This whole astro Virus scheme i getting out of hand, affecting children and adults alike. Grown ups disappearing, and younger ones not understanding this mess...
Time to take this up a notch!
Tokyo, Japan
Days Later...
Inside the Secret Base Room of the command-center, all of the kids and teens were sitting on the floor, wrapped in quilts (both knitted and sewn) to stay warm while eating snacks and watching an episode of the English sub version of Sailor Moon Crystal on a mini-TV that was resting on a stage. The air-conditioners were on Heat, but they were not enough to completely warm up the center and get rid of this type of ice-cold weather.
Justin's black eye and busted lip were still visible, but had started healing over the last ten days. Ruby, Cole and Jake were no longer wearing their GC outfits, but were now wearing average kids clothes and sneakers, with Cole also not wearing his metal forearm-length gloves anymore.
The Secret Base Room-or the Kids Room, as the kids and teens referred to it-had white walls and a staircase, leading down to a meeting table and a stage, it was furnished by photographs of the Senshi and Tuxedo Mask, the Starlights, the dual Trib-Forces, a karaoke set-up, various candies and snacks, and other things. The central table had five chairs, which were pink, blue, red, green and orange. Fortunately it wasn't too far from the spacious area with the bunk beds.
Meanwhile, Ikuko and Maryanne stood and watched the kids several feet away, wrapped in quilts themselves. Like Justin, Maryanne's facial injuries had begun healing over the last ten days, but they were still there.
"She's having such a good time." Maryanne said, smiling as she watched Josie. "Thanks for letting us stay here. I know Daniel and the News media are making Sailor Moon and the Senshi out to be monsters...but Josie loves them so. Look at her."
"Yes, she's so sweet. She reminds me of my daughter at that age." Ikuko smiled.
"I don't want her spirit to die, Ikuko. I don't want Daniel to take that from her." Maryanne said. "Did you talk to anyone about the situation with me and my children?"
"Oh, yeah, I did, I talked to my husband, Kenji, and it's not good news, I'm afraid. There's lots of legal stuff for you to do. Every day that goes by that you keep these kids is another strike against you. Same goes for us with the kids my daughter and her comrades had rescued from the two GC summer camps." Ikuko answered and explained.
"I just want that judge to look at Jason's face and his eyes...and then tell him he has to go back to his father." Maryanne said.
In the command-room, Kenji, Mayumi, Nehelenia, Indina, wrapped in quilts, Venus, Luna and Artemis were all discussing Maryanne's situation with her abusive husband. The Senshi, the Stars and Tuxedo Mask had gone back to their destinations last week after learning all the information from Luna regarding the GC summer camps, the One World Religion and the ASTRO-V epidemic. Venus was only back temporarily. There have been no messages from the "moon alien spaceships" for the last ten days...but...soon they had a name. "The Moon Ships".
"Nehelenia, Idina, Ikuko and I have listened to Maryanne's talk about her husband's abuse toward her. These stories are frightening." Mayumi said.
"Yeah, and I thought my life was messed up so to speak." Nehelenia said, referring to when she was leading the Dead Moon Circus.
"Sometimes the battered women shelters get as many as 50 calls a day from abused women wanting to leave the home." Kenji said, having done research on battered women shelters.
"But they don't. And unfortunately, we had this same exact problem back home before it got destroyed." Idina said.
"Most of them have nothing on their own. They're afraid they'll lose the children, so they stay. Most of them keep quiet about the abuse out of shame." Kenji said.
"I don't blame them. It's so embarrassing to have to admit that the man you fell in love with started hurting you." Venus said.
Hilary then appeared on the middle screen. "Hello?" She said. The Starlights had gone to her on Luna's orders to put the American woman in contact with her so she could spill the beans about the real cause Governor Carl's death.
"Hilary." Venus said before running over to the control-panel, with Luna turning to face the American woman on-screen.
"Hi." Hilary greeted.
"I'm so sorry." Venus said.
"Oh, it's been kind of a rough two weeks, hasn't it?" Hilary said.
"We heard about Laura's arrest. I'm sorry." Venus said.
"Thanks." Hilary said. "Oh, congratulations to you and the rest of the Senshi on rescuing those kids on that island in New Zealand, by the way. Nice save. Was Jake among them?"
"Yes. He's here with us and two of the other kids we rescued." Venus said.
"How is he?" Hilary asked.
"He's fine, he's watching a movie with the other kids and teenagers." Venus said. "How are you holding up?"
"Awful. I mean, physically, I'm okay, but emotionally I'm a mess. I'm so sad about what happened with Ron, I'm beside myself. I mean, know it wasn't my fault, it was an act of domestic violence. " Hilary said.
"It was-"
"No, it was more than that." Luna said, cutting Venus off.
"Whoa, a talking cat!" Hilary said, shocked and stunned. "How is this-"
"No time to explain. I'm sorry to be blunt, but we don't have a lot of time to waste due to power problems, so please just listen." Luna said. She and the others had been having problems with the power here at the command-center due to the ice-cold winter, and she wasn't certain how much time they had before the lights blinked out again.
"Alright, go ahead." Hilary said.
"Governor Carl was high on drugs the day you shot him." Luna answered.
Hilary just stared at Luna. "Ron was high on drugs."
"Yes. I found them in his system when I was doing an on-screen autopsy. I guess that's partly why he was so mean to Laura." Luna said.
"I-i just-i..." Hilary stammered, not sure what to say or think.
"He was being doped up, I don't know for how long. But Hilary you were right to defend your sister, he was out of control." Luna said.
"And you're-You know for sure he was on drugs that day?" Hilary asked.
"He overdosed on Methamphetamine, his heart gave out during surgery." Luna answered.
"He overdosed?" Hilary asked, baffled.
"Fraid so." Luna said.
"He was doing drugs and Laura never knew about it? While Jake was with them?" Hilary asked.
"He wasn't doing them, he was being drugged unaware...to the point to where he died. Which means you didn't kill Ron. The one who was drugging him did." Luna said.
"I have no idea what to say to say to that." Hilary said. For the last two weeks, she had been blaming herself for killing her sister's husband and destroying her family and her life. But to know that she was not a murderer was of little comfort to her. Especially since her sister was now locked up for something she didn't do. "I'm sorry, i...I can't deal with this right now. I can't." She said before the screen shut off.
"Well, that went well." Venus said.
"You wanna try and get her back?" Artemis asked.
"No. She's got enough to deal with now. I don't think we should add to her problems with the rest of what we know regarding the governor's death." Luna said. "In the meantime, we've really got to make some decisions about what to do about the ep-"
Just then, the lights and the control-panel went off, making the room go dark.
"Great." Mayumi said sarcastically.
"Not again." Kenji said, as this wasn't the first time the power had gone out.
A loud noise of a machine roaring to life was then heard, startling everyone, minus Artemis and Venus, making the control-panel come back on.
"What was that?" Nehelenia asked.
"That would be the emergency space generator." Venus answered. She and Artemis had used the command-center as their hide-out before they joined the rest of the Senshi, so they knew this place inside and out.
Luna then pressed a button on the control-panel. "It's okay, everyone, the emergency generator just kicked in."
"Why isn't everything else coming back on?" Idina asked.
"Could be because of the ice-cold winter. It's likely damage the internal wiring." Artemis explained.
"Well, get somebody to fix it!" Luna snapped, glaring back at Artemis.
"It's the whole command-center, Luna. Maybe the whole city of Tokyo due to the evacuation, the ice-cold weather or both, there's no telling which or how long it could take." Artemis said.
"Ugh!" Luna said before looking away from Artemis.
"I better let the others in Israel know about this right away. If Artemis is right and the power is out all over Tokyo, it won't be long before all the food in stores and restaurants that was left behind starts to go bad. We need to stock up now while we can." Venus said.
"Go for it." Artemis said.
Venus then disappeared in a flash of orange light.
"What's going on?" Ikuko asked as she and Maryanne entered into the command-room.
"Yeah, we were just in the Secret Base Room, watching the kids watch TV when the lights went out again." Maryanne added.
"Did the lights come back on in there?" Kenji asked.
"No, just the TV. It's dark in there like it is in here." Ikuko said.
"It's probably like this all over Tokyo due to the evacuation. No people, no power." Mayumi said.
"Yeah, probably. Everyone...let's head down into the basement and get some lanterns for everyone and electric-heaters for all the rooms we use. I have a feeling this black-out isn't going to be short-lived." Artemis said. Like the rest of the world, the group had been having problems with the lights going on and off since the global winter began, and many parts of the planet were without power now because of it, and he knew that the lights here wouldn't likely be coming back on anytime soon either. Not while this world-wide snow winter was at work.
"Okay." Ikuko and the other adults in the room.
USA Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville was a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida and was the most populous city proper in the state and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States before the vanishings two years ago. What it's exact population number was now was anyone's guess. It was the seat of Duval Country, with which the city government consolidated in 1968. Consolidation gave Jacksonville it's great size and placed most of it's metropolitan within the city limits. The Jacksonville metropolitan area ranks as Florida's 4th-largest metropolitan region.
It seemed like just another normal day in the ice-cold snow-covered city of Jacksonville. And of course for the rest of the state of Florida, it was just another day, aside from having to deal with the ice-cold winter like the rest of the world. But somewhere in Jacksonville...in a beach-town...for five kids...today was anything but normal.
At a high school, five kids dressed for the ice-cold weather, three American teen-boys, one foreign teen-boy, one Asian teen-girl and one American pre-teen boy, were running for their lives from a flying robot drone that was chasing them and shooting purple electricity bolts at them.
The white American boy had blue eyes, the pre-teen boy had blue eyes, the Asian girl's eyes were brown, the black teen-boy's eyes were brown, and the foreign teen-boy's eyes were brown.
The drone was gray, had wings like a plane and red eyes. It fired a purple bolt at the Asian teen-girl fleeing on her skate-board, missing her and hitting an outdoor garbage-can, knocking it over.
One of the teen-boys and the pre-teen boy stopped running when it saw the drone was chasing after the Asian girl.
"Come on, let's get it." The first teen-boy said to the pre-teen boy.
"With what?" The teen-boy asked.
The Asian girl flew over some steps on her skate-board as the drone fired another purple bolt at her, missing her and hitting the rail, then she landed on her board on the ground and turned to see the drone coming her way. She stepped off her board, picked it up, and prepared for defense as it drew closer and closer.
"Mercury Bubble Beam!" Said a female voice before a bunch of pale blue bubbles hit the drone.
"Huh?" Said the Asian girl before turning to see the source of the voice and the attack.
"Science should be used for the betterment of mankind, not to terrorize people! I am the Pretty Guardian, who fights for Science and intelligence!" Mercury said. "I'm Sailor Mercury!" She said, beginning her pose. "And you're scrap metal!"
The drone then turned and flew back in the direction it came.
"Nice save." The Asian girl said.
Mercury ran up to the Asian girl.
"Are you okay?" Sailor Mercury asked.
"Guess so." The Asian girl said.
"Good. Let's go." Sailor Moon said before they chased after the drone and ran up the steps.
Meanwhile, the drone was now chasing after the foreign teen-boy. The boy did a flip as the drone fired a purple bolt at him. He then ran up to the double-doors of the school, opened the right door and rushed inside, followed by the drone crashing through one of the windows as the door closed, chasing after him. He ran down the hall and up to two doors and attempted to open the first one, but it was locked, then he tried opening the second one, which was also locked. He was trapped. He turned to face the drone, standing up against the wall as it came towards him.
The white American teen-boy and the pre-teen boy opened the double-doors and stood in the doorways.
"Now what do we do?" The pre-teen boy asked.
"Hold it right there, you bucket of bolts!" The American teen-boy said, making the drone turn and face him and the pre-teen.
"Okay, now what?" The pre-teen asked frantically.
"I...I..." The teen-boy stammered, not sure what to say or do next.
"Hey, scrapmetal!" came a female voice from behind the boys.
Both boys turned to see the source of the voice.
"I stand for love! Truth and justice too!" Sailor Moon said. "I am Sailor Moon!" She said, beginning her pose.
"Oh, boy!" The pre-teen boy said excitedly.
"Oh, brother." The American teen-boy said, annoyed.
"Who do you think you are terrorizing those kids?! I despise your evil, sadistic ways!" Sailor Moon said. "In the name of the Moon...I'll dismantle you!" She said, finishing her pose. Nowadays, in this new world, she would mention the most high and let the enemy know they were going to be judged for their acts of evil, but she wasn't up against such a person this time. No, she was dealing with a mere machine, and machines didn't have to face the Judgement Day.
The drone then flew towards the boys, who then turned and ran off, only for the pre-teen to slip on the snow-covered ground and fall face-down, followed by the drone exiting the school through the open doors.
Mercury and the Asian girl looked to see the drone heading for the pre-teen boy. The foreign teen-boy rushed out of the school and stared in shock at the drone as it headed for the pre-teen. Mercury and the Asian girl looked to see the drone heading for the pre-teen boy as well.
The drone stopped over the pre-teen, hovering above him, and descended down as he rolled over on his back. As the bot soared down, the boy shut his eyes tight, prepared for the worst.
The teen-boy stopped running as he looked back to see the pre-teen lying on the ground, with the drone coming down towards him. "Jace!"
The Moon Princess Scepter appeared in Sailor Moon's right hand in a flash of pink light. "Moon Princess Halation!" She said before firing the attack at the drone, hitting its target and sending it flying into the wall of the school building, followed by crash-landing on the snow-covered ground.
"BOOM! How ya like us now, ET?!" The black teen-boy said before he ran off.
The American white teen-boy ran towards the pre-teen known as Jace. The Asian girl and the foreign teen-boy ran over to Jace while the white American teen-boy stopped 20 feet away.
"Thanks, Sailor Moon." Jace said as the Asian girl and the foreign boy helped him up.
"No problem." Sailor Moon said as Mercury walked over to her right side.
"Dude, be careful next time. Someone's not gonna always be there to save you." The white teen-boy said.
The black boy ran over to where the drone had landed and bent down. "Whoa." He said as he looked at the drone lying on the snow-covered ground, with it's left wing damaged, exposing the inside of it. He then touched the drone with his left hand, only for it to give him an electric shock. "Ah!" He said in pain as he withdrew his hand from the shock. Sailor Moon, Mercury and the other kids gathered around the drone.
"Everybody okay?" The white teen-boy asked.
"Yeah. Thanks to Sailor Mercury." The Asian girl said.
"And Sailor Moon." Jace added.
The black teen touched the drone again, this time with his right hand, and a small hatch slid open at the top of the drone and a light blue beam of light shot out of it, displaying three round light blue holographic screens, one showing an electric clock, the big middle one showing a crowd of people, and the last one showing the same thing.
"What is that?" The foreign teen-boy asked.
"I don't know." Sailor Moon said, clueless. Well, not completely clueless. While she didn't know what was going on around here, truth be known, the screens reminded her of the screens back at the command-center, but she wasn't about to give away it's existence to anyone, especially kids, trustworthy or not.
"Grown-ups." Jace answered. "This is where everybody is."
As everyone continued to stare at the screens, they saw that the crowds displayed on two of them had eyes but with no pupils or light reflection in them.
"They all look like they're asleep." The Asian girl said.
"They're not asleep. They look like they're hypnotized." The black teen-boy said.
"Somebody wanna tell me what's going on here?" Sailor Moon asked, confused.
"Yes, I'm rather lost." Mercury added. She had idea what was happening and that really agitated her. She was supposed to be the brainy one of the group, but she and Sailor Moon had only transported to this school after receiving the distress-call, so they had no clue what was going on.
"Do you see Mom?" Jace asked as he turned to the white American teen-boy.
"I can't see, their faces are too blurry." Said the white American teen-boy said.
"Will someone please explain to me what's going on?" Sailor Moon asked.
The screens then disappeared and the small hatch closed.
"Okay. I'm officially flipping out." The Asian girl said. "What just happened? What is that thing?"
"This just keeps getting weirder." The foreign teen-boy said.
"I don't know what this thing is, but...whoever was controlling it...might be controlling our parents too." The black teen-boy said.
The foreign teen-boy stepped away from the gang and then spoke something in his language.
"You're Israeli?" Mercury asked the foreign boy.
"Yeah." The foreign teen-boy said, turning to Mercury. "My folks and I just moved here a week ago. Things were getting too weird and dangerous at Israel." He answered and explained. "How did you know?"
"Sailor Moon and I have been there once before and are currently there now with two of our other comrades. I've taken the time to learn the people's language." Mercury explained.
"Oh, well, that makes sense." The foreign boy said.
"Well..." The black teen-boy began as he stood up. "it was nice meeting you, Sailor Moon and Sailor Mercury. And thank you kindly for saving us, but we'd best be on our way." He said before he and the other kids proceeded to leave.
"Wait." Sailor Mercury said, making the kids stop in their tracks and turned back to face her and Sailor Moon. "Please...can you all tell us what this is about?" She asked, now bearing a serious expression.
Back at the black boy's house, he, the Senshi duo and the other kids were all in the garage, no longer wearing their winter clothes, with the white teen-boy, the pre-teen boy, Sailor Moon and Mercury standing around the black boy as he sat at a desk, with him and Mercury, wearing her visor, examining the drone now resting on the table in front of them. The kids had all introduced themselves to the Senshi back at the school. Now that they weren't in their winter clothes anymore, it was easy to see their features.
The white teen-boy was Jordan Zane-age 16, with long neck-length stringy light brown hair.
The pre-teen boy, of course, was Jace-age 10, with long neck-length brown hair. He was Jordan's younger brother.
The black boy was Tyson-age 14, who was kind of heavy-set with black poked-up hair and both sides and the back of his head were shaved off.
The Israel boy was Kanami-age 15, with black hair.
The Asian girl was Korean and was 15-year old Olive "Ollie", with long black hair that went past her shoulders and stopped at her lower-back.
"It's guts look like a jellyfish." Jace said.
"Lots of new technology is designed to mimic lifeforms, biomimcry...nano-robotics...that sort of thing." The black boy known as Tyson said.
"Wow, I'm impressed. You really know your stuff." Mercury said.
"Thanks." Tyson said.
"So let me see if I have this in order. We're in a beach town in Jacksonville, Florida called Koko Beach...your names are Jordan and Jace Zane, Tyson, Ollie and Kalani...you all woke up this morning and found that the power was out and that your parents and all of the other adults in town were gone...and you all ended up at the school and got attacked by this thing. Have I got this right?" Sailor Moon said, reiterating what the kids had told her and Mercury back at the school.
"That's correct, yeah." Tyson said. "But...back to this drone thing. All this spaghetti-lookin' stuff? I've never seen tech like that before."
"So it could be alien tech, right?" Jace said.
"Or some kind of military experiment." Mercury said.
"All options are on the table." Tyson said.
Meanwhile, Ollie was going through three different talking devices on a cart, which were that of a 60s phone, a 70s phone, and an 80s walkie-talkie, which got the attention of the others.
"I don't like these new cellphones the GC has put out. It's like they're always spying on you." Tyson said.
Ollie picked up the walkie-talkie and attempted to contact someone, but it didn't work. "I can't even get a signal." She said. "Do you have anything working in here?" The Korean girl asked as she walked up the the group.
"Emergency generator. Can't trust any power with all this valuable equipment. This is Koko. Power-outages last a whole day around here." Tyson said.
"Where'd you get all this stuff?" Kalani, the foreign Israel boy asked, looking around at all of the old tech that filled the garage.
"I've been collecting it over the years. Thrift-stores, yard-sales, that sort of thing. It all started when my Grandpa use to keep stuff here. He was a scientist who worked at a big tech-firm up north. He was the only black guy in the whole firm back in the 1950s. Made big money too. Then one day...four months after the GC took over everything...he just quit out of nowhere." Tyson explained.
"Did he ever say why?" Mercury asked suspiciously, having a strange feeling that she already knew the answer.
"All he said was...no company should have that much power. Then he started doing his own research in here." Tyson said.
"What kind of research?" Sailor Moon asked curiously.
"About the disappearances, Carpathia, the Global Community, the One World Faith, the disasters that had yet to befall the Earth at that time, etc. According to him, all of this was written down in an ancient prophecy 2000 years ago. Next thing I know, he went all doomsday nut and started babbling it to anyone who would listen. Like "The end is here", or "The apocalypse has arrived". That sort of stuff. My parents thought he was going crazy...but he had the most valid facts. We use to work together in here for hours and hours. Then one day last year, he got sick and died. He passed during the war. Now...my parents think I'm wasting my time in here." Tyson explained.
Sailor Moon looked at a yellow framed picture of an old black man with wild white hair, brown eyes, a white goatee, and black glasses on the desk. Tyson's Grandfather, no doubt. "Please tell me...was your Grandfather a believer?"
"If by "believer", you mean a Heaven fanatic, them yeah. Yeah, he did." Tyson said.
Sailor Moon said no more. She didn't have to. For she had heard all she needed to hear.
What are these things?" Jace asked, pointing at the now dark eyes of the drone with his right index-finger.
"Viewing mechanisms, I suspect." Mercury said.
"Viewing what?" Jace asked, confused.
"Fancy word for eyeballs." Tyson answered.
"Oh." Jace said, finally getting it.
"They look like insect eyes, don't they?" Tyson said.
"Ah, yeah." Jordan said.
"Oh, I see." Jace added.
"And then this functions like the brain. Everything seems to link back to it, but...I just can't figure out what's powering the thing." Mercury said.
"Me either." Tyson added.
The eyes of the drone lit up red for a split-second before going dark again.
Later, Jordan, Jace, Ollie and Kalani were all sitting at a round table in the kitchen, laughing and eating snacks while Tyson was in the kitchen, cooking, wearing a chef's hat and a white apron. Meanwhile, Sailor Moon and Mercury stood by and watched as the kids ate and chatted with one another. Tyson was super nice for letting them stay here at his place. This reminded them of the kids Trib-Force and the way Judd had let them all stay at his house after the vanishings.
"You sure these are safe to drink?" Jordan asked, holding an open purple soda can.
"What's the worst that could happen?" Ollie asked, also holding a purple soda can.
"I don't know, we grow tentacles?" Jordan said.
Ollie and Jordan then drunk some of their sodas.
"Fishsticks are pretty good." Kanami said.
"In my house, we don't get any of this stuff, Dude. My parents are vegetarians. No added sugar. No processed foods." Ollie said, shaking his head.
"I present to you..." Tyson began as he walked out of the kitchen and over to the table, carrying a plate of food, followed by placing it on the table, revealing it to be pancakes with mustard and ketchup on them. "pancakes. Kokomo Beach style!"
The other kids and the Senshi duo clapped their hands, applauding the disgusting meal. To spare, Tyson's feelings, no doubt.
"Mustard and ketchup? On pancakes?" Ollie asked.
"Look, man, I'm an investor. I never said I was a chef." Tyson said.
"That's obvious." Sailor Moon said lowly, followed by Mercury elbowing her in the left arm. "Ow!"
"Don't be rude." Mercury scolded.
Jace was drawing the drone in a note-book with a pencil. "They kind of look like villaborgs."
"Villaborg?" Ollie asked.
"Yeah." Jace said.
"What are those?" Sailor Moon asked.
"A cyborg drone hybrid." Jace answered, turning in his chair to look at Sailor Moon and Mercury.
"What's that?" Mercury asked, confused.
"It's from a video game." Jordan said, with Jace turning to face him.
"O-kay. Moving on to important matters...can you walk us through what happened this morning when you woke up and found out your parents were gone?" Sailor Moon said.
"We told you. We woke up, found out the lights were off, and that our parents had disappeared." Jordan reiterated.
"We're there any clues as to where they might've gone?" Mercury asked.
"Yeah." Jace said before reaching inside his left pants-pocket and pulling out a piece of folded-up paper as the Senshi duo walked over to the table. "We found this letter." He said, handing the paper to Mercury. "I found it stuck to the refrigerator this morning." He said as Mercury unfolded the paper and looked at the writing on it.
"Dear son/daughter, I've gone to the Caribbean for an extended vacation. Love, Mom." Mercury said, reading the letter.
"Dude, I got that same letter?" Tyson said.
"Me too." Ollie said.
"So did I." Kalani said.
"That's weird." Sailor Moon said. "From what you've told us, all of the adults in Koko Beach are gone."
"Did they all go to the Caribbean?" Kalani asked, confused.
"Maybe they went to get juice or something." Jordan said.
"Yes, Jordan, that must be it." Jace said sarcastically.
"What is going on here? Adults don't just up and leave an entire town, much less leave their kids behind." Sailor Moon said.
"I'll scan the area for any adult life-forms." Mercury said before pressing her left ear-ring, making her visor appear over her eyes, followed by a screen of the layout of Kokomo Beach appearing on it. "It's just as the kids said. There are absolutely no adults anywhere within radar."
"And that's only the adults here in Koko Beach." came a female voice.
Everyone looked to see Sailor Venus standing the doorway.
"Sailor Venus." Sailor Moon and Mercury said.
"They're all gone." Venus answered. "Not just the parents...the other adults too."
"Are you sure? We're looking for our parents." Jace said.
"Who isn't?" Venus asked.
"What does that mean?" Sailor Moon asked.
"I heard some kids in town talking earlier. It's not just here...it's everywhere. It's all over Jacksonville. The kids say they haven't seen a single adult since last night." Venus said.
"What are you talkin' about?" Jordan asked. "This disappearance isn't all over Jacksonville, it's just here in Koko Beach." He said. Either he was oblivious to the fact or in complete denial.
"No, it's not just here in Koko Beach. I believe I just shared that with you." Venus corrected.
"What do you mean?" Jordan asked.
"I don't know how to tell you all this, but you and every other kid seem to have slept through the most mysterious event in the history of Florida." Venus said.
"Could you run that by us again in plain English?" Jordan asked.
"Adults have disappeared from this beach town and all over Jacksonville." Venus answered.
"No way!" Sailor Moon gasped.
"All of them?" Mercury asked.
"Every last one." Venus said.
"What?!" Jordan and the other kids gasped.
"All of the grown-ups in this city disappeared?" Tyson asked.
"Yeah. Including..." Venus choked up, with tears filling her eyes. "including all of the children's parents." She said before rubbing the tears out of her eyes with her right arm.
"Oh, come on! How can that be?!" Kanami said.
"Well, come on! Give us some answers, moon alien!" Ollie said to Venus.
"I don't have answers! Actually, I have just as many questions as you all have." Venus said.
"You're telling us that all of the grown-ups in Jacksonville disappeared?" Jace asked.
"There are abandoned vehicles all over the entire city that use to contain adults. Also, all of the power is out all over the community." Venus explained.
"Except for here at Tyson's place due to the generator." Mercury said.
"Mercury...check and see if there are any adults in Jacksonville." Sailor Moon said.
"I'm on it." Mercury said before passing her left ear-ring, replacing the layout of Koko Beach with the layout of Jacksonville. All of them are gone."
"I...I could use a drink." Jordan said, stunned.
"Trust me, kid-o...you won't hide this one behind a bottle." Venus said.
"This is so weird. How is it possible for an entire city's adult population to disappear over-night?" Sailor Moon asked, puzzled, wondering what could make an entire city's adult society disappear.
"Stranger things have happened. Especially where we come from." Venus said.
"It could be connected to the drone we fought back at the school. Whoever made it must've made the grown-up vanish and the power go out too." Mercury explained.
"Good point. This has gotta be connected to that." Sailor Moon said.
"Well, I doubt they all went to the Caribbean like it says in the letters we got from our parents." Ollie said.
"Could I keep this letter?" Mercury asked Jace.
"Sure." Jace said, shrugging her shoulders.
"It's gotta be aliens. How could it not? Adults don't just disappear in the middle of the night without explanation. It's gotta be ET abduction. Just like the one that happened world-wide two years ago." Jordan said.
"Those people didn't disappear. Nor were they abducted by aliens. Heaven took them, just like they said it would right up to the day it happened." Sailor Moon said.
"You mean, they knew they were gonna disappear?" Kanami asked.
"And Heaven took them? Yeah, right." Jordan rolled his eyes.
"Yeah right. It wasn't Heaven, that theory was dismissed the year the vanishings happened." Tyson said.
"Right. And there's been more waves of vanishings since then. One all over Indiana and the one here in Jacksonville." Kanami said.
"Do any of you know anyone who's gone in the second wave?" Mercury asked.
"Not really. They were all just kids like us." Ollie answered.
"Those kids who vanished from Indiana were among the kids we rescued from New Island in New Zealand. And as for this current mass disappearance here in this city...we don't know. But I know one thing: These adults were not abducted by aliens." Sailor Moon explained.
"You say the Heaven theory was proven wrong the year the vanishings happened. Someone told you it was proven wrong and you just...accepted it." Mercury said.
"So you're saying that the only explanation is Heaven? That it took all of those missing people and left the rest of mankind?" Jordan asked.
"That's what we're saying." Sailor Moon said.
"I don't believe this." Jordan said.
"Jordan...I think they're right. The vanishings two years ago is a perfect picture of what was written in the ancient Biblical prophecy concerning the Rapture. If what they're saying true, the believers of Heaven are gone and the rest of society is left." Jace said.
"You know about the prophecy?" Venus asked, baffled.
"Yeah. I started reading it after listening to the first entry of Sailor Moon Says." Jace answered and explained.
"Sailor what?" Ollie asked.
"Sailor Moon Says." Jace said.
"It's a new online podcast." Jordan said. "Dude...this was what Mom was talking about. You need to stop confusing make-believe with real life."
Jace got to his pencil and note-book and got up and exited the room through the doorway, walking past Venus as he did.
"So is that tech-thing over your eyes correct? Are all of the adults really gone?" Ollie asked Mercury.
"Unfortunately, yes. My visor never lies to me." Mercury said.
"What a bummer." Ollie said.
"Yeah. No aunts, no uncles, no grandparents, no teachers, no neighbors and no citizens." Tyson added.
"And no parents." Jordan said.
"No parents." Kanami said.
The teens' eyes went wide with realization. "NO PARENTS!" They shouted with excitement as they shot up from their chairs. "WOO-HOO!"
Sailor Moon and Mercury looked at the kids with sad expressions on their faces, followed by gazing at Venus, who also bared the same sad look. These kids did not understand the seriousness of this situation.
All of the refugees, adults, kids, teens and cats alike, were in the dark command-room, wrapped in quilts, with the only source of light being their lit lanterns that were lying on the floor. There was also an electric heater plugged in to keep the room warm, as well as other electric heaters in all of the other rooms to keep them warm also. Most of the adults and teens were standing up while Shingo, Ruby, Cole, Jake, Justin and Artemis were all sitting on the floor, and Maryanne sat on the violet red sofa with Jason and Josie, sitting between them. Everyone was watching the Ohio News regarding ASTRO-V on a screen between two of the pillars behind the control-panel, with Luna sitting on the stool.
"Last week, the toxic purple asteroids hit and infected the community of Arkon, Ohio." Said an anchor-man on-screen. "Experts say this disaster is beyond any other devastating kind they have ever measured before. Leading researchers show-"
Luna pressed a button with her right paw, changing the channel to another News station that was displaying another anchor-man sitting at her desk.
"Breaking News!" The 2nd anchor-man began. "The asteroids have infected yet another community-"
Luna changed the channel to another News station, revealing an anchor-woman.
"...Purple astroids..." The anchor-woman said.
Luna changed the channel to a 3rd anchor-man.
"...Anrkon, Ohio..." The 3rd anchor-man said.
Luna changed the channel to a 4th anchor-man.
"...Live footage provided by eye-witnesses..." The 4th anchor-man said.
Luna changed the channel to a 5th anchor-man.
...First view of the total damage..." Said the 5th anchor-man.
Luna changed the channel to a 2nd anchor-woman.
"...Completely damaging the entire city of Arkon and infecting a great number of it's adult population..." Said the 2nd anchor-woman.
Luna changed the channel to 3rd anchor-woman.
"...No statement from mayor Thomas, but he will be holding a press conference at the United Nations with his excellency, Carpathia, earlier tomorrow morning." Said the 2nd anchor-woman. "This will mark the first time that mayor Thomas has spoken publicly since the asteroids' initial impact on Arkon, Ohio in the U.S. ten days ago."
Luna changed the channel to 6th anchor-man.
"Recapping our top story," The 6th anchor-man began. "The city of Arkon, Ohio is just now being evacuated after the asteroids impacted and infected it just ten days ago. The reason why will be revealed in this video that was recorded by an eye-witness during an attempted escape. We now go to anchor-woman, Jennifer Simmons, for video play."
The scene changed to anchor-woman, Jennifer Simmons. "That's right, Dan, we have video. Now, this scene was just forward to us ten days ago. This is a video shot by a male citizen's cell-phone during the attempted evacuation."
The scene then changed to the people of Arkon attempting to leave the damaged infected city, with many leaving in vehicles and some fleeing on foot, then 21 infected adults came out of nowhere, rushing up to 21 other adults, seizing them, opening their mouths, and breathing purple smoke in their mouths, followed by their eyes glowing purple, making them the next infected, then the scene paused.
Everyone in the command-room gasped in horror and shock, all now baring pale, grim expressions on their faces. Words could not describe how they were feeling in that moment, other than the fact that they didn't believe what was playing out on-screen before them. It didn't even feel like they were watching the News anymore, it felt like they were watching a zombie apocalypse movie. Just without the zombies eating people and turning them into the next infected.
"Right there. You saw the infected rush up to 21 of the fleeing adults as the crowd was attempting to leave the city. Now, besides the ill infecting several citizens, we'll back the video up and we want you to pay extra close attention as we run it in slow-motion." Jennifer said. The video re-winded back to the beginning, then it started playing in slow-motion. "The citizens are fleeing the community. And at precisely...this point...there." The scene paused at the infected seizing the 21 adults. "The adults' eyes remain normal for a fraction of a second before glowing purple." She said as the scene of the infected breathing the smoke into the adults' mouths played in slow-motion, followed by their eyes glowing purple. The scene changed back to Jennifer. "Frankly, I'm at a loss for words. All I can do I issue this warning to Americans everywhere in the U.S. The infected infect the healthy. I repeat, the infected infect the healthy."
The scene changed back to the 6th anchor-man known as Dan. "Thank you, Jennifer. And yet another bizarre revelation about the ASTRO-V epidemic. Ten days have passed since this video was made and over 600-percent of the infected have died from exposure to the ice-cold weather. As of now, the city of Arkon is currently evacuating and heading to the airport as we speak. More News after these messages."
Luna pressed a button, followed by the screen between the two pillars behind the control-panel disappearing. The generator was able to keep some of the power on all things considered. The media was all over the story about what they thought was a natural disaster.
"He's showing off. Carpathia, that is." Keji said. He knew that video would not have been aired to the public unless he wanted it to. He did own the News media after all.
Ikuko nodded her head in agreement. "He's trying to make everyone afraid."
"That'll never work though, right?" Naru asked, her blue eyes glancing at everyone in the room in turn. "People won't listen to him when he says to just take the vaccine and everything'll be fine, right?"
Ikuko and Mayumi exchanged grim looks.
Alex looked at Naru and shook his head. "It wouldn't make sense for most people to resist right now. He's controlling the entire world with the GC."
"So what? If everyone fought together, they wouldn't stand a chance." Ruby said.
"Maybe." Cole conceded. "But they won't."
Ruby narrowed her eyes at her brother, Cole, and then looked down, bowing her head. "Maybe. They didn't do anything all the other times the asteroids hit and infected communities. They just locked themselves in their homes and in buildings they were already in and watched and waited until the evacuation was issued."
Everyone was silent. Including Luna. Ruby's words rang true, but there wasn't anything anyone could do at the moment but wait and watch.
Tokyo was a ghost town. For the most part.
The whole city was empty and void of people due to the evacuation, all of the power had gone cut off due to society's absence, the sky was dark and the ground was covered with snow due to the act of the 4th Trumpet Judgement, most of the larger building were damaged and there were several deceased people lying all over the city. Some had been healthy while others had been infected. Either way, they all died from the same thing: Exposure to the ice-cold winter.
Elsewhere, at the Tokyo Mall...
"Remember, only get stuff we need, you two. Alright?" Mercury said as she, Sailor Moon and Venus, all carrying lit lanterns by the handles, rushed inside the building, reminding Senshi duo of what to get.
"Yeah, we know." Sailor Moon said as she, Mercury and Venus each ran over to a shopping-cart, placing the handles of the lanterns on their right wrists, and began pushing it as they ran.
"Okay. Let's go." Venus added.
The Senshi trio gazed around at the inside of the mall as they ran with their shopping-carts. The place was still stocked with all kinds of merchandise, carts were abandoned all over the place, filled with food, clothes and other material items. Whoever had been using them had to have been in the middle of shopping when they heard the evacuation announced by Carpathia and left and never came back to check them out. It was like a re-run of the vanishings two years ago, except there were no clothes and shoes left behind.
The Senshi took off in different directions to do their shopping.
Mercury ended up on the aisle where the paper-towels, hand-soap, wash-rags and dry-off towels were and began filling her cart with them.
Sailor Moon was in the food section, filling her cart with all kinds of food, drinks, desserts and candies, including the ones that were her favorites, as well as several casings of bottled water.
Venus was in the clothes section and was filling her cart with clothes for the refugees, especially clothes and shoes for the kids and teens. She even got some shampoo and make-up for the women, as well as snagged some for herself.
She had filled Sailor Moon and Mercury in on the power shutting off in Tokyo and the command-center and they all came here to get food, clothes and other supplies for the refugees. Once she was done here, the Senshi of love and beauty resumed running down the aisle, exiting it, and soon came to a stop. Before her was the cleaned out Sailor Moon store that had once been filled with all kinds of Senshi merchandise, but had clearly been shut down by the GC. The whole abandoned stocked mall was a constant reminder to her. A reminder of the old world and how much that stuff use to mean. None of it meant anything to anyone anymore. But it was very understandable. One really couldn't expect people to obsess over material items in times of disaster.
"Venus?" Came a female voice from behind.
"Huh?" Venus said as she turned to see Sailor Moon standing behind her filled shopping-cart, bearing a sad expression. "Sailor Moon."
"Are you alright?" Sailor Moon asked.
"Yeah, uh...I was just...remembering how things use to be for us. You know, the good old days." Venus answered and explained.
"I understand." Sailor Moon said, still baring her sad gaze. The world had changed so much since the vanishings and was continuing to do so due to the global winter. The evacuation of society had caused all of the power in Tokyo to shut down, and she imagined it was like this in the other infected evacuated communities over in America too. There were also multiple black-outs across the world due to the ice-cold weather as well. No more electricity...no more running water...no more everything society took for granted. She then thought back to the day she and her class graduated from high school before the 6th Seal was unleashed. That was the last time she saw the majority of them. She guessed they were dead now...like everyone else who had perished in the earthquake/meteor shower. Sailor Moon thought back to all the good times she and her comrads had as friends when their lives were still partly normal, when they were going to school, hanging out at the arcade, at the mall, as restaurants and other girl stuff. But those days were gone. Gone with the old planet Earth.
"You guys!" came a female voice.
Sailor Moon turned to see Mercury running towards her and Venus, with her cart full.
"I got everything we..." Mercury in her tracks. "Huh?" She said, noticing the sad look on Sailor Moon's face, tears forming in her eyes. "Are you okay?"
Sailor Moon was silent for a moment before looking up at the ceiling. "Goodbye, my ordinary life." She thought sadly. "It was fun while it lasted." She had said goodbye to her normal life before after defeating the first card-monster Alan and Ann sent when she was still 14...but this time...she really meant it. There really was no going back to normal this time...for anyone.
Sailor Moon says
Attention all children of Jacksonville, Florida, this is Sailor Moon. I'm not certain when you will get this message, as the computers are likely down along with the lights and the rest of the electrical devices, and I honestly have no idea when they will come back on. Most of the adults in this state are gone, as you must've noticed. This may feel like a dream come true for many. No adults to boss you around, or tell you what to do. But it's not a dream come true.
This is a very, very bad thing. This'll probably go the opposite way, but it's NOT to take advantage of this situation and use it as an excuse to run buck-wild. Rather, you've all got to pull together and help each other. To look out for one another. To take care of other kids who are alone and afraid. My comrades and I will get to the bottom of this mystery and find out what happened to all of the adults and bring them back. Whoever's behind all of this, we will find out who they are and put an end to their plans. Now onto Sailor Mercury.
Hello, children of Jacksonville, I am Sailor Mercury. I must concur with Sailor Moon in regards to the power-outage and the missing adults. With this global ice-winter, I urge you all to stock up on food and drinks, as all food in stores will likely soon go bad due to lack of power. Get ahold of some quilts and mittens to stay warm. And I would advise to find lanterns, and/or flashlights to see in the dark. Keep you fire-places lit and use them to cook with, if you have any in your homes, because chances are the stoves probably aren't working either.
I must advise you and the children of the ASTRO-V infected communities to stock up on medicine in case anyone falling sick during the Global winter, cause it's very likely some of them will. I apologize if this sounds like the 1800s, but with everything that's happening with the epidemic, the ice-cold weather, and the vanishing of Jacksonville's adult society, it's likely that America is slowly heading back there. The same can be said for Tokyo, since it's without power as well. I know this isn't the kind of news any of you want to hear, and I'm not trying to scare them...but it's the truth. And in this new world...the truth is all we have that matters. Now back to you, Sailor Moon.
To the children of ASTRO-V infected communities and Jacksonville and the people of the whole world, I urge you to accept the truth of what the Rabbi, the believers, and those two old men in Israel are saying. You have to receive the Son of man. He is the only way to Heaven and he is the only way any of us are going to make it through this dark age. Only he can save you. Now I'll address a warning to the people who caused the epidemic and made the adults vanish from Jacksonville. The Sailor Senshi and I are coming for you and that we will put an end to your plans. And that's just the least of their worries, for in five years from now when the forces of Heaven arrive on Earth, assuming you're still alive by then. If not...you will find themselves in Hell...for all eternity. By the will of the most High, all evil-doers will be judged. And that...means...YOU.
To be continued...