"What exactly is he sending us up against?" Hachi asked.
She looked at Ana.
"We're fighting a fire," Ana replied.
Hachi gulped but kept running.
"Where's the fire?" Ariha inquired.
"The mall," was the response.
Said response came from the headsets Haru had given them before they left the house.
"Thanks," Ariha said.
"Wait! Mall? My brother's there!" Hachi spazzed.
"Nobu?" Ana asked.
"I only have one brother!" Hachi replied.
Ana grinned.
"Hope he dies."
Ariha let out a frustrated sigh and sped past them, leaping off the overpass.
"Mew Ariha Metamorphosis!" she yelled, following the instructions Haru had given them.
She landed on a car below, transformed. The others kept running after her, keeping up despite the fact that Ariha was running over cars.
"Mew Taykoe Metamorphosis!" Taykoe yelled.
Coming out of her transformation, she grimaced.
"What is that smell?" Ana yelled.
Taykoe glanced over her shoulder. When she had transformed so had the others. Ana's nose was scrunched up in disgust and Hachi was covering hers. Ariha landed beside Taykoe, practically scaring the life out of her.
"Human," she said.
"Come again?" Misha asked.
Ariha pointed to the smoke in the distance.
"The mall has a lot of people trapped inside.""So, they're burning?" Ahsim guessed.
"Like cookies in an oven," Ariha answered.
"Thanks for ruining my cookie," Haru said, his voice crackling from the ear piece.
Ariha grinned before breaking into a run with the other mews behind her.
"Stare at the screen all you want, Haru."
Haru turned a bit in his chair at the sound of Kei's voice. Kei smiled, flopping next to Haru.
"Is there any reason why you sent them to beat down a fire?" Kei inquired.
Haru stretched.
"Simple. A test of just how well they work together. Also," Haru trailed off.
Kei nudged his friend.
"Also?" he prompted.
Haru smiled.
"I want to find the leader. The one the others automatically follow," he replied.
"It's Taykoe," Kei declared.
Haru glanced at him.
"Why do you say that?" he asked.
Haru grinned.
"Does someone like Taykoe?"
Kei flicked him.
"Not me. Keiichi actually," Kei replied.
Haru rubbed his forehead where Kei had flicked him.
"So why Taykoe?"
"I don't know. It's just," Kei sighed. "Hachi's timid as hell, Ana preys on Hachi, the twins are, well, together they function because Ahsim's controlling nature reigns in Misha's carefree nature. He keeps her in line. And last but not least, Ariha."
Kei brushed his hair back with his fingers.
"Go on," Haru urged.
Kei shot him a tired look.
"She's…scared."
"Of leading?" Haru asked.
"No."
"Then what?"
"I don't know," Kei admitted. "Something to do with her right eye though. Or lack of. Whatever or whoever caused that absolutely terrifies her even when they're apart. I think it has something to do with the girl on the Inside Scoop."
Kei glanced at Haru and found Haru starring at him.
"What?" he asked.
"Nothing. It's just, I've never heard you say so much," Haru admitted.
Kei rolled his eyes.
"Alright, sorry. I get all that but why Taykoe?" Haru asked.
"Because Taykoe analyzes a situation and responds. She doesn't know she's doing it. It's simply instinct. "
Haru looked back at the screen, his eyes finding Taykoe, outlined by the flames as the mews fought to get into the burning mall.
"If that's true, this could get interesting."
"Damn! It's hot!" Misha cried.
Ahsim shielded his eyes.
"How hot is this?" he asked.
"300 degrees Fahrenheit," Haru announced.
"We're gonna die," Ana declared.
"Regardless of the temperature, we're still obligated to save the people inside," Taykoe said.
She grabbed the whip off her hip and ran forward, leaping over the escalators. She used said whip to grab hold of one of the water sprinklers above and tugged. The top popped off and water rained down. The broken sprinkler triggered the others and water rained down on them all.
"Somehow, this didn't end as perfectly as I thought it would," Misha said, looking around.
The flames slowly disappeared but the steam left behind barely shielded the burnt remains of what use to be the mall. There were charred and even unrecognizably burnt corpses.
"This is horrible," Ariha mumbled.
They heard clapping, looking towards the only staircase in the mall which was mainly used when the mall was rented for a special occasion.
"Nobu?" Hachi whispered, staring in shock at the brunette boy that approached.
"That's her brother?" Ahsim inquired.
"Does he always look so surprised?" Taykoe asked.
"His normal face," Ana assured them.
Nobu stopped in the middle of the stairs.
"I'm impressed," he said.
He smiled at them.
"You did well for my first test."
"Be careful guys. I did some hacking and found that the sprinklers were jammed before the fire was started," Haru announced.
Ariha glared at Nobu.
"It was you, wasn't it? You set the fire and jammed the fire sprinklers!" she accused.
Nobu shrugged.
"So?" he asked.
Ariha growled and leapt at him. Her body morphed into an actual snow leopard.
"Holy shit!" Ana cried in genuine surprise.
Nobu smiled, leaping into the air. He completely dodged Ariha's lunge, slamming his feet into her back. Ariha returned to her mew form, crashing into the stairs. She glared at Nobu murderously.
"There were children here!" Hachi yelled.
Nobu sighed, annoyed, and looked at her.
"Orders are orders. In order to accomplish something, one must ignore such idiotical things such as age, name, wealth. In this world power is all that matters. "
"Excuse me, Hachi, while I kill your brother," Ana muttered, sprinting forward.
She lunged at Nobu with her fist out. He stepped aside, catching hold of her wrist and spinning her around before slamming her into Ariha who'd come running at him from behind. The two crashed back into the stairs. It was then Taykoe launched her attack, her whip shooting out and wrapping around Nobu's raised arm. He smiled at her before tugging her, whip and all, into the air. Taykoe let out a scream as she was sent flying into what was left of a store window."Mew Taykoe!" Hachi cried, running over.
Nobu looked around.
"So," he asked. "Who's next?"
His eyes focused on Hachi.
"You," he declared, stepping forward.
Hachi gulped, eyes wide. She reached for one of the arrows from the quiver on her back, a bow materializing from her mew energy alone. She lifted her bow and aimed the arrow at Nobu. He grinned.
"Go ahead. You'll find I'm very well trained."
A bullet shot through his foot, surprising even him.
"What was that?" Hachi asked.
Taykoe sat up, slowly, pulling a shard of glass from her arm.
"The twins," she said.
Hachi looked at the twins, who were both pointing guns at Nobu. "Back away from them!" Misha ordered.
"Or else," Ahsim threatened.
Nobu smiled at them, changing his path. He strode toward the twins, stopping in midstep, looking as if he was listening to someone.
"Looks like you weaklings got lucky," he said before he vanished.
Hachi lowered her bow. Both Ana and Ariha got up. Ana looked straight at Hachi.
"Your brother is so dead."
"This has the government's name all over it," Haru declared.
The mews, with the exception of Hachi who was in her room, were gathered in Haru's home lab.
"Regardless of whose to blame, things are getting serious. They jumped from robotic dogs to specially trained agents," Ariha said.
She crossed her arms, flinching as she felt her bruised ribs throb.
"And Hachi? How's Hachi?" Haru asked.
The mews looked at each other.
"She's taking it pretty hard," Taykoe said.
"I'll talk to her," Kei said.
"No, we'll talk to her," Taykoe said.
She nodded at the others before leading them all up the stairs. Haru glanced at Kei.
"Guess you were right. She is the leader."
