Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

Goddamn, your 3DS broke? Dude, get that **** repaired ASAP.

I am. It's not like it doesn't function, the back is coming up off it and I just don't have a small enough screwdriver for the screws.

I'm really liking these characters a lot. Any chance they're gonna show up after this book?

. . . Perhaps.

New chapter. Sorry about the brevity.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
Helllllllllo, Nurse!

"Don't you walk away from me!!" Brooke raged.

Shawn stopped, turned around, and glanced at Brooke almost piteously. "Brooke, anger and wrath are not your friend. You're going down a dangerous path if you don't learn to control your emotions instead of having them control you."

"Shut up!" Brooke snarled, barely able to srand up, her chi lines evidently still blocked. "You don't know anything, Shawn! You don't know anything!"

The other three shrunk away from Brooke. She was really getting out of control, and there wasn't really anything to be done to stop her. She was lost in her anger and her emotion. Of course, this wasn't unnoticed.

"All work and no fun," prompted a voice behind them. Nurse Nancy, as it turned out hadn't left yet. Shawn, Nadia, Chris, and Boris towed the line and maintained the facade, though Nurse Nancy was getting wise to them at this point. Especially because Brooke refused to go along with it anymore, and, despite the feeling not returning to her extremities, tried to attack Nurse Nancy, who stepped back in surprise. This was not the response she expected.

"I think someone needs a check-up," she replied. "Ms. Barrington, if you will?"

"No! I will damn well not sit in that fu--"

Suddenly, two pinpoints of light -- one yellow, one red -- streaked into the room, causing everyone to lapse into silence.

The red one spoke, revealing itself to be a ring, "Brooke Barrington of Earth, you have great rage in your heart."

While at the same time the yellow ring said, "Brooke Barrington of Earth, you have the ability to instill great fear."

Brooke, given the choice between rage and fear, chose fear. She accepted the yellow ring, and the red ring left to scan for another being of great rage.

"Welcome to the Sinestro Corps," her new ring said, as she donned the yellow-and-black uniform of a Sinestro Corpsman. With the symbol of the Sinestro Corps flashing in her eyes in yellow energy, almost entranced, she lifted her ring high to the sky and spoke aloud:

"In blackest day, in brightest night,
Beware your fears made into light.
Let those who try to stop what's right,
Burn like his power . . . Sinestro's might!"

Then she left the room like a bullet, heading to Qward, though the destination was unknown to her. . . .

[guitarhero01234]

Oh... Damn, I was not expecting that

[Cloak]

Excellent.

New chapter.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
Ring-a-Ding

Nancy frowned at that. She wasn't only anti-fun, she was anti-color, believing only monochromatic colors of black and white as proper. Just black and white, no gray. Which was apt, considering her general world outlook. Though she could tolerate red, for some reason.

"You four," Nurse Nancy said, rounding on them. She may have lost that one student to the aether of distraction purposelessness, but she would not abide by have more follow the example. "All fun and no work -- dah! I mean, all work and no fun --"

"Please, Ms. Stepford," Nadia said, suddenly, dropping the pretense. She spoke earnestly, and from the heart. "You surely cannot truly believe that fun is such an evil thing. That creativity and innovation are such bad things. Surely, you know things like art and music and literature -- they're all expressions of the most heartfelt love and passion."

"Love deals nothing but pain," Nancy said, quietly.

"You're wrong, Ms. Stepford." Nadia said firmly. "You're wrong. Love is about putting others needs before your own. Love is about thinking of the happiness of others above your own. Love is --"

Suddenly, a violet ring came shooting into the room, stopping right before Nadia, causing her to lose track of what she was saying.

"Nadia Wolf of Earth," the violet ring said, "you have great love in your heart."

She allowed the ring to slide itself over her finger, as it said, "Welcome to the Star Sapphires."

Then, as she shifted her clothes into the Star Sapphire regalia, she lifted her ring to the sky and recited:

"For hearts long lost and full of fright,
For those alone in blackest night,
Accept our ring and join our fight,
Love conquers all-- with violet light!"

Then Star Sapphire Nadia left for training on Zamaron, much to the indignation and fury of Nancy. Nancy couldn't believe that she had "let" another one slip through her fingers! In her mind, she was providing them with the ultimate gift! Why did those to spurn it like this?!

"Don't you see, Nurse Stepford?" Chris said, though his tone was more caustic than Nadia's was. "Do you see yet how your crusade is not the noble and quest you imagined?"

"Don't talk about matters of which you know very little, boy," Nancy said, repressively imperialistic.

"I know far more than you give me credit for, Stepford!" Chris countered. "Do have any idea how much you have hurt these people? Creativity is not a force that should be bottled and confined to predetermined strictures. Creativity, by its very nature, has dangerous and exciting verve. Imagination allows us to envision a better future than what we have currently. But depriving us of that, of depriving us of creativity, imagination, and innovation, you cause us to stagnate and rot, not only as a culture, but as a species! You're not helping us, you're hurting us!"

Chris only paused for a breath before continuing, desperately hoping beyond hope, "By denying us these things, Ms. Stepford, you rob our generation of hope for a better --"

Suddenly, there was a blue ring in front of Chris.

"Christopher Hawke of Earth, you have great hope in your heart," it said, as he accepted the ring, "welcome to the Blue Lantern Corps."

He lifted the ringed hand to the sky in a fist and recited:

"In fearful day, in raging night,
With strong hearts full, our souls ignite,
When all seems lost in the War of Light,
Look to the stars -- for hope burns bright!"

Then he was off to Odym for training.

Nancy did not like these colored rings coming and stealing her students.

[redtailedsaffa]

Wow, I did not expect that at all, either. That was an excellent twist, and I was already getting to like these characters, so I hope they show up again - in fact, will Helen meet Nadia at some point?

Also, I see where that book series of Cloak losing his connection to the elements is inspired from.

[guitarhero01234]

I would link to the album Colors by Between the Buried and Me, but I can't stand that album, so I think I'll just skip that.

[redtailedsaffa]

Actually I was going for the end of Legend of Korra season 2, but okay.

[Cloak]

Actually, it was the storyline where Superman lost his powers that inspired it, but now that consider what you said, Saffa . . .

- in fact, will Helen meet Nadia at some point?

Oh, I have plans about that . . . or, at least, one.

New chapter.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
Now, That's Just Distracting!

"How dare those rings take away my students," Nancy fumed. "When I was just about to retether them to reality."

"Are we nothing more than collectibles for you?" Boris said, his outrage belied by his calm words. "Are we naught but mere trophies to you? I gave you some benefit of the doubt that at least you thought you were doing the right thing, although in a horribly misguided manner. But you think that little of us?"

Nancy didn't deign to reply.

"I see," Boris said, shrewdly, as Shawn stood beside him as a sign of solidarity. "You claim to want us to be 'tethered', to be 'grounded', when in reality we are nothing more than.pawns in a greater scheme of yours. You're not just anti-fun, anti-color, and anti-imagination, you're an outright fascist. A totalitarian. Devoid of compassion or empathy. Your emotions are the only ones that matter, and screw anyone else for having emotions and not being mindless drones."

Boris was not able to disparate his words and emotion now.

"Ms. Stepford," Boris said, with a croak of cry in his voice, "we are not mindless automatons. We are not just names on a piece of paper given tangible form. We are people. People with minds and wills and hearts and souls all our own. We have our own thoughts, our own feelings, our own --"

Suddenly, an indigo ring shot in and hovered in front of Boris.

"Boris James, you have great compassion in your heart," it said, as he accepted the ring and suddenly looked very Mowgli in Indigo Tribesman garb. "Welcome to the Indigo Tribe."

Then he raised his ring to the sky, while inexplicably holding an Indigo Tribe staff in his other hand, and recited:

"Tor lorek san, bor nakka mur,
Natromo faan tornek wot ur.
Ter Lantern ker lo Abin Sur,
Taan lek lek nok -- Formorrow Sur!"

Then he headed to Nok, for training. Nancy didn't really like this.

"You," she demanded of Shawn, "you aren't going anywhere."

"You can't enforce that demand," Shawn said.

"You're not going anywhere."

"You don't scare me, Nancy," Shawn said, forgetting to be respectful, "your brainwashing machine didn't work on me before, it won't again. And I'm doubt that I'm the only one with the will--"

A green ring was just noticed by Shawn. And this wasn't just any old Green Lantern ring.

"Shawn Hobbes of Earth," it said, just like how it told its former master. Sam. The interim weilder proved willful, but stupid. He died rather quickly by simply showboating. "You have great will to overcome fear."

Shawn stretched out his hand to accept the ring, but Nancy lunged at the ring. In the end, however, she failed. Shawn made a fist with his ring hand and lifted it aloft and recited:

"In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil's might,
Beware my power . . . Green Lantern's light!"

Then he was taken to Oa, to train.

"No!" Nancy fumed. "At least, I have the other students nice and --"

"Yeah," came an irreverent voice, "about that. The other people you brainwashed? Under your control? Not so much anymore."

[redtailedsaffa]

Somehow, I'm imagining that dramatic entrance to be gh.

[guitarhero01234]

Well, I haven't had a dramatic entrance in Memoirs yet. I guess it was bound to happen eventually.

[Cloak]

Dramatic entrance? Well . . .

New chapter.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
You're Batty!

"What? Who're you?" Nancy demanded, turning to see that it was, in fact, GH who spoke. GH wore his favorite guitar slung over his back, which Nancy saw as an outrageous, blasphemous thing. "How dare you bring that thing in this place of academics?!"

"Lady, you really know how to foul up a first impression," GH sad, scathingly.

"Had over that contraband, and I will look the other way on this flagrant disregard for the established rules."

"Oh, bad move," Saffa noted quietly as she, Cloak, Abby, and Underseen watched this exchange.

"You? Touch my guitar?" GH said, scornfully, "lady, you have surely taken leave of your senses."

"Hand it over," Nancy said, holding out an expectant hand.

In response, GH unshouldered his guitar, leaving the strap still on and strummed a few defiant chords. Nancy looked both scandalized and infuriated at this deliberate defiance of her demand.

"What are you doing?!" Nancy said, in ringing tones. "Hand over that instrument of destruction!"

"Lady, you have no idea," Cloak said, allowing himself an indulgent smirk, as GH's music concluded a brief intro before he sang:

"Your name is Batty,
Your logic is erratic.
Potato in a jacket!
Toys in the attic!
I rock and you ramble.
Your brain is scrambled!
Wrapped like an animal, but you're a mammal!
You've been brain-fried, electrified,
Infected and objectified,
Vivisectified and fed pesticide!
Your face is all cut up,
'Cause your arrogance's all shut up!
Nurse! You need a checkup from the neck up!
You're batty!
You used and abused them!
Battered and bruised them!
Red wires, green wires,
Stuck em' right through them!
So, hear my RAFy word,
And exercise a little prudence, man,
When dealing with . . . RAFians."

Cloak moaned and facepalmed at the last three lines, knowing that if it was videotaped that the likes of Bern Bridges and Fox News and whatnot would take it out of context, whether deliberately or not didn't really matter, or viciously edit it to say something that it did not stay.

Nancy was furious at this. She almost vibrated with rage and wrath. She was, in her mind, most certainly NOT batty! She was a noble crusade -- and she was trying to consolidate her power over the school, why else had she been so reluctant to move on.

No! No! It was all wrong! She was right in her actions!! She was always right!! It was everyone else that was wrong!! The whole world was wrong!! It WAS!!!

"If you won't give me that filthy artifact of sloth," Nancy snarled, almost more bestially than human, "then I will just have to take it instead!!"


Song source: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wtuKoD1Wbvg

[guitarhero01234]

This cannot end well for Nancy . . .

[Cloak]

You have no idea. . . .

New chapter.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
Nancy's Tantrum

GH's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Lady, you ain't touching my guitar."

"Then I'll just take from you!!"

"I repeat, you old hag," GH said, not being so nice and polite anymore, "you ain't touching my guitar."

"Hand it over you lazy good-for-nothing!!"

GH easily sidestepped her lunge, and kept his guitar out of her reach. Nancy had abandoned all pretense and all dignity. GH's guitar had become a symbol to her, a symbol of everything that was wrong with the world, displaying just about everything that was wrong with her instead.

GH found himself not being so much as angry (though he was still plenty miffed at her, she was trying to destroy his guitar, and there was no way he couldn't take that personally) as pitying to her.

"Give it to me!!!"

Yeah . . . GH wouldn't be doing that.

"Give it to me!!!"

GH and the other RAFians were surprised to hear some cry in her voice. She was clearly having some sort of meltdown or nervous breakdown. But it did not stem her anger or wrath. She was allowing it to fill her up, displacing anything else.

"Gimme that piece of --"

"No!" GH said, kicking his leg at her get her off his pants cuff. "Gerroff!!"

"Give it . . ."

"No."

"Give it to me . . ."

She was breathless now. She was overexerting herself, but she had a fanatical zeal, an obsessive hatred. She  also didn't seem to notice that the red pinprick of light that had been attracted to her fascistic wrath. Even when it spoke to her, she seemed to ignore it, obsessed with destroying GH's guitar.

"Nancy Stepford of Earth, you have great rage in your heart," it said, but she did not seem to realize that it was slipping itself on her finger, "you belong to the the Red Lantern Corps."

[Cloak]

One more chapter to go. Yeah, I know there isn't gonna be a lot of closure to this book.

New chapter.

CHAPTER NINETEEN:
Nancy's Rage

"Well," Saffa said, as everything spilled outside, "that ain't good."

"Uh, guys?" GH said, as Nancy vomited up the napalm blood that all neophyte Red Lanterns do. "Some help would not be discouraged!"

But Nancy seemed to lose all sentience and basically became a creature of pure rage and wrath. She had lost a lucidity.

"Gateburst," Cloak said, "Neophyte Red Lanterns lose all lucidity, and became wild beasts of anger."

With a tremendous roar, she vomited up the crimson napalm blood again, which nearly hit Abby. The stray hairs on her head that got in the way of the blast smoldered in a most ominous way.

"Okay, enough exposition and backstory, Cloak," Saffa said, having to twist and contort herself uncomfortably to dodge another vomit blast of crimson napalm fire. "How the bloody hell do we beat her?!"

"A quick solution will be appreciated! Greatly appreciated!" GH said, as he strummed a powerful force which created a music-based construct of a gigantic fist that pummeled her, but it missed a few times. "I'm not kidding here!!"

"Other than Blue Lantern," Cloak said, "and outright murder, I don't know what to tell you."

"Oh, thank you, Cloak!" GH snapped angrily, still trying to fend off a rage-empowered Nancy Stepford, unfettered by sentience and consumed with anger. "That was really helpful."

"Surely, there is another way -- and if you use that tired 'and don't call me Shirley joke, imma cut ya -- Cloak," Abby said.

Suddenly, a golden-scarlet orb encased Nancy. She scrambled along the sides of the sphere not unlike a Black Forest wendigo. It was rather creepy. She vomited the napalm blood, and Cloak actually felt as if it was a caustic, acidic slime.

"Enough of this," Cloa said, his eyes golden-scarlet suns. "To Ysmalt with you."

Cloak crossed his palms in front of his face, his Mark clearly etched through his glove, as he felt the others behind him. With a grunt of great effort and force, he pushed his hands forward, palms still crossed. This launched Nancy not unlike the way it happens in Super Smash Bros., with a manner rather like a billard ball. Cloak did not look away until Nancy twinkled, in the darkening sky.

GH shouldered his guitar, huffing, "Show-off."

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER TWENTY:
Not Over It

"Uncle? Uncle?" came a voice, in the dusty gorge, as a black cloak fluttered down to the ground. She didn't see the method of how here uncle died, but she knew that this was his cloak. "No . . . no . . ."

She didn't want to believe it. She did not want to believe her uncle was dead. In desperation, as she caught his cloak, she cried out, "HELP!!! HELP!!! . . . Help . . . somebody . . . anybody . . ." -- she sniffed -- " . . . help."

The dust cleared enough to see a large figure strolling nearer, with Shadow unaware of it.

Cloak's mother Ursa spoke, "Shadow?"

Shadow turned around, to see her grandmother, unaware that she had flung her uncle off the cliff face.

"Shadow? What have you done?"

"Th-the stampede -- h-he tried to to save me," she stammered, distraught. "I-it was an accident, I didn't mean for it to happen."

"Of course, of course, you didn't," she said pulling her grandaughter in to a bearhug. "No one ever means for these things to happen."

Shadow cried openly now, in to her grandmother's cloak.

"But the RAFian is dead." Ursa said dully and blunt. Shadow looked up at her grandmother's ursine face.

"If it weren't for you, he'd still be alive." Ursa lied, as Shadow looked crestfallen. Then, with insideous inspiration, she added, "Oh, what would your mother think?"

"What should I do?"

Ursa's smile was not all that reassuring --

"Aniyu, ENOUGH!!" Cloak roared, an actual tiger roar intermingling with his voice.

At this outburst, the scenery dissolved into the pale blue void it was once before, and Aniyu sitting comfortably on a stone slab. She loomed rather sagely at Cloak.

"Young one," she said, in the gentlests of scoldings, "you shall never progress anywhere if you keep electing to run away from these hurt feelings."

"I didn't run away," Cloak said. "I'm over it."

"Lying to yourself is oftentimes far worse than lying to others," Aniyu said, wisely. "Ironic, given how you can detect the lies of others, but not the ones you tell yourself."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Cloak said, surly and repressive.

"You don't, do you now?" Aniyu asked.

Cloak said nothing.

"This one event has tied up and twisted up your energy," Aniyu explained patiently. "If you hang on to this grudge, if you hold on to all this pain and hurt, you will never reach your full potential, your full power zenith."

"You say that as if it's a bad thing," Cloak said, broodily. "I'm too powerful as is."

"If you maintain that attitude, young one," Aniyu cautioned, "the elements may very well abandon you."

[Cloak]

New chapter.

BOOK CXVIII:
OL' SALTY
CHAPTER ONE:
RAFfamily Harmony

We play our song together
A happy melody.
It always sound much better
In RAFfamily harmony!
Seal plays the bongo drums.
GH plays the big guitar.
Esty plays the violin.
Oh, what pretty sounds they are.
We play our song together
A happy melody.
It always sound much better
In RAFfamily harmony!
Ash plays the xylophone.
Saffa plays the saxophone.
Broken plays the silver flute.
Oh, what lovely, lilting tones.
We play our song together,
A happy melody.
It always sound much better
In RAFfamily harmony!
Dylan plays the slide trombone.
Marie plays piano.
Block plays the tambourine.
With love, they make the music flow.
We play our song together
A happy melody.
It always sound much better
In RAFfamily harmony!

It was a much needed distraction from the events of the past few months, especially as the month of February was now dying, and winter was on its last legs . . . er, hopefully.

Although, Cloak found himself imagining Richard sprinting out his thread -- which no one had seen the interior of -- and singing:

"Good morning, RAF, I say!
I have a feeling it's gonna be a wonderful day!
The sun and the sky has a smile on its face
And shining a salute to the RAFian race!
Oh boy, it's great to say!
Good morning, RAF today!"

But Cloak shook head to ckear the imagined scene away. He knew the real reason he was trying to involve himself in the RAFian frivolity. The was avoiding the subject Aniyu was presenting him with.

He was running away again.


Source songs: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lnJeJOA8Wkw and https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BJrYaviMDNs