Second Generation Cardcaptors 37
Hitori: It's been a while since I've done a recap, huh? Makoto: You've been in jail, that's why! Meeko: Oniichan, be nice or I'll sign you up next to be captured! Makoto: What? You can't do that!? Meeko: Wanna bet? What character do you think is the author's favorite? Makoto: Me of course! Meeko: No me! Hitori: Can I get on with the recap? Meeko/Makoto: No! Digidynasty: Actually, you're both wrong. Meeko/Makoto: Eh!? Digidynasty: *smiles* It's Syaoran-kun. Sakura: Hey! He's married to me! Digidynasty: Only because I said so! Sakura: What!? Get back here! Digidynasty: Hoe!!! Hitori: *sweat drops* No wonder why I stopped trying to do these recaps.
Akiko gasped and looked around her. The fog was thick, but even still, she should have been able to see Meeko, Makoto, or Shinji near her. They had been right there a second ago! But now…she couldn't see anyone! All she could see were tall trees surrounding her, covering the sky from view like a canopy would in a tropical rain forest. There was also an odd fog around her, really dense. Not like in her dream, that one was different. She couldn't tell how, it just was.
She already had her staff out, so cardcaptor that she was… she began to walk through the foliage and branches and began to search for her friends.
Shinji gaped at the scene before him. They had just finishing capturing Cloud and Bubbles, so where did these cards come from? Wasn't two in one day enough? Oh wait…they had captured three one day. Just another day to beat that record, huh?
Shinji stretched out his senses and decided to first reach out to Meeko. He sensed her a little off to the left, and turned to walk in that direction. He hadn't gone maybe ten meters when he saw her, walking towards his direction.
"Meeko!" He called.
Meeko turned to him and smiled, then raised her hand and attacked with a large white magic blast. Shinji was so shocked he was hit right square in the chest and flew back into one of the many trees.
He gritted his teeth against the pain and held his hand over his blood seeping wound. "W-what are you d-doing, M-Meeko?"
"Destroying you, like I should have done a long time ago!" She dove forward, and pulled out…the Sword Card!
Shinji had just enough time to dive out of the way, as Sword cut through the tree. "I have the Sword Card, so what are you doing with it!?" Then, it clicked. "The clone!"
In Abbadon's layer, Hitori was being forced once more to use the Create Card to make clones of Meeko and Makoto, to try and destroy the already lost cardcaptors. She didn't want to, but Abbadon held Madoushi in a large force field off to the corner, and Madoushi was shocked with lightning repeatedly, whenever Hitori faltered in her mission.
Hitori felt hot tears on the corners of her eyes as she watched one of her clones fight Shinji and the other fight Makoto. Akiko wasn't far behind and aided Makoto in fighting his evil twin. Meeko, the real one, was nearing Shinji was well.
Please, hurry Meeko! Shinji's in trouble!
Meeko ran through the woods, not really knowing where she was going, but knowing she had to hurry. She would use fly, but would surely run into a tree at the speed her head and mind were telling her to go. As she neared where she felt she needed to be, the sound of swords clashing was heard.
She came into a large clearing, well large in this area's standards, and was shocked to see Shinji fighting…her? The clone scored another hit on Shinji's arm and Shinji was forced to his knees, with only a split second to block another swing from 'Meeko'.
It never made it though, because suddenly, from off to the side…
"Arrow!" Meeko aimed her one arrow at fired. It split into several arrows, all widely flying towards the duo. With no time to call upon Shield, Shinji felt up his hands to the awaiting pain…
Meeko would never have that though, she used her own innate powers and put a shield around Shinji herself. The red hued shield was sufficient enough to protect him from Arrow's barrage against the clone and Shinji was un-scaved from the attack.
Fortunately, the same couldn't be said for the clone. It was hit several times, its body impaled and stabbed so much that the body was pinned up against one of the back trees.
Meeko ran up to Shinji. "Are you all right!?"
Shinji nodded, then wheezed in pain. "It got a couple good ones on me." He removed his hand from his chest, to revealed the large wound.
Meeko fought back her nausea, at seeing the boy she loved in so much pain, and quickly tore the bottom part of her costume, to temporarily wrap Shinji's wound.
"Arigatou." He said. Then from behind Meeko, he saw a large sword raised up, reading to strike Meeko down where she sat. "Meeko! Look out!"
"Wave!" She called out suddenly. A large wave of water came flowing from her hand, and blasted the clone back into a far tree. "Why don't you just die already!?" She shouted, holding her staff tight, and getting into a fighting position in front of Shinji.
The clone smiled evilly. "I am made of magic. I do not die. And I am never defeated!!" It lunged forward and made ready to stab Meeko in the heart.
"Meeko! Catch!" Shinji threw her something, and she pulled it the rest of the way.
It was the Sword Card. She quickly activated it, and her staff transformed into Sword. She automatically knew how to use it and blocked the clone's attack. This was going to be tough…
Makoto dodged, his clone's attacks, while Akiko attacked it from a different direction.
"Power! Fight!" Akiko called, out, attacked the clone with all her strength.
While it was distracted, Makoto quickly pulled out a card. "Move!" Makoto seemed to disappear, then appear right behind his clone. "Fiery!" He blasted a large Fire attack from his hand into his clone's back. The clone was flying over Akiko's head and landed soundly on the ground, his back a chard cinder.
"Akiko!"
"I'm fine. That was smart." She admitted, wiping the sweat from her forehead.
"But not smart enough!" The clone attacked once more, and quickly stabbed Akiko through the stomach with his sword.
"NOOOOO!!!!" Makoto screamed and Akiko went wide-eyed and collapsed into his arms. "Akiko! AKIKO!"
'Makoto' smirked. "That's what you get for thinking you could destroy me!"
Makoto fought back his tears, but still they came. "I lost you once, I will not lose you again!" He through a card forward and struck it dead center with his sword. "Return!"
Everything around him got fuzzy and was consumed in a white light….
Meeko was down on the ground as her clone raised the sword over her head…
Sakura and Syaoran, along with Keroberus and Yue, were running towards where they all felt the center of magic gather…
All of it ceased to exist and when the light faded away, the area was clear. Suddenly, though, the four cardcaptors materialized.
Meeko opened her eyes and looked around. "Huh? Where are we?" She looked down and saw Shinji, sleeping at her feet. "Shinji-kun!"
Shinji moaned and awoke, and miraculously, removed his hand from his chest and was shocked to see no wound was apparent.
Makoto held Akiko close to his chest and continued to cry.
"Makoto." A muffled voice said. "Makoto-kun…open your eyes."
Makoto slowly did as told and looked down at Akiko…who was smiling and looking up at him.
"Why the long face?" She whispered.
"I…I thought I lost you." He looked down and saw no blood, nor wound on her body.
"How did…" He wondered.
"It was the Return Card you used." Yue said from behind them.
All children gasped and looked up to see Sakura, Syaoran, Keroberus, and Yue standing there.
"You know, getting here twice is not what I call fun." Syaoran said.
Sakura smirked at the comment. They had appeared back at the house and had to race back here for the second time!
"Return?" Shinji questioned.
"Makoto used Return, and the card returned you to where you were before you got into trouble." The winged guardian explained.
Shinji fumbled through his pockets and found Cloud. "So it returned us to the time before we got lost, but after we captured Cloud and Bubbles?"
Akiko held up the Bubble Card. "Looks like it."
Makoto gave her a hand up. "So then, we have about ten seconds before we go through that fun again!"
Sakura and Syaoran frowned. "What do you mean?" The Clow Mistress questioned.
It wasn't long before her question was answered.
Abbadon once again sent the two Clow Cards after the Cardcaptors, but this time, the parents and guardians were trapped as well.
"Wha-?" Syaoran blinked a few times as his vision got blurry. For some reason, they had all stayed together this time.
"How come we didn't split up?" Meeko wondered.
"Shield…return!" Sakura called, and her Sakura Card reverted into its card form and floated to her hand. "Although these Clow Cards can surround us, they did not separate us, cause I used my card to protect us from it." She explained.
Syaoran wrapped an arm around Sakura's waist, despite the semi-dire circumstances. "You've gotten a lot smarted and quicker since our cardcapting days."
Sakura blushed at the compliment.
"Can we reminisce later?" Keroberus said.
"I agree, we have a problem to get out of presently." Yue said, calmly.
"And more trouble's coming!" Makoto said, quickly blocking a sword attack from his clone.
"Fighting them once was hard enough!" Meeko said, dodging her clone's attacks. "How are we going to win this time!?"
"We'll defeat them for you!" Syaoran said, pulling out his sword.
You can't do that. You have to guide them…only.
Syaoran closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. "Get out of my head, Hiragizowa."
Sakura furrowed her brow. "We have to get them out of this."
"And don't think about doing any possessing! It was bad enough the firs time!" Keroberus warned.
"I agree. A different solution is advisable." Yue said.
Keroberus glared at Yue. "Why don't you say something more productive than 'I agree?' huh!?"
Syaoran sighed. "Fine, fine, we'll do it his way." (meaning Eriol) Syaoran sheathed his sword. "Come on Makoto! You can do it!"
Sakura sweat dropped. "I don't think that's what he means, dear."
"Eh?"
Keroberus chuckled. "Gaki-boy doesn't get it."
"What don't I get?"
"We can help them in the battle, but we can't do it for them." Sakura explained, in the simplest terms she could. "Does that make sense?"
Syaoran nodded and took out his sword. "Let's do it."
Sakura took out some cards. "Sword! Fight! Power!"
Syaoran smirked. "Those are your favorites, aren't they?"
Sakura smiled and giggled.
"I will do my best from the air to try and find a way out of this maze." Yue said, flying into the air.
Syaoran was confused…again. "Didn't the children already catch Maze?"
Keroberus sighed in defeat. Sometimes this boy can be too much. "He was speaking metaphorically."
"Oh…I knew that." Syaoran turned his back to the guardian beast and ran to the battle.
"I'll help Yue in the air." Keroberus said to his mistress, who nodded and ran off to Syaoran, while Keroberus took to the air.
"I've had enough of this!" Makoto said in his rage. (He was still mad over his clone attacking Akiko) "Fiery!" He called out.
"Matte!" Syaoran called out, running to his son's side. "You use that and we're all dead! Do you know how easily Wood- I mean this card would burn up? How do you plan to get out then, hmm?"
Makoto sweat dropped. "I didn't think of that."
"Use your surroundings to you advantage. Don't attack aggressively, until you see an opening." Syaoran instructed. (Digidynasty: More dad/son scenes…*sigh* Syaoran-kun would make such a great father!)
Makoto nodded. "Got it."
When Makoto's clone made a move at him, instead of attacking, like Makoto would have, he called out his cards. "Jump!" Makoto jumped up, grabbing onto a branch that was up high. "Freeze!"
Right then and there, the clone froze in place. Then, out of his pocket, Makoto pulled out a small pebble. He let it drop down and called out another card. "Big!" The stone turned into a large boulder that came crashing down onto the clone, smashing him on place, and soon dissolving into small magical speckles.
Syaoran nodded in approval, than gasped as Makoto dropped down, falling quickly towards the ground. He reached into his pockets and went for a ward paper, but found nothing there. "Nani?"
"Fuuka! Sho rai!" Makoto called out, slamming his sword down on one of Syaoran's ward papers, as he was falling, creating a cushion of air to land on, and floated safely to the ground.
Syaoran glared disapprovingly at his son.
Makoto looked down sheepishly. "I thought I might need them and…"
"Don't you think that was a bit of an overkill?" Syaoran said, pointing his sword over at the boulder.
Makoto looked up in shock, then gave his father a determined look. "He hurt Akiko." Was all he said.
Syaoran nodded in understanding. "I did the same thing when a Clow Card hurt your mother…"
As Freeze attacked Sakura and myself at the skating rink, Sakura was caught underneath it and was thrown into the air.
"Jump!" She shouted, after calling out her staff. She jumped off Freeze and landed off to the side. She carefully kept her balance as I skated towards her…
"Watch out!"
I grabbed Sakura in my arms and dove off to the side.
She thanked me but suddenly saw Freeze come back for round two. Shoving me to the side, she took the full blunt of the blow and went flying into the air.
I called out, "Sakura!!" She landed hard and was passed out. I was so mad; I ran at the card head on and started kicking it! No one messes with my Sakura…err…even though she didn't know it yet.
We ultimately captured Freeze and Sakura recovered without a scratch, but I never knew her getting hurt would affect me so…
Makoto smiled at the story. "Wow. That was great. Did you finally tell her you loved her after that?"
Syaoran sweat dropped. "No…it wasn't till a few months…okay a long time later that I told her."
Makoto shook his head. "And she waited for you that whole time?"
Syaoran patted his son's head. "That, my son, is an entirely different story, and one I will not start now. Shall we see if we can help your sister?"
"Or me!!"
Both boys turned and saw Akiko caught up in vines.
"They came out of no where and wrapped me up like this!" She said.
It must be Mist making Wood grow like this. Which also means we're running out of time. "Don't worry, we'll get you of there in no time." Syaoran said.
Before he could unsheathe his sword, Makoto was already cutting Akiko loose with his own sword. That's my son.
Meeko on the other hand, was running out of room to maneuver.
"Use the cards you've already captured to try and defeat your enemy!" Sakura guided.
Meeko nodded and brought out a card. "Arrow!" She attacked her clone with Arrow, and pinned it against a tree by its clothes. "Little!" 'Meeko' shrunk, but was still being held by Arrow and now, didn't have enough strength to get free.
"Now!" Sakura shouted.
Meeko nodded, and pulled back her bowstring and fire a single arrow at her clone. With dead point accuracy the arrow pierce the clone, and because of its size, it disappeared in a poof of smoke.
"Yatta!" Meeko jumped for joy, and hugged Shinji, who was off to the side, in case Meeko needed him, but he too was supposed to be minimal interference in certain situations.
Yue and Keroberus flew down and landed besides everyone as they regrouped. "There appears to be no way out." Yue reported.
"Appears? There is no way out!" Keroberus said. "And I have my video game set on pause back at home! We have to get out of here!"
Shinji nodded. "Then I'll have to cut us out of here, don't I?"
"Iie!" Sakura said, pushing Shinji's hand back down. "These cards are gentle cards, you just have to talk to them."
"Hontou ni?" Meeko asked. She held her staff to her side. "Return to the shape you were meant to be, Clow Card."
The woods around them glowed with a greenish light and subsided until they swirl and formed into small visible shape of the Wood Card. It smiled at Meeko, then reverted into its card form. "Kerei…" Meeko whispered.
"What about the second card?" Makoto asked.
Shinji's mouth gaped open. "You still haven't figured it out?"
Keroberus snorted. "He takes after his father. Oww!" He cried out, as Makoto threw one of his father's fire ward papers at Keroberus' wide open rear, lighting it on fire.
Syaoran laughed. "You had that one coming!"
Keroberus growled, and made ready to attack the Li Clan Leader.
Sakura placed a gentle hand on him. "This card is a helix. It won't turn into its real form until you call out its name." She said. "Now, why do you think you can't see anything?"
"Cause there's all this mist in the way." Makoto said. Just then, the Mist Card also swirled around Makoto, and reverted to its card form. "The Mist? Oh I get it!"
"Finally." Yue mumbled.
Keroberus' mouth dropped to the floor. "He actually said something of his own!"
"Shut up."
Keroberus went even more into shock and dropped to the floor laughing, ultimately going to his small form and going to his mistress' shoulder, wiping tears from his eyes. "Who would have thought?"
Sakura shook her head. "Let's go home."
Everyone cheered and chatted on the way back to their homes, where they could rest after such a full and stressful day.
On the penguin slide, just down the ways from where they were, Eriol stood, dressed in his full outfit, Ruby Moon and Spinel Sun at his side.
"They are getting better." Spinel Sun said.
"Yes, it is almost time." Eriol agreed, holding his sun staff.
Ruby Moon pouted. "Just like old times, ne?" She smirked.
Eriol nodded. "And judgment comes quickly for the cardcaptors…"