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A Play on Reality

A Bolt, Mittens and Rhino tale

---

Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)

Commissioned by anonymous

"Oh..." Bolt pouted, sitting by the front door, though his head did not move an inch. "It's always so sad when Penny has to go to school."

The white pup made a sad face, his pointed ears flopping to the side. He was not alone in the suburban home, where they had retired to after the latest season of his show had aired, even though there was still more work for him to do in coaching the new dog who had taken his place on the remake. Bolt still wasn't quite sure why the lankier dog had taken his place - a cross between his breed and another, a little lither and a little taller than his strong-bodied frame - but it was a relief too to take some time out and, well...just to be a dog.

The living room connected directly onto the hallway, their whole home light and airy. Although it was designed for humans, like their owner Penny and her mother, they had made it as soft and as comfortable for three pets to enjoy while they were, unfortunately, left alone most weekdays. A pink, fluffy bed lay on one end of the sofa for the cat while Bolt's kennel-shaped bed took pride of place where he could keep an eye on both Penny and the door. What could a dog say?

Old habits die hard...

"There is no home like the one you've got..."

Bolt groaned. Other things, on the other hand...

Rhino sang, turning and spinning around in his hamster ball, although it was always open so that he could come and go as he pleased. A russet-like shade of brown with a lighter underbelly, his chubbiness belayed his lack of exercise or perhaps his simple penchant for overindulging himself.

"There is no home like the one you've got," he sang louder, tapping out the beat with his tiny paws. "'Cause that home belongs to youuu."

Bolt flinched and pressed his paws to his ears, slipping back up onto his hind legs, haunches coiling under him like tight springs.

"Jeez, Rhino..." Bolt grumbled. "Do you have to sing that all the time? It's not even true though - not when we can still go off on adventures with Penny!"

Sitting still, if only for a moment, the hamster surveyed him with a characteristically serious gaze, paws pressed together. He had to strain, however, to make them reach across the span of his chubby stomach.

"Ah, Bolt," he said, taking on the tone of a sage perhaps imparting some glimmer of wisdom passed down through the ages. "Young one... The greatest adventures that one may have... They like at home!"

What show Rhino had gotten that from Bolt simply didn't know but it was enough to make the pup chuckle a little, spirits lifting even though it was already early in the day. He didn't usually cheer up completely until Penny was home again.

"Why don't you use your supersonic ball of doom," he suggested, taking Rhino's latest name for his exercise ball, "and show me your super-speed, hey?"

With a squeal, Rhino was gone, zooming off as quickly as his little legs could carry him, the ball, admittedly, but a blur. It would have hurt their necks to try to keep on turning their heads over and over again just to keep track of him, for Bolt was not alone there with the black and white cat, who went by the name of Mittens, stretched out on top of the bookshelf right where she could watch and observe everything from the vantage point of a queen. In all honesty, some nuances of alley cat street life died hard and she liked to be able to keep a wary eye out, even though she just about trusted Bolt to watch over her when she did chance to sleep and stretch out in a warm patch of sunlight.

"That's it now, you've gone and done it. Hope you're happy with what you've started here, dog."

Bolt smiled and looked up at Mittens, his ears pricked.

"I haven't started anything! You know he gets the zoomies around ten o'clock, that's how Rhino the Destroyer rolls... Literally!"

That in itself was quite true as the hamster barely even seemed to notice they were there, bumping into the coffee table and off the side of the sofa, zooming back and forth screaming and hollering about an attack, something or someone that he was set to defend them against. The titles he gave himself changed daily, however, so the others just had to go along with whatever fantasy he'd come up with on any particular day to match up to Bolt the Wonder Dog and his rag-tag crew of Mittens and Rhino. It was not a bad way to either play or live and, at the very least, his enthusiasm for pretty much everything in life lifted all of them up when they may have otherwise been feeling a bit blue.

Sighing, Bolt turned his gaze back to Mittens, the lanky feline sitting up and washing her paws meticulously. As always, she had no claws to worry about, having never grown back after her being declawed. She didn't like to talk about that.

"But what am I supposed to do until Penny comes home?"

Pitifully, he gave her his very best puppy-face, ears slipping back and down, his eyes as wide as he could possibly make them. The feline rolled her eyes and arched her back, stretching out luxuriously as dust-motes swirled and swirled in a shaft of sunlight.

"Don't look at me, kiddo," Mittens said, engaged in the act of personal grooming, which she did for many hours every day, much to Bolt's dismay. "I'm not going to throw sticks for you. I'm going to get tennis-elbow...stick-elbow...something-elbow."

"Erff..."

She was a lost cause and Bolt turned his back on her, affecting a pout even though it was one part of his acting in which he could never be truly convincing. Daring deeds, yes. Daredevil stunts, absolutely. Heartfelt moments, oh - those were his jam! But sulking had never been particularly becoming for the little white dog, his muscle strong and rounding out beneath his fur.

Hopping up on the sofa, he pawed at the remote control, though it was Rhino that scurried over and bumped it out of his reach, tapping the buttons until an episode of the show that Bolt was oddly fascinated and shocked by.

"Oh! They're finally releasing it!" He chirped, eyes wide and round. "Wowww..."

"Bolt Strikes back!" The narrator announced in a booming voice that was designed to grab the attention of the listeners. "You've seen the original and you've seen what Bolt can do...but, now, it's time, to take everything to a whole new level!"

"Tsk, could they _make_that any more dramatic?"

Mittens rolled her eyes, joining them, even though watching TV was not usually her thing, not unless it was trashy television.

"Huh, this old thing?" Mittens shrugged. "Bolt, they don't know what they're doing without you there. We could make a better episode than that and we don't even have all of those special effects things to make it look all fancy-like!"

"That's a great idea! Let's do it!" Rhino squealed, bouncing up and down like an oversized, furry ping-pong ball. "Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh! Can I be Bolt? I wanna be Bolt! I'd make a really good Bolt!"

"Whoa, whoa there, furball-fury," Mittens said, holding up a paw. "We haven't said we're doing anything yet. And, really, how hard would it be to make a better episode or even a show than this. I mean, look at what they're doing? They're not even trying! It's worse than that time they stuck in aliens!"

That could have been said to be true, very well, as Bolt dangled over a cliff on the TV screen, held there by a larger canine that, based on the scene they were ripping off, could have been presumed to be his uncle or mother. Bolt winced. Did the dog playing his character even look scared at all? Defiant? Daring? His face was entirely lacking in all expression!

"Okay... I'll give you that," Bolt said, heart twisting for the show he had left behind, admittedly for a better life. "But we don't have the things here to make a show. Come on, Rhino, we can't make it look like that."

The hamster turned on him, eyes wide and bulging, cheeks plumped out. For a moment, Bolt worried that he was filling up with air but the hamster's resulting gasp only revealed that he'd had his cheeks stuffed full of hamster pellets, doing his typical thing of storing them up, supposedly, for a rainy day, pellets shooting off in all directions like tiny, ineffectual bullets.

"But we can...use the power of our imaginations!"

Bolt and Mittens exchanged a look but, truly, when it came to Rhino, there was no saying "no" or holding back. It was all or nothing and, even though they would not have said so out loud, it did sound just a little bit more fun than sitting around watching TV or playing "fetch while Mittens grumbles about playing fetch" for the umpteenth time.

The cat sighed.

"Ah, to mouse with it..."

*

Bolt stood tall and proud, looking out over the factory, churning with machinery, conveyor belts rolling down box after box of "sleeping powder" and "Penny neutralizer". He growled deep in the back of his throat, lowering his head, affecting his most threatening tone, though there was no one there to actively see or hear him, the dingy, old factory deserted. His tail tucked down low to his rump, although his ears remained pricked as was becoming of the Super Dog. Wearing a mask with holes cut out for his eyes and nothing other than that mask, he growled again, softer and lower still, muscles tense as he took in the lay of the land, a black lightning bolt struck down his side, painted into his fur.

They had Penny... And he was going to get her back at all costs!

In reality, all he was standing on was the sofa but, as Rhino had said, it was all about using their imaginations to make it real. And that, in all honesty, was what made a show great, proving something that was make-believe to be something real and tangible that could drag people and animals into it and make them want to be there too.

"Where to now, O Great Dog of Wonder?"

Rhino trembled beside him, barely able to contain his energy, the hamster in a tiny, spandex outfit with his hamster-ball logo and a cape that flowed behind him, long enough to trip. He hadn't been talked out of that one. They knew a lost cause when they saw it, after all.

"Queen Mittens lies in wait, Rhino the Destroyer," he hissed in a hushed tone, shoving his muzzle up close to Rhino's to keep what was said between them. "And we have to get Penny back, make sure she's safe. Who knows what else evil that dirty feline is planning for the green-eyed man..."

Any antagonist would do but the visage of the green-eyed man was particularly poignant, a devious and intent figure that oversaw everything, loomed over all that they sought to hold dear and close to their hearts.

"Ah-hah-hah-aha-haaa!"

Mittens, wearing nothing but her fur and her pendant of power (allowing her so many more abilities than any other common house cat) stalked into the middle of the floor beside a churning vat. It contains who knew what, the scoop going around and around, although, from that vantage point, it suddenly looked a lot smaller than how Bolt imagined it. To his minds-eye, the stirring stick and the bowl were huge and glowing, with a faintly green aura rising from the splashing surface, in the badly lit factory but, well, in all actuality...he was forced to stifle a grin and a giggle as he knew well enough that it was only the electric mixing bowl and spoon from the kitchen.

Shaking himself, he got back to the scene, gasping and hunkering down, calling all the strength of his superpowers to his tightly coiled muscles, taut and tense and ready for anything.

"Mittens! The cat whose claws can cut through anything!"

That she was, her tail held high and proud as she displayed the flash of her claws for all that deigned to take note of them. Those that had ignored her deviously long, wickedly hooked claws, well... Let's just say that they were the first to fall and they never got back up again.

The feline smirked and smoothed back the fur atop her head, posing and letting them drink in her majesty, the fear she instilled in them.

"You'll never see your Penny again," she said, eyes glinting. "My henchmen are out there right now, working for the green-eyed man... It's only a matter of time before we catch her and her father too!"

"You'll never get away with it!" Bolt snarled. "Rhino! Let's go!"

"Oh, but leaving so soon?"

She stalked up to them, tail curling back and forth as if she was actively enjoying her verbal torture of them, demonstrating and displaying her power, bit by bit. It wouldn't do for her to give it all away straight off the bat, after all. Leaping up to their level, she growled, the ledge tilting and swaying beneath them, the pile of cushions that served as the stage for their first scene tilting precariously. As if it could be that easy for them...

"Oh, foolish mutt... What's that you've brought with you? A snack? For me? How delightful!"

"Get back, Rhino!"

Taking centre-stage, Bolt drew on his powers, the strength of his bark building and building in the back of his throat, rising up and up until it could, finally, be unleashed as his super-bark. Too loud to withstand, breaking the barrier of sound, Mittens screeching as it knocked her back, skidding across the floor. The carpet that was there made her slide a little more difficult than a smooth, clinical factory floor may have done, but it was not enough to break any of them out of the scene.

"Oh... Is that all you've got? And I thought you were going to be interesting. You'll never defeat me!" She hissed, back arched and fur sticking up in all directions, tail fluffed up like a brush. "Prepare to die, mongrels!"

But Bolt and Rhino were a well-oiled team and split off in opposite directions, a twitch of Bolt's ear giving his very best sidekick all the direction he needed. Rhino zipped away, using his super-speed even without his ball to aid him, holding onto his powers as he zigged back and forth.

"Am I too quick? Too quick?" He chortled. "I'm over here, I'm over there - can't catch me! Can't catch the Rhino!"

Perhaps he was enjoying himself a little too much in the heat of the moment as Mittens lunged for him, teeth bared and her claws out, glinting dangerously in the low light. But then Bolt was there, scoring a neat body-slam that knocked her sideways, spinning and flailing through the air. One thing with cats, however, was the problem with cats always landing on their feet and what should have been a knock-out blow only disorientated her for a fraction of a moment, turning upside down and back the right way again.

Bolt jerked his head, teeth clenched.

"Darn it, cat!"

"I'm just getting warmed up!" She hissed, eyes flashing dangerously. "Eat dirt, mutt!"

She was back in the fray, the thick of it again, leaping above them and sending a rain of bottles down, little missiles that exploded and sent a spray of gas into the air around them. Bolt gasped and grabbed Rhino, yanking him out of the way as the hamster started to yawn.

"Don't breathe it in! She's trying to knock us out!"

Rhino shook it off the best he could, slapping his cheeks, growling and riling himself up, a twitching ball of fury. They were far from done, however, as they lunged as a team for the cat, one high and one low, cutting off her escape as they backed her into a corner beside a huge, churning vat of who knew what. Bolt wasn't even sure he wanted to know but he did know that he wanted that stuff nowhere near his Penny at all, his sweet Penny who had done so very much for him.

"Invisibility cloak!"

His shout set off the transformation even though Bolt no longer needed and actual cloak to zip into "invisible mode", his mask allowing him that little he needed. Mittens gasped and, in a moment of weakness, stumbled back, Rhino pressing the attack, throwing out every last karate chop and low kick that he had in his arsenal, tiny legs flailing with deadly intent.

"Where are you?" She hissed. "Show yourself, you coward!"

Bolt wasn't about to do that and lose the advantage, slipping around beside her and behind, as stealthy and as quiet as a spirit moving through the remnants of a life that they'd left behind. Stealth, however, was very much the name of the game as he hunkered down low to the ground, avoiding a swipe of her paw as its passage stirred up the air above his head. He ducked and slid to the side, tapping her on the shoulder with a cheeky grin pulling at his lips.

Well, after all that had happened before, he couldn't take everything so seriously, could he?

"Hey!"

Mittens spun, claws slicing through the air where Bolt had been a moment ago, too close for comfort. The pup frowned, his grip on invisibility fading, bringing him back to the moment as he growled and advanced, stalking her with his back tight and ready, muscles coiled for motion.

"I suggest you give up, Mittens," he said in a low tone, Rhino scampering up beside him, practically vibrating with barely withheld energy. "This isn't a fight that you're going to come out of having won..."

"That's what you think, dog!"

She was in motion again, a black and white blur, scampering and leaping, her smaller, lighter body carrying her further than even Bolt's strong legs could. Upon a ledge, she arched her back and hissed, knocking down vials at him that exploded in puffs of smoke, hissing and spluttering, their contents raining down.

"Take that! And that!"

They were easily dodged, and Bolt growled, bumping Rhino out of the way. Despite his sidekick having some powers of his own, he was nothing to match up to the Wonder Dog of Bolt, the dog who could save them all and had saved Penny so many times. Truly, it was a wonder that she got herself wrapped up in so many situations, but it didn't matter when Bolt was there to come through each and every time for her and his friends.

Loyal to the end.

_ _

That was the essence of it as he ducked and skidded, dodging a claw from Mittens, though the feline was cannier than that still, rising up onto her back legs as she hissed.

"Here, kitty, kitty, kitty," Rhino crooned, waving a purple stick with a jingling bell on the end of it in front of her face, a feather just about tickling her nose. "Come for the toy... You want the toy, you like the toy, you'll do anything for the toy!"

Snapping, Mittens' ears slipped back, though the waver in her step was clear to see, tail lashing the air.

"That'll never defeat me!"

But her attention was distracted, if only for a moment, and Bolt took his shot, unleashing his super bark and knocking her back. Alas, his accuracy was off and she was merely disorientated and not thrown away, ducking behind a vat of something that Bolt didn't want to think about the contents of. Hiding there with Rhino, the two of them almost broke character, peering around the edge of the box that they were actually concealing themselves behind, lips quirking up on both sides with barely hidden laughter.

"You can run but you can't hide!" Mittens shouted through the factory, leaping from perch to perch, the metal walkway above letting her gain a vantage point. "Come out, come out, wherever you are... My little pretties..."

"She's been watching too much TV," Rhino giggled, hunkering down close to Bolt so that his voice would not carry. "What do you think she's going to reference next?"

Shushing him, Bolt took his acting more seriously, the scene still yet to be completed. But when he looked out next, all he saw was metal, clinical machinery, the conveyer belt slipping down and away, an almost hypnotic reel. His brow furrowed.

"Where did she go?"

"Oh, fellaaaas!"

Sitting on the conveyer belt, Mittens rolled into view but there was something in her paw and Bolt gasped, rushing forward. It was too late for her to stop it from being thrown, her laugh carrying through the air right along with the bomb, leaving the dog and the hamster well enough hung out to dry. It flew directly at them and connected with the floor as they scrambled to leap away, everything seeming to happen in slow-motion as adrenaline coursed through their veins.

The boom was deafening, those involved in the scene set back from it, panting heavily, breath raking against their eardrums. One moment Rhino was spinning around and the next he was airborne, his tiny arms outstretched as if, for a moment, he actually believed he could fly. Of course, that was not to be and it was only landing on the fluffy belly of a canine who knew where to be and exactly when he had to be there too.

Bolt connected solidly with the floor and grunted, his head spinning, the feline looming over them. Holding her clawed paw high, her claws glinted silver as she bared a row of sharp, fang-like teeth at them, appearing more of a monster in the moment than ever before as both of them heaved for breath that didn't seem theirs to claim. Chest tight, Bolt rolled onto all fours, though there was nothing he could do as his flanks heaved without helping his cause one bit.

"Oh, did that hurt?"

She crooned, running a claw under his chin, but he jerked his head away defiantly as she tried to control him. As if that would ever happen!

"We don't submit to cats!" Bolt snapped, lunging as he spoke. "And...we...don't...give...up!"

She tried to follow him, confident in her position, but the pup coiled his hind legs, flying skyward, tail streaming behind him like a flag. He soared through the air, his vision shifting to red, but he wasn't aiming for Mittens by any means as he shot beams of pure heat from his eyes, scorching a hole in the metal wall.

It was a play and a ploy that he had to blast through, snarling as she cried out, a stream and a gush of fluid roaring forth. It was something of one of her concoctions and she leapt out of the way as it frothed and foamed and bubbled across the floor, hissing and clawing all the while.

"You fool! Do you know what you've done?"

All he knew was that they were winning against her and he laughed out loud, breaking the attack as molten metal dripped into the sloshed, spilt fluid that was keeping her in one place.

"That's your fault for underestimating us, cat!"

And then he was up, scooping Rhino along with him, guiding him, throwing him up to another level, a teetering ledge that was only just wide enough for the two of them. But there was another platform ready and he scrambled up to that where it hovered, something that may have been used for maintenance at a higher level, keeping well enough away from the fluid, bubbling through shades of purple and green, sickly and more than enough to turn a stomach. With a triumphant squeal, Rhino leapt, high-fiving the pup who had led them, very nearly, all the way down the home stretch to victory.

"Yeah! We did it!"

Bolt could not resist a grin either.

"Yeah, we did! Now, let's deal with the cat and go get Penny."

"Okay, boys, time to play is over."

Mittens sat down on her hind end as the platform swayed lightly beneath her, a smirk playing across her lips. Even Bolt skidded to a halt with his jaws hanging open, ears defiantly pinned, as she held up a black box with a big, red button. Even he knew from his days in show business that something like that never boded well!

"I've received word that my henchmen, all of us working for the green-eyed man, have captured your darling Penny and her father too!"

She brandished the button dramatically as a growl ripped itself from Bolt's throat, instinct cutting through all else.

"You'll regret this, cat! I suggest you release them immediately or feel the wrath of my super bark again! I won't hold back for one of your kind this time!"

Smiling creepily, she half-shrugged.

"Oh, I wouldn't do that if I was you. If I activate this release with just a single touch of this button, Penny and her mother too will fall into a pit of acid!"

Throwing her head back, she laughed maniacally, throwing her paws up too for added effect. Bolt hung his head, mind working overtime.

Think, Bolt, think... It's just another puzzle, something you have to work out. Come on now!

_ _

"Get down and maybe I won't hurt them," she said, imperiously looming over the dog and hamster who'd known that they were beaten. "Surrender now or you'll never see your precious people ever again!"

That could have been something, perhaps, that hit a little too close to home for the two of them but they did know that it was all a game as Bolt slumped down to the floor in defeat. From a shiny vat beside them with a long, horizontal handle, Mittens retrieved a cloth that reeked of chloroform, strong enough to make even Bolt reel and screw up his muzzle. He couldn't just give in like that!

Stomping a paw down, he snarled, showing his teeth defiantly.

"We'll never!"

"Oh..." Her eyes glittered, holding up the button and the chloroform rag as if she was choosing between the two of them. "So... I _should_just drop Penny into a tub of acid? Why didn't you just say so earlier?"

There was only one option that Bolt had left to him, heart hammering, pounding sickeningly in his chest. Rhino cast a worried look at him but he tried to let the hamster know that it was okay, that he was going to make sure that he wasn't hurt. Regardless of how terribly wrong things had gone, it was all going to be okay.

"Let her, Rhino..."

He'd look for his opening. He'd look for his opening even as the rag was pressed to the hamster's face, his squirming protests growing weaker and weaker, a by-product of the flailing energy that he usually demonstrated. He tried to fight back even then but it was just his body straining to retain consciousness, dropping like a stone as his tubby belly and fluff of fur at least cushioned his fall somewhat. Pressing the rag over his nose and lips to make sure the job was done right, Mittens crooned and caressed his head, seeming to revel, even then, in the act of control.

"Down, down, down, hamster," she breathed. "Maybe your precious Penny will live another day if you just do what I say!"

Bolt's eyes darted one way and then the other, looking to jump in, the reek of chloroform pushing urgently on his nose. It was a sickening scent, something that churned his stomach and made him want to retch even then, but he had to push through it, trying to lunge and grab for the remote as Mittens drew back, her attention on him once Rhino had been suitably knocked out.

"I thought you had submitted, dog!"

"Never!"

Grappling for the remote, Bolt grunted and threw everything he had into reaching it, reaching Penny, saving Penny. That was all that had ever mattered to him, ensuring that his person was safe, and he'd do anything at all that was needed to get her back again! He fought and he struggled and strained - he'd promised Rhino he would - but the cat had him good and proper and Mittens wasn't about to let his play on control go on a moment longer.

"Think of Penny..."

Mitten's claw hovered over the button and Bolt, lungs tight with emotion, was finally forced to sit still and let her hold the rag over his muzzle, cloth folding around the sides and over his lips, ensuring that he was absolutely forced to breathe in every last little bit of it. She held the remote out far away from him in her other paw as she did it, his vision hazing over, fading, striving and struggling with every ounce of strength left in his body to cling onto the waking world, to retain consciousness at all costs.

"Sleep now..."

He had to go and it was harder than ever to hide the giggles rising up in the back of his throat when Mittens loomed over at him, tears of laughter prickling at the corners of her eyes, threatening to brim over as she held her role. Why, she would even have made a wonderful actress in her own right if she'd ever wanted to get into show business! But he slipped down and down and down, pretended to fall unconscious as the strong-smelling fluid that she'd doused the rag in (it had, in fact, come from the cupboard next to the oven in the kitchen, something designed to keep Bolt away from certain flowerbeds in the garden) washed over him.

Despair curled through Bolt's heart, his Penny lost but, hopefully, safe for the moment. He just had to get back to her, yes, save her, remember that she was there for him when he was there for her. But, first, he had to get over Mittens' power over him, the feline having won for the time being.

With both of her charges knocked out completely, Mittens chuckled throatily and shook her head, tail curling back and forth as she took pride in her accomplishment. Ah, the two of them had fallen just as she'd planned, everything was going just as she'd wanted it to! It would be more than caviar for her from the green-eyed man when her time came to show him the spoils of what she'd reaped for him.

She had to work quickly though as the chloroform would not work forever, tying each of them up to a chair while she scattered Styrofoam over the floor.

"There... That will ensure that neither of these two ruffians get up to their usual tricks."

The chairs were ones that a child may have had in their younger years for depicting tea-parties with stuffed animals, but they had dug them out of the back of an old cupboard for the scene Mittens had in mind. Claws clicking over the cool floor, she chortled to herself, sitting back in a throne with her patent-pending hypno-gun at the ready on their waking.

"Wakey-wakey, my pretties... Come out to play..."

Bolt groaned, noting his cue and coming back to reality as Rhino remained slumped over. A quick nudge of a paw though and the hamster "woke up" again, turning his head quickly from side to side as he blinked rapidly as if he was trying to adjust to what was happening and where he was in a moment that he had blacked out from.

"What?" He said. "Did we win? Is Mittens gone?"

Bolt shuddered.

"I'm afraid not, Rhino..."

"Oh, it'll take a lot more than two mongrels to get rid of a cat like me," she laughed, pointing the gun at them. "But there's plenty of time left for me to kill before the green-eyed man gets here and it's been a long time since I had two to torture. Why wouldn't I have some fun?"

Levelling the hypno-gun at them, a flashing pinwheel of a multitude of colours, Mittens cackled and it beeped rapidly, the pace of the beeps ramping up as Bolt and Rhino twisted back and forth, fighting their bonds more than ever before. Out, out - they had to get out! If they were hypnotised, there was no way for either of them to get out and leap to the rescue of Penny and her mother!

"Be under my control!"

Her usually calm and controlled voice rose to a screech as Bolt and Rhino tucked their muzzles down, shaking in the chairs that they were tied to with skipping ropes, not actual rope. It was harder than ever to hide their laughter, Mittens just a little bit over the top, even though she was not that bad an actress. It just had been so long since Bolt had done a proper scene that his heart lifted from the mere acting out of it, Rhino a little less professional and chortling madly, cheeks chubby and puffed up with air from all the breath he was struggling to withhold.

"Guys, guys, guys..."

Bolt and Rhino picked up their heads, eyes wide and innocent, even though smiles were still pulling at the corners of their lips. Setting the gun aside for a brief moment, Mittens joined them with a smile, holding up her paws.

"Take it seriously, guys, if we're going to do this, we're going to do it properly."

"Yes, of course."

Bolt and Rhino chimed up together, although the grins on their faces were still hard to contain, their enjoyment of everything coming through a little too much. But Bolt was a professional and he could hide his laughter, he was sure, until they moved on to the next scene at the very least. Holding up the gun, Mittens pointed it directly at Rhino, the hamster fixed within her sights and them alone.

"Now back to it! Be under my control!"

Twisting back and forth, the hamster tried to resist but he could not help it, drawn under her spell, jaw hanging slack, a little drool glimmering at the corners of his lips. The hypno-gun was impossible to resist, infallible and all-encompassing, though it was the Styrofoam that did it, weakening the two of them until they were hanging there in their bonds. It was Bolt, however, who was forced to watch, horrified, as Rhino fell, eyes half-lidded and breath shallow.

"Yes," he breathed, rasping out the words as if they came with great difficulty. "Yes, Mittens... Anything you want, Mittens."

His willpower had broken: the hamster fell before her as she smirked imperiously.

"You are now my slave," she said, watching Bolt struggle and fight all the more viciously out of the corner of her eye. "And now... Now for the Wonder Dog, the one who was meant to save them all."

The colours spun and spun and, even in the moment, Bolt's eyes could not help but lock onto them, drawing him in and down, tipping and swaying. They were, truly, hypnotising, despite the fact that they were only a pinwheel, something that was popped in the garden on a summer day to spin in the window, flashing brilliantly as the speed of the breeze blurred them into one shade. He couldn't look away, muscles weakened, slumping down, trying to pull back.

Fight... Bolt blinked, groaning softly. Yes... Yes, he had to fight it, had to do something, had to do anything. Penny was there, Penny was waiting, Penny wouldn't want him to be hypnotised. Alas, there was nothing he could do against the power of Mittens' hypno-gun and he succumbed to her will, forcing it over him as his gaze steadied, bleary yet fixed on Mittens to the exclusion of all else.

"Ah, my slaves..."

Mitten smirked, untying them so that they could do her bidding. The dog stood and swayed before her as if merely standing on his own two feet was difficult. Rhino was a little steadier, plopping down on his fluffy backside as he looked from left to right. Everything was strange and everything was foreign, the force of another's will pressing in on them with shockingly devious intent.

"There's something that I've wanted for a long time and, well, a street cat just doesn't get treated right sometimes."

Luxuriously, Mittens reclined on a plush pile of cushions, dotted with diamonds, having led them into her more comfortable abode, somewhere away from the factory floor. A fishbone was stylised on the wall, although the room still rang of elegant, feline sophistication, her resting area glittering with evident wealth. She smiled and stretched out, propped up as if she was sitting like a human being, her hind legs stretched out towards Bolt and Rhino.

"What do you want us to do?" Bolt said with difficulty, the words coming up as if they were being forced out through his mouth. "Oh, Mittens... We will...do anything..."

He struggled, working the words around his mouth, but there was nothing for him to do as she smirked, propping her chin up on one of her forepaws.

"Oh, since you ask... I'd like a massage. Immediately."

Stretching out her hind paws, she smiled deviously.

"My footpaws, to be exact. Chop-chop now, a kitten ain't got all day to train new slaves. And I've only got you here for a while."

Bolt gasped and drew back but it was, of course, a futile effort as his legs moved clumsily towards her, his body no longer under his control. Everything about his short, jerky strides rang through as clunky but the dog was not in any position to resist as he whimpered and sunk down, stretched out towards her extended hind paws. There would be the forepaws too, even if Mittens did sometimes use them more like human hands, the feline sighing in contentment even as Bolt's ears flattened in abject dismay at the horrific debasement.

He shouldn't have been pushed so low, Bolt the Wonder Dog, the dog who could do anything and save anyone, but Mittens had him well and truly under her control as she wriggled her toes into his paws. All the white pup could do was whine and do what she demanded of him, massaging and squeezing, using his paws to the very limits of his dexterity to massage and caress.

"Ahhh..." She sighed, leaning back, tension slipping from her muscles. "Yeah... That's the stuff."

He clenched his jaws together hard at the debasement, though it was hard to stop a smile from pulling at his lips. Even as an actor, he had to remember that he was Bolt, the pup that was at her paws, helpless as he wracked his brain for a way to find Penny and save her too. That was his only goal, his mission, and Rhino still stood back from them, whimpering as he watched Bolt do just as Mittens willed. His hypnosis, however, must have sunk in more deeply than it had with Bolt, his gaze almost blurred and unfixed, weight shifting as if he could not stay in place for too long.

Bolt grimaced, rubbing and caressing, squeezing Mittens' toes under her direction. The feline was quick to direct him to what felt good and, in her real life, she was so very often on her feet, though he was careful to avoid her claws. They glinted with a shine of health and he didn't want to aggravate them, spreading out her toes as he pressed in through the thick layer of fluffy fur, which had, in part, given her the name that she'd originally donned, to tease the pads of her paws too.

"Oh, Bolt," she chuckled, winking as she looked down at him. "Have you done this before? Maybe I should have gotten myself a pair of evil lair slaves before... Sometimes these bright ideas come at the strangest of times!"

It was all in her will and right to take pleasure where she could, however, relaxing under his massaging grip. Mittens flicked her tail and called Rhino up to take care of her forepaws too, making him press his nose to them, smelling them lightly where the clean fur had picked up soft grains of dust and dirt. As much as he wrinkled his muzzle, he appeared to all outward discerning to be more than eager to do what she asked of him, using his smaller paws to great effect to caress and massage between her toes, making sure even the smaller muscles got their due attention.

Half-comatose under their massaging paws working their magic, Mittens relaxed back, muscles releasing their held contractions, wriggling her toes in their paws. Yes, it was something she needed and she deserved it too, well and truly playing up the part of the evil overlord even if the green-eyed man was the one who was truly above her. He would be pleased with her, she was sure of it, and perhaps even have a new ball of yarn for her. Mittens giggled, eyes shining at the notion. Oh, how she'd love that!

But the massage grounded her in the moment even as tiny ripples of pleasurable sensation coursed through her, tickling her fancy something light and gentle. She rolled over onto her front so that the two of them could do their best work from a different position, her hind legs stretched back and raised as she tickled Bolt's nose with a toe.

"Oh, having a paw-slave is so much fun..."

She giggled even as Bolt wrinkled his muzzle and pointedly sneezed, turning away for a moment. She had to take his hint and his cue, turning down the ante just a little and letting him play his part, even though the pup's mind was still working overtime. As he squeezed and teased tension from her aching paws, he was thinking of just how to get out of there, how to escape, how to save the ones that he had come there, in the first place, to rescue initially.

It would have to come but he sniffed Mittens' paws almost curiously, the hypnotism swamping him, making him feel quite as if he didn't have any choice. The true extent of it remained to be seen, however, as he snuffled and sniffed, holding her paws up so that he had to the best angle to massage first one and then the other, leaving no spot untouched. She melted under his touch, the weight taken off them, and Rhino too wasn't doing a half-bad job as he squeaked and worked diligently away, hustling like the busy little paw-slave she'd turned him into.

"Right, boys... I think I've had enough of that. But what more can my slaves do for me, hm?"

Mittens' eyes gleamed as she sat up imperiously on her throne-like pile of cushions, surveying them with a flick of her tail.

"Jump!"

Bolt's and Rhino's legs contracted and flexed, sending them skyward for a moment. It was only a small jump, but it highlighted her control over them as Mittens giggled and squirmed in place, clapping her paws together.

"Oh, very good!" She chuckled. "But what more can you do? What tricks do you know? Who's a good puppy? Who's a good hammy?"

It was the best she could think of in the moment but there were more to come as she pantomimed being a stage director, making them "sit" and "shake" and even, humiliatingly, "roll over". Bolt was better at that one than Rhino but it still felt wrong, so very wrong, to act like a circus animal, nothing more than a dumb animal trained for tricks that would come and go with the wants and needs of the crowd. He was more than that and he'd show Mittens soon enough when his mind wasn't all twisted up with thinking he was a slave set there to do her bidding and hers alone!

"Now... I think there's something a little more you guys can do for a kitty. But what is it?"

Mitten grinned and tapped one paw on the ground, marking time.

"One, two, three... Oh, you're gonna love this! FIGHT!"

Bolt blinked but the hypnosis already had his body wrenching itself into motion, hustling to meet a screaming Rhino in midair. Rhino shuddered and clawed at him and Bolt twisted away in the nick of time, evading the attack but only just about. It was close, too close, and Bolt's legs coiled as he landed, building strength to power him back into the air, a snarl that did not sound quite like him on his lips.

But he didn't want to fight Rhino! No! He didn't want that, no one wanted that, but Mittens was still there, her hypno-gun in paw in case they fought back more strongly, struggled against the effects of the hypnosis. His vision blurred and Bolt growled, advancing on Rhino more and more with deadly intent.

"You're going down, hamster!"

"Oh, yeah?" Rhino stirred, fury building inside him. "Well, you haven't seen anything like Rhino's Fists of Fury yet!"

If he had not been hypnotised, his sense of reality shifting as she forced him to fight his best friend, Bolt may have recognised which movie that was from as it was one of the real Rhino's favourites, but things were far too fraught right there and then for him to understand. They leapt and clawed and pounded one another, grime and dust coating their bodies, panting heavily, working to do what was bid. There was no pleasure in it, however, only Bolt's body truly designed for such aggression, though it was not his natural way and even his hypnotised mind swiftly tired of it.

No... No more. He could not. He staggered, panting, trying to catch his breath even as he gave one final lunge, knocking Rhino sideways, bouncing off the wall as his head was bumped, jostled just enough.

It should have been the end of it all in a different way, but Rhino clambered up again a moment later with clarity in his eyes, looking around him as if he did not quite recognise where he was. But the trance was dropped, the hypnosis fallen - and yet he still remembered everything that had happened to him in the interim! It was miraculous and, above all else, it was time for Rhino the Wonder Hamster to come to the rescue at long last!

"Booooolt!"

He cried out as he launched himself at his friend, the dog a writhing mass of matted fur and gnashing teeth, intent only, clearly, on sinking them into Rhino's body. But the hamster was faster than him with a well-timed speed-boost and clonked him solidly on his head, knocking him, finally, out of his trance too.

Bolt blinked, swaying, head lowered, the pounding of impact slowly receding from his skull. His mind was fuzzy, the waking world coming back to him slowly through a haze, drifting and turning, breath catching in his throat. Somewhere, someone small and furry was shouting his name.

"Bolt! Bolt! Snap out of it! Bolt!"

"What... What happened?"

Yet the dog too had his recollections of that time flooding back, even though he had no time to waste. Rounding on Mittens with a snarl, he lunged for her even as the feline brandished the hypno-gun all over again.

"Oh, you got out of that, did you?" She laughed, ears back. "Well, I'll just turn up the juice! Anyone hit by this now will be a permanent slave!"

Rhino gasped but Bolt couldn't let that happen, his super-speed kicking in, coat blending with the fabric of the air around him. A touch of invisibility was all he needed and an opening to bypass her defences as he lunged in, teeth bared, tumbling and growling as he kicked it out of her paw.

"Now who's got the upper paw?!"

It was not clear who shouted, but it did not need to be clear as they lunged and grappled and rolled over one another to get the hypno-gun, Rhino jumping off Mittens' belly and kicking it away mid-air in a truly impressive move. But fancy kicks and spins would not win the battle as they tussled, growling and screeching and bashing into one another, limbs tangled even as Bolt and Mittens found themselves muzzle to muzzle, uncomfortably close, for a breath-taking moment.

And then Rhino was screeching and screaming and brandishing the hypno-gun, whipping it around as he pointed it at Mittens. Bolt just about managed to scramble out of the way in time but it was too late for the cat who was well and truly on the losing side of the battle that she had, undoubtedly, set up to see them shamed, now the tables turned on the evil mistress of the lair herself.

"Noooooo!"

She howled dramatically, very nearly giving Bolt a run for his money, flailing and collapsing to the floor, eyes taking on a haze glow, the true tell of a slave under permanent hypnosis. Bolt should not have fallen so low but it was too tempting, too pleasing, to strut up to the fallen Mittens as she lay there, under his spell, and press a paw to her muzzle, forcing her to sniff it, to massage it, the slave knowing his intentions without even telling him what he wanted of her.

"There now," he said, smirking slightly. "Was that really so hard? Transport will be here shortly to take you away, Mittens, and then you'll regret ever working with the green-eyed man and seeking to hurt my family!"

That much was true as Bolt himself was duly a force to be reckoned with when he thought he was in the right and a pup that solely fought for justice and righteous was, fairly, rarely going to be in the wrong. Thus it was that he smirked just a tiny fraction, his mask slipping figuratively, chest puffing out.

"Come on, Rhino, she did it to you," he said, encouraging the hamster on, for he held back, a little unsure. "A cat like this isn't going to complain about giving back what she dished out to begin with!"

Such a thing was true on so many levels, even if Rhino did know well enough that he didn't want to get on the wrong side of Mittens, regardless of the state she was in. That was surely a recipe to get himself swatted across the room when he was particularly aggravating about anything. However, Mittens winked at Rhino, letting him know, discreetly, that it was okay, and that was all the hamster needed to scamper up and offer her a paw, however tentative he was about it. The cat's paws dwarfed his, but she was still able to take the massage tenderly, not needing to say anything as she let them think that she was entirely under their control.

For Mittens would come back, stronger than ever, and the hold of the green-eyed man locked onto her more strongly than any hypnosis. Her subconscious was at work as she sniffed Rhino's paws, tenderly massaging and squeezing between the toes, pushing on, letting him know that it was okay to relax too sometimes. The hamster let out a happy sigh and she had to stifle a giggle in her sensible mind, knowing that that moment too was not destined to last. But all three of them went well together, even as her mind drifted.

Bolt's paws were larger than Mittens' as he pressed them down to her and she sniffed and teased, prying his toes apart so that the mere flexing of them became a massage of sorts. The pup could not help but grunt and half-slump, barely able to hold his own body up, so skilled was her massage that had him quivering in place. But it was the feline who was so debased, the one who had lost the battle, and he still had a Penny to rescue.

"Get her tied up, Rhino!"

The hamster scurried to obey, a little smirk on his lips to get a little payback on the cat after he'd been so recently tied up himself.

"Do not fight back," Bolt commanded her sternly. "I would advise you to remain docile. Transport will soon arrive and then you'll be good and out of our paws."

Mittens said nothing, still under the hypnosis, although a soft mewl did break from her lips as Bolt pushed up onto her back on the ground, her forelegs bound down alongside her body with her hind legs stretched out. It was not the most comfortable position for any cat to find themselves in but the rope was tight and she squirmed within in, crying out softly as Bolt pressed his paw to her muzzle, once again, to sniff. It was all she could do, all she would do, worshipping his footpaws, sniffing and caressing, not letting a single spot go untouched in the pleasure of it all.

It was the relaxation of muscles that were usually so tense and yet so sensitive too at the same time that helped more than anything else, Bolt growling softly in the back of his throat as she spread out his toes to sniff between them. His paws were cleaner after the fight, the smooth floor of her private quarters, the reception room that Mittens had claimed for herself, and bore no ill smell, even though that was where the sweat glands were. She chuckled lightly, the wash of her breath over his paws sending a shiver through the dog, though Bolt was happy to stay right where he was to let her tease tension from them, his short, blunt claws protruding even though they were nothing in comparison to the mighty, hooked ones that she boasted.

"What about me?"

Rhino was quick to squirm in on the action, a fat ball of huffy fluff now that they had proven themselves the victors and Mittens the losing side. But didn't evil always fall?

He bumped Bolt out of place as the dog chuckled and allowed him to take precedence, Mittens covering the tiny hamster paws with her own even as she sniffed them and even rubbed her face against them, some instinct of hers bidding her to leave her scent on them. The hamster giggled and wriggled, putty in her paws, but he enjoyed it too and relaxed into it, however imperiously he tried to command her, demanding more attention and then some more too all over again, toes wriggling in her grasp.

It was a very fine, delicate art to give a hamster a paw-massage, taking those tiny footpaws in her own and caressing them without the notion of causing any harm, claws kept carefully out of the way. His may have scratched her soft pads but that was not something to concern a hypnotised Mittens as she worked all the magic she possibly had at her disposal, letting puffs of soft breath tickle his paws too, teasing through different sensations as he squeaked happily.

Riiiiiiing!

_ _

"Oh, shoot!"

Mittens leapt up from the loosened ropes, forgetting the game as she looked to the front door, eyes wide.

"We forgot the time!"

"Penny'll be home soon!"

Just like that, they were out of their play and out of the game, although it was with much laughter that they rushed about to return the house to its usual state. Unlike how they had originally planned it to take place, their acting scenes had not constrained them to the living room where boxes and items from the kitchen had been set up to portray the factory floor and her evil hideout, a yoga mat playing the part of a conveyer belt. No, it had spread and spread, the kitchen set out clinically for the chloroform scene, everything that they safely needed for them to fall comfortably and play out the scene that had already been agreed in advance. Of course, some blankets had been put down too to cushion their fall when it came to that part.

The paw massage and "revelling in the success of being evil" scenes had been played out in the den where the desk was set up and the fishbone art was indeed on the wall in Mittens' nook, her favourite place in the whole house. When Penny's mother sat at the desk to work at some project or another, she could curl up for a good nap, knowing that someone was looking after her. She had, however, set up cardboard boxes in there like pillars, which was how she would really have liked the room to look, better denoting her true status as the rightful queen of the household and no one else.

Puffs of icing sugar had to be cleaned up from their play fighting too and that was the most difficult thing of all, although Rhino did have to be told on more than one occasion not to lick it up. The hamster was a law unto himself, honestly, but he was discreet about putting away the claws that Mittens had worn for the scenes, something that was both a revelation and a pain to the cat, although she insisted that she still wanted to keep them around as a sort of prosthetic. Once upon a time, they had appeared from a Halloween costume set but that had been swiped by Mittens after the day had passed, coveting the claws, however guiltily she had initially snuck them away.

But that was her business.

"Ergh, I don't know why you had to use that stuff on the rag," Bolt complained, though he was good-naturedly about it, however much the scent lingered. "It stinks... Penny's mother puts it on the plants!"

Affecting an innocent look, Mittens slid her gaze away, barely concealing a smile.

"Told you, pup, it keeps dogs away. Maybe if I took a bath in it, I'd finally get some quiet time around here," she smirked, flicking her tail in his face. "But I know you guys just like my company too much to do without me."

"It was fun though!" Rhino piped up in his usual, cheery manner, using his hamster ball to help roll up the yoga mat. "We should do it again! Oh, oh, oh - we can make our own show, a proper show, and be famous! More famous than the Bolt show remake!"

Chuckling, Bolt shook his head and Mittens clapped a paw to her face. But neither of them quite had it in them to dash his dreams so quickly, patting him on the head and telling him that they could do that sometime, yes, maybe, sometime. It was too much to set up every day religiously, however, and he would have to settle for something a bit lower-key in the grand scheme of things, all three of them still very much in need of a break after their first big adventure together.

After all, there was something too to be had in taking life a little more slowly and he was still a super dog even if he could not use a super bark in real life. Smiling, Bolt patted his shoulder, sitting back down by the front door to wait for Penny. The lightning bolt struck down his side may have been gone too but there would always be more fun to be had with their rag-tag team of animals and, of course, his lovely Penny.

Though maybe a game where the tables were turned again wouldn't be such a bad idea...

Grinning, Bolt's mind ran amok, planning out the scope of future scenes together!