Pookamon

Escape into Insanity (Brooke and James)

"I don’t think its safe for you to go alone." James informed the Sandshrew-morph and the Vaporeon-morph. It had been almost a week since his accident and he was seated in a wheelchair in the gardens. The two girls had sneaked in to meet with him. It had been a week of worry for the young man, since this assassin was liable to be out there somewhere, watching and waiting, not to mention that he still was unclear on what had become of Kataryna and Kameron. The pain in his chest had subsided now, so that it did not hurt when he breathed, only when he laughed. Unfortunately, around Cassandra and Brooke, one laughed often.

"Life’s not safe," Cassandra remarked. "It’s a terrible, frightening thing, but we’ve learnt to survive."

"Yeah," Brooke said with a smile, "I’ve survived good, see, I’m alive!"

"I just meant that this assassin was after you, and he will be waiting for you, if not at CAIP, then at Sereniti, or perhaps even beyond. I don’t know why he wants to see you dead, Brooke, but he wanted to see me dead too. I can just expect he works for Team Rocket."

Cassandra shuddered at the word. "I remember them," she said softly, "they were terrifying, horrifying. I hated working for them. But I also know this, when we escaped, they would be after us. The Boss does not take desertion lightly and will kill any who express their disloyalty."

James nodded, and glanced over to Brooke, who had Buttons seated on a park bench and was trying, with some success to put a daisy chain about her neck. Her innocent moved something in him. Why would someone want to kill someone so innocent, so childlike, it seemed worse then criminal, it seemed depraved. And Cassandra, well, the Sandshrew girl was shy, but she seemed to realise that Brooke was not always capable of doing all the thinking, that some concepts were beyond her grasp. Certainly, the Vaporeon-girl was not stupid, she had a hidden sharpness that revealed itself occasionally, as startling as finding a coin in your cereal. But Brooke, with all her childhood innocence and naivety, seemed uninterested in making plans. "I agree, which is why I am not going to let you walk to Sereniti – even now the beastman could be coming back in search of you."

"It’s been over a week," Cassandra pointed out, "surely he has got bored and moved on. If he was going to find us, he would have already."

"I don’t know," James said softly, "I really don’t know what has become of him, but sooner or later, Team Rocket will investigate my "accident" and discover that it did not have the consequences already imagined."

"But couldn’t we skip danger altogether by taking a different route to the Island Haven?" She asked, she wrung her hands nervously, something she had been doing all through the conversation. She was not, obviously, a talkative type normally, but had been forced into such a situation.

"We could," James replied, "but I worry for my friends’ safety and would like to know that the assassin has not punished them the way he punished me."

*

"Stay still, girl," Brooke instructed the brown chihuahua-like Pokemon. Buttons kept squirming and the daisy chain snapped, tumbling to the ground. "Now look what you’ve done," the Vaporeon-girl said sadly, tears slipping to her eyes. "You broke my pretty necklace!"

"Eevee!" Buttons stated urgently, jumping off the park bench and running a few paces.

"Oh, you want to make it up to me by playing "chase-an-catch-the-eevee-cat"," Brooke seemed unimpressed. "Well, I no want to play that game cos you no wanna play my game!"

"Eevee vee!" Buttons glared at her and Brooke suddenly realised that this was not a game.

"What’s wrong? Is someone after Mr Green Eyes?"