Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

Thanks, and the next one will be just as schticky, I believe.

Now, to finish this book -- may be brief. Okay, it will be brief.

CHAPTER TWENTY:
A New Scheme, A New Dream

The RAFians had not heard hide nor hair of this demented leprechaun, although the Marks had glowed brightly roughly a week to ten days after. The general assumption was that the Unity Shamrock did its job.

Still, Cloak was dubious of this, but he kept his opinions to himself. He knew that, when the time came, they would deal with it then.

Meanwhile, RAF returned to its normal zany ways. There was a prank war that broke out, but Cloak did not participate -- but was thoroughly irritated when he was very nearly hit with a pie projectile.

He made it very clear why trying to prank him was a very dangerous proposition.

***

"And . . . I'm bored now." Malice said, getting up, discarding a bowl with unpopped popcorn kernels (frozen in hardened butter that she had Rumor add) into a sink of a dilapidated, dingy house.

Rumor chirruped brightly.

"Hmm," Malice said thoughtfully. "A new scheme does seem to be in order."

Rumor gave a inquiring series of clicks.

"Well, that's the question, isn't it? What scheme it will be." Malice said as she airily swirled some swill in a coffee mug. "I really must make it a good one this time.

Rumor squawked.

"Too commonplace."

Rumor barked.

"Too derivative."

Rumor mewed.

"Too . . . too lude."

Rumor made a series of bird-like whistles.

"No, that's too predictable." Malice said, waving it away, then her eyes widened as an idea occured to her. "But, an idea comes to me . . ."

Rumor made some rather indescribable noises of an inquistive nature.

"Well, they say music soothes the savage beast . . ." Malice said with a lilt to match her name.

[theyoungphoenix]

Well then. Malice always has some sort of idea, doesn't she?

[redtailedsaffa]

She gives us some activity, Abby.

Last line offered a very nice clue: MORE PARODIES! YES!

[Cloak]

Yes, there will be more parodies -- just not any that's intrinsic to the next book's plot. You'll hafta wait until the book after.

And I'm all chaptered out right now.

[redtailedsaffa]

PDF of the latest book, for anyone who wants to download.

[Cloak]

Excellent, Saffa. I'll start Book XLIII after I get back from running some errands.

EDIT:

BOOK XLIII:
THE PIPER
CHAPTER ONE:
Enter the Piper

"He's here, then, Rumor?" Malice was saying, sitting on her threadbare armchair as if it were a velvet throne. "Well, then, what are you waiting for? Show him in! Go, now!"

Rumor dashed from the room to fetch their guest. The house in which they stayed was quite rundown, rodent/insect-infested and dilapidated.

Rumor returned with a rail thin man with a round face, black goatee, crow's-feet, and long, prominent nose. He wore drab minstrel-style clothing with black gloves and a blue-yellow feather in his dark hat. He held a silver flute in his left hand

"Piper," Malice said, in a clipped pleasant tone. "I hope we find you well."

The piper said nothing.

"Always to the point," Malice said with a blithe airiness. "You want to know about the job?"

He gave a short curt nod. It would appear that this piper was either very stoic or mute.

"I'd like you lure several people to their doom."

The piper shrugged as if to say, "Same old, same old." Then he brough his right hand up and rubbed his thumb against the tips of his index and middle fingers. He was clearly inquiring about his fee, his reward.

"Oh, you'll get your just rewards," Malice said, dismissing the concern. "but you must succeed first."

The piper gave Malice a scandalous look that quickly transformed into a scathingly one. He found it offensive that Malice would dare question his credentials.

"Oh, don't be that way," Malice chatised. "You can't expect payment upfront, can you? For a service not yet rendered?"

The piper should have known the type of person he was dealing with. If he had, he would have left long before this point. But avarice kept him rooted to the spot.

"Oh, don't even try charming me with that ornate metal tube." Malice said, all seriousness now. "It is classified as mind control, and such things haven't any affect on my kind. Now go. Do it and succeed, and I'll give you an eternal reward."

The piper didn't react to the term "eternal reward" the way a normal person would -- accepting it and leaving to finish a job. . . ,

[theyoungphoenix]

Hmm... This is gonna be interesting.

[redtailedsaffa]

LOL, the two of us were busy doing a countdown to the chapter on RAFchat.

I am guessing the flute is not hindered by the Mark. Or is it? No, wait... okay. No spoilers.

[Cloak]

Well, here's the list:

• 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.

• Book CL: Utter Pandemonium

Cloak, Gaz, Saffa, Underseen, and Hunter investigate odd goings-on at a theme park island named "Haunted Island".

• Book CLI: A Reality Rewrite

Cloak, Faerie, Broken, and Broken's protege discover a magical, reality-altering typewriter.  Cloak, being a Realm Walker and the other three, being magical, are immune to its rewrites of reality.

• Book CLII: The Coming of Galacticron

The RAFians must save Earth from Galacticron.

• Book CLIII: Theft of Intellectual Property

The RAFians must contend with Brainiac.

• Book CLIV: The Contingency

The RAFians must battle the Talos Project and their living weapon -- Weapon XLIX.

• Book CLV: Muppet, Muppet Man

Parker and Gaz are turned into Muppets. ()

• Book CLVI: Larval Ambush

The RAFians must deal with insectoid creatures who are parasitoids with humans.

• Book CLVII: As the World Doesn't Turn

The RAFians must stop a group of feline aliens from stopping the world from rotating.

• Book CLVIII: Princess Pearls

A few girls of RAf discover the Princess Pearls.

• Book CLVIX: Attack of the Killer Produce

The RAfians must deal and cope with killer produce.

• Book CLX: Moonscarred Menace

The RAfians investigate mysterious disappearances on Moonscar Island.

• Book CLXI: League of Assassins

The League of Assassins set a number of Assassins after Blue.

• Book CLXII: Dark RAFians

The RAFians come up against an evil team modeled after them, attempting to usurp their postions.

• Book CLXIII: Danger Rising

The RAFians' training sim gains sentience.

• Book CLXIV: Moody

Gaz and Saffa accidentally have Moodulators attached to them.

• Book CLXV: Bound Together

Some RAFians get molecularly stuck together.

• Book CLXVI: The Legion of RAFians

The 31^st century RAFians are being picked off and controlled by a group calling themselves the Fantastic Fatalities. May be an out-of-continuity book.

• Book CLXVII: Monster Mash

A deranged Yeerk tries to merge its DNA with a Geonosian Brain Worm to rid itself of its Kadronna dependency.

• Book CLXVIII: Jumping to Conclusions

A xenophobic, reliously-zealous, former government man confuses Cloak with a "Jumper".

• Book CLXIX: You Wish!

An ancient lamp is uncovered, and an ancient warlock seeks it out, while RAF gets caught in the middle.

• Book CLXX: Hat's Off

The RAFians must deal with a quartet of hat-like aliens.

• Book CLXXI: You Are What You Read

The RAFians must deal with a "Captain Marvel"-style vigilante, who turns supervillian.

• Book CLXXII: Wrath of the Colossuses

The RAfians must stop the rising Nazca Colossuses.

• Book CLXXIII: The Year Without RAF

Estelore tells the RAFian version of "The Year Without Santa Claus".

• Book CLXXIV: Kidnapped

The government begins to kidnap RAFians.

• Book CLXXV: Lockdown

The RAFian database had been hacked and lockdown activated.

• Book CLXXVI: Exhile

Cloak discovers the "Book of Prophecy".

• Book CLXXVII: Swarm of Supermen

RAF is under attack from Kryptonians. Out-of-continuity.

• Book CLXXVIII: Dullsville

An alien tick turns RAF in't a boring, drab place.

• Book CLXXIX: Technovampirism

A malicious Galvanic Mechamorph assimilates technology into himself.

• Book CLXXX: Go to Hell

Some RAFians are sent to Hell, and must escape.

• Book CLXXXI: Schism

Parker and Cloak have a conflict of methodology. Out-of-continuity.

• Book CLXXXII: Caught in the Middle

The RAFians are caught in the middle of the Wager of the Octessence and their Exemplars.

• Book CLXXXIII: A Fractured Mind

The RAFians try to help a mutant boy with multiple personality disorder.

• Book CLXXXIV: The A.R.A.

The RAFians must battle the A.R.A.

• Book CLXXXV: Orphanage of the Damned

The RAFians must face a "Granny Goodness" and her brainwashed orphans.

• Book CLXXXVI: Remnant A.E.

The Earth blows up, and the RAFians must survive space. Out-of-continuity.

• Book CLXXXVII: Dried Out

The RAFians must deal with a strange creature created by black magic.

• Book CLXXXVIII: Hammer Time

The RAFians must deal with sentient hammers who possess those worthy to wield them, forged by Singularity.

• Book CLXXXIX: Shenecron's Pets

The RAFians must battle Shenecron's monstrous pets.

• Book CXC: The Prism

Four RAFians are seperated into the emotional spectrum.

• Book CXCI: An Attention Hog

The RAFian deal with a rogue quantum lichen.

• Book CXCII: The Engulfer

The RAFians must deal with creature created of the DNA of two RAFians and a Heinlin.

• Book CXCIII: The Horde

The RAFians must battle self-replicating creatures.

• Book CXCIV: RAF 1602

RAF, set in 1602.

All titles are libel to change.

EDIT: Oh, and Saffa, could I get a form of those PDFs that I can copy and paste to my e-mail? A couple of my friends are highly interested in these. Granted, I could tell them just to join, but that may mean just more lurkers or turn them off to it altogether. . . . *shrug*

[Cloak]

New chapter. May be brief -- and may get cut off, but I'll finish it when I can.
 

CHAPTER TWO:
Setting Up Shop

The piper left the dilapidated shack, trying to decide if this job was worth it. Malice wasn't the first employer that wanted the piper to lure people away, even to their doom off cliffs. But he really wanted that money, despite not knowing just how underhanded Malice was capable of being. He eventually came to the conclusion that he would commit to the job, thinking that the reward was a justifiable amount, believing it to be a large sum.
 
Now, he would require a place, a base of operations. Preferably one that could enable him to use his abilities on a large scale.
 
Hmmm . . . that radio tower will do.  He played his flute, making the inhabitants forcibly dance out and away from the building, leaving the door unlocked.  He entered, and barricaded the entrance.  He made sure to wear a mask that made him look older than he really was, a different race than he was, balding, and with an implausible mustache style.  Once inside, he removed the mask rather haphazardly.
 
Then he checked out the equipment, which he apparently was familiar with. He was apparently a failed flutist, who became a pied-piper-for-hire after being rejected by big name record producers -- who were mostly interested in no-talent hacks and egotistical pretty boys (not all, but a lot of these producers). All seemed not interested in a very talented flutist, none apparently believing that such a thing would sell very well. This piper -- "Pretty Boy" Preston, as he attempted to use as his professional name -- got his revenege by "pipering" them out a window. Ever since then, he took the name "the Piper". Apparently, he was also distantly related to the Music Miser.
 
The equipment seemed to have met the Piper's high standards, and he began to flick little switches and turn knobs and press buttons deftly. He was preparing to broadcast his music into RAF. He set his flute to "Yeerk" . . .
 

***

"What is that?" Myitt asked.
 
"Flute music," Sakki shrugged, not even looking up from her magazine.
 
"But why? This channel isn't for flute music, but that's what's been on it all hour."
 
"Who knows?"
 

***

The Piper was taken aback, as he watched through his minute spybots. No Yeerk, RAFian or otherwise, was dancing or even jiving a little. How was this possible?
 
It was simple. Yeerks are naturally deaf, even when using their host's ears, they technically have no hearing themselves.  They could not directly hear the Piper's music, as the music was specifically targeted to Yeerks, which was contradiction of itself, because they must use to their host's brain to decipher sounds.

But the Piper wasn't deterred. He decided to change up the plan. Target a species that he could use. . . .

[redtailedsaffa]

Would a Zip file or RAR archive do? Though when it comes to email, I'm pretty sure the Zip file will be more readily accepted - provided you can attach Zip files through mail, that is. I'm pretty sure you can. Of course, you'll have to have WinZip installed on your computer to decompress and access the PDFs. You could always download a free trial version for that sole purpose and use a USB later.

[Cloak]

I was thinking like a weblink that I could copy and paste. I suppose my computer know-how is limited.

Anyway, I'll try to post another chapter later, if I'm up to it.

[theyoungphoenix]

You can always email me. The app that I have for the PDFs lets me send them via email and you could always just forward them or something.

[redtailedsaffa]

I was thinking like a weblink that I could copy and paste. I suppose my computer know-how is limited.

Anyway, I'll try to post another chapter later, if I'm up to it.

Well, I haven't exactly uploaded it to any other website - I tend not to use file-sharing websites. Anyway here's the zip file. All you have to do is download it to your system and uncompress it with WinZip, if you have it (if you don't, download a free trial version from the net). If you need any help, just let me know, I'll guide you step by step.

[Cloak]

Well, maybe later, Saffa -- I'm feeling sleepy and lazy right now.

CHAPTER THREE:
Interruptions

". . . and that's the end of 'Revenge of then Banned'." Horse was saying before a group of young RAFians (in terms of actual age, not seniority). An obligatory round of applause was sounded, some clapping with more enthusiasm than others. Horse was modest in return. "Thank you, thank you. Now, go ahead, get up stretch, go get a snack, and whatnot. I'll start 'An Error Has Occured' in fifteen, twenty minutes."

Most of the crowd dispersed, as Horse took a drink of water. She was in seal form currently, which made it rather a spectacle.

Soon, twenty minutes had passed and nearly all of the group had returned.

"Now, let's get started, shall we?" Horse said, preparing to start reading her second book. But she was rudely interrupted. She complained, "HEY! I'm having a book reading here!"

Then she shifted into her humanoid form, and ran to the door . . . and saw the cause of the interruption. Horse was aghast. "No . . . way. Just . . . no . . . way."

There was line-dancing Andalite RAFians. Horse didn't know that Andalites could line-dance.

It was then that Horse could hear the flute music. She was puzzled and perplexed at this.

Cloak was just as confused by this. He found the flute music quire irritating after a while, like people who decide to have seven days of fireworks every day in the week containing July 4.

Then the Andalites' thought-speak cries of help were noticed -- they weren't line-dancing voluntarily.

But what could they do? Where was that music coming from? Why wasn't the Mark blocking its effects?

***

"Excellent," Malice said, with moderate interest. She was watching all this with the very same spybots that Piper was using, as she was the one that gave them to him, via Rumor. "This is one scheme that might work. I'll break Cloak eventually."

Rumor gave some inquiring grunts. He was asking why breaking Cloak was so important to her.

"That," Malice said, "is none of your business."