Chapter 31: A New Tiny Hero

Gadget just sat and stared with her eyes wide open. "Golly! I expected him to build another laser cannon, but none that can fly. This thing is downright amazing, even if Nimnul—wait, was that just Todd?"

"Todd!" Melissa screamed. "Come back here! You don't have to play hero for the Rangers! Or me! Or... anyone!"

But Todd didn't listen. In fact, he hardly heard Melissa shout after him. He had better things to do. With only a few leaps, despite being all out of training physically, he made it onto the Nimnul Laser Cannon 14, unseen by its inventor who was busy starting up the systems.

He opened the hatch behind the canopy which was transparent for reasons probably only Nimnul himself knew and descended into the guts of the machine. There he saw an assortment of circuit boards and the fourteen stolen gems. Several servo motors buzzed as the arrangement of gems auto-calibrated. Red light-emitting diodes lit up on a circuit board during this process and caught Todd's attention. "Can it be, did he really..."

The auto-calibration ended, tiny brakes held the frames in which the gems were mounted in position, and the entire machine began to move. LEDs lit up on another two circuit boards. "He did mark the circuits with LEDs! Thanks a lot!"

Outside, police and small animals watched as the weird contraption rose up onto two steel legs until it stood like a velociraptor looking out for prey. And prey it soon found, plenty of it. Several dozen policemen and also a few policewomen were standing behind their cars with their guns drawn and pointed at the mobile laser cannon. The Lieutenant who led the operation took his megaphone and shouted, "End of the line, Professor Nimnul! Hands up, and get out of... this... thing!"

"What about... NO!" Nimnul's determined voice sounded from a concealed speaker. As he was illuminated by several searchlights, everyone could see him stick out his tongue.

"Alright, that's it! Fire!" Upon the Lieutenant's order, the police began to shoot at the strange contraption.

Melissa was about to collapse. "Todd! Oh my... Todd is still in there!"

Todd was busy ripping two wires off of one of the many calibration motors when he heard the bullets hit the hull. Instinctively, he squeezed himself between the circuit boards as if they were solid enough to protect him from being shot, and more so than the steel panels the fuselage was made of. To his surprise, however, none of the projectiles managed to pierce the hull, in fact, they didn't even dent it. Only the still open hatch disquieted him, but he figured that shooting into the opening was almost impossible, so going up and trying to shut it would be far more dangerous than leaving it open. With these thoughts in mind, he ignored the shooting and went back to his work on the wires.

"Too-ra-loo," Monterey Jack commented on the indestructibility of Nimnul's latest creation, "that bloomin' thing is bullet-proof!"

Gadget laid a comforting arm around Melissa. "See, Todd is safe in there. Well, at least safe from the police guns."

"I hope you're right, Gadget," Melissa said. "What's he doing in that thing at all?"

"Melissa, you seem to know him well. Do you think he can figure out how such a machine works?"

"Well, maybe..."

Melissa's words were rudely interrupted by Nimnul. "Please, gentlemen. You're just wasting your precious ammunition and my precious time. Here, I'll show you how--woah, ho, ho..." While turning towards the police, the Nimnul Laser Cannon 14 stumbled slightly but notably.

"Heh," Tammy said, "looks like Nimnul' precious machine has got a malfunction."

"Or mouse-function," Gadget added with something between a grin and a smile.

Sparky replied, "Deserves him right. Wait, 'mouse-function?'"

While Gadget explained to Sparky what she meant, Todd stood inside the walking weapon, held up two wires whose other ends he had wrapped around a hot connector, and cried out triumphantly, "It works! I can control this beast!"

Sparky stared at Gadget. "You mean he..." Gadget nodded.

Without hesitating, the lab rat ran straight to the machine which had come to a halt again. "Todd! Wait! You're not gonna have all the fun for yourself!"

Allan stood aside the Rescue Rangers group and watched the showdown unfold until someone behind him said, "Talking about fun, it's my turn to have fun!" He turned around and saw his brother Francis. The next thing he experienced was Francis' fist through his face which sent him flying backwards and bumping into Monty.

The rotund Australian mouse reacted immediately. "What's up there?"

"My rotten brother's up! But not for long!"

Allan was about to charge at Francis, but Monty quickly placed himself between the two rat brothers. "Enough!" he roared. "Chip, Dale, I could need some 'elp 'here!"

"Wha..." Chip directed his attention away from the Nimnul Laser Cannon 14 which Sparky was just entering and towards what was going on behind him. "Oh, it's you again."

Francis was discontent with not being able to beat Allan up, so he called his lackeys. "Louie, Moe, take care of this!"

"Yeah," Monty said, "bring 'em on! I can easily take care o' these two blighters, too!"

Chip walked up to Monty and the rats. "Really, and I thought the quarrels between Dale and me were bad, but you guys are worse than Gadget and LaWahini used to be! What are you fighting about anyway? Allan, you helped us put Francis' long-time boss out of business, hopefully for good. Don't you think this was vengeance enough for... whatever was between the two of you?"

"Hah," Francis laughed out, "now you get what you deserve!"

"You're not a bit better, Francis! You've worked for this bald-headed crook for two decades. And for what? Adventures? Did he pay you anything back, let alone enough to justify hangin' around his prison cell? What did you really get out of all those heists you pulled off for him?"

"Uh... well..."

"I'm waiting for an answer, Francis Capone!"

"I did it because of my older brother, Rupert, also known as Rat Capone. He wanted to be a crime-lord, and I sorta wanted something similar. That human was a welcome opportunity."

"Again, what did you get out of it, other than trouble?" Chip inquired. "Nothing, right?"

After a few seconds of relative silence, Francis admitted, "Right. I spent almost half my life with two retarded goons playing evil spy and then super-thief. Just because I was blinded by the shiny style of crime Rupert was after and seemed to be able to reach. And unlike Rupert, I wasn't even my own boss. I was nothing but an underpaid henchrat of a human crook."

"And what are you gonna do now?"

Allan suggested, "What about turning good and fighting crime for a change? Your spy skills should be a great help."

"Now that's a good idea," Chip approved of the suggestion. "Capone & Capone, Detective Agency."

"What?!" The two rats crossed their arms and turned their backs on each other. "I won't work with him!" they said in unison.

Monty slapped them both on their backs. "Now that's what I call a bonzer attitude fer startin' yer careers. Welcome t' our business, mates! Right, Chipper?"

"Right, Monty! Right, Dale? Dale?"

"Chip!" Dale shouted back. "Nimnul has just cut two police cars in half!"

And indeed, most of the Rangers had been witnesses of the Nimnul Laser Cannon 14 slicing through two police cars right between the front and rear doors with almost surgical precision. A third car got its roof separated under Nimnul's crazy laughter. "And here's a top chop for the hot rodders among you!"

These acts of senseless destruction did not only appall all the Rangers. They were also sure that this was not all the cannon was able to do, and that Nimnul had made it for far bigger targets. Tammy who had gotten to know him on several past cases pointed out the obvious. "Someone's gotta stop this madman!"

"We can't do much," Gadget said. "We can only hope that Todd and Sparky will succeed in whatever they're up to."

Todd just stared at the beams of light directed, shaped, and bundled by the gems, knowing that the cannon was being used. Sparky lay on top of the fuselage between the open hatch and the canopy in which Nimnul was too busy playing with this invention to notice the lab rat he once conditioned and didn't know what to pay more attention, the glowing gems, the stunned mouse, or the destruction. Finally, he knocked onto the metal, and Todd looked up. "Sparky! You're here?"

"Yup. Thought you might some help."

"Sparky, what's he shooting at?" a shocked Todd asked. "Any... any casualties?"

"A couple of police cars so far." Sparky gave the scene another glance as the machine moved slightly to the left. "Uh-oh!"

"What's up?"

"He's gonna cut another car in half, this time length-wise."

"That's it, Sparky! Come in here, we need to stop him before the beam reaches the fuel reservoir! I'll tell you how everything works! Get yourself a pair of wires, and let's go!"

Sparky jumped down onto the large circuit board on which Todd was standing. "I don't need wires." He grasped the ends of Todd's wires, and a blue glow surrounded him. "So what's controlling the legs?"

Nimnul cackled madly. "Come to think I'm not even using a twentieth of the firepower this baby can produce." He directed the laser cannon a bit upward for a dramatical effect.

But before he put the joysticks with which he controlled most of the functions back into their center positions, the machine suddenly and unexpectedly yanked itself upward as though it wanted to shoot down a satellite.

Todd grinned. "See how it works?"

Sparky grinned back. "Now let me try!"

Nimnul brought the contraption back into a horizontal position. It then remained horizontal, but hopped up and down. Only his seat belts kept the crazy scientist from bumping against the canopy again and again.

Sparky laughed out loud. "Hey, this is fun!"

Todd answered, "Oh yes! Now let's do it together!"

The laser cannon began to dance about wildly. The police were uncertain as to what to think of the situation, other than they had never seen a technical device behave like that. The Rescue Rangers of course knew what was going on. "Go, Todd!" Melissa cried out. She opened her violin case, took her violin, and started fiddling along with the dancing machine. "Yeee-hawwww!"

"Crikey," Monty said, "what a rodeo! I don't believe Nimnul's enjoyin' it as much as we are."

Meanwhile, Nimnul held on to the joysticks which seemed to be rather useless other than for keeping him from being tossed about. "Must... be a... malfunction... in the... leg controls... but who needs legs..." He loosened the grip off of one of the sticks and operated a switch.

The sound of spinning fans and the sudden sandstorm told the bystanders what was happening. The Nimnul Laser Cannon 14 was taking off. The propellers on all four corners pushed it upward, and the wings unfolding on both sides alerted both the police and the Rangers that Nimnul was about to escape, and that he would most likely be hard to follow. As a farewell present, he aimed the laser cannon at the police car ahead again and fired it. The laser beam pierced steel, melted security glass, and mere moments after the police were able to duck and cover, ignited the fuel, and the car exploded in a fireball.

Staring at the circuit boards, Todd admitted, "Sparky, we've got a problem. We're airborne, playing with the legs is useless since they don't touch the ground anymore, something out there just exploded, and I haven't figured out how the flight controls work."

"I figured out something," Sparky replied, "namely that Nimnul installed three identical boards for the flight controls to make them fail-safe."

"Great. What now?"

Still hovering, the Nimnul Laser Cannon 14 turned to the left. Lights in the cockpit indicated to its creator that the wings were unfolded and locked. The propellers swiveled forward, and the machine accelerated forward.

"To the remaining cars," the Lieutenant commanded, "and after him!" The policepersons piled into what cars were left after the destruction, including the roofless one, and headed back to the road which, however, led back to Las Vegas and not after Nimnul. The Rangers took their advantage, jumped into their two aircraft, and flew after him. They had to pursue the mad scientist and their two friends, but the Nimnul Laser Cannon 14 flew through the night so fast that keeping up with it was out of question.

Allan and Francis looked at each other. "This leaves us here," Francis said. "Any idea what to do now, little brother?"

"From the top of my mind, I'd suggest walking back to Vegas."

"And then?"

"Then I suppose Fat Cat is still around. I don't think the Rangers would wanna deal with him when they're back."

"Well, there happen to be a few things between him and me anyway that need... being worked out. Let's go."

Already a few miles further south and up in the air, Todd peeked out of the open hatch. He saw where Las Vegas was, used his sense of orientation, and realized where Nimnul was flying. "Sparky, do you wanna know what's ahead of us?"

"Why, what is ahead of us?"

"Hoover Dam!"