Oh no!
Shingo's been taken and it looks like the Global Community set their sights on Mako and Minako to join their ranks, and we lost track of one friend from the Young Trib force in the States.
The Big earthquake is coming! Will we be able to find each other again?
I'm Sailor Moon and I'm not giving up!
Soon after the frantic call from her mother, Usagi meets up with the rest of the Senshi in the arcade hideout – surprised to see Makoto hiding out inside. They contacted the Young Trib-force via communicator and broke the news, which stuns them.
But something doesn't add up with Rei. "Why would the GC take Shingo? What would they want with him? He's just a boy."
"Yeah. A boy with a big sister for a super hero." Ryan reminded them.
Chaya wondered "You don't suppose the reason the GC took Shingo was because they found out somehow that Usagi is Sailor Moon, do you?"
Ami shook her head, "I doubt it. If they had, she would've been arrested on the spot and placed into a juvenile facility, not gone after her brother."
Usagi agrees with Ami, "But that just brings them us back to question number 1: Why did the GC take Shingo and the other kids?"
None of them could figure it out. Right now they could only continue doing what they can, figure out how to find Shingo, Judd and somehow get a hold of Lionel.
It was on a Monday in Chicago Vicki and Hotaru were going to distribute the underground newspaper. Chaya was going to her old house, her father had given her an hour to sort through her mother's things. Darrion was safe with the church technician Donny Moore and his wife. Judd, as they suspected had gone back for the secret documents but was arrested.
Monday morning Mark helped Vicki and Hotaru load a duffel bag full of copies of the Underground into his car.
"I hear security is as tight as ever," Mark said. "How are you two going to get inside?"
Vicki held up a key. "Shelly gave me this yesterday morning," she said. "I had a copy made and got it back before they knew it was missing."
"What's it for?" Mark said.
"The gymnasium," Vicki said. "We're putting the Underground in the gym lockers."
The two girls thank Mark and lugged the duffel bag to the gymnasium entrance. The key fit perfectly. Vicki locked the door and walked across the basketball courts. Their footsteps echoed in the building. She put the bag down and looked down both halls. Empty. Vicki started with the boys' locker room, Hotaru went to the girls. She placed several copies of the paper in each locker, then dosed the door. Where she found a lock, she stuffed the pages through the vents in front. She hoped the first-period class would take one, then leave the rest for others. She was nearly finished when she sensed someone watching her. She turned.
No one was in the room. She saw a movement in the coach's office. She picked up the bag and headed for the door. She opened it and found Mrs. Jenness staring at her.
"Byrne," she said. "I saw someone walk through the gym on the monitors."
Vicki backed up. Mrs. Jenness grabbed the duffel bag and pulled out a copy of the Underground. She looked startled.
"You!" she said. "It was you."
Mrs. Jenness rifled through the lockers, stuffing the papers back in the bag. She marched Vicki to the office and ordered a Global Community guard to collect the papers from the rest of the lockers. Mrs. Jenness rifled through the lockers, stuffing the papers back in the bag.
Hotaru had just finished with the last one and barely avoided being spotted by a guard. When he left, she looked from the corner and saw Mrs. Jenness march Vicki to the office and order a Global Community guard to collect the papers from the rest of the lockers.
'No, you won't.' Hotaru thought. Instead she took the remaining ones and left to scatter them under as many classroom desks and back in the lockers just after the guard took the ones already there.
"You're staying right here," Mrs. Jenness said to Vicki in her office. "This time I have evidence, and I'm not letting you out of my sight!"
Vicki sat in the office and watched Mrs. Jenness read the Underground. The woman sneered as she read. When she was finished, Mrs. Jenness bundled the copies and ordered them burned. After school was under way, Mrs. Jenness made two phone calls. "No, I do not want someone to pick her up," she said. "I'll bring her in myself." Vicki glanced at the dock as they left the school. It was 9:00 A.M.
By 9:18 was Chaya debating which trinket of her mom to take with her. The golden broach or the empty photo locket.
Hotaru had quickly ducked out of sight. She watched from the window as Mrs. Jenness forcibly dragged Vicki to her car and begin driving. No doubt taking her to a detention center or worse.
No, she couldn't let that happen! Hotaru quickly hurried past the lockers.
"Surprise!" Someone grabbed her arm. It was that awful girl, Joyce. "I knew you and Byrne were the ones behind that stupid religious propaganda."
"It's no worse than you and your prejudiced principal making us and anyone with a faith out as the villains when we're not." Hotaru snapped back, trying to pull free. "And she had no right to send away Lionel with an absolute stranger!"
"You're not going to help her, you're gonna stay here and get locked up like you should be and one will listen to your lies again."
Hotaru pulled back one of her fists. "Get over yourself!"
WHAM!
Her fist broke the other girls' nose, causing it to bleed profusely. That should help put some distance between them. She hurried out to catch up to the truck only to be cornered by Mio right outside. How'd she get to Chicago so quickly?
"Don't bother running, I know you're Sailor Saturn and that your friends are the Senshi."
"How?" Hotaru narrowed her eyes.
Mio smirks. "It wasn't that hard, I just put two and two together. Every time the Sailor Senshi showed up, it was at a place where Usagi Tsukino and her friends happened to be. The attack in the state park and the carnival disaster here? Why do you think I transferred to her school and invited you and your friends to the carnival? Certainly not because I wanted to be friends."
"So those attacks in the park and that carnival were your doing?!" Hotaru clenched her fists.
Sarcastically Mio claps. "You're a lot more perceptive than your friends give you credit for."
Hotaru watches the older girl with a calculating gaze. "You're not an actual human, are you?"
"Correct again! I am the shadow of Queen Beryl, created by the Great Deceiver to uncover the sailor senshi. A sort of clone if you will. Too bad Usagi will never know it was I who ordered the Global Community to seize her little brother, Shingo."
"So he knows who we are?" Hotaru tensed.
"Oh, not just yet," Mio replied with a shrug. But when I do tell him, it'll be all over for all of you, your friends and allies."
Tokyo, Japan 9:20 pm
Little did they know that almost an hour earlier, the first noticeable warning sign was that all the dogs in the city had begun barking or trying to escape. Next in the countryside, drivers saw something peculiar. There appeared to be groups of varied animals attempting to leave, many of them had unfortunately ended up as roadkill. And the birds were all flying away, but from what?
Luna had been asleep on the chair cushion when something got her attention. Something was coming.
There came an ominous rumble in the night. People who were awake heard what they first thought was distant thunder and, as the first ripples of the earthquake sped towards the city, the ground beneath their feet started to shake. Glasses in cupboards started to tinkle. Plates started to rattle.
Within seconds, the roar grew louder, and the ground wobbled like a huge bowl of jelly.
Luna jumps right onto the bed, batting at the sleeping girl's face frantically. "Usagi, wake up!"
Usagi woke up in alarm. What was going on? Her bed was moving backward and forward and her chest of drawers creaked and swayed.
"The earthquake!" she screamed, leaping right out of the bed covers. "Mom! Dad! Earthquake!"
Frantically, she snatches up the article and the old music box she'd recovered. She and Luna raced down the stairs.
The floor bucked violently. At the same moment, Usagi pitched forward onto her knees. Bottles and jars flew out of the refrigerator, a wall clock shot across the room, and cupboards flew open, sending dishes crashing. The horrifying noises collided with the sound of crashes from other rooms.
"We got to get out of the house!" Mr. Tsukino hollered.
The family hurried out the door each in their pajamas and bathrobes.
Got to transform… she thought only to be pulled back by her mother.
"Usagi, we got to go!"
At the same time, Rei had agreed to meet her father at the Hikawa temple. There she told him that she could no longer be a miko, she'd discovered the truth behind the disappearances and the full meaning of the war. Thus, she'd become a Christian and was now warning her father of the upcoming Worldwide earthquake.
Of course he father doesn't believe her and thinks Rei is merely going through another phase.
"But it's true!" Rei insisted. "And If I didn't care enough, I wouldn't be warning you!"
"A global Earthquake is an impossible scenario you got to…" he cut then himself off.
There was low rumble, then everything began to shake. One of the trees fell on the middle of the limo, escape was no option. Even if they could, it would be futile.
There was shouting from the temple.
"Oh no, it's true! It's true!"
"It's happening!" Rei screamed in horror.
Her father had attempted to reach for her only for the ground to crack beneath them.
"Oji-san!" Rei cried, she reached into her clothes and took a big risk. "Mars Crystal Eternal Power, Make Up!"
Vicki watched Mrs. Jenness drive with determination. The principal had her revenge now and was going to enjoy every minute. Mrs. Jenness's knuckles turned white as she gripped the steering wheel.
"I told you I'd get you, Byrne," Mrs. Jenness said.
"Didn't anything in the Underground or in the service for Pastor Barnes get to you?" Vicki said.
"If you want to believe that stuff, it's your business," Mrs. Jenness said. "But you'll never come in my school and shove it down our throats again." Vicki looked away.
The electric lines and light poles seemed to be moving, but there was no wind. Vicki didn't realize what was happening until Mrs. Jenness was already driving over the bridge.
'Stop!" Vicki said. "We have to go back."
"If I have anything to do with it, you're never coming back," Mrs. Jenness said.
"You don't understand," Vicki said. "The earthquake. It's happening. We have to get off this bridge."
The top of the bridge swayed first, then the whole structure pitched right, then left Mrs. Jenness screamed and let go of the wheel. Vicki grabbed it and tried to keep the car steady. Vicki looked out her window and saw a strange sight The bridge had tipped so far, she could almost see straight into the water. In the next instant they were tipped the other way, and the water was on Mrs. Jenness's side. Vicki heard a crash above them. One of the cables, she thought. While Mrs. Jenness screamed, Vicki looked around at the windows. She wanted to make sure they were all up.
"No, I believe you will not -" Hotaru snapped back, only for the ground to suddenly move under their feet.
The windows vibrated, there was a violent crashing all around them.
Mio no longer looked smug and confident, now she was downright scared. "No! Help me, I don't want to die!"
Hotaru couldn't help her if she tried, she herself was flung backwards onto the sidewalk.
In the city, Makoto is outside. She sees some of the taller buildings were swaying gently from side to side, as the earth moved in waves. The glass in some of the older buildings cracked.
Nehelenia and Idina had been visiting the café Saki worked at, they'd been helping her close up, when it happened.
"Oh my…!" The former queen gasped. "The sixth seal!"
The women shrieked as a piece of the ceiling fell between them.
"The bible! It was Mr. Huygen's! I can't let it fall!" Saki cried, attempting to grab the bible that belonged to the man who cared for her.
The Three lights musical band was just about to return to their temporary domicile. It started with the foreboding rumble and the lights swaying overhead. The radio transmission of a DJ confirming it before it went to static.
Yaten gasped. "The world-wide earthquake, just like they said!"
"Floor it!" Seiya cried to Taiki, who was driving. "Go, go, go,"
"Get us out of here!"
The car sped up, driving directly to the exit even as pieces of the garage falls on one car or people. Taiki was gripping the wheel tightly, muttering the Lord's prayer.
Just a couple meters more…
"It's the big earthquake, they've been telling us about!"
The Amazon quartet were working a late shift with Nanako Baba and a few workers when the quake began. They'd been trying to escape safely during the earthquake on some stairs... then the emergency stairway comes off its hinges and traps them, and almost causing Nanako to fall to her death.
The Tsukino family sprinted through the streets. Usagi heard screams, cries for help from all around.
Watch it! It's one of the evil goons trying to trick you again! She shrugged away the paranoia as she tightly held on to the article.
The sky peeled back, and monstrous black and purple clouds hovered over the place. Then it began. Huge flaming rocks streaked to earth. The sky was falling, and it was on fire. It had gone from night to day and now back to night time with the glowing balls of fire.
The earth was still rolling under their feet.
Now they had to avoid the hurtling meteors. They seemed to smash everything the earthquake hadn't swallowed.
I can't take it anymore! Usagi thought. From a distance it would look as if the meteors would claim more victims… but then a giant pink bubble formed.
Haruka, Michiru were already in the air by helicopter.
They could see at first a billboard swaying back and forth by itself. Then when they looked down at the housing neighborhoods and buildings, they could see some exploding, crumbling or towers short circuiting. A further look at the city shows the ground actually rippling.
"The buildings! It's the wrath of the lamb!" Michiru cried.
They were witnessing the great worldwide earthquake shaking right below them!
Minako had been caught sneaking out by her parents just as everything was shaking.
Mrs. Aino was scolding her as always, "If you don't tell me what's going on…!"
"Here's the truth: my friends and I have been superheroes in disguise fighting off the evil forces for five whole years. We've discovered Carpathia is the Antichrist, and now he's trying kill off believers and anyone who tries to stop him!"
Mrs. Aino screamed back. "You expect me to believe that wild story, young lady?!"
Artemis pops up on Minako's shoulder, "Better start believing before the worst comes to pass – we're all in the same boat now."
Mrs. Aino shrieks and fall back.
"I'm sorry, I can't explain now, but I got to get to the girls and save our friends before they figure out I'm not at the facility by morning!"
If they make it in the morning.
In Chicago, Mamoru was driving only to watch the road shake. He felt the highway move right under the car. His jaw dropped when he saw the bridge break just before he could even reach it!
He saw squirrels in a nearby tree skitter to the top, then jump to the limbs of another tree. A huge cloud of birds darkened the sky, then they were gone.
The street had split by a huge open fissure, in to which many vehicles had fallen into. And tangle of cars pushed like blown leaves.
Ami had been leaving cram school when it started. Then she felt it. The ground. Shaking. She frantically looked for a place to run. To hide. Then she remembered with a chill. There was no such place.
Perhaps ten seconds, the ground rocked gently, a swaying motion. not severe, but back and forth. Then the ground started to surge underfoot in great undulating waves, shock after shock. A roar, inhuman, unfamiliar, terrible, rose. The dais, built only four feet off the ground. crumbled and all upon it were plunged to the uncertain earth. No one made a sound to begin with. It was only moments later that the screams of fear and pain began. The newly transplanted mature trees at the edge of the meadow crashed down. Flagpoles bent and broke, striking those nearby. A fissure, thirty feet wide, opened at one side of the park, widened, and closed. Another opened at one side of the place where the ceremony had begun and all there fell into it, going down, down, landing at the bottom of a V that kept opening.
It was astonishing enough that she survived it. Ami was unhurt save for a cut on her left thigh where a sliver of glass sliced at her skirt. But now she was a little lost, walking along the destroyed streets, left with fear and concerns about her loved ones: Did they make it?
The Hikawa temple was destroyed. Yuichiro and Grandpa Hino were barely able to get out of the rubble.
"It WAS an earthquake!" Yuichiro gasped, crawling out of the wreckage. He stopped long enough to help Rei's grandfather get out.
They spotted Nishizaki's corpse six feet away from where they sat.
"Oh no, no…" Grandpa Hino was devastated at all the ruination.
Instead of the temple and the house he and his granddaughter had live in for so long, he found an empty crater. But where was Rei and her father?
"Papa?"
Sailor Mars found herself trying to get up, looking for her father. They were in a mid-sized cave, surrounded by disaster.
She found him under a wooden beam, she attempted to lift it but it was too heavy. She tried top wake him up with a slap that had him coughing and looking sluggishly at her.
"Risa?" He mumbled.
"No." Sailor Mars shook her head then with great hesitation, she removed her sailor tiara. "It's… me."
"Rei?"
"Grandfather! Yuiichiro!" Sailor Mars tried to holler. "Can anyone hear me?"
"It came so quickly…" her father was saying. "It's not like the others."
Hotaru had barely managed to run out of there. She's stunned, but other than a few scrapes and bruises there didn't appear to be anything broken.
When a meteor slammed into the ground, it exploded and sent molten rock flying. She looked at the horizon and saw an incredible sight. Thousands of red streaks descended from the darkness above, pounding the ground with yellow bursts of light. It looked like a celebration reversed. Instead of sending fire-works into the air, they were coming down.
The Tsukino family is enveloped in a glowing pink bubble for the duration of the seal, before they come out. Both Kenji ands Ikkuko are shell-shocked their own daughter was Sailor Moon… and this world-wide disaster was predicted in the bible.
"The Bible predicted the earthquake?!" Mr. Tsukino questioned incredulously.
Sailor Moon nods, "And according to scriptures, the sun will turn black and the moon will become red. And falling stars which I think are flaming meteors."
"It IS red!" Mrs. Tsukino shivered after glancing at the sky.
Now, about you being Sailor Moon, why didn't you tell us?
"First of all, for your own safety. Usagi explained after changing back. Nowdays we thought if you found out, that you'd lose your job and the GC would come after me and lock me up, or Carpathia would send bountry hunters after me. I don't know. We just thought it was best."
"You thought it was best to not tell us? You thought it was better to take care of this all by yourself?" Mrs. Tsukino gaped. "What were you girls thinking about?"
"I'm really fine, Mama!"
Mrs. Tsukino actually facepalmed. "We must be the most oblivious parents on the face of the Earth. "
"No, it was nothing you did, we were just very careful with them."
Mr. Tsukino interjected. "Didn't we bring you up with the understanding that you could tell us anything, anytime? I just don't understand, Usagi we could have helped you, we could have been there for you. And we could've done something to help you and Shingo before all this."
"I'm sorry Papa, but things got crazy dangerous... almost as much as it is now." Usagi explained. "To keep you two up to date: the earthquake and everything else that just happened is the sixth seal, the scriptures call it the Wrath of the lamb."
"Wrath of the lamb?!" Mr. Tsukino looked bewildered. "Sounds like an odd thing to call an earthquake…"
"The Lamb is Jesus."
"And this is all in the Bible?!" Mrs. Tsukino demanded. "WHERE?"
"That and much more." Luna responded, making her two parents yelp. "And trust me, the very worst is yet to come."
They survived but there were still possible aftershocks and the matter of other dangers. And to boot, one side of the Tsukino house has sunken into the ground.
Everywhere the three of them looked was destruction. Craters from meteors. Fires burning. Buildings flattened. Roads wasted. When Usagi sees her school, it has been destroyed beyond repair.
Rescuers were pulling people from the rubble, crushed and matted with blood, then someone else would call for help and a group would rush to the other end. What had been a finely manicured football field was now a rolling heap of grass and dirt, mixed with cinders from the surrounding track. The goalposts had moved several yards.
Luna then softly recited the scripture line. "The smoke of the incense, mixed with the prayers of the saints, ascended up to God from the altar where the angel had poured them out. Then the angel filled the incense burner with fire from the altar and threw it down upon the earth; and thunder crashed, lightning flashed, and there was a terrible earthquake. Then the seven angels with the seven trumpets prepared to blow their mighty blasts."
"But why do all this? What's the thinking?" Mr. Tsukino questioned, starting to think like an investigative journalist trying to figure out all the angles in the story.
"He's trying to get the attention of the people of Earth." Usagi replied
Mrs. Tsukino ran her index finger over a broken door and saw the ash sticking there. "Well, I'd say he got it. But I want to know why did you and those other girls break out hardened criminals and run amok?"
"Those hardened criminals aren't evil people, they were all new Christians!" Usagi cried. "They've been trying to explain the truth but people prefer to listen to Carpathia because it clashes with their own point of view! Almost all those who vanished were loving and caring, did truly good works that came naturally to them. There' are many more following their example only they're being persecuted. They're seen with pity, anger, and hostility. They're attacked, beaten, and shot or worse! How can the Sailor Senshi call themselves guardians of love and justice if they just sit back and let the Global Community oppress innocent people that don't thin or believe the same way!?"
Mr. and Mrs. Tsukino looked at their daughter, everything has turned torpsy turvy in less than twenty minutes and it wasn't morning yet.
"But what is it that makes this new belief so worth it?" Mrs. Tsukino wondered.
"Love." Usagi answered. "That was why Jesus died on the cross to begin with. A profound love he had for the entire universe and it's inhabitants. It was so everyone who truly believed in him would not suffer eternal torment, but everlasting life in Heaven. And let me remind you that Jesus had interacted with a huge variety of people. Those everyday folks would probably not even spare a glance at: A crooked tax collector, a woman caught with someone else's husband, merchants selling wares in the wrong venues, a high-ranking official of the despised Roman military, hypocritical religious leaders, unethical lawyers, an extortionist, slaves, social outcasts, wealthy rulers and a hungry crowd numbering well over five thousand. When a shouting down is called for, Jesus booms forth. Similarly, he seethes with rage as he makes a whip to lash out at greedy merchants. With Zacchaeus, who made his millions defrauding innocent people, Jesus adroitly invited himself to stay in the man's home. He didn't sprint from sinners, he treated them with kindness."
Usagi wiped away the tears that spilled down her cheeks. "Love is something that Carpathia and his followers are trying to destroy from the face of the earth. It's something we need to hold onto." She took him by the hand. "It's something we've got to believe in."
To be continued…