Title: "Maximum Velocity"
Warnings: excessive swearing
Pairings: Taruto/Pudding, Ryou/Lettuce
Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew or the characters whatsoever. If I did, Lettuce would get that cute relationship with Ryou she should've had, and there would be more Taruto/Pudding! I do not own the 'super storm' idea, it came from the movie The Day After Tomorrow. (I also don't know squat about weather tools and how to track storms; I'm sorry if most, if not all of this is inaccurate!)

Notes: I wrote this story back in 2011 on a whim after watching the movie (and during this time I was clearly obsessed with TMM). This version is more detailed than the chapters I had written, but I didn't really work too hard on making the story flow perfectly. After all three chapters are posted, this story will be on permanent hiatus - I've had this idea sitting in my computer for years, and even though it's not that great I'd still like to post it and not worry about losing yet another idea. I want to make this story complete, but I lost most of my drive for it and I have no idea where it was supposed to go. I apologize in advance if I like to drone on in the beginning - I had to explain somewhere and I kind of just dumped information right there.
The warnings will change for each chapter, please be sure to pay attention to them! There will not be tons of romance gushing out the sides of this story, the pairings are minor and won't be focused on. (I'm a Kichigo/Rychigo fan all the way, but I love Lettuce and she deserves a chance.) This is not a happy story! Know this from the start... and it gets intense pretty quickly.

M.E.W. = Metropolitan and Environs Weather (Service)

Please enjoy, dear reader!

In the heart of Tokyo, Japan, technology was incredibly advanced for their era. Where most would think animation and digital media were the most progressed, it was in fact their weather resource workers who kept everything running faster and more efficiently. There were countless reporters and meteorologists working in the central building of the Japan National Weather Service, as well as scientists who took data from every natural phenomenon they could, be it land or sea. The more brave individuals who traveled into the heart of storms were an elite team who called themselves the M.E.W.S., who were compiled of ten people, five men and five women. They all shared the same concerns for their weakening environment, and strove to fight back and understand how to stop global warming. All had seen their fair share of freak natural disasters and didn't wish the situation onto anyone - so they worked as hard as they could day in and day out to solve the problems caused by humans

On the thirty-eighth floor of the JNWS building, the second closest floor to the roof, was where the M.E.W.S. offices were located. Cubicles that had never been used were shoved along with useless desks and chairs against the wall, leaving the entire floor space open for their numerous computers, projection screens, inventions, and lab tables. The entire team had clocked in that day, an uncommon occurrence even as their bosses, Ryou Shirogane and Keiichiro Akasaka, made the majority of them be at work at least five days a week. They were all very serious about their work, but there was always time for jokes and relaxation. Only one M.E.W. took her job way too stiffly - aside from Akasaka, who was a weather guru but still liked to whip up some snacks for them during break.

Ichigo Momomiya had gotten her license barely a week after her eighteenth birthday. She had a love for meteorology ever since she was a little girl, and set her sites on working for the Weather Service. Hard work and intense testing had her excel and major in weather sciences, thus getting her her license and the ability to apply for a job. Her stubborn, determined attitude got her the position right away. First working as an intern, she managed to climb up to regular, 5:00-every-afternoon-on-this-one-channel weather reporter and keep it for a good several months. It was when her boss was debating on cutting her or not that she met Kisshu Ikisatashi and his younger brother Taruto, and caught their eyes with her skill. Seeing that where she was then wasn't up to par, they brought her to Ryou and asked if she could join their team. She was accepted, and became the sixth member of the M.E.W.S. When she met them, it was only Akasaka, Shirogane, Kisshu, Taruto, and a sweet, clumsy pilot who later introduced herself as Lettuce Midorikawa. A short couple of months post her acceptance, Taruto's bubbly girlfriend Pudding became a M.E.W., along with a sarcastic ex-dancer named Mint Aizawa. Mint's best friend Zakuro joined close after Pai, Kisshu's elder brother, came from overseas with skills of his own. Ichigo had been working with them all for over two years now.

Ichigo loved her job but hated the paperwork, so she was doing everything she could early on in the day to have time to rest that afternoon. But even with her frenzied typing, she was achieving nothing other than smashing the keys too hard with her fingertips. Lost in thought as she went, she actually jumped a bit off her chair when someone tapped her shoulder. Turning in the awesome, comfy swivel chairs the elite team bought for themselves, she fixed the person with a sour frown. "What do you want, Mint?"

The shorter scientist sighed in clear irritation, shooting her an unimpressed look. "Seriously, Ichigo, you're going to break the keyboard again if you don't quit typing so fast." Seeing the red-haired woman about retort, she barreled on, "And it's time to leave. Shirogane said we could have the night off," Mint said.

Ichigo was reluctant to leave her warm chair, even as she stared with loathing at the thick stack of reports she needed to file. "But... all of my work..." she trailed off, voice almost childishly playful. "What about th-"

Mint glared at her. "No way, Momomiya, let's go," she said, grabbing Ichigo by the back of her suit jacket - Ichigo insisted on wearing it even though it wasn't cold in the office and it was casual dress - and yanked her out of the computer chair.

"Jerk," Ichigo mumbled. She twisted out of the blue-haired woman's grasp and stood upright, straightening out the wrinkles in her suit. "Let's get a coffee or something. I need something to keep me awake on the walk home," she grumbled. Mint walked at her side as they left the building, going out into the chilly winter breeze.

The rest of her evening passed by uneventfully, save for the near-constant wind that buffeted the cozy apartment Ichigo called home. The maps had picked up some irregular activity with the jet streams' natural currents, which was causing Japan's skyline to become cloudy as systems from the southeast pushed their way closer to the islands. Whereas Keiichiro expressed concern, Ichigo wasn't too worried about the weather. She slept peacefully all night, rest unbroken by the wind.

As morning rolled around, she fell into her usual routine of shower, dress, eat breakfast, then try to catch the early train to work. The walk to the station was difficult; overnight, the winds had kicked up into a fierce gale, easily pushing pedestrians to the ground with a harsh gust. The ocean was choppy, and grey clouds covered the sky, blotting out the sun. Ichigo spoke briefly with some passengers on the train about the incoming storm, but no one knew what was going on.

When she arrived, the office was in complete disarray - it looked like a bomb went off, or Pudding and Kisshu had another fight with the printers. A chair was toppled over and shoved beneath a discarded desk, also knocked on its side. The only workers there were Ryou, Akasaka, and Zakuro, but none were around. It seemed only the holographic projections in the center of the room were left untouched.

"Ichigo, Ichigo!"

Well, speak of the devil. Zakuro called her name again, coming out from what Ichigo barely recognized to be Ryou's office. She turned to meet the older woman halfway, raising a brow in confusion. "What's up?" she asked.

"Do you remember the weather patterns we saw yesterday?" At Ichigo's nod, Zakuro showed her the files she had.

"!" Ichigo screeched wordlessly, grabbing the file from her purple-haired friend and scouring the pages intently. The papers were recordings of the Earth's atmosphere and weather correlation, each created an hour at a time overnight. None of the lines she saw were good. "Shit, shit, shit..." Ichigo cursed under her breath as she flipped through page after page. Zakuro pointed her to the holographs with each of the maps, standing next to her as she studied them.

After a long minute, the redhead glanced up at her friend. "When did you receive these?"

"About an hour ago, from Shirogane and Akasaka," Zakuro replied.

Ichigo's brow creased and she swore again, much louder. "Fuck!" Holding the file close, she strode past Zakuro, heading straight for Ryou's office. She stormed inside with the older woman close behind, glaring at him when he looked up.

"Can I help you, baka?" Ryou said impassively, going back to his paperwork.

The fiery girl almost hissed as walked up to the desk. "Shirogane, what the hell is this thing?" she asked, slapping one of the satellite images from the file down in front of him. The picture contained what looked like a hurricane - one that had taken steroids and grown about three times the normal rate of a tropical storm.

Ryou studied the image in front of him for a brief moment before turning to the two women. "It appears to be some kind of super storm," he drawled, a touch of sarcasm in his voice.

The flippant way her boss treated this development really got under Ichigo's skin, but she didn't lash out like normal. She sighed angrily and left the small office, ignoring Zakuro's calls. As she got to her computer, Mint and Lettuce walked up to her, Pudding tagging along behind them.

"What's going on, Ichigo?" Mint asked, crossing her arms over her chest. "Akasaka just called us in; this place looks like a war zone." She looked around the office with thinly veiled distaste. Lettuce nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, we heard you cursing a lot when we came through the door," Pudding said. "And we know that only happens when you're really ticked off at Shirogane."

Ichigo muttered something unintelligible. Was I really that loud? She pressed her hands to her face, sighing into her palms. "You guys see the weird weather outside, right?" Without waiting for an answer, she barreled on, "There's a massive storm headed for Tokyo, and it's nothing ordinary. It packs a serious punch." She led the trio over to the holographs she'd been looking at earlier, letting them see the hurricane themselves.

Mint said something too quiet for them to hear, and Ichigo was sure she'd sworn colorfully at the sight. Pudding and Lettuce shared a look of horror and amazement. "How can something like that exist?" the bespectacled scientist asked, looking to Ichigo.

She could only shrug. Footsteps were soon heard, and the four women turned to see the Ikisatashi brothers enter the office. "Did you guys see the reports?" Kisshu asked, coming to stand next to the girls. They too looked up at the projected maps, completely amazed.

"Yes!" Ichigo said in exasperation. "From what little research I can gather, there's not much to say. None of this is making any sense to me..." She trailed off, glancing through the file in her hands again.

Pai stared at the maps, shaking his head. "Damn," he muttered, "look at the size of that puppy..."