Chapter 2: Two Cards in a Night
Alex flipped on the Television using the remote control and immediately flipped to a channel that was showing what was on all of the other channels. Lloyd set his backpack on the couch and was only half paying attention as his mind was still on the Clow Card he was sensing outside. He turned back to the TV for an instant and caught the title of the show they were watching as "The Simpsons."
Lloyd did his best to watch the shows Alex flipped to every half and hour, but his mind was on other things, as a result the two of them didn't talk much to each other. Lloyd stared back out the window as the clouds overhead had covered the sky, which was dark by this point anyways. At that moment there was a bright flash from outside, a loud *BOOM* and the power went out. The two of them sat in the darkness for a moment before Alex swore aloud, Lloyd sighed and stood up.
"Well now what should we do?" Lloyd asked.
"Maybe you could tell me about yourself," Alex suggested, "and how you ended up interrupting my fight earlier."
"I think you mean 'saved' you," Lloyd said, "but I might as well tell you my story. I was born in the north, in what I've discovered is called the Boreal Forest. I was a normal bear for a short time but when I was a cub my parents were killed by a monster and my father, Koran Terada, saved me from whatever that thing was and raised me as his own. He taught me a lot of things, mostly martial arts and swordplay." Lloyd's voice became a bit heavy at this point, "He died a few months ago, I started heading south that same day. I met a couple friends in Saskatoon who got me clothes, money, and taught me about the modern world, since I was literally raised in a cave. I ran into you and those thugs purely by accident, so why were they beating on you."
Alex's eyes narrowed in anger, "if you must know, they were coming after me because I attacked one of their gang members a few months ago."
"A few months, why would they wait so long?" Love Heart was perplexed.
"I'd rather not say," Alex decided to change the subject, "if you want to know my life story I'll tell you."
"Ok, go ahead," Lloyd sat down next to the red fox.
"I don't know much about my past, except running from something, I don't know what exactly. What my grandparent's told me was they found me on the edge of the city when they were returning from a vacation about 13 years ago. They raised me in a house elsewhere in the city for 12 years, then they died, I've been living off their savings ever since, since they were quite wealthy in life" Alex paused.
"Why do you call them your grandparents, did you know your real parents?" Lloyd asked.
"No, I didn't, but they were old and calling them just my parents seemed weird."
"So how did they die," for no apparent reason, Alex suddenly got very angry.
"They died of natural causes!" he shouted. Lloyd winced momentarily but retorted.
"I was just asking, no need to fly off the handle!" Alex looked away and sighed.
"The only thing I have left of them is a small chest of keepsakes. Wait here, I'll get it," Alex vanished into a short hallway just off of the living room only to return a minute later with a small wooden chest with a hinged lid. Lloyd watched as Alex set the chest down on the coffee table, kneeled beside it, and opened the lid. Alex's face was almost sombre as he lifted a small old ornate key out of the chest.
"This was the key to our old house," Alex said. He set the key back in the chest and picked up what looked like a small screwdriver, "this was my grandfather's, he used to make things like this chest, as he was retired." He set the tool back in the chest and the picked up a brass pocket watch, "this also belonged to my grandfather, he always meant for me to use it but I never found myself able too, it was too painful," he lifted the lid open reveal the face and a faded crest, a long and thin sword with a ribbon behind it. Something about the symbol intrigued Lloyd, he had seen it before.
"That's interesting, where did your grandpa get that?" Lloyd asked, "I swear I've seen it before."
"I have no idea," Alex said, a bit ticked. The fox stuck his hand into the box and accidentally pricked his hand on something. Rather than wince in pain, his eyes widened in wonder as we withdrew a small broach that looked exactly like the design on the pocket watch and held it in his palm.
'Grandma's broach, but how did it survive?' Alex's eyes then misted over, Lloyd looked at him, intrigued.
"Alex, is something wrong?" Alex stood up wordlessly and held out his right hand with the broach clenched in his fist. Lloyd then felt it, the same type of feeling he always got when a Clow Card was near, except this one was right in front of him. As if on cue, Kero popped out of Lloyd's backpack on the couch and shouted.
"Look out, it's the Sword Card!" The card in question then erupted from Alex's hand, the broach turned into a long and thin double-bladed sword, with a brass coloured pointed tip and ornate brass coloured hilt. Alex's eyes were now hollow as he was under the control of the Clow Card. The Fox took a swipe at Lloyd, but the green bear dodged, pulling out his medallion and changing it into his sword.
"I'd better take this outside so this house doesn't get destroyed," Lloyd dashed towards the door with Kero on his tail.
"Good idea," the guardian beast said. Lloyd quickly turned the knob and pulled the door open and was forced to jump onto the lawn before another swipe from the sword in Alex's hand could take his head off. Lloyd landed on the lawn in the middle of the rain and Alex jumped out after him, striking down as he landed. Lloyd was able to use his sword to block the blow, focusing his energy into it so the Sword Card wouldn't cut his sword in half.
"How am I supposed to beat this card?" Lloyd shouted to Kero.
"You have to get the sword out of his hand. Then you can seal it," The guardian beast said while hovering nearby. Lloyd tried to back off, but every time he got out of reach of Alex and the Sword Card, they jumped back into range with a furious attack. Lloyd was wracking his brains for a method that he could use to disarm Alex and when he felt the wind on his body, he got an idea.
"Kero can you keep his distracted for a minute?" Lloyd shouted.
"I can't guarantee but I'll try!" Kero flew straight at Alex, hitting him in the side of the head and knocking him down. Alex recovered and turned his attention to the little yellow creature and began trying to unsuccessfully cleave him in two, as Kero kept dodging his swipes. Lloyd saw his chance and dashed back into the house; once in side he darted to the backpack he had left on the couch, pulled out the Book of Clow and quickly searched for and pulled out the Windy Card. Lloyd looked out the front window and saw that Kero still had Alex's attention, so Lloyd pulled the key off of his neck and held it forwards on his palm.
"Key of Clow, Power of Magic, Power of Light, Surrender the Wand, the Force Ignite, Release!" the key levitated off his hand and extended into the sealing staff, which Lloyd grabbed. The bear sealed his sword back into its medallion form and dashed outside again.
By this time, Kero was beginning to tire and was afraid he would be hit, until Lloyd shouted, "Over here!" from the steps, with the Windy Card in his left hand and the sealing staff in his right. As Alex turned and tried to charge Lloyd, the bear threw the card forwards and struck it with the staff, reciting an incantation.
"Windy Card, use your power to take the Sword Card from Alex, Release and Dispell!" As the staff struck the card and Lloyd's magical energy flowed through it and the Windy Spirit appeared. The Windy Card flew at the Sword in Alex's hand; Alex tried to attack the wind in vain and the Sword was swept away and out of Alex's hand, leaving the teenaged fox to fall onto the ground, unconscious. Lloyd ran over to where the Windy Card was attempting to contain the Sword and swung his staff down at it shouting the sealing incantation.
"Sword Card, I command you to return to your power confined, SWORD CARD!" The Sword was rapidly sucked into its containing card, which then flew into Lloyd's waiting hand.
Lloyd sighed, "Phew, glad that's over," he looked over at the unconscious fox lying on the lawn. He knew he couldn't leave him outside in the rain so he picked up the fox's inert body and deposited him on the couch.
"But now, I have more important things to do," Lloyd said.
"That's right!" Kero said, "the Clow Card out there needs to be sealed before it caused any damage to the city."
"Then I'd better get moving before that happens," Lloyd took off out the front door, not noticing Alex stirring slightly as he left.
Lloyd watched the lightning dancing through the sky with his eyes and followed it heading to the south east of Alex's house. Knowing he needed to follow it he took off in the same direction. After a short time running, Lloyd came across a small playground in between four different roads; lightning was striking down in several places.
"It's here," Lloyd said. At that moment one blue lightning bolt hit the ground and began jumping along the grass towards Lloyd. The Bear was prepared though and raised his sword above his head.
"Force, know my plight Release the Light! Lightning!" Lloyd swung his sword down in a vertical arc and released a yellow lightning bolt at the blue bolt that was flying towards him. The two bolts collided and seemed to struggle against each other for a moment before the yellow bolt exploded and sent the blue bolt flying backwards, causing it to land in a heap on the ground. A moment passed and the blue lightning assembled itself into a rather large quadruped creature that vaguely resembled a large cat or dog.
"That must be the visible form," Lloyd said.
"You got it," Kero replied, "That's Rai-Ju the Thunder beast, which means this is the thunder card." The words had barely left Kero's mouth when the beast in question pounced at Lloyd, forcing him to dodge.
"That thing is fast, how am I supposed to beat it?" The bear shouted at Kero, "Do you think I could short it out with water!?"
"I don't know, Rai-Ju isn't a piece of electronics!" Kero shouted back.
"Well it's worth a try." Lloyd jumped back as the beast struck again, leaving a piece of the ground scorched, and the bear too out an o-fuda and struck it with the side of his sword shouting as he did so.
"Element water, come to my aid!" and as he struck the slip of paper, a stream of water burst forth and struck the lightning beast. Fortunately it had the desired effect and the beast began to act just like any piece of electronics that had been splashed with water, almost destabilizing.
"That will hold him for now, but I need a more permanent solution," Lloyd said, striving to think of something he could use to totally disable the beast easily, "what was it Madison told me, something about lightning being made of light. I doubt Windy would work but maybe I could block out its light, the Shadow Card would be perfect for this." Lloyd fished the card in question out of the Book of Clow and threw it forwards.
"Shadow Card, use your power to envelop and paralyze Thunder, Release and Dispell!" The Shadow spirit emerged form its card, hovered for an instant, and then flew at the Thunder Beast, which was just shaking off the last of the water, and surrounded it with shadow tendrils creating a ring around it before closing in and trapping the beast in a large sphere of darkness. Rai-Ju's struggles to escape were evident as light occasionally broke the surface of the sphere. Not wasting any time, Lloyd ran up to the sphere and swung the sealing staff at it.
"Thunder Card, I command you to return to your power confined, Thunder!" He swung forwards, creating the vortex that sucked the Thunder Card into its sealed card form. As the Shadow Card reappeared in Lloyd's hand, the Thunder Card floated up, then into Lloyd's other hand. Wasting no time, Lloyd pulled out a pen he kept in one of his vest pockets and swiftly wrote his name "Lloyd Terada" across the bottom of the card.
As the clouds cleared, Lloyd breathed a sigh of relief and Kero floated over to him.
"Great job," the small beast said, "two captures in one night, that's a great accomplishment."
"I'm just glad it's over, I'm exhausted, I've never stayed up so long because of Clow Cards before. I'd better get back to Alex's house before he finds me gone." Kero nodded, and the two of them walked back to the Fox's house, not rushing now that the crisis was over and the sky was mostly clear. Lloyd stared up at the stars and at the one cloud bank that he not left once the Thunder Card left. No, two cloud banks, it was odd though, they were rather far apart in the sky, one was larger than the other and even the underside was oddly bright white, while the other was rather small and dark and stormy, despite the fact that the storm was over. The bear shrugged it off and continued on his way.