Memoirs of a RAFian

[theyoungphoenix]

Dun, dun, dun......

[redtailedsaffa]

OOH! Something in the underbrush!

*watches Abby continue playing dramatic music*

[Cloak]

Right, chapter later on. Been on my feet in vocational rehabilitation. Had an epiphany that my mom did not want me to grow up, but remain a child forever, until I could no longer stand her. Such a pity.

So, yeah, chapter a day. But maybe not on Thursdays (those will be busy days for me).

Anyway, enough jawin'. You came for the chapters, right?

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
Prepare For Trouble . . .

And down he went, in to the pitfall that Cloak Earthsighted seconds before. Wild gave a obligatory yelp of surprise as he fell. Then there was a clang so sharp and loud that it caused Wild, Cloak and Hunter to wince.

Suddenly, a metallic claw shot from the neareast "tree" as that "tree" fell away, revealing it to be a disguise. It was concealing a hot air balloon with the Mark of a Banned (so like the Mark of a RAFian, only the color of blood with a ragged, lightning-bolt-shape connecting the two "legs" of the stylized "R").

"You'd think that they were afraid that we wouldn't know who is benind this." Parker replied with a bored voice.

Then lights came up, illuminating the ballon's basket. Cloak squinted, thinking. Something about this was very familiar.

"Prepare for trouble," said a haughty female voice.

Cloak narrowed his eyes and scowled. He suddenly knew why it was so familiar.

"Make it double," came an aloof male voice.

Cloak felt a deep indifference as he sighed.

"To blight the world with devestation!" Queen said, her figure coming into clearer focus. Parker made it clear that he wasn't impressed.

"To unite the trolls within our nation!" Yorick proclaimed theatrically. Hunter leaned against a juniper tree and snoozed benignly, with his arms folded against his chest, as this overacted fiasco.

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!" Queen exclaimed proudly. Saffa raised an eyebrow, clearly wondering if these people were for real.

"To extend our grasp to the stars above!" Yorick declared boldly. Wild laid in cage, head supported by one paw and the other was drumming his claws on the bars of his cage.

"Queen!"

"Yorick!"

"Team Banned blast off at the speed of light!" Queen shouted.

"Surrender now, or prepare to fight!" Yorick threatened.

"Yeah, that's right!" Aloth put in, lastly.

Wild yawned, Saffa turned her gaze to the others, Parker was checking the time, Hunter was still snoozing.

"Oh, are you done?" Cloak said.

The three looked miffed that the RAFians weren't more impressed by their "original" motto. As if they couldn't be impressed with the three basically copying their motives and actions off of Jesse, James, and Meowth.

"Oh, you are," Cloak said, correctly interpreting their silence. He stompped his foot and the sides of the pitfall pinched together, vanishing all together. Then he snapped his fingers and the hovering cage holding Wild popped open like a soda can.

"Permit me," Parker said, taking the shot at the balloon, which flung the three back to the Bannedlands. Cloak could almost hear them say, "Team Banned is blasting off again!"

"There you are!" came a new voice.

[Cloak]

'Nother chapter, I think. (Expect the weekends to be chapter explosions, I think.)

Now, the penultimate chapter. Of-of this book, that is.

CHAPTER NINETEEN:
Slap In The Face

"We've been looking for you everywhere," Goom said.

"Why?"Wild asked rhetorically, "To run more tests? Or use a device to turn me into American cheddar?"

"It was Swiss cheese," Yarin corrected, "and it was not you but Gaz that was transmogrified."

"Whatever," Wild said. "Try your potions and rays on some other guinea pig. I'm gone."

He moved to leave only to find a ten-foot tall, ten-foot thick wall of earth in his way.

"Okay, Wild, I tried to be understanding. I tried to be persuasive. I tried to convince you politely. I tried being nice." Cloak said. "Now I will have to be blunt. Now I have to be that guy."

Cloak's eyes were on a slow burn now. A clear-cut sign that he was seriously serious.

"I've told you I've been through all this. All this drama. I've experienced it first-hand." Cloak said, wishing he did not have to take it to this extreme. "But this self-pity will not do anything for you but plow you into a deeper depression. Until suicide becomes an all-consuming thought."

Cloak did not elaborate just how he knew this, as he thought it was obvious.

"Just give it a shot," Cloak said, quietly. "That's all I ask."

Wild's answer did not come right away. Cloak had not expected it to. This was not easy.

"Fine!" he spat. "But hurry up!"

"No reason this shouldn't work now," Aquilai said, activating the device.

"Huh?" Wild uttered as the machine gave a glow and then a blinding flash.

Wild was human again. He said, quite surprised and delighted, "It worked."

"Of course it worked," Yarin sniffed.

"Not only that," Goom said, double-checking his calculations -- inexplicably holding a calculator. "You should be able to access your -- your bearferret form at will!"

Wild demonstrated, and declared, "Cool!"

[Underseen]

This books idea (although it came from beast wars) felt fresh and new.

[Cloak]

Thanks, Underseen. It actually turned out more emotional than I initially planned. It's odd how that happens sometimes.

Last chapter of this book. If I stilo have this giddy energy, I might start on the next one.

CHAPTER TWENTY:
Somebody's Watchin' You

"Mother!" Cloak shouted to his ursine mother across a dimly-li grotto.

"Son, dear!" she replied, feigning affection. "You're right on cue."

"Give Shadow back to me."

"Not on your life." she replied, not losing any of her malice. "It so hopes she signed a contract."

"No!"

"Even put a smiley face in the 'o'," Ursa said, tauntingly."Is it binding? Goodness, yes. Unreakable -- unless . . ."

"Unless?"

Then music started subtly and Ursa slipped into song smoothly:

"There is a little sumthin' we could try."

Cloak narrowed his eyes to slits. "Go on."

"Perhaps we could arrange a sort of trade-off?"

"What?!"

"Maybe swap Shadow's soul for, say, your own?
Sign the scroll, and set her free!
Or else, she comes with me.
To suffer through eternity
To atone."

Then she switched to spoken speech. "The acute little Hatching drowning in her own sorrow with no will to call out your name."

Cloak's face was stony -- hiding the anguish he felt inside.

"Well, I'm waiting," his mother prompted nearly at once.

"It's not my soul you're after," Cloak said knowingly, unable to keep the cry from his voice, "it's my freedom."

"Which would you rather be? Free-ranged, or a mentor to your little protege?"

Cloak's arms drooped, head bowed, and a golden tear dropped from his eye.

Slowly . . . hesitantly . . . reluctantly . . . he picked up the bone-like quill. . . . He pressed it to the scroll. . . .

***

"AHH!" Cloak exclaimed as he awoke, sitting up in his bed. Nexian objects don't make the realm react as an uncloaked Walker does. It's mostly a metabolism thing, although this was never proven.

Cloak held his head and his tears. He thought he was over this!!

It was true the absence of Shadow in his life was like someone amputating his tail or someone amputating Blaze's wings.

It hurt. It hurt a great deal more than he let on. Shadow was the Jake to his Finn. The Donkey to his Shrek. The Abu to his Aladdin. To have her suddenly ripped away from him by the actions of his mother . . . it hurt in a way that never heals until the person returns.

Here, unseen by anyone, he allowed himself to cry.

***

Wild had returned to his normal self, which Cloak was pleased to see. But something other than the dream was bothering him . . .

He couldn't put his finger on it, but it felt like he was being watched.

But, by what?

Unbeknowst to Cloak, it turns out that they were being watched.

Six shadowy silhouettes gazed at RAF, almost hungrily. They watched from the trees, so Cloak couldn't Earthsight them, and Cloak wouldn't learn the technique with thw wood element due to the dirty jokes imminent from such a skill.

But, unbeknowst to these six mysterious aliens with the shiny faces and dreadlocks, they were being watched themselves by Malice and her stooge.

"Glad they took me up on my offer," Malice smirked quietly.

[Underseen]

This chapter got me towards tears.

[theyoungphoenix]

I'm kinda scared to see what the heck those things are....

[Cloak]

I know, Underseen -- I'm livin' it.

Well, fortunately, you'll be safe, Abby. Well, for the moment.

Now, let's start the next book, 'kay?

BOOK XXXVII:
PREDATORS AND PREY
CHAPTER ONE:
Training with Danger

Cloak wasn't particularly happy.

He never really like training in the holographic "Danger Room". He easily wiped out tweny-five "Alloys" -- holographic entities whose style of fighting is determined by their colors and resembled a cross between Zeta from "Batman Beyond" and Alloys from "Super Smash Bros. Melee".

Red Alloys fought, quite literally, like beasts. Orange Alloys fought defensively. Yellow Alloys fought retaliatorily. Green Alloys fought with finesse. Blue Alloys were irritatingly persistant and the hardest to break. Purple Alloys used weaponry, and would protect other Alloys. Pink Alloys fought evasively. White Alloys used energy projectiles, while Black Alloys use motion-sensing mines and other delayed-timed explosives.

Cloak found this all out the the hard way when he first used the training room. The older RAFian laughed at it, until Cloak nearly destroyed the room when he lost his temper. His emotions were far more unstable back then.

Aside from the Alloys, there was a terrain issue. It changed every fifteen minutes. There were six terrain changes per session, with a ¹/₁₀₂₄ of mixing terrains. Cloak never had this happen in his grand total of eighteen sessions in his nearly five-year tenure with RAF.

There was the plain field, which was pretty self-explanatory.

Then there was the volcano field, which the training fighters have fight on round pallets or rock platforms (in a Volcano/Mountain scenario). Unless they possess powers to survive the lava, falling in would be considered a failure.

Then the ocean field pretty much featured pallets floating on water, where sinking to the bottom is considered a failure.

And then there's the Grassland, Electrified, Subterranean, Wasteland, Jungle, Dojo, Cemetery, Ice, Ruins, Sky, Mountain, Astral, Shadow, and Metal Fields, all with their own hazards and advantages.

Anyway, in the current session, Cloak, Parker, Gaz, Underseen, Parker, Aquilai,and Noelle were participating. Cloak had the highest score, and -- well, it wouldn't be nice to say who had the lowest, despite being the less experienced with the simulations.

Cloak was annoyed because Parker's stupid explosives -- he believed Parker called them frag grenades -- although he coukd call them Flash Bombs for all he cared. They kept bumping up Parker's score whic bumped Cloak to second-place momentarily.

At the end of the session, Cloak and Parker managed a tie. Parker began ribbing Cloak about it until he remembered he had to meet Helen.

Cloak caught a strange scent on the air. He thought it smelled vaguely familiar but could not think why or how.

[theyoungphoenix]

Hmmmm.... I shall wait to find out what they are.

[Underseen]

The Danger Room sounds incredibly fun.

[theyoungphoenix]

It does... And I just realized you said 'for the moment'. Should I be worried? I suppose I should wait to find out though...

[Cloak]

If you like that kind of thing, Underseen.

Oh, and Abby, you'll find out Chapter 2, I think. And I was worried that I may have made it too obvious. Anyway, this is the book that Blaze gave me an idea for way back in the book with the Xenomorphic Brood, I believe. And don't worry, you're not in any danger -- in this book.

[theyoungphoenix]

I feel soooo confident now...

[Cloak]

Well, sixteen chapters into Book CLXVII, and looks very interesting . . .

Now, this chapter . . .

CHAPTER TWO:
Predatorly Preparations

Within their quarters upon their ship, their trap set, the six aliens prepare for their individual hunts.

Each one of their quarters were lined with trophies -- this wasn't the first hunt for any of them.

It was revealed that their metallic "faces" were masks, with rather similar functions to Parker's.

***

The youngest of the group was overconfident and reckless. His quarters had three of what appeared to be perverse lava lamps. He also had a banged-up Polymorph antigravity-ufo-thing as a trophy with a bit of a Protost locked in a glass sphere in eternal stasis so it could not reform. While upon closer inspection, the lava lamps contained bits of sludgepuppy in the left one, a remnant of a warwolf in the middle one and bit of Limax in the other.

He had a holographic disc in his hand, this Predator. He was studying the holographic representation of Underseen. . . .

***

The eldest of the group was cold and calculating. His room was adorned with a Crabdozer skull, a Vaxasaurian skeleton, the shell of an Arburian Pelarota, a Cerebrocrustacean shell, a right Petrosapien arm, a left Crystalsapien arm, an Orishan head, a Talpaedan arm, a Geichelone Aerio shell, and a Biosovortian head.

He was studying a holographic file of Parker intently.

***

The third was a sadistic Predator with a nearly intolerable bloodlust. Her trophies included several wooden stakes, a vampire slayer's skeleton, and the carcass of a Vladat -- a now extinct species.

He watched the holographic profile of Gaz almost inappropriately.

***

The fourth one was rude and selfish. The trophies he had was a Pyronite's left arm, an Orishan's right hand, a Talpaedan head, and a Geochelone Aerio shell.

He watched intently, if not dispassionately, at the holographic profile of Aquilai.

***

The fifth one was haughty and condescending. He had the fewest trophies of the others and the least experience, but he made up for this for refusing to hunt the a solutely toughest prey.

Apparently, Noelle qualified his conditions.

***

The last one was the most experienced one of the lot. His quarters was cluttered with various trophies that he really didn't care about. He was all for the hunt, not the memories of it.

He had no idea how difficult his next hunt would be. Cloak would not be easy prey, and, unbeknowst to the Predator, Cloak couldn't be killed by the likes of him.