Welcome to the third and final installment of the Alien Uprising Trilogy, Alien Ultimatum!
The story is rated T for violence, blood, hint of lime, and some character abuse. (Sorry characters)
Pairings included are: Kisshu/Ichigo, Pie/Lettuce, Taruto/Pudding, Shinji (OC)/Mint, Ryou/Zakuro, Keiichiro/Rin (OC), Masaya/Homare (OC),
Rirī/Zen (OC), and some other, minor OC/OC pairings.
But before we get onto the story, first I need to say this:
I am currently working on four different writing projects at this moment. Three of these are Tokyo Mew Mew fan-fictions: Girl with a Porpoise, Blindsided and, of course, Alien Ultimatum. My non-fan-fiction writing project is revising my own, original novel. I am hoping to find an agent this summer and work towards getting my novel published.
I will also be starting my spring semester in a week. At the end of this semester I'll graduate with my Associates degree and start at a new school in the fall to get my Bachelor's degree.
I also work three to four days a week, eight hours or more at a time, in retail. I am part of a volunteer organization with my school. I have a family whom I love and adore and friends I don't get to see nearly enough of.
I love to write. I love to create and I love the stories I'm working on. But I don't have as much time as I'd like to work on them.
I don't rush in writing chapters. I take my time. I use what little time I have to write, usually in the form of a few paragraphs before I go to sleep or on a break from work. I do a lot of research and plotting and making all the dots connect. I proof-read and edit and rewrite. It takes days, and sometimes months, to complete a chapter. It is rare that I post something that I didn't spend as much time on, usually one of my one-shots.
I know I have said a couple of times that it would be around Christmas that the first chapter of Ultimatum would be posted. But I also worked extra hours after my fall semester ended, and because of this I didn't get as much time as I needed to get the first chapters of Ultimatum ready around the time-frame I wanted.
I love everyone who reads my stories and I'm glad that so many people love them. But I've been feeling a lot of pressure lately for a lot of different aspects of my life. Some of it is self-inflicted, such as schoolwork, where I set up high standards for myself and fall to pieces when I can't match them. Some of it just comes naturally, like working retail at Christmas, which is extremely stressful because I like to be able to make a lot of people happy and there were many times and situations where I just couldn't. But I've also been given a lot of pressure, predominately in the form of reviews on here, to update my stories.
I know these reviews aren't posted in malice. But the fact of the matter is I can't please everyone. Trying to do so is one of my two fatal flaws, the other being setting high standards for myself that sometimes are a little too high. I can't post chapters and stories daily. Heck, most of the time I can't even take a moment or two to write daily. That's why reviews that consist of only requests to update, or wanting to know when I'll update, stress me out and honestly don't really encourage me to keep writing. So, basically all I'm asking for is less questions about when I'm updating, fewer reviews that consist only of requests to update my stories, and to please not leave those sort of reviews on completely different stories.
That being said, let the show begin!
I do not own any part of Tokyo Mew Mew. I own all OCs that you will see in the story.
A huge thank you to Amber-Chan for help with the cover as well as being an amazing friend.
I hope you all enjoy reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Chapter One:
"There it is," Ichigo said as she got out of the car. "Mount Fuji."
"You're sure this is where the Wind element is, Mint?" Shinji asked hesitantly as he gave a side-ways glance at his girlfriend.
The petite ballerina nodded.
"I can feel it," She whispered. "It's calling for me."
"Then let's go get it, na no da!" Pudding said, putting a fist in the air.
"Right," Rin said. She studied the mountain. "So, it shouldn't take us more than an hour to get to the top…"
"Forty-five minutes if we do not experience turbulence," Pie said, making his own calculations.
"And then we can teleport right back here and get you guys, no problems to it," Kish said with a grin.
"Uh, yeah, that's not going to work," Zakuro said as the humans stared at the Cyniclons, eyebrows arched.
"Why not?" Rōzu asked, her brow furrowing in confusion.
"Yeah, this plan will save us all a lot of time," Rirī said. "We fly up there, teleport back down here, teleport back up there, simple."
"No. It's not simple. Because, unlike you all, we inferior humans need to breathe," Ryou said, folding his arms over his chest.
"We're aware of that," Tart said, he and his siblings still confused. "What's your point?"
Ryou sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose before continuing.
"The point is, if you teleport us up there, we're all going to suffocate instantly. It's alright for you to fly up, but we need to go up the human way and adjust to the changes in the atmosphere as we go."
"Oh." The six siblings said together. Rōzu, Kish and Tart reluctantly set their feet back down on the ground.
"Yeah, then, I guess we can go the boring human way then," Kish said with a dramatic sigh.
With that, they started up the trail.
"The human way stinks!" Rōzu moaned as they continued to ascend the mountain sometime later.
"Rōzu, I don't think you necessarily get to complain," Ichigo said, sweat-dropping as she glanced behind her.
"Why not?" Rōzu demanded.
"Because we've only been at this for an hour, and after twenty minutes of walking you proclaimed to be too tired and Pie's been carrying you on his back for the past forty minutes," Ichigo said.
"Oh," Rōzu said, loosening her arms around Pie's neck some.
"We haven't even made it a mile," Zakuro muttered, shaking her head.
"This is going to be a very long trip, isn't it?" Masaya said as he glanced over his shoulder to notice that Kish and Tart had also grown bored of walking and were floating up the path.
"Can we go back to Hawaii now?" Jade asked irritably.
Fortunately for everyone, they were soon making a lot of progress. As they continued to ascend, the temperatures dropped, so everyone gradually started putting on more layers of clothing.
"My mother just couldn't understand why I needed my swimsuit and my heavy winter jacket all in one week," Homare said as she wrapped her scarf around her neck at the place where they paused to eat lunch.
"I once dated a dude who wore flip-flops all year round," Jade said as she slipped on her gloves. "I think he'd even do this in those stupid shoes."
"Why did you break up?" Ryou asked out of curiosity.
"Put a Chimera Animal that's a mixture of a skunk and a pig and let it roll in the mud in the middle of July all day and you'll have your answer," Jade said, wrinkling her nose. "The guy's feet were rank."
"Why did I even ask?" Ryou asked himself with a sigh.
"We're getting nowhere fast and each time one of us passes the same spot, we run the chance of causing an avalanche," Rin observed the next time they stopped. After four hours of walking, they were even more tired and even colder, with very little progress made. Even having been walking (and, in Pie's case, carrying a little sister on his back) the older Cyniclons didn't seem to be tired or sore compared to their human companions, who sat in the snow and glad for the chance to sit, even if it did mean sitting in snow.
"How are you still on your feet?" Masaya asked before taking a gulp of water and passing the bottle to Homare.
"We did training missions in terrain like this all the time," Kish explained with a shrug. He then turned to Rin, Pie, Tart and Rirī. "And I think we need to treat this as one."
"Agreed," Rirī said with a nod.
"What exactly does that mean?" Zakuro asked, arching an eyebrow as she stood up, brushing snow off her jeans.
"It means Rin's right," Tart said. "We're too big of a group and already risking a lot. Plus, the enemy can just fly right on up, right past us. We need a new strategy."
"And I believe I have one," Pie said. "It is, essentially, a modified version of our original plan."
"Pudding thought this was our original plan, na no da," Pudding said with a frown.
"He means us Cyniclons flying up the mountain," Kish said.
"We've been over this. It's not going to work," Ryou grumbled.
"It will if we do it in sections," Pie said. He crouched down and made a map in the snow using his fingers. "We are currently here. We have barely covered seven hundred seventy-six meters, with three thousand more to go. Frankly, making that distance in a short amount of time is not humanly possible. Humanely, but not for a Cyniclon.
"What I am proposing is this: at least Rin, Kisshu and I continue up the mountain via flight and find a place that is stable and secure, then we teleport back here and go back to that location through teleportation, this time bringing the rest of the group. By doing this in intervals, not only will we making more progress, but it should also give everyone to adjust to the changes in air pressure."
Pie stuck one of his gloved fingers into the snow that was about at a midpoint on his map.
"According to the information we gleaned, this is the first mountain hut on the trails. It is also at a suitable mid-way point, especially since we only have a few hours until sundown and it would be best if we made sure we were inside before then."
Pie glanced up at the others, who seemed to be considering his plan.
"I think that would work," Keiichiro said after a few moments of thought. "And Pie is right. There's no way we would make it to a hut at the rate we're going now, and the temperatures are just going to keep dropping the later in the day it gets."
"And I don't think any of us really want to be able to give a first-hand account of what it's like to have frostbite," Ichigo added with a nod. She turned to Mint. "Mint, you're the one who's kind of the leader of this trip. Is this okay with you?"
Mint nodded, eyes still somewhat hazy.
"Whatever gets us there the fastest," She muttered.
"Alright, then," Rin said, quickly giving Keiichiro a kiss on the cheek. "We'll be back shortly."
With that, she, Pie and Kish took off.
"And this is why I'm glad I brought a book," Lettuce said, reaching into her backpack.
"That and I think Pudding's Mew Fire Rod would have to freeze over before you went anywhere without a book," Jade said with a grin.
They weren't waiting too long when a very annoyed Pie and Rin returned.
"Where's Kish?" Homare asked.
"We got tired of him, so we told him to guard our way-point," Rin said as she snatched up a backpack.
"That's kind of mean, na no da," Pudding said.
"Not when," Pie said irritably. "The entire trip consisted of him singing almost every single song from Frozen, including any parodies he could remember."
"Did he do the 'Will you help me hide a body?' one?" Masaya said.
"Yes, and that was our cue to pick up speed to get away from him," Rin said. "Which is in part why we've made so much progress."
They teleported to the way point, where there was a mountain hut, just as Kish was starting "Let It Go".
"The snow glows white on the mountain night," Kish sang, back to them, not even noticing their arrival. "Not a footprint to be seen. A kingdom of isolation, and it looks like I'm the queen."
"For the record, I think you'd make a great queen, Kisshu," Masaya said dryly as he followed Pie towards the door with some of the bags.
"Really, you think so?" Kish said, clearly missing Masaya's sarcasm.
"Don't give him any ideas," Ichigo snapped at Masaya angrily.
"Ah, just in time, Ichigo!" Kish said, grabbing Ichigo by the waist. "Pie and Rin refused to duet with me. Now we can do 'Love Is An Open Door'!"
"Yeah, maybe later," Ichigo said, shoving him away from her.
"Now I see why you said 'almost' every song," Keiichiro said to Pie and Rin, who both nodded.
"I am concerned that from here on out, we will need to go up the mountain traditionally," Pie said over their dinner. "The mountain is getting too steep, and so it would be difficult to teleport a large group without worrying about both air pressure and not falling down the mountain."
"I agree," Rin said with a nod. "The best way is to continue on as we had started this morning."
"Well, that we're in shelter before it got too late helps, plus this means that we can rest and take our time in the morning," Keiichiro said. "We don't want to get up too early while it's still too cold and icy."
"This honestly isn't that much better," Ichigo said, shivering. She was still in her coat and had wrapped herself up in both a blanket and her unzipped sleeping bag.
"Eat more while it's hot, that will help," Ryou said, nodding towards Ichigo's bowl.
"I'm full to be honest, though it was good," Ichigo said, sighing at the remains of her food.
"You didn't eat much when we stopped for lunch," Lettuce pointed out.
"Or at breakfast either," Rirī said. "You need the carbs, your body isn't used to the cold, the pressure changes or the work out."
"I just haven't been as hungry lately," Ichigo said with a shrug. "Usually I could eat an entire four course dinner for five by myself."
"Maybe you're just tired," Homare suggested. "I don't think any of us have gotten much rest in the past few days."
"Right," Ryou said with a nod. "Let's make a plan for the morning and go to bed and rest as much as we can now."
"Can I just ask one thing?" Shinji asked. "Is there going to be any chance of just getting this element and leaving without the whole, you know, life endangerment?"
"Life endangerment?" Ryou repeated, arching an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"Oh, I don't know, let's review the facts," Shinji said sardonically. "Lettuce gets her Mew Aqua Rod by jumping off a cliff into the ocean. With rocks and sharks and Topaz. Pudding got her Mew Fire Rod by jumping into a volcano. A volcano. With lava roughly the same temperature as the sun. And the last time I checked with the good people of Pompeii, human beings are not supposed to survive lava, let alone by jumping into it. It's just looking like every single time we get really close to one of these elements, the only way to get it is by doing something incredibly stupid and life-threatening."
"Oh, come on, that's not entirely true," Ichigo said. Shinji's eyes narrowed as he looked at her.
"And exactly how did you get the Mew Element Rod when it was still called the Mew Aqua Rod, Ichigo?" He demanded.
"Uh…" Ichigo said, sweat-dropping slightly. "I, uh, might have, well, jumped. From the very top of Tokyo Tower."
"Twice, na no da!" Pudding said brightly.
"Technically she was pushed the first time," Zakuro said.
"But it was okay, 'cause the Blue Knight caught me before I could hit the ground!" Ichigo said as if that made everything better. Then she turned to Kish. "I really hated that Chimera by the way."
"Thank you!" He said with a smirk.
Shinji, however, was not impressed. He was more than well aware that he was currently sitting on one of the tallest mountains in the world, and that meant that, if this pattern was going to keep up, Mint was going to be jumping off of it.
"We're going home, Mylo can have this one." He said, grabbing Mint's hand to drag her to her feet, however, she kept herself planted on the ground.
"I am not leaving here without that element," She stated firmly, eyes hard. "It's been calling me for far too long."
With a low growl, Shinji sat back down, but didn't look happy about it.
After that, they quickly arranged a schedule to watch the fire throughout the night and decided on a time to wake-up. With that, they prepared to go to sleep.
"I'm gonna freeze all night at this rate, even beside the fire," Ichigo grumbled as she set up her sleeping bag.
Kish, seeing an opportunity for some resemblance of alone time, smirked to himself and said,
"Well, Koneko-Chan, maybe you should sleep really close to someone else. Conserve body heat and all that good stuff."
"Body heat," Ichigo repeated, not looking at Kish but at Rōzu, who was helping Tart—who was taking the first watch—tend to the fire briefly.
"Yeah, you know, cuddling and that sort of thing," Kish said, starting to get closer to Ichigo.
"Yes, yes that's perfect!" Ichigo said excitedly. Before Kish could get his arm around her waist to pull her to him, though, she jumped up and went over to Rōzu, throwing her arms around the little Cyniclon.
"Squee!" Ichigo said, burying her face in Rōzu's hair, making Rōzu giggle. "You're so warm! And soft too! Rōzu, can you sleep in my sleeping bag tonight? You're so tiny you'd fit right in no problem!"
Rōzu giggled and hugged Ichigo back.
"Sure thing, Ichigo Onee-Chan!"
A disgruntled and cuddle-deprived Kisshu slept with his back to the two girls as they giggled themselves to sleep in Ichigo's sleeping bag.
He didn't get his duet either.
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((Scene Divider)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
They woke up the next morning to see Mint tending the fire and cooking breakfast over it. It would have been less surprising if Mint had actually been scheduled to take a guard shift.
"I couldn't sleep." Mint said before anyone could speak to her.
"Was it that dream again?" Rirī asked as she started to roll up her sleeping bag. Mint nodded.
"Don't know why I was thinking it would get better the closer I got," She said before anyone could speak. "I couldn't sleep at all."
"Look, all I really want to know," Ryou said. "Is how in the world this happened."
This was the fact that Pudding, still zipped into her sleeping bag, was sleeping on top of Tart inside his sleeping bag, Pudding's head poking out next to his. To top it off, it appeared that the zipper to Pudding's sleeping bag was facing in the exact opposite direction of that of Tart's sleeping bag.
"I honestly don't know," Mint said. "I just looked down to poke the fire and glanced up and they were like that."
"We should probably wake them up and help them get out," Masaya said.
"Probably a good idea," Rirī said, then went over to nudge her brother's head with her toes.
An hour later, they were all fed, had cleaned up the campsite and had donned the heavy winter gear again.
"Let's hit the trails, na no da!" Pudding said exuberantly.
"Not so loud, Pudding," Zakuro said. "We have to be extremely careful here on out."
"She's right," Keiichiro said. "The last thing we need is to cause an avalanche."
"Sorry, na no da," Pudding said really quietly.
They walked on.
"How long do you think it will take us to get to the top?" Rōzu asked about an hour after they started off.
"Probably around noon," Keiichiro said. "That's about three hours from now. We might want to stop, though, so that we can reach the summit at the peak temperature and not while it's still really cold."
"Probably a really good idea," Jade said with a nod. "Even if it's just by a few degrees, it's got to be better than this."
"This map I found at the hut says that we should be coming up on the next trail marker in about—" Masaya paused to mentally calculate, map in hands. "Maybe a quarter mile?"
"And after that, it doesn't look like it'd be too much further," Homare said, looking over at the map.
They were almost at the trail marker.
But they never did make it.
They would have, though, if Ichigo hadn't stopped dead in her tracks, a stunned and dazed look on her face.
"Ichigo?" Kish said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong?"
"We need to go this way," Ichigo said, pointing to the side.
"No, we need to stay on the trail," Ryou said. Then he frowned, studying her expression. Suddenly, his eyes widened and he turned to look at Zakuro, who had a similar look.
"We need to go," Zakuro whispered.
Pie, apparently seeing the same thing Ryou was, grabbed Lettuce's shoulders and spun her around to face him. He crouched down some to look her directly in the eye, her eyes blank and pupils wide. She was looking at him, but more rather past him.
"Lettuce," He said calmly. "Tell me what is in that direction?"
"Where we need to go," Lettuce mumbled in response.
"It's like when they were under the trance of the Mew Aqua on Scarlet's Island," Rirī said, waving her hand in front of Pudding's eyes, the girl barely even noticing Rirī's hand or Tart gently brushing his fingers against her cheek, trying desperately to snap out of it.
It was Mint who was shaking now, eyes blank and watering.
"Follow trail," She whispered, now shaking her head back and forth. "Follow path. Which one? Which one?"
"Path?" Shinji repeated, reaching for her hand, but she suddenly moved, clasping her hands to her ears.
"Shut up," She breathed, sounding like she was trying not to cry. "Shut up!"
Before anyone could comfort Mint or try to figure out what was going on, Ichigo started marching away, away from the trail.
"Ichigo, stop!" Kish said, following her. "Come back, we don't know if it's safe over there."
But Ichigo didn't stop, and she was quickly followed by Lettuce, Pudding, Zakuro and a teetering, reluctant and whimpering Mint.
"We better follow them, before they get hurt," Rin said with a frown.
The Mews didn't go too far from the path, but with the sudden increase of the snow and having to navigate through that, it felt longer. Yet somehow the girls plowed on through it, following where Ichigo's feet had been.
"Where are they going?" Rōzu said, nearly getting trapped in a snowbank until Pie snatched her up by her underarms and put her on his back.
"I do not know, but I would like to," Pie said, eyes on Lettuce.
Finally, Ichigo sank to her knees on the mountainside. She waited until Lettuce, Pudding and Zakuro were with her, sitting in a circle. Ichigo then turned her head and looked directly at Shinji, who was now more or less keeping Mint upright at the moment, her hands still over her ears and whimpering.
"Keep her back." She said, voice low and hollow. "She will only hurt herself if she comes any closer at the moment."
Shinji's only response was to wrap his arms around Mint tighter, bringing her head to his chest and stroking her hair as she cried as if in pain.
Ichigo then turned back around. Without a word, she pulled off her gloves and sank her hands into the snow, digging at it with her hands, her fingernails having elongated like claws to aid her. The other three Mews did the same, and it did not escape their notice that, like Ichigo, Zakuro now had an impressive set of claws of her own.
"They're going to get frostbite," Homare said in concern as they could only stand back and watch.
"What could they possibly be looking for?" Rin said, shaking her head. But, just then, they heard a scraping sound, nails against stone.
Zakuro grinned, eyes wild and starting to yellow like a wolf's as she looked at the other Mews.
"Found it." She said.
Ichigo rose to her feet at that, followed by the other girls. Ichigo held out her hand and suddenly the Mew Element Rod appeared. Lettuce and Pudding followed suit, bringing out the Mew Aqua Rod and Mew Fire Rod.
Ichigo then walked across the snow to Zakuro's side. She bent down and put the tip of her Rod into the snow, dragging it across and going in a circle.
"What exactly have you found?" Ryou dared to ask as Ichigo did this. Ichigo had a Cheshire Cat smirk as she looked up once she was done, her pupils now cat-like. She looked rather feral.
"You shall see," She said as she brought the Rod back to rest against her shoulder. She then turned to Lettuce and Pudding with a nod.
Pudding stared at the circle, a smirk crossing her face as well.
"Ribbon Fire Melt," She said, lifting her Rod. In an instant, flame erupted from the tip, melting the snow before her.
Lettuce's lips formed a line, eyes hard as she lifted her Mew Aqua Rod.
"Ribbon Aqua Rise," She said, lips curling as she said those words. The water from the melted snow rose and drifted down the mountain side, as well as did some of the snow Pudding hadn't melted.
They kept at this for several minutes, until the snow was completely gone.
And as they got closer and closer to the end, their companions felt their eyes getting wider and wider at what they saw.
For what the Mews had unearthed, buried deep in the snow for thousands of years, was a cave.
As soon as the entry was clear, the three Rods disappeared and the Mews seemed to snap themselves out of whatever trance they were in.
"Ow," Zakuro said, clutching her forehead, eyes closed. "What happened?"
"We blacked out again, didn't we?" Ichigo said with a groan of realization.
"Did we go Ultimate again, na no da?" Pudding asked, shaking her head some and looking about curiously.
Lettuce's jaw dropped at the cave.
"Where did this come from?" She asked, pointing at it as she looked at her friends.
No one got a chance to answer her.
Because suddenly, they all heard it.
A muffled rumbling, slowly but steadily getting louder and louder, getting closer and closer.
An avalanche.
"The cave, now," Pie ordered.
Everyone started scrambling, not questioning or arguing. Shinji started to move, dragging Mint with him, but she then tried to escape from his arms. One look at her eyes said that she was the only one who hadn't awoken from the trance.
"NO!" She screamed hysterically, tears falling. "I can feel it… I can't…"
"Mint, come on," Shinji said, voice pleading. Kish quickly came to his aid, helping grab Mint and dragging her towards the cave as fast as they could. She thrashed in their arms, sobbing and screaming.
She tried to make one final break for it, managing to elbow Kish just under his ribs, sending him tumbling backwards into the cave.
Shinji didn't think. He just acted. He regretted it later, but also didn't.
He grabbed Mint's arm as hard as he could and dragged her in. He pulled her quickly so that she was now behind him and then he turned and forced her to the ground, closing his eyes and wrapping his arms around her as they hit the cold rock.
They had just made it inside the safety of the cave.
Because the avalanche put a new layer of snow back where just moments before Lettuce and Pudding had melted it away.
They were safe, but they were trapped.