Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

Excellent. I actually have another three ideas, but . . . I don't feel like getting up. Whether becuase of illness of laziness, take your pick.

CHAPTER EIGHT:
The Gamma Perplexahedron

"I have been expecting you," said the sentinel Churl. "The pure soul . . . the curious soul . . . the conflicted soul . . . and the persistent soul."

"You expected us?" Abby said. "Then why'd you make us go through all those puzzles? I was done with homework for the night!"

"Such is not my decision to make, young one." he replied formally. He sat upon a throne of bronze with orange and blue fabrics. This Perplexahedron was a metallic orange, and the puzzles were not easy for anyone with an I/Q below that of Stephen Hawking. But they managed.

"Do you know why we've come, Perplexahedron Sentinel?" Cloak said, respectfully.

"You've come for the last piece of the Map of the Unimind's planet, home of the Microhominiverde -- known more commonly as the Tinkerers or Little Green Men, which is often abbreviated as L.G.M., or L.G.M.s, if plural." the Churl recited, as if they were lines he had learned from a religion's scriptures. "You seek to safeguard it better than your grandfather, Grandson of Sage. Guard it from the dark, tainted soul who seeks them out."

"Wait," Yarin said, "Cloak, your grandfather --"

"Not important," Cloak said gruffly. Turning his tone more respectful, he addressed the Churl. "May we have it?"

The Churl stood and handed the piece to Cloak, who found the blue triangle unimpressive and plain in appearance. But he knew of the importance of it, and marveled how something so small could lead to powerful consequences.

"Thank you, Perplexahedron Sentinel." the Realm Walker said.

"Go now," he said. "Before the dark soul approaches."

This threw Cloak for a loop. He spoke with alarm, "But Sentinel, if we take this piece from this place --"

"I'm well aware, child." he replied gravely. "Without that piece, this place has no purpose. But so do I lack purpose without it."

"But, you'll --"

"Go, child."

Cloak was conflicted, but in the end, he left with the others. He hated himself for leaving the Churl behind.

[redtailedsaffa]

Nooooo!

[Cloak]

Not the kind of reaction I was anticipating, Saffa.

• Book CCLXII: "Blemish Blundering" -- After being hit by a discarded invention of Yarin's, a boy's blemish comes to malicious sentience.
• Book CCLXIII: "One Hat, Ah-Ha-Ha, Two Hat, Ah-Ha-Ha" -- The RAFians are dispatched to the Numero System.
• Book CCLXIX: "Things That Go Bump in the Night" -- A discarded invention, the Evilpersonificator, grants evil sentience and personification to decidedly nonhuman objects.
• Book CCLXX: "Weapon Masters" -- The RAFians, the Knights, and the Banned vie for the Star Saber, the Skyboom Shield, and the Requiem Blaster.

That's it for now, I don't think I rehashed anything. Though Gaz may hate me for "Blob-jection" . . . but that would be telling.

CHAPTER NINE:
Abject Malice

"Uncle . . ."

"I'm not going to talk about it, Shadow," Cloak said, quietly gruff. Truth was, he did not want to think about the Churl's willingness to give up his life for a noble if not pointless death. Cloak himself had considered . . . a similar dark motive. Had not for Shadow's image come into his mind, he might have very well committed such the dark act, and act of sheer desperation for freedom. Only one who have felt themselves in such a truly impossible situation could really understand the dark depths to which one's mind can plunge.

"Cloak," Yarin prompted gently.

Cloak did not reply, and Abby and Shadow exchanged frightened, worried, concerned looks. Cloak's mind had plunged back to the day -- such memories aren't easily forgotten, and often linger when one wishes evermore fondly to expunge the bad memory, the nightmare . . .

"Cloak, I require the next coordinates." Yarin said, snapping Cloak out of his darkness. "You said there were thr-- er, two more Perplexahedrons."

"Right . . . they need to be checked," Cloak said, giving the Nyac the next set of coordinates.

***

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" came a frustrated cry which the entire cosmos would have heard had there been atmosphere to support and facilitate the sound. Malice had come upon the location of the newly-nonexistent Gamma Perplexahedron.

And she was apocalyptic with fury, palpable with rage. She had come so close! So close!!! So close, only be so utterly thwarted like this! Without the third piece, the two she had obtained were useless! Pointless! A wasted effort!

"I will not be denied!" she roared to no one. "I will bring this world peace, I will free it from conflict, from war."

Then she snarled, breathelessly, with sudden realization, "That brat. He has it, he must have it. Sage's heir. The one they call Cloak."

She never realized just how deranged she sounded.

[Cloak]

Time for another chapter, methinks. Before the creative energy leaves me and I become tired. God, I've gone diva.

CHAPTER TEN:
Realizations

"But where would the overpowered, simpering brat hide such an important piece?" Malice was saying, looking rather deranged. Then her tone turned rather envious. "The brat who cringes at his own power, who hesitates to use it at its full potential?"

She stopped speaking, panting. She was allowing her frustration to drain from her, permitting herself rational, coherent thought. But her mind raced all the same.

"Of course," she said to herself, "of course. He is so transparent, so predictable. Pitiful hatchling."

She cackled madly as she inputted the coordinates.

"Now, it's just a matter of finding which area of that pathetic Dweller settlement that he spirited my map piece to."

If she was really paying attention, she might have realized that she had inputted the coordinates for the old location of RAF -- the area where RAF sat before Cloak had to relocate it.

***

"They're . . . they're both . . ." Abby said, horrorstruck. She could not finish her thought.

"Gone," Cloak said, voice sounding as cold as he felt inside. "They're all gone."

"What does this mean?" Shadow said.

"You know what it means, Shadow. Malice has the other two pieces." Cloak said, tonelessly. He still felt hollow. He held the blue piece between his index finger and thumb, seeing how like hard plastic yet metallic it was. "Which means she'll be after this."

"You are going to hang on to it, then?" Yarin inquired, as he piloted a course for home.

"No," Cloak said. "I could lose it, or have my pockets picked. I'll have to hide it."

"Uncle," Shadow said, hesitantly, "are you sure that's wise?"

"Oh, I'll just hide it where no one in their right mind would enter," Cloak said.

"Hell?" Abby guessed.

"Realm Walkers can't enter there," Shadow said.

"Oh, trust me, I have an idea." Cloak said, seriously.

[redtailedsaffa]

I can imagine Malice as one of those crazy cat villains.

[Cloak]

Crazy cat villain? Oh, like James Bond, right? James Bond, hmmm . . . maybe not just yet. . . .

• Book CCLXXII: "The Pretender" -- The RAFians must deal with a master of disguise causing problems, causing massive PR problems.
• Book CCLXXIII: "Talk Like A Politician" -- Several snack cakes become laced with a powerful Antiveritiserum, disabling them from speaking the truth.

Don't think I've rehashed anything, though the last book is the antithesis of the truth-telling one. Anyway, a chapter soonish. Must get and review my book notes.

CHAPTER ELEVEN:
A Seal of Doom

"That's your big hiding place, Cloak?" Abby said, a little too loudly.

"Keep your voice down!" Cloak snarled. "The less people in on the secret, the better. Especially considering how much of a loudmouth Rotiart is."

"But stiil, Cloak," Abby said, now in a hoarse whisper.

"You want to get it?" Cloak said as Pootang came charging the door rather like Killer Croc in the Arkham series of Batman games, snarling and slobbering. Abby involuntarily took a step back, while Cloak did not even flinch.

"Be that as it may, Cloak," Yarin said, "this still seems incredibly risky."

"Says the guy who rebuilt that microwave."

"Food Yield Increaser!" the Nyac hissed like an angry snake.

"Yeah, that." Cloak said, dismissively differential, with a careless wave of his hand. Cloak was well aware Malice may have been listening. She would have expected it to be in the Pootang's cage, but Cloak had ensured it was in a slightly safer location. Although, it was still risky. . . .

***

It was a few days later, and . . .

"PUT ME DOWN!!" Horse screamed, as the Pootang seized her. "I AM NOT A COMFORT FOOD!!!! LET ME GO I SAY!!!!"

Too late. She went down the hatch, and was swallowed whole.

"Not again . . ." she wailed from the beast's stomach. She was alive, but not looking forward to coming out of the Pootang -- it was one of either two ways, and neither were pleasant for her.

***

A few days later, Horse . . . uh, came out of Pootang. She was covered with ick, and the Pootang was caged once more. She snapped angrily when someone asked how she came out, saying she didn't want to talk about it. But there was more to it . . . there was something stuck to her fur, mired by the Pootang ick clinging stubbornly to her fur. Something triangular and metallic blue. Something that had hungry eyes lingering upon it. . . .

[redtailedsaffa]

Following on from Dino's fic - she probably teleported through the slobber. (ewwww)

[DinosaurNothlit]

If Realm Walkers can't go to hell (heh, that renders a few insults useless, doesn't it), then why didn't Cloak give the thing to Demos?  Seems like hell would be the perfect place to hide it from another Realm Walker.

Although, I suppose Malice probably has minions that she could send in instead of going herself.  So, nevermind that idea.

Poor Horse.    That has to suck no matter how she got out.

[Cloak]

Saffa, that is far more pleasant than the truth. Dino, that is indeed a possibility, (one that I didn't consider in-canon), but, as you predicted, Mega Maul and Ravager have no such restrictions as Malice does, but also remember, Hell is full of all sorts of unsavory figures.

Shortish chapter.

CHAPTER TWELVE:
Cue Chase Music

Malice struck fast and unexpectedly, like a snake or a trapdoor spider. She seized the piece, uncaring to the muck, completely focused on her mission, her obsession. Malice was gone before Horse had even reacted. Malice did not care about Horse, but her illbegotten prize.

She did not go unnoticed in this endeavor however.

"Yarin, to your ship!" Cloak roared, knowing precisely what Malice would do. "Shadow, come along! Now!"

"I'm coming too," Abby said, running to the ship, a mulish expression on her face.

"I'm not being left out the action this time." Saffa said, oblivious to the reason for this emergency. She clearly felt left out of the whole Shenecron thing, or something.

"Very well, very well," Cloak said, not really caring. "Just hurry up, we haven any time to waste!"

Apt words indeed, as Malice was already in her purloined ship, proceeding to leaving the planet's atmosphere. Joining the pieces into a Triforce like configuration, and, hovering upon her palm, it became like a compass needle, with the blue piece as the pointer.

"Some hiding place, Uncle!" Shadow chided.

Had it been anyone else who spoke those words, Cloak would have roared an angry retort. But he had always allowed Shadow a little more leeway in such matters. As it were, Malice had a lead, but she was not out of range of the ship's sensors.

They had to assume the reverse was true.

"So, what's this all about?"

"Malice has a map thingy to some place where she can do something really, really bad." Abby said.

"Gee," Saffa said sardonically, "that clears that up."

"Stay on her trail Yarin." Cloak said, rather stiffly.

"My ship is more than capable of staying in tandem with that old Techadon relic," the Nyac sniffed.

[redtailedsaffa]

Love that chapter title haha. So apt.

[Cloak]

Now, the point of any book that Dino dreads -- Chapter Thirteen!

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
Planetside Planet

"There! That planet!" Abby pointed. A green planet loomed in the viewscreens of Yarin's ship, and it appeared to have a lime green ring around it.

"What's so special about this planet?" Saffa inquired.

"It's not the planet, but what's on the planet." Cloak said, haunched over, like a tiger mid-stalk. The ship was in atmosphere now.

"And what's that?"

"The Unimind."

"The what?" Shadow inquired.

The ship landed, and Cloak burst from the door onto the technologically advanced world of greens and yellows, but they were nothing but blurs to him.

"What's the Unimind?" Abby asked, panting to keep up. Cloak had been going at top feline speed, while the others seemingly struggled to keep up, Yarin's arms flopping almost comically around.

"A mental hub for the microhominiverde to communicate with each other nonverbally, and at the speed of thought." Cloak said, as he streaked in and out of view. The macrocephalic, short-statured, triclopic creatures with short stubby antennae (which was how they communed with the Unimind) and lime green skin and blue jumpsuit with purple accents. The microhominiverde, their appearance identical to the green aliens in "Toy Story". All suffering injuries . . . or worse. Cloak continued as he follow the swath of destruction and devestation,  "The microhominiverde are a peaceful race, malice and hostility are foreign concepts -- they're 'happy-go-lucky' personified. The Unimind reflects that."

"Why is it so dangerous, though?" Yarin asked.

"Pray you never find out, Nyac." Cloak said, very sternly. "You cannot, thankfully, rebuild or reverse engineer it. We don't need another microwave fiasco!"

"Food Yield Increaser!"

"Like it matters." Cloak said quickly. "Hurry up!"

But, as they rounded the corner, Cloak's heart felt like it fell through to the planet's center. He saw the Unimind -- a spherical devices of green energy and a greenish-yellow ring around it, in a remarkable mimicry of the planet. And Malice was standing by it, already relishing her victory.

[redtailedsaffa]

Oh, that microwave.

[Cloak]

Yeah, the running gag we'll never see or hear the end of. (And funnily enough, I never originally intended it to be such.)

Oh, how I need to sleep. But I want to post a chapter. Such . . . a . . . quandary . . . zzzZZZzzzzzzZZZZZZz zzzzzzz . . .

Now that I slept, and eaten, I think a chapter before work will do fine.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
Epic Failure

"Malice, NO!" Cloak roared loudly.

"You're too late, Cloak," Malice said, reaching out her gloved hand toward the Unimind. Suddenly, time itself seem to disobligingly slow down. Cloak knew, deep down, that he would never reach her in time, that no projectile he threw would reach her in time. Malice was right, he was too late.

She lunged her hand into the Unimind. It was this very touch that poisoned the Unimind. Corrupted it, tainted it. It went from yellow with green highlights to black with a Dark Energon-like purple highlights. The ring around it turned blood red, and expanded out so fast that not even the fastest being in the universe could have reacted. The ring became a surge, a wave. It washed over the RAFians, knocking all of them off their feet.

Shadow stood up, completely uninjured and unaffected. Cloak's Mark burned intensely at first, then milded down to a constant itch. The other RAFians still laid upon the ground, in some limbo between sleep and unconsciousness. The Sleeping Beauty Syndrome.

The two Realm Walkers looked up and saw the prominent bloodred glow that Malice had, but so.did the nearby microhominiverde. It didn't take a genius to figure out what Malice had done.

"Malice, how could you do this?" Cloak croaked.

"I have granted this realm a supreme gift," a microminiverde spoke, but they weren't his words. They were Malice's. Malice was speaking through the poor Dweller.

"Gift?!" Shadow said, not even attempting to hide the disgust in her voice.

"I have freed this realm from all conflict, all war," she spoke throught a different microhominiverde. Apparently, she did not want to deign to speak through her own mouth and voice. "I have freed this realm from all pain, from all suffering."

"'Freed?'" Cloak spat. "You dare to think that imprisoning the minds of others, that by subverting their will for your own, is freeing them?! You remain so arrogant to believe that no one's mind and will is superior to your own?"

"This realm is free now," she said, speaking through the first one now. "All minds are linked to mine."

Cloak stole a glance at the other RAFians, and knew that she hadn't. Not all the minds in this realm. But he did not draw her attention to it.

"Our minds are truly free," Shadow said, and Cloak was secretly proud of her bravery. "And we will find a way to undo this."

"But we must retreat for now," Cloak said, picking up the other RAFians in an energy bubble, and motioning for Shadow to come.

Malice smiled as they left, speaking humorlessly and ironically with her own mouth and voice, "And where can you go? I have eyes everywhere."

***

They managed to get to Yarin's ship, and set the others down.

"How are we going to get off-planet?" Shadow asked. "Can you pilot this?"

"No, I can't." Cloak said. "But I'm going to have to try."

Cloak noticed Yarin groaned, and he turned and saw the Nyac holding his his head. Shadow stood off to one corner, looking scared. But Yarin's eyes were normal, and his Mark clearly itched as Cloak's did.

"Yarin . . ."

"What happened?"

Cloak was suspicious, until he saw Yarin's eyes. They were normal. If he was under Malice's control, they would be glowing wholly blood red.

"Never mind that," Cloak said, "we'll fill you in on the way."

"Where we going?" Shadow asked.

"RAF." her uncle replied.

[redtailedsaffa]

Ooh! The suspense.

[Cloak]

Yep. Anyway, I'm currently planning out the chapters of "Blemish Blunder", which is shaping up to be a rather slow book, but hopefully with a decent payoff.

Anyway, a chapter. A chapter, I say!

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
The Sleeping Beauty Syndrome*

They landed in RAF, and discovered every last RAFian flopped down upon the ground -- even the Andalites -- almost as if they were dead. The trio glanced around the desolate grounds, littered here and there with RAFians.

"Wh-what happened to them?" Yarin asked, apparently noticing the blue auras that lanced with red electricity every now and then.

"Sleeping Beauty Syndrome," Cloak siad, as if for all the world this explained everything.

"What?" Shadow asked, clearly unnerved. She was remembering the whole Black Mercy saplings again, and that wasn't a pleasant experience for anyone involved.

"Sleeping Beauty Syndrome," Cloak repeated, but as if it was an article title. Now he spoke in a clipped tone that suggested that he memorized it from some long forgotten magazine or something. "A co.dition which the subject is trapped in an endless sleep."

"Don't tell me I have kiss anyone to wake them up," Shadow said.

"You've been brushing up on human fables and fairy tales I see," Cloak said. Then he addressed her inquiry, "And if you tried to kiss them, Shadow, they would wind up lipless."

"Hey!"

"I was being serious, Shadow," Cloak said, deadpan. "We wear these cloaks for a reason."

"Oh," Shadow said, abashed. "Right."

"How do we wake them up?" Yarin asked. "By all conventions, I should be stuck with Syndrome too. How'd you wake me up?"

Shadow started to speak, but a distraction appeared mere feet to their right. It was TARDIS, and Aquilai stumbled out, griping, "What on Earth possessed me to visit the Salem witch trials?"

He dusted himself off and looked around. He spoke with an intonation and timbre of Professor Paradox, "Well, well, well. What's all this, then?"

"Okay, then," Cloak said, with an heavy sigh, "let's take it from the top."

---
*Yeah, yeah, I stole the term from the "Kingdom Keepers".