Melody Mew Mews

Chapter 15

Movie Theatre Mayham

A red pin stripped bag of popcorn shot forward, knocking Angelica off balance and onto her back. On the ground, with pieces of popcorn strewn around her and in her hair, she let out a whine of frustration. Marissa hopped from the other side of the lobby, dodging bullets of popcorn kernels, and landed beside her friend to help brush off the oily pieces. Ripping handfuls of the white, puffy food, Angelica jumped up with a clenched jaw.

"Why are these things-" She motioned towards the chimera. "-always so stupid but always hurt so badly?"

Marissa responded with a half hearted shrug and dodged another blast of kernel bullets from the purple vested monster. Angelica stumbled in place, feeling one of the bullets graze her leg and leave a thin line damp with blood.

"Ugh! That hurt!" Angelica fumed, crouched over and softly pressing a gloved hand on top of the shallow wound. "Alright Marissa, YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO!"

". . .I do?"

" Yes!"

The two stared at each other, one lost and the other determined. After a few seconds, Marissa shook her head and Angelica groaned.

"Marissa, you're embarrassing me in front of my future BF." The periwinkle mew hissed. Marissa dodged a long whip of licorice, and landed on a red glittery table, staring at Angelica with a confused expression. Dodging the whip herself, Angelica motioned furiously with her head toward the levitating figure on the other side of the lobby.

"Angelica, Girl, you serious?" Marissa narrowed her dark purple eyes in irritation. "What ever happened to Nick Jonas?"

" Yes, YES I AM! He's no Nick Jonas, but he's so cute!" Angelica squealed, jumping and curling into a back flip in the air. She whipped out her skittles harp, and strummed. The chimera anima slipped by the sound wave, and gave a raspy chuckle to the periwinkle mew, spitting out more kernel bullets. The purple alien, floating closer to the ground, unleashed a red fan.

Angelica gawked at him as Marissa chuckled at the weapon.

" Ha ha, look, he has a giant fan." Marissa continued to chuckle, ironically raising her purple violin. Angelica didn't respond as the alien swiftly pulled back the fan and swiped it, letting a great gust of wind knock Marissa backwards, into the soda machines.

"Oh snap." Angelica stated, eyes darting from the alien to where Marissa had landed. She dodged a gust of wind, and ran for the purple alien who slightly glared back in surprise. Hopping table to table she threw herself at him, and both their weapons clashed, sending them throttling back words. A chunk of the ceiling fell, causing the lights to flicker, and the ground to shake. Pai, stopping mid air and glanced down at the splitting ground. Suddenly, frozen slushee hit him square in the face. Marissa's laughter rebounded off the crumbling lobby walls, as she stood a bit off balance with a slushee nozzle in her hand.

"Skittles Lied!" Angelica aimed towards the chimera anima, blasting it into the wall. More chunks of debris fell and Marissa fell onto the ground from the shaking beneath her feet. A chunk of the ceiling hit Pai in the back, sending him falling into the dark crack in the ground. Angelica ran forward, sliding against the floor adorned with crumbled pieces of plaster, and barely caught Pai's hand. The breath caught in her throat charged out of her mouth, leaving her gasping for air. Her arm was strained and felt as if it was going to detach from her shoulder blade. Despite the alien's heaviness and the burning pain in her arm, she held on even as the ground continued to shake. He glanced up at her, vision slightly hazy, and eyes widened.

"Hold on." Angelica smiled and struggled to pull him up, eventually getting half of his body onto the ledge.

"Pai!" A voice rang out from above, revealing the tiny alien boy.

" Tart. . .I'm fine." He stated calmly, though his face scrunched up in strain. He peered back up at the periwinkle mew, eyes laced with confusion and mild distrust.

"Are you okay?" Angelica asked though was quickly pulled away from the elder alien by two hands. Angelica glanced up in frustration and found the culprit to be Crystal. Saline also ran up beside them, unleashing her microphone once more.

"Instead of making googly eyes at the enemy, you guys should've been helping poor Saline." Crystal gave the frazzled pink mew a big thumbs up. "She was trapped in the restroom which was about to collapse within itself."

"You okay Saline?"

"Dandy." She responded with a mock salute.

"You stupid mew mews! Come on Pai!" Tart unleashed an electrical current at the group who quickly scrambled away. Saline jumped up, microphone in front of her.

"Well, I haven't done this in a while." She grinned, getting into her signature pose. "For the lives of the innocent, I will bring justice! ~Nya!"

The others held out their own weapons in offence.

" Melody Mew Mews, it's show time!" Saline beamed, as their weapons began to light up.

Cassidy began to strum furiously, the music starting off ecstatic accompanied by the soft tinkle of Crystals flute barely audible but delivering a smooth note. Marissa stroked the strings on her violin with the same intensity as Cassidy and Angelica joined in with the light, airy sound of her harp.

"In this world, where the sun cuts up tiny pieces of me; what exactly should I protect?" Saline began her voice in a mezzo soprano and words slightly choppy. With Cassidy, their music was always more of the alternative rock genre, and not the same electro-pop/ indie-pop Saline had started out with. "After endless struggles, I find that I'm beginning to realize who I am."

"I find the faux light disappearing and the real light shining through; from these hands." Cassidy joined in, and soon the aliens clenched their jaws and held their ears in pain. "Streaks of white through this blind night, I find myself changing for the better. I know I understand you now. "

"I see, their music. . . it carries a high pitched frequency most cannot hear." Pai yelled over the loud music.

"Is that what that is? Ah! My ears are going to start bleeding!" Tart exclaimed, teeth grinding in pain. "Let's get out of here!"

With a nod the two alien's teleported away, and immediately afterward the music halted. Angelica fell onto her butt and flexed her fingers.

"Who would've thought strumming a harp would be so much work." She rubbed her hands together.

"Strumming a harp? What about blowing into a flute?" Crystal moaned. "I always run out of breath."

"Maybe you should exercise more." Angelica retorted.

"Maybe you should watch yourself." Crystal glared in return.

"Okay, okay stop it you two." Saline scolded; her outfit fading back into her regular clothes. She smiled at Crystal who smiled back.

"Well, I'm glad you two aren't irritated at one another anymore." Cassidy sighed, referring to Saline and Crystal. The two other girls chuckled nervously.

"Well, it wasn't Saline. I was just having a bad week."

"Yeah, we're good now."

"Well that's great but let's get out of here before someone see's us." Marissa advised as they slipped out of the side doors at the right end of the theatre. "Thank God the café is in the plaza right next to the theatre."

"Definitely."

The walk to the café took fifteen minutes at most and upon their arrival the girls found Erin and Keiichiro standing next to the cash register. Erin seemed to be arguing while the longer haired brunet struggled to come to peaceful terms with the small girl. Walking over, now fully transformed back to their normal selves, the girls dropped into a random table.

"Girls, our computer read that two aliens were at the sight of the attack." Keiichiro questioned, eyebrows knit with worry.

"Yeah, well, it wasn't Kisshu." Cassidy groaned, head against the cool surface of the table. "It was some midget and an older guy."

"Pai and Tart." Saline yawned, head pillowed by her folded arms.

"What nice guys." Crystal spat sarcastically.

Keiichiro smiled and dove into the kitchen for a few minutes while Erin took a seat next to the group and began to chatter endlessly on her day in the café. Cassidy and Saline spared a few comments to fake that they were listening, while Marissa nodded her head slightly and the other two remained silent. Keiichiro came back out, Ryou trailing behind him, with a cake in one hand and plates in another. Cutting the pieces, he passed the dessert around.

A few hours passed, until the sky burned a dark orange and the mews parents began to park outside the café, waiting for their children. With only Saline and Cassidy left, Ryou tapped Saline's shoulder. Turning, she saw him holding something in his fist.

"I think you lost something." He slipped a silver bracelet into her hand, and slowly walked up the stairs.

"Thank you!" She exclaimed, hoping he heard her and examined the bracelet in her palm. She wondered, Tart had it last so how exactly did Ryou get it?