Memoirs of a RAFian

[Underseen]

Successfully adding one of my favorite pieces of marvel lore into your story is a success. I am a big fan of comics (can't you tell by my previous avatars? ) and would try my best to not correct you if you change something about the soul gems to better fit Memoirs.

I an guessing that Cloak will be searching for the six stone for at least half of the book, but it is a loose guess on my part.

[Cloak]

Very astute, Underseen.

As a teenager, I was very into comics, myself.  More Marvel than DC (yes, I'm a Wolverine fan, and Shadow absolutely adored Spider-Man).  And I admit I do scour the storylines for ideas.

Granted, most of my knowledge of them come from that SNES game and Wikipedia.

EDIT:

• 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 3XXX.  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.

• Book CXLI: Buggy Afternoon

A Bug is after Parker's blood, to "avenge" their brother slain by the SPARTAN.

• Book CXLII: Cloak's Nightmare

Cloak has an exceedingly vivid nightmare of the Great RAFian Purge. . . .

• Book CXLIII: Cloak and the Olympians

Cloak confronts and defies the Olympians.

• Book CXLIV: Down to Earth

The RAFians have gravity-related problems.

• Book CXLV: Hittin' the Dino-Sauce

The RAFians learn the dangers of Dino-Sauce.

• Book CXLVI: Blood Feud

Shanker's past comes into light. . . .

• Book CXLVII: She's Back! A Dino Story

Pretty much a shameless parody of "We're Back! A Dinosaur Story".

• Book CXLVIII: A Journey into Her Past

Delving into Noelle's pre-RAFian life and her relationship with Ardnalil-Shicom-Maar.

• *Book CXLIX: Mortality and Morality

The RAFians face some rather conceited Leviathons.

[Cloak]

First (and perhaps final) chapter today.  It may be a bit on the long side.  Okay, a lot on the long side.

CHAPTER FIVE:
The Sinister Six

A thick silhouette, on board a dark ship, approaches the Earth.  This person was an unknown, but he wasn't Realm Walker, that was for sure, as he wasn't wearing a cloak, but a suit of armor of blue and gold.  He held his hands behind his back, and it was obvious that he was wearing a golden gauntlet on one hand. . . .
 

***

In Kenya, the green Gem was discovered by a haughty, tyrannical, and thoroughly unpleasant woman.  She picked it up, took it home, and found that she could make anything that she wanted happen, even if it directly contradicted the scientific laws of existence.  Things that would have caused Aquilai to have an aneurysm due to the IMPOSSIBLE things that she made happen.
 
This woman took on the name of Desiree, and made herself queen of all of Kenya, before she thought that she was thinking small, and desired the world.  The Reality Gem made this so, save for the changes provided by the other Infinity Gems.
 
Aquilai, Aila, and Yarin arrived in Kenya at the impact site, to discover that it had vanished, as if it were never there.  The three were shocked.
 
"It was here!" Yarin exclaimed.  "I assure you that it was!!"
 
"We believe you, Yarin," Aila said gently to the agitated Nyac.  "But how can this be?"
 
"It's impossible," Aquilai said, thoroughly disconcerted.  "Nothing can just erase things like that.  Even a terrakinetic would leave signs of coverup. . . ."
 
"Perhaps . . . perhaps the Gem's power is --"
 
"Who are you?" said a voice, haughty and condescending.  "What are you doing here?"
 
The three turned to see Desiree, flanked by an army of fifteen heavily muscled men, fist clenched over something green.  The three RAFians noticed this. . . .
 

***

The purple Gem was found and pulled out of the fire by a narcissistic, selfish New Yorker woman.  This fiery-haired woman had no compassion, no love, for anyone else, and valued her image above all others.  She was also frugal to a fault.  She discovered when she held the Space Game that she could travel everywhere and anywhere that she wanted.  She could even have omnipresence.  She loved this mostly because now she had no need of public transportation or expensive cars.  She was also a con who managed to escape prison.
 
She was caught again, and put back into the clink, although, she just instantaneously teleported out as the cops did not have time to search her before she activated her stone to escape.  She then takes the unimaginative name of "Everywhere Woman".
 
Cerulean, Blue, and Demos arrive at the location to see that the Gem has gone.  Cerulean did a rather swift check around the immediate 200 yard area, being swift even by his standards.  Still he found nothing.
 
"Well, it couldn't have gotten up and walked off." Cerulean said.
 
"Couldn't it?" Demos posited.  "We don't know its powers.  It could have very well been --"
 
"Picked up and taken by someone in the area." Blue interrupted.
 
"That too." Demos amended.
 
"You're those RAFians that Gallows guy talks about, right?" said Everywhere Woman, who appeared directly behind them, still clutching the purple Gem, the Space Gem.
 
Demos narrowed his eyes belligerently.  "Who wants to know?"
 

***

The orange Infinity Gem landed in the most bitterly cold part of Siberia, the heat of reentry melting the snow around the impact site, which promptly refroze.  But a man, a man as bitter as the cold was, discovered the Time Gem.  He pulled it out of its impact crater and found that the whole time continuum opened before him.  He had been granted powerful chronokinesis, the ability to accelerate and reverse aging, and could create time loops (which he wasn't really interested in doing the latter, being a rather combative bully rather than a cunning, strategic man)*.  He was sentenced to Siberia for being a little too quick to fight, especially if they were smaller than him.  He took the name "Time Maestro" -- intending for it to mean "master" instead of "teacher", as he was an exceptionally poor teacher, and because that he thought it sounded impressive.  If Aquilai or Aila heard it, they probably would have had a conniption fit.
 
Time Maestro smirked as he planned to reduce the people who sentenced him to dust by accelerating their aging.  He froze time as he travelled to the place . . .
 
Sakki, Faerie, and Gaz travel to the impact site, unaware that it had already gone.  They were dismayed to see that it had gone.
 
"Could it have shattered on impact?" Gaz wondered idly.
 
"With those power readings?  Hardly," Sakki countered.
 
"Yeah, I suppose that it shattering was far too much to hope for." Gaz agreed.
 
"Let's just find the stupid thing and get out of this cold." Faerie said, as a device on her belt beeped.  "Reading some chronal distortion."
 
"Where?" Sakki asked.
 
"It starts at the impact site, and heads that way," Faerie said, pointing.  Then she lowered the sensor, and replied, "Well, I guess someone decided to take it."
 
"And use it, by the looks of it." Gaz muttered.
 

***

The blue Gem landed in a Chinese field, in a very out of the way place.  It was found by a dictatorial, abusive man who stooped over and held it discovering that it increased his mental faculties and latent psychic abilities to their absolute zenith.  Having them ripped open so quickly seemed to cause his sanity to tear a little, and seemed to also increase his innate megalomania to disturbing levels.
 
He decided to call himself "Overmind", supposedly a portmanteau of "overlord" and "mind".  One would thing that with a significantly increased I/Q he'd come up with a far more creative nomenclature.  But intelligence doesn't always necessarily go hand-in-hand with creativity.  He used the Gem to subjugate his neighbors and family, and bend their minds to his will.  So what if they end up a little insane?  What did he care?
 
Goom, Guy, and Parker arrive at the impact site, and Parker scanned it.
 
"Nothing.  Whatever was here is long gone." he reported.
 
"Clearly someone found it, found what it could do, and took it with him or her." Guy postulated.
 
"I think that's astute." Goom said.  Had he hands, he'd be rubbing his chin thoughtfully -- if he had one.
 
"You dare to encroach upon my homestead?" cried a loud voice in English.  Clearly, Overmind used the RAFians minds to translate his own words from Chinese into English.
 
"Well," Guy said, affably, "that was lucky."
 

***

In the Brazilian jungle, a rather rebellious, arrogant boy stoops down to discover the green Gem.  It called out to him -- something that the other Gems did not do.  It was sentient, but really borderline sentience.  It hungered for souls, and only a strong soul could control the Gem, while a weak one would be manipulated by it, and eventually consumed by it.**
 
This boy took it, and ate up the Gems appeals of power to the boy, who declared himself "Soul Controller", a rather unimaginative name.  Then he went and used the Gems against his enemies and all those that defied him.  One had to wonder who was really in control here. . . .
 
Oceanspray, Rocklobster and Horse arrived in the thick forest, and only Horse seemed to really have a problem with this, because, after all, she was a seal.
 
"Why couldn't they send me to Siberia instead of Guy?" she complained.  "It's far too HOT here, too MUGGY!!"
 
"And complaining about it will change what, exactly?" Oceanspray asked, lifting up a log to get a better view of the impact area.
 
"Already found and taken, I'd wager," Rocklobster noted.
 
"Great.  Perfect." Horse said, sullenly.  "God, it's like being back in the Pootang's digestive system."
 
The other two stared at her.
 
"What?  Leaving by its mouth isn't always an option."
 
Suddenly, they heard a voice cried out, low and menacing, "Hungry . . ."
 

***

In Britain countryside, a woman with a rather unpleasant, ugly disposition discovered a rather curious hole in the side of a garden.  She fishes out the red Infinity Gem, and claps it tightly.  She feels invincible (because she kind of is) and found that she had access to just as many powers had Syphoon had, only she didn't have to absorb them.  But this isn't an innocent woman -- she had been shamelessly involved in numerous scandals, and seemed to thrive on the attention.  With this Gem, she declares her name to be "Unbreakable".  Then she dons a rather convenient "superhero" costume, although she makes it clear that she has no intention of being a superhero.

Phoenix, Ash and Blocky arrive at the impact site, and are disappointed that the Gem is not there.

"We're too late," Blocky said.

"I suppose touring London is out of the question now," Ash said.

"Perhaps later," Phoenix said, "we've got to find out who had absconded with the Gem."

"Um, Phoenix?" Blocky asked, pointing with a claw, "could that be it?"

The other two looked up and saw what was clearly a woman in an ill-fitting spandex suit flying toward the nearest populated area.

"Oh, lovely," Phoenix said with bitter sarcasm.

***

Meanwhile, the mysterious man approached the Earth even closer now, his ship's shadow upon Mars's moon of Phobos. His intention was clear, and what he sought was obvious. . . .
 
---
*Please don't think I'm generalizing the entire country based on one man.
 
**Probably taking a particular liberty here. . . .

[Underseen]

I get the chapter titles reference. I enjoyed this chapter.

[Cloak]

Good, Underseen, because it'll have to tide you over 'til Monday.

[Underseen]

Ugh... I'll just continuously read this chapter and other books until Monday.

[Cloak]

*Wonders if he has the longest fic here. . . .*

The answer may be obvious and I'm just oblivious. . . .

And I just remembered how similiar "obvious" and "oblivious" are, in appearance.

Okay, enough stalling -- new chapter.

CHAPTER SIX:
Fantasy Reality Meets Real Reality

"Did I not make myself clear, you worthless nothings?" the woman clenching the Reality Gem demanded rather haughtily.

"Uh," Aquilai said, rather uncertain what was the proper thing to say and how to say it, "may we ask who you are?"

However, this had the opposite effect of Aquilai's intention. Desiree was horribly offended by this.

"YOU DARE TO FEIGN IGNORANCE?!" she erupted.  "YOU DARE TO CLAIM YOU DON'T KNOW YOUR LADY AND MISTRESS?!  Lady Desiree takes great offense at this lack of common courtesy!"

"I think that stone has affected her sanity." Yarin whispered to the other two.

"I doubt it," Aila put in, "this is ego, not sanity or insanity."

"One is not exclusive, or inclusive, of the other," Aquilai added. "The fact remains that she cannot remain in the possession of --"

"Stop all your muttering!" she demanded loudly.  Suddenly the three we without mouths.

<Oh, you'll have to do better than that, you hopped-up tyrannical despot.> Yarin said, telepathically.

Then their Marks grew hot, and the effects of the Reality Gem vanished.

"This is not possible," Desiree said, momentary flabberghasted.  This caused her Gem-manifested machinations to faulter and her grip on the Gem to slacken ever so slightly.

This proved that the powers of the Gems were not as absolute as previously believed.

Suddenly, a mammoth silhouette appeared behind Desiree, who regained her grip upon the Gem.

"Who are you?!  WHO ARE YOU?!" she demanded, although there was a tinge of fear to it now.  This shadowy figure was a lot more intimidating in his size and silence than the three RAFians.  "YOU WILL ANSWER!!!"

"I am Thanos," he said, easily plucking the Gem from her sweaty palm.  "And you disgust me."

He fitted the Gem in to a golden Gauntlet, then he looked scornfully at the woman.  Yarin seemed to sense what Thanos's intent was, but it was too late before he could protest.

There was a flash of the most perverse shade of yellow, and Desiree was simply gone.

Gone, as if simply removed from existance.  Thanos did not even bat an eye at this.  The three RAFians were speechless and frozen in abject shock at the sheer callousness of this act.

Then Thanos surveyed the RAFians, stating after a tense, pregnant pause, "You're nit worth my time.  Tell your kin, though . . . tell them not to cross me or get in my way."

Then he was gone.  The RAFians were still in shock.

[Cloak]

Second chapter.
 

CHAPTER SEVEN:
Everywhere and Nowhere

"Everywhere Woman does, insect!" she bellowed.
 
"'Insect'?" Blue said, eyebrows raised.  "How incredibly cliche."
 
"What?"
 
"Clearly not classically educated," Cerulean said, with mockingly exaggerated foppish manner.
 
"Don't you dare condescend to me!!" she cried.  "I am everywhere!"
 
"And, yet, you're nowhere." Demos said, dismissively.
 
The trio had quite accidentally stumbled upon the best way to deal with this woman.  She was too proud, too arrogant.  She took possession of achievements she had no business taking for her own.  All in all, Everywhere Woman was a very insecure woman, which could be one reason why she elated and delighted in her ability to be everywhere at once.
 
Even to the point where a man (who used to date her, but she thought he was cheating on her when he wasn't, which led him to dumping her -- which she refused to acknowledge) was afraid of her and fearful for his very life.
 
However, then she came upon this RAFian trio, and she lost momentary interest in her surveillance over this poor man, caged within his own house, although that does not seem to stop the power of the Space Gem, but what else can he do.  The Gem has allowed her to continue to victimize him.
 
The trio could easily sense that she was such a woman, and while Demos didn't really care, being a demon.  Perhaps pushing her buttons was not the most wise thing to do in such a situation, but it seemed like prudent thing to do at the time.
 
What Demos said however perplexed the woman, who did not understand Demos's meaning, though she tried for several minutes.  Which, apparently, was the point as Cerulean attempted to wrest the Gem from the woman's hand before a single one of her synapses could fire off.  But she gripped the Gem like a madwoman (which she was).
 
"Oh, I see," she said.  "It wasn't anything more than a distraction to get this stone from me!!  Well, too bad, losers.  It's mind -- er, mine, and I'll never let it go."
 
"Oh, I don't know about that." said a dark voice.
 
"What?  Who are you?" she demanded.  Then she allowed her avarice to over take her, greed so strong it's surprising an orange power ring wasn't making its way towards her at that very moment.  "You can't have it!!  It's mine!!  I need it.  I need to make sure he doesn't cheat on me again!"
 
"I'm sensing some major insecurities here," Demos noted.
 
"Demos, we can't let that other guy have the Gem, either!" Blue pointed out.
 
"He already has one," Cerulean noticed.  "Yellow."
 
"That must be the Gem that Aila, Aquilai, and Yarin failed to procure," Blue said, referencing the report they recieved from the team prior.  "We can't let him get this one, it would make it far too easy for him to --"
 
But it was too late, though she struggled to get away, Thanos retained his grip on her wrist and easily wrested it from her hands.  Then he placed it upon his Gauntlet, an evil light lit up his face, as he delighted in the fact that he was a third of the way done.  Then he crushed the former Everywhere Woman's wrist and hand, then he, in one blow, killed the rather frail and scorned woman.  Her body was dispersed on the wind.
 
"No!!" the trio cried.
 
Thanos looked at them, dismissed them as inconsequential, and said, "Enjoy the rest of your lives -- it won't be very long now."

Then he was gone, this time using the Space Gem's power to relocate, as so he could discover the locations of the others.  Cerulean immediately reported this to the others and the mods.

[Cloak]

Third chapter.
 

CHAPTER EIGHT:
Time and Time Again

"What does it say?" Gaz asked.
 
"Can't you hear?  It says 'beep beep beep'!" Sakki interjected.  Gaz gave her a moderately scathing look, then returned her gaze to Faerie, who replied, "It says we're getting close."
 
"Hold up," Gaz said, activating her communicator which projected the holographic body of Aquilai.  "What's up, Aquilai?  You find your Gem yet?"
 
"Yes," Aquilai said, "and no.  There was this massive being who took it from the woman who initially had it."
 
The three let out sympathetic groans.
 
"Then killed her."
 
"What?" Faerie blinked.
 
"You heard me."
 
"So this person has one gem.  So what?" Sakki said, mustering up enough bravado.
 
"No, he has two." Aquilai said.  "Demos, Cerulean, and Blue just reported in.  He also killed the woman wielding that Gem."
 
"Why kill them and spare the RAFians?" Gaz asked.
 
"That," Aquilai said, holding up a finger, "is a question that we haven't an answer for."
 
"That doesn't make sense, though . . ." Gaz insisted.
 
"A lot of things don't," Sakki pointed out, then shrugged.  "Don't fret about it too much."
 
"The fact of the matter is that the second Gem he took, what's tentatively being called the Space Gem," Aquilai continued, "allows for omnipresence and instantaneous teleportation."
 
"Please don't say that means what I think it means," Faerie groaned audibly.
 
"I'm afraid it does," Aquilai said, head bowed and arms crossed.  "So, be on the look out whenever you find the Gem.  Thanos will surely be after it as well.  Aquilai, out."
 
Then Aquilai's holographic form vanished and Gaz pocketed the device, saying, "Well . . . that's just peachy."
 
"Aw, I was gonna say that," Faerie replied.
 

***

It took sometime later, but they finally discovered Time Maestro, who was, naturally, misusing his newfound powers.  Time Maestro had found a victim -- a government official who had absolutely nothing to do with his sentence to Siberia.  But he didn't seem to want to recognize this fact.  He was having a blast aging this man into dust and back into infanthood -- only to do it again.  And again.  And again.
 
"That," Faerie said, her eyes so narrowed they looked nearly shut, "is really sick."

"I'd say." Sakki replied.

Gaz said nothing but wore a look of deepest revulsion.

The three stood there, motionless for a moment or two, as if the Time Maestro had frozen them in time.  It took a few minutes to realize, that's exactly what he did.  Their Marks allowed them to be aware of this passage of time even though time was paradoxically frozen for them.

"We have to stop this," Gaz said, managing to choke out some words through her revoltion.  "This is really sick.  We can't let him just get away with it."

"Right, and we have to be quick." Sakki said, turning to the other two.  Oblivious to the shadow that enveloped Time Maestro.  "Because we never know when Thanos will . . ."

Thanos clutched Time Maestro's hand and wrested the orange Gem, the Time Gem, from Time Maestro's grip.

"He's behind me, isn't he?" Sakki said, noticing the other two's faces and turning around.

Then he fitted the Gem onto his Gauntlet, and, for good measure, reduced Time Maestro to the finest grain of dust, killing him.  The trio looked apprehensive, and Thanos raked over them with his eyes.

"Fear not," he said, with his deep, intimidating voice.  "You shall live until I make tribute to my beloved."

Then he was gone.

"Holy crap." Faerie spat.

[Cloak]

Last chapter of the day.
 

CHAPTER NINE:
Mental Assault

"Got it," Parker said, then relayed the message to Guy and Goom.  Goom was riding around on Guy's shoulders -- apparently Goom was a lot lighter than he would appear to be at first glance.
 
"So he's got three." Guy said, a little color draining from his face.  "That's half of the Gems."
 
"All the more reason to find it before this Thanos guy." Goom insisted.  "If he managed to gather all of them . . ."
 
"A dragon'll appear and grant them one wish?" Parker asked rather snidely.
 
"You know very well that these are Gems, not Dragonballs." Goom replied rather sourly.  Whether there were Dragonballs in existence in this realm still remained to be seen.  "Where to now."
 
Parker examined the readouts he was getting, listening rather impassively to Tyr's imput, before eventually declaring to go in a rather southeasternly direction.  Upon approaching close to a marvelous-looking house, the three shared a chill.
 
"Whoa, that was weird."  Parker said, rather nonplussed.  "You guys feel that?"
 
"Oh yeah." Guy said, shuttering a bit, nearly dislodging Goom.
 
"Hey, hey, hey!  Watch it!"
 
"You watch it," Guy shot back.  "I'm not the one who wanted to give you this piggyback ride."
 
"Settle, you two," Parker said warningly, "we'll need our wits about us."
 
<Too bad for you,> said a telepathic voice.  <Wits are my weapons, no matter whose side they're on.>
 
A man in ornate regional dress burst out of the door.  He possessed long black hair that seemed to be graying, and his face had a rather permanent-looking crankiness to it.  When he spoke, it was initially Chinese, until he clenched the blue Gem and then his words became translated.
 
"Why are you here?  Why do you trespass on my land?"
 
"Your . . . your land, you say?" Guy said, attempting to be diplomatic.
 
The Gem-wielder's face deepened with dislike.  "All lands are my lands, peasant."

Then there was a powerful psionic force that buffeted Guy's clothing (as Parker's armor was flappy like clothing and Goom wore none, being a goomba and all).  But the RAFians themselves did not recieve the full import of the psychic pain, as the Mark prevented some of it.
 
"Bow to me, lesser ones." he said.
 
"Ego much?" Goom muttered.

"I heard that."
 
"Yeah, I kinda wanted you to."
 
"You dare to intrude upon my homestead and hand me such disrespect?" he said, begining to telekinetically levitate some antique swords.  "I'll teach you respect!"
 
Guy and Goom had to dodge the strikes, but Parker didn't bother as his armor was more than up to protecting him from those blows.  Then the swords dropped to the floor as the man who stylized himself as Overmind, attempted to simply seize control over their bodies, attempting to brush their minds aside -- as he did with his disobedient children and wife.  When that did not work, he attempted to force their minds to do his bidding.  But that did not work either, although the RAFians were actively resisting this.

"Give it a rest, old man!" Parker said, thoroughly irritated at the attempted breaking-and-entering of his mind.  "You cannot control us, or manipulate us!!"

"So I see." he said, using a rather racist epithet.

"And so do I," said a deeper, darker, sinister, and far more intimidating voice.

"You cannot have it!!" Overmind cried, having already read the newcomer's mind.

"You peeked," Thanos taunted, as he seized the man's wrist, and began to wrest it out of his hand.

"No!" Parker said, as he fired.  But, using the Time Gem, Thanos just stopped time and rewound it so that Parker never fired.  Parker wanted to fire again, but he saw the futility of such a maneuver.  He turned to the other two, "I'm open for suggestions."

"Me too." Guy said, as Thanos freed the Gem and fitted it into his Gauntlet.

"I haven't any," Goom said as Thanos used the Mind Gem to slay Overmind in the most painful, the most humiliating way possible.  He was a lousy man, but even he did not deserve such a death.

Thanos looked at the RAFians, "Return to your hidey-hole.  Return, and prepare my tribute.  Prepare your friends, your loved ones, prepare every one for my tribute to my beloved. . . ."

Then he was gone.

"His beloved?" Goom inquired to a horrid silence.

[Underseen]

Although I am not a fan of the hunger games after watching it last night each time Thanos mentioned tribute I thought of

I enjoyed the dragon ball bit and I'm further intrigued by what Thanos was saying. If we would have to fight him it would be quite interesting.

[Cloak]

I haven't seen nor read "The Hunger Games", so any similarities are purely coincidental.

First chapter of the day, may be shorter than my usual standard.
 

CHAPTER TEN:
Soulful Manipulations

"Hungry . . ." the boy uttered.  The stone had seemed to twist the boy's mind . . . and his soul.

"Not another one!" Horse said, throwing her flippers into the air in a gesture of irritation, oblivious of the communicator's signal going off -- she had apparently inadvertently turned it to the lowest vibration setting.  "Why is seal meat so friggin' popular?!"

"I will have . . ." the boy said, sounding rather like an OD'ing addict.

"Sorry, pal," Horse snarled, "I've grown rather attached to my flesh being where it is. On the inside!"

Oceanspray and Rocklobster did not raise similar objections as neither of them had flesh, so to speak.

"I will have your . . ." the boy continued, ". . . have your . . ."

"Getting a little freaky, just now . . ." Oceanspray said, his hand folded into a blaster.

"Oceanspray, you can't attack him.  He may wield the Gem, but he's still a kid." Rocklobster said reproachfully.

"I'm not so sure that he's wielding the Gem," Horse said as the boy who once called himself the Soul Controller managed to choke out, "I will have your . . . your soul."

"Not likely, buddrow." Horse countered, then addressed the others, "I believe this is a case of the Gem wielding the boy."

"Astute," a voice said.  "The juvenile must be pathetically weak-willed."

Thanos had shown up.  He easily wrested the Gem from the boy.  But nor before the Gem claimed the boy's soul for its own.  The boy's body fell, not quite lifeless but . . . just . . . empty.

Thanos paid this no mind as he fitted the green Gem into his Gauntlet.

"What did you do to him?" Horse demanded.

"'Twas not I but the Soul Gem that claimed his weak, vulnerable soul."

"What are you?" Rocklobster inquired, not bothering to hide his revulsion.

"Fiancee to Death herself," Thanos said with a perverse smile.  Then he was gone.

There was a pregnant pause, broken by Rocklobster, "He's just all kinds of crazy, isn't he?"

[Cloak]

Second chapter, again may be a bit on the short side.
 

CHAPTER ELEVEN:
Breaking Unbreakable

Then Phoenix noticed that his communicator was beeping, and he received Aquilai's report with Blocky and Ash.  None liked the news.
 
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE HAS FIVE?!" Phoenix roared, his body flaring up, bathed in flames.
 
"Hey, watch it, Phoenix." Ash said.
 
"I meant what I said." Aquilai asserted.  "This Thanos being is in possession of the Gems -- the Soul, Time, Space, Mind, and Reality Gems -- and he apparently seems to wish to make some kind of tribute to Death, who he thinks he's engaged with."
 
"So you mean a flippin' nutso has five Gems of near-infinite power?" Block said, then his tone turned to being acidly sarcastic.  "Well . . . that's good news, isn't it?"
 
"Blocky, there's no need for that tone," Ash said reproachfully.  "We just need to deny him the sixth Gem."
 
"Oh, yeah," Blocky snipped.  "'Coz that'll be so EASY."
 
"Oh, quit your grousing, Block, and let's get a move on." Phoenix said.  "We don't want to lose her."
 
"Speak for yourself," Ash said, gazing once again at the rather loud and ill-fitting costume the woman wore.
 

***

They arrived to the nearest city, to find that the woman, this "Unbreakable", giving the city the "Tighten-from-Megamind" treatment.  Why she was so angry and domineering, no one knew and she wasn't telling.  She was causing mostly cosmetic and aesthetic damage, but it was clear this was merely oversight on her part and not a result of pulling her punches.
 
"Good God!  We have to stop her!" Ash said.
 
"Good thinking!" Block declared, adding, "Any idea how?"
 
Silence.
 
"I'm open to suggestions," Phoenix said, attempting to heave a basketball-sized fireball at her . . . and she apparently had the Kryptonian power to not be affected with such mundane things as fire.

"Allow me to take it of your hands," Thanos appeared, seizing Unbreakable's hand clenching the red Gem.

"No!  You cannot have it!  It is mine.  The powers are mine!" Unbreakable said, rather hysterically.

"Great," Phoenix muttered, "we trade one psycho for another.  Just dandy."

Thanos had a bit more difficulty wresting the Power Gem from Unbreakable than he had from the others -- one reason he saved it for last.  But in the end, he used the Soul Gem to suck out her soul, giving her the same treatment as that poor boy.  Then he wrested the Power Gem from Unbreakable, who was not so unbreakable after all.

"No!!" Phoenix cried.

"We have to stop him!!" Ash shouted.

"He can't have all six!!!" Block yelled.

But all three were chronokinetically frozen in mid-pounce, via the Time Gem, as Thanos looked at them in an appraising sort of way, "You're too late."

Then he fitted the final Gem into his Gauntlet, taunting, "Yes, you three and the rest of your kind will make my beloved Death very happy.  Go, and enjoy what few precious seconds you've left before you and your entire system is presented as a small tribute to my beloved."

Then he was gone, and Phoenix, Ash, and Block quickly took Yarin's ship back to RAF.  It was really about to start . . .

[Cloak]

Third chapter, and again may be a bit on the short side.
 

CHAPTER TWELVE:
The Sixth Stone

Meanwhile, while the RAFians were rushing to collect the Gems, the Infinity Gems, Cloak sought out a very different type of stone.  The CP Garnet.  It was an arduous journey to get this far, and the edges of his cloak were frayed to prove it.  But he was so close now, so tantalizingly close.
 
He entered a large room, after easily subduing a rolling boulder a la Indiana Jones.  But Cloak had an ace that Indiana Jones did not -- he was terrakinetic, a Master of the Earth Element.  He easily froze the unnaturally spherical boulder and walked onward without so much as a look backward.

He saw before him three small treasure boxes, none held locks, no higher than two and half feet tall, no thicker than a foot wide, and no longer than three feet long.  All sat upon special cushion -- green, red, and blue.  The leftmost one was wooden encrusted with emeralds upon it and sat upon the green cushion, the one in the middle was black metal with encrusted rubies and sat upon the red cushion, and the rightmost one was gunmetal gray with sapphires encrusted upon it like barnacles and sat upon the blue cushion.

A choice.  Any could have been the right one, and any could have been the wrong one.

Cloak tapped his chin as he considered this.  One assuredly contained a trap, one most certainly contained some evil magic.  He could sense the evil magic of the middle one, being a feline.  That left the outer two.  Cloak glanced at each one, hesitating, unsure, uncertain.

"If it must come down to a gut feeling," Cloak murmured to himself.  He walked over to the wooden treasure box, and threw it open.  The stone was somewhere between orange and blue, and had a rather simplistic design, rather like Captain Planet's chest symbol.

Cloak felt the other stones writhing and straining at the box Cloak kept them in.  But the CP Garnet floated in the air, then, to Cloak's surprise, it began to write words in the air:

"The time approaches near,
Along with the being of fear.
The warring Infinities and Eternities
Will bring the Earth's chosen to their knees.
Six upon six, there can only be one fix.
A catalyst is needed, the Chosen is deeded,
The Element's Son will render asunder
To the Gauntlet-Bearer's blunder.
Only united can the blades, when bade,
Cause the Gauntlet-Bearer's power to fade."

Cloak blinked.  A prophecy?

Then Cloak shook his head.  There were no such things as prophecies. . . . Granted that stone so long ago . . . No, no prophecies didn't truly exist.  Cloak opened the box with the other stones and they changed form when exposed to the CP Garnet -- the became very much like Chaos Emeralds (granted Chaos Emeralds were seven, and these were six).  Then they circled Cloak as if they were orbitars (from Kid Icarus).

"Well," Cloak said, standing tall, as the six continued to orbit him in different orbits from each other.  "It's time for the Infinity Gems to meet the Eternity Stones."

And he was off.

[Cloak]

Fourth chapter, and it may be of an acceptable length . . .
 

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
Futile Stances

With all six Gems safely fitted into his gauntlet, Thanos elated at this success.  He had near-infinite power, although he believed it to be infinite.  He arrived at RAF seconds after Phoenix's group.  It wasn't even a race though, Thanos just took his time to arrive in style.
 
After all, who could stand up to him?  Not even Estelore could match the powers that he now wielded with, quite ironically, an iron fist (though the Gauntlet was gold in color).  The RAFians chose to fortify their defenses, shore up their energies.  They knew just how futile, how pointless this last stand was.  And not because Rotiart continued to tell them as such.
 
"You believe that you can deny me?" Thanos roared with laughter.  "You believe to be able to stand against me?!"
 
The force field blipped into existence, while Thanos looked at it with gleeful laughter.  He destroyed it with a wave of his massive hand.  His gold and blue armor glinted sinisterly in the sun.
 
"Is this your strategy?" he taunted.  "I sincerely hope I'm mistaken in that."
 
With a mighty battle cry, Faerie descended upon the Gauntlet-wearing monster, hoping to cleave him in twain with her trusty battle axe.  Pity that her battle axe was just smashed into smithereens.  Thanos just flicked uer away with a backhand.  Faerie landed, semiconscious, by the fragments of her old battle axe.
 
"You dare to attack me," Thanos said, more amused then angry.
 
"You monster!" Horse shouted, leaping off an ice bridge of her own creation, pulling out her Pinniped Dagger to stab Thanos.  He caught her by the throat.  He caught the dagger in his other hand, the sharp edges contacting his flesh, but not penetrating.  Then he tightened his grip on it, shattering the black, but leaving the hilt more or less intact.
 
"Such a pathetic attempt," Thanos said, with the barest semblance of contempt, dropping Horse, who managed to be rescued by Gaz.
 
"Take this!" Saffa shouted as several rather large diamonds appeared in a resemblance of a Stone Edge attack, only with diamonds instead of stones.
 
"I'd rather not," Thanos said, deaging the diamonds back into coal, and having them plummet to the Earth.  Saffa went avian mode and beat wings away from that spot, before landing and assuming her usual form.
 
Several other attacks ensued, all meeting with failure.  But RAFians are not the sort to give up so readily.  They continued until many suffered extreme exhaustion -- Underseen was opague and barely able to hold a coherent form again.
 
"Face it," Thanos said, gnashing his teeth with every word.  "You're done.  You're powerless.  You are all pathetic.  But you should still serve a purpose for me.  Enough foreplay.  Prepare to die."

"Not so fast, Thanos!!" cried a very familiar voice.