When Kipo eventually came to, everything was red. Kipo's brow furrowed, and she turned her head, groaning as she raised her arm over her closed eyes, settling them into a much more comfortable darkness. Ah, that was better.

Yawning, Kipo cracked open her eyes. Now that the pain from them had gone away, Kipo was suddenly very aware that everywhere else hurt, too. She had a pounding headache, for one, and everyone bone in her body ached. Kipo groaned again, sitting up. It was a big job, because as soon as she was up, a big spike of pain stabbed her in the skull.

"KIPO!" someone yelled, much didn't help her headache at all, but Kipo still raised a hand (not very high) and waved to... Kipo had to squint... Anne. Anne paused in front of her, kneeling down. For the first time, Kipo noticed she was on a bench, on some sort of street. They were outside?

"How are you feeling?" Anne asked, peering up at her. Kipo turned her attention to Anne, who, despite being up close, was blurry.

"Um," Kipo said, and then paused. Her voice was scratchy and her throat hurt. Kipo coughed. "Um, it's alright, I guess... do we have any water?"

Anne nodded. "Oh yeah! Tons! Here you go."

Anne handed a bottle over (it looked familiar, Kipo thought, but she couldn't really see it) and Kipo chugged it. It was the best thing she'd ever tasted.

"Uh... you should probably slow down-yeah," Anne winced as Kipo started coughing, making her headache even worse, somehow. "You're probably wondering what's going on."

Kipo nodded. Technically, she hadn't had the chance to wonder that yet, but now she certainly was.

"Well, I don't know when you passed out, but after we did that announcement thing, we were running away, trying to look for an exit, but Fei Fei saw you first," Anne told her. "Good thing, too, because we were all kind of assuming that you were already yet, cause we didn't see you in the arena anymore. But anyway, we went back, and the monkeys were just going insane and attacking the audience, so it was really easy to just slip through, grab you, and get out. The escape was really cool, though, we had to make our way through that stupid maze and eventually we just caved in the roof. Wish you could have seen it."

Kipo shrugged, glancing around.

"We're still in that town," Anne said. "Right now, it's probably late afternoon. You've been asleep for four ish hours, I think. Fei Fei and Kris are over there."

Kipo glanced over, and assumed those two dots were her two other friends.

"Do-," Kipo coughed. "Do you think our plan worked?"

Anne frowned, thinking. "I... don't really know. Maybe? ...I mean, we didn't stick around for long, so we didn't get to see. But I'm very persuasive, so I'm going to assume that there's a revolution going on right now."

Kipo smiled, chuckling, and Anne grinned.

"Anne, what are you doing?"

Kipo and Anne glanced up, and slowly, Fei Fei came into view. Getting clearer and clearer, but no matter how much Kipo focused on her, Fei Fei never became completely clear. That's probably not good...

"You should be leaving Kipo sleeping, Anne," Fei Fei scolded, glaring over at her before turning to Kipo with a much kinder look in her eye. "Are you okay?"

Kipo blinked. "Huh? Oh, yeah, just a headache and..." Kipo paused, suddenly raising her arm to feel her back. She could still fell those monkeys biting into her... but her hand just passed harmlessly over unbroken skin. Kipo frowned. If nothing happened to her human body, then why did she pass out in it anyway?

"Kipo?" Fei Fei asked, and Kipo stopped awkwardly patting herself on the back for a second.

"Uh, just a headache, it seems," Kipo told them, smiling sheepishly. "My whole body kind of hurts... but what happened in the arena doesn't seem to be affecting me anymore."

"What?" Anne asked, sounding intrigued. "What happened in the arena?"

"...Oh, you must not have seen," Kipo realized. "Basically, the monkeys just started crawling all over me, acting like ticks, almost. They tore my skin and seemed to drawn some food, but my human body isn't affected."

The three fell silent as Anne and Fei Fei glanced at each other, seemingly confused. Kipo couldn't blame them.

"Um... how does your thing work? Your giant cat thing?" Anne asked. "Is it like you're piloting a giant mecha? Or do you actually... turn into it? Like animorphes?"

Kipo tilted her head. "I... sorry, I don't know what those are, but..." Kipo frowned, thinking. "When I'm in my giant jaguar form, I'm... inside it. I'm in this place, like where I'm standing on water, and I control the jaguar. But when the jaguar gets thrown around, I do too, and when it get's hurt, I feel it."

Anne and Fei Fei seemed to think about that.

"And... this 'mega jaguar'..." Fei Fei seemed to stumble over the words. "Where does it come from?"

Kipo was once again confused. "Myself. It comes from me. I'm the mega jaguar."

Fei Fei shook her head, raising her hands. "No, no, you misunderstood." Fei Fei paused, seeming to struggle with her next words. "I...I'm not sure how to explain it, but when you transform, you get bigger. Where does the bigness come from? How does that work?"

Kipo opened her mouth, but nothing came out. No... Fei Fei was right, how did that work? Kipo would be lying if she said she'd never wondered before, but most of the confusion was covered up by everything finally clicking into place. Her skin, her mother, everything had started making sense! The mega jaguar was the answer to all her questions... but Fei Fei was right. The mega jaguar was a mess of questions as well.

Kipo sighed, and Fei Fei winced, looking at her sympathetically.

"I'm sorry... do you not know?" she asked, and Kipo shrugged.

"Yeah... I guess I just never considered any of that," Kipo told them. "But those are pretty good questions, actually."

"Well, maybe we should do some 'experiments' then," Anne said in a strange voice, but she quickly stopped herself when know one seemed to 'get it'. "I'm kidding, I promise."

Fei Fei shook her head. "Kipo, you probably shouldn't be thinking anyway. You should be resting. Get some more sleep."

"Wait!" Despite the lull of sleep weighing her down like a weighted blanket, Kipo forced herself to stay awake. "What... what are we going to do?"

Fei Fei blinked at her, seemingly not understanding. "What?"

Luckily, Anne seemed to get it. "Our plan is to wait here until night, and then we're gonna hide out and check out the monsters. And, if we're lucky, we can defeat them all and tell the town by morning!"

Kipo's mind wasn't at it best, but even like this she could tell this plan was full of holes. Still, Kipo was in no position to argue.

"Ok," Kipo said, laying down on the hard bench. She could feel hard bits of wood poking into her. She yawned. "Got it... I'll just rest up then?"

"Good idea." Anne gave her a big smile and a thumbs up, but Fei Fei still looked a little worried.

"Kipo..." she started tentatively. "You said the... your transformation got hurt last time, right, in the arena?"

Kipo nodded tiredly.

"Oh..." Fei Fei seemed to frown even deeper. "Then the next time you transform..."

In a snap, Kipo suddenly got what she was saying.

"Oh!" she said suddenly, seemingly startling Anne and Fei Fei. Kipo frowned, thinking hard. "...Honestly, I'm not all that sure... I've never got that hurt before."

"Ah," Fei Fei sounded disappointed, but she tried to keep it off her face. "Well, don't worry about that. I have a plan. If it works, you won't have to use that at all."

Kipo's eyes widened, but before she could ask what she meant, Fei Fei was quietly reassuring her, and Kipo's tiredness finally overwhelmed her. The world went dark, and Kipo slowly drifted away.

"H...ey, Kip...o."

Kipo shifted, suddenly roused. Someone was pushing at her shoulder, and whispering her name.

Kipo yawned, sitting up, but she didn't get far before something was suddenly shoving her back down. Kipo yelped, surprised, but something quickly covered her mouth.

"Shh! Kipo! It's me!" Anne whispered harshly, and Kipo, sensing the urgency in her voice, stilled.

Anne breathed a sigh of relief, and whispered: "Come with me."

Kipo, despite still being confused, didn't argue, and Anne shifted hurrying over to the side. Kipo rolled over, off her bench, and followed Anne around a building. It was night, Kipo realized, pitch dark, and Kipo could only see by the light of the bright moon, shining down upon them.

Kipo suddenly frowned. Wait... what about the plan? Why is it already night?

"Look out!" Anne hissed through her teeth, jumping back and grabbing Kipo. She quickly rushed them around a building, and then froze, leaning up against the back of it and breathing heavily. Kipo frowned. The hadn't run that far...

Suddenly, a horrible, horrible sound reached Kipo's ears, and she bent over, covering them with her hands, yet that didn't seem to help at all. That awful sound... it was the screech of metal on metal... what was making that?! What kind of monsters...

A bare of hands gently took Kipo's shoulders, and then, much less gently, hurried her in a series of directions until whatever that noise was finally faded, and Kipo was able to lower her hands.

"Thanks," she whispered to Anne, and Anne shrugged modestly.

"I guess the mega jaguar thing gives you super hearing, right?" Anne guessed, and Kipo nodded. "Huh... so if you lose you hearing, will you just be able to hear like a normal person?"

Kipo frowned, confused. "I think I'd just be deaf, actually..."

"Maybe," Anne said, but then her face turned serious. "Fei Fei and Kris are over there, but we have to take a detour. Just follow me."

Kipo stared at her. "But what about the monsters?!"

"Don't worry, you can hear them from pretty far away," Anne reassured her. "I don't think it'll be too hard to avoid them."

"You mean they're all that loud?" Kipo pricked up her ears, trying to focus.

"No, that one was really loud, even compared to the rest of them," Anne replied, but then she seemed to remember Kipo's hearing, and she winced. "But yeah... they're pretty loud."

Kipo sighed. "Oh." She raised her hands, covering her ears, and nodded to Anne. Anne seemed to get what Kipo was saying, and she picked up her pace. It was only when they were moving single file, all sneaky like and stuff, when Kipo realized she'd forgotten to ask just what exactly was going on, and what those monsters were.

A shudder of apprehension dripped down her back.

For a while, they continued like that, with Anne staying true to her word and leading Kipo through the city. Kipo kept her ears covered, and she was both surprised and impressed with Anne that she hadn't heard an inkling of those horrible sounds.

But suddenly, Anne was reaching out, grabbing Kipo's arm and shaking it excitedly, ripping it away from Kipo's ears. Kipo tensed, and distantly, she heard it again. That... screech, and it was getting louder!

Anne was saying something, but before she could get it out, Kipo grabbed her dragging her away from the sound and tucking them both behind a building. Then, she listened, covering Anne's mouth with her hand.

That sound was definitely getting closer, and really, really quickly. Kipo grimaced. It was a definite stroke of luck that she's heard it in time...

Kipo suddenly frowned. The sound was odd, and it wasn't one continuous noise. It was sort of rhythmic, kind of like breathing... but it was breathing, it was an out of breath kind of breathing. It was strange, at the very least.

Kipo suddenly shook her head, forcing her thoughts out. She needed to FOCUS!

"Anne!" Kipo whispered urgently, lowering her hand. "Where's Fei Fei and Kris?"

Anne blinked at her. At this point, she could hear the monster, too. "Over there," she whispered back at Kipo, nodding her head to the side. Kipo glanced over, across a field, to the edge of the forest a short distance away, and a reflection of silver caught her eye. Fei Fei.

Kipo tilted her head. She could hear the monster perfectly even without doing that, but she wanted to figure out... there. There it was. Over to their left, around the building, and that was the only one in earshot, it seemed. And it didn't seem to be moving...

"Come on," Kipo whispered, and she started over to the edge of the building they were hiding behind, though she made sure to stop right before the field. From there on, they'd be completely exposed until they got to the forest. Kipo studied it, mulling over her options. Should they make a run for it? Or should they crawl through, army style? It would be nice if Kipo actually knew anything about these monsters... wait, wasn't there someone else who should be a little more informed? Kipo turned to Anne.

"How should we get across?" Kipo asked, and Anne's face turned surprised before it melted into confidence.

"Just follow my lead," Anne told her, probably way louder than necessary, but before Kipo could worry about that, Anne was off, dashing across the fields.

"Huh?!" Kipo blinked, at first too confused to move, before she started racing after Anne. A little warning would be nice...! The two of them hurried through the field, locked onto the forest, but Kipo's eyes were down, watching the ground at her feet. There were about a million overturned roots and sticks that she felt herself tripping on, even with her night vision. How was Anne fairing, with her human eyes?

Kipo glanced up, just to check on her friend, and she was surprised to find that they were very close to the forest by now, almost right in front of them.

Suddenly, Anne turned her head to face her, giving her a big smile and a gigantic thumbs up. Kipo started to give her a grin, too, but something else tearing out through the trees cut her concentration.

'Fei Fei? Kris?' Those were Kipo's first thoughts, but the thing was neither of those things. The thing that tore through the trees was a completely silent monster, cutting through the night like a knife through water.