Chapter Three

3.1

Bolt sat in the backyard looking between the doghouse – which was actually only useful during the day because Penny always had him curled up near her during the night – and his bowl of food. His back was straight and he looked like he was paying attention to something but inside he was panicking. What was he supposed to do? Was he supposed to go out and solve crimes? He didn't even know how to use his powers effectively, whenever they had been filming there had been crew members who had created all of the results.

As he continued to remain in place, he saw Mittens drop down onto the top of the doghouse. "You ever wonder why they don't make cat houses for outside?" she said as she clawed the roof and saw Bolt watching her. "I mean, I suppose you think that cats are bad…belong in jail cells, you back to that kind of black and white thinking, pooch?" she asked before starting to lick her paw.

Bolt turned to her and laughed, "What are you talking about?" he asked though he knew exactly what she was saying, "If you haven't forgotten you are black and white."

Mittens laughed as he said that to her, "Touche," she said before dropping down beside him. "You going to lock me away?"

"Have you decided to resort to a life of crime?" Bolt asked as he wagged his tail and Mittens had to pull back a little because of the wind it created. Yeah, he was definitely going to have to learn to control these powers before he destroyed all of them.

"With the thinking you had when we met, you know cat equals bad, I thought you might have forgotten who your real friends are," she told him and Bolt sighed. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply before exhaling.

"Not all cats are bad, I don't think that you're necessarily bad, a bit manipulative and demanding but…"

"Talk about your own assets, I know mine," Mittens replied as she looked at his food bowl. She placed her paws over it and stared up at him. "I'm willing to help you again. I think that you're like my brother…well, you can be until your brain goes haywire."

"My brain is not going to go haywire," Bolt argued before he pressed his belly to the ground. He whined a little. "I got used to being a regular dog. I got used to playing with my carrot. I got used to not gaining attention…okay, maybe I always want Penny's attention but I didn't have to be anything other than a good boy."

"Unless you're going to go join some kind of dog mafia, I think you could still be considered a good boy," Mittens commented. "If that's what you want of course. Me, I prefer to have a little more character, a little more scratch in these claws."

Bolt sighed as he turned to her, "You said you'd help?"

"Help you get character because you sure are loaded with character already," Mittens commented. She came towards him and brought her paws up. "You promise you're not going to go all super hero on me and take me down for being a cat," she said. She saw Bolt looking up at her but he didn't respond. She moved closer until her side was pushed next to his. "Cheer up, okay?" she said to him. "Maybe this is a good thing, give your life a sense of purpose or whatever."

"I have a sense of purpose," the white dog argued, "I am Penny's dog. That's all I needed."

"You scared she'll get rid of you?" Mittens jokingly asked him. "I love her too. She's important to me as well but I'll tell you this, she's not going to get rid of you. You're her favorite. She's going to do a lot of other stuff before she does that and so I think you'll be with us until you die…I guess you can die, right? Immortality doesn't seem to be that useful of a superpower."

Bolt sighed and closed his eyes. At least Mittens hadn't rejected him. Sure, they hadn't started off like this and he had believed that he was going to take her as a prisoner but they had a patchwork family and he was closer to this cat than to any dog. He felt the sun on his nose and his ears. Home. Hopefully this home wasn't going to get taken away.

Mittens watched the sleeping dog and yawned, she stretched out her paws and only opened her eyes when her left paw had hit something.

"Hey, guys!" the eager Rhino said as he rolled around in his ball. "I'm training. I think that…yeah, I should be able to be a super hamster in less than a week."

"Less than a week, huh?" Mittens yawned. "Good luck with that."

Rhino laughed before rolling past Mittens. "What happened to the fence? Is this - does this mean that danger is afoot?" he said eagerly and Mittens looked at Bolt. She knew that it was best to keep this a secret and she didn't trust Rhino to be able to keep a secret. They'd have to wait to see what Penny wanted to do.

"They're fixing it, I think," she said before focusing on Rhino. "Don't roll your ball too far now if you care about family at all."

"It's exciting, it's an adventure," Rhino argued and Mittens closed her eyes to relax in the sun with Bolt.

"I thought that being part of a family was a better adventure," she replied and Rhino watched his two friends. He looked around at the world beyond the fences and then just decided to roll around in circles. He still had to do his laps, didn't he?

3.2

After she had had dinner with her mother, Penny sat at the table and kept poking at Bolt's toy carrot. She had believed that she had been the person to know the most about the dog and to love him the most but now she wasn't sure what abilities he did have. Tonight she didn't have time to do some tests and get the results back from that question but she did want to learn everything there was to know. She wasn't sure whether some of Bolt's powers had come back or just all of them. If it was all of them, it would be harder to keep this secret and to protect him since there were only limited uses for them.

She wasn't working with the government and she wasn't defeating bad guys either. She didn't need to do the things which she had done on camera but what if Bolt had to? She bowed her head and heard the sound of the television with her replacement and Bolt's replacement. Maybe Bolt belonged there now but she was too selfish to let them take him.

Penny looked over at where her mother was as the TV was turned off.

"Do you miss it?" her mother asked her and Penny shook her head. It was true. She had preferred having Bolt as a regular dog and for her to take care of him in a regular home whilst living a regular life. Bolt would have come anywhere to save her and she wanted to save him. That meant that she had to take extreme caution when it came to hiding his powers.

"Mom, do you think dogs could ever….develop super powers," she asked and her mother laughed at that.

"It would be a cute idea," she told her and Penny bit her top lip. It was more than an idea, it was actually happening. "Why do you ask, sweetheart?" There was a moment of silence. Penny trusted in her mother to do what was right for them and she knew how much she loved Bolt and the others. It didn't seem likely but there was a small chance that her mother might take Bolt away from her because he was dangerous.

"Just the show…" Penny said as she picked up the carrot and stood up from the table. "The show makes me think about that a lot. Sometimes I have dreams that it was all real."

"That's because it was a huge part of your life. I don't expect for you just to walk away and forget all about it," her mother reassured her and Penny looked to where Bolt was sleeping in the living room. She placed the carrot down next to him.

"Mom, if that show was real and Bolt - well if Bolt had those types of powers then you don't think that he'd be a bad dog, right?" she asked not realizing that Bolt had heard that and had opened one of his eyes. He was scared that the answer to that question might separate him from his family. "I would still be allowed to keep him."

"I don't think that with someone as sweet as you loving him as much as you do, Bolt could ever be a bad dog," her mother reassured her and Bolt continued to listen to them. "I am glad that he doesn't have those powers but it'd be impossible to stop him from being here at home. We would have to figure some things out though. It's a good thing that neither you nor Bolt are out there fighting crime and trying to destroy evil doers."

Penny hesitated but shook her head. No, now was definitely not the time to bring up the fact that Bolt was experiencing these powers. She sat down beside him and picked him up, cuddling him close to her. Bolt tried to let his head rest on her shoulder but as he did so, he could hear a smoke alarm going off somewhere around the block and he felt agitated. Yes, he didn't have any water powers but what if there was someone who was hurt or trapped or what if no one had responded.

Bolt looked to Mittens for confirmation but the cat had already fallen asleep. Not able to help himself, Bolt jumped off of Penny's lap and let his nose lead him out of the doggy door and to where the fire had started. He whined and looked around for help before hearing what sounded like a baby wailing. His eyes focused on the house and he ran in, keeping low to the ground to avoid the smoke.

He just had a desire to save that child and he would never have allowed himself to just ignore it. He crept to where he could see a woman who had fallen unconscious. He had to save them. He had to do something to save them. His eyes darted around before he noticed the sprinkler system as well as a hose. Maybe if he set that off then the fire could be extinguished.

He had no time to think about pretending to be normal. He had no time to remind himself that this wasn't something a regular dog wouldn't do. He just knew he wanted to save them.

End of Chapter Three

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Thank you to the reviewers of Chapter Two

BoltDMC, BoltXPenny, Loz, SonicStreak5344