Chapter 5: An Irish Tragedy

Itchy and Charlie were now struggling to re-open the iron hoops. Even though Itchy had previously sliced through the metal, the hoops were now sealed again - while Belladonna and Carface had put them back in their chairs, Belladonna had used her 'heated paw' power to weld the hoops closed, and Carface had taken Itchy's swords away.

"Now, my pretties," said the demon-dog, as she powered on the wide LED screen. "I guess now is a good time to show you where you all are."

As the screen flickered to life, Belladonna took out a small remote from its holster on the wall, and pressed one of the buttons on it. The screen then changed to show a bright blue menu display, similar to what you might see when setting up a video recorder. At the bottom of the display, there was a prompt which flashed on and off:

"PLEASE INSERT TAPE."

Belladonna then opened a small drawer, took out a VHS cassette, and slotted it through a small flap which was underneath the screen. After that, she pressed 'Play' on the remote.

After a few seconds of blankness, the image on the screen faded in. It showed what appeared to be an artist's impression of the airship, before transitioning to a computer-generated animation of the massive vehicle cruising through the sky.

Then, Belladonna began to speak - however, this was not her present self speaking; this was a recording of her voice which had been dubbed over the film on the tape.

"Behold, the most magnificent dirigible the world has ever seen. Its name is the Belladonna Bumblebee - or, as I prefer to call it, the Bellabee!"

The 'Bellabee' was a magnificent beast indeed - according to the voice-over's subsequent description, its grey, baggy hull was eight hundred feet in length, and a hundred and fifty feet in diameter. The side of it was emblazoned with a red, stylised letter B, with a purple star surrounding it. The aircraft was equipped with six diesel engines, and had three tail-fins arranged in a triangular formation.

The film then showed that the room the dogs were in was near the back of the underside cabin, which was about one-twentieth the length of the whole ship.

The animation then showed something just behind the cabin. It had the appearance of a large space laser, and it was connected to the cabin by an assortment of thick cables.

"This," said Belladonna's recorded voice, "is the Bellabee's main weapon - the Death Ray. It fires a highly concentrated beam - a mixture of gamma radiation and plasma, at a temperature approaching twelve thousand kelvin. That's more than three times the melting point of tungsten! If anyone gets zapped by this baby, to say they're 'toast' would be a major understatement."

After that, the tape abruptly stopped...

"I'm sorry, twerps," said Belladonna - this time in person, of course. "The tape goes on a bit longer than that, but I can't show you the rest - too much secret stuff, you see."

"You're saying that," said Sasha, "but you still showed us that huge laser thingy."

"The Death Ray, you mean? My dear girl, can't you tell why I showed it? Because... let's just say... nah, screw it."

She then walked over to Riley Jr., and placed her paw on his shoulder.

"What have we here," she said. "A male Fleur? Well, that's a surprise."

"Excuse me?" Riley replied. "My name isn't 'Fleur'. It's Neirath."

"All right then, 'Neigh-rah'. But the point is, you ARE Sasha's brother, am I right?"

"Yes."

Belladonna then placed her paw under his chin, and caressed it, similarly to how Carface had done with Sasha before.

"Keep off," said Riley. "I'm a married dog."

"Ahh," the villainous female replied. "Well, well. I never would have guessed - then again, you are kind of a hunk..."

Riley was left speechless by this remark. He closed his eyes, and shook his head, as Belladonna continued to stroke his face.

Next, she turned her attention to Sasha.

"Now, Fleur," she said. "I bet you're dying to see what this Death Ray can do."

"No, I most certainly am not," Sasha replied.

"Too bad, red-head. Carface and Killer are already preparing to warm it up. We're going to have to fire it at something..."

"Like what?"

"Something like... heh, heh... your parents' house, perhaps?"

"How?" Sasha asked. "It's not as if you know where my parents live... right?"

"You're right... I don't. But not for long!"

The demon then lunged toward Sasha, and clasped her paw over the Setter's head. Sasha began to yell, as Belladonna's powers began to worm their way into her mind.

The three male dogs could only stare in horror as sparks flew from Belladonna's paw. The evil Whippet searched through Sasha's brain, filing through her brain cells for the one piece of information that she sought - the location of the house of Susan and Riley Snr.

After nearly a whole minute of doing this, Belladonna finally removed her paw from Sasha's forehead, and cackled loudly. Before long, she was standing between Sasha and Riley Jr., facing towards the big screen, and her acidic laugh echoed around the room.

Charlie could take it no more. Starting with when Belladonna had been talking to Riley, his anger towards her had been building steadily, and now it had reached a fever pitch. His muscles were now surging with latent strength, and the iron hoops around his wrists were starting to crack...

When Belladonna was about to stop laughing, the iron finally gave way. All of Charlie's limbs broke out at the same time, and he began to sprint towards his enemy...

However, Belladonna was quick to react. In an instant, she turned around, stretched out her arms, and grabbed Charlie by the throat. As the Shepherd cross gasped for breath, she delivered a quick punch to his jaw. The blow knocked him to the floor, but caused no serious damage. After that, Belladonna picked up the TV remote, pointed it at the exit door, and pressed one of the buttons. While the door was opening, she dashed away, but Charlie quickly got to his feet.

Once Belladonna was through the doorway, she pressed another button, and, unfortunately, the door zipped shut before Charlie could reach it.

"Daaargh!" he groaned, as his fist knocked against the cold metal. He then turned around to look back at his friends, before kneeling down on the floor.

Once she had escaped from the dark room, Belladonna was on the floor of the well-lit main cabin. She then stepped over to the front, where there was a large control console, with a panoramic window behind it. She pressed some keys on the console, and a small monitor popped up. It displayed a command line prompt, and Belladonna typed in some scripts.

After that, a small dialogue box popped up, with two small input boxes, and the heading, 'Input Address/Coordinates'.

The demon-dog typed in the address she had obtained, and the system converted it into latitude and longitude.

"TARGET COORDINATES HAVE BEEN ENTERED SUCCESSFULLY," said the computerised voice.

The Death Ray then started to aim downwards. Its internal motors whirred loudly as it focused on the spot where Susan's house stood.

Meanwhile, inside the house, Sarah was in her bedroom, with Arnold resting on the bed. Her ears detected a strange buzzing sound, and she looked out the window. When she saw the huge airship in the sky, she almost gasped.

Once the Bellabee had flown a bit closer, Sarah was able to look at it more closely. That was when she noticed that the diabolical weapon on its underside was pointed in her general direction.

"Arnold!" she barked. "Arnold, wake up! We have to get out of here."

The little puppy slowly rose to his feet, and Sarah picked him up in her paws. She opened the door into the lounge, and ran over to her parents.

"Mama Susan! Dad! We've gotta move!"

"What is it, dear daughter?" Riley Snr. asked.

"There's a huge airship outside. It's got a GIANT space-laser on it! Hurry!"

"Keep calm, Sarah," said Riley Snr. "Let's go, Susan."

Once he had helped his obese wife to her feet, he helped her over to the front door, where Sarah was waiting impatiently. Once they were all outside, Sarah helped her parents to walk across the road. Susan could not walk very quickly, and it took nearly twenty seconds to walk to the other side.

Back inside the dark room, Charlie had been trying to free the other dogs from their chairs. However, the hoops were fastened with secure locks, and Charlie could find no way to open them. He was just about to speak, when, all of a sudden, the LED screen switched itself back on. It was now showing a live view from the ship's onboard camera, which was focused on Susan's house.

"This is it," said Sasha. "Looks like this is the end for our family, eh, Riley?"

"We've just got to hope they can get out in time," her brother replied. Had the screen been turned on a minute earlier, they would have seen their parents and sister leaving the house, but unfortunately, they were left none the wiser about the situation.

"But what about Arnold?" Charlie asked. "If he dies, our mission is over."

"That might happen," said Itchy, "but even then, we'd still have to find some way to stop Belladonna."

"Good point, Itch..."

Charlie then looked up at the ceiling, and noticed that there was a vent in the corner. But, before he could consider this possible escape route, a loud sound came from the speaker system.

The sound rose in both pitch and loudness, as the Death Ray prepared to fire. After about ten seconds, a wicked beam of green plasma finally spewed forth from the Ray, and descended towards the house...

Sasha and Riley both closed their eyes tightly, as the deadly beam struck the ground.

When they opened their eyes again, the house of Susan and Riley Snr., along with its two neighbouring homes, had been reduced to nothing but rubble. Belladonna's cackling voice then echoed over the stream:

"Mwa ha ha... ha ha ha... MWA HA HA HA HA HAAA!"

Sasha and Riley Jr. were now weeping tearfully. As far as they believed, Susan, Riley Snr., Sarah, and Arnold, were all dead.

"That's it," said Charlie. "I've got to do something about this."

"No, Charlie..." said Sasha. "You can't go out there on your own. You won't stand a chance!"

"It's the only way," he replied, as he cracked open the vent. "Once I'm out, I'll figure out how to open the doors... and unlock the iron hoops, of course."

"Good luck, Charlie..."

With that, the heroic male dog climbed up the wall, entered the vent, and started to crawl through it.