Author's Note: There are some characters based on real people in this chapter, but they are different versions of them. Thank you
/
A giant castle made of large, grey bricks was sitting by the ocean. The rainbow portal overhead suddenly turned a deep shade of blue before Zoey fell through, holding onto Spongebob, and they both crashed onto the roof of the castle.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHOOOWWWW!" Spongebob screeched in a loud, deafening voice that made even Zoey cover her ears in pain.
"That hurt!" Zoey whined, before standing up and looking around, "Where are we?"
She slid down the flagpole next to them until she was on the balcony. Spongebob crashed down on top of Zoey.
"WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!" she shouted, getting up and looking around. The sponge fell back and began crying.
"Be quiet…" Zoey peered around the corner to see the coast was clear, "Stay here. I'll check things out."
She ran down the long pathway until she reached a window. She swiftly jumped in with her cat powers, and looked around again. There was nobody there. She then thought she heard voices coming from outside the door of the room she was in. She scampered out into the foyer and ran down another hallway when she suddenly stopped. The voices were louder. She peered around the corner to see a bunch of men and women talking. It looked like they were having a meeting.
"We've been out of a job for goodness knows how long!" exclaimed one man, "How on earth are we supposed to give children the entertainment they need if this keeps up?"
"I don't know," said a woman, "But there's no point in trying anymore. We might as well just give up."
"Hey! Don't think like that!" exclaimed another woman, "Surely you guys have all learnt something from our experience, and that is KEEP TRYING!" she beamed.
"You're right, Amanda," said the first woman, "But we've been trying for years and nothing. Look where it got us!"
"I know why everyone's mad at us! They say we ruin anime, censor too much and "flanderize" everyone!" a second man with a grey moustache and beard said, who was standing up on a large stage.
"HEYYYY! DID SOMEBODY SAY FLANDERIZE!?" Zoey called out obnoxiously, causing everyone to look in her direction. Zoey skipped into the room happily, before a grumpy old woman grabbed her by the wrist and said, "Young lady! What is your business here!?"
"I dunno!" Zoey exclaimed stupidly, "I just got thrown into this place by a spiralling rainbow portal!"
"That, by far, is the most RIDICULOUS STORY I HAVE EVER HEARD!" shouted the man on stage, "Barbara, seize this girl and throw her into the cell!"
"Wait, WHAT!?" Zoey exclaimed, startled, before the old woman dragged her off towards a large fire chute and threw her down it.
"WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Zoey cheered before landing with a thud inside a cold and dark room.
"No! Not jail!" she wailed upon noticing the black bars blocking her exit, "What did I do to deserve this?!"
She looked out the window to see large cogs turning and a lot of dirt. She figured she was underground, so there was no hope of climbing out the window.
"Maybe something from my pocket will help me dig my way out!" Zoey pulled out all that was in her pocket, a phone with a pink mascot-type decoration.
"UGH! Just my STUPID! USELESS! PHONE!" Zoey screamed, picking up the phone to toss it across the room, before realising. She quickly dialled her parents' home number.
The phone rang, before she finally received a response.
"Hello?" it was the gruff voice of an old man. Not her father, definitely not her mother. She sighed angrily and hung up. Had she dialled the wrong number? Then, she realised something.
"I must be in another dimension!" she exclaimed, "Is this…REAL LIFE!?"
She remembered all the people talking about ruining anime and censoring things…and their "experience". What experience? It hurt her tiny brain just trying to process all these thoughts.
She sighed again and put the phone down on the ground, staring at it, thinking, but not finding any answers due to her stupidity. Suddenly, there was a pop and a pink puffball was floating next to her.
"Zoey! Zoey! Something wrong?" it asked in a shaky voice, its pink eyes widening. Zoey looked at the pink puff and sighed.
"There's no use, Mini Mew, there's just no escaping from here." Zoey said in a sad tone, before staring at the puff.
"Wait…" she looked up at the chute she had come from, then back at Mini Mew, then back at the chute, then Mini Mew again. Mini Mew gave her a confused look.
"HEY MINI MEW! I'VE GOT A BRIGHT IDEA FOR LIKE THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE!" Zoey shouted loudly (as opposed to shouting quietly), "OK, SO YOU CAN LIKE, JUST LIKE, TOTALLY JUST LIKE, TOTALLY LIKE, JUST OH MY GOSH!"
Mini Mew gave her a bewildered look. Zoey facepalmed and spoke again, "How about you like, just totally like, fly out through that fire escape thingy and like, find help?"
Mini Mew flew out the fire escape, not looking back. Zoey watched him as he left.
"He'd better get help…" she grumbled to herself.
/
Ryou was doing research on his computer when Keiichiro walked in with two cups of tea. He put one down next to the hand Ryou had on the mouse, which startled him.
"Keiichiro! Where did you come from!?" he exclaimed sharply. Keiichiro sat down in a free chair and sipped his tea before speaking.
"Ryou, I'm afraid what you anticipated is true," he said, "About…them."
"I told you I was right, and yet you never listened," Ryou simply said, "What caused your sudden change in mind?"
"Ryou…I'm sorry I never told you this sooner, but I was preoccupied with the girls," he said, "They were causing a bit of commotion and-"
"Just spit it out." Ryou said gruffly, not in the mood for nonsense.
"The guests," Keiichiro began to explain, "They look just like us."
Ryou gasped angrily.
"THEY'RE IN OUR CAFÉ!?" he roared, "AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME UNTIL NOW!?"
"I'm very sorry…" Keiichiro sweatdropped nervously, "As I said before, the girls were causing a bit of commotion with Bu-Ling san eating half our cake and I also had to treat out guests to some lovely treats and-"
"Why did you let them stay?" Ryou huffed, "They're supposed to be abominations! You have to treat them as such."
"Ryou, being rude and antisocial gets you nowhere in life." Keiichiro smiled at him, "Besides, maybe if we're kind and polite to them, they'll treat us the same. Who says they're abominations anyway?"
Instead of answering, Ryou simply turned back to his computer and began typing something into the search engine. Then, a page was displayed on the screen. Keiichiro looked at it and read the writing on the page.
Mew Mew Power is the English dub of Japanese anime Tokyo Mew Mew. It was dubbed by 4kids Entertainment, aired in 2005 and was cancelled after the first season. The dub features several edits such as the names of the characters, plot changes, and exaggerations of the characters' personalities.
"I already know all this, Ryou," said Keiichiro. Ryou scrolled down and there was more writing.
For example, Ichigo Momomiya became Zoey Hanson, and she gained a more obnoxious personality. Her ditzy tendencies were also played up.
"Ryou, please speak to me." Keiichiro said as Ryou then clicked on a database file and it opened.
Zoey Hanson
16/Female/America
Affiliation: Mew Mew Power
Voice: Amanda Brown
Status: Alive
Role: Mew Mew
Current Location: Unknown
"Good, at least Zoey's not here," said Ryou, "Do you understand now, Keiichiro?"
"I'm afraid I don't," said Keiichiro, "This is just her biography. It's nothing serious."
"This is the problem with being smart; it makes everyone around you seem like an idiot." Ryou stood up and walked to the other side of the room. Keiichiro looked at him for a moment before sitting down at the computer and beginning to type something.
"If you're looking up cat videos again…" Ryou muttered but before he could finish, Keiichiro was already typing it in. Ryou snatched the keyboard away.
"No, we have to be serious," he said sternly. Keiichiro sighed.
"I'm sorry Ryou. I know you're convinced that these people are abominations, but you're getting me paranoid now. I'm sure there's nothing wrong with them."
"Yeah, Ryou! We were just visiting your café for INSPIRATION!" a voice shouted. Ryou and Keiichiro whirled around to see Elliot walking into the room.
"HEY! You have no business in here!" Ryou shouted, "I don't care if you look exactly like me, you get out RIGHT NOW!"
"I'm not listening to you! You know the dub made me one year older, which means I'M the boss of YOU!" Elliot folded his arms, smirking.
"OH YEAH!?" Ryou yelled, "Well, Keiichiro is older than BOTH OF US!" he gestured toward the brunette man, who smiled nervously.
"Please don't start fighting…" he said, but Ryou and Elliot were already giving each other cold death stares.
/
The old man from the stage was now pacing back and forth by the watercooler in the next room. Three women were chatting while drinking coffee. One woman looked sad, but she did not tell anyone anything. That was, until another woman asked her, "Yo Amanda? What's up?"
Amanda looked up from her coffee and sighed.
"That girl that Barbara sent to the cell…that was…."
"Who's talking about me!?" a sharp voice asked as the old woman suddenly appeared behind Amanda, whose eyes widened.
"N-no-one Barbara…" she said nervously, fiddling with her fingers.
"Good," said the woman, walking past the group of ladies to get a refill. As soon as she was out of earshot, a third lady whispered, "Who was she?"
"That was Barbara," said Amanda. The other woman facepalmed.
"I meant the girl who got arrested!" she hissed. Amanda looked around nervously before lowering her voice to a whisper.
"It was Zoey Hanson." Amanda whispered, "I voiced her in Mew Mew Power!"
"I thought she looked familiar!" the other woman exclaimed quietly (that's totally possible).
"What!?" the second woman shouted out in a shrill voice. The other two quickly swivelled around to see where Barbara was, but she had gone.
"How did Zoey Hanson get here!?" the lady continued on, "Isn't she, like, a make believe character?"
"Yes Kether," said the third woman, "But lately strange things have been going on," she picked up a remote on the armrest of the armchair she was sitting in, "I saw it on the news last night. Let's see if there are any more reports."
The TV showed Happy Tree Friends. The woman quickly changed the channel right when the screen showed [[something too violent to be said in this K plus rated story]]. The channel changed to someone yelling a swear word. The old man whirled around sharply.
"Who's playing non kid-friendly shows in here!?" he asked in a stern voice.
"Sorry Mister," said Amanda, "We were just trying to find the news channel."
"Alright then," he said before returning to his pacing. The women finally found the news channel, where a man was talking.
"And they never found Little Miss Whiskers," he said in a serious voice, as the picture behind him showed a grey tabby cat. The women all looked upset.
"That poor kitty…" said Amanda, pulling out a handkerchief and dabbing her eyes with it.
"In other news, reports of rainbow vortexes have continued to file in since yesterday's report." The man continued, "Nobody knows for sure where these spirals came from, but they have been appearing all over the world for quite a few days now. It appears to be either the work of some extraterrestrial life form or a well thought out prank by some juvenile delinquents."
"Hey! What are you three doing slacking off!?" Barbara suddenly appeared on the TV screen. The women screamed and quickly turned the TV off.
"What was THAT!?" exclaimed Amanda loudly. The women didn't have much time to worry about it before they were distracted by a puffball floating into the room. The man didn't notice, but the three women did.
"HEY! It's Mini Mew!" shouted Amanda excitedly before the puffball few up to her frantically.
"Zoey needs help! Needs help!" Mini Mew exclaimed in his shaky voice. Amanda gasped.
"Did she send you to come get help?" Amanda asked, "She's a clever one, isn't she?"
"I wouldn't go that far," said the third woman unsurely.
"Oh be quiet, Andi." Amanda glanced sideways at her, "Alright, Mini Mew, lead the way!"
Amanda, Kether and Andi ran down the corridor until they reached a large fire escape chute. The women looked at it, puzzled.
"Down here! Down here!" Mini Mew exclaimed. The women all exchanged looks.
"How could any of us fit down there?" Amanda asked, knowing what they were all thinking.
"Yeah and I just realised something. If we slide down there, we'll be trapped as well," said Andi, "There has to be another entrance! If only we had a genius to help us!"
"Someone say genius?" a scratchy voice asked before another female joined the group, "I can help!"
"Amy?" asked Amanda, "But…how?"
"I voiced an intelligent character in Sonic X a while back, so I know a few tricks of the trade when it comes to breaking into prisons. Follow me."
/
Zoey was snoring in her cell when suddenly, she was awoken by the clicking of keys in a lock. The door fell down with a crash and four women were standing there. Mini Mew was floating behind them, staring at Zoey as she jumped up, startled.
"HEY! What're YOU GUYS doing here!?" she shouted angrily.
"We just rescued you, idiot," said Andi, "Now WHAT is your business here?"
"Hey, take a chill pill, Andi!" Amanda tried to calm her friend down, "Listen Zoey, it isn't safe here. The workers are having a very serious meeting and they probably arrested you because you interrupted them with your…loudness."
"Who are you people!?" Zoey exclaimed rudely. Andi sighed.
"I'm Andi, the voice of Corina. This is your voice actress Amanda and Kikki's voice actress Kether." Andi gestured toward the other two women.
"So I AM in real life!" Zoey exclaimed, proud of herself for figuring it out. Andi facepalmed.
"Of course you are, Zoey. This is the new headquarters of 4kids entertainment, only we're no longer known as 4kids," she explained, "After our company died-"
"Ceased to exist!" Amanda corrected her in a cheesy tone.
"After our company went out of business," Andi gave a sharp glare towards Amanda, "We all wanted to keep in touch, in case one of us found success. So we discovered this old, abandoned castle and crashed here for the past decade or so," she looked down at the ground, "But unfortunately, none of us have thought of any plans to bring back 4kids entertainment for good."
"Yet!" Amanda exclaimed, "I know we'll think of something!"
"But how?" asked Amy, "Even I haven't thought of any ideas!"
"Hey, maybe Zoey knows a good way to bring back 4kids!" Kether chimed in. Zoey smirked.
"Actually, I do!" she said with an evil smile, "Wanna take over the world?"
"What!?" exclaimed Andi, "I'm sorry but NO! We are NOT going that far!" she crossed her arms angrily. Kether and Amy nodded in agreement, stern looks on their faces.
"Zoey, us here at 4kids just want the best for the children of the world! We don't want to become evil!" Amanda said in concern, "I thought you were better than that, Zoey!"
"But Amanda!" Zoey complained, "I'm so sick of people shunning me for being flanderized! I can't help being annoying, rude and stupid! It's just the nature of 4kids!"
"Hey! Don't insult our station!" Kether glared at the redhead, who gave her a death stare back. Then, Zoey snapped her fingers and Mini Mew flew to her side.
"Mini Mew, hypnotise them into taking my side!" Zoey whispered to the puffball, who turned to face the women. His eyes became swirls and soon Amanda, Andi, and Kether were all in a trance. Amy, however, managed to quickly escape the scene, but Zoey didn't notice. She was too busy giving commands to the three actresses.
"You will become my minions! You will help me take over the world!" Zoey laughed in a fashion that was evil, annoying, and filled with snorts.
/
Ryou had managed to chase Elliot out after they had been involved in a death battle. Keiichiro had been trying to stop them, but eventually he had just given up and started watching cat videos. Once Elliot left the scene, however, Ryou, who was panting as he caught his breath, turned to Keiichiro.
"Did you not see that!?" he exclaimed, annoyed. Keiichiro paused the video and looked around at him.
"I did, Ryou! I tried to get you to stop, but you didn't listen." Keiichiro said in a slightly irritated tone, "I told you to please treat the guests with respect."
"He hit me first!" Ryou shouted out angrily. Keiichiro sighed.
"Sorry Ryou, but you're both in the wrong," he said, turning back to the computer screen, "You shouldn't be fighting yourself."
"Elliot Grant is NOT ME!" yelled Ryou, "He's an ABOMINATION!" he crossed his arms in annoyance.
"Whatever you say, Ryou," said Keiichiro, unpausing the video and continuing to watch it.
Wesley was taking Bridget, Corina and Renee out for a nature walk. They had been out for about half an hour when they noticed something. Two girls doing tricks.
"You go Kikki!" Wesley called out to her excitedly. Kikki stumbled off her ball and smacked to the ground on her face. She jumped up in Wesley's face.
"Why'd you do that, Wesley!? You knew that would startle me!" Kikki shouted in a bratty voice.
"Say Kikki, who was that other girl you were with?" asked Bridget. Kikki smiled.
"Oh her? She's…uh…" Kikki suddenly realised something. She ran back over to the gold girl.
"Hey! I just realised we were having so much fun I forgot to ask your name! I'm Kikki the Great, but you can call me Kikki!" she beamed. The younger girl smiled back.
"Bu-Ling is Bu-Ling Huang na no da! But Bu-Ling's friends call her Purin na no da!" Purin said cheerfully.
"Um…I'm just gonna call ya Pudding." Kikki rubbed the back of her head nervously, "That's easier for me to remember…"
"Yay! That's Bu-Ling's Mew nam-" Purin suddenly covered her mouth, "I mean, uh…"
"Mew? As in Mew Mew!?" Kikki exclaimed excitedly, "Wow Pudding, I didn't know they had Mew Mews in Japan!"
"KIKKI!" Corina hissed at the blonde girl, but she didn't seem to hear.
"Tell me more about your Mew Mew powers! Are you a monkey too!?"
"Kikki, you know she is! She's from Tokyo Mew Mew, remember?" Corina asked, irritated.
"How do you guys know about Tokyo Mew Mew?" Purin eyed them suspiciously.
"Because we're from your English version, Mew Mew Power." Corina said casually, "I thought you knew that."
"What's "Mew Mew Power"?" asked Purin curiously.
"It's just this stupid show we used to work for years ago." Renee simply answered, "The script called for teenage girls with weird hair colours and we just happened to fit the part. But our show got cancelled halfway, so we never got to find out if Mark was still waiting for Zoey."
"Who are Mark and Zoey?" Purin asked in confusion. Corina facepalmed.
"It doesn't matter, Custard. We have to get back to our hotel now. We'll be seeing you around, I guess." Corina said as she walked away with Renee and Wesley. Bridget took Kikki's hand and walked the reluctant girl away.
Purin stared after them in shock before turning and slowly walking back to the café.