The Incorporateds

Episode 8

"Peace Train"

Written By Charles Duncan

Rewritten after an attack by Annoyance.Com nearly killed his 486

virus makers no better than crack dealers BOTH should get SAME
PENALTIES!

Chapter1\Riding_on_All!\wego.com

For too many centuries, the Fibdell and the Culetesso, two species of amphibious
rhino-men and flamingo-men had been seriously cutting off any hope of heroic
attempts from easily venturing extra deep into SCE territory and uncovering the
SCE's base simply by fighting over petty differences and ignorance. But around
the time Wilson was untimely stranded temporarily on Earth and he was
encouraging the future Incorporateds to leave with him (hotly pursued by the
Alien Task Force of America inconsiably by a president insensitive to
extraterrestrial things), that minor war was finally ending after some 10
generations of both sides simply being jerks. And then the peace could begin.
It was no less tense the negotiations of peace. After all, the last thing the
Emperor wanted was this shield of special (species-on-species) violence open up
so his inevitable arrest would end up happening within the next standard decade.
So there were plenty of attempts planned within the SCE hierarchy for this peace
outbreak to end with the death of someone within either the Fibdell or Culetesso
tribes. Just getting the assassins to their target and do some major
infiltration was not a challenge. After all, with Renegade on their side they
had a big tool of infiltration as Renegade could transform temporarily anyone
who wanted the job so they wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb.
The big trouble was trying to get the job done once they were there.
And there was only going to be known once the conveyance for the
dignitaries to travel on and discuss things was to be known. But the leader of
the asassins, after scaring Renegade with a huge SCE taxation bill no mortal
could possibly hope to pay because Renegade was a pain, had no trouble finding
out where it would be held. Let's just say it had... access.

And the untimeliness of the Incorporateds coming into the scene of the Galactic
Dance (What the SCE's called the fake war between itself and the Frontier which
really was a war between BOTH and good people) was not making things easier as
between the time Wilson returned from vacation and Casey went to take his,
Wilson had quickly reacted to the events as he had once come through that era
on his entry into the whole fracas known as the Milky way so long ago he
wouldn't admit it even if he could remember the exact date. Better for them to
just celebrate my last 100 or 200 years alive, Wilson thought, because any more
candles and the ship'd coat the entire place in fire-and-illegal-entry-retardant
foam for a day. Although we could breathe through the porous stuff as it'll
cover us too completely, being stuck in place, blinded and our mumbling about
how the party just began stinking not dampened by the foam covering our mouths
would bring the party to a crashing halt. Better to be safe than to be
embarrased for hours on end....

His reaction was most positively into contacting the ambassador's offices on
both worlds to offer his services and his friend's into keeping the peace as the
Incorporateds wanted the SCE put in JAIL and PRISON and perhaps worse things if
a court and jury could decree it. And they were offering their services for
free so they got the unlikely job of defending the Fibdell ambassador from pain.
Of course, there started a brief bidding war as the Culetesso offered half a
thousand of their credits to not defend the Fibdell. And then the Fibdell
increased their bid for the security work to make it harder for the Culetesso to
be safe to ten thousand of theirs. Fifteen if they could beat up the Fibdell in
a dark alley after the event was over, said the Culetesso and the Fibdell
countered with twenty thousand for breaking the ambassador's legs accidentally.
This went back and forth for five minutes in the background as Wilson regretted
making the contact as a joinable conference call. And then Wilson needed help
but since Speedster was providing the group with chow in Halifax's vacationing
attempts of his own (Halifax had heard of some lost love somewhere and he was
tracking the lady's location down) Ann was called to Wilson's repair room where
Wilson first found out about Ann being forced to play a Ninja.

"Ann, would you come here for a minute? I feel like I'm being torn here.",
Wilson shouted as his headaches became more pronounced and the bids began
getting higher along with the nastiness of the insults. "I think I'm in a
quandry. I offered our services to end a war by watching over the peace process
and keeping the ambassadors safe and for free, and these ambassadors I've
contacted keep trying to outbid each other for our services PLUS making the
other side miserable."
"Sounds like they're not quite ready for peace.", said Ann, watching the two
dignitaries do anything but do anything with dignity.
"Are you kidding? The Culetesso and the Fibdell NEED peace to stop denigrating
their societies. We NEED peace between them to ensure our safety in ending the
SCE's misguidedness and end THAT war and get a greater PEACE. But these two are
not suited for the job and quite frankly, are bucketheads."
"Bucketheads?", said Ann. "That term is something origional in my head, Wilson.
Can you clear it up more?"
"On my own world, and rest assured it ISN'T in this galaxy but quite close, it
was a term describing those who were so stubborn, they must have had buckets
upside down on their heads because nothing could be poured in and nothing was
capable of being poured out because nothing was inside to begin in."
"And I would guess that pertains to what most of the SCE is going through. Too
stubborn to learn reason or do reasonable things."
"That's what being cloned over and over instead of having children and families
can do to a society."
"Anyway, what's the worst of this Fibdell-Culetesso bidding war for our
services? We mostly bring about peace for FREE, don't we?"
"Yes, but apparently these two have just heard of us. So far, the worst offer
the Fibdell gave us was $100,000 if he could prepare a Culetesso banquet with
the ambassador as the first TEN courses. And then the Culetesso heard Fibdell
brag to the world all that and the Culetesso offered us $115,000 to make him a
Fibdell throw rug and they've been shouting at each other all the time since and
forgetting all the offers. I've had to turn the volume down because I like
other's ears ringing, not MY OWN."
"Are we still gonna take the offer of defending their peace talks?"
Wilson turned up the volume and the SHOUTING was intense.
"Would you want to?"
"You wouldn't. I still would. But if they're going to shout like that....." Ann
then came up to the Ethisview monitor and almost stuck her snout-length nose
through the Ether that produced the image of the feuding ambassadors. "Don't
make me come in there with a chopped-off mopstick handle!", she yelled at such
a high decibel pitch Wilson had to look at his cyborg arm and wonder why it was
such a WEAK weapon....
Both ambassadors backed off and quieted quick.
Ann resumed her normal tone of voice. "Now that I've got your attention, maybe
you might consider WE pay the both of you Five Thousand credits for our keeping
the two of you alive through your peace talks if you can just stop deriding and
yelling at each other! PLEASE."
Wilson was amazed Ann got the two to agree so quickly on at least one thing as
his jaw was dropping slowly into the setting sun.
"Now you may have figured", Ann politely nodded to Wilson, "Why I was trusted
with so many diplomatic things by my mom. I have the attitude to deal with
people like this and I learned most of what I know from babysitting when I was
younger."
Wilson for once was speechless as Ann almost danced out of there.

Chapter2\The_train_travel\Herbegin.exe

In most wars people don't always just fight between themselves but for
something valued to both of them. And Begdap-Kajini, once an SCE world until
even the SCE's got too many headaches from invaders on both sides insulting each
other, was the planet from which both societies first left so many years ago
until they invented jerkism and decided to scrap over who should be exiled there
pernamently while the rest of the universe went to the victor. Now, its
ecological system slowly fading, this world was one of the first things the two
societies would try to mend. And it would be the first place for the talks to
settle this dispute to be held in its most rocky-mountainish like region called
the High Hills. And it all started just as the sun was about to rise.....
Strangely enough, Speedster was disturbed why both sides wanted to ride a Bullet
Train instead of being high above in a skycraft or space station or asteroidal
Kilo-commisary (A convenience retail outlet in space) when the advanced
super-technology was available to both of them. Ann, herself feeling a headache
now that her diplomatic (sure!) skills had been stretched to the limit on this
part of the peace process, had gotten Wilson to survey the situation inside the
train car where the embassadors were riding in as she eased Speedster's worries.

Ann wasn't noticing the cameras from within the car looking at them from within
the car itself as she said to the Incorporateds....
"Apparently, this is the best those two, to use Wilson's words, 'Bucketheads'
would agree to. The next day these two are spending hammering out distances the
Fibdellian ambassador wants to travel to see the sun set in this world's Eastern
regions. Then when it does the Culetesso ambassador wants to travel in the
opposite direction to the west until he sees not just the sun but the first
peace treaty signed between the two people. Frankly, I feel that my duties as an
ambassador might not be as needful here as some hidden talent to be a referree
might be."
"Still, there are the ambassador's potential assassins and kidnappers and worse
that might come on board, Ann. And it will be my task to prevent them from
coming on the train as much as it will be Wilson's to keep them from being IN
the train. "
"Why do I feel like you have the easier task, even though I can defend myself a
LOT better now?"
"You've got it easy. You're willingly gonna listen to those two ambassadors for
the next day and night. Take care, Ann. I'll go and ride shotgun in the back."
"You take care yourself and don't let Wilson eat all the vegetarian stuff in the
kitchen area. I heard a few minutes ago it's all these two ambassadors eat!"

Wilson was busy testing the windows for being bulletproof by slowly raising the
sonic vibrations to see when they were about to shatter when the dignitaries
boarded... cussing at each other's familial ancestries in the ancient manner of
"Yore-momeso-fat" and "Your-dadeso-lame". Wilson was beginning to see that
apparently diplomacy was really a new discovery in the Fibdellian and
Culetessian cultures. And apparently whoever told these two to make peace wasn't
thinking at all. But they were Ann's problem now so he gladly escorted them
within upon seeing them get stuck in the narrow door like Cornball would have
loved. And left to cure the pain in his head.
Speedster stood behind to watch from a safe distance and also to watch the
huge luggage of the Fibdellian crush piece by piece the luggage of the
Culetessian ambassador. But this day, he would not be watching much as his
clever ears heard something knocking outside the baggage department door as the
train started its thousands-mile journey back and forth at one hundred and fifty
miles per standard hour. He knew it was time for his job to begin.
And there was someone who looked like being Culetessan was not his calling came
and asked if anyone ordered pizza while being strapped to the front door and the
wind kept blowing around him. Of course Speedster knew this was not a real
delivery bird as that pizza smelled cold and of rubber and the dignitaries did
not eat meat and finally this amateur had a gun underneath his wing.
But Speedster was too fast for a gun and nodded briefly, then whipped
out his plunger and stasified this first assassin even before he clicked the
laser blaster trigger.
Speedster then knocked off all of the straps keeping the assassin from falling
off and watched him leave...or more to the point, the assassin stood still with
even the gravity below him stilled as the train dashed off. "Watch that first
step, kid, it's a big one!", Speedster shouted as he closed the door and his
wind-whipped ears shook themselves neat. But there would be others... and more
brighter ones.
Somehow, Speedster got the unnerved feeling the security cameras watching him
was laughing. But how, Speedster couldn't have known.... for he left earth in
1976 before computers existing there were REALLY powerful...

Wilson was busy trying his vegetarian recipies as he fixed dinner for the two
ambassadors in the front. He couldn't decide whether to fix goulash or pancakes
or even tacos as he wasn't sure what Earth meals might make peacable the two
within. At least he was glad they were vegetarians, the both of them. He'd hate
to have to hand them hamburgers and chicken burritos and have them throw the
greasy stuff back in his face. That stuff was heck to wash off his armored
cyborg arm.
Already someone was climbing outside the kitchen window trying to gently cut
with a precision instrument but Wilson didn't even notice.
The next assassin and the camera within the kitchen sure did notice,
however, as Wilson opened the window to get some air inside to
ventilate properly the place and threw out the last of a failed experiment
mixing cheese with tree bark that the last chef in this train made. This
stuff blinded and knocked the assassin outside dizzy long enough to have
his dark outfit caught on an ancient mail post slot outside and him as a whole
carried off to his destiny screaming. Wilson then closed the window and saw the
window had a small scratch in it. "Bulletproof indeed. It isn't even
scratchproof, these windows."
The camera was depressed. It was running out of asassins to send faster than it
could think. And if you knew what was doing the thinking, you'd know just how
fast things were going bad for it.

Speedster didn't even see the second assassin going by as he was too busy
rearranging the bunch of luggage so it wouldn't harm anyone the rest of the day.
And he couldn't exactly hear the screaming over the wind but that sort of thing
got Speedster's subconscious worked up for a second. Nevertheless, in five
seconds it was properly stacked on the ground.
Speedster didn't even look outside the cab he was defending to see where the
third assassin was coming from, for it was above and hanggliding in with an
attitude itself. He didn't need to as the assassin made a THUMP on the roof and
Speedster, incertain of what was going on, actually got outside.
The wind whipped his ears and the rest of him as Speedster slowly gripped his
way outside. But that apparently was this new assassin's plan as the Assassin
grabbed Speedster by one ear, pulled painfully, then reached for the other one
and pulled him up to the roof.
"Hello...", yelled Speedster in the outside gale as he was held in midair, the only
thing keeping him from being thrown being the assassin holding him. Speedster
couldn't find anything to remember about this one but he was massive like any
other Fibdellian.
"Yes, you said your hellos, little one. Now say GOODBYE courtesy of the SCE!",
it said as Speedster was grabbed like a bola, tossed around and away.
Speedster hit the track tumbling and managed to survive, but not without a lot
of hurting.

Chapter3\Off_the_train_into\thefire.bat
 
A minute later the train was at least 3 miles away.
"Oh, great! Now I've got to catch that train.", he said achingly and annoyedly
as he forced his bones to knit in a minute and his aching muscles go even faster
than the train could.

"What excitement", thought the giant when he resumed his sangurian form, the
mystical power of Renegade fading and forcing the rhino to go monkey thousands
of molecules at a time. "All those jerks who want Speedster dead and I, the
least known SCE did it, the mon named....."
But there he looked down and his fifteen minutes of fame were up super-fast.
There was Speedster, running like mad and 100% in shape now though his shirt was
torn up.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no..." the Asassin yelled over the screaming wind
as Speedster jumped on top and shoved aside the asassin to the rooftop,
extremely disappointed. But not as disappointed as when he saw Speedster easily
keep his grip thanks to the suction power of his plunger.
The massive assassin began running with magnetic spats (!) towards his intended
FIRST victim but in his rage he forgot about the tree limb coming towards him
just above the train's roof. Luckily Speedster ducked in time, but the Assassin
wasn't so quick or lucky as he was the next to be carted off and vowing
vengeance or his name was... Well, Speedster didn't hear it due to wind and
distance. So Speedster could only think to himself, "Great, what a morning I'm
having" as he slowly crawled off.

And just then something laughed within the control room, purposedly abandoned
because the whole train's guidance and track-switching systems were automated.
But nothing lasts forever..... And nothing ALIVE was within there, so why the...
Laughter? AAAAAA!

It was lunchtime indeed when Wilson had fixed dinner for the two ambassadors (as
if they gave a darn about having breakfast for dinner and Dinner for Breakfast.
Wilson was apparently not living in the same time zones as the two he'd served
and they were being objectionable to the food being served to one of them first,
complaining that if either of them was served first the other had the cook serve
them poison or something. Of course, Wilson wasn't serving poison to either the
Fibdell or the Culettessen, but both accused the other of serving poison and not
finish the trickiest parts of their talks amongst the living. Apparently Ann had
a good idea for neither Ann or Wilson had stayed much longer while the two were
eating and threatening a food war to end all wars, and not just the ones with
food as the weapon!
Meanwhile, Wilson couldn't help but watch the cameras follow their moves. And
shake funnily every now and then....

Wilson had some time to talk about things with a very weary Speedster.
"Any thing happen outside the past few hours?", Wilson said to Speedster.
"Yes, things happen. Assassinating things, monkeys, birds and hang-gliding
wackos who think it's fun to throw you off the train at near 200 miles per
hour. If my bones didn't knit as fast as they did I probably would'nt be dead
but I'd be something the medical establishment talk'd about for YEARS. See any
assassins here?"
"Not really, unless you count the strangest things I found in the fridge the
last few hours as I served those two ungratefuls back in there. I'm surprised
Ann can say she had them gain any progress towards their peacefulness coming
forth. In the middle of trying to find the pressure point on her palm that stops
the headaches of constant bickering and rarest agreement that a couple of
glasses of water with added asprin could cure. She is in there right now
changing into her night clothes and prepraring herself mentally for the final
stretch of her diplomatic efforts. If frankly before this train makes its last
call she can get the Fibdells and the Culetessos to at least agree to a peace
treaty so they can get on with just living she deserves a vacation herself."
"Ironic she'd need one as you essentially hired her so we could take vacations
ourselves", said Speedster.
"Well, apparently she will need a lot of rest after this most diplomatic effort.
I'm just glad she hasn't been attacked herself by the assassins. She's in this
for her diplomatic capacities only", Wilson said as something fell to the
ground.
And was obviously being pinned there to screaming loud enough to quiet the
feuding ambassadors.
"You and your big mouth", Speedster said. "Are you psychic or something?"
"I wish someone in my old life was... Anyway, let's check this out quick!",
Wilson said as both of them ran into the statecar where Ann was resting.

Ann was more than all right, but there apparently was someone attempting to
victimize her yet a third time by flat-out attempting to kill her so no
Fibdell-Culetesso treaty could be hammered out. However, since Ann knew Ninjitsu
as well as Diplomacy nowadays that dying thing wasn't happening to her. Not this
year, anyway....
The assassin, a eight-foot sangurian who seemed to have muscles wider than his
own thick skull, was a mean one who'd Speedster heard of once hanging around San
green. But what it was doing here was no mystery even though its name apparently
was. It was probably going to simply crush Ann in its arms but Ann quickly kept
the beast at bay and pinned on the ground, weak from its exhaustedness of simply
keeping Ann HERSELF AT BAY for as long as it did. And it was screaming.
"Do you have any idea who this guy is", Ann yelled over the screaming wind
inside. "I had the fight of my life with this huge creep. Tried to impress me
by sitting on the ground and uppercutting the chair right through the same
roof he did his Halifax impression through. I WASN'T."
Wilson stared hard and his jaw dropped upon recognition as Ann notioned
Speedster to throw this guy while still out of it off the train while the train
was scheduled to stop.
The Fibdellian ambassador's mouth dropped a lot more than Wilson when the being
Wilson knew all too well as Tunch was carried off and rolled onto the tracks by
someone a lot shorter than he was. And Ann personally didn't believe just how
quickly someone like Tunch could have gone down at her hands, But Wilson was
more surprised than the Ambassador as he couldn't figure out why Tunch was here.
Asassinating someone with one's own fist for money wasn't Tunch's style, he
usually did it for free.

"Do you honestly think those ambassadors will be a lot more peacable now that
these attempts on their lives are beginning to bug us?", Speedster said as he
looked out the front of the cab for more villany.
"If anything, they should at least stop complaining about each other and throw
some complaints about how we aren't keeping these SCE asassins off their
backs.", Wilson said as he began repairing the roof. Beyond, Ann was trying to
restart the negotiations against a boatload of complaints and fearing a shouting
match would inevitably be necessary.
"Where are these SCE goons coming from, anyway", Speedster queried. "They seem
to know when we usually are vulnerable. Is there someone watching the security
camera system or something?"
"Wouldn't hurt to check later tonight. There was one of those things on this
Train before the Ambassadors rented it. Perhaps someone is in the front car
watching things now."
"Sounds like a plan."

Wilson opened the door to the train's control room and very unnervingly
wanted to not be there as it seemed to be becoming a shambles on its own
at about midnight. Wilson was hearing the ruckus while napping near the control
room, waiting for the true source of the dismay. Wilson was quick to arouse from
his catnap and quickly awoke Speedster in sucession, since Speedster was
sleeping in the attached hallway between the train cabs. Creeping by quietly
to not arouse either the suspicions of whatever was in that control room or
those screaming dignitaries and Ann who was almost to the point of screaming
herself, Wilson could feel the train unnervingly bound on the tracks
seemingly faster now. And Speedster felt it, too, as they stood outside
and watched panels within the control room SUDDENLY short out in the train's
control room but, of course, no train conductor as the whole thing was
Automated. But not for much longer.

"You first", Wilson and Speedster said in unison as techno-wiring burned out,
causing a small fire near a control panel that was estinguished quickly
by Wilson's stomping foot, which sent out a lot of pain from the bad treatment.
Wilson walked quietly in the room, unsure what was going on within but it wasn't
pretty as he kept looking for any monitors not being burned out and radios
turned on. Speedster looked, too and found something on one screen behind him
that interested Wilson even quicker than it did Speedster.
 
Chapter4_The_bigger_they_are.bin

It was just a bunch of wavy lines at first but it sure didn't look like any
ordinary display of the main car's interior, it looked wavy and MEAN.
"What in the world is that?", Speedster said as he wasn't quite sure what it
was. Wilson, having had more experience with computers since Speedster's world
had yet to invent an Infernet or computer viruses to run amok but the universe
beyond had devised one MILLENIA before Sppedster was born, knew pretty much that
it was a virus, but not any virus like humanity would uncover in their future
two decades hence from the time the Incorporateds began their war against the
SCE.
"Oh, great Lamar, not this. Anything but that..." Wilson said as the train was
pushed into yet another gear forward.
"What is it, Wilson?", said a electronic voice. "Someone forgot to send you
flowers when Tunch and his pals sent you crashing into the jagged rocks of Earth
itself? High LAUGH-LAUGHTER!".
"Is this train haunted or Something", Speedster said as Wilson hung his head low
from painful memories just then.
"Oh, we have a newcomer in the audience. Don't know things about electronics
much, do you DOG?", said the virus as all the cameras stared straight at
Speedster. "Oh, I forgot. Much have watched too much ordinary TV instead of
playing video games and surfing Networks. Primitive bland-headed No-good! High
Laugh-Laughter! Well, I'll teach you because I am the one, the only, Annoyance
5.2!"
"You aren't a ghost? But why are you messing this train up? And WHAT ARE YOU?"
"Haven't felt the need to. I hired asassins first just to soften you
karma-intensives. Then the wreck will kill you. And If you don't know what I am
by now I am a virus within this train's computer, with a program driver
which taps into a piece of the computer's memory manipulated for real-world
access by a departed Hacker's soul who caused one too many total losses
of computer data on a couple of worlds, caused a load of train wrecks and worse.
And if you don't mind I've got a job from the Emperor to stop this train by
CRASHING it. High Laugh-Laughter.", said the virus through the Globanet
transciever's speakers. Globanet, not Ethinet, you say? This was just one world
with an Internet no bigger than the world was. Got that? GOOD.
"Let me get this straight. You're a virus who ordinarily wouldn't have a soul
or emotions or insanity or sickness or employ as an Asassin and a jerk
since you're COMPLETELY electronic but your having a SOUL makes is running the virus's controls
anyway?"
"Hey. Hey, you, bright canine standing in front of me! Still think your MIND
runs your body? It's nothing but a blank page without your SOUL, no control at
all! That's the way my soul in this virus form works! And why I'm going to crash
your own soul  at, say, a THOUSAND miles or more per hour! Hope I don't crack
the windows and suck all the air out before then!"
"Oh, that makes things easier", Speedster said as a sparking cable almost fell
on his head. "You're NUTS and you're ALREADY DEAD!"
"No, I believe I'm Immortal. They don't use Nuts to put computers together
anymore and I'm not currently living. Hungry, dog? Want a taste of my power?
HMMM, Electrocution tastes REAL good the last few moments!"
Speedster saw the cable sparking below as he felt the Train go up another notch
inconsolably. Wilson was still sulking about the miserable experience upon being
stranded like he was.
"Feed yourself", Speedster said as he grabbed the cable by its plastic end and
jammed the shocking, exposed end right into the terminal and through.
The shock at least made the virus stop looking as its cameras began spinning
around but Wilson snapped out of it and started to work on his own retribution.
"What kept you?", Speedster said as Wilson trashed the cameras with his
sound-arm, breaking all the cameras but the train was still going faster. And
then an Arc of lightening hit Wilson's arm and he lost control more than usual
as he suddenly pointed his own gun at his head. The train then started slowing
down, its guidance systems spent and its power fading slowly. Speedster could
feel the pull of the train as he could hear the broadcasting of the gun speak
now in the voice of the virus.
"Hey, buy this magazine or I'll shoot this cat... no, this dog, no, this
whatever it is! Wait, I'm killing off dignitaries, not selling Magazines. What
was I thinking, anyhow? Extreme Laugh-Laughter and a load of synthesized Glee!"
"Wilson! Fight it, Wilson!", Speedster said.
"Don't bother. Just knock it off and throw it off the train!"
"Are you sure about that?", Speedster said cautiously.
"It's not a real ARM.", said Wilson as his natural right fought off his cyborg
left without much ease.
"I am too REAL!", said the virus as the cyborg arm began wrestling with the living
one. "Now let me drag this guy and let me shoot the Dignitaries or your friend
never hears AGAIN!", threatened the taunting virus.
"Sorry. Not today. ", said Speedster as his brute strength ripped the cyborg arm
off before it tried to choke Wilson. "Now get out of here, you computer GLITCH
or whatever you are!", as Speedster ran off with it to the front window to toss
it through.
The arm's solar power kept it cranky with that virus as it sang OPERA right into
Speedster's ears.
"Least on the bright side", Wilson said quietly, "this peace business could have
cost me more than an arm and most of my sanity. I'd probably have both an arm
and a leg gone from that creep."
"That was awful, and I don't mean trying to disrupt a peace that SHOULD be for
sanity's sake and dignity's sake!", Said Speedster as his ears rung from the
first wave of musical terror.
"Oh, you should have heard me sing opera before my timely demise with those
origonal Lungs I had!", said the virus as it tried to prevent the growing
inevitable by slapping Speedster in the mouth to no avail. "I sang LOUSIER!".
"I already have heard you!", said Speedster as he tried to exorcise the possessant
soul by throwing Wilson's virus-infected arm right out the window. "And me
throwing you out is REALLY timely! Don't come back, hum?", he shouted as the
virus-infected arm bounded off the tracks and cussed now out of earshot,
denied by someone definently not into computers... but destined to learn FAST.
Not the best thing to ordinarily do, but since the train was now slowing down to
about 40 miles per hour, no threat of Speedster going himself out with the Virus
was happening that night.

As the sun rose that day, it didn't matter that the train didn't make it all the
way to its final destination or Ann was going to need a week's rest and a
vacation of her own after all the shouting. But what mattered was a initial
peace treaty signed by both the dignitaries.... mostly with quick writing when
both realized death might be coming and it wasn't from ANYONE they sent to mess
things up personally... OR THEIR ENRAGED BODYGUARDS.
"At least one day", Speedster said as Wilson and himself carried the sleeping
Ann on a stretcher back to the Neverrest once the local police took off the
asassins and put that cussing virus in an inactive, mega-compressed Archive file
to sulk for about 5 months or so.
"No, I will not go with you on a megaway train ride from Catica to Dogelia to
report to the media the Fibdell-Culetesso peace treaty and the resulting new
passage straight into the sphere of Influence the Emperor has as the main part
of his domain. I'll fly instead."
"You actually think FLYING is safe?", Speedster muttered as he kept silent while
Ann got the rest she deserved.
"After this day, I'd believe Falling to Dogelia without a parachute would be
RELATIVELY safer, wouldn't you?", said Wilson as Ann was taken within the
Neverrest and out of earshot, Tunch, not yet apprehended, argued with
his TV watch.
"Good thing you make backups of yourself. You in that arm will not be getting
out anytime soon."
"Yes, glad I am here as well, Tunch. Shame this attempt to kill peace didn't
quite work out. But in good time, those two Ambassadors may have to yell at each
other again. And when I do, nothing will be stopping me now... or that copy in
the arm."
"Why do you think those two ambassadors WANT to be together."
"They won't. But they'll HAVE to. Ever hear of... Trade war talks?"
"You and me and your copy in the arm is a beautiful fiendship.", Tunch said
as he scampered into the hills with the virus saying "Vengeful Laugh-Laughter!"
over and over again. Which translates into non-techno-nerd lingua, as just
mean, crazed laughing....

-END-OF-FILE----FOR-NOW!-