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"Yaaawwwwnn." Cardy's yawn could barely be heard from the helicopter that him and Nate were in. It was a normal thing that both happened to be used to by now. Working with the military wasn't exactly what Cardy called fun, but the government paid allot of money for whatever jobs they were needed for. The governments of the world were the only people that knew most of their story. Sure they had lots of clients but they happened to be their boldest. They would only call on them for dangerous jobs that didn't include humans. Nate had told him earlier that this job was no different. A sand storm stopping military members from ascertaining there post. It was one of Nate's sisters pets. Sandworm. Had a hint of the power that Sandy, the older sister, had. Easy job. Had to be easier than the sea monster they were ordered to kill last year. Of course Cardy had to capture it instead of killing it.
"Hey. Pilot guy." Cardy spoke disrespectfully to the U.S. Pilot. "I think this okay. We don't need you getting hurt." He opened the door of the copter and waited for Nate to take the lead out. He took a card out of his box and threw it out the door. "Pharaoh!!!" He called making the card transform into a huge bird that he captured years ago. "We can ride him into the storm."
-"Another to deal with."- Nate had said but a few hours ago to his, most decent and beloved, apprentice. He couldn't help but wonder, had he described it properly? Now ever nearing his sister's beastly pet, his thoughts were in a mix, he couldn't help but think that with the appearance of this beast came along with it an Omen. "Things are churning..." He mumbled under the high winds that now surrounded their bare-backs. Not even steeling a glance to his disciple to check if he had quickly followed behind him, he knew he would be along timingly. With out the thought of reassurance that these weary feelings growing inside of him, to check if these dark thoughts were nothing but folly, he stole no look to the one person whom he could rely on. Full of him self and in the fragile trust he felt he had with his student, he felt too arrogant to think that these thoughts should worry him so and that Cardy was not ready to bear the weight of his worries...No. Nate caged these dark worries inside himself, just like the others. He would keep them away from Cardy.
"Let us finish this, quickly."
Cardy followed Nate and road on Pharaoh through the sand storm. If it was a Sandworm then it would be in the heart of the storm. The winds moved fast and hard and even though a god of nature wouldn't be able to tell, for a human it was like knives poking at your skin. No wonder the military men that traveled in the storm never mad it to the other side. Cardy took another card from his box that looked like an invisible man. He put it in his mouth and bit on it. The card dissolve and light covered his body and disappeared. With that the pain was gone.
For as long as the boy could remember he had those cards with him. Some blank and some with pictures. He always knew how to control the power in the cards but he never figured out where the cards had come from. Where he'd come from. It didn't really bother him though. As far as he was concerned Nate was his only family and whoever his mom and dad were just abandoned him. That was good enough for him.
As they flew closer the winds seemed to stop. It was the heart of the storm. Even so, Cardy saw nothing in sight. He landed the bird and made it turn back into a card. "Where is it? Damn it. If we can't find it then we can't stop the storm. If we can do that then we can't get paid." Cardy groaned. He didn't like not being able to finish a job. Especially when the price was so high. He kicked a rock and looked around. There was something wrong about this situation. It was way to calm in the heart to not have anything in it. He looked down suddenly and saw that the ground was cracking. "Huh." He said as he stepped back, but it was too late. The Sandworm popped up from the ground and spat a gust of sand from its horrid mouth, sending cardy flying back into the storm. It was aggravating but now that he knew that the worm liked to hide, it was easier to capture it.
The Sandworm turned towards Nate and tried to swipe him with his claws.
Crossing his legs, Nate seemed to suddenly fall strait down, his legs acting like ironing boards crossed metal joints allowing him to fall strait down so suddenly. The worms sweeping arms missing, narrowly, Nate's head. Just as fast as he dodged, Nate came back with a counter, with his hands now scooping the sand from the ground at his feet, he shot upwards, spiraling like a drill bit. The Sandworms arm caught, at the elbow, shredded slipped and disintegrated into the sand surrounding them becoming sand once more. Though Before Nate could follow up with his next move, the Sandworm had easily knocked Nate aside with his other arm, acting as if the loss of its limb was nothing. Surely, such was the case.
As Nate was tossed into the sand, like a bag into the wind, he could all ready see the Sandworm's arm, regenerating-no, being reconstructed anew. New sand was taking the place of the missing arm, recreating a new limb. Nate stood quickly, an arm wrapped around his side for a moment, estimating the damage done by that last blow. Feeling something hard, Nate quickly took his eyes off the opponent to find something alarming. Covering where the worms arm had hit him, a rough patch of sand granite had solidified. Realizing he had taken his eyes off the worm, he quickly looked up to find the worm had vanished. His thoughts cleared with the sudden realization that Cardy had yet to appear by his side, He opened his mouth to yell too Crady but was cut short by a sudden upper cut from bellow. Tossed into the center of the of open eye, Nate landed gruffly, the sand he had landed on wasn't soft at all. With a numbed head, Nate tried to stand, though before he could use his arms to stabilize him self against the suddenly loose sand, a sudden strong force came down on his neck, forcing him to become immobilized. Trying now to free himself of the chocking hold of the worm, Nate couldn't cry out. The sand surrounding him, slowly began to cover Nate like one would sink into fresh, deep, mud. Forced into wiggling constantly, to keep him self aloft, Nate couldn't fully concentrate on freeing him self from the choke hold.
Card called for Pharaoh again as he was thrown through the high winds. The bird swooped him up and took him back in the right direction. When he reached the heart of the storm again he realized quickly that the worm was trying to kill Nate. "Oh no you don't." He said jumping off of the bird and hurdling down towards the worm. Drop-kicking it in the face, not only was Nate released, but the worms head completely blown off. "Yesss!!!" Cardy exclaimed delighted at a successful mission. "Hey Nate you oka...." WOOSH!!! The wind roared once again and blew Cardy and Nate towards the storm. Luckily for them, Pharaoh blocked them. "Hey Nate if this things immortal like the gods, we should come up with a better plan." Cardy said putting his hand on his chin. HE suddenly snapped his fingers and said. "I got it. We can just freeze it and then I can capture it. I'll distract it with my card magice and you touch it so you can freeze it." Being with Nate for so long Cardy has a good view on his strengths and weaknesses but in times like these Cardy can make up for the weaknesses by using his magic.
He pulled out a sword card and yelled, "Flying Saber!!!" With those words swords formed all around Cardy and dashed towards the worm cutting it to bits. It still regenerated however and this time seemed to be doing it faster. "Damn dessert. Nate, now's your chance." He told Nate while he concentrated on his magic.
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Hearing only briefly what Cardy had planned, Nate stood up, scraping off the Lime stone that had gathered around his neck. Just as Cardy pulled out his next card, Nate was all ready charging the worm. The Sandworm was quick to be struck, though it's reconstruction was nearly just as fast. Barely reaching the worm in time, the reconstruction just about to finish the neck and the arms, as if in a bright flash with Nate's hand reaching the wrom's chest-With a yell coming from Nate, out of no were a towering Ice-like pillar encased the worm, freezing it with its head nearly completed and its arm frozen high as it had nearly struck Nate down.
The winding storm slowly subsided, Nate re-catching his breath, he felt little energy with-in him, he felt all too mortal. It made his anger flare. Giving the frozen worm a piercing glare, Nate threw a fist at the ice it was encased it. Despite his anger, he knew not to break the frozen cage, he held his strength back but not his frustration. After giving the ice a few meek punches, a growl then a week but fast kick, Nate crumbled to his knees. Huffing, as he once more needed to catch his lost breath, he placed his forehead gently against the cool Ice. Closing his eyes as they began to water.
Memories of old had surfaced, rushing to him like a charging boar. He didn't want to recall these, he had thought he had long hidden them away. Trying his best to push them back to the recesses of his mind, he continued to take deep breaths. He stayed still for a moment or two, looking off to the side to see the sandstorm dying out. Once the sand had settled, Nate stood back up slowly, pushing away from the Ice, he walked up to Pharaoh. Averting Cardy's gaze as he went, he stopped bellow him, straining his neck to look up at the bird. His arms reached out, he wanted to praise the bird for what it had done. Even if his act of kindness was the trigger for these memories, not all of them were dark. "Well done Cardy, Pharaoh."
Cardy was glad that Nate didn't smash the Ice worm. He wondered if this would change the card he was going to make from it. As the sand storm died down Cardy let out a sigh of relief and petted the bird. "You really came through that time pal." He said as the birds beak softly nuzzled his neck. He looked towards Nate to see that he was having a fit hitting everything he could lay his fist on. Cardy wasn't really surprised. He could tell when Nate was having a bad day. He just wish that he would talk to him more. Although, Cardy could understand. He knew Nate past after all and Nate wasn't the type to bring up a conversation more than once. Especially if it was a topic that he didn't like discussing. Cardy wondered how on earth would a god with all the powers of natural creation be turned into the somewhat normal boy that stood before him. It didn't really matter. Cardy was the type to drop these kind of subjects.
Nate walked up to them averting Cardy's eyes. He looked up to Pharaoh who let him pet him and complimented them both on a job well done. Cardy wrapped his arms around his head and with a big smile said, "Awe it's no biggy. Your the one who froze the damned thing. Hehe. Let's use this money to buy ourselves enough food to last enough just in case we don't get a job again soon." He walked over the the Frozen worm and stuck out a blank card. In an instant, the worm turned into light and flowed into the card creating a picture of a frozen worm on it. 'Hmm. I sure hope he has Ice powers to match his look.' Cardy thought. "Ready to go home Nate?" He asked, tired from the flight there and ready to get some well needed R&R.
On their return trip, Nate didn't make a peep. He let Cardy deal with the army, as per usual. Like on their first trip today, Nate had that certain look on his face all the way back home. Nate seemed to be in deep thought, though was actually lost in past memories that had been dug up. It seemed his sisters beast was nothing more then an ill omen after all. It may not have dealt any fatal blows but for the 'time' and 'place' it was more of a psychological blow meant for Nate specifically. At least that was the vibe Nate was picking up. Once leaving the army, Nate spoke but once. "There will be more hardships ahead." He whispered more, thinking aloud more then anything. "Perhaps, sooner then we might expect."
The time was 1PM and the store was quiet on this Sunday afternoon. Nothing seemed to be going on. Cardy was just about to suggest that they close the shop early until he heard a ring at the door. They didn't have a bell but they did have a chime for every time the door opened. That's when he saw her. She was the most beautiful woman that he'd ever seen. Her hair almost looked black with blue mixed into it. Her frame was like an hour glass and she walked with an elegance of a lady. She wore a blue shirt and blue jeans. Obviously, to Cardy at least, her favorite color must have been blue. She walked bast Cardy giving him a wink and proceeded to walk towards Nate. As soon as she reached him she gave him a big hug and said, "NATE!!!! My baby brother. It's been way too long you never come to visit me in the pacific ocean anymore even though we're practically neighbors. How have you been."
The woman was Aquarius, born last before Nate and controller of the Pacific ocean. Their relationship was.....weird to say the least.
Being taken out of his seat onto his feet, his book falling to the floor as arms wrapped around him, it startled him quite some. "What-What?!" At first his eyes glanced quickly around the room, shock gripping him. "Leave me be Woman!" Nate growled despite not pulling away from the hug but didn't return it. Simply glaring with a bitter voice, "You've yet to change your uncanny nerve to be so bold!" after a moment, Nate freed him self, leaving a wide gap between the two of them. Turning to face his sister, with the most cold tone he shot his anger towards her. "Why-How dare you, come here? After-After- that?!?!" Then as is a mouse had bitten him his voice suddenly pitched high. "Dare, come here and hug me-" Nate folded his arms and made effort to move around Atlanta(or was it Oceana) moving ever closer to the back exit but closer to Cardy. Despite the pitch, what he had said last was with a quiet voice. "There are reasons to why I make no time for you..." He grumbled again, sticking to his grudges.
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