Disclaimer: No I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew, I just use the world.

Five Elements; The American Mew Mews

Chapter 15: The Dark Truth of the Matter

The doctor smiled calmly, hearing another of the doors in his compound blown to shreds. ("He's in quite a hurry to get to me. He's blowing right through the doors to lead himself straight to my position like a missile. It's interesting that he possesses such a strong sense of tracking. I thought he was stupid, but maybe he just has intelligence in areas I haven't fathomed to test him in. Oh well, it doesn't matter at all. Soon he'll be here and then the fun can begin.")

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Mew Sonic threw himself through another door, blowing the whole thing off of its hinges with the force of his run. He wouldn't slow until he had gotten to the man behind all of this madness and pounded his sorry butt until there was nothing left of him.

Slamming his boot into another door, he slid to a stop as he found himself within some kind of giant circular room. The robin's egg-colored walls were smooth, and none of them ended in a point. Slowly, he walked into the very dark room and instantly every hair on the back of his neck shot up as he realized he wasn't alone in here. "Who's there? Magnolia maybe? Or another of you freaks?"

"No….not this time." The lights increased a little bit to reveal a brown-haired man wearing a pair of wire-frame glasses and a white lab coat. His almost orange eyes looked right at Mew Sonic, and his lips curled into a smile. By no means did the doctor look like any kind of fighter, considering his 5'6" height and his rather normal human build. "I have been waiting for you, Roger Grant. Or would you prefer me to call you Mew Sonic at this time?"

"You're the guy behind this, aren't you?" Mew Sonic flexed his arm a few times, feeling his blood rise. "And you're the guy that ordered Caitlyn be kidnapped."

"That's right on both accounts, good work detective." The doctor started to laugh, until he realized that Mew Sonic had disappeared.

"I've got something for you!" The boy's left hand spun the doctor around, while his right hand crashed as hard as it possibly could into the man's cheek, sending him flying to the other end of the room and into the wall. "And there's more where that came from."

"That's a shame…" The doctor slowly stood up and popped his jaw back into place. Other than the skid marks on his skin where Mew Sonic's fist had connected, there was no noticeable damage to him. "I have to admit that you're definitely stronger than you were at the start. Tell me, did you know that there is a strength scale for determining how powerful a genetic construct is?"

"You like to listen to yourself talk way too much." Mew Sonic charged right at the doctor, fist cocked back to strike.

"There are two ways to evaluate one's strength, either through a letter system, like a grade, or through a number system. I much prefer the letter system myself, because it reminds me of school, one of my favorite places of all time." The doctor took another punch to the face, slamming him back-first into the wall and forcing him into an insane roll that sent him all the way to the open doorway that Mew Sonic had first entered the room through. As soon as his feet touched the ground though, he stopped moving and rubbed his face with a hand. "The world is full of all kinds of creations of the genetic variety. Each and every single one of them unique in their own way."

"Just fight me!" Mew Sonic launched at the doctor again, starting to get unnerved by the man's apparently infinite patience. He slammed his fist right into the doctor's diaphragm and sent him skidding backwards into the hallway. "I plan on killing you, so why don't you fight back? I know you have the strength to."

"Because I'm currently having a conversation with you. Why should I stop talking just to join you in your little game? So you can vent your anger out on me? No…I won't allow that." The doctor disappeared and appeared back within the room, brushing back his disheveled hair with a hand. "Of course, if you hear me out then I'll be glad to fight you to your heart's content."

"Fine…just make it quick." Mew Sonic slowly lowered his fists and turned to face the doctor. "I want to destroy you as soon as possible, but if there is one thing I can't stand it is when someone actually ignores the fact that they are fighting in the middle of a fight."

"Indeed." The doctor had lost his glasses long ago, but apparently he could see just fine. "My name is Heinrich Olson. I was once the business partner of a man I'm sure you have met, Professor Excelsior. Then two years ago he and I had a little disagreement over the ethics of a certain experiment I had been working on, so we had a little falling out. I left to go and continue my research elsewhere."

He slowly removed his lab coat and threw it to the side, revealing a skin-tight white sweater underneath. "Then one day I discovered an amazing thing…a thing called genetic amplification. I could, using the proper genetic process, create and amplify the strength of living creatures. Hence why Magnolia, my first creation, exists. She was the perfect weapon…a plant and a human combined into one. Then there were her sisters, each of which was created by using different kinds of plant cells and human cells. It's rather humorous that plants were the basis of my research, and yet I used the creations from that research to kill."

"It's sick, and that's all." Mew Sonic wanted to pummel this guy even more than before, if that was possible. "Are you telling me that you've been creating humans, and telling them to kill for you? What kind of coward does that?"

"Coward?" Olson stretched his muscles out slowly. "What makes you think I'm a coward? Because I don't immediately resort to the brute force tactics that you use?"

"I've had enough of this! You just like to listen yourself talk!" Mew Sonic snapped up his fists. "Let's go!"

Sighing, Olson cracked his knuckles. "Very well, but I hope you can last against me."

"Heh…don't you worry about…huh?" Mew Sonic's eyes widened as Olson seemed to just disappear. ("Where'd he go?")

Olson cocked back his fist, about to drive it through the boy's skull from behind. ("Too easy…") His fist rocketed down…and was caught by Mew Sonic's open palm. "What?"

Mew Sonic slowly turned his head, an evil smile on his face. "Just kidding." Then he drove his foot into the man's stomach, sending Olson crashing into the circular walls of the arena again. "It's such a damn shame you're just a human, or maybe I'd be afraid of you."

"Is that so?" Olson stood up and brushed his hair back again. "I'll show you just how human I am. Let's go." And then he disappeared again.

Mew Sonic's eyes slowly surveyed the room, and then he was moving, legs kicking out. When he felt resistance and heard a gasp of pain, his savage smile grew wider. "Give it up doc, you're out of luck. I'm not your average opponent, you know that."

Olson slowly stood up, back to the circular wall of the dim room. ("His power is much more impressive than I had believed at first.") He wiped a little smudge of blood from his cheek where his skin had torn against the surface of the wall.

Mew Sonic flew in like a bullet, his elbow slamming into the doctor's ribs and forcing the man against the wall again. "Don't think I'll just stand there like an idiot and revel in the fact that you can't beat me!" His head snapped in and he slammed foreheads with Olson. "I intend to kill you! So don't just stand there and take it, you'd better fight back!"

Olson smiled slightly, his eyes still reflecting confidence despite the fact Mew Sonic was rapidly destroying his body. ("His power level is at least a C now…impressive, considering he has only been transformed for a few days now.")

Mew Sonic roared and continued to pound away with his fists, no longer in the mood for banter with the meat sack in front of him. That's all this doctor was, apparently, because he certainly wasn't any kind of fighter. A fighter would have done something to avoid the lethal blows he was landing by now. In fact, he could feel the doctor's body giving way much easier to his hits, meaning that he had tenderized the man's internal organs and bones to near mush. ("Why won't he stop smiling though? And more importantly, why won't he fall down?")

Olson just stood there calmly, letting each and every blow slam against him with bone-shattering force. ("It's interesting…to think that despite the damage to my body, I'm completely in control of this fight.")

Mew Sonic finally stopped his insane barrage, hopping back a few steps as he felt more and more unnerved by the fact that this guy was apparently incapable of feeling pain. "What are you? You couldn't be human…because a human would be dead by now."

"Me?" The man spoke through lips that shouldn't have been able to form words. "I am as close to perfection as I have ever reached. Have you not yet noticed that your punches were strangely…buffered?"

Mew Sonic looked down at his knuckles and narrowed his eyes. ("Why do I have this sudden feeling…like…") It wasn't fear or anger anymore, but now it was curiosity. He just wanted to see exactly what this man was capable of.

Olson slowly stepped forwards, his twisted and damage lips trying to smile. "Honestly…did you think that I'd fight you if you could do this kind of damage to me?"

"Well, since I just did that damage to you I'll say yes to that." Roger cracked his knuckles a couple of times. "Just give it up, doctor freakazoid. You're tough, I'll give you that. But otherwise, you aren't anything compared to me."

"Is that so?" The doctor's calm eyes grew even more relaxed. "I think I'll show you something…" Suddenly he exploded outwards, all of his muscles bulging and stretching as he literally doubled is size. His sweater tore to shreds, while his khaki pants stretching and tore at the seams, leaving him now wearing shorts rather than pants. His entire body seemed to snap back in place, leaving the now giant of man to pop his joints back into place as he instantly recovered from the damage that Mew Sonic had dealt him. "This is something closer to my true form, though it still holds the basic trappings of my human cover."

Mew Sonic just stood there, trying as hard as he could not to sweat at all. ("What kind of monster is this thing? He just popped back from the damage I dealt him like it was nothing at all.") His confidence flared up momentarily as he remembered that his attack Olson before had been only half-hearted, which meant that if he gave it his real all then he should be able to win.

One of Olson's melon-sized fists flexed once. "Now then, shall I actually fight you like it matters to me whether you land blows or not?"

Mew Sonic visibly clenched his teeth and bent at the knees. "Don't underestimate me!" Then he launched right at the man and crashed his knee into Olson's chin, forcing the man's head to lift up slightly. However…he quickly realized that it hadn't done anything more than move him. ("How could that not have hurt him?")

Olson back-handed Mew Sonic away, the boy hitting head-first into the wall with a crash and sliding to the ground slowly and unmoving. "What was that? I know you have more power in your attacks than that. Don't treat me like any normal enemy. Fight me like it matters, or perhaps you would like Caitlyn injured instead?"

Mew Sonic was suddenly moving, a sand and black-colored blur that crashed right into the giant's abdomen and forced him back a foot. "Don't you dare touch her!" Then he unleashed a flurry of enraged punches on the man's literal eight-pack of muscle.

Olson continued to slide back, inch by inch for each landed punch. His face actually contorted in pain slightly. Finally, after allowing the boy to go berserk on him for about fifteen seconds or so, his hand shot up with impossible speed and grabbed Mew Sonic by the vest, bringing him up to eye level with the genetic giant.

"Is that all you can do? Just punch and kick like a brute?" Then his other fist cocked back and flew forward so fast that it sounded like a cannon being fired. When it connected, it seemed to go through Mew Sonic more than into him. It actually carried him along with it as it launched, and when it stopped he kept going through the air until his back connected with the wall. Except the wall couldn't contain the force this time, and Mew Sonic actually started to go through the exceptionally thick stone for a few seconds, before the force of the punch finally subsided.

As he dropped from his indentation in the wall to his knees on the ground, Mew Sonic coughed up small puddles worth of blood as he clutched at his gut in desperation to quell the pain. Rolling onto his side, he gritted back screams of pain as his entire body suffered because of the force of the blow.

Olson stood there silently, his two orange eyes evaluating the pitiful creature in front of him. ("What kind of sad excuse for a being is this boy? I hit him once and it's almost enough to knock him unconscious.") Flexing the muscles of his right arm a couple times, the doctor slowly walked towards the cowering child like an angry parent. "I expected more out of you. Did it only take one punch from me to stop your anger in its tracks?" He nudged the boy's back a couple of times with his shoe. "Well?"

Suddenly Mew Sonic was in the air right above Olson, his right fist glowing golden. "Chaos Barrage!"

Olson felt the building energy and smiled slightly at the ingenuity behind what the boy had managed to do. ("By releasing his energy in a line, he can create a machine-gun like attack that simulates the damage punches can do…very good, but too slow.") He disappeared from sight, the powerful barrage of sonic strikes hitting the stone floor and tearing the rock to shreds and bits of dust.

Mew Sonic stared at the place the doctor had been in amazement. ("Where'd he go? There was no way he could have just moved out of the way!")

Olson, who was in the air right above the boy, brought his fist crashing down on the back of Mew Sonic's neck. There was a loud crack noise and Mew Sonic went silent, crashing down into the floor without the slightest noise. ("Hm, did I break him?")

Mew Sonic slowly tried to stand up, but felt a huge foot crash into his ribs and instantly break two of them. But that pain was forgotten as his back met the wall again, and then sank into the wall again.

Olson chuckled as he watched the boy actually drop to the ground standing this time. "It's amazing…you are actually getting a little more resilient to my attacks. Considering the ridiculously short amount of time you've actually been exposed to them, I have to admit that your endurance levels are intriguing."

"Shut up…" Mew Sonic tried to stand, but found that his legs refused to respond to his commands. "Come on…show me what you've really got."

"I would, but I fear that seeing my real form would scare you to death." Whether or not Olson was joking, Mew Sonic couldn't tell. "Besides, if this is honestly the best entertainment that you can provide me, I'll just have to find another way to keep myself entertained." Grabbing the boy by the back of the neck, he snapped the fingers of his other hand.

The circular wall of the arena turned rapidly, as if the whole room was meant to rotate. Then when it came to a stop they were both facing what seemed to be a small park, where there had originally been a featureless blue wall. In the center of the park rested a giant elm tree. It was a scene that would inspire a painter to make a masterpiece.

Olson's hand wrapped around Mew Sonic's neck so that he could easily make sure the boy was looking in the direction he wanted him to. "Take a look. Isn't it such a beautiful place? I come here whenever I feel like I need to think about something philosophical."

"Yeah…it's a great place to put your grave…" Mew Sonic started to struggle, until the hand that engulfed his head tightened just enough to cut off his air supply.

"When I was a child, the other children always thought I was weird to be spending so much time with the flowers and other plants around our home. I've always had an obsession with botany, and when I learned about genetics my mind swam with all of the possibilities of what could come from the integration of plant genetic codes with those of human beings." He spoke as though he was talking to himself instead of the boy whose head he held in an air-blocking neck squeeze. "I could cure diseases…save millions of lives…"

"But then it happened…" Olson's hand clenched tighter and Mew Sonic started to make little squeaking noises as he felt his neck beginning to break. "…the day they killed her…" His voice grew quiet…and angry. "My wife, one of the sweetest and most innocent women on the planet, was killed by a fanatic group that opposed my research. They thought it would scare me into stopping…but it had the opposite effect. They were the first to feel these hands crush their windpipes…"

Mew Sonic felt himself starting to black out, unable to even think properly anymore.

The rays of simulated sunlight fell down onto the tree, and a loud chirping came from within the boughs of the elm.

"Can you hear that?" Olson lifted his arm up a little more to position Mew Sonic closer to the tree. "Can you hear my little songbird's music?" As if on cue, a sweet melody came echoing from within the little park and echoed down off the walls of the arena. It was so innocent and so full of cheery energy. Mew Sonic, in his weakened and now dying state, felt like he had heard that song once before.

"She's singing about you." Olson refused to let his grip relax. If the boy died, then so be it. At his current strength level, he wasn't worth the effort of saving. "She thinks her knight in shining armor will come to her rescue. Isn't it a shame that knight is currently on death's door?"

Mew Sonic's tired and glazed over eyes barely registered the voices around him. That song was the only thing that was piercing the haze, and he wasn't even sure what it meant.

"She screamed your name while I worked on her body…and in the end it didn't matter at all. I thought that perhaps you would actually have been strong enough to defeat me…but sadly I was mistaken." Olson leaned his head in to whisper right into one of those drooped wolf ears. "Caitlyn's little bird brain can't comprehend it now, but her last hope of leaving my control is about to die."

Mew Sonic's hazed eyes started to tear up, and he went lax as his lack of air began to kill him. He was already unconscious, now it was just a matter of heartbeats until he died.

"And so the story ends with the knight defeated and the monster triumphant." Olson sighed as he felt Mew Sonic's heart beat its last. There was a weak flash of light as the superhuman reverted back to Roger Grant. "What a sad time we live in that our fairy tales must be like this." He walked over to the trunk of the elm tree and placed Roger's body against the trunk of tree. "You were right about one thing. This is going to be one of our graves." Then he turned and started to walk away, his emotionless and cold eyes locked on the doorway out of this arena. He was a busy man and he had things on his schedule today.

To be continued…

Has the hero really fallen? With Heinrich's power being far more than his, Roger has been defeated and now lies lifeless at the base of the tree that serves as the home of the girl he had come to save…is this where it all ends? Or can Mew Pyro and Mew Terra avenge their fallen comrade?

To Nyaa-Neko: Is there a method for me to speak with you outside of this fic? There is a question I would like to ask you. My profile has my email address, so feel free contact me if you wish to.