Author's notes:

This chapter needs a few words of commentary from me. First off, I'm most relieved to finally have finished it, I've been writing it for over two months due to several breaks.

Thanks to the invaluable help of Rain Crow, I believe I managed to improve the dialog quality. I'm really proud of the Bolt-Rhino conversation.

Also, I'm sorry for the disproportion of chapters' length - this one is over twice as long as the first... and yet next chapter will probably be even longer. On the other hand, I think it's be a good way to thank you for your patience.

This is the second of - most probably - five chapters introducing the whole "Bolt" series' scenarios.

Also, please, visit my forum at http:// www. fanfiction. net/myforums/TigressPL/1796179/ - there's a FFnet fans' program project running.

If you wish to know something more about the story, you're most welcome to visit my profile - there you can find tons of useful, additional informations about the story.

In the meantime, enjoy reading the story ;)

Real life hurts

by TigressPL

Chapter 6: Fight with all your might

It was already past eleven o'clock and Beatrix hadn't returned from the walk with all the animals yet. That didn't bother Penny, she knew her mother was keen on having long walks. Nonetheless, she decided to lie in living room to hear them coming back instantly.

"Three done, fourteen to go," she said, getting into a comfortable position on a couch with the fourth episode's scenario in her hands. "Man, they seem so short when you read 'em. Yet, every single one has forty minutes on screen… And took two weeks to make. Gee, it's barely eight months since they started shooting the series and almost six years since I got Bolt…"

Against her will, her mind produced a nagging thought concerning Bolt's life expectancy. Her smile faded, but she fought to keep her positive attitude.

"It is still several years, Bolt is very strong and active," she said aloud to reassure herself. It helped her a bit, so she quickly opened the fourth volume to focus her mind on reading instead of such unwanted thoughts.

They were at the Beijing Capital International Airport. Bolt was sitting patiently near one of the passenger seats while Penny stood in line for plane tickets.

"I guess we're gonna travel by those a lot," she muttered. In the airport's noise no one could hear her, even in the dense queue. "Let's make it easier then," she decided, reaching into her backpack and taking a small USB device out. When she neared the clerk, she kneeled, seemingly to lace her shoe. Instead, she quickly put the device in the back of his computer and stood back up. She bought the tickets without problems and got back to Bolt. She opened her laptop and started typing something on the keyboard.

"Yes! I've broken into their database," she announced happily after a few minutes. "Let's transfer it, this way we should always be able to check plane availability on the way. I'll just integrate it with the Monocle…" she trailed off. For a long while the only audible sound was her hectic typing. "Okay," she finally said. "One last thing to do. I'll need a way to update the data about changed and delayed flights… A simple RSS feed based on that info should do."

Having completed this task, she closed the laptop and went towards the gates with Bolt.

With hubs in New York and Santiago they reached Cerro Moreno International Airport in Antofagasta almost effortlessly. There, Penny bought herself a full diving equipment and rented a speedboat. While quarreling with various clerks to trust her despite her young age, she discovered acting (or maybe trading) skills she never supposed to have. As a result, she managed to rent a speedboat for a few hours despite the fact that she hadn't come of age yet. The bail she paid probably exceeded the boat's value by far, but she knew that was still much better than buying a new one. Besides, she supposed they won't probably come back to that city, especially with the boat, so the deal was at least fair. Her last purchase was a waterproof bag to hold her swimming gear together. The only thing left to do was to gather information about nearest rigs. She achieved that aim, coming across a polite, English-speaking sailor in the port. Having completed the last task, the duo was ready to try and breach Calico's platform's securities.

Finding the platform wasn't a problem at all. Calico was either stupid or immensely self-confident. As the result of that, all his facilities had the same eye-like yellow symbol, which Penny had seen on his minions' and cyborgs' suits.

Even though they found the correct rig however, it seemed they could do nothing more. The closest place for a man to stand was almost 30 meters above the water level. There was only one way to get there – by climbing vertical, metal bars.

"It's impossible," Penny sat down in the boat, depression taking over her. "To get there we would need a helicopter, but renting a helicopter is not as easy as renting a boat, save alone piloting it… Oh Bolt," she hugged the dog tightly as he neared her, concerned look on his face. "What will we do?"

Bolt couldn't answer, but he offered all he had, whole his affection. It proved to be enough as after a moment Penny calmed down and began looking through her stuff.

"Maybe we are just a dog and a girl, but we still can bite, can't we? We'll find a way…" she suddenly smiled, taking out her currently assembled scooter. A crazy thought entered her head. Once more, she unscrewed the part connecting the handle with the stand. She folded and unfolded it a few times, thinking her idea over. After a while, she added a wheel on each side of the bar.

"Well, there is only one way to test if this… wheelbar is going to work properly," she said, looking at her "invention" thoughtfully. She carefully moved the boat towards the metal construction. When she was close enough to reach it, she placed her new tool between two closest metal bars and unfolded it as far as she could. She tried to pull the wheelbar down, but it was attached firmly. Happy with the first test, she hesitantly hanged on it. It still didn't give in. Completely satisfied with the result, she jumped back onto the boat, folded the wheelbar and started working on a final detail. After ten minutes it was finished – there were buttons to control wheels' movement embedded in the handle.

This time – after attaching the wheelbar to the bars and checking its firmness once more – she put her backpack on and – not without difficulties – convinced Bolt to sit in the bag with diving equipment. She sighed, suddenly understanding that she will only have one hand to hold the wheelbar.

"It better be quick," she muttered, grabbing the handle.

Fortunately, the journey was short enough for her to endure holding combined weights of her and Bolt with one hand. She stopped upon reaching the first platform she'd met while ascending. Bolt immediately jumped out of the bag and quietly rushed forward, climbing onto the main level. She folded the wheelbar and hid it into her backpack before following him. They reached the top of the rig without problems and immediately started to investigate their new surroundings. Save the normal equipment one would expect to find in such place, there were also several large, metal containers. Upon closer looking, though, they looked a tad atypical, having doors, sometimes even windows implanted in their walls.

"They must be using these boxes as a form of easy transportable quarters," Penny concluded. "Original idea, I must admit."

Before the duo could think about their next action, they heard two voices nearing them. They silently hid behind some oil barrels to avoid detection.

"Did Calico say when is he gonna be back from China?" one of the closing voices asked. Penny leaned from behind the barrels to see two Calico's minions, walking across the platform. They were wearing no helmets, probably because nothing threatened them here.

"No, why?" one of them responded and shrugged. "When he's not around we got nothing to do, so I'm not really looking forward to his return."

"Yeah, but it's plainly boring then," the other sighed, shaking his head. "Come on, let's go and watch TV, maybe there will be some news about our »National Team's« successes," he proposed, motioning towards one of the several containers.

When they were almost there, his companion spoke up. "I wonder what are those guys in Lama-" the voice was suddenly cut short, as the two soldiers closed the door behind themselves.

"Hell, it was so close!" Penny cursed, standing up. "We'll have to get our information by force," she motioned to Bolt to follow her and trotted over to the door the soldiers had entered. "Okay… Just don't kill them, we need those information," she instructed Bolt, then silently opened the door and looked around the room. The soldiers were sitting in comfortable armchairs, watching some news program.

"Yesterday, the police has caught a group of men with mechanical limbs," a news anchor's voice emitted from the speakers. "Their faces were deformed and covered with artificial skin to resemble those of America's National Team. Fortunately, the real sportsmen have been caught by the criminals less than two days earlier. The police has found them unconscious and tied up in the basement of the USA National Team's building. In today's interviews all of our representatives confirmed that they will participate in the Olympic Games nonetheless. The police suspects the criminals had some leader, but personality of this perpetrator remains unknown-"

"WHAT?!" Penny screamed. She left Calico practically in the police's hands, how could he escape? How was it possible no one gave him away?

The minions turned, hearing her sudden outburst, but before any of them had a chance to react, Bolt appeared between them. He caught one of them by an ankle and slammed him into the other man, sending them flying through the room along with the armchair. In the moment they smacked the wall, he jumped onto them, smacking their heads together, leaving them both unconscious.

"Well, they won't tell us anything anytime soon…" Penny sighed, investigating the room. She spotted a large world map, dotted with colorful tacks. "I wonder what does this mean," she muttered, looking at red tacks in USA, Korea, China, Canada, France, India and a large group of them over Pakistan, Iraq and Iran. After that, she started checking the positions of green tacks. She found one over Antofagasta and a group of them over Europe. She identified one of them to point London, but before she could deliberate over the others, something else caught her attention, namely a mechanical door with a red LED display over them. She hadn't noticed them before because they barely differed from the metal walls of the container they were in. The LED lit up and started showing rapidly growing numbers. When they reached zero, the door opened. All this happened too fast for Bolt and Penny to hide or react in any other way. The elevator's door opened, letting out six soldiers. They didn't waste time and soon, with a gun's muzzle near Penny's head, both she and Bolt were forced to give up.

***

Soldiers closed the "wretched spies" in a 2 meters high metal cube. Judging by the look, its walls must have been at least one foot thick. Next thing Bolt and Penny felt was a moment of weightlessness, then a hard impact, probably when the cube made contact with the water surface – the soldiers must have decided to sink them.

Penny wasn't a type of a person to give up easily. She took out all her stuff and started pondering over how to use any of the items she possessed. Unfortunately, she found nothing she could use in the given situation. Her only idea was using the wheelbar to crowbar the entrance of their prison, but all her efforts were in vain.

"Maybe you should try," she said to Bolt, moving aside. He looked at his target for a moment, then dashed forward, lowered his head, readying for the impact and hit the wall hard. It deformed a bit, but remained consistent. He shook his head and got back to his position. This time he eyed the target a bit longer. Suddenly, he stopped and cocked his head in confusion. Penny followed his glance to see that metal in the place Bolt previously hit became red hot. For some reason, it was melting.

"Wow," Penny gasped with awe. "Now that's a power, do it again!" she cheered. Bolt started to stare onto the hatch once more…

"Bolt! Wait!" Penny suddenly stopped him. They were underwater, she needed to put on her diving equipment. Having done that, she put her backpack into the waterproof bag and raised a thumb. "OK, Bolt. Stare!" she commanded.

He obeyed and returned his gaze to the entrance. This time though, he focused even harder. The effect was incredible. His eyes began to glow green… Suddenly, two laser beams shot from them. Bolt cut a circle in the wall and closed his eyes, blocking the lasers. Penny could only look at the scene, mouth agape. She needed a few seconds to snap from the shock.

"Now you're talking! Um… looking. Whatever," she tried to push the cut out circle out. After a few tries, she understood that she had no chance to push it. Instead, she looked at Bolt and simply pointed it. He rammed into the obstacle with his head once more, this time easily pushing the cut out piece away. The water started flooding the container rapidly. Penny and Bolt swam out and started ascending. Penny looked around, immediately spotting something… The rig stood at the very bottom of the ocean shelf, but it wasn't a simple metal construction one would expect. Instead, about fifty meters under water's surface it spread, forming a submarine building, resembling a space research station.

The duo swam over to it and managed to get inside through a door, designed for divers. After passing through the anti-flood lock, they found themselves in an empty corridor, extending to both sides. Penny took her diving equipment off and put it back into the bag. She looked left and right, but seeing no indication of any direction being the right one, she shrugged and motioned to the left.

"That way," she said.

***

Four men were sitting in a mid-sized room, playing Scrabble. The room was furnished in a Spartan way - save the table and chairs the men were using, all the furniture consisted of an old TV on another table.

"And so, I have 'discombobulation' with times 3 bonus, which gives me a total of…" one of the minions said, pausing to count the points.

"Hem, may I have your attention, gentlemen?" someone asked.

"Wait a second, I'll just count it…" the man answered, still leaning over the board and counting his score.

"Very well, you may consider yourself fired," the minion looked around in disbelief. The speaker was doctor Calico, connecting with them via the TV. "As for the rest of you…" he paused, either for a dramatic effect or to collect his thoughts. He was shirtless, dressed barely in pink trousers and astronaut's helmet-

"Say what?!" Penny rubbed her eyes, but the text didn't change. She noticed a small asterisk next to it and it's explanation below: 'The sentence was originally written by S. Tyler after celebration party of »Bolt« episode 3 success, later deleted'.

"Very funny, indeed," she snapped. Then, as she tried to imagine Calico in such costume, she instantly burst into laughter.

"It seems that our professor has a very moralisticattitude and he won't help us unless we convince him with some strong arguments," Calico continued. "Fortunately, I have come across one in China. Now our most important mission is to capture professor's daughter. I'm sending this message to all of my forces, but you are most likely to meet her, as she probably eavesdropped a conversation about the Antofagasta base. You can see her photo on the screen now," image on the TV changed to show Penny's picture. "She travels with a white dog, resembling a German Shepherd. Watch out, he is incredibly strong-"

"Um, sir," one of the minions dared to interrupt. "We caught such girl and dog, sneaking on the platform."

"Gorgeous!" Calico exclaimed, raising his hands. "Where are they now?"

"On… the bottom of the sea?" the henchman answered hesitantly, almost cowardly.

"WHAT?!"

***

Penny and Bolt were sneaking through the base, searching for any valuable information. Glancing through one of the windows, Penny spotted three divers swimming in the direction of the sunk metal cube she had been imprisoned in with Bolt. She shrugged and returned to the search, opening the closest door to reveal yet another dark room. They had found nothing more than blocked computers, chemistry labs and incomprehensible machines yet. This one was a bit more promising, there were many sheets of paper lying on a table in the centre of this room. The writing style was kinda familiar to Penny… She started her laptop and put on the Monocle.

"Analyze," she commanded, looking upon the writing. After a moment of processing, the Monocle displayed a result: Professor Jeremiah Brown's handwriting.

"Dad's work? What type of?" she thought aloud, reading the titles. "Plans of neutralizing world's nuclear weapon using satellites with micro-focusing mirrors!" she exclaimed in surprise. "By Jeremiah Brown, fourteenth of December 2003… Those things are over four years old."

She spent a while, reading the plans, but she failed to find anything interesting, so she put them back and got out of the room. "Come on, Bolt, let's check the next one."

Next door she saw was open, light from behind it poured into the corridor. She could hear some voices from the room, one of them instantly recognizable due to its heavy English accent.

"Have they found them yet?" the owner of the voice, Doctor Calico, asked.

"Wayne, Mel," someone else said aloud. "What is your status?"

"We've found the container," the reply came in a screechy voice, probably from a radio transmitter. "But… you should see this, they cut through it without problems. It was a darn foot thick layer of metal!"

"You morons, she is a famous inventor's daughter, she probably had a miniature oxyacetylene torch or another ingenious invention with her! She can be anywhere now…" judging by the voice, Calico was furious.

"Sir," yet another voice piped up. "She have probably overheard us, talking about your current base."

"You foo- My current base, you say? That's good," Calico suddenly calmed down. Before anyone could ask him about the reason of his sudden good mood, he continued. "Nonetheless, I want all the bases in a state of readiness, now!" he demanded. "We have to catch that nuisance before she does some real damage with her actions," with that, the TV turned off loudly.

That was all Penny needed to know.

"Bolt… do some real damage," she smirked. Then she quickly dressed into the diving suit and rushed to the exit. By the time she escaped the complex, first explosion in the labs occurred.

The scenes of mass destruction and demolition, namely of Bolt ruining the undersea labs, were said to be the best ones in the show yet. Indeed, it was a moment Bolt really proved his training to be worth all the effort it took.

Not long after she had finished reading the fourth episode, Penny heard the front door being opened.

"Hey, mom!" she called.

"Good morning, Penny. Have you eaten breakfast?" Beatrix asked, hugging her daughter as she came to the anteroom to greet her family.

"Sure," Penny answered, then turned to look for Bolt, already a bit concerned as to why hadn't she been licked to death yet. She immediately spotted him, lagging behind the whole group, looking as if he was deep in thought. All the time he was staring at Mittens, as she slowly entered the kitchen.

"Something's eating you, Bolty?" the girl asked in a solicitous voice, petting her favorite. Upon feeling her touch, the dog shifted his gaze upward and instantly began to make up for the time he devoted to look at Mittens.

After a while, Penny managed to escape Bolt's caress. She smiled, relieved that everything is good with her dog. While she was wiping the slobber of her face, she looked around the room, as she failed to see a certain hamster.

"And where's Rhi-" she didn't need to end the question as loud explosion sounded from the living room. She rolled her eyes at the rodent's habits, going back to the room. She took her books and went upstairs, where she could read in relative silence.

"Mind if I join you?" Bolt asked Rhino, watching Penny until she disappeared on the first floor.

"Are you kidding? Come on up!" the hamster exclaimed enthusiastically, motioning his hand invitingly. "You want to collect your thoughts, don't you?" he asked with a wink.

"Now you're the one who must be kidding," Bolt laughed with mock-surprise, lying down on the couch. "Next to you it's impossible," he teased, playfully pushing the hamster's ball with his paw.

"Oh really?" Rhino quickly stopped the movement of his living sphere. "It just so happens that I want to help you in this… perilous task," he offered, spreading his tiny arms as if he wanted to illustrate the extension of Bolt's mission's difficulty.

"And I just want to stop thinking," Bolt stated, looking in the direction of the TV. "Over past several days all I do is thinking, my head starts to ache from all that thinking," he confessed, still keeping his gaze away from his friend.

"Trust me on this one Bolt," Rhino said in a reassuring tone, waving his hand. "Almost every danger you faced in your life-"

"-was fake," Bolt cut in almost irritably, suddenly looking away from the TV. He rested his head on his paws and closed his eyes.

"Nonetheless," Rhino continued, undiscouraged by the dog's behavior, "most of them somehow resembled feline. Dr Calico had a cat-like eye," he started listing Bolt's enemies, counting them on his fingers. "His pets were cats, his minions' armors where bearing cat eye's symbol-"

"Get to the point, Rhino," Bolt interrupted once more.

Before answering, the rodent pressed his ball against his friend's muzzle until Bolt looked at him. "The point is," Rhino said, accusingly pointing a finger towards Bolt, "that you must face the new challenge, and beat it like you always do. Without that you won't be able to find your inner piece again."

"And the mentioned threat would be…?" Bolt asked, though he already knew the answer.

"Why, your feelings to Mittens, of course!"

"It's not that easy, Rhino…" Bolt lowered his head once more, but this time with shame, not irritation. "You can't simply kill one's emotions," he stated in a hurt tone.

"And who says you are to kill them?" Rhino's question caught Bolt off-guard, he immediately raised his head. Encouraged by that, Rhino continued. "You are to confess your affection to the cat!" Bolt's eyes widened at the mere proposition. "That's the only straight way to resolve your problem," Rhino ended.

"I… I really don't think it's such a good idea-" Bolt defended weakly, avoiding Rhino's gaze.

"Come on!" Rhino yelled in a fan-like voice. "You are Bolt, who-"

"-never faced that kind of a challenge," Bolt cut in bitterly.

"Are you afraid of our sleek, black cat?" Rhino teased, faking an offended tone.

"Not of her… of the confession, of the way she would react," Bolt admitted.

"Fine, do as you wish," Rhino snapped, seemingly giving up and rolling away. "But aren't you fed up with all this uncertainty?" he called over his arm. "I mean-"

"You know what, Rhino?" Bolt asked, suddenly standing up and jumping off the sofa. "I surrender. I'll tell her, ok? I could live with my thoughts…" he paused for a moment, before walking towards the kitchen. "…but evidently not with you, nagging me all day long," he finished quietly.

Rhino whooped loudly and turned to the TV, lying comfortably in his ball.

"Mission accomplished," he muttered to himself.

After Bolt had destroyed the labs placed beneath Calico's oilrig, the whole construction fell apart. That meant there was no one to pursue the brave duo, but they knew it wouldn't last long, as their enemy knew their current whereabouts. Besides, they plans remained unchanged, their aim still being to rescue Penny's father. That's why they flew to London, following the only clue Penny managed to get during their "visit" on the oilrig.

The only information they came across in England was the location of two another bases – in Paris and Cairo. They failed to localize the French establishment, but when they reached Egypt, they were greeted by a small army, consisting of over thirty soldiers. A few minutes after the opposed sides spotted each other…

Penny carefully stepped over a limp soldier's body. She slowly approached Bolt, surrounded by unconscious Calico's minions. She was taken aback by how meteorically Bolt's skills developed – mere days ago, three bullies had been a challenge for him, now he was capable of taking on forty soldiers, destroying oilrigs… and who knows what else.

From the new position, she spotted something she missed before – there was a copter, standing several meters away from the battleground. She immediately used the occasion to get a closer look on it – the knowledge of its armament could be very useful in the future. She took the Monocle out of her backpack to help her in gathering information.

"Calico's copters," she chuckled. "I guess we should shorten it to Calicopters."

Short look-over told her that the copter carried twenty modified AGM-114 Hellfire missiles and its secondary weapon was a M134 six-barrel 7.62mm machine gun, suspended beneath the cockpit. The latter name, suggested by the Monocle, was completely incomprehensible for the girl, so she commanded the appliance to count example damage the gun could cause. The results were deeply frightening. Those two types of weaponry alone made every Calicopter capable of destroying a small city. That was not the limit of their destructiveness though. Judging by the size, Penny guessed every Calicopter could hold either a massive amount of explosives, missiles and such or at least four motorcycles. She and Bolt had an idea of how deadly the latter vehicles were, since they had had to escape their chase in England. Had it not been for Bolt, the two would probably had got caught then.

Having examined the copter, Penny found the least hurt soldier and brought him round. With a little help of Bolt, she quickly persuaded him to tell her about the place where she should seek for her father.

"I know of two other bases," the soldier admitted. "I don't know if your father is in any of those, Calico doesn't let us know his current whereabouts-"

"And he sure has a reason," Penny laughed. "So, where are those places?" she asked calmly, as it was no longer necessary to threaten her enemy.

"One of them is located on an island, three miles south from Manna di Ragusa in Italy…" the soldier paused for a while.

"And the other?" Penny demanded.

"In Parthenon."

"Yeah, and I'm an alien," Penny laughed.

"Calico likes challenges," the soldier answered confidently. "But, now that you mention it… you really look kinda-" he was cut off as Penny hit the side of his neck with two fingers, knocking him cold.

"Greece and Italy, then," she muttered, standing up from the crouched position. "Let's start from Greece, it really sounds like Calico to-" she stopped, feeling something tugging at her leg. She looked down to see Bolt, whining pleadingly. "What is it, boy?" she asked with concern. In response, he nudged the unconscious soldier's head with his nose and looked up at her. After a few seconds, Penny understood what did he mean. "Oh, you're curious how did I beat him? It's a simple technique, there were those self-defense lessons at school…" she trailed off for a while. "Well, all you have to do is localize the nerve on your opponent's neck," she instructed, using the cold soldier as a model. "Then, you strike it with a finger or two. Simple, isn't it?" she smiled. Bolt responded with a smile.

The sixth episode continued the thread of cross-European search expedition. The duo reached Parthenon easily, but all they found there was another trap. This time, there were almost fifty men… it made no difference to Bolt. The victory was bitter though, as it meant they lost another day, following a wrong track. Nonetheless, Penny was far from giving up. On the very same day, she and Bolt took a plane to Italy.

They neared their target on a rented speedboat, but they had to leave it almost half a kilometer away from the island as a Calicopter was patrolling the sea. Knowing its capabilities, Penny dressed into her diving suit, packed the water-vulnerable equipment to the waterproof bag and allowed Bolt to drag her underwater all the way to the island. Thanks to his incredible strength, the journey was really quick. They emerged from the water near a small beach beneath a huge rocky cliff. Looking up, they saw Calico's facility – almost fifty meters above them. Taking the amount of weaponry that was probably gathered inside and the location of this place into consideration, it could easily be named a fortress. Impenetrable as it seemed, it had some weak points though, so Penny was sure they'll manage to get inside.

"Bolt, sneak in," Penny ordered. It was a new, useful command she taught him in England, before they tried to get inside the London base. It assured Penny Bolt will always be around when her stealth fails - which meant every time she tried it. She may have been a computer expert already, but her stealth techniques still required months of training. Nevertheless, she never gave up.

She found some pipes, going from the building into sea. It seemed like a perfect occasion to use the wheelbar. In past few days, this tool had proved itself to be really useful during infiltration of any facility. Adjustable to the exact width between walls, pipes and such, it had already allowed her to enter several seemingly impenetrable places. This time was no difference. Having ascended to the top of the rock, the girl quietly sneaked into the building. A cursory search showed nothing interesting, so she decided to get to the top of the building. By a stroke of luck, some rooms were covered with glass. The girl glanced into one of them, leaning on the glass surface. There were four Calico's minions discussing something aloud inside.

"Why keep the professor alive if he refuses to cooperate?" one of them asked.

"Because he's the only person who can finish the weapons installation," the other explained.

"Calico says the key is his daughter. If we catch her, the professor will do whatever we ask."

Penny adjusted her position to hear them better, but she made a crucial mistake: she forgot about the glass's fragility. In a flash, the large surface crackled, in the next Penny found herself on the floor of the room, surrounded by the soldiers and splinters of glass. One of the henchmen dragged her up and put her helmet off.

"It's the girl!" he exclaimed. She merely smirked, knowing that Bolt must had heard the commotion. Her self-confidence surprised the guards. It took them a while to piece the information they had about her.

"Where's the dog?" one of them asked. As if on cue, the room's door flew off its hinges and hit him. Behind the door, a certain white dog appeared.

"Bolt! Sic 'em!" Penny screamed, tearing herself loose from the minion's grip.

He growled menacingly, then jumped at the nearest soldier. He caught the man's arm in his teeth, using it as an axis to turn mid-air. When he was behind the minion's back, he pulled him strongly, thus sending him flying through the room, where he crashed into another man.

In the meantime, Penny retreated to an adjacent room. She observed the fight from behind a half-closed door. She couldn't doubt Bolt's victory, as he was already an expert in battling Calico's henchmen. His previous opponents often carried heavy, specialized guns, but here, due to limited space, all of the soldiers had chosen to use their secondary weapon. It was a very original armament - shock gloves with extreme maximum voltage of 100.000 volts, adjustable to let their users kill or simply paralyze their victims.

The room slowly turned into ruin as Bolt tossed the soldiers around. Spotting a new opportunity, he rammed with his forehead into yet another man, sending him flying through the room, where he crashed through a big window and fell out with a loud scream. The open window let Bolt hear another sound though, a very alarming one. There was a Calicopter, hovering right behind the wall. As soon as Bolt's enemies noticed that, all of them ran for their lives. The room became empty in a flash. Bolt knew what's going to happen just as well as they did, so he quickly jumped through the room, as far from the copter as possible. The wall behind him exploded in the very moment, filling the room with debris. Men in the copter turned a huge searchlight on and started their machine gun.

Penny watched it in horror. She knew Bolt was mostly invincible, he could survive heavy impacts and falling from great heights, once he had even been shot with a series from the Calico's minion's gun and came out of it without as much as a scratch. The Calicopter's gun's caliber was much bigger though, making the girl worried sick about her dog's life.

Bolt wanted to use his laser eyes and simply cut the copter in half, but he was afraid that being hit with a bullet from such weapon could be dangerous even for him – and the soldiers were shooting incessantly. Bolt was deflecting most of the bullets, running around the room and changing the directions fast, making it almost impossible to target him. Despite his efforts, after a while he got hit with several bullets. Force of the impact threw him through the room. Penny's heart skipped few beats. To her indescribable relief, Bolt quickly got up.

The copter's crew must have understood that they needed something more than that to kill the dog, because they fired another Hellfire into the room. For Penny, everything that happened next was a blur – after all, the rocket's speed exceeded 900 mph…

Bolt, on the other hand, was able to see the rocket nearing him in a slow motion, thanks to his modified senses. He jumped, catching the missile mid-air, landed on the ground, turned and allowed it to fly back. The rocket may had had a professional fire-and-forget guidance, but with its extreme speed it was unable to change its route on a 30-meters distance.

The Calicopter was defenseless against its own missiles. Its explosion must have broken every glass surface on the island.

***

A single man peeked into the room the massacre took place in to check how did the struggle end. He looked around the room cautiously. He immediately spotted the girl everybody was after on his left.

"Where is my dad?" she asked threateningly, holding some kind of a metal bat and looking at him menacingly.

His only response was a smirk. He powered his electricity glove and reached his hand to paralyze her, when suddenly some item of great weight landed atop his head, immediately bringing him down. He looked up, surprised and partially frightened. There was a piano, hovering over his head… After a second the soldier understood the instrument wasn't hovering, it was being held by the girl's dog. The argument was clear… and very persuasive.

"In Yucatán jungle, that Calico's temple hideout," the henchman explained quickly to avoid being hit with the heavy object once more.

"Which jungle?" the girl inquired.

"I don't know," he lied, wanting to protect at least a part of the information from being given away. However, one short growl from the dog was enough to convince him. "Lamanai!" he added quickly, covering his head with his hands.

"Lamanai, northern Belize, of course!" his interrogator exclaimed, finally completing the name she heard on the oilrig in Antofagasta.

"You can't win, there's too many of us," the soldier threatened to try and save the tiniest bit of his honor.

"Are you gonna hurt him?" the girl asked, looking away from the soldier.

"Your dad? I don't know what Calico's gonna do to your fathe-"

"I was talking to my dog," the girl cut in.

Next thing the soldier remembered was something really heavy crashing on his head.

Bolt neared the kitchen hesitantly. He still couldn't believe Rhino had managed to convince him, what he was planning to do seemed like a suicide mission to him… But he knew he had to do this. Not only because he was fed up with Rhino's nagging, but also because deep inside Bolt felt it was the right thing to do.

But it didn't make it any easier.

With last heavy sigh, the dog stepped into the kitchen. It was quite spacious, furnished with a modern steel worktop along the left wall and a massive oak table with several chairs. Whole room was filled with light, falling through a huge window, embedded in the right wall. Bolt had already known all that, but he took his time watching every smallest detail nonetheless. Every second allowed him to think of another way to solve the problem at hand… Alas, all his thoughts ceased as his eyes followed the sun's rays, fixing themselves on a small, mostly black figure. Bolt took three shaky steps forward, suddenly unable to think about anything else then how beautiful did Mittens' fur looked, glistening in the sun. He instantly understood that he won't be able to say anything more complicated than the three easiest words… and that uttering even this short sentence may be too much for him to bear.

After several seconds he understood that he's standing motionlessly, staring at Mittens, thinking of nothing but of a way to run away and avoid whatever trouble he'd put himself into by admitting his feelings. He could also feel the feline's curiosity, emanating from her entire form. She kept her low position, drinking water, but it was clearly visible that waiting for what her friend had to say was almost a torture for her.

"Mittens…" Bolt finally decided to make use of his throat. His voice came out harsh, barely audible, as a huge lump formed in his throat, blocking both his breath and speech. The dog fought it, knowing that putting it off any longer was not going to facilitate his confession. "I… I think I love you," he uttered shakily, looking at his feet in anticipation of the cat's reaction.

As soon as he ended his confession, Mittens burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter, spitting the water upon the dog in the process.

"I'm sorry," she managed to utter between laughs, "but that's by far the best joke you've ever…" she suddenly noticed Bolt's fallen expression and immediately calmed down. It took her a moment to connect her friend's mood with his words. Her eyes widened at the realization that what he said might not had been a joke. "Bolt, tell me you were not serious," she almost pleaded.

"I was," he answered apologetically, still keeping his gaze low.

"Bolt, it's… I mean…" Mittens stammered, desperately trying to think of anything in the situation she had never even supposed she could get into. "You're a dog, for Pete's sake!" she finally exclaimed, using the most obvious argument that came to her mind.

"I am," he responded silently, meekly accepting the well-deserved scolding he was receiving.

"And I'm a cat!" Mittens screamed once more, paying no attention to Bolt's behavior.

"You are," came her silent answer.

"Would you stop it? I'm serious!" she yelled once more, making Bolt wince and regret complying to Rhino's advise even more.

"Sorry," by then, Bolt was almost whispering, earnestly considering running away.

His barely audible tone finally caught Mittens' attention. She sighed, seeing Bolt's sincere fallen expression. Before speaking up again, she took a deep breath to calm herself.

"Bolt…" she paused for a moment, but he didn't respond. "Look at me," she asked coolly. The dog hesitantly obliged, though it was evident he feared what would come next. "I'm sorry if I overreacted a bit… but who wouldn't? Look at us, Bolt. We represent different species, we barely have anything in common! How in the world do you imagine…?" she paused, as a new thought occurred to her. "Do you even imagine it?" she muttered under her breath. "I'm the first female you've ever met, ain't I, Bolt?"

During her speech the white canine regained much of his composure thanks to the scolding's end, so now he was able to respond casually.

"Why, save for Penny… you are," he admitted.

"That would mean I've got a difficult lesson to teach," she muttered, sighing heavily.

Once again, Penny and Bolt were obliged to get to the other side of the world. They were starting to get used to it, even the jetlag stopped being a serious problem. Having reached Orange Walk in Belize at night, the duo decided to get a good night's sleep before resuming their search. On the next day, after eating breakfast, they headed to a travel agency. They were informed that Lamanai temple complex was currently unavailable to the tourists due to its renovation. That information pleased Penny – it was obvious that Calico wouldn't be able to hide in a place swarming with visitors. Thanks to the previously gained experience, Penny rented a boat almost effortlessly. With that, they easily got to the Lamanai haven. It was thoroughly empty.

"Ha," Penny said, mooring the boat. "I bet they're waiting for anyone to show up several meters from the harbor. No way we're gonna let them outwit us, huh Bolt?" she laughed. Then, the duo took off, ignoring the path prepared for tourists. Instead, they decided to take a difficult way through the jungle. It turned out to be a good decision – from their position they were able to observe the soldiers guarding the road without being seen by them. Bolt whined impatiently, failing to understand why they weren't attacking their enemies. Penny smiled, recognizing Bolt's desires.

"We don't know if Calico or my father's there," she explained. "That soldier could have lied. That's why I need to sneak in and search for some intel before they find out about our presence."

They continued to force their way through the bush for several minutes until they could see several enormous stone buildings through the trees. Penny gasped, seeing that the area was literally flooded with soldiers.

"What are they all defending?" the girl thought aloud. Soon, she calmed down and added, "I'm gonna figure it out. Bolt, go play!"

He obeyed and began to encircle the temple complex alone. He was to draw the attention of the minions and let Penny do her job.

"Wherever valuable information are, there's also a computer to store them. Where are you keeping yours, Calico?" she thought aloud, waiting for Bolt to start his diversion and observing the temples through her binoculars. "Aha! The peak of the High Temple. Good choice… Flat, quite big and pretty impenetrable. Unless your enemy has a wheelbar and a superdog, that is!"

***

Meanwhile, Bolt reached the other side of the temple complex and emerged from the jungle. Having spotted some guards, he allowed them to see him too, casually walking around for a while. After a few calm moments he understood they're not gonna recognize him without some obvious proof, so he knocked one of them out. That, of course, made the others reach for their radios and call for help at once. Soon, the whole place filled with Calico's henchmen – their number quickly exceeded sixty men. Bolt did his best to fight them, but the dense crowd of enemies made him unable to move quick enough and he got caught by one of the guards. An electrical impulse penetrated his body, making him no harm though. He prepared to throw the man off him when he felt numerous other hands gripping on him, sending more powerful electricity waves down his spine. He was paralyzed, suddenly finding it difficult to inhale. It seemed that was the end. In a last desperate attempt to break free, Bolt took a deep breath and barked as loud as he could. It didn't make things better, on the contrary – his vision blurred and faded to pitch black, he stopped filling the multiple hands' grasp, hardly feeling anything. The dog understood it really was the end. He failed Penny…

No! Bolt knew that as long as there was a tiniest drop of blood in his veins, he wouldn't let his person down. With that thought, he forced his limbs to lift his body from the earth. Having shakily stood up, he shook all the dirt from himself and looked around. He was standing in the center of a small crater, surrounded by unconscious soldiers. His last-ditch attack must had been more effective than he thought. It was still incomprehensible for Bolt though, he merely barked…

He needed to check his suspicions, so he chose a nearby stone wall. He took a firm position, inhaled deeply and barked with all his strength. The result was simply outstanding, the sound wave he produced literally obliterated the structure. He smiled to himself with a smile that said, "Let those wretched spawns of evil try and beat me now!"

To his contentment, there were already several soldiers running towards him, probably lured by the sound of his superbarks.

***

Bolt managed to draw most of the guards away and the few that kept their position were also focused on the battleground. Therefore, Penny easily reached the High Temple. Hearing two powerful barks from the other side of the valley made her smile. Bolt was either exclaiming his joy upon his victory or had just discovered some new power he possessed…

The girl started to ascend the Mayan temple quickly, using the wheelbar to quicken her pace whenever she had the opportunity. She was near the top of the building when she heard a dreadful sound of a Calicopter's whirling blades behind her. She turned around to see the deadly machine fly towards Bolt's location. She desperately tried not to think about what could happen in a one-to-one struggle between Bolt and the Calicopter. Instead, she allowed her fear to help her climb the temple even faster.

The sound of a long machine gun series reached her ears in the moment she reached the very top of the temple. She ignored all the tents, standing around her. Nothing mattered when Bolt's life was in danger… She rushed to the other side of the temple to see a result of the fight. She came right in time to see Bolt bark at the Calicopter, hovering in the air several meters from him. In the very same moment, the copter's crew shot two missiles at Bolt, but as soon as they flew out, a sound wave started by the dog's superbark sent them back. Penny cheered silently as the machine exploded, but her smile faded when it collapsed to the ground… crashing precisely in the spot where Bolt stood. The ground gave in to the force of the impact and a burning wreckage of what once was a Calicopter fell underground, disappearing in one of many caverns placed beneath the valley.

"Bolt?! BOOOLT!" Penny screamed at the top of her lungs, suddenly not caring about her stealth. Hearing a laughter behind her back, she turned to face her enemies. Her eyes widened as she gasped at the recognition of her greatest opponent.

"And I told everyone you're too smart to walk right into a trap... Seems I overestimated you," Calico said, smiling evilly.

Penny didn't need much time to turn her fear into anger.

"Where's my dad?" she demanded. In response, the evil doctor handed her a mobile. She hesitantly took it from his hand.

"Daddy!" she screamed, having heard a familiar voice on the other side.

"Penny!" her answer came.

"Daddy, are you hurt?" the girl asked with concern.

"I'm okay, where's Bolt?" her father inquired.

"I don't know, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..." she apologized.

"Just do whatever Calico says until all-" she had no chance to hear the rest of Jeremiah's instructions, as Calico suddenly snatched the mobile from her hand.

"If you ever want to see your daughter again, finish the weapon," he ordered the professor.

"Please! She's just a little girl!" the scientist's pleading voice sounded in the air, but Calico quickly snapped it close.

"Find a penny, pick it up, and all day long you'll have good luck!" he grinned, ordering two soldiers to hold Penny and motioning to the giant steps down.

***

After the copter's wreck had hit him, Bolt felt the ground under his legs giving in to the new weight. A long fall followed, ending with a painful impact with a rocky floor. Every piece of Bolt's body was hurting, though luckily none of his bones seemed to be broken. He slowly crept out from beneath the copter's wreck, looking around the place he found himself in. The cave wasn't too spacious, but quite high. There was no way Bolt was going to make it back through the hole in the ceiling. The whole place was illuminated by torches attached to the walls. Now they were useless, as the sunlight found its way inside through the huge hole above. The room was also decorated with several Mayan statues, but they didn't interest Bolt. All he cared about now was finding his way up, back to Penny. As if on cue, he spotted an open door to his right. There were several armed minions, cautiously nearing the burning remains of a Calicopter. Bolt smirked. Anyone standing on his way to Penny was either going to step away or be thrown away.

Soon, the cave filled with screams.

***

Calico didn't drag his prisoner far. They climbed down the High Temple and entered a room one level above the ground. Once, it had had to be a sacrificial chamber – there were many massive columns, probably supporting whole temple's weight, an ancient altar, covered with religious carvings… and two comfortable armchairs. Calico sat in one of them and motioned to the other. The soldiers holding Penny made her sit in it, then saluted to Calico.

"Thank you," he said. "Proceed with my previous orders concerning your men, move them to next designated location. And prepare a helicopter. I must take care of a certain scientist personally," he grinned, looking at Penny. "Now, that I have a perfect weapon to fight his resistance, it shouldn't be a problem at all! You are dismissed," he finished, looking back at the soldiers. The two saluted once more and retreated from the hall to take care of his orders.

"You caused me a lot of trouble, Penny," Calico continued, adjusting his position in the armchair. "The failure of my Olympics plan cost me a lot of money… Hopefully though you'll prove yourself useful. Your father's cooperation is really essential for my plans…"

Penny didn't answer, keeping her rebellious attitude to cover her real emotions. With her father captured and Bolt probably killed, she had no chance to escape Calico… and even if she did, she would have no way to fight him afterwards.

***

Having left the sacrificial chamber, both soldiers descended to the ground level. Then, one of them left towards the heliport. The other turned back to the High Temple, entering a room on the ground level, almost directly below the chamber Calico was sitting in. The room was empty, save for a trapdoor in the centre. The soldier opened it and used a ladder to climb down to an underground hall.

"Good news, boys!" he called. "We're good to go, Calico's cap-" he stopped, gaping at the sight of the room. Several men were lying in random places, evidently unconscious. A few statues, gathered in the room, were broken, the floor was covered with debris. Before he could think of anything more though, something leapt onto his back and struck him in the neck, knocking him cold.

***

Penny and Calico were sitting on the armchairs, each thinking hard. The only difference was that Penny's thoughts were concentrated around her failure, while Calico's ones concerned his plans of conquering the world. After a minute, the chamber, hitherto thoroughly quiet, filled with noise as a Calicopter landed in front of the High Temple.

Calico stood up and looked at Penny triumphantly. He was about to say something when he heard an alarming sound from behind him. Turning around, he watched in horror as two green laser beams cut through the hall's floor, damaging the supporting pillars. That could mean only one thing – the ancient building was going to collapse any moment now. He nervously grabbed Penny by her wrist and started dragging her towards the exit. In the same moment, the lasers disappeared as a huge part of the floor fell down. A moment later, a small white figure jumped into the room through the newly made hole. Calico failed to notice it, but Penny immediately recognized her loyal companion. She resisted the criminal, using the opportunity to steal a mobile from his pocket. Calico must have understood he had no chance to make it out with the girl, because he suddenly released her hand and ran for his live.

As soon as he was out, the entire structure crumpled, burying Bolt and Penny under tons of rubble. Calico stopped several meters from the ruined building, dusted himself off, regaining his composure and came over to the soldiers, gathered around a helicopter.

"She's-" one of them started, looking at the ruin which was a High Temple mere minutes ago.

"-no longer a menace," Calico cut in. "As long as the professor believes she's alive he'll do what he's asked and finish the weapon. Too bad we can't all have nine lives," the criminal laughed, boarding the copter.

A long moment passed since the noise made by the Calicopter's whirling blades faded in the distance. The scene was almost perfectly motionless. Suddenly, several small pieces of debris rolled down. After another moment a giant boulder rolled aside, showing Bolt and Penny, sitting completely intact among the debris.

"Good boy!" the girl exclaimed, petting her dear companion. "They think we're goners, that should keep us off their radar for a while," she reasoned, then started searching for any information on the stolen mobile. "Here's something," she said. "Stropole Railway... northern Russia," she concluded. "Bolt, do you like trains?" she asked, smiling enthusiastically. Bolt smiled in response. "How about trains in really cold places?" she added, making the smile disappear from his muzzle.