By: RedSwift
Chapter 10
Upon Chip’s arrival and announcement, Gadget and Dale jumped up and rushed down the hall, to get some inventions and Monty and Zipper, respectively. Dale returned with Monty and Zipper closely in tow. Gadget came up seconds later with a box full of plungers and what appeared some odds and ends, and some spare launchers strung around her back.
During all this, the other band members just sat around, not knowing what to do. Chip looked at them, and decided maybe bringing them would be a good idea, if not just for the intimidation factor they presented.
“We could take both the Plane and Wing if you guys wanna come,” he offered, “plus, the extra firepower would be nice.”
“Well, how about it guys?” Darice said, looking at them.
“I’m game,” Rex quickly replied, eying the launchers greedily.
“Sure, I need to hit something anyways,” Støy said nonchalantly.
Adrian just grunted an affirmative.
As Gadget ran off to get more equipment, Monty finally asked, “What’s this all about Chippah? What are we rushin’ off fer in such a hurry?”
“The goons that were in the unknown gang escaped their cells about 20 minutes after they were locked up by someone on the outside. The APD followed them and now has them cornered in an old warehouse. They don’t want to go in because they think the goons took hostages inside the building. We’re going in covertly to assess the situation.”
Gadget emerged from the hallway, catching the end of the what he’d said.
“Good, now that everyone’s here, let’s plan real quick,” he finished, “Rangers, we’re going to go in quietly. Everyone else, stay with the APD outside and if you’re needed, we’ll call on you, got it?”
Everyone nodded in confirmation, “Rescue Rangers AWAY!!” the team yelled, running towards the aircraft.
The two aircraft arrived at the scene minutes later. They landed behind one of the enclaves of APD officers watching the building. Chip jumped from his seat and ran over to the officers.
“How’s the situation?” he asked them.
“Not much has changed, they’re still in there, we saw them a few minutes ago, no word on whether this is a hostage situation or not yet, but the Captain wants to stay safe.”
“OK, we’re going to go in through the sewers and see what we can find, if that’s fine with you of course.”
“The Captain said its fine, he respects your team. There’s some officers over there to get you into the sewers,” he said, pointing towards some police officers standing over a manhole cover, “and good luck in there.”
“Thanks,” Chip answered, and ran off towards the manhole, directing his team to come along with him.
Once reaching the officers, he told them to get the manhole up, and while they did that he turned around to address his team, “This is where we go on, Darice and you guys stay here and if you’re needed, we’ll let you know. Foxy and Zipper, you two do an aerial reckon and try to get inside. One of you will be responsible for going back out to alert the APD what’s going on inside.” With that, Chip and the Rangers got out plunger launchers, checked them over, and started down into the sewers.
The team made their way in the general direction of the warehouse. Once they reached the general area under the building, they began searching for a suitable pipe to go up into the building. Finding one, they made their way up. They came up in a bathroom sink. Using some rope, they climbed their way up the slick insides to the upper lip. Seeing nothing in the bathroom around them, they put down a rope and made their way down to the floor.
Chip whispered, “Alright guys, we’re in. We don’t want to start anything until we are sure they don’t have hostages and we know the APD is aware of the situation. We may need their help in this.” Everyone nodded in affirmation, and together, they made it under the large crack under the door.
The Rangers made their way into a small hallway leading to a closed door to their left and a large opening into the main part of the factory to their left. Chip lead them towards the opening. They snuck their way around the close wall. They were behind a large machine, and listened for anything. They heard nothing, and Chip scampered up the machine and looked out for Foxy and Zipper. He saw them sneaking around the rafters on the other side of the factory. They shook their heads, saying they’d found nothing. Chip returned to the group and told them Foxy and Zipper had been just as unsuccessful.
Slowly, they made their way along the wall, when Gadget suddenly stopped, Dale and Monty bumping into her. Chip heard the commotion and came back. As he was about to open his mouth, she put her finger to her lips to shush him. He complied and listened as well. Softly a scratching noise could be heard from the wall they were walking against. Chip saw a door ahead, but thought better of it. He climbed up the table they were stopped behind and waved Foxy and Zipper over.
Once the team was reunited, Chip whispered, “We need to find another way into that room, Foxy, Zipper, could you two fly around and find another way in and come back to let us know about it?”
They both nodded in agreement, and flew off. Chip and the gang checked over their weapons yet again, and waited for the two scouts to return. Shortly after they did.
“We found a ventilation grate around that corner,” she said, pointing towards a hallway further on down. Everyone made their way in that direction, and Chip looked up at the grate Foxy pointed out to him. Everyone, Monty included, could squeeze through the grate. *That eliminates the problem of taking it off and making noise,* he thought to himself. Foxy took the rope he handed her and tied it up and the team made their way into the ductwork over the room. They quietly made their way down and found a grate in the middle of the room in the ceiling. Looking down into the room, they saw about ten of the thugs they’d seen earlier standing around a small group of huddled rodents.
“Zipper, Foxy,” Chip whispered, “could you go down and lead the henchmen away so we can sneak in and rescue the hostages, and then go out and have the APD come in to help?”
“Sure thing,” Foxy answered and Zipper buzzed an affirmation.
They slipped out of the grate and flew over the thugs. They didn’t see them, so Foxy swooped down and grabbed a hat off of one of them. He reached up to feel where his hat had been, and saw Foxy flying away with it.
“Hey, get back here with my hat,” he shouted after her. This roused his companions and four of them gave chase with him after Foxy and Zipper, who began leading them out of the room into the factory.
Watching all this from the grate, Chip sighed at the five still left, “Well, that’ll have to do.”
He and the rest of the Rangers went down a rope to the floor, and slowly approached the remaining thugs, who were too busy watching and laughing at their cohorts to notice the small group of rodents approaching them. Chip reached one and hit him in the back of the neck, putting him out. Hearing the gasp from their down comrade, the others turned around and saw the Rangers. They immediately charged them, each picking out a Ranger to attack. Gadget took hers down quickly with a plunger, and Dale bent over and tripped his opponent and Dale quickly subdued him. Monty went in swinging, and soon the rat he was fighting was slumped in the corner.
Chip squared off with his opponent, a pretty well built mouse. They both jabbed and feinted. *Boy, this guy is pretty good,* he thought to himself. As Chip jabbed, his opponent instantly feinted, but this is what Chip wanted him to do. Chip went in with his other shoulder to ram it into the mouse’s chest to knock out his breath. What happened next wasn’t expected though, because as he punched and went in with his shoulder, the mouse pulled out a needle from his jacket and sent it into Chip’s shoulder and through the other side. Chip yelped in pain as his shoulder connected with the mouse and moved around in his now painful shoulder. The mouse stumbled with Chip’s hit, and did get the breath knocked out of him, he leaned over trying to catch it. As he did this, Chip looked down at his now bleeding shoulder, and tried moving his arm, but to no avail.
Seeing their friend’s predicament, Dale and Gadget ran over to him as he began to fall to the ground. Monty ran over and with one good punch for his now wounded teammate, knocked out the mouse.
Dale went to pull the needle out of Chip’s shoulder, but Gadget held his hands away. “Pulling it out could make things worse Dale,” she warned him, “Let’s get Chip to the hospital quick.
Hearing this, Monty rushed over and picked Chip up gently, carrying him towards the entrance the APD and Dale’s friends were just coming through. They immediately parted for the large mouse as Dale and Gadget followed in his wake. Darice saw the predicament and ran over to Dale, rushing along with him.
“Will he be OK?” she asked him.
Gadget answered for him, “We hope so, we’re rushing him to a hospital to make sure no major damage was done.”
“What do you want us to do?”
“Stay here with the APD and Ranger Wing, we’ll come back to keep you posted.”
“OK, we’ll do that,” and with that, Darice ran back towards the APD and her bandmates.
She looked over her shoulder and saw the Rangers leaving the building, “Good luck out there guys.” She never suspected that she should’ve been saying this to herself as she went in with the APD to assess the hostages…
Disclaimer: The Rangers, and Foxglove, are Copyright Disney. Used without permission but with the utmost respect. Darice, Rex, Adrian, Støy and the APD are figments of my imagination trying to get out. You may post this story in any way, so long as you don’t modify my words or gain profit from it. (Boy, isn’t all this legal mumbo jumbo fun?)