"Could be wrong, but you don't exactly look pleased to see me."

Jarret echoed the same words that Attra had sneered at him during their recent fight in Phoenixbrook's backstreets. Attra, still glaring at the snowkitten from across the other side of Kela's bedroom, kept his gun aimed at Jarret's head. If it was meant to intimidate, as it should have done, it failed. Jarret wandered over to a nearby bedside cabinet, casually picking up an alarm clock, observing the back, and placing it calmly back down again.

Almost in a flash, Attra's personality seemed to change. Like a switch had been flicked, he was livid one moment, and then a sinister grin crossed his face. "So... crafty old Kela! I won't ask how you knew he planted the bomb for us. I'm sure I can guess... And how is Ailee after that terrible explosion at The Burrow? Upset that she singed an eyelash no doubt, and..."

His sentence unfinished, an electric blue energy bolt tore across the room, slamming into Attra's chest and smashing him to the floor. As the gun slid across the room, Jarret grabbed it, pocketing it in his long leather coat.

"Nice..." croaked Attra, staggering to his feet. "Just when we were having such a polite conversation too."

Jarret remained silent, leaning, arms folded, against a wooden cupboard. He watched as Attra, fully healed, turned the armchair round, which Jarret had sat in previously, and jumped into it, facing Jarret as if nothing was amiss.

Eventually the Elysia officer commented, "Okay, I give up. How did you know I was here, and more to the point why are you here?"

Jarret sighed. "I thought you'd have figured that out by now, being the master race and all." Attra simply shrugged in response, so Jarret continued. "Kela's working for me now."

"Treacherous piece of filth that he is," Attra laughed.

Jarret ignored him. "His skills have already been useful. That's why I knew you were heading here, and it didn't take a lot of imagination to work out why. You lot really don't stick to your promises, do you?"

Attra shrugged again. "A dead body isn't going to worry about a little broken promise."

"He's not dead though, is he? And he's safe. Kela is somewhere you can't harm him."

Attra nonchalantly replied, "Oh, I wouldn't start laying down challenges, snowkitten. I really wouldn't."

"Far too late for that. I've already given Kela the challenge of finding the three Kiera stones. And when he does, I'll find you and I'll take you apart piece by piece."

There was a barely detectable flicker on Attra's face that may have been at least a hint of concern at that threat. Whatever the case, it vanished just as rapidly as it had appeared, though not before Jarret had noticed. Nevertheless, Attra retorted, "The mouse will find sod all. I can guarantee that. You found nothing and neither will he."

"He found you," Jarret replied, casually examining the claws on his left paw. "He knew what your repulsive organisation was up to, and it had you worried enough to decide to shut him up. I never got that close to finding out where you were or what you had planned, but Kela did. And where those Kiera stones are concerned, he's already following up a promising lead."

Attra stood up from the armchair and Jarret watched him like a hawk, though the Elysia officer simply wandered over to the window, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Do you really think I'm worried about a threat like that?"

Jarret replied, "Oh yes..."

Attra smirked. "It might concern the others. But not me. I've been alive for well over two hundred years. And you cannot imagine how boring it becomes after a while. Alder is driven by his cause. Ashden by science and discovery. Me? I live on challenges. Fighting. Killing..."

The look he gave Jarret pushed the snowkitten too far. Jarret hissed and flung both paws forward, launching twin beams of red energy towards Attra. However, he was prepared, catching both beams in his own paws, where they transformed into seething, twisting orbs of red fire. He snarled, "I live on challenges, and in all this time the only people who have remotely provided me with a decent fight are you, and that bitch Leana. And right now... that's the only thing keeping you alive."

As he finished that sentence, he hurled the two red fireballs towards Jarret, and they roared across the room, missing by inches. The cupboard wasn't so lucky, exploding in a noisy mix of flames and wood splinters. The impact may not have struck Jarret directly, but the near miss had been enough to wind him, and knock him to the ground. He coughed as he struggled to stand up. The next thing he knew, he was standing up whether he liked it or not, pinned to the wall by Attra's paw, tight round his neck. Not hard enough to choke, but enough to imply the threat and make it hard to breathe.

Attra grinned, inches from Jarret's face, his eyes flashing with utter venom. "You see, Jarret, if Kela does have the slightest chance of finding those stones and ending our immortality, that adds a little spark of danger to my existence. A bit of an edge if you like. And I don't fear that. I welcome it. So bring it on. Give it your best shot..."

Jarret decided to take him up on the offer. Releasing both his paws from the wrist of the Elysia officer, he slammed them into the cat's chest and unleashed a huge blast of spell power, which flung Attra the full length of the room. He slammed into the far wall and collapsed.

Attra coughed, but was already recovering and attempting to stand. "Not bad, snowkitten, but hardly enough, was it? You see, this is where the problem lies. There is only so long that you can be a challenge, and there are only so many ways to end a snowkitten's life before it becomes tedious. And I've ended so many lives..."

Jarret let out an enraged snarl, grabbing Attra's gun from the coat pocket he'd stashed it in earlier, and firing bolt after bolt from it towards its previous owner. As each shot slammed home, it drove Attra back across the room, further and further until he was backed up against the bedroom window. The wounds from the barrage healed almost as soon as they'd been inflicted, but Jarret had expected that. Attra stood there in front of the window grinning, teeth bared. "Not a scratch. You're losing it, snowkitten."

Jarret didn't reply, dropping the overheating gun to the floor, while behind his back he had been storing up a huge energy bolt in his free paw. And with Attra in just the right place, Jarret hurled it forwards with as much force as possible. It smashed into its target before Attra even began to comprehend the situation, exploding at the same time, and the force flung him violently through the window, glass shattering into tiny shards behind him.

Jarret rushed over to the gaping window frame, warily looking out. Below, a few flames still licking at his clothes, Attra lay still on the hard concrete path. In the street nearby, a bewildered pair of otters stood, open mouthed, too shocked to move. They were neighbours of Kela's, who had unsurprisingly wondered what the noise next door had been. They hadn't quite expected to find a body lying on their neighbour's path.

Not that Attra stayed still for long.

In a single motion he sat up, instantly aiming a tightly closed fist towards the building, flinging a white beam of intense energy at the window.

"Oh sh..." Jarret began, before the entire front of the house detonated in a blinding ball of flame and light. Jarret flung himself to the floor, avoiding the worst of it, and immediately began to crawl towards the stairs, flames roaring above him.

Down below, Attra turned to see the shocked neighbours, joined now by the three elderly rabbits who shared a house opposite. The cat bowed, grinning. "And for my next trick..." He opened his paw and several black darts shot from the palm, striking each of the 'audience' on their necks. They collapsed soundlessly, no longer potential witnesses. Not that Attra cared about that side of things - he'd done it because he could - but it was a suitable cover story if Alder asked. As it was, the burning building would rapidly spin the witness situation out of control anyway.

As he turned back to face the house, Jarret suddenly pounced out of the flames, scratching his claws as hard as he could across Attra's face. Attra let out a strangled hiss, blinded for a second until his powers rapidly healed the injury. He swung a fist at Jarret, missing completely, as the snowkitten kicked out, knocking Attra back into the flaming doorway of the house.

Jarret watched as Attra, unharmed by the flames, stood shakily. The snowkitten muttered, "Losing my touch eh? Well that thing with the window was a little trick I learned from Leana, in case you wondered."

Once again, Attra was just grinning ear to ear. "Why the hell are you here, snowkitten? You never did say. Or perhaps you enjoy our little meetings just as much as I do..."

Jarret could hardly deny that he enjoyed every chance he got to put another dent in Attra's head, but he told him instead, "I wanted to make sure you had some happy news to pass on to your boss and your various cronies. We know you're here, and we've got Kela. And before long we'll have those stones. And then, you're all mine..."

"Hah!" Attra shrugged. "Do you really think it'll be that simple?"

"Yes."

Jarret knew the ACU, Aredria's police force, were approaching so he had to act fast. The first bolt of energy he threw slammed Attra further back into the burning building. The second collapsed part of the door to prevent him escaping too quickly.

And then Jarret closed his eyes, concentrating hard as he connected his own powers to something forbidden - something darker and more powerful still that lurked and boiled below the city of Phoenixbrook - the source of the city's power. As he suddenly spread his arms wide, the entire house erupted in a massive hellish fireball, flames tearing across the lawn, and over Jarret, though he was seemingly unharmed.

He then left the ACU and fire services to do their job, watching them from the end of the path, knowing there would be awkward questions. The first of those came from the ACU team chief, a tall black and white furred dog, who bluntly asked, "What the hell did you think you were doing?!"

Jarret calmly replied, "Making a point. And showing the scum inside what it's like to be in the same situation he put me and my sister in."

The ACU chief muttered something into his radio and turned to Jarret. "There is no 'scum' inside. The entire building, or lack of, is empty."

The snowkitten wasn't surprised in the slightest. He knew full well it hadn't been anywhere near enough to stop Attra, but he knew it had given him something to think about, if nothing else. He started to stroll away in the direction of his parked car, a few streets away, planning to head straight back to Phoenixbrook.

The ACU chief yelled, "Hey! Where do you think you're going?"

Jarret didn't look back, just calling out, "Anyone has any more stupid questions to ask, you know where to find me."