Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction / Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Card Captor Sakura: The Next Quest ❯ Sakura and the Circus Fiasco ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter 5: Sakura and the Circus Fiasco

~~~~~Tokyo, Japan~~~~~

"Key that Hides the Power of Space. Show Your True Self to Me. I, Heero Command You Under Contract. Release!" A second later Heero was holding his sword in front of him. Heero and Syaoran were both standing in the training room of their dorm with sword in hand, ready to practice. "So nobody has thought of an explanation for how I created this thing?" asked Heero as he motioned to his sword.

"No," answered Syaoran. "Not yet. But Kero is flying back to Tomoeda to talk to Yue about it. Hiiragizawa doesn't understand how, but it seems his other memory has a blank area in regards to a new Clow Key. Spinel Sun, one of Hiiragizawa's guardians, is also on his way over here to see if he can help."

It had been two days since Sakura and Heero had captured the Wall and Remove Cards and Heero had created the Key of Space. That night, when everyone had returned from the library there were a number of different reactions to the news that Heero had created a second Clow Key. Syaoran and Eriol had been especially surprised, Ami had been the most curious, and Ranma, Ukyo, Duo and Minako were mostly impartial to the situation since they didn't really understand the significance of the news. Tomoyo's reaction was mostly one of disappointment. She was upset that she hadn't been there to videotape the scene. However, she quickly changed from the most depressed to the happiest person in the room when Heero handed her a disk with a digital video of the entire situation he had copied from Wing ZERO's mobile camera that had captured everything. A while back, after Sakura had captured the Color Card, Heero had programmed Wing ZERO's camera to follow Sakura around to capture every card capturing quest on video. He didn't understand what was so great about capturing the cards on video, but it made Tomoyo happy apparently, and since Tomoyo was Sakura's best friend, Heero had decided to do something nice for her. He had been rewarded for his kind gesture with a quick hug of thanks from Tomoyo and another, longer hug from Sakura.

Heero had recently discovered another advantage to having his own Clow Key. According to Sakura, Eriol, and Syaoran, his new Clow Item should be nearly indestructible. This helped Heero because the weapons storage room was quickly becoming depleted. Since Syaoran's sword had magical protection and Heero and Syaoran trained with so much intensity when they sparred, by the time their training sessions were over, whatever weapon Heero had been using was so destroyed it would be practically unusable. Now that he had his own mystical sword, Heero hoped they would not have to destroy any more school property, otherwise the University might start charging them.

Half an hour into their workout session they both noticed out of the corner of their eyes that they had accumulated an audience. A group of maybe a dozen girls were all standing in the doorway, bumping and shoving each other to get a better view of the two guys. Both Heero and Syaoran were wearing green tank tops and black workout pants, so their well toned bodies were easily distinguishable. The two stopped fighting for a moment when they noticed the people watching them, but then looked at each other and shrugged and continued their match. When the two felt they had done enough weapons work they looked over towards the door and were disappointed to find that the girls had still not left. In fact, it looked as if the crowd had gotten larger and a few of the girls had begun to trickle into the room for a better view. Not wanted to stop fighting and give the girls a chance to come over and talk to them, the two decided to just switch from weapons to hand-to-hand without stopping. They did this by recalling their swords without pausing in their battle and smoothly made the transition into hand-to-hand sparring. Neither guy really cared what the girls saw and in fact hoped it would serve to scare a few of them away. Unfortunately their magical maneuver seemed to intrigue the girls even more. An hour and a half of constant fighting later, the guys began to tire. At this point they normally would have stopped, but neither one felt like dealing with the ever-growing number of girls, almost all of which had migrated into the training room. Fortunately the guys' luck suddenly changed when Sakura and Ami came down the stairs together. The two girls were on their way to lunch when they saw the huge gathering of girls in the training room. Curious as to what was going on they walked over towards the training room and were surprised to find that all the girls were staring at Heero and Syaoran sparring. Sakura and Ami could see that they were getting tired since they had watched the two train often enough to know they weren't moving at their highest levels of speed and precision. The girls were wondering why the two hadn't stopped yet since they both new that the guys must be pretty exhausted since it took quite a bit to keep them from going full force when they fought. Then Ami and Sakura figured out that the guys must have not stopped fighting so that the huge group of ogling girls couldn't disturb them. The two decided to help out their respective semi-boyfriends and walked into the room. When the girls walked into the room, Heero and Syaoran quickly picked up on their auras and thankfully sighed inwardly as they stopped sparring.

"Heero-kun, Syaoran-kun," said Sakura and Ami as they walked up to the guys and gave them a hug, wrapping their arms around the guys' necks. They were positioned in a way that allowed both Ami and Sakura to see the girls who had been watching Heero and Syaoran. They could see every girl there had a frown of disappointment on their faces and were staring at Ami and Sakura with a spark of both anger and jealousy in their eyes.

"Arigato," whispered both guys as the girls let go from their embrace.

As Heero and Syaoran saw the other girls in the room slowly leaving, Syaoran got an idea. "How about you girls let us take you out somewhere fun as thanks for helping us out?"

Ami and Sakura's faces lit up at the prospect. "Hai! Where?" asked Sakura.

Syaoran paused, realizing he hadn't thought of that part of the plan yet. Before Syaoran could say he didn't know, Heero interjected. "There is a traveling circus in town. How about that?" Sakura's eyes lit up even more and she emphatically nodded her head yes. Sakura loved the circus and couldn't wait to go with Heero.

"Let us get cleaned up and then we'll go," said Syaoran as the guys went into the locker room.

"Have you been to the circus before Ami-chan?" asked Sakura.

"Hai. But not for some time now," responded Ami.

"Me neither. I hope it is still as fun as what I remember. I loved the circus when I was little."

"We are going with Syaoran-kun and Heero-kun," pointed out Ami. "So I'm sure it will be fun."

"Ready to go?" asked Syaoran as he walked out of the locker room with Heero following closely behind. The girls nodded their heads yes. "It is on the other side of the city so we will have to drive. I hope you girls don't mind."

"Not at all," answered Ami.

"Do either of you know where Duo parked my car the other night?" asked Heero to Syaoran and Ami.

"It's parked right next to mine," answered Syaoran.

"What kind of car do you have Heero-kun?" inquired Sakura.

Before Heero could answer, Ami spoke up. "Just wait and find out, Sakura-chan. You've seen Syaoran-kun's car right?" Sakura nodded. "Well, Heero-kun's car is just as nice. I'm not sure which car is neater." Sakura was stunned. Syaoran's and Tomoyo's cars were the two most expensive cars she had ever seen.

When the four reached the parking lot where their cars were parked, Sakura was shocked. She quickly spotted Tomoyo's car. Her spotless black Mercedes Benz SL500 Roadster sports car was parked at the end of one of the rows. Next to Tomoyo's car was a dark blue Jaguar XKR convertible that Ami informed her belonged to Eriol. Next to Eriol's Jaguar was a bright yellow Acura NSX. Since Sakura had been told Tomoyo, Eriol, Heero, Syaoran, and Minako's cars were all parked together, she had to guess that the yellow Acura was Minako's. Next to the NSX was Syaoran's car; a sparkling silver Porsche 911 Turbo. The last car in the row was a beautiful gleaming red Ferrari 355 Spider convertible.

"Wow!" gasped Sakura as she stared wide-eyed at the five cars. "How do you guys get such nice cars?" she asked.

Heero and Syaoran looked at her and shrugged. "My family just has a lot of money and believes in only the best," responded Syaoran.

"I suppose I'm just used to owning expensive machines," said Heero. The other three gave Heero a curious look, but Heero just brushed it off and began walking toward his Ferrari. "Top up or down?" Heero asked Sakura once they were at Heero's car.

"Can you put the top down?" asked Sakura. "I've never driven in a convertible before." Heero nodded and retracted the convertible top as he started the car's engine and pulled out of the parking lot. As they were driving along the coast, Heero took a moment to glance sideways at Sakura. In his eyes, she looked stunning. Her eyes were closed and she looked to very much be enjoying the fresh sea breeze against her face. Her short auburn hair was flowing smoothly behind her and that only added to the angelic effect of the girl. Every now and again, Heero would look over at Sakura and each time she looked even more and more beautiful. Heero decided that he was glad he invited her to the circus.

~~~~~Outside Tokyo, Japan~~~~~

Eventually the four arrived at the location where the circus was set up. Heero pulled into the area designated for parking with Syaoran following closely behind. The two couples got out of the cars and started walking towards the giant red and white tent that was placed in the center of the clearing. As they got closer they could see that it was extremely crowded and when they reached the ticket booth they saw a sign saying all of the day's shows were sold out. Sakura had been so excited to see the circus that her heart dropped when she was the sold out sign.

"Don't worry," said Heero as he placed a hand on Sakura' shoulder. "Just come with me." Heero led the group to a smaller side tent that had a sign that read `Employees Only' above the entrance. He then led the group through the door into the tent. At first nobody seemed to notice them while Heero glanced around the tent, seemingly looking for someone or something.

"Excuse me, but you aren't supposed to be in here," said a female voice from behind them. The four turned around to see who had walked into the tent behind them and found that it was an attractive young woman with red hair and beautiful pale purple eyes. "Oh, Heero. What are you doing here?"

"Hi Catherine," answered Heero. Catherine was a little surprised at Heero. She had remembered him as being the most emotionless of the Gundam pilots; however at the moment he seemed less harsh and more caring. Of all the Gundam pilots, Heero was the last one Catherine had expected to show up at the circus. "We came to watch the show, but it is sold out. I was looking for you or Trowa to see if you could help us out."

Just then another person with long light brown hair that fell in front of his deep green eyes walked through the tent door. "Hey Heero. Good to see you again."

"Likewise, Trowa." Trowa was wearing a pair of light blue jeans and a dark blue long sleeve shirt. He was built well, similar to Heero and Syaoran, although he was a little taller and perhaps a little bit more muscular as well. He also carried himself with the same mysterious demeanor that Syaoran and Heero held.

"So what brings you here?" Trowa asked.

"They wanted to watch the show, but it is all sold out," answered Catherine. As she answered she pulled four tickets out of her bag. "I have been keeping four tickets aside for each show in case Trowa's friends ever came to a show," she said as she handed the tickets to Heero.

"Arigato," said Sakura, who was standing right next to Heero.

"By the way, this is Kinomoto Sakura, Mizuno Ami, and Li Syaoran," introduced Heero.

"It's nice to meet you," said Catherine as she gave a handshake to each. "I'm Catherine Bloom and this is Trowa Barton. So how do you all know Heero?"

"We all go to college together," answered Ami. As Sakura, Ami, and Syaoran talked with Catherine, Heero walked over and stood next to Trowa at the side of the tent.

"So I hear you are roommates with Duo in school," mentioned Trowa. "Have you guys been getting along?"

"He has been no more annoying than usual. Anyway, I have been distracted from Duo's usual activities. Somehow I've ended up on another mission."

"With your Gundam?" asked Trowa in a surprised voice, since he thought he would have heard if a new Gundam mission had come up.

"No," answered Heero. "It is a little different." When Heero saw nobody except Sakura and the others were around he took out his pendant. "Watch." Heero took hold of his pendant and concentrated his magic energy. Suddenly his magic circle appeared beneath him making Trowa take a step back and attracting the attention of Catherine, Sakura, Ami and Syaoran. "Key That Holds the Power of Space. Show Your True Self to Me. I, Heero Command You Under Contract. Release!" In a flash of magical energy, Heero's sword appeared in his hand. "As you can see, things are a little different."

"What was that?" asked a shocked Catherine.

"It's magic," responded Syaoran. His voice made it clear he was completely serious. Catherine still had about a hundred more questions she wanted to ask, but before she got a chance, the circus manager came running in.

"Catherine, Trowa. We have a problem," he said as he stopped in front of the group. "The lighting and special effects systems have all shorted out."

"How bad is it?" asked Trowa as he followed the manager to where the electrical grid was located.

"It looks pretty bad. But you are our expert at this stuff so I wanted to get your opinion on if it will be necessary to cancel the next show."

When everyone arrived at the electrical equipment, Trowa and Heero bent down to get a closer look to obtain the status of the equipment. "When is the next show scheduled to start?" asked Heero.

"There is a show in one hour and another at five," answered Trowa.

"There is no way this can be fixed and tested in an hour," stated Heero. "However, it should be doable by the five o'clock show."

"I guess we will have to cancel the show," said a dejected Catherine.

"Maybe we can help," spoke up Sakura. "What kind of effects does all this equipment do?"

"It controls all the fire, water, and lighting effects," said Trowa. "We have fire loops for the animals and water explosions during our acrobatic routine. We also have a glow effect when the lights go out and it looks like the spotlight systems are gone."

"Sakura should be able to handle the lighting effects and I can do all the fire," said Syaoran. "Ami-san, can you do the water?" Ami nodded indicating she could handle the water effects.

"Excuse me," interrupted the manager. "How do you intend to do all this?"

"Don't worry manager," said Catherine. "I trust them. But are you sure you can control your power well enough to do this?" Catherine was looking directly at Syaoran when she voiced her concern since he was doing the fire, and fire was by far the most dangerous of the effects.

"Anything you can get a machine to do, I'm positive I can handle it."

"I'll take care of the electrical equipment," said Heero as he bent down again and began fiddling with the mess of wires and destroyed circuit boards.

"Follow me," said Trowa. "I'll explain what types of effects we need. Catherine, can you help the manager set everything up for the show while I explain what we need to Kinomoto-san, Mizuno-san, and Li?" Catherine nodded and she and the manager walked towards another small tent to start getting the animals and other props ready for the show.

"You will need to do something if you want the tent lights to go off," said Heero. "It looks like the main overhead lights control systems are fried so unless you plan to take out every bulb, they are pretty much stuck on."

"Understood," said Trowa as he led Ami, Sakura, and Syaoran to the center stage to show them what effects were needed and where.

One hour later, the interior of the tent slowly faded into darkness. As the crowd hushed in anticipation for the beginning of the show, a spotlight appeared to come out of nowhere and illuminated a small area around a lone figure standing in the center of the circular stage. "Ladies and gentlemen!" announced the manager. "Welcome to our show! I hope you have a wonderful time." As the manager finished the introductions he dropped his right hand and placed it on his hip. This was the agreed upon signal for Sakura to begin the effects.

At seeing the manager's hand go to his hip, Sakura recalled the Light Card she had been using to create the spotlight. She then pulled out another card and struck it with her wand. "Glow!" Suddenly the Glow Card emerged and created a sparkling glow effect inside the tent, causing the crowd to gasp at the beautiful sight. Their amazement quickly jumped to an even higher level when the entire outer edge of the circular center stage seemed to explode into an upward waterfall. As the water disappeared the center of the stage erupted in a frenzy of fire effects. Some flames flew upwards in a spiraling tornado of fire and others created dazzling rings and semi-circles of dancing flames. When the tornadoes of fire dissipated, a number of spotlights appeared, centering on the members of the animal team of the circus along with their lions, bears, and tigers. The dangerous animals all performed a number of tricks at the command of the trainers, including jumping through the rings of fire intermittently placed around the circular stage.

One of the last performances of the circus was the acrobatic routine of Catherine and Trowa. It was right before Trowa and Catherine's routine that Heero finished with the electrical systems. He believed everything was in order, but without testing it would be impossible to tell. Heero stood up and stretched a bit before walking off in the direction of Sakura's aura. As Catherine and Trowa began their performance, Heero picked up speed. He didn't know why, but he was sure that Sakura needed help. When he finally arrived to where Sakura was situated, he was shocked to see her leaning against the wall, obviously using a great deal of effort to just stay on her feet. He quickly ran over to her and gently placed his arm around her waist and her arm around his neck to allow Sakura to lean against him for support.

"What's wrong, Sakura-san?" whispered Heero in an exceptionally caring voice.

"H-Heero-kun," said Sakura weakly. "I don't know how much longer I can keep this up. The Glow Card doesn't use much magic energy, but using both Light and Dark at the same time for so long is hard to do."

"I can understand that," said Heero sincerely. "Will you let me share some of my magic energy with you to help you out?"

Sakura didn't know what to say. She was so touched that Heero seemed to care so deeply for her and she felt so drained that she couldn't get a word out of her mouth. In the end she just nodded her head and smiled at Heero. Heero took Sakura into his arms in a genuine hug, allowing Sakura to happily melt in his caring embrace. Had anyone been looking towards the niche at the outer edge of the tent, they would have seen a beautiful silver glow coming from the opening as Heero shared his power with Sakura and once again their auras allowed themselves to combine together.

After the show, Syaoran, Ami, Catherine and Trowa found Heero and Sakura both sleeping peacefully in the small area Sakura had been throughout the show. Heero was sleeping in a sitting position with his back against the wall and had Sakura sitting between his legs with her back against his chest. They could see that Heero had his arms wrapped around Sakura's waist and her hands were placed on top of Heero's making sure he wouldn't let go of the comfortable embrace. Both Ami and Syaoran had felt Sakura's and Heero's auras combine and assumed they must be drained from using both the Light and Dark Cards simultaneously for such an extended period of time. Nobody wanted to disturb the peaceful looking couple, but Ami did pull out her disposable camera she had bought to take pictures at the circus and took a snapshot of Heero and Sakura. Ami figured that Tomoyo would probably like the picture of the cute couple for her collection. Instead of waking Heero to find out if the systems were ready for testing, Trowa decided to go do a thorough check himself.

After Trowa left, Catherine turned to Ami and Syaoran. "You two are pretty good friends with Heero, right?" she asked. Both Ami and Syaoran looked at each other and then back to Catherine and gave an `I guess so' type of shrug. "Between the time you first met him and now, have either of you noticed him change at all?"

"Definitely," answered Ami. "When I first met Heero-kun at freshman orientation he was ice cold. But now, even though he still keeps up his serious exterior, it is obvious he is a lot warmer towards most people. He is still ruthless towards anyone who seems to be some type of enemy, but to his friends he has become quite a nice guy."

"That's what I thought. When I first met him, Heero seemed like the only person who was less emotional than Trowa. But now, he acts just like a normal nice guy." Catherine paused to think for a brief moment, before continuing. "Do either of you know what made him change so suddenly?"

Again, Ami and Syaoran looked at each other before looking back at Catherine. When they were sure they had the redhead's full attention they motioned towards the soundly sleeping couple.

"She did?" Catherine asked in disbelief. Catherine looked more closely at the sleeping Sakura. "She is certainly beautiful," Catherine thought to herself. "But she must also be an exceptional person if she could break through that emotional wall Heero had constructed around himself."

"Sakura-chan is an amazing person," said Ami. "I'm not at all surprised it took someone like her to get through to Heero's human side."

"I also believe these two share a link that none of us will ever really be able to comprehend." Syaoran's last comment made everyone look once again at the sleeping couple, each wondering exactly what special bond the two possessed.

Shortly before the beginning of the five o'clock circus show, Heero slowly returned to consciousness. Blinking his eyes a few times to clear his head, Heero attempted to determine his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was Sakura shifting slightly against his chest. Heero gave a small smile to the sleeping girl and was enjoying the peace and quiet until he noticed the lights dim and saw the manager standing center stage announcing the beginning of the next show.

"Sakura-san. Sakura-san," whispered Heero as he gently nudged Sakura awake. Sakura's eyes fluttered open and she tilted her head upward to determine who had woken her. Innocent emerald eyes met intense cobalt ones as Heero and Sakura stared at one another. "Hi."

"Hi," answered Sakura in a sweet voice.

"The show is about to start. I thought you might want to go down and watch it without worrying about doing the effects."

"Arigato, Heero-kun. But is it okay if we just watch from here?" asked Sakura with her most cute and innocent expression on her face. Heero just smiled and nodded as he watched Sakura situate herself into a comfortable position in Heero's arms.

During intermission, Ami glanced over at the two empty front row seats next to her. "Should we go check on Sakura-chan and Heero-kun?" asked Ami as she turned to Syaoran who was seated next to her.

"Don't worry about them Ami-san," answered Syaoran. "Look," he said as he pointed to a small alcove at the back of the tent. Ami turned to where Syaoran was pointing and saw Sakura sitting in Heero's lap, laughing and clapping happily. "They have been awake since the beginning of the show."

"They look very happy together," commented Ami as she watched the two smiling and laughing together.

"They aren't the only ones," said Syaoran sweetly as he gently took Ami's hand into his own and gave her a gentle smile. Ami responded by smiling back before resting her head on Syaoran's shoulder.

"Heero-kun," said Sakura. "Look over there. Don't they look cute?" Heero looked to where Sakura was pointing at Syaoran and Ami sitting together holding hands.

"I think they were probably saying the same about us a minute ago." Sakura looked up at him with a confused look on her face. "I saw the two pointing up at us and talking just a moment ago." Sakura looked back down at Ami and Syaoran and saw that Ami was looking back up at Heero and herself. After making eye contact with the beautiful Senshi, Sakura gave a cheerful smile to Ami who returned Sakura's smile with one of her own and the two shared a giggle before cuddling a little closer to each of their respective boyfriends to watch the rest of the show.

After the show, Heero, Sakura, Ami and Syaoran met up with each other and then went to find Trowa and Catherine. Ami and Sakura spent some time playing with the gentler circus animals before the six went out to eat dinner. Following dinner, Heero, Sakura, Ami, and Syaoran took their leave and began the drive back to campus. The night sky was completely clear and a countless number of stars were twinkling overhead as the four teens drove down the coastal road. They were each feeling comfortable and relaxed until suddenly they all felt a magic presence. As soon as the magical presence hit him, Heero pulled over to the side of the road with Syaoran following suit.

"Where is it?" asked Syaoran as everyone got out of the cars.

"I don't know," said Sakura as she scanned the surrounding area. "The feeling keeps changing directions." As far as the four could tell, there wasn't anything around except a beautiful white bird flying along the coast.

Ami looked a little closer at the bird, trying to figure out what type it could be since it didn't quite resemble any birds that would naturally be flying in the area. The bird was a good distance away, so Ami decided to transform into Sailor Mercury and use her visor to get a better look. Once transformed, Ami took out her visor and zoomed in on the creature. When she finally got a clear look, she gasped and shouted, "It's that white bird over there!"

"How do you know, Ami-san?" asked Syaoran as he looked to where Ami was pointing.

"Because it isn't a bird. It has wings, but no body and no head."

While Ami was pointing out the creature to the others, she didn't realize it had changed direction. Apparently the magic energy released by Ami's transformation had attracted the attention of the winged creature. Before they had a chance to react, a strong gust of wind came flying at them, knocking each one to the ground. As they were pulling themselves up, the creature came swooping down, forcing everyone to duck before the flying wings hit them. After missing its target, the creature apparently got bored and began to fly along the road towards the city.

"We've got to stop it," said Syaoran as he got up and then helped Ami to her feet.

"Right," agreed Sakura as Heero was helping her up.

The four hopped into the two sports cars and Heero and Syaoran both dropped their cars into gear and hit the gas resulting in the cars jumping forward and quickly accelerating. "Buckle in tight," said Heero to Sakura as he shifted again and kept steadily accelerating with Syaoran only a few feet behind. When they were decently close to the speeding magical wings, Heero glanced over at Sakura. "Can you use your magic from in the car?"

"Hai," responded Sakura with a nod. "Key that Hides the Power of the Stars. Show Your True Self to Me. I, Sakura Command You Under Contract. Release!" When Sakura's wand appeared she also pulled out a Clow Card. "Stop the flying Clow Card! Windy!" At the command of its Mistress, the Windy Card released from its confines and flew up towards the great white wings. As Windy was about to catch up to the new Clow Card, it turned around and flapped its wings directly at the Windy Card, causing a gust that threw Windy back to the ground and making it change back into a Clow Card. "Oh no! Windy didn't work," cried Sakura.

"Don't worry. We'll capture it," said Heero. It didn't take long for the two top-end sports cards to pull even with the flying Clow Card.

"Firey!" cried Sakura as she released one of her most powerful attack cards. The Firey Card soared up towards the giant wings before loosing its physical form and attacking the Clow Card with a frenzy of flames. Unfortunately, the new Clow Card was too maneuverable and easily dodged each fire attack. When it had put a sufficient amount of space between the attacking flames and itself, the flying Clow Card turned and sent a gust of wind that sent the Firey Card flying and forced it to revert back to card form.

Hoping to catch the Clow Card by surprise, Ami attacked the second the Firey Card was reverted back to card form. "Mercury Aqua Mirage!" Ami's attack did manage to catch the Clow Card by surprise; the ribbons of water successfully wrapped themselves around the white wings. Before the attack could finish however, the creature spread its wings and effectively forced Ami's magical water to dissipate. The attack did serve to anger the creature, as it unfolded its head, attached to a long neck, from between its two enormous wings. Surprisingly, the creature turned out to be quite beautiful, with the head and long elegant neck very closely resembling that of a swan. Unfortunately, looks can be deceiving as the swan-like Clow Card let out a blood curdling scream before turning to face the speeding cars. Once it was faced in the desired direction, it flapped its enormous wings and blew another great gust of wind straight at the sides of the two sports cars. Luckily for Heero and Sakura, the blast was a little behind them so they escaped without any damage. Unfortunately, that meant the wind struck full force on the broadside of Syaoran's car which was following directly behind Heero and Sakura. The second Heero saw the silver Porsche disappear from the rear-view mirror, he tapped the brakes and turned the wheel, effectively making the Ferrari do a 180. He then slammed on the accelerator and drove back to where Syaoran's car was stopped on the side of the road. Fortunately, Syaoran was a superb driver and combined with this lighting fast reaction time, he had managed to get the car under control quickly after the wind attack. When Heero and Sakura got to Syaoran's car they were relieved to see that neither Syaoran nor Ami were injured. Syaoran's front tire was destroyed however, so he wouldn't be driving anywhere soon. The four only had a moment to ensure each other that they were okay before the Clow Card turned toward them again.

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a bright white energy beam came streaking towards the Clow Card. The attack caught the card completely off guard and struck directly on the creature's left wing. The attack stunned the creature and caused it to lift its head high in the air and screech in pain. Heero, Syaoran, Ami and Sakura followed the path the blast had come from with their eyes and were surprised to see Ranma standing on the side of the road with Tomoyo not too far away. Tomoyo was taping the entire situation with an enormous smile on her face. The group wasn't distracted for long, for when they saw Ranma preparing for another blast they looked back at the creature to see that it had started to recover from the shock of Ranma's first attack. At that moment, Sakura, Ami, and Syaoran silently decided to attack at the same moment at Ranma.

"Möko Takabisha!"

"Mercury Aqua Mirage!"

"God of Lighting, Come Forth!"

"Watery!"

The four powerful attacks all impacted simultaneously as the creature let out another yell before falling towards the ground. "I Heero, Master of the Cards Command You. Return to Your True Form. Clow Card!" The falling winged Clow Card turned into energy before changing into a Clow Card and floating to Heero's hand. "The Wing Card," stated Heero as he handed the card to Sakura.

"Made from the Fly," added Sakura as she studied the new card. As Sakura gave the card to Syaoran, Tomoyo and Ranma pulled up in Tomoyo's Mercedes. "Arigato, Saotome-kun," said Sakura. "We might not have been able to capture the card without you. By the way, what are you two doing here anyway?"

"We were on our way back from the beach where we were walking under the stars when we saw you fighting that big white thing," answered Ranma. "Tomoyo-san wanted to capture the fight since she figured it was probably a Clow Card. Then I saw it was about to attack you, so I attacked it."

"And I got everything on tape!" exclaimed Tomoyo.

"What was that attack you did?" asked Syaoran.

"It's called the Möko Takabisha," replied Ranma. "It is a blast made from the user's battle aura."

"I had no idea you knew how to use battle magic," said Syaoran, who got a confused look from Ranma. "We call using battle auras as physical attacks battle magic. It is a little more limited than real magic, but properly harnessed it can be quite powerful."

"So does that mean Saotome-kun can use magic too?" asked Ami.

"No," answered Syaoran. "The ability to use regular magic is an inherited trait. For people who have the ability, learning basic magic is usually fairly simple. Battle magic is pretty much the opposite. Everyone has the ability to use battle magic, but learning to create the proper fighting aura and harness the power takes a very skilled martial artist."

"So someone like me probably can't learn any battle magic anytime soon then?" asked Sakura.

"Probably not. You don't have the same fighting spirit as someone like Saotome. Even I can't use battle magic attacks since I spent all my time learning regular magic. Meilin is probably going to start her battle magic training back in Hong Kong soon though."

The discussion about battle magic and regular magic and the Clow Cards continued for a little while longer until the six decided it was time to head back to campus. Sakura used the Create Card to fix Syaoran's tire and then the group all drove back to school.

~~~~~Tomoeda, Japan~~~~~

"So I was right," said Cerberus in an unusually serious voice as he stared up at the night sky.

"I thought it was going to be the Li kid that was going to be the catalyst for the legend," said Yue from next to Cerberus. "It seems it is this other guy, Yuy. Be careful, the danger is coming. I can feel it. Guard our Mistress well."

Cerberus nodded his large head before turning back into his small form and taking off to get back to his Mistress in Tokyo. "I hope everything will be okay, because I don't think we even have enough power to protect Sakura if this evil does come to pass…"