Chapter 2: The Jump
Author's Note: The Incantations will be the one's that appear in the English dub version as that is the one I grew up with.
'WHAT THE-' Jack yelled. The tiny pink bullet ricochet off the walls, bouncing back and forth so fast it was virtually impossible to keep your eyes on it. A yeti that had just regained conciousness was suddenly whacked on the head by the rebounding ball of rampaging fur and was knocked out again.
Jack dived under the nearest workbench as the Jump shot passed at speeds that could easily trash a car (or if not trash at least cause enough damage to start several long arguments with the insurance companies). CRACK! The table split straight down the middle as Jump bounced off of the top. Jack rolled back out from under the table and leapt straight to his feet. The Jump landed right down in front of him. They glared at each other.
'Jack,' Kero shouted, 'You need to activate the staff. Touch the book and I'll send you the incantations.'
The Jump lunged. Jack ducked, rolled and placed his hand upon the Clow book. Instantly two incantations appeared in his mind. The first was the staff release incantation. "Key of Clow, power of magic, power of light, surrender the wand, the force ignite. Release!" The second was the card sealing incantation. "Clow card, I command you to return to your power confine. Clow card!"
Returning back to the concious world, Jack raised his staff and gave it a powerful swipe, creating a wall of ice. The Jump reacted a little too slowly and crashed into it hard. Jack wasted no time. With a couple of twists on his staff, Jack created an ice sphere around the Jump. It was trapped.
Jack lifted up his staff. The Jump tensed itself. Jack cried out 'Key of Clow, power of magic, power of light, surrender the wand, the force ignite. RELEASE!' Absolutely nothing happened. Jack stared at his staff in horror. Jump made a hissing noise, the sort of noise that sounded like it was laughing under its breath. Then it Jumped again, smashing straight through the ice dome.
It hit Jack in the head with the force of a cannonball and knocked him back to the floor, into a stack of presents. Dazed, blinking to rid himself of the stars hovvering in front of his retinas, Jack tried to pull himself back up. Now he was angry.
He jumped to his feet and repeated the incantation, but whether it was due to his concussion or for some other reason, the incantation came out differently this time.
'Staff of frost, power of ice, power of light, surrender the wand, the force ignite! RELEASE!'
And thank all the stars in the sky, something happened. The staff started shining in a golden light. Jack felt the energy run through his fingers. He glanced over at the Jump. It now looked distinctly nervous. Jack took the Windy card out of his pocket. So, Jump wanted to play did it? He through the Windy card into the air. 'WINDY!' he cried, 'Create a chain and bind the Jump card.'
There was a burst of wind and flash of pale light. The card vanished as the nymph-figure of the Windy herself appeared before Jack. The Jump was now looking quite panic-stricken. It turned on it's heel and jumped, but Windy was already hot on it's overgrown heels. The Windy twisted around the pink bunny and bound it tight in a gaseous embrace. Jack raised his staff.
'Jump card, I command you to return to your power confine. JUMP CARD!' Jack swung his staff down. There was the sound like the chimming of a bell. The Jump was still trying to break free from the Windy card. A glowing, rectangular shape appeared at the tip of the staff. Wind began to pick up out of nowhere. Presents that were still in one piece were thrown from shelves.
The Jump began to blur and dissolve into a pink mist. It suddenly split into streams of pink light, flew through the air and converged on the tip of Jack's staff. The light faded and the Card floated down into Jack's free hand. The small rabbit was sitting in the middle of the card and written beneath it was "The Jump". Jack snorted. The Jump on the card looked far more innocent.
Jack stared at the card for some time and then suddenly realised that his knees were feeling very unsteady. They suddenly gave way completely and he collapsed to the floor. He sat there for some time, just holding the Windy and Jump cards in his hand.
'Hey, Jack! Little help over here!' Jack turned his windswept head to face the Clow book. The glowing silhouette of Kero was waving at him. Jack stood up, lost the blood in his head and passed out. 'Oy vey,' Kero groaned.
'Feeling better?' came Kero's voice as Jack regained consciousness. He sat up slowly. 'What did I miss?' 'Well, the elves trampled over your hoodie, a snowstorm blew a window in, I said you'd look into it, um, these three kids appeared out of nowhere, one of the yeti's told me the we've run out of teddy bear stuff- what's up?' Jack had leapt to his feet. 'Was one of them ginger and looked very loud?' 'Er, yeah actually.' Jack swore very violently. Snatching up his staff and the Clow book ('Watch it, Jack!'), he sprinted out of the workshop.
Sprinting into the Globe room, Jack came to a sharp stop. The three figures in front of him were unmistakeable (no one else in the multiverse could have those hairstyles and a prosthetic leg like that); Merida DunBroch, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III and Rapunzel Fitzherbert née Corona.
'Where the heall 'ave you been?' Merida said, turning to the winter spirit, turned Cardcaptor. 'Passed out on the floor,' 'Jack said, 'More importantly, what are you all doing here?' 'Black swirling vortex. Why were you passed out on the floor?' 'Catching a pink, magical rabbit. Black swirling vortex?' 'Yes. Pink, mag-' 'Guys, can we not confine our answers to single sentences followed by more questions?' Hiccup butted in at this point.
'Guys hello,' came a voice, 'Guardian beast trapped in a book here.' There was a momentary silence. 'What was that?' Rapunzel said tentatively. Jack opened the Clow book. The glowing image of Kero appeared. 'Hi-dee ho-dee how-dee!' he shouted. Hiccup and Merida leapt back with a cry of alarm.
Rapunzel on the other hand... 'Aw, he is adorable!' 'Hey, who are you calling adorable? I am Keroberos, Guardian beast of the seal of the Clow cards.' 'Who is currently stuck in book,' Jack finished. Kero glowered at him. 'The what cards?' Hiccup asked.
'Dangerous magical forces,' Kero explained, suddenly getting very serious, 'Created by a magician named Clow Reed. Each and every Clow card has it's individual personality and powers. They were initially designed to be free, but the cards became so wilful that they could no longer be constrained, so Clow Reed created a book to hold the cards and then placed the Seal of Stasis on the cover.'
'And then Jack came along and opened it.' 'What did you do?' The other three asked as one. 'I swear, all I did was open the book.' 'And activated the Windy card.' Kero added. 'The what?' Rapunzel asked. Right on cue, the two cards Jack had captured floated out of his pocket and hovered in the air in front of them, the titles "The Windy" and "The Jump" displaying proudly.
'These are just two of them, there are fifty others out there now,' Kero said. 'FIFTY!' Jack gasped in horror. 'Uh-huh,' Kero nodded, 'An you're gonna have to get them all back.' 'What happens if he does nay?' Merida asked. Kero looked very grave. 'Disasters like you couldn't imagine. Earthquakes, tornados, floods, fires, hurricanes, even time storms. While the cards are still active, everyone is in danger.'
'Storms?' Hiccup said. 'Huh?' 'Now that you mention it, there have been a lot of unusual weather patterns around Berk.' 'Yeah, and lately the Will-o-the-Wisps have been going frantic.' 'And the woods around Corona have been filling with bubbles recently.' That last comment caused absolute silence.
'This is worse than I thought,' Kero said, 'The Cards have escaped into the past. We'll never be able to find them. Jack, where are you going?' Jack had dashed off to one of the large cabinets in the corner of the room. He opened the draws and pulled out a large sack. It clicked slightly like it was full of glass.
Jack reached into the sack and pulled out a large snow globe. 'North's emergency supply,' he said to their quizzical looks. 'The Isle of Berk,' he said to the glass sphere. Inside it's glass depths appeared Hiccup's home village. He shook the snow globe and threw it forwards where it broke and burst into a spiralling vortex.
Pausing only to snatch up the Clow Book, Jack leapt into the portal. Merida and Rapunzel followed at once. 'Oh Odin, I hate these things,' Hiccup groaned, and stepped through the portal.
Far away under the ground, the tall dark figure of the King of Nightmares stepped forward to face to tall, beautiful woman. Her hair and skin and dress were pure white and she seemed to be glowing. Even though Pitch was advancing on her with a weapon raised, all she was doing was smiling gently.
'Identify yourself,' Pitch said, brandishing his scythe.
'I am the Light.'