Number of the Beast

Number of the Beast was a Stickleback story which ran from 2000AD Prog 1824 onwards.

• Script: Ian Edginton
• Art: D'Israeli
• Letters: Ellie De Ville

Synopsis

Part One

After a theft is interrupted the lizard-like creature which was being stolen was caught in an explosion.

Stickleback was revived by Orlando, five years after he died.

Part Two

Orlando told Stickleback that In the five years since he died the state has appropriated the workshops and warehouses which the Countess Irena Bernoulli had secreted across the country. Those with military applications had been kept by the state, though access had been granted to certain other technologies to such luminaries as Bazalgette and Brunel, who have proceeded to apply what they have learnt to transport, sanitation, communication and commerce.

Professor Challenger had brought back a Saurian Hominid egg from South America, which has been used to breed hundreds of millions of drones.  The Saurian Hominids, or Sorries seem to live for just a few years, are apparently passive, servile and obedient and have been intensively farmed until it is estimated that there are thirty for every human on the planet.  After death, their bodies are ground into meal and fed to the next generation.  Despite their apparent passivity there has been a recent attack on a Sorrie factory.

Part Three

Stickleback went to see the White Lotus Empress to see his son, a request which is not granted and leaves the Empress's court with Miss Scarlet .

The creature that was stolen was being kept in a large building where it had been laying eggs.

Part Four

Stickleback and Miss Scarlet paid a visit on Dr Praetorius where they found out more about the Sorries, before being escorted from the building.

Part Five

They followed up with a home visit where they found that Praetorius had stolen some eggs and reared some warrior caste sorries to produce the correct concentration of bio-chemicals. Much more fierce and intelligent than their servant class brethren, nine of them had managed to escape, taking with them notes and journals regarding the medication of the queen. Henry lost control of his emotions and, due to the effects of the Sorrie bio-chemicals, turned into Edward Hide.

Part Six

Hide killed Dr Praetorius and attacked Stickleback before Scarlet subdued him and injected him with the serum.

Part Seven

Paying tribute to the Rat Queen, Stickleback and Miss Scarlet were taken to see her in the sewers.

Part Eight

While Stickleback and Miss Scarlet were in her presence, the domain of the Rat Queen was attacked by the Sorries, who had arrived in the sewers days earlier.

Part Nine

The Sorries caught up with the trio, Stickelback buys them some time but they are cornered. Black Bob arrives to protect Stickleback.

Part Ten

Bob revealed that he had stitched himself back together, and that Tonga was now part of him.

Locations

• London
  • The Monkey's Uncle
  • Lord Talbot, a pub

Characters

• Doctor Orlando Doyle
• Stickleback
• Countess Irena Bernoulli (referred to)
• Professor Challenger (referred to)
• Miss Scarlet
• The White Lotus Empress
• Targus
• Doctor Septimus Praetorius, a cryptobiologist
• Doctor Henry
• Edward Hide, alter ego of Henry.
• Moody Various
• Rat Queen
• Black Bob
• Fiery Jack
• Little Tonga

Entities

• The Brotherhood of the Book
• Wold Newton Tours
• Trotter's Independent Traders
• Eckert's Alternatives

Species

• Saurian Hominids / Sorries

Artifacts

• Judas Silver