factory. “How much further?” he asked for the seventeenth time and counting.

“Relax, bud,” Hunter told him. “We'll be there soon. The Road Rovers haven't failed a mission yet.”

“Ruh roo-rah rah,” Shag pointed out.

“OK, so technically we didn't catch Parvo that time,” Hunter admitted. “But we still managed to keep him from killing the Master, so we kinda won.”

“That's not helping!” Bolt snapped. “Penny's in danger, and we've got to rescue her now!”

“Bolt, calm down,” Colleen urged. “We'll find 'er and 'ave these blokes in jail in no time flat.”

“Ja,” Blitz agreed, “So put a lid on it already.”

Even Colleen winced as Bolt sank his teeth into Blitz's leg, soliciting a chicken-like scream. “Don't complain to me, Blitz,” Hunter warned. “You really asked for that one.”

Blitz nursed his wound. Muzzle bounced impatiently. The tension was so thick you'd need a jackhammer just to dent it.

Finally Hunter broke the silence with an announcement. “Good news. The GPS says Penny's just a few miles ahead. We should be there any minute now.”

True to his word, two minutes later he was coming around for a landing. Their flight had taken them away from any cities to a large desert area. The only things around were a handful of cacti, a lot of sand and rocks, and a massive plateau just up ahead of them. If you've ever seen a picture of Ayer's rock from Australia, that's pretty much how it looked. “We're right on the spot now.”

Bolt looked out the front over Colleen's shoulder. “But there's nothing here,” he protested.

“I think they're probably hidin' inside that rock over there,” Colleen said, pointing to the plateau.

“Aw, come on,” complained Hunter. “Why do bad guys always hide inside a big rock or a mountain or something like that? I mean you'd think they'd at least hide in a tree or something for a change.”

“Actually, there was a hideout inside a tree once,” Colleen pointed out.

“When?” asked Hunter.

“Oh, it was the movie you didn't want to watch,” she replied. She spoke in that tone a girl will always use when reminding a guy about the time he stood her up. “You remember, don't you?”

“Oh, come on,” Hunter groaned. “You know that's a-”

“Search now, date later!” snapped Bolt. “We've got to find a way to get inside and rescue Penny!”

“And de professor,” added Exile.

“Ja,” agreed Blitz. “I'm still waiting for the biting of the-”

“Don't be weird boy,” Exile cut him off, shoving him in the shoulder.

“Alright,” said Hunter. “Let's find a way inside.”

This turned out to be much easier than they expected. A curve in the road leading around the rock showed some tire tracks in the sand off to the side. The tracks led right into what appeared to be solid rock.

“Now, we've just gotta find out how to get in there,” Colleen said, stating the obvious.

“I don't suppose it's as easy as saying 'Open barley,'” remarked Exile. Shag whispered something in his ear, drawing a strange look from Exile. “What is this 'Open sesame' you are talking about?”

“Alright, Rovers,” said Hunter. “Let's spread out and try to find a-”

WHAM!

Everyone jumped and spun to see a small hole punched in the rocky wall. A moment later, a spot next to the wall glowed red-hot before releasing twin lightsabers of energy, arcing up and around the hole. When they had touched the ground again, the chunk of wall shot out with Bolt right behind.

“Or, that could work too,” Hunter conceded.

The improvised door led them to a brightly lit steel pipeline that twisted and turned, veering off on either side into rooms or other tunnels. The Rovers followed, first Hunter and Colleen, then Blitz and Exile, and lastly Shag with Muzzle's hand cart. At each intersection, Bolt would stop and sniff the air. He firmly asserted that Penny was there, and they were getting closer.

“This looks like one of the old fallout shelters from the Cold War,” whispered Colleen.

“What good is it if you fall out?” asked Blitz.

“Skip the chatter,” griped Bolt. “We've gotta-”

“Shh!” hissed Exile. “We cannot let them hear us. We must sneak in as quiet as eels, as slippery as mice.”

Even Bolt paused his grimness to reward that with a strange look.

Right at that moment, they heard footsteps approaching from a side passage up ahead, accompanied by indistinct voices.

“Stop!” whispered Hunter. Everyone halted, but someone went one step too far. A step that, unfortunately, landed a foot right on a certain superdog's tail.

“YIPE!” barked Bolt, jumping straight up to head level. Only it didn't come out as your regular yipe. Instead, it came out with super bark force, rocketing him backwards through the others like some airborne bowling ball, knocking over the guards just ahead of them, and alerting pretty much the entire base to their presence.

“Nice,” complained Colleen from somewhere in the heap of Road Rovers sprawled like puppies in a basket. “Maybe when this is over we can go to a concert hall.”

The-ninjas emerged from the doors, weapons leveled at the group. One of them put two fingers to the side of his helmet. “We have them in the main west hallway,” he reported, his voice distorted by the helmet. It made him sound a little like a storm trooper from Star Wars. He seemed to listen, then nodded. “Yeah, gotcha. Bring 'em alive.”

Bolt lunged forward, taking out several of the guards before they could retaliate. The one who had spoken into a headset held up a paw. “Don't even think about it, boy,” he ordered. “Calico's got the girl right where he wants her. If you, any of you...” he waved his blaster to indicate both Bolt and the Rovers, “... try to get away, heh heh, it ain't gonna look good for her or the prof. Understand?”

Colleen looked at Hunter. “You don't suppose he's bluffing?” she offered weakly.

The guard pointed his blaster at them. “I'd say you don't have much of a choice,” he growled.

The Rovers marched down the hall at the head of half a legion of ninjas, far too many for even them to hope to overcome. Each one's hands were cuffed behind his or her back, only a foot below the blasters pressed against those same backs. Bolt was in front of them, held on a chain with at least a dozen blasters trained on him. Muzzle was to the back of the group of heroes, with one guard pushing his cart and another keeping him in line. The leader had warned them that if any of them so much as twitched a finger or paw to get away, all of them would get it.  “You should consider yourselves lucky,” he told them. “Doctor Calico specifically ordered us to set our weapons on stun. Says your more valuable to him alive.”

“Oh, that's good to know,” Hunter said brightly. “But, to be quite honest, I'm not exactly show dog material.”

“Me neither,” Blitz half-groaned, half-sobbed. “In fact really, I'm not even a real dog. I just wore this outfit for a costume pahty. It's all a big mistake. I'm really not much-”

“Shaddap,” growled the guard immediately behind him, digging his blaster harder into the Doberman's back.

They were brought to a massive room, with a ceiling that reached up into darkness. Dim light vaguely illuminated a series of catwalks spaced every ten feet or so, reaching up as far as they could see. On a platform extending from one of these walkways stood a man in a black suit, two cats twining about his legs. With his sinister look and black-and-white hair, he could only be...

“Calico!” spat Colleen.

Bolt growled. “You give Penny back right now or else!” he barked.

The man laughed, oblivious to Bolt's threat. “Ah, the famous Bolt,” he gloated, his voice deep and carrying just a hint of British accent-not Colleen's cockney style, but a slow, formal-sounding courtly way of speech laced with as much menace as his figure. He clasped his hands in front of him in mock-sincerity. “And the Road Rovers. What a pleasure to finally meet you. Welcome to my humble headquarters.”

“Yeah, nice place,” said Hunter. “Can we have the kid back now? Her mom doesn't want her out this late.”

Doctor Calico chortled. “Ah, such wit. But if you want to see the girl, look no further.”

A spotlight flashed on from above where he stood, bathing the area in front of the Rovers in light. There sat Penny, strapped to a chair with duct tape over her mouth. She called out something which might have been “Bolt,” but with her voice muffled it was hard to tell. However, neither the Rovers nor Bolt were focused on indecipherable speech at the moment. No, they were far more interested in the guard standing next to her. Or more precisely, the blaster in his hands. The blaster pointed right. At. Her. Head.

Bolt growled and glared at the guard. He shot off a blast of heat vision, burning a hole straight through the