The Vacation Part 4
The large group entered the line for the circus, waiting to get to their seats. Duo and Heero walked next to each other, leading the group. They were followed by Sakura and Tomoyo, who were walking hand in hand with Kero perched on Sakura's shoulder. Meanwhile Wufei brought up the rear with Meiling still clinging happily to his arm.
"Heero, Duo! Glad you could make it!"
They all turned to see another cluster of familiar faces. Catherine waved cheerfully at them from behind the curtain, dressed in her normal circus garb. Beside her stood Trowa, Quatre and Nokoru. The group left the line and walked over.
"We have seats for you all, saved near the front." Nokoru declared with a flick of his fan.
"Seats near the front? Cool!" Sakura grinned happily.
"Perfect. And it's at a great camera angle right?" Tomoyo asked, checking the batteries on her video camera.
"Of course," Nokoru said with a bow. "Anything to please the women."
Duo snickered. "Dang, I really gotta take some flirting lessons from him."
"Why?" Heero said with a mischievous smirk. "You thinking of chasing after someone else?" He narrowed his eyes playfully and Duo chuckled.
"Not a chance, koi, still flirting can get you a lot of things normal talking can't."
"Like into trouble," Wufei countered. Duo simply stuck his tongue out at the Chinese pilot.
"We should probably get to our seats. Trowa and Catherine have the first act." Quatre interjected. He turned to his cousin. "Where are Suoh and Akira?"
"Oh they're coming. Don't worry. They said they'd meet us at the seats." Nokoru tucked a pair of sunglasses into his front pocket and pointed toward the empty seats in the front of the tent. Everyone else was sitting down, waiting patiently for the show to start. "Shall we? After you, ladies."
Tomoyo took up the lead; her camera out and recording as she gushed over the beautiful effects of the lights and tilted tent ceiling and how it would all make a great picture. Sakura came next, followed by Duo and everyone else. As they took their seats Duo stumbled and bumped into Sakura, causing her to lose hold of her purse, her deck of cards spilling out onto the isle.
"Oh no!" Sakura immediately dropped to the ground, with Kero, hurriedly picking them up.
"Oh man," Duo knelt down and gathered up a good half of the cards in his hands, handing them to her. "Sorry about that," he said with a grin.
"No problem," Sakura returned a smile. She placed the cards back in her purse and took her seat. Meanwhile Kero tossed a glance to Heero, who nodded slowly. Both kept watch over Duo and the purse of cards as they took their seats and the lights dimmed. Heero had a bad feeling about this.
The lights in the tent dimmed and the crowd grew silent, all waiting for the first act to begin. A drum roll filled the tent, loud and sudden, causing many to jump. A single spotlight snapped on to reveal the Circus Manager in his red outfit and black top hat. Giving a low bow to the audience he introduced his show, announcing the beginning. Cheers filled the stands as another spot light snapped on.
It revealed Catherine and Trowa standing in the center of the performance area, dressed in their normal circus garb. The cheering died down as both marched to the wooden wheel erected in the center of the tent. Trowa let himself be strapped in with the leather binders, and then Catherine took a step back. With large ceremonious sweeps of her arms she pulled out eight knives, four for each hand.
She juggled them for a few minutes, tossing them in the air as the crowd gasped in delight. Even the gundam pilots, who'd seen Trowa and Catherine's act many times, were impressed. She'd just recently added the juggling part and it only made the act more impressive, even though they all knew that she would never miss her targets, and even if she did, Trowa could move fast enough to avoid the daggers, even though he was strapped in.
The first dagger flew from Catherine's hand at a record speed, and her juggling didn't falter one bit. The dagger with a loud thunk next to Trowa's neck. The lights flashed as it hit, to add to the effect, and the crowd gasped, a few cried out.
Meanwhile, sitting in their seats Heero, Sakura and Kero stiffened as the lights flashed. All of them felt the same bolt of energy and all turned to look at each other. Their eyes all drifted to Sakura's purse, which held her Cards, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. Heero narrowed his eyes at the purse for a second then turned back to the show. Still he had a bad feeling that something was going to happen. Nothing in this tent felt right, something was wrong.
Another dagger.
Three.
Four.
Five-
Catherine froze as something else hit the board right next to Trowa's head, and it wasn't one of her daggers. Whirling around she turned to face the direction it had come from and her eyes widened. Heero followed her gaze and immediately stood up from his seat.
"Arrow!"
All eyes in their group turned to the support beams holding up the top of the tent. Above them, perched on one of the metal beams, was a small girl glowing bright pink and purple. She held a bow and arrow in her hands. Sakura and Kero and Duo all jumped up from their seats in unison.
"I see it!" Yelled Sakura.
"Woah!" Three sets of eyes turned to Duo and stared.
"You can see it?" Kero asked.
Duo nodded. "Creepy little kid."
Arrow ignored them and readied another arrow, aiming it once again at Trowa. The arrow let loose, flying toward the unibanged gundam pilot. But not fast enough, because by the time it hit the board Trowa was unstrapped and rolling on the ground toward cover. He many not have been able to see the thing that was firing at him, but he was certainly able to figure out when moving was a good idea. Grabbing Catherine's hand he yanked her toward cover as another arrow hit the ground near her feet.
Around in the stands people started to panic as more strange things started happening. Vines grew up from the ground while the shadows themselves danced around the tent and actually grabbed on to people. Lightning crackled back and forth between the metal bars and clouds began popping up all over, raining down randomly.
"What's going on?" Akira asked in a high and almost panicked voice.
"Somehow the cards got free," Kero muttered angrily.
Sakura pulled her deck from her purse and quickly flipped through it, noticing that a good number of her cards were now blank. Her eyes widened as she realized they were the ones Duo had touched. Stuffing her cards back in her pocket she pulled out her baton and swirled it around. The baton grew to its larger size and she swung it in the air.
"Li! We need to get these things back!"
"On it." Heero muttered.
"Fly card!" Wings snapped into existence and Sakura jumped onto her baton, Heero catching onto it as well, jumping on behind her. The two flew down to the main performance area and turned back to back, Heero's sword appearing in his hands. Their eyes moved around the tent and assessed the situation.
Meanwhile students were filtering out of the tents, heading for safety away from the strange attacks of the freed Sakura Cards.
~*~
Subaru Sumeragi jumped out of his seat and rushed to the door of the tent. He couldn't really see the Cards' true forms but he could sense where they were and he knew that they would try to escape the tent soon. He couldn't let that happen. Standing near the door, away from the flow of students, he laced his hands together and began to chant. His power rose up, lacing itself around the fabric of the tent, reinforcing it so that no magic could escape. Some of the Cards beat against the barrier but had no luck, they were trapped.
Sadly though, having expended his current power, Subaru collapsed to the ground, unconscious. The fight was up to the others now; at least he'd prevented the cards from escaping.
~*~
Hiraku, Umi and Fuu jumped up in their seats as the students around them fled. Whirling around they felt something warm against their backs. Turning they found a strange boy like creature made of fire, grinning at them. Raising his arms he shot a large ball of fire straight for them. Umi and Fuu cowered slightly behind Hiraku, who raised her hand into the air.
"Sinos!"
A jewel appeared over her hand and at the same time a red shield surrounded them, protecting and dispersing the flame. Almost immediately Umi stepped forward and echoed the motion.
"Sinos!"
A blue crystal appeared on her hand and she pointed at the fire creature. "Mizu!" Water appeared around her hand and rushed out, swirling around the creature.
Sakura saw this and flew up again on her baton, landing next to the trio and Fire. "Return to your original form! Fire Card!"
Swinging her baton the Fire struggled but was eventually sucked back into its empty card.
And so the battle carried on, with everyone helping as they could. Every time a Card was trapped or weakened Sakura would zip over to its spot and capture it. She never questioned all the strange help they were getting from the various students, knowing that CLAMP Campus was famous for its more 'special' students.
Two guys dressed in red and blue armor, one with a sword and one with a gun, lent a helping hand, while the trio who'd faced the Fire Card also worked against the cards, proving they all had powers centered on the elements. Meanwhile Heero used his sword and powers just as he had in the old days when he and Sakura were tracking down the Clow Cards. Were it not for the fact that they were in the middle of a battle Sakura might have actually paused to relive some of the memories that were popping up in her head, but now was not the time.
While others used magic and weapons, Suoh used his strength. He matched the Cards' speed and agility step for step and leap for leap. He was the one who finally cornered Arrow long enough for Sakura to capture it, by climbing supports and giving chase with perfect balance.
The other gundam pilots and Catherine were pretty much out of their league and instead directed their attention to making sure that all the other students made it out of the tent safely. Nokoru and Quatre worked to get everyone out and calmed down while the battle continued within. Meanwhile Akira did what he was best at, acting cute. He raced around the tent smiling sweetly and basically using himself as bait as he dodged the attacks and distracted the cards until they could be caught by Sakura.
Duo stood next to Tomoyo, watching the scene below in awe as Tomoyo's camera rolled and she caught it all on tape.
Hours later the last Card was finally caught and everyone was able to collapse to the ground in exhaustion. Sakura flew on her baton and landed next to Heero as Duo came down the steps to join them. His face grew red and the braided pilot looked down in embarrassment.
"I did this didn't I?"
Heero nodded slowly. "So it seems. I had a hunch though."
Kero landed on Sakura's shoulder. "Had a pretty good idea too when Li here showed you the Time Card. You should have been stopped too, frozen in time, but you weren't."
Sakura smiled softly. "And I noticed your aura felt like a Clow Card when I first saw you, that's why I kinda followed you around campus."
Duo looked up at the group. "I'm still not sure how I caused all this trouble though."
"That's simple, baka."
All eyes turned to Heero who had crossed his arms and was flashing a slightly amused smirk. "You do have magic... the power to nullify other magic."
Duo's eyes widened as did everyone else's.
"Cool! I guess, heh. I mean now that I know I certainly won't do that again. Remind me to never touch a magical deck of cards again, ne, He-ko?"
Kero sighed loudly and rolled his eyes.
"Cheer up, Kero, all the cards are back in their right place and everything's been fixed. It was actually kinda nice to have a small adventure again." Sakura pointed out.
Tomoyo came racing down the stairs, waving her camera in the air. "And I got it all on tape!! You guys were great! This has GOT to be the best film I've ever made!"
Everyone sweatdropped.
~*~
Their conversation resumed the next day in the Student Council office where all were present. Well, almost all. The two boys dressed in red and blue armor, later confirmed to be the Campus Cop Duklyon team, had completely disappeared. Subaru had just recently been released from heath services, into the care of his worried twin sister, while Umi, Hiraku and Fuu opted to head back to their classes and act normally again, just saying they were glad they could help. So the five gundam pilots, Sakura, Tomoyo, Kero and Meiling sat in the office with the three Student Council members, Catherine was helping take down the circus tent.
Kero gave a loud sigh as Sakura stopped explaining what had happened to everyone. She's explained about Duo strange talent and why it had caused the cards to escape.
"And am I ever glad that is over!" Kero added with an exasperated sigh, then he proceeded to attack the sweet coffeecake Akira set in front of him.
Duo grinned. "After that incident I'm almost tempted to start wearing gloves like that little kid I met near the sakura trees. What do you think, He-ko, would I look cool with black gloves?"
Heero flashed a glare in Duo's direction, as to say 'don't you dare!' Duo snickered and grinned, knowing exactly why Heero disliked the idea of him wearing gloves, if he wore them he couldn't use his hands for more important things.
Nokoru discreetly flicked out his fan, which displayed the kanji for 'anyhoo!'. "And now that that's solved perhaps we should move on to other matters. You mentioned that your gundams were missing?"
Heero and Duo nodded.
Akira glanced off innocently toward the ceiling.
"By 20 Masks," Heero said softly, pulling out the red mask they'd found at the site. Akira sweatdropped and his eyes twitched nervously.
Nokoru grinned. "Well, I am happy to report that I sent Suoh to check in the hangers you mentioned and the gundams are back in their place. It appears that whomever took them decided to return them after the circus."
A shocked look flowed around the room and Heero just shook his head.
"How convenient," Duo murmured.
Wufei just simply crossed his arms and nodded. "That's CLAMP Campus for you."
~*~
The rest of the vacation carried on without incident. Meling still clung to Wufei's arm and refused to let him out of her sight, until finally he just yanked his arm away from her and took off running at full speed as she chased behind him yelling. The next thing the boys heard was Nataku's engines starting and the L-5 gundam taking off to fly to safety. Heero and Duo quickly followed suit and hid before Meiling could chase after and latch herself onto her cousin.
Quatre parted from his cousin, Nokoru, after receiving a few whispered tips about Trowa that made Quatre's cheeks go bright red. Meanwhile, across the room Suoh's cheeks also flushed slightly, since he heard his name in those whispers. Turning away he just shook his head. He'd have to have a 'talk' with Nokoru about mentioning what they did in private to others later. Akira just smiled innocently, completely unaware.
Heero and Duo said their good-byes to a happy Sakura and Tomoyo. Tomoyo was still gushing about her awesome video and Sakura was just happy that Heero wasn't mad at her any more. The subject of the teddy bear came up but Heero shook his head, telling her to keep it. She smiled and nodded, happy he hadn't decided to take it back.
"What is it with you and giving girls teddy bears?" Duo asked as they drove away from the campus, driving the large flatbed truck which held their gundams.
Heero shrugged and focused on the road.
"I mean, you gave one to Sakura and then you gave one to Relena... what is it, Heero Yuy's trademark 'I'm breaking up with you' stuffed animal? That's one heck of a way to break up with someone."
Heero smirked and glanced toward his lover. "You jealous I haven't given you a stuffed animal?"
Duo shook his head and grinned. Moving carefully, as not to startle Heero while he was driving he wrapped his arms around the Japanese pilot. "Nope, I got my favorite cuddling item right here."
Heero smiled and continued driving, happy to finally be off the campus again, away from all the weird things that happened within its walls. Still, he had to admit that he'd missed the days chasing the Cards with Sakura. It had been a welcome adventure, and he knew that in spite of himself he would be thanking Quatre for it.... After he threatened to kill the Arabian pilot if he ever tried something like this again.
OWARI
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