Jaune and Courage the Cowardly Dog
Chap 78: Scuba-Scuba Doo
"Look, everyone." Muriel called out to us as she looked through the book that she had brought with her. For some strange reason, that is still dry and intact even though we are underwater. "Isn't all this coral beautiful?"
'MM-HMM.' Courage answered as we all swam over to her.
"It truly is magnificent. Right, Adrian?" Saphron asked as she tickled her son, who giggled in response.
"I'm more surprised that we managed to find a diving suit that perfectly fit Adrian." Terra commented as she checked again to make his diving suit was still secure.
"Thanks again for bringing us on yet another vacation." Saphron said with a smile as she pointed out all the different types of coral to Adrian.
"No problem, dearies." Muriel said before she and Courage started to explore the coral reef some more.
"You think there might be treasure somewhere down here, Lil bro?" Saphron asked as she gave Adrian to Terra before swimming over to me.
"I doubt it. But if there is, Eustace is already way ahead of you." I answered while pointing over to Eustace, who was already looking for treasure.
"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" He shouted as he struggled to remove a starfish from a rock. After a few more attempts, he finally managed to pry the starfish off the rick. Once cleared, he swam back to the rock, which had a small cave in it. "HEE, HEE, HEE! Treasure, where are you?"
"Three..." I began with a smirk.
"Two..." Terra continued as she swam next to us.
"One..." Saphron finished trying to hold back her laughter.
"AAAHHHHH!" Eustace screamed in pain as he exited the cave to reveal that a giant blue eel had attacked him and broke through his helmet.
"HA! HA! HA!" We all laughed, including Adrian.
"EVERYONE! COME QUICK!" Muriel shouted towards us from over a nearby hill.
"Coming." We shouted back as we swam over to her. Getting there and moving beside her, we saw that she was trying to find the names of the plants she found. And a few feet from her was Courage, who was holding a giant magnifying glass.
"Yes, Muriel?" I asked her.
"Come. Look at the sea anemone." She answered while pointing to the orange predatory animal that kind of looks like a plant. Strangely enough, it retracted into itself when she pointed at it.
"Look, Adrian. Clownfish." Saphron said while pointing to the orange, white, and black fish swimming close to the sea anemone.
"Clownfish." Adrian managed to say completely, earning an 'awe' from Saphron and Terra.
"Muriel, look. Sea urchins." I said, getting her attention while pointing to the small blue spikey animals.
'I always thought they were plants.' Courage said, confused when the urchins moved slightly.
"Same." Saphron and Terra agreed.
"I thought so too. That is until I saw a documentary. Sea urchins and sea anemone are actually animals and not plants." I told them.
"Ooh. Everyone, look at the little people having tea." Muriel said, getting our attention.
"Huh?" We all asked, confused as we were not expecting that. Courage then moved his magnifying glass to where Muriel was pointing at, and sure enough, we did see tiny blue people having tea. They then began to wave at us before resuming their supposed tea party.
'AAAHHHH!' Courage screamed, so loud that his helmet came off from the intense pressure behind the scream. He then began gasping for air before quickly swimming for the surface. Worried, I began to swim after him, only not to find him at the surface. Looking around, I saw that he was already on the beach. Swimming over to the shore, I took off my diving gear before walking over to him.
"You okay, Courage?" I asked him as I helped him up from the destroyed sand castle he landed on.
'Yeah, just surprised is all.' He answered as he panted for air.
"Same. I was not expecting to see tiny blue people having tea in the coral." I agreed.
'What now?' He asked as he removed the remainder of his diving suit.
"Well, since we're up here already, and it's getting late, how about we start making dinner?" I suggested.
'Sounds good.' He answered with a smile as we headed towards our hut.
Three Hours Later
"You're crazy. There ain't no little people." Eustace mocked.
"I saw them, Eustace." Muriel told him.
"We did too." Saphron and Terra added, despite knowing that it was pointless to argue against Eustace.
"What kind of little people? Little people like this dog?" Eustace mocked again while pointing at Courage, who was trying to crack open a lobster claw.
"Careful, Courage. Remember what happened last time." I warned him as I returned to the table and started passing out the food to everyone and a bottle to Adrian.
'Don't worry, I got-AAAHHH' He began but screamed when he tried to pry open the claw with his paws, only for the claw to clamp down on his arm.
"Let me help." Terra said as she leaned over and removed the claw from Courage's arm.
"Idiot dog." Eustace mocked before grumbling in pain when Saphron threw a coconut at his head.
"Adorable, wee little things, they were." Muriel answered.
"Bah." Eustace dismissed her.
"You can come with us tomorrow, Eustace, and see for yourself." Muriel offered.
"No way! Ain't going back in the water. Ain't even going in the bathtub." He exclaimed while folding his arms.
"Baby." Adrian shouted while pointing at Eustace, causing everyone to laugh while Eustace grumbled and let out an undignified 'HEY!'
"Suit yourself. I'm going to bed." Muriel said before getting up and heading back to our hut.
"We should head to bed as well as its way past Adrian's bedtime." Saphron said as Adrian let out a massive yawn before closing his eyes and curling up into her.
'Yeah, plus swimming can make you tired as well.' Courage added while letting out a yawn of his own.
"Not to mention, we have a busy day tomorrow in finding those little people again." I said while stretching a bit. We then got up from our seats and headed back to our hut to get some sleep.
Next Day
"Where did he get the metal detector?" Terra asked as we watched Eustace continue his fruitless search for buried treasure.
"He always brings one with him when we go anywhere that has sandy shores." I answered before hearing a beeping sound. Turning back around, I saw that the beeping sound came from the metal detector as it picked up the pie tin Courage was holding.
"Ah, only a stupid pie tin." He complained while taking off his headset.
"Why don't you come with us to give the wee people this pie I made?" Muriel asked as she pointed to the pie.
"Ain't no such thing as wee people. Anyway, I'm looking for buried treasure." He answered before putting the headset back on and leaving.
"Okay, suit yourself." Muriel relented before turning back to us. "Come one, everyone. Let's go say hello to the wee people."
"Hopefully, we can find them again." Saphron said as she adjusted Adrian's helmet while we walked into the waters.
Ten Minutes Later
"Oh, look, everyone." Muriel said when we spotted the tiny blue people coming out of some coral.
"That was surprisingly quick." I said as I expected it to take longer to find them.
"I think they want us to follow them." Terra commented. Carefully looking at the little people, we noticed that they were pointing at something off in the distance while motioning for us to follow them.
Shrugging, we decided to follow the little people. After a couple of minutes, we came across a giant pink clam shell. But what caught us off guard was that as we neared it, it seemingly opened up as if it sensed our presence. And to our surprise, the clam shell was actually just a door that led to an underground city made entirely out of coral. Yet, we continued to grow even more surprised, for as we neared the city, we could hear people singing.
"WOW!" We all gasped in both shock and awe at what we were seeing.
"Look, Adrian. A band of little blue people." Saphron said as we passed by a group of tiny blue people playing various instruments that made beautiful music.
'How long do you think it took to build all this?' Courage asked as we passed by some more coral buildings. These ones even had signs on them.
"Years." Terra answered as we neared a pedestal with what looked like the king of these little blue people.
"Welcome to Coralville, large strangers." The little blue person wearing a hat greeted us as we neared him. "We are the coralites."
"Hello." We greeted them back.
"How lovely it is to meet you all. We made you this pie." Muriel told them as Courage placed the pie on the floor.
"PIE!" The coralites shouted in joy before swimming over and practically devouring the pie, leaving nothing left aside from a tiny crumb. But as soon as the others left, a baby coralite swam to the pie tin and ate the crumb. It then swam up to Courage and let out a massive burp.
"Excuse me. Ha, ha, ha." She said before swimming away while giggling.
'Eww.' Courage said, grossed out from the smell of the burp.
Would you all like a tour of the Great Hall of Coral History?" The lead coralite asked.
"We'd be honored." Muriel answered. The leader then motioned for us to follow him. Nodding, we followed him down a few halls to one that held many different paintings.
"Our history begins with our founder and forefather, Ezra Jedediah Coral." The leader said as he showed us a painting of their leader that surprisingly had a beard and fur hat. "With a single piece of coral, Ezra began building this reef. He started a family. And his family and the coral grew and grew into what you see today."
"I can only imagine how hard it must be to keep this place maintained." Terra commented as we passed by a giant gold statue of Ezra.
"It is endless work to keep this place standing. But we work hard to ensure our history continues." The leader answered as we continued to swim down the tunnel back to the city made out of coral.
There's no time to rest on Laurels
When we must repair the coral
Singing helps the work go by faster
Share the shells and pass the plaster
"You have to admit; it's a nice, catchy song." I commented as we reached the city again, with the singing growing louder.
'Mm-hmm.' Courage agreed as he lightly bobbed his head to the beat of the music.
"Too bad I don't have anything to record the song with as I would love to listen to it when I work." Terra agreed with a smile.
"And it seems Adrian loves it too." Saphron commented. Turning to him, we saw that he was giggling as we got closer to the music.
"We are the last of our kind." The leader said, getting our attention. "Without this reef, we would all disappear."
"No wonder they have it hidden." Saphron said upon realizing this city was hidden behind a giant clam.
"Terra, is it possible you could put them on the endangered species list or something, so that doesn't happen?" I asked, turning to her.
"Sadly, that's not how it works. And even if it was as simple as that, it would most likely attract the attention of poachers." She answered.
'Damn it.' I thought, annoyed.
"This reef took thousands of years to build, and we are still repairing it to this day." The leader told us.
"Can we help you?" Muriel asked.
"We'd be honored." The leader answered.
"Alright, everyone. Let's get to work." Saphron said as we swam down to the city to help the coralites.
One Hour Later
There's no time to rest on Laurels
When we must repair the coral
Singing makes the work go faster
Share the shells and pass the plaster
"This is a nice family vacation." I said as Muriel and I brought over a sizeable purple shell and started to apply plaster to it.
"Maybe bring along Iris next time, sweetie. It sure has been a while since we all have gone on a vacation together." Muriel suggested.
"She would have come this time, but she had some work that needed to be done. But she's planning on visiting about a week after this vacation is over." I told her.
"I can't wait for us to get back home. There are so many Bagge traditions that I have to teach you, Jaune. Both from my side and Eustace's side. We can start with the cooking recipes. But I'm most excited about teaching you the secret family quilt pattern." Muriel said excitedly.
"I'd be-" I began but was cut off when everything started shaking as of something crashed into the place.
"AAAHHHH!" The coralites screamed as they tried to save any of the coral structures they could.
"WHAT'S HAPPENING?" Saphron asked as she and Terra grabbed Adrian before moving to a safe spot that provided cover from the falling rocks and coral.
"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" A coralite shouted before swimming to help others save the coral structures.
"What?" The coral leader asked, shocked and confused. He then motioned for us to follow him to see what was happening. Swimming over to the wall on the opposite side of the room, we peered through a window and saw that a submarine with a giant claw mouth was attacking the reef.
"WHAT'S HAPPENING?" Saphron shouted.
"SOMEONE IS ATTACKING THE REEF!" I shouted back.
"Oh, Courage. Jaune. We can't let this happen. Come on.' Muriel said before heading towards the entrance. Once there, we steeled ourselves before exiting through the giant clam shell to confront the person. And we could not help but feel our nerves strained when we saw precisely who was attacking the reef.
"Ma Bagge. Of course, it is." I said, annoyed while feeling a headache coming on. Swimming to the top of the submarine, we prepared ourselves for the pointless arguing that was about to happen.
"GET OUT OF THE- YOU!" Ma Bagge shouted before realizing who she was shouting at.
"Have you lost your minds?" Muriel asked, disappointed. "There are wee people living here. I won't let you destroy them and their beautiful coral."
"They'll look more beautiful on people's heads when it makes me rich." Ma Bagge said before laughing.
"Courage, Jaune. Go get Eustace. Tell him his mother is here, and she's gone mad." Muriel told us.
'And do what?' I thought as we started to swim back to shore, all the while knowing what was about to happen.
"Time to turn the kid and puppy into chow." We heard Ma Bagge declare. "For sharks."
"Shit." I said when we saw that Ma Bagge launched a torpedo at us.
'The things we do for love.' Courage whined as the torpedo quickly closed the distance. Luckily, it seemed that fate was looking out for us as the torpedo missed us by centimeters. However, despite it missing us, it did take us for a ride.
"AAAHHHHH!" We screamed as the torpedo took us for a ride through Coralville, to the surface of the water, where we skidded until we reached the shoreline where we got off.
"WATCH OUT!" I shouted to Eustace when we reached the shore and hopped off the torpedo.
"Huh? AHHHH!" Eustace screamed when he spotted the torpedo going right at him. He immediately started running away before realizing that wasn't going to work and jumped over the torpedo. However, as if to spite him, the torpedo slid along a coconut tree and went right back to him where it exploded. "STINKING LOUSY DOG AND KID!"
"Now what?" I asked while trying not to laugh at Eustace, who is buried under coconuts.
'We could use this plane to save the others.' Courage suggested with a smile as he handed me some aviation equipment.
Nodding, I grabbed the equipment and put it on before heading over to the plane. Luckily, after getting in, we learned that not only was it still fully operational, it had a full tank of gas and was fully stocked in ammo. Knowing that Courage was the better pilot, he took control while I operated the guns. Strapping ourselves in and turning on the plane, we prepared ourselves for the fight that was about to happen. After a few seconds, the aircraft was in the water, and we were on our way to confront Ma Bagge. Although, I did find it funny how we are in an airplane going against a submarine in the water. Even the fish that we passed along the way seemed confused.
'Just another day in Nowhere.' I thought as we neared the coralites.
'Ready?' Courage asked as Ma Bagge came into view.
"Ready." I answered while beginning to fire at Ma Bagge. However, only a few shots managed to hit her submarine. But it did get her attention.
"YOU!" She screamed before having her submarine back out of the coral village. She then turned around and charged at us. "So, it's a dog fight you want, huh? Okay."
"Careful, Courage." I said when I saw Ma Bagge suddenly change direction. And I was proven right a moment later as Ma Bagge sent another torpedo at us.
'AAHHH!' Courage gasped before having the plane come to a sudden halt. He then turned the plane around to avoid getting hit by the torpedo. However, after a moment, an idea came to mind.
"Courage. Head to Ma Bagge. Maybe we can use the torpedo against her." I told him.
'Alright. Here goes nothing.' He said as he maneuvered the plane into going after Ma Bagge. Luckily, the torpedo was a homing one and gave chase after us. After a few seconds, we were right at the tail of her submarine.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Ma Bagge demanded.
"NOW!" I shouted, to which Courage nodded and pulled the plane away. And to our surprise, the torpedo immediately sped up and destroyed Ma Bagge's submarine. "Good job, Courage."
'Same to-AHHHHH!' Courage began before screaming. Turning to look back, I saw that Ma Bagge was not done with us and sent a rocket towards us.
'Damn it.' I thought just as the rocket hit us and destroyed the plane.
Luckily, Courage pulled the eject button just in time to avoid getting seriously hurt. And we used a nearby jellyfish as a makeshift parachute. Although I did find it odd that it did not sting us as soon as we grabbed its tendrils. Thankfully, I still had my diving gear on me so I could breathe easily. Unfortunately, I could not say the same for Courage. However, a solution came to us when we looked down and noticed that we were descending towards Ma Bagge, who was looking for us. For a moment, I wonder how we are going to get the diving gear away from her. However, that was soon solved when Courage crashed into her and knocked her wig off. She began to see if it was still there before realizing it wasn't.
"AAAHHHH!" She screamed in realization before diving after her wig and leaving her diving gear behind. But that suited us as it allowed Courage to stay underwater.
"You good, Courage?" I asked to which he nodded. Hearing some gurgling sounds, we turned back to see Ma Bagge starting to turn green from lack of oxygen. She then decided to abandon her wig and swim back to the surface. Seeing that she was no longer a threat, we started to swim back to Coralville to check on the others.
Half an Hour Later
"YAY!" All the coralites cheered. After making it back to Coralville, we saw that everything else was still in good condition despite a few structures being knocked down. Thankfully, though, the same can be said for everyone else. After clearing up all the fallen debris, the leader told us that he had a surprise for us in the Great Hall of Coral History. Swimming over there, we saw that nearly all the coralites had gathered and were cheering us on.
"Courage. Jaune. Both your names will go down in Coralville history alongside the great Ezra Jedediah Coral." The leader said as he opened the curtains to reveal a framed picture of us waving in front of the Jedediah statue.
"Nice going, Lil bro." Saphron said as Adrian and Terra cheered Courage and me along with the rest of the Coralites.
"Thanks. Now, can we head back to the hut?" I asked.
"Why?" Terra asked, confused.
"I don't know how, but I'm starting to feel motion sick." I answered, struggling not to throw up in my helmet.
Next Day
"Why do you insist on chewing that anchor?" I asked Courage, who was sitting next to me and chewing on the anchor that he constantly keeps in his pocket. Currently, we are back at the farmhouse, sitting on the porch. Terra, Saphron, and Adrian are inside taking a nap together. Muriel is in the kitchen, and Eustace is in town.
'It's flavorful.' He answered.
"Courage. Jaune. To celebrate the wonderful thing, you both did to save the wee people, I made you both a pie." Muriel said as she gave us each a pie.
"Thanks, Muriel." I said as I grabbed the pie from her.
'Yay!' Courage cheered as well. However, before we could dig in, a Coralite came and ate both of our pies in a second.
"Excuse me. Ha, ha, ha." The Coralite said while giggling. Turning to Courage, we just shrugged and laughed as well.
Note:
Next Chapters: (1) Curtain of Cruelty with Iris. (2) Feast of the Bulldogs with Weiss, Willow and Winter.