Last Time: Li and Madison were in over their heads after being attacked by Doctor Octopus, but who should save the day but the mighty Yue! After a brief scuffle, Sakura takes out the bad doctor with the Erase Card and everyone begins to wonder how many others are searching for the crystals. They don't have much time to think about that, because the Darkness Crystal is on the loose and it's up to Sakura and her friends to stop it.


Hunt For the Crystals: Episode 8


Darkness had overcome the city and Sakura could barely walk the streets without hitting something. Even the city's emergency lights were out and that meant that this couldn't have been a natural occurrence. It had to be the Darkness Crystal. Sakura just wished she knew what she was looking for.

The first place they looked was Penguin Park. With the lights suddenly going out, the whole populous had gone indoors. So the night belonged to Sakura and her friends for the moment. And besides, no one would recognize Sakura in her latest costume: one that looked much like the one she wore for the Final Judgement, except it was all black, which made it perfect for this particular occasion.

Everyone was still shaken up over the earlier encounter with the man called Doctor Octopus. Sakura hoped that she wouldn't encounter any more creeps like that. But she also knew that there was still that super fast guy running around (no pun intended) somewhere. The earlier battle made having to find the Darkness Crystal a much more arduous task.

"What does it look like, Eriol?" Sakura whispered.

"Why are you whispering?" Eriol asked.

Sakura stopped. "Oh…I don't know. The darkness sort of makes me want to whisper. So what are we looking for?"

"The Darkness Crystal comes in a form much like its essence," Eriol answered.

"That's it?" Li asked.

Sailor Jupiter, having already transformed, scoffed. "So we don't even know what we're looking for?"

"I'm sorry," Eriol growled. "But I don't exactly have a manual on this sort of thing. I don't know what it looks like. But I have a feeling we'll know it when we see it."

Sakura suddenly stopped in her tracks. Everyone walking behind her stopped also. Things got quiet…too quiet.

"Sakura…" Li whispered.

"Wait…" Sakura mumbled.

There was no sound from anywhere in the park. But then there was some noise. Rustling. Something was jumping…from tree to tree. Everyone looked around, trying to find the source of the noise.

"I see it!" Madison suddenly said. She was looking through the lens in her camera. "I've zoomed in on it."

Madison handed her camera to Sakura, who saw through the zoomed-in lens. Sakura saw something blending in the shadows. All she could see was a pair of red eyes…and the white outline of what had to be a black crystal. The next Crystal Beast was apparently one of the darker ones.

Sakura took a step back. "Everyone stick together. It's over there."

Everyone stuck together…except for Sailor Jupiter, who was getting overzealous. "If it's over there, then it's time to take it out!" She stepped forward. "Jupiter Thunder…Crash!"

A crash of lightning hit the tree where the beast was perched, frying the tree. But there was no beast there, so no one could tell if it was harmed. Jupiter took a few more steps forward and looked around. She wanted to know if she hit a target.

Unfortunately, her question was answered. The beast jumped out of a bush and pinned Jupiter down. Jupiter thrust it off and it landed on its feet. Sakura and her friends finally got a good look at it. It was a panther.

"The Darkness Panther," Eriol said. "Black as the night. That's why we could barely see it."

The Panther looked around, making its next move unknown. Then it made its move. It leaped into the trees…disappearing in the shadows once again.

"It's one of the more elusive crystals," Eriol noted.

"So now what?" Li asked. "It won't show itself."

Sakura knew there was one way to find the Panther. They had to chase after it. But after finding it, how would they ensure that it wouldn't hide in the darkness again?

"I have an idea," Sakura smirked. "Let's go!"

Sakura led the way, going further into Penguin Park. She knew that there was always one way to stop the darkness.


~--------------------~


Toad made sure to stay behind the protective…girth of The Blob. Darkness had overcome everything, even the generator in the Brotherhood's jet. When Pietro informed Magneto, it was concluded that this was the work of a Crystal Beast, so that meant it was time for the Brotherhood to try again. But Toad was unsure of this. With darkness overwhelming the entire city, there was no telling what would come out of the shadows.

"H-Hey, guys?" Toad stuttered. "Couldn't we just go back to the jet? Maybe the generators kicked in and they're working again."

"What are you, scared of the dark?" Lance asked snidely.

"I ain't scared," Toad said defensively. "I…just need a little light, you know. Maybe after this is all over, I can go get a tan."

Pietro stopped, which made Toad think it must have been serious because Quicksilver hardly ever stood still. "Wait…I hear something."

There was a rustling in the bushes. And then they saw it. It was a pair of red eyes and the white outline of a crystal perched on a tree. It was the next Crystal Beast.

"There's our target," Pietro pointed.

"I'll get it!" Avalanche said boldly. He used his seismic powers to knock the tree down. The beast leaped out of the tree and revealed itself to be the Darkness Panther. Luckily for the Brotherhood, the Panther leaped right into the waiting arms of The Blob.

"It ain't getting away from me!" The Blob grunted. "I'll squeeze the life out of it!"

Toad eagerly waited for the results of The Blob's punishment. Good old Fred Dukes would mangle this thing. But that's when the weirdness started.

The Panther stared The Blob in the face. Its eyes began to glow a brighter red. The Blob began to loosen his grip…because he saw what the Panther was doing to him.

"Hey, what the heck?!"

The Blob was being overcome by blackness. The Blob suddenly stood frozen and all that remained of him…was a catatonic, life-sized silhouette. Toad hopped over to him and noticed that The Blob was still as bloated as ever, but he was the color of a shadow and he couldn't move at all.

"Just what are we dealing with here?" Toad demanded.

"Must have overcome him with darkness," Pietro assumed.

"It won't get me!" Lance shouted.

Avalanche tried using his powers to create a tremor to trip up the Panther. It didn't work, because the Panther leaped up and pounced on Lance. It did its trick where its eyes glowed and, just like The Blob, Avalanche was frozen and overwhelmed with the color of shadow. That only left Toad and Quicksilver.

"Uh…now what do we do?" Toad asked fearfully.

Toad soon saw that they weren't alone much longer, though. A party of young kids, about their age or maybe a little older, arrived on the scene as well. But more than that, they looked familiar to Toad. It was them. It was the same crowd that took down the Speed Cheetah. The lead girl was in a different costume, but it was her.

"Think they're here for the crystal?" Toad asked Pietro.

Pietro glowered. "They won't get far."

Toad tried to read his friend's face. That sentence could have meant many different things. But just what did Pietro mean by that?


~--------------------~


Sakura gasped. It wasn't the Darkness Panther that got her attention. It wasn't the two catatonic, silhouettes that were in the middle of the walkway. It was HIM. It was the speed demon she encountered earlier. It was the exact same guy. Sakura was so caught up by his sudden appearance, that she didn't notice the Panther heading right for her.

"Sakura, LOOK OUT!!"

Madison pushed Sakura out of the way and took the brunt of the blow. The Panther began to stare Madison down with glowing red eyes. Then, to everyone's horror, Madison was overcome with darkness and all that remained was a silhouette.

"NO!" Eriol shouted. He warmed up a fireball and tossed it at the Panther. The Panther got off, but it was too late. The damage had already been done.

Sakura stood shocked. That could have been her…and Madison sacrificed herself…the way she was always willing to do whenever Sakura was placed in danger. She then turned and saw the scourge that was the Darkness Panther.

She couldn't forget her plan. In all her moment of sadness and rage, Sakura couldn't forget what she had in mind.

"You know what to do, don't you, Sakura?" Kero pointed out.

Sakura nodded and took out her ally. "Shadow Card! Attack that Panther! Shadow! Release and dispel!"

Sakura used the darkness to her advantage. Darkness always powered shadows and the Shadow Card would thrive in these conditions.

Shadow came out in its Grim Reaper-like appearance and moved towards the Darkness Panther. The Panther tried to struggle with Shadow, but so far the fight was dead even. Shadow was trying to envelop the Panther with its own power of darkness, and the Panther was evidently trying to do the same.

Then the standoff ended with Shadow being thrust forward by the Panther. Shadow looked ahead to see that the Panther was ready to strike. Sakura expressed fear. If Shadow wasn't powerful enough to overcome the Darkness Panther, then what else could she do?

"I have an idea," Sailor Jupiter suddenly said. "Get Shadow to lure the Panther this way."

Sakura wasn't sure of this, but she trusted her friend. "Shadow! Bring it this way!"

Shadow heard Sakura's instructions and moved away. The Panther tried to chase Shadow, but even with its catlike agility, Shadow was too fast. Shadow finally moved towards a tree where Sailor Jupiter was waiting. The Panther tried to leap towards it, but Shadow sank into the ground and Jupiter unleashed her spell.

"Jupiter…Thunder…Dragon!"

The Panther came to a screeching halt when it saw what was coming. Jupiter unleashed an attack from her tiara and it was a good one. A huge bright thunder dragon came out and consumed the Darkness Panther. After bolts of electricity scattered, there was nothing left except a significantly weakened Panther.

"Now, Shadow!!" Sakura shouted.

Shadow heard Sakura's order and flowed out of the ground. It fell over the Panther and wrapped itself around it. The Darkness Panther was stuck and that gave Sakura the opportunity she needed.

Sakura walked up to the Darkness Panther. "Return to thy form which thou should be…Darkness Crystal!"

Sakura watched as the Panther morphed into the black Darkness Crystal. Then she took it in her hand. But that wasn't what Sakura was worried about. She was worried about Madison…but her fears were soon put to rest. The silhouettes slowly started to morph back into flesh and everyone impacted by the Panther's attack was being healed. Madison came back to them…and fell to her knees in her momentary weakness.

Eriol caught her in his arms. "Are you all right?"

Madison looked around. "W-What happened?"

Eriol embraced her. "It doesn't matter now…just as long as you're safe."

Sakura wanted to run up there, too. Her best friend just had a near-death experience. But she didn't get her chance, because something zoomed by her in the blink of an eye. And when Sakura looked at the palm of her hand…it was empty. The Darkness Crystal was gone.

"Looking for this?"

Sakura looked ahead to see someone had stolen the crystal. It was that same creep she saw when she was chasing the Speed Cheetah. And he was standing in front of three friends of his own.

"Give that back!" Sakura shouted.

"Who are you?" Jupiter demanded.

"I guess you should at least get that much." He started to motion for his introductions. "Quicksilver, Avalanche, The Blob, Toad, we're the Brotherhood of Mutants and we're taking this."

Sakura knew what she had to do now. She quickly got an idea of how to deal with this. She looked over at Li, who seemingly had the same idea. Sakura raised one of her Sakura Cards…but didn't use it yet. It was a diversion and the four mutants couldn't see Li ready to strike.

"Now, element: Fire!"

The four mutants were surrounded by a ring of fire and they couldn't escape. Quicksilver wasn't happy about that. "Hey, you can't do that! How are we supposed to run away now?"

Sakura finally released her card. "Windy! Release and dispel!"

Windy came out and flew towards Quicksilver. She grabbed the crystal from his hands and brought it back to Sakura.

"Hey, we stole that first!" The Blob growled.

Sakura took the crystal in her hand, but the Brotherhood wasn't finished. Quicksilver had an idea to escape the ring of flames.

"Hey, give me a boost!"

The Blob positioned himself and gave Quicksilver a boost. He leaped into the air and over the flames. When he landed on his feet, he ran towards Sakura with his super speed. Sakura saw him coming and kept a tight grip on the crystal. Now it was a struggle to see who would get it, but Sakura had backup.

Li tried to run towards Quicksilver, but the speed demon saw him coming and started running around in circles. No one could aim a single shot with the speeds that Quicksilver was running.

"What's the matter?" Quicksilver mocked. "Can't catch me?"

Before Sakura could do anything, Quicksilver ran towards her and pushed her down. Before she could react to that, Quicksilver was off and running again. This wasn't going to be easy. But there was one way to handle this.

Of course, when Li saw which card she was reaching for, he held her arm. "Sakura…are you sure? You know what it can do."

"I have to, Li," Sakura told him. "It's the best way." Then she went with her next move. "Time Card! Slow…time…down!"

Sakura struck time and everything…moved…a…lot…slower. That included Quicksilver, who was now moving at a snail's pace. But Li was right. Sakura was getting worn out, but she had to persevere. She reached for her next card.

"Erase Card! Release!"

Time was slowed down enough for Erase to come out and tap into Quicksilver's mind. With his mind being cleared, he fell to the ground and was knocked out. Erase then moved on to Quicksilver's three colleagues. Their minds had been cleared as well and they were out.

Sakura finally recalled Erase and Time. But when it was all over, Sakura collapsed to the ground and began breathing heavily. Li immediately rushed over and took her in his arms.

"I knew it," he said. "Time took too much out of you. Sakura, speak to me!"

Sakura moaned weakly. "I…I'll be…oh…I'll be ok."

Sakura liked lying back in the arms of her love. It made her feel so much better, but the fatigue had set in and Sakura felt like she was ready to fall asleep. But there was something else that got her attention.

"Quicksilver! Avalanche! Report! Somebody answer me!"

Eriol walked over towards the unconscious Quicksilver and found a cellular phone on him. Sakura figured that whomever that was must have sent these four after the crystals. The voice kept calling out for his minions.

Kero flew over to the phone. "Sorry, no one's in right now. Please leave a message after the click." And with that, Kero hung up the phone. "So what do we do with this?"

"Think about it, Kero," Suppi replied. "If that guy's in charge of these four and he calls again, he'll pretty much undo any effect by the Erase Card by reminding them why they're here. I say break it!"

Sailor Jupiter yanked the phone away. "It'll be my pleasure." She dropped the phone and proceeded to smash it with her boot.

"As good an idea as that might have been, now what?" Li asked. "We can't just leave them here…can we?"

Sakura thought of something at that moment. It was sure to solve this problem. So she tried to get up, but it wasn't easy. Every muscle in her body ached and it was a painful process to get to her feet. Li tried to hold her, but Sakura shook her head. This was something she had to do.

"I think I know what we can do. Everyone duck behind the bush."


~--------------------~


Toad opened his eyes. He had a throbbing headache. "Whoa…I feel like I just got hit by a truck. Anyone want to tell me what happened?"

Toad didn't remember a single thing. He looked around him and saw he was in unfamiliar territory. He had never seen this place before. It was a park, but it was none of the parks that were close to home. More than that, though, there were flames around them that were dying down. It was as if they had just woken up from a tough battle.

"Hey, you guys! Wake up! Where are we?"

Toad's three friends woke up. They seemingly didn't know what to make of this either.

"What happened?" Lance asked.

"Did we get dumped here or something?" The Blob added.

Everyone looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings, not knowing what to do. They had no idea where they were.

But suddenly, Pietro blurted out, "Magneto!"

Everyone stood shoulder-to-shoulder when they saw him. Indeed, it was their leader, Magneto, standing before them.

"I am glad to see you four are safe," Magneto said.

"Just where are we?" Toad asked.

"We had an unfortunate incident with Xavier's team," Magneto answered. "You were all defeated and left here in Japan. Xavier attempted to wipe your minds clean and leave you all here. But it was fortunate that I managed to find you."

"He must have did a number on us," Toad said. "I can't remember a thing."

"The important thing is that you come home," Magneto continued. "The jet is still placed on an empty field just north of here. You will come back immediately and we shall deal with Xavier's team."

"What about you, boss man?" Pietro pointed out. "Aren't you coming with us?"

"I have business to deal with here," Magneto replied. "You four just return home and I'll catch up."

With those words, Magneto floated down the walkway until he was gone, leaving the four confused mutant students just standing in this strange park.

"Um…I guess we can't argue with that," Pietro said, breaking the silence. "Let's go."

The Blob pounded his fist into his palm. "They's gonna pay for this! Nobody dumps me in some other country and gets away with it!"

"Just wait 'til I get my hands on old Shades!" Lance added. "He's gonna wish he never met me."

"You think Evan will be ready this time?" Pietro grinned. "Nah, what am I thinking? That loser? He never could get the best of me. HAHAHA!"

Everyone was taking this latest setback with that laid back teenage spirit. But Toad wasn't feeling so good. Somehow, he felt that there was something he didn't know. There was something that didn't feel right about any of this.

But he could deal with that later. All Toad wanted to do was go home and watch some TV.

"Hey, you guys? As long as we're in Japan, should we try some of that sushi? I heard it's real good."

"NO!!" his three friends shouted.

Toad shrugged. Never was he able to get a smile out of his three friends.


~--------------------~


Sakura snickered from behind the bush. They bought the whole thing. So now that it was over…she recalled the Illusion Card.

"That was a great idea, Sakura," Eriol said.

Li didn't say anything. He just smiled, which was enough to make Sakura blush. That arduous task was finished. In the span of one day, Sakura had restored two crystals and subdued two threats. Already, this quest had proven to be extremely difficult…and Sakura began to wonder if it was too much for her.

Madison saw the look on her friend's face and tried to cheer her up. "Sakura…we're halfway through. There are only four crystals left."

"That's right," Eriol added. "There are only four crystals remaining…and when we have them…then this can all end."

That sounded so comforting to Sakura. Her summer was quickly coming to an end and instead of being a normal girl, Sakura found herself in the middle of a dangerous quest to save the world. It sounded so…unfair.

Then Sakura thought of something. It was something that should have hit her long ago. It didn't sound like a bad idea at all. In fact…it sounded like a wonderful idea. But…

…it also sounded like something that would change her life forever.


Next Time: Sakura goes home to think about…her life. She gets one idea, but doesn't want to tell anyone, so she goes to Lita. What do they share? And do they have time to share it before the fifth Crystal Beast appears? Come back for tomorrow, because what Sakura reveals could potentially change EVERYTHING!


Any comments? Then mail me at AmericanCaptor@hotmail.com and DO NOT forget to review below!