Shelly Lightfoot/A Dark Night

From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

(((DATE: 10/29/07)))

Shelly had never really been called on the carpet before. Oh sure, Captain Connors had dragged her aside a couple times about something, but she'd always had a very good reason for it. But this time was different. She'd probably done lots of things that she could have been dragged on the carpet about by Mr. Zen and she had a perfectly good reason for, but this was not what she had expected at all.

"How long have you known?" Mr. Zen confronted her.

It hadn't been that long since Shelly had awoken in the medlab, apparently had been impaled through the chest and frozen. Lanara had thawed her, and Shelly's body had regenerated as normal. Shelly remembered nothing of what had happened. She took her armor to her employers at Vanguard to have it repaired.

"Known what?"

"Ms. Lightfoot... if you are the host of a kitsune spirit, there is -much- to be concerned about." Zen told her sternly. Shelly leaned against the Ley tap, staring down into the swirling power crystal with a sigh.

"No... I am a Kitsune spirit. I've known for a few months but it never came up."

Zen took a deep breath. "You -are- the kitsune? If that is true, there is much more about which to be concerned."

Shelly nodded softly, pulling a small leather bound book from her pocket, opening it. The text was japanese. "Yes. The first was my great grandmother, the Nine-Tailed one. Something was hunting her. So she hid, as a human, and eluded those hunting her. I'm not sure why... her journal here didn't say. She had a daughter as a human, and because she was human at the time, the child was born human, but the bloodline lingered, following the female side of the family." She pointed out various phrases in the old diary as she explained. "This journal was only sent to me recently. Seems my mother wanted me to have it, dimensional barriers be damned. I read it, and since then my dreams have been getting stranger and stranger. Then waking up in medbay..."

Zen furred his brow. "You don't recall your kitsune nature becoming active?"

Shelly's face was a mask of confusion. "What?"

"Perhaps you should watch the security footage yourself."

It took only moments to call up the security tapes on what had happened, and Shelly was able to witness the odd amalgamation of herself and a two tailed fox duelling with a demonness and speaking in rhymes. Shelly watched it several times. "This... is insane."

"If this kitsune nature is taking control without your knowledge, perhaps you are not the embodiment of the spirit as you thought."

Shelly shook her head. "A Kitsunetsuki?" It meant, someone possessed by a Kitsune spirit. "Maybe. Or she doesn't want me to remember. That's not what my mother's journal indicated. And look, here on the security tapes. She called herself Myzuki. Here, at time index 20-oh-eight hours. That's my given middle name." Shelly pointed to the screen.

"If "she" doesn't want "you" to know, perhaps there are two individuals involved. "Her" and "you"."

"Schizophrenia?"

"Or even Multiple Personality Disorder. But don't discount the possibility of a second entity."

Shelly nodded, speaking very softly now. "Perhaps. I don't know what's going on, Zen. All I can say is... it scares me... because I can't control it."

"Indeed. Would you prefer to be institutionalized here?" Zen inquired.

Shelly rubbed her forehead, sighing. "I guess that's the safest way for everyone, isn't it?"

"If you would prefer, yes. Or we could simply face the issue head on and keep an eye on you and your activities."

"I'd rather the latter, but if the former is what is neccessary to keep people safe, I'll do it."

"Let's begin with keeping an eye on you. Should it become necessary, we can sequester you to a private apartment while we search for a solution."

Shelly raised an eyebrow, looking over at Mr. Zen. "Zen... you did know that a Kitsune has a weakness, right?"

"I have been told, though it's never been confirmed."

Shelly rewound the tape a bit. "Here. Fang is singing to her. Myzuki is mezzed a good... twenty or thirty seconds until she stops. It was in my mother's diary. It's what they call in hero terms... a mag 10 hold."

"I see. Then I will keep that in mind, and will contact Celine Dion should it become necessary to take you down."

Shelly snickered. "Dear Lord help us all the day Celene Dion saves us."

"I will have Mr. Mars work out a way to discreetly keep tabs on you.

"Don't tell anyone else, please. This is.... family dirty laundry. My Jake knows. Ava knows. Besides Mike, let's try to keep my family's dirty laundry out of the public eye?"

Zen passed a hand over the console, locking the footage, setting it to the highest clearance.

Shelly retired to her apartment alone. Kera was still gone to Arizona. She laid back in her chair, holding her great grandmother's journal. She put her head down on her desk. She remembered her mother's face. A soft, caring face. A face she always regretted not treating the way she should. Soft baked bread in the mornings, tender kisses and words of love never properly returned. Later Shelly had left home to 'make something of herself'. She'd never see her mother again except in a casket. Shelly was overwhelmed with sadness. Locked in her room, alone and afraid, Shelly cried.

"Mum... why didn't you tell me?"

It was the hunter's moon... the moon right before All Hallows Eve. The Christians called it a pagan holiday of spirits, ghouls, and trickery. The Pagans called it a night of miracles and the Godking being passing into death to be reborn the following spring.

Shelly regarded the moon with distrust. It had been the full moon when they had landed here on this world in this future time, back in march. A time of miracles indeed, Shelly thought bitterly. If she'd stayed in her own time, maybe then she and Dr. Jake Stone would have a child, be settled down someplace. Maybe if she'd stayed home, she would be happy and content.

Instead she was anything but content or happy. Shelly walked along the sea cliffs of Talos, watching the waves and the red-colored moon rise and cast broken reflections on the sea. No, instead of content, she was working for freakin' Vanguard. A bunch of snobby, stuck up superheroes, full of themselves and their own powers, showing them off on the battlefield against the Rikti without an iota of care or caution just to show off, when the lives of soldiers were on the line. She lived with superpowered heroes at home. The ASPCA folks had bitch, whined, and complained that everyone mistreated them because they were different. They called her a bigot to her face. When it was they who could not see how they mistreated anyone without fur, that they themselves were the bigots. How ironic that the ones that had called her that were now coalies of the Foundation.

Ahhh yes the Foundation. A research Foundation. For researching problems such as Little Zoe's problem. That she was stuck as a little girl but she gets a host of super powers as a result. Shelly just hoped that someday Zoe would be capable of seeing that her age was a blessing, not a curse. That she had been given a great gift... eternal youth and super powers. Shelly pitied her.

Yes humans... they are an ungrateful lot...

Shelly stopped dead. The voice... no it wasn't a voice. It was more of a presence... had come from the bushes. A pair of eyes among the bushes. It stepped into the moonlight, revealing it's presence to Shelly. A small brown fox... with two tails.

"Who are you?"

I am you. Or rather I am what you are becoming.

"The future isn't written yet." Shelly folded her arms defiantly, her tone petulant.

It is in your blood. Unlike Kitsune of old you were born human. But now the key has turned in the lock. You must begin to experience who you were born to become.

"Kitsune are tricksters. Liars. Deceivers." Shelly shook her head. "I am not like you."

When you were an air pirate, whom did you prey upon?

The little vixen's eyes sparkled.

Shelly blinked. "We preyed on the Nazis or anyone with an agenda to use magic for a dark purpose."

Yet you were a pirate. You stole, raided, killed people... but you did so selectively. Punishing evildoers.

"Yes."

That is who we are. Your family. It has been in your blood from the day you were conceived. You are a blooming lotus. Your petals are opening. The sun is touching you.

Shelly shook her head. "No. That's not true. You are a hostile spirit, and your possessing me. I reject you. Zen said so." Shelly turned, looking back at the skyscrapers of Talos, and made a mad dash, running back towards town.

You only run from the truth... you only run from yourself. You will never find peace that way.

Shelly was panting and out of breath. Why was this so hard? She'd run a lot in her life, she was good at it. Why was it taking her so long to run across the road...?

Then she looked down. Her feet were stubby red furred pads. She looked behind herself. The vixen in the thicket was gone... and directly behind her she saw two tails.

The sound of a horn. An oncoming car. She was standing in the middle of the road!

(((For the inbetween posts, check the RP thread on the Foundation boards: [1])))

Jet was met by a nice young female researcher who had been assigned to be in charge of the research of this particular phenomena. She led Jet to another building, through a series of doors, past a number of conference rooms and labs.

"We've been tracing the signal all morning. It took us a few hours to get the data, but we've triangulated where the signal came from - a universe previously unknown to us. As your probably aware Vanguard has been investigating this. They immediately made the connection to Mrs. Lightfoot's disappearance, as she works for them. But Vanguard thinks Rikti kidnapped her to hamper Vanguard. We think it's nothing of the sort. A few months ago Shelly Lightfoot came to use with peices of metal from her own world, and asked us to test them. We tried magnetic imaging, sonic resonance... we couldn't get the metal to give us any clue the parallel universe it came from. Now with Lightfoot missing by a signal from an unknown universe, we've taken to calling it Shelly's World."

The researching opened a door, revealing one of the Portal Corps full size portals already in operation. The receiving catwalk in front of the portal itself was covered in a white powder... and dripping into the tile well below the portal. The room was abnormally cold.

There was snow blowing out of the portal.

The researchers voice rose to cover the sound of the portal mechanism in operation. "It's very cold on the other side, but it's earth. Same gravity and chemical tolerances of our own air some seventy years ago, before a lot of the heavy air pollution of our time, matching the description Lightfoot gave us months ago." The researcher beamed with pride. "It's a portal through dimensions... and time. Shelly couldn't give us the location, but her abductor's signal gave us what we needed. Dress warm! Our readings have it at around -5 celsius on the other side of the portal. The energy source is on the other side, near by. We have also detected the presence of heavy magical activity in recent months in this dimension. It's possible that Shelly's abductor is a mage of some kind. Be careful. Please give us a detailed report, we're all dying with curiosity, Mr. Falcon."

Meanwhile...

Cold.

That was how she knew she was still alive. DAMN she was cold. Shelly groaned, turning over uncomfortably. She felt queasy, like she had just been turned inside out twice. The freezing cold bit her to the bone. It was because she was wearing all this metal armor, she realized. A quick inspection revealed her armor was dented. She had been hit with something sizable.

A car.

Oh right. The car. Talos Island. It all came back in a flash. She glanced around. Snow and trees everywhere. But these were not northeastern United States trees like pines and birch, but old gnarled trees. She knew this place... this was definitely not Paragon City anymore. This was...

A roar filled the air, reverberating across the snow and the trees, causing them to rumble. A sudden breeze of hot air that threatened to melt all the snow around her. Shelly turned. Silver scales on a trunk with three clawed toes... Shelly's gaze went up. No, not a trunk, a leg. Leg of a...

A long snake-like body with four legs, a face with multiple long whiskers, and a face she'd seen in many many carvings. It's body radiated heat, and a white light like something good. From places little ribbons streamed from her body like a kind of clothing. It's eyes and mouth bright in nighttime light, like they were on fire...

A dragon!

'I don't this is Paragon anymore, Toto...' Shelly was thinking.

Another long gout of flame poured down from the asian dragon's maw, threatening to engulf Shelly if she hadn't made a habitual roll to her left, spinning down through the snow, protecting herself from the rush of heat that vaporized snow and earth, and left trees charred to cinders in it's wake.

Covered in snow, the nimble swordswoman drew her Katana from it's shealth, and looked up, and shouted. "Who are you?"

"YOU ARE SHERYL MYZUKI LIGHTFOOT. YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE TRIED TO RUN AWAY. I WOULD ALWAYS HAVE FOUND YOU NO MATTER WHERE YOU RUN. AND LUCK IS MINE... YOU NEVER HAD A CHILD BEFORE I FOUND YOU. YOU ARE ALONE." The dragon grinned wickedly at her, moving on all fours. It moved quickly and with great agility, more like a snake than a creature with four legs like it was. It moved sinuously, almost hypnotically. "SO MY HUNT ENDS NOW WITH YOU. THE LAST LITTLE TROUBLEMAKER, DEALT WITH FOR GOOD."

It reached up it's foreleg, claws extended, and swung down at Shelly. A duck and a quick dash into the trees. The dragon was not slow or stupid, and stayed close behind her. Shelly used a tree as a shield for a moment.

"What have I ever done to you?" Shelly replied.

"YOUR MEDDLESOME FAMILY HAVE CAUSED ME ENOUGH GRIEF. I WILL NOT WAIT FOR YOU TO BE NINE-TAILED WHEN I CAN DISPOSE OF YOU WHILE YOU ARE STILL YOUNG. JUSTICE WILL BE SERVED!"

Shelly felt the tree suddenly roast to cinders. She felt sorry for the tree. Once the fire-blast ended, she dove for cover among the other trees, going deeper into the forest. This did not stop the dragoness but it did slow her down. Shelly was small in comparison and made maneuvering and hiding in the forest easier for her than it was for Mai to find her.

"I never wronged you!" Shelly sat on a root quickly and punched up her Zenvious Foundation wristband, trying to get a comm link to the base. NO SIGNAL it kept repeating over and over. Branches snapping behind her and a hot breeze. Shelly kept running, the dragon hot on her tail.

"YOUR MEDDLESOME KIND ARE REASON ENOUGH! TRICKSTERS, DECEIVERS, LIARS - THE LOT OF YOU. YOU CANNOT BE TRUSTED, AND I WILL NOT TOLERATE YOU IN MY DOMAIN!"

Shelly punched the radio on her wrist, getting frustrated. She tried police band, nothing. She tried the Vanguard frequency, which should be world-wide - NOTHING! She wove deep in the forest, cresting a hilltop. In the distance on another peak she could see buildings - chinese buildings nestled against the mountain side. One had a very large platform reaching out into the open air. There were no lights, no aerials or antennas.

Shelly's eyes went wide, as it all started to fit into place. She reached around on her wristband, changing to a very specific frequency, and set it to an automated beacon. Hot breath all around her, smelly and awful. Shelly went to find more cover, but on this hilltop there was nothing close, Shelly kept running.

A loud rush of air and she felt something connect with her boot armor. Shelly fell forwards, face first into the snow. Spinning over and sputtering snow out of her mouth, she felt the crushing force of a gigantic claw pressing down on the lower half of Shelly's body. The Vanguard armor groaned in complaint. It was designed to protect against weapon impacts, not the sheer crushing force of a dragon on top of her...

"PITIFUL, BUT YOU ARE A PUP. NORMALLY I WOULD NOT MAKE AN EXAMPLE OF A FOX SPIRIT AS YOUNG AS YOU, BUT I CANNOT ALLOW YOUR EVIL TO HARM ANYONE... EVER... AGAIN!!!"

Pinned under one claw, Shelly saw the dragon Mai raise her other claw to strike...