Disclaimer: I don't own TMM; I only own the characters Jessika Harcesis and Eustachia. I also own segments of the plot.

Note: Hey guys, this is Exangeline with chapter o9 of Harcesis being posted! Again, I am sorry for the extremely long time between 'Failsafe' and 'Jessika' and I have realised I've lost a lot of my readers. It kind of sucks but now that I'm back on track, hopefully you peeps will forgive me and keep reading.

Lyrics by Evanescence.


Chapter o9:- Freefall

If you love me
Then let go of me,
I won't be held down
By who I used to be
She's nothing to me

Keiichiro excused himself from the conversation. He wasn't even sure it could be counted as a conversation, as it was Ryou bellowing at the girls about the lateness of their leader, interrogating each one about her whereabouts. He eventually cracked Lettuce, who said Ichigo had briefly mentioned the words 'Masaya', 'investigate' and 'important.'

Upon hearing the name of Ichigo's boyfriend – her sickly perfect, lover boy boyfriend – Ryou exploded into a fit of rage. Keiichiro never saw him that angry before.

It was uncomfortable for all of them, which is why, at exactly the same moment as Keiichiro left, the girls scattered, throwing excuses at the irate caretaker of the Café and returned to the various jobs allocated to them.

Descending the basement steps, he could hear the sound of someone ascending to the second floor, feet pounding. The suspect was revealed a moment later when one of the doors of the second floor – obviously Ryou's room – slammed shut.

Keiichiro smiled and shook his head at the teenager. Over all the years and everything that had happened to him, Ryou had matured extremely well for his age. However, when Ichigo was involved, he seemed to loose the experience and act as if he was ten years off his present age.

Look what love does to a man, he thought, remembering his own experiences with Rei, abruptly brushing the beautiful woman out of his thoughts and continuing to make his way down the opaque, dark steps and into the laboratory.

The computers whirred to life as Keiichiro pressed the control button on the computer tower. After the OS had loaded and the various screens arrive to greet him, he was in control, pressing manically into the keyboard, layers of machine code visible on the screen.

The Myu Program encrypted within the computer's many firewalls was bought to life once more. With this program, he monitored the dots on the screen. As before, with the tiff involving one of the aliens, Kisshu, the pink dot was not at the Café.

In fact, she wasn't anywhere near the Café, this time. Her dot was located in one of the many side streets across the city of Tokyo, walking with an unidentified male.

Of course, this signal did not emit the radiation barrier the aliens had against the Earth detectors, so his signal did not flash red. Keiichiro took one educated guess into who the dot could be. Masaya.

It was bluntly obvious that Ichigo had ditched work to go and see him, but Lettuce's words still rung in his ears clearly. She had spoken of an investigation to her fellow Mew Mew, one that was of great importance.

His eyebrows furrowed.

What was Ichigo hiding from them?

He continued to observe the screen but his thoughts were elsewhere. He racked his brain for every possible reason Ichigo could go out and investigate. The possibility of it being an excuse was not excluded but Keiichiro had worked with the young girl many times and despite her animosity towards Ryou, she still enjoyed working with the Mew Mews and himself.

His train of thought was rapidly derailed when two bleeping, red dots appeared on the screen. One gave off only a faint radiation; he assumed this was Taruto, the youngest alien. But the second dot was mature, he could not guess whether or not it was Pai or Kish, as both seemed to be of level command.

They were on top of a shopping outlet overlooking the Kanto region, they're exact coordinates landed them right next to town square, where majority of people were meeting that day for…

…The Tokyopop Festival!

There was not usually a festival at such times as this, it was; in fact, only present as the shopping mall that the aliens had been situated on was a newly crafted building, they were celebrating its opening with a festival of some sorts.

In alarm, Keiichiro pressed the alarm button. All five Mew pendants would suddenly emit a super-sonic distress signal, of which only merged occupants could hear. Seeing as all five animals were one of which had super hearing capability, there would be no problem in getting them to organise the shut down of the Café.

Mint. Lettuce. Pudding. Zakuro. All four of the present Mews came running down to the basement. The opening of a door could be heard as Ryou exited his room and planned to close the Café. Keiichiro briefed them upon his return.

'It seems that they have decided to target the Festival.' Collective gasps were heard by the Mews. Everybody knew that the festival was taking place in town square on that day as it had forever been broadcast on news and radio channels. It was supposedly the biggest non-traditionally based festival in Tokyo.

Cutting to the chase, Keiichiro and Ryou split the group up. Mint and Zakuro would observe the Alien's plan whereas Lettuce and Pudding would find Ichigo. They were sure her pendant had already gone off but there seemed to be no change in the monitors.

'Keiichiro will monitor from here,' Ryou said seriously, rage and ire from the previous fit dissolved completely. Keiichiro smiled despite himself, remembering his partner's mood swings as clear as day. He chuckled then, after receiving a death glare from the younger Mew Project supervisor, he turned to the computer and continued to silently laugh at the inside, private joke.

'Lets jet,' Zakuro spoke after a minute's silence. The rest of the girls smiled and echoed with a: 'Hai.' Everyone began to move right then. Ryou followed after Zakuro and Mint, a laptop computer contained in a jet black shoulder bag which swayed as they ran.

Keiichiro looked behind him at the empty laboratory, then pulled down his glasses and began to type, 'Time to get to work,' was all he said.

Only silence greeted him.


Ichigo felt uneasy. If she thought it was hard visiting Jessika Harcesis' cottage, she had another thing coming. Figuring out a reason to ditch Masaya – an act, of which she did not really want to follow through with – was perhaps the most difficult task she had been faced with. Mew or not Mew.

Eventually, the wheels of her mind began to turn and an idea spurred in her mind. It thrived rapidly as she considered the variables. It was time to go back to old-school excuses.

'Um… Aoyama-kun, do you mind if I stopped off at the toilet?' After a moment's confusion by her love, Masaya smiled at her warmly and nodded.

'No problem,' he replied and released her waist from his grip. Ichigo felt her face heat up as she watched him walk towards a nearby bench and seat himself down onto it.

She entered the lavatory as part of the act and then disappeared into a cubical. Then she surveyed the room very quickly from her position. The ladies room was deserted.

A smile lit up on her face, 'Perfect.'

She got to work very swiftly. Ditching the restroom idea, she found a small window at the top of the wall adjacent to the two lines of cubical and decided that was her best chance. After unlatching it, she began to pace towards the opposite side of the window.

Starting off at the other side, she broke into a run and, halfway through the run, lifted herself into the air. The result was her going straight up and through the now open window. She did this without difficulty, her body just the right shape to fit through.

After praise for a job well done, Ichigo leaned against the wall outside, panting softly. After regaining her breath, she searched around for her pendant.

Only to realise it was missing.

Ichigo swore silently to herself. In all her nervousness regarding escape from Masaya, she had left her bag with him, her pendant safely tucked inside.

Greaaaat, she thought, now I'm going to have to figure out another excuse to leave him. This time with my pendant.

She sighed, all her work going to waste. Sucking up all of her courage, Ichigo walked around the building and back into the lavatory. Then, a second later, she re-emerged, looking as if nothing of the sort had ever happened and she was just a normal girl taking a much needed trip to the toilets.

Masaya grinned at her when she appeared in front of him and she was once again lost in his dark eyes. With a shy smile back at him, she grasped his hand and they headed for the Tokyopop Festival, hoping to loose him in the crowds.

She made sure her pendant was safely tucked into her pocket, after sneakily removing it from her bag without her beloved noticing.

Guilt crept up on her right then as she realised once again she was lying to him, Masaya, her one and only true love. She brushed the thoughts away, vowing to have a much needed think afterwards.

Upon reaching the Tokyopop festival, Ichigo stopped in her tracks.

It. Was. Huge.

There was so much to do there. Rides, shops, food, games. Ichigo was lost in the excitement that washed over her like a fever.

Only when she gazed up to see a flash, rather insignificant to somebody who wasn't a Mew but common for someone who was, did Ichigo realise what she was supposed to be doing.

I am a Mew Mew. The leader of the Mews, actually. I have to protect these people.

And again, another shock struck her. If she had just seen right and somebody had just teleported, which meant…

The festival was the target.

Ichigo blinked, wiping the look of surprise of her face and regaining a small smile as she squeezed Masaya's hand tighter.

It was suddenly obvious to her. They had every motive to attack the festival. There were a lot of innocent, unsuspecting people which would obviously create uproar. It would make it very hard for the Mews to target them without alerting the crowd.

Ichigo reminded herself to wash her own mouth out with soap after that day, as right then she uttered a lot of colourful swear words. She was sure her father would have an embolism if he ever heard them.

She made her choice. She ran.

Of course it would be extremely hard to explain this to Masaya next time they went out and it could have possibly been the end of their relationship if he ever found out why she had done it, but right then her Iriomote Wildcat side had kicked in and her instincts forced her to escape.

Once secure in a row of neatly placed bushes, she transformed after uttering her trademark line: Mew Mew Strawberry, Metamorphosis. Without hesitation, she leaped onto the nearest building, jumping floors and hoisting herself up and up until she was on the roof of one of the less tall buildings surrounding town square.

At least from here, she could see the activity of the people below. Luckily, nobody had caught her presence. She felt her heart skip a beat in her chest as she gazed at the lost and confused figure of Masaya trying to make his way through the crowd, obviously to find her.

The guilt threatened to swarm her but the more urgent need to find the source of the Alien's plan completely override her emotions involving her love life.

Suddenly, she spotted another familiar in the group. She could find the petite, blue up-do of Mint always, no matter how large the crowd was. Following after her was Zakuro and then Ryou. Neither two girls were in their Mew forms.

Ichigo waited until they were in a fairly unseen area to leap down from her spot on top of the building. She watched as they became larger and larger until she hit the ground, knees bent and no pain emitted from the unusually high freefall.

She grinned at their faces, 'You called?' After regaining composure, she got a chastisement out of Mint and Ryou and a shrug from Zakuro when she asked why she was being punished verbally by them.

The argument came to a halt when an explosion overhead sounded suddenly. Her eyes narrowed.

Showtime.


Lettuce and Pudding joined them a moment later after receiving word that Ichigo had found them. In a flash of blue, green, yellow-orange and purple, the previously untransformed teenagers retained their Mew selves.

Zakuro lead the group around the complex, moving swiftly and quietly like the Grey Wolf she was. Pudding rebounded on the walls and trees surrounding the outer perimeter of the town square whereas Lettuce, Minto and Ichigo ran normally.

Ryou followed behind at a normal pace, not even trying to catch up with his five super girls. A rare smile crossed his face as he gazed up at the sky. I did it, Dad, Mom, I finished the Mew project.

His confidence was shattered when he heard the screams.

They all grew serious. After making their appearance with the trademark battle stances, the crowds realised that if the Mews had made an arrival to the site that a fight would undergo with forces they could not comprehend. This instilled fear.

Panic was at its maximum. Everyone fled, people looking for children and family members. Cars struggled to make an exit and shop owners left their shops and other rides unattended.

Lettuce's heart raced when she heard a squeal of a baby from on top of one of the children's rides. A mother was wailing for her child, her name apparently Cassandra. Immediately, Lettuce's priorities shifted from fighting to the saviour of the child.

It was obvious that the manager of the Ferris wheel had not realised that a child was still present on the wheel when he had hit the emergency stop button and fled. The other passengers had escaped beforehand but Cassandra had not realised as she was enjoying the sight of being up so high.

Lettuce sprinted over to the ride, ignoring the calls and surprise from her fellow Mews. Her palm slammed down on the emergency button and the ride regained its spinning. Using her castanets, she managed to manoeuvre the children's Ferris Wheel down with the power of the ocean. She bolted into the carriage Cassandra and her older brother was captive in and helped them out without difficulty.

Receiving many thanks from both the brother and the mother of the child, Lettuce raced back towards her friends who were staring at her in awe.

Lettuce stood still after approaching, nervousness overtaking her mind, had she done something wrong?

Ichigo managed to be the first who spoke. 'Lettuce… That was AWESOME!' Both Ichigo and Pudding raced over and hugged the green Mew. She got a nod from Mint, a wink from Zakuro and a…

A smile from Ryou.

Her heart leapt suddenly and a grin took over her features. However, she found another face replacing the image of Ryou in her mind. It chilled her to the bone when he looked at her with those purple irises in her minds eye.

She shuddered then regained herself when Ryou broke contact with her and exclaimed, 'We have yet to remove the Alien threat. Our job has not yet been completed. Tokyo Mew Mew, Go!'

Another explosion sounded, breaking the sudden silence. Wounded and unconscious bystanders were the only other life forms there, until…

The roar of a fearsome Chimera Anima echoed through the wind. It arose right then, towering over them menacingly. Ryou found a spot away from the battlefield and booted his laptop, determined to find out the weakness in this new, threatening alien spore created only to destroy.

Ichigo managed to utter commands to her comrades. They all moved in separate directions and aimed cautiously with their weapons. She prayed that with their combined power, they could at least hinder the Chimera Anima's disruptive process.

'Strawberry Bell!'

'Minton Alo!'

'Lettuce Castanets!'

'Pudding Ring!'

'Zakuro Spear!'

Their weapons appeared in their hands without difficulty. They aimed them at the Chimera Anima that resembled a huge bug-like creature, somewhat like a fly…

…If flies had huge pincers and poisonous stings.

They conjured up the attack phrase made to project their powers to their weapons and their weapons to their opponent.

'Ribbon Strawberry Surprise!'

'Ribbon Mint Echo!'

'Ribbon Lettuce Rush!'

'Ribbon Puddingring Inferno!'

'Ribbon Zakuro Pure!'

A flash of white light was emitted from their combined power.

And then…

Silence.


The darkness flooded every available surface. His gold eyes widened, 'There's no escape,' the macabre echo of evil hit his ears, speaking to him, luring him into an endless maze of chaos and death. He couldn't do this again… not like last time.

He broke. Eyes snapping open.

He was bordering on insanity after waking up and almost losing consciousness once more from the shock that there were no hands across his throat, blocking his windpipe. Kisshu blinked, the light practically blinding him after he was so used to the darkness.

He shivered, his seizing body ridden by surprise and relief. Tears flew down his face but he felt neither pain nor sadness towards any certain enterprise or event. They were tears from the unexpected blow by the figure that had almost ended his life.

What was the name he had uttered again? Keishu? It was so similar to his own that his mind flashed back to the first malfunction with the simulation room when he had faced the sham Kull Warrior who had happened to look exactly like him.

It took him so long before he trusted himself to stand and walk down the hallway. His feet seemed to be obeying him this time. Yet he would not so easily trust his urges again.

As he turned the corner, a shiver ran down his spine. A feeling of dread crossed his entire body, as it had in the simulation room. He spun, immediately wishing he didn't.

The corridor, usually a steel grey and beige was being sucked up by a tidal wave of black.

It was the darkness.

It was coming back for him.

Kish ran as fast as his legs would take him, not looking back to see if the darkness was still following him because he already knew it was.

His mind, in a state of panic, began to find ways of release. Pods? No. They wouldn't function unless the ship was in orbit or on the move. It was currently stationary in the Earth's atmosphere.

Control room? No. He wouldn't be able to keep the darkness away from him long enough…

...The teleportation room?

'It just might work,' he muttered to himself and spun right abruptly, racing for the room on a totally different route. He manoeuvred himself down the hallways leading towards the room that would prove to be his reprieve.

Only once he passed another corner and saw the room coming up ahead did he chance a look behind him…

Nothing.

The corridors where completely clear, until –

The blackness materialised behind him. Kisshu sped up once more, reaching the door in a matter of three seconds, the ghosts of the ship gaining on him.

He could feel it approaching. It was coming for him. It wouldn't stop until it found him.

In complete and utter panic, he jammed his hand onto the necessary combination to open the door. Instead of greeting him with a straight, green light, it was replaced with a blinking red one.

CODE INCORRECT.

'Shit!' He tried another combination. CODE INCORRECT. Another. CODE INCORRECT. So much for third time lucky, he thought and continued to punch in digits.

CODE INCORRECT.

The blackness was gaining.

CODE INCORRECT.

Closer and closer…

CODE INCORRECT.

Almost devouring him…

CODE ACCEPTED. HAVE A NICE DAY.

Kisshu had no time to sigh in relief, the door opened with a mechanical bang before it relocked itself a second later.

The teleportation room was a cylindrical shaped area, painted the same military grey as the rest of the Prometheus. It was a newly inserted and restricted area, meaning that it was not present on any of the simulations run by the alien machine.

Many Madronan technological advancements were kept captive within this room. The main experimentation unit utilised, second to the actual teleportation machine itself, would have to be the power generator. Acting somewhat like a battery, the power generator was the secondary back-up system after the replacement Calixte-based astral motor.

Kish glanced at the power generator out of the corner of his eye. Perhaps a power overload would be enough to engulf the darkness. He could not manage to estimate the damage done to the Prometheus.

Have to get out of here. There's got to be a way. GOT to be…

He had approximately five seconds before Showtime – before the tidal wave of black came crashing through the door. He could already hear the mechanism in the spring-loaded deadlock crack under the strain by the shadow. This single sound, amongst all the silence, chilled him to the bone.

After rapidly typing random Earth coordinates on the machine before him (with a mechanism closely resembling an Earth keyboard), Kish punched the locator beacon (which allowed the machine to correctly locate beings and teleport them onto the ship), breaking the entire control panel and ran towards the molecular decomposition pad.

And just as the door gave way and he could see the tidal wave crashing into the room, the machine's five second warm-up period came to an end.

Kisshu felt the unmistakable feeling of his entire self being disembowelled at the molecular scale and being replaced back into himself on the other side.


He had never been more relieved to be on Earth.

That was, until he managed to gaze out on the battlefield beneath him. Then he felt himself loose control. Slowly and carefully, his mind began to break like a mirror made of cracked glass.

Pai and Tart were fighting the Mews. How could they be fighting when the darkness was in Prometheus, destroying their only way back to their home planet?

How could they be fighting when the darkness was coming to get him?

Why did they play him like this? How dare they? How could they? He felt sick to his stomach. He wanted to stop them both. Stop Ichigo from hurting his family and stop his family from hurting Ichigo, his beloved.

He looked around at his current position. He was on the Tokyo Tower, watching Tokyo Square with widened eyes. The Chimera Anima had breached the Mew's collective power. They didn't stand a chance against it.

At first, he remembered his mission. He remembered that this was what they had wanted all along, to rid the ungrateful humans from their precious planet – a planet, of which, was rightfully owned by him and his people.

He would have gladly watched them all perish. He planned to, in fact…

…Until he saw her eyes.

Beautiful orbs of rose pink, previously the coffee coloured brown of Ichigo Momomiya. They were graceful, as was her Mew form, and confident. Oh, were they confident. Her power gave her determination but not lust or hunger for domination like previous warriors he had encountered.

She truly put forth the safety of her planet before herself.

In a way, he did too, but the look in her eyes was different. He didn't know why, but he just didn't seem to see himself in her eyes.

And then it hit him… If put into his shoes, she probably wouldn't strike out at other planets. She cared for her people, but no life was more significant than another.

So when the life died in those eyes. When all hope left her beautiful irises, he felt ready to take action.

Take action he did. The emotions that emerged from deep within him were unlike anything he had ever felt. He could do it. He could save her innocence. He could save Ichigo.

Madronan's had particular techniques into controlling Chimera Anima's, the creatures they used to complete their dirty work for them. Men were raised from boyage (Madronan word for Childhood in relation to masculine beings) to coerce them as easily as women were raised from girlage (Madronan word for Childhood in relation to feminine beings) to teach and raise children.

Kisshu used this art as well as the additional power that he could currently conjure up to not only tame the wild chimera anima, but to destroy it entirely.

It was not a feat he had been able to master before. No Madronan man, no matter how strong, could single-handedly remove a Chimera Anima without a type of magic or outside strength. It was impossible.

Until now.

Centring himself, just as before, Kish extended his hands and balanced his body on the top of the tower. His eyes became glazed over throughout all the concentrating and, promptly after, they burnt a deep crimson red.

The Chimera Anima reared back, howling in pain from the invisible attack. Both parties looked confused beyond words.

Kish fought hard to keep his control over the monster before them. He derived more power from the unknown source and fuelled it into his body, the exit point being his hands that he had outstretched to keep a constant aim at his victim. He shut his eyes, shuddering from the recoil.

What are you doing, mortal? The rumbling resonance from the Chimera's mind-speech burned his ears. Of course, it was impossible for anybody but the three aliens to hear it and, since neither Pai nor Tart was focusing on the conscious mind of the Chimera Anima, the message slipped past unnoticed.

It was a common gift, amongst many others that their people shared, that the Madronan's had acquired of which they could communicate mentally with animals of any origin. Part of their plan had come forth from the negativity displayed in some of the animal's mind.

Equines, or horses in human-speech, were one of the most negative. They put forth many tales of previous lives of which humans had put them into slavery, classing them as inferior beasts (like all the other inhabitants of Earth) and making them carry passengers or steer and ride carts.

Kish was knocked out of his reverie when suddenly; the Chimera Anima gave way to his pressure and began to rear back even more so. Its massive volume cast a vast shadow across both Pai and Tart's faces as well as the ground beneath them.

By the time he had realised, it was too late…

Memories flashed back through Kisshu's mind. The darkness, the control room…

The breaking of the teleportation machine.

And, just like that, all sanity had returned to him. Eyes wide and in shock, Kish looked down at the Earth below him. What had he been thinking? He had disabled the teleportation drive, making any attempts at escape for them impossible!

'No!' He whispered, keeping a level concentration on his power that was slowly diminishing as he begun to have a head-spin. 'Have to direct the force…' His mind both consciously and subconsciously was in a state of panic.

Tart and Pai. His family. They we're going to be engulfed by the dead weight of the Chimera Anima. Kisshu had the power to stop the monster from attacking and was killing it slowly and yet his powers had no effect on its emerging process, meaning that there was no way he could bring it back to its basic form.

Both aliens had realised this and were currently concentrating on the teleportation process. Kish already knew all hope was lost as with the machine disabled, they could not keep a lock on the location to teleport to therefore it was impossible at even a meters distance.

'Pai! I can't teleport!' The cry from the smallest alien as the Chimera Anima was gaining on them broke through the surprise derived from the failing prototype.

One second, they we're about to die.

The next, an unexpected event saved their lives.

'Ribbon Puddingring Inferno!'

'Ribbon Lettuce Rush!'

Both the yellow and the green members of Tokyo Mew Mew attacked the animal with equal force and rage. The usually playful Pudding was unexpectedly sombre and shy Lettuce showed her true colours for the second time that day.

The yellow-orange substance of Pudding's attack surrounded the Chimera Anima and, with the added power of Lettuce's attack, they managed to combine and centre the dying parasite.

This broke the spell for Mew's Ichigo, Mint and Zakuro. All together, the five Mews's attacked the animal, doing what Kisshu could not. The collective power enabled the Chimera DNA to collapse into itself and to be bought back into its basic form – the Earth animal and the Chimera cell that merged together to create the terrifying beast.

Tart fell to the floor, gasping with relief. Pai was stunned at the scientific anomalies bought forth by his lack of information and resource. Nobody had yet noticed him…

…A fact that was altered a moment later when Taruto suddenly looked up toward the tower and right into Kisshu's eyes. In return, his eyes widened and then he exclaimed, pointing, 'Kisshu!'

In that moment of which everybody looked over in his direction and his presence was revealed, he felt the power drain out of him.

He knew that they were safe. Pai. Tart. The Mew's had helped them. They had saved their lives when they really had no right to live considering.

The relief and pain kicked in at the exact same time, causing him to relapse back into his own mind and power. The unknown source was no longer providing him with power and it took its toll on him.

His eyes transformed from crimson to amber once more.

And then, as simple as any other action of the day, his feet fell from below him. With no power or ability to teleport, it was as if he were any other human. Like every other human, he had to obey the laws of gravity.

His body arched forward after loosing the support from his legs…

…And he fell, off the Tokyo Tower, over twenty storeys high.

Freefall,
Freefall,
All through life


End Note: Wow… I'm surprising myself now… 10 pages in size 9 writing! Woop! I finally finished Chapter Nine, dudes and it wasn't as long a wait as Chapter Eight was! I…I think I'm going to cry out of happiness! Waaaaaaaaaaaa! Enjoy, peeps.

Remember – Read and Review. It's good for your diet.

Love,

Exangeline.