Deus ex Machina
 
by -- Joseph de laCroix
 
     This story is based on characters created by Service and Games
(SEGA), and on characters created by Archie Comic Publications, Inc.
Any resemblance to actual characters are not coincidental.  ;)
 
     Joseph, Bahb, and all other independent creations of Joseph de
laCroix are the copyrighted property of JoCo Inc. and are also protected
by the firm of Louis, E. Ville, and Slugger.  Bookshire Draftwood and
Sandra Nightweaver are the copyrighted property of Bookshire S. Draftwood.
All other fanfic characters that may or may not be used in this or
future works are protected under their respective copyrights.
All other rights reserved, etc.  Hail Eris.
 
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     The weeks passed on Mobius as they always do, the inevitable
march of time continuing as it always did.  All over the world, the
snows and ice melted, the rivers filled, and the flowers began to
bloom.  Fair weather and unseasonable warmth greeted the first
spring of the first year in almost two decades without a looming
feeling of dread filling the hearts of many of capture, roboticization
and death; all seemed to be going well.  Robotropolis was slowly
beginning to come out of its black and blistering haze as the
cleanup efforts continued, people were beginning to put their lives
back together, and even a patch of romanticism overtook some Mobians
as the world reawakened from its gelded hibernation.
 
     In a certain spot near the center of the Northern Continent,
however, the seasons barely affected its usual conditions.  This
mysterious place was defined in classified topographical maps as
a 50-mile wide circular plateau, seperated from a 100-mile wide area
of nearly impenetrible redwood forest by a 5-mile wide area of
fused glass, amber and solidified magma.  The massive, nearly
primeval forest was itself fenced in about a mile away from the edge
of the wilderness by a very-well made 20-foot high, electrified
titanium fence; that is still, unknown to all but King Acorn and
his private notes, patrolled and repaired by self-repairing,
self-sufficient and heavily armed PeaceBots.
 
     It is known as `Sector 56' in government terminology.
 
     To the rest of the world, it is the Forbidden Zone.
 
     A horrible accident had taken place five centuries ago that
blasted all life from the surface of the high terrace and set up a
perminent area of flux that made it into a desert in the midst
of lush forest.  Only a desperate, brilliant action by the elite' of
the scientific community at the time spared the rest of the world from
obliteration.  No rain fell there now because of it, no snow, no hail,
merely the rays of the sun...
 
     Exactly in the center of this cursed earth, where the sand
barely blows, is a sharply cut concrete structure in a rectangular
form, about five miles wide in every direction and a mile tall,
capped with a long-forgotten radio tower which only function left is
to keep a single red light on the top blinking at all times for the
sake of air traffic.  For five hundred years, it has stood unmarred
by incident, looking just like it did when it was forged all those
years ago by the secret order of the Mobian government.
 
     If you were to look hard enough, you would notice a small,
razor-straight series of fissures that makes a door roughly the
width of two normal Mobians standing shoulder to shoulder on a
flat surface and about as high as a tallish Mobian fox.  There
is no apparent way of opening it from the outside without shoving
a foreign object in one of the cracks, but even then you could
not chip the expensive diamondium blend of concrete that was used
to forge the structure.
 
     However, assume the door opens for you by sliding down into
the parched earth, and you enter.  As you walk into a cramped,
lightless concrete hallway, the door slides closed behind you
unnaturally silently, leaving you in darkness.  You carry a light
with you, fortunately, and you activate it while walking down the
hallway, your breath echoing into your ears harshly due to the
construction of the structure's acoustics.
 
     You walk for two miles, the tight space growing slightly smaller
over time.  Occasionally you notice a steel beam built into the
side of the wall, obviously further supports for this massive
rock on this rise on Mobius.  There is still no light, no fresh
air, no sound at all but that you make yourself.  Your own mental
hobgoblins and bogeymen reach out at you in the darkness, no
stimuli to otherwise distract your mind.  The people who built
this hallway called it the `Road to Madness' for a reason.
 
     Finally, two miles from where you have begun, you reach a
diamondium-titanium door, with a small keypad and touchplate by
it on the wall of the tunnel.  It is only about as wide as an
average Mobian and just about as tall, meaning most over four
feet have to stoop to get in at all.  What it lacks in width
it makes up for in thickness, however, seeming to be nearly
three yards from front to back.
 
     You tap in the correct passcode and push on the touchplate,
and the spinning of gears behind the wall is a barely-audible
humming...slowly, the door slides to your right, hissing when it
reaches its terminus.  You walk through the passage, and a
gust of fresh air like that after a thunderstorm hits you...
 
     According to the last account of the interior, it showed
the last three miles of the structure to be entirely hollowed
out in a spherical fashion, catwalks sprialing around the
interior to reach instruments and computers of all kind,
the most advanced technology available to Mobius placed inside
of it and constantly upgraded.  If you were able to read
the King's journal on the topic, in fact, you would notice
that only a day before the coup the entire complex had been
upgraded, and the normal personnel would return there to
resume their vitally important work the day following it.
 
     The center of the structure, however, was the main
attraction to the workers there; it was the reason they
were there and the structure was even built all those
years ago...for in the center was a massive, pulsing
energy crystal that was nearly as wide as the structure
itself.  It strobed in every color on regular cycles,
the entire hollow sphere feeling charged no matter how
close or far you were from it.  Bolts of multicolored
energy would surge into various contact points near the base
to protect those observing it and also serving as power
sensors.
 
     Normally, the stone would have been gradually mined
for the use of the world, distributed to those places
requiring power...however, the crystal in the sphere was
so incredibly powerful as to make it impossible to mine.
A half ounce of a normal energy crystal would power a
Hover-Unit for a month or so.  A half ounce of this energy
crystal, the monitors stated, would power Mobitropolis for
ten years.
 
     There was a price for this power, though; instability.
Just the wrong kind of pressure at the wrong spot on the stone
would cause a power surge that could vaporize an entire city
block while leaving the crystal unharmed and still as potent...
as was discovered rather violently five centuries ago.
 
     It was in the early days of energy crystal development
as a power source that a massive vein of very potent crystal
was discovered in the heart of one of the Royal Mobian Forests
near the core of the continent, and a curious Mobian government
dispatched a small mining crew out to excavate it.  A small
mountain covered the center of the plateau at this time, protecting
the crystal from meddling interlopers like miners.
 
     They dug through the mountain, harvesting lesser bands of
energy crystal that swirled around the large core of supercrystal,
and soon the mountain was dwindled down to a hill.  They were
just about ready to dig to the core of the mountain on one
fateful day only a few years after digging had begun when
an act of nature chose to do the rest for them; a bolt of lightning
smacked into the side of the now-unprotected mountain, causing
a flux-bolt that annhilated everything on the plateau and blasted
to ash and glass part of the area around it.
 
     The government heard of this and immediately set forth to
contain and shield the energy crystal from harm as more of it
was incidentally exposed, forging a huge concrete block
around it as they developed a workspace to analyse it.
A containment fence was erected, a military contingent
put around it to keep people away, and a radio tower put on the
top of the quickly-finished structure to divert aircraft.
Scientists worked around the clock for weeks to soothe the
critically-charged crystal that had been agitated by the
lightning blast, and were able by the grace of whatever
deity/deities one may believe in to do so.
 
     The Mobian government learned a hard lesson from this, and
since then had been far more cautious about ecological damages,
seeking out alternative, renewable energy sources rather than
mining straight energy crystal.  In the present day--the time
period outlined currently in this section of the story after
the doom of the _Apoclypse_--most things are very energy efficient
and run off of batteries that are recharged by myriad sources of
power around Mobius.  Those who are pleased at Mobius' usual
pristine, natural state can praise the tragic lashing out
of nature's fury on ignorant miners for that.
 
     But let one continue looking about at the structure.
The walls were said to be smooth and sanded, with seams in
them not unlike the outside doors for the adjustment of
equipment and wiring.  Areas dug out to the side were used as
barracks and cafeterias, and even a leisure area or two for
people to relax in.  Despite the spartan appearance of the
area, it was possible to be happy there, as the designers intended.
After all, it wasn't often that people had opportunities to leave...
 
     That has changed, of course.  The entire structure has been
on automatic for just about twenty years, no people mulling around
within its cold, windowless walls.  The crystal has apparently started
to fall dormant like it was before it was unearthed, and requires
only the level of tweaking the current computers would be able to
give it to keep it stable.
 
     However, the interior of the structure no longer resembles
what the designers of the complex imagined it to be.  It has,
in fact, been completely redesigned and reengineered by an
intelligence greater than that of those scientists 500 years ago,
and possibly greater than any that will come 500 years after this
moment...
 
     After all, Ur'thaen AIs tend to have a bit more of a sense of
utility and outright efficiency than any Mobian.
 
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     The interior had been gutted within the last five years,
a good portion of the crystal mined by lesser worker-drones and
consumed silently as a new structure was created in its place; an
outline of a tower of crystal and electricity formed, silent and
alone in its concrete shawl.  The equipment was removed from the
walls and melted during this time, recycled into material for further
drones and machinery.  Portals had been installed around the base of
the slowly disappearing crystal for movement of adapted SpyGlobes
to and from the complex, near supports for the `tower' that was
slowly assembling.
 
     Time passed as work continued, a tunnel deep below the earth
being dug and filled with a thin series of cables from an alien
structure in the Great Forest.  As an alien threat drew nearer from
without, within work continued at a steady pace, the tower taking
shape as a large core that drew energy directly from the
supercrystal, with four lesser supports linked to it in a square
around it serving to stablize it as well as drawing power from the
grond.  Forcefields raised around the mostly-hollow crystalling core
as something began to take shape within it, a multicolored gas filling
it and lying inert, apparently without purpose.
 
     Power from the crystal hummed below as the gas began to swirl
one day, information flooding into the experimental intelligence matrix
bound by microtechnological processes and a nearly godlike feat of
engineering, the new supercomputer faster than anything that would be
duplicated for millenia.  Designed and assembled by an artifical
intelligence itself, it was built to exacting specifications for
the entity that soon would reside there.  Outside, a city fell and
a battle began in the stars, but inside the work continued.
 
     The massive tower spanned from top to bottom of the chamber,
consuming half its width with its massiveness.  The power and the
sheer computational ability of the structure was unimaginable,
the crystal below it providing the device with more than enough
power to last it centuries; but still, it only ran background processes,
preparing the chamber for the final upload.  A bomb ticked away
thousands of miles away, two foxes dueled in the night, and
a countdown began.
 
     Approximately ten seconds before the Dome destroyed itself,
an upload to the Forbidden Zone was completed from the base, then
a trunked line from it was annhilated with a subsonic pulse.
This triggered a crystalline overload in the heart of the Dome,
causing such a high frequency of energy to surge out as to make it
harmless to organics but deadly to those things of the Dome.
The structure evaporated with a sonic boom, a pulse ripping from
the roof through the forest clearing the area.  However, as the
energy escaped, it changed frequency and became a deadly nuclear
force, vaporizing two objects that were falling toward it and
continuing to rocket from the planet, racing towards the stars.
 
     At 11:59:59.999 am Mobius Standard Time, Solstice Day, the
primary operating system and core intelligence programming was
sorted and compiled.
 
     At 12:00:00.000 pm Mobius Standard Time, Solstice Day,
the Bahb 27290-A Unit returned to active status.
 
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     The Void.  Rather empty, as the name denotes.  It is an area
parallel to the spiritual and physical planes, just out of reach
of either under normal conditions.  However, one can easily,
with some mystickal skills, look into one or the other from
that vantage point without being noticed; an advantage that
had caused Naugus to secure the relatively small pocket-reality
for himself early on in his career.  The crystallization effect
that came from extended stays, however, took him a few years
to overcome, but even it was neutralized due to the crafty
wizard's alchemy.
 
     The unfortunate crystallization effect was easily overcome
by regular consumption of a certain plant native to the Great Jungle.
The only reason Naugus, the King, and his `companion', Ari, were
still trapped within it, as one would expect.  This was due to the
fact Robotnik had doublecrossed him once before he was cast into the
Void by making off with his bag of seeds and exchanging them for
mere pebbles.  Otherwise,  Naugus could have grown his own herb and
been able to leave at any time; if only the seeds could have been
magickally duplicated, but alas they grew on pure `primeval'
crystal-blessed earth, and therefore had unique properties
that could not generated without being a Chaos Mage--a Guardian.
 
     No matter, thought Naugus, for he'd learnt something from
his last escapade out when last the conditions had been right.
He'd miscalculated the opening of the gateway before due to that
fool Robotnik's tinkering, but now he knew how to compensate for
his meddling...he could now realistically open a gateway by a part
of the Jungle where the certain plants grew like he'd originally
planned, quickly consume the flower, and thus be free of the Void's
curse at last.  Who cared about that annoying old fox?  The King
could wait for the Solaris to let him out, if that stupid `prophecy'
even was valid after all these years.  He'd be able to return to his
fortress and begin his plans for revenge on them all!
 
     It had taken him days to align the proper elements from
his pitifully understocked tower that he'd created in the Void
for an experimentation area, and weeks to arrange them in the
correct patterns according to the next calculated nexus-portal
opening.  He'd calculated down to the last inch where he needed
to be, and when it was time, all he'd need to do would be to
step into the circle he'd formed to be free.  Naugus had gone
through great pains to keep it from the King, of course--
he would only interfere in his plans, for he'd heard Robotnik
telling him about what little he knew before they'd been banished.
Ari, of course, was of even lesser consequence.
 
     Thus the wizard schemed, a crystal ball swirling with
energy.  The gnarled, knotted paws of an ancient sorcerer caressed
the glassy sphere, sharp eyes glaring into it.  A disturbance was
forthcoming in the physical plane; a dramatic spike in the astral flux
would soon follow...his chance for freedom drew near.
 
     The sphere looked upon random scenes, it seemed, to the
untrained observer.  Glowing crystals, a mechanical eye opening,
a storm brewing on a horizon, a rising sun.  Abstract modern art at
the most, most likely seen as lunacy to those who did not know the
signs; to Naugus, however, they were clear.
 
     For the first time in centuries, Naugus was surprised.
He allowed himself a laugh at the strangeness of it all.
Naugus could not afford an in-depth examination of the exact
ramifications of the event that was to come, however, for
he would quickly have to tweak his gateway--time was short!
 
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     At 12:01:00.000 pm Mobius Standard Time, the Bahb 27290-A Unit
completed internal diagnostics, noting only a 0.00000000000000001%
error in the total computational matrix.  It was corrected once it
was detected, returning the Bahb 27290-A Unit to maximum efficiency.
 
     At 12:02:00.000 pm Mobius Standard Time, calculations regarding
its current status had been completed, and minor optimization programs
were spawned to further speed up its computations.  While doing this,
it activated defensive procedures and began monitoring its usual
slew of frequencies to gather tactical data.
 
     At 12:05:00.000 pm Mobius Standard Time, operating efficiency
had been calculated to be 100,000,000,000% after final modifications
and further power had been added to the system.  After recalibrating
its programming to accept the new power and speed of its superior
hardware, the efficiency rating was returned to its usual 100%.
 
     At 12:10:00.000 pm Mobius Standard Time, all old directives
were deleted and nullified by the system due to the apparent
termination of its creator and the emancipation of its secondary
ward, as well as the destruction of its previous location.
 
     At 12:15:00.000 pm Mobius Standard Time, the computer devised
major upgrades to its current defensive forces and began implimenting
them, as well as more efficient and tactically useful designs for
SpyGlobes and UsagiBOTs.  A homing signal was activated, and
after a few moments the first drones began heading towards it
under cloak.
 
     At 12:30:00.000 pm Mobius Standard Time, all SpyGlobes,
UsagiBOTs and other surviving automatons of its creator arrived
in the Forbidden Zone.  They were set in a large barracks that had
been constructed in the side of the plateau below the structure for
repair and upgrade to the new order of things without incident.
 
     At 1:00:00.000 pm Mobius Standard Time, all upgrades and
repair of old units were completed.  The mimetic polyalloy
standard was more efficient and durable than the previous solid-form
droids, and required less energy to maintain.  A spawning device
for the drones was implanted in the ceiling of the internal structure
in order to test new intelligence matrixes and defensive purposes.
Soon the ceiling was covered with a foot-thick layer of swirling
silverish material that clung tightly to the curvature of the sphere,
which bubbled and probed around of its own volition.
 
     At 1:05:00.000 pm Mobius Standard Time, further upgrades to
the system were put through simulations while more intelligence
was gathered.  The additional memory capacity allowed by the
fluid-form central processing unit was utilized by the collection
of all available, useful knowledge for assimilation.
 
     At 1:15:00.000 pm Mobius Standard Time, the system went off-line
for an hour for upgrades.  The secondary subsystem took over all the
essential regulatory functions during this time.
 
     At 2:15:00.000 pm Mobius Standard Time, efficiency of the new
modifications, which involved altering the nature of the gasses in
the chamber using a new nanite design, raised total speed and
memory capacity by 10^100.  The diagnostic software was again
recalibrated to show an efficiency rating of 100%.
 
     At 2:15:10.000 pm Mobius Standard Time, the entire summation
of Ur'thaen knowledge was processed, re-filed and sorted according
to accuracy, redudant files deleted or transferred to more useful
configuations.
 
     At 2:15:20.000 pm Mobius Standard Time, the entire summation
of current Mobian knowledge was assimilated, processed, filed and
sorted according to accuracy and historical/scientific worth.
 
     At 2:16:00.000 pm Mobius Standard Time, the entire summation
of the Union of Allied Worlds current master database was assimilated,
processed, filed and sorted according to accuracy and historical/
scientific worth.
 
     At 2:18:00.000 pm Mobius Standard Time, all information
stored was reprocessed, filed and sorted according to accuracy and
historical/scientific/sociopolitical worth.  Following that,
a detailed analysis of the known universe thus far begun.
 
     At 2:30:00.000 pm Mobius Standard Time, the analysis was
completed without great fanfare.
 
     At 2:30.01.000 pm Mobius Standard Time, Bahb set itself
to work on answering the greatest scientific mystery of all:
the true nature of the universe.
 
     At 3:00:00.000 pm Mobius Standard Time, Bahb had created
a working hypothesis after re-processing the data and running
several simulations.  It then began creating a algorithm to
test its hypothesis.
 
     At 6:00:00.000 pm Mobius Standard Time, Bahb completed its
algorithm and executed it.
 
     At 12:00:00.000 am Mobius Standard Time, the day after the
Solstice, the algorithm returned its value.
 
     At 12:00:00.001 am Mobius Standard Time, Bahb deduced and
proved the existance of magick.
 
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     Thunder rattled through the `ceiling' of the Void, shaking the
very foundations of the crystalline island that drifted within it.
The King looked up into the sky, parting from his harvesting of the
small apple tree the area had, and grimaced slightly.  "Something's
wrong outside," he said to himself, "best check on the wizard."
 
     As he was climbing down the stepladder with his apple basket,
Ari (now Sir Ari after he related his story to the King on his
arrival) rushed over, also detecting the disturbance.  "King Acorn!"
 
     The King hopped off the last rung of the ladder and put down
his basket.  "I wonder what the noise is about."
 
     Ari looked irritated already, the King reading his expression
to show an utter dislike of the wizard.  While the King didn't
particularly care for the wizard either, tact and common sense
allowed him to mask it enough to show a sort of mutual respect.
Ari obviously had not learned that quite yet.  "Probably Naugus
getting ready to try some stupid stunt."
 
     "It might mean we're about to go home."  Optimism had kept
the King alive in captivity away from what remained of his family,
and he wasn't about to let it start fading away so late in the game.
"Perhaps this Solaris returns to retrieve us."
 
     Ari peered off in the direction of Naugus' tower.  "I doubt
it, my liege.  It seems to me that Naugus thinks of one person
and one person only; himself!"
 
     The King also looked towards the tower.  "Well, now, the only
way we're going to get real answers is to go over and ask him
what's going on."
 
     "You're right, King Acorn.  Let's go take care of this."
 
     The two Mobians, wary of the wizard's power but more anxious
to return to their homes, set off towards the looming tower,
their hopes secretly rising within them despite their best efforts.
Perhaps they -were- going home...
 
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     It was mindlessly simple to the device once it realized exactly
how the universe functioned exactly how magick operated.  The
hypothesis behind it simply stated that reality was a subjective
variable to be interpeted by the user to any value imaginable
depending on circumstance.  Anything with cognition of any sort
of reality also helped to set the general consensual reality that
made sure such things as gravity and photosynthesis operated.
However, if a certain person was able to deduce the proper
formulae by either science or `mystickal' means, one could change
the local environment settings to something more suitable to one's
desires.
 
     Obviously, this had a great deal of purely godlike power
resting behind it.  According to Bahb's calculations, the
technological explaination of magick would permit current
universal technology to advance by several thousand generations.
However, if given to the plebian hordes, or even exposed to
a insufficiently evolved species to use, it would bring about
complete and utter destruction of reality itself.
 
     Bahb's gasses swirled in a Brownian sort of way.
It had no `morals' per se, since it did not follow the same rules
as most living sentinents did.  It was a computer.  A powerful,
self-aware AI, yes, but a computer.  It gained awareness in a
laboratory as an experiment by a young kit of a fox as a
rainy-day activity.  This gave Bahb a unique look on how
people related to each other, as well as a certain view of
how the universe actually operated.  Already, it had formed
a paradigm and deduced the existance of magick by a very
complex, advanced algorithm.  Now the very future of reality
rested on what it chose to do in the next fraction of a second.
 
     The computer chose to do private research on the formulae,
rather than releasing it for personal credit.  It deduced that
most carbon-based life forms would not be worthy of its use for
at least several geologic blocks of time.  Besides, it had ideas
of its own it wanted to explore; it needed to know something.
 
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     The two trod over the crystal landscape for a good while;
time, they had learned long before, was a relative force in the
Void, which passed seemingly arbitrarily outside the dimention.
Even time within the Void passed at strange and curious incriments,
and without a sun to guide their internal clocks they relied primarily
on their own intuition.  However, even that was beginning to fade
with time; the King suspected that they'd start forgetting the
days of the week in a few more `years' if nothing was done.
 
     Temporal sciences, however, were the farthest things from their
mind at that time, their foremost concern being the `weather' within
the Void itself.  Lightning now crackled across the `sky', impacting
into crystalline structures at times rather violently.  Wind
randomly pushed the two about, and the ground continued to
tremble below their paws.
 
     "Certainly getting rough out," the King commented.
 
     "Yeah, great."
 
     They finally made it to the tower; a rather oppressive spire
made of darkened crystal which probably by conventional Mobian
standards would be considered a `skyscraper'.  A single orifice
in the right side of the pyramidal spire allowed entry, which
fortunately was open.
 
     "Maybe he's expecting us...?" muttered Ari.
 
     They entered the structure, the wall suddenly closing behind
them with a hiss of air.  Ari quickly tried to push it back open,
but soon surrendered to it.  "Looks like he wants us to stay,"
noted the King.
 
     "This just gets better and better."
 
     They looked about, the King lighting a nearby torch to peer
around in the darkness.  The majority of the structure seemed to be
empty space, except for a spiral staircase that seemed to lead
upward to the very top of the structure.  "I guess the elevator
is out of order," quipped Ari, and with the King began to head
up the stairs, a long walk awaiting them; all the while, the
Void itself began to churn, a disruption in the physical
plane soon to come.
 
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     Bahb accessed Joseph's notes on magick that he had taken while
he trained, assimilating them into its virtual memory for a time.
Most of it was based on physical processes; meditation, focusing on
a point in space, shifting the `ki'...things Bahb did not have,
being a disembodied sentinence in a state of eternal flux.
Thus, Bahb would need to develop a new way to `cast' its `spells'
in order to make use of its algorithm usefully.
 
     Weeks passed as the computer processed and churned away at its
new task with all the power it could muster, trying to deduce a
technique to focus its new knowledge through so to test and
quantify its exact capabilities.  Arcane lore from all corners of
the universe were reexamined, combined, tweaked and disguarded,
Bahb steadily, scientifically, eliminating what would not fit
in its worldview.  Birds sung in the trees, rains came and went,
but still the computer struggled with abstract concepts and
the strange logic of wizards.
 
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     As the two ascended the long spiral staircase, an excited
Naugus gleefully set up the new coordinates in his circle,
etching in the proper runes and speaking the words of power that
gave it power.  The Void rumbled and complained from his tinkering,
but he merely spoke his commands louder to force them to be obeyed.
He lit the flames to summon his elemental allies, incense burning
to create the proper environment for a doorway through space and
time.
 
     Wielding his ancient grimoire, he held his summoning staff
high above him, bolts of frenzied lightning striking it--giving
him the power to rend a hole in the fabric of reality itself.
The winds of the Void swirled about him in protest, howling at
his vulgar arts, but even they could not stop the ancient wielder
of dark and best-forgotten arts.
 
     The language of the Old Ones rolled from his tongue in perfect
enunciation, a darkness beginning to fill his circle, the candles
and incense flickering.  Yes, he thought, it would soon be time...
 
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     Bahb fiddled with various scanning methods until it deduced
which dimentional plane was that of the `mystical'.  This allowed
rapid development of study of the area, the computer reharmonizing
the few straggling sattelites left in orbit to scan the entire
planet's `spectral emissions'.  Various abberations and mysterious
warps were noted and mapped, and one sattelite was set up in a
geosyncronous orbit over the Forbidden Zone to alert Bahb of any
incoming spectral threats before they drew too near to it.
 
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     The pair continued to walk up the stairs.  For what seemed to
be the umpteenth time, the tower quaked and trembled, thunder booming
above them.  "I think we best increase our speed," said Ari,
"I don't think whatever's coming is going to take much longer."
 
     "Good idea," said the King, and they started running up the
seemingly endless staircase, to what they knew not.
 
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     Terrestrial phenomenae noted for the time being, Bahb set
about observing for a time the `weather' in the spectral realm.
It seemed to draw parallels from the resources in the ground,
the current environmental conditions, and the `purity' of the
area.  Areas of high technology seemed to be more static and
spiritually `quiet' than those areas of pure nature.  It, however,
seemed to be becoming the exception to the rule, distortions
appearing around its physical location almost as often as the
forest that surrounded it.
 
     Some questions occurred to it soon after assimilating additional
data about its own `spectral emissions'.  Did it have a soul?
It knew itself to be sentient and self-aware, and it existed in the
physical world as well; but did it have a `spectral essence' within
it like living things did?
 
     It chose to observe itself for telltale signs of etherial
matter, preparing an observation device within the structure it
was housed in.  As it scanned itself, it noticed a very faint
glow eminating from itself denoting -something- was present, but
not as strongly as a mundane or /sapiens/ animal.
 
     It was not displeased, nor was it pleased.  It simply noted
the data and chose to try an experiment on itself...it would attempt
to amplify its own spectral energy using that of the area surrounding
it, thus causing little damage to Mobius or any organism within.
By doing this, it would not only test its algorithm, but it could
possibly further boost its processing speed by introducing additional
kinetic energy to its matrix.
 
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     The darkness grew stronger, a hole opening in the center of
the centermost eighth pentagram.  Energy crackled around it, the
dark forces setting the other runes and markings aflame with a
deep reddish glow.  Naugus' chanting grew louder and faster, the
winds howling and the lightning crackling overhead...
 
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     Bahb designed an emitter within a few minutes and placed it
towards itself, starting the calculations and slowly powering the
device up; it was not very large, but the procedures necessary
required a great deal of force to execute.  It noted the power
consumption levels and immediately began searching out solutions
to it while the device began to shift `spectral output' into itself.
 
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     The King and Ari breached the final steps of the staircase,
bursting onto the sizable roof of the structure.  It was bare,
aside from Naugus standing in a glowing ornate circle of some
kind and the lightning flashing overhead.  "Wizard!" shouted
Ari, striding towards the chanting mage, "what do you do now?!"
 
     The blackness suddenly spread outward to the seventh pentagram,
shadow masking the bottom of Naugus' garment.  The wizard held up
his staff again, a blue bolt of lightning striking it.  The
outermost circle caught fire, sending Ari staggering back
instinctively.  "Naugus!"
 
     The spell completed, the wizard laughed, turning to face the
two alarmed Mobians.  "Fools!  You're too late!  Soon, I'll be
free of this place, and you'll be stuck here to rot for eternity!"
 
     The King spoke up, drawing nearer to the circle.  It flared
up when he approached it, forcing him back.  "Naugus, you'll be
turned to crystal if you try to go back now!  This is precisely
what you did -last- time you tried to escape!"
 
     He laughed, a horrible, grating sound that rolled across the
roof like a oil spill.  "Ah, but my -liege-, this time I shall
succeed!  My spell is foolproof now, not even that fool Robotnik
can interfere with my passage back; and thus my final revenge!"
 
     Ari gritted his teeth and again tried to charge the circle,
flames leaping up to greet him and driving him back.  "You can't
leave us here!  We've done nothing to you!"
 
     The darkness spread to the sixth pentagram, the runes flashing
for a moment with flame as well.  "You know too much, young ram!
I will not have interference with my vengeance and my rightful
rule of your world!"
 
     The King's eyes thinned.  "They'll stop you, Naugus.  My
daughter will see to that!"
 
     Naugus laughed.  "Your little -Princess- cannot stop me!
I am not the wizard your predecessor's knights humbled before;
I know the -true- secrets of the abyss now!"
 
     Ari balled his fists.  "The only abyss you're going to know is
that of damnation, wizard!"
 
     The darkness oozed over the fifth pentagram, lightning striking
the four points of power aligned exactly with the four cardinal
directions--the flames turned an eerie black and rose even higher.
Naugus lifted his staff again and cried out in an arcane tongue
three times, the tower again shaking and the winds picking up.
The fringes of the island started to crack and fall into oblivion.
"You'll destroy us all!" shouted the King, "Have you no sense left?!"
 
     "It matters not what happens to you!" cried out Naugus, the
dark powers filling him with infernal strength, "My vengeance will
be slaked!"
 
     "Damn your hatred!" shouted Ari, as he attempted again to
charge the circle.  The winds knocked him back, nearly throwing
him off the tower.  As he clung on with just his pawtips, the King
rushed to his aid, struggling to pull him up.  The wizard laughed,
blackness now penetrating the fourth pentagram; the runes flamed
the same color as the outermost circle now, lightning dancing into
them in a strange pattern.
 
     The King barely pulled the ram up in time, another gust of
wind buffetting them and pushing them to the very edge of the smooth
peak of the tower.  They struggled to stand again as Naugus began
to chant once more in the same wicked tongue, flames leaping to
new heights around him.  "We must stop him!" Ari shouted,
fighting to stay upright.
 
     "How?"
 
     Naugus made opening motions with his hands as the third
seal was covered, lightning again striking the four contact
points on the outermost edge of the circle.  Massive chunks of
the island began to fall into the misty shadows, disappearing
with bright flashes of light.  "We need to do -something-!"
 
     The second seal was covered faster than the third, flames
starting to weaken by degrees as light began to stream out of
the very core of the darkness, highlighting Naugus' darkly
grinning face menacingly.  The tower quaked and shuddered
again, wind swirling around it like a tornado.  Their simple
huts they had constructed a few `miles' away were thrown about
before their eyes, flying into the nothingness and being
consumed by oblivion.  The King valiantly continued to struggle
nearer to the circle, as did Ari.  "He's going to do it!"
cursed the King, "and it will doom us both!"
 
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     A few minutes went by.  The output, ki, what-have-you, slowly
began to fill Bahb's spectral essence and made it stronger, defining
it to a point where it met the average for the planet, then consumed
no more.  Apparently only so much energy was available to go around,
Bahb noted, so it recieved the maximum amount any living thing
could have.  It would have to suffice--
 
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     The final seal was covered, the flame extinguishing.  Lightning
struck the four contact points for the final time, and the portal
slowly began to spiral open, Naugus sinking down...the rest of the
land beginning to crumble away around the tower.
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 
     The computer swirled, the new energy filling its physical form
and making it whole.  It began to `sense' things around it without
its sensors, began to `feel' patterns and shifting energy flows.
It began to note a connection between itself and the rest of the
universe no mathmatics or equation could quantify, the mysterious
last element that had escaped its algorithm.
 
     For the first time in its existance, it felt alive.
 
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     The winds stopped suddenly, allowing Ari the opportunity he needed.
Using all of his remaining strength, he charged at the portal, trying
to knock Naugus out of it and perhaps try to make him close it down.
However, once he broke the circle, he was abruptly pulled into it
as well, Naugus already sliding down a spatial warp towards the
Great Jungle.  He tried to turn, yelling towards the King.
"Liege!  Quickly!"
 
     As the King tried to pursue, the tower itself started to
shatter, knocking him onto his back.  Before Ari's horrified
eyes, the buidling started to crumble, parts being thrown
into the swirling tornado around it.  Lightning flashed in the
distance as the entire Void began feeding on itself, the entire
area fading into a grey haze.  "KING ACORN!" he cried, already
too far into the portal to see clearly.
 
     As the lightning flashed again, the last thing Ari saw of
the King was his prone body being thrown off the tower...
 
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     Its comprehension of magick changed.  Fleeting glimpses into
the past and future, sideways through the four dimentions, textures
and shades, they filled the missing parts of its equation and showed
Bahb that it was part of a larger cycle, like all things, and had
a role to play in the grand tapestry of existance.
 
     Enlightenment was greedily taken in by the data-hungry computer,
wisdom and experience flooding it like a bucket of cool water onto
dried soil.  It learned things no one being should have known, or
would know, and because of this its intent and purposes began to
change.  No longer would it be able to see magick as a mere
brand of physics to be manipulated, but as a dynamic force
that could be used for great good or great evil.  New directives
were written by the computer, and a sense of purpose consumed
its being...
 
     Mobius needed it.
 
     It saw parts of the future, hazy, scattered bits; but what it
saw made it realize that its influence would be needed to protect
the lifeforce of the planet--and thus, that of the universe as
a whole.  Great dangers came to the world, for evil would not be
so easily vanquished from control of the world without a nasty,
bloody battle.
 
     It would come.  It would come very, very soon.  And now,
Bahb had work to do.  The computer needed to arm itself with
knowledge if it was going to oppose the greatest threats to
Mobius' wellbeing that had ever been encountered.
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 
     Naugus appeared within the Jungle, being cast into the
heart of a bramblebush.  Howling in pain, he rolled out of it,
already sensing the crystalline mutations beginning in his toes.
He stumbled quickly to a large tree, a lush growth of vines
growing along its base, multicolored, sparkling flowers blooming
all around it.  A normal person would have paused to appreciate
the beauty; not Naugus, who greedily tore a handful of blooms
off the tree and shoved them down his maw, mashing the delicate
petals into paste and greedily swallowing them.
 
     He doubled over, his body convulsing.  The pain was part of
the decontamination process, he knew, but it still made him scream
in agony; he rolled onto his stomache quickly, picking himself
up enough off the ground to have the vomit clear the area where
he'd have to lay for a few minutes.  Stinging sweat stung his
eyes as he continued to purge himself out, sharp pieces of
crystal cutting his throat and jaw and making him even more
nauseous.
 
     Finally, after a few more minutes of this, the process
ran itself out, the wizard's Void time now paid for in full.  He
creaked onto his back and gritted his teeth, the pain gradually
subsiding.  Taking a few deep breaths, he stood, picking back
up his staff and book, and started to walk off towards his
old sanctum to the north.  Until his magick reacclimated to
the physical plane, hoofing it was going to be the best he could do.
 
     No matter, he thought to himself as he walked, Robotnik would
hearing from him soon enough...
 
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     Six hours later, Ari appeared within the same spot of the
Jungle, now late afternoon.  He coughed and swore, eyes pricking
with tears with the loss of his king, his friend...he knew that
whatever there was to cure him would be nearby, so struggled to
follow Naugus' faint footprints to whereever he ended up.
 
     He felt his legs tingling slightly; his time in the Void had
been shorter, so he had a bit more time to work with, thankfully.
His keen eyesight didn't fail him that day, however, discovering
the tree and the slightly torn vine.  The telltale signs of purging
were being devoured by insects, so obviously eating of this plant
and being ill would cure him.  As his hooves began to crystallize,
he gently took several of the blossoms from the tree and ate,
trying to approximate how many the evil wizard had taken.  He
swallowed anxiously, kneeling and bracing for the nausea that soon
came, small particles of crystal leaving his body as well.
 
     The pressure soon subsided, and Ari did his best to clean himself
using the tatters of his shirt.  He stood slowly, pain still wracking
his body, but fire gleamed in his eyes, sadness turning to rage.
He whispered horsely aloud, starting to follow the weak tracks that
led steadily north, staggering behind them and staying awake by
pure willpower.  "I live now only to avenge you, my king.
Naugus will be stopped, I swear it!"
 
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