Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Blinded By Science ❯ Future Shock ( Chapter 7 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

BLINDED BY SCIENCE
Chapter 7: "Future Shock"

by Bill K.

Usagi and Makoto ambled toward the Tsukino residence. Makoto had her arm around
Usagi for moral support as they slowly walked down the street. The sun had set in the west and
the light of this terrible day was quickly fading.

"I feel like I should be doing something," Usagi moaned. "How can I just go home and
sleep while Ami's out there alone and friendless in the hands of Viluy?"

"What can you do?" Makoto shrugged. "Worrying's not going to help. The others are
doing what they can to find her."

"But I should be doing something." Usagi wiped her eye with her finger. "If I wasn't so
stupid and helpless, I could be doing something, too."

"We each do what we do best," Makoto whispered, for emotion had robbed her
temporarily of her voice. "This is just as hard for me as it is for you. Losing Ami would be like
losing a sister to me - - and I've lost enough family. But I'm just like you. I'm no good with the
scientific stuff. Point me in the direction of someone who needs to be hit and I'm your girl. But
until Artemis or Minako or Rei or somebody comes up with somebody to hit, I'm useless."

Usagi looked up at her friend sympathetically. Makoto grinned back.

"All we can do is wait for them," Makoto told her. "The minute they point, we need to be
ready to act. Until then, we can only wait."

"OK," Usagi whispered. Makoto watched her walk up to her front door, then headed for
her apartment. Usagi entered and no sooner had her shoes off then her mother came rushing up.

"There you are!" Ikuko gasped. "How long does it take to shop for a wedding gown? I've
been frantic with worry!"

"Did I forget to call?" Usagi asked, stricken by her mother's concern. "I'm sorry, Mom.
It's just - - something came up."

"Did it spoil your dinner?" scowled Ikuko.

"Not that! Something's happened to Ami!"

"Ami?" Ikuko gasped.

"Not so loud. It's Sailor business."

"Oh," Ikuko said numbly. "Is she all right?"

"I hope so," Usagi said. "Mom, I may need to go out later on short notice."

"I'll cover for you," Ikuko smiled.

"Is Daddy home?"

"Yes. Your father's in his den talking with Mamoru."

"Mamo-chan?" Usagi cried with alarm. "They're alone? Together?"

"Usagi," Ikuko began to comfort her.

"Daddy'll kill him!" Usagi squealed and frantically tore for the den. She burst through the
door without knocking. "DADDY, PLEASE DON'T . . .!"

Kenji and Mamoru looked up at her with confusion. Each man was sitting in a chair.
There was no blood. There were no bruised fists or missing limbs. Usagi looked around,
confused by the lack of mayhem.

"Princess?" Kenji asked.

"Um," Usagi started to say, then trailed off. "Is, um, everything all right?"

Mamoru tried to stifle a laugh. Even Kenji saw the humor in the situation.

"Don't worry, Princess, I wasn't going to kill him," Kenji smiled. "Mamoru and I were
just - - discussing your future."

"About that," Usagi said, her gaze falling to the floor. "Mamo-chan, please don't give up
your medical studies. I don't want you to do that. I want you to become a wonderful doctor."

"You see, Mamoru, it's two against one now," Kenji grinned. "I've been trying to
convince him of the same thing."

"But Usako, I don't want to deprive you of your art studies," Mamoru told her. "I don't
want you to have to give up your dream just to get a job to support me. I wouldn't feel right."

"I've got to side with him there, Princess," Kenji said. "I've seen how happy you are when
you draw. I know you can be successful at it. But the longer you wait, the further off that
success might be."

"Then there's only one thing to do," Usagi said with a sadness that threatened to crush her
very being. "We can't get married, Mamo-chan - - not until one of us graduates and is
successful." A tear trickled down her cheek. Mamoru looked at her like she'd just carved his
heart out with a knife.

"No, there's another way," Kenji said. "I could pay your expenses until one of you can
establish a career."

"Daddy!" Usagi squealed joyously.

"Just a minute, Sir," Mamoru interrupted. "I appreciate the offer and the good will behind
it, but I'm not a charity case." Usagi stared at him impatiently.

"I don't look at it as charity, Mamoru," Kenji replied, surprised by his reaction. "I look at
it as a gift. I'm in a giving mood. I'm already giving you my most prized possession - - the
money hardly matters as much."

"Yes, Mamo-chan, it's a gift!" Usagi added.

"It's too much, Sir," Mamoru replied, trying to be diplomatic. "I couldn't."

"All right then, if it's that important to you, don't consider it a gift," Kenji said. "Consider
it a loan. Keep track of every yen and pay me back when you're able - - with interest if your pride
demands it."

"You'd charge your own daughter interest?" Usagi howled.

"Usako!" scowled Mamoru. "Sir . . ."

"Mamoru, it's hard enough for me coming to terms with the fact that my little girl loves
another man besides me. Please don't make this any harder. Your first concern should be with
making her happy, not soothing your pride. Take the loan and make her happy."

Mamoru dropped his head. "I guess I am being a little stubborn, huh? I just - - don't like
being obligated to people. I suppose your way is the best way." He held his hand out to Kenji.
"Thank you for all your help."

Kenji grasped the hand. "Make my daughter happy. That's all I ask."

"I'll do my very best, sir," Mamoru said.

"OHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Usagi cried. With tears streaming down her cheeks, she
wrapped her arms around the necks of the two men and pulled them both close.
- - - -
The priest peeked into the room where Rei kept her fire pit. The fire in the pit was
blazing. Rei, however, was slumped to the side of it. An expression of infinite sadness came
over his pumpkin-like face. The old man turned from the scene and disappeared down the hall.

Moments later he returned carrying a bucket of water in one hand and a cup in the other.
He sat the bucket down near the fire, then scooped up a cup of water. Kneeling down beside his
granddaughter, the priest rolled her head into his lap and began dabbing cooling water onto her
feverish brow. When Rei finally began to stir, he took up the cup and held it to her lips.

"G-Grampa?" Rei whispered. She was disoriented and her voice was faint. "What . . .?"

"Drink first," he advised her gently. Tilting the cup to her lips, he fed her a few sips of
water, then eased it away. "You can't force the fire to tell you what it doesn't know. All you do
is succumb to the heat."

"Did I faint?" she whispered distantly.

"Yes," he said, stroking her forehead with wet fingers. "And your fire was too high. You
only succeeded in hurting yourself, not bending the kami to your will."

"It," she said, burning now with shame, "it was important."

"It usually is," he replied knowingly.

Rei sat up and turned to him, her eyes wide with shock.

"You know," she said.

"I know a lot of things," her grandfather smiled. "You get to be my age, you can't help
it."

"Grampa," she said sharply, "who always demanded honesty from me?"

"Some old fool who isn't as wise as he pretends to be," the old man replied.

"Grampa," Rei glared.

"All right. Yes, I know you're Sailor Mars. I've known it for a while. That's the problem
with having the sight - - even what little sight I have - - you can't turn it off."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you would have told me when you wanted me to know," he told her. "Because
you're practically an adult now and you had to be an adult far faster than you should have, so you
knew what you were doing. And you had a reason for not wanting me to know and it was up to
me to respect that reason." He looked down, tortured it seemed by memories of his own. "And
I've always known that your power gave you added responsibilities in this world. If you were
burdened by worrying about how I might react because I knew you had a higher calling in life,
you might not be as effective. It was better for all that you thought I was - - ignorant of things."

Rei and her grandfather stared at each other, their deepest feelings laid bare before the
other.

"That's the biggest load of crap I've ever heard," she smirked, giving him an out.

"Maybe, but you have to admit it sounded beautiful," he volleyed. Each one was allowed
to retreat behind his or her protective facade again. The priest got up and doused the fire with the
remaining water.

"Guess it's time to rest, huh?" Rei asked.

"You've done all you can for tonight. Go to bed. Maybe the truth you seek is trying to
reach you through your dreams, not the fires. The sooner you go to sleep, the sooner you'll find
out."

"Right, Grampa," Rei smiled, picking herself up off the floor.

"By the way, did you ever locate your friend Ami?"

Rei said nothing. Her look communicated it all.

"I see," the priest murmured. "I'll say a prayer for her."
- - - -
The shuffle of sandals on the floor outside their room caused Luna to stir from her
slumber. She looked up and realized it was the shrine's priest walking the halls. Her head moved
around the room to check on Artemis, because if the priest came in and found Artemis still on his
computer, Rei would have a lot of explaining to do.

She found him hip deep in the head of the android.

"Artemis, are you still puttering about with that infernal machine?" Luna hissed. "It's
nearly dawn!"

"HMM?" Artemis called out from the metal housing.

"Quietly, imbecile, or the priest will hear us!" Luna snapped. She strolled over to a spot
about five feet from the android so Artemis wouldn't have to shout. She'd get closer, but she still
didn't trust the thing. "What are you doing in there?"

"This android was broadcasting low-band video and audio signals back to whoever made
it," Artemis said, poking his head out of the housing.

"Whomever," Luna corrected him. "I thought you said it was inert."

"It is. It was broadcasting while it was functioning. Thing is," and the white cat tugged
out a snarl of circuitry between his paws, "I might be able to hook this up to my computer and get
a carrier signal going. Once I get that, I should be able to trace it to the receiver that's getting the
signal."

"Excellent work, Artemis!" Luna praised him.

"Don't jump for joy yet," the white cat told her as he spliced the circuit into a jack and
plugged the jack into his computer. "I have to get a carrier wave established first. I'm assuming
its not damaged by the fire and there aren't any anti-pirate booby-traps in here."

"That said, it's an excellent piece of detective work." Luna leaned over and tenderly
licked his whiskers. "You've earned that."

"Hey," Artemis grinned, momentarily thrown off balance. "Um, thanks."

Luna smiled as Artemis went back to work. It almost seemed like he was blushing. The
black cat suddenly felt warm.

"I must find a way to put my fears aside and marry that cat," Luna thought.

"It's looking good," Artemis nodded, absorbed by his screen. "I've got a signal and it's
broadcasting out."

"Jolly good!" Luna smiled.

"Now if I can get a triangulation before Viluy realizes a signal is coming in, we'll have a
place to start looking."

"What if your signal is detected?"

"It could tip Viluy off that I'm trying to trace her. She's smart enough to notice if she's
looking for it or has some sort of detector warning. But it's a chance we have to take. I don't
have any other way of tracking Ami if this flops."

The white cat studied the computer screen for several tense moments. Luna watched him
the entire time, hoping with all her being that he would succeed, for his sake as much as for
Ami's.

"Got it!" Artemis exclaimed. "Get the senshi, Luna. We need to move fast!"

"Right!" Luna produced her senshi communicator. "Usagi? Come in, Usagi." She
waited a few moments. "COME IN, USAGI!"

"Mmmf! 'm here, Luna," Usagi replied in a groggy voice.

"We've had a breakthrough. You need to come immediately."

"You've found Ami?" Usagi mumbled. "I'll be there as fast as I can!" She stifled a yawn
and disconnected.

"I would have thought something like this would have awakened her a little faster,"
Artemis commented sourly.

"Actually that was quite fast for her," Luna grinned. "Normally it takes me three times as
long to wake her." Luna changed the frequency to Minako's setting.
- - - -
By experimentation, Ami found that by typing two words in succession, the vocal
synthesizer would pronounce them in close enough proximity to sound like a single word.

"Merc Curie," Ami typed and the synthesizer dutifully repeated.

Ami typed again.

"Crystal," the synthesizer said. Viluy obviously hadn't known about her new power phrase
and that word was still in the vocabulary file.

Ami typed the next two words.

"Pow her," the synthesizer said.

This was the moment of truth. Would she transform? Ami typed in the last two words.

"May cup," the synthesizer said.

Instantly her henshin stick began to glow. The familiar feeling came over her, that feeling
she got during transformation that her body was energizing, growing and shifting into something
approximately like her, but not really. During transformation, she would always glow so brightly
that she seemed to be just an outline save for her uniform weaving itself around her. Ami stood
up, backing away from the desk into the center of the cubicle.

Just as instantly as it appeared, the sensation of transformation faded. It was a common
sensation to her, but just to be sure Ami looked down at her hands. White gloves with blue
bands at the elbow decorated them. Giddy with excitement, Sailor Mercury reached up and
pulled at the band around her throat. However, even with her augmented vitality, the band
refused to part. Mercury grimaced in frustration.

Suddenly, wide-eyed, she glanced over at the corner of the room. She'd forgotten the
monitoring cameras. Knowing Viluy, Mercury had to expect that her transformation was
common knowledge. Diving back into the seat, Mercury began furiously typing.

"She told me my transformation phrase was stricken from the vocabulary file," Mercury
thought as she typed. "She didn't say my attack phrases were. Oh I hope she didn't feel it was
necessary!"

Mercury finished typing even as the first syllable modulated from the synthesizer.
Quickly she sprang out of the chair and pointed her hands at the near wall of the cubicle.

"Shine Aqua Illusion," reported the synthesizer.

The freezing attack sprang from her fingers just as always and Mercury allowed herself a
moment of elation. The attack slammed against the plastic wall of the cubicle, instantly
flash-freezing the entire wall into an opaque block of ice.

Knowing how brittle frozen surfaces were, Mercury picked up the chair and desperately
swung it against the frozen wall. The chair bounced away, nearly throwing Mercury off of her
feet. Gritting her teeth, she picked the chair up and swung it again harder. Plastic made brittle as
glass by the temperatures nearing absolute zero splintered and exploded outward. Dropping the
chair, Mercury kicked out broken shards of the wall until she had a clear path out of the cubicle.
Bending down, she reached for a particularly jagged shard to try to cut off the band around her
throat.

"MIZUNO!" she heard Viluy roar.

Looking up, Mercury found Viluy in the doorway to the room. She had an impressive-looking
hand weapon and was bringing it to bear on Mercury. The rage in her face told Mercury she was
ready to use it.

Mercury countered by throwing the jagged shard at Viluy. It wasn't necessary that the
shard hit. As long as it made her duck or flinch away, it served its purpose. As Viluy avoided
the shard, Mercury had her visor down and was scanning the walls for another way out. Finding
one to her left, the senshi ran for it even as Viluy squeezed off a wild shot in an attempt to bring
her down. An energy discharge ricocheted harmlessly off the wall behind her.

"Some sort of energy weapon, perhaps meant to perform a similar function to a taser,"
Mercury analyzed as she reached the door. "At least she's not trying to kill me!"

Reaching the door, Mercury found it opened automatically. Not questioning her luck, the
senshi barreled through the doorway and into the darkness behind it. Only her visor's sensor
array allowed her to see where she was going. In fact, the visor gave her a schematic of the halls
ahead, what rooms they led to and which one led to an outer door. Guided by her visor, Mercury
navigated the halls at top speed. All the while she heard Viluy's footsteps in pursuit, clicking
down the hall behind her.

"Lucky for me she's wearing heels," Mercury thought.

A hatch lay ahead. Her visor told her that behind the hatch was hardened earth and some
stray vegetation. It was a way out and she raced for it. Reaching the door, though, Mercury
found that it was locked and held by a computer code.

Keeping her cool, Mercury summoned her senshi computer and engaged a program. The
computer broadcast a signal to the computer lock and in a single second tried multiple codes on
the lock. The two thousand three hundred and fourth code sprung the lock. Mercury slammed
down on the crash bar and shoved out into the outer environment.

Once outside, though, the senshi stumbled to a stop, overcome by shock and awe. The
sky was a deathly purple, choked by smoke and a sickly haze. Ruts scarred the ground, evidence
of past weapons fire. The earth was scorched and blackened by previous fire or radiation - - or
both. What little vegetation grew was gnarled and close to the ground. Mercury surveyed the
land for as far as her visor could see, her mouth opened in shock.

"What happened to the Earth?" she wondered, her great mind reeling.

Continued in Chapter 8