Standard Boilerplate Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, scenario, ideas, or anything else related to Kid Icarus. I claim no credit for anything found herein except the plot, which is mine, so don't steal it. Consider this story disclaimed henceforth, until darkness consumes the sun.
(Authors note: This is my first "story" fic in quite some time, ever since I dropped my old pokemon fic, "Ancient Ways". But the idea for this keeps coming back and bugging me so here it is, my first story in a while and my first ever submission for Kid Icarus: Uprising. Please leave a review if you want to say something, more reviews will encourage me to write more, and hopefully I'll finish this one.)
Touched by an Angel: Chapter 1
Serra lived an uneventful life up until she was 6. She did ordinary things that any peasant does when the world is at peace, there was never any excitement or danger, and her upbringing did nothing to convince her that life could be a dark, messy, and dangerous thing. That was the way up until her 6th harvest, when the Underworld Army invaded the land of Mortals.
Those were dark times, for two months the skies were sporadically darkened as entire armies of Specknoses, Miks, and Boogities went on rampages throughout entire kingdoms. Not that Serra knew or cared what the monsters were individually called, to most people they were all the same, demons. Left with no way to fight such inhuman threats, peasants lived in constant fear and only the brave or desperate left their homes for any reason. As if the feeble cottages and huts would offer any opposition against the "demons" or the Reapettes that followed them, harvesting souls. In Serra's eyes the real scare was in the aftermath, when it became clear that the souls of the dead were being harvested, that someone was slaying humans for some kind of profit. The more religiously fervent villagers claimed that the monsters were the result of the gods abandoning them, while other more practical sorts realized that the attacks were a result of at least one god paying too much attention, or another not paying enough.
This second mind set never sat well with Serra, who was at the core an active and self-reliant young girl. "Why should we expect the Gods to defend us?" She wondered, "Especially if the monsters are being sent by them?" She was more keen on protecting herself, although she was too young, too weak, and too naïve to really do much of anything. Her belligerence did not endear her to the other peasants and her family tried to keep her inside and out of sight. She rarely left home, but on at least one occasion she got outside and roamed around. However, the first time she did she very nearly met disaster.
Had she been older she would have realized that the fact that her parents were calling for her to come to the cellar meant there was a problem outside, she may have questioned the rumbling and the noise, but her young mind was only made more curious, and she ignored her parents to go see what the fuss was. Her eyes widened upon stepping outside, as she was staring down their little street at the back of what look like large metal plate with funny lines, the armored shell of a Boogity. Not realizing its hostile nature, she wandered over to examine it, when suddenly it whipped around! Upon seeing its grotesque arms and sneering face she did what any one would do, screamed as loud as possible. Perhaps not the smartest thing ever, as it immediately alerted every monster in town that one of the tasty humans was outside their stone and wood shelters. The Boogity flinched a little at the noise before winding up to throw a purple projectile to silence the little annoyance it had found. Serra reacted with remarkable swiftness and dove aside to avoid the attack. She immediately realized she should have probably gone back inside, when she was swiftly proven wrong. The projectile hit her home and exploded.
Suddenly everything was heat and noise, and Serra felt weightless as she was thrown clear by the force of the blast, a fact that saved her life. She crashed down in a small alleyway nearby and was momentarily stunned. Upon recovering her senses, the little girl lay prone on the ground in terror waiting for that terrible face to come and kill her, but she realized after a while that if she was going to be killed she would be dead already. Slowly, Serra dared to peer up from the ground and she saw two things, one terrifying and one horrifying. The Boogity still floated where it had been, but it seemed not to notice her, (perhaps it thought she was dead?), additionally several other monsters with skulls for heads were leaving the scene, apparently disappointed that their target had been killed in a blast. She would have felt relieved slightly if not for the second thing she saw which almost made her cry out, her home was not where it should be, a pile of rubble had replaced it. She almost did scream as she thought of her parents, but realized in a flash of what could only be called inspiration that the monsters would respond to the noise. Serra vowed silently that until the monsters were all gone she would not say a word, no matter what happened. She did not realize that she would be keeping that vow for a very long time. As it was she was left, alone and shell shocked, in a dark, cramped alley meters away from the bashed up, utterly ruined wreckage of her home, family, and comfortable life.
First, she was numbed by shock and despair, and then she was wracked by a huge question: Whatever was she going to do now?