Chapter 19
Marissa sat at the pink dabbled table of the Café, twisting the bendy straw of her strawberry lemonade in contemplation. Her eyes narrowed and mouth pursed as if about to provide a deeply thought out opinion but then slowly she refrained, instead taking a sip of her drink. Erin, to preoccupied with her assortment of cakes, sat across from her as Cassidy stared at them both with a sullen disposition.
" Okay, so any ideas?" Saline interjected the quaint silence.
" Nope."
" None."
" Nada."
The coiled haired girl sighed, subconsciously rubbing the healing cut swollen on her wrist.
" So the brunet guy-"
" I dub thee the King of Hearts!" Erin exclaimed, pieces of red velvet cake frothing from her mouth.
" We're not going to give him some stupid-" Cassidy peered over at Erin's watering eyes. " Okay, so what were you saying about. . .the King of Hearts?"
" I was going to ask if any of you had any idea's of who he might be."
" Maybe it's Akasaka!" Erin grinned.
" I doubt that." Marissa deadpanned.
" No, he looked young. Maybe around our age." Saline concluded, tapping a plastic straw on the table. " What about the blonde?"
" Maybe it's-"
" I swear to God Erin if you say it's Shirogane I'm going to strangle you." Crystal finally lifted her head off the table.
" I was not!" Her face pouted.
" Then who?" The Hispanic girls face threatened the smaller one.
". . .never mind."
" Thought so."
" I'm just concerned that they know who we are." Cassidy lamented.
" I'm concerned that the world now knows who we are." Saline tilted her head back, reminiscing on the flashing of the camera's and the surprise on the reporters faces. Marissa sighed and pushed her drink away.
" Things just got considerably worse."
" Yeah, and Angelica-" Cassidy's hazel eyes flashed toward the periwinkle mew. " I've never seen her so upset before."
Saline glanced over at Angelica, who was sweeping the barren floors. A slight bruise was visible on her cheek, despite the foundation that she had caked on, from the last battle at the school grounds. When Saline had returned to the main battle, leaving Kisshu to the two strangers that saved her, Angelica had taken to fighting the chimera dog with Marissa and Erin. Cassidy was preoccupied with Tart, so Saline distilled Pai's fans from interfering with Angelica.
With the distraction under control, Angelica fused Erin and Marissa's powers into her own weapon but upon firing at the chimera anima, Pai teleported in the way. He had underestimated the combined force, and soon swiveled to the ground. Angelica rushed over to save him, barely making the catch in time. Saline remembered the two strange boys rushing toward her, and in an instant she knew Kisshu had gotten away. Fear had seized her nerves and she stiffly turned to Angelica who had been struck to the ground. Kisshu stood above her, eyes narrowed in anger as he soon preceded to kneel besides Pai. Angelica had been fine, cheek burning from the hit, but her sole concern had been with Pai who's abdominal had burst with red.
Now Saline felt her friends unease, not for the health of the alien boy but by Kisshu's words.
" We'll destroy all of you!" He had snarled. " Every last one of you!"
She rubbed her cut again, muscles still frigid from the feel of his blade. She'd thought he'd actually cared for her, despite their brief but frequent meetings and inside she had begun to feel for him as well. But now she saw that his teasing and mocking was the truth; she was only his play thing.
What was I expecting?, she thought with down cast eyes, that some guy I barely know would fall irrevocably in love with me? Her chest wound up and squeezed.
Her thoughts were disrupted by Marissa's loud squeal of pain.
" Are you okay?" Erin raised an eyebrow.
" Oh hot damn. . ." Marissa's eyes bulged at her blackberry phone. " I'm dead. . .I'm so dead. . ."
" What?" The pink mew leaned over the table, trying to glance at the screen of the phone.
" Okay, so I found this really cute dress to wear to Annemarie's party last weekend." Marissa began. " And my dad gave me his credit card. . .well I bought the dress. But then I thought some cute earrings would go great with it. . .and then I figured that all the shoes I had wouldn't match. . .then the shoes matched this scarf I found. . .and the scarf-"
" Is there a point to this story?" Saline asked.
" Yes. Yes there is." Marissa glared. " The point is, I maxed my dad's credit card out."
" Whoa. . .you maxed it out?" Cassidy's jaw dropped. " Doesn't it take a lot of money to max a card out?"
" Obviously, or she wouldn't be so freaked." Saline retorted, resting her cheek on her hand.
" Don't nonchalantly rest your face on you cheek!" The African girl screamed. " Help me, woman!"
" What am I suppose to do? Wave my magic microphone around and grant you a thousand bucks?"
" Yes!"
" I'll be sure to get on that."
" Maybe you can borrow some money from Ryou." Erin interjected. " He's loaded!"
" He's a prude though." Saline scoffed.
" Who's a prude?" A deep voice sent the girls into a frenzy.
" Um. . ." Saline eye's widened as she kept still, refusing to turn and face the blonde.
" Shirogane. . ." Marissa interrupted, face turning pink. " Can I. . .uh. . .borrow. . . A couple. . . hundred?"
" A couple hundred what?" He raised an eyebrow.
"A couple hundred. . . .do. . .llars?" Her bright smile eased out in an effort to break the awkwardness.
" No." The blonde replied, turning his heel and passing a smiling Akasaka.
" Wow, you girls are a hit on you tube." Keiichiro chuckled. " We never expected this to escalade so fast."
" Youtube?" Cassidy exclaimed.
" Yes." The tall man smiled. " If this keeps up, soon people will be selling mew mew merchandise."
" That's so ridicul-" Marissa paused, the gears in her brain clicking into speed. " Actually, someone could do that couldn't they? Yeah, they could."
" Okay. . ." Saline stood from her chair and ignored what Marissa had obviously formed as a stupid idea. " I'm going to head home you guys. See you tomorrow."
The girls half heartedly replied with their own goodbyes, all preoccupied with their own problems at the moment. Saline didn't mind and instead enjoyed changing as well as leaving discretely; she needed time to think. Ten minutes into her walk, will her bag already weighing down her shoulder, she felt her pendant grow warm in her pocket. It was one of the aliens, she had already figured, and part of her wanted it to be Kisshu as yet another part was still frightened by the gash on her wrist. But he had kissed her, she reminded herself, he had tried to prove he was better than Dustin, he leaned in when she kissed him, and he had worried when she had hurt her arm. And yet he had tried to kill her more than one occasion.
" Hello kitten." It was the same voice, teasing and mischievous, but she could feel the apprehension.
" Kisshu." She replied, her voice unsure of what was to come or even her own actions. He appeared before her, as if rising out of a thick pool of dark water.
" I'm sure you'll be displeased to know that Pai's doing fine." He smirked. " But I'm sorry to say the same can't be said for you."
Saline reeled. " Kisshu, what happened to Pai was an accident!"
" It was an accident that you hit your enemy?"
" We're not like you!" She hissed. " We don't want to hurt anyone!"
" Then you're all fools."
A chimera jumped from behind him, and swiped at her. Saline twisted high into the air and turned to avoid the large claws. Landing several feet away, she concluded that talking was not an option at this point and took out her pendant.
" Mew Mew Brownie Metamorphosis!" Her pink uniform faded on and her microphone summoned itself into her grasp. She dodged another blow from the chimera, realizing it was one of the weakest she had faced. After a few minutes of sparing, she had a clear view for a shot. With one attack it gave a mighty roar and dissipated into a tiny street cat scampering for the bushes. Catching her breath from all the running around, from the corner of her eye she saw Kisshu turn to disappear. With a spring, she caught onto his waist and sent them both sprawling onto the ground.
" Now now kitten." He leered, grasping her arms. " Shouldn't I be on top?"
He forcefully flipped her off so that he was straddling her.
" Get off of me!"
" You're the one who tackled me." His eyes glimmered. " Just too promiscuous for your own good I suppose."
She kneed him in the groin and wiggled from underneath him, tail swishing furiously. He summoned his daggers as if upon instinct, and rushed at her. Given no time to summon her fallen weapon once more, Saline stumbled onto the ground in an effort to escape the sharp points. She kicked at his wrist, knocking one of the weapons down. He slashed slightly above her Achilles tendon and with a sharp cry she descended to the ground. Anxiety took a hold of her and her heart sped up painfully. She scrambled away from him, her powers betraying her as her mew form faded away.
XXXXXXXXXX
" No." Marissa scoffed. " Actually I don't think the price of the Mew Blueberry key chain is to steep."
Her nose crunched at the woman's fuming on the other line.
" This is a limited edition Mew Blueberry key chain! You can't find them after this week and this week only!" She slammed her hand on her desk. " You listen to me Auntie Theresa! I run a good, clean business here and if you think you can barter me with threats you have another thing coming! So good day!. . .I Said Good Day!"
She slammed the phone, despite it being her cellular. She picked it back up and correctly pressed the end call button.
" Crazy ass woman." Marissa cursed. " Thinks she can get a Melody Mew Mew exclusive for half the price. Blasphemous."
Marissa picked up her basket full of handmade goodies, rearranging the action figures, posters, and other novelty items. With the recent news cast of the mews, she had garnered five hundred dollars worth of customers. Everyone was willing to buy her cheaply made but expensively sold merchandise. But to her luck, some other people were also popping up around the old eBay, trying to get a share of the wealth her team had bestowed. But in all honesty, her little business was going better than she expected, and soon she could pay off her fathers six hundred dollars and maybe even keep the business running a bit more. In the process of figuring out how to actually pay off the card without her father realizing, her right pocket grew warm. She hissed at the sudden temperature change and pulled the pendant out. It was glowing brighter than usual. Suddenly she felt it, the force before but now stronger than usual, someone was in trouble. She leapt up and rushed down stairs, quickly slipping her sheos on.
" Marissa!" Her mother called.
" Mom, I can't talk now, I have to go out." She replied.
" Oh no you don't." Her mother appeared before her in the hallway. " All of a sudden you always have something to do. But this time you are going to explain to me why your aunt called me complaining about something moo moo. . ."
" Mew Mew!" Marissa corrected.
" Whatever, you want to tell me why the woman was so upset."
Marissa groaned.
" Please mom, later, I really have to go!"
" What could possibly be so important." She placed a hand on her hip. " Lately you've been running around all the time as if your some kind of superhero."
" You don't know the half of it. . ." She moaned quietly, rubbing her temples.
" What?" Her mothers eyebrows furrowed.
" Mom, later. . ." Marissa pleading, opening the door.
" I swear to the lord, Marissa Jay Jennings, if you walk out the door, God help me I will. . ." But she had already raced out, feet hitting the pavement hard.
' I don't even know where I'm going. . .' She thought, anxiety growing as she eyed her surroundings with uncertainty. ' Marissa, calm down, just close your eyes. We're all connected, just follow your instincts.'
Her hand clutched the pendant, the warmth circulating as the distress of the ambiguous mew grew more urgent. She could feel herself getting closer to the source. She was becoming delirious and her legs shook like jelly as she could practically feel her teammate half a mile away. Then suddenly the pendant grew icy and the warmth drew out of the metal as if the life had been sucked from it. Marissa gasped, and her heart skipped a beat. Her lips curled in fear. No, I can't be to late. . .
A/N: Had writers block. Forced myself out of it. 10 or so chapters till the end. Thanks for sticking with me guys. LoveSongRequiem93; I haven't really thought of real life comparisons, but if it makes it easy for you all I guess I'll put some up in the next chapter :).
Title inspired by Kids by MGMT.