The void of space echoed out. The Gossimar-Day Slitheen branch was one of the branches of the Slitheen family stationed outside Earth during their revenge plot to turn off the sun - several branches had come together to avenge the Pasameer-Day branch, in fact. But it hadn't gone to plan, and the Slitheen ships were blaring past, going at hyperspeed to fly away from the planet that had just a moment ago been their chance at riches. But the Gossimar-Day pair stayed behind. They had got a tip to stay behind by a strange signal coming from Earth itself, that a member of their family needed them to stay if - and when - the plan went wrong.
The signal wasn't lying. A blue shroud appeared and in its wake was a tired and exhausted Slitheen child, bare on the ground. It had scorch marks around its neck and arms, and it was passed out. The male Slitheen known as Dax was the first to speak:
"Oh my goodness upon a bartleburtle tree..! Child, wake up!" He rattled out, approaching the child as Bloorm, his wife, stood back apprehensively. The computer monitor to the side blared to life, a shade of green that engulfed the ship's interior. Both Slitheen turned and stared at it.
"I am a Xylok. Your mission is to take this child and help him take his revenge. We will all serve our purpose. Now, follow my instructions…" spoke the monitor, clear and concisely.
Time passed as the pair looked after the child, who was still struck with the trauma of seeing their father die above them as they were teleported away. It racked them, clearly. They often randomly struck out in anger at the air, muttering "foul woman" under his breath occasionally. The two Slitheen adults were told what to do, but were taking a measured approach...
There was a family, on Earth, who was looking for their son. This family was called the Stafford family, with the father being Jay and the mother being Heidi. Their missing son, Ashleigh, was of grave concern to them, and it haunted them. They had filed a missing persons report, of course, and gave the police a description of their child. Unfortunately for the pair, seemingly all pictures and videos of their son were all erased from the cloud, and they had no recent printed photos, and so all they could give the officers at the station was a somewhat generic description and old pictures of a far younger kid. The officers said they would get in touch with the companies responsible for the cloud storage where pictures of the child were stored, but not much more could be done.
Weeks turned into months. The world was going mad around them - the sun turned off, other children were going missing but eventually returned, and there was even metal men that had rampaged the streets, once. But to them, time felt like nothing. They just wanted their kid back and they didn't care a jot about the rest of the world.
The mysterious being that called itself "Xylok" knew this, of course. It knew everything. It deleted the images. Not to be malicious, but to prepare… And the plan was finally getting into gear.
The plan to destroy Earth.
The first step? Get the Slitheen situated on Earth.