Chapter 7: Battle in the Border World

Once Belladonna had fired the syringe gun, the needle of the syringe lodged itself into her skin, and the green serum began to flow into her bloodstream. After that, she threw the gun to the ground, and, once the syringe was emptied, pulled it out of her arm. She then dropped into a kneeling position, and crushed the syringe under her fist.

The other dogs all watched in horror as Belladonna's muscles started to twitch. Then, they noticed that her body was growing, and they gave a collective gasp.

Within seconds, the demon-dog's arms and tail had grown to an unbelievable size. Her tail, in particular, had become much thicker, changing from a dog's tail into that of a serpent. Before long, her tail was so large that she was able to stand on it, without the use of her legs, which were left flailing in the air.

Then, her wings were the next body part to grow. Just like her tail, they had become large and reptilian, resembling those of a dragon or wyvern.

At this moment, her torso and head had not yet expanded, leaving her with a grotesquely disproportionate appearance. However, that was soon to change...

"Quick!" said Charlie. "She's transforming into her dragon form. We need to get some weapons."

The heroes then ran over to the shelves at the front of the room. When Charlie was half-way there, he saw Killer's tommy-gun lying on the floor next to his immobile body. Without saying a word, he snatched the gun off the floor. Killer tried to protest, but the German Shepherd didn't have time to talk.

On the weapons shelf, Itchy found his wakizashis, which had previously been stolen by Carface. He grabbed the two swords in his paws, and strapped them to his back. Sasha, having no weapons of her own, had chosen a small revolver, and Charlie had retrieved another case of grenades, along with a spare drum of rounds. After that, they all left the room.

The heroes waited outside the control room, bracing themselves for that moment when Belladonna would poke her head out through the destroyed doorway.

When she finally came out, her transformation had been completed. The muscles in her torso - namely, the abdominals and pectorals - had grown to match the proportions of her wings, arms, and tail. The hands on the ends of her arms had become like those of a dragon, except that they were of a shape more similar to that of a human's hands.

Also, her head had grown larger - again, to match the proportions of the rest of her body. Finally, her hind legs had fused into her tail, leaving the underside of her tail as her only foot, and her lavender fur had been completely replaced by a layer of hard scales.

Once the dragonic dog was in range, Charlie opened fire on her. However, the shots from the tommy-gun did little to harm her.

"I am immune to simple bullets!" she bellowed, in a voice which had been deepened by her expanded muscles. She then lunged towards Sasha, and tried to snatch her in her giant, scaly, clawed hand. The Irish Setter tried to shoot her with the revolver, but it was no use - Belladonna grabbed Sasha, and raised her up high.

"Ha, ha, ha!" the demon cackled. "A nice light snack, before I take care of the others!"

However, before she could do anything more, a cold blade suddenly cut through the flesh of her wrist. Itchy had thrown one of his swords like a boomerang, and it had sliced her grabbing hand clean off.

"Gaaaaaah!" Belladonna screamed, as her hand fell to the floor. While Sasha was trying to free herself, however, a cap of flesh grew over the demon-dog's exposed wrist, before forming a new hand in place of the old one.

She then turned towards Itchy, and tried to attack him, but Charlie sprayed some more bullets in her face. Some of the shots had struck her eyes, which temporarily blinded her.

Charlie saw his chance. He ran as fast as he could, to get behind Belladonna, while Itchy kept her occupied. After that, he opened the case of grenades, picked out one of the explosives, and primed it by unscrewing the cap. He then placed it back inside the case, and closed the case back up.

After taking a deep breath, Charlie finally lobbed the case through the air. The box of explosives sailed towards Belladonna, and when it collided with her back, the primed grenade detonated - setting off all the others, and producing a large explosion which ripped her wings from their roots.

"Eeyaaaaargh!" the demon yelled, as she collapsed forward, before placing her hands on the floor to support herself, almost squishing Itchy and Sasha in the process. Meanwhile, Charlie had climbed on top of her tail, and was now making his way up towards the front of her.

Before long, he had reached the back of her head, whilst Belladonna was still struggling to get back up, mostly due to the searing pain which was tearing through her back. Charlie grabbed her ponytail in both of his front paws, before pulling on it with all his might.

"Yee-hah! Giddy up!" he hollered, as the dragonic being attempted to shake him off. But, Charlie's grip was firm, and he managed to hold on despite her erratic struggle.

While the German Shepherd cross was riding the demon like an out-of-control horse, Itchy and Sasha saw their chance. Sasha went to fetch another gas bottle from the dark room, whereas Itchy lined up in front of Belladonna, preparing to deliver his next attack.

However, Belladonna had seen Itchy approaching. Despite the fact that Charlie was still pulling on her hairstyle, she managed to reach down, and grab the wiener-dog in her right hand.

"Itch!" shouted Charlie. "Use your swords!"

But, Itchy had been taken completely by surprise. The swords were still in his paws, but his arms had been trapped underneath Belladonna's scaly fingers. Whilst Charlie had been misdirected by the capturing of his friend, the other giant hand had wrapped itself around him, too.

Next, Belladonna held both of the male canines in front of her, and spoke:

"Ha, ha, ha! At long last, I have the Guardian Angels in my grasp - Choadie Barknuts, and his best friend Short-Legs!"

Charlie was unfazed by this vulgar insult - he simply looked Belladonna straight in the eye, with a cocky look on his face.

"What is it?" Belladonna asked. "Do you secretly enjoy hearing those toxic words?"

"No," he replied. "Perhaps there's someone you're missing?"

"Someone like... like Fle-?"

Before the demon-dragon-dog could finish her sentence, a heavy object suddenly struck her in the chest. The object had been a large canister of compressed gas - Sasha had opened the valve, and, assisted by the force of the escaping gas, thrown the vessel up at her.

The impact had occurred at such a high momentum, that it almost knocked Belladonna over. Fortunately, it had also caused her to let go of the male dogs, dropping them to the floor.

When Charlie hit the ground, he hit it hard, leaving his legs bruised and rippling with pain. Itchy, on the other hand, had landed gracefully on his hind legs, avoiding any injury from the fall.

Next, the Dachshund started to run towards the demon as fast as his feet could carry him. Once he was close enough, however, his mode of locomotion changed - he jumped up high into the air. At first, this seemed to be impossible due to the size of limbs, but his angelic nature was what made it possible.

Once he was at the same height as Belladonna's head, he then dashed downwards through the air, with his two swords held out in front of him. The attack sliced through Belladonna's flesh like a knife through butter.

This was not all, however. For the next strike, Itchy suddenly came from a different direction, almost as if he had teleported. After the second strike, there were another six more, with each dash through the air travelling along a different path. On each of the second, fifth, and eighth hits, Itchy said one of the words which made up the name of the technique:

"EIGHT... WAY... SLAAAAASH!"

The eighth and final strike involved both of Itchy's swords piercing Belladonna's chest - the left-hand sword stabbed into her right lung, and the right-hand sword penetrated her heart.

As she began to shrink back into her regular form, the evil being let out a scream more acidic than aqua regia. Within a matter of seconds, she was a dog again, and even though the shrinking of her body had displaced the cold blades from her flesh, the wounds in the skin covering her vital organs were still clearly visible.

"Charlie?"

The Shepherd got to his feet at the sound of Sasha's voice.

"What is it, Sash?"

"Come on. We'd better do something about Belladonna."

The two dogs walked over to her unconscious body. Charlie's joints were still aching from the fall he had taken, but that hadn't been enough to stop him from walking.

Once they were at Belladonna's sides, they picked her up by the arms, and frog-marched her over to the airship's entrance hatch. Itchy pulled the lever to open it up, and his two friends stepped up to the edge, preparing to throw their most evil enemy overboard.

But, just when they were about to release her from their grasps, Belladonna suddenly regained consciousness. She performed a reversal technique on Charlie and Sasha, wrestling them to the floor, and gripped them by their necks.

"You fools! You should have known I was immortal."

Charlie tried to answer to her, but her strangling paw prevented him from speaking. Despite Belladonna's aforementioned immortality, he found it hard to believe that she had only been unconscious for such a short time, considering the notion that a sword through the heart would have killed any mortal dog almost instantly.

"Trying to throw me overboard, hm?" the demon-dog continued. "Not on my watch, bozos. Looks like you two are the ones going overboard this time!"

Charlie finally managed to get some air past the constriction in his windpipe.

"The Earth... will never... be yours!"

"Do not underestimate me, Barkin. I have more power flowing in my veins than you could ever imagine. Speaking of which..."

She then slightly loosened the grip in her left hand, making it easier for Charlie to speak. Her other paw stayed firm, however, leaving Sasha literally struggling to breathe.

"I will never stop in my plans to achieve world domination. The entire Earth's population, united under one single ruler... can you imagine that, Chuckie-boy?"

"... I can..."

"Tell me, Barkin! Tell me what you see...!"

"There's nothing but terror..." the distressed dog replied, "... and corruption... and war!"

Belladonna stared at him, with the most evil of glares. Then, she tightened her grip in both paws, in an attempt to strangle her two victims into submission...

Then...

SHINK!

The demon's forehead was struck with a shooting pain, which quickly spread all the way through to the back of her head. The cold steel blade had embedded itself in her brain, and sticky, green blood was leaking from the area where it had broken through her skull.

Once again, she let out her agonising scream, as she clutched her head in her hands. She reared up on to her hind legs, and stepped back, until she was dangerously close to the edge.

In spite of the pain in his neck, Charlie got up as well. He stepped towards Belladonna, and once he was close enough to reach for the protruding sword, he grabbed it by the handle. Pulling sharply, he dislodged it, which made the demon-dog lean back, before hitting her with a forceful shoulder-charge.

"Nooooooooooooooo!" she yelled, as she tumbled down into the fog below. She desperately tried to fly back up, before remembering that she no longer had her wings...

The three heroes lay on their fronts, and peered over the edge, as Belladonna appeared to be swallowed up by the dusty, red fog. Her descent was followed up by a faint 'thud', presumably from landing on the mysterious rocks below.

While Itchy was closing the hatch back up, Charlie was looking at the bruises on Sasha's neck, from where Belladonna had been strangling her. Of course, he had such bruises as well, but Sasha's were more prominent - dark blue showed up better on red than on brown.

"My gosh..." he panted. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah..." she replied, breathing heavily. Charlie placed his paws on her shoulders, and the look in his eyes told her that everything was going to be all right.

Killer was now crawling towards the broken doorway. He tried to call out to the heroes, but his voice was very faint.

"What is it, Kill?" said Itchy, stepping up to him.

"Tell the others to help me into the pilot's seat - I'm the only one who knows how to get us out of here, you see."

"Okay, then. Will do."

After another twenty minutes of flying, the Bellabee was finally approaching what appeared to be a small hole in the Border World's atmosphere - a portal point. Killer fired the Portal Cannon, and the portal point opened up into a full-sized portal.

"We're going to have to jettison the nuke here," said Killer. "If we drop it too early, the airship will get caught in the explosion, so I'll have to take care of this."

The four dogs all waited nervously for the right moment, as Killer's paw hovered over the big red button...

"Three... two... one... now!"

As the gigantic dirigible started to pass through the portal, the bomb hatch opened up, and the nuke fell down into the fog...

Fortunately, the timing of the drop had been perfect. Just as the Bellabee's tail fins passed the threshold of the portal, an enormous mushroom cloud began to rise up behind it. At the other end, the airship's nose slowly, but surely, emerged into the familiar sky above the city of San Francisco.

Epilogue

Three days later...

The three heroes, along with Annabelle, were now standing around a plain white hospital bed. Arnold, the Golden Retriever puppy, was resting in the pink Whippet's arms - the day after the incident in Sligo, she had met Sasha's family in the care home Susan had been staying in, and she had retrieved the puppy to give back to Charlie.

Itchy stepped up to the bed, and watched as the dog who occupied it slowly opened his eyes.

"How are you doing, Killer?" Itchy asked.

But, his rival gave no answer; the only sound that came from his mouth was a muffled cough.

"He's not in a good shape at all," said Charlie. "I think it's best not to talk to Killer right now - he needs plenty of rest."

"Says the guy who threw that grenade at him," his best friend replied.

"That's not quite true, Itch. I didn't throw it at him - I just set it in front of the door... and anyway, I was intending to catch Carface in the explosion; not Killer."

"Boys!" snapped Annabelle. "Now is not the time to be arguing."

"Sorry, boss..." sighed the two males.

A few hours after that, the scene had changed to a small cemetery in the outskirts of the city. A pair of human workers were digging up two new graves, readying the ground for the reception of a pair of coffins, which were positioned just behind the men.

From a few rows behind, the hero-dogs were looking at the coffins. One of them was painted black, and the other, brown.

Annabelle then looked at Charlie, and said, "Do you know whose bodies are inside those?"

Charlie nodded, without saying a word.

The black coffin contained the body of Carface, and the brown one held Riley Jr.'s body.

"Oh well, then," Annabelle continued. "Now that Mr. Carruthers is an Angel again, I'll be making sure that his - ahem - 're-rehabilitation' will be even more effective than before. This time, we're hoping that he'll never be bad again - even in the presence of the darkest temptation."

"Well," said Charlie, "if our past experiences with him are anything to go by, he'll be needing something that will turn him off evil for life."

The other dogs nodded back in agreement, and watched as the heaps of dug-up soil grew larger and larger.

But what had happened to the Belladonna Bumblebee?

Miles away from the city, there was a dense forest. Tangled in amongst the trees, was a large mass of the airship's hull fabric and wiring, and its gondola was now a crumpled mess. Fortunately, the heroes had managed to bale out by parachute... but Killer had not been so lucky. His injuries had been worsened by the crash, and, had the forest rangers not found him in time, he most surely would have died. The rangers had also retrieved the dead bodies from the wrecked gondola, and helped the hero-dogs get back home.

The task of cleaning up the wreckage of the Bellabee would have been a gargantuan one, but it was a task that the authorities had been willing to take up. As the sun slowly sank below the horizon, a team of construction workers, and their vehicles, were continuing to clear the huge mess, piece by piece, and their work went on well through the night, and into the morning.

=== THE END ===

Author's note: There we go, that's the end of the story. It may have been a bit hard to understand for the audience at TASVideos, but I hope you all enjoyed it anyway. I'm currently in the process of writing another story, so, until then, see ya.