Destiny's POV
When I woke up, I once again found myself on a bed. Who would've seen that one coming, I thought very sarcastically. However, this one was so much better then that stupid cot I was used to sleep in at the orphanage. It was soft, warm and extremely comfortable. It even had a nice fluffy pillow. Once my vision cleared, I soon realized that I wasn't in the orphanage or in Central Park for that matter. Instead, it looked more like a treehouse of sorts. The only thing that was different was that it felt like I was actually inside the tree itself.
There were also various pieces of furniture spread about the place and even a window that was in a carved-out area of the tree. Among the furniture was a bedside table with a single lamp and a chair next to it. Jesus! What the heck kind of animal has this high of an IQ? I thought to myself. That's when it hit me like a stack of bricks, I had shrunk. I realized that it must have been that device that I found in the park last night. Well, at least I can finally rest assured that I will never have to deal with Mrs. Matthews anymore, I thought in relief. But at the same time, I was just in some random place that I've never seen before. I figured that I'd been saved by someone, or something for that matter, but I had absolutely no idea who they were or what they looked like, so I started getting nervous.
I silently prayed that this was just a dream but no matter how many times I closed my eyes or said "this isn't happening this isn't happening", everything was still the way it was. But hey, at least I was relieved that I was wearing a simple pink nightgown which made me extremely suspicious as to who exactly took my old clothes off earlier, but I brushed that uncomfortable thought aside. I was just about to get out of bed when all of a sudden, the door opened, and I immediately darted back under the covers.
"Oh good, your awake." came an unusually high-pitched voice from the entrance of the room. Why does this voice sound so strange yet familiar? I thought. But unlike Mrs. Matthews, it didn't sound mad or threatening, but rather sweet and kind. "My brother and I were worried that you weren't going to make during that storm last night, so we decided to bring you back to our place. Also, I hope you don't mind the nightgown. Those clothes you had on before were a little ripped and soaked beyond belief." I still didn't trust whoever or whatever was talking to me. I remember Mrs. Matthews telling me not to trust anyone that I meet. But deep down I knew that it wasn't the case for everybody.
Still, I was scared out of my wits, shaking in fear and tears started to form in my eyes. "No! Please don't hurt me. I've gone through enough already" I thought as the tears threatened to spill down my cheeks. Then that same cute sounding voice spoke up, and I felt a soft paw on my shoulder, which caused me to stop shaking. "Don't worry. I'm not gonna hurt you, I promise" it said reassuringly. Slowly but surly, I stuck my head up from under the covers and looked at who was talking to me, and my eyes went wider than ever.
It was a chipmunk. No, not just any chipmunk, a TALKING chipmunk. He was a little bit shorter than me, had brown fur, a tan underbelly and muzzle, a cute little black nose and a small black, white and brown striped tail. But the weirdest part about him was that he was wearing clothes, just like a normal human. He sported a brown sheepskin bomber jacket and a matching brown fedora on his head with holes on the sides so his ears could fit through.
I just looked at him in both shock and confusion. How was he talking to me? Why was he wearing clothes? Who is he? Was he going to chew me to splinters? Do chipmunks even eat meat? Many questions were filling my head until the chipmunk spoke up again. "Can you talk?" I nodded my head in response before asking him a simple question, "where am I?" "Oh, your in the headquarters of the Rescue Rangers." he said with a little pride in his voice as he smiled at me. Rescue Rangers, that sounds pretty cool, I thought. "What's your name?" he asked me.
I gave him a questioning look before answering slowly "My name is Destiny Hamilton, what's yours?" The chipmunk looked at me with a kind smile and held out his paw towards me. "That's a lovely name, my name's Chip, Chip Oakland. It's nice to meet you Destiny Hamilton." I hesitated at first but slowly took his paw and shook it. "Nice to meet you too Chip." Then I felt a sharp pain and put my hand on my head. Chip noticed this and gave my hand a squeeze. "Are you ok? I mean you were hurt pretty bad. So we got an ice pack and a glass of water for you."
"Oh, thanks Chip. That's very kind of you." I said while I gave him a small smile. "Y-your welcome Destiny" Chip said while trying to hide the obviously visible pink tint that dusted his cheeks. He was probably one of the most adorable things that I have ever seen. That sweet face of his would make anyone look at him and say 'awwwww'.
"Say, why don't you wait here, and I'll bring in the rest of the rangers so they can introduce themselves. I mean we've never had a human in our base before." "Sure Chip, I'd like that" I tried to say in a positive tone while trying to hide my sadness. Chip was all sorts of excited. "Great! I'll let them know that your awake. Be right back." "Thanks Chip" I said. With that, Chip left the room to go get his friends. I still can't believe I'm talking to a chipmunk, I thought.
Chip's POV
As I left her room to go and tell my friends that she was awake, layers upon layers of questions started staking on my mind. Where did she come from? Where were her parents? Were they even looking for her? I decided to ask her these questions at a later time since I didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable. For now, my main goal was to get her aquatinted with my friends and our home. Dale, Gadget, Monty and Zipper were all chilling on the couch watching the tv. The reporter on the screen was talking about how the worlds largest supply of tuna had gone missing and that the NYPD had opened an investigation. I let out a sigh. It felt like everyday there was a multitude of crimes that was being committed and the police just couldn't keep up with all the rampant theft and things of that nature.
But the good news was that the NYPD was about to recruit some more officers to help strengthen the police force. And of course, me and my fellow rangers would be there to help with the cases that they were having trouble solving. Anyways, once the report was finished, Gadget glanced over in my direction and turned off the tv, prompting the others to do the same. Gadget smiled at me and asked, "Is she up yet?" I nodded and smiled back. That's when Dale ran towards the door full speed, but I quickly stopped him. "And just what do you think your doing?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. He smiled sheepishly and said, "oh uh n-nothing." "Yeah, that's what I thought." I said with a smirk. I could tell that he's been thinking about Destiny since he found him, but I knew that we had to take this one step at a time. With that we made our way to where Destiny was.
Destiny's POV
I had absolutely no idea what the others looked like, but I decided to remain optimistic. Would they even take a liking to me or just ignore me. My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of door opening again. I turned my head and looked towards the doorway. I saw Chip as well as another male chipmunk and two mice, one male and the other female. I felt my eyes scanning each one of them.
The male mouse was the oldest. He had a round body, a maroon mustache and had a pair of flight goggles on his head. He wore an aqua colored sweater and a light brown trench coat. I also noticed there was a tiny little fly next to him. He had cyan skin and wore a red shirt. Interesting to say the least.
The female mouse was shorter than the male mouse and had a much more skimmed down body then he did. She dawned a pair of light purple pants as well as a matching belt and shirt. She also had a more rounded head and had long blonde hair although her's was longer than mine and given that my hair was brown instead of blond. She too had a pair of goggles on her head.
Then my eyes glanced towards the other chipmunk. He was about the same height as Chip, but he looked different. He only wore a simple red button-down short-sleeved shirt with a yellow flower pattern on it. His facial features were also different. He had a tuff of brown fur on his head, had two incisors unlike Chip who had one, and a cute little red nose that I wished I could just go and boop with my finger. He looked just as adorable as Chip. "Alright everyone. This is Destiny Hamilton. She's the small human that Dale found in the park yesterday during that storm. Now she's still recovering from her injuries so don't jump all over her ok." They all nodded. Then Chip walked over to me.
"Are you felling okay enough that you can at least sit up?" he whispered to me. "I think so." That seemed to bring a smile to Chip's face. One by one the rangers introduced themselves. First was the older mouse. "Pleasure to meet cha Destiny, Monterey Jack is my name and huntin' cheese, and adventure, is my game. Welcome to our humble abode Ms. Hamilton." He grabbed my hand and kissed it which made me smile. I than glanced over at the fly. He let out a high-pitched squeak and few behind Monterey. "Ah don't worry Zippa, she ain't gonna bite ya".
The fly who was called Zipper slowly peaked his head from behind Monty and flew over to me. He said something that could have only sounded like a hello but soon found his way back over to Monty. He poked his head out from behind his shoulder again. I gave him a small wave which caused Zipper's entire body to turn as red as a stop sign. We all laughed in unison as he tried to hide his clearly visible blush. Then the female mouse stepped forward and I could instantly see a sparkle of excitement in her eyes.
"Golly, I don't think I've ever seen a pint sized human before in our home before in my life. Anyways, it's nice to meet you Destiny. Name's Gadget, Gadget Hackwrench. And, honestly, I wish I had a name as pretty as yours." I was taken by surprise at her comment but a small smile formed on my face as I shook her hand. "Thank you, I really appreciate that." Gadget beamed. "No problem. Also, just so you know, I'm also an inventor too so if you ever wanna stop by my workshop, please don't hesitate to swing by if your interested." "I'll take that into consideration. Thanks Gadget." Last but not least, the chipmunk with the red shirt walked up to me however something was a little off about him.
His eyes were frozen in place and his mouth hung open a bit, as if he was in some sort of trance. I tried waving my hand in his face but he still wasn't responding. He just stood there and stared at me. Chip, noticing this, started to get irritated and went over to the chipmunk and with one swift stroke, banged his fist fist on his head. I winced at the sight. "OW, HEY WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?" he shouted while rubbing his head in pain.
"Your making a scene in front of our guest Dale." Chip stated, clearly annoyed. "Go on introduce yourself." Dale shot a glare at him before making his way to me and sticking out his shaky paw. "Uh hi there, I'm uh Dale, Chip's y-y-y-younger brother n-n-nice ta m-m-meet ya, uh what was your name again" he stuttered bashfully. I reached out and shook his paw all while avoiding the fact that both he and I had a little bit of rose on our cheeks. "It's Destiny. Nice to meet you too Dale" I told him. Chip than intervened and got in between me and Dale.
"He's my brother. Alrighty, now that we've got the formalities out of the way, what do say I give a tour of our headquarters. Would you like that Destiny?" Chip asked me while holding out his paw. I glanced over at Dale and saw that he was getting mad but I simply just put my hand on his shoulder and that was somehow enough to calm him down. Wow, that was easy, I thought. "Alright Destiny let's go" Chip said. I bid the others farewell, took Chip's paw and walked out the door.
Chip's POV
As Destiny and I made our way out of the room, I couldn't help but feel that something off about her. I felt like she wasn't telling me everything, but I didn't mind. I'm sure she'll tell us about her backstory at some point, and I'm sure she means well. But as of right now, I was focused on making sure that she was treated as if she was a member of our household. However, I just couldn't stop glancing at her. She was very pretty. But I couldn't let her sweet face or flowing blonde hair distract me.
I had to make sure that she knew her way around. I led her down the hall to the various rooms. I showed her me and Dale's room, Gadget's room and Monterey's room so that way she knew where we were if she needed us. I was about to show her Gadget's workshop but remembered that she doesn't let anyone in without her permission. Destiny told me she understood, which was good enough for me. Next, I led her to the living room.
