Viviane walked outdoors in the fresh air of Capital City’s downtown city center. The sun shone down through the canopy of large trees creating rays of sunlight which danced across the pedestrian-only, no-traffic zone. Smooth and clean walkways with electronic signs directed people where to go. For the UEN, the wealthy nation that it was, it was picture perfect.

And perfect pictures were on Viviane’s mind as she headed for Acel Yu’s private studio for her test shoot. Accompanying her as “bodyguards” were Kylian and Luc. They wanted her to be safe. Luc did a great job so far protecting Viviane from any and all hazards no matter how small or insignificant. However, Kylian started to think that Luc might be doing too good of a job. Perhaps he wanted to impress Viviane? Kylian said nothing about his suspicions yet hoped to keep his thoughts to himself for now. He had gotten better at keeping his thoughts from exiting his mouth.

As they continued to walk through the street market towards Acel’s studio, Viviane came up to a canvasser carrying a clipboard and pen. He pushed himself right into Viviane’s personal space and shoved the clipboard right in front of her eyes.

“Hey, lady!” called the canvasser. “Sign a petition to end the technology embargo to less fortunate nations around the world?”

Viviane reeled back from the over-aggressive canvasser, however, she remained polite.

“Sorry, but I don’t sign things I haven’t read,” she replied.

Viviane turned to get away, but the canvasser had other ideas. Maybe he took Viviane’s brush-off the wrong way because he grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her back and forced her to listen to him.

“Don’t be such a snob! You hot looking girls always get everything you want. You’ve never suffered a day in your whole life, I bet.”

Viviane broke free from the canvasser’s grasp, but in doing so, she staggered backward in a bit of shock and nearly fell over. She could not believe anyone would try to grab her in such a public space.

Before Viviane recovered from her surprise, Luc ran in, baton in hand and already expanded and struck the canvasser in the upper arm causing a copious amount of pain to register in the canvasser’s brain. He crumpled to the ground after receiving the non-verbal message. Immediately after the strike to the canvasser’s arm, the baton changed shape! It morphed into a transparent riot shield which Luc planted in front of Viviane, separating her from her assailant.

“Aw dammit! My arm!” The canvasser yelled from the ground.

“Clear the area, dirtbag!” Luc ordered. “Or there’s more where that came from.”

Luc drew his gun from his waistband and brandished it from behind the transparent riot shield so that the canvasser could get a good look and know that Luc meant business. The canvasser, realizing that he faced STS law enforcement, backed down and begged for leniency and put his hands up by his face where Luc could see them.

“OK! OK! I give up! I’m leaving! I’m going now!” and the canvasser scrambled away on all fours.

After he disappeared, Luc de-activated the riot shield which returned to the shape of a collapsed baton. Luc folded the baton in half and then in half again before securing it into yet another secret pocket in his uniform.

Due to the excitement caused by undue violence, a crowd of shoppers and vendors encircled Luc and Viviane. The crowd burst out with applause.

Not quite understanding where the gratitude came from, Luc and Viviane just stood there with blank stares on their faces. Kylian, who observed everything as a member of the crowd, joined Viviane and Luc in the center of the circle. He frowned upon the use of violence.

“Was all that drama really necessary?” he asked Luc.

“Didn’t I tell ya?” replied Luc. “I’m not doing this in my free time. I’m actually on-duty and this is what we do to protect VIPs.”

“But I’m not a VIP.” Viviane was sure of that.

“To me you are!” Luc stood at attention and saluted Viviane.

Viviane became all embarrassed with Luc’s exaggerated amount of attention. All she could do was look away to hide her face and not say anything in return. If she was flattered to be called a ‘VIP’, she did not want Luc to know.

Kylian, on the other hand, burned with envy. He thought for sure that Luc was just using his police skills as an excuse to impress Viviane. Luc is too clever, he thought. He’s already done his part to impress Viviane all morning and here I’ve been doing nothing!

The circle of people surrounding Viviane, Luc and Kylian started to break apart as life in the street market returned to normal. Several of the applauding vendors and shoppers approached Luc.

“Thank you so much, officer, for getting rid of that canvasser for us!” one of the vendors said to Luc. “We all owe you a debt of gratitude.”

“Yes, absolutely!” chimed in another vendor. “No one liked him hanging around, harassing our customers for signatures for who knows what nutty cause he was pushing. Gathering signatures like that is illegal!”

An old, retired man who now loitered instead of worked for a living added, “I tell you, he got what was coming to him. He should’ve known you just can’t criticize the government in a public forum like that. It’s not like you can just say whatever you feel and expect to get away with it. It’s got to catch up to you some day and, by golly, today was his day! Hee, hee!”

Kylian put two and two together. So that’s why everyone was clapping. Luc got rid of an annoying law breaker.

A third merchant ran up with a gift-wrapped box. “I am so happy he’s gone, please accept this gift from my store, officer! If you can’t accept it, please let your beautiful companion have it! It’s a very special gift.” The store merchant extended the gift-wrapped box toward Viviane and right into her arms. Viviane had no choice but to take the box, but she thought she heard something and held it up to her ear. From inside, a ticking noise, soft but distinct, emanated from the box.

Luc heard it too and immediately sprang into action again! “Viviane! Drop that box! It might be bomb!”

Luc slapped the gift-wrapped box from Viviane’s grip and it landed at Kylian’s feet.

Before Kylian or Viviane or any of the onlookers knew what just happened, Luc grabbed Viviane from behind and tucked her into a ball while pushing her to the ground. Luc then pulled a rip cord from somewhere around the back of his uniform. After pulling it, a hidden back panel from his uniform grew and expanded into a giant black sphere that completely enveloped Luc and Viviane inside of it!

Outside in the real world, bewildered onlookers stared, some in awe, some in confusion at this large, black, hard-shelled sphere which appeared quite from nowhere and it seemed to have swallowed up the hero STS Agent along with a gorgeous girl inside of it.

Kylian, who was just as bewildered as everyone else, picked up the gift and unwrapped it. Inside the box, he found a mechanical clock which made that ticking noise. Kylian had never seen anything like it before. It looked very low-tech the way it was built entirely out of mechanical parts.

The store merchant tried to explain. “I have an antique store. It’s an antique clock from over a century ago when you used to have to wind them up with a key.”

Kylian went over to the black sphere and knocked on it with his knuckles. He wondered if Luc or Viviane could hear anything from inside. “Luc! If you can hear me, the box contained an antique clock! It wasn’t a bomb! You can come out now! Is Viviane in there with you?”

Whether Luc heard Kylian or not did not matter since the black, hard-shelled sphere started to shrink away and pack itself back into the hidden panel on Luc’s uniform. Luc and Viviane huddled together, crouched down in a ball while the sphere surrounded them. They stood up now that the sphere released them. Viviane felt way embarrassed to have been huddled together so close to Luc while inside the sphere that she stepped away from Luc as soon as she was able to. She held her face with one of her hands hoping no one could see her.

Luc dusted himself off and then explained to Kylian, “That was the personal personnel blast shelter we hid in. If that had been a real bomb, we would have survived the blast. Actually, we could’ve survived a much bigger blast. Those things are pretty tough.”

Kylian was not buying it. “Why did you have to grab Viviane for?” he demanded.

“It’s my job to protect the scientists and researchers who are working on teleportation technology, ya know. Just doing my job.”

Kylian flew into a rage and pointed his index fingers at himself. “In case you forgot, I’m also one of those scientists working on teleportation technology and if that’d been a real bomb, I would’ve been KILLED!”

Luc, still nonchalant, replied, “Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Well, you win some, you lose some!”

Kylian blew off some steam while Luc just shrugged his shoulders at Kylian. Luc felt he didn’t have to apologize for allowing Kylian to die while saving Viviane from a possible bomb. Truth be told, there was only room in the personal personnel blast shelter for two cozy people max. It was not that Luc wanted to be curled up in there with Viviane, it was more that he did NOT want to be curled up in there with Kylian.