Shelly Lightfoot/Invasion Stories

From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

July 24, 1940

Madame Gladstone, resplendent in a nicely fashionable vanilla white dress with an umbrella. Nicely Edwardian for the 1930s, she supposed - but it was 1940. She should probably update. After all, if she didn't at least dress for the times, people might start to suspect her.

But as it turned out she needn't have worried. From the dark night skies over england soon came the sound that wound soon be all too familiar - The planes of the Blitzkrieg - the Blitz had begun.

Rhiannon, however - impassively - shrugged and decided it was time to pick up her belongings and make the trek to America. Obviously she had lingered in England far too long.

July 24, 2007

67 years later, Shelly Lightfoot was looking up into the skies over Peregrine Island. It had grown unusually dark for the middle of the day. Even the birds in the trees stopped singing. There was an unnatural pall of silence.

She pulled on the blue protective Kevlar and leather combat suit that had been made for her. She was probably being overly cautious, but in Paragon City you never knew who would be gunning for you next.

Then Shelly Lightfoot heard a sound that was all too familiar. The howling of the air raid sirens. Shelly eyes rose up to the darkened green skylines. The earth shook, reverberating with the impacts of the bombs. But it was not the Rikti Drop Ships that she saw...

...but Heinkel He 111 German bombers. Parachuting from the sky she could see the Nazi gunmen levelling weapons at her. Her eyes twitched, and in a lightning moment her sword flew from it's sheath on her back.

It only took a few minutes before thirty seven dead rikti lay at her foot. Shelly spat on their cut up bodies. "Damn Nazis" she muttered.

"What do you mean school isn't in today?" Kera asked the attendant at the university.

"Haven't you heard? There's bombings and air raids. The Rikti are coming here. Classes are cancelled until it's safe. Stay home, stay indoors, and for God's Sake, Kera Langley - don't get yourself in trouble." With that the door was closed in her face.

Kera reported for duty with her trainer. "No Kera, don't go fight. Your not old enough."

"Just because I'm only 16, doesn't mean I can't make a difference!" Kera protested.

"It's not your age, Kera - it's your stability. Are you ready for bloody bodies, fear, and carnage? At 16?" Shadowstar shook her head. "When the screams and dying grip you, can you hold the line with your fellows against the invaders?"

"I've killed a lot of people." Kera folded her arms.

"Not you, Kera. Your former Nictus self did, but not you. Remember you are a new person now. Trust me - if you ever trust me - then trust me now. Go home. Stay in side. Do that for me, okay Kera?" Shadowstar implored her.

"But..."

"PROMISE me, Kera!"

"...fine. I promise."

"Thank you Kera. One day you will have your chance to prove your worth. But this is not that day."

Kera trudged home with her hands in her pockets, dejectedly. Then the sirens sounded. "AIR RAID! AIR RAID! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!" sounded over the air. She paused only briefly. She went to talk to the Vanguard personnell to see if she could do anything.

"Your... onna them aliens, right?" The man with the circular face mask asked.

"Yes... why?"

"We... don't need your help. But we'll be watching your alien kind."

Kera, stunned, took a few steps back from the man and ran all the rest of the way back to the portal to the Zenvious Foundation.

"So let me get this straight, you want MY help?" Madame Gladstone asked, giving Lady Grey a dark, demeaning look. "What in the world do you expect to convince me to help you save the humanity I've been wanting to destroy? Have you considered trying not to be human? Maybe being a Rikti might be the next step in your evolution!"

Lady Grey glanced at Rhiannon's long pointed fey ears. "You would be a faekin, am I right?"

"I am an unseelie. What's your point?" Rhiannon asked, annoyed.

"The fae are always willing to trade, aren't they?"

"Yes... what would you be willing to offer me to help you fight the alien menace?"

"I hear you lack a proper combat suit, miss Gladstone."

"You would make me a Vanguard combat suit in return for my help?"

"That's the deal. Take it or leave it."

Madame Gladstone rubbed her head. "Alright, Lady Grey. You got yourself a deal." They shook hands on it. Besides it gave her a cover. She should help to throw her father's hounds off her scent - prove that she was helping and not hurting the humans. A deal would make much more sense to the hounds that dogged her scent. "But the moment I feel things are over or if things don't seem right, I will make sure to obliterate humanity down to every last unevolved simian on this planet. Rikti or Human alike."

Lady Grey gave her a look. "Riiiiight."