Sakura Kinomoto frowned as her superior in the museum gazed at her from his office with a oddly confused expression, as if he wasn't sure to be angry with her or afraid of her. Sakura found herself wanting to ask him what was going on several times that day, but couldn't quite get up the nerve. Thankfully, she had her loyal assistant to distract her. "Yes ma'am," Yue Susanoo said as he held the artifact gently in sterile gloves, "ready to go." Sakura activated the air brush and used it to carefully blow dust out of the grooves of the round cylinder. "Please turn it slowly," she ordered as she worked slowly over the face of the artifact, her expression focused and intent. "This is a new technique?" Yue wondered softly. "A variation of a old one," Sakura admitted as she worked, "just updated a bit with more modern equipment." Yue turned it slowly as he watched Sakura cleaning away years of dust and revealing symbols that were eerily familiar to him. 'More of Clow Reed's work?' he blinked, 'Is Sakura making a hobby of collecting his items?' "There we go," Sakura murmured as she set the airbrush down and put the stone on top of a sterile sheet, "now we just have to confirm if it's an original or a copy." "Copy?" Yue blinked. "It looks like a Clow Reed design," Sakura conceded thoughtfully, "but I've found out he was a relatively well known figure in his time." She stood up after bending down to look at a inscription, "other magicians sometimes tried to take advantage by claiming they had powerful Clow made items." "I see," Yue conceded, not having seen that possibility before. Sakura pushed her hair back, "First, I'll need to translate the inscription. If that checks out we'll carbon date it to confirm it's from Reed's era." Yue nodded slightly, "It sounds complicated." "Then we still have to decide if it's actually made by Reed or not," Sakura noted as they cleaned up the work area in preparation for working on another artifact. Yue had to ask, "What makes the final determination?" "Honestly?" Sakura looked at Yue wryly, "My gut feelings along with lots of consulting in the archeological community." "You're serious?" Yue's lips twitched with a smile. "Afraid so," Sakura admitted, "there's a lot of documented facts in archeology, but a lot of it's just informed opinion too." Before she could continue the phone rang, making both of them jump a bit. "I'll get it," Yue said as he briskly picked up the phone, "Dr, Kinomoto's office, how can I help you?" He paused as he recognized the voice and began to smile, "Why yes, she's in, I'll put you right through." With that Yue passed her the phone as he said with a impish wink, "It's that cute reporter." "Thanks," Sakura blushed as she took it from him. "Hello?" she asked. Tomoyo Daidouji's voice was warm as she asked, "How was your day?" "Not bad," Sakura admitted, thinking of her superior's rather odd behavior over the last day. "Ah, you wouldn't have done something to upset my boss?" "Well...." Tomoyo trailed off, "kinda." Sakura had to smile, "Kinda?" "It's a complicated story," Tomoyo quickly added, "besides, we have a bigger problem." "Clow card?" Sakura dropped her voice. "Looks like it," Tomoyo answered, "got a phone tip on weird stuff going on downtown, Yukito and I are going to check it out." "Where?" Sakura asked, grabbing a piece of paper as Tomoyo specified a district and street, "I'll meet you there." "You need to go?" Yue asked as Sakura hung up the phone. "Yes, sorry," Sakura said briskly. "You can close up?" Yue saluted, "Yes, ma'am." Sakura shook her head with a smile, "Don't start that, Yue. See you later!" As Sakura left Yue looked around cautiously then peered thoughtfully at the cylinder, then spoke a certain word. The lettering on the artifact flared blue a moment then guttered out, leaving it unremarkable stone once more. "Yep," Yue noted, "fake." Meanwhile, Sakura ducked into the nearest open alley, quickly searching for any passerby. Satisfied the coast was clear Sakura drew a card from her vest and cried, "Fly card, grant me wings! Fly!" At almost exactly the same time a car whipped around the corner dangerously, wheels squealing in the afternoon sun. "Slow down," Yukito yelped, the sandy blonde haired young man clutching the dashboard. "We aren't going THAT fast," Tomoyo answered as she wrenched them up on the sidewalk to evade a stopped car. "Toya, if I don't make it," Yukito murmured, squeezing his eyes closed, "I love you." Bumping over the median they raced across a thankfully bare road then up into a parking lot, weaving through parked cars as they took a short cut. "Get your eyes open," Tomoyo ordered, "and check the map!" "Right," Yukito made himself dig the map out of the glove box and check their location versus the landmarks. "We're close," he concluded. From a nearly clear sky thunder boomed, then lightning flashed downward to strike a car not too far away. "You think?" Tomoyo yelped as she brought them to a skidding stop just short of the sudden rain that poured down from a clump of clouds. Without thinking about it Yukito whipped his camera out, zooming in on the dark bundle of clouds and seeing a boyish figure in armor slipping in and out of the clouds. "I see someone." he murmured, snapping off shots. "It's got to be a Clow Card," Tomoyo breathed out even as she realized that the boy had seen them. Before it could get too close Sakura swept down from the blue sky, confronting the mini-storm while floating in mid-air, her battle staff in hand. The boy gestured and lightning lanced out but Sakura was ready, whipping a card out and crying, "Shield!" True to it's nature the Shield card stopped the bolt, but the impact itself was enough to throw Sakura backwards. Without thinking about it Tomoyo popped her door open and raced out, hurrying to catch Sakura before the stunned woman could hit the ground. "Oof," she grunted as they both collapsed to the ground, apparently all right. "Tomoyo," Sakura smiled weakly, "thank you," Tomoyto reached out and caressed her cheek, "I'm glad you're all right." Sakura smiled at her, then her eyes widened as she looked up in the sky. Grabbing Tomoyo she rolled them away as another lightning bolt crashed down at them, blasting at the cement where they had been sitting. Sakura pulled free and stood, her body quivering with anger, "You tried to hurt Tomoyo! I cannot forgive you!" "Wow," Yukito blinked as he watched from the relative safety of the car, "I've never seen Sakura that angry." Drawing a card out from her vest Sakura activated it, "Windy! Become the chain of punishment! Windy!" The Windy manifested, looking like a beautiful kimono clad woman with long hair, but there was something different about her this time. She seemed to have picked up on Sakura's anger, her own eyes narrowed and grim as she raced off. Soaring up towards the storm she swept in quickly, dodging bolts of lightning to encircle her foe. The other card tried to fight but she was too strong, subduing him and dragging him down to earth. "Storm Card!" Sakura cried as she held her staff at the ready, "Return to your power confined! Storm!" With a weak cry the Storm was drawn into the square shape of the card, light shimmering and sparks flying until the energy faded and the card dropped peacefully into Sakura's extended hand. Windy hovered there in midair studying Sakura, then looking over at Tomoyo, her expression thoughtful. She reached out a ghostly hand and placed it on Tomoyo's head, then nodded once sharply. With that she swirled back into her own card form in Sakura's hand. "Get in the car!" Yukito yelled as the storm effects in the sky began to fade, "we're in broad daylight here! We don't want anyone getting a chance to see us!" "Right," Tomoyo shook off the odd sensation Windy's touch had left and grabbed Sakura as they hurried over to the car. Nearly tossing Sakura into the back seat Tomoyo then hurried to jump in the driver's side, starting the motor and taking off. "Are you all right?" Tomoyo asked Sakura worriedly, driving at a carefully controlled rate. "I'm fine," Sakura said as she added, "And I should be asking you that! You didn't hurt yourself catching me?" "I'm okay," Tomoyo smiled at her comfortingly. "You're driving a lot more sedately than normal," Yukito noted, sounding surprised. Tomoyo smiled slightly as she explained, "Running away fast gets official attention. Driving away slowly lets you blend in a bit."
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