Disclaimer: No I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew, I'm just borrowing the world.

Five Elements; The American Mews

Chapter 20: The Mysterious New Threat

Walt slowly approached her, his entire body trembling. "Excuse me…ma'am…who are you?"

"My name is Erika Mishimiya." The woman patted him on the shoulder. "And you're a cute one, aren't you?"

"I think I liked Olson better," The boy dead-panned in reply.

Rolling her eyes, the woman smiled widely. "Now then…let's get down to business."

"Business?" Walt lifted an eyebrow at her. "What business do you have with us? Didn't you take out Olson because of your own reasons?"

"My own reasons?" Erika shook her head. "I took out that sad excuse of my apprentice because he was preventing me from getting my objective…" She thumbed over at Mew Sonic. "He's my target."

Walt felt shivers run up his spine at that declaration. "What do you intend to do with my brother? Why are you after him?"

"Because that crazy brother of yours has the potential to become strong enough to deal with the new threat that is coming. It's a threat that will make Olson seem like child's play." The woman brushed back a few locks of her hair and watched the approach of the other Mews. "The rest of you won't be able to do anything against this kind of threat at your current levels, and even if you reach your maximum power you'll still not be able to do much."

Mew Pyro gave her a death glare. "I'm sick and tired of you telling me that there's no way I can possibly win…"

"There is a way you can win though, but it requires you to push your body and mind past its limits." Erika walked over to Roger and kicked him a couple in his ribs, watching as he barely responded to it. "He's the strongest out of all of you, and that puts him at a high C+ level. The rest of you can all reach a low C+ level if you push yourselves to your max, but no amount of training will increase your energy levels beyond that."

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Mew Terra crossed her arms across her chest, while Mew Aero tried to kill Erika from a distance with her glare at the fact she was kicking Roger.

"Achieve the next level." Erika knelt down and threw Roger over one shoulder. "If you can push yourself to the right level, you can power up to the point you'll win against the new threat."

Walt, despite his intelligence and ability to understand the cryptic, couldn't comprehend what she was talking about. "How about you speak in this little language we call English, alright?"

Erika smiled slightly. "You're all Mew Mews…but it's time for you to figure out how to surpass these forms. Mew Aero, Mew Terra, Mew Pyro, Mew Sonic…all of you must lose these forms and achieve your next levels of power." Her eyes glittered slightly at the prospect. "Excelsior told me about the four of you, which is surprising considering that Mew Aero just came to be…but he was the smartest student I've ever had. Your current forms cannot surpass the high C level…but if you can surpass these physical limitations…then I promise you that B+ will be within reach. At that level, you won't be matched by anything that the known world has on it."

Mew Pyro's eyes also twinkled at that idea. ("Stronger than anything else…stronger than Grant!") He pounded his fists together. "And just what would it take for us to get stronger?"

Erika shrugged innocently. "I have absolutely no idea."

There was one massive face-fall that went through the whole group, excluding her.

She continued. "All I know for sure is that if you give your all it will put you closer to achieving this transformation. Though I'm still not sure what it does or how it happens." Turning, she started to talk away. "Now then, I'll be borrowing your boy wonder for the rest of the week. Don't worry, I'll return him unharmed….most likely."

"What?" Mew Pyro leapt into her way. "You're not taking him! I have to fight him in a rematch later!"

Erika narrowed her eyes and suddenly she was on the other side of the boy. He dropped to his knees and gasped for air. "You're welcome to try and stop me if you wish, but I intend to kill you if you continue to irritate me. None of you are as close as this one is." Suddenly she was face-first on the ground, a heel grinding into the back of her head.

Mew Aero put a hand on her hip while she continued to push the woman farther into the ground. "I'm not letting you take Roger." Her other arm was holding Mew Sonic's body over her shoulder. "And if you try to…"

"Flash Bomb." Erika was suddenly right in front of the girl, her palm inches from her face. Energy began to build around that hand rapidly, and it started to glow stronger and stronger…

Mew Aero stared at the ball, her eyes wide in fear. Then it released, shooting right past her head and shooting off into the distance. After that there was only white as the explosion cut off all sight.

Erika had the boy over her shoulder once more. "That would be your death is I decided I wanted you to die. If you try again, I won't change the trajectory of the shot next time."

Mew Terra had just stood there, her eyes watching Erika calmly. ("What are trying to achieve by taking him? In raw power he's stronger, but his focus is almost zero and his martial skills are truly zero. He just fights like a wild animal. Why not myself or the hot-headed cat over there?")

Erika caught a little look that Mew Terra had given her, and she smirked. "This boy has the potential to be a great hero, but unfortunately his transformation was incorrectly timed. More or less, I have to start from scratch with him." Turning, she walked away without another word. If they wanted to stop her, they were welcome to try.

But no one tried again to prevent her from leaving. "You'll see him by the end of the week, this I promise."

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Roger's eyes snapped open and he immediately was on his feet, eyes looking around him in confusion. "Where am I?" All around him, there was nothing but trees and grass. It was different than the field he had battled Olson on, though. He looked down at his wrist to double-check that his transformation device was still there.

"It seems like you're fully awake…" Erika, who had been sitting on a log, hopped down and sighed. "You slept for nearly six hours…that was so boring. Couldn't you have woken up any faster?"

"What happened to Olson?" He wasn't in the mood to humor whoever this lady might be.

"I utterly destroyed him." Erika tilted her head to the side. "Is that alright with you?"

Roger's eyes narrowed and he snapped up the wrist device. "Mew Mew Sonic, METAMOPHORSIS!" The air around him shuddered and warped as he changed into Mew Sonic. "I'll just have to kick the life out of you in place of him!"

"Is that so, little boy?" Tapping her chin with a nail, Erika smiled softly. "I like your attitude, but your biggest problem is that you have no way to progress as you are now. Even in the case of Mews, you can only be so compatible with the animal genetics you were given. Because of the one in a million chance that you actually were compatible with the mixture of the Ethiopian Wolf, you were granted the power to become Mew Sonic. It was pure luck, and pure luck will never win out against planned occurrences."

"What are you babbling about? Just fight!" Roaring, Mew Sonic charged at her and threw a punch. When the punch was about halfway to her, he felt his stomach lurch as he literally turned upside down and sent to the ground. ("What was that? I didn't even see her move or touch me.")

Erika kept walking away from him, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "I felt a momentary flare of energy…you're so close to achieving it. I know the problem, and it makes me curious about something." She side-stepped another punch aimed for her head, and counter-attacked with a punch that sent Mew Sonic through the next thirty trees in his way. "Anyway…for you to prove yourself to me you'll have to make it to my compound in the center of this forest. At the moment, we're standing on the far edge of this forest, and the compound is…" She pointed off to the west. "That way. It will take you about three days to make it without stopping for food or resting, and that will be the best thing for you to do. Believe me, it will make you stronger."

Mew Sonic appeared next to her, fist cocked back to strike. "Die!" Then he was on the ground, clutching at his nose.

Erika pulled a small injection gun out of her pocket and kneeled down over the groaning boy. "This will only hurt for a moment." She pressed it against his arm and pressed the trigger. Standing up, she turned and walked off towards the trees. "Later. Have a pleasant time." She smirked as he was surrounded by a glow when his transformation broke down. "I just injected you with a powerful chemical solution known to destroy DNA over time. It's dangerous in that it is a slow acting chemical. In three days, more or less, you'll not only forever lose the ability to change into a Mew, but you'll probably lose most of your other physical abilities too. You'll be handicapped for life, definitely unable to fight. So hurry up and come see me. On that note, if you transform into Mew Sonic then the chemical will respond rather…" She used her hands to make the motion of something exploding. "…violently." Then she disappeared.

Roger slowly stood up, his ice-blue eyes burning with anger. "You old hag!"

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Excelsior sat back in his chair, his eyes looking over the reports by his intelligence operatives. "Heinrich Olson, my old friend, was behind it all? That actually makes sense, considering his talents in the plant genetics field." Flipping to the next page, his jaw dropped. "Mishimiya-sensei?" He finished reading the report quickly and then he dropped it to his desk. "I see….how unfortunate that Heinrich could not have been spared…"

The man standing in front of the professor's desk cleared his throat. "After that, Mishimiya took Mew Sonic with her and said she would return him by the end of this week."

Excelsior frowned slightly at the thought of what horrible things she must have been doing to the boy by now. ("However, if he manages to survive it he will stronger for it all.")

The man continued his report. "After the others left the scene, we arrived with our clean-up crew to deal with the damage and remains of Olson so that there was no evidence of his existence. Upon searching the mansion however, we found that there was no one there. The woman who attacked the Grant family was not found at the scene."

Excelsior didn't bother to get excited about it. That woman was most likely the genetic creation of his late rival, and therefore the chances of it actually being a real problem to them in the future were low. ("He always kept his work to himself, and I can only assume that woman is in the same boat. She doesn't have any idea how the world works, so she'll most likely become a recluse we'll never hear from again. Good…that's for the best.")

The man looked at Excelsior with a grave expression on his face. "Mishimiya mentioned a new threat that was coming. What do you think it might be?"

"Who knows…" The aged man sighed. "It's such a troublesome time, isn't it? It was bad enough when we had one single Mew, but now we have four of them…" Lacing his fingers together, he laid back in his chair and looked up at the lighting of his ceiling. "Now it's gotten to a lull…we have time to prepare. I want clean-up crews ready to move around the clock, and make sure we're ready to assist the Mews in any way possible."

"Yes sir." The man saluted and walked out the door.

Excelsior heard his intercom beep. "Yes?"

"You have a call from Shirogane, sir." The receptionist on the other line spoke calmly, though he could tell she didn't like having to speak with him directly. He was normally a very intimidating man.

"That's fine, just patch him through to me." Taking a deep breath, Excelsior prepared himself. This was going to take a lot of explaining.

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Roger grunted and held the piece of wood he had been using as a walking stick for the last few hours tighter and tighter to make sure he didn't collapse. ("You think I'm going to roll over and die? Not a chance…")

As he moved through the forest, his eyes closed and he growled in anger. ("If I could change into Mew Sonic then I'd tear that woman apart then next time I'd see her!") An image of him face-first in the dirt with smoke coming off of his body and her blowing out her hand flashed in his mind, and then he felt depressed. ("Why is it that I can never fight someone who I have a freaking chance to beat?")

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Erika sat back in her chair and sipper her tea. ("By now the poor kid should be near the river. Hmmm….I wonder if he'll survive.") Taking another sip of her tea, she smiled slightly in amusement. ("I wonder if he can win this little challenge…") Taking one last sip of her tea, she stood up and walked out of her living room towards her bedroom. "Oh well, may as well take a nap. If he dies, then I guess he dies!"

To be continued…

And so Erika's 'plan' is apparently to leave Roger out to die in the wilderness, without the ability to transform into Mew Sonic. What is her real goal in doing this?