Memoirs of a RAFian

[redtailedsaffa]

Wouldn't want it to end.

[Cloak]

D'awww.

Anyways, I'm not sure I'll be able to post another chapter today.  Gonna be dead tired. The weekend will be a lot easier.

CHAPTER NINETEEN:
Turning the Tables

"So . . . yummy . . ." Queen Scarab muttered. Yet, she didn't notice that Richard's restraints had popped open like a pressurized can in a hot car.

"Get away from him!" a voie cried as a tremendous force of wind blasted through the tent blowing it to one side. Estelore used her stellar wiles to incinerate the tent. Yet, Queen Scarab never once loosened her grip. She had waited so long, too long.

"Such tenacity," Underseen observed.

"You too late, RAFians!" Queen Scarab said in a gurgling way that was reminiscent of Krang. "I'll be able to live forever soon! Nevermore will I have to ritually drain street people to extend replenish my immortality!"

Revoltion rippled through the RAFians. Estelore was so disgusted she had to take a step back. So . . . she lived this long by stealing the lifeforces of the homeless? Of society's forgotten? The RAFians were frozen revilement of this . . . this creature. To write off people as worthless just because she assumed these people wouldn't be missed.

"Don't think you've won just yet," Richard said, still possessing Preston's form and voice. He took his hand and planted them on Queen Scarab's forearms. The black concentric circles crawling up Queen Scarab's arms slowed before stopping completely.

"What the deuce?!" Queen Scarab demanded.

"I'm taking back what's rightfully mine!" Richard declared, as the concentric rings reversed direction and began pulling the power, the vitality, back to Richard. The energy she had stolen from him.

"No! No!" she sobbed pathetically. "Give it back! It's mine! Mine!"

Richard stood under his own power, and continued to take his power, his vitality, back. As he stood, he quickly was reforming into the Richard the RAFians knew so well, with his clothes resizing with his increasing stature. Soon, he broke contact and a brilliant blue flash obscured everything.

The RAFians had to avert their eyes from the brightness. But when it ended, Richard was looking and acting like his old self, while Queen Scarab seemed stuck in her monster form.

"What did you?" Queen snarled furiously and accusingly.

"I told you," he said, " I took back what you stole from me."

"This changes nothing!" she said savagely. "I drained you twice --"

"Never completely." Saffa interject.

"Shut up!" she snarled. "I'll have your power again. Mark my words, I'll drain you completely sooner or later."

"I wouldn't bet on it." Cloak said.

[redtailedsaffa]

I wouldn't bet on it either, it's the last chapter. Unless...?

[Cloak]

Oh, it is the last chapter, but a rather open-ended one. Which I'll post shortly. Five an half hours straight of washing windows -- my arms and shoulders are sore.

[DinosaurNothlit]

Caught up (again)!  Internet's been in limbo lately, so I don't know how far behind I'm going to get by the time I have reliable internet again. 

That said, I'm loving this book.  I always love the out-of-continuity stories, and there's something about the idea of RAFians lying dormant for however many years and then making this incredibly epic comeback to thwart Queen/Malice . . . the whole concept just gives me this warm fuzzy feeling that RAF could never truly die. 

[Cloak]

Thanks, Dino.

My Internet decided to be unreliable, so I'm gonna wait to post the last chapter tomorrow. Sorry.

Well, my Internet is still unreliable, but . . .

CHAPTER TWENTY:
A New Technique

"And why would that be, twit?" Queen Scarab sneered. "You haven't got anything."

"You'd be surprised," Cloak said evenly. "Your power comes from when Malice's deux es macina intermingled, merged, with you."

"Ridiculous."

"Not to mention that it's influence twisted your mind and your soul," Cloak continued as if there was no interruption. "But just because it had intermingled with, just because Malice's darkness and evil infected you, does not mean that it cannot be purged."

"Purged?" Estelore asked. "Then what'll happen to Queen Scarab?"

"I do not know, in all honesty," Cloak said stoically. "But purged, Queen Scarab will, presumably, revert to Queen without any of Malice's malevolent influence."

"You're all talk!" Queen Scarab screamed. "My power is my own! I didn't get it when one miserable Realm Walker died!"

"Really? Then how did you know what a Realm Walker deus es machina is?" Yarin asked.

That shut her up.

"Now we begin." Cloak said, taking a fighting stance, making sure that he was in his golden armor.

"Good luck," Richard added.

Suddenly, two pillars of water emerged in a double helix formation around Queen Scarab.  Cloak allowed it to go on like this for a bit. Then sand appeared in another double helix structure around Queen Scarab, who seemed to stunned to react, to move. About five minutes later, columns of fire erupted and bent into a double helix pattern around Queen. So far only three elements encircled Queen Scarab.

Five minutes later, columns of hurricane-force winds erupted and bent into a double helix formation. Then wood splinters flew into a double helix pattern, and metzl shrapnel followed suit. All six elements encircled Queen Scarab.

Then Cloak gestured his hands as if he was spinning a very large basketball that was affixed to a static point. The elements started to rotate to the left. Faster and faster and faster . . . until a hiss quite disconnected from the elemental funnel. Within minutes, the funnel evaporated.

"It is done," Cloak said, armor evaporating, energy nearly depleted.

Queen Scarab was no more. Queen lay there, unconscious. Malice's deux es machina had left her. She was as she was five thousand years ago.

But there was a little something the RAFians had forgotten.

"THAT WAS TOTALLY WICKED!!" Billy exclaimed.

[Cloak]

Okay, this is my second attempt at getting this chapter up. Gonna give it another shot.

BOOK LIII:
The Pain Reliever
Chapter One:
Pains of the Past

"You cheated a little, Underseen," Cloak teased.

He was monitoring the shapeshifter's training simulation in the "Danger Room"-like simulator, which had just ended.

"You're just mad that I beat your high score!" Underseen countered impishly.

It was true, but Cloak had only used the thing twice. He wasn't ever really motivated in it also. He always preferred to train in the elements outside. Those weren't excuses, though! Really, they weren't!

"You broke the rules of the simulation," Cloak said in a mostly indifferent, bland way. "You were not to try and overpower your opponent but evade and outthink them."

Underseen declared dramatically, "Screw the rules, I have green hair!"

"Uh, no, you don't."

There should have been a sound like a pop or something as Underseen's hair became green, and couffed like the top of a frosted PokePuff.

"How 'bout now?"

***

Later that evening, Cloak stood on the edge of the forest, watching the sun decend the horizon. Despite himself, his thoughts turned to his traumatic past. It was the anniversary -- or maybe a month later. Translating Nexus and Realm time was not always an easy thing.

"Leave me be," Cloak said to the approaching figure without even turning around.

"What's wrong?" It was Aquilai.

"I . . . I don't want to talk about it."

"Cloak, it's your childhood, isn't it?"

"I said I don't want to talk about it," Cloak repeated.

WHACK!!

"HEY!!" Cloak cried. Aquilai had hit him with a branch. "GEEZ!! What was that for?!"

"Doesn't matter," the Time Lord replied. "It's in the past."

"What? It still twinges," Cloak said, rubbing his head.

"Yes, the past can hurt." Aquilai said, arms folded. "But, as I see it, you can either run or dwell on it --"

He swung the branch again, unpredictably. Cloak dodged.

"Or learn from it."

Cloak realized Aquilai's message. And he was at a loss for words.

[redtailedsaffa]

(1) Loved the Incredibles reference at the end of the last book! That was a great book, too.

(2) Also loved Aquilai's little bit back there.

(3) PDF of book 52!

[Underseen]

Not to mention the YGTAS reference at the beginning of this book

[Cloak]

Yes, and I've been planning the chapters of Book CCXXII ("Brain Sponge"). Over halfway through.

CHAPTER TWO:
Relief, At A Steep Price

A derelict, shrine-like ship the size of an aircraft carrier floated aimlessly through the vastness of space. A small, personal Piscciss-borne spacecraft made its way to the ship, where a fabled sage was said to relieve a heart's pain was said to dwell.

A word of caution was given with this legend though. Those that sought out the services of the Pain Reliever were never seen again. This led some to denounce him as a demon, a monster. But, usually, those in pain disregarded such caution. They only desired to stop hurting. Some wounds simply could not, would not, heal.

The female Piscciss Volann piloting the beat-up, rickety ship was suffering. Nothing physical, but not all pain is limited to the realm of the tangible. She was suffering from a severe heartbreak. It was exactly clear what triggered it, but she clearly was experiencing intolerable, excruciating pain.

She docked with the ship, married the hatches, and put on her reverse rebreathers. Then she walked into the ship. But she, full of nerves, loitered in the doorway to the Pain Reliever.

"Come in, come in!" the Pain Reliever said, welcomingly. It was amazing that he could see at all, as his eyes were bandaged, though it appeared that he may have a third one, which was shut. Other than his purplish-green hue, macrocephaly, and the aforementioned third eye, he could have passed for an ordinary Vulcan. He was obviously the hyper-evolved Vulcan who escaped. Clearly, he got a ship, and amassed a cult following. "Come in, child. We mustn't lurk in doorways. It's rude."

She slowly entered the room, in an scared, cautious way that was rather uncharacteristic for Piscciss Volann.

"One might question your upbringing," the Pain Reliever chuckled, sitting on a throne of torn and ripped velvet. "Now, dear, I see you've travelled a long way. You have suffered great pain. Yes . . ."

"Please . . ." her voice was a croak, "please . . . just make it go away. . . . Please. . . ."

"Of course, child," the hyper-evolved Vulcan said, "come closer. Let me lay my hand upon your flesh."

He placed a dainty, frail-looking hand upon the side of her face. It was slimy, but the Pain Reliever did not recoil or react negatively.

"I am afraid," she confessed.

"There's no need to be, my dear," he said. "The pain will leave you forever. You'll be at peace, the peace you so ardently desire so covetously."

She shut her eyes, and the Pain Reliever opened his third eye. There was a brillant flash, and the Piscciss Volann fell to the deck, motionless.

She was dead.

"Her pain has be relieved," he claimed, as he shut his third eye. "Her peace has been restored."

His followers dragged the body away -- there was no way he couldn't have heard it.

[Gaz]

Good stuff!

[Cloak]

Yes, and here's very probably the last chapter tonight.

CHAPTER THREE:
Rendezvous En Route

These disappearance at the hands of this supposed Pain Reliever began to attract the attention of the RAFians. Aquilai, Cloak, Gaz (sporting Laserbeak on her shoulder), Saffa, Demos, Underseen, and Noelle (with Yarin piloting his ship) were dispatched to rendezvous with Estelore, and, from there, investigate the disappearances.

It was still a long journey to get to that sector, but it could be worse. They could go to the Null Void.

And Cloak was feeling a bit cranky. He was out one element on spacecraft, his favored one.

"Oh, c'mon, Cloaky," Gaz said bracingly, rubbing Laserbeak's besk as he cooed appreciatively. "It'll do you some good to get out of that stuffy forum!"

"And into a stuffier spacecraft," Cloak grumbled.

"Hey! My ship is not stuffy!" Yarin sniffed.

"Touchy," Aquilai noted.

"Hey, what if I called your TARDIS stuffy?" Yarin countered.

"Eh."

"Okay, how about 'smelly'?"

"Hey, it is not smelly!" Aquilai protested.

"Okay, that's enough, you two." Saffa said.

"Oh, it was just getting good, Saffa!" Demos complained.

"Oh, don't make me slap you, you dirty demon," Saffa said, offhandedly with no malice.

Noelle said nothing, but grinded her hoof nervously on the smooth polish surface of the floor. Yarin loved this ship as much as Kevin Levin loves his car.

<There's Esty,> she said, breaking the few minutes silence that had erupted spontaneously. <Perhaps she's found something already.>

"Hopefully, it's good news, if any," Underseen undertoned.

"You should write greeting cards, Underseen," Saffa said, in her usual sassy way.

[redtailedsaffa]

There is something very spiritual about the "pain relief" here.

[Cloak]

Dunno about that, Saffa. Then again, I'm not the most spiritual of people myself. And I know what's coming next.

Probably gonna be a short chapter.

CHAPTER FOUR:
A Relief Tour

The Pain Reliever's ship powered up and moved to a different area of space, getting rather close to the Anur system. Yet he dare not delve into the Anomalous Nebula, though he greatly wished to. What he, himself, desired was said to be within that large nebula, which was scarlet with bluish-purple trim. He did not disclose anything to his followers, considering them little more than servants or slaves, expendable and dispensable. But he made a conscious effort not to say anything to trigger resentment, opting to make it sound like the servitude was a great situation, an excellent vocation. He was a strong telepath now, so he knows of any mutinous thoughts straight away. Those that have such thoughts are plied with platitudes and such. The more stubborn ones are given a "memory modification" -- a total lobotomy where the brain is replaced, cell by cell, with a computerized one -- to become the Reliever's Elite Guard. Of course, the followers -- no matter how devout -- knew these truths.

He cared little about the ones that he "relieved". He knew that he was killing them, but twisted it so that they were, technically, relieved of their pain. Going to him to relieve your pain was essentially committing suicide.

He looked yearnfully outside his window, seeing a faint blip of the Anomalous Nebula with his two standard eyes, which was still bandaged. He touched these bandages, remembering why he had to were them. But he could see everything, no deception could be undetected by them.

"Sir," said a male voice. The Pain Reliever's most devout follower, a Triceraton. "A young Pyronite in pain has come to see you."

"Very well," he replied. "Thank you."

And so it went. The Pain Reliever "relieved" the Pyronite of his pain. He was followed by a Talpaedan, a Geochelone Aerio, a Florauna, and a Biosovortian. All "relieved", all bodies disposed of.

The Pain Reliever noted such disposal of the remenants of the "relieved" was probably a waste. Why couldn't he simply "promote" them to his Elite Guard? The answer was simple. They could not waste their resources to support their highly individualized needs. This was far better, as they kept coming and he kept up the pretense.

Why did he do so? It was not logical, something that Vukcans were known to embrace. But he was as beyond the Vulcans as humans were beyond protosimians. Perhaps he enjoyed the legendary status. Perhaps he, in some perverted, twisted way, thought he was genuinely helping out these hurting beings.

Perhaps it was just a way to find the way to navigate the Anomalous Nebula safely. A way of bringing those with the power to him. If that was the case, he hadn't found them yet. So, he persisted in this facade, this sham.

"One day," he muttered to himself, "one day, I'll have you."

"Sir," the Triceraton said, "we have a Methanosian in pain."

"Very well," he said in reply.

[redtailedsaffa]

I guess I identify with it because of my grandmother. At the moment, she's so sick and suffering and making us suffer because of it, we feel the best thing that could happen is for her to pass away in peace. That way she'll truly be relieved.