The Rangers were each packing their luggage for their longest vacation ever. Fat Cat had decided to leave the country to get away from the Rangers for a while, and since Nimnul was going to be in the asylum for a little while, they figured that they should take a vacation. Then Gadget came up with a brilliant idea.
"Why don't we each take a separate vacation? I think we all need some time alone," she had suggested. Now, two days later, each of the Rangers were almost ready to begin their own one year vacation. The Rangers piled their luggage into the Ranger Plane and Ranger Wing and headed for the airport. Monty, Zipper, and Gadget flew in the Ranger Wing, while Chip and Dale took the Ranger Plane.
"Well, I guess we'll see each other in a year," Dale said as he took his luggage over to a nearby plane. "Goodbye!"
"See ya in a year, mate!" Monty called as he and Zipper both went to another plane. Chip started to head for the terminal.
"This'll be the best vacation I've ever had!" Chip said. "Goodbye, Gadget! See you in a year!"
"Bye, Chip!" Gadget waved goodbye as she took her luggage, put it in the Ranger Wing, then got in the Ranger Plane. A day before, they had found the perfect place to store the Plane for a year. Gadget was going to take theRanger Wing on her vacation. After securing the Ranger Plane, she hopped in the Ranger Wing, started it up, and took off on her vacation.
ONE YEAR LATER
Chip was the first to return to Ranger HQ. As he walked in, he glanced around. "No one else is home yet. Well, a little more peace and quiet won't hurt..."
"Hey, Chip!" Dale slapped Chip on the back as he walked into Ranger HQ.
"Boy, it's been a while, hasn't it?"
'Not long enough,' Chip thought as he lifted his luggage and carried it into his room. Both were wearing their normal attire, yet the boys themselves looked as if they were a little worn out. "Hey, Dale, did you see Gadget or Monty on the way home?"
"Nope," Dale called. He shortly joined Chip in unpacking luggage. Dale had taken his favorite comics, yet when he opened his suitcase, Chip found that only one or two remained. He was about to ask him about it, when he heard a familiar--and beautiful--voice ring out through the halls.
"Anybody home?" The two chipmunks ran into the hall to behold Gadget. She was dressed in her familiar lavender coveralls, and looked somehow more beautiful--possibly because she had gotten a beautiful tan.
"Hi, guys! Did you two have a good vacation?"
"Yea..." both remarked as they stared at Gadget. She had never looked so beautiful. Then a large shadow was cast over her. They knew it could only be...
"Monterey Jack! Zipper!" Gadget said as she turned to face the final vacationers. Both of the two adventurers were dressed in their normal wardrobe, yet their clothes were ripped, torn, and had generally looked better one year ago.
"Gadget-love, you've done gone and gotten prettier!" Monterey remarked, for the tan she had gotten was the first thing he noticed about Geegaw's little girl. Then he looked around. "Man, it's been a year? It hasn't even seemed that long!" "Well, let's go ahead and unpack, then we can tell each other about our vacations!" Gadget, Monterey, and Zipper went to their respective rooms and spent about ten minutes unpacking. Chip and Dale, in the meantime, checked around Ranger HQ to make sure no one had broken in or stolen anything. To their relief, everything turned out to be exactly the way they had left it. They met the other Rangers in the main room, where each of them began to relate to the others the story of their vacation.
Wolfsbane
A Story Told by Rescue Ranger Dale Oakmont
The plane we were in flew quite gracefully over the Brazilian Amazon rain forest. I was able to see nothing but trees and a river at that altitude. I must admit that the beautiful scenery left me completelyspeechless.
My beautiful new bride, Foxglove, sat lovingly besides me. Our wedding was just a week ago, and I have decided to use my one year vacation as our honeymoon. Foxy was more than delighted about the whole idea.I thought that Brazil was a nice place to start with because the vacation began in February, and I wanted to see the Mardi Gras in Rio de Janerio. After all, there was no bigger party animal than me, and the Mardi Gras was the biggest party in the world. Foxglove had her own reasons for wanting to visit Rio. Her cousin Morcego lived in a cave in the outskirts of the city. She didn't know very much about him, but he was the closest relative she had. All she did know about him was that he only left the cave at night and slept during the day, but that's what bats usually do.
It was nightfall when we parachuted out of the plane--and landed next to Morcego's
cave. It was a very dark and spooky looking place. It almost reminded me of
the haunted castles that I and the Rangers visited when we were in Britain.
The mere sight of it was giving me the creeps already. It looked like a cave
on the cover of "Better Tombs and Caskets" magazine.No sooner had
we got our parachutes off when three bats flew out of the cave entrance to greet
us. The one in the middle was the tallest one, and he was a very handsome guy
for a bat. I knew in a flash that he must have been Foxy's cousin Morcego. The
two between him didn't look very bright to me because they both had goofy looking
expressions on their faces.
"Ola, my dear cousin Foxglove," said Morcego. "Bem vinda a minha
casa.""Oats and big vines to you too, buddy," I replied in a
effort to be polite without making it look like I don't know any Portuguese
and sounding like some uneducated dummy. I apparently succeeded.
"Allow me to introduce you to my servants," he said as he showed us the two little bats who then bowed their heads. "The one on the left is Nightshade, and the one on the right is Mandrake. I have always heard from friends that you were beautiful, Foxglove, but they have obviously understated. And who is this handsome and interesting gentleman?"
"This is my new husband, Dale Oakmont," she said proudly while she modestly blushed from her cousin's flattery. "We just got married last week."
"Parabens, Senhor e Senhora Oakmont!" he said. "Please feel free to spend your stay in Brazil in my cave, my dear newlyweds."
"Oh boy!" I said as Mandrake and Nightshade took our luggage and carried it into the cave. "Free lodging. Gee, thanks, Morcego. But are you sure we're not imposing on you?"
"Not at all," he answered. "I always enjoy having guests for dinner."
No sooner had we settled down in the cave when Nightshade and Mandrake were creaming me in a game of pogs while Morcego was showing Foxglove his guest room. It had a rafter on the ceiling for her to hang on, and there was a black bed for the both of us with a lid and handles. If I didn't know that it was a bed, I would have sworn it was a coffin. She also noticed that there were no openings in the walls for sunlight. The entire room was lighted by fireflies that Morcego had placed in lanterns on the tables.
"You have a very lovely room, Morcego," Foxy said as she started to get nervous.
"Thank you," he replied as he smiled and showed his fangs. "You and Dale had better get used to the style because it will be your lifestyle for the rest of your lives, and that will be for all eternity." Before she had the chance to ask him what he was talking about, he covered her mouth to keep her from screaming as he used his sharp fangs to puncture two holes into her neck in order to take a good drink of her blood.
As soon as he finished drinking something very strange happened to Foxglove. The two punctures that Morcego had placed on her neck have quickly disappeared. Her soft brown eyes turned bloody red. The teeth in her mouth grew and sharpened into fangs while she sprouted a full head of soft brown hair that grew down her back. Her face was just as beautiful as ever, but it resembled that of a seductive she-demon.
Her body began to change as well. Her waist grew smaller, her figure grew more curvaceous, her shadow disappeared, her fur turned dark brown, and her breasts became more buxom. A sleeveless black dress that was cut to reveal her wonderful breasts then appeared on her.
As soon as her transformation was finished, evil thoughts came into her head to replace all of the innocent ones that she usually had. She looked at her cousin with an expression of slavish devotion.
"Welcome to the world of the living dead, my dear cousin," Morcego said with an evil laugh. "You will be immortal and remain forever as young and beautiful as you are now, and you now endowed with supernatural powers as a vampire bat. As of this very instant, Foxglove no longer exists. You are now and forever more to be known as Wolfsbane."
"Thank you, my dear cousin," said Wolfsbane with a voice that was softer and more sinister than Foxy's.
"Now go," said Morcego. "Share your gift with your new husband so that he can help us spread it all over South America. And when you two return to the United States, you can also share it with your friends, the Rescue Rangers."
Meanwhile, I have finished my pog game with Mandrake and Nightshade in the living room, and I was then giving them the comic books that I have brought with me as presents. They were some of my favorite horror comics, and they were about vampires and werewolves. After they left, I dozed off on the couch.
"Wolfsbane"
Charles Williams
I saw Wolfsbane standing right in front of me when I woke up about an hour later,
and I was totally astonished by the very sight of her. I thought that she was
still plain old Foxglove trying out a Gothic look for the Mardi Gras, and she
looked absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. No. I mean that she was outright sexy.
"I'm sorry, cute stuff," she said in a soft seductive voice as she sat down on my lap. "I hope I didn't wake you. What do you think of my new image? I have even decided to change my name to Wolfsbane."
I was too flabbergasted by her sexy new attitude to say anything as she embraced me with her wings, drew closer and closer to me as if she was about to kiss me, smiled, and said, "I hope you like what you see because you're going to share it with me in a few minutes."
I was able to see the fangs in her mouth when she smiled and her lack of a shadow to realize that she was no longer my Foxy. I was able to tell from all the horror movies I saw and all my horror comics that she had been turned into a vampire.
I quickly pushed Wolfsbane off of my lap before she had the chance to bite me. "Don't be stupid!" she hissed as she fell to the ground. "Let me finish the job, and we will literally be together forever. We will even be able to share this wonderful gift of immortality with the other Rescue Rangers."
"I know that you're in there somewhere, Foxy," I pleaded as I walked slowly away from her. "Please fight it."
As I slowly stepped away from her, I suddenly remembered reading a story in one of my comic books that told how to cure a vampire. I began to look for it when I just realized that I gave all of my comics to Nightshade and Mandrake. I felt so guilty about making such a stupid mistake that I bonked myself on the head. (Well, Chip wasn't there to do it.)
I continued to slowly step away when I bumbed into a pole, causing a cross-shaped twig to fall on the ground. I picked it up, and I held it in front of Wolfsbane, and this caused her to move away from me in fear.
I was about to make her change back into Foxglove when Morcego and his two goons sneaked up from behind me, grabbed me, and twisted my arms until I dropped the cross onto the ground. "Keep holding him!" he ordered them. "Don't worry, Senhor Oakmont. Once your beautiful bride shows you her affection, the both of you will only need to spend one day in the coffin, and you two will be vampires forever as we extend the same courtesy to the entire world."
Suddenly, the stuffiness of the cave made him go into a sneezing fit, and he sneezed so hard that he blew me across the room, and I smashed into a wall as I caused it to crumble and create a small ray of sunlight that shined on Morcego and his two thugs.
Morcego shrieked like a banshee at the sunlight, and he tried to protect himself by covering himself up with his wings, but it was no use. The early morning light still shined on him until it caused him and his flunkies to disappear in three puffs of smoke.
Wolfsbane screamed as she covered herself in her wings as well, and she changed back into my beloved Foxglove. "Dale," she asked with a confused look on her lovely and innocent face. "What's going on? Where am I?"
After I explained it all to her, we then went to bed and enjoyed the Mardi Gras the next morning. I went dressed as Elvis, and she went as Tina Turner.
Five months later, we were in Memphis, Tennessee visiting Graceland when Foxy thanked me for the ten thousandth time for saving her from a fate that was truly worse than death. "Think nothing of it, sweetheart," I told her. "I'm at my best when I'm under strees."
"That's great to hear, darling," she said as she gave me a great big kiss on the lips. "Now get ready for even more stress, namely fatherhood. I'm pregnant. I'm going to have our baby in about eight months."
After hearing such great news, I suddenly felt like taking a spontaneous nap on the ground, and that's exactly what I did.
The End
Thanks to Stephen A. Stone (Aivars) for his permission in using "One Year Vacation" opening. If you would like to contribute your own story about one of the Rescue Rangers year-long vacation, stop by The Gadget/CDRR Web Site of Stephen T. Stone for details.