Animal Instinct
Chapter VIII
"Tea time?" Masha chirped.
"Almost," D replied as he set some plates on the table. Masha was flying above his head, the pink robot having been delegated to spend the night in the shop. Ryou and the others would pick him up when they came over for tea.
"I wonder where the detective is." The Count mused as he turned and vanished back into the kitchen.
Half-hidden under a chair, T-chan snorted. "Who cares?"
"T-chan," D said reprovingly as he came back into the room, carrying a tray of pastries.
"What? I don't like him. But I'd like him better if he was in my stomach."
"T-chan that's mean!" Pon-chan protested.
"Well it's true." He replied.
Q-chan squeaked in alarm as D came back into the room, bearing a cake on a plate. "That's enough you two," He said as he set the cake down.
There was a rattling at the door, and Leon came in a moment later. "I'm letting myself in, D."
"My dear detective, I was wondering when you would show up."
He waved D's words away. "Yeah, I know I'm late. My stupid plumbing gave out again. The rent I pay for that apartment you'd think they could afford to keep my utilities working."
D averted his eyes. "I'm sure it's not their fault. No one wants to work in a cesspool like your apartment anyway."
"My apartment is not a cesspool!"
"Do you still have those pictures of badly proportioned women plastered everywhere?"
"Well…"
D smirked.
"Stop smirking. Oh, and here." He pulled a postcard out of his pocket and tossed it to the Count. "I got this from Chris today, and I thought you might like to see it."
"That was very thoughtful of you Detective." D said as he turned the card over and scanned the note on the back. "And what, may I ask, have you done with my grandfather's suit?"
"I'm havin' it dry cleaned." Leon said as he leaned back in his chair and debated about whether or not to prop his feet on the table. "I'll get it back to you as soon as they're done with cleaning it."
"You're certainly being very nice today." D commented. Over his head Masha repeated: "Nice. Nice."
There was a rapping at the door, and Masha flew over to it, chirping happily as he did, "Ichigo! Ichigo!"
D went to answer the door and was not surprised in the least to see the Mew Mew group standing there.
"Hi Count!" Ichigo cheerfully greeted him.
"Hello everyone," D replied as he stepped away from the door to allow the group to enter the store.
"Ichigo, Ichigo!" Masha happily chirped as he rubbed up against the girl's cheek.
Ichigo giggled. "Hey Masha. Did you miss me?" She asked as she petted the creature.
Meantime, Keiichiro was talking to the Count. "Thank you for inviting us to tea."
"Don't mention it. It was the least I could do after last night." D replied. "Now, won't you all come have a seat?"
Everyone sat down around the table and D poured tea for everyone. But while they were enjoying their tea and pastries and cake, Ringo realized she felt something.
She glanced around, but other than Femuto-kun in the corner, T-chan under Zakuro's chair, and Pon-chan talking to Pudding, there were no animals in the room.
She caught the Count's eye, and he turned to her, the look on his face indicating that he felt the same thing. "Is something wrong, Ringo-chan?"
"Do you feel that?" She asked. He nodded.
"Feel what?" Mint asked, the realized something: she felt it too.
Everyone looked at each other. "Something isn't right here." Berry said worriedly.
"Ichigo!" They all looked up as Masha came flying over. "Alien! Alien!"
"That's why it doesn't feel right." Zakuro said as she stood up. "Let's go, ladies."
"Mew Mew Strawberry-"
"Mew Mew Minto-"
"Mew Mew Lettuce-"
"Mew Mew Pudding-"
"Mew Mew Zakuro-"
"Mew Mew Ringo-"
"Mew Mew Berry-"
"METAMORPHOSIS!" They finished together. A scant few moments later all seven Mews stood in the room, in full battle regalia.
But there was no Chimera Anima to be found.
"There's… nothing here?" Mint asked.
"Alien!" Masha shrieked. "Alien!"
"I can still feel it," Ringo told the others.
"So can I." D added.
Leon looked at Keiichiro, who glanced back at him. Then Leon voiced the thought that was on most of the group's mind. "Then what's goin' on here?"
Ryou stood up. "It's possible that the Chimera Anima may be hiding somewhere." He said. "Count, would it be alright if we looked through your store?"
"Of course." D replied. "Follow me."
Sixteen rooms later the group had still found nothing. They had split up to search, then regrouped at one of the rooms in the back.
"Maybe there's nothing here after all." Lettuce suggested.
D turned to a parrot sitting on a stand. "Phillip, have you felt anything strange come through here?"
After thinking it over for a moment, the bird nodded. "Yeah, but I didn't feel, I saw! It went straight on back to that big storage room you have further back, Count."
"The empty one near here, or the one on the other side of the store where I store my supplies?" D asked.
"The empty one." Phillip replied.
Leon turned to the Mews. "Anyone else getting this?" Much to his exasperation, Mint and Ringo nodded.
D turned back to the group a moment later. "Phillip says that whatever we're looking for isn't far away. Follow me."
The others followed him back to an empty room, large and dark. "He said what we're looking for should be here."
"And it is." A new voice spoke up.
Everyone turned to see Gateau de Roi floating up near the ceiling, one arm above his head holding something they could not see. "Well hello Tokyo Mew Mew. Are you surprised?"
"Not really." Mint told him. "We've known it's you since at least chapter six."
"No matter." Gateau replied. "Guess what I've brought for you?" He shifted a little and they could all see what he was holding above his head.
And it looked like a whole nest of Para Paras.
"That's right! Enough Para Paras for every worthless animal in this store, with a few left over for good measure." Gateau said. "I'd like to see you fight back against this one, Tokyo Mew Mew."
"We won't let you win," Mew Ichigo said, stepping forward as she did. The other Mews were following her lead, moving forward in agonizingly slow steps, in one mind about what they would have to do.
Count D watched the alien float above the ground, holding onto his collection of Para Paras. Keiichiro looked apprehensive; Ryou and Leon both looked like they were ready for the fight they knew was coming.
"Are you ready to surrender, Tokyo Mew Mew ?" Gateau asked.
"Never," Mew Berry told him.
"Then prepare to die!" The alien shouted, aiming his Para Paras at them. The alien larvae took off flying as the Mews ran forward.
"Mew Mew Power, Extension!" The girls shouted, and in a blinding flash an energy field came up, curved back towards Gateau to prevent the aliens from getting through to the animals. The Para Paras flew at, beating themselves against the shield; only to knocked away and come back and repeat the attack a moment later.
As the Mews struggled to hold up the shield, Ichigo shouted, "Ryou! We need-"
"Mew Aqua." Ryou finished for her as he turned to D and the others. "We have to get the Mew Aqua! It's the only thing that will stop this attack."
D nodded. "Follow me." The four of them raced back towards the door.
"Like I'm gonna let you morons win! If anyone gets that Mew Aqua it's gonna be us!" Tart exclaimed as he burst out of the shadows and proceeded to use his plants to trip Leon.
The detective fell to the ground, and the others stopped. "Leon!" D called.
"Keep going!" Leon said as he yanked the vines away from his ankles. "I can handle the brat."
"Brat!" Tart said indignantly. "I'm not a brat you old man!"
"Old man?" Leon repeated as he pulled off the last vines and stood up. "That's it, kid, you're going down now."
D, Keiichiro, and Ryou continued on towards the door, but just before they were about to reach it, a flash of brown and green shot out of the shadows of the room, and Ryou and Keiichiro were fending off one of Kish's attacks.
Count D stopped, not sure whether to go back and help, or keep going. Ryou solved the problem for him.
"Keep going!" The blond shouted. "You have to find the Mew Aqua! It's the only thing that can stop this!"
D gave a short nod and ran from the room, Q-chan flapping along behind him.
Outside the room, a tall figure floating near the rafters watched as the Count darted down the hall.
"You must be Count D. I've heard so much about your shop."
Halfway down the hall, D came to a dead stop as the air in front of him rippled and another alien, this one with purple hair and holding a fan, appeared in front of him.
"Who are you?" D demanded.
"You may call me Pie." The alien said, then demanded, "Where is the Mew Aqua?"
D said nothing.
"I know you know where it is. Save yourself a lot of trouble and tell me where the Mew Aqua is."
The Count still said nothing.
"Very well. I can search for it without your help. Or interference." Pie told him. "Fuu Rei Sen!"
A moment later the Chinese man was sent flying, and crashed into the wall back at the end of the hall. He hit the ground and did not stir.
"Kyu!" Q-chan shrieked.
Pie regarded the little animal with disgust. "If you don't want me to turn you into a real Chimera Anima, you'd better get out of here."
"Kyu!" The animal turned and flew over to D, then turned and flew back in the direction they'd come.
"Hmph!" Pie turned and flew off, determined to find the Mew Aqua.
The Mews were still trying to hold up the barrier, but it was getting harder. Gateau was throwing the Para Paras at them with more force now, and they were all struggling.
Mew Ringo was trying her best to hold up her part of the barrier when Q-chan came flying over to her, chirping rapidly. She turned her attention from the shield for a moment to see what the creature wanted.
"Q-chan, slow down! I can't understand you when you talk that fast." She said.
The creature repeated the same chirps, a little slower this time. Ringo nodded and then turned to the other girls. "Count D needs help. I have to go."
"Then go," Mew Zakuro said. "We'll hold up the barrier."
Mew Ringo nodded, and let go of the barrier, then turned to follow Q-chan out of the room, an action Gateau noticed.
"What's this? Some of you are giving up already?"
The Mews grit their teeth, held onto the barrier twice as hard and ignored him. Mew Zakuro noticed a crack in the barrier, and set a hand on it before it could spread.
"I don't think we can hold this much longer," Mew Berry sighed, her long hair draped around her face as she bowed her head and put all her energy into the shield.
"Just hold on as long as you can." Mew Ichigo replied.
Mew Ringo followed Q-chan out of the room and back to the long hallway they'd come down before they'd gone into the storage room.
It was in this hallway that she found Count D, still unconscious from the blow Pie had given him.
Mew Ringo gasped and then summoned her Applesticks. "Ribbon … Apple Pop!"
Nothing happened. She tried again. "Ribbon… Apple Pop!"
There was still no response from the count.
"Ribbon…Apple Pop!"
The feeling was one of warmth and comfort. In it, D sense the many stirrings of life that had come and gone through the ages.
Then the feeling passed, and he opened mismatched eyes to see Mew Ringo looking down at him worriedly. "Count! Thank goodness you're awake! I was starting to worry."
She sat back on her knees as the Count sat up. "Where are the others?" D asked.
"Still trying to keep the rest of the Para Paras from getting free. Count, what happened to you?"
"It was one of the aliens." D said as he stood up. Ringo scrambled up and stood next to him. "We should retrieve the Mew Aqua." The Count finished.
Ringo nodded. "I'll go with you."
Together they headed off down the corridor, but after a moment, D stopped and turned to face the girl. "If the alien is still following us, we need to split up. Miss Ringo, listen to me carefully. When we get to the end of the hall, turn left. Go all the way to the end of that hall and through the door on your left. There, you'll find what we need."
The girl looked at him carefully for a long moment, then nodded. They reached the end of the hall, and Ringo went to the left. D went to the right, followed by Q-chan.
D went down the hall until he reached another storeroom, the one he'd moved the Mew Aqua too after he'd discovered it. He went to a shelf of different containers of different types of water, but before he could pull out the container he wanted, he felt the same ripple in the air that proceeded the arrival of a Para Para or an alien.
And sure enough, Pie was floating behind him.
"A very interesting question: would you let a Mew retrieve the Mew Aqua or would you do it yourself? I knew what you were doing, I just didn't what your end was. A Mew could protect it better. But you would expect me to think that, wouldn't you?"
"Which did you pick?" D asked.
"I followed the red Mew to an empty room, and then I teleported here because then I knew what you had done." Pie told him.
"What is it you want?" The Count pressed.
"We want to punish the foolish humans who mistreat the Earth." Pie said.
"And you do that by punishing everything in the whole world?"
"It's not for us to question the orders of Master Deep Blue." Pie retorted, narrowing his eyes at the Count.
D just smirked. "What is it you desire?"
"My desires are irrelevant. The accomplishment of the mission is all that remains." Pie gave a thin, cold smile. "Did you know that the spirit of a human being makes an excellent monster?" He asked, then using the power native to his kind, he tried to rip the Count's spirit out, the sheer force of the attack lifting the Count off his feet.
D wanted to scream from the sheer anguish of the force of the attack, but the might of the attack kept him from screaming; it made him feel as though he couldn't draw a breath.
But after a moment it stopped, and the count found himself dropped back to the ground. He pressed a hand to his chest and tried to even out his breathing, which was coming in unsteady gasps.
Pie floated back slightly, surprise and shock written all over his face. "You…you're not human…"
The door to the room burst open a moment later and Ringo and Leon burst into the room a moment later. "D!" Leon shouted.
"But you're human!" Pie realized, and in an instant he had ripped what looked like an orb of light out of Leon's chest and brought it to his hand as the detective slumped to the ground. Another Para Para appeared, this one a single one that perched on the orb for a moment before sinking into it.
"Go, Chimera Anima!" Pie shouted, releasing the monster into the air, and in a moment a cartoon caricature of a lion, green accented with yellow, was standing between D and Ringo and the alien.
"Detective!" D said as the monster let out a roar and lunged at them.
Ringo stepped out in front of Count. "Ribbon Apple Pop!" She shouted, but this time her attack created a shield around them that send the monster rebounding.
"Count, you have to get the Mew Aqua." Ringo told him without turning around. "It's the only thing left that can fix all of this."
The Count nodded. "Can you hold them off?"
"Not really, but I can do it long enough." Ringo said with more confidence then she felt.
The Count nodded, and as soon as she let the shield down , he ran back for the containers against the wall.
"Not today!" Pie shouted as the Chimera Anima lunged at Ringo. As it did, he lunged at the Count, who had pulled the jug of water down, spilling it as it crashed all over the floor.
D glared at the alien as he narrowly ducked a blow from Pie's fan by twisting to the side. Then D swung out with his nails, and raked them across the alien's chest, just as he'd done once to Leon long ago. "Do you really wish to fight me?" The Count asked, suddenly dark and dangerous, and Pie saw the other man's power and drew back before he realized what he'd done.
But the Chinese man wasn't finished, and the punch he delivered left Pie sprawled on my floor.
"I think you'll find that when I need to be I can be very dangerous." D said distastefully as he knelt and dipped his fingers in the split water to the wash the blood off his hand. Then he picked up the tiny vial, with a stopper in the shape of a heart, the same one he hidden here days ago.
"So much trouble over such a little thing." He mused, then turned back to where Ringo was still trying to hold up a barrier to keep the monster that Leon had been turned into. "Mew Ringo!"
She dropped the barrier and ran back towards him, and they flew the room, heading back the way they'd come.
But then both of them felt another ripple in the air, and both paused.
"Oh no." Ringo gasped. And they both knew that the barrier that the other Mews had put up had been broken.
"Don't lose that vial, Count." Ringo said as they began running again. "Or it won't just be all the animals that you keep here that will be in trouble. This whole city will be doomed!"
The other Mews had been thrown back when their barrier was finally broken by the relentless onslaught of Para Paras, but none of them stayed sitting for long. Within second they were up and had weapons drawn to fight.
The monsters were weak, especially compared the ones the Mews had been fighting since they arrived in Los Angeles, but what they lacked in strength the monsters made up for in sheer numbers. When one Para Para was defeated and one animal freed, another Para Para was there to take its place and transform the same animal again.
There was no time to talk. There was no time to think.
All that they could do was fight.
"Ribbon…Lettuce Rush!"
"Ribbon…Zakuro Spear!"
Two individual attacks destroyed two Chimera Animas, and two more were there to replace them.
None of the girls had seen Ryou or the others since they set out to retrieve the Mew Aqua.
In the midst of battle, one thought occurred to Berry, and she voiced it. "I hope they get back with the Mew Aqua soon."
"They'd better." Zakuro retorted grimly, as she took out another Chimera Anima with her whip. "Because nothing else will stop this now."
[A/N:] So...anyone out there still reading this? 'Cause I gotta tell you my muse landed back in the PSoH fandom again, and I surprised myself. I wanted to start a new story but to be honest I like this story, and I wanted to keep going. So with that said, I apologize for the huge, huge delay in updates. We're finally gonna put that Mew Aqua to use! And it seems like D didn't much to stop Pie, but I don't know. I just used things that he's done to Leon in the manga and transferred them here (which sounds kind of bad when I put it that way. Hm.) Usually when there's violence that needs to to happen D leaves that to his animals. And Mint was leaning on the Fourth Wall for a minute. I don't know why that line is in there.
Anyway, if anyone is out there reading, please review.