Baa-Ram-Ewe!

by Darkonshadows

115. Slipping through the cracks.

-Earth, Zootopia, ridge of northern Glacier Falls, Pom-

“Baa… Ram… Ewe- ‘yip’!” I didn’t set the frequency of my bark breaker, but it struck my bark blast and it sped up immensely as it flew towards the helicopter in the distance.

The further it went the smaller it got.

My eyes slowly closed as I watched the entire top portion of the helicopter was blown apart by the golf ball sized sphere of energy.

Nobody hurts…. a good doggy… on my… watch…

-Sabu Taj-

Heck?!

-A few minutes later-

My eyes opened and picked myself up off the ground after coming to and grunted at the pain of having a piece of glass in my left shoulder and there was a bit of shrapnel stuck in my right thigh. Looking at the wreckage, the pilot was sitting up and looking at the remains of his helicopter.

“Yeah… I’m calling it a day.” My pilot stated before flopping back first into the snow after Leap Lamb destroyed the third helicopter personally with an energy blast fired from her mouth.

Somehow, we had survived that.

-Heading for Rainbow Falls, Leven-

“That was scary yah?” We would be saving a factual super hero and she took a bullet for me, I'd thank the hero by making sure she is getting to Dolly in the Canal district.

“Yah!” The sled dogs stated as we put distance between us and what could only be villainous people.

I poked Leap Lamb and she was unresponsive, but she was still breathing, if poorly at that.

“I don’t know if you can understand me, but Pom’s vital signs are mostly stable… she has however contracted arrhythmia from the shock of that last blow on top of taking an assault weapons bullet to the chest. Chances of it being fatal are, with some calculations, eh not good… at forty one percent.” The digital dog stated while looking up at me from being embedded in the wool of her stomach. “Possibly less considering how strong Pom has shown herself to be, but it is still a worrisome factor to her current health about being struck indirectly through me by the force of a sniper round.”

At least he had an optimistic attitude, I gave him two friendly barks and a wagging tail to show him things would be okay.

“Well at least you seem to have a positive attitude about things, I’m currently having trouble keeping mine up.” The machine stated.

-New York, 6:17 AM, Hotel, Smolder-

I stretched out and pulled away from snuggling Ocellus. She immediately woke up, the way her eyes glowed and the sunlight come through the window made me smile.

“So yesterday was weird.” We didn’t speak animal, but the cat was apparently someone the Rescue Rangers were vaguely acquainted with when they investigate the Georgette Foxworth’s home on Fifth Avenue. It took a while to find because were some fudged the details on the case file which earned Chip’s, the primary detective chipmunk of the group, suspicions as to what was going on. “Do you think we’ll be able to help them today?”

“I’m sure we’ll pick up on where Georgette went Smolder, why else would someone try to mess with the files of where Georgette lived?” Ocellus was the one that pointed it out, I pointed out that why they haven’t checked where the poodles residence was. There were almost no clues aside from one that had stuck out to Chip, one of Georgette’s favorite carob bon-bons had been tampered with and it was possible that Georgette had been drugged and nabbed.

Oliver Foxworth a cat and Georgette Foxworth’s friend, had been a victim of one of Professor Nimnul’s prior inventions which made Ninmul more of a suspect than before as that was a mission where the Rescue Rangers set out to rescue a cat named Spunky among many others.

Apparently Nimnul created some weird petting machine that powered a lighting spewing weapon by rubbing cats with a bunch of rubber gloves and brushes on mechanical arms. That machine certainly sounded extremely bizarre, considering I really couldn’t picture such a ludicrous thing as existing in my head. Foxglove assured us that Nimnul has done far weirder things.

Why Nimnul absolutely needed the live cats could never be truly explained, Foxglove stated that he might have somehow discovered how to wield magic with technology and the discovery could be responsible for his clearly terminal insanity. As if that would explain the aging ray, the enlarging ray and the teleportation device that caused the rangers to gain some genetic anomalies that made them biologically compatible with every other kind of similar sized animal in existence. Those were just a few of the stories Foxglove told us, in particular she liked that the last tidbit happened as she made no effort in hiding her complete and utter attraction to Dale.

Ocellus even says the love was reciprocated, but I wasn’t currently seeing it from Dale or maybe he just had a hard time expressing his feelings.

Oliver gave us the location of some of his friends that could possibly help out with tracking down Georgette, he knew one dog in particular that had a rather strange loving relationship with Georgette despite being a dirty thieving street dog.

As for what Huey, Dewey and Louie got up to while we were following the Rescue Rangers around yesterday, they were currently busy befriending the Troll in Central Park that lived under the nearby bridge. At least Huey and Dewey were befriending the troll, Louie was trying to set up a business scheme involving plants and the troll’s power to make any plant life grow really fast. The troll didn’t seem to really care about money and was okay with Louie coming here to sell the plants he generated personally.

Louie would be making a lot of money legally and Stanley would happily get the opportunity to spread his magically strengthened plants around. Not that we were bothering with focusing on that, but if we ever needed the help of the biped duck brothers, then all we had to do was ask. Honestly, I was going to stay away from Dewey even if I have learned to tolerate him.

So the Rescue Rangers, they were an organization that came together during their first big adventure involving a lot really odd stuff and facing several of what would become their worst rogue’s gallery throughout said adventure. If you can imagine it, then they’ve probably had to deal with something like it.

They, along with a mouse from Britain named Olivia Flaversham, were responsible for the creation of a worldwide organization called the Rescue Aid Society. Sometimes the Rescue Rangers were far too busy to take every case they possibly could, if we ever needed assistance then we had a few phrases we could use to get 'a little help'.

We would be assisting the Rescue Rangers today, because we had nothing better to do than find a dog that had been taken from her home under dubious circumstances where there wasn’t a struggle while Professor Nimnul was stated to be nearby.

Ocellus told me that the Rescue Ranger were the dimensional equivalent of the elements of harmony in this world and I believed her after being introduced to Monterey Jack and his unusual companion Zipper.

Monterey was the largest mouse I think I’ve ever seen, so what was so unusual about Zipper? He was a fly that has lived for years, exceeding the average lifespan of a fly by a number of miles and still looked young. Other flies don’t live nearly as long as the little green mutant whose been traveling around with Monterey for a while, even before joining the Rescue Rangers.

When it was pointed out by Ocellus that Zipper was an oddity, the other rangers shrugged it off as another unexplainable thing in their lives. One bit of strangeness they wouldn’t have been able to survive without on numerous occasions.

So most of us were bound to return to the park. Webby was almost a no show, she was currently involved in hunting down criminals that committed a museum robbery or something and had to clear her name, which all centered on the previous mystery she was pursuing personally. She wasn’t being actively hunted by the police at least.

From what little we saw of her before we left the hotel, she had told us that our adventure sounded just as fun and important as what she was doing in retrieving a rare artifact from some hidden vault here in New York.

-Central Park, outside Ranger Headquarters, Ocellus-

“Morning Foxglove.” I knew bats were nocturnal, but Foxglove looked to be making a concerted effort to be diurnal.

“Morning Ocellus, Smolder.” Foxglove nodded to each of us in turn with a bright smile while still hanging upside down in the tree where the Rangers had built their home base. “I’m sure the others will be out shortly after they are done with their morning rituals.”

“So these dogs at the wharf… are we sure they’re friendly?” Smolder crossed her arms and huffed.

“I’m sure they will help once we explain things to them.” I honestly thought that any friends of Oliver sounded like nice people.

-An hour later, houseboat under the wharf, Smolder-

We had just fell through the roof of the houseboat while looking around for the dogs Oliver mentioned and we now found ourselves surrounded by several growling dogs that were likely who the cat directed us to.

I landed and pulled out my combat ribbon as Ocellus hovered behind me. The Recue Rangers picked themselves up and looked a bit worried as the dogs approached.

There was a small dog, a bulldog, a large dog, a… not sure what the female dog was as I wasn’t an expert on dogs like Pom seemed to be. They were all aggressive and the one smaller male dog behind them gave us a calm glance as he was lazing about with sunglasses resting on his forehead.

“Um, excuse me, but we were here to inquire about some things. We don’t mean to be a bother, but…” Foxglove came in for a landing in front of the dogs and spread her wings. “Oliver said you might be able to help us on a case with finding a missing poodle by the name of Georgette Foxworth?”

The... chihuahua, right that's what he was, soon began panicking.

“What’s he saying Foxglove?” I asked as he seemed suddenly panicked.

“He’s mostly freaking out and asking about what happened to his beautiful lady friend. He’s really got some accent on him, if only you could understand what I’m hearing right now.” Flicking her ears, Foxglove turned back to the chihuahua and motioned at him with her wings. “Calm down, calm down, I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of us before… we’re the Rescue Rangers!”

Foxglove being the only one we understood out of the four rodents and one bug that also said that last thing, if Fluttershy were here she’d understand the chittering they all did at once. The one male dog strutted up through the rest of his pack and sat down in front of Chip and started barking, growling and yipping.

“Dodger here is asking about what’s going on with their friends from Fifth Avenue and Chip is explaining that someone has likely drugged and dog nabbed Georgette and that we’re currently looking for her. Oliver directed us to them because he thought they could help us with this.” After Foxglove said this the little dog started getting antsy. “Tito here really wants to run out there and help find Georgette like yesterday, so I think he’s definitely going to want and help us. Huh, Dodger just expressed that they would assist us and he wants… huh… he wants a freebie from trouble with us if they help out?”

I was feeling love from the one Foxglove called Tito and not anger, he was quite passionate about going to help Georgette.

Chip crossed his arms and looked thoughtful as if he was tossing the idea over in his head, Tito stated something and came over to sit down among us.

“Tito stated that he’s helping regardless of whether or not they get a freebie from the rangers… apparently we’re dealing with the 'Fagin’s Street Dogs' gang.” Foxglove paused and saw the female dog speak up as she sauntered over. “While they may steal to survive, they aren’t bad dogs as they’ve helped Oliver find a really good home and sometimes Oliver’s owner gives them some free food when they drop by on particularly bad week.”

Tito turned to Foxglove and stated something in a series of barks.

“Yes, I’m translating all of this for them, they are assisting us on this case and we might need them if we run into trouble with bipeds or animalistic people. We’re good for handling all the animal level stuff ourselves, but a little help there wouldn’t hurt either if you’ve ever heard of the likes of Fat Cat.” All the dogs glared at the ceiling in unison and growled, barked or yipped something that felt fairly distasteful. Dodger turned to Chip and started talking. “Apparently they really dislike Fat Cat, so we have some friends there and Dodger is adding on to the deal that his gang will tell us if Fat Cat starts making any more waves around their turf specifically. He’s willing to give the rangers all the help they need if that cat ever bothers them in their territory, provided that they don’t mind having some thieves for friends.”

Chip said something and he was soon shaking paws with the dog.

“Well it seems we have something of a deal going, but I hope this won’t become a problem later. We’re not exactly in the habit of working with thieves… even if they are really nice ones.” Foxglove turned to Tito stating something to her. “Oh no, I have nothing against it… I was thief once myself working for an evil witch. Our friends here are magical beings.”

Tito looked at us and then turned back to Foxglove with a questioning sounding yip.

“Could you prove that you are magical creatures please?” We soon did so for Foxglove, I transformed into a copy of Tito, except with blue fur. The entire gang looked surprised at that.

I preferred to keep my color scheme and not imitate anyone else without being recognizably different these days unless I needed to infiltrate somewhere to help my friends.

Smolder just let off a short blast of flames from her mouth and smiled at the sudden look of fear from the dogs as she calmly twirled her ribbon. I transformed back into my horned lizard animalistic, somewhat biped, cross form that was just my dragon form without wings.

“Yeah, it’s so nice that they offered to help us and we’re not in the business of turning down free help even if it might not be needed.” Foxglove stated sweetly. “So far they helped us find Fifth Avenue and where Georgette lived once this case got started. That’s how we ended up talking to your friend Oliver, who was very worried about her.”

Tito barked something and the bulldog came over and barked something as well.

“That’s just it, we don’t know where to look as the only clues we really have is the carob bon-bon that she was drugged with.” Which Monterey had in a plastic bag and he showed to Tito who started whining profusely about it with worry.

He apparently recognized his lady friends snacking habits.

Dodger sauntered over to Tito and wrapped a paw around him and gave him a hug while barking something that felt uplifting and then motioned to everyone else to set out.

“Fagin’s Street Dogs are going to help case the streets with us.” Foxglove announced to us.

-Some hours later, Time Square, Smolder-

Time Square was a popular tourist spot here in New York, this city was exactly like Manehatten in the hustle and bustle of the area. Except the people were ducks or more likely to be some form of bipedal animal if not, an Ornithian would fit in here at least and we weren’t interesting sights at all being walking lizards.

“So nothing, the guys lost track of her smell around here.” I wondered what we would have to do to find Georgette.

There were too many scents for the dog gang to follow and Ocellus turning into a dog wouldn’t help, as her nose would be even less effective.

Tito still wasn’t giving up and Ocellus informed me he apparently was in love with Georgette or at least quite passionate about seeing her back to safety. I had a bleeding heart for the guy, but we had no leads.

“If I could use my horn, I would be able to at least track her to where she is, but it’s going to be a good while before I can do that.” I really wouldn't like it if you hurt yourself permanently for trying Ocellus. “It’s like the trail just goes cold and this case is quickly slipping through the cracks.”

Chip pointed at Ocellus and stated something in a powerful manner.

“Chip says that there’s no case too big or small for them and they’ve worked with less before and still succeeded.” As Foxglove translated, Chip started to pace around and muttered and slapped his paw into his other one. “He also states that we can find some cracks in a case that other people would tend to ignore, but all the clues haven’t slipped away from us yet. We know that someone had tampered with the files, we know someone knew what brand of snack Georgette eats and we know that Nimnul is not the culprit in this missing dog case, but he agrees that it is frustrating when things get cold like this. Nobody around here has actually seen Georgette come through here, at least under her own strength if she wasn’t in a bag or some kind of container.”

My eyes wandered away from the two mice, two chipmunks, the fly, the bat and the various dogs trying to pick up the scent trail and I narrowed my eyes at something that looked curious to me.

“Hey, uh… I know this might be a longshot but…” I was looking down a nearby alleyway and saw something that seemed oddly out of place to me. “Can you get one of the dogs to sniff around that ladder? I’m pretty sure fire escape ladders are not supposed to be down like that when there isn’t a fire going on.”

Dale called one of the dogs over, Einstein was his name. He wasn’t a very bright looking dog, but he was the strongest nose among his friends. We moved over to the ladder while the other dogs tried to track the smell of where Georgette might have been taken in other places.

Einstein seemed excited about something as he looked upwards and we saw a duck climbing down with a heavy looking shouldered bag, there was no movement in it so we might have just caught a plain clothes thief.

“Ocellus, go call for a police officer.” Foxglove stated calmly as Einstein barked up at the thief and he fell off the ladder to the ground, his bag of stolen loot spilled out all over the place.

The rest of the dog gang immediately converged on the duck to help pin the thief down. The female dog made some oddly snarky sounding barks and I almost had an idea as to what she said.

“Well this is a first for them, a group of thieves helping to catch a thief.” Foxglove was quite amused by this as were Dale, Gadget, Monterey and Zipper.

Chip had a stern look on his face as he glared down at the duck while standing on top of its bill.

-Two hours later, Ocellus-

So we caught a crime in progress, but we still didn’t find Georgette or any clues.

Having thought that, I then I noticed Dale holding something with an eager look on his face.

We were near the crime scene and we caught an infamous burglar in the act of daylight robbery, one of which has been using a bag and would pretend to be delivering laundry to a nearby laundromat when it was actually full of stolen goods being handed off to a pawn broker. The police were the ones to inform us of this as they figured out where the stolen goods were going.

The police were going on to catch the guys waiting accomplices and told us to stay out of further trouble. One policeman thanked us for helping them catch the Sky Rise Bandit in the act, but that wasn’t important part of all this.

“Quick question, where did Dale get that?” Having asked that, it drew all our attentions to Dale. He was holding a plastic wrapped bon-bon that I’m quite sure would likely come up as being a dog safe carob treat. It also looked like the same kind of brand of bon-bon that Georgette snacks on.

Chip was immediately on Dale and chattering at him as he was about to open the treat up.

“Chip is telling Dale that he just found an important clue and that he shouldn’t eat the evidence… at least not until after tracing where it came from first.” After hearing her favorite chipmunk say something silly sounding, Foxglove rubbed her face with her wings in exasperation. “Oh Dale… your adorable, but sometimes you could be a little more attentive.”

Tito sniffed the treat in Dale’s paw and he started barking excitedly.

“Tito says it has Georgette’s scent… where did this stolen bon-bon that has her scent on it come from?” Asked a pondering Foxglove. Dale gestured at the bonbon and where the thief had fallen, Chip stated something with a look as he pointed his paw upwards. “Dale says the plastic wrapped snack was one of the stolen things in the bag, Chip said we should check the rooms that this fire escape ladder has access to so we can find evidence of whether or not Georgette is still being held here. He wants Fagin’s Street Dogs to watch the area for anything odd. You two probably shouldn’t be caught around the scene of a recent crime, you can sit on a bench as extra lookouts for us okay?”

“We can do that easily enough Foxglove, right Smolder?” Grinning at my best friend, she rolled her eyes and held out a claw, which I graciously took into my own as we both moved over to a bench together.

“You know, I thought this investigation would be a lot more action packed.” Smolder stated blandly as she twirled her ribbon about playfully. “Still though, it was nice to have helped catch a criminal in the act at least.”

“We might even save a dog by the end of the day if we’re lucky Smolder.” I added with a smile and leaned up against her.

“Then you better keep your multifaceted eyes out for anything Ocellus.” Smolder leaned on me and kept holding my claws.

-Africa, Zootopia, Canal District Airport, Dolly-

Okay, so we had a few slight problems with leaving.

One was that I needed to somehow sneakily board any airplane with Pom unconscious.

Pom may have lost the guys with the guns, but it could be only a matter of time before they figured out we were at this particular airport.

The other problem was Pom's current health issues, especially after bravely and quite literally tanking a sniper bullet for one of Hansel’s cousins.

I don't know much about that Bark Brigade organization, but they had seriously saved Pom's mutton by safely getting her here. Whoever Sergeant Spot is, they knew my 'fam'.

Author's Note:

How many more things am I going to reference in this section of the story alone?

Comments

[prism heart]

Man, it's been forever since I watched Rescue Rangers. Also love the reference to the theme song.

[Shadowshame]

You know Domarch or what ever the P.E.T’s name is reminds me that the first thing that introduced me to megaman was the battle network anime though I was little at the time and I can’t remember much of it.

It also made me think that it would have been cool if battle network had a crossover with digimon but that is neither here nor there