The Dogcatcher strolled towards us with the ease of a military leader addressing the troops. His wrangler loop crackled dangerously close to us.

"You haven't been easy to track down," Dogcatcher said to Kit. "But the Pound awaits." He then faced me. "It waits for you as well, Stray."

Kit said something that I didn't quite catch before he fired a gamma furball at the Dogcatcher. The Catcher spun his pole, easily deflecting the assault.

Kit focused on me. "We'll have to work together if we wish to survive this."

"Come, Stray," said the Dogcatcher motioning towards me like a human calling a dog. The light from his loop-pole made his grin look wicked, like when someone puts a flashlight under their chin. "There is no escape."

I charged forward throwing a wild punch. He blocked it with his pole. I threw another jab, but it was also blocked. He blocked and countered each of my next blows. Finally, he swept my legs with his pole.

As I toppled, Kit leapt from object to object till he gained some height and then used his claws to run along the wall. Once he was close enough to the target, he launched off the wall to deliver a flying downward punch. But the Catcher not only deflected the blow with his pole but sent Kit flying like a fly ball.

I helped Kit to his feet. "This isn't going to be easy," I said as he shook off the hit.

But Kit wasn't slowed for long. He soon launched into a fury of attacks against the Pound guard. Each of Kit's attacks were countered or blocked. The two moved so fast they made an anime fighting game look slow. Finally, Kit was thrown against the wall. The Dogcatcher turned to me.

The Catcher spun his pole causally. "I have watched over the most vile and destructive beings across the universe for eons. Did you really think you could best me?"

I reached into one of the pockets in my purple sports vest. The 3D Fabricator printed up the gadget (aka Dog Toy) that I wanted. Once it was ready, I pulled out the tennis ball. "Maybe," I said before sending the ball sailing towards him; he easily dodged it.

"Missed," he smiled.

"Wasn't aiming at you."

He turned in time to see the ball bounce off the trash disposal button. The floor under him opened and he fell with a whoosh.

Brain decided that having a hole in the floor as the trash bin that everyone used was more efficient than having people throw the items into a trash can which then would be collected later. I asked him if they could at least have a trash can over the hole; he asked why. A few days later, I had an adventure at the dump when I fell down the prototype hole. (Danny was playing "trash basketball" at the time and didn't close the trash hole in between free throws.) Man, those rats were huge. But their plot to take over the city by making everyone sick was amateurish at best.

Kit slowly stood. He rubbed at his shoulder. "That won't stop him for long."

A spear-like grapple appeared out of the hole and stuck into the ground near us. "Or at all," I added.

Within seconds, the Dogcatcher was back. He'd used what looked like a retractable leash to climb up. "He totally stole my idea!" I shouted. One of my Dog Toy gadgets was a leash device that I could use as a grapple gun or whip.

Dogcatcher pointed the blade-tipped leash at me. "Get over here!" The leash cord fired out. Before I could react, it wrapped around me. Dogcatcher yanked me towards him. Kit slashed through the cord, which caused Dogcatcher to stumble in surprise. Kit took this moment to free me and we both ran. It took a whole two seconds before Dogcatcher was hot on our tails.

"How on Earth do we beat this guy?" I asked.

We rounded a corner and stopped. "We have to blow the ship."

"What?!" I said.

"It's the only way. The passengers are a safe distance away." Kit pointed to a small barely noticeable slot in the wall. It was just big enough for us but was obviously designed to go unnoticed. "This will take us straight to the engine room."

I leaned in to inspect the slot. "Seems like a poor design choice." I shifted towards Kit. "I'm not going to kill someone, even him."

"Then he will take you to the Pound and you'll live out the rest of your life in a formless void of nightmarish terror."

"There has to be another way."

Kit glanced over my shoulder; Dogcatcher was on his way. "Not really." He then shoved me into the slot.

We screamed as we slid down the dark tunnel. We were tossed about as the slide went left or right and I turned green when we hit the three-in-a-row loop-de-loops. Finally, we were launched into the air. Kit landed with grace and style while I landed with a painful splat.

Kit sighed and rolled his eyes. "Dogs."

I tried to stand. "Who'd go that way?"

Kit practically dragged me towards the engine. "Move it."

We were almost at the control panel when the Dogcatcher came out of nowhere.

"How-how...how did you get here so fast?" I asked.

"I took the shortcut."

I spun towards Kit angrily. "There was a shortcut?" He shrugged with a mumble.

"You two aren't going anywhere," Dogcatcher snarled.

The lights of the engine room spun around like a lighthouse beacon and the engine vwoom-ed like a heartbeat as we stared each other down. The Dogcatcher's hand hovered slightly over his holstered leash device. Kit positioned his hands near bladed saucer dishes hooked to his hips. My hand twitched; I was one quick reach from my Bone Blaster, a ray gun made to look like a bone a dog would chew. Western shootout music began to play on the cruise ship speakers; it was followed by an automated announcement stating that a reenactment of the Shootout at Io Hill would start in an hour.

The energy from the cold fusion engine, also created by Brain, flowed overhead passing through the electric pipes like water. The strange "liquid energy" cast a blue-white light upon us.

Dogcatcher's eyes darted to Kit and then to me. Kit squinted. I snarled. Dogcatcher than spat. Kit followed suit, but his plasma powered hairballs only ended up making a sizzling hole in the floor. I tried not to be grossed out by the both of them.

Finally, Dogcatcher drew his weapon. The bladed tip headed for Kit. It looked like it would hit the immortal feline in the chest but at the last second, he simply grabbed the metal rod and with a spin only a ballerina could pull off jabbed the blade into the master control panel. The electricity shot down the cable like some twisted version of a kite-flying experiment and into the Dogcatcher. The Catcher's eyes managed to widen before the electricity sent him into convulsions. The control panel exploded into a torrent of sparks and the lighthouse-signal-like lights turned to a harsh red. The engine changed into a high-pitched squeal that'd make your ears bleed.

Kit grabbed my wrist. "Let's go."

"We can't just leave him." I pointed to the prone Pound protector.

Kit jerked me towards the exit. "He would."

The machine erupted into flames. The wall of fire flowed through the room like a blazing avalanche. At the last second, I saw some kind of rift open under the senseless Dogcatcher and he sunk into it like quicksand.

Kit continued to pull at me as the burning wall of death chased after us. Finally, I came to my senses and remembered my fire hydrant jet pack. The 3D printing tech in my suit would soon have it printed up, but unlike the tennis ball or Bone Blaster, the jet pack would take longer.

As we waited, we continued to run—jumping over debris and dodging falling parts. The jet pack would also need some matter from my purple cape. So as we slid under a blast of fire, my cape began to shrink down. Some of my cape was also needed to create the life support system I would need to survive in space. So by the time the jet pack was ready, my cape was now a purple bandana for dogs.

With only a momentary protest from Kit, I scooped him up and blasted us through the halls. It wasn't any easier maneuvering the collapsing halls, but it was faster. We were getting further away from the fireball and closer to the airlock exit.

Too bad the exit was blocked by a fallen ceiling.

I quickly spotted a window and went for it. My vest manufactured another tennis ball, but unlike the last, this one I'd programmed to be explosive. Upon contact with the window, the ball exploded and the already weak window shattered.

Thanks to the shuttle shield, the ship remained pressurized so we weren't sucked out with a bunch of junk, but we didn't get far before the shield was destroyed in the blast—along with the rest of the ship.

Uh-oh, I realized. The dog bandana life support would keep me alive till the Dogfighter could come get us, but I worried about Kit.

I really shouldn't have worried. He was safely in a battle suit and immortal.

As the Dogfighter came for us, Kit kicked free.

"Until next time, Pup," he said drifting towards the planet. He fired a furball which propelled him. He twisted around and angled himself like an expert diver and shot through the atmosphere. I could already tell he'd aimed his trajectory towards the ocean. Even though he would survive burning up on re-entry and could survive smacking into the ground at multiple Gs, he knew such a land landing would cause damage.

Maybethere was more to Kit than I thought.