Rochelle found herself floating in a void of darkness, nothingbeneath her feet, thankfully no demonic old hag in sight. The whoosh of thousands of bats ringing her within the void piqued her interest. She loved bats and certainly wasn't frightened by these ones.
Whatever dark power held her in its grasp did not know this and that was all she remembered before regaining consciousness.
---
Stumbling into the night air, crying, and stopping every now and again to throw up, the adolescent girl felt like a frightened rabbit running from an unseen predator. People were stepping back from the distraught young woman as if on instinct. Rochelle gasped, taking in huge gulps of night air moist with the humidity of a stormy night.
Bare-footed, and still sobbing, Rochelle slipped into her sandals in the plastic bag she’d almost forgotten in her shaking hands. The sheer horror of what she had done or was made to do, finally struck her with full force. One moment, the nurse was about to call for the security staff to bring her back to the ward and the next she was staring at a statue of the charge matron, a stone pen in her hand about to press the intercom button. She thought it too strange to handle, so she had screamed and rushed out of the foyer.
‘But how did that happen? I don't get it. I was standing in front of the strange opening on the site, and next I am in hospital having the weirdest dreams and visions! I hate horror movies, but I never thought I would end up the leading lady in my own. Now I can't tell fact from fiction, reality from fantasy. Am I mad? Whether it's the meds, they pumped into me I don't know really. It’s freaking me out and I'm scared. I don't like this one little bit!’ Rochelle thought, making her way along a dark causeway within a nearby park.
She was careful to keep clear of the gas lanterns and the people, as if she was safer in the darkness, or they were. She wasn't sure, but kept moving, all the while comforted by the cool night air.
Rochelle moved at a slower more relaxed pace along the picturesque promenade. She heard a sound, as if a voice rising inside her, a sigh, or a groan of distain. She heard a snapping twig, and froze, then spinning around to face her pursuer.
She smelt something, a beast, a hound or feline, which she wasn't sure. Then she heard the growl. Fear pushed her to the edge of oblivion, and she blacked out and felt the presence of something dark and powerful, something she'd felt on a number of occasions since the events of the previous night overwhelm her. But she relaxed and let the darkness take her, it was much too powerful to resist and she submitted to its will.
---
The scene that met their eyes was most bizarre, a whaling baby in a pram and a statue clinging to the handle. But this was no ordinary statue. The figure of a pregnant woman in the attitude of screaming; her silent scream unnerving both women as they stood on the sidewalk like everyone else, staring.
"Rei, she's still alive. She is in some sort of suspended state. Her body is both dead and alive; the stone is organic and yet…" she couldn't finish the sentence as she slapped her hand over her mouth in horror. "She's pregnant!"
“Usagi can revive her, but we need to get her to the Jinja, call Ami!”
The young mother looked terrified. Whoever or whatever had done this had to be of the dark and on the loose on the streets of Athens.
---
The night seemed to shrink back as Medusa stood in the clearing as a winged creature with golden eyes with huge bat-like wings stared down the Gorgon, for this being was as far as she knew the only one in the ancient city at that moment immune to the power of her curse.
"You…"she hissed, as the Gargoyle snarled and moved closer, a granite spike at the ready in case the stone woman made any move of a threatening nature.
"Leave this innocent and face me on even ground, Medusa," Ischemia, leader of the Gargoyles of Europe challenged, seeking to free the girl's soul from the influence of the Gorgon.
"I have an important task to perform, shape shifter, and I will not be dissuaded by you or any creature of the light."
"Then pay the price!" Ischemia turned to find a woman, no, a warrior in a metallic red skirt and top, a head of sumptuous black locks swimming about her striking figure, challenging Medusa. Then both the Gorgon and he gasped, their cries of surprise almost coordinated as fire, blazing in the raven-haired girl's palms flared to life.
"I am the keeper of the Celestial Fires, and I summon the powers of the sphere of Mars to serve my purposes this night; I am Sailor Mars!"
Ischemia stepped back and bowed to the newcomer. Medusa placed her hands on her hips and tried to stare the beautiful warrior down. Mars was incredible; she looked like any typical clubber, the long legs clad in silk stockings, the X-cut of the bodice and exposed midriff and the ruby heels. But for the corona of fire and her hand gestures summoning purple and gold flames into a Mandala, she could be taken for a typical beauty visiting an exotic nightspot in the capital, but she was much more than that.
He watched the Gorgon's face as she too tried to make sense of this new presence in the park.
"Who are you and what business do you have coming between myself and my sparring partner over here? You are a witch or something?" Medusa huffed, folding her arms over her breasts.
Mars held her ground. The blazing red eyes of this woman did not faze the Senshi of Fire in the least. "You are not of this world and you're violating that body you control and you're also inflicting suffering on innocents. Face me and release those you have cursed!"
"Do you have any idea who you are dealing with? I am Medusa, a powerful being more than capable of destroying you child. And you're going to stop me? Be my guest. Mars was it?" she sneered. “Spawn of that petty little God Ares, several generations removed no less, but just as hot headed and brash, oh well.”
"Last chance lady… Mars Celestial Fire Ignite!"
A rush of flames, like a sea of lava rushed over the top of the park's lawn, hot enough to singe the ground, but not kill the grass. Powerful enough to have the Gorgon stepping away, but it was too late. The flames turned into firebirds and encased the Gorgon in a wall of flame and she bellowed her protest. The snakes atop the monster's head leered and spat venom of some sort but Mars was impervious to its effects.
"Burning Mandala!"
Medusa screamed. But then she opened her mouth and sucked the fire into herself, then the creature of night's eyes flashed with dangerous dark light. Raising her arms, she chanted, "Dark Plasma Burst!" Medusa spat back the fire as a stream of concentrated violet fire and it struck Mars in the chest and sent her flying to the ground.
"Thunder Dragon!"
"What the-" Medusa cried as a lattice of electric blue set her body aflame and she shrieked in pain. "How dare you challenge me? I am a Goddess and you are a girl with some talent I will grant you that, but you caught me off guard this time. You won't get away with that next time!"
“Oak Evolution!"
But Medusa just smiled as the attack-hit home and she vanished.
"Jupiter? Thanks, but that poor girl; Medusa has control of her. She is safe for now, but we need to act fast to free her from the Gorgon's influence."
"Sure, but Mars…I have a bad case of heatstroke and a whopping headache. I need to detransform as obviously I can't walk around like this, a fuku might be magic, but it will only restore itself the next time I become Jupiter." She wrapped her arms about her exposed chest as the fire had burned away her top but for the choker at her throat. Soon she had detransformed and stood in her evening dress. Makoto pulled out her cell and called Minako.
"Minako, can you come to the park outside the restaurant, we need to talk to you," she said, sensing the concern in her friend's tone.
---
He shouldn't have been all that surprised the Gorgon would wiggle its way out of a confrontation like that. Oh, she was formidable all right, but for Medusa to walk away, or in her case, vanish from the field of battle when faced by an opponent immune to her powers was rare; this told the Gargoyle she was planning something big. He thought he knew where she had gone, the concert. Then he too vanished.
