Cassandra awoke in the bowels of darkness. She was not alone, the air was heavy with the smell of heat and dust. Her body ached.

"Hi?" She asked the darkness, "is anyone there?"

"I am," a quiet voice replied, and she recognised the earthy scent of another Sandshrew morph. "Who are you?"

"My name is Cassandra," she replied, "where are we?"

"Can you hear the creaking of boards, the gentle slap of water against wood? We are in a boat, my friend.

And we are captives."

"But why?" Was Cassandra’s first question. "Why are we here? Imprisoned?"

"I can answer dat," came a familiar, accented voice. The talking Persian. "Da master, he wants somethin’ from yer, don’t he? Somethin’ from one of ya."

"What?" Cassandra’s fear had diminished into a sort of deep seeded depression. Why not ask? It wasn’t as if she had anything to lose.

"Oh, what would be da fun in tellin’ ya dat?" The feline yowled, and they heard its padded feet departing. It must have been making noise on purpose, for normally Persians moved as silent as a shadow.

"That beast creeps me out," the other Sandshrew said, a shudder in her voice. "I keep thinking its going to eat me."

"It won’t eat me," Cassandra replied, jutting out her chin, "my Saffire will save me!"

*

Saffire cradled the unconscious figure of Brooke. There was a stabbing pain throughout his entire body every time he tried to move his head. His whole body was racked with shudders. He wanted to go after Giovanni, to rescue Cassandra, but he could not leave Brooke here to die. And he was certain she would. Suddenly a noise, the faintest whisper of a noise, made him turn his head.

A stabbing pain shot down his neck from the movement.

A dark furred pookamon stared at him, from twilight eyes. His features were calm, but angry.

"What have you done to her?" He asked coldly, stepping forward. Saffire could see in the flex of his muscles, the flame burning behind his eyes, that this man was dangerous. Very dangerous.

The two of them stared at each other for a long moment, until Saffire finally found his tongue.

"I did nothing. It was that human freak and his talking Persian."

"Giovanni," a voice growled, and another figure staggered into the area, a human with blue hair, tousled and fill of twigs.

The Umbreon scooped Brooke in his arms. Her head lolled alarmingly. "I should have known he was behind this," he snarled. "I will kill him myself." Then he glanced down at Brooke and a look of such great sorrow crossed his face that Saffire felt as if his heart were being torn in two.

"I must go and find Cassandra," he replied. "I’m sorry about Brooke." He gulped.

The dark morph stared down at Brooke’s face, and ran one hand tenderly through her hair. "I must stay with her," he said quietly. "I can hardly leave her in a time such as this." His gaze hardened and his violet eyes seemed to bore into the Ninetails’ blue ones. "Kill him for me," he said softly. "Kill him for me."

Saffire nodded. He would do as the man wished, even though he did not know him. He wished only to slay the monster himself.

Giovanni would die tonight.

"I’m coming with you," the human added, staggering slightly. "I have my own vengence to seek."

Although the human was a liability, Saffire had no desire to hang about and argue. He nodded. "Very well. Then let us depart."

The human turned to the Umbreon-morph and bowed quickly to him. "Fare thee well," he said softly, "take the woman to where none can hurt her." And he brushed a single tear from his own eye. And then he turned his gaze back to Saffire. "Well, don’t just stand there like a stranded magikarp! Let’s go!"

Without further encouragement, Saffire transformed into a Ninetails so as to accurately follow the trail. It would be slower with the human tagging along, but he felt better for the company.

*

As the night grew blacker and more oppressive, the morph and the human made their way through the forest. Suddenly it opened up onto a beach, and Saffire stepped back in alarm.

There had been a battle fought here not minutes before. The beach was littered with the bodies of dead Pookamon, scattered aimlessly about the sand, hideously maimed. In death, there was no way to distinguish the natives of the island from Giovanni’s army. Somehow it seemed fitting.

"It wasn’t meant to be like this…" a voice groaned, and Saffire’s ears twitched as he recognised the scent. It was Pierce, the Rapidash he had gored. He had obviously not gored it enough, for he had managed to struggle to the beach, and was now sitting on the shore, clasping his head in his hands and weeping. A pink bandana was tied tightly about his neck. It was stained brown with blood, but the Ninetails could not have bitten deep enough. Oddly enough, he felt relieved. Reforming into his morphic form, he walked over to the sobbing unicorn Pokemorph. He patted him on the shoulder, feeling an odd comradeship.

"It wasn’t meant to be like this," the morph wept, "it was meant to be a simple job, come in, kidnap the Sandshrews and get out of there! What has he done? He’s killed us all!"

There came a scream, a bloodthirsty shriek and something swooped down on them. The human, whose name, Saffire had established, was James, shrieked and ran for the trees. The something turned out to be the largest and most deformed Charizard the Ninetails had ever seen. He jumped up, trying to drag the Rapidash with him. But Pierce would not move, merely stood and stared at the monstrosity.

"Is this what we have become?" He said quietly, as the Charizard bellowed again and crashed into him, his horn penetrating into its skull at the same moment its talons tore the life from his body. Blood trickled down its forehead and it swung its tail wildly, sending an avalanche of driftwood and corpses flying into the air. Saffire dodged a log and dived into the trees after James.

The Charizard seemed to stop almost in midair, before its momentum carried it into the foliage. It threw back its head, bellowed again, and then sprayed a fountain of fire into the forest. Instantly flames licked up the tree branches, pine needles sizzling and popping. Saffire struggled through the thickening smoke to suddenly stumble into someone. His eyes were watering madly, but he could see it was human, James.

The man grasped his hand tight, and pressing his other hand over his mouth, dragged the Ninetails morph away from the Charizard, which was now stomping on trees and kicking them down.

Finally they were away from the smoke, and the both of them fell to the ground panting and wheezing for breath.

"What was that thing?" Saffire gasped.

"A freak," James replied, rubbing his eyes, "a horrible killing machine. It has to be his work, noone else could do anything so cruel."

"We’ve lost the trail," the helpful Ninetails pointed out.

"We may have lost the trail, but look!" James pointed shakily at something. There, on the water, in a quiet cove, was a large sailing vessel. "I bet that’s where they’ve got Cassandra!"

Saffire had not even waited for him to finish the sentence, he was already racing across the beach. James stared at him for a moment.

"Oh shit…" he muttered, then sprinted after him, sending the Ninetails tumbling to the ground just as a purple shape flitted over, and alighted on the edge of the ship. It turned and stared at them, clicking large pincers, and then dived at them. Saffire stood up as the Gligar-morph descended on him, sending a powerful volley of ice from the palms of his hands. The whirling ice struck the flying Pokemon head on, sending it tumbling into the sand, where Saffire immediately pounced on it.

"What’s on the ship?" He growled.

"None of your business," the scorpion-bat replied.

"Oh really? None of my business indeed?" Saffire pushed the morph’s head back, jamming his elbow painfully in the place on its throat that was not protected in scale. He pushed.

The Gligar gagged and gasped. "Whu-whuh-whuh-what?"

"What is on the ship?" Saffire repeated. James kicked the morph in the side for good measure.

"Prisoners…" it gasped. "Giovanni and his … prisoners…"

"Very good, it appears you have the right answer." Saffire slapped it across the side of the face. "Now for round two, what’s the safest way onto the ship? What guards it?"

"Giovanni’s Persian…" The morph replied.

"A cat, just a stinking cat?" James chuckled. "I’ve fought them before and I shall fight them again!"

"Not normal Persian…"

"Explain!" Saffire applied a little pressure to the Gligar’s throat.

"Enhanced… very strong.."

"Can we get on without alerting the feline?" James asked.

"Only if quiet," it replied. "Please… let me go!"

"You forgot one question though," Saffire commented "what’s the safest way on?"

"From the water…"

Saffire glanced at James. "Well," he replied, "I may be a fire type, but I can swim, how about you?"

The man nodded. "Well enough. But what do we do with Scorpion-bat here?"

Saffire stared at the Gligar wickedly, then shook his head. "We tie it up," he said.

"Um, with what?"

The Ninetails stood up (still with one foot pressed against the chest of the morphic-bat), he scouted the area as best he could. "With that net there."

The fishing net had clearly washed up on shore a long time ago, for it was partly buried in sand. However, the material it was made from was quite strong, and had weathered the conditions well enough. James hastened to unbury it and they wrapped the complaining Gligar-morph in its folds. Something flashed in the distance and they realised that the Charizard must be going about its terrible task.

"We must hurry," Saffire urged, and ran into the water, wincing as it touched his skin. James glanced back to make sure the netting was secure, and followed after the morph.

Behind them, the Gligar set about demolishing the net with its pincers.