Chapter 2-Powerless
The sun peeked through the curtains, shining a beam of light at Usagi. The princess stirredlazily and snuggled back under the cover. Beep. Beep. The familiar alarm went off. Usagi looked at the clock. As usual, she was going to be late. Usagi opened
her mouth to scream, but no sound came out. She cleared her throat twice and tried again. No sound.
A frantic knock on the door jolted her out of bed. Chibiusa came bursting in, crying silently. Gone were her usual supersonic crying sound, instead Usagi felt like she was watching a silent movie.
What is going on? She thought. Usagi went to check on her parents and her brother. They too were freaking out downstairs, screaming their silent screams. Shingo saw Usagi and mouthed some words. Couldn't figure what he was saying, Usagi shrugged. She
pointed at her mouth, indicating that she too couldn't talk.
Dad switched on the TV, and flipped through the channels. It was all but static. Finally, there was one channel showing a written message. "The world was infected with a weird strain of virus, causing everyone to lose their voices. All schools and businesses
are closed until further notice. Please stay home and stay calm."
"Meow" Luna came up and rubbed against Usagi's leg. She tilted her head, signaling Usagi to follow her. "Oh thank god, Luna. You must know what's going on." Usagi pleaded silently. Luna started talking, but instead of her usual voice, it was a string
of meows. The cat blanched, as she realized she couldn't talk either. Frustrated, she grabbed a pen and started writing, awkwardly. "Senshi meeting. Now!"
Haruka woke and found the house unusually quiet. She looked at the clock. 8am. Michiru should be cooking and Hotaru should be getting ready for "home school" with Setsuna. She didn't hear anything from the kitchen. The usually chaotic house was silent.
She opened the bedroom door as she called out for Michiru. Hmm, no sound. Haruka chuckled to herself. That was probably too much screaming last night.
She was surprised to see Michiru, Setsuna and Hotaru already dressed and they were huddled over the TV. The same emergency message was displayed on the screen.
Hotaru turned and ran to Haruka. She mouthed the word "papa" but there was no sound. Alarmed, she looked at her wife. Michiru slowly shook her head and pointed to her throat.
"Ahh. Hello. Ahhhhh" Haruka tried to vocalize once more. Her heart started to pound...if all the voices were gone...that meant...no, it can't be. Haruka took out her transformation wand and shouted silently "Uranus planet power, make up."
The rest of the family looked on with horror as the transformation failed to happen. The pen stayed inactive and Haruka was still Haruka.
Setsuna flipped open her communicator and called everyone. Usagi's face came online and she waved sadly at the screen. Setsuna typed "senshi meeting at Rei's in an hour." The princess gave a thumbs up.
Rei stared at the fire, dismay to find no information about the new enemy. Someone, or something was powerful enough to steal everyone's voices in one night. It must be the gentlemen she saw in her vision. The prophetic dream she shared with Michiru.
Defeated, Rei stood up and walked out of the room. Grandpa was just about to leave the temple, heaving a big bag behind him. Seeing Rei, he gestured to her to come help.
Rei opened the bag and saw a lot of white boards. Each was marked with a price sticker. 2000 yen. Rei looked at Grandpa with disbelief. How did he know?
Grandpa wrote: "Psychic. Good idea for business." Rei shook her head. Grandpa hoisted the bag back onto his back and walked down the temple stairs.
"Wait", Rei tried to shout and then rolled her eyes. She ran after Grandpa and tapped him on the shoulder. She grabbed ten white boards out of the bag, much to grandpa's protest. She shothim the look and he relented. He waved his fingers at Rei
and muttered silently. Rei gave him a brief hug and then ran back to the temple.
Ami, Mako and Mina walked in silence. Tokyo, the city that was always busy, was eerily deserted. Some people wondered aimlessly on the streets, but with all the business closed, Tokyo looked like a ghost town. Artemis meowed, then pointed at the big TV
on top of the Juan shopping centre. The written statement from the authorities was splashed across the screen, but there was a new update. "Night curfew starts at nine pm. Please stay home for your own safety. Army personnel had been deployed to help
maintain order. Stay tuned for more updates."
Mina mouthed the word "army" and raised her eyebrows. Things were escalating quickly. Mako cracked her knuckles. Reduced to nonverbal communication, Mako expressed her anger by growling. Surprised, Ami turned and couldn't help but laugh a little. She
pulled out her Mercury computer and started to type. The girls leaned in. It read, "Hold your horses Mako. We need a target first before we can fight."
For someone that had so much to say, Mina eyed the computer with new desire. She grabbed it from Ami and started to type in frenzy. "Hi, Ami. hi, Mako. Goooooooood morning. Oh my gosh it feels so good to talk." Mina let out a sigh and handed the computer
back.
"Come on, let's get to Rei's place. We will figure out a way to get our voices back." Ami typed her last message and then closed her computer. She grabbed the two and quickened her pace.
As soon as Ami walked in, the rest of the scouts came up to her and looked at her expectantly. Haruka took out her wand and waved it, then made a shrug. Ami nodded, as she already knew, that none of them could transform without their voices.
Usagi pushed the gang away and gave Ami a long hug. She grabbed one of the whiteboards Reihad prepared for them and wrote "hi, Ami". The water senshi smiled.
Ami sat herself down and pulled out her computer. The gang waited anxiously as she typed a long message. When done, Ami pressed play and a computerize voice spoke.
"I have been dictating my class notes to my computer for a while now, so it has a good sample
of my voice. Right now it's calculating in the background and tried to find my frequency and formants of my voice. I might be able to get the computer to say my line. We will see if it can help me get transformed."
Mina quickly jot down her response on the whiteboard. "I have recordings of my voice too. I
have been making my own CDs. Do me next."
"Singing is different from talking. Anyway, I don't know if this will work. We will see. The computer should be done with its calculation in about an hour." Ami typed.
Michiru tapped Rei on the shoulder. "Nothing in the mirror", Michiru wrote on the whiteboard. Rei replied that she couldn't get anything from her fire reading as well. Whatever visions they experienced yesterday was gone.
"What kind of monster can steal people's voices? Why?" Usagi wrote down the most important question and showed it to the room.
An audible gasp came from Chibiusa. She looked horrified as she searched through her backpack. She pulled out her big book of children's fairy tale and flipped through it frantically. Curious, Hotaru looked over her shoulder. The soldier of silence looked
at the monster Chibiusa was pointing at, and couldn't help but shudder.
The gang leaned in to read the story.
Once upon a time, there were a group of monsters called the Gentlemen. They would arrive every 100 years. The gentlemen would come at night and steal your voice.
One day, a small town woke up to find everyone was turned voiceless. No more hellos, no more good mornings. The children didn't think it was scary at first….
When nighttime came, the Gentlemen would come out to play. Floating through the town, they would pick their victims. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. They needed to collect seven.
In the next town over, a brave princess volunteered to go in and help the people. Armed with arrows and swords, the princess ventured into the cursed town. She courageously walked into the cave and confronted the monsters.
It was a scary battle and the Gentlemen almost won. The princess was pinned down. She was in grave danger. The gentlemen took out their knives and smiled at her. The princess was finally scared. She let out a piercing scream….
The gentlemen backed away and covered their ears. One by one, they exploded. The magic was reversed and everyone got their voices back.
"Seven what?" Mina wrote. Everyone looked at Chibiusa but the small child simply shrugged. "The teacher told us to be creative with this assignment. No one knows what the gentlemen took. I was going to act out a scene where the gentlemen took your pure
heart." Chibiusa wrote.
Ding. The Mercury computer pinged, momentarily distracting everyone. A broad smile appeared on Ami's face, her excitement was palatable. She took out her wand, took a deep breath and pressed play on the computer. A slightly computerized Ami's voice yelled,
"Mercury planet power, make up."
The pen blinked once and then sizzled out. Ami stood, untransformed, in the middle of the room. Unwilling to give up so easily, Ami tweaked some settings and then pressed play again. The pen stayed dormant and the power stayed sealed within.
The gang looked at each other and felt the dread spreading in the room. Without their powers, how could they defeat the enemy?