Chapter 3: Attacked at the Ruins
(by Koushiro, added on 2006-08-20 18:11:56 AEST) [Discussion Topic]
“No Syaoran, you’re not alright!” Kim shouted, “Your face is all pale and… and your hands are cold!”
“Kim, remember the time I told you about the ruins in Clow?” Syaoran asked with both eyes closed tightly.
“Yeah? What about it?” Kim answered, raising an eyebrow.
“This is it. The Clow ruins.” Syaoran massaged his temples, trying to get rid of his headache.
“No way! How can this be?” Kim exclaimed, “But nonetheless, since we’re here, let’s go in.” Kim jumped from the tree.
To one side, Ron tells Rufus, “Hey lil’ buddy, think there’ll be Bueno Nachos there?”
Syaoran, Kurogane, and Ron then followed suit. Meeting up with Sakura and Fye, they entered the clearing when Fye and suddenly stopped.
“Get Back!” he shouted.
Suddenly, the winds picked up and engulfed the whole ruins. After a few moments, the ruins were covered in a whirlwind.
“Thank goodness for Fye, if not, we would’ve been flying right now.” Ron praised Fye with a slap on the back, and the latter flinched.
“No problem Ron.” Fye smiled.
“How’re we going to get past then Fye?” Syaoran asked Fye anxiously.
“~Wheet~ ~Wheet” Fye only whistled incessantly.
Magically, the sounds made by Fye hardened into thick yellow lines which formed a magical bubble around the seven of them.
“Booyah! Take that, evil whirlwind!” Ron exclaimed, peering up and down in their bubble.
When everything was set and ready, Fye called out to the rest, “Okay, let’s go. Walk slowly and stay within the barrier.”
As Fye moved, the barrier magically moved as well, continuously enveloping them as they treaded through the whirlwind.
To their surprise, as soon as they cleared the whirlwind, the winds abated. Seeing Kim’s puzzled face, Fye explained, “The whirlwind was kinda like a test to see if one was worthy enough of the secret hidden within the ruins.” He said with his signature smile.
“There you go again, using your magic. Why couldn’t you have used it back in Outo?!” Kurogane growled.
“Look Kuro-tan, I couldn’t whistle back then,” Fye answered, smiling widely at Kurogane, “besides, it was fun watching you swing that sword of yours.”
“I TOLD YOU NEVER TO CALL ME THAT!!!” Kurogane got up, started chasing Fye in, out and around the ruins.
Ignoring Kurogane and Fye’s antics, Syaoran stepped forward, with a hand on the ruins. “If they’re the same, it should be right about… ah hah! Found it!” Syaoran dusted some sand off the side of the ruins, revealing a small doorknob.
Calmly, Syaoran turned the knob to reveal a small stairwell. “Spankin’” Kim exclaimed as she stared into the hole. Leading the rest in, Syaoran whispered to the team, “Keep absolutely silent. The ruins might cave in at any time…”
When they finally reached the bottom, Syaoran saw a faint light coming from the end of the passageway. Slowly, Syaoran and the rest moved towards the light, one hand on the walls, and the other holding the person in front’s shoulder.
“Tchack…”
“DUCK!!!” Syaoran shouted. Everybody crouched as they felt a gust of wind whiz past their heads.
“Thud”
Glancing behind, the seven of them saw a gold tipped arrow wedged into the wall behind them.
“Whew… that was lucky, thanks Syaoran.” Kim praised.
With knitted eyebrows, Syaoran just nodded and continued forward. After what seemed like eternity, they found themselves at the end of the passage.
“Ohh man, where are we???” Ron panicked. After the blinding light cleared from her eyes, they found themselves standing in a chamber of a thousand doors.
“I think one of these doors might lead the way, but which one?” Syaoran asked, looking at each door in wonder.
Ron opened the first door, and all of a sudden, flames licked from the open door. Everyone jumped back in fear, all except for Ron. The roaring flames caught the hem of his pants and he jumped, shouting, “Hot! Hot! Get if offa me!!!”
While Syaoran and Fye were laughing, Kim rolled her eyes and took out a small bottle of water and poured its entire contents on Ron’s pants.
“Phew…” Ron sighed, “Luckily it wasn’t the whole pants, or else, yeah…” He trailed off.
“Alright! What’s behind door number two?” Ron asked aloud, turning the doorknob.
Before anyone could say wait, Ron threw the door wide open. This time, it wasn’t fire.
Syaoran and the rest suddenly found themselves immersed in a chamberful of water.
“Oops, sorry guys…” Ron said sheepishly.
Quickly, Syaoran swam over to the door and slammed it tight before any more water could escape.
“So, what’re we going to do with all this water?” Fye smiled widely.
“Hmm, could we?” Syaoran held up ‘Hien’, looking at Kurogane. Kurogane only stood there, eyes closed and arms crossed. Shrugging his shoulders, Syaoran unsheathed ‘Hien’, holding it inside the water.
Having a sudden revelation, Kim spoke up, “Spankin’ Syaoran, great idea!”
However, after five minutes, the water still did not evaporate. Syaoran replaced ‘Hien’ into its sheath and sat down in the water, panting. Ron paced the room, and he suddenly walked to the first door, wanting to turn the knob. A hand grabbed Ron’s upper arm as he heard Kurogane’s voice say, “Not such a good idea, kiddo”
Ron just replied, “Trust me on this Kuro-sama.” With that, he shook off Kurogane’s hand and thrust open the first door. As the fire came out, the water went in, and the magical fire crackled as the water evaporated, leaving the room quite dry.
Leaving the fiery door open for a while to dry themselves off, Ron walked over to the third door. At this moment, Sakura got up, and, as if in a trance, walked over to the sixth door and turned the knob. To everyone’s surprise, nothing happened. All they could see through that door was a brightly lit passageway.
“Aww man, why couldn’t you have found this door earlier Sakura-san? And save me all that trouble of getting my pants burnt and my clothes all wet?” Ron pouted.
“look, it’s not as if she had a choice when to go trance-mode,” Fye defended Sakura, with both hands on her shoulders, and added, “Besides, let’s go. We can’t afford to waste any more time.”
With that, our seven adventurers set off into the passageway. Unfortunately, they weren’t aware of two shadows lurking behind them as they entered the passageway.
The passageway seemed to descended steeply and, and after a while, the seven of them found themselves standing in a circular room, with a strange, wing-like insignia etched into the floor.
“Look!” Ron exclaimed, “Tis’ Sakura-san’s feather?” he pointed to somewhere near the ceiling.
Looking upwards, they saw Sakura’s feather emitting beams of white light which illuminated the entire chamber.
“~Wheet~” Fye whistled, “How’re we going to get up there?” He asked.
Unhooking her grappling hook for the second time, Kim fired a shot which hit the side of the chamber. As she was hoisting herself upwards, there was a bright green flash of light which cut the rope and sent Kim tumbling downwards.
Suddenly, the light emitted by the feather vanished as Syaoran heard a light thud on the ground in front of him. Drawing their swords, Kurogane and Syaoran braced themselves for battle.
“Aww, little Kimmy brought some friends…” a voice sneered from the corner.
“Shego!” Kim exclaimed, getting up from her fall. Wincing, she added, “Syaoran, Kurogane, careful of her attacks!” She stumbled. Fye automatically went forward and helped her up. “Hah! Looks like I can’t do anything to help today…” She muttered.
“Let’s see what you’ve got!” Shego screamed and lunged at Syaoran. Closing his eyes and making use of the ‘aura’ theory Kurogane had taught him back in Outo, Syaoran parried her blow with a smooth curve of his sword.
“Not bad!” Shego added.
Relinquishing her grip on the feather a little, Syaoran managed to catch a glimpse of her face. She was a pale faced, black haired woman clad entirely in green, with green, glowing hands. (“Cool”, whistled Fye)
All of a sudden, when Ron was just about to give Shego a piece of his mind for injuring Kim, the feather shone brightly and a beam of that light hit Ron on the chest and he fell, unconscious.
Syaoran hears Kim scream, “RON!!!” and he and Kurogane slashes at Shego, when Syaoran turns around in time to see a portal opening, and a mercenary stepping out. After a few moments, the chamber was full of them.
When Shego saw them, her jaws dropped and she shouted, “Dr. D! we have a little problem here!!!”
With a humming sound, a hovercraft appeared, and Shego leaps into it and shouts, “Later Princess!”
The hovercraft left the chamber before Syaoran could see who the driver was, and leaving the two of them to fight the mercenaries.
Glancing at the mercenaries’ shoulders, Syaoran saw the all too familiar bat-like insignia. Not wanting to risk anymore injuries, he told Kurogane to pick Ron up, when he swooped Kim up and said only one word: Run.
With that, the seven of them made a break for it, running back up the passageway, back into the chamber of a thousand doors, occasionally glancing behind and realizing that the mercenaries were getting closer.
All of a sudden, Syaoran stopped. He set Kim down, instructed her to run as fast as she could and that he would stop the mercenaries the best he could Sakura was the first to notice he had stopped. She turned back and shouted “Syaoran!!!” Kurogane grabbed her with his free hand and pulled her away.
“I’ll be back! Don’t worry Hime!” Syaoran shouted his reply.
“Syaoran!!!” Sakura shouted, starting to tear.
Unsheathing ‘Hien’, Syaoran jabbed his sword into the wall of the passageway. Yanking his sword out, Syaoran did not even bother to sheath it, and started running towards the stairs.
With a loud rumble, the roof started to cave in. Syaoran jumped and ducked to avoid the falling debris. Climbing up the stairs three stairs at a time, Syaoran finally reached the top. However, he lost his balance and nearly fell back in, when a hand grabbed him and pulled him out, before the ruins collapsed.
Looking up, he saw a smiling Sakura holding on to him and she pulled him out, “Are you okay Syaoran-kun?”
“Daijobu, hime.” Syaoran answered in Japanese, smiling widely at her.
“Eww! Mushy-much!” Ron exclaims, covering his eyes.
Just as they were about to go back to the rendezvous, the mercenaries appeared again, out of nowhere.
“Shimatta!” Kurogane shouted with his eyes wide open. He dropped Ron quite suddenly and immediately unsheathed ‘Souhi’ and began slashing at the mercenaries. The mercenaries parried blow after blow with ease and countered each and every one of Kurogane’s attacks.
At this time, Ron woke up from his drop and asked sleepily, “Huh?” what’s going…” he turned around to find a mercenary lunging straight for Kim.
“NO! Kim!” Ron screamed as he started to run towards her. Halfway through, he halted, dropped on all fours, clutching his chest. He thought to himself, “What’s going on?”
Screaming in agony, he felt the skin on his back tear, and two things grow out of it.
When the pain subsided, Ron realized when he turned around, that there were two jet black wings protruding out of his back, where his shirt tore. Without hesitation, he stretched out his wings and soared towards Kim, picking her up and took to the skies before the mercenary could get his hands on her.
“Woah! Who are you?” Kim asked, astonished.
“It’s me Kim, I can’t explain it, but this is serious booyah-material!” Ron exclaimed.
Actually, to Kim, Ron had rather long, crimson red hair, and his freckles had vanished. He had very mature eyes, and looked like he was at least eighteen years old. He looked much more mature to Kim, and his charm was working wonders on her heart.
“Uh Kim, what’re you staring at?” Ron asked, looking deeply into Kim’s bright green eyes.
Snapping back into reality, Kim blushed and muttered, “yeah…”
“Demon Slayer Dragon Strike!” Syaoran heard Kurogane shout out and ducked just in time to avoid being hit my Kurogane’s signature move.
Watch out Kuropon, you almost hit poor Syaoran!” Fye shouted from one side, where he was standing with Sakura.
“Ahh, shut up you lazy wizard!” Kurogane added.
By this time, the mercenary had been cut into at least seven pieces and they were safe, for now.
Ron made a smooth landing, set Kim down as Syaoran stared, eyes wide open, at Ron.
“Wha… What happened Ron?” Syaoran finally managed to ask.
“I have absolutely no ideas, but this is badical!” Ron exclaimed as he took to the skies, and did a somersault before landing.
“Miss Yuuko once told me that if one’s loved ones is in danger, his or her latent powers would fully awaken and he would be able to unleash his true potential. Could this have been boosted by Sakura’s feather?” Mokona explained with his arms crossed.
“Look! Now how do I change back? I can’t go to school looking like this!” Ron realized, gasping.
“Eh-heh…” Kim started, “I think you look good this way, Ron.” She said, blushing.
“Kim…” Ron walked over to her.
Suddenly, Ron fell on all fours, clutching his chest.
“Ron! What’s happening! Are you alright?” Kim went forward, wanting to help him up.
“Argh!!!” Ron screamed, but waved Kim away.
Fye held Kim back from Ron, who seemed to be undergoing another transformation.
The more Ron screamed, the more Kim shut her eyes tight.
When Ron’s screaming finally died down, he was, fortunately, back to normal, complete with his yellow hair and freckles.
“Hey! Waddya know! I’m back!” Ron said, throwing his arms wide open, ready to embrace Kim.
“Ah! I get it now! His powers are triggered by love!” Mokona jumped up.
“What took you so long…” Kurogane caught up the manjuu bun in mid air.
“C’mon, let’s meet Ryuu-ou at the rendezvous point, oh, and sorry Syaoran, Dr. Drakken got the feather.” Kim answered.
“Who’s that? Shego’s boss?” Syaoran asked, puzzled.
“Yeah… something like that.” Kim answered.
Hand in hand, they left the damaged ruins and walked back to the airport.
In a strange, unknown world:
“Hmm… the resurrection of Dark… this’ll be interesting,” Fei Wan Reed mused aloud.
“Are you ready for yet another chance?” Fei Wan Reed turned and spoke into the shadows.
Meanwhile, in Yamanouchi School:
“Aiyah!” Master Sensei got up from his lotus position.
“What is it, Sensei?” Yori, one the students from Yamanouchi, asked, her voice full of concern.
“The powers in the chosen one have yet again awakened! I sense great danger, for both him and the world…” master sensei’s voice trailed off, “Quick! You must take the lotus blade to him immediately!” he suddenly instructed Yori.
“Yes master sensei.” Yori bowed, took the legendary lotus blade from her master.
That night, she quietly packed her luggage and left silently and swiftly. As she walked, she remembered her Sensei’s words: Follow the Chosen One on his journey, aid the young warrior in his quest, and by all means, stop the evil from fully awakening. I can sense evil in the stars tonight, Yori. Beware, and be safe…
His voice rang like a bell inside her head and if you looked closer, you could swear that there were tears in her eyes.
To be continued…
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