 |
V
"A Time to Fight"
Author Unknown
V Annual 1986 (World International Publishing Ltd.) |
Elizabeth is kidnapped by some two-bit crooks who
hope to trade her to Diana.
Story Summary
The story opens with a little girl clutching her pet rabbit,
lost in a Visitor-blasted neighborhood. Elizabeth is also in the
neighborhood on a mission and she stops to comfort the child.
Just then, four Visitor troopers arrive with weapons drawn. They
recognize Elizabeth and plan to turn her over to Diana. One of
the soldiers grabs the rabbit and hangs it over his gaping maw,
about to eat it, when Elizabeth's anger triggers her telekinetic
powers and sends the four troopers flying through the air. More
Visitors approach in a transport, but Kyle shows up on his
motorcycle to rescue the two (and the rabbit) and they race down
the road.
Nearby, a liquor store is being robbed by two low-grade crooks.
The two escape with a third accomplice driving a car, while the
liquor store owner's wife shoots at them with her husband's .25
Colt Junior. As the car speeds away, she finally hits a rear
tire and the car skids off the side of the road, hitting Kyle
and his passengers on his motorcycle.
Later, Kyle stumbles into resistance HQ with the little girl.
The girl's parents are there, luckily, and the family is
reunited. Kyle explains to the rest what happened and that the
hoods in the car took Elizabeth hostage to a condo near the
beach where they are waiting to work a deal with Diana for the
starchild.
The resistance quickly makes rescue plans and heads out. The
rescue is successful, despite Visitor interference. Meanwhile,
the liquor store owner and his wife also decide to join the
resistance.
THE END
Didja Know?
This story appeared in the British V
Annual 1986, a kids book of short stories, articles and
games all about V.
Didja Notice?
Page 22 mentions that Jacob came to the U.S. with his parents
from Warsaw, Poland at the end of WWII. Possibly, this is meant
to invoke comparison between the resistance war against the
Visitors and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April-May 1943, in
which the Jewish residents of Warsaw fought German occupying
troops for almost a month before the ghetto was virtually
destroyed by the German troops.
Also on page 22, the crook Donny pulls a long drag from the
broken neck of a liquor bottle. That's a good way to swallow a
piece of glass!
On page 23, Donny refers to the Visitor occupation as the
"iguana invasion".
On page 24, Julie is chairing a discussion among resistance
members on how to make best use of a recently acquired
skyfighter. Do they really need to have a discussion about what
to do with a single recently acquired skyfighter? They've
acquired many of them over the course of numerous stories; they
should simply have one more to add to their fleet (see
"City on the Edge" which
depicts the old movie ranch
in the Santa Monica mountains which they use as a hangar and
repair facility for captured skyfighters).
On page 26, Visitor patrols suddenly cut off both
ends of the street as resistance members attempt to escape. But
how did the Visitors know they were there? Possibly they are
troops sent by Diana to meet up with Donny and Carl who had
hopes of trading Elizabeth to her for some reward, and they
happened to arrive in the middle of the fight/escape between
the two thugs and the resistance rescue team.
Back to Episode Studies