24
by Aspirator
At the Fourth Hour
3:15
"The Cavalry I know doesn't kill people!" Sakura sat on the bed, her hands fisting the bedsheets. Syaoran stood in the middle of the room, jaw clicked and eyes ablaze.
Tomoyo and Eriol stood back, shifting tensely near the door. And finally, the last member of the Cavalry, Meiling, was utterly confused. She leaned against the tightly closed door and shifted her gaze between the two arguers as if it was a tennis match. She looked ready to cut in and ask, but never got the chance.
"The Cavalry you knew," Syaoran's eyes were ablaze, his nails digging his palm. "left when you did."
Sakura flinched back as if he had physically hit her.
At this, Meiling's eyes shot towards Tomoyo and Eriol in question. Her red irises widened at their nod, and she peered back at an solemn Sakura.
"I had to." Her voice was so quiet, so sullen.
"You didn't have to anything." He bit back. "You chose to."
"Syaoran -" Her pleading Emerald orbs lifted to search his, but Syaoran was already halfway across the room towards the door. Meiling stumbled clumsily aside, stunned at his dark expression. He wrenched the door open, then he was gone.
3:21
"Yue, it's 3 AM." Called a disapproving female voice from the opening of the multipurpose simulation room. She looked like the exact replica of Ruby Moon, long mahogany locks cascading down her shoulder. Unlike Ruby, she had a strong aura to her and a well-built frame.
"Then what the hell are you doing here, Nakuru?" Yue answered clearly despite the haze of simulation aimed daggers at his tall frame directly in the center of the room. Not only that, Yue's form was partially shrouded by the facade of dense fog. Off and on, random figures, simulated opponents with robotic movements and long wooden sticks, appeared around the three meter radius of the commander.
Without warning, Nakuru picked up a gun laying innocently by the supply table near the door, firing five shots in rapid succession.
However, the commander wasn't paying attention to her. He was occupied with a simulated opponent as he dodged and ducked daggers that whirled into existence from thin air.
Nakuru let her arm drop, watching anxiously as the gun gently slid from her fingers and back onto the table where it came from.
She kept her eyes trained on the five metallic blurs aiming straight for Yue's head.
The tall figure whirled, and soon, concentrated silver orbs widened at the sight of the flash of silver. Yue's body tensed, his muscles taut. The five bullets froze in midair, the daggers dangling just around him. He breathed heavily, the foggy air around his figure glowed slightly with the use of plain magic.
But the simulation was still running. The simulated opponent's swung never froze, causing the wooden stick to collide heavily with Yue's back. Caught off guard, Yue's plain magic abruptly pulled back into his being - and the bullets and daggers were whizzing at him again.
His body reflexes kicked in. Yue slammed all six feet of him to the ground, at the same time, knocking out the legs from his simulated opponent.
The bullets aimed past his head and lodged directly into the opposite wall. The daggers hurtled past the fog and into nonexistence.
Yue bounced to the soles of his feet, ready for the next attack.
But it never came.
Nakuru had slammed her fist into a button at the far end of the room with a scowl. Just like that, the room was clear.
With the same amount of ferocity, she spit the words out of her mouth. "Point proven."
Yue whirled around to look at her, finally. He frowned as he dusted himself off. "And what point is that exactly?"
"Do I have to say it? You're the best, Yue." Nakuru rolled her eyes. "Combat, and your control of plain magic is -"
"Not good enough." He interrupted, a dark look crossing over his face and his silvery eyes turning dark grey. At Nakuru's indignant look, he dismissively elaborated. "Not like the Cavalry."
Her brown eyes flashed chestnut for a moment. "That is why you're here at 3 AM?"
"No." Yue answered flatly, striding over to one side of the room to grab his towel and wipe off the sweat from his forehead. He picked up a water bottle, uncapping it deftly. Rather than looking at her, however, he turned towards the far end of the room as he lifted his head to drink.
For the first time, Nakuru noticed the monitors set up by the wall. Curiously, she ambled towards it, barely reacting as the scent of perspiration came at her full force.
"Since you're here, General Colonel," Yue's voice came from behind her. "Make yourself useful."
"Plans." Nakuru breathed at length. Her eyes poured over every detail, every diagram, every letter. Professionalism came first. "You need to give them a wider berth than that if you're going to separate them. Which, one, requires more resources than necessary, and two, I hardly think you need to do."
Yue walked over, dragging the colored dots farther away from each other on the birds-eye map of Carlisle City. "I do." He insisted solemnly.
"You've been preparing for this for a-"
He quelled her protests with a scathing look.
There was a long moment of silence. then, she opened her mouth again. The next statement came out resolved, with an underlying tone of irritation. "You don't need to prove anything, Yue." When he didn't answer, she changed the subject. "Why is the Cavalry is here? We have the strongest hold over this city! They steer clear of Enforcer-"
"The Variant." The commander's voice was quieter as he came to stand next to her.
"That explains the forcefield." Nakuru was quick, that was how she became Yue's direct underling. Her eyes strayed from the holographic screens and to Yue's form. "You weren't practicing," she realized, "you were warming up."
3:38
Attempting to ease the tension, Eriol had suggested they go get a 'breath of fresh air'. Of course, Syaoran ended up following them, but kept a safe distance away from Sakura. Tomoyo, at first, had protested at the openness of it all - who knows, more enforcers might be camped outside. Or the city could be on patrol. Not a lot of People will be out and about at three in the morning. It was for the best, Eriol had responded, because they need to find out what exactly Kero did for Sakura to have sensed his magic.
Sakura smiled briefly at the conversation, her troubled mind somewhere else. Suddenly, she was no longer next to Tomoyo. Blinking, Tomoyo stopped and turned, causing a chain pausing of the Cavalry.
Sakura was looking up at the sky with furrowed eyebrows and a far away expression.
Four pairs of eyes followed her gaze to look at the sky too. "What is it?" Tomoyo called out softly.
"Can you see the stars?"
Tomoyo squinted. "No."
"It's a cloudless night though." Sakura waved her arm in the air just to check. She confirmed, "definitely cloudless."
"What are you thinking, Sakura?" Eriol asked, the Cavalry members backtracking to stand with her. Syaoran stood a few steps behind everyone else.
Sakura didn't respond. She formed a half-circle with her right hand, then turned her wrist, making a spherical motion with her hand. Once her palm was facing up, a small white bird floated just above her hand.
Syaoran opened his mouth to object, glancing back at the entrance of the sewers. However, the words died in his throat when he saw what she did next.
Sakura blew softly on the bird. Consequently, the bird flapped her wings and flew off, her feathers glowing luminescently in the night. Sakura's fingers were still raised at shoulder height to guide the bird. Then, at an unidentifiable distance, the magical bird seemingly collided with thin air, suddenly bursting into fire, then disappearing as the ashes fell into the water.
"A force field." Eriol breathed in wonder, his eyes turning to lock in with Sakura's. "That's Kero for sure."
"Do we know how big it is?" Meiling asked wisely.
"We can find out," Tomoyo responded with a knowing smile.
At this, Eriol and Sakura looked at each other, grinning, and saying at the same time. "Sonar."
Syaoran, who still hasn't said anything, only took to standing by the hidden sewer entrance, watching for signs of movement or others who may see what they are doing.
"Excuse me?" Meiling asked cluelessly.
Sakura bent down by the edge of the beach, dabbling her fingers in the water. Eriol turned around to explain to the red-eyed lady, "Sonar." He stated again, using his hands to assist him. "Short for Sound Navigation And Ranging. It comes from hundreds of years ago, back in the first World War and used in the second World War-"
"Eriol, I know you're a history enthusiast," Meiling rolled her eyes, "but if you hadn't noticed, I'm yawning here." She side-stepped to try to see what Sakura was doing. "What's she doing?"
Sakura looked up at the mention of herself. Smiling welcomingly at the other Cavalry member, she jerked her head in invitation. Together, Meiling, Sakura, and Eriol crouched by the edge of the water while Tomoyo stood just behind them with a knowing smile.
"Basically," Sakura patiently explained to the curious woman, "what active Sonar does is use sound waves to determine the distance of objects on or in water. First, we emit sound waves to travel across the water. To show you visually," she touched the surface of the water with the tip of her index finger, causing gentle ripples across the water. When she lifted her hand, the tip of her finger was immediately dried. "And when the sound waves touch an object, there's an echo, where the sound waves kind of bounce back." At that, she waved her hand gently over the surface of the water, causing concentric waves to ripple back. "Like that. From those waves, we measure the distance by calculating the time between transmission and reception. But that kind of math I'm sure Syaoran would be better at explaining."
Syaoran perked up at his name, but still no words left his mouth.
"Oh, it's okay, I don't care about the math. But the concept...Wow," Meiling breathed. "I totally get it. Gosh, Sakura, I wish you were around when I was a Cavalry-in-training. Tomoyo was trying to tell me molecular chemistry is what I'm looking for, but didn't exactly explain it. Then you should've seen Eriol, he was blabbering on and on about John Dalton, some atomic theory something, I don't know, and Avocadoes-"
"Avogadro." Eriol corrected her. "His famous essay published in 1811 -"
"Yeah, whatever, Eriol." Meiling shook her head. "You seem really into this whole science stuff, Sakura. Man, I should've known! Especially since you brought up Conservation of Energy when we first met."
"I'm a bit of science geek," Sakura admitted shamelessly. She then turned back to the water, speaking quietly with Eriol before waving her hand over the water again. She sent a sound wave too low for humans to hear under the water while Eriol kept time.
Meiling rolled her eyes, grumbling as she stepped aside. "Alright, I'll leave you to your nerd stuff." She crouched down by the beach a few meters away from the rest of the group, playing magically with the water.
Tomoyo glanced at Syaoran indecisively. He caught her gaze, glanced briefly at Meiling's form, then nodded at Tomoyo. The Amethyst-eyed Cavalry member smiled, bounding over to stand by Meiling.
"You have questions, don't you?"
Meiling stood up quickly, turning eagerly to Tomoyo.
Tomoyo chuckled softly. Quietly, she started, "Yes, Sakura was a part of the Cavalry."
"I think...it makes sense." Meiling bit her lip, nodding surely. "Yeah. You're a language expert, and don't even try to be modest. No one can decipher old documents as good as you, and don't even get me started on how eloquent you are when you want to be. Eriol is a history buff, Sakura is a science geek, and Syaoran understands math like nobody else."
Tomoyo smiled. "Exactly, Meiling. The Cavalry actually started out as a bunch of scholars experimenting with the limits of our potential." A fond smile lifted her lips as she looked out into the dark waters. "Then Sakura had to decide that our skills should be put into helping people. Because, egalitarian society or not, there'll always be someone in need."
"Wait, but," Meiling paused, a thought occurring to her. "Sakura - she's a -" Meiling struggled for words, "you know, People don't actually think well of, you know - I mean, but I do, it's just People don't like…"
"She's a Variant." Tomoyo cut in calmly. "Yes, well, that did put a damper on our name for a while. People didn't want our help when they realized we were with a Variant. So, Sakura got really good at hiding her powers and also learned a few tricks so she wouldn't feel useless when we're fighting."
"Oh," Meiling sent Sakura a sympathetic glance. "but hiding her powers, that's so…"
"Sad?"
Meiling nodded. "How did she get so good at magic then?"
Tomoyo smiled briefly. "The Cavalry actually had five members. She had a mentor, and they practiced in hiding." Her eyes glazed over reminiscently as she gazed out into the water. "He was our Magic specialist."
"Wow all five core subjects were covered." Meiling interrupted with a laugh. Since everyone is equally dosed with plain magic, the schooling systems also include Magic as a core subject to include in a child's curriculum throughout their years of education.
"Yeah. He said Sakura was a prodigy. She caught on so quick, so much so that soon enough, both her mentor and her were experimenting with their powers together."
"What happened to him?" Meiling had to ask. "The mentor? Where is he now?"
Tomoyo frowned out at the water, not meeting the inquirer's eyes. "He's...gone."
"I'm sorry-"
"It's okay." Tomoyo didn't sound at all reassuring. But she quickly turned to rejoin Eriol and Sakura before Meiling could say any more.
3:42
"So this is the foolproof plan for the Cavalry. But what about the Variant?" Nakuru asked as she shrugged on her lightweight Enforcer jacket.
"Once we draw out the Cavalry, we draw out the Variant." Yue stated simply as he easily strode next to her. "She's the one who teleported them here anyway."
Nodding, Nakuru passed by a few hallways, her eyes straying by the technology hub of the Enforcers."You think that'll work?"
"If it doesn't," Yue shrugged detachedly. "I'll have 16 hours left over to try different tactics."
Nakuru laughed brashly. "But remember our motto?"
"What do you mean 'our'?" Yue grumbled with a roll of his eyes. He never agreed to it.
She ignored him, cheerfully reciting, "'If at first we don't succeed...well, that would be a first.'"
In this case, Yue agreed. "I don't like 'first's, unless it comes before 'place'."
"What about 'kiss'?" Nakuru voiced bravely.
Yue paused, turning to raise a sardonic eyebrow at her. Other than that, his face was unreadable. There was a short pause before he shrugged on his coat. "Remember your place, General Colonel."
3:57
"15 kilometers." Syaoran, who had drawn his calculations in the sand, stated officially. Still, he refused eye contact with Sakura, avoiding her form entirely. He stood up, waving the calculations away with his plain magic. Grains of sand rearranged themselves into a smooth surface.
"That gives us a pretty wide berth." Eriol commented.
Hearing movement, Syaoran quickly shushed the rest of the group. According to his command, all five figures stilled.
There were heavy shuffling coming from the city, and it was getting closer to the beach. The moonlight wasn't enough to make out the figure, but they were sure it was small. A few more scuffles...it was getting closer.
"Who's there?" Syaoran's strong voice called out.
The figure stopped abruptly, perking up, it seemed, towards them. The footsteps got quicker, and the shuffling got more urgent. The stranger's voice was small and weak, but in the stillness of the night, easy to pick up. "Help...help!"
Sakura was the first to sprint up the small patch of grass separating the beach from the city. The rest weren't far behind.
It was a small girl, no more than six or seven.
She was drenched in blood. Her white knitted sweater dress and grey stockings were stained with splashes of maroon and crimson. She breathed heavily, her feet barefoot and speckled with dirt, grime, and blood. Her light blue eyes widened at the sight of people, and it shone in a sense of urgency and alertness.
The moment Sakura reached her, she leaned against the older woman in relief. She clung onto Sakura's arm, leaving a trail of blood on Sakura's smooth skin.
"Please help!"
4:00
First: okay, you guys, I never actually know if my story is appreciated or not until someone reviews/follows/favorites. So I am really, really grateful when you actually press the (apparently intimidating) buttons.
Second, all these scientific principles make me sound like a science geek, but in real life, I suck at science.
Third, and most important to the story, I haven't decided what to do with Yue and Nakuru yet. What do you think? Together or too weird?