Jaune and Courage the Cowardly Dog
Chap 25: Hard Drive Courage
"AH-CHOO!" Esutace sneezed loudly.
"Poor Eustace, you're burning up." Muriel said as she took the thermometer out of Eustace's mouth.
We were currently in the master bedroom taking care of a critically sick Eustace. He had an ice bag over his hat to try and bring his temperature down. He was sneezing almost constantly and violently at that. His skin took on a light blue hue. He also kept throwing up everything time we tried to feed him or give him something to drink. Looking over Muriel's shoulder, I saw that his temperature is 104°F.
"Shouldn't we bring him to the hospital?" Penny asked from my side wearing a green doctor's mask like Courage was wearing. Despite the fact that she was a robot. Though, we did not need to tell Muriel and Esutace that.
"Yeah, there is no hospital anywhere near us. And the doctor's office is closed for vacation." I explained to her.
We met again this morning in the Nowhere market when I was buying a few supplies for Muriel to try and get Eustace to feel better which failed. Apparently, Ironwoods is fully convinced that a maiden is here in Nowhere. And now he teamed up with Ozpin to try and find her. Now, Ozpin suggested using Penny again as he believed that they might have frightened the maiden off by using the soldiers and think that Penny could lure her out. Unfortunately, for them at least, when she saw me, she immediately decided to hang out with me. Which is nice as she is nice to hang out with and a good friend.
"Jaune, pass me my special remedy." Muriel asked turning to us.
"Alright." I said turning to the table behind me and picking up a tray that a test tubes with some strange liquids inside them. A cup full of capsules of some kind. And a purplish gelatin dish. "Here, you go."
"Thank you." Muriel said as she picked up the gelatin and turning back to Eustace. "Now, Eustace. Just try a bite of this special gelatin. See it jiggle? Just one bite."
"What makes it special Jaune?" Penny asked curious.
"Not sure. She most likely just made regular gelatin and added vinegar to it. That or it's an old family recipe." I answered.
'I saw her make it. It just has vinegar actually.' Courage said getting our attention.
"I don't eat-" Eustace began to complain but couldn't continue when a nasty sneeze got him. Some snot even hit the gelatin. "Well, I suppose."
"Here it comes." Muriel said before basically shoving a spoonful of gelatin into Eustace's mouth.
"AAAHHHH! OH!" Eustace screamed grabbing his throat before spitting out the gelatin. "What's in there anyway?!"
"Oh, just a wee drop of vinegar." Muriel answered with a smile. Once he heard this, Eustace grabbed the hat that Courage was wearing and vomited in it before handing it back to a grossed-out Courage.
"That is kind of a strong reaction." Penny stated.
"Normally, yes. But Eustace's stomach has been really bad today." I explained.
"Oh, what am I going to do? I tried every remedy I can think of except, what was it?" Muriel wondered before remembering. "Oh, yes. Artichoke syrup soup."
"I do not have any data on that kind of soup. Do you know what it is Jaune?" Penny asked after trying find any information she has on it only to come up empty.
"Nope. But we have a lot of books downstairs that contain many recipes. Perhaps one of them, has it?" I answered.
'Hopefully. I'll be downstairs if you need me.' Courage said as he exited the room trying not to get any vomit on him.
"How does that sound Eustace?" Muriel asked as she patted his back.
"Anything but these leeches." Eustace answered as he laid back down while lifting his shirt to reveal two leaches on his chest that laughed when they got revealed.
"Why has Muriel places leeches on her husband's chest?" Penny asked confused.
"Muriel is of the few people that still believe leeches can heal the sick by sucking out the bad blood or infection in the bloodstream of a person. But as you can clearly see, it's not working." I explained. She took this in but nodded in understanding a few moments later.
"Come on now. Let's head downstairs and try and find that recipe." Muriel said while getting up and heading to the door. We nodded and followed her downstairs to the kitchen.
One hour later
"Let's see. I know that artichoke syrup soup is around here somewhere." Muriel said as she looked through an old and worn-down cook book.
We were in the kitchen looking through tons of different books and filing cabinets in an attempt to find a single recipe. Yet after an hour of searching, we still have yet to find it. We found many different recipes for many strange and in some cases, dangerous recipes.
"Any luck you three?" Muriel asked.
'Nope.' Courage answered as he took off the glasses he was wearing and stopped going through a filing cabinet full of recipes.
"No, not yet Muriel." I answered as I put the book I had down.
"I have not yet either." Penny answered as she skimmed through a few books extremely quick.
"Hmm. Now, this looks interesting." Muriel said as she found some recipes and began reading. "Let's see, Aardvark syrup soup. Armageddon syrup soup. Artichoke syrup soup. There it is. Oh, my."
"Did you find it Muriel?" I asked as I walked over to her only to discover that she found the page title but the rest of the page was torn off. "That's no good."
"What is Jaune?" Penny asked.
"We found the correct page, but the instructions are torn off. We don't know how to make it now." I answered.
"Where are we going to find that recipe now?" Muriel asked worried that we would not be able to find the recipe.
'How about the computer?' Courage suggested.
"That could work. Let's go check online." I said agreeing with Courage.
"Wonderful idea." Muriel said as she got up from the table. We then proceeded to my room to ask the computer. Courage hopped onto the chair while I turned the computer on. And almost immediately, it insulted us again.
'Oh, I see you brought your mommy.' The computer taunted which made us roll our eyes in annoyance.
"Oh, so many pretty buttons. What does this one do?" Muriel asked as she pressed a button that I had hoped neither she or Eustace would ever press. Luckily, I was quick enough to cover Penny's eyes while Courage muted the volume. And just in time as some naughty pics Courage had come on screen. Had the computer not been muted, some 'adult music' would have been hard as well.
'Ha, ha.' Courage said embarrassed as he used his body to cover the screen.
"Oh, my. I could use a cup of tea." Muriel said giving a little laugh.
"What? What's happening?" Penny asked as I still had her eyes covered.
"Penny, why don't you go down and help Muriel and continue to search if we have another book that contains the recipe?" I asked her while turning her around from the computer.
"Okay." She agreed with a smile. I uncovered her eyes and stepped back a bit,
"Come along dear." Muriel said grabbing Penny's hand and leading her out of the room.
"That was close." I said breathing a sigh of relief. Even though she's a robot, she was still as innocent and pure like Ruby and did not need to see 'that' yet. Or ever.
'Too close.' Courage said agreeing with me as he sat back down.
'Ha, Ha. Hey... Push that button again.' The computer said laughing. And Courage did the best response that I felt was appropriate. Rip that button off the keyboard and toss it away.
"Okay, now let's find that recipe for artichoke syrup soup." I said as Courage began to type on the keyboard.
'Recipe for artichoke syrup soup. How boring.' The computer said before showing a bar that showed the downloading progress. 'Downloading time: 43 Hours.'
'Oh.' Courage said with a whine at how long it's going to take to get the recipe.
"Great. Well, while that is downloading, let's go and check on the others." I told Courage as I picked him up and put him on the floor.
'Sure.' Courage said with a smile as we exited my room and closed the room.
But as we closed the room and headed towards the kitchen, I could have sworn I heard a panicked voice followed by an eerie hum coming from the room. But I ignored it as it was probably the computer trying to scare us like the last few times. Getting to the kitchen, we saw Penny looking through some books trying to see if she can find the recipe. Though, she did get stopped a lot when she saw some strange recipes like the Armageddon syrup soup recipe. Looking, around, we saw that it was only her here.
"Hey Penny, where did Muriel go to?" I asked her as Courage went to the fridge and pulled out a carton of milk.
"She went upstairs to check on Muriel." She answered as she put down the book she was holding before picking up another. "Were you two successful on your end?"
"Only partially. The computer knows the recipe but it will take forty-three hours for it to download." I answered as I sat down and grabbed a book and started to look through it. Courage sat down next to me with a plate of cookies and a tall glass of milk. Though when he wasn't looking, I took one of his cookies and ate it.
"Perhaps I could speed up the process?" Penny suggested. Courage and I looked at each other in though.
'Sure. Let's give it a try.' Courage said before gulping down his glass of milk before picking up the plate of cookies and getting off the table.
Putting the book down, we exited the kitchen and back to my room to try Penny's plan out. But as we neared the room, we saw a bright green light coming out of the room. Looking closing, we also saw the numbers one and zero going up and down on the walls as if they were codes. We looked towards each other in worry and raced the rest of the way to the room.
'AAAHHHH!' Courage screamed at what we saw. Muriel was pressing a button on the keyboard and turning green with numbers appearing on her body.
"AAHHH! Courage! Jaune! Penny! Help me!" She shouted before she was fully sucking into the computer.
'NNNOOOO!' Courage screamed when the light faded.
"What just happened? I have never seen that before." Penny asked as we dashed over to the computer. Getting there, we saw sparks coming from all over the computer as if it was about to explode.
'Help.' The computer begged in a tone that clearly told us it was in pain and struggling just to speak.
'What do we do? What do we do?' Courage asked as he pulled down his ears in fear.
'Scanner...' The computer said before going eerily silent. We looked over to the side and saw the scanner still active and working. But that begged the question, what are we supposed to do with it. Luckily, the computer, with its final 'breath,' told us the answer. 'Scan yourselves.'
"Well, it's now or never." I said as Courage and I got down on our stomachs.
"Are you sure this is safe Jaune?" Penny asked worried as she saw more sparks came from the computer.
"No. Not in the slightest. But we're the only ones who can save Muriel and fix the computer." I told her with Courage nodding in agreement.
"Okay." Penny said unsure.
I lifted the cover of the scanner and we all placed our heads on it. If this was any other situation, I would have said that we had gone insane and how ridiculous we looked right now. Bringing the cover back down over our heads, the scanner began to scan us. And the next thing we knew, our minds were falling down a giant hole with the sides being zeros and ones. After what felt like a long time of the same and Courage screaming, we saw a bright white light coming up quickly. We braced ourselves and within a few seconds, we reached the light. After that, it felt weird. Like our minds were trying to reboot themselves as they recreated our bodies. Our digital bodies anyway.
"Whoa, talk about an out of body experience." I said as I finally was able to move again.
'Ha, ha, ha.' Courage laughed as he began to move around. Looking around, I saw that we were in a giant room that is made up of some kind of glass. But as I looked around, I saw that me and Courage almost seemed rubbery but also digital as well. However, that quickly reminded that we were not alone.
"PENNY!" I shouted as I began to look around for her. Luckily, she was nearby and seemed to fully regain control of herself. "Are you okay?"
"I'm alright now. But I feel weird Jaune.' She answered as she began to touch her arms and face. It was then that an idea came to mine as to why she felt weird.
"Maybe because you are no longer a robot and it's just, you're programming." I suggested.
"Perhaps. But this feels strange." She said before looking around. "Where are we?"
"Inside the computer. Specifically, I would say the room where the computer brings all the data and recreates an image of whatever he scanned." I answered.
"It's different that how I would have thought it to be. But currently, I see no exit." She said as she looked around.
'AAAHHHH!' Courage suddenly screamed getting our attention. Turning to him, we saw that he was standing near a wall wand was seeing his reflection. First, he saw a big muscular version of himself and laughed at what he saw. He even flexed a bit. This caused me and Penny to laugh a bit at him but we all jump in shock when we heard Muriel's voice call out to us.
"Courage? Kids? Can you hear me?" She shouted from somewhere.
'OH!' Courage said as he tried to follow the voice. We followed him as well only to bump into another wall a moment later. We then heard Muriel shout from our right and we quickly turned and ran in that direction. Only to stop just short of the wall.
'AAHHH!' Courage screamed when we saw our reflection as giants.
"Courage, calm down. It's just our reflection." I told him trying to calm him down. But he didn't listen and just ran to the right. Where we saw a distorted image of ourselves. We had a big body with really long necks.
"That's weird." Penny said as we saw our reflections.
"COURAGE!? KIDS?!" Muriel shouted again. Turing to it, we saw a door to our right and saw Muriel on the other side of it.
"MURIEL!" We all shouted as we ran to the door. Trying not to fall down while doing so as it felt really strange.
"What is this?" Penny asked as we arrived at the door and saw what looked like a gelatin like mass separating us from Muriel.
"I have no idea." I answered as I moved forward and pushed my arm though it. And nearly gasped in surprise when my arm changed to the color green and the numbers one and zero appeared on it. Like my arm became coding in a program. "That's freaky."
"Courage? Kids? Is that you all? Save me!" Muriel shouted to us.
"Well, this might hurt." I said as I took in a deep breath before jumping through the door and weird substance and came out the other side. But we all were green and hand zeros and ones on us.
'AAHHHH!' Courage screamed in terror at what we become.
"I believe we became coding for the computer." Penny said as she began to examine herself. Looking around, I saw that we were in a hallway with walls the look like motherboards or parts of a computer.
"I must have hit the wrong button again." Muriel said sounding upset.
"Don't worry Muriel. It happens to all of us from time to time. Now, let's gets you out of here." I told her as we began to walk over to her. But stopped when we heard cackling coming from nearby.
"Ha, Ha, Ha." A giant green creature laughed surprising us. I did not know what it was as it was made up of a couple of giant zeros and ones with the end being a head with a giant nose and eyes.
'EEK!' Courage shouted surprised.
"After it." I shouted. We quickly moved and grabbed into Muriel and tried to pull her away but our grips slipped. Causing us to fall down. We were about to get up and follow, but the creature turned around and sneezed on us. Which caused all three of us to get sent flying down the hall.
"AAHHH!" Muriel screamed while the creature cackled and moved down the hall and out of sight.
"Are you both all right?" I asked as I helped Penny and Courage up.
"Fine, just a bit grossed out." Penny answered as she wiped where the snot got on her from the giant creature. But froze when she saw little numbers get sent flying as a result.
'Same.' Courage said as he shook himself dry. With numbers flying from him as well.
"Let us hurry before we lose Muriel and the creature." Penny said as we headed down the hall and followed where we last saw the creature. Only to stop dead in our tracks when we saw about thirteen different paths to choose from.
"Um, which path should we take?" I asked looking between each one to try and see if I could find a trace or something to tell us where the creature went off to.
"I do not know. Nor do I feel like splitting up would be the best option." Penny answered as she looked between each pathway as well.
'Quiet.' Courage suddenly said getting our attention. 'Listen. Something is coming our way.'
"I don't he- wait now I do." I said as I began to hear something coming down one of the paths.
"Sounds like metal clanging against each other." Penny said after a moment.
"COURAGE! KIDS! HELP!" Muriel's voice suddenly yelled startling us. We looked around to see if we can determine the path but stopped when the metal clanging sound seemed to be only a few feet away from us. A second later, what appeared to be a flying iron mouth appeared from one of the pathways.
"RUN!" I shouted as I grabbed Penny's and Courage's hands and pulled them in the opposite direction. We ran as fast as we could to avoid getting destroyed by the thing. Going down one pathway, we tried to lose the thing by constantly twisting and turning to confuse it but it was still chasing us. Eventually, we came upon what seemed like a dead end but a mouse hole was at the bottom.
'Slide.' Courage said as we neared it. We jumped to avoid a bite from iron mouth and somehow slid into the mouse hole. Once inside, I peeked outside and saw the iron mouth turn around and leave us.
"Okay, its safe." I told them as we crawled out the mouse hole.
"How did we fit in there?" Penny asked as we stood up and dusted ourselves.
"I have no idea." I answered. But right after we said that, a hissing sound was heard.
'What was that?' Courage asked scared. We got our answer when from the mouse hole, came out a mouse control for a computer which then hissed at us.
"Ironic." I said as we slowly back away from the hissing mouse. But because we were not paying attention, we fell through a door that helped us escape the mouse.
'Ooh.' Courage moaned in pain.
"I never knew the inside of a computer could be this big, complex or dangerous." Penny said as she helped me up.
"Neither did I. But, then again, Computer isn't your average computer." I said as I rubbed my head.
"AH-CHOO." A sneeze caught our attention. Turning around, we saw that we were in a giant red room that looked like it was part of a motherboard or something Nearby, we saw a pool table with some cues on it. Next to that, was a barn that had the words ram on it.
'Must be where the memory is held.' I thought as we continued to look around.
"AH-CHOO." Another sneeze came but much louder followed by some seriously bad coughing. Turning to where it came from, we saw that creature before sitting on a bed with a blanket while holding a cloth to blow its nose. But what caught our attention the most, was how sick it looked. Almost if not worse than Eustace.
'Oh!' Courage said quietly as to not alert the guy.
"Poor guy." Penny said seeing the guy suffer from the cold he clearly had. "I wonder if this is what it's like when my system gets a virus or 'cold?'"
"Bless you." Muriel suddenly said. Turning to where it came from, we saw her trapped inside an indent in the wall that looked like it was the center point for something.
'AAAHHHH!' Courage screamed when he saw this. Unfortunately, this caught the attention of the creature.
"I'm sick. And now I gotta deal with you three. Okay busters. You all asked for it." The creature said before turning and using its nose to press a big red button next to him.
"Oh, that can't be good." I said as an alarm rang around us. Turning around as it seemed to coming from behind us, we saw the doors on the barn open up.
'Really.' I thought as we saw an actual ram was in there. But then, it started to charge at us.
"MOVE!" I shouted as Courage and I pushed Penny to the side.
"JAUNE! COURAGE!" Penny shouted worried when she saw us get hit by the ram. But grew confused when we just became pieces of code that bounced up and down. After a moment, the pieces came back together and we became whole again.
"Wow, that felt weird." I said at a complete loss of words for how that felt.
'Yeah, same.' Courage said as he shook himself off with pieces of cods coming off him.
"Jaune! Courage! Are you okay?" Penny asked as she rushed over to us and gave us a hug in worry. And even though we are code now, she did retain her strength.
"Yeah, we're fine. Just feeling a bit weird." I answered as she let us go.
"Say good bye to your mother you three. Cause she's my mother board now." The creature said as multiple tiny computer bugs came down from the sky. "Ok boys. Go get them."
"I got this." Penny said as she concentrated and managed to summon a computer version of her weapons and used them to destroy the bugs.
"Neat." I said as she made her weapons go away.
"Go on you three. You can all do it." Muriel chanted for us.
"Oh, so you wanna play rough huh? Will!" The creature asked before shouting out. To our side, a door opened to reveal a hard drive.
'Uh, a hard drive?' Courage asked confused. Only for all of us to get scared when the driver floated into the air and quickly spun around to show razors on its back.
"Woah!" We shouted as the hard drive flew at us to try and hit us but missed. It then quickly circled back around to face us.
'I got this.' Courage said before shape shifting into a giant soda can. Penny and I were confused at how this was going to help us but got our answer when Courage began to shake himself for a moment before opening the tab on his head. And a rush of soda came out hitting the hard drive. Causing it to spark violently.
"Now, is that anyway to treat your hardware?" The hard drive asked before falling to the ground destroyed.
"Oh, these kids and dogs are terrible, terrible people." The creature complained before sneezing. "That woman is not leaving until I feel better. Ant that's, that. AH-CHOO"
"OOF!" We all grunted as coding flew from the creature and hit us hard.
"Poor thing. Have you tried artichoke syrup soup?" Muriel asked.
"Yes, I did. And it didn't work." The creature answered.
"Artichoke syrup soup didn't work? Have you tried anything else?" Muriel asked again.
"Anything else? What else is there?" The creature asked as tears dripped from its eyes and snot came out of his nose. Courage then started mumbling before transforming into the gelatin we tried to feed Eustace.
"Brilliant idea Courage. We could try my special gelatin." Muriel said agreeing with Courage.
"I'll try anything." The creature said before adding another bit while shivering. "As long as it's not leeches."
'Do you have a phone?' Courage asked.
"You mean to get back outside of this computer. Hold on." The creature said before pressing a button with a phone appearing next to us. "There you go."
'Thanks.' Courage said as he literally entered the phone. After a moment, he came back out with the gelatin and handed it to me.
"Okay, hopefully this should make you feel better." I said as I scooped a piece with the spoon while walking towers him. But the creature turned away looking hesitant. I tried to get him to eat it like a baby, but he still resisted.
"Is it organic?" He asked hesitantly.
"Wow, your worse than my nephew." I said in irritation.
"You have a nephew Jaune?" Muriel asked.
"Yeah, my sister from the Arc family, the only one who actually cared for me, adopted a kid when she finally moved out of the arc family and married a nice lady as well." I explained.
"I thought the entire Arc Family didn't like you?" Penny asked confused.
"Yeah, they do. All except for my sister Saphron. She hated how things went with the Arc family and left the family as soon as she could. I babysat her child a few times before heading to Beacon. But since then, I haven't heard from her." I answered.
"You should call them when you get the chance." The creature said.
"Your right, I should. Now shut up and eat this thing." I nearly yelled at the creature while trying to feed him the food again.
"Well, what's in it anyway?" The creature asked Muriel.
"Why, only a bit of vinegar, of course." She answered.
"Vinegar? Well, why didn't you say so? I love vinegar." The creature asked before sucking the gelatin that was on the spoon and on the plate into his mouth like a vacuum.
"Feel better?" Penny asked after he finished chewing and swallowed. The creature took a deep breath before answering.
"Aah. Hey, I can breathe again! Hot diggity." The creature said before laughing in joy.
"So, can you let Muriel out now?" I asked.
"Oh, sure, sure." He answered before pressing another button which let Muriel go.
"You okay Muriel?" I asked as I helped her up.
"Just fine dear. Thank you all for helping me and helping this guy feel better." She answered with a smile.
"May we please leave? I am staring to feel a bit weird here." Penny asked.
"Oh, that just a side effect from morphing something in here. Like when you made some weapons appear." The creature said before pressing another button which made a door appear. "Here, just step on through and you will be back in your world. And thanks for the help."
"You welcome." We all said before stepping through the door.
Farmhouse
We were back in the farmhouse in the master bedroom. It felt like sever motion sickness getting back out from the computer. Which, caused me to throw up a bit in the bathroom. Afterwards, we saw that the computer was all better and had successfully pulled up the recipe for artichoke syrup soup. Printing it out we went to the kitchen and began to make it. After a long hour, we went back up to Eustace and began to feed him while Courage went to check up on the computer.
"Mmm. This artichoke syrup soup really does the trick. And it ain't half bed neither." Eustace said before taking the bowl from Muriel and drinking the rest of the soup straight from the bowl.
"Works every time. It's the vinegar." Muriel said which caused Eustace to freeze before spitting out the soup that was still in his mouth. We then heard a loud cackle come from upstairs that sounded like when we were in the computer earlier.
"Will Courage return to normal Jaune?" Penny asked looking up at the ceiling.
"Yeah, just give a day or so and he'll be back to normal." I answered with a chuckle. When we got back from the computer, to our shock, Courage stayed the same as he was when inside the computer. Meaning, he still looks like green computer coding.
"I hope you're right." Penny said unconvinced.
'I hope so too.' I thought as we watched Eustace scrub his tongue out while trying to refuse that he liked the vinegar and that it helped him feel better. Despite that fact that he can breathe again.
Note:
(1) Conway the Contaminationist with Weiss and Winter(?). (2) Little Muriel with Ruby. (3) Bad Hair Day with Yang. (4) King of Flan with Terra, Adrian and Saphron.
Was writing Magic tree of nowhere when this came to mind. Should Jaune make a wish with the tree to turn Penny human?
Quick update: Changed Little Muriel to just have Ruby while Saphron, Terra and Adrian will appear in king of Flan.