Shelly Lightfoot/Shellys Statement

From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

(((Date: Sept 20 2007)))

The birthday cake still sat on the kitchen table. Candles unlit. Frosting uncut. Police officers. SWAT teams. Squad cars. These were all the hallmarks that were left of the Zenvious Foundation's surprise birthday party for Mr. Zen.

No more than a year ago, Shelly and her friends had been the scourge of the German skies, back in World War II. Now those friends were gone, claimed by the passage of time. The friends she had now - here - were being surrounded by the law. Not the same lawmen of 1920's Chicago who were under the payrolls of figures like Al Capone. She had grown up seeing those kind of lawmen, and Shelly still felt no particular respect for the law as a result. From what she'd see of Paragon Earth's PPD... they were almost as inept as Longbow. In the mind of a former air pirate... ineptitude and corruption... were basically the same thing. They were intended for a word where all men... and women... were created equal. In a world of superheroes and supervillains, it was evident that not all men were created equal, and the PPD struggled to keep the pace.

Shelly's first move was to go up to the Foundation computer system. It had taken her a week to get used to the fact that the computer was smart enough to talk. An inanimate, unmoving object that could speak and reason almost like a person was a tremendously difficult idea to wrap her brain around, for someone whose idea of a computer took up many large rooms and was using for coding/uncoding transmissions over the airwaves. "Computer?"

"Open Access. Recognize Sheryl Mizuki Lightfoot, Field Officer." the vaguely male voice of the computer responded. It knew her from her voice patterns already.

"Activate Security Protocol A." Shelly instructed. Security Protocol A, she had learned, meant a total computer lockdown. No one could get in or out of the computer except Foundation Axioms... or possibly Mike Mars. But that wasn't her concern. She didn't want the police getting access to ANYTHING ELSE from their private files that couple possibly be twisted around and used against them all. The comm system, all the base's functions would still work. But no one but the Axioms could come in and get information - anyone's information - out of the system until this situation with Mr. Zen was resolved. It also wouldn't let non-foundation members in the portal entrance to the Foundation base itself. Portal Corp might have been able to hack a way to portal someone unauthorized in their front door, but Shelly was certain that Jet could keep the PPD mired in bearocracy enough to keep that from happening.

"Please enter authorization keycode." the base computer replied. Wanting her passcode, Shelly hurridly typed in. The main screen went dark, except for the words 'Security Protol A Enabled'. It made no further voice statements. First goal accomplished, she smiled. They would at least be safe in their own base, if the cops were indeed crooked.

What follows was a quick conversation with the investigating detective, who was busy telling them how gracious he was being in allowing those that stayed in the dorms here to remain in their homes instead of being shipped off to hotels for the duration. 'Arrogant jerk', Shelly was thinking to herself. He advised that Shelly take her concerns to the station and make a statement. So she did. She had a good working relationship with the Detective in Peregrine Island, being rather fond of doing jobs for the man, mostly protecting banks and the likes. Shelly came into the office and smiled at the nice old lady that worked the reception desk. "Oh, hello Miss Shelly. How are you?"

"Good good..." she smiled, more at ease.

"Do you need to see...?" she asked about to make a gesture towards her Bank Safeguard detective contact.

"No, I'm here on... well... more normal business. I want to make a statement, on a case that I feel is being handled wrong, so that the District Attorney will look into it." Shelly explained.

A blink from the secretary. This was different, to her, it seemed. "Oh... can I see some kind of ID that gives you authorization to make that statement?"

"Authorization?" Shelly grumbled, and reached into her billfold, pulling out her Hero ID card, and slapping it down. "Here's my damn authorization!"

She took the card and filled out some papers, handed her ID back. "Here, go into that room over there, and fill these out. A notary will be in, in just a few, to help you get them notorized. Once that's done, I will make sure it makes it to the DA's desk."

"Thank you." Shelly gave her a half-bow as was her family's custom.

A moderately short Asian woman in a 1937 flight suit certainly might have turned some heads in any other city in the world, but not in Paragon City. No one in the police station noticed, commented, or questioned her as she went by them. She sat down in the space she'd been given peacefully, and spelled out her complaints that they the police in Mr. Zen's case (and included the case ID number, and the officers badge numbers). She wrote about how they had gotten a warrant from the judge and made an arrest based on a cruddy video - which were easy to fake these days - and an annonymous phonecall tip from a known notorious mass murdering villain - a felon. She mentioned how the police had made the arrest in the Zenvious Foundation base which was a parallel dimension and not within the boundaries or jurisdiction of the United States - and doing it in the middle of a birthday party, even so far as to threaten as to throw all those people out of their homes temporarily (until they rescinded that bit). And worst of all - and most damning - Shelly told the police how they had upset young Ms. Vagary - the happy and hyperactive kid, who was very very hard to upset. On the bottom she noted that she was from the year 1937 on a parallel earth and was just learning the legal system in America in this century, so if she was misunderstanding the law of Paragon Earth America of 2007, to please enlighten her. Lastly she signed it, "Sheryl Ann Mizuki Lightfoot, born Dec 7, 1911", her Hero ID badge number, and her Vanguard ID badge number.


There were mists... and the mists were full of ninjas. Thousands of them - all dressed in black - all swearing allegiance to the Japanese Emperor Showa. She was the infidel - the American - who walked on Mt. Fuji's Sacred Soil. The Air Pirate. The Imperial Guard was here to put Shelly Lightfoot to death here on the clifftop of the snow capped mountains of Japan. Shelly was vastly outnumbered, but she needn't have worried. Out of the mists of clouds beyond the cliffface below her feet, came a rumble. Then a roar of huge propellers. A huge form of gunmetal grey rose above the clifftop, dwarfing the entire Imperial force under it's shadow. Labelled in metallic silver along one side, the name "STRONGHOLD" was resplendent. The Zepplin was enourmous, it's underbelly supporting a full air deck full of fighter planes, crew quarters, and multiple cannon turrets, which barked in report as shells whistled through the air, landing with explosive force among the ninjas. Shelly winced, trying to shield her eyes from the shrapnel of the blast. There were still far too many ninjas around her for her to fight off at once with the sword. But... she needn't have worried. Another blast of fire, but this one from above her instead of behind as her fiance, the archaologist and mage Dr. Jake Stone flew down, or rather skated down on nothing but a wisp of cloud, and incinerated the foes surrounding Shelly. The two grinned, embraced, kissed, and turned together to fight the rest of the attacking hordes as the cannons on the Stronghold fired again...

...Shelly sat up abruptly in bed. Memories. Again. She washed her face in the basin. What a cold hard slap in the face to wake up to. Here she was, without all those old friends. In the Foundation again, trying to scrape by and make a living for herself on her own, alone...

...and to add to all that, Mr. Zen was still in jail.

Shelly sighed. What a depressing thing to wake up to indeed.

After a full day of working in the Rikti War Zone, helping push back the Rikti invaders with her skill with the sword, Shelly would portal back to the Zenvious Foundation base to get cleaned up and help Vagary. A clean hospital gown, clean bedsheets, some more DVDs to watch, anything she could do to help that Jade had not taken care of while she was away until Jade returned from her work. Sometimes Shelly would sit by Vagary's bed and read to her. She hardly got more than a nod in response to anything, but Shelly held out her hope.

Usually Jade would return and eventually Shelly would not be needed, and would return to her room she shared with the warshade, Kera Langley. Her room was part of a suite at the end of a hallway, where opposite their door was another door, where quite normal looking young girl Yolanda Gladstone and the rather unusual looking girl known as 'Lanara' dwelt. But tonight all three of them were in Shelly's room, when Shelly got there.

Shelly stared when she opened the door and saw all four of them there. Drinking tea, by the looks of it. "Hey Shellster! Yolanda made tea. Want some?"

Shelly blinked down at the three of them drinking Earl Grey. Shelly sighed, depressed. "Sure I guess. It's not Tien's coffee, but it'll do." 'And nothing ever will be.' she silently mused.

Yolanda made Shelly a teacup and they all sat down at the table in the center of their room. "How's Vagary, Ms. Lightfoot?" Yolanda asked, polite as always.

"Still not too good. Barely a nod out of her."

"Do they know what's wrong with her? Have they said?" Yolanda inquired. Lanara and Kera listened, silently.

"Nope, nobody's breathed a word to me."

"The girl had psychic emanations, check that?" Yolanda prodded.

Shelly sorted audibly. "I got no psychic powers, I can't detect that stuff. I can't detect magical auras, or speak magical words. I don't know how to do any of that stuff you can do. I'm just plain... and simple."

"Girlfriend, you are anything but plain." Kera snickered. Shelly shot her a look.

"I appologize, Ms. Lightfoot. You do not tell me much about yourself or where you come from."

Shelly sipped the tea. It wasn't bad. For tea. She wasn't the tea afficianado that Yolanda was. Shelly preferred good, tasty, flavorful coffee. Not the swill people drank these days. "What... 1937?"

"Another universe!" Kera pointed out.

Shelly grumbled. "Oh... that." A long sigh. "I hate talking about it because it gets confusing. My sequence of events doesn't match yours. The United States didn't enter World War 2 in 1942 like here, they entered the war in 1937, when the Imperial Japanese air fleets bombed Los Angeles back into the stone age. They were trying to make a pre-emptive strike to have the United States factions running in fear."

"Factions?"

"Hon, on my world, the south receeded from the United States in the civil war. After World War I more territories started to split apart like crazy. There were a dozen or more territories, all different countries, all through the Depression Era, before World War II. The obliteration of Los Angeles instead galvanized all the territories together back under the single banner - The *United* States of America - like never before. That was also helped by our world's first superhero."

"Oh? Who was he?" Yolanda inquired.

"Eh... he didn't exist here. Some guy named Clark Kent, who they say was the first alien to land on earth. He was at my wedding."

"Whoa, hold the phone." Lanara, the quiet one in the back, suddenly spoke up, choking on her last sip of tea. "We were told you weren't married."

Shelly held up one hand to show the ring. A silver band with gold flowers in a wreath and a large ruby in the center.

"...wait you said Jake Stone was your boyfriend." Lanara clarified.

"No, there was a wedding, but he went to meet with some of his mage friends soon after we arrived here, and I haven't seen him since. I could be a widow, for all I know. Or he could be caught in some weird time... rifty... magic... thing. I don't know."

"Oh." Lanara went back to being quiet again, per usual.

"So... what else was different about your world?" Yolanda prodded Shelly.

A pause for thought. "We were into Zepplins in a huge way. Hindenburg never crashed. We didn't have cars as much as you do here, though private helitaxis are common on my world. And air piracy."

"You mentioned before you were an air pirate. How'd you get into that?" Yolanda continued to make conversation.

Shelly shrugged. "I actually went to Los Angeles to try and get some better schooling. In the 20's you couldn't get much more than multiplication tables in sunday school, and I wanted to know more. I managed to get a desk job as a secretary for agents of the secret service in Hollywoodland. Eventually got my own field work - that's how I met Jake. Eventually hired on with a pirate crew to complete certain mission objectives getting magical artifacts away from Hitler and his cronies. Made some friends there. Eventually, as with all agents, they wanted to have me killed. Only we got the drop on them first, and I stayed with the pirates. We specifically raided Nazi zeps and bases for magical artifacts and hid them away in a spot Hitler couldn't reach."

"Sounds exciting." Yolanda smiled. Her pointy ears betrayed Yolanda's smile, Shelly knew Yolanda knew a lot more than she let on.

"Yeah. I miss those days." Shelly sighed. No, that wasn't true. It was *Jake*... her Jake Stone... she missed.

"I bet. Well I'm gonna clean all this up. Nice talking to you, Ms. Lightfoot."

Shelly looked at her. "Stone. Mrs. Sheryl Myzuki Lightfoot Stone." she glanced at her ring. "In this earth he and I had a daughter..." her voice trailed off. 'Too bad that'll never happen now.'

Always, as if reading her mind, Yolanda kissed Shelly's forehead. "Take good care of Vagary then." Yolanda said as she finished collecting dishes and heading back to her room, with Lanara in tow.

Shelly stared after Yolanda as she left, puzzling after her meaning.