Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ The Funhouse ❯ The Sealed Room Trap ( Chapter 6 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

The Funhouse
Chapter 6: The Sealed Room Trap

Psycho watched as Sakura fell through the hole. "Have a nice trip, kiddo," he said, laughing.

"Mistress!" Yue cried out as Sakura fell through the air, screaming her lungs out.

Psycho faced the Moon Guardian. "Oh, don't worry. She's not going to die." He grinned. "Yet."

"What are you up to?" Yue demanded loudly.

"Shhhhh. Keep it down," Psycho said, pointing to the Worm. "You wouldn't want to die just yet."

Yue glared at the clown, then focused on his falling mistress.

As she fell, Sakura fought the urge to use the Fly Card. After what seemed an eternity of gravity-forced falling, she landed butt first in a darkened room.

Picking herself up, Sakura dusted her behind. "Itai!" she remarked, feeling the soreness. She looked around, noticing how spacious it was. "What is this place?"

A spotlight shone on the room's center, revealing two items. Sakura walked up to them and discovered a table and a cloth-covered oval object. As her eyes scanned around the room, she found no exits.

"Oh no," she groaned. "How will I get out?"

While Sakura tried to make sense of her surroundings, Kerberos, Tomoyo, and Touya studied the Funhouse. "Hmmmmmm, someone has a dark definition of 'fun,'" Kerberos commented, looking at the clown face entrance.

"I guess that's why his name is Psycho," Tomoyo commented.

Touya stepped up to the clown face, then saw Kerberos and Tomoyo still standing behind him. "What are we waiting for? My sister's in there!"

"Gotta agree with you on that," Kerberos said, ready to charge into the Funhouse.

"We can't just rush in there. We don't know what we're up against in there," Tomoyo reminded him. "That clown could have booby traps rigged inside."

"But Sakura needs us," Kerberos said urgently.

"We won't be any use to Sakura-chan if we just charge in there and get killed," Tomoyo warned. "Whoever this clown is, he isn't playing around. We have to be careful."

Touya heard something. "Did you hear that?"

Tomoyo pointed around them. "Do you see that?"

All three saw ripples appear around them. Soon, a large number of Ghosts and Shades appeared.

"Nani?" Tomoyo exclaimed. "Ghosts?"

Kerberos took a closer look. "No. More robots."

"More robots?" Touya said, eyeing the newly arrived enemy.

"Okay, troops!" Commander Shade's voice boomed from the Funhouse. "Fire!"

The Ghosts and Shades took aim with their arms.

"Behind me!" Kerberos ordered.

Just as Tomoyo and Touya obeyed Kerberos, the Ghosts and Shades opened fire. Kerberos used his wings as a shield from the blasts. Soon, he felt the stings of the shots and winced.

"Keep firing!" Commander Shade ordered. "Don't let him get airborne!"

The Ghosts and Shades obeyed and continued firing. Behind Kerberos, Touya noticed they were pinned against the clown face. "We've got to go inside! We don't have a choice!"

Just as those words left his mouth, the clown face's mouth slammed shut into a wide grin. It seemed to mock Touya.

"I think that option's out," Tomoyo said gravely.

Meanwhile, Sakura examined the table in the room. It was small, circular, and wooden. She touched the cover of the hidden object and tried to pull it off, but it was not possible. "Hoe?" she cried out, tugging on the cloth even more.

She heard Psycho's evil and bizarre laughter. "What's the matter, Cardmistress? Need to work out more?" the clown taunted.

Sakura scanned the room for Yue's captor. "Where are you? What is this place?" she demanded.

She got another burst of laughter from her antagonist. "Why, this is a little puzzle I came up with just for you," Psycho answered. "If you solve it, you get to leave."

"If I solve it, will I see Yue-san?" Sakura asked.

Psycho giggled. "No, but you'll be close."

"So what's the puzzle?" Sakura asked, although she knew it had to do with what was on the table.

"You'll find out," the clown answered gleefully. "Of course, if you don't find out before time runs out, you're dead."

"Hoe?!!" Sakura did not like the sound of that.

Psycho grinned and pressed a key on his control panel. Sakura watched as something appeared on the far side of the room. A spotlight appeared on it. She saw a black orb with arms, legs, and what appeared to be a digital timer on its front.

"Meet Time Bomb," Psycho said. "It's got quite an explosive temper." As he spoke, the timer started to count down from three seconds. When it reached zero, the Time Bomb started to glow. Sakura watched as it exploded in a big kaboom that shook the room a little. The smoke cleared, leaving nothing.

"Well, if you think that's a big bang, check this out!" Psycho said, his fingers pressing more keys.

Sakura watched as more Time Bombs appeared around her. They started to fill up the room. She gasped as more appeared at her feet. Gulping, she looked at one's timer. It read "4:00". She glanced at others and found the time to be the same.

"You have four minutes to solve my little puzzle," Psycho announced. "Otherwise, you get blown up into so many itty-bitty pieces. Oh, and remember, no Cards."

Sakura cringed at the sight of so many Time Bombs. Her apprehension intensified when their timers started counting down.

"Have fun!" Psycho said, laughing as Sakura waded past the Time Bombs to the table. Once there, she started tugging on the cloth. Her efforts futile, she jumped on the table and grabbed the cloth again. She gave it a big tug, but that got her a quick trip to the floor. Wincing from her brief back pain, she grabbed the table out of desperation, hoping to make the object slide to the floor. Her eyes shot out when she noticed that the legs were bolted to the floor. She made another try at the cloth and strained to pull it off.

Psycho watched all this with amusement. "Boy, Clow Read sure knew how to pick them," he commented with a grin.

"My mistress will triumph," Yue said, narrowing his eyes at the villain. "You'll see."

"Ha!" Psycho said. "What I'll see is your mistress being blown up into so many pieces it'll take weeks to put her together again!" He giggled as Sakura struggled with the cloth. "I wonder if they'll glue or sew her together in time for her funeral. Maybe they'll just put her into one big jar."

As Psycho laughed at Sakura's dilemma and the thought of her eventual demise, Commander Shade coordinated the attack on her would-be rescuers. Rather, he watched as his troops kept Kerberos under a barrage of constant fire against the Funhouse entrance.

Kerberos winced under the enemy fire. "I...can't...hold...on..."

"Ganbatte!" Tomoyo encouraged.

That did not seem to help. The Sun Guardian wavered under fire, then collapsed, leaving his friends defenseless.

"That did it! Cease fire!" Commander Shade ordered.

His troops obeyed. Tomoyo was immediately at Kerberos' side with Touya. "Kerberos!" she shouted, shaking him. He made no sound or movement. "Kerberos!"

"I think we have a problem," Touya said.

The Ghosts and Shades got in closer for a better look. "That'll take care of him," a Ghost said.

"He isn't getting up from that," a Shade declared.

A Ghost eyed the two humans. "Okay, you're next," it said, aiming its arm at Tomoyo.

Before it could fire, Kerberos rose his head and toasted it with his fire breath. The Ghost shrieked before it was vaporized.

"What?" a Shade exclaimed before it joined its comrade into nonexistence.

Kerberos got up quickly. Before the enemy could react, he let out a rapid spread of fireballs that disintegrated their targets. Tomoyo recorded the massacre. "Sugoi!" she exclaimed excitedly as another round of Ghosts and Shades was vaporized by the Sun Guardian.

Commander Shade watched the debacle. "Aaagh! He was playing possum!" He looked at Psycho, who was laughing at the trapped Sakura as she pulled on the cloth in vain. "The Master will punish me severely if I don't keep them from helping their friend." He started pushing keys on his control panel. "I should've requested more of them, but I'll use what I have." He paused to watch his troops fire back and get disintegrated in return. "All those good Servers! Gone! I'll make that lion pay dearly for this!"

As Kerberos was disposing of Commander Shade's troops, Sakura continued to struggle with the cloth. Around her, the Time Bombs counted down to their explosion time. She glanced at one and found herself with only two and a half minutes left.

"If only I could use my Cards!" she shouted in frustration. Then she realized shouting would not remove the cloth by itself. *I need to calm down. I need to relax,* she told herself.

The cloth seemed to hear her. As she lightened her pulling, it slid off the table.

Psycho's eyes bugged out. "What? She couldn't have..."

Sakura looked at the object on the table. It was a mirror. She looked at her reflection, then a flash of light engulfed the mirror.

2:00...

The light faded and Sakura found that the mirror was gone. Instead, a saw was laying on the table. She grabbed it and looked around for a place to use it. The walls were metallic, so she doubted the saw would work on them. Even if it did, she did not have enough time to cut a door before the Time Bombs exploded. She was about to panic when she noticed the table. "Of course! The table..."

1:30...

The saw understood and flew out of her hand. It began sawing the table in half at a breakneck speed. Soon, the leg bolts vanished and the table collapsed. Having completed its task, the saw disappeared.

1:00...

"Now what?" Sakura wondered. "I've got only a minute left before the Time Bombs explode. What's next?"

0:45...

"Oh..." Sakura looked at the table halves.

0:30...

"Think, Sakura, think."

0:20...

"Time's running out, Cardmistress," Psycho said, giggling.

Sakura strained her brain until a thought struck her. "Wait, it's a pun on fractions!" she realized, returning to her dreaded memories of math. "The table is cut in half..."

0:15...

"And two halves..."

0:10...

"Make a whole!"

Psycho gasped. "No! She solved it!"

Yue cracked a faint smile.

0:09...

The table halves moved together on their own. Sakura watched as they merged, then flew over to a far wall and formed a hole. "Yatta!" she said. She ran for the newly created exit, not caring where it went.

0:07...

As she ran, she knocked over Time Bomb after Time Bomb. Realizing what she did, she ran faster, afraid they would detonate prematurely.

0:06...

"That little..." Psycho snarled. He cursed himself for not rigging an manual switch into the Time Bombs' controls. "Still, she can't run that fast. However, why take chances?"

0:05...

"Grab her! Trip her! Do something!" Psycho shouted to the Time Bombs.

Half a meter away from the hole, the Time Bombs went for Sakura's legs. "Iie!" she cried as two grabbed her left leg, slowing her down. The others started to swarm towards her.

0:04...

Seeing the time, Sakura shook the Time Bombs off her legs, but more approached her and jumped at her.

0:03...

Sakura swatted them down with her Star Wand and for added measure, kicked the ones on the floor, causing a domino effect in the room. She bolted for the hole.

0:02...

Sakura picked up speed. Her lungs burned, but she did not care. She was grateful for her physical fitness. She was almost at the hole.

0:01...

*Hurry, Mistress!* Yue urged silently.

0:00.

Just as Sakura reached the hole, a Time Bomb glowed, then exploded. Its brethren followed suit in a huge chain reaction. In a backdrop of flashes of light and loud, large explosions, Sakura leaped into the exit. The hole closed in time, for the whole room was soon engulfed in flames and began collapsing into itself.