Chapter 15: Melissa

The half-Asian mouse was standing on a flat stone on the edge of a pond which belonged to one of the many resort hotels. With her eyes closed, she played her violin. Nobody was there to listen, she played only for herself. The place where she stood shielded her from the noise of the passing traffic more than well enough. Her long black hair was flowing freely in the wind. Her white blouse shone in the midday sun and created a nice contrast to her hair and the long black pants she wore.

Todd pointed to the left. "That's the pond."

"An' that's the sheila, too, right?" Monty asked.

Todd took a closer look. Yes, he could see her by the small lake, only from behind and against the sunlight, but what he saw was enough to identify her. He felt a bit uneasy about Monty's flying, though. "Um, Monty... there's no need to land right behind her."

"Why not? I'm jes' savin' yer a walk." That, and something told the oldest and most experienced Ranger that Todd might have to be dragged to Melissa or at least waste a lot of time hesitating to go to her.

While still playing, Melissa noticed that the wind had grown unusually stronger and turned, all within a few seconds. Beside the sound of her violin, she thought she heard a clockwork, two electric motors, and a pair of suction cups detaching from a surface.

Todd slipped around nervously on his seat. There she was, and no way back for him. How would she react if she saw him? Maybe, he hoped, she hadn't noticed the arrival of the two aircraft behind her. One thing was sure, and that was that Monty wouldn't let him sit and stare and think forever. "C'mon, mate, go meet 'er!"

Todd had almost brought himself to getting up when Melissa turned around.

And she could barely believe what she saw. There were two strange objects mostly made of what humans had disposed of, both of which looked like they could fly. Aboard these things, there were several rodents of different species, one small bat, one housefly... and amidst this weird bunch of animals, there was someone who was familiar to her, who even was somehow special to her in a way she had never told anyone.

She couldn't suppress the smile appearing in her face. And even if she could, she wouldn't want to. As if her heart established a direct link to her mouth, she shouted out with joy, "Todd!"

She had seen him. She was smiling at him. She had called his name. Now it was his turn to take a step.

He started to move. He got up and climbed out of the strange contraption. Melissa's heart rate climbed from vivace to presto. Half a year had passed since she had seen him for the last time, much too long a timespan for her.

She didn't want to wait for him to come closer, she laid her violin into its tiny case without taking her eyes off of him, got up again, walked up to him, and before he knew for sure what was happening, she embraced him. It was a good feeling for her to hold him in her arms. Of course, it was him, and there was that long time of absence which had just ended. But apart from this, he had to support her. Her knees had gotten so wobbly that she could barely stand on her own feet. And she didn't want him to see the few tears running down her face. They were not only tears of joy, because no matter how much she felt for him, she was sure that he would never believe in her feelings or even return them.

Todd laid his hands on Melissa's back. That's what one does when being hugged, he remembered. He had gotten a lot of hugs from her when he was still in the orchestra, or at least he thought it qualified as a lot. While a part of him enjoyed the hug and all the attention and holding a cute mouse girl that close, his common sense told him it wasn't as right and real as it seemed. There was no way that someone like Melissa was interested in him. Yet it was a clever tactical move not to mention these doubts of his.

"Oh Todd, it's so wonderful that you're back!" Melissa expressed her joy. She let go of him, but only enough to leave her hands on his forearms. "Any particular reason why you're here?"

"Uh... orchestra rehearsal. 2 pm today," Todd replied a bit too briefly for Melissa's expectations. "I was sent to tell you." Then again, she could imagine who sent him and why.

"And who are these... friends of yours?" She paused halfway through what she said because she knew Todd too well to accept the thought of him making so many and so weird friends.

"Melissa, these are the Rescue Rangers, a rescuing and crime-fighting team from New York City. Do you know them?"

Knowing Todd and his sometimes strange ways, she didn't mind his first explaining who they are and then asking her if she knew them. "Remotely," she answered. Addressing the Rangers, she went on, "I've heard about you a couple of times, but we don't hear that much about what's going on outside Vegas, just a successful Rescue Aid Society case every once in a while. Say, the NIMH liberation last year, was that you or the RAS?"

"That was us," Chip said. "The RAS was involved, too, but they did only the observation part." His memories of that October night were still strong. Learning about Gadget's past in words soaked with tears, meeting her father Geegaw who had been proclaimed dead for two decades, almost ending as a guard dog's midnight snack like back when the Rangers were founded, freeing Gadget's mother and 70 more lab mice, and almost kissing Gadget twice, all this was still alive in his memory as if it had happened just a week ago.

"And what are you doing here now?" Melissa wanted to know. "Another case going on?"

Under no circumstances was she to find out about the case. "No," Chip lied, "we're on vacation. But, heh, you never know when you'll stumble upon your next case. All this glamor and glitter attracts a lot of criminals."

"I see. But how come you know Todd?"

"Well," Todd took over before Chip was able to respond, "I'm a fan of them. There, now you know it. I'm meeting other fans on the Internet regularly. So today I was taking a walk through town, I had nothing to do since I left the orchestra, and there they were."

"Wait. You wanna make me believe you met them, and they took you with them in their... airplane... things?"

"Yes... No..."

"He helped us," Gadget gave a rough explanation, "and now we're helping him back."

"We flew him to his place to get his stuff," LaWahini added, "and we brought him here to ask you something. Right, Tammy?" She reached out behind Sparky's back and poked the squirrel.

Todd realized what the Rangers or at least some of them were up to. He couldn't hide his unease, Melissa didn't even try to hide her affection, played or real, and the Rangers were trained in observation. "Yeah," Tammy said, "you know, we're getting a bit hungry..."

Todd looked at the Rangers one by one and back to the half-Japanese mouse girl smiling at him. 'Why do they do that to me? Is that their way of showing their thankfulness for me helping them on their case, having me make a fool out of myself?' "Alright. Melissa," he spoke although he knew the answer, "would you like to have lunch with us?"

"Why, yes, of course, Todd!" She was fully aware of the fact that Todd was more or less forced to ask her, but nevertheless, he did ask her. She had waited for him to invite her for almost as long as she knew him. "Where are we going?"

This was something nobody was prepared for. Todd hadn't thought of a place to dine, Melissa hadn't expected having lunch at a restaurant, besides, she was the invitee, and the Rangers were foreigners with little to no knowledge about the city's rodent facilities.

"No idea, Todd?" Chip asked with an eye on the watch built into the Rangerwing's dashboard.

"I'd say, give me some time to make up my mind, but I guess we haven't got that much time left. Maybe we should fly along the Strip, there are a lot of rodent restaurants around the Strip, and then decide spontaneously."

"Yes, I think that's the best solution," Chip said. "Now all we need is a seat for Melissa in one of our aircraft."

Foxglove stood up. "Here, Melissa," she called out, "you can sit on the Rangerplane's backseat with us. Oh, Dale cutie, you can sit in the front with Monty if you want, so Todd can come here, too."

Dale looked. "Do I wanna?"

"Yes, you do," Foxglove said in a tone between sweet and firm. "Wouldn't you love to see Las Vegas from the front row?"

"Wowie-zowie!" Dale jumped up and straight onto the passenger's seat. "The front row's the best place for the exciting stuff!" Foxglove knew why it was usually her who chose a movie when she went out with Dale. For when he found it boring, he paid more attention to her than to the screen, and he didn't mind sitting in a row farther back with her. Besides, she still hadn't gotten used to his movie taste and understood what was so horrible about bats. As Dale was sitting in front of her, she ruffled through the tuft of hair on his head with one wing before she motioned the two Las Vegas mice to come aboard.

Melissa closed the case in which her violin was lying, picked it up, and went ahead. Todd went after her and wondered why she stopped instead of climbing into the bleach bottle plane.

She smiled at him. "Todd, would you help me, please?"

"C'mon, Melissa, that's not too high for you, or is it?"

This did not remain unnoticed by Monty who hadn't left the pilot's seat. "Now be a gentleman, Todd, an' lend the lady a 'elpin' 'and, no matter if she needs it or not."

Melissa figured it was in fact Todd who needed help. She took his right hand, lifted it up to eye level, and said, "Hold it up right here, no matter what I do." So he did, and she secured herself by holding it until she stood on the wing. She then removed her hand and sat down in the middle of the backseat.

She smiled and patted the place to her left. "Come here, Todd. Come sit with me."

He hesitated, but didn't want to delay the orchestra rehearsals or reduce his lunch with the Rescue Rangers to fast food, and joined her on the plane.

"Everyone seated?" Monty asked his passengers.

"Everyone seated," Foxglove approved.

Zipper, sitting on Monty's shoulder like a pirate's pet parrot, gave the take-off command. Monty unlocked the clockwork drive, and seconds later, the Rangerplane was airborne. He steered it to Todd's PDA and let the suction cups connect to it until he commenced the climb up to the airspace above the legendary Las Vegas Strip with its endless row of hotels and casinos. The Rangerwing followed as Chip had decided to leave the recommendations and maybe also the choice up to the locals, both of who were seated on the Rangerplane.