Characters from the series Chip 'n' Dale's Resuce Rangers and 
the Darkwing Duck series are copyrighted by Disney, and used 
here without permission. All other characters are copyrighted 
by Matt Plotecher.

Distribute freely, but do not modify.


THERE AND BACK...AGAIN?
By
Matt Plotecher



--Chapter 1: "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood..."--


     The building was isolated from the rest of the complex,
sitting alone in a barren, darkened, concrete yard. The
researchers liked to say it was because they needed quiet and
privacy from the rest of the SHUSH compound to develop their
work. Even the janitors, however, knew it was really because 
this way damage would be minimal when the place finally 
exploded. Whatever the reason, it turned out to be fortunate at 
the moment for all of SHUSH. The research lab, due to it's 
isolation, was easily closed off. Several barricades, with 
security guards and vehicles tucked safely behind them, 
surrounded the entire building. Searchlights swept over all 
possible exits, while various scrying devices probed inside. 
Each time they did, though, a sudden current overloaded them, 
sometimes so badly that it melted the instrument completely.

     J. Gander Hooter surveyed the scene with a frown. He knew
any attempts at electrical surveillance would fail. Not that they
really needed it to know who was in there, but they were 
worried about where he was. Dozens of top-secret projects 
were at risk now, either at being stolen or destroyed. So far, it 
had not come to pass, but the director of SHUSH knew better 
than to press luck.

     "I got here as soon as I got your message, J. Gander." A
voice said from behind him. Hooter didn't need to see the
dispersing blue smoke to know who it was.

     "Thank you for coming so quickly, Darkwing." Hooter 
replied. "We've been watching him for close to fifteen minutes 
now, but it's impossible to pin down where he is inside." A 
sudden surge through another machine emphasized his point.

     Darkwing nodded. "Give me the complete run-down."

     "Well, our scientists were working as per usual, when he
just quite simply walked out from around a corner. He then
demanded to know where the bathroom was."

     "Excuse me?"

     "It took the scientists off guard, too. He said something
like, 'No, that's not right...where is my...uh...you know...' and
so on. While he was trying to remember, our scientists showed 
the first use of common sense this year and left the building. 
They told security, who entered to neutralize the threat."

     Darkwing sighed and looked over at the ambulances.

     "Yes, they failed." Hooter said with a sigh. "But at least
none were killed. He appeared to be more interested in 
searching for something. That's when I called you."

     "Okay, then. Give me ten minutes and it'll be over with." He
started forward, only to find his way blocked by the Rock of
Gibraltar. Looking up, he recognized this particular geological
location as agent Grizzlikof. The immense bear towered over
Darkwing, scowling. Of course, Darkwing had never seen 
Grizzlikof with any other type of expression, so it was possible 
that Grizzlikof smiled by scowling.

     "Sir, I must object!" Grizzlikof thundered. "We have several
highly-classified projects in there. I do not think it wise to
let a freelancer," he sneered the word, "to be allowed within."

     Then again, maybe Grizzlikof's scowl really was just a
scowl.

     "Besides," the bear continued, "I can have the intruder
neutralized in only eight minutes."

     "Thanks ever so much, Griz," Darkwing stated, narrowing 
his eyes, "But Gander called me because he wanted the best. 
Not the paperwork. Besides, I can finish this in seven 
minutes."

     "Darkwing is best suited for this situation, agent
Grizzlikof." Hooter said, stepping between the stare-down
contestants. "He has the most experience against this intruder,
and I don't want to risk any more agents or equipment. We may 
be able to overcome him given time, but I'm afraid that is not 
an option. You yourself mentioned the highly-classified 
projects within the building. Who knows how many have 
already been marked for theft? Or just studied, so he can 
replicate them himself? I'm told that he is a highly-competent 
inventor, and I can't take the luxury of time now."

     Grizzlikof nodded abruptly. "Very well, sir." He stepped
aside, next to Hooter. "But I could have done this in six
minutes."

     Darkwing, who was beginning to turn his back, spun 
around to face Grizzlikof. "Oh yeah? Well I can do this in five 
minutes, Bongo!"

     Grinding his teeth, Grizzlikof snorted. "Twenty dollars says
you can't."

     "You're on! I'll have this case closed and return to claim
my cash before you can blink."

     Hooter rolled his eyes, then remembered something. "Oh,
Darkwing, try to keep this intruder from blowing up the 
building. I'd like the lab boys to have first crack at that."

     For one of the few times in his life, Darkwing couldn't
think of a response. He merely nodded, then blended into the
shadows and disappeared from view.

     "Five minutes, Darkwing Disaster." Grizzlikof grinned.
"Maybe it was good for him to go. I can use the money for this
week's poker game."

     No lights were on inside. The searchlights from the outside
cast thick shadows on the floor. They danced across tables and
desks until the light was abruptly cut off from the room, 
passing along the outside wall. In the central lab, a single 
figure was rummaging around a group of shelves. Papers were 
strewn about, gizmos were taken apart, and loose change was 
pocketed for next week's lunch money.

     "I...am the terror that flaps in the night!" A voice echoed
throughout the room.

     "Oh no..." Megavolt groaned. He turned to see the
trademarked cloud of blue smoke billowing in the doorway.

     "I...am the science teacher who--hey!" The voice snapped as
Megavolt withdrew his Electro-gun and began firing into the
cloud. "Will you let me finish?!"

     Megavolt thought for a moment. Only a moment, though. 
"No."

     Another barrage of electrical bolts came flying into the
cloud. They passed through harmlessly, blowing chunks of 
concrete out of the wall behind it.

     And people wonder why I emerge from a blinding cloud,
Darkwing thought. He quickly moved to cover before 
continuing. "As I was _saying_, I am the science teacher who 
gives you a failing grade! I..am Darkwing Duck!" He leapt up 
onto a table with a dramatic flourish, arms spread wide, cape 
dramatically flowing out behind him.

     "Happy now?" Megavolt asked, bringing his Electro-gun 
around to bear.

     "Not until your fuses are tripped and circuits broken..." He
grinned. "Sparky."

     "Arrrrgh! I _really_ hate it when you call me that, you
know!!!" He fired off another series of electrical bolts.
Darkwing sprang from the table as it was reduced to splinters,
flipping over at the apex of his jump, and landed directly 
behind Megavolt. As Megavolt turned around to face him, 
Darkwing snapped out his hand in a martial art chop.

     "Shupounda-Hing!" He focused his strength into the blow,
knocking the Electro-gun free from Megavolt's hand and 
sending it skittering across the floor.

     "Oh yeah? Well, 'Shoulda-Sing' right back at you!" 
Megavolt merely reached out to grab Darkwing, charging up 
his glove to roast the duck on contact.

     Expecting this, Darkwing dropped to the floor, knocking
Megavolt's legs out with a sweep attack. "And that's
'Shupounda-Hing'. It's a focusing cry for congealing spiritual
strength into an attack."

     "Who are you? Darkwing Duck or Juice Lee?" Megavolt 
queried, firing a burst of electricity from his glove as he 
regained his feet. Darkwing dodged to one side, moving in 
again.

     This time, however, it was Megavolt who was expecting the
attack. Darkwing launched himself into a double web-foot kick
(patent pending), when Megavolt snagged the duck's legs and 
ran a current through the airborne superhero. Megavolt used 
the momentum to whip the dazed crime-fighter off into a 
corner, crashing him into a shelving unit. Several half-finished 
devices tumbled down on Darkwing, bouncing rather well from 
his head.

     "I don't have time for you, Duck." Megavolt intoned in a 
low voice. "I have bigger fish to fry." His plug-helmet glowed 
for a moment, then thousands of volts of electricity danced 
from it to various devices in the room, bringing them to life 
and heading towards Darkwing.

     Darkwing shook his head and regained control of reality in
time to see several robots, weapons, and toaster-ovens 
marching towards him unerringly. He quickly scampered off to 
the side, away from them, as he looked around for Megavolt. 
But the luminous lunatic was nowhere to be seen.

     One of the robots stepped directly in front of Darkwing,
reaching out an appendage. The masked mallard stepped back, 
but heard some vehicle driving in from behind. He sprang 
straight up, letting the vehicle drive by underneath him and ram 
into the robot, reducing them to scrap metal in the process.

     Seizing an overhead lamp, Darkwing swung across the room 
to an open area near the doorway he had entered through. The 
various machines swerved about, trying to reach him.

     "Hah!" Darkwing grinned. "The devious Darkwing Duck 
dodges dexterously, deterring the deranged devices!" He 
nodded to himself. Good alliteration, he thought. Now where 
is Megavolt at?

     He looked about, then heard a series of explosions coming
from the corridor beyond the doorway he was standing in. 
Peering down the hallway, he caught a glimpse of Megavolt in 
a room at the far end. "Aha!" Darkwing glanced at his watch. 
"Two and a half minutes left, more than enough time too--
OOOOOF!"

     His train of thought was derailed by a series of
high-velocity toast, launched by one of the toaster-ovens that
had gotten a clear line of sight. The scorched pieces of bread
slammed into Darkwing's side, knocking him down.

     Brushing the crumbs off, Darkwing rolled out of the field 
of fire, checking for any butter or jam stains on his outfit. 
"Whew, none here. If I had to wash this suit again this week..." 
He trailed off, noticing that he had rolled directly into a corner.
The numerous devices had blocked off all avenues of escape.
Darkwing was worried.

     Sure enough, checking his watch, he saw that he now had 
less than two minutes to find and detain Megavolt. And these 
marauding machines were not helping matters any. The squad 
of toaster-ovens lined up, preparing another batch of burnt 
toast to fire. Darkwing noted with disdain that they were even 
loading the toast up with grape jelly; they were fighting dirty 
now.

     "Sorry, mechanized marvels," Darkwing reached into his 
cape, withdrawing his Gasgun, "But didn't anyone ever tell you 
it's not nice to cause a superhero to lose twenty bucks? 
Especially with this month's poker game coming up." He set 
his Gasgun to "Liquidize" and fired.

     Several capsules scattered out, which then burst into water
over the devices. Darkwing had guessed right, in that the
scientists of SHUSH were so concerned with advancing their
technologies, that they hadn't even bothered to waterproof their
inventions. Sparks flew as each of the devices shorted-out,
collapsing in a heap. Darkwing stopped by them long enough 
to grab a few pieces of well-buttered toast before heading off 
down the hallway.

     The door to the room where he had seen Megavolt was still
open, making his job easier. He leapt through, landing swiftly
into the middle of the room. Megavolt was over in a corner,
holding his Electro-gun in one hand, and some other device in 
the other.

     "Hey, Megsy!" Darkwing called out, flinging the buttered
toast at his adversary. "You forgot your order of toast to go!"

     The toast smacked into Megavolt's hands, spreading melted
butter around. Megavolt lost his grip on both items he held, 
and they dropped to the floor.

     "Hey!" Megavolt started, looking at his hands. "I didn't
order butter on these!"

     Darkwing took advantage of the moment and whipped out 
his Gasgun, setting it to "Glue-bomb". He squeezed the trigger,
firing the glue canister out. Megavolt tried to move out of the
way, but slipped on the butter-covered floor and thudded to the
ground. As it turned out, this was fortunate for him, as the glue
bomb missed him and exploded on the wall behind the fallen
supervillain.

     Darkwing groaned.

     "Oh yeah, I meant to do that." Megavolt lied. He tried to
stand, but slipped again.

     "Okay, take two." Darkwing sighed, aiming his Gasgun at
Megavolt.

     "Why Darkwing," Megavolt's voice held an edge of
malevolence, "I believe I will."

     He snapped his fingers, and an electro-magnetic surge
brought his Electro-gun and the other device back to his hands.
He fired his Electro-gun at the same time that Darkwing fired 
his Gasgun. The bolt of lightning met the glue-bomb halfway, 
causing a curtain of super-strong glue to form between the two 
titans. Megavolt's hands were still slippery, however, and he 
lost his grip on the items again. At the same time, Darkwing 
glanced at his watch. Less than a minute left.

     "I just can't cut a break!" They cried simultaneously.

     Megavolt ran an incredibly high charge through his gloves,
bathing the area around him in an electrifying field. The butter
was burnt off, leaving a stale smell in the air. Darkwing darted
around to one side of the glue curtain, where it hadn't reached,
and dashed through. He came up on Megavolt just as the
supervillain was regaining his feet.

     "I don't suppose you'd be willing to just give up now?"
Darkwing was desperate enough to ask.

     "Is this a trick question?" Megavolt responded honestly.

     "No."

     "Oh, well, no, not really. But thanks for asking."

     "Anytime." Darkwing grumbled. It was at this moment, 
when they were both standing there, chatting civilly, that 
Darkwing's gaze fell upon the second item Megavolt held. And 
he recognized it.

     "The electrilizer!" He had forgotten all about it since the
last time he had seen it. He had dropped it off at SHUSH,
figuring they might be able to do something with it. Like 
destroy it.

     "Yeah, it's what I came for." Megavolt answered. "Now I can
leave."

     The feathers on the back of Darkwing's neck began to rise
and he smelled something over the lingering smell of burnt
butter. The smell of ozone. His eyes darted back to Megavolt, 
who was grinning unnaturally, a gleam of madness shining in 
his eyes, with electricity springing forth from his plug-helmet.

     Darkwing sensed the attack a split-second before it
happened. He threw himself to the floor as an enormous charge 
of energy flew from Megavolt's plug-helmet, narrowing missing
Darkwing. Even so, the top of Darkwing's hat was smoking 
from the close shave.

     "Oh blast it!" Megavolt snapped. "Why'd you have to go and
spoil a perfectly good sucker-punch?"

     "That was not a punch, it was a death sentence, you
megalomaniacal madman!" Darkwing rolled for cover, cursing
himself for allowing Megavolt to build up a charge that strong.
He glanced at the wall where it had hit--correction: Where the
wall _used_ to be. It had been totally vaporized by the blast.

     "Semantics." Megavolt grumbled, snapping the electrilizer
firmly into place in his chest socket. He turned it on, and
looked around for an outlet. Darkwing took a second to check 
his watch. Ten seconds.

     He quickly weighed the options of rushing Megavolt on the
slim chance that he could surprise him and take him down 
before he was roasted, and of taking the extra minutes to insure 
that Megavolt was subdued with little or no injury to 
Darkwing, and pay twenty bucks. But it was more than twenty 
dollars at risk for Darkwing. It would be admitting that 
Grizzlikof was right. It would be swallowing his pride. 
Darkwing knew the day he did that, he would choke on it and 
die.

     So actually, since his pride was involved, it wasn't much of
a difficult decision. He sprang from his hiding place, making a
straight beeline for Megavolt.

     He was delighted to see that maybe this wasn't as suicidal
as he thought. Megavolt was busying adjusting the electrilizer
and preparing to jump.

     Five seconds.

     Megavolt pressed the final button, and his body shifted to
the electromagnetic pulse used in electrical byways. At the 
same moment, Darkwing tackled him, knocking them both into 
a nondescript machine in the corner. Megavolt's personal store 
of electricity automatically brought the machine to life, it's red
lights flashing and sirens wailing. The two combatants  
struggled in close confines, striking out blindly.

     Four seconds.

     One of them hit the "send" switch on the electrilizer, and
they both were sucked into the machine.

     Three seconds.

     Within the electronic flow of the machine, Darkwing and
Megavolt still struggled, unaware of their new surroundings.
Darkwing's brain, the section that actually looked out for the
safety and well-being of the body, was screaming at him about
something, but the section that held the ego was blocking any
communication with a well placed image of twenty dollars.

     Two.

     The machine started it's normal operations, but the
introduction of two unaccountable elements, namely Darkwing 
and Megavolt, was causing problems. The machine liked 
everything to be nice and organized, with all probabilities 
sorted and accounted for. But these new two elements, and the 
havoc they were causing within, was giving the machine the 
equivalent of passing a gall stone.

     One.

     That annoying section of Darkwing's brain finally broke
through, distracting the ego with an image of an 8 1/2 by 11
glossy of itself. Darkwing froze, clinging to Megavolt like a
life preserver. This caused Megavolt to momentarily glance 
about.

     "Well," he said rather nonchalantly, "This wasn't in the
script I read."

     Zero.

     The machine exploded.

*****

     It was a dark and stormy night. Or at least, it could have
been. After all, Professor Nimnul was working feverishly in his
lab, without windows, so it might have been raining doughnuts 
for all he knew. But dark and stormy nights often accompanied 
mad scientists when they completed a project, so he assumed 
that one was going on outside.

     He tightened the final bolts on his latest project, then
stepped back to admire his work. The metal gleamed in the
well-lit interior of his hilltop lab, while various gauges and
meters measured power levels and desired output.

     "Ah," Nimnul sighed happily, "And thus another brilliant
invention of mine his ripened before my eyes, ready to be 
plucked and used for utter chaos and domination." He stepped 
back a few more paces, studying it once more, looking for 
anything that might hint as a problem.

     But all was well. Satisfied, he nodded to himself, and
withdrew a remote control from his coat pocket. He tapped a
series of buttons, and the machine activated. It was a large,
four-legged monstrosity, with two large metal wings protruding
from its sides. All in all, it looked like a dragon, constructed
entirely of steel. It stood easily twelve feet tall at the
shoulder, with a long neck capable of stretching out another
three feet. A tail curled around it, swishing slightly against
the stainless steel floor.

     Nimnul nodded to himself. With the metal dragon standing, 
he went about his final checklist. All gauges were showing the
proper output levels, all bio-synthetic limbs were receiving
signals from the internal CPU, and each armor scale was firmly
attached to the wire mesh insulator underneath.

     With a wide grin and spark of madness in his eyes, 
Professor Nimnul gleeful dashed over to the main controls 
along the wall of his lab. His hands flew over them, putting in 
the instructions for its first test run. The metal dragon's eyes 
flared as the incoming instructions were received, glowing with 
an eerie facsimile of life. It raised its head towards the domed 
ceiling, and launched upwards with bionic legs. It soared 
straight up, a small but powerful pair of jet thrusters giving it 
more power than the wings. It rammed through the ceiling to 
the night sky, its armor unscathed, not even scratched.

     Below, Nimnul was upset.

     "Oh for--why didn't I think to put in an exit big enough for
the dragon?" He sighed and shook his head, looking at the pile 
of rubble now on the ground. "Oh well. I suppose now's a good 
as time as any."

     He felt better about it as he programmed a few other robots
to begin the repair and building of a skylight. His spirits were
further boosted to see that it was indeed a dark and stormy 
night out.

****

     Lightning flashed across the sky, causing the Rangers to
gulp as one. The dark storm clouds loomed overhead, giving 
them a distinct feeling of being small and insignificant. Their 
tiny Ranger Plane continued along the whipping winds, 
fighting to remain steady.

     "Uh, Gadget-luv," Monterey said, glancing at the clouds,
"I've never been a back-seat driver before, but uh, do you think
that you could step on it a wee bit?"

     "I'm going as fast I can, Monty." Gadget answered,
struggling with the controls. Her eyes were focused on the sky 
in front of her, protected from the wind by her goggles. "But 
the storm is covering the whole city, so no matter where we go, 
it'll be all around us."

     "May-maybe we should land then." Dale stammered. He had 
just witnessed another lightning bolt, and was having bad 
visions about the Ranger Plane getting hit by one.

     Chip grimaced as thunder boomed from all around them.
"That's not such a bad idea, Dale. Gadget? Can you land us
somewhere safe? We can get home after the storm abates."

     Gadget nodded. "Probably. But take a look around. I don't
see anywhere really safe."

     She motioned with her head to the open fields below. 
Nothing but open fields for as far as the eye could see. Gadget 
estimated it would take them at least another ten minutes 
before they were close to the city.

     "We should have brought the Ranger Wing." She stated as
another lightning bolt lit up the sky. "We could have been 
home by now, safe and warm."

     "Hindsight is 20-20, luv." Monterey replied. "We all 
thought that the Ranger Plane would be best for the last case."

     Zipper buzzed, gripping Monterey's shoulder tightly to 
avoid begin tossed from the plane or snatched away by the 
wind. Monterey nodded to Zipper.

     "Yeah, mate, it was right for the case." He dug his fingers
into the seat as the plane was buffeted by another gust of wind.
"But that doesn't help us much now, does it?" He groaned.

     Chip pulled down his hat tightly, keeping one hand on it. 
He scanned the countryside, hoping to spot an overhang, or 
gopher hole even, anything to provide some shelter. This storm 
was tugging at all the wrong strings in him for some reason. It
merely felt...unnatural.

     Dale, too, was frantically searching the ground below, but
he was looking for something soft to land on in case a bolt of
lightning did strike. The softest thing he could find was a pile
of rocks, and he didn't quite believe it would work any better
than the ground. Sighing, anxiety in his voice, he sat back and
looked out across the sky. Another flash of lightning shot out,
and he thought he heard an explosion of some kind.

     "Did anyone else hear that?" He asked, sitting up.

     "What? Thunder?" Chip asked.

     "No, it was...quieter than that. And sounded more like
something breaking. Like rocks or something."

     Zipper nodded in agreement, having heard it as well. He
crawled out onto the edge of the plane and pointed off in the
distance. The rest of the rangers looked over, and saw the 
lights of the city in the distance. But Zipper wasn't pointing to 
that, as they found out. Gadget brought the plane around for a 
better look.

     They flew around the edge of a rocky hill, and saw with
dismay what Zipper was getting at. They all recognized 
Professor Nimnul's hilltop lab. The large geodesic globe with 
those huge pipes sprouting out and digging into the rocks was 
hard to forget. What's worse, they all saw the gaping hole in 
the top of the globe, with a light coming from within. It 
appeared the Professor was at home.

     Chip was about to say something, when a movement caught 
his eye. He turned his head just as lightning danced across the
horizon, shedding a strong light across the sky for a fraction of
a second. Chip's jaw dropped as he saw a silhouette of a 
dragon flying off towards the city.

     The rest of Rangers were more interested in the hole in
Nimnul's lab. Things could be seen moving within. Gadget was
already bringing the plane in closer for a better view of the
inside.

     "Wait!" Chip cried as the plane twisted away from the
dragon.

     "What is it?" Dale asked, looking over in the direction that
Chip was gaping at. But without the lightning's illumination,
nothing was visible except darkness.

     "I--I mean, I saw...I think..." Chip stuttered. He craned
his neck, but still couldn't see any sign of...of whatever it was
that he saw. If I saw anything at all, he thought gloomily. He
sat back down in his seat. "I thought I saw something over
there." He finally managed. "But I don't see anything now."

     "Well, let's check this out first." Monterey suggested. He
leaned over and peered down into the lab. "I doubt we'll get
another opportunity to see what Nimnul's up to before he 
springs it on the world."

     "Right." Gadget nodded. "Hang on, guys, I think I can get
through that hole with minimal difficulty."

     They were about to ask what she meant exactly by "minimal
difficulty" when she thrust the wheel forward, bringing the
Ranger Plane down into a steep dive. Glad that they had the
foresight to install their safety belts, the rangers hung on
tightly as Gadget brought the plane down through the hole, 
only slightly tearing the balloon.

     The ride to the floor was quick, but thrilling, as the
Rangers watched the world dip, spin at blinding speed, and
generally do things that only happen after a serious blow to the
head. It came to an abrupt end as the floor suddenly lurched up
to met them. Blackness shrouded over the entire group.

     "Ah!" Dale cried. "We're dead!"

     "Impossible." Monterey said from somewhere to his right.
"The dead don't get sick." There was a gagging sound, followed 
by a hand being slapped over a mouth.

     "Monty's right, Dale." Gadget answered calmly. For her, 
this landing really wasn't that different from some of her 
others. "The punctured balloon must've landed on top of us."

     "Lucky us." Chip said in a dazed voice.

     A weak buzz from Zipper agreed with Chip.

     "Well, let's get out from under here." Chip managed to state
in much steadier voice. His eyes had stopped flashing colors, 
and he was pretty sure that his stomach was back in its proper 
place. "If Nimnul is around, the last thing we want is to alert 
him of our presence."

     "Hey!" A familiar voice called from beyond the darkness.
"What's that balloon and bleach bottle doing here? I thought I
told Normie to pick up his toys when he was done with them."

     "Too late." Dale mumbled weakly.

     "Look at the bright side, guys." Gadget's voice said. "We
wanted to see what Nimnul was up to. This just speeds the 
process along."

     "Yeah." Monterey answered. "But I'd prefer it to be from a
safe distance."

     "Oh...well, you can't win them all."

     Chip and Dale had managed to unfasten their seat belts, and
crawled over to the edge of the plane. Together, they carefully
pushed up the balloon to see what they could see. A wall 
greeted
them.

     "Wrong side." Dale muttered. Chip rolled his eyes and
nodded.

     A small shaft of light came from the other side as Gadget
and Monterey pushed the balloon up on their side. The 
Rangers cringed at the sight before them.

     They were inside of the lab, apparently far off from the
center of the huge room. The spied at least ten to fifteen robots
moving about. They were cleaning up the rubble, and others 
were doing something with the hole that the rangers had passed
through. What made them cringe, however, was the appearance 
of the robots. Each one of them looked like some type of 
monster.

     In all honesty, this wasn't a big surprise. The Rangers had
encountered robots Nimnul had built before. Whether they 
were giant bulldogs or huge guinea pigs, they always looked
user-unfriendly. But these...these weren't even trying for that
standard. Dale, being a big fan of fantasy fiction, recognized
several of them.

     "Look over there," he whispered, nudging Chip, "It's a
troll. And there's a goblin. I think that one's supposed to be
some sort of orc, or maybe an ogre." Chip could feel his friend
shudder. "They look pretty sinister, even if they aren't the real
things. At least he didn't try a dragon."

     "Dragon..." Chip let it sink in. "He did Dale. That's what I
saw, flying off towards the city. One of them is out there now."
His face was rather solemn.

     "But why?" Dales asked. "Why design them like this?"

     "I don't know that, mates." Monterey quickly interjected.
"But I do know we had better do something quick, or we may 
get a closer look at these robots than we planned on." He 
motioned up at the approaching figure of Nimnul, striding 
closer, mumbling something about Normie and if his parents 
would return soon from that two week vacation they took over 
a year ago.

     Chip took a moment to gather in their surroundings.
"Okay...I got an idea."

     Nimnul stepped down and picked up the plane, then stood 
back up with it wearing a frown. "Where have I seen this 
before?" He asked himself. He pulled the deflated balloon off 
of the it, still studying the plane intently. Thus, he never 
noticed the five tiny figures clinging to the underside of the 
balloon. Zipper immediately flew off and out of sight. The rest 
of the rangers had to wait until Nimnul tossed the balloon over 
his shoulder before the could let go. They all landed with 
varying degrees of gracefulness on the floor, then moved off to 
under one of the worktables.

     Nimnul knew he had seen something like this before, but he
couldn't recall where. Finally, he just shrugged and tossed the
plane into a trash can on his way back to supervise the new
skylight construction.

     Chip watched with a frown. "This does not bode well for 
the visiting forces." He stated.

     "Huh?" Was the choral response.

     "I mean, things have gone from bad to worse. We're stuck in
the lab of one of our worse enemies, Nimnul is obviously up to
another scheme, and one of his inventions is already on its way
to city, for who knows what reason." He sighed. "Not exactly 
the way I like to start out a case."

     "Well," Gadget said, moving forward to see the Ranger 
Plane, "I can fix our transportation soon enough. We can 
probably be out of here before too long."

     Zipper tapped Chip on the shoulder. His expression seemed 
to say, Give me a few minutes, and I can scout out what he's up 
to. With that, the spirited fly took off.

     "Hey Chip, cast your peepers over there." Monterey pointed
over to the other side of the lab, where a large computer sat.
Among the numerous switches, buttons, and dials, were a 
series of monitors. A couple of them were displaying some 
readouts of what appeared to be a metal dragon, and one was a 
moving view of the city from a bird's eye view. Or more 
appropriately, a dragon's eye view.

     "Now this," Chip said with a grin, "is how I like to start a
case."

     With that, the rangers broke off into two groups. Monterey
went off with Gadget to see about getting the Ranger Plane 
ready, while Chip and Dale headed off for the large computer.

     The two chipmunks carefully made their way across the lab,
staying far away from the robots and Nimnul. Fortunately, they
were too preoccupied in the construction around the hole to
notice two small furry mammals scamper over onto the control
panel of the computer.

     "Oh man," Dale stepped back, intimidated by the huge 
device. "Where do we start, Chip? It's like a maze."

     "I know." Chip glanced about, but had no clue as to what
function keys did what.

     They crawled up the slanting surface to the monitors.

     "Whew, television." Dale sounded relieved. "This, I can
handle."

     "It's not television, Dale." Chip said as he stepped up next
to him. "This is what the dragon is seeing. See? Look at the
angle."

     Dale shrugged. "Well, the skills I developed when watching
T.V. can apply here."

     "What skills?"

     "Uh...the ability to watch it for over six hours straight?"

     "Very helpful, Dale." Chip said sarcastically. "You want to
wait around here for six hours?"

     "Well, if the programs are good..."

     "They aren't programs, Nuthead! It's a camera, so unless it
suddenly decides to stop by the Late Show for a while, you 
won't be seeing anything of interest."

     "Well..." Dale tried to think of a defense. Fortunately, the
monitor provided it for him. "I'd call _that_ interesting." He
stated triumphantly, pointing to the screen.

     Chip looked and saw that the dragon had entered a building
of some kind. Flames shot out from the top of the screen and 
down the hall, driving the people within back. Chip and Dale 
watched with a mix of fascination and fear as the dragon 
stormed down the hallway, blasting it's way through any 
obstacle in it's way. The security guards attempted to shoot it, 
but the resounding sounds of ricochet told the chipmunks how 
effective it was.

     The dragon turned suddenly and burst through a series of
doors until it came to a large, metal vault. A pair of lasers
began to cut the hinges off.

     "What do you think's in there?" Dale asked, unable to tear
his eyes away.

     "I don't know," Chip answered, equally mesmerized. "But I 
do know that if Nimnul wants it, we have to stop this dragon of
his."

     He shook his head and looked around. Too many possible
functions greeted him as he scanned the control panel. He 
grabbed Dale and spun him from the monitor. The Dragon had 
finished cutting the hinges off and was moving inside in the 
darkened room, it's starlight sensors amplifying the existing 
light for better vision.

     "Listen," Chip said quickly, "we have to stop that thing.
Any ideas of where to start on here?"

     "Well," Dale considered the control panel quickly. 
"Whenever I play a video game, I use a joystick to control the 
figure on the screen."

     Chip nodded. "As good a place to start as any. Quick; split
up and search for something that might be a joystick."

     The dragon had stopped in front of a large, electronic wall
unit. It's tail came into view, protruding a small connecter. It
plugged into an I/O port, and the unit clicked to life.
As they raced over the control panel, Chip glanced back to see
the words, "Beginning download" flash across the screen. A 
small digital display began counting down from 60 seconds.

     "Hurry Dale!" Chip called out. "We have a time limit now!"

     Dale was darting past rows of switches, but hadn't seen
anything yet, and was beginning to doubt on existed. He 
paused, a feeling that he was forgetting something tugged at 
him. He looked about again, and saw what it was. Most 
computers used a separate joystick, usually off to the side of 
the main controls. He ran down to the section he thought it 
would be in, and spotted a joystick down at the corner.

     "Chip!" he called out, "It's over here!"

     He hopped on it, pulled the stick back. But nothing was
happening on the monitor.

     "What's wrong?" Chip asked. He had also noted that lack of
response from the dragon. He also noted that the counter was 
down to thirty seconds.

     "I don't know. It isn't working!" Dale jerked the stick all
the back, but still no response.

     Chip spotted a blinking red button in front of the joystick.
"Wait, maybe we need to tell the computer what it is we want 
to control, first."

     "Huh?"

     "A selection button, Dale." Chip responded as he stepped
down on the button. He glowed red, and another electronic 
display in front of Chip flashed the word "Orc". A shout from 
behind them told them they were now controlling a robot, but 
not the one the wanted. Chip stepped repeatedly one the 
button, scrolling through a variety of robots.

     "What?!" They heard Nimnul cry out from behind them. 
"What's going on with the control panel?"

     "Chipper! Hurry! He's heading over here!"

     Chip increased his stepping, until the word "Dragon"
appeared.

     "Got it!" he announced.

     Sure enough, the view on the monitor suddenly showed the
ceiling getting closer and closer, followed by another ceiling,
than another...

     "What's happening?" Dale asked, still holding the joystick
back.

     "I'm not sure. I think you're telling it to take off."

     They watched as the dragon rammed it's way through ceiling
after ceiling, finally breaking out into the night sky. The view
shook a little, and sort of quavered, hovering.

     "Why isn't it climbing?" Dale asked.

     "Look!" Chip pointed over to another monitor showing the
readout of the dragon. Across the bottom, they read, 
"Overloaded. Suggest dumping of excess weight."

     "It never unplugged from the wall unit! It must have pulled
it all the way up through the ceilings. No wonder, look at that."
He pointed to the tail section of the readout. "The connecter 
was fused in from the sudden surge of our transmission."

     "So what do we do now?"

     Chip looked over his shoulder to see Nimnul with a raised
mallet, about the crush Dale. "Run!"

     Dale caught Chip's warning just in time. He let go of the
joystick and dodged back as the mallet smashed into the spot
where he was a split-second later. The joystick handle was
snapped off and sparks flew from the exposed wiring.

     Chip ran down, and grabbed Dale, pulling him back up and
away from Nimnul, was readying for a second attack. None of 
them noticed the warnings flashing across the screens.

     The digital readout was till running, however, and had
reached five seconds.

     Dale yelled out a warning as Nimnul lunged again. The 
mallet crashed down directly in front of Chip, bashing in 
buttons and snapping off switches. More sparks flew, and a 
discreet smoke seeped out from the sides of the machine.

     Four seconds.

     Seeing Nimnul pulling back again, Chip pointed to the 
newly opened hole in the control panel. Dale nodded, and they 
both quickly ducked inside, nimbly dodging sparks and 
exposed wires. They ran up towards the top of the machine, 
where Chip guessed there would be a vent they could get 
through.

     Three seconds.

     With the chipmunks no longer in sight, Nimnul had a 
moment to see the damage he had inadvertently caused. The 
dragon was still trying to fly with the large unit attached to its 
tail, and the whole computer used to control his robots was in 
danger of going up in smoke.

     Two.

     For all of the talk of Nimnul being insane, never let it be
said that the man is an idiot. He quickly activated the 
emergency coolant system, flushing the interior with a fire 
suppressive gas. He entered a quick series of commands in the 
control panel that was still functioning, causing the dragon to 
detach its' tail completely. He watched on the city scanner as 
the dragon began its flight back, and the unit and tail 
plummeted to the ground below.

     One.

     "Do you hear that?" Chip was about to ask Dale, but the
hissing jumped to roar as the gas shot through the computer's
internal structure. Both of the chipmunks blacked out 
instantly.

     Zero.

     The unit, still running, hit the city street and exploded.

     But not before it finished it's final computation.

****

     Somewhere, in an infinite realm of possibilities, there
exists a single chance. The chance that two totally
circumstantial events will have exactly the same result at
exactly the same time. The chances of it happening are perhaps
once every billion years. The chance for this particular billion
years was now cashed in.

*****

--Chapter 2: This had better not be Oz, either.--

     Thunder was the first sound heard. The next was the rush of
air. Darkwing's world snapped back into focus like a gunshot 
as his body shifted from the electrilizer's effects back to it's
normal state. He became aware of the sensation of free-fall. As
his vision gradually focused, he saw that he was indeed
plummeting towards the ground.

     He quickly took in the city below--he had to be at least
1,000 feet up, probably more. His first thought was that the
explosion had blown them sky-high, but he quickly realized 
that this was not St. Canard. No Autobahn Bay Bridge, not 
even a body of water. None of the skyscrapers in the center of 
the city. A gnawing fear edged into his stomach.

     The fear was easily suppressed, however, by the very up-
front fact that unless he did something, he would soon become
Darkwing Pressed Duck. He looked around, and spotted 
Megavolt alongside of him, seeming to enjoy it.

     "Cool!" He exclaimed. "I always wanted to try sky-diving!"

     "Without parachutes, it's called sky-dying!" Darkwing
snapped back.

     Megavolt blinked and gulped. "Oh yeah." He began to 
promptly scream.

     Darkwing grumbled, upset. Not that Megavolt was 
screaming in fear, but because he hadn't thought of it first. 
Well, with strict terror out of the way, cool logic stepped up to 
bat.

     Maybe I can snag a building with a plunger from my 
Gasgun, he thought. Looking around, he noted that they were 
falling down towards what appeared to be a junkyard. One tall 
building was within range. But as he reached for his Gasgun, 
he remembered that he was out of plungers, due to Gosalyn's 
science project (you don't want to know).

     Strike one.

     How about using my cape as a parachute? He thought 
suddenly. He grabbed the edges of the cape and spread it out, 
only to see ribbons flap uselessly in the wind. The explosion 
had shredded his cape.

     Strike two.

     Wait! Launchpad dropped me off in the Thunderquack, 
maybe he's close enough for a pick-up! His face brightened 
with hope as he dug out his radio and attempted to reach his 
sidekick. Static was all the response he got. Then he 
remembered that it looked like they were transferred to a 
different city. This could be Duckburg, for all he knew. 
Whatever the case, Launchpad was out of range.

     Cool logic, having struck out, went back to the bench as
total panic came in to pitch-hit.

     "AAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Darkwing screamed.

     Startled by someone else screaming, Megavolt was drawn 
out of his fear. "Oh, well, if you're to handle the fear part..." He
shrugged, and looked down. The ground was rising up rapidly; 
he only had a few seconds.

     Megavolt made a quick adjustment to his Electro-gun, 
sending out a series of rapid-fire bursts of varying electro-
magnetic frequencies. The waves resounded off of the ground 
back up at the falling pair. Megavolt set up another field of 
energy around him (and Darkwing, but whether this was on 
purpose or not remains a matter of debate), one of equal 
polarity. The natural "push" created by two like magnets was 
re-created here, but this time on a much larger scale. It would 
have normally been enough to stop the fall.

     But for some reason, all it did was manage to slow their
descent, fortunately enough so that when they landed on the
rubbish heap, they were only bruised instead of flattened.
Megavolt bounced off down the pile of garbage, with 
Darkwing tumbling right behind him. They crashed rather 
forcefully into a collection of old tires at the bottom of the hill, 
bouncing off more forcefully than they were used to.

     Groaning, Darkwing sat up and glanced about. He was glad 
to see that his hat was still with him, albeit rather worse for
wear. Another clap of thunder reverberated throughout the sky,
and a few bolts of lightning playfully arced from cloud to 
cloud. Off to his right, he could see the glow of the city. What 
city, he wasn't sure. To his left, he spotted a small shack, 
apparently a residence of the caretaker of this place. A dog was 
barking from within, and Darkwing could see movement 
inside. Someone would be out soon enough. And directly in 
front of him...

     Megavolt groaned and raised his head. His eyes were even
more unfocused than normal, and Darkwing could hear his
adversary's ragged breath.

     "Oh...that was a painful way to land." He said weakly.

     "Better than what would have happened." Darkwing replied. 
He stood up, and walked warily towards the downed 
supervillain. "Just stay put. You may have saved our lives, but 
you cost me twenty dollars." Among other things, he thought 
bitterly. "The cops will be here as soon as the civilian realizes 
who's in their backyard."

     As if on cue, the door to the simple dwelling opened up, 
and the civilian stepped out. Both Darkwing and Megavolt 
looked up to the figure stepping out into the light of the 
lampposts along the junkyard. And as one, both their jaws and 
hearts dropped.

     The person was just that. A person. Not a duck, dog, cat, or
even a dog/rat/weasel type thing (Megavolt has yet to met 
another of his kind). He had no beak or snout, but a simple 
nose, two rather small (to them) eyes, and _five_ fingers on 
each hand. The human panicked and ran back indoors upon 
seeing them. Darkwing and Megavolt might have panicked too, 
but they had seen humans before...namely, the last time the 
electrilizer sent them through to another dimension.

     The gnawing fear in Darkwing's stomach quickly grew to a
ravenous hunger which threatened to consume him. "Oh no..." 
He swallowed hard. "Not this place. Not again!"

     Megavolt shakily got back to his feet. "No...it can't be.
Not this nightmare again. Stuck in a world of weird-nosed
people." His eyes widened with a sudden fear. "With no way 
home this time."

     Darkwing fought back the fear long enough to think clearly.
"No, wait. We've gotten out of this mess before, we can do it
again." His confidence restored, he straightened up. "Yeah, I
mean, I'm famous here. A well-known television personality."

     "A _cartoon_ personality." Megavolt corrected him.

     Darkwing glared at Megavolt. "Whatever. Regardless, I am
still more famous and respected here than back home. The 
Rockwell guy will be willing to help us out. Assuming his 
helmet is still functioning, we can use that to get back home."

     "I don't know." Megavolt frowned. "You may have been
hobnobbing with the industry last time, but I was searching for 
a way home. I had to look around to find that antenna we used, 
and don't remember any of this." He waved his hands in the 
direction of the city.

     "Hey, there was a lot of city we never saw. Besides, it's
your electrilizer. Why wouldn't it have transported us back to
the same place?"

     "Because those dweebs at SHUSH were messing around 
with it."

     "Huh?" Darkwing knew the dweebs at SHUSH. This was 
not good news.

     "I noticed it when I was setting the frequency. I found it
in that one room, out on a table with some notes around it. It
looked like they were trying to establish contact with another
dimension. When I was adjusting it, I was trying to figure out
exactly what they did to it."

     "Well? What was it?"

     "I don't know. I was interrupted by an unnamed party in a
purple outfit. And I don't mean the artist formerly known as
Price."

     Darkwing merely cleared his throat and looked around for a
distraction. His prayers were in answered in the form of sirens.
They were faint at first, but quickly grew louder. Darkwing and
Megavolt could see the red and blue lights flashing across the
area as the sounds of several police cars pulled up along the
junkyard.

     Darkwing breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, here's the plan.
Let me do all the talking. They should recognize me from our 
last time here, and give us a lift to Rockwell."

     "Either that, or a rock cell." Megavolt replied, glancing
about nervously.

     "Will you calm down? What could possibly go wrong?"

     Megavolt fixed him with a stare. "I can't believe you had
the brazenness to say that."

     Darkwing shrugged. "It's in the job description." He stepped
up to the front.

     The police began a slow and careful move into the 
junkyard. Several officers held out searchlights, while the rest 
snuck down around piles of trash, guns drawn.

     "Hail, good police!" Darkwing proclaimed, stepping up into 
a spotlight. "It is I, Darkwing Duck, champion of justice, 
prince of protection, and the terror the flaps in the night. You 
no doubt recognize me from my cart--"

     "What the heck is it?!" Someone cried.

     "Beats me, but it looks dangerous. Keep your distance, 
men."

     "Yeah, look how it's dressed. No one sane dresses like
that!"

     Megavolt snorted from behind Darkwing. "See? I'm not the
only one who thinks so."

     "Shut up!" Darkwing hissed, then turned back to the police.
"Hey guys, don't you remember me? I'm the superhero from that
cartoon, you know? Haven't you bought my merchandise for 
your kids, yet?"

     "It's obviously insane," the lead officer called out. "Get
out the tranquilizer gun."

     Megavolt began a slow withdraw from the scene, looking 
for possible escape routes. but the police had the area 
surrounded. "Well, Darkwing, any other bright ideas?"

     "Well, just one." Darkwing glanced nervously at the closing
circle of police, and the ones bringing out the tranquilizer
guns. He palmed one of his smoke canisters. "RUN!" He 
shouted and he threw the canister down. Blue smoke exploded 
outward, obscuring Darkwing and Megavolt from the police. 
They dived for cover at the explosion, then peeked around 
carefully, confirming that is was only a smoke grenade.

     "Move in!" The captain commanded.

     They all quickly closed in, but no sign of the two intruders
was evident. They had obviously escaped during the decoy 
grenade.

     "Start an area search, they couldn't have gotten far." He
told the officers, then went to his car and radioed in. "Put out
the word that we have two unknown trespassers at large. I need 
a sketch artist down here pronto. They look like nothing I've 
ever seen. And tell the commissioner." He turned off the radio 
and looked skyward and the looming storm clouds. "I have a 
feeling that our problems have only just begun," he muttered to 
himself.

     "What's going on over there, Zipper?" Monterey called out.
He and Gadget had managed to pull the Ranger Plane free from 
the trash can, shoving it over to the floor below. They had just
finished that when they saw the sparks flying from over by the
computer. Zipper had swooped in, frantically buzzing 
something. 

     Zipper took a moment to calm down, then went into a quick
explanation of Chip and Dale ducking inside the computer, but 
not coming out.

     "Crikey!" Monterey turned to Gadget. "We've got to get 
them out of there, but how? And the Ranger Plane isn't even 
fixed yet!"

     "You and Zipper get Chip and Dale, then get them over 
here." She rolled her sleeves all the way up and brought her 
goggles down over her eyes, a determined glint in them. "The 
Ranger Plane _will_ be ready to fly by the time you get back." 
She stated it as a fact, not a hope.

     Monterey nodded and slid down the side of the trash can,
then made his way over to the computer, Zipper flying just
overhead, keeping watch. The robots had gone back to their
construction, and Nimnul was engrossed in running a 
diagnostic on the computer, so the Monterey and Zipper 
arrived at the side of the computer without incident.

     Crouching down beside the side of the computer, Monterey
watched as Nimnul worked the control panel, trying to isolate 
the problems internally before having to actually open it up.
Monterey checked around the side of the machine, but he 
didn't see any way in, and mentioned it to Zipper.

     Nodding, Zipper motioned for Monterey to wait below as 
he flew up to see if he could find a way in. He sped up the side 
of the computer, finally coming to the top. He spotted the twin,
large grates for ventilation right away. The grill was spaced
more than wide enough for him to slip in unhindered.

     The insides of the computer were dark, aside from the
occasional sparking wire. Zipper managed to navigate through 
the maze of circuitboards, until he thought he spotted some 
objects that looked more organic, as opposed to the geometric 
shapes that surrounded him. A quick beat of his wings brought 
him to the two downed Rangers.

     Landing next to them, Zipper first checked to make sure 
that each was still alive. He was relieved to see them breathing 
in slow, rhythmic slumber. Next, Zipper set about waking them 
up. No way he could haul them back up to the top, and he 
doubted there would be time to get Monterey before Nimnul 
opened the computer up to start the hardware repairs.

     Having to revive the chipmunks before, Zipper knew the 
best and quickest way: he flew behind them, grabbed each of 
their tales and pulled back, letting them snap back into their 
rears.

     "Erg!" Or something to that effect was the chipmunks
response as they awoke with a start. They didn't have time to 
ask questions, however, as Zipper darted back in front of them,
explaining their precarious positions. Chip and Dale nodded, 
and followed Zipper back through the computer to the vents. 
They had a bit more trouble squeezing through the grill, but 
with some additional pull by Zipper, they managed to pop 
through and then shimmy back down the side to join 
Monterey.

     "Glad to see you blokes are still okay." He said as they
dropped down next to him.

     "Thanks Monty," Dale responded. "Is the plane finished 
yet?"

     Chip nodded. "I think we had better get out of here quick.
Nimnul spotted us messing with his computer." He glanced 
back nervously at the fuming Professor, currently removing the 
control panel. "It won't be long before he comes after us again."

     "Gadget said it'd be ready." Monterey answered. "What's
going on with him?" 

     "I'm not sure yet." Chip admitted. "He's built these robots
for a purpose, and it looks like he's using them for remote-
control theft, but I think there's more to it than that."

     "Look," Dale cut in, keeping an eye on Nimnul, "can we
discuss this later? Preferably after we're on the Plane and on
our way away from here?"

     Monterey shrugged. "Can't argue with the lad's logic."

     Chip was about to state the he could, but the rest of the
group had already left. Sighing, he quickly took up the rear.

     Back at the trash can, they could see Gadget hammering 
away at one side of the Plane. She finished, then looked up at 
the rest of them with a smile.

     "All set." She announced proudly.

     The Ranger Plane did look back to normal, aside from the
missing balloon. Looking it over, they could see that Gadget 
had built a quick sling-shot rig out of the balloon, aiming up at 
the hole they had entered. The four Rangers exchanged 
glances.

     Gadget walked back around to the front of the plane, and
pushed against it. It shifted a little, but not much.

     "Um...could someone give me a hand?" She asked, 
somewhat sheepishly. "I need to get this into place." She 
pointed to the area in front of the sling-shot.

     Chip and Dale each stepped up next to her, one on each 
side, while Monterey and Zipper guided it by the sides. 
Together, they slid the Plane into place, then climbed up into 
the seats.

     "Um...Gadget?" Chip asked tentatively, watching the robots
work around the hole. "I have a important question: Do you 
think that those robots might pose a problem for our escape?"

     "No."

     "Oh." He didn't sound reassured.

     "I guess it wasn't as important as you thought." Dale
suggested helpfully.

     "Everyone strapped in?" Gadget asked. "Hang guys, it'll be a
little bumpy for the first minute or so."

     "There's an understatement." Monterey muttered. He was
eyeing the hole, rig, and hoping that the laws of physics would
be merciful on them.

     With a sudden *click*, Gadget released the pressure valve 
on the wings. They started to rise, triggering the release on the
slingshot. The entire Ranger Plane was propelled through the 
air at a tremendous velocity, forcing the Rangers back into 
their seats. The robots at the hole were working solely on the 
area around it, so the Ranger Plane managed to exit without 
any difficulty.

     "You did it, Gadget!" Chip called out, twisting around to
see the hole growing smaller behind them.

     "Yeah, Gadget-luv," Monterey agreed, "I gotta hand it to 
you on this one." He was still amazed that it had actually 
worked, but wisely decided to keep that to himself.

     "Thanks, guys." Gadget replied, concentrating on her
piloting. "Now if I can just glide us to the ground, we'll be
okay. Did you boys find out what Nimnul was up to?"

     "Yes and no." Chip replied. "He's using the robots to 
commit robberies for him, but I think there's something more to 
it than that."

     "Why?" Dale asked.

     "Well, you saw what the dragon was doing, Dale. It was
downloading something from that unit we saw." He frowned 
and sat back, thinking. "My guess is that Nimnul was gathering
information or data about something."

     "A bank, maybe?" Monterey suggested. "He's done research 
to rob banks before."

     Zipper pointed out that Nimnul had hit more than banks.
Jewelry stores, warehouses, and the like.

     "Right, Zipper." Chip looked out over the cityscape. "If we
could find out what building the dragon invaded, I'll bet it'll
tell us what Nimnul was after."

     "Shouldn't be too hard," Monterey shrugged. "Just follow 
the wreckage."

     By this time, Gadget had brought the Ranger Plane into a
slow downward spiral, finally landing it smoothly in a small
field. The Rangers were still quite a distance from the city, but
they were much closer then before. The storm had seemed to 
quell for the moment, but Chip feared that it was merely the 
eye of the storm, and more turbulence was coming soon.

     "Hey," Dale said as he climbed out of the plane, "look over
there." He pointed to the distant city. The others all listened
as they climbed out, and peered in the direction Dale indicated.

     Not too far away, in what they knew to be a run-down 
section along the edge of town, they could see some flashes of 
light. Almost like fireworks, but these lights glowed, rather 
than burst. A few moments later, and the wind carried the 
sounds gunfire, explosions, and sirens to them.

     "What do you suppose is going on?" Monterey asked, wide-
eyed. "Maybe something with that unit the Nimnul was 
messing with?"

     "No, that was in the center of the city." Chip watched for a
moment more. "Whatever it is, it sounds real serious."

     The rest of the Rangers nodded. They all knew that they
should go investigate, to see if they could help out in some 
way, but each of them had an uneasy feeling settle around 
them. Chip was the first to shake out of it, and headed off 
towards the commotion, the rest of the Rangers right on his 
heels.

*****

--Chapter 3: Chipmunks & Mice & Dog/Rat/Weasel Type 
Things, Oh My!--

     The police had caught up with Darkwing and Megavolt 
much sooner than they had anticipated. Still disoriented from 
the effects of the electrilizer, compounded by the discovery 
that they had jumped dimensions again, they weren't thinking 
too clearly as they escaped the junkyard. Instead of keeping to 
the shadows, they seemed quite content to run madly down the 
well-lit streets. The call had gone out on the police radios, and 
the area search was quick and methodical. Soon the suspects in 
question were spotted around a corner, and it wasn't long 
before the police started to herd them in.

     In addition to all their other problems, both Megavolt and
Darkwing noticed that something seemed...strange...about this
dimension. They felt almost out of sync with what was 
happening around them, but the feeling was impossible to pin 
down as they were running for their lives.

     In mere minutes they found themselves surrounded again, 
this time in the center of an intersection. Police cars were all
around, and more arriving each minute.

     "Now what?" Darkwing asked breathlessly. He and 
Megavolt stood back to back against the encroaching officers. 
Guns had already been drawn, but none fired.

     "Personally, I hate feeling like a rat in a cage!" Megavolt
snarled.

     Because his timing was never in tune with etiquette,
Darkwing turned to face Megavolt. "I thought you were a rat,
genetically speaking."

     Because his timing was even worse in situations like this,
Megavolt uncertainly answered, "I'm...not...sure, really. Last I
heard, I was a dog/rat/weasel type thing, but I still have people
looking into it."

     A bullhorn cut into their supervillain-genealogy discussion.

     "All right you two." The captain said, his amplified voice
echoing from the buildings around them. "Just stay put, and 
don't cause any trouble. Nobody here wants any 
confrontation."

     "Speak for yourself..." Megavolt muttered, his eyes
narrowing. Darkwing, who was once again back-to-back with 
his arch-enemy, missed this.

     "So just relax, and come along with us peacefully," the
captain continued, "and no one will get hurt." He turned to one
of his officers. "How long before the S.W.A.T. team gets 
here?"

     "Shouldn't be too long, sir. They're bringing the gas bombs,
but I don't know if it'll work on _those_." He shuddered a little
as he looked at them. "What are they, anyway?"

     "I don't know. Maybe deformed humans, or deformed 
creatures of some kind. Maybe aliens for all I know. What I 
_do_ know is that I want them tucked away somewhere far 
from a populated area. Then we can start answering your 
questions."

     He brought the bullhorn back up to address the...things. He
had noticed that the taller of the two was glowing a little.
"Okay, you in the yellow jumpsuit, cease and desist whatever it
is you're doing."

     Megavolt's scowl deepened. And his glow brightened.

     "Megavolt," Darkwing hissed over his shoulder, "what are 
you doing?" He didn't want to turn his back on the twenty or so 
cops facing him down with drawn weapons.

     The captain started to get agitated. "Hey! I said knock it
off!" Still no response. Frustrated, the captain resorted to
name-calling. "Hey watt-brain! I'm talking to you, Sparky!"

     "DON'T CALL ME SPARKY!" Megavolt's screech pierced 
the air.

     A bolt of lightning pierced the same air a moment later,
directly hitting the police car in front of the captain. Metal
was ripped apart and glass shattered in a thousand directions 
as it exploded. The officer next to the captain found himself on 
the ground over twenty feet away, stars dancing before his 
eyes.

     "Strange," he muttered, dazed. "I thought the storm was
over." Shouts and screams quickly brought him back to his 
senses. He could see past the burning wreck of twisted metal 
that used to be a police car, to the one who had been glowing, 
throwing out bolts of lightning, exploding cars and scattering 
officers. He turned back to the captain to point this out, but the 
captain was lying face down on the cement, his body still 
smoking.

     "Oh no..." he whispered as he crawled over to the captain,
feeling for a pulse.

     It was there, but faint.

     Thanking whatever forces had kept the captain alive, he
turned and looked around, finally finding his partner. "Hey
Muldoon!"

     Muldoon stopped his run from the newest fire, and quickly
altered his course to take him over to his partner.

     "What is it, Kirby? Gaaaa, you don't look so good."

     "Take an exploding car in the front and see how you feel.
But come on, we have to get the captain out of here. He's still
alive, but I don't know for how much longer."

     Seeing the state of the captain, Muldoon nodded. He 
glanced around quickly, seeing that the whole operation had 
gone up in smoke, literally. Officers were trying to take cover 
from the lightning-throwing attacker, while others were trying 
to provide covering fire. None of the bullets seemed to hit the 
attacker, however, so it wasn't very effective, but it least he was 
staying put.

     "Wait here." Muldoon said and then made a quick duck-
and-run to the nearest working police car. He climbed in and 
started it up, then quickly sped over to the area with Kirby and 
the captain. Other officers saw this, and kept Megavolt's 
attention drawn away, more so with taunts than actual gunfire. 
In particular, he seemed to react vehemently to the name 
"Sparky"...

****

     He wasn't next to Megavolt, but still in the intersection. He 
wasn't responsible for either Megavolt's outburst or the chaos
that followed, but he doubted that the police would believe 
him right now. This day, Darkwing thought glumly, has gone 
from bad to downright cruddy.

     He was busying trying to prevent a clear line of sight from
the police, as he wasn't about to test his dodging capabilities
against a bullet in flight. Megavolt had apparently throw up 
some sort of magnetic field around him, as the bullets were 
straying far from the mark on each shot. Darkwing wondered 
about it for a minute, as he had never seen Megavolt pull this 
trick before. But then again, whenever someone called him 
"Sparky", who knew how he would react? This time, it just 
happened to be picking a fight with the local police force. A 
fight, Darkwing noted with some uneasiness, that Megavolt 
seemed to be winning.

     A movement to his right brought him out of his reverie. A
few officers had moved in around him, boxing him in and away 
from his "partner", Megavolt, who was still busying himself 
with increasing the amount of work for the city clean up crew
tomorrow.

     The police had a clear line of sight now, but they hadn't
fired. Darkwing hoped that it was because that they might have
sensed that his was actually a crime-fighter. In truth, the
police were afraid that shooting Darkwing would only enrage
Megavolt further, but either way had the same outcome: 
Darkwing was not in immediate danger.

     Noticing their willingness to let him live, Darkwing seized
upon an idea. He threw his hands up over his head in a
surrendering pose. "Wait! I can help you! I can stop him!"

     The police exchanged glances, but never let their weapons
waver from Darkwing's chest. "How?" one of them asked.

     "He'll listen to me. I'm from the same...place he is, so he
trusts me." Darkwing had been about to say the same 
dimension, but thought that might be pushing his luck. Truth is 
stranger than fiction, he reminded himself grimly.

     "Why should we trust you?"

     "Because you have nothing to lose. If I'm wrong, he kills
me, and you have one less wacko to worry about." That didn't 
come out exactly the way he wanted, but it seemed to work.

     "You have one minute. The second after that, we open fire."

     Great, another time limit, Darkwing sighed to himself. "If
you could, use water against him. It'll short him out, but just
don't be standing within five feet of him when he does." 
Quickly, he sprinted back off towards Megavolt, calling over 
his shoulder, "Tell your men to hold their fire, and for 
goodness sakes don't call him Sparky!"

     One of the officers hopped into a still functioning police
cruiser and told the rest of the force the deal. He then patched
through to the incoming S.W.A.T. team, updating them on 
what they knew...yes, the captain was alive...no, the attackers 
hadn't tried to make a break for it...well, one looks like a three-
foot tall bird and the other looks like some sort of 
rat/weasel/dog type thing...no, nothing stronger than coffee...

     Megavolt was running out of police cars to blow up. He
actually had to stop and look for them now. He had tried 
hitting the police officers, but they seemed reluctant to stay in 
one place long enough for a clear shot. Targets that didn't 
move, as opposed to those the moved quickly while shouting 
out rude things, seemed to be the easier of the two to hit. He 
had just spotted one, and was charging up his gloves, when a 
hand pulled him back.

     "Blast it, Megavolt!" Darkwing snarled.

     "I was about to, thank you very much!" Megavolt shot back.

     "I mean why did you have to ruin everything?! Now you've
made us into wanted criminals in this world!"

     "And this situation is different from St. Canard in what
way?" Megavolt asked, regaining his feet. His glow had begun 
to dim, Darkwing noted, and the police had actually stopped 
firing, both bullets and names. At least _something_ was going 
right today.

     "Okay," Darkwing admitted, "maybe you are used to being a
felon, but I was a respected hero!"

     "Respected!" Megavolt laughed. "Let's be honest, Darkwing.
You're one step above street sweepers in the public's eyes."

     "We are not here to discuss my popularity." Darkwing 
replied testily, growing defensive. "Besides, we can always hit 
my webpage when we get back. You'll see from the counter 
how many people have stopped by to read all about my 
excellent exploits of excitement."

     "Yeah, I've seen it. And tell me that you didn't start the
counter at one thousand."

     Darkwing was suddenly extremely interested in inspecting 
the top of his hat.

     "I figured. So that means that you've actually had as many
as five people hit your page in how long? Five months?"

     "Give it time!" Darkwing snapped. "People probably just
don't know about it yet."

     "Oh please! With those huge advertisements you've put all
over the place? You go to any blue smoke dealer on the web, 
and there's your ad at the top! Speaking of which, what is this
'light-bulb loony' reference in your villain's write-up about
me?"

     Darkwing blinked. "You read that?"

     "Unfortunately. Rather self-promoting, wasn't it? All I read
about was how you risked life and limb against me time and 
again. You talked about yourself at least 50% of the time."

     "Well, yeah." Darkwing kicked at the ground. "But you 
have to admit, I did name you as my arch-enemy, not Dr. Slug."

     "Well...yes." Now it was Megavolt's turn to kick at the
ground. "And thank you for the compliment. But it still isn't
enough, Darkwing. You need to rework that whole section, if 
not the whole homepage."

     "All right! All right!" Darkwing sighed. "You win, I'll at
least rework the supervillain section."

     "'Atta boy, Darkwing." Megavolt cheerfully clapped his 
arch- enemy on the shoulder. "I'll even help you out, if want."

     "Thanks, Megavolt. That'd be a big help. Can you give me
some info on the fearsome five, do you think?"

     "Why not?"

     Astute readers may wonder why Darkwing and Megavolt 
have hit it off so well suddenly. Well, Megavolt is insane, and 
Darkwing is egotistical. In a non-combat situation, these 
personalities can mesh very well together.

     Even more astute readers may wonder even more what's 
going on with the police, as Megavolt and Darkwing are still 
standing in the middle of the intersection, surrounded by 
burning cars, chunks of concrete, and other indications of a 
peeved Megavolt.

     Quite simply, they left. Once the captain was to driven off
to the hospital, and Darkwing had kept his promise about 
stopping Megavolt's rampage, the police force used the general 
rule of thumb. That is to say, look at the situation and hold up 
your thumb in front of it. Then, keep backing away until you 
can no longer see the situation, as your thumb completely 
blocks it. You are now at the proper distance to safely stay out 
of whatever is going on until those capable of dealing with it 
arrive.

     While the police were several blocks away, and the 
S.W.A.T. team had almost arrived. Someone had the foresight 
to keep the S.W.A.T. team informed of recent developments, 
so the troops were taking few minutes to put protective gear 
into place. Their primary orders were to subdue both of the 
transgressors, at which time they would be shipped to a 
laboratory for proper study. They were informed that the bird 
was more gullible, so could be lured away with some 
reassuring words, and maybe some bird seed. The other one 
would have to go by force.

     Darkwing and Megavolt, meanwhile, remained in their own
little world.

     "...but that liquid body can't be all it's cracked up to
be." Megavolt was saying. "I don't even want to _think_ about 
how he goes to the bathroom."

     Darkwing nodded, writing this down in his notebook. "And
what's the deal with Negaduck? Has anyone tried talking to 
him about trimming down those eyebrows? I mean, it's like he 
has some sort of fungal growth up there."

     Megavolt shrugged. "Well, the rest of us think he's kind of
sensitive about that, so we try not to mention it."

     A number of squealing tires interrupted their rapport. They
turned to see several S.W.A.T. vans screeching to a halt all
around them. The back doors opened up, spilling forth a mass 
of well-armored and protected men. Each one carried his rifle 
easy and at the ready.

     "Well, that's rather rude of them." Megavolt commented. 
"Now I have to fry them, which will probably make me lose my 
train of thought." He looked at Darkwing. "You'll remind me 
where we left off, right?"

     "Yeah, don't worry ab--oh no, wait! Not again!"

     But it was too late. Megavolt had already charged up his
plug-helmet...

     But then it emitted a few feeble sparks, and the glow died.

     "Oh rats." Megavolt slapped his forehead. "Between the
electrilizer jump and my previous...uh..."

     "Rampage?" Darkwing offered, looking around again at the
ruins strewn about.

     "Oh, yeah. Thanks. Well, between that and our jump, my 
power reserves are pretty much drained." He looked around. "I 
don't see any power lines or anything to recharge with."

     Darkwing watched with growing fear as the S.W.A.T. team
started to pull out grenade launchers and set them up around 
the area. Several rows of troops had already taken position 
behind some cover, aiming their rifles at the duo in the middle. 
Both Megavolt and Darkwing knew they were in serious 
trouble when the last van unloaded its troops. Someone had 
tipped them off, as each member was carrying a supersoaker. 
Darkwing kicked himself inwardly. Megavolt did outwardly.

     "You told them, you idiot!" He snapped. "Well, this is just
skippy! You'd better figure out some way to stop them before
we're both killed!"

     Darkwing was trying to figure out just that, when one of
them motioned to him. "It's okay...uh, sir. We were told of your
assistance. Step away from the other one, and we'll keep you
safe."

     Darkwing breathed a sigh of relief at started forward, but
was yanked back by Megavolt.

     "It's a trap!" Megavolt yelled. "You'll never separate us!
We are forged from the same circuit! One for all, and all
for...everyone else. Or something."

     "Thanks, Megavolt, but I'm sure that everything will be
fine. Just let me--"

     "We have to stick together to the end, Darkwing!" Megavolt
dramatically struck a pose, grasping Darkwing even tighter.
"Together, alone in a foreign world, we have to put our
differences aside and work together 'til the end!"

     "Gee, that's real sweet of you, Megs." Darkwing was trying
to squirm out of Megavolt's grip. He turned back to see the
trooper waving for him to get over there and out of the way. 
Why is there a bag of bird seed in his hand? Darkwing 
wondered, then dismissed it. "But this is for the best. You said 
you're low on power, so let me do the talking here, and we'll be 
all better in a jiffy."

     Megavolt, remembering how well things went the last time
Darkwing did all the talking, shook his head. "I'm low but not
out. Hang on. I have one more trick up my sleeve, so to speak."

     "What? What are you--"

     Darkwing was cut-off as Megavolt raised his free hand
skyward, and a sudden field swept all around them. Then both
Megavolt and Darkwing shot straight up, into the night and out 
of view. The S.W.A.T. team looked around uneasy. The leader 
shook his head and sighed, looking at the price tag on the bird 
seed.

     "Buck eighty-five for nothing." He tossed the bag over his
shoulder and ordered a search to commence immediately.

****

     For the second time in under an half-hour, Darkwing was
treated to an aerial view of the city. This time, however, he was
not falling. Instead, he was flying slowly about 500 feet up. To
be precise, he was clinging tenaciously to Megavolt, who in 
turn had his right hand magnetized to the underside of some 
sort of small aerial craft.

     "What did you do _this_ time?" Darkwing quacked, waiting 
any moment for them to fall again.

     "Besides saving our lives?" Megavolt responded tersely. If
having his hand firmly attached to an unknown flying object 
while airborne had any effect on him, he didn't show it.

     "Oh...yeah." Darkwing took a deep breath and calmed 
down. "Okay, what happened? You said you were low on 
power."

     "Exactly. I said I was low, not out. All I did was activate
my energy-seeker, and well, here we are."

     "Energy-seeker?" Darkwing repeated.

     "Basically, my harness emits a quick surge over the area,
and detects the strongest source of power around. Then it locks
on to the target, converts a section of the object to negative
polarity, my glove to positive, and presto! My magnetic
personality brings the object to me." He looked down. "Or vise
versa. Normally, I'm drawn to a wall socket or power lines, 
where the energy-seeker then siphons off the power to recharge 
me."

     "Is that happening now?" Darkwing thought that if it was, 
he should've felt something by now.

     "No." Megavolt looked back at the craft he was attached to.
"This thing," he motioned with his head to the craft, "must have
a boatload of power stored up inside to beat out the power 
lines we flew by. The energy-seeker locked onto this as the 
strongest source, but the trip up here expended too much of my 
power reserves to finish the job. So, I'm stuck in neutral, so to
speak."

     "Great." Darkwing groaned. "How long before your 
magnetic glove gives out?"

     "It won't. They're permanently locked to each other until I
can power up again, canceling the magnetics in the process."
Megavolt tried to relax as much as he could, while dangling 
500 feet from the Earth and having a duck clinging to him at 
the same time.

     "Relax." He continued. "Enjoy the view. Enjoy the rest. As
soon as we land, I'll probably be in range of something to
recharge from, and we'll be on our way again."

     Darkwing didn't answer. He was busy studying the skyline. 
He had some time on the last electrilizer trip to scope it out. At
the time he figured he might never get home, so he might as 
well find the most dramatic place to pose. Now he looked with 
a different intent.

     This skyline was not the same as the one on the last trip.

     True, Megavolt and he may have come through at a different
time, either many years before or after their last visit, but
there were too many differences; not enough similarities for it
to be the same city. He sighed deeply. They were lost in 
another dimension. Again. With no apparent way back. Again.

     He looked below and saw the rooftops of suburbia passing
underneath. They were getting further from the city, and that
struck a chord in Darkwing. All things considered, he was a
detective, and there was one major difference between this
electrilizer jump and the last.

     The last time, they had erupted from a television in a
department store. This time, they had just appeared in mid-air.
He had a strong suspicion that he should try to return to the
area where they had appeared, to see what it was that made 
them appear in that spot, instead of through some electronic 
device, like the last time. Granted, it may have been the 
lightning in the area, but it was all he had to go on.

     The problem now was getting back there. Darkwing used a 
free hand to check his pockets for anything that might help. 
The only thing that came close was a super-strong cloth-alloy 
(don't ask) high tension net. Not his first choice for a 
substitute parachute. Below, he could see that he was now over 
a wooded area, some of the trees a respectable height. He might 
be able to use the net in conjunction with a pair of elastic 
bands he had for repelling as a make-shift bungee cable: 
Dropping the net over the top of the tree on the way down, and 
hope there was enough space for the bands to slow his descent.

     Now he faced the difficult choice of separating from
Megavolt, who he would need to use the electrilizer for the trip
back, with the possibility that he may never find him again, or
of risking the fall to go back and investigate the area before
time wore the possible clues away.

     "In the meantime," Megavolt was saying, "How about a 
song? Ninety-nine blown fuses in the trash, ninety-nine blown
fuses...You toss one out, I'll reduce you to grout, ninety-eight
blown fuses in the trash..."

     Actually, the choice wasn't nearly as difficult as Darkwing
thought.

*****

     The explosions had died away some time ago, but the sirens
could still be heard. Most of them were fire engines, but the
Rangers could still pick out the police as well. They kept their
pace up, knowing that sometimes the clean-up of any incident 
can be as important as the actual happening itself.

     Keeping to their quick trot, they had soon come into the
parks surrounding the suburbia. Gadget estimated that they 
would need another half-an-hour to get to the area, but that 
could be drastically reduced if they could snag some 
transportation. So they pushed on in hopes of hopping on a 
emergency vehicle on it's way there.

     They were perhaps no more than halfway through the 
woods, when they all heard a sharp cracking sound for high 
above.

     "What's that?" Gadget asked, stopping and looking up.

     They all heard a muffled cry and saw, silhouetted against
the sky, a figure falling through the branches uncontrollably.

     "How'd a person get way up there?" Dale asked, astonished.

     "Ask him later, Dale, right now we have to save him from
falling to his death!" Chip darted over to a nearby sapling,
pulling out a coil of rope he carried. "Zipper! Monty! Give me 
a hand!"

     They caught on to what he was doing as he lassoed the top 
of the baby tree and began pulling it down. Zipper pushed the 
top, while Chip and Monty pulled. It was quickly stretched out 
over the area where the figure was falling.

     "Come on, Dale!" Gadget said, heading over to a rotted log.
"That sapling won't be enough."

     Dale planted himself next to Gadget, and they shoved the 
log down the incline, rolling it into place under the sapling.

     "That shoud help cushion the impact." Gadget looked up,
worried. "But I doubt it'll be enough." She hated the thought of
it not being enough, even though it was all they could do.

     Since they were all busy trying to prepare a safe landing
site, none of them noticed that the fall was taking longer than
it should have. Even so, the figure crashed through the 
remaining branches of the trees with alarming speed. He wasn't 
plummeting, but he wasn't easing in, either.

     He broke through the last leafy bough, and thudded into the
sapling, snapping Monty and Chip off their feet and into a 
bush several yards away. What the sapling couldn't handle in 
terms of kinetic energy, the rotted log soaked. Between the two 
of them, and the elastic bands the rangers could now see, the 
figure wasn't injured too badly. In fact, since it was his second 
fall from a height of greater than thirty feet, he was doing 
dandy.

     As the dust settled, the rangers could now see that maybe he
was injured worse than they thought. He was all white, and 
looked sort of feathery. He was shorter than most humans, 
aside from children. They also took note of the dark clothing 
he wore: All shades of purple, with some green and magenta 
thrown in for good measure.

     What they couldn't understand was the webbed feet.

     They all approached cautiously, Monty and Chip absent-
mindedly pulling leaves from their clothes. Zipper hovered 
over the large bird, for now they could see clearly that it was 
indeed a bird, but like no bird they've ever seen before.

     A groan indicated that the object of their fascination was
awakening.

     "Launchpad would have been proud of that landing." He 
said groggily, shifting to sitting position. He shook his head to
clear out the cobwebs, then peered around, spotting the 
Rangers for the first time. He regarded them curiously, having 
never seen animals in the wild who wore clothes. Not that they 
were shabby dressers, mind you. Well, with the possible 
exception of that one in the loud Hawaiian shirt, but it really 
looked like it belonged there.

     This brought his attention to his own clothes.

     "Oh great..." he moaned, seeing the dirt and moss stains.
"Like today hasn't been going bad enough already. And who 
knows how long it'll be before I can get it to a washing 
machine? I doubt the Laundromats here will be welcoming to 
out-of-towners like me." He sighed. "Not only am I stuck here, 
but stuck here in a ruined wardrobe."

     All this time, the Rangers could only stand and stare.
Finally, Monterey turned to the rest. "Are the rest of you 
seeing this as well?" He asked bluntly. "Or did I just hit my 
head too hard upon that landing?"

     "No, Monty," Chip answered, "Or else I hit my head on the
same rock you did."

     "Well I didn't hit my head on any rocks, not today anyway,
and I'm seeing it too." Dale chimed in.

     Zipper nodded to the rest, then landed lightly on 
Monterey's shoulder. 

     Now it was Darkwing's turn to stare. This is a new twist, he
thought.

     If there was any doubt left in his mind that he had never
been to this dimension before, this was the clincher. In all his
previous adventures, he had never run into small animals like
like this.

     True, Archie, along with Eek and Squeak, could 
communicate with others, but he had never seen them in any 
type of wardrobe. Besides, they were the pets of Morgana, and 
that threw the animal behavior guidebook out the window. 
Darkwing also recalled a group of ants that were committing 
robberies, but that was directed by Lilliput, and even he 
needed a special cap to communicate with them.

     "Well," Gadget said decisively, "Whatever he is, he's gotta
be hurt from that fall." She calmly strode up to Darkwing.
"Excuse me, Mister...uh...Mister Recently Fallen a Great
Distance, are you hurt badly?"

     Darkwing was caught off-guard by the question, and had to
blink several times to bring himself back to the present.

     "Uh, no. No, not at all. I just--AHHH!" He jerked in pain as
he tried to stand up. A sharp stinging was racing through his
back. It felt like he might he strained something. What is going
on? He thought with a tinge of panic. I never was this easily
hurt before, I can still feel the bruises from my first fall.
Those should have vanished by now.

     He gazed back up at the treetops, and then down along the
elastic bands connected to his waist. The bands were stretched
out, but his weight was enough to keep him down. This was 
another problem. In all the past times he had tried anything 
like this, the bands should have shot him back up into the air. 
But not this time. Why?

     He shifted, feeling another stab of pain, and he dropped the
line thought for more immediate things.

     "Yes..." he managed in a shaky voice. "I guess I strained
something in my back."

     Gadget nodded. Her practicality had won over her fear of 
the unknown. She no longer cared what he was, only that he 
was hurt. "Okay, then, hold still for a minute." She climbed up 
onto his back, to the bottom of his neck.

     Chip and the rest looked in amazement at Gadget as she
started a comprehensive examination of Darkwing's back, 
trying to pinpoint the problem. Chip shrugged and stepped 
forward. Might as well get on with it, he figured. They were 
already providing medical treatment, after all.

     "Well, Mr., uh, Duck." Chip started as best could under the
circumstances. "We're the Rescue Rangers. My name's Chip, 
that's Dale, Monterey Jack, Zipper, and Gadget is the one 
checking your back." He indicated each Ranger in turn.

     "Heya, mate. Call me Monty." Monterey greeted.

     "Pleased to meet you." Dale nodded.

     Zipper made a gesture which indicated they would have 
liked it to be under better circumstances.

     "You're telling me..." Darkwing agreed. He flinched as
Gadget hit the spot.

     "Does that hurt?" She called out. She tapped the area again.

     "Yes." Darkwing's voice was very tiny. "How much medical
training have you had?"

     "I'm self-taught." She stated proudly. "No formal training."

     Darkwing nodded to himself. Figures.

     The rest of the Rangers missed most of the conversation,
lost in shock. Finally Dale blurted out what they were all
thinking: "You understood what Zipper was saying?"

     Darkwing looked at them strangely. "Yeah. Is that 
unusual?"

     "Well, it's just that no human ever understands him." Chip
explained. "And not many animals, aside from other insects."

     "Oh, is that all?" Darkwing waved the thought aside. "Back
home, I know a few residents of the lower section of the
zoological chart--no offense--and can understand them rather
well." He shrugged. Only slightly though, as Gadget was 
around the strained area. "Of course, it did take me awhile to 
learn what they were saying. Launchpad still has problems, but 
Gosalyn caught on pretty quick..." He chuckled to himself.

     "What do you mean, 'back hom--" Chip started.

     A siren broke through their individual thoughts, reminding
them all why they were now in the woods.

     "How bad is it, Gadget?" Chip asked. "Can he walk all
right?"

     "Yes, but he really shouldn't. He needs to rest, and I can
probably make him a compress to put on it." She dropped back 
to the ground and walked back to the group.

     "Thanks, but I'll be fine." Darkwing said. I hope, he
mentally added.

     "Well, it's just that I want to find out more about what
happened to you, but we're kind of in a hurry. I thought you
might be able to tell us on the way there."

     "Where?" Darkwing said, standing up. The pain stabbed at 
him again, but he fought it back.

     Chip pointed off through the woods. "Over near the city. 
We heard some explosions and sirens, and wanted to go check 
out what happened, and if anyone needed any help."

     "It's what we do." Dale added with a proud smile.

     Darkwing could only give a weak smile. "Oh...._that_." His
voice was attempting non-interest, but it was strained.

     Chip picked up on it in a heartbeat. "What do you mean." 
His brain put two and two together, mainly two unusual 
incidents, and asked, "You were involved, weren't you?" His 
gaze was the most penetrating Darkwing had ever felt from a 
chipmunk.

     "I...uh..." His mind raced. Why was he feeling so awkward 
in front of four rodents and a housefly? He set traps out for 
these things at home. And what was more, he was the mighty 
mallard! Darkwing Duck! Hero to the helpless, savior of the 
suffering, and traffic cop to the speeders of crime! And these 
five...

     ...had probably saved his life. His bravado drained out of
him as he gazed back up to the trees. As likely as it was back
home that he would have survived this fall without any injuries
to speak of, he wasn't home anymore. The pain in his back was 
a testament to that. And if these five...these Rescue Rangers
hadn't taken the time to intervene, without any askance, he 
might not have escaped with merely a strained back.

     "All right." His voice was firm again as he put his hat back
on. His resolve in being forthcoming with the Rangers lent him 
a much needed strength. "You don't need to go there. Everyone 
who was injured was taken away for treatment. And I'm willing 
to bet the fire department has the burning cars under control. 
They weren't near any buildings, so the fire is contained."

     Chip nodded. "Now, how did you come to get there? And 
where is 'back home'?"

     "Well, have a seat, because it's a long story."

     "Gadget?" Chip turned to her as he nodded. "Can you get a
compress ready for him here, or do you need some other 
supplies?"

     She glanced about. "There should be enough here for now.
You'd be surprised at what you can do with natural 
ingredients." She smiled as she went about the various trees 
and bushes, selecting plants and herbs.

     "Guys, give me a hand with these leaves." Chip said, 
shoving a group over towards a spot clear of rocks and roots. 
The others nodded and quickly put together a small bed of 
leaves.

     "There you go, Mister...uh..." Dale started.

     "Darkwing." Darkwing said with a grin. He tipped his hat.
"Darkwing Duck. Crimefighter by trade."

     "Cool name." Dale said with a grin. "Well, Mr. Darkwing,
these should be more comfortable to rest on."

     "Too right." Monterey nodded.

     Zipper gave a wink. From one crimefighter to another, it
implied.

     "Thank you, and just call me Darkwing." He settled down
carefully. Again, he noted, they didn't ask if they could help;
they just did. He smiled and started to see some hope 
glimmering through his storm clouds.

****

     Most of the damage had been neutralized, and things were
back under control now. Granted, he had a lot of repairs to do
before everything was up and running like before this minor
disaster, but at least he could get back to his original plan
now. The robots had nearly completed the first stage of the 
roof entrance, and his metal dragon was returning intact.

     Nimnul wasn't completely sure how much information was
downloaded before the unit was destroyed, but he was 
confident that there would be enough for his purposes. He 
continued work at the computer, hoping to have it completely 
repaired before morning. Losing himself into his work, he was 
only dimly aware of his metal dragon returning through the 
roof entrance and landing, somewhat nosily, behind him. His 
attention, however, was caught by what followed next.

     "Hey, this is a pretty nice set-up here, even for a weird-
nosed freak."

     Nimnul spun around, but didn't see anything at first. Then
he noticed a shape underneath his metal dragon. It appeared 
that someone had hitched a ride back to his laboratory. Nimnul
wasn't as interested in how the intruder got onto the metal
dragon as much as he was intrigued by the fact that he was
apparently trying to stay out of sight. At least, he hadn't come
out from underneath the metal dragon, which merely glanced 
about, awaiting instructions.

     Digging his remote out of his pocket, he tapped in a series
of commands to the robots not involved with the construction 
at the hole/entrance. Several large, unfriendly-looking robots 
moved over to encircle the intruder.

     "You might as well come on out," Nimnul stated. "I know
you're here. I'd like to destroy you with minimal damage to my
inventions. That's happened quite enough for tonight, thank 
you."

     "You want me to step on out?" There was a spark from the
figure. In the momentarily flash of light, Nimnul saw...well, he
wasn't sure what it was, to be frank, but he had seen some 
pretty bizarre things before, most of the time as a result of one 
of his experiments. So he wasn't to shaken too badly.

     He was, however, rather ticked when a surge of electricity
sprang forth from a nearby wall socket, lighting up the figure.
The metal dragon was unaffected, its interior surge suppressors
and exterior armor protection was more than adequate to keep 
it from even noticing the voltage below.

     Megavolt, now able to detach himself from the underside of
the dragon, moved out from underneath it and stretched, 
casting a quick glance around. He felt like teaching the human 
who was in 'charge', but was distracted by the dragon, actually 
seeing it from the first time.

     "Whoa...so that's what my energy-seeker picked out." He
nodded admirably. "Nice design. What year is it, a '97?"

     "Made this year, actually." Nimnul responded. He didn't 
like the way this guy (he assumed it was male) looked, 
especially with that huge battery strapped on his back. Nimnul 
tapped a few more buttons on the remote, bringing the rest of 
his robot force down the join the closing circle. The metal 
dragon turned to face Megavolt, it's eyes glowing red with the 
latest instructions. 

     Megavolt looked around at the approaching robots. "Oh,
you're going to show them all to me? Cool!"

     "Oh yes," Nimnul smirked. "Up close and personal."

     "Great!" Megavolt, still not quite appreciating his
situation walked up to the dragon, trying to pull its head down
for a closer look. The metal dragon made the process easier by
snapping its head down, steel jaws agape.

     "Nice teeth. I--YAH!" Megavolt yelled as he jumped back, 
the jaws clanging shut only inches from his head. "Well, if you
insist on this..." He lanced a bolt of electricity from his glove
to the metal dragon, striking it squarely in the chest.

     A shower of sparks spread over the area, but the attack was
otherwise deflected. Taken aback by someone actually building 
a device to last, Megavolt tried another approach. Another 
surge of electricity hit the dragon, but this time with the intent 
of draining the power from it, and transferring it to Megavolt.

     Again, the attack was repelled. Nimnul had put a lot of time
into these robots, and it showed. Maybe, given enough time to
charge himself up to full power, he might have been able to
affect the robots, but the power that was sapped from the wall
socket was rather pathetic by Megavolt's standards. He didn't
have enough to take out one of the robots, let alone a squad of
them.

     He spied Nimnul moving around them, trying to keep in 
sight of Megavolt, but staying a safe distance away. Megavolt 
saw the remote that Nimnul was holding, and decided that it 
might be more effective to remove the source in this case. He 
arced another shot over in that direction, but couldn't see well 
enough for it to be accurate. The electricity scorched the 
ground near Nimnul, but that was all.

     It was enough for Nimnul, however, as he didn't like the
idea of being reduced to cinders by someone else. Come to 
think of it, he didn't like the idea of being reduced to cinders at
all. He entered the final signal for the eradication of Megavolt.
He did feel a twinge of regret, though, as he was fascinated by
the ability to control electricity like that, and would have liked 
to learned more about it.

     Megavolt found that his personal space was being violated
rather quickly. Knowing that his normal electricity attacks
wouldn't work on these robots, he tried another tactic to
get clear of them. He quickly set himself and the nearest robots
to a positive charge, so as they lunged in at him, the repulsion 
caused by two like magnets pushed him up and away from
the danger.

     Once airborne, he shot a wide-angled static burst behind
him, letting the force push his momentum away from the  
robots. He landed several yards away, and behind Nimnul. 
Spinning back around, Megavolt absent-mindedly noticed that 
his feet stung from the hard landing. This was puzzling, as he 
had done this hundreds of times back in St. Canard without 
any type of pain upon landing.

     He put it out of his mind for the time being, which really
wasn't too hard, considering Megavolt's mind. He stepped 
forward towards Nimnul, charging up his gloves.

      "Why destroy the toy when you can take out the batteries?"
He said threateningly, rasing his gloves.

     "Because these 'toys' will function without them, carrying
out their last instructions." Nimnul informed him, not wavering
from his position. "Namely, your demise." The robots were 
lined up behind Nimnul, but he was holding them back for the 
moment.

     They both knew that if Nimnul sent the robots in, Megavolt
would roast him before Megavolt was even reached. Likewise,
however, if Megavolt zapped Nimnul now, the robots would 
have nothing to keep them from rendering him into hundreds 
of Mircovolts. The stalemate was seen and recognized. More
importantly, however, they both had, for the first time, the
chance to meet each other's determined gaze.

     And some twisted part of them recognized the howl of 
madness that echoed in the other's soul.

     Megavolt lowered his glove, dispersing the power.

     Nimnul negated the commands, sending the robots back to
their previous duties.

     And both madmen looked at each other for a long, long 
time.

     The storm clouds still covered the city, and lightning
occasionally played back and forth between rumbles of 
thunder, but otherwise the storm seemed to have settled 
somewhat. A few strong winds blew out across the miles of 
thunderheads, eventually coming to the area where Darkwing 
and Megavolt had first appeared in this world. Directly below, 
over a thousand feet to the city street, the police and fire 
department were cleaning up the remains of the destroyed unit, 
taking statements from witnesses, and generally trying to sort 
through the whole mess.

     A pair of slanted eyes watched with interest, eyes that
glowed with a patience of someone waiting for the right 
moment. Like a time bomb patiently waiting to explode.

*****

--Chapter 4: New Allies and Old Enemies--

     Chip whistled. "That's a heck of a way to start an evening
at work." He remarked as Darkwing finished his story. 
Darkwing held a small compress against his lower back, the 
one the Gadget had assembled. A combination of leaves and 
moss, and a few other things she told him he'd be better off not 
knowing about. Whatever it was, it was working. The pain had 
subsided rather quickly. Gadget, who had been monitoring the 
troubled area during the story remarked on how quickly it was 
healing.

     "Yeah, but normally, I don't even feel it five minutes
afterwards. Like I said, it seems to be worse recently." 
Darkwing shifted the compress around.

     "Could be a result of the electrilizer." Chip thought aloud.

     "Possibly." Gadget replied. "I have a theory, but we'll have
to run some tests first."

     "Tests?" Darkwing looked ill.

     "Oh, it won't take more than a few hours, really."

     "Swell." Darkwing rolled his eyes. "Well, it's not like I
can think of a better idea."

     "Do we take him back to headquarters?" Dale asked. "I don't
think he'll fit."

     "But my equipment's there." Gadget looked back up to
Darkwing. "We don't need to bring him inside. He can wait
outside, and we can bring the equipment out to him, run the
tests, then go back in and process the results."

     Zipper looked at Darkwing, then to Gadget. Wait outside? 
His look asked. He doesn't exactly blend in with the other park
ducks.

     "Not unless we stop by a costume shop, and outfit them in
matching suits." Monterey nodded. "Even if it's night, people 
are going to be around."

     "Well, we need to get back to the headquarters anyway,
because we _still_ have to find out what Nimnul was up to." 
Chip crossed his arms and looked around, thinking. "Go back, 
gather information and supplies, and get the Ranger Wing."

     "But Chipper, how are we supposed keep Darkwing
inconsequential?" Dale asked.

     "What?" Darkwing quacked.

     "The word is 'inconspicuous', Dale, and we'll do what 
Monty said: Stop by a costume shop." Chip grinned, an idea 
growing. 

     "Uh, Chip m'lad, I was kidding about outfitting the ducks."
Monterey said slowly.

     "We're not outfitting 'the ducks', Monty." Chip reassured
him. "Just 'a duck'."

     The others slowly caught and nodded, smiling.

     Except for one.

     "I've got that bad feeling in the pit of my stomach again."
Darkwing moaned.

     Gadget, checking the small of the back once more, 
confirmed that it was almost healed, so the rangers climbed 
onto Darkwing, who began a steady trot back towards the city.

     "What's the game plan, then?" Dale asked Chip.

     "First, we get Darkwing disguised. Then we stop back by 
the headquarters and let Gadget run those tests of hers." Chip 
and Dale were tucked safely in the collar of Darkwing, while 
Gadget and Monty were snugly inbetween the jacket and inner 
shirt of Darkwing. Zipper went from the tip of Darkwing's hat, 
to the shoulder, next the Dale, and then to whenever it best 
suited him. They all had a clear view of the approaching city.

     "Actually," Darkwing said to Chip, keeping in the shadows 
of the suburbs, "After the disguise, I would like to stop by and
check out that area where Megavolt and I first came through. I
think that might shed some light on what happened."

     "Well, at least make a quick detour to our HQ." Gadget 
said, then as he started to object, "Just long enough for us to 
get the Ranger Wing. It will enable us to help you out better."

     Chip nodded. "We can cover more ground that way."

     Darkwing agreed, coming up to the city itself. They saw the
first of many buildings taller than two stories. Darkwing pulled
out his Gasgun and fired the grappling hook up to the roof.
Tugging to make sure it held, he released the coiling button,
pulling him and the rangers up to the roof.

     They stuck to the rooftops as much as possible, avoiding
anyone on the street and any windows nearby that had a light 
on inside. After several minutes, Darkwing landed deftly 
behind the costume shop. The rangers quickly disembarked 
and moved over to the door. Darkwing walked up the steps and 
tried the doorknob.

     "Locked." He took a step back. "Okay, no problem, I'll just
use my patented web-foot kick, and we'll be on our wa--"

     "Wait!" Chip called out. "Let us open it from the inside.
There might be a burglar alarm that would be triggered by 
forced entry.

     It took Darkwing a moment to process the information. "Oh.
Yeah." He resumed his normal stance as the Rangers entered
through a small crack by the stairs. A scant few minutes later,
and Darkwing heard a soft click from the inside. The door 
swung open, the Rangers waiting down by the door frame.

     "Okay mate, all set." Monterey nodded as he went back into
the shop.

     "Thanks," Darkwing said as he stepped in and shut the door
behind him. "I'll get the next one. You've got to see my
entrance..."

     They took about ten minutes in the shop, finally finding
what they were looking for: A number of fake zippers, fake
buttons, a pair of wide-legged pants, and a couple of good 
sized shoes. Darkwing quickly slipped into the pants and 
shoes (which were purple and black respectively, so they 
matched his outfit), and the rangers attached the zippers and 
buttons around his neck, head, and hands.

     When they had finished, they took a moment to appreciate
their work. Now if anyone saw Darkwing, they'd think that he 
was a midget or a child on his way to a costume party. The fake
zippers and buttons gave the impression that he was only 
wearing a very realistic duck costume.

     "There!" Dale nodded proudly. He had done most of the
direction for this disguise. "Now Darkwing, people will think
that you're really a human."

     "Sort of..." Darkwing mumbled.

     "As long as they don't look too long." Gadget noted.

     "And there's bad lighting." Monterey observed.

     "And they have bad vision." Chip remarked.

     Zipper merely sighed and rolled his eyes.

     Dale shrugged. "Well, we work with what we have. 
Anyway, it's the best we're going to be able to do."

     "It'll do." Darkwing said. "I don't intend to go parading
around town. Not yet, anyway."

     "Yeah..." Chip said speculatively.

     "Anyway," Darkwing continued, "Let's get this over with. I
think I'd rather be shot than have to spend too long looking 
like this."

     "With the way your dressed, you might get shot anyway."
Monterey remarked dryly.

     Darkwing just looked at his disguise and groaned again.
"Come on."

     The Rangers resumed their places and Darkwing left 
through the back again, shutting the door and hoping that there 
were no video cameras recording. He could handle the idea of 
being hunted again, but not if they spread what his current 
image was around the police force.

     Another series of roof hops and wall scaling brought
Darkwing to the Rangers home base in the park. Darkwing was
feeling more nervous than ever. They neglected to mention the
fact that the park was directly across the street from the police
station.

     "Did I mention that I'm a wanted fugitive?" He mentioned
hurriedly, glancing over his shoulder, just waiting for a wave of
cops to wash over him.

     "That's a good pick-up line." Gadget grinned. "Seriously,
Darkwing, you'll be fine. Just stay in the bushes, and there'll
be no problems. We'll be right back with the Ranger Wing." 
She climbed down from his collar and hastened up the tree, 
Chip and Dale right behind. Monterey lagged behind a bit to 
mention something.

     "Just for your own knowledge," He said quietly, "Whenever
Gadget says, 'no problems' it's like she thumbs her nose at the
spirits of bad luck. They don't like that."

     "Great..." Darkwing was now on the brink of paranoia.

     "I'm not saying it will happen," Monterey quickly 
explained, "Just that you should keep your peepers peeled." 
With that, he went off to join the others. Zipper was the only 
Ranger left.

     "You sticking around, Zipper?" Darkwing asked as he 
crouched into a cluster of shrubs to wait for the rest of the 
Rangers.

     Zipper nodded. There are perks to having your own set of
wings, he grinned.

     Darkwing smiled and nodded. Zipper's presence helped to 
calm him down, so he stopped worrying about the police, and 
started worrying about Megavolt.

     I've got to find him, too, he thought grimly. Dollars to
doughnuts we'll need that electrilizer to get home. Not too
mention that as much as I'd like to, I can't leave him here.
After all, it's his fault I'm down twenty dollars, so _he's_ the
one who's going to fork it over!

     As always, Darkwing had managed to overcome his fear and
settle on what was important in his life: Him.

*****

     "Okay then, try this one:
          I am the beginning of it all
          Although in my old age I may fall
          If my inventory you wish to be scrollin'
          Best for you to use my colon
          Or you're going to run into a wall."

     Megavolt nodded, pleased, at sat back. Nimnul chewed over
this latest one, for a moment. However, he had been working 
with computers, so it was at the top of his mind.

     "DOS." He announced triumphantly.

     Megavolt frowned. Nimnul was no creampuff in the 
technical field. He didn't know the short, squat man that well, 
but already was growing a strong respect for the Professor's 
knowledge. 

     "Okay, I have one:
          Wherever you go, I am there
          I am what all systems share
          No matter if you're IBM or a Mac
          I am the basis for all of that."

     Not difficult for Megavolt, mainly because he had already
been thinking about computers. "ASCii."

     Now Nimnul sat back with a frown. He, too, was becoming 
very aware of Megavolt's considerable knowledge of 
electronics and mechanics.

     Megavolt sat forward, thinking. He decided to divert the
track from electronics a bit.
          "A quarter to the right
           The twist around a thread
           Can make me too tight
           Which all machines dread"

     It was definitely a strand away from the computer riddles,
Nimnul thought. But he had been building things for quite a 
while now. He remembered the simple set of operations he 
went through. Testing the power levels, tightening the bolts, 
and checking the...

     "Torque!" Nimnul laughed. He regarded the...well, whatever
it was, across from him. To be honest, it looked like some
dog/rat/weasel type thing, but Nimnul didn't think that was the
technical term for it. He had introduced himself as Megavolt, 
and related the events that brought him here, and it had started
Nimnul's mind working. 

     He had a suspicion that somehow, the events he had gone
through, with the malfunctioning computer and exploded unit, 
and the events Megavolt had gone through were linked. Not by 
much, maybe, but it was there. Still, he decided to wait until he 
knew more before saying anything. He was about to ask 
another riddle, when Megavolt spoke again.

     "Pardon my asking," He said conversationally. "But what 
are you up to?" He nodded at the robots around them.

     "Oh, them." Nimnul nodded, glad to have a chance to talk
about diabolical plans with someone equally twisted. "Those 
are my latest inventions. I'll be using them to start gathering
materials and information for my next plan. I started tonight,
but ran into unexpected difficulties."

     Megavolt nodded. Nimnul had told him about what had 
happened to him earlier this evening. He, too, had his theories, 
but like Nimnul, decided to wait until confirmation before 
saying anything.

     "You see," Nimnul continued, propping one foot on a knee,
"I've worked with robots in past, to some degree of success. 
The main problems I found was that some vermin could 
sometimes infest them, sabotaging them, and generally make 
my life unhappy.

     "But not these." He smiled as he nodded towards the 
gleaming metal robots. The roof entrance was nearly complete 
by now. The robots had worked efficiently and effectively. 
"They're completed sealed off from that." He paused. "Not 
completely. I do have an emergency access panel on each if I 
need it, but it's coded, so it'll be safe enough."

     "But why monsters?" Megavolt asked. He reached over to 
the counter behind them, grabbing a cup of coffee for each of 
them. He gave them a quick charge to warm them up, then 
handed one to Nimnul.

     "Well, I figure if you're going to terrorize the city, you
might as well do it with style, you know?" He sipped his coffee
before continuing. "My only complaint is that they aren't
advanced enough for artificial intelligence."

     "Why not?" Megavolt figured that Nimnul could have done 
so, if he really wanted.

     "My problem with A.I. is that it takes up so much space in
memory, and things are pretty crammed in there as it is." He
pointed to the dragon, who was getting a new tail attached by
what appeared to be an Orc and an Ogre. "Do you know how 
much space fire breath takes up?" He rolled his eyes. "I'm lucky 
I don't need to strap a zip drive on its back."

     Megavolt nodded glumly. "What are they up to, then?
Something that requires complex actions?"

     "In a way. I still do the majority of work here, but they
all still need to be completely computer compatible. Right now
I'm working on a theory that I can steal the entire worlds
databases, and put it one sole system. Then, with the ability to
control the entire world through the computer, like power 
plants, city records, police computers, water and sewer, and so 
on, I can pretty much conquer the world at my leisure."

     Megavolt nodded. "An admirable plan." He thought about
trying it himself, but that kind of thing never really interested
him. He always figured that ruling the world would be a lot of
work, and be to similar to some sort of legal job. So, he was
more than happy continuing the fine tradition of robbing and
terrorizing the populace for kicks. Too bad the populace didn't
seem to think it was as much fun.

     He thought for a moment. Something was odd about 
Nimnul's plan. Of course, Nimnul himself was odd, but this 
was more of an oversight. "Where could you store that much 
information, though?" Megavolt turned to the Professor.

     "Well, you've heard of Virtual Memory? I'd be using
something like that. Call it, Extradimensional Memory."

     "Really? You mean storing the whole database in another
dimension?" Megavolt grinned. "That would work. You'd need 
to find a proper dimension to store it in, though."

     "Oh, I know where. I found out about a few month's ago. On
the Internet, no less. Really. I typed in the words
'Extradimensional memory storage' and there I was."

     "I'd like to get my hands on that search engine...finding
that toaster-oven homepage should be a breeze." He turned 
back to the robots. "So how do they fit in? Wait...don't tell 
me." He quickly said as he started to see Nimnul's plan.

     "They go out, and gather up the necessary equipment and
information, then bring it back to you, where you can put it all
together." Megavolt began to grin, seeing the plan crystalize to
simplicity. "Then, they go and start the ultra-download. 
Because there are so many, you can have them in all parts of 
the world at once. You monitor them from here, and transmit 
all the data to this Extradimensional storage, where only you 
can access it."

     Nimnul's grin was a wide as Megavolt's. "Great minds think
alike."

     "Twisted minds think." Megavolt thought for a moment.
"Sometimes."

     Nimnul nodded readily to this.

     "So how's it coming, then?" Megavolt asked, downing the 
rest of his coffee.

     "Slow." Nimnul sighed. "Like tonight, for instance. If they
only had their own intelligence, things would go so much 
faster. I wouldn't have to be directing them all the time."

     "I think I can help you with that."

     Nimnul sputtered his drink. "Seriously? How?"

     "Well, I've done it before. Any appliance I touched came to
a life of it's own. Of course, they revolted and tried to turn
me into a power generator for the rest of my life, but hey, we
all make mistakes."

     "Of course." Nimnul understood perfectly.

     "But I think I know how to subvert it. All we have to do is
put in a few simple commands into their programming 
beforehand, and we'll be all set."

     "Wow..." Nimnul had a dreamy look on his face. "You'd 
really do that for me?"

     "Sure. I'm going to be in town for a while, so why not?
Besides, you can probably help me out when you gather more
information on other dimensions. It'll help me to get home
quicker." Megavolt extended his hand.

     "Of course I will." Professor Nimnul clasped Megavolt's 
hand and shook it. "We inventor's have an unspoken oath, after 
all."

     "We do?"

     "Well, I've never heard it, but I would guess we do. Shall
we begin?" He stood up and headed over to the mechanical bay 
of his laboratory.

     "Well, there is one more thing that we need to check on
first." Megavolt said after he stood. He realized, he actually
felt a little tired. The events of the evening weren't anything
that should have put him out like this. But it did. "I think that
there's something else going on here. With me."

     "What do you mean?" Nimnul asked, turning back to him.

     "Well, let me explain something about my world..."

*****

     "The determined Darkwing Duck doggedly digs for details 
of a dimensional door." Darkwing dramatically stated as he 
inspected the ledge of the building his was walking on. The 
city street was several hundred feet below, and directly above 
him was the spot where he and Megavolt had popped through. 
This was about as close as Darkwing could get to it, and he 
hoped it was close enough.

     "You know, you're pretty good at that word stuff." Dale said
as he moved on down the ledge, also looking for clues.

     "Thank you Dale." Darkwing's ego inflated promptly. "All
part of being a superhero. You see, when you're a superhero, 
you have to take the dramatic approach, for your fans. It's re--"

     "Oh, I know about the superhero stuff. I was one, you 
know." He mentioned as he checked around the lip of the 
ledge.

     "You were?" This caught Darkwing off-guard. He took a 
moment to stand up, tucking his magnifying glass away with 
his disguise. Up here, he figured he didn't need to worry about 
it. More over, those shoes were making his feet hurt.

     "Sure." Dale continued. He turned around and looked up at
Darkwing. "Back when I was Rubber Bando, I was the city's 
biggest hero, biggest hope, biggest--"

     "Pain in the outback." Monterey Jack finished, coming 
around the corner. "I can't recall the last time I saw somebody 
with such an ego problem."

     "It wasn't that bad....was it?" Dale looked sheepishly at
Monterey.

     "Yes Dale, it was. You were so full of yourself we had bets
running to see when you finally would burst. At the climax of 
it, you were more concerned with parades than crimefighting. 
What kind of hero is that, right Darkwing?"

     Darkwing had impulsive urge to be elsewhere.  
Unfortunately, a ledge over three hundred feet in the air didn't 
often many opportunities. "Well...ego isn't that bad...not really. 
I mean, you have to keep your self-confidence up and all..." He
stammered. "Right?" He added in a tiny voice.

     "See?" Dale said, coming to Darkwing's rescue. "He
understands what I mean."

     "Dale, I'm not saying that you were a bad crimefighter,"
Monterey stated. "Merely that you started to let that fame go to
your head."

     Dale shrugged. "Well, yeah, but it _was_ fun while it
lasted."

     "Find anything, guys?" Gadget called out. She pulled the
Ranger Wing up from the street below and leveled it off, even
with the ledge.

     "Not yet, Gadget." Dale answered. "But we just started on
this side. How about you?" Gadget had gone down to check 
out the wreckage below. It appeared that the unit that had 
crashed was directly below the entrance point for Darkwing 
and Megavolt. Guessing that it probably wasn't a random 
chance, Gadget headed down to see if she could find out what 
the machine was, and why Nimnul might have wanted it.

     "Did I ever!" She said with a grin, landing the plane. She
hopped out, beaming with happiness. "I think we may have just
made some huge strides here tonight!"

     "Gadget, do you think I was egotistical when I was Rubber
Bando?" Dale put on his most disarming smile.

     "Uh..." Gadget had let herself get caught unawares by the
question, and didn't really want to tell Dale what she thought 
of him at one point during his career as Rubber Bando. "What 
brought this on?" She stalled for time.

     "Aw, Dale was just giving his resume to Darkwing, claiming
his time as Rubber Bando at the top of the list. I told him that
it was ego that was at the top, but he doesn't seem to want to
accept that."

     "Well, I can't believe that I was that bad."

     "Believe it, Dale." Gadget said honestly. "No one should
ever be burdened with the ego you had at one time. How can 
anyone be a hero with a self-inflated image blinding them? 
Right Darkwing?"

     "I think I'll go get Chip." He quickly scaled the sides of
the wall up to the top, where Chip went off to. "And there's
nothing wrong with a big ego," he muttered. "Really."

     The top of the building was a four sided pyramid, with a
slow, pulsing, red light on the top of a rod in the center of the
pyramid. This is were Chip had come, not looking around for 
any signs of clues on the building, but instead so he could get 
a clear view of the spot Darkwing said the crossing had taken
place.

     He was staring up at it when Darkwing reached him. 
Darkwing noticed that Chip was merely sitting there, gazing up 
with a frown, looking...scared?

     "Hey," he carefully said, "Chip. You done up here?"

     Chip turned, then glanced back up. "Come here, Darkwing, 
I want to see if you see this, too."

     Darkwing stepped over, being careful with his balance. 
"What is it? You see something?"

     "Yes, look up there. No, more to the left...stop. Right
there. Do you see a...a shimmering?" Chip looked back to the
Masked Mallard, looking for confirmation.

     Darkwing squinted, and for a moment, he thought he saw a
quick ripple of light, like a ripple across water, but then it
was gone. "I...think so. It might be lightning."

     Chip shook has head. "No lightning acts like that. I've been
sitting here watching it for over ten minutes, and it 'ripples'
like that every so often, right at the same spot."

     "Okay then," Darkwing said, "Can you guys take the Wing 
up there? Get a closer look?"

     Chip was silent for a moment. "I thought about it, but to be
brutally honest, I...I don't like the feeling I'm getting from
it." He looked down. "I'm afraid, you might say."

     Darkwing regarded Chip with a raised eyebrow. Even 
though they had only know each other for a half a night, 
Darkwing got the strong impression the Chip was perhaps the 
bravest one in the group. He certainly had the strongest sense 
of responsibility, so to hear him say this was an unexpected 
development.

     Darkwing looked back up. The storm clouds slowly rolled 
over them, but the ripple occurred again, in the same spot. Like 
Chip had said. Darkwing looked at it for a short while longer,
thinking about it. The night breeze blew over the brims of their
hats, causing the only noise in the silence. For brief period of
time, Darkwing could feel what Chip was fearing. Not fear as 
Chip thought it was, but more so for the safety of his friends. 
Chip was probably willing to risk it by himself, but not with 
others along.

     How many times have I told Gosalyn to wait at home? 
Darkwing thought to himself. Told her it was too dangerous? 
He saw the same concern in Chip, and decided to leave it be. It 
was up to Chip if they would investigate it or not.

     "Gadget's returned." Darkwing informed Chip. "She says 
that she's learned a lot about what's been going on, so I thought 
I'd come get you before she started the full explanation."

     Chip nodded and turned away from the sky. "Thanks 
Darkwing." He smiled, showing that it meant thanks for the 
excuse to leave.

     They were soon back on the ledge, giving Gadget plenty of
room to pace back and forth as she excitedly explained.

     "I landed in the alley, then headed over to the clean up
process first, before they cleared away the unit entirely. What a
mess! Parts and pieces were all over the street, and it had
covered all sorts of cars and the like. There was a lot of people
heading all over the place, so no one paid any attention to me 
as I moved around, looking at the remains."

     She paused for a breath. "It was advanced, that was easy to
tell, even from the worst parts. Anyway, I figured that we could
learn more about it at our leisure, so I loaded up the back of
the Wing with microchips and other things that were actually
still intact. Of course, that wasn't really a whole lot, so I
grabbed lots of scrap metal and other things I could use."

     She turned to the rest of the group. "Umm, some of you will
have to ride back with Darkwing." She blushed. "The back seat 
is sorta full."

     If Chip and Dale were upset at the back seat, her blush
completely erased it. They merely smiled and nodded. 
Monterey rolled his eyes. Who says Gadget doesn't know how 
to use her looks? He thought with an inward chuckle.

     "Anyway," she continued, "I then went to check out the
actual building itself. It was the headquarters for a world-
renown company, the MacFarland Research Group. This was
intriguing, but not nearly as intriguing as what they were up to.
Remember where Nimnul broke into? Well, I found the place 
easily, considering the mess the Nimnul's robot left, and while 
everyone was talking with the police and phoning call-in 
shows I took the time to nose around their records. Some of it 
was out already for the police investigation, making my job 
that much easier. It wasn't long before I came across a really 
interesting discovery."

     Another deep breath. "They were actually researching other
dimensions!" She turned to face them all. "I mean, they had
already found out some interesting information about some and
even on how to get there! Science has brought as so far..." She
was grinning widely, her eyes shining. None of the Rangers 
could remember the last time they saw her this excited. She 
was so excited about this that she actually stopping talking, 
basking in the knowledge she had just gained.

     It was quiet for a moment. Zipper looked around at the rest
of them. Monterey was scratching his head. He never really got
into the scientific jargon that Gadget threw around. Darkwing 
was already thinking to himself, looking back up into the sky. 
As for Chip and Dale...

     While Gadget was momentarily silent, staring straight ahead
at nothing, it was quite obvious what Chip and Dale were 
staring at. Zipper had to admit, Gadget hadn't been this radiant 
a quite a while. He doubted that either of them had even 
noticed she had stopped talking. They both were gazing at her 
like childrenstaring in awe at seeing the sun rise for the first  
time.

     Flying over behind them, Zipper used his patented 
chipmunk awakening procedure--pulling the tails out 'til they 
snap back.

     "Argh!" The two chipmunks called as they snapped back to 
the present, literally.

     "Hmm?" Gadget asked, broken from her reverie, but still
grinning.

     "Uh, just wondering why Nimnul sent that robot there, 
then." Chip recovered first, trying not to let his stinging end 
bother him. Zipper's muffled laugh behind him didn't help.

     "Well, the unit that was destroyed was were they held all
off their records. They figured that by putting the only terminal
in the vault, then only powering it when they needed it, the
records would be safe." She shrugged.

     "Looks like they were wrong." Darkwing remarked dryly.

     "Gadget's right about the progress tonight, though." Dale
said. "Now we know a lot more information." He nodded to 
himself, than got a blank expression. "So, what does it all 
mean?"

     "Well, ol' Nimnul is trying to find out more about other
dimensions, for starters." Monterey pointed out.

     "More importantly than that, Monty, don't you see the
connection?" Chip looked around at the other Rangers. 
Monterey shook his head, Zipper shrugged, Dale looked back 
blankly, and Gadget was still in her own little world.

     "The connection between this unit exploding down there,"
Darkwing said, "and then Megavolt and I popping in this 
dimension up there." He looked back to the sky. "Easy to see, 
but then again, I have a personal investment in this."

     Chip nodded. "Right. And from what I saw up there," he 
stole a glance at Darkwing to see if he knew what he meant. 
The Masked Mallard nodded slightly. "I bet you can drop a 
plumb line straight down from where you entered, and where 
that unit crashed."

     "So that's what pulled you, through?" Dale asked Darkwing.
"I thought it was the electrilizer."

     "That too." Darkwing nodded, wondering again what 
Megavolt was up to. "My guess is that it was a combination of 
things."

     "Well, it looks like in addition to getting you home," Chip
nodded at Darkwing, "we'd better check into what Nimnul is 
up to. If he's messing with other dimensions, it can't be good." 
And, he reminded himself, I want to find out what the heck 
that ripple is all about...

     "If I may be of service than?" Darkwing said with a graceful
bow. "As long as we're going to be together for awhile."

     "Sure thing, mate." Monterey said with a grin. "We could 
use your help against a crackpot like Nimnul."

     "Yeah, being over four feet shorter than your opponent isn't
a good place to be." Dale remarked.

     Darkwing thought back to some of the supervillains he'd
faced. "I can empathize with that."

     "So where to now? Back to Nimnul's?" Monterey said as he
headed to the Ranger Wing.

     "No." Gadget walked over to Darkwing. "If you don't mind,
I'd like to run those tests now. Especially after reading those
files," her eyes sparkled, "I have a pretty good guess as to
what's happening with you."

     Darkwing sighed. "Sure. But let's get it over with quick.
Dawn will be here in a few hours, I'd like to find somewhere 
more secure than the bushes by the tree."

     "See you back at the tree, mates." Monterey waved to Chip
and Dale from the passenger seat of the Ranger Wing, a grin
openly showing.

     Chip and Dale both frowned at him. He had slipped into it
before they had a chance to argue over who got to ride back 
with Gadget. Zipper, too, was grinning, settled comfortably on
Monterey's shoulder. Chip and Dale looked to the back seat,
completely loaded down with the scrap Gadget had collected 
from the unit.

     "Sorry guys." She said, blushing again.

     Their frowns melted away into smiles.

     "No problem." They chimed.

     "Thanks guys! I knew you'd understand." She hugged them 
both close, then hopped back into the Ranger Wing and took 
off.

     Darkwing regarded the two dreamy-eyed chipmunks with a
smirk. "Good thing I'm designated driver." He picked then up,
setting them along his collar, and began his climb back down.

     The pair of eyes watched as the Ranger Wing took off, and
then Darkwing moved off the ledge. Even though they were 
easily a good five hundred feet away, the eyes could see this 
happen clearly. After the rangers and Darkwing left, the eyes 
turned their gaze off in the direction of Professor Nimnul's 
hilltop laboratory.

     And waited.

*****

--Chapter 5: That Sync-ing Feeling...--

     Nimnul removed the large metal helmet from Megavolt, 
putting his plug-helmet back on. "Well, I will say this," 
Nimnul said as he started to go over the readouts, "It's 
refreshing to see someone even more bald than me."

     "Oh, trust me, there are worse things than being bald."
Megavolt stated, remembering the afro he had when he first 
became Megavolt. Some things could never be forgotten.

     "Okay, let's start with the basic scans." Nimnul flipped
through several charts. He took his clipboard and walked to a
wall, pulling out his remote. The lights were dimmed as the 
slide projector came on, showing the first graph on the wall. 
Megavolt turned around in his chair, keeping a pot of coffee in 
easy reach. He had been through slide shows before.

     "So did you find out what the deal is?" He asked, sipping
his mug.

     "Well, yes, but it's not completely clear yet. You, however,
can probably clear up the questions I have. For starters, can 
you really get hit by an anvil without any ill effect?"

     "Well...it stings." Megavolt offered.

     "Besides that? No cases of broken bones, fractured skulls,
semi-permanent cases of death?"

     "No. Well, maybe a bit of bridge work, but nothing 
serious."

                              *    *    *

     "I see." Gadget said, going over her results. She was
sitting on the highest branch around the group. For safety's
sake, they had decided it best if Darkwing climbed the tree and
had the tests there, where there was more room than in the
bushes. He was reclining against a large branch at the moment,
with Chip and Dale on a branch on his right. Monterey and 
Zipper relaxed against the trunk behind and above Darkwing. 
They all were able to see each other clearly, which was 
important as they were asking and answering questions as a 
group.

     "See, if we we're hit by an anvil, we'd be flattened." Chip
explained.

     "Well, none of us actually tried it," Dale admitted, "But we
have a strong suspicion of the results."

     "I see." Darkwing said. He didn't like the idea of anvils
becoming deadly. They had a nasty habit of falling on him.

     "And what about getting run over, or other high-impact
forces?" Gadget continued. She had the tests completed and
complied, and just wanted to make sure she had a few 
importantpoints down. "You can just get up and walk away 
after?"

                              *    *    *

     "Doesn't everyone?" Megavolt didn't like the direction these
questions were heading.

     "It'd be a lot safer crossing the street," Nimnul responded.
"But no, most people have bad side effects to abrupt contact 
with high velocity masses over twice their size." He pressed the
remote for the slide projector. The photo switched to some 
frame stills of "Blood on the highway".

     "This happens to you people?" Megavolt set his coffee 
down, losing his appetite.
     "This happens in our world." Nimnul corrected.

                              *    *    *

     "What do you mean?" Darkwing shifted uncomfortably, 
having a bad feeling what it meant.

     "Just that, mate." Monterey said. "This is our dimension,
and it has it's own laws of physics."

     "Ones very different from yours, apparently." Chip mused.

     Gadget flipped another sheet over. "From all the tests I've
done Darkwing, you or more appropriately, your body, has 
shown a strange reaction to any type physical force. I first 
suspected it back in the clearing. You should have been much 
more hurt than just a strained muscle in your lower back."

     "But that's all there was, and I did heal quickly, so maybe
the laws of physics aren't as different as you thought."

     "Not quite." Gadget looked uncertain as to how to continue.
"You see, there's more to it than that."

                              *    *    *

     Megavolt fiddled with his gloves, then grabbed his coffee
again, not answering.

      Nimnul cleared his throat tentatively. "You see, you are 
from another dimension. One with different laws of physics..."

                              *    *    *

     "...and yet, I'm carrying around a trace of my home
dimension with me?" Darkwing sounded incredulous.

        "That's why your injuries weren't any worse from the fall,
and why you healed so quickly." Gadget flipped over another 
page. "Normal humans and animals, in our world, would need 
at least a couple of days to heal fully, and you were out scaling
skyscrapers not more than three hours later."

                              *    *    *

     "I think that's also how you can understand the human
language." Nimnul clicked the button, bring up another photo,
this one of the vocal cords.

                              *    *    *

     "In addition to us." Chip remarked.

     And me, Zipper added with a wave.

     "Okay, I'm confused." Darkwing confessed.

                              *    *    *

     "What does this mean for me? Am I closer to my "normal"
physics or your dimensions' version?" Megavolt queried.

                              *    *    *

     "Depends." Gadget admitted.

                              *    *    *

     "On what?" Megavolt pressed.

                              *    *    *

     "We're not clear on that yet." Chip explained.

     Dale nudged Chip. "You mean you don't know? For 
shame!" He grinned.

     "Shut up, Dale." Chip responded.

                              *    *    *

     "What I am clear on is that you seem to still be able to
operate as per usual, but just at a reduced scale from what
you're used to." This photo was of a bar graph dealing with the
'84 presidential race, with the candidates names crossed out 
and terms for "dimensional capability" written in.

                              *    *    *

     "This would explain some things I've been wondering,
though." Darkwing conceded.

                              *    *    *

     "Like why my repulsion magnetic wave didn't actually stop
Darkwing and me when we were falling, just slow us down a
little."

                              *    *    *

     "Exactly. For normal everyday operations, you won't notice 
a difference," Gadget started.

                              *    *    *

     "But I'd better watch my step when I start getting too
fancy." Megavolt finished with a frown.

                              *    *    *

     Darkwing sighed.

                              *    *    *

     "But why didn't this happen the last time? When Darkwing 
and I skipped over to that other world of humans, their 
dimensional laws were pretty similar."

                              *    *    *

     "You said it yourself, mate, circumstances were different
last time." Monterey shrugged. "Who knows how many 
variables fit into this one, let alone the last one?"

     "Well actually, I could find that out--"

     "Don't worry about it, Gadget-luv."

                              *    *    *

     "At any rate, you'd probably want to watch it from here on
out. No jumping off of 99 story buildings." The next slide was 
of a frowny face.

                              *    *    *

     "Or blocking concrete slabs with your head." Chip added.

                              *    *    *

     "Well this trip certainly has gone sour quick."

                              *    *    *

     Dale shrugged. "Welcome to our reality. It's not much, but
it's ours."

                              *    *    *

     "As I mentioned before, things aren't really that much
different. Just remember that the rules here are a bit more
strict."

                              *    *    *

     "Including the consequences." Darkwing acknowledged.

                              *    *    *

     Nimnul shrugged and turned off the slide projector and
brought the lights back up. "Shall we start conquest of the
globe?" He asked cheerfully.

***

     The sun slowly crept upwards in the eastern sky. Darkwing
had put his costume back on, despite his trepidations. Still, he
remained in the tree, near the top. Its leafy boughs were strong
and wide enough to support him comfortably, and the view 
helped to put his mind at ease. Down below, citizens had 
already begun to appear, some out jogging, others on their way 
to work, and some just out enjoying the morning.

     Darkwing settled back in his perch, and watched the people
below him with a detached interest. His eyes were watching 
them, but his mind was reviewing what had happened, and 
what yet needed to be done. He needed to track down 
Megavolt; that was the biggest priority now. Megavolt still had 
the electrilizer, after all. He had thought of the possibility of 
using the information that the humans had gathered, thinking 
they might have had begun construction on a machine to 
breach the dimensional barriers, and perhaps even completed 
one already. But he knew that those chances were slim, 
especially since he wasn't on home turf anymore. No SHUSH 
to get back up from, no Launchpad to get him around in a 
hurry, not even his own tower, where he probably had
something to help out. No, the electrilizer was his best bet.

     Making sure that he was securely settled, he leaned his 
head back, shutting his eyes. He had been up for a while, and 
figured that a nap would be beneficial for the moment. He had 
time, as the Rangers explained they would do some 
investigation to see if they could track down Megavolt. The 
police probably were still looking, so they would see what they 
could pick up on the police scanner.

     "Call this crimefighter completely K.O.ed." He murmured as
he drifted off to sleep.

     Several people passing underneath thought they heard a
snoring from somewhere, but they attributed that to wind 
blowing through the leaves, and didn't pay anymore attention 
to it. Of course, this was not a new behavior for them, as they 
never took the time to notice that one of the branches halfway 
up was level on the top, being used for a landing platform. 
Currently, the Ranger Wing was parked there, with Gadget 
going over it for maintenance.

     The Rangers had all gone straight to bed upon completion 
of the discussion with Darkwing. It had been late, and they had 
been through quite a bit of activity. Now, with a few hours of 
solid sleep behind them, they were already up and moving. 
While Gadget got the Ranger Wing tuned up, Chip was busy 
trying to track down various possible leads through the radio 
and news broadcasts. Monterey was helping Dale move all of 
the scrap parts Gadget had collected into her workshop. 
Meanwhile, Zipper had left early on. He wanted to check 
around with some contacts he knew. Friends in low places, 
like cracks in the sidewalk and door frames, he explained.

     Finally, after about three hours searching the airwaves,
Chip turned off the radio equipment. Information had been
present, but nothing that led in the direction of finding
Megavolt. At least the police also had no idea of what 
happened to Darkwing, so the Rangers were ahead of the game 
in that regard.

     He headed off towards Gadget's workshop, wondering if
Monterey and Dale needed any help moving the rest of the 
scraps in. He spotted them inside, resting on the lazy susan. 
They appeared to be in the middle of a break, but it was hard to
confirm, as they were both asleep. Chip rolled his eyes and 
moved over to them.

     "Hey, sleeping beauties," He chided them as he spun the 
lazy susan around. "This is your wake up call."

     "Wha...hey!" Dale yelped as he rolled over, not fully awake.
He rolled off of the lazy susan, coming to a surprising stop
against the floor, jolting him up. "Ouch."

     Monterey merely slid off and blinked several times, trying
to regain consciousness. "Huh? We were just, uh, testin' 
Gadget's worktable here for stability."

     "I'm sure." Chip said with an inward grin. "Well, hey, do
you guys need any more help moving those scrap parts in?"

     "Naw." Monterey answered, standing up and stretching. He
motioned to a large pile of bits of metal in the back of the
workshop. "We got the last few pieces in here before we took a
nap--I mean, a look at the lazy susan for any signs of
unevenness." Chip was ready with a sharp retort, but Dale cut 
him off.

     "You know, Chip," he said as he rubbed his head, "Some of
those pieces are pretty interesting. I mean, it looks like Gadget
could make some really complicated things from them."

     "Like brakes?" Monterey hoped.

     "He said useful, Monty." Chip commented. "Not wishful."

     Monterey nodded glumly.

     "Anyway, come on guys, let's go make some breakfast for 
the others. We'll need our strength today, I'll bet." He led the 
way out of the workshop.

     "Any luck with the radio?" Dale asked as they walked along
the hallways.

     "No." Chip frowned. "We'll have to get out and pound the
pavement, it looks like. At least we know the general direction
this 'Megavolt' character was heading in."

     "How come they all get the cool names?" Dale wondered.
"Maybe we should update our names, too. You can't strike fear
into the hearts of criminals with a name like 'Dale' or 'Chip'.
You need something dramatic and awe-inspiring." Dale had 
talked at length with Darkwing about this.

     "This from the guy who called himself 'Rubber Bando'?" 
Chip replied dryly.

     "Oh, well, excuse me, Mr. Sherluck Chip." Dale countered.

     "Look mates," Monterey interjected as they came through 
the kitchen doors. "Having a full-blown superhero name, 
complete with peppy adjectives like 'Super', 'Amazing', and 
even 'Fuzzy' aren't going to do us any good when half the time 
our villains can't even understand us. Why call yourself things 
like 'Captain Chipmunk' or something, when the humans are 
just gonna label you as 'Chipmunk' or some such?"

     "Yeah," Chip agreed, pulling out some various food from 
the fridge. "As I recall, Dale, the media was calling you 'The 
Rubber Rodent'."

     "I remember." Dale grumbled. He helped Chip sort out the
food while Monterey donned his chef's hat and started the 
stove up.

     "What's more, even those that do understand us still only
know us as the Rescue Rangers." Monterey wrapped his apron 
around him and took the food Chip and Dale handed to him, 
starting to slice it up.

     "I know." Chip got out a tall pitcher of orange juice. "Out
of all the times we've faced Fat Cat, I don't thing he's ever
referred to any of us by anything other than 'Arg! A Rescue
Ranger!'" Chip thought for a moment. "Or some facsimile 
thereof."

     "If it's not 'Refuse Rodents' it's 'Rangerms' or something
crummy like that." Dale muttered in agreement.

     "Ah, the price of fame." Chip said with a smile.

     "Too right." Monterey nodded, lying the cut food down in 
the skillet, then sprinkling it with some seasonings. "For fellas
like Darkwing, it's not a problem, 'cause he's a solo 
crimefighter. For us, a team, we probably shouldn't worry 
about it."

     Chip nodded and watched as Monterey cooked the cheese 
strips in the pan. "I hope Darkwing likes cheese."

     "Who doesn't?" Monterey chuckled. "Besides, I just hope 
he doesn't have big appetite. This is going to be more of a free
sample than an actual meal for him."

     "Well," Dale said, sitting at the table, "I still think we
should change our team name somehow, to give more "oophm", 
you know?"

     "Oophm?" Chip asked, sitting next to him. "Is that a
technical term?"

     "What did you have in mind, Dale?" Monterey asked, 
pouring some more cheese sauce in the skillet.

     "Well...how about tacking on a prefix? Like 'Dale 'n' Chip's
Rescue Rangers'?"

     They all thought about it for a moment.

     "Nah." They decided in union.

*****

     Completed, the energy-transference-and-intellect-
bequeather -device (or as Megavolt called it "That Thing") 
stood in the center of the lab, with Megavolt and Nimnul in 
front of it. The various robots were lined up behind them, the 
metal dragon first. That Thing hummed quietly, the power 
inside being stirred by a churning electromagnetic wave. 
Megavolt had redesigned the machine, and with Nimnul's 
resources, both in terms of equipment as well as facilities, they 
had worked straight through the night, until it was finished at 
last.

     Working together, they had finished it in record time, and
were now about to try it out. Megavolt watched the machine 
hum with a small twinge of apprehension. It was a better 
design than the last one, but he still remembered how much it 
hurt the last time. Now that he had to watch his step, he wasn't 
so willing to put his faith in his ability to absorb punishment 
without pain.

     "All set?" Nimnul asked, bringing the metal dragon up
alongside of them.

     Megavolt shrugged. "As ready as I'll ever be, I guess. Now
remember: After I'm powered up, steer clear. I don't know 
what'll happen if a living being gets infused with this 
electromagnetic soup."

     Nimnul nodded, already putting on a pair of safety goggles,
ones that actually fit over his huge eyeglasses. He stepped back
around behind the dragon as Megavolt reached out to the That
Thing. He pressed his hand up against the metal bar jutting 
from its core.

     Nothing.

     Puzzled, Megavolt looked around, then rolled his eyes 
when he saw the problem.

     "Hey Nimnul," he said, grasping another lever, "You left the
emergency brake on--"

     He was cut off as he released the emergency brake, and 
power flooded into him. His brain rattled around sharply in his 
skull, and he became distinctly aware of the smell of smoke. 
Sparks danced before his eyes. His hand had apparently 
melded with the bar, as he couldn't let go. The energy felt like 
it was about to cook him from the inside.

     Everything was running like clockwork.

     Eventually, after only a few seconds, Megavolt's hand came
free from the bar and he was thrown back to the floor. He 
bounced a few times, then settled to a stop. The room was 
dancing a jig in front of him as he tried to rise. Someone kept 
tilting the floor as he regained his feet. He was only dimly 
aware of the pinkish aura around him.

     Trying to steady himself, he set his hand up against a
convenient object. Power surged through him again, tearing a 
yell from him so bizarre I'm not even going to try to spell it out
here; use your imagination. The flow of energy suddenly came 
to a halt, and Megavolt thudded to the floor, trying to remain
conscious. His body ached all over, and the ringing in his ears
was at a roar.

     "That was kinda fun..." He remarked as he slowly rose to his
knees. Now that the power field was out of him, he had control 
of his senses, and could see Nimnul walking over to him. 
Nimnul was looking up, though, past Megavolt. He turned and 
saw that the object he had rested against was in fact the metal 
dragon. Now the pink aura had enveloped it. The robot was 
perfectly still, the only sign of any interaction with the power 
within it was the series of flashes from the eyes. Colors flashed 
through them in a blur, while an occasional equation or serial 
number would surface, only to be swallow back into the chaos 
moments later.

     The pink aura died abruptly, as the metal dragon blinked its
eyes. Nimnul was fascinated by this, mainly because the 
dragon couldn't have possibly blinked beforehand. Megavolt 
stepped back, watching with tremendous interest. The robot's 
body was actually acting like a body. The movements were 
fluid, not stiff, and the metal was bending and flexing, as if it 
was flesh. Megavolt remembered the refrigerator he had first 
brought to life this way; it _walking_ over to him. Apparently, 
the power aura granted a certain freedom from the normal laws 
of physics, even in this "stricter" dimension.

     Megavolt chuckled at the irony. I can grant the ability to
defy the dimension's laws, but I can't do it myself.

     The chuckle caught the attention of the dragon. It stepped
forward towards Megavolt and Nimnul, who were standing
side-by-side, watching with amazement at the life-like 
functions. A wisp of flame tricked out of the dragon's mouth, 
and they both heard a low, ominous hiss which seemed 
directed at them. I wonder if it has a dragon's personality, 
Megavolt thought, a little belatedly since it was already over 
and done with.

     "Cool!" Nimnul said, breaking the trance. "Hey dragon, you
look rather threatening right now. Like you're about to tear us
to pieces. It's very convincing!" He said with a smile, oblivious.

     "Oh, do you really think so, sir?" The dragon asked
hopefully.

     "Yeah, it's great." Nimnul nodded.

     The dragon sighed happily and sat back. Its voice was low
and cultured, with just a hint of a British accent. "That pleases
me, sir, really. I was hoping to generate the proper atmosphere
of fear and helplessness that is generally associated with
dragons."

     "Well...ah..dragon," Megavolt started, then scratched his
head. "Um...got a name?"

     "Oh, well, no, I'm afraid not sir." The dragon thought for a
moment. "How about Sean?"

     "Nah, too common." Nimnul waved the name aside. "We 
need something more...more...dragon-ish."

     "Smaug?" It suggested.

     "Copyright infringement." Megavolt pointed out.

     "Oh, good point sir."

     "I know!" Nimnul said. "From this day forth, you shall
strike fear into the hearts of people everywhere, known as..." 
He paused dramatically. "Dragon!"

     Megavolt and the dragon looked at each other momentarily.

     "Perfect!" They cried simultaneously, grinning.

*****

--Chapter 6: Drive-By's and Singings--

     For the rest of the day, the Rangers planned out the best
way to search the city and surrounding area for Megavolt. They
would have liked to started right after breakfast, but Darkwing
was still asleep. They needed his help, as no one knew 
Megavolt as well as Darkwing did, but they decided to let him 
rest. As Gadget pointed out, he's had a real busy night.

     "Besides," Chip agreed, "It'll be easier to stay out of view
at night. We won't have to worry as much about him being
spotted."

     "And even if he was," Dale defensively added, "The disguise
will fool most people."

     The other Rangers just politely smiled.

     Grumbling something about no appreciation for creativity,
Dale went back to work with the rest of them. As long as they 
had time, they had decided to prepare as best they could before 
hand. They choose the Ranger Wing again, as speed was more 
important in this case. Gadget even decided that considering 
the amount of time they had, she could do some more tinkering 
with it, boosting the speed. She devoted herself to that task for 
the whole day, while the others decided what they didn't know 
couldn't hurt them, and so found other things to do.

     Chip gathered up the various maps they had and kept an ear
open to the radio, listening for anything else suggesting the
location of Megavolt. Dale was stockpiling various types of 
gear he thought they might need. Rope, backpacks, grappling 
hooks, and comics. He wasn't sure if the others would agree on 
the importance of the last item, but decided to be safe rather 
than sorry, should they need some reading material. Monterey 
busied himself in the kitchen, knowing full well it would be 
easier to eat during the search, rather than have to stop for 
food. He still wasn't sure what to do about Darkwing, though, 
so just made an extra potent batch of his notorious cheese 
chowder.

     They were all so involved in their various tasks, none of
them noticed that Zipper hadn't returned until he showed up 
early that evening.

     "Zipper!" Gadget looked over the side of the Wing, 
surprised to see him buzz his way up to the branch were she 
was working. "Where have you been? Golly, it's been all day."

     She slid down to the ground as Zipper motioned for her to
follow him inside. They entered through the mailbox, coming 
out into the living room. Gadget sat down on the couch as 
Zipper rounded up the rest of the Rangers, each responding the 
same way as Gadget.

     "Where were you? Crikey, pally, ya could at least call...not
sure how, though."

     Monterey, Chip, and Dale wandered into the living room, 
all sitting down on the couch while Zipper alighted on the 
control pad for the television. Now at center stage, and with 
full attention from his audience, Zipper recanted his tale.

     First off, Zipper motioned as he paced back and forth, I
checked down around the streets to see if anybug had seen
anything. I took a quick peek in the sewers, too, just in case.
Still no leads. But then I remembered about the...disturbance
that we were heading to when we met Darkwing.

     I flew down to the remains of the scene, Zipper's eyes
informed. It looked like a small war had taken place, but at
least it had drawn a lot of attention, particularly with the
gnats and ants. I checked with them, and while none had seen 
it, the scouts that told them about it had said that Darkwing 
and Megavolt had escaped in the air, and a few of the flies 
believed that they flew off towards the northeast.

     "We found Darkwing in the park up there." Gadget nodded.

     "But not Megavolt. He must've still been heading to the
northeast." Chip mentioned. Something was simmering in the 
back of his head about that direction...

     "Then that's were we start are search." Monterey continued.

     But how can we track him if he was in the air? Zipper
inquired with a shrug.

     "He had to land some time." Monterey reasoned.

     "If was anything like Darkwing's landing, he'll be street
pizza." Dale observed. "Or at least field pizza."

     They continued to bounce ideas back and forth, not 
noticing that Chip was strangely silent. He was thinking back 
to that night. They had come from that direction, as he 
recalled. And Darkwing had told them that Megavolt was 
magnetized to some sort of small airborne craft, but he wasn't 
sure what.

     One clue linked to another, making Chip more and more
uncomfortable with the prospect it was leading towards. Sadly,
Chip was good at his job, and knew where Megavolt now was.

     "He's at Nimnul's lab." He stated out loud, interrupting the
others.

     They all turned to him. "What?"

     "They must've hooked up onto Nimnul's robot dragon." 
Chip sighed. "The one that was out there earlier and apparently 
on it's way back. If Megavolt stuck to it all the way, then he 
wound up in Nimnul's lab."

     The rest of rangers shifted uncomfortably in their seats.
The setting sun cast long shadows across the far wall, giving
visuals for what they were all fearing.
 
     The stars had started to come out as Megavolt and Nimnul
began outfitting the now sentient robots with equipment for 
the data transfer. The robots would patch into the various 
systems, download everything through a tight-beam 
transmission back to Nimnul's mainframe, where he could then 
make the dimensional storage transfer.

     They would have been done sooner, but Megavolt had a bad
habit of passing out after bringing three robots to life, and
wouldn't regain consciousness until several hours later. Nimnul
took the time to catch some sleep himself, and to name the
robots.

     Now the robots that looked like a troll, an ogre, an orc, a
goblin, a griffin, a sphinx, a manticore, a giant spider, a large
lizard, and a gargoyle all had names. Respectively, they were
Troll, Ogre, Orc, Goblin, Griffin, Sphinx, Manticore, Spider,
Lizard, and Gargoyle.

     Megavolt checked the connections on Sphinx, the last one 
to be outfitted. Nimnul was busy at the computer, plotting out 
the first target for each of the robots. Each of the robots could
fly, thanks to Nimnul's internal anti-gravity module, but he
still wanted the ones who couldn't fly normally, such as the orc
and goblin, to hit targets where they wouldn't have to fly.
Nimnul figured that each should be "acting in character", and a
flying goblin, while handy, would be out of character.

     "All set." Megavolt announced, standing up and walking 
back over to Nimnul. "You have the targets picked out?"

     "Yep." Nimnul grinned, and entered them into the 
mainframe. The instructions were transmitted to each robot, 
who in turn nodded. Their eyes were now constantly glowing 
red, but they flashed brightly as their targets were 
acknowledged.

     Megavolt sighed happily. Nothing like getting involved
insome global domination scheme to cure homesickness.

     "Well, sirs, the staff and I are ready. Shall we disperse?"
Dragon asked politely. "I must say, sirs, this plan is very
unique. Classifiable as mad, by some psychological 
directories."

     "Your point?" Megavolt and Nimnul asked in unison.

     "None, really, sirs." Dragon nodded. "Just speculating on
how others may view the nature of this plan. They may 
consider you mad, by association."

     Nimnul glanced and Megavolt. "But, we are mad."

     "I'm not angry." Megavolt said, then smacked his forehead.
"Oh! You mean insane! Oh, yeah. I am. And so is this plan. 
But hey, that's what makes it fun."

     The rest of the robots had lined up side by side behind
Dragon, and Megavolt stepped forward to the center of the lab.
The lights within twinkled a bit, and a light music began to fill
the air.

     The author wishes to remind readers that this is a Disney
setting, and therefore he is now satisfying the musical
requirement of all Disney animation. (Sing the following to the
tune of "Mine! Mine! Mine!" from the movie "Pocahontas")

MEGAVOLT:
The files in old DOS
The wonders all in ASCii
Will be all transferred to
Dimensional mem'ry
The scheme we have here
May seem mad by some
Oh, but why should we be plain, bots
When we are insane, bots?
Mad, bots, mad is our methods
And so, bots, take up the cause
Grab a byte, bots
Right, bots
Plug in an I/O
Download those silos
Full of that data and CAD
It's ours and we're mad, mad, mad

ROBOTS:
Gone and gone and gone and totally
Gone and gone and gone and totally

DRAGON:
They're nutty nutty
So nutty nutty

MEGAVOLT:
Oh, yeah you know it!

DRAGON:
They're nutty nutty
So nutty nutty

MEGAVOLT:
Sane's for the weak!

DRAGON:
They're nutty nutty
So nutty nutty
They love to show it!

MEGAVOLT:
You can tell by the way that we speak!
My buddies back home
The other four fearsome
Will regard me in awe
Or at least just call me dumb
But my new research
Will startle my old chums
My name on the marquee
"Megavolt"...not, "Sparky"!
I'm mad, mad, mad
Beyond question
I'm mad, bots
Mad and in charge!
With those electrode nodes...
With that electric shatter
My thought patterns will scatter
Which usually makes me feel glad
Or else it'll make me quite mad

ROBOTS:
Gone and gone and gone and totally
Gone and gone and gone and totally

NIMNUL:
All of my life, I have searched for a crime
Like this one
A weirder, more crazier partner
I never have had
Hundreds of hard drives await
And I don't plan to miss one
In a crime I won't shirk
A crime that will work!
My greatest advantage? I'm mad!

MEGAVOLT and ROBOTS:
Keep on hacking, bots         Mad
Don't be slacking, bots       They're way out there
Mad, bots, mad                And they make quite a pair!
Mad to the end                Gone! Gone! And totally
Off the deep end              Gone! Gone! They've got flair!

ALL:
And these refrains?
Insane!

MEGAVOLT:
Who needs profanity?
We've got insanity!
And all I need now is some plaid

NIMNUL:
This crime we behold...

MEGAVOLT:
This madness unfold...

NIMNUL:
Your brain will explode!

MEGAVOLT:
Or at least implode!

MEGAVOLT and ROBOTS:
And this crime                So go for the crime
Is                            We know these crackpots
Mad!                          Have hit the jackpot
Mad!                          And these screwballs
Mad!                          Are also the cueballs and
Mad!                          Mad!
Gone and gone and totally gone!
They're nutty nutty nutty and mad!

     The lights dramatically close down to a single large
spotlight, shining down directly on the group in the middle of
the lab, all posing with flair.

     "So Nimnul is a mad scientist bent on world domination?"
Darkwing asked as he swung from building to building. He had 
his disguise on again, even though those shoes were hurting 
his feet, more than the whole image was hurting his pride. But 
as long as they were in the city, he had to play it safe.

     "Yep." Chip nodded, carefully hanging on to Darkwing's
collar. Dale was opposite from him, also holding on tightly as
the Mighty Mallard made his way across the city's skyline,
towards the distant hilltop lab of Professor Nimnul.

     "Great..." Darkwing sighed, planting his feet as he tossed a
grappling hook over to the next building. "They should get 
along just peachy, then."

     "So what if they team up?" Dale asked. "Don't you think
Megavolt would be more interested in getting home than going 
on a crime spree?"

     "With Megavolt, anything is possible." Darkwing's grapple
caught and held against the building. "It's hard to second guess
him in some regards. But he is a creature of habit, and wouldn't
mind sowing some destruction and chaos before he leaves." He
swung out over the city street gracefully, landing against the
side of the building, and climbing up the rope.

     Chip and Dale watched out over the sky. It was a clear
night, and the stars looked particularly bright tonight. Chip
breathed in the night air deeply, feeling such a relief from the
night previous. That shimmering space in the sky he had
watched...it still caused him shudders thinking about it. Deep
down, he knew that eventually they would all have to 
investigate it, but he was hoping it wouldn't for a while yet. In 
this regard, he was almost grateful for the distraction of the
possible team up between Megavolt and Nimnul.

     His thoughts were interrupted as the Ranger Wing buzzed 
by them. Gadget, Zipper, and Monterey had taken the Wing, 
deciding it best if they could cover more ground once they got 
there. It was possible for them to head straight over to the lab, 
but both Chip and Darkwing disliked the idea. If they were 
caught, help wouldn't be available for some time. Time they 
might not have.

     So, the group in the Wing flew around causally, waiting on
the building-bound to keep up. Darkwing figured he could 
increase his speed, but since a fall from this height would 
probably kill him this time, he decided that safety would be the 
better path.

     "Safety first." He muttered to himself, recalling the words
of Binki when she was the Carnardian Guardian. He thought if 
he even got around to writing that book about himself, he 
would leave that chapter out.

     He reached the top of the building and darted across it, the
Ranger Wing following behind. Another toss of the grapple,
another climb, another building. They continued in this 
fashion until they reached the outskirts of the suburbs.

     "Finally!" Darkwing called out with relief as he dropped
into the deserted yards. He quickly pulled his disguise off, and
barely resisted the urge to cram it into the nearest trash can.
Instead, he tucked it back into his cape.

     "What are you doing? We aren't out of the city yet!" Dale
looked about. The streets were empty, but lights were on in the
houses. "Somebody could spot you. Put your disguise back on 
until we reach the woods."

     Darkwing snorted. "Not a chance, chipmunk. My feet are
killing me, and I'd rather go skin-diving with sharks than wear
that get-up for another minute." He adjusted his hat to a slight
angle so that he looked dignified, yet cunning.

     "For one of the few times of his life, Dale's right, 
Darkwing." Chip glanced down the streets as well.

     Dale started to thank Chip, but started thinking about what
that remark implied...

     "Look, Chip," Darkwing said nonchalantly, shifting his 
cape to dramatically catch the breeze, "The night is my 
element. My turf. My playground. I can disappear before an 
eye blinks and mystify the mind with my miraculous merits of 
melding."

     "Er, yeah, right, but can that wait until you're safely out
of sight?"

     "Of who?" Darkwing motioned to the empty street. He 
started walked down the sidewalk, towards the woods. "We're 
only about ten minutes from the woods, and nobody is out. I 
mean, it's past ten and this is suburbia. We're perfectly safe."

     "Hey wait a minute!" Dale called out. He turned to Chip.
"That was an insult!" He had worked through the prerequisite
logic patterns to come to that conclusion, even if he did get
lost a few times along the way and had to start over.

     "Guys, can you keep it down?" Gadget asked, bringing the
Wing down next to them.

     "Yeah, mates. It's not like we need any more reason to call
attention to ourselves." Monterey nodded from the passenger 
seat.

     Zipper decided that they were going slow enough, so he
hopped out of the Wing, to fly alongside on the other side of
Darkwing.

     "Will you guys quite worrying?" Darkwing motioned to 
them all. "You act like we're walking directly through a block 
party. Nobody is out here. Nobody will be out here. We will be 
safe."

     "Hey!" A voice called out from the house next to them. "It's
that weird mutant bird they showed on "Hard Copycats"!"

     Lights went on throughout the house as the shouting
continued, and soon it spread to the neighboring houses. 
Windows flashed to life as lights were turned on and people 
gathered around to see the...bird mutant.

     Monterey clapped a hand to his forehead, letting it run
downacross his face. "So much for subtlety." He grumbled.

     "Come on, the woods aren't that far!" Gadget called
toDarkwing as she gunned the motor on the Wing and sped 
off. "We'll met you on the other side of the woods!"

     "I'm more worried about meeting them on the other side,
period." Dale said as sirens rang to life in the distance,
rapidly growing louder.

     Darkwing had took off running, but was forced to remain
along the ground. The two-story houses didn't give much of an
advantage here, and he didn't like the idea of getting too close
to these humans. But he knew he needed a quicker way to the
woods. The sirens were very close now.

     "Over there! Look!" Chip pointed over to Darkwing's right,
to a bike lying on the sidewalk. "Good thing some kid didn't
listen to his parents about picking up his things."

     Darkwing regarded it for a moment. A crimefighter of his
stature riding a common bicycle?

     A police car came screeching around the corner, red and 
blue lights flashing brightly against the dark backdrop of the 
sky.

     "Well, it's no Ratcatcher, but..." Darkwing mumbled to
himself as he hopped on it and began pedalling furiously away
from the oncoming car.

     "Quick! Cut across the lawn here!" Dale leaned over and
directed Darkwing between two houses, a fence running down
between them. Darkwing sped the bike through them, and the 
police car was forced to stop, unable to fit between the houses 
with the fence in the way.

     "Wow." Chip remarked as he watched the officers get out of
the car and begin pursuit. "Cops who actually care about 
private property. I thought they would have just driven through 
the fence after us."

     More sirens were approaching, but the woods were in plain
sight now. Darkwing pumped the pedals as fast as any duck 
ever has, not bothering to stop or even slow down as they 
entered the woods. Shouts from the police could be heard 
behind them, and Chip and Dale looked over Darkwing's 
shoulders to see searchlights darting about.

     "My, they're persistent." Dale observed.

     "I (huh) noticed (huh)." Darkwing managed between gasps.
"Don't they (huh) have something (huh) better to do (huh)? 
Like eat (huh) doughnuts (huh)?"

     "Probably got carry-outs." Dale replied.

     "As much as I hate to interrupt a discussion on the duties
of law officers," Chip said mildly, staring ahead. "Look out!"

     Darkwing followed Chip's gaze too late, seeing the log at
the same time that the bike hit it. Darkwing, Chip, and Dale all
flew through the forest, crashing to the ground a good twenty
feet away.

     Darkwing staggered back to his feet, a bit shaken, but not
harmed. Chip was helping Dale back up. They had gone 
through a number of forest crash landings, even before they 
started flying with Gadget.

     "Well, so much for that transport." Darkwing breathed,
looking back to the bent rim on the bike. He took a moment to
gather his breath, then reached down and scooped up the
chipmunks. "Back to the Darkwing express."

     "I think we got a good lead on the police." Chip glanced
back. Beams of light were seen and shouts heard, but they were
further away. "But let's capitalize on it. Gadget and Monty and
Zipper should be waiting for us over there." He pointed off to
the edge of the woods, were the trees ended and the fields 
began.

     Darkwing nodded, took a moment to secure his hat, and 
was off.

*****

--Chapter 7: The Gang's all Here...Joy.--

      The hilltop lab was silent and dark as Darkwing crested the
top of the ridge. The Ranger Wing buzzed overhead, off to 
search for any signs of accessible entry. All the Rangers had 
gone, giving Darkwing a moment to himself. He took a deep 
breath, and started reciting the fan letters he'd received in the 
past, which always helped relax him.

      He took a moment to survey the area. Isolated. Private. 
Very secure. His mind flashed back to the lab at SHUSH 
central,  and that it, too, shared these traits. Darkwing 
wondered what it might mean if there was some unwritten law 
that all mad scientists have their workshops in similar 
locations, but he didn't like what the implications might be, so 
quickly focused  on the actual laboratory before him.

      It fit a mad scientist's motif, Darkwing had to admit. The
geodesic globe looming over everything, the large pipes 
piercing the sides of the hill, the lack of any type of duotone 
color scheme. He made his way down the slope towards 
Nimnul's lab carefully. He wasn't sure what this Nimnul 
character was like, but based on the Rangers descriptions of 
him, he might have some type of highly elaborate security 
system. Or course, judging by other things the Rangers had 
mentioned, he might also have a year's supply of stolen 
potatoes in the back.

      Whatever the case, the lab seemed secure. No doorways or
windows at ground level, aside from an entry portal. The portal
was sealed shut, looking much like an airlock door. No other 
ways in were visible from his vantage point, but he thought 
there might be a disposal chute of some kind that might offer 
entrance. Of course, the thought of dirtying his only outfit even 
worse cast that idea in an unapproving light.

      He thought more about Megavolt and Nimnul together, and
decided that if they were working as one, then it was most 
likely that they weren't home, or asleep. He highly doubted the 
chance that they would be up and around without some type of 
sign evident from the outside: low noise, slight tremors, fiery
explosions...

      The return of the Ranger Wing brought his mind back to
present business.

      "Any luck?" He asked as they came down to hover 
alongside him.

      "Yes, actually." Gadget pointed up to the globe. "On the
other side is an access panel. It's big, so you can make it
through without any problems."

      "Once it's opened." Chip noted.

      "Oh, yeah. That too." Gadget shrugged.

      "'Ere mate," Monty said, "Give us your grappling hook, and
we'll go secure it."

      Darkwing handed it over, and the Rangers carefully 
balanced it in the center of the Wing, then disappeared around 
the globe. Darkwing followed along on the ground, coming 
around to the  other side. He looked up, following the trail of 
rope from the hook, and spotted them just as they settled down 
on a ledge about three-fourths of the way up.

      Monterey hopped out first, as the Rangers passed the
grappling hook down to him. He quickly lodged it firmly in a
corner, tugging on it a few times to make sure it'd hold.

      "All right, Darkwing!" He called back down. "All set!"

      As Darkwing skillfully made his way up the rope, the rest 
of the Rangers gathered around the door.

      "Golly, guys." Gadget said as she looked around. "I don't
see any control panels or anything. How can we get it open?"

      "Maybe it's concealed." Chip suggested. "Spread out and 
take a look."

      They set about inspecting the corners and sides around the
ledge, looking for some sort of triggering device. Darkwing
pulled himself up onto the ledge carefully, looking at the door.

      "Access panel?" He asked after studying it for a moment.

      "Not yet." Dale answered, running his fingers along the 
side of the door.

      "It's hidden really well." Gadget sighed.

      "If it's here at all." Monterey said dejectedly. "Nimnul may
have it rigged so it can only be opened from the inside."

      "Not to worry, my diminutive detectives." Darkwing 
smiled, reaching into his cape. "Equipped with the latest in 
SHUSH technology, Darkwing Duck tackles tons of 
technological  traps." He withdrew a small metallic item.

      "A toothpick?" Dale asked after a moment of silence.

      "It does that do." Darkwing admitted. "But, this is actually
a high-tech, state of the art lockpick, designed to release a
series of counter-pulses to the circuitry within the panel.
Observe..." He smoothly inserted the thin piece of metal into 
the small crack between the door panels. A sharp spark and 
hiss  was heard, followed by the lockpick burning out and 
dropping to  the ledge uselessly.

      Darkwing looked at it for a moment. "Or maybe it really 
was just a toothpick."

      Gadget was about to make a comment about the possible
reasons it failed (including that it was total junk), but
something in the sky caught her attention. A glint of light, like
light reflecting off of something. The glint was moving, slowly
but steadily, towards them.

      "Guys, look!" She darted to the edge and peered out at it.
"Whatever that is, it's heading right for us!"

      "Blimey...what do you suppose it is?" Monterey couldn't 
make out any details of it.

      Chip frowned. "Ten to one, it's a robot."

      Gadget looked for a moment longer, then nodded. "I think
you're right Chip. It must be on it's way back here." She 
watched a moment longer. "It's moving pretty fast, too. We'd 
better get out of here before it arrives."

      Dale nodded. "Yeah, but where do we go? It's not like we
have a lot of places to hide around here."

      Zipper motioned that it'd be easy to hide on the other side
of the globe. He quickly set down on the nose of the Wing. 
Let's get moving, his eyes pleaded. The robot was getting there 
faster than they had expected.

      "Right." Darkwing nodded. He grabbed the rope and 
readied himself to repel down to the ground, when Chip yelled 
out a warning. He looked back up to see the robot barreling 
down at him. They had greatly underestimated its speed.

      The starlight was now reflecting off of it's entire body,
shaped like a griffin. Its claws were outstretched in front of
it, the shine on them indicating the razor-sharp edge they
possessed. The most unnerving thing Darkwing noted about it,
however, was that eerie red glow in it's eyes...

      The annoying part of his brain was screaming at him again,
this time trying to break through the fascination barrier. It
desperately tried to point out the somewhat important fact that
unless Darkwing did as his name implied and ducked, the 
griffin would rip right through him in less than a second. 
Finally, it told the ego that the fascination had called it an 
"unnecessary component of the psyche". So as the ego pounced 
on the fascination and beat it senseless, the warning managed 
to wriggle past to Darkwing.

      He hit the ledge flat, a hair's breath away from the talons
as the Griffin whipped by him. Darkwing waited for the impact 
as the robot collided with the doors...but it never came. He
carefully rolled to one side, and checked behind him.

      The doors were open. He could see that it opened into a
large work area. It was easily thirty feet to the floor, and the
Griffin had apparently landed on the other side of the room,
gathering with a few other robots. A quick scan showed no 
sign of anyone else in the area. His initial guess was that the 
robots had an internal remote for the doors. He briefly 
wondered if  the Griffin even saw him, but dismissed it in leu 
of the good fortune that the doors were open for the moment.

      He took his rope and quickly gathered it up, quietly tossing
it down into the room. He looked around for the other Rangers,
and spotted them already climbing into the Ranger Wing and
starting the engine. Apparently, they had spied the opportunity
as well. Darkwing swung silently into the room, easing himself
down as the Rangers flew in and down along the wall, keeping 
to the shadows.

      He wasn't sure if the robots could hear them, or even cared,
but he decided to play it careful. Unfortunately, the doors
closed again while he was still ten feet off the ground, cutting
through the rope cleanly. His landing was loud and painful, so 
he allowed himself a whimper. His only saving grace was that 
he was concealed from the other side of the room by crates of 
some kind. He was tempted to check them for potatoes, but 
resisted.

      The whirring of mechanized parts alerted him to the 
movement of the robots. He pushed himself up, taking a 
needed moment to brush the dust away as best he could, and 
peeked around the crates. The Griffin was there, as were a few 
others, moving about and looking for the source of the 
disturbance. Darkwing  crouched down low, and studied the 
way the moved. A grace was evident  that shouldn't belong to 
metal, he noted. Almost as if they were alive.

      He put it out of his mind for the time being, and
concentrated on getting away from the area as discreetly as
possible. The crates lined the wall for a good twenty feet, so he
scurried along noiselessly, looking for an opening.

      The Rangers could see what was happening clearly from 
their vantage point. The robots were moving closer to the area 
where Darkwing had dropped, but Darkwing was already a 
good distance away, and getting further with each stride. Dale 
wanted to go help Darkwing, but Monterey pointed out that 
the last thing they wanted to do was attract attention to 
themselves.

      "Besides," Gadget remarked. "It looks like Darkwing is 
doing a pretty good job of avoiding them by himself." She used 
the preoccupation of the robots to bring the Wing down on the 
other side of the room from them, unnoticed. She landed the 
Wing  behind a large computer, the same one that Chip and 
Dale had nearly been caught in.

      "Come on," Chip ordered, hopping out. "While the robots
arebusy, let's see what they're up to."

      "But how, mate?" Monterey dropped next to him. "Just 
walk upan ask?"

      "In essence, I think that's exactly want he's planning
ondoing, Monty." Gadget grinned. "But we're not going to ask 
the robots..." Her eyes looked up at the computer.

      "Ugh..." Dale sighed. "This thing. Again." He shook his 
head and shrugged. "Well, the sooner we start, the sooner it's 
over." He mumbled as he deftly climbed up the back to the top, 
the remainder of the Rangers following.

      Zipper darted up above them, checking to make sure the 
coast was clear. The robots had found the cut rope, and were 
starting  a more methodical pattern. Darkwing was nowhere to 
be seen, probably for the best. Zipper knew, however, that their 
time was limited, and informed his teammates of this as they 
reached the top.

      Nodding, they wordlessly set about moving over the 
control panel, looking for information on the screens that 
might help. Both Chip and Dale noted with a smirk the area 
that was smashed by Nimnul was "fixed", thanks largely in part 
to Duct Tape.

      "Golly guys, look at this!" Gadget was reading a screen
displaying updates of the transferred data. "This is...
incredible..."

      "What is it?" Monterey asked, occasionally glancing over 
his shoulder.

      "It's a list of files...applications...other programs..."
She watched it a bit more, her face hardening into one of
comprehension. She glanced about at the other screens for
confirmation.

      "Go on," Chip prodded after a minute of silence. "What 
about it?" He, too, was painfully aware of their time limit. The 
robots were already nearing the center of the room.

      "It appears that Professor Nimnul is downloading a
tremendous amount of data, from all over the place." She 
moved over to the keyboard, and started tapping on a series of 
keys. Several files were selected, and information about them 
displayed in a smaller window.

      "See? He must be hacking into hundreds of databases to be
getting this much information. And there's still more coming 
in!"

      "I guess it really is a data stream." Dale chuckled. "But
where is he, then? Doesn't he have to actually operate the
computer to hack into places?"

      "Not quite, Dale." Chip said slowly, realization dawning 
on him. "Remember that Dragon we saw? It was going out and 
doing the downloading for him. That must be where the other 
robots are!"

      Speaking of which..., Zipper motioned dramatically. He
pointed behind them, to the robot Griffin standing directly
behind them. It was watching them, and the Rangers could 
almost swear it was smirking. Two other robots stood behind 
it,  a  Goblin and an Orc, Dale had guessed.

      If the Rangers were surprised at the life-like quality it
possessed, then they were dumbfounded when it spoke to 
them, in a voice very smooth and even.

      "Ah...what have we here?" It grinned, unnaturally bending
the metal around it's beak. "It seems to be those rodents that
the boss programmed us to terminate."

      The Orc snorted, a hollow gust of air through it's nose.
"True." It's voice was more like the grating of stone on stone.
"But I didn't think they'd need a large rope like that to get
down here." 

      "Especially when they had this." A voice from behind the
computer called out in a deep rumble. A Troll robot stepped 
into sight, holding the Ranger Wing in one metallic hand.

      "They didn't." The Griffin answered. "There was another on
the ledge that I almost tore through, but he ducked. Quite
appropriate, actually, as he was a duck of some kind." It turned
back to the Rangers. "I think that our other boss may have
mentioned him in passing. Whatever the case, find him. I'll 
deal with these intruders."

      The other three robots nodded and began to move off as the
Griffin spread it's wings out wide, encasing the Rangers on the
control panel. The Griffin's wings blocked escape from the 
front, and none of them wanted to turn their backs on it to try 
and make it back up to the top of the computer. The Griffin's 
two claws popped up in front of it.

      "Any ideas, mates?" Monterey asked, backing up with the 
rest into a tight cluster.

      "Is crying an option?" Dale asked, flinching away from the
claws.

      "If you want," the Griffin answered. "Makes no difference 
to me."

      It wasn't the internal programming that allowed the Griffin
to understand the Rangers, but instead the trace of Megavolt's
dimension that was infused in it when it was "born". Of course,
this really didn't matter to either the Rangers or the Griffin,
but is provided here as a public service announcement.

*****

Finally! Darkwing thought with a grin.

      "I am the terror...that flaps in the night!" His voice
echoed around the room, as blue smoke poured out from the 
top of a crate. "I am the 2400 baud modem when you have a 
two hour  time limit on the net from your server! I...am 
Darkwing Duck!"

      He spread his arms out wide as he emerged from the 
smoke, really presenting a good entrance. He was quite pleased 
with himself, as he had finally gotten the opportunity to make 
his trademarked entry. Of course, at the same time he presented
himself as an agent of good, he also presented himself as a 
clear target, standing on top of a crate with his arms 
outstretched like an idiot.

      The Troll swiveled its head around, two small barrels
popping out of each temple. A series of lasers sprang forth in
flurry of blasts. Darkwing had enough time to yelp and leap
straight up, the lasers just grazing the bottom of his cape.

      "I just can't get a break!" Darkwing's fear was burned away
by the annoyance of his only cape being further damaged. 
"Well, you little mechanical marvels, suck liquid!"

      His Gasgun was out, selected to "Liquidize", and fired,
raining water down on the trio heading towards him. They paid 
it little attention and maneuvered underneath him as he began 
his descent. The failed attempt to short them out worried 
Darkwing, but not as much as the approaching landing. 
Particularly when  the robots had all sprung claws from their 
hands.

      He twisted in mid-air, switching the selector on his Gasgun
again, and fired off towards the wall. A small plunger shot out,
snagging the wall and allowing him to swing out and land 
behind the robots. Darkwing mentally noted to thank Gadget 
for suggesting that they stop by the plunger shop, where she 
got all of hers at, before coming to Nimnul's lab.

      Darkwing had a hunch as to what was going on. These 
robots were moving to fluidly to just be robots. He dimly 
remembered that Megavolt had brought appliances to life in 
the past, but they had then revolted and tried to kill them all 
off. Either Megavolt didn't learn from previous experiences, or 
had found a way around it. Or both, knowing Megavolt.

      If that was the case, then Darkwing was at a distinct
disadvantage. These robots had him outnumbered, outgunned, 
and outmuscled...Darkwing grinned.

      "Just how I like it." He stated as he darted for the trio.

      A sudden leap and acrobatic twist placed him in the middle
them, not more than two feet from any one. His timing had to 
be perfect, he knew, but since he was perfect to begin with, he
wasn't overly worried.

      Maybe I can't take these things out, but I'm willing to
bet...He thought as the Troll fired it's lasers again...that they
can do it for me!

      He had already ducked before the lasers fired, missing him
and blasting into the Orc behind him. The Orc staggered back, 
and Darkwing hoped his theory was correct as he planted a 
patented double webbed foot kick into its head. His foot rang 
as it struck the metal, but the kinetic force carried through, 
dropping the Orc to the ground.

      Sure enough, since these things had consciousness, they
could be knocked out. All he had to do was rattle the CPU, not
necessarily damage it, and it would shut down. If it wasn't for
the fact that his foot was killing him, he would have laughed.

      A rush of air announced an incoming fist from the Goblin.
Darkwing instinctively rolled to his right, towards the Troll.
The fist missed Darkwing, but connected with the Troll, who 
made a loud whirring sound as the fist clanged into it. It really 
did have a sentience, for it completely forgot about Darkwing, 
and began to pummel the Goblin mercilessly. The Goblin 
seemed surprised at this, but fought back as the onslaught 
continued.

      The ringing clash of metal on metal echoed throughout the
room, distracting the Griffin momentarily.

      "What the--?" It started as it turned around.

      In a move wrought from desperation, Chip leaped up onto 
the hovering claw, driving it into one of the I/O ports on the
control panel. The sudden rush of data and electricity didn't
harm the Griffin, but did keep it occupied as the Rangers raced
back up to the top of the computer.

      Looking over to the other robots, they saw that the Orc was
on the floor, while the Troll and Goblin continued their 
metallic fisticuffs. Darkwing was nowhere to be seen again. 
The Griffin ripped its claw free, muttering with a menacing 
voice. It glared up at them, ready to pounce, but the Rangers 
had seen this coming, and waited.

      It leaped, only to find them drop behind the machine at the
last second. The Griffin collided with the wall right behind
them, bouncing back off to the floor.

      "Okay, now...I'm mad." It sprang back to its feet, shaking
its wings out.

      The Rangers wasted no time in moving to the center of the
back of the computer, trying to keep out of reach of the Griffin,
who couldn't fit its arm more than a quarter of the way in. Also
to their benefit was the fact that the Griffin couldn't clearly
see them. The huge computer was too heavy for the Griffin to
move. They were safe...for now.

      "Now what?" Dale asked in a panicked voice. "There's no
space under the computer to crawl under it, and we'll be 
snagged if we get too close to either side." A groping claw 
landed only  a few inches away from Dale, emphasizing his 
point.

      "If we could only get to the Ranger Wing..." Gadget started,
looking off towards where they last saw it, which was currently
blocked by the Griffin.

      "Yeah, I think the robot dropped it when Darkwing 
appeared." Monterey nodded.

      Leave it to me, Zipper saluted. He flew back up over the
top, unnoticed by the Griffin, still trying to get in at the
Rangers. He didn't even need to look to see if the Goblin and
Troll saw him, as the resounding clangs were still steadily
coming. A quick glance confirmed it, as they were currently all
the way over on the other side of room, content on the happy
chore of knocking the living transistors out of each other.

      Zipper spotted the Ranger Wing not far from the computer,
where the Troll had dropped it. It was upside down, but 
otherwise undamaged. Still, Zipper doubted he could right it 
by himself.  He carefully scanned the area, looking for some 
trace of  Darkwing. He thought he spotted a shadow shift over 
to his right, among  the crates. A recon trip showed that it was 
indeed Darkwing, stealthily creeping up on the Griffin, Gasgun 
at the ready.

      Zipper swooped down to him, getting his attention without
compromising their position.

      "Wha--oh, it's you Zipper." Darkwing said, easing up a bit.
"I know, the others are trapped behind the computer, but I'm 
not sure how I can get that Griffin away from them. These 
things  are actually pretty tough. The only reason the Orc fell 
was because of the laser battery that pelted it in the head. My 
kick was just a nudge to push it over the edge." He looked out 
at the Griffin. "I'm trying to figure out how to take it out 
without getting myself killed."

      Well, Zipper motioned, if we can get the Ranger Wing to 
the rest of them, we can get out of here, or at least to some 
safety. But I need your help. I can't turn it over myself.

      "It might work," Darkwing thought, still watching the
Griffin, "but the Griffin can fly, too. And I'm willing to bet it
can do so much faster than the Wing. We still need a plan for 
the winged beast of metal."

      Zipper nodded. Their planning sessions was cut short
completely, however, by one of the doors in the wall opening 
up.

      "What's going on in here?!" A short, balding man in a white
lab coat demanded. He was staring directly at the Troll and the
Goblin, who had halted their "discussion" and now looked 
akin to children caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

      "Nimnul." Darkwing groaned.

      This is not what we needed, Zipper added with a nod.

      "Uh..." The Troll started, backing away from the Goblin.
"Hi, boss."

      "Did we, ah, wake you?" The Goblin asked in a plaintive
voice.

      "You probably woke the entire town with that racket!" 
Nimnul stormed into the room, and Darkwing's heart sank as 
he saw another figure enter.

      "What started this, anyway?" Megavolt asked, peering over 
at them.

      "Intruders." The Griffin called out from the other side of
the room. He was still beside the computer, but was now 
merely guarding the exits from the back, rather than actively 
trying to grab them. "They're stuck behind this computer, boss. 
Those rodents you kept ranting about."

      "And that's not all." The Troll quickly explained, grateful
for the lead-in. "There was this duck or something..."

      "Duck?" Megavolt's attention was caught. Nimnul was still
fuming over the news of the Rangers involvement.

      "Yeah, all dressed in purple and magenta." The Troll 
nodded. "Not a bad color scheme, really."

      "Oh I wouldn't say that," the Goblin shrugged, "when you
consider that most nocturnal beings prefer the chromas of 
subtle contrast, it really lacks in terms of originality."

      "True, but don't overlook the importance of giving new
meaning to an old idea. Think of it like Dadaism, where they 
were attempting to re-discover art."

      "Ah, yes, that is a possibility. But then he's clinging too
fast to old ideals to truly give a unique--"

      "Enough!" Was the choral response.

      One came from Megavolt, who had figured out what duck 
they were talking about, and was already beginning to charge 
up.  One came from Nimnul, who couldn't care less about 
fashion  statements (as his lab coat attested) and wanted to get 
the Rangers out  from behind his computer.

      And the last one came from Darkwing himself, tired of the
narrow-mindedness that these stereotypical Siskel and Ebert 
were giving him.

      Darkwing was over the crates before Zipper could stop 
him, and dropped down to the other side, facing off against 
Megavolt.

      "Just couldn't resist, could you Megavolt?" Darkwing
intoned, wary of any sudden electrical surges headed his way.

      "Of course not!" Megavolt retorted. "I had all of my
resistors removed. Blocking up my power flow, which is really
annoying in times of stress, you know, because then the sparks
sputter out due to inadequate power allocations."

      "I..oh, forget it." Darkwing should have given up the entire
notion of witty banter with Megavolt. "What I meant was that 
you couldn't stop yourself from engaging in some criminal 
activity, could you? It was more important than getting back 
home."

      "On the contrary," Megavolt replied, closing the distance.
"This is all about getting home. Once we have all of the data
compiled in our Extradimensional memory unit, I can sort 
through it at my leisure, and figure out how to get back from 
there."

      The Troll and Goblin had helped the Orc back up, while 
the Griffin and Nimnul approached the computer. With 
Darkwing  and Megavolt engrossed in their own discussion, 
only Zipper was  able to notice what was happening on the 
screens. Even though he wasn't very technically oriented, he 
suspected something was  up when over half of the screens 
were flashing red lights and  danger messages across the 
bottom of the screens.

      "And another thing," Darkwing snapped, now glaring eye 
to eye with Megavolt, "When are you ever going to trim those
whiskers?" He pointed with a sneer at the four electric 
whiskers snaking out from under Megavolt's plug helmet.

      "This from a duck with a bill the size of a aircraft
carrier?" Megavolt snorted.

      "Hey hey hey!" Darkwing held up his hand. "Let's not get
personal....Sparky!"

      "ARGGGGHHH! I REALLY hate it when you call me 
that!" A sudden burst of energy from his gloves drove his 
displeasure home.

      Darkwing sidestepped it, a gas canister shooting from his
Gasgun. Yellow smoke streamed out from behind it. Megavolt 
merely set up a repulsive magnetic field, deflecting it  
harmlessly away. It skidded to the floor, spewing out opaque, 
yellow fumes. The two of them continued their combat, hidden 
from view in the cloud.

      Nimnul had decided to ignore the ruckus in the 
background, and instead concentrated on getting the Rangers 
out from  behind the computer. They were now faced with 
either confronting  Nimnul or the Griffin. Not a hard choice, 
really.

      "Quick!" Chip called to the rest as he lead the charge, his
voice a harsh whisper. "Hide in his pockets!"

      They all quickly leapt up onto his coat, diving into the
varying recesses of fabric they could find.

      "What?" Nimnul started back as they came near, only to 
lose sight of them as they ducked into his wardrobe. The 
Griffin sprang around as soon as they moved, but was unable 
to see  them, let alone stop them.

      Nimnul begin a pat down of himself, checking for them.
"They're in here somewhere..." He muttered.

      The Griffin, misunderstanding him, rolled his eyes. "Lose
your keys again, boss?" He asked with a chuckle.

      "No! I mean those rodents are in my coat." He continued 
his search, but the Rangers kept shifting away from the hands.

      "Oh, let me help." The Griffin reached out with it's talons,
slashing a pocket open. Pens, pencils, a calculator, and various
small tools clattered to the ground, but no Rangers.

      "Ah!" Nimnul yelped, as the talon nearly pierced his skin.
"No! You just wait and watch, in case they try to run for it."

      The remaining three robots had decided to take the
opportunity, seeing as no one had called them over, to take a
break and continue the discussion of modern clothing apparel 
versus individuality of fashion in a private huddle in a 
secluded corner.

      Thus, once again, Zipper was the only one who was 
watching the screens. He flew over and settled down on the 
panel,  watching as several video screens showed the sky above 
the city...twisting? At first Zipper thought it might be the 
computer messing up the video signal, but he saw the city 
skyline unaltered in each image. The clouds, currently 
blanketing the city, were another matter.

      They were twisting and gathering around a central spot, 
much like a whirlpool. They all appeared to be one, colored a 
dark red, although Zipper couldn't understand where the light 
was coming from. Occasional flashes of purple lightning 
sprang out  of the vortex, and Zipper began to feel very ill at 
ease. He needed to notify the rest of the group, but nobody was 
looking over at the computer. Each was too engrossed in their 
own  predicament.

      But there must be some sort of warning bells or siren or
something, Zipper thought. All of the best inventions have 
them. This one obviously had the lights and screen savers of 
doom  down pat, so where was the audio? He flitted about the 
control panel,  and spied a series of promising dials over by the 
edge. 

      Landing next to them, he easily read the words "Volume
adjustment" underneath on a label. They were all twisted down 
to the zero indicator. At first, Zipper wondered why Nimnul 
would have them all turned down, but them remember when 
the  Griffin spread its wings around the control panel. It 
must've accidentally hit the dials, turning them all the way 
down. Then he realized that now was not the time for 
contemplation, and quickly cranked them up to the "You 
*had* eardrums..." level.

      "DANGER! WARNING!" The monotone voice indicator 
boomed, actually succeeding in gathering the attention of all 
within.

      "What in the world?" Nimnul said, running over to the
computer.

      "DANGER!" The computer continued. "DANGER WILL 
ROBINSON!"

      Nimnul brought the volume back down to a manageable 
level as he worked feverishly over the control panel, bringing 
up  various views of the city from all angles. The cloud cover 
continued its creeping spiral towards the center point. 
Forgotten in Nimnul's coat, the Rangers risked a glance out 
from their respective hiding places. Darkwing and Megavolt, 
the pace of their one-on-one combat broken, stepped out of the 
gas cloud to the computer. Even the robots gathered around, 
staring at the screens. In light of a greater potential disaster, 
current disputes were forgotten.

      "What is it, boss?" The Griffin asked carefully. The rest of
the group were staring at the screens, transfixed. Except for
Nimnul who was angrily stabbing in commands on the panel 
and grimacing at the readouts.

      "Something's happening through the dimensional transfer 
link we've been using." He answered, not taking his eyes from 
his work. "Instead of information going in..." He paused, and 
looked back at the screens. "Something's trying to come out."

*****

      The time had come. The portal was now firmly stabilized, 
and the opening was growing with each passing second. Of 
course,  the legions couldn't fit through yet, but patience was 
second nature to the commander. In the meantime, the 
atmosphere of the new dimension might as well be prepared 
properly...

*****

--Chapter 8: Host Connection Established--

      "Okay, run this by me again," Darkwing frowned. "We have 
yet _another_ dimension involved in this?"

      A temporary truce had been called by all parties. The
Rangers were surprised by Nimnul's eagerness for one, but
Darkwing pointed out that it'd be difficult for him to devastate
a globe if somebody beat him to it. Megavolt tried to point out
that in actuality it'd only make it easier, but an elbow to the
ribs convinced him otherwise.

      Nimnul had also called back all of the robots, who arrived
over the course of an hour. They, too, were well aware of what
was happening, and had even taken the time on the way back to
pick up some video footage and cloud samples, which Nimnul 
was now analyzing, with the help of Gadget.

      "Yes," Nimnul answered, shaking a beaker slightly and
studying the reaction within. "As near I can figure they've had
access to our dimension since you and Megavolt first broke
through the barrier."

      "So how come we haven't seen them earlier?" Dale asked 
from his card game with Monterey, Megavolt, and Sphinx (the 
Rangers and Darkwing learned what each robot was named, 
and, when  they considered the source, weren't terribly 
surprised). Sphinx was currently winning, but that wasn't a big 
surprise either. The robots, with Megavolt and Gadget's help, 
managed to piece together a make-shift translator for Nimnul 
to understand the Rangers.

      To be honest, it wasn't the machine itself, but the power
Megavolt powered it with. That power still held a trace of his
dimension, enabling it to translate "Chipmunk" and "Mouse" to
English.

      "Well..." Nimnul started, then stopped. "It'll be easiest to
explain things in terms of a timeline." He sighed and set the
beaker down and strode to the center of the room. The card 
game was to the right, and Gadget was still at workbench on 
his left. Directly in front of him were the robots, relaxing 
among the crates (yes, they are filled with potatoes, but I have 
no clue why), and behind him was the computer, where 
Darkwing,  Chip and Zipper were.

      "You see," Nimnul said as he started pacing, "At the same
time that you two were struggling inside that machine, I was
transferring various bits of data from a database containing the
most advanced information on other dimensions."

      "More than just information." Gadget called out. "I had 
some time to look over what I salvaged. They also had 
programs for actually reaching 'out' and 'touching' other 
dimensions. They were all still in the experimental, stages, 
obviously..."

      The robots snorted in unison. "Obviously."

      "Whatever." Nimnul snapped, getting back to the subject. 
"In any case, when some _rodents_ messed around with 
Dragon,"  He paused to glare and Chip and Dale, who 
shrugged. "Some  program must've been activated. One of those 
dimensional-opening  ones."

      "At the same time," Darkwing was starting to pick up on
this, "Megavolt and I were inside of the electronic flow of one
of SHUSH's machines."

      "And if they had it stored away, than it must have been
_real_ dangerous." Megavolt nodded, then frowned at his 
cards. "They would use any of their gizmos unless forbidden 
by the higher-ups at SHUSH, who actually have concern for 
the planet in mind."

      Darkwing made a mental note to ask J. Gander about that
machine when he got back.

      "Best as I can tell," Nimnul continued, "The machine you
were in must have spit you out, or exploded, which is really the
same thing actually...anyway, it must have spit you out at
precisely the same time the unit from the MacFarland Research
building finished it's program. Those two random events were
linked through time, by means of my Extradimensional link."

      "Excuse me?" Chip asked. "This is news to us."

      "Oh yes, I forgot. It was one of the few things I've done
that you rodents _haven't_ interfered with."

      "Whiney, whiney..." Dale mumbled, but saw Sphinx glare 
at him. He cut it short and discarded.

      "The link?" Darkwing prompted.

      "Ah yes," Nimnul returned to the topic. "I had found out
about this dimension several months earlier, and had already 
set up a link to it before I built the robots."

      "So the link already existed?" Chip asked, starting to
understand. "And when the events in our and Darkwing's 
dimension were connected..."

      "By the fact that happened at precisely the same time."
Gadget noted.

      Chip nodded and smiled at her. "Right. Then, the link
enabled them to break through the barrier without the need of 
an electronic device to travel through."

      Nimnul thought for a moment. "Partially. They still were
only connected because they had been converted to electricity."

      "So, in essence, the program connected with the machine 
we were in?" Megavolt asked, tossing a card out. "Sort of like a
modem?"

      "Right." Darkwing nodded. "And there was a lightning 
storm going on in the sky when we appeared. So since the unit 
that  ran the program was destroyed, we couldn't come out 
there..." Darkwing started a thought.

      "So you popped out where the most amount of electricity
was." Chip finished it for him.

      "Fine, mates." Monterey studied his cards, then drew two.
"But how does this third dimension fit in with it?"

      "Easy Monty." Gadget sat down on a test tube. "Remember 
that the link Nimnul established is what enabled them to cross 
over into our dimension, not as electricity, but actually 
physically bring them over. Only after they did, the hole, or 
whatever it was that they passed through, remained. And now 
this third  player is trying to break through."

      "Has broken through." Dragon corrected. "Remember, miss,
that's what happening out there now."

      "Okay," Darkwing stood up straight and looked at the
monitors. "So where does that put us now? Whatever it is, it
can't be good."

      "No, it isn't." Nimnul looked grim. "From what the robots
have gathered, I can tell that the 'portal' is growing wider.
Furthermore, our atmosphere is being subjected to their 
dimension preferences." He frowned and came back to the 
workbench.  "Instead of just passing into our dimension, as 
Megavolt and Darkwing did..." He looked back at the screens. 
"They appear to be trying to fill our dimension with theirs."

      Gadget sighed deeply. "Science brought us so far..." She
closed her eyes. "Maybe too far..." She whispered.

      Chip, watching the sky on the monitors, shook his head. "I
saw that portal," he told Darkwing and Zipper. "I should have
checked it out. Maybe then we'd have a better chance
understanding what's going on."

      But Zipper shook his head. If it was this bad, his stance
said, we would have been taken out before we knew what hit 
us.

      "Zipper's right, Chip." Darkwing sighed. "Sometimes we 
jump into things out of pride, rather than duty." The image of 
twenty dollars flashed in his mind, and he winced at his own 
words.

      In the settling gloom, the only bright spot was that
Monterey managed to win the hand against Sphinx. Other than 
that, everybody was lost in their own thoughts.

      As Megavolt shuffled the cards and dealt, the remainder of
the robots gathered around Nimnul and Gadget at the 
workbench. Nimnul was still trying the get as much 
information out of the samples that he could, but wasn't having 
much luck.

      "I need more to go on..." He mumbled subconsciously. "If
only I could get closer to the clouds...or better yet, the
portal."

      "We could provide transport, sir." Dragon offered. "We're
not sure of the exact location of the portal, though. Do you 
know where it is?"

      "No." Nimnul frowned. "I can only gleam information from 
it as energies are sent out by its growth."

      "Just like when a black hole sends out gamma rays." 
Gadget mentioned, and Nimnul nodded.

      "Exactly," he nodded, "so even though it may be in the 
same area that Megavolt and Darkwing came through, I 
couldn't  pinpoint it."

      "I could." Chip called out, never taking his eyes from the
screens. "I've seen it before."

      "Really?" Dale asked. "When?"

      "When we were on the skyscraper, looking for clues. I saw
something up in the sky...a shimmer of some kind. But I didn't
know what it was." He closed his eyes, and with his back 
turned to everyone, no one heard his addition. "And I was 
afraid of it."

      No one, that is, except for Darkwing, who merely nodded.

      "So how about it, sir?" Dragon asked again, eager to help.
"We fly you up to this portal, and you can inspect it firsthand."

      Any sane person would have seen the danger of getting so
close to the source of a dimensional invasion, but this was
Nimnul, so he readily agreed.

      "Wait," Megavolt stood up from the table. "I'm coming too.
This is the way I got in, it might be the way back."

      "Well, you can bet your sweet transistor that I'm coming,
then." Darkwing stated, adjusting his hat just right. "If this is
a chance to get back home, then I intend to take the first train
from the station."

      "We might as well see you off." Chip added, finally turning
away from the monitors. "We've come this far in this, we might 
as well finish it."

      Monterey nodded. "'Sides, it's not like you can keep me 
away from an adventure like this. Think of what'll do to our 
resumes."

      Like you don't have enough tall tales to begin with...,
Zipper winked at him.

      The rest of the Rangers agreed, and soon they set about
formalizing a rough outline of a plan: They would all take the
robots up there, and between Nimnul, Gadget, and Megavolt, 
they should be able to figure out more about the nature of the 
portal.

*****

      Truly, the sky was a breathtaking sight. Clouds persisted in
their slow, spiralling movement, all of them streaked with a 
dark red. Everybody noticed, including the robots, how dry and 
hot  the air was getting. Nimnul glanced over from his position 
on  Dragon, to the others behind him. The Rangers were all 
gathered on Griffin, who seemed to have developed a grudging 
respect for them. Darkwing and Megavolt both were on 
Sphinx, talking  about various ways of returning to their own 
world.

      Both Megavolt and Darkwing were starting to get hopeful
about getting back to their dimension soon, but at the same 
time, they intended to stick it out here. Megavolt was thinking 
about that "unwritten code" among inventors, which he 
planned to  uphold by helping out Nimnul. Darkwing felt the 
same sort of kinship with the Rangers, but their link was one 
of justice, not conquest.

      The portal was easily visible to all as they approached the
spot Chip navigated them towards. It was shimmering in the 
sky like a constant stream of ripples across a pond. Everyone 
gave  an inward shudder as they neared.

      "It is certainly larger, sir." Dragon called out, as the
strong winds whipping about made communication difficult. 
"It looks to be at least five feet in diameter. I wonder how I 
could have missed it before..."

      "Because it wasn't there before." Nimnul called back. "The
portal was there, but not the visible sign of it. Not a visible
sign this strong, anyway. Those ripples aren't more than the tip
of the iceberg. I'd say the actual portal is at least ten feet
wide, probably a bit more."

      He reached into his lab coat and pulled out a calculator.
"It's like phases of the moon. The first phase was merely the
contact. Somebody may have been able to see through it, but
that's it. Now, with these ripples, the actual atmosphere of the
place is starting to seep through." He punched some numbers 
into the calculator. "And soon we'll get to the actual doorway 
phase, where we can see clearly into the dimension beyond."

      "Hey Nimnul!" Megavolt yelled. "Is it possible to get
through the portal now?"

      "Probably, it's just small at the moment." He took out
another bizarre instrument, switching dials and hitting buttons.
"My only question right now is what's on the other side..."

      "I thought you said it was that dimension that you had
contacted." Gadget peered at the nearing portal. "What else 
would it be?"

      "Well," Megavolt said, tapping the side of Sphinx, "there's
an easy way to confirm it." Sphinx nodded, and Darkwing 
gulped, both understanding what Megavolt was suggesting.

      Sphinx spread its wings out and sped towards the center of
the ripples, Megavolt and Darkwing clutching to each other
tightly. They passed into the ripples, time seemed to slow 
down for an instant, then they snapped back to the present. A 
harsh, dry atmosphere greeted their lungs, while an endless 
world of clouds greeted their eyes. They couldn't see any land, 
no matter where they looked. Of course, they weren't looking 
around that much, as the large fleet of starships hovering 
around was holding their attention rather nicely. All of the 
ships were huge, but their shapes varied. Some were globes, 
others sleek triangles, and some in the shape of large cubes.

      Sphinx concentrated on its flying, so it tried not to pay
the ships much thought. They were all around, floating rather
peacefully throughout the endless skies. None reacted to the
dimensional travellers, but whether this was because they 
didn't notice them or just didn't consider them a threat was 
unclear.

      "What lovely place..." Darkwing muttered.

      "Not really." Megavolt remarked.

      Darkwing was about to mention that he wasn't serious 
about that, but the rest of the robots coming through the portal
distracted him. The Rangers stared in disbelief around them,
coughing slightly in the dry air.

      "It's like we're in a whole other world..." Gadget said
breathlessly.

      "We are, Gadget." Chip reminded her.

      "Oh...that would account for it, then."

      The last one through was Dragon, with Nimnul still 
clacking away on one of his inventions.

      "Yep, this is the place." He nodded. "I recognize the
dimensional signature."

      "But golly, where is the information being stored?" Gadget
asked. "There isn't even any land, so far as I can tell."

      "In there." Megavolt's sweeping arm took in all the ships
around them, and nearly knocked Darkwing off. "Isn't that why
they're here? To store all the data?"

      "I bet they're here for more reasons than that." Chip said
glumly.

      "You betcha." Dale nodded. "They're here to invade our
world, just like in all my comic books." He turned to Chip. 
"And you said they would never come in handy."

      Chip's retort was cut of by Dragon.

      "Actually, sirs, give my companions and I one moment, and
we'll pinpoint the reason." It smiled widely.

      "Sounds good." Darkwing nodded. "In the meantime, I 
would like it if we can find some place to hide, or something." 
He glanced around at the vast armada. "I'm surprised they 
haven't detected us by now."

      "Thank the robots." Nimnul stated, as he put away his
calculator. "According to my computations, they generate a
frequency that counters the technology here."

      "How so?" Megavolt asked. "Just their presence disrupts 
the scanners?"

      Nimnul nodded. "Just like you and Darkwing are carrying
around traces of your dimension on you, same with the robots.
Here, it acts like a white noise broadcaster."

      "Golly, but then they would know someone's here!" Gadget
looked around nervously.

      "Huh? But I thought the robots were hiding us." Dale also
looked around, but more in confusion.

      "They are, mate." Monterey moved closer to Dale so he
wouldn't have to shout. "But it's like hiding behind a shield in
the middle of an open field. They know we're here, because 
they can see the shield. They just can't locate the exact spot."

      The robots swung low through the clouds, then began a
careful climb up to one the starships, from underneath.

      "With any luck," Dragon explained, "They'll mistake the
interference as a result from one of their own. Hopefully,
they'll guess it's a malfunctioning drive, or something equally
reasonable."

      Gadget nodded in approval. "Good idea, Dragon. It should 
at least buy us some time."

      "Well, we have to close to a ship no matter what, Miss
Gadget." Dragon led the squadron up to one of the sides of the
ship, landing deftly on the hull. The only noise was the 
whisper of their metal claws setting down. "You see, we have 
to patch into a computer, and that's rather difficult for us when 
we're a distance away. Our modems don't work very well when 
the satellites they use are back in our home dimension."

      Quickly, the robots spread out along the side of the ship,
using their sensors to avoid any areas that contained alarms or
the like that would reveal their presence. As the robots went in
search of an access port, the rest of the group huddled together.

      "Golly, those robots sure are smart." Gadget watched them
move off with a smile. "I hope I get a chance to talk with them
once we get back."

      "If we get back." Monterey remarked dryly. "Need I remind
you, Gadget-luv, that we are still in another dimension?"

      "You get used to it after a while." Megavolt noted, sitting
down rather comfortably.

      "Getting cozy?" Darkwing frowned. "This isn't exactly my
idea of a rest stop, Megavolt."

      "Darkwing's right." Chip moved over to the side of the
platform they were on. "This is the last place you want to let
your guard down."

      "Is there ever a good place?" Dale took watch on the other
side.

      "Well, I'm sure that we'll be safe here until the robots get
back." Gadget said optimistically, sitting down. "And hey, 
these dimensional residents might not even be all that bad."

      "Yeah, Gadget." Dale said coyly, maneuvering over next to
her. "You sure have a good outlook on things."

      "Thanks, Dale." Gadget smiled at him.

      Of all the times to be flirting, Zipper said with a shake of
his head.

      Chip felt the same way, but before he could voice an
opinion, Gadget spoke up.

      "You just wait and see, once the robots find out what's
going on, we'll be able to go home with no problems."

      Darkwing glanced at Monterey, remembering what he said
earlier. The Australian mouse just shrugged helplessly. Zipper
nodded in agreement.

      A ear-piercing wail spilt the air moments later, the sound
of some sort of alarm. The robots began to return, and a much
quicker pace, and not so nearly concerned about stealth now.
Monterey and Zipper didn't seem too surprised at this, and
Darkwing had to admit he had been expecting it as well.

      Annoyed at having his rest period interrupted, Megavolt
sprang to his feet. "This had better be important!"

      "They *are* planning to take over our dimension!" Dragon
said in a fearful voice. "And they've got the firepower to do
it!"

      "Well, okay." Megavolt grumbled. "I'll let it slide--this
time."

      "What?" Gadget was astonished. "But...how...why...what..."

      "Quickly, climb aboard Griffin, Miss Gadget." Dragon said
hastily as Nimnul hopped up on it. "We'll explain momentarily, 
as soon as we remove ourselves from this position."

      "What position?" Chip asked as he and the Rangers 
climbed onto the back of Griffin.

      Several clicks and whirs were heard from behind them, and
they turned to see a dozen gun barrels jut forth from the newly-
opened housings. The robots sprang into the air, managing to 
move out the arc of fire before the barrage started.

      "They've been waiting for a dimension to conquer. Any
dimension." Dragon explained as they all jetted out away from 
the starship. "When you, Sir," It nodded at Nimnul, "Began 
your search for an Extradimensional database, they seized on 
the opportunity, and gave you the "access code" to reach 
through  with a link. Then, they just waited for the hole in the 
dimensional barrier, caused by the link, to widen. Once it's 
wide enough..." They glanced around at the starships, now 
closing in, and none needed Dragon to finish the sentence.

      "So how do we stop them?" Chip asked.

      "Stop them?!?" Was the choral response.

      "Chip, what can we do against them?" Dale asked in
disbelief.

      "Dale's right, lad." Monterey agreed, again watching as the
starship's continued to close in. "We'll be lucky if we get out
of this dimension alive."

      "Sorry to spoil your hopes," Griffin answered dejectedly,
"But they're going to be watching that dimensional hole very
carefully now. We're not getting back that way."

      "So we're stuck here?" Darkwing felt his stomach drop 
again, and it wasn't due to Sphinx's evasive maneuvers.

      "Hey!" Chip called out again. "You still haven't answered 
my question, Dragon." The others stared at him, except for 
Darkwing and Megavolt, who sighed and nodded.

      "When you're desperate..." Darkwing started.

      "Even sushi tastes good." Megavolt finished, although that
wasn't the ending Darkwing had in mind.

      "Look," Chip turned to his friends, "Right now, like it or
not, we're the only ones who know about what's going on, and 
the only ones who can stop them." He pointed out back to the
starships. "Yeah, they're much bigger than us, but if we don't
even try, then they've won without even firing a shot. And *I*
intend to go down fighting." His eyes burned with such 
intensity that the others wondered if he really *could* beat 
those starships by himself.

      Monterey grew a smile. "Do not go softly into that good
night, eh, Chip?"

      "Too right." Chip replied with a wink.

      Zipper gave a quick salute, indicating his inclusion into
the suicide squad.

      Gadget and Dale thought for a moment, then shrugged. 
Chip was right: It's not like they had anything to lose. 

      Nimnul was already determined to fight, but strictly 
because he figured that if those rodents always spoiled his 
plans for world domination, that these invaders should be 
treated to the same.

      "Well, when we plugged into their computers," Dragon 
thought out loud, "We did find out that it's the mothership 
that's keeping the portal open."

      Darkwing looked around again, spotting the huge starship
they were heading towards. "That's where we're going then."

      Dragon nodded. "If you can take out the main drive 
somehow, the portal should begin to rapidly dwindle. The only 
problem  is that you'd have to get some transport to get back to 
the portal, and quickly, before it closed forever."

      "Wait," Gadget looked at Dragon. "What do you mean, 
"You"? Aren't you coming with us?"

      Dragon looked honestly surprised. "Why, no, my good 
lady. Who do you expect to distract the rest of these 
starships?"

      Gadget's eyes widened. "You can't be serious! You'll be
pulverized! Destroyed!"

      "Look," Griffin stated calmly, "If we stay with you, the
counter frequency we're generating will give you away before 
you get anywhere. If we drop you off quick enough, they'll 
think  that we were trying to seek refuge near one of the 
starships, then abandoned the idea."

      "It's the only chance for the dimension's survival, Miss
Gadget." Dragon affirmed. "It's also logical. One life for
billions."

      "Who are you?" Dale asked. "That doctor from Flash 
Gordon?"

      The mothership loomed before them, and the robots made 
quick work diving in and setting down on one of the ledges.

      "There." Dragon motioned to a panel on the side. "You can
get in through that. The rest of the robots and I will be
distracting them enough for you, but don't do anything too
obvious, or the whole thing will be shot. Look for the main 
drive somewhere in the bow of the starship." The rest of the 
robots began flying back into the oncoming pursuers. "Oh, and 
keep  an eye out for lifeboats and escape pods, or you'll be 
trapped here. My personal guess is that they won't be far from 
the drive, as the inhabitants here would want to leave in a hurry 
if their ship's drive was destroyed."

      "But you can't go!" Gadget cried. "You just got life! It'll
be wasted!"

      Dragon took a moment to turn to her, halting his take-off.
Gently, he reached out a claw and lifted her chin up, looking 
her in the eyes. "Perhaps it's best this way. Better to have 
tasted life and died, than never known it at all. And at the very
least," It mumbled, taking its claw away, "We will know true
peace."

      Then it turned on its stance, and was away. The rest of the
group, including Nimnul, respectfully kept the quiet as Gadget
watched Dragon race to join its brethren in their destiny.

*****

--Chapter 9: To The Rescue, Terror In The Night--

      The panel came off easily enough, thanks mainly to a 
strong surge from Megavolt. They all slipped inside, trying not 
to hear the explosions and cries from outside. The panel 
opened up  into the internal workings of the ship, allowing 
them to move unhindered up towards the bow of the ship. 
Along the way,  they tried to develop a plan.

      "So we need to destroy the main drive, find an escape pod,
and slip back through the portal before it closes." Dale went
over it again.

      "And quick." Monterey added. "Once the main drive is
destroyed, that portal will close faster than a hot knife through
cream cheese."

      "Right." Chip kept an eye out for any signs of where the
main drive would be, or the location of an escape pod, but he
also watched Gadget out of the corner of his eye. She had been
quiet since Dragon took off.

      "Maybe we should split up." Darkwing tried to mentally 
keep track of their path, but the endless, twisting pipes, walls, 
and other alien technology was getting overwhelming. "One 
group search for the main drive, while the other looks for an 
escape pod."

      "And how would we keep track of each other?" Nimnul 
frowned. "It's not like they have a P.A. system we could use."

      "I've been thinking about that..." Darkwing admitted, and
snuck a glance at Megavolt, who nodded. For once, they were 
on the same wavelength.

      "Darkwing is suggested that we take another chance."
Megavolt stated, checking over his electrilizer. "The main drive
has to be destroyed, so we'll do it with style."

      "I can agree with that." Nimnul smiled.

      "But that was a million-to-one chance, mate!" Monterey
pointed out.

      "Not quite, Monty." Darkwing held up his hand. "It was a
long shot that brought us over here, but we're not really taking
a different method. Megavolt and I slip into the main drive, and
destroy it. When it's destroyed, the surge should at least push
us into the electronic flow of the dimensions, if not into our
own world."

      "You hope." Chip frowned.

      "You could be transferred in pure energy, or caught in an
endless feedback loop, or just plain blow up." Nimnul thought 
for a moment. "Although I'm saying which one my money's on."

      "Either that, or be stuck in this dimension, or yours,
forever." Megavolt shook his head. "Sorry, but as nice as the
place is, anywhere that anvils are lethal is *not* the place for
me."

      "Well, that settles it, then." Gadget stated suddenly. "You
two take out the main drive, while the rest of us look for an
escape pod, so we can get back home." Her tone clearly 
showed  this was the plan, whether or not the others liked it.

      The Rangers exchanged glances. You're sure about this?
Zipper's eyes asked.

      "I'm with Zipper, Gadget-luv." Monterey said tentatively.
"If you're sure..."

      "I'm sure." No doubt was in her stance.

      "Then I'm in." He nodded.

      The rest of the Rangers quickly agreed, and even Nimnul
couldn't think of a reason to disagree.

      Gadget turned to Darkwing and Megavolt. "Okay you two, 
good luck. I don't want the robots' sacrifice to be meaningless. 
They gave as a chance, and I, for one, fully intend to utilize it."

      "I guess this is goodbye then." Darkwing remarked, a note 
of sadness in his voice. "Whether or not we succeed, we'll 
probably never see you again."

      Gadget's features softened at this. "Yes...I guess so. Well,
just remember to watch those falls, Darkwing." She smiled. "I
doubt I'll be there to give you a herbal compress again."

      Darkwing returned the smile with a bow. "As the doctor
orders."

      Monterey and Zipper gave a quick handshake. "Take care,
mate. Best of luck to you back in yer own dimension." Zipper
nodded and gave a brisk salute.

      "Keep up that word play thing. We heros have an image to
maintain." Dale struck a dramatic pose.

      Darkwing swept his cape in front of him, giving his own
heroic pose. "Definitely will do, Dale." He turned to Chip, and
shook the chipmunk's hand. "Be seeing you, Chip."

      "Hopefully not." Chip tipped his hat to Darkwing.
"Otherwise, something went wrong."

      Darkwing returned the gesture with a brisk nod.

      Megavolt and Nimnul stood a bit away from the others,
watching and shaking their heads.

      "Sappy." Megavolt commented.

      "Indeed." Nimnul agreed. "Well, Megavolt, write if you get 
a chance."

      "Sure." Megavolt thought for a moment. "Do you know 
what the rate is for interdimensional mail?"

      "Not offhand, but I'm sure they'll know at the post office."

      "Sounds good." He took a small mechanical device from 
his belt and handed to Nimnul. "Here you go, in case you need 
it  for later populace terrorization."

      Nimnul was about ask what exactly it was, but Darkwing 
had finished his goodbyes, and was now headed off towards 
the  main drive. "Come on, Megavolt!"

      Megavolt frowned. "Pushy pushy. By the way he carries 
on, you'd think the fate of the dimension was in jeopardy or
something." He shrugged and quickly moved off to join up 
with Darkwing.

      "Okay." Gadget stated, scanning the area. "The escape pods
should be near the lower section of the starship. And in any
case, they'll have to be right next to the hull, so it'd be
possible for quick escape."

      "Right, Gadget." Chip led the group down along the maze 
of the inner workings. "We have to hurry. No telling how long 
before Darkwing and Megavolt find the main drive and destroy 
it."

      They moved swiftly, Zipper and Dale scouting out ahead a
little bit, checking for possible hazards while determining the
best route. Nimnul brought up the rear, his longer leg stride
allowing him to keep up easily with the Rangers while he 
tapped away on his own scientific calculator.

      They had been moving for about five minutes when a high-
pitched whine filled the air. They all froze, and heard the
sounds of muffled running and distant noises of battle taking
place elsewhere in the starship.

      "Looks like the main drive was found." Dale remarked, a
touch nervously.

      "Golly! Then we'd better get moving!" Gadget broke into a
run, searching desperately for any sign of an escape pod.

      "Tsk tsk." Nimnul chuckled. "As much fun as it is to panic,
I think it's important to note that you're not going to find any
way to an escape pod from inside here, let alone a way into it."

      "Meaning?" Chip prodded, defensively stepped up next to
Gadget. Dale took a position on the other side, also looking
protective of Gadget and her ideas.

      "Meaning, rodent, that we have to be out there, in the
actual hallways of the ship, to find the escape pods. We also
need to be in the hallways to actually be able to enter it."

      A dull explosion sounded from the far off battle, tremors
shaking the floor slightly. "Well how to we get out?" Monterey
looked around at the solid metal walls. Zipper flew about,
searching the niches and crevices for possible ways out.

      Nimnul shook his head, as if the answer was obvious. 
"Still, you are merely vermin. I shouldn't expect too much." 
Before  they could respond, he turned away and strode calmly 
down the way  they had come. The Rangers, still wanting to 
argue against that last statement, followed.

      Nimnul stopped after a minute, and walked to one of the
walls, crouching down. "We get out the same way that you 
rodents probably get in everywhere." He reached out and 
pushed the ventilation grate open. "Any questions class?"

      "Yeah." Dale grumbled. "When does our regular teacher get
back?"

      "Never mind Dale." Chip pushed his friend forward. "We've
got to get out of here. You can insult Nimnul later." They both
ducked out into the hallway after Nimnul.

      "Why put off tomorrow what you can do today?" Monterey
responded as he, Zipper and Gadget came through.

      The hallway wasn't too different from the inner workings of
the ship, aside that it was more spacious and much more 
barren. Aside from that, there were still metal walls, floors, and
ceilings, with strong overhead lighting. Nobody (or no thing, if
you want to get technical) was in sight.

      "Ah ha!" Nimnul cried triumphantly, pointing to a doorway
down the hall. "Just as I calculated! The escape pod!" He 
darted to the doorway and swept inside, the Rangers hot on his 
heels. Nimnul quickly began pressing buttons and pulling 
levers. The instrument panel blinked to life, and the doors 
sealed shut. Nimnul grinned and turned to the Rangers, only 
slightly  saddened that they had managed to keep up. "Strap 
in." He ordered.

      Another explosion went off, but felt much closer as it
rocked them to the floor. Gadget quickly hopped up on the 
control panel, searching the monitors and viewscreens as 
information  and images sprang forth. "Uh oh..." she grimaced 
looking at one of them.

      The others followed her eyes to the monitor, which was
showing a diagram of the portal. Sure enough, it was 
collapsing, but much quicker than anticipated. Nimnul quickly 
took his  seat in the pilot's chair and activated the firing 
sequence. As the jets breathed to life, the Rangers maneuvered 
about the control panel, keeping an eye on what was happening 
around them. There was a large viewport in front to see out of, 
but they guessed Nimnul would be watching out for things 
coming at them.  They were more concerned with things 
following them.

      The last of the rockets fired, and the escape pod lurched
out of the protective hull of the mothership into the barren
atmosphere. Starships were swarming about, apparently in
confusion.

      "What's wrong with them?" Dale asked, watching the 
monitor showing the activity on the right side of the pod. "Not 
that I'm complaining, mind you." The other starships were 
flying erratically about, some even crashing into each other. 

      "Here's what!" Chip read the data on the screen carefully.
"Darkwing and Megavolt *did* destroy the main drive! And it 
looks like they destroyed more than that, as well. All electronic
communication between the fleet has been garbled; they can't
coordinate their movements!" He grinned.

      "And with it being so crowded out there," Monterey 
watched as the screen displayed the fleet bashing into each 
other, "They've got a little game of demolition derby goin' on."

      Not all of the them, Monty, Zipper said with a motion
towards a monitor in the rear of the ship. Three starships were
moving in behind them. Not in formation, but not running into
each other either.

      "Tailgaters." Nimnul grumbled. He grasped the steering
controls tightly and dove sharply to the right. A barrage of
laser blasts filled the space were they used to be a split-second
later.

      "You know, Nimnul," Chip groaned as he climbed to his 
feet from his new spot on the floor, "It's normally considered 
good shipmate etiquette to shout `Hold on!' before preforming 
evasive maneuvers like that."

      "Oh, you'd prefer to be a pile of space dust, then?" Nimnul
shot back. "I'll keep that in mind."

      "You know what he means, Nimnul." Gadget moved over to 
a section on the control panel, did a quick inspection, and 
started to dismantle it.

      "What are you doing?" Nimnul yelled as he swung the pod 
to the left, evading another attack and sending the others 
Rangers back to the floor. Gadget managed to hang on, and 
continued working.

      "Oh relax, and concentrate on getting us to the portal." She
worked smoothly, gathering up various odds and ends. "I'm 
working on getting our pursuers off our back. But first, we 
have to be able to move about without being tossed around 
during your  flight pattern delta."

      "Whatever." Nimnul said, figuring what he didn't know
couldn't hurt him. Besides, Gadget was dismantling a section 
of the control panel that wasn't in use, so how important could 
it be?

      Within the minute, Gadget had managed to whip up some
magnetic boots for the Rangers, aside from Zipper. Using the
small magnets she took from the control panel, she used some 
of her personal supply of string and tape, so they could hold 
the magnets in place within the strips of cloth she had. They
couldn't move as fast, but they could move while Nimnul 
continued to play dodge `em.

      "Okay guys, just hold these wires together here and here..."
Gadget pointed out the spots. They were all gathered around 
the open section of the control panel, except for Zipper. The 
fly  was busy monitoring all of the screens and signaling to the 
others any information that Gadget asked about.

      They gritted their teeth as Nimnul went into another barrel
roll.

      "I don't think I'm ever going to ride a roller coaster
again." Dale moaned, then slapped his hand over his mouth.

      "We're almost to the portal!" Nimnul called out. "But it's
getting really small. This craft is going to be a tight fit! Even
so, we'll be sitting ducks when I make a beeline for it."

      "Keep going!" Gadget called out. "We've almost got it
covered."

      "Oh well," Nimnul shrugged and brought the pod into a 
direct path for the shrinking portal. "Who wants to live 
forever?"

      "I'd like to try." Dale admitted. He and the others
connected the wires as Gadget directed, allowing a tremendous
surge to flow through the pod, into the rocket thrusters in the
rear. The power from the system Gadget subverted dove 
directly into the propulsion units, creating a nasty reaction.

      The pod was shoved forward violently, forcing the Rangers 
to the floor again despite the magnets. The explosion behind 
them burst out wide, encompassing the oncoming pursuers. 
They  flew into a cloud of fire and smoke, with just a touch of 
electrical aftereffects. The residual surge wreaked havoc on  
their navigational devices, sending them off on wild goose 
chases as the escape pod broke through the collapsing portal, 
back into their home dimension.

      The portal, now much smaller than Nimnul realized, broke 
the pod as it passed through, releasing Nimnul and the Rangers 
into a freefall over a thousand feet above the city streets.

*****

      The trip to find the main drive had been relatively simple,
as Megavolt merely tuned in his energy seeker, and they 
followed its directions to find it. They crept quietly along, 
managing to avoid actually running into anything. A few 
minutes of stealth was rewarded as the main drive now loomed 
before them.

      "Ah...the main drive." Darkwing whispered.

      "Yeah." Megavolt stated blandly. After a moment, he 
added, "Now what?"

      "Now, we use the electrilizer to get inside the system, and
from there, we destroy it."

      "Oh." Megavolt switched the electrilizer on and grabbed
Darkwing. "Makes sense." He flipped it on, and it's eerie hum
encased both of them. A high-pitched whine erupted suddenly 
from all around them, and they heard running towards their 
direction.

      "Sounds like we tripped an alarm with that thing." 
Darkwing shouted over the siren.

      "Oh well, it's not like we're be around for much longer."
Megavolt replied, hitting the "send" button.

      "Could you rephrase that?" Darkwing asked as they were
sucked into the main drive. Darkwing held tightly to Megavolt 
as they travelled along the electronic current. "Which way 
now?"

      "Just go with the flow." Megavolt replied. "This current
will take us directly to the heart of the machine. Watch."

      Darkwing tried, but was starting to get a bit queasy. This
was never in the job description, he reassured himself. I'm
allowed to get a little queasy whenever I trip the electronic
ship fantastic. He gritted his teeth. Just a little, though.

      They sped quickly along, until Megavolt veered off to one
side, landing in what appeared to be a large room with a crystal 
in the center. Darkwing carefully released his grasp and looked
around as Megavolt headed over to the crystal, withdrawing his
Electro-gun.

      "I thought we were inside the main drive." Darkwing said,
looking around at the metal walls. "What is this place?"

      "The heart of the main drive. We're still inside alright,
but this is merely an electronic representation of it. Since
we're electrolyzed, our minds can form passing electrons in the
data stream into things and places more comfortable for us to
understand. You don't even have to think about it."

      "Well, that explains how you manage." Darkwing 
grumbled, walking over.

      "It's like dreaming." Megavolt apparently missed the last
remark. "Only we're awake. So maybe, non-dreaming 
dreaming..." He shrugged as he fired his Electro-Gun. A blast 
of energy hit the crystal ball, shattering it in one shot. "And 
without the heart to control the vast amounts of energy flowing 
through here, the main drive will overload in a few minutes, 
exploding, and  sending us back into the dimensional flow. 
Hopefully, towards our home dimension."

      Darkwing looked at the shards as Megavolt put his Electro-
Gun away. The Masked Mallard looked up at his arch-enemy.

      "That's it?"

      "Yep."

      "Rather anti-climatic, don't you think?" Darkwing felt
disappointed.

      "Hey, I just work here." Megavolt shrugged. "I don't write
these things."

      "Well, still I--duck!"

      "That's right, you're a duck." Megavolt agreed.

      Darkwing didn't verbally reply as he flipped over Megavolt,
kicking the metal viper that was aiming for Megavolt. 
Darkwing's kick smacked it squarely in the head, causing it to 
burst in a short flash of energy.

      "What was that all about?" Darkwing asked, on edge. He
looked around. "There's another one!"

      He pointed to the large, metal, segmented viper that was
flying deftly through the air towards them. Megavolt fired a
blast from his plug-helmet, scoring it directly in the chest.
Another flash of light, and it was gone.

      "Oh....yeah, that's right." Megavolt said as he and 
Darkwing watched yet more coming in at them trough the 
metal walls.  "Since we destroyed the heart of the main drive, 
the dimension walls  are collapsing. That includes the walls in 
the electronic worlds."  He fired several more shots, reducing 
them into flashes.

      "So what are these things?" Darkwing pulled his Gasgun 
free, not sure which setting would be effective.

      "Electronic signals from the mothership, probably. Since
this whole place is going to blow, it probably figures it's fair
to take us out at the same time." He continued firing as more
swarmed through the walls.

      Megavolt was busy with a group on one side, so Darkwing 
knew he'd have to hold of those on the other side. He leap 
forward into the midst of them, sending them into a flurry. 
They  flocked down around him, but at the same time he fired 
his grappling  hook up to the ceiling, pulling himself up 
swiftly. The swarming  metal vipers didn't seem to notice, and 
continued to annihilate themselves.

      Darkwing didn't have time to celebrate, however, as a
constant stream was flowing in from all around. He dropped 
back down to a clear spot on the floor, dishing out kicks and 
hits to any that got too close. It only took one hit to vanquish 
one, but Darkwing was already starting to feel the twinges of 
fatigue, ready to pounce.

      "We can't keep this up forever!" He called out.

      "We don't have to!" Megavolt responded. He abandoned the
single shot idea, and was now firing off wide-angled bursts,
clearing swaths of vipers in one shot. But another group of
vipers was right there to take up the empty place.

      "We only have to hold them off until the main drive blows,
then we'll be kicked out!" He continued, feeling his power
reserves steadily drain away with each blast. A swarm managed 
to get close enough to actually bite at him, but he quickly 
"melded" into the floor (being pure electricity has its 
advantages) and shot over to Darkwing, "popping" up next to 
him.

      Once again, the arch-enemies were back-to-back.

      "How long?" Darkwing shouted between hits. He was 
having difficulty seeing the opposite wall, as vipers were 
continuously pouring through.

      "How long what?" Megavolt fired off another immense 
blast, vaporizing dozens of vipers, only to have dozens more 
swarm  in.

      "How long until the computer overloads?" Darkwing wasn't
even thinking on how to fight. All he had to do was strike out
and he'd hit something.

      "Any minute now!" Megavolt's power was drained with his
final blast. "Unless we'll totally mistaken, and it won't blow up
at all." He punched the first viper that came in, but the other
forty-nine behind it dove in on him. "Nuts! And I never did get
to see the Toaster Oven Homepage--" His sentence was cut off 
with a gurgle and flutter of metal vipers.

      Darkwing was about to say something, when he felt several
sharp teeth dig into his back and sides. Completely 
surrounded, he was driven to the floor as the vipers continued 
to dig into him.

      "Gos..." was all he managed before he blacked out.

******

--Chapter 10: Hello Sunshine...--

      The sky was clearing up, the clouds parting and allowing
some sunshine to bathe the city below. Gadget noticed this 
with a smile, enjoying the moment even though the rest of the 
Rangers were holding on to her legs desperately as they 
continued  slowly to float towards the ground.

      You were right, Zipper nudged her as he flew alongside, it
*is* a good idea to always carry a parachute in case of
emergencies.

      "Thanks, Zipper." She glanced over at Nimnul, who had his
own parachute. "Good thing Nimnul learned the same lesson." 
She watched as he floated slowly away, the wind carrying him 
off  to the outskirts of the city. "Of course, it was probably a 
certain incident with a giant fly that convinced him of their
importance." She winked at Zipper, who gave a slight blush 
and grinned.

      "Crikey, sunshine!" Monterey grinned, hanging from 
Gadget's right leg. "I'd never thought I'd be so glad to see that!"

      "Is it morning already?" Dale asked, hanging from Gadget's
left leg. "I didn't think we were gone that long."

      "We were in another dimension, Dale." Chip answered, 
hanging onto his best friend. "Who knows how time worked 
over  there?"

      "Yeah, but we're back in our own again." Monterey 
sounded relieved, despite the fact the were still over 500 feet 
up in the air. "I don't know about you blokes, but I for one am 
willin' to stick with simple crimes for a while. Jaywalkers, 
litterbugs, insurance companies..."

      "Oh, I don't know, Monty." Chip glanced about, also 
feeling a bit relaxed. "How many crimefighters can say they've 
saved a dimension?"

      "Oh it's not *that* unusual, Chip." Dale laughed. "Happens
in the comics all the time."

      "Dale, that's fantasy. This is reality." Chip responded.

      "Well, this version of reality, anyway." Gadget corrected
him. "We know that there's a lot more beyond our own little
dimensional walls." She looked back up to the sky, which was 
now looking just like any other day; deep blue with patches of 
white, fluffy clouds.

      Zipper lazily glided down by them. I wonder if Darkwing 
and Megavolt made it out okay, his posture indicated.

      The rest of the Rangers were quite for a moment. Finally,
Chip spoke up. "Oh, I think so."

      "How can you tell?" Monterey asked.

      Chip shrugged as best he could, still clinging to Dale. "I
couldn't really give you an exact reason, Monty. It's just, well,
a feeling, I guess."

      Monterey nodded. "I know what you mean, Chipper."

      Gadget sighed. "Well, the important thing is that we 
managed to succeed, even though it was by the skin of our 
teeth." She  was quiet for a moment longer, then cleared her 
throat tentatively. "Um...guys? When we get back, do you 
think...you could help  me throw some things out?"

      "Sure, Gadget-luv." Monterey nodded. "What'cha want 
dumped?"

      "The things I salvaged from that wall unit."

      "What?" Dale and Chip asked in unison.

      But you were so excited to get it in the first place,
Zipper's questioning look read.

      "I know...but well, I just think there are some things that
are better left alone." She fiddled with her hands absently.
"Maybe it's better to just forget about studying dimensional
travel." A pause. "For now, anyway." She clarified.

      About ten minutes later, they finally landed, extremely 
grateful to feel the Earth under their feet again, even Zipper.
As one, they made their way back to their headquarters, taking
their time. Normally, each of them would be in a hurry, having
something they wanted to do back at the tree.

      This time, each was content to just enjoy the luxury of
being able to relax.

*****

      It was a marvelous parade. The entire city had turned out to
greet their favorite crimefighter. Streamers flew from every
building, and the chant of "Darkwing!" was heard throughout 
the streets. The motorcade eased its way down the parade path, 
slow enough for Darkwing to wave to his adoring public. 
Morgana  was at his side, along with Gosalyn and Launchpad. 
And there, in the driver's seat, was Grizzlikof. The huge bear 
had decided to forego the twenty dollars, as Darkwing had 
risked life and limb to save a dimension that wasn't even his. 
All in all, it was just the sort of welcome home that Darkwing 
knew he deserved.

      He wondered why the crowd changed their chant from
"Darkwing!" to "Dad!", though...

      "Dad! Dad! Come on, wake up!"

      The scene before him shifted and blurred, then went black. 
A light blur appeared, as Drake Mallard realized he was 
opening  his eyes. As he achieved more consciousness, more 
and more pain visited itself on him.

      "Take it easy, Gos. See? He's waking up."

      He was lying on his back. In a bed. His bed. As his eyes
slowly focused, he could recognize the ceiling he was staring 
at as looking just like the one in his room. His room...

      "Well, his eyes are opening, Launchpad, but he doesn't 
seem be getting more coherent. Of course, with Dad, that may 
be  asking for too much."

      His bed. His room. And those insults...

      "Gos?" He asked weakly.

      "Dad!" Gosalyn's tone snapped from cynical to joyous as

Drake spoke. She flung herself onto him, hugging him tight.
"You're back!"

      "What happened?" Drake managed to breathe after 
recovering from Gosalyn's crushing hug. He held her close, 
glad for the opportunity to do so.

      "We were hoping you could tell us, DW." Launchpad 
leaned over him and readjusted Drake's bandages. "Hooter told 
us you went in after Megavolt. There was a big explosion, and 
both of you disappeared. That was over a day ago."

      "We looked for you everywhere!" Gosalyn interjected, still
not letting go. "But there wasn't any sign. We thought maybe
you'd...you'd..." She buried her face in her dad's chest.

      Drake gently rubbed her back, feeling her tears on his
chest. "It's okay, honey." He grimaced as he felt another stab of
pain from the bite wounds on his sides. "Well, it will be." I'm
back home...he thought with a grin.

      "Anyway," Launchpad continued, "We were coming back 
for our search last night when you just sort of fell out of an 
alleyway."

      "Fell?"

      "Well, like you were pushed out, would be a better way to
put it. We thought we saw someone running off, but we 
couldn't see. You looked pretty bad, so we decided to skip the 
pursuit  and get you home." He looked sheepish for a moment. 
"Well, we  did stop for some take home at Hamburger Hippo, 
but only a for a minute!"

      Drake waved it off. "Never mind." He really didn't care. He
was home. That was all that was important. His injuries would
heal, and soon, now that he had his home turfs' laws of physics
again.

      "What happened, Dad?" Gosalyn lifted her head up to look 
at him. "You just don't disappear for over a day from SHUSH
headquarters and reappear with these nasty wounds. Well, not 
more than once a year, anyway."

      "I'll tell you once I get my strength back, Gos." Drake
sighed. "But I don't know how I got back exactly." Megavolt 
must know, he thought. And if he's the only one, I don't think 
I'll ever find out for sure.

      But that was a worry for another time. True, Drake wasn't 
in that parade he dreamed about, but Launchpad and Gosalyn 
were there, and at the moment, that was more than sufficient 
welcome for him.

--Epilogue--

      It was not a dark and stormy night. In fact, it was a bright
and sunny day. The sunlight streamed in from skylight, giving 
the room a healthy glow. Even Nimnul, tucked away over at his 
huge computer, took a moment to breathe in the atmosphere. 
He  then turned back to his computer. The screens that once 
held information about the robots now displayed information 
about  a small mechanical device that had been scanned and 
studied.

      The readouts took a moment to go over, and Nimnul then
leaned back, nodding to himself.

      "For a good time," He read out loud, "Call Mega-Volt. 
Normal long distance rates apply. Hmmm...I wonder what the 
charge is  for interdimensional long distance?"

THE END (?)