By Jareth
Chapter six: The perfect plan
“Is everyone here?” asked Chip as he closed Gadget’s workshop
door. Chip had ordered a meeting in gadget’s workshop to discuss what to
do about the Winifred situation. Now that Foxglove was out for her usual 4:00
feeding, it was safe to discuss the matter openly.
Chip looked around the room to make certain that everyone was present. “Good,
now before I begin, are there any questions?” Chip was being very professional
about the whole thing.
“Yeah,” Dale said, looking at Chip “if Foxy’s gone, then how come where hiding in here?”
“I don’t want take any chances.” Chip said firmly
“But it’s hot in— *BONK ow…”
“Now,” Began Chip, rubbing his fist. “If Winifred’s going to try to become a real witch again, then she’s more than likely to use the same potion she did last time. All we need to do is catch her while she’s collecting her ingredients. The question is, how do we stop her? Any suggestions?” Chip looked around the room.
“I remember the ingredients.” Said Gadget. “They were elephant earwax, lobster lips, lightning bug bulbs, a chieftain’s hair, and a piece of the moon.” Gadget always did have an impeccable memory.
“Well,” Chip began “since the 5th ingredient has already been collected, I think we should stake out the areas where the other ingredients would be. We just need a way to let each other know if we find her. Gadget, do you think you could make some sort of pager?” Chip looked over toward Gadget.
“Sure!” said Gadget, excited by this new challenge. “The design is simple enough, but I’ll need the right kind of capacitators and…” Gadget, now fixated on building this new device, began to walk to the far end of the workshop, talking to herself.
At this point Monty took a turn to add his two cents. “That’s a good plan and all, but what are we gonna tell Foxglove when we all leave at once like that.”
Chip thought about this for a moment. “We’ll tell her that we’re going to go see a movie.”
“And that she’s not invited?” Monty added.
“We’ll just tell her that we’re seeing a movie that she doesn't like.” Chip responded “But which movies dose Foxglove dislike?”
Dale knew this one. He had stayed up with Foxglove one night to watch movies together. All was going well, until Dracula came on. Foxglove hated Dracula because of how it portrayed bats, and had left the room until it was over. “Dracula!” Dale yelled, excited by the fact that for once, he had the solution. “Foxy hates Dracula!”
“Then it’s settled, we’ll tell Foxglove that we’re all going to see Dracula. That way, she’ll stay here.”
“But whose going ta keep an eye on her?” Monty asked, realizing the danger Foxglove would be in if she was left alone.
Zipper came forward and made an “I’ll do it” noise.
“That’s perfect.” Said Chip. “That way, if she flies anywhere, he can still keep an eye on her.”
At this point, Gadget emerged from the depths of her workshop, arms bulging with various parts. “Good news guys,” Gadget said excitedly. “I have all the pieces. If I start now, I can have 5 of them done in fifteen minutes.”
“Great, go ahead!” Said Chip.
At this point there was a long pause before Gadget added rather quietly, “I need a little privacy.”
“Oh!” Everyone else practically said in unison as they all blushed and quickly walked out of the room, shutting the door behind them. For the next fifteen minutes, Chip, Dale, Monty, and Zipper all sat in front of the TV, watching a little bit of Shakespeare in Love. Finally, after fifteen minutes of waiting, Gadget emerged from her workshop, carrying a pile of what looked like small silicone chips, each with a green LED on one side and a small button on the other.
“Here they are guys.” Proclaimed Gadget as she dumped the crude pagers onto the table.
“Crikey!” Monty exclaimed, picking one up. “They’re amazin’…! What are they?”
“These are the signaling devices I made.” Explained Gadget. “Just push this button,” Gadget depressed the button. As she did so, all of the devices except the one she pushed began blinking. “and viola, all of the others blink. If one of us sees Winifred, they can let the rest of us know just by pushing the button. The signal only carries for 20 miles, but I’m pretty sure we’ll all be in the same vicinity”
“Great!” Said Chip, helping himself to a signaler. “Now all we need to do is assign patrol areas. Gadget, you patrol the elephant exhibit at the zoo.”
“Sure” Gadget said with a smile
“Monterey, you patrol the lobster unloading dock on the harbor front.”
“Sure thing mate!” Monty said, giving a thumb up.
“Dale, you patrol the police chief’s office”
“Okay.” said a less than enthused Dale. This one sounded boring.
“I’ll patrol the drive in Movie Theater.” Chip finished
“Hey!” yelled Dale. “No fair! You gave yourself the fun one!”
Chip rolled his eyes “Dale, that theater closed 6 months ago, all that’s there are a bunch of lightning bugs!”
“Yeah, well watching lightning bugs is more fun than watching the chief’s hair fall out.” Dale protested.
“*Ugh, fine!” Chip moaned, slapping his forehead. “You have the drive in and I’ll have the toupee— uh, chief!”
“That’s better.” Dale said, closing his eyes and crossing his arms.
Later, around 8:59, Foxglove and the Rangers were all watching TV when Gadget
stood up. “I just remembered,” she said, reaching into her pocket.
“I got tickets for all of us to see Dracula at 9:30 tonight.” She
held up the fake tickets for all to see.
“Alright! Cheered everyone but Foxglove, who simply said, “*Yech!”
“That’s alright foxy-luv, Zipper can stay here with you!”
“That’s okay,” said Foxglove, looking distressed. “I don’t want his night to be ruined on my account.”
“Nonsense!” Monty said in a friendly tone. “Zipper wants to stay with ya. Don’t ya Zipper?”
Zipper flew over to Foxglove, landed on her shoulder, and hugged the right side of her face.
“See?” said Monty, patting Foxglove on the back. “He wants to stay here with ya!”
“Well, if he really wants to…” Foxglove trailed off, still convinced that she had ruined Zippers potentially wonderful night at the movies.
“We’ll be back late, but feel free to help you self to the fridge.” Said Chip as he began to walk out the door.
“Bye!” Everyone said at once as they closed the door.
“Good bye. Foxglove said, directing it at Dale.”
Chip shut the door. “Okay, he whispered, pulling the signaler from his jacket, does everyone remember where they’re supposed to patrol.”
“Yes.” Everyone else whispered at once.
“Great” he said, giving a thumbs up.
The Rangers all put their hands to together. “Rescue Rangers, away!”
They whispered as they all ran off in different directions.