Three. The day of the Jeckell.
Steve woke up slowly; he had stayed at Angel's apartment in the Twenty Sixth Century. His ears were missing the sound of birds twittering outside. There were no birds outside her apartment, it was underground as was all of this centuries London.
The birds were on the surface with all the other wild animals including wolves and wild boar. He could feel Angel's naked body hot against his side, due to her high metabolism. Even in her sleep her slow and powerful breathing, reminded him of a female tiger asleep.
Luckily for him she had kept her deadly claws sheathed. Even so she had damn near killed him again last night in her passion. She was so demanding in bed, that he was sure she would kill a lesser man. At least he had finally persuaded her not to use drugs, to enhance their sex. He liked his sex the old fashioned way, without chemical interference. Not counting of course the contraceptive drug; that her implant administered to keep her sterile.
He opened his eyes to look upon her, and instead saw a monster standing over the bed staring down at him. He assumed it was staring at him because of its hunched posture. Its eyes were completely hidden by some sort of black steel mask. The body looked like a humanoid insect, chitinous and bulky. It then seemed to ignore him, and turned away towards his table in the corner of his bedroom.
It was there that he emptied his pockets at night; scattered on its surface were all the usual bits and pieces that a man carries about with him. All except for one item; his QT Device. The monsters hand was reaching for it, as Steve's brain finally kicked in and told him that he was in danger.
'Hey, what the fuck are you doing? Get away from that,' he yelled throwing back the covers and lunging towards the intruder. Steve was just over six foot tall and strongly built, as an ex-para and now ex-policeman he had kept himself in very good shape.
As he reached the grotesque figure, it threw its arm backwards as if to brush off an annoying fly. He felt a crushing blow to his chest, and found himself flying back onto the bed. He slammed into Angel, who had woken at his first shout. He barely noticed her body jerk, as she called upon her boost facility to ready herself for attack.
She leapt off the bed naked and blurred towards the intruder, faster than Steve's eyes could register. To his stunned amazement the monster also seemed to blur, and turning like lightning caught her outstretched arms easily.
Angel screamed in fury, as she was held off the ground easily by this strange thing. It seemed to realise that it couldn't pick up the QT, whilst holding a furious woman. Twisting its hips it threw Angel into the nearest wall, and turned back to pick up the QT.
Steve was still trying to breath so could only watch, as Angel somersaulted in mid air so she landed with her feet against the wall. She had slammed into full battle mode; her enhanced muscles were flooded with adrenaline. As if defying gravity she flexed her long legs, and sprang back off the wall towards the intruder.
Steve just managed to put his hands over his ears, before her battle screech smashed through his skull. In battle mode she used every weapon available to incapacitate her enemy, including sound. The crippling decibel levels her throat implant generated, were enough to disorientate any human.
In this instance however it only served to warn the strange creature of her attack. Without any sign of distress it turned again to meet her, seeing this Angel called upon her ultimate weapon. As she flashed across the room, Steve saw her nails glow as she deployed her monofilament implants. The glow was caused by dust motes in the air, being annihilated by the molecule sharp edges of her nails.
He had seen her cut through steel walls with them, and dismember a steel killer Robot. Not to forget the Tyrannosaurus rex that she had decapitated. The creature evidently recognised its danger, and to Angels total amazement although already boosted, it boosted again. Even in her already boosted state she saw it blur, and before her nails hit it, it had grabbed Steve's QT and flashed out of the door.
In full flight Angel's hands hit the bedroom wall, and cut deeply into it. As she fell to the floor her boost cut out, she sagged against the wall in defeat.
'Fuck me, Steve, did you see that fucker move.' She said dispiritedly. Since associating with him in the twentieth century, her vocabulary had become richer with expletives.
Steve had only just got his breath back, from the backhanded smash from the creatures arm.
'Are you alright?' he gasped painfully.
'Fucking peachey; I just feel a right cunt for having my arse handed to me by that fucker.' She muttered.
'Any idea what it was?'
'Only one thing it could be love, a fucking government Storm Trooper.'
Angel climbed to her feet and brushed the debris from her naked body.
'Only a Storm Trooper could boost at twice my speed. My implants are ex-military; that means obsolete, compared to the latest technology available to the British Army.
'You are joking I hope, why would the British Army attack us?'
'Attack us! I can assure you that it wasn't sent here to attack us. If it had been we would almost certainly be dead.' She answered.
'It was sent to "acquire" your QT, which it did with the minimum of effort on its part.'
'You say "it" is it a human being or a robot?'
'Who the fuck knows, it probably doesn't remember itself. They start out as super fit humans, but by the time the government has fully modified them, they are more synthetic than flesh and blood. My modifications are pathetic shadows compared to theirs.'
Steve walked into the kitchen rubbing his sore chest; Angel followed still unconcernedly naked and plonked herself down on a chair. She watched while Steve brewed up his answer to everything, a hot cup of tea.
'Do you want one?' he asked politely.
'No thanks love I've already hit,' she replied absentmindedly.
'I wish you would stop taking drugs, it worries me.'
Angel came from this Twenty Sixth century, where recreational and performance-enhancing drugs were routinely taken.
Drug taking was as common there, as smoking is in this century. One of her many implants monitored her vitality, and adjusted it for maximum performance automatically. It achieved this, by releasing various drugs into her bloodstream as it deemed necessary.
'Tea contains Caffeine,' she pointed out.
'Yeah right,' he said sitting down with his cup of tea.
'Why didn't it take your QT as well?'
'It follows orders to the letter, it was obviously told to take yours. Had it been told to take mine it would have done so.'
'Well I want my QT back, how do we go about it?' he stated quietly.
'We first have to know who has it, where it is, and of course when it is,' she replied handing him her QT.
'I suggest you ask your favourite magician Merlin.'
'Do I need to be holding a QT to talk to him?'
'How the fuck do I know, you're the one that's been chatting to the fucking World Brain for donkey's ages, don't you know?'
Steve placed Angel's device on the table, and removed his hand from it.
'Merlin are you there?' he spoke out loud so Angel could hear. OF COURSE STEVE, HOW CAN I HELP. Steve let out a breath he hadn't realised he was holding, thank God he could still talk to his friend Merlin.
'I am so glad I can communicate with you without my QT.'
YOUR QT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH COMMUNICATION. THAT IS ACHIEVED BY THE IMPLANT IN YOUR BRAIN. THE QT ENABLES YOU TO TRAVEL THROUGH TIME AND SPACE.
'Houston we have a problem, my QT has been stolen, possibly by the British Army.'
IT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN SOONER OR LATER. YOUR DEVICE IS ONE OF ONLY TWELVE IN EXISTANCE. IT IS PRICELESS.
'Any ideas on who has it?'
