FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The next morning, Dale woke up and stretched. Her hair was in curlers and even though she was still tired from the last day, she still looked beautiful. Her magenta bathrobe was strewn across a nearby chair; that meant she'd slept naked, just like she always did. She just wore her PJ's when out of the room. As when she finished stretching, Dale looked down at her chest- two plump mountains of fur covered flesh greeted her. Feeling the cool air on them was a new, and almost intimidating sensation. She was brought back to reality as she heard a quiet commotion from the top bunk. Chip was awake! Before she knew it, she'd pulled her covers up to her chest. She reached out an arm to grab her robe, and quickly slipped it on as she got out of bed. It just so happened that Chip poked his head over his bunk just in time to see Dale tying her robe shut. It was still weird seeing Dale like this but Chip knew that this was just the way it was going to be.

"Morning, Dale," he yawned. "You, uh, sleep well?"

"Yeah," Dale yawned, stretching, letting her sleeves fall down towards her shoulders. "How bout you?"

The question hardly registered to Chip. He'd finally noticed Dale's new thinner frame, and longer legs. All she needed was the cliched long bouncy hair, and she'd easily be a bombshell. Even her feet and paws were small and dainty. He was suddenly jerked back to reality by Dale's voice. She was looking at him, and her face was covered with the same face cream Gadget had been caught wearing a few times.

"Chip", Dale called.

"Huh," he asked. "What'd you say?"

"Oh, nothing, Dale said, running through her drawers for her clothes."

"Say, Dale," Chip asked, climbing down. "When'd you put those curlers in, and the face cream?

"Oh, well," Dale answered, with her clothes in hand. "I kinda woke up hungry and remembered to put these when I was getting my snack."

Chip said nothing, but smiled, shaking his head. Monterrey was right, same ol' Dale. At least that much was the same. He followed Dale out of the room but stopped when she reached the bathroom. Once inside, Dale locked the door, and proceeded to brush her teeth. After she gave her pearly whites a good brushing, she rinsed and turned towards the shower. Dale opened her robe and let it fall down to the floor, then walked over to the shower and let it run. While she let the shower get hot enough, she pulled out her curlers and wiped off her face cream. With that taken care of, Dale went back to her shower, stepped in and closed the curtain.

Dale took her body fur conditioner and squirted it onto her stomach. She proceeded to lather herself up. Like last time, Dale took time to get everywhere. The hot water simply felt heavenly on her. The hot water flowing through her fur and beating down on it was too good not to do it at least once a day. She paid extra attention to her face and hair, making sure not to get any in her eyes. When she rinsed herself off, she reached for her headfur conditioner, and applied it to her hair. She ran her fingers through her hair, and massaged her scalp, trying to do it just like Gadget did. But, she just couldn't get just right, meaning she either dug in too hard, or didn't massage strong enough. It wasn't long after that until Dale finally rinsed down and stepped out, drying herself off. While doing so, Dale walked over to the mirror and looked herself over. She blushed when she saw her new hourglass shape, slender legs and perfectly endowed bust. Looking between her legs, she was reminded how much she'd have to get used to not seeing a male piece there. She stood there, debating whether or not to "exlpore" her new body. Just as she reached for leg junction, with a shaky paw, there came a knock at the door- startling her.

"Dale," Chip asked from outside. "Aren't you done yet?"

"No, "Dale answered. "Not yet."

"Well," Chip asked, tapping his foot. "Could you... hurry up?"

"I'll try," Dale answered, as she continued drying herself off. "But, this kinda takes time."

With that, Dale continued drying herself off, and dried her hair, reasonably. She got put on her clumsily put on her bra and pulled up her underwear. It was all still weird since she never wore anything like these before. After striking a few poses, she put on her red shirt, buttoning it up. As she stepped into her skirt, there came another knock.

In a minute, Dale yelled, slightly annoyed. She sighed and pulled up her skirt, and snapped it in place just above her hips, making sure to tuck her shirt in. She leaned in and started to apply her mascara when another knock sounded at the door, throwing her concentration and causing her to mark her forehead. That was it.

"In! A! MINUTE," she yelled at the door, scaring both Chip and herself.

She quickly wiped her face and redid her mascara. Again, this was a lot clumsier than how Gadget did it, Dale managed to it. She then took a last look at herself. Her face was just as cute as yesterday, her new red Hawaiian shirt- which was was buttoned up and seemed to show off her new curves perfectly- was tucked neatly into her plain white skirt, which came down to mid thigh. The only thing she had to work on was her hair, which she was still drying. When she stopped, Dale noticed her hair still had the bounce and volume it had last night, and was mostly dry. She took her brush and started to brush her hair and shape it into the same coif from yesterday. When she was done, she gave her hair a quick coat of hairspray. She gave herself a last once over before gathering her curlers, robe and towel and putting them away. She then opened the door to be met with Chip, with his arms crossed.

"Well, it sure took you long enough," Chip tried to joke, cracking a smile.

But Dale didn't think it was funny. She just pouted, as she pushed her way past him, leaving a confused Chip. What was that about, Chip asked himself rushing into the bathroom. Well, at least it's not my fault, Chip told himself. She knows I have to go after I wake up.

It's all his fault, Dale reasoned with herself, for making me yell at him. It almost surprised her when Gadget came out, fully dressed. They stopped, and looked at each other.

"Golly, Dale,"Gadget smiled. "You look great!"

"Thanks, Gadget," Dale blushed.

"It's true," Gadget said. "You really do look great. But I need to tell you and the boys something after they get dressed."

"Uh, sure," Dale said, walking towards the table.

***

"What," Dale, Zipper and Chip yelled.

"That... man, almost killed me. He tried to kill all of us," Dale said passionately with tears in her eyes, pointing out the window. "And now you want us to actually LOOK for him?!"

"I don't like it any more than you do, Dale," Monterrey said, shaking. "But we DO have to make sure nothing else is going to happen."

"And," Gadget added, "to find out how deeply it changed you." When she saw Dale's blank look, Gadget knew she had to continue. "If you didn't change enough, you may not be..."

"Be what," Dale prodded

"Fertile," Gadget answered, sullenly.

Dale sat there, shaking- quivering. Her eyes started tear up, causing her mascara to run.

"So, not only does he force me into this," Dale said, fighting the urge to cry. "But now I have to deal with that he didn't even do it right!?"

"I'm sorry," Dale, Gadget said, handing her a napkin. "But we just have to make sure that no other issues will come up."

"Well, you can count me out," Dale said, turning away. "Even if I never see that man again, it'll be too soon!"

"It's also possible," Gadget said, faltering a bit, "that he knows how to make a cure. If anything, his notes should at least tell us what to expect."

Dale didn't say anything to that, but rather sat there brooding, until something occurred to her

"But won't the cure put me through as much as... whatever it was Nimnul shot me with," she asked.

"That's possible, too, Dale," Gadget sighed. "There are just too many possibilities that go too many ways to ignore. Like it or not, and I know you do NOT- we have to Nimnul. The faster, the better."

"Okay," Dale bitterly agreed, "but how do we find him."

"That's just it," Gadget answered. "I... Don't know."

"Crikey," Monterrey exclaimed. "But whenever we get involved that bloke disappears for weeks on end!"

"Yeah," Chip agreed. "But he was working on something he thought was going to make him rich, and he got away with the results he wanted. He's not going to wait too long before selling it. And when he does..."

"Pow," Zipper exclaimed, slamming a fist into the palm of his other hand.

"Right, Zipper," Chip smiled. "We'll have him!"

"So, what do we do now," Dale asked.

"Hmm," all the Rangers hummed, thinking of something.

"Well," Monterrey said. "It's like my grandpa, Mozzarella Paul said. When starting at a big piece of cheese, the best place is to to start at the top."

"That's it," Gadget exclaimed. "The best place to start looking is at the warehouse!"

Dale was still uneasy about this, but after hearing what she heard, she was concerned. And the sooner they started, the better chances the stood of catching up to him, sooner.

"Might as well get this over with," she said, getting up.

"That's the spirit, Dale," Gadget said. "Rescue Rangers, Away!"

With that, they all raced towards the Ranger wing. They were soon off and flying towards the docks. The trip was quiet, which is probably what everyone needed. Chip looked over at Dale, who was just sitting there, looking every uneasy.

"You okay, Dale," Chip asked

"I don't think so, Chipper," Dale answered. "I almost died there. I felt pain and hurt in ways I didn't even think were possible. And all because I got grabbed and used as a test subject. It all happened in one night, just a day ago, and now I'm heading back there."

"Dale," Chip started, unsure of what to say. "Dale, It-it's okay. I know you've been through a whole lot lately. You don't have to look around if you don't want to. I-I'll sit here with you- if you'd like."

Dale spun her head towards Chip. Without saying a word, she threw herself into him, hugging him tightly. Still unsure of what he was doing, Chip held Dale, and hugged her. He'd already made his vow the other night, but seeing Dale like this now only strengthened his resolve. He'd do what ever it took to protect Dale, no matter what. Chip sat there, and started to close his eyes, when he heard. Monterrey.

"Oh, crikey," he sighed.

Dale and Chip had heard him and broke their embrace and looked out of the Ranger Wing. Their eyes widened at what they saw- the charred remains of the fallen warehouse at the docks. It was literally nothing more than a pile of still wet burnt planks and debris. Dale clasped her paws on her head shook it. No, no, no, no, NO! Anything they would have found, was buried under all that debris, washed away into the ocean, or otherwise ruined.

"Oh, no. No-no-no-no-no," Dale sobbed quietly. "Please, no!"

Chip held Dale while Gadget brought the Ranger wing in for a landing next to the wreckage. Gadget, Zipper, and Monterrey all climbed out. Dale, herself managed to climb out climb out and walk towards the wreckage,but couldn't bring herself to start shifting through it. The entire place was burned into her head, along with the most painful and scariest experience she'd ever had. She and Gadget stood there while Chip and Monterrey started shifting through the building's remains. Even Zipper started to go through it. For his small size, Zipper was able to move some well sized pieces of debris. She looked over at Gadget, who seemed to be deep in thought.

"Uh, Watcha thinkin about," Dale asked.

"Huh," Gadget replied, her train of thought derailed. "Oh, I was trying to picture how everything was. Maybe then, we'd know where to start."

"And?"

"Nothing," Gadget sighed, hanging her head. "We may as well start at that table over there." She pointed in the direction of a lone, soiled table.

"Table," Dale parroted. She looked in the direction Gadget pointed. "Gadget, That's it," she exclaimed. "Chip! Monterrey! The Table!"

Chip and Monterrey stopped going through the rubble and looked up to see the very table at the center of this whole mess.

"Now, how'd we miss that," Monterrey asked, scratching his head as he and Chip made their way over to it.

They climbed the tablet and took at look around. They saw the two cages still where they were, almost as if they were attatched to the table. They were black and slightly warped from the heat of the fire, and the lining was little more than ash. The table itself, while obviously damaged, was still very stable. Chip stopped when he saw something over the edge of the table. He walked over to see what it was, and instantly regretted it. It was Nimnul's machine, the same one that grabbed Dale. It looked very well built and functional, despite the numerous char marks and melted plastic cosmetic elements. All Nimnul would have to do is replace the wire and it'd work just like it did before. While Chip was still dealing with his own demons, Monterrey's noticed a small stack of papers. They were mostly strewn about and parts of most were burned away. The rest of them were a soggy mess.

"Well, did you find something," Gadget asked as something caught Dale's eye.

"Sort of," Monterrey called back. "I found a bunch of papers! But, they're in really bad shape! I don't think we can even move them!" Chip, hearing this, walked over to the papers Monterrey was looking at and started to read them- as well as he could anyway.

Gadget sighed. "Well, Let's go Dale," she said, as she started towards the wreckage. "We- Dale?"

She looked at her side to see that Dale wasn't there any more. But instead was on her paws and knees, messing with a large, but flat piece of debris. A small golden sliver of metal was partially exposed, showing the letters engraved in it.

"Hey, Guys," Dale called out. "I think I found something! It's all big... and leather!" The boys looked at eachother and slid down the table legs and rushed over to her.

"What is it, Dale,"Gadget asked as she rushed over to her. "Golly," she exclaimed when she she saw that Dale was busy trying to wipe the soot from from the metal sliver

Gadget got down on all fours and started help. By the time Monterrey and Chip got there, Dale was already backing away from it- her green eyes fixated on the part that had already been cleared off. Chip managed to get a hold of her before she tried to run, and saw what it was that got to her. Engraved on the big metal slab was a single name- Nimnul.

"He must have dropped it while he was running away," Gadget guessed as she backed away, looking for the edge. "Chip, Dale. Help me with this, will you?"

"Me," Dale asked.

"Whoops, sorry. Force of habbit," Gadget corrected herself. "Chip and Monty. You two can help me with this."

"Right, then," Monterrey grunted as he and Chip started searching for the edge. "Gotcha!"

With that, Monterrey reached a seam and instantly tried to muscle it open only to realize it was a folder, which gave way with little resistance. The Rangers tumbled, down the sudden incline, landing in a pile of we soot covered wood pieces- dirtying their clothes. Monterrey, when he realized his mistake, lowered the folder and saw his team mates, their fur and clothes matted with dirt and ash, glaring angrily at him. Gadget was getting back on her feet; Chip already up, was helping Dale back onto hers. Monterrey, they growled.

"Heheh," Monterrey laughed nervously. "Whoops?"

"This'll take forever to wash out when we get back," Dale pouted, looking down at herself. The Rangers stopped and stared at her. They just heard Dale mention she was going to wash off after a mission; this surprised Dale, herself, as well. "I know," she said. "Weird, huh?"

"Next time, Monty," Gadget said, walking around towards Monterrey. "Give us some warning before you do that."

"YEAH," Dale and Chip agreed as they followed.

"Well, anyway," Gadget asked. "What's in it?"

"I dunno," Monterrey answered. "Let's find out. Stand back everyone!"

With that, Monterrey opened the folder again, and with a good deal of effort flopping it's front part onto the ground- exposing the damaged documents inside. Gadget wasted no time in examing the documents, pulling each paper out and reading through it. All three of them.

"Well," Dale asked. "What do they say?"

"Golly," Gadget answered. "This is a copy of a ferry boat ticket. And the other two papers are some of his notes!"

"Yes," Dale exclaimed, dancing around happily. "Wow. That was easy."

She soon stopped when she looked at Gadget and saw her shake her head. She knew that could only mean bad news.

"I'm sorry, Dale," Gadget said, putting a paw on her shoulder. "But, the reciept is burned where it says where he's heading and which dock he left from. And the notes didn't tell me much, anyway, well nothing we didn't know already. I'm really sorry, Dale. But Nimnul still has what we need. I guess this folder wasn't important to him after all."

Dale's mood plummeted, but then she thought of something.

"There- there could still be something under of all of this mess," she said, desperately. "Right? Hey, he left this folder, maybe he left something actually important. But what about those papers, Monterrey found?"

"No dice," Monterrey sighed, shaking his head. "They're too soggy to move, let alone read- just ask Chipper."

"I'm sorry, Dale,' Chip said. "Monterrey's right. There's ash and scorch marks all over them. And the parts that were okay were just random words and sentence fragments. Whatever was on that table is gone for good."

Dale looked at each of her fellow Rangers, then to the table, the over turned machine that did this to her, and finally out towards the ocean. She walked out from the rubble and only stopped when felt her filthy feet touch dried wood of the docks, wrapping her arms around herself. She made sure to be facing away from her friends, as she didn't want them to see her cry. Unfortunately she couldn't control her shoulders which seemed to bounce with each surpressed sob.

"It's. Not. Fair," she said, looking up towards the sky with tears flowing from her eyes. "It's just not fair. We're the rescue rangers- the good guys. Not the BAD! We're not supposed to lose. The bad guys are. So, why? Why this? Why now? Why.. meeee!?"

With that, she broke down sobbing quietly. "Just someone tell me why..."

The rangers stood there, looking at each other, unsure of what to say. She was right- Right when Nimnul finally goes over the deep end, he starts getting all the breaks; they on the other hand could only count one- Dale was alive, and possibly healthy, but they couldn't even count that. She was alive, anyway. Chip took a deep breath and walked over to her.

"Dale," he said, placing a paw on her shoulder. "I know you're upset. And... you're right. This isn't fair. But crying about it doesn't help. You're the one who always tells us not to give up- to keep going. Now, I'm telling you not to give up, and to keep going. Dale looked back at him, showing her tear streaked cheeks, marked with her running mascara. And you're not alone. No matter what, we'll always be right there with you."

"He's right, Dale," Gadget said, walking up to Dale, placing her paw on Dale's other shoulder. "We may be a team, but we're also family."

"Really," Dale sniffed.

"You bet your tail," Monterrey said, squeezing all three in his massive arms. "You'll need a lot more than a bunch of waterworks to get rid of Ol' Monterrey Jack! Right, Zipper?"

"Uh, huh," Zipper replied, nodding his head.

"Thanks, you guys," Dale said softly, enjoying the group hug.

"Now, what do you say we get back to the Ranger Wing and head back home so we can put together a plan," Monterrey suggested. He stopped to sniff, and added, "After you lot wash up, of course."

Gadget, Chip, and Dale looked up at Monterrey. After some struggling, Monterrey was sent tumbling into a pile of ash covered debris. He emerged as dirty and scuffed as Chip and the girls, not that he minded to much. "I'll admit," he smiled as he made his way over the ranger wing. "I deserved that."

"And you're going to wash the seats when we get back," Gadget added, before taking off.

Their trip back to their tree house was quiet, until Dale started to laugh. It started out, with a few giggles but soon evolved into full blown laughter. When they asked what was so funny, Dale responded, through her fits of laughter, they were. They looked rediculous! When Chip retorted that she looked pretty funny herself, Dale only responded by making a silly at him- causing him to laugh. Soon, as Monterrey and Gadget thought about it, they themselves were laughing. They literally laughed the rest of the way home.

Once in, Dale and Gadget proceeded to the showers, Dale having changed into her bathrobe. However, Gadget stopped stopped Dale and pulled her into her room. As it turned out, she was working on something. A while back, she managed to tap into the city's hot water under the tree by accident. It took some doing, but she managed to run into a stone lined pocket in between the tree's roots. She even rigged up an efficient constant intake and drainage system. She'd always slip away to her new personal hot spring, but only from a secret door at the bottom of the tree. She'd since been working on an elevator from her room straight down to her spring and she finally finished it a few days ago; she just didn't have time to test it.

"Now before we go," she said unzipping her jumpsuit, "we'll have to rinse off."

"Uh, sure," Dale said, blushing as she averted her eyes.

Gadget didnt seem to notice as she walked into her own shower. She was only in for a minute before she came back out, clad in only a bath towel; she didn't even have on her trademark goggles. It was Dale's turn, now. She quickly disrobed, throwing her clothes in a pile over Gadget's discarded jumpsuit, and rushed into the shower to rinse off, herself. It wasn't long before they were on their way down to Gadget's secret spring. Gadget noticed Dale was being very quiet and was blushing brightly. She felt glad that she was willing explore her new gender's walk of life, but was afraid she was pushing herself a little to far a little too fast. She was brought back to attention when the elevator reached the bottom.

"Oh, we're here," Gadget exclaimed.

"Oh, Gosh," Dale said, as she stepped out, taking in this new place.

The ground she stepped onto was bedrock- warm from the springs and cleanly smoothed. The ceiling was lined with rocks and organic crystals. They seemed to form a tight, almost mosaic pattern. When she looked to the front of her, she saw that Gadget had already tossed her towel aside and was already waste deep into the water. Dale, blushing a much as ever, apprehensively removed her own towel and made her way to the spring. Though she was embarrassed that Gadget, the girl she'd been flirting with since the day they met, would be the first one to see her naked as a girl, she had to admit that the warm rock felt good beneath her feet. She stepped on foot in and then the other into the water and slowly made her way in. with short, sharp breath, Dale finally managed to settle into the soothing hot water. And when she did, it was like she could feel all her troubles and stress wash away.

"Aaahh," she sighed. "This is just what I needed."

"I thought it might be," Gadget said, resting on the edge of the deeper end, only her tail sticking out of the water behind her bare back.

"Why didn't you tell us about this place," Gadget, Dale asked wading her way over to Gadget- still making sure to keep her distance.

"Simply put," Gadget said. "A girl needs a place... just to be a girl, and this is mine."

"Huh," Dale sighed, leaning over the edge of the spring like Gadget.

"It can be yours, too," Gadget offered, catching Dale completely off guard. "Dale," she continued. "I know we're looking for Nimnul, we may find a way to reverse what he did to you, or that we may HAVE to reverse it. We may not even be able to. But until then, you're stuck like this. I won't force you to choose which way you want to go- boy or girl- but I will tell you that you do have to chose. Dale didn't say anything, but simply listened- thinking on every word Gadget was saying. And even right now, Gadget continued. You need to choose who you want to be until we find him- Boy Dale, or Girl Dale."

"Well," Dale said after a while, "I guess I do have to choose- at least for now."

And that's exactly what Dale did. Over the next month, the Rangers juggled between small random cases and chasing Nimnul. Each time, they just missed him- each time, they got closer than the last. And as time went on, Dale started to accept her new walk in life- helping Gadget with the laundry, and learning to cook without breaking dishes (that one took a while to get down), getting more and more routine with her morning and night rituals of hair care, even experimenting with new hairstyles. Everyone, especially Chip, noticed even as a girl, Dale's smile looked just like when she was a male, possibly even better. It was a few weeks after that when Dale started cooking dinner every Friday. She never knew how much fun cooking could be once she got the hang of it. It almost made her feel like one of those mad scientists in her scary movies, or comic books.

One one such Friday, she had finally got down a boiled walnut dish her mom used to make and was putting the finishing touches on it- making sure to put set aside some cheese for Monterrey. She was busy setting the table when there was a knock at the door. Monterrey answered the door, and was rendered speechless at what he saw.

"Uh, Um," He stammered.

"Hey, there," greeted a voice only too familiar to Dale, who froze in her tracks. "Is Dale here? I haven't heard from him in over month, and got worried. Can I come in?"

"Um, uh, sure." Monterrey said. "We were just about to set down for dinner."

"Thank you," replied the voice.

Dale poked her head from the kitchen, and saw a pink and magenta colored bat walking towards the the dinner table, and ducked right back in. I'm such a dummy, she thought to herself.

How could I forget about Foxglove!?!