Chip awoke later that night feeling light-headed and nauseous. The last thing he remembered after being held in a cage within a van for a few hours was being taken out and injected with something. Probably a sedative. Chip felt that he'd been poked and prodded while he was under. He didn't really know what they'd done to him, but he was glad he wasn't conscious for it. He was now in another cage. His hat and jacket had been taken. The steel door only had three slits through which Chip couldsee the inside of the dank laboratory he'd been taken to.

On the examination table a group of scientists were looking at the little wooden tree house the Rescue Rangers had called their headquarters. Care had been taken to leave it intact during the trip. The old Ranger Plane and the Flapper Wingamathing were on the table beside it. A scientist picked it up, wearing latex gloves, and used tweezers to turn the winder-uppers, making the wings flap. Chip heard a loud gasp from the cage below him.

"Grrreat honk…" came the sorrowful moan of an old man, "They've captured them too…my furlings…"

Chip raised an eyebrow. But then, he put the pieces together. He was at NIMH. And obviously, at the same laboratory the animals from Dapplewood were taken to.

"Psst…old man…" Chip whispered through the bars.

"Y-yes?" came the cautious reply.

"Did you know the kids that flew that plane?"

"Why, they were my students," came his answer, "Who are you, are you new here?"

"I'm Chip, a chipmunk. And you must be Cornelius, right?"

"Yes indeed, I am. How do you know my name?"

"My friends and I found your students, flying that plane," Chip whispered, "That house you see on the table was ours. But don't worry, they might have captured me and one of my friends, but they don't have any of the kids. And I just know my other friends will come up with a way to bust us out of here."

"Dear boy, you don't know how much relief that news brings me," Cornelius sighed, "The thought of them here…it would be more than I could bear."

"The little one, Michelle, she misses you a lot. Always talking about you."

"I'm…I'm happy she's safe…" Cornelius said, on the verge of tears.

"Just out of curiosity…what kinda stuff have they done to the animals here?"

"Dreadful things," Cornelius whispered, his voice shaky, "I have had to watch my neighbors be tortured, dissected. They spared me because they want to test experimental arthritis drugs on me. Other lucky ones are only having their intelligence tested. But they mean to dispose of all of us, in the end. They don't think we should exist."

Chip gulped. He hoped Gadget and Dale would hurry. But if anyone could figure out where he'd been taken, Gadget could.

"Neither the mouse nor the chipmunk showed any signs of having been injected with the serum," said one scientist, "What we have here is something unprecedented."

"Agreed," said Dr. Strauss, "Either the strain from the rats somehow found its way into the ecosystem after they escaped, or this is something else that's been developing right under our noses for some time. Perhaps natural, perhaps caused by mutations due to pollution, radioactivity or pesticides, we don't know. I want you to run every test you can on those two new specimens."

"Yes sir," replied another scientist

"We need to find more. Nimnul said there was supposed to be more."

"And I wasn't lying either," said Nimnul as he entered the lab, grinning, "So, Dr. Strauss, what more can I do to assist your research, hm?"

"I think we'll need to close up soon," he said, "But tomorrow, I'd like you to help us find more of these intelligent rodents."

"Now that we have their friends, it's only a matter of time before they try rescuing them," said Nimnul, "Believe me, it's already happened to me before. But, if we don't somehow find them first, they'll be here. I'd suggest upping the security. And making sure all the vents are covered up tight."

"Such precautions have already been made, Dr. Nimnul. We won't be repeating past mistakes."

"I trust that you won't," said Nimnul, "I'll hang around the lab tonight, seeing as how I don't quite have a home to go to yet - which will change once I get my first paycheck from you of course."

"Of course," Dr. Strauss replied, "Now that you are certifiably sane, you are now welcome at our facility."

Nimnul nodded, "Thank you, doctor."

"You can participate in the animal testing. I know you have some expertise in that field."

"Certainly," Nimnul said, "But, since we're about to close up, I think I'll go to the computer room, and review your findings thus far."

"Very well."

Nimnul gleefully turned around and walked through the door, down the hall to the computer lab. It was empty save for Dr. Stacy, who was clicking on a keyboard as the monitor reflected against her face in the darkness.

"Working late, are we?" Nimnul asked the young lady.

"Oh. Doctor Nimnul, I didn't see you come in," she said, "I suppose since my work hours were up I just wanted to do a little chatting with my colleagues before going home."

"Hm, that newfangled Internet thing, is it?"

"Yes indeed," she answered. She was silent for a moment, before turning to him again as he turned on a computer, "Tell me, how long have you known about intelligent rodents?"

"Oh, a few years I suppose," he replied, "It started during my time as a criminal. Of course those days are over for me. I'm sane again."

"Ah. That's good news."

"You seem as though this little breakthrough is troubling you."
"Hm? No, it isn't…it's just shocking, you know? Rodents writing books, building machines…"

"I think it's something more than the fact that every biology class you ever took to get that PhD of yours is telling you that this kind of thing shouldn't exist," Nimnul said, rubbing his chin curiously, "Yes, from the moment you brought me out of that mental hospital I knew something was troubling you."

"Well you're wrong, doctor," she replied, "I'm completely fine, other than the fact that this case is so mind-boggling."

Nimnul narrowed his eyes, "Are you sure you never, at some point in your life, noticed intelligent rodents before?"

She stopped typing, and stared off into space for a few moments, before shaking her head, "No. Never."

Nimnul chortled.

"What?"

"You're lying."

"I am not…" she retorted, "I just…"

"Just what?"

"Well…suppose I told you…when I was a child, I used to, well…fantasize about talking to animals. Rodents, that wore clothes, and had names."

"I see…" Nimnul nodded.

"I know, it was stupid. I kept insisting they were real to anyone who would listen, but, well, my foster parents thought it was some delusion I came up with. They even put me in therapy, and all the kids at school used to tease me and call me 'Mouse Girl'. I eventually got over it, realized I'd made the whole idiotic thing up. And that was that."

"And these days you have no problem cutting up live rodents with scalpels and experimenting on them here at NIMH. That's quite a turn around, isn't it? That therapy worked wonders, hm?"

Dr. Stacy frowned and turned back to the monitor, "Yes, quite…"

"Oh but these animals have intelligence, along with emotions like fear. That doesn't bother you, does it? They're just vermin after all, no matter how smart they are."

"Right. They're just animals," she said, with a confidence that betrayed the fact that she was still trying to convince herself.

"We mustn't let childish empathy get in the way of scientific research."

She nodded, but said nothing. She was hoping he'd stop talking to her. He was a bit of a creep, she thought. Her hopes finally came true after a few minutes of silence, as he researched NIMH's records. She let out a quiet sigh, turning back to her Usenet groups. She clicked on sci:, the forum for science, and scrolled through the numerous topics. After a few minutes of browsing, one newly-created thread caught her eye.

EPA Cleanup in Maryland

How odd, she thought. But, it was in the news after all, though it was not covered too extensively for fear of the bad publicity it could bring to companies that transfer harmful substances via trucks. She clicked on it.

WrenchWench: Hi i'm doing a report for scool on environmental disasters (i'm in summer schoool). I was wondering if any scientists were doing tests at the site of the chlorine gas leak in Maryland last month that the epa cleaned up. I would be interested in their findings, purely from a scientific standpoiint, and for my report of corse. I want to kno the leak's effects on the wildlife of teh area.

Dr. Stacy narrowed her eyes and adjusted her glasses as she read the typo-ridden thread post. She could see why this person was in summer school. Still, it did seem odd that anyone knew that the area was being studied. She didn't think this person could do any harm, though. It could have been just a logical assumption that somebody would be studying Dapplewood. They had been extremely thorough in eliminating any signs of intelligent habitation, so she wasn't too worried about the public finding out what had been found there, but she wanted to be safe and discourage this person from visiting anyway. She put her hands to her keyboard.

: Hi, I'm a scientist at the National Institute of Mental Health. We've been working in conjunction with the EPA on this matter. We did check up on the area to make sure it wasn't a public health hazard recently. The wildlife is beginning to recover, but for now I would discourage you or anyone from paying it a visit, as the area is still toxic. From what I saw, animals are avoiding the area, and most of the plants are withered. It has only been around a month since the leak, the area should recover by spring I would think, once rainfall and snowmelt wash out all of the toxins. The trees have died however, it will be years before they fully return, but you might be able to see other vegetation in the spring, and animals returning. I hope this answers your questions. By the way, how did you know the area was being studied?

She clicked 'send', and her reply was up. After a couple minutes there was still no reply, from neither the original poster nor someone else. She browsed other threads for about fifteen minutes, before finally noticing a reply.

"Slow typist," she said to herself, clicking on the thread.

WrenchWench: Tank you, Dr. Stacy. It was a lucky guess that someone woul be studying the area. Can I quote you for my paper? it is good to know NIMH is looking out for public safety. I do have one more question though, it is unrelated. I live in new york. Today as I was walking in central park I noticed scientists and other people around a tree, cutting branches off, but the area was blocked off. I thought I saw 'NIMH' on one of the vans parked outside. Was it NIMH? Wer you there?

Dr. Stacy raised her eyebrows. So this person not only wanted to know about Dapplewood, but what she had been doing earlier today in New York? Could this be a simple coincidence, or was NIMH being spied on? This was definitely something they didn't want being made public. It could have been a coincidence, maybe…

: You're welcome, feel free to quote me for your paper. And yes, we were in Central Park earlier today studying the effects of big city pollution on the trees. We took samples off the tree so we could study it's growth rings over the years and give us an idea on pollution's effects over time. We're hoping to work this into a study on the effects pollution has on the mental health of living things.

She clicked "send", confident that she'd told a believable lie. She decided that was all the time she was going to spend on that thread though, not wanting to say anything else that she might regret, and hoping that giving that much information out wouldn't get her fired. But denying NIMH was even there would have looked more suspicious, she reasoned.

With a yawn, she clicked out of Usenet.

"Hey, I'm going home," she said, looking over to Nimnul.

"Huh? Oh, yes yes, see you tomorrow."

She gave him a fake smile and headed out of the computer lab, eager to get back to her apartment. Nimnul stared at her as she left.

"Hmm…she knows something she's not letting on…" he said to himself, "Best to keep an eye on her."

He clicked on the next link, looking up any online information available on Dr. Penny Stacy.