Part 2 - Gadget's Most Excellent Inter-dimensional Ambuscade

"She's found us! Del, Foxglove!" Chip called out.

Del responded. "On it! This is a job for Bat Mask and Elasticate!"

Foxglove tapped his staff to the floor and their costumes changed, Del was suddenly dressed in a fur tight orange leotard, while Foxglove had a top hat, white domino mask and tuxedo top.

Foxglove waved his staff, "Winds of Walley, aid us!" A wind blew up from behind him, pushing back the spreading gas, but more cannisters were dropping in. Del stretched like a trampoline and intercepted a couple, rebounding them back through their entrance holes. But they were just slowing the inevitable.

The others were moving, but hadn't acted yet.

Gadget grabbed Chip suddenly, pulling her close by an arm before she could get too far away.

"We need to lose this," she whispered quickly. "Get the word to the others."

With that, in a flash she had vanished, darting into the darker corners of the underground lab. Quickly, she began grabbing parts - a bundle of wiring here, a pen flashlight there - disassembling and re-assembling as she went. A device was forming in her rapidly working hands, moments after she frantically formed the final blueprint in her mind, drawing from her own partially completed research, recalling every minute detail from one briefly glimpsed design she'd seen on the other Gadget's computer - only half-complete.

Gadget hoped that between the two of her, they could make this work.

Chip followed her for a few steps. "You have a plan? Okay, but we can only hold them for a few minutes, Nimnul'll be sending reinforcements. I'm guessing the only reason she hasn't used her big guns is that this time she wants bodies. We'll hold as long as possible, then I'll lead a fighting retreat to the tail, with the modemisers, the Rangerplane and a couple of Hover Mice are there."

The blonde chipmunk turned back to lead the fight, before Gadget could say anything. Maddy had jumped up onto the magno ray and had used it to bring down a desk fan, which she used to add to Foxglove's magic wind.

As the section of canopy fell inwards and a mecha-cat sprang forward, Tommy ripped the cover off an airline meal packet and ran forward, releasing the thing to slide forward to where it would land. He'd judged well, and one forepaw landed in the beef casserole. The robot slipped, landing on the package which splashed, causing it to stumble as it tried to recover it's feet.

As it finally did so, it extruded a gun muzzle from it's jaws, sweeping the area with red glowing eyes. It chose Maddy as it's target lining up... then slumped, the red light dimming and flicking off. Speedie flew out of one ear, carrying a pair of mouse scale wire cutters, which to her were like a pair of garden shears.

Chip bounded up on all fours and sprang, landing on the head of the disabled robot. As a second one stomped through the hole, she let fly with a couple of bottle cap shuriken, but these had something inside them.

They hit the new mecha-cat and stuck with a clank, then there was a double flash of sparks as the micro-magno-ray coil overloaded, causing an EMP pulse that fried electronics within about 6 inches, which in this case included the robots brain. It staggered and collapsed, half blocking the hole, but others were appearing, in golden teleport flashes, to take it's place...

Gadget was taking a huge risk, and she knew it. Her plan was based on the assumption Nimnul - whatever her name was - not only would choose to capture the Rangers, but that their enemies had been sent here for that very purpose. If death was sufficient, why bother capturing her male counterpart? Why not simply use Sparkie to eliminate him, and then the rest of the unprepared Rangers?

If nothing else - as unpleasant as it was to contemplate - simply strapping a reasonably powerful explosive to Sparkie would have taken out the Rangers, the tree, and given Nim's level of technology, most of the park. Given that Gadget HAD been captured, she was gambling that this overwhelming show of force was for the same purpose - probably to gloat over his helpless enemies before his final victory. It was a good gamble - a likely gamble - but the stakes were nothing less than the lives of this world's Rangers, and on their failure, possibly millions or billions more lives as Nim's rampage continued unstoppably.

Gadget thought she had a good idea about what might have caused this sudden change in Nimnul's methods. She just prayed she was right. Everything in the world might depend on it...

The robot mouths opened, and blunt weapon muzzles were extruded, blasting shots at the Rangers who ducked for cover (except Elasti-kate, who _was_ cover). They were leapfrogging backwards, using the shelves and whatever else they could as cover. Foxglove wavedand chanted and false images of the Rangers dashed from cover into the blasts of the advancing robots.

"Gadget! Whatever you're doing, do it soon!" called out Chip, helping a limping Maddy.

Gadget felt a strong urge to swear as she saw her initial conclusion was invalid. As usual, she indulged it, glad her father wasn't here to hear this. "Shoot, shoot, SHOOT!" she growled, pulling several connectors in rapid order and dropping half of her half assembled device - which would leave her with a quarter device, theoretically - to the floor. Fortunately, there were similar principles involved in what she'd half to do now, so she should be able to finish it in about, oh, a week -

No, no, just kidding. The whole idea it would take Gadget a week to respond to something with an invention. Absurd. :rolleyes:

The situation certainly looked bleak, and the rag-tag group of do-gooders couldn't possibly hold out long, when suddenly -

"Eyes covered, everyone!" trumpeted a voice that sounded oddly like a male version of Chip's. "This could get flashy!"

A figure leapt from the dark outskirts at the edges of the workshop, a long cape swirling around its form, obscuring its details. A cowl covered its features as it raised a bizarre device high over its head.

"Lights out, boys - or on, depending on how much this emits - oh, never mind!" it shouted, twisting something on the device.

Arcs of electricity sparked over the device, seemingly without affecting the one holding it. Several jumped to nearby pieces of metal, including one hapless robocat that was too close to the center of the action. It YOWWWLED mechanically, shaking, then crumpled to the ground.

The figure braced itself as a sudden bright wave of light FLASHED out from the device in all directions. The computer monitor, still running, exploded in a shower of sparks, and went dead as the wave hit it.

The powerful EMP burst - based on Chip's small bottle-cap designs, amplified by the efforts of two world's Gadgets - swept through the entirety of the workshop, and beyond, yard after yard, dozens in all directions - carpeting the entire area in a massive shell of electronics-collapsing energy.

The other Rangers stopped themselves, as it became clear they were out of opponents.

"Roight nice work, Gadget-luv!" yelled out Maddy. "Those mechanical moggies went down harder than a crocodile at a boot-makers convention." She scooped up one modemiser, while Foxglove lifted the other with his powerful wing.

"Yeah, that'll teach 'em to 'charge' in where they're not wanted." added Del, shrinking down to her normal shape.

Chip came running up on all paws. It didn't look like her EMP bottlecaps had been active. "That was great! But are the modemisers damaged?... We've still gotta get outta here, though, now she knows we're here, Nuts-nul may give us a laser beam hot foot. Speedie, high sentry!"

They were practically at the tail end of the plane, and Tommy was already pulling the covers off the Rangerplane, well _a_ Rangerplane. The ornithopter wings and fan tail were the same, as were the stork legs, but the overhead balloon was replaced by a set of narrower ones of the sort used to make balloon animals, wrapped horizontally round the main hull from front to back. It might not be able to carry quite as much weight, but the arrangement was more streamlined, it also made it possible for it to make a gear up landing on water.

A couple of computer mice sat by it, but with additions. Each had a double set of insect-like wings of shaped thermo-plastic, folded up against the body, and a set of drinking straw handlebars, attached where the cable would normally come out.

Gadget pulled down the hood. "Sorry for the bizarre getup -- I don't think Nimnul's not going to realize you got another Gadget somehow, especially if he has audio sensors and heard you yell my name, Chip, um no offense -- but the less he knows about WHAT kind of Gadget you got, the better!"

"Nimnul's not using direct modemizer technology anymore," she said hurriedly, clambering instinctively into the pilot's seat of the Ranger-whatever. "I had always vaguely suspected he might do this -- she -- whichever -- she's broadened its capability to encompass more than just audio spectrum.

"She's teleporting using broadcast /electricity/, most likely a low setting on the lightning gun; that's what caused those flashes we saw when everything teleported in," she explained breathlessly, strapping herself in. "Not needing a phone on the end point gives her much greater freedom on where she can send things, as you just saw! Bad. Very bad."

"That's why Sparky was grabbed first; she's a natural electrical source, and was very easy to locate and lock onto with the new system. And then he was able to pull out your Gadget, because like all these robotic minions and Sparky, he's highly resistant to electrical current.

"That's what threw all my initial calculations off; she can't capture any of you, because you'd never survive the reverse teleport, anyway. I suspect your Gadget came through frazzled enough she realized she'd never get any of the other Rangers intact, so she scrapped any notions she may have had along those lines, and just decided to knock you all off," she said matter-of-factly.

"Fortunately, since everything in the system is electrically based, that makes it very susceptible to this EMP I... we... us Gadgets... have been tinkering with. The residual polarization of the local area stopped any more from coming in, and it will give us a few minutes, until Nimnette figures out what's going on and just bombs us, or something. Enough time for us to fly," she said, gearing up the batteries as everyone finished clambering in with renewed urgency, "but only just, I'd say..."

Chip stared at her in wonder for a second. "That's amazing, you really are Gadget! I mean..." She shook her head and helped Maddy load the modemisers into the back seat of the Rangerplane.

"Me and Tommy on the flyers, that puts you, Speedie and Maddy in the Rangerplane. We've gotta get clear and give you some time to figure out a location on Nimnul's base. Foxglove, think you can give us some cover?"

The bat huffed. "I used up a lot of power already, but I think I can manage a simple illusion for a couple of minutes, at least from above... It means I'll be pretty much tapped out when we get up to Nimnul's."

Del held her arms out and they stretched into wings. She cuddled Foxglove briefly before flapping into the air. "My Foxy-muffin will deliver the goods. When it comes to magic, he's batting 1000!"

Chip bounded onto one of the mice and pressed a microswitch on the handle bars. It sprung up into the air as a foot flipped down. The wings unfolded and started humming back and forth like a humming bird, or a dragonfly's. The mouse hovered, front facing up at an angle, and the light from underneath speared out.

She flew up and hovered in front of a lever next to a glassed turret, one of the gun positions. Reaching forward and hauling it down released a set of weights, and the top panels of the turret folded back.

Maddy was in the Rangerplane flipping buttons. Looking over the panel, Gadget would see that the layout was practically identical to the one in her universe.

"Flying mice. Who'd have thought it?" Gadget marveled. "Well, besides me, presumably. I need to remember to put that in my notes..."

She lifted up, the landing gear popping free of the floor, and deftly maneuvered the Alta-Plane out through the newly opened egress.

"Now that we know she's using transmitted electricity to teleport, it should be pretty easy to trace the ionized path back to her base. And even Nim can only broadcast that kind of power so far, that focused, without wires, so she must have moved the lab fairly close. I don't think I can modify the phones on short notice to work by electric carrier waves, though." she noted, broadcasting across the Ranger's frequency (which Maddy had helpfully showed her; it was slightly off from what it was at Gadget's home world.) "Once I have a fix, I'm afraid we'll have to find some way in. Is everyone ready for that?"

It was Gadget's old junk yard. The plane was on the very edge of the yard with piles and walls of stacked rubbish around it, making canyons and cliffs. Over a boundary wall was a forest, leafy and green. On the far side of the yard was the main part of the airport, with passenger jets taking off and landing.

Chip called from just behind the left wing. "We haven't been able to figure out anything. Even Foxglove's illusion only covers us from one direction, so as soon as we get close... zap!"

"Oh, yes! I remember you mentioning the zapping part... sorry, I've been distracted.. that WOULD be a problem."

"It may not come to that!" called out Foxglove, worriedly. "10 o' clock low!"

There were five dots, moving towards the group. As they came closer you could hear a multiplex scream, and they resolved into robot hawks, each driven by a jet thruster that stuck out from beneath it's tail feathers. Each looked to be almost as big as the Rangerplane. They vectored, clearly having spotted the group.

"Uh oh!", quoth Del and Chip was irate. "Since when did Nimnul ever have contingency plans?"

"Since now, looks like." Tommy responded.

"Everyone, scatter, get to cover!" called out Chip.

"Um, not to worry, I can recalibrate the modemizers with no problem -- right after this --" Gadget observed, as the robotic avians screeched in, stage left. "Get some distance from the base, everyone! The reduced ionic potential of this area won't last that much longer, and then she'll be free to resume transports in!" she warned before she broke off.

Ignoring her own advice, Gadget sped the Rangerplane into the jagged canyons of junk, trying to give the others some breathing room. With luck they'd been programmed to consider the larger, easily recognized vehicle their primary target.

Three hawks dived in after her, and the othes split off to attack the smaller flyers. They were faster, but less manouvrable than the Rangerplane, and fortunately in the close confines of the canyons, they couldn't use that speed, or target their beak lasers.

That didn't stop them trying. One initial shot crossed the backseat at an angle and cut one of the tie-downs holding the modemisers in. Speedie tried to hold it together, but Maddy had to clamber across onto the back seat to hold things together, leaving Gadget in control of the plane.

Up above, Tommy had dived his Flaptor-mouse into the tree-line, a hawk following, while Chip, the furthest from cover and closest to the line had spun hers round and done a wildly weaving head to head pass. The hawk she faced finally got a bead on her at point blank range, and eschewing it's laser, rammed the vehicle, smacking it out of the sky and stooping on it with claws extended.

The flyer came to pieces in mid air, but Chip wasn't on it. At the last moment she'd leapt up and jumped onto the back of the hawk, slamming a small magnet onto it's back as a handhold. The hawk wasn't designed with kinematic feedback, so didn't notice the extra weight. Chip used a darning needle to pry up a panel and started pulling wires.

Foxglove and Del had disappeared as the last hawk veered to engage them. It hunted from side to side, then staggered in mid-air as it hit an invisible wall. It's wings folded up, seemingly forced, and it fell out of the sky. As it approached the ground, Del reappeared, wrapped around it's wings and body. Just before it piled into a stack of junk, she unfolded, opened out and blew away like a parachute. It hit the pile and exploded as the fuel tank let go.

Gadget was totally focused on her flying, leaving the other two to scramble as best they could despite her manoeuvres.

"Let's see... auxiliary throttle... good, good..." she murmured absently to herself, reaching across the seat to the passenger side and pulling on a lever. Due to the way Gadget built things, this actually opened up its own, separate circuit, allowing a larger - and more dangerous - surge of power to the wildly flapping wings. Cutting the edge of a leaning pile of garbage awfully closely, she briefly vanished from the view of her pursuers.

The moment she was out of visual contact, she thumbed the leg harpoon control. It shot out, thwacking into the teetering tower of random junk. She let the two forces work on each other just a second, jerking both plane and tower sharply, then detached the plunger.

The birds came around back into view just in time for the groaning edifice to come crashing downward. Desperately adding a burst of speed, the lead robots squeaked to safety; the last wasn't so lucky, and found itself under an upended antique bathtub, squawking in muffled, convincingly enraged tones that sounded as if they were questioning Gadget's parentage in some unknown mechano-avian tongue.

Two mecha hawks were still on Gadget's tail, trying to get a shot in. The hawk that had gone after Tommy rose from the woods with Tommy in it's claws. Del, in elastic bat form dived in to engage it, getting scorched by a graze from it's beam before she could adjust her shape to get out of the line of fire.

Chip, who was having trouble had clearly found some control cables and was futzing her hawks responses as it tried to go after Foxglove, but the mecha hawks resultant evolutions had come close to throwing her right off it's back. The bat was clearly too closely pursued to cast any magic, even if he had the power left.

The hawk could easily outrun him so he'd dived into the canyons, and was following a path that intersected up ahead with the one the Rangerplane was following. Up ahead they opened out into a small circular clearing with odd stacks of junk, where the hawks would have more manouvring room. A small junk shredder, clearly used for chopping up wood and paper waste sat in the middle.

The positions of the others were unknown to Gadget until Foxglove crossed her line of sight up ahead, flying like a bat out of H E double hockeysticks, which made sense. Then Chip and her mechanical mount flew into view. Chip gave a particularly fierce tug just as the hawk lined up a shot, and the wobble induced was the only thing preventing the masked bat from becoming Kentucky Fried chiropteran.

The hawk veered off, clipped a towering stack and something froze up, putting it into a tailspin that flung Chip right into the air. The hawk smashed into the control panel of the shredder, activating it. And Chip was now reaching the top of her ballistic curve, falling helplessly towards the hopper on it's top. In seconds she would be minced.

Suddenly, the chipmunk girl landed with a *foomp* on something yeidling and balloony, and bounced off of it. Well, the fall wouldn't kill her, but she was still headed towards the shredder...

until Gadget's hands grabbed hers, stopping her fall.

Now there were /two/ problems Chip could see. One, Gadget didn't appear to be pulling out of her dive towards the shredder. Two, if she was holding onto her with both hands, who was driving the plane?

A glance over revealed the mouse appeared to be steering the plane with her foot.

"Steady... steady..." she mumbled, eyes fixed straight ahead on the gaping, grinding maw of the menacing machine below. The horrific view zoomed closer, and closer --

At the last moment, Gadget KICKED the wheel sharply. The plane jerked at an impossible angle, appeared for one terrifying moment about to stall, then soared at a steep angle back upward.

The first hawk following her was feverishly putting on the brakes, and arrested its forward motion just in time.

Then the second bird barreled into it, and both of them plummeted into the shredder.

Gadget beamed at Chip, dangling from the side of the plane. "So --"

Whatever she was saying was drowned out as beneath them, a mind-melting SCREEEECHING noise was followed by an explosion of sparks and metal.

"--dontcha think?" she said cheerfully as the shredder quivered, and collapsed into a heap of smoking metal parts.

Chip shook her head, clearly to re-establish her bearings rather than disagreeing.

"I don't know what you said, but I agree completely." She replied, scrambling into the other front seat. "If you hadn't been there for me, I really would have been chips, or rather mince."

Foxglove zipped past below, on what should have been an intercept course if Gadget hadn't beaten him to it. He immediately soared up past them with a "Nice catch!" to go aid Del. She had managed to ball herself around the hawks legs, enclosing Tommy and protecting him from being crushed by feeding her substance between him and the claws. Unfortunately that left no attention for attacking the hawk.

Foxglove flourished his staff in one foot claw and waved it at a nearby tray full of mecha hawk parts. It slid onto an edge and positioned itself as he dropped on the overhanging part. The pieces went flying, glowing with an energy and machine-gunned the mecha.

It gave a pitiful squark and a burst of light insufficient to light a cigarette. Then it fell out of the sky, riddled. The rubber ball that was Del fell away and expanded into a hang glider carrying Tommy.

The came down level with the Rangerplane and Tommy said, "My flyers alright, it just picked me off it. We gotta go get..."

"Uh uh, we gotta get outta here!" interrupted Chip. "Foxglove, are we covered?"

The bat's voice showed strain. "Yes, but only for a few minutes... I have to rest soon."

Chip thought a second. "Then we'll have to use it... Grab on, guys!"

Foxglove landed on the back and grabbed on with both claws, while Del extended an arm and hauled herself and Tommy into the back, then oozed into the foot well wrapping herself around the mobile phones and her friends as some sort of restraint webbing.

Chip flipped back a toothpaste cap that was situated in the well between the pilot seats to reveal a big red button.

"Do the honours, Gadget."

"Right," she said, beaming. "Hold on t--"

She pressed the button, and the plane exploded forward like a mouse out of heck.

"-- iiiiiiii!" Gadget squealed. Belatedly, she fumbled for her goggles, pulling them down over her eyes, and settled in for a few quick moments of frantically twisting the wheel to avoid looming piles of junk.

In almost no time at all (but an eternity measured in heart attacks) the ship blasted free of the junkyard, dropping low to the ground as it zoomed towards the cover of the trees.

From the outside of the Rangerplane, the following events took place. As Gadget pressed the button, the Rangerplanes wings stopped flapping, rotated into a vertical chord and folded forward and along the sides of the plane, and inwards at the bottom to make a tapered wedge shape covering the bleach bottle nose, a lifting body. The Rangerwing drifted forward purely on the lift from it's inline balloons.

A larger Coo Coo Cola bottle visor extruded from a slit in the nose to shield the cockpit, and from the keel, just below the tail rudder fan, which was folding down into a more streamlined shape, a hatch opened and a hollow tube emerged. It lit up with a bright flame and a hybrid rocket motor (made from eraser tips soaked in hydrogen peroxide concentrated from hair bleach) shot the vehicle forward.

After 120 seconds and 4 miles of gut wrenching velocity, mixed with equal portions of terror, the thruster burned out, and the empty tube dropped out of the hatch, lightening the load on the Rangerplane. It slowed down as the wings unfolded to ornithopter mode.

"Whoa! It actually worked!" Chip exclaimed. "Quick, I see a hollow in that tree, it should be enough to shield us."

"That was wilder than a wallaby with spiny bristlecones stuck to 'is backside! A roight bonzer boost!", Maddy exclaimed, grinning fiercely.

Foxglove had his teeth gritted, and was clearly putting out his last gasp. Del un-melted and flowed up behind him, partially cocooning him in an imitation of snuggling bat wings and supporting him.

Gadget was grinning broadly. "I hope I have time to pick up the tube for study later! That was AWE -- um, it could be really useful," she squeaked, endeavouring to look casual.

Tugging her goggles back up, she manuevered the plane neatly into the hollow of the tree. "Okay. Get him some, er... Magic-Aide... whatever he needs to recover after that!" she said, glancing back in concern at the bat.

"Uhhh..." Foxglove groaned in response, his tux and mask fading out. "The only thing that will recharge my powers is a day's... sorry, night's sleep. Right now I don't have enough left to light a candle."

Del was still holding him and carted him out onto the floor of the hollow, reforming into a sleeping bag.

Chip looked around, "Speedie, Maddy, Tommy... I'm glad everyone made it. Hopefully we'll be safe for long enough for Gadget to triangulate, or whatever, on Nimnul's flying base. I'm getting kinda tired of people forcing me out of places. Everyone get some rest."

During the evening, the alternate Rangers were all still around, ready to help out. The food was meagre, some iron rations from the Rangerplane, but it had taken the edge of everyone's hunger. Chip had decided it was too risky to go outside to forage, which would possibly expose themselves to whatever detection system Nimnul was using.

After a couple of hours, Foxglove had recovered enough to materialise or rather condense water out of the air into a bucket, but once again it was the absolute minimum amount, since he was saving up energy for tomorrow.

Despite this morale was high. In the morning, they could stop hiding and start fighting back.

Gadget stayed up, as she tended to do when working on something big. The conditions couldn't be worse: instead of the painstakingly outfitted workshop, she was in a hole in a tree completely rewiring the phones and a few stray bits from her pockets, the plane, and Chip's equipment to track the distinctive electrical impulses.

She couldn't have been more at home.

&&&

By morning, Gadget had what looked vaguely like a swizzle stick in tin foil projecting from the top of one of the phones. She tapped keys on its face, frowning thoughtfully at the display.

"Well, there's good news, and bad news!" she said cheerfully, if a bit tiredly.

"The good news is, I have a fix on the lab. Apparently she's determined to stay in the area until he gets us, this time. Smart. Don't blame her. She's well within Modemizer range."

"Too roight!" "Excellent!" "Our luck had ta change sometime."

"The bad news is... one of the phones no longer works, and I don't think even I can fix it. Combination of a rough flight and having to use most of it to track the electrical signal."

She sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. "So... once we do get in, we'll have to find another way out. We can't transport back to the other phone. Trying to pinpoint a different ground phone from the lab on short notice while it's most likely crashing to earth would be, um... an interesting technical challenge."

She cracked her knuckles. "So! Business as usual," she squeaked cheerfully. "Who's ready to make a social 'call' on Noreen?"

Maddy grinned. "Social call? Maybe I should 'ave balked a cheese cake."

Chip looked around. "I think we all are... But we need at least some sort of plan. It's too much to ask you have any idea of where in the base we'll end up, you did enough just targeting it. If we're in the open, head for the nearest cover and we'll regroup under the biggest piece if possible. Our first priority is freeing and un-hypnotizing Gadget and Sparkie, then with their information maybe we can do something about that base. Finding an escape pod would be good too."

Del piped up. "Don't worry about getting out, just get me to an open door and I can parachute the lot of us down."

"I think that's all the planning we can do until we see the situation inside, and where we are," she confessed. "Although--"

She cupped her chin in her paw, frowning a moment.

"Two waves," she suggested. "The first will be the most dangerous by far... I have a bad feeling Noreen will have the incoming line trapped, for capture at best, to harm or kill at worst. We have to be prepared for it. Only one person; it'll probably only be a one-shot trap. I'll go." It didn't sound like it was open to debate.

"The second phone should still be ok to send a basic text transmission. I'll take it along with me. If I can, I'll send you one, so be watching the primary phone. Don't go until you get it. If I can't send one..."

She paused. "Figure on the worst. I'd tell you not to follow, but I doubt you'd listen."

She flipped open the transport-enabled phone.

"Now hold on!" exclaimed Chip. "If you go through there, I get Foxglove to cancel your summoning spell right now. Your universe needs you as much as ours does our Gadget. If anyone's going to take point, it's me, the leader! You go through when its proved safe."

"Now hang on sis!" responded Del. "I should do it, I'm the most likely to survive a physical attack." The others quickly chipped in with their bid to take first place.

It finally resolved as Gadget with Del and Foxglove, the one to protect the group from physical damage, the other to defend against less obvious threats and send Gadget home if things looked too bad.

Gadget sighed. "You're right... it's the smart thing to do. Three has a better chance than one...

"...and there's more important things than being smart, sometimes," she added quickly, her hand jabbing down to hit the speed-dial button as her other paw scooped up the second phone, clutching it tightly to her body.

The pre-input number she'd been setting up during the discussion beepbeepbeeped through in half a moment, and then everything around her seemed to pixelate into ever lower resolutions... being replaced by something else

The surroundings had the look of metal walls, and bare tubing that was Nimnul's lab. She hadn't arrived in the main workshop, but one of the store rooms. Various piles of junk were stacked haphazardly in a manner echoing their owners fractured mind.

But the main thing she noticed as her surroundings resolved themselves were a row of the same robot cats that had attacked the plane, at least a dozen, eyes glowing red.

It was a few seconds before Gadget would notice that their tails were all stuck into a row of sockets along the wall they stood against. They were clearly powered down and recharging. There was a door leading from the room, activated by a pressure pad on the wall, and there were voices coming from behind it, raised ones.

Gadget made a mental note that it might be useful to rewire one of the cats for camouflage and personal transport. However, first she had to figure out what was being said. She crept close to the door, and put her substantial ear against it, listening carefully. Meanwhile, she flipped open the phone under her arm, and gingerly began tapping out a text message to send.

OK CATS NOT ON COME QUIETLY

The others quickly came piling in, all with their heads attached to their own bodies, unsurprising as the transmitter screen was only big enough for one at a time. Foxglove had actually appeared before she'd finished typing the message. "I came to check if you needed sending back myself." he gravelled as Del appeared.

Chip was next. "That was an idiotic stunt!" she stated angrily. Then she deflated, sighing. "...and probably exactly what my own Gadget would have done in the same place. But for the sake of my blood pressure, please be more careful next time."

She looked around. "I couldn't have wished for a better entry location. Great targeting work."

"I can't exactly take credit... I didn't really know what we'd find here," she whispered, waving the others to be quiet. "Nimnulette and, um, someone else are talking... trying to hear. Oh! I need one of you to start opening up a cat's head, I think using it as transport could be really handy camouflage... little something I picked up from Monty, in our world..."

"Already on it!" stated Chip, motioning Maddy and Speedie to take it on.

As Gadget listened at the door, the voices resolved. One was a whiney, nasal female voice, the other a guy. An outside observer would say his voice actor was Tony Jay, the guy who voiced Sher Khan in Talespin.

The guy. "... professor, you will make the appearance and stick to the script!"

The female voice was raised. "How dare you dictate my actions! Your microscopic little mind can barely even comprehend the vast intellect of Noreen Nimnul!"

"You were quick enough to accept the help of the Black Table when you were locked up in that mental institution. We got you out, funded the construction of this little fortress of yours. And without our aid in closing the loopholes you left in your defences, you would have been caught long since. Now we expect some payback."

"You'll get payback alright, if I ever figure out the antidote to that drug you put in me!"

There was a low chuckle. "But until then, you had better make my wishes your first concern, if you want my people to continue to deliver the antidote. Enough of this. Have you found the other Rescue Rangers?"

The whine went up a notch. "They vanished off my biosensors shortly after they destroyed my robo-hawks! Those wretched rodents! Always wrecking my scientifically superb schemes."

"Run a spiral search pattern from the last known position. You found them before, you can do it again. We lost enough valuable assets, even had our existence exposed because of those creatures. It is fortunate we 'removed' Snow and the others before she could reveal anything critical. I will not allow the rat another bite."

Gadget looked at Chip after listening to the conversation, an uncharacteristically perplexed look across her features, and silently mouthed, "...wait, what?" to her.

Chip looked stunned at first, and finally moticed Gadget's expression. She shook her head, then thumped it with the heel of her hand.

"Of course, why didn't I see it! The change in Nimnul's MO, the concentration on Gadget and Sparky... rodents of exceptional promise... She's just the catspaw for the Black Table."

Maddy piped up from where she was hauling a hunk of circuitry out of a fiberglass feline. "Cat's ain't my favourite creature at any toime!"

Seeing Gadget non-plussed, Chip went on. "That MAP I told you about, it was nominally a CIA research project, but really had been subverted by a bunch of crooks calling themselves the Black Table, either a group trying to rule the world from behind the scenes or just making huge wedges of cash out of various types on sneakery and double dealing, we never really found out. Think CLUTCH from those old Femme Fatale spy movies Del drools over."

(Note: CLUTCH - CounciL for Undertaking Terrorism, Crime and Haberdashery. Sort of like SPECTRE in James Bond. The last part was down to an underling making a mistake when drafting the final version of it's charter. )

"I don't drool!" Del responded hotly. "I watch them for the action sequences, not the Fatale-boys. Besides Foxy's all the hero I'll ever need." That got her a winged hug.

"Okay... sorry, this explains a lot, but it doesn't tell us where Gadget and Sparkie are."

Gadget sighed. "We would have been better off with Fat Cat..." she said disconsolantly. "Chip, I'm going to need you more than ever -- I don't know the first thing about these Black Table people, so I can't make any predictions about how they might act."

"To be honest, me either. I only ever managed to eavesdrop one of their videophone calls and that was by accident. However, I can see several posibilities. Nimnul's actions could cover their own activities directly. For example, destroying a building apparently on a whim just after Black Table operatives have stolen something.

"It could also be more subtle, by causing people to focus on an obvious threat and loose faith in their current leaders while the Black Table sets up their own puppets. And they know who we are, our team name, so they must have found a way to communicate with Gadget or Sparkie. So they know our capabilities, except for you, Gadget. You're our wild card, so you should make the plan."

"Let me go over and see if I can keep these cats offline. all except for ours, of course. Although -- Fox, is there some kind of spell you can work that would just prevent them from executing any overtly agressive action?" she said shrewdly. "It would be much less suspicious if they stayed online, and would give us more time before they realized something's up. Maybe if I get you into the computers first..."

Foxglove shook his head. "There are spells that will do that kind of thing, but they're rituals that take time to set up, and I somehow doubt they would work on a robot anyway. Couldn't my cutie and you get together and rewire them or something to do the same thing, or even come to our aid?"

"Del, if you make your hand flat enough, you should be able to figure out where the air flow in here is coming from, and get us into some kind of ventilation system. We won't be able to ferry everyone in the cat, and being in two teams would be safer, anyway."

The stretchy girl chipmunk was already extending one arm up as a weathercock. After a few seconds she extended off towards one of the walls, and oozed under a crate, sliding it to one side. There was a ventilator behind it.

"Great! Thanks, Del." Gadget had her chin cupped again, pondering.

"We need to move fast. They could call the cats online at any moment. At any moment they could realize we're not to be found below, and they might realize what we've done."

"Del, Speedie, the ventilation could be a tight or awkwardly-shaped squeeze. Head out, find what you can. Stay hidden. We're going to be the ones causing trouble... sorry you'll have to miss it, but I really need your skills poking around."

"Maddie, if you've got our cat off the circuits, I'm going to try and reprogram the rest. I can't completely hack them --" she hesitated for a half second, then continued -- "on this short notice; I'm not that good with computers. But I bet I can have them go crazy on the ship, performing random actions, and make them impossible to give orders to. That's what I'm going to shoot for. That will get them out of our hair, and hopefully keep the humans busy."

Del, back in her normal shape, nodded. "I'll send you Speedie if we find anything."

"Sounds like a plan!" the fly chimed. "Del Fatale, super-spy, and Tai Kwan Leap, her trusty shinobi sidekick, are on the case..."

The pair headed off into the duct.

"OI never expected to willingly end up inside a cat, mates." Maddy said. "But it's clean as a dingo's dish in there."

Chip nodded. "I'll handle the door opening once everyone's inside."

Gadget was busy frantically dancing on the human keyboard, trying to reprogram the rest of the mechafeline army.

"And loop back to start and... there! Garbage In, Garbage Out! And nobody can make something from garbage like I can!" she said, pleased. "We have about, um, three minutes -- everyone in -- Maddie, pull on that, it'll move the left rear leg I think -- Tommy, I need you up here, push down on that when I tell you to-"

She twisted two disconnected, straggling wires together ("Ouch!"), and the de-interiored cat's eyes lit back up a glowing red.

The other cats' eyes began to flicker. "Um, maybe just a /bit/ less than three minutes -- Chip! Door!"

"On it!" As the others scrambled into the hatch of the cat-mecha, Chip bounded across and up onto a box, half climbing, half trianglr jumping to reach the access plate. She rebounded off it, and her grapnel line snaked out to catch a light fitting, swinging her round as she slid down the rope and dropped onto the head of the now moving mecha-cat.

The door slid open, revealing the naular corridor that surrounded the central lab. Nimnul and the unknown male had moved on, so this section was empty.

There was a yoooooowling noise, and cats began spilling out of the storage room in all directions. One rapidly settled in to clawing non-existent curtains, its metal claws leaving scratches on the wall. Another leapt up on a table in the lab, and began batting a round-bottomed beaker back and forth like a ball of yarn. One got up on its hind legs, and began hobbling down the hall awkwardly. Everywhere, cats were... being cats.

"There. If they can figure out we're the one cat not acting randomly, they deserve to catch us," Gadget squeaked. "Let's go! There's a good chance Sparkie and Gadget will be in the central lab, somewhere!"

Under Gadget's carefully calculated directions, the final cat lurched forward, stumbling into the lab to begin a desperate search...

Del and Speedie were way ahead of them, looking down on the expanse of domed lab from an air-conditioning grill up above. There were many interesting things and devices scattered around the work benches, numerous waldos and auto-manufacturing tools, but a new thing was a wide screen TV with some kind of video-conferencing set up, currently inactive.

"Looks like we hit a blank, hey pal?" said Del.

"Worth a try." replied Speedie.

Nimnul's base had two levels, an upper one with the open plan lab under a geodesic dome and a disc shaped lower one with smaller rooms for storage and living quarters. They were served by a common ring shaped corridor halfway between the two, with an airlock to the outside and ramps leading up and down. A basement level was fully underground (normally) and only reached by steps. Imagine a beach ball resting on a tyre, with a hat box under it split into two decks and you have the general idea.

The Ranger rebuilt robo-cat was bounding around the ring, stopping at each door to see what was what. The Rangers inside were as quiet as mice... well mice, chipmunks, bats and squirrels who were trying to be quiet.

It was at about the fourth down ramp that they saw Noreen Nimnul going into a room. To Gadget, she bore more of a resemblance to Winifred with big horn rimmed glasses than a female version of Nimnul. She was too busy muttering imprecations on the parentage, unpleasant habits and probable infernal destination of a 'Mr Jones', possibly the male voice they'd heard, to notice the cat.

Coming up alongside the open door, they could see in, and along with a number of other things, there were two cages on a table, which Nimnul was inspecting. She was still facing away from the door, which was starting to slide shut.

"Hehehehe... You're both far more useful now you're properly motivated and utterly under my control..." the mad scientist cackled.

"We have to get her now," Gadget whispered. "Go!"

The wobbly cat barreled forward to its current top speed, barely making it through the door, and leapt at the mad scientist.

Nimnul didn't realise anything was amiss until the very last second. She started to turn as the mecha-cat leapt.

"What? I... Yahahahaha!" As the cat dug it's claws into her side, she started frantically flailing at it, wailing loudly. She fell backwards, bonking her head against a piece of machinery, but one other wild swipes caught the robot and flung it up onto the table, springing the hatch and dumping the Rangers there. The robot's eyes flickered out, and some sparks appeared between it's ears. It wasn't going anywhere for a while.

Noreen Nimnul shrieked, an awful sound. She could just see over the edge of the table, and there were her worst nightmares. "Eeeek! Those wretched rodents... those pint-sized pests... Get them! Destroy them, I don't care how! Rip them limb from limb!"

There were no other mecha-animals in the room, but the cages were occupied. The simple latch doors opened and out stepped two figures, a male mouse with blond, close cropped hair and a tattered but still useable deep blue jumpsuit, and a female rat in a lab-coat with spiky white (Washu-style) hair.

They turned and started walking towards the downed Rangers, Sparkie crackling with an aura of electrical energy. The male Gadget, however was unarmed until he reached down to a 2 inch nail that stuck up slightly from the table surface and pulled it out, without apparent strain.

Nimnul had recovered her composure. "Yehahahaha! This is too rich, destroyed by the ones they came to rescue! Never mess with a motivated rat or a mind controlled mouse!"

Maddy, being the toughest, recovered first and rushed forward, "Mates, you don't have'ta... blimey!" She ducked a swipe with Gadget's nail that would have taken her head off.

As a follow up, the male mouse casually reached out with his free hand, caught the massive mousette by the scruff of the neck and flung her off to smack into the wall behind the bench. She slid down unconscious. Sparkie had oddly enough taken a step back while Gadget was flinging Maddy around.

Gadget had to act quickly. Her best chance against both G2 and Sparkie was before they realized a second Gadget was in the fray.

She leapt forward between the two, a weapon in each hand. Sparkie took a swipe from her right-handed framwinkle, a metal, blunt weapon. By her calculations, given his past fighting style, he'd block with his paw instinctively, even knowing intellectually the electricity would have reduced effect on her. He might try to channel extra electricity into her, though; neither of them had really tested just how much direct current she could handle ... a risk she had to take.

The other Gadget was riskier. How many calculations was he making? Her only real hope was she was just ahead of him, thanks to his mind-controlled state -- it tended to dull the thinking. Given Noreen's command, he would go for a direct, aggressive assault immediately... she hoped.

If the swing came, she was ready to block. In her other hand was a nail.

Only hers had a loop of wire from the cat wrapped around its length, to even better channel the surge of electricity from Sparkie. If the burst of current conducted through her body acted as an impromptu electroshock and jolted him out of his current mental state, all was well... assuming she didn't pass out in the process. If not... well, there most definitely WOULD be Problems.

Gadget had correctly realised that the pair were staying apart deliberately, and for the right reason. Sparkie blocked her attack, seeming not to feel the blow (In her own world, Buzz, when in this state had run straight through solid brick walls and not felt it). Electricity coursed along the nail and wire, causing female Gadget's hair to go all frizzy.

There was only one problem, male Gadget wasn't attacking. He was staying back as before. However, he suddenly slipped towards her, and then fell onto the nail in her other hand.

Foxglove had recovered and used a spell to grease the floor under his feet, then a combination of Chip and Tommy had barreled into the mouse. They all lit up like a christmas tree, showing skeletons and forming an 'Eat at Joe's' sign.

They all lay there, unmoving, as Nimnul cackled frantically. "At last! Finally I have defeated those digigrade do-gooders! I hope the security cameras caught it!" She thought for a moment. "Yes, I have to get a camera!"

She bustled off.

rom the bottom of the pile came a weak alto voice that sounded a bit like Gadget.

"Uh... Chip, not that it isn't a highly enjoyable feeling, but you really shouldn't be lying on me like this. Not until we're married, anyway..."

Male Gadget, who from now we'll call G2, sat up, lifting the prone chipmunk off him and laying her carefully to the side. He looked over at Gadget, and a slightly puzzled expression crossed his face.

"You know, you remind me of someone..."

Gadget smiled dazedly, patting down her frazzled hair. "It could have been worse. *I* could have fallen on you... that would have been REALLY awkward."

Gingerly, she extended a hand. "Hi," she said warmly. "My name's Gadget Hackwrench. What's YOUR name?"

The male looked shocked, which made sense considering the charge he'd been subjected to, but he also looked surprised. He stood up.

"Isn't that a coincidence, my name's Gadget Hackwrench too, that is, not two, because that would mean my dad would have also been named Gadget, and he was named Gegaw, but too as in also. Of course, since we both have the same name, one of us will have to change something about our names to avoid confusion, so maybe I should be Gadget Hackwrench 2, or G2 for short, since as a lady you should have the first use of the nammmmphh!"

It was at this point that Chip woke up, and launched herself into a projectile glomph. Gadget stiffened at first, then relaxed, putting his arms around her. The kiss started out urgent, and calmed down into a more gentle, sweet and tender, but still deeply passionate smooch, the sort that usually finishes a romance film.

About half way through, Chip's leg popped, the lower leg and heel kicking up backwards. Eventually, lack of oxygen forced them apart.

"Golly...", Gadget 2 sighed, "That was..."

"...very, very nice..." continued Chip, then giggled.

The others were all starting to wake up as well.

Chip continued, "... that is just like when I got out of the President's mansion, our first kiss. Remember what happened next? You showed me that picture of us all switched round by Nimnul's teleporter, and that genetic comparison chart."

Gadget chuckled warmly. "Oh, yes, and I said something like, 'Genetic code are not easily separated once fused with foreign DNA. The chipmunk genetic codes are still a part of my reproductive genome.'"

"And I figured what it meant and proceeded to examine the inside of my eyelids."

"Uh, mates, we can jaw later!" Maddy stated, "Roight now we need to get outta here before Mad Madame Nimnul gets back."

Gadget's expression was unreadable as she watched... herself and Chip kiss. After Maddy's pronouncement, though, she seemed perky enough.

"Looks like we're back to four-paw drive, but I think the time for secrets is over, anyway. The Rescue Rangers Reunited, all we have to do is defeat a brilliant mad scientist with enormous powers, and the incredibly potent international secret cabal that supports him, to save the world!"

Chip giggled, a wonderful sound. "Is that all? Glad we don't have a hard job." She was still hugging Gadget-2, but it was now a one armed hug rather than the virtual supplex it had been earlier. She started moving towards the vents.

"Piece 'o cake, Gadget-lass... I could go for some cake roight now, cheese cake to be precise." Maddy added.

She considered. "She needs a reactor to power the teleportation and lightning gun devices, even if it flies by rug power. Our best bet is taking hat out... do any of you happen to have any potatoes?"

Tommy made a show of looking through his pockets. "Uh, no, I left them in my other pants."

"Del probably has some potato chips..." Foxglove stated, and gestured with his wand.

They managed to get inside the air conditioning duct, and shortly after, Del and Sparkie found them.

"Hey guys! You'll never guess what we found!"

Gadget said cheerfully, "A convenient (and in this case literal) machina that will allow us to somehow defeat overwhelming odds? That's usually how these cases end in my world. Well, or possibly it could just be some snacks, considering."

Gadget was happy. How many people actually got to save themselves?

Speedie shook her head. "Uh uh. But we did find the room where that Black Table guy lives, and better yet he was on his computer, reporting to his superiors via IP phone. From what we heard he was paranoid about security, especially from Nimnul, so the room was secured, the link quantum password protected, the works.

"He discussed their plan. They're using Nimnul to spread fear and create distrust of the existing government, and to cover up their own operations through blasting things and theft. Eventually, they'll hang him out to dry and have their catspaws hailed as the ones who did it. It's like a Femme Fatale movie, only these guys are really doing it!"

Del continued. "When he rang off, and prepared a follow up report, I figured this might be an opportunity. I do remember the address of that security office at the White House and some of that stuff looked mighty important. I got Speedie to fly in through the vent and buzz around his head, then I oozed up underneath him and tripped him as he staggered about."

"He was out for the count, and I had a little play with his computer. I blind CCed the report and any other operational files to the White House, then accessed their main computer and planted a couple of nasty little viruses."

She reached into her one piece costume and pulled out a micro-USB module. "And you said I'd never get to use this, Chip. Their mainframe is going to start dumping the most highly protected files in it's databanks to random locations, newspaper offices, Sheriff stations, the FBI... Which is gonna be a whole lot of fun. Then i wiped my access log so hopefully he won't figure out what happened."

Chip giggled somewhat maniacally, "Oh, that's rich! You go girls!" She sobered up quickly enough. "But did you see anything that looked like a main power plant on your way round?"

"Nope, but we only checked the top level."

Chip clasped Gadget 2's paw. "Okay, down we go guys, Gadget's idea about taking out the power plant seems like a good one. But first we figure out a route to escape by."

Meanwhile Gadget 2 had been looking at Gadget with a puzzled expression. "Uh, excuse me for saying, but you really are a lot like me... your mannerisms, way of speaking, everything apart from being a girl. Well, gosh, it's almost like you're a duplicate of me from another dimension, only where my gender is different. Or you're a really fanatical Ranger fan."

"Well, I DO have clippings of all our cases, and I am a pretty big fan of the Rangers!" Gadget-1 offered, beaming. "However, in addition, I *am* a duplicate of me from another dimension, only where my gender is different. Er, that is, duplicate of you. And a duplicate of me, too, considering. I make the best possible duplicate of me, really," she said thoughtfully.

"My initial impression is we can't teleport off, as you need electrical tolerance of some kind to survive the trip. Do you recall them saying anything about that, Gadget? Probably the best way off to try and find out how Noreen and these Black Table guys get on and off, and stow away on that. If they just teleport, well, then we know that way's not lethal after all, which increases its usefulness exponentially as an escape option."

Meanwhile, she led the scampering crew deeper into the bowels of the flying lab, hopefully towards the reactor room.

"I don't honestly know." Stated Gadget's male counterpart. "Nimnul never explained, at least whiile I was conscious. He managed to reactivate the implant the Black Chapter gave me, which more or less shunts my consciousness out of circuit. He woke me up a couple of times to gloat... but it's all kind of hazy... ohmigosh, the Treehouse! I saw it get destroyed." His shoulders slumped.

"Nimnul told me I'd aimed the beam before she switched my implant off."

Maddy had slung the still unconscious Sparkie over her shoulder to carry her out, but the lab rat was beginning to stir.

"Ohh... my head, my goodness, Nimnul, no!"

"It's okay, Sparkie. We've got you, now," Gadget said sympathetically.

"Well... the only good thing about this is, we don't seem to be dealing with his mass mouse hypnosis, refined for individual use. G2 and Sparkie were, unfortunately, specifically susceptible to being controlled. If I have anything to say about it, I'll help you find out a way to put an end to that before I go," she said, determined.

Sparkie woke up from her nightmare, and squinted from her fireman's carry on Maddy's shoulder at the mouse inventress. Maddy's mackintosh was rubberised, and therefore was protecting her from the lab rats rising charge.

"Gadget? When did you start wearing your hair long? And your voice has changed too."

Maddy chuckled. "It's alroight Sparkie, this is another Gadget."

Sparkie focussed more clearly. "Another Gadget? That would explain why she's wearing her hair long and speaking in a higher voice... of course the fact that she's a girl also has something to do with it. So she must be another Gadget, maybe a variant clone or from another dimension. Ummm.. Maddy?"

"Yes, Sparkie-lass?"

"Could you put me down please?"

"I think I may also be a little shorter," Gadget offered helpfully as Sparkie was carefully set down. "Pleased to meet you, Sparkie! Glad to have you back with us."

She glanced up as her large ears detected a change in the intensity of a soft hum vibrating through the walls. "I think we're just about to the reactor room... get ready."

The next ventilator proved to be it.

The generator room was at the centre of the 'basement' level, a broad circular space dominated by a ring of depressingly ordinary electric dynamos and rows of Nimnul designed accumulators. The system was fed by an array of Stirling engines (closed cycle steam engines), built out of refrigerators. The heat source was an intense beam of light fed up from the exact centre of the room and was split off to hit the various boilers.

Several control panels were scattered around on the annular catwalk that encircled the two story room. One, facing the vent, showed a schematic of the system, showing where the light beam was coming from. They were almost 50 miles above the Earth's surface, and in perpetual unfiltered sunlight.

Somehow, Nimnul had used rings of carefully placed electrostatic emitters to turn the very thin ionised air around them into a giant frensel lens that focussed the sun's rays from hundreds of metres around the lab onto a parabolic reflector that hung underneath. Megawatts of un-interuptable, inexhaustible power, with enough accumulator reserve that she could spend several days in shadow and still operate.

"Jackpot!" said Chip, grinning.

"Hmm," Gadget said thoughtfully. "Cutting off the beam won't work... it looks like she has enough storage capacity to operate for days even without new input. That's bad."

"Well, when in doubt, plan B, standing for 'Blow it Up,' she said cheerfully. "Foxy, if we provide a substantial source of cold, can you create a big lens to my specifications out of ice right where the beam of light comes into the ship?" she pointed. "That should most efficiently provide a huge surge of power, more than the boilers and capacitors can handle, and totally overload the whole system. And the stored energy won't do any good if they're overloaded, too, and pop their cork."

"G2, can you get Foxglove an efficient feed of freon have all those fridges? Dale, help me start reprogramming --- there's sure to be fail safes, we need 'em all off line! We want an unblocked flow of energy into these girls! Chip, I've got the science end -- it's up to you to manage the rest of our forces to take care of anything else!"

"Uh... okay, but we'll need some kind of escape route. I've never known Nimnul to build something without an escape pod... Zipper, scout the rest of the level, find us a way off. Maddy, Tommy, let's jam the door!"

The Rangers set to work with a will.

And Rangers have a LOT of will.

The two programming rodents each sprinted off in a different direction around the circle of machinery, and pounced on the human-sized keyboards that ran the shebang. Soon they were jumping over the keys, Dale and Gadget each in their own inimitable style, deftly calling up options, and shutting down all the safety features and backups manually.

At first, it all seemed to be going well, but as they reached the final set of interlocks, an alarm began to sound, and armoured shutters slammed down over the ducts.

"Warning! System integrity compromised. Suppression measures in effect!"

Air started howling out of the room as vents to the outside opened in the floor. In it's pace anesthetic gas flooded in. The Rangers were sent tumbling by the air flow, and in seconds were unconscious.

You did not think it would be that easy, did you? Oh no, there is more in store for our heroes with paws.