Chapter 4: One down, fifty one to go!

 

What do you mean their gone?” Kero shouted
“I mean they disappeared.Poof. They left the building. They’re not where they should be!” Sakura shouted back. Li stepped between them.
“Kero, it’s not her fault. Mine are gone too.” he said.
“The only one I have is FLY. Damn, why did that dream have to come to me so late?” Sakura slammed her fist on the table beside her. Li looked down at her.
“You mean the one you had last night?” Sakura nodded. Madison looked up from her book.
“What dream?” she asked
“The Guardian of Time said that while I was sleeping the cards would be ‘magically re-scattered.’ She said they, the cards, were going to turn on me, try to kill me. She said that her and the other girls with her would help Li and I. Then Artemis sensed something. It was Meilin.” Sakura began.
“Meilin? I thought she went back to Hong Kong. Why was she in your dream?” Madison asked, hanging off the edge of Sakura’s bed. Kero had left the conversation and returned to his video game, SMASH BROS. Li nodded.
“She did.”
“Anyway. So Artemis sends a girl next to her to get rid of the ‘intruder’. The girl steps into the moonlight. Her outfit was the same as Artemis’, except purple, and she didn’t have wings, and in her hand she held a weird weapon. Like the one the Grim Reaper has. Sakura said, unplugging Kero’s video game.
“A glaive.” Kero said, flying into the air. “Now plug my game back in.” He said to Sakura. Li huffed.
“Stuffed animals don’t play video games.” He said smugly.
“I. Am. Not. A. Stuffed. ANIMAL!!” Kero yelled. Li began to argue, by Sakura clamped a hand firmly around his mouth.
“She runs after Meilin, but I tell her not to hurt her, so she scares Meilin away. She laughed and walked back. Artemis turned towards me, and yelled for me to watch out. I spun around, and DARK punched me in the face.” Sakura finished. Li looked towards her, pulling her hand from his mouth.
“I say we look around Juban for a while, see if we find anything unusual.” Sakura nodded, and Madison flipped off the bed.
“Great! I’ll go grab my video camera. C’mon Kero.” Madison dashed out the door. Sakura called out the FLY card and opened her bedroom window, hopping onto the roof. Li followed.
“Guys? Guys! Soooo not fair!” Madison whined.
“Sorry, Maddie. I’ll make it up to you, promise!” Sakura said as she and Li flew towards Juban.
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Girls? We have an attack in the park! Hurry! The creature is attacking civilians. Got it?” A blue haired girl shouted into her watch, people looking at her like she was insane.
“Got it!” eight voice responded. Four girls ran out of an arcade. Two others ran out of the race track, and another two out of an apartment building, all of them heading towards the park.
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Li sensed something coming from the park, so he and Sakura landed in an alley, running to the park. When they got there they found WOODY attacking people.
“What is she doing? I thought she was a friendly card!” Sakura exclaimed to Li, who stood among the trees beside her.
“Didn’t that girl say they were going to team up on you? Maybe she’s trying to spite you. Did you take her for a walk everyday like the Owners Manual said? You didn’t? Oh, No! It’s the end of the world!!” Li declared dramatically. Sakura punched him in the arm. Hard. She stepped forward.
“Woody. Woody, please stop!” Sakura yelled to her card. Nine figures stood in the shadows, using the trees as the camoflouge.
“What the heck is she doing?” a tall brunette asked, stepping forward to stop Sakura. A firm hand held her back.
“No. Let’s see what she’s doing.” a blonde said, her pigtails being blown in the wind.
“She’s going to get herself killed!” another blonde exclaimed.
“No,” a light voice said fixedly. Eight pairs of eyes turned to a tall red eyed girl holding a giant key. Her black uniform did not move as she made her way to the front of the group, pointing of delicate finger at Sakura.
“Watch.”

 

Sakura took another step towards WOODY, who had a young child and its mother tangled in her branches.
“Woody. Please put them down,” Sakura paused, and WOODY was about to drop the mother on her head.
“Nicely!” Sakura finished. WOODY spun the mother around, placing her on the ground. But she still held the boy.
“Mistress....We, FIREY, WINDY, WATERY, FIGHT, POWER, or myself want to do this, but the other forty six said they would kill us if we didn’t, and I know they will.” WOODY whispered.
“Please, Woody. You’re my friend. Please give the child back to his mother. He doesn’t deserve this.” Sakura pleaded. WOODY looked at her with sad eyes, and the young child began to scream as WOODY tightened her hold around him.
“Elements! Lightning!” Li called from behind Sakura. Lightning formed in the sky, electrocuting WOODY.
“Li stop! You’re hurting the child!” Sakura cried. Li stopped.
“Fine then. We’ll have to do this manually.” Li snatched something invisible out of the air, which turned into his sword. He sprinted towards WOODY.
“Wait!” Sakura yelled. Li skidded to a stop. Sakura removed her key off her neck.
“Key of Clow, Power of Magic, Power of Light; Surrender the Wand, the force ignite. RELEASE!” the tiny key transformed into a long, pink staff.
“What the-” A girl with black hair hidden in the trees exclaimed.
“FLY! Surrender your power into my wand!” Sakura shouted. Long, white wings sprouted from the end of the staff. Sakura hopped on, flying to Li.
“Okay, this is getting too strange. Even for Tokyo!” a short, purple haired girl exclaimed. Eight others ‘shhhh’ed her.
“Kay! Take a pill!” the short girl exclaimed, holding up her gloved hands.
“Okay. Li, I’ll fly over to Woody and distract her. You go cut that boy down, before his guts start spilling out.” Sakura flew over to WOODY, and began to circle her head.
“`C’mon Woody. Be a good girl. Look at me....Let Li get close enough,” Sakura whispered. WOODY looked at Sakura, her brown eyes wide. Li scrambled forward, chopping at the branches. WOODY howled in pain, causing him to topple into a group of girls hidden in the trees, but not before he sliced through the branch holding the boy. He began to fall, so Sakura quickly flew below him, catching him right before he hit the ground. Sakura handed him back to his mother, who began crying. Sakura flew back to the hurt card.
“Woody! Return to your power confined! Woody!” WOODY slowly returned, but not before quietly whispering,”Sorry, Mistress....”

 

“Li? Li...are you okay?” a voice asked. Li opened his eyes, finding a young woman standing over him, long blonde hair tied into pigtails fell over her face.
“Um...yeah. How do you know my name?” Li stood up, offering his hand to a pretty blue haired girl he had knocked over. The blonde giggled.
“We’ve met....” was the blondes only response before she disappeared.
“Li!! Li, are you alright?!” Sakura called as she ran over.
“Yeah. These girls broke my fall,” he yelled back. Sakura joined him.
“What girls?” she asked. Li looked around. The only girl remaining, the blue haired one, was quickly sprinting away.
“Their gone....” he said. Sakura lightly kissed his cheek.
“I’m very impressed by what you did.” she said quietly. Li blushed.
“It was nothing. Let’s go home.” Li replied, slowly walking away, leaving Sakura to gaze at his back.

 

Sakura sat on her bed, the WOODY card in her hand, and her staff in the other.
“Woody- come out.” Sakura said, throwing the card in the air and striking it with her wand. Long, thick branches began to come out of the small card.
“Hey! Be good!” Sakura said strictly. The branches disappeared, and out of the card stepped a young woman, long ivy vines for hair. She wore a pale green dress, and wore a pair of silver sandles on her feet. A huge emerald hung from a thin silver chain, a gift given to her by Artemis.
“Woody, you said all the cards are teaming up on me. Why?” Sakura asked the pretty card, guestering for her to sit next to her on Sakura’s bed.
“You caught all the Cards after Windy accidently blew them away. That was fine with the Cards, but when they became Sakura cards....That went okay with some, but the others didn’t like it. Clow made them...us. They didn’t find it fair that you were erasing Clow’s work, and calling it your own. But as I said, some of us are happy to be yours. You’re so much nicer than Clow ever was!” WOODY smiled, as did Sakura.
“Do you know where they all are?” WOODY shook her head, the ivy vines shaking.
“No. And even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.” WOODY responded. Sakura was shocked. WOODY shook her head.
“I don’t want you to get hurt. Like I said before, they will try to kill you,” Sakura nodded.
“Thank you, Woody. Could ya please return to your card? I’d like to go over to Li’s, so you can tell him your story.” WOODY nodded and dissapeared back into the card. Sakura grabbed it out of the air and quickly ran out the door and down the long flight of stairs.
“Tori! I’m going out!” She yelled and bolted out the door before her brother could respond.

 

Sakura banged on Li’s apartment door. She could hear shuffling inside, the a loud crash, and a young man swearing. Finally the blue door opened, revealing Li, wearing only a pair of boxers.
“Oh, Sakura. Hi. Ummm...what are you doing here?”
“May I come in?” Sakura asked politly, tilting her head. Li nodded and pulled the door open wider, allowing her to enter the dark apartment. As soon as the door was closed Sakura called out Woody.
“Listen to her story,” Sakura said sitting down in an over stuffed chair, “It may be worth something.”

 

I'll send more later!!