http://clampfix.fanworks.net/guests/quake2.txt </head><body><pre> LITTLE EARTHQUAKES: Chapter 2 Horn stood alone atop the central tower of Sforzando. Beneath her gaze stretched her kingdom, as far as the ring of mountains at the horizon, remnant of an earth-shaking battle whose name noone remembered. To protect this kingdom, she had estranged herself from her remaining child and staked her soul on the effort to destroy the demons...but it hadn't been enough. Those demons were on the move again, desecrating everything her lineage had cherished for centuries and leaving behind nothing but death and ruin. And now one of those demons waited in the shadows, seeking her assistance to betray its own kind. Horn's face did not muster enough humor to smile at the irony. * * * "_Damn_ this traffic," Minako muttered to herself. She knew it was supposed to be bad in this city, but this was ridiculous! Sitting in a cab for fourty- five minutes and not even moving two kilometers: in Tokyo it would have been the matter of a couple minutes on the subway. As she absently stroked Artemis (tucked inside her backpack), she thought about what the Interpol officers had said. * * * "Come forth," Horn commanded. The shadow emerged from the entrance to the tower stairs and floated silently to the appointed spot at the exact center of the kekkai. The cloudy sky was a sullen grey, lightening with each passing moment as the sun attempted to peak over the rim of the horizon. Closing her eyes against the gray light, she began the ancient chant. * * * Somewhere in the middle of downtown Tokyo, Subaru Sumeragi was having problems at the grocery store. His sister Hokuto had been adamant: he wasn't welcome back in the apartment unless he returned with the ingredients for her special curry, which included at least a dozen potent and expensive spices not normally part of the Japanese diet. To make matters worse, the store he was visiting was holding a large sale to rid itself of excess merchandise, crowding every aisle with bargain seekers. Amidst a profusion of "Sumimasen"s he somehow managed to squeeze his way next to the spice rack, sandwiched between two middle-aged housewives gossiping animatedly about their favorite soap opera. Sighing delicately beneath his hat, he extracted Hokuto's list from his pocket with one black-gloved hand. * * * "Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name." Far overhead, the clouds began to swirl slowly, drawing turgidly into a great vortex. A deep rumbling, felt more than heard, began to vibrate the stones of the palace. * * * Damn damn _damn_, he thought furiously. Tearing his gaze from the taillights in front of him, he punched the Redial button on his cellular phone and cursed his job for not letting him oversleep in peace. (Ring.) And now a bloody _traffic_jam_ on top of his tardiness and pounding headache! What next? (Ring.) Why wouldn't his boss let him telecommute and save him the aggravation of this commute every day? It simply (ring) made no sense. The hand on the steering wheel tightened around the molded rubber. Just _great_. (Ring.) (Click.) "Hello, you have reached the office of Dan Porterman. He is out or unable to answer the..." (Click!) He furiously punched the disconnect button and forced himself to put down the handset gently. He sighed deeply, trying to find some measure of peace within his own mind where none seemed to exist in the world outside. No sense in damaging something that hadn't done him any harm. * * * "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven." The swirling of the clouds increased in speed, opening a clear spot opening in the center of the vortex directly above the tower. The winds were now strong enough to pull at Horn's cloak, though the shadow seemed unaffected. * * * Now _this_ was what a sale was supposed to be about! Tsukino Usagi sighed happily, closing her eyes in rapture as she hugged her shopping bag full of sweets to her chest. For the price of one chocolate parfait at Cafe Le Petit she was getting enough goodies to last an entire week, and even her mother couldn't complain that she was spending too much money! "Rei-chan, which do you like better, vanilla or strawberry-cream cookies?" She turned around to face her friend, expecting some snappy answer. Instead she found Rei staring into space with a look of intense anxiety on her face. "Rei...chan?" "Quiet!" she hissed. "Can't you feel it? Something...something is coming!" "Something...?" Usagi asked, staring in confusion at Rei as the other shoppers crowded around. "What're you talking about?" Rei was apparently too lost in concentration to answer. "Rei-chan?" Usagi asked more insistently, trying to get closer to be heard. In the next aisle over Subaru was carefully sniffing a jar of curry powder to verify it was the kind Hokuto wanted when he felt it. Somewhere in the distance, how far away he couldn't tell, was flowing a torrent of _cold_, widening rivulets flowing past him and chilling his soul. He stood stock still, trying to understand the flow of spiritual power that was getting stronger by the moment. There was something ancient about it, something vaguely monstrous. He had never felt anything like it before. * * * "Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." Lightning flashed across the clouds, making the skin crawl and assaulting the senses with the crashing of thunder. The hollow roar of the storm had now reached an audible pitch, clouds beginning to funnel down from the heavens as though reaching for the tower. Far below, the residents of the city cowered in their beds, shutters closed tight against the tempest. They had no name for their dread. * * * Six mothers, they had said. Six teen mothers, all forced into prostitution before age seventeen for the sake of their addition, had been given the crystal meth. The substance caused vasoconstriction throughout the body, causing blood pressure to rise and inducing feelings of euphoria. That blood pressure increase could also rupture the delicate blood vessels in a developing fetus, damaging or ending the new life before it could begin. Which was exactly why the dealers had done it. Unfortunately, they hadn't known the right dosage... Minako sighed deeply, closing her eyes and grimacing in sorrow. Five of them had suffered major strokes, three dying on the spot. If one of the other two hadn't known enough sign language to communicate with the nurse at the hospital the tale would never have even been told. Artemis, sensing Minako's anguish through her fingers, rubbed himself against her hand and purred in an effort to raise her spirits. Bastards, she thought. They were going down, and going down _hard_. What she and the other Sailors had done to Beryl and her minions was going to be like a slap on the wrist compared to what she was going to do to them... * * * "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." The cone of clouds lashed down and surrounded the tower, straining at every stone as though to tear it free from its foundations. The clouds bore the texture of polished glass as they spun around the two figures, lightning illuminating the path through the funnel to the sky above. The noise from the sky now sounded one continuous note, resonating like the aftertone of a great belltower. The shadow lowered its gaze momentarily, a final gesture of gratitude. * * * "Damn it!" Rei shouted, dropping her bags of food to the floor and shoving her way toward the door. "Rei-chan, what's going on? Wait! Wait for me!" Usagi had no idea what had come over her friend, but whatever it was it was scaring her half to death. She tried to follow Rei through the agitated shoppers without losing her hold on her goodies, but had them knocked from her hands before she was halfway to the door. "Rei! Wait!!" Worried almost to tears, Usagi managed finally to break free of the crowd in time to catch sight of Rei running back toward Higawa Shrine. She began to run after her. "Please wait!!" Subaru barely caught sight of the pair leaving the store. He felt power emanating from the girl in the lead, a power similar to his own. Did she have something to do with this feeling? Where was she going? He tried to make his way away from the spice rack, but before he could move more than half a yard a blinding flash of light in his head blotted all surroundings from his mind. * * * "For Thine is the Kingdom. And the Power. And the Glory, forever. Amen." At that instant, the sun rose above the line of the mountains on the horizon. Everything exploded into blinding white light, burning away all thoughts of anything else. There came a great feeling of pushing, straining, like that of a mother giving birth, and then resounding stillness as the clouds and the light abruptly dissipated, spreading as fog across the city as the hole to the clear sky above was lost. Horn collapsed to the stone floor, barely able to retain her grasp on her staff. Gathering what remained of her gown around her with what little strength was left, she looked up to where the shadow had stood. It was gone. * * * _Finally_, an open side street! he thought, stomping on the accelerator in gratitude. The twin turbochargers attached to the engine made a muted whine as the car accelerated through fourty miles per hour, sliding sinuously past the cars waiting to turn left at the light. "Yes," he muttered under his breath, gaze locked onto the street ahead of him as the G-forces pushed him back and sideways into his seat, "Praise the Lord." Just as the car entered the intersection, white light exploded into his field of view from a spot some distance in front of him. His eyes screwed themselves shut in pain, but the blinding light didn't stop. Somehow, he could discern a dark shadow, silhouetted against the light: the shadow of a person. And he was heading right for it! At the last moment he frantically spun the steering wheel counterclockwise in an attempt to avoid a collision. He barely had a chance to hear the squealing of rubber before the front end of the car smashed into an oncoming delivery truck, the car crumpling and beginning to flip into the air as its airbag deployed. The last thing he sensed before the car crashed upside down into another vehicle was an impression of eyes, glowing violet, watching from inside the light. </pre><p><a href="./">Back</a></p><p><a href=http://www.dreamhost.com/donate.cgi?id=216><img border=0 alt="Donate towards our web hosting bill!" src=https://secure.newdream.net/donate1.gif></a></p></body></html>