Chapter 5: The Many Faces Of Gravity

The Rescue Rangers—except for Sparky who was still busy with the electrics in the trolley—watched in horror as Gadget fell. Foxglove and Zipper took off to get a grasp of her in mid-air and slow her down. And Chip ran to the point towards which the love of his life was falling so he could catch her. "Gadget!" he cried out. "Don't be afraid, we'll do what we can to rescue you!"

But before the two flying Rangers could reach her, Fat Cat snatched her right out of the air. "Lo and behold, what do we have here?" He looked down to the Rangers on the ground. "I'd like to see how you rescue her now!" To demonstrate his power and his superior position in this confrontation, he laid one claw against Gadget's throat.

"Set her free!" Chip demanded. He was fully aware of the fact that he had nothing to threaten Fat Cat with. He just said what he wished. And he wished it not to end this way.

"Oh, I will set her free... when you've all left my place! Without the parrot, of course. So get lost, or I'll show you one of my many ways to get rid of you!"

Appalled by the feline's words, Foxglove turned around and landed next to Dale who, like his friend Chip, stood and stared up to Gadget who in turn stared down to her fellows, mostly to Chip, though. Monty, however, didn't give in that quickly. "Careful there! I've got me ways ta get rid o' you, too!" He stomped forward while Tammy and Zipper tried hard to hold him back.

Up on the trolley, no-one was there to hold LaWahini back. She was as alarmed as her new teammates including Sparky who meanwhile had realized that something bad had happened and what had happened that was so bad. "This... this... fat fur ball has my sister?" She never really felt helpless, but when she found Gadget's plunger crossbow lying where Gadget was before she fell, she knew what to do better than ever. She took the crossbow and ran along the bridge, still unseen by Fat Cat.

"Where are you going?" Sparky shouted after her as he saw her run. "Shouldn't you be down there in Fat Cat's hand?"

LaWahini stopped immediately. She took a moment to remember the lab rat's name before she replied, "Sparky, don't tell me you've still not realized that there are two of me! Well, more or less. Look down and tell me what you see!"

Sparky looked down, and LaWahini ran on to the wall. She decided she had no time for discussing the twin sisters issue with Sparky now. He'd get used to it sooner or later anyway, she thought. Her path led her along the wall on the rails on which the crane bridges ran onto another bridge which was not as far away from the first one as that one was above Fat Cat.

"I don't know who you are, tabby," she growled as she shot the plunger on the rope against the other bridge and locked the reel, "and I don't know all about your business. But threaten to do harm to my sister, and I'll do harm to you." With these words, she clung to the crossbow and jumped off the bridge, swinging down and accelerating rapidly.

At first, no-one noticed her. Gadget was too busy to try and rescue herself. "You've heard what he has said," she told Chip, close to tears. "Go out and wait for me. Everyone." But then something made her look up.

With a battle cry, LaWahini almost came flying down to Fat Cat. She adjusted her height by briefly unlocking the reel on the plunger harpoon, and before he could react or at least understand what was going on, she kicked him on the forehead right between the eyes.

It was less due to the strength of her impact than out of surprise that the feline stumbled backwards. His subconsciousness told him that having claws out would not be a wise decision in this unstable situation, so the claw was retracted from Gadget's throat. He even dropped her when he tripped over Mole who happened to stand behind him, and he had to catch his own fall. Mole's attempted apology, "Oh, I'm sorry, boss," distracted him once more, he forgot to catch himself, and his head hit the floor a bit too hard.

"Ow," he said and pointed into the air, "Snout, find out if any of these birds knows the code." Then everything went black.

LaWahini released the reel lock again, came down to the floor and pulled the plunger off the bridge with one tuck on the rope. She noticed the looks her fellows gave her.

"What?" she asked as she caught the falling plunger. "I've saved you. Especially you, sister."

"LaWahini," Gadget explained, "I must admit we've done a lot to Fat Cat since we know him. But we've never knocked him out! What if we did that to all villains?"

"Um, your, I mean, our work would be easier? I mean, why don't you do that whenever it's useful?"

"Because that's not the Rescue Rangers way! Besides, if we go a more violent way against our opponents, they go a more violent way against us, too. Think about it, LaWahini, most of our opponents are much bigger and stronger than us. We even have to deal with humans!"

The former Hawaiian mouse had to think about something different, though, because Fat Cat's goons were heading for the Rangers. And they did not look happy about what had happened.

"Wait a minute, guys," LaWahini addressed to them. "What do you think you're doing?"

"The same to you as you did to Fat Cat," Wart replied.

"Has he told you so?"

All four stopped in their tracks. "No," Mepps said after a long moment of thinking.

"And now you're leaving him behind, out cold on the hard factory floor?"

None of the four knew what to say. The Rangers, however, had a far better position. Tammy joined LaWahini and said, "You'd better get him somewhere that's warmer and more comfortable than here. He needs something soft to rest his head on. Can you imagine what he'll do when he finds out that you've abandoned him?" She could. Of all new Rangers, she knew him the best.

The four henchmen looked at their unconscious boss, at the squirrel, and back at their boss. They all came to the same conclusion, picked him up by the arms and legs, and carried him away without a single word, leaving the Rangers and the parrot behind.

"Tammy, that was great!" Chip praised what his new teammate had just done. "What gave you the idea of this trick?"

"It was no trick, Chipper. This is not the best place to lie when you're out cold."

"So you've done Fat Cat a favor?!"

"I've actually done all five of them a favor. It's been a kind of win-win situation. Well, not so much for Fat Cat, but he could have it worse."

Still holding on to the cage, Raoul had watched the whole action. And now that the trouble was over, he looked forward to being freed. "I take it you haven't just come here to take on that cat, right?"

"Of course not," Chip said. "We'll have you out of that cage in no time." He shouted up to the lab rat on the trolley, "Sparky! Let the cage down!"

An electric motor up in the trolley came to life, and the bearings of the winch groaned as the cage slowly moved down. Chip stood and watched, and as the cage hit the floor, he ordered Sparky, "Stop! Cut the power! The cage is down!" The noises from the trolley ceased.

"And what are you gonna do about the lock now?" Raoul asked curiously. "You haven't got the key."

Gadget got up from where Fat Cat had dropped her and walked to the cage. "We don't need a key. Monty, can you help me up?"

"Fer sure, lass."

Monty heaved her up onto his shoulders, enabling her to pick the lock with her tail. The parrot watched her, and he was visibly impressed. "Do you always pick locks this way?"

"Golly, no, only when I've got no tools at hand. That is, if the lock is big enough, Zipper can fly into it and pick it from inside. But this one is rather small." Gadget showed a smile as the lock snapped open. "And easy to pick."

Gadget jumped off Monty's shoulders again, and Raoul pushed the cage door aside and stepped out of his prison. Glad to be free from the feline criminal again, he stretched his wings. "Ahh, it's so good to be outta there. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against a cage, as long as it's mine."

He still felt somehow wobbly and unable to walk a straight line if requested to. Chip was worried about his well-being. "You're not able to fly all the way back yet, Raoul, are you?"

"I wouldn't wanna risk it, to be honest. I'm feeling too dizzy from being whirled about in that cage." He shook his head as if to shake off his dizziness. "Don't they know how sensitive a bird's equilibrium sense is?"

"They do know, Raoul, that's been the whole point all the time."

"I suspected that, yes. Say, how did you folks come here? Maybe you can take me back the same way."

Chip's answer was quite uncomfortable for the parrot. "Actually, we flew."

"Okayyy..." Raoul took a short break to reconsider, "can we have a little rest outside then before we fly back? I need some fresh air now."