Gazing at the shack from the outside, with dusk fast approaching, both Gadget and Zipper where tiring of their vigil. “Bzz bzzzzzz bzzzz” lazily buzzed Zipper.

“Tell me about it, we’ve been here for almost a full day,” she said, “I almost think that Nimnul got enough on his first run to tide him…” and was interrupted by a hundred rodents including two chipmunks and one very burly mouse came rushing out the door and crowded into the van. “Or, kleptomania could prevail in the end,” Gadget said with a smirk while hopping into the Ranger Plane.

Another grueling 2 hour flight chasing Nimnul’s unmarked van led them to the next target, the First National Bank. Nimnul hopped out of the van and opened up the back saying, “Ready guys? Let’s get this thing rolling.” A hundred little squeaky rodent wheels sprang to life, each with an energetic, hungry rodent inside. Nimnul climbed into the back of the van and a heavy hum started to radiate from inside the van. Then the sound of servos told Gadget that whatever it was her had in there, probably related to that microwave dish she saw, it was now moving, most likely taking aim at some target. “What kind?” Nimnul cried out. The names of twenty or so different cheeses came from the hungry rodents, “Swiss it is then!” and a large yellow/white beam with places in the beam missing, much like Swiss cheese moving at the speed of sound came from the back of the van, connecting with the wall of the bank. Instantly, the point of contact turned to Swiss cheese. The beam cut out and Nimnul stepped out of the van carrying what looked like a bazooka. He fired directly at the wall and a very fine net made of a very thin metal wire popped out with incredible speed, colliding with the Swiss cheese and dicing it into thousands of tiny bits. At this point the rodent wheels stopped and the hundred mice, chipmunks, squirrels, and rats came careening out of the van and swamped the pile of rubble, leaving just enough room for Nimnul to excuse himself through.

“Now’s our chance, get that remote zip, I’ll see if I can get Monty and the guys to come with us,” Gadget said and rushed towards the pile of cheese, Zipper saluted and rushed to the van to recover the remote. As Gadget came up on Dale she said, “Hay Dale, why are you here helping Nimnul?”

“Why am I here helping Nimnul? Isn’t it obvious! With him we get PAID!” said Dale, never stopping what he was doing, which happened to be gathering cheese and taking it back in hurried bundles to the van and placing it all in one of the exercise wheels. “We do about 30 seconds worth of exercise and we get all the cheese we can carry. Slight variation from my normal nuts and berries diet, but I’ve been living with Monty and you long enough to have my fair share of cheddar wonders.”

“But what about Foxy? Have you told her about this little arrangement?”

“Oh Foxy? No, I havn’t even thought about her. Now that I think about it she’s probably worried sick by now! But the cheese! But Foxy!”

“Dale, if you’ll come back with me I’ll give you all the cheese you can eat. An it didn’t start its life off as a brick wall.”

“Well, Nimnul’s gonna be mad, but nothing like Foxy. I’ll go.”

“Well we need to hurry, Nimnul will be back any second.” And they ran to the Ranger Plane where Zipper was waiting.

On the way back to the tree, Gadget quizzed Dale about Nimnul’s scheme:

“Dale, what made you want to work with Nimnul?”

“Well we where going to the docks to get you… I mean… get Chip some stuff and suddenly out of nowhere – Bang! Pow! Kablooey! – everything went black. When I came to I was in Nimnul’s shack. He pointed that thingy at me and said, ‘Why don’t you work for me? It’s easy work and the pay’s good,’ and at the time I thought it was a really good idea. I just haven’t had any reasons go through my head till you reminded me about Foxy.”

“Golly, it really doesn’t sound like the conventional ‘now you’re my zombie slave’ kind of mind control. More like a strong suggestion, which would mean that you’re not still under his control, it’s just that that machine makes you more open to a good suggestion, which would explain the cheese ray…”

“As for Monty, that’s another problem. There are very few reasons for Monty to want to leave. You had Foxy, and that was way more reward than cheese. But for Monty, cheese is more important than almost anything else. More than once he has had to debate with himself about whether to save his friends or eat the cheese. Now he has all the cheese he can handle and a purpose for living. It will be very difficult, if not impossible, to get him to come with us. Either way let’s get back to the tree to see if Foxy is there. If she is we need to warn her that the tree’s not safe for now.”

“Not safe? Why?” said a very puzzled looking Dale.

“Because both Chip and Monty know where it is and are willing to talk to Nimnul.”

“Ohhhh… But where are we going to go?”

“Golly, I hadn’t thought of that. Hmm, I guess we’ll have to go some place that Chip and Monty wouldn’t look,”

“Well, wherever it is, I want some puffy wuffies.”

“That’s something I can agree with,” Gadget said, reminded of the fact she hadn’t eaten in almost 8 hours.

“Dale!” Foxy cried out with feelings of elation/anger as she saw him enter the spacious living room of the Rescue Ranger headquarters.

“Foxy!”

“Where the heck have you been?! You where supposed to meet me here yesterday evening to talk about the uhh, the - the thing”, said Foxy, glad to see her cute fuzzy little teddy bear was safe.

“He was a bit preoccupied with fetching cheese.”, Gadget remarked hoping to put a humorous twist on a very bad situation.

“But Dale, you where not supposed …”, Foxy said exasperated.

“Not that cheese, silly. I would never break my promise,” Dale remarked in his defense.

“What cheese are you guys talking about?” Gadget said, her curiosity now peaked by the strange behavior of her friends.

“Uh, um, just some cheese Monty needed for one of his recipes,” Foxy said, trying not to let her face get screwed up into a laugh as she realized that she had told Gadget the truth, and hadn’t given up any of her secrets.

“Anyway,” Foxy said continuing, “then what cheese are we talking about?”

“Well, apparently while Chip and Dale where out doing an errand, they where rudely interrupted by Nimnul, and then where ‘Mesmerized’ into helping Nimnul rob banks in exchange for cheese.”

“How awful! Are you still his little slave?!” Foxy said in disgust.

“Naw, he didn’t take over my mind, he just suggested the idea and because of a little remote thingy I didn’t see it as all that bad an idea. And come to think about it, it really wasn’t all that bad of a deal.”

“That’s why he was able to keep your attention. By posing a suggestion that really isn’t all that hard to disagree with, you’re very likely to forget about your other plans and go along with him,” Gadget said, “Hay Zip., you’ve got the remote?”

“Bzz!” Zipper said holding up a corner of the remote.

“Well, before we abandon all hope for Monty, Chip, and the security of the tree, let’s take a good hard look at this remote.”