[IC][Story] Channeling Mana

[Labster]

Chapter 1
Special Delivery


6:15 AM, Monday November 7, 2016

In the early dawn, a thin fog had settled over the streets and especially the waterways of Venice Beach.  The calm mist muted most of the sounds of the morning: the first few cars on the road, the slowly awakening birds, even the massive jetliners taking off from LAX -- all were nearly silent.

A small tear was carved into this pregnant quiet, barely perceptible.  The still water of the canals rippled for a moment, then parted to make way for the notched bow of a long wooden gondola.  After a moment, a man appeared at the rear of the gondola, tall, handsome, and dressed in a formal coat and tails.

As he sculled the gondola through the mist, soon the prow of another gondola appeared, in the wake of the first boat.  And then another boat and another, each of them roped stern to stem with the following boat, until there were five boats in a line, painted in the classic Venetian black, riderless and driverless save for the first.

The dimensional gate closed silently, leaving only a ripple in the water below.  No one was there to see the boats emerge, but that was by design.  Sure, mortals seeing magic might be inopportune, but that was beside the point.  Funtom Enterprises was no charity, and they were certainly not going to pay import taxes on these boats.  It was bad enough that Sebastian was delivering a gift to people with no great inclination to sin.  At least, he hoped, that the women of Aria Company would take great pride in their new boats.

Now, his recent interactions with the Lagoon Company had gone much better.  As he grasped the ropes in his Venetian flotilla and moored each boat in in turn, he speculated that Rock had nearly as much potential as Ciel did.  Immersing himself in such wanton violence while holding himself above it?  Such a beautiful thing to behold, and even more so when he would finally fall.

Yet here Sebastian was, delivering to irritatingly pure maidens, but such was life in the Metacatastrophe that was still slowly unfolding.  Cooperation with Heaven had been galling, galling to both sides, but necessary.  No one sane saw a upshot in the unraveling of Creation.  So it was with great courteousness, but no true delight, that he went to notify a woman who couldn't even recall his name of this morning's delivery.

A pink-haired girl hopped down the stairs, drawn outside by the first rays of dawn.  The sunlight kickstarted a calm breeze, enough to begin parting the fog, and revealing the world around her.  To her surprise, she saw someone she recognized, and called out to the man walking down the sidewalk and waved. "Good morning, Mr. Butler!"

As he approached, he returned the greeting, "Good morning, Miss Mizunashi."

"You look different," Akari said, but she couldn't quite place how.  He just seemed more powerful than she had remembered.  "You seem... stronger.  Have you been working out?"

"Ah, you flatter me so, dear lady.  I apologize if I am still a bit sweaty from delivering your new gondolas," he flirted right back.

"Squee!  Gondolas!  I need to go tell everyone about this, I'll be right back!"  Akari raced up the stairs, before she remembered, "Oh, please come inside to wait.  You don't want to miss the look on everyone's faces!"

He chuckled softly, "But of course."

Akari knocked on everyone's doors, and dragged them outside if they were ready or not.  Athena looked particularly groggy, as she was still recovering from her long drive back from Las Vegas.

Sebastian Michaelis exchanged the requisite pleasantries with the ladies, and led them a couple of blocks away to where the gondolas had been moored.  It was a short walk, only about four minutes inland -- at this time of day, there wasn't much traffic to dodge on crossing Pacific Avenue.

As they walked, the golden rays of sunlight worked their way down from the treetops and top floors of high-rise apartments to finally reach the water. Taking the path between the houses to the canal's edge, Aika Granzchesta was the first one to see the gleaming black gondolas, with pristine paint and finish.  Seeing the row of brand new boats, she had a broad grin and only one word, "Whoa."

The grogginess faded among the whole group, as they checked out their new transportation.  The ogled the craft, and eagerly examined them.  Hands were waved across the smooth wooden seats.  Athena, Alice, and Alicia each climbed aboard a boat and started testing how it moved in the water.

Meanwhile, Akira Ferrari had roped Aika into a more thorough inspection of each boat, checking to see if it met her standards.  Even the curvy fórcole, upon which the oars were braced, proved to be up to the specifications she sent in for each undine.  As the pair paced past each long boat, they found everything in order and shipshape.

Akari mainly just took in the sights of her friends, playing on the water in shiny new boats.  Even against the salt water, she could still smell that chemical scent of the fresh paint on the sides of the gondolas.  The air was crisp, but the birds were already chattering away and so were the undines.

Akira returned to Sebastian.  "I'm impressed.  These are excellent gondolas."

"But of course," Sebastian said.  "Everything is to your exact specifications, built by the finest Venetian craftsmen."  They each cost about as much as a sports car, but Sebastian never did things by half measures.  It just wasn't the Phantomhive way.  "If everything is to your satisfaction, would you say our deal here is concluded?"

"These are wonderful gondolas, thank you very much!" Alicia Florence replied, followed by similar agreement from the rest of the group.

"Please, take great pride in your Venetian gondolas. If you need anything -- anything at all -- I'm sure we could work out a new contract for Lord Phantomhive to procure it for you."

"No, you've already done so much for us, Mr. Butler," Akari said with gratitude and just a hint of trepidation.  There was something about Sebastian's proposal that Akari just couldn't trust.  She didn't really understand why; he had been so gracious and helpful, the perfect gentleman.  It wasn't at all like her to mistrust people like this.  But it felt like she was looking at someone cold and wrathful, and she could not shake the feeling.  It was like she was looking at a different person than before.  But, she could at least be polite, "Thank you again!"

As they turned their attention back to the gondolas, nobody actually noticed Sebastian leaving.  Deprived of the tools of the trade for weeks, they couldn't help but be a joyous bunch.  They tried not to make too much noise to wake the neighbors, but they were all in such a celebratory mood that they couldn't help themselves.  It mustn't have woken too many, as they successfully negotiated with the owners of the nearby homes in the following days.  This spot along the Grand Canal, the shortest walk to Aria House, became more or less the regular home of the gondolas.

Pretty soon, all five of the brand new gondolas were spoken for.  Akari was left with Sebastian's old gondola, with its worn, twisted fórcola and its strange nine rebbi on the prow.  She forgot to ask Sebastian about that, damn it.  All of the new ones had the standard six tines on the front, as was traditional for a Venetian gondola.

But there was something about the old boat; Akari had the convert's enthusiasm for the nostalgia that pervaded Neo Venezia.  She imagined the gondola spoke to her of old and strange stories, should she only have the time to get to know it.  If so, the tales would be older and stranger than she imagined, having navigated the Lethe and Styx, bearing nine rebbi representing the Nine Hells.  The low hum of magic in its planks subconsciously tickled Akari's interest, but she would have been in love with the venerable boat anyway.

After all, it wasn't the newness of the gondolas that had excited Akari so much.  It was that she could once again share the experience of rowing with her friends.  That even back on the planet Manhome things could get, just a little bit, back to normal.

It wasn't long before Akira noted, "Alright trainees!  Now you have no excuse for slacking off on training.  Get to it!"

Akari gave a characteristic "Hahi" and so they did, setting off on a easy morning run around the neighborhood, just to put the new gondolas through the paces.

Of course, the primas cruised right along with them, shaking off any cobwebs of their own, and getting a feel for their new partners.  On reflection, Akira thought that the "deal is concluded" line sounded a little too much like a used gravbike salesman disclaiming any responsibility, but fortunately she found nothing to complain about.

The canal area's morning joggers and residents departing for work smiled as they saw an impromptu gondola parade cross the water.  It wasn't exactly a normal sight, but in Venice nothing was ever quite normal, so they took it in their stride.  They were almost ordinary compared to the whimsical boats in the Christmas parade.  One schoolboy waved to them, but was too afraid to ask for a ride to school.  But it didn't take all that many days until he got that ride after all.

It wasn't until an hour later, after finishing breakfast at a café with her mentor, that the memory of the kid dredged up another memory. Alice Carroll realized that she did still have a reason to slack off on her training, after all.  Just a stupid reason.  She mumbled, "Aw, darn, I'm late to school."

"Do you want me to drive you?" offered Athena Glory.

"No, it doesn't even matter, it's just useless continuation school."

Athena shrugged as Alice walked off to retrieve her backpack from the house, from whence she continued on to school at a leisurely pace.

[Labster]

Chapter 2
Wishful Thinking


2:00PM, Tuesday November 8, 2016

The next day, Aria Company opened for business for the very first time.  For two of its employees, it was the second time working for Aria Company, but chronologically it was definitely the first time the gondola business had ever opened.  Time travel does these things, and travel between universes even more.

None of these thoughts preoccupied the residents of Aria House (except Osaka), who instead were bustling with activity.  Alicia, having finalized the business permits the previous week, got to take on the first customers -- a lovely older Jewish couple who she had befriended, who were making the event something of a reminiscence of their honeymoon in Europe.  President Aria wouldn't miss the event for anything, and had thus came along to supervise his human.

Akira was organizing some more advertising, and trying unsuccessfully to get some media attention.  Every new business wants to tell the world about itself, but given the bellicosity of the 2016 Presidential Election, finally taking place today, free coverage like that was even scarcer than usual.  She called yet another reporter, her angelic voice the spirit of elegance and politeness; as soon as the call was over she growled a lament that they didn't understand how special they were.

Athena went around the area putting up posters for the service, and dropping off brochures at whatever local businesses would take them.  As she roved up and down the wide concrete way of the Venice Beach Boardwalk, she started to wonder if maybe it wouldn't be better to graffiti an advert or two.  She rejected the notion, because the graffiti might blend in too much.  Athena then thought about holding a big sign labeled GONDOLA RIDES near the street merchants, but decided that sounded like too much work.  She could imagine herself lazily leaning over the sign, slowly falling asleep on the job, which caused her to yawn in real life.  There was that one guy who seemed interested, but then it seemed like he was really interested in another kind of ride entirely.

The girls on the second floor weren't up to much of anything in particular, having fallen into a gap year they weren't expecting.  Chiyo Mihama had already sent off a few college applications, and was doing a little studying in advance.  The rest were even applying to local universities, just in case the stay was, well, less temporary than they were led to believe.  The English tests that they had so dreaded in the old days were now second nature, thanks to the magic that had brought them across dimensions.

Kagura had sent off her lifeguard training application first, but was going to get around to college applications eventually.  Priorities aside, she was just a person who craved outdoor activities.  She was out on the beach, getting in her afternoon swimming practice.

The rest of her cohort was downstairs getting the new common room ready for use.  The flooring had just been replaced with wood and tile -- Akira, who lived right across the hall from the area, would simply not hear of laminate flooring.  The girls were thus engaged in the next step, painting the walls, at the request of the apartment manager, Brent Laabs.  Even Tomo Takino was helping out, after Yomi Mizuhara had convinced Tomo that painting was really fun.

Brent was half-supervising them, but often had to step out to coordinate the paid contractors renovating the south-facing rooms directly above them.  He was trying to keep his mind off the the day's election; he was worried, but there wasn't much he felt could do in this apartment of non-voting immigrants in a solidly Democratic neighborhood.  His ballot had been mailed weeks ago, and all he could do wait until the Orange Menace would be soundly defeated later that night, or so he wished.

About the time Kagura came back from her exercise, Yukito Tsukishiro came downstairs to help out for a while as well, doing some of the heavier jobs like moving ladders and paint cans.  Kagura couldn't help herself from flirting with him; she thought it was just such a waste that a strong, gorgeous boy like Yuki was playing for the other team.  Meanwhile, his magical counterpart was very much not helping.  Kero-chan was upstairs playing his way through Portal, one of many video games he got to enjoy in the new decade.  His current favorite was Mario Kart, but that one was best saved for the company of friends.

Sonomi Daidouji didn't really know what to do with herself.  She had enough money, and had taken up day trading as a hobby, but without her family zaibatsu to run she was still adrift.  Most of the day, she was reading up on what were to her future business trends, and trading as a side benefit.  She was also playing a role she had never done before, that of the homemaker.  Honestly, Tomoyo was a better cook than she was, but she was trying.  She could have afforded a maid and a Malibu apartment at least, but it was nice to live next door to that superbly cute Sakura... for her daughter's sake.  Definitely for Tomoyo's sake, she told herself.  On the other hand, living next door to that infuriating man who married Nadeshiko was infuriating, but less so than she thought it would be.

Fujitaka Kinomoto sneezed in his UCLA office.  He was enjoying life as a visiting professor, and actually getting some serious writing done.  They were probably going to rope him into teaching an archaeology class next quarter, but for now, he had plenty of time to read, research, and write.

His daughter and her friends were enjoying their education too, but not quite as much.  Shaoran had made the school transition before, when he moved from Hong Kong to Japan, and Tomoyo had a certain grace that kept her steady.  It was really Sakura who was spending the most time being confused by American schools.  They kept their outdoor shoes on all day; and the classrooms never looked really clean, because the students weren't responsible for cleaning it.  And instead of teachers switching classrooms, all of the students moved around instead, which all three thought was pretty weird.  Sakura was still having nightmares about going to the wrong classroom.

On the walk home from school, Sakura mentioned, "I'll bet it will be quiet back at home today.  All of the undines will be out on the canals."

Tomoyo nodded, "They all seemed really happy about it."

Shaoran gathered his courage and said, "Hey, Sakura.  Do you want to see if we can get a gondola ride together?"

"Sure!  That sounds fun!" Sakura agreed.  "You coming, Tomoyo?"

"Of course!"

Shaoran's jaw went slack for a couple seconds, then he mumbled, "Okay, let's go."  The problem was not that Tomoyo was getting in the way of romance -- far from it.  It's just that he wasn't sure how much he wanted a video recording of all of his dates.  They both got flustered easily still, despite the fact they were officially dating.  He was convinced it looked very cute and moe on her, but rather unappealing on a strong boy like himself.

Sakura asked, "So who should we ride with?"

"The older ones will all be working, so I guess that leaves us with the trainees.  Any favorites?" Tomoyo asked.

"Akari," Shaoran and Sakura said at the same time.

Tomoyo giggled a little at the cuteness, "Akari it is.  Let's go find her."  She probably would have chosen Alice, just to get a chance to hear her lovely singing voice.  Akari, of course, was the one most likely to give random children boat tours, which made her an excellent choice anyway.

It was only a short walk from the school, just across the busy Washington Boulevard.  The area where they docked the boats had only two empty gondolas, but it didn't take them too much searching to find their first undine.

The trio didn't see much gondola practice going on at all.  Instead, Akari had her boat tethered under the shade of a large weeping willow, and she was sitting in it reading a book.

"May I trouble you for a ride, Miss Undine?" Shaoran asked.

Akari jerked up from her book, and smiled when she glimpsed her customers.  "For you kids?  Of course!"

She helped each of them board the gondola, seating Sakura and Shaoran in the front seat, with Tomoyo riding behind.  A quick thrust of her oar against the banks, and the four of them were soon under way.  Akari didn't have anywhere in particular to go, so she started steering them further into the peaceful neighborhood, so close yet a world away from the noisy street.

Tomoyo said, "Thank you so much for giving us a ride."

Sakura concurred, "Thank you for taking time out of your practice for us."

"I don't think she was getting much practice in with her nose in a book."

Akari explained, "Oh, no, the book is for practice!  I must have read dozens of books on Venezia and Neo Venezia both before I left this planet.  And even more after I got the job!"  She sculled a couple times, then resumed, "To be a true prima undine, you need to be a tour guide as well as a gondolier."

Akari gave a rundown of the eclectic neighborhood in which she found herself, "If someone asks, I have to know that this house right here with the half-timbering is a Tudor revival, this one is Spanish style, and the next one down is called Mid-Century Modern.  I need to know how Abbott Kinney tried to create Neo Venezia here on Earth a hundred years ago.  You have to truly know the city you live in, and get tourists to love it as much as you do."

"Whoa," Sakura was enlightened.

"And I thought Aika was the hard-working one," Shaoran complimented her.

"Oh, but she is!  This isn't really work for me, it's what I like to do."

"You're really lucky," he said back, and Sakura sounded her agreement.  They turned their heads to face forward, taking in the quiet atmosphere of the canals.  The couple gingerly allowed their fingers to interlace -- the relationship was so new, but it was hard not to get into a romantic mood on the boat.

Tomoyo knew exactly what Akari was talking about.  Every dress she made for Sakura was a labor of love.  She sure felt tired after staying up to finish a "battle costume", but it never seemed like work.  She asked Akari, "How is it here in Venice?  Do you like it as much as your home before?"

She started glumly, "I didn't really like where I grew up in Manhome— oh, you mean Neo Venezia.  La Serenissima will always be my first love, but I'm starting to fall for Venice.  Just a little," she smiled and blushed, as if she were confessing infidelity.

Tomoyo thought Akari cut quite a cute figure in her undine's outfit -- a long white sheath dress with a wide turquoise embroidered band down the middle to make a hook shape, and another three bands of color around the bottom.  It was capped with a bit that looked like a short-sleeved sailor fuku crop-top, of all things.  An unusual uniform, but fashion always favors the unusual.

This particular uniform happened to be a replica produced by Tomoyo at Akira's request.  They were pretty easy to make -- just simple copies of the summer uniforms they wore when they arrived in this universe.  But she was already considering the next task, which was to make the undines new winter uniforms.  Those had to be reverse engineered from their descriptions and by watching the anime.  Even though it was a commission, she started to wonder if she could get away with making the new uniforms even cuter with her own touches.

As they turned the corner back on the the Grand Canal, Sakura asked, "What's over there?"

Akari turned the boat to the north, and steered towards the shady bridge.  As the noise of the traffic above started to percolate in, it started to break the spell.  As they passed under South Venice Boulevard, they came to a little boat ramp, among some graffiti lined walls.  Further on, North Venice Boulevard crossed the canal on a bridge, but the canal terminated immediately afterwards in a concrete wall, creating a dark cavern.

"The old canals were all to the north of here, but they filled in the streets for cars.  Venice Beach was pretty amazing in the old days, with a big roller coaster.  That bridge over there was for the kiddy railroad that went around the town.  And the canals went through the bungalows and met in a giant pool, where the traffic circle is now."

"Wow, things have sure changed," Sakura said.

Shaoran commiserated, "Too bad."

"I know."  Akari had an uncharacteristic sadness to her.  "I truly wish I could have sculled the canals like they were in the old days."

The moment just kind of hung there until Akari snapped out of of it.  "Geez, sorry.  Things like this are why I'm still a trainee."

Tomoyo quietly declared, "Sappy wistfulness is forbidden."

"Oh no, not you too!"

That broke everyone into giggles, and Akari took the opportunity to steer the boat into quieter waters. 

She took them all the way down to the marina at the other end of the canals, describing a few sights along the way, but for the most part, the rest of the trip passed in relaxing silence.  Akari could see the young lovers, still getting comfortable with touching each other, slowly relax until Sakura was leaning up against Shaoran's chest.  Even Tomoyo, after she had shot some B-roll on her camera, began to slack off and soak up the sun.

When Akari finished giving her first-draft tour of the Venice Canals, she dropped them off near the apartment building, and waved them goodbye.  Her guests had been quite entertained, but honestly she knew she could do better.  If they hadn't been so open to the magic of the water, she could have made them unhappy.  Akari reckoned she still had a lot to learn before she became a prima, but promised herself that one day, she would show them her own true style as an undine.

The sixth graders chatted on their way back home, mainly about the group project they still needed to finish for their history class.  They walked back along the alleyway which, when they got close enough, attracted the notice of the crew working on the new common room.

Tomo found a spare burst of energy, and ran out to meet Tomoyo and her friends on the first-floor landing.  "Hey girls, want to come in and help us paint?  Painting walls is really fun!" she lied.

"It is?" Sakura asked.

Yomi chimed in, "Why sure.  I mean, how often does a girl get to paint a wall?"

Tomo said, "Yeah, painting is super fun.  C'mon in and try it."

"Now hold on, should we really let them paint?  That means less painting for us."

"Oh come on Yomi, don't be stingy!"  She turned to Sakura, and said, "you want to try it, right?"

And so Sakura and her friends got roped into painting for the hour or so before dinner.  They ended up painting some of the lower parts of walls, and in the tighter spaces around the bathroom and shared kitchen area.  Osaka, at some point in the day, came to possess colored stripes of war paint on her face.  When Shaoran asked about it, all she said was, "It's to ensure victory!"  He just fell back on his belief that women were really hard to understand.  When they were all done for the day, the kids found that painting was not nearly as fun as advertised, but the company just about made up for it.

As the sun was setting, Sakaki held up a stick of crown moulding while Brent tacked it up with a pneumatic nail gun.  Aika had insisted on such decorative flourishes, not wanting the place to look "shabby" to potential customers.  Brent just thought she was being a bratty princess, but he went ahead and installed it all the same.  But remodeling this little apartment on a shoestring budget into something as fancy as a building in Neo Venezia?  Now that was just wishful thinking.

[Labster]

Chapter 3
What a Dim Bulb

Wednesday November 9, 2016, 4:03 PM

When Tomo and Yomi came back from their shopping trip, plastic bags of groceries loaded up in their hands, they came across the apartment manager absently pacing the second floor hallway.  It would have been a halfway decent Osaka impression, had he not looked so wound up.

"Hey Brent, what's wrong?" Yomi asked.

"I still can't believe he won!"  It was about the presidential election results, still unofficial, but looking very likely by this point.

"Yeah, I can't either.  I mean, seriously, Trump?"

"That's what you get from crazy Americans," Tomo offered.

"Hey, I thought you were supporting him?"

Tomo clarified, as if it was completely obvious, "That's when I thought he wasn't going to win."  Yomi unlocked the door and Brent followed them pair inside their apartment.  "I mean, come on Hillary!  Not once did she come back with 'What the heck?' or 'Why I oughtta...'  No paper fan, even."

"So you were only supporting him as a joke?" Brent was exasperated.

"Oh, no.  He's the only candidate to support a 'big beautiful wall'.  And I think it's about time Americans publicly talk about how much they love BBWs."

Brent sighed, concluding that it was all a joke to her.  It wasn't her country, after all.  And honestly, she had backed off Trump quite a bit a week ago, when the Access Hollywood tape had come out.  If there was one thing that Tomo didn't like, it was old perverts.

She and Yomi were the only residents with whom he could discuss politics with at all.  Pretty much everyone else didn't care, and were just thinking about daily living until they returned to their home universe.  Fujitaka had been around long enough to decide that Trump was bad for universities, and Sonomi long enough to decide that Trump would be good for business.  But that was it.  Mostly, he just had to kibbutz with Rob and Ben on the forums about it.

Yomi put a bunch of celery in the refrigerator, then turned to her friends. "You know, Donald Trump is pretty weird.  Do you think he came in from another universe to the Metacontinuity?  Sometimes, the guy seems like a cartoon character."  With an aside to Tomo she said, "No offense."

"None taken."

Brent said, "I don't think so?  I mean, I'm pretty sure I remember him being around from before, being on The Apprentice on TV and stuff.  I guess if he was merged into our memories too?  I don't think that's supposed to happen, but..." He was reminded of the silly arguments that dinosaur bones and isotope ratios were all put there by Satan to test our faith in Genesis chapter 1.  What can you do when the gods mess with causality?

As if in answer to his unspoken question, Yomi suggested, "We could just ask Belldandy."

"I don't think we need to ask her."

Tomo spoke simultaneously over Brent, "I wouldn't bother her."

Yomi sighed.  The two of them had to get over their fear of Belldandy, because she obviously loved them like she loved everyone else.  It's just that sometimes you yell at people you love when they act like idiots.  Or yell at people you just like, anyway.

"At least James will be happy to Make America Great Again," Yomi said, referring to the manager at the Pensacola apartments.  She had gotten an earful at the Halloween party.

"Ecstatic, I'm sure.  America will be rebecoming the greatness we never weren't, just like Papa Colbert promised.  It'll be a thousand points of light all over again, except Mexico will pay the electric bill."

Yomi lacked the cultural context to grok any of that rant, but it did remind her of something.  "Does that mean that the point of light downstairs is going to get fixed soon?"

"Oh right, the broken bulb."

Tomo said, "I think he's waiting for Rob to come help him fix it."

"And Ben too.  You know, to turn the ladder," Yomi added.

Brent deadpanned, "Ha ha very funny guys."

"That ought to lighten the mood," Tomo put in 'helpfully'.

"Yeah, you don't need to get so incandescent about politics."  Yomi averred, "We're going to keep going until you fix it."

Brent gave in, "Alright, alright, I surrender.  I'll go find a ladder."

Brent wondered off to do his actual job, finally. Yomi felt that even though she didn't know more about wacky American politics than when they began, at least the conversation was illuminating.

[Bob Schroeck]

I know I've seen this or an earlier draft before, but still good stuff. One small thing, though: "kibbutz" = Israeli commune. You want "kibbitz", and even then it's not quite the right word -- it basically means to stick your nose in where it's not wanted and give unneeded advice or commentary. Or maybe it is the right word, depending on how those forum discussions run. <grin>

[robkelk]

I know I've seen this or an earlier draft before, but still good stuff.  One small thing, though:  "kibbutz" = Israeli commune.  You want "kibbitz", and even then it's not quite the right word -- it basically means to stick your nose in where it's not wanted and give unneeded advice or commentary.  Or maybe it is the right word, depending on how those forum discussions run.  <grin>

By "those forum discussions", I suspect Labster means these forum discussions... maybe?

[Labster]

Damn, never trust spell check.

And yeah, we have lots of people in those forum discussions sticking their nose in, like Rob, and doing what the Chinese so eloquently refer to as "interfering in our nation's internal affairs." Of course in democracies we all have an informal agreement that we can criticize each other.

[Labster]

Chapter 4
A Home Visit

As hard as she tried, Rita Madsen always found herself getting involved with the problem kids. If she could be honest with herself, she'd know that she couldn't help herself. Even with the bizarre twist of fate that led her here, it took her less than a month to find herself back in a teaching job, trying to teach another cohort of students.

Alice Carroll was one of those kids who just got under her skin. Not that there weren't a lot of those students for Rita. Sure, there were plenty of kids in a continuation school that had problems at school and at home, but Alice, well, she just didn't add up. Alice was smart enough, possessing of a good deal of poise, highly observant, and entirely uninterested in getting an education. Sure, she had a bit of the snotty attitude common in teenagers, but under normal circumstances a girl like Alice might be an overachiever.

So Rita began to consider the usual problems in her home life. The missed week of school, shortly after enrolling was a bit odd. Tardy on her first day back. Alice claimed to be in some sort of apprenticeship for gondoliers, which was far more important than school. Farfetched as that was, one time Alice even claimed to be a Martian.

So, she decided that today was home visit day. Despite Rita's years of experience with these kinds of interventions, she never knew exactly what to expect. Abusive or impoverished families were of course the trope, but more often she had run into overbearing parents or anti-vaxxers or deeply religious families.

After consulting the school's records, she found her way to an apartment building near the Venice Pier. It still looked a little run-down, but it had obviously been painted recently in white with vivid blue trim. This close to the beach, paint never lasted all that long in the salt air before peeling.

She walked into the foyer past the mailboxes, and up the stairs to the first floor. At the end of the hall, she saw a man in an aloha shirt up a ladder, changing a light bulb in the hallway between apartments. This was a lucky break, she thought. Always good to have an outside point of view. "Hey, are you the building super?"

"Yeah!" Brent Laabs answered.

"I'm looking to talk to Alice Carroll's guardian. Can you tell me which room?"

"Athena? Number two, right next to my office. But I don't think anyone's there; I saw them head down to the canals a few minutes ago."

"Ah, well. If you're right next door, I'm sure you see them a lot. Everything going well for Alice and Athena?"

"Well enough, I guess." Brent started checking out the woman in front of him. She was the kind of woman you couldn't help but check out, dressed in a brown leather jacket over a plaid shirt and form-fitting faded jeans. Climbing down the ladder, he noticed that the woman was nearly as tall as he was, at least in her soft leather boots. "Considering where they've come from, pretty well."

"Where is that, exactly?" Rita inquired.

"Oh, I'm not really sure." Of course he did know, but to explain it to normies was another thing altogether. Honestly, he had been distracted by the pretty, milfy woman. "Who are you, may I ask?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Alice's teacher, Rita."

He returned the formality, "And I'm Brent, the manager of this complex."

She spoke English with the barest hint of an accent, not quite American, too low pitched to be Queen's English. "I'm just curious, since Alice has missed a lot of school, what she's been up to lately."

"Well, there was something of a desert vacation with her coworkers recently. But I doubt they're going to do it again soon, now that the business is reopened."

Rita's sense that something didn't add up just got stronger. Glancing at one of the open apartments, still undergoing renovation, it was a nicer place than she could afford on a teacher's salary. If they can afford to live here and take vacations, why did Alice need to work?

"Athena is her coworker?"

"Yep."

"I see. Thank you for your time."

"No problem."

She walked down the hallway to number two, and knocked the door perfunctorily. After thirty seconds without hearing anything, she turned back towards the stairwell in the middle of the building, where she was met by the building manager once again.

It was just enough time that Brent finally put it together. Sure, she looked a little different than on TV, but the faint smell of cigarettes on her clothing, the charismatic self-confidence, and the meddling in her students' lives made it all pretty damn likely. "Rita, you're friends with Hjørdis, right?"

"Right. And?"

"How long have you been in this universe?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"You know, when did you suddenly find yourself in Los Angeles instead of Denmark? When did you show up here?"

She had something of an indignant look on her face at this kind of personal questioning, but softened it once the meaning of the question sunk in. "September. Can you tell me what the hell is going on?"

"Ouch. That's a long time. You didn't get any help from Heaven?"

"No?" Rita gave it about ten seconds not to turn into evangelism.

"I'm sorry. Basically there's a crisis going on in the universe that I can't even start to understand, but the short of is that people from alternate universes are all appearing here, on this Earth."

"Uh huh."

"Most everyone is has appeared is from some sort of fictional story, at least from my perspective. I recognized you from your TV show. All of the people in this complex are from TV, so to speak."

"So I'm supposed to believe that you know who I am from a TV show?" Rita's credulity was clearly stretched.

Brent missed the cue, "Right. Alice is like you, but from an animated show called Aria. She's actually a fully-trained Venetian gondolier, but, like, from a Venice replica built on Mars."

"Oh yes, I'm teaching a cartoon Martian, that explains everything." Her tone shifted from sarcastically enlightened to outraged, "Seriously, if you don't know anything, don't just feed me a line of bullshit, okay?" She let that sink in a second, and started walking back to her old beater of a car.

"Hey! If you don't believe me, watch Rita on Netflix!" She heard, but she didn't react.

The conversation did bother Rita. It was easy to explain most of what the building superintendent had said -- perhaps she had mentioned Hjørdis during class, and the fictional universe thing sounded dumb from the get-go. But knowing that she had just appeared overnight in a foreign country was something she didn't talk about. Sure, he could have a friend at the Danish consulate (as useless as they were), but really, that apartment manager was just weird.

When she got home to the one-room apartment she shared with Hjørdis and her husband Uffe, she got to work grading papers. But she remained a little bit preoccupied with Alice and what Brent had said until later that night, when the ground shook.

[Labster]

Chapter 5
Hunting the Wumpus

Mulholland Drive, West Hollywood Hills
November 9, 2016, 2:45 PM

One moment it was stalking through a verdant forest a klick outside the walls of a city, and in the next, it was waking up on the warm pavement in the hills above an entirely different city.

The beast was roused by the sounds of armed men in black uniforms trying to encircle it. The men were wary, not afraid; the beast felt very weak. But not so weak that it couldn't teach these humans a lesson. It stood up, stiffened its pitch black body, and voiced a horrendous roar, terrifying folks halfway to Coldwater Canyon.

---

Los Angeles County Animal Control, Venice Branch
4:31 PM

A man in a dark green coverall warily eyed the creature behind the steel bars of the compound's largest cage. "That thing freaks me out. It's like it knows I'm afraid. It wants me to be afraid."

"You'd be more freaked out if you were on duty this afternoon. I think we must have shot it like a hundred times, and it's still alive. It's a miracle we managed to capture it." The animal control officer's uniform looked worse for the wear today, ground in the dirt, with a couple rips across the sleeves.

"Yeah... but what the hell is it? Doesn't look like any bear I've ever seen."

"Fuck if I know. We've got some professor-types coming by to look at it in the morning."

The beast actually didn't look much like a bear at all, except in size -- a dire wolf would have made a more apt comparison. Its body was covered in jet black fur from head to tail, with white claws and horns protruding from its joints. The most disturbing part had to be the face, almost like an exposed skull with two red veins traced across the top and deep crimson eyes, which stalked them around the yard.

The animal shelter employee decided it was probably for the best to avert his gaze. "Do you think Nguyen's gonna pull through?"

"God, I hope so. What that beast did to him, was awful."

---

Mulholland Drive
4:44

All was quiet, back to normal, among the million-dollar homes which were nestled into the steep hills and winding roads of the Hollywood Hills. There had been some reports of a bear on the loose -- perhaps UCLA's mascot bruin himself -- as one resident joked to his mistress. But that had all been dealt with.

So no one noticed when a vortex of black energy expanded to about the size of a garage door, allowing three people to step into a steep hillside barranca.

The obvious leader of this group was a pale-skinned young woman with a dashing black cape unfurled off to her right side. She had a short haircut, similarly asymmetric, covering the right side of her face under dark ashen hair. She looked to be about college age, but definitely could still pass as a high school student.

A girl in a crop top with mint green hair asked her a question, "So this is where the dimensional crossover happened? It looks pretty peaceful."

Cinder Fall answered, "Somewhere around here, Emerald. It couldn't have gotten too far, grimm seem to cross into this universe very weak." Grasping the arm buried under her cape with her left hand, she explained, "People don't know to fear them yet. Thankfully, I have friends like you two around."

"Uh, yeah." Emerald Sustrai assented, not knowing how to respond to that.

"Let's spread out and look for any disturbance. And do try not to kill it." She could trust them to follow the order. Tyrian, however, had been specifically disinvited from the retrieval mission. He was formidable and clever, to be sure, but the kind of person who had a tendency to take things too far.

Instead, Cinder relied on her own gang. What they lacked in understanding, they made up in being able to stick to a plan. The young man in her group, a slender silver-haired man in gray slacks named Mercury Black, remarked, "Right. Let's go!" He hopped up the side of the barranca while Emerald ran down towards the street.

In the next hour, they searched high and low for any evidence of a grimm in the area, and found no creature scarier than a spider. They briefly found a trail through the brush of a large creature, but this too proved to dead end onto a concrete driveway.

Coming up empty handed, they had to resort to asking the residents about it, but this was easier said than done. The houses lay far behind gates, the landscaping help had finished for the day, and many homes were simply vacant while the residents enjoyed their second, third, or fourth homes elsewhere. They eventually resorted to flagging down a few cars and just asking the occupants.

The approach was scattershot, but ultimately effective. The woman in third vehicle told them that the local authorities had caught the animal earlier so they didn't have anything to be afraid of now. She even agreed to loan them her hunter green SUV, in exchange for a length of rope behind her back and not being stabbed by Emerald. All in all, she was very helpful.

[Labster]

Chapter 6
Diorama Time

Oakwood Pentagon District, Venice
5:30 PM

Sakura thought she was settling into her school life in America, but things kept throwing her for a loop.  They were assigned a group art project in class, but were expected to do most of the work at home.  No club rooms were available in her small school after class, but this was hardly an unusual state of affairs in American schools.  And so it was that Sakura and her besties ended up at the home of a classmate to assemble a scene.

As part of their local history education, they had been granted the assignment given to generations of schoolchildren in the Southland: to build a diorama scale-model of the local Spanish mission.  In this case, it was the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, which had served as the Franciscans' home base to indoctrinate the Tongva people into the Roman Catholic faith and intimidate them into the Spanish social order.

The fourth group member, assigned by the teacher, had an opinion about that.  "I can't believe they would give us an assignment like this.  It just romanticizes the imperialists!  And all that bad stuff they did, right?"  No one else knew quite how to respond to it, but Alanna Emory didn't give them much of a chance to speak anyway.  "Hey Sakura, pass me the scissors.  No, not those. The fabric scissors."

"Um, hai!"

Despite Alanna's complaints about the subject of the assignment, it turned out the form of the assignment was right up her alley.  She had oodles of art supplies spread out in her room, and many more buried in the drawers or under piles of sketches.  It was the main reason that their teacher had assigned Alanna to help her new transfer students, as she had real talent for the arts, and handled the newcomers with her typical aplomb.

As is the case of most group projects in school, a couple of kids were left with pretty much nothing to do.  Occasionally Sakura and Shaoran would attach something or other with the glue gun, but it was obvious that Alanna had creative control.  Tomoyo provided a good share of input on costumes and staging, but could only get so far in the face of Hurricane Alanna.

Had it been her own house, Sakura would have made snacks to stay busy, but even that task fell to Alanna.  Shaoran's primary contribution was to stop Kero-chan from "reenacting" a kaiju attack on the L.A. Mission while Alanna was in the kitchen.

Truly, they were just a little bewildered by the whole thing.  Back at Tomoeda Elementary, the kids would have made an effort to distribute work to everyone, so that everyone had a chance to do their best.  But here in America, in Alanna's realm at least, the creative directors had control and everyone else was working for scale -- or at least the grading scale.

The upshot was that everyone was going to get top marks, since their creative directors had a good eye for these kinds of things.  Their diorama included buildings, walls, European priests, and native farmers.  It didn't depict life all that accurately, but the look showed good craftsmanship and that's all that really mattered in the end.

By the time they were finished, it was well after dark.  The diorama turned out quite a bit bigger than expected, too.  In the end, they implemented Shaoran's suggestion that they drive it back to his home at Aria House, then simply carry it the couple blocks from the apartment to the school the next morning.  Sakura called for a ride home, then joined everyone else in packing up sundry art supplies.

A few minutes later, Tomoyo's private stretch limousine pulled up in front of the Alanna's bungalow.  Double-parked, of course -- on Venice's streets, it was hard enough to find parking for a normal length vehicle.

"You brought a limo to our house?" Alanna complained, "Are you trying to gentrify me out of the neighborhood?"

"Hoe?"

"I was reading about it on Twitter.  The neighborhood gets too nice, and the black folk can't afford to live in their homes any more.  That's gentrification."

While Tomoyo was still formulating the proper apology in her head, Sakura spoke up, "Um, well, my brother drives limousines for his part-time job."  Her answer had the advantage of being technically true, while not explaining why this particular limousine was present.

When the driver got out, the biracial girl couldn't stop her gaze.  He was tall, fair, athletically built, and made those glasses look pretty cute.  He greeted them, "Hi everyone. I hear you need a ride?"

Tomoyo responded, "Thank you.  Can I trouble you to carry our diorama into the car?"

"No problem," Yukito said.

"Here, it's back this way," Tomoyo led him to Alanna's craft room.

"That's your brother then?"  Alanna half-whispered to Sakura, "He's really cute!"

"I know," Shaoran half-sighed.

"Oh, no, that's my brother's boyfriend!"  As he gingerly carried the diorama through the hallway, Sakura introduced him, "Yukito Tsukishiro, meet Alanna Emory!"

"Ah, nice to meet you, Miss Emory."  Not having a hand free to shake, he automatically bowed to her.

She eagerly returned the bow, "Nice to meet you too, Yukito!"  She thought about how respectful the Japanese culture was, so cool.  She had a brief pang of regret about bowing -- was that culturally appropriating?  Nah, he looked happy to accept her greeting.  How cool, she decided, to be asked to experience their culture.

"Well, I'm going to go put this in the car.  Thanks for taking care of everyone."

"You're very welcome."  As soon as Yukito made it outside, Alanna told Shaoran, "Aw man, boyfriend.  Well, at least you have a chance with him."

"Me?"

"You don't have to be ashamed.  We stand in solidarity with our LGBTQIA brothers and sisters."  In this case, "we" referred to herself and the rest of Black Twitter.

"Um, I'm not really…"  Shaoran blushed.  It was a misconception, but a little too close to home.

Tomoyo headed her off, "You are a very enlightened young woman, Alanna."

"Aw c'mon, you guys are all crazy woke.  All my friends are!"  She thought a sec, then amended her statement,  "Um, I mean guys and gals, no offense intended!"

"None taken."  Tomoyo smiled.

The kids said goodbye to Alanna for the night, and piled into the back of the limo.  After the power window slid a pane of tinted glass between him and her, Shoaran groused, "I can't explain why, but somehow she reminds me of Meilin."

Sakura nodded, "Un."  As the car rolled slowly through the streets, she studied the frustration on his face, while keeping a small smile on her own.  After about a minute, she added, "It's okay to miss her.  I miss her too."

"Yeah.  I'm sure we'll see her again."

"For certain."

Tomoyo sat on the seat across from them in silence, camcorder in hand --  capturing this romantic moment, like a precious card, for her archives.

Kerberos dug himself out of Sakura's backpack.  "Oh man, we're finally out of there.  I thought that munchkin would never shut up."

"Now, Kero-chan, be nice."

[robkelk]

A few minutes later, Tomoyo's private stretch limousine pulled up in front of the Alanna's bungalow.

"The Alanna?"

"No, just an Alanna."

"Oh, well, good thing we got that sorted out."

[Labster]

Chapter 7
The Animal Shelter

On a sleepy property nestled behind a a strip mall and a gym lay a branch of the L.A. County Animal Shelter.  It wasn't much to look at, especially from the back of the building, where Emerald parked the "borrowed" SUV.  Just a tall cinderblock wall with bougainvillea planted around it to deter intruders, and a locked chainlink gate.

"This had better not be another wild goose chase," Mercury moaned.

"Just do your job, Mercury."

"Fine."  He jumped up, and hefted a gleaming steel suitcase out of the car.  He mumbled, "Not like we spent the last few hours because the doctor was totally sure the last time."

Cinder let the backtalk pass, because she was having pretty much the same thought herself.  She just wasn't a complainer.  If Watts was wasting her time, she'd just take it up with him personally and directly.

The animal shelter was closed to visitors at that hour of the evening.  But since the creature they wanted to take wasn't exactly up for adoption, it was no matter to Cinder and her team, who simply hopped the fence with some minor acrobatics.

Cinder pulled out her scroll device and unwound its transparent display screen to about the size of a cell phone.  On it, she consulted the map of the facility.  With her good arm, the one not covered by her black cape, she gestured to the left.  "This way.  It went into their biggest cage."

Strolling past cats cowering in the back of their three-tiered shelter cages, Mercury asked, "Sheesh.  What was it this time?  A Goliath?"

"How would they even capture a Goliath?" Emerald wondered.  And worried.

As they rounded the corner into the main yard, Cinder replied, "Not very well, it seems."

One man's body was thrown against the bars of the cage, his back broken. A young woman's corpse lie near the center of the yard, a deep set of gash marks across her torso.  Her spilled organs were still oozing blood onto the dirt.  Her name tag was ripped and stained with blood, but you could still make out that her first name was Sarah.

Emerald drew Thief's Respite, folded down as a pair of revolvers, almost automatically.  Mercury examined the slain woman.  He didn't even have to stoop down to recognize the damage pattern in her flesh.  "Beowolf."

Emerald looked all around her to locate the grimm.  Not in the cage from which it had escaped, its steel barred door having been broken and twisted into metal scrap.  Not in the feed shed, its door still bolted. Nor was it in the hallway heading to the administration building.  All she saw were various animals, a few dogs and a pony hiding as best they could in their enclosures.  The animal life of this world, it seemed, didn't know that creatures of grimm have only one prey: humans.

It was, however, in the place she didn't look: up, atop the building roof.  It was from there that the creature roared, waited a second, then took a running pounce on the frightened humans.  Emerald, feeling very exposed, jumped back towards the shed to seek cover; her bare midriff mere inches away from ending up like poor Sarah here.

Mercury leapt out of the way himself, firing his boot-guns at the beowolf as he backflipped.  The firepower boosted his jump, but it didn't seem to have any effect on the grimm.  "Shit, it's an alpha!"

The only one undaunted by the sudden attack was Cinder Fall, who didn't share her companions' healthy fear of the ancient grimm.  Larger than a horse, the beowolf alpha was larger and stronger than its kin, and despite its lack of identity, its long existence a shaped it into a crafty killer.  With skin of jet black and its face and claws armored in bone, anyone could see it was formidable.

Cinder, however, knew herself to be even more formidable.  As the grimm turned to face her, she called out, "Mercury, get ready!"  From under her cape, her other arm emerged, colored a deep, unnatural black with a clawlike hand.  A ball of magical fire started to form in her hand, as the arm uncannily stretched out towards the beowolf.

And then with a great leap, the beowolf was no longer there.  It jumped across the compound's gate, and ran towards the city.  Emerald took a few shots at it midair, but the only thing that really had an effect on it was Cinder and her grimm arm.

"Damn it!" Cinder cried.  "After it!"

Mercury and Emerald didn't need to be told.  Although Mercury did grumble, "And me still carrying the damn suitcase."

They chased the beast up to Abbot Kinney Boulevard, whereupon it a single swipe from it's front claw flipped a parked truck right into Mercury's path.  He leapt out of the way, but a Grand Marquis sedan wasn't so lucky.  In the resulting aftermath, the beowolf slipped off into the dark, sleepy housing tract to the south.

They followed it, of course, but couldn't exactly be sure to where it had run off.  The trio almost split up until they heard a bloodcurdling scream to the south.  Cinder used her magic to fly straight up in the air, where she saw the beast running towards the beach boardwalk. 

That would be even worse for trying to keep a low profile, so she threw a fireball in its path.  While the Grimm are not exactly animals, they do have some animal instincts, and a fear of fire, albeit weak, was included in that.  The blast had the intended effect, driving it back towards her party.  It also ignited backyard wooden fence; the hot flames spread to a canopy, and then to a house.  Cinder didn't know, nor care, whose house it was.  Just that this kind of collateral damage was well within mission parameters.

Neighbors began to flock outside to looky-loo at the inferno, as is habitual for Californians upon noticing anything destructive.  However, the beowolf alpha let out its hideous roar, which scared the residents enough to leave.  Some straight up ran, while others grabbed their kids and threw them in the car.  All the while the grimm grew stronger.

One hipster decided to grab the nearest electric scooter.  He tapped to open the Bird app, stepped on the aluminum deck, shoved his fedora down, and cranked the throttle.  The damn thing barely moved, having run out of power.  "Shit, this is seriously not cool."  The beowolf saw him and plucked him up in its massive maw.  It shook its head back and forth, breaking his spine, and casting his body into the fire.  It then began to search for its next victim.

But by this time, the immediate area was mostly deserted.  The only people it could find were three humans, ostensibly huntsmen.  It decided it needed to rend them apart, just like it had done with all the other huntsmen before.  As Cinder sent forth a searing ribbon of flame towards it, it surged forward towards its prey.

[Labster]

Chapter 8
Dress Up!

Yukito drove back home on Pacific Avenue, which exhibited snarled traffic even on good days.  But today, lots of people were running across the street and gumming it up further.  Even more people crossing without looking than normal, and it was starting to get on his nerves.

In the passenger compartment behind him, Shaoran stated a possible cause, "Looks like there's a big fire over there."  Sure enough, off to the left, they could see the licks of bright orange flame flashing up above the buildings, and a pillar of smoke illuminated by the city lights.

Traffic was snarled for miles, and access was blocked from Abbot Kinney Boulevard by the overturned car.  There was no way a fire engine was getting in there any time soon. 

Sakura and Shaoran both tensed up at the same time, reacting to some invisible signal.  "Do you feel that?" Sakura asked.

"Yes."  Shaoran's magical senses definitely felt it.  "That's not a normal fire."

"I don't like that fire, burning up people's homes.  Let's do something about it."

Kero called up to the front of the limo, "Yuki, stop the car!"

As Yukito drove into a parking lot, Tomoyo noted, "Looks like it's time for this universe's grand debut of Cardcaptor Sakura!"

"Hoe?" she uttered quizzically.

"I think I have just the outfit for you to wear this time!"  By now, Sakura knew there was no stopping Tomoyo.  Nor was there any reason to, as Tomoyo's sartorial choices had saved her bacon a couple times.

Tomoyo drew out a hanger bearing Shaoran's forest green Chinese battle costume and handed it to him, then ushered Sakura inside the wardrobe room within the stretch limo.  It was fine for him to change out there, as you couldn't see through the tinted windows anyway.  But Sakura's change, as always, would be a little more elaborate.

For today's battle costume, there was only one option to choose.  Sure, Tomoyo had access to a decent library of previous costumes.  But the effort she had coincidentally finished yesterday, made with cloth that happened to fall into her hands?  Tomoyo knew there was no true coincidence, only necessity.

With such a special fabric as the one that Spider Grandmother had provided, Tomoyo was driven to make something equally special for Sakura.  The fine weaving was so exquisite and the white so pure, that it could serve to make a wedding dress as suitably as a battle costume.  She had spent an excessive amount of time contemplating the former, before settling on a radically simple design, at least for her tastes.

The basic structure of the outfit looked like an undine's uniform: a long white sheath dress with a square sailor collar bordered in pink.  But as an Atelier Daidouji original, it offered a bit more than that.  Right under the collar lay a large bow the color of cherry blossoms with white lace, tied under a central brooch of faceted aquamarine.  A wide pink stripe was embroidered down the center of the dress, terminating just below Sakura's waist in a narrow circle, containing a large five-pointed pink star.

Sakura wore the matching sailor cap in the French style, with an azure ribbon and topped by fluffy pink pompom.  Right in the center of the hat, it bore an embroidered winged heart in pink and blue.  This logo was emblazoned in larger form on the back of the outfit's short cape.  The getup wasn't complete without a pair of rose wellies with cobalt blue soles.

No matter how much time Tomoyo had spent imagining the final outfit on her favorite model, it paled in comparison to the real thing.  A frisson of joy traveled from her heart out to her fingertips as she reviewed today's battle costume.  Hands pressed into her cheeks, Tomoyo declared, "Very cute as always, Sakura-chan!"

"Oh, um, yeah, you look cute in that," Shaoran stumbled through.

"Really?  Thank you!" Sakura smiled, her face turned red despite being well away from the fire.

"At least the brat's not blind," Kero muttered.  The flying plushie wore a bow and hat matching Sakura's outfit.  He always appreciated Tomoyo's touches, even if his true form was much cooler.  "Alright everyone, let's get in there and put out this fire!"

[Labster]

Chapter 9
Into the Heat

All of them left the limousine and set out on foot towards the flames, still growing stronger.  Yukito was quite worried about the whole endeavor, to have little kids like this rushing into danger.  But the other him, the voice inside him that was Yue, had much more confidence.  Yue was ready and able to fulfill his role as her guardian, if Yukito could only find a more secluded place to transform.  Even Kero clung to Sakura's shoulder like a doll until they left the bright lights of the parking lot.

As they ran towards the fire, people were running away in droves.  A few on foot, but most in cars or on bicycles.  The two magicians could feel that something was very off about this. 

Shaoran tried to snag a woman riding one of those annoying rental scooters away from the fire as she portaged a curb, but ended up having to dodge at the last minute to keep from being run over.  He tried again with another middle-aged woman, who had become winded and slowed to a very brisk walk.  He asked, "What's going on in there?"

"I'm not waiting to find out.  You should leave too!"

But they didn't, and dashed closer to the flames.  About a block further in, the area was completely deserted.  This was disconcerting enough, but at least it meant magic could be worked without an audience of normals.  But had they been more familiar with their new home, it would been a huge warning.  Any disaster with no Angeleno lookie-loos nearby must be terrible indeed.

Instead it was eerily quiet, with the occasional clatter of timbers crashing down in the fire another block ahead.  The acrid black smoke was billowing up into the air, but enough hung on the surface to fill their noses with the scent of burning plastic and melting roof tar as houses began to surrender their contents to the flames.

Still safely away from the blaze, Shaoran said, "Hold up.  There's something out there."

"Yeah.  I can feel it too."  She thought she saw something in the corner of her eye, but it could have been just a shadow.

Yukito took the opportunity to transform.  Giant white wings sprouted from his back, and folded around his entire body.  A second later, Yue appeared, his now blue eyes no longer behind glasses, his silver hair flowing down his back like a waterfall under his angelic wings.  He withdrew a broadsword from his belt, and stood ready.  Shaoran, too, transmuted the pendant into a jian, and brandished it into a guarded posture.

Sakura recited her activation sequence, "O key which hides the power of the stars, reveal your true form to me." As she spoke, a tiny pink key floated in front of her, and a glowing magic circle incorporating motifs of sun, moon, and stars expanded under her feet. "I, Sakura, command you under our contract. Release!"  The key spun and swelled in size, finally expanding into a full length pink staff, topped by an circled yellow star with white wings on each side.  She grabbed the staff and twirled it several times, first in front of her chest and above her head, before returning it to a ready position in front of herself.

With Sakura's power charged up, Tomoyo stopped filming for a moment, and dashed to catch up to her friends.  But as soon as she arrived, Yue abruptly told her, "Something is out there.  Hide."

She didn't have much chance to react, however, before an enormous beast leapt out of the shadows and pounced at Shaoran, who barely had a chance to roll out of reach of its bony claws.  It seemed improbable that something the size of a van could hide in a neighborhood to stalk its prey, but much of that was due to the jet black fur of the beast.

But out in the orange glow of the sodium lamps, the beowolf was even more terrifying.  A bone covered head with thin red lines and eerily glowing golden eyes covered a tremendous maw with piercing canine teeth.  And along its back, the white bones erupted from its eldritch flesh like a crest along its spine, and along the back sides of its limbs.

Neither of the kids had enough experience to tell what exactly they were facing, but they could immediately tell it was Wrong.  They could feel it in their bones.  It was something that should not be. 

The beowolf sensed them, too.  It bellowed a hateful, unearthly growl at its next opponents.

Tomoyo ducked behind some convenient shrubbery, engaged the telephoto, and looked on as the confrontation continued.  As she recorded a single swipe from its massive paw flipping an SUV into the center of the road, it became clear that the hedge wouldn't do anything to actually protect her.  And it could only hide her so long as the monster didn't notice the red recording LED on her camera.  That said, the beowolf was ignoring her; Tomoyo didn't have enough negative emotion to register to its senses.

It was instead bearing down on Sakura, who had leapt clear of the oncoming vehicle projectile with the aid of her Jump card.  It was not the first human it had encountered who could use an Aura, and the fear that huntsmen generated when they were being devoured was something it was eager to feed on again.

Missing its intended victim, the SUV clattered on its side, gasoline slowly leaking out of its tank, and completely blocking the road.

Shaoran ran in from behind, and tried to slice off the beast's hind leg.  But the beowolf moved, causing the strike to scrape against its bony spikes and finally land dead against its tough hide. He didn't get a chance for a second attempt, as the shadow beast kicked at him with the same leg, and had to duck just to avoid getting impaled.

Kerberos hated to doff his outfit that matched Sakura, but given that she was facing a magical beast, he transformed to his true form.  Emerging from beneath giant white wings, he looked something like a flying lion with arcane armor.  Lacking a mane, he looked a little bit more like a female lion than a male one, but that didn't bother him one bit.  He still looked totally cool, if he did say so himself.

Kero belched flames at the monster, which hit it dead on.  It certainly looked a bit more charred than it had before.  It shifted to charge after Kerberos; he flew into the air to evade.  The wolf clawed its way up on the roof of a three-story house, and leapt at him again.  He had to fly up another ten meters just to get out of range.  "Oh come on, that jump was ridiculous!"

Yue took advantage of the beowolf's predictable projectile motion.  He loosed a glowing arrow from a crescent moon bow.  The bolt streaked into the sky, finding its mark, and embedding itself into the creature's haunches before the magical energy dissipated.  It growled out, not in pain so much as annoyance.

As the fell beast landed, Sakura called out, "Trees, bind this creature!  Wood!"  A card flared with energy in front of her, and the immense ficus and old eucalyptus near the beowolf rapidly grew out to engulf the grimm in a cage of wood.  But it was to no avail; it snapped the branches in its massive teeth, and forced its way back out into the open.

The beowolf alpha turned around to charge at Sakura, but was instantly blocked by Yue, who took a giant swing at it with his broadsword.  It dodged the blow, putting a power pole directly in its path.  With a swing from its terrible claw, it shattered the base of the wooden pole, sending an electrical line down into the street.

Two seconds later, and an arc of electrical discharge from the fallen cable ignited the pool of leaking gasoline.  The SUV it came from didn't take too long to catch fire itself.  A moment later, and the transformer finally blew with a bang and a brilliant white flash, leaving the neighborhood in darkness.  But with all the flames around, it was far from actually dark.

Sakura regrouped and tried again, this time with something more aggressive, "Shot!"  A nimbus of golden light erupted from her hands, roboteched around a tree, and made a direct hit on the broad side of the beowolf.  It hit with enough force to knock it off its feet.  Kerberos capitalized on the opportunity by opening up with another burst of fire, leaving it even more damaged.  It seemed magic was having a much greater impact on the beast than physical attacks, so he stuck to that.

Meanwhile, Cinder's gang watched from afar.  "Damn, they're not bad huntsmen," Emerald commented.

Yue managed to fly up behind the grimm, and plunged his longsword into its back.  It managed to shake the blade out a moment later, but it looked like real damage had been done. 

Cinder grumbled, "Damn it, those kids are actually going to kill it!  Let's go."

"But..."  By the time Emerald got the word out, Cinder was already rushing ahead into the battle.  She looked at Mercury, who simply returned her quizzical expression and shrugged, and the two of them rushed out to catch up to their leader.

[Labster]

Chapter 10
Capture

Shaoran deftly drew a card with elaborate calligraphy from his robes, then placed the jufu against his sword.  He called out to the thunder gods, "Raitai sho— uh!"  The last part of the incantation wasn't quite correct, because he was jumping backwards to evade of a massive black paw.  Evade it he did, but in the process he managed to trip over a curb and land on the sidewalk on his back.

He pulled his blade in front of him, to protect himself, but as he did, a wall of flame sliced the air in front of him, causing the beowolf to instinctively recoil.  With the jets of the flame staying in place, he had a split second to consider that it was unlike Kero-chan's normal attack.

But then he saw the source of the magic, lit only by her own flames: a young woman in a cape with blue feathers attached to its clasp, and black thigh-high stockings had joined the fray.  Oddly, it looked as if a small flame was burning out the side of her right eye.  Shaoran wondered if that sort of magic hurt her face, as he pushed himself back onto his feet.

The woman ordered, "Trap it against that apartment building!"  At first, the kids thought she was telling them what to do, until they saw her two companions at a full-tilt run towards the grimm.  In the darkness, they couldn't see much of them, though by their silhouettes it was obvious that one was a man; the other, a woman.  Still, her order seemed reasonable enough, so the kids each decided to work with the new arrivals to corner the monster.

The non-boss woman, Emerald, dashed out ahead to flank the beast, laying down cover fire with her twin revolvers.  A couple shots hit, but from outside of point blank range they don't really damage a grimm all that much.  It did steer it towards the wall, where it decided to take another pounce at Kerberos.

Kerberos was ready for it, though.  He ducked under the beowolf's body at the last second, tucking his wings down.  Then from beneath, he rolled beowolf on its side, tilting it towards the apartment that Cinder had pointed out.  So it changed prey once again, switching to the man on its right.

Mercury gave the beowolf a roundhouse kick in the behind to try to trap it down, but it turned to pounce on him.  He usually an empty handed fighter, but he happened to still be lugging around a weighty metal briefcase.  So at the last minute he borrowed a simple move he had seen Coco Adel do, and whapped the grimm across the face with the metal suitcase.  He didn't look as fashionable doing it as she would have, but the force knocked the grimm clear out into the street.

When it looked as if the beowolf might yet squeeze though their pincer, Sakura flipped a card out of her hand, calling it's name, "Earthy!"  And almost immediately, pillars of sandstone jutted up out of the pavement, blocking the creature's escape.  It punched at the solid rock, but to no avail.

Trapped in a box canyon, it sought to climb out of this new obstacle, but never got a chance.  The blades shot out from the ends of Thief's Respite, trailing long chains, and embedded in the rock.  Emerald yanked hard on the kusurigama she now held, and the taut chains held the grimm down.  Cinder followed up by evoking a layer of ice on the ground to bind the grimm's legs.  Sure, it wouldn't hold the massive paws for long, but it wouldn't have to.

Yue rushed forward to take a strike at the immobilized monster's neck, but cut his run short when the man of the other group shouted, "Stay back!" and walked up to face the grimm head on.

Mercury held the metallic briefcase out in front of himself, and pressed a button on the handle.  Unlike a normal suitcase, the hinges were on the same side of the handle, so that as he pressed it, the contents of the suitcase expanded out in front of him.  Pipes expanded outwards on both sides of the grimm, section after section clacking as they expanded to their full length, then met to encircle it from behind.

Then the tee-shaped junctions in each section of pipe expanded, with those at the top and bottom exploding across to cover the grimm in a metal frame.  Meanwhile, half-pipes along the sides sprung down to latch into the pipe below, resounding as steel locked against steel to form a portable cage.  In only twenty seconds, the grimm was trapped.  It broke the ice on its feet, but could not break the heavy bars surrounding it.

With the beowolf alpha safely behind bars, Sakura breathed a sigh of relief, as Kerberos cheered while jumping.  It seemed uncharacteristically docile in the cage, but captivity is hard on grimm -- it saps the human fears upon which they would normally subsist.

Emerald gave Mercury five down low, and looked at the creature of grimm.  She never quite get over her sense of unease around them, and the mission of capturing grimm gave her chills.  But on the other hand, it was quite an achievement for her team; capture had to be about ten times harder than killing one outright.

"Alright!  Let's get it back," Cinder ordered.  She saw the girl with the camera poking her head above the bushes, but at this distance in the night, there really wasn't much to see.  The op had gotten complicated enough — no reason to put themselves at more risk of being identified.

"Wait, where are you taking it?" Shaoran asked.

Mercury growled, "Mind your own business, kid."

Shaoran stood his ground.  "No.  That's too dangerous, it should be destroyed."  He pointed to the grimm, "Can't you feel that?  It's nothingness!"

"I said, back off!"

He did not back off.  Instead, he withdrew a lightning jufu from his robe, and prepared to hit the cage where it would be a sitting duck.

Sakura backed him up, "I think he's right."  And her other friends seemed to prepare for a conflict, too.

Cinder observed the little group for a moment, and could see how everyone circled around the little brown-haired girl like the queen bee.  Even the tall, winged man -- whatever he is -- was deferential to his team leader.  The same for the animal she guessed was a sphinx.  She considered it curious, but perhaps not too surprising, given the girl's gift for magic.  Magical girls like her could be powerful, but so very naïve.

The dark-haired woman spoke up, "Now, there's no need for that.  Let me explain."  Time for a change in plans.

[Labster]

Chapter 11
What do you do with a caged beowolf, anyway?

The woman with the sultry voice explained, "Actually, we're researching creatures like these so we can learn how to defeat them.  We aren't planning to do anything harmful with them, I promise."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense."  Sakura was quite relieved.  Shaoran was still suspicious, but he could not logically explain why, so he lowered his sword and relaxed his stance.

The lanky silver-haired one kicked the cage, saying, "All in a days work for a hun—"  The remainder of the sentence was interrupted by a roar from an angry beowolf.

Cinder picked up where he left off.  "For a cryptozoologist.  Say, why don't you come back with us?  With magic like yours, maybe we could learn something from you."

"Really?  I think I could learn something from you.  Your fire magic is amazing!  Actually, why don't we put out these fires?"

"Sorry, but I don't want us to get discovered.  And this one here," the raven haired maiden gestured to the beowolf, "he's just too dangerous to explain.  Come on, I'll explain everything soon, once we get back to our base.  Let's go."

Cinder offered her hand to Sakura, and she took it.  After all, this cool magical onee-san and her friends had helped her to beat the terrible monster.

The green-haired one had wondered over to Tomoyo, still filming the scene, "What don't you come too, kid?  We all need to be close for her to open the portal."

"Okay, sure!"  She stopped aiming her camera so that she follow the woman across the darkened street, littered with the debris of a battle.

Meanwhile, Shaoran wondered why the boss lady hadn't offered him her other hand.  In fact, it was strange that he never even saw that other arm, even in combat.  Maybe she had lost it?  He felt the chi around her, and sure enough, there was no arm on her left side.  Just a void.  Too much of a void.

Shaoran grabbed Sakura by her free hand and pulled her back hard.  She just barely slipped out of Cinder's grip.  "Shaoran?"

"Her other arm.  It's--"

But then the kids were surrounded by the adults.  "Come along now, we can't stay here forever."  It was no longer a request.

Sakura got the message.  When she knew where to look, she could feel the darkness radiating from Cinder's grimm arm.  In the presence of the beowolf, it had been easy to miss.  A few seconds later, and she no longer needed her magical senses to know something was wrong, as the coal-black arm stretched inhumanly across the street, the claws rushing toward's Sakura's hand.

Yue deflected the hand with his sword at the last minute, and it retracted back to Cinder's body.

Shaoran cried, "Stay back, she's being possessed!"

"Oh no, silly," Cinder said.  "I am possessing it."

Tomoyo managed to get Cinder in frame that dramatic pronouncement, but began to wonder if filming it was such a good idea.  Maybe, she thought, it was best to leave this to Sakura-chan.

"Come on, a maiden like you has skill.  Powers like these could be yours... and I'd be happy to teach you.  Don't be all alone in a new universe, let's all be friends."

Cinder was, in a sense, telling the truth about all of it, but Sakura still didn't trust her motives.  Someone who would willingly fuse with that black thing — it was just too creepy to even think about.  "Maybe?  I think I should ask Belldandy first."

Cinder frowned.  "That would be a very bad idea."

Yue declared, "You need to leave."

"And you need to leave with us."  This time Cinder's grimm arm went straight for Sakura's neck.

"JUMP!" She called out to her Sakura Card, and made a superhuman leap out of its path. 

Kerberos jumped towards the arm, and held it his jaw.  But a couple seconds later, the arm slithered out of his maw like a eldritch tentacle.  Cinder retaliated, sending a magical fireball towards Kerberos, but he dodged it and leapt into a neighboring house's front yard.  She sent another fireball, even bigger than the first one.  Kerberos breathed a gout of flame in response, to fight fire with fire.  It worked, but the combined conflagration caught the eaves of the house behind him aflame.

Emerald made a split-second decision, abandoning Tomoyo to try to block Sakura's escape, as she was the only one close enough to do so.  Mercury cringed that she gave up the opportunity to take a hostage and regain control of the situation.  So he decided to do the next best thing and went to pick off the boy.

Shaoran was not as much of a pushover as Mercury expected.  He ducked under Mercury's opening roundhouse kick, and lifted his jian into a guarded stance.  Mercury circled around Shaoran to build a little distance from that blade, then vaulted off a picket fence to descend on his prey.  Shaoran parried the kick with a sword to the boot — which left him open to Mercury's other leg, carrying most of the momentum.

Shaoran fell backwards, asphalt grating on his martial arts robes as he slid back a couple meters into the street.

Meanwhile, Emerald caught up with Sakura — again.  The magical girl managed to have ridiculous bursts of speed, calling them out as "dash", but Emerald was no slouch in the speed department either.  A run here, a swing off the tree limb there, and she caught up to the girl.  But she wasn't very threatening, to be honest.  More like a scared girl. "You don't want to fight me, do you?"

"No.  Just let us go," Sakura pleaded.

The girl looked so cute and innocent in her white and pink undine dress, Emerald wanted to relent.  She sighed, "I wish I could."

She looked at the mint green haired woman with a sudden look of determination.  "Then I guess we have to... Fight."  The last word activated the Sakura Card in her hand; the power glowed subtly and flowed into her body. 

Emerald wasn't magic-sensitive, but she could tell that the tween girl could fight a whole lot better than she had a minute prior.  Sakura evaded the chain that shot out of her kusurigama, and dodged her charge attack with a judo counter.  Being so small, the girl didn't have much in the way of offensive power, but she did have supernatural speed, skill and grace.

And then Sakura's staff turned into a thin, pink and white sword — what was, for her, a longsword.  Emerald could tell that her opponent wasn't trying to hit her directly, and only striking at her weapon.  That wasn't particularly reassuring, however, as the sword sliced through a steel pole like it wasn't even there.  The stop sign it was holding up clattered to the street.

Behind a block wall, Tomoyo managed to hide herself again, but as the fires ignited around her, it was getting harder and harder to do.  Fighting fire with fire worked for Kerberos, but it had a downside.  He seemed to be losing ground to Cinder, the two of them causing more fiery collateral damage with every pass.  Yue could keep her superheated obsidian swords occupied by freezing his own, but with every slice parried by his blade, he had to renew the icy enchantment.  Things were not exactly going well.

But as far as Tomoyo could tell, everyone was fully immersed in their own battles and wouldn't pay much attention to a little distraction like herself.  And she was starting to get a little uncomfortably warm where she was trying to hide.  She decided she might as well film Sakura's heroism if she was going to be in danger anyway.  She stood up, opened the gate of the yard, and walked out into the street to record what came next.

[Labster]

Chapter 12
Just Shoot Her!

With so much going on, it was quite difficult for Tomoyo to capture the action.  She was used to filming Sakura fight one opponent or spell at a time, and here she was trying to get cinematography of three separate fights at the same time.

All of them could be interesting, of course, but her instincts were to focus on Sakura.  As usual.  This worked for a while, but the fight against Emerald was highly mobile, and very frustrating to capture on video.  Sakura was using Dash and Jump just to stay ahead of the tan-skinned girl, who was pretty quick on her feet.  As a result, it was a struggle to keep either of them in-frame.

Tomoyo managed to capture Sakura heroically severing the chain of the other girl's weapon with her sword.  But the next moment, they jumped out of the shot once again, this time around a dark corner.  Mere seconds later they ran back into view, but with all the dashing between the bushes and burning buildings, the digital videocamera didn't seem to keep up with sudden changes in lighting.  Tomoyo, unaware that she could fix it in post, decided to change focus to another, more stationary fight.

Most of the motion of Kerberos' and Yue's battle against the leader of the "cryptozoologist" group involved dodging each other's magical attacks.  Because Kerberos and Cinder both favored fire attacks, at least there was plenty of lighting for Tomoyo to record what was happening.  As for what was happening, that was kind of hard for her to understand.  Sometimes two fireballs would collide in mid-air, but sometimes rays of flame would shoot past each other and both combatants would have to dodge.

Yue fired a volley of ice arrows from his bow, but they were summarily melted in another gout of flame erupting from Cinder's palm.  Cinder then retaliated by conjuring dimly glowing blades in mid-air; with a wave of her hand, they flew like missiles to Yue.  Kerberos pushed Yue out of the way of a blade at the last minute, but managed to take a glancing blow from one of her daggers.  He yelped in pain, but the tough hide of his true form took most of the blow.

Tomoyo had the impression that Clow's two guardian spirits weren't doing too well in their battle against Cinder, so she turned her attention to Shaoran.  She wanted her film to focus on heroism, she told herself. But ultimately she was just an eleven year old girl who didn't like seeing her friends get hurt. 

Even from halfway down the block, she could tell that she was getting a real martial arts exhibition from Shaoran and his opponent, Mercury.  It reminded her of a samurai drama, how they'd stare each other down, then simultaneously spring into action to attack each other.  Then it reminded her of Hong Kong cinema, with Shaoran's kung-fu facing against his opponent's capoeira, in a flurry of punches and kicks.  If it were a movie, she'd say the two were near evenly matched, which made for a very exciting fight.

Shaoran, in the middle of that fight, did not share Tomoyo's rosy assessment of his combat performance, which he rated as "narrowly avoiding being creamed."  Twice already, he had barely managed to raise his arm to avoid taking kicks to the face.  The blocks held, but hurt anyway; he was against an adult opponent who obviously was not trying to fight fair.

In that case, Shaoran didn't have to fight fair, either.  He retreated, luring Mercury into the vicinity of a burning house, black smoke billowing out the top.  When Mercury looked ready to strike, Shaoran pressed a paper card against his sword, calling, "Fukka Shourai!"  At his call, a magical gust sent a rush of dark, acrid smoke across Mercury's path.

Between coughs, Mercury cursed through the cloud, "Where the hell are you, brat?"

The answer was, surprisingly enough: directly behind him.  Shaoran siezed the opening, and swung his sword at Mercury's legs, only to have the thrust stopped with the loud clang of metal on metal.  The sword rebounded off Mercury's prosthetic legs.  Mercury's counter-kick connected, and Shaoran was flung back ten feet.

It didn't feel awesome, to say the least, but nothing was broken.  "Crap!"  Metal legs was something he wasn't expecting.  But it gave him an idea for one tactic.  As Mercury was closing in for the knockout, Shaoran pulled a paper jufu out and called, "Raitei shourai!"

A thunderbolt pierced the sky and struck Mercury midair, causing his prosthetic legs to lock in place.  His body was shielded by his aura, but left unable to deliver the intended strike.  Thrown off balance, he curled up and rolled with his momentum.  It only took a couple seconds more to regain servomotor control, but it was long enough to lose his advantage over the kid.

---

Across the street, Emerald was getting so tired of this girl.  There was never really a good time for Emerald to use her semblance to develop a convincing illusion, because Sakura kept leaping off trees and mailboxes, slashing with her sword, and dodging blows.  The magically sharp sword she wielded had cut clean through the chain of one of her weapons, detaching a sickle where it still lay on the ground.

Emerald just wanted a second to regroup, to get some distance.  She switched Thief's Respite into its handgun mode, and fired off six shots directly into Sakura's chest.

Sakura fell back almost immediately.

Shaoran screamed, "SAKURAAA!"  He threw a feint at Mercury to escape his reach, then leapt over to Sakura's side as fast as he possibly could.

Emerald's eyes went wide. "Oh shit."  She hadn't even thought about it, but in this world, most people's aura was so weak that they could die on the first gunshot.  She was so immersed in the flow of battle that she used her normal combat forms without thinking.  The guilt barely had a chance to hit her before something remarkable happened.

Sakura started getting herself off the ground.  "I'm okay!"  And it was true; she was winded and bruised, but not a single shot had pierced her flesh.  At her feet lay scattered bullets, none of which could penetrate her handmade battle costume.

It was not Tomoyo's skill alone which protected Sakura, but the white spidersilk fabric from which she created the dress.  Woven by Spider Grandmother herself, it was stronger than kevlar, whiter than snow, and a natural bulletproof material.

In his anger at what had nearly happened to Sakura, Shaoran threw himself at Emerald in a series of frantic slashes with his sword.  He was well-trained at his martial art, but he did not learn how to channel his rage, and his form suffered as a result.  Though he had more harmful intent, she had no trouble stepping out of the way.

Left without an opponent, Mercury decided to take a run at knocking out Sakura, the girl Cinder obviously had the most interest in.  He leapt over the burning picket fence and launched himself towards her, but as he leapt through the air, the man with the wings swooped down and raised his sword right in Mercury's flight path.  Mercury was able to complete his mid-air turn early, and push his prosthetic feet against the flat of Yue's blade.  Somehow, this was enough to reverse Mercury's momentum, and allowed him to backflip back to a standing position.

The pair of silver-haired men eyed each other with mutual distrust.  Yue broke the silence, "I will be your opponent."  Seconds later, as if by some unspoken signal, the two men charged each other.

Without the swordsman to distract Cinder, Kerberos didn't pose much of a challenge to her. Kerberos completed an aerial strafing run against her, to little effect. While he turned around, she took the time to concentrate on her spell.  The magic deposited a block of solid ice, growing from Kero's paws all the way up his belly, encasing his legs in ice in a matter of seconds.  It wouldn't hold the fire-breather forever — probably two minutes at best — but it was long enough to shift her focus to her real target, the girl in the white dress.

Neither side had shared any names, so Cinder Fall didn't know who Sakura Kinomoto was, but she knew what she was: a magical girl.  And even though things had gotten violent, it didn't mean that hope was lost in bringing her over to the other side.  The magical girls of other worlds had a word for overwhelming use of battle magic to get someone to trust you.  What was it again?  Oh, yes, she remembered, they call it "befriending".

Sakura took a breather to consider her situation.  She wasn't used to fighting so many foes, so this was her first chance to think.  Ultimately, her course seemed simple: destroy the evil creature, and the older folks would leave, having nothing left to fight for.  And then, she could extinguish the fires that the magician onee-san was causing.  That left the problem of how exactly to destroy the beast.

Sakura had never tried to kill anything with her magic before; she had never wanted to kill anything.  She considered just erasing the beast, but she wasn't quite sure that would actually kill it — the time Tomoyo and her classmates had been erased, they were able to come back after she sealed the card.  She could crush the cage with Earthy, but that seemed kind of gross, and what if those cage bars were super-strong?  Sticking a sword between the bars seemed risky for lots of reasons.  She briefly considered sealing the grimm into a card, but rejected that idea out of hand. 

She decided to go with Erase.  And if she couldn't erase the grimm's nothingness, she would try the Hope card next.  She pulled her deck out of her pocket — even Tomoyo's highest fashion had pockets for Sakura Cards — as she ran towards the caged beowolf.  But her moment's hesitation cost her chance.  A burst of fire traveled across her path to the grimm.  She looked over to the source.

"Now, now.  We can't have you getting hurt by the creature we all worked so hard to capture."  Cinder tried to convey concern with her voice, but came out mostly patronizing, probably from habit.

"You can't... You can't have anything to do with that evil thing!  That arm!" Sakura argued.  To be honest, it was mostly instinctual revulsion and not a real argument, but she just knew it would be just awful for that other girl to live with that terrible black claw for an arm.

"You think because you have some power, that you can stay pure forever?  That you can judge me for my life?"

"No, I—"

"You need to be strong to survive.  I can teach you to be strong."

"But not at that cost.  Not like you are."

"If you can't accept me for who I am, I'm just going to have to make you understand!"  Fireballs flared at Cinder's palms, and about ten more orbs formed in front of her.  She released the balls of flame, firing them directly at Sakura.

"Watery!" she cried, and the maiden-like form of Watery emerged from a card.  The fireballs were snuffed out in a curtain of water.

Cinder, flames at her hands and feet, flew around the water, and looked to be sending another spell.  Sakura tried a magically-assisted jump out of the way, only to find her feet were locked in ice — her own water frozen by Cinder's magic.

Swords of magma formed around Cinder, then sliced through the air towards Sakura.  Unable to move, Sakura frantically called out, "Shield!"  A magical card activated, and golden-hued spherical shell surrounded Sakura.  The lava blades struck the shield, shattering into shards of obsidian on impact.

She took a moment to let Watery thaw the ice at her feet.  It was too dangerous to stay on the ground, she decided.  She withdrew Fly from her deck of cards, and touched it to her wand.  Fluffy white wings appeared at the back of her pink wellies, then she launched into the air.

Cinder summoned a hail of volcanic rock, about ten potato-shaped stones, and launched them at Sakura.  Sakura flew out of the way, but Cinder moved through the air to follow her.  Cinder chased her down past a tall palm tree, covered in bushy ivy nearly to the top, which is where Sakura chose to strike.  Activating another card by name, "Wood!", she sent its magic to grow tendrils of vines out from the tree.

One by one, Cinder's limbs were entangled in rapid succession, wrapped in coils of deep green ivy.  Immobile and suspended thirty feet off the ground, she summoned a single glowing sword in front of her.  Cinder still had the upper hand, and she wasn't afraid to use it.  Her grimm arm stretched impossibly long, and in its claw it grasped the lava sword.  Three strokes later, and vines sloughed off all her limbs.  Cinder was free.

Flare arrows erupted from Cinder's hands, then bore down on Sakura.  She dodged to the left; one fireball singed the outside of her shield, leaving the other flame projectile to embed itself into a previously undamaged residence.

Sakura let The Fight return to its card form; she was in a magic duel now.  With her opponent using elemental power instead of martial arts, it was better to redirect more power to The Shield.

"You shouldn't hate me just because I'm different," Cinder chided Sakura.  She evoked a huge wave of fire towards the girl, just to drive in the point.  The befriending ritual seemed to require large amounts of magical beams, after all.

As the inferno licked the edge of Sakura's shield, she started to think about Cinder's words.  Had she been too hard on her?  The monstrous arm seemed evil, but knew she shouldn't judge people like that.  Maybe something bad happened had happened to the woman?

While pondering this, she ran smack into a barrage of lava knives, which sounded like a cloud of breaking glass against her force field around her.  Shield was strong, she knew, but it couldn't hold out forever.  She had to get it together.

Her chest was really starting to hurt in the places where she had been shot, too.  It felt pretty bad at first, when the bullets were caught by her undine dress, and now it was starting to feel nearly that bad again.  She really didn't want to fight this woman, after all.  She winced from the pain, and wondered if she could get away with apologizing to the woman.

[Labster]

Chapter 13
Dredging up the Past

Tomoyo knew Sakura better than anyone else in the world, or so she told herself.  But, of course, Sakura wasn't perfect, and there was nothing wrong with that.  Sometimes she got so flustered she couldn't see what was right in front of her.  That's okay, Tomoyo thought: that's why I'm here.

From below her volant friend, Tomoyo cheered, "You can do it, Sakura-chan!  You can stop her fire!"

All at once, Sakura felt confident again.  It was never about what Cinder said, it was about her disregard of everyone else.  As she dodged out of the way of another attack of blades, she said, "Watery, let's put out the fires on the houses."  The aquatic figure smiled in approval, then poured itself across the air extinguish a nearby building.

It quickly doused a spot on the roof, and let itself flow down the side of that house to extinguish a burning trellis. But it's much easier to put out a fire when someone else isn't adding more flames.

Sakura called out to Watery again, sending out more power as she did.  The spirit surged in front of her, and flowed towards the house in front of her, cutting back the flames.  This worked for all of five seconds.  Cinder Fall let loose another barrage of flame toward Sakura, instantly turning half of Watery's back into a cloud of steam.

"Is this all you can do, little girl?"  Cinder sent forth another burst of flame, and from this one the girl felt the blistering heat from inside the shell of her shield card.

Sakura was holding out against the Fall Maiden, just so.  So close to an ocean, and there was just not enough water.  Not enough to tackle the conflagration, or the living magical inferno creating it.  The thing that disturbed Sakura the most is that these were people's homes being destroyed, every object that they held dear being destroyed by this woman's blind wrath.

She needed more water, and needed it fast.  The Wave would probably hurt more than it helped — nobody needed a tsunami in the middle of town.  She was running out of options.

"Last chance, kid.  It would be a shame to lose a promising young magician like you.  Stop letting that boy tell you what to do, and come with me."

"No way.  I'm going to stop you, and your fire!" the cardcaptor declared, knowing that everything was going to be all right.

"You wish."  Cinder shot another blast towards Sakura, wreathing the force field around her in flames.

This was the neighborhood of Venice's oldest canals, now filled in to become the street on which she stood.  A canal's worth of water be enough to fight the conflagration, for sure.  But the past would stay in the past... or maybe not, she thought?

"Not my wish, Akari's wish!"  In the center of the inferno, Sakura held two cards in front of her, and invested all her hope in them.  "Make her wish come true!  Return these streets to their original form," she turned the cards face forward and shouted their names: "EARTHY, RETURN!"

The first card materialized as a brown-skinned woman with an angular face, an updo rivaled only by Centauri noblewomen, and jagged crystals growing out of her body.  The other card briefly appeared as an elven youth in a hood, holding a clock.  Return then disappeared into black mist, his cloak draped over Earthy, his clock expanding into a spell circle of rotating blue lines interspersed with Greek letters.  After a split-second look to her mistress, Earthy raced off to the south like a temblor rippling across the ground as the spell circle faded away.

Mercury laughed at the departure of her spirits, seeing that even Sakura's allies had deserted her.  He yelled from across the street, "Finish her, so we can get out of this stinking place!"

But Cinder paused.  Not since her investiture as Fall Maiden had she felt so much magical power, and this time the power wasn't even flowing through her.

---

A few of the residents of Aria House had gathered on the roof thereof to watch the massive fire burning a ways up the coast from them.  It wasn't close enough to be afraid for one's own safety, more just a disaster to stare at, and wonder what was happening.  If things got bad for some reason, they could always scamper onto the beach at a moment's notice.

The dry Santa Ana winds which normally accompanied such fiery disasters were absent.  It was, in fact, a calm night.  The flames that were erratically jumping between buildings and trees, were sending a column of dark smoke straight up, as illuminated by all of the city light.

"Is your country extra flammable?" Osaka asked.

"Extra...?  Yes, the hills are, but usually the houses are normal flammable."  Brent stared at the city.  "I do wonder what is going on over there, though. There's no reason the fire should—"  Brent took a step backwards, "Whoa, did you feel that?"

Yomi was quizzical.  "Feel what?"

"Like the whole world shook."

"I felt it," Fujitaka confirmed.  It felt powerful, but strangely familiar to him.

Yomi dismissed it, "That's just Tomo jumping around." She certainly didn't feel anything unusual.  Then the rumbling sound of the earth being rent apart thundered past, and of course everyone could feel it a couple seconds later when the building rattled on its foundation.  A wall of water rushed down the long canal to fill the open chasm.  "Huh, maybe she's put on weight."

Tomo squeaked, "That's the last time I take diet advice from you!"

"Sakura!" Fujitaka said quietly, "I hope she's okay."

Brent said, "For Sakura, everything will surely be okay.  I just hope there aren't any undines out in the water right now."

---

Down on the canals, Alice was conveying Akari and Aika back home from dinner at a quick clip.  The fire going on downtown was nothing to take lightly, so she was going as fast as she could back to the safety of home.

They were just about back when Akari felt something funny and indescribable, it was like it was at the back of her mind and the pit of her stomach at the same time.  Something had moved past her. She looked down towards the ocean outlet of the canal, and spoke one of the few words of Japanese her friends understood.  "Tsunami."

A torrent started rushing up the Grand Canal.  The boat lurched backward, and the Single undines had a white-knuckled grip on the side of the boat.  Aika screamed, "Alice, get down!"

It was prudent advice, but at the same time, a gondola without a gondolier at the stern is useless.  Alice couldn't protect anyone that way, only a useless undine couldn't keep her passengers safe.  Alice, more than anything else, did not want to be a useless undine.  So the Pair did the only thing to be done: brace herself against the stern and slip her oar into the roaring canal.

She used it as a rudder, turning the boat about and keeping her going straight up the canal.  As the turbulent canal threatened to sweep them ashore, she thrust the butt end of her oar against the trunk of a magnolia tree to keep afloat.  Whitewater gondola rafting is not an Olympic sport, but Alice certainly made a compelling case that it could be.

---

Back among the burning embers of a neighborhood, Tomoyo was capturing every minute of Sakura's adorable determination with her camcorder.  Tomoyo supposed Kaorin had a point, and that maybe keeping her camera with a laser focus on Sakura-chan was not the best way to record her magical activities.  Certainly the anime had made Sakura's battles look much more heroic — if less cute-filled — than her own videos.  So when the ground started to sway beneath her feet, she reluctantly turned her camera towards the source of the noise at the far end of the street.

In her viewfinder, she centered on a blue glow that raced through the smoky street, disintegrating the blacktop and leaving a 30 foot chasm in its wake.  And right behind it, a wall of muddy seawater rushed in to fill the once and future canal.

Tomoyo's camcorder panned past Shaoran, parrying Emerald's twin blades, just as he said, "Sakura-chan, now!"

"Right!"  With Shaoran behind her, she felt like she could do this.  Sakura pulled even deeper into her heart, and lent more power to her friend Watery.  The magic card pulled a current of water up, forming a whirlpool in the sky.  The stream of canal water cut though Cinder's wall of flame, and forced her to jump back to avoid the maelstrom.

Cinder tried throwing molten daggers through to at her opponent; the lava cooled and shattered before it even came close to Sakura's shield.  She glanced around to see the rest of her team.  Mercury getting pressed on both sides by the pair of winged fighters.  Emerald was holding out well against the boy, with both sides engaged in high-mobility martial arts, but she didn't exactly have him at an advantage.  There was a grimm in a cage with an uncharacteristically smug expression, and that kid with the camera, too.

Cinder's own adversary, the magical girl, was directing her efforts towards extinguishing the fires around her, evoking jets of water from the canal to nearby houses.  Which made it an opportune time to leave.  At least, with her objective still in hand, she might be spared the wrath of her mistress.

She threw lava blades across the former street, now a roiling canal, right in Shaoran's path.  He aborted his charge at Emerald to avoid them.  On the near shore of the canal, Cinder iced Kerberos' wings.  It didn't take him out of the air — magical flight doesn't quite work like that — but he did lose control so that his momentum crashed him into a terracotta tile roof.

Next, she withdrew something from her pocket with her good hand.  A massive portal appeared behind Cinder, writhing like the flames engulfing the neighborhood, but in a much deeper, darker red.  "We have what we needed, let's go!"  To turn a phrase, only a fool fights for a burning house, and Cinder Fall is nobody's fool.

She backed off, levitating the cage bearing the beowolf alpha with a swift motion.  It snarled at her as whipped past, sensing her sudden fear, but she took no heed.  The real monster was the eleven year old girl in front of her.

Emerald called back, "Let's spar again, kid!"  Shaoran was more than happy to let her go.  Mercury leapt, using his leg guns to launch himself through the portal — and take a final potshot at Yue.  He blocked the shots with his broadsword.

Cinder held a shrinking flame wall in front of her as she casually walked towards her portal, pretending the deluge of water was not a threat.  One thing you learn from living with Grimm is how to mask fear with confidence.  She turned back and said, "I'd love to stick around, but we'll have to finish playing later.  Ciao."  And as she stepped into the portal, it collapsed behind her.

Sakura gave out one more burst of effort, and Watery unwound from the whirlpool into her mermaid appearance.  She swam through the skies, a wake of water pouring into the burning buildings, extinguishing them immediately, then drawing out the water to move onto the next building.  She was a bit of a mischievous card, but she could feel her master's will to save people's precious belongings.  She ran up and down the neighborhood, putting out fires wherever she went.  Shaoran even joined in, casting on his ofuda to bring the water dragon. 

Watery was feeling extremely proud, helping out her mistress so much!  She was about to handle the last four houses still ablaze, when she felt herself being drawn suddenly back into her card form.

As Sakura collapsed onto the wet grass of someone's front yard, Kerberos cried, "Sakura-chan!"  He landed on all four feet at once, rushing to her side.  And all of the rest of her friends quickly did the same.

Yue looked down with uncharacteristic tenderness, and gently lifted his mistress up.  She was no monster now, her angelic sleeping face perfectly complimenting her undine costume.

[Inquisitive Raven]

One note here: Marge Simpson might be a better comparison than a Centauri noblewoman since it's the men who show their status in their haircuts (and Emperor Cartagia has his hair cut short so he can walk among the commonfolk unrecognized). The women shave themselves mostly bald. They might have a ponytail in the back, but I don't think status has anything to do with its length.