The Thunder
Aura and Kero sat at the lip of the cave. Aura was in hybrid form and covered in bandages and star shade leaves. The rain drizzled continually on the cave overhang. Aura stroked Kero, who was perched on a ledge waist high. Kero flew and perched on Aura's shoulder and twitched his tail. " I can't believe it! A card decides to activate now! You can't go after it Aura!" Kero said urgently. Aura sighed. "Yeah, so either it goes on a rampage destroying stuff, while I sit back, or I go after it weak, get killed, and it goes on a rampage destroying stuff." She growled as the lightning flashed in the distance. "Dang it, why did Power have to get that lucky shot in." She grumbled to herself. Kero looked at the storm worriedly. "Aura, we may have more problems than that, it seems as if this card's heading our way." He muttered. Aura nodded and sighed.
A bolt of lightning raced over the clouds in the sky, taking a moment here and there to attack some poor human below. Thunder laughed at the humans scurrying away, as if they could escape! Thunder turned back to the mountain in the distance. "The place where the captor hides." He muttered to himself racing over.
Below the card, Power watched the sky. 'Thunder is loose.' She thought simply. Power grinned as it raced to the cliff.
Aura clutched her staff and watched as Thunder raced through the sky to the cliff. She pawed the empty cards nervously. "Kero, what would probably work best for this thing? I don't have much strength at the moment, and I assume that if I punch a creature made of electricity it will only get me hurt worse." She said. Kero shrugged. "I don't know! You're the card captor! Think of something!" He said, tension making him snap. Aura scowled as her ears went flat. She tugged his tail by the fuzzy little tuft on the end, and brought him facer to face with her. "All right fuzzy, A) I didn't ask for this job. B) I don't HAVE to do it if I don't want to. C) You were supposed to keep the cards from escaping in the first place, and must importantly, D) I'm much bigger than you are and also much madder, don't. Tell. Me. What. To. Do." She snarled. Kero gulped and nodded. 'I hate it when she gets scary like that.' He thought fluttering out of reach.
Thunder reached the entrance of the cave and flashed into his true form smirking. "Well, well, so this is going to be my new master? A weak little girl still beat up from her last 'capture'. You don't look tough at all." Thunder said laughing. Aura scowled. " This is being said by a creature that is named after thunder, a sound, but is actually supposed to be LIGHTNING, and apparently never learned the difference." Aura said. Thunder growled. "I did not name myself Thunder! I know the difference! I just got no say in naming!" Thunder whined in protest. Aura shrugged. "Isn't the first time I've seen the mistake." She muttered helpfully. Thunder snapped back into his serious mode. "But either way, I can and will fry you to a little crisp. I have you cornered, what'cha gonna' do now?" he taunted. Aura shrugged. "You mean besides the obvious?" she asked. Thunder quirked his head to the side. "The obvious?" He asked. Aura nodded. " The obvious, start swearing like a sailor and scream hopelessly for help." She said. Thunder let out a static laugh-bark at this. "A captor with a sense of humor! What a change!" he barked. "Too bad it didn't come with competence!" He chuckled. Aura's shoulders sagged as she put on her best disappointed look. "Aw come on, have you actually seen any of my fights? I managed to beat the fight all by myself. And I still survived power. I saved Little from a spider, doesn't that count as competence?" She asked. Thunder cocked his head. "You beat the Fight card? On your own? Maybe you're better than I thought." He said. Aura perked up. "So you'll let me live?" She asked hopefully. Thunder snorted. " No, I don't think so."
Fly sat in her little notch in a tree preening her new molted feathers into place. There were still a few blackened ones, but she was mostly white and new now, enough so to fly. She raised her wings into the air and flapped out of the tree, growing as she gained altitude. There was very little wind though, so altitude was hard to get. She skimmed the trees trying to get a good distance off the ground. A small light jumped onto Fly. Fly gave up on flying today and shrunk to ground size. 'Hey, wait a minuet!' she thought. She kept shrinking. She was the size of a cat when she saw the little spark on her. "Little! What was that for?" she demanded, cat sized. Little looked at the mountain a way away. "Aura, master, she's in deep trouble, I can't get there fast enough on my own, could you give me a lift?" She asked. Fly sighed but nodded, growing to the size of a human and flying to the cliffs.
"Aww… come on, why do you want to kill me anyway? What have I ever done to you?" Aura whined backed into the cave. Kero sat tensed on her shoulder, and stared at the slowly approaching card. "Well, haven't done anything I guess, but you would try to catch me." He said. Aura shrugged. "Well, I guess, but it's my jo- I let the cards roam free as long as they stay out of sight and don't cause much trouble." She grinned nervously. Thunder shook his head. "Nope, that don't cut it." He said. Aura scowled at the sky, as if it was the sky's fault she was trapped here. Thunder paced closer. He drew back a crackling paw, and aimed it at Aura. "Wait a minuet! You're doing it all wrong!" she scolded. Thunder blinked with a confused frown. "Huh? What do you mean I'm doing it all wrong?" He asked. Aura shook her hands. "The antagonist never just kills them like that, they always have to gloat about their plans and force the protagonist to watch in horror, then kill them off. It's all-wrong."
Kero and Thunder both had a blank expression on their faces. Aura sighed. "Don't you two ever read anything, or go to the movies. Both Kero and Thunder shook their heads no. Aura blinked. "Never, wow then you are missing out on a lot f cool stuff. Do you even watch TV?" She asked.
"Nope."
"Not really."
They answered. Aura sighed. "Well then, I just need to fix that then. Okay, first, what do you like more, fiction or fact?" she asked. Thunder and Kero thought. "Fiction." Kero answered. "I don't know." Said Thunder. Aura's jaw dropped. "You're that un-entertained!" She gaped. Thunder lowered its head. "Yeah, guess I am." He muttered. Aura tutted. "I need to fix that then. First, I need my laptop. It should be in my tree a few miles away." She said. Thunder narrowed his eyes suddenly. "Escape you mea, not likely. I'm not letting you out of the cave." He snarled. Aura scowled. "Darn, actually I hadn't thought of that till you mentioned it." She muttered. Thunder gaped. "And yet you still call yourself a card captor!" He said. Aura gave a smile-scowl. "Well, I don't get cornered very often you know." She said.
Fly and little landed on the edge of the cave. Little jumped to the ground, and sprang onto thunder unnoticed. She began to focus and Thunder began to shrink. Thunder let out a startled Yip as the ground drew closer to his snout. Aura leaned away from the wall now, and saw the minuscule beast. She plucked Little out of danger and crouched on all fours, trying to look Thunder in the eye. Thunder gave out squeaky howls of outrage and Aura looked at her staff. "Well, that was a big anticlimax." She muttered, drawing the staff. Thunder howled at Little from the floor. "Star card, return to your power confine, star card." Aura said tapping the air above Thunder. Thunder reverted to a card, and Aura signed her name.
Thunder emerged again so Little could unshrink him. Aura turned to the cave entrance and saw Fly sitting there. "Fly, thanks for flying Little over here." She said. Fly preened her wings, ignoring Aura. "Fast flying too, you really saved me there." She said. Fly looked up. "Whatever." She muttered as she turned to leave. Aura watched her fly off to the woods again. She turned to the grumpy thunder card. "By the way thunder, stalling and drawing out the protagonist's death and risking losing the chance to kill them is the main reason I yell at the TV." She said. Thunder scowled. "Well, let's find that laptop and show you some DVD's then." She said sliding down the cliff ledge.
Power growled as Aura slid down the cliff with Kero and Thunder at her side. "Sheer dumb luck." She hissed, turning her back and stalking off into the woods again.