(disclaimer, I do NOT own the rights to anything, in this story)

Metro City, 6:53pm

As clichéd as this may sound, it is the truth, and the truth is that our story unfolds on a dark and stormy night. The scene is the warmly lit den and homemade crime lab combination at the home of a man recognized facially by a rather large nose and upturned cowlicks in his hair on either side of his head. This was the Metro City Police Department's shining star, the clockwork copper, the peerless pry, the one, the only, Inspector Gadget.

Currently Gadget was seated at his den table, sans the coat and hat since he was at home. He sat with a rather extensive chemistry set laid out before him, along with several other items that were clues to a case that Gadget was currently handling. The items had already received the once over by the Metro PD's crime lab boys and now Gadget was taking his shot. For some reason, he just couldn't understand it, he knew in his gut that the CEO had been murdered by his jealous and greedy wife, but all evidence pointed to his mistress, who also happened to be his cleaning lady, hence the reason she would have access to the chemicals that were used to kill him. It was all very frustrating.

It was at that time he heard a knock on his den door. Gadget spun round in his chair to see a young girl bordering on womanhood with big blue eyes and flawless blonde hair, it was his niece, Penny. She was a sweet kid, even though at her age now she had chosen to forgo the pigtails that had characterized her in her youth. She smiled at him and stuffed her hands in her pockets, she doted on him, she really did, even though he asks her not to, she does so anyway, and that was one of the great things about her.

"Hey Uncle Gadget," Penny started, leaning against the doorway, "I'm going to go pick up Brain from the vet now, so dinner's going to be a little late, okay?"

"Yeah, sure, no problem," the inspector said with a smile.

"In the meantime, you haven't eaten in a day or so, so make sure you get something to snack on, okay?"

"Well I don't know, Penny," his smile fading at an order that would take him away from his work, "I'm really stuck on this case and I don't think I could spare the time. Besides, I'm not hungry."

"You never get hungry anymore," Penny reminded him, "That's the problem. Listen Uncle Gadget, we've been over this a hundred times, you have very few natural organs left, and we're supposed to take care of them. So we'd be doing a rather poor job if we let them suffer from malnutrition. So would you please-"

"Okay, okay, I get the message. I'll grab a bite to eat while you're out."

"You promise?"

"Scout's honor," Gadget said, placing two fingers to his head in the classic Eagle Scout's Salute.

"Okay, I'm leaving now, so don't forget-"

"To eat something, I got ya."

"I mean it, do it or else," Penny finished, walking off.

"Ooh, I'm shaking in my loafers," Gadget said whispered sarcastically, so Penny wouldn't hear.

He turned back to the table, and instead of the various beakers and test-tubes arrayed around him, that were either empty or filled with various chemicals, the main attraction for Gadget's attention was the small Petri dish in front of him. It's contents were the coffee pumped from the dead CEO's stomach in autopsy, however, it had become undeniably clear to all looking into the case that there was more than just his favorite brand of French blend in his cup on that fateful day. The inspector looked down at the chemical mix, taking another view of the deadly cocktail to, hoping to see if there was anything he'd missed.

He closed one eye, and said the magic words, or at least his version of them. "Go go Gadget microscope." Instantly, his vision started to shift and zoom in rapidly, the inspector soon found himself viewing the contents of the dish at the microscopic level. Now as amazing as this would seem to you or me, to Inspector Gadget, who had viewed the dish at least fifty times within the hour, it was old news. He viewed all of the elements in the dish; coffee, cream, sugar, the CEO's widow's spit, almond oil, and mostly importantly, cleaning chemicals which was confirmed to be what killed the CEO.

It was the chemicals that had Gadget baffled. From the surveillance tapes, it showed that after the CEO guzzled half his coffee, he began to convulse from violent seizures, he fell sprawling to the floor, foam beginning to form at the mouth. From there, he lay twitching on the floor like a dying bug, until the blood in his veins had finally stopped flowing to his heart, after which he logically died. Now here's the strange part, when the poison started to take effect, he did not call for help. That "did not" changed to a "could not", as due to the fact that the doctors had concluded that the CEO's throat had swollen and closed shut, a reaction brought on by the CEO's acute allergy to almond nuts, hence the significance of the almond oil in his coffee cup. Signs of an allergic reaction were noticed in the surveillance tapes as in the moments prior to the seizures, the CEO had begun to cough as though his throat was sore and itchy.

The man kept his coffee machine, with all the proper fixings, in his office. There were two instances where the poison could've been added, when the cup was concealed from the cameras by the two prime suspects; his mistress and his wife now widow. Yet, there was no feasible point at which the almond oil could've been added. When the widow had her time with the cup, mere moments before she and her husband had yet another in a long line of arguments. She claimed that the only ingredient which she added to the steamy brew was her spit, a story which was verified when the man was literally pumped for evidence. That left his mistress, the janitor.

She too had her time with the man's as of yet undrunk coffee, when he chased after his enraged wife to try to console her. It was the cleaning lady's scheduled time to clean up the office, her weapon of choice being the Wipe-Whip cleaning solution which came in a spray bottle, making this a possible manslaughter, as the janitor woman had been cited before for using overly large amounts of the Wipe-Whip spray when cleaning, the Wipe-Whip solution containing all the same deadly chemicals as were found in the man's coffee, minus the almond oil. The matter was pushed from manslaughter to premeditated murder when it was revealed that she had stopped taking pills to help control her rage, which had gotten her in trouble on more than one occasion, as well as the fact that she informed the police that he was leaving her.

The use of almond oil was the key in all this, as the CEO's mistress had no prior knowledge of her lover's keen allergy to almonds, therefore she could not couldn't have intentionally been able to use it as a chemical gag for when he had begun to die.

"Ah, damn it," The inspector mumbled. During his perusing of the Petri dish's content's, his hand had slipped, knocking a few drops of evidence onto his table. His dismay came from the fact that unless he acted quickly, the table would be forever stained. Fortunately, he had a can of Almond-Away which should-

"Almond-Away! That's it!" Inspector Gadget exclaimed. Almond-Away, was made by the same people that made Wipe-Whip, as such having many chemical similarities with it's predecessor. The crack detective made a swift break for the kitchen and returned with the aerosol spray can of Almond-Away. He sprayed the contents of the can into a second Petri dish, and then viewed the contents. The contents of the Almond-Away dish, with coffee, cream, sugar, and spittle aside, had the exact same chemical composition as the first Petri dish, almond oil included.

The relevance of this is; while the CEO's mistress was a user of Wipe-Whip, his wife was a firm student in the ways of Almond-Away, she had stated as such when Gadget interrogated her in her luxurious home. He had commented on how spic and span her kitchen, when, true to the TV advertisements, she admitted that the secret to all this was Almond-Away. Now whilst this preference to cleaning materials was not nearly enough to make a conviction, the fact that Mr. dead CEO's office trash was taken in as evidence does.

During wifey's time in the office, she had removed a half empty bottle of ear medicine from her purse, ear medicine which she kept in her hand from the moment it left the purse to when she threw the bottle into the trash just before leaving, never using the medicine on her ear once. One of the moments in between the medicine's removal to it's disposal was the ever famous coffee spitting scene. The bottle currently sat in the evidence locker down at the station, and he was willing to bet the farm that if someone were to take a peek inside that bottle, the contents of it would be none other than that almond fresh cleanliness formula; Almond-Away. And just like that the case was busted wide open.

Inspector Gadget sat back smugly in his chair, propping his feet on the table, making sure not to hit any of the important glass instruments which were in kicking distance of the man's feet. He'd call the lab boys in the morning and have his theory looked into, which the following morning upon it's being looked into, would prove that, once again, the great Inspector Gadget was right all along.

"And to think," Gadget said, beginning to reminisce, "I used to be a bumbling idiot and Penny was the ace detective. Funny how things change."

He felt that it was an occasion for a bit of celebration was in order, and that a surprise guest star for dinner was just the ticket. An old friend, for whom a visit was long overdue, Penny was going to love the idea.

Little under half an hour later, the scene shifts to the luxurious Cinderella Towers apartment complex, where Gadget was pulling up in the Gadgetmobile Mk. II, the obsolete and disobedient first model having been handed down to Penny quite some time ago. If Gadget were to say a person were responsible for making him the man he was today, and have it be a literal translation, the only people he could say that about would be his mother, his father, and a Dr. Brenda Bradford, the woman who's penthouse apartment he was on his way to see now.

It was this genius who, along with the remnants of her father's life's work, took security guard John Brown's broken, burnt, and near dead body from the vestiges of his wrecked and blown up car, turning the half dead mess into the almost unstoppable fighting force for truth and justice he is today, known to the world as Inspector Gadget. He always had a soft spot for Brenda, he probably always would. If Penny was his keeper, then Brenda was his maker, along with various other things. And while it's true that they'd since split apart and their relationship went circling down the drain years ago, she still made upgrades for his body, and personally designed the Gadgetmobile Mk. II to suit his more professional needs, and was still a much welcomed face to the Gadget table at Christmas and Thanksgiving. It'd been some time since he last saw her, seven months to be more exact, he last saw her at his annual tune-up/check-up, so meeting up unexpectedly should be a real treat, it was only a couple of days ago that Penny commented how much she missed Brenda.

Gadget emerged from the Gadgetmobile, now wearing his trademark trench coat and fedora, and made a beeline for the door. The doorman asked the inspector if he should call the valet for his car.

"No thanks, I've got it covered," Gadget replied with a smirk, as the Gadgetmobile went into autodrive and rolled off to find it's own parking space.

Gadget was so pleased with himself that he actually found himself tapping his toes and whistling to the tune of the elevator as it made it's grand ascent to the top floor. The elevator doors opened onto a hallway which ended in two doors, one being Brenda's apartment, the other belonging to a different obscenely rich person who could afford a penthouse rent. Having much care and concern for one and little to none for the other, Gadget made his way down to Brenda's door, taking out his badge, Brenda loved the "you're under arrest" entrance.

The inspector placed his knuckles in front of the door and placed his badge in front of the peephole, then…

Knock. Knock.

From there he waited for the traditional…

"Who's there?" came a voice from behind the door.

"It's the police," Gadget said in a gruff voice, the disguise never really working, "and we have a report that-"

Gadget never got to finish his sentence, as the door flew open and he was yanked into the apartment by his tie. The tail of his coat barely made it through the threshold before the door snapped shut once more, several clicks ringing through the otherwise quiet apartment as the door locks bolted the entryway shut. There was something wrong and Gadget knew it.

He was about to jokingly comment on how improper this was for a lady and what would her mother think, but that's when he caught sight of something that made what little blood he had left run cold. Never, ever, not in a million years, would Gadget ever expect to see it, but in spite of all that, the inspector looked down to see that Dr. Brenda Bradford, a person who in Gadget's mind was synonymous with the words peace, love, and purity, held in her hands, hands that were only ever known to heal and help, was, of all ungodly things, a shotgun.

Taking only but a mere second's glance at the deadly weapon which he knew in his core should never come close to Brenda, let alone be held in her arms, Gadget's eyes shot up to meet Brenda's which were red and puffy, indicating either crying or a lack of sleep. In a world where Brenda Bradford, of all people, could hold a shotgun, Gadget assumed it was probably both.

Inspector Gadget started first, asking the question, "Are you alright?" The answer to which he knew would be…

"…No," Brenda answered, tears beginning to well up in her eyes. She visibly shook as her hands gave way, causing her to drop the shotgun, then unexpectedly, or expectedly, we may never know, Brenda ran over to Gadget, threw her arms around him and began to sob. Weeks' worth of frustration, lack of sleep, and fear, most of all fear, poured out of her as she placed her face into Gadget's shoulder. They stood there for several minutes, Brenda's tears seeping into Gadget's clothes, as she lost herself in his embrace, her wails being muffled by the inspector's coat.

"There, there, it's alright, it's alright," Gadget cooed, holding Brenda close, patting her on her back.

"No…*sniff* *sniff*…no it's not," Brenda said, the flow of her tears beginning to stop.

"…What's wrong?" Gadget asked, hoping that Brenda had calmed down enough to answer some questions.

"I…*sniff* I think some…someone wants to kill me…I'm sorry Gadget…I've been followed, and I'm just so…so scared."

"Why didn't you call me?"

"I wanted to!...Oh I wanted to so much…but I was being followed and my phones were being watched and you have Penny to look after. I-I couldn't make her a target, I-I could never do that to Penny."

"What happened?" Gadget asked, his voice taking a bit of a stern tone now that she'd calmed down…for the moment at least.

Brenda let go of Gadget, and released herself from his embrace, after which she bent down and retrieved her shotgun, the sight of which still unsettled the inspector.

"We'll talk in my study," Brenda said, adopting a more sensible demeanor. She then walked off, deeper into her apartment, with Gadget following dutifully behind. They stalked the halls of Brenda's luxurious apartment, Gadget occasionally glancing at the picture's of Brenda they passed, especially those that included him as well. She smiles she held in those photographs seemed to darkly and ironically contrast against the woman he was following now.

It wasn't long until they'd made their way into a room full of books, brilliantly lit by a single top light, the room was tastefully defined by a large window that ran the entire length of a full wall. The window usually gave a brilliant view of the Metro City skyline, but currently, due to the somewhat despairing weather conditions outside, Gadget couldn't see a thing, and with Brenda claiming to being targeted for assassination, they made the inspector abnormally uneasy.

"Some time ago," Brenda began, turning to face Gadget, her voice startling the inspector who'd been transfixed by the darkness of the window, "I was contacted by an old friend of mine from college, had to have been four maybe five months ago that she called me up on the phone. She was…scared…afraid…and hysterical. She said that someone had been threatening her…and that they were going to kill her…unless she gave them what they wanted, but she said she could never give them what they wanted. That was the first call I received from her in years…and the last. Two weeks later her…her…her body was found dead in a dumpster, and two days before hand, I received a book. Lily, that's my friend's name, Lily, had sent it to me by mail, the same day she'd phoned me. It was written in some ancient language I'd never seen before. It took me awhile, but about two months ago I was able to translate it. It was around that time that I'd started to receive angry letters and phone calls…I thought that it was just one of my competitors getting drunk and trying to spook me, but one day I came home to find that my apartment had been wrecked like someone was looking for something, I knew it had to be the book. Luckily I had it on me at the time, but I was left a note by the burglars. It told me that I was not to contact the police or anyone in law enforcement, and that if I just gave up the book, they'd go away, but I knew I couldn't. I'd read through the book, I know what it's about. The book reveals the location of-"

KRRSH!

Broken glass was heard as the window had been broken by some unknown force. The event had drawn Gadget's attention away from Brenda briefly, and when his gaze shot back to her, it was a sight that made him want to scream. Brenda was now on the ground, gasping for air, blood seeping from a sizeable bullet hole in her chest, the blood seeping out from under her indicating that the hole had a twin from her back. Inspector Gadget stood speechless, not knowing what to do, his brain trying to process that which he saw before him, his insides twisting and screaming in agony. This was Dr. Brenda Bradford, the only woman he's ever, and probably ever would, love, and now she was lying on the floor in front of him, dying.

He moved forward to pick up Brenda, to see what he could do, but was derailed from this task when his own bullet met him and dug into his chest. The shot nearly knocked him off his feet, as the bullet dug into his skin, but not piercing the armor plating underneath. The second shot did knock him down however, the bullet ricocheting off his chest and hitting the room's only light.

"Go go Gadget night vision," the inspector said, instinct fueling his actions. Instantly, Gadget's eyes began to glow green, as his vision gave him a flawless, yet emerald view of the world around him. He stood up and looked out the window, to see that several rooftops away, the mysterious trigger man was leaving his rifle behind to make a break for it.

Filled with inconsolable rage, Gadget spoke the words before they even came to mind, "Go go Gadget arsenal: nine millimeter." His right hand began to shift and reconfigure to resemble that of a pistol, two slots opening on his hand, on at the base of his index finger to expel spent rounds, the other on the back of his hand to hook in an eight round clip, an eight round clip which Gadget put in solemly yet swiftly, his arms almost becoming a blur.

Inspector Gadget didn't know who this man was, nor did he care…

"Stop him John," Gadget heard Brenda say, using his real name for the first time in years.

All that he knew was that whoever this assassin was, he'd just signed his own death warrant.

He pointed his hand gun, which in this case was a literal translation, out the broken window, aiming through the darkness and pouring rain, his sights set dead on at his target. John Brown, prior to becoming Inspector Gadget, hit one of several snags that prevented him from joining the police force prior to the explosion and subsequent operation that made him the man he is today. One of the major snags was, of course the gun range. To be blunt John couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat, but as The Inspector, with superior reflexes, and a couple million dollars worth of targeting equipment at his disposal, targeting equipment which factored in such variables as distance, speed and wind, he could draw faster than Pecos Bill, shoot faster than Wild Bill, and hit more targets per shot than Annie Oakley ever could.

With this in mind, it should be of no surprise for you to know that in less that the time it took most people to blink, the Inspector fired off two shots that flew straight as arrows, through the heavy wind and pouring rain, dead on towards the backs of the assassin's knees. As amazing as it may sound, it is the honest truth, and this technique, which has been known to drop just abot every felon and criminal on the face of the earth, did not work. Instead, what happened was that Gadget saw two sparks flashed as each bullet ricocheted off the man's legs.

However, despite this, Inspector Gadget being the eternal and tenacious lawdog that he was, didn't give a second thought to jumping building to building to take this guy down. His only moment of hesitation, being to remove his left earlobe. The lobe functioned as homing beacon for the Metro Cityy Police, it was the last resort, reserved only for the most dire of situations. With Brenda on the floor in the state that she was, the situation was dire indeed.

He barely batted an eyelash as he took a running start towards the broken window and leaped out of it towards the adjacent rooftop, as much as he wanted to be at Brenda's side, he knew that she wanted him to catch this guy even more. Most anyone else attemptiong this would've wound up as street pizza, but to the inspector, whose inner workings were of the topmost state of the art technology in robotics, he not only made it rooftop he was aiming for, but if it weren't raining, he could've probably made it to the next rooftop in line as well.

As Gadget gave persuit, obviously closing the gap between he and his target with little to no problem, his target came to the last rooftop on the building block. Gadget felt confident that the chase would end soon, since unlike himself, the gunman probably couldn't leap the distance of rooftop of buildings that were separated by roads. However, Gadget's assumption was entirely wrong, for when the perp came to the building's edge, and seemingly the end of his rope, the gunman jumped the distance with ease. Gadget was unable to see how the assassin was capable of accomplishing this feat, as lightning lit up the Metro City skyline, completely blinding Gadget in his night vision mode.

Despite this unfortunate turn of events, it was apparent that no matter how hard hard the gunman ran, Gadget, with his superior speed, would eventually catch him. The problem was that Gadget didn't want to catch this guy eventually, he wanted to catch this guy now. He didn't have to wait long for the opportunity to do just that as Gadget saw that on the roof he'd just landed upon there were two rather large airvents. Gadget wasted no time in ripping one of these vent from it's rooftop mooring, as easily as one might pick a flower. Once in hand, it was short work to calculate the weight, distance, speed, and wind, then throw the seventy pund projectile roughly half a football field's distance for a bullseye's strike against the small of the gunman's back, the vent easily knocking the assassin to the ground.

In the twenty seconds it took for the assassin to get back on his feet, he heard a click, as the inspector's handgun cocked itself, and turned to see Gadget's face locked in a look that was the equivalent of anger on crack.

"Move, and I shoot out your teeth, one by one," Gadget said, aiming at the assassin's mouth seeing as it was the only partthat wasn't covered by the black body suit the man wore. Gadget wasn't sure if this threart would work, after seeing the bullets bounce of the man's legs, he couldn't tell if was because of the man himself or his suit. Gadget did notice that from the way the man stood, he did not want to put up a fight. Gadget removed a pair of handcuffs from the innerlining of his coat with his free hand, leaving the gun still trained on his target, that's when the assassin took a step backwards.

"I told you not to move," Gadget growled, his threat being answered in yet another backwards step, "THIS ISN'T A GAME DAMN IT! Take on more step and I'll-"

"YOU'LL WHAT!?!" the gunman shouted, "Shoot me in the face?" He made one more step backwards, the heels of his boots hanging ove the edge, above the darkness of the streets below.

Gadget's mind struggled to find an answer to the man's question, he had the inspector beat, there was no way to stop the guy from going over the edge, Gadget was fast, but he wasn't that fast. So this left Gadget to try to think, to cobble together something, anything, that would stop the gunman from doing what he was about to do. Unfortunately, Gadget was unable to think of any words that would stop or distract the guy in time, and the assassin went over the edge.

Gadget stood in shock, but only for a moment, if he was going to write an obituary, he'd need a body to write about. Gagdet rushed to the edge and looked down, to find that his perp, instead of going splat, had somehow miraculously survived the fall. The gunman now continued to make good his escape by getting into the the driver's seat of a waiting getaway car below, a black sedan whose door had barely closed before it's wheels had begun to screech against the rain slicked pavement, trying to get traction.

Gadget declared himself to be damned if he were to let this punk getaway. So without a moment's notice, nor even the slightest hesitation for his own safety, Gadget stepped over the edge with nothing but the hope that his legs wouldn't break from the impact. His only action as he fell throught the night's sky was to press down on his remaining ear lobe, the button inside of which was used to summon the Gadgetmobile to his location, sensing the possible problems that could arise from the lack of the vehicle's prescence.

Fortunately, once again, the inspector's marvelous body came through once again, the advanced bionics in his legs not giving out so much as a creak after hitting the pavement from so high up, the impact of the landing creating two small craters which began to pool rain water around his feet. Sadly, this was not enough to finish the chase, as at that moment, the assassin's car finally got the traction it needed, and took off like a jet.

"Go go Gadget grapple!" the inspector barely had time to get the words out of his mouth before the car, which claerly had some speed modifications done on it, was out of range. He pointed his left arm towards the getaway car, a small pop was heard as the gas powered mechanism fired out his hand which only remained attached to the inspector by a titanium alloy chain which lead inside Gadget's now handless sleeve. The hand was able to successfully land on the car's back bumper and easily grip down into the bumper's steel frame. Alas, Gadget's footing was not nearly as firm as he had thought, so when the inspector reached the end of his rope, or in this case chain, he was lifted up off his feet by the sudden jerk from the escaping vehicle and was then proceded to be dragged along the pavement behind it.

Even in such a dire situation, a situation which most people would refer to as life threatening, Gadget persevered in doing everything in his power to try to stop this man. This proved impossible, as in his current situation the inspector was quite helpless. He tried to use his gun to blow out the car's tires, but sadly the act of aiming becomes somewhat muddled when it's performed whilst being dragged along assphault from behind a rapidly moving vehicle. Suffice to say, Gadget's shots were wild, unfocused, and chaotic, and the few shots that did connect with the sedan's tires had no effect as the assassin had self-sealing tires, which, true to their name, resealed themselves immediately after being punctured. In the end the only thing Gadget could do was reconfigure his right hand to its original for one the ammo clip was spent, and begin to reel himself in towards the car.

The inspector was about to place his left hand on the car's back bumper, and reattach his left hand to it's wrist, when the car made a sharp and swift turn to the left that momentarily placed the car running on two wheels. Suffice to say, it was miracle that the sedan didn't flip, however that isn't to say that the vehicle was left completely unscathed by the ordeal. To the contrary, the sudden shift in momentum, combined with the already pre-exisiting strain of having to drag half a ton of cybernetic inspector, caused the sedan's back bumper to be ripped off, sending Gadget, still clutching the now useless piece of metal, careening into the base of a street light, upon impact practically ripping that from it's place as well.

After a terrible accident that would've undoubtedly killed anyone else, the inspector merely pulled himself out from under the severely bent and damaged street lamp, getting up to breifly wipe away some the mud and oil that had accrued on his shirt and coat front, which now were missing several buttons. It took him only a millisecond to realise that he was lucky that it'd been pouring rain so hard, cause if it weren't for the rain water soaking the streets not only would his shirt front, but also his the front of his pants, and basically all of the flesh on the front of his body would be ripped away to reveal the metal underneath. This good news did nothing to improve Gadget's mood, as he could do nothing but grit his teeth and stare as the getaway car's back lights seemed to shine almost mockingly as the car disapeared up the street.

However, just when all hope was lost, Gadget was enveloped by two bright lights coming from behind him. He disengaged his night vision, and turned to hear the screech of tires as Gadgetmobile came to a sudden halt, as faithful and true as ever. Gadget couldn't help but smile as he wasted no time in getting into the driver's seat. Once there, he practically put his foot through the floor, the Gadgetmobile's formidable engine working to make the machine nothing more than a blur as it took off down the road. As the Gadgetmobile did it's job to catch up with the getaway car, the inspector turned of the car's lights, he was glad to be prepossessing the knowledge that the assassin's tire's were self-sealing, since he no longer had to pursue that path. He issued the voice commands that caused the Gadgetmobile's front hood to slightly crack open, omitting two long and rather sinister looking pipes. The inspector smiled malevolently as the Gadgetmobile worked to close the gap betwixt the vehicles, now all that was left was to wait, and since under normal vision Gaget could begin to see the assassin's car come into view, he suspected the wait would not be long.

The assassin however was oblivious to all this, secure in his mind that he'd shaken the gun toting interloper and made good his escape, which only left the sedan's GPS to plot the best course to the airport. So you can imagine his surprise when in his rearview mirror, there suddenly appeared a pair of blinding bright lights. The assassin squeezed his eyes shut at the sudden brightness, taking notice of several loup pops coming from the direction of his tires. He rolled down the window and poked his head out the window, expecting to see mangled rubber and rims running on pavement, instead finding something resembling construction site caulk rapidly growing on the tires, becoming hard, attaching itself to chassis and generally gumming up the works, causing the the car to slow and eventually come to a stop.

Gadget smiled as he got out of the Gadgetmobile, the specially patented "Gadget Gum Grenades" had never failed him before, and true to form, they didn't do so now. The inspector began to reach for his handcuffs, when the top of the sedan suddenly popped off, and Gadget saw the source of the gunman's rooftop and falling success, a pair of fully functional rocket boots, which were now working to propel the assassin skyward. However, Gadget had too much at stake to let this guy get away. The inspector rushed forward, jumping onto the sedan, and from there jumping up to grab onto the assassin's pant leg. The gunman wasted no time in dispatching the inspector once and for all, usuing a cutting laser to shear away the bullet proof fabric from which Gadget clung. With nothing keeping him aloft, the inspector was sent hurtling into the ground below, the sight of the assassin flying off seeming to mock him as he fell.

CRACK!

Gadget's landing was far from delicate to say the least, however, the inspector remained unharmed as the impact shook several nearby windows and left a sizeable crater in the ground. The Gadget wasted no time in getting back to his feet, left to come to grips with the fact that the chase was over. He couldn't even take to the air himself since he'd gotten rid of the Gadget-copter years ago since he'd ironically deemed it as cumbersome and impractical. In the distance, he heard the blare of an ambulance siren as it sped of towards some urgent destination. Sound worked as a hotline in Gadget's memory as he rushed back to the Gadgetmobile, pocketing the fabric as he moved. He'd just been reminded that there was somewhere he needed to be.

The inspector disengaged the Gadgetmobile's autopilot and took the wheel for himself. Gadget drove like a madman, breaking speed limits, breezing through red lights, occasionally hoping the shoulder to drive on the sidewalk, all the while one thought, more a primal instinct and need than an actual cognitive thought. He needed to be there, he didn't know what he'd do when he got there, all he knew was that he needed to get there before...well he didn't want to even try to process the alternative to him not being there in time.

The Gadgetmobile pulled up in front of the Cinderella Towers apartment complex for the second time that night, this time screeching to a halt. Gadget got out of the vehicle to find that several police officers and paramedics had already reached the scene, the inspector looked into the lobby to see that the only elevator that went up to penthouse level was closing it's door, filled with paramedics and beat cops with weapons drawn, it was okay though, Gadget had no intention of using the elevator anyways.

The inspector look up at the side of the building, taking only a second or so to aim for his target properly, before using his powerful legs to leap onto a third floor balcony. From there he began to masterfully scale the building, taking the journey up two floors at a time, sometimes digging his fingers into the concrete and plaster, to pull himself up and gain extra ground in between particularly strong bursts of wind. He just kept climbing, and climbing, and climbing, and climbing until he finally reached the broken window.

Gadget looked into the darkened study and was at first confused. He stared at the spot where Brenda was when he left, but she wasn't there, his eyes followed a trail of blood on the ground to a dark corner where Brenda lay with her eyes half closed and her hands laying upon the shotgun which rested in he lap.

"...John...you...came back," Brenda said, her breathing was shallow and labored, and her skin had become pale and clamy to boot.

"Don't try to stress yourself talking," Gadget said, moving forward to kneel down next to her, "The paramedics are on their way up right now, everything's going to be alright."

"...No...it's not."

"Come on, don't think like that it's going to be fine."

"...Listen...John...on there," Brenda weakly raised her hand to point at one of the tables in the study. Gadget got up and walked over to the table, finding only a telephone book. "...Open it," Brenda's voice came weakly from behind him. Doing as he was told, Gadget opened the book to find that inside most of the pages had been cut away to make room for a second, smaller book that had been hidden inside. The second book was obviously much older than it's hiding place, it was bound in leather and iron and bore no title but instead held a small gold spiral that was engraved into the center of the cover.

Gadget returned to kneel down next to Brenda with the book in his hand. "Brenda, I don't know what to do with this."

"...Keep it...Find...Cornelious...he'll...translate...Keep...the book...safe...it's the key...to finding...at-"

"...Finding what?" Gadget waited, but Brenda didn't reply. He placed two fingers to her neck, but no pulse was found there. Inside him, Gadget was lost in a great, deep, and blackened ocean of sorrow, words could not express what he was going through at that moment. If you've ever lost someone truly important to you, then you can understand exactly what the inspector was going through and know why there are no proper words to express the emotions which are felt, and if you haven't lost someone, then you can never know.

A few minutes later, several cops broke down the door to Dr. Bradford's apartment, only to find the inspector waiting for them, carrying the doctor's body in his arms. They parted to allow the paramedics to get through with a stretcher. No one said anything as Gadget carefully placed Brenda's blood soaked body down on the stretcher, then moving on to pick up a computer modem and a strange book. The inspector was asked only one question.

"Where are you going?" asked a rookie beat cop as the inspector headed towards the waiting elevator doors.

"...To find out who did this," Gadget answered bitterly as the elevator doors closed shut.