Gadget's family

Gadget's family is an issue often dealt with in fan fiction. One of the main reasons is that the few informations canon gives us aren't nearly enough to construct a complete image of Gadget's family, but they're just the right amount to fuel fanfic writers' imagination and eagerness to find out about Gadget's closest relatives.

Gadget's family background in the show

As said above, little is known for sure about the Hackwrench family. All that is clear is that Gadget has/had a father named Geegaw Hackwrench whom she lost more than one year before the events of To the Rescue, and that she lived alone, i.e. without a mother as well, in that old World War II bomber plane. How precisely Gadget "lost" her father is never explained, and since Gadget never said that he died because a Disney show usually avoids the concept of death altogether, Geegaw cannot even be definitely declared dead. Gadget's mother is never mentioned in the show, so what fate befell her remains entirely unclear.

Another piece in this puzzle game may or may not be Lahwhinie. A mouse who looks exactly like Gadget, but who lives in Hawaii is hard to take as mere coincidence, so many believe she and Gadget are related, often even twin sisters. What mostly contradicts this idea, though, is the fact that Gadget and Lahwhinie don't know each other.

Variants of Gadget's family in different fan fiction universes

Given this information, and even more so this lack of further information, many Rangerphiles felt tempted to fill in the blanks themselves. Some took inspiration from other writers, some decided to do something entirely different.

Warning: The following section contains unblanked, unhidden spoilers.

Read at your own risk, or if you want to avoid information being given away, skip this section.

Chip Noir Dale's Rescue Rangers

Matt Plotecher's main fan fiction universe starts with Fly to the Light which is about Geegaw.

Geegaw Hackwrench: Alive during the events of the show. Found alive by Cheddarhead Charlie in Japan. However, he dies of cancer at the end of Fly to the Light.

Gadget's mother: Terica Noteworth. Deceased. Terica used to be a talented musician and played multiple instruments. Died a few hours after Gadget's birth, but with a smile on her face according to Geegaw. She left Gadget a heart-shaped locket.

Gadget's siblings: None.

The Midnightverse

Most information about the Hackwrench family in Midnight Man's stories can be found in Lost And Found.

Geegaw Hackwrench: Alive. Staged his death in a plane crash after he was given the opportunity of a meeting with his fugitive wife to avoid being intercepted by Vincent van Thomas, one of the nine Mice of NIMH believed dead, who had been stalking her and chasing her for many years. Dedicated his life to searching for her from then on until the Rescue Rangers found him back in the old bomber plane and offered him their help to complete his mission in the first act of Lost And Found.

Gadget's mother: Stephanie Wheatfield Hackwrench. Alive. Caught as a replacement subject for experiments at NIMH shortly after the coordinated escape of 20 rats and 11 mice. She got the same treatment with the same outcome. Geegaw freed her from NIMH's labs. They married and had two children. But when Van Thomas found her a few days after her daughters' birth, she had to escape and took one of the babies with her while the other one stayed with Geegaw. Reunited with Geegaw since he and the Rangers rescued her from NIMH yet again in the second act of Lost And Found.

Gadget's siblings: Gadget Beatrice Hackwrench has one sister, LaWahini Hackwrench. LaWahini spent the first five years of her life with her mother in Hawaii. They were separated when Van Thomas found them on the islands, and Stephanie had to escape yet again in the middle of a tropical storm which made it impossible for her to get little LaWahini. She was brought up by local villagers from then on. Banned from the village after the events of Gadget Goes Hawaiian, lived the life of a hermit on a volcano from then on. Reunited with her family in the last act of Lost And Found. She is considered redeemed, and she joins the Rescue Rangers in Last Date.

Spouse and children: None except for her relationship with Chip.

Other relatives: Stephanie has a younger sister, Suzanne, who married the son of Geegaw's best pal at Ultra-Flite, Franklin van Zant. They have a daughter named Dawn and a restaurant at New York City.

LaWahini and Sparky will have a son named Edison in the near future. When he accidentally travels back in time in A Matter Of Time, Gadget is the only one whom he tells that he is her nephew, Edison Hackwrench.

The Nowakverse

John Nowak's stories Under The Bridge, Icarus, and Sovereign give Gadget a somewhat dark family background.

Geegaw Hackwrench: Deceased. According to Under The Bridge, Geegaw died in an air race accident, but according to Icarus, it was an accident during a test flight which is considered "canon" within the Nowakverse.

Gadget's mother: Sarah Hackwrench. Died when she gave birth to her four children.

Gadget's siblings: Gadget is technically a quadruplet. However, she never got to know her sister Widget until the latter tried to kill her in revenge. Gadget and Widget were separated the day they were born when Geegaw and Monty had to escape from a gang of street cats, and Monty had to let Widget go to rescue Geegaw and Gadget in a river.

Her two brothers died soon after birth and remained nameless. According to Geegaw, "[t]hey were never really alive."

Other relatives: Widget and Kapitänleutnant Jürgen Jürgen have a son, Gimcrack, who is Gadget's nephew.

Of Mice and Mayhem

Only a few flashbacks in Of Mice and Mayhem grant the reader a glimpse into Gadget's past.

Geegaw Hackwrench: Deceased. The cause of his death remains unknown, though.

Gadget's mother: nameless. Deceased. Although she isn't given a name, being a graphic novel allows Of Mice and Mayhem to show the reader what Gadget's mother looked like during Gadget's life flashback; for example, she had black hair. It is not specified when or how she did, but she lived long enough for Gadget to remember.

Gadget's siblings: None.