Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

Well, here it is.

New chapter.

CHAPTER THREE:
Well, That Escalated Fast

"Who dropped that crate here?" GH demanded. "I was almost half a GH!"

A rectangular door opened up and Inspector #86 came out, walking with an irritatingly confident stride. He walked up to GH, and said, "Unusual energy signature located. It originates from the marking of these Terrans."

"What did he just call me?" GH asked quickly.

"Cool it, GH," Gaz said.

Then he bowed down to look at Gaz's Mark with an intensity she found unnerving. "Deploy Scanalysis Array."

Robotic arms spouted from barnacle-like nodes on his head, and began to poke and prod Gaz's hand where her Mark was.

"Look, I'm all for being friendly and everything, but --" Gaz began.

"Multiple unknown code variants, extant." he interrupted. "Energy patterns significantly deviate from known exemplars. Close examination is required."

"I don't like the sound of that techno-babble," Horse said.

He seized Gaz's hand, and held her aloft.

"Ugh, the one time Beaky is giving me my space," Gaz groaned. Then she translated to mist and escaped his grip easily. "Back off, creep!"

GH stood right in front of him, guitar at the ready, deciding which sing to play momentarily. But the Weapon Master just said, "Terran male defense scenario: deploy knee."

"What?" GH managed to get out, before Inspector #86 slammed his kneed into GH's crotch. And it wasn't a weak blow either.

"Not cool, man!" GH said, a couple of octaves higher. "Not cool!"

"Affirmative," the Weapon Master agreed. "The temperature has not decreased below acceptable levels."

"Ugh . . ." GH groaned, as he writhed in pain. Where was Kelly when you needed her white mage powers?

Cerulean sped toward him, hoping to land a hand on him, but the Weapon Master was able to dodge each time, but only just. It almost seemed accidental.

"Terran defense scenario: deploy the deceleration orbs."

Then he littered the ground with little ballbearings which caused Cerulean to trip and land on his butt. Gaz got up and was immediately on her communicator to the forum -- she could see how quickly this went south.

"Deploy molecular vice," he said, as strips of what appeared to be metallic duct tape wrapped all four RAFians -- before Horse could do anything but shout obscenities at the Weapon Master.

He was taking them away to study their Marks, and Unity Energy. . . .

[theyoungphoenix]

oww. i'm not even a guy and i felt bad for gh.
also ugh of course he's gonna kidnap RAFians. they always seem to do that. dang villains

[guitarhero01234]

Oh god . . . I felt that one . . .

[Cloak]

Yeah. Hey, I did warn ya.

Anyway, new book ideas.

• Book MXLVII (1,047): "Archetype Retrieval" -- The Archetypes escape the Parasitotrix and the RAFians must find them.
• Book MXLVIII (1,048): "Fmoo Have Some 'Splainin' to Do!" -- The Fmeks illegally return to Earth.
• Book MXLIX (1,049): "Mech Madness, Mk II" -- Some mechaniloids develop malevolent A.I.s.
• Book ML (1,050): "Xeno's Archenemy" -- Xeno's backstory.
• Book MLI (1,051): "Oligarch Killer" -- A killer is murdering oligarchs, but not touching the innocent.
• Book MLII (1,052): "Mask Nicely" -- Imposters are posing as RAFians again.

There. Don't think I rehashed anything. New chapter later.

[theyoungphoenix]

cloak, do you ever feel like you're going to run out of ideas for stories??

[Cloak]

Nah.

[theyoungphoenix]

XD nice

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER FOUR:
Garbled

Xeno was manning the communications building this time. It was dreadfully boring at times, especially to someone who spent his time inventing things and what not. He was eager to leave this duty and return to his workshop. He was in the middle of toying around with a possibly improved fabrication process -- it would not only potentially revolutionize the industry, but make it easier for the RAFians to craft curative rays and such.

He never like communications duty -- no one did. It was dreadfully boring at the best of times. But someone had to do it, and it was usually Yarin (to keep him from thinking about that microwave of his). But he could do it all the time, and only the Nyac seemed immune to the somniferous nature of the task. No one seemed to know quite why he alone was immune.

Xeno found himself watching the minutes tick by until he would soon be freed from this tedium. Just a scarce half an hour, then he would be done, and have done his duty for a while. Just a few more ticks of the clock.

"Bzzzzzt . . . come . . . bzzzkt . . . RAF!!" a voice crackled over the communications. Xenos first impulse was, he was embarrassed to acknowledge, irritation. He was nearly done! "Bzzzzkt bzzzzzkt . . . is Gaz! We . . . bzzzzt bzzzkt . . . emergency!"

This caught Xeno's rapt attention. The signal was obviously being interfered with, but he tried to boost it in every way he knew how, but the audio was still grainy and gravelly to an annoying degree. This irritated and frustrated the gryphon as he released the frustration in a loud growl.

"Gaz!" he shouted, hoping to be heard, "Gaz, come in! What is your position?!"

"Bzzzzz . . ."

"Nothing," Xeno growled, angry and frustrated. "Great."

Xeno was severely agitated, his tail whipping around haphazardly. It must be a feline thing to do that, as every feline RAFian seems to do the same when they are agitated. Xeno knew he had to report this, but what evidence would have to back him up. All he had was Gaz saying "emergency". That wouldn't be enough to warrant any immediate action to be taken. Would it?

Then he heard something -- and if he was judging the sound right, it was coming from the periphery of the Code Avalon's shield. And it was at it's lowest setting, to save power. It took him a moment to recognize words.

"Several more unique energy signatures detected," the voice said. "It originates from within this location."

[theyoungphoenix]

oh snaap

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER FIVE:
Unwelcomed Guest

"Error: Path forward is obstructed by low-power force field," Inspector #86 said. "Deploy Scanalysis Array."

With that, he examined Code Avalon with his array. Then, quite suddenly the array retracted and Code Avalon was down. This Weapon Master was not a force to be taken lightly.

Xeno was the first on the scene, ready for battle with this unseen foe. He had no idea what this creature was or what it was after, but he couldn't allow this brazen trespass to stand. He flared his wings and clacked his beak as his tail swished from side to side in the most hostile manner. His mechanical gloves even glittered threateningly.

"Unique energy signature located," Inspector #86 said. "Located on the hostile lifeform. Gryphon defense scenario: deploy Stun Swarm."

"You know what I am?" Xeno replied, as tiny spheres swarmed from the top of the Weapon Master's head as if he was a Vileplume using Stun Spore. Xeno fluttered his wings to get distance but that didn't work with these strange particulates. They seemed to cling to his fur and feathers in a most obnoxious way. It was as if he were covered with many metallic ticks. Ticks that he couldn't get off. Why didn't he think of this contingency?

Wait! Maybe if he --

"Argh!!" Xeno groaned as each of the metal ticks send jolt after jolt of electricity into him, eventually knocking him out, but not killing him.

"Hostile lifeform subdued," Inspector #86 said. "Deploy molecular vice."

With that, an unconscious Xeno was wrapped up like a mummy, and taken into the ship by remote. The Weapon Master looked on passively indifferent.

"More unique signatures remain. All require examination." Inspector #86 said. Unfortunately, Underseen, Saffa, Abby, Noelle, Blocky and Empress Goose had come to investigate. Inspector #86 had defenses to deal with all their powers. And he dealt with them summarily as well. He didn't seem very impressed.

"Hostile lifeforms neutralized. All carry the unique signatures. All must be detained and restrained for further evaluation."

And more came out to see what was going on, to see if they could do something to stop this unstoppable force.

[NickDaGriff]

*Unconscious mumbles*

[theyoungphoenix]

oh craaaap. can't wait to see how this goes

[Cloak]

Wait no longer.

New chapter.

CHAPTER SIX:
RAFians Down!

"Targeting several hostile subjects," Inspector #86 said. "Threat level: minuscule."

The Weapon Master took down Dylan by easily surmising his weakness, tricked him into saying "Shazam!" and the bound him in his molecular vice when he shouted it again. Even he couldn't break the bindings.

When Dino charged him, he tripped her using a bunch of ball bearings on the ground which caused her to lose her footing and fall. She hadn't any projectile abilities outside of her Unity abilities, so she was unable to really do much as she was both unable to right herself and she was given the same Stun Swarm treatment as Xeno, only she managed to stay conscious, due to her massive size. The Inspector thought it impractical to study her, which she actually took umbrage of.

Inspector #86 then disarmed Hunter with the Stun Swarm trick again, causing him to drop his firearms. He was bound as he lay, falling into unconsciousness. He, like the others were being taken into the Techadon ship.

More and more RAFians tried and failed to take on the Techadon Master. It was ridiculous the ease he was having with all of them, just as it was ridiculous just how unprepared the RAFians were for him.

Gymn, Shock, and EvilPinkDragon failed, but were felled just like Dino, and dismissed just as quickly.

FuBar and Kern was batted aside and bound.

Quaf faired no better, and was easily bound up.

Empress Goose, who had escaped being bound shortly after his defeat, tried to body jump the Weapon Master, only to receive a hearty shock that laid him out, and left him vulnerable to be bound up. Which he was, as he was remotely towed.

Demos didn't have any more luck when he tried the same thing, but he was out of practice with the technique. He usually used it on cows.

Sakki was swiftly silenced, and the summarily bound.

More and more RAFians fell. This was what Gaz was trying to warn them about. She knew how far south this would go. She knew that they needed one of four people to defeat this monster, and none of the RAFians who fought him were one of the four.

Spectre was still gone for some unknown errand. Estelore was in another sojourn in the galaxy, to who knows where. Richard had just vanished with a note saying that it was for personal reasons -- and it wouldn't expound upon it.

"Reassessing . . . far more subject lifeforms possess the energy signature than previously calculated." Inspector #86 said. "A sufficient amount of subjects have been reached. Further extended use of resources in this endeavor have been deemed as forbidden and cited as pointless. Returning to ship. Set coordinates for --"

"You're not going anywhere," came a quiet voice that nonetheless carried very rapidly upon the air.

[theyoungphoenix]

oh damn. this guy is ridiculously strong dang.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER SEVEN:
Species: Unidentified

The Weapon Master turned around, as a gentle wind blew throughout the forum, causing Cloak's eponymous cloak to billow around him dramatically. Neither said anything as they stared each other down.

"Error: subject's species is unidentifiable," Inspector #86 stated. "Subject's species is not known."

"Whereas yours is clearly evident," Cloak said, not moving, "a Weapon Master of Techadon. I thought your kind never left Techadon. What's the occasion?"

"Assessing threat potential . . ." Inspector #86 said.

"Not gonna answer me, are you?" Cloak said, a trifle miffed, but altogether unsurprised. He sighed, "You're really gonna make me do this aren't you? You can't just give it up, return the RAFians and be on your merry way? Oh, no. You just have to do things the hard way, don't you?"

"Assessing . . ."

Cloak sighed heavily. Why was it all the villains with the smarts to reform are never the majority? Why was it that species like the Weapon Masters were so convinced in the right to do anything they like regardless of the freedoms of others? The whole thing, the whole schtick, Cloak was finding to be rather bothersome and tiresome at the same time. It never really seemed like the RAFians got a break.

The spring weather was nice and enjoyable, and then this decided to happen. Do they ever seem to get any real enjoyable downtime? Alas, the answer is always, invariably, no.

"Assessment concluded," Inspector #86 said.

"Took you long enough," Cloak said, acidly, "you must be on dial-up or something."

"Threat level," Inspector #86 said, "minimal."

Suddenly, it was as if all the air was sucked out of the forum for a few minutes. It ended when the dragons and Dino -- all still conscious -- groaned pityingly.

"What?" Cloak said, flatly. All the sardonic flippancy left him in this instance.

Pure silence met this single word, as the Weapon Master moved to leave. Until, with but a gesture, Cloak crumpled his engines like soda cans. Cloak was irate at the arrogance. They weren't even all that great of weaponsmiths! The Galvin and Walker weaponsmiths easily put them to shame.

"Say that again," Cloak growled. His ire was growing, and yet he was managing to keep his powers in check.

"Error: Assessment does not bear repeating. Assessment was obvious." Inspector #86 said.

"Now we're in for it," Dino moaned.

"Perhaps you need a DEMONSTRATION of my power," Cloak snarled, his pride hurt. "You worthless piece of" -- uh, yeah, it was a good thing that this word wasn't translatable into English -- "if you hadn't your tech, any RAFian would have creamed you. You pompous, arrogant, sack of --"