rare means barely cooked and pretty bloody. Are you sure you want that?"

Dale blinked and shook his head. "Umm, I meant well-done," he said sheepishly. He got a few concerned stares, but eventually the others just chalked it up to a momentary weirdness.

Another, more disturbing, incident occurred two weeks later. The Rescue Rangers were chasing down a small band of chipmunks who were defacing other animals' homes. They weren't dangerous, but the Rangers were determined to make them clean all their damage up.

Once Foxglove flew ahead to cut them off, they were ready to give up. But as Chip was ready to work things out with them, Dale suddenly charged. Before anyone knew what was happening, Dale had tackled the leader. "Dale!" Chip yelled, rushing forward and pulling him off the kid.

"Keep him away from me!" the kid cried, scooting backward to where his friends were. "He's crazy!"

"Dale!" Chip yelled again, struggling to hold Dale back. "Monty! Help!"

"I'm on it," Monterey said, grabbing Dale by the back of his shirt and lifting him off the ground.

"What's wrong with him?" Gadget asked, checking over the kid that Dale had tackled.

"Dale!" Foxglove cried, stepping back when she saw the crazed look on Dale's face. "Snap out of it!"

Dale was literally kicking and screaming to get free on Monterey's grip, but Monterey's arm was way too long for him to do any damage. No one else could get close enough to try anything until Foxglove dove forward and slapped him with the back of her wing. Immediately, the crazed look left Dale's eyes and he calmed. "Wh-what's going on?" he asked, looking around.

"What do you mean?" Chip demanded.

Dale's face screwed up in thought. "Umm, I don't remember," he admitted after a moment.

Chip took off his hat and rubbed the back of his head. "Something weird is going on here," he said, taking note of the kids sneaking away but not even trying to stop them. "We need to get back and get Dale checked out."

Monterey put Dale down gently. "You're not going to crazy on us again, are you?" he asked slowly.

"I...don't think so," Dale answered, smiling slightly at his girlfriend as she looped her arm around his to offer his support.

Once they were back at Headquarters, Dale seemed to be completely back to his normal self. Well, normal for Dale. When he was told what he'd done, and almost done, to that poor kid, he was completely ashamed. But nothing could be found as to why he'd done it. Still, as a precaution, Chip got him to agree to stay home and rest.

But on the night that occurred twenty-six nights after the night they had tried to infiltrate Nimnul's lab, the first night of the following full moon, they all got their answer. Dale had been feeling poorly all day and so had gone to bed early. He'd even turned down a piece of chocolate, really making it obvious just how badly he was doing.

The others checked on him periodically, just to see how he was doing. Foxglove was the one who checked on him most, even more than his own brother. But Dale was resting peacefully so they let him sleep. One final check before they went to sleep showed no change, and they all breathed a sigh of relief.

A few hours later, when everyone was asleep, Dale's sleep stopped being peaceful and became fitful. He tossed and turned, his body sweating, and low moans of discomfort sounded from his throat. With a gasp, he woke up and looked around, his eyes wide.

He lay there for a moment, trying to control his breathing and heartbeat to no effect. The healed scratch on his leg was throbbing painfully as he tried to find a comfortable position. "Maybe I just need some air," he thought, forcing himself to roll out of bed and hitting the ground with a dull thud. Chip, used to Dale falling out of bed, didn't even open his eyes at the sound, nor at the sound of their door opening as Dale stumbled into the living room.

Dale was leaning heavily against the wall, trying to make his way to the front door, hoping the early summer night breeze would help ease some of his discomfort. But as he passed in front of a window, his eyes locked on the rising moon. The rising full moon. He found himself unable to look away from it, a feeling of dread growing in the pit of his stomach, until he screamed in absolute terror and pain.

That scream woke up everyone in the tree, and quite possibly those in nearby trees as well. The rest of the Rangers ran out into the living room, all asking questions at once. Another scream from Dale silenced them all, and they turned as one to look at him. "Dale?" Foxglove whispered as he screamed again, making them all jump back in surprise.

"What is going on here?" Chip demanded, stalking up to Dale. "I don't know what you're doing Dale, but knock it--" Chip's rant was cut off as Dale swiped at him with his claws, knocking him down and back.

It took a second, but Gadget asked the question that everyone was wondering. "Umm, since when does Dale have claws?"

Foxglove started shaking as she realized what was happening. "No," she whispered, "it can't be."

"I'll get him," Monterey said, grabbing Dale and lifting him up like he did before. But this time, Dale sunk his claws into Monterey's arms and threw him into the wall of the tree with a strength he shouldn't have, flattening both him and Zipper. Then, growling under his breath, he slunk back into the shadows, but not until the others who were still conscious could see his glowing golden eyes.

Gadget was forced to take a step back, her hand coming up to cover her mouth. "What's happening to him?" she whispered, wincing as she heard what sounded like bones popping and skin tearing.

"Isn't it obvious?" Foxglove said, her voice preternaturally calm. "I should have known it was possible, but even with everything I've seen and witnessed, even I couldn't believe it."

"What are you talking about?" Gadget cried, almost hysterical.

Foxglove was about to answer, but then the tree feel eerily silent, silencing her as well. It was only for a second, then the quiet was shattered by a low, guttural growl. Foxglove's eyes closed, a tear leaking out from the corner of her eyelids. "He's become a werewolf," she murmured.

Gadget looked at Foxglove like she was crazy. But even she couldn't deny what she saw. From out of the shadows loped Dale, or what had once been Dale. He was now down on all fours, his rich brown fur a dull grey. As she had thought she'd seen, his eyes were now golden and set into a clearly lupine face though he did retain his round red nose. A long, bushy tail now stretched out from his backside, and his body had at once thinned and grown more muscular. And while she watched, the Dale-wolf stood up on his hind legs, his upper body becoming even more toned and muscular as his front paws transformed and became human-like claws. She was by no means a religious mouse, but even she couldn't stop the "My God" that passed her lips.

The Dale-wolf snarled, his eyes focusing right on Foxglove as his lips pulled back to reveal sharp, pointed teeth. Crouching down in a single fluid motion, his legs uncoiled and he launched himself at Foxglove, teeth and claws flying. "Foxglove, look out!" Chip yelled, launching himself at her and knocking her out of the way.

The Dale-wolf really didn't care which one he pounced on, driving Chip down to the ground. Chip quickly jammed his forearm under Dale-wolf's jaws, keeping those dangerous teeth as far away from his neck as he could. But it was taking all of his strength to just barely keep him at bay. Gadget and Foxglove grabbed hold of Dale-wolf's arms to try and pull him off, but he just shrugged them off like they were nothing.

Chip had managed to scoot out from under the Dale-wolf when the girls had distracted him, but Chip had only scrambled a few inches before Dale pounced on him again. A growl sounded deep in his chest as he lowered his head toward Chip's neck, the powerful jaws positioned to rend and tear flesh, and there was nothing that Chip could do to stop it.

A wolf's howl sounded through the night sky. Dale-wolf's ear twitched, his jaws pausing just a hair above Chip's fur. The howl sounded again, more insistent this time. Growling in frustration, Dale sat back on his haunches and loosed an answering howl. Quicker than he had ever moved before, Dale- wolf crashed outside through the window, freefalling to the ground below. Monterey, who'd just now managed to struggle back to his feet, lurched to the window and was the the only one to witness Dale running off to join a large pack of werewolves.

Chip dragged himself to the couch and pulled himself up to sit on it. "Monty?" he gasped, trying to catch his breath.

"He's gone mate," Monterey said, slumping down against the wall. "He's run off with some others."

"We have to get him," Foxglove said, sounding a little bit drunk almost. "We have to bring him back."

Chip staggered over to her and placed his hand on her wing. "We're in no condition to go after him. I want to just as much as you do, but if we go anywhere tonight, we're just going to make a bad situation worse."

"How can you be so calm about this?" Foxglove cried, shoving Chip's arm off her, making Chip yell in pain. The fog in her mind cleared at Chip's yelp and she backed up in horror. "Chip?" she whispered.

Gadget stumbled over shaking her head in disbelief as she watched Chip cradled his arm protectively against his chest. "No," she whispered, peeling Chip's hand from his arm and shoving the sleeve of his nightshirt up. The evidence was clear. There, on his forearm, were bloody marks in a rough semi- circle that could only have been caused by a bite.

Chip stared at his arm as if he couldn't really comprehend what was going on. "It doesn't really hurt," he said as though talking to himself. "No more than a scratch really."

"That's what Dale said," Gadget thought aloud, ripping off strips of her nightgown to bandage his arm. "There must be some kind of anesthetic in the saliva."

Chip closed his eyes, tuning out the rest of Gadget's ramblings. It wasn't with any malice of course, he just knew that if he paid attention to what she was going on about then he too would probably break down into a bundle of nerves. "What now?" he asked when he became aware that Gadget had stopped.

Monterey forced himself to his feet, pulling together every bit of dignity and strength he had left to him. "I think we need to take care of ourselves tonight," he said, though he wasn't happy about it. "Like Chip said, we'll just make a bad situation worse, especially with what we just found out. Besides, we don't even know where they're all going."

"But tomorrow's another full moon," Gadget said, the hysterical edge creeping back into her voice. "Chip will--"

"Gadget!" Monterey said firmly, a voice he hadn't used with her in a long time. "We can't do anything about that right now. Let's try to get some sleep and we'll deal with this in the morning." There was a lot of grumbling at that suggestion, but no one could figure out anything else to do that night so they eventually acquiesced.

A few hours later, a lone figure waited at the mouth of a large cave. He occasionally checked his watch, more out of habit than impatience. Unlike all of his previous half-baked schemes, this one was timed and planned out to the second; nothing could or would go wrong. And just as he knew they would, a number of furry figures loped out of the woods toward him. "Perfect, just perfect," he mused, rubbing his pudgy hands together as the werewolves sat before him. "All of you, drop off your stuff and get in your cages. Quickly now!"

One by one, the werewolves dropped pieces of jewelry and precious metals or gems into a pile by his feet before disappearing inside the cave. He kept a mental count of everyone that passed him, allowing himself a nod as the proper count was reached. But as he bent down to retrieve the dropped items, he got a surprise. A curiously small werewolf was yipping by his feet, struggling out of a platinum ring as big as he was.

He stared at the small werewolf until the ring finally popped free and rolled over to join the rest of the pile. "Well what do we have here?" the human wondered, picking the tiny werewolf up by the scruff of his neck and holding him at eye-level. "You must be one of those infernal rodents," he said, eyeing the werewolf's distinctive red nose. "Looks like I might have to be more careful after all. But even this I can work to my advantage."

Still holding the chipmunk sized werewolf, he walked into the cave, temporarily leaving the pile of stolen loot behind. Down past the rows of cages where the other werewolves were sitting by docilely behind closed doors, all the way to the back of the cave where a special cage sat, this one far sturdier than the others.

Sitting quietly in the center of the cage was a nondescript man who seemed to be in a trance of some kind. But that trance was shattered when the door that separated his cage from all the others opened and his tormentor stepped through it. "You!" the man snarled, his form shifting from human to lupine as he charged the bars of his cage, reaching for his enemy with deadly claws to rend the flesh from his bones. "Nimnul!"

"You would do well to calm down Deagul," Nimnul said sternly, depositing the werewolf he had figured to be Dale in a special birdcage with silver bars he had fashioned for just this occasion. "After all, you wouldn't want to break those bars open, would you? The liquid silver inside them is more than enough to kill you."

The werewolf known as Deagul growled softly as he shifted back to his human form. "One of these days Nimnul, that will cease to matter," he promised, prowling back and forth in front of the bars.

Nimnul just smirked at Deagul, the slightest hint of fang showing from between his lips. "I thought you'd be proud of me Deagul," he said in a mocking voice. "After all, if it weren't for you I would've never found out that werewolves are real. Nor would I have found out how to infect myself in such a way that I get many of your benefits, but none of your drawbacks.

"Enhanced speed, intellect, and strength," Nimnul said, his smirk growing into a full smile now. "But I can still touch silver and the moon doesn't turn me into a slobbering beast. And with a little modification, I made myself secrete a pheromone that makes any werewolf I infect consider me their alpha male and do my bidding."

"But it doesn't work on me," Deagul reminded him. "Nor am I affected by the moon as I am a true lycanthrope, born into this curse. But that's my problem, isn't it?" he added, his voice growing soft and pensive. "If only I hadn't thought of my birthright as a curse, one that I wanted to be rid of at any cost..."

"...You would've never sought me out," Nimnul finished for him, hanging Dale-wolf's cage on a wire hook just out of the reach of Deagul. "Well, you know what they say, don't you? One man's curse is another man's blessing. And this is certainly a great blessing for me. Enjoy your new roommate, I have a feeling he's going to be here a while."

Morning dawned over a somber Rescue Ranger Headquarters and found those within awake, each of which having been kept awake for one reason or other. The only bit of good news that greeted the sunrise was that Foxglove did not have a concussion from the blow she'd taken from Dale. Small consolation, but it was something for them to grasp onto and try to build off of.

Chip glanced around at the others sitting at the kitchen table, a thimble of very strong coffee in front of each of them. "So what do we do now?" he asked, taking a sip of his coffee and shuddering; he never was much of a coffee drinker.

"Whatever we do, we'd better do it soon," Gadget said, trying to blink away the bags under her eyes. "Tonight is another full moon and Chip..."

Zipper shook his head and chattered quickly between yawns. "Zipper's right," Monterey agreed. "I'm no expert on this stuff like Dale is, but I do remember hearing that if someone gets bitten, they don't turn until the next month's full moon. So we have a full month to find a way to cure him. And believe me, we will find a way."

"But first we need to get Dale back," Foxglove insisted. "I don't know where he is, but I am not going to leave him out there alone for a whole month while we try to figure out what's going on. Besides, out of all of us, he's the only one who might have some clue as to how to cure the werewolfism."

"Lycanthropy," Gadget muttered as she forced herself to keep her eyes open. "The technical term for this is lycanthropy."

"Foxglove's right," Chip said, setting his now empty thimble down on the table. "I don't care what it takes, but we are going to find my brother and bring him back home."

Monterey looked at everyone before heaving a sigh. "And what if we can't?" he asked, drawing glares from the others so sharp he swore he could feel them cut his face. "Don't get me wrong, I want to find him as much as any of you, but how long can we give it? If we don't find Dale soon, we have to find a way to cure Chip before he changes too."

The others all let their gazes drop from Monterey's face one by one, silently acknowledging the truth of his words. "A week," Foxglove said in a voice that bespoke of the tears she was holding back.

"A week it is," Chip agreed, standing up. "Now let's go find that brother of mine."

As bad as the morning was for them, it was infinitely worse for the one they were looking for. Dale groaned as consciousness forced its way into his addled and weary mind, ending what had become a restful sleep. The first thing he was aware of was that his entire body hurt. "Oh man!" he yelped, trying to get comfortable on the floor of the cage without yet realizing he was in a cage. "Hey Chip, did you get the license plate of that truck?"

A beat passed before Dale heard a response, but it definitely wasn't what he was expecting. "So you are intelligent," a deep voice rumbled that could in no way be miscontrued as belonging to any of the Rescue Rangers, especially Chip. "How interesting. I'd heard stories of such, but I never really believed them. Funny coming from me."

Dale's eyes snapped open as he looked around for the source of the voice. That was when he noticed he wasn't in his bed and was in fact in a cage. The second thing he saw was that he was in a dark cave somewhere, but for some reason he could see as if it were the middle of the day. But perhaps the most shocking and troublesome was the human in a cage just below him. "Umm, were you talking to me?" Dale asked, almost not wanting to hear the answer.

The human chuckled, his eyes clearly focusing on Dale. "Never mind the fact that I'm talking to a chipmunk, but yeah, I'm talking to you."

Dale found himself sitting down on the bottom of his cage, hard. "What is going on here?" he said, a note of fear in his voice. "Where am I? And who are you?"

"Full of questions, aren't you little one? I'll answer yours as best I can, but you need to answer one of mine first. What is the last thing you remember before waking up here?"

Dale took a long moment to think about it. "I remember not feeling well last night. At least, I think it was last night. I woke up and thought about getting some air. Before I got to the door though I saw the moon and...and... and..."

"And that's the last thing you remember," the man finished for Dale. A low laugh, almost a growl, sounded from his throat. "I never expected this to be possible either. I mean yes, I'd heard of vampires turning animals in rare cases, but never this."

Despite his fear, Dale couldn't help but feel his interest quicken when he heard this guy talking about vampires. "Umm, what do you mean?" he asked cautiously.

The man sighed and sat down on his haunches, a move that seemed so natural that Dale was taken aback from it. "You may not believe this, but you have been turned into a werewolf."

"A werewolf!" Dale exclaimed, making the man wince. "But I wasn't bitten by anyone!"

A rueful smirk crossed the human's lips. "Before I explain, do you have a name?"

"Of course I have a name," Dale said in a huff. "I'm Dale. Do you have a name?"

"I am Deagul, and it's a pleasure to meet you. Now then, as for what happened to you, were you scratched by a dart or something?"

Dale's eyes widened in understanding. "You mean that crossbow thingie had werewolf saliva on it?"

"Courtesy of the mad scientist, Norton Nimnul."

"Nimnul?" Dale exploded, punching the bars of his cage in anger and seeing them bend slightly.

"Control yourself!" Deagul barked. "Do not let the beast out any more then you absolutely have to." Dale forcibly brought his anger under control, focusing on an image of Foxglove to help him. "Very good," Deagul praised. "That is not an easy task to master. You would make an excellent addition to my pack."

Dale may be a little slow-witted in some things, but never in anything supernatural. "You mean you're a werewolf?" he asked in awe. For answer, Deagul shifted into his hybrid form. "Wowie," Dale breathed. "But how did Nimnul get his hands on you? You could rip him apart easily!"

"While that may be true," Deagul allowed, "I came to him willingly to seek a cure to my condition. And he abused the trust I placed in him to create his own army of werewolves."

"But weren't you born this way?" Dale asked. "You can't be cured of what makes you you?"

Deagul stared at Dale, his jowls open in a bit of surprise. "You seem to be taking this rather well," he remarked. "And you're very well informed. A hobby of yours maybe?"

"You might say that," Dale said, letting his chest puff up slightly. "If it's out there be it a movie, comic, or cartoon, I know all about it. Chip may not think it's important or anything, but it is to me."

"That's the second time you've mentioned him. Who is Chip anyway?"

"He's my older brother, the leader of us Rescue Rangers."

"You mean the Rangers are real?" Deagul asked, standing up and looking at Dale in a measure of his own awe. "I've heard rumblings about a group of animals that actually help others when they need it."

"That's us," Dale said, sounding quite proud of himself. "There are so many tales I could tell you about the stuff we've done."

"I'll make you a deal then. You tell me your tales, and I'll tell you some of mine." Dale smiled and launched into the tale of how the Rangers came to be the team that they were.

A week passed for the balance of the Rangers without any sign of Dale being found. But by the end of the week, Chip started showing signs of his impending transformation. After he broke the front door to Headquarters off its hinges in his anger, the decision was reluctantly made to put the search for Dale on hold as they had agreed and begin their search for a cure.

"But how?" Gadget asked after they'd reached their agreement, letting her head fall forward onto the table. "In all those movies Dale's made us watch, I don't remember a werewolf ever being cured. They always kill and then get killed. And now Chip--"

Foxglove brought her fist down on the table sharply, making everyone jump. "There's got to be a way," she said, her voice and expression determined despite how tired she was. "In a couple movies I watched with Dale that you guys didn't, some werewolves were cured after killing the beginning of the bloodline. If that can cure them, then there has to be another way. We just have to research it."

"Research?" Gadget asked with a harsh laugh. "And just how can we do that? It's not like there's some rodent library we can just walk into and find what we need. It would take all of us to just read through one book in a human library because of how small we are. We'd never find anything in time!"

A pained look crossed Chip's face. "Maybe not," he said slowly. "There might be something even better right here. But if any of you ever mention that I suggested this, I'll deny it." With the others looking at him oddly, he stood up and walked into the bedroom he shared with Dale. He opened the closet and pulled out a few boxes marked "COMICS" and stacked them by the bunk bed. "Well, what are you waiting for," he asked calmly, as if this were normal. "We've got some reading to do."

The others crossed the room to where Chip waited, but Foxglove paused as she noticed a worn-out box still in the closet. "What's in that one?" she asked.

Chip glanced at it and shrugged. "Those are the ones he reads over and over," he said. "What little I've seen of them is that they're so worn out that they're hard to read. These are the ones he barely touches." Taking a deep breath, he opened the top box and pulled out some comics, handing them out before selecting one for himself and sitting down to read it, hardly believing that he was actually doing this.

As much as they tried to avoid it, frustration soon set in. "These things don't make any sense," Chip said as he set another comic aside. "I mean, there's plenty of information in here, but what's in one contradicts anything I read in another. How are we supposed to know what's real and what's not?"

"I can try and apply scientific principles to this," Gadget said, putting down her tenth comic. "There are some things that are just so outrageous that we can almost immediately discount them. We'll figure out what works by process of elimination if nothing else."

Foxglove sighed, resisting the urge to toss away another useless comic. She thumbed through the boxes that Chip had pulled out to try and find something that looked a little more promising. But it was hard to tell what each comic was really about just by the cover. She's already gone through three of them that had werewolves pictured on the front but had nothing to do with werewolves at all.

Her eyes kept being drawn to the box that Chip said were worthless. She was someone who tended to trust her instincts, and her instincts were telling her that this box was important. While no one was looking, she slipped over to the box and opened it up. What she found surprised her so much that she actually gasped. "Hey guys," she said, dropping to her knees in front of the box.

"What did you find Foxglove?" Gadget asked, leading the way to where Foxglove knelt.

"Take a look at this," Foxglvoe whispered. To everyone's shock, the entire box was organized by what the focus of the comic was. There were comics on aliens, angels, centaurs, demons, elementals, kappas, lycanthropes, medusae, and many others. The lycanthrope section looked to be the biggest next to the vampires, and Foxglove pulled the first comic in that section.

If they were surprised before, what they saw here made them speechless. As Chip had said, the comics were in pretty bad shape, but if they were unreadable, it was because of all the notes Dale had made on them. On every panel in the comic were comments such as "Unconfirmed," "Plausible," or "This is true."

"You have got to be kidding me," Chip whispered, picking up another comic and flipping through it. "You mean to tell me that Dale actually took sometihng this seriously?"

"Hey now," Foxglove started, but Chip cut her off.

"I didn't mean anything by it. But come on, Dale is always on my back for being a stickler for research and such, but here he is having done the exact same thing on his comics. Now if only he'd treat everything else like this--"

"He wouldn't be Dale," Foxglove finished for him. Chip couldn't help but smile at Foxglove's words, but he nodded just the same. "All right," she said, handing out the comics in the lycanthropy section, "Dale's our expert on this stuff, but he's not here. What we have is his notes. Let's see if we can find what is real and what isn't with his help."

Without a doubt, things would have gone much easier had Dale been there. But Dale was still imprisoned by Nimnul along with a bunch of others. In the week that had passed, Dale had learned many things about werewolves from Deagul. But he'd also learned what depths Nimnul had sunk to.

All the other werewolves that were doing his bidding were the homeless people that had been missing from the city. Men, women, even children; no one was safe from Nimnul. He'd been keeping them here, not telling them what was happening, not explaining the blackouts they suffered every month. But they were told not to listen to Deagul, that he was just a raving lunatic. And with Nimnul feeding them and keeping them warm, they were more than willing to put up with his requests.

But these people were told nothing about Dale, so they listened very attentively to all of his stories. Some of the kids constantly pestered him for more tales of his exploits with the Rescue Rangers. And to Dale's credit, he didn't embellish his parts in any of it. He was running a little low on stories though, so he was trying to make them stretch for as long as possible.

He sighed and leaned against the bars of his cage. No matter what he'd done this past week, one thing remained constant: he missed the other Rangers. Monterey, Zipper, Gadget, Chip, and Foxglove. He missed them all. He wanted nothing more than to be rescued and go home, but if they were going to do it they had to do it soon. He knew the cure for an infected werewolf, but as he told Deagul there was no "cure" for a werewolf born that way.

The problem with the cure was that it needed very specific timing. If it wasn't started soon, it wouldn't be ready before the next full moon. And the possible consequences of that were devastating. If he was around the others when the full moon rose without having the cure ready, there was every chance that he would try to rip Chip or Foxglove apart. If it weren't for the distinct lack of blood on his clothes and mouth when he'd woken up a week ago, he'd have been worried that he already had.

"You miss them, don't you?" Deagul asked, his rumbling voice breaking Dale from his thoughts.

"No duh," Dale muttered. "Isn't there someone you're missing while being locked up in here?"

Deagul's eyes grew sad in a way Dale had not yet seen. "Her name is Deana," he said softly, "and she is the reason I'm in here.

"Deana is a very beautiful woman," he continued when it became obvious that Dale wasn't going to say anything. "Her hair is as red as a living flame and her green eyes just draw you in until you're under her spell. She is also the woman I love more than life itself. I count myself as the most fortunate of men to have her return my love."

Dale stared at Deagul through the bars of his cage. "That doesn't make any sense then. If you love each other, why is she the reason you're here?"

Deagul chuckled low, a rueful almost mourning sound. "She loves me, this is true. But she is deathly afraid of wolves. Apparently she was attacked by them as a young child while camping with her family."

Dale couldn't help but wince when he heard that. "Yeah, I can see how that would cause some problems."

"I would do anything for her. That's why I sought Nimnul out. I was blinded by love. Still am, to some extent. If I ever get out of here, and she doesn't want to kill me for disappearing on her, I'll probably go to some other scientist and try again."

Dale turned around and slid down against the bars until he was sitting down. He'd heard of a few crazy things people and animals would do for love, especially since Foxglove's price for watching his movies with him was watching mushy romances with her. But this went beyond anything he'd ever heard. He knew he loved Foxglove, more than he could have ever dreamed. But he had to ask himself is his situation was like Deagul's, would he be able to give up who he was just to be with her? There was no easy answer to this question, nor was there a quick one.

While he may not have had an answer, it was his efforts from long ago that allowed his friends to find the answers they sought. "OK, are we done?" Foxglove asked, filing away the last of the old comics that she and the others had been reading for three days now.

"I believe so," Gadget said, looking up from the notepad she held and yawning. "All of Dale's notes point to the same things with no variation whatsoever. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear he actually managed to try this out on someone."

"Well we don't have anything we need here," Monterey said as he walked back into the room. "I mean, we do have a few dehydrated or otherwise poorly kept herbs, but I don't think they'd be any good for this."

Foxglove nodded, her wing tracing the top of the box idly. "You're right, these herbs all have to be fresh. But it's no worry, I know of an organic grocer that stocks most of these daily. And what he doesn't have, we can get here in the park."

Gadget checked down the list she made. "Well, everything but two," she pointed out. "This moonflower plant, the comic calls it Mariphasa lupina lumina, but Dale says that it's really Ipomoea alba, you're not going to find that in any store. And the powdered silver...well, Dale did say silver nitrate can be substituted, but I'd rather not take the chance."

"Powdered silver I can get," Foxglove said, just a touch mysteriously. "And besides, we have to brew this potion for two weeks before we can add the moonflower, and it has to be in full bloom when we add it. Monty, Zipper, and I will get everything we can. You start boiling water for the two potions. And don't forget to keep an eye on Chip; we're going to need the second potion to keep him from transforming until we can cure him."

Gadget frowned at Foxglove's added remark. "Like I'd ever forget to look after Chip," she muttered as the other three Rangers left. She waited until she heard the front door slam shut before walking to the room she shared with Foxglove. Since most of the research had been conducted in Chip and Dale's bedroom, Gadget had convinced Chip to go lie down in her bed.

She watched as Chip slept fitfully from the doorway and sighed. The change overcoming Chip was much harder than it had been on Dale, and Dale's notes had even pointed to that being the case. Dale was a free and wild spirit, so the change overcoming him was strange but fairly subtle. Chip, on the other hand, was ruled by logic and intellect. The degeneration into a more primal form was wreaking havoc on his mind, causing his temper to fray more and more easily. There were times before he could control himself that Gadget swore his eyes would go golden.

Forcing her fear away by remembering just how much she loved Chip, she entered the room on soft feet. "Chip?" she whispered, barely loud enough to hear.

Even as low as it was, Chip's senses were already heightened to the point where he heard it crystal clear. "Gadget?" he moaned, wiping some of the sweat from his face. "Is something wrong? Did something happen?"

"Nothing's wrong," she assured him, still speaking softly. "We've just finished the research and the others have gone to get the ingredients."

Chip nodded, swallowing a few times before speaking again. "So, does it look like something you can make?"

Gadget smiled nervously, something she knew he picked up on. "It's a little bit of cooking and a little bit of chemistry. Foxglove's going to help to make sure they don't come out like motor oil."

He chuckled a little, until he realized what Gadget said. "What do you mean 'they?'"

"We found another potion," Gadget answered, walking over and sitting down on the edge of the bed. "This one won't cure you, but it will stop you from transforming provided you haven't already changed. Since one ingredient in the cure has to be harvested under the full moon..."

"You need to feed me the other potion to make sure I can help you get that ingredient," he finished for her. "Sounds simple enough, so why are you worried?"

Gadget jumped and looked at Chip in surprise. She'd thought she kept the worry out of her voice enough to fool Chip, but apparently she hadn't done a good enough job. "I'm not going to lie Chip," she said, taking his hand in hers, "there's a problem with this one. It's based on monkshood, also known as wolfsbane. To normal animals, to people even, it would be as toxic as drinking bleach. But even for werewolves it will eventually prove fatal if you take it too much. Even the first time might be too much."

Chip reached up to brush away the tears at the corner of Gadget's eye with his free hand. "I know you Gadget, you've probably figured out my chances already. What are they?"

Gadget's cheek shook slightly against his hand. "Ninety-five percent chance of surviving the first dose. Take away three percent every time after that."

"Then we'll leave it for when we have to," Chip said. "Can you sit in here with me?"

Gadget shook her head reluctantly. "I have to start the potions brewing. Foxglove gave me very specific instructions on how they have to be started for the best effects."

"Looks like her time under Winifred was good for something after all," Chip joked, getting a weak chuckle from Gadget. "You go on, I'll call you if I need you for anything."

"All right," she said, standing up and bending over to kiss his forehead. "I love you Chip." Chip smiled, but then gripped the bedsheet as a tremor ran through his body. Gagdet quickly backed away as his eyes flashed golden for a moment before he was able to calm down. Seeing that he had fallen asleep again, she hurried out of the room and closed the door behind her.

"How could I have forgotten that?" she berated herself as she starting hauling the largest pots they had out of storage. It was written in Dale's notes, many times in fact, that any powerful emotion was capable to triggering an early change. Anger, lust, fear, and love were the most common culprits. And telling Chip that she loved him couldn't have helped him. And worse yet, the one who inspired those emotions were often the first ones that cursed werewolves went for. There was no doubt in her or anyone else's mind that Chip would go right for her if they couldn't cure him in time. And if this kept up, the Rescue Rangers would be nothing more than a pack of werewolves.

By the time the others had returned, Gadget had both pots filled and the water in them brought to a low simmer. Their arms were so filled with herbs that they could barely walk, but somehow they managed to keep everything separate. Gadget immediately went to work on the moonflower potion because it had to brew for two weeks, and there were only a few days to spare.

The first things she added to the simmering water, with the help of Monterey and Foxglove, were a full vial each of coconut of sandalwood oil. Next to be added were shredded rosemary and clove. "That's all we can do for now," she said, wiping her hands. "But we have to keep this going for exactly three days before we add the powdered silver. You did get it, right?"

"Of course," Foxglove said, opening a large leather pouch and showing Gadget the finely powdered silver within. "Don't ask me what I had to go through to get it. Just accept that I called in a favor, and let's leave it at that."

"OK," Gadget said. "We'll have to take turns stirring it at different times. Dale's notes are very detailed on this."

"Don't you worry Gadget luv," Monterey said. "We won't be taking any chances on this."

"I know Monty," Gadget said, pulling on special gloves she had designed just for this. "But now I have to make the other potion."

Foxglove hurried over to Gadget when she saw the mouse's hands were shaking. "Easy Gadget," she said. "We'll do this together, just like we said we would."

"I just don't know if I can do it Foxy," Gadget whispered. "I don't know if I can make something that can kill Chip."

"If we don't, then we could lose him, and the rest of us," Foxglove pointed out, keeping her voice level and calm. "Without it, he'll transform before we can get the moonflower and you know he'll attack us. We don't know if whatever stopped Dale will stop him, and do you want him to have our blood on his hands?"

Gadget steadied herself with a few deep breaths and looked up at Foxglove with her eyes full of conviction. "Let's get started then," she said, sounding more confident than she felt. "The wolfsbane has to be added first once it's sat in cedar oil for an hour. So let's get started on that while we shred the mint, parsley, and honeysuckle."

The process to make the potions was long and involved, and Gadget gained a new appreciation for just what Winifred must have went through in making her potion. Very often she thought she had added something in the wrong amount or the wrong order, but nothing happened to show that either potion had been ruined. And from Dale's notes, they would both turn neon purple just before they exploded.

Finally though, the potions were complete, or as near as they could be. The wolfsbane potion was completed well in advance of their time limit and was sitting in thirty-two small vials ready for Chip's consumption, the maximum number he could take if it were absolutely necessary. The rest of the potion had been turned over to whoever Foxglove had gotten the powdered silver from, again a secret from the rest of the Rangers.

The moonflower potion roiled and boiled under the watchful eyes of Zipper who had been left behind to make sure nothing happened to it. Even knowing that every precaution had already been taken, Gadget couldn't help that last bit of insurance. And Zipper took his job very seriously, even considering asking Queenie for her help until he realized he could do this himself.

Chip, Gadget, Monterey, and Foxglove were in a shop that specialized in exotic flowers, waiting for the white moonflower to bloom. Like most of its kind, many of the blooms opened when the sun set. But a further reading of Dale's notes warned against taking any of those blossoms as they were of uncertain potency. Only the one that bloomed exactly as the moon rose was what they needed.

Chip paced restlessly while the others waited. He knew what was coming; he could feel it in his bones. The night called to him, and he longed to answer. But the rational part of him fought against it, though he knew the battle was one he would lose. "Gadget, I need the potion now," he growled, taking off his hat and jacket and tossing them aside.

"Just hold on a little longer Chip," Gadget pleaded, pulling a vial from her pocket and hurrying over toward him. But before she reached him, a pained growl was ripped from his throat and he hunched over into the fetal position. "Monty!" she yelled.

"I got him!" Monterey said, using his weight to pin Chip down and prying open his jaw while being very careful to stay away from the chipmunk's lengthening teeth.

Gadget poured the entire contents of the vial down Chip's throat just before Chip managed to throw Monterey away. She leapt clear of Chip's swipe, but crept close again when he stilled. "Chip?" she whispered.

A moment passed by, and then another, and all that could be heard was Chip's harsh breathing. "I'm all right Gadget," he said finally. "You can let me go now Monty."

A shiver passed through everyone who heard Chip speak, Gadget most of all. Chip's voice had taken on a growling, husky quality that seemed to set every nerve of hers on fire. It made no sense to her that such a simple thing as a change in voice could affect her so greatly. But when Chip gently pushed himself free of Monterey's grasp, she felt her jaw drop open in awe and all reason flee from her mind.

Chip hadn't avoided the transformation; it had been stopped partway through. The result was that Chip now stood almost a head taller than before. Not quite as tall as Monterey Jack, but he now fairly towered over her. His body had grown lean and toned, muscles rippling with each movement. His fur still shone in shades of brown under the moonlight, but his eyes glowed the same unearthly gold that Dale's had when he'd transformed.

Chip noticed Gadget staring and a deep, rumbling laugh so unlike his own sounded from his throat. "Like what you see?" he asked, smiling so that his partially-lengthened fangs were showing.

Gadget felt her entire face blush to the roots of her hair as the others joined in on the laughter. She was about to give in and laugh herself when Chip made a strange choking sound. "What's wrong?" Gadget asked quickly, afraid that the potion had not worked after all.

Chip stared out the window at the full moon; the completely risen full moon. "We missed our chance," he muttered. "I don't know which blossom was the one that opened exactly at the moonrise."

"I've got it covered Chip," Foxglove said, gliding down next to him with an open moonflower blossom clutched in her feet. "Zipper kept an eye on the flowers while the rest of us were looking at you and he pointed me to this one."

Chip let out a sigh that sounded like a growl. "I really owe you one Zipper," he said, making the little fly blush. "Now let's get back to Headquarters; I really don't want to spend any more time in this form than I have to."

The ride back to Headquarters was both uncomfortable and rushed. In Chip's current form, he only barely fit in the front seat next to Gadget. They would have given him the back seat, but that was where they needed to keep the moonflower and Monterey Jack, who would've had an even tougher time fitting in the seat. And to make matters worse, there was only a short amount of time before the moonflower would start to die, lowering the effectiveness of the potion.

Gadget pushed the Ranger Wing as hard as she could without burning out the engines. She came close a couple times, but she managed to get everyone home safely and in plenty of time. But not wanting to take a chance, she was out of the Ranger Wing before everyone else as soon as they touched down. "Hand me the flower!" she called to Monterey as Chip jumped down silently next to her.

"Coming down Gadget luv!" Monterey said, picking up the blossom and leaning over the side of the Ranger Wing to give it to Gadget. Gadget took it from him but, unprepared for the full weight of it, started tipping over backward. She closed her eyes, expecting to fall on the tree branch hard, but instead fell against a solid, furry wall.

Gadget opened her eyes a crack and saw Chip looking down at her with an amused expression. "Want me to get that for you?" he asked, plucking the flower from her hands while ignoring the blush on her cheeks.

"T-thanks," Gadget stammered, trying her best to ignore the snickering she heard from Foxglove. "What is wrong with me?" she wondered as they ran toward where the remaining potion simmered. "I mean, I know I'm deeply attracted to Chip. I'm in love with him for goodness' sake! But he's never affected me like this before. It must have something to do with what's happening to him."

She came out of her thoughts to realize that everyone was looking for her as if waiting for something. With a start, she realized they were at the pot where the unfinished potion was brewing. "Umm, Dale said that we just have to add the moonflower," she said, pulling the notes from her pocket and studying them so that she didn't have to look at anyone just then. "If we did this right, the potion should turn purple while the whole thing glows white. If we didn't..."

"If we didn't then we try again tomorrow," Chip said firmly. He waited a moment to see if anyone else was going to step up. When they didn't, he picked the moonflower up above his head and threw it straight into the center of the pot.

One second passed, then two, then five. Nothing happened. Ten seconds. Twenty seconds. Twenty-five seconds and everyone started to feel the despair that accompanied failure. But as thirty seconds came and went, the potion began to change color. Just as Dale had predicted, the liquid in the pot turned a vivid purple while a soft white glow emanated from the pot itself.

It took a moment or three for the realization to set in, but once it did they all let out a joyful cry. "Now we have to see if it works," Monterey said, dampening the mood slightly.

Gadget hurried over and quickly filled a small syringe with the potion. She went to inject Chip with the potion but he held up a hand to stop her. "What?" she asked, a note of fear and hurt in her voice.

"I...hear something," Chip said quietly, his head cocked to one side as if listening to something only he could hear. "No, that not quite it. I can feel something, someone calling to me. Or rather to the wolf."

"Chip?" Gadget whispered, starting to tremble a little.

"It's OK Gadget," he said quickly. "It's not something I have to answer. But something tells me that whoever's calling me is behind this whole mess to begin with."

"And where he is," Foxglove said excitedly, "Dale has to be!"

Chip nodded with a toothy grin. "Gadget, fill up as many darts with the potion as you can," he said. "Because where we find Dale, so too will we find all the other werewolves. And I'll be the one to lead us there."

It was the middle of the night that found Nimnul waiting for his latest delivery of stolen goods. There were quite a few new pieces of equipment he had his eye on, but they were by no means cheap. "No matter," he thought, chuckling to himself. "I'll have more than enough money after this month's forage."

A loud chorus of baying wolves reached his ears and he smiled. But before they came into sight, he heard a distinct yelp. He didn't think anything of it at first, but when he heard two more he knew it was trouble. But it wasn't trouble that he wasn't prepared for. "Find them," he growled to a form waiting in the darkness of the cave. "Stop them!"

Gadget aimed the dart gun she'd prepared for this at another werewolf. "Fire!" she yelled when she had it in the crosshairs. Foxglove pulled the trigger while Monterey braced the gun to keep the backlash from throwing the aim off. The dart struck home, and Gadget watched as the werewolf collapsed against a tree, its form slowly shrinking and becoming less feral and more human.

"Do we have enough darts?" Chip asked, hefting up another of the darts and reloading the gun. It truly had been a brilliant idea by Gadget to rig up a hot air balloon to the dart bunch in order to allow the Ranger Wing to tow it easily.

Gadget did a quick count of the remaining werewolves, now milling around in confusion as their ranks were thinned. "It looks like we have plenty," she said, taking aim at her next target. "I just don't see Dale dow--" A loud and angry growl stopped her from continuing. A werewolf had found them and was now stalking toward them, a very small werewolf with a distinctive red nose. "I think we just found Dale," Gadget whispered, transfixed by the hate and bloodlust in the stare that Dale-wolf had focused on her.

Dale-wolf's growl grew louder as he scented the fear not only from Gadget but from Foxglove as well. His gaze swung to Foxglove, driven by some deep-seated reason to focus on her. Baring his teeth, his slow and stalking gait changed into a quick sprint. But just before he leapt at Foxglove with his jaws open, Chip slammed into him from the side, carrying him away from the others.

The violence of that impact shook everyone from their stupor and they scrambled out of the way. "Be careful Chip!" Gadget yelled.

"I'm trying!" Chip growled back, his hands planted firmly on Dale- wolf's muzzle to prevent him from latching on with his jaws. "But he's not making it easy!"

While they fought, Gadget ran to the Ranger Wing and pulled out a case holding two small syringes full of the potion. She handed one to Foxglove as the bat glided next to her. "You see your chance, take it," Gadget said, wincing as Chip was slammed hard into the ground.

Chip struggled against Dale-wolf's strength as he was pinned down. He was no match for Dale-wolf's strength, even in the form he was. But where Dale-wolf was fighting on instinct and anger, Chip still had his mind about him. He brought up his feet into his brother's stomach and shoved him off and over his head.

Dale-wolf twisted around in mid-air to land on all fours facing Chip. His clawed hands gripped the rocks below him in preparation to launch himself in another attack, but before he could leap he yelped in surprise and pain. Chip pushed himself up to see what was wrong just in time to see Foxglove get backhanded away from Dale's backside, a backside from which an empty syringe now protruded.

Dale-wolf pulled the syringe from his backside and tossed it aside. He took a step toward Chip before stumbling and falling on his side. "Dale!" Chip yelled, scrambling over toward him. To his great relief, Dale slowly began to revert back to his normal chipmunk form. "It's going to be all right Dale," he said quietly, patting him on the top of his head softly. "We're going to get you home soon."

"None are you are going home!" Nimnul yelled, leaping onto the ledge where they were hiding. He took advantage of the confusion his appearance created to snatch up Gadget's dart gun and toss it far out of reach.

"Nimnul was behind this!" Gadget realized before she had to dodge out of the way of one of his kicks.

Chip leapt at Nimnul only to be knocked aside. Anything the Rangers tried, Nimnul was able to either avoid or stop in its tracks. It was almost like he was playing with them, like they didn't even matter. "It's no good!" Chip growled, breathing hard as he was tossed away again by Nimnul. He could feel the wolf within him pulling at the chains that the wolfsbane potion put it under, but he kept it bound.

He looked around to take stock of how the others were doing. Foxglove was slumped against the rocks with a few minor tears in her wings. Gadget was limping slightly, trying to keep Nimnul away from the stash of darts that they still needed for the other werewolves while at the same time trying to stab him with one. Monterey Jack had lost his cap and his coat, but looked fine otherwise. Dale...

Chip's head whipped around from side to side. Dale was nowhere to be found, and neither was Zipper. "Dale?" he called, his voice almost like a howl. "Zipper?"

"Over here Chip!" Dale yelled from the mouth of the cave.

"What are you doing over there?" Nimnul growled, leaping toward him and landing in a full crouch.

Dale smiled, showing slowly receding fangs still in his mouth. "Just getting a little backup."

Nimnul looked a little confused at Dale's statement, but that changed to a look of fear when he heard a loud growl behind Dale. "Nimnul!" Deagul yelled, running out of the cave and launching himself at the scientist, changing into his hybrid form in mid-air.

Dale ran over to where the other Rangers were, watching the fight in surprise. "What have you done?" Chip demanded, his eyes glowing with a harsh light. "Even Nimnul doesn't deserve this!"

"And Deagul deserved being locked in a cage for three months or more?" Dale asked as what werewolves were left ringed the fighters but were not interfering, watching intently to see who would emerge the victor. "Nimnul captured Deagul so he could do all this. I think he deserves a little payback after all that, don't you?"

Ordinarily, that's exactly what would've happened. A pseudo-werewolf or even an infected werewolf could never be a match for the real thing. But Deagul was weakened from his long captivity, his muscles atrophied and his timing off. To Dale's surprise, Nimnul was able to weather Deagul's initial flurry and slowly took control of the fight.

"Deagul!" Dale yelled as the werewolf was knocked into the tree so hard that he was literally knocked into his human form.

"You should've never challenged me Deagul," Nimnul said, lifting him off the ground by the throat with one clawed hand. "I should've never kept you alive this long. Allow me to rectify that now."

Deagul clawed and scratched at Nimnul's face with his human hands, but that was about as effective as hitting him with a feather. Deagul was aware of the Rescue Rangers running over to try and help, but his vision was already going dark from lack of air. He realized he was also starting to hallucinate, because he heard the growl of another werewolf, but couldn't scent it.

"You will let him go now!" he heard just before a reddish-furred werewolf grabbed Nimnul around his neck. Unlike the weakened Deagul, she(and yes, he was confident that this werewolf was a she) was at full strength and easily pried Nimnul's grip from his throat and tossed the hapless scientist into and through a nearby tree.

Nimnul got shakily to his feet only to have this new werewolf tear into his clothing with her claws, also drawing blood from his pudgy chest. Nimnul staggered back, trying to defend himself, but was completely at the mercy of the she-wolf's rage. Slash after slash, bite after bite, he was getting so torn up that not even his enhanced stamina was able to heal the damage.

Deagul pushed himself up to his feet as he saw that his savior was about to become a murderer; she showed no signs of stopping her attack on Nimnul. "Stop!" he called hoarsely, lurching forward to grab hold of the werewolf's arm.

The werewolf paused with her claws just above Nimnul's throat, her claws poised and ready to tear out his voicebox. "Why should I?" she snarled, her green eyes glittering like jade as she looked at Deagul. "He would've killed you without a second thought."

Deagul's eyes widened as he stared into the eyes of the werewolf, eyes that were a familiar green that just seemed to draw him in. "We are above this," he whispered.

"We? How dare you presume what a werewolf would do?"

"Because Deana," he said, using what energy he had to transform into his hybrid form, "we are above this."

Deana stumbled backward away from Deagul, her hands flying to her mouth. "Deagul?" she whispered, reverting to her own human form.

Deagul nodded as he too reverted, staggering as his last reserves of energy waned. Deana caught him, propping him up against a tree. "I thought you were afraid of wolves," he murmured, trying to stay awake.

"I just told you that so you wouldn't see how wolves cozied up to me," she said, brushing a lock of wavy red hair behind her ear. "And I hid my scent with that perfume you hated. But I guess you and your cologne know all about that, huh?"

Deagul chuckled weakly. He started to say something, but what came out of his mouth was not what he had originally intended. "Look out!" he yelled.

Deana whirled around just in time to see Nimnul leap at her, claws and fangs outstretched. She began to transform, but she knew it wouldn't happen quickly enough. Before Nimnul reached her, however, he collapsed in a heap and skidded face-first to stop at her feet. "Umm, huh?" she asked, reverting back to human once more.

"And that's that," Gadget said, looking up from the dart gun's targeting sight. While Nimnul had been fighting with the werewolves, Gadget had marshalled the Rangers together and recovered the dart gun. Although it wasn't in perfect condition, it could still be loaded and fired. So when she saw her opportunity to end this, she took it. And now a fully human Nimnul lay unconscious in front of Deana.

She started to adjust the dart gun to aim at Deana next, but Dale stood in the way. "What are you doing Dale?" she asked, confused. "I have to heal them next.

"There's nothing to heal Gadget," Dale said calmly but firmly. "They were born this way. Why do you think they can change back and forth even under a full moon? You can no more cure them of being a werewolf with the potion than you could cure yourself of being a mouse."

Gadget blushed suddenly at her thoughtlessness. It hadn't even occurred to her to ask how that could be possible. But none of Dale's notes had even hinted that there were werewolves who were born such and could transform between their forms at will. "So what do we do with him?" she asked instead, gesturing to Nimnul.

"I know what I'd like to do with him," Deana growled. But when Deagul placed his hand on her shoulder, she just sighed. "I guess we can turn him over to the police."

"But won't he be able to just keep doing this?" Gadget asked. "I mean, I'm sure he's still got his own darts and samples at his lab."

"I don't think you'll have to worry about that," Deagul promised. "He won't be getting out of jail before I get my strength back, and I guarantee there won't be anything left of his lab by that time."

"At least I'll be able to destroy something," Deana muttered, drawing a sharp bark of laughter from Deagul. "What?" she demanded.

Deagul tried to stop laughing, but he couldn't. "You never were this destructive," he said as he caught his breath. "But I think I like you more like this."

Deana blushed as red as her hair for a moment. "We'd better get going," she said, hoisting Deagul up on her shoulder in a show of strength. "And I'll take those darts; we'll make sure these people all get the antidote you've prepared. Moonflower, right?" At Gadget's nod, Deana allowed herself a chuckle. "A very tough potion to make. I've known a number of humans who couldn't even get it right. You should be very proud of yourself."

"It was all Dale's notes," Foxglove insisted when Gadget found herself too shy to say anything. "Without them, none of this would have happened tonight."

Deana just shook her head in disbelief. "Wait until I tell my clan about this," she said, scooping up the bundle of darts and holding them carefully in her free hand. "The biggest threat to our secrecy in centuries brought down by a handful of rodents!"

"Not just any rodents," Deagul said as she walked off, still carrying him. "They're the Rescue Rangers."

"You mean they're not a myth?" Deana could be heard to ask as she slipped into the forest, the remaining infected werewolves following in her wake.

The Rescue Rangers just watched them go, not really able to do much else at the moment. "So I guess we should head back home?" Monterey Jack asked, picking up his cap and coat while wincing at the damage caused to them.

"Sounds like the best--YOW!" Chip yelped, jumping straight up in the air. He turned around as he landed to see an apologetic Gadget holding an empty syringe. "Was that really necessary Gadget?" he asked, his voice returning to its normal register as the potion began its work on him, holding the newly sore spot on his butt.

Gadget shrugged and looked away, not telling Chip the real reason she did what she did. Her eyes fell on a passionately kissing Dale and Foxglove, holding onto each other like they would never let go. Chip came up behind her and put his arm around her waist, giving a gentle squeeze as he brushed his lips against her cheek. "Let's go home everyone," Gadget said, putting her hand on Chip's as they walked toward the Ranger Wing.

It was nearly sunrise when the Rescue Rangers made it home. "You know it's going to be a while for me to let you live this down," Dale said through a yawn. "To think, you always called me stupid for reading my comics, yet they were what saved the day."

"It wasn't really the comics Dale," Chip argued weakly. "It was the fact that you figured out just what was real and what wasn't. We'll talk more about this later. Right now, the only thing I want to do is crawl into bed and sleep the day away.

That was just what they were all going to do, until Dale stopped in the doorway to the bedroom that he and Chip shared. "Chip..." he growled, though the sound was far less threatening now that he was no longer an infected werewolf.

"What's the matter?" Chip asked, until he saw what Dale had seen. The entire floor of their room was covered in comic books. With everything that had happened in the past couple weeks, no one had bothered to pick them up or put them away. Now all of Dale's "new" comic books looked anything but and were mixed up with all of his old ones. "Now Dale," Chip said, backing away slowly with his hands raised defensively, "let's be reasonable about this." But with the look in Dale's eyes, it was clear he was anything but reasonable.

"Get back here!" Dale yelled as Chip turned and ran. "You didn't have to touch my new ones! Those are the ones I was saving as my collection! I don't care if I don't have fangs anymore! I'm still gonna bite your butt!"

"Should we stop them?" Monterey asked as Dale chased Chip out of the Headquarters and down the tree. "Nah," he said along with Zipper, Gadget, and Foxglove. Ignoring the continued shouts and pleas coming from outside, they all walked into their bedrooms, got comfortable however they could, and all drifted off into a well-deserved slumber.