Character Sketches #1, Sailor Mercury - Part I, "Mizuno the Senshi"
Chapter 7: In which we receive exposition, and escape is made, yet despair survives.

NEAR TOKYO (Reuters)-Pleas for assistance went out all over the world today as Japan struggles to recover from a stunning attack by supernatural beings yesterday evening.

It began midafternoon, and continued into the night, leaving thousands dead or injured, millions homeless, and Tokyo in ruins that many natives compared to the devastation seen in the Second World War. No signs of the attackers have returned.

As of now, Red Cross workers, along with military units from the Philippines and China, have been scrambling to provide food and shelter to those displaced by the attacks. Many are now living in tent cities in the hills and mountains surrounding the Tokyo area.

Also today, the Acting Prime Minister ordered the mandatory evacuation of several nearby cities, citing the risk posed by the possible return of the attackers. Mr. Haruna has temporarily replaced Prime Minister Michosaki, who has been one of the many missing since yesterday.

Another worry circulating around the refugee camps is the disappearance of the Sailor Senshi, apparently the only ones who were able to be of help in the attack. The schoolgirls, who recently came public, were last reported to be in the battle for Tokyo, but no further word has been received, and many presume them to be dead.

Meanwhile, the UN security council has called an emergency meeting to discuss the situation, scheduled for 2pm Greenwich time. One of the prime issues sure to be discussed is the deployment of a joint armed force to combat the attackers. A prime opponent of this, however, will be the United States.

President Clinton, embattled with the opposition party in his own country, and facing a sweeping loss of votes in the US congress, has been seen by many observers as having his hands full with domestic crises. Many doubt that either he or the American people are willing to take part in a peacekeeping action in Japan.

Darkness.

And then...

"Fiat lux," whispered Mercury, as bright floodlights came on, revealing their rather dank surroundings. "As long as you can keep your sense of humor..." she thought. She looked about, displeased by what she saw.

The senshi were in a room whose floor was about the size of a basketball court, with stone walls dripping moisture. The low ceiling was bristling with stalactites, and the floor wasn't much better, undulating and bumpy. The impression one got was one of barely contained malevolence.

For their part, the senshi were bound by icy metal clamps to the slimy wall. After a quick test, Mercury decided that she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. She looked to her right at Jupiter and Venus, and to her left at Mars and Moon. Obviously, their captors hadn't foreseen the problems inherent in this particular arrangement. There was still hope, even in a seemingly hopeless situation. She looked up, and saw the unexpected.

Their captor.

She was middle aged, and wore attire as incongruous to their surroundings as the senshi's. With her mid-length red skirt and white blouse, she looked more like a stewardess than a master of evil, if you overlooked her lack of irises.

"Welcome to your doom," she said. She watched their looks of surprise with interest. "Oh, I *am* a stewardess, in case you were wondering. It's a bit hard to get rid of the voice. Anyway, the Master will be here shortly to take care of you, so I'm here to answer any questions you might have."

"Yeah," said Jupiter, "I've got a few questions. How are you going to handle THIS!?! SPARKLING WIDE PRESSURE!"

The customary light and sound show failed to follow.

"Oh, I'm sorry, was I supposed to flinch?" said the stewardess/captor with barely concealed malice. "Did I forget to say that your binds are composed of pure dark energy? You might get through them in a few thousand years." She looked at her watch. "Too bad you've only got fifteen minutes."

Mercury decided to keep their captor talking--it seemed their only option. "So, um, how'd-"

"-I get involved in a maniacal plot to take over the world?" their host finished in a mockery of Mercury's voice. "Well, I was...recruited...so to speak. You remember those silly crystals your friends Nephrite and Zoisite were hunting for? Oh, don't look so surprised. My Master has been watching you for quite some time, and I am well acquainted with your exploits."

She began pacing and drew close enough for the senshi to see her name tag: Ann Hathaway. "Anyway, it's kind of like that. I, and several others, were prophesied long ago to be the chosen: those who would arise and join the Master in unleashing the forces of the Dark upon the Earth."

Jupiter struggled to keep up. "You mean, like Queen Beryl and Metallia?"

Hathaway laughed. It was not a pleasant sound. "Beryl was a mere babe. She didn't have half the power or self control the Master has. She would cower in fear if she were ever to see the Master face to face."

"And you don't?" asked Mars defiantly.

"I have never seen the Master in his true form, and I never will, until he gains final dominion over the Earth."

"Why?"

"Usagi no baka!"

"Oh, no, it's quite a valid question. The answer, my inquisitive little Tsukino Usagi, Sailor Moon, Princess Serenity, late Neo-Queen, is that the Master is all that you call evil. All the hate, all the ill-will, everything you pitiful girls claim to be against."

"But that doesn't explain anything!"

"On the contrary," said a baritone, "it explains everything." The speaker emerged from a previously unnoticed door. He looked like any other man you might find on the streets of Tokyo. "You and I, Sailor Moon, are at opposite poles. It's only natural that we should fight; indeed, nothing could be more natural. Once I have destroyed you-"

"Over my dead body!" shouted Mars.

"-destroyed you," he continued, "I will complete my conquest of Japan, and the world. Why? Because," he said as he drew to within a meter of Mars, "I can, and will."

To her sharply trained senses, the evil emanating from this man was overpowering. She did the only thing she could think of.

"Ptooie!"

The man had an amused look as he eyed the wad of sputum which hovered five centimeters from his nose. "Ah, but I thought your parentless friend Mercury had the water talents, eh?" He telekinetically allowed the saliva to fall harmlessly to the floor and continued over to Mercury.

"Ah, poor Ami. Her dad skipped out on her, and her mom hasn't been the same since mean old Dr. Hastings gave her a tongue lashing in front of the whole ER. Does terrible things for a woman's self-confidence, I'll say."

He walked away and looked meditatively at them. "You realize, of course, that your friend Mercury will have to go first."

Gasps came from the senshi.

"Oh, don't look so surprised. Don't you know that she is the one who can defeat me at this time? Or didn't your precious Queen Serenity pass that little bit of advice down for you? Oh, I remember." By now the malice and sarcasm in his voice was practically pooling on the floor. "She never went for that sort of thing. Too bad: things might have gone better for her if she had."

He went over to Hathaway, spoke a single word, and twirled a stand of her hair around. She didn't appear to protest, or consent, or do anything; in fact, she wasn't moving at all. "She was warned, you know. Too bad she didn't take heed. If she had, the change in events would have led to my victory ages ago. Now I'll just have to make do with what I have now."

Mercury looked at their captor in despair. It seemed there was nothing left to do. No powers, bound by unbreakable metal, nowhere to hide, no Tuxedo Kamen atop a lamppost. It was the end. But....

Moon looked at their captor with resignation. They'd fought the good fight and lost. Here was their yet unidentified executioner, powering up for the blast, and....

"Master!"

The master turned in annoyance. "What is it *now,*, you pitiful-"

Before the senshi could see who had just spoken, an ear-shattering shriek came from the direction of the stewardess.

"NO!!!" The stewardess broke free from the Master's grasp and raced to an unremarkable portion of the wall. It bent inwards as a door, through which she ran.

"Dammit...I *knew* that control spell wasn't strong enough! Well, my friends, it seems I have a loose cannon here. I'll be back to finish you off!" He turned and walked briskly to the new exit.

The utter hopelessness of the situation was the only thing keeping Sailor Moon calm at this point. "Mercury, do you see any way out of this?"

"If she does, she deserves every penny the PM was offering," said Venus, who was busy looking around for whoever had distracted the Master at that critical time.

"Well, Hathaway said that our bonds were pure evil, right? So I think that if the polar opposite of that were to touch them, it would be-"

"Similar to a matter-antimatter reaction?"

"Exactly, Sailor Moon! You *have* learned something in school!"

"Don't buy it, Mercury," said Mars. "She was just interested in the raisin-cake model of universal expansion that day. She learned it by accident."

Foreseeing another argument, Mercury decided to finish. "However, the energy yield would be intangible, since it would be, in theory, opposite to both good and evil at the same time."

"Nani?"

"She means," translated Venus tentatively, "that if we touch the bonds with our henshin sticks, the bonds will disappear with no harmful effects to us. Right?"

"Basically."

"Wonderful." Jupiter now proceeded to summon her henshin stick out of nowhere and, with not a little bit of effort, twist her hand around to touch the dull silver ring that bound her wrist.

With a soundless explosion, the ring disappeared, and Jupiter was left swinging by one arm. A bit of work with the stick took care of this, and soon she stood on the lumpy ground. Looking about, she saw that the others had also gotten free (with Sailor Moon having one of her more and more rare klutz attacks), and were now looking about for possible threats.

"Should we find that Master guy?"

"Well, I think that-"

"We go."

The authoritative command from Moon stopped Mars and Mercury from carrying on their dispute. "We need to fall back, get ourselves back together, and come back here on our own terms." She looked at Mars with a mixture of disdain and dismissal. "You aren't the only spiritualist around here. I could read that guy's aura, and we're going to have to be rested before we go against him. Get ready to teleport."

There was no arguing with that. As they arranged themselves in a circle and said the words that have been well chronicled elsewhere, Jupiter noticed some movement in a shadow. Her turn came.

"JUPITER PLANET POWER!"

The form moved out from the shadow, but no-one else seemed to see it. As the last words were uttered, she felt the familiar surge of power. Then their surroundings began to fade out, and she saw the form's face.

And then the face of Ayumi Mizuno was replaced with a smoking ruin, which fit in rather well with the dark gray skies which loomed overhead.

"What is this?" asked Venus. "We were supposed to 'port to the shrine!"

Mars walked off and picked up a singed two-by-four which lay upon the floor. Under it were some manga and a few letters. She grabbed one for closer inspection.

"These are mine...," she thought. "Uh," she said aloud, "not to disappoint you, but...this is the shrine."

The senshi looked at what was left of Hikawa Shrine. Then, as one, they looked off in the distance. A smudge of smoke covered a quarter of the horizon.

"Then," finished Venus, "that's Tokyo."

"Used to be," corrected Mercury.

Sailor Moon pulled her scepter out from nowhere and cradled it in one arm.

"It will be again." She looked up at the rising moon with tears in her eyes, as it struggled to poke through the cloudbank and smoke.

"After whoever's responsible for this pays."