Third World Reunion: Attack on the Federal Castle

After Yashii Omae yelled at his younger brother, Nekino's eyes were teal as he sobbed. But just as suddenly, the weird colour died down as he noticed the group's shocked expression. Yashii seemed very cruel to treat his own brother like that, but in the meantime, he seemed to have gone off towards the Federal castle. He was muttering something about Nekino and his dishonourable acts.

"How did you do that?" asked Madison gently, she didn't want to shock the child.

"I just don't know…" replied Nekino. "I've always had this ability ever since I was small… It's hard to explain really."

"What's the ability?" exclaimed Fye. Nekino shuffled his feet, as though he was afraid of telling anyone else- or he never told anyone before...

"I-I have the ability to communicate with all animals- especially cats."

"Yes, it's very rare- even for someone who doesn't practice magic," said Mei.

"Ahh… I see," said Kero (Who had secretly transformed back into his true form while Yashii was yelling at Nekino) "That is some super cool ability!"

Nekino stared at Kero curiously, "You can actually talk!" he gasped.

"I never wanted to take after my brother in the first place… I want to be a nature artist and paint the beauty around me… But my parents don't understand, and neither does Yashii… They want me to be a samurai, like Yashii is. Follow the traditions of the Omae generations and keeping the honour." said Nekino sadly. "I am one of the castle servants and two weeks ago, I noticed something strange… I saw that none of the people in the castle were acting normally, including the Princess… Most of them seemed like they were merely doing what the Princess said without objection and none of them talked anymore than was necessary… It was like they were under a spell or something… And the Princess was wearing a crystal necklace or something similar... She never takes it off. My animal friends' sense severe wrongness but they tell me the castle atmosphere is troubling them…"

Alarm bells started ringing in the Cardcaptors group's heads… Didn't Yuuko Ichino say something about the Black Rose before they left!

"Remember to stop the Black Rose…" said the memory of Yuuko Ichino, just before they left their familiar world for another unknown world… Meilin and the others remembered Yuuko's warning well.

"Err… Nekino? Since you have that power to talk to animals, did you ask them to help you?" said Kero. Nekino nodded, his silver eyes were like graphite. "I tried everything, but it seems as though there is an unseen wall around the castle itself." An amber coloured cat with jet black eyes purred as it pressed against the boy's legs. It had grey markings on its friendly face. The boy leant down and looked at the cute cat directly as it let out a couple of mews. Likewise, a series of gentle animalistic sounds came from Nekino as the entire group stared at him. They knew he was trying to communicate to the cat, but it sounded… Foreign.

"So unknown, it sounds like a language we couldn't understand," noted Sakura. Eventually, Nekino stood up as though he obtained enough 'unknown' information from the cat. The others were curious about what the cat said.

"This is Amshader; he is one of the castle cats I've looked after since I was small. He says that the castle wall is too steep, even for a cat his age. It'll be better to sneak into the castle itself, like a quiet mouse or go by flight like a liberated bird."

"He sounds like a very wise cat." grinned Fye as Kurogane yelled at him, "Perhaps he knows what's going on inside of the castle?"

"Amshader is wise! Eeee!" squealed Mokona. Li Avalon laughed, despite himself. Princess Sakura also giggled, she found Mokona to be very cute. Kero growled at Mokona jealously, he didn't want that thing to upstage him!

"Unfortunately, no, but I do know a way we could get into the castle!" Nekino grinned, his eyes shone with mischief. Kurogane didn't like the sound of this…

"Oh no! Please, anything but this!" he yelled. Nekino handed him some old clothes and the long torturous procedure begun… There was a lot of screaming afterwards.

"We have to dress up in the castle servants' clothes!" Nekino smiled, already laughing at Kurogane's attire. The others were amused too. Fye, Kero-Chan, Li Showron and Kurogane looked like they were dressed like dolls and some of them were about to die with embarrassment! Especially Kero-Chan, Li Showron and Kurogane, seeing as they were clothed like servant girls, wearing long dresses!

"Get us out of these girlish clothes!" yelled Kero-Chan and Kurogane in anger.

"A feat I never could have completed without the help of Madison!" said Nekino. "Yes, Madison, you did a very good job this time!" giggled Sakura, "How did you keep coming up with those countless designs you made for them? Li looks almost like the Princess that he acted in the Sleeping Beauty play six years ago!"

"Well… Let's just say that when I started to create clothes for the Cardcaptor, I found that I had natural talents in designing clothes!" Madison smiled.

"Mokona thinks they look funny!" Princess Sakura had a faint grin on her face.

"Kero-Chan looks very feminine wearing the clothes," Meilin smirked; she was trying to suppress her laughter, as the humanoid Kero fumed at the Chinese ninja. Their efforts to hide Kero-Chan's other parts were tricky, but not too hard to hide. They had to suppress his small wings with a corset, hid his mousy ears underneath a large hat that he never took off and tie his long tail up, so in the end, he looked normal and feminine. Another thing was his voice, Kero-Chan had to practise speaking in a soft voice that was like a girl's (which he was pretty annoyed at).

"Are we all ready?" said Nekino brightly, his voice contrasting with the feelings of the 'servant girls'. He seemed very happy now that he saw how the servants looked. Amshader followed the 'servants' and Nekino as he strode up to the castle's gates.

"Who goes there? What's the password?" asked one of the palace's guards harshly.

"It's Nekino Omae and some new servants. The password is Seako." answered Nekino as he patted Amshader. The servants were nervous, could they pull this off? Eventually, the guard let them in. Once inside, they saw the Princess in her court, but it wasn't the real one, it was actually Madeline Talern. They saw that she was wearing her crystal pendant, and everything Nekino said to them was true…

Everybody was in a trance-like state, obeying everything Madeline told them to do.

"You are not the real Princess! You are an intruder!" yelled Kero-Chan with a high lisp. The Princess smiled a chilling smirk that was just like Madeline's.

"Yes, and we know that you are actually Madeline, the Black Rose leader!" shouted Li Showron, "WHAT DID YOU DO WITH THE REAL PRINCESS!"

"Oh, I just… put her in a trance as well and hid her," said the disguised Madeline, "But now, I have my guards to put you interfering people away! Guards!" At once, Furai, Kyro, Sekka and the rest of the Black Rose group were upon them.

"You are messing with our plans," Sekka told them dangerously, her eyes glared upon them as she summoned her Luna staff. "Let the Federal public know what happens to people like you! Cosmic Catastrophe!" At once, the room seemed to shake and lots of bizarre things happened to the order of things. Li Showron used his sword to deflect the attack as Leon teleported behind him and used his electric blade. Moving quickly, Li Showron allowed the two elemental attacks to collide with each other cancelling each other out. He smiled at the trick he played on them.

"WHAT!" The two doubles yelled as their attacks grew stronger and exploded.

The explosions left Sekka and Leon both unconscious after they accidentally hit the other with their own attacks.

Meanwhile, both Kero-Chan and Nekino had troubles as Furai and Kyro teamed up together to advance on them. Their faces were menacing and evilly chuckling.

"Do you think we should run or fight?" asked Kero-Chan nervously, this was too real. Whenever he was Keroberos or playing video-games, everybody was defeated by him, but as a human he was too weak and clumsy… Suddenly, he remembered some of the moves that he learnt in Samurai: The Return! Using some of the moves, he charged at the men before he used his kicking skills to hit Kyro head-on. The white-haired ninja was hit many miles away as blood streamed from his nose.

"AAAHHHH! MY WORST NIGHTMARE!" screamed Kyro as he fainted.

"Heh, you are weak, little kawaii girl." commented Furai as his face was darkened.

"I AM NOT CUTE!" said Kero-Chan as he hurtled angrily at Furai, in a fit of rage.
Furai easily pushed Kero-Chan aside as he proceeded on Nekino. The Japanese boy was not scared, instead his voice sounded like growling. This made the dark magician laugh as he began to work his magic. But suddenly, there was a flash of orange fur and a fierce full-grown male tiger entered the courtroom, smashing the doors to bits. It snarled at Furai as the usually rough magician was reduced to jelly.

"Don't eat me!" Furai squeaked as Nekino ordered the terrible tiger to sit on him. "What! NNNOOO!" Furai yelled as the cat-like beast threw its weight on him.

With all the chaos going on, Fye used his magic to sense where Princess Madison was, and then he ran up to the false Princess on the throne and grabbed her crystal pendant. The string broke with a snap and he crushed Madeline's pendant under his foot. At once, in another part of the palace, the Princess woke up with a start and everybody in the palace was back to normal and finally, the false Princess turned back to Madeline. Fye looked at the evil Black Rose leader with contempt.

"Give Sakura back her feather!" Fye ordered… Madeline stared up at the Ceresian magician; her darkened amethyst eyes were narrowed like serpentine eyes. Dark, deadly mist formed around her as she started to dissolve into thin air.

"No!" Madeline shockingly refused and teleported away with the Black Rose before Fye could grab her He turned out to be snatching air where Madeline used to be… Li Showron meanwhile, found the real Princess… In the cold dungeon!

"Where am I? What happened to me?" whispered Federal Princess Madison…

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