Yune and Venomion stood side-by-side against an enemy that far surpassed Yune's expectations.

A cat stuck in a tree.

It meowed and slept peacefully on top of there in the middle of the park.

"Remind me what we're doing here?" Yune asked confused.

"Simple. We got to save that cat," Venomion replied cheerfully.

The cat stretched it's legs and took a nap.

"It doesn't look like it needs saving," Yune said.

"Of course it does. This rich guy says he'll pay five hundred bucks for anybody to find his cat."

"And it's... this cat?"

"Well, yeah. It matches the description. And there aren't any other cats around, probably," Venomion replied semi-confidently.

Yune wondered how Venomion could find the cat so easily, but just assumed it was the work of her snakes. But then again, Yune didn't see any snakes come out of her. She thought that Venomion took the cat and put it there for the two of them to find. But it sounded too ridiculous. Then again, she barely knew the girl, and she could believe that she could have done it. Yune sighed not trying to think about.

"Fine," Yune replied as she began to spin her hook, "Let's not waste any more time."

"Don't hurt it!" Venomion exclaimed.

"I won't. I'm not crazy. I'll be gentle."

Then, Yune gently flung her hook. She had hoped to just get her chains around the cat and bring it back towards her.

As the chains were about to wrap around the cat, another thing collided with it. It was a yo-yo attached to a thread, but it was stronger than any toy. The hook and chains wrapped around the cat's front legs, while the yo-yo and thread wrapped around the cat's back legs. The cat jumped up in surprise and looked like it was about to get dragged on opposite ends.

Yune was shocked to see that. She stopped pulling and so did the thread. She looked on the other end of the tree and saw another Light Guardian. She had short hair dyed purple. Her outfit was yellow with streaks of white. And she had a glint of anger. And she had a cigarette in her mouth.

"Ahh! Cainus!" Venomion yelled in surprise.

"You know this girl?" Yune asked.

"She was my last partner before we split up. Cainus Jebel. A Light Guardian who specializes in using a yo-yo as a weapon."

"A yo-yo is hardly a weapon. So, this girl is - I mean, was - your partner?"

Cainus yelled, "Hey! She cheated me! She promised we'd go to the Wetallica concert. But on the day, she had to cancel. Apparently, she sold the tickets to buy cheesecake for all her snakes!"

"Cheesecake?" Yune asked confused, "I'm pretty sure a little cheesecake wouldn't cost two concert tickets."

"When I said all the snakes, I meant ALL of them!" Cainus yelled.

Venomion smiled innocently and replied not wanting Yune to think badly of her, "But I remembered that I promised my snakes all the cheesecake in the world after we finished that, uhh, mission."

"I can't believe I was betrayed for a bunch of snakes!!"

"Jeez. It seems I'm in the middle of a lover's quarrel," Yune said.

"Don't let go of that cat, Chain-Killer Queen. That cat is worth five hundred bucks," Venomion said.

"I knew it had to be something," Cainus replied, "You wouldn't have stolen that cat and put it up there without good reason."

"I knew it!" Yune yelled getting caught up in the excitement.

"Hey, my snakes brought it food every day. It didn't complain when I grabbed it," Venomion said to the both of them.

"So... Chain-Killer Queen, was it?," Cainus asked.

"My name is Yune. It was stupid of me to suggest that," she muttered.

The cat meowed in panic as one half was being pulled by chains while the other was pulled by a thread. But both Yune and Cainus were careful not to yank. Neither wanted to split the animal in half. The thought of that disgusted the both of them.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Whatever your name is, let go of the cat," Cainus said, "Venomion will betray you like she did me."

Yune looked back at Venomion who began to sweat. She smiled innocently, but Yune could tell that she was hiding something.

Yune was thinking about letting the cat go to the other girl. It didn't feel worth it to fight about, but Cainus continued to talk and taunt.

"And, by the way, Chain-Killer Queen, a yo-yo is a far better weapon than what you have. Your chain-hook thing is just an inferior version of my yo-yo. You may have copied my techniques at grappling, but they lack the grace of my weapon. You're just a Chinese bootleg!"

She said something that hurt Yune where she didn't think she could get hurt. Her pride. Yune didn't even know she had any pride. She may not like being betrayed or lied to, but the feeling of being called a "Chinese bootleg" sparked something within her.

And then Yune looked back at Cainus with new vigor.

"Who ya calling a Chinese bootleg!?" Yune yelled angrily, "Your yo-yo is more of a toy made in China!"

"You dare!? My yo-yo requires more skill! Something that you don't have!" Cainus retorted back.

Both of them clashed verbally as the cat just laid there on a tree branch with it's arms and legs tied. It meowed a yawn and began to fall asleep. As they argued over who was better, park-goers walked by without the faintest idea of what was going on.

Yune yelled, "Why don't you come over here and we'll see who's stronger!?"

"Oh, you wouldn't stand a chance, punk!" Cainus yelled.

As they continued to bicker, Venomion scratched her head wondering what to do. She thought about using her snakes to inject poison into the both of them to knock them out, but then she thought about what they would do afterwards. She began thinking that they would team up against her. The mere thought of that gave her chills.

She tried to use her snakes to loosen the threads, but they were ineffective even though neither Yune nor Cainus noticed.

"How about a fight?" Cainus taunted, "That'll prove to you that my skill is better than yours!"

"Fine," Yune said as her hook-chain let go of the cat's front legs. As soon as it did, the cat was flung back towards Cainus. She held the cat in her arms, and it fell asleep.

"Oh, nooo!!!" Venomion yelled, "All that work sneaking around and stealing catnip for nothing!"

Cainus dropped the cat down as it slept.

Yune knew that Cainus wouldn't run away. She wasn't saying those words as a trick.

"Now, let's fight. One-on-one. Fight until the loser surrenders," Yune said.

Cainus smiled and replied, "You got guts. Too bad it won't save you from humiliation!"

Venomion whistled as she was about to create a snake to drag the cat away. She had hoped that their fight would be the distraction needed to take the cat and the reward. But as soon as the snake touched the ground, Yune and Cainus both stared at Venomion with heated eyes. She and her snake were stunned. The snake crawled back up her arm, and the two girl were preparing for a fight.

The shopkeeper appeared and began to wipe away memories.

"Good grief," he muttered to himself as he had to continue wiping out the memories of anybody who passed by.

And so, the two stared each other down like a western showdown. Then, as soon as it started, the fight ended.

At the same time, Yune and Cainus sent out a barrage of chains and threads respectively. And in a second, the both of them were stuck. Yune was covered in threads over her entire body up to her neck, meanwhile Cainus was covered in chains in the same way.

They both fell down squirming trying to get each other's weapons off of them.

"Surrender. You can't escape from my web of threads!" Cainus yelled.

"Web of threads? Hey! You stole that name off of me! I had the name of that move as web of chains!" Yune yelled back.

Even as they squirmed to break free and argue with each, neither one of them wanted to really hurt the other. Neither felt the need to crush each other like Night Demons, although they did threaten to.

Venomion sighed and muttered, "Is it me or do I just attract the same crowd? Did the author just want me to have a bondage fetish or something?"

Then, as she noticed that the two of them were arguing with each other and stuck, she thought it was the perfect opportunity to take the cat back to it's original owner. However, when she looked towards where the cat was placed, it was gone.

"Huh!? Oh, no," she said aloud, "Uh, do-"

"Shut up! We're in the middle of something!" they both yelled at the same time.

Venomion quickly said, "Do either of you know where the cat went?"

Then, there was silence. They all looked towards where the sleeping cat was placed, but it was gone. The three of them suspended their fight as a tie, however, it took time before that happened. Before then, they argued about who was going to let the other go.

"Undo your chains!"

"You undo yours first!"

This went on for about twenty minutes until Venomion came in and declared it a tie. Both were disappointed, but had no choice but to agree at least for the time being.

For the rest of the day, they forgot all about their fight and argument, and they began searching the park for the missing cat.

It was long and tiresome, but eventually they found it. However, it wasn't where they wanted to find the cat. Apparently, it walked back home by itself. The reward was nullified. Venomion would have cried, but was too tired to do so. Cainus also felt tired and just walked in the opposite direction. Yune, however, felt like she was enjoying herself. Yune followed Venomion home and they stuck around for a while longer.

For a while, the two worked on other odd-jobs - occasionally bringing Cainus along - as long as Venomion wasn't doing anything illegal or immoral, which Yune kept a close eye on. Yune and Cainus continued to argue all day about a number of things, but eventually Yune was used to it. It felt like relief.

Every night, Yune would visit Eli and cheer her up. Technically, she was breaking into the hospital, but neither of them cared. They talked about their day or stayed silent for a while. And then, after an hour or so, Yune would vanish into the night and find wherever Venoniom was staying and sleep there. The void in her heart wasn't filled, but at the very least, Yune could live with it.

However, every night as she slept, something comes to her in a dream. It was like a shadow coming over her. It had no single form. Sometimes it could be an animal, a person, or just a blob. It didn't want peace. It wanted more suffering. To Yune and to everybody else. And there were many eyes watching amidst the void. The shadow continued to lurk waiting for it's chance. It wanted for the three to get together. The ones who came back from the darkness of the underworld. And then, it could fully realize it's desires. But when Yune woke up, the dream was already gone and forgotten.