Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

Probably the former, and I'm just too lazy to change it.

Anyway, I dunno if I can post another chapter. I am exhausted and very sore all over -- probably because I'm working too hard -- so, all-in-all, my energy is very depleted right now.

It is remarkable what a power nap can accomplish. Anyway, I finished planning the chapters of Book CCCXLIX ("M'arillian Incursion"), and started on Book CCCL ("Die Danian").

New chapter.

CHAPTER ELEVEN:
Rotiart, You Got Some 'Splainin' to Do

"Rotiart?" Saffa said to Helen. "You left them with Rotiart?!"

"Well, I thought he could handle it." Helen said.

"Rotiart couldn't handle a goldfish." Saffa snarled.

"Or a shot of raspberry schnapps." Cloak muttered, quoting TeamFourStar's eighteenth episode of Dragonball Z Abridged.

"How can you know that, Uncle?" Shadow asked. "Rotiart isn't old enough to drink."

"I didn't mean it like that, I was just referencing --" he sighed heavily, then decided, "you know what, never mind."

"Helen!" Saffa said, very reproachfully, despite Helen being older. "You know how irresponsible that guy is! How many times has alien threats penetrated the security we put into place to prevent such invasions, simply because Rotiart was shirking his responsibilities? Think, woman!"

"Saffa --"

"Helen, honestly," Cloak said, stepping in. "How'd you expect us to react? I told you that Mogwais are high-maintenance. Although you have done a rather impressive feat managing to care for them in the three days that you've had them, Rotiart is not nearly as dutiful. He would not be nearly as cautious."

"Are you talking about me?" Rotiart said, as the sun was beginning its descent. It was a rather quick day. "Oh, Helen, you're back. Can I have that twenty bucks now?"

Helen glowered at him. Her unusually cold, hard tone was very telling of how Rotiart ruined his second chance, as far as the Star Sapphire was concerned. "You left them alone in my thread? You left them alone and unsupervised in my thread? Without knowing for a fact if I was here or not?"

"I -- I knew you were here," Rotiart stammered, unprepared for Helen's rather sudden fury. "Really! Really, I did."

"You're lying," both Cloak and Shadow said, tonelessly.

"No, I'm not!" he protested.

"We can 'see' you're lying, Rotiart," Cloak said, eyes narrowed. "There is a physical reaction when humans lie. It requires a subtlety with Earthsight to detect, it is true. But we can tell when you're lying."

"B-but I'm not!"

"Save it," Cloak said, sweeping by the lazy boy, "let's go see Helen's thread ourselves. See if they're still Mogwai . . ."

[Cloak]

Must be that pesky "modify-post" syndrome. Or maybe Saffa is just plain exhausted. I can't say that I don't know how that feels.

New chapter.

CHAPTER TWELVE:
GONE!

"Rotiart," Cloak said, voice trembling with effort it took to get and keep his emotions under control, "if you somehow get out being Banned for this MONUMENTAL blunder, I shall start calling you Starscream."

"I don't get it," Shadow said, knowing her uncle well enough to know that he was referencing something called a star scream. "What's a star scream? Something Estelore does when someone catches her in the shower?"

Cloak's grim and serious expression was not chipped at all by his neice's valiant stab at humor. Cloak pretty much knew what he was going to see when they entered Helen's thread. He still cannot believe she honestly thought the irresponsible, cowardly layabout would be a good pet-sitter. Maybe if he was a literal pet sitter, perhaps, but not in the conventional meaning.

They burst into the room and, all at once, Cloak's trepidation was validated. The pupae -- or rather, the cocoon shells were still affixed to the base that they had glued themselves to. But they were empty -- and whatever was inside had already left. Cloak supposed that gremlins were smart enough to work doors. Veil, if velociraptors coukd figure it out, why not gremlins?

Upon seeing both the broken-open cocoons and a cowering Mowgli, Shadow had only one inclination. She turned to her uncle, and spoke quite seriously, "We need Estelore."

***

The gremlins resembled their Mogwai stages very much, but with several distinct differences now. They had scaled, reptilian skin in shades of green, brown, red, and black. Their limbs were longer and just slightly thinner. They had dexterous hands, whose fingers were all tipped in claws. They all stood three feet tall now, and they had escaped the forum, in the falling darkness, to the city.

As they began to run rampant, an eeriely appropriate song (in lyrics, not tone) played:

Gremlins, gremlins,
No one ever should
Terrorize a neighborhood.
But gremlins just won't be undone
Playing pranks on everyone.
There's a race to be on top
The competition never stops.
Fixin' with the ladies' fan
Bein' uncharming never ends.
The gang would reign supreme.
And nobody cannot deny-yi-yi-yi.
Don't make that a mystery.
They always get by-yi-yi-yi.
So, join in the chaos jubilee.
The gremlins are monsters, in reality.
You'll find that in each calamity
The gremlin's superiority.
Oooooh-oooooh-ooooh.
Gremlins, gremlins,
No one ever should
Terrorize a neighborhood.
But gremlins won't be undone
You should realize that they can maim you.

Very creepy, very accurate.

[Cloak]

Okay, I'm nearly halfway through with planning out Book CCCL ("Die Danian"), and I think it'll be a decent book.

. . .

Good god, 504 books . . . you know, there was a time when I thought that I wasn't the ambitious type. This . . . this has proved me really wrong on that account.

New chapter.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
Seven Times . . . WHAT?!

"Esty?" Helen said. "Do you mean --"

"There isn't another option, Helen." Cloak said, making his resemblence to a tiger (the nonanthropomorphic kind) even more evident. "We must be proactive before they propagate to insane levels. There are, what, six billion humans on this planet? These gremlins could make just as many within days! Or even hours depending on the amount of water needed to continuously propagate. They reproduce far faster than the Heinlins! They don't die out of natural deaths, either -- they are fundamentally immortal in that aspect. The only way to be rid of them, is to kill them. We must take the necessary steps, the obligate actions."

"In short," Shadow said, summingnup her uncle's rant, "we need Estelore. We require her powers."

"It does seem a bit extreme," Saffa admitted.

"You haven't seen the chaos these things can do," Cloak said. "Only sunlight -- light from a nearby star -- can kill them. It's their Achilles heel."

***

Back in the city, the seven gremlins were no longer alone. They had found a water source.

Yes. A water source.

The gremlins had propagated just like Cloak had feared that they would. They were like a small army . . . no, worse. A small army of frat boys, partiers, and rioters. Three-foot embodiments of uninhibited, wild, chaotic energy.

No good could come of it.

While every one in ten thousand Mogwai will be pure of heart, the same did not hold true for gremlins. At least, from what is know of them.

No good would come of this.

[redtailedsaffa]

Seven billion people, yeah.

[Cloak]

Ah.

New chapter. Yeah, it's a bit short, but it can't be helped right now. Tired.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
Abject Chaos

Naturally, with this armada of miscreants, this fleet of fratboy gremlins, only one thing could follow. Absolute, unrestrained chaos. Fortunately, the local news station was the first plsce they hit. They got rid of the cameras, and bright studio lights by mesing with the cords and cables from the safety of the darkness. Only they glowing, demonically-red eyes of these gremlins could be seen -- although, that could have simply been a psychosomatic thing on the news team's part.

From there, it was utter pandemonium. The news anchors (although "propaganda anchors" would be more accurate) were screaming like four-year-old girls. Funny how empassioned these people can get when these type of things happen overseas or elsewhere -- somewhere foreign and not infringing upon their lifestyles, that way they can distance themselves from the genuine fear, the burden of immediate survival.

The gremlins, while still potentially deadly, will only kill when they find it amusing. They were almost like Malice in that regard, only Malice would not hesitate to kill when she was angry as well as when it served as a "teaching moment".

But all the gremlins cared about were hedonistic pursuits, and really nothing higher than that. They were rowdy and uncivilized, just like a -- no, perhaps it's best not to get too political here. There be much too much of that later.

***

"Where would they go?" Helen asked. "What will do?"

Shadow shrugged, as the call for Estelore went out, guessing, "Back up sewers, reverse street signs and steal everybody's left shoe?"

"They're more dangerous than that," Cloak said, very seriously. "This isn't something to make light of. I once saw several gremlins overpower a mall Santa."

"It's not Christmastime, though," Shadow said. "Seriously, Uncle -- you're too serious."

Cloak said nothing for a while, before he recalled something he hadn't before. "We need to get the mechanical RAFians to safety."

[redtailedsaffa]

Fratboy gremlins... right out of a nightmare.

[Cloak]

Yeah . . . I know. I used be a housekeeper at a college. Still the worst mess that I have ever had to clean up was there.

New chapter. Shortish.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
Tech Storage

"Since when has this forum turned into a gulag?" Sakki demanded.

"We're trying to keep you alive, Sakki." Cloak said.

"Save it, Realm Walker! I'm not afraid of three-foot-high ankle-biters!" Sakki said, mulishly.

"I'm inclined to side with Sakki on this," Oceanspray said. "Why are we in anymore danger than you?"

"Realm Walkers cannot be killed by Dweller hands," Cloak said. This was, in truth, oversimplifying it, but there will be time to get into this later on. "The gremlins cannot kill me or Shadow."

"And they can kill us?" Rocklobster said, scepticism heavy in his voice and tone.

"Eventually," Cloak said, bluntly. There was really no point in beating around the bush. "They will dismantle you, take you apart, component by component. They might reassemble you, but there's no guarantee that it would be a correct reassembly."

"I think you're confusing gremlins with that alien gremlin species -- like that Jury Rigg guy." Shadow pointed out.

"There's alien gremlins now?" Sakki said.

"Different species," Cloak said.

"Cloak, we take care of ourselves," Oceanspray said, his right lower arm transforming into the arm gun, rather like Cyborg of Teen Titans, and back again, as if to demonstrate his point. "Besides, I thought that they didn't like bright light. My blasts are plenty bright!"

"And my sonic harmonics can handle things with those ears." Sakki said stubbornly.

"Which is why you are needed here, actually " Shadow said thoughtfully. "Make sure that everything's okay on the homefront."

"But --"

"Besides, when Estelore gets here," Cloak interrupted, "the gremlins will be a nonissue."

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
Clash of Personalities

Cloak began to stroll away from the Bored Board, where he had left the mechanical RAFians. He had decided that they were cognizant enough to make their own choices. After all, what right did he truly have to sequester them like that? If they wanted to risk their lives . . . well, that was their prerogative.

Realistically, what right did he have in denying their freedom of choice, their freedom to act? Yes, he was trying to protect them from getting killed . . . by trying to strip them of making that decision for themselves. How is that any different from being a tyrant? It is certainly the line of thinking, of rationalizing the decisions to do such. It is a slippery slope. A very dangerous path to take, with no guarantees of staying on the moral high ground.

But who's to say what the moral high ground is? It certainly wasn't him, himself.

"Cloak, wait!"

Cloak stopped, as Helen caught up. He had a sneaking suspicion what this was going to be about. He really did not want to get into this with the Star Sapphire. He folded his arms as he waited impassively to be addressed again.

"Cloak, please," she said, "what ever happens, don't hurt them."

The Realm Walker said nothing, and was unsurprised.

"You know, Helen, your capacity to love is your greatest strength," he said. "It allows you to see the good in people, and give others second chances -- even when they do not deserve one."

Whatever reaction Helen was anticipating, this wasn't it. Cloak turned to face her, looking her directly in the eye.

"But it's also your greatest weakness, your fatal flaw." the Elements Master continued. "You refuse to believe the destruction that those you care about can do unchecked. You blind yourself recklessly."

Helen was visibly upset and offended. Cloak found that he did not really care all that much. Was he ruthless? Yes, he could be. Was he heartless? When it was necessary. He knew this, and he knew this was the trap that many Realm Walker fell into.

"Well --"

"I have a habit being ruthless? That I can be arrogant? That I have a tendency of holding grudges?" Cloak said, acknowledging his own flaws. "Yes, I have my flaws as well. I am not perfect. No one, despite claims to the opposite, no one is perfected. Everyone is flawed. Everyone."

Then Cloak walked away.

[redtailedsaffa]

Anyone who's met Cupid can tell you that love is very dangerous indeed.

[Cloak]

Was that a "House of Hades" reference, Saffa?

Anyway, I finished planning out the chapters of Book CCCL ("Die Danian"), and started working the chapters on Book CCCLI ("What If . . ."), which might be longer than the prerequisite twenty chapters. On that same token, it might be shorter, though I don't think this is as likely.

New chapter.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
Star Light, Star Fight

Estelore had come back, having just quashed another scheme by Freddie. Seriously, that kid will be the end of her. End of her patience, end of her tolerance, end of her compassion . . .

Fortunately, she had an out from doing this when she received the call. She was just short of ripping the young star apart, before he flew away tittering like an idiot. The juvenile star was the bane of Estelore's existence, but at least she no longer had to make excuses for what she was doing.

She didn't like how it fell to her to clean up his messes, though. Although if she didn't . . . who would? She really didn't have a choice, if she wanted the universe kept intact and free from an overabundance of chaos. Still, it was draining on her spirit and tolerance. There was nothing else to do now, but give Freddie a steller spanking or some other form of corporal punishment.

But she'd cross that bridge when she got to it. For the moment, she was needed by her friends, who offered a respite from Freddie's shenanigans. She approached the planet at a slower pace, slowly shrinking and encapsulating herself in her usual avatar form -- a bright woman in a simple sundress in a beautiful sunny yellow with a matching hat with a floppy brim. She easily floated through the atmosphere, in a way that irresistibly recalled Princess Peach in both "Super Mario Bros 2" and the "Super Smash Bros." series, although it was strange how the atmosphere did not seem to even ruffle her dress as she rapidly decended through it.

She landed rather daintily, without so much as a grunt for bearing weight. It was actually reminiscent of Palutena's entrance in the fourth installment of the "Super Smash Bros." series, as she still emitted a soft glow from her skin, almost like Olympian divinity in the Dinsey multiverse. She looked around in the dark night, and saw that she was not at the forum, and this surprised her.

"Oh my," she muttered to herself, "I must have overshot the trajectory. That's never happened before, I don't think."

Behind her, there were several inhuman shrieks and screams. What she saw was one of the more vile, stomach-churning things imagineable. No, it wasn't Bill O'Reilly's face on the electronics store's window television display (though it was understandable)*, it was the gremlins malforming and melting and dying in Estelore's mere presence.

Estelore was not sure what make of it. What were these creatures and why did her presence make them die like this? It did not make any logical sense to her.

***

All of the gremlins were incinerated by Esty's stellar presence. All but one.

Mohawk had not been present, as he had ran out of popcorn earlier and had decided to go and procure some more. So he -- and he alone -- survived.

It wasn't over yet.


*Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Yet another slam at Fox News. Sorry, but I'm seriously not a fan.

[redtailedsaffa]

Yes, it was. Pretty sure I haven't met him.

[Cloak]

Ah. New chapter.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
Smell Ya Never

"Cloak! Shadow!" Esty called, having spotted four RAFians in silhouette, "Horse! Aquilai!"

It was the sum total hydrokinetics that the forum had to offer. Just these four. Their mission was quite obvious: stop any gremlins from getting wet by water. Water specifically, as they can touch snow without propagating for some reason. Saffa continually questioned this, as she found Cloak's explanantion of "It just works that way" somewhat lacking and unfulfilling as an answer.

Cloak, in truth, did not know why this was so, and he fully acknowledged and accepted this. The natural world was already full of strange, yet marvelous creatures (a lot of them -- such as the female-only species of lizards, the weta which can survive being frozen, the wrasse where the boss female becomes male when the male of their school dies, the paradoxical frog who is larger as a tadpole than as an adult -- found right here on Earth), so why would the supernatural world be any different with their biodiversity and resourceful creativity?

Cloak could not approach any nearer to Estelore until she moved away from the steaming pile of pus-colored residue that were, only a moment ago, gremlins. It smelled like a skunk's diaper, with an acrid hint of burning rubber. Not pleasant. Not in the least.

Although the scent of a living gremlin wasn't all that better. Kind of like a bathroom that's never been cleaned and "old people" smell -- but more pervasive, and yet subtler.

"What's up? What's going on?" the sentient star asked.

Shadow, Aquilai, and Horse exppained what was going on, but Cloak was bothered by something unrelated to the conversation. The winds had changed, and the others seemed unaware of this change, but Cloak's sense of smell was superior to the others, as Horse was in her human form.

"Cloak?" Esty asked, concerned.

"One got away," Cloak said, quickly sweeping in the direction he detected the scent. He sniffed and decided it was stronger in that direction.

"What?" Horse said.

"One gremlin escaped," the RAFian Realm Walker said, quickly. "This way. Quickly."

Cloak stalked off in that direction, really eptiomizing what his form was -- a tiger.

[redtailedsaffa]

Whoa, I did not realize it has been 18 chapters already.

[Cloak]

Gotta write. Dunno if I'm still gonna have a job tomorrow. I'm gonna be exhausted. They're really overworking housekeeping. :|

Anyway, I finished planning on Book CCCLI ("What If . . ."), and started on Book CCCLII ("Blackout"), where the power behind the back-up generator comes from, unless I chose to disclose it earlier.

New chapter. Shortish chapter.

CHAPTER NINETEEN:
Hydrokinetic Hijinks

Mohawk proceeded to a working water fountain in the middle of an overgrown, abandoned courtyard. He was well aware what would happen if he got wet. Only it was more . . . grotesque . . . when done as a gremlin instead of a Mogwai. The skin blisters and cracks and bubbles instead of shooting off some hairballs that grow into Mogwai. And they grow into gremlins, completely bypassing both the Mogwai and cocoon stages.

When Mohawk approached the water, he had fully intended on taking a dip. Intended on making more gremlins. Only this generation wouldn't be like crazed fratboys, oh no. They would be more like crazy Maenads -- you know, those devoted partiers who worshiped Dionysus, representing drunken revelries -- in their destructive mayhem.

But as the gremlin approached the water, it was as if the water itself was sentient and recoiled from the gremlin. Mohawk was perplexed by this, as he was intelligent enough to know that water did not do this naturally. The water floated away from him, becoming a cloud in the process. This dumbfounded the gremlin, though it was pretty obvious who was behind this.

Aquilai, Horse, Shadow and Cloak were bending the water to their will, and willing it away from the gremlin. Soon, Mohawk became wise to the deception and decided to try to outsmart them . . . and ran directly into Estelore.

He could not bear to be within such a close proximity to her, so his skin began to blister, and not in the way he wanted, and blacken. He melted into the pus-colored gelatinous goo, same as his other brethren.

Mohawk was no longer a threat. The gremlins were no longer a threat.

"That was convenient," Horse chirped cheerfully.

"I still don't think I understand the process behind this creature's biology," Esty said, thoughtfully. "How exactly does my presence prove detrimental to it? It is wasn't like I was trying to do it harm."

"I do not understand it myself," Aquilai shrugged, "by all the rules of biology --"

Then they two lapsed into a conversation of scientific speculation, even though the gremlins were more of supernatural origin than anything else.

"Helen's going to be upset." Shadow pointed out.

"Let her," Cloak said, curt and cross. "She'll have to get over it."

[Cloak]

Still feeling some anxiety.

New chapter. Shortish.

CHAPTER TWENTY:
Reclamation

"Was it really necessary?" Helen was asking. Again. This time, Cloak did not deign to answer. He knew this would be a sticking point between the two. The fact of the matter was that it was necessary. If left unchecked, the gremlins would have overrun the earth. Granted, they would die in direct sunlight, but their remains were far worse than they themselves were alive, in smell alone.

Was he ruthless? Yes. Was he completely heartless? No.

This had caused a little tiff between Helen and Parker, as he did not want to be drawn into the argument. But the truth was that Parker agreed with Cloak's actions. Helen had shrewdly guessed this.

But yet, Cloak was given pause to wonder . . . was he being just like Malice? Carelessly and recklessly demeaning lives as inconsequential? Was he being that manipulative? Was he heading down that path? His ruminations continued, even to the point when an old man (who looked an awful lot like a human Frogfucious or a human Mega Alakazam) came to the forum and he didn't notice.

The old man, as it turns out, was the proprietor of the shop that Shadow and Helen had visited so many days ago. Cloak stole an appraising glance at this newcomer. And he was sure that he wasn't exactly human, but he couldn't divine any species that he could be.

He came for Mowgli. It was an accident for him to leave the store, as something had frightened him into hiding in Helen's bag. Helen was exceedingly reluctant, and the store proprietor assured her that she took good care of Mowgli, but the world was not prepared for the Mogwai.

Cloak assured her that the man was sincere and he hadn't a trace of evil in him. Being a feline Realm Walker, he could sense if he was. Although reluctant, Helen handed over Mowgli to the man.

***

Meanwhile, Malice, who did not have any part of this whole gremlin ordeal, was busy in her makeshift workshop. She was feverishly building a machine, which she was actually making due to sheer boredom.

But she had idea, and her ideas nearly always turned into schemes.