Ready to Bolt

Deedle, deedle, deedle.

A girl about twelve years old pulled out her cell phone. She had short brown hair, a slight build, and wore a pink sweater, black shorts, and black-and-white striped stockings that went all the way up. Seeing the number, she flipped the phone open and held it up to her ear. “Hello?”

“Penny!” came a man's voice from the other end. He sounded nervous, out of breath. “I don't have much time.”

“Daddy?” asked the girl. “Are you okay?” Next to her, a small, stocky white dog perked up his ears and looked at her with an expression of concern. A lightning bolt-shaped birthmark adorned his left side, the inspiration for his name: Bolt.

“Something's... come up at work, Honey. Daddy's not going to be home for a while.”

“I don't understand,” Penny's voice cracked,letting fear leak through like water from a broken pitcher. Her dad sounded scared, and that scared her too.

“You can't go back to the house, okay?”

Penny was confused, and now she was beyond scared. She pulled her knees in close and wrapped her free arm around them. “What's happening?”

“It's all right. You won't be alone. You have Bolt.”

Confused, Penny looked at her dog. He looked back at her.

“I've altered him,” her father continued. “He can protect you now.”

A loud banging noise came through the phone, as if someone were beating a door with a sledgehammer. The noise seemed to smash through some invisible dam, releasing a wave of tension that had been rapidly building up. “I have to go now,” said Dad in a rush. “Penny, I love you!”

“Daddy-!”

The line went dead.

About an hour later, and hundreds of miles away, a man with white hair stood in a conference room. His name was Professor Shepherd, known more commonly as The Master. Seated around a table in front of him were five dogs, humanoid and clad in uniforms that resembled blue jumpsuits with plates of silver body armor. “Road Rovers,” he told them, “We have a serious problem ahead of us.”

An image flashed on the screen, showing a man dressed in a labcoat. He had a brown beard and mustache, and hair that came up over his head like the Statue of Liberty's torch.   “About an hour ago, Professor Livingston, a talented inventor and leader in the field of bio-enhancement, was captured in his own laboratory. His equipment was all stolen or sabotaged, and there was little evidence left of who the kidnappers were.”

Another image replaced the first one, this time showing a man dressed all in black, with hair just as black except for a few streaks of white. A small beard adorned his chin, which together with the hair framed a face of total evil. “We have reason to believe that this man, known only as Calico, had some part in the crime.”

“Calico?” asked Hunter, a yellow retriever mix. “Like the cat?”

“Oh, I already don't like 'im,” Colleen, a brown-and white female collie, remarked.

“Indeed,” the Master nodded. “He's been involved in weapons smuggling and technology theft for decades, but even our best efforts have failed to bring up any trace of his whereabouts. However, we finally have a clue as to his next move.”

The image changed again to show a little girl and a small white dog. “The missing professor left his daughter, Penny, and her dog, Bolt, who have not been seen since the time of his disappearance.  Thanks to a tracking code placed on her cell phone, we believe they are still at large. But Calico and his cohorts are likely to try to kidnap Penny and the dog, hoping to use them as leverage to make the professor work for them. The consequences of his mind in their employ would be nothing short of disaster.”

“They take the dog?” cried Exile, a blue-and white husky. Next to him, Shag, a massive white sheepdog, growled.

“I call dibs on the first bite,” said Blitz, a Doberman Pinscher.

“There's one more thing you should know,” the Master added. “According to a message sent to us a week ago, the professor and his assistants performed an experimental procedure on Bolt, which they expected to show results at about this time. If successful, the process would grant him extraordinary powers comparable to or even surpassing your own. He should be of great help to you on your mission. Find Penny and Bolt, track down the professor, and make sure Calico doesn't get his hands on either of them.”

Hunter jumped to his feet. “You heard the man. Let's hit the road, Rovers!”

Penny and Bolt crouched behind a dumpster, watching a large muscular man dressed remarkably like an MIB agent. The man scanned the alley, searching this way and that for any sign of the two. “Let's go, Bolt,” Penny whispered, slipping out in the other direction. Bolt followed.

“Hey!”

The duo put on an extra burst of speed, neither one daring to look back. “This way!” Penny cried, slipping into a crowd. “We'll try to lose him in here.”

Bolt stuck to Penny's heels as together they ducked and wove through the mass of people crowded on the sidewalk outside a movie theater. Behind them, the man in black shoved his way through the crowd with only one goal in mind: get the girl.

As the two got clear of the cluster, they broke into a dead run. Unfortunately, their stalker was not far behind. And his legs were a lot longer. He was twenty feet away. Fifteen... ten... Heedless of any other danger, they ran across a crosswalk without looking, just in time to avoid being hit by a red car. A red car designed a lot like a dog.

The car screeched to a halt between them and their pursuer, and the back door opened on their side. “Get in!” called the passenger urgently from the front window.

Penny stared.  From the neck down the stranger looked human, and her brown-and-white hair could have passed for a human too. But she had the head of a dog! Bolt stared too, likewise transfixed.

The man in black ran around the front of the car, and Penny jumped into the open door with Bolt inches behind. As the car shot off again, the speed of its start slammed the door behind them and left the man choking on exhaust. Colleen leaned out the window and waved. “Ta-ta!” she called. “Don't bother to write!”

The agent pulled open the collar of his coat. “They got a ride heading west,” he shouted. “Red car, dog-shaped. Can't miss it. Send in the choppers, now!”

In the back seat, Penny and Bolt gasped for breath. “Thanks,” Penny panted. She looked at the two figures in confusion. One looking back at her, the one who had told her to get in, looked like a collie. Brown fur covered her head, while white fur framed her muzzle and eyes. The other, who was driving, had goldish fur and, as best she could tell from behind, was a Labrador. “I've seen dogs like you on the news,” she said slowly. “You're Road Rovers?”

“Yep,” answered the lab. “We heard you needed a paw, so we came to pick you up. Pretty cool, huh?”

The collie pointed to herself. “I'm Colleen, and the chauffeur here is Hunter.”

Hunter briefly cast her an annoyed look. “Since when did I get demoted to driver?” he complained.

“Well, you're the one who always complains about my driving,” she replied.

Bolt let out a series of barks, interrupting the conversation.

“What, talking?” asked Hunter. “Ah, it's all part of the basic package.”

Penny took a moment to realize what had just happened. “You understand him?” she asked.

“Of course,” Colleen replied. “We're dogs, aren't we?”

“You didn't know?” asked Hunter.  It took Penny a moment to realize the question was directed to Colleen. Then, “Uh-oh, we've got company.”

Everyone but Hunter looked back to see several motorcycles on their tail, ridden by wiry figures in skin-tight indigo suits with scaly-looking patterns in the fabric. They wore helmets with large eyeshields resembling massive, sinister black eyes. Overall, they looked a lot like human snakes.

Bolt cocked an ear, then glared up at the ceiling and growled. His body bunched together, and his ears lay flat against his head. “What's wrong, boy?” asked Penny.

Hunter eyed the radar screen. “We've got company,” he replied.

Suddenly, twin beams of intense green light shot out of Bolt's eyes, burning through the ceiling. There was an explosion overhead, and seconds later a heavily armed helicopter fell to earth, spinning out of control before it landed in a massive fireball between them and the motorcyclists.

“Whoa!” cried Hunter, looking back at Bolt.

“How'd you do that?” asked Colleen.

Penny, too, was staring at her dog, who was apparently as surprised as anyone else. Suddenly he barked, looking forward. Hunter looked ahead and swerved just in time to avoid a light pole.

The jarring motion seemed to loosen up Penny's tongue. “Daddy said he did something to Bolt so he could protect me,” she rambled. “He's been doing weird stuff all day, but he never shot lasers before.”

“Cool,” smiled Hunter. “I wonder what Exile's gonna say.”

“You mean there are more of you guys?” asked Bolt (in dog, of course).

“Yeah,” Hunter said, “There's Exile, Shag, Muzzle, and Blitz.”

“Who?” asked Colleen.

“Blitz. You know, the Doberman.”

Colleen tapped a finger on her chin. “Hmm, must have slipped my mind. Is he new?”

From their back seat vantage point, Penny and Bolt couldn't see the smile creep onto Hunter's lips.

They met up with the rest of the crew in an out-of-the-way area in town. “So you guys were changed too?” asked Penny as Shag amiably knelt down to talk to Bolt. After a string of indecipherable sounds by way of introduction, Shag held out a paw to shake. Bolt sniffed the massive paw, placed his own in it...

… and, smashed it into the pavement.

“Row-oo-oo-oo!” Shag let out a howl of pain and tried to pull his paw away. Surprised at his own strength, Bolt lifted his paw, and Shag fell backward.

“Bolt!” scolded Penny.

Bolt hunched to the ground, his ears flat and his tail tucked between his legs. “I didn't mean to,” he whimpered. “I couldn't help it.”

Hunter placed a hand on Penny's shoulder to calm her down. “He says it was an accident. He can't control his powers yet, remember?”

Penny stopped and nodded. “Right, sorry.” She knelt down to pat Bolt on the head. “It's OK, boy.”

“Mi mi-mi mi mi,” whimpered Shag, clutching his paw as Colleen started to examine it.

Bolt was staring at his own paw, curious now. Experimentally, he tapped the ground with it, knocking everyone over.

“Bolt!” cried Penny. Then, seeing the upset look on the dog's face, she stopped, and her expression softened. She had never been able to stay mad at those eyes for long. “Listen, boy, try to take it easy, OK? Save the rough stuff for the bad guys like that goon who was chasing us.”

Bolt nodded, his tongue hanging out in a doggy grin. Penny stood up and faced the rest of the group. “We've got to find out where they're keeping my father.”

“That's just why we're 'ere,” Colleen replied, smiling.

Hunter nodded. “OK, let's get moving. Maybe one of them is still around and has something we can use to track them back to their base.”

Colleen suddenly started yelling and jumping around, beating at her head like she had been attacked by a flea circus. Nobody blamed her much, given that her hair was on fire. Bolt sat, still looking in her direction, but now with his body hunched up like he knew he'd done something wrong. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened.

“And let's get some shades for him while we're at it,” added Hunter as Exile used a low-power dose of freeze vision to extinguish the blaze.

It didn't take long to find the man who had come after them. He was cruising around in a black car trying to find them, a scowl on his face as he peered at the crowds.

“How do we catch him?” asked Penny.

“By using a tactic mastered by the ancient Japanese ninjas,” answered Colleen.  “Why don't you do the honors, Huntie-Wuntie?”

Hunter stepped out of the alley they had secluded themselves in and threw a smoke bomb into the car window. Noxious black fumes filled the vehicle, and within seconds the man opened his door and staggered out, bent nearly double and coughing into his fist.

Hunter stuck two fingers in his mouth and whistled. “Over this way!” he called. “Please, try to keep up!”

The man ran towards the alley, only to find it completely empty. He walked a few steps in, but got no further when a figure detached itself from the shadows with a shriek and planted a deft strike at the spot where his shoulder met his neck. With a grunt, the man went stiff and then fell limp as an overcooked noodle.

“Wow.” Bolt was awestruck as he came out of hiding with the others. “I've gotta remember that move.”

Hunter rolled the unconscious agent over and began to search his pockets. Bolt nosed his face, then his shirt collar. “Hey, I got something,” he reported.

Hunter opened the man's jacket and removed a radio hooked up to a mini-microphone in his collar and a tiny bud in his ear. “Like taking candy from a baby,” he gloated.

Penny heard a noise behind them and gulped. “Uh, guys? Don't look now, but I think Mommy and Daddy just showed up.”

They turned around to be confronted with half a dozen of the cyber-ninjas they'd face earlier. The six clenched their fists, then flicked them open. Lines of electricity sizzled and danced between their clawed finger tips like the inside of a plasma ball.

“Is looking like they brought the whole family,” remarked Exile, looking like he was really hoping they wouldn't decide to break out the snap-shots.

Colleen tilted her head and put a hand to her chin, as if critiquing their aggressors. “Well, I can't say much for the color, and the style is dreadful, but I abso-bloomin'-lutely love the accessories.”

The figures rushed at them, swiping out with their electrified claws like crazed raptors. “Shag, keep an eye on Penny!” ordered Hunter. “Everyone else, let's roll!”

Colleen lashed out at the first one to come her way. “Tonto!” First, she caught him by the wrist as he took a swipe at her. She yanked on his arm, sending him into a spin. “Kato!” Then, she treated him to a jump-kick in the head, giving him some extra company inside his helmet; a few teeth to amuse him by bouncing around. “Grayson!” Finally, she crouched low to avoid the aimlessly waving claws and spin-kicked his feet out from under him.

The next one went after Hunter, who dodged several strikes before winging a tennis ball into his attacker's stomach.

“GOOoooaaah...”

Or maybe it was a shot-put ball. Either way, the guy apparently didn't like the feeling of it hitting him in the stomach. He clutched his abdomen...

ZZAPP!

Only to remember that, oh yeah, he'd left the old taser talons running (hmm, maybe that's why only licensed professionals get to play around with loose wires). He decided then that it was a really good time to keel over and take a nap.

The next two went after Blitz, who screamed and ducked at the sight of two techno-ninjas about to fry his fur. As he dropped to his knees and covered his head, one ninja tripped over him and fried the other, who very kindly fell on him and returned the favor.

Blitz looked up and saw the two lying sprawled on the ground. “I meant to do that, you know,” he smirked.

The next one was Exile's. He fired off two blasts of freeze vision, icing over the talons. Unfortunately, one crackle of lightning was all it took to shatter the layer.

“OK, I do it hard way,” he rumbled. He shot off another blast, this time of heat vision, and melted the ground under the ninja's feet, sinking him up to his ankles in hot asphalt. But he wasn't there long. The moment he looked down, Exile knocked his lights out.

Unfortunately, while the Rovers had been cleaning up the other five ninjas, the last one slipped past them and was closing in for Penny. And Shag, it seemed, was in no mood to fight. He put one arm in front of Penny and then backed up to the wall.

Bolt jumped forward, teeth bared and throat rumbling. He barked a warning, and the bark came out with such force that it knocked him backwards into the wall behind him, shaking the bricks.

The effect on the Rovers and the ninja was equally dramatic. A gust of wind and a roar of sound lifted them clear off their feet and flung them backwards right out of the alley. The good news was, a grocery truck had parked in just the right spot to keep them out of traffic. The bad, or at least painful news, was...

CLANG!

They didn't land in the groceries.

“Ooooaah...” groaned Hunter as he extracted himself from a dent in the side of the truck. The rest of the team echoed similar complaints as they stepped or fell out of the impressions they had made.

As Penny, Bolt, and Shag-the only ones unaffected by the blast-came running, Colleen moaned, “You'd better 'ave the receipt for those voice lessons.”

“I knew Daddy made him powerful,” Penny admitted, “But not like this.”

Bolt was wide-eyed. “Gosh,” he said, “I was only trying to scare the guy.”

Exile, still rubbing his head, looked at the cyber-ninja. The teched-out warrior was still stuck in the side of the truck with his claws weakly sparking. “I am thinking you maybe overdid-ski,” he observed.

“Any other powers we should know about?” asked Hunter.

“It's all new to me,” said Bolt. “I know I'm really strong, and I can make things catch on fire by staring at them sometimes, but this barking stuff is new on me.”

Penny shook her head. “I dunno,” she admitted. “He's strong, and he's got that heat-ray thing and this mega-bark, but that's all I know.”

“Rah-roh-ruh,” interjected Shag.

“Yeah,” agreed Hunter, “That does sound cooler.”

“What does?” chorused Penny and Bolt.

“Shag says you should call it the super-bark.”

“Whatever,” countered Penny. “Right now we have to find what they're doing with my father.”

“Hey, just trying to lighten things up,” Hunter said, taking the micro-radio out of his pocket. “Exile, think you can figure out a way to get a fix on their headquarters?”

Exile nodded as he accepted the device. “I'll have them found in two blinks of a heartbeat,” he promised.

Penny scrunched her face. “Uh, what was that?” she asked.

“I think he means it'll be done in no time,” guessed Bolt, although of course the translation was futile.

“Exile will get a fix on the frequency that radio's tuned into, and then we'll follow it right to the blightuhs,” translated Colleen.

“I figured that much out,” Penny replied.

However, as Exile tinkered with the radio, it began to emit a high-pitched beep. “Um, is it supposed to do that?” asked Blitz.

“I am not thinking so!” Exile shot back. Looking around for a safe place to toss it, he threw it up in the air seconds before it blew into hundreds of tiny fragments.

“Yet another unexpected twist. Bummer.”

Penny groaned. “Now what are we going to do?” she asked.

Hunter shrugged.   “Well, we could check out your dad's lab for clues.”

Penny shook her head. “They probably destroyed the place,” she said doubtfully, “But it's the only lead we've got at this point.”

Penny directed them to the building where her father had worked. “Whoa,” Hunter gawked when he saw it. “They did take the place apart.”

The building looked like it had once been an apartment building of some kind, but now it was a ramshackle ruin. All the windows were broken, and the walls were covered with graffiti.

“It always looks like that,” Penny explained. “Inside it's state-of-the-art. They made it look that way so people like Calico wouldn't think it was the lab.”

“Is very clever-ski,” Exile approved as they headed inside.

His smile faded when they came to a brick wall in the building that looked as if it had been blown apart with a bazooka. Beyond it lay the remains of a steel door, and then a long corridor.

“Not clever enough,” said Penny ruefully.

The laboratory at the end of the hall had been literally torn apart. Anything the bad guys hadn't been able to take, they had smashed or blown up.

“Now this is what I call an office party,” smirked Colleen, putting her hands on her hips as she surveyed the rubble.

“Rah-ruhrah-rah-ruh-reff-rah,” mumbled Shag.

“What did he say?” asked Penny.

Hunter folded his arms. “He said he's going to remember this the next time we tell him to clean his room,” he interpreted.

“Ro-ruh,” Shag agreed.

“”Come on, Rovers,” said Hunter. “Let's sniff the place out and see if we can find anything.”

The canines got down on their hands and knees and began to sniff the floor in every direction. Bolt, thinking maybe he had gotten a super-sniffer to go with his other powers, joined them. It didn't take him long to find something. “Hey guys, over here,” he barked.

The Road Rovers and Penny ran over to him. “Penny's dad was here,” he reported. “A lot.”

“Well of course he was,” Colleen pointed out. “This was where he worked.”

“No,” Bolt insisted, planting his paw. “Here here.”

Penny, after hearing a translation from Hunter, suggested, “Maybe it's a hidden compartment.”

“But there's no handle or hinge,” Colleen pointed out. “How can we find out?”

Exile began to target one edge of the steel panel where Bolt stood with his heat vision, but after several minutes it became clear the metal wouldn't give. “It's probably heat-resistant,” Penny observed.

“Bolt, what if you help him out?” asked Hunter.

“But I can't control it yet,” Bolt protested. “What if I fry something I shouldn't?”

“No time like the present to learn,” Colleen pointed out.

With some hesitation, Bolt concentrated on the spot Exile was nuking. After a moment, his eyes shot out the same green lasers as before, their glow combining with Exile's to form a yellow radiance over the spot. A moment later the metal itself began to glow, then to melt.

“Okay, cut it out guys,” Hunter said. “We don't want to fry whatever's under there.”

Exile cut the beams, and Bolt closed his eyes, opening them hesitantly a moment later. It took three tries before his eyes stopped glowing.

“But how do we get in there?” asked Penny.

“Like this,” grinned Exile. He chilled the hot metal for a moment, then reached down and took hold of the hole. He pulled hard and managed to lift the edge a little.

“Maybe Bolt should try,” offered Colleen. “He needs the practice.”

Bolt, eager to find whatever lay beneath, stepped forward and took the metal in his jaws. He lifted, but instead of moving the metal he heaved his own body up into the air.

“Woah, easy, boy,” said Penny.

Bolt let himself back down and turned to the Rovers. “It's too big,” he said. “This thing's heavier than I am.”

“Rah.” Shag knelt down and placed both paws on Bolt. “Rah ruh rah.”

Bolt smiled and bent his head down again. This time, the metal lifted at the edge. The panel was roughly three-by-three feet, and at least four inches thick. Exile came around and took the edge, peeling it back like the lid on a sardine can.

They gazed down into the hole, and all of them let out a disappointed groan. The compartment was not hiding the professor, as they had hoped. Indeed, it was so small it would have been cramped even for Bolt. It did, however, contain some peculiar metallic objects. Penny lifted them out. One was a helmet, such as one might wear for skateboarding. The next looked like a collapsible scooter, and the third looked like a small flat-screen TV with a glassy-looking rectangle below the screen.

“What are these for?” asked Blitz.

“I don't know,” admitted Penny.

Bolt sniffed them. “He made them,” he barked. “Penny's dad.”

“Try the TV,” suggested Hunter.

“Where's the on button?” asked Blitz.

Penny frowned at the rectangular device and then placed her index finger on the small pad below the screen.

The thing flashed to life, showing an image of Penny's fingerprint. “Scan confirmed,” it droned. “Fingerprint identified.”

Then Penny's father appeared on the screen. “Penny,” he said, “I hope you never watch this, but if you do it means that something has happened to me and you yourself may be in danger.”

“What was his first clue?” asked Blitz.

“Shh!” the others hissed.

“...I have made these devices for you in case of an emergency, to keep you safe,” said the professor. An image of the folded scooter appeared, zooming in on a small panel in between the handlebars. As a button on the left of the panel flashed, the man's voice went on. “Pushing this button will deploy the scooter. It's motorized with a solar power supply, gyroscopic stabilizers, and a top speed of 60 miles per hour. If you need to go faster...” now another button flashed, “Fire the tow cable to catch an extra boost. The throttles are activated by twisting the hand-grips forward or backward.”

The scooter vanished and was replaced by an image of the helmet. “This composite helmet and the pads and wrist-guards in it can withstand the force of a small bomb,” he said, “And it has a heads-up display coded to your voiceprint. Simply give it a command or destination, and it will give you any information you need to get there. It will also send ultrasonic signals to Bolt, so he'll know where to go. If you and Bolt get separated, he should be able to home in on the helmet's distress signal over a limited range.”

The helmet disappeared, replaced again by the face of Penny's father, “I dearly hope you'll never have to see this. Perhaps I should tell you-maybe I will before you see it-that my work puts me in danger. But I don't want to see you living in fear. Please, if you see this, use this technology to stay away from whoever kidnapped me. I love you.”

The screen went blank.

Penny lowered the screen. “I'll find you, father.”

“You bet-ski!” said Exile enthusiastically.

“And we're gonna help ya,” added Colleen.

“Okay, okay,” grumbled Blitz. “Can we move this along?”

Everyone stared at him. “What's his problem?” asked Bolt.

“It's three o' clock and I haven't bitten anyone yet today,” Blitz complained. “I'm way behind schedule.”

Everyone groaned. “Oh, fine, party-pooper,” Hunter griped. “Let's hit the road, Rovers!”

The Rovers howled, except for Blitz. Bolt took his place in the concert, simultaneously kicking Blitz over with one paw.

“Bolt, that means we're supposed to move,” Penny explained.

“I know,” Bolt replied, although he knew Penny couldn't understand him. “I just felt like hitting him.”

The group piled into their vehicles-Hunter, Colleen, Penny, Bolt, and Blitz in the Street Rover, with Shag and Exile on a motorcycle.

“Where are we going, anyway?” asked Penny.

“I dunno,” Colleen admitted. “Hunter, where are we going?”

“We know those guys are after Penny and Bolt,” Hunter replied. “And we know they know they're with us. So we just have to wait until they come and find us. We chase them off, they go back home...”

“...and we follow them right back to their headquarters,” finished Penny.

Hunter nodded.

It didn't take long for them to get their wish. Soon the familiar throb of helicopter rotors could be heard overhead, followed by the revving of motorcycles pursuing them on land. One pulled up alongside Blitz's window, and Blitz rolled it down, sticking his arm out with claws extended toward the front tire.

“Here, let me give you a- GAAAH!” The rider zapped him with an electrified gauntlet, forcing him to pull back the offended appendage. Colleen opened the sunroof, rose to a standing position on her seat, and blasted the ninja's motorcycle out from under him.

Bolt, meanwhile, was pawing at Penny's window. She turned to see another tech-ninja coming up on their side. Smiling, she pressed the button to lower the window. “Go get 'em, Bolt,” she smirked.

Bolt took her advice a little too far. Instead of barking the guy into next week or zapping his tires with a blast of heat vision, Bolt took the man off his ride with a full-bodied tackle.

“Bolt!” everyone cried.

The dog paid them no heed. He was already racing to meet the other attacking forces.

Hunter grabbed the radio. “Shag, Exile!” he shouted, screeching to a halt. “Go back and-”

“Already on it!” Penny shouted as she hopped out the door. She pushed the left button on her scooter and the handlebar extended. Then a small flat platform extended between the two wheels. She hopped on, revved the throttle, and was off.

“Stop, Penny!” shouted Blitz. “Those biker boys are bad, bad humans!”

Penny wasn't listening. She zipped into the fray and shouted at the top of her lungs, “Come here, Bolt!”

Bolt turned, saw his girl in danger, and ran to her, desperate to keep between her and the attackers. Meanwhile, Penny, seeing that Bolt had listened, veered back towards the Street Rover. Exile was heading back and covering their retreat with blasts of freeze vision as the other Rovers piled out of the car.

Unfortunately, he didn't manage to nail enough of the ninjas. And as civilian cars rushed to get out of the way of this strange conflict, the masked riders rushed to catch up. And their cycles could go a lot faster than sixty.

If you need to go faster, fire the tow cable to catch an extra boost, Penny remembered her father saying in the recording. She glanced down at the handlebars, with no time to noticed the display screen in the middle that showed her speed and surrounding area. She pushed the button, and a small rod about the size of a hotdog flipped out from the shaft of the scooter. It shot out like a harpoon, towing a fine cable behind it.

At the same time, the scooter played a recording of her father's voice at two simultaneous pitches. One was for Penny's benefit, the other was a command only Bolt could hear. Zoom zoom.

Bolt needed no second bidding. With a burst of speed he didn't know he had, he dashed forward, caught the rod, and began running so fast that he and the scooter he was towing were nothing but a blur as they shot around the Road Rovers and well out of the danger zone.

“Woah, Bolt!” Penny cried. “Stop! Go back!”

Bolt curved around to obey, but he failed to account for a law of physics or two. As he turned, Penny shot past him. Her scooter struck a roadside mailbox – not the little kind on a post, either, we're talking a big, blue, public drop-off box – and catapulted her into the air. Hunter, who had veered away from the fight to keep up with them, managed to catch her.

“Penny!” cried Bolt, screeching to a stop.

“Bolt!” Penny shouted.

HONK HONK!

Stopping had been a good idea. Doing it in the middle of the road... not so much. Before anyone could respond, a cement mixer crashed into Bolt, sending him flying.

“Woooaahh!” he howled as he soared through the air and into a brick building. Literally into.

“Bolt!” cried Penny.

As the mixer, now with a fairly sizable dent in its front grill, pulled to a stop, a rain of bricks fell from the top of the hole Bolt had created. A moment after the rain stopped, Bolt stepped out looking slightly dazed but otherwise unharmed.

“I would not have predicted this,” observed Hunter.

Bolt shook himself off, releasing a small cloud of powdered bricks and cement from his fur. “What happened?” he asked.

“You found more new powers,” said Hunter, giving him a thumbs-up. “Super speed and you can smash through walls. Way cool.”

“Yeah,” agreed Penny, patting the dog. “Way cool.”

Apparently the professor had made the scooter out of some really serious stuff, because it was hardly even scratched by the impact with the mailbox, which had been ripped from two of its feet and lay crumpled on the asphalt.

“Must be that alloy one of Daddy's associates discovered,” Penny guessed.

Hunter held up a device. “Huh, we've still one of these babies onto one of the bad guys.”

“What is it?” asked Penny. It was a small sphere, and its surface felt like velcro. The bristly half, not the soft part. At a glance, it looked like an ordinary cocklebur.

“Eh, just a little something that'll help us find 'em,” replied Hunter.

A blaster bolt over their heads ended the discussion. “Duck!” shouted Hunter, a bit unnecessarily. Penny dove for an alley, and Hunter and Bolt went to work.

“'Scuse me,” Hunter taunted, catching a passing ninja with a power-wedgie. Another one, seeing his companion in trouble (not to mention extreme pain), angled his ride straight for Hunter.

“Gee, thanks,” Hunter said cooly, stepping to the side. “I was getting tired of walking, but they always say it's a bad idea to hitch-hike.”

The cyclist ran straight into a telephone pole, cracking his helmet and drawing a wince from Hunter. “Especially the way you drive.”

Bolt was putting his new-found speed to good use, ripping out a tire here and side-tackling another rider there. One rider was all set to run him down, when suddenly he disappeared.

“Huh?” asked the ninja. He felt a slight tug on the back of his shirt, and then suddenly found himself airborne as Bolt, clutching him by the back, vaulted off the motorcycle, which sped riderless to a fiery crash.

“Alright, Bolt!” Hunter exulted, thinking of high-fiving the superdog and then thinking better of it.

“Way to go-ski, little comrade!” called Exile as he and the others ran up.

Colleen smiled down at Bolt. “For a little guy, you do a cracker-jack job,” she beamed.

Bolt smiled, his eyebrows lowered in a “bring-it-on” type of grin.

“Ruh ruh?” asked Shag.

“Oh, Penny?” asked Hunter. “She's fine, she stayed out of the fight.” He turned to the alley. “Hey, Penny! You can come out now!”

No answer.

“Penny?” asked Hunter.

“Why won't she answer?” asked Bolt, stepping forward.

The answer was as bad as they feared, for when they looked in the alley, Penny was gone.

“Penny!” cried Bolt.

Hunter winced. “Yet another unexpected twist. Bummer.”

The Rovers searched the alley, anxious to find some clue as to Penny's whereabouts. There were none. “This is all my fault,” groaned Bolt. “I should have stayed with her.”

“Hey, don't get on yourself, Bolt,” Hunter told him. “You were helping fight off the bad guys.”

“That's right,” agreed Colleen. “It's not like you could have known it was a diversion.”

Blitz sagged. “There's no finding dem now,” he said. “We gave all the ones we caught to the cops, and none escaped with a tracer on dem.”

“That's it!” crowed Hunter. “The tracers! Penny took one just before the ambush! We can follow it straight to her!”

Exile laughed. “Hunter, you are as smart as a trap. You have mind like steel whip.”

“Save the complements,” snapped Bolt. “If there's any chance of finding her, we can't waste time!”

“He's right,” agreed Colleen. “We'd better 'ed back to the Sky Rover to follow them faster.”

In spite of the gravity of the situation, Hunter smiled. “Ooh, boy,” he grinned. “Muzzle's gonna love that.”

The Road Rovers couldn't deny they were a bit uneasy as they followed Penny's signal in their jet. In the first place, it was embarrassing to have their objective snatched right out from under their noses. But beyond that, all of them, even Blitz, who never took much of an interest in their objectives, had found Penny's earnestness to rescue her father quite admirable, almost canine. They wanted more than anything to see the family back together. But Bolt was as tense as a cat in a water balloon 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 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 neck.

The rovers smiled. They'd been through a lot today. They'd been shot at, zapped, and sent flying on not one, but two super barks. They were bruised, scratched up, and just plain tired. But in that moment, watching the beauty of a girl and her dog, not one of them had ever felt better.

Back on board the Sky Rover, it took Colleen at least half an hour to see to everyone's injuries. “Wish I 'ad someone else with the know-how,” she complained.

“I would be happy to have you teach me,” volunteered Blitz.

“Sorry, do I know you?” asked Colleen. “Me mum always warned me about strange doctors.”

Blitz's eyes dropped to half-mast. “I'm starting to hate this bit,” he mumbled.

“Well, another day, another mission,” said Hunter as Colleen took her usual place in the co-pilot's seat.

“Yeah,” she agreed, looking back at Penny and Bolt. Bolt lay on the seat beside his owner, head resting on her bandaged-up knee as she stroked his fur. She raised her head to look at them.

“Thanks,” she said slowly. “Thanks for saving me and Bolt.”

“Ah, is piece of sweat. No cake,” said Exile. “Saving is what we do best-ski.”

Penny smiled, but inside she was still shaken over how close she had come to losing Bolt, and how close the Rovers had come to getting themselves killed to help the two of them. She smiled politely as Hunter pointed out the beauty of the sunset on their left, but inside she knew something would have to be done.

That night, as the plane flew on auto-pilot and every dog on board enjoyed some well-earned sleep, Penny rose and woke Bolt. Putting a finger to her lips, she crept up between the two front seats and pulled a piece of paper out of her backpack. By the light of the control panel, she wrote a quick note and tucked it into Hunter's seatbelt. “Thanks,” she whispered. “Thanks for everything.” Then she led the confused Bolt toward the back part of the plane, to a small room marked “Emergency.”

When Colleen awoke some hours later, she yawned, stretched, and looked back to check on their passengers. Neither were in their seat. She wondered if maybe Penny had gone to the bathroom, but what about Bolt?

Not wanting to wake the others, she rose and began to search the plane. The bathroom was empty; and Penny and Bolt were nowhere in sight. The only place was the far, far back of the plane, where the emergency escape hatch was located, but neither of them would have gone back there. Finally, she decided to let Hunter know.

The retriever responded a bit groggily to her efforts to stir him, but he sat bolt upright when she told him Penny was missing. “But where could she go?” he asked. “She didn't just step off the plane.”

As he reached for his seatbelt buckle, his fingers found the note. “Huh?”

“What is it?” asked Colleen.

Hunter unfolded the paper and read. “Oh, man,” he groaned, his voice rising. “She did step off the plane!”

Exile, who had been roused from slumber by the spike in Hunter's voice, woke up Shag and Blitz, and they crowded around Hunter to read the note.

Dear Road Rovers, it said.

Thanks for helping me and Bolt. I don't know what we would have done without you guys. But we've decided to strike it out on our own. It's easier to work if it's just the two of us so Bolt has only me to look after. And no offense, but you guys draw too much attention.

I'll never forget you. And if we ever do need help, I've got your number. We'll keep in touch.

Love, Penny.

“So what now?” asked Blitz.

Hunter shrugged. “Head back home, I guess. If we can track her cell phone like before, we should have a shot at finding her.”

“And if not?” asked Exile.

“Keep our eyes on the news,” offered Colleen. “With those two out there, and that Calico bloke still on the run, I doubt things'll be quiet very long.”

A few days later, in a secret location...

“The damage to your eye was irreparable, sir,” said an unlicensed doctor. He stood by his patient, a light_dangling overhead providing their only illumination. “But we were able to recover a few healthy cells and grow a new one.”

Calico sat on a hospital bed,_his usual sneer replaced with a_sense of_anxious intensity. Bandages covered his right eye. “And_the changes?” he asked.

“Yes, we altered it, as you insisted,” replied the doctor. “The cat DNA will enhance your night vision, but_it might impede-”

“Is it better?!” Calico demanded, grabbing the doctor by the_throat.

“Hurk!” the man gasped. The damage to Calico's face_obviously hadn't hurt his grip any. “You can... see for yourself... sir,” he choked.

Calico released the_doctor with a shove and unwound the gauze around his head. Turning to the table beside his hospital bed, he picked up a hand mirror and gazed at_his_reflection. Seeing it, he began to laugh, first slowly, then in a wild, maniac cackle. His right eye, his new right eye, stared back at him, large and green with a slit-shaped pupil. “Yes,” he exclaimed, “It's_perfect!”

Tossing the mirror aside so that it shattered against the wall, he threw off the covers and_swung his legs over the side_of the bed. “Soon I will have my revenge,” he gloated. “Those fools think they've won, but they have not heard the last of Doctor Calico!”

The End...Not!

Master, Hunter, Colleen, Exile, Shag, Blitz, Muzzle © Warner Brothers Entertainment

Bolt, Penny, Calico, and related characters © Disney/Pixar