FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I originally started this as a story jam, but no one submitted other chapters. So, here's my own chapter two submission. Anyone who wants to can jump in with a chapter of their own. Just forward it to me and I will edit and proofread as necessary... Enjoy.

____________________________________________________________________________

RESCUED RANGERS - Chapter II: Enter the Chihuahua

For the next two weeks the Rangers stood down so Monty and Dale had time to adjust to their new bodies. Each day the two of them would spend about an hour with Tammy while she ran a series of medical tests. Monty, she discovered, not only had a better sense of smell and sight, especially at night, but also was twice as strong as he had been before. His teeth were also stronger and sharper. Given enough time, she figured he could actually knaw through screen doors and the like. The downside was that really bright light tended to hurt, so he began sporting a pair of Ranger sized aviator glasses made for him by Gadget.

Dale, it turned out, was also in need of glasses, having become slightly myopic as a result of the change. His initial depression over this was lifted when Foxglove told him the glasses made him look like Val Kilmer. He also discovered that he was much faster, had more energy, more endurance and could squeeze through and into places his old body couldn't. Both he and Foxglove spend a lot of time together taking in his old shirts so they would fit.

Gadget was also quiet busy, working with Curtiss.

Tests showed he was faster and much more maneuverable than any of the Ranger Wings she had built in the past. She also found that the falcon could hover, much in the same way a sparrow hawk could, and he could soar in slow, tight circles for hours on end. Gadget spent a good part of this time building a cockpit with seats that Curtiss could strap on and the Rangers could ride in. For his part, the falcon seemed eager to please. Despite hours of discussion, neither Gadget nor Tammy could decide if he was a living machine or a cybernetically enhanced bio-organism. Each favored the opposite opinion.

The Rangers soon discovered that beyond his child-like mannerisms Curtiss was fiercely protective of Gadget. Dale personally found this out when he tried pulling a harmless prank on the mouse within sight of the falcon. Fortunately Gadget was able to talk Curtiss down; otherwise the hamster might have lost more than one of his newly modified shirts. Gadget spent the next hour explaining to the raptor the difference between real danger and a prank. Curtiss understood readily enough, but it took several days for Dale to want to get anywhere near the falcon.

Late the following Tuesday afternoon there was a knock on the door. Chip answered it and found himself staring straight into the muzzle of a scruffy Chihuahua wearing a sweatband. "Yo... Stripes... could chu point me towards the tree where I could find the eschewed rangers or sometin like that?"

"If you mean the Rescue Rangers, then you've come to the right place," the chipmunk replied.

"Finally! This is the fourteenth tree I've tried. Chu guys outta put up a sign or somethin'. Mind if I come in?" The small dog didn't wait for a reply. Instead he folded his ears back and squeezing through the door. Chip hastily scrambled to get out of the way.

"Hey, man..." he said, looking around the front room, chu got chuself a really nice crib here. HDTV, VCR, DVDs. CDs, even some LPs... Chu got more letters than the alphabet, Man!" He barked out a quick laugh at his own joke.

"Yes, I suppose we do, mister, ah..."

"Oh! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ignacio Alonso Julio Federico De Tito.

"Ignacio Alonzo... what?"

"Yeah, it's a mouthful, so why don' chu just call me Tito?"

"Okay, Tito it is," the chipmunk nodded in reply. What is it we can do for you?"

"It's my homies, man! My pack! They've all gone missin'."

"Missing?"

"Yeah, as in vanished, disappeared, vamoosed."

"How many members are in this pack of yours?" Chip asked.

"Well, there's Einstein, Frankie... eh I mean Francis, Dodger, me, Rita and Fagin. He's a human, though he acts more like a dog than most dogs I know. Oh, yeah there's Oliver too. He's our uptown cat buddy. He dropped in last night to say hi, then he went missin' with the rest of the crew."

Chip pushed his hat back and scratched his head. "So you're saying four dogs, a cat and one human have all disappeared. How do you know they aren't out somewhere together, entertaining this uptown cat friend of yours?"

"Hey man, we're solid. We don' do nothin' without the whole pack."

A door closed somewhere down the hall and the pad of soft feet could be heard approaching the main room. Moments later Foxglove strolled in, her mouth stretched into the biggest yawn the chipmunk had ever seen. "Morning boss. Got anything for us to..." She stopped in mid-sentence as her eyes locked on the chihuahua. "Oh! Hi there!"

"Morning?" Tito responded. "Man, don' chu guys believe in alarm clocks? It's almost three in the afternoon."

"Hi Foxy." Chip replied. "Meet Tito. He's our next case." He quickly turned back towards the chihuahua. "Tito... this is Foxglove, apprentice witch and full time ranger."

"Hi sugar..." she replied softly, smiling. "Oh, and for the record, I'm a bat, and bats are nocturnal."

"Knock tunnel?"

"It means they work nights and sleep during the day," Chip said.

"Ooohhh!" Tito nodded knowingly. "I know a couple of junkyard guard dogs with the same gig."

"Foxy, why don't you go get the others so Tito only has to tell his story once," the chipmunk suggested. The bat nodded and swiftly disappeared back down the hallway. Within moments everyone, save Curtiss, had gathered in the front room. Chip turned back to the chihuahua. "Okay, just give us the facts."

Tito opened his mouth to speak when he was unexpectedly interrupted.

"You're doing it again," Dale chided.

"Doing what?" the chipmunk shot back.

"Your Jack Webb impression."

"I am not."

"Are so," the hamster replied.

"You're crazy."

Dale sighed. "Never should have given you that Dragnet DVD for Christmas."

"Look who's talking... Mister Late, Late, Late, Early Show himself." With that the two rodents began carrying on a spirited argument, chittering at each other so rapidly no one else could follow the conversation.

Tito tilted his head sideways and squinted with one eye, as if trying to follow the back and forth yammering. He gave up, shook his head and looked down at Gadget. "Oh Man! These two do this often?"

"Several times a day," she shrugged. "Don't worry though, this won't last long. When they put their heads together on a case, it's 'villains beware!'"

"Beware what? Loss of hearing?"

Monty stepped forward and grabbed the two rangers by the back of their clothes and lifted them off the floor. "Crikey mates, not in front of the client."

"Well, he started it." Chip replied

"Did not!"

"Can we just get back to the case at hand guys?" Tammy asked, her tail flipping up and down in annoyance. "Jeeze, and I thought I was the cadet here?"

The Chip and Dale quickly settled down and Monty set them back on the floor. "Why don't you start at the beginning?" Chip offered. "When did you last see your friends?"

"Saturday night. We was hangin' out at our crib watchin' TV when our pal, Oliver, the uptown cat dude I mentioned, dropped in for a surprise visit."

"Does he normally hang with you guys?" Dale asked.

"Not as often as we'd like. The dude's like uptown cool, without any of the normal superiority attitude. We've been buds since he was a just a stray kitten."

"Okay, so what happened when your uptown friend got there?" Chip inquired.

"Well, it was my turn to scrounge up some grub, so I went out and put some moves on this pizza delivery dude.

"Moves?"

"Yeah, chu know, got him all tangled up with his own feet while I danced around between his legs. It only took me ten seconds to get him to drop his load of pizzas. Then I moved in, snagged the biggest box and vamoosed while he was picking himself up off the sidewalk. It was classic!"

"Golly!" exclaimed Gadget, "You mean you stole it?"

"I don' steal nothin' Ms. Mousie, Tito replied, an unmistakable annoyance in his voice. "I'm a curbside entrepreneur. I make my opportunities. Chu think it's easy livin' on the streets? It's an art. Chu take what chu can get, man. Besides, me and my homies gotta eat."

"What happened after you got your pizza?" Foxglove asked, trying to cool the canine's ire.

"I went back to our crib," the chihuahua replied, "but when I got there I saw this big, black van parked on the pier next to the houseboat."

"Houseboat?"

"Yeah, our crib's this abandoned barge on the Hudson. Anyway, I didn't like the look of things, so I headed for the backdoor, under the pier and in through a porthole. Me and Dodger are the only ones skinny enough to use it. I got inside easy, but then everything went kind of wanky and outta shape. I saw a whole lot of pretty colors and I think I fell asleep. Next thing chu know, I'm waking up, all dizzy and fuzzy mouthed and the place is empty. I spent the next two days tryin' to find everyone, but didn't have any luck 'til a wharf rat clued me into chu guys."

"Disorientation, hallucinations, unconsciousness... It sounds like you were exposed to a dose of quinuclidinyl benzilate," Tammy muttered.

"Could chu speak inglish?" the chihuahua asked.

"She means you got a healthy whiff of knock-out gas, mate," Monty explained.

"Aside from your friends, did you notice if anything else was missing?" Gadget asked.

"I'm not sure." Tito responded. "The place looked like it was pretty well trashed out... More than normal that is."

"Did it look like someone searched it?" Chip asked.

"Don't know; its possible man. It was tore up real good."

The chipmunk rubbed his chin for a moment or two. "We'll need clues if we're going to crack this case. Can you take us to your houseboat, Tito?"

"Sure, man. Chu know how to get to Pier 37A?"

"Not a problem," Dale replied confidently.

"Good," the chihuahua said. "Meet me there at seven."

"What's wrong with going now?" Chip asked.

"I got a couple of errands to run first," Tito answered. "Sides, cross-town traffic's a pain in the butt this time of day." With that he trotted back to the door, which Monty politely opened for him, and squeezed his way out of Ranger Headquarters.

The Auzie closed the door as Chip began organizing the others. It wasn't really necessary. Everyone pretty much knew the drill and each set about making what preparations were needed. With such a well-organized group, leadership often devolved to the simple function of cheerleading. It was something Chip was very good at doing.

By a quarter to seven the Rangers were circling above the Hudson. At Chip's direction Curtiss made several passes over the pier so they could get a quick lay of the land. The structure stretched about a hundred and fifty feet from the shore before folding itself tiredly into the river. Driftwood marked where the pier ended and the river began. It was not difficult to spot the dilapidated barge that doubled as Tito's residence.

The falcon slowed, coming to rest on a nearby piling. Foxglove launched herself into the air to scout ahead, while Monty, Chip, Dale and Gadget searched under the pier for the back door Tito had mentioned. Tammy remained with Curtiss as back up.

Chip and his team quickly found the porthole and pulled it open to allow Gadget to get an air sample. When she reported it all clear, they climbed inside. They were joined about a minute later by Tito and Foxglove, who was riding on his back.

"I see chu found the place," the chihuahua said, scampering over to them. "Like I said... everyone's vamoosed."

"Well, I don't think they would have vamoosed without leaving some clues," Chip said. "Gadget... you and Dale sweep the barge from the forward bulkhead to amidships. Monty and Foxglove... you sweep from the aft bulkhead and meet them in the center."

"How can I help?" asked Tito.

"Well... you can sit over there. I'll do a sweep from the middle outward. With you in the center we'll have a benchmark for our search patterns."

Tito nodded, yawning. "Hokay! Chu can sweep if you want," he replied, curling up on the floor. "but I don' tink there's a broom anywhere 'round here."

The rangers spent nearly an hour going over the barge with a fine toothcomb but with little luck. "Golly," muttered Gadget. "It looks like whoever took Tito's friends was smart enough to cover their tracks."

"Maybe not," replied Monty. "Take a gander over here." Chip and the others broke off their search and joined the rat as he reached into a small knothole in the floor. Pulling his arm back, he held up a large ring filled with diamond chips in a rectangular mounting..

"How long has that been there?" asked Dale.

"Couldn't have been too long. There's no sign of dust or grime on it," observed Foxglove. "Too bad we don't have a bloodhound with us."

"We do have someone just as good," replied Chip, looking over at the chihuahua. "Hey Tito!

The dog woke up from his nap, yawned, stretched and trotted over to the group. "Chu find sometin'?"

"I don't know. What can you make of it?"

The chihuahua shook his head. "That don' belong to any of my homies." He sniffed at it several times.

"Well?"

"Can't tell much; Just that it belong to a tall gringo, 'bout six two... No! Six two an' a half. Dude weighed 'bout two hundred ten, had black hair which he dyed blond, wore a goatee, used Brute aftershave an' ate a tomato cheese sandwich for lunch... on rye bread. His initials are TLJ.

Crikey! You could tell his initials from his scent?"

"No... but they on the inside o' the ring."

There was a sudden buzzing from the small radio Chip carried with him. Tammy's voice came across loud and clear. "Hey Guys! There are a couple of humans coming up the pier. Time to scamper!"

The rangers immediately split up and took to cover, choosing hiding places where they could observe what was going on as well as each other. Moments later the hatch entrance for the barge was lifted and two figures climbed down. The two teen-aged humans were dressed alike. They wore black shirts, olive drab parachute pants with large cargo pockets, web belts with pouches, black gloves and sneakers. They were both about the same height. The girl had long red hair and the boy was blonde, fair-skinned and sported a face full of freckles.

Dale squinted through his new glasses, then looked over at Foxglove. "Is that a naked mole rat in his pocket, or is he just happy to see her?"

TO BE CONTINUED?