Helpless
"So, so far we've got: At P3 the demon was on the dance floor and used fireballs, it was grey and had the same build as Balthazar. Then, at Junk, the demon was first a scruffy man in his twenties, playing pinball, caught Prue (don't know if he knew she was Prue), and transformed into demon that was red with black stripes, didn't freeze or explode as Piper tried." Phoebe read of her notepad, she then looked up, casting a hopeful glance at Leo to see if he could remember any reference to a similar demon, but their white lighter just frowned and shook his head.
"So, the only similarities between them both are that they are like Balthazar, have a human form (which we assume for the one at P3) and they attacked at places where the Charmed Ones were…" Piper stated as Prue flicked through the book of shadows, but the eldest sister just kept finding that the only reference to such a demon was Phoebe's demonic husband, and they'd vanquished him.
"Well, there's nothing in here…" Prue exclaimed finally as she shut the large book. All four sisters sat in the kitchen, crowded around Prue. They gave a collected sigh of helplessness when Prue gave up.
"Well, me and Paige could make some of the vanquishing potion that killed Cole…" Piper suggested.
"But we need some of their 'skin'…" Paige countered.
"Well, I could go back to the club and find the red demon…" Prue started.
"Oh, no, no, no!" Piper interrupted. "You, missus, are not going back to Junk tonight, or ever again if I have a say, your gonna stay here with Paige and do some more research. Me and Phoebe will go to Junk," She explained, quickly walking into the hall and grabbing her coat.
Phoebe followed her sister and grabbed her own coat, "My laptop's in my bedroom if you need it," She called over her shoulder as they walked out the door. Several minutes of silence fell over the manor before Leo orbed out with no explanation, now that the sisters had defeated Jade the Elders had allowed him to go back to his charges.
Neither Prue nor Paige wanted to speak first so they both sat in an uncomfortable silence. Finally, Prue spoke: "So, how did you manage to vanquish Cole then?"
Paige hesitated and then shrugged modestly, "He became an avatar, used his powers to create an alternate world in hope to make Phoebe love him, I was dead in it, didn't have my powers and meet Piper and Leo and we vanquished him and I got my powers."
"Wow, so you managed to vanquish him without your powers?"
"Well, I couldn't get them until I was touching Phoebe and Piper, but as Piper couldn't get into the manor to get Phoebe that was very unlikely to happen to I managed to persuade Piper to help me."
"What do you mean; you managed to get Piper to trust you?" Prue asked.
"Piper hadn't got over your death—" Paige hesitated at the memory, but she forced herself to remember that Piper hadn't met her either as she had been dead too. "Well, she wanted revenge and she became the Power of One, this leather covered Lara Croft." Prue snickered at the thought.
"Ah well, so, let's go and get Phoebe's laptop then…" Prue suggested, slowly lifting herself out of the chair. Suddenly she winced and she had to sit down again.
"Prue, what's wrong?" A concerned Paige asked gently. Prue gave her little sister a week smile.
"It's okay, just a little trouble I got into at Junk," She winked at Paige, "It'll be okay… So, let's go and pay Phoebe's room a visit."
Again she stood up, and even though it gave her a sharp pain, she kept a straight face. Paige just shrugged and walked ahead of her.
As Phoebe had said, the black laptop sat on her bed, all ready to be booted up. Carefully, Paige sat down on the bed and placed the laptop on her lap. Lifting the lid, she switched it on, and within two minutes Prue and Paige were surfing the World Wide Web. Finding a search engine, Paige turned to Prue.
"What do you think we should search for?" Paige asked.
"Dunno Phoebe was always the computer wiz when it came to demons…" Prue stated, sitting beside Paige.
"How about, demons attacking clubs in San Francisco?" Paige joked.
"Maybe," Prue replied, smiling at Paige's joke, "You never know what people search for these days, well, or should I say, I never…"
Paige frowned, wondering if Prue had got her sarcasm, but she still typed it in. Amazing the search came up with over a thousand results, half of them were just stories people had written but luckily there were actually many news clippings.
"Try that one," Prue suggested, pointing at the fifth result which was labelled: 'Is it all a big joke that thousands of clubbers are dying every night due to inhuman things?'
"Yer, but…" Paige started as she clicked on the hyperlink, "Oh my God…" Both the sisters said in unison. All over the front screen was a blown up video clip of Piper freezing the bouncer at Junk, then freezing a man that had been thrown in the air before them. Then the camera zoomed in on Prue as she waved her hand and sent the man safely onto the balcony, and it finished with Prue, Phoebe and Piper all chanting the protection spell and a red ring appearing around the club: 'Is this magic, or are these women mad?' those words appeared on the screen as the zoomed in on the sisters faces, and then it restarted.
"Scroll down!" Prue urged, and Paige scrolled down so Prue could read the writing underneath the video clip.
On Monday 5th May 1992, thirteen hundred people were killed in a new club called Mess, on Thursday 5th May 1994, another thirteen hundred were killed at the opening of T16, now, 1996, May 5th, and only thirteen were killed thanks to those three women. All these events are very similar, a man starts to cause trouble, someone tries to make him leave and suddenly he isn't a man anymore and a mass fight breaks out. Luckily, this year though, three women saved so many peoples lives just by being magical…
"Well…" Prue gasped.
"It seems it's only just been put up, but with that proof, he could sell it to the newspapers by tomorrow morning's edition," Paige stated as she studied the page. They both shot up at the sound of the door slamming and approaching footsteps. Paige ran to the door but no-one was on the landing. Prue stepped out of the room.
"Piper? Phoebe?" There was a scream and a crash from downstairs. Quickly, Paige indicated that she'd check it out, and she pushed past Prue to get down the stairs.
"Prue, Paige!" A call came from the attic. Prue was about to call to Paige but then thought it best not to, instead, she ran up the stairs the attic but just as she was about to reach for the handle she remembered Phoebe's premonition. 'No!' She thought, quickly pushing open the door. Almost as soon as she entered the room, she was sent flying across room, badly injuring her arm. She winced, but dragged her watery eyes to where the demon from Junk stood holding a limp Piper and a weak, gagged Phoebe. Tears were streaming down Phoebe's cheeks as the demon gave a laugh and shimmered out of the room.
