Ultimately, all things must come to an........

                        RHYME & REASON
                       By Michael Demcio
                       PartVIII:Endgame.
                         Part 1 of 6

*****

     6:15......

     Looking around them with a sensation of horror mixed with
bitter irony, Dale, Monterey, Gadget and Zipper instantly
realized the truth of Ivana's words. In a cruelly satiric
gesture, she had returned them all to the aquarium, to the very
first trap that she had set for them on the upper floors, or one
that looked just like it. With it, their cycle of torment seemed
to have been brought full circle back to the beginning. Why she
had done this seemingly symbolic act none of the Rescue Rangers
could seem to fathom, but as to her intentions, Ivana had
communicated that reason quite well..."to end the game.", her
latest words echoed in all of their minds hauntingly.   
     "You never had any blumin intention of letting us find a way
out, did you?!" Monterey growled accusingly up at the speaker
that was set into the glass ceiling above him.
     "*Of course not* Monterey!" Ivana chuckled, her tone seeming
a bit taken aback at the idea. "Do you really think I would have
gone to all this trouble,..........*just to let you get away?*
Had I told you that there was no chance of escape, you certainly
wouldn't have tried so hard, and provided me with so many hours
of enjoyment, now would you?"
     "Why ya cold blooded-" Monterey began, launching into a
string of heated Australian derogatives that covered Ivana's
heritage. Furiously, he slammed his hand into a pane of mirrored
glass before him, wishing that he could have just one good shot
at their tormentress. The glass however, showed not the slightest
sign of weakening from Monterey's mightily crazed blow. 
     "Temper, temper, Monty!" Ivana scolded him in a sarcastic
tone, seeming to take no offense to the insults hurled at her.
"Regardless of what you might think of me, there are far more
significant matters for you to discuss......*Aren't there*
Zipper?" she intoned meaningfully. 
     Zipper seemed to cringe slightly as she mentioned his name,
saying nothing.
     "Well Zipper?" Ivana asked teasingly. "Don't keep them in
suspense now!" 
     Monterey, Gadget and Dale all turned to look through their
glass partitions at the little fly, an even more worried
expression upon their faces than from the moment before. Still
Zipper seemed hesitant, *scared*. He averted his eyes from their
anxious gazes.
     A deep, impatient sigh came from above him. "You know that
if you don't tell them, *I will*, Zipper." Ivana stated
factually.
      "What is it, mate?" Monterey gently prodded his friend.
"What's she gonna do?"
     Zipper sighed heavily and relaxed his wings, fluttering down
to the floor of his cell, as a heavy pall of depression settled
over him. "It's not what she's going to do," he squeaked with
downcast eyes, "it's what she's already *done.*" Slowly raising
his gaze up, he looked past Monterey and into the cell in which
Gadget was imprisoned. Staring into Gadget's anxiously tense blue
eyes, he could feel his words beginning to fail him as his chest
tightened with emotion. "Chip...was the one in the coffin." he
finally stated before his voice began to falter. 
".....He's gone." he whispered, lowering his eyes once more. 
     Looks of horror stood frozen upon the faces of the three
Rangers for many moments, all of them staring speechless at their
friend. "How...how do you *know*, Zipper?" Gadget asked at last
in a slightly quavering voice that was laced with terror.
     Moments passed as Zipper swallowed heavily, trying to
collect himself to answer Gadget's question. "She told me." he
finally answered. 
     "After all," Ivana interjected factually, "if Chip hadn't
been the one in that coffin, don't you think I'd want him to be
here with all of you for the final part of the game?"
     Gadget shuddered and looked sharply away from the speaker
above her, casting her eyes down. She couldn't argue with that
grisly logic. She knew that none of them could. Desperately, she
tried not to think about that horrible moment minutes before,
when she had heard the coffin fall into the vat of acid, hearing
it's ominous hissing splash, but the image mercilessly invaded
her mind's eye, making her relive the gruesome event once again.
Placing her hands out to support herself against one of the
mirrored walls, she couldn't help herself as Chip's dashing and
handsome visage now replaced the brutal scene within her
imagination. "It *was* you." she whispered to the picture in her
mind. "....I'm sorry Chip....I-" The rest of her sentence stuck
in her throat as she closed her eyes against the tears that began
to flow freely once more.
     His back to one of the mirrored panes, Dale slid down the
glass to the floor, staring out blankly into space. Dully, his
mind registered Gadget weeping in the cell beyond his, while
beyond her, Monterey stood with his head silently bowed, crying
softly as well, as was Zipper beyond him. /*You were my *best
friend*, Chip.*/ he thought, as stinging tears of grief quickly
filled his eyes as well, starting to stream down the tan fur upon
his face. /*like my own brother.* I don't want to die,....but I
wish that I could have gone *with you.*/ he thought, his lips
trembling with an anguished sob. /*Or that I could have at
least gotten that monster for doing this to you.*/ he added to
himself, staring at the speaker above him with gritted teeth.
This same thought of Dale's was shared by Monterey, Gadget and
Zipper as well. They knew they were trapped, that there was no
way out. They knew that Ivana meant to kill them,........but even
with that fatal knowledge, their thoughts were not solely on
themselves. Their fear was mixed with thoughts of the fate that
Chip had faced. That he was actually gone. 
     /Chip, I'm sorry for what I did, even though I had no way
of knowing. .......*I had just started to get close to you...*/
Gadget thought with a tender sorrow.
     /*You were always a great leader, and one of the best
friends a fly could ask for, Chip....*/ Zipper mused in his own
heartfelt goodbye to his teammate.
     /*It was a bonza time while it lasted Chipper me lad.*/
Monterey smiled to himself, thinking of his stalwart, adventurous
companion. /*I was *proud* to be a Rescue Ranger along with ya.
Ye even learned how to loosen up a might, what with obsessin
about finding a case to be on all the time. I'm only sorry that
you couldn't 'ave been with us for this last one.........even
though you *were*,...........so I coulda said goodbye.*/ Wiping
away his tears, and turning his head upward, Monterey glared
hatefully at the speaker above him, a last desperate idea
forming in his mind. "So you mean to kill us now, just like that,
eh?" he stated in a derogatory, challenging tone. "After all of
those blumin games, this is how it's going to end? Not even a
chance to go out fighting, ya ruddy monger?! Where's the
satisfaction in that for *either* of us?! This ain't no better
than getting caught in a blinkin mousetrap!" he continued, hoping
desperately to appeal to Ivana haughty sense of superiority and
pride. "There's no sport 'ere! And I thought you were *proud* of
all this!.....Oye." He mumbled to himself, crossing his arms and
looking at the floor, a scowl on his face. "A little *nipper*
could have ended this game like this!"
     "A good try, Monterey," Ivana replied in a mildly amused
voice. "but I'm afraid that I don't have any more games to *give*
you,.....besides the fact that you must really think me the fool
to fall for such a ploy. Perhaps if you got me riled enough, you
thought I would challenge to take you all on, one on one?" she
laughed cruelly. "I certainly gave *you* more credit than
*that*......No, I'm afraid that the game is indeed over, and
after all your many accomplished victories, the Rescue Rangers
have finally lost,.....*for the last time.*" 
     "That's it then?" Zipper buzzed, fearfully as though certain
of his fate. "This is the end?"
     "Oh, not just yet." Ivana returned, her voice seemingly
thoughtful now. "For you see, it isn't quite time. We've yet to
wait for sunset to arrive. You still have a short amount left in
your lives."
     "Sunset?" Gadget asked as best as she could with a choked
voice, her curiosity getting the better of her. "Why sunset?"
     "Why because that's what I stated at the beginning of the
game, my dear Gadget!" Ivana replied. "Regardless of my lie about
letting you find your way out of the building, I was telling the
truth when I said that the game was to end by 7:45, the time of
sunset today, and I *always* stick by my *rules.* So think of
this as a temporary reprieve. Take the chance to say goodbye to
one another, and think about what great lives and careers you've
had.....*and might yet have had.* The scant time you have left
will slip by all too quickly." With that, another short crackle
of static from the speaker announced Ivana's departure. 
     Glancing up at the unseen speaker out of reach above her,
Gadget hesitantly spoke, looking around at her friends. "Guys?"
she asked uncertainly.
     "What is it, luv?" Monterey replied first in a bit of a
hopeful voice at hearing her speak.
     Letting out a nervously shuddering breath of relief, Gadget
turned toward Monterey. She had suspected that as a last cruel
trick, Ivana would not have allowed them the luxury of talking to
one another in their last moments together, but that fear had
proven unfounded. Ivana was serious about letting them say
goodbye to one another, even if it was only due to the fact that
they had gotten to the end of the game before time had run out.
Looking at him, she gave a helpless shrug, before turning her
apologetic gaze toward Zipper, and then to Dale behind her. "I'm
sorry guys," she stated, "but I can't come up with any ideas to
get us out of here. The walls are too smooth and too far apart to
climb, and even if I could reach the cover to the tube, I don't
know if I could get it open, or find a way to reach any of your
cells. The way it sounded when it shut, I think that Ivana
hermetically sealed the covers."
     "Meaning, luv?" Monterey asked despondently, Gadget's
pessimistic news sounding particularly fatal to him right now. 
     "Meaning that I'd need at least a *crowbar* to open it,"
Gadget replied. "and I don't have anything even *resembling* a
tool on me now." Casting her eyes down for a moment, she looked
again at her three dear friends, unable to keep the unmistakable
ring of defeat from her voice. "I guess what Ivana said before is
true............some things *are* impossible." 
     "Aw, Gadge,......" Monterey said sympathetically, wishing he
could get past the clear barrier between them to comfort her, to
give her a last hug before the end. "it's not *your* fault.
Pretty much any blumin task can be *made* to be impossible."
     "Yeah." Dale added from the other side of her, "It's not
exactly like she made this a fair fight. She totally stacked
everything against us."
     "That's right." Zipper chimed in.
     ".....Thanks guys." Gadget replied a moment later in
grateful voice as she looked around her at Monty, Dale and
Zipper, drawing out what she could of a weak smile which quickly
fell back into a look of despair. "I...I guess this really is it.
Golly, guys...." she continued, a look of intense fear beginning
to creep into her eyes as she pressed herself up against the
glass next to Monterey. "I'm scared." 
     "Me too." Dale muttered, the same look of intense fear
mirrored on his face as well. 
     Looking back at Zipper, Monterey exchanged a look with him.
Neither of them needed to say anything to ascertain that they
were both terrified as well. A few moments passed in silence,
leaving each of the Rangers alone to their thoughts before Gadget
spoke again.
     "Guys...?" she began, drawing the trio's attention once
more. "What Ivana said about 'saying goodbye'....? I....I think
you all know how I feel about each of you, but...golly....I...I
*want* to say it.....*while I've still got the chance.*" 

               *                   *                   *

     Meanwhile, a foot or so above the Ranger's seemingly
impenetrable glass prison, a lone figure stood. Draped in a
flowing cloak and hood which concealed all the features of the
person within it, the figure silently stood,.....*watching*.
Before the figure upon the spacious metal platform, a long bank
of instruments was situated there. Glancing at an indicator, but
giving no discernable clue as to what the data upon it meant, the
figure turned its hooded head back up toward the line of small,
liquid crystal televisions gracing the top of the control
station. Upon each of these screens save four, the picture upon
it flicked every so often, displaying various views of the
building through which the Rangers, either separately or
together, had occupied in their journey. Upon the last four
screens though, the last screens in the line, the pictures
remained constant, the cameras connected to the screens, focusing
closely upon the captured Rangers through the one way mirrored
glass faces of the aquarium, the sides being covered with a thick
layer of dense plastic and metal.

     With it's arms crossed beneath its regal blue cloak, the
figure proceeded to listen and watch, unmoving, as each of the
Rangers said their farewells to one another, talking about how
much the Rescue Rangers had meant to them, and moreso, how much
the individual people with it had meant to them, as each told how
both had helped to enrich their life beyond compare. Separated by
the unyielding glass, the foursome displayed what affection they
could for one another to accompany their words. An affectionate,
endearing look within the eyes of each person, a meaningful
smile, two sets of hands pressed against the glass upon one
another, as well as a kiss placed upon the glass in the region of
the receiver's lips. All of these actions and many other simple
but meaningful gestures, the Rangers displayed for one another
within the aquarium, and upon the platform, the figure took in
all of these actions in without a word or a movement. Then, as
the conversation below began to turn toward the enthralling
adventures, as well as has the harrowing mishaps that the team
had shared in their by now famed career, with a glance at a
digital clock, a hand emerged from within the cloak and precisely
flicked up a switch upon the console, paying acute attention now
to the evident anticipatory nervousness within each of the
Ranger's voices. 

*****

                         Part 2 of 6

*****

     "Well," Ivana's voice once again issued forth from the
speakers as the Rescue Rangers looked above them. "I trust you
made good use of your time alone?" she asked as though unaware of
what had been said. 
     From the nervous joy that each Ranger had felt at opening
themselves up to one another fully, hiding nothing since Gadget's
words had stirred each of the others to put into words how much
they felt for one another, Ivana's sudden intrusion into this
tender moment of bonding came like a douse of ice cold water upon
them all, changing their focus from affection and remembrance, to
a renewed bitter disgust toward Ivana. With an evident grimace,
visible to each other on each of their faces at the sound of her
voice, each of the Rangers glanced up toward their individual
speakers. None of them bothered to grace Ivana's question with a
reply.

     A few moments passed without sound. Then, when it was
evident that she would not receive any sort of a reply to her
question, Ivana continued. "Practicing the silent treatment on
me?" she asked with an amusedly caustic tone. "How very
appropriate. Since in exactly fifteen minutes, that's all that
*any* of you will be practicing!" She hissed in her malevolently
throaty accent. "The timer for the explosives that will bring
this building down upon you is armed and ready, and very soon,
this building, which has been your home these past few hours,
will become your very own gravesite. It's only too bad that Chip
isn't around right now to share this last moment with you." Ivana
stated with a note of scornful triumph.

     "I wouldn't say that." A familiar voice suddenly growled
from the speaker. 

               *                   *                   *

     It had been a calculated risk. He had known that he only had
a limited amount of time to try what he had in mind from back
in the evidence room, but really, what choice did he have? In his
weakened state from the poison that Ivana had introduced into his
system, he could feel himself growing continually more and more
fatigued. From his racing heart, and his breath coming in ragged
gasps, he knew that without a weapon of some sort that didn't
purely rely on physical strength like his whip, with all the
tricks that Ivana seemed to have ready, he probably wouldn't have
stood a chance. The only problem was, 'the rules' had forbidden
him to use any of the weapons that Gadget had created for the
team. Therefore, going back to the treehouse, he knew that he had
only one option.........
     "Well, well, Chip." The cloaked figure stated in a slow,
throaty and pensive tone, starting not at all from the unexpected
new voice on the platform before turning slowly around. "I see
you've come after all."
     "Chip?!!" The sound of the Ranger's voices cried in a
shocked tone from the speakers on the instrument panel. 
     "Step away from the control panel Ivana." Chip ordered
simultaneously, as he tried to peer past the darkness hiding the
face within the hood. Unable to do so, all he could tell about
his adversary was her height, which seemed to be close to that of
Monterey Jack's. 

     The figure made no effort to move, but instead, cocked it's
head slightly to the side, studying the device in the chipmunk's
hand that was now aimed in it's direction. "Oh, tch! tch! tch!"
the figure scolded him, waving a finger at him in the air. "A
weapon of Gadget's, Chipper?" the figure stated with exaggerated,
syrupy tone of disappointment. "You *do realize* that you've
*broken* the rules! And after all the trouble it took for you to
get here too! 'Humph.' *Disappointing.*" Ivana intoned, shaking
her cloaked head. "At any rate," she continued calmly, "before I
kill your friends for your not playing fairl,-
     "Step away from the control panel and put....your hands in
the air Ivana,...*NOW!*" Chip warned, taking a series of rapid
breaths as his finger tightened on the trigger. "You're not going
to kill anyone, *ever again.*"

     "Very well." the figure stated casually, raising its hands
into the air at shoulder level before slowly crossing to the
other side of the foot long and foot wide platform. Moving
opposite the figure, Chip carefully made his way to the control
panel, observing that underneath her cloak, Ivana was clothed in
a robe like vestment as well. It made him all the more uneasy as
he wondered what sort of weapons if any were hidden under the
robe. Keeping his eyes glued to the figure, he only removed them
for a moment as he glanced down the set of rodent sized metal
steps. With seemingly half of the strairwell swallowed in
darkness, and the rest of what he presumed to be the basement
encompassed within the cold darkness as well, save for the
aquarium, he could only hope that nothing or no one else was
hiding out there in the gloom that he had to deal with. Taking
out his penlight and activating it, it's beam only cut a short
distance into the gloom, no farther than the aquarium a few feet
below and before him. Glancing at the slight amount of light,
coming from within the glass and metal tank which held his
friends, he proceeded the rest of the way to the control panel,
once again keeping a careful watch on the figure. The figure
though, with it's arms still in the air, seemed to be paying no
attention to him, but instead to the rope which dangled down to
the rear of the platform from the air vent he had snuck in, many
feet above. As he reached the control panel, with his eyes still
upon his adversary, Chip leaned toward the microphone which he
had seen Ivana speaking into before. Since their first
exclamation of his name, the speaker upon the control panel had
been a constant source of shocked and disbelieving chatter that
demanded to know what was going on. 

     "Guys,....are you all right?" Chip asked with concern while
taking a ragged breath, glancing at the T.V. screen that showed
his friends staring up at the unseen speakers in their cells.
     "Chip?!" Dale asked in an astounded voice.
     "Chip, is it really you?!" Zipper wondered with hopeful
excitement. 
     "How-" Gadget began to say.
     "Now wait just a *ruddy minute!*" Monterey exclaimed
angrily. "How do we know that you're really Chip?!" he demanded.
"You've fooled us before with that imitation of Chip's voice
before Ivana, not to mention fooling me with Desire's voice as
well! And then what with telling us that Chip was in that coffin
instead of Gewgaw, along with that Christmas card of 'is..? It
would be just like you, Ivana, to have *one last laugh* at our
expense even after all you put us through, gettin our hopes up
just before you finished us off!" 
     "Yeah!" Dale chimed in, having thought the same thing. "If
you're really Chip, *prove it!*" he exclaimed suspiciously. 
     "Yes Chip." Ivana replied, her tone clearly amused by all
this. "prove it. Though with what I've shown of what I know of
all your histories, both before and in the Rescue Rangers, that
*won't* be easy!" 
     /Coffin? Gadget's dad? My Christmas card?/ Chip thought in
shock, falling silent as he felt Ivana's eyes upon him, watching
him. He could almost feel her mocking gaze staring out at him
from behind the darkness of her hood as he considered this new
dilemma. The game was over. He had Ivana captive and all he had
to do now was to set his friends free. Plenty of time before the
explosives went off. The only problem was, as he had just gone
through a nightmare of his own on this day due to this deranged
female and was still continuing to do so, as he had just realized
from Monterey's words, so had his friends. He could hear the
tension and pain in all of their voices as they had each through
Ivana's manipulations, somehow thought him not only to be here in
this building the entire time, but if he was reading Monterey's
words right, they had also thought him to be *dead.* Even though
he knew he *would* be in a short while, the fact of the matter
was that he wanted to bring some relief to his friends *now.* To
let them know that he was about to end their torment, and the
cruel plans of this female who called herself Ivana. M. Killjoy.
The only question was *how?* Throughout the day, it was clear
that she knew about a great deal of the Ranger's cases, and it
was a good bet to assume that she knew *all* of their cases
as well. With that, and with the fact that she had found his
diary and his Christmas card to Gadget, he knew there was
probably nothing of the Rescue Ranger's life together that he
knew of that he could use to prove his credibility. From her
actions, as well as from her words, she had obviously been
studying and researching their lives for some time. What could he
say that Ivana would not know of? Something that one of them
would remember? His mind beginning to race, he wasn't at all
certain that he would be able to answer the question, that is,
until he took another look at the screen with his friends upon
it, his eyes focusing on his *best friend.*

     "Well....." Ivana intoned expectantly before abruptly
switching her speech tone to make it sound precisely like Chip's.
"we're waiting!"
     Giving a startled look toward Ivana as he heard his own
voice coming from her hidden mouth, Chip turned halfway towards
the microphone, now realizing on his own why the others were so
suspicious. "I know I promised a long time ago never to call you
this again, Dale," Chip stated, sounding slightly apologetic,
"but does the name 'neon nose' mean anything to you?"
     At the mention of the childish sounding moniker, even as
Monterey, Gadget and Zipper all stared at him with a strange look
of confusion, Dale blinked with shock before his eyes lit up with
a look of ecstatic glee. "Chipper! It *is* you!" he cried
joyfully. "I-

     Abruptly, Dale's voice was cut off and with it, every light
upon the control panel died away, as did the picture from each of
the T.V. screens and the florescent lights within the aquarium
below. Nothing was left to illuminate the pitch black
surroundings, save for the light of a flashlight that hung
suspended overhead, illuminating the metal platform. His every
nerve on edge at this occurrence, Chip tightened his finger upon
the trigger of his weapon even tighter, ready to fire it at
Ivana.
     "*What did you do?!*" he demanded. Rapidly withdrawing his
penlight from one of the pockets of the trenchcoat he now wore,
Chip worriedly shined its beam over the control panel onto the
aquarium that held his friends, all the while glancing back
constantly at the figure to make certain she made no sudden
moves. To what he could see, Zipper, Monterey, Gadget and Dale
were all safe and sound within the glass and steel structure,
looking about themselves worriedly as they tried in vain to
converse with one another before realizing that the intercom
between their cells had been turned off as well. Turning back
toward Ivana, he saw that his adversary had not even budged from
the spot she had been when the lights had gone off. She just
stood there with her arms in the air, the very picture of a model
prisoner. "I said what did you just *do*?!!" he growled at her,
waiting for a reply.
     "Just getting your attention," Ivana replied simply, in a
slow, businesslike manner.  "........and obtaining a little
privacy." she stated after a pause. "I set the controls to shut
down a few moments after you arrived." she informed him
disdainfully. "I knew you were here. Did you really think you
could enter the building without my knowing it, no matter how
carefully you were?" she shook her head disappointedly. "At any
rate, the detonator's been shut down for now as well, so there's
really no need to rush. I have yet to finish with *you* before I
turn my attention to them." 
     "You won't be dealing with *any* of us anymore, Ivana. Your
game's *over.*" Chip informed her sternly.

     Ivana made no reply but instead began to slowly pace across
her end of the platform and back again, as though she were
contemplating something. "Hmmmm....'Neon nose.' she said after a
few moments. "How very interesting." she stated curiously.
"Another little piece of history of yours and your friends that I
did not know about. From your childhood together, I take it?" she
guessed, looking at him. "The name must have been used only once
or so, or I most likely would have heard about it from your
parents after interviewing them for information." she concluded
thoughtfully. "Don't worry though, they're perfectly safe." she
stated offhandedly, waving away his concerned look about having
encountered his and Dale's parents. "My vendetta is against you
and the other founding memembers of the Rescue Rangers. I must
commend you on that point of your memory though, Chip." she
stated after a pause. "I really *did* think I knew most
everything there was to know about all of you........ I shall
have to find out about this.........and see if there's anything
else I missed."      

     "You're not going to be able to do much research on us from
the S.A.P.S.> prison on Alkatraz, Ivana!" Chip shot back.
     Stopping her pacing, Ivana cocked her head slightly at him,
as though she were evaluating the merit of his words. "So you
say." was her only reply. "I wonder, Chip." she stated after a
moment. "Do you realize the significance of my placing your
friends in that type of prison?"
     "The mirrored glass of the funhouse." Chip stated after a
moment without hesitation. "In the case with Abbadabba and that
crooked dart booth operator. <*> An exact match in circumstances
between that case and this one."
     "Well done, Chip." Ivana stated in what sounded like a
sincere manner as she nodded at him, ignoring his question. "I
thought you're going to mention Captain Finn and the
Nautilus<**>, due to the aquarium. You've gotten quite good at
this. A point in a case," she recounted, "where due to your
friends, or in this case, one of them, you were *also* thought to
be dead, only to be discovered a short time later that you were
not. None of the others recognized that case reference, even
though they're standing right in it. I would applaud you," she
stated with a sneering tone and a slight shrug. "if you would let
me bring my hands together." Chip replied only with a deadly
serious look and a shake of his head. Shrugging again
nonchalantly, Ivana began to pace once more, her gaze cast toward
the floor. "You seemed to have learned the lesson of the game,
Chip." she stated curiously. Falling silent then for another few
moments, she stopped in her tracks. "......*Let's just see how
well.*" Picking her head back up, Ivana stared directly out at
Chip from beneath the darkness of her hood, the slight light from
the flashlight glinting momentarily off her cold gaze before she
retreated fully back into the hood, the darkness swallowing her
eyes once again. "You said that I wouldn't kill anyone else." she
stated factually. "So tell me Chip Maplewood, leader of the
'Rescue Rangers,' she continued, sinisterly curling the fingers
of one hand into the other to crack her knuckles in a challenging
manner. The snapping sound echoed loudly throughout the expansive
area. "*are you ready for the endgame?*" she asked with a dark
anticipation, her teeth flashing out at him in a cruel, twisted
smile from beneath her hood. 

     Chip shivered and recoiled against the console slightly.
Even though he had Ivana prisoner with a weapon trained on her,
for some reason, he was beginning to feel like *he* was the one
that was cornered. Trying to shake off the sensation, he reached
into another of his pockets for a pair of handcuffs. He would
feel a lot better when he knew she was secured. Even as he
thought this though, unseen upon the control panel behind him, a
small red light blinked once before shutting itself off. "I told
you I'm through with playing your games Ivana." he stated,
scowling hard at her. "You've lost."
     Continuing to stare at Chip, even as he began to pull out
the handcuffs, Ivana abruptly looked back aside to the rope that
dangled down to the platform once more. "So you say." she stated
again, almost with amusement. "Tell me Chip," she continued after
a pause to turn back to him. "Where exactly did you find this new
weapon of Gadget's that I now see? I know that the parts came
from her workshop. I saw all of those pieces to that device there
this morning, but I'm afraid that I somehow overlooked it,
assembled into this form. Tell me, where was it hidden that I
missed it?"
     With the handcuffs already halfway withdrawn, Chip paused in
his actions. For some strange reason that he couldn't quite
identify, what with all he had gone through, he somehow felt a
bizarre need to prove to Ivana that he hadn't broken the rules,
and that he had finished this grueling game of wits, will,
courage and physical strength, and that he had done it completely
on his own. Dropping the handcuffs momentarily back into the
pocket, he slipped a free hand into another inner pocket, drawing
out a small piece of paper. Crumpling the paper up into a rough
approximation of a ball, he tossed it over to land at Ivana's
feet.
     "I *didn't* break the rules, Ivana." Chip stated with stern
certainty, as he watched Ivana glance curiously at the wadded up
paper before looking back to him. "This isn't one of Gadget's
inventions, *it's one of mine.*" 

     It had begun as an idea. Something he had dreamed up a few
months ago in fact, and one that was barely more than a curious
notion than something he had truly considered doing. However, as
time had gone on and he had begun to assist Gadget in her
workshop more and more often, along with other ideas for
inventions he had mentioned to her, this rough idea for a weapon
of his had refused to disappear. The idea had been for a rodent
sized electric stun gun, more popularly known among humans as a
'taser'. 

     Gaining more experience in working with tools and in reading
blueprints as he assisted Gadget in her work, he knew that the
device should be fairly easy to build, yet he had never even
taken the first step of drawing up a blueprint for the device as
he was afraid of what Gadget might say if she found it, or if he
even mentioned it to her. Since she had joined the Rescue
Rangers, he had noticed how Gadget had made it an unspoken code
of hers, never to invent a weapon of any sort that would cause an
adversary undue pain. True that there were exceptions. One of
which was as in the case where she had tried to knock out the
ferocious bull, El Emenopio with her human sized 'matador*. That
was an experience which he was sure must have caused the beast a
great deal of aches and bruises with how he had been knocked
around, but still, Gadget had tried to do it as quickly, and as
painlessly as possible. Even in the case of the Cola Cult**,
where she had been furious at Bubbles for tricking her and making
her think she was washed up as an inventor. In that case, her
methods of retaliation, even toward his callously bullying manner
had still been along the lines of subduing her enemies than one
of causing them pain through revenge. She seemed to almost abhor
violence, and while he knew that Gadget realized that some
violence was necessary in their line of work at times, and while
like any of them, she too lost her temper at times, leading to
bursts of rage like what had occurred with her helping to defeat
the pint sized criminal baby Thadius,() he also observed how she
always strived to keep the violence to an absolute minimum. A
stun gun though, was hardly a minimum. Even with the least amount
of electricity needed to shock an opponent unconscious, having
had mishaps with electricity before, Chip knew that such a device
would be painful, and much more violent than either he, let alone
Gadget really cared to deal with. There were much easier ways of
knocking out an opponent. The only problem was, as he wasn't
allowed to use the help or inventions of anyone else on this
case, and as this had been his only idea for a weapon to date,
taking into account his rapidly draining strength and not knowing
if he would have anyone else other than Ivana to deal with, he
had at last given in to his imagination and put his idea to the
drawing board............

*****

                         Part 3 of 6

*****

     "I see." Ivana stated in a dryly sarcastic tone of
disbelief. "And what's this?" she asked as though she were
humoring him.
     "Proof." Chip stated simply, leaning against the control
panel for support.
     Stooping down slowly to retrieve the crumpled paper at her
feet, Ivana picked it up and quickly beginning to unravel it,
cast a glance over at Chip who had his device still resolutely
trained on her. 
     "I see that you finally found the accessories I added to
your jacket." she said with a sneer in her voice, observing the
absence of Chip's imitation leather bomber. Grimacing slightly at
the remark, Chip's mind flashed back to when he had first entered
the treehouse from the police station a little while back.
Slipping in through the funnel in the side of the tree so as not
to alert Buzz to his presence<, he'd proceeded to Gadget's
workshop via the tire slide which opened up upon that second
level of the treehouse. There, he'd begun a quick draft of
blueprints for the taser, when something had occurred to him.
Throughout this entire harrowing day, he had been thinking about
how Ivana had been keeping track of him. He knew that somehow,
Ivana had been keeping tabs on him, to make sure that he told no
one else of the 'game', and that he neither asked nor received
help from anyone, including using none of Gadget's inventions.
The only problem was, as he had been unable to spot anyone
following him, he had assumed that his 'tail' had simply
concealed him or herself too well for him to detect. This in a
sense was true, with the exception of one realization that his
instincts had suddenly buzzed with. His 'tail' was not a him or a
her......His 'tail'...*was an 'it.'*

     /Ivana's heavily into machinery and technology./ He thought
to himself as he paused in his drawing of the blueprints to
follow this new train of thought. /She's used them as a trap in
every one of the locations that she's sent me to. It doesn't make
sense for her to have been following me with a set of binoculars
or have someone else do it when she could have a concealed camera
locked onto me at every location I've been. That's a lot more
befitting her style. The only thing is, while a camera would be
able to spot me asking someone for help through a written message
or something, how would it be able to 'hear' me if I was talking
or whispering something and the camera was at my back? Ivana
wouldn't have been able to read my lips on the screen to see what
I was saying. How could she insure that there weren't any
misunderstandings or her part, or tricks on my part? She would
*have* to have a 'bug' on me to listen to any conversations I
had, but I already checked my jacket over for any 'bugs' after
landing in the hot dog stand,^^ unless.........../ Taking
off his jacket and stretching it out on the workbench, Chip
carefully opened all the stitching upon the jacket with a knife,
separating the outer layer from the padded inner lining. Inside,
even as a satisfied smile spread over his face, he seriously felt
like kicking himself for not realizing this discovery sooner. 

     /A clue within a clue, hidden in plain sight./ he thought to
himself. As this had been Ivana's M.O. throughout each of the
clues that he had had to solve, somehow, he had not thought to
apply that pattern of Ivana's to *himself*, or rather, *to what
he was wearing.* He had checked the outside of his jacket for
'bugs', as well as the rest of his person, yet he had failed to
check anywhere *within*, that was *hidden in plain sight*, for
within his very familiar and trusted jacket, was a sight that was
indeed a surprise. Beneath the inner layer, and protected by good
deal of insulated padding against shocks, was a fairly extensive
amount of flexible circuitry that extended up along the back of
the jacket, from the bottom to the top. As he silently studied
this high tech addition to his apparel, he also discovered
something else. From the length of circuitry that had been woven
into the jacket, two small fiber optic cables emerged and ran
along the bottom of the jacket, arching up along the sides next
to the halves of the Zipper, and finally, emerging into a tiny
microphone in the wool lining that surrounded his neck on the
top of the jacket. /Speak up for Ivana, Chip!/ he frowned sourly
to himself. /I might as well have wearing a headset microphone I
was speaking so close to it!/ Shaking his head with disgust, he
replaced the lining on the circuitry and microphones, and
redonning the jacket, quickly made his way back to the police
station where he left the jacket laying on the top of his usual
ceiling fan perch. /Now at least,/ he thought to himself, as he
made his way back to the treehouse to begin work on his
invention, /she won't be able to track me, and with any luck,
she won't realize where I am until it's too late......./

     "They weren't my style." Chip replied to Ivana's comment.
Thinking before how his discovery had served him well in helping
him get the drop on his adversary, he'd begun to wonder nervously
now why she seemed to have *let* him, if she knew he had entered
the building.
    Finishing with the unraveling of the paper, Ivana began to
study what was upon it. Examining the paper for close to a minute
and a half, her hooded head sweeping back and forth across it
many times as she examined it from every angle, she raised her
head at last to look toward Chip once more. Crumpling the paper
up again as he had, she tossed it back over to land at his feet
this time.
     "As you said." Ivana stated, raising her hands in the air
once more. "Proof. Nowhere near as detailed a set of blueprints
as Gadget would make, but effective nonetheless. It seems you
didn't break the rules after all." she continued with a slight
note of surprise. "You do realize one thing though, Chipper." she
stated factually, though her tone was still just as challenging.
"If you fire that gun at me, you *will* kill me." 

     "I know." Chip answered knowingly, remembering his
uncertainty on that calculation of how much electricity he
needed. The problem was, as he wasn't certain just what species
of animal Ivana was, thinking that she might be a cat, it was
better to be safe than sorry. "Too much amperage."
     "Precisely." Ivana replied in a slightly haughty tone. "Are
you so sure that knowing that, you could use it now......" she
asked, her voice even more challenging than before, practically
daring him as she took a slow step forward. ".....*inventor?*" 
     "One little mistake." Chip shrugged in a callous tone,
keeping the sight on the gun lined up on her. "If this is a
game,.....then it's your move Ivana." he stated coldly. "It'll
just make *my* job easier."
     Stopping in her advance, Ivana seemed to stare even more
intently at Chip, as if she were studying him, gauging him.
Sections of her face, features laden heavily in shadow and too
hidden to truly make out, were visible for a short moment as she
tilted her head up slightly, her eyes now once again partially
visible as she trained a steely eyed gaze upon him. From his end,
Chip's finger still curled tightly on the trigger, the expression
on his face just as resolute as his tone. The tension filled
confrontation continued on for many more moments, the outcome
never at all clear, until finally.....
     "I see." Ivana said finally with a nod as she turned away
from him at last, her tone somewhat impressed as well as amused.
Had Chip been able to see Ivana's face at that moment, he would
have seen the beginning of a smile tugging at the corners of her
mouth. Stepping back the pace that she had advanced toward him,
Ivana reached the metal rail she had started from and turned
around once again. "I think I'll stay this hand, then." she
replied.

     Though his exterior revealed nothing, Chip sighed inwardly
and relaxed. His idea had worked. Rising to meet her challenge
without fear, meeting her cruel darkness with an imitation of his
own, Ivana had backed down. He had been prepared to use the taser
if she had continued to advance, yet he was glad that he hadn't
been forced to take such action. The lethalness of his weapon was
the only reason why he hadn't fired the gun at her before, when
she had caused the console and aquarium lights had gone out.
Killing someone was not an idea he liked in the slightest, even
with someone as twisted as Ivana who meant to see him and the
others dead. True that because of her, he knew that his own life
had less than fifteen minutes left in it, but even with that
frightening realization, he still did not want to take a life.
Revenge that far reaching, wasn't a part of his nature. True if
Ivana had managed to kill the others, he didn't know if he would
feel the same way, but as he had reached them in time, they would
soon be set free and safe. That's all that mattered to him now. 
     "There's just one thing that I don't understand, Chip."
Ivana said even as Chip began to draw out the set of handcuffs
from his pocket once more. "Your interest is in crime. You've
*never* shown the *slightest* interest in science as far as
inventing. Yes you've assisted Gadget in her workshop many times
I know, but I always thought that only due to your desire to be
with her, yet now you prove me wrong with *this.*" she stated,
gesturing with a hand at Chip's invention. "If I hadn't seen
those blueprints in your handwriting, I *never* would have
believed that this had come from your mind. Why the new
interest?" 
     "People change." Chip informed her, his face still set in a
hard expression.
     "Indeed." Ivana replied in a tone of acknowledgement. "As
you have just proven."
     "Now that I've answered your questions....." Chip stated
with a grumble, tossing the handcuffs over to her. "Put your
hands behind your back and put the cuffs on." 
     Easily catching the restraints as Chip spoke, Ivana turned
her gaze toward them for a moment before turning to look back at
Chip and the taser. "What's stranger," she continued, as she
began to untangle the cuffs and unfasten them, "is that you've
never tried to invent anything before in your life." Ivana
continued, her tone now questioning. "You've never talked about
it, never written down anything in your diary, *nothing*. With an
interest, why was there no clue of it? Why keep it such a
secret?" she asked, fastening one of the cuffs on her wrist.
      "It wasn't a secret." Chip replied. "Every interest needs
something to get it into motion. I just never had a great enough
incentive to invent anything on my own....*until today.*"
     "And I provided that incentive." Ivana replied, her tone now
clearly amused. "How deliciously ironic."
     "Quit stalling and put the cuffs on....Ivana." Chip stated,
as he took another deep, shuddering breath, watching the pause in
her actions.
     "Very well....." Ivana said, looking down at the cuffs for a
moment before looking up towards Chip again. "but first I would 
like to propose...*a toast.*" Flicking her right hand around in
the air abruptly, an elegant champagne glass suddenly appeared in
Ivana's hand as if from out of thin air. 
     Starting slightly at the movement and the appearance of the
glass, Chip's finger tightened once more around the trigger,
ready to fire instantly as he had been before. 
     "Ivana....!" he warned, his finger now on a hair trigger.
     "Calm yourself, my dear Chip." Ivana stated in a soothing
manner. "I'm merely congratulating you." Raising the seemingly
empty glass into the air before her, Ivana stared across the
platform at her adversary, pausing for a few moments a she looked
first to her left, then to her right, as thought she were
addressing a room full of people. Flicking his eyes to both the
left and right as Ivana swept her head about, Chip tensed
further, wondering if there *was* a roomful of people in the
darkness that he couldn't see. 
     *Uh-oh.* he thought, his eyes widening slightly as he
wondered if he was about to be pounced on, a feeling of dread
suddenly spreading through him.
     "Here's to you, Chip." She stated in a tone of admiration as
she turned back to face him. "You completed my game and bested
me fairly at it. I congratulate you for your adeptness in
figuring out all my clues, and for your ability to escape the
jaws of death with all my traps...........*all save the last one
that is.*" she amended. "You are truly *a worthy opponent*, Chip
Maplewood, and it was a privilege to play against you. May you
rest in peace, knowing that you did all you could to save your
friends." she finished, bowing her head as though she were giving
a eulogy for Chip, as though he weren't even there. 
     /*Oboy*...../ Chip gulped, the feeling of dread growing even
stronger as he wondered if he should spin to face behind him. 
     "And now," Ivana continued with a slight bit of melodrama in
her voice, quickly picking up her head to face him,  "as is
normally wont to be said to conclude a toast.............
*down the hatch.*" With those words, the single light of the
flashlight above them went out, plunging them both into darkness.
     Firing the taser out of nervous reflex as the darkness
enveloped him, Chip dropped to his stomach and rolled away from
where he had been standing, drawing in a sharp breath at the pain
that shot through him from the action. Only peripherally aware of
the sparks of  electricity from the taser that brought a split
second of light to a small section of the platform about him, he
rolled back to his feet, striking a defensive pose as he dropped
the taser. Standing there in the darkness, whipping his head and
pivoting his body to the left, then the right, and back again
several times, Chip strained his ears, trying to catch some sound
to tell him where Ivana was if he hadn't hit her, and who else
might be coming up near him. For many seconds he stood, ready to
fight for his life, while all he could hear about him was the
nerve wracking silence. Taking a few cautious steps upon the
platform, still he strained his eyes and ears about him, trying
to pick up some indication of who was out there, as his heart
thudded even more noisily in his chest from his fearful
anticipation.

     "You were wrong about one thing, Chip." Ivana's voice
suddenly called from the direction of the control panel before
the overhead light from the flashlight came back to life, "The
game for you or your friends, is most certainly *not* over."
     Whipping his head towards the bank of controls which had now
come back to life as well, Chip saw that Ivana was not there.
Her voice had come from one of the speakers built into the panel.
Sweeping his gaze to where he had last seen her, he instantly
realized where she had gone. On the same spot where Ivana had
stood moments before, the hole from a trap door was now visible.
Remembering Ivana's last words right before she had disappeared,
Chip clenched his fists as a short growl of frustrated rage
escaped from between his gritted teeth. /*Down the hatch!*/ he
thought, furiously berating himself for having fallen for such
trick, as well as for her subtle bluff of his being attacked from
behind. Running over to the trap door, he peered down into the
black depths of the hole when suddenly, another sound from behind
him suddenly caught his ears. The sound coming from the speakers
was that of..........

     Pivoting back toward the control panel, Chip gasped in
horror at the vision that met his eyes. Upon two of the T.V.
screens mounted above the control panel, the images of the
interior of the building had been replaced. In their place now,
were red digital numbers, showing the minutes and seconds left
until the explosives in the building went off...............
*and the timer was ticking down with at least *three times* the
normal speed.* In addition to this upon the four remaining
screens, was a sight as equally shocking as the first. The
screens displayed the interior of the cells occupied by his
friends, but with one dramatic difference. For now, the interior
of those same cells were now almost totally
occupied..........*with water.* From the tubes that had brought
them there, water now spewed forth from each of them at a gushing
torrent. It was the roaring sound of the threatening liquid and
the cries of his friends that he had heard moments before. 

*****

                         Part 4 of 6

*****

     Instantly Chip realized, even as he raced up to the control
panel, that since the time that she had left it, Ivana had been
distracting him. She'd been stalling for time as the large
soundproof cages had filled up with water, sending his friends
into a double jeopardy, both from this threat, as well as from
explosives which were now set to go off in eight minutes instead
of fifteen. Sweeping his vision frantically across the controls,
he hoped to find some sort of cutoff switch for these two
sinister events, but much to his dismay he observed that none of
the buttons were marked. Glancing up on the screen, he now saw
that Zipper, Monterey, Gadget and Dale were now completely
immersed in the water, the level having reached the top of their
cells now with the overflow spilling out of thin slits on the top
of the glass. *He had just run out of time.* The others might
drown by the time he figured out the controls, if they hadn't
been booby trapped somehow as well. He knew he had to act now. 

     Scrambling atop the control panel though careful not to step
on any of the buttons or switches, Chip vaulted himself over the
monitor screens and railing, dropping down the two feet to where
the aquarium sat. As he landed, and withdrawing a glass cutter
from the trenchcoat he wore, he dug the edge into near the bottom
of the glass at Zipper's end of the aquarium. There wasn't enough
time to cut all of them loose one by one. He had to get *all* of
them some breathing space before he could free *any* of them.
Drawing the cutter across each of the cells in a continuous cut,
as he reached Dale's end of the container, he curved the cut
around, drawing it back towards the beginning in an elongated
oval. As he worked, his heart raced ever faster, as he watched
his friends struggle and claw their way against the top of the
glass in a fruitless but reflexive action to get out. Each of
their basic instincts to survive had now kicked in, and even if
they knew there was no way out, it they couldn't help but to
perform such desperate actions. /*Hang on guys!*/ Chip thought,
feeling his heart in his throat now, knowing that they had no way
of knowing that he was outside their prison, working to set them
free. From the looks on all of their faces, he could fairly well
feel each of their sets of lungs beginning to scream for air.
They probably wouldn't have lasted even five more seconds before
they drowned, but one more second was all that he needed. 

     Standing aside to complete the cut, the glass piece suddenly
exploded outward from the immense water pressure pushing against
it, releasing a raging gush of water along with it. Listening
carefully to the speakers in the control panel above, trying to
catch it's sound above that of the rushing water, Chip turned his
attention to his friends inside the glass container. As he did, 
his heart soared with relief as he watched the water level
rapidly drop, watching and listening as it did, to Zipper, Gadget
and Monterey gasp deeply and rapidly as the sweet feeling of air
once more filled their lungs. Looking over to Dale's cell though,
his feeling of relief instantly shattered. 

     Dale wasn't treading water anymore. He wasn't moving. He
wasn't even *breathing*. His limp and seemingly lifeless body had
now slipped below the rapidly decreasing water level, and was
sinking even faster toward the bottom of his cell, even as Chip
watched. "*No!!*" Chip cried in terror, his mind reeling even as
he sprang forward toward Dale's cell, nearly getting knocked over
by the rushing gust of water as he tried to charge through it
without thinking. Reaching Dale's cell and standing fast against
the water still rushing out, he dug the glass cutter in once more
at the bottom of his last hole, drawing it up and around in the
shape of a curved doorway. Completing the cut, he was unable to
get out of the way quick enough though, as the still significant
water level now roared out and upon him through it's expanded
exit, slamming the cut glass piece into him and well as engulfing
him in the water as well. 

     Lying there a little more than a foot away, stunned for a
second or two from the double impact even as the water continued
to wash over him, Chip quickly collected his wits, feeling as
though he had just been through a major wipeout at the beach. All
of the water had now drained from Dale's cell, save for the small
amount below the bottom of the first cut, but Dale's condition
had not changed in the slightest. Laying there face down in the
small pool of water on the metal floor, he looked for all
appearances to be quite dead. "Oh, no you don't!" Chip exclaimed
with determination as he sprang into the cell and rolled his
friend over to gather him up in his arms. "You're not quitting on
me *that* easily!" 

     Hefting Dale up, Chip glanced to the side momentarily, aware
of the surprised and wild eyed stares of Zipper, Monterey and
Gadget, their faces pressed against the glass toward him.
Peripherally, through both the hole in their cages as well as
from the speaker on the control panel nearby, he was aware of
their exclamations over his sudden appearance, and Dale's current
state. For the moment though, he ignored them. All that mattered
to him right now was Dale. Carrying his friend out of the tank
and laying him upon his back, he began artificial respiration,
not even allowing the thought into his mind that he might be too
late. "Come on, Dale!" he cried, beginning to shout at him
inbetween breaths, forcing all the air he could into Dale's lungs
in spite of his own shortness of breath. "Come on!...............
..........BREATHE!..........You're *not* leaving me like
this!............*Not after all this!*..........*Do you hear me,
Dale?!!*" Chip fairly screamed at him with a voice that was
beginning to crack with effort and anguish. Ceasing with his
comments, Chip continued to breathe as hard as he could into
Dale's mouth, putting all his concentration into it as his mind
lost track of time and thought. All he knew at the moment was
trying to breathe life back into his friend and partner as the
others listened and looked on anxiously.

     Chip could feel his strength beginning to wane as he
continued diligently in his task, waiting hopefully, expectantly,
for some sort of sign from Dale that he was all right. Still
there was none though, and on he continued, refusing to give up.
Finally, after what seemed like forever to him even as he had
begun to falter significantly in his own breathing from his
efforts, with a violent sputtering cough and a choking gasp, Dale
shook beneath Chip hands and began to breathe on his own again,
continuing to cough up water for many seconds afterward.
Collapsing backwards onto his right elbow, dizzily trying to
catch what he could of his own breath, Chip turned Dale on his
side to allow him to cough up the rest of the water, looking on
with an ecstatically joyful satisfaction, just listening to Dale
breathe. Beside him, he could hear the wild cheering, applause,
and comments of his friends as they congratulated him on his
valiant and successful effort. Turning his head toward them after
a few seconds, he cast a weak but appreciative smile at them in
reply.
     "Attaway mate!! Ye saved 'im Chipper!!" Monterey cheered,
exclaiming loudest of all with his robust voice.
     "...Chip?" Dale asked uncertainly with a faint voice as
though he were waking up from a dream. 
     Hearing the voice of his best friend, Chip smiled even more
broadly and pushed himself up to lean back over him. 
     "Yeah, Dale?" Chip asked with an affectionate tone, seeing
Dale's eyes open slightly. 
     "Chip........it really *is* you......" Dale stated weakly
after another hacking cough, smiling fondly at him. 
     Watching as Dale reached up a hand toward him, Chip took the
offered hand of his friend firmly in his own and squeezed it
gently. "Yeah Dale, it's me." Chip stated as he smiled back at
him
     "You're alive." Dale said in a relieved tone of joy.
     Managing not to let it show on his face as he kept his smile
intact, Chip felt his spirit sink within him. /*Not for very much
longer.*/ he thought to himself, feeling a renewed sense of fear
clutching at him once more. He knew there was no way that he
could get out of here and find someone to treat him for the
poison that was slowly killing him. Not in ten minutes. Although
he was satisfied that his friends were now safe, he knew that he
would be finished soon. He wasn't about to tell that morbid fact
to Dale at the moment though. Not after he had nearly died
himself and was still out of sorts. The others though, he knew he
had to tell as he looked toward them with a nervous apprehension
before turning back toward Dale. "So're you." he stated, looking
at him with relief. "I got to you just in ti-" Cutting himself
off, his smile instantly falling from his face, Chip's eyes
widened even as he snapped his head up toward the screens upon
the control panel. Above him, as though to remind him all the
more of what he and the others had forgotten in all the
excitement, the television screens that had displayed the
countdown for the explosives had now swiveled toward the
aquarium, their red digital numbers glaring down at him from
above. 2 minutes and 10 seconds, the timer read. Dropping Dale's
hand and bolting toward the stairs of the platform, Chip
scrambled up them, watching as the countdown screens now began to
swivel back around toward the console again, as though they were
aware of his presence. /Two minutes and ten seconds!/ he thought,
even as he ignored the slowly turning screens, drawing himself up
before the console. /Might as well read *thirty* seconds or less,
at the pace that thing is going!/ Glancing over the console once
more, seeing that it made no more sense to him than it did
before, he began to flip every switch and push every button that
he could, going for broke and hoping that his desperate measure
paid off somehow. The inner workings of the console probably held
a way of deactivating the explosives, and he knew that Gadget
could probably have found that way in a matter of moments, but
once again, time was something he had practically nothing left
of. Setting Gadget free, getting the cover pried off the console,
if he had something to pry it off with any rate, and for her to
find and tamper with those few wires that might save them would
take far more than the thirty seconds left to them.........which
were now down to twelve. Within a matter of nine seconds, every
button had been pushed and every switch flipped, but Chip saw no
reaction done by any of them, to the explosives or otherwise.
/She must've locked out the controls when she deactivated it
before!/ he realized, slamming his fists down upon the console. 
     Ten...............the timer read.
     /Only about three seconds left./ Chip realized, seeing the
numbers speed quickly down as he once more jumped upon and over
the control console, down to the floor to kneel next to Dale. If
they were all going to go, he wanted at least to be close to them
when it happened.
     Four..........
     "I'm sorry, guys!" Chip called despondently to the others,
taking what he knew would be his last look at them all, a look of
fright and sorrow now etched on his face. 
     "Chip! The explosives?!" Gadget asked in terror, realizing
why Chip had returned and the reason for his statement.
Glancing at the screens that had once again rotated back to face
him, a last grip of frustration took hold of him in that final
second as he remembered all he had gone through this day to save
his friends. /It's not fair!/ he thought to himself again in
aguish. /Not after all this!/
     One. The timer read.......................
     He closed his eyes.

*****

                         Part 5 of 6

*****

     "Chip?" Zipper called out questioningly.
     Hearing Zipper's voice, Chip opened his eyes tentatively at
first, and then fully as he listened to the silence about him. 
/No explosions?/ he thought, a look of confusion now crossing his
face as he looked from Zipper and the others, to the area around
him. Looking back up at the timer screens above him, he saw that
the screens still held steady at '0.00', yet, as he'd expected,
there was no deafening explosions, no chunks of concrete or steel
collapsing from a building that was supposed to be falling down
upon them. "What happened? Did I deactivate it somehow?" Chip
wondered aloud, trying to make sense of their good fortune as he
rose to his feet.
     "Hardly." Ivana's voice suddenly answered with a
disappointed tone from above. "I'm rather surprised that you
still haven't figured it out,....." She stated, as her hooded
form abruptly appeared from behind the side of the control panel,
watching as the Rangers looked up in shocked reaction to her
voice and presence. "but I guess that makes the game all the more
interesting, doesn't it? Care to resume the chase, Chipper? We
still have a game to play." she stated, before turning and
disappearing behind the control panel again.

     Staring after Ivana for but a moment with a renewed
expression of determination, Chip turned, and grabbing the glass
cutter which lay a short distance off, ran over to the nearest
cell with it.
     "Here, Gadget." he stated hurriedly, quickly slipping the
cutter into her cell via the long, thin hole he had cut. "Get the
others free, take care of Dale and get yourselves to safety. She
may still try to blow up the building yet. Follow the air vent
that's over the platform to get out of the building," he
instructed her, "and get out of here! I marked a trail you can
follow. I'm going after Ivana."
     "Chip, wait!" Gadget called anxiously as she watched him
begin to race off from the hole in Dale's cell. "She *wants* you
to go after her! It has to be a trap!"
     "I know it's a trap, Gadget," Chip called back to her with
assurance, pausing halfway up the stairs to look at her for what
he though might be his final time. "but that doesn't mean I have
to fall for it. I'll be careful."
     /Besides,/ he added to himself as he continued the rest of
the way up the short flight of steps to the platform. /There's
*no way* I'm letting that maniac get away. *Not again.*/
Carefully picking up his taser in both hands, Chip gave it a
quick inspection. Everything on it seemed to be in no way
tampered with, from the double ball point pen spring mechanism,
to the suction cup electrodes that were still attached to the
wall bordering the platform, to the nine volt battery that
powered it, and everything inbetween. As he observed, everything
on it *seemed* to be all right and in order but...........racing
over to the hole left by the open trap door in the platform, he
threw his invention down in front of him and jumped after it into
the hole without hesitation. /When it comes to anything that
Ivana's been near, or anything that she's created,/ Chip mused to
himself logically, even as he slipped into the hole, /*nothing is
as it seems to be.* She could have tampered with it and I'm not
about to take the chance of it going off in my face. I'll find
another way to stop her. I just wish that I could have stopped
her before, or I wouldn't have to be doing this now./ 

     With his friends safe, he knew he could have opted to stay
with them, to say goodbye to them before the poison took it's
final toll on him, but with Ivana still out there, he knew that
there was no way he would be able to rest. Even if he failed in
his task, he wanted his last action in this world to be that of
stopping, or trying to stop the woman who had taken his life, as
well as stopping or trying to stop the woman who could yet again
attack his friends and cause them such misery all over again. He
felt as though his chances of winning against her were
practically nil, but still, he felt, *he had to try.* The tube
from the trap door continued down at a sharp angle for close to
ten seconds, carrying him along at a alarming rate until it
leveled out and he tumbled to a halt at last, spilling out
abruptly onto a cold stone floor. /The sewer drains./ he
observed, looking over to the rushing water beside him. Picking
himself up and observing a faintly flickering light off in the
distance, the only light that could be seen in the otherwise
total darkness, he started toward it, quietly and cautiously,
straining his ears to pick up any sound while looking back over
his shoulder all the while. 

     After a minute, as the soft orange glow of the light grew
steadily brighter, the stone path brought him to a junction in
the sewer drains. A place where the drainage aqueduct he was
traveling above, and on the far side of him straight ahead,
another duct flowed as well, fed into a much wider aqueduct that
ran at a diverging path to it, flowing to his left. Changing
course to follow the main drainage duct, the stone path came to a
corner, bending to the left as well. Gently hugging and hunkering
down beside the cold stone wall bordering his left, Chip slowly
nudged his head out around the corner to take a peek at what was
awaiting him. 
     "Ah Chipper," Ivana's voice called down to him, echoing
eerily off the walls of the tunnels. "how good of you to join
me."
     Many feet ahead, down the intersecting tunnel, stood an
impressive sight. Bathed in the torchlight that was lashed to the
rails of its pathway, a bridge stood facing him. Made entirely
out of bamboo from what he could see, the bridge spanned the wide
drainage ditch of the main tunnel, joining the two parallel
running stone paths on the opposite sides. The bridge though, was
not a simple one. Immense in size, it reached up before stopping
about a foot under the ceiling of the tunnel, from what he could
estimate, at least a good twenty five to thirty feet in the air.
The pathways to the main part of the bridge zigzagged forward
along both sides of the tunnel for many feet as well, providing a
somewhat steep, but more than manageable ramp to get to the top.
Standing at the top of this massive construct, near the middle of
the bridge, was Ivana, looking down at him sidelong from the
distance in her hood and cloak. "Now, as you yourself would be
wont to say at such a moment," Ivana continued as Chip started
forward down the stone pathway toward the path to the bridge,
"*the game is afoot*.......It was wise of you to leave your
little toy behind, though." she commented with a sarcastic
tone as Chip quickly neared the pathway, "It would only have
served to help me." 

     Proceeding slowly but purposefully up the pathway, the light
and shadows from the flickering flames dancing across his face,
Chip carefully looked around him as he kept one eye on Ivana as
well. At every step he carefully tested the bridge, expecting it
to fall away beneath his feet at some point. Also keeping an eye
out around the bridge for any sort of hidden spring loaded or
tripwired traps, he reached the main part of the bridge at last,
close to two minutes later, his chest now heaving harder than
ever from the climb and his continually weakening condition.
Here, at the end of the pathway, the railings ended. On the main
part of the bridge, there was no protection from falling. The
path was only barely wider than his own stance. Perhaps it was as
wide as Monterey's, but from the appearance of it, if Monty had
been on the bridge he suspected that Monterey would have had to
move forward facing sideways for any sort of a secure feelling.
Facing him with her arms folded together within the sleeves of
her robe, Ivana stared out at him from the middle of the bridge.
An unreadable void from within the darkness of her hood and
cloak. 

     "This is where it ends, Chip." Ivana stated with finality as
Chip halted his progress at the end of the walkway. "This is
where you die. Either from the poison, or by my own hand, your
time here is close to an end." 
     Putting on the best poker face he could, trying not to let
his fear show to her, Chip carefully stepped out upon the bridge
and advanced toward her, striking a martial arts defensive pose
of readiness. 
     "We'll see." was his only reply.
     As he approached her steadily but carefully, Ivana did not
move from her spot, nor did she remove her arms from the folds of
her robe and cloak. She only stood there, stock still, waiting
for Chip to come to her.
     "I suppose to make it a little more sporting, I should give
you a weapon....." Ivana stated.
     Suddenly, with a sharp lance of pain as something thin but
solid smacked across the width of his back, Chip flew forward and
crashed not only into Ivana, but *through* her as well.
     "And so I shall." Ivana stated, looming sinisterly *behind*
him.
     Trying to disentangle himself from the robes of the decoy,
Chip glanced up and rolled away from Ivana, seeing that what she
had hit him with was some type of quarterstaff fighting stick.
Throwing the robes off himself to fall softly down to the water
far below, he also saw what had been holding up the decoy he had
crashed through. A series of bamboo pieces, of differing lengths
and lashed together at different intervals had formed the "body"
of the decoy, with the main piece that composed the height of it,
being a staff of wood, the exact same type as the one that Ivana
now carried. 
     "Knowing how to throw your voice can be *such* fun." she
stated with a sinister mischievousness as she planted the staff
upon the bridge and leaned on it, watching with amusement as Chip
stumbled, trying to get his feet under him once more. Leaning
over, shakily trying to support himself with his hands on his
knees as he dealt with the burning across his back, Chip glowered
over at Ivana in a hateful scowl, drawing in a sharp, shuddering
breath against this new pain. Looking over from her, down to the
construct of sticks and bamboo before him, he wondered if Ivana
would be able to hit him again before he was able to pick up the
quarterstaff to defend himself. Catching his gaze, Ivana instead
tucked her staff under her left arm and backing up a number of
steps, gestured out with her right hand toward the staff,
inclining her head toward it as well. "Be my guest." she stated,
her tone still very much amused. "That's the other part of what I
put it there for...........Oh yes, and one last thing." she
continued dipping a hand into her cloak. Withdrawing it, she
took out the handcuffs which she had somehow managed to remove
from her wrist. "I don't think we'll be needing *these* anymore,
will we?" she quipped, playfully dangling the handcuffs upon a
finger before tossing them over the side of the bridge. 

     Picking up the staff, never taking his eyes off Ivana as he
did so, Chip looked it over with an uneasy feeling. Getting a
weapon from Ivana was hardly something to feel secure about, even
one so simple as this. Still, from what he could tell, it *was*
only a few simple pieces of wood and bamboo, and the staff seemed
to be completely solid. He hoped for his friends sake that it
was. Holding the staff before him and trying to free the two
bamboo pieces from it, Chip found that they were lashed tight.
Too tight for him to loosen. "Having trouble?" Ivana asked
sarcastically. "Here." she stated in a tone of facetious
goodwill. In a blur of motion, her right hand dipping into the
darkness beneath her cloak and emerging with a dagger, Ivana
lunged forward, crossing the distance between them in an instant
before Chip he could barely begin to react to her movement.
Jerking back instinctively, he had barely enough time to raise
his staff before him to try to defend himself when Ivana abruptly
stepped back once more, the dagger now at her side. "Allow me."
she finished, her deadly smile now visible in the torchlight from
behind him. Looking down, Chip started in surprise as he saw both
of the bamboo pieces now tumbling down toward the water, along
with the twine that had held them. He hadn't even been able to
follow her motion of cutting the string, she had moved so
quickly. Looking up at Ivana with an expression of shock, he
quickly concealed the look as he brought his staff to bear in a
position of readiness. Nodding at him, Ivana casually tossed the
dagger away toward the water before taking up her staff in both
of her hands as well. Twirling it about expertly for a few
moments as befitting one who was clearly quite proficient with
the instrument if not a master, Ivana then took up a pose of
readiness herself, her smile growing even wider.
      /*I haven't got a chance.*/ Chip thought nervously.
     He was all too right. With a speed that he could not even
begin to match due to his inexperience with the instrument and
his weakened state, Ivana swung her staff into him and knocked
his staff from his hands, letting it fall to join the robes and
bamboo pieces far below. Then, even as Chip barely even began to
assume a defensive martial arts stance to aid him against Ivana
since she was too close for him to try to use his whip, again her
staff swept around and down toward his legs. Almost faster than
he could realize, he was laying face up upon the bridge. "I said
that I would give you a weapon." Ivana stated factually, as she
placed the flattened end of her staff firmly against the base of
his neck to keep him from moving. "I didn't say that I would give
you a chance to *use* it." Pausing then, she seemed to study him.
"You look a bit tired Chipper." she stated, a playful sense of
concern and curiosity in her tone. "Would you care to lay down
for a bit?" she asked jokingly. "Like, say.....*forever?*" she
finished, her trademark cruelty now added to the facetiousness in
her voice. With this, withdrawing her staff a significant
distance from his neck, as Chip carefully watched it being
removed, the end of the staff abruptly spouted a long thin blade
of metal which extended toward him with a sinister *click*. It
was this deadly metal that was now thrust at him, it's razor
sharp tip now digging softly into his neck as he tried in vain to
cringe away. "The day that you were born, Chipper." Ivana smiled
cruelly. " It only makes sense that it would be the day that you
would die as well, wouldn't you say?"
     /I'm sorry guys. I failed you for real, this time./ Chip
thought to himself with finality. Laying there tensely, all of
his efforts focusing on breathing, he watched the flames from the
torchlight behind him play across the long piece of reflective
metal. It appeared to him as though the blade were on fire,
making it appear even more deadly. He knew it was only the
reflection, but he could swear that he could feel heat from the
tip of blade, burning into his neck. Turning his surprised and
frightened gaze from the blade at his throat up towards Ivana, he
tried his best to gaze at her defiantly, knowing even as he did,
that he couldn't completely hide the fear that he could feel in
his expression. "What does it matter if you kill me now or not?"
he asked weakly. "The poison would finish me off in a few more
minutes anyway."
     Cocking her head at him slightly, Ivana stood there for a
moment before him, as she seemed to consider Chip's words in
silence. Then, withdrawing her blade only slightly from his neck
so that he could still feel the pointed metal tip brushing
against the fur covering his throat, she removed one of her hands
from her staff. Dipping that hand once more within the robe
concealed beneath her cloak, she withdrew a small vial of glass.
Stopped with a piece of cork, the vial appeared to contain a
somewhat murky solution as she held it up to the light in front
of him. "This Chip," she stated significantly, turning the vial
around in her fingers as she looked from it to him and back
again. "is the antidote to the poison that's killing you. I
suppose so I could have the satisfaction of knowing that I
finished you off with my own two hands, I could give you this
saving vial." she continued, "I could very well put it into the
syringe I have with me, inject the antidote into you, and watch
with satisfaction as your breathing and heartbeat returned to
normal.....*before I finished you off myself.*" she finished, her
tone once more turning from thoughtful, to darkly sinister again.
"By saving you," she went on, her voice once again thoughtful
after a pause. " I could have the satisfaction of knowing that
your life was *completely* in my hands,..........do with as I
wished!....*But!*..... she suddenly stated flippantly, tossing
the vial casually aside into the air to fall to the water
below. "I don't think I want to do that." she shrugged. "For you
see Chipper, I don't *have* to do that." she continued in an
intense voice, digging the metal blade back into the soft part of
Chip's neck once more. "I *already* have your life in my hands
*now.*"  

     With his eyes fixed intently upon the antidote vial
throughout the whole time that Ivana was commenting on the
significance of it, Chip started with violent surprise as she
tossed it over the side of the bridge, watching it fall. He had
been desperate enough to hope that Ivana would give him the
antidote, and with his strength back, he might stand a chance of
wrestling Ivana's staff turned spear, away from her. Now though,
his spirit sunk lower than he had ever known it to go before.
/*Goodbye guys.*/ he thought sadly, thinking of his friends
affectionately, for what he thought would be the last time. 
/I'm really going to miss being with you./ Looking away from
Ivana and closing his eyes, Chip pictured his teammates in his
mind, thinking of the bond that he'd shared with each of them
these past two plus years as he waited for the terrifying
suspense to end, and for Ivana to land her killing blow..........
....*but no such blow came.*


     "Chip, Chip, Chip." Ivana stated amusedly in a scolding
manner. "Open your eyes. You're going to miss the best part!"
His curiosity getting the better of him after a few moments, Chip
tentatively opened his eyes and looked at Ivana. She was still
standing over him with her spear, but once again, one of her
hands was now off of her spear and at her side. "That's better."
she stated in a satisfied manner. "You see Chip, there's a few
things you have to understand before you die. I didn't have to
give you the antidote,...... because there *was* no antidote in
that vial, and even if there was, it wouldn't have done any good
anyway." she continued, shaking her head, her voice sounding as
if she were teaching him an important lesson. "You were never
poisoned in the first place."  
     "WHAT?!" Chip started, crying out in astonishment as the
statement sunk in. "B-but my heartbeat?" he asked, blinking in
confusion at Ivana. "My shortness of breath? My fading strength?"
he pressed her. "If you didn't poison me, what *did* you do to
me?"
     "The drug that I injected into you with that dart *did*
cause many unpleasant side effects," Ivana replied. "but none of
them would have been lethal, had you known that the drug wasn't."
Ivana stated significantly. "The point is Chip, that I made you
*think* you were poisoned. *That's* what matters. I thought you
would realize by now Chip," she continued after a pause, " *this
is all about perception.*"
     As she spoke these words, Ivana lifted her free hand to her
hood and pausing a moment as she curled her fingers about the
cloth, drew it's thick folds away from her head to drape heavily
upon her shoulders. With the absence of the hood, Chip stared
intently now at the face revealed before him. The female he now
looked at was clearly older than him, by about six years he
guessed. With black/brown fur, piercing emerald green eyes and
short black hair, she had a elegant, beautiful face, one that
seemed to belie the twisted nature that she shown all throughout
today. Searching his memory, Chip was almost absolutely certain
that he had never met or seen her before this very moment.

     "I didn't tell this to any of the others." she began. "As
the leader though, *you* are the one who must know the truth. A
little more than two years ago, you and the rest of your team
were on a case...........This case that began in the police
station, led you into *Cat Alley*, and from there to Professor
Nimnul. It was one of your *first* cases. Do you remember?" she
pressed him. 
     Slowly, Chip nodded, as he remembered the case in question.
In that particular mystery, he and the others had been
investigating the disappearance of a little girl's kitten, by the
name of Spunky. He had sent Dale and Monterey to "cat alley" in
search of anyone who might know of the kitten, but instead of
finding cats there, his friends had found another mystery. "Cat
Alley" had become more appropriately "mouse alley". The entire
area was completely overflowing with happy mice, who stated that
the cats that normally populated the alley had been gone for two
days. To where the mice did not know, nor did they care. From
that information and an idea of Dale's to find out what had
happened to the cats using a cat costume, the trail had led to an
encounter with a bizarre robot dog, and from there to Professor
Nimnul's mountaintop laboratory. There, his team had discovered
that these mechanical canines had been sent by the Professor to
capture cats. Bringing them back to Nimnul for his use in a
scheme to hold the city hostage, he was using the cats as source
of static electricity for a massive lightning generator.
Managing to stop the deranged professor, his team had also
managed to free the hundreds of cats that he had captured...{}

*****

                         Part 6 of 6

*****

     "When the cats returned to Cat Alley and elsewhere," Ivana
continued in a deadly serious tone of reminiscing, "it took the
mice practically by complete surprise. In addition to that, those
cats were starving. Nimnul hadn't fed them the entire time that
he'd held them there. Many mice were eaten that night when the
cats returned to their old haunts. One of them............" Ivana
stated, giving him a cold, even stare. "was my brother."
     Staring back at her evenly as this statement sunk into him,
Chip found his voice after a long moment as anger began to well
up within him once more. "I'm sorry about your brother," he
stated coldly, his mind still reeling in anger from all the
anguish he had gone through, thinking that he was going to die
from Ivana's so called 'poison.' "but that doesn't merit you're
trying to kill me and my friends! We couldn't have just left the
cats in Nimnul's hands! If you know about the case, then you know
what he was doing to them! Besides, we couldn't control what all
those cats did after Monty let them out!"
     "And Gadget was the one who gave you the idea to do it.."
Ivana replied much more coldly than the tone Chip's voice had
taken.
     "How did you know about that?!" Chip asked in astonishment
as he remembered the fact. "I don't remember putting that down
in the casebook!"
     "You didn't." Ivana replied. "I found the cat that took my
brother. I captured him, and I....*asked* him where he and all
the other cats had gone to, only to come back from. Before
I........*put him to sleep*, to use a human term," she continued,
flashing her deadly grin at him again, "he told me a strange
story of how four rodents and a large fly had helped him and the
others to escape, with a female mouse saying how *all* the cats
had to be freed. Finding this out, I found out exactly who you
were, and from there, everything I could find out about you.
After all, to defeat your enemy," she stated, jabbing the spear
just a little bit deeper into the soft flesh of Chip's throat,
"you have to *know* them first."
     "We couldn't just leave the cats there!" Chip growled back
defensively, wincing from the point of the spear digging into
him. "You said yourself that Nimnul didn't feed them! Who knows
what else he would have done to them in the name of his crazy
schemes! Gadget was right, telling us we had to save them all!"

     "She was *wrong!!*" Ivana snarled back, bloodlust showing in
her eyes. "What did it matter what that human was doing to
them?!" She asked. "As long as our kind were safe, that's all
that mattered! You're a rodent, Chip! How could you help 
*a cat?!*" she demanded.
     "We help everyone and everything that needs our help." Chip
replied defiantly. "Species doesn't matter to us."
     "You *thought* you were doing right." Ivana replied, shaking
her head disgustedly. "You *perceived* you were doing a good deed
when you only ended up hurting your own kind." she paused then,
visibly seething with fury. "Cats are your *enemy!*" she hissed
with a seemingly fanatical conviction. "Are you *blind?!!*" she
demanded of him. "Cat's will *kill* you! The only good cat is a
*dead* cat!"
     Chip stared out at the female mouse standing over him with a
gaze that was a mix between disgust and sympathy. This female
standing over him, this......."Ivana M. Killjoy", was so consumed
by hate and a need for revenge, it seemed to be the only thing
left in her mind and heart.
     "Not all cats." He replied with conviction. "I know that for
the most part, cats will eat us, but.......*even cats have their
place.*" Chip stated with a calm, unwavering certainty,
remembering the ideal that Gadget had helped to instill in the
team during that second case of theirs.
     "Enough of this!!" Ivana spat. "You're insane." she chuckled
dangerously, looking at him with disgust. "You think that all
creatures including cats, have their place?! Very well. *Now you
shall now have *yours!*" Ivana glowered at him. "As the leader,
the blame is yours for what happened with your team. You created
and Dale *created* the Rescue Rangers. Now it's time to pay the
price of your actions. After I finish with you, I'll continue my
game until I've gained my vengeance against all of you.
Particularly your best friend and the girl you love so dearly. I
did have many other things to tell you, but you've quickly worn
out my patience for your presence." Stopping then, Ivana looked
up and around her from side to side, as though she were examining
the immense drainage tunnel that surrounded them. "For all that
you've done to help cats." she stated absently before turning
back to him. She smiled. "The sewer, Chip....Such an appropriate
place for you to meet your end, don't you think?" she asked. With
that, she abruptly drew back her spear in a violent motion,
preparing to run Chip through in the next instant. In that single
instant between heartbeats though, Chip moved. 

     /*One chance*........./ he thought desperately, his
adrenaline kicking in as he rolled himself off the bridge and
began to fall. Slipping his bullwhip from his jacket and snapping
it up with expert accuracy, the end of it caught securely around
the flat supports that he'd seen laying crossed beneath the main
part of the bridge. Looping the end of the whip about his hand
and rapidly swinging beneath the platform, Chip quickly slipped
his free hand into his jacket and removed his grappling rope. It
was the only one that he hadn't used in the ones he brought with
him to the building and had left behind throughout the multi
levels of the air vents. The reason he hadn't used it was that
due to his battle with Tom in which he'd had to tie the robot cat
up, the rope had become frayed and weak from the mechanical cat's
straining against it^^. Still, he knew that it was all he had
left. Reaching the apex of his swing which carried him almost
level with the platform on the opposite side, twirling the rope
as he neared it, he let the grappling rope fly. Watching as the
safety pin and rope twirled about the robe covered legs of his
very surprised adversary, Chip pulled the rope taught as he began
to swing back, yanking Ivana abruptly off the bridge and into the
air with him. Looping part of the momentarily slack grappling
rope about his hand even as Ivana flew from the bridge, her spear
flying out of her grip to fall toward the water below them, Chip
braced himself for what would come next. As both the rope and the
whip pulled taught, stopping Ivana from her decent and swinging
them both back again, Chip cried out suddenly, feeling his arms
being stretched out in different directions and nearly being
pulled from their sockets. Closing his eyes and clenching his
teeth against the pain, he slowly maneuvered the rope between his
legs, grasping it tightly between his feet and knees. Then, with
his left arm still shuddering involuntarily from the sudden
stress he had just subjected it to, he slowly picked it up to
join his right arm in grasping his bullwhip. 

     "You're beginning to make a habit out of surprising me,
Chipper." Ivana quipped sardonically in grumbling disappointment
from below him as Chip began the slow, torturous, hand over hand
climb to pull them both up toward the bridge. "One moment I'm
going to kill you, and the next I'm your prisoner, hanging upside
down and being reeled in like a fish on a hook.....or rather.....
*a fish on a safety pin.*" she quipped further, scowling up at
the pin that was locked onto her ankles.  Chip made no comment to
Ivana's snide remarks as he continued the climb. He noticed the
sound, perhaps he even acknowledged the comments, but he did
nothing to respond. He couldn't whether he wanted to or not.
Every fiber of his being was focused on the climb, on just
pulling one arm up after the other, a fraction of a centimeter at
a time. Hugging the whip close against him, his biceps clenched
tight against his rib cage, Chip listened to his breath wheezing
in and out from between his teeth and through his nose as he
gasped, whimpered and grunted for air with each pull. He was
never sure at any point just how much longer he would hold out.
Finally, after long minutes and muscles that screamed for release
to the tension and pain tearing away at them, Chip opened his
squinting eyes and saw the top of the bridge finally within
reach. Reaching out another trembling arm, hoping that he didn't
slip or that his strength didn't fail him now, he reached around
the edge of the platform to dig his fingers and claws solidly
into the bamboo surface. Swinging his other arm quickly around to
grasp the top of the bridge as well, he slowly pulled and clawed
his way up onto the bridge, then turned toward the rope still
clenched between his legs and feet. With his last bit of
strength, Chip pulled a tiny part of the rope up after him, and
tying this piece into a secure knot around one of the side
supports on the surface of the bridge, promptly collapsed in to a
gasping, exhausted heap face up on the bamboo, fighting just to
stay conscious with the world swirling dizzily about him. 

     As Chip lay there, his muscles still feeling like they were
on fire from the arduous task he'd just put them through,
particularly with the lack of his normal strength, he suddenly
became aware of the sound of light applause, coming up to him
from below as it echoed throughout the tunnel. 
     "Bra-vo, Chip." Ivana called, continuing with her applause
for a few more moments. "A truly impressive feat I must admit."
     Barely able to turn himself over, Chip stuck his head out
over the side of the bridge. "Ivana," he called weakly with a
gasp, "grab hold of the rope and pull yourself up!"
     Ivana looked up at him curiously as she continued to hang in
the air by her feet, her arms calmly folded about her chest.
"There's just one thing that I can't quite understand, Chip." she
stated in a confused and partially disgusted tone. "After all
that I've done, why did you let me live? It would have been much
easier to just let me drop into the water to drown."
     "Ivana," Chip said, shaking his head at her, taking a gulp
of air, "that's *not important* now! Dying or not, I'm still too
weak from the climb to pull you up, and the rope's not that
strong! *You have to try to make it up here before it might
break!*"
     Below him, Chip could see the fibers of the rope which had
been frayed before, now much more weakened from his stunt to
disarm and capture Ivana. In a few places, many of the strands
had snapped, leaving only small sections of the fibers left to
keep Ivana from falling to her doom. He really didn't know how
the rope had survived his capture of Ivana in the first place,
but it clearly wasn't going to stay in one piece for long. Even
as he watched, another two of the tenuous strands in one of the
sections snapped as Ivana continued to swing slightly below him.
He wasn't sure how many of the fibers could break before one of
the entire sections went........
     "Very well." Ivana stated calmly, beginning to lift herself
upwards towards the rope. However, as Chip looked on, Ivana was
only able to lift herself about halfway up towards the rope, her
arms outstretched, her whole body and face straining before she
fell tiredly back into her vertical position. Again she tried
after a few seconds, and then yet again a few seconds after that,
but the result was still the same. She couldn't seem to lift
herself up to the rope. "I can't do it!" she stated with
frustration, hanging there with her arms below her head. "I can't
pull myself up that far."
     "You have to try again!" Chip called urgently. At each of
Ivana's attempts, as she had fallen back into place, her weight
snapping down on the rope had caused a few more strands in some
sections to break and others beginning to fray due to the
increased stress put on them now. "The rope's not gonna last much
longer!"
     "So why not let it break?" Ivana asked in a pensive tone.
"Wouldn't it be better to be rid of me once and for all?" she
asked.
     "What?!" Chip cried, taken aback by the comment that seemed
to be asking him to let her die.
     "Think about it Chip." Ivana continued, calmly. "Remember
Bubbles?" she asked, her cold penetrating gaze staring up at him.
"Need I say more?"
     Stopping as he blinked at her, Chip immediately saw what
Ivana was driving at. A few months back, the Rescue Rangers had
had another run in with Bubbles. A ruthless, muscle bound mouse
who lusted after his own empire of money and glory, he'd come up
with a near foolproof plan. By carrying out a literally hostile
takeover of a cult of mice called "The Cola Cult," he would gain
the money and power he craved as the mice in the cult gave up
their worldly possessions to be "fizzed" or destroyed for the
goal of spiritual growth. Bubbles had carefully collected the
"fizzed" money, jewels and other items, stowing them away where
only he and his small band of ninja henchmice knew about it.
Gadget had singlehandedly captured him in that case before he had
managed to kill the real leader of the cult, as well as Byron, a
follower of the cult who knew of Bubbles' plans, and the rest of
the Rescue Rangers who Byron had come to for help**. That was
over a year ago. A few months back, Bubbles had managed to break
out of Alcatraz prison, intent on revenge against the person who
had put him there, as well as those who set his ultimate downfall
in motion. Kidnapping Gadget from the treehouse, he meant to kill
her for destroying his plans with the Cola Cult as well as using
her for bait to lure the rest of the team into a trap, meaning to
finish the rest of them off as well. If it hadn't been for the
timely intervention of their newest member Foxglove who Bubbles
was unaware of, they all would have fallen prey to him.> The
point though, was clear. Even if he took her to the S.A.P.S.
prison on Alcatraz island, if Bubbles could break out of there,
then Ivana would surely break out of there in no time at all.
With her resources and her cunning, as well as her just stated
insinuation, she might already have set up an escape route in the
event that she was captured. If she escaped, there was no telling
whether she could be captured again, before she was able to claim
the lives of one of, if not *all* of the Rescue Rangers.

     "Even if you had me sent to the S.A.P.S. prison on
Alcatraz," Ivana continued, emphasizing the point for him as she
saw the gamut of emotions running across Chip's face. "I *would*
break out, and *soon.* Make no mistake about that. To do so would
be *child's play.* No matter how many times you would send me
away, I'd  keep coming back. You *know* I wouldn't stop until I'd
destroyed *every one* of you. Also......the next time I most
certainly wouldn't be so.........*playful* in my approach. This
entire day? The rhyme games, the games I played with your friends
to trap them? They were all a tribute to my brother. He loved
games when he was a kid. His favorites were *hide and seek* and
all manner of *rhyme games.* He still played them with other
children even as a grown up." she sighed heavily.
     Chip watched as another strand snapped.
     "However, I've paid my homage to the memory of his youthful
spirit on this day in that respect." she stated, "The next time
there would be *no more games.* No more chances that I could make
a mistake and that you could win. All that would be left is
vengeance in my brother's name. A bomb in your treehouse perhaps?
Poison gas while you were sleeping? I could kill you and your
friends in any number of different ways, and none of you would
ever see it coming.............Even if you could summon up the
strength to pull me up before the rope snapped," Ivana asked
seriously. "......are you sure you'd want to? Why not let me
drop?"
     Looking down at the cold jade of her eyes, Chip froze as he
listened to Ivana's words. /Let her drop....?/ His mind
considered. It's not like he would be *killing her*, he supposed,
just leaving her to die as she proposed. The prospect was.......
*tempting* to say the least. Moreover, the choice seemed have a
definite logic to it. After all that she had done today, it was
clear that Ivana wouldn't care who she had to kill to get to him
and his friends. She had been responsible for the animals killed
in the library, as well as the humans hurt and possibly killed in
the theater. If Ivana came after them again, any number of people
could get hurt or even killed just because they were in close
proximity to him and his friends. And even if no one besides his
friends were hurt or killed, even *that* was a terrible
possibility to consider. He had just barely saved his own neck
and theirs today. Next time *none* of them might not be so lucky.
Even if he were to survive, if any one of them, any of his
friends that he considered to be his family were seriously hurt
or killed due to something that he had chosen against right now,
it would be a tragedy that he could never forgive himself for.
*Why not* end this madness right now as she suggested, and assure
some peace for him and his friends in the future? Overloaded with
such a powerful choice that he had never considered let alone
faced before, his mind momentarily seemed to shut down and blank
out for a moment, freezing him up further. 
     Two more stands broke.
     /*No.*/ Chip finally thought with a renewed sense of
conviction, snapping himself from his stupor a few moments later
as he rejected Ivana's odious suggestion. As Ivana had stated, he
was not only the leader of the Rescue Rangers, he had helped to
create the team, and it, like any other group, had been founded
on a principle. That principle being: *To serve and protect.* 
The same principle that governed and gave purpose to the San
Francisco Police force, as well as all other police forces
throughout the country, was the same one that the Rescue Rangers
stood upon. The police and the Rescue Rangers were there to
preserve the peace, and to enforce the law, but *not* to serve as
judge, jury and executioner. To let Ivana drop when there was
still time to save her was tantamount to killing her outright and
intentionally. Something that went against every principle,
violated every aspect of trust behind the Police Badge which
Plato had bestowed upon him and Dale. The same badge which they
had in turn bestowed upon the entire team as a symbol of their
purpose. No. He didn't know if he would be able to save Ivana,
but he wasn't about to put himself above the law or throw away
just about everything he believed in by not trying. If he did, he
knew, how would he be able to face his friends again who believed
in the same principles that he did? He got slowly to his feet.
/If I can bring her up, we'll bring her to Alcatraz./ he thought
to himself with conviction. /And somehow, someway, even if Gadget
has to design an escape proof cell especially for her, for all
that she's done, *Ivana's going to stay there.* *She's not going
to break out or hurt anyone, again.*  He reached toward the rope.
"Forget it Ivana." Chip stated grimly as he took it in his hands.
"Rescue Rangers don't let people die. Not even the likes of you.
Not if we can help it. You're going to see justice by the law."

     "No Chip." Ivana replied just as grimly. "*You* should be
the one to forget it. Even if you did manage to get enough
strength back to pull me up before the rope broke, I won't let
you do that."
     As she said this, Chip watched in surprise as Ivana suddenly
detached her hood and cloak, and as they fell away beneath her,
she quickly untied her robe and shrugged it off to fall behind
her as well. As Chip saw what lay behind the robe, his eyes
widened with surprise and terror. Strapped to Ivana, was what
looked like for all appearances, *a bomb.* With a luminous
digital timer upon her chest, small gray/white patches covered
every part of her body, save for her hands, feet, neck, and head. 
     "A special type of plastic explosive." Ivana explained
grimly. "More than enough to blow up you, and this entire bridge.
I could have set it off at any time that I've been hanging here,
but it would do me no satisfaction to only take only *one* of you
out with my death. I wanted *all* of you to die, and for my
vengance, it was either *all or nothing.* You see I *truly
expected* to win this battle and to continue on with my vendetta
to finish off your friends, but as you can also see,..." she
continued, spreading her arms wide to take in the scope of the
situation, "......I like to prepare for any eventuality as well.
I had hoped that like Gadget, I would at least get some
satisfaction before my passing, trying to corrupt your
sickeningly hypocritical moral values, but since you
unfortunately passed *that* last little test of mine....."
Pressing a button on the timer, the numbers on the display raced
upward from zero, stopping at fifty seconds. "Better to go
quickly than to die slowly by drowning.....if the rope doesn't
break first." she finished.

     Chip's eyes grew even wider as he witnessed this seemingly
insane latest action of Ivana's destructive behavior.
"But.........!" he stammered, completely dumbfounded by the
sight. "You said that you could escape from Alcatraz. If you
could, then why throw your life away like this?!" he asked,
shaking his head as he tried to make even the tiniest bit of
sense out of this last act of Ivana's.
     "Because, Chip," Ivana stated with a tone of conviction. "I
learned a long time ago from someone that I admired, that it's
far better to die with honor, than to surrender in ignominy....
....Adieu Chip." she stated, lifting her head and giving him a
mix between a wave and a salute. "It was an enjoyable game, even
though I lost. I suggest though, that you run if you still can,
*while* you still can." Then, pressing a button on the timer to
start the countdown, she settled back down, closing her eyes and
letting her arms and head hang limp once more. "It's time I
joined my brother." she finished. 

      Looking at Ivana, Chip swiftly considered his options. He
had no way of getting down to her to try to defuse the bomb. The
rope clearly wouldn't support them both, and he didn't trust his
own strength either, to try to climb back under the bridge to get
to his whip, which wasn't long enough to reach Ivana anyway. On
top of that fact, his knoledge of defusing bombs was limited. It
might simply go off if he tried to remove it if he could get to
it, or Ivana might set it off prematurely anyway for his trying
to interfere. He knew there was no other choice. He had done all
that he could. Seeing the timer continue it's countdown, Chip
took a last astounded glance down at Ivana before weakly
beginning to stumble across the bridge and toward the ramp that
he'd come up, as quickly as he could.

     Another two strands broke.........
     Keeping track of the time left in his mind as he continued
down the ramp, Chip wagered that he only had about thirty seconds
left to get to the relative safety of the next corridor he'd come
from, and the zigzagging course of the ramp was eating up
precious time. Slipping under the rail, he took hold of one of
the supporting bamboo beams for the ramp and slid down it most of
the way, losing his grip at the last part and falling the two
remaining feet to the ground. Managing to twist around to land
heavily on his hands and feet, he started off again after another
moment, wondering vaguely with half a mind, if he had fractured
anything from the sharp bolts of pain that now shot through his
hands, and moreso through his feet and ankles at every step.
     Twelve....
     Catching sight of the break in the wall which heralded the
adjoining tunnel, it looked as though he would be able to make
his way to it in time, when he abruptly tripped dizzily over his
own stumbling feet and fell once again, sprawling himself roughly
down upon the cold stone floor.
     Eleven.....
     /*Get up!*/ he commanded himself even as he gasped for air,
the fall having knocking what little breath he had right out of
him. Trying to prod his nearly useless limbs into action once
more, he picked his head up and spied the new tunnel a seemingly
short distance off. /No telling how safe I am even from this
distance. Got...to..get...to..that...*tunnel!!!*/ he screamed in
his mind, forcing himself to his hands and knees and crawling
wobbly forward.
     Ten.....
     /Just a little more...../ he prodded himself on, his mouth
now bone dry and his chest aching from his wheezing breaths.
     Nine.....
     /You're almost *there..........!*/ 
     With a shudder of exhausted muscle and sinew even as this
thought shot through his mind, his arms abruptly gave out on him,
unable to support even the weight of his upper body anymore.     
     Seven.....     
     /*Get*.....*up...!*/ Leveraging himself into a sitting
position and leaning against the stone wall, Chip shakily pushed
his feet back under him once more and started off, leaning on the
wall for support and feeling extremely lightheaded now.
     Five......
     /Got it!/ he thought triumphantly to himself as he lurched
around the corner of the tunnel, looking back over his shoulder. 
/Now just....!/
     "Whoa!" a voice suddenly cried from directly in front of his
path. 
     Unable to turn around or stop in time, Chip crashed solidly
into the source of the voice and tumbled to the ground once more,
hearing the person fall to the ground alongside him.
     Three......
     "Chip!" Zipper's voice suddenly exclaimed in surprise from
above him, echoed a split second later by Monty, Dale and
Gadget's voices.
     "Get back!" Chip cried urgently but weakly, glancing above
him at Zipper and beside him at Gadget on the ground as he rolled
himself onto his side. 
     Two......
     "*It's a-*" Having sprawled back out into the main sewer
tunnel from the collision, Chip snapped his head up reflexively
toward  where he'd begun to look before.........................
*toward the bridge.* 
     One.....
     A final strand broke.
     "*bomb!!!*"
     His vision locking onto the bridge, he saw the vague shape
of Ivana's form begin to plummet toward the water far below. 
     *Zero.*
     He wasn't able to turn away in time, as the light from the
exploding fireball reflected hauntingly in his shocked and
horrified eyes.
     


<*> From the CDRR episode-"Seer No Evil"
<**> From the CDRR episode-"A Creep In The Deep."
* From the CDRR episode-"When Mice Were Men."
** From the CDRR episode-"The case of the Cola Cult"
^ Rhyme and Reason Part 4.  
() From the CDRR episode-"Dirty Rotten Diapers"
{} CDRR-Catteries Not Included.
^^ Rhyme and Reason Part 6.
> The Hooded Menace-By Jeff Pierce. WTFB NO.8, Oct 1994.
>>Rhyme and Reason Part 4
+ Rhyme and Reason Part 5
< Buzz first met the Rescue Rangers in the CDRR episode-"Does
Pavlov Ring a Bell?" and met up with Chip again in Rhyme and
Reason Part 6

Please send all comments to me at RRQUEST@AOL.COM