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I originally started this as a story jam, but no one submitted other chapters. So, here's chapter three. Enjoy.

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RESCUED RANGERS - Chapter III: Possible Complications

From their hiding places, the Rangers watched as the pair of humans moved around the old barge, apparently looking for clues.

"I don't know, Kim," the boy observed. "This place looks kind of... I don't know, skanky for one of Drakon's hideouts."

"I don't think he was hiding out here, Ron. The tip Wade got was that some of his men were seen here a day or two ago."

"Why here?"

"Good question. Word on the street is that Drakon needed something important to his current scheme." She was interrupted by an odd musical page tone. Pulling a video communicator from her pocket she thumbed the answer button. "What's the sitch Wade?"

"Got some 411 on that barge for you. It's been abandoned there for about the last six years. Word is some homeless dude named Fagin moved in a couple years ago and turned it into a home for stray dogs."

"Any criminal record?"

"Nothing significant... vagrancy, trespassing, that kind of thing. He apparently makes a living for himself as a scrounger, with some help from his dogs."

"So... He's created himself a Kennel of Crime?" asked Ron.

"No, just a Habitat for Hounds."

"Good one, Wade!"

Kim groaned. "Anything else?"

"Well, police thought he might have been involved in a kidnapping last year, but it turned out he was the one who rescued the girl."

Kim thought for a moment. "You said he was a scrounger, huh?"

"Yeah," Wade replied.

"Where exactly was the courier for Advanced Astrophysics mugged?"

"Three blocks down and six over from where you are now... Am I thinking what you're thinking?"

"Probably," Kim replied. "We know Drakon's thugs were responsible for the mugging and that they didn't get what they were after..."

"...because the courier dropped it down a storm drain. You think this Fagin guy found it?"

"Can you think of another reason they'd be seen around here?"

"Off hand... No! Let me run a quick scan for stray energy signatures."

Nodding, the girl held out the small device and turned in a slow circle. A grid pattern of light was projected from one end of the communicator. Finishing her turn, she switched off the beam and looked once more at the image of Wade. "Find anything?"

"Yes," the 10-year-old genius replied. "There is an unusually high concentration of tachyon particles in one corner."

"So... what exactly does that mean?" asked Ron.

"It means," the girl replied, "that this Fagin character must have found and collected the temporal circuit breaker then was collected himself by Doctor Drakon.

"There's something else here that seems unusual," said Wade.

"What?"

"You appear to be surrounded by a rather odd assortment of vermin?"

"Odd in what way?" Kim asked.

"Well... you've got a chipmunk, a mouse, a rat, a hamster, a bat and a chihuahua."

"Hey man! Who chu callin' a vermin!" snarled Tito.

At the sound of the sharp barking both teens looked up. They spotted the small dog standing near one bulkhead.

"Aww... look at the cute little doggie," Kim said going down on one knee and beckoning to Tito.

"Careful KP..." warned the boy. "He's wearing a bandana. He could be hardcore."

"That's a sweatband Ron, and he's probably one of Fagin's dogs," she observed. She softly whistled to the chihuahua. Tito abruptly stopped barking and slowly began to edge forward towards Kim.

"Hey!" whispered Dale. "Where does he think he's going?"

"It's her whistling," Foxglove replied. "Canines often respond to certain frequencies of sound the way cats do to catnip."

"Well... I've got ears but I don't hear anything unusual."

"It's there sugar, trust me," she replied. "I know my sub-sonics."

Tito padded up to Kim and sniffed tentatively at her hand. She reached between his ears and began skritching the back of his head. In response the chihuahua's tongue lolled out, his legs went rubbery and his tail started to wag.

"That's a good doggie... nice doggie," she cooed. "Wade... can you scan the pooch for me, see what kind of readings you get?"

"On it!" The scanning beam painted its way across Tito for about two seconds. "Seems like the little guy's loaded with residual tachyon energy. Our circuit breaker was definitely here."

Gadget peeked out from her hiding place, thoroughly impressed by the technology she saw and a little over-eager to get a closer look. Kim glanced up from the communicator in time to see her as she ducked back behind a dilapidated sofa.

"Am I seeing things... or was that a mouse wearing coveralls and goggles?"

"I didn't see," Wade replied. "Try holding up your communicator and I'll run a full spectrum scan."

Kim held the device in front of her. It hummed for about ten seconds then beeped three times.

"Whoa! Talk about your sci-fi theatre weirdness!" Wade muttered. "Your guests are not only wearing clothes, they're all running around on two legs and they have thumbs! All except the chihuahua that is."

"What do thumbs have to do with anything?" asked Ron.

"It means the creatures surrounding you are capable of manipulating their environment. A clear indication of higher order sentient capability." Ron stared at the communicator, his face a mask of utter confusion. Wade sighed. "It means they're smart."

"How smart?" he asked nervously.

"Human level at least," the genius geek replied

"I knew it!" Stoppable screeched, his voice rising a full octave towards 'panic mode.' "Alien pod mice from Mars... and I bet they all have their own tiny motorcycles of death too!"

"Chill Ron!" Kim responded. "If they wanted to hurt us they would have done it by now."

"Ya hear that, mate!" Monty said, nudging Chip with his elbow. "I think that Sheila knows we're here."

"Somehow, I'm not all that surprised." Chip replied. "I think we have ourselves a genuine, first contact situation here." Adjusting his hat, the chipmunk took a deep breath and walked out into the open. He stopped long enough to make eye contact with the girl, then took off his hat and bowed formally.

"Greetings!" I'm Chip, and my friends and I are called the Rescue Rangers!" He paused to wait for an answer.

"Kim..." Ron whispered nervously, "he's chittering at us. They always chitter just before they charge."

"Would you get a grip? This is not Camp Wannaweep and he's not going to charge." Kim looked down at her communicator. "Wade... I think the little guy is trying to talk to us. Can you help?"

"Working on it." There was a rapid clacking as the geek worked his keyboard. "Got it! Wow! He's using standard English, but at a much higher frequency range than we can understand. I'll modify your communicator so it can translate." Again, the device hummed for a few moments, then beeped.

* * * *

"So let me get this straight," Kim reiterated looking at the half-dozen rodents that surrounded her as she sat cross-legged on the floor. "You guys solve crimes?"

"Only when we're not saving the world," boasted Dale who promptly got a rap on the head from Chip. "OW! What's the idea?"

"I just wanna make sure your head isn't going to get too big for your neck, silly!" Chip looked back up at Kim. "Actually, we just try to focus on the small stuff that the police are too busy to deal with."

"This case doesn't exactly fit the description of what you call 'small stuff','" K.P. responded.

"Tell me about it," said Gadget. "It seams like every other case we take on turns out to be bigger than we originally thought."

"Sort of like looking for missing pooches and uncovering high tech robbery," observed Ron.

"Exactly," mouse agreed. "Though I guess when you consider the probability factors and extrapolate pre-ordinance as a theoretical constant, then the random element can be pretty well disregarded."

"You sound a lot like our friend Wade, especially after too many mocha java milk-shakes." Ron gave Gadget a suspicions sideways look. "You two aren't related, are you?" Everyone save Dale and Ron slapped the palm of their hands against their foreheads, groaning. Wade simply dropped his head against his keyboard.

"I'd say its more likely that you and Dale are related," teased Foxglove. The hamster responded by giving her a prolonged raspberry.

"So... what now?" asked Tammy.

Chip thought for a moment. "We're both essentially working the same case. Maybe it would be to our advantage to join forces."

"I was thinking the same thing," Kim responded. "We can focus on the technical end and you can keep working the missing canine side. All we'd really need to do is keep each other appraised of what each group has found."

There was a sharp chittering sound from the front pocket of Ron's pants. Reaching down, he pulled a small, pink shape from it and held the creature up to his ear. "You say something Rufus?"

The naked mole rat began chittering, pointing to both Kim and the Rangers. Ron looked over at K.P. "Rufus doesn't think it's a good idea to split our forces. Not if Doctor Drakon already has possession of the temporal circuit thingy."

"We don't know that he does... just that he was looking for it," replied Chip. "Oh, and by the way, who's your friend?"

"This is Rufus," Ron smiled, holding out the mole rat for all to see. "He and I have been best buds since kindergarten." Rufus waved at the Rangers, chittering briefly and ending his introduction with a squeaky "HIYA."

"What did he just say?" asked Dale

"Rufus was saying hi," Ron supplied.

"He did?" Dale observed. "Well I could hardly understand him at all."

"I did," said Foxglove. With that she started chittering herself. Rufus responded by jumping down from Ron's hand and going up to the bat. The two of them conversed for a moment before the mole rat grabbed her paw and begin pumping it vigorously in greeting. Dale merely looked over and scratched his head.

"What's that all about?" he asked

"Our new friend Rufus communicates in a sub-sonic range of speech, similar to bat-speakbut at a different frequency," Foxglove explained. Though he does have a slight speech impediment because of his teeth."

"Interesting," said Wade. "If Ron can understand Rufus, and Rufus can understand the bat..."

"Foxglove," she corrected him."

"Uh... Right... Foxglove," he replied. "I wonder if she can talk to Ron?"

"Well, there's one way to find out," Foxglove replied. She immediately turned toward Ron and chattered at him.

"Really... Well I don't know if you'd call us a couple... More like a team," the boy responded.

"What's she saying?" Kim asked.

"Please KP. This is a private conversation," he said.

"UH BOY!" muttered Rufus

"It looks like your friend Ron is genetically wired for certain, sub-sonic tones," Gadget observed.

"Well, it would explain why dog-whistles give him a headache." Kim replied with a quirky smile.

"Alright then... If we're going to follow Rufus' suggestion, we need to map out our next moves." Chip looked up at the two humans. "You were talking earlier about some kind of tachyons and a temporal circuit breaker?"

"Yes," the red-haired girl replied. "It was a circuit card stolen from a company called Advanced Astrophysics. It's supposed to be a critical component in some top secret government project."

"And you think it was here?" asked Gadget.

"We know it was here. There's a tachyon trail and residual particles all over the place, including some on your canine friend "

"Man... I knew I shudda taken a bath last month," muttered the chihuahua.

"So what did this circuit card look like?" asked Monty.

Kim reached into a pocket of her parachute pants and pulled out a photo. "This is what we're looking for." Everyone gathered around and took a look.

"Hey... Is that wha' chu lookin' for?? Tito asked

Kim nodded.

"Well, why didn' chu ask? Frankie found sometin like it a couple a days ago over by the storm drain. It was in his stash until Fagan saw it and put it in the lockbox."

"What did Frankie want with it?" asked Ron.

"Thought he could use it ta fix his radio. He ain't happy unless he can get his weekly dose of culture," Tito explained. "When Fagan saw it he noticed there was some gold and platinum in it. Thought we could pawn it and get enough to buy a couple weeks worth o' groceries and a Moe Zart album fer Francis."

"Do you know where Fagan kept this lockbox?"

"Yeah," the chihuahua replied carefully, "But I don' know... That's our big stash, man. Dodger and the others might not like it if I showed chu."

"Well, you're homies were kidnapped," Chip pointed out, "and if you want us to find them and whoever took them, then we need your help."

Tito pursed his lips slightly and closed one eye, twisting his head in thought. After a moment or two he snorted slightly. "HOKAY! I'll show chu." He padded up the steps and out onto the deck, followed by Kim, Ron and a small squad of rodents. The sun had set and the river reflected city lights up toward the boat, providing a modest amount of illumination.

"Here chu go!" Tito said, stopping next to a cleat. From it a half-inch rope hung over the side and disappeared into the water.

"Where is it?" Dale asked.

"Down there!" replied the chihuahua. "Pretty smart. Fagan called it our Left Bank Bank."

"I don't get it," muttered Ron

"Ever been to Paris, mate?" asked Monty. Ron shook his head. "Then you wouldn't."

"Golly!" Gadget exclaimed. "I think your circuit card might still be here!"

"What do you mean?" asked Kim

"She means that if that lockbox is watertight..." Wade interjected.

"It is," Tito confirmed.

"And it's deep enough under water, then Drakon's goons wouldn't have been able to detect the circuit card."

"Why not?" asked Ron.

"The water would have disbursed the tachyons. That's why they couldn't track it through the sewers."

"Yeah... That was kind of a bitch," said a distinctive female voice.

Everyone turned. There, standing on the dilapidated pier were half a dozen ninja goons accompanied by a shapely, raven-haired woman with a pale green complexion.

"SHEGO!" exclaimed Ron and Kim in one voice.

"Hi Kimmy!" she taunted. "Planning on opening your own pet store?"

...TO BE CONTINUED