Well, it's come to this. I've had a major case of writer' block this last week and a half, and it's been killing me to not have that spark that I normally have. I'm on the fence on how this chapter is gonna turn out, but I know if it needs any improvement on the next go around, you guys will tell me. Just like Bud Light; HERE WE GO!

A/N: I do not own Bolt or any of its characters. All characters are the property of Disney and its subsidiaries.

Wild and Wound Up

Bolt, Mittens, Rhino, Nova and Trigger walked up the front porch, each person with their own level of nervousness. Bolt hadn't seen Eli and Beverly in months, so it meant a chance to catch up on things. Mittens couldn't decide which to be worried about more; whether Seth would be at the house or not, or how Nova would react to meeting her real family. Rhino was excited to see the full-grown pups after eight months in person. Nova's head was going in one-hundred different directions, from fear to anxiety to excitement. As for Trigger… well, like most of the trip, he was just along for the ride.

"Wait a minute. I recognize that car." Trigger pointed out looking at the white Tahoe parked in the driveway.

"Where is it from?" Bolt asked

"The warehouse. It's a registered government vehicle. I recognize the tags on the license plates." Trigger explained. Bolt looked at the lab and wondered who would be using the warehouse vehicle to come up to Bakersfield.

"Who's up here?" Bolt asked with high curiosity in his voice. Suddenly, the front door opened unexpectedly, and standing in the way was Kelly.

"How can I help you?" she asked

"Um… we're looking for Eli and Beverly." Bolt said. However, she just looked at him, confused. Suddenly, he realized he didn't have his collar on; he'd left it back at the phone booth because it was buzzing. Fortunately for them, Kelly instantly recognized Bolt from the pictures and ushered them all into the house. As they took their first steps, they noticed quite a few familiar faces. Not only did they see Eli and Beverly, but also Preston and Simone. All of the faces in the living room went from content to complete shock.

"Holy Crap!" Preston said before running up to the group and knocking Bolt on his back in a massive hug. As soon as one hug started, another one came along with another and another. Before long, everyone on the animals in the group was lost in the embrace of another old friend or new acquaintance. It took some time for each of them to let go of each other, but eventually, it happened.

"Wow, guys. It's been so long." Beverly said smiling.

"I know. I honestly didn't plan on see all of you here." Bolt said looking over at Preston and Simone.

"Neither did we, but Seth needed some help getting here." Simone said. Bolt and Mittens' ears perked up in an instant.

"Wait. Is he here?" Mittens asked getting up on her feet.

"Yeah, I'm here. Seth said coming out from the hallway.

"SETH!" Bolt and Mittens shouted jumping down from the couch and running to their son. Seth was instantly pulled into a breath-stricken hug. Mittens couldn't stop crying as she continued to hold her son. Even Bolt began to shed some tears. As soon as he let go of his son, the look on Bolt's face went from worry to rage.

"Don't you EVER run off like that again. You worried us half to death." Bolt said staring his son down, and scolding him for running away. Seth lowered his head in shame, but still held his ground when it came to his reason for leaving.

"I had my reasons." Seth said looking up at his father.

"So I heard. But next time you wanna run off, think about all of the people you're gonna hurt." Bolt said

"I didn't want to hurt anyone, Dad. But she made me do it." Seth said looking over at Nova, who was sitting alone near the doorway. She had been the only one who hadn't properly introduced herself to everyone in the group. Eli and Beverly looked at their full-grown daughter, with tears coming to their eyes. Suddenly, Nova slowly made her way towards her brother, and sat down in front of him. She figured there was no need to speak with him in private, because eventually, everyone else would become curious.

"I know… what I said hurt you. And I deserve this huge know in my gut right now, but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't get the chance to apologize." Nova said

"You meant every word you said. I know; I saw it on your face." Seth said with disgust.

"You're right. I DID mean it. I wanted so much to meet these guys. I wanted to know the truth behind my past, and I let my emotions run my mouth." Nova said truthfully. All of Eli and Beverly's pups looked at each other with shock. They couldn't believe that this was their sister. They had been told so many stories about Bolt and his family, but they were never informed of this one little detail that seemed to be left out of the equation.

"Seth, I am so sorry. Like I said back home; it may not be a blood relation, but you're still my brother… and you always will be." Nova said shedding a few tears. As much as Seth wanted to stay mad at her, his eyes began to swell up as well.

"You know… you're getting better prying emotions out of someone." Seth said sarcastically. Nova laughed as more tears continued to fall to the floor. In an instant, Seth ran to Nova, and jumped at her chest, with Nova catching him as they collided. As they held on, Bolt and Mittens watched their kids with pride. After breaking apart, Nova looked at Eli and Beverly and waited for something to come out of her mouth, but nothing did. She was left speechless, and it scared her somewhat.

"Hi, sweetheart." Eli said trying his best to hold back tears of his own.

"Are you guys…" Nova began to ask before choking on her words. Eli and Beverly nodded slightly as they casually walked up to their daughter and pulled her into a tight hug, letting the tears finally flow.

"You're so beautiful, Nova. Just like the pictures." Beverly said

"So are these guys my brothers and sisters?" Nova asked looking at her siblings.

"They are." Eli said waving his paw forward, letting the others come and introduce themselves.

"I'm Levi."

"Hi Levi. Nice to finally meet you."

"Hey, Nova. I'm Valerie."

"I recognize you from the pictures. Almost all of them had Levi in them with you."

"Yeah, we're kinda… joined at the hip, I guess." Valerie said laughing a little.

"And you must be Jack."

"I am. I can't believe you were raised by him." Jack said looking over at Bolt, practically star struck. Bolt smiled, accepting the kind gesture.

"Yeah, that's my dad." Nova said looking over at Bolt as well. She couldn't help but notice just how close he was to crying. He felt honored to know that she saw him as her father. As she looked back, she saw Nichole and Carmen walking up to meet their sister for the first time.

"I guess that just leaves us. I'm Carmen."

"And I'm Nichole."

"It's nice to finally meet you both. It's so nice to finally meet ALL of you." Nova said looking around the room at each new face. Finally, Nova felt like she had sewn up a part of her past left unstitched. All of her siblings walked up to her for a group hug, with each of them reaching for their own hold of their new sister.

"You know what? Why don't the five of you show Nova and Seth around the farm? We're gonna have a talk." Eli said looking at his kids.

"Okay. I guess I'll lead the way… Wait, who's this?" Levi asked looking at Trigger, who was standing by the stairs. Nova blushed as she looked at the black lab.

"I haven't properly introduced myself, have I?" Trigger said to the group.

"Allow me. Guys, this is Trigger. He's training to be a field agent with GGE." Beverly said smiling as she looked at him. She was happy to be introducing him to her kids; he was a good role model. All of them, with the exception of Nova, stared at the lab, shocked.

"No way. That is so cool." Nichole said complimenting Trigger.

"Thank you." Trigger said looking over at Nova, who continued to smile.

"Would you mind if I joined you on your walk?" Trigger asked

"No, not at all. The more, the merrier." Levi said. Nova's smile grew as he walked closer to her. As they stood next to each other and prepared to walk out the door, Trigger licked Nova's face from cheek to ear, only causing Nova's blush to deepen and her siblings to gasp. While walking out to the backyard, Carmen, Nichole and Valerie all walked alongside Nova with huge smiles.

"Tell… us… everything." Carmen whispered into Nova's ear, causing her to chuckle a little. Another 10 seconds had gone by before they were all out the door, and the only ones left in the house were the adult animals and Kelly.

"Bolt, where's your collar?" Eli asked

"I took it off back at the phone booth. We were trying to find you guys in the phone book, and after we did, I felt the collar vibrating, so I took it off." Bolt explained

"Oh, the tracker was on." Eli said

"I know. Trigger explained it to me. We're pretty sure Penny is looking for us again."

"Speaking of Trigger, what's up with him and Nova?" Beverly asked curiously. Bolt sighed and smiled.

"What do you think?" Bolt asked coyly. Eli and Beverly looked at each other and back at Bolt before speaking again.

"They're in love?" Eli asked

"Well, I don't think they're THAT far along, but the strong feelings are definitely there. Part of me wants to keep her my little girl forever, but I know that's not gonna happen. Sooner or later, I have to let her go… but I trust him." Bolt said confidently.

"Why do you say that?" Eli asked

"Well, he's supposed to be finishing his endurance training by surviving the elements. At least, I think that's what he said." Bolt said hoping he got the explanation right.

"Well, that explains why he's here. He's supposed to be finishing his training." Preston said sighing a little. Bolt suddenly realized that Trigger was one of Preston's recruits.

"He's with you, isn't he?" Bolt asked embarrassed.

"Yeah, he is."

"Preston, don't be too hard on him, this was my fault. Had I known you were gonna be here in Bakersfield, I wouldn't have let him come with us without your permission."

"Whoa, Bolt. Relax! He's my best recruit. I'm not gonna dock him for something like this. Aside from the fact that he loves Nova, was there another reason he wanted to come up here with you guys?" Preston asked

"Uh, yeah. It was because of Beverly. She started the training when he first came to GGE, and I guess he wanted to see her too." Bolt said. Beverly's eyes widened a little hearing this.

"Awww, he came to see me?" Beverly asked with a childish, joking tone of voice. The rest of the group laughed as they tried to get their breath back. They enjoyed the small reunion. It had been too long since they had all seen each other.

"He's a good kid." Beverly said

"He is. He's got a good head on his shoulders." Bolt said. For at least 15 minutes, the group of animals and Kelly sprawled out all over the living room and talked about everything that had happened in the last 8 months. Preston and Simone talked about their official mate ship, Rhino couldn't stop talking about the amount of superpowers Nova had, Eli and Beverly explained all of the powers THEIR kids had, and Bolt and Mittens just sat and listened; not really having anything too exciting to add to the conversation.

"Bolt, I've been watching you the last 15 minutes, and you look like you have something on your mind." Beverly pointed out.

"You always DID have a knack for reading people." Bolt said blatantly.

"Well, yeah. It was kinda my job." Beverly said laughing.

"Yeah, and it shows in Nova. She's really good at interrogating." Bolt said sarcastically.

"Oh my God. Has she actually tried it on you?"

"Multiple times."

"Yep. Like mother, like daughter." Eli said trying to hold back a laugh, only causing Beverly to elbow him in the side.

"So what's wrong?"

"Well, a few things, actually. Now that Nova knows you guys exist, will she want to stay here in Bakersfield or come back home with us?" Bolt asked nervously. Eli and Beverly let out short deep breaths, knowing that the decision wasn't theirs to make.

"I never even thought of that." Beverly said openly.

"Yeah, I figured. She's just now meeting you guys, and I don't want to stand in her way if she wants to stay." Bolt continued.

"We'll just have to ask her. Anyway, what else is on your mind?" Beverly asked

"Is she gonna need training to keep her powers under control? Did you guys have to train YOUR kids how to control their powers?" Bolt asked

"Well, they discovered their powers at really young ages, so teaching them to control their abilities wasn't really a hassle, but I don't know how old Nova was before she found out that she had these abilities." Beverly explained

"About a week ago. She jumped over Rhino in a 10-foot bound from the couch to the stairs one night. She can also read, and has super-speed" Mittens said jumping in.

"One week? Wow. If she's as stubborn as Seth and I, it will take some time. Maybe the teams at GGE can give you some pointers." Beverly said once more.

"Okay, that helps a little. Finally, I know this is kinda off-topic, but it's been on my mind for a while."

"What?" Eli asked

"Have you guys heard from Carson lately?" Bolt asked. Not only did Eli and Beverly cringe at the name, but Preston and Simone did as well, only making Bolt uneasy. He started to wonder if something happened to him. Did he die on another mission? Did he retire? Where was he?

"Well, um… Carson is no longer with GGE." Preston said being the first to start the conversation again. Bolt was taken aback by the statement, looking at each member of the former team.

"What happened?" Bolt asked

"He… he was discharged. One of Kurt's associates said he thought that Carson had been leaking information to an arms dealer in Guatemala. Of course, Carson denied the allegations, but an investigation was put into effect two days later." Preston continued before stopping, hoping that Bolt would be satisfied with answer given. He was, but it wasn't enough for him.

"And…" Bolt said begging for Preston to continue.

"And… they never followed through with the investigation because… he went missing just a few hours after Kurt filed for the search. They were able to obtain a search warrant for his home, but they didn't find him. However, they DID find a letter of resignation, along with $40,000 in the crawl space beneath the apartment complex he lived in."

"He's a dog. How does he live in an apartment complex?" Bolt asked confused

"It's designated to GGE specialists like Carson. That way, they can live alone while still working for society." Simone said jumping in.

"Okay… but where did the money come from?" Bolt asked again.

"We don't know. He's practically dropped off the face of the Earth, so we haven't been able to track him down. And that was 7 months ago." Preston said taking a hold of the conversation again. Bolt then looked at Eli and Beverly and wondered why they never told him.

"Why didn't you guys ever tell us?" Bolt asked

"It was classified. You guys aren't registered agents of GGE, so we couldn't inform you of it. You guys would have to find out on your own, but since we're in the confines of a ranch house in Bakersfield, I don't think it will mean much to hide it from you." Preston said chuckling a little. Bolt tried to laugh along with him, but it wasn't helping much.

"And you guys don't know where he is?" Rhino asked

"The last visual we have of him is at LAX, but he never boarded a plane, he just played along as someone's pet, but we don't know why." Simone said

"Did you do background checks on the humans?" Eli asked out of the blue.

"We ran all of the profiles of people boarding flights that day, but none of them had a German shepherd on the roster." Simone answered. Bolt looked away from the group and went deep into thought, only coming up with one reason for there being no record of his on the flights.

"He stowed away on one of the flights." Bolt said still looking away from everyone.

"But where would he go?" Simone asked. Suddenly, all of them heard shrill screams coming from the front yard. Bolt's ears instantly perked up, knowing his daughter's scream. The shepherd jumped to his feet and ran for the door, trying to open it. Kelly ran up to it and opened it, letting Bolt run outside, with Preston, Simone, Eli, Beverly, Mittens and Rhino right behind him. What they saw made them stop dead in their tracks. All 7 of the dogs were being hauled away in the white Tahoe that Simone, Preston and Seth used to get to Bakersfield, each of them trying to break through the windows and escape.

"NOVA!" Bolt shouted as he ran after the SUV, which was being accompanied by two jet black suburbans with blacked out windows. Unable to catch up to the vehicles as they drove away, Bolt stopped in the middle of the dirt road, and fell in agony.

"Bolt." Eli shouted as he and the rest of the group caught up to him on the road.

"What just happened?" Simone asked

"They took her. They took my baby." Bolt said groaning in grief, and crying like crazy. Mittens ran to his side and held him as best she could.

"Dad." a voice shouted from back at the house. Bolt turned around to see Seth running towards him from the corner of the driveway. Bolt ran as fast as his legs could carry him to his son and pulled him into his arms.

"Seth, what happened?" Mittens asked as she ran to them.

"Well, we were being shown around the farm and when we got to the front of the yard, we saw that the door to the Tahoe was open. They jumped inside to see if something was wrong with it, and then the door just shut and locked on them. I could see Nova screaming from the window, and I… I couldn't help her." Seth said breaking down. Bolt pulled him back into his chest and let him cry. Seth continued to pant heavily, and began having a panic attack. Even through the pain he was feeling, Seth continued to tell the others what happened.

"Then the car started and two huge black cars came out of nowhere and drove off with the Tahoe right behind them. I tried to run for the back door, but when I got back there, you guys weren't inside."

"We ran outside when we heard Nova scream." Bolt said

"I ran back around and saw you guys out here in the road, and… and I'm so sorry Dad." Seth said still buried in his father's chest.

"Oh, son. It's okay. It wasn't your fault. We'll get them back." Bolt said trying to assure Seth that he had done nothing wrong. The tabby just carried on with his panic attack and crying, not sure what else to do. Eli and Beverly were being comforted as well by Preston and Simone.

"Bolt." Rhino called from back at the start of the driveway, looking down at the ground. Bolt let go of Seth and ran to Rhino, wondering what he needed.

"What is it?" Bolt asked as he approached the hamster.

"Look." Rhino said looking down at a piece of paper. Bolt, not being able to read, backed up and let Preston in front to read it out loud:

'IT'S BEEN A WHILE. IF YOU WANT YOUR PUPS BACK, YOU'LL BRING $100,000 TO 168 WOODWARD AVENUE IN BAKERSFIELD BY FRIDAY AT 6:00PM. FOR EVERY HOUR THAT GOES BY, ONE OF THEM DIES. IF YOU WANNA KNOW WHO I AM, JUST THINK BACK!'

-CARSON'

**End of Chapter**

What? You thought the reunion was gonna be it?" Oh, come on! You guys obviously don't know me well enough. I told you this story was gonna be longer than the original. Well, things are about to get shaken and stirred with this story, or in the case of the chapter title: Wild and Wound Up. Keep watching for the next update and keep those reviews coming. Seey ou guys soon!

Adios!