Chapter Eleven

The Beginning

"Alright" Ryou began as everyone was seated in the lab below the café, "now Keiichiro believes and I agree that the demon is ready to make his move. Now if you look at this map," he indicated, pointing to a screen that had dropped from the ceiling, "around this area there had been the most activity. By triangulating these spots, we can determine that the demon's base is right here. Now, this is probably where he will be doing whatever it is to pull down the moon, so we need to be there. Now, there will be a massive tidal wave occurring afterwards and we need the demon to be caught up in it."

All of the girls nodded. They already knew most of this information.

"Now Lettuce, you will be positioned on the beach, right?" Ryou asked her.

"What!" Ichigo, Mint, Suika and Pudding cried. "When was this arranged?" Ichigo asked.

"Um, Ryou thinks that because I'm fused with the finless porpoise, I might be able to control the flow of the water." Lettuce explained, her face reddening with embarrassment. "We already talked about it last week, and…and I agreed to do it."

"Lettuce! That's extremely dangerous." Mint said.

"I know. But if I believe I can do and have confidence, I think I can pull it off." She replied, smiling faintly.

"Well, if it's already decided, you'll have our support 100." Ichigo said, patting her friend on the back.

"Be careful!" Pudding said. "I still need to have someone to show my tricks to when this is all over!"

"Yeah, be careful." Suika added returning the smile.

"Getting back to the subject." Ryou said, drawing their attention once again. "While Keiichiro is getting Lettuce in position, the rest of you will need to distract the demon so he doesn't suspect what's going on." He said, looking at the girls. "I will be near by to monitor the situation and help out if necessary.

"When will all this happen?" Suika asked.

Ryou and Keiichiro looked grim. "If our calculation are correct," Keiichiro stated, "it should sometime with 24 hours starting…now."

"So we might only have 24 hours left to live if this thing fails?" Pudding asked, her cheerful demeanor gone and looking like she was about to cry.

"Yes." Ryou replied softly. Everyone in the basement was silent for about ten minutes. Ryou was just about to suggest that they leave when a siren went off and flooded the lab with red light and noise.

"what's going on?" Lettuce cried, her face going white.

"It's happening." Keiichiro replied, paling as well. "It wasn't supposed to happen this fast!" He cried, looking to Ryou for support.

Ryou took charge of the situation immediately, even though he felt like he was going to throw up any second. "Keiichiro, Lettuce! Go NOW!" He yelled, snapping them out of their paralysis. They rushed out the door, and the group heard tires squealing a few seconds later. "Masha! Go get Zakuro! The rest of you, come with me!" He yelled, taking a case from the closet and rushing up the stairs. The four girls followed them and they ran out the main entrance.

Outside, the sky had grown dark and menacing with patches of clouds. The moon, however was visible, and already seemed unusually large. I don't know if we can make it Ryou thought to himself. He pounded down the sidewalk leading the girls to the point where all the action was supposed to take place. I hope Keiichiro has gotten Lettuce into position. I know she can do it. Finally after eight blocks, Ryou stopped and the girls almost ran into him. Ichigo was panting visibly.

"Ryou, why do you have to run so fast?" She asked, managing to ask a question and whine at the same time.

"You're just out of shape." Ryou shot back, and before she could retort, turned away from her and began looking at the tops of buildings.

"What are you looking for?" Pudding asked, interested.

"That." Ryou said simply, pointing to a skyscraper. A small storm cloud shooting lightning seemed to be converging there. In the middle of it all was the demon, arms and wings outstretched, and a look of pure madness on his face.

As Ryou was about to tell the girls to transform, a huge bolt of lightning crashed down in front of them.

"Ahh!" Mint screamed, and jumped back-right into Zakuro who had just shown up.

"Transform!" Ryou shouted and watched as the girls cried out their metamorphosis phrases. Their transforming caught the eye of the demon, who jumped from roof to roof until he was standing level with them a few yards away.

"So glad you joined the party." He sneered, "Too bad you won't be able to stay long." And with that, the battle began.