Q&A
It was about 10:00 PM, and Eustace and Muriel's house was becoming quite crowded by now. Once inside, the villains and the Duck Brothers made a beeline for the kitchen. Everyone else rested in the living room. First, however, Kevin decided to relocate his unconscious parents, as well as Eustace and Muriel, to a safer place. That place turned out to be the upstairs bedroom. Agents Gammon, Barsby, and Darkest Moon helped carry Mr. Henderson upstairs to the bedroom. Agent R and Kevin helped carry Mrs. Henderson, while Zalost and Shirley carried Eustace. "The stupid one is a lot heavier than he looks," groaned Shirley. Courage picked up Muriel by himself, like he always does from time to time. You could tell Sandy was impressed by Courage's feat of strength.
Anyway, Eustace and Muriel were put to bed, while Mr. and Mrs. Henderson lay down on the rug. Then, everyone walked back down the stairs. They were all a little bewildered by everything that was going on. The agents, Kevin, and Katie rested on the sofa and chairs, as Sandy sat on the bottom stair. Shirley and Zalost seemed reluctant to enter the kitchen, so they decided to wait until the villains were done eating. Courage peeked into the kitchen as Katz and his friends were still raiding the fridge and cupboards. Courage walked back over to Sandy and whined. He was still a little on edge because of those villains, but he felt safe as long as he kept his distance from them. When Sandy asked what was wrong, Courage decided to tell her about some of his past encounters with the visitors in the kitchen. Sandy listened with wide eyes as Courage quickly summarized his adventures with Katz and his cohorts.
A moment later, the agents decided to go in the kitchen and check on the bad guys. They were surprised to see a ruckus going on at the fridge. Everyone was trying to get at the last piece of leftover roast, except Doc Gerbil, who was eating a slice of cake at the table. It took Agent R a few tries to get everyone's attention. When he did, he said, "Could you please form a single-file line in front of the fridge, please?" Reluctantly, everyone agreed.
Back in the living room, Kevin, Katie, the dogs, Shirley, and Zalost were watching TV. At this hour, all that was on were cop shows and news reports on the local channels. The minute Kevin clicked off the tube, someone in the kitchen yelled, "FOODFIGHT!" Everyone got up in time to see food and items flying around the kitchen by both villains and agents.
D.M. stumbled out of the war and into Kevin.
"What's going on?" asked Kevin.
D.M. got up and said, "Apparently, Gammon and that orange fox with the glasses got into an argument about the best stew ingredients or something. Then, one thing led to another…"
Kevin sighed and stomped into the kitchen in time to see Agent R banging on a pot with a spoon and shouting for everyone to go into the living room. Slowly, everyone grabbed a towel and wiped themselves clean as they headed for the living room.
Agent R turned and saw Doc Gerbil finishing up his cake. "I'm comig," he said with his mouth full.
Two minutes later, everyone was seated around the living room. The question-and-answer session was about to begin. The villains were in one corner of the room, either sitting on the floor or leaning against the wall. Shirley and Zalost sat on the stairs. Kevin, Katie, Courage, and Sandy sat on the couch. The Duck Brothers sat on the armchair, and the agents stood and walked around the room.
"So, where is this treasure?" asked Katz before anyone could speak. As a response, Agent R proudly held up the printed copies of Dr. Stromwell's biography and handed them to the villains and the Duck Bros. After a minute, Le Quack said, "Zees does not say where this, how you say, Stromwell character lived." The other villains agreed.
"That's why we're still here," said Barsby with a smug look on his face.
"Well, we're not leaving either, see?" argued Foot Fungus.
"Not until we get our hands on that treasure," replied Katz. Foot Fungus coughed as Katz realized he'd said a poor choice of words in front of Foot Fungus, and quickly apologized.
"Treasure doesn't interest us," said the green duck.
"But I like going on treasure hunts!" said the blue duck.
"Yes," admitted the green duck. "Searching for treasure is more fun for us than the treasure itself, especially with others."
"What a bunch of quacks," whispered Cajun Fox to the Weremole, who chuckled quietly.
Everything was quiet for a few moments.
"So," said Kevin, breaking the ice. "Who's going first?"
"Why don't you go first?" asked Katz, eyeing Kevin. "My friends and I are most curious as to who you are and how you fit into all this." The agents, Zalost, and Shirley were curious as well.
So, Kevin told them all about his family's previous adventure with Courage (which I'm sure you're all familiar with by now), everything from the founders of Nowhere to the labyrinth under the town. All the listeners were astounded by the story and how much detail Kevin included in it. Hard to believe it only happened almost a month ago. Kevin decided to keep Sandy's relationship with Courage as nondescript as possible while telling the story, much to their relief. Still, some of the listeners had the feeling that it was more serious than Kevin described, but they didn't say anything about it.
When Kevin was done, Shirley and some of the villains spoke up saying that they'd heard about that sand vortex Kevin had talked about, but they never knew what it was.
Then it was the agents' turn. Katz asked them flat out who they were and why they were here.
"Alright," announced Agent R. "My name is Agent R and these are my partners, Agents Gammon, Barsby, and Darkest Moon. We have been sent by our superior to investigate this town and its bizarre events."
"Well, be prepared for a long wait," said Le Quack.
"Yeah," agreed Doc Gerbil. "There's so much freaky stuff going on in this here town it'll take y'all yer whole lives just to catalog 'em."
"So, that's it?" asked Kevin. "No 'hidden agenda' or anything?"
"Of course not," replied Agent R.
"Then why aren't you acting like the agents you're supposed to be?" asked Shirley.
"For your information," snapped Gammon. "The four of us will be leaving our secret agent profession once this assignment is finished."
The villains were definitely pleased by this news, but Katz said, "How do we know you're not going to give this assignment to your superior anyway? Because we certainly can't allow you to do that."
Agent R didn't want to get into another quarrel with these guys, so he said, "We'll send in a fake assignment, okay? Happy? And since you're so talkative, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourselves?"
The villains would not say anything about their pasts, except that they had met "that stupid dog" several times before. Sandy got angry by that remark, and to everyone's surprise, the villains seemed to back down from her! Kevin calmed Sandy down and asked how they had gotten into the Duck Brother's space ship. The villains explained the events of last night (from chapter 13) and went on to say that they had woken up on the Duck Brother's ship. The Duck Brothers cut in and explained that it was all a big mistake and had apologized before. The villains, being so stubborn, got into an argument with them right then, saying things like, "You could have kept us in better places than in tanks of water," and, "Don't make us sic the weremole on you again." (The full story of what happened on the ship will be written in an extra chapter once this story is completed.)
The agents calmed everyone down yet again. D.M. said, "And that's when you all crashed here, correct?" Everyone nodded. "Okay. Who's next?"
"How about you two?" asked Agent R in the direction of Zalost and Shirley. All eyes were on them as Agent R said to Shirley, "Why don't we start with you, um…"
"Shirley," she said.
"Right, Shirley."
"Well," began Shirley as she got to her feet. "I know all about this town's long history of strange and unusual occurrences. I have done extensive research on the town of Nowhere. For instance, I already knew about the story of the town's founders, but, thanks to Kevin's story, I now have a clearer understanding of them. That is one reason why I became a medium. To understand and experience these events firsthand! Many people, including Courage have come to me seeking help and guidance. I…"
"Get to the point, please," said Katz impatiently.
Shirley glared at Katz as she continued. "My crystal ball can pick up these abnormal occurrences, and I decide if they're of any interest to me. Late last night, my crystal ball detected the ghost of Leonard Stromwell, who has no doubt returned."
"Yes," spoke up Dr. Zalost. "I was awakened that night by a strange dream. I was walking through a hall of statues and suddenly, in front of me, one of them came to life! I recognized it as Stromwell himself. I know because us doctors have always been interested in other area doctors. Anyway, I asked the statue why he was coming to life. It answered, 'because I have returned!' That's when I woke up. The next morning, I went over to Shirley's gypsy wagon and together, we spent the entire day looking for information about Stromwell."
"Unfortunately," said Shirley, who had been reading Stromwell's bio. "We didn't learn much besides what was on this paper." She waved the bio in the air.
"Okay," said Kevin, who got to his feet. "We all know why we're here now. So…"
"Uh, actually," said the green duck. "There's no real reason why we're here, except to help out."
"Yes," agreed the blue duck as the orange duck nodded. "Space can get kind of boring after all."
"Uh-huh. As I was saying," said Kevin. "Despite the fact that we're all here, there are still questions that need to be answered. For example, how could Leo Stromwell and his wife simply disappear from Nowhere without a trace? How could he reappear again in San Francisco five years later and why? And what about this document that Agent R found?" Kevin lifted up the paper. "It says, 'I've done it! The gateway is open!' What does that mean?"
"Well, I don't know about those questions," replied Katz coolly. "But there is only one question me and my fellow evil doers are concerned with: Where is Dr. Stromwell's treasure?"
All was silent for a moment. Then, as Kevin was about to tell Katz to shut up and stop asking that question, a loud, deep, ancient voice pierced the silence:
"I believe I…can answer that question."
Everyone stopped and whirled around to the source of the sound. Katie shrieked and grabbed Sandy and Courage, who were holding onto each other in fear. Kevin and everyone else in the room slowly got to their feet, their eyes getting wider by the second.
Standing a full one foot, eight inches in front of the open basement door, was Mr. Furry…who was the physical embodiment of the spirit known only as Dr. Leo Stromwell.