Battles with Wolves

A/N: Here it is: the sequel to Lone Wolf! I wasn't originally intending to write this, but LW was far more popular than I expected. And no, this does not mean I'm abandoning my Collection of Romantic TMM Songfics, I just need to get these plot bunnies out of my head.

Summary: It's been a few months since the Mews' defeat of Scarlet Red, but unbeknownst to them, one of her robots was not destroyed, but lies broken and beaten on the face of a desolate planet. Under the influence of a vengeance program designed by its mistress, the robot infects Zakuro with a deadly, poisonous disease that only her true love can cure. But Pie is suffering from amnesia due to a terrible accident, and the Mews and aliens are busy fighting the Saint Rose Crusaders, who will not leave them alone. Can they save Zakuro in time??

A NOTE ON TIMING: "Lone Wolf" took place before the events of Tokyo Mew Mew a la Mode. "Battles with Wolves" takes place just after the end of A La Mode, so Berry, Tasuku, the Crusaders, and any other characters from those books are subject to usage. For the curious, the Berry/Tasuku pairing WILL be in effect. I am NOT a Berry basher, so no asking!

Disclaimer: Mia Ikumi owns Tokyo Mew Mew and Tokyo Mew Mew a la Mode. I own the late Scarlet Red and her robots.

Prologue

Miles from Earth, on the face of a deserted planet, a broken pile of metal lay in a pitiful heap. There was nobody to see it, nobody to observe its plight but the darkness of space itself.

But if there were any living observers (which there weren't,) they would have known that the pile had laid there for months, ever since a devastating fall from a spaceship far above. They would know that the pile of metal had not moved an inch since that fall…until today.

For this was no ordinary scrap metal. This was a robot, created and programmed by the late alien villainess Scarlet Red, recently destroyed by five Earth superheroes and one of her own aliens. This robot was called Zalka, and she was supposed to have been destroyed in the same confrontation that finished her mistress. But somehow, her innermost hard drive had not malfunctioned after the fall, and she was still alive—as alive as any robot could be.

She had not moved for months because her emergency program was coming into effect. Scarlet Red had not been stupid, and she had made a plan to ensure vengeance even after her death. As Zalka lay there, her wires reprogramming themselves, her metal body began to fill with a deadly poison. A poison that, if it came in contact with the skin of a human, would cause them to die in forty-two days' time—a most slow and painful death, of course.

Now, Zalka's computer-chip eyes opened for the first time since she'd plummeted off the ship. The program was finished, and the humanoid robot—now banged, cracked, and badly mutilated—was ready to wreak vengeance in the name of Scarlet Red.

A computerized voice—thin and whiny, as her voice box had been smashed in the fall—echoed across the surface of the deserted planet. "Poison set into action. Plan X-Vengeance begun. Target: Mew Zakuro Fujiwara, human of Earth."

Chapter One

"Welcome to Café Mew Mew, sir! Enjoy your yummy lunch, na no da!" a hyper voice proclaimed from the door of a small café in Tokyo, Japan, on the planet Earth.

The tall, purple-haired man at the door smiled. "Thank you, Pudding, for the most effusive greeting, but I'm afraid I'm not here for food—unless you would by any chance have any pomegranates?"

The short yellow-haired girl known as Pudding Fong grinned at her alien friend. "Hi, Pie! You have come for pomegranates, na no da? They is in the back room."

Pie, the alien who had once attacked Earth under the orders of Scarlet Red's brother, Deep Blue, but was now an ally of the planet, grinned cheekily as he passed through the crowded café. He opened the door marked "Employees Only," striding through easily as one who was accustomed to being there. He entered the kitchen, where a tall, glamorous, purple-haired girl in the uniform of one of the café's waitresses was washing dishes, her back to him.

Stealthily, Pie crept up behind the girl. When he was but a few inches behind her, he put his mouth up to her ear and said, kind of loudly, "Hi, Lone Wolf!"

"Aaagh!! Pie, don't do that!" the girl—who was Pie's new girlfriend, Zakuro Fujiwara, model, werewolf, and member of the elite superhero group Tokyo Mew Mew—shrieked, as she jumped almost a foot in the air. "You'll make me break dishes—and Lettuce does that often enough as it is!"

Pie giggled childishly. "Sorry, Zakuro. You're just so fun to scare. But…" here he adapted a mock-serious tone, giving her a slight bow, "…I have acted wrongly. Allow me to apologize."

Zakuro grinned. As always, she was unable to be mad at Pie for long. "It's all right. Since…" she now adapted a vixenish smirk, "…I know you did come just to see me, didn't you?"

Pie laughed. "Of course! How could I not, fair maid? You are sweeter than all the cakes in this erstwhile café, and more beautiful than the roses that spread their petals in the garden outside. Yes, I came only to fill mine eyes with the sight of thy fairy-tale beauty," he proclaimed dramatically.

A high-pitched laugh came from the other side of the room. A blonde girl, her uniform a stark white color, stood in the door leading to the pantry. "Pie, Pie, Pie. You should know by now that your girl isn't one easily won over by flowery words. And Zakuro—Ryou says to tell you that he'll let you take an hour off, since Pie did come all the way from outer space to—how did he say it—fill his eyes with the sight of your fairy-tale beauty." With that, Berry Shirayuki, the newest addition to Tokyo Mew Mew, turned and walked back the way she had come.

"Tell Ryou I said thanks, then, Berry," Zakuro called after her friend as Berry walked away to talk to her boss, the café's owner and creator of the Mew project, Ryou Shirogane. She then turned to Pie, "Well, my alien love, since my oh-so-strict boss has finally lightened up enough to give me some time to be with you, where shall we go?"

Pie smiled. "Poor Ryou doesn't know what he's getting into. Kish and Tart are coming down too, and soon their girlfriends will want extra breaks too. Ah, the cost of lightening up toward your employees…" Pie finished with a dramatic sigh.

By this time, they were walking back through the café proper, and Pudding, doing her usual acrobatic dances while somehow managing to serve tables at the same time, had heard Pie's words. She flopped down from the double-monkey-back-flip she'd been attempting while carrying a crème brulee in each hand and whipped around to face the alien. "TAR-TAR'S COMING??" she exclaimed, practically bouncing off the walls at the mention of her alien boyfriend's name. 'Tar-tar is coming to see Pudding, na no da? Yay yayzees woop dee doo!!!" Pudding screamed. She performed a plate-twirling tornado spin while depositing the crème brulee on a table before dashing off toward the back room. "ICHIGO!! KISH AND TAR-TAR ARE COMING TO SEE US, NA NO DA!!"

The blue-haired girl working the cash register, Mint Aizawa, stifled giggles as the familiar sound of crashing dishware marked Pudding's trail of excited destruction back in the kitchen. "Nice, Pie. Ryou's going to hate you for this."

Just as the words escaped the bird Mew's lips, Ryou came bursting through the "Employees Only" door, followed by the two other men who worked at the café with him (Berry's boyfriend Tasuku and Mint's beau Keiichiro). "Pie, why in the world did you three have to pick today to come visit your significant others?? We're busy, and now we're short an entire set of plates and three mugs thanks to you telling Pudding that Tart's coming to visit her."

Pie grinned wickedly as he wrapped an arm around Zakuro's waist. "Because, cat-boy, we were nearly dying of loneliness separated from our true loves. Plus," the sly smile returned to his face as he spoke these next words, "I know from a primary source that you and Lettuce have barely spent any time together these past few weeks."

Both Ryou and the bespectacled, green-haired girl who had followed Keiichiro out of the kitchen adopted furious blushes, something that made Mint laugh even harder, until she was nearly on the verge of choking.

Ryou sighed and turned to his own girlfriend, the Mew Lettuce, whose DNA was infused with that of the finless porpoise. "You traitorous girl," he informed her, "You…" he trailed off, as Pudding, Berry, and the one Mew who had not yet put in an appearance strode in from the back.

Ichigo Momomiya, cat-girl and leader of Tokyo Mew Mew, proceeded to give Ryou one of her infamous death glares. "Mr. Shirogane, my erstwhile boss…give up. You've lost this battle."

Ryou heaved a deep sigh, his golden hair falling in his eyes, the perfect picture of the dejected businessman. He spoke in a flat voice, but both Zakuro and Pie could tell he wasn't as unhappy as he acted. "Fine. The café is closed for the day. Go enjoy a free period with your beaus—and count your blessings. This won't happen again soon."

"Thank you Ryou oh thank you so much Tar-Tar and I will be thanking you forever na no da!!" Pudding exclaimed, giving her boss a big hug around the waist.

"That's…quite…enough…Pudding," Ryou choked out, as he scanned the faces of his employees, co-workers, and Pie, looking for some sympathy. But now, even the usually staid Zakuro was on the verge of hysterics. It was that funny.

"Gah, sometimes I wonder how I put up with working in that café," the werewolf Mew remarked an hour later, seated on a bench in a small park quite a distance from her place of employment.

Pie smiled, draping his arm lightly around her shoulders. "Because you have some amazing hidden reserves of patience that I quite envy, Lone Wolf. Patience like yours sure would come in handy dealing with Kish and Tart every single day of your life."

Zakuro uttered a small laugh at this. "I doubt putting up with Pudding, Ichigo, and Lettuce—not to mention Ryou—on a daily basis is any easier. Or some of the girls in my modeling agency. Or the paparazzi. Or…"

Pie put a finger on her lips before she could continue. "Okay, okay, love, you have to put up with worse than I do. You win."

He was rewarded only with a weary smile from the violet-haired girl. "Is something wrong, Lone Wolf?" he asked her.

Zakuro frowned slightly. "It's just…I got a headache when Pudding started yelling—I always do—but it still hasn't gone away. I really don't feel that great, to tell the truth."

Pie stood up and bowed gallantly. "Then, fair lady, let me be your escort back to your place of residence. Rest is what you need—and, knowing you, without outside help, you won't allow yourself any." He took Zakuro's hand, closing his fingers around the long, pale ones. "Let me have the honor of teleporting you there."

Usually, Zakuro would resist his flamboyant display of alien skills, but right now, it was just what she needed. So she allowed herself to be pulled gently to her feet, and whipped through the air at hyper-speed as Pie teleported to right outside the stately mansion she called home.

"There you go, Lone Wolf. I hope you feel better soon…" he said, kind of awkwardly. He hoped the usually aloof Zakuro would accept the fact that he cared for her and didn't want her feeling unwell…

His werewolf gave him a grateful smile. "Thanks, Pie. You're always so caring," she told him before kissing him goodbye. They stood there for several moments, invisible to the ordinary human eye, wishing as they always did that the moment could go on forever.

But, of course, it didn't, and soon she broke away. "I'll come check on you, alright?" Pie asked. She simply nodded her acceptance, a strained smile gracing her beautiful face.

"Thanks, Pie," she replied seriously as she turned from her love and walked slowly inside the mansion.

Authorized to enter? the security camera (a birthday present from Ryou two years ago)

"Yes. It's Zakuro," she told the droid wearily.

Password?

She blushed slightly, realizing that he wouldn't be able to help overhearing the password she'd made up.

"Daisuke, Pie."she told it.

Verified. Enter, Zakuro. The gate clicked open and Zakuro strode inside, her shoulders slumped slightly with pain.

Pie watched for a moment before teleporting back to the austere world of the alien dimension.

A/n: Mostly just a teaser. Real action starts next chapter. R&R

I love Pie in Japanese