"Cemeteries, Popcorn, and Evil Plans"

By this time, the first stars began appearing in the sky. At the old drive-in theater on the outskirts of Nowhere, two vehicles drove through the front gates. One was the Henderson's station wagon. The other was Eustace's truck. The two vehicles parked side by side in front of the giant screen.

Courage got out of the truck. He felt that Eustace and Muriel should spend some time together, although Courage had a feeling that Eustace would be more interested in the movie than in Muriel. Courage walked up to the Henderson's car, jumped onto the hood, and climbed up the windshield to the roof. Kevin and Sandy had already set up a small inflatable couch on the roof. Courage sat on the couch next to Sandy. They exchanged some friendly greetings as they watched their families get ready for the movie. The film was starting in about 15 minutes, so the Hendersons went to get some refreshments. During that time, Sandy told Courage all about her stay in San Francisco. She had seen so many interesting landmarks, like the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, and Alcatraz Island. Courage was enjoying every bit of it...until Sandy talked about the cemetery. Courage felt a chill go through him as Sandy recalled the strange events that went on in the cemetery.

The cemetery that the Hendersons visited was the largest cemetery in the city. From the moment they set foot in that place, they felt very uncomfortable. You may recall, their last experience with ghosts occurred only a few days before. In fact, the only reason the Hendersons went there at all was because Aunt Vivian and Uncle Mike recommended it. Not wanting to be rude, the Hendersons reluctantly accepted. The tour had come and gone, and the Hendersons were just about to leave the place when they noticed that Katie was missing! They went back to search for her. Kevin found her staring in awe at a huge tombstone with an elaborate angel on it. Kevin led her back to the front of the cemetery. That's when Katie remembered she had left Mr. Furry back at the tombstone.

"So Kevin, Katie, and I went back and found Mr. Furry, and then all of us left," said Sandy. "And now, Katie has been acting peculiar ever since."

Courage was speechless. Sandy's spooky story had left him feeling very nervous and jittery.

"There's more," whispered Sandy. "The area around the grave had no grass growing on it. There wasn't a living thing growing within ten feet of the tombstone. It's almost as if someone wanted it that way." The way Sandy said that made Courage's fur stand on end. "That's not the worst part though." Courage's eyes widened as Sandy continued. "As we were walking back, I saw Katie talking to Mr. Furry, but it was as if she was engaging in an actual conversation with it!"

Courage let out a sharp whine of fear.

Sandy looked at Courage with a look of worry on her face. "I've never seen her talk to that bear like that before. And Kevin knows about it too."

Courage thought for a second. "You think...?"

"The cemetery? Of course the cemetery caused her to act like this. But as to how and why, it's anyone's guess."

Courage gulped. Fortunately the movie began playing right at that moment. "Whew," said Courage. This movie was just the thing to take his mind off of all this scariness.

The movie wasn't really that great. It was some type of cheap thriller/romance involving some overacting hero trying to save the town and the girl at the same time. The adults got a big kick out of it though. Kevin spent most of the time observing Katie. He noticed that she was talking to Mr. Furry more frequently than ever before. Kevin thought about coming out and asking her what was going on, but for some inexplicable reason, he didn't. All Kevin knew for sure was that Katie began acting this way the moment they left the cemetery in San Francisco. He wanted to ask Sandy about it, but he knew she was a little preoccupied at the moment.

Courage and Sandy watched the movie on top of the Henderson's car, paw in paw. Courage felt so comfortable sitting next to Sandy on the inflatable sofa. However, he was getting so wrapped up in the movie, he forgot Sandy was even there. That is, until a romantic scene near the end of the movie, when Sandy, after some thought, planted a quick kiss on Courage's cheek. Courage turned his head and was met with Sandy's embarrassed smile. Courage just smiled back at her. They both looked at each other for a moment, then...well, let's just say neither of them saw the end of the movie.

When the movie ended, Kevin had the embarrassing task of alerting the dogs that it was time to go home. Kevin was a little shocked to see Sandy embracing Courage, since he never expected Sandy to have such an affection towards Courage so soon. But Kevin quickly accepted it and broke the two of them up. Courage and Sandy were slightly embarrassed, and Courage walked back to the truck feeling rather light-headed and relaxed.

"What did you do that for?" asked an irritated Sandy to Kevin.

"It's time to go home," answered Kevin.

Sandy sighed with annoyance as she climbed into the car. "Sorry," called out Kevin.

The ride back home was uneventful. Once at the house, a wave of exhaustion came over everybody. The Hendersons once again thanked Eustace and Muriel for letting them stay at their house. Then, everyone went to sleep except Courage, who stayed up and watched the stars for a few minutes. All in all, the evening had been very interesting.

However, on the other side of town, the four agents were wide awake. Agent R had been informed by the other agents about the motel's tenants. At first, Agent R didn't believe them, but then they showed him the sign-in book. Katz was in the restroom at the time, so he didn't see the agents looking through the bizarre names in the book. Agent R began getting a weird feeling just then, and he told his partners that he believed them.

Now it was late, and the agents were in their rooms. Agent Barsby had finished brushing his teeth while Agent Gammon was sketching something in his notepad.

Barsby peeked over Gammon's shoulder. He saw two sketches surrounded by Gammon's notes. One was of a mean-looking armadillo with the name Rex printed next to it. The other looked a bit like Sonic the Hedgehog, only darker and more sinister.

"What are you doing?" asked Barsby.

Gammon quickly closed his notebook. "Nothing," he snapped.

"You're supposed to be writing notes about this place!" reminded Barsby.

"I am! Will you quit whining about it?" shouted Gammon.

Barsby turned and walked back into the restroom. "A few more days with that lunatic and I'll go crazy," thought Barsby. "But I can't give this mission up. I'll have to put up with him as best I can."

Gammon was wrapped up in his own thoughts at that moment. "Can I help it if I show my creative brilliance every once in a while? I don't see why that guy has to be so intrusive anyway."

Barsby came back into the room. "So, are we going into town tomorrow?"

Gammon put his notebook into his suitcase. "Absolutely. We need more people to investigate if we want a full report."

"Well, are we prepared?"

Gammon glanced at Barsby. "We're agents, remember? We're always prepared."

"I'm not prepared!" whined Agent Darkest Moon in the adjacent room.

"What do mean?" asked Agent R. He had just climbed into bed. D.M. was pacing around the room.

"I don't know if I have all the experience I need to carry out an investigation tomorrow."

"You should've thought about that before you signed up for this," mumbled Agent R.

"What?! I never 'signed up' for this! I was tossed head-first into this case!" blurted D.M.

"Hey, we all were, OK?" argued Agent R.

After a brief pause, Agent R spoke up. "Look, I'm sorry. It's late and I tend to get like this when I don't get enough sleep. I'm sure you'll do just fine tomorrow."

"Really?" asked D.M.

"Sure! Just keep that camera clicking." Agent R then turned out the light.

Agent D.M. got into the other bed. Agent R was right. All four agents had been thrown into this mess for no reason, and now they would just have to carry it out as best they could.

"R?" asked D.M.

"What?"

"What if we run into that pink dog the tenants were talking about?"

Agent R sighed. "We'll worry about that once we see him. If the dog is as evil as everyone says he is, we might have to interrogate him. Now, let's get some sleep, OK?"

D.M. agreed. "Oh, and D.M.?" asked Agent R.

"Yes?"

"Call me Jonathan. I'm sick of everyone referring to me as a letter of the alphabet."

"OK," smiled D.M. With that, she closed her eyes and wondered if anything interesting would happen tomorrow.

She didn't know that something was already happening twenty feet below her.

In the motel basement, a long table was set up in the middle of the room. Seated at the table were the hotel tenants and some special guests. Katz was at one end of the table, while Eustace's Ma sat at the other end. The others included Le Quack, Doc Gerbil, Foot Fungus, the Weremole, Mad Dog, and the Queen of the Black Puddle.

Eustace's Ma was trying to get everyone in order. "OK, everyone, settle down! Hey, mole! Stop chewing on the table!"

A glass of water stood on the table in front of Katz. He took a spoon and knocked it against the glass. The "ting, ting, ting!" sound got everyone's attention. "Now then," said Katz, calmly. "Does everyone know why we're here?"

"TO GET THAT STUPID DOG!!!" shouted everyone.

Katz sighed. "Yes, I know that's all on your minds, but I'm afraid we have an even bigger problem right now. There are government agents taking residence in this very motel!"

An mild uproar ensued. Voices declaring "What?! Is that really true?" and "I knew it!" echoed off the walls.

Katz continued. "I understand that some of you have been interviewed by these agents, am I right?"

"You got that right!" shouted Doc Gerbil. "I had a feeling that guy was working for the government."

"One of zem tried to interview me, but I did not allow him in," declared Le Quack.

"I almost got rid of one," said the Queen.

"Yeah, and I tried to step on one. Nyah," said the Foot's big toe.

"Right," said Katz. "And those of you who were interviewed made sure to tell them about Courage and his 'evil behavior', right?"

The interviewees nodded and laughed evilly.

"Why would you do that?" asked the little toe on the Foot.

"Because," said Katz. "It will mislead the agents into thinking Courage is evil like us. Then, once they come across him, they'll get rid of him for us!"

"Yeah," said the Big Toe. He then hit the toe next to his head, which caused a chain reaction to the little toe, who then cried, "Ow! What'd I say? What'd I say?"

Ma spoke up next. "But right now, we need to focus on getting the agents out of this motel! That is our current goal!"

"Correct!" agreed Katz. "Now, Ma and I have come up with a plan that will eradicate these agents from our motel. Now, due to the time it will take to set everything up, we will need to wait until tomorrow night to put it in action."

"And then, we focus on Courage?" asked Mad Dog.

"Precisely," said Katz. Being a cat, he wasn't particularly pleased with Mad Dog being near him, but Mad Dog's thoughts were more on Courage than they were on him, so he had nothing to worry about.

"Good," growled Mad Dog. "Because ever since he took Bunny away from me I've wanted to just grab that dog's neck and..." He was so enraged, he couldn't finish his sentence. Instead, he took a rubber ball from his pocket and squeezed it until it popped. Everyone else admired how much anger he had towards Courage.

"Well...everyone gather round," said Katz. "Here's what I want everybody to do...."

As Katz discussed his plan, the clock struck midnight.