FSE

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Chapter 13: BELLY OF THE BEAST

- Bolt & Benji -

"I'm here to rescue you..." Bolt whispered, his voice weak as an asp leaf but his dizzy smile, nonetheless radiant. Benji found himself grinning back stupidly. It was hard to resist when the German Shepherd was so utterly happy to see him - despite the grim circumstances.

Benji had realized the second he had seen laid eyes on his unconscious friend that Bolt was here on some misguided rescue attempt - but how on earth the dog had managed to find him, or if his 'rescuer' had even realized that he's too been captured - he had no idea. For now, he was just happy that the white dog was alive and well.

Their cold noses touched softly through the bars, rubbing lovingly against each other as both dogs forgot complete about the pens and the bars surrounding them and just enjoyed being together for the first time in far too long. In fact, Benji got so ecstatically happy that his tongue flipped out to grace the Shepherd's muzzle. Bolt licked back. His fluffy tail whipped the dusty floor happily as they nuzzled. Benji's tail joined in.

The cage bars between them made any serious cuddling difficult, but with a mix of desperation and ingenuity, the Labrador managed to reach his forearms through- his cold-black paws finding the white, brushy fur of the Bolt's back, squeezing him tightly.

"What on earth are you doing here, you stupid mutt?" he whispered over the hug.

• "Looking for you, of course..." Bolt whimpered blissfully as he pressed back against Benji, overjoyed to finally have located his long-lost Labrador buddy. His little rescue plan may not have gone off quite as gracefully as the hero had hoped, but at least he was reunited with his friend, and that was always his main objective.

So he pressed back against Benji the best he could, struggling to find his footing while using his front legs to hug his beloved Lab. He didn't even mind the cold iron bars between them, he just whined with joy, his ears flattening against his head affectionately and his big nose resting against the soft fur of his Labrador friend's furry shoulder - who returned his affection by fondly licking his cheek.

Benji noticed that Bolt's body felt colder than usual, but he was slowly getting warmer, and his fur, through rugged and dirty, was just as soft as always. A part of him still found it hard to believe he was actually there...

He squeezed a little tighter, as if any moment Bolt could disappear between his arms, as if he needed to constantly feel his fur to reassure himself that Bolt was actually there and not just another dream...

"You're not vanished yet..." he whispered, drying off secret tears in Bolt's fur as he spoke.

• "Why would I vanish?" Bolt chuckled softly, but in a decidedly kind manner. The kind of chuckle he usually reserved for when Benji said something he found unusually silly.

• "Because it's usually about now I wake up to find myself hugging my food bowl, or some of those dirty all rags they left in my cage, or just the thin air..."

• "Well, this Bolt is going to vanish" Bolt promised before dealing another warm lick onto the opposite dog's muzzle.

"Besides... it's not like I could get out of this place even if I wanted to" he flashed Benji his trademark _I'm joking but I'm really just trying to make you happy_smiles.

• "You don't seem to be taking any of this very seriously! You do realize you're stuck here two now?"

• "I'm aware... yes .I didn't expect so much resistance! Rescuing people used to be my specialty, but this hero stuff is significantly tougher without super-strength. I had no idea windows were so hard in reality..."

• "I think so bastards sedated you. You were totally knocked out! Thought you were dead!"

• "I'm perfectly fine, just a tad dizzy" Bolt assured him with a smile and a dismissive wave of his paw.

• "Nothing ever worries you, huh?"

• "Nah. I think you worry plenty for the both of us"

• "I just can't believe you're actually here. I thought I'd never see you again..." Benji continued, a bit quieter, still remembering how lonely he had felt that night when he had decided to leave, convinced that nobody really cared about him.

• "How could you come to think something so redonkulous? Like I was going to let my favorite dog in the world behind!" Bolt smiled again, reassuringly. Warmly. Supportively. Beautifully. As he always did. This time, Benji managed a faint smile back.

Now he knew without a doubt that Mittens had been lying all the time. Bolt really did care about him. He never found Benji awkward or weird, he never wanted to back out or be alone. It was all made up baloney by a jealous feline. All the while, Bolt really did care; or like him; or _love_him even! Or at the very least, viewed him as an irreplaceable friend. Whatever it was, it now seemed as real and undeniable as the touch of the Shepherd's fur under his paws.

However, Benji's smile quickly disappeared when he suddenly remembered that Bolt had been passed out just a couple of seconds ago and his worry instantly returned to him.

Yes, they were finally together again. But at what cost?

Leaving their embrace momentary to fall back on his hunches, he finally took the time to fully inspect Bolt. His fur was so dirty he looked more like a grey dog than a white, with his hips and belly smeared with various kind of mud and dirt.

On top of that, he looked like he hadn't gotten a moment of rest for a couple of days at least, and somebody had wrapped bandages around his left forearm, custody of that veterinary girl from before, Benji guessed. The white dressings were already spotted by dried blood. An injury from the break-in no doubt. That sight alone made his heart-rate quadruple in speed.

Although Bolt was wearing his typical comforting smile as he looked at him, he was visibly hurt. Besides, Benji knew from experience that Bolt had a tendency to ignore his own well-being in favor for others. He probably just acted calm to calm _him_down!

Suddenly, he lied eyes on a little line of red blood trickling down from one of his bandages. It wasn't dry blood either. Starkly red against that white fur, it came straight from his wounds.

"Bolt! You're BLEEDING!"

"I am?" Bolt looked down and was surprised to see a thin red line making its way down his left forearm. He was even more surprised to see that he had bandages wrapped around his forearm to begin with. He didn't remember getting that. Come to think of it, he barely remembered how he got those wounds to begin with. The entire rescue was just one big blur...

"I suppose that's a bad thing..." the hero mumbled while investigated the red liquid with an almost fascinated expression. It had a strange metallic scent when he sniffed on it. He wrinkled his nose at the scent. It had a weirdly eerie smell. As if it was something that should worry him more than it did.

• "It's a really bad thing!" The black dog gasped. "Here, let me take a look!" He carefully lifted Bolt's forearm with his paw, examining it closely.

Two white bindings were tightened around Bolt's arm, each one of them clotted with a fresh patch of red against the white fabric, indicating the wounds beneath. Most of it had dried up, but Benji knew enough to know that the cuts must have been somewhat deep if the veterinarian had decided it needed two bandages.

"Does it hurt when I touch your arm?" he asked warily, looking up at Bolt with big concerned eyes.

• "No" Bolt lied. It actually stung a bit when he Benji touched it, and he didn't like it when that red liquid came out of his body. But there wasn't much of it and he was sure he had plenty left inside him still. But it was apparently enough to send Benji into full-on alarm mode. Bolt was actually more worried about the latter.

"Don't worry about it, its fine" he tried. "Just some very minor lacerations..."

"It's NOT fine! What on earth happened Bolt? You're hurting, aren't you? Please, tell me what happened! You look like you've jumped through a window or something!"

• "Funny you should say that..."

• "Did you jump through a window!?"

• "Look, it was a hastily planned, poorly executed operation under suboptimal circumstances"

• "Just answer the question, Bolty" Benji demanded. He was getting more and more anxious, and his concern only grew with every offhand excuse.

• "Yes, but I had to get inside and the guards where on my tail!" Bolt defended himself. "And it was only a little window..." He offered a consoling smirk but Benji remained noticeably unconvinced.

He thought Benji would go on ranting at him, but instead, he just looked away, his black Lab-ears hanging gloomily over his head. He stayed like that, sulking. Bolt was just about to ask him what was up when he finally spoke.

"I think that... you shouldn't have come here..."

"Wh.. what do you mean!?" Bolt flew up on all fours, staring with surprise at the black dog. Benji made absolutely zero sense to him right now. He should be happy that they're together again, that he had managed to find him. But instead he was just sulking.

"You have Rhino and Mittens. You had your Jenny waiting for you..." Benji continued.

• "Penny"

• "No matter! The point is that you have people who cares about you, who relies on you and wants to see you again!"

• "So what?"

• "So, I don't have anyone outside who cares about me! You shouldn't abandon your friends, and get lacerated and get yourself locked up in a dog pound for my sake! I'm not worth it!"

• "Listen, Benji. I..."

• "Nobody out there is going to miss me, Bolt! But people will miss you! And now you're stuck with me! Now you're locked up too! Alone, separated from everyone who cares about you, doomed to stay in this rotten prison forever!" he barked.

"Sure, I want to be with you. But I'd rather know you're happy and free out there then locked up in this stinking pound with me..." he continued, looking at Bolt with sad eyes.

"It doesn't make sense for you to sacrifice your future when you have people who miss you, and I don't have anyone like that..."

• "Just pipe it and listen for a second, okay?" Bolt ordered, his expression, although still friendly, told Benji know what whatever he was about to say was important.

• "You're wrong Benji. _I_would miss you. We're a team, you and me. We're supposed to stick together"

Bolt dropped a supportive paw on Benji's shoulder, looking directly into his chocolate-brown eyes.

"I may not know a lot about the world, but I know that you never leave friends behind. And you are my friend, Benji. Whatever happens, you're with me now, got it?"

• "But your friends? Rhino? Mittens...?"

• "I know all about Mittens" Bolt said, assuming a more serious tone.

"Rhino told me all about her, about her lies and schemes and how she tricked you. Tricked both of us! I should never have trusted her. Maybe cats really are evil after all..."

• "I don't know about all cats, but she was kind of a jerk"

• "I suppose..."

• "I know she made up all that dogcrap about you not liking me. I just wish I had had a chance to tell you before getting my stupid self captured... "

• "Well I know now..." Bolt sighed. His heart sank about when he thought about the alley cat he used to be so fond of. He still couldn't believe that his friend, the first friend he ever made and the one he used to trust with everything, could lie to him like that. It just didn't make any sense. And he wish he knew why she did it.

Maybe they weren't really friends. Maybe she had just pretended all this time.

Maybe she wanted to hurt him after all that he had done to her before... hanging her off that bridge, dragging her across the country. Bolt would understand that. That made sense. There were even times when he would have felt that he deserved it. But targeting Benji like that? That part made no sense to him whatsoever.

But yet, the thing that really made his heart ache was the knowledge that he would never see Mittens again. Or Rhino for that matter. Even if he managed to escape this plan, he wouldn't know where to find him. And unless they could figure out a way out of this evil place, he would never see Penny again either.

He shook his head to clear himself of such thoughts. These places had to be escapable somehow. Every prison had a weak-point, every security system has a flaw. Every force field could be penetrated by destroying the power source. He just needed to find a way this place and make sure that Benji doesn't give up hope.

Of course, Mittens betrayal wasn't the only thing that had made the superdog want to run for miles and infiltrate well-guarded dog pounds to locate his friend. Getting the truth to Benji was important but that only reason he had been so keen to reunite. And Benji deserved to hear the truth about how Bolt felt about him. A truth he just recently found out himself.

"There's another reason I wanted to find you Benji. " Bolt looked up at Benji, ready to tell him something very important.

• "How ya mean?" Benji looked back at him with curiously.

• "I couldn't let you believe you don't matter to me. And not just the things that Mittens said. The other stuff too. I needed you to know the truth about us..."

• "And what's the truth about us?" Benji asked interestedly, looking like he expected to hear something in particular.

Bolt suddenly found himself feeling a little bit discombobulated. He could feel blood rushing to his white cheeks. Why was he feeling so odd of all a sudden? That certainly wasn't like him.

• "The truth is that you're...huh"

He trailed off a bit.

"...Vital to me".

• "Vital?" Benji crooked a black brow.

• "Very vital" Bolt stammered back, before swiftly looking away, staring down at his paws.

_ _I can't believe this... Benji thought to himself as he looked at the German Shepherd who seemed positively nervous. Nervous! He never thought that Bolt was even capable of being nervous.

But there he was staring at his pawn, with a slight indication of blush hidden behind the white fur of his cheeks. Benji decided that it was probably the most adorable thing he had ever seen.

• "You're vital to me too..." he finally replied when it became clear the shepherd wasn't going to elaborate. "Very vital..."

• "Thanks..." Bolt looked up, smiled, and then promptly returned to observing his front paws.

Not sure on how to continue, Benji looked away as well. 'Vital' he thought to himself. He would have preferred to use a different word. Something stronger and infinitely more suitable, something that fully explained how he had come to feel for the beautiful white Shepherd in the cage next to him.

Apparently, smooching and exchanging saliva was no biggie, but simply confessing how they felt for each other was too difficult for them both - and it was dumb and silly and Benji knew it.

He looked back at Bolt who was still staring awkwardly at his paws, still marveled by the sight of that undefeatable hero seemingly discombobulated by something so silly. So for once, he decided to take action himself.

• "You know..." he started.

Bolt instantly looked up at him, his left ear hanging hesitantly while his right was all perked up. It didn't make it easier that the white dog always managed to be so darn adorable.

"I suppose I should have told you this before... but you know, I wasn't even sure you know what _it_is" Benji took a deep breath, reading himself what he had to say.

"What I'm trying to say is that..."

• "That you're in love with me?"

• "WHAT?" Now it was Benji's turn to be discombobulated.

• "Well, it's been quite obvious. I've always had that suspicion"

• "All this time! You knew all along? Why couldn't you just tell me?"

• "Well..." Bolt scraped the floor a bit with his paw. "...I was hoping you'd say it first. A lot of this stuff is still really new to me, you know..."

Benji could see some of that loveable, endearing red blush instantly returned to the white dog's cheeks and he promptly resumed his paw-staring routine.

Besides..." Bolt added after a while. "We did kiss a bit that one time..."

• "Yes, but I thought it was just something you did because it felt good" Benji answered. "I never thought you even knew that that meant"

Benji stopped, pondering on how to continue in the most sensitive way possible...

"I figured since you never really got to have a normal dog life, that you wouldn't really... you know..."

• "...Know what love is?" Bolt looked up.

• "Err, yeah. Something like that"

• "I might have had a screwed up childhood, but I know what love is"

• "I didn't mean to say that..."

• "Besides" Bolt continued. "I too occasionally find it difficult to properly articulate my feelings. I'm not immune to having feelings. I get nervous too sometimes..."

• "Yeah and I try to remember that" Benji answered, not wanting to sound disrespectful.

It wasn't his intention to make it sound like Bolt doesn't go through the exact same feelings of doubt and love that he does, but at the same time, he just never imagined that those feelings and thoughts even occurred to him. He always seemed so happy-go-lucky and casual about cuddling and smooching. He must be even better at hiding them than he was!

• "I just don't want people to think of me as some sort of unadjusted weirdo you know? Who doesn't know what love is... Who doesn't know what food is..." Bolt continued, walking back and forth in his cage as he spoke.

• "Well, do you know what food is?"

• "Of course I do! It's the antidote that makes your belly aches go away!"

• "Yeah, close enough I guess" Benji replied. "But hey, you're not a weirdo okay? So what if you're perception of reality is a tad skewed? I mean, we're all crazy in our own ways. Some more than others, yes, but I like that about you! Makes you... unique"

Bolt just stopped and sighed. Leaning against the bars, he looked sad, his white ears hanging.

Benji decided to do something about it.

Suddenly, his white ears flew up in surprise as he found the Lab sticking his nose through the bars and pressing his soft muzzle against his. For a moment, the damp room and bars around him disappeared to be replaced by the warmth, the taste, the explosive sensation of their two muzzles interlocking. Their tongues met, mingled and danced as they had done only once before, and their respective tails wagged happily in union.

It was so soft, so warm, so weird and wet that it took Bolt completely off-guard. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the moment, however odd and strange it was, pressing his white muzzle back against Benji's.

"Ehem!" someone in the room said.

The two canines, now pulled back to planet Earth at the sound of the familiar voice, looked up and saw the cat sitting patiently outside the cage. She looked like she'd been there a while. The tip of her tail swayed and tapped the floor, which could be interpreted as impatience.

"So, are you two poodles done eating each other's muzzles? Cause I can just leave and come back later... assuming, of course, I don't catch you guys a second time!"

"Really? Again!?" Benji flew up and stared at the cat in disbelief.

"Mittens!?" Bolt gasped. "What are you doing here?"

• "I'm busting you out, man!"

• "But but... how did you find us?"

• "Oh there was only one shelter around and we hitched a ride to get here. Easy peasy"

She gave a proud smirk. The kind of smirk only a feline could pull off.

She was actually more than proud to find herself on the other side of the bars this time around, ready to rescue Bolt rather than being rescued. Playing the hero made her feel more delighted than she had thought it would.

"I'm sorry about the lousy timing but we don't have a lot of time" she continued, whispering so as not to alert any of the caretakers she had passed on her way in.

• "You'll have a lot more than that to be sorry for when I get out of here! You lying, two-faced, Brooklyn-accented little hairball!" Benji got up all fours, growling wrathfully, remembering clearly all the injustices and hardship she had put him through.

"Listen, Benji. I'm really, really sorry, I truly am!" She looked down at the ground in shame, pondering on how to continue. Apologizes had never been her strong suit.

"That wasn't exactly a first-class-act, what I pulled back there. And I get that you probably want to tear me to fuzzy pieces right now but please... don't make me regret coming all this way to rescue you, alright?

Benji's fur spiked up. "You have some nerve asking me to make promises after what you did to me! If I wasn't locked up here I'd show you something to be sorry for!"

"Ease it, Benji. She's here to help" Bolt horned in, nudging his friend slightly, trying to get him to calm down.

It was to no avail.

"I don't care if she's here to hand me the Canine Nobel Prize dipped in peanut butter, when I get out of here I'm gonna use that wretched cat as a scratching post!"

"Hey dog-breath!" Mittens retorted. "I came all this way to rescue both of you. The least I could get is a thank you!"

She had walked into the room with a lot of guilt, but now her patience was draining quickly. She wasn't going to put with an attitude from a shaggy mutt she had traveled through rain and mud to save.

• "I owe you no such thing, you deceiving, stinking, yarn-chasing little psychopath!" Benji growled back, now even angrier, his hackles raised.

• "I apologized. Now you apologize for being a jerk! And tone down the cat insults while you're add it, you speciesist"

• "No apology can ever make up for what you did!"

• "Enough! Both of you!" Bolt barked, stomping the ground for added emphasis. "We'll all talk about this later. And nobody's using anyone as a scratching post!" He gave the other dog a furrowed stare who, in turn, grudgingly stopped his snarling.

"Fine..." he muttered. "But I do it for you Bolt, not for her"

"Mittens..." Bolt turned back to the cat. "Remember the latch I freed you with last time? I can't see it from here, but there's gotta be something like that here too! Hurry! Time is of the essence!"

Mittens looked up and got to her hind legs searching for such a thing. "Um... Bolt... I think these people learned from that night" She said as she saw a thick padlock holding the cage door shut.

• "What is it?" Bolt pushed his big head against the bars, trying to get a view of what Mittens had found.

• "It's a frickin padlock on this thing. I'm not getting it opened without a key, or at the very least some laser vision"

• "This is no time for silly witticisms!"

• "Why on earth would they put a padlock on a dog pen?" Benji asked, confused. The animals here must have been really keen on escaping if they feel they have to secure the pens with padlocks. Or did they really think that a simple flap would have been too easy to figure out for a bunch of scruffy strays?

Mittens rubbed her white chin with a paw, inspecting the latch. "It seems like the main flap is broken and they used the lock as some sort of reserve. Probably just as an improvising until they get it fixed"

• "Well, I'm not gonna wait for them to do that. You have to break it" Benji said. Bolt nodded concurringly.

• "Break it? Have you seen the size of this thing!? I'd have as much luck trying to break into a Halliburton case. But wait..."

Mittens pointed at Benji's cage. "Yours don't seem to have any padlock"

• "What!? Wait are you waiting for then? Bust me out!"

Mittens looked up at the big black mutt who just a couple of seconds ago had threatened to use her as a scratching post.

"You're not gonna make me regret this, are you?" she asked anxiously. "I don't wanna give you the chance to go all Cujo on me just because I did the right thing for once"

• "I promise I won't lay a paw on you! You have my word as a dog!" Benji looked at her pleadingly. He meant every word.

"Fine. Here goes nothing..."

Ignoring every instinct in her cat brain, going against every impulse in her feline body, Mittens reached for the latch on Benji's cage, ready to free him. It took all her willpower to override all those feline instincts telling her that what she was about to do was a distinctively bad idea, but she decided do it anyway. Her white mittens reached the handle and she pulled as hard as she could. The handle started sliding down slowly.

"Boy, this thing is stuck on tight" she commented while pulling that metal flap, using every muscle in her scanty body.

• "Well, keep pulling, you gotta get me out!"

• "Ngghh, I'm trying! I only weigh five pounds!" The handle moved slowly, its metal squealing as it slid downwards. It was music to Benji's ears. Soon he'd be free. Then they'll figure out a way to free Bolt as well. He'd bite the damn thing off if he had too! And after that, they'd be out of this prison forever!

"Great job Mittens, you almost got it!" Bolt jubilated. Both he and Benji wagged excitedly.

But just as Mittens was about to get it all the way down, her black, scratched ears picked up the faint creaking of a doorknob turning. All animals' eyes flew to the door at the end of the hall which was slowly beginning to open.

"Mitten! Someone's coming!" Bolt whispered. "You gotta hide, right now!"

• "Wait! What about me!" Benji woofed.

• "Sorry dude! No time!" Jumping off the cage, Mittens looked around frantically for somewhere to hide. Finding now obvious hiding spot, her eyes fell upon an open cage on the opposite row.

She dashed towards it, her black, agile body making an impressive leap into the barred confine. She smashing the door shut just as the other door opened down the hallway. Light instantly flowed into the dark room, making her eyes squint. Her heart hammered in her chest. She was very scared.

She looked to the end of the pens where a tall, bearded man was now standing. The caretaker, who was wearing a green coverall, holding a cup of coffee in his hand, and looking a lot like a lumberjack to Mittens, strolled towards her cage with a perplexed expression on his big face. His black shoes squeaked terrifyingly as he made his way across the floor towards the frightened kitty.

"Just stay cool" Benji hushed from the other side. "Don't do anything stupid and we'll be okay. No sudden movements! And do not try to claw him!"

Mittens would have rolled her eyes at the stupid advice if she wasn't so busy hyperventilating. How stupid did this pooch think she was?

But then she heard Bolt. "Don't worry, Mittens. It'll be fine" he whispered from across the pens, his voice calming and comforting. She found herself relaxing a bit, breathing slower while her little panicked heart pacing down a tad. If Bolt said it was going to be fine, then she will be fine.

The man walked up to her cage. Ignoring the two other animals, the bearded man hunched down in front of Mitten's cage, scratching his beard and studying her with a puzzled expression.

"Hey Larry" he suddenly called out, his great voice roaring like a particularly load thunderstorm.

"Yeah?" an annoyed voice came back from the corridor outside.

• "Why do we have a black tuxedo feline in the canine section?"

• "Dammit I don't know. That new intern must have put it there by mistake. He's useless!" the man outside shouted back.

"Odd" The caretaker took a closer look at Mittens, staring at her with eyes that appeared almost sad. "Just hurry up to get adopted while we're still in business, little buddy... " he reached in to pet her but she recoiled.

"Huh..." The man just shrugged. Then he got up and left just as he had entered, leaving the animals to collectively sigh in relief as he closed the door behind him.

Mittens stayed in the little pen until she could no longer here those screeching shoes against the floor.

• "Oh thanks heavens, I never thought that brute would drag me out of there and throw me outside or something" she sighed before pushed gently on the cage door to open it.

Then pushed again.

And again. This time a little harder.

The barred steel door wouldn't budge.

"No...no...no... this can't be happening!" Mittens screamed while attacking the barred door, scratching, clawing and pushing it with no effect.

"Don't tell me you just locked yourself in there?" Benji asked. Both he Bolt looked at her from the other side with concerned eyes.

• "No I just really like it in here. What does it freaking look like? Man, I picked the wrong day to try to be heroic. This is what I get for suddenly growing a conscience!"

She reached out, trying desperately to reach the little hatch that locked it in place, but with the bars in the way, she just couldn't reach it. She realized the hatch must have slid neatly into place the second she closed the door and now she appeared just as trapped as the dogs she had set out to rescue. How could she had been so stupid!

"What are you waiting for, guys? Throw me something I can use!"

• "All we got is this dry brown stuff" Bolt pointed towards the food in his bowl

• "If we had something to use, we would have used it already!" Benji shouted from the other side.

• "Well there has to be some way! I am not doing this again! You hearing me? I'm not gonna rot in this dogforsaken place!"

• "Mittens, calm down!" Bolt said. "Well figure out. And that thing that prison guard said about getting adopted, what did he mean?"

• "Firstly, they're not prison guards, they're caretakers. Although they might as well be. Secondly, haven't you dogs figured it out yet? Why do you think all the cages in here are empty Wags?" She gestured to the long row of empty pens, all of them completely void of any occupants.

"It's not because they were kind enough to just let all those strays go. They're closing down this hellhole. Which means that all the poor residents of these here cages that don't get adopted in time earn a one-way ticket to the Big Farm Upstate"

"That doesn't sound so bad..." Bolt stared confusedly at the cat.

• "Oh sorry, I forgot that I was talking to the most gullible canine on the planet. It's a euphemism! I mean that would euthanize every single one of them. Kill them! Which is probably what they're planning to do with us as well if we outstay our welcome"

• "We don't know that yet" Benji quickly barked in response, not wanting Mittens rant to upset Bolt. He turned to the shepherd, assuming a softer voice as he explained in the most comprehensible but nonetheless honest way he could...

"It's true that If they can't find spots in other places like this, and no humans show up to adopt them, that's sometimes what they do." He said softly, looking at Bolt who seemed absolutely shocked.

"But we don't know that's what they gonna do to us, even if this place IS closing down, which we don't know for sure either! So there's really point in getting everyone worried!" he continued, glancing back at Mittens who just rolled her eyes before laying to rest in her cage.

"Tell yourself whatever you need to, pooch. But you better practice that dog face if you wanna get out of here. At least you two cuties might actually have a shot being adopted unlike the rest of us" she sighed.

As Mittens and Benji argued, Bolt just sat there, staring into nothingness with wide open eyes, unable to even comprehend what they were saying. The realization that humans could be so cruel had absolutely stocked him, and a part of him just couldn't believe what Mittens and Benji said was true. It just didn't make any sense, to him.

His brush with reality had taught him that the evils he used to fight every day during his time as a superdog just didn't exist in reality. But he couldn't imagine anything more evil than this. Capture him, yes. Trick him, yes. But actually killing him and his friends?

He simply couldn't believe that the species that built everything he had seen on his journey so far, and giving him so much delicious antidotes just for doing his famed "Dogface", would actually kill dogs like himself. Besides, Penny, the kindest, most lovable, most precious thing in the whole universe, was a human. So were all persons. And persons needed to be protected.

Perhaps there was simply good persons and bad ones. The guards who had captured him before would have had every opportunity to kill him. Instead they patched him up and put him in here. They had even put some of that dry, admittedly gross-looking antidote in the bowl on his cage for him to eat. They couldn't be all bad.

Whatever they were doing, they seemed to be doing it because they felt that they had to, because they believed it served some sort of purpose. If only they would know that they are just making things worse by keeping them locked up here.

"We should try to communicate with them" Bolt finally said, to Mittens' and Benji's shared surprise.

"Oh, that's a good one, Fido" Mittens sneered. "They're too dumb to understand us. Believe me, I've tried. "

• "I will admit they seem primitive, but surely a species that has built all this should be capable of some sort of inter-species communication?"

• "I don't know what _'inter-species'_means" Benji said. "But I'm afraid the cat is right. We can understand them but they can never understand us"

• "Then I'll destroy them all before they even get a chance to touch us. I'll destroy anyone and anything that comes for you. It'll kill them all if I have to" Bolt suddenly growled.

Bolt started pacing back and forth in his narrow pen, lips curled and nose wrinkled angrily, his long tail swaying back and forth behind him. If he couldn't reason with the humans, he would have no choice but to hurt them. He had done it before. Of course then it wasn't real. But he had learnt a fair bit of moves and tricks, and more importantly, to never give up. He would never let anything happen to his friends. They were like persons to him.

"I'll do whatever I can, whoever hard I can. I will never rest, I will never give up - not until we're all safe away from this place." He snarled.

"...I will never let anything happen to you" he stopped and turned to Benji who nuzzled him softly. The two shared a moment, and Bolt calmed down a bit.

"Well since we're all gonna die here, I might as well say it" Mittens suddenly said as the two dogs nuzzled.

"That there is the reason I did what I did. Because I wish that, for just once in my life, someone would at least pretend to care about me that much"

• "I do care about you Mittens" Bolt promised. "And when I said I'll protect us all, that includes you"

• "But you'll never care about me the way I want you too. And whatever. I don't care anymore. Just let me know if I should turn around or something in case you were wanting to smack some more"

• "So that's why you did it? Because you thought Benji would come take me away?"

• "He already has, hasn't he?" Mittens replied, licking her paw casually. "And I'm not expecting sympathy or forgiveness after the shit I tried to pull before. But I'm not gonna pretend I don't see what's going on either" she said.

"It's like you said Benji... who could love some scrawny, street-cat, right?

• "You know that's not what I meant" Benji quickly replied. He almost felt a shadow of regret. After all, if he hadn't attacked Mittens that night, they wouldn't be in this mess now.

• "It doesn't matter. You were right. He's all yours, buddy" Mittens replied, still licking his paw casually. It was clear she tried to seem indifferent, but both Bolt and Benji could sense that she was less than alright.

Bolt just stared at his two friends. He had no idea what was going on. What where they talking about exactly? They were talking about him, that much he knew. Him and whatever he had going on with Benji, which apparently was the reason Mittens had lied to him back when that animal control vehicle had captured Benji.

It was then it struck him like a bolt from clear sky. Mittens loved him! It never occurred to him that it could even be a possibility. Not only was she a cat, but they had had so many arguments, so made fights. He had done so many mean things to her that he now regretted. But now a couple of things he had noticed her doing lately, before they got separated back in Missouri, starting to make more sense.

All the time she had spent with him - playing, explaining things, teaching him how to be a dog. And how she insisted on following him from state to state. Bolt had explained clearly to her the same night he had rescued her from that shelter that she was free to go. That she wasn't a captive no longer, and that she could leave if she wanted to. She had never left. Now he knew why.

He tried to think of something to say to Mittens who was sitting in her cage, licking her paw. But whatever he could think of saying seemed odd and inadequate. And before he had the chance to say anything, Benji spoke up.

"Well, since we're sharing secrets." He started, glancing at Bolt and then Mittens "I suppose I should admit that, to some strange extent, Mittens was actually sort of right."

Benji turned to Bolt, one eye brow raised and his left ear hanging indecisively.

"I lied about wanting to find my family. I don't give a flying shit about those a-holes. Hell, they were the ones that put me in one of these bloody places to begin with. Only reason I'd ever want to see anyone of them again is so I could throw their asses into one of these cages myself"

Although he meant every word, actually saying them hurt. Not the sharing the truth part. In fact, that made him feel revealed. But the talking about those disgusting, lying, untrustworthy humans he used to call family-part really did.

What really hurt him was that those weren't all painful memories. There were happy memories too from his time in their house. He remembered warmth, pets, good food. And most of all, he remembered a little boy roughly half his size, who would play with him, throw him sticks, let him lick his fingers under the table, run his heads through his fur. He wanted to tear them all a new one... except that kid.

"That's okay Benji. " Bolt said in the most comforting tone he could manage. "Penny will adopt you all of us, and we can all hang out together in her house, and she can be a person to all of us"

Benji smiled a bit. "I wish I could believe that, buddy. But wherever you go, I'll go"

"And what happens when it turns out that Penny character isn't up for adopting a cat, a hamster and a stray dog just like that?" Mittens interjected from her corner.

"The rest of us will end up right back in a pound like this one. If we ever get out of here to begin with, that is" she muttered between her paw licks.

• "I told you Mittens, Penny isn't like that. She'll take care of all of us. All of us. That means you too, Mittens"

"Whatever you say, Wags" Mittens lied down in the dust of her cage, looking through the dirty window in the roof at the setting sun.

"Believe me or not Benji, but we're in the same boat, you and I" she muttered. "...Two hopeless, lovesick critters who should have known better than following this pooch across the country, and are now soon to be taken to The Farm Upstate"

"Well you're wrong Mittens. There will be no killing farms and dog pounds" Bolt woofed, stomping the ground again. If only Mittens could have met his person, she would regret saying these things. She would see how lovely she is.

"I hate to say it, Bolt. But Mittens might be right." Benji said. "Humans can't be trusted. I mean, how do you know her name is even Penny? How do you know it's not just the name of her character in that stupid show?"

"Her name IS Penny and she would never lie to me. And I'm gonna make sure you guys come with me if I so have to drag you along. She loves me. And she'll love you too. You don't know her, but you'll see!" he actually growled that last part.

• "But what if she never loved you?" Benji asked.

No response came from Bolt's cage.

"Bolt please, I was just..." Benji tried, realizing that he had gone too far. He reached out a paw through the bars, but Bolt just moved away. He lied down in his cage, turning his back to Benji.

"You don't know her..." he mumbled quietly. "None of you do..."

Benji couldn't think of anything else to say so he just lied down in his own cage, staring longingly at the white shape of the Shepherd laying in the cage next to him. Benji was about to try to reach out again, but decided there was no point. Bolt didn't look like he wanted any contact.

He realized that this would be the first night he and Bolt would spend together without cuddling up next to each other since the day they met. But maybe things would get better tomorrow. They had to.

- Rhino -

The wind was blowing cold and Rhino was shuttering so hard he thought his teeth would fall out. He had been staring fixedly, eagerly down the road where he expected his hero to show up, first with burning anticipation and then with desperate hope. And now he was beginning to think Bolt would never come. But where could he be? Could he have taken the wrong shelter? Mittens did say that there were many of these, so called, "dog pounds" around. But then again, Bolt would never_make such a mistake. He never made _any mistakes!

But where was Mittens? That was the question that confounded Rhino the most. She was only supposed to do some reconnaissance, wasn't she? She had been there for hours! Maybe days! Rhino wasn't sure. His sense of time wasn't always very accurate, especially when he was waiting impatiently.

What if the unthinkable had happened? Which if Mittens herself had been captured? The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Those henchmen were obviously organized and well-trained. They had rolled up and captured Benji like it was nothing. They sure as heck weren't messing around if they dared to capture one of Bolt's closest allies.

The hamster even started feeling a bit bad for letting Mittens walk right into the belly of the beast all on her own. It was straight out irresponsible, knowing she didn't have any superskills.

He had promised to wait for Bolt. But now it appeared that the cat needed extraction. And for now, Rhino was her only hope. He knew what he had to do. He had to go rescue Mittens, and probably Benji while he was at it. He could always lie and said that Mittens did all the rescuing if the cat insisted. But that would be a later issue. For now, there was a cat in there that needed rescue.

"Don't send a cat to do a hamster's job" he mumbled to himself as he started to wobble down the hill towards the building, walking briskly with small, determined steps.