Card Captors
Episode 1
Kibou stood on the ridge of a broken building overlooking the ruined city. The dark clouds that were overhead rolled with the air currents and lighting flowed through them. Kibou's shoulder length hair blew across his face in the wind and he titled his head to the right to make his hair flow out of his eyes.
As the wind stopped Kibou looked down to the ground level below and crouched, gripping the side of the roof. Something was coming. With another flash of lighting Kibou noticed, what he could only call, a little pink puff ball, but what made Kibou nervous was the bigger creature that was following it.
It looked to be a enormous wolf or dog, maybe even a hybrid, but the most fascinating thing was that the animal was made out of pure lighting. Kibou couldn't make out if lighting was coming from the creature or going to it. A tiny scream emitted from the puff ball as it turned down a side street and the anime followed it, a howl of pure rage poured out of its mouth as it disappeared down the dark alley.
Standing, Kibou put both hands on his hips and his dark green, almost black, cape billowed around him. The wind constantly shifted direction; almost unnaturally, it was just something Kibou had gotten use to, ever since the Event.
With another strike of lighting, Kibou jumped from the two story building and landed on the ground with a slight thud and a small dust cloud that billowed up around him. Kibou shifted the weight from his backpack and tighten his dark green gloves. Looking up the road, where the two creatures had come from, he saw nothing and quickly ran down the alley to follow.
Running, Kibou's cape flared behind him and the young man slid to a stop, just at the mouth of the alley. Kibou hissed and pulled his cape around him as he saw the scene before him. The pink puff ball was a little bigger than Kibou had given her credit for, and it really wasn't a puff ball, but a small fairy like creature. Behind her stood the lighting beast, but she no longer seemed to care about that creature, because of the creature facing her. It was one of the Generals.
"Well, well, well…" The creature before the pink little fairy said. The creature was all blue and looked no older than a ten year old child. The little girl had long light blue hair that curled around her feet. When the girl smiled, her teeth were small and pointy. Scales seemed to be placed on her arms and face sporadically, everything screamed creature of the sea.
"Waterly…" The pink fairy said but was cut off with a scream as she threw a hand to her face.
"Never call me by that name!" The General yelled. "Flower, you have been deemed unfit by the Queen and you shall be punished!" The General held up a hand and the pink creature named Flower cowered in fear and fell to the ground, crying.
"No! Please!" She began to weep more and the General just frowned.
"Thunder, kill it." The General said as Flower screamed with terror. Before the little fairy could do anything a bolt of lightning came out of the sky and struck her right over the head. The screaming stopped as the bolt of lightning grew wider and more immense. Kibou covered his eyes and looked away, the hairs on his arm and back of his neck were standing on in. He didn't know what to do, but he finally realized that he couldn't help and turned to go.
Kibou slowly backed away and walked to the other end of the alley, squeezing his eyes shut, not wanting to remember what he saw. He had witnessed only one other execution before and he was glad that Flower had been killed by Water and not General Fire.
Opening his eyes he looked at the house he had been standing on, something always drew him to that house and he wanted to find out why. Walking across the street he looked at the building and noticed that it was the only one on the street that still had all its windows. Strange. He thought.
Kibou walked up to the door and walked in. The doorway opened into a hall and to his right was a living room; to his left was the dining room and kitchen. Down the hall were a set of stairs and at the end of the hallway was another door. Kibou stared at the back door and noticed that it was slightly ajar and he felt something coming from it.
Staring at the back door, Kibou walked towards it, not noticing that the floor was void of debris. Pulling the door open he looked down in the darkness and saw a single light towards the back of the dark room. Stepping on the first step, Kibou realized that he was walking into the basement of the house.
Finally at the bottom of the stairs, Kibou fumbled for a light switch or something and slightly cursed himself when he remembered that the power had been cut a year ago. Pulling his backpack around he groped for a lighter that he kept at the bottom. Pulling it out of the pack he struck it and a flame grew, lighting the area around him.
He was standing at the beginning of a library. Kibou narrowed his eyes at the sight before him. How could a house in the middle of a war zone be totally intact and its basement look like no one had been down there in ages. Kibou was walking down one of the alleys and corrected himself, "No dust." He said aloud.
The lighter grew hot and Kibou dropped it with a curse. Bending down, Kibou noticed that there was another soft light coming from the other side of the room. Standing and forgetting about the lighter, Kibou slowly walked to the source of the light.
There was a desk with a book on top of it; the book looked too grand to be a normal library book with all the red bound leather and the golden scroll work. It looked as if something was missing from the front of the book, as if a piece of the art work had fallen off. Walking a little closer, Kibou finally noticed all of the trash and empty beer bottles on the table, the only trash to be found in the house.
Reaching out to grab the book, Kibou shrieked and pulled his hand back as the trash shifted. Jumping back as a gut reaction he studied the trash as it shifted again. "Raaa…" A small little voice said. Kibou watched as a small little stuffed bear with wings stood on its back legs. Narrowing his eyes, Kibou took a step forward and the little creature grinned.
"Weslcomes…" The thing said in a high pitched voice. Kibou knocked his head to the side. He think sounded as if it were drunk! Taking in the beer bottles and all the empty candy bags, Kibou suspected that it was. The small little bear started to sway back and forth and its grin grew on its face. "Whos are yous?" It said, closing its left eye and making its right eye go wide.
"Kibou." Kibou said without thinking. He had seen so many things in his short life, he didn't even think twice about talking to a small stuffed toy. Looking down at the toy, Kibou tucked some of his long blonde hair behind his ear and went to touch the toy, to make sure that it was real.
"Don'ts touchs." The creature said as he danced away, or stumbled. Kibou wasn't sure. Kibou held up both hands to show the thing that he wasn't going to touch it and the creature fell to his bottom with a thud. "I failed." He looked extremely sad very suddenly and Kibou felt… something.
"Who are you?" Kibou said, realizing that he said who and not what. The creature looked up at Kibou and smiled, not a drunken smile but a real smile, but just as fast as it appeared it was gone.
"She called me Kero-chan…" The creature said, sadness filling his voice. Sadness so deep that it made Kibou want to give up inside, but he had lived far too long in his hell hole to die now. He was going to get out and change things.
Clenching his fist he said, "Kero-chan." The little creature jumped up off of his backside and flew to Kibou's face, gabbing a stuffed little paw at him.
"No! Kerberos!" The little creature was yelling at him, spit flying from his tiny little mouth. "If you must talk to me, call me Kerberos." He said floating back to the table and sniffing. Kibou didn't know what to say, or what to do. So far all he could figure out was that this, Kerberos, was upset about some kind of girl. It must have been the girl that lived in this house, before the Event.
"Whatever, bear." Kibou said grabbing for the book that was behind Kerberos. Drool was beginning to show up on the bears mouth as he watched Kibou pick up the book and open it. "What is this?"
"Not yours." Kerberos said falling back down to his bottom, clearly not fit to fight Kibou for the book. Kibou ignored the little bear and looked at the empty box that was posing as a book. There were pages in the book, but the bulk of it was for a deck of cards, or he thought it was for cards.
"What is this?" Kibou asked holding up the book, face facing Kerberos. Kerberos just stared at the book and pouted.
"I had chosen her… It was all my fault."
"Yes, I know, you said it before." Kibou rolled his eyes, placing the book in his backpack. Clearly he wasn't going to get anywhere with this. Kerberos started to float up to face Kibou, but the boy was too fast for him.
"You can't…" Kerberos began, but Kibou had turned and made his way to the other side of the room. Running up the stairs, Kerberos growl and quickly followed him. As he made his way up the stairs he heard a loud thud and then a shot.
"I followed you." A sweet voice said. Kerberos froze in mid stride. He knew that voice. Floating to the edge of the doorway, Kerberos peeked around the frame to see if he was right.
"No…" Kerberos groaned as he saw Kibou floating in the air. It didn't appear that Kibou was being held up by anything, but Kerberos knew what was going on. Windy. Kerberos knew what name the card was going by now, but he refused to acknowledge it. The cards had no right! Windy smiled as Kibou struggled in his invisible binds.
"We knew there were pockets of humans left, but we just couldn't find any of them." The General said as she floated towards the boy. Threads of thick magic flowed from the General as she moved closer to Kibou. He growled at the General and looked away from her as she placed a light delicate hand under his chin.
Kerberos squeezed his eyes shut. "Not again… Not again." He moaned over and over. Shaking his head he opened his eyes at another loud bang and saw that Kibou was now on the other side of the room. He had been slammed into one of the bookcases and was now laying on the floor, books showering down on top of him. Tears started to well up in Kerberos eyes as he watched the boy being picked up and slammed against the opposite wall, into a family portrait. The glass shattered and flew on top of Kibou.
"No!" Kerberos yelled as he flew out from behind the wall. Windy whipped her head around to see who had yelled and sneered at the flying little creature. "You!" She yelled as she threw a hand at the flying beast.
A think tendril of yellow colored air flew at Kerberos but it seemed to bounce right off of him as he flew closer to the General. Her eyes widened as Kerberos threw out a hand and Wind flew back into a wall. Wind's eyes rolled in the back of her head as she slid down the wall and just sat there.
"Kibou, forgive me." Kerberos said. His voice sounding clearer than it had ever sound and Kibou looked up at him, a trail of blood coming from his mouth.
"For what?" Kibou said weakly. Kerberos smiled a sad smile and held out his hand. His entire body began to glow a bright yellow and a bright yellow magic circle appeared on the floor that Kibou was laying on.
"Key of the Seal." A bright light appeared from Kibou's backpack and it floated out towards Kerberos. "There is someone wishing a contract with you." The light floated around Kerberos then went back to Kibou. "A boy. His name is Kibou."
Kibou just looked at the light. He didn't know what to make of it, but he hoped that it was something good, anything to stop this beating that he was going through. Although he felt like he knew what was going on, somehow.
"Stop it!" The General screamed, trying to push herself up. Kerberos ignored the screaming woman made of magic and pointed at the bright light.
"Oh Key, grant him the power." Kerberos thruster his right hand at the bright light and scream, "Release!" Bright light exploded from the glowing ball of light. Beams of light were circling around the small little ball of light and Kibou finally noticed something was in the center of it. It looked like a little key with wings on it.
The light enveloped Kibou and Kerberos and Kibou could finally make out the little object. It was changing. It turned and twisted and grew. The tiny key grew into a handle and the color was a dark pink. The head of the key looked like a bird's beak and had wings on the side of it. "Reach for the staff, Kibou!" Kerberos yelled at the boy.
Kibou got to his feet and looked at the little staff. It looked too small for him, as if it was meant for a little girl. He reached for the staff but hesitated, something told him this was wrong, that this staff didn't belong to him. He stole a quick glance at the stuff bear and saw the sadness in his eyes. Without anymore hesitation, Kibou put his right hand around the staff hilt.
"No!" The General screamed.
The bright light that was exploding from the staff inverted in on itself and Kibou could fell the energy being absorbed into the staff and into him. The staff grew in his strong grip and the color slowly changed to a dark blue. The beak for a head changed into a circle with a golden star in the middle of it. The wings that were on the side of the beak had moved to the outside of the circle and grew into angel wings. The magic circle that was on the ground glowed and slowly disappeared as Kerberos said, "A new Cardcaptor is born!"
Kibou could feel the energy flowing through him and it was something he had never felt before. It felt egsilerating, before Kerberos could say anything Kibou turned to face the fallen General and smiled at her. Turning the staff in his hands, it was now just a long as he was; he pointed it at the general. "Return to the guise you were meant to be in!" Kibou shouted as a magic silver magic circle appeared below him. Tendrils of magic poured from the head of the staff and around the magic circle. The general began to scream as her solid form slowly started to disappear.
An image of a card formed at the head of the staff and the tendrils of magic started to flow around the card. The general still continued to scream but no sound was coming from her mouth. The woman slowly started to fade and wisps of her flowed to the card, the card becoming more and more solid and the woman fading even more.
Ringlets of energy started to appear around the card and Kibou. The general known as Wind slowly disappeared and the energy pouring out of the staff and magic circle stopped as the card slowly floated down to the ground. With the General gone Kerberos floated down to the ground as well, the life seeming to be sucked from him. "Another Cardcaptor…" He said, sadness filling his voice.
Kibou sunk to the ground as well, felling as if all the life energy had been drained from him, he was breathing hard and looking at the card that the general had been sucked into. The card at the words WINDY written on them and he picked it up. "What is this?" He said holding it out to Kerberos.
"You are a Cardcaptor and I have charged you to gather them." Kibou looked at Kerberos confused and tried to say something, anything, but nothing would form in his head, so nothing flowed from his lips.
"If you haven't noticed, all this destruction is being caused by magic. Magic I was supposed to watch." Kerberos said dryly. He looked out the window and noticed that more lighting was raining down outside. "I suggest we leave before others come and take you away."
Pushing himself off the floor, Kibou grabbed the card and stuffed it into his bag. "Then let's go." He said walking past the flying bear as if nothing had happened. Kerberos looked at the boy and sighed, shaking his head he slowly followed behind the taller boy.
"Don't think you'll be as good as her. You will never be as good."
Kibou turned to face the little bear. "I am not this girl you keep talking about." Kibou closed his eyes and turned around; opening them he looked at the dark clouds and the broken buildings. "Clearly she wasn't good enough either…" Kibou trailed off thinking it might of gone to far, but Kerberos didn't say anything, Kibou didn't even look back to see if he was still following him when Kibou started to ruin down the street away from the house.
At first, Kerberos didn't follow the young boy, he just watched him run down the street as the words that he said sunk in. Kerberos wouldn't accept the fact that Sakura failed because she wasn't good enough. She failed because of him. This was all Kerberos fault.
Turning Kerberos looked at the once magnificent house and waved a paw. What little magic he had left would protect this house after he left. He knew now that this was his fault and he would take responsibility for his actions, or lack of action.
"I will avenge you, Sakura." Kerberos said as he turned to quickly follow the retreating Kibou.
Towards the center of the city a mammoth tree was constantly growing and shifting. The top of the tree looked like it was crushed against something and couldn't grow up anymore, but looked like it had been growing out ever since it had hit that invisible wall. The tree was shaped more like a castle than an actual tree. Openings for doors and windows, towers and spirals all grew away from the tree, all looked as if they had grown and were never craved.
Inside the tree it was much the same, grand hallways with grown patterns on the floors and walls. A regal woman walked down an empty hallway with purpose. Her long green hair was tied up into a long line at the top of her head. The top of her dress seemed to be made of wood, the same wood that made up the castle around her. Queen Earth walked to her grand hall where she was to meet her three Generals.
Making her way down the hall she smiled to herself and all the hard work she had down over the last two years. No Cardcaptor had been born so she and her cards were free to roam around and cause has many problems as possible. Her creator would regret the day that he locked her into that book.
All her plans have been coming to fruition and now was the time she would take her war to the world. She turned a corner and walked into the Grand Hall, her regal chair was sitting at the back of the room so she could see everything and everyone in the room. If the Queen was considered regal, the chair was god like, all the curves and niches would have made it uncomfortable if it wasn't so beautiful. Behind the chair, on the wall were two swords criss-crossed. The swords were not normal swords, they were the Clow card swords and they had been one of the first to swear their allegiance to the Queen.
She took the chair and waited for her followers to make their way in. To her left she saw the rugs that were placed on the floor for her "pets" and to her right, almost within arm's reach was a pedestal. The top of the pedestal was covered by a dark dome, another one of her projects, nobody but her knew what was under there and she hoped it stayed that way.
The first two beings that walked in were the cards known as the Jump and the Glow, both she felt pretty useless, but they had their uses. Glow lighted the dark corridors of the castle and jump was used by her Generals in chasing down the cards deemed, Outlaws. The two cards both bowed to their Queen and took their seats on the rugs and just lounged.
Slowly the Clow cards Dark and Mirror walked in and both bowed to the Queen, now all that was left was her Generals and their personal cards. Lighting flashed outside and the Queen glanced outside the huge window that would have been in place of a wall. She had made that the opening so she could over look the city in all of the destruction and death that she had caused. She hadn't realized at the time how much she enjoyed it and couldn't wait to wreck the havoc across the world.
Her eyes widened at the sight she witnessed. That magic energy! She quickly hurled herself out of the chair and made her way across the room and out onto the balcony. She placed her hands on the huge wooden balustrade and gripped it hard, hard enough the make the back of her knuckles glow white.
"Impossible!" She said loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. The others quickly got to their feet, but didn't follow, after all they were never ordered to follow. "Generals! Someone get me my GENERALS!" She screamed the last part and everyone left the room as quickly as possible.
The Queen still continued to look at the light as it faded away. Something had went terribly wrong today and she needed to know what. She tried to think of anything that she had missed and she couldn't find anything, unless…
He was never found… The Queen said to herself. But the girl… With a growl she turned around from the balustrade and made her way back to the chair. Throwing herself in it she shifted and waited for her Generals to come to her. I will not be sealed again!