straight through the man's weapon.

On second thought, better skip the burning part, because the attack did no damage at all! Bolt tried again, this time aiming for the man himself. No dice. The guy didn't so much as twitch!

“Impressive display,” cackled Calico. “As you can see, I've taken precautions this time. Couldn't manage it with all my soldiers, but this fellow is impervious to your heat vision. And if you try a physical attack, he'll blast your friend long before even you can stop him. And his weapon,” Calico leered, “isn't set on stun.”

Bolt growled, but now his anger was giving way to uncertainty and fear. Was he doing something wrong? Why weren't his powers working? He could try the super bark, but that would hurt Penny too.

“I am going to have my scientists run some tests on you, Bolt,” boasted the evil man, “But just now I want you to step into that capsule over there.” He pointed, and a spotlight shone on an object resembling a great metal egg. “Even you can't break out of it. Go on, now. Step inside like a good pup.”

Bolt dropped his head. “I've failed,” he whined.

Suddenly, Hunter began barking to him. “The ground!” he shouted in dog. “Zap the ground under that guy's feet!”

“What?” asked Bolt.

“Just do it!” Hunter yelled, now in English.

Bolt stared at him for a moment, then turned to the ninja who stood ready to shoot Penny. He fired another blast of heat vision, and this time...

The guard disappeared. He didn't fall. He didn't yell. He just flickered for a moment and then vanished.

“What?!” raged Calico.

Bolt, relieved to see his girl safe, raced toward her.

“Get that dog!” screamed Calico.

Instantly the air was filled with lasers firing. Bolt, realizing he had to draw them away from Penny, altered course and headed up the catwalks into the dimmer light. Guards poured out of the hallway behind the Rovers, leaving them free to escape in the confusion. Shag broke his cuffs, then snapped Exile's. Exile burned through Blitz's while Shag released Colleen, who in turn fished a lockpick out of her hair and released Hunter. “'Owed you know?” she asked.

“Hologram,” he replied over the sound of blasters. “While you were watching Princess Bride, I was watching Scooby-Doo.”

Colleen made a face, then tapped a guard with his back to her oh-so-gently on the shoulder.  As he turned, she oh-so-not-gently swung her foot into his side, knocking him over and probably re-arranging an organ or two. While Bolt kept the guards mainly focused on him, the Rovers demolished them from behind.

Then Bolt saw a frightening sight. The ceiling was opening to reveal a rising helicopter, with a rope connected to Penny taking her up with it! “You may have outfoxed me this time,” shouted Calico from his perch, “But I've still got your lucky Penny! Ha ha ha ha!”

“I don't think so!” barked Bolt, sending a blast of heat vision through the rope. But the lasers didn't stop there. They went beyond the rope, and struck a (pardon the pun) glancing blow to Calico's right eye.

“AAAGH!” he screamed, his voice echoing throughout the room as he clutched his wound. It took him several seconds with everyone staring up at him before he regained his composure. “You will pay for this!” he raged as he retreated through a passage behind him.

“And the bad guy makes his exit,” Hunter observed. “Now we just have to do one thing, and it's a rap.”

“Ur-ur-ur-ur!” grunted Muzzle, bouncing on his cart.

Shag ran to his friends, Penny in his arms. “Rah ruh ruh raff rah!” he called.

“Okay, but hurry up,” Hunter replied.

Shag handed Penny over to his teammates as Bolt got clear of what, as they had warned him on the plane, would be a grim spectacle.

“He's all yours, Shag,” Hunter beamed, presenting the Rottweiler to his friend.

“Rokay,” Shag agreed. Ripping off the Muzzle, he barked, “Reff Reffuh-rah!”

The guards turned to the sound to see a sight nobody wants to see: a set of fangs heading straight for them.

“Nice job, Shag,” congratulated Hunter. “But you gotta work on the line, it really loses something in translation.”

“Speaking of losing,” groaned Exile, clutching his stomach as he took in the sight of Muzzle in action, “I think I may be doing it.”

As the guards fled the crazed dog's wrath, an alarm began to sound.

“Now what do you suppose that's all about?” asked Colleen, hands on her hips.

“Ten minutes to base destruction,” answered a computerized voice. “All personnel evacuate immediately.”

“Yet another unexpected twist. Bummer,” complained Hunter as Muzzle returned to his hand cart.

“Come on!” cried Penny after freeing her mouth of the duct tape. “Let's get out of here!”

“Wait, what about your dad?” asked Hunter.

“Calico said they have him somewhere else so there'd be no chance of you rescuing him this time,” Penny explained.

“Well why didn't you say so? Let's roll, Rovers!” ordered Hunter.

Penny gratefully received her scooter and helmet from Shag. She deployed the tow cable, and the group was off with Bolt leading the way. As they raced through the tunnels, the digital doomsayer droned through speakers all around them.

“Nine minutes to base destruction.”

“Eight minutes to base destruction.”

“Seven minutes.”

“Six minutes.”

“Five”

“Four.”

And so on. Then, as if the computer knew it was going to get blown up and wanted to get in as much talking as possible before then, it began to count down the seconds of the final minute.

“We're almost there!” shouted Hunter.

“Go, Bolt, go!” shouted Penny.

“Fifteen.”

Bolt glanced back and was overcome with a terrible realization. He and Penny would make it, but the Road Rovers, his friends, couldn't get out in time. Even Hunter wasn't fast enough.

“Ten.”

They were doomed! Even he wasn't fast enough to go back for all of them. And then, like a revelation, he knew that there was a way. He released the tow cable, and ran back.

“Seven.”

“Bolt!” shouted the others.

“Bolt!” cried Penny. “What are you doing?!”

With only five seconds left, Bolt positioned himself behind the Rovers and planted his feet. A dull “boom” could be heard echoing through the halls as he set first his right back paw, then his left front one, spacing to absorb the shock.

“boom.”

“Four.”

“boom.”

“Three.”

“Bolt!”

“Two.”

Bolt took a deep breath, dug as deep as he could, and then...

“ARF!”

The bark and its first three echoes were heard for miles around. A blast of sheer sonic power blasted from Bolt's mouth, rippling metal, crumbling stone, and shooting the Road Rovers and Penny out the hall like a cannon.

“One.”

BOOM!

Around the perimeter of the hidden base, at least seventy-three charges of concealed C-4 explosives erupted with the combined force of a small volcano. Rocks and pieces of metal shot into the air, then rained down as the base collapsed in on itself.

“Booollltt!” cried Penny, stretching out one arm in mid-flight as if she could reach in there and pull him out, pull him to safety. But it was hopeless. Bolt was gone.

When the dust settled, the Road Rovers and Penny headed for what was left of the base, hoping that by some miracle Bolt had escaped. Maybe in that last second he had been able to make a run for it. Maybe the force of the collapse had somehow blown him out of the base the same way he had blasted them out, and they would find him, stunned but alive. Maybe... maybe...

But as they got closer and closer, their hopes dwindled. When at last they came to the base, there was no sign of Bolt.

“That little dog saved us all,” said Hunter, trying not to cry.

“Even in the end, 'e was a hero,” added Colleen in eulogy.

“He was a true comrade,” added Exile, sobbing openly.

“Roh, hoo hoo hoo!” Shag bawled.

They looked at Blitz, who finally cracked. “Okay,” he admitted, “So maybe he vas.. kind of okay...” then he broke down too. After sobbing to a degree usually reserved for begging for his life, he blew his nose on Shag's arm. “Oops,” he said, seeing his error. “Sahry.”

Even Muzzle was whimpering. Penny just stood there, tears flowing unabated. “I love you, Bolt,” she whispered.

Hunter put a hand on her shoulder. “Come on,” he said. “We'll take care of you until we can figure out how to get your dad back.”

As they turned away, they just missed seeing a pair of neon green beams slice through a pile of rubble.

They did not miss the bark that followed. The very, very loud bark.

“Huh?” they asked as one, turning around.

There, struggling to the surface amidst a rain of freshly blasted debris, stood...

“Bolt!” cried Penny, running forward. As the largest chunks of rock finished falling, and the smaller debris continued its steady downward drift, she dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around the dog's