A/N I must sincerely apologize for the poor frequency of these updates, I've had much to do, and I thank all who are still reading this for having this much patience with me. Also, small edits and corrections have been made to chapters Prolouge-6, leaving out words in sentences is a major pet peeve of mine.

Chapter 11: New Delhi

The large and ever-bustling city of New Delhi was an ideal place for one to become hopelessly lost. Or be separated from a loved one. Neither Emily or Lightning were ready to take that chance. Lightning remained close to Emily's side, and Emily kept his leash length no further than that, with Mittens more crammed into her backpack than usual. They avoided the main crowds of the city, knowing they would be engulfed in the massive current of pedestrians in a matter of seconds, should they place even one foot in them, and stayed along the side areas of apartments and small businesses just parallel to the busy capital. Lightning constantly looked over the "suspicious" crowd, while Emily, though she desperately craved to take in the sights or stop at one of the many shops of the market, kept her gaze fixed on the buildings, searching for their target. Their "relaxing time" was over, she was as aware of it as Lightning, from the moment they left the airport, they would not find any place or time safe enough to relax. They were on the run again.

Emily looked down at how fiercely vigilant Lightning appeared. Calling his name once, he looked up at her, suddenly happy and calm, the almost-eight year-old dog appearing as a puppy again, seeing her face. But when he returned to his vigilant state, she couldn't help but wonder if these powers would prevent him from returning to the jaunty, playful puppy she knew. But there was no time to worry about that now, she was sure of that. Simply looking over the city streets, Emily knew the unprepared would have absolutely no idea whatsoever where to start. But she had studied the endless labyrinth of the city streets, marketplaces, and knew exactly where to start. The buildings the city guide labeled as "Miscellaneous use". It was almost too simple. Once they came to the first of the massive skyscrapers under this category, both of them was sure it was their intended target. Black-suited guards and black vehicles lined up outside, lots of security, Emily thought to herself, first viewing it from an alleyway. Yeah, that's it alright. So much security, it was almost too obvious. Both of them thought so. Why would they have so much that would give it away? That a nine year-old girl would recognize it...

Both of them ducked into the alleyway when a large group of busy and rather noisy workers passed by, while large groups of loud commuters was not an unusual sight for a local, it was something that would immediately catch the attention of any non-native. There would be time to be suspicious about the organization's movements later. Emily was more than ready to find out a little more about Calico's intentions. Emily sat down in the narrow passage, placing her backpack in front of her, she carefully removed Mittens and rummaged through it to find anything that might help her infiltrate the walls of Calico's headquarters. But then she came across her oversized pair of binoculars. Returning her gaze upward, she saw that the building they were next to was about three-quarters of the height of Calico's H.Q., and had a fire escape, therefore, and easy way to the top. She snugly stowed Mittens back into her backpack, leaving her binoculars and grappling hook out, and turned back to Lightning. "Okay boy," she said, patting his head. "Let's get to work."

She took Lightning under her arm, and, double-checking to ensure no one was watching them, she placed to grappling hook in its launcher and fired it the onto the ladder at the bottom of the stairwell. Securing it to herself, she jumped and was hoisted onto the wall with surprising force, she giggled with delight like a toddler as she scaled the wall. Reaching the ladder, she allowed Lightning to climb up first. Once on the first landing, Lightning could hear Emily on the ladder exclaiming, still giddy from her short but exciting climb, "Okay, that was...awesome! That was just way too..."

Suddenly, she screamed as the ladder buckled and began to drop towards to the pavement below. Emily clung tightly as it jerked to a halt, only a few meters above the ground, caught by a fraying safety cord. Lightning worriedly looked over the edge to his person dangling off of the unsecure ladder, and barked frantically, "I'm alright," she reassured him as she slowly began to climb upward again, after a few moments of heavy panting. "It's okay, I'm fine."

"No, you're not!" Lightning rebuked. "You could've been seriously hurt, or killed, and I...I..."

"It's okay Lightning!" Mittens called, muffled and half submerged in the contents of the backpack. "We're okay, everything's..."

"No, it's NOT mom!" he snapped. "You and Emily could've been killed! And there wasn't anything I could've done! How am I supposed to protect her if I can't even..."

"Lightning!" Mittens snapped back, head fully out of the backpack. "Watch your tone, we weren't killed, we're fine. It was...an accident."

Emily finally reached the top and plopped down on the landing, still shaken, and shaking. Lightning whimpered as he came to her side and licked her, Emily giggled, "I'm okay, I'm alright boy," she smiled kissed the top of his head. "It's okay, I'm fine."

Lightning was still in his feeling of failure, "No, you could've..."

"Lightning," Mittens said to him again, calmly this time, crawling out of the backpack. "Look at me." Lightning reluctantly made eye contact. "Don't linger over this, okay? We're fine, it was just a little accident. Emily is fine, but she still needs you. You haven't failed, you are perfectly capable of looking after her. Remember what your dad said, you won't be able to do something right if you keep focusing on your mistakes. Do you hear me?"

Lightning nodded and managed a smile, although he wasn't sure if the memory of his father and his wisdom encouraged him, or his lies depressed him. But again, there was little time to wonder. Emily, almost quite literally, but gently, stuffed Mittens back into her bag, and the trio made their way up the worn and rusted fire escape.


Only completely out of breath, Emily reached the top of the worn down skyscraper, nearly two minutes behind Lightning. Lightning, who on the other hand, was eager to begin their spying. Emily nearly collapsed on the rooftop, dropping to her hands and knees, nearly wheezing and gasping for air. Lightning went to her side and nudged her slightly, almost to say, "Come on! We can't rest now, we have work to do."

Being able to read her dog's expressions and actions like the pages of a book, Emily smiled and nodded to her companion as she took a deep breath and slowly rose back to her feet, while her tired and aching body was begging for her to lay down and rest. But there was no time. There wouldn't be for a long while. Crouched on her ankles, Emily moved with surprising fluency and stealth along the rooftop as they approached the ledge, slowly peering over, all the windows appeared as nothing but a mirror to her, impossible to see into any one, at least with the naked eye... Emily peered down at her advanced binoculars, as eager as she was to use them, she wasn't entirely sure how. Lifting them up to her eyes, she cautiously pressed one of the controls and the lenses instantly zoomed in on the window they were fixed on. Emily raised an eyebrow and smiled as she momentarily fiddled with the zoom in and out. Then her fingers came to another button, realizing her mother had labeled controls for her, she selected it and the window she was focused on deteriorated and she saw into the room itself. "Awesome," she muttered after a couple moments of speechlessness.

With this new ability under her command, she scanned row upon row of levels of work and meeting rooms, gradually growing impatient with the rate she was gaining new information. Until...her binoculars came across a poorly lit room, with a tall man sitting at a large desk in the corner of the room, his face could not be seen, with three or four black-suited men in front of it. Business suits rather than the guards' outfit. Realizing they were speaking, Emily hastily pressed another button, activating a small radar dish, emerging near the left lens, and ejecting an earpiece into her hand. "...So we've confirmed they do have a daughter," one of the men said as Emily placed the earpiece. "And she has an enhanced dog too?"

"It hasn't been confirmed yet," another man (who Emily recognized as the Commander, Bruce) in front of the table said. "That person running from the house could've been anyone. The dog, yes, we're pretty sure of that. But we don't know if..."

"Pretty sure?" a much younger man noted, sounding very irked. "You've just been sure of all of this, haven't you? Well I think it's time we started actually knowing things, instead of just acting on these stupid little leads and events!"

"Alright kid," Bruce said, appearing irritated with the boy's naiveté. "For starters, I know you're ass will get a good beating if you don't watch your Goddamn trap!"

"You think you're superior here? You think anything you've done has actually contributed to the plan!"

At that point, all the men were talking at once, both Bruce and the younger man being restrained from beating each other senseless. Emily sighed and rolled her eyes, "Typical boys." Her lack of progress was growing annoying.

"Enough," the man at the desk said calmly. "Enough." Emily guessed that either the man was extremely dangerous, or had a highly respected position of authority because his calm response silenced everyone in the room in a matter of seconds. "Bruce is right," he continued. "We know for certain there is a dog, but the fact that the professor has a granddaughter is still unconfirmed. But if there's a dog, we can safely assume that the dog has someone to protect. And that person is the key. Otherwise they wouldn't have enhanced their dog. And leads and events are just as good as knowing something son," he said to the younger man. "You'll learn that in time, along with your place."

The man swallowed hard and responded softly, "Yes...yes sir."

A bright light flashed on the left side of the tall man's desk, which appeared to be an entire digital console. The man gently pressed it, "Yes?"

"We're all set up sir, and waiting on you and some others," a voice said. "So is the Doctor."

"Very well. On my way," he said, standing from his chair. "We'll continue this discussion later. Time for the standard meeting."

All of the men quietly exited the room, moving deeper into the building. The door automatically slid shut behind them. Emily sighed as she slowly lowered the binoculars and removed the earpiece, the only information she had received was that Calico knew Lightning was guarding the key component for world domination. Lightning gave her a worried look, sensing she felt hopeless with her operation. Don't give up yet.

But she wasn't giving up. She couldn't. She wouldn't. She turned her gaze to him, placed her hand on Lightning's back, gently stroking it, and said, "Well boy," she sighed again. "We'll need to work a little harder at eavesdropping."