"La-bas. C'est las betes noires." The bot lifted a paw to the mouth of a cave further in the woods. In it, the creatures were gathered, infesting natural territory.
Ruby and the rest of the crew stared. Surely they wouldn't camp so close to the town! Yet they were there, and they were causing chaos near Moonstone Street. A change in their behavior meant something...
"Obsidian wouldn't put his things here so soon..." One of the mice muttered.
"Can't this thing speak English?" Ruby asked, smacking the robot mouse on its back. It shuddered, its mouth gaping open and arms flailing around. The translator, a stout mouse named Frances, started to glare at the leader of the group, but the bot whipped out a choppy sentence.
"I am sorry," it managed to belt out, but the Robot-Communicacion can not speak English but French only. Very much thanks." Then, it reverted back to itself again, its eyes darkening. Frances chuckled darkly.
"That's why RoCo here needs translators such as myself," he added, gesturing to himself. Ruby glared at him with as much intensity as he had at his spiky hair.
"If we actually had interpreters as gems, we wouldn't need you, mortal," she murmured. She peeked at her watch, but still no sign of the PEF newcomers. The Moonstone mouse she had recruited temporarily glanced as well, keeping watch for them. The other members gathered to theirselves, deciding on a plan.
"They were fighting another creature in Ruby Drive," the mouse patiently intoned, "and now they're speeding their way here."
"I'll let them off THIS time," Ruby replied. Inside herself, she was grumbling. This infestation was getting out of hand. If left unattended, then they...
The Moonstone mouse shuddered suddenly, her eyes focusing somewhere beyond their words.
Ruby smacked her back. "Snap out of it." The mouse fell over. Oops, too hard... It didn't seem like she would rise... but she sat up abruptly, alert. Her eyes glanced to the left, then to the right. She sighed as three varied mice sped over, covered in black goo, panting.
The red mouse walked over to the Topaz one and booped her nose. "You're late."
"We KNOW, Ruby," Shakra muttered, "but we unfortunately had a traffic jam." She gestured to a dark blob on her arm.
Rashneil facepalmed. "Shakra, please."
"As a certain mouse residing in the mortals' Leisure Lounge would say... RASHNEIL STOP THIS SHIT!"
Akira rolled her eyes and stood near a tree. "You both are crazy," she called.
"Says the one that's a Diamond mouse obviously glowing in the daylight," Shakra muttered, a silly grin starting to grow on her face.
"H-Hey! You cut that out!" The white mouse stood on her hind legs in mock outrage. "I can't help it if I glow like this!"
"Oh really?" The grin stretched wider.
"Really!"
"Prove it!"
Akira suddenly pounced on Shakra, giggling. The victim fought back, the smile unwavering as she also chuckled. Rashneil sighed, backing away from the tussle as if it were some diseased object and muttered something like "They oughta be more serious about this".

A jolt of recognition or déjà vu sent Melichu into a temporary daze. She KNEW she had seen the trio before, somewhere... but where?
Connor would know.
She then realized that he had never seen them before, let alone gotten to speak to them. There was no way he'd know for sure! But, he was a Moonstone mouse, after all...
Suddenly, as if saying his race did the trick, she remembered the trio near the sanctuary pool three days ago...
A vision reared its ugly head at that same moment, only this time it wasn't as frightening as the visions of Moonstone mice fleeing normals and black beasts defiling the town. This time it was of eight mice in total, adventuring to find Obsidian. She recognized Connor, the friendly Moonstone companion; the trio, their differences clearly visible in the daylight; and her scowling, no-nonsense leader, the Ruby mouse. She couldn't make head or tail of what the two others were, but the third... she thought it was herself.
It wasn't frightening. Instead, it was almost mystifying.
And it would happen. She was sure of it.
"Hey, Moonie!" Ruby's voice.
"Meli," she corrected her temporary superior, sliding out of her daze.
"Moonie, Meli, whatever." Ruby halted, her face masked with concern. "While you were dozing or whatever, some of our guys got attacked."
Meli squinted, confused. Goodness gracious, how long had she been out?
"It's been 3 hours. We had to put you under a tree for safety," she went on, as if she had read the Moonstone mouse's mind.
"Are they alright?!" Meli sat up, shaking with fear.
Ruby chuckled. "Our guys are okay. Frances I'm not too sure about. The monsters are not alright. The PEF newcomers did a pretty good job disposing of them."
Meli sighed. When would this nightmare end?

Connor sat, the sound of rushing water from the waterfall soothing him. As usual, he was daydreaming again.
A green figure emerged from the distance, intent on a thing that wasn't clear, but...
"She spells trouble," he sleepily purred, his eyes glancing at the pool. If he guessed correctly, the mouse was speeding near where Melichu said she would be working temporarily. And should she encounter it...
He shuddered, standing on all fours and leaping ahead, making haste. He had to hurry.

Veran was sitting alongside a Diamond mouse, one of the newcomers of PEF. She was humming, her face twisted with concern, but he had reverted back to his healing form.
"You've got a couple of scratches here," he muttered, pointing at her belly. "Are you sure you're alright?"
"Of course I'm sure," she replied, a bit too quickly.
He glanced towards Flora, who was trying to make conversation with a Topaz mouse and an Emerald mouse. She bit her lip nervously. Veran could tell she wasn't the best at this type of this.
"I find that hard to believe," the Alexandrite mouse stated, facing his patient again.
She frowned. "But it's true--"
"STOP!"
A harsh voice could be heard across the camp. Veran's hair flashed hot-pink and he faced the intruder, ready to attack.
At the same moment, another mouse emerged from the forest and inhaled sharply.
Standing in the distance, out of breath, was a Peridot mouse, her green fur matted.
~End of Part 4~