Chapter Three
Author's notes: Am I the only person who thinks the Danger Rangers' headquarters have an extremely confusing layout? I'm going to try and make some sense of it for the story, but since I don't have all the episodes on hand to refer to, I will gladly accept any help or suggestions about it.
I do want to warn beforehand that there is a swear word in this chapter. Originally I was going back and forth on whether or not to include it, but ultimately I feel it helps the scene it's used it in.
The following morning found Sully by himself on DRHQ's first floor on the Observation Deck. There, a row of large windows ran along the length of the wall, showing off an excellent view of the rugged but beautiful landscape of South Dakota's Black Hills. Tangerine-hued sunlight gently caressed rocky hills, dense deep green conifer forests, and the asphalt roadway that wound through the countryside in the distance as the sun rose into the sky. Dressed in civilian clothes, Sully stood at one of the windows and looked out on this peaceful scene. Sometimes he'd come up here to watch the sun either rise or set. But even though from all outer appearances he seemed to be taking in the scenery, another part of his mind was elsewhere entirely.
Sully was well-aware of the fact that he had completely lost his temper the other day, and worse, over something as innocuous as a fax machine. It was kind of embarrassing really. He was well-known for his ability to keep a cool head in the tightest of spots and being a relaxed person by nature, after all. He'd offered to buy a new fax machine, but Burt had volunteered to take a look at the one he'd damaged to see if it could be repaired.
'It's being cooped up here that made me act like that.' Sully reasoned. 'That has to be it.' Deciding that a nice big breakfast would be just what the doctor ordered, he turned away from the window. Crossing over to where the elevator was, he opened the door and stepped inside. Pressing another button, he waited as the elevator took him down to the third floor where the kitchen was. When he arrived at his destination, Sully got out and made his way down the hall to the kitchen.
Other then Burt and Fallbot (and there was no telling where either of them were), everyone else was there already. Kitty, Squeaky, and Gabriele sat at the table. Squeaky was combing through the newspaper, apparently looking for something, while Kitty and Gabriele conversed between themselves. Burble stood over the stove, tending to some sausages that were frying on a hot skillet. When it came to cooking, the Rangers either took care of their own meals, each individual cooking for his or herself, or went to various eateries. But at other times, like when special occasions came up for example, they'd take turns making meals for everybody. Obviously today was Burble's turn, as he'd thrown on a black apron over his clothes and had a white chef's cap perched atop his head.
"Morning, guys." Sully cheerfully called out. "Something sure smells good in here!"
The other Rangers brightly greeted him in turn, and Burble beamed at him. "Mornin', Sully! Have a seat! I made waffles, sausage, and hash browns."
Depending on who was handling the cooking, the quality of the food could range from good to… well, somewhat edible. Thankfully Squeaky wasn't the chef today, or else just about everything probably would've had cheese in it. But Burble was a decent cook, so Sully didn't feel any trepidation as he took a chair at the table. He suddenly flinched – he must've sat too roughly, as one of the bruises on his back suddenly flared to life with pain.
"Yo, anyone know where the sports section is?" Squeaky asked. He was standing on the tabletop, beady bright eyes intently scanning its surface.
Glancing towards the center of table, Sully noticed the rest of the disassembled newspaper there and gathered it to him. He sorted through it before picking out the section in question. "Here." He handed it over to the mouse, who thanked him and started reading it. To Sully's relief, so far no one seemed interested in bringing up the fax machine incident.
It didn't take breakfast much longer to finish cooking. Once it was ready, Burble served his appreciative friends. Sully's mouth began watering as Burble set his plate down in front of him. He hadn't realized just how hungry he really was. Grabbing a knife and fork, he enthusiastically dug in.
Just then Burt came barreling in, wearing a set of powerful-looking robotic arms that he'd formally dubbed his Nab-Grabbers over his own arms, an excited expression on his face. "Hey guys, guess what? I made some modifications to my Nab-Grabbers! Now they're capable of stretching to a total length of seven feet and have even more dexterity!"
"That's great, Burt!" Burble said, genuinely enthused. He had removed his hat and apron and joined the others at the table. "Why don't you join us?" When Burt got really wound up over some invention of his, he tended to neglect other things – sometimes even things like food and rest. Granted, the turtle wasn't nearly as bad about this as he had been before when the Danger Rangers had first gotten together, but the old obsessive tendencies would resurface on occasion. Burble wasn't sure if this was one of those times or not.
Burt's green-scaled head bobbed up and down in a nod. "Sure, just let me demonstrate what the Nab-Grabbers can do now. You guys are gonna love this! Sully, would you mind helping me?"
Dismayed, Sully glanced up from his meal. "When I'm done," he tried to say, but as his mouth was full of food his words were unintelligible.
Burt assumed he was agreeing to his request. After all, Sully had always been willing to lend a hand whenever Burt wanted him to assist him with something before. "Excellent! Now, I'm going to use the Nab-Grabbers to pour a glass of orange juice and hand it to you." Extending the Nab-Grabbers forward, he used the left hand to pick up a glass sitting on the countertop, then grabbed the orange juice carton that was on the same counter with the other hand. As the other Rangers watched in interest, Burt managed to fill the glass without spilling a drop, then set the carton back down and started bringing the glass over to Sully, all without moving from his original position in front of the doorway.
'Okay, so that is kinda cool.' Sully thought. Maybe this wouldn't be another incident where something went wrong and he'd wind up in the crossfire.
Just as the orange juice was close enough for him to reach out and take, which he started to do, something happened. The glass slipped from the robotic fingers, dousing Sully with its contents and causing him to immediately jump up from his seat. Cold orange juice dripped down his dodger blue shirt and the front of his dark brown-trimmed tan shorts. "Dammit! Good going, Burt!" He snarled.
Wordless with shock, everyone stared at the sea lion, who was too preoccupied glaring angrily at Burt to even notice.
For his part, Burt was frozen in place like a deer in the headlights. Finally though, he managed to stutter out an apology. "U-u-uh, sorry Sully, I didn't mean to do that. I'll take care of it..."
"No, you've done enough damage for one morning." Sully grumbled, storming over to where the oven was to grab a dish towel off the door bar and try wiping some of the juice off. "Great, now I smell like an orange farm!"
"What's gotten into you?" Kitty hotly demanded, having recovered her voice.
"Don't act like this is the first time he's done something like this to me!" Sully snapped back at her. "Remember that safety demonstration we did at the park for those kids in St. Louis, when he pulled my shorts down?"
By now Burt looked like he wanted to draw his head down into his shell and never come out again, while Kitty was matching Sully glare for glare and the others just looked plain uncomfortable.
Before Kitty could reply, Gabriele cleared her throat for order. "Sully, why don't you go get cleaned up? I'll take care of things here."
"Gladly." Flinging the dishtowel onto the countertop with more force then was necessary, Sully stalked out of the kitchen without another glance behind him.
When he was alone in the peace and quiet of his bedroom (his bathroom more specifically) and had thought about what had just transpired in the kitchen, Sully could feel himself calming down… somewhat. Okay, so maybe he didn't have to snap at Burt the way he did. Burt was a good guy, but he did have a habit of being annoyingly pushy sometimes. And he never realized when he was acting that way either. Sully wasn't sure if that made it worse or not.
Usually, a warning look or a few words from either him or one of the other Rangers was enough to get Burt to knock it off. But when Sully had had his breakfast ruined, the park incident had risen to the forefront of his mind, and well, he'd lost it. Burt could've at least had the decency to have waited until he was finished eating before shanghaiing him into being his guinea pig. He'd felt hungry enough to eat a horse and didn't want to be interrupted. Sully had been good-natured enough to put up with it some of the time before, even during that humiliating incident in St. Louis. Sometimes it just seemed like he was a constant victim of Murphy's Law, Sully dourly reflected.
'I'll apologize later.' Sully thought, pulling his T-shirt up over his head and off. Holding the wet article of clothing away from him in one hand, he regarded it with chagrin. 'Great. I hope this doesn't stain.' It was his favorite shirt. His youngest sister Sandy had bought it for him to commemorate his graduating from college.
Sully just happened to glance over the bathroom mirror then, and did a double-take at what he saw being reflected in it. The bruises on his chest and back, which had still been an angry deep purplish-red color underneath his short, dense glaucous fur just last night, were largely faded now. If they had healed, then what about the cut on his left side? Dr. DeHart told him that he was lucky it hadn't been worse than it was; kangaroos packed a mean kick.
Frowning, Sully put his T-shirt in the sink and turned his attention to the bandage covering the deep laceration. Bracing himself, he started carefully peeling the bandage away. The fur around the wound had been shaved away so that it wouldn't stick to either it or the bandage, making removal of the bandage much easier than it otherwise would've been. Seeing what it was like beneath the bandage, Sully's mouth fell open in amazement.
The slash was almost completely healed over, and in its place was a scab. He remembered Dr. DeHart saying that rest would help with the healing process, but this quickly? She had also told him to call if he had any questions. Maybe this qualified as something to ask about. Sully thought back to when he had gotten up for the day. He still had been sore then, and if he happened to move a certain way, then his body would painfully let him know to knock it off. But now he realized there was no pain at all.
"Weird…" Sully muttered to himself. Still though… Maybe this meant that he could get back to work and get rid of his pent-up tension. After throwing the now-unneeded bandage into the trashcan, he went to get a fresh new shirt out of his clothes drawer to wear.
After the breakfast incident, things were relatively quiet around DRHQ. Sully used the time to clean his shirt and start on a book he'd wanted to read for a while, all without any interruptions. He wasn't sure if the others were avoiding him, walking on eggshells because of his outburst, or what the deal was. It was surprising that Kitty hadn't tried to confront him about it yet, but he chalked that up to Gabriele. At times she would adopt an almost motherly role among the group, coming between him and Kitty whenever a conflict arose between them to act as mediator and soothe egos and hot tempers. That had been especially true back in the "old days".
At 1:00 PM, Sully set his book, an action-thriller novel, face down on the writing desk he was sitting at. Right now he felt fine – there was no lingering anger or resentment towards Burt. He figured this was as good a time as any to pay him a visit. It occurred to Sully that the anger he had displayed previously was the same blind rage that had taken him over when the fax machine had refused to work. What was really strange about the whole thing was that he couldn't really remember anything other than Burt and being furious at him… And actually wanting to see him scared and ashamed. That wasn't like him at all.
Figuring that Burt would be in his workshop, Sully left his room and took the elevator up to the second floor. The workshop door was open, so he peered around the edge of the door frame and into the large room. Sure enough, Burt was in there, standing over a worktable as he diligently worked on his Nab-Grabbers.
"Burt?" Sully called out.
Setting his screwdriver down, Burt turned to look at him. "Sully? Wh-what are doing here?" Sully could pick up on something like wariness in his eyes and in the tone of his voice.
Feeling even more remorseful now, he approached the young inventor. "Look, I'm really sorry about what happened this morning. I didn't mind helping you out, but I wanted to finish eating first. I was trying to tell you that, but I was stuffing my face at the same time. I guess that's why people say not to talk with your mouth full." He gave a weak smile. "But I shouldn't have yelled at you like that. It was about the worst way I could've handled the situation."
"That's alright." His mood lifted, Burt beamed at Sully before his expression became one of sheepishness. "I was being pushy. I guess I was just so excited to show you guys what I'd done that I… well, tuned everything else out. I'm really sorry about your shirt."
Sully waved him off. "It's cool, I washed it."
"Still, if it turns out that it's stained, then I'll get you a new one. Uh… so would you still be willing to help me try out my inventions? If you don't, then I understand."
"Sure, anything for a friend. Just… Try not to get me involved in anything that could blow up in my face or spill on me, okay? Or pull my shorts down."
Burt chuckled. "Don't worry, I won't.
"Danger alert, danger alert!"
As SAVO raised the alarm, a flurry of activity followed. He quickly explained to the Rangers that there had been a serious highway accident in Gera, Germany. Several vehicles had crashed into one another due to foggy weather conditions there. Time was of the essence, and Kitty, Burble, Squeaky, and Burt hastily donned their standard purple, orange, and yellow uniforms before racing to the Launch Room.
The Hovercraft was already prepared and waiting, and they boarded it. Upon seeing who was there waiting for them in the pilot's chair, they stopped dead in their tracks.
Clad in his own uniform, Sully stared back at his fellow Rangers expectantly. "Come on guys. We gonna go do this or what?"
"Sully's all better, so now he can start going out on missions again." Gabriele announced as she flew in. She too was coming along for this particular mission.
"Really? That was… unusually quick." Burt thought aloud. By now, the others were aware that he and Sully had made up, which had served to relieve the tension that had hung in the air around DRHQ yesterday.
"I'll say. The last time I checked you were still covered in bruises." Kitty added, taking her place in the co-pilot's seat. The rest of the team also sat down and buckled themselves in.
Sully shrugged. "Well, what can I say? Dr. DeHart herself gave me a clean bill of health. Wanna see for yourselves that the bruises and stuff really are gone?"
"Nah. I don't wanna give you an excuse to run around shirtless." Kitty snarked.
"Welcome back, Sully!" Burble congratulated his friend, who flashed him a smile in return.
Squeaky too was grinning broadly as he settled back in his seat. "Now the gang's all here again!"
In spite of Sully's insistence that he was fine, Burt still thought that his fast recovery time seemed a little strange. Ultimately though, he decided to set the matter aside to focus on their latest mission.
By the time the Danger Rangers arrived in Gera, emergency service vehicles, a fire truck, and police cars were already gathered at the scene and were continuing to do so, their bright red and blue emergency lights flashing in the ghostly white fog. The Hovercraft carefully landed on the side of the road, and the five anthromorphs rushed out. They'd brought some of their own specialized equipment along to help with the rescue effort. Just as SAVO had reported, a mess of at least forty wrecked vehicles, including a tanker truck, were bunched together in the middle of the freeway like an ugly jigsaw puzzle. The air was heavy with the pungent odor of spilled gasoline.
The Rangers' presence was cheered by the authorities as well as the drivers and passengers who'd gotten out of their vehicles and were standing by the side of the road. One of the police officers spoke English, and it was she who came forward to give Sully and the others the run-down on the situation. Several people were trapped inside the twisted wreckage, and they weren't sure how many were still alive or not. Both the north and southbound lanes had been shutdown in order to allow emergency responders easy access to the accident scene.
The Rangers proceeded to pair off. Each two-man group would then join a group of German rescue workers. Burble and Squeaky, who, with his previous experience as a firefighter in New York City made him an integral part of the rescue, were teamed together. In fact, Sully was allowing him to take point on this particular job. Then there was Gabriele and Kitty, and finally Burt and Sully.
"Is that big truck there carrying anything explosive or hazardous?" Squeaky was asking the authorities.
"Just milk." The police chief, a reindeer, replied.
Squeaky nodded, looking around seriously at his teammates."Okay guys, so we don't need to worry about hazardous materials, but there's still the danger of car fires or even explosions, so let's go!"
Burt and Sully tackled one section of the crash scene. Burt had decided to take care of the spilled milk using a special hermetically-sealed vacuum cleaner to suck all of it up before it could affect the surrounding environment (large amounts of spilled milk could actually kill fish and ruin the water supply).
Sully meanwhile, spying a blue car that had rear-ended a pickup truck and had an elderly human man inside slumped over the steering wheel, ran over to it. "I think I just saw that guy move!"
Hearing Sully shout, Burt glanced up from his work to see what was going on. Seeing what was happening, he nearly dropped the vacuum cleaner hose.
Sully had grabbed a hold of the car door handle. With one wrench, he ripped the entire door completely from off the car. Throwing it to the side, he pulled the unconscious human out and carried him over to where two paramedics were waiting. Shutting his eyes, Burt quickly shook his head, wondering if he was imagining things. Burble was the only person on the team who could perform feats of strength like that, not Sully. But no, as he continued to watch, Sully moved onto the next vehicle and repeated the same action a second time.
Sully didn't even seem to realize what he was doing. He stopped and looked over his shoulder at Burt, one brow ridge raised. "Burt, buddy? I think that spot's clean." He pointed to the milk-free pavement at Burt's feet.
Snapping out of his bemused amazement, Burt mentally scolded himself for standing there and gawking. They had work to do. He'd have time to figure out what was up with Sully later. "Oh! Uh, yeah, of course!" He moved on to vacuum another area.
It took several hours and lots of hard work, but the Danger Rangers eventually did succeed in getting everyone free of the wreckage. They couldn't have done it without the aid of the emergency responders who worked just as hard and as diligently as the Rangers themselves had. Tragically though, twenty-three people lost their lives, and the authorities were grimly expecting more casualties. It was a sad reality in their line of work. While it was something the Rangers had managed to come to terms with since the first time they'd lost someone in spite of their best efforts, none of them had ever really become comfortable with the idea of a victim dying. They knew that the possibility was always there though. Those who had survived the accident had been taken to the nearest hospital. The Rangers requested to be updated on the situation before leaving for home.
The next afternoon, after having a well-deserved rest, Burt, Kitty, Burble, Gabriele, and Fallbot were sitting around together in the Debriefing Room idling away the day (Squeaky was sleeping in late). Gabriele was reading something on her laptop. The Spanish hummingbird then used her wingtips to rapidly type something before looking around at her friends with a big smile. "I'm very pleased to report that everyone at the hospital in Gera has made it through the night."
Cheers and happy exclamations went up. That piece of news felt like a real victory for the gang. Burt, who was playing a video game with Fallbot, was just as glad as his colleagues were, but eventually his mind wandered back to Sully and his newfound super-strength. He could come up with no logical explanation for how Sully had suddenly managed to achieve such a thing. Yes, sea lions were fairly strong animals, but not that strong. The evidence seemed to point to Manderbill's teleporter. Could it really be responsible? They knew so little about it and what effects it had on live subjects, if any. He decided to question the others about it. "Did… did you guys happen to see what Sully was doing yesterday?"
Kitty glanced up from the book she was reading. "No. Why, what happened?"
"I noticed." Burble piped up. He and squeaky were playing a board game together. "He was tearing through that wreckage like he was opening up a bag of chips! When did he get that strong?"
Kitty looked between them, wide-eyed."What?"
Burt proceeded to explain to her, Fallbot, and Gabriele about what had occurred. As they all processed this strange bit of news and theorized about how it might've happened in the first place, the subject of their conversation strolled in, a can of grape soda in hand. Everyone immediately fell silent. Sully didn't seem like he'd picked up on it though. "Hey guys, what's going on?"
"Everyone who went to the hospital made it!" Burble told Sully.
Sully's muzzle spilt into a happy grin. "Really? That's awesome!"
"Hey, Sully? About yesterday, when we were in Gera…" Burt spoke up, trying to think of a good way to phrase what he wanted to say. The situation was genuinely causing him to become concern. Seeing he had Sully's ear, he went on. "Well… Did you realize what you were doing? Tearing off car doors with your bare hands? You kept that up for a whole hour."
Sully looked surprised. "I was?" He glanced around at the others, trying to see if they were just messing with him. But the rest of the Rangers looked as serious as a heart attack. Plus, Sully seriously doubted that Burt, Kitty, and Gabriele would ever take part in pulling a prank. Typically that was Burble's thing.
"You really were! Burble and I saw you!" Burt insisted.
Taking a long swig of his soda, Sully shrugged dismissively. "So I got stronger, big deal. It was probably just an adrenaline rush. You know they say that people can get stronger in tense situations." He raised the can to his mouth again and finished off its contents before neatly pitching it into a trashcan across the room. Seeing that he'd successfully made the shot, he grinned and performed a little victory dance.
"I don't think this was just a simple adrenaline rush, Sully. You have to admit it's a little strange: the sudden bouts of aggression, the rapid healing, and now this? Maybe you should see Yvette again."
Kitty was inclined to agree with her technology-minded friend. "It couldn't hurt just in case there actually is something wrong."
Sully fixed her and Burt with a stare. His expression was one of irritation, and there was something unsettling in his eyes. "Look." He began, tone of voice hard and dangerously low. "I feel fine. Let me do what I do and just mind your own business!"
Other then Sully's rapid breathing, it was as quiet as a graveyard in the room. Realizing that everybody was staring at him like he was a total stranger, the anger fled from Sully's face. "I did it again, huh?" He asked in a small voice. "S-sorry. I don't know what came over me… "
"It's okay." Burble reassured him. "You know we're just worried about you and wanna make sure you're not sick or anything, right?"
Sully nodded feebly, still disgusted by his behavior and embarrassed for having failed to control his temper yet again. At first he hadn't believed that there was anything wrong with him that some exercise wouldn't cure, but he wasn't so sure anymore. "Yeah, sure. I'll go ahead and let the doc examine me."
"I'll see about setting up an appointment for you." Gabriele said, giving Sully a soft smile and a supportive squeeze on his shoulder before zipping off.
The next morning found Sully laying in his waterbed, just beginning to wake up. As he lay there blinking in the light, he recalled the events of the other day and was again overcome by guilt for having snapped at Burt and Kitty the way he had. He still had no idea where that all that anger had come from. He hoped today wouldn't be a repeat of all that.
Yesterday evening, out of curiosity he'd gone to the exercise room, intending to use the weight bench there to see what Burt and the others had been talking about. To his surprise, he discovered that he was able to lift as much as 800 lbs, something he could only dream of doing before. The enhanced strength thing was weird, but admittedly kind of cool too. In fact, it was the least worrisome thing out of all the symptoms (or whatever they were) he seemed to be experiencing. Heck, it'd probably do the team good to have another strong guy onboard – if it turned out to be permanent, anyways. Gabriele had managed to get him a doctor's appointment, and Dr. DeHart was supposed to be coming as soon as she could make the time. He didn't have a clue as to what was happening to him, but was hopeful that whatever it was, the doc could help him.
Hoping that the day would be a fresh start for him, Sully sat up and made to throw his bed sheets off. Almost immediately he stopped and pulled his arm back. Something felt… off. As his eyes traveled down to his arms and then his hands, he could see that something was off, to put it mildly.
His hands weren't recognizable as being his own anymore. They looked like something out of a horror movie. His fingers had grown elongated, but remained the same width as before, giving them a boney appearance. Each fingertip ended in a sharp, curved white claw, like the claws of a predatory animal.
Unaware that his breath was now coming out in shallow, harsh pants and that he had started trembling, Sully tried to get out of bed, only to trip over his own feet and fall. What happened? Usually his coordination was excellent. Propping himself up on his elbows, Sully rubbed his smarting jaw before glancing behind him to see what the matter was. He gasped sharply, further horrorstruck by what he saw.
Gone were his flippers. Instead, in their place was what could only be described as large paws, digitigrade like those of a feral canine or big cat's by the looks of it. His legs had changed to accommodate his new feet, having become longer and more muscular. Worst of all was the addition of a tail that was longer then his arm in length and tapered towards its end.
He would've believed – wanted to believe – that he was just having a very vivid nightmare, but the fall and the resulting pain made Sully realize that he was wide awake and all of this was really happening. Righting himself, Sully used the bed to support himself as he tried to stand. He succeeded in getting back on his feet, though he wobbled perilously like a newborn foal. He made a beeline for his bathroom, trying to move carefully as he was unused to walking on his toes with his ankle raised off the ground.
Sully reached the darkened bathroom without further incident. Tentatively reaching around the corner, he flipped the light switch on, terrified of what he might find staring back at him in the mirror. Thankfully, his head and facial features were still his own - mostly. The only things that had changed were the color of his eyes and his teeth. The irises of his eyes were now a yellowish-green color. While he'd always had sharp teeth due to the fact that he was a sea lion and therefore a carnivore, his canines seemed to have doubled in length. The rest of him seemed to have gained a few more pounds of muscle as well as a few inches in height, though if that was because of his distorted legs and feet or because he really had grown taller he couldn't say. The short, sleek fur that had graced his form before had now become longer and rougher-looking on the nape of his neck and on his chest, where a few strands poked out through the openings in the front of his pale blue pajama top.
Willing himself to not pass out, Sully sank to the floor, leaning forward to bury his face in his hands. He couldn't stand looking himself in the mirror any longer. 'I can't go anywhere looking like a monster!' He thought. What was he going to do? There was no way he was going to be able to rescue anyone now - everybody would be too scared to come anywhere near him. And how would his teammates react? He didn't want them to see him like this.
Terrified and feeling completely helpless, Sully pulled his knees up towards his chest and wrapped his arms around his legs, unwilling to move.
