Memoirs of a RAFian

[Gaz]

Still following these. Love 'em!

[Cloak]

Thanks Gazzy, although you may change your mind in the next book.  It's where we will see the Eleventh Aquilai and the Eleventh Aila. . . . But we're like eighteen chapters away from the end of THIS book, so . . .

CHAPTER THREE:
FYI

Cloak stood back on his usual hill overlooking the forum, pondering if he should go back to Yarin's lab.  Should he impress again the dangers of meddling with an unknown substance?  He could blow the blasted forum to kingdom come for all Cloak knew.  Or rather . . . larger . . . dangers. . . .

Yes, he must go back.  He must make Yarin see reason.  Exoporon is not something to be trifled with.  Granted it's not radioactive like uranium, or poisonous like chlorine.  It's inert in water, unlike sodium . . .

But when Cloak returned, Yarin had crystallized the exoporon and . . . built a microwave?  But it was rather larger than a microwave, 'bout 67% bigger.  And Yarin was fiddling with some wires or something in back of it.

Cloak suddenly realized that he and Yarin weren't alone in the lab.  Horse, Gaz, Parker, and Blaze were there, as well.  Apparently, Yarin had called them down to show off his overlarge microwave.

"There," he muttered, as he shut a panel in the back of the microwave.  Then he stepped out from behind his machine, rubbing his four hands on what appeared to be an oily rag.

"Oh, Cloak!  Glad to see you here.  I'm just about to unveil my newest invention."

"Yarin, microwaves have already been invented," Cloak replied dully.

"It's not a microwave," Yarin countered, "it's a food-yield increaser."

"An FYI?" Gaz asked, sounding skeptical.

"No, a food-yield increaser," Yarin said, forcing some of the testy tone out of his voice.

Horse was sitting right next to it, licking some sort of ice cream cone.  Cloak could not tell the flavor of it, but it appeared to be gray as a stormy cloud.  Cloak marveled at how she could even hold it -- then again, Horse was not an ordinary seal.

Suddenly, there was an electrical snap, followed by two quick pops, and a greenish-blue flash.  Cloak swept his cloak in front of his eyes in a very Batman maneuver.  When the flash had gone, Cloak lowered his cloak, and saw Yarin yelp, then dash to his machine.

"Just a malfunction.  Just a minor malfunction," he said quickly.  Cloak wondered if he was trying to convince them or himself.

"Horse!" Blaze cried.

Apparently, Horse was exposed to a strange ray, which was the source of the brillant flash.

"Horsie, are you alright?" Gaz asked, her tone gentle and calm.

"No!"

"What's wrong?" Parker asked, alarmed.

"My ice cream's melted!"

[Blazing Angel]

Nooooo!

[Darth Revan]

Oh no, not her ice cream.

[Cloak]

Oh, it gets worse.    Shortish chapter.

CHAPTER FOUR:
Green Horse and Damn

"Horse, forget the ice cream," Cloak pointed out, "you're glowing green.  Like you're . . . radioactive."

It couldn't have been the exoporon by itself, it must have been Yarin's tampering with it.  He may have altered it in some way.  In Realm -- well, in its original universe it was just used to make things roughly forty or so times their own height.  But never caused anyone to glow like a stick of plutonium or whatever.  Cloak however said nothing about this, although he probably should have.

"What? Oh," Horse said, distractedly.

"Horse, you need to see Goom in the infirmiry." Gaz agreed.

"She doesn't seem to be radioactive," Parker commented.

"That doesn't mean there couldn't be something wrong," Cloak interjected.  "Horse needs a full physical, a full diagnostic.  There may be something going on that we are not aware of."

"Hey!  I'm right here!  Stop talking about me like I'm not!" Horse protested.

"Come along, Horse," Blaze said, and the group travelled to the infirmary quickly.  But it was several long hours before the test came back.  Goom walked out -- Cloak noticed that he seemed to be sporting a lab coat.  Looked a bit awkward, as Goom lacked arms.

"From what I can tell, and what these test tell me," Goom said, "she's perfectly fine."

"She's glowing green!!" Mr. Guy exclaimed.  "How's that 'perfectly fine'?!"

"Sorry, Guy, but I can't find anything medically wrong with her.  All are instruments are state of the art, and the error margin is effectively nil."

"And that's the nail in the coffin right there," Cloak muttered.

"Goom, how come I get the feeling that we all are going to be regretting those words?" Blaze lamented.

Meanwhile, Horse was tossing and turning in her sleep.  She was dreaming that Guy was singing:

"Eat, Horse, eat.
Eat with all your might.
Eat that pasta.
Eat it fasta
'Til it's outta sight.
('Til it's outta sight.)
Munch, Horse, munch.
Come on, let's do lunch.
Make your belly
Mozzarelli.
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
(Crunch, crunch, crunch.)
Cheese, salami, ham and Swiss,
Whole-wheat, rye, and white.
Slices tomatoes,
Tons of mayo.
Love at first bite.
Horse, you're an awesome eater.
Yes, you are the top.
Butter betters, bitter batter.
You don't have to stop.
Double-stack it.
You can hack it.
Yum, Horse, yum.
Don't you miss a crumb.
Add a dinner.
You're the winner.
Don't you pause or you'll get thinner.
More, Horse, more!
Till you can't fit through the door!
EAT, HORSE, EAT!!
CHA, CHA, CHA!!!"

Horse awoke feeling quite famished.

[Blazing Angel]

0_0  ...Oh this can't be good at all.

[Cloak]

Well, as I've mentioned in the Random Thoughts thread, I've lost my chapter by chapter notes.  I should have had them in a notebook.  Oh, well.  I'll just have to wing it.  I'll make sure I don't do this for the next book.

Shortish chapter, I'm afraid.

CHAPTER FIVE:
Growing Pains

Mr. Guy was leading Horse back to her thread.  He was being the concerned brother, and fretting over her.

"Guy, I've never felt better," Horse said, entering her thread.  "Or hungrier."

Guy chuckled, but it betrayed his uneasiness.  But he, albeit reluctantly, left her to rest in her thread, maybe getting something to snack on.

Back in her thread, Horse looked at her flippers, and heaved a sigh.  "Great.  I'm my own night-light."

She snacked on some goldfish crackers, which had a rather fishy taste.  No, literally fishy taste.  But it didn't satiate her hunger -- not even by a fraction of an inch.

Then there was an odd stretching sound.  Horse, startled looked around, and then at her own flipper.  It looked slightly bigger, but Horse assumed it was her imagination.  But the the stretching sound happened again, and again, and again.  A crashing noise was heard.

Gaz, Parker, Blaze, Cloak and Guy were nearby, and so they dashed to Horse's thread, where there was a strange ten-foot hole in the back wall.

"Oh no!" Guy gasped.

"Horse must've been kidnapped by a monster!" Gaz shrieked.

Cloak frowned gravely, sighed, and then said, "I don't know how to say this, but that monster just may be Horse."

[Blazing Angel]

Oh no...

[Cloak]

Yeah, "oh no".

Shortish chapter.  Last one today.

CHAPTER SIX:
A Larger Problem

"What do you mean by that?" Guy asked.

"I tried to warn Yarin agains using exoporon for his microwave." Cloak muttered.

"Cloak!" Blaze said.  "A little exposition please!  I mean, EXPLANATION!"

Cloak looked up, as if he just realized the others had said something.  He sighed deeply.  "Exoporon is a substance, that when crystalized, has a property being used in a mist or ray that can dramatically increase the size of organic tissue."

"You mean a growth ray?!" Parker said, alarmed.

"Usually it would only be forty times or so the subject's normal size," Cloak said.  "At least, that's what I heard Krang say --"

"Who's Krang?" Gaz asked.

"Good question.  Not remotely the point, though."  Cloak adopted a thoughtful look, and plowed onward.  "I thought that the green glow would have completely retarded the growth.  Clearly, Yarin mixed the exoporon with other chemicals, whether accidentally or purposefully, I can't hazard a guess.  She might just stop growing at forty-times her natural size."

"'Might'?" Guy asked.

"She could just as easily grow to forty million times her own size," Cloak said.  Silence fell to the others.  It spanned a good long time.

"We must go and get Horse," Cloak said abruptly, "I don't think she'd be to hard to find."

[Blazing Angel]

But imagine how adorable a 400,000 story seal would be.

[Cloak]

It would more dangerous then you might think -- think of a Taxxon-sized appetite!!  Shortish chapter.

CHAPTER SEVEN:
Presidential Panic

"Let's take the assault vehicle." Parker said.  "I'm driving."

"The one that looks like the TMNT party wagon?" Cloak scoffed.

"It does not!" Parker protested.  "I've updated it.  It has alll the weaponry we should need --"

"You're not shooting at my sister!" Guy exclaimed.

"It doesn't matter, Guy, the weaponry would probably be nothing but pinpricks if she's grown to any considerable size." Cloak said.  "But, Blaze, find Yarin.  Tell him to work on an antidote.  Keep communications open."

"Hey!  Who made you --"

Cloak's eyes begin to flash golden-scarlet, energy of the same color leaking out a bit.

"Okay!  Okay!  I'm goin'!  I'm goin!"

***

Meanwhile, the President of whatever, sat in his office, doing paperwork and whatever presidents do when they're in their offices.  Then he got a phone call.  His eyes narrowed with contempt as he heard "a massive forty-story-tall seal was heading through a small city.  Then he saw the pictures.

Then he was in a panic of what to do, and the pentagon was in shock.*  So, naturally, they find some inept research scientists, and have them start working around the clock.

----
*Yes, that was a reference to Weird Al's song.

[Blazing Angel]

Perhaps we could make peace with her, and then Seal could be the united states secret weapon.

[Aquilai]

Weapon. Tut. She's a person too! Ignoring the hunger or the loneliness I doubt she'd want to stay Godzilla sized.

Side note: Probably got amped up cryo+hydrokinesis now so you can probably see why it's dangerous to leave her in that state too.

[Darth Revan]

She's become Nessy! The loch ness monster is real!!! And it's named SEAL!

[Cloak]

Hmmm . . . a little bigger than Nessie, I think.  This may be a shortish book, I am drawing from two resources on this (once blatantly obvious, and one may be a bit subtler).

And I must warn you, the next book will be dark -- RAFians will die . . .

CHAPTER EIGHT:
Whale of a Tail

Blaze arrived at Yarin, who was still fiddling around with that accursed microwave of his.  Blaze had to yell at him to get Yarin to focus on him instead of that machine.

"Leave that blasted microwave alone --"

"THE FOOD YIELD INCREASER!" Yarin snarled.

"Yeah, whatever.  Leave it alone, and listen to me.  Seal's accident didn't just make her glow in the dark.  She's growing -- she's at least ten feet tall now."

"Yeah, that's nice." Yarin said, not really paying attention, and returning to repairing his microwave.

"Did you hear me?  She's gonna rampage through the 'Net!"

"That's nice," Yarin said distractedly.

"LISTEN TO ME!!" Blaze roared.

"That's nice," Yarin repeated.

Blaze unsheathed his sword, which was glowing red, and it instantaneously transformed into a war hammer with a glowing red head.  Then he launched it backward and slammed it down on the microwave.  Damaging it enough to get Yarin to pay attention.

"NOW will you LISTEN to me?!?!"

***

Meanwhile, Cloak and the others were around the harbor.  Cloak was desperately trying to use Earthsight to find Horse.  But he wasn't seeing anything.  It was impossible!  If Seal was moving, she would have bound to make vibrations through the ground.  It was impossible to move upon the ground without making a single vibration!

"There!" Parker pointed.

In the harbor, their was a floating, radioactive-looking, lumpy thing.  It was approximately the size of a full-grown orca.  It was motionless. . . .

"There's not movement . . ." Gaz said cautiously.

Suddenly, there was movement and a head lifted up from the water, and it was Horse.  She was faced away from her RAFian allies.  They shouted but Horse apparently couldn't hear them.

Cloak decided to improvise a bullhorn using his voice and his aerokinesis.  He shouted, using his aerokinesis to carry his voice effectively, "HORSE!"

"HUH?"

"HORSE, IT'S US!! GUY, PARKER, GAZ, AND CLOAK!!"

"YOU'RE SO TINY."

"Uh, thanks.  Uh, DON'T MOVE, WE'LL FIND A WAY TO GET YOU BACK TO NORMAL!!"

She gave Cloak a disbelieving look.  "HOW?"

"Oh, good question.  Uh, WE'RE STILL WORKING THAT OUT!"