Cy-Toad and the pets had walked in the long and dark cave for an hour now. Despite Cy-Toad using her red eye and the dogs sniffing their noses, all they discovered was that the cave was very long and dark and never-ending.

Then Figaro meowed. Cy-Toad and the dogs saw that he was pointing his paw to the wall, which had a spot of light. It was very small and it was quite dim, but it was better than what they had found in the last hour which was nothing but darkness and rocks.

"Well spotted, Figaro," Cy-Toad said, giving him a stroke before she scanned the wall with her red eye. She found that the spot of light was part of a hidden door on the rocky wall. Then she further scanned on the wall and found something that looked like a hidden keypad but with pictures of tools on nine buttons instead of numbers or letters of any kind of languages. Then she noticed finger marks on four buttons. According to her red eye, the faintest mark was on the bucket button, so she pressed it. Then the next faintest was the bucket button, so she pressed it. Next was the sledgehammer button. Finally, there was the thickest mark which was the spanner button, so she pressed it. Then she was relieved that she typed in the correct code as the door opened. What she and the pets saw a hidden lair.

"Come on, guys," Cy-Toad said to the pets, as they entered the lair.

The lair was only one room, wasn't very big, and didn't have much to offer, but it was definitely the lair which contained the scary figure that helped Cy-Toad and the pets save the Forest Village earlier today, because the figure itself appeared to be standing on the wall. But it didn't move or appear to be alive.

"Be careful, guys," Cy-Toad told the pets, as they approached it. "And be quiet."

Then something moved in the middle of the figure. Cy-Toad approached the heart of the figure and yanked the clothing off with her tongue. What she and the pets saw was a robot skeleton with wires all around it. Then she saw in the 'heart' of the body was a tiny control centre with wires, buttons and tiny computer screens and a small mouse in its seat!

"Hi," the mouse greeted nervously. She had cyan goggles on top of her strawberry-blonde hair, cyan eyes and she was wearing a blue-magenta mechanic jumpsuit and a purple belt.

Figaro licked his lips and started to lunge for the mouse, but Cy-Toad caught him.

"No, Figaro!" Cy-Toad snapped at him. "This mouse is not food, but a heroine, so show some respect! Pluto, Fifi, make sure that Figaro doesn't even think about going after our new friend."

She put Figaro down by the dogs who kept close watch on him, much to the cat's annoyance.

"I'm so sorry about that, Miss Mouse," Cy-Toad said. "The name's Cy-Toad. What's your name?" She held out her non-robotic hand.

The mouse shook the green hand. "My name is Gadget Hackwrench. And who are your friends?"

"The cat that just tried to eat you is Figaro," Cy-Toad said. "The small dog is Fifi and the big one is Pluto."

"Pleasure to meet you all," Gadget said.

"Pleasure to meet you, Gadget," Cy-Toad said. "And your scary friend here."

"Oh, you mean Alfred?"

"Alfred?"

Gadget pointed to the scary figure. "Yeah, that's his name."

"Why did you name your scary monster robot Alfred?"

"Well, it's a very long story. You might want to sit down while I tell you. You guys want anything to drink?"

"They'll have water and I'll have whatever your having," Cy-Toad said.

"Okay, I won't be long," Gadget said.

Cy-Toad and the pets made themselves comfortable on the floor and soon Gadget came back, holding a device. She pressed it and a tea-tray that was bigger than her wheeled itself to her and her guests. Cy-Toad took the three bowls of water for the pets and a large glass with some strange liquid in it. "A cheese milkshake, Gadget?"

"Yeah, it's my own recipe, Cy-Toad," Gadget said.

Cy-Toad tasted it and she loved it. "This is delicious."

"Thanks." Then Gadget made herself comfortable and then she began her story.

Some years ago, she was part of an organisation called the Rescue Rangers with her very best friends Monterey Jack, Zipper, Chip and Dale. They had many adventures all over the world saving many people and catching villains. But their last mission was their toughest and most heart-breaking one ever. It started when they went out to answer a distress call, but it was a fake one. A fake one set up by Fat Cat and his gang. Then they learned why. As they left for the fake distress call on the other side of the world, their enemies would find their headquarters and burn it and the entire tree they lived in to the ground.

All the Rescue Rangers thought their heroic organisation was over for good, except their leader Chip who was determined to find those villains and put them behind bars for good so that they don't get away with it and they wouldn't have won. And they did find them, capture them and turn them to the police in the end. The villains were behind bars. After that, the Rescue Rangers decided to go their own separate ways, but they promised they would keep in touch. Monterey Jack and Zipper went back to Australia and Chip and Dale moved into a new tree in a park somewhere. The Rescue Rangers were over, but at least they won the final war.

Gadget herself tried to find mechanic work because it was the thing she was best at. She came across this forest and got lost in it. There was also a storm and she needed to find shelter soon, but she couldn't find anywhere safe to take some. The tall trees looked like they could fall. Even the bushes looked rough. Then she spotted a big cave and she decided she couldn't be in the rain anymore and went in and took shelter.

The next morning, Gadget worked up after she heard some screaming. She went to find out what the trouble was. When she got there, she learned that she found a rocky monster attacking a village of innocent lives. Cy-Toad assumed this rocky monster was a golem, part of the Earth Army. Realising there was a loose cloak and a scary mask very close to her, Gadget put them on and ran to the rocky monster and scare it away. And it worked!

Feeling good about herself, she decided to stay and protect this village from more monsters. And she felt that she made the right choice because more of those monsters, whether they be made out of rocks, trees and bushes – Cy-Toad was right about them being the Earth Army – kept attacking the village. And she had been using every piece of metal, wire, button and computer screens to create Alfred to help her fight these monsters.

"And, seriously, you've done a marvellous job at it," Cy-Toad said.

"Thanks," Gadget said. "It's nice to have a use since the Rescue Rangers ended, but I do miss them."

"Do you ever keep in contact like being pen-pals or calling them?" Cy-Toad asked. "Do you ever catch up at reunions or anything?"

"No, none of those," Gadget said sadly. "I wrote one letter to them once, but none of them had written back. I guess they've all been too busy. Well, in fairness to them, so have I." It looked like she was about to burst into tears, but she just cleared her throat instead. "Now, I've told you my story, I'd like to hear about your stories? Who are you and your friends and what's your business?"

"My friends were once pets, but their owners got taken away and we were going to find them, but those monsters were attacking this village and we went to check it out and we found you and you know the rest."

"Well, I'm sorry for what's happened to all of you," Gadget said.

"Thank you," said Cy-Toad. "How often do these attacks at the village happen?"

"Well, I've been protecting this village for nearly five years and the attacks are becoming more common and Alfred and I are finding it tougher to scare them away every time."

"Well, in that case, we are at your service," Cy-Toad said.

"You mean you're staying to help us? Don't get me wrong. That's very generous of you all, but what about your friends' owners?"

"Well, we can only hope they'll be okay. This village looks like it can barely still stand and I imagine our friends are going to attack them again. That's why we're going to help them the best we can."

"Great!" Gadget cheered. "I really appreciate the extra help. I could use your feedback on the plans I've been designing for the defence systems for the village."

"All right, then. Take us to them."

As Gadget walked ahead, Cy-Toad turned to the pets to tell them to follow her, but she didn't when she saw they were looking sad and she knew why. "Don't worry, guys. I haven't forgotten about your owners, but those villagers really do need our help. And if we help them, maybe it will give us more clues to finding your owners."

That seemed to motivate them as their faces lit up and got on their feet.

"That's the spirit. Now, come on, let's follow the mouse. But no eating her. I'm watching you, Figaro."

Figaro nodded a 'I understand' nod before he followed the dogs and Cy-Toad as they went to look at Gadget's defence plans.