Bolt, Mittens, and Lucy all felt the truck moving underneath them. They were going to some shelter where animals would be adopted out. Unfortunately, more often than not, some dogs would be put down if they were deemed not adoptable. Lucy was terrified because she was on that spectrum.
"Must be made of... styrofoam!" Bolt growled as he scratched the inside of the door. "Let me out! I can't go back!" Lucy whimpered as she desperately scratched the door, fearing for her life. "No, no! Please, it can't end like this!" Mittens shouted, scratching the door frantically.
"Would you two stop worrying?! I can get us out of here!" Bolt shouted to them as he held himself up on the door with his front paws. "You don't have anything, Bolt! No super strength, no super bark!" Mittens shouted at him, walking to his side of her space. They could hear each other while not seeing each other.
"And no heat vision," Mittens said. She said this because Bolt was trying to use heat vision to get out of there, but his eyes were twitching when he tried. He did stop after she said this.
"Listen, Bolt. This place that we're going to is where humans go animal shopping. It's always the cute ones they pick out. The dogs that look like you... The rest of us don't..." Lucy shouted to him. She understood how it felt to be unwanted, not remembering how much she was loved when she was a puppy.
She laid down and rested her head between her forelegs, feeling as if she was going back to the ring again. "I said I'd get us out of here, alright?!" Bolt shouted, going back as far as he could before he charged at the door, only hitting his head. It left a huge dent in the metal door.
"Our hero..." both Mittens and Lucy mockingly said. There was no way that dog could rescue them both before they got to where this truck was taking them.
The animal catcher had stopped at a gas station so he could refill his truck. It was night time when he got there. Bolt wouldn't stop ramming his head against the truck's door, trying to get it open, but it was doing nothing but giving him a headache.
"Ow.." he groaned. Lucy was getting irritated with him constantly doing that. "Would you just stop doing that?" she growled at him. "You're liquefying whatever brains you got left," Mittens said.
They started to move again after the driver filled his truck up with gas. "I cannot be contained... in no container! You quitters!" Bolt shouted as he shook the dizziness away from his head, "Watch this!"
Lucy heard the sound of his door opening and saw him falling out of his cage. "Bolt?" she said, but she didn't get a response. "That crazy dog got himself out," Mittens told the red husky.
Lucy couldn't help but let out a low whimper, knowing that Bolt wouldn't come back. There was no way that she would see him again. It just wasn't possible.
*X*
By the time the dog catcher arrived at the shelter, it was darker. The driver could hear Lucy barking due to her catching his scent. This was all too familiar because of her past. She didn't want to go through it again.
After he brought Mittens in, he went to the truck to get Lucy. However, she threw herself at the truck while barking aggressively. She didn't want this human to touch her, still growling at him through the door. The overweight man sighed and he went back into the shelter, approaching a woman at the front desk.
"Esther, I got a dog in my truck that is aggressive. I may need some help with it," he told her. "Oh, dear. Go get the muzzle so the dog won't bite and get a pole and get a set of gloves too," the short woman told him. He nodded and he went to the back to get those items.
He came back out of the shelter with the gloves on so Lucy wouldn't bite him. She started growling again when he came back to the truck. Her fur bristled up and she bared her teeth, ready to bite.
When that door opened, she lunged at him with her teeth bared. She was quickly muzzled, which didn't help keep her calm. She absolutely despised wearing these devices and she tried to get it off with her fore paws.
When that catching pole was around her neck, it caused her to freeze. 'No... don't take me back there!' she thought in fear, her ears dropping and her tail tucked between her legs. All the memories of her past came back to haunt her. This whole time, she was trying to put it behind her.
She was brought inside, unable to fight back. A part of her thought she was going back to the ring. "This is the dog, Esther. What should I do with her? She is aggressive," the overweight man asked, still holding the catching pole in his hands.
Esther looked over the desk and observed the scarred red husky. She couldn't see the fear behind her blue eyes. "We need to see if she is chipped if she isn't, then we'll schedule her to be put down. If she is aggressive, then we can't risk her being adopted out. She could hurt a child if she wanted to," Esther said.
Lucy's blue eyes widened when that woman said that. She couldn't remember if she was chipped or not. The man took her to the back to get checked for a chip. To her horror, she didn't have one. It was taken out when she was still a puppy after she had been taken by the people who stole her from her old owner.
She was taken to the dog section and was put in an empty cage. The man cautiously took the muzzle off of her, and she didn't fight back this time. She faced away from the cage door, hearing it shut and lock behind her.
She heard all the dogs barking, their voices bouncing off of the concrete walls. The husky couldn't block them out even if she wanted to. It was like she was back in that godforsaken place.
Her whole body shook without her realizing it. Her ears were laid back all the way and her tail was wrapped around her hind legs. After a while, the other dogs were quiet now. They were probably asleep.
Just when Lucy was beginning to lose hope, she heard someone coming into the dog area. She didn't bother to look over her shoulder to see who it was. "Lucy?" a familiar voice came from behind her.
Her ears instantly rose up when she heard Bolt's voice. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Bolt standing on the other side of the cage she was in. Her heart leapt when she saw the white shepherd again.
"Bolt...? Wh-Why are you here?" the red husky asked as she stood back up, turned around, and she walked up to the cage door. There was something different about him that was different. She could easily see that for herself.
"I'm busting you and Mittens out of here," he whispered, smiling at her. Lucy's blue eyes became bright when she heard this. Nobody ever put themselves out there for her. It made her tail wag a bit.
"You came back here... for us? For me?" she asked with a slight head tilt. "Yeah..." he said softly, smiling at her. "But... you don't have any powers," she replied to him.
"Yeah, I know," he said, glancing away with a bashful smile. Lucy perked up and said, "Whoa, you did? Did you figure that out on your own?" "Yeah," he nodded, smiling back at her.
"I'm glad you realized that now. I don't want to stay another minute in this place. They said they were going to kill me," Lucy said urgently. "Alright, let's get Mittens and you out of here," Bolt said as he unlocked the door with his nose.
The second it was open, Lucy galloped out of there with Bolt by her side to get to Mittens. Lucy didn't see Rhino anywhere so she assumed that he was being used as a distraction so they could all get out of there.
They went into the cat section without being caught and easily found her. Like Lucy, she was facing away from them, shaking a little bit. "Bolt, over here," Lucy said when she saw the cat.
The two dogs stood in front of the cage door. "Mittens?" Bolt said to the cat, which made her turn around. The cat was stunned to see the two canines standing in front of her. "Bolt? Lucy? What're you guys doing here?" she asked.
"We're busting you out," Bolt said with a smile. "He came back for us, Mittens. We're getting out of here," Lucy added, smiling a bit. It was a genuine smile.
"What? But he doesn't have powers," Mittens said, sounding flabbergasted. "Yeah, he figured it out a while back," Lucy chuckled with a grin. "Wow, crazy day for you, huh?" Mittens asked the white shepherd.
"Yeah, it's been a lot," Bolt said before he glanced at Lucy before glancing back at Mittens, "Are you guys ready for this?" "Nope," Lucy said with a smile and a slight tail wag. "Not at all," Mittens said. "Yeah, me neither," Bolt said as he unlocked the cat's cage.
The two dogs and cat ran out of there to get Rhino. "Hey, hey, what is twisting your giblets?!" the guard shouted when he heard all the other dogs barking loudly. One of the dogs had managed to get his head through his cage and he had Rhino's ball into his mouth.
Bolt, Lucy, and Mittens arrive at the door to let Rhino know that they were getting out of there. When the guard saw them, he tried to jump on them but they managed to avoid him. "Initiating escape!" Rhino shouted as he rolled out of the dog's mouth, causing him to hit the guard over the head, knowing him.
They all started running towards the front door while the same guard shouted, "Lloyd! Block the door!" repeatedly. "Super bark! Super bark!" Rhino shouted to Bolt as they ran to the door. "Shut up, Rhino!" Lucy growled as she ran, more focused on getting out of that place. Lloyd, the guy who had brought her in, had blocked the door, causing the two dogs and cat to slide to a stop.
The second guard had slipped on the other dogs' saliva, the heel of his boot landing on Bolt's tail. It caused the dog to yelp in pain, spinning around to look at the guard. Rhino flew right into Lloyd, which knocked him over.
Then, the hamster slammed into a helium tank and it flew out of the front doors, crashing into the sign to the shelter. It fell onto a truck that had gas tanks on the back of it, making it explode on impact. Afterwards, the two dogs, cat, and hamster galloped out of there, not looking back.