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For a number of moments, Gadget could only stand there, blinking at her own realization as she continued to look down in surprise at the male black and white cat, the statement within its gaze now clearly readable. The same statement that she had somehow missed before. As she watched though, as if to emphasize its intent, it slowly reached a paw up toward her, silently holding it there for a number of moments, as if holding a hand out to her in need of assistance as well as in peace. At this, a slight feeling of embarrassment and guilt began to burn within her, warming her cheeks. She had fought so hard against the cat's earlier attempts to contact her, when all it had been doing was trying to ask for her aid. "Gosh! You...need my *help*?" she asked softly and uncertainly, the words coming from her mouth as though she couldn't believe them herself. She and the other Rangers had helped a ghost out once before, that one being Monterey's old ancestor, Sir Colby, but he *obviously* had been in need of assistance. The ancient guard had lived for so long with no bravery to speak of, not to mention barely any self confidence in what he was capable of, even as a ghost. It was no wonder why he had needed the Rescue Ranger's help in breaking the curse which had been put upon him, binding him to the castle in which he had been posted. This instance though, was an entirely different story. With the ability to have done all that it did in trying to contact her, as well as having the supernatural ability to have seemingly frozen time about her, she could only wonder what in the world could she do that this cat could not? "What do you need? Are you under some kind of *curse*?" she asked uncertainly. At this the cat still did not speak, but merely turned its gaze away from her to look over its left shoulder for a moment, staring away toward some undetermined point before turning its gaze back up toward her. "I...I'm afraid I don't understand.." Gadget shrugged, shaking her head apologetically in confusion. "What do you need? Can you talk?" At the question, the cat did not shake its head yes or no, nor did it open its mouth to speak. Blinking once after a number of moments as he continued to stare up at her in the same expression as if studying her, the cat only lifted itself onto all four legs in a standing position. Pivoting itself toward its left, it looked out for a moment in the same direction it had before, before turning its eyes back up toward her. "You want me to come with you?" Again the cat gave no answer in any fashion, but only continued to stare up at her, its tail softly swishing behind itself. To say the least, Gadget was still somewhat uncertain about what the specter needed her to do, but from what she could gather about the cat's last action, she decided to base her own course upon it. "Golly, I'll *gladly* help if that's what you need me for," Gadget stated, looking down at the cat with a sympathetic and kind smile, "but why just me?" she asked, gesturing over toward the open door behind her, her words still laced with a note of nervousness. She still had no concrete answers from the spirit which stood before her, as to its reasons or intent. "We could *all* help you a lot better than only I could. Are you sure you don't want to bring my friends along too?" she asked, knowing her words had sense to them, as well as knowing that she would feel a lot less nervous in this situation with her friends along beside her. Still the cat gave no answer but to continue staring up at her, blinking but once. From what she could determine, the action was nowhere near her question that she could have taken even that as an answer of any sort. Still she was more than a bit uncertain, and yet, continuing to look into the cat's eyes for the next number of moments that followed, she was able to get an impression of sorts from it. An untouchable, elusive something, akin to what had told her that the cat was waiting for her out here. Something that told her that she simply had to *trust* the path this feline had decided upon, that path being that only *she* would travel with this silent visitor, though as to why would as yet be unknown. Trusting her instincts, she decided to accept this feeling as a fact. She knew it was the best she could do at the moment after all. With this, Gadget gave a short tired sigh, in a reply of her own. "Okay, but *gosh* I wish you'd just *answer* me, somehow." she stated, shaking her head lightly. "I'll be right down." Entering the treehouse once again, taking only a moment as she crossed the living room to look over at her three friends still seemingly frozen in space, Gadget quickly made her way over to her workshop. Crossing through the adjacent doorway, she entered into the hangar which housed their air vehicles. As she did so though, she stopped short. Gasping slightly in surprise, she gazed out to look upon a now somewhat smaller version of the cat now filling the hangar, it's paw now draped over the forward portion of the cockpit of the Rangerplane as it waited for her. Approaching the feline, she looked for a moment at the obstacle it's paw presented, before turning her gaze up toward the face of her new companion, the meaning behind its action quite clear. "But how do I get to where we need to go then?" she asked. Turning its head, the black and white cat looked over its left shoulder toward a corner of the hangar where one of the hang-gliders sat, waiting and ready. "Golly..." Gadget returned, having followed its line of sight over to the kite like apparatus and then back to meet its gaze. "Why the hang-gliders? The Rangerplane would be *much* faster!" she emphasized, spreading her arms wide in a shrugging gesture, "Not to mention safer!" she argued gently, knowing the Rangerplane could generate its own lift by the flapping of its wings, while with the hang gliders..."Don't you think?" she asked. The feline only stared at her in return, blinking once. "Ooookayyy..." Gadget returned after a somewhat confused sigh, making her way over to the hang-glider. Lowering herself underneath the cloth to grasp the metal bar, she easily lifted it up, and pivoting herself around to face the opening of the hangar, started slightly as her gaze turned to find a now empty hangar bay. "I wish he wouldn't do that." she stated softly to herself, shaking her head as she made her way past the Rangerplane toward the bay's opening, carrying the craft. Walking out onto the landing platform outside, she looked over the edge to find the black and white cat once more upon the ground, looking up at her. Seeing her ready, it turned to look over its right shoulder in the same direction it had before. Raising itself into a standing position on its four paws, it turned to look back up at her. "I'm ready." She nodded, a note of curiosity evident in her voice as to how she would catch any wind currents with the motion of the air, as well as everything else, stopped cold around her. However, as she didn't really have much choice, she could only trust that the feline spirit below her knew what it was doing. "Let's go." Taking a few steps back from the edge to get a running start, Gadget gripped the bar of the glider securely, holding her breath in anticipation as she pushed herself off into the stilled misty air before her. As she did though, an air current *did* present itself to give the glider flight. A gentle, but more than adequate breeze that was considerably less violent than the winds that had whipped through the park before time had come to a screeching halt, minutes before. Looking about her as she released her clenched breath, she saw now that time had restarted itself once again...*somewhat*. Instead of being locked into an eerie state of suspended animation, the park animals, the clouds in the sky, the leaves on the trees, as well as what humans she could see, now moved with an almost syrupy slowness. It was somewhat akin to a state that she'd experienced a number of times within dreaming. Looking down, she watched as the cat continued to stare up at her before lightly pushing itself off from its sitting position with its hind legs, rising quickly into the air to join her in flight. Stopping in mid air but a few feet below and ahead of her, it assumed a somewhat compact position of lying down, the position reminding Gadget of the one that was the trademark of the Sphinx. With that, and curling its tail around itself, the cat took off through the air, heading off toward the main part of the city. Angling her craft, Gadget set her course to follow. For a good portion of the trip, they flew at a fairly average height between the buildings, set upon the hills and valleys that defined the city. The low lying fog that had wrapped itself around the metropolis had not quite begun to burn off as much here as it had in the park, and several times, her feline companion was lost to her sight within the mist, sometimes for many seconds. However, she immediately found after the first such disappearance that she didn't need to worry any of her losing track of him. For upon each disappearance, the black and white cat would once again appear after a moment or two. Flying directly beside her either on her port or starboard side, he would turn his head to lock gazes with her for a moment before continuing on again, once more just a few steps ahead of the craft. Even with the motion of the wind slowed to a much lesser degree that it had blown at before, the air temperature about her with the fog still held a chilling dampness. A feeling that began to work its way under her thick, insulating fur. Shivering, she gave a quick thought, wondering just how far they had to go. It wasn't much longer though, before a brownstone building came into sight, and seeing the two toned cat descend toward it, she shifted her glider to do the same. Landing before the well kept structure, taking in the cozy, academic atmosphere it gave through the ivy snaking gently across its walls, Gadget turned her attention towards her companion. "In here?" she asked, gesturing with her right hand across her chest to point toward the building. The cat did not answer in any way, but turning its gaze from where it lay upon her, it looked up toward the entrance of the building around the corner upon which the building sat. Lifting itself upon its four paws, it took a few steps forward before turning its gaze back toward her once again. <Guess so.> Gadget thought to herself as she repositioned the glider against her torso to carry it more comfortably as she started forward. However, as she did, the cat reached out a paw and put it upon the ground before her, blocking her path. Looking down at the paw set before her, Gadget turned her head to look up with confusion towards its owner. "What?" she asked in slight confusion. Lifting that same paw once more, the cat gently pressed it down upon the top of the glider, pushing it towards the ground as Gadget released the bar at his action, feeling the deliberate pressure he was applying. Watching the cat look down at her, she carefully stepped out from under the glider. Looking up at the cat before turning her gaze back toward her craft, the cat's paw still set lightly upon it, she turned her gaze back up toward the feline. Her right eyebrow quirked up curiously. "But...the *wind* might take it if I leave it out here!" she objected softly. "Why don't you want me to take it inside?" Still the cat did not answer but to look at her with its wide, softly staring eyes. "Okay," Gadget sighed, shrugging as well. "I'll leave it behind." With that, hearing her compliance the cat lifted its paw, and continued on its way toward the entrance. <Golly,> Gadget thought to herself as she followed him, <this ghost gives a whole new angle on the "strong, silent type."> she quipped to herself, wondering what lay within the building that had begun this strange journey. Rubbing her hands across her arms and upon her face in an attempt to chase the chill away from her body, she suddenly became aware of the fact that as abruptly as it had stopped, time had once more started again. The wind suddenly came to life about her, whipping into the blustery full motion currents it had been before. Around her as well, the sound of passing humans and cars that had been frozen a split second before, now startled her as they too sprang to full life. Jumping slightly at the event, she hurried to catch up to the black and white cat. Looking around her at the world, now full of motion once more, she caught a glimpse as the wind, a great deal stronger now, swiftly tumbled her hang glider away down the street as she had predicted. Still slightly unnerved from having suddenly been brought back into the time stream which she knew to be the cat's doing, she didn't bother to mention this fact to him as significant. Approaching the entrance and following its lead, she slipped in unnoticed with a female human, her arms too filled with packages to notice Gadget striding quickly along with her. Watching as the cat strode ahead of her to the elevator doors and seeing that the woman was headed toward them as well, she simply remained within the woman's blind spot until her human companion had disembarked upon the second floor, watching as the doors closed behind the woman. "So where to?" she asked, turning her attention once more to the feline sitting calmly in the back of the elevator. Without looking at her this time, the cat once more lifted itself into the air. Levitating itself in front of the control panel, it stretched out a paw to hit the button for the next level before settling back down to the elevator floor. Arriving at the floor a moment or so later, the oddly paired companions moved down the short hallway that presented itself, to one of the few doors set into it. Looking up at the door that stood before them, the cat calmly stretched out a paw and placing it against the door, held it there for but a moment before Gadget detected a distinct *click*, as of the lock being opened. She watched as with no other effort from the cat, the door swung open slightly before her. Moving along behind the feline specter as he slipped inside through the narrow opening, Gadget moved with him, her heart now beating a notch faster in anticipation. <Whatever this is all about is in here,> she surmised, looking around at the small foyer she was now in, giving a glance back toward the door as it softly closed itself behind her once again. The tip of her tail flicking behind her nervously, she watched as the black and white cat reached the end of the foyer and drew itself up, stopping at the doorway as it looked out into the interior of the apartment. Reaching his position, she looked out into the apartment as well. There was a human here, though as to precisely where, she couldn't say. The scent of the person filled her sensitive nose, along with the scent of a light perfume that was upon the person as well. This olfactory clue, along with the contents of the interior of the apartment as she took them in, told her that the owner of the apartment was a female. "Well?" she asked, looking over to her companion, "What now?" After a moment though, a curious expression crossed her face. The cat had not turned toward her upon her query to answer her, through any sort of action or gesture. Instead, it continued to look out into the interior of the apartment, the expression on its face seeming to her as if the feline stood deep in thought. Almost entranced in a way it seemed to her, as she gauged the look in his eyes. Tentatively and with uncertainty, she reached out a hand to touch the specter, only to have it go through his leg. The action though *did* have the desired effect as the cat blinked, shook its head lightly and turned to look at her. "Uh..sorry," Gadget began, withdrawing her hand and smiling gently at the cat. "What do you want me to do?" At her query, the cat turned to look out into the room once more, and turning back to her then, sat down to lift its right paw, pointing it out toward the room. Looking out into the room herself, Gadget paused only for a moment to look back toward the cat before starting forward as she was instructed. Pacing lightly through what she believed must be the living room, she took a longer look around at her surroundings. Masterfully crafted wood furniture that was obviously antique in age but excellently kept, adorned the room in the form of china cabinets, small end tables, and in an adjoining room that she could see, a dining room table as well. Lace doilies were lightly draped over some of the tables. The contents of the china cabinet contained ceramic porcelain figurines among the various decorative plates, both of which were also of antique quality. A few handcrafted dolls with intricate costuming sat in comfortable looking, overstuffed chairs around the room. These decorative items, along with others made of various simple materials, some of straw, some of lace, some of wood, some of glass, all served to give the apartment a very warm, old fashioned and welcoming "grand motherly" feel. Taking her eyes from the adornments about her, Gadget turned back toward the doorway that she had left, wondering what sort of purpose the ghost cat had for bringing her here. A more pertinent question suddenly presented itself though, as she looked to find the specter gone from where he had been but a moment before. "Quincy?" a muddled voice suddenly sounded from behind her. Whirling about, Gadget started as a rustling could now be heard in an easy chair but a few steps away from her, the back of which was facing her, obscuring the occupant from view. Uncertain as to whether to hide or stand her ground, she continued to look urgently about her for her feline companion. "Quincy, is that you?" the female voice continued as the stirring now grew louder, heralding the arrival of the chair's occupant from off its cushion and around its form. Seeing still no sign of the ghost cat that had brought her here, Gadget could only turn to face the human that now came into view from the other side of the chair, deciding against the option to hide. She still didn't know why she had been brought here. Whatever the reason though, whether this human was the reason or not, as the owner of the apartment, perhaps she could help in some way, give her some kind of a clue as to her purpose there. "Oh?" The silver haired, black elderly female that emerged into view from the other side of the couch asked reflexively, squinting toward Gadget after drowsily rubbing her bleary eyes to clear the sleep from them. Keeping a hand upon the side of the chair for support, the female looked back down toward the cushions of the chair, picking up a pair of spectacles which she deposited upon her face in a fluid nature that seemed almost a reflex. "Oh!" she exclaimed with a pleasant note of surprise in her voice as she looked to find Gadget standing there before her on the carpeting, looking up at her. "Well what have we here? So *you* were the one who made that noise, eh?" she chuckled pleasantly, snatching a wooden cane from beside the chair and leaning upon it lightly as she strode toward Gadget. "I thought you were my Quincy!" <Noise?> Gadget wondered, knowing that even to her much more sensitive hearing, she had not made a sound, nor had she heard any. <What noise could she be talking about? Something she heard in her sleep?> she asked herself. By all appearances, the woman Gadget now stood looking up toward was clearly elderly, but beyond that and the cane at her side which she seemed to use sparingly for support, her actions did not indicate it, nor did her expression. A twinkle in her eyes still indicated a sharp and alert mind within. "So....what brings *you* here?" she asked of Gadget in a somewhat jesting manner, not really expecting her to understand or reply. "Well you obviously must be someone's pet, or you would've high tailed it away from me by now, eh?" she asked, looking over Gadget's clothes as well, which she assumed a human had dressed her in. In reply, Gadget could only continue to look up at the elderly woman, curling her tail about her legs, in something of a trained gesture. "Hmmm..." the old woman chuckled once more, seeming to inspect Gadget further. "Well, as long as I'm up, and until I make a few calls to figure out which of the tenants in this building you might belong to, what do you say to a snack for the both of us in the meantime?" she asked, stooping down to hold out her hand upon the floor before her. Looking from the hand upon the floor before her, back up toward the amiably smiling face of the old woman towering over her, with a nod, Gadget looked down to take a step onto the woman's hand. A few minutes later, after a quick trip into the kitchen, a small fare was made upon the dining room table in the next room. For Gadget, the repast consisted of a piece of cheese and some sunflower seeds. For the woman, whom Gadget had discovered from a magnet upon the refrigerator that her name was "Susan", a chicken sandwich which already sat mostly devoured from even before she had set it on the table, served for her meal. As she sat upon the table, gnawing thoughtfully upon a sunflower seed, trying to figure out what her next move should be, she continued to look about her. Upon the spacious dining room table which stood uncovered with no cloth upon it, an unfinished jigsaw puzzle sat in a jumble of unorganized pieces, only a few of which had been interlocked together. Looking closer, she saw the puzzle to be one of a very complex nature, consisting of dozens upon dozens of leaves, all of roughly the same size, shape, and color. The box for the puzzle as well as the bag for the store in which it had been bought were in sight, along with the attached receipt which showed it had been purchased recently. As she looked at the puzzle though, impressed that the woman was still willing to take on a challenge to sharpen her mind, a wistful sigh beside her suddenly made her change her focus. Turning her head slightly, she looked over to find Susan leaning upon the back of her chair, looking out at a row of pictures that were lined upon a shelf, set along the wall. Curious, she looked out toward the framed picture upon which the woman seemed to be most intently focused upon. She looked to find a picture of the woman,....holding the black and white cat which had brought her here. <He was her pet?> she asked herself, quirking a sympathetic eyebrow at the discovery. <I guess that's not too much of a surprise, but I still don't-> another audible and slightly depressed sigh from Susan suddenly cut off her though, moving her attention from the picture, over to the old woman. Her heart going out to her new companion, she laid aside her half eaten sunflower seed, and leaping from the table, over to land upon Susan's arm, turned a look upon her which seemed to say "Want to talk about it?" Starting only slightly from Gadget's unexpected arrival upon her arm, Susan turned to look curiously toward Gadget, breaking out into a smile in spite of herself as she met Gadget's gaze toward her. "How do you animals seem to *always* know when someone needs cheering up?" she asked with a thoughtful grin, turning back towards the table to deposit Gadget upon it once more. Turning in her seat to take the picture from its place on the shelf, she set it upon the table as well. "This is Quincy, my cat," she began, turning the picture toward Gadget as she took a deep breath. "He just...showed up on my doorstep one day a few years back, from out of nowhere. Walked right in when I opened the door like this had always been his home, like he owned the place," she laughed, "but I guess that's the way cats are, right?" she asked grinning down to her. "He showed up at just the right time too. It was just around that time if I recall correctly," she continued, a thoughtful frown forming on her mouth as she began to stroke a gentle finger between Gadget's ears, petting her, "that life started getting more lonely." Pausing in her petting, Susan turned to lay the picture down flat upon the table to get a better look at it, gazing at it a moment more before she continued her tale and her stroking upon Gadget's fur. "My kids are already grown up you see. I've got two of em, a boy and a girl, both. My husband, he had passed away a number of years before, God rest his gentle soul, and when Quince and I met each other, or rather when he had *adopted me*," she laughed, tapping on the picture of the cat, "my children already had started families and lives of their own, both of them in different cities where their jobs took 'em. My youngest, Emily, had just moved out of California a bit before Quince came about. At that point, I barely saw either of 'em they were both so busy. I still see 'em on Christmas and Easter when they bring everyone on over or send me on a plane to go to 'em, but otherwise...." at this, she gave a sad shrug, the implication needing no words. "I gots no other family, and a lot of my friends had either passed on or were in nursing homes at that point. Me, well, the lord still let me keep ma' health so's I could take care of myself, but like I said, it still gots to be plenty lonely around here...." she trailed off, looking around before pulling herself back to the picture. "Quincy, he would stay with me, curl up on ma' lap and have me play with him...he filled up the emptiness that ma' kids left when they moved out, got their own lives and got too busy to be with me. Now though he's missing, and I'm plenty worried about him." she admitted, smiling softly at Gadget, the action of petting her fur serving to sooth her nerves somewhat, " 'es strange though, cause, every week, and I mean *every week*, ol Quince would get out of the house and to this day I *still* don't know how he did it, but cat's are sneaky that way, eh?" she asked, with a grin, "Anyway, he would stay gone for about two days. When he *did* finally come back, he would come back nearly half starved with hunger, wolfin down whatever I gave him, and smellin like he had slept in the garbage all that time. He never minded much when I cleaned him though, to get the smell out, and he always *loved* the brushin I gave him. Guess he went out to have some fun with his alley cat friends, slummin around a bit," she shrugged, giving Gadget a sly, knowing grin, "Every week though, this went on, startin as soon as he showed up here to live, and continued on, like ol Big Ben, his showin up after two days, and continued on til yesterday. Yesterday though, he didn't show up and after not showin up today,..... ...well I'm in a *frightful* worry here, little mouse," she admitted, her voice trembling just a bit. "I do hope that the super here didn't somehow get a crazy notion and get his hands on him somehow...*naaah!*" the old woman waved the thought away dismissively. "He hates cats I know, but the man ain't crazy or cruel neither! Besides, ol Quince is too smart a Tom to let anyone get their hands on 'im...least I think so..." Watching as Susan's words trailed off as her gaze wandered over toward the door, her expression clearly stating her concern and her silent plea that Quincy would show up at the door at that moment, Gadget felt a pang of anguish touch her heart, feeling the old woman's concern. Even if she *were* able to communicate to the woman through writing without shocking her that she could, she knew she would have a very hard time telling her that her beloved pet was dead. <Golly!> she thought to herself, <So *that* was why Quincy brought me back here? To find his killer? Was this *Ivana's* doing?> she wondered, her analytical mind going to work, <Is *that* why he came to me, since I was the one to experience a loss at her hands as well? It doesn't really make sense though>, she frowned, <with all that Quincy can do, why wouldn't he just be able to show me who was the one who did it? Susan doesn't seem to think that the superintendent did anything to him, but I'll still have to check him out for any clues...gosh though,> she added, snapping herself from her thoughts as she looked back up toward her companion's worried face, <I wish there was something I could do to make her feel a bit better in the meantime before I go, but what could I do? Turning her eyes up in a thoughtful look, her gaze suddenly turned toward the end of the table. The jigsaw puzzle had caught her attention from the corner of her vision, her eyes lighting up as they did. "What is it, little mouse?" Susan asked as Gadget scurried out suddenly from under her hand. Curiously, the woman watched as Gadget quickly scampered over to the other end of the table and picked up a piece of the puzzle in her hands, turning her head back to look over at Susan. "Oh, so you *like* those, huh?" Susan replied, her face picking up as she viewed Gadget's antics. Moving over to the chair that was positioned before the puzzle, she sat her self down within it. "Well there's a *way* you play with that, see?" she stated, picking up another puzzle piece as she locked her eyes with Gadget's. "You take this piece, and you put it.." she began, stopping as she looked around for where the piece might fit before finally putting it into place. "right here." she finished as she did so. "And then you take *this* piece, and you put it..." she began again, picking up another piece, "over here." she finished in a mentoring tone of satisfaction as she placed the piece into place after a few moments, looking over to Gadget as she did so. For a few more pieces, the old woman continued her "lesson", with Gadget watching her intently all the while, until she finally stopped upon a certain section, studying it carefully. "Now what goes here...?" she murmured to herself as she looked over the pieces that were sprawled out on the table. Taking a look at the space in question, and looking over at the pieces laid out before her, Gadget quickly scampered over to a specific piece. Picking it up, she turned to lay it before Susan, much to her astonishment. "Well!" she cried, crossing her arms before her in an expression of pleasant surprise and shock, "I never knew they could train a mouse to do *that!* You sure are a smart one, little mouse!" she stated, shaking her head as she grinned down at her. "Well can you tell me what goes here?" she asked, pointing to another part. For the next thirty minutes, the construction of the puzzle proceeded splendidly between the two, with Susan finding some of the pieces and Gadget finding the others. Having finished almost half the difficult puzzle, Susan picked up the latest piece that Gadget presented to her and placed it down amongst the scattered pieces once more, mixing them up with her hand. "Let's leave it there fo' today, if'n its alright by you, little mouse," she stated as she mixed the piece in blindly, "If'n we finish this puzzle so quickly, I won't have anything to do around here for a bit since I just got it yesterday, and I don't normally go shopping but once a week." To show her compliance to Susan's words, Gadget moved away from the unattached pieces of the puzzle, to move toward Susan's hand which rested upon the table, laying her own paws upon it gently. "I'll have to pick up a few more puzzles next time I'm out, and we can do some more if'n I don't find your owner by that time,....or if the person let you visit me from time to time." she stated smiling down at her, her expression clearly showing that her mind had been taken off of her worry for Quincy somewhat. "Ol Quince, he never had an interest in puzzles, not that I thought he could help me on 'em like you. Oh, he would play with the pieces, but other than that, he would just watch me put the whole thing together, or just fall asleep on the table while I was doing it. I wonder..." she said in a contemplative voice, "If'n ol Quince would mind your being around if he comes back. I wouldn't mind havin your company as well, little mouse." she finished with a bit of a fond note in her voice as she petted Gadget between her ears with a finger once more. Enjoying the stroking from Susan's finger, Gadget found herself only able to enjoy it for a moment, as in the next, she abruptly sat up straight, her entire body stiffening somewhat as though something had abruptly caught her attention. Heeding the slight, unspoken something in the back of her mind, she cast her gaze over towards the window. The black and white cat,...*Quincy*, had returned. "Well I'll be," Susan called out in a surprised tone once more as she observed Gadget's unexpected reaction, following her gaze over to the empty window, a few feet away. "That's the same thing that ol Quincy did, the first time that he came to me, before he went on one of his little trips. What *do* these animals hear that people don't?" she murmured to herself aloud. From her words, it was obvious that Susan couldn't see the spirit of her former pet as she could, but it was clear from his "calling" to her, that Quincy had returned for some reason to tell her something. *But what?* she wondered. It was then that the puzzle box which had been sitting on the corner of the table, abruptly fell over onto the floor. "Wha?" Susan called aloud, turning at the sound. Turning at the sound as well as upon Susan's voice, Gadget cast her gaze over to the old woman, just in time to see her freeze suddenly in mid turn. The cardboard box similarly froze, not all of its corners having quite touched the floor, as if it were being held up by an invisible stick. "Golly," Gadget murmured to herself as she took in Susan's frozen form for a moment before turning back towards the spirit waiting for her by the window. "that's *one* way of making a quick exit." Hopping off the table, Gadget made her way to the window sill upon which Quincy sat. Climbing up a nearby chair, and jumping down upon the sill, she approached the ghost once more. "I'm sorry," she stated, a sympathetic expression appearing on her face as she looked up at him. "Both for you, and for your friend." she continued, gesturing over toward the old woman still frozen in time "If you can talk with me in *any way*, though, I can help you find and catch your killer. Was it Ivana who did this to you? Was *that* why you came to me?" she asked with an urgent air of conviction, as if the question were almost unnecessary and as though she already knew the answer. In reply though, Quincy only cocked his head at her slightly in a curious expression, his eyes continuing to stare widely at her. Looking toward the window then, it slid up halfway, seemingly of it own accord, revealing Gadget's hang glider sitting upon the outside ledge, waiting for her. Stepping outside and walking to the ledge, the cat cast his gaze back at her once more. "Golly!" Gadget cried out as she spread her arms wide in an almost helpless gesture of frustration. "Can't you tell me anything? *Somehow?!* I can't very well help you if you don't *communicate* with me!" Blinking its wide eyed gaze once, Quincy's only reply was to turn away from her, and taking a step off the ledge to stand upon the air before him, tucked his legs under him and his tail about his body before moving off through the air once more. Sighing heavily in frustration, with a slight note of annoyance audible in the sound as well, Gadget turned to pick the glider up into position for flight. The trip through the fog was almost equally long for this trip as it had been for the one from Ranger Headquarters before they landed at their next destination. This time around, Gadget followed as Quincy made his way toward one of the tall, almost skyscraper like apartment buildings that were scattered in a few places throughout the city. Landing upon a ledge situated around one of the uppermost floors, the ghost watched as Gadget landed beside him, and upon seeing her disembark from the glider, now safely upon the ledge, he turned his gaze to the window before him. Turning her gaze inside as well, she looked to find a rather sad sight within as the figures before her suddenly sprang to life, she and Quincy sliding once more into the normal flow of the time stream. Within a very modernly furnished but tasteful and comfortable living room, a man and a woman stood around either side of a young child, gently holding his arms in their hands. The child, a small dark haired boy who looked to be around ten or eleven years of age, was taking some very careful, tentative steps upon the floor, his entire body looking to be very shaky and unbalanced. Small wonder though due to the fact that shortly below his kneecaps, he had no legs to speak of, save for the metal ones which were attached to them. For a few minutes, Gadget stood transfixed before the window as she watched the boy stumble upon his prosthetics for a number of times, the man and woman beside him, catching his weight as he began to fall. "Jeremy," Gadget heard the woman say gently from within the lavish apartment, "are you feeling all right?" "I'm okay, mom." the boy answered as she and the man on his other side helped to steady him again. "Are you sure, hon?" the woman continued, her voice clearly concerned, "You're not feeling dizzy or sleepy, are you?" "No mom," Jeremy replied, "why?" he asked, his face still a mask of concentration as he turned to look at her. "Well its just you seemed to be practicing a lot better just a few days ago." the woman answered. "Now its almost like you've forgotten a bit of what you learned. You were walking a lot easier than you have been these past few days." "Is anything bothering you, son?" the man holding Jeremy's left arm asked, concern on his face as well. For a moment, Jeremy turned his gaze up toward his father, his throat swallowing back silently as if he were uncertain whether to speak or not. "No, I'm okay dad." he replied. "I am feeling a little tired though, but its nothing bad. Could..could I go to my room?" he asked, turning a hopeful smile toward his parents. Looking at one another for a moment, their expressions communicating silently to each other as to their concern and if there were any objections to the request, Jeremy's father turned his gaze back down toward his son. "Sure, son," he stated, smiling lovingly down upon him. "Let me just get your chair." Gadget watched Jeremy's mother support both of his arms now, a heavy feeling of sadness now having lodged within her chest at having witnessed such a scene. She found her focus distracted from the scene though, Jeremy's father fetching the boy's wheelchair, by the motion of Quincy beside her as he began to move. Drawing her attention, she watched as he moved a few feet to the right to situate himself beside the next window upon that level. "What is it?" she asked. Turning his head to look at her with his never wavering wide eyed stare, the cat tapped his right paw in front of him twice, his indication clear. <Well at least that's *something* like communication!> Gadget thought to herself. Leaving the glider where she had landed it upon the ledge, she walked the few paces it was before she was positioned before the window, Quincy sitting upon the ledge behind her. As she did though, the window, as it had in Susan's apartment, slid open smoothly, as if inviting her to pass through it. Stepping through, she watched as Quincy stepped through the opening as well, following the motion of the window a moment later as it slid itself shut behind them both. "I don't suppose you'd answer me if I asked what this is about? Why we're *here?*" she asked with a shrug, casting her gaze up toward him. The area they were now in was obviously the boy's bedroom. A room that, other than the parallel bar like apparatus that took up part of the wall space along the far side of the room, gave no other indication to the boy's disability. It was a normal little boy's room complete with posters, toys, and other items that were devoted to heros of various sports, and superheros as well. Looking toward her, the specter's only answer was to start past her. Jumping from the window sill, he alighted upon a small adjacent shelf attached to the wall that was filled with small statuettes of baseball, football and hockey players. Shaking off the cold that had settled into her fur once more from the trip through the fog, Gadget leapt onto the shelf to join her companion. Walking comfortably in the space between the statuettes and the wall that was barely wide enough for Quincy to squeeze through, she turned suddenly as the door to the room opened, heralding the entrance of Jeremy within his wheelchair. Casting a glance over to her left, she looked to see Quincy sitting upon the shelf, his head and neck sticking through the space between two of the statuettes. Not that he needed to worry about knocking any of them over, she observed, for the top part of his forelegs had disappeared into the figures on either side of him, lost from sight in their intangible state. Peering out to observe Jeremy as she saw her companion doing so intently, she watched as the boy closed the door behind him. Wheeling his chair over to his computer desk, he presented his profile to them as he settled in and started the machine up. As she was able to see the computer screen from her angle, she watched with curiosity as with a few keystrokes, and taking his mouse in hand, the boy clicked open a picture viewer program. Her curiosity though turned to surprise as he clicked upon the title for an image and within a few seconds, a picture that had been scanned into the computer displayed itself upon the screen before her eyes. The image was that of Jeremy in his wheelchair, holding Quincy happily upon his lap. <Golly!> thought to herself, her eyes widening slightly at the sight, < just how many owners does this cat have, anyway?> she wondered, <Although this does explain what Susan said about him disappearing for two days, this must have been where he was for that time. I'm still in the dark as to what this is all about though..>. With that thought, she moved forward from around the statuettes a moment later. She knew that there was only one possible way that she might receive any answers as to what was going on. The only way that she could possibly piece together this journey her otherworldly companion had led her on was in the hope that Jeremy could tell her something about the cat on the screen. The one that had once been Jeremy's companion and was now the spirit beside her. Leaping back down from the shelf she was perched on, to the window sill, Gadget leapt upon the nearby bed, to cushion her descent. Springing from there to the floor, she raced over to the boy's wheelchair, scaling up the side of it. Even as she moved, she was constantly aware of Quincy's spirit watching her every step from the shelf she had just left, his eyes upon her all the while. Attaining a perch upon the left armrest of the boy's chair, taking in Jeremy's body language with a note of sympathy as he sat with his elbows placed upon the computer desk, his head in his hands as he sat staring with a morose air at the screen, Gadget let out a loud squeak to him, announcing her presence. His eyes widening at the sound, Jeremy lifted his head from his hands, and turning to look over his left shoulder, turned his entire upper body around in the chair to meet her as he caught sight of her, his face lighting up with a smile. "Hi!" he called out warmly though with not too much volume so as not to scare her. "Where did *you* come from?" he asked, gently holding out his hand with his palm up in the hopes that she would make her way onto it. Obliging him and stepping forward onto his hand, Jeremy brought Gadget up to his chest level, stroking her fur gently upon her head with one finger as Susan had done before. "I guess you're lucky that Lucky isn't here right now, him being a cat and all," the boy began, glancing over from Gadget to the computer screen and back again. "but even though I'm glad that you're here, I kinda wish he was too, you know?" he asked. <Lucky?> Gadget thought, <Well, I guess it only makes sense if this ghost had different owners when he was alive, he would have different names as well.> she shrugged inwardly, hoping that Jeremy would say something that would help her to figure out why the ghost had enlisted her aid on this quest. However, anything else about the cat upon the screen that Jeremy might have uttered right then was stopped cold, as Gadget sat bolt upright then, swinging her head over to gaze at the far side of the room from the window. "What is it, mousey?" Jeremy asked, noticing her behavior. "Is something wrong?" <I guess you could say that>, Gadget replied in her own thoughts, looking over to observe the ghost cat of Quincy/Lucky sitting atop one of the boy's dressers, staring over at her intently. Raising its right paw, it tapped it twice before itself in the same manner it had before, its meaning clear. <Well I'd better see what he wants...> "Hey!" Jeremy cried out in surprise as Gadget suddenly leapt from his hand, over to the armrest of his chair before springing from there back down to the floor. "Where are you going?" he asked, watching her speed away from him. Dashing over to the dresser upon which the ghost now sat, Gadget quickly climbed up it, leaping from the lip of each closed drawer to the next until she had attained the top. "What is it?" she asked as she reached the top of the dresser, locking her gaze onto the specter's. Patting the area beside him with his paw from where he sat at the back of the dresser, the ghost gave nothing else in the way of an answer. Joining him without a sound, Gadget stood beside the black and white cat, looking up at him as the cat now turned his gaze back out in Jeremy's direction. Turning her sight in that direction as well, she wondered what this latest mysterious behavior was all about. A moment later, she found out. Turning his chair away from the computer desk and wheeling it across the room to stand before the dresser, Gadget now could not see anything of the boy at all. "Mousey?" the disembodied voice came from over to her from the side of the dresser. "Are you up there?" Opening her mouth, Gadget was about to give a short squeak in reply, but her vocalizations were stopped short as the specter's left paw suddenly moved out to place itself before her face in a shushing gesture. Looking up at the ghost in surprise, unable to fathom the reason for this latest action, she looked back toward the edge of the dresser top as a new sound presented itself in the next instant. Looking forward, she watched as one of Jeremy's hands now stretched forward over the top of the dresser, fumbling blindly before turning to place that same hand, palm upward as it had before. "Come on mousey," Jeremy called softly and in a hopeful voice "come on....I won't hurt you mousey, I promise!" Seeing no reason behind this game that seemed to be going on with the intent of keeping the child waiting, bordering on teasing him, Gadget took a step forward. Meaning to move beyond the paw of the ghost cat, she had not even had a chance to put that paw down before the same paw that had held her fast before, now came down in front of her once again, blocking her path as it made contact with the dresser, its meaning quite clear. "What are you doing?!" Gadget snapped out in annoyance as she swung her gaze back up toward the ghost cat. "I thought you were *friends* with this child! Why do you want me to tease him? Don't tell me *he's* the one who caused you to be this way?!" she finished, pointing over to Jeremy's hand which still lay upon the dresser top, hopefully waiting for Gadget to hop onto it. "Mousey?" Jeremy called out again, "I know you're up there, I can hear you! Come on!" he asked in a cajoling voice. "Please?" Finishing her somewhat irate accusation, Gadget found herself shrinking back slightly in the next instant as the ghost cat, crouching over, brought its head down so that its face was now level with hers. Looking into the specter's large emerald, luminescent eyes, she gasped ever so slightly as she saw the slight look of annoyance and anger at the accusation that was centered there, clearly readable to her. Even moreso than that though, reflected within those same eyes she saw clearly a look of determination, as well of, of focus. That what it was doing it had a very specific, as well as a *very good reason* for. Picking up the paw that it had set in her way, he extended it in the direction of the side of the dresser, where Jeremy now sat, as if he were pointing at something that Gadget should be watching for. "Well if you won't come down..." She now heard Jeremy say as he withdrew his hand from the dresser top. A second later, she heard the clattering of metal, as if Jeremy were fiddling with something. Even as she did though, a curious look forming on her face at the sound, she watched as the ghost beside her now stood upon all its four legs, seeming to ready itself. A moment later, with her attention divided between the ghost beside her and the edge of the dresser before her, a movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. She looked to see Jeremy's face come into view from over the top of the dresser, looking down at her. "So *there* you are!" he called with delight upon spotting Gadget. Even as Jeremy came into view though, with a sideways nod of its head to indicate that she should follow, the specter leapt from the side of the dresser to an adjacent shelf along the wall. Racing along that, he leapt down to a table below it before continuing on. With a quick glance over towards Jeremy as he began to reach for her, now realizing what her companion had in mind, she leapt from the dresser as well, following his exact path. Around and across the room many times, the ghost cat led Gadget on the mixed game of "follow the leader" and "tag" of sorts that had ensued. She in turn led Jeremy who followed in pursuit upon the prosthetic legs he was now perched upon, using a pair of metal crutches for balance as he tried to catch her, smiling with determination and giggling at almost every step. At times the specter and Gadget halted for a moment so as to let Jeremy catch up a bit before they started off again. At times they stopped for many moments as Jeremy would sometimes lose his balance and fall, with Gadget staying in plain view as they allowed him to "get his legs" once more before the game continued. Sometimes they ran circles around him. With the ghost cat leaping over him, Gadget would actually leap upon the boy from a nearby shelf or other perch, giving him a false hope at grabbing her before springing from there to the bed or back to the dresser, the table or one of the shelves along the walls. Such maneuvers were both frustrating and confusing to the boy, but all in fun as he stumbled about, hanging onto both the canes and the furniture throughout the game, as he tried to figure out where she had gone. The mixed game continued for close to a half hour with a sometimes slow, sometimes frantic pace, when the specter led Gadget behind the computer monitor once again and stopped, turning its head back to look along the path they had come. He had done this at the last place they had hidden as well, as if expecting something. "Mousey?" Jeremy called from behind them, his face appearing at the beginning of the computer desk. "I sure hope you're feeling tired too, because I can't keep up anymore. I gotta sit down and rest for awhile." Hearing this, the ghost lowered his gaze down to lock onto Gadget's once more. With another sideways nod, he led her out from around the screen and back over towards Jeremy. Waiting until the boy had propped up his crutches and settled himself back upon his chair, they both jumped up upon it as well.... "This is Lucky," Jeremy explained many minutes later after cooling down as he displayed the picture of him and the cat upon the computer screen once more. With Gadget perched before the keyboard on the desk, looking up at the screen, Jeremy divided his gaze between her and the screen before him with a smile. "He's my cat." Casting a quick glance over her shoulder, Gadget smiled as she looked upon her otherworldly companion, curled up in a ball and resting contentedly upon Jeremy's lap. It was obvious that the boy could neither see nor feel his former pet upon his legs, but at least to Quincy/Lucky, it didn't really matter. With merely being in such a familiar and comfortable place as this, the action was clearly more than enough to make the ghost cat happy. The emotion was almost visible upon his face though certainly palpable, as his eyes were closed in blissful satisfaction. As the specter still hadn't made a sound all this time even up to this point, she wasn't sure if the faint sound she heard was actually him purring, or whether it was simply taking place in her imagination, influenced by the hum of the computer. Wondering briefly if he had curled up on Susan's lap as well where she wouldn't have been able to see him under the table, Gadget noticed that the ghost's presence upon his old resting spot seemed to have a soothing effect upon Jeremy as well. It was plain to see that the boy was now looking upon the picture of himself and "Lucky" with fondness instead of sorrow. "Actually, Lucky's more like my friend than my cat," Jeremy continued as he gently began to pet Gadget between her ears again. "since I know that he belongs to someone else." With that, Jeremy clicked off the image on the screen and moving the computer mouse around slightly, clicked the button again to summon a different image. This one was a similar one to the first, save that Lucky was nestled in Jeremy's arms in the picture, along with the fact that although he was still in a wheelchair, Jeremy still had the lower part of his legs in this one. "He came to me a few years ago, back when my legs were still there," he continued, pointing to the screen as if the difference needed to be pointed out. "Mom, dad and I *still* don't know how he got in the apartment since there's really not supposed to be any pets allowed here, but we didn't mind, cause we like animals. He would stay with me for a day before going back to his real home for awhile, but after a day or two, he would always come to visit me again. When I was using leg braces instead of my "new legs" to walk around on," Jeremy went on, now tapping on one of his prosthetic legs to get Gadget's attention, eliciting a curiously alert response from the ghost as well as he raised his head, "Lucky, that's what I called him cause he was always lucky in getting into the building, and also 'cause he didn't have a name tag, he would always play with me. He would run around the room like you did, getting me to chase him before we both got tired, but it always helped me to practice with the braces. Then, when I got sick and the doctors had to take away the part of my legs away that were no good, Lucky stayed with me for a number of days then before he went away again. We had just started to play again, with me using my new legs when he went away and didn't come back. I guess his real owner won't let him go out anymore or maybe he's sick too and can't come out." he finished with a dejected sigh. "Mom and dad know I miss him, but I don't know where he lives, so I can't visit him. Are you friends with him, mousey?" Jeremy asked curiously, "Did you learn how to play from him?" Turning at Jeremy's question, grinning at the childlike perception he had just displayed, her attention was suddenly drawn to the door to her right as a knock sounded upon it. "Jeremy?" his mother's voice sounded through the door after the knock as it began to open, "Who are you talking-" As both the voice and the motion of the door froze then before her eyes, Gadget whirled around to cast a quick glance towards Jeremy's now empty lap. Bouncing her gaze from there, over to the window sill, she saw the ghost of Quincy/Lucky perched upon it as she had anticipated, waiting for her to come. "Time to go, huh?" she asked with a mixture between curiosity and disappointment. Turning his wide eyed staring gaze from her, the ghost cast it over to linger upon Jeremy for a moment. Then, focusing his sight once more upon her, he turned to look out the window in reply. Nodding, her assent, she hopped down from the desk to Jeremy's chair, to the floor, and from there, made her way to the window sill. She knew by now that behind the window which would open itself in a moment, her hang glider would be waiting... The next stop through the fog seemed a much longer trip than the other two and by the time they reached their destination, Gadget was visibly shivering. Turning toward her as they landed, she could read a look of concern within the eyes of her companion. "I'm okay," Gadget nodded with a small smile of assurance as she hugged her arms around her body. "I do kinda wish that we were going inside though." They were in an alleyway between two very large brick buildings. Around them, the single street which curved about the area was fairly deserted. Here, in this section of the city, the fog was still thick around them, having barely begun to burn off as it moistened and chilled the air about them. With two industrial sized dumpsters bordering either side of the alley at the beginning of it, the only other thing occupying it was a refrigerator box, nestled slightly behind the dumpster on the right side. As they approached it, it gave a quick frantic shaking motion before a hand appeared around the far corner of the box which faced into the alley, a face appearing along with it to look toward them. The face belonged to a man. He was somewhere in his late twenties or early thirties, though it was hard to tell through the heavy set of bristled whiskers he sported, as well as the dirt, dust and grime which covered that face and beard. Weatherbeaten and with a lost look, Gadget surmised that the homeless man had been living in this manner for quite some time. "Tom....?" the man called out in an uncertain, drawling voice, the tone extremely simplistic and monotone. <Golly,....He's *retarded!*> Gadget realized instantly with a look of sympathy, casting her gaze over to her companion. Seeing the same emotion that she felt within her heart reflected within the eyes of the ghost cat, as well as one of affection, only served to doubly confirm her assessment. Moving forward then, she slowly approached the man who's clothes seemed to be no more than rags held together by caked on dirt, when she stopped in her tracks. Watching as she saw him fully emerge from his box home, she decided to wait for him to notice her as he looked around. "Tom.....?" he called out again, looking around the alleyway, his posture shifting constantly to suggest an unconscious tick of some sort. As the homeless man seemed to be almost oblivious to her presence, despite the fact that she was standing almost right before him, she moved a few steps closer and let out a small squeak to announce herself to him, hoping that it would get his attention. Looking down at the ground before him at the sound, a wide, childlike grin broke out onto the face of the homeless man as he spotted Gadget. Lowering himself to kneel upon the ground before her, he stooped to cup his hands upon the ground in front of her in a welcoming gesture, a clear look of joy expressing his happiness at the visit. Swallowing back her hesitation, for all about the man, the almost revolting and palpable stench of filth, garbage and decay could be felt as well as smelled, Gadget smiled at the invitation. Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward onto the homeless man's outstretched hands. Raising himself up quickly, now grasping Gadget in both of his hands, the man launched into a quick dance of happiness, lasting for all of a second or two. His expression and body language seeming to be akin to that of a kid on Christmas morning. Shuffling back then towards the wall of the alley and placing his back to the dumpster on the right side of it, he slid down upon it into a sitting position. Drawing his hands close to the side of his face and closing his eyes, he pressed Gadget's soft fur against his skin, squeezing her tightly with both hands in what looked like a hug. In spite of his affectionate demeanor though, it was clear that the homeless man didn't know his own strength. For what was a simple lingering hug to him was even more than a crushing bear hug on Gadget's side. A pained look appearing on her face, she began to try to struggle for her freedom from the overpowering grip which had already cut off her air, a few muffled cries for help and for her release escaping from between the man's fingers as well. Looking up at her and the homeless man from where he sat on the ground, the ghost cat was not oblivious to his companion's plight as he heard her cries and watched her struggles. A look of concern coming into his wide eyed and haunting stare, he raised a single intangible paw to place it's pads gently against the man's leg. Instantly opening his eyes then as if he were awakening from a dream with something of a blank look, the homeless man removed his hands from his face. Opening his hands as well much to Gadget's relief, she gasped in a lungful of air, coughing it out in the same breath from the slight pain in her ribs. Blinking once, the man looked over to the side where the ghost cat sat, staring at him in a wide eyed expression of surprise and wonder as similarly, the specter stared back at him with its same wide eyed look. "Tom...?" the retarded man asked in his simple voice, cocking his head slowly as he looked at the cat sitting before him. Only for a moment did this scene last though, for in the next, once again closing his eyes and shaking it roughly, he opened them again to look towards Gadget once again who still lay in his hands, trying to sit up. "Iiii'm.......sorry..." the homeless man called out to her, a look of genuine remorse upon his face. "I....I *like*...com-pan-y." Placing a very gentle finger upon Gadget's head then to stroke her fur lightly, even as she winced a bit, the man continued, "My name...name is....Ad-am...." Then, picking his finger off of her head, Adam's eyes lit up as he scrambled to his feet suddenly, a flurry of frenetic activity as if something were of dire urgency. "Come...come...on!" he called out to her, grasping her much more gently now in his right hand. "I....I show you....*things*.." With that, his face lighting up happily once more, he set off at a fast paced shuffle towards the farther reaches of the alley. After about fifty steps in, Gadget found that the alleyway blossomed out into almost a small courtyard. The building to the left was shaped so that like a scoop, a large indentation was formed out of the passage that was about twenty feet wide before narrowing back into the rest of the alleyway. As they turned left into this spacious area, what she saw there astounded her. Electronic devices. *Hundreds* of electronic devices, sat upon half broken wooden crates throughout the area. All of them were strung together by what looked like salvaged electric cord that had been respliced together from all the insulating tape that had been wrapped around it at different areas. Connected into reworked strip plugs, the electricity for the devices came from an underground supply from what she could see, the cord which delivered the power to the devices, running into a manhole on the far side of the alleyway. What was *truly* captivating about this sight though, was the fact that the devices clearly weren't what they had originally been made to be. Like the crates they sat upon, the devices had clearly been broken in some way in their lifespan. Unlike the crates though, Adam had served to breath a new and different life into them, saving them from the junkpile for his own collection. Answering machines had been merged with boomboxes. Digital clocks had been merged with Video Cassette Recorders and tape players. Many examples of electronic and mechanical tinkering, merging, and experimenting lay throughout the area, like a collage of mismatched electronic hybrids created by a Dr. Frankenstein of the silicon age. Some of the new devices were truly unique as well as a bit bizarre to behold, even for one of Gadget's particular talents. One such example lay in a certain digital alarm clock that Adam presented in his tour. Though only the minutes portion of the LCD was still operating, to give some color and light back to the device that had been taken away from it, Adam had grafted a fiber optic color lamp into its circuitry. From the looks of it, it was as if the clock was sporting a Jamaican haircut of very fine dreadlocks that changed color every few seconds as the fibers rotated about the clock's base. From this and from other examples, Gadget couldn't help but to giggle a bit, though it was only in delight. Being an inventor herself, she could never find it in herself to ridicule an invention, no matter how odd it appeared to be. From the look of awe and glee upon her face though, as it had been with Adam before, this time it was Gadget's turn to appear akin to a child faced with a roomful of toys on Christmas morning. <Golly!> Gadget thought to herself, looking over to observe Adam's tools which had also looked as though they had been scavenged and fixed up, <this is *incredible!* He's just like me! Taking whatever he can find at hand and making it work for him. Its really a shame that he has to live this way though. Why, with his talent, I'm sure that a number of people would be glad to have him on hand, if only he knew that he didn't have to live like thi....wait a minute!> she cried excitedly in her thoughts as a sudden realization of hope hit her. Leaping off of Adam's hand, she quickly scampered down his clothes. Hitting the ground running, she called out to the specter who sat a few feet away upon the alley floor, watching her sudden movement as she began to run past. "Don't worry!" she called out, "I just had an idea! I'll be back in a little bit!" Before she had a chance to blink though, before she even had an inkling that any movement on her companion's part had occurred though, Gadget found the ghost sitting directly in front of her, blocking her path. With a touch of sorrow in its wide eyed stare, it looked from her, back over towards Adam. The homeless man stood there with a look of confusion and sorrow on his own face at his "company's" sudden departure. Taking in his friend's expression, the ghost cat turned his gaze back down toward Gadget once more. A questioning gaze in his eyes, he crouched down so that his face was now directly in front of hers, as though he were trying to see the reason for her sudden and somewhat harsh departure. With a gentle smile, Gadget met his gaze directly. "Look, Quin, er,...gosh! I don't even know what to call you anymore!" she began, shaking her head and spreading her arms in a shrugging gesture. "Just *listen* to me! I know of a way to help your friend that'll be much more effective than just keeping him company here. Something that, if I'm right, will help him get a much better and happier life than what he has now. I need to act *quickly* though, so you just have to trust me since I don't have time to explain!" Here she stopped as she took in a deep breath before continuing. "I trusted you to follow you through all of this. Can you do the same for me, now?" she asked simply. Still unmoving, the specter continued to look into Gadget's soft blue eyes for many moments, as though he were considering her words, though no expression appeared on his face to show it in any way. With that look as well though, was that same question that she could see within his eyes, as to what she had in mind that could do all that she said she could accomplish. Weighing the possibilities, the ghost raised himself up once more to step out of her path a moment later. "Thank you." Gadget stated humbly, smiling sincerely at him as she looked up at the ghost once more before taking off again. Tucking her glider under a piece of newspaper and leaving it behind, she continued out of the alley and straight ahead to the end of the block, hopping onto the fender of a car as it stopped for a red light. She remembered this area of the city. As it happened, someone whom the Rescue Rangers had solved a case for a number of months back was operating near here. That someone, was Benjamin Morganson, and his company by the name of Century Technologies, which was in the business of making printed circuit boards for numerous manufacturers. <If my hunch is right....> she thought to herself slyly as she transferred from the car she was on, to a bus at the next light, taking her in the direction she wanted to go. Thankfully, the distance that she had to travel was not all that long. In a little over five minutes, hopping off the bumper of the bus, she found herself at the entrance to the company, and letting herself in through the mail slot, made her way to the President's office on the first floor.... Entering the office through the small space between the glass door and the carpet, she found the very person she was looking for, Benjamin Morganson, talking to a person she recognized as the vice president of the company. Slipping discreetly behind the pair, she quickly climbed up the curtains which hung on the far wall from the double doors. Jumping to the cluttered desk which sat before them, she quickly began to look over his organizer schedule for the week. <Just as I thought....> she grinned to herself as she spotted a circled notation upon the page. Withdrawing from the book she made her way to a corner of the desk where her anticipated target lay. That target namely being the keys to his brand new sports luxury coupe, still complete with the key ring that the dealership had provided. She had remembered Morganson since in one way that Adam was like herself, in another way, Morganson was a bit as well,...*only much worse*. That way being, that although the man was able to accomplish many large and significant tasks of personal merit with his company, he did have a small fault. That fault namely, was that in many small day to day personal matters of minor detail, such as getting another copy of his car keys made to replace the duplicate set he had lost, he was often quite absentminded to a fault. Having overheard his intention to "finally" get the duplicate set made when she had been on that case with the rest of her teammates, she couldn't help but to shake her head in astonishment. Even though she had anticipated it, she still found it hard to believe that anyone could be quite *so* forgetful about certain things. Disengaging the key ring for his car from the rest of Morganson's personal keys, she made a point of running directly across his line of sight. Jangling the keys loudly for effect, she ducked underneath one of the glass doors and sprinted for a hiding place she had seen underneath a cabinet. Behind the glass doors, back in his office, a quick take on Morganson's part from Gadget's exit to the empty space on his desk where his keys had been, was all that it took before the pandemonium began.... Practically everyone in the tri story building must have heard the alarmed shout that issued loudly forth from inside the office as Morganson crashed through the doors. Looking frantically one way and then the other, he immediately began calling out to all those within earshot, explaining the situation and his instructions to "get that packrat!!" before starting off through the floor of the building himself. Flitting from hiding place to hiding place, staying just out of sight of the employees that were now scurrying around, trying to find her, Gadget stealthily made her way out of building and into the employee parking lot. In spite of herself, she couldn't help but to grin at all the chaos and mischief that she was causing. She normally was not one to ever cause anyone trouble through any sort of a stunt like this, save for criminals like Fat Cat and his gang or their human criminal counterparts. However, neither she nor the other Rangers had started any sort of prank of sorts either on each other, or on any criminals in a number of weeks. With that, she had to admit that the stunt gave her an impishly playful feeling that she had missed. Entering into the parking lot, Gadget made her way up to the parking space that read "Reserved: Mr. Morganson". Stopping and looking over the car that was parked there for a moment, she cast her gaze back toward the building once again, with a sly look. <This ought to bring him running...> she grinned. Turning the small plastic box which controlled the switch for the car alarm toward the new auto, she casually pressed her hand upon the button. Inside the building, Benjamin Morganson was busy crawling under a desk, looking for Gadget and his pilfered keys when the alarm went off. His eyes widening suddenly at the sound, he seemed to forget where he was at the moment as he hastily tried to stand up, slamming his head up against the bottom of it. Still clutching his bruised head with one hand and muttering some rather undignified language, he was out in the parking lot in under a half minute along with a few of his employees. "Split up," the forty year old entrepreneur called out to them. As they did, a helpless look of annoyance spread over his face. Looking upon the ground, he could only glare out at his car which was starting to make his headache even worse with its annoying array of alarm noises, knowing that without the remote he couldn't shut it off either. "That mouse has got to be *somewhere* around here!" With that, shaking his head in disgust, the head of Century Technologies stooped to examine the underside of his vehicle. Trying to cover his ears, he began to wonder why in the world he had decided to have an alarm system installed on the car in the first place. Sitting on the roof of a car parked across the street, Gadget observed all this activity with a patient grin, waiting for the other employees to distance themselves a bit from Morganson before putting the next part of her plan into action. In a few more moments, seeing that the other employees were far enough as they too crouched to look under cars, and seeing Benjamin starting to turn away from her as he got to his feet, she acted. Taking a small magnifying lens from the pocket of her coveralls along with a mouse sized penlight that she had made, she activated the device. Focusing the beam, she directed it towards the executive's eyes. Seeing the desired effect that she had wanted, as Benjamin reflexively looked up toward the tiny pinpoint of light, she immediately stuffed her tools back in her pockets. Picking up the keys and alarm switch in her hands again, she jangled the set a few times while looking at him. A split second later, she was off and running again. Though Benjamin's few shouted words had alerted his employees as to her whereabouts, a few minutes later as Gadget had anticipated, the chase had come down to her and Benjamin alone. The others had been left too far behind to catch up. Unlike many of the employees that begun the chase along with him, the entrepreneur was in excellent physical shape, able to keep the distance between them to no more than a quarter of a block. That, along with the fact that she knew that when the entrepreneur set his mind to a specific, important goal, he didn't let up until he had attained it, gave her an edge in planning her strategy. She knew that even though he might tire as they continued to race the almost two miles it was from his company back to the alley, as long as she kept herself in his line of sight, like someone with tunnel vision, he would not stop chasing her. At times, it was *she* who had to stop to catch her breath for a minute or more, hiding herself and the keys from his sight until she had, before flaunting her "prize" once again, catching his attention and beginning the chase anew. Finally, sprinting back into the alleyway she had left once more, she deposited the keys and alarm box near the middle of the passageway, but a foot or two from Adam's refrigerator box home. Knowing that Benjamin would arrive behind her in a matter of moments, she quickly ducked underneath the dumpster on the left side. "Finally!" Benjamin Morganson breathed out upon circling around into the entrance of the alley to spy his keys having been left behind. Scooping them up, his thinning jet black hair in a wild disarray from the frantic sprint he had undertaken, he wavered a bit. Stepping backwards, he placed his back to the alley wall for support, almost completely out of breath. <Let's hear it for small favors,> he thought to himself as he waited for his heart to stop beating so quickly. <That mouse *could* have taken them in the sewers! What would a mouse want with keys anyway?> he wondered. Shrugging an answer to himself, still waiting for his breathing to return to normal, his head suddenly turned toward his right, toward the interior of the alleyway as a movement caught his eye. Looking out, he watched as a transient man came walking not all that gracefully toward him, shambling slightly down the passage. From his tone as he called out a greeting, it was clear to Morganson that thankfully, the man was not insane or drunk, but dealing with a mentally retarded derelict was not something that he was up to at the moment, either. He had to get back to the office in a hurry to make up for this delay, as well as to shut off his car alarm which he knew must be driving every one within earshot, crazy. "He.....hellooo...." Adam called out happily to Benjamin as the executive watched him approach. "You...ta-..t-t...*talk*..with me...?" he asked as he smiled at the idea, showing yellowed and filthy teeth that had not been cleaned in possibly years. "Whoa," Benjamin called out, waving the man away as politely as he could as he backed up toward the entrance to the alley. "I'm sorry, but I wasn't staying, friend," he replied, "just go back to whatever it was you were doing, and I'll be on my way." The smile disappearing from his face as he stopped in his advance, Adam turned to train a curious look upon this visitor to his home for a moment, cocking his head before a new, excited look lit up his face once more. Jumping up and down with glee, he pointed a tatter clad finger at Benjamin while simultaneously pointing his other hand back toward the inner part of the alley. "*Th*...*th*...*things*!!" he called out before running back into the alley from where he had come. "Yeesh..." Benjamin mumbled to himself, in a mixed tone of relief for himself and sympathy for the mentally handicapped man who was living in such a manner. Turning then, he looked toward a street sign across the way. "Whoa! I ran a lot farther than I thought!" he stated to himself in surprise, his hand going to the cellular phone that he kept holstered around his waist. Activating it, and punching two buttons that dialed from the phone's memory, he held the receiver to his ear. "Hello? Linden?" he asked as the other end was picked up. "Yeah, its me...yeah I got my keys," he replied as he stepped outside the alleyway, continuing to look at the street sign. "You wouldn't believe how far I had to chase that critter down to, to get em!" he laughed. "Come on...*come ooon*....!" Gadget mumbled anxiously to herself as she looked from Benjamin toward the interior of the alleyway and back again, trying to will the executive to stay there a few moments longer, as she tried to equally will Adam to come back with at least one of his "things". <Come on, spirit, help him get out here, would you?> she silently pleaded, her entire body tense. "Yeah, I need you bring the limo around for me, okay?" Benjamin asked, continuing his conversation. "Great!" he smiled, "Huh?" he asked, "Oh, *right!*" he laughed, smacking the side of his head lightly. "I'm still a little winded from that run! I'm at the corner of Tw-" he began to say before a slight tap on the side of his arm made him spin about abruptly. Looking at the sight which now stood before him, he stood there blinking for a moment dumbfoundedly in a stare, before he opened his mouth once more. "...Linden, I'll call you back." he finally said in a distractedly remote voice before flipping the mouthpiece for the cellular phone up, abruptly terminating the call. "Things...!" Adam said with a calm happiness as he stood there, smiling and holding out the fiber optic lamp/alarm clock out to him, having attached a reworked battery pack to it so that it now ran independently of the electrical wiring in the alley. "Gift...for you..." he stated as Benjamin took the device from Adam's hands into his own. For many moments, Benjamin could only stare at the device with a look of shocked awe. Turning it in every angle as he observed its construction and the modifications that had been done to it, from the connected circuitry that was exposed and visible through the casing, Benjamin finally spoke. Turning his slightly slack jawed expression toward Adam, he didn't even seem to notice or mind now, that the man he had not let near him before was now only a foot away from him. "*You* made this?" Benjamin finally asked, turning his gaze up from the device toward Adam's smiling face. Receiving a more than vigorous, enthusiastic nodding in reply from Adam as his grin grew even wider, Benjamin could only blink in awe at the decrepit, reeking young man who stood before him. "How?" he finally asked, posing the question definitely and with curiosity, though his tone seemed to say that it was the only word he could muster up at the moment. Jumping up and down again with glee slightly, Adam waved him forward with his left hand as he stepped back into the alleyway, pointing with his right, back toward the unseen alcove that stood further in. As the two men proceeded back toward Adam's small "workshop", Gadget carefully followed them in as well. Concealing herself behind bits of garbage, she jokingly wondered if keeping out of sight was a futile effort. Considering the overflowing satisfaction and happiness she felt pouring out of her that made her feel positively radiant, sporting a smile that was even wider than Adam's, she felt she would be spotted a mile away. "Linden, it's me again," Benjamin said a number of minutes later, still sporting an amazed look on his face after being toured through Adam's collection of inventions, staring over at the derelict as even now, he made some more modifications to one of his devices with a soldering iron... "Listen, slight change of plans, I still need you to bring the limo around, but before you go, I want you to grab the keys to the midtown apartment that're sitting on my desk. Also make sure the fridge in the limo is fully loaded. Don't worry, I'll tell you all about it when you get down here, now get moving. I'm at the corner of..." he continued, holding his cellular phone in one hand as he now continued to look over the "gift" he had gotten in his other. "Are you sure about this, sir?" the man named Linden stated in a somewhat confused, hesitant tone a number of minutes later as the stretch limo stood parked outside the alleyway, now holding Adam in its spacious back seat along with a few of his "things". "I appreciate your concern, Linden," Benjamin stated patiently as he stood before him, his hands in his pockets, "but I know what I'm doing. You understand everything that *you* have to do, I trust?" he asked in a straightforward, no nonsense manner. "Yes, sir." the young blond haired intern nodded with no other note of objection in his voice. "Good," Benjamin replied with a warm, satisfied smile then, nodding at him in turn. "Then get going. I'll see you back at the office when everything's taken care of." From her vantage point atop the dumpster on the left side of the alley, Gadget nodded with satisfaction to herself as well, as she sat hidden within the shadows. She had watched as Benjamin explained before Linden's arrival, in as basic a manner as he could, an offer to Adam of going to work for him at his company which dealt with technology. It was an offer which to the satisfaction of all, Adam accepted with his ever present level of enthusiasm. However, Morganson's generosity had only begun with that point. For as he had explained moments before to the young intern Linden, until he had been trained to work at a specific job at Century Technologies, and until he had earned enough at that job to rent an apartment for his own, Adam was to be taken to the apartment that Morganson had in the upper class district of the city, to stay there. As Morganson used the apartment on the semi rare occasion when he had worked too late to merit a drive to his house, he had stated with assurance that he could do without it for a time. Once there, Linden had been instructed to make sure that the man was thoroughly bathed, calling in a professional nurse or attendant to help if it appeared that Adam didn't know how. In addition, Linden was to make the arrangements that some fresh clothes be bought and ordered up to the apartment for him, with his present ones to be burned. For last, but more immediate matters, he had been instructed that Adam be properly fed. He was to be brought to the barber, his long knotted hair trimmed, his beard shaved, and that as time allowed the following day, he be brought to Morganson's personal dentist and his personal physician to have his teeth cleaned and his general health checked. In essence, as Morganson had jokingly put it to Linden, "Let me see what he looks like underneath that mess." "Sir?" Linden asked, another confused look appearing on his face, "don't you want me to drop you off at the office?" "Thanks, Linden," Morganson smiled, waving the offer away with a hand, "but I'm feeling quite good at the moment. I'll *walk* back." A look of realization dawning upon his face then, as though he had just remembered something, taking out his car keys from his pocket, he detached the remote alarm switch from the keychain and tossed it to him. "Please turn the alarm off though. I'm sure everyone's tearing their hair out about it by this time. Just leave it on my desk." Watching as with a final nod, Linden made his way around to the drivers side of the car to drive off a moment later, Morganson then turned his attention again to the alleyway behind him. Dipping his hand into his left pocket then, he withdrew a small golden cross shaped pendant from it. Resting it in his palm for a moment, he considered it before grasping it and replacing it back into his pocket. "Thanks little fella," he said aloud to the alley around him in a semi jesting tone, smiling as he playfully tossed his keys in the air. Catching them, he turned about and began the small trek back toward his business. "You're welcome." Gadget returned from where she sat upon the dumpster. Watching him go, she turned then to the specter laying beside her who had watched Morganson leave as well, seeing him turn towards her as well at that moment. Though still no expression was visible on the spirit's face, she could clearly read at this point, a proud look of happiness as well as respect and thanks visible with his eyes, in the look that he bestowed upon her. "Golly, thanks," she replied, a slight blush coming to her face, a blush that rapidly faded with alarm as the specter began to appear rapidly more translucent, disappearing before her eyes. "Hey, wait!" she cried out. Heeding her call, the ghost cat ceased his Cheshire cat impression and faded back into full view, a question in his eyes that she could read almost as well as any words. Casting her eyes over the face of the specter, her own face was filled with questions. "Is that it, then?" she asked. In answer to this, looking over to the piece of newspaper which covered up her hang glider, through unseen forces, the specter removed it, and levitating the craft over to land before her on the dumpster, continued to look at her as he pointed in the direction out of the alleyway, his answer clear. "Golly," Gadget began uncertainly, looking at him curiously, "I'll be glad to visit all your friends and keep them company whenever I have time, but you still never showed me what this was all about in the first place. Why did you pick *me* for all of this," she asked, placing her hands against her chest, "and *what happened* to you, anyway?" she finished, extending a hand out toward the spirit to indicate him. Blinking once at her question, the spirit looked away from her for a moment. Looking off into the air outside of the alley, he turned his head back a moment later, training his gaze directly upon hers once more, the message in his eyes conveying a slightly aloof message. A message that the reason he had picked her and what had happened to him really wasn't of any importance. Shaking her head at his response, a gently insisting look entered upon Gadget's expression as she reached out a paw to place it atop his own intangible one. "*Please*," she stated compassionately, "I'd really like to know." Turning his head away from her again for a moment, the ghost cat looked toward the air once more, seeming to consider her request with a strangely saddened air about him. Turning back towards her and turning away once more to consider again for a few moments, he raised himself upon his paws. He cast his gaze back at her before nodding his head sideways in a motion for her to follow. Taking her glider in hand once more, she took to the air, following the spirit once again. Their trip took them a few miles to the South this time, a slightly shorter distance than their last trip. Here, a construction site was in operation, though the site lay dormant for the moment. The large machines sat unmanned upon the lot with no workers bustling about the large steel framework either. As they landed upon the site, with a new batch of fog appearing to roll in towards them to replace what had burnt off, the specter led Gadget to a large garbage dumpster. It appeared similar to the ones in the alleyway they had left, laying just outside of the construction that was underway. Once more, as unexpected as ever, she was aware of the two of them slipping outside of the timestream as the people on the sidewalks about her abruptly stopped in their tracks. She climbed up the structure to the sidebars away from the lid. Watching as the specter sat waiting for her, levitating before the canister, she couldn't help put to feel an uneasy sensation of nervousness creeping into her stomach. Looking from her down toward the cover of the dumpster, with an unseen gesture, the cover raised itself up slowly before flipping over on its hinge to rest itself against the back of the can. Gasping aloud in horror, Gadget raised her hands to cover her mouth, fighting back the urge to scream as she viewed what was inside. Looking down from where it sat levitating in the air, the ghost cat gazed upon the mangled remains of its former body. As if nothing were wrong with the body at all, the cat simply cast its eyes upon the gruesome sight with as blank and unreadable an expression as he had through most of the time he had been with Gadget. His eyes never changed their widened, slitted pupil expression. "How did this *happen*?" Gadget finally found herself able to choke out, turning away from the sight and looking up in sympathy at the floating spirit. "*Who did this to you*?" Turning his gaze over from his now vacant body over toward his female companion once again, the specter looked at her for a moment before looking away into the interior of the construction site, giving her a familiar sideways nod that she should follow. Leading her from the sidewalk upon which the dumpster sat, into the interior of the construction site, he stopped where a large mound of soil and some boulders now sat, piled behind an empty dumptruck. Stopping beside the mound, he turned his attention to the ground before him, waiting for Gadget to approach. Stopping where the spirit now sat upon the ground, Gadget turned her attention toward the same spot as well. As she did, a light wind began to stir, lightly sweeping away the dirt before them to reveal a set of-"Kitten tracks?" she said aloud, recognizing the shape as she noticed a cluster of the tracks in a certain area, some of them streaked, some not. Right next to the dirt mound, a set of the tracks stood, facing the pile, while beyond the cluster of mixed and confused tracks, the paw prints were farther spaced apart, indicating that the kitten had begun running. It was at the moment that her mind began to put these clues together, her head abruptly swinging toward a street sign to see exactly *where* they were, that the fog that had grown thick about the area, now settled around them fully. The fog absorbed everything from sight, including the ground beneath her feet. Then the voices began..... "All right, Lou! That's far enough! Let it go!" Listening curiously to the words, Gadget turned her head toward the sound, aware even as she heard it, that something was amiss. Blinking, she found herself looking from across the street to view the dumptruck in the construction yard, now shuddering as it began to raise its payload. "Okay Ed! Coming down!" the unseen worker in the truck called out. Looking down, she found herself in the body of the black and white cat, looking through its eyes. It was then that she saw the kitten dash into the construction yard, stopping directly behind the dumptruck as the worker beside the truck turned away at that instant, oblivious as to its presence. Seeing the impending danger, she found herself sprinting forward in the cat's body, though she knew she had no control over the action. She was just barely aware of the fact that she was a spectator here, the whole scene proceeding with a dreamlike slowness. Watching with an ever growing terror, the truck continued to raise itself up, about to spill its contents out upon the hapless young feline. She yelled out a warning, but saw no reaction on the young cat's part. Close enough now, she found herself springing, colliding into the kitten as she knocked it away, just before the rain of stones and dirt began to crash down upon her. Pain shooting through her in different parts of her body she found a crushing weight cutting the air off from her lungs a moment later. The last light from the sun ceased to exist before a cold darkness swallowed her totally...and suddenly the light from the sun was upon her once again. Picking herself up from where she had landed face first in the dirt, she saw herself now within the kitten's body. Standing, she started forward uncertainly to sniff at the pile of dirt where something had shoved her a moment before, skittering back a bit as the dirt from the rest of the truck now continued to trickle down. Cautiously, she moved forward once more to sniff the air. After two sniffs, she caught the scent of something then that made her blood run cold, a chill like she had never felt before sweeping through her fur. She bolted away from the pile in terror, only vaguely aware of how unnaturally silent everything was about her. Different scenes flashed before her eyes then. Scenes of running through crowds, away from the unknown and frightening thing she had found in the lot. Scenes of near misses from large metal monsters who's tires did not squeal as they halted. Of large things with four paws that were not cats like her, their mouths opening and closing rapidly with no noise as they chased her. All of this and more though, was still nowhere near as frightening as what she had found in the lot, as she tried to outrun the fear that chased her more insistently than anything else she encountered. Finally, with still many more scenes running through her mind in instant flashes as she felt the fear continuing to work its way through her heart and mind, the adrenaline pulsing through her body, she found herself running down a street. Casting a quick, frantic look over her shoulder to see who was chasing her this time,..she found herself falling...and stopping. Looking down at the open manhole that now lay below her and the small device that had stuck itself onto her back, attached to a strange looking bird in the sky that she had never seen before, she fainted away then...only to wake up, looking into the kind eyes of a female mouse with blond head fur who wore goggles and clothing. A mouse who petted her fur as she lay there, with others standing around her as well. A mouse who's mouth moved but made no sound like the things that were not cats. A mouse though who's eyes were kind, who's eyes seemed to say that everything was going to be all right....At that point, the fog rolled in once again, engulfing everything as it had before. "Whoa! Hey, man! What was that?" "I think it was a kitten, Ed!...You don't think I hit anything, do you?" "Don't know...Come on, we'd better check, Ed." ................"Oh man,.....oh *crud*, man!.....The poor thing.....I think I'm gonna be *sick*......!" "Oh man...tough break....come on, Ed, hold it in...Lets get it out of there...We'll put 'im in the dumpster Ed. We can't bury him here. Someone'll take care of it."............. With that, as the fog lifted a bit once more, the last echoes of the disembodied voices fading from her mind, Gadget found herself standing within the empty construction yard once more, their place in the timestream having resumed as humans began to move down the sidewalk once more. Trembling slightly, she turned her gaze away from the street sign she had been looking toward, her color having paled from the unearthly experience she had just been through. She turned her frightened but now understanding gaze upon the spirit before her. "The deaf kitten.." she began, swallowing the lump that was now in her throat. "The deaf kitten that had been reported missing to the police station a few days ago...The kitten that we had spotted and started chasing yesterday, only a mile or so from here..."she continued, pointing toward the street sign. "*You* were what happened!" she exclaimed softly in a near whisper. "*You* were the reason that I couldn't rest after that case...You..." she stated, halting slightly as she turned her gaze from the eyes of the specter, towards the small mountain of dirt beside her, to the dumpster a short distance off "..saved her..." A rush of sadness began to well up inside her then as she looked from the dumpster, back toward the spirit of the cat, threatening to spill out of her in a tide as tear stains began to streak down the fur of her cheeks. A look then came into the eyes of the spirit. Like the others, it was a look that she would have been able to read, had she not glanced over then to view the dumpster once again as she took in the gaze of the cat spirit as well. As she did though, the sadness that had built up within her so quickly, now broke through in a torrent. Her body racking with choking sobs, she tore away from the area and the specter, sprinting back towards her hang glider. Lifting its right forepaw momentarily as she ran from him then, as if hastening to keep her there and console her somehow, it hesitated in its movement, uncertain of what to do. A look of sympathy and concern prevalent in its gaze even as it now slowly returned its paw to the ground, a look of slight confusion mixed within its gaze as well as the spirit watched Gadget race off. His gaze upon her, he watched as with the glider in her hands, Gadget quickly scaled the face of the brick building sitting behind the dumpster, leaping off to soar away from sight into the fog covered skies..... The fog was only slightly noticeable within the area known as *cat alley*. Though a shade or two thicker along the streets adjoining its alley walls, the almost thirty- strong number of felines of various shapes, sizes and fur shades that lounged, cavorted, chatted and dined within the area this night, were not mindful that much of the thick clouds surrounding them. What they *were* instantly mindful of though, was the drawn out cry of alarm from above that brought all their eyes instantly skyward in alert watchfulness. An instant later, a streak of motion followed by a crashing sound terminated the cry, as the unexpected intrusion crashed into the top of a half covered metal garbage can. The cat who had sat atop it barely vacated the path of the incoming object only a split second before. A moment of tensed anticipation followed for all for a moment before any spoke. "*What* theee....heckwasthat?!" a golden and white furred male called out reflexively, staring out at the metal can that still vibrated slightly from the impact of a moment before, the lid threatening to fall to the ground before finally settling back on top of the receptacle. Murmuring "rowrs", "maows" and "raows" of uncertainty resounded throughout the numbers of the assembled cats in the area at the question, all of them looking at one another and the can before they cautiously began to move forward. A particularly bold grey and white furred cat, who was known in the alley by the name of "Fisher", was the first to reach the can, bounding forward before the others. Leaping atop an empty wooden crate next to it to sniff the air before the can, his eyes lit up happily, his face now showing a surprised, hungry look upon it. "Hey!" he cried excitedly, licking his chops as he smacked the lid away from the can to clatter upon the alley floor, balancing himself on the lip of the can as he scooped his prize out, holding it up before the crowd for all to see. "Meals from *heaven*!" Fisher laughed aloud, holding an unconscious Gadget up by the tail before him. Some of the cats around Fisher laughed at his remark as some slapped the ground in disappointment at not having found the bravery quick enough to claim such a tasty morsel before him. Leaping to the ground, Fisher held Gadget's dangling form above his waiting mouth, about to drop her into his already watering gullet. "Down the hatch!" he called for a affect, opening his mouth wide. "Wait a second, Fisher...!" a tabby/grey cat called out meaningfully as he approached him, his eyes peering carefully at Gadget. "Hey, no tricks, Rooftop!" Fisher called suspiciously, backing up and drawing Gadget away from him. "Don't even *think* about trying to swipe her! I found this one fair and square!" Narrowing his eyes to give Fisher a silencing look, the serious expression on his face saying that such an accusation was unwarranted in this case, Rooftop stretched himself forward to gently sniff the air around Gadget. His eyes went wide as he did. "Fisher, you can't eat this mouse. She-" "I *knew* it!" Fisher snarled, now grabbing Gadget fully in his paw defensively as he backed up, looking like he might try to eat Gadget on the spot and run, his tail lashing behind him. "What kind of lame crud is this, furball?!" "Fisher..!" Rooftop called out warningly, trying to get him to listen, "You weren't hanging out here at the time, but surely you must've heard *stories* at least about the day and night that Cat alley was no more?!" Murmurs of respectful and shocked recognition swept through the crowd at the reference, the stories having been told many times of that night long ago. That night when large metal machines that were shaped like dogs, came to cat alley and captured all of its inhabitants, bringing them to a deranged and twisted human who used other machines to roughly draw electricity from their fur. A story in which some very unusual rodents and an insect fought with the great metal constructs and their human owner, defeating them and freeing all the cats that had been captured.** "What about it?" Fisher asked, not having moved yet from his defensive stance. "This is one of the rodents that rescued us." Rooftop stated matter of factly, pointing toward Gadget as small gasps and sounds of questioning recognition resounded about him. "I was close enough to catch their scents, as well as to see them clearly when I was in my cage, watching them rescue that first kitten. I know that not everyone here inhabited the alley back then, but there *are* a number of us left. We *owe* her, Fisher." Rooftop finished with a very serious voice, locking his gaze onto his. "So what?" Fisher growled defiantly, advancing a step toward him in challenge. "Like you said, I hadn't started coming around the alley back then, so this has nothing to do with me! This mouse is mine by right of capture!" he replied with a commanding voice, his muscles rippling beneath his fur, poised for a fight as he kept his gaze locked with Rooftop's. In a blur of motion, Rooftop smacked his paws down onto the cat's wrists, pushing them and locking them down onto to the alley floor. "You're going to find a lot of cats wanting to *dispute* that point, Fisher..." Rooftop growled warningly as he struggled to subdue instead of injure his fellow alley mate. To emphasize his point, barely had Fisher begun his struggle to free himself from Rooftop's grasp, yowling, hissing and beginning to raise his hackles, when he suddenly found himself surrounded by nine other cats, their stances poised for a fight as their eyes shone at him warningly....Freezing in his struggles and yet showing no fear to the fact that he was surrounded, a defiant look upon his face all the while, Fisher opened his right paw to allow Gadget to slide out of it to the alley floor. "Take her..." he grumbled, both to Rooftop and to the cats around him as they now sat down in a more relaxed though wary pose, sliding his wrists out from under Rooftop's now slackened grip. As the other cats allowed Fisher to pass out of the circle they had formed around him, some giving him looks of relieved approval at his decision, while some still cast a wary eye at him, they all turned back toward Rooftop. As they watched, he gently stroked Gadget's headfur, before he began gently running his rough tongue upon her face, enticing her to wake up. It took only a few moments before she began to stir. "Ooohh..." she groaned, her eyes swimming drowsily in her head as she opened them slightly. As they began to focus though, they suddenly sprang fully open as she gasped to see a cat towering over her, her body jumping slightly in reflex. "Shhh! It's okay!" Rooftop said in a friendly, assuring voice, smiling down at her. "You're safe. You just took a bad crash." "Where am I?" she asked a bit fuzzily, as she began to sit up, Rooftop positioning a paw under her for support. "Cat alley." Rooftop replied. "Oh good." Gadget replied as she placed a hand to her head, "I was wondering if I was close to it." "Wait a minute, You *wanted* to come to cat alley?" A white cat within the circle asked in surprise as the other cats in the alley had now joined in the huddle to see in person, this much talked about rodent. Casting a fairly surprised look of his own that mirrored the speaker as he looked at him and the rest of the cats, Rooftop turned a now curious look down at Gadget. "What did you need here?" he asked. "I need your help," Gadget answered, looking up at Rooftop and the other felines towering over her. "For a cat....By any chance, did you, or anyone here, know a black and white cat with green eyes?" she asked, gesturing with her hands to upon her own body to roughly show the pattern of the fur colors as she stated her words. "He had a few human friends who called him Quincy, and Lucky, and-" "Yeah!" Fisher's voice called out, his body not visible from the mass of felines around her as looks and murmurs of recognition showed upon the faces of some of the other felines as well. "Move over will ya? One side..." Fisher muttered roughly as he worked and nudged his way into view. "Yeah, I know him, we hang out a lot here in the alley when we're both here on the same night. What's wrong? Why'd he send you?" he asked, voicing the same question the other felines asked, nodding silently. Gazing up at Fisher and the others for a moment, a sad, sympathetic look came over Gadget's face. "He didn't." she replied. "He's dead." "WHAT?!!" Fisher yowled in shock as the other felines within his group of association cried out as well, a general chatter of discomfort sweeping through the entire assembled mass. "He died saving a deaf kitten." Gadget called out in a normal tone, not feeling up to shouting at the moment. Catching only part of her words over the din, Rooftop shushed the other cats, silencing them as well with a curt sweep of his paw. "What was that?" he asked as the murmuring ceased to a minimum. "I said that he died saving a deaf kitten." Gadget replied, looking directly at Rooftop now. "*How*?" Fisher asked, a pained look readable on his face, in spite of his controlled expression, as awed looks of respect now hung upon the faces of the other cats. "I don't know if you're going to believe me," Gadget stated simply, too tired and dazed to try and concoct some sort of half truth that would cover all the bases of the story while leaving out the supernatural aspect of it, "but here's how it happened..." A number of minutes later, the story had been told with all of the felines sitting about her, some sitting atop the crates and trash cans in the alley to see her as she told her tale, all of them captivated by the events she related. "He didn't ask me," she stated, "but no creature deserves to be thrown away, buried beneath a pile of trash." she finished with a heartfelt voice. "Especially one that did what he did.... I came here to see if you would help me give him a true resting place." With saddened looks prevalent throughout all of the assembled felines, they all sat before her though, a look of assent and readiness in all of their eyes. "How many do you need?" Fisher asked after a moment, looking upon this mouse that he had heard only in tales, with a newfound degree of respect mixed in with his heavy heart. "I think we'd all like to go, but a parade of twenty eight plus cats is going to look funny. Humans might try to investigate and intervene for some reason." Nodding at his logic, a thoughtful look appeared on Gadget's face as she did some quick calculations. "Three should do it. Four to be on the safe side. I have to warn you though...whoever goes, no matter how well you knew him, you'd better have a strong stomach." "I'm going." Fisher stated in a voice that left no room for argument. "Who else?" In the end, both Fisher and Rooftop ended up going, with two other cats by the names of "Liddy" and "Clawmark". Although Rooftop did not know the cat who's true name was "Walker" within the alley, all that well other than by sight, feeling indebted to Gadget for her rescue of him at Nimnul's lab, as well as wanting to do his part to honor a hero among his kind, he had insisted on going. Arriving at the construction site, the four cats, with Gadget riding astride Rooftop, slowly approached the garbage bin she pointed out to them. "Do you see him anywhere?" Fisher asked, turning toward her. "No," Gadget replied, looking around at the construction site before shaking her head with disappointment. "He's not here anymore." "Oh well,...I guess he's already gone on." Fisher replied with disappointment as well. "I thought that since you were the only one who could see him, we'd get a chance to say goodbye." Sighing slightly, Fisher turned then to regard the open garbage bin before them. "Well, let's do what we came here to do then." Using teamwork and a little direction from Gadget, the four cats succeeded in removing walker's remains from the bin, lowering it toward the ground without trouble. To each cat's credit, none of them flinched or shirked from their tasks, for the process to say the least was not at all pleasant, the somewhat pulped body feeling almost revolting to the touch. Joining the others on the ground, Fisher took his place alongside Liddy and Clawmark in positioning a part of Walker's body across his shoulders. "Come on," he stated, gesturing with a sideways nod of his head. "I know just the place." It took a fair amount of time to reach the place that Fisher directed them too, but upon sight, they all agreed that it was a perfect place, none of them saying anything as to the time it took, or the amount of effort it took to reach it. It was a small yard within the suburbs, well landscaped with a large tree within it as well. "Walker told me about this tree," he said as he stopped before it, looking up at its leaves before turning back to them. "he used to climb it when he was a kitten." Pausing then to look at his friend that they had laid upon the ground, he turned to look at Rooftop. "Rooftop," he stated, gesturing over his shoulder towards the house a number of feet off. "Would you mind keeping watch?" Nodding his assent, Rooftop stealthily crept forward to peer within the windows of the house, watching for any signs of approaching humans as the others dug.... In a short time, the task was done. A spaciously deep hole was excavated, words of farewell and respect were said by all, with Clawmark taking the watch over from Rooftop for a moment, and the plot was filled in and smoothed over. Stones were scattered upon it as well to give the impression to any humans that nothing had occurred here. As a final parting though before turning away from the grave upon their last look at it, the four cats each placed a paw upon the turned earth, casting their impression upon it as a link of what they had done this day. A similar link lay upon Walker's body under the earth as well, with the single whisker that was now missing from each cat, with Gadget having placed a lock of her headfur in its stead. At the cats' request, she was the last one to place her paw print upon the earth, having contributed the most to what had happened here today.... "Gadget, thank you." Rooftop began as the four cats now sat on the sidewalk outside of the yard, all of them looking at her. "You and your friends saved me and a number of *my* friends once from the man named Nimnul, and today, you showed respect to the memory of a fellow feline when you had already done all that he had asked of you. If you or any of your friends need any help for anything, don't be afraid to come to cat alley. The Rescue Rangers will always be welcome there." "Not to mention in our homes which we share with our human pets." Clawmark added with a deep, rumbling voice. "If you need food or shelter, or anything else, we'll be happy to provide it." "Just have to make sure that our pets don't see us aiding you." Liddy grinned. "Thank you," Gadget returned with a respectful bow, her smile shining up at them. "My friends will be just as happy to hear this, as I am." *Particularly Monty*, she thought silently to herself with a grin, as he wouldn't have to be so apprehensive about going into Cat Alley again for any information if it was needed. "Likewise, if you or any of your friends or human pets need any help, please feel free to call on us. We're located in the large Oak tree in Golden Gate Park, right across from the Police station." "Thank you, Gadget," Liddy replied, as the others likewise thanked her in turn. "We will. Can we give you a ride back home?" the female cat asked as she rose to her feet. Walking or riding was the only option at the moment, as Gadget knew her hang glider had been wrecked in her crash landing in Cat Alley. "Golly, thanks, but...." Gadget replied with a shrug, her face thoughtful. "I'd like to walk back. It'll give me a little time to think." "I know what you mean." Rooftop replied, smiling at her as he too rose to his feet. "Take care then, Gadget. We'll see you around." As both Liddy and Clawmark wished her well also, Clawmark rising to his feet as well to start off, each of the cats rubbed the side of their facefur to Gadget's cheek in a goodbye gesture of affection. With this done though, they looked over to see Fisher still sitting where he had been, not making any gesture to get underway. "Coming, Fisher?" Liddy asked, turning back toward him as the others did as well. "In a sec, guys." Fisher replied with a nod. "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." Glancing at each other curiously, Rooftop, Clawmark and Liddy all nodded to him, giving a last look at Gadget before starting on their way. "You wanted to talk with me, privately, Fisher?" Gadget asked, turning towards him as the others left. "Yeah," Fisher nodded, a deeply thoughtful look upon his face. "Look, Gadget, I'm not all that good with words, and everything that Rooftop said goes double for me. If you need any help or anything, to make sure to call on me, but,...well...Walker, he never talked all that much about his human pets or his life outside the alley to me or any other cat, but he was a good friend of mine, I guess you knew that. What you did, showing us what happened to him so we could take care of him...well,...it meant *a lot* to me. Anyway, I was wondering if I could do something *for you*, something to show how much I appreciated it. You name it. Anything you want, if I can pull it off, its yours." he stated, crouching down respectfully so that his eyes were now on the same level as hers. Smiling sweetly at Fisher, Gadget blushed slightly at his humble words, that a cat who she was told by Rooftop had nearly ate her before, would make such an open ended offer to pay her back for her kindness. "Golly," Gadget replied, shaking her head softly. "I really *do* appreciate it, Fisher, but..." suddenly, Gadget cut herself off in mid sentence as she blinked, an idea occurring to her that she was surprised she hadn't thought of moments before. "Actually..." she began, "What? Just *name* it!" Fisher asked, waving his head enthusiastically to encompass all possible ideas. "Do you have any strays in your group, *without* human pets?" she asked, her face brightening at the idea. "Yeah, we've got some alley members who don't have any homes....why?" Fisher asked. "Would they like one?" she asked, her entire expression now positively bubbling with excited joy. Having caught up once more with Clawmark, Liddy and Rooftop in a rush, Gadget and Fisher outlined her plan to them. Sharing her enthusiasm for the idea, the three cats assured her that the word would be passed around about the three vacant homes. Susan would welcome in probably more than a few cats and as Benjamin Morganson had two in his home as well, Gadget was sure that he wouldn't be averse to Adam taking in a feline companion in his borrowed apartment. All they really had to do was appear on their respective doorsteps, she assured them. With Jeremy's family, as the building *was* off limits to pets, the prospective pet for that home would have to anticipate a possible disappointment. But more than likely though, she was certain that once Jeremy's parents saw how attached he became to a cat who didn't belong to anyone else and who *wouldn't* be going away, that they would probably make a concerted effort to move to a building that *did* accept pets, hiding the cat in the apartment in the meantime. She made a note that she would also make sure to teach that cat the "exercise" for Jeremy that Walker had taught her. For all three homes though, cats would have to be found who's personalities would mesh most compatibly with those of the three humans. This was something which, as Gadget had the most experience with Walker's friends, she agreed that she would undertake personally. It would take a little time to get the word out to all the felines that might be interested though. As the makeup of the crowd in Cat Alley always changed at least somewhat from day to day and from night to night, never remaining the same twice, it would take a little time to get the word out to all. A date was made in which she would visit Cat Alley again in two days, paying a longer visit herself to all of Walker's friends in the meantime. Even when all of the spots had been filled though, she had made an open promise as well to find a home for any cat that needed one, when she came across such a suitable place in her travels and upon cases. In all, the prospect served to give her an even greater satisfaction than the alliance she had made with the residents of Cat Alley that day. Sometime later, Gadget glanced up from her footsteps to find herself once more in Golden Gate Park, a slight look of surprise upon her face that she had arrived already. Even though it had taken her a few hours to cover the many miles it had been, back from Walker's burial site in the suburbs, she had not really noticed. Having occupied herself in her thoughts, she had completely lost track of both the distance and the time, her mind having reflected back upon all that had happened today, as well as many other things. She saw that she was but a short distance from her Oak tree home as she glanced up, the Police headquarters within sight only a block distant on her left. Looking down once again as she walked on, her mind began to lose itself in her thoughts once more when a sudden undefinable sensation touched her mind, calling to her. She recognized it instantly. Snapping her head up, she started slightly as she discovered Walker's spirit once more sitting there before her upon the grass. Looking at the specter, a wide smile broke out upon her face, as she could now observe an actual smile of his own upon the ghost cat's face, Walker's eyes shining brightly at her. "I thought you had left!" she grinned. Shaking his head lightly, Walker still spoke not a word in answer, his pupils the same slitted shape they had been. Looking over to a small patch of dirt which surrounded a tree near him though, a wind caught up a small cloud of it. Blowing over to land upon the sidewalk before Gadget, it quickly swirled around, shaping itself into discernable words as both she and the specter watched it. "*Thank you*." the message said, before reforming itself into another set which said "For *everything*." "So you *can* talk!" she exclaimed, amazed at this fact as she looked up at the spirit. "I'm *glad* you came back, you know, I was *wondering* where you went! I was sorry that I didn't get a chance to say goodbye, but why didn't you appear before now?" she asked, pausing for a moment. Your friends wanted to say goodbye as well." "There was no need." the dirt message on the sidewalk shifted to say, forming a few words at a time. "I was there where you and they buried my body. I heard their farewells. With you though, with all you did....I wanted to say "thanks". " "Golly," Gadget returned, a slight blush coloring her cheeks as she smiled warmly at Walker. "It was my pleasure, I told you that I'd be happy to help when I first found out that was what you needed. Something's confusing though..." she continued. "What?" the words on the sidewalk asked. "I think I understand that since I was the one who had first contact with the kitten, that was why you came to me. After all, she was much too young and inexperienced to understand or act on what you needed. I think I also understand that I'm sort of like a link to you for this plane..." "Yes..." the words formed as Walker nodded. "Yet in the beginning though, why did it take so long for you to contact me? I mean, it was quite a few hours after we finally caught the kitten and returned her home that you began to show up." Nodding his understanding of her curiosity on this point, Walker looked at the ground once more as the dirt began to stir again. "In that time I was getting to know you. I needed to find out if you would help me willingly or if other means would be needed to gain your assistance. I did not know that your team was the one from stories in Cat Alley." "Possession?" Gadget asked, again looking up at him. Walker nodded. Nodding her understanding, Gadget cast her gaze at the ground for a moment before turning to look up at him once more. "There's just one more thing I'd really like to know. Why haven't you spoken to me before now?" she asked. Continuing to smile broadly at her, a small twinkle appeared in Walker's eyes. However, as she looked to the ground, expecting his answer to appear within the dirt cloud on the sidewalk, Walker suddenly rose to his feet and stepping forward, sat directly before her. Looking up towards him in confusion and curiosity, Gadget watched as Walker curled his right paw behind her back. Crouching forward then, he licked her gently across her cheek and facial fur, his tongue brushing fully against the soft curve of her ear as well. Closing her eyes out of reflex as she saw Walker's tongue reach out toward her, the sensation she felt was that of a light and gentle breeze, ruffling her fur as it swept across her face. Opening her eyes as the sensation stopped, she looked to find the spirit now gone. "Walker?" she asked, looking all about her. Seeing no sign of him and receiving no answer, Gadget shrugged thoughtfully to herself, giving a wistful grin. "Take care, Walker." she called out softly before she began to make her way forward toward headquarters once more. "Say hello to my dad for me." Taking but a step as she uttered these words, the sound of a wind rushing through the trees behind and above her suddenly drew her attention. Turning, she looked to find a set of words, formed from dirt carried by the wind, laying upon the path at her feet. "I will." the message said. Later that night, Gadget stood at the window to her bedroom, looking up at the stars that shone down from a nearly perfectly clear sky, the fog having totally burned off hours before. Turning slightly at the sound of a knock upon the open door, she looked to find Chip standing there. "Hi," she called, smiling warmly at him as she gestured him over. "Come on in." Entering the room, Chip made his way over to where Gadget now stood at the window sill, joining her there. As one, and with no cue from the other, Gadget's right hand and Chip's left reached out to entwine themselves together as Gadget wrapped her tail about his waist as well, in a familiar gesture of deep affection. "Going to be able to sleep tonight?" was all that Chip said offhandedly after a few moments of silence. At this, Gadget let out a laugh, casting a wry grin over toward him before turning back toward the window. "I don't know, actually." she replied, "He's at peace now, but what with everything that we did and thinking that my dad might be somewhere, watching me right now..." she shrugged, "it might keep me up for awhile." she admitted. Falling silent then, they continued to watch the night sky for a few minutes before Chip spoke again. "Do me a favor?" he asked. "What?" Gadget replied, turning to face him. "If you do have trouble getting to sleep tonight, or whenever, get me up and let me know, okay? It's always more fun with company." he said, smiling at her affectionately. Gazing at him endearingly for a moment, Gadget squeezed his hand gently in reply. "I will. Thanks, Chip." she said softly. Giving each other a kiss goodnight then, Chip left the room. Continuing to stare up at the sky for another few minutes, watching the clouds that had begun to lazily drift by, with a deep, satisfied sigh, Gadget turned from the window then, toward the warmth of her awaiting bed. As she lay her head upon the pillow though, she was not aware of the small sliver of a cloud which now floated in front of the visibly full moon that night. Shaped like a slitted pupil, the cloud settled itself in front of the moon's light, centering itself there for many moments as the other clouds moved around it. Sending a small shaft of moonlight then onto the window of a certain large Oak tree in Golden Gate Park, the sight seemed to reflect with a life of its own before the cloud went along to float with the others once again, continuing on, to begin upon its next journey. |
+ As seen in the CDRR Episode-"Ghost of a chance". ** A short summary of the events of the CDRR episode: "Catteries Not Included." |