Number of the Beast

I am a phantom without shape or form!

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Can't hide your guilty secrets from a telepath, you know!

This article contains information about an ongoing or anticipated story. Details may change - as updates occur outdated information may still be relevant to a Real World - Development section.

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

Synopsis

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.

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.

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.

Stickleback and Miss Scarlet paid a visit on Dr Praetorius where they found out more about the Sorries, before being escorted from the building^[1]. 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.^[2].

Henry lost control of his emotions and, due to the effects of the Sorrie bio-chemicals, turned into Edward Hide. Before Miss Scarlet subdued him, he killed Dr Praetorius and attacked Stickleback. During her time with the White Lotus Empress protecting her and Stickleback's son, she had been trained by great sages and warriors^[3].