Something was scrabbling in the floor beneath the bed. The young man sat up, sweeping back his long blue hair. It was badly in need of a wash, his injuries had been taken care of, but it seemed his hygiene had been left to the gods to sort out. He had been there a week now, and his wounds were mostly healed. He could walk now, although he was still stiff and he had suffered a bout of influenza after his dunking. Thankfully, the Blissey nurse had been more then wonderful and he had made an almost full recovery. He put his feet on the floor and stood up, staggering over to the tiny washbasin in the medical bay. The cool water was crisp against his skin, beautiful. He filled himself a glass of water and drank it.

Something fell over downstairs with a crash.

Okay, this was too much, all that was downstairs was the store room and noone was supposed to go there, save for the nurses, and the nurses would never be so clumsy.

James made his way out the door and towards the doorway to the storeroom. It was slightly ajar. He peered down into the gloom, but there was no way he could see down there, except for a small purple glow, so slight as to be barely noticeable. Curiosity was not one of his vices, but he had to investigate anyway, if not to satisfy himself then to stop any risk of danger to his friends and kin. He grabbed the fire extinguisher and crept downstairs.

It took his eyes a while to adjust to the darkness, but years of working against Giovanni had given James skills he had never learned in Team Rocket. He could move as silently as a Meowth in near darkness (although not as silent as an Umbreon). The purple light helped. There was a small, almost childlike shape standing in the middle of the storeroom, and there was something very familiar about it. James could not see exactly what it was doing, but he knew it was wrong.

"Hey you!" He shouted, stepping into its vision.

It whirled and he startled as he recognised it.

Mystik.

The Nyura-girl turned and spat at him and his head exploded with a thousand fires. But James had experienced such attacks from Azrael before and expected it. His finger, resting lightly on the trigger of the fire extinguisher depressed and shrouded Mystik in dry ice.

Coughing and spluttering, he pushed through the smoke to grab her, but she had gone, completely. As the dry ice cleared he saw what she had been doing.

A complex mechanism made from store-room supplies and sat on the table. It was such a tangled mass of wires, all of the same dull grey colour, that James had not a hope of recognising anything. A counter was randomly flicking through a bunch of numbers at a rate of one pre second. Whoever had set this bomb had not wanted to risk it being defused. And Mystik had set it.

His reflexes were quick, he wasted no time trying to defuse it – it was so complicated and filled with bits that it would take an expert hours to work out what did what, and James was not an expert and probably did not have hours. He sprinted up the stairs, almost slipping on the way. He had to assume this was not the only bomb, that there were others around the building. Luckily he knew the Valentine’s Dance was on tonight. Everyone would be there.

He ran to the nearest fire alarm, shattered the glass with the fire extinguisher and activated the alarm. And then he made for the nearest fire escape. There was no telling how much time he had. Or how much time any of them had.

He was almost to the door when the first bomb exploded, the sound audible over the screech of the alarms. The floor buckled behind him and a heat wave washed over him, but luckily he was far enough from the blaze to avoid being turned into a smear on the floor. It was still strong enough to incinerate his clothing across the back and to throw him through the glass door and outside. Pieces of wood and other lovely shrapnel showered down around him. He had only fallen from the ground floor, James reflected, which was something of an improvement.

His last thoughts before he fainted from shock, was that he hoped Brooke and Cassandra had got out okay. Then he blacked out.

*

Strong hands dragged him to his feet and something slapped him in the face. He moaned and forced his eyes open.

"Wake up sleepy," said a familiar voice.

"Azrael?" He stuttered. Of all the last people he wanted to see!

"Don’t sound so thankful boy, you are just lucky that Blade here saw you from the sky."

The man peered and could just, through his blurred vision, make out the shape of a red Pookamon with large scorpion like claws and wings. The Scizor said nothing, merely crossed its arms on its chest and stared straight at him. His gaze was as unfaltering as Mystik’s.

"Mystik… traitor…." He managed to stutter, before his knees gave way and he fell again.

***

Peering over his book, Nothing felt the jealousy rise in him as he watched Cassandra dance with the handsome Sandslash. When the two of them left the building together, the jealousy had almost reached boiling point. He did not know whether to cry or go after them and beat the porcupine pookamon to a pulp. Why should he be jealous anyway? What did he have to offer Cassandra, aside from a selection of reading material? He had never managed to hang onto anyone he loved for long, they had died, all of them, he was cursed.

And Amelia, poor sweet Amelia, she whom he had betrayed.

Who was he kidding, he didn’t deserve anyone.

He was about to sink into the pit of despair when his roommate skipped over. The kid was high on sugar and exceitement.

"Nuh-nothing, thu-this is suh-so much fuh-un!" The Bulbasaur-boy stuttered. He was holding a cookie in one vine and a glass of punch in the other.

The Ninetails smiled. "I’m glad you’re enjoying it kid." He liked Jakob, even if the kid was a compulsive thief. He had taken to hiding stuff under his bed, but recently he had found something he had hidden in the mattress sitting on Jakob’s desk covered in smudge marks. It wasn’t that the boy stole out of spite or cruelty, merely that he did not see anything wrong with doing so. After having the note soiled by his roomie, Nothing had lost all courage to deliver it. It was now a crumpled heap in the bottom of his rubbish bin.

He tried to attract Brooke’s attention, but the girl had started a rather bizarre vine-and-tail dance with an attractive Chikorita-morph. There was no attracting her attention. Should he start to worry? Cassandra had been gone only a few minutes.

Then the fire alarm went off.

Instant pandemonium insued. The Pookamon had never got used to fire drills and the sound of the alarm meant danger. Several dived under the tables, as though it were an air raid siren, but most of the others bolted straight for the doorway.

Nothing glanced at the hoards and dived onto the dance floor, grabbing Brooke in one arm and the Chikorita girl in the other. Both protested loudly. He half carried, half dragged them not to the main doors, which were being blocked by struggling morphs, but through to the bathrooms, where he knew the windows were big enough to allow one pokemon to climb through at a time. Jakob ran after him.

"Change form!" He shouted, and the Chikorita obeyed instantly. "Jakob, Chikorita, pull off the bars with your vines!"

<<You ain’t my trainer!>> The Chikorita snapped, but obeyed him anyway. With both Grass pokemon dragging on the bars, they quickly broke lose and first the Chikorita-girl scrambled through, then Jakob, also in full pokemon form.

Brooke followed them quietly, although she seemed to be wanting to go back for something. As soon as she was through he turned into a Ninetails and sprang easily through the opening.

The other Pokemon had not even thought to change form.

The four of them scampered across the ground, towards the shelter of the trees.

Brooke suddenly turned and tried to run back. Nothing whirled quickly and grabbed her tail in his teeth. She screamed as though in intense agony, although he was only holding, not biting.

<<Mr Leafy!>> The Vaporeon whimpered, << must save Mr Leafy from nasty-bad flames.>>

<<You go back in there Brooke, and you will die,>> Nothing mumbled around her tail. <<It’s just a pot plant!>>

Brooke spat water in his face, causing him to recoil in pain. <<Not just any plant, its Mr Leafy, he’s my friend and my date!>>

She broke free and ran back toward the building. The water had hurt him and he could not catch up. But luckily two sets of vine whip sliced through the air, grasping Brooke about the body and dragging her back.

And at that moment the building exploded.

It started small, with the wood rippling, then all the windows that had glass in them exploded outwards, slicing through the air at deadly velocity. Instinctively Nothing put his head between his front paws as shrapnel cut through his thick fur. Brooke screamed, a truly heart rendering sound.

<<Mr Leafy!!!>>

And then, there was silence, save for the snap and crackle as flames overtook the dancehall, and other parts of the campus.

And then he began to worry about Cassandra. There had been an attack, and he could not remember seeing the Sandslash around before. There had to be some sort of foul play.

<<Jakob, Chikorita-girl…>>>

<<My name is Midori,>> she growled in reply, but Nothing was too worried to care.

<<Look after Brooke, I have to go.>> He yipped, and before they could object he was off across the grass towards the main entrance.

<<Poor Mr Leafy…>> Brooke wept, <<he was my friend, I loved him and now he’s dead in the land of black and coldness.>>

And the two Grass Pokemon wrapped their vines around her, comforting her, and comforting themselves, for they too had lost their homes. And possibly their friends.