Author's Disclaimer: All characters, locations, events and situations in this story that are borrowed from the Kim Possible TV series are the property of the Disney company. All aircraft mentioned in this story are the creations of their designers. The plot and other characters are the product of my brain and thus are my responsibility.
Airplanes, Spandules and Widgets, Oh, My! - Part Seven
It was scarcely a minute after the Kimunicator had beeped before Kim, Ron and Rufus were out the gift shop door. They silently moved from shadow to shadow toward Hangar Number Six with a level of stealth that any Japanese ninja, American Navy Seal or British S.A.S. trooper would have admired. As they came near the small door on the side of the building they could see it was slightly ajar . . . just as they had expected.
Team Possible slipped into the hangar and immediately noticed several dim spots of light just above the upper wing of the big 'Duck' amphibian plane. There were some faint noises coming from the plane, as if someone was using tools on the metal of the structure, and a dark shape was moving around in the cockpit. The spots of light all blinked twice, and then went out. A sighing sound, like a passing breeze, drifted through the hangar, and then a strange chant began.
"Wipple Scrumpet in the sky,
Wipple Scrumpet in the sky,
Pilots all were born to fly
Higher than the highest high!"
It sounded as if dozens of mole rats were chanting — in English! — all around the hangar. The dark shape straightened up and the metallic noises stopped, but the chanting went on.
"We don't like this thing you do,
We don't like this thing you do,
Your ears and fingers we will chew
So that we will be rid of you!"
The hangar lights came on, and gremlins — dozens of them — came leaping down from the upper wing of the 'Duck' and from the roof beams of the hangar. Others swarmed up the sides of the plane and jumped on the black-clad figure, and every gremlin was chittering and squeaking like a rat. With a wild yell the figure leaped out of the cockpit, but as soon as his feet touched the hangar floor they shot out from under him. He landed face down, skidded across the floor and stopped at Ron and Kim's feet.
The gremlins came pouring out of the 'Duck' and across the floor to scramble over the intruder, while Rufus leaped from Ron's outstretched hand to land on the back of the figure's neck. He dove into the pouch that hung from the saboteur's belt, and a moment later leaped out again with a small, round object in his paws. He skittered across the floor to Ron, who scooped his pet up and put Rufus on his shoulder. The mob of gremlins that had swarmed over the intruder were tugging, pulling and pinching the figure wherever they could get a grip. Kim saw that there were Widgets, Fifinellas, Gremlins and a couple of Spandules all over the intruder like a rug . . . and whoever it was seemed to be totally terrified.
"Gettemoff!Gettemoff!Gettemoff!" the intruder bawled in a panic-stricken voice. He jumped to his feet, dripping gremlins, as Kim stepped forward and took a Kung-Fu pose.
Seeing Kim the intruder snarled, dipped a hand into his belt pouch and pulled out . . . Gus the gremlin! He stared at what he held, while Gus put his thumbs to his ears, stuck out his tongue and made a spluttering noise. The masked saboteur gave a yell and dropped Gus, whereupon Kim moved in to demonstrate several varieties of Kung-Fu to the intruder.
It was no contest. Kim grabbed the intruder's right arm and flipped him over in a hip-throw. As he staggered to his feet she gave him a flying kick that sent him sprawling across the floor until his head hit the 'Duck's' tailwheel. As he shakily got to his knees Kim deftly Judo-chopped his neck and the black-clad figure went limp. Then she pulled out some police restraints and neatly bound his hands together behind his back and his ankles together as well.
"Nice job, everyone!" Kim remarked. The gremlins gave a cheer while Rufus chirped, "We bad!"
Everyone remained silent as Kim called Walt Herschel, and then Flo Lowe, on the Kimunicator's cel-phone circuit. After she explained that the saboteur had been caught, both Walt and Flo replied that they would alert the county sheriff and be right over. Kim replied, "No hurry — this one's not going anywhere for a while."
After shutting off the Kimunicator Kim turned to the crowd of gremlins, to find Gus and Winston standing at the front.
"That was perfect, fellows," Kim enthused. "That chanting was great! It really spooked him, whoever he is."
"It worked just as you said it would, Miss Possible," Winston observed. "This villain was expecting Big Folks to interrupt his activities, but he wasn't prepared for a mass attack by Gremlins."
Kim knelt and spoke to gremlin Gus. "That business of giving him a raspberry was perfect! You weren't hurt when he dropped you, I hope?"
"Not a bit, Miss Possible," Gus replied. "We're all very used to falling and landing safely."
"As a distraction, KP, I'd say that rates a 'Boo-Yah!,'" said Ron.
"It sure does. This guy was so upset about the chant and being swarmed over I don't think he even knew you and I were here, Ron."
"Did anybody really bite him?"
Ron's question received a general "E-e-e-e-w-w-w-w!" sound from every gremlin present. The fifinella's all held their noses, and Meg exclaimed, "Certainly not!"
"We just pulled at the clothes and mask," Gus explained.
"Having a lot of little creatures climb all over you when you don't expect it seems to bother Big Folks," Meg remarked. "We've used that trick once or twice before."
"Oh," said Ron. "Say, what did he slip on, anyway?"
To answer that question, Winston waved back at the 'Duck.' On the floor around the amphibian plane were several dozen acorns, just where someone would step when getting out of the cockpit.
"As soon as we spotted him at the door we signaled you, Miss Possible," Winston explained. "Everyone had an acorn to carry, and by the time he was inside and had climbed into the cockpit we were bringing them in to spread around where he'd slip on them."
"Some of the lads were ready with old control cables to trip him at the door if he ran for it before you were here — just as we had planned." As he spoke, Gus walked up to the comatose criminal's head. "But I'd really like to know why he was doing all this damage," the gremlin added.
"Maybe we'll find out once Mr. Herschel and Flo get here," Kim remarked.
Just then the black-clad intruder gave a groan.
"All right, everybody," Kim said in her 'Mission Mode' voice. "We've finished Phase One and Phase Two. Now it's time for Phase Three!" Rufus rubbed his front paws together in anticipation, while all the fifinellas giggled. A minute later the intruder woke and saw Rufus and a horde of gremlins standing around him. He jerked against the restraints and gave a yelp of surprise.
"Okay, dude, just keep quiet 'till the police get here," said Ron, as he and Kim walked into the intruder's field of view. "You've been enough trouble already."
"You ruined our sleep two nights in a row," Kim remarked. "Maybe we can get some peace, now."
"Get these little things away from me!" It was a man's voice, Kim noted.
"Don't worry, Rufus won't bite," Ron drawled, as he reached down and picked up his pet.
"Not that pink thing! All these other things — these little people — what are they?" His voice sounded panicky. Just what we want, thought Kim.
"Uh, Kim, do you see anybody else in here besides us?" Ron's voice was clearly that of a puzzled person who saw nothing strange in the area.
"Nope. He must have hit his head when he fell down," she replied. "Remember that time you clunked your head on the goalpost at the end of that runback in the football game?"
"Oh, yeah. I thought I saw little Everlot sprites that looked like you flying around my head."
"You've got to see them! They're all over the place — gettemoff!" His voice shot up as Gus and several other gremlins scrambled up and over his back.
"Oh, be quiet!" Kim snapped. "I've fought real villains before; people who were trying to take over the world . . . even aliens from space! You're just a vandal who damages old airplanes." She looked up. "Anyway, I think I hear Mr. Herschel and Flo coming."
The sound of automobiles pulling up outside the hangar caused Ron, Kim and the intruder to glance toward the small door. When Kim looked back she saw that all of the gremlins had done a fast fade-out and were nowhere to be seen. The side door swung wide and Flo Lowe, Tom Murdoch and Walter Herschel came in.
"Did he damage the 'Duck?'" Tom asked, hurrying over to the big amphibian with scarcely a glance at the bound-up intruder. He climbed into the cockpit and began inspecting the plane's interior with a flashlight.
"So, this is the cause of our problems, is it?" Flo knelt down and got a grip on the black hood / facemask. "Let's see what he looks like." She peeled the covering away to reveal the bland, pale face of a man in his 30's, with brown hair.
"Well, fan me with a bowl of crankcase oil! It's Jake Jameson!" said Walter. "He rented an old farmhouse about ten miles to the east of here last spring," he added to Kim and Ron. "I've seen him around the field on airshow days a few times."
"KP, isn't this the one who was trying to go out on the field the day we got here?" Ron asked.
Kim nodded. "That's right. Do you suppose he's really that Mr. Hamilton?" she added to Walt.
"No," Walt answered, "Hamilton is at least fifty, and built like a tank. This one's younger, and a lot thinner."
"All right, you groundhog!" Tom shouted, as he jumped down from the 'Duck.' "Explain yourself! Why have you been damaging our planes?"
"When a masked villain is caught he's supposed to tell everybody why he's been villainous," Kim remarked.
"That's right, KP. It's a tradition," Ron added to Jameson. Somewhat to everyone's surprise, Mr. Jameson proceeded to 'tell all.'
"You idiots went and built your runway right where it was buried! I've searched for it for years, and then I find your stupid airfield right where it was hidden!"
Rufus gave a puzzled chirp, while Kim and Ron exchanged bewildered looks.
"Sounds like he's looking for buried treasure," Kim remarked. Turning to Flo Lowe she added, "Were there ever pirates on the Ohio River?"
"Some, about two hundred years ago," Flo answered. "But river pirates weren't the treasure-burying sort."
"You don't know. I'm the only one who knows about it, so I should have it!" Jameson raged. "It was hidden when Morgan's men came through here in 1863 and forgotten! But I found out about it, and I'm going to get it!"
Walter suddenly snapped his fingers. "I'll bet he's talking about that box we found when we had the runway leveled!"
"What box is that?" Kim asked.
Walt explained that when the airfield was first built, ten years earlier, a small hill with an old tree stump on the top had stood right where the middle of the runway was going to be. It had been dug away and used to fill in some low spots around the area, and a small chest had been found buried in the hill beneath the tree stump roots. When he heard this, Jameson yelled and gave a series of jerks, trying to break the restraints.
"It's mine, you can't have it! I'd have got it if all those little weird things hadn't stopped me!"
"Hey, don't call Rufus weird!" Ron snapped. "He's really a sensitive little guy."
"Yes," Kim remarked, "you don't want him to get mad at you."
Rufus bared his teeth, gave a scowl and made a growl to back up Kim's comment.
Jameson sneered. "You know what I mean! All those little things that looked like tiny people, only three inches high. There must have been a thousand of them in here," he added to Tom and Walter. Flo shook her head and made a 'tsk-tsk' sound.
"Sounds to me like his gyros have tumbled. Did he hit his head when you caught him?" she added to Kim.
"You fools!" Jameson screamed. "They were all over the place! Hundreds of little people! I saw them! They were here!"
Just then the side door opened again and two men in police-type uniforms walked in.
"Hello, Walt; what have you got for us?" said the first man.
"Kim Possible and her partner caught this character trying to sabotage the 'Duck.' And we're fairly certain he's been sneaking onto the field and damaging the planes a lot, in the past six weeks," Walter explained.
"No! No! It was all those little guys — they crawled all over me and tripped me!"
The Sheriff looked at Walter, and then at Flo, who made a spinning motion at the side of her head with one finger. The Sheriff nodded knowingly, and looked down at the black-clad form of Jameson. "Don't you worry, fella, we'll put you in a nice, safe cell and none of those 'little guys' will bother you. Come on, Fred, let's get him in the car."
"You want us to come to your office in the morning to file a complaint?" asked Flo. "We've got the flying day displays tomorrow, you know."
"No, I'll come around with the laptop and we can fill in the details here," said the Sheriff, as he and Fred carried the struggling saboteur to the door. "And, thank you, Miss Possible, for your assistance."
"It's no big," Kim replied. Then she held out the item Rufus had lifted from Jameson's belt pouch. "You'd better take this, officer. I think it's some kind of smoke-screen maker. We caught him before he could use it."
"Thanks again." The sheriff examined the object, then took a plastic evidence bag from his pocket and put the item in it. "One of my deputies was in Army Ordnance before he joined the force, and knows a lot about EOD. I'll have him take care of it." He turned back to Fred and helped his deputy get the struggling, protesting Jameson out of the hangar and into the Sheriff's car.
Once Jameson had been secured in the back seat, the Sheriff and his deputy drove off into the night. Tom Murdoch had examined the insides of the 'Duck' carefully and reported that only superficial damage had been done. "But Albert and I will go over it to be certain it's all right."
"Well, that can wait until morning," Walter commented. "We better all get some sleep in what's left of the night; tomorrow is going to be busy."
[End of Part Seven]
By way of explanation: The first verse of the gremlin's chant ("Whipple scrumpet in the sky . . .") is from the book The Gremlins; A Royal Air Force Story, by Flight Lieutenant Roald Dahl, RAF. The second verse ("We don't like this thing you do . . . ") is my own creation.
EOD stands for Explosive Ordnance Disposal, and is the highly skilled and dangerous are of dealing with unexploded bombs, grenades and shells.
