Eventually, as the furlings searched far and wide in this new human community, they came across a part of the black trail that was really wide, on top of a stone bridge, with monsters-on-wheels speeding on it as fast as they could go. The furlings were in awe over its size.
"Look at that," Michelle exclaimed, pointing, "That's a real big trail!"
"Those wheel machines are going super fast on that," said Russell, who'd decided to start calling them that rather than monsters-on-wheels, knowing definitively that these machines were no more alive than the Flapper Wingamathing.
"A trail that big has got to lead somewhere," said Abigail, "What do you guys think? Should we follow it?"
"Well we're not getting anywhere around here," said Edgar, "All we've found so far is some kind of ice snack."
"It was a good ice snack," said Russell defensively.
"Yeah yeah, let's just follow this trail and see where it goes."
Edgar steered the Flapper Wingamathing above the overpass and they followed, passing a green sign that listed various towns and cities. At the bottom, the sign read, '"New York - 125 miles".
"What's a New York?" asked Michelle, who'd been getting very good at reading.
"For that matter, what's a mile?" Edgar asked.
"Whatever it is, there's a lot of them," said Russell.
"What are you guys talking about?" Willy asked.
"Oh, that green sign we passed, it had words on it," said Abigail.
Willy, being completely illiterate but not wanting to appear ignorant, nodded his head somewhat hesitantly, "Oh, um, words huh? I uh, I guess I understand, yeah…"
Abigail smirked, "I can tell you don't, but I won't hold it against you."
"No I do," Willy insisted, "It's like uh…you could hear the words somehow from the sign thing…"
"No silly," Abigail laughed, "It has symbols on them, and each symbol represents a sound, and when you put the symbols together they make words. Cornelius taught us about them."
"Really?" Willy let the concept sink in, "Wait, so humans know about this too?"
"I guess so," said Abigail, looking forward at the next green sign, "I wonder how Cornelius learned about them."
"He said he had a teacher a long, long time ago who taught him what he teaches us," said Michelle.
"I wonder if that teacher ever went to the land of the humans," Abigail said.
"Could be," said Edgar, "I hope we'll get to ask him."
"I think he always knew more about humans than he let on," said Abigail.
The furlings were left hoping they'd get some answers, if they ever managed to rescue their old mentor. Meanwhile the wide trail stretched on, and they followed along for hours and hours. This trail branched off too, into more narrow trails, but having found what appeared to be the main one they decided not to deviate from it. But it would be hours and hours before, as the sun began to set, they noticed tall, thin towers on the horizon, rising from the ground like trees stripped of their branches.
"Temperatures in the city are expected to be moderate with a warm front heading in tomorrow afternoo- He's the one who likes, all our pretty songs and he, likes to sing along, and he-"
"Dale!" Chip snapped, the fedora-clad chipmunk reaching back and bonking his friend Dale on the head for changing the radio station, "We were listening to the news for any possible cases."
"Aw but it was just the weather report," Dale grumbled, "I wanna listen to Nirvana."
"Too bad," Chip said in a huff, switching the radio from FM back to AM, "You can listen to your rock stations on your own time, Gadget didn't install a radio into this plane so we could goof off."
Gadget Hackwrench, a very pretty mouse with sandy-blond hair, wearing a jumpsuit and goggles, tried to drown out their usual bickering as she piloted the Ranger Wing, their airplane made from scraps of discarded litter left by humans. Also in the Ranger Wing was Monterey Jack, a large, mustached, Australian mouse, and his pet fly Zipper.
"It's been awfully quiet lately hasn't it," Gadget remarked, hoping to calm the tension as the weather report continued, Dale grumpily folding his arms and looking out over the edge of their plane.
"Fat Cat ain't been stirrin' up trouble much," said Monterey Jack, "And with Nimnul in the looney bin there just hasn't been much goin' on."
"Are we near the police station yet?" Dale asked.
"We're getting there," Gadget answered, "We'll see if anything's happened since morning."
"Ya know on slow days like this we might as well take a day off and just enjoy ourselves for once," Dale said.
"Crime doesn't take days off, so neither do we," Chip said, a line it sounded like he quoted from a detective novel.
"Yeah yeah," Dale said dismissively, staring out into the sky as the sunlight faded and twilight set in. He noticed a dark shape not too far off, coming from between two tall buildings and flapping its wings. But it didn't quite look like a bird. "Hey, what's that thing over there?"
"Hm?" Chip turned, "What is it?"
"It's a flying thing…but uh, not a bird. At least I don't think."
"Is it a bat?" Chip teased.
"I know Foxglove when I see her," Dale said irritably.
Chip and Monterey both looked out and tried to find what Dale was seeing, until Chip noticed it too, "Hey, I do see it. I thought we were the only rodents who flew planes around here. Gadget, wanna take us in closer?"
"Sure thing, Chip," she said, turning the bottle cap steering wheel.
As they got closer, they could tell that it indeed was some sort of flying contraption, being piloted by rodents like themselves.
"Is someone else tryin' ta muscle in on our turf?" Monterey asked accusingly.
In the Flapper Wingamathing, mouths were agape at the awesome architecture before them. The lights in the windows illuminated the towers. None of them had ever seen anything so alien, so majestic.
"Wh-what is this place?" Willy asked.
"I guess…humans built this place," Edgar speculated.
"How could even they do something like this?" Russell wondered, piloting the Flapper Wingamathing after Edgar had been for most of the day, "They're like…mountains."
Michelle was the first to notice they were being tailed by someone.
"What's that bird over there?" Michelle asked, pointing behind them.
Abigail turned, and noticed it too.
"It's…it's another Flapper Wingamathing!"
"What? You mean it?" Willy asked.
"Just look, there's mice in it!"
"But I thought Uncle Cornelius invented it," said Michelle.
"Maybe in Dapplewood he did," said Edgar, "What do we do now, turn it around?"
"It looks like they're gaining on us anyway," said Abigail.
"Uh oh, is that bad?" Willy asked.
"Th-there's no way to know," said Edgar nervously.
The Rangerwing, powered by propellers and three AA batteries, was much quicker than the Flapper Wingamathing. Once it came alongside the aircraft Gadget put it into hover mode. The propellers at it's wings swiveled downward, slowing the plane but keeping it airborne.
"Oi there mates!" shouted Monterey Jack, "What do ya think yer doin' way up here?"
The furlings all looked at one another. What could they say? Finally Abigail walked to the edge and cupped her hands over her mouth, "We're lost!"
"Golly, I don't think they have any adults on that plane," Gadget said.
"What do we do?" Dale asked.
"Lets have them land at the park and we'll sort all this out," said Chip.
"Alrighty," said Monterey Jack, "Zippa, fly ova and help guide 'em down."
The little green fly saluted and buzzed over toward the Flapper Wingamathing, as the furlings looked on curiously.
"Follow us!" Monterey Jack shouted, as Gadget steered the Ranger Wing around.
Zipper fluttered into the cockpit, speaking in a squeaky incomprehensible voice. Michelle smiled up at the fly.
"He's cute," she said, giggling.
The fly pointed to the direction the Ranger Wing had flown.
"I guess we follow them," said Russell, turning the Flapper Wingamathing around.
"Your friends are nice, right?" Edgar asked.
Zipper nodded.
"And they're gonna help us?" asked Abigail.
Zipper nodded again with a grin.
"That's just what we needed," Abigail smiled.
"I wonder if they know where the humans took our families." Michelle said.
"Hope we can trust these guys…" said Edgar.
The aircraft swooped downward over the bustling city below, the wheel machines crowding the black trails and honking, lights on the front of them resembling menacing eyes. Between the huge towers it was like a canyon. But eventually they emerged to a square of land that still had foliage on it, with trees and grass. Even a lake. It was comforting to the furlings to see someplace like home, and they began to understand that this must be where those rodents came from.
Not sure if the furlings would be able to make a landing on the branch in front of their treetop headquarters, Gadget landed in the grass in front of the tree. Russell circled the Flapper Wingamathing around and descended, Willy and Abigail taking the winder uppers as it made a slow landing, right beside the other plane. Zipper buzzed over to Monterey Jack and chattered in his fly language.
"The kids are lookin' for their families, ay?" he asked, "Well, good thing you tykes found us."
Gadget hopped out of the plane, and walked toward the Flapper Wingamathing, eyeing it, seeing how it was constructed.
"Did you kids build this yourselves?" she asked.
"Yes, we did," Abigail answered.
"A plane made out of just leaves and twigs, wow," Gadget circled it, "Completely organic materials."
Willy couldn't take his eyes off Gadget, the older mouse being among the most beautiful he'd ever seen, with her deep blue eyes, cute button nose and golden mane. When Abigail noticed his gaze she gave him an elbow to the ribs, making him wince and turn to her sheepishly as she glared.
"Ahem, allow us to introduce ourselves," said Chip, as Dale unbuckled himself and Gadget continued to inspect their plane, "We're the Rescue Rangers. We help anyone in need. My name's Chip, that's Dale, the big guy over there is Monterey Jack, the fly you met is named Zipper, and she's Gadget."
"Huh, Rescue Rangers?" Edgar pondered, "You guys live around here?"
"Right up in that tree," said Chip.
"Well uh, we're the furlings," said Russell, "I'm Russell, this is Edgar, that's Abigail and her friend Willy, and the youngest one is Michelle. We're from far away, in Dapplewood."
"Dapplewood?" Dale asked, "Where's that?"
"In the forest?"
"Very specific," Chip mused, before coming to the point, "So you lost your families hm?"
Abigail nodded slowly, "Dapplewood was attacked by humans. They took everyone away, and destroyed our homes. We wanted to follow them, and all we had to go on was the big black trail that they rode their monsters-on-wheels away on. So we followed the black trail in our Flapper Wingamathing, but it branched off a lot, we probably went the wrong way. We kept following it for days until we ended up…wherever this place is…"
Dale scratched his head, "Flapper Thingamawhat?"
"So basically yer lookin' fer the car that took yer families away, but ya got lost followin' the street," said Monterey Jack, interpreting Abigail's literal terminology.
"Car?" Abigail repeated questioningly, having never heard such a word.
"These guys must be real country bumpkins to not know what a car is," Dale said with a chuckle.
"But what reason would humans have for attacking your homes?" Gadget wondered.
"Don't ask us," Russell sighed.
"But you guys can help us find the humans that took our families right? Can't you?" Michelle prodded.
"Describe these humans for me," said Chip, "And did you get a look at the cars?"
"Well, two of them wore long white coats, the rest wore…kind of like overalls I guess," said Abigail, "They carried these really big, noisy things that cut through trees. They cut down the tree we were hiding in, the home of our teacher Cornelius. Then they took him, and all his stuff. All his books and notes and furniture…"
The picture that the Rescue Rangers were beginning to piece together with this information was an alarming one. Gadget wore a look of worry.
"The 'cars' were big and white," said Edgar, "They looked like boxes."
"Golly, I think scientists took your families away," said Gadget.
"What's a…scientist?" Willy asked.
"Um…well someone who studies things," Gadget said, trying to come up with a quick definition.
"They must have found those homes you were living in pretty interesting," said Chip grimly, "Humans aren't supposed to know animals are able to read and write and build things. I mean I'm sure some know, but if the wrong ones knew…"
"It could be a disaster fer all of us," said Monterey Jack.
"So, you'll help us get our families back, right?" Russell asked.
"Yes of course," Chip said, "Although I think this case has even bigger implications. It may be our biggest case in a while. Anyway, breaking into some lab and freeing the animals shouldn't be too difficult, right? As soon as we find out which lab it is…"
"That'll be the hard part," said Gadget.
"What's a lab?" Abigail asked, fearing their answer.
The rangers eyed one another, not sure how to explain it without alarming them. Gadget, being the scientist of the bunch, recognized it'd probably have to fall on her shoulders. But she tried her best to sugar-coat it, despite knowing that horrible things often happened to rodents in such places. There was no sense in upsetting them.
"It's…it's a place where scientists study things," she explained, "I even have a lab myself, but all I do is build things in it. More of a workshop I guess. But they're probably just studying your families, seeing how smart they are and such. Maybe having them run through a little maze. That's all."
"I hope they're being nice to Uncle Cornelius," Michelle said, hanging onto Abigail's arm sadly.
"Here, why don't you land your plane up in the branches of that tree," Gadget said, "Then we'll show you our headquarters, and you can sleep there for the night. If it looks too hard to steer it through the branches I'm sure I could help. It really does look like a neat little airplane and I'd like to see how it handles."
"She's using a weird word again," Michelle remarked.
"She means the Flapper Wingamathing," Abigail replied, "At least I think…"
"I'm tired of flying anyway," said Russell, yawning, "Go ahead and take the wheel if you want. It's a little crowded in here though."
"I suppose I'll be flying the Ranger Wing up?" Chip assumed.
"Yeah, but we'll do it one at a time," said Gadget, hopping into the Flapper Wingamathing and taking the wheel.
Abigail and Willy took the winder-uppers and the wings flapped. Abigail kept a keen eye on Willy, Gadget's presence making her feel defensive and jealous. Willy knew he was being watched though, and stared at the ground bashfully as he cranked the winder-uppers.
"Primitive but very effective," Gadget remarked as the aircraft lifted off, and Gadget steered it around the tree in a wide circle, "I guess you can build a plane out of just about anything with the right skills."
"My Uncle Cornelius invented it," Michelle boasted proudly, "But he only wrote the plans for it. When my friends were getting a herb for me on a cliff they took his plans and built it for real."
"Is that so," Gadget smiled, "Don't worry, we'll do everything we can to find your uncle."
Gadget did a few more laps around the tree in the Flapper Wingamathing before coming in for a landing on a wide branch. She hoped that this case wasn't going to be too big for them. But, it was the duty of the Rescue Rangers to try, regardless.
