[A.N. Whew. Those last two chapters took a lot of creativity out of me and Chris…but we're back! And by the way, August 31st is the one-year anniversary of "Courage in Vegas'" debut!]
A New Plan of Attack
Sandy's acquisition of medical attention didn't exactly go according to plan.
When the ambulance arrived at the nearest Las Vegas hospital, the hospital attendant threw open the ambulance doors, took one look at Sandy, and stood frozen in disbelief. It looked like someone was playing a joke on him. A pink dog in a stretcher? Impossible! Before the attendant could fully comprehend what he was seeing, a skinny teenager coated in a fine layer of dust stood up next to the dog and shouted for him to get the animal into the hospital. Another pink female dog gazed at him sadly from the rear of the ambulance. A third pink dog, this one a male, stood up and nodded his head. A mix of negative emotions clouded his face.
Despite the odd details of the situation, the hospital attendant was unmoved. To Kevin and Courage's dismay, the attendant told them flat out that there was no possible way a "human" hospital would alleviate a dog or any other animal's injuries, no matter how serious they were. This sent the teen and the male dog into hysterics. Ten other hospital workers ended up in an extremely heated argument between themselves and Kevin and Courage. Finally, just before it looked like Kevin would resort to physical violence (Courage, in his condition, was being kept from attacking the workers only by Kevin grabbing onto the back of his neck), Kevin was told of a highly acclaimed animal hospital ten blocks down the road. As an act of gratitude, the hospital would let them go there in the ambulance. Kevin thanked them, but was still aggravated by the hospital's policy. Misty, who was quiet throughout the ordeal, just wanted to get to the animal hospital as soon as possible.
Five minutes later, a similar event took place in the exact same spot. This time, Joe Nathan and the K9 Krew were in the ambulance and nobody was seriously injured! The band asked where Courage, Kevin, Misty, and Sandy had gone, and the hospital told them they had gone to the animal hospital down the road. Joe didn't know how the mix-up could've occurred, but he nodded and politely asked if they could be dropped off at the animal hospital. Unfortunately, that same hospital attendant told them the ambulance was not a taxi and was needed back at the damaged hotel. Joe was about to start yelling, but the Krew talked him out of it. The band walked out to the street just in time to see two police cars pull up in front of them. Fortunately, it was only the former agents and Tortured Artist. The band informed them where Kevin had gone and somehow managed to squeeze into the police cars. After that, the cars headed down the road towards the animal hospital.
At the Las Vegas Southside Animal Hospital, Dr. Richard Dolby was just pulling into a vacant parking space. The 52-year-old veterinarian got out of his car and made his way over to the front door of the vet's office. He scratched at his mop of gray hair and double-checked to make sure he had his keys with him. Once inside the building, he glanced at the empty waiting room. He knew his first appointment was always at the same time the vet opened…9:00. Richard looked at his digital wristwatch. It was 8:22 AM.
"You're a little early today, aren't you, Rich?" asked the receptionist.
"Yes, Pam," admitted Richard. "I slept early last night. First time in weeks."
Pam smirked slightly. A black woman with slender features and thick eyeglasses, Pam was one of Richard's dearest friends. "Wish I could say the same."
"Maybe some music will snap you out of it," said Richard, pointing to the Samsung radio on Pam's desk.
As Pam snapped the radio on, Richard walked into his office. He took off his coat and was just about to put on his white veterinarian uniform when Pam called his name from up front.
Sighing, Richard walked over to Pam's desk. "Something wrong?"
"Sounds more like something's going on," said Pam nervously. Her attention was directed towards the radio. Instead of jazz music, a disk jockey was mentioning several areas of the Las Vegas that were being closed down and evacuated. Las Vegas International Airport was temporarily closed, and city officials were even considering evacuating several area hotels.
"Better turn on the TV, Rich," said Pam.
Richard nodded and headed for the coffee table in the middle of the waiting room. Sitting on a stack of magazines was the remote control for the lone television sitting up in one corner of the room. Richard turned it on and got one of the local stations. An emergency banner was gliding along the bottom of the screen as a helicopter view showed a lavish hotel that looked like a small explosion had gone off inside recently.
Before Richard could determine which hotel it was, a siren suddenly blared outside. From the sound of it, it was coming into the veterinary parking lot!
Richard ran to the door and threw it open. Outside, an ambulance was stopping just in front of the curb. Richard was no doubt surprised. This certainly wasn't the white veterinary van that usually transported injured animals to the vet!
The passenger and driver immediately hopped out of the vehicle, ran to the back and threw open the rear doors. Surprisingly, a dusty teenager hopped out, completely unharmed. The three of them began dragging a stretcher that carried a small pink dog. Two more pink dogs jumped out of the ambulance as well. Then, finally, two police cars screeched into the parking lot behind the ambulance and came to a stop.
Richard Dolby had never experienced anything like this in his 22 years as a veterinarian. Most likely, he thought, it must be because of that bombed building in town. Whatever the reason, Richard decided to take action immediately. He rushed over and asked one of the hospital workers what was going on.
The workers were clueless, but the teenager was talking frantically about his dog and how badly she needed help. Richard had to agree. The dog in the stretcher was in very bad shape.
Pam was dumbfounded. In a single minute of time, the animal hospital had gone from complete vacancy to ER chaos. Richard and two hospital officials rushed through the front door carrying a large stretcher with Sandy on it.
"Cancel my appointments!" was all Richard said to Pam before he headed towards one of the animal hospital's operating rooms.
Pam suddenly saw Kevin rush by. Instantly sticking to protocol, Pam raced over and blocked Kevin from the operating rooms. She sternly told Kevin it was standard procedure for all non-patients to wait in the waiting room. Kevin obviously didn't care about "standard procedures", but was forced to obey once one the hospital attendants and a policeman coming through the front door advised him to follow the order.
As Kevin made his way into the waiting room, a flood of people and dogs entered the front doors. For a horrifying moment, Pam thought the vet was being overrun by patients, but then she saw that they were all here merely for moral support.
"That pink dog must've had a lot of friends," said Pam to herself.
By now, a lot of confusion and frantic talking was going on, so Pam decided to calm things down. She shouted to get everyone's attention and the police officers shouted out loud too. Once everyone was quiet, Pam asked if everyone was here for that pink dog that just arrived. Everyone said yes. Pam nodded her head and simply told everyone to get comfortable in the waiting room until the vet was finished working on his patient. Reluctantly, everyone found a place to sit. The police officers asked Pam if she could take it from here. Pam nodded and the police officers left.
In the vet's operating room, the hospital workers asked Richard if he needed any assistance. Richard calmly shook his head and told them to tell Pam to call two more veterinarians to help him.
"I certainly can't do this alone," he said.
The hospital officials abruptly left the animal hospital with their stretcher, but not before giving the information to Pam. At once, she dialed the phone to call the other vets.
Richard finished putting on his surgeon's outfit. He stared at Sandy's body. Already he could see signs of fractured bones and internal bleeding. He had seen patients who were much worse than this, but all the precautions still had to be taken.
"Well, little one," said Richard as he washed his hands, "let's see how we can…" He paused to find the right word. "…Repair you." Richard smiled slightly. As a veterinarian, he had to be very careful about saying the word "fix" in front of his patients.
Back in the waiting room, the TV was still on, and coverage of the Wild Kard Hotel's explosion was still airing. Naturally, everyone's attention was focused on the screen, including Pam's. All the local channels were reporting the story as well as all the major news networks. After some debate, the TV stayed at channel three, a local station. For a while, everyone simply sat and stared at the screen as the helicopter slowly rotated around the hotel:
"In case you're just joining us," said the local station's anchorman, "you're looking at footage of a hotel in Las Vegas that has just been bombed, or at least some kind of explosion has just occurred less than an hour before now. We're still trying to receive word on which hotel it is, but it is just across the street from the Luxor, which as you know is very close to Las Vegas International. All flights have been cancelled until further notice and numerous emergency vehicles are on the scene. Currently we have no reports of any confirmed fatalities, although it's estimated that several of the injured have already been taken to nearby hospitals. Now, we have someone down on the scene, Mike Olsen, who can maybe provide us with some more information. Mike, are you there?"
The helicopter view switched to an elevated ground view. Some smoke was still drifting through the damaged windows, but the damage didn't look quite as bad. The camera zoomed into the hotel's main entrance sign. "Yes, Tom. Reading the sign above the front entrance, the hotel appears to be called 'The Wild Kard Hotel and Casino', which must be a brand new hotel because I've never heard of it before."
"M-hmm," agreed Tom. "In fact, I don't even remember there being a hotel in that location at all."
"That may be true, although in Vegas, you can never always tell. Anyway," continued Mike, "The magnitude of the blast was actually quite low, despite the damage you see around me. Nobody on the street or even on the sidewalks were seriously affected."
"Was the hotel even open at this time?" asked Tom.
"Actually, yes," answered Mike. "In fact, a musical performance took place here just two nights ago in the very building that was destroyed." In the waiting room, Joe stood up and smiled, expecting some sort of response. He didn't get any. "However, I'm getting word now that the hotel was virtually empty at the time of the blast. All the rooms were vacant, so it's extremely lucky that this hotel hasn't attracted many visitors yet."
"Well, it looks like it's a good thing there was nobody inside at the time of the explosion," said Tom.
"Actually," said Mike, "I'm getting numerous reports from various sources that tell me that people and animals were inside the building when rescue officials arrived. Fortunately, they were all evacuated."
Pam looked at the crowd in the waiting room and wondered if these were the people and animals the reporter was referring too. The dust coating their bodies instantly gave her the answer.
"I'm also getting a report," said Mike, "that a badly disintegrated body was spotted inside, but that hasn't been confirmed by anyone else yet."
"Gee, I wonder who that could be," said Kevin quietly to himself.
"That's all very nice, Mike," said Tom. "Thank you for providing us with that information."
"You're welcome, Tom."
The scene then changed to two windows. On the left was Tom, the anchorman. On the right was the helicopter footage again. "As you can imagine," said Tom, "the city of Las Vegas is currently in a state of panic and confusion. Emergency officials were already on scene at the Nammog Art Gallery where a similar explosion took place just two hours before the Wild Kard explosion."
Misty gasped. With all that had happened recently, she had forgotten about the other explosion...the one caused by Dark Sonic after he misled her into finding the third emerald earlier that morning. Misty knew Dark Sonic was to blame for that explosion, but she still didn't know why he wanted to go there in the first place. She also wanted to know what that horrible stone monster was that emerged out of the museum briefly before she ran off. Could Dark Sonic be responsible for the Wild Kard explosion too? Misty felt her mind start to spin.
"There's also speculation going on," said Tom, "that these two explosions could be related to yesterday's flash of light seen at the Stratosphere and the water malfunction at Wet 'n Wild. At first thought to be malfunctions, it's believed that the same person or persons responsible for those events could also be behind the Nommag and Wild Kard explosions. The identities of the people responsible are not yet known, but city officials say that the possibility of acts of terrorism haven't been disproved yet."
Courage's head suddenly snapped up. He had been battling Dark Sonic at the Stratosphere when the flash of light occurred. Courage couldn't remember if Dark was responsible for the Wet 'n Wild incident, but decided to assume that he was. Courage already knew he himself was responsible for the Wild Kard explosion, but at the moment he was more worried about the art museum explosion. If Dark was responsible for that too, then there was much more going on than Courage first realized. It almost seemed like Dark had some sort of different goal to achieve than Rex. Courage felt like exploring that option more, but at the moment, he just stared at the screen and watched the helicopter footage. The anchorman was going on about the possible evacuation of the entire downtown area and its harmful effects on the city's tourist economy.
At that moment, Misty suddenly realized that she hadn't told anyone that she had unknowingly helped Dark Sonic destroy the art museum! She gulped and glanced nervously at Kevin. If she was going to tell anybody about it, Kevin would be the first to know.
Kevin stared at the TV as if in a trance. For several minutes, all he could do was digest everything the anchorman was saying. It felt like a bad dream. To think he had been in the middle of that disaster area!
He felt a hand grip his shoulder. Kevin turned and saw Pam, who had come over to see him.
"Don't worry about your dog, kid," Pam said. "Dr. Dolby will fix her up good as new."
Kevin smiled weakly at the unfamiliar woman. Hoping she was referring to the word "fix" meaning "repair", Kevin turned back to the TV. All he could do now…all anybody could do now…was wait.
The wait was excruciating.
About half and hour had gone by before two other veterinarians arrived at the animal hospital. Both of them talked to Pam briefly before they entered the operating room with Dr. Dolby and Sandy.
Five minutes later, Jonathan and Chris volunteered to get breakfast for everyone. Fortunately, there was a Waffle House just down the road. The two came back with several bags of food, but no one felt like eating. Pam started going on about how even in times of crisis, one had to eat something, so everyone reluctantly digested the bags' contents.
Hours went by. By 11:30 AM, everyone's interest in the news broadcast had gradually diminished. At one point, investigators at the hotel found large pieces of metal fused with organic material around the site, but that only pushed the option of a bomb even more. Now, both the hotel and the art gallery were blocked by police tape and some of the debris had been cleared. Countless interviews and a press conference by the mayor went by. The mayor told everyone to remain calm and stay indoors. He was also confident that whoever was behind this would be stopped. He had no way of knowing that the only people who even knew what was really going on were cramped inside an animal hospital's waiting room.
The mood inside the waiting room by this point could've been described as uneasy restlessness. Everyone was dying to know what Courage and Sandy had gone through in the ballroom and what caused the explosion, but Courage didn't look like he was in any mood for an explanation.
During the wait, Pam came over and asked Courage if he needed any medical assistance. D.M. and Tortured Artist also wanted Courage to get his wounds patched up, but the pink dog surprisingly refused any kind of medical help until he was certain Sandy was okay. For the rest of the time, Courage sat coiled up in a ball and stared daggers at Psycho. The white-eyed canine sat in the extreme opposite corner of the waiting room, on top of an endtable. He stared right back at Courage, not moving a muscle. Everyone else kept watch on both of them to quell any uprisings that might occur. Fortunately, none did.
Misty thought about what she had heard in the ballroom…about Psycho saying Rex was his online friend…how Courage had reacted to that statement. Maybe Psycho just didn't know what Courage had been through. Misty didn't know much of what her brother had been through either, but she'd seen enough to see why Courage hated Rex as much as he did. Could Courage hate Psycho for being friends with his enemy?
It was a valid guess, but she figured she'd keep it to herself for now. She wanted to deal with her big brother on her own. Maybe Courage would be more open to his sister than anyone else…especially in these trying times.
Finally, at exactly 11:51 AM, Dr. Richard Dolby emerged from the operating room. He took off his stethoscope and draped it around his neck. He opened the door to the waiting room and was surprised to find so many people and dogs staring back at him. He looked at Pam momentarily, but she couldn't give any explanation. Richard briefly caught a glimpse of the TV screen. He still didn't know what was going on, but judging from everyone's expression, the TV was the least of their concerns.
"Which one of you is this dog's owner?" asked Richard.
All eyes turned to Kevin Henderson. The 18-year-old slowly got to his feet and walked over to the vet. His stomach felt like it was being crushed. He took a big gulp of nothing before he shakily asked, "How is she?"
The vet rubbed his forehead and abruptly said, "Well, she certainly has her share of injuries, but she'll be fine. Just a few fractured bones, a concussion, and some internal bleeding, but she's going to make a full recovery."
In that moment, the feeling of gloom inside the waiting room was instantly lifted. Sighs of relief, relaxed muscles, and even a clap or two occurred from nearly everyone in the room. Of course, nobody was more relieved than Kevin and Courage, both of whom nearly fell to the floor with relief.
"I'd like to keep your dog here overnight for observation if that's okay with you," said Dr. Dolby to Kevin. Kevin nodded his head dizzily as the vet kept talking. "It's a good thing you came here right away. Your parents would be proud."
Suddenly, Kevin's stomach dropped like a rock. He had forgotten to call his parents last night to tell them how things were going! Frantically, Kevin blurted, "Uh, yeah, um, I'd better call them right now. Is there a phone anywhere?"
"There's one in my office," said Richard. "Feel free to use that one."
Without a word, Kevin dashed off to the office.
The veterinarian looked back into the waiting room. His eyes suddenly landed on Courage. "I'm surprised that you were even able to come here on your own accord," said Richard. "You look pretty banged up. How about I help you with some of those injuries?"
To everyone's surprise, Courage sighed and got up. He walked slowly over to the vet. Until now, Courage's mind hadn't been totally focused on his body's pain. Now it felt like a crate of nails was pushing against him from all sides, even from the inside.
Courage strained to grab the vet's hand and was led over to the operating rooms. To his disappointment, he was led to an examination room where Sandy wasn't being held. He desperately wanted to see her, but his own injuries had to be dealt with first.
Dr. Richard Dolby's office door flew open. Kevin was almost shaking with worry. If his parents were watching TV, they would be worried sick about him. Kevin couldn't believe he could've forgotten to call them! Of course, considering everything that had happened in the last 24 hours, it was understandable.
Kevin located the phone on the fancy desk of Dr. Dolby. He snatched the phone up and dialed his home phone number. He expected his mother or father would answer…either of them gravely concerned, crying maybe.
His mother answered the phone, but to Kevin's surprise, her voice sounded happy and calm. "Hello?"
"H-hi…Mom?" asked Kevin.
"Hi, Kevin," said his mother joyfully. "Is everything all right?"
Kevin paused in disbelief. Amazingly, his family hadn't turned the TV on yet! The thought made Kevin a little better, but not by much. Since they were going to find out eventually, there was no use putting it off any longer.
"Mom," said Kevin, seriously, "haven't you even seen the TV yet?"
"No, why?" asked Diane Henderson. In the background, Kevin's sister Katie was telling Mom about something on TV. "Is something wrong?"
"Well," said Kevin, who figured Katie was going to show their mother exactly what was going on. Kevin decided to decrease some of the shock by beating Katie to the punch. "There's been a small explosion at the hotel. Don't worry, though, there weren't any injuries or anything."
"An explosion?" asked Diane, fearfully.
"It's on all the TV stations, Mom." Kevin's mind was racing by this point. "Fortunately, Sandy and I were nowhere near the blast, which was really small, in my opinion. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I'll most likely be ending my vacation early to…"
"My god," murmured his mother. "It's on all the news channels."
"Yeah, I know."
"So you're coming home then?"
"Yeah. I think this vacation isn't really turning out to be as fun as I wanted it to be, so I'll be heading home as soon as I can."
"That's good, son."
"Of course, the car and all my stuff are still back at the hotel, so it could take some time, but don't worry, I'll be heading home before you know it."
"Just come home safely, Kevin. OK? How's Sandy?"
Kevin paused, wondering how to answer the question. "She's…just fine. A little shaken up, but she'll make a full recovery. Don't worry."
"OK, son. Where will you be in the meantime?"
"Well, the Luxor's right across the street. I'll probably spend my last day here, and head out tomorrow morning. Look, Mom, I gotta go now. I'll call later, I promise this time. Tell Dad the car's fine and tell Katie I'll be leaving tomorrow. Promise me you won't worry, OK?"
"…Just come home, son. We'll be waiting."
Kevin turned to where Sandy was being kept and prayed that she would recover by tomorrow. Fighting back tears, Kevin said good-bye and hung up the phone. He remembered his father telling him this vacation would make him become more of an adult. So why did he still feel the same as he did when he left?
"Now this may sting a bit," Dr. Dolby said, holding up a cotton swab.
Courage flinched and whined at the pain, but tuned it out. He was deep in thought about what he had done. So many questions remained unanswered. How was he going to tell his friends what he did? How could he live with himself? Did they already figure out that he was responsible for all that happened in there? Courage was almost glad that Sandy didn't know about how transformed he had become. More than anything, Courage wished he could go back to the way he was before he arrived in Vegas…happy and carefree in that cowardly kind of way. As the vet wrapped some gauze around his scalp, Courage wondered how long it would take for him to go back…if it was possible.
Kevin walked back into the waiting room. Everyone else was more or less preoccupied with something at the time. Pam was taking calls regarding Dr. Dolby's cancelled appointments. Jonathan was telling Joe and the Krew as much as he knew about Rex and Dark Sonic. The band, with the exception of Psycho, was perplexed by any new information regarding Rex and Dark Sonic. Psycho, being Rex's online buddy, had been told pretty much everything about him and Dark Sonic, and he continued to sit stubbornly in the corner of the room. Gina, who was closest to Psycho, wanted to comfort him, but she knew most of all whenever Psycho was in need of comfort or not, and this was definitely not one of those moments. She felt a tad miffed that Psycho had never told her everything about Rex and Dark Sonic, but she respected Psycho's privacy for too long to feel too much angst against him. RX, Daisy, and Humphrey huddled together hearing Rex's sordid tale, wondering how Jonathan knew so much information about him. Jonathan would only say that a surveillance tape explained it all.
Tortured Artist, meanwhile, was talking with Gareth, Chris, and Darkest Moon about what to do next. Tortured Artist motioned for Kevin to come on over, so he did. As Kevin sat down, Misty came up behind him. She decided she had to tell Kevin about Dark Sonic's deception as soon as she could.
"What's up?" asked Kevin.
"Well," said Tortured Artist. "Chris, Gareth, and D.M. told me about what's been going on with the Wild Kard, and I've been listening to Jonathan's descriptions of Rex and Dark Sonic. I'm now a lot more informed than before about what's going on."
"And what IS going on?" asked Kevin.
"Something big," said Tortured Artist. He leaned in slightly. "I first suspected something was up when I was at Wet 'n Wild. I was there during the explosion…I think I told you that already…but did I mention that some weird black guy showed me some creepy riddle before he went into the wave pool…and just before it exploded?"
Kevin's jaw dropped. Tortured Artist had met Dark Sonic! Misty was equally shocked too. The same thing happened to her just before the art museum exploded! Jonathan stopped talking and turned around in amazement.
"What did the riddle say?" asked Jonathan. "Can you remember?"
Tortured Artist strained to remember. "It was something to do with water and where some creature called the Leviathan was hiding. I told the black spiny dude to go look in the wave pool and before I knew it, a horrible sea creature rose out of the pool!"
Misty couldn't wait any longer. She tugged on Kevin's shirt. "Kevin?"
"Not now, Misty," said Kevin. He looked back to Tortured Artist, "So that's what caused the water explosion?"
"Yeah!" said Tortured Artist, aggressively. "I got water all over me!"
"Kevin," said Misty again, but Kevin ignored her.
"Tortured Artist, that was Dark Sonic," said Kevin, ecstatically. "He was in disguise to fool you into releasing that monster or whatever it was. I saw him just this morning…oh, how could I've been so stupid? … It was 5 AM…I was too tired to concentrate…"
Misty was frozen in fear, realizing the inevitable had almost arrived.
Kevin continued. "Dark Sonic asked me to go on a tour and…and he asked Misty if she could go with him and…"
Kevin stopped. All eyes were on Misty now. The poor dog began quivering, and her eyes began to water.
Kevin leaned over, his face in complete shock. "Did you let Dark Sonic…at the art museum…?"
A thump behind Misty caught everyone's attention. Misty turned around and gasped. Staring at her with a look of absolute astonishment was Courage. He looked a lot better now. Patches of gauze plastered his bruised body, and he had been given a good scrub-down. However, his eyes were bugged out and his jaw had dropped by the sudden realization that his own sister had been with Dark Sonic.
Misty couldn't take it anymore. With a loud wail, she broke down right there on the spot. She began babbling psychotically between sobs about how she had been tricked into helping Dark Sonic and how he'd used a riddle on her too, and she shouted every obscenity she could think of at Dark Sonic until her speech became complete gibberish. Whether it was familial sympathy or an attempt to make her stop crying, nobody knew. But once again to everyone's surprise, Courage suddenly walked over to Misty and wrapped his arms around her. Since his previous emotional outburst had been interrupted by the cyber-demon back at the hotel, now was as good as time as any for Courage to finally let all his emotion out.
For about five depressing minutes, the two canine siblings wept on the floor of the waiting room. Everyone else let the two dogs have their privacy and some even cried themselves to some degree. Even Psycho, like the rest of the Krew, who never knew any of their siblings, started feeling a little sympathetic towards Courage.
Finally, after everyone had calmed down (and after a box of tissues had been retrieved), Kevin dried his eyes and asked Misty to tell everyone exactly what had happened after she left the room with Dark Sonic. As Misty told her story, Kevin noticed that Courage looked much calmer now than in the hotel…that is, unless he was glancing at Psycho. Every time Courage looked over at Psycho, he returned to his cold, dark composure.
When Misty finished telling the story, Kevin looked at Jonathan, who was trying to accumulate all the facts.
"So," said Jonathan after a minute, "Dark Sonic showed a riddle to both Tortured Artist and Misty…"
"And me," said Courage.
Jonathan did a double take. "When?"
"When I confronted him at the Stratosphere."
"Hey, that's right!" said Kevin. "I don't think you ever told us what happened between you two up there."
Courage thought he had already, but he sighed and told everyone what happened at the Stratosphere.
When he was done, Jonathan whistled. "Well, it's obvious what's going on now."
"It is?" asked everyone.
"Sure!" answered Jonathan. "Dark Sonic is obviously using people and dogs…"
"With pure hearts," interrupted Psycho.
"Right," said Jonathan. "He's using pure-hearted people and dogs to solve these riddles so he can acquire something."
"Demons," said Psycho again.
Jonathan turned to Psycho. "How do you know all this?"
"Yeah," said Courage, angrily.
Psycho narrowed his eyes at Courage before explaining that Rex told him all about how Dark Sonic was a culmination of sixteen Dark emeralds. Apparently, there were still some emeralds missing.
"Emeralds!" yelled Tortured Artist suddenly. "I just remembered one of my riddle's lines said 'people's smiles will turn around once this next emerald is found.' Dark is searching for more of those Dark emeralds."
"Four, to be exact," said Gina.
Psycho, as well as everyone else, stared at her in amazement. "How'd you know that?"
Gina turned to Psycho. "Remember I said Dark Sonic contacted me for a while before we arrived here? One of the things he told me was that he was searching for four more emeralds so he could become 'Oblivion.'"
Nobody liked the sound of that. "What's that?" asked Jonathan.
"It's bad," said Gina. "Take the worst thing you can imagine and imagine something a hundred times worse than that," said Gina flatly.
"That bad?" asked D.M.
"Nope," said Gina. "Worse than that."
"And it doesn't look like we have much time left," said Jonathan. "According to Courage, Misty, and Tortured Artist's accounts, the bright light each one of them saw was probably Dark Sonic acquiring that demon's power. That means that there's only one demon left, and it's still hidden. Only another pure-hearted soul can decipher that final riddle, and I'd bet a million dollars that that soul is one of us."
Everyone looked at each other uneasily upon hearing that remark.
"So how do we stop him?" asked Gareth. "We don't even know what the final riddle is."
"And neither does Dark Sonic," said Jonathan. "And even if he did, there'd be no way for him to decipher it because he doesn't have a pure heart."
Everyone was silent for a moment. Then, Chris said, "So we agree. We find and decipher the riddle before Dark Sonic gets to it first?"
"Well…" began Jonathan.
"Wait a minute," said RX. "What about Rex? He's not searching for the emeralds too, is he?"
"I doubt it," said Jonathan.
"Yeah," said Humphrey. "Besides, he's dead already, so we can just…"
"He's not dead," said Psycho flatly.
Humphrey whirled around wondering if he'd heard correctly. "Whaddya talkin' about? We saw his body…"
Psycho immediately explained how the nanobots in Rex's blood allowed him to repair himself.
"You mean, he's invincible?" asked Tortured Artist in amazement. "Are you sure?"
"I'm afraid it's true," said Courage, who launched into a brief description of his own about how that was possible. "If I know Rex, I'm positive we haven't seen the last of him."
Joe and the Krew actually felt a little relieved by that news. Courage, seeing their relief, shook his head in disgust. "If only they could've gone through what I've gone through…" Courage thought.
"Well," said Gareth, "if there's any chance to get some answers, now's our chance."
"Right," agreed Jonathan. "We need to talk to someone about the final riddle."
"But who?" asked Kevin. "Rex and Dark Sonic are too dangerous to confront, and that rabbit, Card Trick, is a lot more dangerous than he appears."
Almost immediately, Tortured Artist and the former agents looked at each other, as if they were thinking the same thought. "Cindy!" they all said at once.
"Who?!" asked Courage, Kevin, Misty, Joe, and the K9 Krew.
At once, Tortured Artist and the former agents told the others about the video of Rex and his therapist, Cindy, that they had seen last night. Everything from how Card Trick installed the camera to Rex's life story was mentioned. All the listeners were baffled. Rex undergoing therapy? The concept was almost impossible for Courage to believe, but by the end of the story, Courage wasn't surprised by what kind of "therapy" Rex was getting (sick as it was to imagine.)
"So you see," said Jonathan. "If we find Cindy, we could interrogate her, and maybe she'll tell us where the final emerald is."
"But how do we even know she's still at the hotel?" asked Kevin.
Jonathan stared at Kevin. "Given the relationship she already has with Rex, I doubt she's gone far. Still, there's only one way to find out for sure."
"Yeah," said Psycho, who finally hopped down to the floor. "I think we've done all we can do here at the vet. Maybe now we can finally end this and get back onto our concert dates."
"OH NO!" shouted Joe. "Our concerts! This is gonna mess up our whole schedule! Aw, Allen's gonna kill us!"
"Relax, Joe," said Psycho, heading for the door. "Our next gig isn't for three days. We've got plenty of time. And as for Allen, well, he could use some time off. Now, c'mon, the sooner we get back to the hotel, the sooner we can end this whole…thing. Last one to the Wild Kard's a rotten egg!" With that, Psycho walked slowly out of the vet.
Kevin glanced at Courage, who looked very annoyed with Psycho's tone.
"He's just doing that to piss you off," Kevin told Courage. He then stared at Joe and said, "I guess the name kinda suits him."
"Tell me about it," answered Joe.
Kevin walked over to Pam behind the front desk. Pam had only been half-listening to everything going on in the waiting room, but since it wasn't any of her business, she'd tuned most of it out. She looked up at Kevin, who said to her, "I'll be back later today to check on Sandy, OK?"
Pam nodded her head. Kevin took one last look at the room where Sandy was lying before he turned and headed out the door.
Everyone else followed suit. They all thanked Pam and Dr. Richard Dolby before leaving.
"Hey, what time is it?" asked Tortured Artist, who was the last one out of the building.
Jonathan looked at his clock. "It's 1:22 PM."
"Whoa, no wonder I'm so hungry!" said Tortured Artist. "Maybe we should all get a bite to eat before we go back to the hotel."
"Good idea," said Jonathan. He turned to everyone and offered the suggestion. Thankfully, everyone agreed.
Back at the Wild Kard Hotel, Card Trick stomped angrily down a hallway near the top floor. He had successfully avoided any contact from any rescue workers or investigators. He too had heard the giant explosion in the ballroom and had gone to check it out. Card Trick saw Cindy drag Rex out of the melee and bring him up to his room on the top floor using the only working elevator. Taking the stairs, Card Trick had followed them and was now fast approaching their door.
When Card Trick reached the door, he threw it open and angrily shouted, "ALRIGHT!! Where's Dark Sonic?!! I demand to…whoa, Rex? You don't look so good."
Rex was draped over the bed. He still was in horrible shape, but looked better than before. The nanobots were still working their technological magic. At his side was Cindy, who was rather flustered by Card Trick's intrusion.
"Y…You're looking for Dark, huh?" muttered Rex.
"Yeah," said CT, glumly. "His so-called 'fun', isn't exactly my cup of tea, and I plan to tell that to his big, smug face."
"I wouldn't do th-that if I…" began Rex.
"Let me worry about that, OK, William?" said CT, using Rex's other name. "Now where is he?"
"Probably down in the security room, Max," said Rex, using the special name he always used for Card Trick. "That's where…I'd be." Rex coughed loudly.
"Thanks, buddy," said Card Trick, who turned around and ran out of the room.
A few minutes went by before Cindy said, "It's a good thing everybody's downstairs searching around the ballroom. They think the rest of the hotel is empty."
"Yeah," said Rex. "After searching 22 floors, you'd be too tired to go searching around the top floor too."
A couple more minutes went by before Cindy finally asked, "What makes you think Dark's in the security room?"
Rex's gaze traveled to somewhere on a nearby wall, and he frowned. "Call it a hunch."
Cindy looked to where Rex was looking and gasped.
Clamped to the near corner of the room, aimed directly at Rex on the bed, was a small black security camera.
Cindy got to feet and rushed over to the camera. She got on the nearby drawers and looked at the side of the camera. The name "LUXOR" was printed on the side.
(Now Cindy thinks someone at the Luxor is spying on them, when actually Card Trick was the one who installed the camera [as mentioned in the "Wet 'n Wild" chapter]. What wasn't mentioned was that Card Trick had stolen one of the Luxor's cameras and installed it in the room to throw anyone off the trail.)
In the security room, Dark Sonic spit out the cup of coffee he was drinking. Cindy's angry face briefly appeared on the screen before she cut the transmission. The screen turned to static.
"Not my fault!" yelled Dark Sonic to nobody. He was right too. Dark had come down into the security room two hours ago. He had wanted to take a break before focusing his efforts on finding the fourth and final Dark emerald. Dark laughed as he'd watched all the rescue workers running around. Ten of the cameras had been destroyed in the blast so ten screens were blank. Dark was especially amused to find the hidden camera in Rex's room and had wondered why he didn't think of installing it before.
Dark got up from his seat and headed for the exit. He was trying to figure out whether it was Chris or Card Trick who'd installed the camera in the first place.
When Dark opened the door, the answer was staring him in the face.
"Not so fast, 'buddy'," said a very mad Card Trick. "I think it's time you and I had a little chat."