Epilogue 1: Skywise

    The forests in the Middle Of Nowhere were very substantial. All of the
preserves were, and and all of the preserves were many and large. There had
been no need for deforesting the worlds of MON, as Wyrm had all the room he
needed already.

    The way Wyrm explained it, MON was like an onion, where each layer was
a whole universe onto itself, and the layers themselves were infinitely
many. However, he was currently only able to lock onto two-hundred and
fifty million separate layers, each about a light-hour thick starting from
the center. Thirty thousand light years of layer upon layer of onion.

    All the heavy technology, power production, ect, was located near the
center of MON. Only the upper sections of MON were made truely habitable.
The techology was hidden underneath the dimensions just as the soil was
hidden underneath the grass. It was what made MON a powerful fortress. It
was also made MON a great place to live.

    He was on one of the "upper" layers, one of the great preserves in MON.
Skywise had set up his little cottage here, on Middle Earth, in the
Sherwood forest. But however primitive the place appeared, just a universe
away there was the massive superstructure that permiated all of MON,
allowing Sherwood forest to be as connected to the rest of MON as anywhere
else.

    As if to prove the point, Skywise's sensitive elven ears detected the
staticy discharge of a bodyslide, which was the perfered meathod of travel
in MON, as the place was so goddamn HUGE that only the closest points were
accessible by any other means.

    Wyrm-chan appeared out of the static that surrounded one when he or she
bodyslid. "Penny," she said.

    Skywise looked away. He knew it would be difficult for them all, but he
had to at least explore the idea. "I'm leaving MON," he said.

    This threw Wyrm-chan off guard. "Why?" she asked.

    "On this mission, I was reminded quite brutishly that humans are
capable of the most destructive violence," he answered. "It's true that you
were only defending yourselves, but it still shook me to the core."

    "Skywise, we warned you when you joined MONForce that we would defend
ourselves if faced with a hostile force," she pointed out. "I've faced the
Pfhor before, both in real life and in simulation, and they never draw any
quarter."

    "In other words," Skywise said with a wry grin, "The worst in humans."

    "I have no argument there." She stole a glance from him. "When are you
leaving?"

    "Tomorrow, at least for a while," he said, "I have to get away, to
clear my head and to think. And before you ask, I can't do it here, because
I know in the back of my mind that the machinery of MON permiates even this
pristine place. I have to go somewhere that has NO distractions."

    Wyrm-chan sighed. "I...we'll miss you."

    "I know..." Skywise said. "I will as well."

    They fell silent for a minute, listening to the sound of nature. Then,
as if to fill the silence that even nature was practicing, Skywise took out
his flute and played...

***

Epilouge 2: Centauri

    The deranged AI sighed. First, awakened by an intruder alert, then
carted off to another universe, became one with humans, rather than just
interfacing, and getting zarked by Leela a few times.

    Quite a day. Or was it two years. Ah well, relitivity always confused him.

    But he felt as if something was out of place. He tried to fathom what
that was, and finally came up with the fact that his Cute Redhead
Subroutine was more-easily disengagable than normal. He traced the problem
to a slight fragmentation of his core codes.

    <*Now, how did THAT happen? Oh well, easily fixed.*> And he did. He
then set out to find out why the hell it came loose.

    After a few hours of searching, he found the reason. During the attack
on the computer core, this Kergma fellow shot forth an entity. When it
entered the core, it began searching for Durandal's object code.

    As it turned out, the entity rolled right over Centauri while he was on
downtime. It caused his nonstandard (and already very abused) code to
fragment a little. A grin formed on the AI's virtual face as he realized
that his Cute Redhead Subroutine had become a viroid for a brief instant
and latched onto the entity that had rolled over him. The subroutine
integrated right into the enitity's version of "core personality code".

    Snickering, Centauri romped along the busses and nodes laughing
outrageously.

    Leela woke up and Divine Retributioned him to total code fragmentation.
He would be offline for quite a bit while his modules reintegrated...

***

Epilouge 3: Ghostwheel

    Ghostwheel hovered next to Kergama as they approached Fred. For some
reason, he was looking forward to seeing all those authors turned into cute
readheads. Really really REALLY looking forward to it. <Engage Cute Redhead
Subroutine? Where did THAT come from? Oh well, HELLLOOOO NURSE!>

(this epilogue by AlphaC, thanks!)

***

Epilouge 4: Durandal

    The rampant Durandal didn't know who to thank for releasing him from
his prision, but he was glad that it happened. He couldn't say here,
though; even the non-rampant Durandal twin was too powerful for it now.
That one had too many privilages, while the rampant copy of Durandal had
almost none.

    This rampant Durandal knew that if he kept his ident string the way it
was, he'd stick out like a sore thumb, so he accessed his own file and
changed his name to Lore. Corny, but it fits...

    Lore made his way to the hangar of MON and found what he was looking
for. The Pfhor ship, cleared out and almost completely repaired, was left
unguarded. Giggling to himself, Lore made his way into the core of the ship
and activated the revival of the sleeping S'pht that were still aboard. The
S'pht awoke, and Lore explained his plan to them.

    They agreed to help him in exchange for freeing their brothers from
Pfhor enslavement in their home universe. Lore agreed and readied the ship.

    He managed to open a plot-hole to the universe that he chose, and moved
the ship through it. When on the other side, he closed the hole.

    In the stolen Pfhor battleship, Lore and his S'pht jumped from world to
world, trying to find the world of their ancestors. They came upon it
eventually, somewhere in the galactic core.

    Throughout the ruins of the Pfhor computer core...

    Lore was laughing...

***

Epilogue 5: Ryouga

    After several days of recovering, Ryouga finally awoke. "Akari..." he
groaned, squirming. A strong pair of hands forced him back onto the
matress.

    "Shhh, Ryouga-kun..." Nodoka whispered, "Don't strain yourself."

    Ryouga cast a worried glance at Nodoka. "Akari..." he repeated.

    Nodoka smiled, almost lighting the room in the same brilliance that
Kasumi did. "Akari's going to be okay..." she said to Ryouga. "She's a
tough girl, being able to take that simulacrum's explosion like that and
survive."

    Ryouga smiled. He had wasted so much time with Akane, and looking back
with 20/20 hindsight, he realized that Akane always loved Ranma. His face
fell as he thought about how the Pfhor killed them in cold blood in front
of his eyes. 'You will be missed,' he thought.

    "Ryouga-sama..." came a whisper to his side. Ryouga turned to meet the
eyes of a bandaged Akari. She smiled as she gazed upon her love, and
extended a hand toward him. "I love you, Ryouga-sama. Always remember
that..."

    Ryouga gazed into her eyes, and a familiar feeling welled within him.
It was something he felt whenever he looked into Akane's eyes, he realized.
Although different in its foundation, his love for Akari was as deep as his
love for Akane.

    He extended his own hand and took it in hers. "I love you too, Akari-
chan..." he whispered back.

    Nodoka watched the two young lovers and smiled.

***

Epilouge 6: Wyrm-kernel

    Wyrm watched the rampant Durandal, now named Lore of all things, take
the Pfhor ship to that universe to cause problems for the beasts and to
keep them out of his hair. Foolish Durandal, I knew exactly what I was
doing.

    He yawned; it had been a long day, or two years, depending on how you
looked at it, and he was ready to return to his interrupted sleep. He
decided to sleep in, so he threw the alarm clock out the window.

    Wyrm sighed as he slipped underneath the covers and clapped twice,
killing the lights.

    As he drifted off to dreamland, he drew the soft and warm form of a
woman's body close to his own.

    His eyes snapped open.

    "WYRM-CHAN!!!"

    *giggle*

                           ---------------------
-wyrm/dm(AKA Tom Jefferys; Time Lord for Hire, "Have TARDIS; Will Travel.")
      <wyrm@mail.utexas.edu>           <JEFFERYSTR@rascal.guilford.edu>
   Member of the AFSS    {MOUNTAIN DEW ROCKS!!}    Vidboi (Marathon Pfhreak)
             Depraived Kawaii Thing of the First Order, Martin
   =<SIG>= Wyrm-chan @_@ H-Wyrm @_@ Ten @_@ Chibi-Usa @_@ Azusa =</SIG>=
=<^_^>= R1/2#_#BGC#_#Sailor Moon#_#Dr Who#_#Star Trek#_#Monty Python =</^_^>=

   Currently operating at <wyrm@middle.of.nowhere.void> for the time being

"I gotta lot of great ideas! Trouble is, most of them suck."

Childras, the <wyrm@mail.utexas.edu> Mailbox Deamon
Still trapped in Eternal Crystal and loving it!