It was 4 o'clock in the morning and Penny was feeding the chickens. Bolt was watching nearby but almost as soon as Penny had finished, an ear splitting scream pierced the air. Bolt leapt up onto his feet, muscles tense, hackles raised, his gaze locked onto the basement hatch, ready to fire his deadly laser vision. To Bolt and Penny's relief, the person that came out was Dr. Forrester.
"Someone has stolen my experiments!" he cried.
"What kind of low life would do that around here?" Penny asked confused. Bolt growled as if to tell her the answer.
"Calico!" said Penny and Dr. Forrester at the same time.
"Bolt, I need you to get them back!" Dr. Forrester turned to his super powered pooch. Bolt lowered his head in response and turned.
"Come on Bolt!" Penny called as she and her dog dashed off.
"Penny!" Dr. Forrester called. The two stopped.
"Yes?" Penny asked reluctantly, seemingly knowing where this was going.
"I need you to stay here."
"But why?" she complained.
"Bolt can handle himself. I can't risk Calico capturing you. Besides, if Calico planned this as a distraction and is coming back for me, I need you to defend us… it's not ideal either considering Calico could just as easily capture you, but there's still a chance no one could get captured at all. Sometimes I wish there were two Bolts, but until I get those experiments back and refine them, that's an impossibility." Penny sighed.
"Bolt?" the super dog moved his gaze from Dr. Forrester to her. "fetch." She said monosyllabically, pointing to the path. The super dog turned and dashed down the path that served as their driveway. Once around the corner he sniffed around and discovered Calico's scent heading down a path that lead to a cave behind a waterfall. The scent took him down the path before heading up a hill where he and Penny often played to the top and over the crest, an area that Dr. Forrester said was forbidden as it wasn't part of their land. Bolt followed the river for a time before discovering a bottle of pills that had been dropped.
"Surprised it didn't smash." Bolt thought to himself, picking up the bottle and carrying it home. He took it to Dr. Forrester who was sitting by the basement hatch.
"Good boy." He said, taking the bottle from Bolt. "Find the rest of them." Then, he headed down into the basement. Bolt turned around and raced back up and over the hill. Bolt looked from left to right for more pills as he ran along the river before bumping into a familiar face.
"No time to talk!" said the black Labrador mutt, running past. Seconds later someone else ran into him.
"Watch where you're going." The wolfdog growled. Then his eyes widened and he pinned Bolt with one paw. "Bolt!" the wolfdog pricked his claws into the super dog. "So, you foolishly came to find the professor's experiments eh? Left him wide open for attack and capture. Not much like a super dog. You can search for a thousand years if you like, but you'll never find them, so I suggest you go home. If I find you here again, I'm going to be very angry. And you know what I'm like when I'm angry." He got off Bolt and left.
"Bolt!" the super dog looked up to see a German Sheppard mutt running over. "Hey! Remember me?" Bolt tilted his head.
"Sorry brother, I don't." he replied.
"I'm not your brother. It's me, Boris!" Bolt thought.
"Boris… not really… you were there in the forest… right?" the German Sheppard nodded.
"Yeah that's right! The forest!"
"Good to see you again anyways?"
"Yeah! Come on! Follow me!" the energetic Sheppard dashed off, the super dog following behind. "I saw something shiny in that cave over there. Let's check it out!" the two ran into the cave. "What's this bottle doing here?" Boris nosed it around. "I really hate litterers."
"I know. Here, let me dispose of it." Bolt picked up the bottle of green pills and ran away with it. He later returned after leaving it by the basement hatch. "My owners should find it and get rid of it." He told Boris.
"Great. I see something shiny at the bottom of this chasm. I was about to jump, but I think I hear rushing water, and I hate getting wet."
"Why would you even think about jumping?! You don't know how far down it is! You could be killed!" Bolt barked at him.
"But what about the shiny thing?" Boris argued, jumping past Bolt to look over the edge. It was very far down, but it didn't faze him one bit. Bolt stared.
"I'm going now." He said, walking out of the cave.
"NO!" Boris jumped in front of him aggressively before the super dog had barely taken a step. Bolt's ears drooped at the tips as he heard a faint crack. "I want to know what the shiny thing is!" Boris barked aggressively, striding forwards. Bolt backed away, looking at the edge of the chasm panicked.
"Hey you two." Barked a new voice. Boris turned and Bolt looked past him to see the black Labrador mutt from earlier.
"Hello brother. Apologies if this is your cave, we can leave." Bolt barked to him.
"Nah, its fine, I just come in here sometimes when I want to hide, or when I feel like it. Black fur seems to attract me to dark locations. Name's Alex."
"Cool." Boris turned back around and put his muzzle in Bolt's face. "I want you to go down there, and get me the shiny thing." He said lowly. Then he had a better idea. "Hey Alex, what's the shiny thing down there?" Alex peeked over the chasm.
"Oh that? Dunno, no one's ever been down there, way too far, you'd probably die."
"Well, there's a first time for everything, I'd go myself but I hate getting wet." He pushed Alex closer to the edge as if to say 'go on'.
"Whoa! No way. I value my life; I've got two sisters for howling out loud." The Labrador yapped.
"You go." Boris turned to Bolt.
"What? No!" the super dog barked. Boris growled in frustration.
"One way or another, someone is going down there!" Boris slid Alex to the edge and shoved him over. The Labrador yelped, desperately grabbing the edge of the chasm. Bolt dashed over, grabbed the German Sheppard by the scruff to paralyse him and threw him away from the edge. The Sheppard landed with a thud, cracking the ground around him. Bolt grabbed Alex and dragged him back onto the ledge.
"Thanks Bolt." the Labrador panted.
"No problem– wait how'd you know my name?"
"I saw the dog tag." Alex panted
"Oh."
"Look out!" Boris seemed to have recovered and jumped at Bolt. The super dog acted on reflex, lashing out with his back legs into the Sheppard's stomach and knocking him back to his impact crater, cracking the ground further. Afraid he'd hurt him badly, Bolt dashed over. Luckily he only seemed winded. Slowly the German Sheppard mutt opened his eyes. They widened when he saw Bolt and he bit the super dog's paw. Bolt yelped in surprise and Boris gave him a hefty shove. Bolt hit the ground and tiny cracks formed around his body. Bolt's eyes widened in fear.
"Nobody… move…" he whined. After a few minutes, Boris stamped his paw on the ground.
"This is stupid!" instantly, there was more cracking. Boris gulped and slowly backed away. After a while the tension was too much for him. Yelping, he leapt to his back legs before crashing down onto all fours and turning tail to run. There was a smashing sound and the ground lurched forward, tearing Boris's legs from beneath him and sending him sprawling on his tummy. Alex fell over too and the whole ledge began to fall into the chasm. Yelping, Boris leapt for the edge, just making it and hung on for dear life as the part of the ledge they'd been standing on fell into the abyss and plunged into a fast moving river.
