Dr. Snip

STEPHEN.

Stephen Steel, the dimensional twin of Steve, was in Love, totally madly insanely and completely in love.

It was the first time he had ever been in love, and it was overwhelming him.

Her name was Glorious Gloria, and she was the most beautiful sexiest woman in two Dimensions.

His life had lit up after she had seduced him yesterday, perhaps seduced wasn't a strong enough word for what she had done to him.

She had nearly killed him with her love, his twin Steve, had to carry him back into the Manor house and put him to bed.

Stephen had slept all through the night and had just awoken to the songs of the birds, and strangely enough the howling of wolves that came from the nearby forest.

There was no danger from the wolves and other wild animals that had been reintroduced into the British countryside.

A sonic fence surrounded the Manor; that separated the civilised from the wild.

Stephen was certainly no virgin, as a Paratrooper he had been around the world, and had made love to many women in many countries.

His charming manner and sunny smile; had drawn women to him like bees to honey.

This sunny side, was balanced by a very dark side; that had been born due to the bloody operations that he had been involved with as a soldier.

He had made love to them, but had never fallen in love with any of them.

He lay naked on his back basking in the sun that shone brightly through the large windows of Gloria's bedroom, and thought about Gloria.

Perhaps he was captivated, because she had been the aggressive one last night.

She had seemed in total control of their lovemaking, and he had been happy to conform to her wishes.

Lately his life had been one long round of death and destruction, and his dreams had been of blood.

Now his mind was filled with Gloria, and he smiled as he relaxed on the bed.

Suddenly his nose detected the smell of Bacon and Coffee.

He sat up quickly as the door opened, and Angel walked in with a tray.

'Don't get used to this service buster, mother was called away to see the King,' said Angel totally ignoring his nakedness.

'I took pity on the dried out husk of a man that Steve carried in here last night,' she said handing him the tray of Bacon, Eggs and Coffee.

'What no toast?' he asked smiling up at Angel.

'Cheeky fucker, your lucky to get this,' she said 'Mother is good at fucking men but not that good at feeding them afterwards.'

Angel sat down on the bed and watched as Stephen tore into his food.

He was starving, and soon finished off every scrap of food and gulped down the mug of hot coffee.

'God Agent Black that was delicious, why am I so hungry, I could eat that all again.'

'Considering you are lying there stark naked, and remembering the fact that you fucked me yesterday, you may as well call me Angel.

The aphrodisiac drugs that mother uses, cause your body to burn up lots of energy. You need food to replace it. If you want seconds come down to the kitchen and help yourself.'

Stephen watched as she walked out of the bedroom, her bottom swaying unconsciously.

He remembered her naked bottom only too well, and had to pull up the bedclothes to hide his reaction to it.

He was still hungry so jumped out of bed, and dressed in shirt and Trousers.

He ran downstairs into the kitchen and stood confused, as he couldn't recognise anything he could use to make a second breakfast.

He realised that he was like a Victorian, looking at a microwave oven.

The kitchen had lots of shiny things in it, but he had no idea what they did.

He was so hungry he decided to jump back to his own kitchen for a good feed.

No sooner thought than done, and back in the 20th Century he made himself an enormous breakfast, using up all his Bacon Eggs and bread and filling a pint mug with coffee.

He wolfed this second breakfast down, and relished every bite and swallow.

At last he was replete, and sat relaxed at the table sipping his big mug of coffee.

He wondered what Gloria was doing, what did her daughter mean by aphrodisiac drugs?

There was so much he didn't know about 26th Century culture.

He wondered why Gloria had gone to see the King, as he went upstairs to change into clean clothes.

Gloria was bubbling with excitement, the King was going to elevate Steve to the Peerage.

He was going to become a Lord of the Realm.

This was no spur of the moment Knighting, this was a ponderous Royal ceremony that would involve the entire court.

The rumour was that Sir Steven Steele; was going to be made Lord Steele of India.

This was a tremendous honour and would make Steve a very rich and powerful man in the 26th Century.

Gloria had been called to help organise the event, as Steve's personal friend and lover she could be the liaison between him and the organisers of the pageant.

Gloria was thrilled to assist her Steve rise in the world, however although she thought she loved him, she was well aware that he wasn't just her Steve.

He also belonged if that was the term, to Angel and Alison.

However Stephen, this other darker version of him was hers alone; and she hoped to keep it that way.

Stephen was Steve, an exact copy down to the DNA, and she was his only lover.

She knew he had sex with Angel, but that was simply a mistake on her part and wouldn't be repeated.

Gloria was deciding whether or not to back off from Steve, and concentrate on Stephen.

She thought she loved them both, but like most women she really wanted the undivided love and attention of her man.

STEFAN

Back in Steve's garden in the 20th Century, at the same time as Stephen was changing his clothes in the bedroom, there appeared a subtle wrongness about a certain area of the space between two apple trees.

It seemed like a heat shimmer danced in the air.

An observer would have been amazed to see a clawed hand reaching through into our universe from elsewhere.

It flailed about until it felt the trunk of the apple tree, and instinctively grabbed hold tightly.

With a roar of pain and effort, a veritable nightmare was forced into our dimension.

Such was the strength of the things grip, that the trunk of the tree splintered and the top of the apple tree hit the ground.

A humanoid creature seemingly made from chitin and blades lie panting on the ground, then it seemed to fade into the background as a chameleon like change washed over its hard exterior.

Soon it looked just like a heap of grass and weeds.

Stefan was terrified and angry; he had stumbled into a rift in the dimensional wall caused by Stephens's incursion into this universe.

The differing pressures had forced him through despite his attempts to fight.

He had come from a very different world to this one.

Stefan's version of Earth was vicious and deadly, every animal and plant was evolutionarily designed to survive by killing and eating anything within reach.

An increase in background radiation and a long series of solar flares had forced horrific mutations in the Plants and Animals of his dimension.

At the top of this food chain was what was left of humanity.

The unstoppable evolution of an inimical world; had thinned the human population to a fraction of its size.

All the gentle soft people had died violently, only the hardest and fastest survived.

Through the desperate use of technology, the human survivors could kill anything, and did on a daily basis.

The reflexes of the survivors were lightning fast, and their weapons fantastically destructive.

At first glance he looked like an armoured Knight, with chitinous spikes protruding from his body similar to a porcupine.

At any sign of danger, these spikes would spring out to protect him from attackers.

His titanium suit was fitted with servomotors, to increase his strength and speed dramatically.

It was powered by a small fusion reactor that sat in a compartment at the small of his back.

Stunned and confused, Stefan cowered under the tree waiting for the inevitable attack.

However no roots writhed to strangle him, and no poisonous sap rained down upon him.

After a while he opened his eyes behind the protective transparent eyelids of his helmet and looked around warily.

Nothing was attacking him; perhaps the vegetation was in a dormant mode.

As silent as a shadow he slid away from the tree into a clearing.

All his senses were on maximum alert as he scanned the sky looking for predators.

He spotted a few small flying things that appeared to have spikes sticking out of their heads, but his sensors detected no sign of danger from them.

They were definitely not kamikaze hive bombers that would hurl themselves down towards their prey, accepting death on impact so the hive would feed.

This was a strangely quiet world and although keeping his camouflage projector running, Stefan stood up and surveyed the immediate surroundings.

Being in no immediate danger from attack, he was able to switch to detection mode and utilised all his senses to range out seeking sustenance.

His nasal sensors were able to smell a dead animal from a mile away depending on the wind direction.

Stefan smelt meat close by and stealthily moved towards it.

He found the meat in a refrigerator, in a strangely defenceless house.

He heard a soft click from behind him, and in an instinctive reflex motion spun around his handguns that were bionic ally controlled by his eyes and thoughts, flashing into his hands.

A small clock on the mantelshelf was ticking; twin red laser dots from his gun's sights rock steady on its harmless face.

Stefan felt no chagrin at his overreaction, overreaction kept you alive.

Better to blast three harmless plants than not to blast a strangler tree.

Over the exit door to his home bunker were burnt these words.

" Use your head, Slow means dead"

He holstered the guns and reached into the refrigerator.

There was a type of dead bird, and some other foodstuffs that he couldn't identify.

Taking the bird he walked to a corner of the room, and stood with his back to the wall.

His eyes were constantly surveying the immediate area for threats as he opened the lower part of his helmet; just enough to allow himself to tear into the bird.

He was famished, and soon all that was left of the chicken was a pile of greasy bones scattered around him on the floor.

With a smooth whirring noise his helmet closed again, its titanium metal protecting him from the outside.

His every breath filtered through a small energy field to destroy airborne microbes.

Where the fuck was he? He could only assume an enemy had done this to him and he knew what to do with enemies.

Stefan had been indoctrinated by his trainers, and his world; to believe implicitly in this axiom.

"When in doubt, take it out"

He needed a drink and approached the sink with caution; he ran a stream of water into a mug.

He scanned it for inimical life with his bio scanner, before using his suits built in straw to suck the water into his thirsty mouth.

In an attempt to discover more about his situation he searched the room. In a drawer he found an old photo of a group of soldiers, one of them bore an uncanny resemblance to Stefan.

This person seemed to be happy as he was smiling at the camera; his face showed none of the lines that had made Stefan look old before his time. The need for constant vigilance and concentration, had etched his face with a network of lines.

There was also the scar that ran down one side of his face, as a reminder of a wire vine that had sprung at him unexpectedly when he was young and inexperienced.

Luckily for him his partner had managed to burn it, before it wrapped itself completely around his neck where it would have decapitated him like a cheese wire.

This would have soaked the ground with his blood, and allowed the plant to survive in his combative world.

Stefan didn't hate the plant; it was only trying to survive, as were they all.

However from then on he blasted every wire vine he came across.

Apart from the picture there was nothing familiar in this place.

This very dwelling would not have lasted a minute on his world.

Humans lived in hardened bunkers protected by poisoned ground and flamethrowers; to keep back the almost sentient animals and plants.

He recognised a computer when he saw one and moving it around so his back was to a wall he began to call up all the information he could find about this world.

After an hour of research he sat back in puzzled wonder, this world was so soft and harmless compared to his own.

The plants were just mindless harmless plants, and there were very few animals that weren't used for food.

He smiled a rare smile, as he stood up and walked out of the door into the garden.

With a quiet hissing sound his armoured visor rose, and then the secondary transparent visor also slid up into the top of his helmet.

This bared his face, to the soft warm breeze that wafted across the orchard.

This was a first for Stefan, to be face naked outside the home bunker.

Every time he returned to the home bunker he had to go through three different showers, to ensure that no microbial predators had hitched a ride on or in him.

Had he been stupid enough to do this on his own world he would be dead in minutes.

His lungs invaded by inimical spores that would infest his body in seconds.

This was a rare treat, and he relished the feel of the warm sunlight on his head and face.

STEPHEN

Stephen had washed and changed, and was feeling a lot more relaxed and happy than he had been in a long time.

He looked out of the bedroom window, to enjoy the view of Steve's orchard.

To his amazement, he saw what looked to be a Storm trooper standing by an apple tree.

Stephen had never seen or met a Storm trooper, but had heard that there was a rogue one out there somewhere, and by the looks of it this thing could be it.

His first thought was to jump back and ask Agent Black for help, but then he thought fuck it I can handle this alone.

He crept down the stairs and out into the garden.

Stefan's senses were better than most animals, and he heard something trying to creep up on him from behind.

He was a slave to his deeply conditioned reflexes, and without conscious thought he spun around his twin guns leaping into his hands and fired at the attacker.

Stephen was caught completely by surprise, as the figure blurred into violent action without warning.

Fortunately for him, Steve had programmed Stephen's QT to Phase.

This acted as an automatic shield to protect him from bullets etc.

It was only this programme that prevented him from being blasted into bloody rags.

The rounds from Stefan's twin heavy calibre guns, slammed into the phase field that had sprung into being around Stephen.

Even with the invulnerable protection of the field around him, the kinetic force of the heavy bullets knocked Stephen backwards.

He had only popped back here for breakfast, not a fucking war.

He wasn't even armed, so deciding that discretion was the better part of valour he jumped back to Gloria's house to confer with agent Black after all.

Stefan was wondering who it had been that was attacking him, whomever it was had seemed to vanish behind some sort of force field.

When he ran to the spot where the man had been there was nothing there. His heart pounding from adrenaline rush, he tried to make some sense of what had just occurred.

His super fast senses had glimpsed a face similar to his own, before it was covered by that strange glasslike force field.

The attacker even had a similar scar on his face.

For once Stefan wished he hadn't reacted so violently, but even as he thought this he realised that he was a product of his world and could not have done anything else in the situation.

The lack of a dead body forced him to admit that the man had escaped, and would probably be back with reinforcements.

It was time for him to leave, loading a small bag with food and drink he set off into the evening heading into the open country.

In a spirit of "Fuck you" he left the faceplate open so that he could smell the clean fresh scents of this world as he walked.

STEVE

Back at the Orphanage in Thailand, where he had been taking some well-needed R & R, Steve realised that his holiday was over.

The news was all about an abducted little girl, on holiday in Spain.

She had been taken from her bed in the middle of the night, and the local police were at a loss to solve this crime.

The town was full of holiday apartments, and she could be in any one of them.

She could even be out of the country, if the abductor had planned this carefully.

Alison saw the effect this story had on her lover, and although she desperately wanted him to stay with her she knew and agreed that his talents were called for in this case.

She handed him the key to the wardrobe in which he had stored his coat and sword.

Alison sat quietly on the bed watching him gear up for this mission.

With the donning of the black leather trench coat, he seemed to embrace the dark personality of Dr. Snip.

Sheathing Excalibur in the sheath at his back, his face became sombre as he began the planning he would require to rescue the little girl.

'See you soon darling, this time we've spent together has been clean and good, I will remember it,' he said hugging her to him.

'I love you Steve, please take care of yourself,' she whispered.

On second he was standing in front of her, then he vanished as he jumped to Spain.

Dr Snip was in a very bad mood, he was confident that he could rescue the girl, but the very fact that he had been pulled back into this shit infuriated him.

Steve was a very nice kind person, but underneath this persona was a dark tide of frustrated hatred towards the scum of humanity that attacked the very young and helpless.

What really depressed him was how this case would affect his relationship with Alison.

Her whole life was a testament to love and life.

She loved and protected the children that he had rescued, and he knew that she was afraid that Dr. Snip would become ascendant in his personality if he weren't careful.

As the police didn't know exactly what time during the night that the girl was kidnapped, Steve had to wait outside the apartment until something happened.

There were two ways out of the apartment block.

Steve put a spy eye on the rear door to alert him in case the abductor used that route.

He would normally cut his waiting time by mini jumping ahead until he spotted something untoward.

This time however he decided to simply wait in the shadows, and consider the best way to punish this kidnapper.

One of the many advantages of time travel; was that when he discovered the kidnappers identity he could simply jump back in time to before the attack and ensure that it never happened in the first place.

However this lacked the sense of justice and righteous retribution; that his soul needed to justify the vicious things he did.

Sometimes these kidnappings were a spur of the moment crime. Consequently if he jumped back a few days and confronted the pervert, the man may honestly not know what he was being accused of.

This time Steve decided to allow the actual abduction to take place; to establish the guilt of the kidnapper, then he could extract a suitable retribution for the crime.

Being a holiday town the fun and games went on into the night, and continued often until the sun rose the next day.

People were coming and going in and out of the apartment block constantly.

He was looking for someone carrying a bundle or something of that nature, in which a little girl could be concealed.