Memoirs of a RAFian

[Underseen]

Great job keeping it a secret and leaving me anticipating a new chapter.

[Cloak]

Now another chapter. May be brief, may not. Probably not as it contains a song.

CHAPTER TWO:
Rise of Cataclysm

A shadowy figure rises up, and looms from the darkness.

"Where . . . am I?" he asked.

"On a planet called Earth, in the first realm, Ancestor." came a familiar voice. It was Malice. And she was alone.

Malice put Itellsya into suspended animation in a cyrogenic tube, which she secretly thought of as "the kennel". She planned to come back for him when he became useful again, though she was careful in not letting him know this.

"Planet? Realm?" the husky, deep voice of the ancient Realm Walker said dismissively. "What is this nonsense?"

"The lights you remember grew into separate realms," Malice explained. "Upon the pebbles pondscum grew."

"Ah, I see. The cloaks we used to wear for fashion now double as personal realm protective wear." he mused. "Very well. I remember being sent through the lights with my . . . my shadow clan minion reliquary."

"I have it here, Cataclysm, dear Ancestor," Malice said handing it over to him, uncharacteristicall y irreverent. "But, your curse has been unfulfilled."

"What's this?" Cataclysm spoke softly. His form was clearer now. He was gigantic -- bigger than Cloak or Monger. Cataclysm was a Gigantopithecus-form Realm Walker.

"There is another Elements Master," Malice said, deciding not to mention Shadow. She'd rather not endure the embarrassment of her great ancestor knowing that she coukd not kill a mere child (not taking into account that Shadow was the youngest Master to have ever Mastered all six elements -- but, she's a bright kid). "He's here. He has made a home here, in this realm. He's chosen the name 'Cloak'."

"At least, my curse will finally be fulfilled," he said, clutching the reliquary as it glowed a toxic, radioactive shade of green. "And the last of the Masters will diiiiie!"

Suddenly, some rather jaunty music played. Cataclysm sang:

"In the dark of the night,
I was tossing and turning.
And the nightmare I had
Was as bad as could be!
It scared me out of my wits --
A curse falling to bits!
Then I opened my eyes
And the nightmare was key!"

Then he swept his flowing cloak as he sang agitatedly and animatedly.

"I was once the most mystical man in all the Nexus.
When the Masters betrayed me, they made a mistake!
My curse made each of them pay.
But one little Walker got away.
Little Cloak, beware, Cataclysm's awake!
In the dark of the night,
Evil will find him.
In the dark of the night,
Just before dawn.
Revenge will be sweet
When the curse is complete!
In the dark of the night,
He'll be gone!
I can feel that my powers are slowly returning.
Tie my sash and dash of freshener for that smell!
As the pieces fall into place,
I'll see him crawl into place!
Da svidanya, your grace!
Farewell!"

Then he started to walk to some sort of staging area with Malice following him. He basically ignored her -- treating her with very much the same disregard she treated Abomination and Itellsya. She never realized this, and remained ignorant of it.

Cataclysm sang:

"In the dark of the night,
Terror will strike him!
Terror's the least I can do!
In the dark of the night,
Evil will brew!
Ooh!
Soon he will feel
That his nightmares
Are real!
In the dark of the night,
He'll be through!
In the dark of the night,
Evil will find him.
Find him.
Ooh!
In the dark of the night,
Terror will doom him.
Doom him.
Ooh!
My boy, here's a sign,
It's end of the line!
In the dark of the night . . .
In the dark of the night . . .
In the dark of the night . . ."

The he held out his reliquary, which glowed a brighter green as bat-winged Shadow Khan-esque demons unfurled from it.

Cataclysm sang:

"Come my minions,
Rise for your master.
Let your evil shine!
Find them now,
Yes, fly ever faster!
In the dark of the night . . .
In the dark of the night . . .
In the dark of the night . . .
They'll be MINE!"

The demonic ninjas, after leaving the reliquary, flew from this hiding place. Out to seek Cloak, presumably.

[Underseen]

He may be evil, but at least he has good songs.

[Cloak]

*chuckles at Underseen's post.*

Now the third chapter, and now we kick into action.

CHAPTER THREE:
Abductions

Demos and Sakki were standing on the edge of the forest to the rear and sides of the forum.

"-- You have to admit it was kind of sweet."

"Demos, he killed or maimed no less than forty people." Sakki pointed out.

"What's your point?" Demos said, showing his demon sensibilities.

"Demos, you really --"

Suddenly, the bat-winged ninja minions appeared around Demos. This took both of them by surprise.

"Friends of yours?" Sakki asked, eyes wide.

"Uh, never met them?" Demos said, then replying in a lower voice that Sakki nonetheless heard, "did Shenecron send you? I told him I wasn't really betting. It was a phrase, an expression to express my feelings of the near certainty of his relect-- hey! Let go of me! I told him that wasn't a real bet!"

The winged ninja seized Demos and began to melt away in the shadows with him, against his will.

"Demos!" Sakki cried out. "What did you do?!"

"Nothing! Honestly, I didn't do anything!" Demos cried out with genuine sincerity. He was carried away into the shadows without another word, his pyrokinesis refusing to activate.

***

Parker and Helen were standing outside the training room. Parker had his armor sheathed into the watch -- he was so glad he discovered that feature of the Walker tech afforded him. Tyr, however, was not a fan of it. It put the AI in a state of semi-suspended animation, only vaguely aware of what was going on. Parker would mostly tell him, rather crassly, to get over it.

"Nice session, dear," Helen said, taking Parker's arm in her own. She had revert to her "street clothes" version with a pink flash, and Parker was already dearmored.

"Thank you, Helen. You weren't too bad either." he teased lightly.

They kissed, until something, quite literally, came between them.

"Wha--" Parker said, surprised, as the winged ninja demons prised the two lovers apart.

"Parker!" Helen cried as they began to carry him away.

With a pink, violent flash, Helen materialized her Star Sapphire regalia prepared to go after them. But they vanished into the shadows . . . how they entered RAF to begin with.

"P-Parker . . ." Helen said, lips quivering a little.

***

Ash and Broken were sitting down by the lakeside. They were laying on a red-and-white checkered blanket, emptying a picnic basket fairly quickly.

"It's so nice not to have a pressing emergency," Broken yawned as he reclined fully.

"Yes," Ash agreed wholeheartedly. "We don't get many of these lazy Sundays."

Then she laid down in her base form -- the one Broken preferred -- and their heads were inches from touching. They luxuriated in the shadow of this old rowan tree.

But the shadows were not the safest place to be.

With a muffled cry of protest, Ash began to sink into the shadows. Pulled down by the energy ninja hands.

"Ash!" Broken cried immediately. But it was too late to rescue her, as Broken frantically pawed the ground.

***

Yarin and Aquilai stood beside the hanger, while Yarin worked on his ship and Aquilai buffed his TARDIS.

"-- the oscillating isometerics of it are really unsettling, you know?" Yarin was saying.

"The gravitational equations and orbital stabilization may be a factor." Aquilai replied offhand.

"Good point."

"I'm just glad we've had some downtime," Aquilai commented. "I haven't fixed the bugs or polished my TARDIS in forever."

Yarin chuckled as he said, "You'd think you'd be able to time travel to a time that you could."

Aquilai threw an old rag at Yarin good-humoredly. Then they went back to discussing specifics using five-syllable terms.

"Uh, what?" Yarin gasped.

"Fuel-intake problem?" Aquilai asked, before noticing hands pulling Yarin into the shadows. Aquilai attempted to intercede, but he was too late.

***

Cloak's eyes snapped open. He dashed out of the forum, but it was too late. Too late.

The four had been taken.

[Cloak]

One more chapter. Might be the last one tonight, but don't hold me to that.

May be a brief chapter.

CHAPTER FOUR:
Emergency Meeting

Within moments, an emergency meeting was held. Cloak could not believe he overlooked shadow travel as a way of bypassing the defenses. But, to his credit, it was a rather rare power, and easily-overlooked. But, in Cloak's mind, even that wasn't an excuse for overlooking it.

Sakki, Aquilai, Broken, and Helen had gotten up and said their piece. How Demos, Yarin, Ash, and Parker were taken. Cloak could not deny it anymore.

"I have an idea . . . of what may have happened." Cloak said heavily and hesitantly.

All eyes were now on him. Cloak did not enjoy such attention. He always shirked away from the spotlight. But he could not run away from this.

"I've been having dreams." he explained. "In the first one, my grandfather, Sage came to me and said that Cataclysm was stirring."

"What kind of cataclysm?" Underseen asked.

"No, no, no," Cloak said, "you misunderstand. Cataclysm is an ancient Realm Walker.  He's to my Element Master ancestor, Guardian -- my grandfather's grandfather's grandmother, what Malice is to me."

"That bad, huh?" Abby commented.

"Pretty much." Cloak admitted. "Anyways, over the last three days, I was torment by the same riddle." Cloak said, almost at once regretting bringing it up.

"What did it say?" Saffa asked.

Cloak recited it, and silence befell the auditorium. He knew what they were thinking.

"It's not a prophecy." Cloak insisted flatly.

"But --" Az began.

"No, Az." Cloak said. Cloak wasn't sure if that was the real Az, and not just one of his plethora of clones. "You forge your own destinies. It is not predetermined. Those that say otherwise are those that attempt to manipulate you into their way of thinking. In any case, we're losing sight of the true objective here."

"Right," Richard said. "We must search for our fellows."

"But they could be anywhere." Faerie said.

"Then we had better get started." Cloak said gruffly.

[redtailedsaffa]

This is getting interesting.

[Cloak]

Right. Chances are, since I haven't anywhere to go today (and, after all, most places are closed), there's a chance of four or more chapters today.

Brief chapter.

CHAPTER FIVE:
Where in the World Did They Go?

"We searched everywhere," SuperNate reported. "They're not in Australia."

"Unfortunate,"Aquilai said. He taken up Yarin's old duty of monitoring communications. It was harder on the Time Lord because he only had two arms and two eyes. But he managed gracefully and without complaint.

"Saffa, what about India?" Aquilai queried.

"Haven't completed the search yet," Saffa said, trying not to sound downcast, "but it's not looking promising."

"Noted," Aquilai said, still trying to coordinate this search. It was a monumental task, but Aquilai was determined to manage it.

"Morfowt, how about China?" Aquilai asked.

"Not going well, we're having problems initating the search -- the weather's not helping."

"Keep me posted." Aquilai replied professionally. Really the stress of this search endeavor is gonna force him to Regenerate. "Tocade, what about on your end?"

"Nothing in this part of South America. But we're still looking." she said.

"Phoenix, what about the United Kingdom? Any luck?"

"None, I'm afraid."

"You know, the world's governments might chafe at this search." Cloak said, having arrived in the tower to help. "They might see it as illegal or that we're trying to glean information and military secrets."

"Don't be so paranoid." Aquilai said tersely.

"You underestimate the paranoia of those in power," Cloak said, "be they politician, dictator, or king. They live in fear that someone will discover their secrets."

"Can we discuss theoretical political concourse later? I'm a little busy here!!"

Cloak raised his hands, bowed his head, and left the room.

[Cloak]

Now another chapter. May be a bit brief.

CHAPTER SIX:
Lab Work

Meanwhile, back at the rogue Realm Walkers' hideout twenty miles beneath surface somewhere between the city and RAF -- when used at a vertix, it could be used to make a roughly 91º angle between RAF and the city.

Cloak never found them through Earthsight because it was twenty miles down of rock with asymmetric air spaces dotted randomly. It would be like trying to see someone twenty miles away with low hanging branches in the way.

It was the same place that the MP3 monster had once laid dormant. Of course, that happened weeks ago, and the recent incidents had caused the RAFians to forget to consider that this cave just might be reused.

Itellsya was no longer in one of the for cryogenic tubes.

Cataclysm had derided this descendent of his for wasting a tube, and questioned rhetorically if his bloodline had deteriorated over the millenia. Malice chose to ignore that jibe.

He had been forcibly and involuntarily merged with all of Cataclysm's minions, effectively rendering his free will nil, bounded his psychic and psionic powers until they were nonexistant, and causing him to lose any semblance of humanity. His skin was now a toxic shade of green and it emitted a faint glow in total darkness. His fingertips were now pointed and harder than diamond. He grew big, leathery wings that glowed just the same as his skin. His teeth, nose and ears became pointed, as he lost all his body hair. His physique became buff and built. He clothing was jusr a loincloth worn like any Gargoyle from Disney's "Gargoyles".His sclera and pupils was blood red and his irises were midnight black.

Without the minions to hold within it, the canister-like reliquary was nothing more than an useless tricket without a purpose. It was smashed carelessly with no ill-effects. No one knew how Cataclysm survived so well outside the normal life expectancy of a Realm Walker (mostly a millennium or two, though Sage died at 800 -- using Realm Dweller Earth years, of course).

"You are Itellsya no more," Cataclysm said, who apparently shared Demos's perchant for making monsters. "You are now, and forevermore 'Rumor'."

"As you wish, my Master," Rumor said, his voice deep with an reverb effect. Nothing like the young human boy that used to be before this drastic, irreversible transformation.

"Very well," Cataclysm said, moving to the the cryogenic tubes, saying with a self-indulgent smirk, "the Horsemen of the great Cataclysm."

He placed his hand on the second one, proclaimed it's occupant as "War". The occupant of the fourth tube was given the name of "Famine". The third tube occupant was named "Pestilence". The first, and yet final, occupant of the tube was called "Death". Silhouettes could be seen in the tubes, but it was to dark to tell who occupied those tubes.

"How long will the augmentations and conditioning take, Ancestor?" Malice asked.

"Slower, I'm afraid, than with Rumor," he answered silkily. "These have stronger wills, and a strange marking, too."

[redtailedsaffa]

Yep, you don't mess with us.

Is it just me, or do the names of the Horsemen sound very familiar? Wait, wait, wait... they're the four plagues! Right?

[Cloak]

Horsemen of the Apocalypse, actually, Saffa.

[redtailedsaffa]

*snaps fingers* THAT'S what it was! I remember catching a glimpse of them when Rose was watching Supernatural. This suddenly stirred up the reference... so I guess it's fair to say, appropriate name choices.

[Cloak]

Well, this is more based off of Marvel Comics Horsemen than "Supernatural".

Anyway, I'll probably post more chapters a little later. Not feeling up to writing at the moment.

[redtailedsaffa]

Lol, I was never expecting it to be The only part of the show I did like were all the interesting references.

[Cloak]

Ah, okay, then.

Now, a possibly-brief chapter.

CHAPTER SEVEN:
A Markedly Grim Prospect

Back at RAF, the search was still in full fling, although the more miltant groups of people within each country were really chafing at the search. Conspiracy theorists -- the people who clearly had nothing better to do but cause controversy, twist truths and misinterpret facts -- were not helping matters. These people made Cloak's own self-admitted paranoia seem downright nonexistent.

But still the RAFian searching and probing yielded nothing. It was wearing on Aquilai's nerves and an incredible drain on his resolve.

But that wasn't to say that there wasn't progress. They had determined that the four were not in Yemen, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Pakistan, Morocco, Kenya, India, Egypt, Canada, Albania, Bulgaria, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Jordan, Libya, Russia, Tasmania, and Vietnam. Nothing. But that didn't mean the search was over. But RAF could not manage to excuse the search for very much longer, and the RAFians themselves.

Meanwhile, Cloak was assigned with the job of coming up with a defense for hostile shadow-travellers. This, in and of itself, was an equally monumental task. Shadows lurk everywhere light does, and coming up with defense was not as easiy as putting up a fence. Cloak deliberated upon this problem.

Cloak had wondered idly why a magic-user was not dispatched to this work instead of him, because the more he thought about this problem, the more he felt that magic was the only recourse.

And he wasn't a magic-user.

But the something happened that brought all RAFians a momentary lapse in the two respective searches.

Cloak felt like some one was putting an enormous amount a pressure on his right hand, his Mark hand. Cloak could not imagine why. But he wasn't the only RAF to feel it, he knew. Eventually, the pressure let up, and vanished completely.

While the other RAFians may have shrugged off the importance of this, Cloak could not. He knew something had to have happened to the four.

Suddenly, a line of words flashed before his eyes -- "ALLIES AMD FRIENDS WILL BE FORSAKEN" -- he curled his face into a snarl, saying quietly, "Oh, shut up."

But he could not deny the pressure on his Mark . . . perhaps somehow, in some way, the Marks were bypassed. . . .

[Cloak]

Okay, maybe the last chapter today. But don't hold me to that!

CHAPTER EIGHT:
Final Adjustments

"Finally bypassed that minor obstacle," Cataclysm spoke quietly to himself. "They're ready to be programmed now."

He hummed as he typed on the hard light keyboard. Malice was in a lower level of the cave, building what appeared to be a hovering pyramid that could accomodate six riders.

"How are the Horsemen coming, Ancestor?" Malice asked.

"Swimmingly, swimmingly," he said. Though the words my have indicated warmth and friendliness, the tone and lilt betrayed the truth of Cataclysm's emotions towatd his descendant -- cold indifference. "These final adjustments shouuld complete the transformation into something better then they were. With complete and utter loyalty. To me."

Malice didn't miss that last jibe, but she wanted so desperately his approval. Even Malice herself didn't know why. But everyone wants the approval of their idols, no matter how little they sole out.

"Are you don't constructing the Eye of Ages yet?" Cataclysm snapped, jerking Malice out of her reverie.

"Nearly," she said. "Just needs a few more tweaks to the --"

"Well, hurry along then, girl! I haven't the time for lollygaggers!" Cataclysm snarled, as Malice immediately got back to work.

Rumor, in which the RAFian traitor Itellsya lurked no more, stood standing motionless in the corner, almost like a zombie or automaton. Malice still felt no remorse for what Cataclysm did to him, for she never felt any real affection for Itellsya, who was now truly dead. He died in the birth of Rumor.

Malice continued to tinker away at the Eye of Ages transport. Then she completed the transport with the intention of going with her ancestor to the great Reveal.

"There," Cataclysm said, whose voice was very similar to that of Apocalypse of the Marvel multiverse. He caressed the tubes of the transformed RAFians lovingly. "They are complete. My horsemen wait to be reawakened as their improved selves."

Malice saw this caressing and felt an inexplicable spark of envy. She surprised herself by it, she thought she felt aloof and indifferent. She hid these implausible feelings, not only from Cataclysm, but from herself.

"It is complete, Ancestor." Malice said, deliberately voiding her voice of emotion.

"Excellent," Cataclysm said. "Then it's time."

He went and typed some keystokes into the computer.

"Rise . . . Famine."

The tube opened as the cryonic gases escaped melodramatically. A slim silhouette covered in glowing brownish-tan runes stood in front of the tube.

"Rise . . . Pestilence."

It was the same as with Famine, but the glowing runes on the silhouette were a royal purple.

"Rise . . . War."

It was a same deal with the other two but the glowing runes were gunmetal gray.

"Rise . . . Death!"

It was like the other three only the glowing runes were an angry red.

"Come, my Horsemen," Cataclysm said, taller than all four, "it is nearly time for the rapturous Reveal.