The Armor of the Soul

By Dixxy

Chapter Three: The Demon Arises

(Ria)

The next few days were uneventful, aside from school. A kid puked in the hallway, Rona's lab partner blew up one of the science labs and both got detentions for a week (Rona was probably flirting with him), Keisha broke another track record, Sam got into fights, the usual. No messages in blood, no Tin Heads, it seemed like maybe it was a false alarm.

It didn't stop us from keeping on our toes, though.

The eye opener happened on my walk home from school. I was thinking over the math test I had the pleasure of studying for when I felt a chill run up and down my spine. I knew my armor was reacting. I turned my head a few times and a saw a shadowy figure in the alleyway. Wildfire of the Senshi nearly took control.

Once I was sure it was just me and the shadowy figure, I casually walked across the street towards it, acting as if I didn't notice.

"You can't fool us, Wildfire girl."

I froze. Yup. The Dynasty was back. I shook.

The figure, which I still couldn't clearly see any distinctive figures aside from the fact it wore a hat and a trench coat, laughed. Its voice was an echo, kind of like there was more than one person talking. He (I assumed it was a he) reached out for me. I yelped and leapt away.

"What are you!?" I demanded.

"You will know in great time, our dear Senshi- GAH!" The demon clutched its head and fell to the ground, moaning in pain. What had caused it?

"What the heck?!" I asked.

"Stupid. . . pests. . . AH!" cried the demon, suddenly seeming much better. "Now, where were we? Oh yes, Mistress Trulpa has sent us here to destroy you and your friends."
"It won't happen, weirdo. We're stronger than that!" I said.

He laughed. "Yeah, yeah, sure, whatever, we think we'll just kill you now."

I thought about what he said for a fraction of a second before I bolted.

~

"Why did you run?" asked Sam. We had all since gathered at the Quincy Market cafeteria. We all had drinks and junk food while we discussed what had happened to me on the walk home from school.

"Hey, if I got into a fight with him some innocent people could get hurt, and if I just let him kill me. . ." I said.

Rona took another sip of her smoothie. "I'm going to say that whatever that thing was, Mr. Trench Coat, has not only a connection to Trulpa, but probably a connection to your mirror," she said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Sara took another chip. "What she means is that you royally ticked off Trulpa, so now she's sending some Dynasty hit man to scare the crap outta you before it kills you. We gotta kill it, first."

Sam grinned. "Sounds like a plan, to me."

"That wasn't a plan, that was a task definition," said Rona.

I looked over at Keisha, who had remained oddly quiet. "Key?"

"I, I felt, it, again," she said.

All of our heads turned. When Keisha had been captured, she'd felt a presence in the Dynasty that she said she contacted with her psychic powers. At first she thought she was crazy, but we didn't want to throw out any possibilities. "Are you sure?" asked Sara.

"Earlier today, after I got home from school, but, it was different," said Keisha. "I know it was the same thing, but something had happened to it. Something bad."

Roan shrugged. "Maybe . . . I can't think of anything."

"That does us good," mumbled Sam.

"Guys, we need to concentrate on Trulpa's new ally. We haven't got any idea how dangerous he is, so we need to find out as much as we can," said Keisha. "I'll figure out what I felt later."

"Are you sure?" asked Sara.

Keisha nodded. "Ria, tell us again what he looked like."

"I told you, all I saw was the outline of a trench coat and a hat!" I said. I was getting frustrated with this new enemy, and my friends weren't helping!

"Okay, okay, let's just wait for him to come back and get our own look at him," said Sam, holding up her hands defensively. "Let's all just go home and sleep on it."

~

The following day, after Rona and Sam got off of detention (Sam being in for, surprisingly, getting to one of her classes late), we all took my regular path home, half hoping we'd run into him, half hoping we'd avoid him all together. A few people looked at the nervous group of girls walking down the street, but most just ignored us. Eventually we were passed the busy streets and onto the dead quiet side roads that led to my house.

"Well, look's like we've avoided that unpleasant visitor," said Sam. She sighed heavily. "Now what?"

"I don't know," said Keisha. "Call Anubis?"

"No, not yet, we all need to see this for ourselves. He's worried enough with the message in the mirror," said Sara. "Anyone else got an idea?"

"Go inside and discuss it some more?" suggested Rona.

"We've only picked it apart to the point where there's nothing left to pick at," I said. "We need to get something new into the picture. We've gone over the mirror. We've gone over the new enemy. What else can we go over?"

My friends fell silent. "I don't know. Ria does have a point," said Rona. "What's our next move?"

"Tomorrow's Friday, we'll try staking out the spot that you saw him. He'll HAVE to come then," said Keisha.

"What makes you so sure?" asked Sara.

"He said he wants to destroy us. If we're gathered in one place, he'll thrive at the chance to bring us all down at once. But, safety in numbers," said Rona. "We'll attack him all at one and take him down."

"Are you sure that'll work?" asked Keisha.

"No, not really, but it's worth a try. All else fails, we'll send Tiger Lily for Anubis," said our resident super genius.

"What if he doesn't get here in time?" I asked.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," said Rona. "Being in the Senshi means taking risks. And we haven't taken any."

"Yeah, Anubis won't let us take any," said Sara.

Rona laughed. "That's why we aren't telling him about this. We'll prove to him we can handle this on our own. No help."

"We fought the war on our own," said Sam. "He didn't step into the fights at all. He gave us advice, protected Mike and Sue Lee, and provided transport."

"So? Think he was ready to let us do something this stupid?" said Rona.

I sighed. "Then why are we doing something 'this stupid', Rona?"

Sam laughed. "Because it'll be fun!"