Animal Instinct

Chapter IV

"Ribbon…Lettuce Rush!"

"Ribbon…Pudding Ring Inferno!"

"Ribbon…Zakuro Spear!"

"Ribbon…Minto Echo!"

"Ribbon… Loveberry Check!"

"Ribbon…Strawberry Surprise!"

The Mews dropped back to see what effect their multiple attacks had achieved.

"Nothing?" Mew Ichigo asked. "But… that can't be right."

"I know." Mew Mint replied. "At least the fact that some of our attacks hit at the same time should have done something."

The Chimera Anima roared and then turned away.

"It's gonna tear up the town!" Mew Berry screeched.

The words weren't out of her mouth before Mew Mint took off flying over the monster. She stopped in front of it. "Ribbon…Minto Echo!" Her attack hit it in-between the eyes, and it roared with anger.

"Ribbon…Zakuro Spear!" Mew Zakuro's attack hit the animal in the rump, and it turned and roared angrily at the wolf girl.

Leon and the Count were still standing in front of the petshop, watching the battle.

After a while, Leon remarked, "It seems like it's taking longer and longer for them to defeat this thing. I don't think the last one took half as long."

"Well it's not our fault that monsters are getting tougher." An irritated voice told him. Both D and Loen turned to see Mew Ringo standing there.

"Mew Ringo-chan, shouldn't you be helping the others?" Count D asked.

She shook her head. "I can't attack unless someone helps me. My powers are for healing."

"Ribbon…Doubleberry-" Mews Ichigo and Berry got no further before a giant paw sent them flying.

Mew Ringo turned and ran over to see if they were okay. "Ichigo onee-chan! Berry onee-chan! Are you alright?"

"Sure." Mew Berry said as she hopped back up. "Just banged up a little, that's all."

"Same here." Mew Ichigo said as she stood back up. "I think we can defeat if we use Ribbon Doubleberry Check, but it won't let us get close enough to do that."

"Ichigo! Berry!" The three Mews, the detective, and the Count turned to see Ryou and Keiichiro come running towards them.

"About time!" Ichigo yelled back.

Mew Lettuce darted out of the way as the Chimera Anima attacked again, and Mew Zakuro attacked, trying to distract it again.

Mew Berry leapt back into the conflict as Ryou and Keiichiro came running up. "Ichigo, what's going on?"

"We tried to use Doubleberry Check, but the monster stopped us before we could." She said. "Now it wants to go tear up the town."

"You girls might have to put up a barrier to keep that from happening." Ryou said.

"Don't I know it." Mew Ichigo sighed.

"Look out!" Mew Mint shouted as the monster swung out again, this time aiming straight at the Count and Leon.

In a flash Ryou had transformed and was bounding towards them, but there was no way he could make it in time.

Leon hesitated, not sure if D would actually get out of the way or choose to take a hit from one of his pets. So it was with some relief that the decision was taken out of his hands when Mew Pudding backflipped into the way.

"Ribbon…Pudding Ring Inferno!" Instead of trapping the monster in Jello - or at least, something that looked a lot like Jello from Leon's perspective - the monkey girl held her tambourines high and pulled up a section of the street, using it as a shield.

The monster beat at it irritably for a few moments before it gave up and went after another Mew who had attacked it. Then Mew Pudding let her arms fall back to her side, and the section of concrete sank back into the ground.

"You have some unusual talents, Mew Pudding," D told her.

Pudding grinned at him. "Growing a tail is only part of my act!"

"Pudding!" The Chinese girl turned as Mew Ichigo came running over, Mew Ringo behind her. "We need your help."

The Chinese girl clapped her hands together. "We're gonna do Trinity Rhapsody?"

Mew Ichigo nodded. "Then you and Ringo are going to help set up a barrier while Berry and I finish the monster off. Berry's telling the others about our plan now."

Ryou, who was back in human form, came up behind the two Mews. "Until you three finish your attack, Zakuro and the others can keep the monster busy."

"You'd better get out of the way, Ryou," Ichigo warned him. He sauntered back towards the petshop as the three girls turned to face the monster.

"Everyone ready? Let's go!" Ichigo shouted, and the three Mews leapt into the air.

"Ribbon…" Ichigo began, holding her weapon high over her head.

Then, in unison, she, Ringo, and Pudding shouted, "Trinity Rhapsody!"

Simultaneously, three pillars of light filled the sky, a green one on one end of the street, and a blue one and purple one on the other end.

The attack hit the Chimera Anima and sent it stumbling back. The three Mews dropped back to the ground, and Ringo and Pudding took off running, adding a yellow and red pillar to the other towers of light.

"Let's finish this." Berry said as she began charging up her attack. "Ichigo, catch!"

Once again, the streamer of energy flew into the pink Mew's weapon. "Ribbon… Doubleberry Check!"

The Chimera Anima, which had been trying to get out of the barrier the Mews had set up, heard the attack and turned in time to catch it full in the face.

And in the middle of the healing energy, a jellyfish like alien released it's hold on a jaguar, letting the cat fall harmlessly back to the ground.

Leon Orcot just stared, slack jawed. "What kind of freaky light show was that?" He asked as the Count went forward to collect his pet.

The pillars of light vanished and the Mews dropped back to the ground and walked back over to the petshop.

"If that's what happened to T-chan, Count, then I know why he was so scared," Lena said, her voice shaking. "What in the world is going on?"

"I don't know," D replied, watching as the Mews regrouped. "But I'd very much like to find out."

And that was the same question everyone else had, too.

"Ryou, what's going on with these attacks around here?" Mew Berry asked.

"Yeah, Shirogane, what's the deal?" Leon demanded.

"If I knew that I'd be a lot closer to getting the aliens off this planet, or at least back to Tokyo." He replied.

"I still don't believe this." Leon said. "Unless…" He swung around and grabbed the Count by the front of his cheongsam. "You put something in my tea!"

"Detective, you're going to tear my robe." D calmly pointed out. After a moment, Leon released him.

"We're very real, I can assure you." Ryou told him.

Leon huffed, then reached over and grabbed Berry's rabbit ear and yanked on it.

"Yeow!" Mew Berry swung around with her rod and nailed him upside the face. "Those don't come off, you know." She told him, rubbing her head and glaring angrily at him.

"Well, I didn't, but I'll keep it in mind now," He responded, rubbing his cheek.

"There's nothing more we can do here until the aliens decide to show themselves." Ryou said a moment later, turning attention back to the matter at hand.

"It's strange that even though they must know we're waiting for the, they keep attacking the same place," Keiichiro observed.

Ichigo glowed pink for a moment, then the pink dress and cat features were gone; Mew Ichigo had gone back to simply Ichigo. "Maybe they were aiming for somewhere else?"

Leon snorted. "If that's true, they have some awkward aiming. Two monster attacks in the same place? That sounds more like it was planned to me."

"He's right." Ryou nodded. "This looks too well planned to be an accident. It's entirely possible that it is just that the pet shop had the closest animals, but it makes one wonder."

He paused for a moment, then continued. "Making the situation even worse is the fact that we can't stay here forever. Eventually we all have to go back to Tokyo. Either the aliens go back with us or we'll have to get a whole new set of American Mews."

Keiichiro gave a short sigh. "As if doing that wasn't hard enough the first time."

"Hey, some of us rather like our jobs." Mint protested.

"Well if you want to keep yours than we have two weeks to either get the aliens off this planet or back to Tokyo." Ryou replied. "Now, you should probably de-transform before someone sees you."

In a flash of light, each of the remaining Mews changed back to their normal human forms.

"Pudding, Berry, until something changes, you're both on guard duty." Ryou announced.

"What? Why me?" Berry asked, shooting a glare at Leon. "Why not Ichigo?"

"Because I said so. It's…" He paused and glanced at his watch. "Three-thirty now, and Ichigo and Mint will be over to relieve the two of you midmorning tomorrow."

"I can't believe this," Berry muttered.

"Now play nice you two." Mint smirked as she followed Keiichiro, who was headed back to the car.

"We'll bring you your stuff later," Lettuce said sweetly as she followed Mint.

"Yay! We get to play with the animals!" Pudding said happily.

"Does he have to stay?" Berry asked, glaring at Leon again.

"Gees, I'm sorry pulled on your ear!" The detective said irritably. "But I still don't buy all this shiny transforming superpowers stuff. And animal powers to boot. You've gotta be kidding me."

"We're not." Zakuro assured him. "I assure you, we're very real."

"And you run around cute little outfits fighting alien monsters. This is unbelievable."

"Not even your brother would say that if he were here, Detective." D told him.

"Yeah, well, I'm glad Chris is at camp. I don't need to be worrying about him getting run over by monsters." Leon replied.

"We're leaving now." Ryou said as he walked by. "See you later, Pudding, Berry."

"Bye!" Pudding waved as her friends headed back down the road. Then she zoomed back over to the Count, detective, and Berry. "Can I play with Pon-chan now?" She asked in Chinese.

"Gateau, we would all appreciate it if you would explain to us your plan now." Pie said, his grip on his fan tightening.

"Patience, Pie." The aristocratic alien replied. "I have one more move to make before my plan is ready to be revealed."

From where he was sitting, on one of the pillars in the aliens' alternate dimension, Kish's gold eyes narrowed. "I'm surprised you haven't figured out what his plan is already, Pie."

"And you think you have, Kisshu?" The older alien asked.

"Will someone tell me about it?" Tart asked.

"Kisshu, don't say a word." Gateau ordered. "Not yet - I don't want it revealed yet."

"Well, when do you plan to explain it?" Kish asked.

Gateau frowned at him. "In good time. In the meantime I want to know what other Para Paras you have around here. I want an exceptionally strong one for tomorrow. Taruto, you will be the one to deliver this one to the Mew Mews."

Tart snickered. "My turn."

"It is." Gateau replied. "And this time, I have a specific animal I want you to target."

"Located in that petshop?" Kish asked.

Gateau's eyes narrowed. "Yes. Yes it is. Do you have a problem with that, Kisshu?"

Kish looked away. "None at all."

"If you will follow me, Gateau, I'll show you what we have." Pie said, then he turned and flew away, Tart and Gateau de Roi following him.

Kish watched them go. Maybe you haven't realized the foolishness of attacking when the Mews are waiting for the next attack to happen…

But Gateau ranked higher then he. It wasn't Kish's place to interfere.

And I guess it doesn't matter anyway. He thought with a smile. If the next Chimera Anima was more than the Mews could handle, than Deep Blue would be pleased.

His Koneko-chan would soon have more than she could deal with.

"So Zakuro, how many animals would you say were in that petshop? Roughly?" Ryou asked.

"Too many." Zakuro replied. "If a bunch of Chimera Animas were released into that store, it would be a disaster that we wouldn't be able to handle."

"Ryou, do you really think the aliens would do something like that?" Keiichiro asked.

The blonde sighed. "I don't know. I certainly hope not, but two attacks in the same place make me wonder."

He stretched on the bed. "If only we could figure out what the aliens were after."

"Like Zakuro already said, numerous Chimera Animas would be hard to defeat." Keiichiro said as he sat down on the edge of the other bed.

"I think there's Mew Aqua in the petshop." Zakuro said, and the words were like a bombshell.

Ryou sat up. "Did you tell Count D about the Mew Aqua?"

She nodded. "I think there's some in that shop. I didn't go looking for it though. The last thing we need is for one of us to get near it and have it awaken."

Keiichiro turned to Ryou. "Then it's entirely possible the aliens are after the Mew Aqua."

"Maybe, but why aren't any of the aliens trying to steal it?" Ryou asked. "If they want the Mew Aqua, then they would be trying to steal while the Mews were busy fighting the monster."

"Maybe they don't know where it is." Zakuro suggested. "I've been through the back of that shop, and it's a labyrinth."

"It still doesn't explain why we never see them." Ryou responded.

"It seems like we're coming up with more questions than answers." Keiichiro said.

The three of them were quiet for a moment, then there came a knock on the door.

Keiichiro went to answer it and found Mint standing there, the remaining Mews behind her in the hall. "We're going to go out for tea, and wondered if Zakuro wanted to come."

"I will," The wolf girl replied, coming up behind Keiichiro.

"Are you and Ryou coming?" Ichigo asked the older man.

"I'm not going." Ryou said as he walked towards the door.

"I'll stay here too." Keiichiro said. "We're going to try and figure out what's going on over in Chinatown."

"Okay. We'll be back later." Mint replied.

"Have fun girls." Keiichiro smiled as he closed the door.

"So what do you think?" Ryou asked as the two of them headed back to middle of the hotel room. "Should we try and find the Mew Aqua in the petshop?"

"Wouldn't that just bring the aliens faster?" The dark haired man asked. "If they did want the Mew Aqua, they might bring numerous Para Paras to serve as distractions to keep us from finding it before they did."

"True. There just seems to be no easy way of doing this."

After their tea, Ichigo, Mint, Lettuce, Zakuro and Ringo decided to explore the town a little and had a grand time wandering through all manner of little shops. Ichigo found a gift for Masaya. Mint found an interesting type of tea she decided to purchase to have when she got back home.

Lettuce found trinkets for her family, and Ringo bought a gift for her older brother and pet penguin. Having been in America before, Zakuro purchased little, but did help the other girls when it came to figuring out prices.

Besides gifts for friends and family, the girls also found things for themselves, and as they walked back to the hotel in the deepening twilight, they talked about their trip.

"That was fun." Ichigo said cheerfully. "I'm glad you've been here before, Zakuro, because I didn't know much about those prices."

"Don't mention it." Zakuro said as the group came to a stop at one of the crosswalks and waited for the light to turn.

"I can't wait to see give my family these gifts." Lettuce said excitedly.

"I can't wait to try this tea." Mint said. "Maybe I should have it shipped back home right away."

"Mint, that's a great idea." Ichigo said. "We can send our gifts for our friends back home right now! Then we don't have to keep track of them on vacation or take them back onto the plane with us."

"If you're going to mail those gifts you'll have to wait until tomorrow." Zakuro told her. "The post office is already closed."

"But we can go first thing in the morning, can't we?" Ringo asked. "I want to mail my gift to my brother, but I'm going to keep Yuki's gift with me until I get back home."

"If I remember correctly, the post office doesn't open until nine in the morning." Zakuro replied.

"So we can go first thing in the morning then." Ringo said happily.

"And then we can go by the pet shop to pick up Berry and Pudding and drop Mint and Ichigo off." Lettuce added.

"I like the pet shop." Ringo told the others. "There's so many cool animals there."

"The Count is quite gentleman, and he makes some of the best tea I've ever had." Mint added.

"It makes you wonder what the aliens want with it. Do they want the animals?" Lettuce asked.

"Is there anything else they could want?" Mint asked.

Ichigo trailed along behind the others, half-listening to their conversation, when out of the corner of her eye she something floating down an alleyway.

Floating?

She dropped her bag and darted down the alley after it.

"Huh? Ichigo!" Mint called as she saw the cat girl scurry away.

"Where is she going?" Ringo asked.

"I don't know, but I think we'd better find out." Zakuro said.

Lettuce picked up the bag Ichigo had dropped, and the other girls hurried down the alley after their friend.

Ichigo ran down the alley, turning to follow the alien she had spotted. "Kisshu! What are you doing?"

The green haired alien paused and turned back to face her, still floating several feet up in the air.

"Are you following me, you stalker?" Ichigo shouted.

"Now, Koneko-chan, what would make you say that?" He asked with a cheeky grin.

Ichigo scowled. "Mew Mew Strawberry, Metamorpho-sis!" A few short moments later was standing there in her Mew outfit.

"Now, now, Koneko-chan, I didn't come to fight. I just came to see what you were doing." Kish replied.

"Then you were stalking me! What are you doing here? And what are you doing to Count D's petshop?"

"Petshop?" Kish shrugged. "Huh. And here I thought it was a zoo. You humans do like keeping lots of animals together, don't you?"

"What are you up too!" Mew Ichigo demanded.

"You'll find out, soon enough. Soon you'll have more trouble than you can handle, what with the special Chimera Anima we're whipping up for you." The air around him shimmered and rippled, and Kish vanished.

"Ichigo!" The cat girl turned and saw her friends running up to her.

"What happened?" Lettuce cried.

"I saw Kish." Ichigo replied as she de-transformed. "He said that soon we'd have more trouble than we can handle and the aliens are making a special Chimera Anima for us."

"Did he say Anima or Animas?" Zakuro asked.

"Anima."

"What do we do?" Lettuce asked.

"We have to get back to the hotel right away and tell Keiichiro and Ryou what happened." Zakuro said. We might have to call Berry and Pudding and warn them, but we'll talk to Ryou first."

"Okay everyone." Ichigo said. "Let's get back to the hotel!"

In one of the rooms in the back of the petshop, Count D was taking care of a tank of Gobies.

"There. Now your water level should be just about right." D told the fish as he set the large jug of water he had been pouring into the tank down. The container was still half full.

"Thanks, Count. Thins is the best water we've ever had!" One of the fish told him.

"I'm glad you like it, Umi." D replied. He glanced down at the jug of water, which was glowing just a little. "I daresay there's something special about this water."

He knelt next to the jug and plunged his hand into it, leaving his arm wet up to the elbow. But he found what he was looking for and pulled it out: a tiny, globular bottle with a heart-shaped stopper.

"What is that, Count?" One of the fish asked.

"Something that may be very important to some friends of mine," D replied, feeling tingling warmth from the vial running up his arm. "And for now, I think I'll leave it where I've found it."

T.A.R.N.S: Wow. I almost went for twelve pages on this one. There was lots of talking in this chapter, because I was tired of preparing for battle scenes and having to stop halfway through and finish the battle in the next chapter. For those of you who are thinking that Leon's acting like a jerk, remember, this is still in the middle of the PSoH manga, and Leon doesn't even believe the animals in the petshop can be human yet. So Tokyo Mew Mew seems downright bizzarre to him.

Now, I must apologize, because I haven't been here in a while. College is determined to keep me very busy. (Technically I should be doing my homework right now, but my Computer class reading for this week is so boring.) Thanks to SageofAges729 and Alex Warlon for your reviews. Alex, if I had more time, I would love to a oneshot or drabble of your suggestion. It would make a cool sidefic to this story, I think.

Anyway, everyone, please review and tell me what you thought!