A/N: TMM belongs to the original maker-person. I regret forgetting to put this on my previous chappies. Sorry y'all! Anyhoo, R&R please.
Time froze before Ichigo's eyes. She blinked. She blinked again, but the crystal snow was stationary. Kuri's wild face intently stared down the still air. Ichigo took a step, the snow under her feet coming to life and collapsing. Strange, she thought. Had she stopped time? That was impossible. But here the town was; and everything was stopped dead.
"Is there a way to reverse time?" Ichigo called out to no one in particular, with a hint of emotional pain. A response came back with a shake of the ground, and the world spinning around her.
"Oh glorious water, you are so tasty" (or something like that) A pleased cheer rang in the air, and the hum of life came rushing back to Ichigo's ears. A hot sticky feeling clung to her skin like it always did after exercise.
Ichigo's attention averted to Koi, who was motioning towards her just like earlier.
Time had reversed as easily as pulling the trigger on a gun.
Ichigo shook her head to Koi, who tilted his head and shrugged. Awkward, she thought, probably never liking that boy at all anymore. It's amazing how a friendly relationship can go weird in the smallest of moments. Eh, something to just get over.
A want to punch Koi as Kuri wrapped her arms around his neck and murmured a cute; "Hi!" went through Ichigo's mind. Was it just a test, what he did?
That had to be it.
So it was the next day, and not much had been accomplished, except weird situations. Even with a new, and experienced, team member, things probably weren't going to end smoothly against the rebelling aliens. Now the girls were relaxing, lounging, and drinking new tea on new furniture that had not been destroyed, thankfully. The only one not resting on her tired bum was the hard-working brunette, Anabell. She sighed, tipping the pitcher downwards on accident, the imported liquid dribbling down unto the green carpet.
The nauseating theme now for the main lounge room was tropics, as Mika had decided after hours of catalog flipping. This was "exhausting" as she had stated, and band aids covered her "painful paper cuts".
Tough, Anabell thought, remembering the sours and calluses on the bottom of her feet from running bare feet(one stepping in dog poo and a large want to chuck your shoes, particularly in a river, might occur) around town as training.
Anabell kicked off her saved, and cleaned, shoes. It was break time: 3:00. She brought her feet up onto the side of her rain forest camouflage armchair. Mika's eyes widened. "How can you keep you feet with all those calluses? Isn't it horrifying to walk?"
Anabell nodded.
"Then why don't we go to the spa?" Mika said with a grin and a wink. Cimi blinked into air, landing safely on her toes.
"May I come?" She asked, wrapping a string of blue hair around her finger.
"Oh, wow." Sara proclaimed, reaching out and lightly punching Cimi in the head. "Do I know you?" She joked, not have seeing the alien in a while.
Kuri rolled her eyes. "Sure, come around only when we go to nice places. Taking advantage much?"
"Aw shuddup! I've been busy!" Cimi defended, crossing her heavy braceleted and tanned arms, jingles ringing in the air.
From the back of the room, they heard Sahara softly say, "Ooo-ooo!" in a taunting way.
Cimi huffed and shrugged the comment off her shoulders, even as the others snickered. Nothing was mentioned of their new age from her mouth. A dazed and faraway look stole
away the foreign outlander's face, closing off the conversation's flow. Or maybe this conversation wasn't flowing, but choppier like the leftovers of a carrot on a cutting board.
The silence continued, and the girls (excluding Cimi, who was still glossy) looked around at each other in confusion to why Cimi had transformed into a skinny glacier.
"Cimi?" Anabell asked, prodding her in the arm.
Tempo called over from the front room, pointing to Kish and Koi, who were slumped and looked at the floor quite intently.
Ichigo shook Cimi back and forth for a few seconds, when all of a second Cimi screamed in fright and pulled out a weapon-like item, the girls bursting into defense stances. She threw it into the wall before disappearing; leaving only her sharp dart that shuddered in the wall for a second before stilling.
"Does this mean we're not going to the spa?"
"What a scare," Cimi exclaimed to Tart, who paced back and forth in a grey dull room, her words echoing off the chrome walls and hard into both of their large ears.
Tart slapped his hands over his ears. "Quiet it down, will ya?" He trickled his fingers through the copper hair that sat like a silky mop on his head. "Let it go, I'm sure whatever spooked you wasn't the biggest problem in the world, Cinnamon Roll. Nothing to get in the way of you helping."
"B-but it was," A suggestion of anger haunted her words, oblivious to Tart, "A wave of scary just hit my mind and I froze up, terrified!"
Tart sighed and took his hand out of his hair. "That's really weird, because that happened to me too. A picture of some girl dressed interesting came up in my mind at the time. She looked like she was dressed for some costume party."
Cimi clapped and said, "Oh oh oh! Now that I think of it, a strangely attired girl popped up in my head while I was frozen. Who could she be?"
"She could be Ta-Lynn," said a smooth voice coming from the door. Cimi and Tart turned to see that girl, in her costume that consisted of a black tank with a spiky design at the bottom that opened down the middle; a tube-top that had yellow dots at the top covering her chest. White poofy sleeves with yellow oval prints covered her shoulders, and matched her short, poofy skirt that too had yellow oval prints on it. A little below that was yellow stockings with black stripes, and black ankle boots covered her feet. A brunette bob twitched a bit as she smiled wide with her plump red lips and perfect pearly teeth. Long ears poked through the straight, plush hair. A black gloved hand lightly held a weapon that looked like a small pole arm with the sharp point on one end and a silver ball on the other. "And could be of assistance to you!"
The mews mumbled to each other quietly once Kish and Koi had orbed off too, saying they had to go. No explanation of the weird occurrence had been presented, so the girls were disappointed and upset.
Ichigo sat with her chin her hands, wondering what had happened in the few years gap she had been without Kish tagging along after her. Even with a few saucy remarks every now and then, Kish and she kind of had distance compared to her earlier times (constant stalking and out-of-the-blue kissing). Bizarrely, she missed that. But she also missed being with Ryou everyday and saving lives with him. Ichigo might've even considered him as a crush. But now, that was impossible. She was pretty sure it was illegal for someone to be a lot older than someone but still get married or be involved in any romance. Plus, that would be odd. Ryou lay on the loudly colored green couch snoozing lightly. Could he have been the love of her life if she had stayed older? A bigger question would be: would she skip being young just to be with him? This wasn't fun. It wasn't like Ichigo was some kind of philosopher!
And now Ichigo had to deal with the strange power of freezing time. That was unexplored land or maybe something like land ahoy, but the ship's not there yet. Strong waves lap at the edges of her mind boat, shaking her thoughts.
Sahara yawned, waking up from her nap. The situation seemed no different from when she knotted off. Wasn't some big fight coming up or something? Christmas was next week and here they were, lounging and catching up on sleeping hours. Yes, Sahara blamed herself too. But what could she do by herself? Get these people's heart back to normal, maybe.
"When will we do something," Sahara asked.
"I dunno," Tempo mumbled, also bored.
Sahara propped up. "Ichigo? You're somewhat the leader." Ichigo blinked once then shrugged. "Tsssk, tsssk," Sahara said, practically hissing.
"Where did Koi and Kish get to? They haven't showed up in a day…" Kuri worried about the two, putting on a pout. "I thought they planned on helping us."
Sahara clenched her sharp teeth and hissed loudly. "I think I have an idea. Think about it, how have they really helped us besides taking information and mental notes on what we're doing?"
Anabell grimaced. "Those traitors! I bet they're working for Tart and Pai!"
Luna looked broken, staring at the floor in disbelief. "Would they do that to us? Kish seemed really heart bent on working with us mews. Change of mind or simply conning all along?"
Sara for once didn't act up and threaten them, but instead stayed seated and just listened. Her fists rested on her knees, Sara's knuckles getting a bit whiter as she clenched them harder. Those boys better just be out doing something on their own.
"What about that freeze up the three aliens had? What was that all about?" Sara asked.
"I'm not sure we will never know," Ichigo said, joining the conversation.
Kish stepped into the room to find three people; his own sister, Tart, and her. She had been in Kish's life before, but only caused chaos.
"Why are you here, Ta-lynn," Kish asked coldly.
Ta-lynn's dark eyebrows arched, and she grinned. "Nice height. Are you a munchkin? Or did you just shrink?"
"Not close. Tart turned me thirteen. Didn't you?"
Ta-lynn turned to Tart and he nodded. She laughed sharply, piercing the air. Ta-lynn looked funny, for she was seventeen and was wearing high-heels, giving her a height that conquered the other younger aliens.
Koi orbed in, saw Ta-lynn, and shuddered. "Cold?" Ta-lynn asked with a grin, knowing she had scared him before when she sent glyphs mentally into their minds with her image in it.
"Totally, freezing."
"So, when are we going to corrupt Earth," she asked impatiently, "and who exactly is in it with me? I don't get this that much."
Kish put up his hands. "Wait, wait, wait. When did you come into the plan?"
Ta-lynn shrugged and said she was in everything.
"Not this!" Kish protested, glaring at her.
"Yes, this!" Ta-lynn yelled back, putting on her meanest defiant stare, burrowing her eyebrows.
The two foes wielded their weapons and started to battle, ad Tart, Cimi, and Koi just sat back while Tart explained why Kish loathed Ta-lynn.
"A while back, when Kish was about twenty-nine or so, Ta-lynn was born to Kish's friend, Crepe, and his wife, Cookie. Um, Crepe and Kish wanted a boy that could join the army and help them fight if another war came up. And, Ta-Lynn, as you might've noticed, is a girl. So Kish would fight with her. And for some reason, Kish actually taught her fighting skills, too," Tart finished.
"So, Kish pretty much wants to wring Ta-lynn's neck, while teaching her," Koi said, his eyes following the fighters' quick movements, "Hey, Tart, Kish is an awesome teacher. She's good at fighting."
Ta-Lynn was indeed a fantastic warrior, even if Kish had wanted a boy. She dodged and danced through Kish's strikes, barely getting hit. When she went to slash at her opponent, it wasn't just a lazy whack. Ta-Lynn seemed to actually know what she was doing. Even with this though, Kish knocked her ankles and she fell to the ground. He sighed, shaking his head as if to say; 'If only you were a boy…'
Ta-Lynn stood up and wiped her practically inflated skirt with her long red nails. If she had been sad about disappointing him, it didn't really show on her doll face.
Sexist… Cimi thought, shaking her head at the scowl on Kish's face. She slightly leaned forward, anticipating Ta-Lynn to yell at Kish for his insensitivity.
But she didn't. "Whatever," Ta-lynn lightly drawled, getting up with a slow push of her right arm. "Now which one of you extremely witty people," she started, grinning after witty to emphasize her point that they were everything but witty, "can direct me into the idea of this horrible plan?"
Cimi reached across her brother and jabbed Tart in the arm, including fingers. A red mark appeared quickly and vanished, just as quick. Even so, Tart looked just past Ta-Lynn, avoiding her eye. Ta-Lynn seemed to notice this; she cocked her head and arched the end of her brow way up high.
"Scared, shorty?" Tart tilted his head upwards to face the remark straight to her face.
It was a large tilt, mind him.
"Nah," he replied, folding his arms across his chest. "Only wimps get scared."
"Then wouldn't your answer be yes?" Ta-Lynn had a gift in back talk, but Tart was grand at being bliss about every remark. He shifted his weight to the other leg and sighed, with a smile.
"How wonderful to have you back and at our fighting aid, Ta-Lynn."
I suppose this would be a time to maybe end this chapter. I get extremely loaded with stuff to do, so typing doesn't really come that easily. If want the full complaint, just check out my profile. Trust me, there will be some mentions.
Off that point, I hope you readers liked this chapter.
Inner Person: Took you long enough
Boom crash spill mushroom cloud
Kay, that person has been taken care of. Indeed, another OC has dived into the vast sea of my mind. Woopie, the first villain OC! Technically, Koi and Cimi are sorta villains now. The next chapter will be out of these peoples faces and into something you might have forgotten about in the mist of reading. You'll see! Buh bye ppls, and don't forget to review!