Darlings, I know people are busy, and the fact that this story was still on page one a week later is definite proof, but it has been over a week, and I have had one review for the last few chapters, that's very disheartening. Honestly, darlings, it's depressing, I know I haven't been timely with this update, but I did notify you that I had testing this week, and I even managed two updates. I don't want to call you out or offend you, but please, review, it's so much more encouraging as many of you know, especially when you've just been told you have a mono and want to go to bed all the time. Well I suppose I should get on with it before I fall asleep.
I own nothing.
"L-level five?" Kota asked freezing up, his shoulders tensed, his arms frozen in mid movement, and his eyes wide.
Koakov's gaze was one to strike terror into the hearts of the bravest of men, through his teeth he snarled, "I said unleash a level five, DO IT!"
Coventry was unable, and Kota was about to shit his pants, so the enraged officer pulled out a parasite and grabbed Kokoro's brown belly top and stole merged her soul with the parasite. She screamed out and her body dropped to the ground.
"How dare you!" Ana screeched at him lashing her attack at him in fury, barely even aiming. A fox that was about six and half feet tall stood erect floating next to the general, it was very beautiful, with a pretty face and coat, as well as a very feminine figure with very feminine err… features, yeah, let's go with that. She was also armed with two shotguns.
"Well, my Chimera, kill them!" Koakov said with a smile and an insane gleam in his eyes.
The fox responded with a sort of barking sound and Koakov's smile grew as she took aim at one of them and began firing. There was a scream as a bullet hit home in Noah's chest.
"NOAH!" Ana cried out, rushing to his side, his breathing was heavy and the color was quickly leaving his cheeks, and as she held the mew leader her hands became drenched in his blood.
"No, you have to fight, this isn't worth anything if you don't stop them," Noah said, loud enough for all of them to hear.
"You go too far Koakov!" Ryou shouted and made his way towards the boy but the Sergeant knocked him down.
"You monster!" Ana yelled, and continued "How dare you push Shirogane like that, how dare you turn Kokoro into a monster, how dare you hurt Noah? I'll never forgive you!" she lunged at Koakov and Jamie as Aya started trying to return Kokoro to normal, knowing she'd be unharmed when they defeated the mew.
"Not so fast," Kota said drawing up an arrow, "Raimei Arashi Koogeki!" he shouted; the arrow caught fire, it started pouring, and the sky lit up with lightening as he released the arrow that Aya narrowly avoided. The mews looked up at the sky confused by the storms sudden presence and Koakov laughed.
"Nice work, Kota!" he said and knocked Ana to the side as she lunged at him again.
Aya fired his attack once again this time aiming at Koakov instead of Kokoro, and the alien dropped to his knees, clutching his side, Coventry gasped and then threw Aya down in front of the apparently dying Sergeant, who smirked and stabbed at the boy with one of his blades before he could react.
"Aya, don't worry, I'll save you," Jamie muttered pulling up her revolver, about to aim, "Ribbon Moonlight Big-Bang!" she cried as she pulled the trigger, sending not only a stream of silver bullets but also a flash of light that stunned everyone accompanied by a rumbling sound louder than the last roll of thunder.
The light cleared and Jamie looked anxiously to see if Koakov was still alive, "Damn you, Koakov!" she swore seeing he was standing, cleaning blood off of his sword.
"Die, Mew Mews!" Kota said firing another arrow, aiming first at Jamie, then suddenly changing his approach to fire this time at Ryou. Noah, with all the energy he had shoved him out of the way, the arrow going clean threw is bad arm, causing him to collapse to the ground in pain.
He snarled and fired another this time at Ana, "Ribbon! Pineapple Protection!" she shouted just before it hit her and threw her headband the arrow bounced off of the protective ring and hit Kokoro right in the chest.
There was a whimper and the Chimera clutched at it and pulled it out, but before she could completely recover there was a whisper of, "I'm sorry. Ribbon Clay Inferno!" and a crossbow bolt hit home in the same spot the arrow had. Kokoro burst into flames, causing a series of whimpers and cries as she spent several minutes being engulfed in flames.
Ana held up her headband again, "Ribbon! Pineapple Chop!" she shouted and the boomerang-like headband hit the enflamed Chimera and the fox dropped to her feet, about finished. Jamie fired her attack one more time, this time at Kokoro, it finally finished her.
Kokoro's soul drifted back down to her body, she coughed and sat up again, Koakov howled in fury and threw his sword at Kokoro, who hadn't had enough time to recover, she turned so it only grazed her arm, but it was still painful. She struggled up and got out her weapon, raising it she looked at the aliens with a glare, "Ribbon Blazing Heart!" she shouted and the embellishments on her weapon began glowing and a brown beam of light shot forth, knocking Coventry to the ground.
The shock of the mews defeating a level five was starting to bring Koakov back to his senses, "We'll see you next time," he muttered and the three disappeared.
Aya was still clutching his side, but saw a building on fire and muttered, "Ribbon Oblivion Ice!" and the fire froze over. Ryou instructed them all to de-transform and then called an ambulance because he knew at least two of them were walking a fine line between life and death.
~Several Hours Later in the Hospital~
Noah opened his eyes slowly, closing them at first because of the brightness of the light, and then opened them again to be met with a searing pain in his side, arm, and, most of all, chest. He looked around the room in confusion, when did he get to the hospital?
"You're awake!" he heard a now-oh-so-familiar voice squeal with delight, Ana went to give him a hug and then remembered each of his injuries and decided that wouldn't be a good idea. He just nodded and tried to smile, she frowned, "I'll go get the nurse so she can get you more painkiller," Ana said and left the room.
Ryou walked in, "Just got back from checking on Aya, he's still out, glad to see you're up," he patted the boys leg causing a cringe and a half from Noah. "Sorry, didn't realize the painkillers hadn't kicked in.
"It's ok," he said, and as he clutched his chest realized that was a big mistake.
"I guess I don't need to tell you not to talk," Ryou teased, and then his expression grew somber. "This time it's my fault," he said, causing an odd look from Noah, "more than usual don't rub it in, I mean if I hadn't shown up Koakov wouldn't have gone crazy like that, none of you would've none about him being-" Ryou stopped himself, "his son." Noah looked at him critically, "I swore I'd never tell, I'm not breaking that promise, not to him anyway. But anyway, I just wanted to say I'm sorry, because this really is my fault, and that I'm immensely proud of you."
Noah opened his mouth to protest, but then the nurse than came in with Ana close on her tail.
Ana glared at Ryou and then sat back down next to Noah's bed, "So, you were some bad accident, huh?" the nurse asked the Dhole Mew. He just nodded, and responded to each of the questions with a nod or shake of his head.
"My dad," he said, before the nurse gave him the painkiller, and clutched his chest again after speaking.
"Sure, we'll call him," Ryou said, "but you really shouldn't talk," Noah nodded at this and then the nurse kicked him out for a moment as she dosed the two injured mews and checked their vitals, changed bandages, and all that sort of wonderful nonsense that nurses do before allowing him to return.
"I called your Dad," Ryou said, and Ana moved back to his bed side again. He smiled at her warmly and grabbed her hand, Ryou walked out with the nurse to leave the two alone, and go check on Aya again. Ryou came in and sat next to the teenage girl. She immediately tucked her hair behind her ear nervously.
"Jamie you can hold his hand, it's okay," he said with a smile at her. She wearily returned it, the battle had clearly had an enormous effect on her, both emotionally and physically; her soft gaze then became hard and piercing.
"This is your fault, you know?" she said, her voice full of steel as she accused the old man.
"I know, I feel awful, Koakov would've kept his cool if I hadn't shown up," this had bothered Ryou from the start, he shouldn't have provoked the alien as much, no matter what he felt he owed the Sergeant's father.
"At least you know, if anything happens to him I swear I'll shove your ass down your fucking throat, Jamie threatened, but the steel in her eyes was a little less than it would normally have been, she was too exhausted to actually come up with something.
"Fair enough," he said with a warm smile at her. Then his expression grew concerned, and he put his hand on her shoulder, "Well, how are you doing, just because you weren't shot and stabbed doesn't mean you're all sunshine and daisies?" he was concerned for Aya, but was more worried about Jamie because she wouldn't leave his side to let her own battle scars heal.
"I don't know, I guess I'm too worried about Aya to focus on what's hurting I'm glad they're letting us share a room," she said lightly stroking Aya's hand.
"Yeah, maybe you should get some rest yourself; you aren't in top condition, and need to heal too."
"I will," she paused, "eventually."
He patted her leg and rose, "I'll be back later, since you and Ana are babying Noah and Aya I think Kokoro needs some attention."Jamie smiled and nodded at him, and he smiled back and left the room.
Kokoro was trying to fall asleep, she had enough painkillers, but she just couldn't. She knew the reason she couldn't was stupid and selfish but she was upset she was the one in her own room. It was silly but she had never shared a room with someone, and she already felt that she wasn't as much a part of the team as everyone else.
Ana and Noah, though both completely oblivious to the fact, were perfect for each other, and Jamie was starting to wage war on Aya's distant heart. And that left her out of the picture, not completely, because she was, in fact, very good friends with Ana and Noah. She also enjoyed hanging out with Jamie, but Aya was an acquired taste, his personality just wasn't all that likeable. But she had been an obstacle in the winning of the first battle, not an asset, and that hurt her a lot.
"Can I come in?" Ryou asked, poking his head in the room, disturbing he self-pitying thoughts.
"It's not like I can stop you," she snapped, crossing her arms across her chest.
"If you don't want me in here I won't come in, but considering there's an odd number of mews and you ended up on you own I figured some company might be in order.
"How are the others?" she asked, grudgingly allowing the older man that had ruined her life to come in.
"If Ana and Jamie stop worrying so much about everyone else and get some of their own rest then everyone should be ok in due time," he said, sitting down on a chair on the left side of her bed.
"That's good, I didn't do too much of that to them, did I?" Kokoro asked, really worried she had almost killed one of her team mates.
"I want you to know you didn't do anything, the Chimera shot Noah in the chest, but you didn't do anything."
"Oh my God, I nearly killed him," she said, tears welling up in her eyes, she placed a hand on her forehead and looked down.
"No, you didn't, the aliens almost did. Besides, you know Noah better than me, and he isn't one to let something like a bullet take him out," Ryou said with a smile at her.
Kokoro tried not to laugh, "Yeah, I guess not," Kokoro smiled and then a thought occurred to her.
"What are we gonna tell our parents? None of us are accident prone, the café wasn't attacked, and there's no way all five of us would've been out running errands at the same time abandoning the café at the busiest time of the day."
"None of our parents are in communication and they aren't going to come at the same time, and since it's only an issue with you three girls, Jamie was off shift and in a car accident, Ana was running errands and encountered the monster downtown as she was shopping, and with you there was another incident at the café. It's just because of severity of new injuries, not any other reason," he explained.
The nurse then came into to Kokoro's room, "Sir, you should probably start saying good-bye because visiting hours are just about over."
"I'll see you later, Kokoro," Ryou said, and then thanked the nurse, and left the hospital after saying good-bye to the other four.
Koakov swore and punched the wall, leaving a gaping hole, how could they have lost?
"Sir, if you keep doing that you're going to tear down the wall," Saeka said, and lugged a punching bag over, "Way I suggest hitting this instead?"
"Saeka, what are you doing in here? I said I wanted to be alone," he huffed, crossing his arms frustrated.
"I could hear you breaking the wall, and I figured I'd save myself some spackling," she said and held up a can of the white goop.
"The door was locked though," he protested since she hadn't teleported in.
"I have a key to all the rooms for cleaning purposes, punching the wall may make you feel better emotionally, but your fist will thank me later, and you may not want to talk about it, but there are better ways to deal with whatever's bothering you," she hesitated for a second, and then continued after taking a deep breath, "I like to get into my human disguise and go down to the beach, let my hair down and just think, you know, a calm environment leads to a calm individual," she offered her hand to him.
"Maybe that works for you, but I really doubt-"
"Shh," she cut him off and put got on her tip toes to put a finger to his lips, "trust me," she whispered.
"All right, give me a minute to change," he said and she nodded and went to do so herself.
~10 minutes later~
Koakov didn't really know what he was supposed to wear, it was winter so he knew to dress warmly, but it was more a matter of what sort of occasion was this, he eventually decided on a pair of black jeans with a rough wash on them, a pair of black combat boots, a white button up shirt a black open suit jacket, and a loose red tie. All in all he though he looked good and the jacket kept him warm despite its corporate origins.
Saeka on the other hand, knew exactly what she was wearing: a pair of dark wash skinny jeans, a pair of Ugg boots, a white blouse with a blue argyle sweater over top it, along with a structured black jacket with just one button. Her make-up was done exquisitely, with a light-almost-white-blue eye shadow to highlight her eyes and then a grey shadow over her eye lids and a bit of eyeliner worked into her lash line topped with mascara and a light pink lip stick and gloss. She let her hair down instead of putting it in its customary bunches.
"Ready?" he asked her, after knocking on her bedroom door.
"Yes," she came out and grabbed his hand to teleport them to the beach. Koakov was stunned; he hadn't been to a human beach before.
"It's beautiful," he said, awestruck, all this had made him almost completely forget why he had made the trip.
"It's the pollution; it makes the sunset stand out more and gives it more vibrant color," Saeka explained.
"Yeah," he said and sat down on a nearby rock, she sat down next to him and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Do you want to talk about what happened?" she asked him.
"Yes, and no. What happened is I let my emotions get the best of me."
"How so?" she inquired, trying to let him let this go.
"Ryou Shirogane showed up, and he said some things that I've certainly thought about."
"Ryou Shirogane, Grandpa mentioned him a few time, creator of the mews, isn't he dead yet?"
"No, and both your grandfather and Shirogane knew my father, Shirogane brought up the fact that he wouldn't be proud of what I was doing."
"You're doing the right thing, Koakov, are people are suffering while theirs are spoiled and destroying the wonder they have. They don't know what they're doing, we can change it, make it better. I've never been one to support violence, I question why we fight, but I see them and it makes me so angry," she said.
"Who are we to judge, that's what father always said, and I always believed that, but then he got sick, and I mean, I never even knew my mother she died shortly after I was born, and that left me and my three older siblings, two of which of died since. I can't leave them to those conditions, where it's not safe to breathe the air, and if I have kids, and a wife," his eyes darted to her, but they quickly darted back to the ocean, "I couldn't live with myself if something happened to them and there was something I could do."
"It's nice that you care so much, and your wife is going to be a lucky woman. Feeling better?" she asked with a smile up at him.
"Yeah," he smiled said and returned the smile.
Recruse was in the family room, listening to music trying to find reason not to go kill the Sergeant only a few hundred feet away when Coventry came in, looking shaken.
"God, I'm such an idiot!" Coventry said, banging his fists on the counter, the sudden noise startled Recruse and she jumped a little.
"Damn, Cove, give a girl a heart attack, why don't you?" she berated him.
He just shook his head, "Sorry," he said.
"No one blames you for the idiot's failure, he over reacted to Ryou Shirogane's taunting," Recruse reassured him, and places her hand on his shoulder, he shrugged it off.
"No, we all failed, we're a team, meaning we all share the blame, that's what I thought anyway," he said, shaking his head. "Who am I kidding? I don't have a clue about anything anymore!" he said, pulling at his hair and slinking down to the floor.
"That makes two of us, though somehow I think it's harder for you, I at least had sight, you getting this new vision of the world that you've never had to deal with, I just have to adjust to moving with shadow and what-not," she said, putting her arm around the boy two years older than her. He just stayed silent, trying to gather his thoughts.
Kota slammed the door, stupid emotional sergeant, stupid self-contradicting sergeant! He kicked his desk and swore seeing the hole he had punctured in it.
"Nice one, Kota," Hibiki teased the alien for the hole and the language.
"Shut up, Hibiki, no one asked you," he growled.
"Dude, calm down, you lost, it happens sometimes, we'll just come up with a better plan," Hibiki said, trying to comfort his friend.
"It doesn't matter, the reason we lost is Sergeant Koakov wouldn't let me execute a plan my way, he unleashed a level one, than got pissed, and then unleashed a level five, and there was no strategy!"
"You won't always get stuck with him, relax," Hibiki said in a seeming nonchalant way but Kota knew he was really trying, and really concerned.
"I know, it's just so fucking wrong!" he said.
"Why don't we just play Modern Warfare 2 to get you mind off of it?" Hibiki suggested and handed him a controller and a challenge that he eagerly took up.
So yeah, there we go.