So, in the author's notes of last chapter, I said I was having difficulty with the casting of my crossover fanfic. Just in case anyone was confused about that, to clarify, I'm making my own versions of the episodes from one show and casting characters from the other to play certain roles. Unfortunately, due to the latter show's obscurity, I'm having difficulty finding full episodes in English, so if worst comes to worst, I may just have some characters play themselves. Sorry if this is even more confusing, but I'm trying not to give away too many details. I promise it'll make sense when the first chapter goes up.

Okay, rant over.

Chapter 9

The Showdown

Madeline panted hardily. She was beginning to run out of breath due to how far her pursuers had chased her. Not to mention she also had to maneuver around all of the flame attacks they spewed at her, making the escape attempt even more tiring. With how winded she was, she was honestly surprised none of the dragons had managed to catch her up to that point. It was almost as if they relished in chasing down their prey. This was something Madeline could believe, considering the many stories of abuse Devon and Cornwall told her. Clearly, these dragons were cruel, sadistic monsters whose main goal in life was to make everyone around them miserable, so they must have enjoyed making the young girl suffer before her inevitable demise. Either that or they were tiring her out on purpose so she wouldn't put up more of a fight.

Whatever the case, Madeline found herself growing weaker and weaker by the minute. If she kept running, she was sure her heart would give out and she would end up passing out. As much as she didn't want to, she had to stop. Unfortunately, the dragons didn't even give her a chance to do so because the second she was about to give up, Scorch dove down, scooped her up by his claw, and carried her very high up into the air. The other dragons laughed at the terrified expression on her face as she looked down.

"What's the matter?" Scorch taunted. "Afraid of heights?"

Tears streaked down Madeline's face. She refused to look at Scorch or any of the others.

"…Oh, I see…what you're really afraid of is us. Well, can't say I'm surprised. We dragons do have a reputation for creating bed wetters out of puny humans like you."

All four dragons chuckled evilly as Madeline continued to cry.

"Please…" she begged. "Let me go…"

"Oh, don't worry. I'll let you go." Scorch promised, loosening his claws. "And when I do, all of your troubles will be over…and so will you…"

Madeline shut her eyes tight as she prepared for the end. Scorch smiled a wicked smile and was about to drop the poor child when he felt something tug on his tail.

"Excuse me!"

"Pick on somebody your own size!"

Madeline opened her eyes upon hearing these familiar voices. She and the dragons looked down to see Devon and Cornwall floating below them. Devon's hand grasped Scorch's tail while Cornwall shook his fist at the vicious reptiles.

"Guys!" Madeline beamed. "You came back! And…and you're flying!"

Devon grinned. "Yes, we're frequent flyers now!"

"And that's not all!" Cornwall turned to Devon. "Let's barbecue this bully!"

"I couldn't agree more!"

Scorch scowled at the duo, about to drop Madeline for real this time. Then, to his surprise, Devon and Cornwall took a deep breath and blew a huge flame towards him. He screeched in pain as his scales burned up, causing him to let go of Madeline.

"EEEEEEE!" Madeline screamed as she plummeted towards earth.

Luckily, Devon and Cornwall swooped right under her, catching her just in time.

"We gotcha, Maddie!"

"Hold on tightly now, dear!"

Madeline sat up on the dragon's back and held onto their wings. Soon, they landed themselves beside a cave, where CJ was waiting for them. Madeline jumped to the ground and ran to join him.

"Hey, are you okay?" CJ asked, hugging his friend.

"Yeah…" Madeline replied, still a bit shaken up. "I am now…"

"Stay right here, children." Devon instructed.

Cornwall nodded, glaring up at the other dragons. "Yeah, we got a score to settle…"

Madeline and CJ stepped back as their fire-breathing pals took to the skies once more.

"Well, look who decided to come crawling back…" Blaze snickered.

"Guessing you're hoping to rejoin us now that you've finally earned your wings?" Flare supposed.

"Yeah, heh! Earned your wings!" Flicker repeated, earning a smack from Flare.

"Well, you can forget it! Fire breath or no fire breath, you still made friends with those deplorable humans!"

"That's right." Scorch flew down, still recovering from his burns. "We dragons live by a code…and you've tarnished it!"

Devon scoffed. "Well, as they say, 'rules were meant to be broken.'"

"And your bones will be broken by the time we're done with you!" Cornwall added.

"Oh please. You two bozos against us? After all those centuries of being our personal punching bag, you think you have what it takes to defeat us in a face-off? You don't stand a chance! We've always gotten the better of you clowns, and you being able to fly and breathe fire isn't going to change that!"

"Perhaps not, Scorch," Devon began. "But what you fail to realize is that our lack of flight and fire-breathing isn't what allowed you to pick on us for so long. Rather, it was our lack of something much more valuable…courage!"

"Yeah." Cornwall continued. "Ya see, for the longest time, we felt completely useless, like we couldn't do nothin' right. But then that little girl came along and she helped us realize that we do have worth and that we don't have to be like everyone else to have it."

"And it's because of her that we're here right now, ready to defeat you in battle."

The dragons only laughed.

"What values could you possibly have learned from that twerp?" Flare teased.

"Yeah, she's nothin' but a tiny, scaredy-cat baby!" Blaze mentioned.

"She's a lot braver than you think she is." Devon claimed. "If she wasn't, she wouldn't have come here just to find us."

"Exactly!" Cornwall agreed. "And she's got a lot of smarts to go along with that bravery, given the fact she's the first human from another realm to find Dragon Country."

"And while it is true that she is small," Devon started. "She has a heart bigger than all of you put together!"

"So we say, who cares if she's a human? She's the best thing that ever happened to us and we're not gonna let you hurt her!"

"What?!" Scorch snarled.

"You heard right, buster! We're done gettin' pushed around!"

"Indeed!" Devon concurred. "You can't bully us anymore! We're a whole new dragon!"

"Oh, really? We'll just see about that…" Scorch turned to the other dragons. "GET THEM!"

The four bigger dragons charged toward the smaller one with intent to attack. Devon and Cornwall, however, weren't frightened at all. They clearly had been prepared for this battle for a long time. Then, just as Scorch was about to bite them, the duo turned around, whacking him with their tail. Blaze then grabbed Cornwall's foot while Flare tugged on Devon's neck in an attempt to rip them apart. But the two somehow overpowered them and threw Flare on top of Blaze's head, knocking them both to the ground. Flicker flew up to them and roared in their faces, almost as if he expected that to hurt the pair. They rolled their eyes.

"Oh, honestly."

"Pathetic."

Devon pulled Flicker in, allowing Cornwall to punch him in the snout.

The whole time, Madeline and CJ watched the fight scene from afar, flinching at every hit, bite, and flame spit. At some points, the violence became too much for the school-aged kids and they had to look away, especially whenever the mean dragons actually managed to get an attack in. But no matter how outnumbered Devon and Cornwall were and how many times they were hit, they didn't give up. Eventually, all four of their opponents were too weakened to continue fighting.

"So, fellas…had enough yet?" Cornwall asked.

Scorch wearily got to his feet. "You loathsome lizard! We shall never surrender! Right, guys?"

"Uh, actually Scorch," Blaze moaned. "Maybe we should just take the 'L' on this one. I can't handle any more skin grafts."

"Yes…I agree…" Flare mentioned. Flicker only coughed.

"…Fine…" Scorch relented. "But mark my words you two, this isn't over! One day we'll have our vengeance!"

And then, the four beasts took off into the smoky fog of Dragon Country. Satisfied, Devon and Cornwall landed on the ground. CJ was the first to approach them.

"Wow! That was amazing! You guys really showed them!"

"Thanks, kid." Cornwall acknowledged.

"Really, the way you stood up against those meanies, you were all 'BAM!' and 'POW!' and 'WHOOSH'! It was so cool! Don't you think, Madeline?"

Madeline slowly stepped out of the cave, but she said nothing. She was looking at Devon and Cornwall in an odd way.

"…Madeline? What's wrong?" CJ asked her.

"Oh dear…" Devon worried, turning to Cornwall. "This is dreadful…you don't think she's…?"

"Yeah, I think so." Cornwall replied sadly. "She's afraid of us. Y'know, because we're just like the other dragons now…scary, fire-breathing monsters. I wouldn't be surprised if she started running away any second."

And run Madeline did. But not away from the pair as they expected; rather, she ran to them. And then hugged them. Devon and Cornwall felt her face pressed deeply into their belly and heard her muffled sobs of happiness. They exchanged surprised glances but immediately afterwards gave the child warm smiles. CJ smiled, too. From the looks of it, everything had turned out just fine.

Don't you just love happy endings? Again, I probably could've combined chapters, but I wanted there to be exactly 10 because I'm weird like that.

Okay, so there's only one chapter left in the prologue and the last chapter I have written up. But if there is enough demand, I'll start writing more (I might even alternate between uploading this and the crossover story every week). Just remember to keep an eye out for when I post a poll and cast your vote on what idea you want to see done next and whichever wins will be the next one I do. See you next week!