Animal Instinct

Chapter V

Berry yawned and stretched as she entered the pet shop's front room. Given that it was only 6:30 a.m., she was rather surprised to see that Count D was already awake and brushing one of the cats.

"Good morning, Miss Berry." He said as she entered the room.

"Good morning, Count," Berry replied as she stumbled over to the couch and sat down, yawning as she did.

"Did you sleep well?" D asked.

Berry nodded. "But I don't know where Pudding was. She never came to bed last night. She's probably sleeping somewhere with the animals."

Masha fluttered by, followed by Q-chan.

"What kind of animal is Masha?" D asked.

"You know, I don't know." Berry told him. "He's been around since before I joined the team."

The two of them sat there in silence for a moment, then the Count spoke again. "So, can all of you talk to animals?"

Berry put a finger to her chin and thought it over. "Well, Ringo and I think Pudding can both talk to all kinds of animals. Ryou and Ichigo can talk to cats. Lettuce talks to fish. Mint can talk to birds but pretends she can't. I can't really talk to anything, and I don't know about Zakuro. She really keeps to herself."

The cat jumped down off of D's lap and the Chinese man turned towards the back of the store. "It's time to feed the animals. I'll see if I can find Pudding."

Berry yawned again. "Thanks Count." I wonder how some people can be so cheerful early in the morning.

True to Berry's predictions, Pudding was still with the animals, and D found her when he went to feed some of the rainforest animals. She was up a tree with two other monkeys.

"Count D!" She exclaimed when she saw him, then dropped back to the ground, landing on her feet.

He smiled at her. "Did you spend all night in here, Pudding?"

She nodded. "It was fun. The animals showed me what they do in their free time. We played lots of games, and it was great."

"Berry has been wondering where you were." D told her.

"Oh, I'd better go find her."

"She's in the front room. Can you find your way back?"

"Yep. Thanks, Count!" Pudding called back as she darted out the door.

D watched her leave and wondered if the Pet shop itself had taken a liking to the Chinese girl.

"You know Count, she was fun to have around." One of the monkeys said. "A bit hyper, though. But that makes her fit in all the better. How come she's a human with a tail?"

"It's a long story, Adelio. Are you and Adalira hungry?" D asked.

The female monkey dropped down to a lower branch then climbed back up near her mate. "You bet. I hope you brought us something good!"

"Of course."

"Here is the special Para Para, Taruto." Gateau said as he handed the jellyfish-like alien to Tart.

"Okay. What animal do I send it after?" Tart asked as he took the creature.

Gateau turned and floated a few feet away. "In one of the rooms in the back of that pet store, there is a dragon with three heads. That is the animal that I want you to turn into a Chimera Anima."

Tart snickered. "Sounds easy enough. Next stop Chinatown!" The air around him rippled, and he vanished.

"Morning." Leon called as he entered the pet shop and tossed his jacket over the back of a chair.

"Good morning, Mr. Detective," D said as he sipped his tea. "Are you still on guard duty?"

"What do you think?"

"Now if only you would have been as willing to help the last two times I asked you."

"Yeah, well that has nothing on this." Leon said. "Kids with animal powers, giant monsters, aliens, this is crazy!"

Berry looked up from her book. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what you think it means," Leon said irritably as he dropped into a different chair. "All the stuff going on in this city, and I get the wackiest job of all."

"Now, now," D began.

"Fine, whatever." Leon said as he leaned back in his chair. "I might as well enjoy the time off."

The air rippled a small alien appeared, floating in midair, a Para Para clutched in one hand.

"Ahahaha! Stupid humans. Now you'll get yours!" Tart exclaimed, then glanced around, looking for a pet shop. There was none to be seen.

"Isn't this Chinatown?" He wondered as he floated down to the ground.

"Hey, lady!" The Chinese woman looked around, startled.

"Down here!" She looked down and saw Tart standing there. For once, the alien was glad that he, and the rest of comrades, had powers that allowed them to understand multiple languages. "Is this Chinatown?"

She shook her head. "No, this is Chengshi, China." She replied.

"Chengshi," The alien mused under his breath, then teleported away. He was back in the alien's alternate dimension a moment later, and just as he'd hoped, Pie was working at the computer. And Gateau was nowhere to be seen.

Which was just the way Tart wanted it.

"Pie, what's a Chinatown?" He asked.

The older alien didn't even bother to look up from his work. "It's a portion of a large city where a group of people from China all live."

"Then there's a place called China?"

"Yes, and it's not far from Japan." Pie replied.

"Okay." Tart clutched the Para Para tighter and announced, "To Chinatown!" Then he teleported away.

At a restaurant not far from Chinatown, Ryou, Keiichiro, and the rest of Tokyo Mew Mew were finishing up their breakfast.

"That was delicious," Ichigo said as she set her fork down and looked at the others. "It's eight o'clock. What should we do this morning?"

"We're going to the post office, remember?" Mint asked.

"Whatever we do, you two," Ryou glanced at Mint and Ichigo. "Have to be at the pet shop by ten."

Mint frowned. "Why is that every time we go on a vacation, we're invariably followed by the aliens?"

"Part of the job, I suppose." Zakuro said dryly.

"So besides visiting the post office, what else would you ladies like to do this morning?" Keiichiro asked.

"I don't know. What's some fun stuff we could do?" Lettuce asked.

"We could visit the Guinness World Records Museum." Keiichiro suggested.

"Or the Hollywood Wax Museum." Zakuro said.

"What's a wax museum?" Ringo asked.

"A lot more boring than it sounds." Ryou told her. "If you're interested in things outside the city, we could visit the Runyon Canyon Park."

"That sounds interesting." Lettuce said.

"Okay. We'll set it up for this afternoon. It's outside the city, so we'll need to arrange the visit. Mint, Ichigo, you're going to have to miss it." Ryou told them.

"Fine by me." Mint told him. "I didn't bring any good walking shoes anyway. So what are we doing this morning?"

"Shopping!" Ringo and Ichigo exclaimed at the same time.

Keiichiro smiled. Ryou rolled his eyes. "Now why does that not surprise me?"

"Ahahaha! Humans! Prepare to pay for your injustice to this planet! I…" Tart voice trailed away as he came out of teleport into his third Chinatown.

At least he thought it was a Chinatown. "What is this place?"

"This is Neo Chinatown." A voice made him look down, and he saw a Chinese man standing there.

Tart stared for a moment, then asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm Wu-fei. I run this place."

"Oh. Well, is there a pet shop around here?"

"No, there are no pet shops in Neo Chinatown." Wu-fei replied.

"Darn. Wrong place again." Checking to make sure he was still holding the Para Para, Tart teleported away.

The morning had been so quiet that Leon was starting to wonder when things were going to go wrong. By now some pet in the shop should have turned into a Chimera Anima.

Berry was still reading her book, and Pudding was not far away, playing quietly with Pon-chan and T-chan. D was taking care of some of his other pets.

And nothing had gone wrong yet.

Leon leaned back in his chair, prepared to enjoy what was promised to be an easy day.

Masha and Q-chan were floating around the room. Berry looked at the clock. "Mint and Ichigo should be almost here by now. Pudding, we should get ready to go."

Then the Count felt something, a shimmer through time and space. And Masha came flying back in a panic. "Berry, alien! Alien!"

Leon dropped his paper, and the Count dropped the brush he'd been using on another one of the cats. Berry and Pudding leapt to their feet and Leon and D stood up just as the air in the room shimmered, and small alien appeared.

"Ahah!" Then Tart paused and glanced at D. "You're Count D, right?"

D hesitated for a moment, the Berry told him, "Don't answer that!"

"Ha! Stupid humans! That means he is Count D!" Tart exclaimed. "And even if it did take me five tries, I did find the right Chinatown with the right pet shop." And now," The midget alien floated back, "I have a gift for you! Go, Parasite…" His triumphant yell was cut short when he looked at his hand and realized the Para Para was missing. "I lost the Para Para."

Even though he was probably hearing things, Leon was sure that somewhere in the back of the shop, someone had abruptly pulled the needle off a record player. "You lost the monster-maker?" He asked incredulously.

"Uh…" Tart tried to save face. "No! I came to warn you that you're in for a lot of trouble now! But fist you have to find the Chimera Anima somewhere in the city!"

"No, you're here because you were supposed to turn an animal into a monster but you did a bad job." Pudding told him.

"Shut up!" Tart yelled. "It doesn't matter what I transform, you're still in a load of trouble!" The air around him shimmered and he vanished.

"Well that was completely weird." Leon said. But neither of the Mews were paying attention as they were both racing around the room, digging through their bags for their Power Pendants.

"What are you two doing?" Leon asked.

"There's a Para Para loose!" Berry said breathlessly.

"We have to find it!" Pudding added.

"Here," Berry tossed her cell phone to Leon, who caught it. "Call Shirogane and tell him what happened. He's speed dial number seven. We have to go." The two Mews ran to the door and then up the stairs that led back up to the street, calling out their transformations as they went.

"What was that?" Pon-chan asked.

"I don't know, but I think we'd better follow those Mews." Leon said as he strode towards the door.

D turned to T-chan and Pon-chan. "Keep an eye on the store." He said, then followed Leon.

"You got it Count." T-chan said.

Leon didn't stop until he was back out on the street, but the Mews were nowhere to be seen. As D came up behind him, he said, we'll have to follow them." He quickly made his way down the street towards where his car was parked.

"This hardly seems like the sort of thing we should be getting involved in, Detective," D told him.

"Hey, I took an oath to protect and defend. And if there's a monster loose in L.A., than I'm going to whatever I can to help stop it." Leon replied as he headed around to the driver's door of the car.

"I doubt that either of us can do much to stop this," D said as he went to the passenger door.

"Well I'm gonna be there anyway." Leon said as he tossed the phone to D. "Here. Since I'm driving, you can call Shirogane." He finished as he slid into the driver's seat. The Count got into the passenger's seat.

"Hey, look who's not sitting in the back for once." Leon said as he started the car, and, after ascertaining that no one was coming, pulled out into the road.

D didn't answer; he was looking the cell phone over. "Now how does this work?" He wondered.

"She said to press seven, so press and hold that button until it says it's calling," Leon said, his eyes never leaving the road.

D did as he was instructed, and sure enough, after holding the button for a few moments, the words "Calling Shirogane" appeared on the screen.

Not sure if the small device actually worked like a normal phone, D hesitantly put it to his ear. A moment later, the other end of the call was picked up.

"Shirogane Ryou."

"Shirogane-san, this is Count D. Something has come up at the store…"

"Another Chimera Anima?" Ryou asked.

He and the others were at one of the Los Angeles malls, and just getting ready to head back to the car when the phone call had come. At the word Chimera Anima, all of the others stopped in the parking lot and turned to look at Ryou.

"Not exactly." D replied. "A few minutes ago a small floating creature appeared in my pet shop, and I think it was one of your aliens.

"Super short, brown hair, gold eyes, clothes that don't make any sense?" Ryou asked.

"Yes."

"Yep. That's one of the aliens." The blonde confirmed.

"He threatened that a parasite alien had been released somewhere in the city."

"Crap," Covering the speaker in his phone, Ryou turned to the others. "There's a Para Para loose in the city somewhere."

"Onii-sama, this city is enormous." Ringo said.

"I know, but we've got to find it." Ryou replied.

"Take our bags," Zakuro said as she handed her shopping bag to Keiichiro; the other girls followed suite. "We'll leave right now."

"Mew Mew Zakuro -"

"Mew Mew Strawberry -"

"Mew Mew Minto -"

"Mew Mew Lettuce -"

"Mew Mew Ringo-"

"METAMORPHO-SIS!"

Even with the speaker on Ryou's end muffled, the count could still hear the Mews shouting their transformation phrases. Another moment passed and there was the stifled sound of car doors opening and closing, then Ryou came back on the line.

"Where are Berry and Pudding?" He asked.

"They left as soon as the alien was gone. They went to look for the parasite alien."

Keiichiro said something that was too quiet for the Count to hear, then Ryou asked, "Where are you and the Detective?"

Leon answered that question. "We're about to cross eighty-fifth road."

Ryou sighed. "Count, please tell the detective I knew that. I meant, are you at the pet shop or not, but I can see you aren't."

"How can you see… there's a GPS tracker in the phone, isn't there?" Leon asked.

"If we're going to have a three-way conversation, you might as well set the phone to speaker." Ryou said. "Yes, there is a GPS in the phone. I was trying to figure out if Berry still had her phone with her or not, but I can see she doesn't." Ryou was sitting shotgun in the car that he and Keiichiro had rented for their stay in America. The older man was driving, and Ryou was balancing a laptop on his lap.

On the screen of the computer was a map, with different color dots showing which Mew was where in the nearby areas of the city. There was an extra dot, a brown one, which showed the location of the GPS tracker in Berry's phone.

Back in Leon Orcot's car, D studied the phone. "A speaker?"

"Here." Leon took the phone and quickly glanced at it, then pushed another button and set it down on the counsel. "Now it's set to speaker. Hey Shirogane, did you find that Chimera Anima yet?"

"No. Hang on; we've got an incoming communication from Masha."

Back in the car with Keiichiro, Ryou pushed a button his laptop keyboard that allowed the communication channel with Masha to open.

"Ryou! This is Berry. Where are you?" The rabbit-girl's voice came through the computer.

"We are travelling through L.A., trying to locate the Para Para. Any luck?" Ryou asked.

"None, where's everyone else?"

"They split up and went to find the thing, but I doubt we're going to find it before it becomes a full-fledged Chimera Anima." Ryou said grimly. "Masha."

The robot squeaked in reply.

"I want you to get above the skyline and see what you can see. Ditto for you if you're listening to this conversation, Mint. You'll have a better time seeing it if you're above the skyline."

He pushed the button that disconnected Masha's speaker.

"You think Mew mint can hear you?" Leon's voice came over Ryou's own phone, set on speaker and propped up on the dashboard.

"I'm fairly certain of it. By the way, she's going to cross paths with you within the next few moments."

Leon snorted under his breath, but the light in front of him turned red and he was forced to come to a stop. And no sooner had he stooped than Mew Mint went flying by, forty feet up in the air, scanning the ground below for any signs of the Chimera Anima. She continued flying, header higher as she went, until she had vanished behind a skyscraper.

"She's still flying." Leon muttered.

"She has wings," Ryou replied.

Back in the other car, Ryou sighed and leaned back in his chair. What on earth are the aliens trying to do? He mused as he rubbed his eyes.

"Ryou, are you alright?" At the concern in Keiichiro's voice, he sat up a little straighter.

"I'm fine." He replied as he grabbed his phone, which was sitting on the dashboard. With his Bluetooth headset, there was no need for him to keep the phone nearby.

The timer told him he'd been on the phone for the last ten minutes. Well, it looks like I'll be taking care of the Shirayuki cell phone bill. At this rate, Berry's going run out of minutes.

And then there came another communication through the computer. "Ryou! I found the Chimera Anima!" Mint yelled, the transmitter in Masha carrying her voice to him. "I can see it out by the beach."

Back in the detective's car, Leon grabbed the phone. "Where on the beach?"

Ryou hastily typed something into his computer. "Come out on 58th and Terstun road. You won't be able to miss it." He said grimly.

"That's wonderful," Leon said sarcastically. "Do you realize what damage that thing can cause?"

"Well, we didn't release the Chimera Anima there," Ryou retorted, then announced over the Mew's communicator, "Tokyo Mew Mew, head for the beach."

"We'll see you there, Shirogane." Leon said, then he hung up the phone. Then he told the Count. "I think I have enough probable cause to turn on my lights. Hold on, we're about do far over the speed limit." He reached down and flipped two switches, one turning on the light and the other his siren, then he swung a sharp right turn and took off down another side road.

"To the beach, then."

T.A.R.N.S.: Well, initially I was going to use a reservoir for this, since I checked Google maps and noticed that the beach seemed pretty far away from L.A., but I decided to just go with my original plan. After all, in PSoH they seem to have no trouble getting to beach in a hurry. I eyeballed the map and the beach is about 15 miles away from L.A. (It's probably more, that was an estimate.) But yeah. The chapter title won't stay in the middle of the page, doggone it all.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. Please review so I have something to look forward to when I get back from college later today!