Part Four
                               of a fantasy story
             written from January to March of 1992 on Nemesis BBS.


                   [From: Nomad        Re: Return of the monster]

     "But," said Adol, "you forget why we waited for him. We must lead
him away, keep him busy with us so he won't go after the others."
     And so the two brave ones fought the Demanicus, but slowly drew him
along. Then they turned and sought cover, wanting to lure the great
monster away, occasionally showing themselves so he would continue
seeking them out, and occasionally fighting him again to keep him angry
enough to keep after them.

     Meanwhile, within sight of the Asyden Mountains, and on near the
edge of Awklindyne, the Group continued ever onward.

        [From: Nomad   Re: Ever onward. Ever onward. Ever onward. Ever...]

(We seem to have brought this story to a screetching halt.... Guess that
stuff someone wrote in about how hard Awklindyne is to get into and out
of did it.)
(I know what to do...)

     The Group was approaching one of the boarder checkpoints of
Awklindyne, Trailblazer leading the way.
     "Once we get in," said SirLoin, "how are we gonna manage get out?"
     "I imagine we'll cross that bridge when we come to it," said Nomad.
     They got within sight of the checkpoint. There would be a small
fortress-like guard house, with two guards always on duty, wearing magic
armor and bearing great magic weapons. Quite a formidable sight it would
be.
     "What the...!" said Nomad, as they got closer.
     Jonathan let out a low whistle.
     "Not quite as formidable as we were lead to believe!" said Nomad.
     "What a mess!" said Prisoner.
     The tiny fortress was in total ruin, and the one guard was in
dented, dull armor... his magic sword bent.
     "What HIT this place!" said Snow.
     "Starhawk," said the guard. "He has laid waste to the whole land of
Awklindyne. The city of Awk is desolate."
     "So, how hard will it be for us to get in and out of this land?"
asked SirLoin.
     Nomad gave the boy a startled glare, wishing he had been less loose
with his words.
     The guard lifted his twisted sword up and gave it a glance. "None
at all. Everything here is total anarchy. I don't even know why I'm
still standing here." He shrugged.
     The members of the Group exchanged glances, and went on through the
boarder checkpoint.
     "Starhawk may have done a good thing here," said the Guard as they
got past. "Not that he meant it for good."
     "Oh?" said Nomad.
     "The people have enjoyed freedoms and liberties they haven't
enjoyed before under the rule of the Tyrants." The guard waved to them.



                   [From: Sirloin      Re: and]

sirloin through a gold piece at the guard. "Buy yourself something good
" he said. Hmmmm... thought nomad,wonder what we should do next. Then in
the distance, came a large,polkadot object coming at them at about maybe
10-20 mph. "Belgium! Acthung!" Sirloin cried.

                   [From: Nomad        Re: Large, polkadot object]

     As the object got closer, they could see it was some kind of magic
flying chariot. It was pink with light blue polkadots, and there was a
lady riding in it. The craft slowed to a stop and lowered to the ground.
     "Hello," said the Lady as she stepped out, "I am the Lady Robbin. I
hear you have been looking for me?"
     "My!" said Nomad. "News travels fast! We hadn't really even started
yet. We just got here."
     "Look," she said, "we gotta work fast. Starhawk is preparing to
take over the whole universe here, but he can't do it without the Books
of the Letters Y. I know where the books are, if we can get to them
first we can put a stop to his plans."
    So they all climbed into the strange flying chariot, and found it
was plenty large enough for all of them.
    Away they flew.

                   [From: Nomad     [Story completion]]

     So, the strange chariot flew on. There were no animals drawing them
forward, and no reins. There were no wheels, either. Higher and higher in
the sky the chariot went.
     Then Robbin waved her arms in the air, and suddenly there was a bright
flash of light all around them and the chariot. >POOF!< They were now
motionless in a strange corridor.
     Robbin stepped out of the chariot, and beckened the others to follow.
     The walls were like white plastic, which curved up to form the
ceiling. It all glowed as if lit from behind.
     It looked more like a scene from "Space 1999" then from a fantasy.
There were door-sized places in the wall where the wall bent inwards to
form very short sub-corridors ending in doors like in "Star Trek."
     "Hey!" said SirLoin. "This place looks like something outta 'Star
Trek!'"
     "What's a place like this doing in a fantasy story like ours?" asked
Krazy.
     "This isn't a fantasy story," said Flawsquaw, suddenly coming from a
side corridor.
     "It isn't?" said Krazy.
     "Oh?" said Nomad. "Then what is it?"
     "Science fiction," said Flawsquaw, "what else?"
     Trailblazer stood there, blinking incredulously at this latest plot
twist.
     "Then what was all that stuff about magic and gods?" asked Nomad.
     "All will become clear in a moment," said Robbin, leading them forward
through an especially large set of sliding doors.
     They came to be in a vast chamber, with banks of blinking lights,
large control consoles with seats, great display screens showing goings in
in various parts of the so-called fantasy universe. Sitting and standing at
these various controls and stations, there were many gnomes, trolls, and
other fantasy folk. They looked completely out of place in the context.
     "What IS all of this?" said Prisoner.
     Robbin turned back around, and stood there before them. "This is where
we program the simulated reality you were experiencing."
     "You mean it's all a game?" said SirLoin, sounding disappointed.
     "No, not exactly."
     "Something like a holodeck?" offered Nomad.
     "No," said Robbin. "It's... well... more like.... Have you ever seen
the movie 'Westworld,' or its sequal 'Futureworld?'"
     "I have," said Nomad. "They had set up this adult playground, a sort
of theme park with simulated places from the past. They had ancient Greece,
a Medieval world, a Western town, and on and on. All were set up to seem as
real as they could be, with androids taking on the parts of the natives."
Nomad looked back to Robbin. "You are saying this fantasy world is
something like that?"
     "Not quite. Actually, it's a quite a bit more real than that. These
gnomes, trolls and others, for instance, are real living things, not
androids. They were genetically engineered for this world. But you are
essentially correct."
     Trailblazer reeled at this. Yet again, things for him had been turned
completely upside down. Why did the writers keep DOING this to him!
     "So, all this business with Starhawk and Kieth and others trying to
take over the universe was just so much playacting?" said Nomad.
     Robbin paused a moment. "No, they were very serious about it."
     "So, they didn't know what it was?" said Jonathan. "Didn't know it was
a... theme park of sorts?"
     "Oh they know what it is all right," said Flawsquaw. "They know about
all of this," as she said this, she spread her arms out to indicate the
vast chamber. "That's WHY they were so serious about it. You see, this
equipment is incredibly versatile and can do many many amazing things, much
more than we've been using it for. It was left over by a long dead super-
civilization."
     Nomad's eyes lit up, so to speak, at those last words. "The
Voontokki?" he said, thinking of the thousand-centuries-dead super-race he
had become so interested in as of late.
     "No," said Flawsquaw, "an even older race. As for the evil ones, they
each want to take it over so they can use the equipment for their own
purposes."
     "I see," said Prisoner.
     "And they've been at it for years, playing by the rules of the fantasy
world they were in to try to crack into this control room. They're not
interested in this 'fantasy world,' per-sey. In fact, Starhawk, at least,
intends to delete it all once he takes over. I don't know about the others'
intentions."
     "So," said Nomad, "each has been playing the pseudo-magical game,
building up power and control in this world, searching for loopholes and
inroads..."
     "So they can crack into this place here," completed Robbin. "They've
been building up all sorts of... well... like trapdoors and backdoors in
hackerdom. They've built up constructs and pseudo-magical tools and
strongholds to bridge the gap to this place. Each trying to beat the other
one here, be the one to take over." She gazed up at the biggest screen,
there were columns of figures and diagrams. "They very nearly succeeded."
      "Oooooooo....!" said Lightning. "And all this time, we... Thunder,
Jonathan and I, were just having fun with this... game. We didn't know..."
Lightning trailed off.
      "So what is the status of it now?" said Trailblazer.
      "We have weeded out and destroyed all of their constructs and...
well... trapdoors," said Robbin. "We merely had to wait for the evil ones
to come out of the woodwork and start their doings. That way, we could
track down and destroy all their constructs and... close the loopholes.
Reprogram so it can't happen again. All that's left now is to destroy the
Demanicus." She motioned to one of the trolls at the... er... controls. The
troll nodded, and then punched buttons. Up on the big screen, the figures
and diagrams flickered and changed. The lists became smaller, the diagrams
shrunk and re-oriented.
      "It is done," said the troll.
      "It is done," repeated Robbin, with thankful finality.
      "They have lost all their power now," said Flawsquaw. "They have to
start all over again. Only this time, we are ready for such things. No-one
will ever get this far again, we will see to it."
      "Fine," said Trailblazer.
      "What about us?" said Nomad. "Is our task in this complete?"
      "Yes," said Robbin. "You have done your duty. Now you can go back
into the fantasy place and... well.. have fun. Go now and have more
adventures."
      So, they returned to the fantasy world.
      But they didn't go on more adventures. They all got together and
decided to leave; for awhile, at least. They could come back, but they felt
they'd had enough of this place for now.

                                 [The end...]

         -----------------------------------------------------------

                [Comments from the compilist, Nomad of Norad:]

    The surprise switch towards science fiction at the end of this story
wasn't originally supposed to be a surprise.  The story, by all indications,
was going to go on rather further than it did... and I had this story twist
in mind from the beginning.
    I had been writing in veiled hints about the twist, and was going to add
further hints as we went along in order to build up to this twist.
    But...
    Abruptly the others lost interest in the story.  Apparently it was all
that stuff about the land of Awkilndyne and how difficult it was to get into
and out of.  The others couldn't handle it, so they bailed out.
    Suddenly I had to finish the story in one go, because Robbin, one of the
sysops, was trying to start up another story and wasn't going to wait any
longer.
    I do NOT like leaving things unfinished when things are anywhere near
completion.
    (For what it's worth, the new story never got going, and the one after
that was stillborn.  They gave up completely on having a story-sub after
that....  >Sigh<)