Chapter 35: Re-Introductions

"Ugh," said Nimnul-C upon awakening. "Did Gadget just run us over again?"

Gadget's fur bristled. "Hey, that only happened one time! Why do people keep bringing that up?"

Laurel-C rubbed her head, saying nothing but carefully looking around her.

Carolyn stepped forward, hand outstretched. "You would be visitors to our fair world, yes? I'm not sure if our Laurel had any way of informing you what she had in mind. My name's Carolyn." She had her KEEN helmet on and operational, so Tammy and her friends could see this historic moment.

Laurel-C offered her hand. "Lahwhinie."

"Professor Nimnul, the one and only." He took a minute to examine himself. "Good heavens, what's happened to me?"

"You're in the bodies of your counterparts on this Earth," replied Carolyn.

"Am I...yes, I am human! Finally, I get the chance to tower over the lot of you pathetic mental midgets! Bow down before your master! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

Being in the body of Norris Nulton, Nimnul-C failed to tower over anybody.

Lahwhinie promptly hit him upside the head. "Knock it off!"

Nimnul-C collapsed. "That's funny," Lahwhinie remarked. "I didn't hit him very hard."

Dr. Russell rushed forward and removed Nimnul-C's goggles, revealing a nasty unhealed wound to his left temple. She then lifted each eyelid to peer at his pupils. "As I suspected. Nimnul here is suffering from brain damage. He needs surgery as soon as possible."

Lahwhinie looked extremely guilty at this revelation, and had to be assured that the damage was incurred months earlier.

"If that's the case, shouldn't your Nimnul have had it looked at sooner?"

"He was stubborn," explained Francine.

"And hey, shouldn't he be dead by now?"

"He was very stubborn."

"Just how stubborn was this particular Nimnul?" asked Lahwhinie incredulously.

"Laurel considered him stubborn enough to send to your world," Lou explained. "She said if any place would break him, your world would be it. Um... no disrespect meant towards your home planet."

Lahwhinie looked thoughtful for a moment. "Maybe. The shock of changing species might do it. I'll admit my world is rather unpleasant, but there's hope for the future, just one we probably won't live to see."

Francine nodded as she easily hefted Nimnul-C's unconscious body upright. "I'd love to hear all about it. It's two hours to Hartford from here unless...you don't know how to fly a helicopter by any chance, do you?"

Lahwhinie shook her head.

Lahwhinie looked at the crowd around her once again, finally stopping to address Francine. "I don't think I know you on my world. Carolyn for some reason makes me think of the Rangers' medic, Tammy. She's a good shot with a crossbow."

"I am Francine Nulton. We are currently on my estate."

Lahwhinie shook her head. "The name doesn't ring any bells."

Francine shrugged. "My ego's not so big that I care which worlds include me or not."

"On at least one of those worlds, her name was Winifred," added Carolyn.

"Nope. Still drawing a blank. Depending on what my world's version of you does, Nimnul might know her."

"I'm a businesswoman," answered Francine.

"She was a witch," answered Carolyn.

"And you, miss, are a gossip. 'Failed witch' is much more appropriate, anyway."

"There's no real economy on my world, so 'businesswoman' doesn't help. What is a witch, anyway?"

"If you don't know, then you probably don't have one," said Carolyn. "Witches break the rules of physical reality on a regular basis."

Francine shrugged. "By that definition, Nimnul was this world's witch, not I."

This only served to confuse Lahwhinie. "You can't break the rules; you can only overpower one rule with another."

"That's the way we thought our world worked as well," said Carolyn.

By this time, Bud and Lou had secured Nimnul-C to the gurney that came with the ambulance. "Shall we be going?" Francine asked Lahwhinie.

"Yes. My world needs its Nimnul more than I'm allowed to tell either him or anyone else."

As the gurney was pulled through the outside door of the bunker, Carolyn kneeled down to talk to the Rescue Rangers. "So, I suppose you could go home now, if you wished."

"Well, I think we better wait those three days to find out what will happen to Nimnul," Chip said, staring at Carolyn a bit oddly.

"Yes, and that will give me an opportunity to study this world in some detail," added Gadget.

"I was hoping you'd say that," Carolyn said with a grin. "Bear Mountain is only a few miles from here. Would you be interested in a visit, Foxglove?"

"Oh, could we? Perhaps my family is there."

Chip, after studying her face for the last minute, suddenly dashed over to Carolyn and put his head right next to her eye. "Tammy, are you in there?"

Carolyn sat up. "Great, you made her faint. Are you happy now?"

Chip looked sheepish.

"When she wakes up, you ought to thank her. We would not have been able to save you without her detective work."

"How exactly did you save us?" asked Dale.

"Ah, Storytime! Well, once upon a time there was a TV show called The Rescue Rangers..."

"We are lost," announced Bud from the passenger seat of the ambulance.

"We are not lost," countered Lou, who was driving. "I know exactly where I'm going."

"What are you two talking about?" asked Francine. "There's only one freeway between northwestern Connecticut and Hartford. It's impossible to get lost."

"In case you didn't notice, we're not on the freeway."

Since the back of the ambulance didn't have any windows, Francine carefully made her way to the cab to get a look. "Where did you find this road?"

"It's a shortcut, OK?" Lou replied.

"You and your shortcuts," muttered Bud.

"I'm going to agree with the tall human...err, the tall person," said Lahwhinie. "We are driving into the sun."

"Well, it has been half-blinding me for the last twenty minutes, but other than that, what difference does the sun make?" Lou asked. "You know what would be a good invention? Something you could pull down in a car to cover up the sun."

"Yeah!" Bud chimed in. "And also something you could put over your eyes so the sun doesn't hurt so much."

"Oh, I see what the young lady meant," said Dr. Russell, after some thought on Lahwhinie's remark. "The Earth rotates counter-clockwise, so therefore it would be in the western sky in the afternoon."

Lahwhinie looked at all of them like they were insane. Francine had to explain to her about the perpetual cloud cover of the past sixty years.

Faced with this evidence, Lou pulled over and started consulting a road map.

"To figure out where we need to go, it would help to know where we are," Bud said with a smirk.

"Don't you need to check up on the patient?" asked Lou.

Lahwhinie groaned. "Why doesn't somebody go out and ask for directions?"

"Because we're in the middle of nowhere!"

Lahwhinie opened the back door of the ambulance and hopped out. A few seconds later, she could be heard asking, "Say, friend, do you happen to know the way to Hartford, Connecticut?"

"What do I look like, the AAA?" answered a small voice with a Brooklyn accent. "Forty-Four is two miles that way. You can't miss it!"

Francine grinned inwardly at the fact that Lahwhinie's faith in Lou's directional ability was so poor that she wasn't even sure what state they were in any more. Then she wondered whom she could have found to ask so quickly and looked out the open door. She saw Lahwhinie conversing with a strange creature standing on a tree branch, and the hair on the back of her neck stood straight up. She waited until the young woman was back in the ambulance before asking, "W... what was that?"

Lahwhinie pointed over her shoulder. "Who, George? Are you telling me you've never seen a squirrel before?"

"As a matter of fact, no, I never have."

"This is a very odd world you have here, if you don't mind me saying."