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Three Girls and a Dog

Chapter 1

Le Quack's Contest

In the centre of the city of Nowhere, inside a small farmhouse, Eustace was watching TV. He was about to fall asleep when a commercial aired on the TV. It was publicizing some new modern TVs and reminded Eustace that his television set was still an outdated black-and-white one. The farmer immediately started to complain about his situation:

"Muriel! How could you buy the pillow for that stupid dog when we still have to watch TV without even colours?"

"You have never told me that you wanted a new TV, Eustace," replied Muriel, "and how could I let that Courage still slept on that old and broken pillow we had?"

Eustace was moaning about his wife when a leaflet flew inside through an open window and hit Eustace directly in the face. He was about to get very angry when he noticed what was written on the leaflet. Unfortunately, there weren't offers for TVs, but Eustace was interested by a contest advertisement. The contest was about a competition between farmers coming from all the United States. The competitors would be rated by a jury, with the purpose of selecting the best farmer in the U.S.A. The winner of the contest would receive a reward of $3000, too. "Oh, my!" shouted Eustace when he read about the prize of the contest. He rushed into the kitchen, where Muriel was preparing lunch.

"Muriel, prepare to leave right now, because we are going to earn lots of money!" Eustace shouted.

"Ohhh! I love trips!" said Muriel. She immediately stopped to cook and ran upstairs.

Meanwhile, Courage, who was sleeping in the Bagge's bedroom, had woken up and went downstairs. He could only listen to Eustace telling Muriel to prepare for an upcoming trip, but he was horrified, as he remembered that all the voyages they did ended with them facing some evil villains or horrible monsters. He tried to stop Muriel with his paw, but she misunderstood him.

"Don't be worried, Courage, I will prepare the luggage for both me and you," said Muriel.

"Yeah, you stupid dog, go help her instead of standing in her way!" ordered Eustace, while thinking of the $3000 dollars he was going to win.

Courage had a bad feeling about this situation, but he couldn't stop his family so he decided to help Muriel, while promising himself that he would have protected her at all costs.

After a short lunch, they left Nowhere at 3 o'clock P.M.

"Hey, dog, be helpful for once and give me the map that I have left in the glove box," said Eustace while driving. Courage searched for the map and when he found it he decided to watch for a moment where the heck they were heading to. There was a big black drawn "X" right on a big city. Courage thought it was their destination, so he read the name of the city: 'Townsville'. He had never heard of it before, and he hoped it wasn't an hazardous one, like New York and Los Angeles had been.

Townsville was quite far from Nowhere, and Eustace managed to mistake the path, still thinking of the 50-inch LED 3D TV set he was going to buy with the 3000 bucks, so they finally arrived in the city at about 9 o'clock.

"Now, where is the contest's place?" said Eustace, but Muriel was tired.

"Eustace, we better find a place to sleep. We can go for that another day, can't we?" asked Muriel, and Courage nodded his head.

Muriel persuaded Eustace to put off and they found a little and cheap hotel in the outskirts of Townsville. Courage could see from there the city centre, with dozens of skyscrapers hiding the sea behind them.

Courage was worried about what the citizen could look like, but all he could see were cheerful faces and polite answers. It seemed that all the people in Townsville were just as kind as Muriel was, and even Eustace couldn't complain about the service. It was all just perfect and lovable. They settled in the hotel and they went to bed in the evening.

The next morning, Eustace awoke Muriel (and Courage in the process) :

"Woman, wake up! How can you sleep when you know that $3000 are awaiting for you?" said Eustace.

This ain't good, thought Courage while watching Muriel preparing herself and Eustace dancing weirdly. Townsville was indeed a good city, at least in a large part, but Courage was still suspicious about the contest.

They left the little hotel, and Eustace headed to the city centre. Courage could see some landmarks of the city while they were moving through it, including a big and white building with a vast garden in front of it. Courage thought it was surely the town hall.

"We have arrived. I'm going to win 3000 dollars!" Eustace had finally stopped the van. They were completely surrounded by skyscrapers, but it was a quite crowded street, so Courage gave a sigh of relief. Eustace and Muriel entered one of the buildings: the atrium was quite clean and modern. Eustace took the leaflet that he still owned and read the number of the floor where the competitors would sign up for the contest.

"We better use the elevator," said Muriel when she read the two-digit number on the paper.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," moaned Eustace, and they entered it.

Courage was just beginning to feel relaxed when he watched the button of the floor that Eustace has pushed. Unlike the other buttons, it was dirty, half broken and you could see the electrical cables through it. Courage was frightened by what that button could mean about the floor they were going to.

The 31° floor was just like the button in the elevator. It was an abandoned part of the building, as there were still construction site's parts, packaged furniture, and spider webs all over the place. The lights that were correctly working were three or four, but thank goodness it was half past nine and there was enough sun light to see.

Courage was worried, but he couldn't do anything apart from following Eustace and Muriel through the floor. They stopped in front of a door, just as creepy as the entire place was, that showed a sign with a 'Farmer's Competition' notice on it. Eustace knocked the door.

"Excuse me, is this the place where competitors sign up?" asked Muriel. She wanted to visit the city, so she was trying to make things faster.

"Yes! Yes! Please come in," said a voice. It had a French accent, and Courage was confident he had already listened it, but he couldn't manage to remember who had that voice, as it was quite altered by the speaker.

The room where Courage entered was cleaner than the rest of the place, but there were still some spider webs and dirty stuff. A big desk was located at the bottom of the chamber, where someone sat down on a big armchair, oriented to a window. The armchair was so tall that Courage couldn't see who was hidden behind it. Eustace and Muriel sat down on two chairs in front of the desk.

"Hello, my friends," said the hidden guy, "welcome to the USA Best Farmer contest." Courage would have bet he was trying to not laugh.

"So, I want to sign up right now," shouted Eustace, "The $3000 dollars will be mine!"

"Are you completely sure, Mr. Bagge?" asked the voice. "Because, you know, you can't participate if you are trapped in a cage." He showed them a remote controller and clicked the big red button on it. Suddenly, two big iron cages were dropped from the ceiling and captured Eustace and Muriel. "Oh dear!" cried Muriel, but Courage, that wasn't trapped into the cages, emitted a loud scream when the guy in front of them revealed himself: he was Le Quack!

"So, my plan originally didn't involve you," said Le Quack to Courage ,"but I think you will be useful to me." Courage was frozen in fear for Muriel and listened to his enemy.

"I want to rob the bank of this city, and many other banks all over the country, and you will do it for me, Courage," said Le Quack with his French accent. "I haven't finished yet: If you will refuse to do my requests, something... bad will happen to your family," while saying this he showed another time the remote controller, revealing a second, smaller yellow button behind the first.

Courage had no choice but to surrender. He didn't know how Le Quack could harm Muriel, but he didn't want to know it. Also, there weren't any ways to free Muriel and Eustace from the cages without alarming Le Quack.

"You won," said Courage sadly. Le Quack laughed in his odd, particular way.

"What is all this mess! Do I have won the $3000?" declared angrily Eustace. If Muriel had been in his same cage, she would have hit him with her rolling pin.

Hours later, a black van stopped in front of the Townsville bank. Courage got out of the vehicle: he was wearing the same thief costume he used when the purple foot fungus had infected Eustace and had blackmailed Courage just as Le Quack was doing in that moment. The French robber had given Courage an automatic gun: "Beware of using it against me!" had said Le Quack, "because you won't then have the time to save your family before I can push the button and... destroy them. Also, it will shoot only if I want it to do," and while saying this Le Quack had showed Courage a small but complex computer set in the van. The famous French thief had managed to expand his knowledge in technology, and Courage's gun was controlled by the van. (for a similar example, think of Metal Gear Solid 4's ID system for weapons).

Courage was frightened to rob the bank in a street so crowded, but he was also determined to save his family, Muriel firstly. Le Quack was monitoring him from his vehicle. He jumped into the bank's window and crashed into it. "Freeze! This is a heist!" shouted Courage while shuddering and trying to aim the gun to the guests. The people in the bank watched him for a moment, then they all started to laugh, absurdly since the gun Courage was using was real and correctly operating.

"You, pink little doggy, do you really want to rob this bank? Are you sure?" asked one of the receptionists while smiling.

"YES, I DO!" said Courage, then he had an idea to show he was serious: he caught one of the customers and aimed the gun at his head. Everyone stopped to laugh.

I hope this won't last for long, thought Courage while threatening the receptionists and trying to have the bank's strongbox opened.

There was a tiny thing that both Le Quack (who didn't explore the city much) and Courage didn't know about Townsville: that there were three, little girls with superpowers protecting the city and fighting crime.

One of the receptionist managed to click an alarm switch under her desk, and the bank robbery was right away reported to the police stations and the town hall.

"There is a pink dog that is robbing the bank? Ah, that is so cute, isn't it?" said the Mayor when he read the report paper Miss Bellum brought him.

"Mayor, he has got an hostage!" replied Miss Bellum, "it is still too risky to just have the cops deal with it."

"Yes, yes, yes... what can we do?" asked the Mayor while thinking deeply.

"How about doing what you always do when there is something troubling Townsville?" said Miss Bellum patiently.

"Oh yeah! How could I forget!" said the Mayor. He went through the office, picked up the hotline and called up someone.

Back in the Bank, Courage had managed to open the strongbox and had picked up a money bag. He was carrying it while still aiming his gun at the hostage. He was exactly in the centre of the bank atrium when he heard a whistling sound. Le Quack heard it too, and when he saw what was heading to the bank, he started the van and rushed away from the area as quick as he could.

Courage listened to the sound becoming louder: he was so frightened that all the people, including his hostage, could exit the bank safely. The sound was now very loud, but before Courage could realize what could have been emitting it, something broke in and crashed just in front of Courage, actually destroying part of the floor.

He let out a horrible scream, dropped the gun and the money, and immediately started to run, without caring where he was going to. However, he didn't run for long: he heard another time the sound, then something caught him, lifted him from the floor and threw him into the bank's wall at high speed. He was slammed on the wall, then he fell on the floor, while laughing a bit for the pain, and he fainted.