The Art of Magic
By: Foxhound
Chapter Three
The three rangers and Mike walked into the well decorated living room. The inside was much nicer than the outside. Many couches and love seats were in a circle around a large table, and on the wall was a large (for rodents, anyway) chalkboard.
"Would ya'll like something to drink?" asked Mike.
"Sure." responded the rangers. Dale was always thirsty, and Tammy and Zipper were very thirsty after playing super spy and getting caught. Mike got drinks for his guests.
"Where is everybody?" asked Dale, using his limited detective ability to figure out that one person would not need so many places to sit.
"Well, some are up and about, on a walk like I was, some might still be sleeping, and some are still up from last night." Replied the magician. "The last of which will be my best friend K.C."
"Why is everyone on such different times?" asked the youngest ranger.
"Well, you don't have to practice magic at a certain time of the day." Answered the mouse. "I'll go see if K.C. is still up." Said Mike as he walked out of the room. Mike soon returned to the front room with another mouse about his own age. The half awake, half asleep mouse had curly hair that was shoulder length.
"What is it, Mike? I was about to go to sleep." Said K.C.
"You're going to sleep now? It's not even noon yet, you'll lose your nickname if you keep that up." Responded Mike.
"Wowie, you have a nick name? How could you lose it by going to sleep now?" Asked the chipmunk.
"They call me rock star because I'm up till noon from the day before." Responded K.C. as he yawned.
"Well, Dale, looks like Chip was wrong, you don't stay up later than everyone else in the world." Said Tammy as she giggled. Dale grinned, immediately seeming very proud to only be the second worst in the world at something, Tammy began laughing even more at that.
"You do seem very tired, K.C... What's wrong?" asked the magician.
"Kary locked the straight jacket on me too tight. Took me a long time to get out." Yawned the mouse again.
"I told you if you kept picking on her she was going to do that." said Mike.
"I'm not that bad." replied K.C.
"You don't think she was joking when she said you should try a decapitation trick, do you? I think she was serious and would like to make sure it was real." Replied Mike as he was teasing his friend.
"Uh... What were your names?" Asked K.C., changing the subject. Each of the rangers introduced themselves to K.C. and Tammy translated for Zipper. "It's nice meeting each of you, but I'm going to sleep before I pass out at your feet." K.C. told them. Everyone said goodnight, except Mike, who replied with his usual "Night, axle."
"Wowie Zowie, you can get put in a straight jacket and get out?" asked Dale after K.C. left the room.
"Yeah, it takes a lot of practice, but it's easy once you know how. Unless you're annoying the person who puts it on you..."
"Can I try?" Asked a very excited Dale.
Mike smiled. "Sure, our senior English teacher always said you belonged in a straight jacket."
"Where did she say you belonged?" Tammy asked Mike.
"She said I belonged in 6th grade grammar class. I wonder what she meant by that." Said Mike with an odd look on his face. "Anyway..." Mike walked over to a closet, opened it and came back with a straight jacket. A very happy and excited Dale put the jacket on. Mike had to remind him you wore these jackets with the hooks on the back. After Dale had put the jacket the right way around, Mike began to secure all the braces into place. He ignored Tammy's cries of "Tighter!", but eventually he did glare at her and say "You're next..." before going back to his work. It wasn't long until Mike was finished.
Dale began to try to get out of the straight jacket. It wasn't nearly as easy as it looked on TV and Tammy and Zipper both started laughing, which didn't help any. The more Dale struggled, the more the two other rangers laughed, which only made Dale struggle more. Mike just smiled, remembering the first time he'd had to make his way out of one. Dale sat in a chair to help his balance, but with all his struggling all he managed was to fall over backwards in the chair, which caused a huge uproar from Tammy and Zipper. This display went on for another 30 minutes, while more innocent furniture was knocked over. Mike righted up each piece as it fell, while Tammy continued to laugh, more to tease Dale than over the idea that this was still funny. Zipper had long since stopped.
"Ok, I give up." Replied a very winded and disappointed Dale after shrugging and sitting down.
"Don't worry, Dale, nobody gets it the first time. Some give up way sooner than you did." Mike said as he helped Dale get out of the straight jacket.
Mike and his guests sat and talked for some time after that, Zipper asked questions and Tammy translated and asked some of her own, mostly about what Chip was like when he was in high school. Mike was more than willing to answer all their questions, except the ones Dale asked about how this or that trick was performed.
"Wow, it's a lot later than I thought." Said Tammy when she glanced at a watch with no band hanging on the wall of Mike's room.
"You're right." agreed Dale.
"Yeah, I'm supposed to meet up with some of the others soon, so I'll have to tell ya'll good bye for now." Mike said, noticing the time.
"Yeah, we have to go too, Zipper wants to go stare at... Ermm, I mean, meet someone at the park." said Tammy with an evil silly smile on her face. Zipper quickly flew around Tammy's head a few times and playfully tackled her in the back of the head while they both laughed.
"Wowzers, it is late. Mike, can you come to the ranger headquarters sometime? Chip would like to see you again too." Said Dale.
"Sounds like a great idea, but it may be a couple of days or so before I can get a chance." Replied Mike with a smile on his face because his old friend had invited him over.
"Ok, that sounds great, we'll see you then." Replied Tammy as she and Dale both got up. Mike walked his guests to the door.
Dale and Tammy started walking away from Mike's home and toward the park and the Ranger's headquarters. Both were in the same direction from Mike's home.
"Are you going to come to the park with us?" asked Tammy as Zipper sat on her shoulder.
"No, I'm going to go to the comic shop and then go home and read my new comics." Replied a very happy Dale.
"Okay, we'll see you back at headquarters, then." Tammy said as she started to walk a different way than Dale.
Dale very quickly made his way to the comic shop. He already knew which issues would be out this week, but he still stared at all of them. After making his purchase, he went back to the Rescue Ranger head quarters. After Dale entered the Ranger Headquarters, Chip quickly got his attention.
"Where are you going?" asked Chip in his stern leadership voice.
"I'm going to my room to read my comics." Replied Dale holding up his new comics. Chip quickly took them from him.
"You're going to your room alright, but you're going to clean your side! It looks horrible! You can have your stupid comic books back when you're done." Chip went and sat back down to read his own well worn book. Dale walked, grumbling, back to the room him and Chip shared. Dale grumbled while he cleaned, mostly just shoving everything out of sight. Soon, however, the door opened and Chip yelled, "And don't just shove everything under the bed!", then shut the door again. Dale began to put everything where it belonged, which took much longer than shoving it under the bed. He began to grumble and mumble some more.
"Clean my room! He should clean it, he's the one who complains that it's dirty, not me. When I die I want to be cremated and I want my ashes spread all over Chip's bed... that way he can clean up after me one more time!" Said the solo chipmunk while he cleaned up his room. It took him most of the afternoon to finish, much longer than if he had just shoved everything aside like he wanted. Once he finished, he walked into the main room.
As he did, Tammy came in the front door, and a bucket of water fell on her.
A lot happened in the next second. Tammy’s eyes instantly closed her eyes from the shock of the cold water. Her first thought was that this was one of Dale’s jokes. This ruffled her wet fur. As she opened her eyes, her first thought and first sight just so happened to be of the same Chipmunk. *Oh, just happened to be here, huh?* She thought angrily. Dale thought this was all very funny and wondered why he didn't think of it first, then he remembered as Tammy tackled him into the sofa behind him, knocking it over and landing them both behind it by a small margin.
"Did you think that was funny? Why did you do it?" asked a very wet and angry squirrel who was on top of a bewildered and scared chipmunk.
"I didn’t do it!" replied Dale.
"Really..." said Tammy as she picked up a pillow in each hand. "What were you doing just before now?" Demanded Tammy, not believing one word of what Dale said and not thinking anything he could say would ever convince her.
"I was..." Dale trailed off. *Cleaning my room? Is that what I'm supposed to tell her? The truth just won’t work.* He realized. There was no way out of this one. "Oh go ahead, I wouldn’t believe me either." He said, giving up.
"Believe what?" Asked Tammy, ready to strike.
"That I was cleaning my room." Said Dale.
"Come on Dale, you can come up with better than that." Tammy started to bring the pillows down, but then she heard some snickering. She easily noticed it was her favorite chipmunk’s laughs. *Chip thinks this is funny too! How many chipmunks do I have to beat up today!* Tammy thought as she looked up to see Chip at the door frame. He quickly ducked away when he saw that she was looking his way. *What the...?* Tammy looked back down at Dale. "You didn’t do this, did you?" Tammy said quietly, so Chip couldn’t hear.
"Nope, but I wish I had if you’re going to beat me senseless for it." replied Dale.
"So you really were cleaning your room?" asked Tammy, still unsure.
"Uh-huh, Chip took my comic books and said I couldn’t have them back until I was done." Replied Dale.
"I think Chip set us up! Come on, grab some pillows, he’s hiding in the next room." Ordered Tammy. Dale did as she said, partly because he wanted to get Chip back and partly because he was mad Chip had thought of the trick first.
Tammy and Dale crept up the other entrance of the room Chip was hiding in. As they did they saw Chip peering out the door again, with a puzzled look on his face.
"Where did they go? Did she beat him into the ground?" Chip asked himself. This was all they needed. Tammy and Dale both tackled Chip into the main room and started with their two on one pillow fight. Chip didn’t stand a chance against the surprise attack. The attack didn’t last long, however, as Gadget came into the room.
"What are you three doing?" Asked Gadget in a mock look of anger.
"We were... uhhhhh..." Came the stalling reply from all three.
"The main room is a mess. You weren’t pillow fighting, were you?" asked Gadget.
Tammy quickly jumped up. "They were, Gadget! I was trying to stop them because..." Gadget had picked up a pillow and delivered a blow to Tammy and then started in on Chip and Dale. None of the three stood a chance against the wrath of Gadget.
After coming in after Tammy, Zipper had quickly headed into the kitchen. A hit from one of the pillows could have sent him across the room. He told Monty what was happening and the two of them sat there at the edge of the room and watched the show. He would tell this story to the other rangers for a long time to come, but one day three of them would not want to hear the story, and Monty would understand why.