G5 Adventures in The Great Mouse Detective

by ponydog127

The Clues Deepen

Azurine and her new pony friends rushed to find Dr. Dawson and free him from the dart board, and once that was done, they immediately ran back to the pile of blocks in search of their detective leader. “Basil!” Misty cried out. “BASIL!!”

“Oh, I sure hope he's okay!” Pipp said worriedly. “And not crushed to death by giant wooden blocks!”

Suddenly, they heard the sound of a doll repeatedly saying 'Mama', and Hitch and Dr. Dawson pushed aside a small boat and drum to find Basil tangled to the doll’s pull string, furiously trying to untie himself. “Basil!” Dr. Dawson cried. “Olivia! She's--”

“She’s gone, Dawson! Confound it! I told you to watch over the girl!” Basil said as he managed to untie the string and fell to the ground, regaining his wind quickly, as well as his bad temper. “Now she’s been spirited away by that maniacal little monster. Soon to be in the clutches of the most depraved mind in all of London! I should have known better than to…!”

“BASIL!!” Zipp managed to scream, surprising Basil as he turned to her. “There’s no point in taking this out on Dr. Dawson! He was just trying to help save Olivia, and so were we! If we want to solve this case and rescue Olivia and her father, we have to keep a calm mind. And the first way to do that... is to apologize to Dr. Dawson.”

That's when Basil finally noticed how guilty Dr. Dawson looked as he wiped his eyes with his handkerchief. “Oh, ah, poor girl. I should have watched her more closely.”

Sunny cleared her throat to Basil for him to say SOMETHING to make Dr. Dawson feel better, so Basil stepped forward. “Don’t worry, old fellow. It’s not… entirely hopeless.”

Dawson said nothing, but looked toward Basil when the younger mouse put his hand on his shoulder. “We’ll get her back.”

“Do-do you think there’s a chance?”

“There’s always a chance, doctor… as long as one can think.”

Azurine sighed and Aapuzzled expression crosses his face as she pulled out the list from her mane. “Get the following: tools, gears… girl... uni--”

Once hearing of many of the items on that list, Basil immediately grabbed it from her with a smile. “My dear Azurine, you’ve done it! This list is precisely what we need.”

“It is?”

“He's right!” Pipp said in realization. “If we can figure out the chemical makeup of this list, we can figure out where it was written and that can lead us to where Ratigan’s hideout is!”

This caused the others to look at her in surprise. “What?” Pipp asked with a small smirk. “I paid attention to what Basil was saying... and reading the 'Spooky Stables' books.”

“Well, come on!” Zipp then urged. “We gotta get back to Baker's Street!”

XXXXXXXX

The door to Mr. Flaversham's prison slowly opened, revealing the sinister sewer rat, smiling at his guest. “Ah, Mr. Flaversham...” he said, dramatically posing his cape. “Allow me to present… your charming daughter!”

Ratigan moved his cape to reveal Olivia in Fidget's grasp, and this made Mr. Flaversham's eyes widen in terror. “Olivia!”

“Father!”

However, Fidget kept a tight hold on Olivia as she tried to rush towards Mr. Flaversham. In an act to get away, Olivia stomped on the bat's foot and ran to her father as Fidget hopped up and down in pain. “Owww! My foot, my only foot!”

“Oh, Father!” cried Olivia, hugging her father tightly. “I thought I'd never find you...”

“Oh, there, there, there, there, my bairn. I’m all right,” Mr. Flaversham told his daughter as they continued to embrace. “Oh, I was so worried about my little girl.”

Ratigan watched the sweet moment from the door, pretending to wipe tears from his eyes with a handkerchief. “Oh, I just love tearful reunions. Now, come along, my dear.”

“Oh, please! Please!” Olivia begged as she was ripped away from her father's embrace by Fidget and led away. “Father!”

“Olivia!” Mr. Flaversham cried out desperately. “Oh, please, professor!”

“Now, now, Fidget will take good care of her,” Ratigan said before his voice became all too threatening. “That is, as long as we have no further delays!”

In fear of losing Olivia, Mr. Flaversham quickly got back to work on the robot. “Yes, yes, I-I’ll finish it. Oh, just don’t hurt my daughter.”

“Remember; it must be finished... tonight!”

And just like that, the door was slammed shut, leaving Mr. Flaversham alone once again.

XXXXXXXX

As for Olivia, Fidget was dragging her to a large bottle over on its side. “Stop! Let me go!” Olivia said as Fidget began to shrug. “You ugly old thing!”

Unfortunately, Fidget shoved her inside the bottle and pushed the cork into place, trapping poor Olivia inside the bottle. “Help! Let me out! Let me out!!”

“See how you like that!” Fidget blew her a raspberry before strutting off toward Ratigan, who was looking through the bag Fidget brought Olivia back in. “Ah, the uniforms. Oh Fidget, I knew I could rely on you. Now, you didn’t forget anything?”

Fidget cackled in response, smiling wickedly. “No problem. I took care of everything. Everything on the list.”

Unfortunately, as he opened his wing to display the list, Fidget immediately realized it was missing and frantically searched for it. “Uh-oh...”

Ratigan’s face immediately grew stern. “What's wrong?”

“The list… I know…”

“Where’s the list?” Ratigan asked again, this time becoming angrier. “The list, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well you see, uh, it was like this,” Fidget began to explain. “I was in the toy store getting uniforms when I heard 'Aroo, aroo'!”

“...you're not coming through.”

“A dog came. I ran. I had baby bonnet, girl in bag and Basil and these ponies chased me.”

Hearing that one name was enough to make Ratigan snap beyond Fidget’s control. “What? Basil on the case?! Why you gibbering little…”

Fidget immediately cowered as Ratigan clutched his chest, apparently having a heart attack. His face was tomato red with fury, but just as quickly as his temper rose, Ratigan calmed down, and he scooped Fidget into his arms. “Oh, my dear Fidget. You have been hanging upside down too long.”

“You mean, you’re not mad? I’m glad you’re taking it so well.”

Fidget was carried around the corner where Ratigan rang his bell, causing Fidget to scream as Felicia held him tight in her paws, determined to eat him this time around. “Not me, you idiot. No, stop you stupid fur ball! Open up! Open up! Ai, ai, ai! Oh, ow! You’re hurting my wings!”

Ratigan had his back turned to the chaos, leaning against a bottle and furiously rubbing his temples. “How dare that idiot Basil poke his stupid nose into my wonderful scheme and foul up everything! And to bring some... puny little ponies into the madness! They could use their formidable powers and ruin my plans even further!”

“Let me out! Let me out! HELP!!” Fidget managed to climb out of Felicia's mouth, only to have her stuff him back inside and keep her mouth plugged with one of her paws. “Oh, I can just see that insufferable grin on his smug face,” Ratigan began to bang his head in fury... until a wicked idea came into his mind. “Yes… yes, I can just see it. Heh heh... Felicia, release him.”

Felicia pouted for a moment, then spit the poor mangled bat out, and Ratigan, having found some use for the bat after all, held him up by his cheeks. “Fidget, you delightful little maniac. You’ve presented me with a singular opportunity,” he said, dropping Fidget before assuming a fake concerned face. “Poor Basil! Oh, he is in for a little surprise.”

XXXXXXXX

Back at Basil's flat, the detective had lit a lamp and he and Zipp were studying the list with his magnifying glass. “Are you getting any closer to figuring out what this all means?” Hitch asked impatiently as Sparky ran around the flat, after a small toy ball Dr. Dawson gave him. “The sooner we find Olivia, the sooner we can get Ratigan and his goons to pay for this!”

“Slow your hoofsteps, sheriff,” Zipp said gently. “Basil and I are working as fast as we can, but this equipment is a lot different than the kind of equipment I have at home.”

“The princess is right,” Basil said. “Offhand, I can deduce very little. Only that the words are written with a broad pointed quill pen which has spattered, twice. That the paper is of…”

Basil lightly tossed the paper into the air a bit, testing the weight. “…native Mongolian manufacture, no water mark. And has…”

With these words, Basil had discovered something else, putting the paper to his lips and smacking it several times. “…been gummed, if I’m not very much in error…”

For the next step, Basil sniffed at the paper, and held it at arms length in disgust at the result. “…by a bat who has been drinking Rodent’s Delight!”

“Oh! That's a cheap brandy sold only in the seediest pubs of London!” Zipp realized, jotting down notes. “Hmm... amazing,” Dr. Dawson said in amazement. “Oh not really, Doctor,” Zipp said as she took more notes. “We still don’t know where it came from. But, Basil and I might have come up with a solution.”

“Yes! Perhaps a close inspection will tell us something,” Basil said, and he and Zipp took turns examining the results. “That’s strange...” Zipp said after a moment. “There are trace amounts of coal dust on here!”

“Hmmm... the only type around this area of London is used in sewer lamps,” Azurine said with a confused look. “What would this have any effect on the location of where it was written, Zipp?”

“If we're in luck... it should.”

Dawson teied to look through the microscope, but Basil had taken the list and was now holding it over a small flame, letting it catch fire. “Basil!” Sunny cried, rushing to stop him. “What in the world are you--?”

“Shh!” Basil shushed her. “Don’t speak.”

Basil then let the ashes from the list fall into a bowl, and he patted it down with a small wooden masher. He poured the contents onto a glass jar of a yellow chemical, which immediately turned blue after contact. “Whoa…” Izzy said in awe, reaching for it, only for Zipp’s hoof to smack her away. “I wouldn’t, unless your hooves wanna become claws for the rest of your life.”

“Ah, yes. Excuse me, all,” Basil said as he returned with a vial of red chemical, letting a single drop fall into the blue mixture. A small puff of smoke came out as the chemical turned a bright violet. Basil set the jar below a glass spout and reached to the other side of the chemistry set to turn on a small flame.

The green chemical inside bubbles up and slowly makes its way through the tubes, Basil encouraging it softly, as if it were a baby taking its first steps. “Yes, yes. Good, good. Come along, come along, come along, come along. Come along, come along, come along come along…. Haha… Yes, yes, good, good. No, bad. Good, good, oh, no. Come along, come on. Yes, come on. Yes… yes…”

Finally, a single green droplet fell, making the chemical underneath turn red, much to Basil’s elation. “AHA!! We’ve done it, my friends!” he said, wrapping an arm around Dawson. “This reaction could only have been triggered by the paper’s extreme saturation with distillation of sodium chloride.”

“But that means…” Zipp said before gasping in realization. “Of course!”

As Zipp and Basil darted away from the table, Dr. Dawson inspected the now-clear solution. “Saltwater…? Great Scott.”

“Wait a second… saltwater?” Misty asked in confusion. “Why would you guys go through all that trouble just for some saltwater?”

“It proves beyond a doubt, this list came from the riverfront area,” Basil said, pinning a map of the riverfront area of London to a nearby pinboard. “Ah, now steady on there, Basil,” Dr. Dawson tried to get him to slow down. “No, no. Elementary, my dear Dawson,” Basil said. “We merely look for a seedy pub at the only…spot…”

“...where the sewers connect to the waterfront!” Zipp smiled. “The Rat Trap! That means that Ratigan’s lair must be somewhere close to there. And if we go there, we find Ratigan, and rescue Olivia and her father!”

“Zipp, you and Basil might be great detectives on your own,” said Pipp, “but when you work together?! Eee-hee-hee! It’s genius!”

“Heh, yeah,” Zipp said, hoof-bumping Basil with a smile. “I-I guess we do make a good team.”

“What are we waiting for?” Hitch said, scooping Sparky onto his back. “Let’s go!”

“Wait just one moment,” Basil said, stopping the ponies and lifting Izzy’s tail. “You can’t certainly go to a pub dressed as you are.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t worry, we’ll work things out on the way,” Basil said, leaving no time for questions as they rushed out the door. “Come! Toby waits for us outside!”

Comments

[GamePlayer64]

I can see Hitch covering Sparky's eyes by the dancer's outfit change