All Smiles in the Darkness
By RedSwift
Chapter 3
Chip groggily awoke the next morning. He stumbled into the kitchen, where Monty and Zipper were happily preparing breakfast. “Coffee,” Chip blearily said.
“No problem mate, one cup ‘o java on its way!”
“Monty, how can you be so awake every morning?”
“That’s me own little secret.”
“Well, you’ll have to let me know about it some time.”
“No way Chippah, that’s why its called a secret.”
As Chip slowly woke up and talked with Monty, Gadget came in looking haggard, wearing oil-covered coveralls.
“Now Gadget, don’t tell me you slept in those dirty things,” Monty asked her.
“Sleep, what do you mean, I’m just now coming in for dinner.”
“Umm… Gadget luv, its 6:30 in the mornin’.”
“Golly, so it is, I must have lost track of time again…”
“Well, you should go get some sleep for the day luv.”
“I don’t really need it.”
“Well, you know what you can do, but try and get some sleep tonight, alright?”
“OK, I promise you Monty.”
Gadget sat down, and ate while talking a bunch of techno babble the guys didn’t understand, but didn’t have the heart to interrupt. They just ate, listened, and nodded when it seemed appropriate. During all this, Dale came in. Upon seeing him, Chip saw the chance to address the team about what was on the day’s plans, and to bring Dale and Monty up to speed on yesterday’s events. Foxglove’s absence wasn’t noticed since she tended to get her own breakfast.
“Good, now that everyone’s here, I want to get some planning done.”
Dale walked over to the counter, picked up a donut, and went towards the door.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Chip protested.
“I’m going out with some friends, I’ll be back when I feel like it,” and with that Dale left the room.
Chip ran after him, calling his name, but to no avail. Chip dejectedly sat back down, and began. “Monty, Zipper, I want you to go around the docks, asking about any suspicious shipments. I’ll go look for more information on the streets, Gadget, you go check the police station for cases.”
With that, everyone went their own separate ways, wondering to themselves about their missing team member.
Dale arrived at the address Darice had given him. Her home was located underneath a human nightclub, which was closed this early in the morning. Dale knocked on the door. After a few seconds, it opened and Dale saw one of the largest squirrels he’d ever seen. This guy could give Monty a run in the size department. It looked like he would have to duck and turn sideways just to get out of the door.. He had short, spiked, purple hair, no shirt, and camouflage pants with black suspenders over his well muscled chest. He wore big heavy black boots with straps going up all the way to his kneecaps. His chest and arm fur were dyed to look like various tattoos. He had on a leather thong necklace with a silver acorn around his neck and black bracelets on his wrists.
“Yeah,” he sneered at Dale.
Dale just stared in shock. Finally, Darice pushed around him and gave him a cheery smile and wave. “Glad you could make it, don’t mind Adrian here, he’d never hurt a fly.’
“Th-th-that’s good to kn-kn-know,” Dale stammered as Darice led him in. They stepped into a large room with all kinds of speakers and wires running everywhere. Everything in the room was black, the only lights over what appeared to be a stage like area where various instruments were arrayed.
“I may as well let you know everyone else,” Darice said as she led him towards a mouse sitting at a table. “You already know Adrian, and this is Støy.”
“Who’s this lout,” a mouse with long black hair and a faint Scandinavian accent said, looking at Dale.
“Støy, this is Dale, the one I’m trying to play bass for us.” As Støy looked Dale up and down, Dale did likewise. Støy had long black hair, all white fur, had on a black shirt, black leather jacket and matching black leather pants. He had on boots similar to Adrian, but they had large platforms on the bottom, making him an extra half inch taller. He had a spiked choker around his neck and spiked bracelets adorned his wrists, but the most noticeable thing about him was his face. He had multiple piercings through his lips, nose, eyebrows, and ears. He had the fur around his eyes dyed black with a little line running off towards his ear, and he wore black lipstick.
Needless to say, Dale was intimidated, “Well, he better be good, ‘cuz he definitely don’t look like he could play in this band, ain’t I right you little Hawaii 5-0 reject?”
That was the last straw for Dale, feeling his pain over the past few days boil over, he spouted, “How dare you insult my taste in clothes you demonic freak. At least I don’t wear lipstick and point out everyone’s faults. I’ve had enough of this from everyone, and I don’t wanna start on the wrong foot with you.”
Støy stared at Dale, and Dale started right back, then guffawed out loud. Darice and Adrian starte at each other, and finally seeing what Støy had found so funny, quietly chuckled.
“I don’t see what’s so funny,” Dale fumed.
“Well my colorful companion, you definitely have the pent up anger, hate, and rage this band is about, let’s see how you do with us.”
“OK, well just lemme see how you guys play, and I’ll slowly have to learn your songs.”
Darice put her arm around him, and said to the group, “Don’t worry, I’ll work with him in off hours, but for a few weeks, he’ll sit in on practices and get a feel for it.”
“Well that’s a good idea,” a voice proclaimed from behind Dale. Upon hearing it, he turned around and stared at a kind of geeky faced chipmunk. He had on a pair of hornrim glasses, but that’s where his geek look ended. He had on a glittery silver coverall suit not much unlike Gadget’s, and green and black dreadlocks snaked around his head. He looked meekly at Dale, and continued, “Its good to start him off with a view of what we do.”
Taken with a burst of eagerness, Dlarice exclaimed“Well, let’s get started, I take it you guys got all your soundchecks and such done.”.
They all nodded affirmative, and walked towards the stage. As they all did final checks on their instruments, Dlarice on bass and vocals, Støy on guitar and backing vocals, the chipmunk Dale didn’t get the name of on a large set of electronics and keyboards, and Adrian on drums, Dale set himself down in a chair and waited patiently. Once all checks were done, Darice looked back at everyone and said, “Let’s start with Moment With You,” They all nodded back to her, and Støy started a nice slow mellow guitar line, with little bits of cymbals from Adrian. Darice started in with the bass, then began to sing:
Fields of forever
Were spread out before us
We were o so happy
To be together
We never wanted those days to end
The ones we spent
In each other’s arms,
But storm clouds approached us
We looked up in fear
Everything came crashing down
We got lost from each other
I saw the true you
In a flash of lightning…….
Støy held a long note, and some synthesizer sounds started in pulsing beat. Dlarice took a deep breath, and screamed:
You lied to me
You deceived me
You will now be nothing to me (nothing to me, whispered by Støy)
(growl from Dlarice, going up into a crescendo)
Clarice growling:
My heart was yours for the taking
You stomped on it, put it in the mud
But that didn’t hurt as much
As your deception diiiiidddd( she begins to scream and go into another crescendo,
just as
the intensity is at its highest, everything suddenly stops, and goes into the
original melody)
Those days are behind us now
I look back and laugh,
How naïve I was then,
To give you my heart.
Now I know better,
And woe to anyone
Bent on destroying me
(Darice whispers as everything goes silent) destroy me
With that, Dale looks on awestruck. They were good, he really had to admit that. The enormity of the task he had just taken on overwhelmed him. *Boy, I hope I can live up to their standards.* Dale sat and watched them fine tune the song, pointing out where so and so made such a mistake, and so on. They played the song through a few times, went step by step with Støy on a particular riff, and then they went on to some other songs.
Finally, late into the afternoon, practice ended and everyone except Dale and Darice left for home….
Meanwhile, Foxy followed Dale to the club. She saw him knock on the door and saw a huge, burly, scary looking squirrel answer it. She heard snippets of their conversation, and saw a small female mouse come out to greet Dale cheerily. *So that’s the girl Dale was talking to, I’ll have to watch out for her, that’s for sure.* As the small group entered the house, she flew down and put an ear against the wall. She heard everything that went on, and heard the soundchecks. A song started, and she kind of enjoyed it. Suddenly, everything in the world exploded as loud screaming came from the band, and she jolted herself away from the wall.
Foxglove couldn’t take much more of the noise to her sensitive ears, and flew to a building where she could see the door but not hear that awful noise. She sat there all day until finally sleep succumbed her….
A loud clang startled her from her slumber. Foxglove blearily stared at the door and saw the scary squirrel, and even scarier mouse, and a little chipmunk leave the building. The noises coming from the metal jewelry on the mouse sent shivers up her spine. She watched them leave, and silently glided back over to the building, and tentatively put her ear back up to the wall….
Darice set Dale down on a stool and handed him her bass. She went over the basics of its controls with him, and let him strum a few notes. As he got the feel for it, Darice noted he was a natural. He picked up on it quick, quicker than she’d expected.
“Do you know how to read tabs and music?” she asked him once he’d finished.
“Uh, not really, I can read music, but I’ve never even heard of tabs.”
“Tabs are like keys to which notes are played along with the music, but most of what I play is just instinctual, and keeping in lock with Adrian is a major part of it.”
“Well, I do learn better just doing it, notes and pages just confused me when I tried ‘em.”
“That’s good, now let’s get started.”
Darice began instructing Dale on a few of the band’s songs, and did that for a few hours.
After about an hour or so, Foxglove saw how late it was getting, and seeing no imminent dangers to Dale’s affections from the innocent lesson, headed back towards the tree.
Dale and Darice continued working, and finally Dale’s paws started hurting, so Darice went over to a table and picked up some tapes and handed them to him. “Here you go, these should help you, we’ve recorded everyone’s parts on these tapes so you can play along with them, you want something to eat before you go?”
“Sure, that sounds good,” and with that Darice was off to a door in the back. Dale settled down into a seat at the table and looked down at his heavily calloused paws. “Boy, sure feels good to be playin’ again,” he wondered out loud to himself. He thought over the day and his new friends. Darice was definitely nice enough, the other chipmunk he still didn’t get the name of was pretty nice, Adrian was rough and tumble, but seemed a good guy. The one that worried him was Støy. Even after Dale’s outburst and his sense of humor about it, Støy never seemed to warm up to Dale. He decided to ask Darice about it when she got back.
After a few minutes, Darice returned with a plate of roasted nuts and cheese. She had a pitcher of water and two cups on a tray in her other hand. She set them down on the table, and sat down across from Dale. “Well, dig in.”
As they both ate, Dale finally asked about the chipmunk he didn’t know. “Oh, you mean Rex, he’s been with us awhile, he’s kind of quiet and keeps to himself. He’s a major computer geek.”
“You know, I never did get the name of the band either.”
Darice answers sheepishly, “Well, actually we don’t have one yet, the few shows we’ve played we’ve gone by the name “The Unknowns” and that’s fit so far. The crowd response to us has been quite good.”
“That’s good.”
They finished the dinner making small talk, and Dale headed off for home. *Boy, I got some stuff to do tomorrow, I have to go get some equipment first off, then go and practice with Darice and then by myself. This is gonna take a lot of time, and hopefully our case load won’t get heavy…*
Disclaimer: The Rangers, and Foxglove, are Copyright Disney. Used without permission but with the utmost respect. Darice, Rex, Adrian, and Støy 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?)