Chapter Five"What the..."
Off days come and off days go, the way they always have and always will. After a fun filled day off, the rangers went back to doing what they always do: looking for cases and saving the world. Neither of these came often enough for Chip. He was the first one up, like he always was on the day after their day off. The other rangers, however, got up at their usual times. Chip sat at his usual place with a well read book in his arms. He had reread the book so many of times that no one could have kept up with it. He sat there thinking. *It would be great if there was a villain who could give me a real challenge. To go one on one with someone who could put me up to a real mental challenge.* Chip stood and put his book down. He slowly walked up to the window. It was a cool cloudy day, it didn't look like it was going to rain. A nice cool day, the way he liked it.
The other rangers made their way into the main room at their usual times. Gadget came in after an hour in her workshop. Dale came down to the main room, even though he wasn't fully awake, and probably wouldn't be for another hour. Monty and Zipper had been down for awhile and cooking breakfast. Tammy had made her way in, and after finishing her workout and shower, she did what she thought a good detective would do. She turned on the news.
After all the rangers were ready, they left to look for cases in their usual first stop. Gadget never went with the other rangers to the police station. She always found it more useful to be inventing. Which was good now, because of the addition of a new member to the team, they didn't have enough room in their existing vehicles. Gadget was at work making a new version of the ranger plane that "should" work with no problems.
The Rescue Rangers all set out for the police station. Chip pointed the ranger plane. Since there was no Gadget in the driver seat, Dale had no interest in riding up front, especially when there was a squirrel there to make Chip squirm and she could do a much better job in the front seat. So, it was Chip and Tammy in the front, and Dale, Monty and Zipper in the back seat.
"So, are you going to tell me all your super detective ways of finding cases and saving the world, oh fearless leader?" asked a teasing squirrel.
Chip shifted in his seat. Not sure which he didn't like more, the way this had already gone, or the way he thought it was going to go. "Don't worry, I'll show you everything there is to finding cases." Replied Chip. Dale heard exactly the way Chip had phrased this sentence, and decided to behave the rest of the trip, but first he whispered something to Monty and Zipper, who both snickered and shook their heads in approval.
"What are you three doing back there?" asked Chip.
"Nothing, oh fearless leader." Responded the mischievous chipmunk.
"Never mind, I probably don't want to know what you said." Replied Chip. After that, it wasn't long until the rangers made it to the police station.
Chip got out of the driver seat of the ranger plane, and Tammy was right behind him. Dale and Monty both jumped into the front seat of the ranger plane, with Dale in the pilot seat. "We'll be off to patrol the city." Responded Dale, as he started the ranger plane back up.
"What? We're supposed to be showing Tammy how to look for cases at the police station!" replied Chip.
"No mate, you said you were going to show her how we look for cases." Responded Monty.
"You two try not to have to much fun!" Replied Dale, at which he started the ranger plane upwards.
Chip started to grumble at this, he looked over at Tammy. "What's wrong Chipper? Afraid we're going to have too much fun?" she asked.
"Come on, lets go." Responded Chip after watching Dale leave, at which point he turned around and headed for the rangers usual way into the police station.
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Dale and Monty began to head away from the police station.
"Chip seems so mad to have to be stuck working with Tammy." Stated Dale as he looked back down at Chip.
"I don't reckon I know what's botherin' Chip about working with Tammy. You tease him a lot more than 'er." Replied Monty, also looking back down at Chip and Tammy as Dale took them further away from the police station.
"Yeah, she's actually fun to be around. She followed me yesterday and I didn't even know she was there. Zipper was with her too! They both surprised me, but Mike knew they were there." Said Dale as he turned the corner and surveyed the surrounding area.
"Yeah mate, Zip told me about it last night, said th' lass was pretty smart and learned fast. 'xactly the thing I thought about 'er. Zip said that boy was a nice lad. Knew him in high school, did ya?" Responded Monty.
"Yeah, he was one of our friends we hung out with in high school. He was always getting into trouble. A lot worse trouble than me and Chip got into." Responded Dale.
"Lots of us got into trouble in school. Just takes some growing up for some folks." Responded Monty as Dale turned another corner.
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Chip led Tammy down a series of tunnels
until they came to just above the ceiling fan. "Ok, lets get down on the
fan." He said. Chip landed on the platform. Tammy, however, landed a little
too close to the blade of the fan, which sent her flying toward the filing cabinet.
Chip quickly grabbed the rope they use to swing down to the desk and went toward
the filing cabinet. The rope wasn't long enough to send him exactly where he
wanted to go, so he had to wait till the last moment to let go. It still didn't
work exactly how he wanted it to. He hit the wall and fell onto the cabinet
face first. Tammy had lucked out and landed in a bit of string that had been
hanging from the shelf above. She was now hanging upside down with the string
around one of her feet, just a little above where Chip had landed.
"Now Chip, I don't tease you enough for you to try to kill me." Tammy lifted up and put her hands around the string and set her foot free. She flipped backwards and landed on the chipmunk that was about to get up. "And if you do try to kill me, try a little harder." Laughed the squirrel, as she took Chip's hat off his head and put it on her own head, and went toward the desk that was near to them. She slid down the side of the filing cabinet. Chip quickly followed and retrieved his hat after making it to the ground.
"Well, if you're through playing around, are you ready to begin?" asked Tammy.
"Ugh. Yes, lets begin." Replied Chip, annoyed that Tammy had said exactly the same thing he was about to say. "Usually we sit up there on the ceiling fan and watch the desk. Lucky for us, there wasn't anybody in the room. If there's nobody in the room, we check out the file on the desk." Said Chip. The two of them climbed up on the desk. There on the desk sat a few files. Tammy and Chip looked through a few of them. None of them seemed interesting.
"What do you if you don't find anything here?" asked Tammy.
"It's not uncommon for us not to find anything worth looking at. We usually go to the filing cabinets and see if there's anything there, but usually there isn't." The two of them went to the filing cabinet and climbed up the side. Chip kicked open the filing cabinet, which had taken him years of practice to get right. There were hundreds of files in the cabinet.
"They always put the new files toward the front with the date on the label." Chip pointed to the label. "Here, help me pull up the file." Tammy helped Chip as he wanted. They continued to pull up the first 5 files, which were the only ones that Chip hadn't seen yet. The two of them looked through the files and didn't see anything that seemed to warrant the Rescue Rangers help.
"How do we get these files back in the drawer? It looks a lot harder to fit them back into place because they are so big and heavy." Asked Tammy.
"We don't. We leave them up here and they put them up. Whoever finds it is usually saying how lazy the other officers are as he puts them up." Answered Chip.
"Aren't you lazy?" Tammy said as she and Chip started toward the hole in the ceiling that they had come out of.
After surveying the area, Dale and Monty had returned to the police station and just had gotten back when Chip and Tammy came out of the building. Both of them got out of the ranger plane.
"Did ya find anything, Chippa' me lad?" asked Monty. Chip didn't answer the question. He went straight for Dale and the two of them started their arguing at a speed that only acorn lovers could follow.
"Tammy, ya can understand 'em? What are th' lads saying?" asked Monty. Zipper buzzed his curiosity too.
"Are too and Am not and lots of name calling. Lets go." Responded Tammy. She, Monty, and Zipper all headed for the Ranger plane. Tammy started it up and waited to see if Chip and Dale would stop their arguing. They didn't. So she started upwards and it wasn't until they were far off the roof top until Chip and Dale noticed. They yelled for the rope ladder. Monty obliged them and soon all the rangers were ready to leave.
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A few days later, a mouse sat outside of the Rescue Rangers headquarters. He was alone and wearing a pair of blue jeans, a black t-shirt and a blue jean jacket over it. He began to make his way to the ranger headquarters. It wasn't long before he made it to the front door. He knocked on the door. Chip opened it.
"Uhhh hello uhh, Mike? How did you know where we lived?" asked Chip.
"I seen it the other day when I came by here and seen Dale. He invited me over here." Responded Mike.
"Dale didn't tell me, but it's great to see you again. I haven't seen you since high school. Come in." invited Chip. The two of them went inside as Dale and the other rangers except Gadget came into the room. Chip quickly went over to Dale.
"Why didn't you tell me that you met Mike the other day, you lunkhead?" asked Chip.
"I was going to tell you, but you sent me up to my room to clean it and set a trap for me. When I came down I was going to tell you but then water spilled all over Tammy and she thought I did it and she attacked me and it was all your fault! After all that I forgot to tell you." Responded Dale very quickly, but everyone was still able to understand him.
"You should always remember to tell me when you see one of our old friends! How would you feel if I forgot to tell you I saw one of our friends?" Responded Chip, just a little quicker. Dale responded more quickly still, and the argument went to a speed that none except Tammy could understand.
"They still do this?" asked Mike to Tammy, who was the only person he knew that he could understand.
"Yeah, they'll argue about anything. They did this in high school, too?" asked the red headed squirrel.
"Yeah, used to get into it at least once a day, would have all of us late for class because of it. Not that we needed an excuse or anything, we were almost always late for class because of one of Chip or Dale's stunts." Responded Mike.
"You mean Chip wasn't an A student and behaved like a perfect angel?" questioned Tammy. At this point Mike doubled over laughing, which Tammy took as a no. Tammy very quickly made her way and broke up Dale and Chip's argument and started one of her own with Chip, which was just as fast as Chip and Dale argument that just ended. After seeing the look on Tammy's face, Dale decided not to disturb her. He walked over to where Mike was standing next to Monty.
"What just happened? What are they arguing about?" asked Mike.
"Chip told Tammy he was a perfect student and would get on to her anytime she slacked off to school. I never told her he wasn't like that. I didn't want her to play around her whole time in high school like we did, and well, she's kinda mad at Chip." Dale responded.
"I knew th' lad got into way too much trouble now to have been a perfect student in school. I haven't met ya yet lad, but Zip says you're a real nice bloke. Name's Monterey Jack."
"Glad to meet ya, Dale told me 'bout you the other day when ah' met him." Responded Mike, shaking hands with the a bush mouse twice his size. At that point a blond mouse as tall as Mike came into the room. She was wearing coverall that were smeared with oil.
"Now Gadgetluv, don't go tellin' me you slept in those oily things." Said Monty to Gadget.
"Slept? I never sleep before dinner." Responded Gadget. "And who is this? Have you come to have dinner with us?"
"I'm Mike, an old friend of Chip and Dale's... But dinner? Darlin', it's 10 am."
"Oh... Then dinner is over, and so is breakfast. Umm... Are you staying for lunch?" asked Gadget. To this Mike could only look at Monty. Monty just grinned and patted him on the shoulder.
"Sure, sounds great." Responded Mike after looking back at Gadget. *Have to admit, she is nothing like I thought she would be. Very friendly darling, but doesn't seem aware of anything around her outside of what she is doing. Her eyes Dance with intelligence. Monty's as well, but he's exactly like I figured.*
Not long afterwards, Chip and Tammy stopped arguing at the speed of light, but their fussing continued for the next two hours, while Mike talked with Gadget, Dale and Monty. Monty was very happy, as always when a mouse came to visit for lunch, to have someone who loved cheese as much as he did. While Gadget liked cheese, it wasn't on the same level as other mice, or anywhere near that of the legendary Monterey Jack.
The three mice sipped on cheese sauce, while Dale drank acorn tea and listened to the fight between Tammy and Chip continue onward.
It wasn't long before Tammy and Chip quit arguing. Tammy wasn't mad at Chip anymore, but she wanted it to seem like she was. Soon all the rangers and Mike sat down at the table.
The rangers and their guest sat down at the table. Zipper sat on Monty's shoulder like he always did, to his right was Mike, and next was Dale, who was sitting next to his favorite female mouse, who always seemed to find herself sitting in-between two chipmunks, and today was no exception. To Chip's right was Tammy, and the circle was completed with Monty to Tammy's right.
"Now Chip, we have a guest here today, so you won't be allowed to eat with your hands from a bowl that is on the floor, like you usually do." Responded Tammy in a miss manners attitude.
"Wait, I've ne..." Chip did not get to finish his statement.
"Now Chip, it is very rude to interrupt someone when they're talking. Have you not ever read a manners book?" Scowled Tammy in her new manners attitude.
"No I haven't read one of those useless things." Responded Chip very quickly.
"Well, I will have to teach you manners today." Responded Miss Manners Tammy.
At this point, Mike leaned over to Monty. "Are they always like this?"
"Yeah lad, They always act like this, sometimes worse." Responded The Australian traveler.
Chip began to reach for the sliced acorns. "Now Chip, it is very rude to reach over someone's plate. If you would like something from the table, please make a request for it, and it will be passed to you. This is the way civilized people act." Responded the squirrel with authority.
Chip growled at this. "Could you PLEASE pass me the sliced Acorns, Please!"
"See, acting polite is easier than you thought." Tammy picked up the sliced acorns and handed them to Monty.
"What are you doing?" asked Chip.
"When you pass food, you must pass it to the person on your right. It will then make it's way around the table until it makes it's way to the person it started to." Responded Tammy, to which Chip only grumbled.
Gadget giggled at this, having read a few manner books in her spare time, and knew that you always passed to the left, and Tammy had said the right just to annoy Chip.
"Luv, could you pass the cheese bites? Asked Monty as Dale had passed the sliced acorns to gadget.
"Certainly, Monterey." Tammy politely responded as she passed the cheese bites to Chip as Gadget passed the sliced acorns to Chip.
"Arn'te you supposed to be passing to the right?" asked Chip.
"If you had read a manners book instead of your sil'y Sureluck Jones books, then you would know that you pass to the right on the first time and to the left on the second, and what are you doing? You shouldn't be getting any sliced acorns when you should be passing this around!" Tammy quickly took the acorns from Chip and handed the cheese bites to him. She sprinkled something on to the last one as she then passed it to Monty. "Don't worry, Chip, the acorns will make their way back to you. Surely Chip, you should put others before yourself." Miss manners looked away in mock disgust before she stared to grin in Monty's direction.
The now laced sliced acorn made it's way around the table. Since anybody who wanted one had already gotten one, the acorn remained untouched. It made its way back to Chip in a very short time. Chip took the plate, looked over to Tammy to see if he was doing anything impolite or rude and as politely as he could, as not risk the wrath of Miss Manners once more, took the last sliced acorn off the plate, worried that Miss Manners would complain about him taking the last one. As no looks came from the squirrel in question, Chip started to eat, but after one bite which was too big, his eyes figuratively turned red and steam came out of his ears, he jumped up from the table and ran into the kitchen. With no walls in-between the kitchen and dining room everything could be seen from where the rangers were sitting.
Everyone was surprised except one guilty squirrel, who quickly stood up. "Chip, I am surprised at you! If you wanted to leave the table, you should ask to be excused, stand up slowly, back up and then push your chair in, not run around the room like a pre-historic chipmunk carrying a club made out of a cat bone!" Lectured Tammy. "And you really shouldn't act like that! You could insult the chef!" Chip was now drinking more water than he had the entire previous day.
Mike leaned over to Monty. "Have ya'll considered getting your own show? I think the Rescue Ranger Comedy Hour would do nice." Told Mike. To which Monty gave a gentle, yet still rough to a mouse half his size, nudge with his elbow as he laughed.
Soon Chip made his way back to the table. Since Tammy had her revenge and Chip was watching her much more carefully now, the rest of lunch went as it usually did. Afterwards, each of the rangers went their own ways. Tammy and Gadget made their way to the main room, with Chip and Dale fighting to sit beside gadget. Mike followed Monty into the kitchen and continued their conversation.
It wasn't long until both Mike and Dale became bored with where they were, Dale because he did not get to sit beside Gadget and Mike because he was tired of hearing about magicians in France. Mike began for the living room to see the other rangers, and Dale headed for the kitchen to ask something of Mike. Neither knew the other was coming and ran head first into each other, and both the mouse and the chipmunk wound up on their back rubbing their heads.
"Ughhh..." Mike sat up very quickly and looked to see what had just hit him. He relaxed quickly to see it was just Dale. "This reminds me of when we played football and we ran head first into each other."
"Hey, I was trying to catch the ball!" responded Dale as he sat up, much slower than Mike.
"We were on the same team!" Mike got to his feat and gave dale a hand to help him get to his feet.
"Hey Mike, I want to talk to you." said Dale.
"Well, start ah talking." Responded the southerner.
"Can we go outside and talk?" Asked Dale.
"Sure, don't see why not." Responded Mike. The chipmunk led the mouse out through the front door. They walked down the runway until they were a good distance from the headquarters. Dale stopped walking and Mike went to the near by rail and sat upon it. "So, what's up?"
"Could you teach me how to get out of straight jackets and other cool magic things?" asked the chipmunk.
"Did you have to bring me all the way out here for that?" asked Mike.
"I want to keep it a secret. I want to know some cool stuff that will help me on a case!" responded Dale happily.
"And I think you just want to impress that blond darlin' in there." Countered Mike. Dale would have said something back, but he couldn't think of anything to say. Mike got up from where he was sitting and put his hand on Dale shoulder. "Yeah I'll teach ya, and I won't even tell anybody about it. Now lets go back inside before someone guess about your big secret." Responded Mike with a little laugh.
The Next Chapter Will Arrive When it Arrives