There were a few theories about where Traverse Town came from.

When a mommy town and a daddy town love each other very much...

 The simplest one was that it simply appeared, born of raw
potentia, like all other worlds do.  But that left a lot of questions
unexplained.  Like...

Like why there's a house in the middle of town inhabited only by dogs?

 Why wasn't it self-sufficient?  Every other world that conformed
to normal physics was isolated but capable of supporting any life on it,
yet Traverse depended on imports for all its food.  There was nowhere on
it for crops to grow and it seemingly had no natural flora or fauna at
all.

Except for some random Dalmatians.

 Where did the water come from?  The only natural resource the
town had in abundance was water, which welled up from underground
tunnels without explanation.  It seemed to come from small cracks in the
rock, but nobody had been able to probe the currents back to their
original source.

Again, the Dalmatians.

 And about heat?  There was no sun in Traverse Town - no day,
only night.  The world seemed to heat itself from within instead.  Some
people speculated that the town's electricity was generated using this
geothermic source, but nobody could get to the power plant any more.
The Heartless had taken it over.

And everyone's light bill suddenly tripled.

 But regardless of what the original purpose of the town was, its
current one was to draw in every misfit who'd lost their world and house
them.  Something about Traverse Town seemed to attract those who had
fallen into the void, and while it was impossible to guess how many
appeared on other worlds, a lot of unfortunate people found themselves
waking up in a Traverse Town back alley.

With horrible hangovers, their wallets and jewelry missing, and odd,
disturbing stains about their persons.

There were a lot of such misfits.

OF SCIENCE!

And also a resistance faction that was unique among all the worlds.

They all wore helmets with big cheesy mouse ears, and sang the most
cheerfully annoying songs in the cosmos.

Oh, and they had Dalmatians.

1) It was an unfamiliar bed.  The sheets and pillow weren't quite as
smooth as she was accustomed to, and the mattress was harder.

2) They were unfamiliar clothes.  Not her pajamas at all.  They would
normally be quite comfortable but were too tight and heavy for sleeping
in.

3) She had slept dreamlessly, but her last waking moments had been a
nightmare.

4) She couldn't hear Kero-chan snoring.

5) The batteries in her vibrator had run out.

6) Tomoyo was wearing the studded metal strap-on again.

7) There was a Dalmatian...best not to think about that.

 She'd tried to use the Firey card.  Firey's flames might have
been enough to get rid of the water, but the card had refused to
respond.

Something I didn't notice before--the logic here is a little twisted. A
little thing called "elemental affinity mismatch" ring any bells?

Then, before Sakura could work out what was wrong with Firey,
whatever was attacking them had surrounded her with monsters - little
midnight-black figures with antennae and claws.

Then, out of nowhere, an army of Cajun fishermen showed up with nets and
buckets, screaming about "crawdads".

 She'd tried to get rid
of them, but her first hunch - the Shadow card

This also doesn't make sense. Using Shadow to defeat Shadow? Sakura's
generally smarter than that.

Granted, it's a moot point, since none of the cards would have helped in any
event, but...

 Sakura sat up, running her fingers though her short brown hair
and holding her palm against her aching head.  She wasn't suprised to
find herself still dressed in the battle costume Tomoyo had made her - a
pale blue dress with a very widely flared, almost tutu-like skirt that
was now very crumpled.  The front of the skirt was open, and she wore a
pair of white shorts under the skirt.  She didn't have the hat or boots
though.

The Dalmatians had already gotten to those.

 Her hat was on top of the drawers, next to the lamp, and she
took it and put it on.  There was also a wardrobe in the far-left corner
of the room, and an open door sat directly ahead of her - It opened into
a more brightly-lit corridor, and Sakura watched as a boy walked past
the door.  He glanced in to look at her, and then stopped and stared for
a brief moment.

"Si taht a Olleh Yttik rotarbiv?"

 "Yeh, eru'oy ekawa!" he said, but Sakura didn't understand him.
It sounded like English, and she didn't know much of that.  He stepped
into the room, and said something else.  "Driew emutsoc.  Era uoy a
Repus?"

Woh gnibrutsid.

 [Stop, stop!] she said in Japanese.  [Hoeee...  I don't know
what you're saying!]  He looked at her blankly, and she tried to say
"Me, English..." and then shook her head and waved her hands laterally.

Sakura: *pauses* "Well, maybe about a quarter English. But I'm mostly
Japanese."

 "Ho." he said

Sakura: "Hey! That's not a very nice thing to call me!"

 He reappeared at the doorway a moment later, pointing at her and
shouting down the corridor about something.  A girl's voice answered
him, and then the girl herself walked though the door frame and stopped
there.

"Hello Kitty..."

 She looked like she was in her early teens, thirteen or so.  Her
hair was pink and tied up into a pair of odangos that were covered in

Odango. (No 's' to pluralise Japanese words, please)

 [Hey, you're awake now,] she said, relieved.  [We were starting
to get worried.]  Sakura recognized a slight Hong Kong accent in her
speech, though she seemed to be European.  [How do you feel?  Are you
hurt?]

[Have you read 'Anne of Green Gables'?]

 Sakura checked herself.  [No.  I think I'm okay.]  She looked
around, and nervously continued,

[But I may need to borrow some clean underwear.]

 This got a pleased nod from pink-hair.  [I'm Anita.  Anita King.
This is Hoshino Ruri,] she said, indicating toward the ghostly girl, and
then she pointed at the boy.  [That's Dash Parr.]

 "Tahw?  Tahw era uoy gniyas tuoba em?"  Dash said.

"I dias uoy tew ruoy deb dna taht uoy ekil syob."

 [Where's Tomoyo-chan?  And Kero-chan, and Yue-san?]  Sakura
asked, hoping the answer would quash her fears.  [Did they make it out
of the water okay?]

 There was another awkward silence, where everyone present made a
point of both not looking at Sakura and not looking at each other.

[We're sorry. The shark got them.]

 She jumped off the bed and approached the other two girls.
[Tomoyo...  she's my best friend, she's really pretty and kind and she
has long black hair and it was tied back into a braided ponytail today
and she probably has her video camera still with her.]

[And the strap-on she always keeps in her purse, and my leash and collar...]

 [But you don't understand!]  Sakura started to yell.  [They
might be hurt...  or even dead!]

[Or having a wild orgy without me! Or posting Tomoyo-chan's videos to the
Internet and charging creepy old guys to watch them!]

 She tried to take a breath but instead felt her last meal coming
back.

Cudcaptor Sakura!

Sakura spent the next couple minutes with her head down, and was
eventually herded over to a sink which she just leaned against, burying
her head in her arms and crying.  She certainly didn't feel any better
for throwing up, and the certainty that Tomoyo was gone was the most
terrible pain she'd ever felt.

[We never even got to try those new vinyl ropes out...]

 [Well...  she might not be,] Anita carefully said, but Sakura's
face lit up into a hopeful smile.  Tomoyo was alive!  She had to be!
 [You should come downstairs when you're ready,] Anita continued.
[JD'll explain it better than I could.  Here, wash your mouth out and
rinse your face and you'll feel a lot better.]

[And the rest of us won't have to see or smell those nasty STAINS...]

 [Hey, you're up,] she said, before signaling to Anita.  ['nita,
take over.]  The pink-haired girl ran over to take over frying the eggs,
and the woman turned her wheelchair to face Sakura.  The little girl
could see the woman was wearing a heavy sweater over a shirt, and a
blanket covered her lower half - which didn't seem to have knees in the
appropriate place.

Rather, a mass of tentacles writhed just out of sight...

 [I'm Sakura,] the girl replied, before bowing a little.  [Please
treat me kindly.]

[Nah, we'll make you the new house bitch and abuse the hell out of you.
Ruri, get the ball gag and the safety pins.]

 So when Jane was allowed to take over looking after the
orphanage she decided to give the truth to those old enough to
understand it - preferably on the day they arrived.  She felt it would
be less cruel in the long run to tell them what happened, and then to
give them unconditional love and support - that they could start to make
a new home, new friends and new hope.

Instead of shielding them from a phantom menace.

 [But I got all the cards!]  Sakura said, gasping the words out
between sniffs.  [Why couldn't I do something...  why wouldn't they help
me?] she said, whimpering.  [I could have done something!]

[I could have used a Magic Card to bring back my monsters from the
graveyard, and a trap card to take the Blue Eyes White Dragon...]

 [But there has to be something we can do!]  Sakura cried.

[Yes, there is. But first we'll need to pick up a fresh tube of K-Y jelly
and an aardvark...]

 There had to be something she could do.  Some way she could
help.  She had all the Clow Cards - there had to be a card she could
use.  She reached into one of the internal pockets Tomoyo's skillful
needle had stitched into her dress, only to find...

[THAT's not going to be very helpful,] she thought, putting the pot of
strawberry nipple gel away with a blush. [And...neither is that. Or that.
Or...HOOOOEEEE?! What does she expect me to do with alligator clips and a
9-volt battery?!]

 Sakura quickly patted her other pockets, and then searched the
rest of her dress, and her rollercoaster jumped the tracks.

 [HOEEE?]

[What's this picture of Tomoyo and Shaoran do--HOOOOEEEEEEEEE....@_@]

 [Nobody in Traverse Town would steal from a new arrival,] Jane
said, shaking her head.

[Draw on them with a marker, put a kick-me sign on their back, and rape
them, yes, but never steal.]

 But she felt something resting against her shoulder blades.  She
reached into her dress and pulled the object out - her key still hung on
its chain, the key that she transformed into her staff.  It was small
and the key section itself was gold, while the handle was decorated with
a gold five-sided star inside a pink circle.

 She morosely dangled the key in front of her face, and quietly
murmured, [well, at least I still have this.]

[It's not as good as Tomoyo-chan's strap-on, but it'll have to do.]

 It took a little while for her to notice how quiet the room was.

"Yhw si taht lrig gnikcits reh ecalkcen nwod reh stnaprednu?"

 [Uh...  OK,] Sakura replied, quite confused.  She held the key
up, and Jane extended a trembling finger, slowly moving it forward to
prod at the key.  Her eyes widened as it grew near, and then she jabbed
the finger forward.  The digit touched the gold, and Jane quickly shrank
back and slammed a hand over her mouth, as if suppressing a yelp.

 "Ho ym dog..."  Anita quietly said.  "Eht yek...  st'i eht
yek..."

Sey, s'ti a yek.

 Dash looked up as she said "yek," saw it, and all hell broke
loose.

"s'tiayeks'tiayekDogymhos'tiayek!!"

Well, thanks for reading. C&C and reviews are always appreciated,
especially since this part was something of a grind. This is exactly the
kind of non-actiony drama that I don't usually write.

You did rather well, though. Splendid. ^_^

Dash Parr (The Incredibles): Youngest child of a superhero family, Dash

Nitpick...he's not the YOUNGEST. You forgot about the baby. :P

Anita King (Read or Die: The TV): As the eldest of the children at the

Actually, it's just R.O.D, not Read or Die. :P

==============================
Samurai Shampoo: Because when your
guts are spilling out of the sword wound
in your belly onto the ground, you want
your hair to look extra shiny and full of life.
==============================
The Eternal Lost Lurker
(Shodaime Shirikage)
www.lurkerdrome.com



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