The Things I Do For Family
Chapter 7
As Misty dangled over the pit of acid, Dr. Stromwell pulled out a syringe from a nearby drawer. The syringe contained a lime green colored substance that emitted a soft glow. He walked over to Misty and said, "The substance in this pit is a highly dangerous acid that can burn flesh and mutate the cells. It is a horrible way to die if you were to be dipped into it. However, with an injection of this chemical, it should be able to spare her from that fate and instead mutate her into my own slave. Let the immunization begin." Dr. Stromwell raised his syringe and using his finger to guide the needle, Dr. Stromwell aimed for Misty's arm. Misty knew she couldn't resist so she turned her head away and closed her eyes out of fear. The needle of the syringe was about to enter Misty's arm when Courage shouted, "Stop." Dr. Stromwell and the goragons turned their heads towards Courage.
"Please, spare her, take me instead." pleaded Courage. Dr. Stromwell glared at Courage.
"You're not in the position to demand anything." said Dr. Stromwell.
"But you only need one test subject to see if your experiment will work." said Courage. "Please, take me instead." Dr. Stromwell thought to himself and then an evil grin crossed his face.
"Okay then, I will spare Misty and instead take you." said Dr. Stromwell. Courage wasn't foolish enough to believe that Dr. Stromwell would keep his end of the bargain but Courage had a plan. It was a wild and a desperate plan but it was the only one Courage had.
Dr. Stromwell walked over to Courage's cage and pulled out his keys. He unlocked the door and reached inside the cage but before he could grab Courage, Courage immediately bit down hard on Dr. Stromwell's hand. Courage than made a mad dash out of the cage but as he dove out of the cage, he also grabbed the set of keys that Dr. Stromwell was holding in his other hand. Courage bolted towards Misty with Stromwell's keys in one paw.
"Bega lom." shouted Dr. Stromwell which, in the goragon language, means "Stop him." The goragons all began to surround Courage but thanks to Courage's strength and agility, he effortlessly leaped over the goragons and continued to run towards Misty. Dr. Stromwell noticed that the goragon at the controls was still there, so he shouted, "Fora om enk el fet" which is goragon for "Drop her into the acid." Obeying orders, the goragon at the controls pushed a button and immediately, the table that Misty was strapped to plummeted towards the acid. Misty screamed in terror as she fell but Courage was close enough to leap into the air and shove the table out of the way before it hit the acid. Instead of hitting the acid, both Courage and Misty landed right next to the pit. Quickly, Courage used the keys he stole from Stromwell to unlock the restraint on Misty's right arm. Once her arm was freed, Courage was about to unlock the other restraints when he noticed that the goragons were heading towards him fast. Courage quickly shoved the keys into Misty's paw so she could finish unlocking herself.
In the meantime, Courage decided to defend his sister from the goragons. There were too many goragons for Courage to handle but none the less, he fought them off valiantly using all his hand-to-hand combat skills he had learned in China. But despite his strength and skill, Courage was repeatedly struck by the multiple attacks of the goragons at once, causing him to grow weaker and weaker. But Courage's valiant efforts to save his sister was not in vain because Misty had finished unlocking her shackles and she dove towards the goragons to help with the fight. Immediately, Misty struck one of the goragons in an uppercut and the goragon was flung through the air by the blow. He struck the side of the wall hard, rendering him dazed by the blow. Misty then dropped to the ground and using her legs, she knocked a nearby goragon to the ground. She then picked up the goragon and threw it at another goragon who was heading towards her. The fight became more easier for Courage once his sister joined in to help. She was fighting the goragons with a strength and agility that was superior to Courage's. She took down those goragons with a series of round house kicks, punches, karate chops, and other moves you would normally see in karate movies. With her brother's help, Misty fought off the goragons until they all laid haphazardly all over the floor, leaving only the two pink dogs in the middle and capable of admiring their handy work.
Dr. Stromwell, who had been watching the whole fight, just stood there, glaring at the two dogs. Both Courage and Misty were sweaty and bruised but they still looked threatening.
"You think you two are so tuff, do you?" said Dr. Stromwell. "You may have defeated my goragons but I'm still here. Let's see if you got what it takes." Both Misty and Courage charged towards Dr. Stromwell but Dr. Stromwell attempted to stop them by unleashing a fire ball from his mouth. Misty and Courage both jumped out of the way of the fire ball and the ball hit the smooth tiles of the laboratory and extinguished. Courage and Misty wasted no time in leaping towards Dr. Stromwell, grabbing onto both his arms and knocking him onto his back. Dr. Stromwell fought back by thrusting his arms together as if he was clapping and he struck the two dogs together in the head.
"Ouch." chorus Misty and Courage as they bumped heads. Stromwell was about to bump the two dogs together again but the dogs quickly rotated their bodies around Dr. Stromwell's arms so that when Stromwell tried to smash them together, the two dogs instead landed on the bottoms of their feet as if they were both standing on both sides of an invisible wall. Exerting as much strength as they could, Misty and Courage both pushed off each other, forcing Dr. Stromwell's arms apart. Once Courage and Misty were on the ground again, they each held onto Stromwell's arms as they ran towards Stromwell's head. Once they were side by side again, the two dogs began to twirl in place, causing Stromwell to be lifted off the ground by the centrifugal force caused by being spun around like that. Courage and Misty continued to spin around faster and faster until Courage shouted "Now" and the two dogs released their grip on Stromwell and he was tossed into a wall.
Courage and Misty gave each other a high five in celebration of how they managed to over power Stromwell. Before Stromwell could get back onto his feet, Courage and Misty charged at Stromwell and they began to repeatedly start karate kicking and punching Stromwell. As they fought, Stromwell proved to be tougher than the goragons because he displayed a great amount of agility and strength that easily rivaled Misty's and Courage's abilities, not to mention the fact that Stromwell's fire breathing ability was also fairly tuff to beat. Yet despite their weakened state from fighting the goragons, Misty and Courage held up strongly against Stromwell. However, Courage was not as good at combat as Misty was so Courage was taking the most damage. Courage was beginning to become a little dizzy from all those blows to the head. This left Courage vulnerable as Stromwell struck both Courage and Misty hard with both arms at once causing the two dogs to be tossed into the air. Courage landed hard against a small table that had a tray of tools on top of it causing the tray and its contents to spill out on the floor. Courage then fell off the table and landed hard on the floor, leaving him dazed and barely alert. Misty had landed on the floor a few yards away from Courage.
When Stromwell realized how vulnerable Courage was at the moment, he grinned evilly at his opportunity. From his mouth, he fired a fire ball and the fiery little ball was flying towards Courage. Misty saw the attack and ran towards Courage in order to save him. She noticed the spilt tray on the ground and thinking fast, she picked up the tray and struck the fire ball with the tray. The fire ball ricocheted off the tray and struck Stromwell in the chest, causing his lab coat to catch on fire. In a panic, Dr. Stromwell swatted at the flames in an attempt to put it out. In his panic, he started to walk backwards, unaware that the acid pit was right behind him. He fell backwards into the acid and landed in with a big splash.
Courage opened his eyes in time to watch Stromwell fall into the pit. His sister was at his side, making sure that he was all right. After a brief moment of silence, Dr. Stromwell bursted out of the acid pool, emitting a monstrous scream, but he didn't look the same. The genetic altering powers of the acid was destroying Stromwell's body, causing his flesh and cloths to melt off. He splashed around in that pool as if he was fighting off something that was pulling him down, screaming an inhuman howl all the while. The two dogs watched in horror as right before their eyes, Dr. Stromwell's flesh was melting off his bones. His skin was blackish-green and his flesh dissolved away causing Stromwell to become thinner and thinner. Eventually, Dr. Stromwell managed to crawl out of the acid bath and when he did, he looked like a walking skeleton with green skin stretched over bones and wearing torn clothing. Both Misty and Courage screamed in horror when they saw the morbid sight of Stromwell's altered body. What remained of Stromwell slowly walked towards Courage and Misty, dragging its feet and raising his arms forwards like a zombie. Misty and Courage both backed away from the zombie of Stromwell as it walked closer but it only took a few steps before Stromwell fell forwards, landing on his front, and there he remained, motionless.
Misty and Courage walked to the body that lay on the ground. Their canine sixth sense told Misty and Courage that Stromwell was indeed dead.
"That was a horrible way to die, even for Stromwell." said Misty. Courage, on the other hand, was rather happy that Stromwell got what he deserved. To have him suffer the same horrible death he had inflicted on Courage's parents and many other dogs. He was snapped out of his thoughts when Misty said, "We better get out of here before the goragons find out what happened."
"You're right, we got to get out of here." said Courage.
"But how are we going to get out of here without being seen by the goragons?" asked Misty. Courage put his paw to his chin as he thought to himself. He observed the lab and noticed an air vent.
"We can escape through that air vent." said Courage.
"Good idea, Courage." said Misty. The two of them ran to the vent but it was too high for them to reach. They quickly found two chairs and they stacked the chairs on each other in front of the vent in order to give them leverage. Courage climbed to the top of the stack of chairs. He tried to reach the vent but he was too short.
"I can't reach it." said Courage. After thinking for a moment, Misty got an idea. She backed up from Courage, started running towards him, did a few back flips, and then leaped into the air and, like a gymnast, she landed squarely on Courage's shoulders. Courage let out a gasp of air out of surprise of having Misty land on his shoulder. Misty, while standing on Courage, was now capable of reaching the air vent. She carefully unscrewed the screws and then removed the vent. She then climbed into the vent and then helped Courage inside the vent. The two dogs crawled through the maze of air vents until they finally found the vent that Courage had entered the building with. Once out in the open, Courage and his sister ran off together, back to Courage's ship.
With nothing to do but sit around and wait for help to answer their distress call, Courage and Misty sat next to the ship, swapping stories about their lives. The two laughed at each other's misfortunes, even after the sun went down and the stars shown brightly in the sky. It was when the stars came out that Misty said, "Courage, I just want to say, thanks, for saving my life back there. When I was falling towards that acid, I thought I was a goner for sure."
"Well you saved my life back there when you knocked that fire ball away from me." pointed out Courage.
"Hey, what good are brothers and sisters for if they can't save your life now and then." said Misty.
"I guess you're right." said Courage with a laugh. "But there is something I still can't figure out. Where did you learn how to fight like that?"
"Oh, well, there was a Dalmatian named Charlie who had an owner who was a black belt and a master in different forms of martial arts." explained Misty. "I became interested and he ended up teaching me how to fight. I was a natural." Misty displayed her talent by throwing a few punches into the air. Courage giggled at the display.
Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted when they saw a bright light in the sky. The two dogs looked up in astonishment when they saw a dome shaped ship beginning to descend towards the ground. Both Courage and Misty watched fearfully as the ship landed next to the ruins of Courage's space ship. The door to the ship opened and a platform extended from the entrance, creating a metal ramp with which to walk across. From the entrance of the ship, three green colored ducks stepped out into the open.
"Why, that's the Duck Brothers." said Courage. Indeed, it was the Duck Brothers and they hadn't changed a bit since Courage had last seen them. "Guys, over here." The duck brothers turned their heads towards Courage and noticed him next to the ship.
"Why Courage, I didn't expect to find you here." said the red eyed duck.
"We received your distress signal and we came over to help." explained the green eyed duck.
"Yes, we could use the help." said Courage.
"We?" asked the blue eyed duck. He and his brother's gazes turned to Misty who stood behind Courage, waving shyly.
"Oh, guys, this is my little sister, Misty." said Courage introducing Misty.
"Sister, huh." said the green eyed duck. "I thought you were an only child."
"I thought so too but apparently I was wrong." said Courage. "So can you guys help us get back to Earth? Our ship is badly damaged and we don't have any other way home."
"Why certainly." said the red eyed duck.
"Great, just let be get my supplies." said Courage.
Courage had went back into the ship and packed up all his supplies into the back pack. Once he was finished packing, Courage and Misty boarded the ship immediately since Misty had nothing of value to take along. Once on board, the ship flew towards Earth. The trip lasted over night and along the way, Courage and Misty had to endure the constant complaining between the Duck Brothers. But it was finally over when the ship came to Earth. The Duck Brothers located Muriel and Eustace's farm house and they gently landed the ship on the ground near the house. The Duck Brothers were at the controls and Courage and Misty were watching anxiously behind them. The large viewing screen showed the ship landing softly on the ground, creating a soft bump as it landed.
"Okay, we're here." said the green eyed duck.
"We will open the door for you." said the blue eyed duck.
"Thanks for your help." said Courage.
"Yeah, thanks." said Misty. Courage put on his back pack and left the ship with his sister by his side. They turned around in time to see the Duck Brothers' ship fly off into the sky. Courage and Misty waved "good-bye" as the ship disappeared into outer space.
"So this is Earth." said Misty as she studied the land around her. It was apparently the evening because the sun was setting in the distance, causing the sky to turn orange. Just then, Courage noticed Muriel step out of the house. She apparently heard the noise of the space ship and had gone out to see what had happened. She noticed Courage and with joy she walked over to him. Courage took off his back pack and ran over to hug Muriel around her legs.
"Well hello, Courage." greeted Muriel. "Did you have a nice time during your vacation?" She then noticed Misty and asked, "Courage, who is this?" Misty and Courage both knew that Misty couldn't just tell Muriel who she was because the dog language cannot be understood by humans. But Misty had an idea. Using her foot, she wrote the name "Misty" into the dirt.
"Misty?" said Muriel. "Is that your name?" Misty nodded her head indicating "yes." "Well, Misty, are you a new friend of Courage?" Misty shook her head indicating "no." Under the name she had written, Misty wrote the word "sister."
"Sister?" said Muriel. "Oh, you're Courage's sister. How lovely it is to have a sibling. Where are you from?" Misty just stared glumly, not sure what to do.
"Don't you have a home?" asked Muriel. Misty shook her head indicating "no."
"Oh, you're a stray." said Muriel sympathetically. Muriel put a hand to her chin in thought. She then picked up Courage and Misty into her arms and said, "Well, I can't let Courage's own sister stay out in the cold. I'm sure Misty can stay with us. You will like that, won't you, Courage?" Courage nodded his head in excitement. Misty was also excited as well. Muriel carried the two dogs to the farm house using both arms. Although the back pack was left behind, Courage was more preoccupied on the thought of finally being able to be with his sister all the time and he was also wondering how Eustace would take the idea of having another dog in the family.
So that was how Misty and Courage ended up living together. True, Misty did annoy Courage every now and then but aren't all little sisters supposed to be annoying? And despite the major changes to Courage's life style because of having another dog in the house, Courage is rather happy to be having his sister nearby. Infact, she's the only thing that makes the loss of Henry and Lily tolerable for Courage. He didn't know what he would do if he lost Misty. As Courage had expected, Eustace reacted negatively with the idea of Misty living in the house but as usual, Muriel got her way again and Eustace was forced to just tolerate having Misty around. Although Courage had only known Misty for a short time, it still felt like they had known each other all their lives. After all, they were family, brother and sister, and that will never change.
The End
Ohana means family, family means nobody gets left behind. Or forgotten.
-Quote by Lilo from the Disney movie "Lilo and Stitch."
Author's Note: I thought I would end the story with this quote since it reflects the theme of the story. If you want to see more of Courage and his little sister, Misty, you can check out another story I wrote called "Katz Health Club." This story will explain what life with a little sister is like for Courage so don't miss it.