Chapter VII: An Unexpected Hero

Tammy sat at Gadget's side, holding a mouse-sized stethoscope to her chest. The ragged, labored breathing that sounded in her ears did nothing to reassure her about what had happened. She took the scope off, and looked up at the rest of the Rangers.
"I just don't know what to do, guys. Nursing school never taught anything about dealing with Professor Nimnul's science."

She hurled her stethoscope against the wall.

"I'm just as useless as I was the first time I met all of you!"
"Now, now, luv," Monterey Jack said. "Nobody's useless! I don't think anybody knows how to deal with this besides Nimnul himself."
Tammy took a cold rag and bathed Gadget's forehead, which had become increasingly hot over the past several hours.

"The only thing I can tell you guys," she sighed, "is you've got to get that gun. As far as I know, it's the only thing that can save her."

Chip got up and walked out of the room. Tammy wasn't the only one who felt useless. He looked up as he heard the sound of soft footsteps. The Abbess stood nearby in the hallway, a sad look on her face.
"I just heard. How is she?"
"Not good," Chip replied. "We're not sure what's going to happen."

She walked into the infirmary, and over to the bed. Her look of sadness changed to shock.

"What manner of black magic is this?"
"Not black magic, ma'am," Tammy said. "Just really, really bad science."

"I see. You have my condolences. She gave her life for the duty of her family."

Chip was astounded.

"You mean you're just giving up on her! You're just going to just let it go at that, after she went out there and tried to save your bacon!"
"I know how you feel, Chip, but…"
"No, you do not know how I feel! You have no idea whatsoever!"
His normal exterior reserve began to crack and break down.

"No one on our team is giving up. And if you want our help at all to face whatever else is out there, then you'd better not give up either. Rescue Rangers don't desert their friends. I told you that the day you came to us, Abbess."

She nodded.

"I apologize. It was wrong of me to act so distant about this. I feel a measure of guilt myself, for bringing her into the situation. Did you get a look at the monster who…did this, to her?"
"Yes. It's her twin sister, who you found in Hawaii."
"This is grave indeed. If it is indeed Lawainie as you say, then she will attack with all her strength, if she suspects Gadget still lives."

Chip thought for a moment, and a look overtook his features that the Rangers had seen few times before. It was an expression that spelled treacherous times for someone.

"Not if I make an offer that appeals right to her ego."

He walked out, and started down the stairway.
"Chip? Lad, wait up!" Monty called. He rushed down behind his young friend. "Wot's rattlin' round in that head of yours?"

Chip turned.

"I'm going to offer her a single combat. Very similar to what would have been done in the culture she grew up in. If she wants to keep that horde of miscreants out there loyal, she won't have a choice. If I win, she gives up the aging gun and leaves. If she wins," he shrugged, "then she has the pleasure of doing in another Ranger."

"Chip, Gadget would never have let you go through with this, mate."
"I know. But I've got to do it. I can't let her die, Monty. If she does…I'm afraid I just might, too."

Monterey Jack placed fatherly hands on Chip's shoulders.
"We'll all be rootin' for you, me bucko. Go show 'em that you can't mess with the Rescue Rangers!"

Chip made his way into Great Hall with as little clamor and noise as he could make. Most of the Abbey personnel he encountered scattered when they saw the look on his face. He went straight to the end of the huge room, and saw the object he was seeking.

Reaching up, he removed Martin's sword from where Gadget had replaced it, and stole back out of the room. On the way to the main entrance, he met Tammy.

"Chipper, what can I do?"

He sighed.
"Tammy, this is something I have to do myself. There's nothing…"
He paused, and then something of the old Chip, the tactician, showed through.

"Wait…there is something. Listen, I need you to go on a very important mission for me. I will have the aging gun when you get back, so don't worry. When it runs in reverse, it needs plums for fuel. There aren't any here at the Abbey. There aren't any plum trees, either. The nearest ones, I happen to know, are about forty human miles north of here. We need some to power the gun if we're going to save Gadget."

Tammy nodded in understanding.

"I'll take the Rangerwing."

"But 'ow are you goin' to make it in time?" Monty asked, walking up. "The lass doesn't have long," he said, his voice husky with grief at what he knew might come.

Tammy reached into her pocket, and removed the spare goggles she'd gotten from Gadget's equipment. Placing them on her head, she started out the door.

"I'll make it. Just a little something I helped Gadget install on the 'Wing, but it hasn't been tested."
"The overdrive?" Chip asked.

"Bingo. Now's as good a time as any."

"But lass, all the way? The engines'll fry! The Rangerwing'll melt underneath ya!"

"Maybe. But it's the only shot she's got."

As they trotted up onto the makeshift landing pad, Tammy pulled Gadget's goggles over her eyes, and jumped into the Rangerwing's cockpit. She ran through a preflight check, and then hit a couple of switches that were marked in red. The plane's engines roared to life, and began to whine dangerously as it hovered into the air. As soon as she was a safe distance from the ground, she turned the props to the rear, and hit the red button marked 'Overdrive'. With a loud roar that shattered glass in some of the Abbey's lower windows, she was gone, a mere blur in the distance.

"All right, now it's time to hold up my end of things," Chip said. He set his fedora straight on his head, and walked to the Abbey gates. "Open them up!"

Lawainie was sitting in her tent, celebrating her triumph. Finally, she had succeeded in destroying the one thing that separated her from prominence: her sister. Lifting her glass to the group of captains that was dining with her, she exclaimed,

"Victory!"
"Hear, hear!" they all agreed, raising their glasses and thumping their fists on the table. She drained her cup, and sat back down, glowing in the praise of her underlings. Until a messenger ran in from outside, panting and out of breath.

"My lady! Come quickly!"
"Oh, what are you sputtering about, Flatnose?"

"The chipmunk is outside the gates! He is armed and demanding you come out!"
Lawainie got up from her seat. More quickly than some expected.

"Lead on."

Chip was standing at the edge of the enemy camp, the Warrior's sword slung over his back, and every inch of his posture radiating defiance. Lawainie smiled cruelly as she approached him.
"I take it my brainy sibling is no longer with us?"
"Oh, she's still here. Hanging on, just like I expected her to. But I'm here to see that she survives."

"Oh? And just how to you propose to do that?"
He drew the Sword of Martin out.

"I challenge you to a fight, that's how. One on one. No holds barred. If you win, then you've just got yourself the pleasure of finishing off another Ranger. If I win, then you hand over Nimnul's device and I save Gadget's life. And you leave this place in peace."

Expectant faces looked on as Lawainie considered Chip's offer. Would she accept the terms? Every vermin in the camp watched in fascination.

"I accept," she said, finally. "How could I not? I've always wanted to take a shot at you, for helping expose me in Hawaii."

He went into a defensive posture.

"Then let's go."

An evil leer split her face, and she let out a loud, hawk-like screech. Flipping backwards in a handspring, she grabbed a sword from a nearby rat, and vaulted back, bringing it down in a vicious chop at Chip. He was ready.

Gadget had been right, the sword did seem to have a mind of it's own. It twirled and flashed in his hands, blocking thrusts and slashes almost faster than his eyes could follow. He also added a lot of tricks of his own, reaching far back into his rough and tumble forest upbringing.

As Lawainie made for a wild swing, Chip collapsed onto his back, and hammered his feet into her midsection like a set of pistons. The breath rushed from her lungs, and she stumbled backward, bent nearly double.

"I'll…kill you for that…chipmunk!"

"Not in this century," Chip replied. His own breathing was starting to come harder and harder. While life with the Rangers kept him fit, it was nothing like this.

She came at him again, determined, and being much more precise with her attacks. Now Chip was having to really watch himself, and work to keep her blade away from him.
"You're good, Chip. I'll give you that," she said, her breathing still halting from his previous blow. "Why don't you join me?" She smiled, and Chip was amazed at how much she looked like Gadget, but yet was so different.
"I know what you're thinking," she said. "I'm all that Gadget was, and more. Golly, Chip, who knows what we could accomplish together?" she asked, mimicking her sister's voice.

This last was too much. All the emotions that had been penned up inside Chip this last night came bursting free. As Lawainie swung at him, he ducked. Picking up a handful of sand while he was down, he flung it into her eyes, bringing a scream of rage and pain. As she scrabbled around, trying to find him, Chip took the battle to her. Martin's sword clanged and clashed, hacking slivers out of the newer steel that she carried.

As her eyes cleared, she began defending herself again, but Chip was as much a master of dirty fighting as she was. Sweeping her blade to the side, he delivered a stinging, hard-fisted punch that snapped her head backward. Normally he wouldn't have dreamed of doing that to a woman, but Lawainie was no genteel lady. He'd make an exception. She aimed a karate kick at his throat, which barely missed. Chip slowly gained the upper hand, hacking, slashing, and basically attacking like a fur-encased tornado. Lawainie brought her sword up to defend herself again…but in a simple twist of fate, she stepped into a small hole. She stumbled backward, and fell flat. As Chip swung his blade downward, she brought hers up to block it. Adrenaline was driving him so hard, that when he brought Martin's sword down against hers, the newer blade snapped cleanly in half.

Lawainie felt as if someone had ripped her arm from it's socket. She started to get up, but stayed still as she felt the tickle of steel at her throat. Chip placed his foot squarely on her chest, holding her down.
"I believe…we had…a bargain," he panted.

Hatred shone like an unearthly light from her eyes.

"Gurfang," she rasped, "the gun."

The huge rat stepped out of her tent, and placed the device in Chip's outstretched hand. Lawainie looked up at him, and sneered.

"You've already beaten me. Why don't you just kill me and have done with it!"

The leader of the Rangers smiled grimly, and stepped back, releasing Lawainie from the ground.

"I'm a Rescue Ranger, Lawainie. We don't work like you do."

Wielding the sword in a defensive manner, he backed slowly toward the edge of the camp. While he didn't show it outwardly, he was doing his best to get out as soon as possible. He had beaten Lawainie, but not by much, and his body was about to rebel against all of the abuse she had dealt it.

Lawainie, meanwhile, had gotten up, and was leaning against Gurfang for support. She was beginning to catch her breath a bit, and she pointed a finger in Chip's direction.

"You know, you still won't be able to save her. There's no fuel for the reverse function. The nearest is…"
"Forty human miles away," he grinned, "I already took care of it."

Her face nearly turned purple with fury.

"None of you are getting out of there alive," she stated flatly. "Not one of you. I will personally see to it."

"You can take your best shot," Chip said. "Bigger fish than you have tried it, and we're still here."

He had backed almost completely out of the camp now, and in his peripheral vision he saw Redwall's gates opening. Without a word further, he whirled and took off at the fastest gait his exhausted body would allow.

"Blimey! The little bloke did it!" Monterey Jack bellowed, grabbing Dale up in a huge bear hug. Downstairs, all of Redwall was celebrating.

"Y'see, Abbess," Monty said, releasing Dale, "it takes more than just one Champion to oppose somebody like that. Sometimes, you got to have a determined backup. Even 'ol Martin would have agreed with that."

"Yes," Brantalis replied. "I suspect he would have. I was wrong to give up."

She looked at the frail, sleeping form that lay nearby. "Gadget deserves better than that."

"An' besides," the Australian mouse continued. "I think Martin made a mistake, anyhow."
"A mistake?"
"Too roight. Our Gadget's heart is too pure for a job like this. Oh, she's suspicious enough, like any woman, but she'd never be up to dealin' with treachery an' deceit on such a gran' scale as this all the time. It's just not in her nature."
"I suppose you are right. But then, there is usually a method to Martin's madness. Some good will come of all this. I know it will."

"Let's 'ope so."

Chip ran through the Abbey gates without a backward glance. He was met with shouts of enthusiasm and cheers of congratulation.

"Good goin', matey!" Skipper said, stepping down from one of the ramparts. "That was the best scrap I've seen in many a day!"

"Thanks, but I wasn't really looking for any kudos about it." Chip rubbed his shoulder, which was still heavily bandaged from his run-in with a spear the night before.

"Tell all your crew to watch for our plane returning. It's the final piece of my plan. I just hope it comes soon."

To Be Continued in Chapter VIII: Tammy Saves the Day