Memoirs of a RAFian

[Underseen]

The UHF reference was impossible to miss.

[Cloak]

Yeah. No new chapters until later tonight, working noon to 8:30 today, then 10 to 6:30 tomorrow.

EDIT: Sorry that I didn't post a chapter last night. Worked a bit of overtime and was EXHAUSTED when I came home.

EDIT: Alrighty then, down to business.

CHAPTER TEN:
The Surprising Subterfuge

"Veil's bells, Parker!" Cloak moaned, a few days after the AMS. "You know someone's trying to get a scan of that armor! And you're just parading it around --"

"It's as much a part of me as your cloak is to you!" the SPARTAN protested.

"You know why I must wear this," Cloak said, forcing his voice to be even. "And no one's trying to scan my cloak."

"You worry too much, Cloak," Parker said, starting the usual refrain.

"And you don't worry enough!" Cloak said, repeating the circular debate.

"Excuse me," said a voice. Youthful, yet matured. The two turned and saw Gary's surrogate. Immediately, Cloak was wary. He still remembered Itellsya's betrayal, and it wasn't something he would not ever take lightly again.

Parker, however, was more accommodating.

"Hey there. What can I help you with?"

"He's seventeen, not seven." Cloak commented brusquely. He was still eyeing this newcomer suspiciously. He detected metal within this boy.

"Where do I register?" he asked, looking Parker up and down. As if he was sizing him up.

Cloak's eyes widened when he realized.

"Oh, you just go --"

"Parker, get away from it!" Cloak shouted, realizing this boy was anything but. He was fully composed of metal, circuits and mechanical fluids. It was just a robot.

Gary smiled broadly and sinisterly which heavily distorted this surrogate's features. In a metaphorical sense, of course.

"Clever girl." he said.

Cloak seized the surrogate by the throat. "Did you just call me a girl?"

Despite all this imminent danger, Gary laughed through the surrogate.

"It's too late, fools! I have the completed scan."

Cloak's face hardened as Parker's face widened into one of shock. Cloak's grip ferrokinetically tightened.

"Oh, go ahead," Gary replied flippantly. "This body is expendable. I'm still at my hideout. I don't need this hunk husk anymore. Go ahead and destroy it, I don't care."

Then the surrogate jerked slightly suddenly and the eyes became blank and stationary. He could be dead if he hadn't already gotten stiff and everything.

"Gateburst!!" Cloak cursed so loudly people two miles away would have caught his voice upon the wind.

[Cloak]

Okay, well, now I'm currently planning out Book CXCV ("Reanimated").

CHAPTER ELEVEN:
Repercussions and Replicas

Cloak through the useless thing aside. He was very tempted to say, "I told you so," but what would be the point? What would have stopped this OCD person from breaking into Parker's thread and scanning it?

"Cloak . . ."

"Save it," Cloak said bluntly. "We need to find this whacko's lair. Now."

"But . . . how? He was controlling the thing remotely."

"Doesn't mean that there wouldn't be traces on it." Cloak said. "That's the only reason it isn't metal powder and shrapnel right now."

Parker, even in his stunned state caught onto Cloak's meaning.

"So Aquilai, Yarin, and Goom have got a new project?"

"Decidedly so, I believe."

***

Weeks passed, and the trio hadn't managed to crack to the source of the remote signal or any other tell-tale trace of his location.

Meanwhile, Parker was having wildly fluctuating mood swings. He would be subdued and amiable one moment and surly and prone to argument the other. Cloak, on the other hand, was just quietly thoughtful, pondering and questioning the motives behind the drive for this scan.

***

"They're done," Gary said, smiling. "All fourteen. All improved on the specs."

He approached each one, touching affectionately.

"The Hyperion Armor . . . the Gigas Armor . . . the Chrysaor Armor . . . the Nova Force Armor . . . the Dark Slash Armor . . . the Falco Armor . . . the Terran Armor . . . the Slashing Strike Armor . . . the Ninjitsu Armor . . . the Aeolus Armor . . . the Prometheus Armor . . . the Icarus Armor . . . the Hermes Armor . . ."

Then he stepped up, admiringly, to the last armor. He caressed it, making it clear that it was his favorite of the lot.

"And . . . the . . . Apex Armor."

[Underseen]

You have Parker's character spot on.

[redtailedsaffa]

^^ what he said.

Dang, I decide to go to sleep earlier for once, and suddenly two wild chapters appear.

[theyoungphoenix]

I think I may be here a bit longer, at least until the 21st... Until school starts, that is...

Great chappies Cloaky!!

[Estelore]

This thread seriously needs a drinking game dedicated to it.


...Not that anybody would get out of that without some organ failure, but still.

[redtailedsaffa]

Ha ha ha. Guess what's going to happen in the next chapter; if you're wrong, down a pint!

Of course, the organ failure is inevitable in this case, since Cloak always keeps the reader guessing...

[Cloak]

[...] since Cloak always keeps the reader guessing...

*chuckles*

And, to think, I worry about being too obvious.

EDIT: Now a new chapter. May be brief.

CHAPTER TWELVE:
A Questionable Decision

"Okay, we'll begin the auction at $1,400." Gary said, showcasing the Hyperion Armor. He wore the Apex Armor for himself, he wasn't going to sell it. This was the most powerful one, and it was his alone.

The Hyperion Armor went for $4,181 to Albert Thomas Wright, a disgruntled inventor and homegrown terrorist.

The Gigas Armor was next. A career criminal -- Marcus Jackson -- bought it for a whopping $4,218.

The Chrysaor Armor was next. Xavier Aurum, a notorious defrauder, quickly bought it for $8,413. The check cleared.

The Nova Force Armor went for $4,418, to a paramilitary, technomaniacal extremist, Petra Foreman.

The Falco Armor went to Xavier Conrad, an air-based career criminal, for $1,588.

The Gaia Armor went to Gaea Eckles, an incurably brutish bully, for $1,858.

The Slashing Strike Armor was purchased for $6,818 by Blake Slycer.

The Ninjitsu Armor was taken for $6,188 by Karai Jensen, a thief and ninja wannabe.

The Aeolus Armor went to Arianna Glyde, a criminal with a perchant for extreme risks, for $8,178.

The Dark Slash Armor went for $4,000, paid by Owen O'Connell.

The Prometheus Armor went to Erin Pandorah, a burglar and thief, for $8,718.

The Icarus Armor went to Joyce Lowe, an inept criminal, for $8,188.

Finally, the Hermes Armor went to a reluctant terrorist, Luke Courier for $8,881.

"That's it, auction is over." Gary said, shutting down the auction.

"What about the one your wearing?" came an arrogant voice.

"Not for sale," he said, laying delicate emphasis upon the first word. "Now, the lot of you, get lost. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here."

[redtailedsaffa]

You'da thought he'd find a more respectable bunch to sell these to...

[Cloak]

The Joker, Penguin, and Two-Face were busy.

EDIT: Possibly brief chapter.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
Violation and Obsession

"What?" Parker's voice was hollow. He had just discovered that Gary's auction, but it was far too late to do anything about it.

"Parker, you shouldn't do anything hastily." Cloak attempted to advise. "Those who do not think before doing often find themselves in very precarious situations."

Parker said nothing, but he felt thoroughly violated. His armor was more than just a simple hybridized hunk of SPARTAN/Cybertronian/Realm Walker tech. His armor was a part of him, like a secondary skin to him. And, to find out that copies were just sold like sides of beef . . .

Cloak was aware of this sense of violation in his friend. He knew nothing he could say would free Parker from this crushing sensation of violation.

"Parker --"

"Leave me alone," Parker snapped.

Cloak, suddenly recognizing a correlation between this reaction and his own to the guardian spirit of his grandfather during that Piper incident, nodded his head slighty. He said, "As you wish, then, Parker. Do what you feel is right."

Cloak left, and Parker thought about the word he said.

"What I think is right . . ."

***

Meanwhile, Ravager's camera had travelled to RAF to see this exchange between the two.

Malice snorted at Parker's feelings of violation. But, of course, Malice considered hers as the only one whose feelings that matter.

"These Dwellers . . ." she said scornfully. "How very pathetic. Very easy to manipulate. Easier to break."

Ravager snarled a bit.

"Of course I won't stop doing things like this to them, Ravager," she replied, blithely. "They all just exist simply for my amusement, you know."

Ravager made an odd deep-throated purring noise.

"Perhaps one day, Ravager. Perhaps one day I will get bored with them . . ."

[redtailedsaffa]

When Malice talks of being bored with Dwellers, I can't help think of Moriarty, getting bored and blowing up stuff.

Sorry. Just watched two straight episodes of Sherlock.

[Cloak]

And you'll find out why she is as she is in "Making of a Monster", which I'm currently planning out.

And, as it stands now, the current book might have 22 chapters.

EDIT: Well, I'm onto planning out "Heart-Numbing". As for "Making A Monster", I fear that I may have made Malice perhaps a bit too sympathetic . . . but we won't know until we get there. Something very shocking and very changing will happen in that book too, I think.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
Parker's Enlightenment, Assembly Included

"Where's Parker?" Cloak asked Helen. Parker had been sulking rather recently.

"What he needs to," Helen said, rather evasively, "to recover."

Cloak narrowed his eyes as she pushed past him. Cloak noted the evasiveness of her tone, but let it slide. He hoped that Parker hadn't decided to do anything rash.

Meanwhile, the RAFians were convening in the auditorium. Cloak took his usual position in the back, while Helen sat toward the front. Cloak couldn't help but wonder if Parker told his plans to her before he took off.

***

Parker was tracking down the Hyperion Armored Dr. Wright. He managed to fight him easily enough.

"Tyr?" Parker asked. "Display known abilities."

Tyr responded, "Indestructible helmet, capable to bursting through solid rock. Plasma cannon, cable of powerful blasts. Durable, thick body armor. Dashing ability."

"Anything else?"

"No."

"Sure?"

"You've been discovered," Tyr said drily.

Parker rolled out of the way of the plasma blast, just before it connected with crates he was hiding behind.

"Dirty infidel," Albert decried.

"Yeah?" Parker said, defiantly. "Well, you've something of mine, which I aim to get back."

BOOM! Wright fired a burst of pinkish plasma which Parker deflected back at him.

"Sorry to diappoint you, infidel, but I paid good money for this armor. I'm going to keep it."

Then the terrorist managed to destroy several of Parker's Ride Armors, but it enabled Parker to get close to Wright. As soon as Parker's fingers touched the Armor, something quite unexpected happened.

The Hyperion Armor glowed, and Parker could not remove his hand, no matter how wright struggled. Within seconds, the Hyperion Armor turned muddy brown and black. Then it fell away from Wright and Parker's hands were free of it.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!?!" Wright raged.

"Nothing," Parker said, signaling the police to capture the terrorist. Parker didn't realize it yet, but the Hyperion Armor wasn't gone. It was his to with what he wished, as it recognized him as its rightful owner. He could switch the armors at will.

[Cloak]

Now, the chapter for the day. I suppose its ironic, given its Parker's birthday and all.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
Giga Ouchie

The assembly was rather boring, basically rehashing all the crimes commited by armored criminals. It was the immediate briefing of the sudden disappearance of the Hyperion Armor and arrest of Albert Thomas Wright, that Cloak remembered the quirk of Realm Walker tech he gave Parker -- it had marked him as the true owner of the tech, and any replication of the armor would acknowledge this. Cloak had always assumed this was bluster in how much "better" Realm Walkers were to Dwellers.

The mere thought of this ethnocentrism made Cloak roll his eyes.

"Now," Richard said as the presentation concluded, "the question is how fo we stop these replicas."

"We don't," Cloak said in a low voice than nonetheless carried. A stunned silence met these words, though Helen looked worried that Cloak would out what Parker was doing.

"Are you actually suggesting we sit around and do nothing? While those criminal remain at large? This our jurisdiction!" Sakki asked aggressively.

"It is being taken care of," Cloak said. "The reclamation of the tech is being accomplished by the only one that can reclaim it."

"Don't get mysterious on us, be blunt." Duff said brusquely.

"Point is," Cloak said, nettled, "that they are being reclaimed by their rightful owner. What we need to do is find the person who started all this."

***

The battle was vicious. Marcus Jackson showed no compunction to mercy, to sadism. He was all about brutal efficiency.

But, in the end, Parker still reclaimed the Gigas Armor for his own.

[redtailedsaffa]

It really is Parker's birthday. Look at all the presents he's getting.