The Things I Do For Family
Chapter 5
That night, Courage had another realistic dream, just like the others before, but this time, it took place on the alien planet he was on. In the dream, Courage saw his mom lying on the ground but something seemed to be wrong with her because her abdomen was larger than normal and she was breathing heavily. It was obvious what was going on: Lily was going into labor. Her legs were spread out and Henry was sitting in front of his wife making the delivery.
"That's it, Lily, you're doing fine, now push." said Henry. Lily took in a deep breath and pushed. All the other dogs that Lily and Henry were marooned with were standing around Lily, watching her give birth. Each one of them whispered words of encouragement to Lily.
"Push, Lily." said Henry. Lily breathed in and gave another push. The pain as well as her exhaustion was visible on her face.
"Don't give up, Lily." said Henry. "You're so close. Don't give up." Lily breathed in and gave in another push, putting in every last ounce of strength left in her. Instantly, it was all over. There was nothing but silence except for the sound of the crying new born.
Henry raised the little infant to his face. The puppy was small and covered in pink fur. She silently squealed and chirped in her father's arms. Tears of joy were in Henry's eyes as he admired the little puppy he held in his paws.
"Well?" asked a Dalmatian from the group of dogs.
"Well what?" asked Henry.
"Is it a boy or a girl?" asked the Dalmatian. Henry checked the puppy.
"It's a girl." said Henry. There was some excited whispers from the dogs. Henry walked over to his wife and gave the puppy to her. Lily looked into the eyes of the little infant and tears of joy filled her eyes but the smile on her face quickly faded.
"What's wrong, Lily?" asked Henry.
"I just wish our son was here to see her." said Lily.
"I know how you feel." said Henry sadly. "He would have been a good brother to her."
Courage woke up with the words of his father still ringing in his mind. From within the damaged space ship, Courage had been sleeping there in his sleeping bag that night. While still in his sleeping back, Courage sat up and stretched his arms into the air. Courage stared through the dim light of the ship, thinking about his dream. Courage was surprised by the dream and he wondered why he had that dream and why he had those other dreams as well.
"What are those dreams trying to tell me?" thought Courage. As Courage continued to stare at the walls of the ship, he realized how much Misty must have meant to not just his parents but to the other dogs as well. Each and everyone of them worked hard to keep her alive and raise her, possibly even giving up their own food rations for her sake. It must have been a happy moment for those dogs to see that all their hard work had paid off. As Courage thought about all this, he then realized that perhaps he was too hard on Misty and decided to apologize to her after breakfast, after all, it wasn't her fault that his parents died. Courage crawled out of his sleeping bag and pulled out a can of dog food from his back pack.
Meanwhile, Misty was busy fishing in the river located in the ravine. She was wearing her quiver of arrows on her shoulder and she had her bow strapped onto her other shoulder. In her paw was a long spear and she held the spear into the air like a statue. She watched the fish as they swam by in the shallow river. The fish, however, didn't look like fish seen on Earth because they were a foot long and they swam through the river like eels. They all had rainbow colored scales that sparkled in the morning sun light. Misty watched the unusual fish swim by and when one was within shot, Misty plunged the spear through one of the fish and lifted it into the air. The fish flapped around madly while it still remained squared by the spear. While it was still alive, Misty pulled the fish off the spear and placed it into a basket of fish at the shore. She had six fish in the basket and she was ready to carry them off so she could eat them.
Thirty minutes later, the fish had all been cooked and devoured by Misty and all that remained was a pit of ashes where a fire once stood, a pile of fish bones, and one stuffed dog sitting right next to all of it. Misty burped loudly.
"Man, I sure out done myself." said Misty. Suddenly, she heard the sound of movement nearby. At first, she thought it was Courage but she quickly realized that it couldn't have been him because the sound sounded like multiple feet. Curious, Misty climbed the side of the ravine while carrying her bow and arrows and peaked over the side of the ravine. She gasped as she noticed several large quadruped and small bipedal creatures heading towards Courage's ship in the distance. They were too far away to make out but judging from how they reflected the light and how they were silver colored, Misty could tell that they were robots. Misty knew from experience that robots mean bad news so she had to find Courage and warn him. She hoisted herself onto the ledge and sprinted towards Courage's ship.
Back on the ship, Courage was cleaning up his dishes when his super sensitive ears heard the sound of something mechanical moving towards the ship. Courage picked up his baseball bat and opened the door to see outside. He gasped in horror as he saw a herd of robots heading his way. The quadruped robots resembled elephants but they were moving faster than any elephant on Earth and instead of a trunk, tusks, and large floppy ears, the head of each of the robots had large sharp teeth lined up in a big mouth. There was also smaller bipedal robots accompanying the larger ones. They resembled the two legged robots from "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi" but they were only four feet tall, had large robotic arms tipped with three fingered hands, and large cameras were mounted on their heads, possibly to enable them to see. There was at least a dozen bipedal robots and they were moving ahead of the larger robots and moving hastily towards Courage.
Courage screamed in horror as he watched the robots heading towards him. He ran out of the ship and started sprinting away. The two legged robots immediately pursued Courage and they were gaining fast. Courage ran until he ran past a pile of boulders and stopped when he heard someone say, "Courage, in here." Courage turned around and noticed Misty in front of a hole in the pile of boulders. Courage did as he was told and followed Misty into the hole. After squeezing himself into the hole, Courage quickly realized that the hole was dark and cramped making it hard for him to move. Courage couldn't see anything outside in the darkness but he could hear the robots outside, searching for him. Misty laid scrunched up along side Courage. The two dogs listened carefully, making sure not to make a sound. Courage was so afraid, he didn't noticed how long he had been stuck there but it felt like forever.
Finally, the sound of the robots leaving was heard and Courage and his sister crawled out of the rocky hole.
"What are those?" asked Courage.
"That was one of Dr. Stromwell's androids." said Misty. Courage gasped at the sound of the name.
"Stromwell, he's here?" asked Courage.
"Yes, he's here." said Misty. "Why? Do you know him?" Courage didn't answer. He just stood there staring in shock. He couldn't believe that he had never thought of this before. Stromwell was sent to this same planet and he must have been here ever since.
"Courage...?" said Misty when Courage didn't answer.
"Dr. Stromwell is here?" asked Courage.
"Yes." said Misty. "He crashed landed here about a year and a half ago and when he came here, he was kidnapped by the aliens. I don't know what happened between Stromwell and the aliens but at some point, the aliens started serving Stromwell. It was under his orders that the aliens had kidnapped the dogs and performed those experiments on them and our parents." Suddenly, an anger flooded Courage's body. Once again, Stromwell had taken his parents away from him and once again, Courage couldn't stop him. Courage began to turn red with anger and tears of sadness began to fill his eyes.
"Courage, what's wrong?" asked Misty as she noticed Courage becoming upset. Misty was about to say more but didn't get a chance because she and Courage had just noticed that one of the bipedal robots had found them again.
"Run." shouted Misty and she and Courage took off running with the robots following close behind. Even though both Courage and Misty were light on their feet (AN: That's an expression), the robots, none the less, were gaining fast and both dogs knew that they can't out run them for very long. Searching for something that could help him, Misty and Courage noticed that they were heading towards the ravine.
"Lets hide in the ravine." said Misty. The two dogs sprinted towards the ravine, putting in every ounce of strength they had. Courage reached the ravine first and with a mighty leap, he jumped off the edge and landed hard on the ground below. Misty, however, was not so lucky. Before she could reach the ravine, one of the robots grabbed her by the midsection with its two big claws.
"Hey, let go." said Misty as she tried to struggle out of the robot's grasp. Courage caught a glimpse of Misty as she was hauled away by the robots.
"Courage, help me." shouted Misty. Courage climbed the side of the ravine so could peaked over the side. Upon reaching the top, he saw Misty being carried away by the robots and was being brought to one of the larger quadruped robots. Misty shot a few arrows at the robot that held her but the arrows simply bounced off the robot. Eventually, her quiver of arrows was removed from Misty's shoulder and her bow was also taken. Misty was thrown into the mouth of one of the bipedal robots and the robot swallowed Misty in one gulp. The sides of the robot then opened up revealing a cage where Misty had been dumped into after being swallowed. Misty grabbed onto the bars of the cage and looked out in fear as the robots began to take her away. Misty sat in that empty cage, wondering where the robots were taking her.
Courage watched in fear as the robots walked off with his sister. It was against Courage's kind nature to just sit back and allow Misty to endure a possibly horrible fate, so he followed the robots stealthily while holding his baseball bat in one paw, ready to use it when necessary. Courage's heart pounded with nervousness and tension as he followed the robots because he feared what may happen if he was spotted. The robots led Courage to a large fortress that looked like a huge step ladder pyramid but it was made out of metals and stones and it was as tall as a small mountain. Courage was amazed at how high the building stretched but he didn't have much time to admire its shear size. He turned his focus back to Misty and the robots but they had already gone inside through a large door that looked like a garage door. In order for Courage to find a way in, he examined the fortress, looking for an inconspicuous entrance. After circling the building a few times, he found what looked to be an air vent. Courage carefully climbed up the smooth surface of the wall and carefully ripped the vent off after reaching it. Courage then crawled into the air vent and as quietly as he could, he crawled through the building. As he crawled through the ventilation shaft, he looked out through the vents he came across and noticed not only androids in the building, but also aliens. The aliens were no more taller than Courage was and they were covered in green slippery and slimy looking skin. They all walked hunched over like primates and they had huge pointy ears that made them look like freakish gremlins. They all had small and thin legs that supported huge muscular chests and arms. All of the aliens spoke a language Courage had never heard before, possibly the race's own native tongue.
Courage crawled through the air ventilation shaft, peaking through vents in hopes of finding Misty or some clue as to how to find her. Courage's knees ached in pain and his back hurt from all the crawling. Courage was about to stop for rest until he noticed something pink through a nearby vent. Courage crawled over to the vent and to his relief, he saw Misty in the room. She was locked inside a metal cage and she appeared to be unguarded. Courage quickly kicked the vent off the wall, causing the vent to clatter loudly onto the ground. Misty was surprised by the sudden noise but was relieved when she noticed Courage climbing out of the vent.
"Courage, you've come to save me." said Misty.
"Are you all right?" asked Courage as he ran to her side.
"Yes, I'm fine." said Misty. "You're going to have to get the keys, they're hanging right there by the door." Misty was about to point out where the keys were but she instead gasped in horror when she noticed what was behind Courage.
"What's wrong, Misty?" asked Courage.
"Courage, so nice of you to join us." said a familiar and unfamiliar voice behind Courage. Courage spun around and grasped his bat with both paws, expecting a fight. Near the only exit to the room was four aliens, all of them were aiming laser weapons at Courage. Standing between the aliens was one humanoid figure who was covered in the same green skin as the aliens. He had rows upon rows of long yellow teeth and had a white mustache. He had long pointy ears and wore a white lab coat and white paints.
"Courage, long time no see." said the humanoid alien.
"Who are you and how do you know my name?" demanded Courage.
"Why Courage, don't you recognize me?" said the alien.
"You can understand me?" asked Courage in surprise.
"Why yes I can." said the alien. "It's a new power of mine."
"Just who are you?" demanded Courage. "I've never seen you before."
"Oh but you have." said the alien. "I am Dr. Stromwell." Courage gasped in horror as he recognized the freakish creature before him which was an altered version of the veterinarian who had sent his parents into outer space.