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War with the Future

"Dammit!" Skinner cried out as he got up from the floor, nursing a sore back. "Why did Tom put us up against you?" he asked Mina, as she dusted her hands off.

"Because with the strength these Morlocks possess you'll need practice against someone with similar power to do any damage, and Hyde is definitely out, since we can't be sure he won't hurt somebody," Mina explained, as she looked over at Jekyll. He was trying his best to fight without using Hyde, but he wasn't doing as good a job as he could have been.

This was mainly because he wasn't much of an impressive physical specimen to start with he was getting thrown around even by Skinner, but also because he just had a fear of doing damage to his friends. At the moment he was nursing a black eye given to him by Skinner, who'd struck out a bit too hard at him when in their practice match. Besides, Skinner had gotten into a few bar fights back when he was visible, so was capable of handling himself in a fight for some time already.

"Look, Jekyll, I'm not going to sustain any wounds you inflict upon me for long!" Mina informed him, as she hauled back up onto his feet. "Please, if you don't pick up you'll be useless if the Morlocks attack us in an enclosed space!"

*****

USELESS? Just one sip of the serum and you'd be able to stop them for good! Hyde yelled in Jekyll's head.

Yes, but what if the space is so tight that it can't contain you, Edward? Jekyll asked his other self, in an exasperated tone he didn't use very often to anyone.

Hyde fell silent for a few seconds before replying. What are the odds of that happening in LONDON?!

It still stands, even if it's not for this fight. It can't hurt to learn now anyway.

"Jekyll, are we going to get this done or what?" Mina asked.

Jekyll looked over at her and nodded. "We are."

"Well, here we go," Mina said, as the two of them adopted their now- familiar combat positions. (Although Jekyll still didn't look very comfortable in his.) "Now, please try to remember the following. I'm not using my full strength, so I should be at about the level of the Morlocks. Try to ignore the hair; the Morlocks don't have enough for you to use it to throw them around." Then, she lowered her head, stretched out her right arm, and lowered her head. "Now, throw me- if you can."

Jekyll struck forward, trying to grab Mina's arm before she could draw back. He failed, but he did managed to get a good blow in at her mouth.

She drew back, wiping it slightly. Then she looked at Jekyll, who was looking at her in a way that was partly concerned and partly terrified.

"Nice job," she said, moving her jaw from side to side as she looked at him. "Powerful, fast... but you made one mistake."

"W-what?" Jekyll asked.

"You tried to grab my arm," Mina explained. "The Morlocks are not going to give you that chance if they fight you as yourself." She got back into her original position, and Jekyll did the same. "This time, wait for me to attack you before retaliating, all right?"

Jekyll nodded. Mina crouched down, and leapt towards Jekyll.

Quick as a flash, Jekyll grabbed Mina's arm and threw her round as fast as he could. To the amazement of the three people in the room, not only did he stop Mina, but he also threw her directly into the wall!

After a few seconds, which were mainly occupied by Mina struggling back onto her feet, Skinner broke the silence.

"HOW did you do that?!" he asked Jekyll, as he stared at his hands.

"I... I think... it was... Hyde...in control... there..." Jekyll replied, as Sawyer walked into the room. He noticed Mina lying on the ground, Jekyll looking shocked, and Skinner baffled, and took all of two seconds to come up with one of his usual quick comments.

"Can't anyone play nicely nowadays, children?" he asked in a mockingly feminine voice.

"VERY funny, Tom," Mina said, in a mockingly cross voice. Skinner and Jekyll just smiled at each other; the League had gotten used to their little arguments. Most of them just culminated in a great deal of kissing and then retreating to some other part of the ship. Nobody was quite sure what they did there, and nobody was going to try and find out until they told them. Even Skinner would never go that far.

"Hey, I just never expected you'd get thrown that far by Jekyll!" Sawyer said. He quickly glanced over at the aforementioned doctor. "No offence meant, by the way."

"N-none taken," Jekyll replied.

"Good," Sawyer replied, turning back to Mina. "Honestly, are you losing your touch or something?"

"Do you want to see how powerful I am right now?" Mina asked in a threatening tone of voice.

"Wouldn't mind it," Sawyer replied.

Instantly the two of them grabbed each other, madly kissing one another as their hands freely roamed each other's bodies. Even after almost a week, they still hadn't managed to contain their emotions for too long.

By the time they parted, Skinner and Jekyll had left the room to give them some much-needed privacy.

"You know, we really need to remember to control ourselves," Sawyer commented to Mina.

"Sorry," Mina smiled at him. However, the look of love in her eyes assured Sawyer that she wasn't. What's more, neither was he.

This continued staring into each other's eyes for a few minutes until Mina broke it off.

"Sorry, I almost forget. What did you want to say when you came in here originally?" she asked, slightly breathless despite not needing to breath.

"Oh, just thought I'd see how things were here," Sawyer replied casually. He then lowered his voice a little, as though he didn't want anyone else to hear even though they were the only two people in the room. "Nemo's got the coordinates set, and Hartdegen's filling everyone in the crew in, so I just haven't got anything on for the next few hours, if you're interested...?"

Mina grinned at him. "I wondered when we'd reach this stage," she replied, kissing him again as they began to walk out of the training room. "This is" kiss "a bit" kiss "sooner" kiss "than I" kiss "expected," kiss "but it's" kiss "fine" kiss "with me."

"Same" kiss "here," Sawyer replied, as they began to make their slow way towards the nearest room; Mina's room.

*****

Outside the room, once again Skinner was the only witness to a pivotal moment in the relationship of Tom Sawyer and Mina Harker. As before, he was completely invisible, having backtracked from walking with Jekyll to take a peek at the make-out session. However, he wasn't going to watch the rest of this scene; there were lines he would never cross, no matter how odd he was, and that was one of them.

Nodding at them, Skinner turned back, heading after Jekyll to continue their little practice battle before the fight with the Morlocks. He liked to think both of them were improving; maybe he should see about getting a new weapon... Then, a thought occurred to him.

Continuing on only to get his hat and coat, he then turned around and headed back to where he thought Hartdegen should be. He had a favour to ask that man...

*****

The next morning, the Nautilus was only a couple of hundred miles away from London. At the Nautilus's speed, they would be there within a couple of hours, so the League were meant to be getting ready for the fight. However, after the rather hectic events of last night, only Nemo and Hartdegen were ready. Skinner and Jekyll were nursing their bruises, and Sawyer and Mina were showing no inclination to get out of their bed. At the moment they were having a little fun with some cakes Mina had found in her room from the New Year's party; she'd been in charge of the food, and hadn't found enough space on the table for everything.

*****

Nemo looked over at Hartdegen as the Nautilus began to rise up out of the sea as it came ever closer to London.

"Are we doing well for time, Mr Hartdegen?" he asked, as he began to manoeuvre the Nautilus forward slowly; he was far enough above the water so that he could see what he was doing and he hadn't seen any ships that could have spotted him, but he still wanted to avoid any chance of an accident.

"Fairly well," Hartdegen said, as he consulted a watch he had in his pocket. "The arrival of a mass of what seems to be rampaging monkeys is generally documented accurately, and the files specifically stated that the Morlocks arrived in London at two- fifteen in the afternoon."

"Which gives us?" Nemo asked; he'd never seen much point in installing a clock on the control panel, given that he operated on his own timetable, but he was beginning to think about doing it after joining the League.

"About four hours," Hartdegen replied, as he slipped his watch shut. "We have to move fast."

"Very well," Nemo said, as he reached for the message tubes he'd installed in the League's quarters after they'd left Africa. He slipped a small note into all four, pushed a button, and all four headed straight for their destinations. "They should be here in a few minutes," he said, turning back to his driving.

"You know," Hartdegen said a little later, looking over the message tubes, "if you're interested, I could nip into the future and get you a radio system for the League." "A what?" Nemo asked, puzzled. He stopped the Nautilus and turned around to face Hartdegen. "Would you care to fully explain?"

"Oh, a radio system is fairly simple. It's like Bell's telephones, but it can only call a select few other radios," Hartdegen explained. "It's easy enough to install, and I'm prepared to help you out if the need arises."

"Really?" Nemo said, getting interested. "You could install it by yourself? Even though it's from the future?"

"Like you, my ideas were ahead of their time," Hartdegen replied. "I developed so many minor gadgets, and had theories about others, that later became widely used in the future. Radios were one of my later ideas."

"Not bad, Alex m'boy," Skinner said as he walked into the control room, paint and glasses on his face and his coat and hat flapping behind him. He was followed by Jekyll, who still didn't look like an Atlas among men, but at least didn't give the impression of jumping at the sight of a mouse. Evidently, the training had done some good for him.

"Ah, you're here," Nemo said, glancing over at them. "You wouldn't happen to know when Mr Sawyer and Mrs Harker are arriving?"

Jekyll began to shake his head, but Skinner stopped him. "No, and I wouldn't recommend interrupting them."

"Why?" Hartdegen asked.

"Well, last time I saw them they were trying to eat each other's mouths and were heading towards Mina's room."

"Oh," Jekyll and Nemo said simply. Hartdegen was more interested.

"They're at that stage already?" he replied. "I thought they got romantically involved after this."

"No record can be perfect," Nemo replied. He sighed and turned back to driving the Nautilus. "If they don't show up before we arrive at London, we'll go down and fetch them."

"No need for that, Nemo," Sawyer replied, as he and Mina walked into the room. However, despite their calm appearance, both looked slightly dazed; Mina's hat was back-to-front and her dress appeared slightly disarranged, and Sawyer's coat appeared to be inside-out and his guns in their revolvers backwards. "We're here."

"Good night, you two?" Skinner asked casually, a slight smile on his face.

Sawyer and Mina instantly spun around to face him.

"You were watching?!" Sawyer yelled, looking both enraged and embarrassed.

"I thought I smelt something odd!" Mina said, sounding slightly relieved that she hadn't been wrong.

"No, I wasn't watching you when you... y'know..." Skinner said, for once actually looking sheepish at the subject of sex. "I just saw you start to head towards Mina's room, and figured I'd just leave you to it."

"Oh. Well, that's fine than," Sawyer said, as he and Mina relaxed.

Jekyll looked over at Hartdegen. "S-sorry you've been introduced to some of our worse aspects already, Mr Hartdegen," he said.

"Oh, don't worry about it, Doctor," Hartdegen replied, smiling. "I've read everything about you that I could find. I'd already gathered that Skinner was never the easiest man to get along with."

"Yes, well, never mind about that now," Sawyer said, as the Nautilus began to pull into the London pier. "We'd better get going, we've only got..." he glanced over at Hartdegen. "How long?"

"Three hours and forty-five minutes," Hartdegen replied.

"Exactly. We have that long to prepare for battle, so let's rock!" Sawyer said, as the League headed towards the Nautilus's main door, followed by Hartdegen.