Jaune and Courage the Cowardly Dog
Chap 64: Invisible Muriel
"You really have to stop burying everything Courage." I told him as I sat on the edge of the hole, he was digging.
'But where will I keep everything safe?' He asked.
"Perhaps a safe?" I suggested.
'Anybody can get a safe. Plus, it can broken into.' He countered.
"And what stops people from taking what you buried?" I asked.
'Mountains of dirt and not knowing where it could be.' He answered while throwing some more dirt out of the way.
"A shovel and a metal detector exist." I reminded him.
'Still would take-huh?' He began before becoming confused.
"What you find?" I asked as I hopped into the hole.
'This.' He answered as he wiped the dirt away to reveal a giant blue crystal.
"Wow." I said amazed at how beautiful the crystal was.
'Hmm. Not sure what type of crystal it is.' He said as he examined the crystal with a magnifying glass.
"Well, it is beautiful. How about we give it to Muriel as a present?" I suggested.
'Good idea. She will definitely love this.' He agreed as we climbed out of the hole.
Ten Minutes Later
"Muriel." I called out as we entered the kitchen and saw her cooking some dog food. "We got you something."
"Oh. How lovely. Is it for me?" She asked.
"Of course." I answered with Courage nodding.
"How does it look?" Muriel asked turning to Eustace after somehow turning the crystal and turning it into a necklace in less than a second.
"Ugly." Eustace answered.
"We think it looks beautiful on you Muriel." I told her while we glared at Eustace.
"Thank you. Now, run along and dinner will be out shortly." Muriel told us.
"All right. Come on Courage." I said as we exited the kitchen and headed to the living room to watch some movies while we wait.
Half an Hour Later
"Okay boys. Dinners ready." Muriel called out as she entered the dining room with a tray filled with food.
'AH!' Courage gasped. Looking over to Muriel, I saw what caused him to gasp. And that was the fact the Muriel was somehow translucent.
"Are you okay Muriel?" I asked worried.
"Just fine dear." She answered as she began to plate the food for everyone. Turning to Courage, I saw him take out a bowl filled with water and began dunking his eyes into it. Taking a note from him, I grabbed some water from the bowl and splashed my face with it. Courage then put his eyes back in his head before we both turned back to Muriel. Only to see that she was in fact translucent.
'AAHHHHH!' Courage screamed in horror.
"Is something wrong?" Muriel asked worried.
"Nothing. Just got spooked by something. Everything is all right." I quickly lied.
"Okay." She said before resuming her food.
'What should we do?' Courage asked.
"I'm not sure. But at the same time. I'm not sure if what we are seeing is real. Maybe we spent too much time outside with the hot sun bearing down on us." I answered.
'Possibly. So, should we wait?' He asked.
"I'd say let's get a good night's rest. And tomorrow, she'll probably be back to normal. And if not, we'll go from there." I answered.
'Sounds good.' He said as we went back to eating our food. But we could not help but wonder what was causing Muriel to be like this.
Next Day
'Morning.' Courage said fighting through a yawn.
"Morning." I greeted back while stretching my arms a bit.
'Think Muriel is back to normal?' He asked while hopping off my bed.
"Hopefully." I answered as I got up before changing out of pajamas and into my day clothes.
Once done, we exited my room and headed downstairs. Not seeing anyone, we figured Eustace and Muriel were already in the kitchen. Going past the living room, we entered the kitchen and saw Eustace sitting at the table reading his newspaper. Hearing Muriel humming, we could tell that she was by the sink. Entering the kitchen, we walked up to her and saw her doing the dishes.
"Good morning, Muriel. How are you feeling?" I asked as we reached her. But to our horror, she turned around and we saw something. Well, more precisely, saw nothing. As in, Muriel was completely invisible.
"Morning to you too. And I'm just fine." She answered.
'AH!' Courage gasped in shock.
"Breakfast is ready." Muriel told us. Nodding, mainly because we were too shocked to say anything, we went to sit at the table.
'What now?' Courage asked.
"Let's eat first. Then try and come up with something." I answered as Muriel sat down next to us.
"Courage. I made you a sandwich of my special, secret blue ribbon dog food. Just the way you like it." Muriel said as she handed him a sandwich filled with homemade dogfood. "I just know I'll win the contest with this batch."
'EEE.' Courage whined at seeing the sandwich. He then got off his seat and went into the living room. Curious, I excused myself before following him. In the living room, I saw that Courage was on the phone with Dr. Vindaloo. Walking up to him, I began to listen on the conversation.
'You should immediately remove the stone from the invisible one.' Dr. Vindaloo told us. Grabbing the phone, Courage quickly went back to the kitchen before coming back a second later with the stone.
'Still invisible.' Courage said taking the phone back.
'Still invisible. What's up with that?' Dr. Vindaloo asked.
"What should we do now?" I asked.
'You both bring me the stone and I'll run some tests. OUCH! And please, one of you bring me a bandage.' He answered before hanging up.
'At least we're getting somewhere.' Courage said hanging up the phone.
"True." I agreed.
'Should we take her now or later?' He asked.
"Let's finish breakfast first." I answered as we headed back to the kitchen.
Entering the kitchen, we saw everything was calm. But that quickly went out the window when we heard a helicopter above the farm. And a second later, three government spies burst through each of the windows and door. They then began bouncing around the room a few times while striking different poses each time. Though, we did get confused a bit when they suddenly stopped to eat a slice of toast. However, it only lasted a second as they began going around the room again before grabbing Muriel and dragging her out a window.
"NO!" We shouted and grabbed her leg to try and get her back inside. But unfortunately, her shoe came off which allowed the spies to take her.
"Don't worry you two. Federal Agent. Your mother is working for us now. Stay in school. Sleep often. And practice good hygiene." One of the agents told us before disappearing.
"Told you it was an ugly rock." Eustace spoke up not at all realizing what just happened.
'Well, what now?' Courage asked holding up the rock.
"First things first. And that is to find out more about this crystal. Dr. Vindaloo said he would perform some tests on it. We should go there." I answered.
'Good idea.' He said before we left for Dr. Vindaloo.
One Hour Later
"Ugly rock, ain't it?" Eustace asked irritated that we forced him to come along to Dr. Vindaloo's office.
"Well, Dr. Vindaloo. Is there anything you can tell us about it?" I asked.
"If I am to find the antidote, someone has to put the thing on and disappear." He told us. And without missing a beat, Eustace pointed to the both of us. "My tests show the stone doesn't work on dogs or young adults. I don't know why. It just doesn't."
"Stupid dog. Stupid kid. Stupid ugly rock." Eusatce complained while Dr. Vindaloo placed the stone around his neck.
"This will take some time. Dog. Go sniffing around for the invisible one. By the time you find her. I hope I have the antidote." Dr. Vindaloo told Courage.
'Okay. Be back soon.' Courage said as he took a few whiffs of Muriel's boot to pick up a scent. He soon caught it and left the room to go find her.
"Now kid. Help me perform these tests." Dr. Vindaloo said turning to me.
"All right. What do we do first?" I asked.
First, we waited for the stone to turn Eustace invisible. Once he was fully invisible, we started performing the tests. The first one was by placing a lobster on the ground which used its claw to grab Eustace's leg hard. The pain causing him to bounce around the room a few times before the lobster finally decided to let go. Needless to say, after seeing that these were the kind of tests Eustace was going to go through, I was excited for the next one. Once Eustace recovered from the pain, Dr. Vindaloo took out a giant whale and used it to beat Eustace over the head with it. The result, aside from being funny, caused Eustace to become visible for a second before going back to invisible. Once that was done, we tried lizard lips. Then elephant ankles and alligator eyes. But none seemed to keep Eusatce visible for long. But at the least, I got to see Eustace get what he deserves for a bit.
"Okay. Lunch break." Dr. Vindaloo said while tossing the whale away. They then came over to a nearby table and pulled out some sandwiches. Reaching into my pockets, I took out a granola bar to eat. But my attention was drawn back to Eustace when he spit out his food.
"PTOO! Stupid dog food. Must have gotten my sandwiches mixed up." He said as he put the sandwich on the table. But, as he did so, he became fully visible again.
"What did you say was in that sandwich?" Dr. Vindaloo asked.
"Lousy stinking dog food." He answered.
"That is the antidote. Lousy stinking dog food." Dr. Vindaloo exclaimed before taking out a large container and scooping as much of the food into it as he could. While also taking the occasional taste of it. "You know, it's not bad."
'Found her. Found her.' Courage suddenly said barging into the room.
"Where is she?" I asked.
'Across the hall.' He answered. Looking up, we saw a sign that said the room next to it was a top-secret government facility.
"That's very funny. I never notice that." Dr, Vindaloo said amazed.
'Neither have we.' I thought also amazed that we never noticed that.
"You are in luck. Through my extraordinary powers of deduction, I have found the antidote to the invisibility stone. Lousy stinking dog food." Dr. Vindaloo told Courage before taking a bite of the food.
"Now we just have to get this to her." I said taking the antidote.
"To do so, one of us has to get invisible again." Dr. Vindaloo began.
"Beats eating dog food." Eustace cut in.
"But this time, without clothes." Dr. Vindaloo finished.
"WHAT!?" Eustace shouted in shock.
Five Minutes Later
"That look odd to you?" A security guard asked as we passed him.
"Uh. Nope. Uh-uh. Nope." The other guard answered. After a bit of negotiating, which ended up just me giving Eustace twenty bucks, we made our way to get Muriel out of here. Currently, Eustace was naked and invisible and we were hiding in his hat. Which was far larger than it looks on the outside.
"Secret invisibility testing. Big deal." Eustace read before ignoring the sign. "Secret gold storage. Works for me."
"Hey. We need to head for Muriel Not the gold." I reminded Eustace.
"SHUT UP!" He shouted before pushing me back into his hat. After a few seconds, we heard him open a door. "Oh, gold. I'm rich. Heh. Heh. Heh. I'm rich."
"Come on Courage." I said as we exited his hat knowing he wasn't going to help us anymore.
'Right.' He said as we exited the room and got back to the hallway. 'Now we just need to get back to those signs.'
"Hopefully we don't run into-" I began but was cut off when the same three federal agents landed in front of us. 'Damn it.'
"That's the invisible lady's dog and kid. They know where the stone is." One of the agents said.
"RUN!" I shouted as we turned around and ran as fast as we could away from them.
"And now they are running away." The agent said again.
Running down the hallway, we took many twists and turns to try and lose them. But we could not as they were constantly on our heels. After a few more turns, we decided to enter Dr. Vindaloo's office and saw him holding the crystal. However, we knew that the agents wouldn't even notice the stone and continue to chase us. Seeing that we are trapped, we decided to jump through the window to try and escape. Once out, we started to climb the fire escape ladder to get to the top. Only to realize we trapped ourselves again. Seeing a skylight, on the other end of the building, we ran to it before jumping and breaking through the glass. And falling about sixty feet to the ground.
"Ow." We bother grunted in pain.
"Oh, Courage. Jaune." The voice of Muriel gasped in shock. Looking up, we saw that we finally reached Muriel.
"Courage. The antidote." I quickly told him. He nodded before throwing the dog food onto Muriel. Nothing happened immediately but after a second, she turned visible again.
"Looks like you both brought my special recipe blue-ribbon dog food." She said while standing up and wiping some of the food off her before leaning to whisper to us. "Don't show it to anyone official looking."
"We won't." I said before hugging her. Letting go, I was about to say something but was cut off when we head the sky light shatter some more. Thinking quickly, I leaned into Muriel said while Courage jumped on my head in freight while covering his face. And a second later, the federal agents landed next to us.
"I don't see any dog, kid or invisible lady. Perplexing." One agent said confused.
'They sure are idiots.' I thought risking a peek.
"I'll tell the general. You get the visible lady and the new person that wasn't here before with a fur hat out of here." The agent told the other agents that began to escort us out of the room.
"That was certainly something." Muriel said as we walked away from the room.
"It sure was." I said letting go off her as Courage jumped down from my head.
"Now, let's head home so I can make another batch of food for the county dog fair." Muriel said as we exited the building.
'Who knew her food was the key to making a person visible again?' Courage asked.
"The wonders of the universe. Though, I have a sneaking suspicion that it's because of the vinegar." I answered.
Next Day
'Good riddance.' Courage said as he buried the stone. Where it will hopefully remain buried forever.
"So, I won the dog food contest after all. It just goes to show you. You always get what you deserve." Muriel told us as she held up her first-place ribbon.
'MM-HMM.' Courage agreed as he made sure the stone was completely buried.
"It is with great pride. That I dedicate this great statue to our great nation." A federal agent declared as the tarp covering a statue was removed to reveal a gold statue of Eustace. At least, he is wearing his boxers still.
'He always wanted to be made out of money.' Courage said with a smirk.
"I guess this is one way for him to fulfill that dream." I agreed with a chuckle.
Note:
(1) Courage the Fly with Ruby and Weiss. (2) Everyone wants to direct with Weiss and Winter. (3) Klub Katz with Saphron, Terra and Adrian. (4) Ball of Revenge with Team Rwby, Team Npr and Iris.