It's A Jungle Out There
By CD
Part Seven
The vacation for the two Stoneturners had come to an end, and Mercy and Philip
were at the airport concourse, waiting for their flight. Philip now had twice
as much luggage as when he first arrived, thanks to the many souvenirs he begged
for. He was licking an ice cream until Mercy put a hand on his shoulders, she
looked a bit worried.
“What’s up?” he asked and noticed his sister pointed at something.
Philip looked at what scared her sister so much to see the salamander prince
that wrecked their day at the beach, along with two of his gorillas. He was
even more shocked to see that the prince pull out a Colt 1911 and that one of
friends carried a knife, the other a bat.
“Okay everybody, were simply looking for a girl. Stay down on the floor
and everything will be hunky-dory,” the salamander shouted and fired at
shot at the ceiling.
Mercy wondered where these guys got that type of weaponry but wasn’t planning
to ask them. “God, that {censored} got a heater!” Mercy hissed and
ducked.
She grabbed her luggage and sneaked out of the concourse, Philip following her
leads. The three thugs noticed them and gave chase. Mercy reached the metal
detectors and passed them, the devices triggered the alarm as Mercy forgot to
hand over her keys and didn’t bother to smuggle her knife past the guards.
“Stop! Halte! Sta stil! Keine Bewegung! Por favor!” One guard shouted
after them.
In all the confusion, only few noticed the group of three animals that followed
who were also carrying metal object, only this time with the purpose of hurting
someone with them.
Mercy exited the building and found herself on the airfield with her brother.
She quickly spotted the plane that was bound to bring he back home. She quickly
ran toward it, her brother Philip following her as always. The three chasing
them quickly signaled an airport truck to pull over.
“Sorry sir, we need to borrow your car,” The one with the baseball
bat stated as he opened the door and pulled the chauffeur out of his seat, then
took place behind the wheel himself as the leader of the group got in next to
him. The third stepped on the airport worker’s back as he was getting up
to climb into the back of the truck. The driver put his foot down on the gas
pedal and the prince opened his window and aimed his gun at Mercy and fired
a few shots before reloading. Mercy fell down and Philip halted to see what
happened. He noticed his sister had been shot in the right leg by the amphibian
that craved revenge. He didn’t know if he should stay with Mercy or run
to the airport security and hope he’d be quick enough to warn them. The
truck quickly closed the gap between itself and the Stoneturners. The dark prince
aimed his weapon once more and smiled wickedly. Then there was a gunshot.
“What was that? That wasn’t me!” The salamander cried out.
“B-boss, I lost control over that car!” His companion warned as the
car swiveled a few times and came to a stop.
The guy with the knife who had been standing on top of the truck’s back
fell of and landed painfully and got the wind knocked out of his lungs.
The driver got out of his recently hi-jacked car to inspect the vehicle when
he noticed the airport worker whom he stole it from. The man simply smiled at
him with his own gun pointed at the vehicle thief who froze in panic. The leader
however wouldn’t be so easy to stop and he kicked the door open, causing
it to fall of it’s hinges. He walked over to Mercy and pointed his weapon
at her face when suddenly he felt a sharp pain surge through his left leg. He
dropped the heater and looked down to see Philip who had planted his incisors
in his leg in an attempt to save his sister and mother figure. Apparently the
young chipmunk cub had hid behind luggage coffers and sneaked up on the prince.
Mercy saw her chance and got up, swiftly kicking the amphibian psycho in the
groin area, grabbed Philip’s hand and run toward the plane that would take
her to safety. The prince fell to the ground out of pain, and by the time he
could stand up again Mercy had entered her airplane. However he wasn’t
going to be stopped so easy. He grabbed his Colt 1911 and entered the plane
as well. He kept his handgun hidden under his coat to prevent the other passengers
from panicking and soon he found Mercy sitting down next to Philip.
“Gotcha!” He proclaimed proudly and aimed once more.
As his finger tightened on the trigger, he felt a tap on his shoulder. When
her turned around he looked into the face of a bulky desert rat dressed in a
Rodent Saudi Airlines uniform who punched him in the face. Again, the prince
lost his gun as he clutched his face. The rat effortlessly threw the salamander
over his shoulder, walked to the emergency exit, opened it and threw the dishonorable
berserker prince out. He landed hard on the tarmac and he felt like he had broken
something, besides his pride. The passengers looked shocked at the steward who
dusted himself of and explained.
“No ticket.”
After that, he had no more trouble with stowaways, and a few people got out
of their seats and exited quietly.
Chip was looking through his binoculars, smiling to himself as the Smuggler
Base was preparing to repel the BATS siege. The fools just didn’t know
they were up against the inventions of one of the finest minds in rodent history.
“Sir Maplewood, the first battalions of smugglers readied themselves for
battle and are approaching quickly. Should we attack now?” Captain Pèpe,
the Colonel’s assistant, requested.
“As you wish,” Chip agreed and grabbed the microphone of his radio
“Dale, we got resistance from the east. You know where that is? -Over-”
“Sure, I got my own compass. It’s all in the mind. Besides, I can
see them perfectly from here. –Over-” was the reply from Dale, who
was leading the First Crossbow Battalion.
“Great, do me a favor and release the first few shots to show them their
resistance is futile. –Over-” Chip asked casually.
“At your service! One volley of plunger arrows coming right up, sir! –Over-”
Dale saluted.
“Ah, nice. I’m already laughing. –Over and out-” Chip concluded
and hurried to the edge of his cliff to see the spectacle.
From the mountain Chip’s battalion was located, the First Darts Battalion,
Chip got a good view on what was going on below at the First Crossbow Battalion.
He could see Dale carrying out his orders, sporting a green helmet.
“Attention!”
All crossbow infantry hastened to the edge of their part of the mountain to
see their foolish enemy approaching.
“Ready…”
Immediately, all the rodents, birds, amphibians and reptiles in the group loaded
their weapon and lined up in a close formation of ten by six.
“…Aim…”
They all picked their target while many smiled as they did so.
“…Fire!”
Ten plunger-darts flew through the air and soared toward the smugglers who were
rushing forward. And all shots connected with the face or body of an enemy soldier.
Soon, ten smuggler lackeys were lying helplessly in the dirt. The attackers
hadn’t even recovered from the first wave of panic or another rain of plunger
arrows came down upon the fighters, taking more soldiers out of the fight. The
regiment was now completely shattered as many ran to their fallen brethren to
help remove the plungers from their bodies. However, a group of fresh reinforcements
rallied the group and closed quickly on the opposing army. The group was much
bigger now, and ten victims per volley wouldn’t be sufficient to stop them
before they reached their opponents. But Chip had thought ahead of them and
grabbed his radio again.
“Monty, do you hear me? –Over-”
“Loud an’ clear mate. What’s on yer mind?” The Australian
replied.
“You forgot to say ‘over’. By the way, could you do something
about them smuggler soldiers? They’re closing the gap faster than I’d
like. –Over-”
“Sorry pally, won’t happen again. And we’ll get ‘em for
ya!” Monty replied cheerily, once again forgetting to say ‘over’.
Chip looked ahead to see a few rounds of Gadget’s special Pepper Mortars
fired at the at battlefield, catching most of the baddies in a cloud of pepper.
Another rain of plunger arrows made the defense even more impressive. However,
some of the enemies seemed to find the will to carry on. Their struggle would
only be in vain.
“Fire at will!” Chip shouted at his regiment, some of the BATS’s
finest snipers who were now firing a powerful tranquilizer rather than bullets.
Again, Gadget has proven herself to be more than resourceful. Chip looked through
his binoculars to see that the smugglers had unleashed their trumph card: tanks.
“Right on schedule,” he said to himself and once again took his microphone
to contact another Ranger.
“Geegaw, do you read me? –Over-”
“Loud and clear. What’s on your mind? –Over-” the elderly
mouse acknowledged through the radio of his plane.
“I was wondering if you could do something about those nasty tanks that
are approaching. Is that possible? –Over-”
“No problem at all. I’ll freeze them dead in their tracks. –Over
and out-” the mouse replied and switched to his assistant on the ground
“Hello, anybody there? I was wondering if you could patch some tactical
information through for me.” Geegaw requested his flight assistant.
“Sure I can, that’s why I have been assigned for this,” Minerva
warmly replied through the radio “Anything to make a few people suffer.”
“Ehm-Thanks.” Geegaw replied as he scanned his radar and dropped his
payload, feeling sorry for the opposition.
“Let those foreign devils suffer at the hands of a hero! May they rot in
the center of the earth for all eternity!” Crazy Mina shouted dramatically.
Geegaw looked up at the horizon, expecting to see an angel of death awaiting
with open arms, ready to take him in. To his relief, all he saw was the sun,
sea, mountains and jungles.
Back on the ground, the bombs had exploded and glue had poured out of them,
immobilizing the tank battalion and a good deal of the soldiers. The smuggler’s
army had been decimated and the rocket soldiers Gadget led were more than enough
to beat back any other counter attack with their glue missiles.
“It looks like we succeeded. Now we only have to capture their base of
operations and see if we can take out their weapons manufacturing and shipping
structures,” Chip explained to the other Rescue Rangers minus Geegaw.
“It’s a shame we haven’t got any artillery, or that would be
a piece of cake.” Dale commented disappointed.
“If I could get a closer look at their facilities I think I’d manage
to think up a solution for that problem.” Gadget suggested.
“Why not hi-jack a vehicle of those blokes?” Monty wondered “A
group like them should have at least something like a big cannon to style fully
blast that place to kingdom come.”
“We’ll see, whatever works out. Let’s go, Rescue Rangers Away!”
Chip ordered and led the other into the lion’s den.