August 2, 2010.

A/N: Apologies for the tantrum-throwing last week, guys. But thanks so much to those who responded and did leave reviews. I appreciated every word :)

Extra apologies to Kyasarin-Freakload. She knows why xx

That aside, here's the next chapter! Enjoy :)

Searching for Solace

- FIFTEEN -

March 17 – 13:02

"Why the fuck are we saving her?" Daniel demanded as they ran down the street. "The stupid cow would let us die."

"Well, then you're a better person than the stupid cow, aren't you?" Morgan replied. Amy loped beside them, running lithely and effortlessly, like an elf. Clearly, she was much fitter and more prepared for situations like this than Morgan was, and Morgan had thought she was in pretty good shape. Right now, she was puffing heavily and a serious stitch was stretching along her ribs.

"How the fuck did they end up all the way down at Albert Park Lake, anyway?" Daniel fumed. "Fucking ridiculous."

"What's ridiculous is your swearing," Morgan replied irritably. "You're as bad as bloody Emma!"

Daniel was moodily silent for the next five minutes of running.

Finally, Amy slowed, her expression troubled. "It's too far," she said. "We're not gonna get there in time."

"So, what do we do?" Morgan panted. Amy gazed around hopefully. The street was basically deserted, except for a few abandoned cars, their belongings strewn across the road.

"Check 'em," she said immediately, approaching the first. Morgan didn't know what they were doing, but she obeyed, since it was a plan. No-one else had one. She peered into a locked Ford sedan. There wasn't much inside; a McDonald's bag, several scrunched tissues and a styrene coffee cup. All the doors were locked.

"Here," Daniel called from ahead. He yanked open the door to a sea-blue Mitsubishi Lancer. "Keys are in the ignition."

"Excellent!" Amy said, grinning happily. "Get in."

"Whoa, guys!" Morgan called in alarm. "We can't steal a car."

"These days, there is no 'can' and 'can't'," Amy replied. "This is a fight for survival, Morgan. Unless you find some other way to miraculously get us there faster, this is our only option. Besides, where's the owner to care? Who's gonna stop us?"

"But–"

"Just shut your face and get in," Daniel snapped, striding around to the driver's side. Morgan glared at him. Asshole. He shot her a disapproving look. "We stole an ambulance. What's the difference?"

Morgan glowered for a second longer, then caved. Amy was right: they really didn't have any other options. And as much as she didn't like the thought of stealing, they were running out of time. If they didn't move now, the others would die. Growling, she reluctantly stomped over to the car.

"Get out of the way," she snapped at Daniel, who stepped backwards obediently. She sat roughly in the driver's seat and slammed the door loudly, answering Amy's bewildered expression with, "He's a fucking bad driver." She glared out the window. "Hurry up."

Seething, Daniel slid into the back of the car. Amy buckled up quickly, and Morgan hit the accelerator. Not a minute later, they were speedily making their way towards the Rod Laver and Vodafone arenas. It didn't take long; before they knew it the glistening green waters of Albert Park Lake were looming ahead. Beyond the far shore, Morgan spotted the rooftops of the arenas, and the bright buildings of Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre.

"There's MSAC," she said, nodding her head. "Where are the others?"

They followed the road – part of the grand prix circuit – around the edge of the lake, the tension building the more they searched, seemingly in vain, for Amy's companions.

"There!" the redhead suddenly shouting, throwing an arm in a wild point that started Morgan so much that she almost jerked them off the road and into the water.

"Watch the road!" Daniel yelled angrily from the back, as she swerved back onto the asphalt. Morgan ignored him, following Amy's outstretched arm. Three lone figures were fighting what looked like a car-sized blowfly and a shiny black millipede the length of two Ventura buses. She floored it so the engine roared, braking to a stop with a screech of complaining tires and a cloud of black smoke.

Before the Lancer had even completely stopped moving, Daniel and Amy were throwing their doors open and stumbling out, taking off at a run. Morgan cursed and yanked the handbrake, throwing off her seatbelt. She didn't even pause to register just how ironic the whole scene was; if she'd stopped for a second she'd have realised she would have made a pretty good action movie heroine. Instead, she grabbed her pendant and exploded out of the car, following the others to the fight.

As she reached for her pendant, she heard Amy and Daniel shout: "Metamorphosis!" one after the other, and watched with amazed eyes as the pair exploded with bright white light. She didn't stop to watch their transformations, though; she held her pendant close to her heart with tightly-clasping fingers, summoning the process exactly as she had last time.

"Metamorphosis!" Morgan cried, and again felt the glorious warmth wash through her. In her Mew form, she ran forward with renewed speed, joining the Mew forms of Daniel and Amy as they observed the best way to join the fight.

To her right, Amy was dressed in a lemon-yellow dress – strapless and sleeveless – with a pair of white and yellow over-the-knee socks and matching long, fingerless gloves, and little yellow slippers. A pair of brilliant, feathery yellow wings protruded from her back – glossy black on the outside – and a tail of mixed black and yellow feathers had sprouted from her lower back.

To her left, Daniel had adopted a pair of dusty golden dog ears and a long, sandy-coloured tail. He'd taken a tense battle stance, the muscles of his bare arms flexing as he itched to fight, his tail wagging stiffly; warningly. His mustard-yellow wife-beater stretched as he moved, his matching cotton pants fitting comfortably. Unlike the girls, he was barefoot.

"Don't fucking stand there!" Emma's voice shouted, followed by, "Reborn Devil Slash!" A blur of jet black, she raced forward with a long, lethal blade, hair whipping like fiery gold behind her. Roaring, she plunged the blade into the side of the millipede, cracking its hard exoskeleton, and began to drag it the length of the creature's snakelike body. The beast screamed – shivers ran down Morgan's spine. Beside her, Amy flinched.

"Move!" Daniel reiterated, moving forward. "Desert Mallee Axe!"

In his hands materialised a heavy-looking, sturdy axe, the sharpened arc glinting in the midday sun. He lunged forward, shouting, "Reborn Dingo Score!"

He swung the axe with both hands, embedding it with a sickening thud into the millipede's neck. The oversized insect howled with pain as hissing gooey liquid spurted from the gaping wound. Daniel wrenched the axe free and jumped back, preparing for another hit. On the other side of the grassy bank, Nick, in what looked like a red and black kimono, with skin scaly like a snake's, and Brody, his pectoral muscles rippling as he swung his fists – brass knuckle-encased, Morgan noted as she took a moment to admire his broad, bare chest – fought the huge blowfly. It hovered above them, stabbing occasionally with razor-edged legs.

"Amy, you help them!" Morgan said, pointing to the blowfly. "I'll help Emma!"

"Okay!" Amy agreed, bounding away with a, "Honey Myrtle Ring!"

Morgan turned back to the gigantic millipede, taking a deep breath. "Banskia Blades!" The twin knives materialised in her hands. Tightening her fingers around them, she ran forward. "Reborn–" But the millipede had chosen that exact moment to fight back. With an awful shriek, it curled its thick tail around and lashed it abruptly at Emma. With a cry, the blonde was knocked easily to the ground.

"Reborn Dingo Score!" Daniel bellowed again, sinking his axe further into the neck wound, evidently intending to behead the insect. At the same time, the dangerous tail raised again for another strike. Emma, winded and half-dazed, crawled agonisingly slowly to her knees. Morgan clenched her knives. The hundreds of little legs sprouting from the millipede's body were like blades; if one of them so much as scratched Emma – or any of them, for that matter – it'd be another kid in hospital. As much as she immensely disliked the bitchy, hostile blonde girl, Morgan didn't wish a slow, poisonous death on anybody.

The words flowed to the tip of her tongue – "Reborn Wallaby Strike!" – just as the tail began to fall. Morgan's body lurched forward, her arms raised to strike, and she collided with it, throwing herself in front of Emma seconds before she would have been made into mincemeat.

Her blades broke the shell and sunk wrist-deep into the soft, slimy body behind. Goo cascaded from the wounds as she crossed her knives back over themselves, hacking off the end of the tail. She screamed in pain – the Chimera's blood was scalding hot, like oil spat from a pan – and fell to her knees, crushed by the mind-numbing pain. Her blades, forgotten, disintegrated before her streaming eyes.

Vaguely, she heard Emma's voice shout, "Reborn Devil Slash!" at the same time as Daniel's yell, and felt more than witnessed the explosion of the millipede's battered body. Her vision swam; someone was grabbing at her shoulders, but she couldn't feel anything beyond the excruciation.

"Amy, get above it!" Brody called.

Amy obediently beat her wings and took to the air, climbing above the blowfly. Its wings looked like they were made of glass. "It has a full peripheral vision!" she called back. "How are we supposed to kill it?"

"Attack it all at once," Brody replied, his brass knuckles gleaming. "It won't know where to defend, or where to attack, if we hit from three sides. On three, alright?"

"Okay!" Amy agreed. Nick nodded feebly; behind his scaly snake skin, he was considerably pale. Fighting was not his strong suit.

"One!" Brody bellowed. Amy positioned her left hand underneath the sparkling ring on her right index finger. "Two!" She braced, hoping she wouldn't outshoot the attack in her nerves. Her heart hammered as Nick avoided a swinging, razor-sharp leg. "Three!"

"Reborn Honeyeater Song!" Amy cried, as Brody yelled, "Reborn Crocodile Crunch!" and Nick stammered, "Reborn Blacksnake Missile!"

A beam of glittering, rainbow light blasted from Amy's ring, colliding with the blowfly's fuzzy back. Brody smashed his fist into its side. Nick shot a small but incredibly sharp dart into one of its bulbous eyes. With a scream of pain, frustration and defeat, the blowfly exploded. Amy threw her hands instinctively over her face, to protect it from the spray of gunk she knew was about to hit. She was spattered shortly after; it felt like a crashing wave in the ocean. She lowered her arms, sloppy insides dripping disgustingly from her limbs, and returned to the ground.

"Well, that was absolutely feral," she commented cheerfully. "Good teamwork!"

"Quick! Get her into the lake!" Emma's voice echoed from across the grass. The trio turned. The two other Mews stood behind the remains of the millipede Chimera, struggling to steady Morgan's weight between them. She was limp and lolling in their arms. Amy's heart gave a sharp thud.

"What happened?" she cried, rushing over.

"She got Chimera blood on her hands," Emma replied gruffly, dragging Morgan towards the water. "The stuff's like acid, remember? We've gotta wash it off before her skin blisters, or rots and dies, or something. For fuck's sake, pick her up!" Daniel shot her a furious glare and readjusted his hold on Morgan's underarms. Together, they dropped her as carefully as possible at the water's edge. Emma didn't hesitate; she threw the wallaby Mew's wrists into the lake.

Amy, Brody and Nick stood back silently, watching Emma spend the next few minutes scrubbing furiously. Amy glanced down at the gunk on her costume and wondered vaguely why her own skin wasn't blistering fiercely. She dismissed it, pinning it on good fortune. The scene – three kids in colourful animal costumes standing around a fourth washing a fifth in a park lake – was made even more obscure by the fact that the fourth was Emma, who never cared about anybody, let alone helped them. Morgan moaned quietly the whole time.

Finally, Emma lifted her hands out, and Daniel dragged her into a sitting position, so the blonde girl could closely examine her hands. She held them delicately in her own, brushing her fingertips lightly against specific patches of skin.

"I think she'll be fine," Emma declared. "As far as I can tell, there might be one or two small blisters. At least the skin's not too discoloured."

She glowed faintly with brilliant white light for a flash of a second, and was back in her human form. She looked up at them all, confused as to why no-one else was speaking, and caught their identical, amazed expressions. Immediately, she became angry.

"What the fuck are you all staring at?" she snapped furiously, and everyone flinched. "She saved me from the fucking Chimera; I saved her in return. We're square. Big fucking deal." She shot up from the ground. "Someone get her back and look after her."

"Emma–" Amy called, but she snapped over her shoulder, "I'm going for a fucking walk! Leave me the fuck alone!"

"Someone should go with her," Brody commented, after a few appropriately quiet moments.

"Be my guest," Amy replied, turning back to Morgan. "She wants to be alone. If she gets herself killed, at least it'll be her fault."

"She's moving," Daniel interrupted from the ground. The conversation halted and they turned around. Morgan was slowly coming to; her legs were shifting, and she was trying to lift her head.

"Get her in the car," Brody instructed. "She'll be hard to move when she's fully conscious."

Daniel hoisted her up in his arms and carried her over to the Lancer, his dingo tail hanging limply behind him, swinging a little as he walked.

"I'll drive. Amy, you and Nick sit in the back. We'll put Morgan across your legs. Look after her, alright?" Brody said. With a white glimmer, he de-transformed. Nick mimicked him, and Amy summoned the change too, enjoying the quick warm burst, and the strange draining feeling. She opened her eyes and checked she was in the right form. Good-oh.

"Okay," she said, feeling suddenly exhausted from the Chimera fight, "let's go home."

CULTURE NOTE

Ventura bus - one of the main buslines that runs in Victoria; mostly in Melbourne.

Lancer - Mitsubishi Lancer, if you don't know. It was hugely popular around 2004/2005. There are still quite a few around.

A/N: D: Will Morgan be okay? What was with Emma's strange outburst of almost-teamwork? And how come only Morgan was hurt by the Chimera blood? Questions will be answered in upcoming chapters, so keep reading to find out!

Did you like it? Please review it.

Love,

Cherrie xx