"Why didn't you tell anyone!?" the Mew Mew, now Luna Clark, demanded. I stood stupefied, but I came to my senses enough to speak. It would be so cliché if I were to ask you if I was dreaming or not; and plus, I knew I wasn't.

"What do I have to tell? And why didn't you tell anyone?" I retorted, my voice raising an octave, because I was still kind of shocked. I took the time to survey my surroundings. We were in a park- specifically, Riverside's local park. Because it was a weekday, nobody was around. It was so different when it was empty, serene and eerie at the same time. Fallen leaves scattered from their trees, left to dance delicately along the sidewalk. A chilly breeze carried them in a wide gust and I shivered.

"Oh, please. You know what we Mews have to do." She rolled her eyes. "Why didn't you tell anyone you were a girl?! Or at least, was one? What else is your excuse?"

She lost me at the former statement; the second one just made me gape at her. "Where the hell did you get that comment from?!" I demanded. Her previous tone had told me that she knew her assumption of my being transgender- or at least, that's what I deduced from what she said- was completely ridiculous, so what was she asking that for? Perhaps it was even a sarcastic remark. Nevertheless, the comment irked me, because it was way too confusing. What did she mean by "we Mews," anyway? I was not a Mew Mew. I was, and am, a guy. So what was happening to me? I wanted to walk away so badly, but unfortunately I wouldn't, not without answers. As soon as I could get the answers that I wanted, I could walk away from everything else and get over it by next week. So what, Supergirl was a superhero.

Her eyes drifted over my body, and suddenly I had to try not to feel uncomfortable when they reached just below my torso because I couldn't avoid the feeling that she was sexing me even though she clearly knew that I was a male; the feeling only came from her previous sarcastic comment. As soon as she was finished with yet another survey of me - the one back at school had been of my arm, but this was worse- a puzzled look crossed her face. Good, now she was just as confused as I was.

Luna Clark put on her poker face. "You are a Mew Mew, right?" she asked, and her eyes widened. "Or…"

"NO!" I interjected. "I am not…" I trailed off there.

We stood there in such dead silence for a few moments, that the only sound I could hear was the rustling of the leaves on a nearby tree. Now it was getting awkward.

It took me a moment to realize that the rustling had gotten louder. The sound was almost unnatural now. Then, suddenly:

"LOOK OUT!" And there the Mew Mew was once more- she must have transformed again within those fractions of a second- leaping adroitly over an impressive distance to clash with something that had just come from the tree that was rustling. I backed up and almost ran away. But that feeling that I had gotten earlier possessed me again. I couldn't leave! "I knew it! The Cyniclons wouldn't give up that easily!" (I assumed that when she said "Cyniclons," she was referring to the aliens).

What was that thing Luna was fighting now? I thought to myself as I looked up at the creature, stepping back but still unable to leave. It looked like some monster feline crossed with a praying mantis. Its body was lithe like a cat's, but it had a dark green exoskeleton; and its raptorial arms had claws. From its body a long tail emerged, tipped with a poisonous barb. Set in its small, mantis-like head that was fully equipped with pincers were eyes, also feline, the sickly neon-green color of poison, pupils dilating wildly, and its ears, set on top of its head, were large and triangular, also like a cat's.

Within seconds, the thing had the Mew Mew pinned to a tree with its tail, and it was looking her right in the eye. Her two hand-bells, which were gold and displayed the same hot pink Mew logo, had a purple grip adorned with the trademark Mew bow, blue handles, and three sliver clappers, the middle being the longest and ending in a small crescent-moon, had fallen to the floor. The Mew Mew was sneering at the creature, undaunted, and managed to choke out, "You think I didn't know you were there, Chimera Anima?" What was odd, though, was that I could hear her; not only did she barely croak the words, there was also a good deal of distance between the two of us.

"Hey!" I shouted without thinking. That was not a smart idea at all, and it did not take me very long to realize that. Instantly, the monster's -or, the "Chimera Anima"'s- head jerked towards me in a disgustingly insect-like manner. It dropped the Mew Mew and lunged at me- except that the Mew Mew wasn't there to stop it this time.

"Fight the Chimera Anima!" she told me, not having to raise her voice, not even in the slightest degree; I could already hear her, the reason for which I was not even close to understanding.

But that's just what I did, I guess. I fought the Chimera Anima, and it all started with a change that had been put in motion as early as this morning. It was a pretty damn big change, too.

"Mew Currant, Metamorphosis!" I announced, the words running out of my mouth before I could even realize why I was saying them, or what I was even saying- it was like an instinct, as if I had known what to do. Which led to the question, what was I saying? I had no idea.

Then, all of a sudden, it felt like I was being pulled into some kind of chamber, nearly knocking the air out of my lungs because it was so unexpected and even a little abrupt. It was tight for a few seconds; but oddly enough, it wasn't uncomfortable. Warm, red light shone from behind my closed eyelids, as if I were facing the sun. But still… I thought I saw… a tiger? That faded quickly. I felt a tickling around me, perhaps a slight breeze. I felt like I was changing completely. My hair, my eyes, even my body…

I opened my eyes and was yanked out of the chamber. Was I...

Luna was standing up now. Her bells were back in her hands. Her eyes were widened- for a while I thought that she wasn't going to be moving any time soon- and she tried to mask her complete shock. How did I know that? Because it wasn't working.

What was she seeing in me?

I couldn't survey myself yet. I had to fight. "Currant Guitar!" I found myself exclaiming. What did that even mean? The words were spilling out of my mouth without thought, like I was possessed again. Except... I felt like me.

Shortly after the call was out, a red and white electric guitar appeared in the air front of me. It had wings of silver, and it was characterized by the Mew trademark that I happened to recognize, both from the TV show about the Mews and from Luna's own weapon. I snatched it out of the air, the gesture coming wholly naturally to me.

"SOUTH CHINA ROAR!" I yelled without even realizing what I was saying. Something told me that this was my attack. I was going to make my move. I had no idea how to play the guitar, and I should have been confused as to why I even had it- but then again I guess I didn't have to. I strummed the guitar once, and really hard, too, as I leaped into the air just as Luna Clark did to meet the beast when I first saw her fight. A crimson electric wave pulsated from the Mew logo, tinting the entire park incarnadine, accompanied by a sound not unlike the roar of a tiger, except higher and more like, well, a guitar.

My blood was rushing, roaring in my ears. It was a crazy feeling that I could not even begin to interpret. I was shocked, but still, I was running on instincts and my adrenaline was pumping.

The monster's scythe-like raptorial arm had stopped mid-swing. Flinching, it inched a bit closer before stopping to recover. It raised its body and made some kind of rapid, but faltering, chirping noise. Now it was angry- and weak. I circled it, and it circled me; actually, it's more accurate to say that it simply rotated its body because it was so big. This seemed to go on forever.

I held my breath, ready for another attack. It was so quiet that I thought I heard my heart beating.

However, now Luna was ready to meet it halfway and end its rampage once and for all.

"Brûlée Bells! … Lunaaar… SONG!" Then came the sound of her bells. The monster raised its raptorial arms in front of itself as if to block the attack, but as soon as the light blue sound wave reached it, it uttered a lingering cry of defeat and lowered its arms, staggering. And then, poof. It had dispersed into a light cloud of sparkles; but where it was once standing, a cat stood, and a little light-blue, ghost-like sprite was floating over it. The cat looked at us, frightened, then high-tailed itself into the bushes.

Luna walked over to the spot where the monster had once been, and she cupped the little sprite. "I've got you, little sucker. You won't be possessing any more animals while I'm around," she muttered, then turned towards me. "So you didn't know?" she asked as she began to walk my way. I felt the sudden urge to back up a step or two, but I stayed in place.

Just then, I finally got the chance to look at myself, since whatever feeling that had possessed me had abated. I looked down. I was no longer wearing my school uniform; instead, I was wearing a long, red, three-seamed, collared sleeveless coat on with criss-crossed drawstrings over my chest that connected the left and right sides that ended right before the coattail ends extended sharply outwards; under that was a short red top seamed in a similar manner (I hesitate to say that my lower abdomen was showing), and then a pair of red pants, which were seamed in the same way. I had gray boots with red buckles, and upon holding my hands in front of me, I saw that I had gray gloves that had one red buckle each. I also without a doubt now wore the additional classic Mew Mew trademarks- a garter, two sleeve-puffs, and a collar that was adorned with a pendant with a hot pink heart under another larger, hollow one, followed by six raindrop-shaped specks, three lining each edge of the bottom of the pendant. All three of these accessories were red with the secondary color of gray, which was the color of the fuzzy border that lined the top and bottom of each. Now I took a step back. I looked so damn girly- now what else had happened to me?

There was a flash of purple light, and Luna Clark, sports extraordinaire- not the Mew Mew- was standing in front of me again.

She stuck her closed hand in her pocket, dropped the sprite in, leaving it to undulate softly within it, and it came back up with a round, silver compact. When she handed it to me, I took it hesitantly after staring at it for a second or two and then opened it.

A jolt shot through me as soon as I saw myself in the mirror. I wasn't the same at all. My hair wasn't the same at all. It looked more windblown, and, not to mention, it was a bright red. The same went for my eyes. Oh yeah, and the ears too. My ears were not the same. They were the ears of a tiger, and one had a gold loop earring.

Shocked beyond words, I then slowly tilted the compact down my body, feeling my ears with my free hand for authenticity. If the ears weren't enough, behind the coat I saw that I had a tail, too, which had two golden rings looped over it and was drawn through a hole in the top of my coattail that I perceived to be diamond-shaped. Jesus!

"What the... hell?" I stuttered, looking down at myself once more in person. "What is this? What was that?" It couldn't have been real. But again, since I told you that I would be cliché-free, I knew that it was. I was shocked and confused, but I was not in denial.

Luna shrugged and snagged the compact out of my hand. How could she feel so comfortable with what she was looking at? She had acted like she had been down the same road.

So maybe she had.

I looked at her, and remarked, slowly, as if to let it settle:

"I'm a freaking Mew Mew." I turned into a Mew Mew. Just like Luna. Just as I said this, I felt the soft touch of a snowflake on my bare shoulder. And then another.

"I saw," Luna said, though she appeared surprised by my confirmation, as if she hadn't expected me to not know, and flipped her long, sandy blonde hair -yes, it was no longer blue and purple- over her shoulders. Her expression hardened suddenly as if she had made some kind of important decision.

"Justin," she began. "We're gonna need to talk. Text your parents or something- because this is going to be a while, I think."