(A.N./

This is Chapter Eight…

I'm sick of stupid poems.

Instead, a haiku.)

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Lettuce got up from her position on the floor. After a bit of tears and angst, she had concluded that sitting on the floor moping wasn't the way to get things done.

She walked over to one of the desks. Maybe she could do a little bit of spying while she was here. She might as well make herself of some kind of use.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a small desk lamp on one corner of the desk. She prayed that it would work, and, when she flicked the switch, she found it in perfect condition. She sighed in relief, glad to be out of the dark of the eerie room. She powered down to her normal self.

Retasu examined the desk and pulled open a random drawer. A stack of papers was buried inside, but she didn't recognize any of the runic-looking symbols written on them. She mused at Pai's bilingual skills, and pulled open a second drawer.

Inside was a mess of pens, more small papers, and a small, leather book. She cocked her head to the side curiously and took out the book. She opened to the first page, and was relieved to see that it was in Japanese. It read,

Mission to Earth: Day One

Arrived right on time to make a grand entrance, and set that idiot Kisshu straight. He needs work. All should be going well, and I plan to exterminate the Mews by next week.

Retasu smiled a bit, amused at the fact that Pai keeps a diary. She corrected herself, however, and thought, 'journal not diary.' She flipped to the next page.

Mission to Earth: Day Two

I came in visual contact with the Mews today. They look easy to defeat. Kisshu should be ashamed of himself. The leader of them, the one with red hair, looks so dim-witted. The green-haired one would make a better leader for sure. At least she has some brains in her head.

Retasu blushed a bit, flipping to the next page excitedly.

He noticed me…

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With a rush of yellow, blue, and red, the Blue Knight jumped across the alien dimension with tremendous bounds, taking dozens of meters at a time. Kisshu was following after, and gaining as the seconds ticked by.

Ichigo stole a quick glance behind her, and, after seeing how close Kisshu was to them, whispered urgently to the Blue Knight,

"Can you go any faster? He's gaining on us!" The Blue Knight simply replied,

"Have no worries. I will protect you."

Ichigo was grateful for his assistance, and all of the times he had saved her life, but the way he avoided questions and gave indirect answers was starting to get to her a bit.

She glanced behind her again. Kisshu was even nearer this time. She knew that he wouldn't risk shooting the Blue Knight down, because he could easily hit her. The risks were way too high.

Of course, when did the risks actually stop Kisshu from doing what he wants? Ichigo shuddered -not only from cold- and shrunk back into the Blue Knight's coat. She soon felt the air rushing past faster than before, and knew that the Blue Knight had heeded her request to quicken his pace.

However, shortly after, she began hearing strange buzzing-like noises from behind her. Turning, she saw that Kisshu was also quickening his pace by teleporting several meters forward again and again.

She turned her head to face forward again, and saw the commotion taking place in a tunnel-like, stone hall located a hundred or so meters ahead of them. She gasped when she got a closer look. It was the rest of the Mews, all transformed. They were battling a giant, shark-like chimera animal from what she could see.

But something seemed out of place with the scene that they were approaching. Ichigo counted the Mews off and found one of them to be missing. She counted again and raised her eyebrows.

Where was Lettuce?

It wasn't long before the Blue Knight and she were touching down on the ground. As soon as they had, Ichigo felt herself being dropped, and the Blue Knight's coat brush against her face as he turned to face Kisshu.

She looked to the rest of the Mews and yelled to them,

"Guys! Are you okay?!" She immediately regretted trying to yell, though, as she soon broke out in a coughing fit. She clutched her throat and let out coughing barks in random spasms, occasionally adding in a wheezing breath.

The first to react from the Mews was Pudding, who came bounding over to Ichigo, yelling excitedly,

"Ichigo onee-chan! You're safe, na do da!" Ichigo nodded and took another gasp of air. Pudding frowned, wondering over her companion's condition. Not too long after, the chimera animal also noticed the activity and new arrivals, and emitted a great roar. The Blue Knight turned back to them at the alarming sound.

From the other side of the room, Zakuro threw the lone pendant to them, yelling,

"Ichigo, transform!" Ichigo didn't quite catch the pendant as it sailed across the room, but Pudding made a lucky save and handed it to Ichigo. She took it gratefully and said,

"Mew Mew Strawberry! Metamorphosis!"

She waited for a second, but nothing happened. She furrowed her brow and tried again, crying out in a louder, raspy voice,

"Mew Mew Strawberry! Metamorphosis!" Still, nothing happened. She let out a confused groan and looked to the rest of the Mews. They shook their heads in disbelief, not knowing what to do. Pai chucked darkly from the other side of the room. All eyes turned to him, and the chimera animal let out a growl of impatience, awaiting orders. Pai spoke,

"Your pendant is not working, am I correct?" Ichigo clenched her teeth and nodded slowly. A smirk curled in the corner of Pai's mouth, "Then all is in order. I purposefully disabled it to do research on its power. Until it is reversed, it will remain dead."

The Mews gasped, and Ichigo stared at her golden pendant worryingly. How could they possibly turn it back? Unless Ryou or Keiichiro operated on it, they had no chance of powering it again. Even then, the chances would be slim. Only Pai knew exactly how the pendant could regain its power, and he certainly wasn't going to be helping them any time soon.

Pudding, who was getting quite impatient in the silence, mumbled what was on all of the Mew's minds,

"What now, na do da?"

---

Mission to Earth: Day Forty-Seven

We had a Mew Aqua signal today, and investigated the location to find an imitation Mew Aqua with similar properties. Kisshu, once again acting on his own, fused the substance with several parasite animals, and manufactured a huge chimera animal. There being only three Mews there, we thought we could easily defeat them. The other two joined soon, and the odds were against us. They eventually overpowered us, and we left in defeat.

They are all staying at one of their houses, and we plan to ambush them tonight, and pick them off one by one. I am going to experiment on their pendants, starting with Mew Ichigo's.*

*see blueprints located in top right desk drawer

Retasu figured this was the last journal entry, and turned the page to see it was blank. Curious, she arose from her spot on the floor and opened the top right drawer in the desk. A sheet of blueprints was placed there neatly on the top. Retasu took them out and set them on the desk surface under the light.

She examined the diagrams and equations quizzically. On closer inspection, she began to understand what they meant. They were about the study of their pendant, and how to extract the power from them. She read on, carefully interpreting all of the equations and notes.

She thought about the pendant that she saw attached to the wires. That must be the one they were experimenting on. The power would be gone from it, then. She scanned the page lightly, searching for a certain keyword. She caught sight of it, and began to read the paragraph…

Reversing the power drainage: Diagram 1

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Pai took action immediately when he saw the open opportunity. He called,

"Chimera animal! Kill her first!" The chimera animal, hungry for the hunt, seemed excited for something to do, and let out an echoing roar before charging. The Blue Knight caught Ichigo up in his arms and carried her out of harm's way with a few super-sized leaps to the right. Taruto sat, bewildered, and Kisshu yelled from across the room,

"Pai, how come I didn't know this?!" Pai simply shook his head and watched the show.

The rest of the Mews sprung into action and lashed out on the chimera animal with their attacks. Minto weakened and blinded the beast with her Minto Arrow; then Pudding used her Pudding Ring to seal it up inside the jell-o-like substance. Once the Mews had a breather again, they heard Ichigo call,

"Guys, where's Lettuce?!" The Mews looked around themselves, expecting her to be there, but they saw no trace of her anywhere. Even the aliens looked confused at the disappearance.

Minto turned behind her and spied the closed door of the room that they had come out of. She called,

"I think she's in here!" She fired her Minto Echo at the door, and they heard the crash of a direct hit. When the smoke cleared, however, they saw that they had just chipped away at the stone structure of the sturdy door.

The chimera animal finally broke out of Pudding's Pudding Ring, and lashed its huge, finned tail at the Mews, knocking them cleanly off their feet. The Blue Knight skillfully picked the sleeping Ichigo up and dodged in time to avoid the swing.

Kisshu spied the Blue Knight and Ichigo from across the room. He clenched his teeth and snarled, his hand closing into a fist. In a wave of fury he yelled,

"Chimera animal! Kill him first!" He pointed and angry finger at the Blue Knight as he was landing gracefully on the ground. The chimera animal, confused about his master's identity, looked from Pai, to Kisshu, and back to Pai. He let out a small groan at the back of his throat and made up his mind, lunging at the Blue Knight as commanded. The Mews, rising to their feet, gasped and aimed their weapons at the monster,

"Ribbon Minto Echo!"

"Ribbon Zakuro Spear!"

"Ribbon Pudding Ring Inferno!"

With incredible speed, the attacks all came together in a huge mass, erupting in a tremendous cloud of dust. The Mews coughed and sneezed, shielding their eyes from the dust and squinting to see through it. A flash of blue flew out from the mess, and they knew that the Blue Knight was safe, as well as Ichigo. Minto breathed a sigh of relief.

"That was close, na do da…" Purin said wearily.

Suddenly, the chimera animal also rose out of the cloud, roaring and thrashing about. Zakuro narrowed her eyes,

"It's been hit."

The beast lunged forward toward the airborne Blue Knight, jumping high in the air to reach him. With a swift movement, he turned in air and aimed for the Blue Knight with his back fin. The Blue Knight had just enough time to turn.

The room was dead silent except for the sickening slapping noise that came from the fin of the chimera animal.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion. The chimera animal was falling back towards the ground, the Blue Knight was falling towards the opposite direction, and, Ichigo, without the protection of the Blue Knight, was plummeting toward the ground. She opened her eyes, saw the ground fast approaching, and screamed.

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Retasu looked up from the blueprints when she heard a crash outside, then a crack split down the middle of the door.

"The Mews must be trying to break me out…," she murmured to herself. She closed the blueprint page and shoved it back in the desk. She picked up her pendant and kissed it, saying the familiar words,

"Mew Mew Lettuce! Metamorphosis!" With a flashing array of green and white, Mew Lettuce appeared on the scene.

Looking around the room, she spotted a pair of heavy scissors in a small, round container. She picked them up and walked over to the door, summoning her casinets and holding the scissors up to the crack. Using the scissors as a chisel and the castanets as a hammer, she began to, slowly but surely, force the crack wider…

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