KPJ5 - The Mew Chronicles

by LemurKat

Loki's lust for power has grown, and now he wants to become a God. Can anything be done to prevent disaster and destruction?

7. The closing Chronicles (part A)

/Tragedy struck the tiny community of Magenta Valley today, when wildfire erupted through the township, vaporising all in its path. It appears the volcano Mount Aolale, dormant for the last four hundred years, erupted at midnight, covering the town in boiling fire. The population of Magenta Valley, stood at five hundred, and so far, no survivors have been found. And in other news…\\

Kameron stared at me, muting the television. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" He asked.

I blinked, a little distractedly, "that it really was a bad idea to eat that second chocolate sundae?"

"No, dimwit!" He sounded good-natured in his insult. "That this sounds rather unusual, like, perhaps, something that might have been done by a certain fiend of ours?"

"Loki…" I hissed.

Kameron nodded, brushing his curly hair from his eyes. His long, dark hair had got almost unmanageable of late, but he seemed most reluctant to have it cut. "It would explain why he never paid you, Jimi and Rowan a little visit…" It was evident from the tone of Kameron's voice that Rowan was not his favourite person. And with good reason, my childhood friend had shown him nothing but disdain since the two of them had met.

"I had wondered about that," I moved forward, resting my head on my hands. "And I was also trying to work out why Loki never seemed to find the Mew before us – it was always at just the right moment to beat us up."

"Impeccable timing?" Kameron replied, leaning back and crouching in front of me (I was on the bed, he kneeling on the floor). He shook his head. "No, I did some thinking while you were away, Kat, and I've been talking to Freyja."

I still felt a twinge of jealousy at him saying her name. But I swallowed it and nodded. "Yes?"

"Well, it appears that she dreams of Loki every night, yes? And has been ever since she came here. Now, remember how the Alakazam planted a seed of itself in your head? I think that's what he's done."

I was so startled at the revelation that I almost fell off the bed. "Of course! I mean, we weren't exactly hiding our destinations very well. I mean, how many times did we teleport off somewhere after looking at the maps and not close the books. Except that last time, and then we took her with us! Oh, why couldn't I see it? How could I be so stupid?"

Kameron placed his arm around my neck, nuzzling my cheek. "Don't be so silly," he whispered, "it was not exactly obvious. I only worked it out from conversing with her for long hours, trying to work out what was wrong in her head."

I squeezed him tightly. "And here I thought you were, err…" I couldn't finish, I buried my head in his shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

He patted me on the back. "I know, and I should've noticed, I guess I did, but it seemed well, unreasonable to me." He grinned, showing his dimples. "I mean, I knew how I felt about you, and I also have the added advantage that I know how you feel about me. I guess I'm getting used to this empathy thing."

"And neither you nor Freyja knew where I went before, and therefore Loki had no way of tracking us!" I exclaimed. "So, we merely have to hide out destination!"

"I think we have to go to Magenta Valley." Kameron stated.

"Why? My remaining sister is not there!"

We had forgotten Fenrill was a part of the conversation. After bringing Jimi and Rowan back to Siryntown University, Jimi had taken up residence in Kameron's room and Rowan was still is hospital, although soon to be discharged. Sam and I were also sharing – but she spent a lot of time in the library and had managed to get herself a part time job, which meant she was not here very often. The other Mew Guardians – Susan, Arielle and Gaijin, had not returned here with us.

"Well, where is she then?"

Fenrill looked distressed. "She is out there," she replied, "but I, I can't find her! I can't feel her!"

"How often does that happen?" I asked.

"I have been unable to feel her since before we began the hunt. Which is why I decided she was to be the last to find. I KNOW she is in Team Rocket's clutches, but I do not know where they hold her prisoner. They have shrouded her from me!"

"This is not a good sign," Kameron voiced his fears. "She could be anywhere in the world…"

"Indeed."

"So, Magenta Valley might offer us a clue?"

Fenrill's face fell. "Very well, let us go there. But please, let us go unannounced this time!"

"Good plan." Kameron agreed. "Should we take Wild with us?"

"My sister must remain with Jimi, but she should also remain hidden from Freyja's eyes. Is there somewhere you can send the two of them?"

I glanced at Kameron, he shrugged. "Is there anyone who might be able to help us in our fight against Loki?"

"There is my brother."

"Your brother?" I queried, then remembered. "MewTwo! Do you think he might be able to help us?"

"Maybe, we can but ask."

"Then someone must go and beg for his help. Since I'm the only one who actually met him, it'll have to be me. I'll take Jimi with me. Kam, do you think you and Rowan could cope with visiting Magenta Valley?"

"Yeah, but I don't think Rowan likes me much. He might try and run me through when you're not around to protect me!"

I threw a pillow at him. "You're big enough and ugly enough to look after yourself Kam. Besides, he's just overly protective because of what happened at Lake Eerie that time."

"I didn't betray you though Kat!" Kameron exclaimed, "I was tricked and trapped!"

"I know that, you know that, and Rowan's been told that, but I think it's time he realised."

"I only hope he will."

"Don't worry," I kissed him on the nose, "I'll send Sam along to keep you guys under control."

"And Freyja?"

"Doctor Warwick can distract her. I'll get him to take her out to the movies or something, something long. We've got to keep her out of the way and distracted as long as possible."

Kameron nodded. "Sounds like a plan, there's only one drawback as far as I can see."

"And what might that be?"

"It means we have to be apart again!"

I squeezed him tight. "It won't be long, and hopefully we'll return with reinforcements. Fenrill, you'll have to go to Magenta Valley with those three, but Wild should be able to Teleport us now – she's certainly got stronger."

She'd been pigging out on chocolate for the last two days, and was now almost verging on hyperactive.

"Is there anyway we can travel together?"

"Only if we send Jimi, Sam and Rowan off by themselves, and none of them are quite as experienced with saving the world as we are! Besides, if Loki's still there, they won't be able to cope."

"You're right," Kameron replied. "But I'm gonna miss you!"

"Oh, come on, it's only for a day or so. Anyway, let's track the others down and tell them what we're planning."

Kameron nodded in agreement, and so it was done.

(Hi everyone! It's Kameron here, Kat finally told me that I could have a go at writing. About time if you ask me! I mean, you've heard from Doctor Warwick and Rowan, yet I'm nearly the main character! So, anyway, whilst she runs off with Wild to talk to her old friend, MewTwo, I'm off to Magenta Valley to look at a devastated village, in hope of finding clues. Sound exciting? It should!)

Magenta Village did not look too good. The main street had disappeared entirely, leaving in its wake naught but a few very charred bricks. The fire, it appeared, had turned the rest to dust and blown it away on the wind. Rowan scowled.

"I don't see why we had to come here!" He said. He had only been discharged from hospital that morning, and I was beginning to wish they had kept him longer. Perhaps sleep and fluids would be good for him, but it seemed he was as resilient as Kat and I. And he had insisted on coming along. He had also tried to insist that he accompany Kat and Jimi, but she, bless her, had been adamant – it was I that was going to be cursed with his company. Anybody would suspect that she might be trying to push us together in the hopes of us becoming friends. I suspected she would be sorely mistaken.

Samantha was very quiet, still looking the tomboy. In fact, she looked so much the tomboy that Rowan had not even tried to hit on her yet. I was beginning to wonder if he was running a fever. From what I knew of him (And what Fenrill had told me) anyone would think that he would be unable to control himself around anybody of the opposite gender, no matter how non-feminine they looked.

That was all beside the point. What was the point was that the little village of Magenta Valley had been reduced to ruins. A few blocks out of the main centre, the houses still stood. The brick ones, anyway. Nothing remained of the wooden buildings but scorched shells. It was Rowan that made the discovery first. The nosy kid had ducked into the nearest house, probably looking for something to steal.

"Hey, guys!" He shouted, his voice sounding muffed, "look what I found!"

I glanced at Sam, and she nodded, then both of us hurried after him. What we saw was horrendously freaky:

The family of this house had been inside when the wall of fire hit. They had remained in their house, hoping the bricks would protect them from the heat. They had been wrong. Although the flames had not actually raced through the house, the heat had. In the living room, or the shell of one, a woman clung to her small child. As Rowan walked over to them, the mere whisper of wind caused by his movement, made the ash scatter, and the human figures disintegrated.

"Your friend did this?" Rowan asked, his voice fragile, frightened. There was terror in his eyes.

"So I have guessed." I replied, as calmly as I could. The problem was, it was very hard for me to remain calm. Although I could shut it out if I concentrated hard enough, on the edges of my hearing I could make out the screams in terror as the villagers realised the impending doom. I could feel the cold shiver of fear, the bitter taste of terror and the nauseating scent of death. Closing my eyes, I bit my lip to fight off the memories, I could not faint, not in front of Rowan.

Rowan, however appeared not to notice, as he was busy rummaging through the peoples' belongings. Most of it was in a similar state as the people, well baked, and naught but ash.

"What are you doing?" Sam scowled, glaring at him.

I, mean while, was leaning against the wall, biting my lip and trying to think not of pain and torment and death but of Kataryna, of her beautiful teal eyes and golden hair. I brought an image of her to mind and there I held it. It worked – the darkness vanished, for a few moments, into nothing but a dull background throb.

"I'm searching for clues," Rowan snapped, "what did you think I was doing?"

"Stealing their valuables," Sam replied, sounding not in the slightest guilty at the thought.

Rowan stared at her and then his gaze turned to me. I could see the anger in his eyes, the ill-disguised contempt, and feel it as true as a needle to the heart. He was Kat's childhood friend, and he could not accept me for what I was. What I had been.

"I think that's more up Kameron's alley," he said, "since he was noted to be a common thief."

I had to struggle to keep from retorting, but it was not hard – for there was no response to that comment. I had been a common thief, or an uncommon one, there was no denying that.

"Will you two children stop it?" Sam scowled, before we'd even begun this "it" she was talking about. "Many people have died here, I think you should set aside your childish comments and behaviour and consider what interest Loki may have had in this little township."

Rowan scowled, but I was somewhat perturbed myself. Here I was getting blamed and it had, after all, been Rowan making the snide comments.

"Is this village famous for anything?" Rowan asked, "or is it just some dump in the middle of nowhere?"

His attitude really was beginning to annoy me. He just seemed to show no sense of mourning for all the poor innocents who had perished here. Of course, I could not sense that deeply into his emotions, it was possible he had just buried his remorse beneath disdain.

Suddenly Sam clicked her fingers. "I remember!" She exclaimed. "They mine sun stones here!"

"Sun stones? What's a sunstone?" I asked, feeling somewhat foolish.

"It's a stone used to evolve certain Pokemon – like Flower types. Quite rare. This is the only place in the world where it exists in large enough qualities to mine. And its valuable not only because of its evolution properties, but because it glows ever so brightly, better then a moon stone and is almost as rare."

"You're beginning to sound like Doctor Warwick," I grinned, "been spending a lot of time together?"

She blushed a vivid scarlet red. That was enough answer for me, I could sense the warmth she felt when I mentioned his name. It outshone the fear and death – mainly because that, although strong, was not coming from a current source, but from instead a memory.

Rowan groaned. "So what if he's after a Sun Stone? What use would this all-powerful, god-like monster want with a mere stone?"

I did not answer, although I knew the answer. The Sun Stone was the key ingredient for creating Shadow Stones. The most dangerous and powerful Evolution stones in the world. There was only one known to be in existence, and I had destroyed it, dropping it in molten lava (oh, I guess we forgot to mention that… but we could hardly keep such a dangerous object just lying around, could we?). Loki, however, had broken into the creator's, one Doctor Krakenstein (now deceased), home and stolen it, and we had reclaimed it from him. It was possible that Loki had hidden away some of the documents containing its creation. We had already learnt that Doctor Krakenstein kept meticulous notes about everything, we still had his Eeveelution diary, which made a passing reference to the Shadow Stone's initial ingredient, although we did not know what to do with the Sun Stone once we had it. Besides, there were some things we definitely did not want to experiment with!

"Maybe he has a Vileplume he wants to evolve?" Sam ventured.

"It makes no difference," I replied a little too quickly. "We have to find out where he went with it. And because he can fly, he's going to be very hard to track…"

"You don't think he left a note saying, "taken the Sun Stone to Barling Island - do you?" Rowan chuckled. "Or maybe he left us a map, marked with a big X." Rowan almost fell over laughing. "Nah, he's long gone and I betcha none of us have any idea where he is."

I frowned. "This is no time for mirth, Rowan, besides, maybe Fenrill can help us – she's a stronger psychic then me. Where is Fenrill anyway?"

At that point we all realised we had not seen the Mew for some time now. It was almost as though she had vanished into smoke. Sam drew out her Pokeball, releasing her Mew. The Rainforest Mew had not quite recovered from having her powers drained, but although weak, she still retained some psychic prowess.

"Mya, can you sense where Loki has gone?" She asked.

I received a flash of fear from the little greenish Mew. It stared at her wide-eyed. "Don't make me go near him again. He nasty and reek of evil."

"I'm not going to make you go near him," Sam explained, gently patting her little Mew. "I just am wondering I you know whereabouts he might be."

"Good long way away, long distance. But he was here. I feel him here." She shuddered, her frail body cuddling close in Sam's arms. Sam stroked her reassuringly.

"Do not fear, little one, I won't let him hurt you again. And we will destroy him."

"It's a shame Wild ain't here," Rowan sighed, "she would've been more helpful…"

"It's not Mya's fault," Sam explained, "she was just traumatised by the whole experience, as I'm sure you would've been, had you ever met Loki, so do not judge yet, okay?"

"Right!" Rowan nodded. "But can we get out of here now? This place is giving me the creeps!"

"Hear, hear!" I exclaimed, relieved to finally be leaving the charcoal house of ashes.

Once outside the empathic curse was weaker, although ever prevalent. I called for Fenrill, and after a moment she appeared, bouncing on a bubble through the air.

"You must come with me immediately," she Sent, staring at me with those piercing blue eyes.

Sam had already recalled her Mew, for the poor thing was too scared and frail to be out of its ball for long – especially in this rather adverse environment. It was especially adverse to psychics like her and myself. I felt a sickness in the pit of my stomach and a headache was beginning to throb its way across my temples. It felt a little like the onset of the 'flu, except that nothing I could take for it would relieve me from it. Except perhaps heavy drugs, that would dull my mind.

As I have said before, Empathy is as much a curse as a blessing.

"Where to?" I asked her, and she did a little loop de loop, before flipping away, landing neatly every thirty feet or so onto the ground. The landscape was completely and utterly barren here. Aside from the brick houses, all the trees and wooden things had been instantaneously vaporised and all that was left of the people were dark shadows on the ground or the brick walls.

Which was extremely freaky in itself, but better then ash statues.

Glancing at my companions, I bounded after her, struggling to keep up, whilst also avoiding to step on the dark human shapes on the hard, heat-packed ground. It was almost as though the people had been vaporised, and all that remained was their shadows. I knew that was not exactly true.

This was plainly no volcanic explosion though, for the heat had been more directed, not to mention that their was no molten lava or hardened magma in sight. Just this barren landscape.

"Where are we going?"

"To the mines," Fenrill answered. And then we were left trailing her tail.

The mines had clearly been attacked too, although not with searing heat. It looked as though some enormous claw had taken hold of the rock face and just torn it free. I could barely suppress a shudder, the immense power!

"That's pretty cool," Rowan admitted, "I'm glad he who did that ain't around anymore!"

Fenrill had already vanished into its gloomy darkness. So, we had little choice but to follow.

Inside it was dark, and smelt odd, almost like sulphur. The emotional fingerprint was lesser here – plainly there had been noone here when Loki had struck. The place was in shambles, however, chunks of rock littered the ground, and the support beams on the ceiling seemed to be cracked and bending a little under the weight. I began to feel a little uncomfortable, but was hardly about to let Rowan see my trepidation.

The good thing was, I received the sense of nervousness from him too. I flashed him a smile for a moment, trying to reassure him, but he looked away, unwilling to accept it.

Well, that was fine then. "It's kinda dark in here," Sam commented after a moment. "Does anyone have a fire Pokemon?"

Flipping a Pokeball into the air, Rowan released Mercury, his beautiful Ninetails. She glowed with the strange luminiscence that fire pokemon have when they are super-heated, and haughtily she gazed around the corridor. She did not seem to keen on the dark, deep tunnel, but Fenrill was already leaving and if we did not follow, we would lose her, so after a moment, Rowan urged her onwards.

Most reluctantly, holding her tails in a fashion that clearly said she was not pleased with this state of affairs and felt we were teaching her quite unfairly, she stalked off down the tunnel in front of us.

After a moment, the destruction became, if anything, worse. Some of the caves were entirely blocked off by fallen rubble, others almost choking. There was some dust in the air – most of it disturbed by our passing.

"Nini!" Mercury barked, and we hurried to her side, she stood in front of a blocked tunnel, Fenrill floating above her head. "Ni!" She added urgently, pointing one leg, the way a pointer dog might.

"There's something behind there?" Rowan asked, crouching down beside her.

"Very good, Einstein," Fenrill replied wryly. "So hurry up and clear it away!"

I glanced at Rowan. "Got any Pokemon good for digging?"

For a moment he frowned, then shook his head. "Not really. I mean, Goldstreak could blow them away – but then whatever was on the other side would be likely to get injured, so that's not a good idea…" He looked at Sam, "how about you?"

"I have a Tauros," she said cheerfully, "but I'm not quite sure how one of those could successfully help in this cavern. What we need is a Nidoqueen or king or a Rhyhorn. Or some similar ground type."

"I guess then hands and claws it is," I replied brightly, "if we set all of our pokemon to the task, it shouldn't take too long."

Mercury stuck her nose in the air, and shook her head. She was definitely not going to engage in such horrendous physical activity.

"I think we've forgotten something important," I reminded them, "Fenrill, why don't you transform into a Poliwrath or something?"

"I wondered when you would ask," Fenrill replied, assuming Poliwrath form, and easily lifting a few of the rocks from the top. She dropped these neatly just in front of Mercury's nose, making the Ninetails glare at her and snarl. "Oops," she said lightly. "I'll have to try better next time." The fox pokemon snarled, then turned tail and stalked back down the tunnel, plunging us into total darkness.

"Great, now our light source has gone." I sighed.

"Oh, never mind, you can always just bend over and pull down your pants, so people can see the light shining out of your…."

"How very mature," I interjected. "I think you were stranded too long in the middle of nowhere. It seems to have addled your brain."

Rowan narrowed his eyes, and I could feel his fury rising. Around me he was always like a spring, stretched to tension point. "You think you're so wonderful, don't you, just because you managed to catch Kataryna."

"What?" I was surprised, slightly, I knew he was jealous, but I didn't think he would bring it up here. "She chose me, thank you very much!"

"Yeh, right, you manipulated and lured her into your bed. You're just lucky I wasn't here. I've been her friend her whole life, and you don't even know her, yet you waltzed on in, tricked her and imprisoned her."

"I did no such thing!" I was indignant, he was basically insulting everything I held dear. "Kat and I love each other, as you well know!"

You could cut the jealous exuding from him with a knife. Unfortunately, not only could I sense it, but I was experiencing it too, something that happens when emotion is powerful enough. And it was fuelling my own fire.

Rowan had no real reply to that, but he made an effort at it anyway. "Well, I'll have you know, Kambell, that last time we were together, she shared my blankets with me. And there was not a lot between us, I might add." He winked so as I would recognise the implied innuendo.

I just sighed, "you were unconscious from freezing waters," I said shaking my head, "I do not think that really counts. And my name is Kameron, as you well know!"

"Whatever, you just have everything you want in life, don't you? Well, did you ever stop to think that maybe the rest of us have feelings too?"

I paused, forcing myself to keep calm. "Are you trying to say that you fancy Kat? Is that what this is all about?"

He looked away, unable to meet my gaze and I knew I was right.

Suddenly a great spray of water struck us hard, sending both of us tumbling over and against the wall in a disheveled mix of arms and legs. Fenrill, still in Poliwrath form, stood there, hands on her hips.

"Shut up and forget your stupid courtship battles!" Fenrill shrieked, her voice high pitched with frenzy. Sam was trying hard not to laugh as we disentangled ourselves. "I brought you here for a purpose! There is a living being behind this rock fall somewhat more important then your stupid mate rivalry!"

Feeling suitably abashed, we struggled to our feet, our clothing dripping and our hair hanging in our eyes. I felt I understood Rowan a little better now though. It was just jealousy, and he felt I didn't deserve Kataryna. I wondered what he had done that meant he was worthy of her.

"Thanks for the cold shower, furrball," Rowan said, mostly cheerful, "you really washed us down…"

"Right, now move this damned wall!" And the Poliwrath started shifting rocks again.

I brought out my Pokeballs, releasing my Pokemon. Azriel playfully started kicking one of the rocks, and tackling it as though it was edible, and Shadeon stared at the wall.

"Shaaaaa," she hissed.

"The Shadeon wishes to go through and see if she can help on the other side."

"No!" I replied quickly, as I was starting to get impressions of fear and discomfit from beyond the wall. "Sorry Shadeon, but you're quite terrifying, to both Pokemon and humans. I know you just want to help."

"Shaa shaaaa," she whimpered sadly, and then recalled herself, leaving me feeling terrible. Azriel frowned at me for a moment, before resuming his assault on the rock.

"Marrill, Dancer, Lucifer," I called out the remainder of my Pokemon – none of which would be overly useful, except to carry the smaller rocks outside the caverns. Lucifer immediately cowered behind my legs, whimpering. It seemed my Dark dog was afraid of the dark… typical…

"We need some light in here," I reminded Rowan, "could you perhaps coax your Ninetails back to help? She can just watch if she won't make herself useful in any other way."

For once, Rowan agreed with me, although he did not seem too happy with it. He whistled, and after the longest moment the graceful fox came walking elegantly back towards us, illuminating the dark corridors. Lucifer immediately relaxed. He was a fire type too, but being only a baby, had not developed the strength to glow yet.

Primly, Mercury sat down, holding her tails aloft so they would not get dirty off the cave floor.

By the light of the Ninetails, we went about our business. Fenrill and us humans removed chunks of rock, and Azriel, Dancer, Electra, Fidget and Marril helped ferry it out of the way. Goldstreak had difficulty in the tunnels, as its wingspan was too great, and Lucifer did not want to leave my side. Titus, the Meowth that Rowan had brought back with him, found a small round rock that glowed, and crouched over it possessively, staring at it and growling at is alternately.

"Sun stone," Samantha said, pointing to it. "There should be more of them here, but I guess Loki was thorough in his thievery."

Titus mantled his prize and growled some more.

After about half an hour of solid work, we managed to clear an opening, big enough for one person to climb through. Samantha was nominated for the job – being the smallest of us three. We helped her up, providing lift for her feet, and then, with Rowan recalling Titus, handed her the Sun stone, to help illuminate her find.

We could not watch what happened, of course, but I could sense it. I could feel the fear and loneliness switch to confusion and then to joy. However, I could not seek further information on the being beyond the wall – whether it be human, pokemon or something else entirely.

"Right, we're coming back now!" I heard Samantha calling in a muffled voice, and realised for the first time that what we were saying and doing could be heard, just as clearly, on the other side. I felt a blush of embarrassment as I realised how childish and stupid our argument must have sounded.

A moment later a young girl crawled through the opening, and half slid, half fell, down the rock face. Rowan and I both raced to catch her, with Rowan being faster then I.

He caught her gently around the waist and eased her to the ground. I hoped for a moment that he wasn't trying anything to get more "friendly" with her. I needn't have worried, as soon as she touched ground they jumped apart.

She was tall, almost as tall as me, certainly taller then Kat, with shoulder length mousy-brown hair and somewhat askew glasses. I suppose she might also have been pretty – but with all the grime and dust covering her features, it was hard to tell.

"Hi," I said, "I'm Kameron, and this is…"

Rowan interrupted me, stepping forward and bowing formally, before taking her hand and making an attempt at kissing it (although I suspect he kissed his thumb instead, since her hands were quite as dirty as ours). "Greetings, my name is Rowan, and I am pleased to be of service."

"Oh, cut the rubbish," Sam sprang down beside us. "How nice of you to help me down, oh, but Sam can do it herself, can't she just?" She grinned, putting an arm around the girl. "Now, don't go scaring her, okay? She's had a pretty gruelling time in there and we don't want to make it worse, do we just?"

Shyly, the girl suddenly realised she was still holding Rowan's hand and jerked back, adjusting her glasses nervously. "Hi," she said softly, "I'm glad you saved me. Err, I'm Coral, and I was visiting this village with my best friend." Suddenly her shoulders shook and a tear ran down her cheek, cutting a furrow in the grime.

Sensing her sorrow (and seeing it, I mean, come on… I'm not stupid!), I patted her on the shoulder. I didn't know what to say – I mean what do you say to someone who has just lost everything in a terrible catastophe? Including her closest friend?

Rowan saved me the trouble of thinking of something. "I'm sorry to hear that," he replied, "we must fetch you somewhere warm straight away." He glanced pointedly at Fenrill, once again in Mew form.

"You don't understand!" She exclaimed, pushing me away. "Kate's not dead – it took her!"

This startled all of us. "It?"

"The Demon – it was like a terrible beast from Hell! It rose up at the head of the valley and from its hands sent a blast of horrible fire. We ran – along with many others, and the Demon herded them together and then an eerie purple glow surrounded them and they disappeared, seeming to be sucked into this strange device he was holding. It looked kinda like a large horseshoe… Kate and I were on the outskirts, and we ran, but Kate slipped and I didn't notice. Not until it was too late and he'd captured her. I ducked into the cave mouth, and he came in after me, his hands tearing huge chunks from the walls, even though he was not much taller then any of us. I ducked down a short corridor, realised how short it was and whirled in terror, only to be almost hit by tons of falling rock. One knocked me unconscious, and when I came too I was lying in this little dead end corridor with a huge pile of rocks beside me." She swayed a little, and it was then that I noticed the dried blood on her temple.

"Wee need to get you to a doctor!" I exclaimed, "and then we'll see about saving your friend. Can you help with that, Fenrill?"

"I can try, but I will need to try through her mind like I tried through yours, Rowan. It will be hard for her, especially in her weakened state."

"Somehow I'll think she'll agree to it!" I replied, "but let's get her somewhere safe first."

"Agreed," Rowan said loudly and quickly.

In a strange part of the Orange Islands

Somehow, against all odds, Jimi and I (yes, its me Kat again, in case you didn't guess already) had found the island. Wild had been unable to teleport us there, explaining that their was some sort of psychic barrier preventing that sort of behaviour. So, instead we had hired a small Seadra Paddleboat (which brought back memories of my dear Razor) and made our way there the hard way, Wild leading us in the form of a beautiful, sleek Dolfin.

The island was much the way I remembered it, with the thick rainforest-like bush surrounding the outside and masking the lower portions of the great mountain that rose directly from the middle. The tip of the mountain was lost in cloud, but still fancied I could see a shape up there, a Charizard circling, ever watchful.

The place impressed Jimi, probably because he was used to the cold and dreary forests of northern Scandinavia, and, as usual, it was raining, but only lightly this time.

Firstly, I showed Jimi the tree, which still stood there, hung with pokeballs and collars, bows and other scraps of these poor Pokemons' human existence. The Pidgeotto on guard duty appeared to recognise me, and swooped down, cooing to have its head scratched and glaring at Jimi as though he had come to cause enormous pain upon us. Wild sat on his shoulder, currently in the form of a Pidgey. These versatile birds had adapted to live across the ocean wave, feeding on small fish as they came near the surface and also on the leavings of human picnickers. She was faintly bluish in this form, and had a forked tail, but the Pidgeotto did not appear to recognise her as anything more then a common Pidgey.

"Hi," I said, "can you please pass my greetings on to Mewtwo, and tell him I have a surprise for him, and also a rather large request…"

"Ottoo!" The bird agreed, and flapped over the high wall. A moment later a gateway opened along it, and Mewtwo, clad in a black cape, stepped out.

Wild let out a shriek, one of both joy and a little fear, I suspect, and immediately transformed into her normal form.

"My brother," she whispered, "Fenrill has told me much about you."

He bowed to her, and smiled at me. Greetings Kat-samma, what an unexpected delight. And greetings too to my sister of the ocean waves. He turned his eyes to Jimi and I sensed some anger there. But who is this that you have brought with you?

"This is Jimi, he's Wild's Guardian, and my friend."

You are welcome here, Kataryna Lemusu. But, I must confess I have some misgivings that you chose to bring a friend along with you.

"I'm sorry, but Wild would never have come without him."

Mewtwo nodded sagely. Agreed, but that does not mean I have to approve of your decision. I just hope your friend can keep quiet about our location.

"Of course I can," Jimi snickered, "I barely know where we are at any rate."

At that Mewtwo smiled. I am glad you brought my sister to me. Tentatively, the little Mew zipped over to him and gave him a light hug. She seemed unsure, which was to be expected – although he was their brother, he was also a genetically created mutant, developed by Team Rocket.

"I think there's someone here who'll be glad to be back," I said with a grin, producing Chiko's Pokeball and releasing the Chikorita. She took one look around at us and:

"CHIKO!"

in delight. We both laughed. A small head was poking around beside Mewtwo's legs, another Chikorita. Nervously, it seemed, Chiko strolled over and touched noses with this new Pokemon, then the two had a quiet conversation.

You must come in, Mewtwo said, gesturing, but first you have forgotten something.

"Ah, yes," I drew out all my Pokeballs, "come on out Dragosi and Flora, Florion and, err, Ootachi!"

I had brought most of my Pokemon with me, especially since Florion rather wanted a break, but had left Ozmos and the eevees in the capable hands of Doctor Warwick, who had entrusted them to behave whilst he took Freyja out to a movie. I think they were planning on seeing "Pearl Harbour", it was long enough, at any rate. I think my Florion was rather glad to be away from the children for a while, and it would only be a few hours. I carefully sized down my Pokeballs and hid them away behind a bush, knowing how hated such things were in this village. Then I grinned at Jimi.

"You're about to see what life is like for ex-trained Pokemon."

He looked puzzled, until he remembered our earlier argument and shook his head solemnly.

And then we entered the village.

It was much more festive then last time, and I was almost bowled over by the Clefable running over to hug me.

"Yooou have re-turrrrned!" It trilled.

"I have come with a request for your Elder," I explained. "It is not a good request, but it is a most important one. I require his help."

Around us Pokemon were starting to gather, some coming out from the ruined buildings, others materialising from behind trees. Amongst our collection stood a strange two headed Pokemon – one head being on its tail, and on the back of this crouched a very small Cleffa. It was the first time I had ever seen the baby Clefairy, and it was an endearing wee fellow, currently sucking its thumb.

They all stood there, staring at me, waiting for me to speak.

Jimi began to look slightly nervous.

"I remember last time I came here there was a tale – the tale of the Seven Sisters, the Seven Mews." Most of the assembled Pokemon nodded in agreement. "Well, I am here to report that they have all awoken."

At this, Wild flitted into the air and did a somersault. There was a cheer going up around the group. I put up my hand to silence them.

"There is bad news however. For a human, like myself, only cruel in his intentions, is attempting to steal the power of the Mews. He has already claimed the powers of four of them.

The three that remain are Wild here; Fenrill, who has been my companion through it all and your Elder's sister-mother. The rest, although still alive, are weak."

After a shocked gasp, the masses had fallen into deep reverent silence.

"So the human, who calls himself Loki, has now obtained the skills of fire, ice, jungle and air. He is almost unbeatable – which is why I have come here, for we need your help, Mewtwo. Only you, the most powerful Pokemon that has ever lived, could help defeat this monster."

Silence.

And then Mewtwo stepped forward, a solemn look on his face. I knew your coming here was not a social occasion, he broadcast to us all, and I shall naturally assist you – for I know that this evil can only come from the roots of Team Rocket, and they are my eternal enemy. Also, I must help my Sisters, and the world, for if a human can gain the powers of the Mews, he surely shall be a God. He gulped. But I must complete my affairs here before I can face your great evil.

"That's okay," I replied, "we have to find and rescue your mother first – the last Mew unaccounted for. Then we shall lure Loki into a trap, and spring it, bringing you upon him. We shall send for you when the time is right."

He nodded majestically. I thank you for your honesty. And also for keeping my sister's safe. Please, tell Fenrill that I miss her, and would love to see her again. She and I were more then sisters.

And with this final, almost cryptic, speech, he turned from us and back towards his Pokemon. Now, Pokemon of the free village, you have the chance to fight back at those that have hurt you. A man has declared himself a God, and is hurting us all to gain what is not his by rights. Therefore, we must learn to fight, for he will surely not come alone.

No, I thought, he probably won't. But I did not know then quite how offensive his army was to be. Kameron was about to enlighten me.

"And did they convince you that Trained Pokemon are less likely to survive on the outdoors?" Kameron asked, leaning his head on the back of the chair he was perched, backwards on.

"Nope," Jimi replied cheerfully, stroking the Ootachi's head, "okay, so those ones weren't capable of living wild, not properly, they have civilisation, of a sort – heck, they even had a primitive form of agriculture. That's not the point, less humanised Trained Pokemon, like Kat's Seadra, would survive in the wild, no problemo, and be stronger because of it. I mean, Kat and Rowan, you remember how you found him? Yes?"

"Yeh," Rowan replied, idly flicking a peanut shell onto the floor where it was immediately pounced on by Lucifer. "The poor thing was sick. It would've died if we didn't catch it. And look at Razor now, he's a big strong Kingdra!"

"My point entirely," Jimi said, staring pointedly at me.

"Anyway," Kameron interjected, "so he said he would do it?"

"Yep," I replied, scratching Flora's chin. "Agreed to it straight away and everything. Even offered to bring along some fighters."

Coral, as shy as she was, sat cross-legged on the bed, a fresh bandage across her cut forehead. Sam sat beside her, keeping her company. The poor girl must have been somewhat shaken, after all she had been through, and to be thrown into the midst of our rather bizarre little group with all its inner bickering must have been rather stressful!

Doctor Frances paced over to the fridge, pushing away Titus, who was sitting in front of it expectantly, with his foot. As he got some milk for his coffee, he said; "next time you plan on visiting such a fascinating social structure of Pokemon, Kataryna, please do include me, as I would be most fascinated in studying the diversity and altruism, not to mention then dietry habits."

Sam threw a pillow at him, "speak English Professor," she said, grinning slyly.

"Why, I thought I was," he answered. "You really do not want to get me started. But please, I would much rather be studying a Pokemon civilisation then watching a long and drawn out movie to stroke America's ego, as if it wasn't already stroked enough."

"Did you enjoy stroking Freyja's ego?" Rowan asked, wickedly. We all scowled at him. He held up his hands in defeat. "Okay, sorry, but he had it coming, you've got to admit it!"

"So, children," I began, "what's the plan now? We have MewTwo's agreement to help, we have learnt that Loki is attempting to recreate the Shadow Stone. We can only expect that he either needs to make a lot of them, or that it is a highly risky process, for he has gathered hundreds of the things. We can just assume that he had obtained an item ball."

"Fenrill has said she can find Kate," Kameron pointed out, "but we need to hurt Coral more. You know how bad it was, Rowan, would you be willing to let her undertake it?"

Rowan shuddered at the memory. "I wouldn't wish it upon anyone," he replied, "but it is necessary. I just wish there was another way." He glanced up at Coral, who, clad in one of Kameron's shirts (my clothes were too small for her, since I stood a mere five seven), had polished up quite nicely. She had not said much though, preferring to listen. I was not surprised, to anyone not already part of our little group we must appear horribly rude and callous. At least to each other.

Frances sat down. "Please," he said plaintively, "let me come along with you on the next expedition. I promise I won't tell Freyja anything. Just don't make me see that film again!"

I grinned, "calm down, Prof, you won't ever have to watch it again, okay? I thought you'd enjoy a date with such a pretty thing." I winked at him.

Surprisingly, he shuddered, "I guess you thought wrong. Oh, she's pretty alright, but she's kinda…" he paused, as though searching for something that didn't sound too cruel. "Vacant," he settled on.

"Yeh, sexy chick, but it'd be like dating a doll, hey, ouch!" Rowan clutched his leg. "Kat!"

"Can we just keep this to topic please," I sighed.

"We don't want to have to drag you off to a cold shower, Row," Jimi grinned.

"Aww, and I wanted you to join me too, Jimbo."

Coral was looking completely confused and a bit bemused. I didn't blame her. "Err," she said tentatively, "you are going to help rescue my friend, aren't you?"

"Of course, ignore them, they're just all deranged," Sam grinned, patting her on the shoulder.

"Okay," I tried once again to get things on topic, "we have to locate Kate's presence, and hopefully find Loki as well. I talked to Mewtwo, and he gave me directions to the old laboratory, where he was born, but I have a feeling that the Mew would have been moved by now, I just don't know where too. I'd guess somewhere isolated, and it is also guarded against psychic transmissions, because the Mews can't sense her. So, we need to get every psychic Pokemon together we can manage, and try and pinpoint using a map where the barrier is."

"I hate to point this out," Fenrill sent to those of us who could understand, "but the world is a very, very big place and I would strongly suspect that it would take many eons for psychics to scan the whole world. Do you know how much chocolate you would need?"

"Well, can you think of a better idea?"

"You know three Team Rocket members on a semi-friendship level, four if you count Kameron. Surely one of them must have heard something."

"Don't look at me," Kameron shrugged, "they never told me anything."

"And Freyja is not really all that capable of thought. Do you think you could find Jessie and James?" Doctor Warwick asked.

"Once upon a time I could have found them just by contacting Ash," I replied, "but I think they've given up on that now. I haven't seen either of them since they helped us save the world."

"Drat… I guess they won't be found unless they want to be. Anyone here a wanna-be detective?"

"A wanna-be defective," Rowan grinned at Kameron. I wasn't sure if he was being cruel or it was some sort of in-joke.

"Why don't we just get Fenrill to find where Kate is and then scan it to see if it's psychically protected?" Coral offered, slightly tentatively.

"If it is, will we be able to find Kate at all?" I asked Fenrill.

"Maybe, it will be hard, and will require both of us, but our combined psychic abilities should be enough to break through any barrier."

I translated for the benefit of Coral and Frances. The rest of us were attuned to Mew-speak.

"Right then," Frances said standing up and brushing his pants. "Let us start our search."

And we finally got on target and started devising a plot. It began with identifying the location of Kate, then rescuing the captives and hopefully finding the Mew's location in the process. Once we had found her, we could rescue her and then set a trap for Loki. It was a pretty involved plan, but one that might work. If we had luck on our side.

Coral lay on my bed, pillows beneath her head. She was visibly shaking, which was only to be expected, as Fenrill was about to perform the same treatment she had used on Rowan, to locate Electra. Basically, she needed to search their memories for details regarding their lost friends, and then pinpoint their location using these memories and feelings. She could no use her own - for she had never met Electra or Kate, she had to rely on the deeper feelings that they felt for their friends.

Rowan sat beside Coral, perched on my bedside stool. I think he understood better then anyone quite how hard the memory-scanning technique was. After some effort, I had managed to shoo everyone else out of the room and off to the University Café, and had managed to send my more obtrusive Pokemon – namely Maki and Ozmos (who wasn't obtrusive but went where there was food) with them. I had tried to send Rowan, but he had insisted he stay, as no-one understood what Coral would be going through more then he. Kameron, on the other hand, had been more then willing to hot-tail it out of here, and I wasn't surprised. It could not be a pleasant experience, not when he had such strong empathy.

"I wish to apologise in advance," Fenrill sent. "This will pain you somewhat, but I will do it as quickly as possible. Are you ready?"

I translated the "mew"s for Coral, and then we both sat there and watched, as Fenrill perched on the pillows, and placed her hands on the girl's forehead. She began making those odd keening sounds, and Coral went a little bit pale, a look of nervousness crossing her face.

"It'll be fine," I said gently, "just close your eyes, and think of Kate, that'll make it easier for her."

Coral nodded, and appeared to obey me. A moment later her eyes shot open and she let out a gasp, her eyes rolling back in their sockets, revealing the white. It all looked rather familiar to me. I lunged forward, grasping her arm, as I predicted her next move. Rowan glanced at me, then quickly gripped hold of her other arm, just as she spasmed once, her fingernails digging into my arm. She let out another startled gasp. Her whole body shuddered, as Fenrill delved into her deeper memories.

Suddenly the keening died off, and the Mew was silent, levitating into the air. Still shaking, Coral opened her eyes.

"Is it over?" She asked, "does anyone have an aspirin?"

I grinned. "It's over, how do you feel?"

"Like a thousand Pidgeys are having a very loud conversation in my head," she replied.

"None too pleasant, is it?" Rowan remarked. "You're lucky you've got a nice soft bed and drugs handy. I had to be scanned on the bleeding beach." He crouched down beside her, whilst I came back bearing a glass of water and two tablets. "Don't worry, the pain'll go away. Eventually."

She managed a grin at him. I was surprised, Rowan, so quippy and smart-mouthed, appeared to be being nice. There had to be something wrong with him. I wondered for a moment if he might be ill.

"Right," Fenrill said, "I think I've located her. Bring me the map of the world."

"That far away is it?" I asked, fetching the atlas off my book case, and opening it on the floor.

"Indeed," Fenrill stabbed out her finger and pointed straight at a large and strange looking continent towards the bottom of the map.

"Australia?" I queried. I then saw she was pointing slightly to the south of it. "Tasmania?"

The Mew nodded. "It is indeed."

"But that's like on the other side of the world. How the heck did Loki get over there? Does he know Teleport too?"

Fenrill shook her head, "Teleport to that distance is only found in us true Mews and possible also my brother. Loki will not gain the power to teleport more then a few kilometers until he has drained us all. Something which MUST never happen."

"Never fear, " I responded, a little more brightly then I felt. "We will stop Loki."

"I know, you are good humans, shame there is not more of you."

Once again we were gathered about my bedroom, discussing our plan of action. Rowan, I noticed with interest, had taken to sitting near Coral, although that may have been so that he could be as far from Kameron as was possible. They had been a little more civil to one another after the events at Magenta Valley, but still were far from being friends.

"Australia eh," Doctor Warwick grinned, "well, I hope you're going to include your humble mentor in your little adventure this time. I find the ecology of Australia most fascinating."

I frowned at him. "I suppose that could be arranged. So, whose going? Me and Kameron, obviously."

"And me," Coral spoke up, rather tentatively from her perch on the foot of my bed.

Rowan's forehead creased. "I don't know if you should go," he said, almost gently, "I mean, you've been through a lot already."

She scowled. "Kate is MY friend, and you cannot make me stay here." She then looked embarrassed and turned to glance at me. "I can go, right?"

"Of course you can," I replied, "I think we'll need you, after all. It is your friend we are going after."

"I just have one question," Kameron ventured, "how are we supposed to get in once we get there?"

"Good point, they're sure to have intensive alarm systems," I agreed. "So kids, what do you propose we do about it."

"Well, if any of us knew enough about computers we could hack into their alarm system and disable it." Rowan pointed out. He glanced at Coral again. "It's going to be pretty dangerous though."

"Oh, stop babying her," Kameron snapped, "you can look after yourself, right Coral?"

"Yeah, I guess. I'm not staying behind anyway."

"Why do you care so much anyway Row?" I queried.

He shrugged, and I'd swear he blushed ever so slightly. I'd never seen Rowan blush before. What had gotten into him? He hadn't even tried to hit on her yet. I think he must have been sickening for something.

Frances grinned. "I have an idea," he said, "I'll see if I can acquire Murphy."

"Murphy?"

He sat down and rested his elbow on his knee, his head on his hand. "Well, as a learning institute, Siryntown University owns a number of the virtual Pokemon known as Porygon. These are used to keep the computer system free of bugs and also to stop students doing things they should not, when logged into the internet. Murphy was acquired for cheap, and we know why. When he is involved, everything that could go wrong with the system does go wrong."

I laughed at the bad pun. "Cute."

"What is?"

"The pun in the name."

"What pun?"

I sighed, it was not worth explaining. "So, you think you can get Murphy for us?"

"I would imagine so, we have no use for him here, after all. And he could mess up their alarm system quite nicely."

"Right, so now we have a mechanism for getting inside. Once we're in there, we disable the electric fence that will ultimately surround it, and enter via a fire exit or something. Then all we have to do is find and rescue the captives."

"Simple," Kameron chuckled, "real simple." I think he was being sarcastic, but it was hard to be sure.

"Coral and I will go inside," I replied, "the rest of you can wait outside in case of danger. We'll sort out more when we actually get there and see it for ourselves.

"Right." For once we were all in agreement.

"I will come in too," Fenrill sent, "I can search the place for clues as to my sister's whereabouts, especially with the help of this Porygon called Murphy."

"Jimi, Wild and Sam, I advise that you three travel somewhere entirely different, so as to be out of the way. We cannot be sure that Loki won't plan a strike on the University, since he must know we are camped here and if he knows the rest of us have gone…. Rowan, Kameron, Frances, Coral and I will head to Australia. Unless you want to stay and baby-sit Freyja?" I asked Rowan.

I could see the thoughts moving through his head. Freyja was beautiful – and so mentally shaken at the moment that he could, feasibly, get away with almost anything with her. But she was also extremely dim-witted at present. It came from having only a few hours sleep in the last few weeks. Whereas, if he came with us there was the promise of grand excitement and danger. Finally he sorted the thoughts out. "I think I'd rather go. Can't Freyja look after herself?"

"Don't look at me," Frances held up his hands in defeat. "The ecology of Australia deeply fascinates me – there is no other like it on Earth. There are Pokemon there that have never been seen elsewhere. By denying me the chance to go you will be facing my wrath at a later date! Besides, I'm the only one who can get Murphy, and we need Murphy."

I had to confess he was accurate with that one. We would have to get through the alarm system first and foremost. And then it remained to find the captives. And so it was agreed and we set about preparing our things. Frances purposely told Freyja that we were going to Russia, where it appeared the final key to our Mew puzzle lay. And Sam and Jimi decided to go for a trip back to her home place, in order to get Wild safely out of the way.

That left us heading for Australia. We had to suspect Loki would know we would come after his captives, whatever he had taken them for. Someone would be waiting for us.

"That," Frances pointed out, "is a Firevil, a Pokemon that based its form on that of the animal called the Tasmanian Devil."

The Firevil he was talking about was currently massacring one of our cushions. We had set up a rough campsite in a small plot of trees that Fenrill assured us was about three kilometres from the site, and over a low ridge. We had chosen this spot as it overlooked the high wire fence surrounding the institute. We knew immediately it was a Team Rocket facility, despite the signs proclaiming it a "Military Training Institute." There were not enough people wandering the compound to keep up that cover. It was in a fairly isolated piece of land, a valley surrounded by thick rainforest and with only the roughest of dirt roads running into it. Our lookout also overlooked the road. It had been running, as it was prone to in this area, and the multitude of potholes that covered the dirt road had filled to overflowing with water. In one of them a Farfetch'd and her ducklings were having an enthusiastic swim.

The Firevil had wandered into our campsite, and taken an instant liking to our home comforts. It had snuck in when we weren't looking, and seized the pillow before we could chase it out again.

"Very nice," I said, "but we can't let it get away with that – if scraps of cloth get down there," I gestured to the institute, "they might become suspicious as to our presences here."

"Good point." Kameron drew out his Pokeball and released his Marrill. The Firevil, with its huge shoulders and massive jaws, barely even glanced at the water Pokemon. Until Marrill sprayed her watergun at it, causing it to dart off, still carrying the cushion.

"Great," I sighed, "now we'll never get it back."

Our camp was a fairly furtive affair. It was an ugly green colour – the sort of colour you would only ever by were you hiding out from someone or something, and we had further camouflaged it by decorating it with twigs. It was invisible ten metres away from the campsite, unless you looked at a certain angle, and we were sure that noone would be able to identify it from the institute three kilometres away. We had erected it in the evening, as it grew dark, without the luxury of torches, so as we would not be spotted. Rowan was currently sitting halfway up a tall gum tree, watching the institute through binoculars.

This was our second day on watch, and we were starting to work out who regularly made the trip in from the tiny village some twenty kilometres away. Given the perilous terrain it was likely to be a long drive. It appeared that three people regularly made the trip, or at least had two days in a row, and the rest lived on the site. From our viewpoint it was rather a strange sight, a large building stood in the middle, flanked by smaller ones, some of which were private houses. We gathered they must get deliveries of food, since there was no sign of livestock on the property. Or maybe they made bulk purchases from the village.

We had everything we needed in a cooler pack at the back of the tent. That and we had Fenrill, so presuming we didn't run out of chocolate, it was not hard for us to pop to the nearest city and make a purchase or three.

Inside the tent, Coral was lounging on one of our air-beds reading a paperback entitled "Quest for Lemuria" aloud to Maki, who seemed quite taken by her. After being lectured by Doctor Warwick about the dangers of bringing strange animals, or Pokemon, into the ecosystem, we had deemed it appropriate to leave most of our Pokemon in their balls, although Flora and Azriel were playing a complicated game of tag about the campsite, which involved rather a lot of tree scaling and jumping on one another from above. The Umbreon was not nearly as agile as the Floreevee, and constantly tumbled into the dirt. Shadeon sat in the shadows, invisible save for her luminescent red eyes.

"Do you have Pokemon too?" Doctor Frances asked Coral, as we retreated back under our pavillion to make further plans.

She nodded mutely, turning the book spine up. Maki looked disappointed – it had just got to a good bit, obviously. "I've got a few," she said, "nothing really great though. Wanna see them?"

"Sure!" I answered.

Frances frowned, "okay, but we can't have them running around too much – after all, if any of them are visible from below and don't live here, the residents down there might get suspicious.

"Well, okay," she drew out the first ball, "this is my Growlithe, Firestorm. I kinda want to evolve him into an Arcanine, but I haven't gotten a fire stone yet. And my Pidgeotto, Mecha," she released a rather strange silvery looking Pidgeotto. "I think he escaped from a laboratory or something, or maybe his father was a Skarmory, I found him lost in the woods as a Pidgey – barely able to fly. There's also my Scyther, Slzer, and my Nidoran, Pearl." She released a small, pure white Nidoran female. The pink in its ears and its pupils were almost luminiscent. "She's an albino, and not a very good fighter, but she's very loyal and gentle." Pearl clambered up her Trainer's body and pressed her nose gently against her cheek.

"A novel collection!" I exclaimed, "you've got some rather nice Pokemon, particularly the Pidgeotto."

"Thanks," Coral blushed slightly, recalling all but Pearl. "I've been training Pokemon for a while, but I'm afraid I'm not a very good Trainer. I've only got two badges." She held up her necklace and I saw them hanging there, as pendants.

"Don't feel bad," Kameron grinned, "you've got more on you then Kat and I have between us!"

"But you've got such great Pokemon!" She exclaimed.

I pulled a face. "Oh, granted Maki is great, although he isn't exactly prone to playing by the rules, I decided some time ago that I didn't want to fight my Pokemon. It just didn't really seem fair on them. I mean, I don't like making my friends getting beaten up and badly injured if its to no benefit except to obtain a useless piece of metal. No offence taken."

Coral looked almost hurt. "I never thought about it that way," she answered, "I mean, in some of the battles my Pokemon get hurt, but I always get them healed up straight away. And they seem to enjoy fighting, especially Slzer."

"Don't fret," I replied, patting her on the shoulder, "I just have my views, and well…"

"She's been proven to be wrong before," Kameron grinned.

"Yeh, granted. Besides, my Pokemon have been in their fair share of fights, they've been beaten up a few times too. Do you mind if I hold your Pearl?"

"Not if she doesn't mind you holding her," Coral handed her over. The little Nido kicked a bit with her feet before settling down, cradled against my chest. Her fur was so silky soft, and I felt a longing to see my Nidorino again.

"Where did you get this wee beauty from?" I asked.

"Well, that was odd. See, I was visiting this place called Lake Eerie, and one foot slipped down some sort of tunnel. I hear there's a labyrinth of underground tunnels down there, anyway, I twisted my ankle badly and was in a great deal of pain. I could not walk back to the village, and it was such a cold night, that I think I may have succumb to mild hypothermia, because I can't remember going to sleep, but I can remember my whole body being chilled like a popsicle. And these two little Nidorans came over and began sniffing at me, as though trying to work out what I was. One of them, a female but a purplish colour, seemed rather wary, but the other one, Pearl here, came right over and crawled into my arms. When I finally had the strength to move and walk, she followed me and so I brought her into my team."

"Lake Eerie, eh," I pondered, "I've been there a couple of times. Hrm, I may even know this little Nido's father, although that's a pretty long shot. My Nidorino is there now, wild again."

"Cool," she replied, as though unsure what was expected.

I handed Pearl back to her. "One day I'll go and visit him, maybe, except I don't want to distrupt his wildlife. It's hard letting Pokemon go."

Coral nodded in agreement, "I can imagine it would be pretty terrible."

Kameron and Frances were discussing things in a low tone over our tiny fold out table. We already had a notebook with details on the behaviour exhibited in the compound below. The one that particularly was important to us were the nightly guards. Last night two men, both with four Houndour, had patrolled the compound, releasing the dogs. It was hard to say what they expected to get through the high electrified fence, but whatever it was would not last long against the dogs.

We huddled together for warmth – a fire, even in the darkness, might be visible from the valley. And if they saw us, we were doomed. Tonight was an important night, for it was a new moon, and everything was very, very dark. In such deep darkness, flames would be easily visible, even if the smoke wasn't.

There were floodlights down on the compound though, making it doubly dangerous for anyone who might wish to pass over the fence. Luckily that was not the plan. The plan tonight was to get an accurate layout of the area – and to do that, we had our special shadow-type.

Shadeon stretched, ready to go. She was fully whole at the moment, as tangible as Azriel, and her fur was cold but silky. She nuzzled my hand and I scratched her behind the ear. It was so rare she could enjoy that, the simplest of pleasures. Of course, she could still turn intangible if she so desired. Kameron handled her special Pokeball almost reverently. It was he, as her Trainer, that had the dangerous task of accompanying her down to the fence. She could not travel that far from her Pokeball without losing some power, and we needed her to be in full control of her skills. Not to mention that there was a lot of exploration to go on, down in the compound, and we did not want her to be limited by her bind.

I walked a short distance down the trail with Kameron. At a distance of about ten metres into the forest, we stopped, and I kissed him partly to reassure him, partly to reassure myself. Then I watched as his tiny flashlight disappeared down the path, and was consumed by the rainforest, along with the faintly glowing figure of Fenrill, darting behind him. She was to help with reconnaissance. A feeling of impending doom watched over me, as though I would never see him again. Maki nudged my cheek with his cold nose, reassuring me that my beloved would return.

As I made my way back to the campsite, Rowan and Frances were swapping places. My childhood friend clambered down and stretched his aching legs. He had been sitting up there for about two hours. With much grumbling, Doctor Frances clambered up the tree – surprisingly agile for one who spent his entire life in an office, and with some delight Rowan flopped onto the airbed. His weight on the other side rolled Coral off of the bed. He chuckled, ever so slightly.

We had light inside the tent, the canvas was thick enough to hide our tiny Hurricane Lamp, which cast eerie shadows into the corners of the chamber. Of course, we had to draw the door tightly shut, lest even a tiny splinter of light escape. The only luxury we allowed ourselves were flashlights, so that Frances could successfully climb up the tree and Kameron could pick his way down to the compound. We had already found the rough trail a day before, going as close as we dared before turning back. The trail had been marked – a bent twig here, a speared leaf there, nothing that would catch the eye of anybody from the compound below.

And for all our watching, we had seen no sign of Loki.

Grumbling a little, Coral fetched her paperback again and bounced on the airbed from the other side, desperately trying to dethrone Rowan. No such luck, he merely grinned at her wickedly.

I sighed. "You do know that is Kam and my bed? And if you break it I'm going to make you share it with the good Doctor, Rowan." It was also the bed with the best lighting, hence its use as a trampoline.

"Oh, I'm sure the Doc wouldn't complain too hard," Rowan replied, "I'm quite a good bed mate."

"I'm sure you are," I was too edgy to argue. All of what could go wrong was buzzing through my head. It appeared my imagination was a bit too vivid, and overly paranoid. I sat on the floor beside Coral, and she patted me on the shoulder, I smiled at her. Pearl crawled into my lap, apparently sensing my impending depression.

"He'll be fine," Coral said encouragingly. But I could not believe her.

We ate a desultory snack of bread and jam, amusing ourselves by tossing scraps of food at Azriel, who was quite adept at catching them in his mouth. Then Rowan delved into his backpack of many tricks and brought out a pack of cards. It was a standard pack of cards, with the four standard suits – water, grass, fire and earth, and each card depicted an illustration of one of those types of Pokemon. We played a few simple games, dealing out a third of the pack to each of us. Then we would each deal out the top card, face up, and the person with the highest number would win. If two numbers came out the same, then the two combatants would place two more cards face down, and the final face up, and the highest of those would win. The winner was the person who got the entire pack. We also played a variant in which the winning element won the cards, but when three players were involved that was rather complicated, like playing paper-scissors-rock with three people.

After a while we tired of that and played some different games, but it could not alleviate my sense of forboding.

After some time, I glanced at my watch and saw it was time for me to keep watch, and so Maki and I scrambled up the tree, allowing Frances the chance to come inside and have a cold drink. We had nothing hot, alas, but it was summer, and the air was mild.

As I sat on the broad branch, overlooking the valley, I understood why the males had complained. It was extremely painful on my derrière, not to mention that staring through binoculars for any period of time makes your head and arm throb. So, I shall dwell in my misery and inform you of what events had overtaken Kameron.

(Right well, back to me I guess… Does anyone get sick of these constant author changes, whilst we retain the first person perspective? Nope, good! Just checking. It would be a heckuva lot more boring if it were only written from Kat's perspective , wouldn't it?)

The traipse down the hillside was far from pleasant. The air was damp, and humid. Strange noises filled the air with a distance cacophony. The hooo-hooo of the Australian Hoot-hoot, the drone of insects out in the warm night. Everything seemed so peaceful. Darkness enshrouded me, save for the tiny beam of my flashlight and the small shape of Fenrill, as she dived and darted through the trees, always returning to me. I could not see Shadeon, but I could feel her. Not physically, but in my head, there was a cold longing that I knew belonged to her. I doubted that anybody, except maybe Foxfire, truly understood Shadeon the way I could. She desperately wanted, needed to be loved. From the moment she had seen us, seen the love Kat bestowed upon her Maki, seen the way we treated our Pokemon, she had wanted to be loved too. But alas for poor Shadeon, she was feared by many. We loved her, and I suspected Azriel might have a crush on her, but she still always wanted to please us. Even when she got things a little muddled and did the wrong thing… The cold longing was like her psychic fingerprint. We all had them. Fenrill's and Kat's were similar – fierce dedication, Rowan's, well, Rowan's is best not talked about… Longing, definitely… and as for Doctor Frances. He too felt a bit on the outside, was jealous of the camaderie shared by Kat and I, as well as Sam, Jimi and Rowan now. Even though he was a part of our group, he felt aside from it.

Anyway, I slipped and slid a bit, as I made my way down the ravine, trying to follow the trail of "breadcrumbs" we had left earlier. After a time the trees began to thin out and I could see the bright lighting of the compound about 200 metres away. The land between there and here was open, completely exposed. Anyone pursuing the compound would see anyone crossing the distance and there was no cover anywhere. I had come as far as I could go. Now was the time to release the Pokemon for their exploration. I crouched down, in the shelter of the trees, and hugged Shadeon. Her nose was cool against my ear, but she did not breathe. She had no need to, being a shade and all. I kissed her on the forehead, glad that Rowan was not around to watch it and make smart comments. I felt a psychic blush emanating from her.

Fenrill drifted down. "I will make a connection between your mind and Shadeon's eyes," she sent, "so that you will be able to follow her every move and see what she sees."

I nodded, feeling somewhat awed and a little nervous. This sounded pretty dramatic indeed!

"And I will try to pinpoint where in the building the human captive's are kept. After that however, we must return to the campsite. I do not wish for any heroism yet."

"I was not planning on any," I agreed, as Shadeon disappeared into the long shadows cast by the spot lights. Fenrill transformed herself into a Zubat and followed. I had not known Zubat lived in swamps, but I suppose some did. There were insects there, after all.

Although the encampment was covered in light, there were still shadows, long shadows that Shadeon could travel through, unseen, unheard.

As an extra precaution (because you never knew when someone might sneak up on you), I called Lucifer out from his Pokeball. He seemed somewhat intimidated by the dark shadows, and huddled close to me, his warmth and companionship a welcome. If anyone came close to us, he would alert me.

Or at least I hoped he would.

I learned back against a tree, closing my eyes so that I could open my other senses, and see through Shadeon's mind.

The lot just through the fence smelt of humans, of sweat and a little of fear. There was a sort of practical uncertainity in the air. Something I suspected might be felt by people who knew the person giving the orders was a psychopathic madman, but also knew that if he were to win the war they damned well wanted to be on his side! Shadeon picked her way across the encampment, traversing the long dark shadows as easily as though she were shadow herself. She paused outside one of the small huts, standing on her hindlegs so that she, and I, could see what was within. It was pretty simple lodgings – a bunk bed, a chest, a desk. Obviously the lodgings of someone who went elsewhere for all their ablutions and to eat. Maybe some sort of guard, I wondered.

Suddenly she heard footsteps, and stepped back into the shadows, dissolving into them as though they were no longer there (although understand this is speculation – I was seeing through her eyes, so I could not see what she was actually doing). Shortly a man came around the corner, with a rather large Houndoom on a chain. The dog came unnerving close, so close that she could see its flaring nostrils and smell the carrion on its breath, but to it she would smell like nothing more then dust. The two passed by without drawing any attention.

After they had gone, Shadeon stepped forth again, and was then struck with a predicament. For fifteen feet or so – the gap between this building and the larger central building, the light was intense and there was no way to circumnavigate it. This put her in trouble. Although she could cross light (it would make her smaller and weaker) for a few seconds she would be visible. And once across the only shadow was that of the archway before the main door into the building. It was an olden style building, the sort that appears to have been modified from something else. In this case, perhaps an aircraft hanger was an accurate description.

Glancing upwards, the shadow eevee caught the eye of Fenrill, flapping about making high pitched squeaking noises that were audible to Shadeon, but not to humans. She was chasing the insects attracted by the lights.

Finally, preparing herself, Shadeon glanced left and right, then dashed across the compound. Her feet pounded on the ground as she strove for the patch of darkness, the artificial light touching her fur, feeling not unlike stepping into a bath that was just slightly too hot. And then she was across, and happily became intangible once more.

After a pause she investigated the lock – more for our privilege then her own. It was a keypad, with a slit to swipe your card through, and then numbers you had to enter. That was a bad sign. We had no card, and Maki, as skillful as he was, could not pick that kind of lock!

Then Shadeon stepped through the door.

It is rather an unnerving sensation to be in the mind of something that can pass through solid objects, I shall just add. For a moment there everything went very, very dark and I could feel the claustrophobia enwrapping me like a very tight shroud. And then we were in a short corridor. To the left was another door with a keypad, and to the right was something that boded even less well. It looked similar to the other keypad, except that beside it was not a slit for a card, but a small flat screen, which presumerably you pressed your hand against.

We could, perhaps, steal a card, but there was no way we could steal a hand. Not ethically anyway. When Shadeon passed through that door I felt resistance. Not powerful resistance, just like trying to crawl through treacle. The door was wooden on the outside, but braced with metal on the inside, and the hinges would be mighty. It could hardly be broken down without causing a massive amount of noise and leaving a trail that anyone could follow.

The corridor beyond was unremarkable, just long and white, with the walls all polished and gleaming. There was artificial lighting here too, which made Shadeon increasingly nervous. She ducked and darted from one tiny patch of shadow to the next.

I noticed the video camera a moment too late – although surely I should have been expecting it. It was focused directly on the middle of the hallway, and because it was targetted at human intruders, I could only hope that Shadeon was too low down to be caught beneath its gaze.

As she padded through the hallways, she stopped to look at the doors, but although there were words on them, they were not words I could understand. Shadeon had a different way of looking at letters then I did – instead of seeing them as individual objects, looking downwards, she saw them across, so that to me they were just gobblegook. I understood that some Pokemon could read. Alas, Shadeon was not one of them.

There were odd scents in the hallway. The bitter smell of fear seemed to have permeated everywhere, even here. Some of the doors smelt worse then others of it. The hair along the Shadeon's spine stood on end. She padded to the end of the hallway where there was another door – this time with no sort of key or lock on it at all. She could not step through this one – it was too well lit, but when she pushed herself against it, it opened, and she squeezed through. The room beyond was entirely in darkness. A voice said, loudly;

"Please state access code." Which made us both jump, but it was a mechanical voice. So, this lock was voice-operated. Things just kept getting more and more complicated. Obviously they had big secrets to hide beyond here!

Shadeon stepped through the door. Instantly, an alarm went off. She jumped, leaping into the shadows (which were longer here, I don't know why), and diffusing. After a time a group of people, clad in black and looking rather daunting, came down the hallway, carrying flashlights. These they shone into all the dark shadows. Shadeon crept through the shadows, trying to remain behind them, but the way they were scouring the hallway meant that eventually she was pushed into a small dark corner.

The beam passed over her, and she froze, unable to diffuse, the beam was so bright. Soon it highlighted her, crouching there, a small dark shape no larger then an Eevee.

"What have we here?" One of the black clad men said, "looks like one of His pets has escaped." He barely suppressed a shudder.

After a pause, he made some motions with his hands, and kept Shadeon pinned in the torchlight. When she tried to move, to sneak around the light into the shadow beyond, he merely manouvered the light. It was a very strong light, for even in sunlight Shadeon could still diffuse to shadow. The light was burning her now – it had gone beyond a minor heat and was starting to feel as though it were to scorch off her fur. She whimpered, and lunged at the man bearing the torch.

He swung it at her, catching her across the chin, shattering her jaw. She did not bleed – Shadeon was not alive, persay, but the agony rocketed through her head and she tumbled to the ground, pinned by the light. Her jaw, her jaw no longer worked!

There was nothing I could do but remain there, watching through her eyes. He had said "His pets," that implied that Loki (there could be no other "He") had created more of the Poke-shades. That was, obviously bad news for us. We would need to get our hands on fire and light Pokemon – if Loki were creating such an army. We could not pull Shadeon out just yet. Even though Fenrill could most likely get in there, and if she got in with Shadeon's Pokeball she could recall the Shadow Eevee. But for the meantime, we would have to leave Shadeon where she was, since she would be in a position to observe much.

It was an unpleasant situation – I could sense Shadeon's pain, sense her confusion and her anguish, but I could not relieve it.

"Do you want me to withdraw her?" Fenrill's voice materialised in my head.

"Yes," I whispered, "but you can't, not yet, we have to see where they take her. But be ready to intervene."

"Certainly," Fenrill replied, and then the voice, and her presence was gone and I was dragged back to Shadeon's awareness. In my lap Lucifer shuddered uneasily, licking my face.

The men returned, the men of pain, and they brought with them a glass box. Shadeon drew back, trying to snarl around the remains of her jaw, but failed – the injury was too great. She backed up against the wall as the glass box was slammed over her. Lunging, she met only with solid, unrelenting glass. Were she not in bright light she could diffuse through it, but here her powers were weak, and she was helpless, impotent.

One of the humans crouched down, inserting something into the bottom of the box and sliding it across. It hit Shadeon in the leg, quite gently, and she backed up. It pushed against her, moving with her until she was backed into the corner, unable to move anywhere but to step up on the glass plate they had slid in. Now she was incarcerated on all six sides. Taking care to hold the glass cage in the light as much as possible, the humans picked it up and carried it as though she weighed little more then a feather.

Indeed, in this form she did. Even in a solid state, she weighed less then an Eevee, so much less that even when she threw herself from one side of her confinement to another, the container did not even shake.

I watched through her eyes, feeling the panic and the one thought that fleeting so vividly in her mind.

"Why do they not help me? Why do they not pull me out?"

And I wanted to, I wanted to then, to rescue her and perhaps try another reconnaissance later, but it was too risky. Even this one was too risky and if they had other Shadow Pokemon, I needed to find out. Because we would have to fight them, and after the Diaboleon experience, I did not want to fight another Shadow Pokemon as long as I lived.

There was no Solareon here, after all.

The trap was carried down a hallway, and then up a flight of stairs. At the top was a door, in which another finger print test was required. The security here was amazing. Only two people entered the room, the others remaining outside. They seemed nervous – and it was easy to see why.

For inside were rows and rows of glass cages, each of them illuminated brightly. And in those cages were Pokemon. But they were not typical Pokemon, but Australian breeds. I did not recognise the species myself, but I saw in there those that resembled Sandshrew, Eevee, and several other typical species. In one corner, the brightest were a couple of cages containing what I easily recognised as Shadow Pokemon. The others were all normal types, albeit some were in terrible condition. It was fairly obvious what was happening here. Loki was building an army.

But the captives were not here. What were they doing with the humans they had taken? What evil scheme did they have in plan for them?

There was only one way to find out. Watch, and wait.

Shadeon's box was placed beneath the floodlights, and the pain spasmed through her. through both of us. The light was so bright, so vivid, that it may her immediately as weak as a kitten.

~Fenrill,~ I called mentally, ~Shadeon's trapped and I can't see the humans. You'll have to go in!~

"Show me the room," she replied, "and I shall go there."

I could not tell what she was doing – possibly assuming the form of a Rattata and entering via the air ducts, for I do not think it was possible for her to teleport inside the institute. It was Psy-shielded, somehow. I concentrated on picturing the room in my head as best I could. And a moment later I heard her voice again.

"Okay, I am inside. I shall investigate. You should return to the camp and tell them what has happened."

What about Shadeon?~

"Hide the ball as close to the perimeter as is possible. Show me the spot and I shall retrieve her."

I nodded, and prepared a small hole for the Pokeball, disguising it with leaves and moss. I could do no more. Grimly, I made my way back towards the campsite.

(Back to Kat again now)

My limbs ached, as I lowered myself from my perch and onto terra-firma again. Rowan sighed as I alerted him to the fact it was his turn to tree sit. With much relief I made my way into the tent and stretched out full length. My back throbbed and I felt as though all the skin had been worn from the backs of my legs. Frances snored quietly in one corner, but Coral was still reading her novel by the light of the small lamp. She was nibbling on one of Fenrill's chocolate bars.

"There's one Mew that would be most unhappy if she caught you," I commented, sitting beside her.

She grinned. "Oh, I brought this one myself – I wouldn't dream of stealing hers! How's things?"

"Cold," I replied, "and cramped. I can't understand why we haven't made you go out there yet."

"Rowan said I wasn't well enough to," she replied, "but I feel bad cos you guys are out there doing all the work and I'm in here, reading books. Why is he treating my like I'm breakable?"

"I have no idea," I confessed, "I'd say I thought he fancied you, but Rowan doesn't act like that around girls he fancies, at least not that I know of. Usually he just flirts incessantly and makes smarmy comments."

Maki yawned and stretched out on my back, in his favourite (and most annoying) sleeping position.

"That's what puzzled me too," Coral replied, "he's being so nice. Too nice. I can't help but think that maybe he resents me in some way."

"Rowan is not known for his subtlety, if he resented you he would make it blatantly obvious – like he does where Kameron is involved. No, I think maybe he has a crush on you, but doesn't want to scare you."

"Why would he have a crush on me?" She asked. "I'm not anyone great or interesting."

I sighed, "trust me Coral, you're interesting and pretty smart and you may not have saved the world several times, but that doesn't make you a boring person! Rowan'd be lucky to get someone like you."

She shrugged, "well… He could stop treating my like I'm helpless!"

"He could, and will. Trust me. If you want to sit up in that tree, then you can take my next shift and I promise not to complain about it one bit!"

Coral chuckled, "well, since you put it like that! You know, I see the way you and Kam look at one another, the way you seem to share so much with just a gaze, a smile and a few words, makes me wish I could find someone like that."

"Kameron and I had to go through a lot of trials to get where we are now," I replied, "but I love him implacably, and trust him beyond measure. He and I are almost like the same person. Its scary."

"It must be wonderful," she said wistfully.

"Oh, it'll happen to you one day," I replied, "I was just lucky I found my man so young. Most people take years. Look at Doctor Frances!"

"Yeah," Coral grinned. "Anyhow, what's the plan?"

"We wait until Kameron reports back, and then come up with a way to rescue your friend and everyone else," I explained. "Then we have to try to find Fenrill's last sister. So, whatcha reading?"

She displayed the cover for me, it had the words "Quest for Lemuria" across the top and a strange looking animal on the cover. It looked a little like Maki, but was brown and had weird hands. "It's pretty good," she admitted, "even though I've never heard of any of the animals. I think the author made them up."

"Romance?"

"Nah, not really. From what I've gathered the author, Angela, has written romance into other books. She's not bad, you should read it sometime."

"I might indeed," I replied, "when I've stopped all this saving the world business." I flipped through a few pages. It sounded interesting, but the light in here was terrible for reading, so I put it aside. "Anyway, whatcha going to do about Rowan?"

She blushed, "guess I'll just wait and see what happens."

"He's a nice enough guy," I grinned, "if a little bit goofy sometimes. I've been his friend forever." We were interrupted then by Kameron's return back at the site, staggering in through the entranceway.

He took one look at me, his face worn and weary, not from physical exertion but from psychic torment and I immediately wrapped my arms around him, kissing him quickly and reassuringly. He need not say anything – his face explained it all. Something had gone terribly wrong.

"Shadeon," he whispered, "they caught her. And Fenrill's sneaking in to investigate further." I nodded, dragging him down with me onto the double bed and shooing Coral away. She retired to her stretcher, propped against the other wall. We lay together for a bit, not exchanging any words as I simply held him and tried to rid him of his psychological anguish. Finally, it appeared, he was ready to talk.

"How did they catch her?" I asked, stroking his dark brown-black hair.

"They must have known," he replied, "they have shadow Pokemon there. Loki has been busy, but I sensed deeper torment there." A shudder raked his body and his next comment was said in a low whisper, so as to evade Coral's hearing. "And I suspect they are doing similar to the humans."

I stiffened, and could not hide my gasp. Coral was instantly alert. "What, what are they doing with Kate?" She asked, concern creasing her features.

"Er, I'm not sure," Kameron replied, "but it is not good, not good at all."

I slapped him on the arm, in a friendly enough fashion. "Great, now you've got her worried."

"At least he's saying it like it is," her voice was hoarse, "and not pretending everything will be alright. We have to go in there and save them!"

"Easier said then done," my boyfriend replied, "they have security in there beyond what I would think was entirely necessary."

"We still have to do it," Coral was stubborn, like myself.

"Of course we do, we have to rescue Shadeon too!"

"How many hours of the night would you say we have left?"

Kameron glanced at his watch. "It's 12.45," he replied, "man, I was only out there, what 2 hours…. Anyway, we've still got six hours until dawn."

"Plenty of time." Coral stood up, dragging on her black sweater, "let's go!"

"One of us should stay here to keep watch," Kameron pointed out.

Coral glared at him. "Well, don't look at me, I'm going. Er, why don't you make the doctor stay behind?"

"We can't, he has the Porygon."

"Well, I can take Murphy, you know, I'm not completely helpless or useless." Even when she was speaking such she still sounded fairly meek and mild.

"Very well," Kameron replied, "do you want to get any sleep?"

She shook her head. "Nope, can't sleep, my friend is in trouble and I'm worried sick about her. Come on, let's go now."

I nodded in approval, and scooped up Maki, who was watching common garden moths flit around our Hurricane lamp.

"Maki-maki!" He protested, before scampering up onto my shoulder and grooming my hair. I removed my Pokeballs from my backpack – Dragosi, Chiko, Florion, Flora I released but reprimanded to stay with the Doctor. She simply yawned sleepily and curled up on my pillow.

"Planning on leaving me behind, eh?" Doctor Frances murmured, blearily opened his eyes. I looked a little sheepish.

"Err, we need you to stay here and watch the campsite," I replied, "if you go up the tree, you can warn us, via Fenrill, if you see anything suspicious."

"I aren't all that old," he replied, "I can deal with some excitement myself. Remember Poland?"

"Yes, Doc, but someone has to stay here and Coral won't, Kameron is needed and I think Rowan would object to us taking Coral and leaving him behind, so I'm afraid my default, you have to stay here. You never know, something bad might happen to the camp."

"Here's hoping, eh?" He asked wryly. "Very well, I see I've been outvoted again. Well, you're be needing this." He flicked a Pokeball at us. Coral caught it. "This is Murphy. You have to get him into the system somehow, I would recommend that you release him into the door lock, provided of course it is electronic."

"It is. But the fence is electric."

"Then you will just have to fly – or bribe Maki to do it."

"Maki-makiki-mur!" My little Makimur required no bribing, he loved unlocking doors.

"Well then, I guess I'm going up the tree then. Good luck and all that. Don't forget to call Fenrill when you get closer."

"Yep, we'll set up a communication system via the Mew," I nodded. "Come on, the night is growing old."

A short time later the four of us made our way towards the barrier fence, Maki clinging excitedly to my shoulder. Whilst we walked, Kameron detailed what he had discovered earlier, and we all listened grimly. Things did not sound as simple as I would have liked. We just had to hope that Murphy would work as required.

Kameron dug up the Pokeball and we called mentally to Fenrill. After a time, she replied.

~Where are you?~ I asked.

"I found the captives," she replied, sending me a mental picture of the chamber. It was just a simple room, with a rather chunky looking door, and they sat about in hushed silence on narrow benches. There were maybe a dozen there altogether, each wearing the same grim looking expression. One, I noticed in particular, was a young girl, a few years our junior, with shoulder-length brownish-red hair. She sat on the bench, hugging her knees. There was no conversation.

This, I gathered, must be Kate, since she fitted the description Coral had given us. The others were older, ranging in age from about fifteen to thirty, although there were none noteably older then that. Obviously Loki had been somewhat picky in those he had chosen. I wondered what fate decreed for them.

~Do they know what is to happen to them?~ I asked, engaged in telepathic communication.

"Only that it is bad, and once taken, they never return," she replied.

I shuddered.

"What?" Coral asked, picking up on my not-so-subtle body language.

"We have to save your friend," I stated, "and the others. Otherwise things could get rather nasty for them."

She nodded, but looked pale. "Well then, what are we waiting for."

~Fenrill, can you get us into the yard? We need to get in as swiftly as possible without raising their suspicions.~

"Very well. Firstly, distract the guards. The moment they are out of your sight, I shall teleport you to the other side of the fence. I cannot teleport you within the building – they have some sort of shield about it. Only the upper part of the fence is electrocuted."

"Right, Maki," I called my Makimur over and handed him the Pokeball. He already knew how to operate them, he picked up things fast. The Pokeball was in its standard tiny size.

Then I drew out another Pokeball. "Dragosi, I want you to move silently to the other side of the compound and distract the Houndoom. Dark Pokemon despise Psychic types."

"Goooo?"

"Yes, go now."

Kameron drew out one of his balls, releasing Marill. "Take Marril with you, if you get into trouble, remember, Houndoom are part fire-type!"

"Marillie!" Marill clambered onto Dragosi's head and squatted between the Dragon-Fly's antennae. With a whir of wings he was gone. We could not see nor hear him. He had cloaked himself somehow.

"Right Maki, do your stuff!" I hissed, as barking and shouting erupted from the far side of the compound. Holding the Pokeball tight, Maki squeezed between the wire of the fence and dashed across the yard. We watched with baited breath as he scrambled on three hands across the light patches, then sprang up easily onto the cardpad, releasing the Porygon from his ball and into the electronics of the building.

Nothing happened for the longest moment. Then, suddenly, all the lights went off.

~Fenrill now!~ I shrieked with my mind.

"I'm right here!" And Fenrill's familiar shape floated above us, there was a brief flickering in the darkness, and we found hardened mud beneath our feet instead of leaf litter. "Now go through the door, I think you will find it opens! I shall see how Murphy is faring."

And then she was gone again.

All four of us bolted across the courtyard, Rowan easily reaching it first, since I was still limping and Kameron still had some difficulties breathing if he over exerted himself. Coral was not far behind him. The door opened easily, just as every light in the place blinked on and the door started screeching.

"Holy frith! They've got a bloody back up system!" Kameron shouted. "This way!" And he ran in the opposite direction from the high security area, and down a tiled hallway. Doors were scattered along it at random intervals, and seemingly picking one at random, he pushed it open and we all hurried in.

It was a broom closet.

Pressed tightly together, we sat in the darkness, trying to hide our ragged breathing and waiting for Murphy to work its way into the back-up system. After what felt like an eternity the horrible screeching stopped, and with a whirr and a hiss, the sprinkler system came on.

There was the sound of footsteps pounding past us in the hall.

So much for getting in quietly… Well, we were in. Now the hardest part was ahead of us…

Kameron wrapped his arms about me and whispered in my ear; "Maki's still out there."

My heart froze. I swear, it stopped beating for a second there, so cold was the chill that shot through it. ~Fenrill,~ I thought fiercely, ~Maki's out there! Find him and hide him!~

Her reply chilled me even further. "I cannot," she replied, "for he has already been found. A man with a broom and tray of cleaning products picked him up and put him in his coat pocket."

"He's been caught," I hissed back, and was about to make for the door when Kameron grabbed me.

"Be calm, I sense only confusion. Whomever is hiding Maki appears to be doing us a favour. I sense no fear from him."

This did not really reassure me. Kameron must be experiencing an influx of emotions at this point, and I seriously doubted that he could discern one from the other. Our combined fear must surely douse everything else.

"Do not fear, I have released the Shadow Pokemon and the other ones. That should keep them occupied for a while."

~Thank you.~ I translated for our companions.

Rowan chuckled. "That'll be entertaining for them."

Given what Shadow Pokemon were capable of, I hoped they did not mistake us for their torturers.

Whatever Murphy was doing in the computer system, it must have been extensive, for one minute we had screaming sirens, the next a strange voice came over the intercom system, sounding almost like it was winding down. /This is not a drill, repeat this is not a drill. Fire is devouring the building. Please make your way to the nearest exit, please make your way to the nearest exit, this is not a drill, this is not a drill./

And then, two seconds later, it switched to a radio station running a sports commentary, then to rap artist abusing everybody and anybody then to "Stairway to Heaven".

/There's a lady I know all the is gone, and I'm fighting a stairway to heaven…/

It stayed on that for a while. Meanwhile the pounding in the hallway had ceased and it was starting to get uncomfortably hot in the closet. Not to mention that Rowan had put his hand on my knee and I badly wanted to bat it away.

"Control yourself," I hissed.

"Sorry," he replied, snatching his hand away as though I had burnt him. I wondered if he'd even known it had been my knee. And Kameron, pressed up close behind me, was beginning to distract me. Okay, so I'm sixteen, leave me alone!

"Let's get out of here and find Maki," I replied, "I think they'll be distracted a while."

I felt Kameron nod and sensed that he was becoming likewise distracted. At a word from me, Rowan eased open the door, and peered outside into blessed darkness. Luckily, thanks to the PA, Led Zeppelin would drown out any noises we might make. We just had to hope that the lights did not suddenly and dramatically come on, pinpointing us like a rattata in a maze. Okay, so I'm not much good at similies at the moment… leave me alone, I'm under stress!

Tiptoeing silently, Kameron led us further down the hallway, away from where we entered. I could not understand how this would help us find the prisoners, since we were it appeared, heading in the wrong direction. From one room came the drone of a dozen computers simultaneously downloading huge game demos, and another collection rebooting themselves. From another came the drone of a television changing channels every second, closely followed by cursing and thumping. Murphy, it appeared, was having a field day. I began to wonder if we would actually be able to extract him from the system at all.

Suddenly Kameron touched me on the shoulder and pointed to the left, where there was a short corridor. I nodded, and headed in that direction, the others following.

A moment later came a shout and something small and fast bounded down the hallway, a white-clad man in hot pursuit.

~Fenrill, what is happening to the prisoners?~

"The door to their room is electronic, and it has opened and slammed shut twice. Now they are holding it open with a broken seat. They cannot escape, however, as a dozen men are holding them back, armed with weapons."

~Can you help us get there?~

"I can cloak two of you, but the other two would remain obvious. I sense Dragosi is outside. He has destroyed some of the cabins with powerful psywaves. The Houndoom all suddenly turned on the guards and they are," she paused, as though seeking the appropriate words, "out of commission. Others are trying vainly to control the electronics system. We cannot do this subtly, and we must be out of here soon. Please, two of you must rescue the prisoners, the others must find my sister's location!"

I condensed this and explained it hurriedly to my companions. Coral interrupted, "Kat and I will rescue the prisoners, Rowan and Kameron, you must find the computer."

"What?"

"Well, its obvious, the only one of us whom knows anything about hacking is you, Rowan, and the only one who has had anything to do with Team Rocket computers is Kameron – therefore you two have to do the techie stuff and Kat and I will be the valiant rescuers."

I grinned. "She's got it right there, Kam."

Rowan frowned. "But saving the prisoners is going to be dangerous."

"That's why its better us girls do it. Come on Kat, get your Mew to come and hide us."

~Fenrill, we need you,~ I called.

Kameron squeezed me and kissed me quickly. Rowan reached out for Coral, and she scowled at him, "this is not the time or place!" He drew back, looking somewhat startled. It seemed we had managed to bring the extrovert out in her, at least temporarily.

The Mew materialised before us. "I am glad I have eaten so much chocolate," she grinned, "for I fancy I shall need it afore the night is through. As it appears I am the only way your prisoners are to make it to the outside world."

"We thank you," I replied, "now make us invisible or something."

"I already have."

"Oh…"

"It will last only as long as you do not physically touch someone. The moment you do that you will pop into few. I shall follow you. I can teleport within the building, but not outside it, so you must get all the prisoners outside before we can cross the fence. I shall drop us off at a nearby village."

~And Doctor Frances?~

"Is waiting outside the fence for us."

I nodded, everything was, mostly going as planned. Coral and I snuck through the corridor, following the mental promptings of Fenrill. We reached the handprint door, and Fenrill pressed her paw against the pad, and it swung open. When we entered the chamber with the voice recognition lock, a strangely male voice suddenly erupted from the air. "Doctor Frank Malone," and the door swung open.

"Pretty neat trick, huh?" Even though I was no empath, I could tell that the Mew radiated satisfaction.

The corridor beyond was bathed in light, light that flickered on and off continuously, in a strobe-light fashion, making it very hard to see. Fenrill "yelled" at us to step aside, and we pressed ourselves against the wall just as two lab-coated men hurried past, carrying guns. We continued onwards feeling decidedly edgy. I was still worrying about Maki.

At several other intervals we were instructed to step aside as shadowy forms darted past, disappearing into the shadows, or solid enough Pokemon bolted in front of us. Sometimes they were under pursuit by scientists, some armed, but none paid us and heed at all. Whatever Fenrill had done, it was working.

That did not stop my heart steam-hammering everytime anyone came too close to us, and I was sure they could hear my heartbeat, pounding madly in my chest. Coral was not much better, I could see she was visibly shaking.

~Fenrill, can you get Dragosi to return to Doctor Frances and teleport him to safety? Then there is one less of us to worry about.~

"The village is but ten kilometres away, I am sure he has the skill to move them that far."

~Good.~ Then inspiration struck me. ~See if he can convince the local police force or army or whatever that there is trouble brewing here, big trouble.~

I could almost sense her grin. "Kataryna, I like your train of thought!"

We reached a heavy door. It was surrounded by more of the men in lab-coats and I saw a splintered bench sticking out of it. This must be the prison. I nudged Coral. "It is time to cause some mayhem," I said with a grin, releasing Chiko, Florion and Flora.

She grinned in response, unleashing her Sycther, her Growlithe and her Pidgeotto in a flurry of feathers and fur.

Things got very untidy for a moment there, and a bullet rang out, ricocheting off Mecha's metal feathers and burying itself in the wall. Mecha flapped his wings, metal feathers impaling some of the lab-coated guards and forcing them to flee. Slzer slashed amongst them. They shot blindly, swinging their guns at their attackers. The ground was slick from the water still spraying from the sprinklers, which whirred and clicked, and Coral and I carefully forced our way past the chaos and into the prison. As we were entering, we were suddenly pushed back by a sea of people coming out. Apparently the chaos outside had led them to believe they could escape. Of course, the moment they hit us, we become visible, but luckily were lost in the hoards.

Almost.

"Coral!" Someone cried, Kate I assumed, and threw herself bodily into her friend's arms. All eyes would have turned on us – if it weren't for the fact that complete anarchy was raging. Flora, for all her young age and small size, was clambering up the jeans of the scientists and stinging them, whilst her father sent razor-edged leaves swirling around the room in concert with Mecha's razor edged feathers. All in all, we had to duck and dive to avoid being hit ourselves. Coral took Kate by the arm and led her down the corridor, just as one of the guards managed to push Slzer aside and shoot after them, his bullets mostly harmlessly bouncing off the walls.

Slzer began spinning, becoming a green blur, as he began his swords dance attack. I sent the other prisoners after Coral, Fenrill bobbing in front of them like a small pink beacon. One of them open-fired on me, but missed, because Firestorm engulfed him with flame. Flora finished it up by biting him on the ankle, then sprang onto my shoulder, getting halfway, before scrabbling up my jacket.

"Florreee!" She shrieked delightedly, unleashing a volley of poison stings at one of the scientists.

"Follow me guys!" I shouted, and bolted down the corridor, my grass Pokemon following whilst Firestorm engulfed the group in flame.

The fire alarm went off again, with a deafening roar.

(Now lets cut to the boys again, Kameron once more)

Sirens continued to erupt from every part of the building. We managed to make our way back to the computer room, pretty much undetected, and had just closed the door behind us, when there was a small cough.

I think I jumped out of my skin – whomever it was had remained nicely undetected from my empathy. Although, truth be told, the air was clouded with confusion, panic, anger and terror that I seriously could not separate one from the other and had thus shut them all out. Someone grinned at us, his face sickly in the light of a computer screen.

"I knew you'd come," he said, "the moment the chaos started, I knew it was you. And then I found this wee fellow."

I heard a muffled "Makimur!"

"Maki! You found Maki!"

"Oh yes, the question is, how much do you value him."

My hand immediately slid to my Pokeball. "Enough to fight you to the death, James," I snarled. I had Azriel in my hand, all set to go.

James leaned back, grinning nonchalantly. "Your little Pokemon are so pathetically weak," he said, "seriously, you should move away from the cute and cuddly."

"James," I said slowly, seriously, "has anybody told you that you speak an awful lot like Loki?"

"Not recently," he said, "nope, not recently at all, but I suppose Loki is just a little bit beyond me now."

Rowan was looking puzzled. He brought one Pokeball up. Ready to throw it.

There was something wrong, I could sense it. It looked like James, it sounded like James, but I was damned if it was acting like James. James had helped us, once, and he was well renowned for being somewhat wimpy.

"You've changed Jamie," I said, grinning, "in fact, I'm not even sure you're you anymore."

Suddenly the man's eyes glowed red, and something extreme erupted in my head. A great splitting agony that set my soul on fire. Suddenly my thoughts were filled with nothing but painful memories, when Kat thought I had betrayed her, the thought of losing her, the thought of my own death, which I had come so close to on so many occasions.

I'm ashamed, but I must confess it. I fell to the ground, clutching my head.

Rowan, luckily, was quicker on the uptake. He simply reached out and struck the light switch.

With a flicker, the room was illuminated and the man that wasn't quite James shrunk back, pulling his hood over his eyes. The eyes were strange, glowing.

"Mercury, go!" Rowan shrieked and the Ninetails leapt into action. She spun a wall of flame at James, before I had the chance to remind him that Maki was with the man. Whatever the beast was, it was certainly not James. Flames engulfed the cloak and the man unleashed an ungodly scream, before the cloak fell to the floor.

Finding some strength beyond myself, I threw myself onto the burning cloak and quickly bet out the flames, disentangling a rather disgruntled Maki. He was a grass type, and weak against fire, and it showed. His fur had melted off him in patches, and his skin was blistering. Leaving the horrors of the room to Rowan to deal with, I darted into the back room, which fortunately contained a sink, and quickly bathed the poor Makimur's injuries. Something which did not please him any the better. It could have been a lot worse – I think the coat must have protected him and he must have put some sort of shield around himself, because apart from superficial burns, he was otherwise alive and irritated.

It was then I decided I should help Rowan, and turned back to the room. Hovering in the air, looking fairly small and extremely shadowy, was an almost carbon copy of Fenrill, except that its fur was black and some of its features were a little… odd… Its eyes blazed red. Rowan was pressed up against a wall, Mercury holding it back with a fireshield.

"Maki," I shouted, "do you have any energy left? It's weak against light!"

"Maki!" His fur patchy and still steaming, he jumped on my shoulder and his own eyes blazed golden. A burst of pure white light sprayed from his forehead, which struck the beast and knocked it to the ground. It lay there stunned for a moment, and I had to intervene, but there was only one thing I could think to do…

I brought out Shadeon's Pokeball, specially designed to hold Shadow Pokemon, and I flung it at the fallen creature. The light engulfed it, and swallowed it.

"I, I caught a…" I paused, "strange monstrosity." I carefully put the ball in my pocket.

Rowan was shaking, and the curtains, drawn against the moonlight, were on fire. "What the hell was that?" He exclaimed.

"I don't know, and I don't want to mess around finding out. Come on, let's get what we came for and get out of here!"

"Umbreee!" Azriel, whom must have jumped out of his Pokeball on his own free will, was batting at something. It looked like a Pokeball, except that it was a glossy black and silver colour. It lay amongst the charred remnants of the cloak.

"That thing dropped this," I replied, puzzled, and investigated it in the light. It had a button on it, just like normal Pokeballs, and the button was lit, saying it was occupied.

"I think we should, err, do something about the curtains," Rowan pointed out, and for once I was in agreement. Luckily there was a bathroom nearby – I guess these people really did not like leaving their computers for long, and we managed to extinguish the flames. There were no sprinklers in here, probably because of all the electronic equipment.

Maki curled up in my pocket and fell asleep. I just hoped Kat wasn't too mad at me for letting him get scorched. Whilst Rowan sat at the computer, finally finding one that wasn't doing random and chaotic stuff, I fiddled with the ball. What was in it? Why was a Pokemon carrying a Pokeball? How had the Pokemon assumed the form of James?

Perhaps it was an accident, or perhaps I subconsciously did it on purpose, but whatever the reason, the button got depressed and suddenly, startlingly, a man appeared on the floor in a tangled mass of limbs. He immediately jumped up defensively.

"Please don't hurt me!" He squeaked.

I allowed myself a small smile. "Why, hello James, pleased you could join us."

He stood up, looking somewhat embarrassed, something not helped by the fact that he was in his underwear and his boxer shorts had little Teddiursa on them. "Err, hi… I see you, well, made it after all."

"I thought you had left Team Rocket," I replied calmly, sensing his fear like a beacon. "So, I must confess that I can't help wondering what that monster was doing assuming your form."

He gulped. "That monster is the Myura, a terrible hybrid creature created for striking terror and pain and great devastation."

"It wasn't so tough," I replied, moderately lightly, although truth be told, it had scared the bejesus out of me, "and how does a janitor come to know such things?"

He looked a little startled, but it was simple deduction really. The creature was a shape-shifter. James had been cleaning and found Maki, recognising it as Kat's, he had hidden it.

But Fenrill had released all the Shadow Pokemon, and the Myura was amongst them, it had immediately sought out James, probably because he was the most easily frightened human in the building, and captured him assuming his form and taking his clothing.

These balls must be wonderful. I set it aside carefully. A ball that held people could be most useful. And not we had captured the Myura.

"A janitor sees things, gets into places where others do not," he gulped, "the laboratories needed cleaning and people just didn't seem to notice me."

"So, you found out a lot. Do you know where the captive Mew is?"

He glanced at the Pokeball I had captured the Myura in suspiciously. "That has some of her genes."

"I see they tried one step up from MewTwo. Does the Myura know?"

"It wouldn't tell you even if it did," he replied. "It has a wicked temperament. Even the Scientists were frightened by it."

Fenrill must have really been slipping when she had let it out! "We could torture it for information?"

"No use, it feeds on negative emotion. Hurt it and it gets stronger."

"We could spoil it rotten," Rowan suggested, his fingers tapping away madly. "Pleasure it to death."

James sniggered.

"I'll let you do that," I replied. "Since you like pleasuring things so much."

Rowan blushed, he actually blushed! I felt I had achieved something. But there was no time to gloat. "Do you know where the Mew is?"

"I, I think so," he replied.

"Then lets get the hades out of here!" Rowan exclaimed. "Um, how do I get Murphy out?"

"Who cares!" I snapped. The panic in the air was thick enough to cut. "I think we've got to move now… Just leave it here, it'll cope." And then I cursed myself at thinking such things. Kat would kill me. "Murphy! Murphy! Come out again now!"

The image of a Porygon appeared on the screen. It cocked its head at me and quacked, the sound blurting out the speakers. It seemed rather happy.

Maki tossed a Pokeball at me. There seemed to be a lot of those going around at the moment, making sure it was just one of the ordinary sort (there was no way I wanted to let the Myura out) I recalled the Porygon from the computer. It obliged, but seemed a little disgruntled about affairs in general. I sensed it wanted to play longer.

Pocketing Murphy and the Myura (although I was distinctly unhappy about having something so unpleasant close to me), I handed James my overcoat. It was a huge sacrifice for me to hand over my trench coat, and I felt distinctly uneasy about doing so, but he could hardly go outside in just the boxers.

Now that Murphy was gone, the computer system would gradually restore itself. We must make haste to get out of here, I only hoped that Kat had done as much as was required. I had every faith in her.

Rowan pocketed a disc, smiling sheepishly. "I found something, although we will have to wait until later to find out quite if it has any relevance. It's encoded."

I nodded, "I just hope we can decode it."

"Course I can," he replied, "I had to do something to keep myself busy back on the island. Anyway, James, would you care to show us the exit?"

Eagerly, James wrapped my trench coat about himself and lead us through a door at the back.

There was chaos in the courtyard. People running and shouting, dark shapes on their heels, and furtively I saw a large group of people, emanating a sort of grateful fear, huddling in a patch of darkness. I might not have seen them at all, had it not been for the fact I could taste their emotions.

Something batted against my ankles and I looked down into a pair of glowing red eyes.

"Shaddeee!" Shadeon greeted me happily. I stroked her head, which she had made solid for my privilege. At last some of us were back together. I could sense Coral in the group, her psychic print burned in my mind, with another girl, one which radiated optimism and delight. I presumed this was Coral's friend, Kate, and was glad we had achieved one of our goals.

I shuddered, despite the warmth night – I just felt so naked, exposed… Rowan would have laughed had he known. I was thankful he did not. Even though we seemed to have reached some sort of truce, I was no more fond of him then I had been when we had first met. And I could still sense the hatred emanating from his pores. But that was something I would keep to myself. He was Kat's friend, and I had to respect that – even if he was a slimy little worm only out for one thing.

At least he could not read my emotions!

James pointed at something, and I saw the flickering shape of Fenrill.

"You must get together," she sent to me, "and I will take us all to safety. It will be the last thing I have the power to do."

"Where's Kat?" I suddenly cried, completely unable to sense her psychic imprint in the area. Panic rose in me, and I found myself trying to draw my trenchcoat shut, but alas, I was naked and vulnerable.

Well, not really naked, but you know what I mean.

"She is fighting back the evil-men," Fenrill replied, "she has told me to wait for her no longer then is absolutely necessary. Loki is coming. I can sense a darkness that is he."

"We cannot leave her," I replied, and for once Rowan agreed with me.

I could sense the fear in Fenrill. Even she, cool, calm Fenrill, was terrified of Loki. And no wonder, after what he had done to her sisters. "I cannot let him capture me! If he captures me, there is only Wild left…"

She let the words trail off, but I sensed the meaning. Wild might be entire, but she lacked the assertiveness and persistence of the Swamp Mew. If Fenrill were captured, it would spell the end of the Mews, and possibly the end of the world as well.

She would not permit it to happen – even it if meant sacrificing Kataryna. And I could understand her reasoning, but was not about to stand by it. I loved Kat more then life itself, heck, she was my reason for living! And I would not permit anything terrible to happen to her. Suddenly Pokemon erupted from the entrance to the building. A Sycther, its wings a buzzing blur, a Pidgeotto, its feathers flashing silver in the moonlight, a familiar green shape crouching upon its back, and lastly, a great orange dog, coughing flames back down the hallway, whilst the small, bright shape of a chikorita bounded between them.

This then, was there Pokemon, but where was Kat? I found myself craning my neck, sending out my empathy on a desperate search for her. And then Rowan grabbed me by the arm and led me across the courtyard. It was only then I looked up.

A great orange-red shape filled the sky. With one wave of its hand, a lightning bolt erupted from the ground only a few feet from us, connecting with another that scythed downwards from the heavens. The air was filled with the stench of ozone.

Almost unperturbed by this display of Loki's powers, Rowan simply dragged me to the group.

"Beam us up, Fenrill!" He declared.

The Pokemon had joined us, and I could feel Kataryna exiting the building. She was in a hurry, and no doubt the reason why. I struggled, desperate to get to her, to ease her fear and to snatch her away from the torment. Rowan grabbed me about the waist.

"Let me go!" I shrieked, stamping on his foot and lashing out with my psychic powers. Rowan gasped and staggered backwards.

"You expletive deleted," he screeched. "Go and get yourself killed then, see if I care."

It was then I felt the torment pouring off him. He loved Kat as much as I, if in a different way, and it pained him too to leave her here.

A wall of flame suddenly materialised in front of me, the heat searing my eyebrows from my face. My eyes began watering madly, and I flailed, as though trying to beat the fire away. My whole world was an inferno of heat and pain and bittersweet longing.

Then I felt hands grasping me, dragging me back, and although I struggled the breath came raw in my throat and tears streamed down my face. I could not resist and then, suddenly, the world was surrounding by a pinkish film and the heat and darkness were replaced by a warm lightness.

Fenrill had teleported us into the neighbouring village.

"No!" I screamed, flailing and kicking at my restrainer, and then found myself pushed against the floor, a foot pressed between my shoulder blades. Abruptly I ceased struggling.

"It's too late," Rowan said. "But we'll save her, we will. However, we must fall back and prepare, blindly charging in is just going to get us all killed."

"How can you say that? He's a raving madman, capable of all sorts of foul deeds."

"He won't kill her," Rowan explained, and I wondered how he could sound so calm about it, so reassured. "He needs her alive, because he wants the Mews. I suspect he will instigate a trade."

"He is as trustworthy as an Ekans," I growled, "they tried that before, once, and lied, who it to say he will not lie again?"

"Oh, I do not doubt he will, but he won't kill her. Dead she is worthless for his purposes."

"How can you talk like that? So calm and confident." I struggled, but they were feeble.

"Because someone has to be. Now what the heck was it you did to me?"

"I, I dunno…"

"Well, don't do it again, or you'll be sorry."

I crawled to my feet and stared out into the darkness. Somewhere out there was Kataryna, and how I desperately wished I could be with her. If anything happened to her, I would die. Maybe not physically, but I would die inside, hollow and empty.

TO BE CONTINUED... eventually!

Don't give up hope yet :)