All Smiles in the Darkness
By: RedSwift
Chapter 7
Chip woke up to Dale’s quiet snoring above him. He went down and of course found Monty once again in the kitchen. He sat down and drank his coffee silently, going over in his head all the things he had to do today. As he thought of all these things, Monty’s suggestion took him completely off guard.
“What was that again Monty?”
“I think we should all take a day off today pally.”
“Why should we do that? After yesterday, there’s so much we really need to do.”
“Well, Gadget’s worked herself over, though she won’t readily admit it, and I think Dale mentioned going to band practice again, and I wanted to check me out that new shipment of cheese today.”
“Well, I don’t really like it, but you can all do what you want to today. I’m probably just gonna check the station anyways. Besides this Smiles guy, everyone else has been quiet.”
As Monty was getting breakfast on the table, the whole team, including Foxy, came to the table. As everyone ate, they talked about their plans today.
“Well, I’m going down to the station to check on things, then will probably just read my book.” Chip said.
“I got a cheese ship to check out,” Monty said, and Zipper buzzed his agreement.
“I have band practice, and maybe a lesson afterwards.”
“Would you mind if I came along cutie?”
“That’s fine. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.
“Golly, that leaves just me here today, and I haven’t planned on anything,” Gadget realized.
“Maybe after I check the station, we could go out and do something Chip said,” getting romantic ideas of spending the day with her in his head.
“That sounds good.”
They ate for a little bit more, then went their separate ways, wishing each other to have a good day and saying they’d see each other at dinner.
Dale and Foxy walked down the street, Dale holding his bass in the case he got with it in one arm and Foxy’s wing in the other.
“You sure you wanna go today? Its pretty noisy and you know how sensitive your ears are,” he asked her.
“That’s what I brought these for sweet stuff,” she replied, showing him two extra large ear plugs.
Dale and Foxy arrived at the club and met Støy outside, smoking a cigarette. Dale immediately introduced him to Foxy. “Støy, this is my girlfriend Foxy. Foxy, this is Støy, the band’s guitar player.”
Foxy was surprised by this since Dale had never called her his girlfriend, “Nice to meet you,” she finally said.
“The same,” Støy brusquely said, nodding to her.
“Is everyone inside?” Dale asked.
“Ya, we’re waitin’ on you.”
“OK, I’ll go get set up then.”
Dale opened the door, and let Foxy in, and then followed her, closing the door behind him. As soon as the door was shut, they both let out a cough.
“Boy, I don’t know how someone can smoke those things,” he said between coughs.
“I know, that’s pretty bad.”
Upon seeing her last band member arrive, Darice ran up to him. “Get yourself set up, we should get started soon. I want to get a full day in today, and maybe run through a twenty minute set at the end.”
“Sounds good to me,” Rex said as he walked over. “So, who’s the bat?”
“Oh, this is Foxglove, my girlfriend. Foxy, this is Rex, keyboards, electronics, and general computer whiz.”
“Nice to meet you,” the bat said.
“Nice to meet you too,” he replied.
After Dale had introduced Foxy to Adrian, he went over and took out his bass. Rex let out a long whistle, “Wow, that’s pretty nice Dale.”
“Yeah, just picked it up yesterday from the store.”
“Well, I better let you tune and stuff,” and Rex walked off.
Dale put the guitar on, and plugged it into the amp Darice had told him to. He played a few notes, adjusting the knobs until it was tuned, and played a few quick lines.
Støy had since come back in and thought to himself, *Boy, he picked that up quick, you’d think he’s been with us the whole time.* He didn’t let this revelation cross his face as he icily went over and picked up his guitar. He strummed a few notes, and waited for everyone else to come over.
Foxglove watched as her ‘munk got ready. She sat down at the table and put her ear plugs in. *I’d do anything for my cutie, even something like this,* she thought to herself. As everyone got into place, she steeled herself for what was to come.
“OK everyone, let’s start with Moment With You again,” she said to the band. They all nodded in agreement, and Adrian counted out four beats and they started.
Practice went on all morning, picking out all the parts that needed fixing. The band broke for lunch, and Darice shortly came out with some sandwiches for everyone. Everyone sat at the table eating, when Støy tried to quiet everyone down.
“I think I’ve come up with a name for us.”
“This one had better work,” Darice warned.
“What, didn’t you like my other ones?”
“Oh, yeah, Death Hate Machine was a good one,” she replied sarcastically.
“What about Misanthropic Metal Gods?” Rex chimed in.
“Hey, at least I’m trying!” Støy retorted.
Everyone else just looked at him.
“Well, do you wanna hear it or not?” he asked angrily.
“Sure, go ahead,” Adrian gruffly said.
“OK, how’s Rodent Death Circus?”
Everyone slowly snickered except Rex, who looked contemplative, “You know, I have just the sound sample that would work with that name as entrance music.”
The group looked stunned at him. “You actually think it’s a good name?” Støy asked.
“It could be better, but its something to work on. A name’s never definite.”
“Well, let’s put it to a vote, whoever thinks its good as a working name, raise your paw.” Everyone did, “OK, then that’s the name until we come up with something else. Work on your sample Rex, we might need it if we feel ready to play by next week.”
“I’ll get on it Darice.”
“Now, do you guys think we are up to playing the Sludge Pit next week.”
“I think so, Dale seems to be better in one day than any of us have gotten in the months we’ve been together,” Støy said.
Dale beamed at his praise.
Darice interjected, “Yeah, but do we have a set list for it? We’ve never worked out a full list.”
“We’ll work on that after lunch,” Støy stated.
“OK, we’ll see how it goes from there.”
The meal continued in silence, Foxy was mesmerized by the looks of the people her hunk of a ‘munk had become friends with. *If he’s happy with it, I may as well be happy for him.*
Once everyone had finished, Darice cleared the table and sat back down with some sheets of paper and a pen. On one sheet she wrote all the songs the band knew. “Now, for the twenty minutes we’ll be allotted, we’ll be able to do four, maybe five songs, six if we’re really lucky.”
“I think we all agree Moment With You will be our opening song,,” Adrian stated.
Everyone nodded in agreement. “How do you guys feel closing with our cover of Halo?” Darice asked.
“I think it’s a good choice,” Dale said.
“I second that,” Rex agreed.
“OK, we’ll end with it. Now for three more songs.” Once they had picked three more of their original songs, they played through the set. Without Rex’s sample, they came in just under the twenty minute limit.
As everyone began picking up, Støy looked at Dale, “Hey Dale, if you’re gonna play, you might want to pick up a different look. No one will take you seriously in that.
“I know, I was gonna go right after practice today.”
“Good, ‘cuz I wouldn’t wanna go up with you 5-0.”
Dale caught the use of the nickname Støy had given him. *I don’t mind it that much, hey, I have a great idea!*
“Hey Støy, how do you think taking the stage name 5-0 would sound?”
“That’s pretty good, yeah, I think it would work.”
“Wowie zowie, now I have a stage name! This is so cool!”
“Don’t let it go to your head kid, you’re still the same old ‘munk, just now you’ll be making art for people.”
“Huh, I never thought of it that way. Well, I gotta go.” He said goodbye to everyone, and left with Foxy and his bass. On the way home, they stopped at some stores to look at some new clothes.
The store they had just entered was all dark and musty. A young female mole with multi-colored hair and a ring through her eyebrow walked over. “Hello, how may I help you, looking the couple up and down.”
“Hi, I’m Dale and I’m looking for some new clothes.”
“Well, would you like some help?”
“We’ll look around on our own for awhile, thanks though.”
“I’m here whenever you need help, don’t be afraid to ask,” and with that she went off to what she was working on. Dale and Foxy went around the store, looking at this and that. *Quite frankly, this place creeps me out,* Foxy thought to herself. *Oh the things I do for you cutie.* Dale finally decided on a pair of face fitting mirrored sunglasses, white shirt and long black leather trenchcoat. He tried them on, and Foxy thought that besides the sunglasses, he didn’t look half bad. She kept this to herself, though, since she saw that Dale liked it.
Dale carried his new purchases and bass and made his way back to the tree along with Foxy. They stopped at the fountain and perched on its edge, watching the now setting sun go over the horizon and saw the lightning bugs just coming out. They sat that way together awhile before they had to go back to headquarters for dinner.
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?)