Memoirs of a RAFian

[Underseen]

I won't be surprised if some of your friends start making accounts

[Cloak]

Me neither, Underseen.

New chapter on Monday.  Hopefully.

New page:

• Book XXV: RAF -- The Musical

The RAFians find themselves trapped in a musical where everyone must burst into song occasionally.

• Book XXVI: Outage Outrage

The RAFians find themselves losing their powers.

• Book XXVII: Infinity and Eternity

The Infinity Gems and the Eternity Stones make themselves known.

• Book XXVIII: The Virus Rings

The RAFians are attacked by foes they never thought they'd see again.

• Book XXIX: Soul-Suckers

The RAFians are attacked by Dementors, which have a rather large effect on Cloak.

• Book XXX: Mayhem of the Music Miser

Cloak recalls the RAFians' previous confrontation with the Music Miser three years ago.

• Book XXXI: The Metal-Maker

The RAFians must save their own from a Roboticizer.

• Book XXXII: Richard is Missing

The RAFians must cope without Richard.

• Book XXXIII: Emotional Food

The RAFians must confront a different kind of vampire.

• Book XXXIV: Transformation Confrontation

The RAFians must confront some strange machines.

• Book XXXV: Richard's Horn

The RAFians must get Richard's Horn, a mystical musical instrument, back from Malice, who received it from a RAFian traitor.

• Book XXXVI: Feral Scream

A Wildwethel-centric book, he must deal with his feral side.

• Book XXXVII: Predators and Prey

The RAFians are being preyed upon by some sentient predators.

• Book XXXVIII: A Protean Problem

The RAFians must deal with a powerful snot-nosed kid who, quite literally, can do whatever he wants.

• Book XXXIX: The Horsemen

Four RAFians are captured and converted into four Horsemen of the ancient, rogue Realm Walker Cataclysm.

• Book XL: Sizeable Pain in the Necks

The RAFians must deal with Heinlein aliens.

• Book XLI: RAF's Nightmare

The RAFians must survive their own nightmares.

• Book XLII: Unlucky Charms

The RAFians must contend with a rather bloodthirsty leprechaun.

• Book XLIII: The Piper

The RAFians must contend with a pied piper.

• Book XLIV: Starlight Desire

The RAFians race Malice, Abomination, and the Banned to a wishing star (no, not Estelore).

• Book XLV: A War of Armor

Parker is outraged to see knockoffs of his rather unique armor and what they're being used for.

• Book XLVI: The Worst Plague

The RAFians must weather the worst plague to ever existed -- the Hate Plague.

• Book XLVII: Little Alien Napoleons

The RAFians are caught in the middle of a war between Helmacrons and Fmeks.

• Book XLVIII: Go Away!

The RAFians must deal with the paparazzi who are all of a sudden interested in them.

• Book XLIX: RAFian Tales

RAFians tell various RAFian-themed stories across a lunch table.

• Book L: Maul

The RAFians must deal with the result of one of Demos's experiments.

• Book LI: Erised Orbs

The RAFians must face their greatest desires.

• Book LII: RAFians Alive!

Read the "Mummies Alive" parody in the RAFize songs thread.

• Book LIII: The Pain Reliever

The RAFians must deal with an elderly Vulcan styling himself the "Pain Reliever".

• Book LIV: Beyond the Veils

Aquilai and Aila must confront old foes while the other RAFians must put up with a Czarinian bounty hunter.

• Book LV: Dangerous Deals

Demos meets up with his half-brother, Shenecron, who has a perchant for making deals.

• Book LVI: Of One Mind

Malice seeks out the Unimind.

• Book LVII: The End of Time

The RAFians must contend with two Kryptonians (who think they're Time Lords) and prevent them from ending time altogether.

• Book LVIII: Hematomimic

The RAFians must capture a Plasmavore and put up with it's rather stupid Judoon jailer.

• Book LIX: Sins of Youth

Estelore, Richard, Parker, and Cloak must survive when the entire city and forum have been reduced to two-year-olds.

• Book LX: The Replacements

The RAFians must contend with the fame-feeding Eidolon Consciousness.

• Book LXI: Arachnoids

The RAFians must contend with the Arachnoids and finding a cure for one of their own that was poisoned before it's too late.

• Book LXII: Personal Tissues

The RAFians must contend with some one misusing Bibliophaetos's discarded book shell.

• Book LXIII: Memory Today, Gone Tomorrow

The RAFians lose their memory and must find a way to regain it.

• Book LXIV: Appliance Armageddon

A superintelligent computer controls all electronics, and the RAFians must stop it.

• Book LXV: Prodigy and Composite

Some RAFians are merged into two separate entities.

• Book LXVI: The Merging

The Universes begin colliding and merging.

• Book LXVII: Be A Doll

The RAFians are confronted by a Super Chucky.

• Book LXVIII: They're Such Cards

The RAFians are sealed into cards, which end up trapped in an ancient leather-bound book, and it's up to three kids to free them.  An out-of-continuity book.

• Book LXIX: Dinosaur Island

Everyone, except those that bear a Mark, begin turning saurian.

• Book LXX: Corrupted

The RAFians must deal with the son of Cataclysm, Corruptor.

• Book LXXI: Artificial Skins

The RAFians must deal with symbiotes.

• Book LXXII: Separation Anxiety

The RAFians must contend with an ethereal virus.

• Book LXXIII: A Thing About RAFians

The RAFians must contend with Seekers, which home in onto their Marks.

• Book LXXIV: A Planted Idea

The RAFians must contend with a floramaniac.

• Book LXXV: Vacation Photos

The RAFians are sucked into a Polarisoid camera.

• Book LXXVI: A Personal Gremlin

The RAFians must contend with gremlins.

• Book LXXVII: The Rust is Silence

The Rafians must deal with an oxidation ray wielded by a criminal.

• Book LXXVIII: The Toyman Cometh

The RAFians deal with a Toyman-esque character.

• Book LXXIX: RAFian Idol

Yes, just another excuse to put in more of the (as of writing) nearly 800 parodies.

• Book LXXX: Savage Heart

Cloak battles an ancient being called Garrotik.

• Book LXXXI: Slave Islands and Juggernauts

Three RAFians are taken prisoners by the Knights and sold into the slavery of New Genoshia, while the others deal with a juggernaut.

• Book LXXXII: Shredding a King

The RAFians deal with a demonic Shredder-like ghost called Regiphaetos.

• Book LXXXIII: RAF -- The TV Show

The RAFians are forcibly recruited to Mojo's programs.

• Book LXXXIV: The Drinker

The RAFians must contend with a Spirit-Drinker.

• Book LXXXV: The Last Laugh

The RAFians must face Joker Gas.

• Book LXXXVI: It's A Mad, Mad, Mad Villain

The RAFians must contend with mind control cards which are ineffective on them.

• Book LXXXVII: Sight Unseen

Six RAFians are rendered functionally blind, optically-speaking.

• Book LXXXVIII: Don't Let It Snow

The RAFians must face a second Ice Age caused by a Diznee Ice Ifrit.

• Book LXXXIX: The Rachel Toxin

The RAFians must find a cure to a toxin that increases the fearlessness, hostility and aggressiveness induced in people which the Mark cannot protect the RAFians from.

• Book XC: Virus Alert!

The RAFians face a dangerous virus seeking a host.

• Book XCI: A Youthful Thief

The RAFians face a creature that siphons off the youth in its victims, provided they're younger than him.

• Book XCII: Calendar Creep

The RAFians face the Calendar Creep, a criminal whose crimes are holiday themed.

• Book XCIII: The Branding

Faerie fights a witch-boy named Salem (and his magical black cat, Saberhagen) for a magical branding iron in Faerie's possession.

• Book XCIV: The Void Zone

Nothing like a "Subspace Emissary" parody.  Sorry.

• Book XCV: An Epic Yarn

The RAFians' world is turned into yarn and fabric.

• Book XCVI: RAFian Gladiators

RAFians are kidnapped by Gamesmaster, another rogue Realm Walker, and force to participate in gladiatorial games.

• Book XCVII: The Box

The RAFians must cage thirteen Revenants released from Pandora's Box -- each representing and amplifying a particular feeling (i.e. hatred), while looking for the perfect host.

• Book XCVIII: From the Shadows

The RAFians must save their shadows and the shadows of everyone else from being absorbed (eaten) by the Umbraraptors, but not everything is what it seems.

• Book XCIX: Grimm Prospects

The RAFians discover Malice controlling several "wesen" with control collars akin to April's in "Catwoman from Channel Six" and get stuck in one-on-one battles to the death with them.  One will die.

• Book C: Loop-De-Loop

Everyone's trapped in a temporal loop, but the only ones that realize it are Cloak, Aila, and Aquilai.

• Book CI: Get 'Em, Shaw

The RAFians face a creature native to the planet Gossamer, who's under the control of Malice.

• Book CII: Threadfall

The RAFians must exterminate an epidemic of Thread.

• Book CIII: Siren's Song

The RAFians must deal with a siren and her alluring song.

• Book CIV: Resistance is Futile

The RAFians must deal with a hybridization of the Borg and the Hive chips (Ben 10: Alien Swarm) -- which the Mark cannot protect them from, nor the Unity energy can destroy.

• Book CV: The Titan

The RAFians must contend with the Titan serum and its effects.

• Book CVI: A Stony Glare

The RAFians must deal with a hungry Stone-Biter and a petrifying venom of a Diznee Stone Ifrit.

• Book CVII: Spritely Pests

The RAFians must deal with irritating sprites, which Faerie has had some rather tenuous experiences with.

• Book CVIII: Destroy All . . . What?

The RAFians must contend with a Furon incursion, and it turns out the Nyacs have knowledge of Furons. . . .

• Book CIX: Going Backwards

A grievious malfunction in Aquilai's TARDIS causes time to reverse its flow and flow backwards.

• Book CX: Death Takes A Holiday

The RAFians must convince Death to take up his role again.  A RAFian will die in this book, and it is within the continuity.

• Book CXI: High Price Stakes

Shanker and Gaz must flee and elude Daphne, the vampire hunter.

• Book CXII: A Killer Housing Market

The RAFians must survive and either destroy or escape a killer house.

• Book CXIII: A Silenced World

The RAFians must cope with a world that has become muted and a young sorceress, Melissa Spellman.

• Book CXIV: The Bureau

The RAFians must save their own from the insideous Bureau of Lost.

• Book CXV: To Tell the Truth

Broken's apprentice, Melissa, accidentally casts a spell forcing everyone to tell the truth.

• Book CXVI: Skin Crawlers

The RAFians, repulsed and revolted, must contend with Hundred (who eventually becomes Thousand, then becomes Million, then Billion, and then, finally, Trillion).

• Book CXVII: School of Stepford Lies

The RAFians must save the children from a school that turns them into Stepford students at Terenia's school.

• Book CXVIII: Ol' Salty

The RAFians must deal with the Salt Man.

• Book CXIX: The Great Race

The RAFians hold a race that Aloth cons himself into.  Who will win?

• Book CXX: Ape Escape

The RAFians must help super intelligent apes -- Caesar the chimp, Brutus the gorilla, and Maestro the orangutan -- reconcil their misanthropy.

• Book CXXI: A Different Kind of Unity

The RAFians must contend with a parasitic "unity".

• Book CXXII: The Great Brain Robery

Someone is stealing brains for an unknown purpose.

• Book CXXIII: The Bounty Hunter

The Knights, in their hypocricy, hire a Tsul'Kalu bounty hunter to collect select RAFians (to taxidermy).

• Book CXXIV: New Controllers

The RAFians confront Zirconians.

• Book CXXV: Creeping Crystal

A wave of crystallizing energy is sweeping the land. . . .

• Book CXXVI: The Element Feeder

The RAFians deal with a creature who feeds on a specific element and matures to a different element each time as it matures. . . .

• Book CXXVII: The Rider and the Walker

The RAFians come up against the Ghost Rider.

• Book CXXVIII: Headhunters

What will happen when RAFians lose their heads?  Seriously.

• Book CXXIX: The Color Purple, Man!

The RAFians confront the Purple Man, who manages to turn the entire government against them . . .

• Book CXXX: The Nemetrix Beetle

The RAFians confront the Black Beetle with Nemetrix properties.

• Book CXXXI: It's Tought to Be A Mod

The members of a primitive forum declare Demos and Blue to be mods. . . .

• Book CXXXII:Who-Zilla?

An energy reaction begins turning RAFians into monstrous creatures in 3013.  Out-of-continuity book.

• Book CXXXIII:Well, Techadon-ally . . .

The RAFians confront Techadons who assign them qualitive quatilities, and refuse to acknowledge any defeats.

• Book CXXXIV:The Mind's Eye

The RAFians face Spellbinder and his realistic illusions.

• Book CXXXV:Bas-ic Instincts

Bas awakens and attempts to take control of Cloak and other felines.

• Book CXXXVI:Midas Duck

The RAFians must contend with a very strange golden idol and a greedy sneak-thief.

• Book CXXXVII:War with the Warworlds

The RAFians must defeat two heavily-armed Warworlds.

• Book CXXXVIII:Solar Sucks

The RAFians must save Estelore from a device able to suck out her stellar substance and lifeforce.

• Book CXXXIX:Hounded

The RAFians are attacked by hellhounds that only Demos can see, although Cloak can "see" them via Earthsight.

• Book CXL:Politics

The RAFians, much to Cloak's chagrin and irritation, get caught up in the middle of Realm Walker politics.

[Cloak]

Here's a new chapter.  Hopefully it won't be too short. . . . Oh, it's probably too long. . .

CHAPTER TWO:
The Avatar

In the biolumescent land of the Nexus, where the land, seas, and plants are lit up, even the Realm Walkers are bright.  There was one, a tiny fawn-form Realm Walker, who was alone.  He was orphaned, both parents killed.  He didn't know by who or why, but he knew that it wasn't by accident.  Or by suicide, as the authorities claimed it to be.  He tried to tell them such, but being twelve (around 120 years old, in Dweller Earth time), he was ignored and dismissed.
 
He felt very alone and helpless.  He didn't take a name, nor was given one.  Realm Walker convention was that a Walker's name would come when his or her personality is known, well after they have hatched from their Life-Light Eggs, and this poor fawn's parents hesitated more than most.  Now he was called, most against his will, Progeny of the Twin Suicides (Progeny, for short) -- as suicide was something that rarely, if ever, occurred amongst the Realm Walkers.  This fuelled his fervent denials that his parents killed themselves, using this as proof.  But due to his young age, he was dismissed.  Even all the way back then, sixty or seventy generations ago, the Realm Walker governing system left much to be desired.
 
To make matters worse, Progeny was constantly and consistently tormented by twelve hoodlums.   These hoodlums were looked down at as freaks, as they've powers no other Realm Walker possessed.  To make matters worse, they had a leader that was shrouded in mystery.  A leader of these Twelve. . . .
 

***

Progeny was sitting alone, thinking about his situation.  When his parents died, he was homeless.  He had no living grandparents.  No aunts or uncles or cousins on either side.  He had no one.  No one at all.  He was just another lifeless dreg in life . . . with a secret.  He wondered if . . . if they were killed . . . killed because of his . . .
 
"Oh, if it isn't Progeny of the Twin Suicides," said a snide, squeaky voice, using the full nomenclature of which he so despised, "sitting on a rock, all alone."
 
"Go away, Reanimator," he said to the rat-form Realm Walker before him.  Reanimator, like the rest of the Twelve, were 14 (140 in Dweller Earth years) and had to power to bring lifeless effigies to life, as such, he always "wore" an automaton-like bodysuit.  It looked similar to the Ride Armors Vile would use in the Mega Man X universe.  When it would exist.
 
"And what will you do if I don't, little baby boy?" he taunted.
 
Before he could master his anger, a sudden crack appeared in Reanimator's effigy.  It was such a structural blow, that the metallic mass crumbled into dirt clods.  Before Reanimator could gather his wits, Progeny had fled away, unable to believe he lost control of his emotions again. . . .
 

***

But it wasn't to be his day this day, as when he discovered a spot to be alone to assess what he done, his thoughts were interrupted yet again.
 
"Oy, twerp!"
 
It was Oxhorn, an ox-form Realm Walker, quite a deal bigger than Prodigy.  At least he didn't call him "Progeny of the Twin Suicides" -- although, that could be because he wasn't too big on brains, regardless of being far stronger physically than any Realm Walker before.  In any case, he wouldn't make for scintillating conversation.
 
"I was calling for you, twerp!" he roared.  Great, he was angry.  "You better listen to me, twerp!"
 
Prodigy started to suspect "twerp" was his favorite word.
 
"Twerp!  Get over here, you twerp!!"
 
He never wasted a moment to say it, it would seem.
 
"I'd . . . rather not." he replied to the ox.
 
"Twerp!  I didn't ask you if you wanted to.  I told you to come here, twerp!"
 
"I don't think so, Oxhorn," Prodigy rebutted.

"I didn't give you permission to think!" Oxhorn roared, and then charged, head down, horns outward.  Now, Realm Walkers are very durable, and very powerful, unable to be killed by conventional means by other beings.  But a Realm Walker can kill another of their kind.  So, Prodigy seemed to have been in danger, but he easily somersaulted over Oxhorn, who got his horns stuck in the wall behind Prodigy.

Prodigy ran before Oxhorn could even realize that he had gone.  He made a mental note to be exceedingly careful with what he said or did from now on around any of the Twelve.
 

***

Prodigy was a good distance away, when he noticed Karma, reading a rather thick book.  He didn't even look up.  Of all the twelve, Karma, a tiger-form Realm Walker, was the most reluctant of their hoodlum activities.  But he wasn't about to stand up to his "friends", so he continued to pretend to read until Prodigy left.  Then he wondered if he was doing the right thing, as all tiger Realm Walkers seemed to have a tendacy to second-guess themselves at times.
 

***

"I think I'm safe," Prodigy gasped, looking around, ears attuned to every sound.

"That's not very nice," said a giggly voice.  "When I'm around, NOBODY'S safe!!"

"Speedy," Prodigy said, turning around and coming face-to-face with the rabbit-form Realm Walker.

"Yes, Speedy," she taunted.  Then she easily zipped to his other side.  She was as fast as a light particle it seemed, sometimes.  "And where're you headin' off to, Prodigy of the Twin Suicides?"

Prodigy scowled, knowing there was nothing he could do to outrun her, nor outsmart her.  She would torment him as all of her other eleven comrades would.  Even he didn't know who their leader was.

'What do you want?" he asked, irritation in his voice.

WHAM!  She kicked him, hard in the face.  It caused him to topple sideways.

"How dare you take such a tone with a lady?"

Speedy was the furthest thing from a lady that you could imagine.  Prodigy said nothing but stayed upon the ground.  Eventually, Speedy got bored, as Prodigy hoped she would.

"Aw, you're no fun." she said, then she sped away.  Prodigy got up and went to find a place to be alone.  He hid in the edge of the forest, and it was there that he found a place to sleep for the night, with a stinging cheek.

[Cloak]

Probably not more than two or three chapters today.  Sorry.

CHAPTER THREE:
Bullied and Bullied Again

Prodigy was rather rudely shaken from his sleep from his heavenly dreams of his parents, an Irish elk (his father) and eagle (his mother), embracing him.  He had awoken to find himself in a snake's massive coils.  Despite himself, Prodigy recognized them.
 
"How nice-sss to ssssee you again, Prodigy of the Twin Ssssuicides." he said, with the speech impediment that snake form Realm Walkers sometimes had.  Prodigy made a point of not mentioning it, as Silentslither was very sensitive about it.  That, and Silentslither's coils were making speech impossible.
 
"Wondering how I managed to ssssneak up on you?"
 
In truth, the answer was no.  Prodigy knew of Silentslither's power of invisibility, but he also knew of Silentslither's need to boast.  It was odd, he was the most boastful of all snake Realm Walkers.  Prodigy swiftly lost what Silentslither was prattling on and on and on about, but was thinking of a way to get out of this mess.  Then he shut his eyes and focused, and suddenly Silentslither released him.  He opened his eyes to see Slither's hands (all serpentine Realm Walkers have arms, rather like nagas) caressing his coils, as if they've been burnt.  Then he shimmered and vanished, although the nearby foliage gave him away.
 
Prodigy knew better than to stick around in case of Silentslither deciding to double back.
 

***

Apparently, this day wasn't meant to be any better than the day previous.
 
Prodigy was trotting with the grace that his form allowed him, only to be knocked down, rolling along the ground by a swooping creature.  Prodigy knew it wasn't an innocent move, and he knew to suspect two Realm Walkers.  He looked up and saw that it was Wargon, a dragon-form Realm Walker.  And the uglist dragon there ever was.  he was covered with metallic-looking plates and had hooked parts of his anatomy and razor-sharp straight edges, as well.  He looked as if some one mixed the Turtles' dragon forms with a Haxorous with a gorgon.
 
"Wargon," Prodigy burst out, "why can't you and your fellows just leave me alone?!  Or find someone else to pick on?!"

"Keep whining, Prodigy of the Twin Suicides," Wargon sneered.  "Make this all the more fun!"

Then Wargon dived down, breathing a stream of concussive fire, making a beeline straight at Prodigy.  Prodigy feelt a rush of power from somewhere and stomped his foot.  Then he vanished into the earth, leaving a rather confused Wargon soaring the skies on his massive wings.  It was hard to imagine the guy was just fourteen (140 in Dweller Earth years).
 

***

Prodigy emerged in a less vulnerable spot, but then ducked behind a tree and a bush when he saw Immortal, an equine Realm Walker, galloping and rushing by.  She called herself that because of her near-instantaneous healing abilities, not because she's actually immortal.  No Realm Walker is.  She stopped just short of where Prodigy hid.  She whinnied, a curseword, and then said, "I must have just missed the pathetic Prodigy of the Twin Suicides."

Then she galloped away. Prodigy found himself thinking that he would really like to know why they were so intent on picking on him.  It wasn't like he was really remarkable in that aspect.  Prodigy decided to stay in this spot for a moment longer.

***

But, after five hours time, it was apparently too long, as he was discovered by a ram-form Realm Walker by the name of Ghost.  He called himself that because he could go to an insubstantial state and back at will.

"Well, lookee what we've got here," said Ghost, with his voice rather like Jim Dale's interpretation of Peeves.  "Bitty baby boy."

"I'm just two years younger than you," Prodigy said, nettled, caution thrown to the winds.

"I doubt that, boy, I seriously do!"

"I've enough of this," Prodigy said, swinging some metal item through Ghost which forced him back into his substantial state in a most painful way.  Then Prodigy high-tailed it out of there, but his thoughts kept coming back to one thing.  Why were they so insistant on making their lives even worse than what it already was?

[Gaz]

Great chapters! Can't wait to see what happens. 

[Underseen]

I like this so far. The First Elements master is actually pretty cool.

[Cloak]

Thanks.

Now, let's see the amount of chapters I can dole out today . . .

CHAPTER FOUR:
Harassment Hell

Prodigy ran, stopping only to rest.  Of course, this wasn't without its occasional dangers.
 
"You are a disappointment . . ." said a voice that Prodigy recognized.  But he daren't believe it.  His father had evaporated, as all Realm Walkers do upon death, leaving behind their clothing.  "You are no son of mine . . ."
 
Then Prodigy saw him, but he wasn't the glowy, ethereal effect of a ghost.  He looked more like a zombie, a reanimated corpse.  Prodigy knew immediately it wasn't him -- Realm Walkers don't leave corpses.
 
"That's NOT funny, Imitator!" Prodigy snarled.  His eyes pulsed with power, unbeknowst to the impostor, which is always a danger sign, as it is with his decendant.  The "corpse" shapeshifted back into his base form -- a monkey.  Like all monkey Realm Walkers, Imitator was a cheeky, impetuous character.
 
"I disagree, Prodigy of the Twin Suicides." Imitator said with a chittering laugh.
 
With a roar of rage he was unaccustomed to, Prodigy channeled a powerful concussive force of air that blew the simian head over heels for miles.  But it wasn't a controlled blast, but one wrought out of painful emotion.  And this why Prodigy was so scared over his powers, and tried his best not to utilize them at all.
 
And he wondered if his powers may have accidentally killed his parents . . . he was doubting himself and his resolve about that venue.  He began to travel away from the city in which he had hatched.
 

***

"There you are!!" cried a cawing voice.
 
"Oh no.  Not this thing again." Prodigy moaned, as he dived down to avoid being crashed into by a flying rooster Realm Walker, by the name of Galloflight.  The fact that he's a fowl may lead some to think that he was cowardly, but that was only true of hen Realm Walkers.  And Galloflight spent his life as a hooligan trying to prove this fact, willing to take stupidly and outrageously dangerous risks.
 
"Fight me, Prodigy of the Twin Suicides!!" Galloflight called.
 
Prodigy rolled to the other side of the road, calling, "And if I don't want to fight?"
 
"Too bad!  You haven't a choice!" he cawed back, taking another pot-shot dive at Prodigy.
 
"Enough of this," Prodigy said, as he blasted another blast of air powerful enough to knock Galloflight out of the air.  Then Prodigy ran away as fast as his cloven hooves could take him, whilst his hands balled into fists as he wondered why they just couldn't leave him be.  Why was he such a target to bullies like the Terrible Twelve?
 

***

Prodigy thought he had reached a safe spot.  Then he heard the baying.  The neverending baying.  He knew right off who it was -- Ageless, the unimaginative nomenclature of the bloodhound-form Realm Walker of the Terrible Twelve.  Prodigy knew that even the other eleven found Ageless rather irksome, because he never shut up and always had to have the last word.  Nobody knew why he took the name of Ageless, either, as he was still a juvenile and aged just the same as any of them.

Prodigy ducked down, managed to change the winds so that he was upstream of Ageless, so that Ageless wouldn't get his scent, if he hadn't already.  While Ageless was smarter than Oxhorn, it wasn't by much.  Ageless was also far more obnoxious than Galloflight and Imitator.

Prodigy did manage to trick the bloodhound Realm Walker, and managed to skirt by him without him being any the wiser.

***

ZZZZZAP!!

Suddenly, Prodigy had to jump and somersault out of the way of two laser blasts.  Prodigy moaned quietly to himself, as he recognized the blast.  It was Gazer, the boar-form Realm Walker.  He was the only Realm Walker thus born able to channel his energy from his eyes as a powerful laser blast, managing to give the actual beams themselves a somewhat flat look.

Being a boar-form Realm Walker, he was rather slovenly and dirty.  He didn't bathe regularly, unless you counted mud, and most people do not.  Prodigy dodged six more pot shots at him.

"Well, well, then, Prodigy of the Twin Suicides," he said, sounding rather like Bebop from the '80s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, "I found youse."

"So you did," Prodigy admitted, "and what will you do now that you've found me?"

This seemed to stump him a little -- apparently he didn't just sound like Bebop but had his brainpower as well.  "Uh . . ."

"Looks like you'd have to let me go, then." Prodigy attempted.

Gazer looked very angry at that suggestion.  "You think I'm stupid?  Do you?"

Okay, he was slightly more intelligent than Prodigy gave him credit for.

"'Kay, then what do you want with me?"

"That's classified," he retorted with a piggy snort.

"Oh," Prodigy said.  "'Bye, then."

"What?"

But Prodigy had vanished through the earth, sealing up his exit hole, leaving Gazer thoroughly perplexed.

[Cloak]

Hasn't anyone noticed anything about the Twelve's names yet?  A callback from a previous book?  Maybe bit of a short chapter.

CHAPTER FIVE:
The Last Straw

Whilst Prodigy ran and discovered a reasonably safe place to be for the moment, the Terrible Twelve regrouped at the table of their boss -- which remained in so much shadow it was difficult to even determine what form he was.

"Boys," the boss said with such a resounding tone, it nevertheless conveyed his displeasure, "report."

Eleven of the Twelve babbled rather incoherently, while Karma consented to remain quiet.  This was dismissed by the boss, who acted fatherly outwardly, but, at heart, was nothing more than a crime syndicate kingpin wannabe.  So he "took in" these twelve orphans and manipulated them.  Twisted their hearts, tainted their souls, and forced them to call him, "Boss".

"Enough." he said with enough force that everyone else assembled flinched.  "What of the prodigy of the two rebels?  The two with the audacity to oppose me?"

Silence.

"Answer the question," he snarled.

"He lives," Karma ventured rather bravely.

The Boss wasn't happy with this, "And WHY does he survive?"

"He's tricky!" Oxhorn protested.

"Oh, shut your yap, you pathetic fool!" the Boss snapped.  "I took care of his parents and made the authorities think it was a suicide -- it's amazing what some people will look the other way on if you pay them enough -- and I practically gift-wrapped their brat, and you couldn't even take care of him."

"We could have," Imitator said, "if we didn't have to take him on one-by-one!"

The Boss leaned forward, revealing himself to be a great white shark-form Realm Walker, and a rather fat one at that.  "And who, in the name of -- " no English translation available -- "told you to take him on one-by-one?"

"You!" Karma burst out.

"Don't lie to me," Boss said cruelly, as it wasn't a lie, but perfectly true, but he wasn't about to acknowledge his fault in failures.  He rose from his chair.  "You go and take him down together."

There was no movement but abject silence.

"WHAT ARE YOU BRATS WAITING FOR?!  GO!!!!" he roared and all twelve took off.

***

Prodigy managed to rest on his little spot, feeling actually secure.  He should have known it wouldn't have lasted for long.

"There he is!" Karma said, hating himself for saying it.  But it was him or Prodigy . . . which made him exceptionally different from a future tiger Realm Walker who would willingly give himself to protect another.

Prodigy turned to run, before realize he couldn't -- the only other escape was the forest, on the other side of the Terrible Twelve.  There was no way to run, no way to escape.  He didn't even think of tunneling beneath them.

Then they launched their simoutaneous attack . . .

[Underseen]

When it came to imitator I realized that the twelve are the same twelve Abomination absorbed... I feel good for guessing that.

[Cloak]

Yes, and you'll discover just how he did that, I think, Underseen.

Hmm . . . looks like it'll be more than seventy generations . . . more like seven million . . . as there are no realms in Avatar's time . . . he is known here as Prodigy, of course.  Eh, let's forgot about the maths of it.

Now, I probably will only be able to post one or two chapters today.  Although, this chapter'll probably be a bit on the short side.

CHAPTER SIX:
Fear Thyself

When the Terrible Thirteen's strike came, something deep within Prodigy snapped.  His eyes flared and white and silver energy leaked out of the outside corners of his eyes, trailing behind him, rather like Sylveon's ribbons.  He absorbed the energy and redirected it back at the thirteen who quickly scattered, but remained present, as threats.

Suddenly, the ground trembled as the air around Prodigy swirled into an wind dome, a ring of conjured fire and water appeared in thin rings around this dome of air.  Fragments of stone and wood, as well as shards of stray metal began to rise and orbit this dome, which quickly became an air sphere as Prodigy rose into the sky.

It was a frightening and intimidating sight -- as several RAFians can atest when witnessing Prodigy's descendant did the same.  When he lost control of his emotions, of himself, of his powers.

Prodigy began to rather mindlessly attack the thirteen, together or separately, it made no never mind to him.  And when they fled, he gave chase for a few minutes, before exercising control over himself and his emotions once more.  This state didn't only scare the thirteen away, but it scared -- terrorified, really -- Prodigy himself.

He fled into the forest, not paying attention to where he was going, not caring where he was headed.  He just wanted to run away, run away from the monster within him.  But no matter how hard you run, no matter how hard you push it away, you can never run away from yourself.  No matter how much he desired it to be so.

Prodigy collapsed to his knees near a bubbling body of water somewhere between a stream and a river.  It was there that he cried.  He sobbed almost hysterically.  Why was he burdened with this monster within him?  Why him?  Why?

His sobs carried so much, that even he did not notice the sound of approaching footsteps, stepping delicately and cautiously.

[Cloak]

*To the tune of "A Quake, A Quake".*
A chapter, a chapter . . .

CHAPTER SEVEN:
Benign Kindness

"There, there," came a voice, one as sweet as the scent of a rose, as gentle as the caress of a breeze.  "It's alright."
 
"No, it isn't," Prodigy protested tearfully, "you better get away.  I'm a monster."
 
"A monster?" the voice said, this time with a gentle touch upon his cheek.  He turned to look at her, she was a beautiful nymph-form Realm Walker.  "I don't see a monster.  I see a good soul.  A good soul with a powerful gift."
 
"Gift?!" Prodigy said, emotions flaring up.  He realized what was happening and swiftly suppressed his anger.  "This is a curse.  It makes me a monster. . . . I suspect it . . . that this monster . . . killed my parents."
 
"How so?" the nymph Realm Walker said, calmly and still with that powerfully sweet voice and tone.
 
"I --" Prodigy said . . . but he couldn't finish.  When he was last with his parents, he wasn't angry or upset or anything like that.  They were joking and laughing.  He sighed, and, though he did not know where the music came from, he sang:

"Why do all the Dwellers flee every time they look at me?
I just don't fit in.  I only make the Walkers cringe.
I'm so confused, sad and blue.
What's a Realm Walker to do?"

Then the nymph-form Realm Walker, Benign, stood and sang in a wonderfully beautiful way:

"You've got to sing a new song."

Prodigy stood there, pawing the sand with one hoof, with his arms folded tightly against his chest, and said, "I don't know. . . ."
 
Benign persisted in her message and tune:

"It's time to change that old depressed tune,
It's time to get a move on."

"I suppose," Prodigy said, holding his arms less tightly against his chest.

"Pick yourself up, brush up your fur,
Get that old, tired mantra moving along.
Sing a new song!
So, get on outta your funk and get into the swim
There are so many worlds waiting for you to jump in
Just say good-bye to the dark and gloomy
And go where its bright and roomy
And try your song on someone new
And see what you can really do!
You've got to sing a new song!"

Prodigy stifled an amused smile.

"It's time to change that old depressed tune.
You've gotta get a change on!"

Prodigy was no longer able to suppress his amusement completely.  He smiled slightly.

"Pick yourself up, brush up your fur
Get that old, tired wave of thought moving along!
Sing a new song!"

Then the song ended, and Benign smiled brightly at Prodigy.  He, rather staggeringly, smiled back at her.  She took his hands in hers and said,  "You're not alone, friend.  I am known as Benign, and my friends and I will be pleased to take you in."
 
She searched his eyes briefly, none of her beauty within and without blemished in the least, and replied, "If you'll allow us."
 
Prodigy was wondering if this was just another trap, it was an elaborate one, if it was. In the end, he acquiesced, and followed her.

[Cloak]

Probably the last chapter today, but don't hold me to that.

CHAPTER EIGHT:
Bonds and Bands

Prodigy met Benign's friends, a little shocked to discover that they were all peers, in terms of age, to the Terrible Twelve.  But they were like Prodigy -- only they only had mastery over a single element, while Benign had mastery over Wood and Metal elements.  The mastery over the Metal element was rather paradoxical in a way, and rather contradictory in another, due to her nymph form.
 
The Water masters were the scorpion-form Scorpio, the fish-form Pisces, and the crab-form Cancer.  The Earth masters were the bull-form Taurus, the rare human-form Virgo, and the goat-form Capricorn.  The Fire masters were the ram-form Aries, the lion-form Leo, and the even more rare centaur-form Sagittarius.  The Air masters were the rare human-form Gemini, the jackal-form Libra, and the Orishan-form Aquarius.
 
They were all genial and welcoming to Prodigy, which surprised and shocked him.  He wasn't used to people being so pleasant around him, other than his parents.  And the other thirteen Realm Walkers seemed to sense this about him.
 
"Don't be so stiff," Aquarius said, jokingly, "none of us will bite!"
 
"Oh, Leo might," Scorpio pointed out with feigned solemnity.
 
"Oh, please.  I bite Imitator for impersonating me, and Scorpio can never let me forget it." Leo said, leading to raucously, good-natured laughs from the entire group assembled.

"You bit Imitator?" Prodigy asked, when he had managed to pluck up the nerve.

"Yeah, although 'git', 'idiot', and" -- translation unavailable -- "would have been a more accurate name for him."

Prodigy then found himself relating everything that had happened to him to the others.  They didn't seem too pleased with the other twelve.

"Well," Virgo, who was wearing a chiton of gold and royal purple, said, "they deserved what they got, and I think we'd better call you something different from 'Prodigy', as it is clear that was intended to be a hurtful epithet."

"Wait, can you do that?"

"Please, any one can, should it not be a means for a simple ego boost." Sagittarius said, waving his hand rather dismissively.  "And if it doesn't stick."

"Now, it is clear to me," Cancer said, stroking his chin with his crab-like clawed hand, "that the Six Elements have chosen you to be their avatar.  Just like they chose to bless us with our single elements, and Benign with her two."

Gemini, arms folded benignly over his chest and his green chiton with blue trim, looked at Prodigy, "And blessed you with all six of the elements."

"Blessed?" Prodigy said, and it was clear from his tone that he doubted it.  If he was blessed, he wouldn't be an orphan would he? . . . But then again, it would seem that he found another, slightly bigger family.  "I see it now."

"Yes," Aries said, scratching his right horn, "so I think the name of 'Avatar' would be far more suitable to you.  Any agreed?"

There were thirteen affirming answers, including Prodigy -- er, Avatar, himself.

"Now, do you have any training in your elemental gifts?" Sagittarius asked.

"No, my mom and dad didn't have this blessing." Avatar answered, feeling more like a part of a group, and no longer an outsider.

"Well, then," Tauros said, absently rubbing a horn on a tree, "then we must teach what we know."

[Underseen]

Avatar the master of all 6 elements

[Cloak]

Yep.

Now, I wonder how many chapters that I can do today.  I probably should have mentioned that the twelve (not Benign or Avatar) have rings very similar to Power Rings, only holding symbols identical to the zodiac symbols (go to Wikipedia to see what I mean).

CHAPTER NINE:
Master and Betrothed

A little more than decade passed (a century in Dweller Earth time), and Avatar had grown into a stag Realm Walker with antlers, sharp and pointed, and Master of all Six Elements.  He was now roughly twenty-two or so, and Benign began to really take an interest in him as more than his Metal and Wood element teacher.  And that interest is reciprocated.
 
He remembered when he finally recognized these feelings, while watching Benign demonstrating her mastery over the elements, making it look more like a dance, an art.  He gazed upon her fondly, his thought singing:
 

So many times out there
I've watched a happy pair
Of lovers walking in the night.
They had a kind of glow around them
It almost looked like paradise's light.

I thought I'd never know
That warm and loving glow,
Though I might wish with all my might.
No one as monstrous as I was,
Was ever meant for paradise's light.

But suddenly an angel has smiled at me.
And touched my cheek
Without a trace of fright.

I dare to dream that she
Might even care for me,
And as I ring those bells tonight,
My cold dark world seems so bright
I swear it must be paradise's light.

Avatar decided to talk to Benign that day . . . and, through a rather convoluted series of conversations, the two became an item.  When they told the other twelve, they did not react with surprise or shock, but expectation.  Expectation that this was a long time coming.
 
"It's about time!" Scorpio said, with a feigned snappish tone.
 
"Took you two long enough," Cancer said, rather crabbily.  But he always said things crabbily nowadays.
 
They all laughed and Avatar felt true happiness, of which he had never thought he would ever feel again.  That was three years (i.e. thirty Dweller Earth years) ago.  Now, he was going to take the ultimate step with Benign.
 
"Benign," he said, as he approached her.  She had her back to him, and was wearing a chiton whiter than the whitest snow.  She turned to face him, smiling warmly, and putting her long, flowing hair behind a pointed ear.
 
"Yes, Avatar?"
 
"There's . . . there's something I want to ask you."
 
"Oh?"
 
Avatar held out his hand and a bouquet of silver and white flowers materialized out of his own energy.  It looked strangely like a flower bouquet Patronus.  Benign held her hand to her chest in delighted shock -- it was the Realm Walker version of a proposal.
 
"Will you marry me?" Avatar asked.

Benign took a minute to compose herself.  "Yes.  Of course, I will."

Avatar felt such joy -- it felt as if the very elements were celebrating with him.

[Cloak]

Probably the last one today . . . but don't hold me to that.

CHAPTER TEN:
Darkness Rising

Meanwhile, while Avatar was mastering the elements and experiencing true joy and utter contentment, the world in which he left, the city which had abandoned him in his time of need, was in dire straits.  It had gone very much downhill.  Boss and his thirteen hooligans became, for lack of a better term, terrorists.  Terrorists who embarked on a path of destruction and terror, unimpeded by the authorities (which they overpowered ruthlessly and mercilessly).  They easily intimidated the local populace and the government eventually toppled by them.

Boss was installed at the top of the chain of command with the Terrible Twelve as his enforcers.  Karma seemed to have dismissed the questioning he did as a child as childish idealism, and is willing to do as his "father" demands.  Whereas the truth of the matter is that Boss doesn't care for any of the Twelve as family, but he sees them as mere tools -- a means to an end.  A fact that all twelve seem pitifully unaware of.

Boss wasn't above making all the populace know that he was in charge, unaware it kind of ruined his mystique:

"Welcome to my place.
Welcome to my land.
Welcome to the empire,
That only I command!
Bossopolis,
My metropolis.
My favorite place to be.
Bossopolis,
My metropolis.
Where it’s all for one,
And that one is me!
From Boss Boulevard
To Boss Avenue.
All landmarks,
Roads and parks
Are named after me, not you.
You know, before I came around,
This was just a pathetic little town.
But now it’s
Bossopolis,
My metropolis.
The rrregion that I rule.
Bossopolis,
My metropolis.
Now welcome to my school.
Bossopolis,
My metropolis.
A wondrous place to be!"

Then he clapped and, in a militarial cadence tone, his enforcers sang:

"It’s glorious.
Implorious.
We all laugh uproarious.
‘Cause life is so euphorious."

Then Boss tapped his chin and sang:

"And here is what you’ll see:
“Bossy Beach”, starring me.
My name in lights at the Boss scene.
Boss books and magazines.
Boss shirts.  Boss jeans.
Boss chocolate.  Boss mints.
Boss shampoo and rinse!
Hear me chat on the radio, eh!
Bossopolis,
My metropolis.
My royal blue legacy.
There’s no stop-olis!!"

Then a young, fish-form Realm Walker piped up, in a little kid-voice, "That's not a word!"

Boss replied in song:

"It is to me!"

Then he snapped the child's neck, causing him to evaporate into nothingness, as Realm Walkers do when they die.  Boss didn't bat an eye and continued with his song:

"Some have tried
To run and hide.
But they just can’t get free.
‘Cause when I’m dead,
You’ll bow your head.
To an effigy of me!
Welcome to my place.
Welcome to my land.
Welcome to the empire
That only I can command!
Bossopolis."

Then he just cackled as he made his way back to his citadel "palace" as the boy's family mourned their lost little one. . . .