RESCUE RANGERS: DARK MILLENIUM
PART FIVE
Chip n' Dale's Rescue Rangers (C) Disney, used without permission.
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EPILOGUE Final Redemptions
"Good riddance to magic and everything to do with it!" Dale stated
in irritation to himself when he, in the room he shared with Chip (but
which he himself was currently alone in), stashed the Unipencil in a
dresser drawer. Walking away, he suddenly thought about how irresponsible
it was that he was virtually looking a gift horse in the mouth. But
he decided that, to compensate, he'll try to remember it next time they're
on a case. For now, he wanted to just forget it... and then he changed
his mind and thought he was probably getting mad over absolutely nothing,
which is exactly what he was doing, but he felt like being dramatic.
But right now his priority, as far as he was concerned, was to
look after Mademanna. Gadget, arriving home (Monty had to fly the Wing
since Gadget was still slightly limp) had first taken to looking at
Mademanna, then herself. While she was a genious with a self-described
Mind-Bashingly High IQ, the technology used for Mademanna and Gadget's
cyborg parts seemed light years in the future, and Gadget could only
make out a few principles of how it worked. But, Gadget had said with
an ounce of hope, it seemed like both were simply in their programmed
energy recharge phases (in other words, sleeping) so there was nothing
to worry about.
Still, Dale and Foxglove made it a point to watch over Mademanna,
just in case. In the little time they had spent doing so, both came to
love the girl more than they already had, almost as if she were there
daughter, almost as if they were a married couple...
Meanwhile, Chip had recovered from his shock, having awakened just
as Monty was carrying him into his room. "Monty!" Chip exclaimed, "what's
going on?"
"The fight's over, me lad, and we won! Course, you fainted from
shock, li'l miss Pennywinkel is busted up something bad, Gadget's
temporarily disabled, and Mademanna's asleep, but we suffered no permanent
casualties. Zipper's recovering nicely from 'is blow. Left 'im on the
sofa, I did."
"I'm glad to hear *that*!" Chip sighed. "Ummm... where is she,
anyway?"
"Who?"
"Pennywinkel."
"Frog took 'er to their room. As I said, she was bruised up
somethin' awful. Had a victory hug with Frog, but she was so knocked up
that it nearly knocked her out. I think she's sleeping."
"Still," Chip climbed out of Monty's arms, "I want to talk to
her. There's something I've got to say, right now."
"If you say so, but be ready to hear me say 'I told you so'."
Chip didn't care if Monty was right or not. There was one thing he
needed to get off his chest. Quickly he ran down the hallway and to
Frog and Pennywinkel's shared room, where Frog was watching over an
obviously bruised and battered twelve-year-old who did not at all seem
like the amazing superpower who used to make Chip's life a living hell.
"Umm, Frog, I need to talk to Pennywinkel. *Alone*."
Frog, ever so understanding, stood, shrugged, and said "Okay."
Oh, and he left the room. With that, Chip sat down in a chair next to
Pennywinkel's bed, and held the dear girl's hand.
"Pennywinkel... I'm not sure if you can hear me, but I... I'm sorry
about... how I was earlier. I mean, I was shocked when I learned you...
Oh, nevermind. But Nowhere Man was right. When I ended up wearing the
same shoes, I found I understood the situation better. I guess when
there's blood on your hands, even a genious will use even the stupidest
excuses to wash his or her hands of it, right?" Chip waited for a
response, and got none. Sighing, he concluded "It's okay if you don't
forgive me. I'm not so sure I would either..."
Suddenly, he felt his hand being squeezed. Looking over, he saw
that the girl's face now wore a smile. He chuckled. With a "thank you"
he got up, and left. Outside the door, he happened to see--and hear--
Frog playing what looked like an ocarina, and despite Frog's less-than-
apt musical talents, he seemed to be doing a great job of it, with a
great and beautiful tune. In fact, he somehow seemed to be playing a
full orchestra...
Deftly Chip moved, and with a quick thrust of his hand and an
"Aha!" found a miniature tape player in Frog's Pocket.
"Doh! Nuts!" Frog sarcastically cursed.
Handing it back to him, saying "Nice try," the two laughed over the
incident as they parted ways, Chip heading to the den of the Ranger HQ,
wherein he found Dale, with Foxglove, enjoying a movie as usual. Suddenly
Chip found his seriousness returning, and he walked slowly and steadily
onward, until he was right beside the sofa.
"Dale!"
"Yikes! Err, what, Chip?"
"Quit wasting your time watching TV, We should be out solving
mysteries!"
"Ummm..."
"In fact, one just came up, one that I need *your* help to solve."
Dale listened with anticipation, his annoyance growing.
"I need you to find Issue #28 of Amazing Werewolf Stories. Issue
#27 cut off in the middle of a story arc."
"Huh?" Dale was surprised to hear this from Chip. But suddenly,
the joke was blown as Chip himself started laughing. Suddenly Dale heard
Foxglove laugh as well, and, laughter being contagious, himself joined
in. Then Dale finally got the joke, and laughed even harder.
Only three days later, the exact day that the whole adventure
had started, that had initially spelled the death knell for most of
our heroes, Frog, Pennywinkel, and Mademanna were all well and fine,
and walking in the bookstore. The same one the Endo Boys had caught
Pennywinkel stealing from. There, they browsed various isles while
thinking over various things.
"Let's see, Mystery," Frog thought and read, "So, where's this
world's version of P.D. James?"
"P.H. Dames?"
"P.H.?"
"Pretty Hot."
"Oh."
Right behind them was the Horror shelf. "Hmmmm."
"What *are* Horror books like in this universe?" Pennywinkel
wondered.
"Oh, something you'd expect from Disney," Frog answered, pulling
out books as if in demonstration. "Monster goes Boo! Monster goes
Boo! Monster goes Boo! Monster goes... Eep?" He broke the train
of thought, staring at the title of a book. "Well, there you have it,
Monster goes Eep."
"Ah, so I see. It's almost ironic that this world's pun of
Buck Rogers is named, of all things, 'Snuff Lodgers'."
"Well, you know Disney. Little Mermaid's box art, Aladdin's
secret line, the Lion King's flowers... speaking of which, yer pretty
hot yourself."
"Oh Frog, are you actually making a come-on?"
"Actually no, I just wanted to see if you'd react."
"Oh."
"Ya know, I wonder what ever happened to Nowhere Man."
"No question there," Pennywinkel grabbed his arm, and pulled him
down to the Children's Book section, where Mademanna was. Frog looked,
and saw, and said "This can't be natural."
For on the shelves was packed a series of books. The first being
called "To The Rescue", which was quite a long book. The second book,
ironically, was called "Piratsy Under the Seas." and the third,
"Catteries Not Included." The series as a whole was titled "Chip n'
Dale's Rescue Rangers."
And each one was written by Noah Mann.
"Whoa, would the Acorn Cafe love to get their hands on *these*!"
Frog softly exclaimed.
"Disney, meet Real Capitalism."
"But how is this possible?" Frog flipped through the book of
"To the Rescue." "I mean, he seems to have the whole case down in spades!"
"Of course, silly!" Pennywinkel giggled. "He's about eighteen
now. He goes to the Zoo every day. Says it 'inspires' him. The truth?
I go to the Zoo too. So does Mademanna. It just so happened that I
allowed him to borrow my laptop which, of course, contains every episode
of Rescue Rangers in Realplayer format."
"Wow! I bet the Acorn Cafe would love to have *that* too! Umm...
Pied Piper Power Play?"
"Unedited version. Frog, you were *there* when Dad showed us how
to encode movies!"
"Oh, right. Wicked!" he cheered. "So Nowhere Man's a novelist,
eh?"
"Well, part-time. He also runs a charity organization... and does
detective work."
"Eh?"
"He wants to help, silly! You can't help just by writing childrens
books!" Almost ironically, she turned to see a pair of little boys, one
dressed in a Chip-themed outfit and the other dressed with a Hawaiian
shirt similar to Dale's. They got into an arguement about who was the
better detective, Chip or Dale, and eventually ended up beating each
other over the head. "Though I suppose he does have *some* effect."
Pennywinkel surrendered. "They're going to be making a cartoon soon,"
she added, intentionally a bit louder.
Suddenly the two kids stopped fighting, and looked up at her.
"Chip and Dale? A CARTOON?"
"Yep. Even says so right here," She pointed out. And sure enough,
on the last page of book five, "Flash the Wonder Dog," there was a
grand announcement stating that a cartoon series was in the works.
The only disappointment? It wouldn't be out until next year. But the
kids could wait.
"Why next year?" Frog asked once the kids went away. "I mean,
can't he just port episodes off your PC?"
"Yea, but he wants the books to come out first."
"OH!"
"Oh, there's something I've got to do. Stay here."
Pennywinkel teleported out of the store, while Frog just stood there
and shrugged.
They were more than mere soldiers to him. They were his allies.
More than that, they had been his friends. Mevos, despite his life
outlook and training that caused him to almost always see people, things,
and objects as either obstacles to overcome or destroy, or tools to
manipulate for his own ends, had only once in his life broken that
standard. He had loved these kids, and wept his heart dry when they
were ripped from him.
And now they were properly buried in a remote corner of the park,
near a lamp post where the dirt would be less disturbed (unless the
city totally renovated itself later on, which was unlikely). He had
Rodent-Sized himself, and the coffins containing the bodies, for otherwise
he'd never be able to fit them anywhere, least not without the regular
authorities finding out and getting suspicious. The last thing Mevos
felt he needed right now was a complication.
But that was a long time ago. Now Mevos was praying. Praying to
whom, no one knows. Perhaps God, perhaps a pantheon of gods. Perhaps
to a demon, or maybe even to his own mask. Whatever the case, it took
fifteen minutes, but soon his prayers were over. Drawing some
(supposedly) religious symbol in the air, he stood, and placed three
American flags (the thirteen-star variety) into the ground. Mevos,
the patriot, honoring his fallen fellows. Finally, after a military
salute, he turned, and walked away.
Pennywinkel peeked out from behind the lamp post where she had been
hiding. Unknown to Frog, she had been carrying with her six flags.
Three flags contained the Communist symbol of the Sickle and Hammer.
The other three, a Nazi Swastika. Watching Mevos leave, she snuck up
to where he had placed the flags. There she stood, menacingly over the
graves.
In her mind, Pennywinkel went over every last thing she could
remember that would cause such hate and loathing that she now felt, and
wanted to feel. Everything she could to deliver what she thought would
be the ultimate insult to Mevos.
She grabbed the flags, and lifted her arms, ready to thrust them
into the ground...
But suddenly, one word popped into her head, one word that changed
everything. One word, that caused her to re-think her position.
That word, was "No."
And she was not so certain she wanted to do this anymore. She
was mean, she was vengeful, she could be scary when she wanted to be, but
could she be *this* mean?! Perhaps this was going a bit too far...
She looked up, and saw Mevos, looking back, watching, waiting.
The two stared at each other. Finally, Pennywinkel let her arm
drop, keeping her hands on the flags, and walked away. She tasted defeat,
but this time, it somehow seemed less bitter.
Mevos stood silent, and again walked away.
RESCUE RANGERS: DARK MILLENIUM
THE END
THANK YOU FOR READING
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And now for something totally cliche: The preliminary Afterword.
Well, after all is said and done, I had only one thing to say:
Good riddance! Writing Dark Millenium turned out to be a really eye-
opening experience for me in more ways than three. Let me start from
the beginning...
When I first set out to write Dark Millenium, on July the 14th
of the year 2002 (A Space Odyssey, By Arthur C. Clarke ;) I set out to
write what I hoped would be the Quintessential Best Fanfic written by me.
One which would fix many of the glaring flaws I noticed in my own writing.
These included, in my opinion: Shafting character development (mostly
fixed), a bad tendancy to write myself into corners (needs work), a bad
tendancy to resort to humor (masked better, but not fixed), as well as
an inability to avoid making jokes when the opportunity arises (controlled
better, but not fixed), situations that solve themselves (fixed), plots
where the Rangers barely even participate (fixed), villains being defeated
due to some lucky chance or a deus ex machina (fixed), too damn many
pop-culture references (bite me, I like 'em), too much talking (fixed),
too many slow scenes where the characters sit around and do virtually
nothing (manipulated to be not so useless), inconsistent/lacking
continuity (fixed), a huge spider on my keyboard (smashed), having ideas
and subplots that end up unused or simplified in the final release
(inevitable), and finally, an inability to write long fanfics.
It is about that last one that I would like to go into some detail
about: When I envisioned Dark Millenium, I knew it would be an epic-
length adventure, and the challenge of it was one of the main forces
that compelled me to finish this piece of work (another being the fact
that it introduced a character who without me would never have seen the
light of text, the need to get my continuity and characters all
straightened out, and finally there was a higher, more important reason
that for now I will keep to myself, that has nothing to do with glory,
self-improvement or even getting a good review). When I began this, I
was ecstatic. In level one, I laughed at the Hyenas.
By level ten, I had stopped laughing (Those who remember the ad
campaign for the Lion King video game should get that joke). Readers
of this fanfic may think the quality of the fanfic began to degrade
halfway through part three (though knowing my luck that'll be everyone's
favorite part). This is because, at this time, I was getting bored with
writing this fanfic, not because the story itself is bad, but rather
because I don't have that kind of patience (Really, it's one of my most
criticized characteristics). At that point, writing the story seemed to
be more of a chore than something fun and exciting and groundbreaking.
I openly commented to several of my friends that after Dark Millenium
was done, I would, quote, "never, EVER write a novel-length Ranger
fanfic again!" No telling if that's true or not, because the rest of
my fanfic agenda was to be short stuff anyway. Who knows what the future
holds...
Nevetheless, however, Dark Millenium, besides being long (And all
those fixes I mentioned earlier), was a first for me in three ways.
First, it was the first story to use the double-columning (which I had
told some friends I wanted to introduce. Oddly, like all stylish things
I try out, initially I wanted to use it for purely practical purposes).
Secondly, this is the first time I actually had my brain on while writing
the story, which was, as expected, extremely helpful as it helped me
achieve the fixes that I achieved. In fact, there was only one detail
I couldn't keep straight in my mind--Mevos height. He's described as
being as tall as Monty (And if you remember the series episode "Puffed
Rangers" you can see for yourself how big Monty is when he's human-sized)
but my mind had him occasionally being even with Frog (who is Gadget's
height when he's mouse-sized). Fortunately, Mevos' size was never really
anything more than a detail, so it didn't hurt the story at all. Finally,
this is the first time I ever went back and edited a story post-completion
(The short lived AC Story Board "Toonami Version" notwithstanding). In
particular, after finishing the story, I could see no reason why our
little Pennywinkel would want to do something like what she planned (and
yes, that *is* a major offense. Not only is it disrespectful to the dead
and a slur on the memory of them, but there's no bigger way to offend
someone than to associate them with groups they had no involvement with).
Thus I went back and added a chat between her and Po where she talked
about Mevos and politics. That probably ended up making her look more
crazy than anything, but since the girl is supposed to have a Dark Side
anyway, I let it stick. I also added two lines to make Mademanna a bit
more cute, and added paragraphs to the ending to showcase the change that
had come over Chip. All in all, I think it worked out fine.
And I bet you're wondering what was cut or altered? Probably not,
but that's the kind of stuff I would look for on a special edition DVD,
so I will include brief info here:
* There was to be a scene where Frog is rushing hastily on a
street, and is knocked unconscious by a sneak attack from Mevos.
* Connected to the above scene, one of the original "Mevos
captures all" scenes I had envisioned involved the Mevster on a building
top, having everyone tied to a series of lightning rods during a storm.
The scene would've ended with Mademanna getting struck, causing her to
go hyperactive (the reason this would happen was explained--very badly--in
my fanfic "The Darkest Corner") and from there being a huge player in
everyone's escape.
* The above was replaced with an early version of the scene at
Fat Cat's Casino, which was more or less the same except that it featured
Mevos learning of Max Alpha, partly via Pennywinkel and Mademanna and
partly via the unexpected appearance of Max's brother Miles. At this
point, Mevos was anti-Mademanna, viewing her as an abomination he should
destroy rather than an enemy technology he should master.
* There was going to be a lot more detail put into Mevos history,
and originally I was going to be upfront about it rather than keeping
it a mystery.
* My original idea for the plot involved the Millenium Orb a LOT
more than this one did. Mevos was to have already known about it, rather
than discovering it by accident. Also Mevos was not originally possessed
by a demon.
* Dale was originally going to get magical abilities instead of
a pencil. Zipper and Monty were to get some form of enhancement as well
(I know, Monty got those shoes, but as Gadget plans on making those for
the whole team it's not really the same thing). Problem was, I forgot
what I was going to do for Monty (all I know is that it--natch--involved
cheese) and couldn't find a credible way to fit Zipper's (the ability to
turn into a streak of lightning) into the plot.
* And finally, there were going to be several scenes, not all of
them friendly, which would have surely gotten this fanfic an R rating and
which the Acorn Cafe might've lambasted me for, even though absolutely
none of them involved Gadget (You can rest now, PDJ ;).
Anyway, for the moment, I am done writing fanfics. Hopefully my
current stock will keep you occupied until I can churn out more Ranger
tales. If they don't, well it's not like there aren't 300+ Ranger
fanfics out there anyway.
Dark Millenium was begun at 6:07 PM on Sunday, July 14, 2002, and was
completed at 7:07 P.M. on Monday, September 30th, 2002.
So long, and thanks for all the fish!
Back to the stories
Chip n' Dale's Rescue Rangers (C) Disney, used without permission.