O_O

So this happened last night but school and everything has kept me from writing about it until now:

I've posted before about this young cat who's been coming around the house lately. My cat, Layden, usually doesn't like cats but she has a serious soft spot for this little one.
There is another cat who's been coming around even longer, an established cat who's territory borders on "Layden's Territory" (quotations since she's indoors only) and has been making her furious for over a year now. That cat, I think it's female but we're not sure, taunts Layden by walking up to whatever window she's sitting in and just sits there as if to say "Hah, what are you gonna do about it?" Ever since this younger cat, whom I've taken to calling Kitten, has started coming around this older female has been harassing him. Granted he's sort of been asking for it himself, but Layden is absolutely furious about it because this is a cat she actually likes getting harassed by a cat she hates.
Backstory over, onward to the actual story:
Last night, we were somewhat worried because we hadn't seen Kitten all day and he's been making a habit of coming by once a day for food and water from us, and a chat with Layden. He's been getting very skinny so we've been hoping to catch him and have a vet check him out and see if he has a chip. If not we're either going to adopt him (my mom doesn't want to) or bring him to the Humane Society to find his Forever Home.
Layden had been watching for Kitten all day, and it was getting very late. We put out some water for him in case he showed up later, but it was getting dark out and we figured he had decided to pilfer some other cat's food supply that day.
I was getting ready for bed when I heard Layden shriek. She's only done that twice before, and both times it was because that other cat has come to taunt her. She was in my mom's room and I hear my mom start exclaiming "Oh, oh no! Oh no!" and then suddenly scream bloody murder (I've only heard her scream once before in my life and it was when she almost dislocated her arm). I was already on my way out of my room to see if I could calm Layden down and scare the other cat away, and hurried up quite a bit. When mom screamed again it didn't sound quite the same, honestly it sounded like the kind of scream you would expect from a mother who had just witnessed her child get hit by a car or something. I knew her window was open, and immediately headed for the front door instead of her door when she started sobbing "Through the screen! Through the screen!" Meanwhile the sounds of two cats screeching and fighting continued, and now I'm terrified for Layden's safety since she's been strictly indoor since we got her and probably doesn't have much experience fighting another cat.
I get outside just in time to see the other cat practically flying away from the house, with Layden so close behind her that she was probably still biting her back as they went.
In the back of my head, at this point, I cannot help but be proud of my little girl for chasing off this other cat who's been tormenting her for almost two years. Of course, I'm still scared for her though because it's dark out, she's never been allowed outside so she doesn't know how to get back, and she's a dark grey cat who is now somewhere out in the big dark night.
About ten minutes of calling to her, and my mom thought to grab her bag of treats and start shaking it, and I spot movement in the neighbor's front garden. I call to her again and hold my hand out and I can just barely see a tail suddenly stand up straight. But then it disappears. Hard to tell what's going on because it's so dark. I call to her again and then realize she probably slipped under the fence dividing that neighbor's yard from the other neighbor's yard, so walk around it and keep calling to her.
This neighbor has their porch light on and it's just bright enough I can make out a cat sitting between two bushes. I call to her again and she turns toward me. Yep, that patch of white on the chest is the right shape to be Layden, and she's the only cat in the neighborhood with green eyes. I call to her and she sits there and watches me, looking nervous. I keep talking to her while I slowly approach, terrified she's going to bolt. Thankfully she doesn't, and relaxes the closer I get. She starts rubbing against the bushes and purring, and was so happy when I picked her up. I swear she had never felt as tiny in my arms as she did in that moment.
As I walked her back towards the house, she was constantly looking around on alert, and I realize that she really did have no clue how to get back to the house. She had never had a chance to know what the house looked like or where it was in relation to anything else. If I hadn't rushed out and started calling her when I did, she could have wandered off and gotten completely lost trying to find her way back. But since we were all out calling her right away, I think that helped her figure out she was near home, and just decided to wait for us to find her.
When we brought her inside, she immediately flopped down to be pet and congratulated on her victory. She was the warrior returning home from a victorious battle, and she was as proud as she could possibly be.
Thanks to her being so ready to relax, and being quite worn out as well, I was able to look her over for injuries. Incredibly there weren't any serious hurts. She lost a few tufts of fur, gave herself a black eye on the window screen, and picked up some leaves and such from outdoors, but otherwise wasn't hurt. We think that the other cat wasn't really expecting Layden to get to it, and when she busted the screen out of the window frame it probably fell on top of the other cat before it could react, and she just went to town attacking it while it wasn't really able to fight back. It probably took off running as soon as it got free simply because of the surprise and the fact that it couldn't defend itself from her after the surprise.
Layden did decide to retest all the boundaries we've set for her over the last couple years, and within ten minutes of being back in the house she had jumped up onto the kitchen counter and was poking around in the sink. When we scolded her she ignored us and I had to physically push her off the counter before she got the idea. She hasn't done it since so I think she understood that just because she showed another cat what's what, the rules of the house are still the same.
This whole incident really shook my mom up. She had been asleep when Layden started screeching, and said it felt like a bad dream right at first when she woke up in time to see Layden flying through the screen and outside. She thought for sure we would never see Layden again, and it took her about an hour to calm down again last night.
I wasn't quite as shook up, probably because the part of the incident I saw was Layden's victorious chase, and was the one to actually find and carry her back inside, but it did take me a while to relax again as well. I told Chaluma about it and she was primarily impressed by Layden's ability to knock the screen out and chase off her rival. Chaluma's had cats her entire life, including one who was supposed to stay inside and got out while she was in heat, returning pregnant. So when she was pretty chill about the whole thing, it helped me relax as well because she cares about Layden just as much as we do.
Today Layden is a bit clingy and actually climbed up in bed with me when I took a nap after school, and other than a little swelling on her face around her eye she doesn't seem to be hurt at all.

So that's the story of how my pampered kittypet chased off an outdoor-only cat who had been taunting her and harassing her kitty best friend for the last few months. She had been a stray before the shelters took her in, so I don't know what sort of experience she actually has holding her own with other cats, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't impressed and proud.