Chapter 2 - Revenge is Dish Best Served Five Times
"And there... you are." Sasha smiled at the little kitten she was rescuing from a tree... transformed as a cat herself. She had taken this form to avoid scaring the little guy even more; it was already bad enough for the kitten to be stuck in a tree to add a large dog approaching him, even if with good intentions. Sasha morphed one of her paws into a sack so the kitten could get in there, and then, holding a branch with her free hand/paw, started descending, stretching her arm to make it work as a rappel rope.
The kitten purred when Sasha finally placed him back on the ground; the little feline purred and rubbed his head on her legs, Sasha getting a warm face at this.
"Now, go back home. Your mom might be worried." Sasha caressed the kitten's head one last time before the feline nodded and left. Sasha then morphed back to her normal canine self, and left to join with Charlie.
"Impressive, isn't it?"
Belladonna's voice came from another puddle, but her face wasn't visible this time, as she was using her magic to make the puddle work as a magic mirror so Manfred could see Sasha's powers at work without risking being spotted by the elastic canine.
"Rescuing a cat... disgusting." Manfred growled yet, secretly, was deeply impressed at Sasha's abilities; after Belladonna informed him about the obstacles he'd need to face in order to have his revenge, Manfred asked for proof of her claims, and now he was more than ready to believe the devilish female.
"I couldn't agree more with you." Belladonna's face appeared on the puddle again. "But now you see why you can't rely just in your natural abilities to defeat Charlie, Itchie and their friends. You need my help. You need superpowers. You need... these."
A large sack, filled up with assorted amulets, magically appeared in front of Manfred; the dog checked them, and realized there were five different types. Some had a human skull in one side; others were icy-blue colored; others had a dark smoke cloud; others had some sort of storm cloud, with a lightning bolt added to the cloud symbol, and the rest had a green glowing orb... and all of them smelled like brimstone.
"You're going to hide these amulets all around the city, most of them at Charlie and Itchie's neighborhood." Belladonna instructed him. "However, you`re gonna conserve five amulets for yourself, one of each type."
"Why?" Manfred asked.
"Well... hold one of the blue amulets, and you'll see what happens. Just point with it to this same puddle, and think about ice and cold in general."
Manfred obeyed and grabbed one of the blue amulets. Then, he aimed, with the same paw holding the amulet, at the puddle, while trying to think about cold stuff, like ice cream, blizzards, icebergs, and last year's winter.
Then, all of a sudden, Manfred felt a chill running all over his body... and a moment later, a bright, white beam emerged from the amulet, hitting the puddle and turning the water into ice. Manfred gasped and dropped the amulet, not believing what just happened.
"Now you see why you must have the amulets. They're your power source." Belladonna's face appeared on the ice, grinning. "Use the skull amulet now... and think about fire."
Manfred, now recovering from the surprise and actually enjoying the power sensation he just felt, grabbed a skull amulet, and did as Belladonna told him. Manfred thoughts about fire soon caused his whole body to feel extreme heat... in fact, so hot, that Manfred thought he would disintegrate at the spot, until he felt the impulse to open his jaws, and a large, powerful flame emerged from his throat and through his muzzle, hitting the ice and melting it instantly. In fact, the flame was so big it evaporated the water.
"The cloud one... use it now..." Belladonna's voice came from the vapor. Manfred hurried up to grab the amulet she told him, and, this time, he didn't need her instructions.
"Water... lightning... rain..." Manfred thought out loud, concentrating to make the amulet work. Soon, the vapor turned into a small cloud; then, a large one, thunder and lightning included, and a strong rain soon covered the whole alley. Manfred laughed evilly, loving his gifts.
"You're a fast learner." Belladonna's face formed in the soaked ground; now that she wasn't limited to a little puddle, her whole body's image appeared in front of Manfred.
"And you're deviously attractive." Manfred grinned, admiring Belladonna's evil beauty.
"Okay, Casanova, if you wanna join me in a more... personal way, get the dark smoke one now." Belladonna smirked.
Manfred, now knowing how this worked, concentrated on smoke thoughts when grabbing the right amulet, and soon his whole body was changed to a black color... and then, he started moving like a cloud, completely weightless, and not solid at all. He moved next to the dark cloud, and grinned when noticing Belladonna was getting a similar form.
"And we're just starting." Belladonna got closer to him and used her seductive voice. "The green orb... use it. Just think about... anything you want to happen to any object."
Manfred went back to the ground, the rain stopping by then, and grabbed this amulet. Manfred looked at a nearby trash can, and thought about moving it... and it worked, the trash can floating a few feet over the ground.
"Don't drop this amulet, and grab the skull one again. This time, think about a spear."
Manfred obeyed Belladonna, and now was holding both amulets. He aimed at the trash can with the skull amulet and thought about the spear. This thought made the amulet to fuse with his paw, and then, a large, sharp point appeared in his paw. Manfred smirked evilly and looked back at the trash can, that was still levitating.
"Get over here!" Manfred shouted while opening his paw to the max.
The moment he said this, the spear was shot from his paw, hitting the trash can and perforating the metal without problems. Manfred realized the spear was still attached to his paw due to a large, dark cable, and pulled it, the cable doing a retractile action and getting the can right in front of Manfred. Then, Manfred aimed at the can with the other paw, the one holding the green amulet, and his next thought was 'Destruction'.
A green energy orb formed in this paw, and it hit the trash can.
BOOOM!
Manfred laughed evilly while Belladonna's sly smirk became more obvious when the trash can got destroyed and the garbage in it got dispersed all over the alley.
"Belladonna, I think I love you." Manfred grinned while looking at the green amulet, and then at the other one, that had de-fused from his paw the moment the spear was no longer needed.
"Charming." Belladonna then pointed back at the sack. "Once these amulets get charged with the energy we'll steal, you'll be able to absorb your five ones in a permanent way, not to mention you'll get access to many other powers. Now, go hide the other amulets. Oh, and Manfred? I'm generous... very generous... with those that serve me well... but I'm also merciless with those who fail me. So..."
"I won't fail you, my Dark Mistress." Manfred bowed in a very respectful way before grabbing the sack and leaving the alley. He was more than eager to start with the plan; maybe he, normally, hated to be subordinated to anyone, but he was smart enough to recognize when someone with resources offered him a great deal, plus he wasn't dumb enough to become enemies with a gal like Belladonna, so ignoring her orders was out of the question.
Belladonna, from the alley's soaked ground, smirked at Manfred as he left. Unlike other subordinates she have had in the past, Manfred wasn't motivated by greed, but by hate, envy and jealousy, three emotions far more powerful than simple greed, plus he was in very good physical shape, something that would be primordial when getting the powers permanently; a weaker dog wouldn't be able to hold that much energy, meaning Belladonna, in case of using weaker dogs, would need to give just one or two amulets to each minion, and they would need to work together in order to use the power to invade Heaven, and later to fight together against all the guardian angels and guests... and, usually, those evil enough to use the amulets weren't big into cooperation. As long as Manfred remained an obedient minion, and trained enough in the use of his new powers, he would, on his own, do more damage than a dozen servants at once.
A couple hours later, several streets away from this alley, an armed commando (composed of a half dozen masked thugs) ambushed an armored car, right when the security guards were arriving with money for a bank. Luckily, nobody got shot, but some of the guards got injured when the criminals punched/kicked them after forcing the guards to drop their guns.
"I got the keys, Boss!" One of the criminals said to another who, obviously, was the commando's leader.
"Good. You and I are driving. The rest of you, as we planned."
The rest of the criminals jumped on the back of the car, with the money, ready to shoot any police car chasing them, while the other two got to the driver seat and the copilot's one. A few seconds later, they were accelerating away... but barely advanced a few feet, despite the car going top speed.
"WHAT'S GOING ON?" The leader got a look to the car's front, and gasped when realizing a large blue rubber band was now in the middle of the street, extending to one building to the other, and stopping the car from leaving. When the two criminals jumped down the car to see what was going on, the rubber band got a life of its own, wrapping itself around them.
"HELP!" The minion yelled in fear, getting the accomplices`attention. They all jumped down the car, ready to shoot whoever was attacking their partners... but they got stopped by a large Grizzly jumping over them. The bear used his massive paws to deliver quick, powerful hits to three of the four remaining criminals, sending them back inside the car, dizzy and almost knocked out. The last one avoided the attack and aimed at the bear... that immediately changed into a rabbit. The human gasped at the surprise and his scared face changed to a panicked one when the rabbit jumped at him and, on mid-air, morphed into a puma that tackled him. The feline roared on the human's face, making him to faint immediately.
The puma looked around when hearing the police cars' sirens; the feline approached the car's doors and pushed to close it, with the remaining thugs still inside; then, he placed both paws in the doors, and the metal started overheating, until reaching the melting point, fusing the doors together, and then the feline, when releasing the doors, summoned a cold wind that cooled down the metal, hardening it again so the criminals wouldn't be able to break free on their own; besides, they had dropped their guns when the bear attacked them, so they had no way to shoot any cop releasing them from the car. After giving his work one last look, the puma roared again, and the rubber band morphed into a humanoid, muscular form, without a visible face; the rubber titan then bonked the heads of the two remaining thugs, knocking them out as well. Then, it changed into a light, reddish brown dove, and flew away, followed by the puma that was now morphing into a black and white magpie. The very few humans on the street were either knocked out, or covering for protection (fearing any shot that might hit them by accident) so only the criminals knew what had just happened, and it wasn't probable that other humans would believe them.
The birds landed on a nearby rooftop, and morphed into Sasha and Charlie, both dogs giving each other a high-paw in congratulations.
"Nice transformation, Sasha... but why you didn't give that muscle giant a face?"
"A large, powerful creature that appears out of nowhere is scary enough; imagine how much I scared them with a faceless one." Sasha grinned. "And you used a puma? Heh, I thought you would never morph into a cat."
"Well, I wanted to be scary, and since pumas are the felines that... hunt on dogs more often, that was the scariest form I could think at the moment." Charlie admitted. "I have to tell, it wasn't as traumatic as I thought; cats are quite agile and fast... I wouldn't like to get stuck in that form for long, but guess it can be useful at times."
"Yes, it was." Sasha smiled at him before both dogs looked down at the street, watching the many cops arriving at the scene, including one calling for help and tools to open up the armored car's door. She and Charlie stayed up there for a while, until all the criminals got carried inside the police's transports.
"Well, the guys in blue can handle from here." Charlie smiled at Sasha. "Let's go back home. Annabelle is supposed to check the guests' list with us one last time before she finishes making all the badges."
"You, eager to attend one of Annabelle's meetings? We must ask her if this isn't a sign of apocalyptic disasters to come." Sasha joked. Charlie chuckled a bit and shook his head.
"I'm a bad influence on you, Sasha; leave the sarcastic comments to me."
"Oh, well, you know how it works; mine is yours, and yours is mine."
"Heh, and that applies to the sense of humor too? I have so much to learn." Both dogs chuckled and then kissed one last time before they morphed back to their bird forms and left the rooftop.
If they had stayed a little more, they could have spotted Manfred hiding an amulet at a nearby alley, right in front of where the two guardians stopped the armored car.
"Heh... you think this is a good place?" Manfred used his raining power to create a puddle so Belladonna could communicate with him.
"Mmm... an area where those two very recently used their heavenly powers; you really have a good brain." Belladonna grinned. This would help the hidden amulet to start gathering energy right on. "Now, go to the park. Those two do-gooders tend to help many animals and kids at that zone."
Manfred grinned and left the place, whistling 'innocently', and a dark though invading his mind.
"If someone messes with you, don't get angry... get even...and don`t stop there."
Back at Charlie and Itchy's place, the Dachshund and his Cocker Spaniel girlfriend were already there, waiting for Charlie and Sasha. Not surprisingly, the soon-to-be newlyweds were late, but this didn't stop Annabelle from starting working on the details with the dogs that were already there; after all, being the Best Man (Dog) and Maid of Honor, Itchy and Bess were heavy into the ceremony's organization as well, so they were a good option to start working with... in fact, considering Itchy was far more organized than Charlie, he was a better option when it came to planning.
"I made this paper with theseating arrangements. Our closest friends will seat in the front lines; plus, Sasha's guests will sit left and Charlie's will be right." Itchy showed the diagram to Annabelle.
"How about the mutual friends? Charlie and Sasha have many." Bess asked.
"Those count as 'closest friends', and, in those cases, I think they can get the seats that are the closest to the aisle." Itchy pointed.
"Good thinking, Itchy. I think that can work just fine... and I know all these dogs, so no problem with any invitation... at least, with the guests deserving them." Annabelle said while giving the list a second look.
"What do you mean?" Bess arched an eyebrow.
"Some of them are a bit irresponsible or too much in the 'short-attention-span' area, so I can't trust them with a miracle badge for a long time. Even if I make the proper adjustments so the badges can't be used for anyone else, these dogs can still lose them." Annabelle explained. "In fact, now that I checked the list again, I think it would be more fair to everyone if I give the badges just a couple of minutes they go to the ceremony."
"Good thinking... but I think you can give Bess her badge already. She's very trustworthy." Itchy said, making Bess to blush a bit.
"I have a better idea, but let's wait for Charlie and Sasha to arrive..." Annabelle paused when two birds entered the room. "Oh, they're here."
"Heh, sorry about the delay." Charlie morphed back to normal. "We were fighting for truth, justice, and the canine way."
"Cool down, Krypto." Sasha grinned at her fiance before looking back at the other dogs. "So, how advanced are you with the arrangements?"
"We're almost done." Annabelle informed before getting her usual 'right to business' tone. "Except for something that can't wait any longer."
"Uh, oh... I know that face." Charlie groaned. "What's going on now? Don't tell me Cerberus is unleashed again."
"No, nothing that serious... luckily. I can't stand one devilish hound; imagine one with 3 heads." Annabelle shuddered before going back to business. "No, this isn't an emergency, but it's related to your Heavenly Powers."
This got everyone's attention. Even Charlie wouldn't joke now.
"I've seen how you two are using your powers, and I'm more than pleased with your work." Annabelle smiled at Charlie and Sasha before getting serious again. "But you still are only 2 dogs, and this city is just too huge. You need assistance."
"You mean, you're sending us new guardian angels to help us?" Charlie got a broad smile. "Perfect! That way someone can attend the office while Sasha and I are in our honeymoon."
"And who are you sending for this work, Annabelle? Some angel that wants a second chance at mortal living?" Sasha asked.
"I considered that, but as you two have proved several times in the past, this work is more suitable for an already living dog, with knowledge about Heaven, and that can move and work on the streets. Most of the dogs here in Heaven are already too used to their afterlife and wouldn't do that good of a job since they'd be thinking about returning here rather than doing their job on Earth." Annabelle pointed before looking at Itchy and Bess. "And I see two perfect candidates here."
Itchy and Bess wide opened their eyes and their jaws fell when Annabelle said this.
"B-but you... I mean.. us..." Itchy was almost in shock until Charlie got his attention.
"Itchy, you know sometimes I argue Annabelle's decisions, but I fully agree with this one. You are one of the most loyal, responsible guys I know." Charlie said to his best friend. "And if Sasha and I ever need a helping paw, I wouldn't trust my furry butt to anyone more than I would do with you. And Bess, well, what can I say about her that you don't already know? She'll be a terrific guardian angel."
Itchy and Bess smiled at Charlie, and then looked at a supporting expression coming from Sasha, and a gentle one from Annabelle. The Dachshund held the Cocker's paw, and they smiled at each other, nodding, before looking back at the heavenly female.
"We're ready, Annabelle."
