"Are you sure about this?" asked Chip
Gadget was making a final check of an  airplane she had finished building the
night before.
  "Will you stop? I'll be fine" replied Gadget. "I built this thing,
remember? If you can't trust yourself, who can you trust? Besides God, I
mean."
  "All right, fine. Just be careful up there." Chip said, concerned.
  Satisfied, Gadget hopped into the driver's seat.
  "Are you sure you don't want me to come along?"
 "Sorry, Chip. But you know I can't let you come along on these test
flights. I've got to test it out and get a real feel of the plane first.
Take it to its limits, get the bugs worked out. You and the guys can keep track
of me with the radio and tracking system. I'm sorry to say this, but
you'd just be one more thing for me to worry about."
  "Just be careful, okay?"
  "Aren't I always." Gadget said tersely as she started the engine.
  "And don't stay out too long...I wanted to got to the police station and I
need all of us because we might get a case."
  "Don't worry Chip. Just give me two hours. I'll see you then." Gadget gave the
plane a little juice from the battery, and she was speeding down the runway and into the
skies. Chip sighed and walked inside the tree he and the other Rangers
called home.
  He took a look around Gadget's workshop as he entered.  Every time he came
in it was different. Refocusing his attention on his airborne friend, Chip
found the radio and checked Gadget's position on the screen, waiting for Gadget's
first report. He had to turn the
volume up high to hear over the cartoons Dale was watching in the next room.
Chip would have done something about it if Gadget's transmission hadn't had
started coming through.
  "Gadget to base... Gadget to base. Do you read me, over?"
  "You're coming in beautiful Gadget. What's your status?"
  "All systems check. Structural integrity is holding. I'm going to start my
routine."
  "I want feedback if so much as one of your hairs falls out Gadget, you hear
 me?!"
  Gadget giggled at that for a moment, then responded.
"Oh, Chip, there's really nothing to worry about. Over and out."
  Chip put down the radio and waited for what seemed like the longest five
minutes in history. He turned on the radar to see where his friend was now.
She was over the pond.
 "Gadget to base...Gadget to base"
 "Base here...it's about time!"
 "Sorry, Chip, but I guess there is something to worry about after all. I've
got a slight problem here. I'm going to lose steering any minute now"
  "Then bail out!"
  "Don't worry, I'll just reduce speed to compensate. I'll level her off
and land it in an alley next to the supermarket."
  "Are you sure it's safe?"
  "Sure enough."
Chip saw on the radar the initials GH moving steadily away from the pond and
toward the grocery store.
  "Uh-oh!"
  "What?"
  "I'm losing power. I think I've got a short"
  "Gadget, bail out!"
  "Can't...I'm too low."
  "Then take it up."
  "I can't. Steerimgs dead. Power failing. I don't know if I'm
going to make it here!"
     "Hold on."
     "I can't the wind...the building....AHHHHHHH!!!!!! "*CHCKT*
  The radio went dead. Chip started to sweat profusely.
     "Chip to Gadget, over"  Silence was the only response.
  "If you can hear me, acknowledge"
  Silence. "Acknowledge" No response. "ACKNOWLEDGE!" Still only
  dead air. Dale came in after hearing Chip yell."
"Hey Chip, I can't hear the TV." said Dale. "What are you
shouting for?"
     "Where's Monty and Zipper?" Chip asked curtly.
     "At the docks, why-"
"Tell them to meet me near the supermarket, something's happened to Gadget."
     Dale ran. Gadget was in trouble and needed her friends in a
  hurry. Fortunately, they all arrived at the crash site around the
  same time. Chip was just a few yards ahead of the others. He
  started digging through the mess to get to Gadget.
  "Gadget! Gadget!" he yelled.
     The others chipped right in they soon had the rubble off of
  her. "She's unconscious." said Chip. 
     "Here now," started Monterey Jack,"let me have a look at her."
  Monty bent down to look at his late best friend's daughter. Her
  outfit was torn in a few places. There was a scratch on
  her right cheek. "She's alive, thank the stars for that." Monty began
  checking her entire frame over with his hands. "No broken bones,
  Gadget luv, how do you do it? She's stable, we've got to take her to a
  hospital. I'm afraid she lost a lot of blood. We've got to get her out
  of here before we really do lose her, mates"
     "Dale," said Chip, "you and Zipper go to the hospital and
  have a doctor waiting. Monty and I will carry Gadget. 
     "Righty-o!" said Dale, eager to do anything for Gadget.
Dale ran off, and Zipper was buzzing right alongside him.
     "All right, Chipper, it's time to earn our merit badges." said
  Monty.
     "Let's go!" replied Chip. The two of them set off, Gadget on
  their shoulders, in the direction their teammates had gone.
  
Transition
  
  Light shown brilliantly around Gadget, to the point where it hurt her eyes.
She forced herself to look onward, and all came into focus. She was still
dressed in her normal garb, but the pink was much more brilliant and eye
catching. The first sight to catch the young mouse's eyes was a glowing gate.
"What happened? I remember I was flyiing, I lost control and..."
  "Welcome Gadget." came the voice of what appeared to be a kindly old man.
He was seated at a desk next to the gates, facing a computer terminal. "Just in
time for your appointment, I see." The man was dressed in a flowing, brilliant
white robe. Gadget strode over to the desk, and read the name plaque, St. Peter. 
  "Now wait a minute, Mister. How did you know my name? And what's this about an
appointment?" Suddenly, the name of her companion sank in. She took a deap breath
and another look at the gate. "It
looks like somone's stereotypical view of what heaven is like, What's going on here?,"
she demanded.
  "You are having an out of body experience. You have been called here for,
shall we say, a performance review."
  "Review?",  Gadget asked with a touch of disdain/sarcasm in her voice and stamped her foot angrily.
  "Yes. We examine your life, your mind, and your heart. If we find that you
are still needed there, back down you go, lass."
  "And, if not?"
  "Then you take up a permanent residence here earlier than expected.
You have not been bad, but we must decide if you have made sufficient use of the
life given unto you. Never fear, I shall be your guide. You will find that
this experience is much more for you than for us."

  "Somehow I don't think this will be do anything for me, MISTER Saint Pete."
Gadget said, annoyed.
  "Just Saint Pete will do, Gadget. Now come along."
  "Whatever, now where are we going?"
  "Through your life, of course."
  "Uh huh, Can't wait to see this one."
  St. Pete snapped his fingers, and the two of them vanished.
  As soon as they arrived at their destination, Gadget became
angry. "Why you...  not here!  I aughta... but I can't" she yelled, then
became somber.
They were in the old airplane Gadget had lived in before she
had gotten a surprise visit from who were now the other members of the
Rangers. Gadget looked upon a much younger version of herself, who was
sobbing quietly in a corner. A flash of light, and suddenly Gadget was no
longer observing, she was the crying young mouse.

  It was in the following years after the death of her father,
Gigor Hackwrench. She had sealed herself away in her home, fortifying it
against all outsiders. She just wanted to be alone with her inventions and
her memories and wanted no one to disturb her until she was no more. Her mind
wandered aimlessly from project to project. Once, she spent days making dangerous
boobytraps to keep heself busy, in the process creating one more barrier
between hersellf and the rest of the world. Gadget had realized this but
could not stop her downward descent. Nobody wanted an inventor of her
caliber, let alone a mouse inventor. Her dad had looked at her achievements
with bemusement, but she knew that in the back of his mind he was thinking
that one day she'd grow out of it, or something like that. And now he was
dead.

  Then, the light glowed again, and she was observing, rather than
experiencing, once again. "Good," came the voice of Pete, "you understand
why I brought you here. You realize that you were wrong to lock yourself away.
You have many steps yet to go, child,"

  Suddenly, a figure appeared next to Pete. "Wait one moment!"
  called the newcomer. "I won't let you do this, Pete. I know you work
  on comission, and want her to have to stay here! My client here has
  done many good things as well, and as far too much to experience
  in her life!"

  "I'm not your client, and I'm tired of this stupid farce."
  said Gadget angrily.

     "Yes my dear, you are. I am your guardian angel, and I will see you
  through this."
     "Either way," said Pete, "she HAS to go through with this
  review."
     "That may, be true, but I will show her something more
fitting and pleasent..." The angel snapped his fingers and we see the
scene has changed to Glacier Bay.
  "See, she broke out of her depression and went with the Rangers to Glacier Bay"  
     "Yes!" said Gadget. "This is where I made a commitment to
  help the others stop Klordane and I came out of
  hiding to fly them here... but I ended up wrecking the Screaming
  Eagle, Dad's plane. Perfec. You've got some strange idea of what's pleasant
MISTER Guardian Angel."
  "No need to stand on formalities, Gadget." the Guardian Angel said, "We're all friends here.
  "You see here,Pete." said Gadget's guardian. "She gave up all
  she had for her friends."
     "Fine, a point for her there, but let's try this." The scenery
  shifted, and we find the three of them in RRHQ. Chip and Dale are
  bickering. As Gadget pays attention, she realizes it is over her:
  
     "You're always goin' out of your way to do somethin' for her."
  said Dale
     "That's because I respect her, unlike
  other chipmunks I know." retorted Chip.
     "I do to appreciate Gadget!"
     "Do not!"
     "Do too!"
     "Do not!"
     "Do too!"
     "Yeah, you appreciate ogling her as she works. You don't
  appreciate her intellect or charm or, or.."
     "But I'm the one who saw her first! And I do not ogle
  Gadget...I simply admire her physical qualities. So there!"
     "Look Dale, I've been competing with you for two years over
  the same girl, and every time I'm about to make some ground you
  ruin it for me. Why don't you find someone more your type?"
     "Because Gadget is my type!"
     "Is not!"
     "Is too!"
     "Is not!"
     "Is too!"
     "Is not!"
     "Is too!"
     "Why you.." at this, both chimpmunks have begun rolling
  around, continuing their string of "Do not's and Do too's" all the
  way.
  
     "Golly!" shouted Gadget. "Why are you showing me
  this...Chip and Dale argue all the time."
     "Yes, they do." said St. Pete calmly. "But they wouldn't be
  arguing half as much if you didn't give them reason to."
     "It's not my fault they argue over me."
  "You never made it clear which of them you preferred. Someday soon this
fight is going to split the two of them for good. All because of your
inability to make a decision!"
  "Look, Saint Pete, if that's what you want to call yourself.  I made it as
clear as the circumstances allowed that I wasn't interested in either of them.
What's ther real reson you're putting me through this?." Gadget said
seething.
  The two figures conversed amongst themselves.
  "I think it is best we let you go,"Saint Peter said.
  Gadget reemerged into normal reality, with her friends looking down at her
  Gadget blinked, slowly opened her eyes. Her friends were
  gathered around the hospital bed. Her mind reached out.
  "Hey you're back with us lassie!" said Monty.
  There are more players in this game than I realized," Gadget said.
  "What do you mean?"  Chip asked.
  "Never mind. Someday I'll explain it all to you... when I  figure out how."