[A/N: Where do I start with this chapter? I re-watched Oliver & Company this morning and I was not impressed. I remember enjoying it a lot more when I was little, but this time I felt like something was lacking. I don't think it was the animation, the story, or songs, but more the characters. I just couldn't sympathize with them. And Sykes needs to go to villain school. Reviews are appreciated. Enjoy the chpater!]

It looked like they'd landed on a shipping dock of some kind, but everything seemed so large. Juliet looked down to see that she had paws. "Did you change our forms, Clementine?"

"Yes, Juliet you're a Siamese, Akio is a German Sheppard, and I'm a Pomeranian."

"Now there's just the question of where we are."

That's easy you're in New York. There's a charming loan shark named Sykes who lives here whom I'm sure you'll love.

Akio could see a large dark car parked out on the dock. "I wonder if we could ask them if they've seen Chiyo."

The doors of the car opened letting two Dobermans out. One had a red collar and the other a blue color. The dog with the red collar zeroed in on Clementine and puffed his chest out holding his head up. "And what's a lovely lady like you doing out in parts like these?"

Clementine who barely came up to the Doberman's knees had to crane her neck to get a better look at him. "I just got here actually. And I'm not looking for any trouble, but if you start a fight I could defend myself."

The Doberman laughed when he heard this. "A girl who can fight. I like that. You don't have a collar are you a stray?"

"Come on Roscoe we're here to do a job not flirt."

"Yeah, yeah I'm coming DeSoto. I'll see you later baby."

Clementine grimaced in disgust. "Well that was odd. So were we going to see who was in the car?"

Juliet who had been standing under Akio's front paws began walking over to it. "I think I'll do that. I'm the smallest so I could get in easily." She walked over to the door of the car and began to paw at it.

The door opened letting out a cloud of cigar smoke. The man who was in the car was large wearing glasses and a dark suit; a cigar at his lips. He leaned over and picked Juliet up by the scruff of her neck. "Some stray cat?"

Is this Sykes?

That is Sykes.

Is he dangerous?

I'll let you be the judge of that.

Sykes was peering down at her pulling the cigar from his lips and blowing smoke in her face. "You have odd eyes, cat. I guess I can use you as a chew toy for Roscoe and DeSoto."

Chew Toy? Juliet tried to twist herself out of Sykes's grip when he tossed her in the back seat.

Coming up to the car was a man wearing a battered old coat with bad teeth; he was holding a box.

Juliet could hear Sykes talking to the man about money and tried to crawl over the back of the seat to jump through the window when Sykes knocked her back.

Akio was looking in the direction the man had come from and walked down a set of steps where he saw Roscoe and DeSoto. This place doesn't seem right for some reason. We should get Juliet out of that car before something bad happens. He heard DeSoto snarl as a small orange paw came out and struck him across the nose.

Clementine squirmed past him when she saw Roscoe again. However, Roscoe wasn't paying any attention to her and was busy trying to intimidate a dog wearing a red scarf. "Roscoe, do you think I could talk to you for a minute?"

"In a minute…"

"No, now." She got in front of him and started to push him towards the door.

"Look at you getting you getting told off by your girlfriend." The speaker was a Chihuahua.

Roscoe growled at him. "You better watch it, pipsqueak."

"Who's the guy in the car?"

"Sykes."

"Who's Sykes?"

"My master."

"Obviously, but who is he?"

"He's the one that idiot who lives here owes money to."

"So he's a loan shark? Akio, we need to get Juliet out of that car."

From outside the car horn honked.

"Well baby I hate to leave you again, but duty calls."

Akio was a bit quicker then Clementine and followed Roscoe and DeSoto out of the building, but he wasn't fast enough to catch up with the car which was already driving away.

Juliet sank her nails into the leather of the car's interior to keep herself from sliding around when she heard growling coming from the back seat. She peeked around the seat to see Roscoe and DeSoto glaring at her. "Which one of you is Roscoe?"

"Me."

"Ok, so you like my friend right? The gold puff ball?"

"Yeah, I guess she'd kinda cute."

Juliet saw from the corner of her eye that DeSoto was licking his chops. "Well if you keep your buddy from eating me I'll tell you how to get her to like you back."

You're really going to sacrifice your friend to this animal?

Of course not. I'm going to tell him all the things Clementine doesn't like. "Ok, so she loves it when you skirt around how you feel."

Roscoe glared over at DeSoto who still looked hungry. "Go on."

"And if you remember that other dog that was with us if you harass him she'll like that too."

"I thought he'd be a friend of hers."

"Oh no they hardly get along most of the time." She had to sink her claws into the upholstery again when the car swerved around a corner.

"Anything else?"

"Act tough around her. She's a sucker for a tough guy. I think that's pretty much it, questions?"

"Why don't you go bring her to me?"

"Gladly." That doofus just gave me the perfect excuse to leave.

The car stopped in front of a large dank building As soon as the car door opened Juliet jumped out.

Sykes didn't even seem to notice that she'd gone and unlocked the door of the building.

Clementine had managed to get Akio's attention and had gotten him to go back to the docks. "Its late right now I'm sure if we go look in the morning we'll have a better chance."

"Better chance at what?" The dog with the red scarf was looking at them in curiosity.

"We're going to look for Sykes tomorrow. He has a friend of ours."

"You can't go look for Sykes on your own. He'll turn you into Doberman chow."

"We're willing to risk that."

"You should really stay here tonight then after we get our stuff for Fagin done then we can help you."

Akio still looked like he wanted to keep going, but allowed Clementine to pull him back.

Inside the house Fagin was under a blanket with the orange kitten on his lap and a book in his hand. He looked over at the dog with the scarf when he heard him come back in. "Well it looks like Dodger found some new friends. More mouths to feed oh boy…."

That night Clementine slept curled up at Akio's side when she was woken up by scratching outside the door. She silently crept over to the door and nosed it open. Out in the darkness she could make out a large shape that looked like a dog.

The shape turned its head to face her; its glowing gold eyes the only source of light in the darkness.

Oh great she's here too. "Get out of here, Chiyo. You're not welcome."

Chiyo didn't make any notice that she'd heard and instead sauntered off.

Sykes was still up going through a folder of people who owed me money when he heard a knock at his door. He grumbled as he set the folder down and walked over to the door running a hand through his hair as he did so. "Who's out there?" When he opened the door he found a woman on his doorstep. "What do you want?"

"Just to talk. You may not remember me I did look different the last time we saw each other."

"Who are you and what do you want? Money?"

"No money just information. Have you seen a girl with mismatched eyes around here? All though I suppose she changed forms."

"There was a cat with mismatched eyes."

Chiyo's eyes narrowed. "And you let her go?"

"Don't yell at me. She jumped out of the car."

"I should have expected as much from a brainless loan shark. The only thing you care about is money." Chiyo heard a gun cock and glanced over at Sykes. "You really should put that down."

"And you better watch who you're calling brainless."

"Shoot me I dare you."

Sykes didn't need to be told twice and fired the gun.

Chiyo had brought up a wall of darkness which absorbed the bullet. "If you're quiet done we can talk sensible. I have no desire to hurt you I just want to know why you let the cat go."

"Why's one hairball so important?"

"She's valuable."

There was a glitter of something in Sykes's eyes. "How valuable?"

"More valuable than anything you think of. So will you go get her?"

"In the morning. I don't know about you, but I need to sleep eventually. By the way I didn't catch your name."

"Don't worry about my name just get the cat." Chiyo waited until Sykes had shut the door again before shifting back into a dog and going down the street.

That morning Juliet woke up in a small bed of grass outside a posh townhouse. She'd gotten very lost after escaping Sykes and had been unable to find her way back to the docks. The sun was an unwelcome sight since she'd only been asleep a few hours. She cracked her eyes open regretting this almost imminently since the bright rays went right in her face.

The door of the townhouse opened and a little girl with red hair came bounding out. The little girl looked over at the patch of grass and walked over to Juliet crouching at her side. "How did you get here, kitty?"

Juliet blinked at the little girl before burying her head in her paws. "What do you want?"

"Are you hungry?" The little girl picked her up and started walking back towards the house. "My name's Jenny. You can come live with me if you want."

"Kid, I'm a stray cat why are you letting me in your house?"

Jenny walked into the kitchen and picked up a gold bowl from the floor. "Let's see what I can find for you to eat?"

An older man wearing a dark suit looked into the kitchen. "Jenny, we're going to be late."

"I'll be there in a minute Winston I need to get this kitty something to eat."

"Oh, Jenny do you really think it's a good idea to bring home a stray cat?"

"It will be fine, Winston." Jenny was mixing a conglomeration of food in a bowl before she poured it into the dish. "It's almost done kitty." She reached into the refrigerator and pulled out a can of whipped cream and added a large dollop to the food. "You'll love this."

Juliet stared at the food bowl for a minute then back up at Jenny. "You expect me to eat this?" She looked back at the bowl before licking a little off the side. Surprisingly it wasn't half bad.

"I have to go now, kitty. Georgette should be up soon you'll like her."

After she'd eaten as much as she could Juliet walked out of the kitchen to explore the rest of the house. "This is a big house. Jenny must come from a wealthy family." She went up the stairs eager to explore the rest of the house. As she went down the hall she found a door that looked like it had something interesting behind it. She had to put a bit of force into getting the door open, but it was still dark inside.

The furnishings in the room were all very high class from the table that was covered in make—up to the large elevated bed. There was something stirring on the bed which caught Juliet's attention. A poodle made her way out of the bed and went over to the table ignoring Juliet at first. She removed the curlers from her hair before blanching at her appearance.

"Are you Georgette?"

The poodle jumped and rounded on Juliet. "Who are you? How did you get in here? Winston, Winston bark bark!"

"Calm down I just want to know if you're Georgette."

"I am….who are you?"

"Juliet….Jenny found me sleeping outside the house and she seems pretty intent on keeping me here."

A scowl came to Georgette's face. "Oh really? Well if you're going to live here we'll need to set up a few rules. You are not to set foot in my room, you will leave keep your distance from me, and you aren't to touch any of my things."

"Ok, ok since I'm in your room I might as well go. You should probably go back to sleep to keep yourself beautiful."

"What was that?"

Juliet ignored her and walked out of the room. "What was her problem? I just wanted to know who she was."

I should have warned you about Georgette. She can be a bitch sometimes. And I'm not just saying that because she's a female dog.

During this Akio and Clementine were out with Dodger and the rest of the dogs, but were more interested in looking for Sykes. Clementine started to go down the street when she felt a paw on her leg. "What is it, kid?"

"Where are you going?"

"I need to find Sykes. He has a friend of mine."

"But you can't go by yourself. He has those big dogs."

"I'm not going by myself Akio is coming with me. Besides we could handle those two ankle biters no problem."

Akio was trying to look for a gap in traffic when Tito and the orange kitten went off towards a limo.

Dodger cleared his throat a bit loudly to get their attention. "If you two are still interested in looking for Sykes you might want to help Tito and the kid first."

"Fine, fine let's go with them." Clementine was having a bit of a difficult time keeping up with Akio who had a longer stride then her. "Could you slow down? My legs are kinda stubby."

"Or I could carry you."

"How would you talk if you're carrying me?"

"It was just a suggestion so you could keep up. Francis is a good actor. A little theatrical, but at least its working." Akio looked into the limo when he saw a window blocking off the back of the limo. "What do you think is back there?"

"I don't know I can't see." Clementine walked up Akio's back to see what he was talking about. "Its probably someone rich."

Akio got back out of the limo in time for the window to roll down. "Well we came with Tito now can we go look for Sykes?"

Jenny had been in the back of the limo. "What are you doing in here kitty?" She squeezed through the window and picked up the kitten. "Why don't you come home with me? I have another kitty that you'll like."

Clementine heard this and was about to jump back into the limo when the driver came back. "That little girl just said she has another cat. Do you think it could be Juliet?"

"Maybe I wouldn't put it past her not to stick around with Sykes."

They were able to weave in and out of traffic until the limo stopped in front of a large white townhouse. Akio pulled Clementine back when she went to follow Jenny into the house.

"Why are you stopping me?"

"We can't just barge in there?" He walked out from behind the limo and went up to the door to start scratching at it.

"You think scratching at the door is going to get them to open it?"

"Look up at the window."

Clementine looked up to see Juliet in the window sill. "What luck. Now how do we get in?"

Juliet had an idea and got out of the window sill. She went back up the steps in search of Georgette and found her coming down the steps. "Georgette, I need you for something."

"What do you want?"

"I need you to get someone to open the door."

"Do it yourself I'm busy."

Juliet frowned at her before going off in search of Winston or Jenny. She found Jenny in the kitchen and pawed at her leg.

"Do you want something kitty?"

"I want you to let me out."

"Are you hungry again?"

"No, I want you to let me out."

Outside Akio was still scratching at the door which finally caught the attention of Winston.

Juliet heard the door open and ran out of the kitchen slinking out the front door. "Well I'm glad that's over with. There's this poodle in there who's really rude."

Akio leaned down and picked her up the scruff her neck.

"I can walk you know."

"Just let him carry you. He's probably happy that he's taller then you for once. So where are we going from here?"

"I thought we'd go pay Sykes a visit. I think I still remember how to get there."

It was dark by the time they finally got back to Sykes's office.

"You need to put me down now, Akio." She landed on her feet before walking over to the office door. "Roscoe, Roscoe come here."

The door cracked open. "What are you doing back here?"

"I brought my friend with me."

Roscoe's stubby tail was wagging and he walked out of the building.

Clementine looked over at Juliet in confusion. "What's going on Juliet?"

"Your friend gave me some pointers."

"Really? Well I'm not interested."

DeSoto was also looking out the door.

Clementine took a step back as Roscoe went towards her. "Well, I don't know how to tell you this, but I'm really not interested." She was starting to feel backed into a corner and smacked Roscoe across the nose. "Back off, ok." Her response was to be swiped at with a heavy paw.

DeSoto had now left the building and was making his way over to them.

"Maybe we should get out of here."

"What happened to the big talk about them being ankle biters?"

Before either Roscoe or DeSoto could go any further there was the heavy footfalls coming from the building. Roscoe turned to Clementine. "You better get out of here unless you want Sykes to get a hold of you."

That sounded like a good idea since Sykes could probably easily take them out.

Lurking in the darkness was Chiyo. She looked in Sykes's direction with a snarl on her face. I'm going to have to have a talk with this stupid loan shark.