Police Chief Barnard has several theories on the proper running of a police force. One of them is that awards should be a time of enjoyment for all, not just the person or persons being honored. As it is a sunny day, therefore, the award ceremony for Plato and Detective Drake takes place in the park.

This allows the Rodent Rangers to watch proceeding from the comfort of their front door.

Unfortunately, he also believes in giving long-winded speeches. Though, to be quite honest, Drake and Plato's record is impressive. It appears that their personal nemesis (a criminal mastermind known as Aldrin Klordane) drowned about a year ago; but until then, the Chief makes it sound like Drake was the only thing lying between the city and anarchy.

Plato and Drake stand on a small portable raised platform; the Chief of Police stands on a larger portable raised platform. About fifty police officers stand on the grass around him, watching him and waiting impatiently for the speech to end and the celebratory picnic to begin.

You'd think there was no way a snake and a spider could steal his hair...

...but there's something coming, from the distance. It's hard to see what it is at this distance, but it is airborne (skimming the treetops), reasonably large (at least human-size) and approaching pretty fast.

Avery has said hello to the rodents, chatted briefly with the squirrel family having a picnic, and has gone to introduce herself to the chipmunks under the bush.

The rodents said hello back. The squirrels (mother and two daughters, one teenage one toddler) were polite, but in the few moments Mom took her eyes off Toddler Toddler (whose appetite is prodigious) managed to devour about half the picnic food on her own and was only prevented from wolfing down the rest by quick action on the part of Teenager.

The chipmunks are seated in the shade under a bush. Every time the police chief mentions something Plato did, they cheer. From the twitching of Plato's ears and the half-smile on his face, he's quite aware of his little fan club. One of the chipmunks is dressed soberly in a brown jacket and a fedora, while the other (the one with the red nose) is dressed in a garish red-and-yellow Hawaiian shirt that only narrowly evades clashing with itself.

"Hiya!" says the fedora-wearing one, on noticing Avery. The other chipmunk's head spins round to see who his friend is greeting, and then he jumps to his feet and shakes her hand vigorously.

"Hi!" says the Hawaiian-shirted one. "I'm Dale, this is Chip, what's your name? Did you also come to watch Plato's awards? We're his biggest fans! Did you know how many criminals he's given his famous Crime Bite to, huh?"

"We've documented three hundred and twenty two." claims Chip.

Out on the front lawn, Buck notices the incoming flying thing, and shades his eyes to get a better look.

It looks - it looks like a human, female, middle-aged, dressed as a janitor, sitting atop some device. There's no sign of wings, rocket exhaust, or any sort of means of flight; so exactly how the device remains airborne is a mystery. It can't be what it looks like, though; who ever heard of a flying vacuum cleaner?

The vacuum cleaner zooms low over the crowd of police; they duck and scatter just about far enough not to get hit in the head. The rider cackles merrily.

A grin of disproportionate size spreads over Buck's face.

"Oh man, this is going to be Fun!

In a blast of exhaust, he rockets toward the strange woman, and her apparent anti-gravity device.
He'll attempt to board the strange vacuum cleaner-like device, and examine it. If he's spotted by the woman, he will still attempt to board, unless attacked, in which case, It's on.

Buck makes it to the vacuum cleaner, grabs hold of a suitable spot and shuts off the jetpack. From close up, it still looks like a vacuum cleaner. Then he climbs up slightly, rounds a corner, and comes face-to-face with a very surprised brown house snake.

Snake: Alertness: +0 Roll: -1 Total: -1
Buck: Alertness: +3 Roll: -1 Total: +2

The snake is, in fact, rather more surprised than Buck, giving Buck the chance to react first. This is probably a good thing, since snakes like this one have the entirety of the Rodent Rangers on the menu... he could swallow Buck whole if he manages to hold Buck down long enough.

Buck has been swallowed before, but the experience was highly unpleasant to all parties involved, and bears avoiding unless absolutely unavoidable. Therefore, he ignites his jetpack, and leaps to an altitude some 3 feet above the vacuum, where he holds position above it, shadowing it's every move. From there, he will attempt communication with the serpent, even if he must resort to pantomime.

Avery chats with the two chipmunks, listening raptly to all their facts and stories, until she notices the commotion overhead. She shields her eyes and tries to see what's going on. "Is this part of the ceremony?" she asks the pair.

Kip had gone into the park, and found a tall tree to climb where he could be high enough to see everything clearly. Unfortunately, he had not slept very well and found himself nodding off.

"No." says Chip, checking a schedule he'd prepared. "No cleaning women on flying vacuum cleaners are scheduled for today."

"I wanna go see!" insists Dale. "C'mon, Chip, let's take a closer look!" He hops eagerly from paw to paw.

--------------

Kip, meanwhile, has an excellent view of the vacuum cleaner; it's likely to pass his tree soon, and he can make a daring leap onto the hovering device.

On the flying vacuum cleaner, the cleaning lady flicks a switch and it starts, perhaps surprisingly, vacuuming; she uses it to suck up the Chief of Police's wig, revealing that he's entirely bald. Embarrassed, he covers his head and backs off; but, at the same time, Detective Drake makes a leap from below and just manages to grab hold of the cleaner.

Meanwhile, the snake calls out to the spider, "Hey, Lou! D'you see that?" He points at Buck with his tail.

"What?" asks the spider, strolling up behind the snake. "The flying mou- a flying mouse?"

"Yeah, that's what I thought too." agrees the snake. No doubt Buck will have no trouble communicating with them, as long as he speaks loudly enough to be heard over the vacuum cleaner.

The sound of the vacuum cleaner turning on is enough to wake Kip up. He looks around, rubs his eyes, looks again and grins.

"This is going to be awesome!"

With a big smile on his face, he takes a run down a branch and leaps for the vacuum cleaner.

Kip: Athletics: +4 Roll: +2 Total: +6

Kip makes it look easy, clearing the gap from the tree to the vacuum cleaner with space to spare.

"Get off!" yells the cleaning lady, trying to kick Detective Drake in the face. "It's too much weight! Let go! Let go!" Sure enough, the vacuum cleaner doesn't seem to have the ability to lift Drake completely; he's hanging onto it, but still running along the ground as well. Behind him, but catching up fast, comes the police dog Plato; and between Plato and Drake, Avery (presumably) and a pair of overenthusiastic chipmunks rush towards the vacuum cleaner as well.

"Hey, Freddie!" says the snake. "There's a flying mouse over there!"

"DON'T CALL ME FREDDIE!" yells the cleaning lady, angrily.

The snake cringes. "Sorry, Winifred." he says, making sure to get it right this time.

With a setup like that, Buck can't resist. He punches the throttle, and zips out in front of the flying vacuum, where he pulls a quick loop to grab Freddie's attention, before tossing off a salute to her, performing an outside Immelmann, followed by a quick turn to wind up underneath the vacuum. From this vantage point, he will look for some way to disable the contraption. You don't go around stealing peoples toupees. You just don't.

Kip looks around for buttons to press. Pressing buttons in a situation like this is always helpful. One he finds some, he presses them with abandon.