Ordinarily, I don't do many crossovers. But after I saw Bolt, I just had to do this one. Enjoy!

I think of this as sort of a crossover/pilot epsiode for the series within the movie Bolt (as opposed to the movie itself, wherin Bolt had no powers). for those who saw the episode of Batman Beyond where Zeta made an appearance, which aired just prior to the release of The Zeta Project series, you'll have a basic idea of how this works. Otherwise, think of it this way: If Bolt's TV show had been a creation of Warner Brothers, this would be them putting him into the Road Rovers' series before he branched off into his own.

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 silver-blue uniforms that resembled a combination of jumpsuit and 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.

Yet another unexpected twist. Bummer.