Cardcaptor Mei Lin: The Wild Cards.
Episode 3
All is quiet at the museum. The curators like it that way. Five seconds later, the peace and quiet was disrupted by a pair of girls flying on the back of a winged stick. "Where is it?" One of the girls asked impatiently. "You tell me! You're the one who's supposed to be capturing it!" The other one sniped. They landed lightly on the promenade, careful not to set off any alarms, nor otherwise alert the guards to their presence. It was, after all, way past closing time.
"Do you sense it?" The brown-haired girl asked. The brunette with the meatballs on her head nodded, and pointed down a hallway. They followed it until they reached a display room showing several feudal-era relics. They passed by display after display showing katanas, fans, umbrellas, and even a brass kettle... Bingo! Mei Lin made a lunge for the innocuous object, grabbing it close, while it seemed to buck and struggle in her arms. It then turned into a ladle, and somehow started whacking her repeatedly on the head.
She eventually wrestled it to the ground, though, Its struggles weakened until it finally reverted to an inert card form, with brassy and brown hi-lites. "Yes! I caught the Locking Ladle/Unlocking Kettle Card!" Mei Lin crowed. Sakura cheered along with her in her usual good-natured way.
Please stay tuned after these commercial breaks...
"You know, a watched pot never boils." Li said in an offhand tone. Keroberos growled just a little. "First of all, this is a kettle. Second of all..." Kero turned to look at his nemesis. "QUIT BUGGING ME!" Li fell back in the chair he was sitting in. He started waving his hand in front of his face. "Gyah, stuffed animal breath!"
"Li, please don't pick on Kero," Keroberos smiled as Sakura defended him. "That's my job!" Kero slumped, until the kettle on the stove started to whistle. "Finally!" He crowed. Sakura picked up the kettle, and poured the hot water on the winged lion. "Hot! Hot! HOT!" Kero yelled. "Quit being a big baby! Now you can change back!" Kero took her advice, and reverted to being a small stuffed animal with wings. Kero zipped under the sink faucet after turning the cold water on.
Mei Lin came into the kitchen, having freshened up after her latest capture. She spotted Kero shivering in the sink, with the water running over him. "What's with the plushie?" She asked. "The kettle-water we used to unlock his change was a little hot." Sakura explained. Mei Lin blinked, then started giggling.
"What's so funny?" Everyone asked. "You don't have to heat the water up to use the kettle!" They all groaned in unison. Except for Yue, who was grateful it wasn't him who had been trapped in his guardian form this time. Kero had been splashed with water from the locking ladle, and was stuck for quite a while in his winged-lion form, much too large to be lounging around the house. He held a secret smile as his comrade had been forced into one embarrassing ordeal after another, while he himself could easily escape into his borrowed form when need be.
Please stay tuned after these commercial breaks...
That night, after everyone had left, Sakura woke up to the sound of rustling coming from the kitchen. "Oh no! It might be a burglar!" She whispered. Taking no chances, she did her incantations, and activated the Power Card. She felt more than ready to take on whatever it was downstairs.
And oh, was she ever surprised! Someone was actually raiding her refrigerator, wearing a panda suit no less! She yelled her battle-cry, and whacked the intruder over the head. "Take that, you-" Whatever she was going to say was lost, as the panda disappeared in a haze of blue light, revealing a crystalline card with black and white trim.
"A Saotome Card?" A grin came over her face. "Mei Lin's going to be so happy!"
"I am not happy." A very peeved looking Mei Lin informed everyone. Sakura had given her the card that she had captured last night as they were eating lunch at school out in the field. "Well, it was trying to steal food out of my refrigerator last night!" Sakura exclaimed indignantly. Mei Lin sighed and looked at the card in her hand. "The Card of the Old Fool and the Panda."
"Not surprising, really. That card was based on Ranma Saotome's own father, who had a penchant for self-preservation. That included eating whatever he could get his hands on." Kero explained. "That's five cards now! You're doing pretty good." Mei Lin mulled it over a bit. "Well... if Sakura could share some of her captures with Li, I might as well too. Thanks for the card, Sakura!"
"You're welcome!"
They ate in companionable silence, blissfully unaware of events unfolding in the clock-tower. A young man, bearing a remarkable resemblance to one of the red shirts on Star Trek (meaning he was plot fodder) trudged his way up the stairs. No one noticed the slight green glow surrounding him, mainly because there was nobody around to see it.
He was mumbling piteously about the woes in his live, and how he knew what to do about them.
Please stay tuned after these commercial breaks...
Lunch was done with, and it was time to get back to class. Basically every student in school loathed returning to class after tasting the freedom lunch hour. Li, Sakura, Tomoyo and Mei Lin were no exception. They stilled chatted about this and that, but there was a pall of repression surrounding them as they were forced from the sunshine into a boring classroom.
With their heads hung low, as they were, it was a miracle Tomoyo noticed the activity in the clock-tower. "Hey, what's that?" She pointed a figure, just as it took a swan dive to the pavement below. Li acted first, pulling out his sword and a charm. "Element, WIND!" He shouted, using his magic power to form an air cushion below the falling student.
Being the only witnesses, the Captors went to his aid. "Whoa, whuhappen?" He seemed a little dazed. "You took a little tumble." Mei Lin told him, exchanging knowing glances with the others. Tomoyo was sent to take the student to the infirmary, while the three Captors stayed to take care of the Card. "It's definitely in the clock-tower." Mei Lin informed her friends. "And it's a powerful one." Li and Sakura nodded. Whatever Card this was, it nearly killed a student. Sakura wished Kero had stayed to help, but he had only showed up at lunch to bum some food off of her.
The trio entered the tower, being very cautious. Once the door was closed, Mei Lin activated the Amazon Card, still her most reliable weapon. She managed to remain focused on the hunt, though even her fierce expression was unbelievably cute. "Mei Lin can feel... Card is predator. Be too, too careful." Her companions nodded. They didn't need the reminder.
Mei Lin led the way, quietly ascending the steps. Li and Sakura were slightly less so, but overall adequate. About halfway to the top, Mei Lin signals for them to stop. A glance tells them she has the Card's position. Li silently readies his sword, while Sakura pulls out the Fight Card. Mei Lin nods in approval, happy they're working together like a well-oiled machine.
She proceeded past them, until she was on the opposite side of the tower, and that was when Mei Lin spotted her prey.
It had concealed itself in the darkness, but the glowing eyes were a dead give away. It apparently knew this, too, since it sprang at Mei Lin before she could put up a defense. She was knocked halfway down the flight of stairs, before she was able to regain her footing. She kicked the Card's Chi-form over her, so that it landed on the next flight down, where she and the others could catch it in a pincer movement.
It was shortly stunned as it landed, and they got a good look at it. Was it a tiger, or a man? Tiger-man? It did have ruddy fur and black stripes. It also had piercing blue eyes, and once it caught Li and Sakura's gaze, they stopped. Those eyes bored into them, rapidly dominating their wills. Luckily, Mei Lin wasn't facing it, so she was able to leap at it, but it had all the time it needed to leap to the center support beam, and slide down it to the bottom exit and freedom.
It didn't get far before *CLONG* it was coldcocked in the back of the head by a large cat-toy bell. "Mei Lin knew that Card come in handy someday!" She absently leapt down to the bottom level, the fall not fazing her in the slightest. Sakura flew her and Li down, and landed between the Card and the door. It had recovered by then, and rushed them. Li dashed to the side, while Sakura met it head-on, having activated the Fight Card. She was able to resist its dominating aura, but she was losing ground to the Card's ferocity.
She needn't have worried, however, as it was suddenly flung out of her way by a lightning bolt, courtesy of Li. Mei Lin took her turn, having better fortune fighting it now than Sakura did.
It was taking a severe beating, and it knew it, so it tried making another break for it, this time clawing it's way up the main support beam, hoping to escape from the top. It didn't make it far, as Sakura used the fly card to catch it half-way up, and drop-kicking. It plummeted, and landed hard. Still, it tried to fight on, this time completely changing tactics, not to mention forms. The Card shifted forms to a lion-man, complete with soulful green eyes. It let out a roar, so loud that the whole world seemed to turn on its end.
And it hit them where they lived. Doubts and depression overtook them. Mei Lin sunk to her knees, what was the use after all? If they couldn't capture this card, how could they take the more powerful ones? It was useless.
Sakura stopped flying, her wand's wings going limp. She began plummeting. Didn't matter much, she'd just break her neck and die, that's all.
And Li was watching her. Sure, he could catch her. He always did. Sooner or later, though, he wasn't going to be there to catch her. Why wait?
Somehow, they all had the same thought at the same time...
'WHAT AM I THINKING!?!'
Sakura was too late to come out of her dive, but Li caught her nonetheless. Mei Lin, meanwhile, had rushed the Lion, and was opening up a can of whup-ass on it. Soon, all that was left in the clock-tower was two startled teens, a neo-Amazon, and a crystalline card with trim of blue and green.
Please stay tuned after these commercial breaks...
"So what Card is that?" The Card Captor team had assembled after school, and detention for being late back to class, back at Sakura's home. Mr. wizard, AKA Keroberos explained it for them. "It's the Fierce Tiger/Roaring Lion Card. It's based on the most basic projected Chi attacks in existence. The Roaring Lion Bullet involves turning your innermost depression into a tangible force. That's probably why that student took a nose-dive off the clock-tower. The Fierce Tiger Domineering is an expression of the highest forms of ego, bordering on arrogance. That was how it was able to stare you two down."
Li and Sakura flushed at the memory of it. It grated on them, really, that they had frozen like rookies in the face of such a threat. "Hey, I couldn't have done it without you two!" Mei Lin assured the both of them, turning their embarrassing moment around. "But now that I have six cards, I am invincible! Hahahahahaha!"
"I think she's using that 'Fierce Tiger' confidence on herself." Sakura whispered to Li, who nodded in agreement. Went unsaid was the conviction that she would need it. There were tougher cards out there.
Author's notes: Third episode! Yeeeesssss! I tried my best to make this one long enough, so I started the episode with a capture, the second one was just filler, and the last one was the meat of the story, with some badly needed action. As for the cards, the Locking Ladle/Unlocking Kettle Card is based on the Chisuuiton and Kaisuuifu respectively, one being used to lock people in their Jusenkyo cursed forms, and the other used to restore the curse to its original function. The Old Fool/Panda Card has already been sufficiently explained. Finally, the Fierce Tiger, Roaring Lion Card was based on the first Chi attacks Ranma learned. He first copied the Chi attack Ryoga used against him, The Shi Shi Hokodan (Roaring Lion Bullet) , then used a different emotion to change it to the Moko Takabisha (Fierce Tiger Domineering). Three cards in one episode. At least one of them is useful!
Episode 3
All is quiet at the museum. The curators like it that way. Five seconds later, the peace and quiet was disrupted by a pair of girls flying on the back of a winged stick. "Where is it?" One of the girls asked impatiently. "You tell me! You're the one who's supposed to be capturing it!" The other one sniped. They landed lightly on the promenade, careful not to set off any alarms, nor otherwise alert the guards to their presence. It was, after all, way past closing time.
"Do you sense it?" The brown-haired girl asked. The brunette with the meatballs on her head nodded, and pointed down a hallway. They followed it until they reached a display room showing several feudal-era relics. They passed by display after display showing katanas, fans, umbrellas, and even a brass kettle... Bingo! Mei Lin made a lunge for the innocuous object, grabbing it close, while it seemed to buck and struggle in her arms. It then turned into a ladle, and somehow started whacking her repeatedly on the head.
She eventually wrestled it to the ground, though, Its struggles weakened until it finally reverted to an inert card form, with brassy and brown hi-lites. "Yes! I caught the Locking Ladle/Unlocking Kettle Card!" Mei Lin crowed. Sakura cheered along with her in her usual good-natured way.
Please stay tuned after these commercial breaks...
"You know, a watched pot never boils." Li said in an offhand tone. Keroberos growled just a little. "First of all, this is a kettle. Second of all..." Kero turned to look at his nemesis. "QUIT BUGGING ME!" Li fell back in the chair he was sitting in. He started waving his hand in front of his face. "Gyah, stuffed animal breath!"
"Li, please don't pick on Kero," Keroberos smiled as Sakura defended him. "That's my job!" Kero slumped, until the kettle on the stove started to whistle. "Finally!" He crowed. Sakura picked up the kettle, and poured the hot water on the winged lion. "Hot! Hot! HOT!" Kero yelled. "Quit being a big baby! Now you can change back!" Kero took her advice, and reverted to being a small stuffed animal with wings. Kero zipped under the sink faucet after turning the cold water on.
Mei Lin came into the kitchen, having freshened up after her latest capture. She spotted Kero shivering in the sink, with the water running over him. "What's with the plushie?" She asked. "The kettle-water we used to unlock his change was a little hot." Sakura explained. Mei Lin blinked, then started giggling.
"What's so funny?" Everyone asked. "You don't have to heat the water up to use the kettle!" They all groaned in unison. Except for Yue, who was grateful it wasn't him who had been trapped in his guardian form this time. Kero had been splashed with water from the locking ladle, and was stuck for quite a while in his winged-lion form, much too large to be lounging around the house. He held a secret smile as his comrade had been forced into one embarrassing ordeal after another, while he himself could easily escape into his borrowed form when need be.
Please stay tuned after these commercial breaks...
That night, after everyone had left, Sakura woke up to the sound of rustling coming from the kitchen. "Oh no! It might be a burglar!" She whispered. Taking no chances, she did her incantations, and activated the Power Card. She felt more than ready to take on whatever it was downstairs.
And oh, was she ever surprised! Someone was actually raiding her refrigerator, wearing a panda suit no less! She yelled her battle-cry, and whacked the intruder over the head. "Take that, you-" Whatever she was going to say was lost, as the panda disappeared in a haze of blue light, revealing a crystalline card with black and white trim.
"A Saotome Card?" A grin came over her face. "Mei Lin's going to be so happy!"
"I am not happy." A very peeved looking Mei Lin informed everyone. Sakura had given her the card that she had captured last night as they were eating lunch at school out in the field. "Well, it was trying to steal food out of my refrigerator last night!" Sakura exclaimed indignantly. Mei Lin sighed and looked at the card in her hand. "The Card of the Old Fool and the Panda."
"Not surprising, really. That card was based on Ranma Saotome's own father, who had a penchant for self-preservation. That included eating whatever he could get his hands on." Kero explained. "That's five cards now! You're doing pretty good." Mei Lin mulled it over a bit. "Well... if Sakura could share some of her captures with Li, I might as well too. Thanks for the card, Sakura!"
"You're welcome!"
They ate in companionable silence, blissfully unaware of events unfolding in the clock-tower. A young man, bearing a remarkable resemblance to one of the red shirts on Star Trek (meaning he was plot fodder) trudged his way up the stairs. No one noticed the slight green glow surrounding him, mainly because there was nobody around to see it.
He was mumbling piteously about the woes in his live, and how he knew what to do about them.
Please stay tuned after these commercial breaks...
Lunch was done with, and it was time to get back to class. Basically every student in school loathed returning to class after tasting the freedom lunch hour. Li, Sakura, Tomoyo and Mei Lin were no exception. They stilled chatted about this and that, but there was a pall of repression surrounding them as they were forced from the sunshine into a boring classroom.
With their heads hung low, as they were, it was a miracle Tomoyo noticed the activity in the clock-tower. "Hey, what's that?" She pointed a figure, just as it took a swan dive to the pavement below. Li acted first, pulling out his sword and a charm. "Element, WIND!" He shouted, using his magic power to form an air cushion below the falling student.
Being the only witnesses, the Captors went to his aid. "Whoa, whuhappen?" He seemed a little dazed. "You took a little tumble." Mei Lin told him, exchanging knowing glances with the others. Tomoyo was sent to take the student to the infirmary, while the three Captors stayed to take care of the Card. "It's definitely in the clock-tower." Mei Lin informed her friends. "And it's a powerful one." Li and Sakura nodded. Whatever Card this was, it nearly killed a student. Sakura wished Kero had stayed to help, but he had only showed up at lunch to bum some food off of her.
The trio entered the tower, being very cautious. Once the door was closed, Mei Lin activated the Amazon Card, still her most reliable weapon. She managed to remain focused on the hunt, though even her fierce expression was unbelievably cute. "Mei Lin can feel... Card is predator. Be too, too careful." Her companions nodded. They didn't need the reminder.
Mei Lin led the way, quietly ascending the steps. Li and Sakura were slightly less so, but overall adequate. About halfway to the top, Mei Lin signals for them to stop. A glance tells them she has the Card's position. Li silently readies his sword, while Sakura pulls out the Fight Card. Mei Lin nods in approval, happy they're working together like a well-oiled machine.
She proceeded past them, until she was on the opposite side of the tower, and that was when Mei Lin spotted her prey.
It had concealed itself in the darkness, but the glowing eyes were a dead give away. It apparently knew this, too, since it sprang at Mei Lin before she could put up a defense. She was knocked halfway down the flight of stairs, before she was able to regain her footing. She kicked the Card's Chi-form over her, so that it landed on the next flight down, where she and the others could catch it in a pincer movement.
It was shortly stunned as it landed, and they got a good look at it. Was it a tiger, or a man? Tiger-man? It did have ruddy fur and black stripes. It also had piercing blue eyes, and once it caught Li and Sakura's gaze, they stopped. Those eyes bored into them, rapidly dominating their wills. Luckily, Mei Lin wasn't facing it, so she was able to leap at it, but it had all the time it needed to leap to the center support beam, and slide down it to the bottom exit and freedom.
It didn't get far before *CLONG* it was coldcocked in the back of the head by a large cat-toy bell. "Mei Lin knew that Card come in handy someday!" She absently leapt down to the bottom level, the fall not fazing her in the slightest. Sakura flew her and Li down, and landed between the Card and the door. It had recovered by then, and rushed them. Li dashed to the side, while Sakura met it head-on, having activated the Fight Card. She was able to resist its dominating aura, but she was losing ground to the Card's ferocity.
She needn't have worried, however, as it was suddenly flung out of her way by a lightning bolt, courtesy of Li. Mei Lin took her turn, having better fortune fighting it now than Sakura did.
It was taking a severe beating, and it knew it, so it tried making another break for it, this time clawing it's way up the main support beam, hoping to escape from the top. It didn't make it far, as Sakura used the fly card to catch it half-way up, and drop-kicking. It plummeted, and landed hard. Still, it tried to fight on, this time completely changing tactics, not to mention forms. The Card shifted forms to a lion-man, complete with soulful green eyes. It let out a roar, so loud that the whole world seemed to turn on its end.
And it hit them where they lived. Doubts and depression overtook them. Mei Lin sunk to her knees, what was the use after all? If they couldn't capture this card, how could they take the more powerful ones? It was useless.
Sakura stopped flying, her wand's wings going limp. She began plummeting. Didn't matter much, she'd just break her neck and die, that's all.
And Li was watching her. Sure, he could catch her. He always did. Sooner or later, though, he wasn't going to be there to catch her. Why wait?
Somehow, they all had the same thought at the same time...
'WHAT AM I THINKING!?!'
Sakura was too late to come out of her dive, but Li caught her nonetheless. Mei Lin, meanwhile, had rushed the Lion, and was opening up a can of whup-ass on it. Soon, all that was left in the clock-tower was two startled teens, a neo-Amazon, and a crystalline card with trim of blue and green.
Please stay tuned after these commercial breaks...
"So what Card is that?" The Card Captor team had assembled after school, and detention for being late back to class, back at Sakura's home. Mr. wizard, AKA Keroberos explained it for them. "It's the Fierce Tiger/Roaring Lion Card. It's based on the most basic projected Chi attacks in existence. The Roaring Lion Bullet involves turning your innermost depression into a tangible force. That's probably why that student took a nose-dive off the clock-tower. The Fierce Tiger Domineering is an expression of the highest forms of ego, bordering on arrogance. That was how it was able to stare you two down."
Li and Sakura flushed at the memory of it. It grated on them, really, that they had frozen like rookies in the face of such a threat. "Hey, I couldn't have done it without you two!" Mei Lin assured the both of them, turning their embarrassing moment around. "But now that I have six cards, I am invincible! Hahahahahaha!"
"I think she's using that 'Fierce Tiger' confidence on herself." Sakura whispered to Li, who nodded in agreement. Went unsaid was the conviction that she would need it. There were tougher cards out there.
Author's notes: Third episode! Yeeeesssss! I tried my best to make this one long enough, so I started the episode with a capture, the second one was just filler, and the last one was the meat of the story, with some badly needed action. As for the cards, the Locking Ladle/Unlocking Kettle Card is based on the Chisuuiton and Kaisuuifu respectively, one being used to lock people in their Jusenkyo cursed forms, and the other used to restore the curse to its original function. The Old Fool/Panda Card has already been sufficiently explained. Finally, the Fierce Tiger, Roaring Lion Card was based on the first Chi attacks Ranma learned. He first copied the Chi attack Ryoga used against him, The Shi Shi Hokodan (Roaring Lion Bullet) , then used a different emotion to change it to the Moko Takabisha (Fierce Tiger Domineering). Three cards in one episode. At least one of them is useful!
