Chapter 3
Questions and Answers

A pawn? That white Neko girl called me a pawn? Claudine kept that sentence in her head as the weird boy and even weirder girl took her to small diner. She walked inside and blinked.

There were nice booths and tables inside the building. There with also neutral, calming colours along the walls and on all on the furniture. It looked like it was almost like a Starbucks, only restaurant styled. "Uh, where am I?" Claudine turned to the older teenagers.

"You're at the Spice Diner. We have been open for about two years now," the boy spoke up. He ran his hand through his blonde hair. "It's odd that you never knew of this place. We're quite popular."

"Also, who are you two and what in God's green earth happened back there?" Claudine also asked. She was still in shock about the odd change that accrued to her body.

"I'm Andrew and this young lady is Sonya," Andrew gestured to the blonde beside him. "Also known as Mew Salt."

"Yeah, you didn't have to input my stupid Mew name into the introduction," the girl, Sonya, said coldly. She was examining a small fish tank that was near the front doors. If it wasn't just her head aching from the weird phenomenon that accrued a few minutes ago, Claudine would have thought the girl wanted to eat some of the fish in the tank. Sonya was licking her lips and pressing her hands on the glass.

"Does she do that often?" Claudine asked a little fearful for the sake of the fish inside the tank.

"Well, yeah. One of many side effects from being a Mew," Andrew chuckled. "You may have those sorts of things happen to you too."

"You mean I'll want to eat fish?" Claudine crooked her head.

"No but since you're part ferret, so you'll have side effects according your animal," Andrew pointed out.

"Great," Claudine chuckled sarcastically. She looked back at Sonya and yelped. Sonya was about to eat a poor red fishy she had extracted from the tank. The fish flopped around as it was held by its tail.

Andrew heard Claudine's yelp and quickly ran over to stop Sonya. He took the fish away from her and plopped it back into the tank.

Sonya frowned. "But I wanted to have a snack," she protested. She made a cute little pouty face.

"Well, that fish isn't ready to die," Andrew told Sonya. Sonya frowned. Andrew rolled his eyes and looked back at Claudine. He smirked. "Side effect," he noted.

Claudine stepped back; her facial express was that of shock and fear. "Okay then..."

Andrew took Sonya by the hand and walked back over to Claudine. "Now, let me get through the introduction," he clapped his hands together after letting go of Sonya's hand. He sighed as he got ready for his rant.

"The truth is; aliens called Cyniclons have attacked earth in order to take it over. You and four other girls, are Mews; genetically altered girls with animal DNA inside yourselves. Your job is to wipe out Chimera animals like the one you witnessed about half an hour ago that the aliens have created to destroy earth."

"There are three other nitwits like yourself that have this Mew ability inside of them. You and I have to find these other girls, okay ferret face?" Sonya interrupted Andrew's rant. Sonya didn't look like a happy camper. She reminded Claudine of Macy; the not so friendly girl that bullied her at school.

"Did you just call me ferret face?" Claudine asked.

Andrew rolled his eyes. "To identify the other Mews, you will have to look for a strange mark on their bodies. That tells you if you're a Mew or not."

"Wait, I don't have a mark," Claudine pointed out. Andrew bent down and started to lift one of her legs up. "Hey! What are you do...Ek!" She yelped as she landed on the floor. She tried to get away.

Andrew held her back from getting back up on her feet and still went to work. He slipped Claudine's shoes off and then took of her socks. Sonya glared at Andrew's behavior.

He tried to turn Claudine's feet over which made the girl shut her eyes in pain. He pointed to the back of her feet. "Here's your mark," he said finally.

Claudine opened one eye to look. She saw a weird pinky mark on the backs of her feet. With her feet together, it made a small mask shape.

"It's kind of puny actually. Your animal DNA is a Black Footed Ferret and your mark is on your feet," he chuckled.

Sonya rolled her eyes. "At least yours didn't make you feel violated," she told the ferret girl.

"What do you mean?" Claudine asked as she put her socks and sneaker shoes back on again.

Andrew knew what Sonya meant. He got up and walked away to look at the wall near an 'Employees Only' door. He had his hands up in the air like the people that were caught by the police. "I'm not looking," he stated.

Sonya smirked at him and then knelt down beside the other girl. She pulled her arms out of the sleeves of her blue t-shirt and managed to pull her arms out of the head opening. Sonya pulled the shirt down a bit more to reveal a mark that looked like the one on the transformation pendants. It was on the line of her breasts, near the top. "See what I mean?" She told her.

Claudine nodded slowly. "Oh my... Don't tell me that..."

"Yeah, they did. Not a day I want to remember," Sonya looked away. The memory flooded back in. Andrew and his assistant Matt had gotten a ton of scratches from the cat Mew.

Speaking of Matt, Matt had just came out of the 'Employees Only' door. He waved. "You must be the new Mew! Hello, I'm Matt and you..."

"Look away Matt!" Andrew quickly turned to the other teenager; his hands were still in the air.

"Eh? Wait, why?" The black haired teen turned to Andrew and asked. He looked at the girls. Then he noticed what the teen had meant. "Oh, uh..."

"Matt! Get out of here!" Sonya yelled as she quickly wrapped her arms around her shoulders for security.

Claudine gave a fragile wave. "Hi. I-I'm Claudine...," she stuttered. This is awkward. Really awkward, she thought.

Matt gave a small wave back. "Hi...," he said shyly. Then he quickly turned around, blushing bright red. "Oh my gosh, why did I do that? Oh my...seriously?" He kept asking himself as he covered his face.

Andrew looked down. "Oh great..."

Sonya quickly moved her arms back through her sleeves and pulled her shirt back up again. She was so glad that all the diner's blinds were down.

"I think I understand a bit of that violating awkwardness you felt...," Claudine noted.

Andrew and Matt had taken Claudine through the 'Employees Only' door after the 'incident'. She looked around the new room in awe. She couldn't explain it.

The room was bitch black in darkness. The only light was coming from the large computer monitors. Each monitor was connected to one keyboard and mouse that were on the large black desk. Matt went over to sit in a black wheelie chair near the desk.

"So, what do you think?" Matt grinned.

"Whoa," was Claudine's only response.

Sonya came through the door a few minutes later. She sat down on a bare part of the desk. A small creature flew over to her vacant shoulder and hovered over it. It was a white version of those little fairy creatures in the Legend of Zelda games. It flew off of Sonya's shoulders and flew around Claudine.

Claudine smiled and caught it gentle in her hands. "Well hello there! Who are you?" She asked before giggling. The small creature tickled her hands.

"I'm CC, Chimera Catcher. My queen calls me Cecelia," the creature said in a feminine voice. "But you can call me CC, pawn."

Pawn? This 'CC' called me pawn as well? Claudine frowned. "Well thank you CC," she tried to say kindly in response. This creature was a bit rude.

The creature quickly flew back to Sonya's vacant shoulder and sat down.

"Sorry about that. Sonya has kind of imprinted on CC's personality," Andrew apologized, rubbing the back of his head. "Cecelia is your Chimera catcher as her name suggests. She captures the jellyfish like creatures that turn animals into Chimeras," he pointed out.

"Oh, I get it now," Claudine nodded. She gave him a small smile.

"I'm glad you do," Andrew smiled back. "Do you want me to walk you back home? It's getting late."

"Oh, um, that's..."

"I'll take her home," Sonya raised her hand and offered. Claudine turned to the cat Mew.

"Thank you," Claudine smiled in response.

Sonya just got off of the desk and walked over to her. She grabbed the other girl's hand and started to drag her away. Claudine quickly followed behind the blonde.

When they were at least a few blocks away from Claudine's house, Claudine started to break the awkward silence. "Thanks for taking me home," she said softly.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Cut the sappy stuff," Sonya growled. She went in front of Claudine and turned around. "Look, you might as well quit."

"Quit? Why?" Claudine asked, surprised.

"You'll die doing a job like that. You hear? They butter you up with their nice talk and serve you on a platter to get devoured. You hear me? You're going to work as a waitress at that little diner and be a Mew at the same time. You'll work yourself to death, literally! Do you want that?" Sonya asked Claudine. Her tone had changed into fury in milliseconds.

Claudine's lip quivered in shock. "W-What? B-But...But I thought...," she tried to say. She tried to hold back the tears that wished to break free.

"Yeah, you thought. If I were you, I would forget all of this before you are up against another chess piece in this game, pawn," Sonya rudely suggested. The blonde's shadow casted over Claudine as the light of the sun started to go down.

That snapped her in half. Claudine started to cry. She ran away from Sonya; running the rest of the way to her house, tears streaming down her flushed cheeks.

Sonya just watched the young teenager girl flee. CC perked up from behind Sonya's hair. "You didn't tell her the full story," she noted.

"Yeah, well I don't feel like telling it," Sonya answered back. She started to turn back to the direction of the diner. Her thoughts were still on that new Mew. The pawns are always the first to die, she recalled.