It was a calm, cold but sunny day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, the arrow card was trying to perforate Sakura and fill her full of so many holes as it shot a dozen arrows at her like some kind of chain gun.
"I thought it'd be more accurate!" Sakura shrieked as she hid behind a tree.
"It doesn't matter how accurate you are if you shoot a thousand arrows!" Kero yelled back.
Yeah, today was not a good day for her. She took a slow, deep breath, then ran out from cover. She then shrieked and fell back down, the arrows striking the log. Leaving dozens of little holes all across it as the arrow card kept walking towards her, bow drawn. Fortunately they were in the woods so there was plenty of cover. Sakura just couldn't get close.
Usually, Alex doesn't really drive around in the woods.
But through some bizarre errand or another, that just so happens to be the case today. Poor unfortunate soul that he is, getting close enough to all this madness that he can hear the commotion through the trees, eventually -- and maybe even see a stray arrow somewhere in the distance.
Which is just a little bit concerning, to put things mildly, neh?
Which all is essentially coming down just to hte explanation to the question of why Sakura can 1) Suddenly hear the vaguely-familiar voice of the german calling, "OY, SHITHEAD!" and possibly 2) See Alex himself few ways off to the side, peeking around a tree and... making a very obscene gesture at the thing after the girl. Not that he knows it's another card, but hey, there you go.
Sakura Kinomoto shrieked, ducking under another arrow. And then she heard... that. Who in the world-- Then alarms went off in her head and she looked up. Oh no. No no no. "Alexis!" she elled. "get out of here, don't--"
But it was too late. The arrow card jumped into a tree, getting a good vantage point and started shooting more arrows at him. A veritable wall of them. "It's a clow card!" she yelled. "G-get out of here, you'll get hurt!"
Alex seems to have the common sense, at least, to duck back behind the tree once he's gotten the Card's attention -- even if in the grand scheme of things a tree, no matter how wide, might not end up being very good cover against a minigun-like barrage of magical arrows.
"I kinda figured I might, yeah!" He calls out regardless in a loud yell. "But it can't shoot at two targets this wide apart even with that many arrows, can it?!"
Sakura Kinomoto was silent for a moment. Then "Of course it can't, Sakura!" Kero yelled.
"Well, I don't know! There's this whole magical thing with them! I don't even know how it's shooting this many arrows now! Let alone all those other ones!" she yelled back. Then yelped when more arrows came peppering in her direction.
"Boy, you need to get out of here!" Keros yelled. "Arrow is a hunter! If she decides to track you, she will find you! We've got this handled!" No. No they very much did not.
"Little late for the whole running thing, ain't it!" insists Alex in another yell -- daring to peek around the tree quickly when the arrows go to Sakura instead.
"So how about you shut up and work YOUR magic while I have the scumbag's attention?!" That being said, he suddenly leaps out from behind the tree, and just goes into a wild sprint to get to the next tree large enough to accomodate his size. "I'm talkin' about you, you bloody discount Robin Hood!"
He is perhaps not worried enough about the prospect of being turned into a pincushion.
Sakura Kinomoto shrieked as an arrow broke through her hiding place. And then he was running again. "NO!" she yelled. More arrows were coming at Alexis as the archer moved from tree to trr. And for a moment... it seemed they had stopped? Then he'd hear a thump from above and, if he looked up... arrow was looking down at him.
"WINDY!" sakura yelled. The arrows going off as the windy card caught them in the air, scattering them. The arrow card jumped back and away, turning to face Sakura and unleashing another steady stream of arrows her way.
"Oh." Alex somehow manages to look sheepish when he looks up to stare at very mortal danger in the face above him. Instinctively, he's already leaping off to the side by the time Sakura's sending the effect of Windy to scatter the arrows-- but let's be honest here, he would have probably been skewered had it not been for the wind, rather than his own dive for cover.
"Oh, for--" he grumbles out hwen he scrambles up to his feet again post-dive, and runs on for the next piece of cover to hide behind. "Sakura!" He yells once in relative safety again. "WHat do you need to do to get this thing?!"
Sakura Kinomoto shrieked, ducking behind a tree. "I just need to get close enough to use the--" And then he'd hear a scream. Looks like an arrow hit home. "SAKURA!" Kero yelled.
For a few moments there was silence, then... "I-I'm okay. It just... just c-cut a bit..." she whimpered, then shrieked as one of the nearby trees practically exploded.
Archer was jumping from tree to tree, getting closer to Sakura...
"Ah...?"
The first scream nearly shuts down all thought processes in Alex's head. Color fades from his face, and for just a fraction of a second, nothing else registers.
That is to say, until he hears her voice again. But even then, just the acknowledgement of the fact that Sakura may very well have gotten close to death shakes the boy from deep.
Maybe normally he would try to think of some more elaborate way to deal with this. Come up with some plan. Maybe if I had some way to get up the trees quickly, his thoughts ring out within his head. And maybe get hold of one of those arrows - if that's even physically possible - this would be different.
But it's not.
So, foolhardishly, Alex decides instead, that the priority now would be to just try to keep the Archer away from Sakura.
"OI!!!!" The german's voice rings out through the forest, after he, of all things, has stepped out away from his cover to stand in the wide open, and even keeps his arms spread out there. "YOU GONNA JUST KEEP TAKING POTSHOTS AT A LITTLE GIRL FROM WAY UP THERE ALL DAY, YOU COWARD?!"
Either he is *incredibly* stupid, or...
Sakura Kinomoto whimpered as she looked up and saw Arrow coming closer... then it stopped nad turned. It started racing towards him, bow string pulled taut as it began unleashing a flurry of arrows on the boy, shooting a steady stream of them. This time not letting up at the foliage was torn asunder. The arrows were magic, so grabbing them mostly just made them snap and fall.
Sakura, though, drew a card and took a deep breath. "Through." She called, before racing THROUGH the trees straight at the card. She came closer and... "Windy! Bind her inchains of wind!" The wind card lanced out, enveloping the man and... the through card evaporated around her and sakura ran into a tree with another pained shriek. Arrow tried fighting against the binding winds, struggling in vain, the distraction of Alexis' costing it.
"That's more like it!" Alex growls out when the archer comes for him - despite the fact that there's likely a litany of expletives ringing out inside his head when that happens - and he thus turns to running to the side, weaving past trees in some effort to evade the arrows sent after him while still keeping the opponent's focus on him.
That only lasts so long, though.
One arrow eventually pierces right into his side, sending the german tumbling over with a pained yell-- the surge of pain an adrenaline alike urging him to kick his foot to the ground to turn the tumble int a forward dive and roll to desperately get behind a boulder. And even then, after, he still has to drag himself across the ground to make sure that he's actually covered by the boulder while the arrows fly towards him.
And then they stop. Confusion hits Alex, first, but all the other sounds that echoed prior manage to register into his brain at that very moment, and he dares himself to peek around the rock towards the wind-bound Arrow. And with the realization that his gamble paid off, he grins broadly through the pain, while still pressing a hand against his wounded side. "Serves you right... you piece of... eh?" A slow blink. And his eyes go sweeping through the trees.
"Sakura?"
Sakura Kinomoto steps up a moment later, her face all bruised and her right eye swelling. She had forgotten she wasn't phasing through all the trees, okay? It was silly, sure, but mistakes happened! Still, she ran up to the bound card. "Return to your true form! Clow card!" she yelled. The arrow card was slowly absorbed into its card form, forming in her hand. She let out a sigh of relief, holding the card before... running after him. "Are you okay?"
She had a little bit of blood leaking from her leg. Seems it had gotten her pretty good this time, too. She reached out to touch the wound, then puleld back. "I-I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to... get you involved in all this. It was my fight, not yours. I'm so sorry..."
With all that done, Alex seems to be perfectly content to just sort of... sit there against the rock now, after unspooling his scarf from his neck so that he can roll it up into one big bundle and... press it into the bleeding wound on his side after opening his jacket.
"Bah..." He grunts out to her words, and manages to toss a smile up to her in spite of his current state. "You didn't make me do anythin'. Got here because... I chose to."
"...That being said." He winces. "... Don't suppose any of those cards of yours heal wounds?"
Sakura Kinomoto shakes her head. "No. But, ummm... can... transport you. Or... or carry you. Here," she said with a smile, before drawing a card. "Float! Make him weightless!"
With that, well... she could... actually... carry him. If he let her. Piggy back style. The little ten year old girl...
This whole potential mental image processes through Alex's head.
And then he eventually decides that perhaps he can manage with the wounding at least a little while.
"Um, that's... fine..." He mumbles, sheepishly, while he pushes at the ground-- which will probably end up resulting in him getting jolted up way quicker than he expects, what with suddenly being weightless and all. "I can probably call someone t--" he starts saying, before he just ends up flopping over, face-first, thanks to the miscalculations in his movement caused by Float. Welp.
Sakura Kinomoto sighed and grabbed his hand, kind of... hauling him out, like a balloon. "Don't hurt yourself." He might notice she was walking with a limp, too. She stopped only a moment to take a pen from Kero and write her name on the card.
"Thank you for saving me, though. I... thought I was a goner."
"Bwah!" Alex yelps out in his first reaction when he's hauled up so suddenly -- and he winces again, before pressing his scarf tighter against his wounded side. "Ooof. I didn't... do a whole lot," he claims, with another wince in his voice. "I... know probably way too many teleporters for my own good. If I can call one, they can... probably get us outta here quicklike."
Sakura Kinomoto nodded. "Teleporters? that... would definitely make things easier. If you could. Thank you," she said with a smile, gently guiding him back to the ground. She sat down and lowered her stockings to see the wound. It was a pretty deep gash and still bleeding, too. She frowned. "Daddy is going to be so mad..."
"Don't worry about that..." Alex mutters, hissing past his teeth with another surge of pain while he uses his free hand to dig out a phone from his pocket. "We can... get you new stockings too if... that's what you're worried about... okay?" Aaand he dials a number into his phone quickly.
Sakura Kinomoto shakes her head. "No. I think I'm going to need stitches. I'm not going to be able to keep hiding this from daddy if it doesn't let up. All these bruises and batterments. I think Toya is starting to get suspicious, too. He's always staring at me when I come home late..."
"I thiiiink my friends can take care of that without stitches," murmurs Alex in turn to that, and then the phonecall goes through. "...Hey. It's Alex. Um. Me and a friend need an exit. Like... now. Before I bleed out, preferably. ... Also something to stop the bleeding. Please and thank you."
"Where are you," says the voice on the other end of the phone. It's not even a question.
Sakura Kinomoto eeped, cringing. "I-I'm really sorry I didn't mean to get you hurt! Why are you bleeding out? Oh no, umm, ummmm... I-I don't have any thing to bind it with!" She didn't know it was that severe! "We're at the forest by penguin park."
Alex just sort of ends up holding his hand out towards Sakura when she frets audibly, grunting to the phone "Forest by penguin park," to the phone to repeat after her. "I can probably get you a more accurate gps from my phone and text it to you. Will that help?"
"Yes." In that it's faster than talking the mooncats into it. The advantage of a Virtue phone is that Kazuo can change, gather his power, and send himself to the forest to search by eye as well, all without actually losing connection. And it'll save a few fractions of a second for the second transit.
Sakura Kinomoto nodded, rocking back and forth a bit nervously. "I'm so, so sorry," she said again. Eying his leg. What if he passed out? What ifshe passed out? What if they didn't get here in time?
"I'll... be fine..." Alex mutters to Sakura before he presses his hand tighter against the wound on his side again. ANd then to the phone, "Okay... One second..." before he draws it away from his ear and taps his way to the gps app -- and then to list a series of numbers into the microphone. Apparently he's counting on Kazuo to be able to make use of those numbers very quickly, too. FOR SOME REASON.
It takes time for the person on the other end of the phone to be able to make use of them.
That is to say, it takes the small eternity of seven seconds for a column of darkness shot through with a crackling pink energy to erupt from the ground between two nearby trees -- harming nothing, damaging nothing -- leaving a figure in its wake dressed in gray, with white cape and white hair. The eighth second is taken in survey, and he eyes Sakura for a moment before stepping forward to Alex's side, crouching down to be able to reach for him if necessary. "You too?" he asks her.
Sakura Kinomoto nodded. "I-I got a little wounded,but not too bad! Helphim, first!" There was blood going down her leg. She'd gotten pierced too, just not nearly as badly. It was still bleeding though, she'd need stitches. And bandages.
Alex slips his phone down into his pocket again, thus, and calls out to the figure with a strained "Yo..." before he reaches his now-freed hand to take the offered one. Though both of them will find that thanks to the Float card the effort of getting him up is... not really an effort at all. "One thing at a time, Sakura..." He murmurs quietly, with a look sent sidelong to her -- somehow managing a warm smile despite a bit of color having faded from his face by now. "Let's get out of here first."
Kunzite does not, quite, take Alex's hand. Fingers wrap around his wrist instead, businesslike -- better if they both have a hold, but this way if Alex passes out mid-transit there won't be a problem. He puts an arm entirely around Sakura, since this is her first time with this. Alexis at least already knows --
Darkness rushes up around the three of them. Whatever they're in for that moment, it's cool, even cold, but not bonechilling: the temperature and feel of damp stone underground, shadowed for a thousand years. Or the way ocean depths might feel, not to a human diver, but to the creatures that live there -- beautiful and monstrous alike. There's an indefinable sense of movement, though the direction of that movement is difficult to ascertain.
And then the darkness lifts (physically lifts, dissipating upward around them), and the forest is replaced by a hallway in Mamoru's apartment, calm and hotel-room neutral, and as Kunzite lets go of Sakura he's already drawing Alexis's floating self into the tiled room to the side. "I've signaled Mamoru. He'll text Asclepius if he can't get here himself. If neither of them make it here, we'll take you to the clinic."
... there's a clinic?
Sakura Kinomoto urked, both her arms wrapping around Kunzite, holding on tightly for dear life. She gave a little whimper, but once they were there she relaxed. Right, he was there with him. she was safe. Once they were inside, she began to relax. They were okay.They were safe.
She nodded. "H-he needs help more than I do." Well, her wound had mostly stopped bleeding at least, though she was feeling a little light headed. She'd follow him into the tiled room, to watch and help if she could... and sit down on an extra chair if they had it. And quite possibly fall asleep...
It is very much a Good Thing that this is not Alex's first rodeo with teleportation. He does briefly look VERY SICK once they're through, but he recovers from that pretty quickly. Either that or the threat of blood loss just overrides that.
"Good," he says to Kunzite's situation briefing, then, otherwise just... sort of letting himself be dragged along, weightless as he is at the moment. "Thank you. ... Though, maybe... let's not tell Naru about this, huh? She worries enough as is."
"You're in trouble," Kunzite informs Alexis matter-of-factly as he sets about settling him on the floor and bringing his knees up. "She's asleep on the couch."
Because of course she is.
Sakura Kinomoto eeped then, her eyes going wide. "I-I'm sorry. She.... she's not going to get mad at us, is she? Alexis-san saved me! Honest he did! I would have probably been killed if he hadn't come when he did... though hestill should have stayedsafe... the cards are my job..." she mumbled with a little pout.
"Oh."
That is the sound of Alex quietly accepting his impending fate of doom and being lectured. And all those sorts of things.
"It's really a little late to cry about it now, though," he murmurs to Sakura's way, voice gone quieter by now with all the fatigue and pain. "I did what I did. And that's that."
"If you're dead, you can't do your job very well, can you." Not quite a question, again. Kunzite does not say a word about the jacket. Just slides a clean towel in between Alexis's improvised dressing and the Jacket. Because it gets a capital letter.
Sakura Kinomoto nodded. "R-right. sorry. I can ummm... talk to her. Afterwards. Thank you for taking care of us," she said softly. She poked her fingers together and relaxed back in her chair, closing her eyes. She was a little tired. Maybe a small little nap wouldn't be so bad...
"Well I'm not... really planning to be so any... minute soon..." Murmurs Alex thus -- all while he's giving a vaguely grateful look to Kunzite for the additional towel, too. "I should... probably sit down somewhere, huh...? Or you can just... float me around wherever..."
A few minutes ago, Mamoru was literally about to come in the door, finally home for the day. He was absolutely expecting Kunzite to be on the other side of the door, because he could feel him over there. Hand on the door, turn the knob, hear a buzz, and he'd walked into the empty living room.
His 'put out' expressions are generally priceless.
Careful not to wake Naru, he'd wandered off to do 'just got home' things.
About a minute and a half ago, he could tell Kunzite was back, but he was busy.
That brings us to now, and Alexis being floaty in the brain and Kunzite being solicitous and Sakura being asleep-- in the background, a toilet flushes. Several seconds later, there are footsteps in a nearby hall. Then there's a Mamoru in the doorway, still -- even at this time of day -- in his school uniform. He takes his glasses off and sighs. "What now?"
"Stay still," Kunzite says to Alexis, with infinitely resigned patience, and puts a hand down on the shoulder opposite the wound to enforce this if necessary. Mamoru's approach prompts him to look up, and to straighten a little. "Abdominal wound, bleeding hard. Don't know how deep. The girl's hurt too, but it's comparatively minor."
(The arrow itself having vanished, it's hard to give more of a descriptor for now.)
"...Is that Mamoru I hear?" Asks Alex, tired as his voice might be by now, just from hearing that telltale, long-suffering question. And then he just gives Kunzite a *look*. "... What else am I going to do?" He asks. "Run a few laps around the building?"
Apparently blood loss does not dampen his sarcasm.
He's walking in and taking his jacket off, unslinging his tie and flinging them both across the room onto a chair -- the tie slinks off and pools on the tile floor -- and Mamoru gives Alexis a half-smile that's half affectionate and half irritated. The German kid's sarcasm to Kunzite gets him... "No, what you hear is Sakura Utada. No laps. Let's make sure you don't get blood in your gut-system and guts in your blood-system, right?"
He glances at Sakura on the way past, taking quick stock, then is already kneeling beside Alexis across from Kunzite. "Did you go to school today? Tell me how it was," says the prince, pulling up Alexis' shirt and not losing any time in putting his recently-washed! hand directly over the wound. Your bog-standard golden healing glow, of course, commences.
Run a few laps around the building? "Are you secretly Nephrite in disguise?" Kunzite inquires down at Alex. "If so, Makoto would like to have a few words with you about the Naru business." And then he's pulling the scarf-dressing out of the way for Mamoru, saving him the second and a half or so it would've taken him to deal with it on his own, setting it aside on the floor. The blood-safe and disinfectable floor. Because scenes like this happen a little too often around here.
"I dunno," Alex responds to Kunzite, first, in utter and complete deadpan. "Let me check." Aaaand since his hand has been freed up from holding a scarf against his bleeding wound, he brings it up to rub his fingers along his neck, like he's trying to grab at something. "...Nope. no mask. Just me, man."
And then, a sheepish look - yes, even those are managed under the conditions - to Mamoru. "Didn't you hear? I'm suspended."
"...I hadn't heard, no," says Mamoru very, very dryly, opening his eyes and glancing up at Alex. At least right now it doesn't hurt, even if the bloodloss is still an issue and will continue to be for a while, and even if that doesn't actually, therefore, lend Alexis any clarity of thought or perception. He looks to Kunzite for a second, and there's this halfway openmouthed grin there, like 'can you get a load of this guy? remind you of anyone you know? in either life? both?'
"Are you keeping up with the courseload while you're out, or just starting fights and getting shot with projectile... things? I mean thankfully you're already past high school entrance exams-- you're heading into second year, right?"
Kunzite gives Mamoru a look.
Possibly he secretly absorbed Alexis's from a few moments ago and is re-emitting it at Mamoru now.
"I'm not even going back to the same school from the looks of things," mumbles Alex in some half-hearted measure of keeping up conversation with Mamoru. It should be noted that the looks he is sharing witih Kunzite are getting completely unnoticed on his part, too, what with the lightheadedness. "Second year... yes. Yeah. As long as... parents don't toss me to... a different country..."
"Any possibility we have the means to set up saline for this idiot?" Mamoru asks Kunzite, looking up again, this time all business. "In all honesty he should get a transfusion but... well, Dr. Shelby might have access..."
He actually looks concerned. Maybe that's why he's keeping Alex talking-- distraction tactic. "Well, try not to get tossed to a different country. Look-- if you want, I still run a group tutoring session once a week. Come to that and let me give you a hand, and I'll sponsor you at Infinity for the rest of the year. Half a year at Infinity and if you don't like it there, having come from there'll get you into Seishou. Naru starts high school next year, so you can be in the same school."
"I think Dr. Izono made plans for that eventuality," Kazuo says gravely to Mamoru. "I don't have the appropriate skillsets, but I can show you where the supplies ought to be."
He bends his head to examine Alexis, and says, "As someone facing taking the college entrance exams after a break in schooling ... believe me. You don't want to fall too far behind."
"...Not why I got suspended," mutters Alex sheepishly, eyes turning to avert away from Mamoru. Or he thinks he's looking away from him, anyway, it's kind of hard for him to tell right now. "They tossed me out because I smashed another student's head through a sink."
What he doesn't mention is that the whole low grades and frequent class-skipping probably doesn't help things with him at all.
"...Also what's sah-leen?" That's to say, he doesn't actually know the *japanese* word for saline.
"Dr. Izono is wise and full of foresight," Mamoru tells Kazuo in equally grave tones. "But we're going to need to stick him in a bed instead of leaving him on the floor. I know how much he sometimes looks like a throw-rug, but since he's not bleeding anymore--" and he's not "--we shouldn't leave him here."
And this time, Mamoru's the one who picks Alexis up in a princess carry. "Tag me and I'll show you what I need," he says. And then he starts carrying Alex to the guy's usual hangover bedroom, and giving him more crap along with the standard ECFH service package. "No no, I know you start fights and whatever. It's just that I can't sponsor you anywhere but Infinity, and Infinity's competitive, so you'll need the extra help. Also, sah-leen is the mythical goddess of the moon."
Kunzite picks himself up, since Mamoru has Alexis in hand, and paces along just behind them. Because, given that there is a human body occupying Mamoru's hands and the space in front of them, 'tag me' is a thing that offers restricted opportunities. Alexis is not, however, a barrier between Kunzite and putting a hand on the back of Mamoru's neck.
"So many complaints and objections over people offering assistance," Kunzite says drily past him to Alexis. "If you miss how Paris smells that much, I'm sure we can find a suitable locker room for you." ... yeah, that part pretty much is the standard service package.
"Oh," Alex lets out on the matter of the Mythical Moon Goddes Sah-Leen. "I guess that makes sense with you guys. ... Is she hot?"
Why yes, Alex is missing quite a bit of blood, why do you ask?
Afterall, he is dizzy enough, also, to not apparently have much of a reaction over being carried around like a child.
"Does that mean I'm gonna have to start studying trigonomy again? I *hate* trigonomy."
"You've met her. She's my girlfriend," Mamoru tells Alex matter-of-factly, if slightly breathlessly. Maybe Alexis is heavier than he thought. "Did you miss the fact that my name's Endymion? And don't worry, I love trigonometry. Since I was able to get Usako enthusiastic about quadratic equations, I have every reason to believe I can make trig less scary for you." Then he shoves the bedroom door open -- yes, there is a sign on it that says Alex's Injury and Hangover Room -- and goes to deposit him on the bed, then start taking his shoes off.
"By the way, you can go to sleep any time now. If you don't like needles, I suggest going to sleep right now."
"Naru will help," Kunzite adds, matter-of-fact. "I'll go get the supplies." He turns away at the door, moving in a different direction, dropping down to Kazuo at last to scrub and fetch and carry. And eventually to carry Sakura to a guest room as well -- but he hardly needs the strength the cape offers for that.
"Man, I dunno anythin about your moon mythology and all," Alex mumbles. "And I dunno... After arrows and knives, needles don't seem so... bad..."
Wait. What knives?
That being said, though, it turns out that Alex finds sleeping a really good idea at that point. So at some point between the door and the bed, he's passed out.