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's Friends' Great Challenge ( Chapter 13 )

Chapter 13: Sakura's Friends' Great Challenge

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

"I'm really starting to dislike this part of campus," remarked Syaoran.

"Maybe we need a new route to Sakura and Ami's class," agreed Heero.

A couple weeks after the fight with Charon, Heero and Syaoran were at the same junction on campus where the demon had attacked them, although this time they were both heading the same direction since both Ami and Sakura had class together. They had been casually walking along when they both suddenly felt a magical presence. They had stopped walking when they felt the presence, and a split-second later a giant orange box erected itself around and above them, trapping them inside.

"Key that Hides the Power of Space. Show Your True Self to Me. I, Heero Command You Under Contract. Release!" As Heero released his Clow Sword, Syaoran also took the pendant from around his neck and released his own sword. "Let's get out of here," said Heero.

Syaoran nodded at his cousin and both Li Clan leaders took a ready stance, facing the same wall. Simultaneously, both Heero and Syaoran slashed down on the wall, only to have their blades bounce harmlessly off the surface.

"Well that didn't work," commented Syaoran as he knocked the wall with his recently healed arm, thanks to the Heal Card's power. "Let's give magic a try. God of Lightning, Come Forth!" Bolts of lightning erupted from Syaoran's sword and impacted on the wall in front of him. The lightning bolts remained on the surface of the wall, trying to break through, but were eventually repelled away. Unfortunately for Heero and Syaoran, they were both directly in the return path of the lightning attack and were each hit directly in the chest, knocking them to the ground. "Sorry about that," apologized Syaoran as he and Heero got back up.

Heero just waved off the apology since he knew the result of Syaoran's attack was unintentional. "This thing must have a weak spot somewhere."

The two took a minute to carefully examine the box they were trapped in. "I don't see anywhere that might be a weakness," commented Syaoran.

"Neither do I," agreed Heero. "Too bad we can't get a look from the outside."

"Maybe Sakura can help us out," suggested Syaoran when he remembered Heero's telepathic connection with the Card Mistress.

"I've been trying to talk to her," answered Heero. "But it seems our connection is blocked. Her Through Card would probably be helpful right now."

"What about the Ghost Card?" Syaoran suggested. "It can move through walls."

Heero nodded and took out the Ghost Card. "Card Created by Clow. Discard Your Old Form and be Reborn, Under the Name Heero; Your New Master!" The Ghost Card glowed white as it changed from a Clow Card into a Heero Card. The new Ghost Card now replaced the old Glow Card picture with a picture of a transparent old man with an eerie glow surrounding him. Heero pulled out the Telepathy Card and released it along with his new Ghost Card. "Find us a weakness in this wall. Telepathy! Ghost!" When the two cards released, the Ghost Card went through the wall of the box trapping Heero and Syaoran, to look at the outside, while Telepathy stayed within the box to communicate whatever the Ghost Card found.

After a couple minutes of patient waiting, the Telepathy Card finally spoke. "There is a weak point here," said the Telepathy Card as it pointed to a bottom corner of the box. Heero nodded to his Clow Card and then recalled both Ghost and Telepathy. Heero then motioned for Syaoran to proceed with the attack, since they both knew Syaoran's lightning attack was probably the most practical attack for the situation.

"God of Lightning, Come Forth!" Syaoran's lightning attack impacted in the exact corner of the box and exploded. This time the bolts did not bounce back at Heero and Syaoran, but instead destroyed a very large section of the box.

"Return to Your True Form, Clow Card!" As Heero sealed the new Clow Card, the box surrounding Syaoran and himself turned into ribbons of energy and rematerialized as a Clow Card that floated over to Syaoran.

"The Trap Card," stated Syaoran as he handed the Card to his cousin after they both recalled their swords. Heero took the Clow Card to inspect it, but saw nothing her wasn't already expecting. The design of the Card was just like all the other unchanged Clow Cards and the front had a split picture with both Mist and Libra featured. Having both seen the Clow Card now, Heero placed it in his pocket and he and Syaoran resumed their walk to Sakura and Ami's classroom.

"You two are late!" scolded Sakura with a mock angry face and tone of voice when Heero and Syaoran finally walked up to where she and Ami were waiting.

"We've been waiting for like a whole three minutes!" added Ami to keep up the charade Sakura had started.

"Sorry honey," joked Heero as he pulled Sakura into a kiss to keep her from fake complaining anymore.

Syaoran followed Heero's lead and did the same with Ami. "Are we forgiven?"

Sakura and Ami looked at one another and giggled. "I guess so," Ami finally said as she kissed Syaoran again.

"So what took you guys so long anyway?" asked Sakura, who now had her back against Heero's chest with his arms wrapped around her waist. Instead of answering Sakura with words, Heero reached into his pocket and pulled out the newly captured Trap Card. Sakura shifted into an upright position, no longer leaning against Heero's chest, when Heero handed her the new Clow Card. "You two captured a Clow Card?"

"Hai," answered Syaoran.

"Are either of you hurt?" asked Ami, who remembered what had happened the last time Heero and Syaoran had fought an enemy alone together.

"Nothing serious," said Heero. "The Clow Card never attacked us; it just trapped us inside a box. The only damage we received was from the deflection of Li's lightning attack."

Sakura and Ami looked at Syaoran both to determine if Heero was being truthful and also because it sounded strange that they got hit by Syaoran's own attack. "We're fine," said Syaoran when he saw the girls looking at him. "Don't worry."

"You two always say you're fine," commented Sakura. "Even when you obviously aren't." Heero and Syaoran both looked at each other and shrugged. They both knew Sakura was right, so didn't really have any way to respond to her comment.

"Are you sure it's okay for the rest of us to go out tonight without you guys?" Ami asked Heero and Sakura to change the subject.

Sakura nodded her head to her friend. "Hai. You guys are going to an over eighteen club, and just because we are still seventeen doesn't mean the rest of you shouldn't be allowed to have fun without us. Besides, we won't be eighteen for another two months so it wouldn't be fair to everyone."

"We'll find something to do," added Heero.

"I have no doubt," responded Ami as she smiled at the couple.

The two couples casually made their way back to the dorms, where everyone else was already waiting. The five guys changed for soccer practice, while the girls found other things to occupy themselves with before meeting the guys, minus Heero, at the club they were going to that night. Having not finalized any plans, Heero and Sakura decided to meet back at the rooms and figure out how to spend their evening alone.

"So we'll meet you two and the girls at the club in a bit," said Eriol as he and Ranma got into Eriol's car to follow Heero back to the dorms.

"Alright," answered Syaoran who was standing by his car, waiting for Duo to finish up showering, since he had to talk with the coach for a few minutes after practice.

Syaoran patiently waited alone by the driver's side of his Porsche until Duo finally walked out of the locker room. "Where'd everyone go?" Duo asked when he saw only Syaoran waiting for him.

"Hiiragizawa and Saotome had to stop by the dorms for a second before meeting the girls," answered Syaoran. "They'll meet us at the club."

Duo nodded his head as he walked to the passenger side of the sports car and opened the door. Once they were both inside, Syaoran started up the Porsche and turned onto the main road to take them toward the club. It was about a ten minute drive to the club, but when Syaoran and Duo were about halfway there, a large something suddenly fell right in front of the car, forcing Syaoran to slam on the brakes. The car skidded to a stop just inches short from hitting the obstruction. When Syaoran and Duo looked up to find out what had fallen into the road, they were both shocked at what they saw. What stood in front of them was none other than the demon, Charon.

"What the hell is that!?" asked Duo in shock when he saw the giant brown figure with his black wings fully extended outward.

"That's Charon," stated Syaoran seriously as he unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the car door. Facing his enemy, Syaoran called forth his sword and gave a deathly glare to the demon. "I was hoping you had been defeated."

Charon let loose a mighty laugh as the prospect of himself being defeated so easily. "You think such a rudimentary water attack would defeat me? The entire Li Clan was unable to destroy me, and you two punks are not going to either!"

As Charon was talking, Duo stepped out of the car and got himself into a ready position, knowing a fight was imminent. "Let's see what you got, ugly!"

Charon looked straight at Duo with a smirk of amusement on his face. "And what do you think you can do? You are nothing but a little worm with no magic."

Despite the demon's insults, the grin never left Duo's face. "I may not have any magic, but I think I can hold my own against an oaf like you."

In response to Duo's taunt, Charon held out a single hand straight out in front of him. Syaoran could feel the demon's power growing, but only had enough time to jump out of the way as Charon let loose a powerful fireball that impacted directly on the hood of Syaoran's car. The resulting explosion also caught fire to the gas tank and the top end sports car erupted in flames. After taking a moment to admire his handiwork, Charon turned toward Duo, who was gaping at the sight of Syaoran's exploded car. "So you still think you can defeat me?"

Duo shifted his gaze from the burning heap that used to be Syaoran's car, to the smirking demon who's hand had the smallest trace of smoke rising from where he had released the powerful fireball. Turning toward Syaoran, Duo could see a glimmer of anger in his eyes as he stared at the demon before them. "Next time," said Duo in a surprisingly casual tone of voice considering Charon had just destroyed a car. "Remind me not to aggravate the demon." Syaoran looked at Duo when he spoke, and couldn't help but laugh lightly. The Gundam pilot always had a way of making even the most serious of situations seem trivial. "By the way," continued Duo. "Sorry about your car, Li."

"Don't worry about it," answered Syaoran. "The car is always replaceable."

Charon soon became quite annoyed when it seemed as though the two teenagers had forgotten all about his presence. In response he once again held out his hand in front of him, and this time shot a fireball in Duo's direction. Paying close attention out of the corner of his eye, Duo saw the fireball coming, and very easily ducked out of the way. A little surprised by Duo's quick reaction, Charon found himself in a position where he had a number of vulnerable targets. Both Duo and Syaoran took advantage of the demon's defenseless state, and attacked. Duo did a flying side kick to Charon's head, and at the same instant, Syaoran delivered a sweeping kick that knocked out both of the demon's legs. The result of the two simultaneous attacks was Charon being knocked flat onto his back on the ground with a loud thump.

"We might not be able to defeat you with magic," said Duo after taking a flip backward from where Charon lay on the ground. "But if you can't hit us with your own attacks, then your magic is just as useless." Charon slowly made his way back to his feet and sent a fierce look in Duo's direction, to which Duo started laughing. "You'll have to do better than that," he taunted. "Heero's death glare is much more intimidating than yours."

This time Charon got really angry. With fire burning in his eyes, he let loose another powerful fireball in Duo's direction, but Duo was too quick and managed to dodge the attack. After missing with the first fireball, Charon attacked with another, which Duo evaded once again. He followed his second fireball with a third, and a forth, and a fifth, all of which Duo managed to evade unscathed. "No matter how many times you try it, that attack just won't work against me."

Charon stopped attacking Duo for a moment, and stood up straight, smiling. "Do you really think that is my only method of attack?" Without giving Duo a chance to respond, Charon tossed from a closed fist over a dozen smaller balls of energy, each one flying at Duo from slightly different angles and at varying velocities. Even with Duo's unusually fast reactive abilities, it was physically impossible to dodge all the smaller fireballs. Duo managed to evade the first few by a narrow margin, but after that, his luck ran out. The fourth fireball struck Duo directly on his shoulder, causing him to grimace in pain, but more importantly, throwing him off balance. His momentum broken, Duo was unable to dodge even one of the remaining fireballs, each one striking a different part of his body. By the time all the fireballs had found some target or another, Duo was hardly able to even stand. His legs were shaking badly, and he was only able to keep one of his eyes open, since one of the fireballs had struck the left side of his face. Charon laughed at Duo's severely weakened state and again, put in hand out in front of him. "Now let's see you dodge my attack this time!" From out of Charon's outstretched hand, another giant powerful fireball started forming.

Duo closed his one eye he could still control, and prepared himself for the attack. He knew very well that he had no chance of dodging the attack, and most likely because of his current state, such a powerful attack would probably kill him. Duo had been prepared for death a long time ago, but for some reason, at this moment he feared such an outcome. In his mind, an image of Minako appeared, and Duo knew he couldn't die yet. Reopening his one good eye, Duo tried to determine some way of defending himself. However, luckily for Duo, one fraction of a second before Charon released his deadly attack, Syaoran came flying in from out of nowhere and kicked Charon directly in the side of his unguarded head. The blow caused Charon to become unbalanced, and his attack flew wildly off into the air. Syaoran followed his kick with a slash with his sword across Charon's chest, drawing dark black blood. Charon stumbled a few steps backwards, and Syaoran finished off his combo with a powerful lightning attack that caused the demon to fly through the air, landing on his back on the ground for the second time that night. Syaoran jumped over to where Duo was teetering, and supported him with his arm. "You alright Maxwell?"

"Never better," choked out Duo as he gave his roommate a crooked smile. "Did you get him?"

"I didn't cause enough damage for him to be down for long," answered Syaoran as he watched Charon begin to make his way back to his feet. "Can you stand on your own?"

"I'll be fine," answered Duo as Syaoran allowed him to stand on his own power. Syaoran then began walking toward Charon to begin the second round of the battle. "Hey Li," Duo called out. "Don't go getting yourself killed." As Duo expected, Syaoran didn't even bother turning around since he was so focused on the task at hand.

Syaoran watched from a ready position as Charon pulled himself up off the ground and brushed himself off as if nothing significant had happened. Syaoran's flinch at seeing that his attack had pretty much no effect on the powerful demon was almost unnoticeable, but Charon caught sight of the minute gesture and smirked. Knowing he had the young Li Clan leader against the ropes, Charon called forth his giant hammer and got into a position to strike at Syaoran with powerful physical attacks. Syaoran was not sure if he should be relieved or apprehensive at the fact that Charon would be attacking him physically instead of magically. On one hand, magically he was at a distinct disadvantage since he had almost no control over the one element that Charon seemed to be weak against. But on the other hand, it was also clear that the demon's body was able to withstand a substantially larger amount of physical damage than he himself. His only positive thought was that since Charon was so big and muscular, he was likely to be fairly slow in his actions, so Syaoran figured he should have a speed advantage.

Feeling that it would not be beneficial to be stuck in a defensive position against the powerful demon, Syaoran opted to go on the offensive. Syaoran jumped right into it with a stream of relentless offensive attacks, making sure to not leave any time between hits for Charon to get in a counter strike. After his first wave of attacks, Syaoran decided that he was correct in assuming he had a speed advantage over Charon. The size of the demon limited his movements just slightly, allowing Syaoran to connect easily on almost half of his strikes. Charon did manage to use his hammer to block the more powerful of Syaoran's attacks, but the quick, less powerful jabs with Syaoran's sword, free hand, and legs did connect at their intended targets. Unfortunately, Charon's superior pain and injury tolerance made Syaoran's attacks all but useless.

Syaoran jumped away from his opponent momentarily, as he gathered himself for his next round of attacks. At the exact moment that Syaoran began to charge forward again, Charon allowed a smile to cross his hardened face and with a powerful flap of his wings, Charon lifted off into the sky. Using his magic power to keep himself afloat in midair, Charon gazed down at the now stationary Li Clan leader with amusement. "Just give up," mocked Charon. "You know you are no match for me."

Syaoran glared back up at Charon, beginning to loose his composure. Even though he knew it was useless to do so, Syaoran called forth a single lightning bolt and directed it at the position in the sky where Charon floated. Seeing the desperate attempt to cause him harm streaking through the sky, Charon raised his hammer and easily blocked the incoming lightning bolt. Syaoran cursed under his breath at the futility of attacking the demon.

"Still don't give up?" continued taunting Charon with a smirk. "Well, perhaps this will change your mind." Charon placed both his hands side by side, a few inches apart, directly in front of him. He then concentrated his energy and began creating a powerful fireball. This fireball was slightly different than his pervious ones, designed to cause extreme pain, but deny the outcome of death. With another evil smile, Charon released the fireball, sending it streaking in Syaoran's direction. Syaoran watched the fireball fly towards him and prepared to jump out of its path right before it would normally impact in order to not leave Charon with enough time to redirect the attack.

A split-second before Syaoran was going to jump, the fireball suddenly stopped in midair. The sudden change caught Syaoran by surprise and he looked up toward Charon to find an even more wicked grin plastered on his face. Staring up at his opponent, Syaoran saw Charon's eyes momentarily flicker toward where Duo was barely standing. The slight moment by its creator caused the presently levitating fireball to abruptly change directions and made a bee-line straight towards Duo. "Maxwell! Look out!" screamed Syaoran when he realized Charon's target had never been himself, but his badly injured friend. Unfortunately, Duo was so injured that he just didn't have enough energy to attempt to dodge the incoming attack.

The fireball impacted directly on Duo's chest and exploded, the momentum being enough to send Duo flying through the air and landing on his back. However, amazingly enough, the explosion was the least noticeable part of the attack to Duo. When the attack hit him, Duo felt an experience more painful than anything he could have possibly imagined. Being trained to withstand all types of pain and torture, Duo usually had no problems with injury, but he had never felt anything like this at all. When the fireball impacted and exploded, it had the effect of slicing hundreds of minute cuts all over Duo's body. This alone was not enough for the Gundam pilot to be so surprised, but the extra magical effect changed the attack completely. Not only did the fireball cause the hundreds of cuts, but it also managed to create an extreme burning as well as a blistering freezing feeling all at once. The mix of the burning and freezing in his newly opened wounds caused Duo to cry out loudly right before passing out from the excruciating pain.

"Maxwell!" shouted Syaoran as he saw his roommate and friend get struck down. Syaoran took a single step towards Duo before hearing Charon speak again.

"You better worry about yourself before worrying about your friend, Li Xiao Lang."

Syaoran turned toward Charon, but instead of seeing the monstrous demon, all that filled his vision was the sight of another fireball streaking through the sky towards him. Since he had no previous warning, Syaoran only had enough time to get his arm partially in front of himself, and for the second time in two fights, Syaoran's sword was knocked from his hand as he went flying through the air from the impact of one of Charon's powerful fireballs. Unlike before, Syaoran was not knocked unconscious by the blast; however he was injured badly enough so that he couldn't manage to make his way to his feet.

Charon took his time walking over to the fallen Li Clan leader, enjoying his apparent victory. The demon walked until he was towering over Syaoran with a prideful smirk on his face. Syaoran stared back up at Charon with a look of determination, but was still unable to rise from the ground due to his extensive injuries. Raising his hammer high over his head, Charon took one last moment to savor his victory before delivering the final blow. "Say goodbye, Li Xiao Lang."

Syaoran closed his eyes as he saw Charon begin to bring his hammer down in a lightning fast motion. Syaoran awaited the deathblow he knew was imminent, silently wishing he could see Ami one last time. However, the blow Syaoran was expecting never came. Carefully opening his eyes, Syaoran saw a beam of bluish white light streaking over his head and the body of Charon flying backward a great distance. With his eyes, Syaoran followed the beam of energy back to its source and was grateful to see both Ranma and Eriol standing by Eriol's car. Ranma's hands were placed out in front of his body, indicating it was his Möko Takabisha that had saved him from Charon's deadly hammer strike. Syaoran never thought he would ever be glad to see Eriol, but for the first time was grateful to see the reincarnate of Clow Reed release his staff and prepare to do battle alongside Ranma against Charon.

Ranma and Eriol had been on their way to the club to meet Syaoran, Duo, and the girls, when Eriol began to feel a strong, evil magical presence and both teens spotted smoke rising from somewhere down the road. The two had arrived on the scene just in time to see Charon raise his hammer above his head, ready to deliver a deathly blow to Syaoran, who looked to be incapacitated on the ground. Ranma had quickly jumped out of the car and fired as powerful a Möko Takabisha as he could manage with the little time he had to power up. He didn't think his blast was even close to powerful enough to defeat the demon, who he assumed was Charon based on the physical description he had been given by Heero and Syaoran, but was relieved to see that it was strong enough to send Charon flying through the air and away from Syaoran.

"Key that Holds the Power of Darkness. Show Your True Self to Me. I, Eriol Command You Under Contract. Release!" chanted Eriol as he released his Sun Staff from its pendant form. Now fully prepared, Eriol took his place next to Ranma, who was already in a fighting stance, ready to attack Charon again once he got back to his feet. As Ranma had expected, he didn't have to wait long for Charon to recover from his rushed aura attack.

"What do we have here?" asked Charon as he brushed himself off. "Two more little weaklings who think they can stand up against me. There are just so many of you who want to die today."

"The only one who is going to be destroyed today is you," calmly stated Eriol. Before giving Charon a chance to respond to Eriol's comment, Clow Reed's reincarnation released a small water elemental attack. The little bullet of water raced toward Charon and upon impact expanded until it was large enough to completely engulf the fire demon in the liquid. Although it didn't look too powerful, the attack Eriol conjured up was actually his most powerful water elemental spell. Eriol had decided it was best not to play around, so he used what he thought would be his most effective weapon against the demon right off the bat, and hoped it would be enough to sufficiently injure the demon to cause a retreat.

Unfortunately, instead of hearing some type of cry of pain from the demon as Eriol had been hoping for, all that could be heard was the booming sound of laughter. In a flash, the water that Eriol had created evaporated into steam, and standing unharmed was a burning form of Charon. "You'll have to do better than that," taunted Charon with a smug expression on his face.

Ranma and Eriol both cursed under their breath and let loose another blast. The bluish energy of Ranma's Möko Takabisha streaked side by side with the bright red beam that came from Eriol's staff, toward the smirking form of Charon. The two streams of energy never reached their intended target, however. Moments before being struck, Charon raised his hand in front of himself and closed his eyes. The result was a powerful invisible magical barrier, upon which both attacks impacted and exploded harmlessly.

Charon laughed loudly at the futility of the attacks being mounted against him. "Now let me show you how it's done." The powerful demon raised his hands above his head, and proceeded to create two fireballs. These two fireballs were obviously a slightly different attack than all his previous ones, since they were each blue in color instead of red. Charon charged up the two blue fireballs until they were each about two feet in diameter. Once they reached full strength, the demon sent them flying, one toward Ranma, and the other toward Eriol.

The two teens saw the fireballs coming and each took a sidestep to avoid the attacks, but made sure to be ready for anything after hearing about the first encounter Heero and Syaoran had with the demon. They had heard about the ability of Charon to control the movements of his fireballs, so they weren't particularly surprised to see the energy balls change direction and retarget themselves. Eriol and Ranma made quick eye contact and nodded to each other just before taking off in different directions with a single fireball giving chase to each of them. They both moved at full speed to stay ahead of the energy attacks, and gradually made their way in a circular pattern until they were running full speed at one another. By this time, the fireballs had gained ground on the two teens, and were quite close to finding their targets. However, this did not worry either Ranma or Eriol, since it had all been part of the plan. Right as the two teens were about to run into each other, they each suddenly dove to the side and watched as the two fireballs destroyed each other upon impact.

The few moments Ranma and Eriol spent basking in their triumph over the powerful attacks turned out to be a mistake and Charon made them pay. While their guard was momentarily down, Charon took the opportunity to fly right between the two fighters. Neither Eriol nor Ranma had been expecting the sudden move since they had been so concentrated on dealing with the two blue fireballs, and were totally unprepared when Charon placed a hand in front of each of their bodies and released a blast of energy at point blank range. The blasts threw Eriol far off one way and sent Ranma flying in the opposite direction, smoke coming from both teenagers from the points in which they were blasted.

Normally Charon would have taken some time to savor another sweet victory, but his triumph time was interrupted when a black sports car suddenly rammed into him from behind at full speed. The collision threw Charon forward a number of feet, landing face first on the pavement for the fourth time that evening.

While Charon was lying on the ground from a mix of both surprise and pain, the doors of the sports car, opened and Ukyo and Tomoyo stepped out. Ukyo took one look at the hood of Tomoyo's Mercedes and grimaced. "I think you are going to need a new car, Tomoyo-san," she said.

Tomoyo also looked at the hood of her car and was a little surprised to see how extreme the damage was. When Syaoran, Eriol, Ranma, and Duo had not arrived at the club as they were supposed to, the girls got a little worried and drove back to their apartment. From a distance the four girls had spotted the ongoing fight between Charon and Ranma and Eriol. At first none of them knew who or what Eriol and Ranma were fighting, but it quickly became apparent that they were having a very difficult time. Minako stopped her car so that she and Ami could get out and transform into Sailor Mercury and Sailor Venus and join in the fight, but when Tomoyo and Ukyo saw their boyfriends get blasted from short range by the demon, Tomoyo had decided that she wanted to help in a fight for once and drove straight into the battle. Going at full speed, Tomoyo had crashed her car right into the back of Charon, sending him flying away from the fallen guys, but the crash had taken its toll on the top end car, as Charon's massive form had completely crushed the entire front of Tomoyo's car, destroying the engine and leaving the car useless. The two girls only spent moments looking over Tomoyo's car, before each running in opposite directions to check on their respective boyfriends. Both Ukyo and Tomoyo were relieved to find that Ranma and Eriol were alive, although they were each unconscious.

In the meantime, Minako, now transformed into Sailor Venus, had run over to Duo to see if he was ok, and Ami, in Sailor Mercury form, made her way quickly over to Syaoran. "Are you alright?" Ami asked as she knelt beside him and allowed him to lean against her since he was barely able to stay up on one knee.

Syaoran coughed and grimaced at the pain he felt from doing so. "I've been better," he answered with as much of a grin as he could manage. Ami visibly relaxed at finding out that Syaoran was at least ok enough to joke around. Ami took a second to steal a peak at Charon slowly getting up off the ground. He was obviously feeling some pain from being rammed by Tomoyo's car, but was clearly not injured enough to stop him from finishing the fight he had started. Syaoran also saw Charon getting back up, and noticed Ami looking in the same direction. "Go get him," Syaoran said, knowing Ami wanted to fight the demon, but also wanted to stay by Syaoran's side to make sure he was ok. "I'm alright. Just finish off that demon. You're Mercury water powers should be quite effective against him."

Ami gave Syaoran one last look and nodded her head. She stood up to face the Charon, who had now made it back to his feet and picked up his giant hammer. Ami was about to use her Mercury Aqua Mirage to attack the demon, but someone else beat her to the offensive.

"Venus Meteor Shower!" shouted Minako as she released an attack she rarely had ever used before. Ami was a little surprised at her fellow Senshi, since for the first time that she could remember Minako had a look of pure hatred on her face. Not only that, but Ami could also feel that Minako's attack was several times more powerful than normal. Ami allowed her gaze to drift over to Duo, and quickly figured out why Minako looked so angry. Duo was lying on the ground unconscious, and from what Ami could tell, he looked to be in far worse shape than both Ranma and Eriol, and definitely in worse shape than Syaoran. Ami also figured that Minako's huge power boost must have had something to do with Duo as well, since from what she could remember, all of the Senshi, except for herself for some reason, would always get more powerful when they were extra emotional.

Minako's rage made her attack so powerful that when the rays of red light fell from the sky atop of Charon, it not only impacted the demon, but the stray beams destroyed the entire area of the road surrounding him. Dirt, gravel, and asphalt were thrown in all directions, creating a cloud of dust and smoke around the area where Charon had been standing. Minako was fairly certain her attack had been powerful enough to at least injure Charon enough to make him retreat, but she was so angry at the moment that she didn't care. Even before the dust settled, Minako attacked again. "Venus Meteor Shower!" For a second time, countless beams of red energy streaked down from the sky and exploded on the ground below. The blast was extremely loud and created a huge gray plume of smoke above the road, which had now become a crater.

Ami was shocked at the amount of power demonstrated by her fellow Senshi. She had never before seen Minako pour so much raw energy into her attacks, and the destructiveness of the assault was astounding. Ami highly doubted that Charon could have survived such a powerful onslaught, but she decided to attack where he had been anyway. If nothing else, she figured her water attacks would hinder any possible fires that might start because of Minako's explosive attack. "Mercury Aqua Illusion!" Ami opted to use one of her older attacks instead of her more powerful Mercury Aqua Mirage, since she thought it might be overkill to go all out. The water crystals of one Ami's older, but still favorite, attacks flew toward the smoking crater and impacted with a splash. The water from Sailor Mercury's attacks met the heat from Sailor Venus' Meteor Shower attack and instantly turned to steam.

It took much less time for the steam to clear away than the smoke was taking, and soon the area was visible once again. Ami and Minako looked into the crater, still keeping their guard up, to see what had happened to Charon. They were a little surprised to see the demon was still alive, even after the powerful attacks, but he looked to be very injured. Charon was kneeling on one knee with his arms both in front of his face to shield himself as best he could from the attacks by the Senshi. Mercury and Venus watched as Charon slowly removed his hands from their position of protecting his face. Despite the size of Charon's muscular arms, he had been unable to completely protect himself from the assault, and the two girls could see that one side of his face had a huge gash all the way from above his eye all the way down past his bloody lips. The wound was keeping Charon from opening one of his eyes, and it also looked as if he was having trouble using his right arm. Swearing under his breath, Charon concentrated the last of his power and teleported himself away from the scene before the two magicians decided to finish him off.

Ami and Minako could only watch as Charon disappeared right in front of their eyes, and were briefly angry that he had gotten away. Their anger soon dissipated and changed back to the mix of fear and caring with regards to their boyfriends as they both transformed back to their normal states and again ran back to the sides of Duo and Syaoran.

"Did you get him?" asked Syaoran in a strained voice when Ami got back to his side.

"We injured him," answered Ami. "But then he just disappeared."

Syaoran managed a slight smile. "It looks like you two won this round then."

Ami silenced Syaoran with a quick and gentle kiss on the lips. "Stop talking. It isn't good for your injuries to be wasting your energy talking." Syaoran just nodded his head, knowing that Ami was probably right. Ami gave Syaoran another quick kiss before getting up to check on all the rest of the guys. Of everyone, Duo was obviously in the worst shape, but it seemed as if he would make a full recovery given enough time, thanks in no small part to his conditioning in his training as a Gundam pilot.

Once she was sure everyone was stable, Ami called Heero and Sakura on her cell phone, and the eight teens waited for the two Card Captors to arrive. In no time at all, Heero and Sakura came flying down the road in Heero's Ferrari and stopped where everyone was waiting at the side of the road. Since both Syaoran and Tomoyo's cars weren't drivable, Heero let Tomoyo drive herself and Ranma, who had now regained consciousness, back to the apartments in his car. Although he too was conscious, Eriol didn't feel up to driving back to the dorms, so he and Ukyo got into the backseat of his Jaguar, the only car that happened to even have a backseat, and let Ami drive, with Syaoran sitting in the passenger seat. With Heero's help, Minako got the still unconscious Duo into the passenger seat of her NSX and she followed Ami and Tomoyo back to school. Heero and Sakura called forth the Wing and Fly Cards so that they could get back home, but first made a stop at the forest where Heero kept his Gundam in order to ask the still free Heal Card if they could borrow its power again.