Muriel hummed to herself as she trudged her way down the staircase carrying jugs of vinegar. Reaching a vault with the liquified substance that would become candy, she removed the top and poured the entirety of the jug into it. Robots cranked levers bringing the completed products down the conveyor belt leading to a dump off where the machines placed the delicacies in the back of trucks. Doing her part, Muriel made the long way back up the staircase continuing her humming. She saw small robots roll past her. She waved to them as she continued her trek for another jug.

While she was collecting another jug from a room filled to the brim with the substance, there came a knock at the door. "Oh my."

She placed the jug back in a stack of boxes and entered an elevator. She noticed a speaker on the panel of buttons and pressed it. She tapped her foot for a few seconds until the intercom droned awake. "What is it?"

"There's someone at the door," Muriel replied, "do you think Julian or any of the others are able to answer it?"

"A knock you say?" Jumping Jack replied. It went silent for a few moments. Jumping Jack was in his office shrouded in darkness and stared intently at the different surveillance cameras. He could see a blonde man standing outside holding something in his hand. Jumping Jack pressed a button on his control panel to zoom in on it. It was a rectangular box.

"Dearest Muriel, would you do me the favor of answering it?"

Muriel nodded. Once the elevator returned to the ground floor, Muriel marched to the double doors and opened it. On the other side was Loid holding a pizza box. "Oh, hello there."

"Came to deliver the order," he replied.

Muriel scratched her chin. "That's strange...I don't remember the boss ever saying he would order a pizza."

She raised her glasses above her eyes. "Wait...you seem familiar to me."

Sweat beat down Loid's forehead. He did act rashly when stealing the deliveryman's clothes. Was it that he put them on in such a rush that it gave himself away? He couldn't afford for the elderly woman to compromise his mission like that. Muriel stood there analyzing his body but dropped her glasses down. "Sorry, you just remind me of my kindly neighbor I met a few days ago."

Loid sighed in relief. "Okay, here's the pizza, bye."

He shoved the square box in Muriel's hands before walking off. "Wait, aren't you wanting me to pay for it?"

He was out of earshot. Muriel tapped her finger on the roof of the box. "Must have been in a real hurry."

Muriel placed the box on the counter of the resignation area and left to pick up where she left off. Courage lifted the top of the box to peek out. Seeing that the coast was clear, Courage got out of the box with a walkie-talkie in hand.

"Alright, are you in, Courage?" Loid asked.

"Uh-huh, uh-huh," Courage muttered.

"I will be outside in the truck. I want you to record anything incriminating Jumping Jack says. Do you understand?"

Courage nodded. "Alright, Courage. World peace is in your hands."

Courage wished the spy did not say that last part. That was a lot of information to drop on the shoulders of a little dog like him. Courage hid the walkie-talkie and walked off the counter. There was a map of the layout of the factory that he did not even notice when he first came in. The owner's office was on the western part of the factory. Courage saw a series of arrows pointing him in that direction, so he decided to follow them. While walking down the endless halls, Courage heard whizzing and whirling coming in his direction.

"Oh no!"

As a pair of robots rolled by on wheels, Courage looked for a place to hide. He tried going into a room, straining to pry it open, but, alas, it was bolted shut. The canine stared inside the room not seeing anything aside from the darkness staring back at him.

The whirling grew louder startling Courage. The floor shook from the weight of the wheels. Their shadows stretched along the walls like a vengeful wraith. The other rooms in the hall were also closed. Sweat rolled down in sheets. Courage's teeth chattered. Think, think, he thought to himself. Courage's eyes rolled around in their sockets for some sort of sanctuary. In his hazed mind, Courage spotted the solution: the entry to the vents.

Courage got down on his legs in front of the vent. Bizarrely, the vent cover was dangling by two hinges. Almost as if someone had neglected to complete the setup. Or...maybe someone anticipated that someone as small as him would consider crawling into it?

Regardless, the robots were drawing closer. Without any second guesses, Courage leaps into the open vent. Just in the nick of time, the robots passed by not taking notice of the loose opening. The walkie-talkie began to spring to life again. "Are you okay, Courage?"

Courage babbled into the device. "From the sound of it, I feel you are in the vent system now?"

Courage placed the walkie-talkie in his mouth and began crawling. "Remember, I am still on the line."

The vents were surprisingly large enough for the cowardly dog to crawl through. He felt the slight flicking of cold air rubbing against his pink fur. A dim light shimmered faintly making it possible for the dog to see, but only as much as he could accumulate in his peripheral vision. The metal floor buckled under Courage's weight forcing him to try to stand on his paws to avoid falling through.

However, once Courage progressed far enough, the one pathway broke into three intersecting ones. Courage babbled into the phone. Loid, not fully understanding what the dog was saying, made the most of it. "Sounds like you've found some other paths. Perhaps take the first one that looks promising."

Courage nodded. He scanned the three paths weighing his decision. "I know I'm not going to like it."

Courage decided to take the path on the far right. Crawling, Courage noticed a drop in quality. While the rest of the vents were wide enough for him to crawl through, this one was narrower. Given his small size, Courage was able to get a foot into the vent, but the walls started to compress around his body. The dim light was still there, but the deeper he went, the light dwindled. Now Courage understood what it felt like to be buried alive.

"You are still, okay?"

Courage went to respond, but he was becoming cramped. The dog continued to trek onward, but there was something peculiar. From the corner of his eyes, there was a crumpled mass blocking the rest of the path. "Huh?"

The dog swallowed sharply uncertain if he should investigate further, but his curiosity was getting the better of him. Despite being trapped in the most claustrophobic of areas, Courage inhaled and squeezed his tiny body through the sinking hole. The mass grew larger in focus now as big as a 6 ft person. The walkie-talkie trembled in Courage's mouth. He knew he had a reason to be concerned.

"Courage? Courage are you there?" Loid asked.

Courage dropped the walkie-talkie. What was in front of him was a hollow skeleton in tattered clothing; a pink top; white skirt...and a name tag. Thin, stringy cobwebs fluttered in the draft of air. They lined the walls of the vent and were all over the disintegrating clothing. Courage picked up the name tag.

Madison.

Courage screamed, the sonic shriek sending him flying backward out of the tight passage. Loid rubbed his ears in irritation. "What did you see in there, Courage?"

Courage went down the path in the middle with him struggling to ease his beating heart. There was no room for further questions: that really was Madison. Or what was left of the poor woman. The canine's heart sank. The other two employees suffered the same fate. He was almost sure of it. But he could still save Muriel. At least he hoped he could.

Courage traveled down the opposite path where it opened up again so he did not have to struggle. He could hear someone moving in one of the rooms because of the echoes of their trudging around. That must have been Jumping Jack.

He followed the sound of Jumping Jack's walking it being heavy clops on the metallic floor. Jumping Jack stood by his desk whistling and talking to someone else in the room. Courage paused in a vent directly above the factory owner. Peering through the bars, he saw Jumping Jack in all his fat, bigger-than-life glory. On his desk, Courage saw a tube containing a glowing blue material. It bubbled and twisted around in its container reminding Courage of a lava lamp.

What caught his eye more, however, was something snoozing on the chair. Maybe a cat or other animal he cherished? Except, instead of a small, fuzzy cat, it was instead a spider. About as big as the palm of someone's hand. Its long, hairy legs bobbed around in its slumber. Jumping Jack approached the arachnid and knelt down whispering something to it. Before Courage could even comprehend what was happening, the spider did something else bizarre.

Leathery, bat wings flailed into the air...and the spider took off and hovered around Jumping Jack. Courage rubbed his eyes once, twice. He must be dreaming. There was no way that spider could fly. He pinched himself and slowly glared again, but he was correct the first time. Jumping Jack rolled a large, red chair back on its wheels and sat down in it. His pet spider lovingly floated down in his lap waiting for the man to pet its head.

Jumping Jack looked around his office almost like he was expecting someone to spy on him before pulling out a small remote. He pressed the first button on it, and a white screen descended from a hidden compartment in the ceiling. He activated another button this time to make light project on it. Courage sat quietly uncertain of what the man was doing.

A black projector rose from the center of his desk and shot a beam of light at the middle of the screen. From the projector, there appeared a symbol for a group that seemed unaffiliated to Ostania. A man with thick glasses and black, jetted hair in a raincoat manifested.

"It is a pleasure speaking with you again," Jumping Jack replied whilst stroking his spider.

"You were right to have hired that woman from Nowhere," the man replied, "my intel has informed me that roughly around 50% of Ostania's citizens have eaten your candy."

"Of course. I told you that she won that contest back in Nowhere, had I not? Besides, she could actually make her food flavorful. The other three could make candy, of course...but with no added sweetness, we could never have met our quota."

Courage gulped. Poor Madison.

The bespectacled man continued to speak. "We need to ensure at least 75% of the citizens of this country eat the candy before we initiate our plan in two days."

Jumping Jack nodded. "Shall I need to remind you of our objective?"

Jumping Jack chuckled. "No need; I fully understand: we shall hold Ostania's citizens hostage and force them to pledge allegiance to Westalis should they want access to the antidote. If not..."

Jumping Jack lifted his pet spider close to his face in a teasing tone. "Boom. Boom."

He gave a bellowing laugh that shook his chair. His co-conspirator only nodded. "With those despicable swine under our command, we will annex this country and indulge in its riches."

"And like I had mentioned in our previous discussion, I want 50% of the profits for our partnership."

"Of course, Jack. You have not noticed anything weird lately? Like a certain intelligence group that could threaten our plan?"

Jumping Jack smiled. "I remember a pizza deliveryman coming along."

"So?"

"I never ordered a pizza. Seems like we may also have Agent Twilight within the palm of our hands as well."

Courage gasped. He babbled into the walkie-talkie again.

"Yes, Courage I have heard everything. Please meet me outside."

Courage turned around to head back out the vents, but as he was trudging, he accidentally scraped his leg on a misplaced screw. He yelped in pain. "YEEEEEEOUCH!"

Jumping Jack looked up at the vent. "Hm. So we have an uninvited guest."

Without a word, Jumping Jack whistled alerting the spider. He pointed at the vent and the arachnid broke through the bars. Courage scrambled in the dimly lit metallic terrains. His ears arched at the sound of the sudden rush of wings. Courage desperately looked around for the sight of the spider, its insidious wings always being so close, yet still so far away. The walls banged a hollow tune from the aggressive thrashing of the creature. Every few minutes, the rapid beating would stop only to rebound becoming increasingly closer.

Courage sank deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of vents now seeming perpetually winding and spiraling. The poor dog's eyes went cross from the increasing anxiety as the walls closed in around him. In his delirious stupor, moisture dripped down from the roof splashing on Courage's head. "What's huh?"

He looked up with his heart almost bursting through his chest. Eight, sapphire eyes looked down at him glistening with a burning hatred. Somehow, the monster had stealthily hid away out of the dog's sight of vision. It reared its hideous bat wings and beat them. It was waiting.

Courage shrieks and crawls into a passage he had not taken. The airborne spider chased him in high pursuit showing off its huge mandibles and strings of saliva. It rocketed itself in the direction of Courage's stubby tail almost claiming it with its hideous teeth, if not for a sudden descent. Courage was even more lost in the sea of air vents...if he wasn't already.

Yet, the spider was well-adapted to this environment. The vent systems were its domain; its hunting grounds. Like Madison before him, Courage was nothing more than a mere snack to satiate its voracious hunger. Sometimes it would cease flapping for a few seconds to glide like a skydiver with a parachute. In the light, it showed off the hooked spikes on the tips of its eight legs acting like a harpoon.

Courage had tried fighting off the urge to look back, but he gave in to the temptation. The spider was on his back raising its spiny appendages at him. Drool trickled down its jaws in green slobber. Courage screamed into the walkie-talkie for some miracle. The spines lashed out with the intent of tearing the little dog to pieces.

Creak...

Courage opened his eyes at the sudden noise ringing in his ears. The moment the spider had Courage in its clutches...a part of the vent gave way. The dog could only comprehend that for a few minutes before he fell through. The arachnid swiped at its meal but missed it by a hair.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!"

Courage fell from the ceiling now being in the factory section. The fur on his back stood on end as the cowardly dog plummeted. He noticed a rectangular box filled with hundreds of chocolate bars. Hoping for a soft landing, Courage instead broke through the surface and burrowed halfway down the mound. "Oh..."

Courage rubbed his head and slowly adjusted to his surroundings. The box began to move with the whirling of the robots ringing through it. A large robot began to haul the heavy load to one of the trucks. Realizing this, Courage reclaimed his walkie-talkie and acquired a chocolate bar. The robot loaded the box at the back of a truck but did not readily notice Courage slipping out of the box before the door closed.

Loid stood by the pizza delivery truck having stayed put despite some calls about customers not getting their orders. "Good job, Courage."

He pets Courage's head and took the chocolate bar from his paw. "WISE will have to run tests on this."

"Ah, Agent Twilight, I have faith that you brought a sample?"

A well-dressed woman with strawberry-blonde hair and round glasses sat at the head of a long table. Loid and Courage sat down with the former unwrapping the evidence. She raised one leg over the other exposing her dark stockings and her high heels. "Who is this, Twilight?"

"Oh, this is Courage. He's my neighbor's dog." He then turned his attention to the dog. "Courage, this is my Handler; she happens to be my main contact for the organization I am in." He also took out the walkie-talkie Courage had used to eavesdrop on Jumping Jack.

A screen behind the woman depicted an eye glaring at the east. Courage gulped. He felt like he was back in the vents with how suffocating the ambiance of the room was. The Handler gave some passing glances to him almost like she was taking mental notes on him. Loid was just as serious. The tension was so thick, it could be sliced with a knife. Courage nervously looked down at his paws not sure if he should say anything without things horribly going wrong.

Courage felt awkward being introduced on the spot like that, but he smiled awkwardly and waved at the woman. She had a blank expression on her face. "Any particular reason why you invited the neighbors' dog to help with this mission?"

"His owner happened to have been invited to work for the factory," Loid explained, "how is Franky?"

"Still being monitored," the Handler responded, "so far no noticeable alterations in his health."

The spy sighed in relief. "Courage had helped me to acquire a sample, and he also took this recording."

The two agents spent a few solid moments listening to Jack exposing his true colors and cackling at the prospect of thousands of Ostanian citizens being held hostage at the threat of what sounded like certain death. The woman fiddled with her thumbs. "A terrorist group right in Westalis?"

Loid solemnly nodded. "If they do end up killing thousands of citizens with these candy bars, we can expect a war to wage between the two countries."

Sylvia nodded. "That incident with Keith feels like child's play compared to this."

Courage looked at Loid. "Kepler was a terrorist who tried to kill the prime minister to start a war between two countries." Loid turned away from Courage. "He tried to use dogs."

Courage gasped. He looked at the candy bar having not realized how dire the situation was. Loid leaned in. "If no symptoms had manifested in Franky, then how will we figure out the components of the candy?"

Courage scratched his head in deep thought. Suddenly, a lightbulb metaphorically appeared over his head. That's it, he thought. Courage rolled his chair back and sprinted out of the room leaving the two agents in a state of uncertainty. "I assume the dog has some idea?"

Loid shrugged. Courage stood outside of the Westalian Intelligence facility and dialed someone up. Within minutes, a big truck rolled up, and out came a human-sized mouse with an anchor tattoo. He had on a white shirt and curvy, blue jeans. He also had a blue cap on his head. He opened the back of the moving truck and wheeled out a package with a red-hand truck. He gave Courage a clipboard that Courage signed for. "Thanks, Mr. Mouse."

"No prob," the rodent replied. He tipped his hat to the small dog and climbed into the driver's seat and sped off. Courage wheeled the package into the meeting room. "What is that, Courage?" Loid asked.

Courage lifted the roof of the box out coming a computer. The computer shuttered awake in a drunken stupor. "Uhhhh...why all the light?"

"A talking computer?" the Handler noted, "looks like it was literally shipped here in about...two minutes?"

Courage gently removed the computer from the casing and Styrofoam peanuts. He placed the monitor and keyboard on the table. "Careful, Courage...I downloaded a few things...maybe viruses. I feel rather faint."

Courage nodded in understanding. The computer sat there to complete some updates. "My, you are a beautiful woman, if you don't mind my inquiry," the computer said to the Handler. This gave a slightly-amused grin to the woman.

"Call me Sylvia Sherwood," she replied. "From what Courage was doing, I assume that you are able to identify what is in this candy bar?"

She planted it in front of the computer. "Certainly. Maybe you can tell me more about yourself as well?"

Sylvia laughed. "Sure, I would love to."

Courage retched at the obvious flirtation going on and broke off a small piece of the candy bar. Not too big, but also not too petite. He pushed a button on the machine's panel and placed it like a disk. He then pushed the button again to make it load. The computer scanned it for a few seconds. "Hm... quite odd."

"What is it?" Loid asked.

"I am picking up traces of small robots. Nanobots if you want the proper term."

"What are these robots doing inside the candy bar?"

"Typically, they are understood to be used for healing internal injuries even fight off illnesses...except take note of this."

The computer manifested a video on its screen and zoomed in. "See how they are rapidly multiplying in split seconds. Two then four. Eight. Ten. You get the idea."

As the computer had said, the nanobot was constantly splitting itself apart and multiplying. "Whatever the intention this candy factory you described has for these nanobots is not pretty."

Sylvia grimaced. "We will keep Franky on high alert. I will keep you updated on that, Loid."

Loid nodded. "We need that antidote, Courage."

Courage whined in agreement.

Yor returned to her home exhausted. Blood stained her casual clothing and smeared all over her face. Tufts of hair were also present on her outfit in some odd places. As she walked, she left a trail of crimson red shoe prints. Normally she would have been more meticulous with keeping herself in tip top shape, but she had a few mishaps with the latest job. She spits a few wads of hair that somehow traveled to her mouth. The blood made her hands feel sticky when she tried to worm her fingers into her pocket to withdraw the keys to her room. If she were lucky, she could take a long, hot bath and bleach her white shirt and undergarments to get rid of the incriminating evidence. Of course, also cleaned up all the tracks she was making. Now if only she could get her keys before anyone noticed.

"Oh, good afternoon, Miss Forger."

Yor turned around at the sound of the familiar Scottish woman's voice. "Oh, Muriel...good afternoon."

"Oh, dear. You look like you had a rough day. What is all that red stuff on your clothes?"

Earlier that day, there was a group of seven possums around the size of a 6 ft human but two exceptionally large behemoths as well. They were heavily dressed in gangster attire with the two largest of the marsupials wheeling in boxes of fake votes. The leader was slightly frailer and smoked a cigar. He had a balding hairline and aftershave. He waved his furless tail which was sliced off halfway down from an initiation ritual. "Excellent, boys."

He gave one of the muscular possums the okay to wheel in another box of fake votes. "We have been paid great oodles of money if we get the prime minister voted out of office. We will be living the good life, boys."

Two possums, Otis and Maurice were wheeling in two more boxes when they noticed someone casually walking in. "Otis, you see that?"

Otis turned and saw a black-haired woman wearing a matching halter-style dress. She had what appeared to be a golden headband with roses welded to it. She reached for two sharp blades that came from the headband. Maurice, being muscle-clad and towering over the woman stepped forward with his hands up. "Hey, ma'am, this isn't the place for a girl such as you."

"Oh really?"

While the lead possum kept chattering and going through the fake votes, he noticed Maurice standing at the door. Putting the forged votes down on the table, he slowly got out of his seat. "Maurice? What ya standing there for?"

Maurice did not respond. The other possums started getting alarmed as well. The lead possum tapped his foot in frustration. "Maurice, this is no time to play dead so stop scaring us."

The hulking marsupial remained there motionless with only his eyes widening. Before the big cheese could respond, Maurice collapsed on his knees and hit the ground hard enough to shake it on its foundation. The other possums cautiously approached the fallen goliath uncertain of what had done the trick. Either he was so huge his heart exploded from the difficulty of pumping all that blood. Or maybe a stroke? Between the possum's upper hip and tail was a dart.

"What in the world?"

The woman from before entered the room still wielding her daggers. "So, this is where some dirty rats are trying to overturn an election." The leader stood behind a few of his men and used the third one as a shield. Blood dripped down from one of the raised blades.

"So, may you please die?"

The leader screamed as the Thorn Princess approached him.

Yor giggled nervously. "Uh...I was working in the kitchen at Berlint City Hall making some tomato soup, but then...um. Some rats came and they caused me to slip and my clothes got badly drenched."

Muriel tapped her chin. Yor gulped. If the woman was not going to buy her claim, what was she to do? She couldn't remove her from the equation to hide her identity, but if it had to come down to that...Yor just mentally prepared herself for the worst response.

"Oh, my. That sounds really unfortunate. You need help getting those spots out?"

Yor waved her hand. "I appreciate the offer, Miss Muriel, but I can take care of it myself."

Muriel beckoned her to her room across the hall. "No, no. I insist. After all, Courage and Eustace have not come back soon, and from the looks of it, Mr. Loid and Anya are not home yet either."

Thinking about it, Yor nodded. "Sure. I'll let you clean my clothes. Could I borrow your bathroom as well?"

"Of course. I was actually going to start dinner. I can always use another helping hand."