Chapter 2: Hot Pursuit

Diving at a steep angle got Penny and Bolt on the ground in seconds. As soon as the kick-scooter touched the asphalt, Penny raced away through traffic followed closely by Bolt, using his super speed, to chase after Calico's henchmen.

"Got to hurry before those guys give me the slip!" The white dog thought as he picked up his pace and raced between two speeding cars leaving Penny behind.

The kick-scooter just wasn't as fast as Bolt but she pushed the little vehicle as fast as it would go and tried to keep Bolt in view as they raced through gradually thickening traffic. It was peak traffic time which made wending her way through more and more difficult. She made the decision to slide onto the sidewalk to see if that would help her catch up to Bolt who was already a block ahead of her.

"Oh, no you won't Bolt… I'm not gonna let you have all the fun this time!" Penny growled to herself. Suddenly she heard an explosion behind her, though racing at breakneck speed; she dared to look behind her. She groaned when she realized Calico's robot was still coming after her and Bolt.

The thing had jumped from the broken window they had used to escape and had used some kind of thrusters in its feet to land safely to the ground. Now the robot was charging after her, using his heavy artillery to make a pathway for itself through the traffic. The air filled with crashing cars and screams of frightened and injured people.

"Just great, now I've got to stop it before it hurts anyone else as well as get a hold of Bolt and I," she muttered angrily. "Hope Bolt can stay on Calico's tail while I take care of this robot… permanently." She veered left suddenly, nearly running over an old lady who was walking down the sidewalk.

As Penny prepared to engage the robot, Bolt was getting closer to the vans carrying Calico's men. They were maintaining the same formation, apparently unaware they were being followed. Two black and green helicopters with Calico's insignia had joined the convoy.

"This mission was piece of cake… not only did we get the item the boss wanted, but we also got rid of that super mutt and that bratty girl too." One of the henchmen, riding in one of the vans, chortled.

"Yeah… easiest job I've ever had…" his companion, who was driving, began to say before seeing something in his rear view mirror. "What the… I don't believe it! That mutt is alive and on our tail," he shouted angrily.

"You got to be joking…" the other henchman said in disbelief as he turned and used the side mirror to check their rear. He saw the white dog was nearly on top of them. Grabbing his radio he contacted his team leader in the van in front of theirs.

"Sir, that mutt's alive and is just catching up to us!"

The team leader snarled, "What?" He flicked on one of the monitors in the van he was riding in. A camera mounted on the following van sprang to life and showed him the dog nearly closing with his convoy.

Cursing under his breath, he reached for his control console and pressed a couple of buttons. On another monitor, he saw his robot charging down the street and in front of it was Penny on her kick-scooter. Snarling angrily, he was furious both his enemies were still alive.

"Can't let that mutt or the girl get near us… We've got to be at the airport in less than twenty minutes." he muttered to himself. Coming to a decision he contacted his aerial support.

"This is team leader to aerial one. Take out that white dog before he reaches us!" He ordered. Receiving an acknowledgment, the leader then contacted the pair of motorcycles following and gave them orders to engage the enemy. Finished, he then punched in new orders for his robot. "Now I'll have Felinus Assassinus X-13 kill the girl as painfully as possible."

Numbers 14 and 15, the motorcycle riders, turned to face the closing Bolt. Above the helicopters dropped lower to launch two more motorcyclists. The four closed in on Bolt, activating their electronic claws. They were going to fry the dog and put an end to his meddling.

"So you want to play, huh?! Very well, I'll play with you…" Bolt thought as he grinned wickedly, allowing the bikes to get very close then ducked to the side suddenly. The four motorcycles had been going so fast they couldn't change speed quick enough and plowed violently into each other. The bikes exploded, sending bodies and parts flying everywhere. Two of the bodies landed on a nearby newsstand, collapsing it under their weight while the other two cyclists ended up in a passing garbage truck.

"Four down, many more to go! You aren't getting away from me!" Bolt said to himself as he returned to chasing the vans again.

Meanwhile somewhere behind him, Penny had entered a shopping centre parking lot. She needed to get rid of this robot but didn't want anymore innocent civilians to be harmed. She needed Bolt's help. Keeping just ahead of the lumbering robot that fortunately was fixated on her though a lot of cars were damaged, as she flitted swiftly around and through them.

Penny tapped on a little button on the small control panel of the kick-scooter. A small screen popped up. On it a dot was moving rapidly, this was Bolt and, she realized with relief, he was just a few blocks from her. Changing direction, she quickly headed on a parallel course that would, hopefully, carry her ahead of the vans Bolt was chasing. She had a plan.

The bullets that had been dogging her heels had stopped, she realized. Looking behind her quickly, she saw the robot changing armaments. A grenade shot toward her and she had seconds to avoid it. An empty warehouse came up on her left side and she ducked swiftly into the barely hanging doors. They splintered as her kick-scooter blasted through, a different blast giving her more momentum as the grenade struck a lamp post where she'd been and the concussion wave pushed her scooter half way across the warehouse floor.

She nearly loss control of her transport but held on grimly until she had it firmly back under her control and hurried the rest of the distance toward a large, dirty display window. Her scanner told her going through it would bring her at the head of the chase. Behind her there was an explosion, the robot was making a new door through the warehouse as he pursued her.

"That's right… keep on following me like a good little robot!" Penny muttered as she focused on getting to Bolt as fast as she could.

Her partner, Bolt, had nearly caught the rear van of the convoy, but just as he was within ten feet, the rear door slammed open revealing two henchmen pointing guns at him. They started firing, but thanks to his super speed, Bolt was able to evade the deadly spray of bullets.

Using his laser eyes, he blew the weapons apart making them yell. Distracted they couldn't stop him from leaping into the back of the van where he plowed into the henchmen, knocking them out cold. A quick look around, showed him the briefcase wasn't in this vehicle. Before jumping back out to the street, Bolt heard the driver of the van yell to his unconscious colleagues asking if they had gotten the dog.

"Guys, did you get him?" He bellowed as he kept his eyes on the road. "Because if you didn't, then you better do it fast, we've got ten minutes left to catch our plane."

"The airport! So that's where they're heading… I have to tell Penny!" Bolt realized then he remembered something else… he'd left her behind. "Oh, man… I knew I'd forgotten something important." He growled to himself.

He prepared to jump out of the van when he heard an explosion just near where they were passing. Staring out the rear of the van, he saw Penny burst through a building followed moment later by a robot who missed her and hit a car some lengths behind the speeding van.

"Penny!" He cried, jumping from the van at a run to return to Penny's side. He had to stop that robot before it managed to hurt or kill her.

Penny spotted Bolt charging toward. She could see he had something in mind so she speeded up to pass him and get out of the target area of the robot.

Once his partner was out of danger, Bolt concentrated and fired his laser eyes at the asphalt just ahead of the robot melting it into gooey tar. The robot didn't note the change in the road surface and kept coming headlong in the sticky mess. It was brought to a halt instantly causing it to fall face first… hard… to the street. This apparently stunned the robot enough to make it suspend its attack while it tried to extricate itself.

Now that the robot was out of the picture temporarily, Penny focused on going after the vans once more. Unfortunately, taking out the robot had allowed their enemy to get a lot of distance on them.

The helicopters following the vans reported the pursuit had broken off which pleased the van drivers who speeded up to make their flight on time.

Penny wasn't to be deterred. She continued to race after the rapidly vanishing vans. Bolt had managed to catch up and they chased the vans together. A helicopter pilot reported their pursuers were back. The team leader ordered his convoy to head for the freeway and had the choppers prevent their enemies from following and finding out where they were going.

Once the vans and motorcycles reached the freeway, they picked up speed and pulled away from Penny and Bolt. The choppers paused behind the convoy and blasted the freeway entrances before racing to catch up with their fellows. Many drivers had the misfortune of being in the way and were turned into fireballs by the missiles from the choppers.

Penny nearly ran into the torn up street, but Bolt had seen what the choppers had done and cut across her path, warning her off. She screeched to a halt just short of the blasted path and huffed angrily as she watched her enemies get further and further away.

Bolt had rejoined her, but she hadn't noticed his presence yet. She'd dropped her backpack beside her. Her shoulders slumped and tears hovered in her eyes at the thought of losing her one possible link to finding her father.

She had no idea where they were headed and it might be a long time before she was able to get a lead on Calico's location.

Bolt could see Penny was very upset and guess the reason for it. He needed to tell her he knew where the vans were going and have them get moving before they boarded their plane.

Laying to one side of the blasted area was a road sign. It looked like a herd of elephants had danced on top of it but it still could be read. He turned his head and barked urgently at Penny to get her attention.

Frowning, Penny stared at him confused until he patted the sign with his paw. She came to his side and read, "Airport...next exit." She looked at Bolt. "Their going to the airport, is that what you're trying to tell me?" Excitement lighting her voice.

Bolt barked excitedly. Penny was relieved, "Great, now we know where they are going but now we have to find a way to get there since the road is out." She went back to her kick-scooter and picked up her backpack. Checking her GPS, she discovered a route that would get her to the airport quicker. She put away her GPS and took out an object that looked like a red leash.

"Hey, Bolt, feel like a little run?" She asked with a smile, holding out the leash. Bolt barked happily and came to take the leash in his mouth.

She had mounted her kick-scooter, put her backpack over her shoulders and gripped the handlebars tightly and gave the command, "Okay Bolt… zoom-zoom!

In response to her order, Bolt took off at super speed in the direction she had indicated to him. Turning away from the damaged freeway, he avoided the snarled traffic and took Penny through the park where there were less obstacles and, more importantly, less people that could be hurt.

"Hurry, Bolt! There's no time to waste!" Penny shouted.

"Don't worry, Penny! I'll get you to that airport faster than a bullet or my name ain't Bolt!" The dog thought.

He ran through the streets, zigzagging, avoiding any kind of collisions. Lucky for them the streets were mostly downhill in this part of the city and all converged to one single, main avenue, right next to the harbour.

The only problem with this route was they had to pass through the docks, where cargo was unloaded at all times of the day. This made the area very dangerous but it was the only way to reach their destination as fast as possible.

As they entered the harbour throughway, a car came flying toward them obviously thrown, nearly crushing them. It struck the side of a docked ship and blew up in a spectacular flash of flames.

Bolt and Penny were stunned. What had tossed the car? They didn't have long to wait as the robot made an appearance from around the corner of a warehouse across the road leading to the docks. It appeared to be eager to finish its mission.

"Target relocated! Obliterate!" It boomed.

"Bolt, head for the docks! I have a plan!" Penny ordered the dog.

Obeying his mistress' order, Bolt raced down the incline and toward the road leading to the docks as fast as he could. Entry to the docks proper was guarded by two security people. Ignoring them, Bolt used his laser eye vision to blast through the barrier causing the two guards to leap away to safety.

Now unimpeded, the dog raced down the lane filled with huge metal containers stacked in towering stacks. He quickly ducked between the stacks, putting distance between them and the robot. Their pursuer plowed what was left of the gate and used its x-ray sensors to try and locate the pair among the metal containers. He spotted them not far from him and began to fire its armaments, blowing containers sky high and creating chaos.

As the world roared around them, Penny looked for something that would take out the robot permanently. The maze of containers was confusing and very quickly they were lost. They spotted a van and followed it which took them to what could have been described as a square of open area surrounded by piled containers and magnetic cranes. It was a parking area.

The area was filled with cars and to one side of the square was a white building which she guessed was some kind of office for this part of the docks.

"Halt here, Bolt." Penny said, looking around then she kneeled down and whispered something into the dog's ear.

When the robot finally located them, all it saw was Penny standing next to her kick-scooter with Bolt standing beside her.

The pair wore twin smirks which said plainly, "Come and get us you hunk of junk!" Seeing only that its target was where it wanted them, the robot lumbered rapidly toward them, preparing to fire all its armaments to wipe out its target.

It never got the chance to fire a single weapon. The moment it was within firing range, Bolt used his laser-eye vision to melt the cable suspending a container in the air. Within seconds of its cable being burned through, the container came crashing down on top of the robot.

The air filled with the roar of the container hitting the robot and smashing it to the ground. There was no way the machine was coming back from that.

"There, that should do it!" Penny said with satisfaction, a mischievous smile on her face.

Unfortunately for them, physics could not be applied to that merciless robot. A couple of seconds after the container fell on the robot, an explosion occurred, sending pieces of twisted and broken metal all over the place then from the middle of the flames burst the robot. It was damaged, no doubt about that but not out like they hoped.

This time, Bolt and Penny had been able to damage it but it could still move. Its left arm looked like it was about to fall off and its chest was damaged, with fissures running across it. The head looked like it had been used for soccer practice. As for the legs, they had sustained only minor damage. Raising its right arm, it began pointing at Penny just as something started to fall on top of it. It was a liquid similar to water, but it released a vapour when it cam into contact with something. It was leaking from a white metal cylinder that said "Liquid Nitrogen". In a matter of seconds, the robot became frozen solid.

Knowing what to do next, Bolt charged the frozen robot while thinking, 'Like Arnold Schwarzenegger would say on "Terminator 2: Judgement Day", Hasta La Vista, baby!' He plowed into the robot, shattering it to bits.

The scene was almost surrealistic. The robot that had been chasing them for more than fifty blocks since they exited the building that was assaulted by Calico's henchmen was reduced to nothing more than frozen scrap metal.

Bolt shook off his head and howled, celebrating their victory over the mechanical menace that had been after them. Penny laughed, but stopped when she heard the sound of a distant plane starting its engines. There was still a job to do!

She whistled for Bolt as she jumped aboard her kick-scooter, handed Bolt the leash and said, "Let's go boy! We still have Calico's henchmen to catch!"

Bolt gave a quick bark, took the leash and quickly led her out of the dockyards and to the airport where they now had to find their target among the many planes getting ready to leave.