Chapter Ten
By: Winston deLeon
As the floor swung out from under them, Rat Capone, his thugs, and the cart full of narcotics fell, and landed a half-second later with rough-sounding crashes. There were muffled yells of surprise and pain, followed by foul cursing.
Tammy peered over the edge of the pit and saw Rat Capone pick himself up off the bare dirt floor of the pit, still a bit stunned. He rubbed his head and looked around in confusion before he cast his gaze upward and finally seemed to figure out what had happened. A look of dark rage flared across his face.
"What is this?" He yelled at the top of his lungs. "No one double-crosses Rat Capone and gets away with it. No one, you hear me? I'm gonna make you sorry."
"Put a lid on it, for once." Jade said with impatience. "You've ordered me around long enough for one lifetime already. I'm done taking orders from you." She walked away to a cluster of empty steel drums in one corner and vanished behind them for a moment. When she came back into view, she was dragging a small bottle filled with clear liquid.
Just as she was starting to cross the floor with it, Tammy, who had been keeping watch silently from the edge of the pit, noticed something strange about the way Rat Capone examined the walls of the pit with a slight grin, as if he was suddenly struck with inspiration.
"Hey, Arnold, go stand on the cart, up against the wall." He ordered swiftly.
"Okay, boss." Arnold said as he clambered up onto the wreck, standing up against the wall. He was on the opposite side of the pit from Tammy.
"Sugar Ray, you're with me. Arnold, boost us up as high as you can." Capone ordered as he and the lizard swiftly scaled the cart. Arnold bent down, and each of the other two stood on one of his hands, Capone on the left and Sugar Ray on the right.
Tammy instantly knew what they were trying to do, and she started running around to the other side of the pit to head them off, but Arnold was too quick. With one massive upward push, he boosted both Capone and the lizard all the way up to the edge of the pit, where each of them managed to get a handhold on the concrete ledge and started frantically trying to haul themselves up.
Tammy reached Sugar Ray Lizard first. "Jade, I think we've got a problem!" She yelled as she started kicking at his arms, trying to knock him back into the hole. She managed to dislodge his right arm, halting his progress, and then a hard stomp to his left hand sent him falling back into the pit, where he landed with a thud.
Just as she was about to turn her attention to Capone, a hard backhanded blow to the midsection sent her sprawling on the ground unexpectedly. She was knocked on her back and found herself staring up at the ceiling, the fedora she was wearing falling to the ground nearby. Fortunately, she had landed mostly on her soft tail, and was more surprised than hurt. Capone had just barely managed to clamber up out of the pit while she was occupied with Sugar Ray. He hadn't even fully gained his feet before striking her, but as soon as Tammy was out of the way he stood up and began walking past her towards Jade, who had started running to the scene when she heard Tammy's yell but skidded to a stop as Capone advanced menacingly.
Tammy sat up and shook her head briefly to clear it, then turned her attention to Capone, who was ignoring her and was entirely focused on Jade, advancing on her slowly and threateningly.
"I'm gonna do what I should have done a long time ago." Capone said softly. "I'm gonna slit your worthless throat. No more screwups this time, see? You're dead and I'm gonna do it myself to make sure it gets done right." As he spoke, Capone reached into an inner pocket of his jacket with his right hand and pulled out a switchblade, clicking it open.
At the sight of the blade, the confidence that Jade had carried until now seemed to shatter with alarming speed. She gasped slightly and unconsciously took a small step backwards, her hands half-raised weakly and uncertainly, just like a terrified human might slowly back away from a strange, dangerous looking dog. She had that look in her eyes that indicated she was on the verge of completely freezing up with terror, if indeed she wasn't completely frozen already.
Tammy puzzled slightly over this rapid change because Jade had seemed so fearless earlier, but she didn't dwell long on it. She was more concerned with stopping Capone before he made good on his threat. Scrambling to her feet, she grabbed her hat off the ground and ran, getting between Jade and Rat Capone.
As she put herself between him and his intended victim, Capone stopped and stared at her for a moment. "Outta the way, acorn breath, unless you wanna be first." Capone growled at her. "I don't care if you really did ice two guys, I'll still cut you up good just the same. Nobody scares me and nobody gets in my way, see?"
Holding her ground, Tammy gripped the rim of the fedora with both hands directly opposite one another, the long top sticking out in front. It wasn't a particularly good choice of implement with which to fend off a knife, but it was the only thing available, and if she used it carefully, she thought it might be enough. Waiting for Capone to make his move first, she locked her eyes on his right hand, watching it carefully.
Rat Capone quickly lost his patience when it was apparent that she wasn't going anywhere and he closed the distance between himself and the defiant squirrel with a look of murderous anger on his face. He stabbed forward with his switchblade, striking low at Tammy.
At the moment his right hand drew back to deliver the stab, Tammy stepped backwards a short distance and pushed the hat forward into the path of the knife. Halfway through it's swing, there was a low hollow thump as the knife punched through the upper surface of the hat, sliding in until it sank to the hilt. The long tube crumpled and collapsed as the momentum from Capone's fist gripping the knife pushed inward on it. The rim Tammy was holding bent out of shape under the force, but she held her grip and the hat served it's purpose, stopping the blow short. As soon as the blade was stopped, she let go of the hat, and it partially re-expanded, engulfing the blade awkwardly.
Rat Capone started fumbling with his knife, trying clumsily to remove the hat, and as he did, Tammy utilized the distraction and struck back. She punched exactly the way Terou had shown her to, swinging forward with her hips and letting her leg muscle and bodyweight, rather than just her arms, put the driving force behind the blow. Balled into a tight fist, her right hand slammed into Rat Capone just below the base of his ribs and sank in deep. His black hat fell off his head as he doubled over from the force of the impact.
The effect on him was even better than she was hoping for. His eyes bulged out with surprise and pain, and the wind was completely knocked out of him. He staggered backwards a few steps with buckling knees, getting precariously close to the edge of the pit but barely managing not to fall in. He gasped raggedly for breath, wheezing helplessly.
Before he had any chance of recovery, Tammy stepped close to him, and with one quick shove on the shoulder, pushed him backwards over the ledge. As he tumbled backwards, he knocked into Sugar Ray Lizard, who was on his second attempt at scaling his way out of the pit, and both of them fell back to the bottom of the hole, making uncomfortable looking landings.
Capone lay on the dirt trying to regain his breath, unable to stand.
"Gee, boss, you okay?" Mousenegger asked in his charactoristically thickheaded way.
"Shaddup." Capone managed to weakly gasp out.
"Wow. I definately owe you one." Jade said gratefully, still visibly shaken. "Now let's make sure they don't get a second chance at that." She turned and quickly grabbed the glass bottle and resumed dragging it to the edge of the pit. "Go get that big piece of cardboard and bring it here, would you?" Jade requested, pointing to a very large cardboard box on the floor in one corner that had been cut on one seam and flattened out.
Although she didn't immediately see what it's purpose was, Tammy complied with the request, since it was clearly in her own best interest to help get Rat Capone contained and under control as soon as possible. She walked to the cardboard and grabbed the edge of it, and dragged it near the pit. "Okay, what do you want me to do with it?" Tammy asked.
"We'll use it to cover the hole, as soon as I get this stuff in there." Jade explained, straining at the metal screw-on lid to the bottle. After a few seconds, it yielded and twisted off, and she set it aside. After doing so, she pushed the bottle sideways, tipping a little of the clear liquid it contained into the pit, then capped it again. A faint but familiar scent slowly started rising.
"Chloroform?" Tammy asked.
"Yep. These three will be far more cooperative once they're sedated. Now let's cover up the hole before all the vapors escape." Jade said as she grabbed one edge of the cardboard sheet and helped Tammy move it into place. After they were done, each of them took a seat on opposite sides of the cardboard to help weigh it down. "Five minutes should do it." Jade commented.
They sat in silence for the first minute. As they waited, Tammy gave some thought to the strange and unexpected situation she had gotten caught up in. She had intended to silently scout out a gem thief, and now, fifteen hours later, she was here in an abandoned warehouse, helping a criminal with good intentions ambush a bigger criminal with decidedly bad intentions. A touch of worry came over her as she started thinking about what the Rangers were going to say to her when they heard her story, especially Chip. Knowing him and how anxious he was about this case, he'd probably explode at her for doing something as irresonsible as going off and acting on her own without informing anyone, and for the second time since this mess began, no less. She could almost hear his lecture now... "Didn't you learn the first time, after you got chloroformed?" and "What were you thinking? You could have been hurt, or caught, or worse..." and, of course, the ubiquitous "Are you CUH-Razy?!"
On the other hand, though, if she hadn't, then no one would have ever gotten the kind of answers that she had. Maybe they weren't, as a rule, supposed to take gambles like that, but this one had paid off, and big time. What was that cheesy line from the animated movie she'd watched with Bink a few days ago, again? She tried to remember. Something about faint heart not doing something or other. In this case, she supposed, not tracking down a diamond thief, uncovering the true motivation behind the theft, and then catching two rats and a lizard who had long been terrors in the rodent community and thorns in the Ranger's side...
Jade spoke suddenly, breaking the silence and Tammy's train of thought. "I can't believe I misjudged like that about the height of the pit. A month's planning, and one detail could have screwed it all up. I thought for sure that Capone would never be able to reach the top. I wanna say thanks for what you did back there."
"Oh, it was nothing." Tammy said modestly.
"No... It was definately something." Jade insisted. "Where'd you learn to hit so hard?"
"It's kind of a long story." Tammy said. "I was taught a little bit of self-defense by a mouse who was stayed with the Rangers for a while a couple years ago. He used to be a samurai."
"Samurai? Did he fight in the war in Japan?" Jade asked curiously.
"Yeah, he did. He told me a lot of people died in that war. That's why he came to San Francisco, I think. Trying to get away from it." Tammy said, summarizing what she knew for certain about Terou.
"Wow. I've never met anyone who was involved in that war." Jade said. "I've heard terrible things about it, but I've never talked to anyone who fought."
"He would never really tell me much. Why, do you know a lot about it?" Tammy asked curiously.
"I've read bits and pieces here and there in newspapers." Jade shook her head. "Not many details get printed, though. It was never really that widely reported, I guess. I think most rodents here in North America figured it was a japanese problem, not their problem. I know someone in this city who fled Japan when the war started, he's the one who told me most of what I know about it. It was really hard times over there, a huge number of rodents died. It was also one of the longest running rodent wars ever. Ten years of nonstop fighting."
"I never knew that." Tammy said with surprise. "The person I know said it was bad, but I had no idea it was that long."
"Well, in any case, I'm glad he taught you what he did, or I'd have really been in trouble. Thanks for not bailing out when Rat pulled that switchblade. I really owe you one." Jade said.
"Why would you think I would leave you?" Tammy wondered.
"Just the reflexive assumption you make when you've been around the kind of people I've been forced to be around for so long. Most of the people I've ever known would have run in heartbeat." Jade shrugged. "They wouldn't risk their own neck like that for someone else."
"Sounds like maybe you've been around too many criminals for too long." Tammy commented.
"Well... it wasn't by choice, but yes, you're right. I was stuck under Rat Capone's thumb for a long time before I finally got up the courage to stop letting him intimidate me and use the stuff I built to run scams." Jade admitted. "I just wish I hadn't helped him like I did, but I was so afraid for so long, and he had these ways of controlling people..."
"I'd say you've turned the tables pretty well." Tammy complimented her. "But, if you don't mind me asking... why'd you freeze up like that when you saw him coming for you?" Tammy asked. "You seemed so confident and in-control of everything else... back at the museum, you even beat me when I tried to fight you."
"I only beat you at the museum because I was able to take you by surprise, and I had chloroform. That, and in all the excitement, I was full of adrenaline, which was no small help in getting out of your grip. To tell the truth, I got pretty lucky that time. If all things were equal, I don't think I'd win in a fair fight." Jade said.
"Even so, it still seems like you should have been able to beat Capone." Tammy shrugged. "You're obviously not helpless."
Jade shook her head. "I don't know why I couldn't. Maybe because, on some level, I'm still scared of him, as much as I know I shouldn't be. The whole time I was with him, one of the ways he controlled people best was by just smacking them around. Whenever I did something he didn't like, he never hesitated to express his displeasure with a beating. I couldn't fight back, because it wouldn't have done any good with his henchmen around, and he never said it outright, but somehow I knew that if I did hit back, he'd kill me, so I never did. I just took the beating every time."
Jade hesitated and fell silent for a moment, as if the memory was a painful one to talk about, but then continued: "The physical pain wasn't really the worst part, though. It was the humiliation. He made me feel completely worthless and helpless. It was like Capone could do - or make me do - almost anything he wanted and there was no way I could stop him. When someone so cruel dominates you like that for so long, it gets to the point where being terrified of them is the routine. And then when Capone pulled out that knife and I knew that he was serious about actually killing me this time, all those feelings came rushing back and I lost it. I couldn't think straight, I just locked up and panicked. I mean, I know I'm smarter than him, and maybe in a fight where I wasn't terrified I could win, but it's hard to get past that involuntary reaction after so long."
"That's terrible." Tammy said softly. "No wonder you have so much against Rat Capone."
"Yeah. I've wanted to pay him back for a long time now." Jade was silent in thought for a few seconds. "But this isn't just for myself, though, you know." She said. "I'm doing this for everyone he's cheated and lied to, and I'm doing it to stop him from victimizing anyone else in the future. He's been a scumbag at large for a long time, and now he's going to get the reward he so richly deserves for his effort. He gets to see all his ill-gotten gains taken from him, just like he took them from everyone else. Maybe the experience will do him some good, in the end."
Jade sat quietly for a little longer, staring off into space at nothing in particular. Presently, she hauled herself to her feet. "Well, I think they've been down there just about long enough." She decided.
Tammy stood up and helped Jade move the cardboard sheet out of the way. When she looked down into the hole, Rat Capone and both of his thugs were sprawled out on the ground, knocked out cold.
"They'll be completely out for at least an hour, probably longer." Jade said. "Plenty of time to get them tied up and ready for their trip."
"What are you going to do with them?" Tammy asked.
"Well, actually... I was going to deliver them to the Rescue Rangers." Jade said, shrugging. "You know, sort of a 'peace offering' after what I did to them. Besides, I'm pretty sure that the Rangers can help make some charges stick that'll keep Capone in prison for just about the rest of his life, and then he'll be out of everyone's hair forever."
Tammy looked at her with relief. It wasn't an answer she was expecting, but it was an encouraging one. She had been afraid that Jade might have been planning to give in to bitterness and torture or even kill Capone, which Tammy would have been obligated to stop no matter how much he probably deserved it. "Well... they have wanted to get their hands on him for a while." She confirmed.
"Then let's get this over with." Jade said, scurrying off to some other distant part of the warehouse and returning pushing a large chainfall rig and carrying a coiled up rope ladder. She pushed the chainfall to the edge of the pit, then unfurled the rope ladder and slipped the top rung over the bolt that protruded from the floor. She threw the other end down into the pit. "We'll haul them up one by one." Jade explained to Tammy. "I'll climb down and fit that harness on them," She said, pointing to a heavy metal and canvas harness attached to the chainfall, "and then we'll have enough mechanical advantage to haul them up without too much trouble." With that, Jade wedged the wheels on the chainfall to immobilize it, then grabbed the harness and started climbing down the ladder.
Half a minute later, Jade called back up. "Okay, start pulling." She yelled.
Tammy grabbed the chain and started pulling, but despite the chainfall's large mechanical advantage ratio, she couldn't lift whatever was attached to it. Probably means she did Mousenegger first, Tammy thought. Peering over the edge, she saw that she was right. "He's too heavy." Tammy called down. "I need your help up here."
"Of course. I knew I should have put those extra four pulleys in..." Jade mumbled as she scaled the ladder once again and joined Tammy in pulling the chain. It was hard work, but they soon managed to haul the unconscious Mousenegger all the way up and unloaded him from the harness onto the concrete floor. As soon as they had done so, Jade bound his hands and feet with lengths of steel cable, similar to the stuff she had built the elevator in her home with. "This stuff is rated to handle at least fifty pounds. It'll be more than strong enough to hold even someone as strong as Mousenegger here." Jade said.
Within a few minutes, they had similiarly handled the other two, binding them with cable. The three gangsters lay on the ground, and Jade stood at a distance, staring at them with a smirk.
"Admiring your handiwork?" Tammy asked.
"Very much." Jade said simply, surveying them in silence for a moment longer and looking just the tiniest bit smug.
"I hate to interrupt, but how are we going to move them so that you can hand them over to the Rangers?" Tammy asked.
"I've got a vehicle that can handle it, hidden behind those barrels over there." She pointed to the cluster of barrels that the chloroform bottle had been stashed behind. "But before they go anywhere, I want Capone to watch while I destroy his cocaine. He put every penny of the wealth he had left into buying that filth, and I helped him generate most of that wealth. Only fitting that I should be the one to take it from him. Maybe he'll learn a valuable lesson about why greed and slavery are wrong."
"I think it's a waste of time. You don't really think he'll learn anything, do you?" Tammy asked doubtfully.
"No..." Jade said, shaking her head sadly. "I doubt he will... but there's always that chance, no matter how small, and we can always hold out hope that maybe even someone as bad as him isn't completely beyond redemption. I'll go get the vehicle I built, probably best to get them loaded in before they wake up and start struggling."
Tammy followed Jade behind the large cluster of barrels that she walked to, and there was an object hidden there covered in a very large cloth shroud. Jade pulled the cloth away and left it lying on the floor. The vehicle that was revealed was most impressive. It had been built on a skateboard, similarly to the Rangermobile, but instead of a fan, this vehicle was powered by the motor of a cordless power drill that had been disassembled and rigged to drive the rear pair of wheels. There was a seat in front, with a steering column and accelerator and brake pedals, and directly behind that was the battery pack that powered the motor. Taking up most of the rear of the vehicle was a very sturdy looking steel cage large enough to accomodate all three prisoners.
Jade drove the vehicle slowly to the three prisoners, opened the cage door, and put down a wooden ramp to faciliate easier loading. In a short time, the two of them had dragged the three gangsters into the cage and locked the door.
"So... now we just wait for them to wake up?" Tammy asked.
"Yep. Then the fireworks start." Jade said.
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Disclaimer:
The charactors of Chip, Dale, Gadget, Monterey Jack, Zipper, Tammy, Foxglove
and any other charactor originally appearing the animated series "Chip
and Dale's Rescue Rangers" are all © Disney and are used here without
permission. Any other charactors appearing herein that are not © Disney
are my own creations. This story may be freely copied, transmitted, printed,
distributed, used as bird cage liner, or whatever, I only ask that it is not
modified from it's original form and it is not used for profit in any way. I
believe that that concludes the legal mumbo-jumbo for now... On to the story!
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