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Since you seem to be asking about whole batteries, not individual bare cells, dangerous effects should be limited.  Consumer batteries made from lithium cells almost always include integrated protection circuits.  These prevent over-charging, too deep discharge, and probably also mitigate shorts somewhat.  With shorted output, the active circuitry may shut down and retry intermittently, or more likely, just blow a fuse.  The result is really more up to what the protection circuit does than what a bare cell would do.