Chapter 4 – A Failed Mission
As Gadget was leading them through the corridors, Penny looked up at him.
"By the way, Uncle Gadget, where is Digit?" She asked.
"Home." said Gadget. "He said he needed some recovery."
"Recovery?" asked Penny.
"Yes, it's strange, I know, since robots can't get hurt or sick...
"Maybe he was talking about his system recovery." She insisted. "What happened during your mission, Uncle Gadget?"
"Oh Penny, you should know that I can't talk about that, even though you're an agent now." said Gadget.
"To Digit, Uncle Gadget, what happened to Digit?" Penny corrected her uncle.
"Ah..." said Gadget. "Well, I don't know, I found him in pieces."
"In PIECES?!" Fidget gasped.
The Inspector carried on. "Yes, all his body parts were all over the place, I had a tough time reassembling him, hehe...he reassembled Digit... Himself...Digit was trembling, probably picturing in his brain processor what Digit should look like by now."
"I'll fix him up when we're back home," Penny promised. "Don't worry."
"Okay, just make sure I won't see him before you do that..." said Fidget.
Penny patted his shoulder. "I'll remember that."
They walked until the Inspector reached a dead end.
He rubbed his chin. "Hmmm, that's odd. I could have sworn the mini-map on the invite was leading here."
"The invite?" asked Penny.
"Yes, it's their grand opening!" Gadget exclaimed. "They invited their most faithful clients!"
Penny raised an eyebrow. "Can I see the invite?"
"Sure..." said Gadget.
He handed her a piece of cardboard and she immediately recognized the MAD logo.
"Just as I thought..." She said.
"What is it, Penny?" asked Gadget.
She smiled. "Oh, nothing at all, Uncle Gadget, it's just I... Figured out we should have turned left when we last turned right."
The Inspector took the card back and frowned, "Oh really?"
"Yes, look, there's an office right here!" Penny pointed at something.
The Inspector smiled, blushing in blatant embarrassment. "Oh you're right! I've never been here before, so I got lost a bit. Well, we get there, then..."
They turned around and stepped back until they found the "correct" path: Penny knew her Uncle had perfectly followed the directions, but that was a trap, and if they had stayed there, they would have been captured.
"What do we do, Penny?" asked Fidget. "How do we find Doctor Claw without being caught?"
Penny shrugged. "We must find the head office, or the safe, Doctor Claw should be in there."
"The Head office?" The Inspector cackled. "It's right there, Penny!"
"I must have missed that." She replied.
"I'll talk to the head, he must know where the party takes place!" said Gadget.
Penny nodded. "Good idea, Doctor Claw could be hiding in this office."
"Good evening, dear Director!" said Gadget. "I have been invited to your grand opening, I am..."
"Inspector Gadget..." a growling voice confirmed. "...I have been waiting for you..."
"Watch out, Uncle Gadget!" shouted Penny.
She jumped on her uncle, preventing him from being crushed by a falling piece of ceiling.
"Hey! What's with you?" She asked.
The Inspector protested. "There, Penny, these aren't appropriate manners in public!"
The growling voice laughed/ "Hahahaaa... So your precious niece is here too, Gadget...I won't have to set a surprise especially for her, then...how convenient for me..."
"Uncle Gadget, this is really serious!" Penny panicked. "That man is Doctor Claw!
"That is ridiculous, Penny, this man is the Director of the Bank!" Gadget retorted. "Look at his seat, there's the same logo than on the invite."
"This is the MAD logo, Uncle Gadget! Don't you recognize it?" asked Penny.
Gadget tried to talk. "You're not on a mission here, Penny, you..."
As a matter of fact, I AM on a mission, and my mission is to capture Doctor Claw!" Penny barked.
The Inspector waved his finger. "Tsk tsk tsk Penny, you know you shouldn't tell anyone what mission you're on."
"Ha, ha,ha, ha.." Claw snickered. "...so you, little girl, have been sent by WOMP to capture me?"
"I am NOT a little girl!" Penny snapped.
She jumped on the desk and forced the seat to rotate to reveal its occupant.
"Did you really think I was hiding in the most obvious place of this mountain?" Claw laughed.
There only was a voice transmitter on the seat. Penny hardly refrained herself from throwing it away in rage: it could tell her where the transmission came from.
"This is a very safe place, even the director is hiding." said Gadget. "We have no time, we must find him!"
"You will never get out of this office!" Claw gloated. "Farewell, Browns!"
Just then, there was some kind of hissing noise.
Penny looked up. "Gas! I have no idea what kind it is, but we have to get out of here!"
But the door was now locked. Penny put a compact oxygen mask on her face.
"Drill a hole, Fidget!" She said.
Fidget let his drill out. "I'm on it!"
He drilled a hole into the floor.
"Officer!" Gadget exclaimed. "You're altering the property of-"
Gadget fell down the hole.
Fidget retracted his drill. "Let's go!"
Penny grabbed her uncle and dragged him through the hole. They got far enough to be safe from the gas, whatever it was, and Penny looked at her uncle.
"I'm collecting a sample of his breath... " She said. "Fidget, you have the upgrade of your sample analyzer, right?"
"Yes!" Fidget nodded.
Penny put another mask on the Inspector's face and kept it like that a few seconds.
She then handed Fidget the mask. "Go for it!"
Fidget put the mask on his own face and breathed in. "Okay, I get the whole sample..."
"Why are you coughing?" asked Penny.
Fidget shrugged. "This stuff is pretty high...wanna try?"
"Huh, no thanks..." said Penny. "What do you have?"
"My analyzer is a little wonky with this stuff..." He coughed. "It's sleeping gas combined with nitrous oxide, nothing dangerous."
Penny thought twice. "It's not deadly...why?"
"Maybe Claw wants him alive to kill him with his own hands?" suggested Fidget.
"That makes sense." said Penny. "How long will this last?"
"Judging by the saturation in sleeping gas, about thirty minutes." Fidget deduced.
"Start a countdown for this, we're going to find Doctor Claw." Penny proclaimed.
Fidget grabbed her pants. "But! The nitrous oxide will last longer than that!"
"That's not a big problem." said Penny. "Help me take Uncle Gadget to a safe place, we need the coast all clear to keep up with the mission."
They dragged the Inspector to an empty office, put him in a closet and left.
"He's safe for now, Doctor Claw doesn't know where he is." said Penny.
Fidget nodded. "Okay, so what's next?"
Penny showed the transmitter. "Doctor Claw doesn't know it, but I deactivated the microphone to make him think his plan worked. Now we can trace the place where he hides thanks to this."
"Neat!" said Fidget. "I'll follow you!"
They ran through the halls. They didn't have much time before Dr. Claw sent his agents and found out his plan failed. If the gas was meant to work for an half hour, then the agents were already on their way to the head office.
In a few minutes, the MAD Agents would find the office empty, then Doctor Claw would certainly flee the mountain, and Penny would fail on a mission for the first time!
She couldn't allow that, after over one hundred and fifty-six successful missions, and this one was the most important ever.
"We're close!" Penny panicked. "My watch is flashing like crazy!"
They reached a door, and Penny raised an eyebrow. "The janitor's closet? Of course. Doctor Claw said he wasn't in the most obvious place, and THIS, is the least obvious."
They bursted into the closet.
"Hands up, Doctor Claw, in the name of all that is honest and law abiding, you're under arrest!" Penny showed her badge. "Now, show me your face and accept the judgment you deserve!"
"You got me cornered..." said Claw. "The least I can do, is to honor you by a glance at my face..."
The seat moved, but something exploded in the distance.
"What was that?" Doctor Claw looked around.
Just then, the ground started quaking.
"What is happening?!" Fidget shouted.
Penny tried to talk. "I don't know-AAAAHHHH!"
The ground quaked more, making Penny fall down.
"Ha,ha, ha,ha, that was unexpected..." Claw laughed.
Penny lifted her head. "Oh no! He's escaping!"
She jumped on the desk, but Doctor Claw had already ejected himself out of the mountain in a flying capsule at an incredible speed.
Penny watched it leaving and disappearing in the sunset:
"NOOO!" She shouted.
Just then, the door had exploded, leaving a cloud of smoke.
"Whoever you are, I warn you, I'm not in the mood!" barked Penny, then she saw who it was. "Uncle Gadget?"
"Careful, Penny, he's still high on the nitrous oxide!" said Fidget.
"And a person remembers what happens when on this gas, right?" asked Penny.
- Right.
Penny shoved her fists in her pockets, "That's too bad."
"I can sedate him if you want." said Fidget.
"Really? How?" asked Penny.
"Like this." Fidget approached the Lieutenant and sprayed some gas.
Gadget fell down and Fidget smiled.
"Phew, thank you Fidget." Penny sighed of relief. "If he started talking, I don't know how long I would have stood it before punching him real hard."
"You're welcome." Fidget smiled.
"How did you do that?" asked Penny.
"I had a bit of the gas in store, I used my water spray to dispense it." Fidget explained. "I'm very sorry, Penny... I know you never failed before, even when you weren't an Agent..."
"It's not your fault, Fidget, you've been the best..." Penny sighed. "If only the gas had worked just a bit more..."
Fidget frowned, "Rise up, Penny, we're not done yet!"
"It's over, Fidget..." Penny said. "Doctor Claw escaped, and the General is going to put me back at the scanner..."
"That won't happen, Penny, cause we still have this." Fidget showed her a transmitter.
Penny looked at her watch: it was flashing slower and slower, which meant the signal was getting further.
"You're right!" Penny exclaimed. "Let's follow him before the signal gets too far!"
They stood up, and Fidget activated his back plane.
"Thanks for choosing Air Fidget, we embark immediately!" He grabbed her and flew right through the hole the capsule took to leave.
Penny looked at her watch, "It's this way, Fidget, quick!"
"I'm on it!" Fidget gave a thumbs up.
The back plane fired, propelling them through the sky. The watch was slowly flashing, but still, the signal wasn't lost.
"Faster, Fidget, faster!" said Penny.
The fight wasn't over, she WOULD get Doctor Claw and bring him to the WOMP!
"Faster, we're losing him!" Penny shouted.
"I can't risk breaking my engines!" said Fidget.
"I know their technical limits, trust me!" Penny exclaimed.
Fidget turned, firing his plane as hard as he could.
Penny exulted. "I see him!"
The capsule was still flying, that was perfect.
:I can catch up with him!" Fidget assured.
He fired harder, and they got past the capsule.
"Fidget, Interception Mode!" Penny exclaimed.
Fidget's eyes flashed green and he volte-faced and revealed his load of dissuasive weapons. The capsule then stopped in front of them and stayed in hovering.
"He surrendered?" Fidget wondered.
Penny raised an eyebrow. "Take me closer, Fidget, I want to open that capsule."
Fidget obeyed, and Penny manipulated her watch to force the opening.
"I should have known!" She said as she saw that the capsule was empty, and a red led was flashing on the seat. "It was a trick! He surely joined a flying vehicle half-course and left this for us to chase!"
"What do we do, now?" asked Fidget. "What do we do?"
"Get back to WOMP, announce my failure and be sent back to paperwork forever..." Penny sighed. "Take me back home, Fidget..."
Fidget turned around and flew away from the capsule.
"You know, we probably should confiscate this." He said. "After all, it's evidence. The Doctor Claw was in there.
"You're right!" said Penny. "Let's bring it with us! Maybe everything isn't lost after al-"
Just then, the capsule blew up and Penny froze in shock.
"He knew we would...the capsule was rigged..." She sadly said. "Just take me home...I need a few hours to be ready for my demise..."
"Understood." Fidget nodded.
And they left, Fidget flying away, unaware that the Mountain of Limbo was now a pile of ashes...
Author's Note:
Well folks, it looks like the mission has failed as this title has stated. Please read and review. Stay tuned for more.