Episode 1: Chapter 7 - The Enemy
Most of the people who had been in the group had now reached the other side of the road. Some carried on running, others turned around and watched with horror what was happening before their eyes. The aberration which had once been Alice' housemate Cat was unrecognisable. She had turned into a creature nearly twice her size and its screams made everyone recoil in fear. The only thing that reminded Sailor Eissa of what this beast really was, was the short blond hair, which made the look even more grotesque.
Sailor Eissa stood frozen in shock. She saw a long wiry and muscular arm swing at one of her friends and whirl her into the crowd on the other side of the road when she realised that she had to do something. She was now the last one left on this roundabout and the monster gazed at her with its glowing red eyes. They were filled with rage but at the same time, revealed pain.
Sailor Eissa felt her own aggression awake inside herself and suddenly felt that she could beat this thing. While she was running towards it she screamed, "What have you done to my friend!?!" She prepared a kick and was surprised how easy it seemed when it swung at her mid air and threw her into a nearby tree. She felt the wood pierce through her suit and tear at her back as she came tumbling down among branches. In her moment of helplessness she expected the creature to finish her off. But instead it just stood still and looked around. It seemed confused. Desperate Eissa grabbed one end of a branch down by her feet. Her vision was suddenly blurred by tears and as she swung the branch at the creature she shouted "Bring her back!!" The impact made the creature shriek and it looked back at Eissa with horror in its eyes. It hardly seemed hurt at all and Eissa realised that this was a good time to run. So she did.
Panic broke out among the people who had been watching, as the creature ran after Eissa while swinging at everything and everyone along the way. Eissa ran across many roads for many blocks and thought about what she could do. She felt embarrassed and angry as she heard herself screaming for help. Wasn't she supposed to be some kind of super hero? She looked back and realised that the creature was falling behind. It seemed exhausted. Eissa slowed down not wanting to loose sight of it. Just when she thought she couldn't run any further she heard a strong voice shout "Ida Light Encasement!"
She turned around and saw that the monster was glowing with bright light. It was illuminating the street and the buildings nearby. Just behind it appeared Sailor Ida, now running past it and soon joining Sailor Eissa just as she collapsed onto her knees.
"What did you do to her?" she heard Eissa ask nervously.
"I enclosed it with light. It is one of my powers..." Ida answered but before she could carry on she was interrupted by Eissa:
"Well I can see that! But how is that supposed to help???"
Just as Eissa was thinking about all the swear words that could possibly express how confused and angry she was, she realised that the monster had stopped running and seemed disorientated.
"What did you do to her?" she asked again, this time with more interest in hearing the answer.
Ida explained calmly: "Have you ever been inside a lit room and looked outside a window? Have you ever noticed how everything outside that room seemed so much darker than it actually was? That's what it is like for that... her. How do you know it's a she?" she asked Eissa with interest.
"It's Cat! My flat mate! She turned into this thing from one moment to the next. I tried to fight her but she is so strong! I couldn't fight her. It's still Cat in there!" Eissa looked back at the monster. To her surprise it had stopped wandering around and sat down in the middle of the street, seemingly to catch it's breath.
"How do you know that it's still Cat?" Ida asked.
Eissa looked back at her with surprise. "I don't know. I just know."
"Then maybe you know how to turn her back?"
"Me? Why me? How?"
"I don't know how. But there is a reason for both of us being here. And this may be yours!"
She paused as they saw the beast slowly getting back onto its feet. It started screaming again and seemed to look right at them. "Hurry", Ida continued. "It's eyes must have adjusted. Just give it a try. I am sure you can figure it out!"
Eissa got back onto her feet. She closed her eyes and tried to somehow connect to Catherine's conscience slumbering inside the beast. She felt Ida's nervousness and the beast's rage. As she kept on concentrating she could even feel the fear of the people looking down onto the street from their windows above the shops. But she couldn't get through to Cat. She realised that she herself was limiting her skills. Her own defense mechanism that was protecing her from the screaming voices she had heard in the first moment of her transformation back in the little computer room - It was now working against her.
She knew what she had to do and she was scared of it. She didn't want to go back to that dark place that she had escaped from only so recently. And just as she was ready to turn around and run away she felt Ida embracing her as she had done so many times before. Conscience and Soul seems to merge and this young girl of only 14 had enough strength for both of them.
Sailor Eissa let her guard down.
The noise in her head almost knocked her out. Her senses were betraying her. She was seeing a firework of blinding and flashing lights in front of her eyes. She could only hear the screaming cries and feel pain and sadness. She just wanted to go home - Her home as she knew it before the voices reached her. Out of her desire to be alone again she screamed: "Eissa! Solitary conscience!"
Suddenly she found herself in darkness. There was an absolut silence. The only thing reminding her of the real world was the feel of Ida's hands on her shoulders. She seemed to try and drag her away. Eissa resisted. She wanted to stay. Then she heard a faint noise in the distance. She focused all her attention to it and realised that she was listening to Cat's thoughts.
--
Ida could hardly imagine what was going on in her friend's mind. Eissa was just standing there, staring at the beast as it was regaining its strength to launch a new attack. It wasn't in Ida's power to reverse whatever had happened to Catherine. If anyone had any chance of figuring out what was wrong with her then it was Sailor Eissa. She knew what Eissa would have to do to reach her true powers and she could see her resisting the thought of it. In the hope of giving Eissa the strength she needed, Ida embraced her friend as she had done so many times before. She felt soul and conscience merge and after the initial surprise she felt Eissa relax in her arms. A moment later Eissa's eyes suddenly widened and terrible cries followed. She felt Eissa's legs give in and Ida held on to her even stronger. She helped her gently to the ground and held her in her arms. She was trembling. It hurt Ida to see her friend in so much pain and her eyes filled with tears. Then suddenly, among of all the cries Ida heard a phrase that sounded familiar:
"Eissa! Solitary Conscience!"
As soon as Eissa had said the words she stopped crying. She still had her eyes closed and she was breathing heavily. Ida looked up suddenly aware that the source of light was closing in. The beast had launched it's attack.
"Eissa! Wake up! We need to go!!" She tried pulling her away from the approaching beast and after an initial moment of resistance Eissa opened her eyes. She didn't seem to be able to see and her eyes appeared empty. Finally Eissa got to her feet and Ida supported her as they ran off the main road into the nearest alleyway. They kept running, intending to keep the attacker away from the busiest areas of the city, shouting out warnings to any innocents walking the streets. But eventually the beast lost interest in them as it saw a crowd of people sitting at a little group of tables outside a restaurant.
Panic broke out as people saw the furious creature run towards them with it's gaping mouth, eyes wide open and full of rage. Tables and chairs were flying as people tripped and fell. As they heard the screams Ida stopped and turned around with Eissa resting on her shoulder. "Oh no! We need to do something!"
As Eissa signaled her to let her stand alone, Ida noticed that her friend was almost back to full strength. But she still seemed to be in trance. "We need to do something." she heard Eissa repeat and she started walking towards the end of the alleyway out onto the main road with the restaurant. Ida followed carefully at first, but Eissa seemed to have some kind of purpose and quickly picked up in speed.
--
Eissa was vaguely aware of Sailor Ida running after her. She didn't hear the screams of the innocent people. She couldn't feel their fear in her heart. The only thing Sailor Eissa could feel was the sadness of Catherine Brooks.
Words were forming in her mind as she started running towards the beast. It didn't move her heart to see it grabbing a table nearby, holding it up above it's head, screaming it's bad breath down onto the little boy who had been cowering beneath the table. Eissa just kept running, held her left palm towards the creature and just as it was moving the table down towards the innocent she screamed "Eissa Burning Contemplation!"
Magenta Flames appeared out of her hand, whirling around an invisible line originating in her hand and moving towards the beast. This fiery whirlstorm increased in size and whirled faster and faster as it was closing in on the target. A beautiful pelican appeared out of the centre of the whirlstorm with its wings wide spread. It looked transparent and shimmered in shades of blue, purple and magenta. It was a thing of beauty, Eissa thought as she fell onto her knees. As the pelican reached it's target it enclosed it with its wings and then disappeared into thin air, only leaving the flames behind. The beast instantly dropped the table from its hands and held its head. It was now fully surrounded by flames and seemed to be distorted and stretched in all directions. The screams could be heard for miles, but soon they would go over into little sobs, and as the flames disappeared up in the air the beast had disappeared with them and left poor Catherine lying in its place.
Alice didn't see her. She was lying on the ground herself, in her everyday
clothes, exhausted. She felt Ida take her in her arms and mumble some words:
"Its not supposed to be like this. Its not supposed to be like this..."
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